Happiness Archives – Page 4 of 4

February 20, 2010

Thoughts Shared With a Young Explorer

I have been having an ongoing discussion with a young explorer this last week. I thought I would share his questions along with my thoughts on them. He reminds me of a time in my life when I was looking for three-dimensional answers to questions that exceed the boundaries of the finite illusion we live in. I think you might enjoy our deep and penetrating discussion (by the way our young searcher is a member of the LDS church but has been in his own search for spiritual insight and truth):

Searcher: So I read your bio on Amazon, (you can view the information he refers to here http://tinyurl.com/ycqeszt) and from what I can glean from what little I’ve seen on your blog, and the bio and the description of the book etc… is that you are speaking of spiritual sensitivity…

But before I get into that, may I say that I certainly have empathy for your past experiences involving mental illness. I was diagnosed with OCD six years ago after having a near mental breakdown (on my mission no less).

That said, I can emphasize that struggling against this chemical imbalance in my mind, and being raised by faithful believing parents, my mind was quick and arduous and thorough in exploring many avenues of thought and searching deep channels of spirituality.

I think you have tapped (and I would guess that you can relate) into something that was once far more common for mankind to search out. Today in our world of science and physical evidence people quickly discard or ignore searching the soul and our obvious connection with the eternal.

I surmise that this is what you have implied by saying that Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith were tapping into what you have inferred is a very similar vein, not to mention many other spiritual greats throughout the ages.

I also recognize the thrill that considering the divine and embracing our deep nature gives of which you have referred to…

It is really interesting to ponder all of it really, because men throughout the ages and even in the world today (especially in the less “scientifically advanced” nations) still dig deep into these spiritual realms, and often sink tap roots deep into their eternal roots looking for peace and strength.

I myself have felt the impression that I am an eternal being in a temporal existence. It is that feeling simply of knowing that one exists and has always existed.

These things to me, remind me of the heady excitement that one can have considering the possibilities of eternity, and (for latter-day saints) thinking, I’m a child of the God of the universe, and coming to an epiphany of realizing you are far more than your mortal mind recognizes or can remember.

It is similar to the thrill I get even contemplating the vast expanse of the physical universe that is observable and the myriad worlds and countless wonders that surely would defy our previous imaginations.

It strikes me that your description of coming to a realization of letting things in the past go and living in the now really seems to resemble embracing the attitude of faith and self forgiveness and hope…hope to move on and build up and to rise from the ashes of the past, good bad or indifferent.

My question to you is, do you deny the physical world as an “illusion” or simply treat it as another layer of reality?

My Response: You are very articulate and if you haven’t already considered it you may want to look into writing. I sense you are a “deep” individual which makes the connection, for me, to you, very easy. I enjoy reading your words very much.

I explain here to our young searcher how having come to my own awakening I wrote a book titled On Being God – Beyond Your Life’s Purpose and similarities I discovered to other modern and ancient spiritual icons…

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book is the “knowing” (as I call it) that came to me that is so consistent with so much of almost all “mystical” philosophies the world over. All of them look at the inner divinity and timelessness of our existence. Even Joseph Smith (Mormon Prophet) spoke of man as “becoming gods.” In any case the stark awakening I underwent continues to be revealing to me in the sense that I had never read or researched any of these other belief systems and all of a sudden I am getting downloaded with essentially everything that has been understood by a few over thousands of years of human history.

I continue to be amazed at the similarities between what I wrote as brand new material and what has been known by great spiritual icons throughout time. The book also directly answers the question you asked to much greater detail than I will share here. I highly recommend it to you and would love your comments after reading it. In fact, I would consider it an honor. Here is the link to amazon where you can find it; http://tinyurl.com/ycqeszt. If you haven’t already you can check out my website as well; http://www.spiritual-intuition.com . Something I have on the site you might enjoy and I would love to have you participate in is the ability for those who come to the site to respond to the various pages and information by adding their own thoughts on the subjects they are interested in. If the comments you share are appropriate for the site I will actually create a page on the site that is credited to you and which others can comment. You should take a look and like I said I would love to here some of your thoughts on the site.

Now for the answer to your question:

“My question to you is, do you deny the physical world as an “illusion” or simply treat it as another layer of reality?”

One of the main themes in my book is that “we live in an illusion.” The illusion is the result of conditioning we undergo from the very beginning of our lives. We are literally taught what to be aware of by family, schools, churches, realities, etc., and in so doing we lose what we came to earth with, which is the awareness of gods. We are infinite beings (infinite in some form or another) and this earth life is a very finite reality. What has happened is that in our finite “human-ness” we try to put boundaries around our infinite selves. We have to stop doing that in order to begin to see how incredible we are in an “infinite sense.” Very, very hard to do because of the conditioning we undergo from birth.

In essence we if we could see the world through unconditioned eyes (eyes that say this is what you should see) it would blow your mind and in such a moment you would comprehend the world in ways indescribable using our limited languages. I can’t describe to you what it is but I can assure you, you can have this kind of awakening in your life. You’ll know it when you see it.

Thanks, again. Have a great day!

I will share more tomorrow.

January 7, 2010

The Well–Being of Being Well

Well-being is the physical, mental and spiritual health of an individual. These three aspects combine to make up life as we know it.

We typically consider well-being to be a harmonic balance between the physical health and strength of our bodies, coupled with the mental nature of our character and ego and the spiritual essence of our nature. It is true that all of these things in harmony create a certain kind of life, but it does not address those with physical disabilities, unsound minds and poor mental health, or the spiritually bereft. Yet all of these aspects of the human condition exist on a wide scale in every civilization.

What then is well-being to the physically handicapped, the mentally ill or the spiritually bereft?

It is easy to speak of for those who do not have diminished capacity in any of the areas mentioned above but for them, they are not likely to have a theory or concept of well-being and certainly not in the area of their own diminished capacity. Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of our existence is that a so-called benevolent God allows such conditions to exist in the world.

What is the value to humankind that people suffer in such ways? To quote from the book of “On Being God – Beyond Your Life’s Purpose,” we are told, “We are the good that we love, the evil we hate, the darkness we fear, the light that gives hope. We are all things, people, places we imagine or cannot imagine. We are all thoughts and forms and are endowed with power to create the good we cherish or the evil we despise in this existence. We are the beauty that loves and the ugliness that hates. We are the then, the now, and the yet to be simultaneously in a never-ending, timeless sea of infinite life.”

What this means is that our very existence, regardless of our condition – be it physical, mental or spiritual, is well being. We are not shaped by definition. How can we be? Those who are incapable of creating a definition of their place in life are equally apart of life!

We, who are supposedly “well”, are not better than those who are not. It is our insatiable need to define states (mental activity) that create the division between those we say “have” and those we say “have not”!

To quote again from “On Being God – Beyond Your Life’s Purpose,” “Everything in existence is equal.” There is no difference between any human and the soil they stand on, the objects they observe or the things they believe.

Life is Well-Being! Whatever your state or capacity, do not be a judge of life, simply, Be Life!

December 6, 2009

How Real is Your Illusion??

Take this simple test of awareness to determine how comprehensive and strong your illusion of life really is.

If everything as you now know it was washed away completely and you could reconstruct your life any way you chose, either completely or partially, what would your new life look like? Answer the questions below honestly and thoughtfully.

How would you be living? Would you change anything about your current living conditions?

What kind of work would you be doing? What would your career path look like, what employment positions would you hold and how would your salary be different from what it is,etc? What would you like your credentials to be as far as accomplishments, affiliations, colleges or universities, grades and other forms of recognition and status?

What would government look like, both nationally and locally, in your newly constructed reality?

How would you change or alter the schools, both for you or any children you have? What would your educational background look like?

Would you travel more? How would you travel and where would you travel to?

What would you look like? Would you change anything about your looks, health, fitness level, weight, ethnicity, color, etc? What kinds of foods would you prepare for yourself and your family? Would you eat out more? How would you dress?

What things would you do that you don’t do now? What things would you stop doing that you are doing now?

How would you define “American dream” (if you’re an American)? Are you now living your dream or would you alter things to achieve it? What would be different in that dream from what you have now?

How would you define prosperity, success or failure in this new reality?

Now take a moment to ponder the things you have changed or altered. How are they different from the way things are now? This is important because most who answer these questions will have created for themselves bigger and better versions of what they already have. If what you have answered are extensions of what already is or enforcement to make things better, as you see it, then the illusion you have is deeply rooted and the reality you accept is very limited in its scope or range of possibilities. Most people’s illusions, by the way, are.

It is typical to see things that are as all there is to choose from. For instance, some may have thought about a bigger house with more rooms, bigger kitchen, etc. which is nothing more than a bigger or better version of what they are already living in. This is very typical and many self-help teachers will lead us in that direction as if wanting bigger and better versions of what we already have is where we should direct our thinking and emotional energy. It is difficult to imagine anything outside of or beyond what we know or have been conditioned to accept as all there is.

Go back and look at the questions again and try to answer them without making extensions of what already is, or without having bigger or better of what you already have. Be very creative. Even abstract and silly. Try to imagine outside of what you know or think you know. Are bigger and better versions of what we already have really all there is in an infinite universe of which we are the creative center? You will begin to break free of the illusion you accept the more you imagine a world and life that doesn’t look anything like what we see now.

Break free of the illusion of this reality and your awareness of the infinite expands. The more your awareness expands, the freer you become.

Good Luck!