Attaining clarity is a funny thing.  The purpose of attaining clarity is to reach a place of stillness, silence, eternal security, oneness and to essentially become the embodiment of unconditional love.  On the other hand, those are things that do not exist on the material plane and to experience them, one must go ‘in’ and eventually learn to radiate them out.

Is it possible to be in physical form and have multi-dimensional experiences? It is absolutely possible.  What is not possible is to expect to be able to attain such an ability of conscious transmutation while remaining in an environment of a lower vibration – a vibration over-populated by the herd.  If you want to change for the Light-er, you must first purge the metaphysical weight.

Purging the weight is a process of death and rebirth.  It is a process of first accepting and then letting go of perspectives that box you in. Only when you allow these things to die do you create space for rebirth. It’s just like learning how to walk again.

Through this process of acceptance and release, you receive new tools for new purposes.  You can still try to use the old tools to accomplish new tasks, but you’ll eventually find that they don’t work the same way they used to.  In fact, nothing will feel the same as it used to.  The things that once brought you so much joy lead to disappointment and disillusion now.  Once the mind is stretched, it cannot go back to its original form.  You are changed forever.  You may allow the memories of the past to haunt you.  You may choose to try recreating what was once joyful, but nothing tastes nor does it look or feel the same.  All the senses are put to new tests.  The mind is exercised in different ways and the process of change just seems to get faster and more unforgiving. Whoever said that ignorance is bliss had a point.  There’s a temporary bliss connected to ‘not knowing’.

The only time you experience pain from the transformation into Light-ness is when you’ve shifted into a relatively higher vibration while simultaneously continuing to live an existence in tune with a lower vibration.  At this point, it becomes more and more of an effort to ‘balance’ because you’re no longer balancing according to the universal equilibrium. Instead, you’re creating your own scales and conjuring up your own private units of measurement in order to satisfy your egoic desires.  You’re constantly faced with the process of renewal and if you don’t embrace a new perspective of the experiences that come your way, you’ll create pain for yourself. You’ll create a reality of suffering because you will try to exert effort where effort cannot exist.

‘Effort’ is an interesting concept. It’s a deceiving word.  People use the word ‘effort’ with pride.  They believe that it denotes dedication and commitment.  In actuality, effort indicates resistance – it takes place when you’re working against the flow.  If you are working against the flow, you are not working in accordance with the Universal Laws.  You are in opposition to nature.  What is nature’s way of telling us that we are not working in harmony with its laws?  It brings pain.  The source of pain is resistance.

The next time you find yourself exerting effort to accomplish something, observe your mental chatter, ask yourself what you are doing at that very moment, and decide. Do you choose opposition or harmony?

As we experience our individual yet profoundly interconnected journeys of transformation, we inevitably encounter obstacles, challenges, or, otherwise known as growth opportunities. Thoughts and emotions become valuable tools that can help us become clearer and more attuned to our Higher Selves. Thoughts and emotions also have the potential to assist us in destroying all that we have persevered to attain. Thought alone, when it is no longer connected with the much vaster realm of consciousness, can quickly become destructive. Through an understanding of how our minds operate, we gain the ability to see why it is so important to be aware of the chatter within. Being aware of this chatter consequently enables us to be conscious of the present moment.

Thoughts and Emotions

For many years, seekers of divine wisdom have studied the importance of protecting our personal energy – the energy that we hold with ourselves in this moment, the energy that has been allocated to us for the purpose of benefiting our Highest Good, the energy that can enable us to serve others if we so choose. One of the ways that we, as humans, expel the greatest quantities of energy is through feeding our constant streams of thought. In this way, most people sleepily go through their lives allowing their minds to control their experiences and influence their choices. In this unconscious state, our thoughts continually control who we are and keep us living in the past or somewhere out in the future. Our thoughts either keep bringing us back to memories that provoke states of anger, resentment and regret, or they coax us into a state of worry, in which we are afraid of something ‘bad’ happening in the future. Choosing to live in either of these mental states means that we are escaping this precious NOW and preventing ourselves from experiencing the joys of the moment.

Our emotions can be another incredible drain on our energy. Some people may feel that they lose more energy through their emotions than through their out-of-control thoughts. Emotion arises at the place where our thoughts and our bodies meet. Emotion is our body’s reaction to thought. We might say, emotions are a reflection of our thoughts in the body.

The moment the body reacts to a thought, an emotion is created. The image above can be interpreted as an energetic depiction of this process.

Let’s look at an example to better understand this concept. A hostile thought will create a build-up of energy in the body that we call anger – the body is getting ready to fight. The thought that we are being threatened causes the body to contract. This is the physical side of what we call the emotion of fear. Research has shown that strong emotions even cause changes in the biochemistry of the body, which represents the actual physical aspect of the emotion. Of course, we are not usually consious of all of our thought patterns. It is often through watching our emotions that we can bring them into awareness.

 

Hostile Thought manifesting into Emotional Response

Sometimes, a conflict exists in which we find ourselves thinking ‘no’ while our emotions say ‘yes’. Just by observing our bodies, we can tune into our higher senses of awareness. The body will always present a truthful reflection of what is happening on the level of our thoughts and emotions. Look at the emotions, or rather, ‘feel’ them in the body. If there is an apparent conflict between your emotions and your thoughts, the thoughts will generally be the lies while the emotions will be the truth…not the ultimate truth of who you are, but the relative truth of your state of mind at the time.

For example, imagine that you are trying to decide between two job offers. You have logically analyzed both opportunities and understand the pros and cons of each option. Yet still, you don’t know which door to walk through next. What do you do? Well, you could try observing your body as you think of one job, and then do the same as you consider the other option. Is your body giving you subtle hints about which offer you would feel better taking? Do your muscles feel tight and your limbs tense when you imagine one job, while with the other you feel yourself relaxing into your chair and taking a breath? Sometimes, the clues are obvious, while at other times you might be so stressed that the Universe’s hints are difficult to sense at first. This is when relaxing into your body as much as you can will help tremendously. No one knows the answers to your questions but you. The key is to pause and listen to yourself instead of looking externally for the answer. You will find your way. There is no need to waste energy worrying about what might happen if you make the wrong decision. Focusing all your awareness on connecting with your Higher Self will bring you to where you want to be. It is that simple.

The ‘knowner’ behind the ‘thinker’

So, when we talk about the ‘mind’, we refer to both thoughts and emotions. It is very important to be aware of both the thoughts and the feelings that we experience and strive to be the ‘observer’ as much as possible. When we are able to step out of the experience of the thought or of the emotion and really SEE it is for what it is, we are taking steps towards expanding our consicousness. We begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, and that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. We also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, and inner peace – arise from beyond the mind.

The mind is a superb instrument if used correctly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. It is not so much that we use the mind incorrectly, for most often, we really don’t use it at all – IT USES US! We believe that we are our mind and this is the delusion – the point at which the mind has taken over us! It is almost as if we are possessed without knowing it, and so we take the possessing entity (our minds) to be who we are. In order to free ourselves from our minds, it is necessary to realize that we are not the ‘thinker’.  We are much more than that! We are the ‘knower’ behind the ‘thinker’.

Within each one of us is that deeper self that immediately recognizes spiritual truth, resonates with it, and gains strength from it. This is why it is so important to ‘watch the thinker’, which will then allow us to ‘feel the knower’ (or inner voice) on a regular basis. We must begin to distinguish these two components of the inner dialogue – the false self that performs a continuous monologue babbling on about involuntary thoughts that he is unable to stop feeding, and the real self, the knower of spiritual truth, that resides within each of us and is trying to re-gain power over the ego (false self). The Higher Self wants to make us whole and complete and bring us into the present moment, into the blissful state of love, peace and joy.

Love, peace and joy are not truly ‘emotions’. They lie beyond emotions on a much deeper level and cannot flourish until we have freed ourselves from mind-dominance.  Love, peace and joy are deep aspects of our inner connectedness with Being. Thus, they have no opposites because they arise from beyond the mind – from beyond duality. Emotions, on the other hand, being part of the dualistic mind, are subject to the Law of Opposites. This simply means that we cannot have good without bad. In the unenlightened, mind-identified condition, what is sometimes wrongly called joy is the usually short-lived pleasure side of the common pain/pleasure cycle that many of us find ourselves returning to regularly. Pleasure is always derived from something outside of us, whereas JOY arises from within. The very thing that gives us pleasure today, will give us pain tomorrow, or it will leave us, and then its absence will give us pain. When true joy is experienced, we settle into an authentic peaceful state that cannot be shaken by the external presence of duality.

So, how can we learn to control our thoughts and our emotions and thus free ourselves from this identification with our minds? How can we learn to separate ourselves from the ‘thinker’ and learn to be the ‘observer’? The good news is that we can free ourselves from our mind by learning to listen to the inner sense as much as possible. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns – those old audiotapes that have been playing in our heads for years. This is what is meant by ‘watching the thinker’, which is another way of saying: “Listen to the voice within and be there as a witnessing presence”.

Listen impartially, that is to say, do not judge nor condemn what you witness, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door! You will soon realize that “There is chatter, and here I am listening to it, watching it.” This I AM realization, this sense of our own presence, is not a thought – it arises from beyond the mind. Therefore, when we listen to a thought, we are aware not only of the thought, but also of our self as the witness. A new dimension of consciousness will have just come in! As we listen to the thought, we feel a conscious presence – a deeper self behind or underneath the thought. The thought then loses its power over us and quickly diminishes because we are no longer energizing it through our identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary compulsive thinking.

Disassociate from the mind

The single most important step on our journey toward enlightenment is this: Learn to disassociate from the mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of thought, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. Enlightenment means rising above thought. In the enlighened state, we still use our thinking mind when needed, but in a much more focused and effective way. We use it mostly for practical purposes, but we are free of the involuntary internal dialogue. We thus create inner stillness. When we use our mind when a creative solution is needed, we oscillate every few minutes between thought and stillness, between mind and no-mind. No-mind is consciousness without thought. Only in that way is it possible to think creatively, because only in that way does thought have any real power.

I myself looked for some larger branches and put them on top of the kindling. So it was in life. In order for the more substantial  pieces of wood to catch fire, the kindling must burn first. In order for us to liberate the energy of our strength, our weakness must first have a chance to reveal itself.

~The Witch of Portobello, Paulo Coelho

“I cannot live with myself any longer!”

Have you ever said this to yourself in the privacy of your own lunacy? If you have, perhaps you’ve made yourself miserable enough to want to wake up now and acknowledge that you’ve just made a fundamental discovery! You’ve identified two of you – there is the “I”, and then there is the self with which “I” cannot live. If you assume that this is true, then is it possible that only one of these “I’s” is real and the other is artificial? An interesting thought…

So, why bring this up? Well, what I’d like to do during this three part this ‘Living in the Now’ series is to discuss the difference between our ‘real self’ (you as a part of the Oneness) and our ‘false self’ (our physical body as identification with the ego).

How can we challenge ourselves to step beyond this limited view of ourselves and step into the greater expanse of who we really are? How can we free ourselves from the intense grip of our egos, which is currently controlling our thoughts, our emotions and our mental image of what we project into the world we perceive? How can we step out of our ‘minds’ – these minds to which we surrender so much control? How can we learn to live in the present moment and let go of past baggage and fears of the future?

These sound like impossible tasks to some, but hopefully with greater understanding of how to apply the principle of living in the Now to our lives, we can attain a deeper grasp of how we can transform ourselves into ‘Beings of Now’.

Enlightenment, transformation and living in the present moment can only truly begin when we honestly look at ourselves and ask questions like, “Who am I?”, “Am I listening to my soul?”, “Is there a ‘real’ self and a ‘false’ self? And if I believe that there is, can I make a distinction between the two and believe in myself enough to take the necessary steps for transformation?”

During this period of major realignment on our planet, there are many coined phrases and terms that are flowing as freely as our out-of-control minds. Words like evolution, vibrations, false self, ego, consciousness, superconsciousness, unconscious, inner body, unmanifested, authentic self, soul, spirit – the list goes on and on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to determine the meaning of each word and how it fits into our own interpretation of how things work. But remember, these are just words – words that can both confuse and words that can excite, words that make us feel empowered and words that make us feel unworthy. But remember that the most basic job of words is to help us TRY to communicate.

As an example, there are words whose meaning we don’t question, such as the word ‘dog’. When we hear that word, we can assume that most people immediately envision a furry, friendly, cuddly pet who wants to lick us and be our friend forever. Pretty simple: mental image = definition of the word. But…what about other words a bit more tricky to envision? How about a word like ‘enlightenment’? What immediately comes to mind? Is this a harder picture to conjure up? I would guess if we asked each person reading this what he or she saw in the mind’s eye, each person would have a different mental picture and thus a different explanation of what ‘enlightenment’ means.

Our minds are very important to this process, but we must know how and when to use them and when to step out of our minds! Our intellect is also very important in our human expansion, yet our intellect can also get in the way of transformation. We have to learn how to understand the difference between our mind and our intellect in order to really make significant changes in our lives. The journey is challenging, yet it is tremendously important in our own personal path back to Source.

Can we release our falsely-created self, the ego, behind? Can we truly breathe the lighter air of the spiritual on a regular basis? Through the wisdom of various spiritual teachers, a variety of different lessons and also, with the study of the powerful book of Eckhart Tolle called ‘The Power of Now’, let us bring to light the importance of living in the present so that we can face this existence in a state of true inner peace. Eckhart Tolle shares so beautifully his deep understanding of the power of our own minds. In this book he speaks of ways in which to understand how the mind works, of obstacles that we are confronted with daily that have the power to challenge our ability to stay on the path, of the importance of undersatnding relationships that we share in our lives, and of how to discover, through communion within ourselves as well as with others, how to truly live in the present moment.

As we work through this process, it’s important to define a few terms that we will be discussing as they relate to the material given here. Each person, each religion, each teaching that we have all been exposed to over the years can have a different definition or understanding of a specific term – that is both the beauty and the confusion of trying to use words for spiritual understanding. I by no means am giving the ‘right’ definition of the following terms but I am attempting, within our limited vocabulary, to share one possibility, one variation of an xplanation of some of these important terms so that clarity may have a chance to assist us in the understanding of what it means to live in the Now.

The first word I would like to discuss is the word ‘being’. I am sure there are various definitions of this word but in this context here, the following definition is offered:

BEING: ‘Being’ is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the many forms of life that are subject to birth and death. ‘Being’ is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

This means that it is accessible to us now as our own deepest self, our true nature. ‘Being’ is used by many people because it is an open concept – it does not reduce the infinitely invisible to a finite entity since it is difficult to form a mental image of ‘Being’.

Many people identify the word ‘being’ with a physical expression and label it ‘God’, where they can envision a very large man-like character who knows all things, sees all things and judges how we live our lives. Other people think of ‘Being’ as life-force energy or Sprit of pure love and light that vibrates at a very high rate of frequency. No interpretation of ‘Being’ is right or wrong. For every living creature, it is their very presence, and it is immediately accessible to us as the feeling of this presence. It is only a small step from the word ‘Being’ to the experience of Being! How incredible is that!?

Next, what is enlightenment? Simply:

ENLIGHTENMENT: means to regain our awareness of ‘Being’ and to abide by that state of ‘feeling-realization’. It is simply our natural state of ‘felt oneness with Being’ that keeps us in the state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible – something that IS essentially us and yet is much greater than us. It is the discovering of our true nature, beyond name and form and identification with our physical body. The word ‘enlightenment’ conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way!

The inability to feel this connectedness gives rise to the illusion of seperation, from ourself and from the world around us. We then can perceive ourselves, whether consciously or unconsciously, as an isolated fragment, separate from everything else. When this happens, fear arises and conflicts deep within ourselves can become fueled.

The greatest obstacle to experiencing the reality of our connectedness to All There IS is the identification with our mind, which then can cause thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadul afflication, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents us from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being. This can help to explain why so many people have difficulty meditating. Their inability to establish stillness within and of having a mind empty of thoughts seems an insurmountable task. After several failed attempts, our minds declare victory and meditation becomes an imposibility. However, if we can learn to understand the power of our minds and begin to have power over them, the results are peace, happiness and stillness within.

Today’s message is one that reflects some of the private conversations that so many of us have had with God. Whether we pray on our knees, talk to ourselves while driving, or cry quietly and simply ask ‘Why?’, today’s message touches on many of the questions that we so often don’t know how to answer, but that seem to come up again and again as we experience humanity.

Some people try to explain that evil does not exist, or that it is merely a psychological factor. But this is not so. The evidence of evil is here in this world. We cannot deny it. If there is no evil, why would Jesus pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”? He is praying plainly that evil does exist.

So the truth is, we do find evil in this world. And where did it come from? God. Evil provides the opportunity for us to recognize and experience goodness. Evil had to be, if there was to be any creation. If you wrote a message with white chalk on a white board, no one would see it. So without the blackboard, the good things in this world wouldn’t be visible. For instance, Judas was Jesus’ best publicity agent. By his evil act, Judas made Christ eternally famous. Jesus knew the role he had to play, and all that was going to happen to him in order that he might demonstrate the love and greatness of God. A villain was necessary to this enactment.

Perfection is not to be found in this world

It’s hard to know where the dividing line is between good and evil. Certainly it is terrible that bacteria kills billions people every hundred years, but think of the chaos of overpopulation. And if everything here were good and perfect, no one would leave this Earth of his or her own accord; no one would want to go back to God. So in a sense, misery is your best friend, because it starts you seeking God. When you begin to see clearly the imperfection of the world, you will begin to seek the perfection of God. The truth is that God is using evil, not to destroy us, but to make us disillusioned with His toys, with the playthings of this world, so that we might see Him.

This is why the Lord Himself permits injustices and evil. But I have said to Him, “Lord, You have always been perfect. How do you know what suffering is? Yet you have put us through these tests; and you had no business doing it. We didn’t ask to be born as mortals and to suffer.” (He doesn’t mind that I argue with him. He is very patient.) The Lord answered, “You don’t have to go on suffering; I have given everyone the free will to choose good instead of evil.”

So evil is the test of God, to see if we will choose Him or His gifts. He created us in His image and gave us the power to choose for ourselves. But we so often don’t use that power consciously. At night, when we leave our bodies during sleep, we all return to our Godlike states. But in the daytime, we become devils – not all of us, but most of us – the unconscious among us. Why not live in tune with God in the daytime, for then we shall know no fear, we shall know no evil. It is easy to say this, but how easy is it to put into practice?

While evil in itself is something we don’t want, yet it is like a poisoned honey, it is palpable, it is tasty. At the table, we are tempted to eat too much, and to eat the wrong things. Then we begin to get fat here and there, just where we don’t want it. In response to our wrong actions, Nature takes revenge and seems to be poking fun at us all the time. It is indeed a funny world! But the results of our wrong actions don’t seem very funny to us! Believe me, I know! This is why many of us quarrel with God and scold Him, “Why have you created all of these terrible temptations that your children succumb to? Why have you made them so pleasurable?” Well, the lesson is simple: the Law of Cause and Effect.

So, since there is no perfection in this world, why continue to seek it here? You may find a little short-lived pleasure, but mostly you will find suffering and injustice. Pain was given to make you know when something is wrong with the body. But when the pain of cancer comes, there is no reason in it. The sufferer has no relief from his pain, and he doesn’t know why he has to suffer. And there are those who need money and can’t get it, and those who don’t need it who easily acquire more. Those who have much want still more; and those who have nothing want just a little, but can’t get even that. Isn’t this true? Why these injustices? Some people are as healthy as can be, and some are always sick. But health or disease doesn’t necessarily determine whether or not you are happy. St. Francis suffered much of the time, yet he was healing the sick and was filled with the joy of God. Suffering has a different meaning for you when you have attained the freedom of God. But you have to attain that freedom first.

We must learn to work without desire, and to live in this world without attachment. As soon as you are caught up in desires and attachments, you will have all the evil that is coming to you. That is why the Gita says “O Arjuna! No (compelling) duty have I to perform! There is naught that I have not acquired! Nothing in the three worlds remains for me to gain! Yet I am consciously present in the performance of all actions.” Those who want to be liberated must do likewise, engaging in service-ful, joyful, and non-attached activity. Most people willingly work hard for money, but they won’t make even a little effort for their salvation. We must work for God. The way to do this is to stop cooperating with evil and to behave as God would have us behave.

We must love one another. Sometimes it is not easy, but to love your enemy means to choose not to become another person’s enemy. By a thought, any one of us could destroy another, but why would we want to? Jesus had that power. When his enemies taunted him to save himself from the cross, he said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” He conquered by love. If the ordinary man is slapped, the great desire is to slap back. Therefore, God does not give His divine power to those who are spiritually weak, because they would misuse it. The desire and the strength to forgive comes from attunement with God.

How few you find in this world who are sincere and who want to be your friend for your sake, and not for something they can take from you. Those sincere souls are most enjoyable. Greater than all riches is true friendship. If you can be a true friend to people, you will find God. If you sincerely love people, you can know them, just as when you look through a clear glass, you can see what is in the glass. But your perception of people is unclear unless you love God, and unless you love others with the love of God.

“I can give my life for a sincere soul”

In this world, we will all eventually learn that we must be fearless, sincere, and surround ourselves not only with those whom we can inspire, but with those who can inspire us as well. When we attain heightened levels of clarity, we can begin to help those who are ‘evil’, but trying to do this when we are not yet strong enough ourselves will weaken us. So many of those who try to reform others become infected with their evil.

If you have a mind that absorbs everything like blotting paper, you must keep that mind free from evil influences. Just as blotter paper that has become snaked with spilled oil will no longer absorb water, so must your mind first be saturated with good until it becomes impervious to evil.

Be strong in your own goodness, and try to be helpful to others. The man who only looks out for himself and his own family won’t find much happiness. If he doesn’t think of anyone else who might be suffering, he denies himself the joy of helping another, so his own cup of satisfaction will remain small.

The Cosmic Motion Picture

There is another angle to duality, or good and evil. If a movie producer made motion pictures only from select angles, and showed them in the film houses morning, noon and night every day, he would soon have to close-up business. He has to produce variety in order to attract people’s attention. The bad man makes the hero look so much better! And we like plots that are filled with action. We don’t mind looking at exciting movies about danger and disaster because we know that they are only movies. I remember one time when I was taken to see a movie in which the hero died; it was such a tragedy! So I stayed and watched the next showed until I saw the hero alive again, then I left the theater.

If you could see what is going on behind the screen of this life, you wouldn’t suffer at all. It is a cosmic motion picture show. This movie that God is projecting on the screen of this Earth has no value once you see what goes on behind the screens. Look at the beam of God’s light that is projecting these scenes onto the screen of life. See the pictures of the whole universe coming from this beam. See beyond the illusion.

Another time, I was sitting in a movie theater watching an exciting drama on the screen. At a certain point, I looked up into the projection booth and saw that the projectionist wasn’t interested in the picture, because he had seen it over and over again. Instead, he was reading a book. The projection machine was doing its job; there was the sound, and the beam of light was casting the realistic pictures onto the screen. And there was the audience, caught up in the drama. I thought, “Lord, You are like this man, sitting here in the booth, absorbed in your own nature of bliss and love and wisdom. Your machine of cosmic law is throwing on the screen of the universe scenes of jealousy, of love, of hatred, of wisdom, but you remain uninvolved in your plays.” From age to age, from civilization to civilization, the same old pictures are shown over and over again, only with different characters playing the parts.

When I took my gaze from the beam of light that was casting the scenes on the screen, I looked at the audience and I saw that they were going through all the emotions of the actors in the movie. They were suffering with the hero and reacting to the evil of the villain. To the audience, it was a tragic experience. To the operator in the projection booth, it was only a picture. And so it is with God. He has created pictures of light and shadows, the hero and the villain, good and evil, and we are the audience and the actors. It is only when we identify with the play that we get in trouble!

Without shadows existing alongside the light, there could be no picture. Evil is the shadow that converts the one beam of God’s light into pictures or forms. Therefore, evil is the shadow of God that makes this play possible. The dark shadows of evil are interspersed with the pure white beam of the virtues of God. He wants you not to take these pictures so seriously. The director of a movie sees the murders and the suffering and the comedy and the drama as a means to create interest for the audience. He stands apart from the play and directs and observes it. God wants us to behave with detachment, realizing we are only actors or observers in His cosmic show.

Though God has everything, it can still be said that he has some desire: He wants to see who will remain un-intimidated by this picture, and who will play his part well and come back to Him. You can’t run away from this universe, but if you act in this play with your thought fixed on God, you will be free.

If you feel like saying to God, “Lord, this is a motion picture to you, but it is terrible to us”, He may reply, “I make you realize it is a dream every night when you go to sleep. You simply forget this in the daytime.”

For him who realizes God, there is no evil

The way to supreme happiness will not be found by the scientists nor the material-minded people alone, but by those who follow the masters who say: “Go back to the booth of the Infinite from which you can see the projection of all these cosmic motion pictures. Then you won’t be troubled about God’s creation, God’s play…”

When you are part of the delusion, you suffer.
When you stand aside and watch it, you cannot suffer.
When you are an observer, you can enjoy this play.

And with that, a little story to end today’s message:

A king fell asleep and dreamed that he was poor. He was crying out in his sleep for just a penny for some food. Finally, the queen woke him and said, “What is the matter with you? Your treasury is full of gold, and yet you are crying for a penny.”

Then the king said, “Oh, how silly of me, I thought I was a beggar and was starving for lack of that penny.”

Such is the delusion of every soul that is dreaming it is a mortal, subject to the nightmarish evils of all kinds of disease, suffering, troubles, and heartbreaks. The only way to escape this nightmare is detaching from the dream images of this world. It is because you have your attention on the illusions that you suffer. If you give your heart to man, or to drink, or to greed, or to drugs, you will suffer. Your heart will be broken. The more you seek peace in God, the more peace will devour your worries and sufferings. Suffering comes when the evils of the world are let in. When we learn to be spiritually tough, we enable ourselves to be filled with joy, and thus, evil-free.

Some of you may know that many of the teachings that I offer you through this site come from a soul very dear to me. He was a man of great spiritual proportions (and as I write this, I hear him laughing that he was grand on the physical scale too!). He offered classes to those who were willing to make the effort to work on themselves. I attended one of these classes, and spent some time with him outside of the church meeting room, but mostly, my communion with him has been on an intuitive level. In any case, I have an email here, printed out in front of me, written by him to his students on what I can imagine was a beautiful evening on the 22nd of July 2002. One of his students had asked him to explain good and evil – why it exists and what the concepts are meant to teach us. I will copy below what he wrote, but before I do, I remind you to…

Treat these words as various dishes laid out on a buffet table. Pick and choose what looks and tastes good to you. It is for you to decide what food agrees with your digestive system. None of this is for your acceptance or rejection. None of us get brownie points for what we believe to be true; only for what we apply.

Dear family,

There is no good or evil except man’s mind makes it so. Meditation will help one overcome the dual expression of good, or evil. All is God!! If one believes this, then how can we believe in such a thing as evil? If we accept the concept of evil, then it must be of God also. My! What a paradox! For me, all there is, is God. The light that dwells in the center of every cell of our being is God. If one believes this to be true, then how can evil exist in anything? Light is all there is. Darkness can’t overcome Light. Light will always dispel darkness.

Why do we have such a need to live in the dual concept? Yes, we have many things that express in a dual nature, but they are an expression of God. Man is an expression of God walking on the face of the earth. Now, if one believes this to be true, then how can there be another expression of energy?

We must devotedly and passionately repeat this mantra to ourselves:

I am love and an expression of God walking on the face of the earth!
I am God, living with all that is my expression for the purpose of removing the need to express anything other than spirit in my life!

We should be repeating this several times a day, EVERY day. I know! Many of you are thinking, “How can I find time to memorize all that, and remember to say it every day?” Well, do it the same way you remember to take a breath. You plant the thought into your subconscious mind until it becomes another habit. Remember 21 days. We need to do what is necessary. You have been given all the tools needed, and you provide the God Power. Look for it, as it is burried deep within, and every day you put it off, it only goes deeper into your being. I know every one of you are capable of finding that power. You only need to want it bad enough. Do you?????

And so with that, let us meditate:

The Importance of Healthy Bodies

Each of us understands the importance of feeding our physical bodies with healthy food choices, vitamins and herbs, along with getting daily physical exercise of some type. We are constantly being bombarded with articles in our newspapers, advertisements on television and in magazines, advice from our doctors and our parents, etc. about what we need to do to keep our physical body strong and healthy. So much emphasis is put on needing to continually be aware of how we take care of our physical bodies. But, how often do we get reminded about the importance of taking time during our busy days to feed, nurture and expand our spiritual bodies?

Many of us have also been provided with numerous suggestions and ideas from various sources on ways to consciously grow into more loving, balanced, forgiving and accepting human beings through many different spiritual practices, the main one being through daily meditation – that time for conscious stillness when we open ourselves to higher energies. Yet how many of us listen to these repeated suggestions and truly attempt to implement the practices into our daily routines? This is not a judgment…simply a question to ask ourselves to determine if we are taking a consciously active part in our spiritual growth.

Mantras

Many of us know that meditation can be a powerful way to cleanse, clear and center, but how many of us have experienced the power of mantras and prayers? These are also tools that represent very powerful spiritual practices that can help us attune to our pure states of spiritual being. Even by simply repeating the names of God and other powerful words that resonate deeply with us, we can create transformational shifts in our realities that will very likely ripple into the realities of many around us as well.

There is not a single spiritual teacher or Master of any path or religion who has not recommended this practice in some form. The benefits of this practice are unbelievable. Gandhi chanted the name of God as Rama constantly throughout his life, and he said it was one of the absolute keys to his success. Sai Baba said repeating the name of God and visualizing His form is one of the main keys to spiritual success. The idea is to not just do it in meditation but to did it throughout your day, while doing laundry, showering, driving in the car or taking a walk. During the day, it is so simple and so beneficial to repeat the name of God or the word ‘love’ in any project that you are doing, dedicating it to the Highest Good. We can take any simple task and turn it into a dedication to that highest part of ourselves that is grateful for the gift of life.

Power of the Mind

The law of the mind is that thoughts create reality. Energy follows thought. When we chant the name of God, we eventually become that which we are chanting! If we repeat the name of God enough times, it has the effect of cleansing our physical, emotional, mental and etheric bodies to the point that they reflect only God. One of the greatest difficulties that people on the path experience is a wandering mind. I experience this myself, still more times then I notice. But when I do catch thoughts float by that are dark, or that represent a reality that I do not wish to experience, I immediately chant ‘DELETE, DELETE, DELETE’. Sometimes 3 times is enough to bring peace, and other times it takes more than 30 repetitions to erase the thought and its energetic imprint on me. But then it’s gone. This is an example of the power of self-observation, and a power it certainly is!

The chanting of the names of God can also keep our minds focused on higher vibrations. It is not that important whether you focus on visualizing God’s imagine in your mind’s eye, or on connecting to a feeling of peace or love that you create. This process of simply repeating words of such high frequency is enough. It is all that is needed to activate an automatic elevation in your vibration, and in turn, in the vibration of the world around you.

If our mind isn’t on God (whether consciously or unconsciously), then it is likely to float back to the lower self and the many needs of the personality of the little ‘i’. We must learn to focus our attention on the true part of the Self. The mind creates bondage, yet it also has the power to create liberation. This is equally true of the spoken word. Words can harm but words can also heal. Reflect on this…

Any time you feel negative emotions coming on or if you are feeling depressed or angry, try chanting the name of God. If you allow yourself, you will be lifted up faster than you can imagine into a place of greater peace and tranquility. You see, it is not that the process does not work for everyone. It is that we struggle so much, often viewing the world as a cold and difficult place full of obstacles and opposition, that we have come to believe that this is our natural state. So because this has become the color through which so many of us automatically perceive our experiences, it no longer feels natural to be in a state of peace and calm. Sometimes I rise into this wonderful state very quickly when chanting my personal mantras, and if I am far enough detached from the ‘little ‘i”s’, I notice that my first response is a very subtle sense of relief and relaxation, BUT this is very quickly followed by a fear that I have to be on guard and immediately my instinct is to get back into a protective stance. Or sometimes, I get the feeling that this peace is too good to be true and I should get back to a reality of pain. Watch yourself. If you catch yourself creating this same pattern, see it from a detached place of understanding and compassion, and then simply guide yourself back into that place of peace. When I have this interaction with my many facets, I sometimes feel like I’m trying to calm my inner child into coming back into the sun where the light is warm and nurturing. At first, I can understand that the light is overwhelming and if I’m not used to being in it, it can seem very bright. So why punish and judge our reactions? Instead, watch them as they happen from a place of higher knowing, and act accordingly from a place of greater understanding.

Names of God

A few suggestions of powerful words to chant are:

“I Am That I Am”

“I Am God”

“I Love”

“Be Still and Know I Am God”

“Elohim” (Meaning: ‘All That God Is’)

“Adonai” (Meaning: ‘Lord’ in the Kabbalah)

“El Shaddai” (Meaning: ‘God Almighty’)

“Jesus Christ”

“Krishna”

“Buddha”

“Holy Spirit”

The list can go on and on. The key is to use a powerful mantra or a name of God or of a Master that means something special to you; an entity to which you feel yourself drawn or a powerful expression which you find comforting.

As well as the names of God, there are also sacred sounds such as Aum and Om which are the mother of all mantras. These sounds can have a tremendously soothing effect if you are attuned to the range of their frequency. They can help guide your mind and your emotions to a place of quietude. I listen to my Om cd very often when I am facing an experience that frightens me or that makes me uneasy and what happens is that the sound organically brings me out of a place of fear and into a state of peaceful calm which in turn equips me with an improved mind-frame to be able to make clearer decisions. Much power is in this particular sound for it attunes the chanter or the listener to the sound of life intself, or in other words, to God. It brings both invigoration and calm. I believe that the invigoration comes from a state of greater awareness and this broadened consciousness is easily interpreted as a more ‘alert’ or ‘invigorated’ state. The amazing thing about mantras is that many of them exist in the highest dimensions and have been brought forth to humanity by the ancient Indian seers who hve actually heard these mantras clairaudiently.

Names of God can be chanted out loud, whispered, said silently in your mind or written down. Each has its own unique effect. The idea is to not become too mechanical in their recitation. Saying each word with worship and devotion to God empowers it to purify, cleanse and heal all of our bodies. When you chant the name of God, you are programming perfection into your subconscious mind, which then creates perfection in your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies.

It is extremely important to build a strong subconscious mind because what we feed it is what we will manifest in our lives! It takes 21 days to create a new habit, so once we begin using loving visualizations and words of power each day, they will become part of the normal, natural way that we live. Thus, whenever we find ourselves in a stressful situation, it will become much easier to act positively and calmly rather than ‘reacting’ with out-of-control emotions and fear.

An Extra Boost

However, saying all of this to you,  I can also very much appreciate that life can become extremely complicated and sometimes we may want an extra boost of support from the heavens in order to get through the experiences without too many cuts and bruises. Sometimes, when life has drained a significant amount of our force and we have not been actively replenishing to keep up,  we may even get to a point where we feel that we can make it through the experiences, but at a cost to our bodies. Although I know that we are given only that which we can handle and not a drop more, it can sometimes feel that one thing after another is coming at us with growing intensity with no breaks in between to even catch our breath. In these situations, the power of mantras is invaluable because it is a way for us to refuel before the next battle and manifest a state of centeredness that will carry us even in the most fluctuating of times. I have been through some of these challenging cycles, and in the process, I have learned to use another tool that I would like to share with you now. When you feel spiritually tired and perhaps not quite sure if you can handle any more of what this life has to offer, take a breath, and begin to repeat the following:

“God, please heal my soul.”

The power of this mantra can even put you to sleep as you become enveloped by a feeling of mercy. It is as though you are being carried up on wings of divinity more beautiful than the mind can imagine. When we ask for this holy healing, we are actually asking for a healing that each and every one of us receives as we reenter our spiritual home once we leave our physical bodies. There is a process that follows the physical death in which the soul is placed in something similar to what we would call an incubator, and here the soul is supported through a mending process that helps it regenerate back to its fully recharged state. By asking for this process to take place while still in the physical vehicle, you are asking for a healing that incorporates so many levels of your essence that, in turn, you may wish to leave the body through the sleeping state in order to support this process.

What happens…

Chanting mantras helps to build our Light Body which is the body we will use in our ascended state. The more we chant words and sounds of high frequency, the more the energies of the words become the center of our consciousness and protect us from lower vibrations. The mantra is like the seed that will eventually grow into a beautiful tree – the tree being symbolic of God-realization. The ultimate purpose of reciting the names of God is to blend our individual consciousness with God consciousness, thus becoming aware of our true nature as the eternal self. By praying or chanting, we are using ‘the word’ as a co-creator with God, thereby intoning the highest possible vibrational frequencies. Everything is energy, and these spiritual practices assist us in raising our frequencies to a higher state of Light and Love.

For example, if you chant the divine word of ‘Elohim’, which means ‘All That God Is’, then you are attracting to yourself all that which is God. Chant God’s name as you are falling asleep and you will float in your soul body to the dimension and consciousness of the name you are reciting, since where you go when you fall asleep depends on the last thought in your mind. The constant practice of this most holy spiritual discipline builds enormous spiritual force and power in your aura which can then be used as a blessing upon every person you meet…thus we can literally change the world around us!

Can you imagine how you would feel if you could harness the tremendous force of your mind and channel it into a spiritual focus only? Imagine if you used your mind constantly, 24 hours a day, to focus on loving thoughts, words of power and caring emotions…your every thought, word and deed would be of divine origin! This is the ideal – to let your entire life on Earth be an affirmation of God, which is who you really are!

There are so many spiritual disciplines available for each of us to become more balanced and loving and to help us ascend and evolve into higher beings of Light. We can use our meditations, our prayers, spiritual reading, daily positive affirmations, journal writing and physical fitness to help us achieve that inner knowingness and peace. It is also beneficial for us to enjoy spiritual music that soothes our soul and to sing to our heart’s content as this also creates a feeling of joy and bliss for our soul. It is important to create variety in our spiritual disciplines for we need to make the journey interesting and joyful. Just as we are good to our physical bodies, we need to feed good spiritual food to our minds and to our spirits.

A final note…

One of the keys to spiritual and wordly success is understanding the importance of where we put our attention. Where our attention lies is literally where we live…so why not keep our focus on training our minds and bodies to seek inner peace and joy through the various spiritual practices available to us that have been proven to change the world!? This is OUR journey and we have the responsibility to ourselves to be the best that we can be! These many ideas can help us have fun along the way. Let’s stop making excuses that we are too busy or do not have enough time for these practices. We can make these a priority and change our lives…NOW!

All of the above serve as healing balms, not only to us, but to the world itself, as these sounds, words, mantras and prayers move through us and out into the etheric, astral and mental atmospheres. The choice lies with us whether we are going to use words and thoughts to hurt or to heal. It is my fervent prayer that each of us chooses to use the power of thought, word and deed in order to cause as much healing as possible within ourselves and upon the planet. Because whether we recognize it or not, we all really need it!

It is of vital importance to observe our minds (thoughts AND emotions) in order to begin to live more consciously and fully in the Now. Self-observation and introspection enable us to evolve into more loving, peaceful beings. In order to remember who we are, we must look at ourselves under a microscope and honestly accept what we see, observing where our thoughts are and how we deal with our emotions. It is only through this conscious self-introspection that we can view ourselves as the ‘witnessing presence’ which is the ‘watcher of the thinker’. This is the point of perception where our Higher Selves continually observe the activities going on both in our thoughts and our emotions. Whether we consciously know we are doing this or not, it is happening constantly. It is very important to remember to view ourselves with loving, non-judging eyes, because if we find fault with ourselves or feel guilty about the chatter going on in our heads, then we are simply continuing on in the duality thinking and will not be able to make the necessary changes within ourselves.

So, before we go on, we need to discuss briefly how we can change these ingrained patters of rampant thoughts and emotions and learn to understand our minds and how they work. The first step is that we must understand the basic mechanics of living UNconsciously, which is when we define who we are through our thoughts and emotions, allowing the mind to control our lives, thus creating a false self or ego as a substitute for our true self. When this occurs, we become as a ‘branch cut off from the vine’ where the ego’s needs are endless and keep us living in a state of constant fear and want. When we truly begin to grasp how this dysfunction operates, we can then begin to detach from this ego or illusory sense of self and learn to disconnect from the many fears, problems and traumas in our lives that seem to define who we are. It isn’t until we recognize where our minds are that we can begin to make changes within ourselves and learn to live more consciously. Our minds generally want to escape the Now by thinking that either the past or the future will be better than the present…if the imagined future appears better, it gives us hope and anticipation…if it is imagined worse, it creates more anxiety and fear.

BOTH ARE ILLUSIONS!!!

By living more consciously, a higher dimension of presence comes into our lives automatically. The moment we realize that we are not present, we ARE present! Whenever we are able to observe our minds, we are no longer trapped in them! It is that simple…it just takes awareness!!! Awareness takes effort at first, but with trust, perseverance and determination, living consciously the majority of the time is truly possible.

The following are simple reminders:

Click on image to view in full size.

All of these reminders help us to live more consciously in the Now and enable us to step out of past and future fears and introduce more presence into our lives. Once we can feel what it means to truly be present, it becomes much easier to simply choose to step out of the time dimension whenever it is needed for practical purposes and move more deeply into the Now.

This leads us into the discussion of how we can change our attitudes and perspectives on what is ‘time’ and what role it plays in our ability to stay conscious and present as much as possible.

The following statement is the key:

Time and mind are inseparable!

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time…the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and simply allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation and fulfillment. BOTH ARE ILLUSIONS!!! Thus, it is important to end the delusion of time!

Many people say, “Time is something so very precious”, but time isn’t precious at all because it is an illusion. What we perceived as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the NOW…that is precious indeed! The more we are focused on time (past and future), the more we miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. Why is it the most precious thing? Because it is the ONLY thing…it’s all there is. The eternal present is the space within which our whole life unfolds, the one factor that remains constant. Life is NOW…there was never a time when our life was NOT now, now will there ever be.

Often times, we think the past and future are even more real than the present since the past determines who we are and how we behave in the present, and future goals determine what actions we take in the present. This is very challenging for us to undersatnd because we are using our ‘minds’ to try to grasp this; however, ask yourselves the following questions: Have you ever experienced, done, thought or felt anything outside of the Now? Do you think you ever will? Is it possible for anything to happen or be out the Now? Of course not! Nothing ever happened in the past…it happened in the NOW! Nothing will ever happen in the future…it will happen in the Now.

What we think of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind, of a former Now. When we remember the past, we reactivate a memory trace of an event. Also, the future is an imaged Now, a projection of the mind. When the future comes, it comes as the Now. When we think about the future, we do it now. Past and future obviously have no reality of their own…just as the moon has no light of its own but can only reflect the light of the sun…so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power and reality of the eternal present. The essence of this is difficult to be understood by the mind; however, once we grasp it, there is a shift in consciousness from mind to Being, from time to presence. Suddenly everything feels alive, radiates energy and emanates Being.

If you have ever been in a life threatening or emergency situation, you are aware that there is a shift in consciousness from ‘time’ to ‘presence’ that happens immediately and naturally. The personality that has a past and a future momentarily recedes and is replaced by an intense conscious presence, that of being very still but very alert at the same time. Whatever response is needed then arises out of that state of consciousness.

Similarly, many people love to engage in dangerous activities such as mountain climbing or car racing because it keeps them in the constant state of Now, that intensely alive state that is free of time, free of problems, free of thinking. Slipping away from the present moment even for a second for them may mean death, so the totally conscious state that is required is exhilaration! That energy is powerful and this desired state is available to all of us, without having to climb to the top of El Capitan! We simply have to BE present!

Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. In church you may have heard the saying, “Nobody who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Also, the whole essence of Zen consists of walking along the razor’s edge of Now, to be so utterly, so completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not WHO YOU ARE in your essence can survive in you. A similar question in the Zen tradition is, “If not now, when?” Finally, Rumi, the great Sufi poet and teacher declared “Past and future veil God from our sight; burn up both of them in fire.” We have all been exposed to many, many lessons and teachings that have stressed the importance of living the present moment, but how many of us truly are able to live and apply this awareness into our lives on a daily basis? We must be honest with ourselves…do we live and accept ourselves in the present NOW or do we depend on our past experiences or our future dreams to mold our present days?

Clock Time Vs. Psychological Time…

Just as there is a place for mind and mind knowledge in the practical realm of day-to-day living, we also need to know how to use time in the practical aspects of our lives. Keeping track of time for daily appointments and activities is of course important, but we must be wary when it takes over all aspects of our lives. There are two types of ‘time’ that we must be aware of: ‘clock time’ and ‘psychological time’. The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time, which means they continue to use clock time but are free of psychological time.

Clock time is used for the practical aspects of our lives. Clock time is not just making an appointment or planning a trip. It includes learning from the past so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over. Knowledge that we have attained through past experiences is also using ‘clock time’. It is thus when we are able to make choices, based on learning from prior experiences. Similarly, when we set a goal for ourselves and work toward it, we are using clock time. We are aware of where we want to go, but we honor and give our fullest attention to the step that we are taking at this moment. However, if we become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because we are seeking happiness or fulfillment in it, the Now is no longer honored and it becomes reduced to a mere stepping stone to the future. Then we are no longer using clock time. THE PRESENT MOMENT REMAINS THE ESSENTIAL FACTOR: when any lesson from the past becomes relevant and the knowledge of the experience is applied to the Now, ‘clock time’ is being honored.

‘Psychological time’ is identification with the past and continuous compulsive projection into the future. It is when we lose all touch with the present moment, and when our identity, value and purpose is only based on what we have done or what we will be doing later, what we look like or what we are thinking or feeling. If life’s journey is no longer an adventure or seen as beautiful but is an obsessive need to arrive, to attain or to ‘make it’, then psychological time or past and future identification rules who you are.

Be alert as you practice this so that you do not unwittingly transform clock time into psychological time. For example, if you made a mistake in the past and learn from it now, you are using clock time. On the other hand, if you dwell on it mentally, and self-criticism, remorse, or guilt come up, then you are making the mistake into ‘me’ and ‘mine’: you make it part of your sense of self, and it has become psychological time, which is always linked to a false sense of identity. Nonforgiveness necessarily implies a heavy burden of psychological time.

You will not have any doubt that psychological time is a mental disease if you look at its collective consciousness manifestations. They occur, for example, in the form of ideologies such as communism or rigid religious belief systems which operate under the implicit assumption that the highest good lies in the future and that therefore the end justifies the means. The end is an idea, a point in the mind-projected future, when salvation in whatever form (happiness, fulfillment, equality, etc.) will be attained. As an example, it is estimated that as many as 50 million people were murdered to further the cause of communism, to bring about a ‘better world’ in Russia, China and other countries. This is a chilling example of how belief in a future heaven creates a present hell. Can there be any doubt that psychological time is a serious and dangerous mental illness?

How does this mind pattern operate in your life? Are you always trying to get somewhere other than where you are? Is most of your ‘doing’ just a means to an end? Is fulfillment always just around the corner or confined to short-lived pleasures such as drink, drugs, or thrills and excitement? Are you always focused on becoming, achieving, and attaining? Do you believe that if you acquire more things you will become more fulfilled or psychologically complete?

In the normal, mind-identified or unenlightened state of consciousness, the power and creative potential that lies concealed in the Now is completely obscured by psychological time. Your life then loses its vibrancy and sense of wonder. The old patterns of thought, emotion, behavior, reaction and desire are acted out in endless repeat performances, a script in your mind that gives you an identity of sorts but covers up the reality of the Now. The mind then creates an obsession with the future as an escape from the unsatisfactory present.

If you are currently experiencing a very challenging set of experiences that make you believe that the future HAS to be better than this present state, you must realize that the future is generally a replica of the past! Superficial changes are possible of course, but REAL transformation depends upon whether you can become present enough to dissolve the past by accessing and accepting the Now. What you perceive as future is an intrinsic part of your state of consciousness now, and chances are you will experience more of the same unless the quality of you consciousness NOW is altered.

So….if it is the quality of your consciousness at this moment that determines the future, then what is it that determines the quality of your consciousness? It is your degree of presence!!! Therefore, the ONLY place where true change can occur and where the past can be dissolved is the NOW!!!

God bless!