Learning to Be!
“The door to the soul is unlocked; you do not need to please the doorkeeper, the door in front of you is yours, intended for you, and the doorkeeper obeys when spoken to.” -Robert Bly
What if you found out there was a key that would enable you to open and close your doors of perception at will, void of psychedelics? What if you found out you not only held the key, but you were the key? Would you unlock the doors, or keep them shut?
One of the great benefits of beginning to see one’s mind as an instrument rather than as one’s “self” is the ability to recognize patterns and to make changes. While the question of “who” is actually making any changes (free will) remains a mystery—or rather when it becomes a mystery, amazing things can happen.
I have lived (or rather I had lived) in Los Angeles for 35 years, having moved there from the east coast in 1979 to pursue a fantasy of fame and fortune in the film business.
Brendan D. Murphy, Guest
Waking Times
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” ~ Charles Swindoll
The notion that how we feel is merely caused by events around us or directly involving us, is a scourge of our modern times.
At one point or another, you may find yourself feeling “stuck” in life. Life feels stagnant and its waters no longer rage with passion or depth. When your options in life cease to feel limitless, it is only natural to feel as if you have hit a wall which you cannot move past. Unfortunately, this natural reaction only limits you more by breeding a negative mindset and essentially, if left unchecked, a resistance to life as a whole.
To clear negative blocks in your life you must consciously identify their origins and confront them.
Believe it or not most, if not all, of us have experienced depression at some point in our lives. The extent of our depression varies according to each case, sometimes it’s so severe your doctor may recommend anti-depressants. Understandable, simple, logical diagnosis, no?
What does it mean?
De-pression. To de-press is to push down. To lower in amount or value. To be pushed lower. When you’re depressed, you’re not at your best, you’re not at your full potential, you’re not in a balanced, neutralized state of mind.
Emotion is what makes man feel alive. His ability to feel deeply, to have empathy and compassion, and to be sensitive to both internal and external factors by exercising present moment awareness frequently are the actions that enable him to execute his passions in a manner filled with truth so deep that it possesses the power to connect him with others and with the universe as a whole. Without feeling, he is merely existing, not living.
It’s so interesting how conventional philosophy approaches and flirts with the obvious truth, but cannot really confront it because Science itself is yet another dogmatic set of beliefs –founded on questionable assumptions, like the belief that we are separate individuals..
In this very compelling TED talk, philosopher Daniel Dennett makes the “scientific” case that neither our thoughts or beliefs are “us” –he compares them to the parasites that can take over an ant and even make an individual ant commit “suicide” to reach the parasite’s goal –the top of a leaf.
In this wonderful talk Dennett uses a “scientific” and
How often do we go about our days feeling things within our body and trying to figure them out yet never really find the answers? We might go to a doctor and explain what’s going on. We might say we have tightness in our shoulders, pain in our knees, constant stomach or abdomen issues or maybe pains in our feet.
“My thoughts are driving me crazy!” “If only I could unplug my mind, I would be happy.” Because our thoughts often overwhelm, confuse, frustrate and even seem to torture us, there are times we wish the mind had an OFF button. That if we could somehow turn “the noise machine in the head” off, we would have peace.
However, what the great sages and mystics have repeatedly told us throughout history is that the solution lies NOT in trying to get rid of our thoughts, but rather in stopping our habitual and robotic tendency to identify with them.