Rob Bell, he gave up his hell.
What be his fate, it’s too early to tell.
Bright and articulate is he.
His awakening was meant to be.
To watch these baby steps is fun.
We know they must lead to inclusion.
Will he take the greatest leap.
The one the could leave him upon the heap.
To tell the truth of the Son.
No longer the exception which is oh so done.
But oh to teach the great example,
Which leads all to the One.
For Whom the Rob Bell Tolls
Mar 19th, 2011 by Gary
Beyond the Lizard Brain
Feb 16th, 2010 by Gary
In the beginning there was no beginning, we live in a vibrant, dynamic and mysterious universe and the origins of what we commonly refer to as ”life” are unknown. We can embrace the theory of evolution as it is widely accepted yet we must remember that it is still just a theory. We can give a nod to creationism, however as it is commonly (and uncritically) accepted by those of faith we must remember it is just a story and a metaphor for something much deeper than boys, girls and fruit. Therefore regarding “in the beginning”, who cares? We live in a field of vibration which is beyond time and space; we live in a multidimensional universe that will reveal its secrets to us as we attain higher levels of vibration within our own consciousness. To those that choose to continue to avoid looking inward these theories of the beginnings of life provide a distraction from doing the consciousness raising work of self-accountability, self-understanding and self-awakening.
Evolution is not something that has completed its run such that we may now engage in endless debates about apes and man or ribs and women, evolution is happening right now and we have the unique opportunity at this point in known human history to consciously participate in it. That’s correct I said consciously participate. All too often evolution is perceived with a passive mindset as if someday a third arm will show up on a few babies in response to the future human requirement to carry more groceries to the car. We think this way because we half consciously walked through the museum and saw the display of a monkey going through various developmental stages until the final stage is revealed as a really hairy guy or an old hippie, take your pick. Evolution is happening all around us, especially in technology. The 20th century was like an aircraft carrier catapult launching the human consciousness into the deep space of our greater possibility. And now that we have achieved liftoff it’s time to consciously participate in our own personal and collective evolution.
Although it is very easy to see the evolution of automobiles and Macintosh computers it is not so easy to see the evolution of the human/spirit experience. We are in the midst of a radical transformation of the human brain, one that the great master teachers all saw in their time and we are now just catching up to their vision. The Buddha called it nirvana, the Hindu texts speak of moksha and Jesus referred to it as the kingdom of heaven here and now. These states have nothing to do with death, as is a common misperception. These states do require something to die and typically it is the part of us that is fighting to stay separate, fighting for self-preservation and clinging to an outmoded way of thinking that will be unable to resist the forces of evolution. As Jesus said (and again was wildly misinterpreted) “you must lose your life to gain your life”.
What is evolving is our capacity to consciously use our brains (and the thoughts that they think) to reveal the God mind that lays waiting for each of us to recognize. First we must understand the difference between the brain and the mind, the brain is local and the mind is non-local. The brain is comprised of three primary sections. The low-brain (around the base of the skull) is our automatic brain, responsible for such wonderful things as breathing, reproduction and beating our hearts. It is commonly referred to as the lizard brain as it is also our connection to the past when fight or flight meant sleep in cave or sleep in dinosaur tummy. The lizard brain has its dark side qualities of self-preservation, reactive thinking, isolation, emotional and physical violence and it is this part of the brain has been running the human experience for a long, long time (tune in nightly on Fox). The majority of a typical day for a human being is spent in self-preservation. Many people these days are attempting to spend as little money as possible; this is the new and improved lizard brain attempting to continue to preserve itself through not circulating the energy of money (a much deeper subject to explore around the lack consciousness so pervasive in our culture). Obviously more glaring examples of the machinations of our lizard brain show up in the daily news as we are constantly barraged with everything out there that is going to get us and how we can protect ourselves from terrorists by frequently washing our hands. As I observe the world today those that protesteth too much are seemingly pawns for the bidding of the lizard brain. Remember the lizard brain is the easiest to control and those that know this exercise this control by constantly providing fuel for the lizard brain to energize itself with. Typically this takes the form of enemies that will change frequently except in the case of the devil who gets the lifetime achievement award for being the most long lived enemy to rattle the lizard brain into submission.
The next level of the brain is the middle brain (which funny enough is in the middle layer of the brain) and is associated with reason, compassion, spatial analysis, conceptual thinking and emotional integrity. Although it would seem that most in our society are operating at this level many are in fact operating on the border of the mid-brain and low-brain. Yes they show up for work and do a great job however when push comes to shove they drop right back down into the lizard brain. Those that are consciously evolving are now well into the mid-brain and having close encounters of the third eye with the high-brain or God mind.
The high-brain is where we jump off into the infinite mind that is God, please note that I said infinite so the narrow religious definition of God is not anywhere close to the God mind to which I am referring. It is from this place that we realize the need for self-preservation is an antiquated as floppy disks. When we mingle in this space we are acutely aware that there are no longer us and them, me and you (all dualities absolutely necessary to feed the lizard brain), we realize that we are in a place which the prophets spoke of as the peace which passeth understanding, the kingdom of heaven here and now. The analogy I like to use is that of a computer with applications on its hard drive, you use them and they do what they are intended to do, yet the computer has a finite functionality. This is typical of most that are religiously impacted in their thinking or conversely those that have either chosen to non-confront a higher power within them or reject it altogether as in the case of our burgeoning atheism in the United States. Now take that same computer and connect it to the Internet and its capabilities increase exponentially, in fact the computer now becomes one in the infinite web of knowledge we know as the Internet. It is this same capability that is available to us when we consciously direct our awareness to the high-brain. This is when we will use the other 90% of our brains, when we ascend into the infinite mind which is available to all.
The evolutionary path we face is from the low-brain to the high-brain, from self-preservation to self-realization. This is the road less traveled, the straight and narrow path, the journey of a thousand miles, and it is happening now. As you go about your day you will see when the lizard brain is pulling the strings, it is then that you can stop and consciously call up your awareness to a higher state as you remember the high-brain, the God mind that indwells within you.
As the lizard brain struggles to survive it shows up making a lot of noise in the world today, all evidence of a dying paradigm in throes of its imminent demise. To those that have chosen the high-brain road and the path of conscious evolution it appears so chaotic and out of control that it may seem like the end, however – it is really just the beginning.
The Audacity of Clarity
Jan 30th, 2010 by Gary
Jumping off the Google news page this morning was a Washington Post article cleverly entitled The Audacity of Nope. Upon further reading it was revealed to be a political piece which was somewhat unflattering of our President and an obvious parody on the title of his best selling book. The article posited that the prevalent energy behind American politics is mostly oppositional. People know what they don’t want and they are drawing political lines that are predominantly based on a loose collective consensus which finds cohesion in what is not wanted as opposed to what is wanted.
In reading the article I was reminded that we have no neutral thoughts, we are either thinking about what we don’t want or thinking about what we do want. Why is that recollection important? To the degree that we are desirous of changing our lives we must make a corresponding change in our thinking. This is a foundational concept in the arenas of New Thought spirituality, personal growth and metaphysics. Ram Dass once wrote that the mind makes a wonderful servant and a lousy master, in essence what he was saying is that if we don’t control our thoughts, our thoughts will control us. This is all based upon the assumption that we live in an intelligent universe which is comprised of a body of laws which respond to our thoughts and feelings. Although the intelligent universe concept starts an assumption, it is entirely demonstrable and at that point becomes more than faith, it becomes embodied. You may have heard the term “what you think about comes about” or perhaps “where attention goes energy flows.” These sayings are there to remind us to be mindful of our thoughts, for the direction of our lives follows the direction of our thoughts.
The audacity of clarity is simply a challenge as to how clear we can be in our thinking. Truly the only thing that we alone can do is to control our own thinking. It sounds so simple, however in practice is one of the most challenging efforts one can engage in. The challenge for ourselves is to train our minds to predominantly think only of what we want. Although it may seem that we are always thinking of what we want in fact it is our more subtle thoughts and the thoughts that arise when we are under pressure that we are more concerned with. As an example we choose to go out for dinner, we think of a restaurant, we think of a particular dish and we proceed to to the restaurant for our meal. When we get there we choose our meal, we tell the waiter exactly what we would like and we receive our meal. Did we think of what we wanted? Of course we did and the universe responded by corresponding. You see in fact we are using universal laws all the time. Now let’s take another example, it’s 8:15 in the morning and you need to be to work by 8:30, you live 20 minutes to 25 minutes away from work. What is the tendency of thought in that moment; I don’t want to be late! When the pressure is on we tend to think of what we don’t want instead of what we do want. So in that moment as it appears that we are going to be late to our work, this is when we become the master of our mind. Simply the opportunity is to pause and think about what we want; I choose to arrive at work on time easily and effortlessly (do not concern yourself with how this can happen – legally – let the universe take care of that detail, you just keep thinking about what you want, you will be amazed at the results). For the one thing that our subconscious mind does not hear is the word don’t. So in fact given our above example we are telling our subconscious mind (also known as universal law) initially, that we want to be late.
Training our minds to think only of what we want at first can be a very daunting task, as it is incumbent upon us to monitor every thought as to whether it is in alignment with what we want or what we don’t want. Yet instead of making it seem like an arduous journey it can be viewed playfully, joyfully and creatively. It can be an opportunity for us to engage our imaginations, to live in the field of infinite possibility, to prove to ourselves we do live in an abundant universe and that we are powerful beyond our own recognition. It is pretty audacious to think that we can create our lives as we would choose them to be, but in fact we have been doing this all along, it is from this point now that we do it with the audacity to be clear.
Good Vibes to a Nation
Jan 15th, 2010 by Gary
The Haitian people that are in my life are wonderful, they are filled with a zest for living, they are warm, open and generous. It is sad to see the aftermath of the most recent earthquake to affect their their nation, however it is most gratifying to see the immediate outpouring of support for the people of Haiti. Although there are a few discordant voices in the media creating their traditional style of controversy the majority are singing the same tune; help those who are in need. What is consistent within the human experience is the desire to be of assistance and the willingness to be a beneficial presence to those faced with adversity. I am sure that there are studies that have been done to ascertain why people give so generously when a major disaster affects a large number of people at one time and this event is no different. Yet somehow we wish maybe that we could do more in addition to giving of our financial resources. My wife and I spoke last night of arranging a trip with our Haitian family members to support the rebuilding of Haiti at some point within the next six months. For now there is not much to do as those trained in search and rescue as well as emergency relief have their work in front of them. Or is that really the truth?
You can do more and you can do it in the spiritual realm. Yes, at the level of form you have donated money to the Red Cross, Unicef, Oxfam or texted Haiti to 90999. Also if you could, you may just find a way onto the island to physically support the people who are in need. However for many that is not feasible and yet there is still a lingering thought of I wish I could do more. The more that you can do can be done with your thoughts and feelings; in fact with your heart. As you have been guided to this blog it is apparent that you are aware of our interconnectedness which transcends time and space, in quantum physics this is called the unified field. It is from this place of awareness that we know our love is felt and received as it is consciously directed by us. I have a heart practice which I engage in everyday, it is simple, covert and can be done anywhere. I will notice someone in the grocery store or at the gym, and this also works great with family members and is especially good while driving. As I am aware of the person I will gently focus my attention on them while moving my awareness to my heart, then silently repeat to myself “I am love, you are love”, this takes all of a few seconds and then it is on to the next one or the express checkout line. This practice is very similar to the Buddhist practice of Metta or Loving Kindness and is a recognition that all life is sacred and all life is interconnected. It is a mature spiritual practice that understands there is not two but only one and that which I do for you I do for myself (can you say the golden rule). Now back to how you can use this practice during this time of recovery and healing for those in Haiti (or anywhere else on planet Earth). As you are reminded of the current suffering of the people in Haiti drop your awareness to your heart and silently send them love. The statement that I use is as follows.
(While gently focusing my attention on the people of the region I drop my awareness into my heart, then in my mind I silently offer this intention).
I send you this love.
I know that love knows what to do and how to do it.
I know that love knows what to heal and how to heal it.
I know that love knows what to reveal and how to reveal it.
I release this love now.
Does it work? You tell me, do you feel more uplifted after this practice, if so, yes it has worked. All is vibration and energy, this has been established by the ancient mystics and by the science of quantum physics. As we do our part to establish the vibration of love magic happens. What I know is that I have done this for years and what some would call miracles have happened. I also especially like it when somebody well across the gym turns quickly as if someone had just called their name or they just start smiling for no apparent reason. Your thoughts are powerful and they can make a difference. It gives a whole new meaning to the saying “send good vibes”.
What Do I Know?
Jan 14th, 2010 by Gary
We are the people that are for something and against nothing, it was a statement the great American philosopher and author of the Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes, made some 50 years ago when he was describing the movement which he helped birth. I view this statement as a guidepost towards living a life of conscious expansion as opposed to unconscious stagnation. It is a reminder to always think creatively and imaginatively towards an outcome in all circumstances which serves the highest good for all. It causes us to be on the affirmative, expanding side of life and not the negative, constricting side of life.
The intention of this blog is to be for something and against nothing. There are too many blogs that exist only to react to some external stimuli and then offer an opinion about said stimuli. There too many media sources today simply reacting to stimuli and disguising it as news. In short there are very few new expansive thoughts being generated and quite a bit of old constrictive fearful thoughts being recycled as information which you need to know. All it takes is placing ourselves in a quiet and objective space for two minutes to recognize that the majority of this information is designed to motivate and manipulate a reaction in the mind of the individual that is based on some type of feared future outcome. It seems as if many people are aggressively pursuing information today, but is it information that is acting as a catalyst to wake up to a higher individual and collective possibility or is it simply information which validates an already closed mind thus allowing for a continuing uninterrupted slumber through life. This way of processing our world is creating a culture of always being against something, of endlessly creating a just-in-time enemy which will support us in defining ourselves only to the degree that we are not like our enemy. In essence our culture is challenged by a massive identity crisis. It is time to know who we are not who we aren’t.
This blog is committed to our freedom, to be free to find out who we really are just like Woody in Toy Story 2. Up to now we have disowned our magnificence and shuttered our magic in a world which has perpetuated the notion that we are physical beings waiting for a spiritual experience. This blog is about affirming that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience and thereby awakening to our spiritual possibility, awakening to our inherent ability to create a life worth living and then living it authentically and passionately. This blog is purposed to be a different way of seeing life, not just a glass is half full perspective but a way of seeing life which inspires the reader to a higher possibility of what their life can become. This blog does not require an enemy to exist nor does it require current political events to provide fodder for its content, this blog will be driven by a vision to inspire the reader by challenging them to see things differently, to see life though the eyes of the infinite spirit which dwells in every living being.
In writing for this blog I will strive to heed the disembodied words of a chain smoking saint who sternly admonished me out of the darkened back row of the La Jolla Comedy Store during one fateful evening on stage (oh I forgot to tell you I was a professional stand up comic). Her raspy voice still echo’s in my mind with these profound words of timeless wisdom… “stick to what you know”!
What do I know?
It can be different.
It will get better.
It takes practice.
You can heal your body and experience perfect health all the time.
You may have gotten some bad information about God.
You probably have gotten some bad information about yourself.
Your word has so much power it will amaze you.
It takes practice.
You are loved.
You are capable of loving more than you ever imagined.
Your thoughts are so powerful they will amaze you.
What goes around does in fact come around (all the time).
You count.
It takes practice.
Heaven and hell are here-now not hereafter.
Forgiveness will accelerate receiving whatever it is you are feel you are lacking.
Money is waiting for a truly humble and a truly grateful heart so it can show up.
It takes practice.
You can do what you love and get paid for it.
Your relationships will become more harmonious and loving.
It’s the beliefs you are not looking at that are getting in your way.
It takes practice.
Tears are natural when peeling the onion.
You can know authentic peace.
You are powerful beyond measure.
You are beautiful, perfect, whole and complete right now.
It takes practice.
I am not sure that this blog will escape controversy as the ideas and the concepts that it will offer shall be challenging to accept for some. Yet this will be a place in which you can be nurtured and supported in your awakening (also sometimes poked and prodded), for as the great mystic Neil Sedaka (kinda) wrote “waking up is hard to do”.
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A Blog About Seeing It Differently
There are 5 Posts and 11 Comments so far. Wake Up Thoughts
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