Say Yes

Is fear just context? By context I mean the filter through which our awareness views reality.

Is the context mutable?

Does our context shift from day to day? Is our context static or changing?

Can we totally transform the context?

I am about to commit to an ambitious project. My initial reaction is fear. The reasons for not doing it rise up in my inner monologue and begin reinforcing the fearful context that is my unconscious reaction. Self doubt, not enough time, I'll fail, fear of stress, wanting to be comfortable. Those inner conversations destroy any possibility and are limiting. They put up a fence. They keep me sleepy - half alive.

Then I become conscious of it. The whole movement of it. The fear, the reaction, the monologue and its reasons. I see the aim of the monologue - its intention.

I realize that it is the status quo. The inner monologue becomes the bars of the prison of my self. It is the context that keeps me small, safe, apart from life and aliveness. There is no adventure possible within that context, nor is there expansion. I will not know myself fully if I follow that path.

Can I transform the context - my default view - of the situation from one of fear, weakness and limitation to one of power and mastery?

All I can do is say "yes" and begin to speak powerfully. Use words that give me a different context in relating to the project - to my life. Talk about it from a space of enthusiasm and excitement. Visualize success. Approach it with integrity and discipline.

Love every minute of it because it is my life.

Space And Stillness

It is an unfolding, a flowering.

Somedays it feels like it will never happen.

Like there is a dormancy.

But that is an illusion. The instrument is just dull.

Imagine that you have a seismometer that can only register earthquakes above 2.0 on the Richter scale. There are many vibrations within the earth, it is moving and changing, constantly alive, but your instrument is not reading anything.

It can only read extreme fluctuations in the earth.

Now imagine that you have an instrument that can read the entire Richter scale. You would be receiving constant feedback from the earth. You know every move that goes on within it.

Your instrument has become more sensitive, refined. Meditation is what brings the still awareness to the instrument of the body and its energy field. The more still and silent the mind, the more sensitive the instrument.

Now imagine that you have an instrument so sensitive that it registers a shockwave when a mote of dust lands on a table top.

Being A Clear Channel

A while back my buddy and I were talking about how children are in this state of wonder and innocence about the world. Everything is amazing and interesting.

I was talking about how everything around us is a miracle. Color, sound, even a blade of grass is an amazing, miraculous thing.

I also said that it is interesting how quickly human beings get used to the miraculous. If dragons flew out of a volcano in Iceland, it would take about three weeks for humanity to get used to that idea and then we'd be on to the next thing. No joke.

He mentioned that the brain must be wired in such a way to as to be able to mute the effect of the miraculous. If we stayed in that wonder we would be liable to be eaten. It has to be some mechanism related to survival.

It seems to me that after a certain amount of time, there is an impulse to return to that innocence with the wisdom gained through being an adult and going through the dark night of the soul.

A return to childlike wonder at the world and the grace of innocence is a return to sanity - a feeling of oneness with the world.

This feeling of oneness is a clear channel through which many wonderful things come in to the world.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is like a fire. The more you give the more you get.

The more you give the brighter you are because it sparks enthusiasm in another and they become bright.

It is a positive syndrome and it is fueled by the creative impulse of the universe.

It is one of those things that the more energy is put into it the greater capacity for energy I have.

The reason for this is that there is no resistance anymore. Enthusiasm does not have any resistance to it, it is intensely alive, alert and filled with passion.

The scientific parallel to this is superconductivity. Miraculous things are possible. So it is with enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is derived from the Greek enthous which means "possessed by a god; inspired"

Inspired means "to breathe life into".

To go to the core of one's being is to find the source of enthusiasm, to find the source of one's life.

To be connected to that source is to fulfill one's purpose totally.

Taking A Stand

It's all okay.

Every hardship, every pain, every conflict that I have endured has freed me from myself.

I had to look in the right place, I had to be vigilant and intense in my inquiry. There was work to be done. Discomfort is a great motivator.

Who we are when everything is comfortable, is one thing. It's easy to be when life is comfortable.

But who do we become when things become uncomfortable is another thing entirely. This is where the real work begins and this is where suffering can be turned into salvation and bliss.

It's all about being. It's all about seeing clearly. It's all about taking a stand.

A Virtuous Circle Begins

There is this interesting quote in the Bible: "Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."

For me, it explains a principle of life that I have observed within myself. It has to do with expanding capacities.

The more I focus on something or express something, the more capacity I will have for it. Joy, love, balance, compassion, enthusiasm, etc. This is also true for the destructive emotions.

At a certain point there is a syphon effect. It take an effort to pump the liquid at first but after a while, gravity does the rest and then there is a syndrome. These are the virtuous and vicious circles.

The hardest thing to do is to interrupt the flow of a vicious circle when it is in motion.

But knowing that nothing will stop the vicious circle unless I become conscious of it and act makes me realize the cost.

This is my one, wonderful life. No one is going to do it for me. I have to love myself and give myself the gift.

And so I focus on the one, small, good thing and start from there.

A virtuous circle begins.

Let The Storm Pass

When energy is lacking there is a loss of coherence. A loss of balance.

Like when a spinning top begins to slow down.

That is the time to go into meditation.

The mental/emotional monologue will begin to gain power and opacity at this point.

Complaining, anxiety, resistance, upset, overwhelm will all begin to emerge with more force from within until it becomes a problem that I want to escape.

All the old patterns will begin to surface - patterns that I have used in the past to attempt to escape an unsatisfactory relationship to the present moment. Patterns that have all failed.

But the so-called problem is an illusion. It is all stored up pain from the past.

Let it all go. Let all the things that I am juggling fall to the ground. Take a breath. Observe.

I come back into the moment where all peace resides and just enjoy the small, simple things.

Let the storm pass.

Being Alone

Whenever I am alone I become aware of the restlessness within me.

I find that I want to start doing something. Being is not enough.

There is a strong force or impulse to fill in the space of "being" with some kind of "doing".

My mind bombards me with its reasons. There is an emotional component to it as well.

I recognize it all as a state of non-peace.

Underneath it there is total peace.

I start to become aware of breathing. I take deep breaths.

Everything that the mind and emotions are caught up in are counter-productive to feeling this deep state of being.

Feeling and being present to that deep state of being is primary. I know that it is the source of rational, sane, and balanced action.

It is the eye within the storm.

The Importance Of Being

When we meet one another, we usually ask, "How are you doing?"

We never ask, "How are you being?"

When I thought about the responses to that question, the answers have a totally different vibration than then answers to "how are you doing?"

"How are you being?"
"I'm being amazing today."
"I'm being miserable."
"I'm being so-so."
"I'm being great!"

Feel the difference in those answers?

We have a choice in who we are being and who we are being is what gives us our experience of life and aliveness. From our being comes our speaking and actions. From our speaking and our actions comes all results.

Being is all important.

Altering The Field Of Being

In this moment the beginning of all things is possible.

In this moment a total re-incarnation is possible.

A completely new way of being, a completely new context for my life.

And I get to say what that is.

That is the essence of what responsibility is.

It is my response to life - the world "out there".

Is there a lack of love out there?

Is there fear out there?

Who I say I am matters. Who I say I am is the expression that I give my life. It is the manifestation of my being. It is the space from which I speak. Those words have a frequency that alter the field of all being.

Who we are being and what we say from that space transforms the world.