Politicians, Prostitutes And Promises

Some things in life are assured: taxes, death, corrupt politicians, less sleep and more bathroom trips after turning 50, at least one new diet a month that promises: better sex, drop 20 pounds in 20 days with no exercise, fewer bathroom trips and better sleep, etc. The newspaper/nightly news/internet will lead with a story depicting something horrific. 

The world (man) is always presenting some new and improved way to solve problems, to address the issues of living. All that is required is your vote and/or your money/credit card number and everything will change for the better. In truth, nothing in the news today is new. Politicians may not technically belong to the worlds oldest profession (I have my doubts) but if not they have been plying their trade as long. Additionally there was a time, and not that long ago, when leeches and blood letting where central to a patient’s care and most patent medicines would definitely make you feel better, considering they consisted mostly of alcohol and some form of opium, and little else.

We are asked to trust people and institutions, to place our faith in governments and “learned” experts. Yet the same problems that plagued the ancients still plague us today: healthcare, jobs, secure borders, taxes, immigration, elder care, safe and available food, education, road and bridge maintenance, etc. Studying the history of worldly assurances; both micro and macro, it becomes apparent that outer assurances have done little to fundamentally change the world.

What of spiritual assurances?  Living on the Spiritual Basis, we have found the timeless assurances of spiritual teachers becoming real for us once we stepped out in faith and wholeheartedly embraced the work. By placing our trust in the miraculous, turning from the outer to the within through prayer and meditation, trusting in infinite God rather than our finite self, we find peace and the ability to meet calamity with serenity. Our new reliance based on the work done in raising our consciousness, expanding our conscious contact with God, not the assurances of others. The promise of eternal life beyond the limitation of the flesh real, for we are now in the world but no longer of it. Now if I could just cut down on those bathroom trips in the middle of the night, maybe a new diet...

Zen, Wayne Dyer, ultimate truth, The Secret, Shema Yisrael, ACIM, Alanon, Baba Ram Dass, 

ILL Health Personified

Emotion is your friend. Get overly emotional about everything. Be outraged not only at perceived slights directed at you but at everyone else, even strangers.

Drink lots of caffeine and energy drinks. So what if it makes it hard to sleep. Sleep and rest are overrated anyway. Besides you’ll get plenty of sleep when dead.

Eat anything that is quick and easy. Food is food and time is precious. What is more important, eating or working, texting, blogging, chatting, reality TV, online poker, partying etc? The body may be a temple, but it is your temple so decorate it anyway you want.

Vitamins are expensive, and some say they really don’t work anyway, so they are a waste of money.

Stay busy. Even when “relaxing” do something constructive. God forbid you take any down time.

Avoid prayer and meditation, religiously.

Never walk if you can ride.

You will always have time to exercise later, when you have more time.

When you do get sick, make sure you research the condition at length. Speak of your malady with everyone (make sure you rehearse your speech, don’t want to leave anything out) and listen intently when they in turn share their experiences, especially the negative ones to see how they may apply to you.

Never follow a Doctor’s advice completely, it’s your body and who knows better what’s good for it than you.

And never, ever, turn to God in anything.

Day 7 Of The 7 Day Mental Diet

Congratulations. You made it. Today continue employing that smile and take a few minutes in quiet contemplation to review what you learned/discovered about yourself the last few days. Moving forward anytime you feel a little spiritual boot camp is in order, revisit this simple plan and gently, always gently, reapply its principles. Now you can share your experience with anyone you believe would profit from it.

The diet has put you in touch with the Primal Power of Being. This power is what changes us. It is the motive force behind everything. It is no less than our connection, at the most basic and profound level, to the creative life force that permeates everything and everyone. That power is God.  

“Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet--

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” Tennyson

Day 6 Of The 7 Day Diet

Hang in there, only 1 more day to go. Then again, you may be experiencing such profound changes in your outlook you may desire more. Today’s teaching is on love and its power, its ability to change us at our core and the unique availability of love. Love is always available, if we are willing to take action. Faith without works is dead and just as with faith, love requires action. We must build up “by faithful daily exercise the true Love Consciousness.” This is a key ingredient in our daily diet since “Love and tolerance of others is our code.”

The path of enlightenment requires work, effort on our part. We start our day by “asking each morning in meditation that our creator show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.” Do you start your day with meditation? No? Why not? Would you try to make a cake without flour? Drive your car missing a tire? Of course not. Meditation is an integral part of living on the Spiritual Basis. If you are not meditating daily, start at a simple level. Find a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for a few minutes. Take 2 or 3 deep breaths slowly exhaling through the nose. With eyes closed, consider what patience, tolerance, kindliness and love mean to you. Your mind will begin to visualize, do not fight it or try to control it. In your minds dialogue stay focused on the task at hand. When your mind wanders gently bring it back. When it wanders again end your session and thank God for knowing Him better. What could be easier? Limit your sessions to 10 to 15 minutes. This is sufficient to start the day and we can all find this amount of time if we are willing. Of course if you have the time and are moved to longer sessions, then do.

Day 5 Of The 7 Day Diet

…God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). Day 5: Today, attempt to greet everyone, and view everything through the prism of love. This begins by greeting all with a smile. You will not do this perfectly, no one but a saint could, the purpose is to be aware of love, experience the truly limitless capacity we have for it, to both give and receive. Observe how those whom you meet respond when you greet them with love and how your thoughts are altered when a situation or a bit of news is viewed through the prism of love. The path of love is the straight gate and the shortest way to the Great Goal, to live on the Spiritual Basis one day at a time for eternity. Oh, and you are keeping this to yourself for the next couple of days, right?

Day 4 Of The 7 Day Mental Diet

Consider: You are sitting by a camp fire when a red hot cinder flies up and lands on your sleeve. If you brush the cinder off at once, without a moments delay to consider it, no harm is done. However, if you allow it to rest for even a few heartbeats, under any pretense, the mischief is done, and it will be a troublesome task to repair the sleeve. So it is with negative thought.

Simply stated we have no control over the thoughts that surface in our consciousness or are foisted on us by others but we do choose how we will address those thoughts. Living on the Spiritual Basis the path is clear: When we turn immediately to a Power Greater Than Ourselves in prayer as soon as we become aware of the negative, regardless of its source, we remain unharmed, our spiritual sleeves hole free. Additionally we do not try to discern or understand why a particular thought crossed our mind, avoiding the trap of morbid reflection; we simply take the necessary action to address it. In time, this will become second nature.

By this point in the diet you are probably experiencing some difficulties, it may feel like everything is seemingly going sideways, you have more trouble now, more spiritual discontent than when you started the diet. Outstanding! You have shaken your world at its bedrock and when the shaking stops, a new and much stronger foundation will be in place. Stay the course and under no circumstance discuss what you are doing with anyone until you are done with the diet. Onwards through the fog.

Day 3 Of The 7 Day Mental Diet

Having fun yet? The diet may be simple, but it certainly is not easy. Continue being vigilant, watching for morbid reflection, those negative or destructive thoughts and judgements that seem to be always lurking. When you find your thoughts drifting in this manner immediately supplant the negative and destructive thoughts with positive. As you are beginning to discover, this is a strenuous effort and few would be able to do this for much more than seven days so take heart, the dividends you will receive are worth the effort. Keep in focus the reason for this diet: to be aware of our thinking in a new light and to learn to plant positive, constructive, optimistic and kind thoughts in the garden of our consciousness; watered with the love and guidance of  the Creative Power of the Universe. Shhhh…remember don’t tell anyone you are on a diet. Follow this advice as well if you are considering starting a weight loss plan, an exercise program or quitting smoking and your odds of success will increase exponentially.

Day 2 of the 7 Day Diet

If you are still considering whether to attempt this diet, take a moment in quiet contemplation and ask yourself why? What is there to be afraid of? This contemplation alone is worth the price of admission, remember to always be gentle with yourself, avoiding morbid reflection at all costs.

If you began the diet yesterday, today choose the subjects you will entertain in your consciousness. Measure the emotional tone, being aware at all times of what you are thinking and how it is effecting you. Now for some good news, no one does this perfectly. When you become aware that your thoughts have wandered, and they will, ask yourself quietly why you drifted into that thought and how it effected you emotionally. Often these will just be random thoughts triggered by a scent, a word or phrase or any of the multitudes of sensory inputs we experience daily, so do not give into paralysis by analysis. Remember, often a cloudy day is just a cloudy day, nothing more. If you find that perhaps there is more to it and you cannot take a moment now, briefly note the thought and when you have the time, reflect on it in gentle contemplation. There is a rule here that must be obeyed. The rule is we are never to struggle or engage in negative appraisal of these random thoughts. We simply observe what floats through our mind as dispassionately as we can; this is not an exercise in judging, only in observing and noting effects.

A Seven Day Diet For The New Year

Most diets focus merely on the waistline, yet how many of us have lost weight only to put it back on?  The seven day mental diet addresses the excess baggage and destructive thoughts we lug around between our ears that are at the heart of all failure and perceived lack in our lives. In the garden of our thoughts we must learn to carefully chose the crops (thoughts) we plant and nurture in our consciousness. One of the fundamental truths of being is the thoughts we entertain will outsource in our lives. Consider: What are you reading? Watching on television? What topics do you consistently chat with friends and family about? What thoughts do you dwell on in private? These thoughts comprise the garden of our lives, the "food of thought" we partake of daily. Remember this fundamental truth: thought is causative and once our mental diet is in order, everything else in our lives will fall into place.

Day One: Be aware of the thoughts you entertain and the “food” you feed your mind. Be conscious in the moment. Observe the types and frequency of the random thoughts that float up into your consciousness. Observe passively and do not judge or try to discern the origin of a particular thought at this time for this leads to reflecting morbidly which in turn leads to failure. Keep notes if it helps, no extra points for spelling or correct punctuation. DO NOT tell anyone that you are on this or any other diet for that matter, to do so all but guarantees failure. If the idea of doing this makes you cringe, then don’t. You are not ready. Just file it away and when ready, this wonderful tool of freedom will be available.

Consciousness Building

        When we purchase something that requires assembly, it generally comes with instructions. I purchased a teapot recently and inside were instructions, for a teapot! Now the instruction sheet for that Christmas morning bicycle years ago was considerably longer, and I still maintain wrong, both the bike and teapot instruction sheets had numbered steps, the teapot two with the additional warning that hot water is, well, hot, the bicycle four hundred and fifty seven, in Latin.

      Our consciousness requires assembly as well; the question is what “instruction” sheet we follow. With the exception of some notable examples directly touched by the Divine, we build our consciousness, for good or ill, step by step by the actions we take and the thoughts we entertain, our level of awareness and understanding waxing and waning dependent on what we say, do, consider and act upon, experience building upon experience, good and bad. Habits of thinking and living do not change by simply assenting to them as needing to be changed; it requires action and perseverance on our part. To borrow from Wayne Dyer: “Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”

     Consider those who suffer from addiction. Many who initially recover, seemingly having cast their “habit” out the window, new instructions embraced, then relapse and are often baffled as to why. They are fooled by the delusion those years of thinking and living in the addiction will disappear in a twinkling because the alcohol and drugs are out of their system. In reality the “instruction” sheet they have been following for years is all about addiction and is well memorized. It will take years of contrary action and consistent vigilance of motive, of following a completely new set of directions to remain free of their addiction.

     Let’s look at a different way. Many of my peers, including myself, are a little rounder than they would like. Now the weight didn’t appear over night. I didn’t go to bed with a twenty year olds twenty eight inch waist and wake up with a fifty something’s forty. Yet when it comes to losing weight, typically if it can’t be dropped in a week or two we lose interest and fall back into old habits, patterns of thinking. Diets are hard; require real long-term change and different thinking patterns, while cheeseburgers are easy, requiring only fries.

    We choose the path, the instruction sheet we follow. The choice is always ours.

    Our spiritual development is a mental diet, we choose the directions to follow, the nourishment we ingest, and though eating healthy is important, a healthy mental diet is of infinitely more consequence than waist size. Years of fuzzy thinking, false belief and fear driven action do not disappear overnight, the process continues for our lifetime and though our consciousness is eternal, assembly is required, so what instruction sheet will you follow?