Mind Shift # 3

We see everything but we do not see ourselves

If the world we see in our head is not the real world but an image of the world formed – and most probably deformed – by our brain; and if those images are our ‘maps’ of reality, then it may be a good idea to conduct some basic reality checks about those maps.

The first one is asking ourselves whether we do not miss out on vital parts of reality and checking if what we include in our field of awareness really covers everything there is to see.

Let’s do that right now.

Mind Shift #2

We do not really love or dislike external circumstances but we fall in love or are disturbed by the images we create in our mind as a response to those circumstances.

If the world that we experience is primarily an image in our mind, then the most direct and obvious consequence is that it is not in what happens to us that problems and their solutions lie: it is what we ‘do’, in our own mind, with what happens to us.

Are all of us really like divine artists crafting stories in the theaters of our consciousness and enjoying or suffering their dramas? Are we truly birthing our own realities in the cradle of our mind? Do we really have the power to make ourselves happy or miserable?

The answer seems to be a definite ‘yes’.

MIND SHIFTS

Seven shift YOU need to make if you want to be at peace with yourself and live a life you love.

Your effectiveness, the degree of happiness you experience and the amount of control you have over your life relies on seven principles.

We have called them mind shifts because they are shifts of perception – changes of mind. Have you ever changed your mind? I assume you have. And what happened when you did? You brought change.

Here is a good opportunity to do it again – for good.

Mind Shift 1 – The reality that we ‘see’ is not real: it is an image created by the brain that fills the field of our consciousness and that we usually confuse for reality.

We all fall in the trap of believing that the way we see ourselves and the world around us is what the world and ourselves are. But this is an illusion. Like all illusions, it may frighten us or make us wonder but ultimately, it is deceptive.

You Are

. . An old post reposted on our new website. Read again ? ->

You are original and authentic

. . . . The amount of happiness that you have depends on the amount of freedom you have in your heart. THICH NHAT HANH WHY ARE WE SOMETIMES so reluctant to look at ourselves? Is it because we think we do not have the time? Or that opening ourselves to our own inner world […]

We create our life in the workshop of our mind

We create our life in the workshop of our mind Read more –>

Artist, parent, builder of worlds – the Self King

.

.

.

This world is a dream. Cross it as a master.

UNKNOWN

WE SEEK PEACE, freedom, love, happiness and power because we are, in essence, peaceful, free, loving, happy and powerful beings.

When we look at our life honestly, we cannot miss the fact that however much we believe we have been influenced, betrayed, cheated or compelled, very few decisions have actually been made without our consent. Someone tempted, convinced, threatened or ‘bought’ us in some way and we said, ‘yes’.

Inner life is the workshop where outer life is created

.

.

Character determines who you are. Who you are determines what you see. What you see determines what you do.

BRIAN BACON

OUR PSYCHOLOGICAL LIFE is more than a weird inner movie made of the stuff of dreams: it is a creation. Beyond being the space in which we really experience life, our mind is the primary dimension where our ‘real’, physical, life is given shape.

You already have all you need

.

. 

Instead of searching for what you do not have, find out what it is that you have never lost.

NISARGADATTA

OUR LIFE BECOMES an exciting adventure and we become capable of transforming problems into creative opportunities when we realise that, as a human being, we are endowed with three fundamental abilities it is our responsibility to understand, develop and ‘cultivate’. Those three abilities are innate: we have ever ‘leaned’ them. They are positive and self-organising. They are intelligence, sensitivity and creativity.

Our aspiration for a better world

WE ALL HOLD SOMEWHERE in our mind an image of what we could be if we were empowered to be who we really are and do what we truly aspire to. And because we live in the world, this vision of an ‘ideal’ or truer self goes with a vision of what the world ‘could’ be and what a better, great or possible future would look like.

Those images, often subconscious, are the foundation of our effort to achieve and give to the world around us. They may not be vivid and detailed visions but they are a silent aspiration within the heart for a life of peace, comfort, respect, togetherness and happiness.

Rumi – The wine of divine grace

Those words resonated profoundly yesterday when I read them. There is not much to comment really; their fragrance suffices to provoke an awakening: outside the windows of habits of perception; beyond the ceiling of prejudice and insecurity lies the boundless and open heart of Life … THE WINE of divine grace is limitless: All limits […]

The deeper life

When you look at what makes your life beyond the obvious reality of earning, spending, coming into relationship, setting goals, solving problems, watching TV, sleeping or going through physical routines, you become aware of another realm of activity, more subtle and less noisy than the physical one, but one that is underlying and shaping your entire physical existence: the endless incidence of thoughts, mental images, feelings, emotions and motives that arises and moves in the space of your consciousness.

Change? Yes, we probably can

.

.

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have ~ Maragret Mead

Although there is a growing awareness in humanity today that freedom, compassion and power are inherent parts of our humaneness, many people still believe they are victims of their conditions: the external circumstances in which they live and the character they carry with them. They feel that those things have been imposed on them and that they cannot be changed – which justifies the selfishness, the competitiveness and the mercilessness of their own life.

I am what I am because of who we all are. *

.

.

.

“The one who comes to question himself has cared for mankind” ~ Anonymous

.

Although we do have an independent existence as original ‘beings’, what we have become today is the product of a long lineage of causes and we are dependent on the net of life within which we evolve and to which we contribute.

Be yourself but do not live for yourself

“Everybody can be great – because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve … You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When they hear about self-awareness, most people initially react saying that it sounds a bit selfish to spend so much time looking for or at your ‘self’ and exploring, understanding and caring for its needs. I do understand that: the world is already so full of selfish individuals that we definitely do not want to add more names on the list!

But there is one thing that anyone who has travelled the journey knows: when you ‘find’ yourself and become aware of who you truly are, two things happen:

Dispelling the shadow

.

.

..

…………“To attain knowledge, …………..add things every day.

…………..To attain wisdom, …………..remove things every day”. ………………………………………….Lao-Tzu

.

The world view that has shaped the psyche of the ‘developed’ world for the past three centuries relies on the premise that the world, nature, lower species or even kinsfolk are a ‘resource’ we are entitled to exploit for the fulfilment of our own needs or pleasure – as long as we are strong enough to do so of course. This kind of thinking is very empowering until it dawns on us that, if everything around us is a resource, then it also implies that … we equally are … !!!

Challenging the Selfishness Paradigm

.

.

.

There is enough for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.

Gandhi.

All human societies are built on a number of basic assumptions that determine the choices their people make and the systems they rely on to organise their life.

A fundamental of our scientific, profit driven, materialistic worldview says that we are selfish creatures randomly evolved from chaos through a competitive process of selection, struggling for survival and intrinsically concerned by self-interest. All our educational, social, economical, political, cultural as well as mental and emotional makeup are built on this assumption. What if it was flawed? What if it was wrong – dreadfully wrong?

Cultivating Generosity

Nipun Metha’s, founder of Servicespace, graduation speech on giftivism and designing for generosity. The karma kitchen experiment.

Are you giving yourself the freedom to be who you are meant to be?

          One’s own dharma, though imperfect, is better than the dharma of another well discharged.

                                                                                           Bhagavat Gita.

One of the greatest obstacles that stops us from being in harmony with ourselves and release our true potential is the attempt to fit in a predetermined mould that society has taught us to believe is ‘the’ set of beliefs, attitudes, tastes and behaviours we need to adopt in order to belong.

Silence

You don’t have a life. You ARE life.                                                               Eckart Tolle The mountain top, not far from where I live. Where the Earth meets the Sky. […]