Spring cleaning

Finish it off

Walk away

Let it go

So often we let things hang around unfinished

And because we do this we do not have peace of mind

The unfinished is always there at the back of our minds

Make it your job to finish things

Not just projects

Personal relationships too

It does no favours to either party if you just hang on

Finish situations

New relationships are unlikely to materialise if you are hanging on.

Life feels so much better when we get rid of partially completed situations.

Spring clean your life.

Boots

Boots

What do they say?

Someone said they are a bit like SUVs

Strong and inspiring a feeling of safety.

Possibly a feeling of confidence.

How do you look at boots when you buy them?

Is it how do they protect me and keep me warm and dry

Or is it how do I look in them?

What impression do they make?

What colors do they go with?

What do they say about me?

They go with my clothes.

They make me look taller

They are a particular brand.

How about buying them because they fit and are purpose suited?

Ah what purpose?

Notice how many considerations are involved in buying one item of footwear.

Notice how many of these considerations are done without conscious thought.

Now notice how many things in our life are done without thought.

If you bring thought to everything you do then you will have less time to worry.

Worrying endlessly about your life past and future that is.

Being focused helps us to stay in the present and so avoid endless worry.

Birdsong

Did you notice that they are back in the Northern hemisphere?

The birds

Their song changes our day

They are cheerful

Full of life

Happy to be around.

Announcing that spring is not far behind.

Notice them

Spring is on the way

Milliseconds

Is all it takes to give yourself away.

Babies look at our faces because they know that this is where they can find explanations.

It is where we look for information too.

Because on the face is enough accessible information to make mind reading possible.

When someone tells us "I love you"

We look immediately at him or her because by looking at the face we can know.

Or at least we can know a good deal more about whether the sentiment is genuine,

Do we see tenderness and pleasure?

Or do we catch a fleeting micro-expression of distress and unhappiness flickering across his or her face.

So be careful you can give yourself away in milliseconds.

We do not even know how we do this.

Just knowing that we do not like or trust someone.

It's all done in milliseconds.

Become conscious of those milliseconds.

Busy life

One thing after another

Keeps you running all day long

Tired at the end of the day

Ready to relax

Take it easy

Find it in you to do something nice for someone else.

Just a little more effort that's all

Why?

Because it completes the day.

Finishes it on a nice note.

Make someone else's day.

Britons and Religion

Today 82% of British people feel that religion causes tension, where two thirds of the British are not religious.

They are correct.

Throughout history more wars and fighting have been caused by or in the name of religion than anything else.

Religion curiously talks about love while being responsible for hate and violence.

Religion does not follow the teachings of it's founders.

Religion is split into a myriad number of different branches all claiming the truth.

If two thirds of the British are not religious then what do they believe?

Answer they don't know because the alternatives on offer are equally uninspiring.

Dawkins and Darwinism do not offer credible alternatives nor can they answer fundamental questions such as -

How and when did consciousness evolve?

How to explain the evidence of reincarnation?

Nor do born again Christians, or the various other options on offer answer to questions such as -

If God is loving and merciful then how come he accepts continuing genocide on planet Earth?

Alternatively look at the teachings of Gautama Buddha and the perennial wisdom, which are the same.

Not modern Buddhism which has many sects and has different interpretations of Gautama Buddha's teaching.

This teaching makes sense, is coherent and does answer all those questions that the others do not.

There is nothing else that does.

Maybe it is time for modern people to examine these teachings.

Maybe time to think for ourselves.

Maybe time to let religion die of its own contradictions.

Surely?

Kinetic energy

Take that pill or medication in your left hand

Hold it by your liver

That's under your right armpit, just down a bit.

Hold your left thumb and and first finger of your right hand in a circle

Hold them pressed tightly together.

Ask your friend to try pulling them apart

While out loud you say is this pill or what you are holding good for me?

Do this several times while observing the force needed to pry your fingers apart.

Put the pill down after learning the pressure it needs to pull your fingers apart.

Then ask out loud is my name Fred or Susan or some name that is not yours.

Notice the strength needed to pull your fingers apart is less.

So now test those pills and supplements for their value to you.

Practice and soon you will see how well it works

Work it does.

How?

Now that's something else for another day.

More illness

Seems to be around than ever before.

Friends seem to be getting ill.

Aquaintances and others too.

So many with serious problems.

Life threatening even.

Over stressed.

Feeling tired all the time.

This is true our difficult times are proving dangerous to our health.

Let your fears out they are the cause of most illness and disease.

Letting fears out removes pressure.

Removes stagnation which leads to illness.

Do not bottle things inside.

Let them out.

Saying nothing

Is something that we might all usefully consider at times.

Quite so.

However at other times no we should make our voice heard.

Really?

How?

Explore any of the emerging internet forums, say your thing.

Join one to gain experience.

Learn to voice your views

Learn what you really think about any given subject or issue.

Not just what the papers say.

Not the TV news reader.

Not what others say.

Become clear to yourself.

Move towards knowing yourself.

Stretch yourself.

Grow it's the way to better health.

Time to move on.

Coffee and banana skins

Are for spill and slip

Accidents

Or so we say

Really?

Try noticing what it was you were thinking just before you spilt or slipped.

Invariably you will find some uncharitable or nasty thought.

This is natures way of helping us to learn that nasty thoughts are not cool.

Learn to control those nasty thoughts.

Nasty thoughts are just that nasty.

Just 3 steps

Three simple little steps which will change your life.

1 - Locate and look at your fears

2 - Learn to control your mind.

3 - Open your heart.

Simple to say and so very difficult to do.

Why try?

Because it is the gateway to peace of mind and any further evolution of consciousness in this life.

The first step is best approached by looking at your childhood and seeing if you can find what traumas and fears lurk from there.

The second is starting to meditate, learning to stop thinking, trying to control the mind.

The third is trusting that it is OK to be open to life and true unconditional love.

To achieve the above would be a mega achievement, so do not feel bad if your progress is modest.

For your encouragement the reason it will change your life is that it brings greater harmony, more balance and increased peace of mind.

So however modest your progress can you think of anything else in this world that can give so much?

Just 3 steps.

Yes we are different

Walk down the street together and we see different things

Look in a shop window and again we see differently.

We are different.

To varying degrees of course.

So what do we do?

Hurt each other

Try to change the other.

Try to control each other

Use each other.

Even abuse the other.

Stop doing this.

Talk to each other.

Be honest,

Let go of the fear of each other.

Yes this is often there.

The effort is worth it.

A strong relationship is worth more than most things you can aspire to.

Not all the toys in the world can give more.

Time to learn and enjoy our differences.

Support them

Love them

Encourage them

Yes we are different enjoy it don't destroy it..

That mind

Is what gets us into trouble
.

If it was not for mind we would not think bad things

We would not worry

We would not be frightened so often

So why don't we control our minds?

We just never thought about it that's why.

So think about it.

If you learn to control your mind

Life will be less stressful

Life will be nicer.

Learn to control your mind.

Love 'n money

When things go well no problem we can all enjoy life.

When things change now there is the challenge.

Often this is caused by lack of resources, money.

Can one live with continual money pressures?

Difficult today where every single thing from water onwards costs money.

If the in-comings are insufficient then yes pressure builds.

Only way to handle this is to share with each other how your relationship is worth more than the problem of money.

It really exposes the strength of the relationship.

What is yours built on?

Can it handle stress over time?

Can it handle money stress?

Equanimity

Is what it is all about.

After learning to be honest with yourself.

After learning to live in reality.

After learning to live with honest values.

Then its learning to live in equanimity.

Why equanimity?

Because it encapsulates the way forward.

If we can learn to keep our balance no matter what.

Then we can grow because we are able to observe ourselves and others and draw objective lessons from life.

Only by learning equanimity can we truly grow.

Keep trying

Every day.

Keep trying to do your best and find the good in it.

You do not have to win a gold medal.

You do not have to be King Kong

Just do your best in whatever comes your way

In fact enjoy it.

There is no future only what you have now this moment.

The rest is all illusion.

Only this moment now.

And once you get this then life changes.

Why?

Because this moment now actually isn't so bad

Get it?

Busy day

Running all day long.

Home at night wondering what its all about.

Endless detail of life.

Always having to do.

Hoping things will change for the better.

Is there any reason they should?

Probably not.

So decide today to be clearer about what you are doing.

Decide to take actions to clear your life.

Life can only get better when you are clearer..

Change people change

Time to understand that we are headed for extinction.

Unless we change.

Always this way in nature.

New for us to see this head on.

Unless we change we go.

People it is time to look inwards.

Only when we understand that the answers lie inside of each of us.

Can we prevail over the current fear and mindless material greed and violence.

Only then.

Inside we have answers.

Look to your spirit.

Look to your power.

Find answers inside on a personal level

Only then can we move forward collectively.

It can be done.

Mmmmm - 39

The principal foe of a secondary nature is what was once called phantasy; that is, the reappearance of thoughts and images due to recollection or memory.

Memory is an important power, but mind in itself is not memory

Mind is restless and wandering in its nature, and must be controlled.

Its wandering disposition is necessary or stagnation would result.

But it can be controlled and fixed upon an object or idea.

Now as we are constantly looking at and hearing of new things, the natural restlessness of the mind becomes prominent when we set about pinning it down.

Then memory of many objects, things, subjects, duties, persons, circumstances, and affairs brings up before it the various pictures and thoughts belonging to them.

After these the mind at once tries to go, and we find ourselves wandering from the point.

It must hence follow that the storing of a multiplicity of useless and surely-recurring thoughts is an obstacle to the acquirement of truth.

And this obstacle is the very one peculiar to our present style of life.

Nothing special today

Or so it often seems.

And then something comes along and it's special.

Something took you out of your routine.

Something lifted you up or plunged you down.

Suddenly it's special propelling you into pain or pleasure.

Strong feelings.

A feeling of being more alive for better or worse.

Nothing prepares us for this.

It just arrives.

Imagine that the next time this happens you did not go so high or fall so far.

Probably a better option given that fifty percent or so of our special experiences are going to be painful.

Learning to be the observer of yourself protects from too savage an experience.

It does mean learning to control your mind though.

So that you can become that observer of what happens to you.

Start learning more about why you feel as you do.

Why you react as you do.

How you can become that observer of yourself..

Will it make me happy?

A modern woman's comment about having a child.

Once upon a time it was how can I make my child happy?

How can I do the best for my child?

No longer, the child must provide amusement and proof of fertility.

Procreation and child raising are becoming status symbols

Toys even

No wonder we have the problems we do.

Think young woman

Children allow all of us to learn and grow.

Are your consumer toys really so important?

What do you think you are here for?

Is it really only to indulge yourself?

Lower and lower

Violence in so many things

We do not even notice anymore..

Or maybe more accurately we ignore

Push to the back of our consciousness

Try to avoid.

Go a step further.

Decide not to look at things offering violence.

Change your viewing.

Change your choices.

Choose light and love.

Color.

Softness over hard.

Life over dull violence.

Be active in promoting consciousness of what we are doing.

Dulling and destroying beauty.

Make your contribution every day by what you choose.

Let others know what you are doing.

Let all of us vote with our choices.

Blind experience

Too often we are impressed by physical appearance.

Too often by trivia.

Want to experience differently?

Arrange to go for a blind walk with a friend guiding you.

Do things without being able to see for a new way of experiencing..

Amazing how fast we now observe three things

One how great it is to be able to see

Two how quickly we pay attention to our other senses and appreciate their importance..

Three how helpful our friends can be.

Oh and the physical appearance just does not matter.

Its powerful.

Time out

To notice what makes you run.

What does?

Why are you here?

What for?

Do you have a reason or are you just bumbling along?

Don't know why or what for?

Well if you do not know then how can anyone else?

Some things are for us alone to decide.

Your call.

Why are you here?

Take time out to understand some things about yourself.

If you do not then you can be sure nature will by bringing you to a stop in your life.

This will take the form of an illness or something else that prevents you ignoring yourself.

Running all the time to avoid yourself..

Don't believe us then look around you.

No one gets through life without this challenge.

No one.

So be smart and think about why you are here.

Are you doing what you came into this life to do?

Success

Success is often an illusion.

Why?

Because in our world it is usually something man says or judges.

Something often at the expense of something else.

Something perceived as important at the time.

Unfortunately man is only able to see part of every story.

So let go of what others say.

Act morally and behave with ethical consideration.

Do in life what is truly important to you.

What resonates with you.

It is only at the end of our days that we can see whether it was success or not.

Lying times

The lies are in public.

No shame

No hiding

Just lies and more lies.

Let them lie.

In your own life do not lie.

If you lie it will catch up with you.

Nature does not accept our lying.

Let others do what they want they will pay even if we do not see it.

Do not lie it destroys your potential, your peace of mind.

Over a lifetime lies are literally ruinous.

Daily Practice

Those who can do so should follow this rule.

When you have dressed

And before eating.

Take ten to fifteen minutes for meditation.

If you are hungry, all the better.

For then it will be a better discipline.

If this can be done.

Then slowly but surely it will affect the whole nature.

Do not do this after eating or when you have made all easy,

But the first thing in the day.

WQJ

Judge not

Why?

Because judgement is usually negative.

Judgement often puts down.

Creates separation.

Do you judge others?

Apply to yourself the judgments and criticisms you have for others.

Yes really think about how you judge others.

Even this be unspoken.

Unsaid

Notice how often you silently criticise

Now

Study with great care your own nature.

Until you have done this forget about moving ahead.

Consciousness evolution is about becoming less judgemental amongst other things.