January 2014

January 31, 2014 0

January 30, 2014 0

Happiness comes from a clear mind and simple life

Once you have a clear and peaceful mind life becomes happier. Living a simple life with a clear mind is the first step to happiness and fulfillment.

If things need to change in your life often times they don’t need to change in order for your mind to be at peace. Get your mind to peace and then look at the things in your life that might need to change.

You just might find that your perspective just needed to change in order for those things to be enjoyable.

Get your mind to clarity and happiness before anything else.

We tend to live our lives backwards. We trade time for money early in our lives thinking we can get to the happy later in life. We sacrifice a lot. Time with our families, time for ourselves, our health and sadly…..our ability to be happy now!

Life needs to be the other way around.

Find the joy and happiness in life first and then create everything else around that.

What you will find is that success and money and everything else we strive for in life becomes all that much better. Why? Simple really. Instead of looking for “things” to make us happy in life we are already happy so everything we achieve in life from that point forward is not a source of happiness it is in addition to happiness. When we get to this point the goals we achieve in life are not depended on to make us happy they are achieved simply to make us happier.

When done in this order, you’re already a happy and joyful person and then the fruits of your labor make your life even better!

Don’t look for “things” or other people to make you happy, it’s not sustainable happiness. Sustainable happiness comes when life is so simple that the mere fact that you woke up this morning brings you all the joy and happiness you need in life.

Stephan

January 30, 2014 0

You are already complete….

On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.

Eckhart Tolle

January 30, 2014 0

Uncertainty….

When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.

Eckhart Tolle

January 30, 2014 0

Buddhism Plain and Simple

I read this book a few months ago and I would have to say that it still to this day continues to change me as a person. I have read several books by Eckhart Tolle and Dr. Wayne W. Dyer that could be considered similar in scope but Buddhism Plain and Simple takes a slightly different approach. The writer, Steve Hagen, delivers a very good amount of traditional Buddhism history without losing his audience. Without diving into the history of Buddhism I think most would feel a disconnect towards the end as some of the philosophies wrap around into perspective once he starts translating some of it’s teachings for us. His real world explanations are clear and well thought out but the overwhelming success of this book is it’s ability to tie Buddhism into the every day reality of it’s readers.

I would highly recommend this book to several audiences including those just starting out and looking to explore what Buddhism has to offer, those feeling a sense of disconnect with the world and are searching for meaning of life type answers, those searching for happiness and even those looking to make a spiritual change. I give Buddhism Plain and Simple five out of five stars!

January 23, 2014 1

The Joy of Being

To alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by psychological time, you can use a simple criterion. Ask yourself: Is there joy, ease, and lightness in what I am doing? If there isn’t, then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle. (more)

January 21, 2014 0

Some of us have a natural born ability to separate who we are from what we think.

The egoic/subconscious mind stands alone and separate from conscious awareness.

The egoic/subconscious mind is kept in check and survives only in the shadows of the subconscious. It is never empowered to impact anything in the conscious world. The conscious mind lives in awareness without worry of the past or future. The conscious mind lives in the moment and is present always. Life is lived in awareness. The mind is empty and there is peace always.

Some are not as fortunate and the line between the conscious mind that lives in awareness and the subconscious mind that is driven by the ego becomes cloudy.

When the line is cloudy life is lived primarily within the thoughts, feelings and emotions that the subconscious egoic mind dreams up. Since the subconscious mind is driven by ego and fed by fear it runs amok. Anarchy sets in and if left to it’s own devices will self-destruct. Depression, insanity or suicide can be the result in the worst case scenarios.

Often times the end result is far less severe but can create turmoil in the form of anxiety, stress and fear nonetheless. Life is lived within these thoughts so life becomes those things. It really is like being trapped. There is rarely peace. Many live here and wonder, sometimes for their entire life, what is wrong……where is the joy? Where is the peace? Why am I not happy?

There may be flashes of happiness but it doesn’t last.

Is this the real you? Is the real you that inner egoic subconscious being that constantly spins out between the past and future worrying and stressing about things that do not impact the only thing that you really have….which is of course the moment you are living in right now?

NO.

The real you is the conscious mind that simply observes the egoic/subconscious mind.

The real you remains the observer always.

The real you knows the egoic/subconscious mind is there with all of it’s fears and worries about the past and future but it never engages it. Without engagement there can be no impact. Without impact of the egoic/subconscious mind life is lived in the moment and in peace.

The real you is awareness.

The real you is an observer.

The real you does not engage anything the egoic/subconscious minds creates.

Life changes when this truth is realized.