“What should I be doing next?” [...]]]> I was contacted recently by a client who was feeling a lot of anxiety because he’d fallen into a “spiritual pit” and couldn’t understand why. After all, he’d been completely devoted to his spiritual journey for years—but here he was, feeling stuck, like a self-described blob, unable to move forward.

“What should I be doing next?” he asked. “Can you recommend a book I should read, or are you putting on a workshop I could attend?”

My response was, nothing!  Not that I didn’t answer; that was my answer… nothing.

We’ve all been through this at some time or another, so let’s use my client’s example of being a blob caught in pit of stuckness, and take a closer look.  In that stuck space where it seems nothing is going on, there’s actually a whole lot going on. If we listen closely, there’s probably an insistent mental voice saying, This is wrong. I’m behaving like such a loser… I can’t just stay in this frame of mind, I’ve got to do something.

We all know that our thoughts create our reality, but here we are, knee deep in self- judgment. So we try to refocus our mind, but if we’re busy telling ourselves that we are a non-productive blob, and judging our inactivity as both negative and unspiritual, it’s easier said than done.

Present in the perception that you’re a blob who isn’t moving forward, is the opportunity to awaken to the fact that doing or not doing doesn’t really matter. The world still turns, no matter what we do. I don’t mean that in a fatalist way, like ‘why bother?’ Yes, the actions we take have consequences in this world. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.

What I’m talking about is non-attachment to whatever is or isn’t happening, on the level of the mind. Non-attachment is sometimes misunderstood as, I don’t give a damn, but the meaning here is to give yourself the space where no-thing matters. The space where you can say, Ok, here I am, sitting in this room. There’s the chair, the TV, the computer, the warm cup of tea on the table in front of me.  All of this just is. There is nothing special that I am required to do.

There’s no right or wrong about any of it. You simply watch as thoughts float in and out of your mind, each chanting its message as it flits by. True non-attachment, by its very nature, is indescribable so there’s no need to label it or think about it. We experience it, and even if just for a fleeting moment we allow ourselves to be it, we enter the experience of awakening.

The truth is available to everyone, right now. The thought that you need to spend years devoted to spiritual practice to reach a point of meaningful remembering—well it’s just a thought, like any other. Why not treat it that way, and allow for another possibility? What have you got to lose?

Just for one tiny moment, allow yourself to be non-doing perfection. Even while in your blob pit of despair. I don’t mean the ego mind’s concept of perfection, which is always defined by doing (and always judging whether what you are doing is good enough). I’m talking about the perfect truth of YOU, as you really are.

This space of non-attachment is pure stillness, and out of that stillness comes motion, and out of that motion we create. As we create out of this space of awakened awareness, we experience a new sense of dynamic freedom. We are creating from the space of pure inspiration. We are the opposite of stuck. We start to realize that nothing is personal, and this stillness is the only thing that is real. We also begin to see that every other person in our lives emerges from this same stillness, and their stories and experiences are equally non-personal.

This is the beginning of the awakened state.

Take a moment to stop searching for the next thing to “do” on your spiritual path. Be still, and see that you already are all you desire.

However, over the years the question has taken on a completely different dimension for me, and I ask it [...]]]> There was a time when I would have thought that question was really odd if not downright absurd.  What do you mean how free do I really want to be?   Completely unbridled and totally free of course!

However, over the years the question has taken on a completely different dimension for me, and I ask it of myself daily—sometimes several times a day.  I now have a very different awareness of the power of that simple question.

Just asking it plunks me into a state of awareness that immediately calls me on all my ‘stuff.’  By asking that simple question, I realize dynamic freedom can be delivered to me, gift wrapped, in direct proportion to how much of my ‘mind stuff’ I am willing to let go of.

When I find myself feeling out of balance, angry, fearful or judgmental, I ask the question: How free do I really want to be? Instantly a space is created that allows me to access that gift of freedom in any measure I choose.

Asking the question brings focus and awareness of my intention:

I desire to be free more than anything else.

Utilizing the following principles can bring about an awareness of truth that opens us to a dynamic, vibrant experience of life—a life experience that is truly free.

•      I am not a victim

•      Complete non-resistance to what is

•      None of it is personal

•      What I do for myself I do for the whole.  Nothing is separate from all that is.

I am not a victim

The mind is a master at reinforcing the victim role.  To be truly free we must give up our identity as victim no matter how seductive it might be.  We must accept total responsibility for what we experience in any moment.

Remember, we are not talking “fault” here.  In accepting total responsibility we are empowering ourselves to choose differently.

Complete non- resistance to what is

Being dynamically free means embracing a desire for truth in every moment.  Being open to what is in every moment, no matter how painful or frightening it may appear.  This is the portal to true liberation.

None of it is personal

Actions by another that seem like an attack on us, are nothing more than somebody else acting out their version of the same fear, judgment and resistance that we ourselves are holding.  The roles we choose to take on in this world may create the illusion that there is a ‘do-er’ and a ‘do-ee.’ But in truth there is only the one whole, which expresses itself in the illusion of separate folks with separate agendas doing separate things.

What I do for myself I do for the whole.  Nothing is separate from all that is.

We’ve all heard it said that we are all connected—that each of us, through our life choices, contributes directly to the creation of the reality of our world.

Some of us might say: Yes, this sounds great but how do I, one lone little individual, even begin to change the craziness and suffering I see all around me?

The answer is to stop living only for ourselves. We must reconnect with and honor that we are all in this together, this grand experience of life. What we do individually, by it’s very nature, powerfully contributes to what we experience as the reality of our world as a whole.

Awareness and acceptance of this truth requires an evolution into Spirit. For many, it’s the most difficult truth to return to. But if we are to continue life as human beings on this planet, and emerge into a time of peace, abundance and joy, this awareness is what we are urgently being called to remember as we come to the end of this decade.

When we actively choose to no longer live in suffering, we can begin our liberation and the liberation of the whole by asking the question:  How free do I really want to be? And then answering it by accepting the responsibility to create that freedom— starting with ourselves.

In my own life, and in the lives of the people I’ve worked with over the last several years, no words have had a greater impact on the reality we perceive than those 2 little words.  Whatever language follows the words I AM will [...]]]> I AM… 2 of the most powerful words in the human language.

In my own life, and in the lives of the people I’ve worked with over the last several years, no words have had a greater impact on the reality we perceive than those 2 little words.  Whatever language follows the words I AM will surely be our reality. Behind the language are the thoughts and emotions that keep it alive.

I am not happy, I am not wealthy, I am not healthy, I am not able to pay my bills.   Even positive statements following “I am” lock us into a limited reality: I am a spiritual seeker, I am on the path, I am becoming enlightened.

Words like these keep us in the mind-created reality that there is something we need to become or a place we need to get to. These wordforms block us from the knowing that we already are what we are looking for.

I am and the words that follow, reinforce our mental concept of who we are – our story. We become identified with that ongoing compulsive thought about me and my story.  (For an amazing illustration of the silliness of our ‘story,’ see the stories/articles section of ‘the toolbox’ area of my website http://www.innervision12.com/ )

So how do we get out from under the overbearing weight of our story?  By being in the present moment and having no resistance to what is.

Resistance to what is strengthens the mental concept of it shouldn’t be.

So how do we give up resistance? By becoming the observer of our thoughts and not allowing ourselves to become our thoughts.

When we stand back and observe our thoughts, we are able to see: Ok, there is the story; we are the divine reader of the story, and not the story itself.

Wait a minute, the thinking mind says, if I am not my thoughts then who am I? The thinking mind answers… I don’t know!

That state of not knowing is the state of no-thought, where we become at peace with not knowing anything intellectually… and we welcome it.  We see the ‘space between the notes,’ so to speak, which can only be known and not understood; this is a knowing that cannot be described with thought or mental concept.

It is beyond the thinking mind altogether.

The stunning realization then hits us that there is nothing that needs to be achieved, to break free of the mind’s limitation. The “it” we are trying to know is “who” we already are. It is who we always have been.  

Having said that, this first Innervision blog post is about [...]]]> Welcome to my blog. It’ll mostly be filled with articles on a variety of topics within my field of expertise; I may also include some off-the-cuff snippets now and then, some slice of life insights into what it’s like to live a life devoted to InnerVision.

Having said that, this first Innervision blog post is about my resistance to blogging.

For me words have always been a powerful tool in the creation of our reality.    I remind people all the time of the importance of being aware of the language that we use, and how it contributes to the reality we perceive.

When I am working one on one or speaking directly to a group, words flow and feel like a tool that I have great skill using, but when it comes to the written word it gets really messy.

Even in my everyday emails to friends, my words are often encased in parentheses, which almost everyone has come to know is my way of saying something – using the best human word I can find – even though I’m not quite comfortable that the words successfully express the meaning they’re meant to convey.

But I know it’s time now for me to speak in written form.

Time to get over myself, jump in feet first, and trust that the authentic love with which the words are offered will speak for itself.