THIS THING WE DO ...

THIS THING WE DO ...

 This thing we do...

This separation which we perceive...

This experience of life or lunacy which we create and which has no existence without our permission...

Or, closer to Truth - without our choice it could not be ...

Why choose it at all?

Why have to choose it?

We have to choose it if we wish to continue to forget who we are ...

And so we keep choosing the illusion as reality

Until it gets so loud - the illusion, that is - that we can’t stand the noise and so scream to ourselves:

“Turn that blasted thing OFF!!”

And then the intellect is quiet for a moment.

So we have a glimpse of Reality and It is so quiet, so infinitely No Thing, so peaceful, so full of Peace...

And we remember for a flash Who/What we are.

And that is why we have to choose it: Separation.

So we can finally consciously see who/what we aren’t,

 so that we can begin to consciously see Who/What we ARE.

Perfect beings.

Our perfection is our only stumbling block.

For we are perfect with or without our self’s permission, or awareness.

We are all Masters in our own universe.

We are either conscious of this Mastery or not, and this is the essential difference.

So it behooves us to become conscious of our Mastery so we can consciously choose the direction of the play instead of endlessly unconsciously scripting it and acting it out.

It isn’t a requirement to become conscious. There is free will.

But then ... there is Destiny.

It is simply a matter of being Home vibrantly free or

coming home in the waking sleep.

What is it like, waking up?

Sometimes I have dreamed, and realized I was dreaming, and wanted to wake up,

And yet all my screams were silent, and all my attempts were futile as I wrestled with all my being to wake myself up from this falseness and re-align with my consciousness and body and then, suddenly

I would find myself back in this reality,

confused but present.

And what had I been wrestling with anyway?

For from here, it looked like nothing,

An invisible kind of membrane from which I had to de-enmesh myself,

Like exhaustively wrestling with the angel and then to see there is no one there ...

Like Bert and Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life wrestling with Clarence in the snow in the dark.

That’s what it’s like sometimes.

And sometimes, it’s like noticing the moth on the window.

~ Laura Basha, response paper, July, 1994

"Passing the Baton"

“Passing the Baton”

“Poor leaders drop the torch making it difficult if not impossible to pick up again. Mediocre leaders pass a dimly lit torch. Outstanding leaders pass the torch with fire blazing.”

~ Reed Markham, American Educator

There are only five of them. Five new principals hand-picked out of a very select larger group – to eventually replace the partners of the firm who will be retiring next year.

My job was to bring these very accomplished folks up to speed on the underlying principles of the business they were now preparing to lead. The current partners have been together for over 20 years, and they have inculcated the understanding of the underlying principles to the point where it is the vantage point from which they enter into everything. I have been the lead for these seasoned folks over the years to assist them in deeper grounding of the principles upon which they rely for the success of the business.

I spent 35 hours designing the agenda for the two one-week sessions we would have together. I went back over the last 20 years of teaching so that I would have a comprehensive outline that could be used as a template for any who might like to teach the model from this day forward. I connected the agenda outline to the book I had written on the same principle-based paradigm. I was paid for my time, yet I am giving everything else away to them - for utilization and expansion for the coming generations whom I will never meet.

The work I have done has had such a positive impact over the years in so many varied populations, that I wanted to leave the legacy of what I have understood through my own work for whomever could benefit. Not for everyone, but definitely for some. And for those people – the possibility of discovering their authentic personal purpose, revealing their innate ability to experience peace of mind, catalyzing their own inner wisdom and common sense and to essentially self-actualize, is available in at least this form. So there is a sense of fulfillment for me, which leaves me feeling complete.

Give it away – that which you have accomplished and which has you be experienced as a leader. Give it away. Such giving will make room for your own ever-expanding awareness, and will leave a path behind you that will assist others in developing their true nature.

Passing the baton is a wonderful contribution, to you and to others, and our knowledge becomes a foundation brick upon which others can firmly stand. We then become integral in an accelerated evolution of our human consciousness.

Part II Reflections on Self-Mastery

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”

― Leonardo da Vinci

What I really am inquiring about is self-mastery ….

Part II:

Being the victim allows me to drop myself into not having to be responsible for the choices I have made, which allows me to then be righteously accusatory, blaming others for my experience, instead of looking to see how I may have been at cause – in any way – for what is happening in any given moment.

Being seduced by the mindset of victim is actually a position of powerlessness. It feels “right” in that one can justify one’s “innocence” and another’s “wrong” behavior. Yet there is no freedom here. Only a repetitive patterning that quite frankly loses its charm as the years go by, and yet we don’t recognize that we have created our own hamster wheel of suffering.

Check it out. Practice taking responsibility for your experience in life, even if it doesn’t make sense, even if the other person did do something unkind, manipulative, or dominating. There is always a place where we can identify a comment we made, a hidden resentment we had, some attachment of how it “should” be, some choice that led to the interaction going the way that it did. It is not a question of being bad or wrong. It is a question of “are the choices I am making working in giving me the experience I want?”

In listening to ourselves from that inquiry, old ways of operating that don’t work will reveal themselves to us. If we can remove judgment on ourselves, we can experience some freedom in terms of creating a life experience that we want.

This is the portal to tapping into our source of power. This is the portal to freedom from old limiting patterns. This opens the door to the experience of self-mastery.

What would life experience be like if we lived from the inquiry: “How can I be more masterful in creating my life experience for the benefit of all concerned?”

It is all choice. It is all thought.

REFLECTIONS ON "MASTERY"

“Experience teaches that nature among mortals cannot operate in any other way than that in which reason teaches it to work.”

~ Leonardo Da Vinci  (1452 – 1519)

REFLECTIONS ON “MASTERY” …

I have been reflecting on the concept of Mastery lately. I realized that I had an underlying mindset, unconscious until I was reflecting, that I think has its roots in the distant past, when one could actually master all the knowledge that was available about any given subject. This was perhaps even less than 100 years ago.

Of course now, with the global technological ever-expanding access we have on pretty much any subject, along with the ever-expanding knowledge being gained on any subject, this type of mastery is impossible. Mastery now would be a possibility to live into for any given subject, but most likely not a finite venture.

So given my underlying “historical” mindset, “mastery” of anything seemed impossible.

I then wondered: Is there any subject or any place in my life where I feel I have accomplished any level of mastery? The one area that kept recurring to my thoughts was in the consulting work I do. I definitely feel a level of mastery in a couple of the professional areas I have trained and developed myself in over several decades. One area of mastery I have developed has to do with an ability to stay focused and grounded with others, often in a group, in spite of any reactivity and/or emotionalism on their part. Even if I get triggered in some way, I can count on myself to manage my reactions in the moment and deal with myself later.

So, I thought, well, if I can stay grounded in the face of my and other’s emotional reactions in a professional setting, why do I not always stay grounded in the face of my own and other’s reactions in my personal life, and with my significant others?! If I can do this professionally, I have the capacity to do it. So, why do I not do that?!

Good question, eh?

And then it struck me.

I am clearly committed to a larger purpose when working with others professionally. I am clear that I am committed to being a contribution to them, such that they are free from many of their own constraints from the past. It is not about me. I am committed to being of service, so I am able to interact impersonally and thus access my own innate wisdom in any given circumstance.

What I then saw was, in my personal life, I get sloppy. I am not willing to sustain a commitment to myself to stay grounded in spite of external circumstances. I allow myself to – through habit and consequent engrained brain patterns – forget my own personal commitment to be free from the past and profoundly present. I consciously choose that for others, but in the world of how I “should” be treated, how people “should” act towards me, I am of course disappointed in what others say and do “to” me, and take it personally. This then allows me to experience being that most delicious and seductive of human experiences: The Victim!

Tune in to the July blog to hear the rest of this exploration of the rewards and pay-offs of being The Victim … as well of course as the price! … With some helpful thoughts on how to extricate ourselves – if we so choose!

LISTENING FOR POSSIBILITY

 Light at the End of a Tunnel, Torno, Italy, 2015

“There are no facts that limit possibility, there are only conversations that limit or create possibility. Language shapes the way we think, the way we live our lives, and it gives us hands-on access to a world that’s open to being invented.”

~ Laurel Scheaf, Landmark Forum Leader

LISTENING FOR POSSIBILITY

I have been reflecting on how I listen to my internal conversations. I’m pretty good at discerning the voice of old patterns from the voice of inspiration. What I notice however, is that when I distinguish the voice of old limiting patterns, the voice that convinces me I don’t belong, or that I didn’t do it right, etc., I default to my training and think about the source of the pattern and then tell myself it’s an old voice, and sort of push ahead with the actions that I had planned for the day. What my experience is then throughout the day, is I take action in spite of the feeling, so I feel the low mood while I get scheduled things done, but the inspiration, the joy of life, is missing. It’s like I have accomplished things in the face of duress, I’ve risen above the arduous pull of the past! But … not a great day.

What started to occur to me was, what if the old patterns of thought were not really necessary mindsets to “deal” with, rather flashing lights pointing me towards what has been keeping me from what’s possible? Maybe I’m feeling depressed because I’m paying attention to those old patterns of thought? Maybe what I’m really doing is giving myself permission to step back into the past, which is actually over, disappeared really, as a means of distracting myself  from creating what’s possible, what I am actually committed to? What if those old patterns, from this different vantage point, were actually a possible portal to inspiration, creativity, and power - reminders of how I can get caught and what is really needed to re-engage in life and self-expression? What if listening to the insecurity, fear, nervousness, from the vantage point of possibility, was an access to freedom?!

Same language, different translation.

Listening to the past pulls me into a state of mind that made sense to me when I  didn’t have access to the possibilities I can see now. Now noticing the past conversation and then taking it as a cue to get present and step into possibility, opens up alignment with well-being, hope, and inspiration.

This way of listening is a discipline, a practice which takes ongoing remembering, yet one which definitely seems worth cultivating.