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Living Consciously September 19, 2009

I spoke yesterday at the Body, Mind & Soul Expo here in town. It occurred to me that all of the products and services were the result of the evolution of awareness. We have become aware of our impact on the environment, the problem of toxicity in beauty products, the benefits of certain kinds of nutritional supplements. We have accepted the fact of the inseparability of thoughts and physical conditions. Our awareness has evolved from a sense of separation from everything that was not us, into the realization that we are entirely interdependent. More

Living Consciously Sept 18, 2009

Are some things “meant to be?” It certainly can feel like that is the case but there is a principle involved that better explains those experiences. Our self awareness is creative; what we think about tends to come about and what we think about is inseparable from how we feel about ourselves. Therefore, as an example, if we feel unworthy, that we are victims of abuse, that we do not deserve to be treated well, we will attract the perfect person who has tendencies to abuse those they profess to love. Was the meeting “meant to be”? No, but without a change in our self regard, it was unavoidable! It was inevitable. More

Living Consciously September 17, 2009

Like the chicken and the egg, the question of which came first is everywhere. Which is cause to a war, the people fighting it or a conflicted idea? Which cause unhappiness, watching the news or our interpretation of it? What causes our interpretation of anything, the event itself or an old unexamined belief? More

Living Consciously September 16, 2009

When you were little and they asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, did you say a goldfish, a rock on the beach, a cactus in the desert? Of course not. None of those things have the ability to choose, to influence the environment, to love, to consciously create and to exercise the free will that is a human trait. We innately knew that we were capable of all that and more. Have we lived up to our vision for ourselves? More

Living Consciously September 15, 2009

Everything has an inner life. We see the appearance or the effect of what is internal. It is as if all physical form were a culmination of the activity within itself. A dear friend can tell by how our face looks what the mind is doing on the inside. “Are you okay?” they may ask. “You seem different today.” More

Living Consciously September 14, 2009

Whenever I get bored with such things as regular flossing of my teeth, I hear the dentists voice in my head. She is reminding me how important this little task is and that I should not miss doing it at least twice a day. Seriously, it is like having a personal trainer inside. Since I agree with her and understand the effects of good dental care, I would never stop flossing! More

Living Consciously September 10, 2009

Having just viewed some stunning photos of our universe taken by the Hubble telescope, I am once again struck with the unanswerable question: Where are we? It is a paradox that here on planet earth we can fix ourselves in time and space, yet when we see the larger context, it becomes impossible. We do not even know what this universe actually is: a place, an event, an illusion? No wonder humans have made up all manner of stories to make themselves feel safe in this living mystery. More

Living Consciously September 9, 2009

Have you ever tried to put shoes on a baby? They will curl their little toes under and it is almost impossible to get the job done. With some gentle insistence on our part they eventually relax their feet and allow it to happen. It is almost a given that soon they will be up walking and will have their favourite pair of shoes. More

Living Consciously September 8, 2009

A clerk in a convenience store had an unusual way of dealing with an irate customer. She simply said: “Don’t you know when you get that angry you lose your power?” There are spiritual teachers everywhere! Being mad about something, an injustice perhaps, is not what that wise woman was referring to. She was talking about the angry over nothing much, out of control reaction, that some people develop as a survival tactic. Thinking they are under attack when that is definitely not the case, they go into the offensive mode of protecting themselves. Offensive is the operative word. A loss of power is the result, even though they think they have gained it. More

Living Consciously September 3, 2009

The word purify used in the context of spiritual practice scares off some people. They mistakenly think it is a throwback to the idea of original sin or the erroneous belief that we are tainted beings merely by right of having a flesh body and earthly desires. But it is a simple truth that the joy of living that we are seeking is blocked by the dark and self rejecting thoughts held by our own minds. It is our own self assessment that needs to be purified. More

Living Consciously September 2, 2009

We would walk barefoot all over town when I was a kid. Our summer feet would develop large blisters and the soles would toughen and become like leather. Our mother would be horrified and insist on sandals. We liked to feel the earth first hand. We liked to hop across the street shrieking as if the asphalt were hot coals. We even welcomed the occasional cut from a piece of glass or a thorn. We didn’t think about this, we just knew that summer was meant to be experienced from the ground up. We rode our bikes without helments and took our spills in stride, laughing and helping each other up. More

Living Consciously September 1, 2009

To paraphrase the teacher, Osho: “If our ego is our slave it is quite useful. When it is our master it is very dangerous.”

There has to be a conscious experience of space between the protective aspect of mind and the creative center of it. This space is felt and experienced in the simple activity of regular meditation. It is when we see that many of our thoughts are merely the generated impulses of fear and erroneous conclusions, that we can begin to allow the knower within, the truth holder, to emerge as the thinking center of our consciousness. More

Living Consciously August 31, 2009

The 20th century spiritual teacher Ernest Holmes, wrote: Expectancy speeds progress.

On the one hand we are told to leave our expectations out of the equation; that they only serve to disappoint. But that only refers to the unwise habit of projecting how things have to look, how they must come about, who shall be involved and the like. On the other hand, the art of spiritual discipline is to expect good; expect miracles; expect the best. More

Living Consciously August 28, 2009

St Thomas Aquinas: “What does Light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, I am not sure but it makes me grow.”

What is Good? I do not know but it makes us happy. What is Love? I have no clue, but it makes us wild and free. What is Joy? Who can tell, but it makes us dance. What is Peace? We only know it when we feel it inside ourselves. More

Living Consciously August 27, 2009

Mira, the ecstatic Indian poet of centuries past, asked “Stuck with another day, how should we pass it? If anything worked for you before, I’d give that preference.” More

Living Consciously August 26, 2009

Hafiz wrote “There is a beautiful creature hiding in a hole you have dug.”

He is referring to our essential self; that beautiful creature that is in love with being and in harmony with nature and quick to laugh and be creative and kind. That self we allow out of the hole for small moments, a quick revealing of a joyful and radiant us. We withdraw our light when we feel threatened or think we ought to be sad over something that is natural and inevitable. We pretend to be afraid when there is nothing to fear. We make up stories to scare ourselves about what might happen and which hardly ever does. More

Living Consciously August 25, 2009

When I was a child, my best friend bemoaned the fact that she had not been born with brown eyes. Where this started, I do not know, but she would sing the old song, “Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes” as if it were some personal anthem, while her own robin’s egg blue eyes were her best feature! This puzzled me even as a child because clearly she could not change that aspect of her physical appearance. In high school she wanted to be taller and thinner. She wasted so much time and energy wishing she were different. Have you ever done that with something that was simply not changeable? Have you resisted some basic fact about yourself? More

Living Consciously August 24, 2009

Happiness is natural and necessary to the greater good of humanity. It is celebratory but is also a feeling of peace and well being. It is a normal state of mind, which sustains us through difficult challenges. I know a basic happiness is essential because peace and well being support health. It is well documented that certain states of mind affect the body in either detrimental or life supporting ways. People generate so much stomach acid from worry and suppressed anger that ulcers are the result. Tension causes headaches and insomnia. Nervous anxiety is induced by the mind. On the other hand, our bodies function well when we are calm and loving, cheerfully expectant of Good. More

Living Consciously August 17,2009

Last night I had a dream about dreaming. In it I was telling someone about my dream and they said “Oh that is the same dream I had last night.” I awoke thinking about the depths of consciousness, about how we are conscious on a different level when we sleep but maybe there are levels to that as well! If we could plumb the depths of awareness where would we find ourselves? What would we be? Perhaps Light. Perhaps Love. Perhaps everywhere, all at once, all the time. Perhaps every level of self-realization would take is into finer and more subtle forms until there was only the great I Am. More

Living Consciously August 13, 2009

I saw a wonderful production of the Lion King this week. The sheer creativity and artistic expression were beyond expectations. Leaving the theatre I commented to my friend that those performers just want to entertain us. Yes, they are expressing themselves. Yes, there is financial reward, but without an audience it would all be meaningless. Think about how much time and talent goes into creating such a show. There must be a hundred or more behind-the-scenes workers involved. The transportation of the costuming and lighting and sets from city to city is a massive undertaking, and it is all for us, those who come to enjoy and appreciate. Then I thought of the flip side of that; the risk they take. What if the show flops, no one comes?

Living Consciously August 13, 2009

One of the misconceptions about spiritual practice is that its purpose is to attain some exalted state at some point in the distant future. Enlightenment is thought to be an experience that happens when we reach the goal. Actually it is an incremental process. Our spiritual practice is working if we feel some peace and well being right now, which then infuse themselves into our daily life. Meditation, chanting, induced laughter, yoga, music and ecstatic dance all raise the quality of our inner life which produce immediate effects in our outer life.

Living Consciously August 12, 2009

Our spiritual self is not a warrior, ever. It does not know enemies. It does not resist or fight against. It is a blessing, always. It only Unites, Blesses, Loves and Celebrates. The question for us is this: When we are expressing any or all of those soul qualities, don’t we immediately have everything we could ever want? More

Living Consciously August 11, 2009

We are fated to live our lives based on the past until we consciously step up to our spiritual destiny. Our destiny is not what we do as a career or who we have relationships with or how much money we have, it is how we are internally in any situation. Our spiritual destiny is generated from how we use our natural gifts, such as love and peace, joy and wisdom, compassion and celebration. When we begin to really see that life is created from the inside out, our experience shifts dramatically. More

Living Consciously August 10, 2009

Emerson said that the universe is but the slow effect of an originating cause.

I feel that Cause to be a kind of cosmic joy, energy so vast and focussed that it literally cannot be contained in the invisible but has to erupt into form. Each of us was conceived from that same joy. Granted, the joy that brought us into being was brief, but it was nonetheless real. We could not be kept hidden one nanosecond longer. The sheer will of consciousness to produce itself in form is a power so great, nothing can stop the eventual out-picturing of an idea if it is sustained by joy and passion. More

Living Consciously August 7, 2009

The human need for order is a natural counterbalance to the complexity of our lives. My desk can get very messy with piles of paper and notes to myself and phone messages and the like. But I will clear it and organize the paper and put things back in place regularly. Outer order supports inner peace and vice versa. The same is true at home. Periodically I clean out drawers which have become the holding cell for things I do not want to deal with in the moment; coupons, cut out news articles, pens with no ink, those little packets of soy sauce. I seem to function better when my surroundings are restored to order, although I can live with disorder for a time, knowing it is temporary. More

Living Consciously August 6, 2009

There is a truth to the old saying that a horse will find its way back to the barn even if the rider thinks he is lost. Life has a way of righting itself no matter how far off the path of forward progression we seem to have wandered. There is something within the human mind which calls us to join the evolutionary march from poverty to abundance, from sickness to health, from conflict to love, from sadness to joy. More

Living Consciously August 5, 2009

We live in a universe of visible form and we accept it as self evident. We may wonder how it all happened but we are more interested in manipulating the many forms it takes! The universe may seem like a supermarket of things to be mastered or bought and sold, but to the sages, the universe is a living awareness, an ongoing event more than a place, although it is that, too. More

Living Consciously August 4, 2009

A friend received a small gift of a packet of sour dough bread mix from San Francisco. They were so excited because they had not used their bread maker in a long time and the idea of baking a fresh loaf was tantalizing. When they opened the package and read the instructions, they were so disappointed to find that the yeast was not included. The key ingredient that makes bread what it is was missing! More

Living Consciously August 3, 2009

Last night I awoke to the crash and boom of a huge thunderstorm. It had been hot the previous evening so all my windows were open and I had pulled back the curtains to allow the air to circulate. The lightning flashes lit up the night sky again and again and the resulting thunder was, well, thunderous! I thought of early humans and how terrified they must have been to witness such a display without any knowledge of the cause of it. Science dispels superstition, but without it, the human mind will make up its own rationale and give meaning to what it does not understand, ie: the Gods must be angry to produce such wrath and ruin. Later on those early humans may have modified their rationale by connecting the blessing of rain to the power. Maybe then they decided that blessings are preceded by danger, or that God is a terrible tease or merely mean-spirited but in the end, suffering is rewarded. More

Living Consciously July 27, 2009

Today we begin the New Thought New World conference in San Diego. The work behind the scenes to produce this diverse event has been a year- long effort. Like any other public production, it took team work and creativity to put the framework in place. Next came the logistical aspect which required phone calls and more meetings and negotiations and general follow through. Our own creative ideas are the first step in building a new experience, but they do not turn themselves into actuality without our help. It takes our agreement, enthusiasm, cooperation and diligence to give them life and form. More

Living Consciously July 25, 2009

There seems to be a powerful energy of chaos swirling through our individual and collective lives right now. Relationships are falling apart only to come back together with healed partners; those traits which were so destructive are no longer being tolerated and our personal need to clean up our own act is essential. More

Living Consciously July 21, 2009

People often feel that when in the company of their birth family, they revert to behaviors typical of children. Just so, a parent finds it difficult to stop dispensing parental advice to their grown offspring. These roles are deeply ingrained and rear their heads seemingly without our consent. Getting beyond them into a current relationship is a matter of releasing who we have been and realizing it was a temporary phase of our life which is no longer appropriate. More

Living Consciously July 19, 2009

I am sitting in my daughter’s kitchen looking out at the backyard which is lush with tropical plants and flowering shrubs. There is a giant philodendron, coral trees, bougainvilla and ferns. The Koi pond is covered with water lilies and hyacinth. From time to time my son in law cuts back the coral trees to stubs, but in no time at all they are fully leafed and providing shade and beauty again. Every time I visit here, which is about twice a year, the foliage is denser and taller. Cutting it back only encourages the growth. More

Living Consciously July 14, 2009,

It is always inspiring to read of those great social revolutionaries who raised their voices and changed our world for the better; people such as Gandhi and King. They were the ones who had the most reason to be angry and to violently oppose the policies and attitudes which kept them in a lowly position socially and economically. Yet these two did not react in the expected way. They adopted non-violent resistance as their strategy and overarching tactic. Over time it became more than that. Peaceful resistance became a deep self realization. Both of these great men discovered the power of Love inside themselves and they were the first ones changed. More

Living Consciously July 13, 2009

A sudden and torrential rain caused our parking lot to become a standing pool about 10 inches deep. An old drainage system simply could not handle that amount of water fast enough to keep it flowing. We had to call in the plumbers to pump it out. There are two spiritual analogies here. First, blocked energy that isn’t allowed to flow will eventually cause problems that may require expensive assistance to solve. Second, energy seeks its own level. Where there is a receptive container, energy will come to rest as potential for expression. More

Living Consciously July 10, 2009

Yesterday I bought a big fern for a corner of my living room. Her name is Fernice. She was one of many in the nursery section of a home supply store; wilted and lost in the cavernous space. Once I brought her home, replanted her in a larger container, misted her fronds and announced her name, suddenly she perked up, unfolded her graceful fronds and stands proud as the most beautiful fern you can imagine. More

Living Consciously July 9, 2009

One of the many aspects of life in my city that I love is the celebration of our diverse cultures that takes place in the summer. On any given weekend there are festivals in the park; Turkish, Ukranian, Carribean, African, Korean, Polynesian and many others present their unique cuisines, dances and music. There is a huge rodeo and fair honouring our Western traditions of roping and riding. Aboriginal peoples hold magnificent pow wows and everybody participates in the opening day parade of the famous Stampede. More

Living Consciously July 8, 2009

The One Life that is a running stream of consciousness is the self awareness that we are.

This is a simple way of saying that God is being us and is the infinite aspect of our own nature. We might say that our imagination is the field where God thinks, that we tap into that field with our attention to possibility; that when we ask What if? we make ourselves available to the not-yet-known, to the creative answer, to the sparkling newness that comes with invention and discovery. More

Living Consciously July 7, 2009

The death of an internationally known celebrity at a relatively young age is a blow to our collective psyche. It brings home the truth that we are not going to get out of here alive; that is, not with these particular forms. The day will come when every one of us will give up the ghost as they used to say, and move our essence into some other experience. Seeing death as loss is a terrible emotional burden to carry an entire life. Of course it is sad when a friend leaves this plane, and it feels like tragedy when it is a child. More

Living Consciously July 6, 2009

As the wind picked up and scattered debris in the street, it occurred to me that I was feeling the effects of waves of energy. We say it is blowing but really, a force that is always present is moving through our environment and is more visible sometimes. Wind is an effect, not a cause. More

Living Consciously July 3, 2009

At a theatre production I attended, the lights were dim, the audience was hushed and then a voice announced that the leading man was ill and an unknown actor would take his place. There was a sigh of disappointment but we were all surprised at how wonderfully the last minute replacement played the part. Later I saw the same show with the original actor and it was a completely different interpretation. More

Living Consciously July 2, 2009

The quest for freedom originates in our mind because it is a reality in our nature. We are meant to live as self expressing creative beings who are able to build community and cooperation by recognizing that innate trait in all others. Knowing that everyone longs to be seen and known for who they really are, we would respect the right to exercise freedom of choice within the context of our shared creation, the current model for civilization. Laws are really meant to make it possible for freedom to function.More

Living Consciously June 30, 2009

Everything in nature serves a purpose. The majority of sentient beings are unaware of just how useful they are, how necessary to the whole is their existence. Their part in the balance of nature is unknown to them, yet they go about their daily purpose with such single mindedness! Observe animals in their natural habitat and you will see a lesson in commitment, only they do not know what commitment is. Their purpose is attached to their survival so quitting their job is not a possibility. More

Living Consciously June 29, 2009

Have you had the experience of dreaming about something you saw on tv or read just before you retired for the night? We create mental images of our own but the theme will be the same. This is what happens when we run thoughts through our mindscape. They tend to take on the quality of story with dialogue and outcomes. We are unknowingly projecting a scenario onto the screen of our consciousness which becomes an inner reality of our very own. A waking dream which ultimately finds its way into the outer realm of experience. More

Living Consciously June 26, 2009

We have heard the term “reinventing” the self. I have friends who have seemed to have done just that. It is a necessity when life changes and our old ways of being and doing no longer get the results we desire. Our financial situation may be downgraded, a relationship falls apart and we find that it is imperative that we reinvent ourselves. For most of us that means letting go of a title, a career, a way of appearing in the world. We find new work, new living situations, new relationships. We may seem like a different person to our acquaintances. More

Living Consciously June 25, 2009

Spiritual practice is more than meditation, prayer and study. It can also be a westernized version of mindfulness which might include seeing the most ordinary of things as if they were miracles. A tree, for example. Try to imagine that you are an explorer on this planet, much like a scuba diver in the ocean. You are seeing a mighty oak or a pine tree for the very first time. The guide book tells you how it converts carbon dioxide into oxygen so that these earthlings might breathe. How amazing! More

Living Consciously      June 24, 2009

We all know that fighting of any kind, be it between two people or nations, only brings about a temporary resolution.  Real change can only come when oneness is awakened.  When we realize that we are alive in a common vitality, that our souls are anchored in a vibrational field of consciousness, that separateness is only an illusion and that difference is proof of an underlying unity, then we begin to move into deep appreciation and respect.  Only then are we able to celebrate diversity and glean the wisdom from other cultures and traditions. More

Living Consciously June 23, 2009

This is the planting season for us in the North. We do not see flowers in our yards for months at a time. The garden shops are crowded with color-starved Canadians! Sowing and reaping are long time metaphors for the creative process. There is great wisdom in nature and observing her can be quite instructive when we are attempting to bring forth newness in our personal experience. More

Living Consciously      June 22, 2009

One of my favourite workshop exercises is to have attendees ask each other one question over and over for about five minutes.  The question:  What do you like about yourself?  Later I thought, That would be a good question to ask someone when you first meet, in place of the usual, What do you do?  Another version might be: What is the best thing about you?  More

Living Consciously June 19, 2009

Stopped at a traffic light, I looked through the windshield of my car and saw the whitest cluster of clouds floating across the sky like a silent voyager, a great ghost ship. It glided just over and behind a nearly completed skyscraper. I heard myself think, which is more real? Is it the activity of humans or the quiet presence of nature? My next thought was, what a silly question. More

Living Consciously June 18, 2009

Lots of us will be heading off on vacations in the coming months. It is a rare person who will not have a schedule all planned out for their time away from work. We have such high expectations for having fun that we will cram our days with activities, deplete our energy and return home exhausted. More

Living Consciously June 17, 2009

When something good happens to a friend, we may say we are happy for them but do we ever give thanks for their good? Do we feel gratitude as we might for ourselves? It is an interesting idea. Gratitude is a powerful healing agent. It keeps us out of jealousy, which stems from the feeling that Good is limited, but also reminds us of the swiftness with which things change; how things unfold so creatively and are perfectly suited to the individual. More

Living Consciously June 16, 2009

You know the quote: I think, therefore I am. You may have heard the New Thought version: I am, therefore I think. I have made up a new one. I think, therefore I suffer! Yes, I am being somewhat facetious but there is a nugget of truth in that statement. I woke up this morning with my mind going full tilt from a dream I had last night. It was about an event we are planning and in the dream everything went wrong. Clearly this is low grade anxiety working itself out while I slept. That is useful but there are spiritual practices that help to keep us on a more stable mental course. More

Living Consciously June 15, 2009

This morning while some of us sprinkle blueberries over our yoghurt and sip gourmet coffee, little children are drinking contaminated water and hoping there might be some crumb of food for them. More are dying from the effects of mosquito bites or the wounds of war. For many children. Life on this planet is a place of disease and horror. More

Living Consciously June 12, 2009

The admonition by the man Jesus to “resist not, evil” has a counterpart in our modern New Thought spirituality. When we find ourselves facing what we call an obstacle of some kind, which could arise in any area of our life, we do not resist it or fear it. We stop fighting and attempt to realize its opposite. We see through the appearance to the reality behind it. Behind the temporary manifestation of illness are Health and Vitality. Behind lack and scarcity are Abundance and Circulation. Behind depression and emptiness are Joy and Energy. Behind isolation and loneliness are Unity and Love. The question is simple: Which is more real, that which I am experiencing now or that which I know is eternal? More

Living Consciously June 11, 2009

Forgiveness is on the top of everyone’s list of things to do! We all feel we have been wronged by someone at some time. It often seems impossible to forgive an act of betrayal or violence. It could be years since the incident yet we carry the emotion of anger or sadness throughout our lives. How to let it go in a way that actually works to remove the terrible feelings that do not serve our greater good? More

Living Consciously June 10, 2009

Emerson wrote: We may take what belongs to our spiritual estate; we cannot take anything else though all doors are open nor can all the force of men hinder us from taking so much. More

Living Consciously June 9, 2009

There is an ancient saying: To the one who can perfectly practice inaction, all things are possible.
A friend sent me an article from a major U.S. publication which reported on the colossal shift in acceptance for the practice of meditation. Medical practitioners see it as a part of a wellness program but also beneficial to the recovering patient. The San Francisco school system has initiated a daily meditation involving junior high students. What was once viewed as something for the yogi or the mystical monk, is now a part of the more holistic approach to health and well being. More

Living Consciously June 8, 2009

There is an old song that states; The Best Things in Life are Free. This is actually a deep spiritual truth.  During the Conscious Giving part of our Sunday celebration, we affirm that we are a distribution center for the abundance of the universe.  This statement reminds us that abundance pre-exists us, that we are born into the stream of it and our lives are meant to be its outlet. More