Gud-Aye 2008

Wishing everyone health, happiness, prosperity, and joy in the coming year ; where ever you are in the world, from my spot in the world.

The Unwelcome Guest

(Or what to do when “bad” thoughts drop in uninvited)

A Cheesy New-Age Adult Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a slim, beautiful new-age woman called Daya (her real name was Babara, but her Guru had given her the name of Daya and she felt it was more in tune with her inner spirit ).

She loved reading new age books, was in touch with her Chakra energy, regularly had colonics and massages, went to yearly Buddhist retreats, and tried to live in “The Now” as much as possible.

She lived in a lovely inner city house (which she had put a lot of energy into manifesting) and was married to a loving and supportive non-new age man ; who she was trying to change by discovering her underlying beliefs of why he wouldn’t change. She had a fantastic relationship with her teenage son, even though he often asked her if she could “PLEASE TRY AND BE NORMAL FOR ONCE!” On the whole she was very happy and content with her life.

So here she was one morning sitting in her beautiful house surrounded by her Burmese cats, (Yin &Yang) when there was a knock at the door. She opened it and standing there were all her Good Thought Friends. “Welcome,” she said, beaming at them “I’m so pleased to see you, your right on time, I’ve just finished meditating.”

So all her Good Thought Friends followed her inside the house.

Abundance sat on the lounge : Daya was really happy to see him , he was one of her very special friends. Love cuddled up next to Abundance, ( Daya always felt a little bit anxious when Love popped in, as she really liked her ,but never knew how long she would stay around for ), Sensuality was checking out Love; Learning was browsing through Dayas books , and telling Patience and Tolerance that he thought some of them were a bit outdated (Linda Goodman's Astrology , Numerology, Your Erogenous Zones etc...),

Patience and Tolerance just agreed with him and went and made a cup of tea.

Manifestation was having a debate with Affirmation on the right way to get things done…it was getting a bit heated until Higher Understanding stepped in and sorted it out. Intuition really didn't have much to say, as she always knew what was coming. So there was Daya surrounded by her lovely Thought Friends; she always felt like a better person when they were there and enjoyed their company immensely.

Just then there was another knock at the door. “I wonder who that is?” Daya thought “I’m not expecting anyone else”, so she went and opened the door. “Oh No!” She screamed, “It’s that Bad Thought Fear! What is he doing here? The last time I saw him I told him to go away and never come back. I thought I had got rid of him forever!” So she quickly slammed the door in Fears face.

“Let me in” yelled Fear. “I’ve brought all my other friends” and to Dayas horror , when she looked through the peephole she saw there was a whole group of Unwelcome Guests. There was Guilt, Shame, Anger , Addiction, Lust, Jealousy, Tiredness, Depression and lots more; and pushing their way to the front were the two scariest of them all, Perfection and Self-Blame.

“Oh my God what will I do? They’ve tracked me down”, (Daya had recently moved and only given her Good Thought Friends her change of address) “Maybe if I ignore them they’ll go away, she thought” so she sat at the kitchen table and tried to make polite conversation with Clarity, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying with all the noise coming from outside.

It was getting late by this time and she was rather tired and worried, so she asked her Good Thought Friends if they would stay the night to protect her from the Unwelcome Guests outside.

“Of course we will” they said, but after they had gone to sleep she could still hear the cries of “let us in” coming faintly from the front yard. “I have to drown that noise out somehow” she thought, so she had a lovely glass (or two) of red wine, smoked a new age cigarette, rang a few of her supportive girlfriends, did a tarot reading for herself , watched something mindless on TV, took 2 Valium and finally went to bed.

In the morning everything was quiet. “Maybe they've gone”, She thought, so she peeked through the window; but to her horror all the Unwelcome Guests were there…they had even set up tents!

They were asleep, but she knew they would soon wake up and start yelling at her again. She could feel herself beginning to panic. “You must help me” she pleaded with her Good Thought Friends. “What should I do?”

Love suggested just loving them, (Daya didn't want to do that), Patience told her to wait and eventually they would go away, and Manifestation told her it was her fault they were there in the first place (outside, Blame laughed), Affirmation told her to write down and say 30 times, “ My Unwelcome Guests Are Gone”, and they would disappear.

Dayas husband wasn’t any help as he had gone to work to keep up the practical side of Dayas manifesting. “I’m going mad!” she thought as the suggestions and voices from inside and outside the house got louder and louder. “I’ll have to let them in” she realized, so slowly she walked to the door, opened it and fearfully watched as all the Unwelcome Guests marched in.

She was very afraid that now she had let them in they would never go away, and they would destroy the lovely relationship she had with her Good Thought Friends. “Don’t talk or go near my Good Thought Friends” she told them “you don’t belong with them”.

“I’ll try and pretend they're not here and only pay attention to my Good Thought Friends,” She decided; but everywhere she turned she saw or bumped into an Unwelcome Guest.

Finally, when she couldn’t stand it anymore she rushed up to Fear “What do you want?" She cried, “Can’t you see I don’t want to be friends with you? All I want you to do is go away and leave me alone!” and she slowly sank down onto the lounge, put her head in her hands and started crying.

Fear gently approached her, (here comes the cheesy bit) and putting his hand lovingly on her shoulder said to her “We aren't here to hurt you. All we want is for you to listen to us and understand what we are trying to tell you. If you get to know us you’ll see that we really aren’t that bad and you don’t have to be scared of us.”

Just then Peace came up and held hands with Fear. “You see,” said Peace “What Fear is trying to tell you are that if you don’t get to know him, you also won’t get to know me. We are ALL your friends, and all of us have gifts to share with you, if you will only accept them.”

And Daya looked on in amazement as all her Thought Friends started giving her the beautiful presents they had brought.

Soon she had to put all the presents in another room, there were so many of them .

Suddenly there was an extra loud knock at the door, and standing there, with a radiant smile on his face stood Awareness (he sometimes went by the nickname of Stilly, or Stillness). “Can I come in?” he asked “Of course” Daya laughed, “Everyone is welcome here now!”

And Daya finally understood that ALL her Thoughts were her friends and teachers, and each had his own special gift to give to her, and she didn’t have to be scared of them, or try and separate or ignore them... It was then that Compassion said “Let’s raise our glass and propose a toast, to inner peace, love, joy and grace.

And Daya lived with Awareness and Her Thoughts happily ever after.

copy write Enigma 2004

The Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction seems to be the new "in thing' now-days...what a lot of people who teach this don't seem to realize, is that to attract something it helps to become it yourself. You can sit in your room and do visualizations, affirmations and a "manifestation" scrapbook until till the cows come home...but unless you physically, mentally and emotionally live and work towards becoming what you desire, you won,t achieve what you want or the results will be short lived.

A few examples of this are - (these may seem obvious)

• If you want a relationship with someone who is kind, become kind yourself
• If you don't want to be lonely, befriend people.
• If you want to be surrounded by adventurous, fun people...become adventurous, join a climbing group, travel overseas, etc
• If you want to be a best selling author then do a writing course, read up on publishing , meet other writers, commit yourself to one hour a day to write...whether you feel inspired to or not.
• If you want a passionate loving relationship..become passionate and loving with yourself and others. Give to yourself the life that you want the other person to supply you with.

Also with the current teachings of only thinking positive thoughts...our so called "negative" thoughts are a gift, when we investigate them it leads us to a richer, deeper understanding of who we are., and shows us what we need to transform and change in our lives. Our thoughts are neither positive nor negative, they just ARE...its our attachment to them that causes difficulties, and the belief that we are our thoughts.

I believe the simplistic ideas being currently put forth towards the philosophy of manifesting, and the "you create your own reality" model are helping to create enormous problems and underlying guilt and depression in people who feel they aren't "doing it right".

Taking the time to learn something and working towards it creates confidence in our ability to navigate through life....it also gives us deep inner strength and trust in ourselves, and shows us that we can improvise, adapt and overcome whatever life presents to us.

Our experiences are earned in this physical and spiritual universe... there are no short cuts, nor should there be...to think there are is to deny ourselves the glory and magnificence of what we can achieve through our will, imagination, energy, action, enthusiasm and the Grace of God.

"WHAT EVER STANDS IN YOUR WAY, IS THE WAY"
Eckardt Tolle

Questions & Answers

Questions put to Sri Nisargadata Maharaj- (Author of I Am That)

Question; I am a medical man, I have studied a lot, I have imposed on myself a strict discipline in the way of exercises and periodical fasts and I am a vegetarian.

Maharaj: But in the depth of your heart what do you want?

Q: I want to find reality.
M: What price are you willing to pay for reality? Any price?

Q: While in theory I am ready to pay any price, in actual life again and again I am being prompted to behave in ways which come between me and reality. Desires carry me way.

M: Increase and widen your desires till nothing but reality can fulfil them. It is not desire that is wrong, but its narrowness and smallness. Desire is devotion. By all means be devoted to the real, the infinite, the internal heart of being. Transform desire into love. All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are expressions of your longing for happiness. Basically you wish yourself well.

Q: I know that I should not....
M: Wait! Who told you that you should not? What is wrong with wanting to be happy?

Q: The self must go, I know…….

M: But the self is there. Your desires are there. Your longing to be happy is there.Why? Because you love yourself. By all means love yourself- wisely.
What is wrong is to love yourself stupidly, so as to make yourself suffer. Love yourself wisely. Both indulgence and austerity have the same purpose in view- to make you happy. Indulgence is the stupid way, austerity is the wise way.

Q; What is austerity?

M: Once you have gone through an experience, not to go through it again is austerity. Not to anticipate pleasure or pain is austerity. Desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience.
It is the choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing -food, sex, power, fame- will make you happy is to deceive yourself. Only something as vast and as deep as you’re real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.

Q: Since there is nothing basically wrong with desire as an expression of love of self, how should desires be managed?

M: Live your life intelligently, with the interests of your deeper self always in mind. After all, what do you really want? Not perfection; you are already perfect. What you seek is to express in action what you are. For this you have a body and a mind. Take them in hand and make them serve you.

Q: Who is the operator here? Who is to take the body-mind in hand?

M: The purified mind is the faithful servant of the self. It takes charge of the instruments, inner and outer, and makes them serve its purpose.

Q: And what is their purpose?

M: The self is universal and its aims are universal. There is nothing personal about the self. Live an orderly life, but don’t make it a goal by itself. It should be the starting point for high adventure.

Q: Do you advise me to come to India repeatedly?

M: If you are earnest you don’t need to be repeatedly moving about. You are yourself wherever you are and you create your own climate. Locomotion and transportation will not give you salvation. You are not the body and dragging the body from place to place will take you nowhere. Your mind is free to roam the three worlds-make full use of it.

Q: If I am free, why am I in a body?

M: You are not in a body, the body is in you! The mind is in you. They happen to you. They are there because you find them interesting. Your very nature has the infinite capacity to enjoy. It is full of zest and affection. It sheds its radiance on all that comes within its focus of awareness and nothing is excluded. It does not know evil or ugliness, it hopes, it trusts, it loves. You people do not know how much you miss by not knowing your true self. You are neither the body nor the mind, neither the fuel nor the fire. They appear and disappear according to their own laws.

That which you are, your true self, you love it, and whatever you do; you do for your own happiness. To find it, to know it, to cherish it is your basic urge. Since time immemorial you loved yourself, but never wisely. Use your body and mind wisely in the service of the self, which is all. Be true to your own self, love yourself absolutely. Do not pretend that you love others as yourself. Unless you have realized them as one with yourself, you cannot love them.

Don't pretend to be what you are not, don’t refuse to be what you are.

Your love of others is the result of self knowledge, not its cause.
Without self –realization, no virtue is genuine. When you know beyond all doubting that the same life flows through all that is and you are that life, you will love all naturally and spontaneously. When you realize the depth and fullness of your love of yourself, you know that every living being and the entire universe are included in your affection.
But when you look at anything as separate from you, you cannot love it for you are afraid of it. Alienation causes fear and fear deepens alienation. It is a viscous circle. Only self-realization can break it .Go for it resolutely

There is a greater reason to remember September 11th.

The common belief among many people is that Christ was a Pisces.

This post is really written for all you astrologers and numerologist out there.

The other common misconception is that he was born on the 25 December.

We celebrate his birthday on the 25 of December as this was decided by pope Liberius in Ad 354, and became the rule in the West in 435 when the first "Christ Mass" was officiated by Pope Sixtus 111.

This nicely coincided with the celebration by the Romans of their main god the Sun God, and to their other favourite god Mithra.
So the Roman church thought it was a tidy idea to divert the pagans from their unchristian ways.

The idea Christ was a Pisces seems to have originated from the fish symbol that the early Christians used.

However there is mounting evidence to prove that Christ was born September the 11th, (Virgo) sometimes referred to in personolgy as "The week of the Enigma" (I couldn't resist putting that in. )

If this is true I find it to be much more accurate from a numerology and astrology perspective, than Christ as a Piscean , no offense intended to any Pisces out there.

In astrology Virgo represents synthesising the true from the false, purity ,teaching, transmutation, healing , and service to humanity which often involves personal sacrifice.

The number 11 in numerology is called a master number, which also deals with healing and personal sacrifice, so with these two powerful aspects, one can see how this the new birth date makes sense.

I personally don't really care what star sign Christ was, I feel that when you get to that level of awareness and enlightenment, it really doesn't matter.
But I thought from a professional point of view this was interesting.

"Only a life lived for others, is a life worthwhile." Albert Einstein

a miserable life

Here are some handy tips to guarantee that your life is as miserable as it can possibly be

*Constantly think and talk about the past, preferably all the negative things. Even the positive things are a great way to make you feel miserable, they are gone, who knows if they will ever happen again.

*Define yourself by your age.

*Always be right.

*Never inquire into your thought processes, that would undo being right.

*Have most of your conversations revolve around what someone else did, and don't forget to judge them accordingly.

*Take everything, absolutely everything, including the weather, personally.

*Use the expressions "it isn't fair, and this shouldn't have happened" whenever something goes wrong and always find something to blame, including yourself

*Compare yourself to other people, positively or negatively , it doesn't matter which.

*Learn to react quickly , subjectively and emotionally to whatever happens .

*Cultivate the philosophy "if your not with me, your against me".

*Never forget who has hurt you, the first tip helps enormously with this.

*Treat your children and your partners as extensions of yourself.

*Expect people to think and feel exactly like you, and react with justified anger when they don't.

*React with even more anger when they do all of the above.

*Always do what you think is expected of you, never tell people how you really feel and then blow up in justifiable anger at how they are abusing you.

*Get into the habit of generalizing and putting people in boxes

*Expect people and life to never change.

*Use as your favourite expression "this is the way I am and I cant help or change it".

*Be defensive and evasive, after all if your honest, you, ll give the game away.

*Think that if someone loves you, they know what you are thinking and feeling.

*Spend hours trying to work out what someones motive is , come up with your own ideas, and treat them accordingly.

*Make sure that you are never kind or purposely back down from a fight with someone you don't like, it shows weakness.

*Cut people out of your life who don't agree with you.

*Blame everything in your life on external events, and when someone refuses to treat you as a victim, get really angry and call them unsupportive.

*Never learn anything new or meet different people.

*Surround yourself with people who actively practice these tips as a way of life, this helps perfect it . Remember misery loves company.

*Expect people to do things on your time frame.

*Pick unavailable romantic partners , be with them for years, use all of the reasons above why you cant leave them, and then do it all over with someone new.

*Regard every new relationship as "The One'.

*Have set rules, regulations and expectations on the relationship, if they don't fulfill them , ditch them , they weren't "The One", this nicely validates all the other techniques.

These are just a few handy hints, but even if you only do a few of them, a miserable life is guaranteed. And the beauty of this is it can only get worse.

Try it for two weeks, and if you don't feel like total shit by that time you can get your money back.

Enjoy

The Rights Of Humans

"As a human being I reserve the right to stuff up, contradict, appear stupid, shoot myself in the foot or rescind any of my previous thoughts at any time. Only an idiot stays still."

Plagiarized from my friend Talon