Making Every Motion Count

Posted in Self Improvement |  Email This Post | by James Rick

I was playing soccer yesterday across a full field. The game was more than half over and I was feeling quite winded. I thought to myself I did a lot of running around and felt tired but did I really concentrate on making a goal with every effort? If I wasn’t I was essentially wasting energy for no reason. And I thought about it and many times I was just happy to defend and get the ball further up field. I hadn’t really made a conscious effort to make every motion count. And as I looked around I could see that most everyone else (especially on my team because we were getting slaughtered) had not made a conscious effort to make every motion count. They wanted to win, but they were not playing to win.

Of course half the fun of playing a sport is the experience of it – but in any competitive sport you are playing to win. And winning consists of making every motion count towards a goal. You have to be conscious of what you’re doing and it has to be in alignment with making that goal.

CLEAR GOALS
Think how this analogy applies to your daily life. Do you have a clear goal? If you don’t you’re just kicking a ball across an endless field. On the one hand you might be enjoying the journey but isn’t a journey more meaningful if it has a destination?

DEGREE OF CONTROL
And secondly – if you do have a goal is it something you can control? At least in sports you have a great deal of personal control in scoring a goal, because you control the motions of your body you control the likelihood of scoring a goal. In life sometimes there are systems that overlap your pathway to your goal that you do not control. For example in sports, other team players who might want the goal more than you do.

Now take a goal like money – there is your personal effort towards achieving a specific money goal and then there’s the capitalistic system itself which is designed to be a ‘debt based’ system. This means the system itself is designed to put the majority of people who belong to it, in debt – it doesn’t matter how hard they work or how much they want to score big money goals there is a high statistical percentage that most people will be in debt. So there is your personal control about how hard and smart you will work and then there is the overlapping element that you do not control which is the market and the way the system is designed. (On a side note: Avoiding consumer debt – house, car, etc. is something most often you can control and gets you closer to your goal of financial freedom.)

PRIMARY GOALS VS. SECONDARY GOALS
Primary goals begin with everything you can control – your body, your mind, etc. And secondary goals are outcomes that will happen if everything goes as planned. This doesn’t mean you don’t work hard for them – it just means you realize that not everything is in your control to make them a reality.

In sports a primary goal is to be in great shape, eat healthy before the game, stay well hydrated so that you can perform you very best. A secondary goal is to put the ball where it needs to go. This is a secondary goal because you cannot control what the other players do, the wind, etc. You can only give yourself the best opportunity to succeed by identifying and carrying out the primary goals necessary to make your secondary goal a reality.

LEVERAGE
In earning money an important primary goal is leverage. Leverage comes in many forms:
1. Time Leverage – Managing time and helping others on your team manage their time well. As a primary goal, you control where your time goes. Time leverage requires clear priorities, and clear priorities are impossible without clear goals.
2. Energy Leverage – Managing your energy and other people’s energy well. As a primary goal, you control what you eat, how much you sleep, how much water you drink, etc.
3. Knowledge Leverage – Managing how much you know and training others. As a primary goal you control what you learn based on where you spend your time, what you read, etc.
4. Connection Leverage – Managing who you know and contributing value to others. As a primary goal you control who you associate with and how much time you spend with them. You also control the quality of the interaction based on how much you’re willing to give. Not in a monetary sense but in a loving, compassionate or shrewd sense.
5. Capital Leverage – Managing how much you spend and where you invest what you’ve earned. As a primary goal avoiding consumer debt like the plague ensures that free capital doesn’t go into paying dead interest. Accumulating debt that offers no promise of return is the fastest way to get locked into a TIME obligation – which is what the current system is built on – debt obligations are a modern form of slavery.
6. Employee / Partnership Leverage – Managing who works for you, with you and what work they do. As a primary goal you control what kind of person you are (character) which dictates whether people want to follow you or listen to you. In most cases you also dictate what field of work you choose to get involved in, which consequently also says a lot about your character. ‘Goodwill’ earned through good deeds is an invisible currency worth many times its weight in gold; a supreme form of leverage.

IN SUMMARY
Making every motion count requires:
1) A clear and definite goal
2) A conscious effort to make every effort a movement towards the goal
3) An awareness of primary goals (actions you 100% control) and secondary goals (outcomes that you do not fully control due to overlapping systems)
4) Identifying and employing ways in which you can leverage / multiply your efforts.

How to Feel Strangely Alive

Posted in Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

What if I told you you could experience something that would make you feel more alive, more invigorated and more at peace than anything you have ever done in your entire life and it cost nothing and you don’t have to go anywhere.. curious?

You won’t see this advertised on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines or on the internet because there is no financial incentive to get you to do it.

And you won’t see any religious guru or organization behind this because only you can initiate it yourself so there’s no ‘mind control’ or tithing potential here.

The only reason why everyone doesn’t do it is because it takes a strong commitment and lots of effort – and that’s not usually something you see on books, tapes or pills packaged to appeal to your lazier side in order to sell more.

So what is it and how does it work?

~~

If you can just sit and focus on your breath – you will notice lots of little daily thoughts pop up. Things you need to do etc. But then as you keep refocusing your attention on your breath your life begins to fall away. You have to let go of all these concepts. Concepts like who am I, what time period am I in.. what stuff do I have to do today. There’s just no room for it in the now. That’s what I think it really means to not be attached. You cannot truly just be aware if your brain is constantly reaching (attached) to stuff in this life.

To detach doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, it just means that when you sit down and decide not to think about it – you do it. You can free your mind to simply be in the moment.

Now what’s the point of being in the moment? You don’t actually get anything done when you’re there. The moment is the point. Now some believe you should live there all the time – I personally find it difficult to live there ALL the time. In fact its more of a space for renewal. This view might change in time but for now it works to simply dip into the now.. okay dive, because you cannot be attached to shore (this life)!

I notice that simply existing in the now does something to the body’s energy. The intention becomes very important at this point. You cannot simply say you’re going to focus on the breath and be in the now. Breathing deep doesn’t count. Because if you are not noticing your intention in those seconds while you’re breathing you are only half doing it. And half focusing is not really focusing.

Now it might take some time to sit and really focus your attention on the breath. Approach the task as if you’re going to watch TV or play a game. Block off an hour or two so you don’t feel like you have to be anywhere -otherwise that thought will keep popping up while you’re trying to focus on truly being in the now. You have to detach from everything including agendas in order to fully immerse yourself in the moment.

Now I realize if you’ve never done this before it might sound a little strange. So I’m really going to try to explain the process and then have you do it. Because you really won’t know what flying is like until you fly.

Sit down on your bed or somewhere comfortably with the back straight. A straight back means you are lifting your back up as if your head is being pulled up to the ceiling. Now begin by simply breathing deep and notice what your brain does. All sorts of thoughts will now enter the space you have created. Remember, REMEMBER to keep creating the space. Remembering is the most important thing to re-assert your attention. That’s so hard to do when your mind keeps straying because you will actually become the new thoughts and memory is just another thought. So remembering your previous thought (to focus on your breath and be in the now) is important to getting the other thoughts out of your head to create the space again. Every time new thoughts enter – focus can only entertain one thought at a time. So the new thoughts will occupy your thought space and will play around until you REMEMBER that you had another intention IN mind. Keep reminding yourself, don’t get discouraged, just keep reminding yourself you intended to focus on the breath and be aware.

Now the more intent you are on really doing this exercise the better it works. It’s real easy to get lazy and decide that you’ve ‘sat long enough’ and go do something else. Don’t let boredom set in. You almost have to bring a work-out like intensity to your meditation. Every time your mind strays turn that frustration into a mental intensity – really notice what it feels like to focus on the IN breath and then the OUT breath. Mental intensity is very different from simply saying you’re going to focus on your breath. Mental intensity FEELS very different. I have noticed real mental intensity makes my inner ear sound like wind blowing through it. Sometimes I can focus on this sensation alone and it grounds my awareness in the present.

But create a real mental intensity to get to 10 breaths without thinking of anything else. If you think of something else, start over to the count of one. Do this only in the beginning until you can get to 10 breaths without thinking of anything else. When you do you will have sufficiently slowed the brain down enough to now simply be aware. Be aware of your awareness – it’s kind of cool. Your mind will keep sneaking thoughts in – but then REMEMBER your intention to simply be aware .. be aware of awareness.

At the point where you can say to yourself I am right here right now and truly FEEL yourself in that moment – you will find yourself at a loss for who you are. When you are simply being you will not be able to carry the concept around of ‘I am’ .. it’s just you aware of yourself and nothing else.

Now this might sound like a cool mind trick – except there are some benefits that come into play. First – you are taking control of your brain and what it creates and it’s not taking years to do it. This step is huge. If this is your first time focusing on the 10 breaths it may either take more time to train your brain to relax OR more intensity. I prefer intensity. Imagine a wheel has been spinning for so long and now you’re going to hit the brakes.. you can either hit the brakes slowly over a long time or really hit the brakes hard and sparks go flying out the side of your head (okay not really, but a useful metaphor!).

Once you’ve hit the breaks hard and the wheel has come to a stop you can observe your awareness. You can be in the moment and remind yourself more easily to simply be and observe breath. And although it sounds boring or abstract – there’s something energetically stimulating about being. There is like a portal there to the spiritual realm and you are standing inside it when you’re in that state of being.

The moment your intention strays from it you move away from it. It doesn’t matter if your body is sitting in the same place and you are still breathing the same.. if your intention strays you move away from it. Everything about this creative energy has to do with your INTENTION.

Buddha once said that you must seek enlightenment as a drowning man seeks air. Now I understand. It’s the intensity behind the intention that really matters.

It will take great effort in the beginning to slow your mind down. That usually becomes the stumbling block for most people because they FORGET their intention to focus on breath, relax and be when their mind barrages them with idle thoughts, worries and concerns. I’ve been meditating for years and it never fails my mind keeps doing what it must have been programmed to do for millions of years. It serves me in this realm, on this shore – but I have to disconnect from it when I dive in. And I can do that with my intention. When I commit to dive away from shore and REMEMBER that intention. When I commit to breath, focus on my breath and TRULY exist in the moment, truly, truly in this moment, in this moment, in this moment, in this moment… breathe … in this moment, in this moment, in this moment.

After an intense mental work out where you have slowed the mind down – it sort of sticks with you through the day. It’s almost like the wheel is now slowing down on its own. Even if it speeds up a little it’s easier to re-enter that state of being and slow it down. That’s why the wheel metaphor is so useful – it’s mental inertia: an object at rest tends to stay at rest – it requires an outside force to get it going again.

If you do this exercise at the start of your day (if you don’t have time wake up earlier) you will notice you feel more alive.

As I write this I notice my head feels very clear. I notice my feet, my groin, heart and head are tingling a bit. I feel happy but in a mellow sort of way.

I decided to write this in a very intimate sort of way, just as I experience it. Because the experience is very subjective. I suggest you attempt to do this exercise in the following manner and experience it for yourself:

1) DECIDE to slow the mind down, focus on the breath and be more aware. This is your first intention.
2) Sit down somewhere comfortable and decide to focus on 10 breaths without thinking of anything else, if you think of something else you will start back at 1.
3) Keep REMEMBERING your intention. Even ask yourself “why if I decided to get to 10 breaths am I thinking of anything else? What is more important?” Your brain will fight for the thought-time. You need to commit even more effort to the exercise. Ask yourself, “Am I being lazy with my effort right now, could I focus even more, even more in this moment.” You will find that you can always commit more effort in that moment.
4) After you’ve successfully reached 10 breaths let go of that exercise and make the decision to simply observe yourself. This does not mean you are allowing the brain to think. You are disconnected from the shore remember? Now you are observing the one who is observing, second by second, moment by moment. Exist in this space for a while.

These four steps are a good start:

1) Commit your intention to the exercise
2) Do the 10 breath exercise
3) REMEMBER your intention while doing the exercise above else
4) Disconnect from everything and make a connection with the highest spiritual energy possible your intention. Then notice how you feel.

All in all if you’ve never done any of this before you better be ready to block off a good hour or two. If that sounds like a lot of time sitting with your eyes closed – just think of all the movies you’ve committed the same amount of time to, the only difference is your eyes are open. If you’re in a hurry remember and you need to get this done in less time, you’ll need to come to the table with an even stronger intention and maintain that intention throughout the exercise.

Reality is Whatever You Are Aware Of

Posted in Perspective · Self Improvement · Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

REALITY IS WHATEVER YOU ARE AWARE OF

Nobody ever taught you as a child to be curious – you were simply OPEN to what reality could be and because you didn’t really know – anything was possible. A young reality is a magical place.

From the time you were a child your greatest quest has been about discovering what is true. As time goes on you discovered what you considered to be ‘hard truths’ about reality – people dying, people lying and people hurting… you formed beliefs about these truths and that became your new reality. The more beliefs you established about your reality the more this became your internal reality.

After early adulthood – most early formed beliefs become like hardened concrete and change relatively little over the course of life. There are two exceptions: If the life experience shatters hardened beliefs to rubble or if a person continues to seek truth and keeps their belief structures ‘wet’ so to speak, they are always open to change.

Another word for beliefs is rules. You setup rules to help you navigate reality more effectively. For example the first time you see something drop to the floor (instead of float) you setup a rule that says IF I let go of an object, THEN it will fall. (Rules are generally framed if IF–THEN / cause-effect scenarios. IF = Cause, THEN = Effect) You setup rules for your internal reality that correspond with what you observe in your outer reality. This system is quite efficient when it comes to unchanging events such as gravity or sunsets, but what about the variables in reality?

For example if a dog bites you as a child then your brain might associate danger with ALL dogs, until you encounter enough friendly dogs to change that belief. If a man hurts you, then it will associate danger with ALL men or at least until you meet enough friendly men that help you change that belief. If someone from a religious group or foreign country commits a radical act and you don’t know much about that religion or country, your brain will associate radical acts with EVERYONE in that religion or country.

Ultimately the brain’s biggest limitation is that it cannot be in all life, in all places at all times – which is the true definition of reality. And so what does it do? It fills in a lot of blanks with beliefs about reality. The beliefs create the illusion of knowing reality without actually having had the experience of knowing reality.

HUMANS ARE COMPLEX BECAUSE OF THEIR RULES

As you can imagine creating rules for every interaction with the exterior reality (including other people) makes us very complex! If you think about it rules are the very basis of human relationships. Most of our time in communicating is spent understanding other people’s rules and expressing our own.

IF we care about them THEN we will attempt to understand and honor their rules. IF they care about us THEN they will attempt to understand and honor our rules. IF someone doesn’t honor our rules THEN we are upset.

We have rules for love:
IF he loves me, THEN he’ll tell me often
IF he loves me, THEN he’ll buy me nice things
IF she loves me, THEN she’ll call more often

We have rules for hate:
IF someone insults my family, THEN I will take revenge
IF someone kills my dog, THEN I will kill him.
IF someone is from a certain country or religious group, THEN I will hate him.

We have rules for jealousy:
IF my lover looks at another in a certain way, THEN I will feel jealous.
IF my lover gives something more attention than me, THEN I will feel jealous.
IF my lover compliments another on their beauty, THEN I will feel jealous.

We have rules for giving:
IF they aren’t missing arms and legs, THEN I won’t give them money.
IF someone has a good plan, THEN I will volunteer my time.
IF someone proves they are persistent enough, THEN I will give them my heart.

We have rules for happiness:
IF I have a million dollars in the bank, THEN I am happy.
IF I am healthy, THEN I feel good.
IF I am in control, THEN I am happy.

The list can go on. The point here is that you have established rules for nearly every cause imaginable. And they are not always the best rules. In fact some rules are self defeating. For example if you have to wait until you have million dollars in the bank before you can be happy – you have created a rule that may never be filled, or it might take having a million dollars in the bank before you realize that your rule wasn’t true. So then you will have to create a new rule for happiness – and that might be, IF I have TEN million dollars in the bank, THEN I am happy. (It’s easy to imagine rules that you cannot prove.)

Because the process of rule creation is often unconscious – it’s easy to build your own prison and live in it the rest of your life without ever having realized what happened to the magical reality you lived in as a child. Many times you adopt the rules of your parents, or your close associates, of society. You adopt the image of what success is, what beautiful is and what love is and you setup rules that say unless you are living the ideal image of success, beauty and happiness then you can never be fulfilled. The rules in your head can put happiness out of reach!

The most amazing thing is about rules is this: they are of your own creation! Yes, you may have created them unconsciously, but if you become conscious of them you also have the power to REWRITE them! Why not? Just because you may have been living with some stupid rules for a long time doesn’t mean they are permanent unless you say they are – because that would be another one of your rules! (IF I have lived a certain way long enough, THEN that must be the way things will always be.) As you begin to become more aware of the rules you’ve setup in your head you’ll discover just how complex your rule structure goes. You’ll find that you even have RULES BEHIND RULES. Like the last example – IF my rules have existed long enough, THEN they will always exist; this is a rule behind a rule.

WRITING RULES DOWN DEFINES THEM

Now until you actually put your rules into simple sentence structures like IF / THEN, they are actually not so quite easily defined, in other words most rules are at the level of emotional energies that you CANNOT consciously define. And many rules are in conflict. This is why sometimes you behave in ways that you do not understand. But when you become aware of how you’re behaving and then you finally translate that emotional energy into a sentence such as: “IF I am not getting attention, THEN I do not feel loved.” You can look at it with clarity and realize the absurdity of the rule. Now if the rule were that clear in your head to begin with you would have obviously realized it – but it wasn’t until you did the exercise of becoming aware of your rules and writing them down that you actually become aware of how absurd many of them are. As emotional energies rules will seem very real and very important. This is how in extreme cases people can kill or die for their rules! But when you finally put them down on paper in a form that your conscious mind can understand a simply written IF / THEN statement.. you then have an ‘AH-HA” moment of realization that will help you take conscious control of the rule – keep it if makes sense or discard it if it’s silly.

Now here’s the exciting part – if you want to create new rules you easily upload them into your brain. First you create IF / THEN statements you feel are much more empowering and your brain will quickly adopt them. If for example you want to be happier, create EASIER RULES for happiness. IF I am alive and breathing, I am happy. If I am smiling, I am happy.

HOW DO YOU DISCARD, KEEP OR CREATE RULES?

The very act of becoming aware of your rules is enough. You may not think you’re ‘doing anything’ just because you can’t manipulate them with your hands – but a mountain of evidence suggests that awareness alone can actually rewire the brain. Think about it – even though you read these words no physical interaction takes place between your eyes and these words. It is the conscious reflection upon these words that drives the change in your brain.

CREATE RULES THAT ARE INTERNALLY DRIVEN

The most important part about creating rules is that they MUST be internally driven. You cannot control a million dollars in your bank account – but you CAN control the work you do to create a million dollars. If the end goal is happiness, the million dollars is the outcome of something more important. IF I am serving the marketplace with a valuable product, THEN I am happy. You control what you bring to a marketplace – you don’t control how the marketplace responds.

Rules that are internally driven are easier to control. Examples of internally driven rules:

Internally Driven Rules for Love
IF I am giving unconditionally, THEN I feel love.
IF I grateful for the relationships in my life, THEN I feel love

Internally Driven Rules for Happiness
IF I do my work with integrity, THEN I am happy about who I am.
IF I do work that I choose for myself, THEN I am happy about my freedom.
IF I can bring value to a marketplace, THEN I am happy about my contribution.

Internally Driven Rules for Peace
IF I remember my breath, THEN I feel at peace
IF I remember how short life is, THEN I can let go of petty things

WHAT IS TRUTH?

Truth is what the best rules are for a given scenario. That’s what you really seek, that’s what everyone really seeks – the ‘most true’ rules for navigating reality. Contrary to what you might believe, people love rules; not rules that imprison or limit, but rules that set free. Yes, rules that create rather than inhibit freedom – these are the most sought after. What is freedom? It is unbound awareness. You, the soul as awareness want to escape the boundaries of your container and you must take control of your brain power to create the rules that enable you to escape! Set yourself free.

Let Go and Notice

Posted in Perspective · Self Improvement |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Letting go implies that you are holding onto something. Let go and notice what you release. When you are attached to it, it’s hard to tell yourself apart from it. But when you let go – you can instantly recognize that it was not you.

An attachment to change outside of your control is anxiousness. Letting go and observing what unfolds is freedom. Appreciate the detail of whatever is happening but don’t be tempted to hold onto it just because you prefer it over other experiences. You never know what experiences may lay ahead and you cannot fully appreciate them if you are grasping for something that is not there (past or future).

When you let go it creates a vacuum. Rather than needing to fill it right away, observe it with curiosity. Trust that your heart will attract to you the things that you need to experience. This does not mean you don’t plan your life – it simply means to be aware of what you’re experiencing as you transition into what you have planned.

Is God a Man?

Posted in Self Improvement · Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

THE PRINCIPLE OF HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS

Like a plane alternating between higher and lower altitudes, higher consciousness is dictated by how well you choose your thoughts. You fly up and down your scale of consciousness all the time. From discussing the latest movie (low altitude) to discussing the purpose for living (higher altitude); as you entertain these thoughts notice what it feels like in your mind. Awareness of these fluctuating mind states enables you to choose the higher path more frequently if you wish.

Though you might come down to live life which often takes place at a lower level of consciousness – you may also re-choose a higher level of consciousness as often as you remember to. Exploring higher levels of consciousness takes time. It takes a willingness to ponder the ‘big’ questions. It takes a willingness to connect with the energy of your creation as much as possible. And at higher levels, it requires an extremely open mind. This is because labels, prejudices and false beliefs can become like anchors to your consciousness – only allowing your awareness to reach heights its familiar with. An open mind however, allows awareness to soar as high as it wants to go.

WHY IS HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS IMPORTANT?

The Soul (The energy known as Awareness) is inherently driven towards the energy of its creation, just as the body is inherently driven towards pain, pleasure, survival & procreation. There is no conscious choice in the matter. These core desires (both physical and spiritual) manifest themselves in a myriad of ways.

BEGINNING WITH THE BODY

For example the body’s natural desire to procreate requires that one be a suitable mate. On the surface level this creates competition, materialism, envy, anger and jealousy. Human beings aren’t ever taught to be competitive, envious, and angry or jealous – they are part of the genetic arsenal developed over eons to achieve the goal of survival. They have served a primitive purpose even if we ‘consciously’ no longer find them as relevant today.

Shyness in approaching the opposite sex is also an example of a ‘tool’ that has grown less useful in a larger society. You could enter a roomful of people, make a complete fool of yourself and never see them again for the rest of your life. This is far different from earlier times when humans existed in small tribes their entire lifetime and ‘what people thought’ was extremely important to finding a quality mate. In small tribes, one act perceived to be of ‘low mating value’ would have resulted in no sex (or genetic death), a hefty penalty if you ask me!

In a larger society with a larger selection – finding the right mate is no longer just about doing what is safe, but is now more of a numbers game. We know this consciously if we live in large cities – but because city living has only existed since over the last few thousand years our genetic programming has not caught up and adapted to the cultural shift.

SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE

But see – until you become knowledgeable of your ancestors, your behaviors might be a mystery to you. You question, “Why do my behaviors sometimes get in the way of what I want?” Your rational mind can only go so far in answering that question, until you learn about your ancestral background and realize that fear of rejection for example was useful thousands of years ago but is not as useful today. You no longer use a rock with a chiseled edge – something our human ancestors used for hundreds of thousands of years. Why? Because it’s not useful for today’s society, you look around and you see that times have changed so your tools must adapt. So why not look at the tools of your personality in the same way.

Personality itself is simply a tool for functioning in a society full of individuals. If we were all ‘one’ person – basically a body floating in outer space with no need for interaction, there would be no personality. The personality develops as an individual necessity. Two individuals cannot interact without a personality. Human beings honor personality or identities in the form of roles (family, friends, foe), titles (work, political), castes (social, economical), leagues (skill, appearance) etc.

HOW DO YOU IMPROVE THE PERSONALITY

Typically the more aware someone is of themselves, the more work they can do on themselves. Personal development inevitably leads to greater success in society. Why? Because through ‘knowing thyself” you can adapt your personality to suit the environment for the greatest pleasure, least pain and optimum chance for survival & procreation.

DESIRES ARE NOT A CHOICE

Although we sense we have some degree of ‘free will’ we do so within the box known as the human experience, you do not choose what you desire. You make the choice of what desires you will tune into (on a physical, mental or spiritual plane) and feel the need to take action on that desire – but the root desire was not a choice. It came from somewhere else.

WHERE DOES DESIRE COME FROM?

At the root of the human species is genetic programming. When you understand the genes you understand a great deal more about the human experience.

Genes appear to have basic desires: to survive and replicate. These basic desires take on the form of ‘strategies’. These strategies in the human domain consist of pleasure and pain. That which is pleasurable is ‘good’ that which is painful is ‘bad’. Because the environment is always changing, so too must the tactics; this is known as evolution.

Scientists have revealed that at point a long time millions of years ago binary replication became the ‘in thing’ for survival. This simply means that more than one sex (23 chromosomes sperm + 23 chromosomes egg) was required for replication to occur. This explains why we have sexes like man and woman. Why not a third sex? Apparently a third sex wasn’t necessary for survival.

IS GOD A MAN?

Now that science can tell us more about our genetic history than we ever knew before, this also aids our understanding of a creator or God. For example if God is an all powerful creator why would ‘he or she’ require a sex? Is God up there replicating? If he needs a woman to create – wouldn’t that mean he’s not all powerful?

I think there’s a more logical explanation for God being a sex. For religion to be effective it requires humans being able to relate with the object of their worship. If God was given a sex it is because primitive societies could understandably only relate to a man or woman. Unless God a fan of binary replication, God is not a man or a woman it’s an IT. And ‘ITs’ are harder for humans relate to but that doesn’t mean IT doesn’t exist.

NOW WE COME FULL CIRCLE

If God is an IT – this explains how he could assume the role of man or woman in the human experience. Or assume the role of the computer you are reading this on. Or the chair you are sitting on. Or be whatever and wherever spirit could possibly exist. God is not confined by labels – It is in the labels and outside the labels. It is in the religion and outside the religion. It is in human beings and outside human beings. It is in the terrorist, it is in the righteous. It is in the Tsunami that wipes out hundreds of thousands of human lives and it is in the ‘victims’. It is in your dearly departed and it is in you.

Because God is without label IT is harder to relate to – but that doesn’t mean we should only try to analyze him inside a label. That’s like scooping up water in a cup so we can analyze the ocean. On some level it makes sense, but just because it makes sense doesn’t mean we should do it.

The very vessel you are contained in is only a fragment of the greater IT. IT will always exceed your understanding because you are not IT – you are apart of IT. The more you earnestly you attempt to know IT through an open mind – the more fully you become IT.

Imagination Drives Change

Posted in General |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Imagination drives change. Imagination is seeing the world not as it is- but as it should be. Today’s reality is tomorrow’s wake- it is the destination that determines the course and it is the course corrections that determine the experience.

Suffering and Loss

Posted in Emotional · Perspective |  Email This Post | by James Rick

A friend asked recently about the suffering and loss of a dear loved one. Apparently her grandmother suffered for two years with a tube down her throat in a nursing home before passing on. The experience was hard on her and the fact that such a good woman had to suffer so horribly made the father question the existence of a God.

Sometimes extreme suffering and loss can cause us to question whether there really is a ‘caring’ entity known as God or if we’re all just on this planet through some accident. While I cannot answer what ‘God’s’ plan is, or what the specific ‘meaning’ is behind an individuals suffering (the ‘reason’ is different for everyone), I do believe there is a way to RESPOND to suffering and loss in a healthy manner. Having a method for dealing with loss doesn’t mean loss won’t still hurt, it just means you can learn from it and get on with your life more quickly.

A DISCLAIMER ON ‘LOSS EFFICIENCY’
Sometimes people subconsciously want to suffer for extended periods of times as a way to remain connected with the object of their love or to express how much they truly cared for someone. Dealing with loss quickly and moving on with life is generally not acceptable in today’s society. If a man’s wife dies and he’s out enjoying himself a week later – for most people that must ‘mean’ he didn’t really care for her or maybe he secretly wanted out of the marriage. They most likely wouldn’t think, “Oh, he must have an effective method for dealing with loss.” As a result of society’s linking mourning to caring, a prolonged period of suffering (or appearing as though they are suffering) might actually be preferred by some.

On the other side of the coin, some people have naturally developed the ability to move on quickly and might feel guilty about doing so. They might ask themselves, “What is wrong with me – why don’t I suffer longer like everyone else? Do I NOT care?” Understanding that subconsciously you might link your mourning period to caring is important. When your realize that the length of time you suffer doesn’t necessarily equate to how much you care – you free yourself from prolonged suffering. You can really love and care for someone AND return to a resourceful state quickly.

~~
A letter to a mourning grand daughter and a father questioning the existence of God

Sorry to hear about the challenges your grandmother faced before leaving this planet. As for the ‘meaning’ behind your grandmother’s suffering – I can understand why that might cause someone to question spirituality and the existence of God. I have struggled with the question myself when I think of soldiers beating down doors, raping and then murdering a mother in front of a husband and children. Imagining extreme evil helps to define extreme goodness. Extreme suffering creates a space for extreme joy to exist. In the words of Kahlil Gibran, “Sorrow carves out our being, but the space it makes provides room for more joy in another season of life.”

THE MEANING OF SUFFERING & LOSS
The meaning of your grandmother’s suffering is whatever you make it – and it’s different for everyone. To your grandmother it could be the final phase of her journey where she had an important lesson to learn about letting go of her body and the need to control things; an important lesson for the Ego to learn. For your father it could be a lesson of detachment from that which is temporary; it was inevitable that they would have to part ways on this Earth, one way or another. Perhaps he should be grateful that it was she that went first instead of him, for example is it possible that ‘God’ may have spared your grandmother from having to watch HIM suffer and die? Perhaps a loving God would know that it was HE that was the stronger of the two.

NEVER WHAT WE EXPECT
Death and suffering never really does happen the way we would expect. There’s a good chance we will be sad, disappointed and surprised anytime someone close to us suffers and dies, yet this has been going on for thousands of years. All you have to do is look around and see there is loss happening every day. The only guarantee in life is change. Everything and everyone around us are temporary. This includes our closest relationships and our own physical body.

UNDERSTANDING TEMPORARINESS
Understanding the dual nature to all creations prepares you for loss. When we are in love – we should not be surprised if hate or pain lurks on the other side. When we enjoy something temporary, we should not be surprised if loss and suffering happens.

Even with understanding, loss may still hurt when it happens – but it helps to really embrace the temporariness of life in advance. Rather than getting angry or feeling singled out – we can say “well, it is what it is“. It is what it is. (no meaning associated with it, just a statement of fact.) This doesn’t mean we didn’t care very much for the person or whatever we lost. It simply means we recognized even during the ‘glory days’ it was all a temporary experience. And rather than becoming attached to the things we enjoy most (like people and conditions)– instead we can truly appreciate them when they are here and wave good bye in a healthy, resourceful manner when they are gone.

IN SUMMARY
1) Change is going to happen whether we like it or not. The only thing we decide is how we respond to the inevitable.
2) Reminding ourselves daily that everything we are experiencing now is temporary (by imagining them as already gone), will prepare us when the inevitable departure occurs.
3) And when loss happens – we don’t have to link any meaning to it. It is what it is. The important question to ask is this: What have I learned from the experience so I can be a better person and live a better life?

How to Balance the 6 Major Life Areas for Greater Well Being

Posted in Self Improvement · Spiritual Guidance |  Email This Post | by James Rick

BALANCE FOR WELL BEING
Every day is a balance. Nutritionists suggest that you eat a variety of fruits, vegetables and proteins to make sure your body is getting all the essential nutrients and building blocks for your body. This same strategy is also important for other areas of your life as well. For example are you giving proper focus to your physical, mental, spiritual, social, emotional and financial well being or is the focus disproportionately invested into just a couple areas?

ARE YOU NEGLECTING AN ‘ESSENTIAL’ AREA?
Do you feel you are neglecting other important areas of your life? If so why? Many times people ‘know’ they should be focusing on another area and they are ‘trying’ but then they ‘RATIONAL-LIES’ (make up a story to explain their behavior) why they can’t put the effort into it they know they should.

THE SIX MAJOR AREAS OF LIFE ARE ESSENTIAL FOR WELL BEING
The reason why its so important to evaluate your life regularly based on these six major areas is because they are all essential to your well being. This fact is self evident – try to neglect any one area and your entire system suffers. Much like your diet, if you aren’t getting enough of one essential nutrient – even if overall you are eating healthy the system still begins to break down.

THE PLANT / PET METAPHOR
Imagine some areas are like plants – they need just a little nurturing to grow healthy while other areas are more like a pet, requiring significantly more time and attention to be healthy. Intuitively you’ll know when its time to nurture the plant – especially if the leaves start to sag and turn brown. You’ll also know when the pet requires more food or water – usually right away because he starts to nag at you. A simple metaphor I know, but the same thing is happening internally. If you don’t focus on financial growth- bill collectors start to nag at you. If you don’t focus on exercise, eating healthy or drinking plenty of water – your body begins to nag at you. If you aren’t developing yourself mentally – you’ll begin to feel stagnant. If you aren’t nurturing yourself spiritually – you’ll begin to feel empty inside. If you aren’t focusing on the social aspect of your life – you’ll begin to feel lonely and isolated. If you aren’t taking control of your emotions, creating a pause between stimulus and response – you are more reactive and feel ‘out of control’. There are many early warning signals that the leaves are sagging or turning brown. Do you listen to them and nurture these vital areas of your life or do you ignore them and place excessive focus on only one area of your garden?

HOW DO YOU BALANCE?
The first key is to realize that you don’t need to invest the same amount of time in all areas – what a relief right? But you do need to invest SOME time on a daily basis.

The easiest way to balance the six major areas of life is to simply be aware of them on a daily basis. Go down the list and ask yourself: “How do I feel about this area in my life right now?” Notice what you feel. Then ask yourself, “What goal would I like to set for this area of my life?” Set a clear and specific goal – something that YOU can actually take action on with no excuses. Even if you are super busy, setting a goal of 5 minutes for nurturing yourself spiritually while driving to work is far better than feeling tense about traffic.

Energy flows where focus goes. It’s as simple as that. By simply using the six major areas as landmarks for your focus and getting clear on how you want to develop them – you are nurturing them in that moment! And the time you invest in them later.

WHY MOST PEOPLE AREN’T LIVING THEIR FULL POTENTIAL
The reason why most people fall short of reaching their full potential is in my opinion, because they fall into a low value (low return on investment) pattern and stay there for a very long time. They neglect some essential area of their life and they come up with a good story for why they are doing it. The story then becomes the handcuff that chains them to one ‘landmark’. They become a slave to one plant while the others are dying.

FULL POTENTIAL ACTION STEPS
1) Evaluate the six major areas of your life (how do you FEEL about these areas):
A) Physical
B) Mental
C) Spiritual
D) Social
E) Emotional
F) Financial
2) Set a simple time goal for each area. Start with how much time you CAN invest in developing each area. Be honest with yourself, no stories this time.
3) Think about the specific activity you would like to engage in during that time. For financial that might be easy because you already have a ‘job’ with a specific job function and predetermined daily time investment. Now all you need to do is tackle the other areas of your life with the same clarity.

I Wonder

Posted in Emotional |  Email This Post | by James Rick

Those who walk this path
and see what I see
or feel what I feel
To what end, I wonder

This breath so alive
it fades into the next
and so on they go
where do they go, I wonder

My place; like a breath
alive in this moment
ready to fade
but where will I go, I wonder

The Fourteen Precepts of Interbeing – Thich Nhat Hanh

Posted in Power Lists and Formulas |  Email This Post | by James Rick

The following fourteen ‘precepts’ are views expressed by the author and Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh was born in Vietnam in 1926, and he left home as a teenager to become a Zen monk. In Vietnam, he founded the School of Youth for Social Service, Van Hanh Buddhist University, and the Tiep Hien Order (Order of Interbeing). He has taught at Columbia University and the Sorbonne, was Chair of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation to the Paris Peace Talks, and was nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1966, he has lived in exile in France, where he continues his writing, teaching, gardening, and helping refugees worldwide. He is the author of seventy five books including Being Peace, The Miracle of Mindfulness, and The Sun, My Heart.

These fourteen precepts serve as guides, though some precepts need further clarification; specifically related to wealth, politics and sex. I make these clarifications at the end.

1. Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

2. Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and
in the world at all times.

3. Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness.

4. Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images, and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.

5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.

6. Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your anger and hatred and the nature of the persons who have caused your anger and hatred.

7. Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.

8. Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts however small.

9. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.

10. Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.

11. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realize your ideal of compassion.

12. Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.

13. Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

14. Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and a long term commitment. In sexual relationships, be aware of future suffering
that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

~~

WEALTH
5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.

Wealth (at this time) is a driver of society. And the accumulation of wealth empowers the accumulator. Money then becomes an extension of their intention. Better to empower an idea that serves the greater good through the accumulation and investment of wealth in the right areas than not. Providing necessities to the millions of unfortunate is only possibly through the deliberate and intelligent organization of material resources. The best known ‘motivator’ for the deliberate and intelligent organization of materials resources is money. That may change in the future, but it is what it is for now.

The key here is that you must KNOW yourself before the accumulation of wealth. Otherwise you can fool yourself into believing you have good intentions until you acquire wealth and then squander it on sensual / ego pleasure. This caution was expressed best by Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are
almost always bad men.”

According to Lord Acton some great men were NOT bad men – those not corrupted by power deserve careful study. What you may find is that the truly ‘great’ are first masters of themselves. They develop this self mastery through great self study / awareness and adjustment.

POLITICS
10. Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.

Politics is an amoral tool, it can be used for good or evil. It should not be seen as something to avoid, but rather something to carefully guide. If you transform an educated community into a force for good in the world – why not do it? A great deal of good can be accomplished through leveraging political power. A democratic government in its essence is made up ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’; it is a community with a shared aim. Therefore the political ambitions of a community if alignment with the majority of the people can serve a great purpose, such as the fair and efficient distribution of resources FOR ALL, whether that be on a small or large scale.

SEX
14. .. Sexual expression should not take place without love and a long term commitment. In sexual relationships, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

Precept #14 needs clarification: “sexual expression should not take place without love and a long term commitment.” If only it were that simple. Love is not always distinguishable from lust. Lust can create the illusion of ‘we’ll be together forever’. In some religions or cultures where sex is only appropriate when married – people make a long term commitment to satisfy their lust. This is not done consciously, they don’t say to themselves: “I’m going to get married so I can satisfy my lust.” Instead they say something like, “I feel this incredible chemistry with this person, I feel so amazing when I’m with them – I want to take our relationship to the next level. I could see us together forever.” Only to regret their decision later. They might stay together because they made the commitment when in fact they would be better off separated.

Irresponsible sexual relations are unsafe, deceptive, manipulative and not only cause pain to the participants but perhaps more importantly may bring life into the world that is not guaranteed a ‘long term commitment’ by its parents – which is something nature presupposes (Have sex, rear children long term).

But responsible sex between two self aware, individuals can actually help them define biological lust over a more soulful love. The experience of sex can actually create more clarity in the relationship. And even if the relationship isn’t intended to be long term – responsible and consensual sex can still be beneficial. For example in some Gnostic and Hindu practices temple ‘whores’ were incorporated into meditative practice as a way to achieve divine spiritual union between the male and female.

I would venture to guess that Thich Nhat Hanh is coming from an ideological direction which sounds good in theory, but in practice correctly combining ‘love’ and ‘long term commitment’ with sexual relations is not quite so easy.

IN SUMMARY
With a little clarification, the 14 precepts of Interbeing serve as a ‘good’ guideline for the long term health of society.