The Secret of Life

One Last Secret...

After two and a half years and a hundred and forty posts, it looks like the time has come to put this blog to bed, at least for a while. I think it has built into a valuable source of spirituality-related information, so I very much intend to keep it up here on the net. If you've just discovered it and would like to find out more about what the site has to offer, then this page is a good place to start. And do feel free to email me or leave me a comment. I'll still be hovering about, and still very much involved in spiritual development - especially my own...

Which is why I'm taking a break really. I hope that The Secret Of Life has helped other people, but one thing I know is that it has certainly helped me. When I started it in October 2006, my experience of all this spiritual stuff was pretty much theoretical, but now it has very much become real, an integral part of my everyday experience. Writing here on a regular basis has kept these ideas to the front of my mind and has helped me to make that important transition.

But Eckhart Tolle has remarked that he gauges a person's spiritual development by the extent to which they have stopped thinking, and that's been the problem the last few months. I need to stop thinking so much, to get out of my mind and into my body - and running a blog like this tends to keep my mind buzzing away. Which is all very well in its way, just not what I need right now.

There used to be things I needed to discover - and this blog has been a useful gateway into that adventure. But now I think I know what I need to know, at least for the time being. Right now, I don't need more knowledge. I don't need more techniques. I just need to put what I already know into action.

Because that is the one last 'secret' I'd like the share here. You already know it, I suspect, but it won't hurt to remind you...

The point is that you can read all the books you like, watch all the DVDs you like, attend all the courses and workshops you like, but unless you use the techniques you've learned and carry the peace you may have experienced with you into your everyday life, you're not going to experience spiritual transformation. You might know more, but your life's going to stay pretty much the same as it always has been. So the time may have come to stop reading and live it instead.

Alternatively, you may not be at the stage right now of feeling that you have all the knowledge you need. There may still be things that you need to find out. If so then you've come to a pretty good place. This blog contains everything that I needed to know - or, at any rate, links to where to find it - and it may be the same for you. But all our journeys are different, so you may also have to look elsewhere. In which case, a good place to start are the sites of my fellow spirituality and self-development bloggers. There are links to some of my favorites here, but there are many more of them out there. I hope you enjoy your voyage of discovery...

If you have been a regular reader of this site, or have left comments here, or are one of the bloggers I've been lucky enough to come to know (or, indeed, if you are all three!) then thank you so much for your interest and support. It has been very important to me and has been appreciated more than you probably realize. I feel kind of sorry to be leaving you like this, but I don't really feel that I have a choice. It's just that the time has come to be doing something different.

Like I say, I may well return - either to this blog or to the internet in some other form. It occurs to me that when the time is right, I may write an eBook, for instance: perhaps the essence of The Secret Of Life in a compact form, perhaps including some of the other posts I had in mind but never quite got round to writing. Whatever I do, I will post about it here, so please consider maintaining - or taking out - a subscription to my email list. See the button in the sidebar. It's the best way for you to keep in touch with any future developments.

Before I go, I'd like to mention that my friend Sally Chaffer (who you may recognize from the comments she's left here at The Secret Of Life) now has some excerpts from her workshops available on a CD. If you can't get to one of Sally's workshops here in Yorkshire, UK in person (like there might be the odd few thousands of miles in the way) then her 'Keep The Peace' CD will give you a taste of her teaching. I was talking about the importance of carrying peace with us as we go about our day - and that is what Sally is all about.

Or if you prefer to stay here at The Secret Of Life for a while, here are a few of my favorite posts to take a look at:

My New Year Strategies For Spiritual Development, Equanimity and Walking The Walk are recent posts which will give you some idea of the kinds of techniques I'm currently putting into practice.

Feeling What Is, How Does It Feel To Win A Million?, Ripples On a Sea Of Peace, The Ultimate Truth Series, Earth Doomed (see page 53), A Sun-filled Room and Letting Go are choice blasts from the past.

Right then. That's about it. I feel that a resonant final paragraph would go very nicely here, but the truth is that if I could write one right now, I wouldn't be retiring the blog. So all I will say is: that's it for now! Namaste. Love and peace to you all...

My New Year Strategies For Spiritual Development

Well, I seem to be keeping to my New Year's Resolutions so far. This may not seem all that impressive, only a short way into January, but it's good going for me. I've normally forgotten them by lunchtime on New Year's Day.

What I decided this year was to put some of the useful stuff I write about in this blog into action for a change. All too often, I'm all full of bright ideas when I'm writing, but they slip out of sight when I switch off the PC.

This year it's going to be different. I'm going to be different...

There are two main simple strategies I'm putting into practice. Simplicity is important, I think, for actually doing stuff. Anything too complicated tends not to be there in the front of your brain when you need it.

The first thing is to deal with some of this great big well of negative emotions inside me. Goodness knows, I've been writing here about dealing with these emotions for long enough, and I have been acting on some of my advice. But it's a big issue for me - as I think it is for most of us, if we're willing to face up to it - and I really need to start doing more.

The hard bit is remembering what's really going on when those unwanted emotions well up inside you, when you get all annoyed or whatever particular emotion is bugging you today. That's the time when it's easy to lose the plot entirely and start getting all caught up in the drama of the situation. And you feel so unspiritual: 'like I've done all this new agey stuff all these years but I'm still like a bear with a sore head when some idiot does something I don't like. I should not be jumping around shaking my fists with steam coming out of my ears at this stage in my spiritual development! It's not fair!'

But it's a question of remembering that when this happens, it is part of our spiritual development: a very important part. These emotions are coming up to be released. I've written about this in more detail, including the various techniques for release in my recent post Letting Go, but the crucial ingredient of my New Year's Resolution is to remember to make the right connection in my head about what these emotions are all about.

When emotions came welling up, the old Simon used to get sucked into the drama of whatever situation had triggered them off, thereby stoking them up even more. If he thought about spiritual matters at all, he would reflect on the unfortunate contrast between the calm, joyful, advanced being he wished to be and the raging inconsolable madman he actually was. Which made him feel even worse...

But when these emotions well up now, the new Simon makes the all-important connection and thinks 'Ah-ha! There is work to be done! These emotions are coming up to be released!' and starts to put the appropriate techniques into action.

The last few days, since I've been doing this consistently, I've felt some really massive energy begin to shift within me. As a result of this, some emotional blocks to doing stuff are starting to fall away at last.

The second prong of my New Year's Resolution is to be in the moment more, instead of spending so much time in my mind. Once again, this is something I've written about a great deal here at The Secret Of Life - and most recently on Harmony's blog - but actually doing it for any length of time (like for more than a few moments) has proved more difficult.

For some reason, something seems to have shifted now, and I'm managing to close down my unnecessary mental chatter for longer periods of time. Partly I'm doing this by stringing along my ego, working to appease the very part of me that keeps those internal thoughts droning on in the first place. I tell the 'little me' inside what a wonderful achievement it will be if I can only switch off my mind for the next two minutes, or until I get home, or until I reach the next lamp post - or whatever suitable marker is in the offing...

It seems to respond well to these challenges and goes along with me at least some of the time...

It's great when this happens: when the chatter drops away and you feel the power of the moment, when you're really present in the now. There's sometimes peace, sometimes joy, always stillness. If you haven't yet connected with this, you may find it's easiest to experience when you're out in nature: out in the country or in a garden. You can read more about it in Eckhart Tolle's books. I particularly recommend the concise, very practical volume Practicing The Power Of Now.

To help stabilize this state, I'm also using a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) technique called anchoring. I've picked a word that describes best how I feel when I'm like this: 'joy', which I then repeat to myself when I'm in the present moment and also when I want to get back there. After a while, the mind begins to connect the word 'joy' with this state and so in time simply saying - or thinking - the word 'joy' brings me back there.

A bonus effect is that saying the word 'joy' when I'm in the moment is also a good way to keep the mind occupied. Whereas it could easily drift back into its usual internal monologue, it is too busy instead with its allotted task of repeating this word. (The best way to outsmart the mind is to tie it up in one of its own tricks...)

I don't remember to use these two techniques all the time, but by keeping them simple and, I think, moving them up my subconscious list of priorities, I'm putting them into practice more and more. And the more I use them, the more they are becoming a habit.

To summarize, the two strategies are:

1) Realize that emotions coming up are an opportunity, not a setback: use the techniques to feel and so release them.

2) Switch off the mind and be in the moment. Use the NLP anchoring technique to help to stay in this state and return there.

This strategy is already starting to pay off. I've spent the whole of today 'in the zone', the first time this has happened for ages. I don't know how long I'll stay like this - it's not usually more than a day or two - but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Each time I reach this state, it's subtly different. The all-important connection to joy is there if I pay attention to it, but this time the natural focus is much more on a kind of inner stillness and calm fluid action. The internal dialogue is largely silent - naturally silent, I'm not having to force it right now - and the internal critic, in particular, is keeping its trap shut, which is a cause for celebration in itself. There's a kind of quiet confidence about everything I do. It never occurs to me that I won't be able to do whatever I choose - though admittedly I haven't tried sky diving or bungee jumping yet. My actions seem to flow and be easy. When I've done one thing, I move on to the next, and whatever I'm doing, it always seem to be exactly the right thing for me to be doing right now. There's no self-doubt about it.

These aren't extraordinary things I'm doing: I've done the ironing, written some letters, repaired my glasses, written this blog... How does that famous saying go?  'Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.' That seems to be how it is shaping up in this latest mini-taster of progress I'm having. 2009 feels great so far. And it's still only January...

(P.S. If you're a blogger you may be interested in The Quote Effect, an interesting new project by Davina of Shades of Crimson. This is your chance to contribute three favorite quotes from your blog for inclusion in Davina's upcoming eBook. There are more details here.)

Don't Worry - Be Happy!

I'm always interested to check my Stats and see what people who come to my blog have been searching for. Sometimes, I'm afraid to say, it's clear that it's all been a terrible waste of time. I can only send apologies to those who were lured to my earlier post on The Taste of Tomatoes in search of gardening tips - and to those who ended up at my recent offering, Between One Moment And The Next, in a futile search for details of camp sites in the north of England. As to those come searching for something closer to what I'm really on about here, I always hope that they find something really useful here at my blog - but I rarely have chance to find out. It's usually my fellow bloggers and a few friends who leave comments - Googlers rarely do, and my Stats don't provide me with any contact details so that I can get in touch with these people to say "Hi!" This is all well and good, of course - from a data control and privacy point of view - but just occasionally I'd really like to know.

The other day, for instance, someone came here after a Google search for "what Eckhart Tolle says about worry" and I really hope they found what they were looking for, because what Eckhart says about worry is one of the most liberating things I've ever learned from him. I did cover the subject in my earlier post Making Plans, but the 'worry' bit wasn't exactly headlined so they may have missed it.

Never mind: better late then never. So - ta da! - here is my official "what Eckhart Tolle says about worry" post, specially for the next person who comes searching for this on Google - and for you, of course, especially if you've been feeling the burden of these uncertain times.

The gist of what Eckhart says - and pay attention here, because this could change your life - is that worry isn't important. Worry seems to be important but it really isn't! Worry serves no purpose whatsoever, so you may as well just forget all about it. Seriously.

Does that make you feel better? It certainly makes me feel better. I've spent my life feeling that when I have a problem looming, I have to worry about it. I have a duty to worry about it. If I don't worry, I am being irresponsible.

In actual fact, the opposite is true. You have a duty not to worry. You have a duty to lift that burden from your shoulders and focus on enjoying your life instead.

So allow that burden to lift right now! Does that feel better? And this is the way you can live your life from now on...

This doesn't mean to say that you don't have to deal with any problem which may come along. You still have to do whatever may be needed. But you don't have to worry yourself sick about it!

All you have to do is to ask yourself if there's anything you can do about the problem. If there's no action you can take, that's it. Put it out of your mind. Worrying won't serve any purpose. And what you have to remember is that you have a responsibility not to worry. Why? Because worrying will sap your energy. When this impending catastrophe happens (which, by the way, it probably won't) you will be far better able to deal with the aftermath if you haven't worn yourself out with worry in the meantime.

On other occasions, there will be something you can do about the problem. If you need to take action right now, that's simple enough. Just get on with it! Then worry won't get a look in, because you'll be too busy doing. You'll be in the moment instead of in your head.

If however, the problem is less urgent, than the best thing to do is to allocate an appropriate time to decide what action to take. This may be right now, or later today or, if things are less pressing, it may be a week on Tuesday. Until then, you can turn your attention with an easy mind to the other things in your life, whether they be duties or pleasures, all in the safe knowledge that you are not shirking your responsibilities with this worry holiday of yours. Quite the opposite. Because the only thing that worry achieves is to sap your precious energy.

And if you're still not convinced that you don't need to worry, here's something else to consider.

It seems that your subconscious mind has more resources than your conscious one. This means that it will probably arrive at an effortless solution to your problem while you're busy focusing on, say, the gardening or watching a movie. So, when a week on Tuesday finally arrives and you sit down with a pen and paper to think things through, you may discover that the problem is already solved. We're very good at working things out on auto-pilot... as long as we don't allow worry to get in the way.

*  *  *

 

A few useful links:

I covered some other aspects of this subject in my earlier post, Making Plans.

You can find various Eckhart Tolle links here

Some recommended books by Eckhart Tolle are:

The Power Of Now
Practicing The Power Of Now
A New Earth

 

*  *  *

You may also be interested in a guest post I've written for Harmony's excellent blog, Golden Zen. It's called Stop Thinking.

This may also be of interest:

Your Perfect Offering

Acceptance & Friendship

There's a wonderful story in last week's edition of the Eckhart Tolle & Oprah Winfrey webcasts which echoes what I've been talking about in my recent 'Ultimate Truth' series of posts. It lasts about five minutes. You can listen to it here.

The whole of these weekly webcasts are available on free download (in either audio or video format) from Oprah's web site. If you haven't been following them, I urge you to give them a try. I thought that last week's (number six) was particularly powerful.

You may have noticed a picture which has recently appeared at the top of my sidebar. This is a recent award which was passed on to me by the generous Angelbaby. I think it's a lovely image and one which appears to symbolize a lot of what this blog is about, so I stuck it up there on the mantelpiece as soon as I got it. But it's a chain of friendship award and the idea is that I pass it on, not hoard it for myself.

So, if you are reading this, please consider yourself my friend! Please feel free to accept this award and know that you deserve it. You can use it on your blog (if you have one) and pass it on to others. Let's spread the love around and let it encompass the Earth...

Eckhart, An Update... And This Time It's A Dolphin

There's a whole big bundle of stuff today. First of all, a bit more about the Eckhart-Oprah webcasts. If like me you've been listening to these on your portable player, you may be interested to learn that Pete at Touchstones has some selected video clips from the webcasts up for discussion on his blog. The pictures seem to give an extra dimension to the discussions - and enhance the sense of presence you can get from experiencing Eckhart Tolle's teaching.

I suspect that different parts of the webcasts will stand out for different people - you hear whatever you need to hear at the time. For me, the part of the second discussion which really grabbed me was when someone emailed in to ask how best to break free of the ego. 'Ego' isn't an expression I've used a lot on this blog but of course this is referring to the part of ourselves which is constantly trying to prove itself and compare itself to others, the part which is constantly seeking validation. Eckhart describes the ego as trying to 'complete itself'. It is aware that something is missing but it's not sure what, so it is constantly searching and looking for 'the next thing'.

Eckhart's advice in response to this question was to try to become as comfortable as we can with the present moment. This is because the ego hates the present moment. In its urge to 'complete itself', it is constantly on the lookout for what is going to happen next, as it searches for whatever it needs to make it whole. It is therefore constantly wishing for the present moment to end. So if you can lose that impatience and become comfortable with whatever is happening right now, you are starting break free from the ego and get in touch with your true self, which can always be found in the peace and power of the present.

If these webcasts have piqued your interest in Eckhart Tolle, you may like to go along to a Stillness group, where you can watch a video of Eckhart's teaching and then experience stillness in the company of others. My friend (and The Secret Of Life reader) Sally runs the group here in Leeds, UK, and hosts a directory of such groups throughout the UK. This site also includes links to groups in Eire and Spain. For US and other international groups, there is a similar site here.

Moving on to other things, the Gateways Of Light video about planetary transformation, which I featured back in January, got some good feedback, and I was recently contacted by Chris Bourne of Openhand Foundation, who developed the video. Chris wanted to let me know that it has now been 'improved and upgraded', so the original post now links to this new version.

I've mentioned before that I attend Ed Harpin's Kundalini Yoga and Deeksha sessions in Huddersfield here in the UK and I've recently written about my experience of the sessions on Ed's web site. You can find my write-up, along with the experiences of some other attendees here.

And don't forget to take a look at the comments on the posts here at The Secret Of Life if you get the time. We've been having some particularly interesting discussions recently, especially in response to the post How Much Do We Really Know? And of course, any comments you would like to leave yourself are very welcome...

Finally, here's a heartwarming story about a dolphin who came to the aid of some beached whales. I don't intend to deluge you with cute animal stories (much as I like them myself!) but I particularly like this one because of what it reminds us about dolphin intelligence and empathy for creatures outside its own species. (And also because it's just like Skippy the bush kangaroo...)

Eckhart, Oprah.... And A Giraffe

There's been a lot of publicity, but just in case you hadn't heard, Oprah Winfrey is talking to Eckhart Tolle about his book A New Earth in a series of ten live interactive webcasts on Monday evenings. Each of the webcasts will focus on a different chapter of the book. You can sign up to participate here.

The first of these webcasts took place last week and is now available to download here. The project seems to have been very well planned. There's even a handy reckoner here to work out when the webcast will take place in your particular time zone. It works out at 6pm US Pacific time, 9pm US Eastern time, and 2am here in the UK (where the downloading option is proving rather popular).

Apparently half a million people watched the first webcast live, so it looks like the project will bring this kind of teaching to unprecedented numbers. I know it's shamefully frivolous of me, but I can't help wondering if Eckhart's trademark beige sweaters will become the must-have fashion accessory of 2008.

I have to say that I found the first webcast compulsive listening. Oprah Winfrey's contributions brought an interesting new perspective to Eckhart's teaching and the webcast may be of particular interest to those who are unsure about how to integrate spiritual teachings with existing Christian beliefs. Do let me know what you think...

And finally... What was that about a giraffe, you may be asking? Well, we've recently touched on IQ tests here on the blog and some of you expressed a bit of skepticism, so I though you might appreciate an antidote to such tests. Here's a link to a test of... well, something or other. I think you'll enjoy it. Take the giraffe test here! And if you'd like to let me know how you get on, I'll be happy to hear from you...

A Sun-Filled Room

Eckhart Tolle tells a wonderful story about a candle in a dark room. Because the room is dark, whether or not the candle is lit is all-important. By the candle flame, we can find our way round and are reassured, but without that feeble flame we are totally lost.

If, however, the room is flooded with sunlight, the candle becomes irrelevant. We are no longer dependent upon its light.

Tolle suggests that in our current state of consciousness, most of us live - metaphorically - in a darkened room. We are dependent upon the ups and downs of the material world to illuminate our darkness. As long as things are going well, we are happy enough. But when bad things come along - as is bound to happen from time to time - we lose sight of the light.

If, instead, we can learn to live in sunlight, we can be free of our dependence upon the material world. In the brilliance of the sun-filled room, even when things go wrong, we can still be happy.

So how exactly can we learn to live in sunlight?

It is said that once this came naturally to us. When we were babies, we were in touch with a natural sense of joy. OK, so things would come along from time to time to cloud that joy: a touch of indigestion, for instance, or if we flung our rattle away. But these upsets were swiftly forgotten. There were tears - and then our smiles returned. Our connection to joy was never far away.

As we grew older, however, we lost that connection to joy.

It seems to me that there were two main reasons for this.

First of all, we were taught the importance of thinking, to such an extent that we eventually became so preoccupied with this new pastime of ours that we no longer took much notice of what was going on around us. So we ceased to notice if the connection to joy was there or not.

Fortunately, this can be easily corrected. Just stop thinking and there it is: the connection to joy is still there. Or else, the connection is there if you give it half a chance. You will probably have experienced it from time to time: as a sudden sense of peace while out for a walk in the country perhaps. Or else suddenly realizing that you are inexplicably happy for no apparent reason, absence of thought having caught you unawares for a moment or two. Stopping thinking isn't really so hard. It's just keeping it up for more than a second or two at a time that's the difficult bit...

Rather more troublesome is the other habit you were taught that got in the way of that connection to joy: learning not to cry if you threw your rattle away. Or if your best friend moved out of town. Or your dog got run over. Or you lost your job. Or your marriage broke down. Until eventually you were going through life carrying around a load of suppressed emotions, because somehow or other you got the idea that it wasn't OK to express your feelings any more.

And all this stuff that you are carrying about is a double whammy. First of all because it makes you unhappy and gets in the way of your present day relationships - as you may have already noticed - but also because it blocks that connection to joy, which is something which may have been less apparent.

This was something which was made very clear to me last summer. I wrote a post then about a process called the Quantum Light Breath which allowed me to release some of my suppressed emotions and seemed to open me up to what I can only describe as 'light energy', reconnecting me with that sense of joy. The impression I got was that the connection had been there all along but had been 'clogged up' with the debris of my emotions. It was literally like a dirty flue being cleared!

I have had similar - though less spectacular -  experiences since then, and I have to tell you that being connected to that joy, even for brief periods, is every bit as wonderful as it sounds. That 'sun-filled room' is real, and I am sure that it is attainable by us all.

I've posted previously (here and here) about other ways to clear these suppressed emotions and I intend to post about more of them in the coming months. I have come to realize that it is vital to deal with these emotions if we're to break through to that 'sun-filled room' and start to live our lives there. The good news is that we don't have to analyze all our stuff, but we do have to face those feelings to allow them to be released.

As for stopping thinking, well joking aside, this can also be quite a task, though perhaps a rather less painful one.  Meditation is useful here, as are the teachings of Eckhart Tolle - though I also suspect that as the emotions are cleared, unnecessary thought is also quietened. When there is less hurt, there is less need to go round and round in endless circles of thought.

Please note that by 'stopping thinking', it's this constant pointless mind chatter to which I'm referring, the 'what ifs' and 'if onlys' and just plain gibberish which chunders on and on in our brains for most of the time. So the brain surgeons and air traffic controllers amongst you can relax - it's still OK to think when we really need to! - but you might be surprised at what a small proportion of the thinking which most of us do that actually is.

With the New Year upon us, what I've tried to do in this post is to clarify what the shift in perspective which underpins this blog is all about and the steps we may have to take if we wish to allow it into our lives. Spiritual awakening, self realization, enlightenment, call it what you will, doesn't interest everyone, but if you feel drawn to it, or are tired of the pain which our habitual state of consciousness tends to produce - or a combination of both! - then perhaps you will start to prioritize making that change.  If you choose to do so, then the road before you may be a bumpy one, but the glimpses I've had of the way ahead suggest that it will be worth it in the end. I'll place as many signposts as I am able to find on this blog, and of course there are many more to be found in other places...

The good thing is that you don't have to believe anything in particular to make this change. If you already subscribe to a belief system, that's fine. If you don't, that's fine as well.  All you have to do is to clear the emotions and thoughts which get in the way of that natural connection to joy.

And, as I've mentioned before, this is not just a personal thing to help ourselves as individuals. A glance around at the state of the world is enough to show that the human race is sorely in need of a shift to a higher state of consciousness. As we make that connection to joy and start to live our lives in the 'sun-filled room' to which Eckhart Tolle refers, we will come to realize that we are not after all separate beings but an integral part of the human race, a part of the universe: that we are all in this together. As we move into 2008, that is a realization which is long overdue for us all.

Happy New Year! It looks like it might be a challenging one. May it be a time of positive transformation!

 

These may also be of interest:

What if I Lose This?

The Image Within

Quantum Light Breath

Between One Moment and The Next

Cartoon Time (and more...)

A few things this time. First of all, here are a couple of interesting animations on a similar theme:

This first one, based on a vintage recording by Alan Watts, makes an interesting comparison between life and music. It's an old recording and the quality is poor at first, but it swiftly improves as it goes along:

I found the above on richgrad's blog. Many thanks to him for finding it!

Thanks too to Linda (aka Cosmic Sunshine) for sending me the link to an animation called The Book Of Now, which you can find here. They request your email address unfortunately but I don't seem to have been spammed as a result - and it's a great animation, kind of a cartoon version of Eckhart Tolle's teaching.

Did anyone else try the recent Jyothi transmission? I've written about my own impressions here. Please feel free to add yours too...

Special thanks to those of you who left supportive comments on May's blog, in response to my recent post! May left some response here.

Finally, here are a couple of local notices. If, like me, you live in Yorkshire in the north of England (or thereabouts) my friend Ed Harpin (who contributed two fascinating comments on enlightenment a few months back) is starting up Deeksha sessions in Huddersfield again. He is now combining Deeksha (also known as the Oneness Blessing) with Kundalini Yoga. The details of his classes are here.

And if you live a bit further north, Heidi Fawkes is continuing her regular Deeksha sessions in Otley and Hunton. You can contact Heidi here.

There are links to information on Deeksha sessions worldwide in my original post on Deeksha.

The Heart Of The Secret 3 - Contemplating Perfection

Earlier this year, The Secret DVD did much to publicize the law of attraction - the idea that we can create our own reality through the power of positive thought. In this series of posts, I'm highlighting what I see as the most useful techniques in The Secret, and the one I'd like to talk about today is one which you may not have encountered before even if you've seen the DVD, because it doesn't appear in the movie, only in the accompanying book.

The reason it didn't make it onto the DVD may be because it will only make immediate sense to those who are already familiar with the idea of being in the moment and connecting with the energy which can be found there. If you read this blog regularly, you'll already know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, I urge you to look at one of Eckhart Tolle's excellent books The Power Of Now or the briefer Practicing The Power Of Now, which will explain all about it.

You could also try taking a look at one or two of my earlier posts. Feeling What Is briefly describes the process of coming to rest and connecting with the moment, while An End To All Abuse contains a visualization in which you imagine being one with the universe, an integral part of everything that is.

Both of these are gateways to the same state of consciousness, in which you realize that you are an integral part of everything: a part of the force of nature, a part of the universe. In such a state, you are able to focus on your own perfection, on your own boundless abundance, for if you are a part of this great energy, then you too must share its attributes, you too must possess its limitless power.

With a focus like this, there is no longer any room for the anxious thoughts which might creep in if you were trying to imagine a new house or a car. Those nagging questions "will it work?" or "do I deserve it?" become irrelevant. Once you are aware that you are part of this energy, that you are one with the universe, there can be no doubt that you share in its perfection. So focus on that perfection - and bring it into your life.

This technique can be particularly useful for working on your health. The Secret DVD suggests that to improve your health, you should imagine yourself being well, but this can be hard to achieve if you are severely disabled or in great pain - or even if you've got a bad cough for that matter! In such a situation, doubts can be hard to dispel. If you feel really ill, it isn't always easy to imagine feeling better again.

If, however, you realize that you are one with all that is, that you are not separate from the life force which puts the buds on the trees and brings the green shoots from the earth, then you cannot fail to understand that on a spiritual level at least, you are perfection. Contemplate this perfection - and feel it seep into the cells of your physical body.

This is a wonderful exercise, but if you have difficulty with the whole 'oneness with the universe' thing, I came across a useful variation at Sue Ann Edwards' excellent blog, Always Embraces All Ways.  This has the rather dull title of Standard Technology (not Sue Ann's name!) but it's a very powerful exercise.

Briefly, what you have to do is to imagine that there's a perfect cell in your body. I think all of us are willing to accept that we have at least one of them! Imagine that cell all vibrant and happy, then set it as the standard for all the other cells in your body. And watch the perfection spread throughout your being...

If you like the sound of that exercise, please go and read all about it at Sue Ann's blog here.

Next time, in the last of this series, I'll be talking about the most powerful law of attraction technique of all. And this one is very, very simple...

(To see the previous posts in this series, please click here: part 1 - part 2)

 

These may also be of interest:

Feeling What Is

An End to All Abuse

Let's Pretend

A Virtual Tour

Did I tell you we'd moved house? With so much else to blog about, I don't think I've got round to mentioning that we moved into our new place a few months ago. Which is kind of rude, considering that I shared so much of the stress of our move with you. The least I can do is show you round...

One thing I like about the house is that there's a kind of warp in space-time between the front and the back. There weren't many houses with one of those in our price range. The front is all light and airy and kind of public. Our front garden is on quite a steep incline so that our house is elevated above the road, yet on the other side of the road the ground rises again, so that we're looking out on a great sweeping panorama of suburbia, with houses and gardens rising each upon the last, like something out of a painting by Mr Zip.

There's excellent scope for snooping here. If I wanted to, I could sit at our large bay window with a cup of tea and a writing pad and make copious notes on the doings of all our neighbors. If any illicit affairs go on, we'd be the first to know about it. Maybe that's an idea for another blog...

All in all, though, I think I'd rather sit at the back of the house instead. It's altogether different here on the other side of the space-time warp. It's cozy and private and it's like looking out on a meadow. There are cottage garden type flower beds near the house, while at the bottom of the garden on the far side of the lawn there's an apple tree and an overgrown patch of shade-loving plants and weeds. If you go out there at dusk, you can hear a very noisy rustling of leaves as our heavy-footed hedgehog comes traipsing through on its nightly rounds, rooting out supper. It's a good thing those slugs and snails and whatnot aren't too bright - or else are hard of hearing - or they'd be oozing off out of the way before the poor thing could get within sniffing distance.

The kitchen is kind of tiny and the porch is falling down, so we'll pass those swiftly by and take you up to the next floor instead, where there's a massive new bathroom with a walk-in shower. Our predecessor led us to believe he was into communal bathing - or at any rate, he clearly had this earmarked as a principal selling point for the house, being careful to emphasize that the shower and the bath would both take two people, though whether both appliances were supposed to be in use at the same time wasn't clear. I'll draw a veil over whether or not we've tested this out, but suffice it to say that we don't have to worry about getting claustrophobic when we're taking a shower.

The back bedroom used to be the kids' room and is decorated in glaring blue and yellow. There used to be a picture of Bart Simpson on the wall but our predecessor took it with him, which is kind of upsetting but I can't quite bring myself to bother to buy a replacement. Without Bart, the blue and yellow color scheme doesn't really make sense any more. It's like a piece of modern art which has lost that manifesto thing which explains what it's all about, and the room is now under threat of being magnolia-ed.

The front bedroom is even more light and airy and public than the room below - kind of like Turner meets suburbia - so it's rather intriguing that there aren't any curtains. Nor any means of hanging curtains. Nor any sign that there has ever been any means of hanging curtains. Curious, eh?

The last room on this floor is the tiny study - The Secret Of Life's control center.  You can commiserate with me for a moment about the impossibly cramped and squalid conditions under which I toil, then follow me up to the top floor, where you have to mind your head because of the roof beams. This once used to be the loft, but it is now an en suite bedroom, and due to the low ceiling it's the coziest room in the house. We can lie here and watch the sky though the Velux window.

From time to time, a white feather appears on this window. Some of our friends tell us that this is because we've been visited by an angel. We like this idea, but I have to admit that the skeptic in me keeps looking out for a balding seagull instead.

So that's the house. It's a nice place, but the main reason we moved was actually nothing to do with the house at all. It was because the part of Leeds in which we lived before was rather soulless. Here in Roundhay, there's much more sense of life. Just a short walk away is the Friends Meeting House, where Sally (who often leaves a comment here) runs an Eckhart Tolle group on a Monday night, and which hosts many other interesting meetings and classes: meditation, healing, yoga and so on. Further along the main street are bustling bars and cafes, while a bit further still are Roundhay Park and the Canal Gardens, which I may well write about in a future post. Here too is the Roundhay Fox pub, where you can sit outside on one of the rare summer days we have and watch the world go by - on its way to the park and back again - while the staff pour you endless refills of excellent coffee.

This being the internet, I'm conscious of the fact that the manager of the Roundhay Fox is likely to google this at any moment and set me straight, so I'd better point out that customers are really only entitled to one refill of coffee. But it's worth taking a chance or two in life, don't you think?

Which brings us back neatly to the subject of moving house. If you want to step outside your comfort zone, I recommend it. As I mentioned in that earlier post, Chris and I built up a lot of drama around the whole business. OK, so there was a guy along the chain of purchasers who was playing around and complicating things, so there was plenty of scope for drama. But then, in life there usually is. We didn't have to feed it if we didn't want to. Instead of getting all anxious, we could have just trusted, which on reflection would have been an awful lot easier on our nervous systems.

And after all, it turned out fine in the end. Which is probably down to Sally, who was using the law of attraction on our behalf all along. As indeed was Chris, who had written our names and our new address on a sheet of paper which she kept on prominent display at all times.

As for myself, I found that acceptance did the trick. As you may have gathered, I'm not exactly accomplished at putting out positive intentions, but when the sale got very difficult, I trusted nevertheless. I trusted that what would be would be and that whatever happened, it would be All Right. And as soon as I started thinking that way, it so happened that everything fell into place and the sale went through.

Which kind of begs the question, where should we put our focus: intention or acceptance? And is there a conflict here? Can we seek to attract specific outcomes in our lives yet also accept the way things are? I raised this point in my earlier post (Positive Thinking For Beginners) and The Secret Of Life reader Bet has also raised it here.

Meanwhile, Sally (who is getting rather a lot of name-checks this post) recently attended a retreat with Eckhart Tolle, at which he was asked about that incredibly popular guide to the law of attraction, The Secret - she has shared Eckhart's response here.

All of which makes me think: I've written quite a lot about 'acceptance' recently (in the posts How Does It Feel To Win A Million? and Ripples On a Sea Of Peace), so perhaps it's about time I turned my attention to the law of attraction again...

(I hope you liked the house, by the way. Do call again!)