The Secret of Life

The Age Of Stupid

Following on from the previous post on Earth Hour, if you get the chance, do take a look at The Age Of Stupid, a powerful new movie about climate change. It's currently being screened at a series of one-off showings at cinemas throughout the UK and the makers are hoping to generate enough interest to get it on general release. If you live in the UK, check here for a screening near you.

International screenings will follow. US release is scheduled for May, Australia for July, and India for September... You can also organize a screening yourself at your college, school, pub, bookshop, cinema, local group etc. See details of how to do this here.

Walking The Walk

A couple of weeks ago, my wife Chris and I attended a course at a clinic in London. This was quite an achievement in itself as we'd previously hoped to attend last year but Chris' back went in the shower on the morning of our departure and the trip had to be postponed. We nearly didn't make it again this year, as Chris' back was dodgy again and the weather did its bit by flinging copious amounts of snow in our direction, not least on the very day of our travel. But gritty determination - helped by the grit on our driveway - won through in the end.

After all this effort, it was quite ironic that there was nothing in the substance of the course which I hadn't already written about here at The Secret of Life: namely coming into the moment; NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and EFT (emotional freedom technique). What was very valuable, however, was the realization that these tools could be used not only for our spiritual development but also to help with our long term health condition: we've both had CFIDS (also known - principally - as ME here in Britain).

Increasingly, in recent years, these and other such techniques are being used to treat CFIDS, the theory being that those of us who have had the condition are prevented from healing because our bodies are stuck in a highly-stressed 'fight or flight' state (known as 'maladaptive stress response'). The suggested aim is to develop the habit of spending most of our time in a more relaxed 'healing state' instead.

I'm occasionally asked if all the spiritual work I've done has helped my physical health as well, and I've always replied with a cheery "no - not really". This has never bothered me very much because I haven't been doing the spiritual work with such an expectation in mind. But I realize now that there may be a very good reason why there hasn't been a physical 'pay-off': because I still have a lot of work to do to integrate such spiritual progress as I have made into my everyday life. I have written on this blog about being 'in the zone', in tune with the universe, and so on, but the truth is that I am only in that sort of state of consciousness for about one or two percent of my time. For the rest of the time, I'm still in the same uneasy relationship with life that I always have been, with an eye out for the next thing likely to go wrong and a pathological desire to please all the people I meet: by no means the most relaxed state of mind to carry around with me.

Or to put it another way: there is a considerable disparity between the beliefs I write about on this blog and those ideas which are fixed at the front of my skull as I go about my life, the two big ones I've lumbered myself with being a) if I'm not careful, something terrible will happen and b) other people's opinion of me is important - neither of which are exactly conducive to peaceful healing.

So I need to really work at this (in a gentle, therapeutic kind of a way :-) ): to allow the ideas I espouse in this blog to penetrate into my subconscious mind so that I carry them with me through my day. I need to integrate them into my life, integration being the term which my friend Sue Ann has used to describe this process. Or to put it another way, I need to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk.

So, this is yet another one of those posts where I say I'll be blogging a bit less in the near future, though you've probably got used to them by now. To judge by past experience, the likelihood is that the blog will plod along in much the same way as it always does, though if I seem to be slacking from time to time, you'll know that I'm doing what I really need to be doing, which is working on myself - I hope you will be kind enough to be patient.

In case anyone is wondering, the London clinic we attended is the Optimum Health Clinic, and as well as the psychology-based approach I mentioned above, they also provide nutritional therapies (aka 'functional medicine') which we also receive. If you have CFIDS/ME yourself and would like more feedback about the clinic, please leave a comment or send me an email (see the email link near the top of the sidebar).

It's interesting, though, that the clinic advocates this kind of approach for CFIDS. They don't market it specifically as a spiritual approach, and it is possible to use the techniques they teach without getting into the spiritual dimension at all, but it's kind of lurking there beneath the surface and there is a spirituality section on the clinic's web site.

I have occasionally come across the idea of CFIDS being linked to spirituality in some way and there do indeed seem to be people with the condition at most of the spirituality events I attend. This is scarcely surprising perhaps, because the 'enforced leisure' which the condition affords provides ample scope for asking such questions as 'who am I?' and 'what is the point of life?', enquiries which might normally be overlooked in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

More controversially, I've heard it suggested that people become ill with CFIDS because of the spiritual transformation involved in developing a 'light body'. I haven't been convinced by this theory, however, because it seems to me that plenty of other people are undergoing spiritual transformations without any such inconvenience to their health.

But the clinic's approach to CFIDS makes me speculate. I've written before on this blog about the need for the human race to undergo a transformation in consciousness if we are to survive our present difficulties. But how is such a thing to be achieved when the need seems to be so urgent? People talk about something big happening in 2012, but that is only a few years away now. We seem to be running out of time. How is all this transformation supposed to take place?

Perhaps the economic upheaval in the world has come to entice us towards this change in consciousness, and perhaps there are other such uncomfortable incentives waiting in the wings. But perhaps it is also significant that CFIDS/ME seems to be affecting an increasing proportion of the population, and that the ultimate cure for this condition may now prove to be nothing less than spiritual transformation itself. I'm not sure if this is a carrot or a stick, but it's a big enough incentive to walk the walk...

I'm always interested to receive your comments. This platform is sometimes dodgy, so if you have trouble posting a comment, please email me using the link near the top of the sidebar and I'll post it on your behalf.

Your Perfect Offering

At this time of year, it's easy to find ourselves rushing around in a mad dash to get everything done before Christmas, so maybe it's a good time to consider if we're being too hard on ourselves. Next time you're struggling to complete some task and make it exactly right, it's worth bearing in mind that the world is an imperfect place. It's meant to be that way. Indeed, if everything was perfect, we wouldn't even be here. Science has proved it.

For the earliest example of this inherent imperfection, we need to go back to the Big Bang, when the universe was created. At that time, scientists now understand, equal amounts of matter and something equal and opposite called antimatter were created. Except that as nothing is perfect in the universe, there is a slight flaw in the statement I just made. It should have read: "almost equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created". In actual fact, it now turns out, there was a tiny deviation of one extra particle of matter for every 10 billion particles. So slightly more matter than antimatter was created. This is an example of something called a 'broken symmetry', and the physicist Yoichiro Nambu has recently won a Nobel prize for his work in this field.

This particular broken symmetry is very important, because what happens when matter meets antimatter is that they cancel each other out. First you have stuff, now you don't. Poof! So just after the Big Bang happened, a lot of this canceling out took place. A lot of matter met antimatter and disappeared. Which means that... if there had really been equal amounts of matter and antimatter, everything would have disappeared. It's only because of the broken symmetry, the imperfection, that any matter remains at all. Otherwise, we - and the universe - wouldn't even exist.

But the importance of imperfection doesn't stop there. The human race, and every other race of creatures on this planet - with the possible exception of the amoeba :-) - are also a product of imperfection. Our race hasn't evolved in a smooth, orderly progression, but by throwing up random genetic mutations which occasionally suit the prevailing conditions better than their 'normal' parents and therefore thrive. These successful mutations then pass on their genes to subsequent generations, causing the species to evolve accordingly. People who have physical characteristics which differ from 'the norm' may often suffer ridicule at the hands of their fellows, but the fact is that without such examples of 'imperfection', evolution wouldn't have happened - and we'd still all be one step down from a barnacle.

So maybe we should bear in mind the beautiful imperfections of our world in our daily lives. And maybe we don't need to give ourselves such a hard time by dotting every 'i' and crossing every ''t. Maybe we don't even need to get all our apostrophes in the right place's. We may still want to do our best in life, but that may not require 100% perfection in very task we do.

I recently read an article by Bob Cox which suggested that we should ask ourselves: "have I achieved 90 percent of what I was aiming for with this project?" If the answer is yes, then maybe we'll be wearing ourselves out unnecessarily if we take it the extra ten percent. Maybe our efforts would be better applied elsewhere - or in giving ourselves a well-earned rest.

This idea has to be interpreted with care, of course. I'm not sure how applicable it is to brain surgery, for instance, and if I was working on a murder mystery, I wouldn't want to stop writing when I was 90% of the way through the book. But when I got to the end, I might choose to leave it at two revisions instead of three...

Some might consider the figure of 90% perfection to be too low. They might prefer to go for 95%, or even 98%. But the general principle remains the same. If you're trying to make it perfect, you're probably wasting your time. You're more likely to wear yourself out than achieve perfection - and the chances are that no one else but you will notice the difference anyhow.

So next time you knowingly leave off a task when it's less than perfect, there's no need to give yourself a hard time. Instead, rejoice in the fact that you are perfectly in tune with an imperfect world. As Leonard Cohen puts it in his song: "Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

 

These may also be of interest:

Don't Worry - Be Happy!

Being Ourselves

Between One Moment And The Next...

Last time, I was talking about Phil Bolsta's book, Sixty Seconds, in which various people describe brief moments of spiritual awakening, and I asked if any of you have had similar experiences. Thanks to those of you who responded! Now perhaps it's time for me to share an experience of my own...

There have been several occasions when such a thing has happened to me, and I consider myself very lucky to have been granted such revelations. I think it's happened several times because, set in my ways as I am, I've needed a great deal of prodding to grab my attention. The experiences I've had were pretty seismic shifts in consciousness, our everyday world falling away to reveal an altogether deeper truth beneath, but even so my consciousness duly shifted right back again afterwards, a bit like a snail unscathed by a nuclear bomb.

Not entirely 'unscathed' though. I think it was Sue Ann Edwards who described the process of awakening as a bit like a large cargo ship changing direction. It happens only slowly and gradually. Each revelation has made a contribution to this process, but my particular ship has a very large turning circle...

The most profound of the revelations occurred when I was twenty-one. A group of us were on a camping holiday and were staying at a place called the 'lakeside camp site'. This was in Lincoln, UK, which is not noted for its lakes, but I reasoned that the place wouldn't have a name like that if there wasn't a lake somewhere nearby. I fancied a bit of peace and quiet and a short break from my friends, so I went to look for it.

 

I came upon the stretch of water almost at once. It wasn't very far from where we were camping, but the place was extremely quiet, cut off from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the site. I remember spending a pleasant few minutes gazing out across the lake. It was a peaceful location; there were water birds and tall reeds by the shore. It was all very pleasant. But I don't suppose I would remember any of this now except that, as I turned to go and rejoin my friends, something extraordinary happened.

Suddenly, without any warning, my whole perspective was turned on its head. I perceived a unity, a connectedness, in everything: a connectedness which included me, except that I'm not even sure I existed any more, except as a part of the whole. I remember seeing some birds flying overhead and one of them calling out with a hoarse cry. It seemed that those birds and everything else I could see - the lake, the sky, the trees, the reeds - were a part of me: a part of my own vast, limitless being.

Then, just as suddenly as it had come upon me, the revelation disappeared. I was left back in my old perspective, standing alone on the shore of the lake. Yet as I slowly turned and went back to my friends, I was certain that what I had perceived in those few moments was closer to the real truth of things than the ordinary world with which I was so familiar.

So what did I learn from this experience? How did it change me?

To be perfectly honest, I lived the following day in the same sort of way as I had done the day before. In the short term, nothing very much changed. Yet those moments have stayed with me always, and if not for them - and other, similar incidents - I doubt that I would be writing this blog. They have allowed me to understand - or, at any rate, an important part of me to understand - that this unity, this 'oneness' I write about here at The Secret Of Life is real, and not just a theory.

But something about that experience at the campsite has always puzzled me. Why did the revelation come upon me as I turned to go? Why did it not happen earlier, as I was standing there, gazing out across the lake? Surely that is the time when I was at peace, when such a revelation might have been more likely to occur?

I have only recently come to understand what might be the answer to this riddle.

Our minds have a lot of work to do to keep us functioning in this world. This is because the world we see around us doesn't really exist. Nothing we see is solid, not even ourselves. All that exists, science now tells us, is a field of quantum particles, tiny entities smaller than an atom - except that these 'particles' aren't really particles at all. They are waves of probability, which only resolve themselves into particles when they are observed.

Our minds have to interpret this quantum soup which is reality in such a way as to allow us to function, identifying chairs for us to sit on, floors for us to walk on, and even bodies for us to inhabit, every moment of every day, every day of our lives.

But the work doesn't stop here, for our minds have evolved to do more than this. As well as identifying these objects, they have chosen to assign each one an additional significance: a significance which frequently goes way beyond what is really required for us to function. So a piece of paper is not only identified as a piece of paper. It is also attached a significance according to what is written on it. It may remind us of something we have to do a week on Tuesday, for instance - or it may be a goodbye note from a lover. People are also assigned this additional significance. This is my boss. This is my wife. This is the person who looked at me rather strangely as I walked across the street. Frequently, an object is attached a significance which has nothing to do with itself, but because it reminds us of something else which is of significance. So this room is like the one in which my mother scolded me as a child. This rose is like the one which was given to me by that boy who ran off with my best friend the following week. And so it goes on...

Our minds are carrying round this vast weight of information, some of it useful, some of it decidedly unhelpful, all to interpret a physical reality which is really little more than empty space. No wonder we tend to get so tired. No wonder there feels to be such a burden upon our shoulders. We have to work very hard to keep up this illusion...

Which is why it is impossible to anticipate a spiritual experience. If we're expecting it to happen, it doesn't happen. A spiritual experience is a glimpse beneath the woven layer of meaning we call the world. It is a glimpse into the reality which underlies this artificial tapestry. It reveals an aspect of What Really Is: the quantum field itself.

So of course we cannot have such a glimpse when the mind is engaged, when we anticipate, when we expect... At such times, our minds are busy fabricating their own interpretation of reality, poised to assign meanings from a library previously encountered experiences. This is intended for our own convenience, but it can only obscure what is really there.

Only when the mind is quiet, can the truth be revealed. When we look with innocence, like a child, before the layers of meaning have been constructed. Or when we are caught off guard, in mid-breath, our thoughts caught between the last task and the one which lies ahead.

Which is why that experience came upon me when it did, I think. I didn't see the quantum field, but I saw something much closer to that than the world with which we're familiar. Perhaps it was as close to the quantum field as I could get and still have some chance of a glimmer of comprehension. And so it could only come to me when my mind had dropped its own understanding of the lake, and was about to interpret the next object of interest. It could only come as I turned to go. Between one moment and the next.

 

This may also be of interest:

A Sun-Filled Room

Peace Intention Experiment & Earthdance 2008

Here's some information on two upcoming events which may interest you:

September 14, 2008 will see the first in a series of Peace Intention Experiments testing the power of group intention to lower violence in areas around the world.

This could be the largest scientific study in history, with hundreds of thousands of participants sending an intention for peace under highly controlled scientific conditions.

Lynne McTaggart, author of The Intention Experiment, has assembled a scientific advisory body of leaders in consciousness research, to devise a strict protocol and measure violence levels before and after the intention is sent to see if there is any effect.

This team includes:

• Dr. Robert Jahn, former dean of engineering at Princeton University and director of the PEAR Lab 
• Psychologist Brenda Dunne, also of the PEAR Lab
• Psychologist Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona, and director of the Laboratory for Advancement of Consciousness and Health, who has run many healing energy experiments
• Psychologist Roger Nelson, formerly of Princeton University, and director of the Global Consciousness Project
• Dr. Jessica Utts, professor of statistics at the University of California at Davis, considered the world's leading statistician of consciousness research

We're currently building our team of technical experts who will make sure we have a reliable web platform from which to run the experiment - so that you and hundreds of thousands of intenders across the world can join together at the same time via our website.

I mentioned a similar event on this blog last year, World Oneness Day, and we had an interesting discussion in the comments on that post about whether such events actually have an effect. The influence of that event was measured by the Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University and the results - along with those of over 250 other world events - have been published on their web site. (Click on 'Results' and then on number 241 in the list of events.) The trouble is that this is very much a scientific site and you need to have studied statistics in order to understand the results! I hope that the Peace Intention Experiment will produce some more user-friendly information. I shall be taking part myself and I'll watch with interest. You can sign up for it here.

Another upcoming event promoting worldwide peace is Earthdance 2008, described by Time Out London as 'like Live Aid with dance music'. It will take place on September 13th. There will be 300+ events in 60+ countries, all of them joining together in a synchronized Prayer for Peace. Angelbaby has more information here - and she's presented it as a tag so you can help to spread the word...

Is There Someone Standing Behind You?

Here's a really interesting exercise which has been developed using neuroscientific research. It can have a very powerful, immediate effect. This effect will most likely be very pleasant, even ecstatic, but be warned that in some cases it can be less pleasant - and of course, it's best if you don't try it while driving!

First, you need to get into a meditative state. The easiest way to do this is to focus on your breathing. Just be aware of your breath going in and and out, in and out... If other thoughts come along, then as soon as you are aware of them, just take your attention gently back to your breathing: in and out, in and out...

When you are feeling more relaxed, imagine that you are feeling a 'presence' somewhere behind you, over to your left.

What do you experience?

That's all there is to it...

*     *     *

If you felt something significant, then tests have shown that this will have coincided with activity in your amygdala, a part of the brain which is associated with emotion. In most people, the amygdala in the left hand side of the brain is associated with positive emotions, which is why you were asked to imagine the presence on the left side. Many such people will have a pleasant experience when asked to imagine the presence in this way. This can range from feeling safe and protected to sensations of ecstasy. Some people even find that they have a visual image of the imagined presence, which might be an angel, a hooded monk, a knight on horseback, a spirit familiar, or one of a range of other forms.

In a minority of people, the amygdalae are reversed - a bit like being left-handed. In this case, the left amygdala is associated with negative emotions, so such people are more likely to have a bad experience when they imagine a presence on this side. This can range from mildly unpleasant to a feeling of impending doom!

These people tend to have a positive experience when they imagine the presence on the right hand side instead, whereas most people have a negative experience when they imagine it on this side.

Some people have positive experiences whichever side they imagine the presence. Apparently, these are invariably people who perform regular spiritual practices such as meditation.

There is also a twist in the tail. Apparently when people have their amygdala artificially stimulated in the laboratory, they are likely to spontaneously sense the presence!

Many thanks to my skeptical friend, Lee (who has been following this blog but hopes I will grow out of it) for drawing my attention to Todd Murphy's excellent Spirituality & The Brain web site, where I found the above exercise. Todd is a behavioral neuroscientist, who has worked with Dr Michael Persinger, the neuroscientist who pioneered the research which underlies this exercise. Todd's special interest is in understanding how the brain contributes to spiritual experiences, and his site contains a wealth of information on the subject.

The sensed presence exercise is fascinating but what does it mean? I think we are unlikely to reach any kind of consensus on this. Todd Murphy seems to argue that so-called 'spiritual' phenomena are simply the product of certain brain activity. He doesn't deny that such experiences can be beneficial, but he doesn't believe that they relate to 'real' phenomena outside ourselves.

A new-agey person like me, on the other hand, is more likely to believe that we have these pleasant experiences because a link with some kind of presence is really happening. The fact that some of the people in the experiments come up with entirely unprompted visions of what this presence might look like seems to me to support this idea. And yet... do the unpleasant experiences which many people have, if they imagine the presence on the other side, suggest that a darker figure, some shadow self, is also in existence? That's an idea with which we might be rather less comfortable...

I hope to return to this subject when I have had a chance to look at more of Todd Murphy's site. Until then... if you tried the 'sensed presence' exercise, I'd love to know what you felt. Please leave me a comment! And afterwards, I'll leave a comment to let you know how it was for me...

Summer Schedule - And A Video About Trust

We've been having some nice warm summery weather here in the UK and I've been finding that the trowel and the watering can have been shouting rather louder than blogging. Last year, while we were moving house, I put The Secret Of Life on the backburner for a few months to give me a chance of keeping my life in some sort of sane balance, and all of a sudden, it seems like a good idea to do the same again this year. All this means is that I'll be posting once or twice a month instead of once or twice a week over the summer, which will allow me to revitalize and bounce back all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when the leaves start to fall from the trees again.

In the meantime, the best way to keep track of my occasional posts might be to subscribe to my feed or register for email updates (if you haven't already done so). You'll find all the necessary clickable bits in the sidebar. This might be a good idea, because I've got some interesting posts planned in the next few months, including one with the intriguing title "Ten Words That Can Heal The World'. I'm hoping you'll like that one...

A couple more things this time: you may remember my earlier posts about neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor's remarkable experience during her stroke. If so you may be interested to download Taylor's recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, the first of a new series of spirituality interviews which Oprah is running as a follow-up to her Eckhart Tolle - New Earth series.

(Additional note: Some readers have pointed out that Jill Bolte Taylor has also written a book about her experience. You can find it here.)

And finally, here's a video which reminds us of a very important factor in using the law of attraction: trust. I described this element as 'letting go' or 'non-attachment' in my 'Heart Of The Secret' series of posts, but 'trust' is another excellent way to look at it.

It's easy for those of us who are motivated to produce art in some form or other to become pessimistic about our chances of finding an audience. After all, there are so many demands on people's time these days. But the guy in this video turns this idea on its head, quietly trusting that his audience will come... and it seems to work for him!

I found this inspiring - do take a look...

In case you didn't catch the name, the singer in the video is called Terry Prince. Incidentally, I came across this video on a blog called Bold Thoughts by David Hooper. (David has written a book on the law of attraction, the audio version of which is available on free download.)

Rebuilding A Rainforest

After the previous post about the world food crisis, I thought it would be nice to balance it with a bit of good news. So I was delighted to find this item in The Observer about the successful restoration of 5000 acres of rainforest:

"Six years ago the area around Samboja in Borneo was like much of the world's tropical rainforest: denuded. The trees had been cut for timber, the land burnt, and in place of what should be some of the richest biodiversity on the planet were thousands of acres of grass.

"But from this ruined landscape a fresh forest has been grown, teeming with insects, birds and animals, and cooled by the return of moist clouds and rain. It is a feat that has been hailed by scientists and offers hope for disappearing and ruined rainforests around the world."

The project is the brainchild of Indonesian forestry expert Dr Willie Smits, the principal aim being to establish a new habitat for endangered orangutans. But the implications of what has been created are surely broader than this. Smits says: "If you walk there now, 116 bird species have found a place to live, there are more than 30 types of mammal; insects are there. The whole system is coming to life. I knew what I was trying to do, but the force of nature has totally surprised me."

What this suggests to me is that nature is ready and waiting to repair the damage we have done to our planet - if only we give her a chance.

Smits says: "The principles are that you must have scientifically sound approaches, work with local trees, and you have to have the respect of local people - that's the key."

Indeed, the project has been planned with the local population very much in mind. Local farmers were able to plant agricultural products between the trees in the early stages of reforestation, and for the long term, a circle of sugar-palm plantations has been planted around the forest. This provides income for over 650 families, and also acts as a barrier against forest fires.

Can you imagine what might be achieved if there was the will to create similar schemes on a global scale? This project illustrates what we humans are able to achieve if we are willing to work with passion: to take on board the complexities of the task in hand, and to work in harmony with people and with nature.

If we can approach our global fuels policy in the same sort of spirit, we can surely avoid the kind of suffering and injustice I described in the previous post. What we need is for our leaders to pay attention to what they are doing, to be present, instead of having most of their minds on how what they're doing is going to play at the next election. They need to engage with the complexities of the situation, instead of just setting headline-grabbing targets.

If we all sit down together and put our energy where it is really needed, working for the benefit of everyone concerned instead of just our own self-interest, there is no limit to what we can achieve. We can redress the damage we've done to our planet. We can create a better world. All we need is the will that it should be done.

You can read more about the reforestation project - and sponsor an area of rainforest - at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. Dr Smits and his colleagues have written a book about their work: Thinkers Of The Jungle - The Orangutan Report

We Have The Biology

I just want to share a few thoughts about the video by Jill Bolte Taylor which I mentioned a few posts ago. If you haven't seen it, do go and take a look. It's quite amazing.

Jill experienced a stroke which intermittently incapacitated the left hand side of her brain, so that her right hemisphere became dominant. She reports becoming disconnected from her mental chatter, experiencing a sense of peace and euphoria, and feeling at one with All That Is.

She realized that she had found Nirvana and yet she was still alive. If this is true, she reasoned, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana. She pictured "a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate people who knew that they could come to this space at any time".

This got me thinking about human potential.

Many people believe that our ultimate goal is to merge with universal consciousness, with All That Is, with God, or whatever you want to call it. Then our suffering will come to an end and we will dissolve in a cloud of bliss.

This is quite a nice idea and is certainly a lot better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I can't help having the sneaking feeling that, when push comes to shove, it isn't enough. That, ultimately, bliss is not enough.

The way I look at it, bliss is where we started from. We embarked on our current adventure in the so-called material world in a quest for something more than that, for experience, for darkness as well as light - in order to allow us to fully know the light.

The only trouble is: we got too heavily into this. It's like we were playing a game of, say, Tomb Raider, but forgot that we were playing a game. So we started thinking that the Tomb Raider world was real. Which is where we are at the moment. Only now we're starting to wake up and remember it's only a game. Not to stop playing the game - because the game has great potential - but to wake up and get the game into perspective. To see the world as we know it now, with its seemingly solid objects, but also to see that all this is really a fantasy in a field of bliss. To walk around and interact with the world and the people in it, but understand at the same time that we are all part of a quantum field of energy, that all of us are really One - and start behaving accordingly.

This is what I see as our ultimate goal (at least for the time being!): not the release of oblivion, but something more like what Jesus called 'Heaven on Earth'. To be in the world yet not of it, to live in our 'material' universe with all its potential for rich and diverse experience, yet at the same time to know who we truly are: to live lightly and fearlessly, free of the heavy burden of separation.

Jill Bolte Taylor's video suggests that we have the potential to do this right now, in these bodies of ours, with these heads of ours. We have a left hemisphere to see our familar world of 'solid' objects, and a right one to see the field which underlies it . All we need to do is get those hemispheres into balance.

Heaven on Earth is only a tweak of consciousness away. We already have the biology we need.

 

These may also be of interest:

A Stroke Of Insight

Philip Pullman - A Process of Evolution

The Ultimate Purpose of Life?

A Stroke Of Insight

The Ultimate Truth series will continue shortly, but I couldn't wait to share with you a wonderful new video called A Stroke Of Insight, featuring neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. It's more about our left and right brains and the way they affect our perception. I think you will find that it more than repays the eighteen minutes of viewing.

Here's the blurb from the web site: "Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: one morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another." You can see the video here. Let me know what you think!

By the way, Sue Ann Edwards has had/is having a similar experience and regularly shares her invaluable insights at her Always Embraces All Ways blog.

Finally, a couple of footnotes about The Secret Of Life:

The links to spirituality sites concerning Deeksha, Eckhart Tolle etc now have a page all to themselves which you can access here or via the sidebar. I also still have pages of links to some of my favorite blogs (Spirituality & Self Development Blogs here and Other Blogs here).

Plus: I finally succumbed to avarice and installed some Google ads. With any luck, I should get the first payment before I reach retirement age... I was always a bit curious about what sort of ads I would get on the site. The ads for The Secret and Eckhart Tolle I can understand but I'm not so sure about the ones for cute animal pictures. It must be all those giraffes and elephants that keep showing up in my posts...

 

These may also be of interest:

Unity Is Powerful

The 'Left Brain - Right Brain' Dancer

We Have The Biology