In The Flow

The Perpetual Generosity of Feelings

Scott McPherson — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:37:52 GMT

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln

Spiritual leaders and physicists agree that everything that has ever existed has always been and always will be. We can call this God or Singularity or any name we choose, but that infinite Is-ness is what absolutely everything is made of, including you. If you are a religious person, this should plug very nicely into your faith: God is everywhere; since you are somewhere, then God is in you—every single particle of you. And if you are a scientific person, then this should plug very nicely into your paradigm: every single particle of you was there at the conception of the universe; you are made of the very same energy that absolutely everything else is; you are worth nothing more, nor nothing less, than any thing or anybody in the universe.

It might surprise many people to know that your suffering is also a part of the God-Universe. Why would God want suffering? Because God needs a language to speak to you with, and suffering is one of the voices in the Word of God. Since you are made of the God-Universe you can never be separate from it. You can use some of God's power (i.e. the power of thought), to choose to believe that you are separate, but both that feeling and the conjuring of it via belief are made out of the Energy of the God-Universe. You are absolutely never separate from God.

When we feel alone or depressed or otherwise bad, we are mistaking these feelings as belonging to us. In reality, those feelings are God's voice. While the voice has a varying intensity that we perceive as a range of emotions (from irritation to depression or contentment to joy), really, God only has two statements to make: come over here, or go over there. The former we call good feelings and the latter we call bad feelings. But one is not superior to the other. (This is why the idea of Yin and Yang are better suited.) They are simply two versions of one thing, much like a crest and a trough are two separate things even though they can only exist together in the form of a wave.

When you feel good you are embracing God. You are feeling your connection. As I've noted here before, a linguist once explained to me that the word "enthusiasm" originally meant to "be with God." Fear, anger, resentment or any other unpleasant feeling is the sense we get when we turn away from our connection to God.

But we can't ever, in any way, sever the connection. We can only ignore it; and we can only do that for a time.

As you move toward things that you are enthusiastic about—things you feel good about—then are you are walking toward where God wants you to Be. If you feel unpleasant feelings, then you are moving away from where God wants you to Be. God is with you in both cases, speaking to you in its only voice; feelings.

If you feel good, you aren't questioning your connection to God or the rest of the universe. You are enacting that connection. If you feel badly, God is telling you that you are finished with where you are and it is time to move on. God will first speak softly, with the gentle voice of irritation or melancholy. If you choose not to listen to God and instead listen to the ego-voice in your head that uses words instead of feelings, then you will soon feel worse. That sadness, worry or frustration is God speaking a little louder. If you again choose to stay where you are, God will speak increasingly louder, through anger, and resentment and if you still don't choose to move, God will eventually shout to you with a voice of depression. God is saying, "You do not belong here now. It is time to move on. I will make it feel terrible here so that you know this is not where you should be or what you should be doing."

But which way do you go? That's simple.

Go towards what feels good. God either says, "come here" with good feelings, or "go there" with bad ones. Either way, you are never alone and your communication channel is wide open and working. God is always talking. If things are feeling increasingly worse, then you simply aren't listening.

The God-Universe is an infinitely generous place. It is always delivering to you precisely what you need. To embrace God, you need only shift your awareness to your feelings and then move toward the invitation represented by happiness, love and joy. Accepting that invitation is to accept God into your life. And if you feel badly, you aren't failing. You are merely learning how important it is to listen to God's voice carefully.

Happy listening.

Enjoy your day.

peace. s

Waking Up to An Open Mind

Scott McPherson — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:42 GMT

We are such stuff as dreams are made on.

Shakespeare

My best friend’s name was Rock Cherry. Isn’t that a great name? But when you’re five you don’t appreciate things like that. One day I was pushing Rock and his sister—who was babysitting us—on the garden swing attached to the garage of our house. It was composed of a large horizontal 8 X 8 beam attached to the garage on one side, and a vertical 8 X 8 on the other. Between it and the garage were two sets of chains supporting the three-seater swing that Rock and Maureen were on. I was behind them, pushing, when we heard a loud crack.

The vertical support had splintered about a foot or two above the ground, and the entire giant section was now angling down toward me. Without the swing in their way, Rock and Maureen were able to run forward to safety, but because it was twisting on two axes, it was impossible to predict where the swing-frame would land on my side. I ran for the neighbour’s fence and the next thing I knew I didn’t have a top to my head.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Rock’s sister Maureen to have to carry me to her house, two doors away, with the top of my head missing. Worse, my poor mother had to drive up just then to see her son being carried across the front lawn with blood gushing from his head.

I don’t remember any pain at all, but my hands wouldn’t work. No matter what I told them to do, they just sort of palsied up. Mrs. Cherry, a nurse, got me to use them to hold facecloths over my cracked-wide-open skull. I complained all the way to the hospital that I wanted to ride in an ambulance, but fortunately my Mom is as cool as a cucumber in an emergency and she got me there fine. I remember a nurse not looking up and being rude to my Mom, telling her to just wait a moment, and then when she did look up she gasped. I got a room right away.

I don’t recall anything after that until the surgeon said “hi” and told me that he was going to put a needle in my arm that would make me sleep. I also remember that I saw but did not feel the needle going in. And I remember the density of the sleep that followed. It wasn’t even like sleep it was so… void. There wasn’t even enough matter there to call it dark. It was just empty.

I’ve spent most of my life writing and producing film and television, so I tend to see the world as camera angles. So I’m not sure if I’ve created this next memory to fill in the blank of the anaesthesia, or if it’s an experience I actually had and the angle was just reminiscent of how one might film it. But I do remember my operation, and when I do I always see it from up on high in the room, in the corner. At one point something goes wrong and everyone is very excited and they rush and talk louder. Then it calms down and I can’t really say I remember anything after that.

Waking Up

When I woke up a young nurse was sitting right up against my bed and she was looking really closely at my face while she fingered a simple crucifix around her neck. She said, “They said you was dead. Where was you?” I remember recognizing that her grammar was wrong, but I didn’t have enough experience then to recognize it as Irish syntax. I had no idea what to say to her so I just held her hand.

This collection of experiences led me to a deep curiosity regarding the notion of “consciousness.” I now knew it was possible for the body to die and then come back to life, but where was the “alive” part stored while the body was dead? I asked my parents, doctors, even a friend’s father who was a minister, but no one could offer me any kind of useful definition of what me or my consciousness was.

Fortunately, five year olds can be extremely clear-headed and practical and so before long I somehow realized that sleep represented a change in consciousness. I resolved to learn more by catching myself going through this shift. Every night, I lay in bed determined to be—to some degree—awake for this change. I’m not sure if it took three months or a year, but by practicing it every single night I eventually managed to stumble into… something.

The First Time

I recall only very specific details of that first dream. It took place outside my parents home on a warm summer day when the lawn needed mowing. I was on the front sidewalk with my red Mustang bike with the chopper handle bars and the banana seat, when I suddenly realized I was dreaming. The reason the details of the dream aren’t as clear as they often were and are is because the sense of being dream-awake was so incredibly strong that I was entirely focused on that. At first I simply noticed that something was “different,” but I couldn’t tell what. Then I remembered I had gone to bed and done my usual routine of trying to stay awake through the falling-asleep process. But how did I get here, in front of the house with my bike?

Eventually I started wandering around the yard just looking at things. Frankly, I wasn’t really sure what to do now that I was conscious “in” a dream. Over several weeks I “woke up” in my dreams every night. Over time I got bolder and bolder, first doing things my mother told me not to do (like ride my bike around the block across the street), and eventually I tried things that seemed impossible. I jumped super high. I ran super fast. I made baseballs curve into my glove when my hand-thrown pop flys went awry.

By the time I hit my early teens one of my favourite dreams was to climb into a sports-car and fly it down a main street near our house, slaloming between the lamp posts with my tail-lights glowing like space-age afterburners. I could go canoeing in Europe. I could visit a rock star in Beverly Hills. I could jump hundreds of feet, know kung fu, fly like a bird, or even play guitar (while in the waking world I was a drummer who only wanted to play guitar). I could become a dragon, or a cat or a different version of myself. For many years this was a constant source of joy and entertainment. Before long I was being teased by my brothers and sisters for foregoing Happy Days or M*A*S*H to go to bed before my bedtime just so I could go dreaming.

Eventually the experiences got so common that I lost interest. I became more fascinated to see where the dreams would take me if I just relaxed and let them run their own course. I didn't have to worry. I remember the movie Jaws being so scary that I couldn’t get to sleep, but after I was asleep I never had to worry about nightmares because I could always leave anywhere I wasn’t comfortable. To this day I’ve only had a few bad dreams and even those were ones I permitted to unfold. I’ve certainly never had anything I’d call a “nightmare.”

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.

Chuang Tse

It was only recently that I found myself wondering more about the transition period itself. How did one get from this one state of consciousness to this other state? Like when I was young, I resolved to watch myself closely to see what I could learn. I was quite surprised that it only took about a week and a half before I had a very clear sensation of what it was to “change consciousness” from wakefulness to sleep.

I would liken the transition to walking on a mixture of cobblestones and those large, wandering stepping stones like the ones that often make up pathways in Zen gardens. The difference was, as I walked, the solid stones of my waking life slowly gave way to the more ethereal ones of the dream world. As I continued to move forward, there were fewer and fewer “waking life” stones and more and more “dream life” ones until I was totally in the alternate reality of my dream. And I realized then that I had unconsciously been taking this very walk every time I fell asleep for my entire life. The only difference now was that my dream-me remembered my awake-me.

Since this was my first real study of my dreaming since my life-changing experience in 2001, I found I had a new perspective on an old ability. I suddenly realized that my waking and sleeping lives were not as different as I had once believed.

How To Use It

My experiments in my dream life had told me that I could do whatever I believed I could do. I could steer my life in any way I wanted, from getting along better with my siblings to flying high over the city with nothing but a t-shirt and shorts for an aircraft. Meanwhile my 2001 experience had shown me that I was in much more control of my waking life than I had ever dreamed possible. I realized that my consciousness brought to life both of these worlds and both of these versions of me. And I knew if I stayed rooted in that awareness I could assume greater control over the direction of both my waking and dreaming identities. I might not have figured out how to fly without a plane in my waking life (yet), but I could certainly change how I related to my family.

Hovering over my ego like an observer, I could now tell that little “me” to do all sorts of things I found challenging or “impossible” previously. My family isn’t one for displays of affection and yet suddenly I found myself being able to tell any family member or friend that I loved them. I could get along with people that were previously vexing. I could stop feeling insecure and conjure confidence instead. I may not have been able to detect any affect to my physical world (other than my own health), but I certainly seemed to have much more control of my mental-emotional life.

You are now in control of your life. You see, the ego is never in control.
The ego is controlled by wishes for comfort and convenience on the part
of the body, by demands of the mind, and by outbursts of the emotions.
But the higher nature controls the body and the mind and the emotions.
I can say to my body, "Lie down there on that cement floor and go to sleep,"
and it obeys. I can say to my mind, "Shut out everything else and concentrate
on this job before you," and it's obedient. I can say to my emotions,
"Be still, even in the face of this terrible situation," and they are still.
It's a different way of living. The philosopher Thoreau wrote: If a man
does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps he hears
a different drummer. And now you are following a different drummer
--the higher nature instead of the lower.

Peace Pilgrim

Dreaming a Better Life Into Being

Now that I live virtually stress free, with no lasting ill feelings toward anyone or any thing, I feel liberated and free. I learn faster, enjoy things more, and in general I am drinking in much much more of life than I ever have. With that accomplished I have now resolved to work at impacting the physical world. I am employing intentional thinking to test the impact my thoughts have on the slowest form of spiritual energy; the physical world.

I’m not sure where this will lead but I will keep you posted. In the meantime, I hope you too will join me in taking greater control over your life experience. While we might need some negative contrast to help us find our way, we really can overwhelmingly enjoy our lives regardless of its outside circumstances. And in doing so, we give ourselves the greatest chances to affect and change those outside circumstances.

In the end I suspect my next realization will be when I realize how to not just appreciate, but how to adapt what I perceive as the “outside world.” I’m confident this will happen when I have a stronger knowing that the very outside that I wish to affect, is really just another manifestation of my inside world—much like the dreams.

In waking life and in dreams I still must face what the universe sends my way. But by being clear that it is all just an aspect of my true infinite self, I can take these experiences that get categorized as “good” or “bad” and instead turn them into the stepping stones that will lead me to even greater understanding and an even greater connection to the universe often referred to as “God.”

Sweet dreams.

Enjoy your day.

peace. s

The Garden You Live In

Scott McPherson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:26:27 GMT

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist,
and the less the artist does the better.

Andre Gide

You are a gardener. Your plot of land is your consciousness. This is the ground on which the garden in which you live will be realized. It is open and fertile and it will support any dream you can conceive. Before you were born, your plan for your garden was delivered to God. And from the moment of your birth, each and every moment, a new delivery arrives from the generosity of the universe. These deliveries are infinite and inexhaustible; coordinated by God to ensure that you always have available precisely what you need to realize your personal garden.

As a child, you happily drink in these gifts, assembling them unselfconsciously, enthusiastically planting them wherever and however it suits you. Some you place in locations where they thrive, while others wilt and die. Early on you see no problems, only opportunities as you continue to focus on the gifts continually arriving on your truck-from-the-universe. In short, you are gardening “in the moment.” Over time you plant flowers, trees, weeds, vines, shrubs and vegetables. And as you harvest and consume some of the fruits of your labours, you begin to not only live in the garden, the bounty of the garden becomes who and what you are.

Eventually you become aware of other gardens and other gardeners. It is natural for these other gardeners to take an interest in your life-garden. The trouble begins when we begin comparing gardens. Like you, they have been happily planting away. But because they are a different gardener than you, they have chosen to place some of their plants differently. Because of this, some of yours will be flourishing while theirs struggle or fail. Likewise, some of yours will wilt and die while theirs grow vigorously. None of this is inherently good or bad, but the conversation between the gardeners eventually makes it appear so. This is the beginning of second-thoughts.

Rather than spend eons without an awakening, have no second thoughts.

Jakushitsu

Your original thoughts arrive more as feelings. The universe delivers a plant and you place it where you feel is best. You don’t question your decisions, you merely continue to plant your garden in whatever way suits you. But based on your second thoughts—which are really only a recounting of the experiences of other gardeners—you begin to have thought-conversations in your head and in doing so, you begin to wonder if there’s somewhere better to plant this or that. Not wanting your garden to fail, you focus your energies on what’s not working. You study the plants that have struggled and died as though they will tell you how to make others grow well.

Eventually you get so invested in analyzing and judging your garden that you start to spend more time studying what you’ve already planted than you spend on what you’re planting in this present moment. Moreover, you begin to actually question God’s choices—forgetting that God is sending your resources precisely according to your blueprint. Because you have been pricked by the odd cactus, you choose to believe that the cacti are mistakes that you don’t wish to repeat. You attempt to refuse deliveries, even going so far as to ask God why you are not receiving what you want.

But God knows your plan and silently continues to send you all you need. The universe’s deliveries—your opportunities to build your garden—continue to arrive. But without your attention, many more plantings struggle and die than when you were actively planting each item in its own moment. Because of this, the garden deteriorates even further which only serves to drive you deeper into your analysis of what’s going wrong. And the more you study it, the more you notice the unflattering differences between your garden and those around you. The more you notice these “failings” the more you worry. The more you worry, the more you look for these damaging “failings.” Meanwhile you are increasingly ignoring the plants arriving in the present moment and as they lay unattended you attract even more “failure” to your garden.

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations,
nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

Fritz Perls

Since you cannot dig up the past and replant it, your solution is really very simple. Stop questioning your deliveries for this is, in other words, questioning your own plan. You and God are cooperating in creating your garden, so silence the judgments of others that you hear in your mind’s ear. Their garden is theirs and yours is yours. Different soil and different light mean your context is completely different. And because your plan is also uniquely your own, the resources that flow to you are also different. Enjoy others gardens as much as appeals to you, but do not feel yours should be like theirs. Let your mind go quiet and re-embrace the deliveries you are constantly receiving. In that quiet you will return to the realization that your only responsibility is to enjoy the process of planting in each moment. Certainly some plants will still not thrive or even survive, but such is the case with all gardens. It is by witnessing this that we become increasingly and silently skilful at knowing where to place the gifts arriving in this present moment. And so even those “failures” are as much a part of your expanding awareness as they are a part of your plan. The plot of your life is your consciousness. In it you can easily realize all the beauty and bounty you could ever need.

While living in Australia years ago, I found myself in a garden with a man whose hobby was linguistics. He told me then that word “enthusiasm” essentially meant “working with God.” So plant the seeds and seedlings of your life with enthusiasm. Following the guidance of that quiet voice, God will lead you to live in a garden more beautiful than your Earthly mind could ever have imagined.

Happy listening.

peace. s

To Love is Divine

Scott McPherson — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:12:17 GMT

"Let your love flow outward through the universe.
To its height, its depth, its broad extent, a limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie down, as long as you are awake,
strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth."

Sutta Nipata

Speaking to an adult group class several years ago, I mentioned some of the pleasant by-products that naturally emerge in the wake of us better understanding our role in creating our experiences. At one particular moment I was speaking of the very natural ability to love, well, everyone. For me, family and friends surely felt even closer than they had before my insight. But absolutely everyone seemed so perfect. There was a loving glow about romantic partners, co-workers, casual acquaintances and even total strangers. From my new perspective, a king and a homeless man were equal. The very first question came immediately.

“If you love everyone, then what makes her special?”

The “her” the student was referring to was the very attractive woman I was dating, who also happened to be half-participating the class. She was often helpful with those early sessions, often joining me in (or saving me from) some baking adventure. She’d run herd on the dogs, or make sure the tea was always fresh. As for our time alone, she had a brilliant mind, so conversations were always fascinating and on top of all of that I found her exquisitely, achingly beautiful every single morning I woke up to her. She was not a woman I was interested in wounding in any way shape or form.

What makes her special? I won’t lie, the first thing I heard was my ego saying, “Great. That’s an excellent question. Now you’ve done it. Is there even an answer to this?” And in that fleeting moment I won’t claim that I had charitable thoughts about the keen woman who asked the question. This, after all, referred to the first person I had been romantic with since my incredible insight had hit a few years earlier. But knowing what I had said was true and that my very special feelings for her were too, I simply trusted that the answer would come to me in silence. I dismissed my ego’s voice, believing with full confidence that the Truth is always willing to flow through me if I let it. My mind went quiet.

I heard my spoken voice at the same time everyone else in the room did. I remember distinctly feeling my fearful ego listening in too—hoping this exposed truth wouldn’t threaten my ego’s attachment to her. But there was my voice, calm and clear, channelling a wisdom far beyond my own personal capability. “Yes, it’s true; I love everyone. But out of the six and one half billion people living on the planet Earth, she’s the only one I want to spend all of my time with.”

I know. I couldn’t believe it either. The woman who asked the question took the words right out of my mouth when she said couldn’t believe I had managed to make the answer romantic. And the fact was, once I heard myself say it, I knew it was true. Yes, I was quite confident I had an ego and that it was very attached to her, but underneath that I also realized that this was my first romantic relationship where I knew how to love unconditionally. I can’t say that I clearly remember my concept of unconditional love prior to that, but I am confident that it was wrong.

Vaguely, I thought that if someone unconditionally loved you, that they could and would do absolutely anything for you. But unconditional love isn’t someone doing everything you want them to; unconditional love is when we choose to look past all of the details of what another person is doing and instead see the true perfection at the core of their being. It’s like the Hindu view, where people strive to see the perfect divine being at the heart of us all. In that world only the ego sins. So if you are looking past someone’s ego, you are seeing their soul and there is never anything wrong with someone’s soul. Hence, unconditional love.

"Whoever makes love grow boundless, and sets his mind
for seeing the end of birth, his fetters are worn thin.
If he loves even a single being, Good will follow. But the Noble One
with compassionate heart for all mankind, generates abounding good."

Buddha

If you think about it, if people were able to unconditionally love the way my ego thought it worked, then there would be a lot of near-perfect attached people walking around. (Surely we’ve all known precisely what would make each and every one of our ex's better.) And yet here we sit in a world of imperfect individuals, each of us precious and different in a multitude of ways. So how does this new perspective bridge the gap between our inherent “imperfection” and this wonderful new form of love I was experiencing? Good question.

I used to go to a lot of Christian weddings, and the part I disliked pretty consistently was the almost guaranteed reading of a particular section of Corinthians. It goes:

Love is always patient;
love is always kind;
love is never envious
or arrogant with pride.
Nor is she conceited,
and she is never rude;
she never thinks just of herself
or ever gets annoyed.
She never is resentful;
is never glad with sin,
but always glad to side with truth,
whene'er the truth should win.
She bears up under everything,
believes the best in all,
there is no limit to her hope,
and she will never fall.

I used to scoff at this every single time I heard it. Even in the really good marriages I’d witnessed, I’d never seen a couple that didn’t bicker or fight at least once in a while. It was this sort of implausibility that had previously made all of the religions of the world suspicious to me. They seemed to ask for more than human being could do. But as I said, I had misunderstood.

I now know that the Corinthians piece is speaking about love itself and not the individual enacting it. In fact, the two are actually at odds with one another. One is the very material that the universe is made of, and the second a mere shadow cast by the first. There was just no way—from the perspective of the shadow—that I could hope to have seen our greater self and its amazing capabilities. By temporarily losing that sense of self during my insight, I realized that where I thought there was a “self,” instead there is simply an underlying Truth that underpins everything we experience. I knew immediately that if I diligently watched for signs of this Truth at work, that I would realize more loving relationships with all those around me. Love isn’t ever dependent on the other person being different or better. It hinges on our ability to see them clearly, without a veil of judgmental thought.

"Love is not blind—it sees more, not less.
But because it sees more, it is willing to see less."

Rabbi Julius Gordon

So, does the human ego conflict with other human egos? Inevitably. Earnestly. And Honestly. The wandering courses set out by our histories will routinely come to intersections. Our job is not to completely avoid these intersections with our romantic partners or anyone else. Conflict and friction are simply part of the fabric of existence. They are neither are good or bad, and losing that concept liberates us from needing to even entertain the initial judgement. After all, these are nonsensical questions when viewed from a deeper understanding.

An ego will occasionally battle the universe, whether it’s at home, at the office or at play. It wants to win and it can do great destruction on its way to “victory.” But True love sees that each person can only be themselves, and the best of themselves will come out when they feel good. So we should do all we can to help our partners feel wonderful. And at the same time, we shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we couldn’t do all they thought they needed. In the end, they only need to do the same thing we’re trying to do; as soon as we’re aware we’re viewing the world from a personal perspective, we should calm the chattering thoughts in our heads and in doing so, return to a still state-of-mind. From there, wisdom will guide us.

So quiet that prattling voice that demands to be heard, and instead listen carefully for the whispers of wisdom. For if you ignore the noisy argument in your head that purports to prove your point, you might lose an argument, but you will be free to listen for the feeling that will lead you a whole new kind of living.

Happy listening.

Enjoy your day.

peace. s

Lose Control and Feel Better

Scott McPherson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:27:18 GMT

We all grew up somewhere on the spectrum of “Control” and “Self Determination.” On its extremes we find those who lived with an enormous amount of independence, and those who lived with very little.

Many, to one degree or another, lived their formative years with critically limited control over their early lives. For some it was due to families moving too often for a child to feel comfortable, sick family members who couldn’t be helped, absentee parents, natural disasters, disease, famine or child abuse. No matter the cause, many of those who had no control for whatever reason, will do one of two things. Either they will live purposefully in familiar situations where they still have no, nor seek no, control simply because they have a narrative in their head that tells them they aren’t capable of using it wisely. Or, they will eventually seek control with fierce determination because they mistakenly believe it is possible to have such control, and that the control would actually protect them from harm.

On the other end of the scale, if early life held lots of self determination and freedom and offered little structure, then many people will feel they need lots of independence and they will be fierce about maintaining it. Understand; it is “where” they feel safe. (Or rather, where they stressfully sit and claim to feel safe.) But of course that sort of anxious and intense independence has its own downsides. On the flipside, others will have found the early lack of structure stressful, and so these people will seek lives with lots of control just the same as people who never had it. Bottom line, everyone will be responding to what they perceive as “their situation.”

Fortunately, many of us were born closer to the center of this spectrum and so we have the privilege of wrestling with our own unique groups of insecurities. But for those who endure this one, life can be very stressful because it is filled with internal narratives with themes focused on fear or regret.

The simple fact is, there is no path through life which does not have its difficulties. So there is no need to think and rethink the “fairness” or “reasonability” of anything, nor should we analyze our performance in life against some imaginary yardstick. What is, is what is. If we live in the Moment, we act based on what feels right to us. We witness this in people when they are at their best. There is no weighing of pros and cons in an emergency. People either know they can’t do what needs to be done and they freeze, or they leap into amazing action, like when a Native daycare worker fought off a cougar and saved a child’s life. A cougar; aka a mountain lion. This is an animal that weighs 100 to 200 pounds and the thing essentially works out for a living. In a fight against a childcare worker, you’d have to put your money on the cat. And there’s certainly nothing fair or reasonable about it. The woman was probably underpaid as it was. But she didn’t have time to have a conversation like that in her head. There was no pro and con list. She needed to save the child from the cat. In short: no time to think. Know what? She got hurt, but the kid lived. And she’s still not thinking about it much. When she does, it’s a pretty cool-headed perspective. She’s accepted that the cat was just being a cat, and she’s an advocate for education programs that will allow the cats to co-exist on the planet with people. Her life is good, despite being attacked and injured by a huge wild cat while she was protecting someone else’s kid. Goes against the “we’ll only do what’s best for us” theory unless the “us” is everyone. Which ultimately it is.

So there is no real “control” available to us. What is, is the comforting understanding that the universe is incredibly generous and that if we silence our noisy thinking and listen instead to an awareness we have and can develop, we will realize that God constantly whispers direction to us in a voice of feelings. If it feels bad, you are using your thoughts to go against the natural flow. If you feel good, you are keeping pace with the flow and life seems as timeless as it does effortless. This is not to say you will not have to deal with cougars or any other more mundane little agonies. But without the contrast of those important sensations, the voice of God would have no meaning.

You can see the letters on this page but they do not exist without the contrast of the background. They are like a wave; as interconnected as a crest and its trough. You cannot have only one. And so it is with life. Without the contrast, we cannot find our way. So accept what is. Do this by silencing the whining, argumentative conversation in your head (trust me, it’s almost always whining we’re doing), and instead go for the silent mind that is acceptance. From there, you can hear God whisper in the quiet of contentment. Listen and follow the good feelings.

So take a moment and remember the last time you were really enthusiastic about something. Do you remember how energized and excited and focused you were? Then you might also recall that when you feel like that—when you feel enthusiastic—you don’t notice time passing and work seems effortless. So isn’t it interesting that the root meaning of “enthusiasm” means; “to be inspired or possessed by God.” So don’t argue with God’s whispers. Go quiet. Stop struggling and listen for your feelings. By surrendering the illusion of control you can take the hand of God and join the flow of Tao. And once you’re there, there are no worries. Yes there will be some slow spots, and some serious rapids along every river’s path. There may even be some cougars along the way. But by staying quiet inside, we can guide ourselves to an inspired life. And far from the intellectualism of a “pro and con” list, an inspired life is the sort of existence that will quite naturally evolve toward increasingly rewarding, beautiful and meaningful experiences.

Happy listening.

Enjoy your day.

peace. s