I am a big fan of Eckhart Tolle’s writing.But having read his books more than once, I know that ‘fan’ is not the ideal word to use and it is a concept he wouldn’t definitely include in his vision of spiritual evolution.

The thing is that ‘fan’ or fanatic implies a person motivated by an irrational desire to pursue something or be engaged in something. It very often reflects black or white thinking in the form of  an obsession with an idea or  an object of desire. Fanaticism in fact is associated with religious extremist views or for instance ‘ultra supporters’ of a sports team where in both cases, negation or contradiction of their zeal may result in aggression, violence and all sorts of irrational behaviour. In short, it is the over-reaction of the blind and self-centered ego whether in individual or collective form. I have wrote about this before in the article ‘Why Passion is such a bad thing‘.

So I’ll unsubscribe to that term with reference to Eckhart’s work.

The first book of his I read was ‘A new Earth‘ and it was the one following his tremendously successful best-seller ‘The Power of Now‘.  It was one of those books which I can definitely mark as a life-changer. I remember being sunk in it for a whole week and re-read it once or twice thereafter. It swept across and struck a deep chord with many of my views on life and spirituality.  The only other book which I can remember to have touched me with such depth was ‘Man and his symbols’, conceived and edited by Carl Jung.

For those few of you who haven’t read Eckhart Tolle’s ‘The power of Now’ or ‘A New Earth’, I strongly recommend that you do as soon as you have time. In the meantime I will give you a taste of it in the form of some selected quotes in the above slideshow. I am sure that this will also be an excellent refresher of those who have read his work and are touched by it like myself.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Native American Words of Wisdom
2. After enlightenment, the laundry

I have always been deeply touched & fascinated by the Native American culture and way of life. At least those were the impressions I got from the stories, pictures and other media content I randomly consumed throughout the years. Such stories recount past tales of the iconic Red Indians’ bravery, folk wisdom and deep understanding of nature and their relation to it in the ecology of things.

Of course I couldn’t have had any first hand experience and I doubt whether anyone who had close encounters with the Native American’s original way of life is alive today. A very long time has passed since the last few remaining pockets of unspoiled cultural life have been completely embellished by the frenetic spread of white man’s modern way of life. Gone are the days of the shaman’s ancient rituals or the team enabled hunting tactics.

I always found this deeply saddening. Not in a Luddite kind of way where I despise the onslaught of modernity and romanticize the old and simple way of life. No. It weirdly feels as if the cultural system of most tribes was a successful experiment in human cultural and spiritual evolution that we thrashed thanks to the infinite short-sightedness and destructive greed of Man’s collective ego.

Of course on the other hand I know that talking about Native American culture is too broad to mean anything tangible. There was a big number of tribes spread over vast and wildly different geographical territory in North and South America. Even cultural ways of life differed a lot from one tribe to another. Talking about the Navajo of the South West ain’t the same thing as talking about the Arctic Inuit or the Cheyenne of the plains. Yet some traits converge and overlap.

What I always found deeply fascinating is their deep relation to nature, the earth and the spiritual world. It seems like there was a basic and common philosophy of nature and spirit between the peoples. The first principle is that we are embedded in a sacred web of life and we resonate with it. We have responsibility towards life around us because in this circle of life, we affect everything and everything affects us. There is a deep rooted interdependence in the existence of things – a concept echoed in Buddhist beliefs and modern scientific thought.

In this view, we have no special position in the general scheme of things. We are part of it but not above it. This drastically contrasted with the anthropocentric christian theology of the early white settlers and missionaries. I had always suspected that the dogmatic and ultimately man-created belief that God created Man in his image and gave him power over nature was a license to nourish our narrow egocentric needs and exploit all natural resources around us without second considerations.

The saying of the Tuscarora tribe “Man has responsibility not power” or “In our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations” from the great law of the Iroquois Confederacy, greatly reflects this contrast.

I have collected more Native American saying like these in the below slide show. I hope you enjoy and make sure to share with others. It’s under creative commons license so do not hesitate to redistribute. I will leave you to it.

Related posts:

1. Pearls of Wisdom: Tolle on Spiritual Enlightenment

We live in a world in which egocentric views,short-sighted decisions, disrespect for our natural environment, wars over ideologies, etc (the list goes on a couple of paragraphs) are still prevalent and recurrent themes even now at the dawn of the 21st century.

Idealists like myself like to believe in an emerging culture of creative thinkers & leaders that will slowly guide us to break free from the old beliefs & power structures until we reach a tipping point after which global change starts accelerating very fast on its own accord.

Some people choose to refer to this as the global paradigm shift in the way we see the world, some others refer to it as the evolution of human consciousness. Others talk about the transcendence of individual & collective consciousness from the grips of the ego.

The latter is a nice metaphor which I opt to use for its ability to fit in diverse fields of human knowledge such as Spirituality, Jungian Psychology, Metaphysics, Consciousness studies, Systems thinking and others.

I see the world as still being dominated by ego-consciousness simply because the majority of individuals on this planet are still held by the grips of their ego. The rite of passage from ego-based consciousness to a more transendent eco-consciousness is an individual one as much as it is a collective one. Spiritual teachers like Andrew Cohen in fact believe that this shift in human consciousness operates collectively and synergistically within a group or network of like minded individuals with the same intentions & obectives.

This notion struck me as very plausible. In fact I very much believe that just like our language, thought,behaviour & belief systems do not operate in isolation but are influenced and partially determined by our social environment, so is our spiritual development. We have to start seeing things from an ecological point of view and not a mechanistic one because life & consciousness, like all other things, are networked and highly interconnected. It is no coincidence that many disciplines are now giving a lot of importance to understanding phenomena in terms of network dynamics and complex systems.

The shift from ego-based consciousness to an eco-based consciousness is also a naturally painful one. Parallels can be drawn. In our lifetime, growing up, accepting changes,taking responsibility, breaking away from the mold and leaving our comfy cocoon is never a smooth transition. But it’s part of life if we are to mature and wisen up.

I would like to suggest a few points to contemplate and meditate upon in order to open up one’s mind to the possibilty of eco-consciousness. One of my intentions is to integrate these perspectives in my general world view and habits. Here they go:

1.Don’t take it personally: It’s not about you.

We are emotional and subjective creatures by nature. The concoction of high emotional arousal together with taking things too personally or subjectively can be a lethal one. Throughout history millions of murders, torture, wars, suffering, etc was purely the result of these ingredients. Taking things too personally makes us irrascible, touchy,stressed out and often hurt.

Entering eco-consciousness means above all to feel and understand that it’s not about us, that we are tiny fleeting fragments of the whole and that our concept of the self, no matter how strong and real, is only a construct. We hold no special position in the general scheme of things even though it naturally feels that way since we are looking at the world from our first-person point of view. Understanding this is hard but an ultimate liberation. Imagine seeing things with clarity and objectivity even if you are being criticized, taunted or ridiculed. Imagine keeping a cool head instead of losing perspective or being hurt.

This is not a nihilistic position as some tend to complain. It’s not aimed at destroying the sense of self or not looking after your personal rights and freedom but about reframing your reality through a broader perspective in which the self is only a part of the whole.

2.Everything is interconnected: Are you a node or an end?

Another important shift is that from having a sense of seperateness to a sense of oneness and unity. This is a recurrent theme in many spiritual traditions but again it is naturally a counterintuitive one since we are programmed to identify ourselves and the world as different objects seperated by physical boundaries.

Modern science is also reaching a point of understanding the interconnectedness of everything in the universe at the very basic quantum level of matter. I very much suspect that this interconnectedness happens also at the level of consciousness including our states of mind,emotions and thought but we have yet to understand this scientifically.

Try to imagine yourself being connected to a universal network. You can either be a node, that is a medium or conduit that connects and conveys energy,love, positive emotions and good vibes or an end terminal that doesn’t connect to anything else. When you are a node, you are a mover and shaker of life. You give to others around you and you bring forward a lot of things but you also receive a lot of things. You are tapped into the universal stream. The more you are open, the more will flow in you and out of you. The more you are generous, positive, helpful, creative and motivate, the more you are reinforcing the network of life.

The opposite is also true. The more you are selfish, disengaged, negative, suspicious, resentful, envious, etc, the more you are closing yourself to the stream of life.

We have to start seeing the dynamics of life in terms of this sort of network fluidity. This is very much in line with Taoist philosophy.

3.You can affect people,situations and futures: Take responsibility

This is closely tied to the previous point. Since we are so highly interconnected to the web of life, everything we do has some effect on other people, the enabling or disabling of circumstances or some future course of action that in turn influences other people and outcomes. Life is an intricate balance and since we are plugged in the system every single action has a footprint on that balance. Ancient wisdom has repeatedly come up with this notion such as in many native American tribes or pre-christian paganic & shamanic cultures.

Think about those words you’ve heard as a kid or that particular episode in your life so many years ago that still remained impressed in your mind and which still bear influence on the way you see life. Do you get the point? Even little actions from one person can leave an effect in the consciousness of others many years and miles away from its origin.

Hence shifting from a more ego-centric to a more eco-centric worldview implies being more sensitive to how you responsibly act and react within the fine balance of life. More in this article.

4.Your perspective is always partial by definition: Keep on looking & listening

In the first point I mentioned the peril of seeing things personally and subjectively. In the same vein, it is equally dangerous to lock ourselves within a fixed and narrow view on life. This happens all the time and is the cause of so many quarrels between people,groups,cultures and nations.

It is not having a particular stand or viewpoint on life which is problematic but blindly holding on to it at all costs and discounting others’ views or the possibility that your perspective needs to change or grow. Think objectively about how certain perspectives you held on to very strongly in the past changed. Could that happen with your present ones?

We always see life through certain filters – time, place, culture, beliefs,objectives, likes and dislikes, etc. This is a convenient necessity but one which could hold us blind or tunnel-visioned.

Keeping an open-mind means keeping your views and theories open to correction and change.

5.Everything is impermanent: Loosen your grip on things

Possession is also a trait of the ego-based consciousness. We live in a world were possessions matters. It is not just material possessions but also relationships, status, achievements,influence and power. We measure wealth and power in terms of possessions.

The value we give to possessions comes mainly from two basic beliefs: The belief that resources are scarce or limited and that whatever we possess has permanence in time. Both are wrong assumptions. Resources are not scarce as we believe. They are neither permanent although permanence is a relative thing (something that outlives you could be relatively permanent but not absolutely so).

Contemplating on the notion of impermanence is important. Sometimes we trust that things will remain the same forever but they obviously don’t. Those of us who stay attached to this idea are the ones who will find it hardest to accept changes in life. The step to eco-consciousness involves evading this limitation. It involves grasping the essense of the dynamicity and impermanence of life and embracing it.

6.Be a critical thinker but not judgmental

Being critical and judgmental can be two different things. Being critical and analytical is a positive thing unless not done in a one-sided and narrow way. Adopting critical thinking means being rational and keeping balance so as not to be overcome by the irrational side of our being which begets poor judgment based on irrational fear, dogma, bias and preconceptions.

Being judgmental on the other hand, means being harshly critical to others even when it is clear that this does more harm than good. Being judgmental is not an action but a predisposition. It is not healthy since it promotes dissent,hostility, negative feelings and unhappy relationships.

7.Develop your awareness

I have written before about the subject of awareness on previous occassions. I regard developing awareness as being the one most essential thing to expand oneself on all levels of being – physically,mentally & spiritually. If I had listed these points in order of importance (which I haven’t) awareness should be the first one.

Awareness is the key to everything – literally. Awareness is the tool that punctures through the veil of our distorted reality and limited self-centred views. It connects us with our true selves, with our purpose in life and with our outer reality. This is what makes it such an important asset in our shift in consciousness.

8.Love is the supreme guide

If we are all interconnected at some level in a highly networked web, then love is the binding force that strengthens that web. It is like a fluid that runs in the network and reinforces the connections through which it passes. There can be no eco-consciousness without having love as a supreme guide.

9.Accentuate positive sentiments & feelings,attenuate negative ones

If we are to be healthy nodes in the web of life, we need to switch on and maintain the right qualities. Letting our negative emotions such as guilt, fear and pessimism run high may force us into builiding barriers which closes us down and throws us into egocentricity.

Accentuating feelings such as hope,loving-kindness and compassion makes us cultivate positive states of mind which in turn is reflected in the way we interact with others and the world around us.

10.Scale up your thinking: From local to global to Cosmic

I see a lot of people from where I come from who are so stuck in local thinking. Local thinking makes us think small, limited and detached from more distant realities people are living in. Local thinking is one of the hallmarks of egocentricity.

When one broadens his views and appreciates that the values and issues other countries and cultures live by are also important and of relevance, one starts thinking more globally. It is then that one understands that there are problems and issues that affect all of us on a global scale.

The next leap in thought, that from global thinking to cosmic thinking, is more of a mental excercise since one cannot have any direct ‘cosmic experiences’ but it is a good excercise nonetheless. There are so many things to contemplate on and Man has been pondering on the universe and his relation to it since the beginning of time.

Astronomic data and theories brought alive by stunning images of our home and neighbouring planets, distant galaxies, nebulas and even celestial phenomena in our own galaxy have been an enormous injection in our collective psyche over the recent decades. We have almost grown accustomed to the idea that we are not only inhabitants of a planet but of an endless universe of possibilities and natural phenomena. The more we ponder on this wonderful vastness the more we entertain the idea that we are very probably not alone either but there are possibly a large number of other beings who can be considered our cosmic brothers and sisters.

In a way this has given us an intimation with perceiving and conceiving things in a more cosmic’ way. I think that our collective consciousness has been scaled up one notch in this direction.

Individually, however, we can do more than that. We can contemplate more often, wonder, imagine and dream about the universe we inhabit and our relationship and belonging to it as a species.

Related posts:

1. Expanding consciousness through compassion & loving kindness

One thing that constantly fascinates me is our ability to be unaware and oblivious of great wonderful things in front of our eyes on a day to day basis.

Sometimes we are so consumed by mundane problems and current affairs that we filter out a lot of information around us. This makes us lose sight of the bigger picture and the magnificence of grand things in our life journey – a journey we so often take for granted.

In many ways we lose out on creating meaning in our lives because of this simple yet inherent flaw in our nature.

Imagine how more meaningful life would be if we could every now and then step back and shift our awareness from the small picture to the big picture.

If we could escape for a minute from the reality of our daily routines, concerns and narrow habitual cycles (which we seem to drive on autopilot), we can gift ourselves with the knowledge of how special some things in life can be.

One thing which we fail to see is how special we are and I would in this respect like to suggest a couple of valid reasons why this is so.

1. You are reading this!: Well, think for a second about the implications of you reading this article.You are a sentient being biologically and culturally evolved to a point where you can search, filter, decode and organize information shared by other fellow beings.No small thing. We are the only creatures on the planet doing this and although I strongly believe there are other beings in the universe (even of much greater intelligence) we are very probably in the very top percentile of living creatures having this ability. On a neurological level, there is a lot going on – millions of interconnected neurons firing in parallel and reconfiguring connections on the fly. Amazing stuff. On a demographic and historic level, you are part of a very priviledged group of humans who live in a time where literacy and ubiquity of information is spread to most part of the planet.

2.You are living in a pivotal age in the history of the world: Although it isn’t at all times obvious,we are actually on the edge of a turning point of a huge and unprecedented technological and social shift. Futurists like Ray Kurzweil describe this tipping point (which will happen somewhere in the next three decades)as the technological singularity in which the breakthrough in one enabling technology (say in special nano-materials or the synthesis of new organisms that will produce fuels,compute or cure diseases) will foster an accelarated change in other technologies. One breakthrough will open up more doors for other breathroughs till a singularity point is reached in which the shift is so big as to be like nothing else experienced in the history of humanity. We are living witnesses at the dawn of this change.

3.You have the power to change things: We are so blind to this yet we do turn around events and bring about change on a daily basis. Through imagination,creative thinking,planning and visualization, we take action to make things happen or influence their coming about.

4.You have the power to love and bring joy to other humans and sentient beings: The power of love, compassion and empathy is immense. This capacity is very often underestimated, misunderstood or forgotten under heaps of petty ego-centric concerns. Giving is a way to pass on the human legacy of bonding, caring and loving. Altruism alone can leave positive effects through the network of human relations across time that no other external resource can.

5. You have the power to bring about life: (or had, depending on your gender and biological age). The capacity to propagate life is an amazing thing. This is the ultimate force of nature, mightier than the mightiest storm, eruption or hurricane.

6. You have the power to be a medium of a million good things: To help, teach, inspire, motivate, make aware and share emotions and experiences with others.

7. You have the power to aspire and create new things: New ideas, designs, new ways of thinking, new ways of seeing things. You have immense creative powers waiting to be unleashed even if you might think you don’t.

8. You have the potential to leave something behind that can make a difference to people’s lives: Could be a book, your ideas, your belongings, your memories, your children, your dreams.

9. You carry a code: You are a living medium to the genetical propagation of the future human race.

10. You can relearn the world around you: You have the incredible power to learn new things and reshape your knowledge as you interact with your environment and build up experience. You have the ability to correct and change your point of view as you widen your horizons of knowledge. The wise knows that this is indeed one of the most important

No related posts.

A Philosopher of ancient Greece before the time of Socrates, named Heraclitus, used to profess that everything in the Universe is in constant flux and that nothing remains the same. “You cannot step in the same river twice” Heraclitus used to say. This is because all the observable world and even the imperceptible one is changing all the time even if it may appear stationary or permanent from our limited subjective observation.

This is true in so many levels and has been echoed in many philosophies and folk wisdom across cultures and centuries all the way down to modern science. The physical world is in constant movement. Matter and energy is exchanged from one place to the other. Even our own bodies never remain the same. As we grow  each and every atom in our body is changed many times and replaced by new ones. In a way you can say that the body you have now is completely different than  the one you had 5 years ago although it looks more or less the same.

Everything Must Go

Nothing stays the same. This is something that we all observe as time passes by, sometimes to our dismay or anxiety because we cannot come to grips with  change, loss or drastically new things.

We all get through that moment in life when we ponder and reflect back on our past and realize that so many things have irreversibly changed or come to an  end. Of course, aging is one of the most obvious signs although not every one is affected by aging in the same way.

It doesn’t mean that we always get nostalgic or panicky when we look back at our past. We get a lot of nice memories of wonderful moments we passed with loved  ones or friends in lovely places or in special episodes of our lives. But there are other times where we get attached to our past or those happier moments in  life and so we end up getting all emotional especially when the present gets a bit tough or the future is more uncertain than usual. As a line from one of  U2′s old song goes “We glorify the past when the future dries up“.

The Illusion of Permanence

This is normal but can haunt us in more extreme situations. So what is the remedy?

Nostalgia, attachment to the past or fear of change all point to a common, deeper problem: our perspective on permanence.

It is a natural part of our cognitive and mental makeup to attribute permanence to objects or events otherwise we would never make much sense of our  environment. Since we are developing as toddlers we learn that the same object can persist through time and hence learn to recognize it through its  unchanging features and attribute a fixed identity to it. As we color objects or events with emotional overtones, our view of permanence or impermanence,  continuity or loss take on a new dimension of meaning. This is where emotional attachment comes in.

Buddhist philosophy teaches that emotional attachments to things or events, together with ignorance and desire are the root of all human suffering. I tend to  agree with this. So much unhappiness can come out of attachment. In fact Buddhism (the little I know of it at least) recommends meditating on impermanence to  its followers. You might have seen in some documentary a ‘sand painting’ made by Tibetan Buddhist monks. Usually it’s an intricate geometric design made by  colored sand in the form of a Mandala. After spending many back-breaking hours creating the piece of art, the monks blow or wipe the sand away the very  second they finish it. crazy? Not really. The significance of it is that everything is impermanent so you better get used to it or you’ll suffer.

When we realize that everything is impermanent and accept with our heart that everything we know, possess, value, love, hold dear or hang on to will come to  an end, we are able to face the ever changing world fearlessly and afresh.

The Power of  Non-Attachment

But what does it mean to accept impermanence or live your life unattached? Does it mean that you cannot love, take care of your dear ones or keep something  if you like it? Not at all. This is where we can easily fall for half truths or falsehoods. On the contrary, living unattached means that you can value, love  or appreciate something for what it really is without the illusions we create in our heads and without being held in chains to the object such as that our  happiness or sorrow depend on it. This is the great irony of it all. We think it’s perfectly human and normal to be in that situation (we even epitomize it  as quintessential human subjectivity and sensitivity) when in fact it means living unconscious and enslaved to your frivouous emotions.

Liberation and freedom means to break free from the spell of illusion and awaken to see things in perspective without being overpowered by emotional and  subjective distortions. It means loving with more power, strength and focus. When you love something or someone without attachment or the constant fear of  losing it, there is more authenticity and power to it. It feels like vibrating at a higher level. There is more clarity and less obsessions or expectation. It’s quality caring or quality loving.

I know it may sound contradictory or paradoxical to some. I won’t blame anyone becuase it runs counter to what we were always made to believe. The truth is  always a big pain in the ass.

when I look at my beautiful two year old daughter as she is hopping happily around the place and beaming with life and joy, I always get that unavoidable  thought in my head saying: “Alas, what a perfect moment yet so impermanent. Kids grow so fast and this will be just a fleeting memory soon“. Then I always  think back at that thought: “It is beautiful because it is impermanent. (The Japanese culturally recognize this sense of aesthetic that is why such things as  the cherry blossom are so valued as beautiful because they are ephemeral) Instead of wasting your time complaining about it shut up and enjoy it. Cherish  the moment and live it piece by piece!“.

No related posts.

I might be breaking away from the crowd and from the common chatter of all things wordly but today I don’t care.

I feel like writing about one of my long-held spiritual beliefs. If you are a loyal reader of this blog but not in the vein of a deep and non-mundane subject then I humbly apologize!

Put plainly and simply I believe in the reincarnation of souls or to use a Buddhist term – the trans-migration of souls.

This view diverges from the strong ultra-catholic setting of the country I was born in. Still, it is not that uncommon to meet people holding alternative beliefs to the simplistic view of eternal life and heaven and hell in this part of the world, let alone in the more secular parts of the west. More people are believing in reincarnation, or suspect that there is a good ounce of truth in it, even if this is not totally in line with their religous background.

For me it wasn’t a choice of fancy or randomness. I didn’t wake up one morning and said to myself that I would like to believe in reincarnation. It was basically an understanding that ‘clicked’ and maked sense.

To begin with, the notion that we have just one life followed by an eternal life, presumably a spiritual one (although the Christian doctrine never had a clear picture of this and a lot of lines are left blank) never made much sense to me. I was always more convinced of a dynamic and evolutionary stance on life and reincarnation answers that call.

The Spiritual Evolution

I see reincarnation as a necessary part in the evolution of spirit and consciousness. Successive incarnations lead to spiritual growth and evolution at some deeper level. Each lifetime gives us the opportunity to learn & experience, but most of all to step outside our limitations and create our destiny and improve on our past. In fact, I do not believe that we reincarnate into plants or lower animals but the other way round. The norm is an evolutionary path forward.

We all have this basic choice to make: either be stuck in stagnant waters and repetitive behavior or consciously break barriers and go forth and spiritually evolve. All of us have different paths to follow. The funny thing is that this is not apparent in the physical world. We have more or less the same biological inheritance – we all have bodies and subject to the same physical limitations. Yet we are all souls of different ages with different pasts.

Some are old and have lived many lives while others are much younger. Many others are still in their first incarnation. Did you ever notice or suspect a difference? Did you ever talk to someone and said to yourself: “This is an old soul!”. You see it in his or her attitude, perspective on life, wisdom and strength of spirit and heart.

On the other hand you meet people who are as shallow as a puddle and will remain so even if you plant them in the best social conditions possible.

Different Paths

This insight on reincarnation has opened the doors on many other questions in life. Older souls tend to see life with more depth and breadth and hence have more potential to be expansive and creative. Think about the great minds of Science and art. Genius composers, Scientists that changed the world through their discoveries, poets, writers, Philosophers, etc.

What made Einstein such a remarkable scientist and human being? Sure, you might say, it was his contribution to Science as in his General theory of relativity or his work in photo-electricity (to which he was awarded with a Nobel prize).

But his achievements are based on his out of ordinary potential to perceive and conceive life in an out of the ordinary ways. And this is not so because he owned a different brain. All brains are physically the same and work within the same parameters (with the exception of enhanced or impaired functioning). Einstein’s brain was not different at all.

Also, social upbringing can help or counter-help but does not determine human potential. How many remarkable men or women have achieved extraordinary feats but were raised in lots of hardships  and adversary conditions? even siblings are a proof of this. Brothers or sisters in the same household with the same upbringing can grow up to be very different in nature and capacity.

The Distinguishing Mark

So what is the distinguishing mark? My answer is this: The number of well-used incarnations.

The words ‘well used’ make another point: “Someone could have lived 90 times but wasted half of them while someone else could have lived 30 times but have made the very best of each and every one of them.

So this is the general distinguishing mark: Someone who is in his first incarnation or have lived just a couple of times is very different than someone who has lived say, 200. yet we can only perceive this difference through intuition because at the surface it cannot show. We appear to be equal but the age of our spirit is not.

In many ways your present life is determined by the quantity and quality of lives you have lived before and your next one by how you live this one.

So live well because you definitely don’t live once but have still many more to go!

Related posts:

1. Save the World: Live in Balance & Inner Harmony

I have been annoyed for some time now about the frequent misuse of the term ‘Passion’ in the personal development arena. I must admit beforehand that I was also guilty of the same mistake in one or two of my past articles.

The thing is that passion is most frequently used to mean a positive quality that is essential for personal development, Happiness, goal setting and finding one’s true purpose.

Even the laymen use of the word falls into this misconception. People talk about passion almost with reverence. “He is very passionate about his team” or “He loved her passionately“. It seems as though passion is a very respected quality of a person or of a culture.

I know something about this being born in a southern Mediterranean culture.Southern European people will openly boast about being passionate, hot-headed and warm-blooded people. In Sicily, for example, there were many cases, in the not so distant past, of murders in which people were acquitted or their sentence heavily reduced because their crime was not just any crime but  ‘a crime of passion’. That means that a man (it’s almost always a man who is absolved with a crime of passion) gets away with killing his wife because he caught her having sex with another man and in a moment of blind fury he followed his irrational but ‘justified’ rage.

This of course is a case of a society whose legal and moral system condones an act of passion – or in other words a blind,irrational and short-sighted outburst of emotion.But passion has been glorified in other cultures too perhaps with less drastic implications than the example above.

If you look at the definition of passion, it is obvious that its meaning is far from positive as people tend to attribute:

“a strong feeling or emotion

heat: the trait of being intensely emotional

rage: something that is desired intensely; “his rage for fame destroyed him”

mania: an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action

a feeling of strong sexual desire

the suffering of Jesus at the Crucifixion ”

(wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

The above are obviously all undesirable and negative traits. Its definition is associated with fanaticism, suffering, rage, strong emotions and irrational or compulsive thinking.

Passion is also the favorite game of the ego. It’s all about the ego’s shortsightedness to arduously attach itself to an object  (be that a person,  an idea,religion, a team or anything ) and over-react when they perceive that something or someone is playing down that object of attachment.

Not being a football fan (Soccer in the U.S), I often ask people who are fanatic of a particular team why is it that they take it so badly when their team loses. I mean why do grown up man, for example, cry desperately when their team loses the Sunday match, spend the rest of the week in a dark mood, carefully avoiding to meet colleagues who support a rival team? Trust me this and worse is true. I even know people who do not even watch their favorite team play because it’s too risky for their heart.

And when I ask these question the answer I get in bright eyes is “You don’t understand…it’s passion!!”

When personal development writers talk about Passion, it’s definitely not the passion as explained above that they mean. What I think they mean is ‘Enthusiasm’ and this is the right word that should be used instead.

Here are some definitions of Enthusiasm from the web:

a feeling of excitement

exuberance: overflowing with eager enjoyment or approval

a lively interest; “enthusiasm for his program is growing”

(wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

Enthusiasm (enthousiasmos) originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god. …

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enthusiasm)

enthusiastic – having or showing great excitement and interest; “enthusiastic crowds filled the streets”; “an enthusiastic response”; “was enthusiastic about …

(wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

Hence when bloggers write about passion, what they really mean is Enthusiasm. Passion is a negative trait of ego-driven behavior. On the other hand enthusiasm is not driven by the ego. It transcends the ego shortsighted whims and urge for instant gratification. It comes from embracing our authentic selves and being in alignment with a higher purpose. It is the joy of being that arises when we are doing something that has meaning and resonates with our genuine inspirations.

No related posts.

Life is in perfect balance & harmony. It is in dynamic balance or equilibrium, meaning that although it is in constant flux, with things coming and going out of existence, the net effect is total balance.

It is also in harmony because its different forms fit in and blend together. Observing nature you can see a lot of example of co-evolution and interdependence between life forms.

One life form depends on an opportunity or set of circumstances put forward by another at the right time and in the right amount.

Even violent burst of nature such as natural disasters are in harmony with the cause and effects of life seen through a larger timescale.

The Predicament of Modern Man

It is partly due to our nature and partly due to the hectic and chaotic environment we have created that we often fall out of balance and lose harmony within ourselves and with nature. This is the predicament of modern man.

Carl Gustav Jung had stated that modern Man is in a pathological state of neurosis because as cultures and civilizations evolved, Man became more rational and control-driven but in the process his psyche became more disassociated from it primitive and spiritual roots. He got rid of superstition but also lost meaning, balance and harmony in the process. He became disenchanted with the world of spirit and soul.

So it seems that as we culturally evolved our consciousness became more separated and cut off from the universe around us. This pathological state of neurosis, as Jung describes it, is the cause of so much stress, anxiety and depression – the three most common symptoms of the modern world.

As we lost our link with the spiritual dimension, we lost our balance within ourselves and harmony with the natural world around us.

But if loss of balance and harmony are such a common trait of our time, then it follows that restoring balance and harmony should also be a major top priority concern for humanity and its future. Is it not?

I cannot imagine how the world can survive if the human mind remains eternally unawake or if Man grows more out of balance with himself and in disharmony with his environment.

And this is why so many visionaries, futurologists, spiritual teachers and bleeding hearts are continually reminding us that there must be a shift and evolution of consciousness for humanity to survive. There must be a radical shift in our way of doing things whereby we restore the balance by getting more in touch with our spiritual nature and the intuitive, feminine side of our psyche.

We have to relearn our ancestral paths and regain ancient wisdom blended with life-enhancing technology. But we have to come to that point as a collective by starting from the individual.

Future Possibilities

We must find ways to regain that balance in our everyday lives. And this has become my latest contemplation – is there a universal language, a blueprint to easily teach the path of balance and harmony to individuals regardless of their cultural background or mental disposition? Perhaps this is not possible. If no one came with a simple answer in millennia it means that there is no simple answer period (the simplest and most powerful answer that comes to mind is meditation but this has remained far from being taught and practiced universally as there are religions that do not recognize it – specifically Roman catholic and Islamic cultures).

Or perhaps now is the opportune time as we have more technology and relatively more understanding of the human brain. Who knows? I am imagining a holistic system incorporating known traditional techniques such as visualization, breathing, meditation, basic Tai Chi movements together with highly advanced biofeedback devices with sensors and intelligent software (attached to our brain and nervous system via wireless micro-electrodes) able to entrain the mind into coherent patterns of activity such as those obtained by seasoned meditators. The difference is that instead of needing many years of meditation it takes just few minutes and can be practiced at schools since an early age.

We have programmed humanity for ages through educational and religious institutions with wrong types of programs such as fear, scarcity, competitiveness, greed, attachment to superficial values, and God knows what. Wouldn’t it be better to program it to become more attuned with itself and its environment? To restore balance and harmony?

If the generations to come had pretty accessible ways to learn how to develop mental balance and harmony from an early age through simple ancient and modern practices then it would mean that stress, anxiety and depression not only can be tackled but prevented from arising in the first place. What would this mean on a global scale? Think of drug abuse, suicide, crime, domestic violence, road accidents, bad decisions, sore relationships, intolerance, street violence and a million other things being drastically reduced. Think of more people being calmer and happier. What would the net effect be? Happier and healthier people in society would mean a synergistic positive effect. It would mean (or perhaps I am drifting off too far here) the so much talked about quantum leap in the collective human consciousness.

Related posts:

1. 5 ‘World views’ the world can do without
2. You Only Live Many Times – Part 1
3. The Strength of Non-Resistance

Ancient Eastern Philosophy has taught a lot about the concept of non-resistance. This view has been deeply rooted as a cultural way of life as can be most popularly seen in the martial arts for example.

Most internal martial arts such as Tai Chi, for instance, are built on this principle of non-resistance and ‘action without action’ (Wei Wu Wei) or effortless doing. The idea behind this principle of effortless action is that when you don’t resist or work against the energies around you but actually work or flow with them, you become aligned and in equilibrium in such a way as to obtain a ‘soft and invisible power’.

The adept martial artist knows how to use the power and momentum of his opponent to overcome him with out exerting any force or power.

Non-resistance is like the nature of water. The strength of water lies in its ability to flow around obstacles and in its suppleness. Its force is soft yet powerful.

On the other hand, resistance is friction, an act of opposing, blocking or impeding something. It generally implies working against natural forces as opposed to working with them.

Here are a few points which highlight this negative aspect of resistance to give you an idea of how it might affect your daily life:

• Resistance always involves using energy-dissipating action. Did you ever realize how much effort and energy is needed to resist something as opposed to accept it? This is in line with the Eastern philosophy of effortless action.

• It makes us block the flow of life’s energies. Notice yourself when you are passing through a phase of resisting or opposing something such as an idea or part of your life. Your energy is always on the low side. You are out of balance and moody.

• As an effect of the above stress builds up. You start experiencing inner conflict and anxiety.

• Resistance makes us unreceptive to new ideas and intuitions. It blocks our intuitive channels.

• It sabotages our creativity, mental clarity and focus

• It stops us from appreciating the moment.

How to learn to flow without resistance:

• Avoid trying to always be in control. This is a cultural habit more common in Western cultures. We want to be constantly in control of our life, work, relationships, finances, etc. We feel that if we lose control, we lose the race, we lose our life. Of course the opposite is true. When we learn not to control everything we embrace life with more power and consciousness.

• When something unwanted happens to you, be aware of your resistance towards it. Shit happens. Calm down and try to shift your perspective to one of acceptance. Ask yourself “How can I use this?” or “How does this affect the bigger picture of my life?”

• Be open to your feelings without criticizing yourself. We all have an internal critic installed which pounces on us when we perceive we did something out of line. This has the negative effect of making our feelings shy away. By allowing more of those feeling to flow out, we encourage the practice of non-resistance.

• In relation to the above point, when you are having an idea, let it flow without trying to classify it, reason it out or evaluate it. We sometimes tend to over-rationalize ideas which effectively has the effect of promoting resistance to it.

• When you are practicing awareness, meditation, relaxation or simply appreciating a beautiful moment you will undoubtedly be bombarded with a thousand distracting thoughts that divert you off course. Don’t try to resist or control anything. Just acknowledge them and let them flow. The very act of resisting trips your circuits and conscious thought kicks in.

• When you are listening to something new that diverges from your opinions and background beliefs try not to resist it or deny it. Think of expansion and diversity of opinion as being healthy, strong and life affirming.

• Do not deny or resist failure. Recognize it and accept it.

Related posts:

1. Overcoming Fear and Breaking Free from its Tyranny
2. How to Survive the ‘Negativity Pandemic’
3. How to find the Strength to Overcome Obstacles