Almost all Religions and Spiritual Disciplines offer some form of cleaning ritual or "forgiveness" mechanism.

We humans like to get rid of nasty memories and guilt complexes. We would like to erase our failures in our past …

Unless we invent a time machine we can’t undo the past. So we use a "psychic trick" and "allow" ourselves to find peace and forgiveness for what we have done.

But to make the "trick" to feel real we add some pain and effort to the penance. "No pain, no gain!" they say.

So we do extra prayer, stand in ice cold water, run through flames, walk some long "spiritual paths", do self-flagellation or do some other punishment.

The "washing" usually doesn’t really help those you have wronged or fix the situation you are ashamed of – but it tricks our psyche into thinking we are "clean" now.

"Washing" away your sins in this way is just a lame excuse to really learn from your failures and confront the consequences. Religious or spiritual self-flagellation is no substitute for confronting your failures and the hard work of growing beyond your limits.

Growth and learning can be painful, but don’t confuse pain with growing beyond your pitiful excuses.

Nietzsche has killed all Gods for us (again – because some Greek Philosophers had done that before).

Some religious people have argued that now Humanity feels lost – because we are no longer part of divine plan or connected to a great power.

Rubbish!

We are now liberated from the mental constraint of following some imaginary being’s plans. And there are no longer any excuses to really take responsibility for your OWN life. Don’t make up excuses, don’t follow any rules made up by ancient people. You have develop your own moral and social compass.

But even many religious texts emphasize each individuals liberty to choose in the face of God. And based on your decisions and deeds you will be judged. You find these judgement metaphors in Egyptian sacred texts as well as in Christianity and the idea of Reincarnation based on your Karma of your former life in many eastern religions.

Don’t be sheep: don’t follow social, cultural or religious rules or pressure to play it safe. This is your life now and head straight for it.

If you want to follow certain rules then do so, because YOU decided to do so. Many moral ideas make sense, no matter if you think they are based on ethereal religion or down to earth common sense.

But many conventions or consensus is simply rubbish and made for sheep. Don’t be one …

I spent 2008 most of my time driving my business and personal affairs forward (like finding a new flat). Now that have a nice place I can "afford" some time and space for my spiritual advancement (or faked holiness).

Time is not only money, but also spirituality. One needs time to stop, observer, feel, reflect and think – make plans, meditate and practice your new insights.

Without time there is no reflection of your world – without reflection there is no spirituality.

So do you have time for it? Or do you avoid making time for it?

But in our crazy fast moving world time is becoming a precious resource – filling every minute with work, entertainment, netlife and excitement.

Once again – making time to grow between all these activities is a luxury. Are you willing to "buy" that time and cultivate yourself as a human being?

BBC Documentary / 58 Minutes

Carlos Castaneda is certainly one of the most controversial and influential spiritual teachers of the last century. His books about the teachings of the Yaqui Indians was an international bestseller and still a must read for many esoteric’s out there. This documentary gives you an excellent insight in his tragic life and all the controversy surrounding his teachings.

Once again it shows that so called Gurus can turn grains of truth into madness – instead of spirituality and enlightenment you get distortion and lies.

I guess the temptation to abuse the power that some spiritual insights give you are too much for many Gurus.

Money, fame, admiration, sexual offers and power over large groups of people are a challenge most gurus fail to overcome. Instead of resisting temptation they fail to withstand the temptations of leadership and power.

Most terrible of all: he damaged the cultures he studied, he put wrong ideas in millions of heads (and therefore caused a lot of confusion and pain) and he did it all for mostly materialistic reasons.

Like L. Ron Hubbard he used his superior mind and excellent insights into the human psyche for his personal advantage.

Once again that phrase “If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!” is a very good guide to your own spirituality. Don’t follow any illusions! Don’t follow other Buddha’s – be your own teacher and take responsibility!

Follow your own road …

Fuck Christmas – celebrate Winter Solstice! The longest night of the year is a real event, the return of the Sun is a really important event. No Sun – no warmth!  No sunshine – no plants! No plants no food! No food – no humans. No humans – no fucking consumerist xmas …

Make sure to read the Wikipedia entry and learn that almost all cultures and many religions celebrate this day. The religions always give it their ‘own’ holy meaning – but they are all based on one of the oldest scientific discoveries of ancient humans: that the sun follows a pattern and exact timing. That seasons come and go and that they can be calculated. The earliest farming communities learned that rhythm pretty fast, because it is of the utmost importance to know WHEN to plant your seeds, so they come out at the right time.

So this very Saturday – December the 22th of 2007 @ 18:06 UTC / GMT marks the solstice—the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Happy Winter Solstice my friends and readers!

Can product mascots be spiritual? Can companies really sell themselves on a religious / spiritual agenda and company philosophy? Or should all commercial services and products be ‘clean’ and neutral?

Companies can certainly act in a nice and responsible as well as ‘moral’ way with their customers and the environment. But when it comes to my enlightenment – it’s only my business and nobody else’s …

We all have to go through a lot of shit to arrive at our dream destination. Just make sure that your final goal is worth the travel. Go for gold, don’t accept any mediocrity or other distractions from your hearts true desires … 

No matter who much cuteness, pink and kitsch you stuff into your life – it will end. The question is: How much real substance do you want? How much effort are you willing to invest into you own life? And how much pain are you willing to endure to reach your full potential?

Sounds to harsh? Well then choose the way of modern consumerism and try to get the easy & fluffy ticket until death.

The easy way out will always be there.

If you are poor and stuck in some backwater place your choices are limited. To have a choice is a luxury – not many people enjoy that privilege.

But to develop different perspectives on life you need to have the luxury of self observation and time to reflect. And some brains and some education help too.

Many of our fellow humans are still simply trying to survive and lead a decent life – without a break to think about themselves, learn more about culture and spirituality – or having the resources to start a ‘new’ or ‘different’ life.

If you can afford all these things and you can think – than use these gifts. Otherwise you are wasting yourself and the chance to improve society. Self improvement is not a one way street – as part of a bigger community all bonuses and deficits are added or subtracted from the ‘big picture’.

As a sperm you already won the race with your father’s other competitors. But in the end you can only exit the game like every other player – dead.

For all the competition in life there is no real winning, no real first prize or looser. All you can do is breath, develop your potential, maybe clone yourself and raise your kids. Have fun and enjoy yourself on the way to your grave – because that’s the most you get out of it.

Just in case if you haven’t solved that tricky question for yourself – I can recommend this site with many answers, insights and arguments from very smart people.

Happy reading and thinking …

PS: Let me know if you have solved the question – I am still working on it!

Some problems may look terribly threatening, but you’ll might discover that they have only a ‘limited range’ in your life. Just because something has teeth it doesn’t mean it can bite you all the time and everywhere.

So try stepping back and get a bigger picture when something snaps at you.

Meditation is a good thing. But this is the new millennium – so get you notebook on the floor, activate your web based meditation timer and off you go. This one even has some nice music (click on the musical note to see the selection).

I am wondering if this is not turning into some machine worshipping? Maybe this tool can be expanded with a virtual candle, a virtual monk slapping you on the face and a virtual Buddha points counter to tell you when you are finally an enlightened being yourself?

*Thanks to all the people who sent this to me – must have been at least four via Stumblers. I guess they all think I am in dire need of some enlightenment!

I am just wondering if the Tree of Life is not just a bad joke? It already carries it’s own doom in it’s seed. Nothing is eternal, except our lust for illusions of happiness.

Just because you own an official Yoga mat and think that animals should be treated nicely this doesn’t make you a spiritual person. That humble feeling and that cosmic love everybody is talking about comes after selling out your ego, not buying new stuff for it.

No matter where Mr Crab goes – he always is at home. We also carry often a lot of baggage with us, but sometimes our minds won’t rest, feel safe or at home – no matter where we are. Maybe it’s time to work on that mental shell and get rid of it. A human can survive in all ‘nakedness’ – Mr Crab can’t. It’s our advantage – let’s use it to live without fear and burden.

Forget all your trashy New Age CD, filled with terribly harmonious synthesizer rap. Dive into Overtone singing – especially by the great Maestro David Hykes.

Click player and below to get some Overtone:

Overtone music is hardly new: Tibetan monks do it, Mongolian throat singers do it as well – Yodelling actually is using some similar techniques. Gregorian chants sound similar, but don’t create that eerie and fascinating ‘deep sound’.

If you want to meditate, fall asleep or totally relax there is hardly anything more soothing (apart from singing whales).

Some spiritual disciplines are so focused on transcending everything that they can’t appreciate the silly side of life any more. If you can’t laugh no more, you are already dead and have to be reborn as a sitcom character. Laughter is good for the soul and an excellent tool to overcome fear.

You don’t need to save a whole country or lead some important peace negotiations. Sometimes a smile and a friendly gesture towards a total stranger can contribute to world peace. But most of all – make peace with yourself. Any inner war is worth pacifying. So go for your personal noble Nobel prize – you can only win!

Is it maybe my age? Or is it because I am unable to form proper relationships? But I am getting less and less pussy in my life. This is not a complaint about being sexless, but rather without some recharging contact to lovely females …

Sex is certainly nice and exciting, although I find the pure act itself rather boring and uninspiring. Orgasm is usually quicker achieved without third party support. Sure, one can look out for new kicks, like a little bit perversion on the side, drugs or mind boggling experiments (like fucking in an exploding space shuttle).

But I am hungry for something else …

I spent quite some time on personal sex and sensual culture, by doing Tantra, massage and yoga. Which is good. It’s great to know your heart chakra from your ass, as well being able to know for yourself if you feel horny or simply true love and affection for another human being. This is all very helpful. Thank you so much Mr. Insight.

But knowing stuff is one thing – now for the practical part. Already during my first Tantra days I had quite a hard time finding women who understood this new ‘thing’, being able to cope with a so called ‘emotionally grown up male’. Since I have overcome the snobbish esoteric desire to heal women with my holy penis (or Lingam as the Tantrist call the sausage bit), there is now a lot of time to experience a nice flow of energy and sexuality between a lovely Shakti and me (the so called Shiva). I am not asking for a cosmic orgy every night or the supreme priestess of Yoni in my life, just a bit understanding and tenderness beyond the old in & out mechanism.

This is not tantric snobbism. I am just a firm believer that lovemaking is a set skills, that goes way beyond a simple erection or wetness and some Uhhhs and Ahhhs.

Love technique is a pure set of physical sex skills, to know your own and your partners anatomy, erroneous zones and the effect on hormones and excitement on the human body (and side effects to the mind and emotional side as well – more of that later). Also included is knowledge about how to operate your genitals and pleasure tools, as well as the effects of different positions. In later stages you can add all sorts of games, operation of external pleasure tools and drugs as well.

The next big area is your sexual psyche, how the human mind and emotions interact with sexual energies. Now this is quite a task, but a very fulfilling one. This is were we can learn to be more open, to heal or wounds of love and learn to show and give true affection. Since sex ‘lives’ very close to our egos, there is a lot of potential for conflict, fear, hunger and madness. To master your sex psyche means mostly to confront your hungry sex maniac ego. Me! Me! Me!

For some people the last area of sex magic or spirituality is the most exciting, because they expect some sort of Steven Spielberg effects while making love or instant enlightenment by tantric penetration. Or they simply watched to much advertising bullshit.

An energetic as well as spiritual exchange always happens while making sex/love. If you have read all tantric literature in the world or not. This is more about to learn how to use these energies consciously, instead of an unaware and animalistic level (which is also useful). This is about exchange with your partner, weaving a carpet of love and energy that goes way beyond the satisfaction of an physical orgasm. It’s a deep experience that has a more lasting effect on your psyche on different levels: your ego will feel very happy about all that deep attention it received, your body is humming with energy, your soul is touched on an intimate level, that hardly exist in everyday life.

Let’s go back to my tiny ego problems …

I shed my biggest tears about sensual deprivation. I want to be touched and massaged in a fulfilling way. Once again this is an area where I did some workshops, loads of massage exchanges (with people from different massage ‘traditions’) and of course energy work. In the age of consumer Ayuveda and global esoterica, it seems very hard to find people to celebrate such a basic human ‘thing’: to touch and be touched in a nice way without any sexual drive behind it.

What drives me nuts, is that so called ‘normal’ people have such a hard time giving and receiving a simple pleasure as touching from someone else. It’s always an exclusive thing, just reserved for the one and only true partner or lover.

What a poor and limited concept.

I guess before we ever reach the stage of universal love, we need to explore the universal touch first. If you are afraid of simply touching someone in a pleasant and friendly way, how can you open your heart & mind for compassion or even love for the whole universe?

*repost 2003-09-13*

A highly interesting article over at the Scientific American Mind. Neurosciene is still very young, we hardly know how our brains and minds work.

While playing with fire – many people ignore the complexity of it’s relationship with it’s surrounding. The strings of fire can expand beyond your grasp and burn you …

If I become one with the target
than I am basically shooting myself?

What a strange idea.

Life is harsh when you kick start the human spirit.

Humankind has spent a long time worshipping gods – since the modern Cro-magnon appeared and kicked the Neanderthal out of existence. One of the main difference between us and our ancestors is our imagination and therefore adaptability. No other ancestor started language, cave paintings or complex cultures.

But our imagination is also our greatest enemy. Where we lacked knowledge we invented ‘things’ to fill the gaps. So in shock and awe about nature we invented spirits, ghosts and gods to explain thunder, death and a lot of other annoying things.

Me Artist! Me Paint! Me Talk to Horsy Spirit! Me Shaman! Bow to me!

As our mental capabilities expanded so did our cultures, language and religions. If you look at the history of religions you also see how their concepts and liturgy evolved in complexity. But the human intellect is an amazing thing – and once our basic civilization was established smarter heads started to questions the gods themselves (like Epicurus).

They already concluded that nature is everything and that the gods are nothing. Even things like the atom were discussed long before they had the means to research it’s existence. Human imagination can work far beyond your cultural and technological limits.

But religion also proved to be a great tool over power – and rulers always like to have a divine backing. The people can ruled much easier if their leaders are in favor with the gods – not matter how dubious those connections are. And almost all cultures have creations myths that make THEM the chosen ones. For example the Japanese track themselves back to the sun goddess Amaterasu. I personally like the imagination and complexity of Hinduism. You hardly find a more colorful universe of gods.

The Enemies of my Religion are also our Enemies. Let’s crush them, because we are the Chosen ones …

As religion is an attempt to explain the universe (and therefore a search for the ultimate truth) it leads to science. Almost all early European scientist were dedicated Christians, who were VERY curious how god managed to run the whole show. Too bad that they discovered that the old stories of all religions weren’t true: the earth was neither the center of the universe nor was it formed out of a slain giants body.

But parallel to the myths of religion (and fairy tales) we humans discovered spirituality, our own psyche, the secrets of our minds and a new love for the beauty of the universe. Almost all major religions have their smaller departments dedicated to more serious spiritual paths – which are often more demanding and more abstract then the normal liturgy for the common follower. A truely dedicated lifestyle of a Yogi or Jesuit priest is NOT everyone – it’s very demanding. And people are unwilling to really give everything for their gods. Self preservation is usually stronger then religion.

Are you a true follower of your God(s)?! Spiritual nakedness and Yogi tea are not for everybody you know …?!

Life – the last twenty thousand years – was quite harsh to humans. Simply getting enough food was tough enough. Life was always very unfair and scary. Religion also helped to cope with fear and survival – tight rules and rituals helped tribes to survive and unite under a common banner/purpose. Religion also helped us to ‘organize’ power and hierarchies.

Religion helped us to survive and was one of the first components of our cultures. But culture will continue to evolve – even the evolution of ideas is pretty unstoppable.

Many people say that science is the true enemy of the gods or any religion. But no – our cultural evolution is the true ‘enemy’ (if you can speak in such terms anyway).

Cultural evolution brings not only full stomachs, but a separation of powers, the rule of the law, a more mutual sharing of technologies, education, medical supplies and science.

In the early 1500s European Christianity was becoming more and more aware of those ‘other’ religions and world views – simply because travel and trade was coming back to roman standards. In a monotheistic religion/society it’s much more shocking to hear that there is an alternative to just the one ‘true’ god. Polytheistic societies never had that problem to such an extend – they could cope with (just) another god …

The same Country and same God – three different groups fighting to the Death. A bit odd isn’t it?!

Luxuries like human rights, democracy, free markets and the separation of powers didn’t appear until the late 1700s in Europe. Instead of just fighting for survival, we could dedicate (again) more resources to social evolution and exploration, because we finally had the understanding how to help ourselves and survive.

Also we started to rule ourselves less by divine appointment, but by social and political ideas. The concept of the national identity was supplanting religious identities – especially in Europe after those devastating and fruitless religious wars.

So in some way Martin Luther’s idea split the Christian atom (much more then the catholic (western) and orthodox (eastern) separation before). This big bang lead to the Age of Enlightenment. But it was paid with a lot of blood and burned bodies.

He challenged the Power of the Church and tried to put believe back into Christianity.

Looking back in our history one could say we have fought many wars between conflicting cultural ideas: from tribes uniting under one religion, to great religions fighting each other and social ideas fighting religions to establish a new order within a bigger cultural context.

Overall our cultures evolved to ever increasing social structures: from tribes to kingdoms, from kingdoms to nation states, from nation states to continental entities (like the EU).

But old ideas never completely die: we still have tribalism as well as religion amongst us. The wars of the 1990’s in the Balkans and current conflicts between Muslims and Christians show how deep these old ideas are still embedded in our cultural DNA.

The Founding Fathers of America – one of the greatest moments in History. They put the Nation before God, the Citizen before their Rulers.

The idea of the nation state or even atheism are pretty new – hardly a couple of centuries old – compared to tens of thousands of years of tribalism and religions.

I say no more gods please – they had several thousand years to enlighten us, put an end to suffering, spread universal love and understanding. Gods and religions have failed to do so – although they had more then enough time and cost us a huge amount of life’s.

We are currently struggling to implement new concepts into our cultural evolution: a truly global society, universal human rights, total religious freedom (or betters say to protect ‘true’ believers from each other) and a free flow of information. No surprise people are scared and more blood is shed. But overall our current democratic, socialist and capitalist ‘ideas’ have feed and clothed more people then ever – safety and education are still on the rise although we still experience huge humanitarian catastrophes (like in Darfur or Africa in general).

Since democracy, technology and science have started to spread – we as a race have prospered more then ever. Gods didn’t build schools and hospitals, fed and clothed the poor, educated and explored the human potential – and this potential also includes our spirituality and imagination.

*repost from 2005*

How do you introduce spirituality to kids in a free and open way? The chance of indoctrination instead of education is very big. Too often the voice of (any) god becomes the instrument of parental instructions. How can we show the wonders without destroying them?

Zen Master Lin Chi: “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch.”

Not that easy to understand or is it?!

How often do you really hold your own destiny in your hand? And how often do you carefully shape your own path? Do you leave it all to the universe by accident and pure faith? Or do you simply function?!

How often do we really apply our powers to shape our future in a conscious state of mind & spirit?

Nobody likes to be weak – but often we make ourselves smaller and weaker then we are. Why? Is it a lack of confidence? A lack of knowledge of strength and abilities? Or do we sometimes choose to be weak to get rid of any responsibilities and lucrative chances?

Martial arts always had the additional effect of building character – apart from the obvious effect of killing others even better. Thanks to more moderate times and less violence within societies martial art mostly became more spiritual instead of lethal.

Still the Warrior label lives on – and it’s a bad thing. It doesn’t matter if you try to make it more esoteric or peaceful by tweaking it like Rainbow Warrior or Dolphin Warrior.

But is it still the Way of a Warrior? No – unless you consider life, relationships and even business as war. Unless you are in a War or prepare for one you are not a Warrior. Any you should be happy about it.

The Way of a real Warrior who has to fight someday is tough and not just an esoteric hobby to make yourself feel stronger when you a pencil pusher in a huge company who likes to meddle with self enlightenment.

Isn’t love great? Somewhere out there waits your perfect soulmate for you. Right? Wrong! If there is one idea in the spiritual scene that drives me nuts it’s the illusion of the soulmate, because it’s so wonderful egoistic and blatant unspiritual …

The very idea of the soul mate is so very appealing: the great cosmos has just the perfect match for you in store. You now longer need to surf russianbrides.com or draw angel cards in the morning to find him or her.

What is your soul mate supposed to be? First of all, this person connects to you on an extremely deep level – yay – it’s not just the usual shared interests and screwing all day – this time it’s spiritual!

I just wonder what a connection on ’soul level’ really means? Total understanding? That would rather imply you are clones of each other, not very exciting. And why is total understanding so important that makes it such a top priority to most people within relationships?

It’s one of the main mental fixations of stressed modern individualists that hardly anyone understands them. Why does nobody understand you – simple in most cases: people hardly communicate and care for each other anymore. To know a person well and participate in their lives takes a serious amount of time and dedication. Sending an eCard from work and met once in while to have a latte together hardly counts as ‘involved’.

In an era, where many people suffer from loneliness, depressions (harhar) and single lifestyle – nobody wants to embarrass themselves or their friends by being ‘emotional’, ‘high maintenance’ or ‘too serious’. It’s the age of easy friendships, fun and laughter … join the party and don’t you dare to come depressed. Join the fucking prozac nation of happiness.

So a ‘good understanding’ of another person can be achieved with some work and time – you don’t need a soulmate for that one. To connect to other people is a simple set of social skills, not a big spiritual task.

Back to the ‘connecting at soul level’ – another illusion about the soulmate is the reincarnation myth. Would it be great walk the path to nirvana with friends, lovers and family from former lifetimes?

I personally believe in reincarnation, but that’s as much thought I give about the whole thing. Why? It doesn’t matter that we already lived once or a hundred times. I am living now! I must take responsibility about people and actions I do in this lifetime. Spending to much time thinking about reincarnation is like trying to insure yourself against life …

People love the whole karma thing, because it’s an easy way to score points for being a good person! The concept of good and bad karma is very ‘logical’ and appealing for spiritual types (like saving points in your local supermarket – but only for the next life). But it confuses most of them. It transforms them into karma nazis: ‘Oh look at this crippled guy over there, he must had have bad karma in his last life, that’s why he is so disfigured in this life.’

Why do people love the idea of karmic relationships – lasting several life spans? It’s a nice romantic idea: life lasts only once, love forever. This idea seems to appeal especially to women or men who like to cling to their partners. ‘Hey, I will be stuck on you for several reincarnations – how do you like that?’ Yuck!

Since nobody can proof we really incarnate, there is also no proof our souls come back as the same or similar package. And this is a stupid idea anyway. The whole idea of the karma cycle is that you try improve yourself and come back as a more evolved soul (depending what you did last time and what you have to learn on your next tour). Some traditions say that our soul lives start as insects or other less aware life forms. We hopefully graduate with each experience on this earth to finally exit to nirvana anyway.

What would be the point of reincarnation, if the same old boring you would come back like a television rerun? This would be like Groundhog day, repeating yourself with the same people and mistakes until you ‘get it’? Nah …

Most boring of all: why would you spent your next lifetime with the very same souls you already met last time? If this cosmos stand for one thing it’s diversity and complexity – there are billions of different stars, alone on this planet we have millions of species and again billions of life forms walking this earth. I bet my life that the spiritual cosmos is at least as complex, colorful and chaotic as the real one (if a separation exists at all!).

And in this universe nothing gets lost nor wasted. My guess: like matter gets reused to build stars, dogs and biscuits – spiritual energy won’t get lost, but recreated into a new soul.

Let’s get to the most egoistic part of the soulmate thing: that there is an exclusive partner in the universe just for you to love and live with. What an ego centric view of spirituality. First of all we are ALL soulmates! It’s the very idea of almost all religions and spiritual traditions is that we all have a soul and are equally created before God(s).

Another very basic spiritual idea that speaks against the exclusive soulmate is the concept of universal love. An enlightened being should be able to love everyone and everything the same way. An exclusive soulmates does ‘not compute’ within the equation of universal love.

And speaking of love or rather lovemaking we come to the last, but deepest illusion about the soulmate. Screwing your soulmate is supposed to catapult you to a higher state of consciousness – the perfect cosmic fuck guarantees the perfect cosmic bliss. Heaven on earth. The ultimate union between two people, surfing the spiritual energy wave. Enlightenment by super pussy and long dong lingam.

I certainly subscribe to this very idea, since I have done tantra and still adore many of it’s ideas.  But the ultimate orgasm is not the end nor the means to enlightenment. It’s a great moment, you relax, you are happy, you are loved and love. But does it really make you a better person?

But using a soulmate as a substitute for your own happiness or enlightenment is a feeble excuse: ‘When I’ve found my soulmate everything will be fine.’ Nah, spiritual work is your own lonely duty.

Once again the idea of the soulmate is just used by the ego to promise itself a better life … another illusion to get rid off to come closer to this state of existence.

Soulmates? They are all around you. Don’t try to screw them all, start by with accepting them in their crazy variety and with all their sins. Most of all: start loving yourself in an universal way and share that feel to everyone and everything …

*repost 2003-10-05*

No matter where you go – you inner guru is always with you and lifts you up. The problem is only to find people will to carry your heavy ego around.

I am pretty sure I can compete at least in one aspect of his guruness.

I have searched far and wide – but I haven’t found a single religion nor spiritual discipline that made pathetic behavior for it’s followers mandatory. Do you know one?! But people love being pathetic, doesn’t matter if they are new age incense burners or old school Catholics. They all go for it! You can see sparkling eyes and hear thundering voices during sales presentation as well as in churches and meditation centers. Being pathetic seems to work like an universal fudge to help us poor humans to make ourselves and our believes larger than life – whenever we need to feel bigger …

The show must go on! Why do we love pathos? Does it help us to be better believers or sinners?

Religious or spiritual practices mostly work with rules and rituals to help, educate and guide it’s followers to god/enlightenment. It doesn’t matter if you go the way of the Yogi, Buddha, Tantra or Catholic, you are expected to follow certain rules or better say ‘frame of mind’ to reach enlightenment. Since practice makes you perfect, this is always an ongoing process with no brakes and bonuses. Spirituality mostly means working with yourself, which can be pretty boring, annoying and most of all very personal.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are all idiots on this world – because none of us has figured out what’s it all about. But we can share the madness, beauty and laughter – and finally die in the end.

And dying is a stupid thing to do anyway … but we all do it.

Only those who are on a mission to somewhere realize when they feel lost or alone. Everybody else will simply sit at home and repeat themselves. Only through a change of scenery you will be able to see differences – and with different perceptions and experiences you can start to make judgements and improve your own world.

Hey, this spiritual stuff is real work!

In our age of convenience food, easy to swallow capsules and easy credit there is also a big need for instant enlightenment. Although every language seems to know it’s own version of “no pain no gain” the effort to do the inner or outer journey to a more fulfilled life is not very trendy – unless it comes with the label new age and can be done during a weekend workshop.

So what about it? Can’t spirituality be done with a bit of crying, drumming and tree hugging in a safe space where everybody can breath deeeeep aaaand leeet goooo?

Eeeeep! Wrong answer. Surely tree hugging might help, but spirituality is a constant process of change, reflection and renewal. Sure a weekend is great to kick it off or go deeper into a particular subject, but this might only be milestones on your personal journey.

I feel alive – when I am drowning!

Spirituality is like swimming, you simply can’t stop doing it while you are in the stream of life, otherwise you go down.

Your constant movement in your own waters should help you to reach for a higher state of consciousness, which supports your journey.

First a few words about consciousness. Most people confuse their minds or analytical abilities with it. Joseph Campell – great writer and mythologist – once said “where energy is, there is also consciousness”. Plant’s and animal have consciousness – and even your body has it’s own form of consciousness, it not just the mind by itself.

Consciousness connects you to the world, it’s awareness of what is happening, it let’s you change/direct energy, feel it and relate to it, it opens yourself to the outer and inner world. Thinking in these terms it makes a lot of sense to get into a higher state of consciousness, since it allows you to do more, be closer to yourself and your path.

Hey, it’s all so easy!

We all know situations in our life’s when we are distracted, stressed and out of focus – altogether a lower state of consciousness. Almost every known form of spirituality offer exercises or methods to recenter yourself and find your inner balance. For someone it might be running, the next person prays, meditates or simply watches the sky. Any method is valid as long it centers yourself and helps to achieve that higher state.

Another great value of the higher and complete state of consciousness is, that it can much better deal with paradoxes, confusing emotions and inner pictures. Our normal mind is usually trained to deal with “cause & effect” logical problems. So if we hit a road bump that goes way beyond simple human logic our analytical self gets confused, stuck, frustrated. Sheer willpower seems often to make it worse then actually pulling us out of our misery.

Most of our personal problems are way beyond logical/mental conflicts. It’s usually a mixture out of your ego, interpersonal barriers/communication, emotional needs/wants and social interaction. A very potent mixture that is way beyond simple “yes”, “no” and “maybe” thinking.

The higher consciousness (the whole yourself) has a much better chance of solving the problem, since it will connect to your problem on many levels. It should also include your subconscious which helps to develop creativity and visions. You need these “tools” to break and expand your current abilities or current perception of your situation.

I have problems – therefore I am.

Now this is very important: Most of our problems arise from a limited vision or knowledge of a situation. If it’s a simple logical or knowledge problem, your mind will do to acquire a new piece of information, integrate it in your life and solve the little bugger. BUT if your problem/limit is more complex you need a more complex set of solutions and tools.

Here is a simple problem with a typical logical dilemma – and a more expanded solution:

I want to have a walk in the park and enjoy the sunshine, but I am stopped in my tracks by a bloody sign that tells me to go off the grass. Now my mind faces a very common dualistic dilemma: either I accept to get overruled by that sign I am frustrated, because my day in the park is spoiled OR I ignore the sign and risk social confrontation.

I am stuck with two logical choices, both with their own not completely satisfying solutions.

In a higher state of consciousness I can observe that my little ego wants something and it wants it right now, so the little sign is frustrating my ego big time. Looking beyond my anger/frustration cycle I am becoming aware of other solutions, like going to a different park or growing out of similar situations where I bring myself into conflict with an authority.

This was simple – right? Now add to that situation a charming lady I want to impress plus a policemen and maybe some other elements and you can see it can get pretty complex pretty easily.

But let’s go back to deeper personal problems.

Wakeup from your own limited matrix.

Like I said before we are mostly limited by our own egos or visions, like if I can’t see myself as the new departement head I will never go for it. We can’t manifest “actions” in real life if we lack the vision, confidence and relationship for them. So this is not just a case of “do I have the right qualifications for the job” but a more complex inner problem.

Here it helps to work with your consciousness and subconscious on your inner limits – so what’s holding me back to become the department head? How do I feel about this job? Do I really want it? Why am I holding myself back – what are the motivations behind that? Why do I have such strange associations with success that I am holding back?

This is soul searching at it’s best!

If one faces negative or destructive inner patterns, lack of motivation and visions then creativity is needed to create new patterns, visions and associations. If your inner world is limiting you – how can you grow. Humans need to grow like plants. If their pot is to small there will be a lot of pain …

Everybody dreams of bigger mice to catch.

This is why a good connection to your subconscious is so important, since it’s the best source for inner pictures/visions that might explain what’s holding back as well as creating better ones. Instead of “thinking it all thru” you expand your complete inner cosmos to deal in a better way with a more complex life. You not only get new insights but also happier life.

For example if I start my positive reprogramming by dreaming about myself in that new position that would help to dissolve old barriers. Another way is consciously sitting down and imagining myself to do this job. Every great athlete knows this kind of exercises, like running the track in your mind before you actually start. A new job might be a lot of work, but dissolving my barriers would enrich my life and new perspectives.

So soul searching is a constant process of a higher consciousness sorting out old and useless associations and visions you might have and replacing them with vital and healthy new ones. It might be painful to let go of some old and beloved ideas/visions, but they simply limit you … get the expanded new version for free from your subconscious and have a happier life.

*repost 2003-08-03*

Ed sent me this amazing video featuring the voice of Dechen Shak Dagsay. It’s rare that one finds anything remotely artful and spiritual on the YouTubes – but this video is pure bliss. Thanks for another great link Ed.

Almost every religion starts with the creation of the universe or the god(s) themselves: Jehova (Judaism), Ptah (egypt) or Brahma (Hinduism). Even the scientific view of the universe starts with creation: the big bang.

So how sexy is creativity?

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From Wikipedia: In Hinduism, a mudra (Sanskrit literally “seal”) is a symbolic gesture made with the hand or fingers. Along with asanas (postures), they are employed in yoga meditation practice. Each mudra has a specific meaning, and they are a central part of Hindu iconography. With the onset of Buddhism, many mudra practices were absorbed into the culture. Common hand gestures are to be seen in both Hindu and Buddhist iconography. An example would be the outward-facing open palm known as Abhay (without fear) mudra, a gesture meant to dispel the fear of the devotee.

More? Mudras in pictures and another one.