EXCERPT: The Higher Good Beyond Good and Bad

I wanted to share this.  As many of you know, I’m seriously working to overcome cancer right now (Imagine three hours of Qigong a day and a complete and total diet shift, and you’ll get an idea).  It has turned my life upside down, but also blessed it on so many levels by opening my eyes to things that needed to change.  So when I read this again today, it really hit home.  I feel more real and filled with Love than I ever have in my life.

 

 

Excerpted from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Copyright © 2001 by New World Library

Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?
Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.

 
Is it not possible to attract only positive conditions into our life? If our attitude and our thinking are always positive, we would manifest only positive events and situations, wouldn’t we?
Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative? Do you have the total picture? There have been many people for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and superficial ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility, and compassion. It made them more real.
Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn’t.
Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is — which is the only sane way to live — there is no "good" or "bad" in your life anymore. There is only a higher good — which includes the "bad." Seen from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good-bad, like-dislike, love-hate. Hence, in the Book of Genesis, it is said that Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to dwell in "paradise" when they "ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

The Impossible Hamster

The New Economics Foundation,  One Hundred Months,  and  Wake Up, Freak Out have joined forces to produce this poignant video called The Impossible Hamster.  I really felt this and think it is probably the most adept illustration of the senselessness of unbridled economic growth anyone could hope to make in 1 minute 10 seconds:

Fasting – the Fifth Day

Day 5 of our collective fast for Conscious Union and energies are running high!  We are really enjoying the connective, spiritual and revealing experiences we’d hoped for… Not to mention the detoxing of our bodies and the deep sense of rejuvenation that’s starting to course its way through our bones.

Last night I slept for less than a handful of hours and accomplished many things, even returning to a project that’s sat on my computer in suspended animation for at least three years!  Some of that has to do with Mercury in Retrograde, I’m sure, but none-the-less, I am feeling quite grateful that we decided to fast, the small group of us, together as I would call this five days past – phenomenal!

I am also grateful that Soror Amy has decided to introduce herself and share her experiences with our mutual fasting through the previous two posts!  I have welcomed her to contribute here in accord with her Will.

Meanwhile I want to jump back into Cultivating Heaven with this video I found.  I appreciate it because it is among the rare few I’ve seen that perceives fasting beyond a dogmatic and/or ascetic context, instead sharing the concept of fasting as a cleansing, clarifying, and conscious elevating experience!  Enjoy!

Old habits die hard, Ya’ll!

Okay, so it’s day 4 of the fast and the hunger has really subsided! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I am so grateful. My energy was really up last night. Like I could do anything, slay dragons, run a marathon, post a blog! So, with all that energy running through me, I didn’t get much sleep.  As a side note, my connection with others is increasing as evidenced, by Xia’s morning email telling me of her not getting much sleep last night. I think we are entering each other’s energy fields and chasing dragonflies through the wildflowers! What, you don’t have flowers growing in your energy field? Sheesh! 

Anywhoo, at 1:30pm, I started to feel really sleepy. At the same time, I had the overwhelming impression that a friend, we’ll call him J, had a message for me. J is not one for using phones, so I asked him to relay to a friend who is “sensitive” to messages, but the feeling was to just go to sleep. *I think we need a side bar here. In my reality, when we go to sleep, we enter the astral realm. Here, we can do whatever we like, talk to whomever we like and go wherever we like. Now, I Know that J will often visit me in the astral and, sometimes, I’m asked to take a nap. So nap I did, at 1:33 and was awakened an hour later by the phone. Unfortunately, that causes me to awake with such a start, that I am unable to recall what occured on the other side of my eyelids! Ugh! So, whatever the message was, will have to wait. Hopefully it wasn’t, “Get Home Dorothy, there is a tornado coming!” Of course, there is no place like Home…hmmm.

Right! So the title of this blog concerns old habits. As I laid in my warm bed, contemplating lost messages and loud phones, I thought I might get up and get a bite to eat. I know! I haven’t had a bite in 4 days and it was just the most casual thought! Sneaky one, body, but I’m on to you. The constant gnawing at my backbone didn’t break me, so you thought you would catch me when I was disoriented and slide in thru the back alley. I see you!

Well, the point is, that got me all introspective. If, after 4 days of being hyper aware of food, I could just casually walk into the kitchen to eat, what else is on autopilot. I mean, every day requires some of the same basic activities. Toothbrushing, bathing, eating, walking, talking, the list goes on. How often do we say, “I could do that in my sleep?” Are we doing that in our sleep? Are we like Zombies shuffling through life with glazed eyes, heading for the glazed donuts?

I believe it’s time to wake up! This moment is the really loud phone in your room. Where have you gotten to with your shuffling? Where could you be now if the steps had been deliberate? It doesn’t matter. You know why? Because you just woke up and we are here now, together. Isn’t that great! Every step from now forward we can take together. We are conscious of each other and there are more of us every day.  Alarms are going off everywhere, all over the planet! We are walking with them, too. Isn’t this exciting!

Where do you want to go? Oh, I understand. You just woke up, you need a minute to think about it. That’s cool. Just don’t take to long, we want you with us and we are full of energy and excitement about hittin’ the road. Oh, and by the way, you might want to brush that bit of glaze off the corner of your mouth. I’m just sayin’. It was starting to make me drool a bit and I just got that dragon called hunger to climb back into his cave. Anyway, I’m glad you are here and I love you!

Water, water, everywhere and so many drops to drink!

Hello Heavenly Readers!

Sing along with me, “Please allow me to introduce myself….” Glad to see there are some Rolling Stones fans in the crowd!  Anyhoo, I’m Amy, and Xia has so generously offered to allow me to cultivate some heaven with her and all of you via this blog. The time has come for connections, Unity and sharing! With that said, please accept this first bit of “me” and know that you are loved…..

So, I wanted to write about this new thing I’m doing and to get my feelings about it on paper, or screen, as it were. When I say new, I mean new to me. It is actually a practice that has come down through the millennia. Yes, I’m talking about fasting. Now, you may know more about this subject than I did, but if you don’t let me fill you in on a few things.

First, it’s not what you think. Nope, it’s not that. Not that, either. Get this, it’s a spiritual practice. I know! I was floored, as well. Sure, sure we’ve all heard of Lent or Ramadan, but when was the last time someone said to you, “Lately I’ve been feeling really disconnected from my (God, Spirit, Angels, Over-soul, Mystical life) so I’m fasting for a couple of weeks.”? Right. Me, neither.

When I was growing up, I never knew anyone who willingly fasted. Never! As an adult, I’ve known the random friend who decided she must lose 5 pounds for the weekend, so she stopped eating to fit into those killer jeans that make her butt look like a video vixen’s. Is that fasting? In the medical sense of the word, yes. In the heart and soul of the word, no way!

Sure, fasting will detox your body, heal old wounds, bring up emotional baggage, and even cause weight loss. But, it is so much more than that.
Here is my perspective; by not participating in physical activities like eating, digestion and elimination, you have the ability to connect to the non-physical side of this dream we call reality. That would be the spiritual side. All right, bear with me.

I’m on day 3 of what I hope will be a 40 day fast. Yes, I know that’s more than a month, thank you for your concern. Honestly, we humans need way less food than we’ve been brainwashed into believing and I’m currently able to handle more than 40 days, before I would need to concern myself with starvation. But, I digress. Why would I want to not eat for 40 days? Here, drink this and come down the rabbit hole with me. The simple answer is, I am on a quest. This quest requires that I accept that the world is not what it seems and you and I are co-creators in what we call reality. Now, in order to create the world of my dreams and complete my quest, I need some tools. Fasting is my Excalibur, if you will. It is what allows me to cut through the mundane, day to day stuff (the veil) and see the matrix behind it all. It allows me to enter a space where the truth of my desires can be known and then created. Mind you, I’m only on day 3 and this is becoming easier to do.

Fasting stills your center. The time rescued from meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, eating, washing dishes; this is time where I can be still and listen. I can connect with a source greater than myself. I can see situations in a new light. I can hear the small voices of everything around me. It is mystical and mind-altering and a place I want to be in all the time. In my reality, there are those we don’t see helping us, guiding us and loving us. Some people call them Ancestors, Teachers, Brothers, Guides, they have many names. I have had direct experiences with said beings and I love them. Fasting will allow me to connect with them in a more direct way. I will be in Union with and share communion with beings so full of love and light, that I can’t help but be changed by it. This is Truth, I Know it.

Fasting is what is required of vision questers, commandment receivers, burning bush talkers, and even those who would sacrifice their bodies to bring light into the world. It is the path you walk, when walking to a higher place.

With that said, it ain’t all sunshine and rainbows, physically speaking. Yes, I’m hungry. Very, very hungry. Yes, I’ve had headaches. Yes, my joints are a bit achy. Yes, I’ve needed extra sleep (naps). I have found that dealing with emotional stuff when it comes up and crying, if needed, helps with the headaches. Drinking more water, white tea, fresh lemon water or my herbal detox tea with some psyllium powder and benonite clay helps with all the other symptoms. I hear after day 4, the hunger goes away. This is encouraging. But, even if it doesn’t, I’m sticking it out. The spiritual benefit will far outweigh any physical discomfort I experience during this journey. It already has.

I expect I will be a changed woman, in many ways, when it’s all said and done. Stay tuned, I’m going deeper down that rabbit hole and who knows where I’ll pop up.

Meditation Techniques from Across the World

The Meditation Site is a useful repository for exploring the practice of meditation, with as little dogma as possible.