I know I’ve been away for a while.  Sorry to keep you waiting for my next post…

Like most of you, my journey continues to expand and to grow.  Several of you have pointed me in productive directions that have opened up whole new arenas and panoramas…

One is the concept of Ho’oponopono.  It revolves around the concept of forgiveness.  This has been a topic of huge interest to me and like many of you has been central to my faith as a Christian.  The whole concept of Christ providing a ransom to forgive our sins is one that has fascinated and confused for ages.

I was quite surprised to find that this concept of a sinful nature is not universal as the only experience I had up til the last few years was based on Judeo-Christian principals.  Reconciling what I still held to be true from my still strong (but evolving) Christian faith with the new knowledge coming at me from every direction has been an interesting part of my journey.

Back to forgiveness…

Forgiveness for what?!  For my “sinful nature”?  Do I even still believe that I have a sinful nature?  That is a tough one to answer!  The short answer to that is yes, I do.  But the full answer is much more complex.  It goes right to the heart of my own spiritual journey and perhaps sharing it will help you with yours.

Sin.  The concept as literally translated from the original scriptural texts carries the meaning of “Missing The Mark”.  The obvious question is “What is the Mark”?  My understanding of this comes down to complete connection to God and his dynamic energy.  The source of all energy in the universe.

And since the whole universe, or all of creation to put it another way, is composed of energy that means connection to the entire universe through that connection to God.  The original Bible texts give God’s name in the form of what is known as the Tetragrammaton.  These are the four Hebrew consonants of Yod Hee Waw Hee. or in our own alphabet, J (or Y) H V H.  The exact pronunciation has long since been lost but is generally pronounced as either Yaweh or Jehovah.  Either way, the meaning is roughly translated as “He causes to become”.

I couple this with my understanding of what the scriptures call the Holy Spirit as God’s active force and I come away with a very strong feeling about what it is that I am trying to connect to.  With amazing results.

To achieve this, I have needed to find a path to forgiveness.  So now I have come the long way around to Ho’oponopono.  A Hawaiian concept and ritual that has helped me to understand the whole idea of forgiveness in ways I had never imagined…

My initial exposure to Ho’oponopono was in the form of a translation.  Ho’oponopono translates roughly as:

                    I Love You: I Am Sorry: Please Forgive Me: Thank You.

Not sequentially, but simultaneously.  You see being concurrent there is no possibility of doubt as to that forgiveness.  My first experience with this was in the form of a prayer.  I held my widening awareness of God as “the one causing all things to become” in my heart and at first recited the four tenets of Ho’oponopono sequentially, having had not experience with any other kind of thought.    It didn’t take long though to experience it as a simultaneous occurrence.

I knew from my own scriptural studies and meditation that personal forgiveness is tied to being personally forgiving.  Another area where Ho’oponopono can open new horizons…

There is a Ho’oponopono ritual that moved me further along my path.  You picture a platform below you.  Then picture someone on the platform that has either wronged you in some way, or someone that feels that you have wronged them.  Either way you then envision the same forgiving power that you experienced while meditating (or praying) the four tenets of Ho’oponopono coming down through the top of your head and passing through you and down onto whomever is on the platform.

The entire experience is one of amazing discovery and can move you to whole new understandings of your relationship to and through Yaweh or Jehovah and with the entirety of creation.

More soon!

Jim

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There is no lack of reading material on the subject of the Law of Attraction these days, but this guy popped up on my radar as one of the sources of material for The Secret.  I found that interesting as his focus is a lot more like Dr. Wayne Dyer’s than that found in the movie.  Of course it is all a personal journey, and each of us will take away something a bit different from what we see, hear and read.

Judge Thomas Troward wrote The Hidden Power in the early 1900s.  He published several works on spiritual growth themes and was evidently active in what was known as the Higher Thought movement of his day.  Most of this may seem familiar but I encourage you to delve into this work as I personally was able to bring many things into a lot clearer focus.

You can read the entire text of The Hidden Power by Judge Thomas Troward below at no cost, thanks to the good folks at ForgottenBooks.org and the Google Book Search.  I am only posting books here in this manner that I have read in their entirety, so I encourage one and all to discuss the texts here for what will no doubt become lively discussions of Law of Attraction and Higher Thought topics.

Enjoy!

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Not long ago a new Awareness Coaching client was having a great deal of difficulty disconnecting with what Eckhart Tolle refers to as the Pain Body.  It defied her sense of logic that she could change the circumstances of her life starting with her state of mind and awareness.  She unconsciously held the belief that what happened to her on a daily basis was responsible for her “negative” mindset.

Many people struggle with this, even while trying to embrace that very path.  Getting past it means coming to grips with a fundamental misunderstanding of Cause and Effect reasoning.

This is no small thing!

Cause and Effect reasoning is a fundamental principle without which we simply cannot understand and function in the world we live in.  And yet the the laws of Cause and  Effect work exactly the opposite way that most people believe.

How could such a basic bit of reasoning become so confused?

First let’s explore how most people understand this to work in their personal lives at a very basic level.  The perception is that if if a person has a bad day ( the understood cause) then  they will experience sadness, depression or other “negative” emotions (the understood effect).  In the world today, this bit of “logic” is so pervasive that if we could wipe it out with a wave of the hand it would eliminate the need for over 75% of the AntiDepressant medications being taken daily!

The problem is getting people to understand that their perception of Cause and Effect reasoning is reversed in this case.  Most of you reading this are also holding this belief even while you read this and say to yourself:  “I know!  Our mental state is the cause, and the “Bad Day” is the effect!”

But do you really “know” this to be true?  Can you explain it in terms other than: If I maintain a “Positive” mental attitude then “good” things will happen for me.

To really root out this misunderstanding, you have to be able to grasp the basic fact that thought, whether of a positive or a negative nature is always the root cause of any effect we encounter.  This may be  an  immutable law.  I say may be since I can only speak from my own experience.  If anyone can submit an instance otherwise, then I will amend my statement. For our purposed though, understand this to mean that at root, thought (which includes emotion) is the cause of all things.

You are reading this article right now on a computer.  The computer is an effect.  Before it was built, someone had to think about the schematics in the design.  Even before that someone had thoughts before they developed the design.  Nobody could reasonably conclude that the computer sitting before you was the cause of the thought process that designed it, but that is exactly what it means when someone says that they are sad, depressed or angry because of  having a bad day.

Thoughts and feelings are the architects of our lives.  The choice that we have is whether we will take ownership of our own role in this or ride the waves of the thoughts and feelings of others and the resulting reactions from ourselves.  Remember, most people are tied into thoughts and emotions that are the random product of events.  Your life is far too important for you to trust it’s causes to something so unreliable.

This does not mean that nothing of a negative nature will ever happen within our lives.  Understanding and applying the basic principle of Cause and Effect will however allow us to experience an appropriate level of sadness, or even anger in response to an event and then to move on.  This allows you to experience these feelings in a way that is not really negative, but as the part of a rich emotional life that they were designed to be.

My mother passed from this life three years ago next month after an illness lasting over twelve years.   The sadness I felt at her passing was deep, and carried with it all of the wonderful things that our relationship entailed.  The memory of that sadness is now a cherished part of the whole memory that I carry with me at all times of my mother and all that she means to me.

I would no more want to  have missed experiencing that sadness than I would want to be consumed by it ongoing.  The mourning I went through three years ago was therefore not something that could (or should) become a Cause and Effect trigger for ongoing “bad” events.  Being aware of this at a basic level even while experiencing this type of deep sadness allows you to welcome the richness of it in a way that changes it from a negative to something of value to you in a way that nothing else can.

Some would say to this that they were just too close to a departed family member to be able to attain this type of experience from mourning their loss.  That is the ego saying “My pain is bigger than yours!” It is fighting for the life of your pain body, and for it’s place in Cause and Effect.

As always, Awareness is key…

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When you think about it as the Law of Attraction there are just too many thoughts that give the wrong idea about the universe and how it works. This is not to say that you don’t attract from the universe what it is that you send out, or that you can not manifest what you want in life. It is to say that this is far to limited a view of an immensely important aspect of a major part of how the universe works…

The entire universe, all of creation, the cosmos…

Whatever you want to call it, it’s all made of the same thing:

Energy!

You and I and your dog and your car are all composed of energy in various forms. In spite of what you are hearing on the TV machine energy is everywhere around you in every direction and much farther than the eye can see. Another way to say it is that energy is the most abundant commodity there is.

So let’s call this all important principle the Law of Abundance.

It’s a constant reminder that the stuff of the universe is all around us, if we just tap into it!

Explore this with me a little further…

Your kitchen table, like everything else is made up of energy.  Tiny particles of energy separated by space that are traveling so quickly and vibrating at such a rate that when you knock on it, the surface seems extremely hard and still.  When you put your dinner plate down on it your pork chop and veg doesn’t end up on the floor precisely because of the speed and vibration of the energy making up that table.

So how do we tap into all of that abundant energy?

Glad you asked!

Try this experiment with any string instrument you have access to.  Myself, I have a guitar and a mandolin to choose from.  Gonna go with the guitar since it’s here in the room…

You may not be aware of it, but the strings on my guitar (and every other guitar) are emitting  their notes continuously as the air currents in the room pass over them.  They are just playing their notes at such a low level that the human ear cannot detect it.

But what happens when that vibration is increased?

If I pick up that guitar and pluck the first string (it’s an E) to get the right pitch, I can then sing that note back to the still guitar and when I stop singing the guitar will audibly emit that note back to me.  This happens because I am emitting vibrations at the same wavelength the guitar string is already vibrating at.

What happens though when I sing the note just one tone higher than the E that the string is tuned to?  Practically nothing.  And what little does happen is not harmonious in the least!  And this is exactly how the universe works:

If you vibrate with the same kind of energy as the universe you make yourself a part of that abundant energy!

And just like with the guitar, the volume will increase the more you add to it’s harmonious vibration. Notice from our experiment with the guitar that harmonious vibration has an exponentially larger result than dissonant vibration.   But if this is how the universe really works, why is it that we see such a huge result from dissonant vibration?

Because their is such an overwhelming majority of people out of harmony with the universe!

This also means that each of us that vibrates on the same wavelength with the universe’s abundant energy will have dynamically abundant energy returning and cutting right through the prevalent lack that most people are experiencing.

In essence what we are doing is making ourselves into exactly what we were always supposed to be.  A dynamic and integrally involved part of a universe overflowing with abundant energy.  So instead of trying to get something out of (or Attracting something from) the universe, we are becoming part of it.

Understanding this and acting in accord with it is subtly different than the Law of Attraction as many try to practice it.  Instead of trying to treat the universe as some kind of cosmic ATM, we become centers of resonating positive energy radiating abundant, positive, joyous and joyful energy and find ourselves awash in ever increasing waves of like abundant energy.  And thus:

The Law of Abundance!

Does this all rule out the concept of Manifesting?  Nope, but that is a discussion for another day…

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You can read the entire Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu here:

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With so much information available now on both the Law of Attraction, and Eckhart Tolle’s insights that began with “The Power of Now” and continued in “A New Earth” it is no surprise that seeming contradictions and misunderstandings have arisen.

Many that have found their own spiritual awakening by seeking to live in the present moment feel that the concept of manifesting their desires is a denial of the present moment and therefore not harmonious to a life firmly planted in The Now.  Likewise, LOA devotees frequently state that  living in that same now doesn’t allow for their own desires to be manifested…

Is this really an either or proposition?

It needn’t be…

Eckhart Tolle referred to the manifestation process as “a fine thing to do” in his book “A New Earth: Awakening To Life’s Purpose”.  And Dr Wayne Dyer has frequently made statements to the effect that the movie “The Secret” gave a slightly skewed view of  the LOA and how it works.  This is why he was not involved in the project, although he was asked to be very early on.

Resolving these types of issues, as well as just plain exploring the principles found in both the LOA and Mr. Tolle’s work is what this blog is about, with plenty of room to delve a bit into Lao-Tzu. I may even stretch back a bit to someone like Leo Buscaglia and see if he works within today’s ideas…

Of course, everyone’s spiritual journey is their own and must be traveled at the speed of their own understanding and path.  Hopefully you will find these posts as thought provoking to read as I do writing them.  Feel free to dive in and post a comment challenging or questioning my assertions, and I will do my best to respond.

Having neither all of the answers, nor even most of the questions, all I can promise is an interesting exchange of ideas that could be useful on your own spiritual journey to enlightenment…

Jim

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