Tag Archives: Coping Strategies

Truth has no answers for you

Truth has no answer. There is no form that Truth can take. Truth exists in a space outside of form. It can only be realized in the silence.

It is in this infinite potential of Truth that we see resemblance of the universal structure. Truth (akin to and interchangeable with the words Love and God) is formless and infinite. It is Absolute and ALL. It cannot have form because the second we give it form it collapses into a single perspective and Truth cannot have one perspective it can only have all perspectives. This infinite multitude of perspectives is needed because consciousness is always evolving and changing. Advancing and growing we take one truth for a while until we drop it for another. It is the freedom of Truth that affords growth and movement. So what we typically conceive of, as “the truth”, is really only an element of truth from a particular perspective, in a particular place, at a particular point in time. Thus, all life and its truths are really a subjective experience.. We try to tell ourselves that life is objective by getting many people on our side to look at the piece of truth from our perspective. Because we have all these people now agreeing with us, we determine that this is the real Truth because everyone agrees with us. Over and over again we have seen throughout history that what we believed was the Truth, and agreed upon by others, really was the truth of a group of people until it wasn’t. Whether it was that the earth was flat, the center of the universe or that races are superior to others. Time and time again these truths are shown to be untruths. Please watch the video to have this illustrated for you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBqgr5xZLz0&feature=related]

It is our minds that creates the fracturing of Truth into relativistic perspectives. The mind operates serially, from a linear perspective, one point in time after another, after another, another and so on. This means that ultimately our mind creates the conscious experience of our relative world, in which things are defined as different from each other. This difference is what gives things lines and a timescape in which events can be before some and after others. It affords us definite answers, but it slows down our processing, when we work in a world built on lines. What happens when we shut off the conscious mind? Let us consider a person in a state of extreme danger. Their body will release adrenalin; their body and mind is completely centered in the moment of now for survival. This is apparent in the mind, as there is no chatter, no mind that exists outside of the moment (this is often evidenced by the person unable to recall what happened during the actual escape). The person will experience many different perspectives simultaneously and the world may have a warped feeling of time.

This is different from our normal lives when we have the space to think. Our mind chatter can exist outside of the moment. This chatter takes you into the future or feeds back to the past. It is here that our resources are divided and dwindle as we assess how to handle the situations that may or may not occur in the future or ruminate on the past. Our cognitive energy is spread out thin into many directions unfocused and ineffective. It is this chatter, this activity of the mind that gives form to Truth and limits the perspective our true self can take. The true strength lies in our focused energies of our feelings in the now. Trust in the intelligence that will appear from the silence felt in the space of only the now.

We can see the mechanics of Truth in the comparison of the quantum world with the physical world. Every possible perspective exists for a photon until we measure it; because once we measure it we define it in space and time, which gives it form. The second the photon collapses into a physical form, by being observed, it is forced to have a particular perspective of the universe. The photon now only knows the universe as one element of the universe in a particular space. This photon is now only a single element of the Truth. The reality for that photon is akin to the form each human consciousness takes. Consciousness collapses life and concepts into a relative form in order to give a perspective of truth. When we observe ourselves and our existence we immediately collapse our perspective into only a single element of the truth. Our consciousness affords us only a limited perspective of the world, it observes the world like a flashlight that can only see and comprehend the elements of the world that are illuminated by conscious thought and attention. When our minds look into, and acts from, the potential of the future or perspective of the past, it immediately collapses those times into a form that exists in space and time. It has been recently shown by a group of Harvard scientists that people spend 50% of their time mind wandering outside of the moment and the task in which they are meant focused on. This mind wandering outside of the present has been shown to typically leave people unhappy and unsatisfied. The mind is best used to allow for the experience of the moment and trust in the outcome. Therefore the trick is to exist in the moment in silence.

It is in silence that we can have a greater experience of Truth because silence is experienced not in the mind but in our feelings. Our feelings, unlike our mind operate from that which is called our subconscious mind. This mind does not follow the same relativistic rules as our mind does, in that it processes experiences not serially, as one event after the other, but from what is called a parallel process. This means that there are many different lines of information being processed that are coming in at the one time. This subconscious mind therefore doesn’t have to obey the rules of time relativism but can experience the past, present and future all at once. It is worth noting that our subconscious mind is extremely logical and powerful to the point of being more than ten thousand times more powerful than our conscious mind. This superior processing is due to the parallel processor but it has one limitation. Words are too limited for the subconscious mind to communicate with the conscious mind so it uses feelings and images (a picture is worth a thousand words) in which to convey its understandings of the world.

Feelings and intuitions are very subtle and this is why we need the silence in order to properly hear the greater wisdom from our deeper selves. Therefore it is here in our feelings that we may truly connect to greater perspectives of Truth not forcing us to view the world from a particular place but instead from a much higher parallel perspective. It is from this higher space that we can see all people’s perspectives. That we can experience empathy. That we can show compassion. That we can love unconditionally because our view of the Truth is not limited to one particular perspective but is able to see from all sides. Our heart is the metaphorical and energetic feeling center of the body and enables us to utilize the full power of our beings. It is through our feelings and their higher perspective that we can live to our full potential. It is not the physical form that our answers come in but the shape of our feelings that give us true insight to what we need to know from the questions we ask ourselves.

We realize our true self when the mind is aligned with, and centered in the body, and its happenings in that moment. The moment of Now. It is here when our mind is in the space of now that it allows for the silence of our heart to be heard by our body. It’s the body’s enactment and activation of the full potential of the holistic organism that we can then enter into these ultimate states of our True self and really know the meanings of the TRUTH.

The Space Between Space: The Wisdom of Silence

This inspired film by Jeff Scher is an example of silence. It’s funny how even in silence we find noise, but many a time the only way we can find silence is to have noise. So why silence? And why noise? Lets start with silence. But first please click on the image and explore this short and powerful piece.

Silence is the space in between all our thoughts. Like the space between the rain drops and the sound between the notes of a piano. Silence is where our wisdom and intuition reside. This wisdom is the collective power of our whole body system, and thus is the accumulated efforts of our subconscious. The subconscious is infinitely more powerful than the conscious mind, because it is not restricted to form but instead understands the universe in a logical, but non-linear fashion. It doesn’t require lines, labels and definitions of the forms that it is working with. Anything and everything exists in all time and space and so it is in silence that our complete biological system realizes its full potential of the computing power of its entire energy structure which enables it to fully understand this world.

We recognize this world through our feelings and subtle images, not through the incessant self-talk that churns through our thought space, distracting us from a greater thought. This incessant talk is noise. But it is a chaotic noise; it is a reaction to our experiences. A noise without structure it bubbles up haphazardly from the stories we have of ourselves from our multiple identities of who we believe ourselves to be. These stories constantly reaffirm our reality, ensuring that we keep to the illusion of who we are. We have these identities so we can feel safe, so we can be in control, so we can know what is and what isn’t. But this noise does not serve us. We need noise to give shape to the world and help us know what is from what isn’t through the use of words and thoughts but often this is merely a distraction and for the most part a farce. Noise forms us but doesn’t necessarily serve us. However noise has another role if we condition it through our breathing, through a mantra, a repetitive motion or any other meditative form you desire. By using this structured noise we can quiet the chaos and create a space in which we can connect to the silence. We remove the typical overbearing chatter that drowns out the subtler feelings that contains so much wisdom.

Silence exists in the present moment. Whenever you are thinking of the past or the future you are in a space of thought. Thoughts of who you were and who you should and could be. In the present moment you can create a white place; a clean slate. It is from this place free of the untangled world of the past and the future that there are no preconceptions, existing forms and ideas that you have to adhere to in order to create. Instead your canvas is free to create afresh and anew any world that your deepest self dreams to be true.

This space, induced by structured noise, is often associated with slower frequencies in our brain. When considering sleep, the slower our frequencies get the deeper we are into sleep and the less our conscious faculties are in play. Early on in sleep we often reach a stage in which our waves slow to what is called Alpha frequency. This stage is a powerful stage as it has been to show that we can operate powerfully without the use of our conscious mind getting in the way. We often use our conscious mind to understand things, which are great for when we are first learning something so we can build the necessary neural connections, but then we continue to rely on this conscious mind rather than trust the wisdom that exists beneath this conscious process. A much more powerful processor. There is research which shows how mind when wandering or day dreaming we often reach our greatest moments of inspiration, so too in that period just before we wake, where we look at the world in the borderland of our sleep and waking worlds. It is in this space that we are in the Alpha wave state and it is in this period where we have shut down enough of our conscious faculties to open ourselves to the power of silence.

Find a moment to yourself when you are ready to discover yourself or something in your life. Take a breath and then take another and listen and feel what happens in your breath and between the breath. Listen to the rain and see the rhythm of it in motion or stop for a moment and play this piece and find the peace you need to move to a powerful place. So don’t think you need to think your way through life all the time, but instead take a moment and access the space of silence. And remember, “Silence is Golden”.

Meeting the Walrus is a ‘Profound Whatever’!

This video is so astounding for me. Not just for the visual element but for the wisdom that John was espousing all the way back in 1969 and the insight from the 14-year-old Jerry Levitan. Two points in particular I would like to talk about.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmR0V6s3NKk]

The Power in Being the Change

The first point begins with the current context of the US involvement in the Afghanistan and Iraq military campaigns. As Lennon so rightly acknowledges the large groups that have a major influence over the government don’t want peace. America’s Military Budget is consistently as much or more than the rest of the world (Ref 1 & 2).  War is good for the institution of the USA. Smash it down, build it up again and hang onto it to become the establishment. To hear this realization from a time long past is inspiring and sad. Sad, for the fact that this knowledge has been in the public mind for many years and still we have not been able to eradicate such useless violence bred from greed and corruption. It is inspirational, however, because we are reminded that there were great people back then willing to stand up and talk about ways to eradicate violence through non-violent means.

It is the power in protesting non-violently that enables a change in the current regime. The governments are all well versed in using forceful resistance but they don’t have a weapon to use against non-violent action. It has worked time and time again, with Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. and onwards. But it is not just about non-violence it is the same for anything you want to create in the world. It is about giving what you get. It is about being the change you want to see in the world. Which part of yourself will you feed. That which resists the world or that world which that you can flow with. It is by resisting something that we make it more real. Giving is the best way to receive. So if you want to see the change in the world, be that change, encapsulate it and without expecting it from others but doing for the love of what you believe you will inspire people through your leadership.

We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.

– Mahatma Gandhi (1869 –1948) Indian Political Leader and Social Activist

Don’t sit there and just blame people who are doing the “wrong”, but instead, act in a way that promotes a greater harmony.  It is not their fault that an evil has been begotten because they knew not. The same way a child breaks something, even with malicious intent, it is not their fault. It is simply an unconsciousness that we must work to educate in how to behave in a more conscious manner. Our governments are not to blame, we put them there, and if there is something that acts in discord with the evolution and sustainment of the world then there is an opportunity to educate but being that education.

The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.

– Edmund Burke (1729 –1797) Irish Philosopher

The world is in a natural entropic cycle. It is part of the laws of thermodynamics, in which there is a constant move to a state of chaos however we can choose to be the carp that swim upstream. It takes more effort but we have the ability to insert some energy into the system and from that point we can move into the opposite direction of a chaos state and instead towards a more organized, evolved and harmonious state. One stroke at a time. And that’s the point, no great person went out with the intention to be great instead they try to do the small things as great as they can.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

– Lao Tzu quotes (6th Century BCE) Founder of Taoism


The Power of Tuning in to Broadcast out

The other “profound whatever” that John talks about are that messages are there on all levels. Many profound philosophers, over the millennia, have realized that the same Truths or Laws of the Universe exist on many different levels, simply operating at different scales. But these Laws are one in the same they just are aimed at affecting the relevant elements at the scale of force of which they are operating, whether it is a person, a planet or an abstract concept like Love. These Truths are all the same.  It just takes time to open your heart to the greater scope of life to further awaken your consciousness and realize how connected it all is. I will talk about this further next week.

It’s the same in a flower it’s just there, and if you look long enough all answers are in it, same with the music.

– John Lennon (1940-1980) Songwriter and Political activist


Tuning in Exercise

An exercise I recommend is that in each interaction you have with a person or event, ensure that you are Giving. Feel in your Heart earnestly that in every action you are giving to the occasion and not just taking. Taking can include only partially giving yourself to an action. In fully giving you are fully present to your actions, because you are fully giving of yourself and hence your attention. From this you will open yourself to receiving greater understanding about your actions and the dynamics of your interactions. In an interaction that you are fully tuned into you will be able to get the most out of. It’s like listening to a song on the radio. You have to be properly tuned into the right frequency to be able to get the most out of the song. And that frequency is the frequency of Giving.

“This is the sum of all true righteousness: deal with others as thou wouldst thyself be dealt by. Do nothing to thy neighbor which thou wouldst not have him do to thee hereafter.”

– The Mahabharata, c. 150 BCE

You and Optimal Systems – Part 2

The Hypersensitive body

Let’s consider what would happen on the flip side of the creative restorative scales and see what the overly defensive system looks like.  The system that places greater emphasis on the defensive mode can become overly protective in which it ultimately starts attacking itself because it spends all it’s resources towards the defense. It needs to utilize all these defenses that it has dedicated, because the resources that have been designated need to fulfill their purpose. This means that a system that is too defensive can ultimately start attacking elements in the system that are beneficial for it. For instance any foreign element that can be introduced to it such as a piece of food will ultimately be rejected. And a defensive stance will be taken.  This is akin to what is known as the allergic response. An allergic response is when an otherwise harmless environmental substance is introduced into the system and the system has an inflammatory response due to the hyper or oversensitivity to that element. Not all environmental substances, but some that are introduced during a time when the system is on high alert, may be coupled with and from then on, will elicit this hypersensitivity. The body mistakenly thinks it is the foreign food that is what is putting the body into disarray rather than the situation surrounding the person, such as a stressful event.

We have seen this explained by the famous Russian Psychologist Pavlov and his dog, who described the concept of classical conditioning (CC). CC describes a process where an unrelated stimulus such as a bell when paired with a related stimulus such as food will make a dog salivate even when the food isn’t present and only the bell is rung. The same thing happens with allergies. A person’s body goes into a defensive mode when a food element coupled with a stressful event enters their system. Medical professionals may have an explanation for ‘how’ it happens but their ‘why’ never seems to place any relevance to the mind, instead hereditary or environmental factors are blamed. However with the introduction to our understandings of the mind on placebo, stressor-immune response and genetics, we see that there is a viable cognitive model for the mind on allergies.

The Hypersensitive culture

We see this hypersensitivity rear its head in the sociocultural systems as well. Take for instance the great nation of the USA. This system started as a well-functioning and evolving system very similar to an advancing human. It had both the capacity to advance in its understandings but at the same time have in-built a competent defensive functionality that had the ability to protect itself from any foreign bodies with malevolent intent.

I am not condoning aggressive behavior, however as we see in the human body the necessity of having an adequate immune response to invading elements is necessary so too is it worth having an adequate defense force to protect a societal system.

This US sociopolitical system however recently moved into the aforementioned allergic response in which the system put more resources into its defenses. It has ultimately begun to paralyze itself with the defensive stance that it is taking and attacking elements that can lead to greater advancement in the system such as the introduction of new cultures and new ideas into the system. Anything new is seen as a possible attack, treating it accordingly and sending the system into disarray.

This can be described as a fear based system in which the strangle hold on the illusion of what the country had for a certain period of time stops the momentum of progress. A great saying that refers to all elements in life is one to be remembered at this point – Love let’s go and fear holds on. Say it three times and understand it. Love let’s go and fear holds on. We hold on in our bodies, in our relationships, in our sociocultural systems. It stifles the progress and advancement of the evolving system. The system needs to grow otherwise it will feel the wrath of putrefaction born from stagnancy, a space of resisting the flow of life and fighting its current at every turn. So let life flow through you and those surrounding you and you will ride along to new heights.

You and optimal systems – Part 1

Recently I was considering the idea of optimal systems and what is required to keep them operating functionally. What I now feel is that systems require an allocation of resources both to the advancement of the system as well as to the restoration and protection of it. We as people, and as systems, need to keep an elevated tone in creation but require a harmony with its restorative functions. This is seen in the body as a balance between the sympathetic system which elevates and the parasympathetic system which restores. Both are necessary for the optimal functioning of any system whether it be one element of the human body, the human body as a whole, or a collective of people.

There is such similarities between the dynamics of systems. If you stop and take a step back you will see how the systems are operating under the same physics. It doesn’t matter what, who or where you are, you will find the synchronicities. It all just depends on what level you are looking at the world from. Whether macroscopic or microscopic we are all but different resolutions of the same picture.   Let us consider the balance below.

Woes of the Elevated culture


The Athenians were an advancing and creative civilization of the ancient world that gave us many of the seeds of our own thinking and advancements of the modern-day. Ancient Athens was a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato’s Academia and Aristotle’s Lyceum. Athens was the birthplace of democracy as well as Socrates, Sophocles, and its many other prominent creators of the ancient world. Athenians operated truly harmoniously as a civilization, but without placing resources into the defense response, they were more susceptible to attack. Whilst they were progressing as a creative system, advancing moral and civil ideas and functionality, they had not addressed the defensive elements in the structure of the civil system properly to anticipate any offense. They were eventually overthrown and dissolved into the many succeeding empires.

Woes of the Elevated body

This balance is seen similarly in the body of a high performance athlete. When they train their body to optimal functioning the majority of their resources are being placed into maintaining the high functioning of the system. When the high functioning system is attacked by invading pathogens the system typically has not dedicated enough resources to maintain an equilibrium in the face of the high level of functioning required while balancing the immune defensive response. The body ultimately gets sick and injured more easily as it is operating at the brink of peak performance and it’s limits.

This high level of functioning is quite unlike a body that is constantly punishing itself, for instance with booze, unhealthy foods and lifestyle habits, the system knows to place more emphasis on the defensive/ immune response and in turn removes resources that would otherwise be placed into higher mental faculties.

If we look at the system from the perspective of high performance vehicles versus the old jalopy. Old Jalopies were built from much denser material and were very crude compared to modern-day, clunking along through the oil, dirt and grime of the system. Whereas the high functioning motors, whilst made of light and well lubricated systematics, a speck of dirt can throw the whole system out. The maker eventually learns how to treat the system and how to counter for the effects of the minutiae which can throw the system out. In this same way we too learn what ways don’t serve us and our progress in this world and how to change, and remove elements that reduce the efficiency and harmony of our lives. Unfortunately, sometimes people address the situation too late and many of the parts have worn down. We have now begun to replace to parts but even then we have dramatically reduced our potential.

When we this mechanical perspective it becomes clear how when we enter into a space of chaos, clunking and spluttering our way through life, we feel a general life discordance. Some life event and our reaction to it has led us to the question “why this?” However such chaos can be offset by acknowledging that we are hyper functional beings and in this chaos we have just pinpointed a speck of dirt which has thrown out our system. Through this we remove ourselves from an attachment to any end point, for as we know there is no end point, and instead insert ourselves back into the process of life – aka the flow. Through the acknowledgment of the process in chaos you now have the ability to adjust your perspective to a more powerful place by knowing instead of whats gone wrong, where you need to fine tune the system. Chaos in our lives is a blessing as it shows us where to grow. So love the process of adjustment because it is good to be happy in the good times but it is truly living to find happiness in the bad times.

Gratitude gets you Zen


When I was taking some time from my past relationship, I noticed I would feel bad when I tried to not think about her. I felt that this was not an effective method to help me deal with the changing shape of our relationship, for as we know what you resist persists. So I sat there and tried something different. I sent her gratitude for the amazing person that she is, for all the good times that we had and the lessons that she taught me. I immediately felt better and I wasn’t sure why until this moment and this is the lesson that I learnt about part of what gratitude’s power is.

Gratitude keeps us in the present.

Being present is the most important thing. The power in the Now.  In the present moment, the problems and patterns of the past have no avenue to creep in, and they have no way of imposing themselves on the future. When we are in gratitude it is impossible to be in any other moment but the present. Gratitude is an active state of being. It must be consciously acknowledged for it to be gratitude. If we don’t do it consciously it is being “taken for granted”.

We can feel joy unconsciously, like when we are eating something and it makes us feel good. However we can go through the meal without truly appreciating it, without truly being conscious and aware of the meal. That is why we suddenly finish and think, I can’t even remember eating that meal. That poor meal was taken for granted.  Once we acknowledge something and give it thanks, we are living in the present moment of now, and then we are truly living.

Gratitude is the most powerful mediation.

Gratitude is the quickest and easiest way to reach a truly meditative state. The true meditative state is when you can be completely present in the moment. The best way to be present is through appreciation, because you are not limiting anything. You are being completely accepting. Through this unadulterated acceptance, it opens you up to an even greater experience and expression of life. Gratitude is the in-breath of love. When we breathe in, during meditation, and give thanks as well, we are doubling the focus and meditative power of being present. It is for this reason that we can immediately find ourselves in a place of harmony. Harmony occurs not only in our bodies but also with the world around us. The Institute of HeartMath, a research group in California, has conducted studies on the power of using gratitude with breathing meditation.  Their results have been astounding. Through the use of gratitude, it has been shown that many of our biological systems have harmonized finding a physiological resonance that creates a form of visceral symphony. Our heart, lungs, hormones and even our brain all our working to the driving beat of the gratitude playing in our hearts.

Gratitude transforms fear

Unconscious joy is an opportunity lost but not as much as when we are in fear, which is true unconsciousness. Fear results in a true lack of appreciation and a true lack of consciousness. In fear we have no way of being present, instead we are truly locked in the patterns of the past and future and not “being in the present”. Our fear is similar to a fog that we are lost in. When you think of an experience that you are saying no to, that you are resisting, that you say is wrong, you feel it in your body and get lost in a spiral of thoughts.

Thinking those fear thought spirals, perpetuate cycles and reoccurring themes in your life. This is because you fall into the patterns of the past that you experienced when you were younger and your mind takes you down that road trying to protect you. It is inbuilt to humans to have this inclination towards the negative. It evolved for our protection and is referred to as the ‘negativity bias’. The negativity bias means that it is easier to think about the bad things and process them more quickly than the good things. This is so that if the bad things happen we will know what to do quicker to protect ourselves. That is all good and proper when we were cave men but the problem is that now we live in a World where dinosaurs and monsters don’t exist. But our bodies still think they exist so it is constantly trying and create them.

I’ll use horror films to explain this. Isn’t it interesting how in horror films the monster is so much scarier when we don’t see it, but finally when we the monster is revealed, we think, “Is that all?! That’s so fake!” It’s because our minds are programmed naturally to think the worst of the scene and the more we resist it and say “No” to the monster the scarier it gets. But the second we look at it, it immediately loses most of its scariness. The reality of the monster has taken form and thus collapses the infinite possibilities of scariness into only one possibility. It is because of this reason that we also recreate the patterns of our past, because “better the devil we know”. We know how story is going to end when we continually replay the same story and we know that while the monster is scary because we know what form it takes we are more inclined to deal with that monster than the other millions of monsters that can exist out in the world. But if we take a plunge and step into the darkness and unknown we may find that we slay the dragon and find an ending that better suits us.  So a powerful way of navigating through the unfamiliar territory of this new story is send the scary scene “Thanks”. Find all that you can be grateful for in the scene. Be grateful for all the amazing outcomes that can and will happen as you work through the darkness and you will give yourself a light to guide your way to a scene of something that you can love. You can even invite your fears to come along with you and work at your goals together. By doing this you know longer are denying the existence of your fears, which is the best way to let them go because what we resist persists and what we look at goes away.

Use your attitude of gratitude and you will find your way through any dark spot.