Tips to Free Your Mind in 2015

Free Your Mind
This past year has pushed up the emotional underbelly of our society, showing us that we still have a lot of work to do on ourselves if we are going to achieve the peace, joy and goodwill that each of us wishes for humankind. We are all victims of cultural conditioning, but the time has come to break away from the limitations of thought that have been imposed on us by society.

“You have to understand....most people are not ready to be unplugged and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” ~Morpheus

“You have to understand….most people are not ready to be unplugged and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.” ~Morpheus

I have assembled, in no particular order, some tips on how we might unplug from the matrix and free our minds in 2015:

ॐ An ancient Buddhist proverb says, “All suffering exists because of our attachment to an untrue self-image.” This untrue self-image is the one imposed on us from the day we are born.  It keeps us stuck in the ego-driven world and encourages the “us against them” mentality. Rumi said, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”  By contemplating this, you will begin to discover your true nature and come to understand that no differences exist between us. But be warned: Asking “who am I” may eventually lead to enlightenment (aka permanent freedom from the ego).

ॐ Jiddu Krishnamurti’s most famous speech was delivered in Ojai, CA in 1929 and is called “Truth is a Pathless Land.” Krishnamurti was referring to religion and spirituality in this speech and said, “Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path.”  He observed that once you organize a belief system into a religion you give it form, which then crystallizes and deadens it as it becomes entrenched in dogma. Dogma fits nicely into our 3D world, but religious intolerance has become the result. The challenges we face are forcing us to break free of the 3d matrix structure in which we’ve been living, transcend dogma, and expand our consciousness to include the whole of the manifest and unmanifest. Recognize the common thread that runs through all faiths; the Golden Rule is the same for all religious philosophies.

ॐ Look closely at the people whose words you take as truth and watch the thoughts you have as a result of what they say. This can be anyone from mainstream media pundits to politicians to religious leaders who limit, confine, point the finger, and manipulate through fear. An all-inclusive, compassionate way of living is rejected as these people keep serving up the blue pill. You can put your attention anywhere you want. If you ever have thoughts that in any way exclude, label, or polarize, then you need to reject these people and their weapons of mass delusion. Accept only love.

ॐ Meditate, or at least start to practice mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness, aka being present, will show you that a space exists through which you can escape the mundane. Meditation keeps you in that space. It is imperative to set aside that time to allow yourself to know yourSelf. Magic happens in the quiet.

Peace, Shanti, Paz, Paco, Pax, Paix, Hasti, Rukun, Shalom, Amani, Ukuthula, …and TLGO

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Random Fragments To Help Along The Way

Lately, I’ve been unable to hold a cohesive thought and bring it to any kind of conclusion, logical or otherwise. Instead, I’ve had a string of thoughts – prompted by a number of isolated quotes – come to my attention. These quotes are fragments I had saved with the thought that I would use them one day to punctuate a longer piece of writing. I hope you find them inspiring or thought-provoking in some small way. Perhaps you will feel urged to seek out more writings by their authors, who have been fortunate enough to reach the end of their searching and attain true wisdom through Enlightenment.

These first are by the Sufi poet Hafiz (given name Shams-ud-din Muhammad, c.1320-1389) – (taken from “the Gift” Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master – translations by Daniel Ladinsky- published by Penguin, 1999) I love the dedication page. It reads, “ To God’s magnificent masquerade ~~as us!”

The Sun Never Says

Even

After

All this time

The sun never says to the earth,

“You owe

Me.”

Look

What happens

With a love like that,

It lights the

Whole

Sky.

And there is this fragment from another of his poems:

“…..I saw two birds this morning

Laughing with the sun.

They reminded me of how

We will one day exist….”

And now a couple of quotes by another great Sufi poet, Rumi (Jalaluddin Rumi – 1207-1273):

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

~

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.”

And finally, a quote I came across when I was in the 5th grade while reading a book, Step to the Music, by Phyllis A. Whitney. It is a quote by Henry David Thoreau – (Transcendentalist, 1817-1862 from his book, “Walden”)  –  Even then I knew it would sum up my life:

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Namaste.