Month: January 2022

Posted on

All You Really Ever Control for Sure Is YOU

Sorry Pete, But I Got To Do For Me And Mine

The comedy movie, “O Brother Where Art Thou”, is about the adventures of three escapees from a 1930’s Mississippi chain gang. The names of the escapees are Everett, Delmar and Pete. As they are being pursued by the authorities, they hide out in the barn of Pete’s cousin, Wash Hogwallop. In the middle of the night, they discover that the barn is surrounded by a heavily armed sheriff’s posse. When they look out from the barn loft, they see standing next to the sheriff, Pete’s cousin, who turned in Everett, Delmar and Pete for the bounty. Pete yells out from the barn “I’ll kill you Judas Iscariot Hogwallop”. Pete’s cousin replies, “Sorry Pete, I know we’re kin but they got this depression goin’ on and I got to do for me and mine.”

So let’s say, in a strictly figurative sense, that adverse circumstances have you trapped in the barn and you are surrounded by your pursuers. Where do you turn for help in your situation?

Do you turn to friends?

“Sorry Dude, I’d love to help you, I really would, but I got to do for me and mine”.

Do you turn to neighbors?

“I’m really sorry, but I got to do for me and mine. By the way, can I borrow your hedge clippers?”

Do you turn to fellow students at your school or co-employees at your place of work or members of your fraternal organization?

“Sorry, next time for sure, but today I got to do for me and mine”.

Do you turn to family (spouse, parents, children, uncles, aunts, grandparents, nephews, nieces, cousins)?

“Believe me, I would really, really, like to help, I know we’re kin but I got to do for me and mine”.

Well then, who does that leave you to turn to in your time of need?

The answer is Y-O-U. Everyone and everything that you experience in this lifetime is Y-O-U “pushed out”. Your entire life circumstances are merely a reflection in a mirror. How’s that for a radical concept. With the world in the current shape it is in however, as Marcellus said in Hamlet, “There is something rotten in the state of Denmark”. I believe that “more of the same old, same old” is just a recipe for failure.

You Are Continually Looking Into A Mirror

The world around you is a mirror, reflecting all that you are conscious of being. Refrain from trying to change your life circumstances “from the outside” since these circumstances are just a reflection of Y-O-U from the inside, your inner consciousness. This is kind of a bitter pill to swallow because it means that you have to take full responsibility for your reality. Changing your reality without changing your inner awareness is as futile as smashing a mirror in the hopes of changing your face. Leave the mirror alone. Focus on changing your face (your inner consciousness of yourself). You are all that you require to manifest your desired reality. The Kingdom of God is not up in the sky somewhere. It is within you. It is how God lovingly created you. All the outer circumstances of your daily life do not come from anywhere but you. If your desired reality is to come to fruition through the involvement of other people, we are all interconnected, the state of your inner consciousness will act as a magnet to lead the required person or persons to you. Just be aware of what’s going on around you, pay attention and stand in love by maintaining your deliberate focus on the I AM, Universal Love and Intelligence.

When you see something that you do not like or when something happens in your life that you did not expect or want, don’t fight against it. Refrain from getting angry with yourself or saying to yourself “Why did I bring this down on me”? This is not what is meant by taking full responsibility for your reality. The circumstances of your life are not always direct reflections of your inner assumptions. For example, losing your current living quarters doesn’t necessarily mean that within yourself you dwelled on losing your living quarters. It could be one of a number of things including being an opening event in a chain of events leading to the wonderful fulfillment of something that you truly desire. There may be many different factors involved so it is pointless to analyze it. Ask yourself – What core belief is this current circumstance representing to me? Then go about the business of changing that core belief (ie., from a fear of loss of something to a faith in yourself, living free of fear). What you call reality, is just a mirror, reflecting your consciousness, pushed out and solidified.

The Only Way Out Is By Going Within

The ancient maxim goes as follows, “As within, so without”. Solomon put it another way – “Keep your heart with diligence, for out of it are the issues of life”. Jesus Christ stated, “If you believe, you will receive”. A quote from Buddha is: “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thought. With our thoughts, we make our world”. And from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment”.

Concentrate, concentrate, and oh yes, concentrate, only on those thoughts and feelings that confirm what you have deliberately imaged in your Imagination as your chosen now reality. The day that you begin consistently, faithfully doing this, is the day that you free yourself instead of resigning yourself to be a long-suffering slave to circumstances. Refuse to accept life on the basis of “the world without”. Assert the Supremacy of your Salvation Within, your Imagination. Find a way to do this and all things must go together for your good.

So how do you remove your focus off something negative that feels so real, you can see it, you can hear it, you can feel it, you can smell it. How? How do you take your focus off of you physical pain when you can feel it? How do you take you mind off of lack of money when the rent is due in three days and you ain’t got it. How do you take your mind off of your jerk of a boss after he acted like a total asshole. There are a number of different ways to do so. Search for the way that fits you best. If I can make a suggestion however, you may want to try this – say these words to yourself with as much feeling as you can possibly muster – “I AM experiencing what I have chosen for my reality through my God-given Imagination (insert here your chosen reality – for example “a peaceful, happy life with me having plenty of money for all my needs”). I AM refusing to respond to anything that impinges on my choice of reality. I AM maintaining my focus on my chosen reality and this brings me happiness. I AM grateful”. It takes the same amount of energy to image those things that make you happy than to image those things that make you angry or sad. It will be very difficult to do at first. It will be hard work. You may ultimately decide to give up. This is the raw truth of the matter. This is radical stuff. The word radical is defined as “a way of doing something very different from the usual way”. This is not “business as usual”. If you decide to stick with it however, it will ultimately become second nature to you. And your adverse situation will start moving away from you, sometimes with great speed, sometimes like the current of a slow moving river, but your situation will improve. It has to. It is immutable law – As within, so without. You will only succeed in changing the reflection in the mirror by changing what the mirror is reflecting. Don’t reach for the mirror, reach within yourself. If you are imaging a desire and then looking to the outside for confirmation, this is precisely what perpetuates your endless cycle of disappointment. Live in the end. Live your desire fulfilled. It will appear when you least expect it.

Posted on

Books And Me – Good Friends To The Very End

Faithful Lifelong Friends

Human friendships are fickle in nature. Someone who you may call a friend today, can be a “non-friend” tomorrow over some important or even trivial disagreement. Friends can move away. Friends can die. Friends can change in personality and slowly drift away. Friends can choose to abandon their friendship with you for “new and better” friends. Friends can make themselves scarce if you hit hard times. Friends can suddenly terminate your friendship if their spouse, signifigant other or other friends don’t like you. Friends come and go like the tides of the ocean. Human friendships are a tenuous affair affected by a wide array of variables and conditions.

On the other hand, a book is the quietist and most constant of friends. No matter what is transpiring in your life, no matter what you have done, no matter what you haven’t done, a book will never abandon you. A book does not judge while humans just can’t seem to get enough of judging one another. A book does not demand, overtly or covertly, that you be a certain way, or talk in a certain way or do something in a certain way or risk disapproval or loss of friendship. It is always there for you no matter what. A book will always generously provide you with learning, story-telling, adventure, mystery, laughter, pathos and ethos – whatever you choose. Certain books will prove to be less interesting to you than you thought they might be. Or perhaps you totally disagree with the premise of the book. The book will never “get mad at you” as a result. A book has no hidden agenda other than presenting the words, and ideas, and concepts that are on the pages of the books. The book allows you to receive and assimilate those words, ideas and concepts however you choose. A book is a faithful, lifelong friend.

If Henry Bemis Had Just Carried A Spare Pair

An absolute classic Twilight Zone episode, “Time Enough At Last” (aired November 1959), starred Burgess Meredith as the hounded bank teller and avid book lover, Henry Bemis. Wherever he turns, there is somebody preventing him from reading. One day, randomly entering the bank’s vault to read during his lunch break, a worldwide apocalyptic holocaust occurs. As Bemis exits the vault he finds the outside world in ruins and devoid of all humans. Bemis is subsequently overwhelmed at the reality of his isolation. As he about to commit suicide with a gun he has found, he sees a library that has mostly survived the blast. He spends the remainder of the day joyfully arranging the books in stacks for years of reading well into the future. Of course, this is Twilight Zone so you know there is going to be some kind of twist. Sure enough, on the library steps poor Henry stumbles. His thick glasses, without which everything is blurry to him, fall off and the lenses shatter. As he picks up his broken glasses, he is disconsolate, saying, “It’s not fair. I had time now. There was time enough at last.”

When I was a kid watching that episode, I felt sorry for Henry Bemis. I remember telling my Mom, “if he only had a spare pair of glasses with him, he wouldda been OK”. I never want to be caught in the predicament of Henry Bemis. I always carry a spare set of eyeglasses with me. If I am ever the lone survivor of a nuclear holocaust and am near an intact library, I’ll be all set (LOL). My son has a wonderful collection of over 2,000 books that he has collected over the past 20 years. It is my desire that at some point in what remains in my life, that I can spend an entire year, without any obligations or responsibilities, just reading…..reading as many of those books as I can each day. Just as it was with Henry Bemis, if I could not read, it would be a catastrophe of the highest order.

A Book Is A Portal To Another Dimension

In the 1955 movie, “Marty” starring Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair, there is a scene at the end of the movie where Borgnine’s character is hanging around a Bronx street corner early on a Sunday evening with three of his friends. This scene took place after Borgnine’s friends dissuaded him from going out on a second date with the character played by Betsy Blair. The intimation from his friends was that their friendship with Borgnine was in jeopardy if he continued to see Blair. As the four men are standing on the street corner, Marty is silent while the other three are trying to establish what they are going to do that evening. One says to the others, “Whadda you wanna do”? Another of the men says, “I dunno, whadda you wanna do?” A few suggestions are offered but there is no consensus. Finally, Borgnine’s character breaks his silence and says derisively to the other three, ” Whadda you wanna do? I dunno, whadda you wanna do? I must have been crazy to listen to you guys. I know what I wanna do. I’m going to call her up and hopefully she’ll want to go to the movies with me tonight.” Whereupon he departs for the nearest phone booth.

A book is a friend that allows you to do or go or experience or learn whatever you want. Your friend will always say, “OK, Let’s go”. Do you want to go back in time to a certain period in a certain locale? – “OK, Let’s go”. Do you want to introduce to your mind new concepts or ideas? – “OK, Let’s go”. Do you want to retrace your steps and review already introduced ideas and concepts? – “OK, Let’s go”. Do you want to be intrigued by a suspenseful mystery? – “OK, Let’s go”. Do you want to experience the sights and sounds and smells of a different land? – “OK, Let’s go”. Do you need a breather from everyday duties, obligations and responsibilities, to give your mind a rest and just escape for a bit from the world around you? – “OK, Let’s go”. Whatever it is that you want to do, your friend will never say, “Nah, I don’t want to do that”. Your friend will always say to you, “Sounds good, OK, Let’s go”. And unlike television, you will never get commercials.

When you read a book, you are traveling through a portal in your mind into another dimension. It is a lovely sensation. And last, but not least, you can find a book or books that will help you to travel to another dimension of reality and create a life you desire through the magic of manifestation. Scripture is as true as true ever gets when it states- Ask. Seek. Knock. Believe. Receive. Now if you will excuse me, I see an old friend beckoning me now from the bookcase.

Posted on

Your Silent Power – Focus On The Mystery of Centering

Stand Up Straight, Stop Slouching

At some point in your life, you may have been told by a parent, or a teacher, or a caregiver, or a grandparent or, well you get the idea, “stop slouching, stand up straight or “don’t slouch at the table” (dinner table) or something in that general vein. Or maybe while you were in line with siblings at an amusement park, you were told by the sibling in front of you, “stop leaning on me”, as your anticipation of getting on that ride almost magnetically pulled your body forward. You have an etheric body, a human energy field or aura, that surrounds your physical body. When you crave things too deeply, your etheric body leans forward toward others that you feel will help you get what your ego craves. This etheric leaning causes you detriment in two different ways. First, it annoys and repels whoever you are leaning towards, a person, the people in a business deal, the purchase of a new house, a new job, a relationship. Second, its trashes your own inner silent power, the power that gives you both incredible strength and peaceful serenity.

At some point in life everyone needs to ask for help when encountering a particular set of circumstances. There is a huge difference however between asking someone for help with something and constantly leaning on others to satisfy your perceived needs. Put forth effort to shape your thoughts, shape your feelings so that you do not require things from others. Yes, it takes work and discipline to shape your thoughts and feelings just as it takes work and discipline to take off that extra twenty pounds that is bogging you down. However, just as getting that twenty pounds off allows you to feel better, disciplining your thoughts and feelings will do likewise. People may not say it but they really do not like being leaned on by your etheric body. Learn to center yourself. Discipline yourself not to constantly lean toward the future but instead to center yourself in the eternal now of each new day. If you are not able to tell for sure if you are in fact leaning forward, keep this adage in mind, “When in doubt, lean out”.

Struggle: Action Laced With Negative Emotion

All people struggle with something or other during the course of their lives. You have. I have. Struggle can be defined as activity toward some type of achievement with said activity laced with negative emotion. Activity or effort with regard to achieving something is natural but the negative emotion is not. That something that ensures ultimate achievement of an undertaking is faith…….faith in the power of Universal Intelligence…….faith in your inner power emanating from the Kingdom of God within you. Not forcing, not pushing, not leaning, but calm action in the now in an organized and patient manner. You say you need $5,000 by next Friday? Well dear reader, fear and anger over the situation is a turning away from your inner silent power. Yes, a manifestation of that type is definitely a major undertaking. As such, it is imperative that you draw from your silent power to bring it forth. Stop, go within, be silent and listen. Just stop talking, whether it is on the outside or on the inside. Just shut up. Then just listen. Then, do what you naturally feel to be able to do in the time frame of now without leaning into the future. When you properly center yourself, when your etheric body is standing straight without leaning, you can most assuredly feel it in your solar plexus area, the third chakra. It is a feeling that is difficult to translate into the proper words. Rather than a wielding of power, when you are centered, you feel that just by being alive that you are expressing silent power, radiating out into all directions, like the rays of the sun. And yes, it is a beautiful, beautiful, transcendent feeling.

Tomorrow Never Comes…….Start Now

Does bringing forth your own inner silent power sound like something you would like to do? Does exuding a silent inner power that is there with you at all times, in all places, in all circumstances, seem like something that you would want for yourself? You may say to yourself, yes, I would really love to have that power in my life, I will get started looking into it tomorrow. NO, tomorrow never comes, get started now. When you get something started, momemtum kicks in and starts carrying you along like a log being carried by the current of a river. But where to start?

An excellent way or place to get started with the process of developing your inner silent power is simply to designate one room in your dwelling, or one area of your dwelling or your desk or work station at work or your car or a favorite plot of ground outside or whatever place you choose. Then begin the process by getting everything in order in your designated place. Make this space clean and as close as you can, pristene, until it resonates a beautiful energy and a perfect zen. If it is your car, get those three month old fries out from the crack in the front seat. If it is your bedroom, get those dirty socks from last year out from under the bed and into the laundry hamper. Go to your clean energy place each day to generate your silent power. Dwell on God. Dwell in the Kingdom of God. During this amount of time, everything else in this world in which you live is of no importance to you. You are free of anger. You are free of fear. You are free of grudges. You are free of regrets. You are free. Just stay within your inner power that comes from the Divine. Keep with it day after day after day. Gradually, the silent energy within becomes part and parcel of your daily life. You feel stronger because you are stronger. Your etheric body becomes lighter and whatever part of it carried darkness begins turning to light. Your life becomes a living, breathing expression of this inner silent power and a calm peace and serene strength courses through you as you live your life each day.

And if you really want to get yourself into the right frame of mind when you go to your special place, go to You Tube and listen to the fabulous jazz singer, Dianne Reeves, sing the song “Testify”.

Posted on

The Circumstances Of Your Life ……… The Why Of It

The Why Of It All

Many years ago I had a brief conversation with a man who ran a one man computer repair shop. I brought my laptop to him for repair. When I was picking up the repaired laptop, he went through in detail what he had done. I complimented him on his fine work and reasonable price. In a random joking manner, I complimented him on his honesty saying that it would bode well for him when he gets to heaven. The man looked at me with piercing eyes that silently revealed he had experienced both struggle and suffering. He replied with a straight face, “All I want when I get there is answers.” To that I replied, “Amen brother, amen.”

A Senseless World

So many things happen in your life, in the lives of your friends and loved ones, in the lives of strangers that you only read about, that just don’t make any sense. Why do good people suffer? Why do crappy people prosper? A wonderful person dies young. A miserable old crock lives on to be a hundred. Innocent kids born with challenging infirmities. Jerks who are not be sick a day in their lives. One child born into squalid conditions in an impoverished country. Another child born into a country of prosperity. I have no idea how you feel about these circumstances but it always leaves me with the question of “the why of it all”, with a hint of the scent of the absurdism of Albert Camus hanging in the background.

Thirty Seconds For Some Answers

It brings to mind a scene from a 1940’s film noir movie with the actor Robert Mitchum. He was portraying a hard boiled detective dealing with some nasty, backstabbing characters. At one point, Mitchum encounters one of these villainous characters and throws him against the wall in an alleyway. With gun in hand under the guy’s chin, he states with unequivocal firmness, “OK, you’ve got exactly thirty seconds to give me some answers.” After the guy says he doesn’t know anything, Mitchum cocks the hammer of the gun and replies “Twenty-five seconds”. (By the way Mitchum does get the answers he is looking for). Sometimes this is what I feel like doing to the keeper of the universal records when I see or read or hear about some injustice that angers me.

Many Possibilities

With regard to children born with infirmities, there are many possibilities but I want to make it crystal clear to you that I do not have the answers. I do know some things but I am most definitely not Mr. Knows-It-All. One possibility involves reincarnation. It has been postulated that these children pre-plan their infirmity along the lines of a scenario of voluntary reincarnation in order that they may teach, learn, experience, knowing that when their lifetime is over, they return to where they belong in the eternal world of Spirit without the burden of the infirmity. Another possibility is the ever present free will of mankind. Perhaps one or both of the parents harbor fears that are picked up on by the fetus affecting the development. Perhaps the man chooses to inflict violence on the mother, injuring the fetus. Perhaps the mother chooses to introduce a toxic substance to the womb. Perhaps a greedy and nefarious industrialist chooses to pollute the water source that affects pre-natal development of the fetus. Perhaps that child is foreordained to be an inspiration to other souls through the child’s divine handling of the infirmity. There are other possibilities as well. Until we finish this lifetime and resume interaction in the hereafter, we will really never know for sure the “why” of it all but that does not stop the search for answers while we are here. Training yourself to be fully present at all times in the here and now is the key to handling the “why’s” of life.

The Wild Man From Borneo

When I was a little kid back in the 1950’s, they still had small time traveling circuses that would set up their tents in the areas outside urban locales. These circuses not only had the “big top” tents but also had carnival like sideshows that people would visit before the main circus show. When I was five, one of these circuses came to my small town. My older brother and I were able to get free tickets to this circus. Mom gave us each a quarter for treats during the show. My brother and I were intrigued by a pre-event tented side show that featured “The Wild Man From Borneo”. On the side of the tent was painted a mural of a fearsome looking beast, half-man, half-animal. (Spoiler alert: The actual wild man looked nothing like the beast on the mural). Admission was twenty-five cents. My brother actually had the good fortune to find a quarter on the ground after we arrived at the circus site. He said we could use that quarter for popcorn during the circus show. As we were both curious about this wild man from Borneo, we decided to use the quarters that Mom gave us to see what it was all about. Being a little runt, I was kind of afraid it would get loose. My brother assured me however that they must keep him in a cage so we would be safe. Inside we went.

Just A Guy In A Costume

The wild man was a little scary to me but my brother was unimpressed. It looked like a man with all painted markings on his body, a necklace of animal teeth around his neck, wearing a loincloth and with fur on his arms and legs. The wild man was jumping and leaping all around his cage making all sorts of unintelligible sounds. He would look wildly all around him then jump around again in a random manner. My brother said, “Ahh it’s just a guy in a costume putting on a show.” I cautioned my brother not to say that too loud or the wild man would get angry with us. My brother just laughed. And just like that, after a few minutes, the carnival barker said the show was over as the next group was ready to come in. I never forgot however the image of the wild man jumping all around wildly from side to side inside the cage.

Thought + Feeling + Belief = Your Life

Just like “The Wild Man From Borneo” your own mind will jump around wildly just like him if you allow it. There is no other way around it – to receive your desires fulfilled in certainty, you have to do some work on focusing your thoughts. You have to discipline your mind to dwell on the thoughts that will lead to feelings that will lead to beliefs that will bring to you that which you earnestly desire. Direct your mind instead of allowing your mind to direct you. Your mind can be a useful tool or a tyrannical master. You will always be tempted to jump to a downward spiral by complaining about your current negative circumstances.

Your Imagination Does Not Care

Your imagination will bring you benefit or it will bring you detriment. It really does not care one way or the other. It is always your choice. Train your mind to bring you benefit! Why do you continue to dwell on the adverse circumstances of your current life? Your answer may be: “Because the circumstances of my current life are adverse Dipshit, that’s why. Just take a look at everything wrong going on around me.” This is precisely the time when you need to train your faith with an unwavering belief. It is hard. I know it’s hard. It’s hard for me also. I don’t always succeed but it is the way out of current troubles. It is your escape route. It is the way out of your problems no matter what they are or how many there are.

Worry Never Ever Helps

Worry is not a neutral feeling. It is destructive. It is toxic. Worry is dwelling on negative results occurring within a particular situation. Faith is your true power to break through any problem. Faith is the assurance of things unseen. Faith…..Assurance…..Unseen. Refuse to dwell for even a second on your current circumstances if what you see going on around you is not what you believe as your destined reality. Live in the end. It doesn’t matter if, like Wile E. Coyote, an Acme safe or piano falls on your head. If your feelings and your beliefs match up with your desired reality as being the “real deal” reality, if you remain ferociously loyal to the unseen reality no matter what happens, then the unseen reality will eventually become the seen reality and you will ultimately receive what you desire and more.

Conceive. Believe. Receive.