Perception

By Madisyn Taylor

A simple shift in attitude can help us recognize the hidden potential for fulfillment in every event.
There is no secret recipe for happiness and contentment. The individuals who move through life joyously have not necessarily been blessed with lives of abundance, love, success, and prosperity. Such people have, however, been blessed with the ability to take the circumstances they've been handed and make them into something great. Our individual realities are colored by perception--delight and despair come from within rather than without. Situations we regard as fortuitous please us while situations we judge inauspicious cause us no end of grief. Yet if we can look at all we have accomplished without dwelling on our perceived misfortune and make each new circumstance our own, the world as a whole becomes a brighter place. A simple shift in attitude can help us recognize and unearth the hidden potential for personal and outer world fulfillment in every event, every relationship, every duty, and every setback.

The universe is often an unpredictable and chaotic place, and the human tendency is to focus on the negative and assume the positive will care for itself. But life can be no more or no less than what you make of it. If you are working in a job you dislike, you can concentrate on the positive aspects of the position and approach your work with gusto. What can you do with this job that can turn it around so you do love it. When faced with the prospect of undertaking a task you fear, you can view it as an opportunity to discover what you are truly capable of doing. Similarly, unexpected events, when viewed as surprises, can add flavor to your existence. By choosing to love life no matter what crosses your path, you can create an atmosphere of jubilance that is wonderfully infectious. A change in perspective is all it takes to change your world, but you must be willing to adopt an optimistic, hopeful mind-set.

To make a conscious decision to be happy is not enough. You must learn to observe life's complexities through the eyes of a child seeing everything for the first time. You must furthermore divest yourself of preconceived notions of what is good and what is bad so that you can appreciate the rich insights concealed in each stage of your life's journey. And you must strive to discover the dual joys of wanting what you have. As you gradually shift your perspective, your existence will be imbued with happiness and contentment that will remain with you forever.

The Art of Peace Begins with You

The Art of Peace was written by Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido (合気道) a modern Japanese martial art developed by Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and spiritual beliefs. Aikido is often translated as “the way of unifying (with) life energy” or as “the way of harmonious spirit.”

    “The Art of Peace begins with you. Work on yourself and your appointed task in the Art of Peace.

    You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your innate enlightenment. Foster peace in your own life and then apply the Art to all that you encounter.

    Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow.

    One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

    All things, material and spiritual, originate from one Source and are related as if they were one family. The past, present, and future are all contained in the life force.

    The Universe emerged and developed from one Source, and we evolved through the optimal process of unification and harmonization.

    As soon as you concern yourself with the “good” and “bad” of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weakens and defeats you.

    Be grateful even for hardship, setbacks, and bad people. Dealing with such obstacles is an essential part of training in the Art of Peace.

    If your opponent strikes with fire, counter with water, becoming completely fluid and free-flowing. Water, by its nature, never collides with or breaks against anything. On the contrary, it swallows up any attack harmlessly.

    In our techniques we enter completely into, blend totally with, and control firmly an attack. Strength resides where one’s ki (life force) is concentrated and stable; confusion and maliciousness arise when ki stagnates.

    In the Art of Peace we never attack. An attack is proof that one is out of control. Never run away from any kind of challenge, but do not try to suppress or control an opponent unnaturally.

    Techniques employ four qualities that reflect the nature of our world. Depending on the circumstance, you should be: hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water, or as empty as space.

    The Art of Peace is the principle of nonresistance. The Art of Peace is invincible because it contends with nothing.

    Let attackers come any way they like and then blend with them. Never chase after opponents. Redirect each attack and get firmly behind it. Your spirit is the true shield.

    The Art of Peace is medicine for a sick world. There is evil and disorder in the world because people have forgotten that all things emanate from one Source.

    Return to that Source and leave behind all self-centered thoughts, petty desires, and anger. Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything.

    Instructors can impart only a fraction of the teaching. It is through your own devoted practice that the mysteries of the Art of Peace are brought to life.”

Link: https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/the-art-of-peace-begins-with-you/

From Fear to Love, War to Peace

The following are excerpts from A Course in Miracles. 

 

“Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. Peace is an attribute in you. The mind that wants peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. The only way to have peace is to teach peace.”

 

“Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. Every thought you have brings either peace or war; love or fear.

 From insane wishes comes an insane world. From judgment comes a world condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth.

Truth does not struggle against ignorance, and love does not attack fear. Love can have no enemy. Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, then there is not perfect love.

 

Would you not go through fear to love? For such the journey seems to be. It is a journey without distance, to a goal that has never changed.

 

You dwell not here, but in eternity. You travel in dreams, while safe at home. There is no journey, but only an awakening. 

 

Faith in the eternal is always justified, for the eternal is forever kind, infinite in its patience and wholly loving. It will accept you wholly and give you peace. Yet it can only unite with what is already at peace in you.

 

The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace. You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment.

 

Love does not seek for power but for relationships. When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him (or her) you will see yourself. When you see your brothers as yourself you will be released.

 

Fail not in your function of loving in a loveless place made out of darkness and deceit, for thus are darkness and deceit undone. Love cannot be far behind a grateful heart and thankful mind.

 

When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also.

 

You believe in what you value. If you are afraid, you are valuing wrongly.

 

Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point.

 

All healing is essentially the release from fear.

 

It is essential to remember that only the mind can create, and that correction begins at the thought level. Spirit is already perfect and therefore does not require correction.

 

Questioning illusions is the first step in undoing them. The body does not exist except as a learning device for the mind.

 

You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think.

 

The truth is that you are responsible for what you think because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.

 

Few appreciate the real power of the mind, and no one remains fully aware of it all the time. However, if you hope to spare yourself from fear there are some things you must realize, and realize fully.

 

The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating.

 

Confidence cannot develop fully until mastery has been accomplished. Readiness is only the beginning of confidence.

 

Nothing and everything cannot coexist. To believe in one is to deny the other. Fear is really nothing and love is everything.

 

Whenever light enters darkness, the darkness is abolished.

 

Innocence is not a partial attribute. It is not real until it is total. The partly innocent are apt to be quite foolish at times. It is not until their innocence become a viewpoint with universal application that it becomes wisdom.

 

Healing only strengthens. Magic always tries to weaken. Healing perceives nothing in the healer that everyone else does not share with him.

 

Magic always sees something “special” in the healer which he believes he can offer as a gift to someone who does not have it.

 

If you attack error in another, you will hurt yourself. You cannot know your brother (or sister) when you attack him (or her). Attack is always made upon a stranger.

 

You are making them a stranger by misperceiving them, and so you cannot know them. It is because you have made them stranger that you are afraid of him. There are no strangers in God’s creation.”

Link: https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2017/08/10/from-fear-to-love-war-to-peace/

A powerful trio: Study, meditation and practical living

By Gloria Excelsias

When we read an inspiring book, we magnetically link up with the mind of the author. However, real evolution happens when we meditate on what we read and when we then proceed to render the reading of practical value.

Reading is an activity of the lower, concrete mind. Meditation is an activity of the higher, abstract mind. Through meditation we awaken the inner consciousness which enables us to directly perceive the message. Meditation enables us to directly link up with the wisdom of the Higher Self and to download all that wisdom – through the channel we build in meditation by our reaching out – into our brain consciousness.

That’s why the ancient rule says: Read one minute, meditate one hour. Read ten minutes, meditate ten hours.

From the point of evolution, the key to quicken our Spiritual growth is a mix of study, meditation and practical living.

Through study we tune our brain and make it vibrationally ready to hold more knowledge and wisdom in the form of higher voltage of electricity that we access through meditation.

Through meditation we access the higher wisdom of our Higher Self and are enabled to anchor it in our brain awareness.

Through practical living of the insight gained we anchor it in our nervous system and make the teaching real. Theory turns into practice, and at the end of the day that’s the whole goal of study and meditation.

We have an evolutionary goal, the goal being the anchorage of full Soul-consciousness in our brain awareness. Our goal is to make the reality of the eternal Soul real by becoming one with it, identifying with it and living it in our daily life.

How may we anchor the high consciousness of the Soul in our brain so we may finally fully step into our Higher Self and identity?

Step 1: Tune the brain and make it vibrationally ready to hold the high voltage of the Soul. One way to accomplish this is through the study of inspired literature.

Step 2: Link up with the wisdom of the Higher Self through meditating on the inspired literature and the reality of the Soul.

Step 3: Live up to the insights you gain. Anchor the experience in your nervous system and make it real.

 

Link: http://iamuniversity.org/a-powerful-trio-study-meditation-and-practical-living/