Articles from September 2012

There is an interesting, Indian, Hindu term called ahamkara.  It is defined as the idea of separate existence.  I once heard the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell, refer to this word as the sound of the self saying I.  I personally always thought of ahamkara as identifying with the ego.  I believe all these things describe ahamkara quite well.  I also have learned over the years that this is perhaps the largest part of maya, the illusion of the world. The belief that we are somehow separate from the creator and each other could be  the biggest falsehood of all.

The church I used to go to when I was a kid had a saying.  “There is only one presence and one power, God the good omnipotent.  If there is only one presence then all is God.  Jesus said that “I and my father are one.”  “Be still and know that I am God.”   I say we should all be still and know.  It was Homer who said “Good is one, evil is manifold ”  The more we see separation, the more evil we do.  The more we see the oneness the more good we become and carryout.  In the movie Bagger Vance, Bagger said “my player has a problem.  He still thinks he’s Rannolf Junnah.”  That was his only problem, identifying with his egoistic worries and concerns.  When he entered the field, he became one, and played marvelously.  Jesus also said, He is I and I am he.”  There was no separation.  The Buddha also taught the path of oneness.  Jesus also said “I say unto you that ye are gods.”   In other words, not only am I one but you too are one.  In the movie Eat Pray Love, it is said that “God is expressing himself through you as you.”  The eternal has taken birth for human expression.  This is call dharma, or place in life.  I once heard Michael Jackson say something to the effect that the job of the song writer is to get himself or herself out-of-the-way so the inspiration from God can come through.  This is the job of every artist, getting the smaller self and the ideas and hangups of the smaller self out of the way for the great inspiration.   I say we have to move beyond this ahamkara, the false idea that we are not one.  We are each one with God and each other whether we know it or not.  This is the reason we should meditate and watch and listen to as much material that reminds us of our oneness as possible.  We must remember that God can come to us from many people and many sources to give exactly what is needed.  We must remember that God can work through us, and ask to be guided as we move though life.  It is our job to move into the oneness.  I personally believe this is our main reason for being here.

Craig

Yesterday my good friend Aaron called me to tell me how he got an incredible sign.  He had a situation where he was feeling as though he had to hurry and rush and time was truly of the essence.  He felt that he was not moving fast enough on a particular project.  He went home and meditated to gain some peace.  That same evening he came to this blog and read the post that talked about taking your time while making haste.  He was reminded that the real making haste is the meditation and getting centered.  What he seemed to be most excited about was the way it seemed to be in divine order that he read the post that pointed to his situation.

This morning I was thinking about how I needed to do a new You Tube video.  I was thinking that I don’t do enough videos.  I was also thinking about how I believe that most of the people who join the Meditative Zone and PositiveAmbassador.Org Community come from You Tube and it would really be nice if I made more videos. Then, literally minutes later, I check my email.   In it is a letter from Jill, a new reader here on the blog, and new member of the Meditative Zone Community.  This is what I read.

Jill says:

The other day I was blogging and as soon as I began to write I felt incredibly peaceful.  Truthfully it was beyond peaceful.  I could barely feel my body, like I was in deep meditation.  I thought to myself, “if this feels this good, this is a definite message.  I should be writing and blogging all the time, for sure much more often than I do.”  It may sound simple but for me it was extremely profound, and the feeling that I had was truly incredible.

As I thought more about it.  I also thought about how I got out of my habit of getting up at 5 am to tend to my spiritual life more.  In my own defense, I went through a period where I was sick in the mornings and it threw me off.  I was still tending to my meditation etc, but not giving the extra time in the morning here recently.  Why is this such a big deal?   The feeling I have the days I do get up and take the extra early morning time is unbelievable and my days are so much different when I do this.  For me this is a sign from God and The Universe that this is what I need to be doing.  So now I am getting back to my morning commitment and blogging and writing more often.  I am also looking at the rest of my life and asking What other things do I need to pay attention to?  What other signs am I getting in the way of incredibly good feelings in situations or not so good feelings in situations?  Am I really paying attention to my dreams and remembering to move on the information coming my way?  These are questions we should all ask ourselves, because we are constantly being led by our deeper self, if we are open to being led.

Craig

Lately I have been thinking about one of my teacher Mr. Ambrister’s sayings.   When I take time to really think about the meaning, it is one of the most comforting lessons on the spiritual path.  He would usually say this to me after telling me to make haste while the sun is still shining.  This I understood perfectly.  He meant to get busy and do what I can while I still can.  But then he would throw in the kicker.  Just while I was thinking about how I have to hurry up and get busy to do whatever it is we are talking about at the time he would say, “don’t worry Sunny, no need to worry, take your time, but make haste.”   This would throw me all off.  I would say to myself, “I thought he just said to make haste?”  Then one day he said, “the real making haste is the meditation.”  Then I got it.

We must move forward and not waste time.  We must be devoted to carrying out our mission at hand.  We must also not worry about how fast we move.  We should be sure to take time to meditate.  The meditation will clear our mind and give us strength, ideas and direction that will take us to our goal much faster, while we maintain peace of mind.  I have even seen where the meditation seemed to make opportunities just show up out of nowhere.  For these reasons the meditation is the real making haste.

Sincerely,

Craig

I think I mentioned before how many years ago when I first became a vegetarian I from time to time would go back to trying to eat some of my favorite meats.  One time in particular after not eating beef or pork for some time I had a taste for a Coney Island chilly dog.  When I ate it, I got sick.  My body was no longer used to breaking down such foods. When I told my teacher Mr. Ambrister.  He said “Oh, you have been experimenting.”

I knew what he meant.  He would always say that we were practicing spiritual science. The science of finding God and our higher self within.  He would also say to put this science to the test and find out for yourself if it is real.  I usually thought of this in terms of meditating deeply and seeing if what the incredible experiences that the great ones talked about were possible.  I found out that everything he told me was true.  I could with practice, meditate and see what was going on, on the other side of town.  I could know what was coming my way and see it clearly in advance.  I could see people’s motives and understand them if I let go of all judgement and loved them and then meditated.  I could be very stressed out and unhappy and meditate to have my whole mood change.  I tried these things and they worked.  But this time it was simple.  I went back to trying to eat food I should not and I got the result.  As he said I experimented.

Last night I experimented again.  Lately I have been discovering that I must cut back on cheese.  I guess in my mind I knew this was the case.  I had enough experiences to prove it so.   But my mind was not entirely made up.  I decided to pick up some cheese sticks on my way home.  The next morning after eating them my stomach and back was hurting.  I could hear Mr. Ambrister’s voice in my head saying “So you have been experimenting.”  I was thinking “yes I have, and the results are in.” 

I must also say that for the past several weeks I had been changing my eating habits for the better.  I was eating less cheese.  No cheese sticks at all and very little pizza. I was also done eating every evening by 7:30.  In addition to this, I was cutting back on the amount of bread I would eat and reducing my food portions.  I did all of this to see if it would end recent stomach problems I had developed.  The result was that the stomach problems were gone.  Not only was this the case but for sometime I had been wanting to lose about 20 pounds.  I was working and drinking only water, no flavored drinks.  No change.  But when I made the changes that led to the stomach problems leaving the weight magically dropped off.  This was an unexpected result and plus.

My point is this.  If you want to know something experiment and put it to the test.  Then pay attention to the results and live accordingly.

Craig