Last week I was involved in a discussion.  As is my want, this was a discussion about spiritual topics.  The speaker at this discussion talked about looking in the mirror and trying to fix the reflection in the mirror rather than fixing the original image.  Today we will take a closer look at this idea.

Welcome back

Welcome back to all of our readers from what I hope was a safe and productive weekend for everyone.  Here in this part of the northeast US we had a lot of sunshine.  The temperature was unseasonably cold.  More like January than November.  Maybe that will mean that January will be like April.  One can hope.

Although this is a holiday week in the US, we will have a full set of posts.  I am planning some special posts for Thursday and Friday.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

Announcement

I will be speaking next Sunday at Circle of Miracles in New Britain, PA.  The meeting starts at 10:00 am.  The subject will be the explanation of the reason that the Crystal, Indigo, and Star Children are on this planet and how we can help them.  I hope to see as many of you as possible there.

Fix our self, not the reflection

At first this seems like a logical and reasonable idea.  Of course I should not fix the reflection; I should take care of me.

This idea reminds me of the cartoon representation of the kid who is sent to brush his teeth.  He looks in the mirror, puts the toothpaste on the mirror, and then brushes the mirror with his toothbrush.  We do the same thing when we try to change false self.

You cannot change false self

After all the pages that I have written about false self, it seems odd that I should say that you cannot change false self.  Well, it is true.  There is very little that you can do to change false self.

The only changes we can make in false self is to get it to be more quiet and learn to trust true self.  Other than that, we cannot really change false self behavior.  Let’s look a little more closely at this.

Let’s say that you notice that your false self has a habit of stretching the truth.  Let’s suppose that this habit has gotten you in a bit of trouble at times.  Our first reaction to a situation like this would be to stop false self from lying.

In our post last week we looked at the analogy of the tiger.  When we try to change false self we are actually wrestling with the tiger – a battle that we can never win.  Instead, we learn to let the tiger walk through our thinking.

Lying is an example of a tiger.  We see that we don’t want to lie, but have yet to learn how not to do so.  We are in a situation and see that we are about to lie about something.  We don’t want to lie – so we start to wrestle the tiger.  We may not actually lie, but the struggle will have worn us out.

Here is a better way – just let the tiger walk through.  Notice that you want to lie.  If you lie – note that as well.  You can always go back and fix the situation.  You can always tell the other person(s) that you made a mistake.  No big deal.

The reason that you lied was that you did not trust true self.  Over time, as you recognize that you can trust true self, you will learn that there is no situation that true self cannot handle.  Therefore there is no reason to lie.  Wrestling with the tiger means we are fighting a losing battle with our self.  We win the battle when we can sit quietly and let the thoughts about lying pass through without acting on them.

Look in the mirror

Ok – so we started with the analogy of the mirror and seem to have only talked about tigers.  Not really.  When we are standing at the mirror and reaching out to fix the reflection we are actually reaching out to try to fix false self.

In our tiger analogy we wrestle with false self thoughts because we do not like them and want to change them.  In the mirror analogy we are reaching out and attempting to change our reflection.

We should be recognizing that the reflection cannot be changed.  By attempting to change the reflection we are just finding another way to wrestle with the tiger.  We are brushing the toothpaste on the mirror, not brushing our own teeth.

The bottom line of all this is to realize that there is very little that we can change about false self.  All we can do is accept it for what it is, but not give it any validity.  When we try to change false self we are trying to change our reflection. 

We need to learn to listen to true self.  In that way we will not care about the reflection.  The reflection will be of true self and we will accept it, imperfections and all.  After all, it is those imperfections that show us our next steps on our path.

Trying to change the reflection will cause us to be in denial of our faults and obscure our path.  Haven’t most of us lived that way for far too long?

Let’s stop trying to change the reflection or fight our tigers.  Let’s learn to be happy!

That’s all for today.  Enjoy your holiday week.

Until tomorrow –

Es kava turen hai

We work towards an identical goal.

Discuss & Comment

We do not want this blog to be a fountain of words from one view point.  We welcome comments and questions.  Please feel free to ask a question or make a comment when the mood strikes you.

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© Copyright 2008 by KanDu Associates, LLC 

The content of this blog is copyrighted by KanDu Associates.  All rights are reserved by the owner.  For reprint information please email:

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During the last week I have been asked to explain a metaphor about a tiger.  This has happened several times.  I finally got the message that maybe I should write a post about it.  To quote that great American hero, Homer Simpson: Doh!

The source

I readily admit that I have not read a lot of books on spirituality.  My preferred method has been to learn a few principles and then learn to utilize them in my daily life.  Then repeat.  Then repeat.

However, one of the best books that I have read was “The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power” by Vernon Howard.  I read this book almost thirty years ago and several times since then.  The vividness and practicality of the examples and metaphors that he used still resonate with me.  The book has been hard to find, but most people eventually obtain a copy.  You might try this link.  I have no financial or any other relationship with the seller of the book.

The metaphor of the tiger comes from this book.  Vernon Howard wrote about many more examples that can help illuminate our path.  If there is a good response to this post, I will write about some of the other examples that have helped me on my path.

Disturbing the tiger

Remember our discussion a few weeks ago about observation?  This metaphor assumes you are familiar with the concept of observation.  Please read the articles about observation if you are not familiar with the concept.

The metaphor of the tiger starts by observing our thoughts.  We see thoughts of anger, unhappiness, hate, fear, and many more.  Those painful thoughts become the tiger.

We watch the tiger (painful thoughts) appear and walk through our mind.  We are fearful of the tiger so we strike it.  Or we grab it.  Somehow we arouse the tiger and make it aware of us.

Once the tiger is aware of us we must wrestle with it.  Remember – the tiger is our negative and unhappy thoughts.  When we are wrestling with the tiger we are wrestling with our own thoughts, our self.

Who wins this battle with the tiger (our self)?  No one.  Who loses the battle with our self?  We do.  We always lose when we fight with our self.  In fighting with the tiger we are fighting with our self – a battle we cannot win.

Learning to ignore the tiger

It takes awhile, but eventually we learn that if we ignore the tiger it will not bother us.  Just because we see the tiger does not mean we have to do something about it.  When we are still, observant, and fearless, all we need to do is watch the tiger walk through our mind.

When we learn to just let the tiger walk on through our mind we learn that it cannot have any effect on us unless we disturb it.  Eventually we learn to have many tigers walking through our mind at the same time.  We gradually learn to  ignore the tigers and go about our business.  The tigers will take care of themselves and we are happier when we do not disturb them.

In other words

Let’s break this metaphor down again.  The tiger represents our negative thoughts, our false self.  As we learn to observe, we learn to watch the tiger, our negative thoughts, our false self, from a separate place.  That separate place is our true self.  We learn that when we are enmeshed in the false self we lose objectivity and are in pain.

At first when we see our painful thoughts (the tiger, false self) we think we have to do something about them.  We think we have to lash out at them.  We think we have to change them.  All this does is causes us to fight with our self (false self, tiger).  When we fight our self we always lose.

It seems counter intuitive, but when we see our false self (painful thoughts, tiger) all we have to do is ignore it.  We let it go.  We allow the thoughts to go through our mind and we learn not to act on them.  We learn that every time we act from false self (painful thoughts, tiger) we become more unhappy.

Gradually we realize that as long as we remain in our place of observation true self will know what to do.  When we stop listening to false self the only voice remaining is that of true self.

We learn to trust that true self always has the best answer.  We learn that true self is always happy.  We learn that there is nothing more important in life than to be operating from our true self, no matter the apparent “cost” in physical terms.

We learn that there is no substitute for the peace and happiness that come from true self.

That is all for today.  Please submit your comments or experiences of when you realized that you had disturbed the tiger.  Our readers would like to hear your experiences.

Until tomorrow –

Es kava turen hai

We work towards an identical goal.

Discuss & Comment

We do not want this blog to be a fountain of words from one view point.  We welcome comments and questions.  Please feel free to ask a question or make a comment when the mood strikes you.

WordPress forces all comments to be moderated.  We usually check for comments at least twice a day.  So do not be surprised if it takes a few hours for you to see your comment.

Talk to us!  Post a comment or a question!

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Don’t miss any updates.  Get daily posts by email.  Subscribe to this blog by clicking here: SUBSCRIBE

This email list is maintained by FeedBurner, a subsidiary of Google.  I hate to receive spam and advertisements in my email.  I will never sell your email address for such purposes.

Email

You can email us directly at:  noahnow@yahoo.com

Copyright

© Copyright 2008 by KanDu Associates, LLC 

The content of this blog is copyrighted by KanDu Associates.  All rights are reserved by the owner.  For reprint information please email:

noahnow@yahoo.com

Today we will continue our discussion regarding observation.  We will extend our analogy by adding the idea of being a puppet master.

Review

We started this analogy on Monday when we began talking about observing ourselves from a balcony.  Yesterday we looked at why we jump off the balcony.

Today we will look at an analogy that can help us stay on the balcony.

Practice observing

Let’s go back to our initial analogy about observation.  Imagine that you are standing on a balcony that is a little above and behind you body.  You are watching that body as it goes through the daily routine.

At this point you are only observing.  You observe as your body eats breakfast.  You observe as your body goes through the day at work.  You observe when your false self gets mad when it has to sit in traffic on the way home from work.

You watch all this but do not get involved.  Gradually you will develop a sense of separateness from your body, but not a disconnection.  You will see that you are still connected to your body but that your point of observation is outside of that body.

A limited role

At this point you start to understand the role your body is supposed to play.  The only tasks your body is supposed to perform are to be your physical eyes and ears.  The body is supposed to move itself around as you need it to move.  Those are the only tasks that the body is supposed to do.

The last thing your body is supposed to do is get involved with a bunch of complicated thinking.  What most of us consider as thinking actually comes from our false self, which is a part of the physical body.  False self is supposed to do what true self tells it to do.  The tasks false self performs are strictly related to being the physical interface for true self within the physical world.

An example

Let’s use the example of going to a meeting to start to understand how these roles are separated.  You are at work and you have a meeting to attend at 10:00 AM.  Let’s watch to see how true self and false self are supposed to collaborate for this common task.

You get to work and check your calendar before you get started on any work.  You note that you have a 10:00 meeting to attend.  You file that thought and get started on your work.

As you work, false self monitors the time and notes when it is time to go to the meeting.  You stop working five minutes before the meeting to allow yourself time to walk to the meeting.  You tell false self to take the body to the meeting.

True self does not need to know how to get to the meeting.  True self does not need to know how to walk.  These tasks are done by false self.  False self walks the body to the meeting.  False self sits the body in a chair.

Once the meeting starts true self listens to what the body is hearing.  True self is the one that decides on the correct answer when we are asked a question.  True self decides when to comment, and what the comments should be.

False self does not have a lot to do while true self is participating in the meeting.  At the end of the meeting false self walks the body back to your desk.

The puppeteer

Let’s put all of these ideas together.  True self is standing on the balcony observing false self operate the body.  True self is watching all the false self thoughts go by.

Most of these thoughts are about fear, anger, and unhappiness.  True self does not want anything to do with that kind of unhappiness so it stays on the balcony and lets the attachments go by without grabbing on to them.

Once true self has gotten comfortable with observing, we decide to take a bit more control of our body and our false self.  While we are standing on the balcony we rig the body and the false self with strings – just like a puppet.

Now we stand on the balcony and move our false self based body where we want it to go.  We want it to get in the car and drive.  We manipulate the appropriate strings to maneuver the body into the car.

As we are driving we notice that false self is getting upset.  We yank on the string that lets go of the attachment and false self calms down.  A little later false self starts to get afraid of its financial situation.  We manipulate the string that is holding on to that attachment and the fear is gone.

We gradually learn that we have this tremendous control of how we interface with the world.  We stand in our calm, quiet, and happy place on the balcony and confidently manipulate our false self and its body as if we were a master puppeteer.  You know what?  After a bit of practice doing this we become that master puppeteer.

That is all for today.  As always, thanks for reading.

Until tomorrow –

Es kava turen hai

We work towards an identical goal.

Discuss & Comment

We do not want this blog to be a fountain of words from one view point.  We welcome comments and questions.  Please feel free to ask a question or make a comment when the mood strikes you.

WordPress forces all comments to be moderated.  We usually check for comments at least twice a day.  So do not be surprised if it takes a few hours for you to see your comment.

Talk to us!  Post a comment or a question!

Subscribe

Don’t miss any updates.  Get daily posts by email.  Subscribe to this blog by clicking here: SUBSCRIBE

This email list is maintained by FeedBurner, a subsidiary of Google.  I hate to receive spam and advertisements in my email.  I will never sell your email address for such purposes.

Email

You can email us directly at:  noahnow@yahoo.com

Copyright

© Copyright 2008 by KanDu Associates, LLC 

The content of this blog is copyrighted by KanDu Associates.  All rights are reserved by the owner.  For reprint information please email:

noahnow@yahoo.com

In previous posts we have mentioned the technique of observation.  Today we will take a closer look at how to learn that technique.  We will also see how our mastery of false self starts with observation.

Welcome back!

Here is an enthusiastic “welcome back” from the weekend to all of our readers.  We had some great weather here in the northeastern US.  I hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I enjoyed mine.

What is observation?

Observation is a technique or behavior that is taught by many spiritual and philosophical disciplines.  Believe it or not, it is very common in other areas of our life.

When athletes talk about “being in the zone” they are talking about observing their behavior as if they were another person.  When a musician is playing and loses all sense of time they are observing themselves.

Observation is relatively common but it also usually accidental.  Today we will take a look at a simple technique that has helped many people to learn to practice observation on purpose.

The balcony

The easiest technique that I have ever found to learn observation is the balcony.  All you have to do is imagine yourself standing on a balcony.  Now you place this balcony just slightly behind and slightly above you head.

See yourself standing on that balcony observing what is happening to your body.  If you are watching TV, observe yourself watching TV.  If you are on the phone, observe yourself having that conversation.

For now, please do not try this technique when you are doing anything that is potentially dangerous, like driving a car.  As you learn this technique in small ways you will gradually begin to apply it to all aspects of your life.

Don’t get involved

As you practice your observation you will want to jump off the balcony and get involved with the body that you are observing.  Don’t do that!  The reason that you are observing is to learn to separate yourself from the drama of your life.

The goal is to learn to stay above and separate from that drama.  It takes a bit of practice, but if you persevere you will achieve the goal.  Some people have done this in a few weeks or months.  Some people (like me) have taken years to learn this technique.  The length of time is not important.

The important thing is to start to see that you are separate from the drama.  You are standing on your balcony in your quiet and happy place watching the drama.  You are not the drama.

True self

What is happening here is that you are learning to be your true self.  The person standing on the balcony is your true self.  The person you are observing is your false self.

As we have discussed previously, false self is all of our fears, anger, and unhappiness.  Your false self is the person you are observing.  Watch that person go through the drama of its unhappy life.  Watch it experience the fear.  Watch it cling to its attachments and experience the unhappiness.  Watch it get angry because it feels like it.  As you watch this drama, ask yourself “Is that who I want to be?”

Hopefully you will answer “No. That is not who I want to be.”  At that point you have your direction.  You realize that all you need to do is learn to stand on your balcony.  You learn to watch the drama and not jump off the balcony to get involved in the fear and unhappiness.  You learn that the only time you are truly happy is when you are on the balcony.

Get back up there

As you learn to observe from your balcony, you will also learn that you frequently jump back into the drama.  At first you will not even realize that you have jumped into the drama.  The drama is so familiar that you do not even realize that you have jumped back in.  Unfortunately, pain is such a common state that you do not recognize when you are in pain.

Eventually you do recognize that you are in pain.  Eventually you remember that quiet, happy, and peaceful spot on the balcony.  Gradually you realize that you need to get back to that spot to end your pain.  You learn how to get back on the balcony after you have jumped into the middle of the drama.

It all starts with observation

We started this blog with some explanations about the Crystal, Indigo, and Star Children.  In our post “Quo Vadis” on August 1 we stated that the most important thing those in the mission could be doing is learning to be spiritual and then exemplifying that spirituality.

Then we wrote a series of posts that discussed the concepts of true self and false self.  In those posts we showed how our true happiness and our spirituality come from our true self.

Any time we want to change something we need to observe it.  This is no different with learning to be happy by being our true self.  As we stand on our balcony observing our false self we learn that we no longer want that unhappiness.

By observing the false self we realize that there is no longer any reason to be unhappy.  We realize that all we have to do is stand on our balcony, watch the passing drama, and gradually change our life to eliminate most of the drama.

We still jump off

There will always be challenges.  Even after long periods of standing on the balcony and observing we will occasionally jump off the balcony and land in the middle of the drama.

That is fine.  Do not worry.  This only serves to show us the things we have yet to learn.  All we need to do is accept that there was something that we have not learned that caused us to jump off the balcony.  Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back on the balcony.  You now have something new to learn – go for it!  Commit to learning and resolving why you jumped back into the drama.

Vote!

That’s all for today.  Tomorrow is the presidential election in the US.  The most important thing that you can do is to express your free will by choosing the national and local candidates that you think will lead to greater freedom in this country.  Remember, it all starts with learning and the free will to learn and share that learning as you choose.  Vote tomorrow!

Until tomorrow –

Es kava turen hai

We work towards an identical goal.

Discuss & Comment

We do not want this blog to be a fountain of words from one view point.  We welcome comments and questions.  Please feel free to ask a question or make a comment when the mood strikes you.

WordPress forces all comments to be moderated.  We usually check for comments at least twice a day.  So do not be surprised if it takes a few hours for you to see your comment.

Talk to us!  Post a comment or a question!

Subscribe

Don’t miss any updates.  Get daily posts by email.  Subscribe to this blog by clicking here: SUBSCRIBE

This email list is maintained by FeedBurner, a subsidiary of Google.  I hate to receive spam and advertisements in my email.  I will never sell your email address for such purposes.

Email

You can email us directly at:  noahnow@yahoo.com

Copyright

© Copyright 2008 by KanDu Associates, LLC 

The content of this blog is copyrighted by KanDu Associates.  All rights are reserved by the owner.  For reprint information please email:

noahnow@yahoo.com

Until tomorrow –

Es kava turen hai

We work towards an identical goal.

Discuss & Comment

We do not want this blog to be a fountain of words from one view point.  We welcome comments and questions.  Please feel free to ask a question or make a comment when the mood strikes you.

WordPress forces all comments to be moderated.  We usually check for comments at least twice a day.  So do not be surprised if it takes a few hours for you to see your comment.

Talk to us!  Post a comment or a question!

Subscribe

Don’t miss any updates.  Get daily posts by email.  Subscribe to this blog by clicking here: SUBSCRIBE

This email list is maintained by FeedBurner, a subsidiary of Google.  I hate to receive spam and advertisements in my email.  I will never sell your email address for such purposes.

Email

You can email us directly at:  noahnow@yahoo.com

Copyright

© Copyright 2008 by KanDu Associates, LLC 

The content of this blog is copyrighted by KanDu Associates.  All rights are reserved by the owner.  For reprint information please email:

noahnow@yahoo.com