A wallpaper to help overcome the fear of death (see also Why I’m Not Afraid To Die).

Click here to download the full size image for your computer wallpaper.

Right click. Save as Desktop/Wallpaper. Stretch to Fit.

Feel free to share with others.

The Mantra of Mankind:

Want. Want. Want. Want. Want. Want. Want. Want. Want. Want. Must. Must. Must. Must. Must. Must. Must. Must. Must. Must. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) (Fear) Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! Danger! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

Find a way to get away. Find a sanctuary, a sanctum, a still and quiet place.

In the silence, She whispers.

In surrender, She acts.

(All articles in this series: The Mantra of Mankind, The Mantra of the Soul, The Mantra of Radiance, The Mantra of Oneness)

I received an email from reader Daniel a few days ago, filled with a whole series of questions. Questions ranging from the issue of Free Will to the mystical ways of the Divine.

Below the break: Answers for the serious spiritual seeker.

(more…)

A wallpaper image to help remind us that Divine Intervention happens everyday.

Click here for the full size image.

Right click. Save as Desktop/Wallpaper. Stretch to Fit.

Feel free to share with others.

A question via Wisdom For Alms:

While I’ve grown in the understanding of God/Source and how we create our own reality, Law of Attraction and the like, the one question that I haven’t come to terms with is why is there ANY of this? Why is there a God/Source at all? This is not asked from an angry or hostile place, just a curious wondering. Thank you for your time. – Gail

Why is there ANY of this? Why is there a God/Source at all?

My response below the break.

(more…)

(Photo by Andrea de Michaelis)

To most women, hair is an accessory.

To most men, hair is a part of their identity.

To the devote spiritual seeker, hair can be a real pain in the ass.

More below the break.

(more…)

PALM BAY, FL—As many of you know I’m a firm believer in reincarnation. One of the big questions is, “If I have past lives, how come I don’t remember them?” My answer below the break.

(more…)

PALM BAY, FL—A few days ago I was “filled” with an idea (the belief that “I” come up with these ideas seems silly to me now) that I should write a follow up to Fading Toward Enlightenment. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea—not from a financial point of view, but from a “rightness” POV.

What’s cool about the idea is that I’ve already got the style and tone down (same as FTE), the material (the time between FTE and my awakening), reference materials (this blog and memories), and even the photos.

Tips on Writing a Book

Above is a screen shot of my initial storyboard.

Two great iPad apps for the initial creative stages of book writing: Mindo, a mind mapping app which has relationships (ways of connecting distant nodes), and Corkulous which is the storyboard/corkboard app I used above.

Mind maps are great for punching in your thoughts, outlining, and seeing the relationships between topics, while storyboards are great for creative flow and overview. The mind map holds ALL the topics, the storyboard distills them down into scenes. I’ll also use the storyboard to select and “pin” the photos to the scenes.

While I’m a newbie with the iPad, I’m finding it to be—at these early stages of the book’s development—much more conducive to the creative flow (touch, move, resize, group) than the Macbook (type, point, click, highlight). They (the apps and the iPad’s more natural interface) enhance the creative process rather than reduce it via the traditional mouse/keyboard.

Some of my other book writing tips here.

I’m also thrilled with how good my ebooks look in the iPad’s default iBooks app. It reads the PDF file format perfectly and the photos come out clear and vibrant. (To get PDF’s onto your iPad, just drop the PDF files into your laptop’s/desktop’s iTunes library and synch the two).

How to Act Enlightened:

• Guiding Principle #1: Treat life as if it were a dream.
• Guiding Principle #2: Treat everyone as if they are your soul mate.

There is no separation. There is nothing to take seriously. Nobody loses. Nobody dies.

There is nothing to be afraid of.

Use your fears and worries and your seriousness as Life’s little reminders that these are just your CONDITIONED reactions. See them as forms of controlling, of clinging, of trying to win. See them as burdens and let them go.

Let go, surrender and soften.

Live carefree. Live alive and joyous and happy because Everything is You and You are Everything and all separation is illusion.

Don’t force yourself to be happy, just open up to Life and all Her beauty and wonder and splendor.

Feel Her. Caress Her and allow your joy to arise spontaneously.

Open to others. Treat each person you meet as if they were your soul mate. Know that they don’t recognize this and love them all the more for it. Be kind to them because ultimately they are You.

Open yourself to them and watch as they open to You.

Temper your freedom (#1) with your compassion (#2) and all of Life will be your playground, your guru and your teacher.

Surrender to Her and She will become your Friend, your Lover and ultimately Yourself.

When you do wake up—when you recognize your inherent Oneness—you won’t have to act enlightened anymore because these feelings and values will naturally arise from your deepest core.

These “enlightened values,” these profound feelings of connectedness with everything and everyone, are what is truly meant by that beautiful concept that we call Love.

Reason #3: Acting enlightened makes Life much more enjoyable for those around you.

When I woke up, one of the oddest feelings was that everything that I saw, heard, felt, thought, or otherwise experienced, felt like it was happening INSIDE of me. Everything felt like it WAS me.

That tree? Inside me. That cloud? Inside me. That person? Inside me. (Here’s a guided meditation to help grasp this).

Because of this core, newly uncovered feeling, I felt a raw and intimate connectedness with both everything and everyone. It is almost as if everyone I meet feels as if they are—what is commonly called—a soul mate.

This connection with others feels intimate. Not intimate with the romantic overtones, but intimate with that deep connected resonance that we experience in soul mate type relationships. That connection that makes soul mates feel as if they are a part of you.

Because of this profound, deep connectedness with others—because everyone feels like they are a part of you—Christ’s Golden Rule takes on a whole new meaning.

Enlightened Value #2:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you BECAUSE THEY ARE A PART OF YOU.

How to apply this value to your life (act enlightened):

Treat everyone as if they are your soul mate.

We are all One. We are all connected. We are all struggling. We are all in this together.

They may not understand you. You may not understand them, but—as when a soul mate feels right—this is the exact way to treat everyone. Treat everyone as if they are a long forgotten friend or lover, as if they are a long forgotten part of you.

More often than not they will react in a positive way. They will feel your openness and their conditioned defenses will start to drop. They may even feel grateful for your presence, honored to have met you or be around you.

Treating others as if they are soul mates will make them feel wonderful. It will enhance their lives.

Again, your conditioned thoughts and reactions will tell you otherwise, but this is EXACTLY why you are consciously treating others as soul mates: to re-condition those thoughts and actions. To soften yourself. To make waking yourself up that much easier.

Note: Synchronistically, here is an example of this in action, told from Andrea de Michaelis’ point of view, which is how I spent yesterday morning (bed shopping). This was our first, in-person meeting.

Tomorrow: Putting it all together.

Reason #2: Acting enlightened makes Life much more enjoyable for yourself.

When I woke up, I finally understood—deeply and truly understood—what Buddha meant by “Life is like a dream.”

In summary: There is no separation. All apparent separation is just the mind “boxing” the Oneness into categories and symbols. These artificial and purely mental “boxes” (symbols) make up the Dream.

But the Truth is there is no separation. Nothing dies. Nobody loses. Nothing is permanent. Everything is Me/Her/Oneness and all appearances to the contrary are illusion.

Enlightened Value #1:

Life is like a dream. There is no reason to take it seriously.

How to apply this value to your life (act enlightened):

Treat life as if it were a dream.

Nobody loses. Nobody dies. There is nothing to take seriously.

Play, enjoy yourself, forget about losing. Stop trying to win. Stop TRYING. Treat life like a dream and have fun with it.

Your conditioned thoughts and reactions will say otherwise, but this is EXACTLY why you are consciously treating life like a dream: to re-condition those thoughts and actions. To soften yourself. To make waking yourself up that much easier.

Tomorrow: Reason #3: Acting enlightened makes Life much more enjoyable for those around you.

Reason #1: Acting enlightened makes waking to Oneness much easier.

If you’ve followed my blog over the years, you know that, upon waking up, rather than experiencing a life of bliss, I was overwhelmed with a life of trials (example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4, example 5). So many trials that Randy the Mobile Codger once compared that phase of my life to that of the biblical Job. Almost all my challenges were the result of old, deeply conditioned reactions and thoughts which just didn’t play well with my new Oneness perspective (resistance to Reality). Every time a me-centric habit, thought, or action popped up, it was summarily pounded down and violently squashed by the Oneness-centric Life. Pounded down over and over and over again.

To save yourself this painful anguish, I wholeheartedly suggest you start re-conditioning your me-centric ways ASAP.

More importantly than saving yourself a little spiritual bruising though, is that by applying the two “enlightenment values” to your life (next two posts) and acting enlightened will profoundly soften your sense of self, which in turn, will make shifting from level to level—from Mortal to Soul to Radiance to Oneness—much easier.

A “softer” you is much more pliable, much more adaptable, much more open to the ultimate surrender—and it is through surrender that we merge with Her into Oneness.

Tomorrow: Reason #2: Acting enlightened makes Life much more enjoyable for yourself.

Why should we act enlightened even if we still feel attached to the Mortal or Soul or Radiant Levels?

Three reasons:

• Reason #1: Acting enlightened makes waking to Oneness much easier.
• Reason #2: Acting enlightened makes Life much more enjoyable for yourself.
• Reason #3: Acting enlightened makes Life much more enjoyable for those around you.

Now I’m not talking about faking enlightenment: no glazed/stoned eyes, no blissed/stoned smile, no parroting common nondual phrases (“You are already enlightened. There’s nothing to do. Just be.”).

No. I’m not talking about putting on an act. I’m not talking about deceiving people.

I’m talking about adopting two core enlightened values and applying them to your life and actions.

Two simple guiding principles that come naturally to the enlightened, but—even if you aren’t awake yet—can still dramatically change your life.

This is just a teaser post. Over the next four posts we’ll get into the details.

Tomorrow: Reason #1: Acting enlightened makes waking to Oneness much easier.