learning to detach from your thoughts...

The key to mastering the mind is learning to, as the Buddhists say, "surf on the waves of your thought,"--a happy alternative to letting yourself get tossed and pummeled by them on the shore. You can do this by observing your thoughts as they come and go, watching rather than reacting. Your thoughts, like waves, will arise naturally -- but now you have the tools to ride them smoothly.

For the next few days, notice when your thoughts start racing and stress levels begin to escalate -- and take that opportunity to stop and observe this process. What are those thoughts about? Where are they coming from? What's causing them? The more you can detach from spiraling thoughts, the less likely you are to become victimized by them.

Watch and breathe...

love ...

Love is the Answer to Every Question

If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.
~Thick Nhat Hanh

From the beginning of time we have been attracted to each other and to the continuing cycle of life, to gain sustenance, grow and play out a destiny together. This attraction leads to admiration, love, and in due course to higher vibrations of light energy. At love’s first blush, our combined energy is a powerful thing to behold. We can practically see the stars light up as we become the focus and center of the earth, of our Universe. We are in awe of each other as we discover the wonder and bliss of being together, being one. The mirror is perfect as it reflects the joy and power of sharing. This is perfect love, perfect joy and perfect peace played out in a reflection of the other.

Romantic love is the prelude to a partnership in life’s journey. This powerful journey provides nourishment to the soul, and alas, ego builds as the perfect complement to life. More definition comes to the partnership as a family begins and we take our place in the community.

When we look down at our first child and realize this gift from the Heavens, the perfect creation and complement to life has unfolded. Great steams of energy shift our personal light ever higher in a brilliant illumination that everyone recognizes. The joy and love in this reflection of self is an awesome experience that many share and all recognize. Love answers the ancient call to generate more love.

Loving from the deepest part of ourselves, given without expectation or judgment allows the blessed object of our desire to flourish. Both participants of the mirrored partnership find balance and healing in this renewing exchange of energy. In this simple exchange we truly see the other at a soul level while reciprocally giving of self. This is easily recognized and understood with lovers, children, friends, and also with pets. Energy shifts back and forth as we take some, and give some. Food for the soul, this nourishment is a critical part of loving, and often overlooked in our driven lifestyles. Keeping love’s energy vibrating high requires that we see each other, feel each other and give to the other in the way that meets our personal needs.

Let’s look at this from a different perspective, a plant for example. What kind of growth would occur in plant life if we only put water on it and deprived it of food? We all need different types of food to flourish. Plants get their energy from light; therefore, they need light to live and to go through the natural photosynthesis process. They will subsist without other nutrients, but not thrive. For plants to go beyond survival to thrive they need additional nutrients as the soil is depleted. Plants also need to be loved and admired. Ask anyone with a green thumb why their plants do so well. They will readily admit that they love their plants. This is the difference between a green thumb and a brown thumb. The green thumb gardener gives their plants attention.

Even an object, such as a car needs attention. Car lovers provide more undivided attention to their vehicles than some parents give to their children. They wash, rub, polish, admire, take pictures of and fully appreciate their vehicles. Thus love creates beauty in the eye of the beholder. Not so easy for someone with whom relationship is a struggle.

The relationship that is a struggle is the most important of all. I am not referring to abusive relationships, but those that seem to cause discomfort. This is where we really grow into ourselves. Learning to see past the projection in this relationship of our most unwanted traits is the first step in true love of self.

Difficult as it may be to admit, that mirror is there because we have invited it into our lives. Get rid of the mirror and another one appears to take its place. Get rid of the relationship and it will be back exactly like the last one. When we allow ourselves to witness this part of self, accept and love ourselves, we are empowered. We have come to know and embrace all aspects of humanity.

Providing the energy of love is all there is in life. Love is the answer to every question. Give unconditionally to what you behold, especially those parts that are not well understood. Observe and give without judgment or expectation. Witness the mirror’s heart, the fulcrum and core of the reflection. This is love fulfilled, baring and exposing itself to both sides of the mirrors edge in a dance of compassion. Love is co-creating itself in splendor and adorning itself in the light from our deepest and purest soulful reflection.

Love asks nothing, but to be. Whatever is left within the circle of love falls aside in appreciation of its self. We need only share that self and in the giving, we both grow and move to the next level of beingness. When we find that fulcrums edge in each mirror we behold, the relationship or beloved object comes full circle and energy’s light shifts again in deep revelation.

Lifted to perfect balance, we co-create our lives in full recognition as duality becomes complementary rather than apposed to the other. Touch one thing in pure conscious awareness and our veil is lifted. We ascend to full consciousness, and the circle of life fills with a purity and peace that nourishes the spirit. As love becomes the answer to every question, we live life in a mirror-less world of full abundance: materially, emotionally and spiritually.

About the Author

Shirley Ryan is the author of Searching for the Waters of Antiquity: A Follow-Along Meditation Process (Soul Moments Publishing, $24.95), a meditation tool with a unique integration of symbol and archetypes demonstrated her painting and meditation skills. The founder and president of Working Together, a business specializing in helping people manage life’s changes in mind, body, and spirit, Ryan has worked as a professional life coach since 1994. See her work at www.searchingforthewaters.com

the GOD part of the brain....

“Excellent” Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize Winner; Author of Sociobiology and Consilience "Alper uses a Socratic technique to brilliantly and flawlessly argue that our concepts of spirit and God are derived from the mechanics of our brain...enormously important...full of scientific and philosophical truths." Mark Waldman, senior editor, Transpersonal Review "Hauntingly Logical..Fascinating" Art Bell, "Coast to Coast am”

I have found this topic to be extremely interesting. I tend to be a seeker. I am eclectic in that way....I never tire of learning as much as I can about as many different things as I can. I seek truth above all things.....I am a stickler for that. In my dealings with the religious world I have unfortunately been shaken awake to find out I have been lied to many times over.......we all have......and that bothers me. SO I continue to seek out information......hopefully uncover more truth than fiction.

I have heard this topic about the "God spot" talked about on radio talk shows......and read many interesting articles about it...it has been discussed in the quantum physics articles I have read which fascinates me too......

I have a friend who was extremely religious and believed in God prior to suffering a head injury. He fell 30 feet and landed basically head-first and has not been quite the same since as far as his feelings regarding GOD or even A god. It was almost as if his belief in God....his knowledge of any feelings spiritually, etc......had been snuffed out after that portion of his brain had been damaged. This is not to say that portion cannot be healed or rejuvenated.... but what I found interesting was how what his injury did to his belief corresponded to what this book and others have said about their being a specific portion of the brain set aside for this.

I have found some extremely interesting articles over time pertaining to this. If I copy and paste them all here now there would be nothing but pages of it to sift through. Not everyone is interested in it.....and my blog is not solely about it.....so......Here is a link that lists many of the articles.

http://atheistempire.com/reference/brain/main.html


I also found today this which was of huge interest to me:

ALTRUISM, one of the most difficult human behaviours to define, can be detected in brain scans, US researchers claim.

They found that activity in a specific area of the brain could predict altruistic behaviour — and people's own reports of how selfish or giving they are.

Although understanding the function of this brain region may not necessarily identify what drives people like Mother Teresa, it may give clues to the origins of important social behaviours like altruism," said Scott Huettel, a neuroscientist at Duke University, North Carolina, who led the study.

The researchers set up an experiment in which they put 45 students into a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, which takes images of brain activity.

They gave the students various games to play, and told them that winning earned cash for either themselves or a charity. The students had chosen the charities beforehand from a list, the researchers report in Nature Neuroscience.

The students reacted differently depending on whether they won for themselves or for charity, with the ones who described themselves as altruistic responding more strongly.

The task was simple, and the students did not give up payments to themselves to give to the charities. But it took enough effort that Dr Huettel believes it did represent altruistic intent.

The researchers were surprised by their findings. Some other studies had predicted that giving would activate the reward systems in the brain. In fact, another centre was activated when the students won money for charity or watched the computer win money for charity.

"This area we saw was the posterior superior temporal cortex," Dr Huettel said. "It's part of the parietal lobe. What this brain area seems to be involved in is extracting meaning from things you see."

Dr Huettel's team asked the students how altruistic they were, and found the test strongly correlated with their own reports of unselfish activity.


hum......wonder what they will be able to tell next from scanning our brains? One would think they would be able then to tell us how often one thinks of other specific things like sex, eating, etc.....or if it reveals more just from "intent".....wow.....this is all amazing....but also a bit worrisome......as I would be slightly apprehensive that in the future someone might try to use this knowledge to decide how someone's brain should be or not be......and they might begin to feel they have the right to decide what is correct and acceptable and anything not acceptable well....they just eliminate..change......or destroy altogether.

guess my paranoia is acting up again

"Zen and the Art of Falling in Love" -by Brenda Shoshanna Lukeman ( a book I just ordered)

We are meant to live a life of love. When we're not in love, something's the matter. Unfortunately, most of us become resigned to disappointment, loss and upset in relationships. No matter how successful we are in other aspects of our lives, most of us don't feel naturally entitled to the same success in love. "Being realistic about relationships" is considered natural as we "grow up" and give up the fantasies, foolishness and dreams of childhood. But nothing could be further from natural. The fantasies, foolishness and confused expectations we develop as we grow older are precisely what put us into a state of paralysis. We don't realize that when we are not in love, something's wrong.

Being in love is the most mature and realistic thing you can do. It energizes your life, fills you with positivity, creates generosity and makes every moment beautiful. Being in love immediately dispels the sense of purposelessness and disconnection that many grapple with. The body heals, the heart is happy.

Being in love is our natural state. The real question we should be asking is, why aren't we in love all the time? What is it that keeps this most precious inheritance away? How can we reclaim it for our own and return to the intrinsic wisdom and spontaneity we had as children, when each moment was fresh and exciting and filled with adventure?

Contrary to popular opinion, real love never hurts or wounds. Only our confused expectations can undermine our lives and lead us to negative consequences. There is a Buddhist saying: "Give up poisonous food wherever it is offered to you." Once we know what is poison and what is nourishing in our relationships, once we learn the laws of love and how to practice them, we will be able to live a life of love and build relationships that cannot fail. Zen shows how we can turn our lives around at any time.

There are two different schools of Zen training: Rinzai Zen and Soto Zen. Rinzai Zen emphasizes koan study, breaking through the barriers that keep our life force tied in knots. Soto Zen emphasizes the application of Zen to everyday life. Although training in both schools goes on in a zendo (a place where Zen meditation and other forms of practice are taught), the fruits of practice appear in our lives and relationships. Both Rinzai and Soto practice are included in this book.

Zen practice offers us an entirely different way of looking at love and relationships. In Zen practice we learn how to make friends with every aspect of ourselves and others -- nothing is rejected, nothing is left out. We return to basics and become able to distinguish between real needs and false ones. In Zen one learns to sit, to breathe, to focus, to let go, to walk with attention, to cook, to clean, to receive blows and to be prepared for intense and intimate encounters. As we do this cravings, addictions, fears and compulsions of all kinds slowly dissolve.

Zen and love are incredibly compatible. The wonderful, ancient practice of Zen is actually the practice of falling in love. When one focuses on and welcomes all that life brings, each day becomes a good day in which you are able to fall in love with all of life, to continually find wonder, kindness, friendship and playfulness.

The book is divided into three parts and each part offers new building blocks to help you prepare to love and have a deeper understanding of love itself.

Part I, "Starting Out," emphasizes the initial steps we take in Zen practice. Not only does it explain the specifics of what a Zen student learns (including how to do Zen meditation), but it also shows how these steps apply to relationships and how they help prepare an individual to know himself more fully, release control and become available to love.

Part II, "Zen in Action," describes the ways in which the focus and insight attained in meditation is then transferred to all our actions and to our everyday lives. We see how Zen principles -- such as emptying yourself, being there for others, taking new steps and dealing with blows -- are crucial building blocks in developing and maintaining loving relationships.

Part III, "Advanced Training," takes us to the top of the mountain. As training progresses the individual develops the ability to deal with moments of intense confrontation, decision, conflict and the need for endurance through difficult times. As training advances and the student gains an entirely new awareness of herself and the world around her, she finally becomes able to "meet the beloved," to experience the essence of love.

In each part readers will learn new means of dealing with the usual trouble spots in relationships, such as miscommunication, lies, betrayal, jealousy, insecurity, boredom, feelings of worthlessness, loss and disappointment. As readers look at these issues through the eyes of Zen practice, they receive life-changing perspectives, instructions and outcomes.

Although Zen practice is simple, it is not always easy. The reader is asked to suspend judgment and disbelief, to be willing to become a child once again -- to explore, play, hug, cry and feel that the world is filled with endless possibilities, which it is, once you are willing to see it that way. Zen also requires the ability to say no to all of the people, beliefs, habits and desires that can take your faith and love away. Falling in love doesn't mean being blind or entering into fantasy. It means waking up out of darkened dreams to finally see the beauty that surrounds us.

This book is not only for those who wish to experience loving relationships, but also for those who wish to be able to enjoy their lives to the fullest. It is an invitation onto this wonderful path. A little endurance is required, along with the willingness to face the shadows that will dispel as soon as we invite in the light.