He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the trust of pure women and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauties or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given the best he had; whose life was an inspiration, whose memory a benediction.

—B.A. Stanley

Harmony is a natural state that we all can achieve on a daily basis.   By focusing on the positive, you can begin the process of moving up the emotional scales one step at a time.   Just by looking at what you can do in every situation you can turn from believing that things are out of your hands to taking responsibility for creating change for the better.

Emotions can guide you.  Emotions are a type of unconscious thought that can be hard to identify.  When we surface them and understand them, we can turn them into thinking and doing something.

Now, I realize that everyone does not come equipped to think positively every day.  Indeed, it is necessary to examine our internal beliefs and get much better acquainted with our SELF.  But, it is possible and available.  It requires taking a lot of responsibility for how you got into this situation in the first place.  And it requires stepping up.

Tension from bad memories are often felt in our shoulder muscles.  It is a habitual pattern from holding fear or anxiety.  You might ask yourself:  “What is it that you are afraid of?  What will you not be able to accomplish?  What will really happen to you if you do not succeed?”

Usually, we build up situations to be much bigger in our minds than they really are.  It is by facing these situations that you grow.  And the more fear that you face, the stronger you get.  Eventually, you can build up a reservoir of successes.  And these successes can give you the self confidence you need to know that you can go, be, do or have anything that you want in life.

Start with believing that you can move forward.  You can have a better life.  You have somehow created the situations in which you find yourself in life.  You got there by thinking about it and then reacting.   Any situation can be dealt with by first understanding what you are feeling and then translating that into thoughts and an action plan.

Boredom is the interesting middle ground.  When I was a child and feeling bored, I was always told that only boring people get bored.  This taught me to become self-directed as I would find something productive to do.  Staying above the line enables us to develop our intelligence and use it productively, rather than focusing our feelings on our gratifying our self.

Our job, really, is to understand our self internally so that we process any negative emotions and keep our attention above the line of boredom–this is where all true contributions to society begin.   And this gives us the power to manifest our desires, succeed at any activity, attract warm, supportive and helpful people to us, and therefore to create abundance in our life.

By matching up our desires and emotions with our thought process, we can cause the circumstances to occur.  It is just not possible to fail this way.  Failures occur when our consistent negative beliefs enter into our thinking that this objective is not in the cards.

The better in touch you are with your feelings, the faster you can process them before they start to build up and affect your whole mood.  A build up of deep feelings that have not been processed produces a belief system and emotional state.  Eventually, it can affect your whole system with either physical or mental illnesses.   That is why we should pay attention to what we are thinking.  Our thoughts become who we are.

Thought brings your attention to just one little thing, but with focus for deliberate examination.

Emotions tend to diffuse our attention to a lot of little things.  Emotions cause a wandering mind.  And a wandering mind does not produce any particular result. What I am suggesting is that lower level emotions be dissolved and replaced with better feelings and thoughts.

But a focused set of thoughts on a topic can make miracles happen.

At higher levels of mastery, there are no questions.  Thoughts are productive.  Work is effortless and fun.  Life just seems to fly by presenting one opportunity after another without much effort.

The trick is in what one emphasizes.  We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

—Carlos Castaneda

The constitution of the United States has the most interesting component for its citizens: the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness.  What inspired thoughts for the founding fathers to create such an objective for its people!   But why is it so elusive, so hard for so many just to remain happy?

The idea is merely to free our self from our self imposed suffering.  Why not remain in that state of bliss, satisfaction and contentment?  Why is it always just out of reach?  If only I had this job or that money or this relationship–then, I would be happy.  That is what most of us say most of the time causing an enormous gulf or separation between our current state of mind and the happiness we so dearly desire.

Now, I am not saying that there is anything at all wrong with having the desire for a new job, new relationship or a million dollars in the bank.  I am just saying that that does not make you happy.  Once you have mastered the basics of providing for your material needs, the state of happiness is something that is somehow within your self and provided by your self.

By mastering the lower emotions and practicing a life of virtue, we may be able to better eliminating negative tendencies and extinguish the cravings for material possessions and addictive substances.  This may lead one to the uncanny and accurate realization that the ego is not always sending us in the direction that is most supportive of health and happiness.

Then, by focusing on all kinds of activities and endeavors that are supportive we can move slowly in the direction of our own personal well being.   Spend time with nature, listen to music that moves you, eat fabulous and healthy food, spend time with people you love, read informative and inspiring books.  These things, practiced regularly, will help move you up the emotional scales into excitement, creativity, enthusiasm, better health and love.

People want to spend time with people who feel good about themselves.   If you feel good about yourself, it shows.  And it will show up in better life circumstances all around.  All it takes is a balanced perspective.  The perspective is in your mind.

Make up your mind to feel good.  Why not?

Each day we awaken to a new beginning.   While we have our life unfolding, we also have the choice on how to use our conscious awareness to express the highest ideals and gain mastery over all things. Every idea which pours forth from the mind is like a seed, which planted, sprouts into massive forms.  The images that we hold become the very foundation of our lives, totally within our reach.

Life is not just happening to us.  We are the center of life, the master mind, the creator of our experiences.  With every thought, every emotion, every decision we pave the road to our destiny.

Our emotions are a powerful tool to guide us.  If you can believe that full mastery over life gives inner peace and happiness, then by getting fully in touch with our emotions we can help steer ourselves toward people and situations that bring us joy.   Inside ourselves resides a private world where we hold a conversation with our self.  In this world, life experiences impress upon us and we relate current experiences with those of the past.   This inner world is a place where no other person can go, can ever understand.  Because it is this world that is you and your personal experience.

Mastery comes when you are able to see clearly without your past coloring the current experience.  The light comes through providing a more transparant view of any life situation because you are able to perceive more accurately when staying in the moment without judgment of any kind.   By keeping an open mind and an open heart you will easily pass the illusion presented by the filter that you bring from your past experience.

If you remain a prisoner of your past, you are stuck judging every situation confronting you face.

Moving to a place of pure awareness puts you in a much more powerful position because you have no filter and are better able to see.   That is where the light lives.  And that light holds immense power.  Creativity, eloquence, inspiration, knowledge and wisdom all come from that awareness.

We are constantly being tested by trials and tribulations of life.  These tests are not there to drive you crazy or into a state of dispair.  These tests are there to allow you to learn a lesson and overcome a deeply held belief that is a drain on your emotional life.  Time after time we are given chances to grow by seeing the folly of our worn out and tired point of view that only disappoints us and holds us back.

Slowly releasing negative emotions is accomplished by looking within the self to the source of the emotion.  You may be able to clarify for yourself the internal rationale that binds you to that lower emotion. By releasing it forever, you will be able to move up to a better feeling thought.  And a better feeling thought is what you want.

Our life is here to be lived joyfully.  By clearing up any negative emotions with understanding we enable our higher self to lighten our load bringing inner peace. All it takes is trust in our self and letting go.

In the journey toward mastery we can produce amazing outer results because the mind is free to explore new knowledge and create a better world.

It is through mastery of the lower self that the higher self is able to shower its abundance and love.  Forever your countenance will be uplifted, you will enjoy providing people with your kindness and inner strength, be helpful to others and experience a new freedom–the freedom from fear.

If the doors of perception were cleansed, man would see everything as it is —infinite.

—William Blake

Superconsciousness exists and all of us experience it.

It is that great state of expanded mind that everyone has glimpsed from time to time.  Some people have experiences so powerful that they wish to spend more time achieving that transcendental state more often.  With time, practice, help and meditation perhaps they can.  But not all of us can live on a mountaintop in Tibet with a master.

Looking at many of the great thinkers and minds in both the eastern and western traditions, it appears that most attribute their genius to inspiration found when the mind goes to a place of expanded awareness in nature or in silence.  Genius comes from this place of infinite mind within each us.

I plan to offer many examples of great minds from various arts and sciences in this blog over time with the quotes attributing their brilliance to a source beyond their normal perception.  There are many, many examples.

By cultivating the mind, that is, clearing it of thoughts and emotion, it can be re-trained away from the wandering thoughts that is its usual fodder.  The ego must disengage control.  There is still.  Serenity.  Calm.  It is during these experiential moments that the superconscious kicks in.  And, in these moments, problems causing turmoil that have been plaguing the mind can be suddenly solved in an instant of inspiration.

Everyone gets these moments.  Everyone. The question remains what we do with the moment.  Do we recognize what we have?  Do we act?  Often that old ego gets back into the act and explains away what we have been given and the inspired thought is just filed away.

The brain is merely an interpretive organ of consciousness.  Our self is in charge of both the brain and the mind.  I find it completely plausible that scientists say that most people are only employing about 4% of our brain capacity.

Superconsciousness is a power laying dormant for all of us to use actively on a daily basis.  Pulling on the knowledge from our higher self, superconsciousness can bring us knowledge, pure perception, awareness of fine detail, total recall, intuition, telepathy and much more.

So, use your innate skills to create an infinite view of reality.  With your enthusiasm and curiosity you can take yourself anywhere.  This ability is not limited. You can express your gifts by utilizing these powers out of pure desire.   Vision, concentration, clarity.  Then listen.  Innovate.  Contribute.  That is all.

Then, harnessing the power of your insight, you will be free to take your mind and your will to create any place you wish to go.

The area of the unconscious is enormous and always continuous, while the area of consciousness is a restricted field of momentary vision.

—Carl Jung

We witness the spectrum of consciousness everyday in today’s society.    From the bums on the street to the avatar in the ashram, consciousness is what we strive to improve over our lifetime.    The universe itself is considered a form of consciousness unfolding.  The state of being aware, utilizing faculties such as reasoning, sight or hearing constitutes awareness.

The baby is born into a world of pure awareness, and then whack! the doctor smacks him on the bottom and he moves from awareness to perception–the five senses are born.  It seems a little rough to me, but these doctors must believe that smack is necessary.

Over the course of a lifetime, a successful child goes through a gradual awakening into a deeper awareness of all aspects of life.  After gaining mastery over the physical, a growing person will also master his mental powers, emotional self and then be able to make a contribution to society as he or she taps into the universal to help society or to create something new.

One way of looking at our consciousness is that it is a spectrum with ascending levels of mastery.  New insight and skills appear on this journey of mastery enabling us to achieve more outer results in the world with increased inner peace.

The unconscious mind is asleep.  Like a waking sleep, people can live here when traumatized from external pain or self inflicted anxieties.  The unconscious person is not always aware of what they are saying or thinking.  The repressed emotion that causes unconscious behavior is hidden so deeply that it is often out of reach without professional help.  When working with the prevailing unconscious, the mind is dull, stupid and lazy and the people are suffering from inertia.  It is here that the mind is easily misled and caught in degrading states of anger, greed, lust, jealousy, and hate.  Most people with addictions are working from the unconscious need to cover up the pain suffered from inferior emotions connected here.  In this state, people are suffering and alienated from the interconnectedness of functioning society.  The unconscious mind has taken over in “wandering thoughts”, repeated meandering through the past and the future replaying scenarios out of personal habit.  The unconscious person is in a world of his/her own making not aware and disconnected from self.  Dormant faculties are awaiting to be wakened from this dream.

Subconscious mind power performs all of the background activities that we need to perform.   It is formed from the aggregate of our past experiences.  Our subconscious mind is what routinely repeats habitual behavior like a reflex action.  What we have experienced in the past is summed up with impressions in thinking, feeling and doing that influences our character and enables us to respond to certain stimulus with predictable tendencies.  Habitual thoughts and feeling create belief systems.  Beliefs live with the subconscious mind and create the reality that forms the basis of our character.   By knowing ourselves and clearing out some of the debris of unwanted impressions from unhealthy past experiences, we can move out of unnecessary mental patterns that keep us stuck.

Conscious mental activity requires training.  From learning to tie our shoes to vocational, arts and sciences, moral and secular education, the human mind has an infinite capacity to learn new things.  Consciousness is becoming aware of the observer in ourself who is cognizant of what is going on internally in thought and feeling.  As a fully engaged activity of the mind, this observer is able to steadily integrate information taken in, synthesize it and increase our awareness and understanding.  Amazingly aware, this faculty garners knowledge and perceptions and takes account of the presence of any object, person, state or sensation and decides how to view it.    Training the mind often takes a mentor to get over the most difficult learning, as we seem to have built in stumbling blocks.  But with patience, alertness, willpower. calmness and fearlessness we can grow in our capacity to empower our self.

Higher consciousness is that state that so many seek and so few find.  Mental calmness under all circumstances is necessary to enter this state.  Many use meditation to cleanse the mind of its difficulties and concerns.  One has to take control of the mind, monitor its thinking and dissolve the emotional baggage that is carried along.  But with patience and forbearance, with deliberate efforts to forever remove fear, clearing blame and misfortune and replacing negative emotions with forgiveness…through this method a path is forged to the higher self.

Knowing others is Intelligence;  Knowing yourself is Wisdom;

Mastering others is Strength;   Mastering yourself is true Power.

–Lao Tsu, Tao te Ching

Much time and effort is wasted by all of us.  If only we were more able to focus our thoughts and actions on the object of our desires we could accomplish wonders.  It takes clarity of purpose, self confidence and clean intentions to set sight on an objective and take it to completion without going off course.

In my consulting practice, people seek my help most often when they are stuck and stymied.  This seems to happen when the going gets tough, the issues are dense.  It is there that fear and self-doubt have set in.  Those people that can persevere and overcome the issue succeed.  Other, blaming their human weaknesses fall by the wayside crying how hard it is.

If you look more closely at those who do make it to the top they will all tell you that they had to overcome major adversity and that it was not easy at all.  Somehow, these people manage to pull in the internal reserves that it takes to work at the problems and persevere.  This takes trial and error to build up the reserves so that when you fall on your face, which we always do, you can just pick yourself up again and go forward.  Or to understand that the person who is deriding or belittling you is, well, frankly, just wrong.  This takes personal courage and conviction to go on.  There are many, many stories like this one.  In fact, most success stories have this element where the person reaches what they consider the bottom and scratch the way back to the top based upon their own self worth and confidence.

Mastery is what we are here to do.  From wherever we are starting, we must learn and move up the ladder.  There are many paths, and many personal issues to overcome and knowledge to conquer.

Mastery takes our entire lifetime…or more than one lifetime….because there are whole universes of knowing to go into and form a high level understanding.  The physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual.  And one at a time, we learn from the people we know, the situations in which we find ourselves.

The only way to go is forward.  Remain vigilant.  Keep a single-minded focus on your goal.  You create a vision, a strategy, a plan to move forward and the faith to carry out to completion.

You can achieve mastery one step at a time.

There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.

—-Albert Einstein

Surely everyone must wonder about the purpose of life.  With so much complexity built into our world, it is so very easy to get distracted by work, school, world events, and our relationships.

These things, however, are merely distractions.  Because there are levels upon levels of expanded awareness and creativity available in our life.  Our job, really, is to keep growing and learning.  To make a contribution in bringing others along out of the joy of giving.

Early parenting and schooling enables us to establish a course.  But, once you are able to stand on your own two feet, the real work begins.   Once you have mastered a profession or skill insofar as being able to sustain yourself physically, then the work really begins—mastering your mental, emotional and spiritual self.

For the student is the master and the master is the student.  The world is here as your university and your laboratory.  Every person you meet is a teacher.  You are a teacher for every person you meet.  Every interaction has meaning and there are lessons to be garnered from every situation.  Life is definitely not meaninless.  It takes awareness and concentration to glean the truth from life.

We are here on a journey toward mastery.  Self mastery.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “One can heave no greater mastery than mastery of oneself”.

And nothing could be more interesting than this world of ours,  This world is a playground of epic proportion.  There is so much choice it is daunting.  Students today are so lucky to have so many options available to them as the sciences explode with inventiveness like never before in recent history.

So, we gradually grow our awareness as we step from the womb to adulthood.  We choose our life path, teachers, friends and adversaries.  We choose, also, the private emotional and mental states that we live  within.

And thus, the stage is set for our life.   The purpose of which is to grow.  Our consciousness, mental ability, our awareness and our contributions.  Each person is unique.     Billions of us, no two alike.   For that matter, they say there are no two snowflakes alike.  No two flowers.  How amazing is that!

It just does not get any better than this.  Life is incredible!  Definitely not boring.