Things to do before you die

I often see lists of life experiences to have before your time is up.

There are books and occasional newspaper articles giving suggestions. All of them, though, are things out there, places to go and worldly experiences to have.

None of them address or even acknowledge the ultimate. None of them talk about what’s in here.

This is indicative of the consciousness from which we are emerging. Our lives so far have been about the external.

Amazing as the external is, it is not that important. Without experiencing it from an internal presence, it is largely meaningless.

Outside experiences are like drugs if we have no home inside. They are a substitute, and any highs they bring are sensory rather than spiritual.

What is the Grand Canyon but a reflection if you are empty within? What is the Amazon river if you are not flowing home to your soulful sea?

What is a trip around the world worth if you cannot take the journey into your inner mystery for free?

Why does a men’s magazine feel that it is more important to date an older woman, ask for a raise and catch a fish than to discover your true self?

Why does it encourage readers to do reams of silly things and leave out the only one that is real?

We all know why! The publishers and readers are lost. Idiots. Sad but true.

I say there is only one thing you should do before you die and that is be yourself. Swim into your inner depths and explore who you really are.

Find yourself. Find presence and allow it to fill your life. Then you will not have wasted it.

Be blissful and all you do in the world will be a bonus.

Energy

Your energy is your own. It belongs first to you.

If you choose to give it, wonderful, because energy in motion is love and life. But first you must feel it for yourself.

I am back to writing. I have been working with clients for the last week, thriving on different aspects of what I do, and so I have not been disposed to being a writer.

With all the doing and interacting has come a fatigue that brings me back to quiet solitude. Here I find myself writing again.

If I do not write, my life goes awry. If I am not in the space for writing, I need to get back to it quickly because it has become central to my well being.

In fact, the space in which I write is well being. It is this space that I take out into the world and that reaches out to people.

I am back where my energy is my own, mine to merge with and enjoy. I am my best company.

When deprived of my own resources, I begin to give from the surface. This is exhausting and a sign that I am starting to run out of reserves. I need to come home and be with myself again.

My energy is my own. It belongs first to me. I must feel it for myself, which I am doing.

Time for breakfast and a quiet day.

Can you feel it?

Can you sense that there are different dimensions to your being? Tune in for a moment.

Can you see that there things out there? Things to do, things to think about. There seems to be an endless stream of things needing you.

Can you feel that you are not only on the level of things, of form? There is something behind that.

Can you become aware that you are really just consciousness? Your consciousness ‘in here’ is the backdrop to the things ‘out there’.

When you stay in touch with your consciousness, you do not get lost in things. You do not identify with them or feel that they have taken over your life.

When you stay in touch with the conscious dimension of your being, you maintain perspective. You bring a quality of insight and wisdom to the things out there.

Time opens up and you do not run around in a spin. Synchronicities increase and more happens in the natural flow rather than through your frantic efforts.

You are calmer, more alert, discerning and resourceful. You trust your own and the greater intelligence, which comes through more in what you do.

The way to find the spiritual dimension to your being is to tune in to the space between things. There are the things and then there is the space between them.

You are really the space between. You are really presence. Tune in to the now and find your true self in it, which is synonymous with infinite space.

Things come and go, space is eternal. With awareness of space, you bring a quality of the eternal to the things.

Your work goes to a whole new level and you are much happier and more effective.

Spiritual Growth

You cannot pursue spiritual growth. It is not a goal.

If you make it into one, you miss it. It then becomes an occupation for the ego and spiritual growth happens beyond ego.

It is not an achievement. It may take tremendous and sustained work, careful attention day by day throughout your life, yet it is not an accomplishment. That, too, is of the ego.

Spiritual growth may be the essence of your life but it is not of your doing. It happens of its own accord.

The more it happens, the less you are there. The more you surrender, the more it happens.

When your spirit is thriving, you are at one with it, not separate, and so there is no ‘I’ and no ‘me’.

All you have to do is get out of the way for spiritual growth to happen. It is inborn to flourish and most of what we know as life or living is merely us getting lost in trivial pursuits.

These trivial pursuits then also become part of spiritual growth, albeit indirectly. The more lost we get, the greater potential there is to rediscover the truth.

The more agony we induce by being separate, the greater the possibility becomes for a breakthrough to oneness through presence.

Spiritual growth does not result from fasting, abstaining and depriving. It comes from being natural, total and in tune.

It does not arise from ritual, chanting, following someone or obeying. Trying these things is just a detour on the way back to yourself, which is where spirituality lives.

Spirituality is not belief, it is being, here and now.

Ideals

Why do we have ideals? What function do they serve?

Ideals are not good! They are created by the mind, the most superficial and least mature part of our being. They are at the root of misery.

People who say that we need ideals to grow and improve ourselves are wrong. Our capacity to grow is inborn, there is no need to do anything about it but let it take its natural course by living freely and joyfully.

Each human is a seed full of potential that will manifest if they are allowed and encouraged to be themselves.

People who believe in ideals do not believe in people. Mental constructs are their gods and they see themselves and others in a negative light relative to these. Their view is that people would be lazy, useless and destructive if not given social or religious guidelines.

The opposite is true. Social structures destroy the individual. They put the mind and the past above the soul and the present. Their effect is to undermine innate intelligence and beauty and limit the natural growth we are all here to experience, enjoy and share with everyone else.

Ideals create a gap between who we are and who we ‘should’ be. The bigger the gap, the bigger the pain.

Bliss comes from acceptance and integration. It comes from growing naturally, vibrantly and freely, and from love of who we are.

Why not drop your ideals and be yourself?