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Separation

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

The mind absorbs information through the senses and interprets them as needed for your survival as a person. However, there is not an absolute truth in this interpretation. What is seen by a human is not seen by other species. The information that our minds translate from the world around us is filtered. Each species views the world as it is necessary for its survival. Bats see much less of the world than humans. Their interpretation of the world is through the sounds that echo from their surroundings. Using the world as a mirror to reflect sound back to them. To a human, the bat is blind.

Many animals like birds and reindeer can see what we cannot, having access to an array of ultraviolet lights that we are blind to. For a human, power lines are simply black wires hanging above us. To an animal, these same lines appear terrifying, as bursting and popping lights.

Much of the world has been filtered away from us. For our survival, we see the world in separation. We see borders and distinctions, however, we fail to see the similarities that exist on a deeper level. We define and label each and every person and object in order to find order. At birth, we are named, as we age we are labeled with a race, a gender, a religion, and occupation.

It is in the name of survival in the world and in the society that we have developed an identity of ourselves and the world around us. Therefore we have become separate. We have formed a solid illusion of separation.

All of these names and labels of ourselves have converged to create the self, the ego. The ego is one of the many great deceptions of the mind.

This is why we move through life with a feeling of unsafety. The feeling isn’t always of danger, but of a certain vulnerability. A feeling that you are alone in your efforts in this world. That you are cut off from the world around you, exposed to the world in your aloneness.

You may not recognize this emotion as isolation. It often is disguised as anxiety, depression, boredom. We don’t realize that the root of these emotions could be a feeling of separateness. However, now that you are aware of the possibility, do you feel that you are connected with the world around you? Do you feel one with your surroundings or do you feel a detachment from them?

If you do feel a deep connection with the world it is good. If you are able to see past the illusory barriers between yourself and the world then it is good. However, if you are unable to feel this togetherness, how does it feel?

 

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A Naive Solution

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

The mind is very adept at solving problems, or so it thinks that it is. The ability to solve problems is one of its reasons for existence. However, left unchecked the mind prevents you from experiencing your natural bliss. This is why you have become unhappy. At times this unhappiness is in the form of anxiety. The mind takes a wrong turn and veers into realizations of fearful thoughts. It creates the idea of a future and then worries and wonders what might transpire. Other times it creates sadness, and other times the mind creates boredom. You feel dissatisfied with existence in its purity, as you have not fully experienced the bliss that it could bring. Overall there is a void felt within that you know on some level should be filled with bliss.

Now with this problem, this void, what does the mind do? As it was meant to, the mind sets out to solve this problem. However, the mind is not equipped for this task, because it does not know anything outside of itself. And it is outside of the mind that bliss can be found.

The mind does not know that at its own end there is bliss. How could it know? The two cannot exist simultaneously. The mind has never known bliss. You might think that it has known bliss, however, in times of pure joy, you may realize that you were fully invested, fully involved in that moment. Time, as it is created by the mind, ceased to exist. You were one with the experience. But this was brief, and the mind did not recognize where this came from. The mind attributes that joy to the moment. To the situation, to the person, you were with. The situation may have triggered your presence, however, the bliss came from within. It was a symptom of you dropping the mind and dissolving into the reality of that moment.

The mind does not realize this phenomenon, and this is why it creates poor solutions for misery. Your mind’s solution for misery only leads to more misery. The mind’s solution to bliss is that of desire.

Your mind would like to argue with this. To say that desire could not be a poor solution. It will say that to desire feels good. However, I would ask you to explore the emotion of desire. While you are lost in the dream of your desire, imagining its fulfillment you feel better than you had before the specific desire was created. The dream is momentarily filling the void. However, the moment the dream fades there is a straining. There is impatience until the fulfillment. What is desire, really, but dissatisfaction? Desire is to say that what is here is not sufficient for my happiness. What I need is elsewhere. With this cycle of desire, you will remain forever in dissatisfaction.

Your mind will say that desire is leading you towards progress. It is the driving force for all of your motivation. You may believe that you desire a specific item, or person, or life. However, it is just what your mind has deemed a solution to the void that is felt within. What is at the core of every desire? What is it that you wish to achieve with the attainment of each desire?

At one time you might desire money. However, ask yourself why. What is it that this money will buy? More freedom, more purchases, yes. And what do you believe will come from this freedom and these items? Happiness. If you have never known these things then you will believe that this is the answer. You will cling to this desire and you will hope that this is what is missing. This is how you will achieve your happiness.

Although what has money provided you with before that is now not enough? What freedoms have you now that are taken for granted? With the realization of your desires, you have found moments of excitement. However, once the initial glow that comes with this attainment fades, there is again darkness. Have you noticed how this is true for you in your past? What have you now that you had always wanted? Now, does it bring you the joy that it once had? Has it resulted in your lasting bliss?

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A Strange Phenomenon

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

I never fully believed in the far-fetched experiences that people claim to have. So easily it could be spun up for validity, for authority. However, I had been desperate to escape the existential dread that’s clung to me for all three decades of my existence. With nothing else left, I began a path towards a mysterious and potentially fictitious realm.

Early morning but after sunrise, I sat for my new ritualistic hour-long meditation. The past week I’d been feeling oddly in a state of more than serenity. It could only be called bliss. In the past, my hypochondriac side would have convinced me that it was somehow a tumor pressing against my brain in such a way that it was the only possible explanation for such a feeling. But these last few days I’d been feeling too blissful to hear that side of my mind. In fact, my mind itself was beginning to fade into nothingness.

It was the strangest week of my life, leading up to the strangest moment of my life. All week, animals were acting very strange to me as if I was now appearing in a dimension that only they could see. Birds landed on my lap, strange cats stared at me through my windows, squirrels ran up to my feet and glared at me in my own eyes. A school of hundreds of fish swam up to me within a foot of the shoreline, jumping and flipping themselves in the air in front of me.

For the whole week, I couldn’t dream. In fact, I wasn’t even certain that I was sleeping. In the moments that I fell asleep, a part of me was fully aware. Still awake. Falling asleep felt as though an inner self was slipping out of my body and doing a somersault above me while my body slept. It was spectacular but easily the most jarring experience of my life, until that day.

I sat in my usual chair, not anticipating anything anymore. I had been so happy that I forgot all about the experience of “enlightenment”. In fact, I was so blissful that I thought maybe it had already happened.

With my feet tucked beneath my legs, the pressure of my body against the chair began to disappear. Transforming from pressure to weightlessness. My eyes began to close, and in waking, as in sleep, a separation formed between myself and my body. However, now my body was not asleep. Every cell in my body felt very awake, while at the same time very distant.

Though distant from my body, it felt as if every small part of me was connected to every atom and molecule in existence. My body felt hollow as if I could feel the space between each one of my cells. I was no longer a solid object, just a gathering of particles that could blow away at any moment.

I remained floating in this feeling for ten minutes or maybe an hour, all the while feeling as if something were building. I began to notice that my breathing was becoming deeper and more pronounced. Slowly, the feeling of separation began to gather and pinpoint itself. I felt as though I was splitting off from myself at the point between both of my eyes. I realized that with this feeling, my heart was pounding. It began beating so violently that I felt it knocking hammering against the inside of my chest.

My breathing deepened and quickened, and it felt as though my head was being pushed backward through a force that was not my own. Without rebuttal, I allowed the heaviness to lean my head as far back as it would allow, all the while my heart beating faster.

If I could have felt fear at that moment, I would have been afraid that my heart would grip and cease under the pressure. My entire body became covered in a cold sweat, and my open hands shook with the rest of my body. There was no escaping the momentum, I had no control to stop the movement of what was happening in my body. And I didn’t wish to. My heart raced, my body convulsed, and I was panting for breath but deep within me I was observing, I was collected.

After some time, I felt a crescendo of pressure and finally a release from my brow. The weight of my head lifted and I began to lean forward. My hands shook still, but my heart began to settle down. I opened my eyes and could barely look at the sky. To see the world was too beautiful and I immediately began to cry. I was sobbing, and couldn’t begin to control myself. It was as if I could see the world for the very first time. Without a filter, without the veil of my mind shading the intensity. It was the veil I’d been wishing to lift for many years. Finally, I was face to face with reality.

I slunk to the floor, hands still shaking. After the last few days I wasn’t completely surprised at such a peculiar event however I realized that I couldn’t deny the intensity. It couldn’t be caused by anything else. Everything that has been said before, is real.

 

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Smoke and Fire

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

I share with you this strange phenomenon only to exemplify the magnitude to which transformation can occur. To illustrate the immense physical experience that occurs when you begin to strip yourself of the layers that prevent you from being in bliss. It is one of many common threads between those that have followed this path until its extreme ends. However, this experience is not of great importance.

What is of importance for you is bliss. Where ultimate bliss is fire, this phenomenon is merely smoke. Smoke is not the outcome, just a result of the fire. The fire is what is needed for warmth, smoke will be of no use other than to indicate that there is fire. What you set out to learn is how to build a fire, how to feel your inner bliss.

It is not realized that the unhappiness you feel is not a requirement for life. The boredom, pain, desperation, and anxiety you feel are symptoms of the mind. For any person that decides they are wholly and completely through with the misery that feels out of their control, there is an antidote.

What you learn on this path is not how to create bliss. You were born into this world with the ability to experience bliss. Along the way you have accumulated beliefs and have been fooled by illusions that are now creating misery in your life. What is learned on the path back to enlightenment is how to recognize and remove each illusion and belief. Each one carrying a weight that gives lightness to you when letting go. With the last letting go there is enlightenment.

When the last is let go, and when it is known how to keep from accumulating more, bliss can enter you. This sounds odd to a person who has not experienced this. That bliss could be so available. In fact, the experience of bliss that I describe might not even be something that you can fathom. However, I tell you that it is true. That the unhappiness that you experience is not the true nature of life. That the true nature of life is this state of lightness. This state of physical bliss. A feeling that you may have only felt through substances or through ecstatic love. A feeling you may have never felt before.

The ability to feel what is called enlightenment is not reserved for the few. However, it is only the few that have been willing to part with what has prevented their bliss. Few have become so overwhelmed by the misery that they were willing to devote all efforts to remove all that burdens them. Few who have learned how.

The effort does not come from removing, but from the discipline and the desire to do so. All that is needed to remove these burdens is awareness. All that is needed is an understanding of where and how these burdens exist in you.

This is all that is needed for this path. A willingness to let go of what burdens, and a faith that there is bliss beneath all of the burdens.

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Desire

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

The trick of desire is that there is always more to be had. Once one happiness fades away the mind will cling to the next. Notice this the next time you find the fulfillment of a desire. Be honest with the emotions in yourself. Do you truly feel joyful? And if so, for how long does this joy last? How long until there arises a new desire?

Do you now see the futility in this cycle of desire that makes up all of our lives? A void is followed by the excitement of desire. This is followed by frustration when the desire is not fulfilled. At best there is a brief glimmer of satisfaction once the desire is fulfilled, that swiftly gives way to the void within. Thus begins the cycle again.

If the lesson cannot be learned by your own self, then let it be learned by others. Listen to those who have what you desire. There is no lasting joy for them in their attainment. For many there is misery. More misery even than there is for you. Because once you have attained all that you ever wanted, and there still is no bliss, there is hopelessness. The real danger in desire is in its attainment. When you feel that there is now no other hope for the happiness that you are in need of. This is why many of those who seem to have it all have turned to substances. Why many of them have taken their own lives. You will come to find that the end of desire is not bliss, but misery.

To abolish desire, however, is not the answer. To renounce what you desire is not the answer. The answer is in the awareness of desire. In the awareness of how desire has not brought you lasting bliss, and in the realization that it never will. It is in the awareness of how in fact it brings you misery.

There are some desires of the mind that are prominent. They are large, at the forefront, easy to see. The desire for beauty, for instance, is a desire that can be seen in daily life. It’s a desire at the tip of your tongue when you ask yourself what it is you want. For many of us, it is expressed in many daily routines. However left without awareness, beauty is a dangerous desire. It is dangerous because it has no end. It is dangerous because it will inevitably fade with time. A mind that desires beauty for satisfaction has leaped into an endless pit of comparison, jealousy, and self-deprecation. Many have even died being sliced into in order to change their shape to become more beautiful. There is no ending point to beauty because it is merely subjective.

The desire for success is as dangerous as an addiction. The desire to become something. It is a desire that’s been planted in each of us since our earliest years. The world and those who raised us are expecting success. With good intentions of course. Those who planted this seed have also had this seed planted in them. They believe that success will lead to happiness, even though they are not happy themselves.

How could the desire to succeed create misery? The desire to become clouds the mind of the pleasure of being. We are the only species that tries to become. That is so driven by ego that we will sacrifice our sleep, our freedom, and our happiness for a greater social standing. The constant desire for success is rooted in the deep notion that you are not good enough. You, as you are, are not enough. You must do better. And, why? So that you might be happy. So that at the end of this long road of suffering you might feel satisfied with your achievements.

However, this is the trick. There is no end to the amount of money one can make. There is no end to the amount of success that can be had. You will eternally be frozen in the notion that you are not enough. The life of a person can be consumed by the need to attain success. And like beauty, there is no end. Success is subjective. The subjectivity lies in the dissatisfaction of the mind. And the mind will always be dissatisfied until it solves the problem of the endless void of bliss that you feel within. You will still be void of bliss and the mind, in its naive wisdom will say, you must not yet be enough.

Once you have identified these larger desires you will come to see how they create misery. You will notice that all of your frustrations are stemming from these desires. Self-doubt and frustration stem only from the impediment of your desire becoming fulfilled. This is simple to see for your larger desires. A business dealing does not go as planned and you become miserable. This is obvious. However, you will need to become aware of the more subtle. How subtle desires are causing you misery.

You will come to find that behind every frustration there is desire. Let us say that you are having an argument with a lover. This is common. Why are you angry in your fight? Because you want to be right. You want the other to act a certain way. You want a perfect relationship with your lover. What if the desire wasn’t there? If you felt that it is the way that it is. Where is the anger? Without anger would the relationship not flourish? Would your communication not heighten?

This is the other way in which desire causes misery. Frustration clouds the mind. It creates strife where there could be clarity. The mind in stress is not a mind that can create a solution. Science has proven that a mind under stress has a far inferior ability to solve problems than a relaxed mind.

When you notice frustration, let it alert you of a desire. At times the desire is in the form of intention. You intend to leave the house but you can’t find the keys. Immediately you become exasperated. However the location of the keys is not creating frustration. The frustration is stemming from your intention to leave the house.

The moment you notice the frustration, find the desire. Find the intention. Suddenly, the moment you identify the intention, you bring logic into your frustration. It brings in understanding. Suddenly, the frustration has vanished. Now all there is left is a simple task of finding the keys.

This works for intentions large and small. No matter the size, recognizing the root of frustration will create a clear path to move forward. Frustration will have no place once you have identified the reason for it. It will serve no purpose. In fact the Latin root of the word comes from frustra meaning “in vain”.

Now it is to be understood that there can be preference. There can be success. There can be beauty. However not a means for happiness. Once you become aware of your desires and how they are leading to misery, they begin to fall away. Then you will begin to feel more weightless. In this weightless and more blissful state, there may be preference, however, it will not affect your bliss. You will know that it is not where bliss comes from. You will be happy either way.

You can prefer to have a blossoming relationship with the lover however in becoming aware of the desire you can see clearly. You can manifest this preference with ease, as the frustration will not cloud your ability to act wisely. To act in a way that will result in what you would have preferred.

It will be hard for you to let go of desire because you feel that without it you will never reach. However, you now do not know what it is you could truly prefer. At the time now, you are simply filled with the poor solutions of a naive mind. A mind that is grasping at straws and pulling you in many directions in order to feel bliss. Don’t cling to your desire out of the fear that it will create indifference. That it will create laziness. The energy that had previously been consumed by frustration will now flow into creation.

However, in order to free yourself of this cycle of desire and frustration, you must recognize that all desire is the desire for bliss. Recognize that bliss is to be found only when you are satisfied here, within this moment. Happy and peaceful in the nature of existence, satisfied and pleased with the beauty of your aliveness. Because when the day comes that your life is no longer, you will realize that just to be is a gift that you have never opened.

Once you realize this very deeply, then desire will fall away from you. Only awareness is needed. Only readiness to see. Then, it becomes a very simple task. Why continue to desire more and more when you cannot even enjoy what is in front of you now? This is true renunciation. Not when you force yourself away from your desires, but when desire falls away from you. When desire falls away from you, and you feel that everything is perfect in its current existence, this is the beginning of bliss.

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The Nature Of Existence

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

Once you recognize that all desires and intentions are ultimately rooted in the desire for bliss; once you recognize that all desires and intentions lead you away from bliss, your resistance to reality, to that which is, begins to lift. You have carried this resistance with you since you were a child. Since the very first moment that you were not given what you desired. Since the first time you went crying and yelling to the parent to let you have what you wanted.

As children, we do not learn how to allow what is. Life is rationed out to us by teachers and parents. Life is handed to us in portions, in unnatural ways, and we are taught to begin life kicking and screaming. A child is taught “no”. A child is not taught to allow that which is. To allow the flow of existence. Because the child is raised by others who are in a state of resistance. The child is forced against their nature to endure schooling. To wake early, to study late. Their desire for peace and playfulness is penalized. Therefore we have come into adulthood fully conditioned to be in resistance to life. It’s a normality in our society to be unhappy with the nature of life, to be against it.

All of your life you have been in frustration, in vain, against the nature of existence. The feeling of trying to move underwater, the feeling of trying to scream and fight while you are in a dream. It is a battle that cannot be won because it is an illusory battle. To battle, two must engage. However, reality does not fight against you. It is like trying to fight your shadow. You cannot because your shadow moves with you. Even your fighting is a part of reality. When you stop fighting it will also be part of reality. It will be what is. It will the be nature of reality, of existence.

The Buddha calls the nature of reality dhamma, Lao Tsu calls it tao. They have created words for the nature of existence because of its extreme importance for the happiness of a person. They create words for this out of reverence.

You believe that reality itself causes you pain. You believe that reality is what causes you disappointment. That reality is something you must fight against. However it is not reality, it is not tao, not dhamma that has caused you pain. It is your resistance to it. It is the frustration that stems from your desire for something other than reality that causes suffering. Let me repeat this. It is the frustration that stems from your desire for something other than reality that causes your suffering. It is not reality itself that causes suffering. In reality, there is bliss. To be in agreement, in acceptance with, and to trust the nature of existance there is a feeling of pure relaxation, pure let-go. It is fighting that causes you frustration, because it is a battle you will never win.

A person will ask, how can I simply accept fate and let go? How can this feel good, to allow life to happen to me at the will of life itself? The feeling is a phenomenon that has never been able to put into words. It is the same to explain love to someone who has never experienced it. To use logic to explain that your heart will choose one specific person that will give you ecstasy. The idea that you will sacrifice and endure any hardship for the feeling of love will be lost on the person who has never loved. Lao Tsu says “the Tao that can be told of is not the absolute Tao”. The immense feeling of relief and oneness cannot be put into words. It must be experienced. However, it must be told, eluded to or else you will never drop your resistance.

At this time you are always rushing. Always angry with what comes between you and your intentions. You have many desires because you are lacking bliss. The mind says, there is no bliss here, we will find it in this or in that. Frustration arises whenever the realization of the desire is in jeopardy. You are in a perpetual state of feeling that in this moment there is not bliss. However, with awareness, you will see that only in this moment is there bliss. You have just been missing it. You have missed it because you are always against dhamma, against tao, against life. You are always fighting with that which is. It is only when the world fits into your perfect idea of what is satisfactory that you find happiness. However, it quickly disappears because the mind is not quiet enough for you to enjoy it.

In you, there is distrust in nature. A lack of adoration and reverence. A constant feeling that more is required for you to be satisfied. A feeling that more is required of you in order to be satisfied with yourself. However, nothing more is needed. You are a part of the natural world. Intertwined with nature. The air that you breathe in is made livable by the plants in nature. The air that you exhale in turn gives life to the plants. Everything is in order, perfectly. That is all that is needed. The force of nature can be yielded to. It has far greater intelligence than a mind could ever have. It has created worlds, skies, galaxies, everything. It has created you. Yet you fight with this great force in every moment. You give no adoration to it, no credit.

What would it be like to feel that everything is perfect, just as it is? What bliss would be in the idea that everything is perfect, even in its imperfection. I assure you that it is. Everything that is, is all that it should be because it is all that it can be. It is reality. If you come to adore and admire the nature of existence for all of its wonder then you will feel this way. In the same way that you accept a person in all of their imperfections when you are in love.

There is only useless and draining frustration in fighting with life, and, there is only pleasure in accepting it.

You can misunderstand me of course. This is why words are a dangerous tool for communication. However, they must be used. To accept the nature of existence does not mean that you have no free will. It does not mean that you cannot move towards a life preference. However, once you give way to the stream of reality, you will relax. You will find enjoyment in each action. The actions that you make will not be a fight against nature, they will be a part of nature. A tree in the forest grows not out of strife and the need to become. It does not rush. It grows at the exact pace of nature, at the will of nature, because of nature.

Once resistance has dissolved and you allow the flow of reality, you may find that you have fewer preferences than before. In your contentedness, you might find that you would prefer to do much less. Your desire to amass power and success may be no longer. You might find that you are no longer willing to sacrifice so much time and energy because you have already found peace. Or, you may find that without frustration draining you of all your energy, you are inspired to do much more. In either case, there will be bliss.

The ability to be in a state of allowing as opposed to resisting will depend on how deeply involved you are with the illusion that your desires will bring you happiness. If you have come to realize on some level that they have never brought you bliss, then it will be easier for you to drop your resistance. If you have come to realize that there has only been futility and frustration in resistance, then it will be easier for you to be in a state of allowance. It will become easier to slow your constant forward momentum and embrace the present reality that surrounds you, and that you are part of.

However, if you are still very convinced that your resistance is what moves you forward, then it will be impossible to let go of it. When you have become lost into the illusions of the mind it is needed that you become closer to nature. Surrounded by walls, screens, and concrete, we are removed from pure nature. It becomes more difficult to recognize that there is a force greater than the mind. Although even in this state, these walls and screens are part of nature, they are a step removed. They do not demonstrate the interconnectedness that can be seen at the source. Go into nature, be silent, and you will be able to feel the shift. To see how nature does not rush, does not intend, but only enjoys. However, you will only sense this if you are able to be silent enough. Otherwise, you will be blind and deaf to nature. This is the problem of the mind. It is never quiet enough to hear nature. It is always reacting to the outside and making noise for you on the inside.

The mind is aggressive. Constantly interrupting and forcing its will. The mind does not want to submit, and submission to the flow of reality is needed in order to receive its gift of bliss. You must be in a state of receiving. This is difficult for a person who has spent their entire existence exerting their will onto reality. The ego, the sense of self that is identified with the mind, feels that it must not yield to any force. That it has the greatest interests of the person in mind, and that it will succeed in creating the best reality for the person. However, this is false. The intention is pure however it is naive of the mind.

The mind will never submit to nature. However as you become aware that you are not the mind, the mind will begin to fade away from you. You will begin to recognize the pure consciousness that you are. That consciousness will easily submit to the nature that it is part of.

Bliss is part of your nature. This is why reuniting with nature will help you find your own. It is simply what happens when the mind drops, reactions cease, and your inner awareness becomes reunited with the present reality,

Bliss is your nature in the same way that health is your nature. When you come into this world, it is not needed that you create health. It is already there. All that is needed for most people, is that you not get in its way. The same is for bliss. The mind and all of its illusions have gotten in the way. All that is needed is for the mind to fade away from you. For you to realize all the ways in which the mind has formed, and then put them into reverse. The mind, and the attachment to the mind have been formed out of unawareness. Therefore to reverse the mind, it is only needed for you to become aware of how it came to be. To become aware of all the ways in which it has deceived you.

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The Self Beneath The Surface

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Excerpt from Spiritual Enlightenment

The automatic thoughts that are creating the “mind” are what create your emotions. Both pleasant and unpleasant. Something happens externally, and your mind automatically reacts with a certain reel of thoughts. A person insults you, and the information is fed into the mind. The mind automatically reacts with thoughts that trigger anger in you. A person compliments you and the mind automatically reacts with thoughts that trigger a release of pleasure. The mind is constantly reacting to the outside world, and altering your emotions from a moment-to-moment basis. Your emotional state is constantly at the whim of the outside world. This is what is happening to you now.

Understand this statement. This is what is happening to you. Meaning somewhere beneath the mind, somewhere beneath the changing tides of your emotions is a deeper self. A self that does not change with each trigger from the outside world. A self deep beneath the surface that is witnessing the emotions taking place. The emotions that are happening to you.

Now, the question is who are you. If you are not the mind, and the mind is merely a process of thought, then who would you be with no mind. What would you be with no thought? There was a time before you learned the language in which you speak. In fact, there was a time before any language existed at all. Other animals exist in this world without thought, without language.

Imagine for a moment that you had no language. That you had no memories and associations with the world around you. Imagine looking at a rose with no mind. How the experience would brighten in comparison to the filter created by the mind.

Without thoughts, without language, the brain would not take away from the mystery of the rose’s existence by categorizing it and explaining it with the name of “rose”. It would not be bored with the flower that it had remembered seeing many times before. Imagine what it would be like to encounter the world around you with nothing happening within the body except for the wordless experience of its mystery and its beauty.

Our thoughts, our “knowledge” take away from our experience. Look at the moon without the mind. Without assuming to know anything about it. Look at the moon without language. As if you were the first man on earth, on the first night of your existence. The sight would create such deep emotions of mystery and splendor. However, you have become “smart”. Now the mind labels it immediately. That is the moon, a planet far away in the universe. What is a planet? What is the universe? Just labels we’ve given to something otherwise magnificent and inexplicable. The mind, a false sense of knowledge, takes away all of the questions and all of the appreciation of the magic that is in existence.

This is why we are bored. This is why we are always searching. This feeling of awe and the experience of the unknown is the emotion always seeking. In a new home, a new car, a new place, a new lover. Without the constant corruption and interruption of the mind, we could experience this life in its splendor and its mystery. Without the false idea that we have knowledge, and can explain away the phenomenon of the world around us.

Without the mind, this is who you are. You are experience. You are awareness. You are pure consciousness, using the brain and the body to sense the world.

This is who you were. You experienced the world through innocence. However along the way the brain has accumulated knowledge and voices. Nowhere along the way have you been told that those voices are not who you are, so you go on being tricked by the illusion. You have been going mad believing that these voices are you and that you cannot stop. It is like hearing an echo in a deep well and believing that it is the voice of a person. It is the same thing, it is through trickery and illusion that you have become identified with the mind. In the east, it was called tadatmya. To become identified with something that you are not.

You are not the mind, you are awareness. You are consiousness that is capable of using the brain for thought. When communication must happen, the mind can be used. When equations are to be solved, the mind can be used. This is the purpose. However, when there are no solutions to be made, no words to be spoken, the mind is not needed. In fact, the mind is just a disruption. Creating waves on what could be a perfectly serene surface. The mind was meant just to be a tool. Left uninterrupted, the mind will drain all the energy that otherwise would flow into bliss.

These words may penetrate you on an intellectual level, you might understand what it means for the mind to create suffering however it will take a deeper understanding to release the identity with the mind. You might or you might not have faith that this is phenomenon is true. If you have not experienced the bliss of no-mind then you will need faith.

You are faced with the task of re-experiencing the world as your true self. As awareness. You are looking to replace the mind with the true self as the master. The mind will struggle to remain in power. Along with faith, you will need to be convinced that the mind is not suited for the role of the master. To become the master you will need to see all the ways in which the mind leads you away from bliss.

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Brain Hacks And Habits To Prevent Cravings And Overeating

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Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss

Of course, you will want to indulge at times, and you don’t have to feel bad about that. Later on, we’ll cover “cheat days” and indulgent foods that fit into your meal plan. But you don’t want to be in a position where you feel powerless against your cravings or your desire to overeat. In this section, we’ll work on removing a lot of the factors that lead to cravings and overeating such as stress, dehydration, and lack of sleep. As well as ways to deal with cravings once they arise.

Stay Hydrated

Feeling thirsty is actually a late sign that you’re dehydrated. At first, dehydration can come out as a craving for food. Make sure you’re drinking enough water to prevent those cravings. Before you decide to indulge, drink some water first and see if your craving weakens.

Aside from regulating your appetite, it is necessary for you to drink enough water to digest your food and for almost every other function in your body. If you’re not drinking water because you don’t like the taste, then remember that it’s life-sustaining water. It doesn’t have to taste like a milkshake. But if you really can’t stand it, then try flavored seltzer or adding lemon, lime, or other fruit, or try flavored herbal cold brew tea bags to add to your water.

If you’re used to drinking juice and soda, water will seem boring. It will take some getting used to, however removing flavored drinks can save you a few hundred calories a day and a pound of fat per week.

If you don’t like cold water, then try naturally caffeine-free tea like rooibos, chamomile, peppermint, or flavored herbal teas. If you don’t drink enough fluids because it’s inconvenient for you to use the restroom, then try to hydrate when it’s convenient, like first thing in the morning.

How Much To Drink

If you’re drinking enough fluids, your urine should be clear at least once each day. You’ll feel more clear-headed, energized, and have fewer cravings. Keep track of your water intake on a few occasions to see if you’re drinking enough. To figure out how much you need, you can follow these general guidelines, use my online calculator[1] , or calculate it on your own with the steps below.

 

Hydration Equation

Step 1

Divide your body weight in half for how many ounces of fluid you need in a day.

Example: 150 pounds divided by 2 = 75 fluid ounces a day

Step 2

About 20% of your fluid comes from the food you eat, leaving the other 80% of your needs from fluids. So you can then calculate 80% of your total fluid needs.

Example: 75 fluid ounces x .80 = 60 fluid ounces from fluids a day

Step 3

Divide that number of ounces by the size container you usually drink from.

Example: 60 fluid ounces divided by 16.9 fluid ounce water bottle = 3.5 bottles a day.

Eat Enough

How many times have you tried to lose weight by restricting yourself as much as possible, just to gain it all back? It’s the most common and damaging weight loss mistake. The problem is that your body is designed to survive a lack of food by holding onto your fat stores for dear life. It doesn’t know the difference between a diet and a famine.

When you restrict too much, your body won’t readily give up your life-sustaining fat stores. It will actually do the opposite. Your body adapts to less food by slowing down your metabolism. It starts using less food for energy and stores more of it as fat for a later time. Additionally, it will increase your appetite so that you overindulge whenever more food becomes available again. The problem with a diet is that you aren’t actually starving, so there’s almost always plenty of food available.

Luckily there’s a way to lose weight without triggering these fat-saving and craving-inducing survival instincts. Later, you’ll learn how much you should be eating and other ways to prevent cravings and a slow down in your metabolism. You will probably be surprised to see how much you can eat while still losing weight.

Don’t Get Too Hungry

You might be proud of yourself for being able to ignore your hunger or suppress it all day with caffeine, gum, and water, however that is not helping you lose weight. This will be explained in more detail later on. For now, just understand that during your eating window, you should not wait until you’re very hungry before you eat something. Instead, you should always eat whenever you start to feel hungry. We’ll discuss eating windows in the next section.

If you haven’t already noticed, it is impossible to eat an appropriate portion size or make a healthy choice when you’re starving. I know that some of you don’t eat lunch until you’re about to pass out so that you have less time at work after your break. If you’re one of those people, then you should at least keep a snack at your desk like a piece of fruit to have when you start to feel hungry. Or carry them with you when you’re out of the house, so there’s no excuse to let yourself get too hungry.

Get To Know Your Early Hunger Signals

If you’re used to ignoring your hunger signals, then you might not know what they feel like. Early hunger signals aren’t the same for everyone. It can start by feeling like your stomach is empty. It can be very subtle and sometimes only last for a minute or two. If that’s the case, then it can be easy to ignore, especially when you’re busy. Pay close attention to that feeling, because that is when you should begin eating. If you ignore your early hunger signals you will become overly hungry, making it difficult to make a healthy choice, or eat an appropriate portion at an appropriate rate.

If You’re Always Hungry

The first hunger signals of the day will begin about 12 hours after dinner the night before. Then, three to five hours after each meal throughout the day, and one to two hours after a small snack. If you feel that you’re hungry more often, then it could be from a lack of sleep, medication, stress, not eating enough, or eating processed carbs or inflammatory foods. We’ll cover what to eat, how much to eat, and sleep later on, which will help to regulate your hunger.

If You’re Never Hungry

Having no hunger signals is not a good thing. It makes it hard to know when you should start eating, and when you should stop. If you never feel hungry, then it could be from ignoring those signals. If you ignore hunger signals for long enough, then your body won’t keep bothering you with them. You can even lose your hunger signals from having extra body fat because fat cells send out a hormone that suppresses your appetite. It could also be that you’re suppressing your hunger with things like caffeine, nicotine, gum, or medications.

If you’re not doing anything to suppress your appetite, but you still never feel hungry, then start by making a routine eating pattern. Losing weight and having some regularity will start to trigger your hunger signals.

Wait Until You’re Hungry

If you start eating out of boredom or because of a craving, then there’s no clear reason to stop eating. But if you start to eat when you’re hungry, then you’re more likely to stop eating when you feel full or satisfied. If you do have a craving, then at least try to wait until you start to feel hungry before you eat.

Eat Slowly

It takes a while for your brain to get the signal from your stomach that it’s full. If you eat too fast, then you can consume a large portion  of food before you even begin to feel full.

If you eat slowly, your brain has time to receive the signal that your stomach is filling up. You will be able to feel full with much less food if you eat slowly.

If you’re used to eating fast, then use the guidance below to help you slow down. It is not an easy task at first, however like any habit it can be broken. Then, eating slowly will become your new habit.

How To Slow Down
  1. Don’t wait until you’re starving to eat. Eat when you just start to feel hungry.
  2. Take a few deep breaths before you eat and when you notice that you’re starting to eat fast again.
  3. If you notice you’re chewing fast and lost in your thoughts, then refocus on breathing, chewing, and tasting your food.
  4. Make sure you chew each bite thoroughly. Remember that you can’t properly digest the food that hasn’t been thoroughly broken down.
  5. Take small bites so that it’s easier to chew the whole mouthful before you get tired of the taste.
  6. Put your food or utensil down between bites.
  7. Focus on the food in your mouth, not the food on your plate.
  8. A lot of times, fast eating is because of stress. The next section will help to improve your mood and alleviate stress, which will naturally slow down your eating rate.

Stop Eating When You’re Comfortably Full

When you finish eating, you should feel comfortably full. If you don’t feel full at all, then you will end up craving something else. If you feel overly full, then you likely ate too much. Becoming overly full stretches the stomach which actually triggers hormones that increase your appetite.

If you tend to overeat, then follow the guidance below. Once you start to eat smaller portions, your stomach won’t shrink, but it will become less elastic. You will feel satisfied with less food, and it will become difficult for you to eat large portions again.

How To Prevent Overeating
  1. Pre portion your food. As a survival instinct, your brain will urge you to eat everything in sight.
  2. If you’re at a restaurant, place your napkin on your plate to cover your food when you feel satisfied, or ask for a to-go box with your meal and take whatever’s leftover. Removing the food from your sight will soften the brain’s hormonal craving response.
  3. Stand up and walk away from the food or put it away when you feel satisfied to give yourself time to become satisfied.
  4. Have a meal ender like a cup of tea, a hard candy, or a chocolate-covered mint. Brush your teeth, chew gum, or use mouthwash to cleanse your pallet.

Set Aside Time To Eat

Set aside around 15 to 20 minutes to eat each meal. Once you do this, you might be surprised to see that you’ve actually been eating your food in less than five minutes. If you’re eating your food this quickly, then you will have difficulty becoming full.

You should set aside time to eat, even if you’re a slow-eater. If you take too long to eat, then you’ll never feel full because the food is emptying out of your stomach at the same slow rate that it’s going in. The same thing happens if you’re just taking a few bites here and there while you’re doing other things. This is not to say that you can’t eat while you watch television or use the computer. However be sure to take your time to chew your food thoroughly and avoid taking long breaks between each bite.

Pay Attention To What You’re Eating

If you’re distracted when you’re eating, then you can easily eat an entire bag of chips without even enjoying it. You might not even realize what you were doing until there are no chips left. At that point, you won’t feel satisfied with the snack, even if you’re full. Mental satisfaction from eating is even more important than how full you are.

Once again, this is not to say that you can’t eat while you do anything else. You can still pay attention to what’s in your mouth while you sit in front of the television or computer. When you eat, chew thoroughly, and pay attention to tasting and breathing. You’ll probably have to keep reminding yourself at first, but it’ll become a habit.

Imagine Being Satisfied

Sometimes you might be lost in the pleasure of eating and be surprised and disappointed when there’s no more food left. You’ll look for something else to eat, even if you’re full.

While you eat, imagine feeling satisfied when you finish. Expect to feel satisfied. This will  help you prevent the abrupt end of pleasure when you finish. If you know that you always crave something after your meals, then you can factor that into your meal plan or use a low-calorie meal ender like tea, a hard candy, or chocolate-covered mint.

Trick Yourself With Seconds

If you’re the type of person that doesn’t feel satisfied with one serving, then break your meals up into two portions. Have ¾ of your meal at first, and then serve yourself the rest as a second portion. This will make you feel like you’re eating more, even if it’s the same amount of food.

Don’t Eat Boring Food

If your food is bland, then you’ll end up hating your diet. There’s plenty of room for flavor in your weight loss plan. If you do your own cooking, then you can use the recipes from the free meal plans on my website or from other sources. If you always order take out or if you usually go to restaurants, your only option is not boiled chicken and vegetables. You can get something indulgent that fits into your calorie range. Be sure to include some vegetables, even if you’re getting them as a side dish.

Fit In A Treat

You don’t have to feel guilty if you’re not ready to give up daily junk food. There’s always a way to fit something into your plan. Knowing that there’s a treat scheduled into your day will help you avoid each temptation that comes along.

Distract Yourself

Your brain’s reward center can be triggered whenever you see, smell, or think about something pleasurable. Do you notice what happens when someone gives you a treat, or there’re snacks in the break room? Even if you weren’t craving anything before, you feel deprived if you don’t have it.

If you want to avoid indulging or overeating, then your best bet is to distract yourself and get it out of sight. If you’re still craving it, then don’t talk to yourself about it even if it’s to tell yourself not to eat it.

If you’re thinking about it, you’ll keep wanting it because the thought of the food is still triggering your reward center.

As soon as the craving comes up, focus your attention on something else until it goes away. Distract yourself with anything, like watching something funny, talking to someone, listening to music, taking a walk, drinking tea, or even meditating, which we’ll cover later in this section. The craving won’t last forever.

Don’t Say “I Can’t”

If you tell yourself you can’t have something, it will make you crave it even more. The truth is, you can have indulgent food and still lose weight, just not all the time. Be very careful with your thoughts. If you want a double cheeseburger, don’t tell yourself you can’t have it. Change the thought to something like:

“I could have that now if I want. But I’d rather eat something healthier. I can have a treat later if I want, but it’s not worth it right now.”

Don’t Say “I Have To”

Don’t tell yourself that you have to eat healthily. If you have to do something, it implies that you don’t want to, and it’s not true. You might have to go to work, so you don’t get fired, but there’s no immediate consequence of eating a cheeseburger instead of a salad.

Change the thought to something like:

“I’d rather have a salad so I can get some nutrients and feel full without going over on calories.”

Once you finish eating and you feel full, the desire will be gone or at least diminished.

Stop Feeling Guilty

You won’t be perfect all the time, and you don’t have to be. Sometimes you might overeat, or get off track for a few days, which is normal. Feeling guilty and beating yourself up is just a way of telling yourself that you’re not in control. But that’s not the case. You’re just in the process of making new habits.

Instead of beating yourself up, take note of how you feel. Overeating doesn’t feel good. Neither does getting off track and gaining a few pounds. If you associate that feeling with steering away from your plan then you will be much less likely to do it again in the future.

Don’t Romanticize Unhealthy Food

Be more realistic with how you think about foods like cookies and pizza. Whatever your “weaknesses” are. Notice how they actually taste, and how you feel while you’re eating them. It’s not the taste of the food that’s creating the feeling. The reward center of your brain is tricking you with dopamine, making you feel happy.

It will make you think about the food though you’re in love with it. You’ll be associating those foods with the taste, the reward it gives your brain and love. Resisting them becomes even more difficult. Yes, the food tastes good, however, become aware of the dialogue you use about your food. Recognize that it is not love but rather a survival trick of the mind.

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You’re Not Weak- You’re Human

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Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss

You’re Not Weak; You’re Human

Almost every new patient that comes to my office complains about their lack of willpower as though it’s a character flaw. They expect to be able to constantly deprive themselves for the rest of their lives, which will not ever happen. What they don’t understand is that our brains are hardwired to crave, and it has almost nothing to do with who we are. To feel like you’re in control, you will only need to become aware of how your instincts function and how to work around them.

You can enjoy good food while you lose weight, but there are some limits. No matter how motivated you are, there will still be times when it’s hard to stop yourself from overindulging. Especially when you’re at a restaurant and one part of your brain is telling you to eat every piece of bread in the basket even though another part of your brain is telling you not to. The part of your brain that’s urging you to eat the bread is called the “reward center.” It can easily overpower the other part of your brain that’s trying to keep you on track.

The reward center is strong because it’s built for survival. It’s designed to give you pleasure for doing things that keep you alive like eating.

In the past, eating bread triggered your reward center to release dopamine, which made you feel good. The reward center remembers that. When you see the breadbasket, the reward center lights up and triggers dopamine in anticipation of the bread. Then, it releases stress hormones to make you feel bad. You feel like the dopamine you’ll get from eating bread is the only way to feel better. This is why it’s so hard to resist food when it’s right in front of you.

The reward center makes you crave food, even if you aren’t hungry. It urges you to keep eating, even if you’re full. It also builds up a tolerance to the dopamine it gets from food. This makes you want to keep eating more and more until you feel the same “high” that you got the first time. But you’ll never really feel satisfied. It usually takes willpower, or a stomach ache to make you stop.

The reward center isn’t going anywhere. But it helps to understand that it is responsible for all of your cravings and overeating. It will help you realize that you aren’t weak, you’re just human. The next time you have a craving, take note of how you feel. It isn’t just the taste that you crave. It’s the survival part of your brain, tricking you with stress hormones and dopamine.

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