Student Is Ready

Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.
If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy.

“Today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present.”

The origin of this letter is unknown.

“You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered…

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for the leader.”

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.”

And I say, “see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Oraibi, Arizona

A great little video on the poem, “Our Deepest Fear” by Marianne Williamson

This is definitely worth sharing:

When you hear everyone talking about recession, it tends to bring up feeling of negativity and one that generally doesn’t feel very good. So lets see if we can find a way neutralise it.

To start things off lets look at the word “recession”. Economists have their definition, which really doesn’t mean much to most people but in reality, recession is a receding, a contraction or a becoming smaller in some way. It means there is the impression that less exists where before there was more.

If you think about in terms of the sea, the tide constantly moves, when the tide goes out, it gives the impression that the sea has receded. In reality though, the water has simply flowed elsewhere, there’s still an abundance of water that’s always there.

Knowing that a recession then, is simply an “appearance” of something becoming less, we can then focus on what is REAL.

What exactly is REAL?

REAL, comes from the Spanish word meaning Royal (of the King) and if you think of a kingdom, what is “of the king”? Everything, and everyone, abides by the King. In this sense, your true Self is the king and the universe is Self’s kingdom.

So focusing on what’s real, means to focus on all possibilities existing at the same time and that you can choose to see whatever you want (and this requires you to be aware of the thoughts that you are taking as real).

With the awareness that all possibilities exist at the same time, you can choose to see that abundance is the order of the day and it all starts with being open to the possibility that you can have this reality.

So lets look at the practicalities of this, you say that you’re in debts and don’t have the money to pay for them, the appearance is that there’s not enough money to cover all the bills. Is that REAL? You may say, “Yes, it’s a fact that my bank account is bare”, but can you categorically, 100%, know that the money to cover the bills won’t show up? My guess is that you don’t know that absolutely, it’s simply a belief based on what you see in front of you. And a belief is just something you keep telling yourself that you have accepted as true.

So if you don’t know with absolute certainty that the money to cover your bills won’t show up, Where does that take you?

It takes you to “I don’t know”. It’s not very comfortable at first to say that because we all like to think that we have all the answers and we like to think that we know where we’re going, but in truth, very few of us truly know anything. And that’s ok.

Having arrived at “I don’t know”, we are then free/open to the possibility of having a solution present itself. You may begin to have thoughts of exciting new possibilities that inspire you to try new things, take steps that you hadn’t previously considered, but it all start with allowing yourself to be “open to the possibility” of goodness to come to you. After all, all the abundance is still there, it’s just that a majority of people began to focus on the lack, instead of the abundance.

The bottom line is that you have a choice even though on the surface it seems that you don’t. The choice comes with being open to the possibilities that goodness CAN come to you regardless of what anyone else is going through. It all depends on what story you choose to tell yourself, and you do have the choice of telling yourself a story that feels great to you, if you just bring some awareness.

In summary,

1. You have the appearance of something, that doesn’t feel good to you
2. You ask yourself, is this appearance the truth?
3. Do you know that with absolute 100% certainty? (In other words, is it possible that an alternative scenario exists?)
4. Chances are that you don’t know with certainty and an alternative scenario is always possible, so you come back and sit with, “I don’t know”.
5. Out of the “I don’t know” comes the opening for possibilities that goodness can come to you.
6. You begin to enjoy thoughts of exciting new possible futures and feel better about your prospects
7. You take action through inspiration (as opposed to desperation) and life starts to feel good.
8. New opportunities and fortuitous meetings begin to show up and you get back on track.
9. Life’s good, it always is.

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I was reading a book recently that spoke about happiness and how money simply has no bearing on being happy (the guy that wrote this book has hundreds of millions of dollars, so he should know!). While we’ve all heard that money doesn’t make you happy, I think a lot of us still cling to the hope that somehow it will and if not happiness, that it will give us something.

So I thought it may be useful to look at defining what exactly happiness is.

Webster’s dictionary defines it as a state of well-being and contentment: also, a pleasurable or satisfying experience.

That doesn’t really get it for me, I see happiness as a state of harmony where this moment right here and now is not only fine but also one where I am totally one with it and there is no thought of the next moment being different from this one (better or worse). There’s no “pursuit” involved, it’s simply a complete surrender and trust that all is as it is and I am well, my state of being doesn’t change because of the circumstances I happen to be in.

From this place, plans can be made, interactions with other people can happen, chores can be done or whatever, and the underlying state of wellness doesn’t change. There are no concerns, no dramas, no blaming and no problems, simply joy and bliss in the awareness of this present moment being all that is necessary.

Some would say this sounds boring or unrealistic and if that’s the way you see it, that’s ok too. It’s not about changing anyone to conform with your bliss, it’s complete allowance for all and in that you are in equilibrium with Self.

You may say that if everyone went around like this, nothing would get done and everyone would be in LA-LA land. But that line of reasoning is the mind looking to make it wrong in some way so that it can survive as an identity. It’s not easy to keep your ego alive when you give up the stories it loves to hold on to.

The way I see it is that true desires come from YOU as opposed to your mind that wants to believe that the attainment of the desire will change you in some way and make you better!

A true desire inspires you to a point where the journey feels exciting and the destination is not even in question. Instead what most of us do (with having desires of the mind) is become concerned about the destination and then get frustrated, annoyed or angry along the journey and then wonder why the destination (that promises so much), isn’t coming! It would be like going down a water slide and being concerned whether the water will be there at the bottom, the thrill of the ride is lost and getting to the bottom is inconsequential.

Enjoy the ride, Life is fantastic!

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready

Here’s an article by Keith Varnum that I thought you would enjoy.

To find out more about Keith, please go to:
http://www.thedream.com

One of the most prolific clichés in our culture is:

“Well, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is!”

Yes, I know. I know why this precaution is so popular. I know why
we let people get away with such a limiting pronouncement–over and
over again! I know why we buy into such a dead end deal.

We’re scared. Or is it “scarred?”

It’s both.

We’re scared that we’ll be hurt … again. We’re afraid that if we
trust again, let ourselves get hopeful and excited again, we’ll be
let down again. Disappointed, deceived, betrayed ….again!

And we’re scared of this doom because we’ve been scarred. Wounded
by life’s disappointing adventures. False starts. Misleading
appearances. Mistaken identities.

We feel cheated, conned, duped, tricked, taken in by life’s bogus
promises. “I don’t want to get all jacked up, just to be let down
one more time!”

Hey, I understand. Totally. I lived half my life this way. After
the umpteenth deception, I felt I needed to protect myself from any
further damage.

And it worked … with a price. A high price!

Catch 22

There’s only one tiny little problem with this surefire safe
approach to life’s ups and downs. This strategy is a
self-fulfilling prophesy. A self-creating conundrum. It’s a certain
path to zero growth. Zero cash. Zero love. Zero fun.

When we safeguard ourselves against pain by lowering our
expectations, refusing to hope, turning our back to possibility,
and denying our dreams … we die.

Slowly at first. Surely at length.

Catch 23

“Well, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is!”

Yes, our heart can’t be touched by life’s pain. But nor can we be
touched by life’s joy.

We’re shielded from life’s harsh twists of fate. But in the
process, we’re missing life’s tender turns of fortune.

Catch 24

“It’s too good to be true” is a good pain-proof vest. But it’s also
pleasure-proof armor.

Catch a Shooting Star

OK, so this counterproductive approach isn’t the best strategy to
avoid being hurt.

So how else can we navigate through life’s pranks and pitfalls
without being devastated?

Bare our soul to every person? Dive heartlong into every
experience? Lay ourselves open to the slings and arrows of every
encounter?

Not exactly … but you get the idea!

Science Class to the Rescue

One of the most helpful Life Tools I ever found, I picked up in
high school biology class. Really. … Yes! I learned about a
semi-permeable membrane!

Say what? A semi-permanent no brain? Well, yes, but that’s another
solution for another article.

A semi-permeable membrane is a barrier that allows passage of some
substances through it, but prohibits the passing of others. It’s
also called a selectively permeable membrane.

Even as a wacked out teenager, I immediately recognized this device
as a cool thing! Like, man, a filter that only allows what we want
to come through.

The Good News

The Good news is that each of us has such a useful selective filter
already built in! Our discriminating guard at the door is … our
intuition!

If consulted, your intuition will sort the good from not-so-good.
The nourishing from the non-nourishing. The energy-giving from the
energy-draining … People. Groups. Activities. Foods. Thoughts.
Beliefs.

Your intuition is like a really good friend who will tell you the
truth you don’t want to hear at the moment. Your inner guide will
reveal the facts about the new opportunities knocking at your door.
It protects you from taking impulsive, kneejerk action on
unconscious illusions, denials and wishful thinking.

And intuition will lead you in the right direction to the Promised
Land–your dreams, your true destiny.

A Tricky Business

A dicey business … this search for the righteous path to happiness.
But your intuition is up for the challenge! Your inner wisdom has
seen it all and knows the tricks of the Mind.

For example, intuition knows that if it sounds too good to be true,
then it is too good to be true … inside the box! … inside the world
you’re conditioned to perceive and operate.

Your inner friend will remind us that the reason a fresh idea
sounds outlandish is because the idea lies outside of your normally
trod territory!

Intuition knows that if an idea sounds too good to be true, then
the idea can be simply outside you box, your explored terrain.

An idea that sounds too good to be true is often only an idea that
hasn’t yet been explored by you!

The idea may be outside the realm of your experience, but it may
already be a practical reality for other people!

And even if this idea is new to everyone on earth, it may still be
valid and enriching. After all, every great leap of discovery by
humanity began as an idea that sounded too good to be true!

So, the next time your limited mind whispers to you, “Oh, that’s
too good to be true,” thank it for the warning. … And then check in
with your truly informed friend, your intuition!

Keith Varnum
http://www.thedream.com

Eckhart Tolle wrote – “Don’t seek the truth, just cease to cherish opinions”.

The above is a quote from Eckhart’s book “A New Earth”, and I thought it’d be good to discuss what this quote means (from my understanding).

Firstly, “Don’t seek the truth”, why would we be encouraged to not seek the truth?

On the surface it doesn’t make sense, after-all we all have this sense of what’s true and false (what’s right and wrong), but the issue is that the truth for one person may not be the same truth for another. When we perceive certain circumstances that combine to match the reality we have come to know as real, we call them – True.

The issue is that when we get caught in taking a stand for Truth, by default we make someone else wrong. Religions tend to be full of this type of thinking, where one person’s religion is the real thing while others believe in false prophets, you’re right and others are wrong!

In reality, your belief is true for you and my belief is true for me, but the mind has difficulty in dealing with everyone being right. It needs to create a separation to strengthen itself as an identity and it does this through making others wrong in some way.

So this becomes the main issue as to not seek the truth, it’s generally the mind looking for something to hang its hat on so that as an identity, you can say, I’m right (and they’re wrong!). There’s no freedom in that and in fact this is what war is based on.

The second part, “just cease to cherish opinions”. To understand this, lets look at what an opinion is. An opinion is simply a thought that from the persons’ perspective and/or experience is true or the “right” course of action to take.

By not cherishing the opinion, you put a gap there where you see it as a possibility that may or may not be true but it really doesn’t matter, you can simply allow it to be there without hanging your hat on it.

The implication of all of this can be summarised as follows:

You don’t care about seeking this thing called “The Truth” and the opinions you hear (both yours and others), don’t really matter, this leaves you with no “thing” (nothing) to hold on to as “you”. Therefore the mind can’t run the show and your authentic essence then has as opportunity to shine through.

I found an excerpt from one of the Abraham-Hicks workshops that also gets what we’re talking about:

“Forever, physical humans are saying, “give me the truth, give me the truth.” And we say, there are all kinds of truths. Choose the truths that serve you. Now, there are a lot of people that would feel great discomfort with that. But the thing that we want you to hear about it is: there is a truth of cancer, and there is a truth of wellness. Which truth serves you? You can activate either of them within you, and make it your truth. Truths are created; they aren’t static. They aren’t conditions that exist that then it is your obligation to identify and catalog. You are the creator of your truths–and what you are living is your truth.”

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready

Our Self, that lives within, Joy is our name, All is well and all is Allowed. 

Enjoy-in this moment, present here and now, and as this moment is allowed, the life force that is our source flows all about.

If we find ourselves in circumstances that feel painful, know that we are always worthy and deserving of Love and can find Joy.

As it is within so it is throughout.

~ Angelo Campione ~

Student Is Ready