Student Is Ready

Posts Tagged ‘freedom’

Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”

Why would he say this, when it seems that all we do is think all day long?

It would seem that the thinking Henry is talking about is not the same thinking that we associate with in daily life.

My interpretation is that real thinking requires consciousness with an awareness that understands that thoughts are not fixed, they can be manipulated and directed by us, and therefore we are “free” to choose what we think.

Most of the time in our daily lives though, our mind is simply busy with thoughts of no real value, what we saw on TV, a song we heard, what someone said to you recently or some belief you have about yourself. We’re not consciously choosing these thoughts, it’s just head chatter that enables us to exist in the world in a basic instinct mode.

Examples of thinkers are, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Dale Carnegie, Henry Ford and Isaac Newton. Why were they different to most people? Some would say these people were great visionaries but I suspect that they simply understood that they could direct their mind to “think” in such a way that enabled them to see greater possibilities for the future.

The question is, do you really want to reclaim your freedom so that you can have choice?

The mindfulness practices I’ve talking about in previous emails are a great start, and, I know that old conditioning can still get in the way. So if you’d like to be guided in a step-by-step way on how to use your mind to think with consciousness that feels good and will ultimately lead to serious change, check out this link:

http://www.thoughtalive.com/

I think that what Leslie has created here is of great value and if you haven’t read “The Jack Rabbit Factor” yet, please do so ASAP (you can get it through the same link).

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready

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

We generally don’t know what it’s like to die, but I’ve had a glimpse of it and it’s not what we think.

It was one summer a few years back, I was at Phillip Island (Victoria, Australia), snorkelling in some rock pools at low tide. I’d been snorkelling for about half an hour in deeper water admiring fish and anything else that moved and then decided to go back to shore. On the way back, I found a very small rock pool that was very shallow, about a foot deep and because it was so small the water had been warmed up by the sun so I decided it would be a good spot to rest and enjoy the warmer water after being in colder water.

As I floated there I noticed that I could no longer feel my body, there was no gravity due to the water buoying my weight and the water temperature must have matched my body temperature as I could no longer feel anything, also my breathing had slowed so much that I couldn’t perceive my breath. The next thing I realised was that there was no sound, my head (and ears) were under water and the rock pool was motionless. I couldn’t smell anything in my mask and so the only perception I had left was that of sight, so I thought, if I close my eyes, I wonder what it will be like?

Well… the experience was profound, as soon as I closed my eyes, I became huge, it was an expansion that felt as though I was the universe, nothing existed and yet everything was blissful and perfect. I needed nothing and I was everything, there was no room for thought, it was unnecessary, it was simply joyful being.

Eventually I opened my eyes and came back to this reality and felt as though I’d had a spiritual enema, my heart felt huge and clear and there was a deep appreciation for all that is. It was later, upon reflection that I realised that this is what it’s like to die.

What I experienced was a temporary letting go of the body and mind and everything associated with it and what I was left with was consciousness. Nothing existed but I was conscious and formless! I realised that this is my true nature and there’s nothing to be afraid of in dying when that moment comes.

Every thought we have pretends to be important for us because this reality called living seems so real to us. We think that because we FEEL pleasure or pain, that those are real, they’re not, they’re only relative to what we perceive. It’s only when we begin to put a gap between what is perceived and the perceiver that we begin to find what’s real.

The best way I know to do that is through the breath. Be aware of your breath as it enters your nose and lungs and then out again. Practice this as often as you can in all situations (you’ll notice that you can notice the breath and still do everything else). This “noticing” puts a space in between you and what you’re doing and will enable you to make clearer decisions and also to not get so caught up when you find yourself getting into a heated discussion.

Angelo Campione

Student Is Ready