Ways to raise my energy?

[truth]

I'd like to share an expansion of the battery analogy that came about in the midst of a long catch up chat with a friend this week.

We were talking about retaining and living in the flow when he mentioned that his brother-in-law had described how it seemed to him that we each had our own rechargeable battery, a battery that would drain and be recharged throughout life. However, as with rechargeable batteries, once used, the recharge never brought it back to 100%, hence as the energy levels fell, we require more and more recharges, we slow and age. A message, I believe that shares Mark's view of lives lived on a basis of energy taking.

Now, as soon as I heard that my thought was that that battery would only ever come into use when we were disconnected from the source. For example a newborn baby would be connected to the source (as my friend called it - the mains) and would remain connected as long as it was allowed to be authentic to itself (with authentic help, of course).

But guess what? Life happens and we have to learn how to live it as best we can in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Although that learning enables us to get through, the thought pattern the learning creates remains intact and is called into use every time we confront circumstances similar to that which created it. We get the spark to act, but the doubt confuses us as to what to do. Saying that, there is good news and that is that we can re-learn how to connect to the mains by wanting to and being prepared to unlearn that which we think we know about life. BTW it isn't the noisy neighbours, the boss and politicians etc. that drain us, it is ourselves - when we choose to live life the way we think it is meant to be lived rather that living life, as Lisa pointed out, with the possibility of the moment... it takes guts, because we have to do as Madman pointed out - confront that which drains us. However, when we take those uncomfortable circumstances and take them to heart - remember them with a want to learn from the experience - life, bless it, will provide us with the clues.

Epiphanies are to be celebrated, because they are evidence of us re-learning. However, the sense of joy and relief that un-learning brings can make us believe that we have the one and only answer, rather than what it is - one piece of our own, personal and unique life's puzzle. Which begs the question - when do we know we have found the answer? From own experience, I have to say it is when we realise that there is no one answer for life... only pieces of the puzzle. Our thoughts are ideas, messages if you like from who knows where, when welcomed and accepted with love will bring about actions driven by love.

The thing is that part of me feels that we really don't have a choice in this process - almost, dare I say, that what will be will be... the free will which most of us strive to retain allows us that opportunity to consider whether we do what we really want to do or go with what we think we know, but I don't think we ever know what we really want either - we get clues and Mark writes of living in that energy, but I can't say hand on heart that what I do is heading towards the World Peace which I believe is possible and towards which I appear to be playing my part, because I don't know that there is an end result as such, rather a never ending evolutionary process in which I've found a deep and meaningful way to play my part.

Wow! I wonder where that all came from - it's amazing how a battery analogy can lead to real depth of meaning and celebration of not knowing anything!

My motto - Enjoy and live it with a yearn to learning how to love it... all.

As always, a pleasure to share...

[SL]

Hi All,

Pat, i was really touched by what you said. There is so much clarity in that, thank you for posting it.

Thank you all, this is a great thread.

Peace,
Steve

[MM2]

Hi Doug,

Nutty Nutty busy over here, every moment seems to be one I can look forward too! I would have LOVED to have this conversation when I first came here and indeed even just a few years ago, but now I find that there is so many good things going on that I am naturally percieving that its like I do not have enough time to experience it all. It makes it all so potent....

That said, I would like to expand on the destructive and constructive interference, but I know I've written about it before a little bit in a post titled "Spirituality Defined: MM2 Theory". If you can find it, right on. Its burried in a thread about flowing conversations. I was planning on making it its own thread. A vision came to me about writing a post about synchronicity and love together and I hope to cover the energy interactions in it. That will have to wait though.

What may be more serving to you is a focus on this part of your post:

[Doug.in.PA]

Hello Madman, Truth, and Mark - thanks for your posts. I've just printed them out so I can spend more time with them on my ride home today.

For now, Mark - there are a couple of points in your recent post that I'd like to say something about, briefly. Your suggestion of examining my subconscious programming in regard to New York struck a chord. That and the possible help that could come from not satisfying myself and my programming so much. This is something I feel it may help to explore.

As to the 6th insight, that is the one about control dramas (and understanding the mission we have from our parents too maybe?), right? Yes, that has already been a great help to me - I have been aloof, big time. Now, there's something else to consider here. What do you think of astrology, if anything? I got a reading based on my birth chart last year that nailed me almost 100%, and I just recently looked over it again. This stuff is in the chart, man. It's like I'm wired for this stuff. So yes, I agree with your machine analogy as well. The question is, how to work with that. I might share some of the reading with you if you're interested.

But for now I've gotta run.

Thanks, and more later -
Doug

[Doug.in.PA]

Hi again guys -

So, now I've had some more time to read through the recent posts. First - Truth - a few comments.

[truth]

Hi Doug,

It's good to connect - I've enjoyed reading many of your posts and had a feeling that a direct connection would be inevitable...

As to the reconnection - when I read your response yesterday I had no clue as to how to respond to your request, but, having been reminded yesterday that we all have our place here in life, Oindigo reminding me of an old thread called 'A better place to be' and reading your reference to the love you find in your forest - I guessed that all clues lead to what it means to be where we are in life and why our place in life determines whether we are happy or unhappy with our lot - connected to or disconnected from the source.

Now, having read your response regarding free will, I would like to add that, although it might not be free, I do believe we have will. So, when we are unhappy with life, a good question to ask ourselves is why we have brought ourselves to a place where we are unhappy - why we have fallen out of love with life. Once we take ownership of our own happiness in the life in which we find ourselves, we have a better chance of taking ownership of our own happiness - we make it happen because we really want it to happen.

Commuting was an interesting time for me, because I was Mrs Happy and I wanted for everyone else to be happy too... it isn't as easy as that. If I had truly been happy, I would have welcomed everyone for who they were - not tried to change them. So, one day, and totally out of the blue, I realised that when I stepped onto the bus, I entered a whole new realm - a mini universe (the blessing of a lively imagination) - speeding along (as best it could) on its own trajectory with a constant change of inhabitants who all played their parts in that particular life's short journey... Over time I started to to close my eyes and meditate on the bus and then, little by little, allowed myself to be myself within that small part of my life's journey. In fact, thinking about it now, my commute, as insignificant as it was, played a significant role in me bringing more of myself to life.

Thank you for the reminder,
Pat

[SL]

Hi Everyone,

I get a poem or parable everyday written by Rumi, the Sufi poet. I subscribed several years ago to these guys who put them out. The synchs involved with when I get or read the poems and what I have personally been thinking about or discussing are always interesting.

I read truth's and Doug's posts last night. The free will ideas made me want to write something then in response, but I held off, not for any conscious reason. This showed up this morning:

"Love is Reckless"

Love is reckless; not reason.
Reason seeks a profit.
Love comes on strong, consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,
Love proceeds like a millstone,
hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died to self-interest,
she risks everything and asks for nothing.
Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;
without cause, give it back again.
Gambling yourself away is beyond any religion.

Religion seeks grace and favor,
but those who gamble these away are God's favorites,
for they neither put God to the test
nor knock at the door of gain and loss.

-- Version by Kabir Helminski
"Love is a Stranger"
Threshold Books, 1993

Every verse mirrors what I have felt, thought, experienced and seen over the years concerning love, as well as reason. It seems appropriate, from my perspective, to any discussion involving free will.

Do I deny free will?
Not a bit.

Do I believe in determinism?
I feel it is too early for any of us to say. That we live and experience behind a veil seems obvious to me, so I have to consider it as a possibility. I will say, however, that even though mathematics seems to indicate no thing is certain, intention is apparent in everything.

Do I believe reason serves us?
Absolutely.

We are inundated by choices, from the color of our socks to the choices we make deciding how to provide for ourselves to who we choose to spend time with. Reason provides tools for negotiating this endless stream of apparently critical decisions. But reason cannot cut to the Essence of what our experience is about. It can only describe the Essence of experience. Because the Essence of experience is the experience itself.

In the preparation for the Celestine Gathering I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with James. Our purpose in meeting was for Kelly and me to get a better feel for what his perception about the 12th Insight was developing into, as he was going to be talking about it during the Gathering.

As I understand him, what his books have been illustrating, what we have all been learning individually has been, at the level of experience, a fairly individual process until now. He seems to feel that we have entered a phase where what we have learned individually, as part of the group process, is actually going to be integrated in to our collective process, our experience together as a community.

At a certain point in discussing the process, we touched on free will. As I have thought about and discussed this topic with a few people over the last couple of years, it was a nice confirmation to hear his perspective.

Basically my feeling, and apparently his as well (I would not presume to speak for James, we did not record the conversation so I am not going to quote him or even imply he said anything specifically other than my above reference to the confirmation I felt), is that as one grows in awareness, learns what it feels like to be 'balanced', that is, in synch in mind, body and spirit, the need for a 'choice' diminishes, even disappears.

One goes where one is led. Each of us is here to do what we are here to do. This is a given, what this is, is an unknown. It is a process, constantly redefining itself. It should be one we all honor in one another, because in this process we serve one another in infinite ways.

The previous 11 insights have been about mechanics. They have been instructional in the sense of how things work. But to have integrated all of this intellectual information in a way that is truly liberating for a person, as well as a society, one has to come from the heart. If we are going to be able to come together and live with one another as a community from this perspective, what we need more than technical solutions to our problems, what we need more than enough people committed to one just cause or another, is people who are in balance, who are in touch with their heart, and that, not in some sugary way, but compassionate of one another,, understanding that a large process is unfolding within an even larger process. Everything that we can observe has that characteristic, one thing leading to another...

Does that make sense? I mean, can you feel what that may imply about how we might be able to live? If we are open and without fear about anything people hold fears about, can you imagine what a liberating experience that would be? Can you imagine what that would be like, to live in a community where you would know, with certainty, that all of the people around you were coming from their hearts and understandings, as you are?

I know from my reading that many of you who come to the forum have experienced exhilarations of insight into your own individual freedom. That you, as an aspect of Source, are free! All of the information that you need you can access. All of the energy you need is there, it is your energy.

But this imaginary experience of community I just described, I do not know personally. I can imagine there might be some who do, some who live with a group of people where everyone knows and understands their nature on this level. But it cannot be very many who do.

I think that idea is what is so exciting and intriguing about where we are and who we are right now. I mean imagine, if you will, that everyone understood this. Imagine, if you will, that we are all aware of our connection to Source, that our identity comes from Source, because we are indeed all a part of the same thing, the same idea, the same process.

Wouldn't that be a completely different experience for you all as well? Am I such a lonesome wolf that I am the only guy around who hasn't found that many people who get this? I don't think so, based on what I have seen.

If I was to believe that the world we live in had a 'problem', what I would describe as a problem is that the vast majority of people would have no idea what I am even talking about. And see, that is why I rarely get seriously wound up about all of the examples of things that need to be 'fixed' here on this Earth. Until this concept becomes the consensus about our reality, none of these other issues are going to be resolved. At the end of the day, the consensus view is that we live with limited resources, as individual human beings as well as a society. When scarcity is the reality, power is what is important.

I am always open for suggestions on expressing this awareness to as many people as possible. This above any other technique or discipline we can learn, is what will truly 'raise energy'.

Thank you all once again for your contributions to the forum.

Peace,
Steve

[SL]

I was re-reading what I posted a while ago, correcting typos, fixing a clumsy sentence, and something made me think of this essay I had sent some years ago. I was able to find it in the sent folder of an old yahoo account I had then.

I'll paste it below, I think in the book I got it out of, it was either 3 or 5 paperback book pages. I have always appreciated it, and feel that it is a nice addendum to what I just posted. I hope some of you do as well.

Peace,
Steve




The Confidence of Innocence

from a lecture given by J. Krishnamurti given to students


We have been discussing the question of revolt within the prison: how all reformers, idealists and others are incessantly active in producing certain results, are always revolting within the walls of their own conditioning, within the walls of their own social structure, within the cultural pattern of civilization which is an expression of the collective will of the many. I think it would now be worth while if we could see what confidence is and how it comes about.

Through initiative there comes about confidence; but initiative within the pattern only brings SELF-confidence, which is entirely different from confidence without the self. Do you know what it means to have confidence? If you do something with your own hands, if you plant a tree and see it grow, if you paint a picture, or write a poem, or, when you are older, build a bridge or run some administrative job extremely well, it gives you confidence that you are able to do something. But, you see, confidence as we know it now is always within the prison, the prison which society - whether communist, Hindu, or Christian - has built around us. Initiative within the prison does create a certain confidence, because you feel you can do things: you can design a motor, be a very good doctor, an excellant scientist, and so on. But this feeling of confidence which comes from the capacity to succeed within the social structure, or to reform, to give more light, to decorate the interior of the prison is really SELF-confidence; you know you can do something, and you feel important doing it. Whereas, when through investigating, through understanding, you break away from the social structure of which you are a part, there comes a completely different kind of confidence which is without the sense of self-importance; and if we can understand the difference between these two - between self-confidence, and confidence without the self - I think it will have great significance in our life.

When you play a game very well, like badminton, cricket, or football, you have a certain sense of confidence, have you not? It gives you the feeling that you are pretty good at it. If you are quick at solving mathematical problems, that also breeds a sense of self-assurance. When confidence is born of action within the social structure, there always goes with it a strange arrogance, does there not? The confidence of a man who can do things, who is capable of achieving results, is always coloured by this arrogance of the Self, the feeling, "It is I who do it." So, in the very act of achieving a result, of bringing about a social reform within the prison, there is the arrogance of the self, the feeling that "I" have done it, that MY ideal is important, that MY group has succeeded. This sense of the "me" and the "mine" always goes with the confidence that expresses itself within the social prison.

Have you not noticed how arrogant idealists are? The political leaders who bring about certain results, who achieve great reforms - have you not noticed that they are full of themselves, puffed up with their ideals and their achievements? In their own estimation they are very important. Read a few of the political speeches, watch some of these people who call themselves reformers, and you will see that in the very process of reformation they are cultivating their own ego; their reforms, however extensive, are still within the prison, therefore they are destructive and ultimately bring more misery and conflict to man.

Now, if you can see through this whole social structure, the cultural pattern of the collective will which we call civilization - if you can understand all that and break away from it, break through the prison walls of your particualr society, whether Hindu, communist, or Christian, then you will find that there comes a confidence which is not tainted with the sense of arrogance. It is the confidence of innocence. It is like the confidence of a child who is so completely innocent he will try anything. It is this innocent confidence that will bring about a new civilization; but this innocent confidence cannot come into being as long as you remain within the social pattern.

Please do listen to this carefully. The speaker is not in the least important, but it is very important that you understand the truth of what is being said. After all, that is education, is it not? The function of education is not to make you fit into the social pattern; on the contrary, it is to help you to understand completely, deeply, fully and thereby break away from the social pattern, so that you are an individual without that arrogance of the self; but you have confidence because you are really innocent.

Is it not a great tragedy that almost all of us are concerned either with how to fit into society, or how to reform it? Have you noticed that most of the questions you have asked reflect this attitude? You are saying, in effect, "How can I fit into society? What will my father and mother say, and what will happen to me if I don't?" Such an attitude destroys whatever confidence, whatever initiative you have. And you leave school and college like so many automatons, highly efficient perhaps, but without any creative flame. That is why it is so important to understand the society, the environment in which one lives, and, in that very process of understanding break away from it.

You see, this is a problem all over the world. Man is seeking a new response, a new approach to life, because the old ways are decaying, whether in Europe, in Russia, or here. Life is a continual challenge, and merely to try to bring about a better economic order is not a total response to that challenge, which is always new; and when cultures, peoples, civilizations are incapable of responding totally to the challenge of the new, they are destroyed.

Unless you are properly educated, unless you have this extraordinary confidence of innocence, you are inevitably going to be absorbed by the collective and lost in mediocrity. You will put some letters after your name, you will be married, have children, and that will be the end of you.

You see, most of us are frightened. Your parents are frightened, your educators are frightened, the governments and religions are frightened of your becoming a total individual, because they all want you to remain safely within the prison of environmental and cultural influences. But it is only the individuals who break through the social pattern by understanding it, and who are therefore not bound by the conditioning of their own minds - it is only such people who can bring about a new civilization, not the people who merely conform, or who resist one particular pattern because they are shaped by another. The search for God or truth does not lie within the prison, but rather in understanding the prison and breaking through its walls - and this very movement toward freedom creates a new culture, a different world.

[Grahame]

Steve,

At times I find myself sailing out at night along a rocky coast, occasionally I fret, sometimes I get a little lonely, and inevitably at those times you are there like a lighthouse. But yours in not a light that guides me to a safe port, rather it encourages me to sail out across the seas and reminds me of the illusion of the safe harbour; that where ever I am, I am SAFE, that even in darkness I have all the light I need. Your light guides me back to peace.

Namaste.

...and thank you once again my friend.
_________________
"Problems cannot be solved from the same level of consciousness that created them" - Einstien

[Doug.in.PA]

Hi truth and Steve, and Grahame - really excellent posts there, thank you!

I'll probably need to keep this short as my time is more limited this evening.

Truth - Pat, this week I involved myself in a coaching program that's now running, and it's neat to hear some of the primary content of the program echoed in your post. Indeed - "why we have brought ourselves to a place where we are unhappy"? Taking ownership of my decisions, actions, and conditions has been part of the message in the sessions I've been in on this week. And your thought on how taking ownership of your life as it is gives you a better chance to take ownership of your happiness with true success (if I'm reading into it correctly) goes along with it all and serves as further clarification.

And I like your bus "mini universe" concept.


Steve - is that Steve Maraboli, by chance? Steve, your first post was truly riveting! You are an amazing writer, my friend, and what you're writing about there is really wonderful. Krishnamurti is also amazing, but I shall have to return at another time to read that one, as I'm running out of steam here tonight... Indeed - love *is* reckless. Excellent poem. And it was thrilling to read a bit about the 12th Insight that James is arriving at. I can really see how moving toward a community expression, an integration of our individual spiritual awakening and learning into a collective process, could very well be where this is all going, and maybe sooner than we might think, though like you I often feel that there aren't many thinking and living like this, or moving toward living like this. Maybe I'll remember who it was who said something I think I read recently, about how when you are doing what you're really meant to do, there is no choice, and how we only ever really choose when we're confused. Or something to that effect. Well, anyway... coming from the heart and being in a community of those who are all doing the same is a truly wonderful thing to contemplate.

And I will leave it there for now.

Blessings everyone -
Doug

[Doug.in.PA]

Steve -

A superb lecture by Krishnamurti. He was a rare man. On rare occasion, I discover someone like him, who has the most excellent perceptions and ideas, and is most articulate in expressing them, and just wonder why we have not joined together in the light of this blazing consciousness to take up these ideas and bring them into manifestation. It is as plain as the Sun in the sky.

- Doug

[truth]

Hi Steve, Doug,

I agree, the words, sequence and delivery were just perfect - thank you for posting this lecture, because I'm sure it'll come in useful to many who come across it on their journey.

Now all we have to do is to put it into practice.

The last two days I've been toying with my issue around introversion... this morning I believe I've gained the inkling of an insight. It seems to me that we become introverted in a situation when we think it's best for everyone for us to keep a low profile. The problem being that if we always revert to that thought process, we will never give ourselves the chance to build that self confidence as described by Krishnamurti... catch 22. How to enable people to overstep their mark?

Doug, I'm interested in this coaching course you are currently undertaking and I'd like you, if you don't mind, to bear the above point in mind when/if your course covers the standard four elements of coaching: 1) Denial 2) Resistance 3) Exploration 4) Action - especially in respect of denial, because the real dilemma for the introvert is how we can be coached out of a problem if we feel that we don't have one? Denial of a real problem is a difficult enough step to overcome, but denial of a problem that doesn't cause anyone else harm other than our self esteem must be nigh on impossible to identify, let alone overcome.

Can you see where I'm headed? You see I believe we have masses upon masses of good people out in the world currently burying themselves in the structure, occasionally raising their voices, but too quietly to be heard above the main clamour that is modern life. If we can get those guys to connect with their self confidence, bearing in mind they really do want to be everything to everybody, well, I think we'll live to see that tipping point tip.

What do you think?

One thought I had this morning was in connection with the Myer Briggs personality tests and based on the principle that we truly are and have the potential to be the person we most admire.

If we could firstly undertake the test as the real self and take note of our responses to the questions, then undertake it a second time, but this time by imagining ourself to be the person we most admire, you know, how we think they would act in the same situations - the differences between the two would highlight our 'problem' areas... or buried goodness areas... areas around which we can be coached in order to build that confidence.

I believe I've finally realised why I've always had an issue with introverts all these years - it's been my job to work out where introversion fits into the humanity equation... I think it must be something to do with... and the meek shall... oh Lordy Lord!

Thank you guys,
Pat

[Doug.in.PA]

Pat - LOL! The meek - yeah. Hmm... Very cool thought there... !

Well, I received my Reiki Master training today, so I'm rather tired, and am processing a lot right now. But I wanted to tell you that I've seen "denial" come up three times now since late afternoon, in one way or other, and it seems linked to self-esteem. One of them was in the other topic I'm following in here that also has new posts I was just looking at. It's not just that, either. There's stuff tying into each other all over the place for me this week.

Well, though I don't think of myself as an introvert now, I definitely *was* one, earlier in life. Perhaps I'm in denial about not being one now too... lol!

So, I feel as though I'm being prodded to step up for something, and that it's something "big." I can only trust that just what that something is will become clear. At this point it seems that it will just have to be revealed in whatever steps and timing is required, because though I see some possibilities, I really do not yet have a clear vision of what this might be.

What do I think? I think I would love to see the tipping point tip.

Your idea about taking the personality test twice - that's such a great idea!

You got any more about all this?

- Doug

[Doug.in.PA]

Pat, and anyone else who's interested -

At the risk of turning the recent discussion in this topic on its ear, I propose starting a new topic relating to the following, from your recent post, Pat:

[SL]

Hi Everyone,

thank you all for your comments and compliments. A little old man told me once that even blind squirrels find an acorn now and then.

Doug, no I am not Steve Maraboli, he is a great guy though! We met at the Celestine Gathering.

I am going to be on the road for a week or two but I will check in to the new thread when I get the chance.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Namaste,
Steve