The power of a dream

One of the most valuable things I have realised lately is what power a dream holds.

One of the things that brought me to seek more in my life was that I didn't really know what I wanted in it. I knew the space of silence and love that I wanted to connect to permanently but beyond that I wasn’t clear. It felt rough - I felt like I couldn’t do anything or include anyone in my life until I knew exactly what my purpose was. It felt just like a shallow survival type existence.

For a while when I discovered the connection I longed for I felt like all I needed was it. I could be happy living in a cardboard box as long as the depth and ever expanding and embracing nature of the stillness remained.

A few years on and now I find that I do have a vision, that there are important things that I hold dear and want to achieve in the world. For a little time I tried to deny these by ignoring them and sinking deeper into the quiet, but they kept coming back.

I see I was given this life to live - to fully bring Arjuna to the world: To explore what makes myself more and be this, continuously. I know that I want to see the world in a state of celebration, and I know that I can’t be fully free while suffering remains. I also know it is only through me fully living my life, without limitations, that the world is also set free.

Piece of cake…

So. I have a vision. It is of a future not far away. There fear, doubt, worry, condemnation are a ghost of a memory. There people live motivated by joy and love and the pleasure of giving. There, all see clearly and simply the power of choice and of thought, and use it to bring celebration to themselves and the rest of the world.

Humanity is free, never basing their worth on anything on the outside. Only one thing is relied on - the constant connection with the source of their soul. From that, all are given divine perspective: Lifted far, far beyond a life of survival, all are free to live for the delight of living, free to create whatever they wish, whenever they wish.

Spontaneous, beautiful, authentic life spirals onwards, upwards, forever and ever…

Truth

"It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth.' and so it goes away. Puzzling."

Robert M. Pirsig

Be yourself

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

Steve Jobs, Apple Computers

Easy does it

I teach meditation. Not meditation as commonly pictured or practiced, sitting bolt upright with legs crossed. Not meditation as in taking a trip or visualising colours. This is meditation as in union, a joining of one’s self to one’s fullest, greatest Self. It has no rules other than the more you use it, the more you get out of it. It is a simple movement into the heart of the Stillness within. It is totally effortless and absolutely rewarding. The reason for it is to allow life to be lived fully, richly and completely. The experience it gives me is the reason I wake in the morning, the reason I write this now.

Many people I have met say that all spiritual practices are the same. Maybe they say that because they are tired of looking, searching. Maybe it is their way of temporarily placating their heart’s longing for expansion. To me saying that is like saying all cars are the same. It’s true - on the surface - and yet infinitely untrue when you look closer.

Finding a way of permanently living in connection to the silence within, that ‘at home’ quality of yourself that you know so well, should be the purpose of all spiritual practice. In this way some cars simply do not start. Some are take eons of instruction to learn how to drive. Some go, but are exhausting to drive. Some are too small, too slow, too unsatisfying. What you want is a luxury car, easy to handle, relaxing to use, simply nothing but comfort as you speed past all old outmoded ways towards your heart’s desires.

I say this because it’s important. Crucial even. Spiritual practice has nothing to do with pain and suffering or even force, trying or straining. Zero. Your mind responds to what it loves far far better than punishment. Love conquers all. The path is the same as the goal.

So take hope. There is a way back home. There are tools that fit you, that allow you to stretch out and, as you do so, discover all the places where you are holding back the fullest expression of yourself. There are ways and means that allow you to experience everything of your inner and outer life. It can be absolutely easy and enjoyable. You can be experiencing nothing but joy from here to forever. True. I tell you no lies.

A life worth living...

It’s the doubt that kills all, any dream any love any aspiration any miracle. That belief that it can’t be done. Awful. If anything I want to live with both feet solidly in the dream. Definitely not in believing that it’s not even possible because that’s the way its always been, that’s the way it’s done, that’s the way everyone does it. No way, no more.

I want to live life fully and hugely and pay no attention to those grey little contractions that see and judge the world as half empty. That’s not how I want to live. I want joy and expansion and love and beauty and dreams and miracles.

I want it all.

I love the people I live with. They are the most inspired bunch I have ever come across. We feed off each other, it’s a continual expansion of hope and reality, of dreams and experience. I guess you could say that I’m lucky, but this is what I wanted always and now I have it.

I have it all and I want more.

I always wanted to live a life where I never regretted not doing something. One where I could look back and say I did it all: There is nothing that I wanted to do and did not try. It’s friggin scary to begin, and still takes boldness to launch into living each moment guided by my heart. But there is nothing else I can do, really. So I resolve to do that in every second of my existence – not to exist, not to put up with, but to fully engage my dreams and that which is important and vital to me right now.

One thing I have faith in is that I can look after my interests first and everyone wins through that. I full know the value and joy of giving and of making a commitment and sticking with it. My resolve has nothing to do with small minded and constantly changing selfish ego stroking. And I trust all those around me to tell me if I ever get arrogant enough to fall into that. What it has everything to do with is a life dedicated to Truth, to Love, to Beauty and to Freedom. In that, there can be no losers.

On Freedom

From the Prophet - Khalil Gibran

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

Do you realise how wonderful you are?

Do you realise how wonderful you are? How beautiful and amazing your presence is? It shines like the sun! Not that you do anything to be like this, just you being fully present in yourself is all that is required for your light to come alive. It’s so wonderful to share either words or silence with you. Yet it’s the weirdest thing to feel that uniqueness, that wholeness that is you and then realise you doubt that who you are is good enough. The words that sometimes come out of your mouth and what I experience is so different it’s shocking. Good enough for what? Good enough to be here? To live?

Let me tell you what I see. You are perfect. All that you wish to become is there, sitting, waiting for you to realise and accept and love all that you are. It’s all there right now. You don’t need to change, to add or lose any part of yourself. Every desire, interest, love and dislike of yours is part of the gift that you bring to the world. You do not have to know more, heal more, gather anything else to you before your fullness can be appreciated. You are all that you want, already.

For so long we have run in circles looking to do right, looking to please, to become loved by making people happy. We want to become and change and heal. We have become neurotic that something is wrong with us. It’s so terrible because it is absolutely untrue. We are more trained to react to other’s opinions of ourselves than we realise, or would like to admit. We give up our beauty, our uniqueness, our gifts to the world far too easily. We constantly compromise our hearts’ longing, because our dreams, our vision is not good enough, not quite right.

There is only one thing that you have to do, only one thing that will complete you. That is living in constant contact with the truth of your soul. Of your soul! Not your parent’s or your partner’s or even Jesus’s or Buddha’s or Eckhart Tolle’s. Rest fully in the truth of who you are, right now, and walk. Live the life that you love. This is Truth, this is living free as you were meant to be. And the only thing that can stop us experiencing our full potential is doubt – that doubt that who we are right now is not good enough. Not yet, not until we get this knowledge or position, lose this block, are in this relationship. You see that and you are free, you are no longer the monkey on the chain.

The payoffs for even beginning this journey are immense. When you realize how wonderful and complete your presence is, never again will you hurt yourself. Never again will you base your happiness on what happens on the outside. You will be complete, full and satisfied with that simple awareness of yourself. You will find love, joy and gratitude in even the simplest things. Dignity, respect, awe, magic, peace, constant stability are all yours, growing surely as you give your attention back to yourself.

This is the greatest gift you can give the world: your Self. You will never buy your presence in a store or on eBay. Nor will you find it in a book. By simply settling back into your awareness and bringing the fullest expression of yourself back from the jaws of doubt, the whole world is transformed. Everything of the world, right down to the smallest energetic potential rejoices when you remember because it’s what the world needs – people who have come alive.

Your Heart Awaits...

Something I wrote a while back to explain why I teach and practice the meditation technique I teach and practice. Hope you enjoy it.



You are all that you seek to be, all that the sages have written about throughout time and space. You are at once a child of this Universe and the Creator of the cosmos. Your destiny, your purpose in life is to realise this, to be this, to live your fullest potential. God is here and God is Now and God is You. You are not here to be a mere channel for God, but completely inseparable from It. God loves you so much that the Truth waits - for all Eternity if need be - for you to make the only choice that matters: To return back to Yourself. This is the only life that will fully satisfy your heart, which remembers your perfection very well.

At some level you know this to be true. Your flawlessness already exists under the concerns and fears of your day-to-day life. It is stillness, peace, and childlike wonder; it is the Beloved on the inside. It is total freedom from all limitation. Living it is a shift from unconsciousness – believing that the surface drama of life is Reality - to constant awareness of the Source that underlies all creation. The fruit of this communion is the obliteration of all fear, all need for protection, all idea of lack of any kind, leaving only the constant perception of perfection, joy, clarity, laughter and love.

Returning to Innocence is not difficult, nor does it involve force or even seriousness of any kind. The only thing you have to do is have a willingness, a commitment to be who you are and to give up your belief in limitation, in separation. You do not have to follow a particular belief system, diet or exercise regime. You do not need to heal yourself before the Universe embraces you, although you will be fully healed when you fully commit to Being God. You need not do anything else but focus on what is Real, right Now. The promise has always been one of instant forgiveness - instant purity - when you Remember in this moment. The more you do this the more life is lived sweetly and perfectly. The growth of awareness of God in you affects Everything, the whole of Consciousness. The choice for peace in you is the choice for peace in all humanity. Here is absolute service, absolute selflessness - for truly you are giving up the hold of the small self in exchange for dissolving back into that which endlessly gives.

The Ishayas have held the vision of, and the means for, a completely free humanity ever since the rise of ego and selfishness. Ishaya in Sanskrit means ‘of the Lord’ or ‘of the highest consciousness’. The vision is one of universal faultlessness, of life submerged in endless joy and love and adventure and divine grace, utterly without a hint of suffering. The means is called Ascension, which is ‘to rise above the entire limiting structure of the mind’. The Ishayas well know that God is the peace that passeth all understanding, something that can be experienced fully but never adequately described in mere words. People from different cultures and backgrounds refer to Themselves in different ways but yet they are the same. The Ishayas’ Ascension is a mechanical tool for all, regardless of belief, that leads directly back to what is Real. In all its simple purity, this teaching is a re-alignment with the Truth of who you are.

Everything you need is already in place inside of you. There is nothing than can hold back your destiny. The only thing that can slow this growth is human stubbornness. If you accept the summons of the One it’s possible to live your dreams: It can be nothing but joy from hereon in. Let your heart guide you… don’t put it off any longer. What more invitation do you require?

Originally published in Rainbow News