Distant Relatives or Lovers

How do you treat the energy that surrounds you in any given context clothed in any given form at any given moment. Do you have the same relationship with this living intelligent expressions of love, as an acquaintance or less, or of a distant relative or perhaps a customer? As you improve your awareness this relationship will change and grow stronger...becoming more similar to that of an a neighbour, or friend, then a family member and eventually a lover. Finally to that of something you have created yourself....and then yourself.

Eat food not to experience the taste yourself, but that the food being living intelligent expression of self may have a quality experience of you as you engage with it. What happens then if you eat and watch TV? What value does the life energy that is that food before you gain from you?

This is a basic yet necessary service well within our capability yet it idea of it sits beyond our consciousness, waiting to be discovered. It is like active listening....it IS active experiencing. Take a moment to think....how much life energy is surrounding you now as we speak. Is there not enough that we must therefore 'want' more. When put this way it makes wanting a ludicrous down right rude activity.

There is an abundance of life energy everywhere I look. Life energy in all of it's forms will respond to me. I can summon or invoke it, in all of its living forms, but doing so only stands to show I have not yet learnt who I am. For when I do, I will know, that love is found in the service of life energy and all of it's perspectives, not in the experiencing of it from self. I do still experience, but I do so in service to it, rather than from the perspective of personality that seeks only to have a one sided affair. An experience of love from my own singular perspective, and not from the perspective of life, where the circle is then completed.

This will take some getting used to, but basically it means every mouthful of food has a right to be experienced. Every lung full of air has a right to be experienced. Where then is the right of us...to want more.

Mind on others

My mind is currently being drawn towards the service of others, but without any specific order. I feel I am simply being prepared that when the time comes my commitment will be second to none, and I will pure in my actions for I will have detached myself from every part of wanting towards the personality prior to entering into this as yet unknown service. When I know more I will let you know.

Accountability

I have given lately to organizing my time for the purposes of being able to report better to the Chair of the Board at our weekly meetings and to be able to quickly draw up a monthly report for the board meetings. The method of planning and time records has been honed over the last 6 months and now I feel I have an effective working model. This got me thinking. What would happen if I applied this principle to my spiritual life. After all, I have a "chairman" equivalent to answer to there also. I believe if I were to log how often I appreciate, send forth love, do a random act of kindness, or a selfless act. If I noted when I engaged in harmlessness, read for the purpose of furthering wisdom; actively listened to my intuition; set about doing something for someone else; reduced my footprint on the planet deliberately; gifted a smile; made someone laugh or seriously contemplate the way they do things or any other of the many possible spiritually enhancing activities that are available to me in my day - then I would find it clear how spiritual my life actually is, and would become I think more motivated to engage in these activities more often in my day, because I have to report at the end of the week, rather than at the end of my life time at some pearly gate...a distance that is too far off to warrant serious motivation today.

Desires verses Gratitude

I am exploring the idea that perhaps, desires are born from a lack of soul nourishing energy, that may bear gifts of gratitude if created. Therefore desires are the opposite of Gratitude. For if your heart is full of appreciation for what you have, your soul is nourished and overflowing with energy. And in such a state, desires cease to exist.

Desires are the bain of the earth. The act like parasites, taking from the the greater providing soul to feed that of the lower lacking souls. Yet all along we are capable of sustaining our own needs.

It is our will that needs to strengthen and connect to our provider, that gratitude be our source of daily bread, not our wants. Only then will there be peace. For what we are experiencing is the war that rages between the counter of wants from the keeper of the source that those wants are satisfied from.

Super intelligent

I know we like to compare ourselves by looking at others and by looking back into our history. And based on what we see between these two comparative perspectives we somehow arrive at a perception of self rated intelligence. Today, I took a different perspective of the Universal system in operation here on this plane. The system we currently use is a currency based system. We exchange things, to get what we want. We consider it to be theft, if we take anything without either first asking or by exchanging something deemed to be worth more in value than what we ask.

Yet, we go through our whole life in a constant, steady state of wanting.

Realising that wanting is a creation of a space in which something can exist for me to experience, but only ever wanting does not offer anything of value. Have a look at me. I have no money. Reflection = I have no energy/no universal currency with which to magnetise the object into manifestation. I believe there is a super simple, super intelligent system in play, that operates on a currency basis. If you have the currency, you will be able to "buy"/"create"/magnetise what you desire as soon as you desire it....instantly if requested. But alas, we have little to non. Whenever we do actually generate some currency, we likely don't notice it much as our wants are abundant and habitual. So the currency would be absorbed by the next habitual want, and I would probably be non the wiser, but for the appearance of such as "I always wanted one of those" So I have started a new focus. It is the regular banking of energy. Appreciation walks, meditation, gratitude for being, gratitude for everything and anything before me as I become aware of it. I spend time affirming I am here to spread love and build my aura to help with the warmth. By doing so, I believe I am saving up. Simultaneously I am working on eliminating attachment to things and with it, "wants".

What I am expecting, is that experiences will either just begin to appear or money will begin to manifest itself, in increasing quantities because it is a physical manifestation of energy on this planet. So go ahead, give up wanting for 1 hr, then 1 day, then try it for 1 week. In the meantime start working on saving.

Change and potential

In every given moment the chains of that which hold me back from my true potential are the current habits that I have. As soon as I break those habits, I will break through and realise a greater degree of my potential than what I am seeing now. Wanting is futile, and serves to do nothing more than entertain me. Be the change, for that which I have wanted and seen is there on the other side of life once those changes are implemented.

"will" I have or just want.

Exploring experiences is supposed to be our task here. The problem is somewhere along the line we got the idea we had to create the experience, and we lost our way. Now we have stepped back even further. Now few people create, most people just want to create. I have been exploring this concept, and following are my notes to date. I will add to it as I learn more.

Step 1. Start with a crystal clear picture of an experience that you are interested and motivated to have. Imagine every element from every direction from INSIDE your experience. Submersing yourself in the idea moves the experience from being a "want" to a reality - like a dream is real to you while you are in it. Compare this to a a 'want' which is viewed from outside of the experience, looking in. One of the key habits of a 'wanter' is that they separate themselves from their desire experience creating a gap which they justify holding on to. This gap becomes their reality. They put more belief, more focus time, and more energy into this gap than their desire. They live inside the outside of their desire, instead of inside their desire.

Your imagination is the architects design room. It is the place of sculpting, and designing. When you exit your imagination most of us, go "back to reality". In doing this...we are behaving and confirming, and therefore creating, that the design work IS our experience. We enter into the plane where we should be receiving the experience, and we create this gap of space and go back to "wanting". From the pre experiencing realm of mind (the architects office) we need to leave with an expectation of action from the volunteers in the Universe whose job it is to bring that experience about. You have to realise that you are an integral part of a team. The rest of the team are all doing their role, everyone, but you. It is everyone's objective to have the same experience, each entity having their own perspective of the same experience. But without you, the experience doesn't happen and so everyone misses out. You are not alone. You are not the creator, or go getter. You are the address for delivery -physical experiencer. Now rewind back to the part of the last sentence " without you, the experience doesn't happen". This is where we go wrong. We consciously try to create the experience. We come out of the architects office all motivated and we then go about 'trying' to manifest the necessary components of the experience. This is of course not our job, because at best, the only thing we could possibly do is manifest the rudimentary elements of the physical experience. An example-we imagine a perfect holiday. We explore it in our imagination, and come out into the physical plane. From here we create the gap by saying 'when I can afford it' or 'when I have time' or 'when such and such an event occurs first'. Or we straight away action it, and race off to book our flights, and accommodation, insurance, and all other things. But no matter what, we cannot control the rest of the universe, and we cannot create the quality. We cannot control the fact that our plane is delayed, or returns or gets diverted during flight due to mechanical issues. We cannot control that the taxi driver at the other end is rude, or angry due to a run in with his boss or wife prior to meeting up with you. You cannot control the mix up with your hotel booking, or that the room is not anything like the pictures you viewed on line when making the booking. You cannot control the weather, the instances of being fleeced by experienced hawkers, by the spillage on your clothes and on an on it goes. Basically you control nothing that contributes to the quality of your experience. Once you fully grasp this you will realise you have to take a totally different approach, and once you do you will see a completely different outcome occurs.

At the moment you live your life as an individual with different hats on. You have your relationship hat, your work hat, your friend hat, and even your public hat. (more about these hats later). Within each of these roles you try to do your best to achieve the wants you possess in each of the areas they represent. The interesting thing that we don't often realise, even though it is completely logical and common sense, and you will laugh at it when you hear it....yet ask yourself this....do YOU do it? In order to get what you desire from an experience that involves others, you need to accommodate their desires first. If you want a quality experience...just adding "things" wont get you what you want. Now here is the next most amazing thing. The whole time you have read the above, you have likely been thinking about your physical counterparts. Those other physical bodies that you consider yourself to have relationships with. Now consider that there is another realm of beings, who also desire experiences that connect into your address. They work tirelessly to set up the quality part of the experiences you desire, so that they can have their experience. Think of it like this- you are the parent/friend or Aunt/Uncle of a child who is having a birthday or at Christmas. Careful observation has identified a desired idea that the child wishes to have. You happily go out and get that thing. At this point it is just a thing. You could prove that...just by throwing it on the floor in front of the kid and saying agressively "FINE - HERE HAVE IT!!!!! The reality is at that moment the value of that "thing" is a negative value. The child wishes they had never wanted it in the first place. Luckily we subconsciously recognise that experience it isn't that 'thing' the kid wants, but that experience of receiving it, and the connection with the person who gave it. You spice up how you give it to them...by wrapping it and perhaps even drawing a treasure map, or even doing a treasure hunt with clues that lead to more clues and finally the gift because you want to elongate YOUR experience. You see your experience is the enjoyment of the child. The longer the child has a smile on their face, that is related to things you are doing for them the greater your sense of self worth. The quality of your life is related to your sense of self worth. If you know the universe depends on it's survival from something you are doing right now....then you will feel the worthiness of a Universe. If you feel that child relates their smile and laughter and the hug that you get to your actions -directed at making them happy, then your self worth rises.

Now imagine that your universe is full of creatures who are family, who all seek to have their experiences with you. Their experience may well be your appreciation, your laugh, your growth, your sense of self worth, or even the activation of and alignment of your Will.

Now what would happen if when you were in the architects office, there wasn't just you...but a whole team of "managers" who each are in charge of managing different aspects of the experience. Also realise that there isn't actually creating going on....just management. The management of resources. So the team watch your idea. Then as long as you leave them to it and go out of the office with a sense of connection to them, and a sense of expectancy for the experience, they are then able to get on with the job of bringing the project to fruition. The managers then go back to their teams who then set about doing their roles. There will be one overall project manager who coordinates everyone.

Now, decide that when you enter the architects office, that you are not the King, with everyone there to serve you; but rather that you are a critical part of the whole team. You are the ideas man, and the experiencing point. If the experience is created and you are not aware of it when it comes, or you behave like a king who expects excellence as the normal, or you don't explore it fully then the rest of the team will miss their experience- your reaction, your appreciation, your smile etc. Ponder this for a moment. The quality of everything you experience is moulded by a team your a critical part of. That the quality of an experience has two aspects or halves to it that without each other, cannot be experienced. My awareness of it, and the components that I perceive make a quality experience. This part is interesting also. If I belch at the end of dinner, or pick up my plate and throw it into the fire place (because it is customary for me to do so to show my appreciation), when I am visiting a family in modern day westernised middle to upper class suburbia, I am unlikely to receive the quality experience I anticipate from showing my appreciation to them. For appreciation is a gift, which is not complete until it is received.

First there is the giver, who gives because he gets to receive the reaction to his gift. Then the receiver gives for the first time (excluding the 'reaction') appreciation expecting to have that received to 'balance the books.'

So now, imagine where ever you are, you are far from alone. You have 1000s watching your every move, listening to your every thought, which is not hidden like you think it is. You are in fact an observer of even that. Yours is that which we call 'will' The conscious mind you think of as being yours, is not at all. it belongs to the personality of the vehicle you observe through. It is mainly reactionary, having set itself up with many many cues in it's infancy of youth, so as to spend the rest of its days cruising on auto pilot, making ever so slight adjustments as required for survival, but not adhering well to opportunities to change, for that will require conscious effort. With every word heard, and with every action seen, how is the calibre of what is said and done? Change will only happen when you require it. Not your mind. You mind is a computer system. It will spit out what is requested of it. If it is obvious that what is being requested will be required again in the future, then it downloads it into the main drive (subconscious). It will NOT instigate change. You are the observer. Your language is WILL. When you 'will' something to happen, if it is contrary to what behaviour you have allowed in the past, then you have to reinforce your 'Will' being what we call 'will power'. You will have to exert will until the conscious mind accepts the new status and changes the behaviour. Now put all of these things together...what do you have?

Breaking through the shell

I have been like a new born Chicken trying to break out of it's shell into it's new environment and new reality. I have had a few pecks at the shell, seen a bit of daylight, marvelled, and then sat back down to a leisurely afternoon nap followed by a feed, then another nap, a stroll around my shell, and the appearance of trying to grow up into a chicken by paying tribute to the hole I have started with a daily tap or two, deep down underneath secretly hoping someone is going to break the shell from the other side. I sit there happy inside my secret super hero fantasy, pretending to be someone great, someone respected and looked at with admiration, yet I only bring no credence through action that would meet any metaphysical standards of integrity. I am riddled with self destructive tenancies, and habits that I have allowed to rule over my current potential and result in what has been occurring...slow to no progress but for the efforts of others.

This has to stop.

I have to find something so powerful, that I can plug into it, and it will be my source of will.

I did it once before by feeling a master was here waiting for me to awaken. Now it needs to be stronger. I need to see and feel the countless generations that are relying on me to come through with this success story. To become a success, that new horizons can be carved out for future generations. I need to feel I am the trunk of the tree, not a solitary insignificant twig, who will hardly be noticed if I am there or not, which is how I manage my life currently. I make believe, in a significant way through a make believe illusion that my actions and inaction has little significance either way on the outcome of the universal journey of life that is unfolding.

But it will not unfold without me. This is the initiation of not just my future, but the very future of the universe and all that is in it. That part of the heirachy that controls this part of life energy, watch with baited breath, unable to move forward, the whole universe on hold until I get it together.

Energy Management

All manner of energy passes by and through me. The objective it seems is for me to become a good manager of this energy. Initially, while I am in the novice stages of my job, I interact and react a lot with this energy. I allow the energy to control the different aspects of my being. This energy unmanaged, controls my body via impulses and addictions; it controls my emotions, causing me to react emotionally, it controls my mind, causing me to think in a particularly direction, and it can even make my soul feel empty. There are many stages of development we go through to get control of our management of this energy.

We live in a super highway of energy. Without good management, there is absolute chaos. Our journey is one of creating order out of chaos. It isn't that any of this energy is "bad" for out of this energy comes the development of our Will, and then the alignment of our will to that of the Greater Will. It takes the power of our will, to stop the auto pilot reactionary status we start off in. From here to move forward we must then align ourselves with a will that is greater than our own.

I feel this article is unorderly in the way I have formatted it, and there is much more to be said on the subject, so I will be back to revisit it.

The king and his servant

This leads on from the last post. I felt it necessary to be a separate post.

There once was a King who ruled over the enormity of his entire kingdom, and everything in it.

The interesting thing having read this...is you imagine some medieval king with last amounts of land and millions of people under his rule.

But decide for a second that you are the king, it is your kingdom, being your life. Now re read the same sentence. This is perception at play.

Interesting is though that we go through our lives in various emotional states, and when in trouble we call out silently in prayer, seeking help from beyond our kingdom.

The interesting thing is that this puts us in the kings position. What if, we perceived that we were the servant. That we were here to serve a just, and fair king/universe. Our role, is to experience what the king wants experienced. Here is how it would work.

At the moment we approach an opportunity, and we either a/. wait to see if anything comes out of the opportunity and connects with us. b/. we 'wish' for something to come out of the opportunity so we wait with a sense of anticipation c/. we act with intention to make a result come out of the opportunity. In all of these we do not have any control over the quality.

The opposite is therefore, that we hunt out to be the perfect servant. We look at an opportunity not as a "what can I get from it" but with the universe in mind...."what would you like to get from it? Imagine if we could put ourselves on hold for a day, and live for the universe. This is not the same as waiting. You do not wait for the universe to deliver, it is actively engaging all opportunities that are already there. It may be that I should be saying "soul" instead of universe, but for now, I am sticking with this, and lets see where it takes me.

Hunting

In Badminton, we have this expression called 'hunting'. In effect it is the deliberate act of seeking an opportunity to take direct the game into your favour.

Each morning I wake up, go through my "get up routine" and then start my day approaching my to do list with varying degrees of enthusiasm, based on how many of the items on it, where on yesterdays list and the previous days, and so on and have been transferred to today's list because they have not been done. The more transferees, the the less enthusiasm I have for my day, and the more likely during the day I am going to seek out "escapes". There is a great deal of value in applying this "hunting' principle to our day in relation to the opportunities that are there. I have the opportunity to end my day with a true sense of satisfaction and achievement. I have the opportunity to end my day with a true sense excitement for the coming day. This power is in my hands. I think most days, I spend waiting. Equate this to a game of badminton...I am waiting for the player/universe to give me an opportunity. Hang on....that sounds like 'hunting'. So what then is the difference? When I am waiting in a game of badminton, I am not mentally engaged with my environment. I am not engaging the game, until the opportunity comes. Effectively my attention is on my side of the line. This is like a caveman hunter, who waits for his prey to wander into his camp, before he engages his art of harvesting his food. He would eventually starve to death. Hunting, is about going out of your environment, and seeking out opportunities. In the case of badminton, I engage my opponents space using my perception to assess their capabilities in a given situation based on previous similar situations and results. I do this in conjunction with effort to force a favourable result. So all very interesting, but how does this pertain to my day? Well, I think I get up every day and I am a 'waiter'. I spend my day plodding...waiting for things to happen. I do not make them happen. I am not engaging my Universe, I am staying in my limited physical space. So what does this mean?

Well, I wake up in the morning, and I am entering into my physical realm, not locked into it, but observing from it. I am 'hunting' down opportunities that I can clearly see are there in my infinite possibilities and I am availing myself to connect with these opportunities. I am not predetermining the pathway, only hunting for the outcome. Each time I enter into a new environment, I connect with that part of the experience which is the other part of my greater self. The part that has created me to be this point of experience. I realise that part of me is the source of that part of the experience and I of mine. That only through my awareness will my part of the experience occur. It is like oxygen and breather, or water and drinker.

By staying on my side of the line, I do not make the connection with the source of opportunity. I do not send out the "address" or 'signal of readiness' to say I am a worthy candidate for an experience. So how does this work? Well, it is really about realizing, I am not this individual, who is selfishly out to get whatever experiences I can. I am an integral part of a very big picture/ entity, of which I have the capacity to play a big, small or no role in the growth and development of. This includes every single aspect of every experience that I have the capability of perceiving.

the purpose of language

I am starting to consider the idea that language is a conduit for energy. Body language, verbal, written is all aimed at gifting, or taking energy. For the karmic value of our action we should be 'present' when we speak. This way we are deliberately acting when steal or gift energy to another through our communication. Perhaps this awareness will decrease the frequency of taking that goes on, and change our behaviour to a degree that each time we open our mouths, peace, love and understanding flow out as we connect with other beings in the universe.

The power of Wants

I have concluded that wanting is the ultimate cause of all sin. Here after lies how I arrived at this idea.

When we enter into this plane we take on a limited form. We have a limited form for each of the planes we exist on. The physical plane is a place of consumption. A place where we are actually able to spend energy. We do so, at our own peril, for each expense comes from our own limited source. I would go so far as to suggest that this is the action of ageing, our bodies behave like a gauge enabling us to measure the amount of energy we have left under our management. We are entrusted with this energy, in the same way Jesus talks about the vineyard owner entrusting his workers each with a gold coin (a symbol of concrete energy) before he goes away. Every time we "want" and act upon this want, we expend/spend a small amount of that energy. Analyse yourself how many wants you have and act on in one given day. Now we live in the information age. There is the greatest exposure of what I call 'energy docking points' the world has ever seen. The more we plug into those receptacles the more potential there is to have the life sucked right out of us...literally.

It is therefore vital that we first get control of the minds we are perceiving from and stop this vast exportation of energy. What then is the opposite? Can we take on energy?. Indeed we can. The opposite to spending energy is of course receiving it. Here we need to be careful as to the type and quality of energy we receive. Also, there is the importance of not "wanting" to receive this energy, for the wanting will counter the opportunity. At them moment we have been duped into believing that we are receiving energy (money) when we work. So we go out and work out butts off, to receive a quantity of energy at the end of a time frame, which we have been told is a good or fair amount or not. Little do we realise that in fact we are not receiving this, but trading our own pure soul based energy for a far more crude, concrete form at what could only be described as an appalling exchange rate. We spend 40 plus years worth of prime experiencing time, to end up in a position of relative neutrality simply because the more we earn the more our expenses are. To gauge the relative truth in this, you simply have to ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. when I am 20 would I accept a contract to give up the next 40 years of my life, in exchange for

The best possible quality energy to receive is through service to others. Genuine appreciate of another soul, is the best form of energy to receive. Other types are genuine love such as an expression of kindness, creative expression, etc. I will have to think more on some other examples. Feel free to add some yourself to help me brainstorm.

The hardest part is to stop the automated machine, which is the result of indifference. Here an entity gives over control of their experiencing platform to the mind to drive it. They then go into just perceiving and taking what comes. The mind left to it's own devises, is then driven by the minds of others. Like a sheep being lead by a shepherd. The only problem is, the shepherd in our case is the motivated "sellers" of the financial economy stimulating the minds of the sheep with a never ending marketing machine conditioning them to automate and act without challenge on wants. So the first step is to take back the reins, and disconnect from the system. You have to break the incessant habit of wanting. The first steps towards doing this is the act of non ownership. (forgotten the word for this) Basically you stop feeling connected to the physical plane and to ownership of anything. If you drop that sense of ownership you are far less likely to "want" things. There is much much more to this, but I will have to come back to discuss it some more.

My book of life

I went to theosophy on Tuesday night to my first introduction of the celebration of the wesak festival full moon. It was fantastic. One of the stories John mentioned was the idea of having a book to write in, something that we could write something in and commit to for that following month.

Well that idea really hit a chord with me. I have spent much of yesterday and today thinking about it, and have concluded it could be the next big leap for me.

I have grabbed an empty exercise book, and titled it simply...MY BOOK OF LIFE.

The reason I have called it this, is because when I succeed at this adventure, I will have truly lived my life.

Here is what I Propose to do. Opening up the empty book, I am going to divide the first page into two columns. On the first column I will write something about myself that is worthy of change. It will be something that I believe will contribute towards my next initiation; something that I know is holding me back. On the second column I will write something that I am going to add into my life. Together these two columns combine to act as a bridge to take me to the other side of my life.

Each night I will commit to living on the other side of life, where that change has already been made.

My plan is to write down on the first page something of meaning for my next day. Then throughout the day I refer to this idea.

We are constantly engaged in looking for keys. Yet the keys are everywhere. Keys are used to undo locks. The locks are harder to find than the keys. Locks are covered by the things we need to change. A student doesn't begin their journey of learning for themselves until the teacher stops teaching for while the master speaks, the student is engaged only in absorbing that knowledge. Only as the teacher steps away is the true environment of discovery for the student availed to them.

A teacher doesn't become a master until they learn silence in the presence of a student.

What then is the purpose of conversation?

Keys to Success in Life

I have been pondering again, thinking about the difference between where I am at and where I would like to be. So I have come up with the following which I am going to implement over the coming week. My first goal is to read this a couple of times a day until until all of the ideas are ingrained and nature.

1. 1. Allocate your attention effectively.

- Because we live in a sea of possibilities, we have to become proficient at selecting options to think about and to experience. You must learn to focus yourself on the things that make you smile rather than upset; on things that will give you a sense of achievement once you have finished them rather than on what is entertaining now but will leave you with a sense of emptiness once you have finished, soaked in a sense of regret from procrastinating.

2. 2. Act Deliberately

- Time continues without pause. Because we measure our success by time (what did I get done today/this month/this year it is and because as we get older it seems to accelerate, we need to ensure we spend the available time we are measuring acting deliberately. What this means is that if you are going to eat that cookie, or watch TV, or play that computer game that you do so consciously and with intention to use a set period of time to do so. Most of the time we do thinks via auto pilot. We slip in through procrastination, past the door keep to success, and stay tucked away from sight of consciousness until some external demand that cannot be ignored crashes us out and back into the present. Much of what we do in these situations is related to escaping from reality. Once we start to act deliberately, then we realize that we have so much more time. We are better with our choices, and we get a lot more out of our life, because we pack a lot more into it.

3. 3. Make decisions in the view of opportunity cost.

- This is an extension of acting deliberately. In my sea of possibilities it is easy to see the activities I think I want to do including watching TV, or playing computer games etc. So because it is there, I can Act deliberately and say, ok, I am going to watch TV for one hour, and then go and do my housework, or play computer games for one hour and then go and do my homework. The key to a successful life is to understand that those possibilities include a vast range of other options you haven’t even tried yet. Opportunity cost is about what you could be doing instead. I acknowledge that there is a want to watch TV or a craving to eat those cookies, but I am going to pause for a moment first, and look at other options. What else can I do or eat instead.

4. 4. Measure the success of your choices before you even start doing them.

-How will I feel once I have finished this time. Will this choice give me a 10/10 sense of satisfaction in terms of achievement for my goals, and sense of success in my life if I choose it.

5. 5. Set time allocations on everything

-no matter what, set a time frame. At the end of that time frame stop what you are doing. See continuing with the same experience as a deliberate choice as if selecting a new experience. If you are not sure how long something will take, then set hourly time parameters, and review your decision. This gives you a sense of achievement within a big project and offers you the chance to inject freshening experiences into the mix to give you a sense you have done more with your day. These could be small experiences such as a 10 min appreciate walk, or a 5 min visualization exercise, or even a cup of tea.

6. Review every decision at the end of every time frame.

- This has the effect of helping you build momentum and success strength. Correct excerise can have the effect of making you fitter, stronger and faster or more efficient. Each time you practice these techniques you become more success fit, stronger of mind, and faster at achieving things. Reviewing is the most important part of garnering motivation to change, and improve. Time frames are necessary to give you a specific point to review.

7. Actively listen when ever some talks to you.

-Realise that they are an expert on how they feel about what they have experienced, and that truth is clouded by perception, so most of what they say is based on what they perceive reality to be. Therefore argument is futile. Listening helps them express where they are at in life. Often people need to hear themselves speak so they can gauge where they are currently at in the scheme of things. They are looking for reinforcement of their perceptions to give them a sense of confidence in what they have chosen to believe to be real. What you say either reinforces their sense of reality or challenges it.

8. Always pause before you speak. Identify what you want to achieve by what you are going to say.

9. Engage in something for your soul daily.

- This could be a random act of kindness; meditation; doing something that will engage laughter;

-This could be an intentional expression of appreciation to someone.

-This could be getting a massage (investing in yourself)

- This could be making time to read something inspirational.

10. Plan to discover something new regularly.

- this could be as simple as trying a new item on a menu, or a new restaurant, or taking a class in something you have never done such as yoga, or cooking.

Happiness

Wow, I have been away a long time, lost in the grind. Today I am not sure if I am back because I am procrastinating unwilling to partake for a time in that grind, instead preferring to seek some measure of that illusive stuff the population were born to experience, but instead became conditioned to pursue it, sold on the idea that it eludes us...happiness; or, if I am back because I have awoken again. My disappearance from both Theosophy and here, coincided with the return of my wife from her job in Korea. Not coincidentally I am back, because she has gone back to Korea.

Her return is related to the fact that she is unhappy here. This has led me to ponder about happiness.

In our lifetime "God" created only one day in our lives where we were allowed to be happy......

Today!

Most people whether they like to admit it or not, live in the past focusing on their mistakes or precious moments. A small group focus on their future, some of them engage in enough action to make that future a reality, yet happiness eludes them both because neither of them live in today!

Initially when we look into "today" it appears there is nothing there. From here we rush into the past to find out why today is empty or to relive some past experience as a quick fix, or if so inclined we head off into the future through our imagination and fantasize exploring what might be in an effort to fill it (our today) at some point.

After a time, the noise of the now brings us crashing back into the present like a horizontal bungy. It is like an act of "God" answering the prayers we keep while in the past or future to experience a new state - one of happiness. But when we arrive hoping to see that our now has magically transformed while we were gone and see nothing there, then we tend to slide off into the opposite spectrum of where we were, those of us from the future searching out the past and visa versa to see if we were simply looking on the wrong side of the fence.

By days end we fall to the pillow once more exhausted from our toil of exploration, aged and poorer, and there we drift off to into the comfort of a different kind of dream.

Meanwhile, there in the stillness, in that place we saw nothing Happiness waits ever patient, never deterred by the fact that we do not recognize it, for it understands that when anyone looks into today their eyes are clouded by perception. This perception blocks their true vision and stops them from being able to see who they truly are and what they really want to experience.

Most people I presume go through their whole life never taking off their perception eye-wear. Conditioned by media and family, in a perpetual environment of blind leading the blind.

It is generally not discovered that you are even wearing this eye-wear until you give up your desires which releases you from both your past and your future and makes it tenable to live in the present long enough to discover what is actually there. You find there is actually a great deal to experience both internally and externally, much of which is extrapolated through helping others. You discover that the "surprises" that manifest in abundance gift you with a higher degree of joy than anything you can imagine you want in the future. You discover that when you help someone, or simply appreciate what you have around you, the quality of your feeling is greater than anything you can generate through living in your past.

Each person you help, affects everyone around them- each one becoming a seed for a new surprise. Only when you are still, present and awake to be directed appropriately to help others will you know the place where happiness resides.

After writing my thoughts I proceeded to google pages of content on Happiness to see what others thought. I liked this one:

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Something I had been thinking about but didn't know where it fitted, so I fitted it in at the end:

In badminton a player will train for 10 years to win something prestigious. Within a few moments of the victorious final game being over there is intense jubilation. It is relived with slowly decreasing sense of enthralment with each social interaction over the next 24-48 hours. Then all but the odd flash of memory is engaged for moments as the social interaction spreads till each person, down to colleagues and more distant relatives and friends connect with you for the first time since your success. Then it is gone. 10 years invested, and the void that should have been permanently filled is once again empty. The truth of the matter being that it only filled entirely upon completion, but began emptying immediately.