Category: Wisdom

Smile through adversity

The world spins madly on, and we stumble through its chaos. We taste the bitterness of failure, the pain of rejection, and the weight of shattered dreams. But it is precisely in these moments that our spirit reveals itself. We gather the pieces of ourselves left unbroken and weave them into a fire that lights our way. Our innate personal power sustains our aim, and we march forward. Never give up on yourself, because in this life you are responsible for yourself. If you struggle, know that it is with purpose. Every time you are knocked down, you rise up stronger. There is nothing that can limit you but your own thoughts. We are what we envision, so dream wildly. The struggles we endure, the repeated life lessons that we survive, the ill thoughts about ourselves that we ignore and don’t fix. This is it. This is the war of the lower and higher self. The great galactic Law of One speaks that our choice as initiates in this soul cycle Is to choose between: Service to self or service to others. The methodology for living life that you choose, will determine the frequency of your life experience. In order to dial into higher vibrations we have to be willing to put others first. Just as Buddha and Jesus agreed. These emanations of the divine source speak about the wholesomeness of community and not letting things get to you. Well, if you are stuck in service to self; you aren’t doing anything for others Your soul contract starts to darken and you slowly shift to service to self being all you care about, and your relationships, family life and any other source of emotional connection will dwindle, if you can’t learn to put others before yourself. This is the Dharma we are told by the Hindus and Buddhists. The soul cycles through the next emanation until it has fully committed to service to others. That is the ascension quest, release those who do not care as you do, and wish them great success

Understanding Rebirth & The Ouroboros

“If a man follows a certain direction in this world, he will be led further in the same direction when he departs this world.” The struggles we endure, the repeated life lessons that we survive, the ill thoughts about ourselves that we ignore and don’t fix. This is it. This is the war of the lower and higher self. The galactic Law of One speaks that our choice as initiates in this soul cycle Is to choose between: Service to self or service to others. This process has many names, one of which is known as the wheel of samsara. The ouroboros, the serpent eating its tail, represents the same creation process of life and death. Part of our yoga mat design was created with this awareness, so that we can visualize soul ascension and greater meaning behind the mundane.  The methodology for living life that you choose, will determine the frequency of your life experience. In order to dial into higher vibrations we have to be willing to put others first. Just as Buddha and Jesus agreed. These emanations of the divine source speak about the wholesomeness of community and not letting things get to you. If you are stuck in service to self; you aren’t doing anything for others. Your soul contract starts to darken, and you slowly shift to service to self being all you care about, and your relationships, family life and any other source of emotional connection will dwindle, if you can’t learn to put others before yourself. This is the Dharma we are told by the Hindus and Buddhists. The soul cycles through the next emanation until it has fully committed to service to others. That is the ascension quest, release those who do not care as you do, and wish them great success #yogi#yoga#enlightenment#spirit#mystic#mysticism#soul#purpose#dharma#karma#lawofone#ouroboros#samsara

Self-realization, the story of enlightenment

One of the concepts that I learned through my readings is the idea of self-realization, being the doorway to enlightenment. I had always thought of enlightenment being a realization of our infinite nature that is connected to all that is. I have always seen Jesus, Buddha and other Prophets as one and the same, incarnations of God, who realized their own divinity. While reading Midnights with the Mystic by Cheryl Simone and Sadhguru, my understanding of the concept grew. Our ability to experience self-realization, and even further to progress to enlightenment, is dependent on our experiences. I have never heard a story of a powerful figure who had not been through suffering. It is through these traumatic tribulations that humans seek deeper purpose and understanding. When we’ve hit a bottom, that is when the quest begins. Until you’ve hit the void within, you do not seek the light for healing. The story of both Buddha and Jesus, are miraculously different, but they convey the same message. Jesus, came from a family with no significance, and I believe it was through his own ordeals that he came to realize his own divinity. It is my belief that the hardships of life, and his ability to overcome them, opened a portal into his godliness. Jesus is famous for saying that the kingdom of God is within you, which is him telling us that we are no different than he. Through the inner spiritual awakening he experienced, he came to realize his connection to source, the creator of life. Whether you believe that God is a primordial deity, the universe, or simply atoms, is a debate for another time. Gautama Siddartha (Buddha), another significant figure who helped shape our world, came from a very different background then Jesus. He was born a prince of a powerful empire on the border of Nepal and India. His father Śuddhodana sought the advice of a group of eight Brahmins to predict his son’s future. Seven of the eight mystics of Hinduism told the king that his son would grow up to either be king of his empire, or a śramaṇa, which is one who seeks higher spiritual purpose. One of the seers, told the king his would become a Buddha. Knowing this, the king set forth to banish Gautama Siddartha (Buddha) from experiencing any suffering. His father surrounded him with women and other pleasures so that he may never leave his home. Buddha lives this life until the age of 29, finally departing his home in search of saṃvega – the desire to escape the suffering of saṃsāra (the tedious wheel of life that has us running in circles within a mundane existence). There are many interpretations about how this came about, one that has drawn me in is the belief that angelic beings lured him out into the world. When he took to the roads, he realized how much suffering the general populace experienced. This journey outside of the palace was known as the four sights, the catalysts for his spiritual transformation: senescence (the consequence of aging), disease, death and asceticism (self-denial of wordily pleasures in pursuit of spirituality). Of the four sights, the final one was what Buddha truly was molded by when he began the quest for self-realization. Buddha’s leaving of the palace is known as The Great Departure. Over the next 6 years he journeyed from one city to the next, until finally finding a tree in Bodh Gaya – he meditated here for many days until reaching enlightenment (at the time known as Bodhi). Enlightenment, or “Bodhi” is best defined as the process of spiritual awakening, where an individual realizes the collective consciousness that connects us all. This awakening is an indescribable connection between all things, an infinite energy or God, which connects us all. For me, it did not happen until 25 after many near death experiences and life altering run ins with the law. I had come from a life of privilege, and my ego would never have allowed me to believe as a mystic does. In order for me to uncover my own purpose, I had to suffer as those with great knowledge had. I had become sick with disease, one that could not be cured. My life had turned upside down, everything that I had sought after, had lost its appeal. I did nothing for almost a year, suffering in silence and telling no one. One day I was provided with a hallucinogen by a friend, which I was scared to consume because of my own dark thoughts. I was desperate for answers as to why I was going through this sickness, why had God forsaken and cursed me? The story of my spiritual awakening is the topic of my next post, and not the aim of this article. However, the self-realization that followed, changed everything about me. I was no longer so caught up in what others thought of me, this disease had made me so sad for so long, that I no longer feared judgement. I told my friends of my situation fearlessly, and they all supported me. That is not to say I was not still lost about the circumstances, but I felt that it had all happened for a reason. Without this illness, I would never have fallen to such a low that I was willing to believe in something more than what I could see. Up until that point, my belief in anything mystical was nonexistent. Today, I believe in so many things that I couldn’t capture it all in one blog post. This willingness to seek answers from outside sources, was truly an invitation for me to connect with my higher self. The spirit within all of us, the higher voice we can choose to listen to when we are at a crossroad. I had ignored that voice for so long, that I thought it was my erratic mind. This higher self, our spiritual nature – maybe the holy spirit

How to have a Mystical 2024

One of the challenges that all of us face in the New Year, is living up to our own expectations. Most of us will set more goals than we can handle, and when we become overwhelmed, we end up not doing any of them. I call this process, decision fatigue. We want to go to the gym every day, do an hour of yoga, an hour of meditation, study a new subject, learn a language or instrument, deepen our relationships with partners, friends and family. This is just a short list to show you what I mean. In the face of so much growth, many of us falter. Not because we don’t want to achieve our goals, but because they aren’t structured and we have other obligations. So how can you make this year different than the last? Maybe you went to the gym for all of January last year, and stopped shortly after; or maybe you did your meditation for the first half of the year, but work got busy and it fell off. My suggestion is this, pick one goal. One monumental change that you can make, that will change your life for the better. Instead of saying I’m going to make these 10 changes, promise yourself to make ONE. For me, it’s to spend more time expanding my knowledge. I have chosen not to choose any specifics, because when we lose steam we lose our drive. I have written down and placed in my wallet “Do what you fear, and fear ceases.” What does this have to do with wisdom? Everything. For me, the lack of progress I see in my physical or mental health, always stems from a fear of failure. The actions I have taken in the past, lead me to here, which is great, but I could have done a lot more, faster. Most of us deal with this mental warfare, we can’t all be gold medal Olympians who do the maximum action every day. We also can’t beat ourselves up about what-ifs or what could have been. Anxiety, is living in the past or the future. In order to beat our inner bitch, we have to take action now. So wisdom, in the sense I intend to manifest, is the action of doing it today. So if I tell my partner that I will work on a project tomorrow, I’ve asked her to tell me to do it now. You’ll be amazed how great it feels when you tackle something now, instead of dreading doing it later. When you appreciate the little wins, the big wins come faster. You start building drive, momentum, and a belief you can do it. One thing I hate doing at work, is making phone calls to CPAs. I have a terrible fear of rejection, which has been such a challenge for me that I talk about it to my therapist. I am blessed to work with a saint who has a PhD in Energy Trauma, the first person to identify as a Mystic when I asked him about his beliefs almost 10 years ago. At the time the word meant little to me, but after taking an 8-year hiatus from him, I felt compelled to reach out and work on myself with my first spiritual mentor. When I was talking to Dr. Lane about my anxiety about making calls, he asked me to visualize the emotions I felt. After a little guidance, I came to visualize a giant red ball, which I believe was the weight of my anxiety. After doing some acupressure on my chest meridians, he asked me to visualize another object, and the color associated with it. I came to see a yellow energy, which eventually formed into a triangle. Then I began to see the red ball, on top of the yellow triangle. He asked if I saw any cracks on the triangle, and I did not. Then he asked me to thank the red ball, for protecting me from failure. He asked if I felt any less anxiety after this, and I didn’t. What really helped, was changing my frame of thought. When I came to see the red orb, as this inner weakness, and that the holy grail laid on the other side of my fear, I started to feel less strain on my body. He then instructed me to visualize the red ball, moving off the yellow triangle. As I did this, I began to feel the weight of my anxiety, change forms. Instead of seeing this fear as something that was crippling me, I saw it as a challenge to grow in my career. Everything I wanted in life, was held back by this red ball’s weight. So now, every time I make a phone call, I have a visualization that I look at of this process. I made this in photoshop, and hopefully it helps you. This wisdom of knowing that if I do the things today, that I have been putting off until tomorrow, I will feel infinitely better about my life.

Budda-nature & the Buddha

The term Buddha, means “one who woke up.” Siddhartha Gautama, who is known as the original incarnation of the Buddha, was the original soul who has created the foundation for Buddhism. Later on, he became known as Shakyamuni Buddha, after achieving his enlightenment. Shakyamuni, is Sanskrit for “Sage of the Shakya.” Shakya, being the city-state where he was born prince. A core belief taught by Buddha, was the concept of a dharma body. The dharma body is a living reality that we can achieve through cultivating our Buddha-nature, which is to live as the original Buddha did. This means to live with a spirit of compassion and care for those around you. Buddha-nature is also known as “buddha-datu” in its original form. As Shunryu Suzuki Roshi once said “It is wisdom which is seeking wisdom.” While many people believe the desire for Zen is to relieve us of internal suffering, Buddha-nature explains that we are always in a state of positive nirvana if we reach for it. This is a foundational principle of Mayana Buddhism. Through this belief, we begin to see the divinity within and embrace the raw nature of the human experience.