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Showing posts from February, 2010

55: People say that they talk to God. What does that mean exactly?

“I’m often perplexed when religious people say that they talk to God. What does that mean exactly? Could they just really be talking to themselves...or if they really are talking to God...does He tell ppl different truths? Hope you can answer :-)” I can’t really say what everyone means when they say that they talk to God. At the same time, I would say that we all have the right, and the capacity, to talk to God/ the Universe! You ask if they could just be talking to themselves, and the answer to that is yes. We all need to remember that every time we use the word ‘God’ to identify it with ourselves, not as something separate. This will probably take a conscious effort but you will begin to feel different right away. That said, talking to your self IS talking to God. You don’t need another entity to have a relationship with God. In fact, I believe our direct relationship with God is personal and though it we can personally connect with each other. Even though I say that, I think you wan

54: What are your feelings toward psychoactive drugs like LSD, mushrooms, ayahuasca & peyote?

I think that psychoactive drugs can be great tools for exploring different levels of consciousness. First, let me disclaim a few things so that I can get to the heart of the question. I’m in no way suggesting that anyone take these types of drugs because not everyone can handle them. In fact, it is dangerous, and can lead to permanent changes that may be negative. I have a quick example of that: My ex-girlfriend’s little brother was the kind of guy that could go up to a women and talk to her out of the clear blue. He had a bad acid trip that destroyed his confidence. The next day, and as far as I know to this day, he lost his confidence to the point that he began stuttering, too nervous to speak to people. As far as I’m concerned, he ruined his life. It’s kind of like what they say about firearms, drugs don’t ruin people, people ruin people. Of course without a firearm or a drug, many people would be saved. It’s a complicated issue because we are all different and it’s hard to anticipa

53: What helps you continue growth, physically?

I believe that life is very cyclic in nature, the same way that a bio-rhythm has ups and downs. We have to use our thoughts to discriminate when we should enforce discipline and we should follow a feeling to go with the flow of nature, change. This applies to most things. It applies to physical fitness in a sense that there are time to ‘grow’, there are times to maintain, and times to rest. This goes for your workout during the week , it goes for your workout, during the year, it goes for your workout during your life. There have been times in my life that I was able to train for eight hours a day (Karate, yoga, weight training) and times when after work, and transportation to work, I only had five hours left to sleep. There was little difference in my discipline, but much difference in opportunity. Your body is your temple and requires constant maintenance. Anything that we take into our body needs to be monitored, so diet is of course important. I’m a vegetarian but honestly I could

52:..I was betrayed…What kind of a person does that?

“…at the most critical time in my life, I was betrayed. I have chosen to not let go of this person. But I can't get over it. How could "you" leave me, in the darkness, to fight for my life, all alone? I just don't get it. What kind of a person does that?” I understand and can relate to the feeling behind this question all too well. I must say that the type of situation you have described, even without further detail, is definitely one of the more difficult challenges that any of us can face! One thing that people will notice from reading my work, is that I don’t try to candy coat anything. The reason why this is such a challenging situation is because humans want what they want, to be what’s right for them, especially concerning relationships. This gains even more power when you think about fairy tails, romance novels, and other fictional stories with happy endings. Even beyond relationships we believe that if we do the ‘right’ thing, our version of the ‘right’ result

51: People say that whatever happens in your life; no matter how bad it is, happens for your own good and well-being. Is it true?

Yes, this is true, but seeing that truth can be as much of a challenge as dealing with the ‘challenging’ situation that was drawn to you! An amazing thing that I understood during my moment of enlightenment/nirvana was how everyone’s universe was centered around them yet intersected each other’s universe in a perfect way. That is karma. If I pick up a rose, close my eyes, and toss it into a crowed, and it hits someone, there will be a reason that person got hit with it (for them), and there will be a reason that I threw it. Even though there is no apparent connection between that person and myself. I use that example to try to explain the complexity of karma. Personally, I’m not operating in a state of nirvana, and my current awareness is too limiting to allow me to understand every detail of why behind karma. I don’t know how much of believing in karma is faith and how much is awareness, it seems to be a dynamic relationship. Through meditation, quieting your own mind, ask God/the uni

50: If everything that exists, or ever did, or ever will, has a preceding cause, then man has no free will. Right?

Humans have no free will outside of the moment. Humans have free will in the moment. Actually, this is part of the reason why, although there are higher dimensions (in number NOT in value, we spend too much effort placing value on things, this disguises their nature by limiting them to a linear comparison) our consciousness is generally focused here, in the 4th dimension - where we exist in the present and our mind defines/divides into past, present, and future, just like the way you phrased the question. Our consciousness is generally here because the now is the only place that allows change. The universe is about change. That’s why so many philosophers talk about ‘living in the now’ because that is the way to live WITH the flow of the universe. That’s why your question is so tricky, it is only correct in retrospect. Take the current moment as an example; if you move to the future, then you have no free will in THAT moment - the one that you’re now looking back on. There is no free wi

49: How can one stop comparing themselves with others?

"I'm in love with someone and compared to him I feel so stupid, inferior, ... I just keep thinking that I will never have a chance with him because of that." First off, I think that this is a brilliant question and I commend you on your bravery to ask me for a response! Comparing ourselves with others can definitely have a negative or a positive potential. It’s negative when we look at another person and place a value on them that is higher than the value that we place on ourselves. It’s positive when we look at another person, understanding that they have no higher value then our self, and use them as an inspiration for self-improvement. In reality, we are all unique expressions of God, and we all hold the exact same value. We need to be diligent mentally, to insure that we believe and act according to this fact. People with low self-esteem tend to value everyone else higher than themselves, people who are selfish and conceited believe that their value is higher then oth

48: How will I know when I've found my soul mate?

I usually like to begin by defining key words in a question, in this case ‘soul mate’, to help align ideas in our communication. This is one of those instances where the main term means so many things to so many people, I’m going to have to take the liberty to define ‘soul mate’ in regards to how the question was asked. You see, some people define a ‘soul mate’ as a soul outside of yourself that you encounter in more than one lifetime. They then go further to described different types of ‘soul mates’ including friends, teachers, children and others, that we are drawn to, or interact with us, during different incarnations. The type of soul mate that many people refer to is called a ‘twin flame soul mate,’ which I found defined as; someone that you have spent multiple lifetimes with, you will be unhappy without he/she, and there is usually just one of them. It seems that you are referring to this type because you used the word “my,” which implies singularity. The thing is, the word “my,”

47. Do you understand why some people need to work very hard at enlightenment and for others it just arrives out of the blue?

For one thing, I think that it’s difficult for us to judge/assess the efforts of another human being towards any goal. Take an Olympic athlete as an example… Do we know how much actual effort it took that person to qualify? On the flip side of that, take a 5th grade student getting a ‘C’ in mathematics, did the student do his/her best? The reality is, reaching a goal is mostly a combination of ability and effort/time, the more ability you have, the less effort/time it will take to do something. Example: There are 100 kilos of wood, to a person that can carry 100 kilos at a time, it won’t take much effort/time to move that wood a couple of meters away. For someone that can only carry 20 kilos, it will take them more effort/time. The way this relates is that, the person who can carry the 100k of wood at once may have begun only carrying 5k and may have worked for years to increase to the ability to carry 100k. Someone just seeing the end result may be inclined to think that it was easy