Things are not what they seem. Nothing is "common" or "ordinary". For instance, what is commonly thought to be reality is an illusion created by an individual's belief systems, and reality itself is that which is commonly thought to be imagination or illusion. The illusion created by the hypnotic beliefs held by the individual is commonly called the real world, or the physical world, while reality itself, the "real" real world, is the manifesting, or invisible world -the world that has no names and cannot be discussed. The reader is encouraged to turn his attention away from attempts at manipulating the physical world of people and events, and begin to learn to cooperate with what "is", and in this manner re-create the world in which he lives.

Ordinary observable truths not normally a part of an individual's awareness are revealed for the purpose of re-activating the wonder found in ordinary existence. The wonder generated functions as an agitator that loosens the mind's hold, enabling the mind's owner to observe new truths, thus increasing the sense of wonder, furthering the discovery of other truths, continuing the chain of new awareness revelations.

Some practical instructions will be given, but only as a furtherance of some theme. The main purpose of the writing is to "nudge" the reader into an awareness of another form of livable life, and not to lay out a foundation for that life.

Introduction

Truth exists.

As one travels through life, one necessarily picks up from one's culture, certain beliefs and myths. Beliefs are seen as reality -as truth by the individual holding the belief. Myths are thought to be not real, but many myths are in fact often disguised as truths, and therefore not seen as myths. Thus beliefs and myths remain as the prime source of truth, although neither has any but an incidental association with truth itself. Truth is that which stands on its own two feet, quite independent of anyone's belief or opinion. Truth just "is".

It should be obvious, but apparently it is not, that to live one's life based on what is real, or true, is more efficient than to live one's life as one wishes things were, or as one believes things to be. It should be obvious, but apparently it is not, that every belief a person has is treated as if it were truth, as if it were real, by that person. It should be obvious, but apparently it is not, that it is not logical to assume that all of one's beliefs are true. It should be obvious, but apparently it is not, that if one wishes to find out which of one's beliefs is false, one must discard them all and start fresh, making sure that any new ones are based upon reality and not based upon the beliefs and opinions of experts and authoritities.

Beliefs create.

It is not possible to live as a human and not entertain beliefs, and no attempt will be made to suggest that one should do so. Instead, an attempt will be made to convince the reader to look upon beliefs as just that -beliefs, and nothing more. To believe that the sun is actually hot is simply what it is -a belief that the sun is hot. If one believes that the sun is hot, then THAT is Truth -that one has that belief.

The fact that our beliefs creates our experience of the physical world, along with the fact that our experiences are all that we have, should cause us to see that what we believe has an enormous effect on the quality of our life. So what we want to do is to put beliefs on a back burner in relation to truth, while at the same time we want to make sure that the beliefs we do have are formed from an experience of seeing truth, and not formed simply because most people have that belief, or that some expert or authority has claimed the belief to be truth.

It is not possible to believe simply because one wishes to believe. One must have facts, otherwise it's just faith or wishful thinking. Facts are what makes things look real. Fortunately, because of the duality of our nature, we can find facts to fit any belief we wish to entertain. All we have to do to change one belief into its opposite, for instance, is to ignore those facts opposing our wanted belief, and focus our energy upon the facts which support our new and upcoming belief. For instance, there is good and bad in everything. If you wish your new world to contain only good, and no evil, focus your attention upon the good in events, ignoring the bad. Make excuses why things look evil but really aren't. Presupposing other considerations, the belief will form, and to you it will look real that only good exists. You will have your proof, your facts.

The discarding of beliefs picked up from life's travels with one's culture, and the replacement of those beliefs with beliefs that are consciously chosen eases the chore of living and causes the disappearance of problems, of worry, anger, fear, greed, jealously, pride, and the re-appearance of the serenity, confidence, humility, and joy that we enjoyed as very young children.

My wife loves to talk, and she has this habit of over-explaining. She will say, "I have to go to the store because..." I usually reply, "well, as long as you have a reason". The "I have to go to the store" is "Truth". Anything that follows after "because" is chaff. It is a consideration. It has nothing to do with anything. People who have trouble saying no to salesmen have this trouble because they say something like "I can't afford it". This is not truth, and the salesman can argue with it. If the person would say, "I don't want to buy it", that would be "Truth", and the salesman couldn't find a crack into which to wedge his argument. A good salesman will ask why you don't want to buy. He will try to get you to give an excuse. If he can get you to give an excuse, he has a chance. To say "I don't want to buy it because I can't afford it" leaves a crack. The salesman can show that you can get it for pennies a day, and surely anyone can afford that. "I don't want to buy it" is truth. It is what is. "I can't afford it" is a consideration, an excuse, a reason. It is chaff. It has nothing to do with anything. Truth has value, chaff has liabilities.

Preface

Mankind walks the face of this planet. At his feet grows green grass, and underneath this green grass lies mankind's physical wealth. Mankind lifts up the grass, picks up handfuls of dirt, and forms it into giant dynamos capable of producing tremendous amounts of electrical power. These dynamos are powered by either fossil or nuclear fuel which mankind takes from the earth beneath the grass at his feet, or from water held by giant dams which are also produced from material which lies beneath mankind's feet.

Within these dynamos are finely machined bearings and shafts which come from giant steel refineries and machine factories, all products of reforming the earth. Copper wire, plastic covering for those wires, paint, lubrication-all combined to generate electricity which is used to put gigantic intricately modeled ships on the seas and into the air.

Space ships. Computers and computer games. Brain scanners. Medicine. Automobiles. Railroads. Mosques. Stop signs. Skyscrapers. Cities. Everything we see around us. It all comes from the dirt that lies beneath the grass at our feet. Mankind takes this dirt and forms it into that which is of interest to him.

Mankind also creates intangible things. He creates systems. Educational systems. Legal systems. Political systems. Medical systems. Scientific systems. Religious systems. Economic systems. Humans can look at a series of moving flashes of light on a screen and create from those flashes, Sean Connery. A human can, from color, smell and form, create a flower, and then he can "shove" it out into three-dimensional space where he can look at it as separate from his creation. He does the same thing in his dreams when he produces rivers, cars, people, sound, words, and shoves these out into the three-dimensional space he has created in his dream. He creates time there also. Individually and collectively, mankind is a creator of worlds.

The Creation of Our Common Reality

Each of us are beset by mental images. Constantly. These images take the form of day-dreams, hopes, worries, anxieties, thoughts of ourselves or others, thoughts of plans we are making, or of plans already carried out. They may be thoughts in the form of musings or memories. They may be logic thoughts. We may be trying to solve some problem or puzzle. Whatever their makeup, our thoughts are consistent and pervasive companions.

We live in a sea of thoughts much as a fish lives in a sea of water, and as a fish is a product of the water in which it lives, so too are we a product of the sea of thoughts in which we live.

Our minds are so constituted that whatever it focuses upon becomes all. While we are reading, we are not aware of the pressure of the chair upon which we are sitting. While we are aware of the pressure, we are not cognizant of the reading before us.

Likewise, we cannot think and be aware of what it is that we are thinking about at the same time. Whenever we have a thought or a fantasy, we are aware of neither the thought itself, nor of the fantasy. We are all quite literally lost in our thoughts. All of us have had periods of time when we were so engrossed in what we were thinking that we were later unable to recall what had been happening around us. We became so entranced in the "living" of what was happening in our head that we didn't notice that it was happening only in our head and nowhere else. We might see something in a store window, think it would be nice to have, mentally compare our resources with our liabilities, find we can't afford the object, and the disappointment may lead us into thoughts of how many things we have to do without, of how much money we lack, of the unlikely possibility that we will ever have all the money we need. We may then begin to wonder if we are destined to spend the rest of our lives in abject poverty, worrying over what will happen to us when we are old and alone with no one to help us.

A simple wish for something we happened to see in a store window has grown into a worry over a life of poverty, all without our knowledge or consent. What makes it even more difficult for us is that the thoughts in our head seem to be "out there" where there is nothing we can do about it. What seems to be reality is only thoughts about reality. Thoughts are the screen which hides reality.

Thoughts are the sole creators of the world in which we have our existence. This is not to say that a world of reality doesn't exist-quite the contrary. Reality exists, but it cannot be seen until the veil formed by thoughts is pierced, and the veil cannot be pierced until thoughts are seen for what they are.

Thoughts have a magnetic quality about them. They attract other like thoughts. We may, for instance, notice a series of feelings in our body and think, "I'm hungry". This thought will bring forth thoughts of food, where to get fed, or how much longer before we can eat.

If we have a thought that evokes happiness, we will think of other happy thoughts, and conversely, a sad thought will bring similar sad thoughts. Just as our thoughts and emotions are intertwined, so too is our awareness intertwined with our thoughts and emotions. Is hunger something we have or something we are?

The magnetic quality of thoughts attracts other thoughts, along with their attending emotions, dragging our awareness along, resulting in our awareness-us, being manipulated by the thoughts we have.

When we are in the throes of passion, be it of sex, anger or jealousy, it is difficult for us to remember that it all started with a stray thought that we entertained-never dreaming when we first had the thought that it would soon have us.

Thoughts form themselves into patterns which combine with other thoughts and thought patterns, forming still other thought patterns, all beneath our awareness. A sound outside the window reminds us of similar sounds which we have learned to associate with the sound of a passing car. The sound we now hear creates a thought which attracts other thoughts and thought patterns, forming into a "belief" that a car is passing.

The rememberance of a past slight by a friend forms with other like thoughts and patterns into a "belief" that we have been emotionally injured. We accept the belief without question as "real".

Our belief in a passing car or a slight by a friend forms our apparent reality -a reality that seems extremely REAL, that a passing car or an emotional injury actually exists. We cannot "see" the beliefs, but we can 'see" their results. Since what we "see" is "out there", it appears to us that reality just "happens"-that we have nothing to do with its creation.

Reality arises from our beliefs. Our beliefs arise from our thoughts. We are never aware of the composition of our thoughts, so we are never aware of our thought's creations-our beliefs. All of us believe that we know what we think, or believe, but this itself is a belief system arising from the thought that we are aware. In a vicious and tenacious circle, the belief that we know what we are thinking causes us to minimize the need to observe what we are thinking. We don't observe our thoughts because we think we DO observe our thoughts.

While we are in a belief system we never see it for what it really is. It always appears to be reality itself. All belief systems are self-contained, with no beginning and no end. There is no way to "break in" to see their irrationality. Belief systems can be transended, however, and therefore what appears to be reality can be transcended.

To transcend something doesn't mean that the "something" is no longer there. When we transcend a belief, we still have the belief, but we realize that a belief is all that it is. It has no power of its own, only that which we give it. When we watch a magic act, we realize that what we are watching is an illusion, that it isn't real. We transcend what our eyes tell us. The magician appears to have sawn the girl in half, but we know that he really didn't.

If we close our eyes and "stand back" from ourselves, becoming somewhat detached from our thoughts, and simply watch them rise, slide across our awareness and go off into oblivion, we will be watching a magic show of our own. If we become detached enough so that our thoughts seem separate from us, we will have transcended what our mind had been telling us. These thoughts that we have been watching form what is "out there". Since what is "out there" is nothing more than our thoughts externalized, then when we react to "out there", we are in effect, reacting to our own thoughts.

Our thoughts about "out there" and what is "out there" is the same thing. They cannot be separated any more than a head can be separated from a body. To remove one from the other is to destroy both.

Whenever any of our senses is activated by "out there", a chain of thoughts arises, creating an emotional morass which entraps our awareness, and we become hypnotized by our emotions and thoughts, all the while believing that it is the environment that we are reacting to. If we taste something sour, see something strange or touch something painful, thoughts rise unbidden.

What we read or hear also starts these chains of thoughts and emotions. Sex...War...Ni --er... Pollution... C -nt.....Nukes... Thoughts, images and beliefs attach themselves to each of these words like permanent waterproof glue.

Beginner's Mind

Most of us have a difficult time trying to listen to ideas that are ridiculous, childish or wrong, but all too often in life, that which we consider to be ridiculous, childish or wrong contain hidden pearls of wisdom which we, in our haste to get on with the business of living, miss. Wisdom which may be just what we need to get on with the business of living. We usually judge situations prematurely unless we consciously get our minds into a receptive mood where we are willing to be able to listen to, and mull over, some concept which is foreign to us. A very useful tool available to us for this purpose is something commonly called "Beginner's Mind". This tool can be used to pry open the solidified crud surrounding our mind which prevents us from living in the world of magic and miracles.

Beginner's Mind is quite simply the conscious temporary suspension of any belief, opinion or judgement. This temporary suspension is necessary in order to make room in our minds for imput which would normally be rejected because it conflicted with already-held data. Just as no more tea can be poured into a cup that is already full, so too is it impossible to pour any more ideas into a mind that is already full.

We have all heard the old saw, "Don't confuse me with facts, my mind is already made up". A mind that is full of ideas and beliefs is in no condition to entertain ideas and beliefs that it considers unnecessary or foolish.

Beginner's Mind gives us the opportunity to consider ideas we would normally refuse because we are under no pressure to accept or reject. We merely look, sort of like window shopping. The windows in which we shop with Beginner's Mind gives us a glimpse of infinity, and therefore we are able to view formerly forbidden areas. Also, we are able to enjoy what we see without worrying about what it is going to cost us.

To understand that we understand nothing, absolutely nothing, keeps our minds open and uncluttered. By knowing nothing we leave ourselves ready for wisdom. This gives us the chance of finding out what life is all about, what its purpose is, if anything.

Beginner's Mind works on the assumption that we know nothing. Beginner's Mind doesn't believe and it doesn't disbelieve. Beginner's Mind doesn't know an intellectual play from a re-run of "The Brady Bunch". It only knows what it likes. It doesn't judge. Beginner's Mind can watch soap operas, enjoy pornography and teach astronomy. It can go to any church it wishes, join any organization, take any job. It is not ruled by thoughts of "I should" or "I ought". It owns the world. It is free of the prison of beliefs. Beginner's Mind cannot be fully appreciated until one's mind IS Beginner's Mind-until every moment is new and fresh, ready for experience.

Theoretically, there is no reason why we cannot just have Beginner's Mind, but like everything else that is worthwhile, it takes effort. We must practice, just like we must practice everything that is new to us if we expect to become proficient. We may read a book on how to play golf or build a house, but until we actually engage in the activity, the reading will go for naught. Beginner's Mind is practiced by listening and observing without judgement or purpose, without making statements or meanings about what "is". We use Beginner's Mind when we act "as if" something were true even when common sense tells us it isn't.

We already act "as if" now, all the time, but we do it unconsciously, without thinking about it. We act "as if" we are males, females, Americans, students, bums, nice people, angry people, and pitiful people. We act "as if" it is rainy, sunny or cold. We continuously act "as if", so it isn't that we are unfamiliar with the concept, it's just that we aren't used to acting consciously. When we act "as if" unconsciously, we are driven here and there by forces beyond our control. We become puppets in the hands of our emotions, tools to be used by people who touch us in some way or other, fools reacting to the obstinence of a stuck drawer or a car that won't start.

When we act "as if" in a conscious manner however, WE choose our reaction. WE determine how we wish to react, and what we wish to react to. When we use expert's mind, the universe controls us, but when we use beginner's mind, we control the universe.

Illusions

When we go to a movie, we go down the aisle, wedge our way across bony knees, sit down, figet until we are comfortable and then wait in anticipation for the movie to begin. We notice other patrons, the ceiling, the screen, the lights. We know where we are-in a movie theatre. Then the lights dim. The people in the audience bring themselves erect in their seats and face the screen.

The screen lights up. The credits appear, along with the sound of music, and the action commences. Imperceptibly our awareness turns from "reality" and we begin to identify with the characters in the movie. Their fears become our fears, their triumphs become ours. We now "become" the characters in the movie.

When we go to a live stage show, the same thing happens. At first we notice that the props are props and the actors are actors. As the action unfolds we perceive the energy inherent in the props and actors differently. Slowly we "become" the story. The props "become" real. The characters "become" our acquaintences, people we've known all our lives. Our life, our "reality", changes from that of a theater-goer to the "reality" of the characters in the play.

In "real" life we do exactly the same thing. At first our thoughts are just that-thoughts, then imperceptibly our thoughts "become" reality. Our disappointments, our ecstacies, our sorrows, our problems, all come from our image-ings of what is "out there" -the "play" of life. We use the energy of ordinary events and people for our "play".

We get so engrossed in our play that we forget that it originated in our thoughts. We feel as if what is happening is beyond our control. Just like it is in the movies! We forget that we can get up and leave any time we wish. We believe we are "stuck" in our problems. We do not realize that none of *this* is any more real than what we see on the screen is real.

There are moving patterns of light on the screen making it appear to us that figures are there-walking, talking, dancing, fighting and loving. But the figures are not real. They are a product of our image-ination. We construct the figures from the configuration of light patterns projected upon the screen.

All "reality" is a product of our imagination. We construct events and objects from energy patterns that we perceive. It's all pure illusion, and since it is illusion, it can be ignored, changed or enjoyed-whatever we wish. We can change the play from drama to comedy. We can make it a moral play or a frivolous farce. We can change the characters, the plot and the set. We can change what it "means". We can change reality.

We all have a name, reason, thought or idea for every object, event or abstraction that "exists". These names, reasons and ideas that we attach to objects, events and abstractions become substitutes for these same objects, events and abstractions. We then respond to the substitutions AS IF they were the original-the reality.

Our minds are linerly oriented and therefore cannot focus on reality and the substitution for that reality at the same time. If we take the substitution for the real, then we cannot "see" reality no matter how hard we try, even though it is right there waiting for our response if we but could see it.

Suppose that we perceive one kind of energy doing some kind of energy to another kind of energy, and we decide that what we are "seeing" is two children wrestling in the street. This becomes our reality simply by naming the objects and the event. We "see" two children playing.

Suppose that we then hear angry voices coming from the two children, and we decide that when we thought they were playing, we were mistaken. The two really are fighting. What we "saw" before was not real. Where before we could only "see" them playing, now we can only "see" them fighting. We cannot "see" them playing, no matter how hard we try. We can never "see" them playing and fighting at the same time. Whatever reality we have at any one time is all there is. New perceptions are possible only when we can let go of the old.

Suppose that we now find that the two children are neither playing nor fighting, but instead, are working. They are very good actors who are being filmed by a camera we didn't see. We would then see that we had not been seeing reality at all, but NOW we are! On and on, always caught by what we BELIEVE to be reality rather than seeing reality itself.

Each moment, reality is what it IS, and it is changeless within each moment. Around this changeless reality our perceptions of that reality may change, becoming the new substitution. This is what was happening in our example.

Our perception may go back and forth in time to other perceptions of reality and change there also, creating new substitutions for those realities. A "reality" changed in the past affects our present "reality". The manner in which we "see' a past experience now, creates a substitution for that reality in the present. The way we remember an experience with a dog in the past affects the "reality" of dogs now.

Dogs, trees, pain, sorrow, embarrassment, anything we can name is a substitution FOR reality. What we believe to be reality is not. Real reality is beyond conception, beyond words. Real reality can only be observed or experienced when all judgements, opinions and beliefs have been transcended. ALL belief systems must be transcended if we are to live in reality.

Some "reality" has a nice, strong "being there" about it. Water is wet, no doubt about it. What appears to be reality says that it is the water that is wet. If that is so, then our sense of touch merely describes something that is already there. Water is wet, and this truth is noticed, or sensed. This truth becomes a part of our existence. We don't have to test water for wetness each time we have an occasion to use it or talk about it. Water being wet is something we know.

In like manner, we know our whole existence. We know fire is hot. We know dogs bark. We also know that the stars are hot, and the North Pole is cold. We have no direct knowledge of this as we have in the case of wet water and hot fire. We don't even know if it is true or not. We trust someone else when they tell us it is so.

The mind doesn't care whether something is true or not, or from whence it gets its information. It is mindless and cares nothing about the source of any knowledge. The mind can accept the reality that we are worthless as readily as it can accept the reality that water is wet. To the mind, all is reality, since the mind cannot differentiate between reality and the substitutions for reality.

When we name something we effectively shut ourselves off from the reality of what we have named. We learn the name for every object, feeling and event with which we come into contact at a very early age. We ask. "what is that?", and when we are told, we believe that THAT is what it IS. We confuse the reality of the thing with the name for it. We cannot drink a glass of water. We can only drink the reality that we have named "water". "Water" is a sound-a word. One can not drink "water'. We can only drink what "water" symbolizes, which remains unnamed.

Names of things are symbols standing in place of that "thing". Names can only approximate the meaning, point the way, so to speak. Truth is what IS. Since names are not what IS, they are not "truth". Words, whether spoken or written, are symbols for what the person MEANS. They are never the meaning itself. A statue of the Virgin Mary is understood to stand FOR her, and not to BE her.

Our mind is like a chest of drawers. Someone uses a word, we find the drawer for that word, open it up, look inside to see what is there, shut the drawer and know all about the subject. We believe that what is in the drawer is real, and our subsequent actions will be to that effect.

For instance, when we say, "book", this brings to our minds a picture of that "book", and each of us will have a different picture. Each of us has a different picture of "war", "marriage", "friend", and "environmental protection".

This "book" could also be called "black marks on crushed, mashed and chemically treated wood", bringing to mind an entirely different picture. Which is the reality? Book? Or black marks on wood? How do we name reality?

This world in which we live, the "real" world of pain, danger, cats, dogs and money, has its source in our thoughts. We call it the real world, but it is no more real than a movie is real. We don't see the real world, we see what we have substituted for it. This substitution interferes with our ability to see reality. The only way we can see reality is to rid ourselves of what we have put in place of it, and before we can rid ourselves of what we have placed in front of reality, we must see it-the substitution, the illusion, for what it is. We must see the reality of the illusion. The physical world is the substitution for reality, it is the illusion, so let's find out what we know of the physical world. For instance, how do we see?

Supposedly, lightwaves reflect off an object, enter the eye through the pupil and hit the rods and cones which form a portion of the retina-the rear of the eye. These rods and cones then vibrate at the same frequency as the lightwaves, creating a minute electrical signal which is passed to the next nerve cell in line. This signal causes the nerve cell to go through an electro-chemical reaction which produces another electrical signal which is picked up by the next cell, and it then goes through an electro-chemical reaction, producing yet another signal, which causes another cell to react, and so forth up the optic nerve until a signal, not the original, reaches the visual cortex, and we "see".

Balderdash!

That doesn't explain how we see. It doesn't explain anything! It doesn't even mean anything. All explanations of our existence are like that. They don't explain anything. They are just explanations, nothing more. To say that "gravity bends light", for instance, doesn't mean that that is what it DOES. Gravity is a concept for a phenomenon, as is light. No one knows what gravity is, or light, so how can anything be explained by putting these two words together in a sentence? We don't know any more than before we "explained" it.

Light bulbs light, plants grow, water runs downhill and no one can explain how or why. No one can explain any phenomenon, whether it's in science, religion, economics, politics, art or psychology. All explanations are just so much temporary structuring that cannot withstand the next generation's probing.

Numbers were not discovered. They were not "out there" waiting for someone to find them. They were invented-made up. They are not real. They exist only in the imagination. The game of Monopoly was not discovered. It was not "out there" waiting for someone to find it. It was invented-made up.

Mathematics is the result of an agreement among mathematicians, and Monopoly is an agreement among Monopoly players. There is no mathematics, there is no Monopoly outside of the made up ones.

Mathematics, quantum physics, medicine, music, art, literature, chemistry, sociology, psychology-all made up games for humans to play with. They look real because we can see their results. We can also see the results of playing Monopoly, but we keep in mind that the money and the hotels are not real.

We believe history "happened", but what we call history is an arbitrary choice of events picked to represent history, as a beauty contest winner is a purely arbitrary choice picked to represent beauty. History is an indication of the interests of a culture and nothing more.

"America'"is a hazy grouping of people, laws, geographical area, history, ideals and politics. There is no one thing that can be called "America". There is no one thing that can be called American. Or man. Or woman. Or human. All of these are figments of our collective imagination.

How is it that we come to believe that all these things really exist as solid substances when all we have to do to see their vacuity is to look? When we were small children we learned about the world from those around us. No one told us that these "others" learned about the world in the very same way. We got into the habit of believing that others knew things that we didn't.

Children declare something to be true because "my Daddy says so". When they start school, the phrase becomes, "Teacher says" We know things because "teacher says". As we mature this phrase becomes "they say", or "scientists claim". We spend a very large portion of our waking lives filling up the cup of our minds with information from schools, the streets, TV, newspapers. and God knows where else. We really believe that if we read it or hear it, that it must be true.

Believing in the world that we are told exists prevents us from living in the world in ways that could be called magical or miraculous, but are really quite normal. There is never any real cause for us to ever feel anger, or fear, or loneliness. Whenever we feel one of these emotions it is because we are misunderstanding something. No one can tell us what we are misunderstanding, but if we become skeptical of all that we know and re-learn with knowledge that comes from US-from our experiences, we will fill ourselves with real knowledge-true knowledge-wisdom. Then we will know what we are misunderstanding, and there will be no more misunderstanding.

A person who jumps from an airplane has a knowledge of jumping from airplanes that a lifetime of study cannot approach. This type of knowledge, this wisdom-is solid. It doesn't change with the times or the opinions of authorities or peers. It cannot be taught, and it cannot be "learned". The experience and the knowledge goes together. This type of knowledge, this wisdom, is knowledge about life, about what IS.

The other knowledge, worldly knowledge-the kind we get from books and schools is always about something we didn't know before. This is because what we are really learning when we study Math, or Biology or Languages are RULES OF A GAME.

"Real" Reality

Each of us knows that we exist. I exist, if nothing else does. If nothing at all exists, then THAT is reality-nothing exists. But if one thing exists, it would have to be me. I am real. Not the concept of who or what I am, but that "feeling", that "be-ing" that tells me that I AM.

I cannot "see" the reality of my be-ingness, because I am it. I cannot "see" myself. I can see the effect of that reality, of my existence, it is what is "out there". I cannot "see" me, just as the eye cannot see itself, but the experience of my world tells me that I "am", just as the fact that I see objects tells me that I have at least one eye.

A light falling upon a tree will give a shadow of the tree. This shadow tells us that there is a tree, or something of similar two dimensional shape, and a light source, without our having to actually see either. We need only look at the shadow to infer the existence of the source. What we see out "there" is the shadow cast by the existence of ourselves-our "selfs", with reality as the "light source". Just as the shadow of the tree tells us that the tree and light exists, the shadow called "out there" infers that reality and I exist. It tells us that something is somewhere, but it doesn't tell us what or where.

When we live a life as if what is out there is real, we are living life as if we had mistaken the shadow of the tree for the tree itself. When we are made happy or sad or excited by what is happening in the world, we are reacting to the movement of the shadow. We will have problems in the world as long as we believe that there is something we can do to the shadow to make it behave. Only when we realize that whatever we do to the tree affects the shadow will we be able to manipulate the shadow. Only when we realize that the world is the shadow of "I" will we be able to live in it contentedly.

It is extremely difficult to realize that what is out there is not real because we see the shadow (the world), but we don't see the tree. We don't see the tree because we ARE the tree. I exist. I am real. That "out there" is a mystery. What is it? Where does it come from? Do my senses detect it, or do my senses create it? Totally unknown, except that it definitely isn't what we believe it to be, whatever way we believe. Because THAT is contained within the confines of our skull-in our brain.

What you take these words to mean is illusion. It is shadow. It is not real. The experiences that you are having while reading, THAT is real. Any meaning or concept or conclusion is the work of the mind trying to make sense of something that doesn't require any meaning or sense. When it is raining, that's all-nothing more. The rain is not good, or bad. It is not hard, wet, dry, or any other thought you may put upon it. It is not even rain. Reality is like that. It is complete within itself. It needs no additions or qualifications. To do so merely confuses the onlooker and causes him to make life a difficult chore instead of a joyous dance.

Each of us has some idea or concept about who or what we are. This idea, this concept that we have, expresses itself in a particular manner. Our "self" casts a shadow. This shadow has the appearence of our body, our hopes, fears and dreams, our friends and our interests. It is our personality, our physical body, our influences. It is ego.

The shadow cast by a tree gives us a clue as to the configuration of the tree itself, but in no way is the life of the shadow as full and as varied as the tree's life. In the same manner, the life we are living as the shadow of ourselves in no way compares to the rich and full life that awaits us if we live our lives as our real "selfs".

If a tree thought that it was its shadow, and lived its life accordingly, it would be imprisoned by what it thought itself to be. In reality, it would not be imprisoned at all. We are of the same ilk. We are not imprisoned at all. We are merely living our lives as if we were our shadows. The fulcrum for all beliefs, for all thought, for all desires, pain, and joy , the point upon which the physical world sits is "I", our sense of identity, "me". What is this "I" which is us? Whenever I look, I am always there. In a dream, I am there. As soon as I return from unconsciousness, the first thing noticed is "I". "Where am I?" is asked-never, "who am I?". I am my god. It is I that I serve, it is I that occupies most of my thoughts. "I" is the most common word I use. By far. I am my whole world. God is my God. People are my friends, strangers are strangers only to me. I am the center of the universe. The universe is my universe.

Thoughts which rise from "I" form into beliefs and belief systems, creating the illusionary world, this shadow world. Beliefs exist. We have to live with them. The objective, then, is to pick our beliefs in the same way we should pick our friends. We should pick beliefs that are easy to get along with, ones with which we can relate-ones that will assist us in times of trouble, comfort us in times of sorrow, ones that have the same interests in ourselves that we do. We shouldn't keep associating with beliefs that just happen to have attached themselves to us simply because we and they happened to meet at some point in our lives.

Belief systems may be thought of as structures we need to guide and protect us as our awarenesses expand to include a greater reality, in much the same way a glass will protect a small seedling or a playpen will guide and protect a baby from harmful situations that the baby's awareness is not ready to handle.

If we are living a life that seems to contain a little too much anxiety, sickness or unhappiness, then the playpen, instead of being a protector, will seem more like a prison. A life that is not full of joy is an indication that the awareness is ready for a fuller and richer life. It needs a more all-encompassing belief. The baby is ready to play in the street, so to speak.

We may feel that we want more from life but we don't know how to scale the walls of our prison, or we may be afraid to leave the protecting walls. We may want to stand up for what we believe to be ours, but we fear the rejection and ridicule we may have to face. We may be in a situation in which we feel that we are being hampered in our ability to fully express ourselves. We may feel a duty to our parents, spouse or children which prevents us from removing ourselves from what we feel to be tyrannical pressures forcing us to conform to a mold where we feel helpless and hopeless. If we can see that it is only our beliefs about the way things are that causes our conundrum, and not the way things really are, then we will be able to at least look for a way out.

There is a definite proceedure to be followed when engaged in the activity of belief removal and replacement. The first thing that must be accomplished is to find out exactly, what it is that we believe. We can't take our word for it that we believe what we think we believe, because we really don't know. We just think we do.

The only way we can find out for sure what we believe is to periodically look at what we are thinking about. Diligently done, the practitioner will soon discover that there are many things that he thinks he believes, but really doesn't, and that there are things he believes that he didn't know he did. First watch thoughts, find beliefs and belief systems, find core beliefs, which are basic survival beliefs, like the way you see health, profession, and family, and then, once these are found, one may then proceed to getting rid of those beliefs causing discomfort, replacing them with beliefs which enhance the quality of one's life.

Say that you have watched your thoughts and you have noticed that every once in awhile you find yourself thinking, "humans are such terrible creatures, they pollute, war, murder, etc." Even though you might think this an idle thought, you must, on some level, have the belief that this is true. Otherwise you wouldn't have that thought. You also have another belief that you are human. Unconsciously, then, you have the belief that YOU, being human, are a terrible creature. How would this hidden (from you) belief affect your self esteem, your confidence in your activities with others? Obviously it would be to the benefit of your enjoyment of life that this particular belief disappear.

All mental activity needs attention in order to operate. Attention is like a power source. If, every time you found yourself thinking about the atrocities humans engage in with each other, you instead turn your attention to the goodness and benevolencies of the human race, the negative belief, being deprived of the nourishment of attention, would eventually wither away. The positive thought, on the other hand, being force-fed nutrition, would become stronger, and soon the one would replace the other.

In order to replace other, more basic to life kinds of beliefs, another technique is used. In this technique, the art of ridding one's self of beliefs and replacing them with consciously chosen ones centers around the power of imagination-a vastly underrated function of mind.

Let's suppose you are an Atheist, and you comprehend the power of the mind and its relation to the world, and you look around for some belief that you would like to have, knowing that the belief's reflection will appear "out there" as what we call, "reality". You want to change the world you live in, in the most dramatic way possible. So you think, would I like to have a God in my life? A God that would listen to my prayers, would have these tremendous powers, and would have my enjoyable existence as one of the primary goals of His life, like a loving parent has for its children? Yeh, that sounds good. So what you do is begin to act "as if" God existed. You may begin to pray, for instance, EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T AT THE MOMENT BELIEVE THAT GOD EXISTS. You act "as if", as you did as a child when you played cowboys and Indians. You go through the motions. You also keep it going in a playful manner, as you did as a child. You consciously look for evidence of His existence. Instead of attributing some event to luck, look to see where "God" played a hand in it. Events that seem to point up the absence of God, you ignore. You take attention away from those types of thoughts. You especially watch out for thoughts on the order of "this isn't going to work, this is just imagination". That belief is guaranteed to sabotage any effort you might make along these lines.

If you wish instead to live in a world run by magic, then use this same method to bring the magic of the ancient Merlin into your world. Make deals with fire spirits. Construct a magic sword and mirror from materials that you have gathered yourself, using incantations and whatever. Talk to the trees, to the wind, prostrate yourself before the rising sun. Act "as if" magic is a commonplace method that some humans use, and others don't. Just don't make the exercise serious or hard work. Keep it light, keep it fun. Keep it important.

Our Prison, Our Ego & The Hall Of Mirrors

We begin to build our prison early in life, with a little help from our friends. Someone may say something like, "that's a good boy, Johnny". We are young and innocent, what do we know? We accept that we ARE what they said we were, that that is US. We "become" good, a boy, and Johnny. Our new prison has three new walls. If these walls become particularly strong through a strong belief in the words as being us, then all of our future actions will undertaken flying the banner of "good boy Johnny". We will not allow ourselves to be "bad" (we will blame others for our shortcomings), or a "sissy" (a girl), and we will insist that we are "Johnny", and nothing else.

We will not be able to be "good boy Johnny" all the time, partly because the phrase is a concept and has no real existence, and partly because we haven't yet learned all the nuances of what it means to be good, or boy, or Johnny.

Our whole life is spent in refining what we believe ourselves to be. We become constantly involved in acquiring the idea that we are "this" or "that" concept. We want to be "good" sons or daughters, "good" citizens, "manly" men, "feminine" women, "loyal" and "diligent" workers, "friendly" neighbors. We want to *be* some "way".

We feel we must give presents on certain days or be considered cheap or uncaring. We feel we must demonstrate love so that our loved ones will know that they are loved by us. We must vote and give to charities or be thought anti-social. We must wear the clothes and behave in a manner appropriate to our sex, be punctual, interested and involved in our work. We must not say or do things that might be conscrued to be unfriendly, unless we are with an enemy, and then we have to make sure that our actions do not appear friendly so that we don't seem weak or timid. We must always express ourselves as we see ourselves, and as we believe others see us. This way that we see ourselves, this is ego. It is not OUR ego. It IS ego. It is what we identify ourselves with.

Ego is all the concepts, ideas, thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and our world as it relates to us. We may believe we are our bodies or an illusion produced by the brain, and we will die when the body dies, if we believe that we ever existed at all. We may believe that we are male or female and spend a tremendous amount of time and energy keeping this idea prevelant. We may believe that we are patriotic heroes who must defend our country in battle and arguments. We might even have to give up our lives to prove that our beliefs about ourselves are reality.

Ego causes us to persue power and money at the expense of our honor and integrity. Ego causes us to mistreat our children, our parents, our friends, our neighbors, nature and ourselves. Ego causes us to act in some manner or other in order to seem to be a man, a woman, a doctor, a teacher, a student, an artist, a lawyer-whatever it is that we believe ourselves to be, or are trying to be. Not only that, but we will act not as those "people" would, but rather how we THINK they would act. We "play" these parts as if they were characters in a play.

If we had no ego, no concept of who we are, then we would be free to do whatever we wished, regardless of our sex or profession, or whether we wanted others to believe that we were honest or brilliant. We could be the way we are. We wouldn't have to work at life. We could simply BE. We would no longer have to watch ourselves, which would leave us free to watch what was happening "out there". We would be free of all anxiety and worry. We would be free to experience the joy and contentment that lies continuously within us waiting to be experienced, our natural state of being. No one has to become happy. We are automatically happy if we are not angry, if we are not afraid, if we are not worried, if we are not envious or jealous, if we are not disappointed or disillusioned, if we are not greedy, covetous, or embarrassed. We are beings whose natural function is joy. We only have to stop working so hard at trying to be happy.

We create our egos and what we see "out there" as a tree creates fruit, and in exactly the same fashion. What we create depends upon who we "are". An apple tree cannot produce pears, and an angry person cannot produce peace. "Out there" is a mirror of our selfs. The world mirrors what's really happening with us. If we are joyful, then everything around us mirrors that joy. We en-joy the physical world. People, babies, kittens, music, smells-everything for our spiritual enjoyment. But if we feel depression, then those very same things that once brought us joy now produces a "grayness", adding to our depression. Nothing out there pleases us. We live-we have our be-ing inside. We ARE happy or we ARE depressed. These things are of the spirit. They cannot be weighed or measured in any way.

The physical world, that which is commonly believed to be reality, mirrors what we are really like, how we believe things to be, our egos. We see what we believe, what we expect to see. But what we believe to be reality is nothing more than the way we view "energy". We can have some idea of what comprises our egos by using the three-dimensional mirror called "out there", or "the world" just as we can have some idea of what our body looks like by viewing a two-dimensional mirror image.

"I", who or what I am, ego, is set up as a pattern of patterns. The awareness that is "me" expresses itself in a consistent manner, and the ever-present changes of what "is" creates the effect of patterns. "I" stay the same. The physical world in which I have my existence changes. The pattern I use to live my day is the same pattern I use to live my hour, year and moment. Awareness of myself never changes, therefore at THIS moment I am reacting in accordance with the dictates of that awareness, and at THIS moment I am also reacting in accordance with the same awareness, but the moment has changed. Our physical existence is made up of these moments, and each moment we react as our awareness directs us.

A huge oak tree in the valley is the same oak tree type of awareness as the small scraggly oak tree that looks like a holly bush that grows at higher elevations in poorer soil. The results of that awareness look different because the moments were different. One tree had many moments of plenty of water and nutrients, the other had many moments of little water and nutrients.

The awareness that we use while eating is the same one we use while walking, thinking, loving, working and creating. The pattern we use while eating will be found in everything else we do. If our food must be laid out on a plate in a neat, precise manner, then this same pattern will be found in the way we dress, the way we walk and the way we work. If our car and house are messy and disarranged, then our thinking is messy and disarranged. We ARE that pattern. That is us.

The Rorschach Ink Blot Test is a series of cards with blots of colored ink on them. A person looking at the blots will "see" birds, butterflies, sexual activity, mayhem-whatever it is that the person's awareness is focused upon. Since our reaction to an ink blot test is a microcosm of our reaction to all life, we can use "out there", the world, as a gigantic three-dimensional ink blot test. We can observe what we "make" of blots we call "people", "sickness". "sex", "food", etc. We can "read" our awareness with surprisingly little practice, but we need an extremely large amount of truth. We can get a detailed picture of what we are really like-a picture that is usually hidden from us, but not from others. With knowledge of what we are really like, we have an excellent tool with which we can change our personalities-our egos, if we wish. One of the magical phenomenons about us humans is that all it takes in order to change anything about ourselves is an awareness that there is something we would like to have changed. From then on, it is automatic. Awareness itself is a magical power.

What is really "out there" is beyond our ken, but that it is not real is obvious, once we "look". Whether it has a reality of its own is debatable, and not important for our purposes at the moment. There appears to be something involving energy, but of course energy is a name we have given to something we don't understand. Some physicists surmise that solid objects may be trapped light, and if true, I imagine that some part of us is doing the trapping, as some part of us does the magic of turning tomatoes into hair and blood.

Whatever it is that is out there, we use it as the material upon and with which we form our play of life. Whatever we see is because of what we "are". A thief will "see" dishonest people, power-driven people will "see" rivals and threats to their power. A person focused upon sex will see sexual partners, rivals, and rejections. Innocent words will be seen as sexual innuendoes. An angry person will see people creating conflicts with him, and so forth. Curiously, all of these "types" will believe that all others see the world in exactly the same way. Things that are important to me must be important to you, and my idea of right and wrong must be right, and therefore yours must be wrong if they are different from mine. You are stupid, I am insightful.

Our senses continuously perceive energy, but our individual mind's focus is so selective that it brings to our awareness only those perceptions that interest ego. Thus if I believe myself to be an attractive female, I will notice men looking at me and I will notice clothes and makeup that might make me more attractive. I will also notice other women and compare their beauty to mine. If I were male, I would probably never notice these things. My mind would be on other things-on a different focus.

What is in my world is dependent upon who I believe myself to be. It is not dependent at all upon reality, or what is out "there". What you believe you are reading here does not exist. What you believe I am saying has its originations within yourself. This writing is the backdrop for your "play". Any truths you read are first found in your recognition of that truth. Anything that is false is false because you recognize it to be so. You recognize the truth because your world is already constructed to contain those truths. You recognize the falseness because your world is already constructed to contain different truths.

What is "out there" is where our thoughts are turned. Since we are not aware of what we are thinking, not aware of our thoughts, what is "out there" seems to be separate from us, like the image in a mirror seems to be separate from us. We know the connection between our face and the image in the mirror, however, so we don't make the mistake of trying to correct blemishes on our face by manipulating the image in the mirror. We do not put lipstick on the image in the mirror, but we do try to manipulate the images of our lust, for instance, by changing partners instead of changing our thoughts of lust.

If we were totally ignorant of glass and any other reflecting matertial, and saw our face in a mirror, all we would "see" would be our reflection. We would not see the glass-the reflecting material. The reflection would appear to be another person in open space in front of us. Cats, dogs and babies have this problem.

This is what is happening in the "mirror" of our reality. We see only the reflection, the image. We don't see the "glass" which reflects our "selfs". We don't even know where "out there" is, let alone WHAT it is. We may call it energy or whatever, but all we really know is that our senses feed us information. Where that information comes from is anyone's guess.

We may be driving on the freeway and cut in front of someone who then emits energy from his lungs, through his vocal cords and into our ears, which we perceive to be, "Hey, why don't you learn to drive, you a --hole!"

Our perception of this energy, what we think it means, will make us angry, upset, sorry or entertained-depending upon how the reflection comes back to us. We may laugh, cry or be indifferent. Whatever our reaction, it will come from who we think we are-from our ego.

If we believe ourselves to be inferior to others, we will react as if the jerk is saying that he is superior to us. We will then react to THAT with anger, tears, acceptance-however it is that we normally react to charges of inferiority. What is important to remember here is that we reacted to the charge that we were inferior, and NOT to what the man actually said. We did not react to reality, we reacted to the substitution for that reality, to the mirror image of our ego.

If we become angry at someone, it means that we accept what we interpret them as saying or doing as having validity, and we don't like it. Anger comes from our illusion about the world coming into conflict with reality. What we react to tells us who we believe ourselves to be. What we react to out there describes the boundaries of our ego.

Ego is real, in a sense. He doesn't exist ourside our thoughts, but he is where we have our lives, most of the time. Only when we are so engrossed in something that we forget everything around us does he disappear. His power lies in being undetected. He promises us the world, but he never delivers. He keeps us thinking that he is our only true friend, the only one who understands the real us and what we have to go through dealing with unfeeling selfish people who don't appreciate what a great person we really are.

Ego is never wrong, although he will admit on occasion, that he sometimes makes mistakes. He never IS mistaken, it's that he WAS mistaken-when it no longer matters.

When we see two people arguing, what we are seeing is two egos fighting to stay alive by being right. The ego's whole survival system depends upon everything being as he says it is. He CANNOT be wrong-ever. He is always right-AT THIS TIME.

We seldom realize that being right never changes anything. What is, IS. Nothing changes that. We may get into a big argument about whether it is raining or misting, but no matter who wins the argument, it is still raining-or misting. Discussions about the superiority of this race or that, this sex or that, this value or that, changes nothing. Our votes count for naught with the great IS.

Ego is a lie. He is created from lies we have accepted about who we are. He is created from lies and lies are all he knows. His whole being consists of lies and lying, and the lies he tells are lies to us which he tells us are truths about ourselves. When we think, "Gee, I'm great", this is the ego lying to us. The "I" that we think we are is some concept of who we are. It is not us, it is only our idea of us. Our mistake is in believing we are the ego.

It may be that we think of ourselves as honest, handsome, creative, shy, stupid or Chinese. Some of these attributes we consider good, and some we consider bad. When someone does or says something that we interpret as applying one of these attributes to us, we become pleased if we value it good, and we feel hurt if we value it bad. It is not what anyone says or does that causes us to react, it is what we think the person MEANS by it.

This phenomenon of identifying with our concepts about ourselves has the result that we spend a great deal of time and energy trying to get others to believe that we are our good attributes and not our bad ones. We seek fame and shun disgrace. Constantly. This causes us embarrassment.

At each moment thoughout our lives, circumstances change. At each of these moments we have a choice as to how to react to those changes. We may choose to "do" or "not do". If someone insults us, we may choose to respond. If we choose to respond, then we must choose to respond in this way or that. If we choose to respond in "this" way, then we must choose to react or not in response to the changing circumstances which result from our response. We are not free to cop out from life. We must react to it. That is the way it is set up.

No matter which way we respond, whether we respond as a "cool" person would, or as a doctor would, or as an honest person would, or as a handsome, creative, shy Chinese would-whichever way we respond to the changing circumstances of existence, we will still be what we are. The sun will still come up in the morning and dogs will still s --t in the streets. We are free to react in any way we wish, because we cannot do harm to the "Is". There is no "way" to be. To think that there is, is to put ourselves into a prison of our thoughts and then blame someone else because "they won't let me".

Difficulties in reaching our goals can come from our thinking that there is one right way to do something, one way to "be". We cannot learn how to dance or carve wood, we can only do it. When we do it, we will learn how to do it in the process of doing it. There is no "way" to paint, write, golf, talk or drive.

If we did not know what wealth was, we could never "be" poor. If we did not comprehend success, we could never experience failure. Each of us is free to do anything we wish, whatever pleases us. The activity in which we engage has no rules as to how it is supposed to be done. We may choose to sing and dance, work and play, fight and love in the way that pleases us, not some ideal that we have about what ego tells us is "proper".

Each of us is unique, but none of us is unique in being unique. Uniqueness is common. But we feel this uniqueness, and when ego tells us that we are unique, we see that this is true, but not in the way that he means it. We accept that we are unique, and the only uniqueness we know is the one ego talks about. We believe that our thoughts and the things we talk about are more interesting than what others think or talk about. We believe that things that happen to us are real, while what happens to others are just stories that we hear. We believe that we as an individual are the most important and fascinating creature in the universe.

This is the way ego views reality, and we accept this view as truth. We "see" that it is true, because things happen TO US, constantly. People talk TO US, smile AT US, glare AT US. Busses are late for US, clerks charge US, the whole of creation reacts TO US. This makes us feel that we are important, and we ARE, because we exist. We are ALL important, unique and fascinating-far beyond what we can now imagine.

Lying is the first line of defence for ego. When attacked by the truth, ego first tries lying. He tells us to interpret a truth about ourselves as a meanness, or jealousy on the part of others.

Pride is the bastion of defence for ego. If the truth cannot be lied away, instead of letting the truth touch ego, we let pride take the hit. We are hurt. If the truth is so powerful that it cannot be lied away, and pride cannot absorb it, ego takes it on the chin and we feel despair. Despair is a sign that pride has been breached and ego has been harmed.

That "all is lost" feeling signifies the death of a portion of ego. No more will that paticular portion of ego be a problem for us. To give up, to quit, that's the crux. We may mourn for what we lost, but the loss was only a belief, nothing more.

Each thought or belief about who we are is a part of ego waiting to be taken away. If we believe ourselves intelligent, then a bad score on a test indicates that ego is in error, so if we cannot excuse the low score away, we let pride take the blow and we feel hurt. If we had no concept of intelligence we could not be touched by a low score on a test. If we have no thoughts about who we are, we can be touched by nothing. In order to lose the bad feelings when things go wrong , we must give up the whole coin, which means that we have to give up feeling good when things go right.

The ups and downs of life are in one real sense, not natural. They are usually the signatures of ego. Up is when ego is being fed and down is when he is being starved. There are, of course, other reasons for feeling good and bad that does not involve ego.

Living without the lies of ego involves having changes in one's life. Without the lies of ego, there is no pain when we lose some "game", but we also lose the elation we feel at winning. Without ego, we cannot feel the emotions derived from praise and adoration, and we don't notice the envy and jealousy of our peers. We have no ambition to be "somebody", or to "do" something. All of these types of goals disappear. Everything we have been taught to cherish as signs of success becomes valueless.

This dream world, this world of illusion, keeps us hypnotized with its highs and lows, its excitements and depressions. We can't escape our prison if we are too caught up in the passions of living. Neither can we escape if there is something we desire from our prison life. We must become indifferent to events, have no investment in outcomes. We must cease our selfishness.

These things can come to fruition through a process of discriminating disciplines. Fortunately the knowledge of these disciplines exists in numerous places, even here in the Western world. What happens after that is entirely left up to the individual-whether he wishes to follow the sometimes uncomfortable exercises or not.

All disciplines designed to weaken ego quite necessarily are things that go against ones "natural inclinations". At first these disciplines are distasteful things to do, but they quickly become very pleasurable-probably due to the effect they have on the individual's loss of ego. It is probably hard for you to imagine that you would ever look eagerly toward the possibility of getting into an embarrassing situation, for instance, or that you would actively seek out situations that generate fear, but that is what happens.

When ego is overcome, or even just having its hold lessened considerably, when we no longer have any, or not much, thought of ourselves, then we will be free, or somewhat free, of our prison. We either are released unreservedly, or we at least get frequent furloughs.

When we are no longer ego, we are no longer separate fron "out there", we no longer have anything to protect, no way to be, nothing to do but exist in the absense of fear, anxiety, anger, lust, greed, jealousy and pride. We have complete humility (meaning the acceptance of ourselves exactly like we are), with its attending peace. The peace brings with it, love for everything. Love for everything becomes our complete awareness. It becomes the only thing we know.

Infinity

As you sit reading this book, look back over your life at the coincidences that happened to you which brought you to be reading this particular book. Know that a similar set of coincidences brought me here to be writing this. You and I are connected by a series of coincidences which are so ordered as to seem to be controlled by some intelligence.

Now think how it came to be that this particular page is here, now, with you. Think of all the paper manufactured along with this page that did not make it here. Think, of all the seeds that did not grow into a tree, the tree which produced this particular sheet of paper made it. The seedling next to "ours" had too much shade, or an animal ate it, or lightning struck it after it was grown. Coincidences involving people, their interests at a particular time, their ambition, money, drugs, oil, invention of type (or computers), on and on. Everything that happened HAD to happen JUST SO. It could not have happened any other way, or this page would not be here with you. This involves a period of time since before the earth was formed, and before that.

Everything is tied to everything else in the tightest of knots. You and me and this book and my car and your socks are all inexorably tied into what "is". We cannot escape. We are part of All That Is, and we ARE All That Is. If we didn't exist, neither would the Infinite.

Infinity is a word-a symbol, for something that cannot be comprehended. Infinity is a word symbolizing that which exists when everything has been counted and there are things still uncounted, and even beyond that. Nothing exists that is not part of Infinity, and being part, becomes Infinity. Nothing can be separated from Infinity, because if it were, infinity would be missing a part and thus no longer Infinity. Infinity is complete within itself. It is ONE. It is NOT "many". Infinity IS, and EVERYTHING is Infinity.

If a tree is part of Infinity, then the woodsman who cuts down the tree must be a part of the tree, since both are part of the whole. Every part of everything must somehow be connected with every other part. Paradoxes result from trying to separate portions of Infinity from other portions. It's like trying to separate Infinity from itself.

Searching for the smallest particle of matter is fruitless since the smallest particle cannot be separated from matter itself. The smallest particle does not exist. At some point in our search for the smallest particle of matter, "matter" disappears. We only find traces of energy in its place.

If we try to separate matter into living and non-living portions, we find matter that is both living and non-living, and yet neither. If we try to separate living matter into plant and animal, we find living matter that is both plant and animal, and yet neither.

Some animals, like the sponge, are formed from cells that are themselves separate living animals. They are able to function on their own if separted from the sponge. Is the sponge an animal or a gestalt, like the UN or NATO?

I have none of the cells in my body that I had ten years ago. Is the new "me" the same as the old "me"? When a snake eats a frog, does a snake-frog then eat another frog? Does the frog become part snake or does the snake become part frog? If I cut off my head, where am I? In my head, part here and part there? Nowhere at all?

Life is a definition of a condition. Life exists only in the mind, in thoughts. What we consider to be life is nothing more than an arbitrary "say-so" by those we consider to be authorities. A tree is alive and a rock is not, only because the tree meets certain prescribed conditions and the rock does not. Calling something "alive" doesn't mean all that much.

"Law is a definition of a condition. So is "health", "student", and "planet". All exist only in the mind and cannot be separated from All That Is. What we call "things", what we say they "are", is nothing more than an agreement we have among ourselves. These "things" have no existence on their own.

All is ONE. ONE is all there is. The belief that the ONE is made up of many is an illusion created by naming. There is only one feeling, one emotion, one me-one "I". All energy and all matter is one energy. There is not energy, matter, pain, anger, fear, love. There is only ONE. This moment, NOW, is all there is. It always has been and it always will be. Everything that ever was, is. Everything that ever will be, is. This is all. There is no other. If there were, it would be this. This all, this everything, this "one" creates the illusion of infinity whenever we try to cut it up into parts.

We all feel separate from everything else. We really aren't, but the belief that we are necessitates that there be someone to be separate. We, as our thoughts, as ego, are that someone. With the creation of ego and our identification with it, as far as our feelings are concerned, we are separate. This feeling of being separate from nature, other people and "conditions", generates the feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, lust, greed, jealousy, humiliation, despair and pride.

Separation is an illusion, albeit a strong one. It is a circular illusion, as are all illusions. We believe our awareness to be somewhere inside our bodies, and this belief makes it true. We have effectively trapped our awareness, consciousness, inside our bodies, so when it is "outside", we see it as separate from the "other" awareness, the one "inside" us. In reality, it is all the same awareness, the same consciousness.

The intensity of the illusion of everything separate from us prevents us from seeing the reality that what seems to be "it" is really us. In order to see the reality of who or what we really are, we must learn to look past illusion and not at it. We must learn to look out through the window and not get stuck on the reflections in the window simply because that is all we can see at the moment. We miss what is going on at such a time because the images of the reflections have us hypnotized into believing that the reflection is all there is to see.

A cell in my big toe is not separate from my foot, my foot is not separate from myself, I am not separate from humanity, humanity is not separate from nature, nature is not separate from the earth, the earth is not separate from the universe, and the universe is not separate from All That Is. A cell in my big toe is not a thing separate from the planet Saturn.

Ego is strengthened whenever we think, "I am such and such" Ego is also strengthened by thinking, "I am not that". This implies to us that, not being "that", I must be "this". Any thought that tends to give credence to the idea that we are some "thing" or other tends to feed ego and keep it strong. Whatever keeps ego strong keeps the idea of separation strong. To think of something -anything -gives credence and believability to that which thought rests upon. Such is the power of the mind.

We are all separated from each other superficially by speech patterns, beliefs, abilities, type of work we perform, type of work our parents perform, wealth, personality, body type, etc. etc. etc. We become aware of these differences depending upon their value to ego. A person whose ego is strongly intellectual might not notice the wealth or social standing of an acquaintenance, but he would notice and compare to his own, the intellectual capacity of his friend. Our intellectual person's wife, on the other hand, may be "into" social standing and would not notice the person's intellect, but would notice and compare to her own, his wealth or position, and anything else she considered to be important when placing someone socially.

Ego is a product of thoughts, and we have seen that thoughts have a magnetic quality about them, causing the phenomenon of seeing in others what is really in us. What we see out "there" mirrors what is in us. If we see people who are poorer, then our ego is "richer". To see others as poorer indicates that we have made an arbitrary decision that we are this "wealth" thing, and we believe that all others are also this "wealth" in varying degrees. We never place ourselves in a catagory except as something that exists differently. We don't think of ourselves as Zordix-not because we aren't, but because there is nothing we can point to as *not* Zordix.

The number "one" is different from the number "two" only by comparison. They are both numbers. "One" is not more of a number than "two". All numbers are a "number". Each behaves as a number. They all exist exactly the same. None of them bear children or sit in trees. Each number "lives" like every other number. They all have the same creator and the same plane of existence. The only difference between them is the simple arbitrary placement of one in relation to all the others.

We are "alive" in th same way. The only difference between us or some "thing" is our simple arbitrary position in relation to everything else. A president of a country is no more important to reality than a person who is a barker in a carnival, just like the number "one million" is no more important to the reality of numbers than "sixteen".

We are all the same consciousness having different focuses. The focus of consciousness is what we call awareness. A consciousness that has an awareness of sight is a person that can see. A consciousness without this awareness is said to be blind. An awareness of feminine traits and feelings produces a person who considers herself a female. Consciousness is capable of any awareness, but awareness is stuck with what it has. Consciousness sees one reality. Awareness sees as many different realities as there are individualized consciousnesses.

We all exist in different realities from each other, and even from ourselves as our awareness changes. The world IS different for each of us. It is foolish to expect us all to have the same beliefs, interests and worldly goals. To try to force our world upon another simply because we know truth is to try to force a person to live in a world where he doesn't fit. To expect all children, for instance, to have an interest in academic subjects is as ridiculous as to expect all children to want to learn witchcraft.

Consciousness is a non-physical entity. It is a "spirit", a "happening", a state of "be-ing". In order for consciousness to enter physicality, it must express itself into the physical world. When consciousness expresses itself physically, we see it as some "thing". The consciousness of "apple tree" expresses itself into physicality as an apple tree. The object we know as an apple tree is an expression of consciousness, and not consciousness itself.

It must be kept in mind that there is no such thing as an apple tree consciousness. Realize that an apple tree consists properly of the tree, both past, present and future, the roots, the minerals contained within the tree, the carbon dioxide, the fertilizer, the minerals and gases ebbing and flowing within the roots and leaves, the effect of the moon and sun on the tree, the stars, etc. We are going to talk about apple trees and apple tree consciousnesses, but such things are illusions. They don't really exist. They are holdings of the mind. But we can only talk of these things. Reality cannot be discussed. There are no words to describe what is real. Reality can only be. What we are doing here is to use words to transmit ideas, but keep in mind...

An apple tree does not grow apples any more than an apple grows apple trees. They are both grown from the life, the substance, the be-ingness, the natural expression of "treeness". There is not an apple waiting inside the tree to come out, and there is no tree waiting inside the seed. They both come from that which is invisible -from that which manifests.

The seed of an apple lies in the same consciousness as the tree the seed came from, and the tree the seed is to become. Consciousness lies in the past and the future of the seed. It is not constrained by time or space. Time and space are limits of physicality -of the expression, and not of the reality of seeds.

This "is-ness", this consciousness that we attribute to apple trees is known as the "Self" of apple trees. Each tree is another expression of the same Self. Self does express as other than physical. For instance, the living of the tree is also an expression of Self, as is the breathing, the feeding, and the growing of the tree, as well as any thoughts, emotions, and feelings it may have.

We are also Self, expressing. We are Self expressed into physicality as humans. We are the characters in the play in which Self is actor. We, individually, are characters Self the actor, plays.

We, the characters in Self's play are also actors in another play. In the play in which we are the actors, ego is the character we play. Ego is self's character, self is Self's character. We, "I", are self, our thoughts and beliefs about "I", ourselves, are ego. We can know ego, we can know self. We cannot know Self. That, Self, is who or what we REALLY are. Who or what we really are is that which is there just before we say, "I". When we say, "I", that is ego. That which creates ego, self, is the result of Self being physical. Self is non-physical, self is physical and non-physical, ego is non-existent, the child of beliefs.

Self may be playing us as an honest person, perhaps, but we -as an honest person, have an ego that wants what is not its, so it may lie and steal. Being "honest", we rationalize or deny any dishonesty. This way ego can lie and steal and still believe itself to be honest. "They can afford it", "I wouldn't have done it if they hadn't ...", etc.

I, who write these words, am Self expressed physically. This that is written is an expression of Self, as am I. Self used me as a vehicle to express these words into physicality as Self uses a tree to express apples into physicality. As an apple tree grows and does those things expressing Self, so also do I grow and do those things that express Self. And so do you.

My parents, the area in which I live, my vocation, my interests and my hobbies are all expressions of Self that produced me. I am not that Self, and I do not HAVE a Self. "I" am Self, materialized. I am Self's thought, its idea. As Self's thought, I feel what I am. This feeling is my intuition, my hunches, my feeling of right and wrong. I feel intelligent or stupid, male or female, honest and kind or selfish and cruel. I, as expression of Self, know myself in an intimate way. I know whether my feet hurt or not, and where, and how much. If I let my thoughts discover what these feelings mean instead of letting be what I feel myself to be, I live as ego rather than self. A dog with a broken leg will try to walk on that leg. It has no conception of being a dog with a broken leg -no ego.

Ego, as our thought, our idea, our belief, is created by us in the same manner we have been created by Self. We, as the shadow of Self, MUST express as it does. We create because our creator creates. Ego, as our creation, is an expression of us, us being the expression of Self, and as we feel Self's traits, so also does ego feel our traits. It also is intelligent or stupid, male or female, honest and kind or selfish and cruel. The one big difference is that we, as self, ARE, but ego BECOMES. If we ARE intelligent, ego must BE intelligent. If we ARE male, Ego must BE male. Thus we have the so-called "intellectual" and "macho" people.

We also, for the same reason, have "artistic", "spiritual", "proud", and "humble" people -all a "putting out" into the physical world what is felt inside. There are many other shadows of Self that we feel as self and allow ego to translate into "out there" for us. These are our feelings of selfishness, pride, self-esteem, knowledge and love. All of our personality traits, some of which we like and some we don't like, all have their roots in what we are. When we let ego translate them for us, they get twisted into worldly designs and are no longer recognizable.

Consciousness seeks knowledge and union. We all have curiosity, and we all want to be loved, wanted and respected. Consciousness never wishes for a new car or a perfect mate or a prestigious position. That we want these things is a lie told to us by ego to account for the yearning we feel in our hearts for that "something" that will make everything all right. There is no need for us to seek anything. We are complete as we are. Trying to get what we already have is what creates our personality. We become cold, or nice, a pushover, paranoid, all the things that makes what others see of us whenever ego holds court.

Intense emotion, whether of fear, anger or pity, prevents us from seeing past the illusion of an event because our awareness is so intensely tied up with the emotion. Therefore before we can see past the illusions which generate these intense emotions, we will have to dissipate somewhat the intensity of the feeling in order to free ourselves from its clutch. It makes no difference whether we are caught by negative feelings such as fear or anger, or positive emotions such as hope or anticipation.

Some emotions, such as those associated with the sex drive, are tied too closely with the human part of us for any talk of dispelling any illusion about sex. So we won't. Ceasing fantasizing about sex will go a long way toward alleviating its power, but we will still be left with the biological drive.

The other emotions which frequently overwhelm us and cause us to do things we wish we hadn't, those whose sole reason for being is because the mind accepts their premises as reality, those are fair game.

Fear's function is to keep ego safe. Fear is always of the mind. We fear what is going to come. If the fear is far in the future, we call it worry. If the fear concerns control of situations, we call it anxiety. We fear fire, death and disaster. We fear not having insurance in case of accident. We fear disease and disability. When these things happen, there is no fear for these things then. Instead there is fear of what is going to happen now that THAT has happened. In the future. In the mind.

Fear is sometimes a limiting power. Fear of belonging to a cult or fear of capture by a mind mezmerizer keeps many away from growth areas. Fear of the establishment keeps many others in situations they abhor. Fear of insecurity keeps many of us in a constant state of insecurity. We feel that we cannot be secure until we ARE secure, as if we could be secure in a universe where the future is hidden from us.

Fear of being poor keeps many from taking chances that could lead to riches. Fear of losing our sex partner causes us to to seek assurances frequently, makes us suspicious of their every move, and eventually causes us to lose them.

Intense fear -phobia, has three functions. It causes what we fear to be more likely to happen, it keeps us hypnotized so that we can't function properly because we aren't aware of all that is going on around us, and it makes our lives miserable.

The end game of all fears is death. Death of ego either by embarrassment or by our body refusing to operate. We believe ourselves to be that which we believe ourselves to be, ego, so if it dies, we disappear. We believe ourselves to be a part of existence instead of existence itself, so we believe deep down, that we will leave one day, while the rest of existence goes on its merry way without even a careless look back.

Small fears overcome by informed discipline creates confidence. This confidence loosens the power of larger, more personal fears, enabling these to be overcome using the same informed discipline. For instance, say that you bought something in a store that didn't work like it should, but you dread taking it back because you're afraid they may say no and you will get angry and cause a scene. But the thought of being taken advantage of makes you feel angry and inferior.

Imagine yourself taking the object back to the store and asking for a refund. Imagine the worst thing they could do to you. They refuse. You insist. Are they going to be rude to you? Can you handle that? Are they going to yell at you? Can you handle that? Can you stand there politely even if they call the police? Make your decision as to how far you are willing to go, and then whenever a worry starts to come up about it, simply say to yourself, "no I can handle whatever comes up, up to and including...". This will increase your confidence in yourself, causing you to be a more pleasant person to talk to, increasing the likelihood that the exchange will be a pleasant one.

Anger is another intense emotion which effectively keeps us trapped in the valley of illusion. It also has many attributes we find in fear. Anger has a use to us for survival, just as does fear, but, like fear, it most commonly makes its appearence at inopportune moments, causing us to be unable to function sensibly. Anger's use is in the increased aggressiveness combined with increased determination and muscle power which it generates. Its liability to us is that it usually causes us to use these attributes in a haphazard and detrimental manner. Anger used in a conscious manner is an effective tool. Used in an unconscious manner, it is a hazard.

Curiously anger arises from fear. If we are frightened, at first we jump, then we scowl and yell. Anger may be brought on by fear of humiliation, fear of rejection, fear of scarcity, and fear of uncertainty. Actually, this is not too surprising, this attachment anger has for fear. Fear is a natural result of the formation of ego, and anger protects ego from any attack.

Anger always comes from within. No one or no thing can make us angry, ever. If we are angry, all we have to do to find out what is making us angry is to look inside and see. We may not always find the origination of the anger, it may be hidden too deeply, but at least we will be looking in the right place. Looking inside for anger's cause instead of looking "out there" for the cause gives us a two-pronged method of attacking uncontrolled anger.

If we are angry and look inside to find out what part of ego is in danger of having the covers pulled off it, the very act of looking will distract our attention away from that which SEEMS to be causing the anger. This will have the effect of diminishing, if not altogether eliminating, the anger. Secondly, if we do find out what it was that we thought about the world that turns out not to be true, this awareness will eliminate that particular root cause of anger.

Desires. Ah, yes desires. What could possibly be wrong with having desires? As it turns out, all desires have at the end, the certainty of disillusionment. If we desire something and don't get it, we suffer disappointment. If we DO get it, we quickly find that it wasn't quite what we thought it was going to be, and we feel disappointed.

Whatever we desire exists only in the mind-in imagination. We may very well have all we need or want right now, but not recognize that fact because of the mesmerizing ability of the mind.

Ego may tell us that power, money or fame will bring us happiness, but the real truth of the matter is that we would have the happiness if we didn't have the desire for power, money or fame. Ego always has things backwards. It always reaches toward the end, never the means. To ego, painting a picture is for the purpose of having a painting, or of being an artist. Reality recognizes that the painting of the picture, the "doing" of it is all there is. The finished product is merely the physical representation of the reality of painting, and has no value in and of itself, except in any message it may transmit to a viewer.

Desires and wishes are feelings attending the difference between what *is* and what we believe must *be* in order for us to feel satisfaction. The desire for something, anything, is like the desire to have painted a picture. Once we have acquired what we desire or have painted a picture, what then? Another desire? Another painting?

Love is the creative force. It is the force behind growth -physical, mental and emotional. It is the force behind sexual attraction. It is the force behind the desire to create beauty. It is found in hunting. It is found in sacrifice, in ingestion, in elimination. Love is the "reason" for existence.

This love, this real love casts a shadow out "there". The shadow of Self's love is existence. What the world calls love is actually need. Usually. "I love you" means "I need you". Real love is a feeling of completeness and acceptance with everything just as it is. Illusionary love is a feeling of possessing something without which we would feel a lack. Real love for ourselves translates into humility -an acceptance and gratitude for ourselves just as we are. Illusionary love for ourselves is that pride that our culture feels is so important for our self-esteem, the pride that is energized by winning at some thing or other, or energized by receiving praise for some activity prized by the culture.

Speaking of humility, Meher Baba, an Indian "Holy Man" now deceased, claimed to the world that he was God. When someone once complained that the statement didn't show much humility, Meher Baba replied, "Would you rather I lied?" Humility demands that false humility cease and desist. We are what we are. We are not what we wish to be, nor what we wish to appear to be.

We are love personified, but we have covered ourselves with so much crap which ego tells us we need, that we don't recognize it. We are told that love comes from some person or other, and while we are looking for it we don't notice that the feeling we ae having is not love, but a feeling of desperation born of lack.

Once we find this "love", not recognizing that it is need, we feel we must secure it so that we won't have to make the search again, so we make deals. "I'll show you expressions of love if you'll show me expressions of love".

If we do some act for the purpose of receiving or showing signs of love, then that act will NOT be for the purpose of expressing love. An immediate act cannot be used for more than one purpose, because we cannot have more than one motive at a time. If we give flowers out of guilt, or to assuage anger, then that's what will be shown to the other person. The act of giving flowers in this case will not show love. If we do any act out of a sense of duty, or to SHOW love, we are prevented from doing it out of love. Love is expressed when all other considerations are gone. We have somehow gotten the idea that love can be expressed in a prescribed manner. Love is a feeling, not an action.

Every action we take is always done for one of two purposes, for one of two motives. We do things out of fear, or we do them out of love. Always. No exceptions. Watch your motives and you will see this to be true. This makes for an easy spiritual discipline. All we have to do before we are about to do something is to look and see why we are doing it. If we see any fear-say fear of not being able to rid ourselves of the feeling of pity, or of not being seen as a "good" person, or fear of embarrassment, then we automatically know we are not doing the action out of love. This reminds me of an Eastern truism "In order to never do evil, all we have to do is to do only good".

Most of us are saddled with certain ritual expresssions which we don't wish to continue, but feel we must for fear the loved one will think we are ungrateful, or no longer love them. We get so caught up in the symbols of love that we mistake the symbols for the expressions. Doing our duty in no way substitutes for giving love, whether it is to our parents, our spouse, our children or our country. Doing our duty and giving our love are two distinct acts. One is a job, the other a joy. Doing a voluntary duty, say feeding your children, is an act of love. Paying child support because of a court order is not.

Every ritual with which we have burdened ourselves involves ourselves and another person, place or thing. If we are in a love ritual with another person, and if the ritual is not a free expression on our part, it will be felt by the other person. They will know why you do the ritual, although it may be known only unconsciously. Both parties will feel the ritual as something that *has* to be done, as something the other expects. Each will not be free to show love in that ritual because the expression will have been superceeded by the "duty". Gift giving on holidays or calling someone on a special day are common examples of this. If one does not feel joy, or a warm sensation in the chest at giving or calling, then the ritual is not an expression of love. It is an expression of duty.

Burdensome rituals can be broken simply be stopping them. The hard part is dealing with the hurt feelings of the other party, or rather the hurt feelings we imagine they will have. This part passes quickly however, especially if explanations for the act of quiting is given, and after the initial misunderstanding the other party will see that even though the ritual is gone, the love is still there, and much stronger since it is free to express itself in a manner acclimated to the one expressing.

Motive

Our culture places an inordinate amount of emphasis on show. We show our love, our looks, our wealth, our position, our intelligence. We present to the world the symbols of our feelings and emotions. When our motive is to show, appearance is all we project. Motive is always unit focused. Any action motivated by love will manifest love. Any action motivated by selfishness will manifest selfishness.

It is our motive, our intention that determines what our response is to be for what life brings before us. It is motive that steers the power of the mind. That we may be unaware of our motive for a particular action makes no difference. The physical manifestation of that motive is what will appear.

If we believe ourselves to be acting out of love and service when our real intention is to look good, or to get something out of it, then that is what the recipient of our action will see. That various people can get away with this subterfuge is due to the fact that so many people have their own agenda, so they make themselves believe, because they wish to, or they are so unaware that the observed intentions of a person is hidden somewhere in the their unconscious. I am refering here to televangelists and their believers, but it is also true with the people you meet on the street or people who are your friends. The intention or motive can easily be seen by those to whom it is directed, if they take the efffort to look, but it is not so easy for the one with the motive. If you wish to follow the discipline of observing your motives in order to find out what it is that you are all about, you must never take the first motive found. Dig a little deeper. And you must look for the motive just before you commit the act. After the act you will see that the motive you thought you had was not the one you really had.

The mind is an extremely powerful tool. It creates our eyeballs from lettuce leaves and bits of cow. It creates our experience of life, of the world. It consists of our imagination, our intellect, our memory, and for most of us, we, ourselves (ego). It gives us the power of speech, of mobility, of sight, of hearing, and of instructive and prophetic dreams. It creates all that we know of the physical world.

If we imagine that we are looking at ourselves from a corner of a room (say) for a long enough period of time, there will come a brief experience when we will see ourselves from a short distance away, as if we were over "there", looking over "here". Our individual mind is a magical thing. It is an impossibility. And it belongs to us. What then, must we be, to own such a miracle?

The mind is powerful, but it is mindless. It has no sense, so we have to be careful with what direction or instruction we give it. We give it direction by the focus of our awareness, by our attention. We must be aware of what we are thinking in order to be aware of what instructions we are giving the mind. If we think a lot about our particular fears, for instance, the mind will obey and bring those realized fears to us. "Just like you ordered, sir". If we ponder upon the erasure of those fears, it will bring to us the solution. If you show an interest in remembering your dreams, you will begin to remember your dreams. The mind is yours to use.

We can use the mind to create anything we wish, subject to our ability to believe. There is much anecdotal evidence to suggest that this ability to create extends to the manipulation and transformation of time, space, and physical objects. And the mind does do this in our dreams, so the suggestion is there that this manipulation and transformation is not beyond the power of the mind. But whether or not this is possible, the mind definitely creates our experience of time, space and physical objects. And what else do we have except our experience of these things?

Consciously using the mind's creative powers is an art that must be learned by practice. Motive, attention, is the steering wheel with which we direct mind. Desire, emotion, will, is the power locked in the engine. Physical action, acting "as if", is the clutch which connects the power of the engine with the wheels of realization, of creation.

Motive is something we HAVE. It is not adjustable. The steering wheel on our vehicle is always locked, although it gets locked into different positions. We just have to be very careful of which direction the mind is headed before we let out the clutch. We must look deep into our motive before we take any action. A warning. Any motive we have will be a selfish one. It's the only kind we have. Even the motive to become a better person is for our own interests, as is the motive to save the whales or drop a quarter into a begger's cup. Don't imagine that you are an altruistic person. That is one of ego's most successful lies.

We are totally responsible for the condition of our lives. Who or what else can be blamed? And what good would that do, to blame someone or something other than we? So long as we believe circumstances or persons are responsible for where we find ourselves at this moment, that long will we continue to be at the mercy of an environment beyond our control. The sooner we understand that we alone are responsible for our lives, the sooner we can begin to look at the thoughts, beliefs and actions that put us where we are, and the sooner we do that, the sooner we can begin to have circumstances express our desires instead of our weaknesses.

The philosophy behind love and service is that the mind cannot stand contradictions, so if one forces oneself to serve a person or group that is hated or disliked, the mind will force the server to love the person or group served.

"If a gift is to be real, then both the giver and the receiver of the gift must forget the transaction completely. To forget completely would mean that the giver should not feel that he has given, and the receiver should not know that he has received. If the giver does not forget, then he has obligated the receiver; and if the receiver does not forget, he experiences a sense of obligation towards the giver." The quote is from Meher Baba's book, "Life At Its Best"