Drama vs The Now - Ekhart Tolle

Gratitude

HI, yes I have been doing the gratitude exercise and am passing it on to friends as a brilliant way to start and end the day. This has really helped a friend of mine who is going through a bad time at the moment. So, thank you Michael, and I find the gratitude music immediately brings a smile to my face. I have recently had some bad news about a close family member returning to past habits, and have found the power of meditation has really steered me through it, with the help of Michael's Discover downloads, especially the Lifeflow demo, I find it really alters my state of mind. I had a bit of a negative morning this morning though, which I was finding it difficult to shake off and eventually realised I was worrying about what will happen and what happened in the past in connection with my relative, so I have come onto the forum, having had a little read of the Power of Now. Once I had read just a couple of pages of Eckhart Tolle I felt immense release in that I need to be in the now and the worry has gone away as I have begun to follow his words, I opened the book on 'WHEREVER YOU ARE BE THERE TOTALLY'. It is just what I needed to hear/read, I know this is no coincidence! Thanks guys, reading a few messages on here has helped me today, and I had a look at Eckhart Tolle's Drama vs The Now again, it made me smile, especially as I had avoided some people today, as I felt down and did not want to pass on my negative energy. I am learning...
If you haven't looked at the Tolle videos yet, give one a look.

Lots of gratitude for this forum, by the way, it is great to know there is so much goodness in the world, especially at the moment LOL

 

Gratitude & LOA

Hi purplevibe,
Thanks for your post. My heart is full of gratitude for Project Meditation and this forum. I am currently on LifeFlow 5. So far my favorite has been LifeFlow 7. There is just something about falling rain that speaks to me. I'm no longer much of a regular church goer anymore. However, a while back when I was in a church where I occasionally attend, I heard a song that spoke to my heart. It was by Todd Agnew and is called "Grace Like Rain." When I listen to the chorus, I feel something shifting in me, and, for that moment, letting go. The chorus goes:

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

I am thankful that Michael recommended "The Sedona Method" for helping to release and let go of some of the "stuff" that meditation may bring up. I have purchased the book and the CDs and am going through the program. It is proving so beneficial to me. Lately, I have been feeling very loved. It seems that blessings & miracles are happening in my life just as quickly as I'm willing to accept them.

One of my favorite writers is the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. The following quote from his book "New Seeds of Contemplation" reminds me of what Michael "suggests" as a way of becoming aware of this love by doing "the gratitude exercise" at the end of our meditation sessions.

QUOTE: The beginning of the fight against hatred, the basic Christian answer to hatred is not the commandment to love, but what must necessarily come before in order to make the commandment bearable and comprehensible. It is a prior commandment, to believe. The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved. The faith that one is loved by God. That faith that one is loved by God although unworthy--or, rather, irrespective of one's worth!
In the true Christian vision of God's love, the idea of worthiness loses its significance. Revelation of the mercy of God makes the whole problem of worthiness something almost laughable: the discovery that worthiness is of no special consequence (since no one could ever, by himself, be strictly worthy to be loved with such a love) is a true liberation of the spirit. And until this discovery is made, until this liberation has been brought about by the divine mercy, man is imprisoned in hate. (pgs. 74-75) END QUOTE.

Finally, speaking of the "Law of Attraction" (LOA), I recently had an experience that demonstrates this principle. It was Sunday morning, and I was visiting with my wife about the thing that "really" bothered me about my family of origin. I said that I just wished that they could accept me and not try to "manipulate" me into doing as they think I should. Anyway, it wasn't five seconds after I said this that the phone rang and it was my mom on the line. She immediately started to use her loving????, but oh so manipulative ways to get me to change my behavior and do as she "knew" I ought to.

Anyway, it triggered me for a moment. But then I was able to smile and say to myself, "Dang, I'm an amazing creator. Look how quickly that thought just manifested in my life."

Take care and happy journeying. --Keith

 

a curiosity question

Keith, can i ask a personal question? no wish to offend so please do not hesitate to tell me it is none of my business and i will not take it personally if you do. seeing you are from Utah and based on what you said that i quoted above were you by chance raised as mormon?

 

A very long time ago I read a book by Thomas Merton . . .something about a mountain . . .but I don't remember much about it anymore. It was one of the stepping stones that brought me where I am today though. There is a monastery about 10 miles from where I live. A friend and I go there on occasion to go through vigils with them.

I don't know about Keith; but I am a morman . . . or was . . . or whatever. My wife is/was relentless about this issue.
I just cannot reform; I've tried for the last time. I think she knows that now but oh man; it must have taken her 13 years to get the picture. I go to sacrament with her and the kids but that is all. I cannot go to bible study or priesthood anymore. I am just to far out there for the limits of either of these meetings. I am really OK with this issue anymore.
gus

 

Some of my "life experiences"

Hi Grey & bashmaki,
First off, Grey, I'm glad that you went ahead and asked your question. And no I'm not offended that you ask. I wish others would ask rather than make assumptions. I don't know if you have read "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz, but the third agreement states:

"Don’t Make Assumptions"
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

So to answer your question, yes, I was raised in the Mormon faith, or as it is formally known "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." My family on both my mother’s and father’s side have been members of this religion since the mid 1850s. They were early pioneers who crossed the plains in wagon trains and helped to settle the West. I want to say at the outset that I have friends who remain active in the Mormon faith who have never perceived things as I once did. However, it is my opinion that the majority of "active Mormons" still perceive things the way I use to. Basically, I use to believe that the Mormon Church was the only "true and living church upon the face of the whole earth," and that it was my duty to convert all other people to my religion so they could be as happy as I was. I no longer believe this way. I am finding that it works better for me at this stage of my life to no longer be active in the Mormon faith. For many people, this is a path that continues to work very well for them, and I honor their journey.

Life is so interesting. We all have so many wonderful, funny, sad, etc. life experiences. A problem comes when we begin identifying ourselves with these life experiences rather than as the "observer" of them. A while back I was pondering my own life experiences. I wrote the following:

"A More Beneficial Question to Ask"
Rather than worrying about or getting into fruitless discussions over questions about what is the “best,” the “one and only,” the “truest” way to do or accomplish something, I think it would be more beneficial to all concerned to ask: “What have I come to realize about myself in relationship with _____ through experiencing ______?

To give a few examples of what these _____s may be I offer a few examples.
●What have I come to realize about myself in relationship with “animals” through experiencing “vegetarianism?”
●What have I come to realize about myself in relationship with “people of different religious faiths” through experiencing “Mormonism?”
●What have I come to realize about myself in relationship with “my children” through experiencing “parenthood?”
●What have I come to realize about myself in relationship with “people of different nationalities” through experiencing “being a fifth-generation American of Northern European descent?”
(Keith Jensen, Sunday, June 10, 2007)

bashmaki, thanks for sharing a little about your ongoing experience with Mormonism. The Thomas Merton book you refer to is: "The Seven Storey Mountain."

Signing out for now. --Keith

 

Kevin,
Yes, on the book issue! I bumped into it in my library the other day looking for something else.

gus

 

Confused and need help

My story:
My partner of 8 years have started reading and practising the Power of Now.
i haven't untill recently.
we are going through a bad patch in our relationship - as there is someone else involved from his side.
He has NO emotions regarding his feelings and very distant.
My problems are:
How do I know if I am the person he wants - as he says: what is meant to be will be.
How can we rebuild relationship if that is the outcome of his feelings.
I cannot make sence of everything yet, but can't get rid of all the negative energy that keeps comming up.

I want to understand and I also want our relationship to work - BUT don't understand eveything fully yet. Is that my ego ??
Am I attracting all this to me ?

Please can some one help me through this - so I can grow to be fully awakend.

 

Hi there renierm and welcome to the community. I think the best thing you can do for now is to find happiness within yourself. It's there waiting to be discovered. Have you downloaded Discover Meditation yet? The gratitude exercise on there will help you to focus on the good things in your life. When problems come along, it is so easy to focus on them instead of looking for the greater seed of opportunity that lies within every problem. I hope this helps and wish you an abundance of peace and joy

 

I have gone through some hard times with my wife over the past years.
Even tho we were both convinced that we could work things out, there have been times where we completely lost each other.

It took me quite a while to notice something, but after that it got better:

The only person you can work on, is yourself.
The only person you can improve in a relationship, is yourself.
The only way to change an arguement, is to change yourself *

In a time where I was so fed up with the relationship we were having that I had trouble even lying next to her in the same bed, I got out of bed and whent downstairs. She was asleep, and never noticed me going down in the middle of the night.
Instead of refusing to go to bed, I did something I had never done before with my wife: I wrote her a letter.
I wrote down my feelings, everything, but I started and ended the letter with: I love you ! Everything in between was written in a loving, considerate way, but they were my true emotions. In the letter I expressed hope for our relationship, but also what was tearing me apart.

My wife cried when she had read the letter, but she wrote me one back a day later ( and we moved on that whole day as if nothing had occurred, really weird... ) and after about 2 weeks of writing letters, they had become loveletters again, and we started really talking to each other.
A few weeks ago we had our 9th wedding aniversary

Why am I telling you this:
I could have also decided to give up that night, and tell my wife the next morning that I wanted to break up with her.
I realised that I could not change her, I could only change myself, and how I looked at the relationship. If he feels the way he does, you can never change that. Change the way you feel, work on becoming a better person in your relationship, fight for it.

If in the end you still end up breaking up, you will at least break up with mutual respect for each other.

Pollyanna had a really good point about the gratitude exercise.
It makes you thankfull for the things you do have, and makes you feel better.

I hope you will work things out !

* With changing myself in an arguement I don't mean I want to give in on everything, or allow everything... I just want to look at the bigger picture, me being right doesn't nesseceraly make everything right between us. Do try to maintain your values, but don't try to make your point just for being right.

 

Hi renierm,

I read something a while ago which I have always felt to be sound advice concerning relationships, it was "Hold on lightly, let go tightly". I have also learnt the hard way that the advice from pollyanna and Edwin is good advice - you cannot change the other person, the only person you can work on is yourself. You are the only person who can really make yourself happy. That alone can be enough to turn a relationship around, and if it doesn't, then you may well find you can bring yourself to feel happy enough to accept that it may simply be time to move on.

Look after yourself well and make sure that you are very, very kind to yourself! From experience I can tell you that meditation, reading books like the Power of Now and other self-help/spiritual growth book section in your bookshop or on the internet will help. If you don't know what to look for, browse through them until you find something which jumps out at you, or which you can't put down, that will be the book with the advice that is right for you at this time - trust me!

I wish you all the best and am sure that everything will work out well for you.

Chris