There is no reality; there is only Narrative, our narrative. Choose wisely, live your life that largely decides whether or not you will live happily.

These 'magic' moments are priceless, when we feel that everything is just perfect!
They can happen often or infrequently depending mostly on how much our mind gets in the way.
What a shame if we don't recognise them or allow them to change us.

Surprise, surprise… happy people live their lives differently. They don’t have different lives. They just do a better job at living them than those who are unhappy.

Happiness is the result of subjective interpretation of perception. Of course, what we perceive isn’t always done so by choice life does throw things our way.

These are the thing that I hold dearly and close to my heart, the key to my happiness....

Don’t bother trying to make others like you mainly because I don’t care if I am liked, I do what I do because I decided to do it. 

I am not trying to gain your approval or acceptance. 

I don’t want to be part of your team I am a team of my own. 

I live my life the way I see fit and if you like me for it, great. If not… then so be it.

I do things because I want to do them, not because I believe I have to do them. No one coerced me or tricked me into doing it because I value my opinion above everyone else’s. I do what I believe is right and don’t bother to ask for permission.

I love all my friends but I do not rely on them. 

Friends are tricky because they aren’t really yours, are they? 

You don’t own them. 

They are their own people who have their own wants and needs people who will always put themselves ahead of you and your goals. 

Friends are great to have, but relying on them too heavily will leave you disappointed. Those who live happy lives have very close friends, but they keep their independence in order to avoid those moments. 

It’s the lack of independence and over-reliance that often comes to ruin friendships, all relationships for that matter.

The most important thing to me is I have my own philosophies, my own life reason that I created and live by.  I do NOT need a book to tell me how I ought to live my life. 

I can live my life by whatever philosophy I wish, as long as I found truths that satisfy me. 

I have a strong grasp of right and wrong and am my own judges.

I embrace my impermanence. I know I am only mortal, having this knowledge and accepting it fuels my every step. You will too. Why? 

Because it is inevitable. 

There is no way of avoiding it, only dealing with the fact. The happiest of people don’t fear death. 

They don’t do their best to avoid it. 

They see it as the inevitability that it is in and live their lives by their terms. 

They may not be able to control death, but they know they sure as hell can control their own personal lives.

The world is your playhouse and your mind is your conductor. I don’t believe there is a single way that the world is a single reality that exists. 

Instead, I believe I am the originators of my reality and have full control over how I interpret what I perceive. I see the world the way I choose to see it because I do understand the power such a skill has. 

We all live in a reality of our own construction. 

Some of us just construct our realities better than others.

I live in the moment, but dream in the future. 

Happy people have hopes, dreams and goals. 

I have wants and aspirations, but I don’t allow myself to get caught up and lost in them. 

There isn’t so much a time and place for dreaming as there is a maximum allotted amount recommended.

You can’t live life doing nothing more than looking towards the future because you’ll miss the only time that things actually matter or exist: the present. 

The present, the immediate moment is the only moment that you can actually live in. 

The rest is only an illusion.

I don’t bother changing others, but instead learn how to deal with them appropriately and I know when to walk away.

And most of all I love meeting new people and having new experiences.

ps/smoh

We surround ourselves with distractions to convince ourselves otherwise and we embellish certain events to justify long periods where nothing really happens.

We set different life goals to give ourselves something to look forward to and either reward ourselves for reaching them, or
create a reason for why we didn’t and to think about the nitty gritty details that make up our lives and see if I can get a sense of what it’s all about.

Which makes me occasionally think I am insane now when I feel like nobody else questions what they are experiencing or what they think they know....

ps/smoh

You can only heal your heart with your heart, and to do that we have to open the heart wide enough for its healing elixir to rain down on our pain. 

Why bury the tears that heal us? 
Why bury the emotions that fertilize our expansion? 

Emotional release is a potent way to regain a genuine experience of the moment. 

Tears clear the dirt from our heart so we can see the path clearly. Let our quest for spiritual expansion begin with emotional authenticity. 

Nothing to hide, nowhere to hide it.

Writing in India today after a fantastic week in Nepal. Right now it is 3. 35 am, I could not close my eyes for I cannot wait to scrutinize this beautiful place.

Feels so good to feel the beat of the city holding the space for my creativity. Now and then, I look up at the people coming in and out, walking past, and I endeavour to see them through empathic eyes, wondering 
"What are you struggling with?"; 
"What are you feeling in this moment?", 
"How are we the same?" 

When I was younger, I just saw differences and threats, and sometimes, I still do. But, more often than not, I see friends on a shared journey of remembering.

Not a day goes by when I don’t feel challenged and distracted by an old pattern, another test, a false- path that holds temptation. 

I don’t think it’s a simple question of finding our sacred purpose and owning it every moment. I think we are always pulled off of it and have to remember. 
Forget, remember, forget, remember. 
It’s just that the remembering gets easier over time.

ps/smoh

So here’s the human situation.

You know of someone who needs healing. So you sit in the silence holding them up to the light. And then other names come to mind and you add them in. 

But this is simply the first step in healing.

The second step is the last step. You enter the silence, remembering that the nameless formless one in us all need not be healed, only remembered.

The human struggle to change the human situation is doomed. Doing does not get the job done. Being consciousness answers the dilemma of doing your bit to heal the universe.
Remember yourself.
Just remember yourself.

This is easier said than done. For we are automatons in action. After all, we were raised to
“go about doing good.”
No one told us we were falling into the mental trap of how we should be.

In essence we are eternally whole. 

And that’s the truth.

Do nothing but be.

And healing the planet happens without your knowing anything about it.

First you heal your world.

Next you realize that your world is THE world.

No difference.

ps/smoh

Peace with path. It’s that simple. Peace with path...

Because of all the pressure to be partnered, so many people walk around feeling badly if they are on their own, and many others stay where they don’t belong for fear that they will be seen as a failure outside of relationship. 

Surely all of this misses the point. 

What is most important is that each of us lives a life that is true to path, whatever that means to us. For some, their sacred purpose is inextricably linked to love relationship. 

It is there that they excavate their deepest meaning. Yet others are called in a different direction and find their purpose in their creative life, in their work, in their individual spiritual practice. 

Everyone’s soul-scriptures are unique to their own journey. The important thing in life is not whether we find the “one”, but whether we find the path. 

If one person doesn't want the relationship, then it's simply not a fit. 

No sense trying to figure out why we think they don't want it. 
No sense blaming it on their commitment issues. No sense waiting around for them to realize they wanted it after all. 
Because it doesn't matter why they don't want it. 

What matters is that we want to be met heart-on by a fully engaged partner. 

If they don't want it, then we don't want it, because we don't want to be with someone who is not there for it fully. 
That's the thing about love relationship - it's an agreement that has to be signed by both souls. 

If one doesn't sign, then nothing has been lost. 
If it's not a fit for them, it's not a fit for us either. 

On to the next adventure we go...

However love arrives at your door, it is always a brave path. 

It is like talking a long walk in a deep dark forest and never quite knowing where your soul will land. It is not for the faint of heart, nor is it ever to be taken lightly. 

You have to be tenacious. 
You have to be innovative. 
You have to be willing to drop to your knees time and again before its wisdom. 
And you have to forge the tools you will need from your own imaginings, as very few who have walked the path before can describe the terrain. 

Most fell into quick-sand soon after the romantic phase ended. Relationship is always a spiritual practice, even when we imagine it otherwise. 

ps/smoh

There's a massive difference between judgement and observation. One thing is to judge and another is to have discernment. Walking away from what no longer serves us without a judgement but understanding where we are and what we won't stand for is not a judgement it's rather living in integrity with our values.

Lets get real about the ole 
"What we judge in others is a direct reflection of what exists within ourselves" routine. 

To be sure, there is value in considering how we are projecting our own stuff onto others- that is a wise inquiry- 
but not every negative judgement we feel is sourced in our own stuff, or in our soulular memory of past life misbehaviours. 

Sometimes we are appalled by certain behaviours because we have evolved to the point where we can distinguish good from bad, 
healthy from unhealthy, 
benevolent from malevolent. 

Do you know who planted the anti-judgement mantra with the world? 

Gurus who wanted to deflect responsibility when they were not living up to their professed standards. 

You call them on their stuff and they turn the mirror right back on you. It all comes back to good ole common sense. 

Sometimes we are projecting, and sometimes we are seeing things exactly as they are. 

Pick your path..

NB:
Sometimes it has nothing to do with mirroring or reflecting your own deep seated issues. Sometimes it only has to do with the values you choose to live by.

There's a HUGE difference between judgement & discernment.

A kind and compassionate oriented person is often very naive to the ways of a selfish and cruel personality and needs to learn how to have boundaries and deliver consequences.  

Forgiveness is one of the primary mantras preached by the ungrounded spirituality movement. This is not to say that forgiveness is a bad thing, but it is not the first place to go after an abusive relationship or traumatic experience.

Healing is.

Putting our focus on forgiving a wrongdoer before we have actually worked through our anger and our pain is another way the new age movement sidesteps their own unresolved shadow and the principles of accountability.

When it comes down to it, healing and forgiving ourselves is the important step. If forgiveness of other arises organically, so be it. If it doesn’t, it’s not important. 

We are not responsible for those who wound us.

They can take that up with God.

Healing is required for real forgiveness to stick otherwise an exercise in futility. Resentment, anger, victimization sticks around and hides in the recesses of the heart, first things first.

Forgiveness can never be forced...it seems to be more like a state of compassion for the other when you have finally released the attachment to the pain. 

Forgiving doesn't mean you forget it, or let it happen again....but forgiveness is more a true part of the process of healing, not separate from the healing.

I have learned that forgiveness is for the forgiver. 

Forgiving doesn't mean we have to be "buddies" with the person we are forgiving. Hence the term “forgives and forgets". We don't forget the wrong, we forget the person we have forgiven. Try no longer have power over us.

Healing and forgiveness are both intertwined. It's not as simple as A leads to B, which equals C. There are layers of forgiveness and healing - sometimes you think you've healed, forgiven and you are hunky-dory...only to have something happen which brings up new layers of 'stuff' that show you that you still have more to do.

We cannot really forgive if we don't even fully acknowledge that we have been hurt. But still, there is relief when you did not fully acknowledge feeling hurt and tried to maintain a strong face is was beneficial at times to forgive too soon.

Forgiveness releases the forgiver from stress. The fuller the forgiveness the fuller you can appreciate the blessings however small or even painful they may be. The fuller the forgiveness, the freer you are from "egotistic" feelings and the accompanying needs of those feelings.

So without going through a process of healing, I would think it would be impossible to truly forgive anyway.

ps/smoh

I label constantly the whole day, but I have a smile on my face now when I hear "me" talking

We label everything and everyone - 
the plants, 
the animals, 
the stars, even our own intimate feelings. 

"Sadness", we call it. 
"Anger". 
"Fear". 
"Boredom". 
"Confusion". 

These are second-hand words picked up when we were young. 
But underneath the labels, prior to the abstract language, there is a profoundly alive mystery here, unspeakable, unable to be captured by thought. 
Without our mind-made descriptions of experience, do we really have any way of knowing what we are experiencing?

Take away the label 'sadness', and what is alive here? 
Take away the description 'anger', and 
what is this raw, passionate energy we feel? 

Stop calling an emotion 'positive' or 'negative', and what happens? 

Come back to the raw sensation of life, the present-moment dance of the body. 

What is this unfiltered, dynamic, raw life energy? 
Can we touch life before the labels? 
Who would touch it? 
Who would be separate from it? 

This is the river of life, my friends, sacred, intimate, familiar, and we are inseparable from its flow. Every thought, sensation, feeling, image, is infused with the mystery of universes.

ps/smoh

"The soul is dyed the colour of its thoughts"

Many people believe that their thoughts don’t really matter. They think that their thoughts don’t matter as long as they don’t act on their negative thoughts. 

What they fail to realize though is that everyone’s thoughts contain certain energy patterns. 

Physicists are now proving that your thoughts actually do have power; they are not just harmless little things that don’t matter.

Heraclitus knew this many centuries ago. He tells us that your thoughts have an effect on your soul. He goes on to say, 
“The content of your character is your choice. 
Day by day, 
what you choose, 
what you think and 
what you do is who you become. 
Your integrity is your destiny… it is the light that guides your way.” 

Your thoughts are much more important to your character development than you may suspect.

Thought precedes action. 

Many scientists today believe that if you continue to think about something, what you think about will eventually find a way to manifest itself in your life. 

If this is true, it means that what you think about is extremely important. It has already been proven that your thoughts control your emotions; thus to control your emotions, which every warrior must do, you must control your thoughts.

Controlling your thoughts is the ultimate test of your self-discipline. 

Once you get to the point where you can control your thoughts, you will be well on your way to mastering the warrior lifestyle. 

Control your thoughts and you control your destiny.

ps/smoh

BRAND NEW DAY

To all the heartbroken ones,
the misunderstood ones

To all you misfits, outcasts, 
freaks and worldly failures 

To the ones they jeer at, poke, ridicule and crucify 

To all you lonely disillusioned poets and mad visionaries

To those whose worlds are falling apart

To those who have sought the Light for so long yet still feel far away

To those whose unshakeable absolutes have dissolved into the relative

To those whose hearts are burning up

To those whose dreams have crumbled to the ground

To those who have given everything for truth

To those who have taken the path of crucifixion over the path of worldly comfort

To all of you out there in the dark

I salute you

There is such dignity in what you are going through

Life has called you to the deepest kind of trust in your own experience

Do not turn away

This is your unique invitation

From the cosmic perspective nothing has gone wrong

Only the false can die

From the perspective of the heart
it is always a brand new day

Your beauty is your broken perfection

I walk with you,
my perfectly broken family.

jf/ps/smoh

You get a new chance to start over, every single day. 
Take this chance to get your life right, if it isn't already. 

Just know that each day comes to you as a clean slate. 

It presents itself to you fresh and allows you the opportunity to make a firm decision to live this day to the fullest, and to move toward whatever goal you want to achieve.

The NOW is all that you truly have and it is up to you what you are going to do with it. 

Every goal that you could possibly want to achieve is possible, starting from where you currently are. 
Take this new day and start on the path of fulfilling your goals and living life to the fullest, with honour and integrity.

Your positive future begins the moment that you make a firm decision to change your path, and there is no better time to make that decision that NOW. 

If not now, when? 

ps/smoh

Convince the world by your character....

If someone attacks your character or your reputation, it really does very little good to enter into an argument over their accusations. 

Many times you only make things worse by addressing their attacks. In fact, this is a common ploy used by people of low character to bring attention to themselves when they are not deserving of attention. 

They will attack someone who is well known or someone of reputation just to get some attention. It is an example of the old adage, 
“No publicity is bad publicity.”

The best way to handle such an attack is to ignore it. 

Don’t add more fuel to the fire. 

Live your life in such a way that your reputation precedes you and that those who know you will defend your reputation without you having to get involved. 

Convincing the world by our character. 

Let your own character defend you. By making the ideals of the warrior lifestyle a reality in your life, you are allowing your character to speak for you.

Of course this takes time. 

This is why you should strive to build and maintain the reputation of a being of honour and integrity. 

Once you have achieved a reputation as a being of character, and that reputation is built on a solid foundation, not on lies, 
then it will be hard for someone to successfully attack your character. 

The key here is that your character is true. 
You must live the warrior lifestyle, not pretend to live it. 

There is a big difference here. 
Build character, not the illusion of character. 

Be a true person you are born to be!.

ps/smoh

Do you want to be a person of honour, integrity and character? 

Then you have to act like a person of honour, integrity and character. Not just once and a while, not just when you are in a good mood, not just around people who you consider important, but all the time. 

You have to get into the habit of living a life full of honour. It don’t just happen automatically. You have to practice it and work at it. 
Sometimes you have to just plain grit your teeth and do it despite your feelings, until the time when acting with honour and integrity becomes automatic.

Aristotle also tells us that excellence is an art form and that it is acquired by training and repetition. 
You do not do the right thing because you have virtue, but rather you have virtue because you do the right thing. 
Your actions and intentions form your character.

Later, when your character has been formed and becomes a habit, it determines your actions.

The person we are must be careful to make our actions and intentions right. We has to make a habit out of this until we has perfected our character. 

Once we has begun to perfect our character, acts of honour and integrity come naturally, without conscious thought. 
When we get to this point, living a life of excellence will become our nature. Our actions determine who you become. 

ps/smoh

With sincerity, there is virtue....

A person can’t really be virtuous without being sincere. 
Without sincerity, there is no honour or integrity; 
there is only a charade, played out for others to see, and for the benefit of the actor. 

Many people want to be seen as having these virtuous character traits without having to put forth the effort that is required to actually have them be a part of their lives. 

Their agenda is not to perfect their character, but rather to perfect their appearance. They are interested in all of the benefits that come from having an honourable name, but not in the discipline that it takes to become honourable.

The key ingredient that is missing in these people is sincerity. 

They are not sincere, and without sincerity, 
there is no virtue, even if there appears to be virtue. 

An honourable person must be able to distinguish between a person of virtue and the person who only appears virtuous. 
Unfortunately, the majority of the people we meet will fit into the latter category. 
Many people love to read and talk about honour, integrity, and character, but they don’t really apply these virtues to their own life.

Don’t be like the person who only appears honourable; be honourable. 

Be sincere in your quest to live an honourable lifestyle. 
Make these virtues a part of who you are, not because of the external benefits, but because of the internal benefits that come from being a man of virtue. 

Take your life seriously and take your character seriously. If you don’t, you will falter when the chips are down and your back is against the wall. 

You must be sincere in everything you do

ps/smoh

YOUR JOURNEY IS THE GOAL

Suddenly, for whatever reason, while walking down a familiar path, you notice that the destination has become more important than the journey itself. 
Your urgency to reach the goal has pushed every precious step out of focus. 

You have been walking blindly, unconsciously, not really present to your walk, mesmerised by a future, disconnected and alone, walking down a familiar path.

The focus then shifts, from the imagined future scene of the movie of your life, to the present scene, here, now. 
From what is not present, to what is present. 
You feel your living body again, 
the thumping of your heart, 
the breath going in and out, 
the softness of the ground underneath your feet, 
the gentle breeze on your face; you hear the rustling of trees all around and the barking of dogs in the distance. 
You feel supported, again, connected to everything and everyone. 

Life has been exploding everywhere, but you were focussed elsewhere, in some other time and place. 
You notice tension and tiredness all over your body, tightness in your shoulders and chest. 
You forgive yourself for neglecting yourself. 
You bring warm, loving presence to these neglected parts, and this allows the tension to relax and dissolve in its own time. 
You are relieved to be Home again, present to your walk. 
Your hopes and fears about the future pale in comparison to this immediacy, this aliveness.

You will get to your destination, perhaps. 
But right now, the walk is everything. 

Every step is reminding you how to live. 
Every breath is a little guru. 

jf/ps/smoh