February 2012
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The Microcosmic Orbit
The microcosmic orbit is a classic Taoist practice for conducting energy using the breath. The practice awakens, circulates, and directs energy through the orbit formed by breathing down the front line of your body from the top of your head to the perineum (the functional channel) and breathing up the back line from the perineum to the top of the head (the Governing Channel) Follow the...
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In this World, but not of it
“I am in this world, but I am not of this world.” This of course is one of Jesus’ most famous statements. But what did he mean? “What does it mean to be “in” the world but not “of” it? Let’s look at the first part, “In the world.” You are in the world. That’s a fact. All you have to do is look around you to know, with some certainty that you are in the world. But, as the saying goes, you are not...
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Robert Augustus Masters and Adam Seward dive right...
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Storytelling
When we allow ourselves to truly observe the infinite majesty of the universe, we stand speechless and story-less. We recognize the futility of our attempts to contain the limitless and the infinite within our conceptual reference points. We stand in a state of momentary humility and awe. So what is storytelling? In Byron Katie’s book Who Would You Be Without Your Story? the author discusses...
January 2012
11 posts
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Gratitude and Thankfulness
Thankfulness is realizing that this is the Promise Land. This is the Garden of Eden. This is Heaven on Earth. Thankfulness is the automatic response to the realization of nirvana, not somewhere else, but rather, the reality that is seen from the awakened perspective. Many people don’t think of gratitude as spiritual practice. But if you look at the essence of all spiritual practices, you’ll see...
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Silence is that Place Where...
Silence is that place where everything is O.K. It’s that deeply comforting space, where all of the problems, worries, and stresses of the world melt into insignificance. Where doing is secondary and Being is primary. Where manifest reality is more like a ripple on the surface of an ocean of infinite depth. Stillness is another world that points to this absolute state. Most of us, most of the...
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The Golden Whistle
I saw a man wearing a silver whistle around his neck. I was immediately reminded of a dream I had had the night before that also involved a whistle. I never would have remembered this dream if I hadn’t seen a whistle that was the exact same shape the next day. Even more, the dream was no ordinary dream and the whistle was no ordinary whistle. In fact, in the dream, the whistle contained...
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Four Steps to Owning Your Greatness
First go to one of Charlie Sheen’s seminars. If that doesn’t work try this…
1. Admittance - This is not an easy confession to make. “Ok Yes, I am the light of the world.” Playing small, not wanting to sound arrogant, and a whole slew of other things prevent us from admitting the greatness of who we truly are.
2. Embrace - Embrace is short for “Embrace the...
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Walking Meditation
Walking meditation can be very enjoyable. We walk slowly, alone or with friends, if possible in some beautiful place. Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking—walking not in order to arrive, but just to walk. The purpose is to be in the present moment and, aware of our breathing and our walking to enjoy each step. Therefore we have to shake off all worries and anxieties, not thinking of...
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The Way is Simple
It has been said in the Tao te Ching that The Way is very simple. If this is true, than one form of spiritual practice could be to “simply” ask yourself “What does it mean to be simple.” Seems simple enough. In one sense, simple means there’s not a lot to you. It means that your not full of complex equations, high flatulent philosophies, or sophisticated scientific theories. No. You are simple....
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Why Worry?
Awakening means that you start to notice the worrier. You catch yourself worrying. You are no longer identified with the worrying self. This means that you can decide how much power and attention you are going to give to this part of you. As a human being, you already know what it means to worry. Usually it shows up as an ongoing fear that a future outcome will not turn out the way you expect....
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This, Too, Shall Pass
According to an ancient Sufi story, there lived a king in some Middle Eastern land who was continuously torn between happiness and despondency. The slightest thing would cause him great upset or provoke an intense reaction, and his happiness would quickly turn into disappointment and despair. A time came when the king finally got tired of himself and of life, and he began to seek a way out. He...
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More on the Pain Body
When you realize that pain-bodies unconsciously seek more pain, that is to say, that they want something bad to happen, you will understand that many traffic accidents are caused by drivers whose pain-bodies are active at the time. When two drivers with active pain-bodies arrive at an intersection at the same time, the likely hood of an accident is many times greater than under normal...
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December 2011
20 posts
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The Holy Instant
Perhaps you have heard of the book “A Course in Miracles.” It hasreceived significant attention in recent years. Tolle refers to it as, “One of the few channeled works he loves.” I have to say that I also have found a great amount of Truth within its pages.
One of the primary tenants of Tolle’s teaching is the present, or the now, as a portal to God consciousness....
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Tangerine Mediation
If I offer you a freshly picked tangerine to enjoy, the degree to which you enjoy it will depend on your degree of mindfulness. If you are free of worries and anxiety, you will enjoy it more. If you are possessed by anger or fear, the tangerine may not be very real to you. One day, I offered a number of children a basket filled with tangerines. The basket was passed around, and each child took one...
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Meditation on Compassion
Love is a mind that brings peace, joy, and happiness to another person. Compassion is a mind that removes the suffering that is present in the other. We all have the seeds of love and compassion in our minds, and we can develop these fine and wonderful sources of energy. We can nurture the unconditional love that does not expect anything in return and therefore does no lead to anxiety and sorrow....
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My Parents Shouldn't Judge Me
Is that True? This is the process of inquiry, or what Byron Katie calls “The Work.” We take a belief that seems to cause some discomfort, and we question it. We ask, “Is it true that my parents shouldn’t judge me”, for example. The answer to this question is simply yes or no. If the answer is, “Yes, it’s true, they shouldn’t judge me.” Then we ask, “Can you absolutely know that it’s true, your...
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Twenty Four New Hours
Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others. Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don’t have to travel far away...
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December 19, 2011 Awakened LIFE: Talk Radio...
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A Human Being
You are a human being. What does that mean? Mastery of life is not a question of control, but of finding a balance between human and Being. Mother, father, husband, wife, young, old, the roles you play, the functions you fulfill, whatever you do—all that belongs to the human dimension. It has its place and needs to be honored, but in itself it is not enough for a fulfilled, truly meaningful...
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Complaining and Resentment
Complaining is one of the ego’s favorite strategies for strengthening itself. Every complaint is a little story the mind makes up that you completely believe in. Whether you complain aloud or only in thought makes no difference. Some egos that perhaps don’t have much else to identify with easily survive on complaining alone. When you are in the grip of such an ego, complaining,...
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Inner Space Revisited
Whenever there is beauty, kindness, the recognition of the goodness of simple things in your life, look for the background to that experience within yourself. But don’t look for it as if you were looking for something. You can not pin it down and say, “Now I have it,” or grasp it mentally and define it in some way. It is like the cloudless sky. It has no form. It is space; it is...
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Back from Kauai and all sun-kissed, here...
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The Core of the Ego
The content of the ego varies from person to person, but in every ego the same structure operates. In other words: Egos only differ on the surface. Deep down they are all the same. In what way are they the same? They live on identification with separation. When you live through the mind-made self comprised of thought and emotion that is the ego, the basis for your identity is precarious because...
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Recognizing Inner Space
Space between thoughts is probably already arising sporadically in your life, and you may not even know it. A consciousness mesmerized by experiences and conditioned to identify exclusively with form, that is to say, object consciousness, finds it at first almost impossible to become aware of space. This ultimately means that you cannot become aware of yourself, because you are always aware of...
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Silence is Golden
Silence is Golden; it has divine power and immense energy. Try to pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds. Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still. Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence. Silence enables the sound to be. It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every...
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I called in from Hawai’i in order to do the...
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Is That So?
The Zen master Hakuin lived in a town in Japan. He was held in high regard and many people came to him for spiritual teaching. Then it happened that the teenage daughter of his next-door neighbor became pregnant. When being questioned by her angry and scolding parents as to the identity of the father, she finally told them that he was Hakuin, the Zen Master. In great anger the parents rushed over...
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Higher Order
Behind the sometimes seemingly random or even chaotic succession of events in our lives as well as in the world lies concealed the unfolding of a higher order and purpose. This is beautifully expressed in the Zen saying “The snow falls, each flake in its appropriate place.” We can never understand this higher order through our thinking about it because whatever we think about is...
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As Without so Within
When you look up at the clear sky at night, you may easily realize a truth at once utterly simple and extraordinarily profound. What is it that you see? The moon, planets, stars, the luminous band of the Milky Way, perhaps a comet or even the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy two million light years away. Yes, but if you simplify even more, what do you see? Objects floating in space. So what does the...
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This week’s installment of Awakened...
November 2011
20 posts
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Finding Who You Truly Area
Gnothi Seauton—-Know Thyself. These words are inscribed above the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, site of the sacred Oracle. In ancient Greece, people would visit the Oracle hoping to find out what destiny had in store for them or what course of action to take in a particular situation. It is likely that most visitors read those words as they entered the building without...
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Carrying the Past
The inability or rather unwillingness of the human mind to let go of the past is beautifully illustrated in the story of two Zen monks. Tanzan and Ekido were walking along a country road that had become extremely muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have ruined the silk kimono she was...
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http://www.adamseward.com/radio →
Today at 3PM PST is the Awakened LIFE radio show. It is bound to be another great show! Listen in online or if you are in the Seattle/Bellevue area, on the radio.
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Breaking Free
The beginning of freedom from the Pain-Body lies first of all in the realization that you have a pain-body. Then, more important, in your ability to stay present enough, alert enough, to notice the pain-body in yourself as a heavy influx of negative emotion when it becomes active. When it is recognized, it can no longer pretend to be you and live and renew itself through you. It is your conscious...
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A New Perspective
The whole is made up of existence and Being, the manifested and the unmanifested, the world and God. So when you become aligned with the whole, you become a conscious part of the interconnectedness of the whole and its purpose: the emergence of consciousness into this world. As a result, spontaneous helpful occurrences, chance encounters, coincidences, and synchronistic events happen much more...
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A Dialogue on Inner Purpose
Below is a dialogue on Inner Purpose taken from Eckhart Tolle’s most recent book, A New Earth.
I don’t know what it is, but I want some change in my life. I want expansion; I want to be doing something meaningful and, yes, I want prosperity and the freedom that comes with it. I want to do something significant, something that makes a difference in the world. But if you asked me what...
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“The Universal Ocean is blooming.”
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Tolle's Teachings are Not Interesting
I am inspired to offer more regarding the nature of Tolle’s teachings… “This book’s main purpose is not to add new information or beliefs to your mind or to try to convince you of anything, but to bring about a shift in consciousness, that is to say, to awaken. In that sense, this book is not “interesting.” Interesting means you can keep your distance, play around with ideas and...
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Your Inner and Outer Purpose
As soon as you rise above mere survival, the question of meaning and purpose becomes of paramount importance in your life. Many people feel caught up in the routines of daily living that seem to deprive their life of significance. Some believe life is passing them by or has passed them by already. Others feel severly restricted by the demands of their job and supporting a family or by their...
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“Letting go opens the conduit.”