40 Maxims from Jordan Peterson

Canadian academic Jordan Peterson has written the bestseller, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.  He is currently in Australia for a 3 city tour of thought-provoking presentations.  Love to hear impressions from anyone attending his March 16 Brisbane talk. Share in comments below. Does it blow the mind?

The points he highlights touch on universal wisdom.  What is most intriguing is how he draws from something you cannot put your finger on as well as that which you can. He is an individual with understanding of interconnections among disciplines, people and events and presents information in ways that prompt people to awaken and review their lives to find new meaning. 

In Quora, he was asked this question:

“What are the most valuable things everyone should know?”

Rather than answering long-hand, he got right to the point with 40 maxims.  They resonate with many people as truth though he says they also draw from his own research. Which ones stand out? Would you add any other rules you live by? 

Tell the truth. 
Do not do things that you hate. 
Act so that you can tell the truth about how you act. 
Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.
If you have to choose, be the one who does things, instead of the one who is seen to do things.
Pay attention.
Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you need to know. Listen to them hard enough so that they will share it with you.
Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationships. 
Be careful who you share good news with.
Be careful who you share bad news with.
Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that. 
Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or resentful. 
Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
If old memories still make you cry, write them down carefully and completely.
Maintain your connections with people. 
Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or artistic achievement. 
Treat yourself as if you were someone that you are responsible for helping.
Ask someone to do you a small favour, so that he or she can ask you to do one in the future.
Make friends with people who want the best for you.
Do not try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does. 
Nothing well done is insignificant.
Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
Dress like the person you want to be.
Be precise in your speech.
Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
Don't avoid something frightening if it stands in your way -- and don't do unnecessarily dangerous things.
Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
Do not transform your wife into a maid.
Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
Read something written by someone great.
Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.
Do not bother children when they are skateboarding. 
Don't let bullies get away with it.
Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing -- and propose a solution.
Remember that what you do not yet know is more important than what you already know.
Be grateful in spite of your suffering.

3 things to thrive where you are

This moment is ripe for so many things. Like smelling an inviting avocado, you feel the time to sink your teeth in is now.  You could go in some many directions. What are you choosing to focus your attention on?

Perhaps its relationships, getting fit, noticing what's going on inside you, the urge to create or do something you have not done before. You may even be planning a retreat (like me!) or envision attending one, because you wish to travel somewhere new to trigger 'ah-ha' moments along your spiritual journey. As fun as that can be, you can also do things right where you are. Whatever the apparent subject, wherever you happen to be, do these three things to thrive:

1. Listen to the voice in your head

That little voice inside you echoes all the time because you choose to hear it.  Listening to this voice or advisor is a kind of security.  (A predictable paycheck is not the only kind of security after all). This voice is the judge, the part of you that wishes to control and plan, feels comfortable with the familliar as points of reference. The world unfolding is unrelated to the filters in your mind which dictate how you perceive it.  Honing and sharpening how you listen to this voice enables you to see the world and yourself from a new place.

2. Discover who watches the voice

That which watches the voice is the silent One.  It is the awareness of who is talking, the tones and intensity of the sounds, and who is doing the listening.  Its the part of you that asks why you need the commentator, the problem-seeker.  This is the part of you that feels at ease in any situation and sees value in whatever is happening.  This is the threshold of leaping into a deeper enjoyment of your chosen focus of attention

3. Focus more often on the breath

The breath is the path of consciousness.  You can engage in breathwork, and use other means to tune into the wisdomwithin yourself. It is possible to engage in life on this level by riding waves of energy like a cosmic surfer through timelines past, present and future.  You can move through a range of emotions and experiences, explore different roads of life your contemplate, even revisit things you thought you missed out on. Go through the process of forgiving, letting go, and getting over or integrating things on a whole new level. This is that which is beyond the doer and watcher. Re-dream the dream from here.

3 Tips to progress in self-mastery

Mastering Time is mastering your ability to direct attention to and from different focal points.  Some people feel these points as different dimensions, frequencies, vibrations or harmonics.  It is all detection of  energy.  Consider these three tips to move further along your path to self-mastery.

1. Grow aware of conditioning

Awakening from the false reality you create requires you grow aware of how conditioning affects you, how your patterns develop, and act to nip this in the bud.  This invites you to let go of the urge to negative self talk, and release it as it arises.  Otherwise, the conditioned tendencies to judge, control and condition people to fit your models of perception continue.   

2. Re-tell your life story

Everyone has a story.  This is what makes human journeys unique.  Listen closely to yourself as you share your own.  Notice whether the voice recounting the story comes from the vibration of judgement or is it coming from a place of unconditional love? Peace and harmony occur naturally in an environment of unconditional love.  Once you love yourself unconditionally, you forgive others an yourself, so you can accept others as they are.

3. Accept what you say is right and wrong

The perception of whomever is listening determnes the validity of what you say, based on their point of view.  We are each responsible for the integrity and clarity of what we express.  We are not responsible for what others hear and feel because we do not control their perception.

5 Keys to Intuitive decision-making

Intuition is receiving inspiration and guidance from outside yourself.  Your greatest source of creativity is accessed when you tune into something beyond you, lose yourself in the joy and fulfillment of an activity.  This is like becoming one with it, dissolving the illusion of separation.

Most of us are familliar with intuitive decisions in our daily life.  Yet, we do not really think about it.  Typical examples where intuition can play an important role in making decisions are: Choosing your life partner, selecting the right car or home to buy, where and when to move, which job, education or training to follow, deciding on a meal when eating out, selecting the next book to read or movie to watch, picking clothes to wear, or how to approach a stranger or function in unfamilliar places.

Making all or most decisions based on intuition is less common, at least in the Western World. Here are 5 keys to making intuitive decision-making a more conscious part of your life:

1. Recognize intuitive decision making is far more than using common sense

This involves engaging additional sensors to perceive and tune into the information outside yourself. Sometimes it is referred to as gut feeling, sixth sense, inner sense, instinct, inner voice, spiritual guide, etc.

2. Develop higher consciousness 

It is possible to train the subtle senses to recognize intuitive information.  You can train these sensors and to make the process of receiving information intuitively a more conscious one. People who can't accept the existence of such sensors may instead call it tapping into "collective intelligence" or "collective unconscious".  How effectively you function based on higher consciousness is often underestimated.

3. See balance between logic and intuition

The question cannot be whether rational reasoning or intuitive decision making is generally better. The question is rather in each individual case how both approaches can be best combined for optimal results. For this purpose, an experienced consultant from outside can often help to avoid common mistakes and to dissolve prejudices.

4. Feel (rather than think) the way through life

The more you trust intuition, the more often you act based on what you feel. Intuition, when functionning at its highest level, involves conscious contact with non-incarnated beings, a process usually called channelling. It can also be controlled, as in, you can consciously tune in and out of different frequencies of  information as the perceived need or usefulness arises.The more you trust intuition, the more the universe gives you reason to trust. 

5.  Consult an intuitive mentor

Recall the five peple you spend the most time with are the five people whose patterns and behaviours you are evolving into. You are also honing abilities of those who inspire you. You are literally drawing the qualities you admire in others out of yourself to manifest them in your life. The world is constructed in you mind and projected outward based on concepts. This learning process of concepts can block the flow of intuition and make it harder to live based on heartfelt guidance. It is very useful to evolve to accept help and assistance from the spiritual world. Enagaging an intuitive outside yourself can assist you to grow aware of the intuitive within yourself.  Thus it grows easire to see through your beliefs and patterns so you are empowered to live more intuitively from within

Top 30 Books to Accelerate a Spiritual Journey

Many people appreciate a guide for their own awakening or spiritual journey.  While every path is unique, it is reassuring to know that many books exist to empower you to allow a new world to appear through your own eyes and subtle senses. 

There’s a big difference between people that read loads of books, and people who integrate spirituality into their lives. Being Spiritual is about living with mindfulness, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and engaging in practices that help you listen deeply and live in greater harmony. Otherwise, you simply add to a mental knowledge base.  Living through the head cannot open the heart, change your energy vibration or transform your life from inside out.

So, empower yourself. Choose one or more of these books below—as they all offer timless wisdom.  Make a point of reflecting on the food for the senses.  Some include journal exercise or you can buy accompanying workbooks.  Read passages slowly.  Breathe deeply.  Allow yourself some quality time and watch what arises within you.  As you find authors whose words resonate with you, find other books and online talks or events that enable you to grow further.  After all, this is a choose-your-own-adventure and you are the protagonist.

In Transform Your Life: 730 inspirations, I offer glimpses of individuals who have directly or indirectly helped me see myself and the world differently. The following is a list of 30 books to help you awaken, appreciate life differently and accelerate your spiritual journey.  Some of these are included in recommendations for further reading in my new Mastering Time book. I invite comments from readers about books that help expand their perception and change their lives. 

1. Whatever Arises, Love That by Matt Kahn

2. The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening  by Steve Taylor & Eckhart Tolle

3. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

5. Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander

6. Hero by Rhonda Byrne

7. What God Said: the 25 Core Messages of Convesations with God that will change your life and the world by Neale Donald Walsch

8.  Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

9.  A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson

10. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

11. Awaken Your Third Eye by Susan Shumsky

12. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

13. The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff 

14. Mini Habits (Smaller Habits, Bigger Results) by Stephen Guise

15. Defy Gravity by Caroline Myss

16. A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman (Foundation for Inner Peace)

17. Being Mortal  by Atul Gawande

18. The Essence of the Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran

19. The Power of Now & A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

20. Energy Medicine by Donna Eden

21. Be Love Now (& Be Here Now) by Ram Dass

22. The Healing Self by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi

23.  The Serpent of Light Beyond 2012 by Drunvalo Mechizedeck

24. Journeys in to the Heart by Drunvalo Mechizedeck and Daniel Mittel

25. Isira (Autobiography) and Awakening You by Isira

26. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

27. The Mastery of Self by Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

28. The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh

29. Gifts of Imperfection & Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

30. Altruism by Matthieu Ricard