Uncover your motive

Two men visit a Zen master, looking for advice.

The first man says: “I’m thinking of moving to this town. What’s it like?”

The Zen master asks: “How was your old town?”

“It was terrible. Everyone was mean. I hated it.”

To that, the Zen master replies: “This town is much the same. Don’t move here.”

After the first man leaves, the second man enters and says: “I’m thinking of moving to this town. How is it?”

Again, the Zen master asks: “What was your old town like?”

“It was wonderful. Everyone was friendly. Just looking for a change.”

The master replies: “This town is very much the same. I think you will like it here.”

There is always more than one reason why we do things. The mind tells us one reason, the rest of the body offers other insight often overlooked. What we seek is what we find. Why we do what we do matters as much, if not more, as the experience itself. The rhythm of our breath offers clues to our underlying motivation for action. Focusing on the breath and engaging in breathing exercises can reveal what we run from or tward or whether we are truly present.

Ultimately, what we find is determined by how we chose to seek and what we are ready to make conscious. All behaviours and life choices are pointers to what is going on inside ourselves.  We are the creator.  Every moment our thoughts and feelings are creating every moment and direction of our lives. Uncovering our motive for a geographic move or other life change is something we only reveal to ourselves when ready. Ponder the role of mindfulness and mindlessness...

Shatter myths about peace

Once there was a famous wrestler we'll call “Great Waves.” He was muscular and strong and knew the art of wrestling. In private bouts he defeated even his teacher, yet in public was so bashful that even his students threw him down. He was at a loss for words as well as inner peace. 

Troubled, the wrestler decided to visit a Zen temple for help. There, a wise teacher advised him.

“Great Waves is your name,” said the teacher. “So spend tonight in the temple. Imagine that you are water. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those powerful waves sweeping over everything in sight. Do this and you will never again be defeated.”

The teacher left. The wrestler sat still, trying to imagine himself as water. His mind wandered but soon he began to feel more and more like moving waves. As night advanced the waves grew taller and taller. They swept away the flowers and rushed over the statues. Before dawn the temple was nothing but the tide of a vast ocean.

In the morning the teacher found the wrestler in meditation with a slight smile on his face. He patted the man’s shoulder. “Now nothing can disturb you,” he said. “You are the waves. You will sweep everything before you.”

That day, the wrestler entered and won a big tournament, and was never again defeated by his thoughts.

Contrary to popular belief, no peaceful mind exists. Mind itself cannot be peaceful. Its very nature is to be tense and confusing. Mind cannot have clarity. Peace and silence exist without mind. Never attempt to silence the mind. Only as you understand the nature of mind does your life shift. 

Watch and you observe thoughts but never encounter the mind. Thoughts are not one with your nature. Thoughts come and go like visitors. They are like waves in the ocean. You persist as the host. All thoughts are borrowed. As this enters your visceral experience, everything transforms. Awareness is noticing what arises in gaps between thoughts and being that.

Recall martial artist Bruce Lee said, "be like water."  The most challenging adversary is the thinking mind. True confidence and inner peace do not reside in temples or remote places. As we turn inward, go inside our own hearts, here we find all we seek.

Feel joyful for no reason

Whatever has guided you to this website, from the moment you make up the mind to change, you are already shifting into a new level of consciousness.  Now is the moment to get clearer about what you are doing, why you are doing it, as well as the underlying reasons for your life choices, how you are living, breathing, feeling and being. 

As the will to shift grows, it helps to hear about inspirational mentors who have made lasting personal change. This of course, is only heresay until we experience unique inner shifts ourselves. It pays to train ourselves to be more observant, to break conditioned emotional patterns, to see our environments and time anew to allow authenticity to blossom.

Rest assured, you may have already begun this process.  Nonethless, it can be valuable to receive a bit more insight, related to meditation, breathing and how your body and behaviour offer you signs and signals.  Who you present to the world is not necessarily who you ar at the core.  

Feeling joy for no reason happens as we dismantle our old identity and break the habit of pretending to be someone we are not.

Tap into dragon power

A woman bends to enter a jagged rocky archway into underground caverns. She wears a suit of armour, is short and shivers.  As she goes deeper, she grows in size and walks with straighter posture.  She enters a dingy and floats along an underground river. She sees her reflection in a waterfall and chooses to discard the armour. It is heavy and weighs her down until she lets it go. She jumps into wavy river, swims through the waterfall and discovers a hidden world of fire-breathing dragons. She fears the heat of the fire until she tames and befirends a dragon.

Heading underground suggests we harbour secrets, wish to hide away from the world or, perhaps fearlessly delve more deeply into what is bothering us beneath the surface. Ask what feels threatening and whether we recently escaped (or have memories of escaping) from a perilous situation.

Armour and dragons symbolize protection. If we fear connection, we may unconsciously create physical distance in relationships or, shut people out emotionally.  We may forget how to connect, shield our heart due to past hurt and distrust, or never have had role models for emotional connection.  We always have the choice to let go of what weighs us down and experience the natural flow of energy within and around us.

Waterways echo the state of our emotions. Choosing to navigate through changing life conditions builds resilience.  Emotions are our gauge for how well we are dealing with whatever arises. If we consciously regulate our breathing, as we do when we swim under and above water, we control how we respond to unforeseen events.  Deeper breathing allows us to respond calmly rather than feel stressed and shaken up.  How we breathe reflects our emotions and to what degree we allow them to control our body and mind.

Waterfalls invite us to purge thoughts and situations that no longer serve us. We are ready to let go on a whole new level. We may feel compelled to do a detox, to shift gears in areas of our life, focus of our energies and attention in new directions.  We are  drawn to what feels natural.

Fire can symbolize anger, hostility, or rage that is suppressed and in need of release. Only by befriending our shadow, do we make the unconscious conscious, and come to know balance. Those things we fear or make us feel uncomfortable about others are those things we have not yet accepted within ourselves . Fire also represents life energy, our source of power and inspiration, creativity and gifts. It is up to us to pay attention to what is brewing or erupting within us, and to recognize we have the choice how to harness and direct our energy.

Dragons are also magical creatures. Tapping into our dragon power is accepting the dragon within.  They represent innate abilities to transform how we perceive and experience what is happening in ourselves and the world.  We each feel the way into what it is to stand in our power, speak our truth, love all parts of ourselves and be our own best friend.

See through your questions

Pinpoint the questions that linger in your mind.  Focus on the body.  Allow yourself to experience the aliveness and energy flowing through.  The aliveness is held in the body form by consciousness.  The mind is what identifies the questions and seeks answers.  be aware how the mind operates.  It is always thinking because this is its nature. Who is aware of the body-mind? What makes you aware that you think? You really do not know. Let silence answer all questions.  As you explore what is real, you explore the feelings.  The mind cannot answer as it plays tricks.