NOTES FROM BOOKS I LEARNT FROM

REVIEWS, NOTES, ETC. OF BOOKS I LEARNT FROM : GARY ZUKAV, DEEPAK CHOPRA, RUDOLF STEINER, ERIC PEARL


1. NOTES AND EXERCISES FROM THE HEART OF THE SOUL : GARY ZUKAV/LINDA FRANCIS

BEYOND SURVIVAL

Do this simple exercise of looking at your life to see why you do the things that you do and have the things  that you have. Look deeply. Spend some quiet time . Consider why you eat, exercise, have the car that you do, have the partner you do, have the home that you do. Ask yourself, " Do I do this for survival ? To feel better about myself ? To feel more secure ? "

It is not skill, talent, homes, or cars that produce destructive consequences. It is the intention to use them to manipulate and control others in order to make yourself feel
valuable and loved.
TAKE AN INVENTORY

Consider every activity that you do daily. Go through your day, beginning with when you wake, and take an inventory of your actions and your belongings. Ask these questions for everything that you do  or have :

Do  I do or have this to survive ?
Do I do or have this to feel more secure ?
Do I do or have this to feel better about myself ?
Do I do or have this to feel better than others ?
Do I do or have this to be safer ?

 For every Yes, ask yourself, " How could I see the things that I do or have differently ? " For example, " Instead of eating to make myself feel good, or to feel more secure, I eat so that I can take care of my body ." 
" Instead of having my husband or wife to feel better about myself, or safer, I am with my husband or wife to be in a true partnership."
Make this a habit : Before you do anything, ask yourself,
" What is my intention for doing this?"
 EARTH SCHOOL
Close your eyes. Imagine you are in the biggest classroom you have ever seen. There are no walls or doors that can contain it. It includes everything that we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch. Everything you do here is part of your learning. There is no place that is
not rich with learning opportunities.
AUTHENTIC POWER : AUTHENTIC POWER IS THE ALIGNMENT OF YOUR PERSONALITY WITH YOUR SOUL :

The creation of authentic power confronts you with the most unhealthy parts of yourself – the parts that blame, criticize, judge, resent, envy, and hate others, yourself and the Universe. 

NOTICING UNHEALTHY PARTS

 How do you know that you have encountered a part of yourself that wants to change others and the world rather than be changed itself ?

Notice when :

You feel right
You feel defensive
You feel angry
You blame others, yourself or the Universe
You are self-critical
You are upset
You judge others
Anytime you are in a painful reaction to something or someone 
 Begin to notice when you feel these things as you go through your day. Each time you notice one of these reactions, congratulate yourself.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE ?
 Make a list of what you want to change in yourself. For example :

" Power struggles I have with my partner ."
" My discomfort with authority figures."
" My resentment that she got the job I wanted."

Authentic power is the human experience without the limitations of fear, self-doubt, and self-hatred. Creating authentic power is a proactive, lifetime endeavor that requires your intention and effort.
 REMEMBERING : Take some quiet time and remember the times in your life when you had experiences of authentic power. Remember how you felt and what you were thinking. How have these experiences had an impact on your life ?

Energy continually flows into the top of your head, moves downward through your torso, and then returns to where it came from. As energy is processed at different locations, and in different ways, different emotions result.
Say to yourself, "The energy that flows into me is always pure and wholesome."

You cannot grow spiritually without learning how to detach from your emotions and understand them as products of the way energy is processed in your energy system.

RECOGNIZING EMOTIONS

Feel your body in the area of your head, then your neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. Notice if there is any tightness, pain or other sensations. The next time you feel angry, hurt, upset or jealous, notice these same areas in your body, and see how they feel then.

Your emotions come from your energy system, not your interactions with people or things. Your emotions are the best of friends. They do not leave you. They continually bring to your attention what you need to know.

EVERY EMOTION IS A MESSAGE


Think of a time when you felt a strong emotion, such as anger, happiness, jealousy or resentment. Close your eyes and go back to that time. Take a few minutes to feel what this emotion felt like in your body. Where did you feel it ? ( For example, in your chest, stomach, pelvis, neck, throat ? )

Remember what thoughts you were having when you experienced this emotion. ( For example, if you were angry, were you blaming yourself, someone else or a situation ? )
Remember what you said when you experienced this emotion (for example, if you were resentful, did you say something hurtful?)

Remember how you behaved. (for example, if you were happy, did you laugh or dance?)


If you knew that your emotion was a message from your soul, would you have changed what you did or said while you experienced this emotion ?
What would you have done differently ?

Each emotion is a message from your soul.

Even if you are not aware of your emotions, they are always being produced inside of you. Everyone in the Earth school takes the same course – Authentic Power – but different students need to take different classes in order to complete it.

There are two types of classes in the Earth school –classes about fear and classes about love.

LIST YOUR CLASSES


Take some time to look inside yourself and see what classes you are enrolled in (for example, anger, sorrow, jealousy, rage, fear, vengefulness, resentfulness, appreciation, gratitude, contentment, joy, etc.) Make a list. Notice whether these classes are about fear or about love. If you are brave enough, do this with a friend.

Instead of trying to change circumstances or people, examine the emotions you are experiencing.


THE GUEST HOUSE

 This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival

A joy, a depression, a meanness
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all !
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture,
Still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
For some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing
And invite them in

Be grateful for whoever comes
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond. 

Rumi : The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, trans. (New York : HarperCollins, 1995) p. 109


Looking inward instead of focussing on outward circumstances is an important step in the process of spiritual development.


BE A STUDENT
Every morning when you wake up, remind yourself that you are a student in the Earth school, and that everything that happens this day is to help you learn. Every night go over all the things that happened in school. Did you remember that you were in school ? How often did you remember ? What classes did you attend today ?  (Anger, joy, jealousy, sorrow, ect.) Your classroom is your life. Your task as a student in the Earth school is not to change your parents, boss, employees, or classmates. It is to change yourself.

Studying a class seriously is more than reading, understanding, discussing, and writing. If you want to pass this class you need to look inside yourself. Assume that you are the cause of emotions that torment you, not other people or things.

You cannot heal the cause of your painful emotions by shouting, getting even, withdrawing or any way that takes your focus from your feelings because the cause is the way that energy is processed in your energy system.

ONLY YOU CAN MAKE PERMANENT CHANGES IN YOURSELF

 PROCESSING ENERGY : As energy flows through each center in your energy system, it creates different experiences in you. Those experiences are your emotions. There are two ways energy can leave your energy system : in fear and doubt or in love and trust. No matter where or how energy leaves your energy system, it produces an emotion. Any painful emotion means you are acting, speaking, thinking in fear and doubt. Every emotion is a physical experience. Emotional awareness is noticing what sensations you are feeling in your body, and where. 

Your energy system continually produces physical sensations in the vicinity of each of its centres. Those sensations are your emotions. The departure of energy from your energy system is a real event that produces physical experiences, which can be observed easily when you focus your attention on your body.
Recognizing where and how energy leaves your energy system is the foundation of spiritual growth. All of your emotions originate in the same place – your energy system. 


2. NOTES FROM  :  " GOD IS AS WE ARE " : DEEPAK CHOPRA

1. Know your intentions :  False intentions can be elusive. You will notice their existence by the feeling tone connected with them, a feeling of fear, greed, rage, hopelessness and weakness. Sense the feeling first, refuse to buy into it and then remain aware until you find the intention lurking beneath.

2. Set your intentions high : Aim to be a saint and a miracle-worker. Why not ? The same laws of nature operate for everyone. If you know that the goal of inner growth is to acquire mastery, then ask for that mastery as soon as possible. Once you ask, don't strain to work wonders. But don't deny them to yourself either. The beginning of mastery is vision. See the miracles around you and that will make it easier for greater miracles to grow.

3. See everyone in the Light : The cheapest way to feel good about yourself is by feeling superior to others. From this dark seed grows every manner of judgement. Getting out of judgement is vital and to plant that seed, you have to stop dividing others into categories of good and bad. Everyone lives in the same light. A simple formula may help here. When you are tempted to judge another person, no matter how obviously they deserve it, remind yourself that everyone is doing the best he/she can from his own level of consciousness.

4. See yourself in the Light : The ego keeps its grip by making us feel needy and powerless. From this sense of lack grows the enormous hunger to acquire everything in sight. Money, power, sex and pleasure are supposed to fill up the lack, but they never do. You can escape this whole package of illusion if you see yourself not in a shadow fighting to get to God, but as in the light from the first moment. The only difference between you and a saint is that your light is small and a saint's is great. This difference pales in comparison to the similarity. You are both in the light. The irony of near-death experiences is that when people come back to report how rapturously they felt, bathed in blinding light, they overlook that the light was there all along . It is the Self.

5. Reinforce your intentions everyday. On the surface the obstacles against Spirit are enormous. Everyday life is a kind of swirling chaos and the ego is entrenched in its demands. You cannot rely on one good intention to carry you through. It takes discipline to remind yourself, day in day out, of your own spiritual purpose. For some people, it helps to write down their intentions. For others, periods of regular meditations and prayer are useful. It  is'nt good enough to repeat your intentions on the run. Find your centre, look closely at yourself, and do not let go of your intention until it feels centered inside yourself.


6. Learn to forgive yourself : The ego has a way of co-opting Spirit and pretending that everything is going well. Thus we all fall into traps of selfishness and delusion when least expected. The chance remark that wounds someone else, the careless lie, the irresistible urge to cheat are universal. Forgive yourself for being where you are. To be honestly a creature driven by ambition and haunted by guilt is more spiritual than pretending to be a saint. Apply to yourself, the same dictum as to others : you are doing the best you can from your own level of consciousness. One master's definition of the perfect disciple, "One who is always stumbling , but never falls ".


7. Learn to let go : The paradox of being spiritual is that you are always wrong and always right at the same time. You are right in trying to know God in everyway you can, but you are wrong to think that things won't change tomorrow. Life is change, you must be prepared to let go of today's beliefs, thoughts and actions no matter how spiritual they make you feel. Every stage of inner growth is a good life. Each is nurtured by God. Only your second attention will know when it is time to move on, and when you know, don't hesitate to let go of the past.

8. Revere what is holy. Our society teaches to be skeptical of the sacred. The usual attitude toward miracle is a bemused caution. Few people spend much time delving into the world's great wealth of scriptures. But every saint is your future and every master is reaching over his shoulder to look at you, waiting for you to join her. The human representatives of God constitute an infinite treasure. Dipping into this treasure will help to open your heart. At just the moment when your soul wants to blossom, the words of a saint or sage may be the right fertilizer.

9. Allow God to take over : When all is said and done, either spirit has power or it does'nt. If there is only one reality, nothing in the material world stands outside God. This means if you want something, spirit can provide it. Deciding what part you need to do and what part God will do is delicate. It also changes from stage to stage. You have to know yourself in this regard,  no-one else can tell you what to do. Most people are addicted to worry, control, overmanagement and lack of faith. On a daily basis, resist the temptation to follow these tendencies. Don't listen to the voice that says you have to be in charge, that things are'nt going to work out, that constant vigilance is the only way to get anything done. This voice is right because you listen to it too much. It won't be right if you let spirit try a new way. Be willing to experience. Your intention is the most powerful tool at your disposal. Intend that everything will work out as it should, then let go and see if clues come your way. Let opportunities and openings come your way. Your deepest intelligence knows much more about what is good for you than you do. See if its voice is speaking to you. Maybe the outcome you are trying to force so hard is'nt ultimately as good for you as the outcome that naturally comes your way. If you could give 1% of your life over to God everyday, you would be the most enlightened person in the world in three months – keep that in mind and surrender something, anything, on a daily basis.

10. Embrace the unknown : You are not who you think you are. Since birth your identity has depended on very limited experience. Over the years, you formed likes and dislikes, you learned to accept certain limits. A hoard of objects acquired over time serves to prop up a fragile sense of fulfillment. None of this is the real you. Yet no one can instantly substitute the real for the false. It takes a process of discovery. Because it is painful to strip away so many layers of illusion, you have to let the unwinding of the soul take place according to it's own rhythm and timing. Your overall attitude should be that the unknown is awaiting you, an unknown that has nothing to do with the "I" already known. Some people reach the edge of illusion only at the moment of death, and then with a long look backward, one lifetime seems incredibly short and transient.

Around 1890, a Blackfoot Indian chief was dying. His name was Isapwo Muksika Crowfoot, and he whispered these words into the ear of a missionary father :

What is life ?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time
It is the little shadow that runs across the grass
And loses itself in the sunset.


The part of us that we know already is the part that flickers out all too fast. Far better to seize this time and become timeless. When you feel a new impulse, an uplifting thought, an insight that you have never acted upon before, embrace the unknown. Cherish it as tenderly as a newborn baby. The unknown is the only thing that truly cares about the fate of your soul, therefore it would be good to revere it as much as you revere holiness. God lives in the unknown, and when you can embrace it fully, you will be home free. 


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3. VISION OF LOVE : RUDOLF STEINER :  Extract on  DUTY AND LOVE


While I am performing the action, however, I am influenced by a moral maxim in so far as it can live in me intuitively, it is bound up with my love for the objective I desire to achieve through my action. I ask no man and no rule : “Shall I perform this action ?”, but carry it out as soon as I have grasped the idea of it. This alone makes it my action.

 If  I act only because I accept certain moral standards and codes, I am really little more than a superior automaton. Only when I follow my love for my objective is it I myself who act at this level of morality. I do not act because I acknowledge a ruler over me, an external authority, or a so-called inner voice. I acknowledge no external principle for my action, because I have found the source of my conduct within myself, namely, my love of the action, my love for the deed.

I do not work out mentally and I do not prove intellectually whether my action is good or bad. I do it because I love it. My action, will be good, if my intuition immersed in love, finds its right place within the intuitively experienced relationship between things. The action will be “bad” if this is not the case. Again, I do not ask myself, “how would another person act in my place ?”, but I act as I , as a particular individuality, find my will activated to act.

No moral standard, no general accepted usage or custom, no maxim applying to all men, is my immediate guide, but solely my love for the deed. I feel no compulsion – neither the compulsion of nature that rules me through my instincts, nor the compulsion of moral commandments. I simply carry out what lies within me. An action is felt to be free in so far as the reason for it springs from the “ideal part” of my individual being, an action carried out under the compulsion of nature or under the obligation of a moral code, is felt to be unfree.

A deed performed out of freedom does not exclude, indeed it includes, moral laws, but it shows itself to be a deed of love on a higher level than those actions dictated solely by such laws. The mere concept of duty excludes freedom because it does not acknowledge the individual element.

4. THE RECONNECTION : ERIC PEARL : Useful extracts

[everything is as it is]

Ego also demonstrates itself in our ability to appreciate something for what it is, to recognize that our act of appreciation is our role in it. When we recognize that we are interacting with something that has already presented itself to us, in its fullness and perfection, we will then cease wanting to gild the lily.

Attempts to alter its perfection, to add to it, to “improve” upon it, will only push its manifestation further and further away from us and from its perfection. This is representation of our sense of self-worth being predicated upon the external or object-orientated, instead of being internally based or subject orientated.

 [the equation ]

You and I are not the healers. We are but one part of the equation. The equation consists of one part ‘client’, one part us, and one part God. When God within us meets God within the client, the most amazing things transpire. This equation is sometimes referred to as “ the Power of One” or “ The Power of Three “ . Why are we involved in this equation ? Is it for the other person ? Probably not. We’re most likely involved in this equation for us.

[he means for our own evolution, I presume]


Recognizing that ‘healing’ means reconnecting with the perfection of the universe, we realize that the universe knows what we need to receive and what we are to gain as a result of it. The thing is, what we need may not always correspond with what we expect or think we want.

Just as healers must accept their role as conduits, the client must accept their role as recipients. The [clients] job is simply to make themselves available to the healing energies, then to accept what comes along. And something will come along. It just might be a surprise.

………

An attachment is a constriction, and a constriction cuts off the flow of that which you’d like to come through. The less you try to direct, the more room you give the Universe to do so – and the greater the results. It’s not that the Universe can’t work around you, its just that there’s a certain level of Grace, and ease that occurs when you get yourself out of the way.


…..As healers we are becoming the link in the chain of reconnection. The healing energy comes from Source – it runs within us, and through us, emanating from us and to us. This energy is like light passing through a prism. We are the prism. We join the ‘patient’ and the Universe in the generation of a mutual field that consists of love – in the most exalted meaning of the word – and a state of unity. The clients needs are recognized by the Universe, which then supplies the circumstances that allow for the appropriate response to those needs. – How does that happen exactly ? No-one really knows. If pressed, I’d theorize that a patient’s vibrational frequency somehow interact with and respond to the vibrations coming in from the Universe via our involvement.

When the vibrations change, so do all the higher particles and structures that the vibrations define. Is the lower vibration entraining to the higher one ? Maybe. More likely, when these frequencies  (yours, the clients, the Universe) interact, the waves may combine at such release points as to bring about a different frequency altogether. In other words, three frequencies may entrain to form yet a new one that was’nt present in the original set – something that is created out of their meeting – almost as if they sort their own enzymatic or catalytic event. [my note  = THIS IS CREATION]

Becoming a healer is about letting go of the unnecessary “stuff” that may or may not have served you at one time, but which definitely serves you no longer – except to keep you in a state of attachment. Attachment equals need, which equals fear.

…………


…….there is truly no such thing as negative energy ……we need not use our conscious minds in an attempt to determine what is “wrong’ with a person, so that we know how to “treat” them. We may now allow ourselves to simply “be”. Be with the person and understand that the uncertainty will be taken care of -----Our lesson is to learn to be. The freedom of being will extricate you from the oppression of doing. Herein lies the seed of knowingness that has the capacity to take you beyond all of this world’s knowledge. 

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