" Liberation ... "

Take my hand,

I've changed my mind again

Really, I believed it true ...

But I was wrong,

I've learned that lesson well

All the way back home at midnight

You were sleeping on my shoulder ...

To free in me

The trust, I never dared

I always thought the risk too great

But suddenly, I don't hesitate, so

Take my hand,

Don't think of complications

Now, right now,

Your love is liberation

Liberation

~ Pet Shop Boys ~ Liberation ~

***

The thought of liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth is exciting.  To strive hard and perform good deeds, so that your soul may rest in peace after death ... Moksha (liberation) or Mukti (release).  When a person attains Moksha they are free of suffering and pain.  And we all know that it sucks to get old.  I for one want a healthy life over a long one.

So how does one truly achieve Moksha?

Well Moksha is a very broad term ... peace, knowledge and enlightenment are used to describe it.  Yet Moksha within the Hindu religion, is self realization and knowing ones purpose.  The ultimate unification of man and God.  It means eternal freedom from social and natural programming.  It comes from letting loose or letting go.  And it can be attained while living on earth by four paths:

• selfless work
• self dissolving love
• deep meditation
• total discernment

Believing that the body is not identical with the soul ... the body assumes the qualities from association ... the eye, the ear, or any other sense organ or for that matter, the body itself incorporating the mind and intellect, is a mere instrument whose functioning is made possible by the soul.

So, the real Moksha or freedom is to realize the fact that “I” awareness is a physical awareness, which is not self-awareness.  Which leads to what self-awareness is .... when the formless soul or consciousness remains aware of its one non dual true nature. 

Hm mm a lot to consider when you thought your 

Moksha Yoga class was just another name/style 

to describe shapes on a matt ...

Now some may or may not believe in reincarnation, soul separate from body and/or even God.  But personally, the idea of serving others, selflessly is resonates with me.  That feeling when you spring into action, become a hero, help the hopeless, and just be present doing good in the world.  Is it too much of a “kumbaya” moment ... maybe.  But if this increases my chances of freedom from all suffering, then sign me up.

" Fix You ... "

When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse ...

Tears stream down your face

When you lose something you cannot replace

Tears stream down your face

And I...

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

~ Cold Play ~ Fix You ~

***

How do you fix things that seem unfixable?  Most of us have had the experience of breaking something and knowing, in an instant, that it could never be repaired.  And even though I am a believer in new beginning and do overs ... sometimes it is brokenness that is beyond repair.

For example, take an object that breaks into several pieces.  If the pieces are large then it can easily be repaired but if it is broken into a millon little pieces the likelihood of repair if next to none.  

The same can be applied to relationships yet how can you tell if you are dealing with a million little pieces or a few large ones?  As dynamic and unique as we are, for some it may be an easy fix and for others not so much ...

So what determines if something is fixable?

How we handle situations and how we cope has a lot to do with it.  As well everyone has their breaking point and may be less forgiving of some things than they are of others.

“Your greatest successes always precede your greatest failures ... “

Most of my experience with unfixable brokenness has to do with things I have said ... I speak and the damage is done.  And in an attempt to fix it, the more I talk, the worse I get ... the hole gets deeper, the pile becomes larger, the mess gets messier and there you have it, a perfect mistake aka a painful learning experience.

So you let it go and move on because maybe you can’t fix it.  

I recently read that there are a few effective things that you can do about what you can’t fix ...

• Shift your focus to the things you can change
• Simplify your life
• Decrease your needs 
• Create more art
• Be prolific
• Help more people
• Look for the opportunities in disguise
• Spend more quiet time alone
• Ask for Help
• Learn Something New

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them ... so upgrade our mindset to be able to face our new problems”

Regardless don’t focus on what you can’t fix otherwise you’ll lose hope ... because there are many things that you can do something about and it’s enough to worry about them.

" Guilty ... "

I swear to tell the truth

The whole truth and nothing but the truth

I said

Right hand high, tell a lie ...

Lets go

Right hand to the sky

Strike me down if I lie ...

Should have let me be

I'm balling against the law shorty go on arrest me then ...

Tired of your little games, I take the blame

I did it, guilty.

~ Usher ~ Guilty ~

***

We can be sure that there is nothing we can do to change the past.  Life is all about making decisions, taking risks and remembering what doesn’t work ... in our attempt to find out what does.  So why then do we continue to dwell on our mistakes, feel guilty so that we can feel guilty?

Well it seems that each generation has taken on guilt and then passed it down to their children.  Humans have used guilt for behaviour modification, punishment and revenge.  Guilt is so much a part of our culture, like a plague, causing pain, suffering and despair.  

Life doesn’t run smoothly and we don’t live in a perfect world ... combine that with not accepting reality.  We hope for a better change to how things should be, only to constantly disappointed.  Acceptance breeds understanding and not guilt.

Guilt is a foreign substance that tags along on our emotions like an infection.  And therefore doesn’t allow the natural flow to occur within us.  We feel the feeling and then it’s gone ... leaving a space for another ... but with guilt, we get stuck and hurt.  

Anger without guilt feels like power ...

Fear without guilt feels like anticipation ...

Remember a good conscience does not depend on guilt but rather on a self-assured sense of what is right and wrong.  Guilt erodes conscience by degrading self-esteem and even causing self-hatred.  Guilt makes us feel obliged to prove just how bad we are.  

Think back to a situation that makes you feel guilty and now realistically look at the situation you were in at the time, how much you knew, your circumstances, your state of health and ask if you could have done things any better ... because when you know better you do better.

And if someone is using their own insecurities to make you feel guilty, ask if they are justified ... no one is perfect so accept and work with the imperfections rather than pretending they don’t exist.

“When it is in us, it is guilt. When it is in someone else, it is blame. Guilt we feel impossible to own ourselves becomes blame when it is projected out onto another ... “

Real healing comes when guilt is confronted and removed ... releasing the judgements that confine us.  We are here to learn, trial and error, a part of growing and evolving.  Believe mistakes are feedback.

“The secret is simply to decide again ... 

take back your original judgement, 

change your mind, un-decide, un-judge ...”

Every choice we make is valid when used as a learning experience.  So when you release judgement you are free to decide again about how you will feel and act in a similar situation ... and you are free to let go of what was and look forward to what can be.

" Competition ... "

She's got no idea where you've been

No idea what you've been doin'

You've been living dangerous

You're trying to keep it just our secret ..

You better learn to be discreet

If you wanna keep it just our secret ...

Goodness I like this

It's risky business ...

That you never knew existed

You try to keep it secret

You can try and try to keep it ...

She's the competition ...

~ Dragnette ~ Competition ~

***

We seem to be surrounded by competition in our life.  The addiction to the energetic reaction that you are beating or could beat another person within a specific activity.  

But does that apply to “healing” as well?  Sadly, yes, that is what I have experienced.  It doesn’t make sense, I didn’t think it was possible ... I thought it was about sharing and caring ... instead it was others judging according to how they think they are being judged ... “I know better, I know best” ... a far cry from a space of healing for me ... my journey, my judgement.

You see the basic principle as to why we compete is to experience what we believe is victory over another.  Yet, it is within you, in your mind, your ego that generates a response ... because there is no universal recognition blessing you with gratification.

Isn’t it really about the craving of recognition, 

love and acceptance?  

Aren’t we hoping to receive the gold stars 

that are handed out in life?

Sadly we when we crave something, we create an energy around us of desperation and neediness, pushing away the very thing that we crave.  I have learned to release all attachments to a particular outcome in order for the very thing to come into my life.

Now what if we don’t compete anymore?  Could we un-limit ourselves to activities that give us sufficient ground for competing.  Will we try things we have never done before simply because we will no longer be directed by the mind, telling us which activities to follow?  Perhaps there would be no more judgement of self because there is no right or wrong.  Perhaps all would be from the starting point of self-enjoyment and self-movement.

So why not fully express ourselves here in the physical reality, unconditionally and within this allow and support each other to do the same, so that there is no harm done in thought or deed towards ourselves and others?

For me, life is not a competition or race anymore.  You see when I can be sincerely excited about the accomplishments of my peers, I seem to find that my life goes more smoothly ... because when I feel that someone doesn’t deserve their happiness, or that I am more deserving, then I am operating from a place of false pride and ignorance.

My journey ... I believe that we all deserve happiness and we all define our life by our own criteria.  I believe we can choose our state of mind and it has nothing to do with outside events.  I believe we are in charge of our life, attitude and perception.  I believe life is good when you claim it good ... my judgement.

" Preacher ... "

When I was a kid

I used to buy and sell gravity

I knew how to fly

And I could teach you for a fee ...

When I was a kid ...

I took a little faith ...

I drove to a strange town

Full of have and have nots

And as I walked through that storybook life

I was looking for an angel to chase the devil at the light

... 'God only helps those

Who learn to help themselves'

He was a million miles from a million dollars

But you could never spend his wealth ...

~ One Republic ~ Preacher ~

***

Life is full of contradictions ... people often make moral claims that they cannot live up to.  There are countless examples of scandals involving leaders who talk publicly about living up to standards, but whose personal lives do not measure up.  But if we are truthful, can we honestly say that we perfectly practice what we preach?

Cognitive Dissonance ~ holding two contradicting ideas ...

We all have experienced this ... for example, you know that you want to be healthy, talk about getting fit and strategies on how you will do it all while finishing a bag of potato chips.  You see our minds cannot handle contradiction, so we start to rationalize.  We take a shortcut that might make us feel better but often ends in a poor choice.  We also decide that one of the two ideas is false ... something true is mistaken and your behaviour was incorrect ... because it is easier to rationalize a mistake than to use that mistake to make changes.

So people behave differently than what they would predict they would do.  In essence, it is hard to predict what you are going to do in a situation if you are not experiencing that situation.  You basically take your best guess about it.  Hence your predictions are often inaccurate.

Now in my life, I don’t except unrealistic expectations, lies and empty promises.  I know how that story ends, and no thanks.  The bottom line is that if you say one thing and do another, it is fake ... the bottom line is you lead by example, period.

And that starts with integrity ... doing that right thing even when no one is looking.  Example ... ever notice that the people that lie their way through life always have the “newest” friends?  

So start with the truth ... 

then you can adjust your behaviour and life to coincide with it, 

even if that is difficult at first. 

The shift will happen when you address the contradictions.  Because rationalizing them away will only bridge the gap between what you do and what is.  And the beauty is that those gaps is what allows growth and improvement ... and a life towards your ideal capacity.