Through your own practice, used as your life happens, the love of the ever present will overtake you.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
It is down to each one of us to take that journey for ourselves, and find peace within.
When we change ourselves, we change the world.
Each one of us is a true world changer.
The Process – The Two Stages To Achieving Bliss
The first stage is the identification or understanding of that magical ‘X Factor’ which I speak of. Once you have identified that or at least understand, the second stage is one of time and practice.
Stage 1 – Identification/Understanding
Would you like to do this the easy way or the hard way?
Well the easy way is this – you’re alive and breathing, right? Ok then you’ve found it – now get the chilled music, somewhere quiet, and move on to Stage 2!
Maybe that’s too simple for you, and you have questions. Ok let’s do this the hard way – Well no matter what you questions you have, no matter what you think, feel, perceive, experience, or what you do, there is a naturally occurring presence within you – that is you. This is an invisible, unobservable “something” that can be said to exist – whatever we feel or are thinking!
It’s no much an idea, it simply exists and is. You might wish to think of this as life itself, your breath, your heart, spirit, the self, an ever present higher force, energy, source or indeed as God, The Divine Father or Divine Mother. Perhaps you think of it as a naturally free and occurring energy, space or awareness or consciousness. It’s really up to you!
For what it’s worth I have thought of it as many different things throughout my journey – and it still remains the same! The truth is, it’s going to be with you for the rest of your life, irrespective of whether you ever notice it or uncover it – because you are part of it. Perhaps it’s simply life itself – being alive.
My two cents is what you call it isn’t quite as important as finding it. Identifying it is the first step and that’s hard, because it’s invisible. Indeed in Hinduism they say “Neti Neti”, which is a Sanskrit expression which means “not this, not that”, or “neither this, nor that”. The expression tells you it’s easier to say what it isn’t, than what it is! And no one or thing outside of you can identify it for you, they can only ever help you see what’s already there! Indeed all words, methods, and teachers, are secondary to you finding it, they are only ever a guide. But I promise you, it’s inside of you, it’s inside of us all!
It’s a quite a tough job for anyone else to really identify this for you, because all their attempts to explain happen and occur within it’s existence, it’s space and pass through it’s natural presence within you. All your attempts to understand them happen whilst it’s still there as well! What is spoken of is so subtle, it remains there, unaffected by all definitions and attempts to define it or to find it. Wherever you go, it’s always there.
This naturally occurring phenomenon, this power, space, awareness, existence, call it what you like, has never been affected by your thoughts, feelings, reactions, different states, perceptions or memories. It’s there in tandem. They have always moved through it, occurred in it’s presence, naturally. It is beyond them all, unmoved by them all, it’s absolute.
You certainly don’t need to stop thinking, or feeling, or detaching yourself from thoughts or feelings either. These things are a natural part of life. Yet this power within can help to heal you from the suffering of life.
What we are trying to identify is there, already free, within you – and that’s been the case all your life. It may simply be that you’ve got so lost in your mind’s chatter, or your emotions, that you’ve never noticed that ever present “something” inside of you. Perhaps you’ve not seen things from it’s vantage point or learned to connect to it, but you are still it. Of course, I am not really pointing to anything new here at all or something you don’t already have! Simply it’s easy to get absorbed in the content of our life experience, and feel like that’s all there is, rather than noticing what must be there, for those experiences to occur.
Remember: This power, space, awareness, constant, call it what you like, has never been affected by your thoughts, feelings, reactions, different states, perceptions and memories. They have always come from it, moved through it, being in it’s presence, naturally.
Stage 2 – Time and Practice
Once you have identified or at least broadly can understand what I speak of, (as much as any of us can understand it!) comes connecting or absorbing back into it via a process. You can do this for as little as 5 minutes a day! Anything is great!
It’s really an inward facing journey – the outside world and words can help us even less here – because really it’s a physiological process.
Everything we can think, feel, perceive and do comes from, and passes through and disappears in the beautiful existence of what we have identified and understand in step one.
This all happens naturally of it’s own accord. That power, space, awareness, which is naturally there in everyone alive, is totally free, unmoved and untouched by what passes through it.
It is that ever present, that is going to work on you. Understand that it is one, it is all. It is everything, it is nothing, and it’s infinite. It’s a deeper love, than even love itself.
It has a quality, a purpose, a reason – and given time – it can heal you – and it can heal all phenomenon that passes through it’s presence. It’s infinitely benevolent and graceful, something that can create miracles within, ease suffering and empower you.
All you need to do is notice, focus on and allow it to work.
So how do you do it?
Practice in my experience takes two forms, the first is in a controlled, quiet environment, alone, or in a group. An effort to practice often to gentle relaxing music – learning to notice, be or connect to what you have identified. For many, especially those starting out, the best way to do this is focus on the breath. To focus on the breath coming in and out, like a circle. The inner breath you might think of as energy, and the outer as release. You will lose focus and get lost in your mind’s chatter, and that’s ok, the mind is not our enemy we can let it be. Simply notice your breath again each time it happens and keep your focus there. This really helps you focus on what’s is always there!
The second part, is learning to practice in normal life, as and when we are just going about living our lives. This is a tougher one in many ways, because our brains and bodies are the interface with which we live, and of course, they can be triggered by circumstances, to go into flight or fight mode, especially if we have suffered trauma.
In both instances, if we focus less and less on our noisy, divisive, turbulent nature of our mind, we find there’s a greater and higher peace and love beyond all understanding. At first this practice requires conscious effort, but the more we do it, the easier it gets, and the more naturally it occurs without effort, due to what is called brain plasticity. To see scans of brain when in this state, take a look here.
Practice is required, until it is no longer required, until you are fully merged with it back home, enjoying the joys of life! The goal is to release and be overtaken by the naturally occurring source of it’s own accord. And, there’s little more to it than that.
A practical, fact-based method
I believe really in only one thing – fact. When I work, I only deal with facts. I don’t really deal in beliefs, stories, or complexities, and I try and stay clear of interpretations as much as I can. Sure, I have mine and you’ll have yours, but they’re very personal and can be very subjective.
My interpretations have certainly changed in me enough times for me not to be too precious of them! If I can say something to you, and there is any room for you to say “prove that,” then it is not a fact I’ll work with, but rather something that comes down to interpretation.
I base my understanding around five facts:
The first fact is that there is a naturally free phenomenon – a power, existence, space or awareness through which all your experiences move. All our labels of it move through it and arise from it. No matter how crazy you think I am right now, or how much you are buying into what I say, your reactions move in and out of that phenomenon, that power, existence, container, space or awareness, that’s a fact. You’re already part of it.
The second fact is that power, source, base, space through which all else arises, passes and comes, creates bliss as evidenced by the scans of my brain.
The third fact is you likely experience some difficult aspects of human experience. We all do. These as unpleasant as they are provide a drive to go deeper into truth. Why are you angry, upset, nervous struggling or stressed? Sometimes these patterns can be really hard wired into us, but we can move and shift them given time, I promise!
The fourth fact is that those problems occur within the existence of that constant source, power, or existence. In that way all of them are relative or dependent on that which naturally births, allows, and observes all else.
The fifth fact is that just like love, just because one does not experience bliss (or whatever name you choose to give it) does not mean it does not exist.
Learn Bliss 