It works for me, now – this is all that’s important. In the future I may have a lot more possessions but for now I will minimize what I own. If it doesn’t work for you, don’t let people tell you that you have to get rid of things because you’re plugging into a certain mindset or whatever. Some people are comfortable with more possessions. I still think that most people can get rid of 20% of their possessions and be happier for it though.



Why Are You Minimizing?

I am minimizing possessions for detachment from things and to get rid of distractions. If all I had in my bedroom was a laptop and a table, I’d be forced into productivity and there would be no distractions to take my mind away. It’s for the feeling that I am free. That I am not held to judgement by the things I own. By owning little but being genuine I will attract people of a similar level. It speaks to peoples spirits, not their minds. In one swoop, I will get rid of lots of possible negative future friends in my life.

I differ from the main view on one major point. Many minimalists just concentrate on getting rid of their external junk. This can lead you to detachment but real change has to come from the inside. You have to consciously face and dis-empower your attachments. The inner detachment will lead to the outer one but the outer one not necessarily to the inner one. Once I feel I get back to a level where I feel unattached to objects, I may slowly add things back into my life. Only time will tell.

I’ve become a lot more conscious recently and after dropping so many inner attachments the outer objects feel dead and non essential to me now and having things like this in your environment feels wrong.



My Inspiration

My main inspiration is nature. Nature is the ultimate minimalist. It takes a human mind to create complexity. Everything gets used in nature. A gorilla eats a banana, throws it on the ground and its soaked back into the Earth to be re-used as nutrients for trees or maybe to make the ground more fertile for seeds. No waste, no non-essentials. Nature will take over our possessions one day when they break down or we die so would you rather mke the choice conscious instead of accepting the default?



How I Did It

The first thing is to make a list of your temporary possessions. Things like toiletries, washing machines, cutlery don’t count unless they’ve been hanging around for months unused. Now make a list of everything that you have in your possession. If you have hundreds of things already, you should get rid of some of them before this as compiling a list that large would take forever.

Now, get rid of are the most obvious things. Clothes that are too big, too small, have stains on them or are simply not you anymore. After that things like money boxes and little presents and cuddly toys that you have had for years doing nothing are the best to go. Only get rid of a maximum of 10% of your things here.

After this first batch, I’d say take pictures of everything you own. Now you can slowly go through each thing getting rid of things that you will not need that are on your “maybe” list. You could set a 30-day trial of getting rid of 2 or 3 items per day for a month. If you are not looking at becoming a traveller in the next few weeks, what’s the rush?

Setting a limit of 1 or 2 items each day if you have 200 items now could whittle them down to 140 within a month and you’d feel comfortable about it. If you get rid of things too quickly you’ll be too far out of your comfort zone. By all means go on a purge. But or those things you feel an emotional attachment towards it is better to rid yourself of slowly. They were accumulated slowly after all.

Money is the ultimate value. With lots of money, you an afford to own very little but have access to it things whenever you want them. You can pick up a t-shirt for £5 for example.

With emotionally attached items you may want to consider just taking a picture of them (or scanning then if they’re letters/birthday cards) so you can keep the memory but ditch the physical thing.

Find friends willing to swap with your unwanted possessions with thing they have that you really want. This is especially useful for luxury items that you want rid of. I plan to get rid of my bicycle and bench watch and expect to get some good deals for these in exchange for really useful items.

About this time you may want to start telling people about your new minimalist view. This will shock a lot of people and some of them will think it is selfish that you turn away birthday gifts etc. It reminds me of some advice: “When talking to a fool, make sure the other person isn’t doing the same thing”. When they bring up resistance, don’t get drawn in, rise above.

If they insist on a gift say you will only take certain things. Make your own list but a sample may include:

• Money
• Donations to a charity in my name
• Extremely Useful Things

Questions To Ask When Minimizing

• Should I save for next season (winter/summer)? - Yes, but only keep minimum clothes. If you’re expecting to grow or get smaller over the next few months then get rid of what you can and save the bare essentials that fit your physical body and style.
• Ask myself, is there a free alternative to what I’m doing that is just as effective? - I realise that I don’t really need the weights that I have at the moment (dumbbells/barbells/JML Bar) because they are so light that I could get just as effective a workout using my body weight and tabata intervals (pushups/pullups/situps/elevated push-ups). It would also mean I could workout anywhere.
• If I had to, how could I get by without this item? – This is a very powerful question. Ask your mind the right question and wait. It usually finds a really creative answer. I asked this about clothes and got the answer that I could figure out how often I clean them so I always have fresh ones but do not own too many items. I will test this for a month soon.
• Ask myself. could I just get rid of this because its used so irregularly that I’d be better off just buying/borrowing one when I need one? – Examples include – a football pump, a full suit that never gets used.

Minimalism is a Journey

Minimalism is the internal and external minimization of unnecessary things. It’s like happiness in a way that it’s not a destination that you reach, it’s a journey and a state of mind that you hold in the present. You won’t wake up one day a minimalist when yesterday you were not. You consciously decide to bring it into your life and things will come and go. Underneath, you stay unattached, simple and minimal. That’s the basis of it.



Treasured Memories

There is attachment in life and then there is the beautiful feeling you get whenever you remember someone or something. Having one or two little possessions that remind you of great people who’ve passed away or brilliant times in your life is not a bad thing and I’d go as far as to recommend it. It brings your spirit up when you think of them and is a positive influence.



The List

Here’s the list of the 86 things that I currently own.

Books x 20

Casual Shirts (12)
11 x short sleeved
1 x long sleeved

Smart Shirts x 1

Pants/Shorts (10)
Jeans x 4
Running Shorts x 2
Smart Black Pants x 1
Running Pants x 1
Pyjama Pants x 1
Long Johns x 1

Other Clothes (2)

2 x full suit

Exercise Equipment (6)

1 x set of small dumbbells
1 x set of big dumbbells/barbells
2 x football
1 x BMX bike
1 x JML pushup bar

Computer/Electronics (5)

Laptop x 1
SD Card x 1
USB Stick x 1
1 x ipod shuffle
Mobile/Charger x 1

Shoes (5)

Steel Toe Cap Boots x 1
Snow Boots x 1
Brown Smart Loafers x 1
1 x flip flops
1 x plimsolls

Jackets/Jumpers (5)

2 x jumper
2 x hoody
1 x winter jacket

Misc. (20)

1 x set of bike keys
1 x drawstring bag
1 x stanley knife
1 x cycle oil
1 x broken pair of glasses
1 x england flag
1 x lever arch file
1 x ear plugs
1 x wallet
1 x bench watch
1 x bench money box
1 x diary
1 x stack of paper
1 x set of keys for relatives house
1 x nhs donor card
1 x current account card
1 x pen
1 x money box
1 x plastic wallet with essential documents
1 x library card

I would still estimate that I don’t need or regularly use 50% of this stuff so lots of this will be going over the next month. I aim to get some more clothes, replace old ones, reduce exercise equipment and get out in nature to exercise and experience the elements.

I will be keeping an updated list of my posessions called “Everything I own” over here. I’ll update it regularly when I get rid of things or add a new thing and keep the old list so that we can track the minimalist progress.



Will Minimalism Work For You?

Like it or not we all live in a society that is largely consumption based. We eat too much food, consume too much information and you sometimes feel like you’re drowning in a sea of “things”. Minimalism will work for you if you feel lost in stuff, if you lack concentration in your life and if you are an experimenter who likes to try things out for themselves.

It’s like I always say though. My system works for ME. Don’t feel that you have to use the whole system, just pick and choose what resonates with you and what doesn’t. If it works for you then great, if not then I apologize for wasting your time .

I thought long and hard. I didn’t want to become a bodybuilder and get “huge” as I knew that comparing looks with others would frustrate me. I just wanted an acceptable level of fitness and most of all … I wanted to enjoy it.

A technique I’ve learned is to ask your mind the right questions. If you ask “Why can’t I find a way to get fit?” it will give you an answer to suit the question like “Because you’re an idiot” or “You will find a way”. Both pretty useless answers. I asked “What would allow me to achieve my goal of fitness and enjoy the process?”.



Non-Action

Have you ever had an experience where you are totally immersed in this moment? Hours fly by in what seems like minutes and you have no worries or stress because you are so focused? You feel like you don’t so much “do” an action, it all just flows through you and it’s a beautiful thing to experience. You are taken over by something larger and there is no thought.

People get this when being creative, doing something they love or even when they’re in a fight. I wanted to experience this through exercise and was willing to accept nothing less.

Can you imagine how it would feel to jump out of bed passionate about the exercise you are about to do because you genuinely enjoy doing it? It’s not even work to you, it’s just you being naturally fun and doing what you love – all the rest falls into place. I think that’s something we’d all enjoy.

The idea comes out of the principle of “non-doing” from the spiritual classic the Tao Te Ching. Going running for 2 hours becomes experiencing nature. We regularly go to play football for 3 or 4 hours straight. We have an amazing time … every time. It’s not exercise, it’s socializing.

This idea was inspired by the principle of Love from Steve Pavlinas excellent book – Personal Development for Smart People. It says you should connect with what you love and disconnect with what you don’t love. Obviously I love getting fit, who doesn’t? But I hated the mechanical unalive objects that I had to interact with on a daily basis to get fit.



Taking Up A Sport

Ask yourself the question “What could I do that is really fun that I can also get great exercise from?”. The first answer that pop up is usually the right one. I have always had a passion for freestyle football (soccer) which is a mixture of dance and football. It allows me to be creative and totally present in this moment. At no time during this am I thinking about getting exercise. I’m too immersed in the fun.



Do It With Friends

This takes your attention away from the idea of “exercise” and towards “fun”. Be with others having fun and you share a great experience together. People don’t want to get fit. There’s nothing amazing about having huge muscles and running far. They want the personal growth that will come as a result of it. Fitness is a vehicle for something bigger. Enjoying time with your friends is a great way to experience this.



Frame It

A frame, in this way is a way of looking at a set of events. Exercise can be framed as “gruelling”, “challenging”, “a growth experience” etc and it’s totally up to you which frame you use. At the start I wanted to get super fit for my own benefit so I could do more for me. Now I’ve re-framed it as being a huge never ending personal growth challenge and allowing me to serve others better. Imagine what that kind of mind shift could do for your exercise.

I used to listen to self development tapes whilst exercising too. I framed the exercise and the workout as 2 sides of the same coin. I was challenging my mind and body at the same time and this was a really motivating frame. These are two great mindsets to adopt.



For You And Me

Some of you might say that you need to go gym to get precise workouts but I’m targetting this at the average non-athlete who just wants to get and stay fit. People just like me. People who want to enjoy physical movement as much as they can and get fit as a side effect, not a main focus.

Make it as fun as possible. 10 years from now you won’t care about how big your muscles were or what number plate you lifted on the weights machine. You will remember the fun you had and how the experience felt, good or bad.



Running Is Beautiful

I run too and love it. This is hard for a lot of people to understand as they see running as a gruelling experience of plodding alone one foot in front of the other until you give up. You see, it’s all about your focus. If you are focused on the difficulty of it then you will experience the difficulty. I run at dawn as the sun is rising and the birds are singing in beautiful chorus. I’m totally in the moment and it’s beautiful and this is my focus.



Being Present

When you see people starting out aiming to get fit they usually start getting anal about it. They’re not in the moment feeling the way, they’re too much in their mind where there are constant questions like

“How many kilograms have I lifted compared to last week?”

“What circumference are my biceps?

I laugh now but it’s only because I’ve been there myself.

I actually have things around my house like a football placed in a certain room, a detatchable pullup bar in another, a set of weights rested on the side, a football outside my front door etc. When you decide to do something you don’t want to do, it is boring. When you are being natural then the action of “doing” something just happens. The actions happen through you but you are not there to consciously direct them. It’s a great experience.



Kaizen

This is the principle of “Continuous incremental improvement of an activity to eliminate waste”. There wont be a point that you will get too where you will think “This is too hard” because it progresses slowly and naturally at a pace to suit you. If you’ve got energy – burn it, if you haven’t just have a normal day – but move forwards over time.

Making tiny improvements each day won’t seem that noticeable at first. Just improving 1% in each workout by running a little further, lifting a little heavier will get you into the habit of softly pushing the boundaries of your limits. Your limits will gradually start to stretch. If you look back in a year you won’t see a certain point where you “got fit” but you’ll be able to see noticeable changes in your health. It’s progress without the hassle.

In the end of the day, your physical body is all about self expression. Be present, be yourself and what naturally follows is a beautiful outflow of creativeness. You are a natural creator, you just learned to become otherwise. Unlearn and be.

We all have friends that make you feel great. On the other hand, we have friends who make you feel awful. The questions is, why do you still hang around with them?

This isn’t a rhetorical question.

Why?

Actually ask yourself because it gives you clarity to see what answers come back.

My excuse was I didn’t want to socialize with them but felt I had no choice. I work from home so had a pretty introverted social life. 99% of my friends were energy drainers. They’re on the same level and I was at that level for a long time. I started improving my life quickly and felt a huge disconnect from them. They seemed happy to just get by.

I don’t believe that there are a lack of friends out there that are like you, you are a proof that humans can reach that level. It’s a valuable lesson to teach these people to have high self respect and you could teach them that by not taking their rubbish and moving on. Haven’t all lessons that you’ve learnt in your own life come from someone respecting themselves too much for a level of treatment and rising above it. You could give this lesson to someone else.

I try not to be angry at them. We’ve all been there and they’re just not ready yet. Just keep knowing it’s for their good and your own.

First Step

Get a list of the people that you have seen in the last month. Estimate how many hours you spend with each person. In the column after that note how you feel after being around them. -5 and 5 being each end of the scale. Feel free to include family as well, they’re not exceptional to this.

-5: Amazing and refreshed
-3: Considerably better than when we met
-1: Feel better but barely
0: Feel no difference (neutral)
1: Feel worse but barely
3: Considerably worse than when we met
5: Terrible and depressed

Now compile that list. Just open Notepad, it’ll take a second and you’ll get some real eye opening data. Now what you do is create a final column which is a multiplication of the hours spent and energy.

It should look like this at the end.

Friend A – 30 hours (Energy 5) = 150
Friend B – 3 hours (Energy -3) = -90
Friend C – 10 hours (Energy -5) = 0

From the above example it is obvious that this person spends too much time with Friend A. The high score indicates this. On the other hand Friend B leaves them feeling “Considerably better than when we met” but only 3 hours a week is spent with them. Stop seeing friend A and see friend b for those 30 hours you’re making up for. It’s simple, and effective.

The lower numbers are areas of improvement and the the higher numbers mean you should cut back contact with that person.

The Source

A social mentality that a lot of people have is that there is a head of a group of friends, sometimes called an “alpha”. They are the groups energy source. This can be a good or a bad thing but one thing that is certain is that being around them seriously affects you.

Positive energy people are head of the group because people see their positive energy and warm to it, it makes them feel good. Negative energy people are head of the group because people live in fear. The difference is chalk and cheese. Fear and Love.

The Energy Drainers

These people suffer from varying degrees of Excusitis and can often by found holding up and helping maintain each others limiting beliefs about life by relaying how terrible their day has been. Conversation topics regularly centre on

1. The Weather (Mainly my fellow Brits)
2. What “That idiot” did to me, and
3. Their own “bad luck”.

These people can easily be spotted and I know you all know one of them, maybe personally.

How do you know which you are? Here’s a little test.

Do your friends reveal deep things to you? Would they tell you a secret that they wouldn’t tell others? If the answer is no then you’re probably a negative energy person or a neutral one at best. It’s cool though, we’ve all been there. Just have the guts to admit it and move on.

Amplified Energy

The reason these two sets of people don’t mix is that their energies are opposites. The high energy people might as well not exist to the lower energy ones. All the lower energy people can see is their low energy friends and their mind thinks “Sheesh, maybe life really is just hard and everyone is suffering like this”. This is why meeting new people is such a thrilling experience. You find sides to yourself you didn’t even know you had.

When a group of really high or really low energy people get together, their energy is multiplied to more than the sum of their parts. Let me explain that. 10 high energy people together can change the world permanently for the good and 10 low energy people have their energy multiplied to create human shames like 9/11 and The Holocaust. They’re not that insane on their own. It’s thinking as a group that turns you insane.

How many positive world changing people worked alone and how many world changing negative people worked in a group? This is why you have to be so conscious of your energy level and that of those around you. Do you think Hitler or the 9/11 bombers thought that they were influenced by others? Of course not. They are unconscious to what’s happening.

Turning Up Your Energy

Firstly, realise that you can’t just start to socialize with the highest energy people starting today. They know about low energy and are well prepared.. They set up systems of mazes and hoops that you have to jump through to get to them. Low energy people will shit all over your high energy if they get to you. Most of them will give up after a few hurdles it’s too hard and they don’t want it that badly. It’s Darwin all over again. Only the strongest will get through and that’s the entire purpose of it.

You have to change yourself first. You have to shift to that level and you will find high positive energy attracts itself and people will pop up from nowhere.. If you have to sit indoors for a month, so be it. This is a life changing proposition I’m offering here. Here’s how its done:

Be Grateful – High Energy people appreciate things. They find gratitude in the simplest things like a quiet coffee with friends. Find something you can appreciate, anything. Ask yourself the question “What could I be appreciative of right now if I had to find something?” then listen.

Start Mixing With Less Friends – High energy people don’t just socialize with tonnes of people. They have 5 friends who are AMAZINGLY high energy them rather than 50 friends with ” I’m getting by” energy. When you have to deal with lots of people you have to deal with lots of different levels of energy and that’s just going to make your energy go haywire all day.

Stop Feeling Obligation – If a person does not depend on you for one of the 5 basic needs (housing, food, water, money and housing) then the best social lesson you can give them is to leave them if they have really low energy. Don’t think a number of years doing something makes you good at it or means you should stay with them. Being friends for 10 years often means you’ve not grown enough.

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P.S. – Whilst writing this article I was interrupted by phonecalls and a knock on the door from my biggest personal energy drain (unfortunately a family member). And just thought I’d tell you about the synchronicity. The universe is always listening to your thoughts.

I’ve struggled the last few years with purpose in my life. In school I was above average intelligence and nicknamed “The Professor” at age 10. Teachers told me I was a lazy genius. I’d rather spend time throwing radiator-fried grapes at my friends. School life was D-U-L-L.

I had great teachers though because I went to a Grammar School which is a big deal in the UK. These schools teach the top 2% of students in the country. I got detentions regularly in high school but did pretty well with no revision getting mostly B’s and a few C’s.

After picking subjects I had a general interest in, I got accepted into college at 16. I skipped classes constantly and my only goal was trying to be the best table football player. I didn’t want to be in College for the classes but it was better than getting an entry level job. It was starting to bug me now, What was I going to do with the rest of my life? This couldn’t go on forever.

2 years later, and I’d scraped into University by the skin of my teeth. I moved out into my own place and just got drunk every day. It was the popular thing to do and I just bleeted along with the other sheep, scared to listen to my intuition. As the cliché goes “I majored in Alcohol” and once got put in hospital after returning to my house and puking up blood in my flat, not fun.

There was no purpose internal or external in my life and I was drifting aimlessly from one thing to the next. Why was I even here? What was the point in this? I didn’t enjoy my course and my debt increased each day that I stayed here. I had vague goals but didn’t have the self control to even go into University each day.

It’s feeling like therapy writing about this. I’ve put it out of my mind for so long. I had a “University Box” which I cleared out a month ago which has all my old papers that I just didn’t want to face as the memories were so bad.

Down beaten, depressed and in debt I moved into a relatives house and after a few odd jobs here and there I saw an advert in my local paper for a company which is well known in the UK for delivering catalogues door to door.

I phoned up and arranged an interview. Fast forwards to the day and I’ve handed over £75 for a kit of 50 catalogues. The idea being that I post them through doors and when people buy something on an order form I get 50% of that money.

I stuck it out for about 6 weeks, telling myself that it was just I needed to stay at it. After a while my “mentor” called me and told me that there was a huge company meet up in Birmingham at the NEC arena that was free and I WAS INVITED!

It was a place they use for concerts and was huge. We shuffled into out seats with the other 5000 people there. During the show they gave cars to people who had earned so much for the company and the speakers had the audience in uproar shouting in ecstasy and appreciation.

I could feel the energy around me that everyone except me seemed to be plugged into except me. It felt scary and animal-like. I decided on the way home I would leave this as soon as I got home. This definitely was not my purpose. There was still enough strength life left inside me to keep searching. I just hadn’t found it yet.

The Internet Era

After a few short jobs it wasn’t long before I started looking online for work. I got into selling digital products on the net. I earned quite a bit of money, writing about 50 articles per day. I was the guy who had money but hated life. The type of guy we all laugh at and hate to think we might become. I feel sorry for people who do this because I know what it’s like. It’s not fulfilling at all and numbs you as a human.

All my previous failures were nothing compared to this. Whenever I was awake, I was working. I say awake sparingly as I became a robot. I started treating my family like crap and withdrawn into myself. This suffering was deeper because I put in so much effort and hated life even more than when I started.

This radically changed my outlook on life and I started reading up on self-development and spirituality whenever I could and putting it into use. In September 2009, I started this site. I knew immediately I had found my passion. In January 2010 I quit selling products on-line and concentrated all my effort on this blog. And this is where I am now.

So, What Does This Teach Me About Purpose?

When I was younger I couldn’t get my head around what people meant when they said “The tough times will make you stronger” but it’s becoming so clear now. When you have experienced the worst possible scenario you know you can handle them and so can then shoot for your dreams with nothing to lose.

Purpose Takes Time – Your purpose won’t just come to you overnight like on the TV. This business is going well for me but I’ve started 2 businesses before this one and went to University twice. Do what you love and you’ll find your way.

Perseverance Is Key – You might fail with 3 businesses in a row but with perseverance you dust yourself off and stand up for the 4th time. If you run a business do you get angry if your sales dip? Just keep changing your approach and concentrating on providing value and obstacles fall to the side.

Set Your Goals Long Term – If I had of thought long term in the last 3 to 4 years instead of not believing I could do it, I would have been much happier and earning tonnes more money than I do now. Be the tortoise and roll your eyes at the hares.

Never Give Up Your Dream – An easy goal gives you no motivation so you will probably not achieve it. Who cares about earning $10/month in additional income? By setting huge unrealistic goals you get pumped, your creativity and physical energy will go through the roof and these will power you through the tough times.

Success Is On The Far Side Of Failure – Things WILL get tough but I would not change any of the things that happened to me. They make me the man I am now. I have been taught meaning, perseverance, courage and service amongst other priceless things.

Follow Your Passion And The Money Will Follow – By doing what you love the money will come because you will be providing genuine value. Every penny you earn from your passions feels like it’s worth a million times more than a penny from something you hate to do.

The most important lesson I’ve learnt overall is that ultimately there are 2 ways for positive change to happen in your life.

Number #1 is that you will suffer daily until things are so terrible that you can barely get up and look at yourself in the mirror in the morning and you are forced into change. This is the way I learned the last few years and it’s the hard way. Its point is to show us that there is an easier path which is …

Number #2 which is that we choose to change before the problem comes to us. This is what Stephen Covey calls being proactive, not reactive. This happens to people after they have suffered so much after experiencing the first one. We learn to use our human power and we will never have to suffer that much again.

Have You Suffered Enough?

Following Path #1 will lead to years of suffering, but maybe you’re not ready to take control yet and that’s fine.

For those of you out there who feel strong enough, start making proactive choice before life catches up with you.

“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment ” - Buddha

“The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

“Life is Now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be” - Eckhart Tolle

“Before Abraham was, I Am.” - Jesus (John 8:58)

You cannot really argue with that line-up can you! It is like a who is who of spiritual awakening history.

The phrase ‘I Am’ has been one of the most controversial in history. Jesus repeats it several times in the Bible including the mind bending statement “Before Abraham was, I AM”. It is also mentioned directly and indirectly through the work of Eckhart Tolle which I have gained huge wisdom from.

All spiritual seekers and religion founders speak of the same one truth and its spiritual awakening. It is the same truth just expressed by different voices. It is similar to hearing about a football match from fans of opposing teams. Each have their own interpretation but ultimately they all saw the same game. The phrase “I am” means a breaking apart from the dimension of time. When you are in time you are subject to suffering, illness, dis-ease and on the positive side you can plan for the future and learn from the past. When you are in presence in the state of “I am” or “being” you cannot experience illness. Illness requires time. Jesus experienced timelessness and knew, as Zen Masters do today, that the mind cannot comprehend it so bypassed the mind. A great teacher will always tailor his teachings to the student.

“I am” is the state of a mind before it judges something which is the ultimate spiritual state – empty of preconceived notions. You are a human BEING remember, BEING right now. “I am X” means that something is not x which must be so it can be compared too. This is the first phrase which splits the world into two and takes away oneness. When something is described, there must be an opposite to compare it to or it could not be. This is why Lao Tzu says “Difficult and easy complement each other. Long and short define each other. High and low oppose each other.” I am is totally barren of judging. I am X brings multiplicity into the world.

When Jesus uttered the mysterious and profound phrase “Before Abraham was, I AM”, he knew that people would try and understand mentally in the dimension of time what this means but there would be no answer. How could you be in this moment, before something that has already happened? In this way it is similar to a Zen poem which has the aim to awaken you because there is no logical explanation. For example, when your foot touches the ground it is the foot feeling the foot. That one was a huge awakening for me.

It does not mean that he is God as common interpretations will have you believe. Jesus was a man like us all. He had emotional times like in the garden of Gethsemane, got angry at the people selling things in the church etc. These common interpretations come from trying to logically interpret what Jesus meant when the truth is actually ridiculously simple and you will only find it when you stop looking. Jesus is consciousness, perfectly awoken. And since he “Is” that means that he is now. Jesus understood that the spirit can never die but the form, or what he calls “being of this world” can die and shift form whenever it wants to. His form died but his spirit is here.

You are essentially presence. Whenever you are not presence, you are mind. When you are in your mind you are in the past and future so the present gets put on autopilot. The only place of possible change in your life is put on autopilot.

I remember starting to search for deep truth around 14-16 years old. I read books of people like Marcus Aurelius and time management and whilst they were good they felt somewhat skin deep and superficial and I had yet to find anything truly deep.

One day during my university life I was in a book store and saw the book “The Power of Now” on a bookshelf and bought it impulsively without ever having heard of the author or book previously (scarily similar to what happened to someone that I know). After reading it for a while I realised the deep truth in it and experienced alignment with the now for the first time.

It was incredible, everything was fresh and I was aligned with it all, a huge spiritual awakening. I knew that everything was good in the universe and that nothing external could beat this knowing that all was good mixed with deep joy. I remember taking a job after that shuffling files and at dinner times I would walk around the local streets finding trees and plants and having experiences like Moses with the burning bush. You can sense their aliveness by sensing them for the first time not through labels. When you look at something without a label and are totally focused on it, you sense your inner connection and can harm nothing as you know it as yourself.

Since that day I have read the book, I pretty much every week at least once. That was years ago too as I am now 20. It has bought a dimension of depth into my life through its spiritual awakening that I never had before and I see around me many are still blind too.

It taught me that this moment TRULY is the only moment there ever has been or ever will be. Consider this. Have you ever experienced something that did not happen in this moment? Of course not. Jesus WAS before Abraham, he WAS in a physical body and he is now. Or you could say Jesus is before Abraham, Jesus is the leader of Christianity and Jesus is now. Feel free to replace Jesus with any name/label.

I cannot tell you how fulfilling it is to know the deepest truth for yourself. You have to experience it (in this moment I may add). It is so fulfilling to know that every spiritual path leads to the same truth and there is ways for humans to find this as I did.

“I am” is the deepest spiritual awakening truth there is. An idea is to sit in meditation and say as a mental mantra “I am”. Try it a few hundred times 2 times a day for a week and it will give you a spiritual awakening.It might not happen during the mantras it usually happens as you go about your daily business and the statement is allowed to seep into your deeper consciousness.

If you are a very logical person who excels at things like Maths then you may find it hard to find your spiritual side. How often do you see a Maths Genius who is also deeply spiritual? I am writing this article to help you help others find their spiritual side but many of you reading this may find something of use in it too. You use logical arguments which is the level they are on now and so they can relate to it. Those who are ready to awaken will do so.

Where are the answers?

Most logical people think that the answers are all in their mind. This is why you have to engage them with mind related arguments at first like …

Do you think you will find the answer to the meaning of life in your mind then why haven’t you yet, why should the meaning of life be so hard to find, it should be readily available right now. It’d be unfair that only those who are highly intelligent in terms of knowledge can have meaning in life.

Is their more information to digest and analyze before you find out your purpose and understand your nature? Do you honestly believe this will happen?

How could what we are be understood by a mind when even science understands that Humans have not always had minds when you look back at our far ancestry. We were something before mind arisen, weren’t we? How did we live with purpose then?There is something that gave us purpose and a process that ran the world before mind arisen so we can’t find it there.

Your minds natural purpose is resistance. Whenever you propose something to your mind it resists it by coming up with alternatives, it’s what it’s there for.

You say to yourself “Should I watch the Lost Season finale tonight?”

It says “No, that show had run its course by the end of season 2″

This is extremely useful as a tool.

Recognise this is what it is ALWAYS going to do. This is why you are finding this hard to digest.

Obviously these don’t all need to be used, and are only relevant points to bring up if the situation warrants it.

Here are some arguments and open questions to use to discuss with them before they commit to challenging themselves.

• Why are so many knowledgeable people so unhappy and what allows for people with no knowledge or possessions to find extreme happiness? Is it possible that happiness is not to be found in the mind and is beyond mind circumstances?
• Why do people who are highly knowledgeable about things struggle to take action when paradoxically they know more than 99% of others? Commonly known as ‘Paralysis Analysis’. They are stuck in their mind and an everlasting train of thought. They’ve imagined every possible way something could turn out but have put nothing into action.
• Give them some Zen Koans - These are statements that are designed to bypass your mind and give you a glimpse of enlightenment. One time, I read the Koan “When the foot touches the floor, it is the foot feeling the foot”. My mind went silent and I saw with complete clarity and I was astonished by this simple truth for about an hour.
• Bypass their mind – Many famous teachers of Zen realise that you cannot help someone to enlightenment by working with their mind. You have to help them see beyond it. If they ask too many questions, remind them the best you can without trying to provoke further questions inside their head that the words are only fingers pointing towards the truth. The reason I’ve decided it is a good idea to use logical arguments here is that when I came out of my Atheist daze, it was these logical arguments that started rocking my current beliefs and it’s been a total turnaround since then.
• I think it will work for others too. I’m sure I know that there’s loads of people in the position I was who are at about my age. They’ve got their time managed, their bonus satisfied and a comfortable little house in the suburbs but there is a deep yearning for more. Not on a physical of mental level but a jump to another plane entirely. Ask people if they feel this. They don’t even have to admit it verbally to you. It’s their change that matters.
• Ask them who their idols are – This is more for people who are on the lower levels of consciousness or children. If they idolize someone and want to be like them then try and relate how these people have a spiritual side. I’ve been into the personal development / self discovery thing for years now. I used to be a militant atheist and kept running into people who had reached an apex in personal development. A level where it took something huge to get up to the next one. They then introduced a spiritual side. I ignored it at the start but it kept on appearing. It couldn’t be a coincidence and I gradually allowed it into my life.
• Your Story – Explain to them the personal transformation in your life and try to relate without patronizing.
• Sizzle, not steak – Tell them the outer benefits of getting in touch with your spiritual side. The serene feeling of peace in all circumstances, the deep connection of love that goes far deeper than what we know of as love which is just surface level attachment. The feeling that everything is just as it should be.
• Explain the difference between religion and spirituality – Spirituality is connecting with source and is a personal experience whilst Religion tends to be a bunch of rules based on what humans have interpreted as correctly spiritual from religious texts. Sometimes religion and spirituality get tarred with the same brush and it’s unfair, some people have such bad experiences when they’re younger that they shut off any spiritual area in their life. Christianity is not something you should follow. You should follow Jesus Christs example. That’s a massively important distinction.
• Religion can be useful and is commonly a beginners tool for bringing spirituality into your life. Reaching spiritual maturity comes from taking it into your own hands and following what YOU know is right. Just look at how Buddha left the rich life to find truth and Jesus lost his life to be resurrected. You get taught loving your neighbour and compassion but the problem is these things come out of you naturally as a result of connection with source and should not be pursued on their own. you don’t love others because you THINK it’s right, You do it because you’ve been enlightened to the fact that it is truth.

After discussing with them say their beliefs will have took a little rocking so lay down the challenge to them. Say “OK, If you are so confident in your beliefs that all answers can be found in your mind then I invite you to be the big person and put aside those beliefs for just one month so that you may try out another set of beliefs. If you’re so sure, you can always come back to them. They’ll still be there. The only thing that could possibly hold you back is a fear of what you might find, I lay down a challenge to you … “.

The Challenge

“I commit for 30 days only to put aside my beliefs on spirituality and see what else is there. If I am not satisfied by the end of these 30 days, I will take up my old beliefs and carry on as if nothing has happened. I will go into this with an open mind, no prejudging. I will spend 1 hour each day consuming alternative material on spirituality that I’ve not considered before.”.

Remind then that their mind will say to them “don’t do this, this guy hasn’t got your best wishes at heart, he probably wants to sell you a church membership or something, bloody Mormons…” Invite them to sit back and watch their mind making noise impartially. It is fighting for its life as being in total control of your life and it’s pretty damn smart … it’s a mind! Do you really want your entire life ran by your mind? Common responses and replies you can use:

• I’ve not got the time *whine* - What about all that time you spend doing (enter hobby / type of book)? Wouldn’t that be put to good use reading something against what you currently believe in. How could you be so confident in what you believe if you’ve never even read and tried to apply anything by the alternative. It’s like saying I don’t exist just because your eyes are closed. You’re not scared are you? Didn’t Einstein say “Genius is the ability to hold two conflicting thoughts in your head without agreeing with either one?”. I dunno, it was someone brainy anyway!
• It’s not for me - Are you actually just going to give in? I thought we’d made some progress here? Are you honestly so happy in your life right now at this moment that you can afford to NOT give this a chance? Or is your mind just making you restless again. Be warned: This answer is likely to stir up some deep emotions and put the mind on super defense mode. Don’t do this unless you’re prepared to lose that friend.

[PS. This post was wrote for you ]

This is the start of a dysfunction that affects almost all of the human race barring the few who have woken up from its trance. When you go from being a baby, then to adolescence and adulthood you start to identify with thoughts. This happens at a very early age so affects your mind at its most susceptible. You are called by your name from birth and it will probably be one of the first words you can say, either that or the name of one of your parents.  This starts the process of thought identification. You identify with the basic thought that you are your name. “I’m Richard” pretty much equals “I’m a thought”, the thought of Richard. Take a moment to digest that.

Then later in life comes identification with jobs, social positions, financial strength, music preference etc. Thoughts are on the level of form. This it the level which all “things” are that we can perceive. The only thing we cannot perceive is what we are because we ARE it. If you could perceive what you are then what would be perceiving it? It’s impossible. You are everything that exists that is not a thing yet we are taught that we are things. This is obviously unnatural and leads to great disruption.

When you identify with thought you will then start to identify with beliefs which are collections of similar thoughts and physical objects which starts off as your body but this extends to your work place, home, possessions etc. You identify with your body because, like more than 99% of the human race, you are completely unaware of the formless dimension within yourself. You are only aware of the form. So the form aspect of you (your body) is what you think your true nature is. Does this sound familiar? It should do. It’s the story of the human race so far.

Consider this. Isn’t it silly and childish how something like your losing your job can get you upset? You are completely unaffected physically yet you feel inside that this could somehow mean your physical end. Something that you ultimately don’t have full control over has just changed form. This is not to say that you should passively accept it. Accept that it has happened, have no inner resistance and then go to work on changing the things that upset you.

You must have come to the realization in your life that all form things eventually won’t exist. Your first love probably didn’t last forever, your happiness at your first paycheck gave way to the fact that you paid so much in tax.  These things are subject to time whereas you are timeless consciousness temporarily embodying a human body. When you put yourself in the time dimension you become victim to the vigor of time. You will get anxious about death and this will affect every area of your life as your purpose becomes to preserve your form body and identifications. You will cling to money, family and other things you perceive as possessions as if when they die you too will die. This is because you think you are form and a form death would mean your death.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever had a thought that lasted a year? Or even 1 month? 1 day? Thoughts are transient objects and tend to be much more transient than physical things. If you think you are a thought like “I’m Richard”, “I’m a banker”, “I’m a spiritual person”. Then when these things appear to you to not be true you will feel like you have died or death is imminent. This causes immense suffering for a person. To feel like you have no control and you are dying a little each day. It’s not normal.

This suffering has a purpose though. The suffering will break the false self that has been created. When you have suffered enough you will be so motivated to get out of this state that you will find a way. Your spiritual mother will force you to wake up just like my birth mother did all the way through school.

The universe will give you the teacher you need when you are truly ready. When the student is ready, the master appears. You will find the resources flowing into your life as if from nowhere. The universe wants you to do well and have what you want. Maybe you’re not ready to start to awaken yet and that’s fine. When you’re ready you’ll find a teacher.

Truth vs. Ego

If you find yourself looking for inner stillness to become something more in the eyes of your mind then you will 100% definitely NOT succeed. It has become another form label that you are going to add to yourself. “Look at me, I’m a spiritual person. I’m much more developed and therefore a better person than you.”. Go into it because your intuition tells you too and you are at the point of awakening. How do you know if you are ready to awaken? You will just know, you will feel the absolute urgency for change.

It can’t be an adding of form because this is an ego level thing and this is exactly what we are trying to transcend. Enlightenment is not the adding of more to you. It is the stripping away of all form identification and suffering until you are just left with what you are which is unity with all that is. Don’t try and mentally understand this. That’s the ego trying to come in again with duality. It wants to create the thing to understand and the thing trying to understand it which are illusions within unity.  If there is something within you that knows this is right even a little bit, listen to it.

The Plan

Here are some techniques that I and others have used successfully to undergo a spiritual awakening. Feel free to teach these to others too.

Logical Questioning – If you want to change a belief you have to rock it a little so it becomes unstable. Ask yourself questions that are designed to change your belief. Some that I used include things like:

• “If my pancreas was removed and I was my body then would I still be Richard? How much of my body has to be removed before I cease to be Richard if I’m still alive and responding?
• “If I died and then came back to life during illness was I my body during that time? What if people told me my body was still there? Are they lying?”
• “When I say my body, who is the me who has the body? What is the distinction here?”

It’s a good idea to put yourself in a meditative state through 20 minutes of relaxation meditation before doing this as you can concentrate and communicate with your subconscious much easier.

Good beliefs to question include:

• Am I my body?
• Where was I before I was born?
• What differentiates me from someone else?

Eventually the belief will become unstable then questionable and then downright silly.

This operates on the mind level so I would recommend this for beginners. Pure awareness meditation is more advanced.

Pure Awareness Meditation

One meditation I enjoy is to become pure awareness which is your true identity at the deepest of levels. I sit in meditation and after relaxing myself for 10 minutes I simply sit at the gate of my mind and become totally aware. If this sound impractical at all to you then simply sit, eyes closed in silence and listen to the silence which is the background to all things. Don’t struggle whatever you do. Just be. Let all things pass you by and become aware of them. You will see a thought come up. acknowledge it and sit at the gate of your mind. Whenever anything is bought to your awareness bring the light of consciousness to it without thinking. Just look at it like a man who’s mind is silenced by the beauty of a sun set. There is no mental chattering. The aim is to become concentrated in the state of no thought. Don’t be thinking “Oh man, I’m struggling, he told me not to struggle”. Just be. It’s tough at first but it is the most rewarding experience the universe has to offer bar none.

I’ve achieved pure awareness recently a few times for a couple of minutes or so and to be totally honest I was scared. The absolute unlimited feeling of power, the feeling that God is running through your veins right their and then and communicating with every fiber of what you are is pure ecstasy. You become transparent to light and embody it, you become timeless and infinite and then return to your physical body. It’s infinitely better than an orgasm or achieving your life’s dreams in the physical world. And it’s all free! But seriously, no words can explain it and when you experience it you will know exactly what I mean. Why else do you think the Buddha spent weeks contemplating whether his insights were worthy of teaching. They’re so subtle and hard to verbalize and much of it is a personal story.

How To Find Others who Have Awakened

There will come a point on your spiritual path when the people you used to socialize with seem dull and lifeless and you’ll feel totally disconnected from them because they are disconnected from their spiritual dimension and have yet to have a spiritual awakening. Reach out and connect with people who have found their way though suffering or others on the same journey as yourself. Here are some resources.

• The Internet – Humanity has never had so much information at its fingertips. It,s a vast resource of free information. Things are at the stroke of a few keys and 5 seconds now that just 20 years ago would have taken at least a trip to the library and 200 years ago you’d never get to read. Just Google things
• Meetup.com (Free) – This site helps you find or create a group of like minded people and has meetings worldwide. There is lots of spiritual groups on there.
• Books – Reading a great book is like sitting down and conversing with the greatest minds in history. Plenty have awakened to a new way of life. I recommend Eckhart Tolle, Lao Tzu, Buddha and Jesus. With Jesus though, try to be like him, don’t try to be a good Christian. Big distinction there and I’m sure you know what I mean.

Eckhart Tolles beautiful book ‘ Stillness Speaks has “a collection of “200 concise and beautifully illuminating entries arranged into 12 reflective themes”. These are perfect snippets for meditation. The 12 themes, in order, are:

• Silence & stillness
• Beyond the thinking mind
• The egoic self, the now
• Who you truly are
• Acceptance and surrender,
• Nature, relationships,
• Death and the eternal,
• Suffering and the end of suffering.
• Meditations

Oh before I forget, here’s the best resource to find anything online, enjoy!

According to Wikipedia, “A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer“.

In the outer world you have your form puppet whom you interact with and can control. This includes your body, thoughts and emotions as your primary puppets.

Your secondary puppets include things that are not totally within your control but can be changed by making changes in your primary puppets (changing your vibration). These include things like your social status, financial status, goals you’d like to achieve etc.

What is underlying all of these things? Your Consciousness that is playing with the form. Have you ever felt like a puppet master in your life? You’re juggling maintenance of your family, your job, your finances, your health and more?!?!  You are the puppeteer of all of those things. You are the thing underneath with his hand inside the puppet, or the man at the circus making sure the plates are spinning.

This is the primary realization. If you understand this then your form puppets, both primary and secondary become a lot lighter and less important but paradoxically you will be able to interact with them better and get better results in areas that matter. This is because you realize the temporary nature of these puppets and so treat them as such instead of needlessly clinging to them. You begin to come out of the time dimension and don’t want results right here right now and realize that great and beautiful things grow over time.

Concentrate On Your Primary Puppets

You ultimately can only change yourself, your beliefs, thoughts etc.  This is obvious to anyone who has tried to explain how spirituality works to a closed-minded “Christian”, clinging to their Religion because it gives them comfort and friendship scared of the whisperings of their intuition that there’s more out there …  I’m sorry, where were we?

Ah yes, Your primary puppets are the things that you must concentrate on changing. As within, so without.  If you want to become a millionaire or someone who enjoys a rich social life you must become that type of person.

A Personal Example

I once wanted a job which would allow me flexible hours and only 20 hours per week work so I could concentrate on doing things I love and realized that I would never get it being the way I was then. I got up late, didn’t even believe I could get a job and didn’t really want one. So what did I do?

I aroused an eager want for the job. I pictured to myself how great it’d be to have a stable income and get out there meeting people instead of browsing the net all day. I started to change my thoughts.  After putting myself into a suggestible state through meditation on my breath, I saw myself in the job at a supermarket strangely enough scanning things, smiling, enjoying myself.  Whenever I went into the old mind pattern of “I could never get a job, we’re in a recession” I just replaced those with positive thoughts and those negative voices got drowned out soon enough. The changes come around so quick it will shock you.

I eventually got to the point where I just knew I’d get a job soon. I got to the point where I was applying for about 10 jobs per day and my attitude was hugely positive. I didn’t even consider the possibility that I couldn’t get a job anymore. It was completely off my radar like not being able to walk when I got up in the morning. And guess what? I got a job at my local supermarket (as I visualized).

How to start change NOW

Concentrate on changing yourself and the outer world will change with you. Why is it that an immigrant can go to America and make millions in years when all he had when he got there was $20 in his pocket when a rich kid with his family business can go bust within years? It’s being internally in sync with what you want. Do you seriously entertain the idea that you could earn millions when you wait around for the food price to be reduced at the supermarket near closing time? Shift that mindset! Name me one millionaire that does this? I’ll wait right here…

Start making small changes in your life and you will feel it within yourself when you come into contact with that higher level of being and you see the external puppets in your life shift in your favor. The most beautiful thing is it is so much easier changing yourself and watching the outside change for you over time than just trying to change the outside.

A little side note here. You literally cannot explain to somebody how this feels and works except through personal experience. It’s like experiencing a deep meditative state where your knowing of reality shifts to huge clarity. How can you verbalize that? You really do have to just have the guts and courage to do this yourself.

I recommend you start small to cement the habit and start with your mindset. For someone new to this I would recommend using an Og Mandino style technique and writing out an affirmation to say to yourself morning, noon and night. Something like

I am constantly striving to deliver the best value that I can in order to receive £3000/month back in monetary terms.  It has to feel right to you.  If something within you says “no, that doesn’t feel right” then keep on changing it here and there until it does.

What’s better? To work on a football teams skills, mindset etc or to work on the pitch they play on? It’s simple isn’t it?

If you feel a bit more confident and have been into personal development for a while then you could start by trying to life your entire vibration. Go out there today and put yourself into the world as the person you dream to be. Just like when you see kids playing cops ‘n’ robbers. Just create a persona within your mind and fully step into it. When you do this all the time your reality will shift in ways that seem magical to you. Things will just go right and resources will just be there.

Or you could go click through to the next article that might somehow miraculously solve all of your problems. Hey you  probably wouldn’t have enjoyed that abundant lifestyle anyways .

About 3 or 4 years ago, I had never really thought much about God. I just lived my life as it was, no beliefs, not even any beliefs about having beliefs. But then I started asking the serious questions that we all ask “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose?” “What is the ultimate purpose?”. I attacked this question from a purely logical stand point. All I knew at the time was to use the logical side of my brain. I became kind of a militant atheist. Claiming to be open minded and yet deep down I thought I knew that I was right and was amazed that nobody else could see what I could. I admired people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. I would have long drawn out discussions with Jehovahs Witnesses that I knew and totally could not see from their point of view. But I always had this aching feeling that their was more to reality than meets the eye. Just that maybe I would not find the answer in religion.

Logic As A Tool

A while later, I came upon the book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle and it took a massive effect on me. It is the type of book that you think about for a long time after reading it. I found that I was the controller of my thoughts, whereas previously, I was working underneath the control of my thoughts. Slowly but surely, I started to regain control over my thoughts and found that I could control and manipulate them to my liking. I found a sense of oneness that I did not even know existed, it was beautiful. I found heaven, and that it was an inner realm, as he puts it.

Logic is not purely what you should use to make decisions in your life. It makes logical sense that you should increase productivity to get better results in your career. But is this really looking at the bigger picture? Pure Logic often leaves out Love and considering other people. Their is a dimension beyond the mind that few have found and that more are finding each and every day which is what you actually are. It can be called consciousness or awareness and it is you that is conscious or aware of others, your physical body, your thoughts etc. I began to understand paradox and how I could hold two thoughts at the same time without mentally identifying with either one, thus coming to a third central path that used both resources.

Why Identifying With Thoughts Is Wrong

Eckhart Tolle puts it the best and I will try to paraphrase what he says. Thoughts like our bodies and everything else in the physical universe, they are temporary. The book is no more of a book than it is molecules that have formed together to create what appears to be a book. On a basic, zoomed in level, you are the same as the book physically: molecules, all vibrating at different frequencies.

So by becoming identified with things that are by their nature changeable, you are going to become stressed and angry when they change because a part of your self is invested in them. If you take the alternative approach however, and stop identifying with thoughts and beliefs, when they inevitably change, you will remain intact and sane in an insane world because you are centred and you don’t split your identity into other parts. You are whole.

All Books Point To The Same Truth

I don’t agree with people who say “There is only one true path”, and usually follow it by saying “it is through Christ” or something equally ridiculous. I believe there is several true paths that all lead to the same truth, which is a revealing of what you truly are. How can their only be one path? We are all physical individuals that come in a beautiful variation of heights, sizes and situations. People reach enlightenment or Nirvana and remove their ego from all walks of life. Business consultants, Web designers, Homeless people, Nomads, Cave Dwellers. Most of these haven’t even heard of some of the other religions that profess to hold the one and only truth. I read somewhere that Buddha said something like don’t agree with something. even things that I have said if you don’t believe them in your deepest self.

Spirituality vs. Religion

Spirituality and religion are not the same thing. Lets get that straight from the start. Religion is when a group of people come together and read designated scriptures and profess to adhere to certain rules that those books say. This can lead to spirituality but is not the definition of it. Spirituality on the other hand is getting in touch with truth and oneness. It is the process of pulling back layers of conditioning and finding out what you truly are.  This can derive from reading books but tends to be more of a singular than a group journey into your self.

I would consider myself a spiritual person because that allows for freedom of mind and for you to make your own decisions rather than labelling yourself as this religion or that religion. This does not mean that I was not influenced by religious trains of thought. I read the Bible regularly, and am influenced by The Tao Te Ching and Zen Buddhism.

The Problem With Scriptural Texts

The problem with scriptural texts, or more accurately, how people interpret them is that they are limited views and that they are not your views, they are other peoples. Once you start putting things in boxes mentally, you start to narrow what you can see. In my eyes, the most spiritually advanced people can study religious and non religious scriptures and take from each of them nuggets of knowledge. They can participate in group talks on these books and not have their thought controlled. It is a beautiful thing that there is so much varying opinion in the world but a shame that so many people identify with particular ones and shut their minds off to the rest of what is out there. Notice what is right for you and take that from the book.

Beliefs And Why They Limit You

I try as much as possible to limit the number of beliefs in my life. I think that all beliefs are limiting and that they all are based on things than happen in temporary form and no belief is 100% true. By believing in something, you tend to close your eyes to evidence that shows to the contrary. You may see something that contradicts your views but totally ignore it because you disagree with it. If you see me mentioning something that sounds like a belief, I am talking about my experience with the situation or object, not the ultimate belief.

Isn’t This Disempowering?

I think that it is totally to the opposite. Beliefs are based upon your presuppositions and prejudices about life. If you do not believe anything then what is holding you back? Nothing can stop you from becoming what you want because you do not know that anything is impossible. It does not mean that you cannot make accurate predictions about things in your life. For example, you can still predict rather accurately that when you put a glass of water down on a table that it will not go through the table. This is due to statistical probability and experience, which truth should be based upon.

How To Live Without Beliefs

The best way to start is by noticing that you have beliefs and are attached to them. You will notice that you are attached to a belief whenever somebody says something that you disagree with and you feel an urge to tell them that they are wrong and your body may change physically such as sweating, not being abele to sit or stand still. By noticing them, you put a space between yourself (the conscious processor) and the beliefs/thoughts themselves. You have to be totally prepared at any moment for a negative belief to come up though. It is a simple process, it is just being alert that is difficult. Just watch the thought and acknowledge that it is there. Do not judge because then you are back into beliefs.

Practice holding thoughts in your mind and accepting both of them. This helps you go beyond the level of logic. If you believe that the recession is a good thing and a bad thing, logic cannot understand that. So you can move beyond it. Next thing that I would recommend that you do is to try and read a lot of books on beliefs. You may not agree with me on all the points I have made and I totally accept that. After all, we are all different. By reading a wide variety of information on the subject, you can find out what resonates with you and what does not. Go after those things and put them to good use in your life.