Welcome to the
twelfth
issue of Light-Up-Your-Life
Newsletter.
The aim of this newsletter is to guide you as you discover
the very source of Happiness and Wisdom. This source is
so deep that it is unaffected by the conditions of your
environment, your body, and mind.
In this issue we will explore how to go beyond the
theory and find your innate joy. It is so close that it
is easy to overlook.
And don't forget to read the last article in this newsletter,
The photograph and the world. What do we really see?
See our new e-book, "Making Your Wisdom Come Alive."
for a guide that will take you to the core of the universe.
In “Making Your Wisdom Come Alive” we take you, step by step,
through the process of putting aside limitations, and waking up
to your own true nature, so that you can stand in this Freedom
and Bliss without interruption.
So don't delay your happiness and freedom. Get to the core of
life itself and live in peace.
For more information use this link:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html
If you have questions or comments please send an e-mail to:
michael@light-up-your-life.com.
We look forward to your comments and questions.
If you missed an issue of our Newsletter click on:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/Newsletter/newsletterindex.html
Here is a Zen story that I like a lot, sent in by a reader.
A King learnt the art of Zen. Gardening, according to
Zen is a form of prayer and meditation. The Zen master
who taught the art to the king, wanted to see his garden.
The King, knowing the visit of his master, made sure to
keep the garden in a perfect condition. The master went
through the garden and to his surprise, found not even
one dry leaf in the whole garden.
The master asked the student ‘Where are the dry leaves?
What is a garden without dry leaves?'
You do not have to purify yourself. Just let go of self-jugement
and enjoy what you see. By seeing what is there you will find
your freedom. By trying to make something that it is not there
you will find confusion.
Give the perfect gift to your friends, your loved-ones,
and yourself. At the same time you will help keep
Light Up Your Life on the web.
Go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/gifts.html
No one can stand for theoretical happiness. Even if knowing
the source of happiness sounds nice, if you don't experience
happiness at its source, you will still feel that something is
missing. That's why it is important to experience what you
read about and to see for yourself if it's true .
How to experience happiness at the source
So how can you experience the source of happiness directly?
Meditate like this. Imagine that you reach all of your goals
and fulfill all of your desires. Now you can sit back and enjoy.
Where are you experiencing the happiness and satisfaction?
Put aside all of your ideas about where happiness is supposed
to be and take a direct look. You may be in for a real surprise.
Now from another angle, if you can find where this satisfaction
takes place, you will have fulfilled all of your desires. No matter
what you may run after in life, this is what you really want.
To live a satisfying life, find this secret place of joy
Even without thinking of enlightenment, just to live a satisfying
life, you have to find the secret place of joy. If you don't find this,
even if all of your dreams were to come true you would still miss
the happiness that you deserve.
That's why rich and famous people aren't necessarily that much
more happy. There are many stories of Hollywood stars who are
alcoholics and on the verge of suicide. That's because the riches
and the fame that they thought would bring happiness to them,
never did. Their riches just didn't seem to fill that empty spot.
Now don't blame the riches and the fame for not delivering
happiness. They just can't give you what they don't have.
In the worst conditions you can find peace
Then on the opposite end of the spectrum people who are
sick, poor, or downtrodden and seem to have no right to be
happy can be at perfect peace. Viktor E. Frankl in his famous
book, “Man's Search for Meaning” talks about the Jews in
concentration camps becoming saints and heroes. It is obvious
that these people drew on what they had inside. Their
happiness had nothing to do with their physical body or their
environment.
Don't overlook this place of joy
What these people drew on is the same happiness that is at
the core of everyone. It is free from physical, environmental,
and mental circumstances. Finding this place, you are truly
free. But it is so close to people that they just overlook it.
They look to their mind, their body, and the world for their
happiness . They never look to the very place where they
actually experience happiness.
This teaching provides a mirror so that you can take a direct
look at yourself. Imagine that just by being yourself you can
find the very source of happiness that people are looking for
in a million different ways.
What kind of energy do you need to step into this joy
Please note however that finding this place of fulfillment is
not the opposite of living an active life. This is just the mind
dividing things into opposites. In my opinion it is better, if
you can, to live an active life.
Dullness and lethargy do not lead to enlightenment. Rather,
be alert and go by your own experience. Look to see if things
are really the way they are supposed to be.
Then a direct
search for what is true will lead you to enlightenment.
The energy that you need to find your Self-Nature is the
energy to challenge assumptions and limitations. To take
a fresh look at life and to see what it really is. Then you will
see that it is natural to live without limitation. And without
limitation, joy and life become one.
Here you find peace and joy that's closer than your thoughts
and these words that you are reading. When you find this,
you will know for sure that happiness is not a theory. It is
your own direct and immediate experience.
To find out more about finding this joyful freedom go to:
http://www.light-up-your-life.com/wisdom.html
Earn income by joining our new affiliate program and
recommending "Making Your Wisdom Come Alive" to your
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At the beginning of the month I went to a Photoshop convention
in San Francisco. Photoshop is an amazing computer program
that can change a photograph in almost an infinite number of
ways. It can change the color and the shape and even the content
of a photograph. There are filters that sharpen, blur, skew, bend,
and put shadows around the picture etc. After working with
Photoshop, you don't even have a hint as to what the original
picture was.
Do filters make our world too
As with every event that I go to, this one reminded me to look
and see how I picture the world. Although we think that we see
the same world as everyone else, we each have our own filters
that we view the world with. These filters are not only caused
by the condition and shape of the lens in our eyes. They are
caused by the shape of our thinking and the assumptions that
we make about what we see.
These differences in the way we view the world come to a head
when we ask people at the scene of a crime to describe what
happened. Even when people have an equal view of the situation,
they tend to give completely different and conflicting reports on
what they saw. Were they actually viewing the same event? Our
assumption is yes, but a situations like this certainly puts a
question mark on what world we are actually seeing.
Our mind is the filter
Recall the biblical quote from Corinthians, “Now we see through
a glass darkly but then face to face.” Meditation, at least the one
that I know about, doesn't actually improve your eyesight or change
the reds back to greens etc. So the dark glass that Paul talked about
here is not the lenses of our eyes but rather the lenses of our mind.
What would the world be like with no filters
How would the world appear without these lenses? How close-in
and clear would it be? Would you feel any separation? Would
the clarity be that of being awake? I don't want to give you a
written set of answers to these questions. Rather I want you to
take a look yourself, and without your filters, see what the world
is like.
What do these filters look like
Here is a hint so you can see how these filters look. They can
start with words like “I can't”. “It's too much”, “What will
happen if I let people come in too close”. “I'm afraid of loosing…”
“I'll get hurt.” When you notice thoughts like these, limiting
your view of the world, then put them aside and look afresh. I
think you will be surprised at what you see. Notice I never tell
you to replace the “bad” thoughts with "good ones". I just want
you to take off the filters that you have and then enjoy the view.
I wish you the best in your meditation on clear seeing.
Finding your freedom is easier than you think. It is
before what you think.
Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments
at: Michael@light-up-your-life.com.
Sincerely,
Michael Gluckman