DreamBliss

Title of thread changed.

I am glad to see The Matrix, Life of Pi, Lucy, The Fountain and Donnie Darko in the list. Transcendence (like Lucy but far better) Ambition To Meaning (this movie really woke me up) You Can Heal Your Life Fierce Grace (heard good things about this) Dune Miniseries (Fear is the mind killer...) "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Bleach http://youtu.be/sI3MsPOe328 Oddly enough I have been watching this anime and finding spiritual correlations. It has helped me to realize things about myself, growing, getting stronger, but in my case not in a physical sense. It is hard to describe. But I am finding something in these last few seasons that really speaks to me as I proceed on my own path. Ghost in the Shell (all things Ghost in the Shell) And...

Now if only I could experience this instead of knowing about it. And what kind of knowing can I have without experiencing? The other day I was drinking a bottle of Odwalla Blueberry B. I remember shaking it up, drinking it, and at some point I noticed, on the underside of the lid, a red drop of liquid. I can't describe what I experienced. But I experienced something, just moving that single drop around the interior of that white circle on the underside of that lid. I wrote this afterwards: https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/emptiness/

I love you too! I just sent you an energetic hug! Darn! No hug smiles... How about some pictures? I like this one too, but which one of us is the tiger?

Thinking about not thinking is still thinking. It is not about non-thought or thought. Both are still thought. Attachment to any state must be released. Non-attachment , non-aversion is the practice. It is Initially about awarness of thoughts, observing thoughts, coming naturally, effortlessly, to a state that is empty of thoughts, yet full of emptiness. It is a state where there is only awareness. The purpose of meditation is to bring you to this state, where you discover emptiness not only of thought, but even of someoone thinking. This can not be put into words and understood intellectually. I have reached the extent to which I can express my understanding of this, and it must be considered incomplete. It is not, as Osho would say, the First Principle. This is the finger pointing at what I understand to be the moon at this moment. This state is not a place you go to or work at. It is something you experience, and in that experience, you come to know it for yourself. You come to know the First Principle, which is wordless. You come to know the Truth, in your own experience. Thoughts have no existance or non-existance in this state. There is no thought about thoughts. No awareness of thoughts. No thinking whatsoever. There is only awareness and Being. I have not, at this moment, writing this, experienced thiis state, the Fist Principle, for myself.

Well I didn't know how a video like this would be recieved. So I posted it here. But it looks like the moderators are far more tolerant folk than I already thought they were, which makes me love this forums, and everyone in it, all the more. In fact I will go so far as to suggest that maybe one day we get a fund going, and make it so we can all get together in one huge gathering for a few days. Meditate, argue non-violently, meet the folks who run these forums. Teach and be taught. The fund would be for those, like (at this present moment) myself who could not afford to go otherwise. I don't know about anyone else, but I would like to meet everyone in physical form. Yeah, like a Burning Man festival for Tao Bums... dawei I apologize, but I am not certain who your previous post is directed to. Could you clairfy? Thank you. Regarding this whole freedom from religion VS freedom of religion thing... Osho has some strong words to say about the subject, and I have to agree. Humanity will be better served when they can live harmoniously without laws, law enforcement and authority figures, and be spiritual without being religious. I hope as a race we can evolve to that point.

I am reading Abraham's, "Ask and It Is Given." This is typical Hay House Manifestation teachings. But there is something else here. The book is doing something, changing something, in my mind. In terms of duality this change is good or positive. It has had an overall positive effect on me and my life. I do not think I have ever encountered this effect in writing before, with the possible exception of Rumi. It is very strange and completely new to me. But I find myself questioning the teachings. Because I used this sort of teaching once, a few years back, in an attempt to manifest the absolute best place for my parents and I to stay, to have a good Christmas, in preparation for visiting my brother. We had a huge fight a previous year and I did not want to go. But my parents offered to pay for a hotel so I thought I would give it a try. Long story short everything worked out, but nothing was as good as I wanted. For example, we stayed in a Super8 as I recall, not a nice place where my parents and I each had our own rooms. The main thing was that I did get along with my brother. But I was unable to manifest any of the niceties to make the whole experience better. Also it was exhausting! I had to constantly fight and struggle to keep positive thoughts about what I wanted in my mind, and it was an effort to keep forcing myself to have positive feelings. That tells me that this is not right. Go ahead, using your physical body act as if you rally wanted something, were really trying to manifest something. It's like straining to go to the bathroom. Your body tenses up. That is the opposite, to my mind, of allowing, openness and receptivity. Now look outside, go to a park or a forest. Look at a tree. Is the tree straining to get sunlight? Is it tense? No, it is the epitome of allowing, openness and receptivity. It isn't asking for sunlight. It isn't straining towards it. It is just open, sending out branches and leaves to claim what it needs. The tree teaches us how to approach Source, or whatever we call that energy or entity, for something we need or want. Here is where I need your help. There is truth in the teachings of Abraham, and truth in the teachings of the tree. How do we find the path using these two truths? What is the proper way to manifest something you want in your life? Abraham speaks of vibration. That implies something strikes you and you vibrate. So to use an example from the book, you have an old car that needs to be replaced, you are struck, vibrating old car the needs to be replaced. You think of a new car, how nice that would be, you are struck, vibrating new car and how nice that would be. But you are still, in this present moment, driving the old car. Perhaps it doesn't start or leaves you stranded on the side of the road. It is awfully hard to think new car and how nice it would be while dealing with old car that needs to be replaced! Somehow there has to be a way to effortlessly be vibrating the things we need and want in our lives, not the lack thereof. Because I do agree with Abraham that our natural state is abundance. Tree teaches us this. Our society tries to tell us otherwise. Our religions teach us that we can not be wealthy and spiritual. I think that is a big stinking pile of bullshit. I truly believe, at least in this moment, that life is meant to be enjoyed and lived. I am dubious about any teaching that, for whatever reason, tells us to suffer while we are here, or the need for suffering, or anything like that. I think Ryokan was a fool for living as he did with only a tattered robe, a walking staff and his begging bowl. I think humanity has it ingrained in them that they must come groveling for the things the need or want. That humanity has always collectively believed in ideas like earning and deserving. Humanity has always taught the members of its societies that life is something to be endured, that suffering is necessary, and all the rest of that sort of garbage. Few have stepped up and questioned this. You can count me among those few. I think, that if who we truly are, beyond our egos, our "I's", is the same energy or force in everything and everyone else, we have a right to claim whatever it is we need or want, because we already are that! We have a right to live prosperously as well as spiritually. We should not be cut off from any good thing. Tree does not ask for sunlight, or water. But tree's requests are simpler than man's. Still the principle is the same. If all that is physical comes from an energetic Source, that there truly is enough for everyone to live exactly the way they want, as long as we figure out how to teach everyone to manifest the things they need or want! Otherwise only the few who know how to to draw from the energetic to the physical that which the need or want will get that which they need or want. So there is a two-fold process here. Figuring out how to manifest that which you need or want for yourself, and then teaching others how to do the same. While physical resources are limited, energetic resources ate unlimited. Physically it may not seem there is enough to go around. Our society loves to perpetuate this half-truth. Yes, there is not enough physically. But more can be manifested into the physical from the energetic. What I am asking for help here is figuring this damn thing out! I would like some different viewpoints on this subject. Your experiences, feelings and thoughts. Maybe with enough pieces we can put this puzzle together. Because manifesting all the good things we need or want in our lives should be as effortless as a tree receiving the sunlight it needs to grow. We just have to figure out how to place ourselves in relation to Source, like a tree. The physical aspect of this is very easy. Stand relaxed, lift your arms up and out. Now how to we do this at a feeling and mental level? How do we live in a present moment with broken down old car that needs to be replaced yet still have this openness inside for new car and how nice it is? I want a minimum one week stay in a luxury hotel, as detailed or better than detailed in my writing for this. I want a beautiful, naturally born female to exchange an increasingly rare gift with. I want money to flow to me easily. I believe and feel I have a right to these things, and I claim them, just the same as the tree claims sunlight and water. I am open to earning and working. But if there is no fulfilling and meaningful work for me to earn with, that does not mean I should not receive money. It is a fallacy of society to think, "You don't work, you don't eat." I say fuck that! If I want to be lazy and have things served to me on a silver platter, that is my right, and you can't prove 100% that this is not the way things work. You are just regurgitating what your parents, religion and society have spewed onto you. I refuse to invest my energy into those belief systems anymore. I think anyone getting everything they wanted served to them on a silver platter would eventually, of their own accord, get restless and seek some sort of work that appeals to them. That having their needs and wants met in this way would empower them, not disempower them. I honestly do not feel that people are naturally lazy. I think they just don't want to do the crappy work offered to them by society, but offer them work that is fulfilling and meaningful to them and they will jump right in!

We are all blind men feeling up an elephant. No need to label each other and give power to the ego through an us VS them mentality. I sure hope this elephant doesn't turn out to be male, and if it does, I sure feel sorry for whoever is in the hindquarters area....

It is not about loosing them or holding on to them, running away from them or resisting them. It is all about being aware of them. You only know what thoughts you are thinking when you are aware of those thoughts. You can only change what you think when you have come off autopilot and become aware of what you think. It is in awareness that thoughts loose their power over you. You see them for what they are. You realize the truth for yourself. Nobody can give you this, you must take it. I am paraphrasing some of the teachings I have been reading. These are not my words. They feel right, they resonate with me. I think they pointed me on the right direction. So I share them with you. I am willing to release and let go of my thoughts about the future and the past. In fact I am in the process of this now, as I continue to practice awareness of them. I can only admit, allow and accept the thoughts I am thinking when I have become aware of them. Only from that distance away from them, no longer immersed in them, can I allow them to work themselves out as I let them go. Of course if a thought has become a habitual though pattern, and from there become a belief, I must seperate it from my identity, my sense of self, my "I." This is not easy, it is hard to "give up" a part of my identity. But as long as it is a part of my identity my ego will drive me to protect it at all costs, and that will cement me in this time rut, this vivid dream of the tar pit. If I wish to be free of that I have to rip away all these thoughts that have become a part of my sense of self.

The thought that, "It could be worst" is a time perception based on the past. You are looking back over the course of your life, all the things you think of as having happened to you, and you are looking at whatever your experience is right now, then saying, "it could be worse." Its oppsite, lookng at the future, based on te things you percieve as having happened to you in the past, is, "it could be better." How about we throw out all, "it could be worse" and "it could be better" then see what's left, right now. No thoughts about the past or the future. Just right now, in this moment. No comparisons, no critisizing, no judging. Right now, in this moment, with no comparisons, criticisms or judgments, what are you experiencing? Go further. Is there even a you experiencing anything? I have come to some deeper knowing, some deeper understanding. I want to say I get it now, but there may be more, and I wish to remain open. When I tried to manifest things I was doing so stuck in a rut of time. On one side my past, the other my future, based on my past. The past no longer exists except in memory, which is biased and caught in duality. The future does not exist either, I can only take what I bave experienced so far and surmise what I think to be my likely experience later. Sometimes its accurate. If I commit a crime, I know sooner or later I will go to jail. But nothing, even this example, is certain. The only thing I can really know for certain is what is happening right now, in this moment. In this moment, the only way my past can affect me is if I let it. In this moment the only way the future can affect me is if I let it. It is not the past and future that can have any affect on me. It is only my thoughts about the remembered past and the percieved future. If I am stuck in a rut of time of course I can not manifest anything, or if I do it is a struggle, I meet what I percieve to be obsticales or resistance. This is because the only future I am thinking about is my percieved future based on my remembered past. I create for myself the future I most think about, most believe in. All beliefs are habitual thought patterns, all habitual thought paterns are thoughts I kept returning to. I thought a certain way about certain things long enough it became the way I automatically thought about that thing. At this stage I am not aware I am thinking this anymore, and it becomes a belief. The proof for what I believe exists in what I experience. But I only experience what I do because of my habitual thought patterns. I am attracting to myself the exact future I believe in, which means the one I thought so much about it became a habitual thought pattern, and this all started as a thought I held on to. In other words how do I expect to manifest something other that what I believe I will experience? The only way to manifest something other is to choose to think about it until the point it becomes a habitual thought pattern, and then a belief. That is the only way. As long as I am stuck in a rut of time this is hard, if not impossible, to do. The only way to manifest something is to be outside of my thoughts of time. I must leave the rut, and I do this by being in the present moment. Here, in the present momnent, there are no thoughts about the past or the future. How do I know what my mindset is? By how I feel. If I feel that my life is a burdern, it is hard, it sucks, this is because I am in a time rut. I have a focus on the past, or the future, or, more likely, both. Not on the actual past or future, because these do not actually exist. Only my thoughts about the remembered past and the percieved future. Of course it is in such a state where I feel my life is meaningless and worthless, a burden, that I do not wish to live, that I become tired of living. By being trapped in a time rut I am being worn down. I am, figiturvely and literally, killing myself. I am commiting sucide. Furthermore I am justifued in my actions. My life sucks. It has always sucked, Because it has always sucked, it will always suck. I am almost 40. At best I have anotehr 40 years to live. I didn't get anwhere yet, so how do I expect to get anywhere in another 40 years? I may as well give up. This was my mental state, and the last vestiges of it remain, but thankfully I am aware of it now. Awareness is key! In order to change my mental state I must bring awareness to my thoughts. In order to manifest something I need or want I must be aware, and fully present, in this moment. I am now going to quote myself, as I have been writing about this today, "My path is clear. I know what I need to do. I need to release the past and the future. In the famous words of Ram Dass, I need to, “ Be Here Now.” I thought I understood those words. But today I think maybe I have come to understand them for the first time. I never really got it until today. If I want to manifest somethng in my life, I have to do it in the present moment. I am not in the present moment if I am in a state where my life is percieved to be a burden. In that state I am focused in the past or the future or both. In that state the present momeht is obscured by time and I am not seeing it clearly. If I am at ease, joyful and light, then I must be fully in the present moment, and it is in that state that I can manifest anything I need or want. It is in that moment I am fully aware, open and receptive. In any other state trying to manifest something will become a struggle, worse my inability to manifest will be used as evidence to reinforce a state where I am unable to manigfest anything. I will sneer at the teachings and say they do not work. I will call them “New Age Bullshit.” I will feel justied in this because I was unable to manifest anything. Furthermore my perception of the world seems to prove what I believe. This habitual mindset that has no more reality than a dream of a tar pit. I will get together with others, who share similar beliefs as I do, and who, as a result also can not manifest anything. There may be hundreds or thousands of us. Our collective belief energy and vibration will infect hundreds or thousands more. Then “reality” will become exactly what it is percieved to be right now, in this moment. We call this “reality” the real world. But it is no more real than a dream of a tar pit. Waking up fully from this dream is called enlightenment. When you are enlightened, then you experience the reality of the world. You don't need to be enlightened to wake up enough to see that the only reason your life is the way it is is because you made it that way. You can wake up, just enough, to enter, if only for a few moments, the present moment and a state free of the obscuration of time. In that state you can manifest something you need or want. You can start habitual thought patterns that become beliefs which support your manifestation. Furthermore, just as those who are not in that state can get together and infect others with their collecive energy, you can as well. You can help others enter the presnet moment, manifest something they need or want, and begin to develp habitual thought patterns that become beliefs which support manifestation. The more of you there are, the more “reality” and “the real world” change. It is really as complciated and as simple as that. What the majority of human beings experience right now is the collective energy and habitual mindset, solidified into beliefs, of humanity over the course of its existance. This is changing, but it can change much faster, the more of us that escape time and enter the present moment. Life does not have to be the way it is right now, in this moment. Our present moment experience can change, moment by moment. Which means our life experience can change, and that means our “reality” can change. The “real world” is no more a concrete reality than a dream of a tar pit. Any power it has is given to it by us. We can choose to accept it as our reality, or we can choose to reject it as our reality. Things can happen that can trick us, seem to enforce what we think of as reality. We can find a myriad things to justify our beliefs. But it is all a dream, it is all thoughts, and it can be changed, just as dreams change, just as thoughts change. Here, in the present moment, wee experience Truth." I do not know how well this will tie in with everything. I was using the example of an elephant dreaming of a tar pit, thinking it so real that it felt trapped and began to die. So that is what the whole tar pit thing is referring to. I see it now. In my time rut, where the present moment was obscured, I was unable to effectively manifest anything. My inability to manifest became my justification for my doubt of the teachings, and this all contributed to my continued inability to manifest. It both justifies my mental state and reinforces it. This thing is fucking devious! Even if you get through all that you will have to deal with the collective energy of others who are still stuck in their time ruts, still not manifesting, and somewhere in the back of your mind is a whisper that it doesn't work for anyone else, so why would it work for you? idiot_stimpy, do you see now? Have you been able to become aware of your time rut? If not that is OK. When you are ready you will. When you are fully aware, in the present moment, free of past and future, you should manifest something you need or want. Admit, accept and allow any doubts, fears resistance. Admit, allow and accpet your thoughts about past and future. Release all these and let them go. Check your emotional indicators. If you are feeling joyful and light, you are ready. Manifest. Then come in here and share your experience. These same instructions apply to everyone else. I am applying them as well. I write this as the start of the process for me. I have become aware of my mental state. I have come to understand these things. Tolle's ,"The Power of Now" helped point out the moon to me. I am now headed in that direction. I think I am at a pont now where I need to share this information, so I am considering writing a booklet and making it freely available. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, if you would like to help, PM me. We have always been free. It is true. It may not have felt that way. It may have felt as if we were in a tar pit, unable to escape. But the tar pit is a dream, a thought. The rut is a dream, a thought. Only our beliefs, collective and individual, in their reality made them real to us. Since we made them real to us, we can make then unreal. We can wake up from the dream. We can change our thoughts. No matter what our life situation, we choose what we think, without exception, whether we are aware of it or not.

I aplogize. I need not mean to imply that God was only there. I was offering an alternative to going to church and playing spirituality. A way to experience spirituality. It is not found in the temple walls or pages of its scriptures. It is there, God is always there of course, but the voice is obscured. What I meant is that you would get more spiritually out of sitting down at the base of a tree and listening, where God's voice is not typically obscured, than you would in church. As a channel to hearing God's voice a trree, as well as other plants, are direct lines of communication, since no plant has an ego. As a result they are hooked up directly. If I were, for example, of the Native American culture and familliar with their traditions I am sure I could explain this far better. I will leave that to any Native Amercians in here. In short, there is nowhere God is not. But this energey or entity is less onscured in some places than others. If you are are a place in your life you can hear God in the concrete, good for you! The typcial church going Amercian, I would say, is not.

I have found a habitual thought pattern of lack, especially in regards to money, tied up in a knot of deservedness, earning and worthiness. Like any elephant, I must eat this one a small bite at a time. I have found these other threads and begun to pull. Of course all three are in duality. If you must feel worthy, then you must have felt unworthy at some point. If you feel deserving then you must have felt undeserving before. If you feel you have to earn whatever it is you receive, then you have definite issues of self worth, the same as me. You have to watch, because asking then becomes confused and interchangeable with begging. Which is why I started to follow tree's example and claim what I wanted. I had to, I am not yet able to ask without, in some capacity, being on my knees, hands out in a bowl or spread out on the ground in front of me in supplication. This is the trap you find in religion, and it is enforced by society. You continue to enforce it as long as you believe that, "You must work to eat." This is brainwashing. You are being programmed in such a way that you disallow yourself from All Good Things. I am adapting this phrase from the voice inside me. These understandings came to me today, while my parents sat in church one wall over, and worshiped God, then heard about God, and continued to be enamored of the finger pointing to the moon, instead of the moon itself. I am glad I decided not to join them today. My time was spent much more wisely, if time was a commodity that can be spent, which it isn't. All these things, including Time, keep you from experiencing God. Paraphrasing Tolle here. I will write on this more extensively later and provide a link. The point is that I have found what I perceive to be the issue. I have a handle on this, something I can bring my awareness to. I now know what is the most likely culprit in my inability, up to this moment, to manifest things as I would like. As I learn, so I will share with you. If I were to leave nothing more behind than that, my sharing, that would be enough. But keep in mind, again paraphrasing Tolle, these are the second principle, not the first. You can catch the first, but trying to write the first down makes it become the second. Understand that, at best, anything I share is a finger pointing at the moon, at worse its pointing off into space somewhere. But it is not the moon, or space, or anything else. Just a finger. Just words. To know the truth you must experience it for yourself. Fingers can only point you in hopefully the right direction. But you have to get there on your own. Throw out your Bible. Next Sunday, instead of going to church, bundle up warmly, find a tree, and sit down at its base. That is where you will find God, if you find God anywhere. In the sitting, tree at your back, watching the leaves fall, watching the branches move in the wind, feeling the sun and the rain on your skin. In that moment of awareness and openness God is speaking, and you can choose to listen.

iain I am not sure what you mean by the shift in tone. My previous replies were written when I was tired, kind of out of it. My mindset or state was not "up", as it has been today and still is, at this present moment. I was a little down, discouraged. It is odd that I am actually "up" right now because I suffered a setback and failed to manifest what I wanted again when apply the things I have been learning from this thread just the other day. By all rights I should be depressed. But strangely I am not. I can not say why, exactly what has affected me. Is it writing this poem, after my failure to manifest what I wanted? https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/begging-bowl/ Or is it because I finally consulted that voice inside? Or maybe my happiness is not dependent on something that has happened to me, my "I"? Maybe I am just in what could only be described as a happy state and it has nothing to do with my circumstances? I am not sure. If you are referring to the words, in different font, in my previous post, those are not, to my knowledge, my words. You aren't hearing me speak, I did not write them. My physical hands typed those letters and words out, but the words came from somewhere else, possibly somewhere inside, as I described, not from me. They are not my words. You are reading the words of someone else, I just transcribed them. Who or what the someone else is I have no idea and I make no claims. Hell I don't even have to know! It is enough for me to have that communication available to me. No need to look a gift horse in the mouth, so-to-speak. I will let others debate if that is what they want to do. I am happy just being able to consult this voice and get advice. I do apologize for any confusion, I hope this clarifies things. Thank you for sharing your advice for yoga. I appreciate it, but that is not my path right now, at this moment. That is just another religion, another set of religious practices. I love Ram Dass, find him an excellent teacher, and I will, someday, finish "Be Here Now." There is much good in there, much to learn. But it too wants to take me along a yogic path, and I will learn what I can from these materials as I follow my own path, my own way up the mountain. I am done fumbling blindly over the elephant, arguing with everyone what it is I am feeling, what this thing must be. Waste of time and energy. But no criticism and judgment on those compelled to continue feeling the elephant. Everyone has a right to their own path, religion or spiritual practice, even lack thereof. Spotless Although unnecessary to say, I completely agree. I also agree with Seth Ananada. I think there must be stages to this thing. I have come to understand that will is, as I said I think initially, strain. It is force. Like trying to force yourself to take a dump. Strain all you like, relief will come, and possibly a hernia! But there also has to be a determination. You sit on the toilet, that is the action taken towards what you want to do. You let the process happen. But you don't get up until it is finished. There is will involved in being patient, not straining, allowing the process. That form of will is the kind needed for manifestation I think. Another pointed out this effortless way. I refer to it as flowing. I love your example! I need to watch those movies in HD now. They are almost a spiritual practice in an of themselves! But yes, this is also a truth taught in the martial arts. You will hear me say, "Be a martial artist with life." You use the energy or force of a thing against itself. Referring to a sailing analogy someone else used, you tack with the wind. I think that is the proper phrase. The point is you use the wind against itself. Trying to make something happen is very trying. Using great effort requires great effort. You can wrestle Achilles to the ground, or you can slice the back of his heel. Your choice. I know this mostly intellectually. But I have gained some experiential knowing of this process. It is just another thing that must be practiced, like a martial artist performing their stances. Thank you.

Before I start in... Spotless I have a sudden feeling of what I think is love for you. I am smiling, after reading what you have said. I think, if memory serves, I have always found you, more than anyone else, challenging. You are the bed of coals one must walk on, or the bed of nails one must lay on. Thank you for that! @all I have read the rest of your responses and I thank you. Now I have something to share with you. I am not sure I have mentioned it here previously, but recently, just a few months ago, when working with my dreams I found I could hear a voice inside. I have tested this voice, consulting it to translate a dream for another. I have an account at DreamViews for the subject of dreaming. They told me it was spot on. So as far as I am concerned this voice is not me. If it were to emanate from anywhere, have a location, it would be in the center of my chest. I sort of focus there to "tune in." Now I bring this up because my first response,whenever I have a problem, is to come here with it. Spiritually based matters primarily. It never occurred to me to consult this voice until last night. I struggled with resistance all day doing it, but I came to this voice with a number of questions, and I will share some of these, and its answers. When I am doing this sort of thing brackets [] symbolize stuff coming from me, parentheses () stuff that come from it which I did not feel the need to write down or simply decided to add later. A lot of forward slashes / to combine things. Hyphens - as a pause, break in thought or for emphases. Here: Why am I unable to manifest the things I need or want? You do not have faith. I keep telling you to have faith. Be faith. But you won't listen/are unable to hear. You must have faith in order for these things to be provided. You must know that you are receiving whatever it is you ask for. There can be no doubt, doubt = resistance. If there is doubt, throw it out! You must have faith, must believe, must know, that whatever you ask for is provided. But you are covered in fear, and doubt. You base this on your previous lack of manifesting an asked for thing. But they are built on one another. Those attempts did not work either because you did not have faith. When you received the coffee beans you had enough faith. Find a way to have faith, carry that faith with you. Like Indiana Jones stepping into the chasm, having faith there is a walkway there. You must have faith! Things will be much easier for you once you do. (That is all.) How do I manifest the things I need or want? By faith. It really is as simple as that. The universe will give you whatever it is you ask for, whatever you need or want. But you have to believe the universe can and will do this. You must have faith. You must live it, breathe it like air. Your whole being must be infused with it. There can be no room for fear and doubt. Your being must radiate faith, a confidence and a knowing that the universe can, does and will provide. This is the one great and universal Truth. You have been seeking the Truth for so long, well here it is! Faith, like everything else, must be practiced. It is a combination of confidence, trust and knowing. It is the thought that the universe provides returned to for so long that it becomes a belief. Once you believe the universe provides, and hold that feeling for a long time, it becomes/transforms into faith. Once you have held onto this feeling of faith for a long time, doubt and fear simply can not manifest in your experience. There is no room in which these things can grow. The tree you so often use as your example has faith. It is not a faith as understood by humans. Faith is independent of intellect. The tree's faith is a feeling, of the sun, wind and rain on its skin – its bark and leaves. It is the feel of dirt between its toes – its roots. When a tree feels these things it demonstrates faith. It grows, puts out branches and leaves. When a tree feels the lack of any of these vital elements it looses faith, and so dies. Faith is a feeling, one that must be maintained, for life and a connection to All Good Things. Without faith demonstrating in your life you will, like the tree, begin to shrivel up and die on the inside, the most vital part of you. Not in your physical body, not initially. Your physical body will follow suite however, it too will shrivel and die, because whatever happens to you on the inside – energetically – manifests on the outside. The lack of faith inside becomes the cause of the physical symptoms of death on the outside. You must have faith, it is vital! Absolutely necessary in order for you to thrive as an individual and as a person, even as a society. What is it you are having faith in? What is it you are developing faith in? What is it you are practicing faith in? Quite simply, that the universe provides. You can call the universe whatever name you like. Whatever name you give it, it always provides. Your faith in the provision opens you to that provision. It allows you to receive whatever it is you ask for. Without faith your receiving will be blocked or interfered with. Your manifestation will be incomplete, if its manifests at all. Only tree's faith in the sun, in the wind and the rain, allow it to open, send out branches, send down roots, sprout leaves and thereby grow. The instant tree is not living in faith it begins to die, period, end of story. How else do you think cactus survives in the desert? What other creature on earth has more faith than a cactus, that water, eventually, will come? So the cactus holds on, and it gets the water it needs. This is the kind of faith you must display, even in the harshest of circumstances, if you want to receive whatever it is you are asking for. (That is all - there is nothing more to say on this subject.)

I have to choose to take offense, and I have made no such choice. I welcome your feedback. You may have me on the whole my parents and I VS I and my parents thing. Never really thought about it. I guess an outside observer would have to watch me, see what the truth is. I always thought I did right by my parents, took good care of everyone. But I have felt the need to put myself first more than I used to. I can't have the things my parents or my grandmother want me to do get in the way of my spiritual practice or my writing. I also feel I am at a sort of contest of wills here, as they are all Christians, and I am not. They all want to "save" me and I am trying to have the mindset that I am not a sinner, not imperfect, and I certainly don't need saving. Of course there's also the mental tension between the way they think, and have taught me to think, and the new way I am choosing to think. I do my best not to force the way I am choosing to be on others, but at the same time they, consciously or not, are trying to force the way they choose to live, as well as the way they want me to live, on me, so it's a never ending round of tug-o-war. I like your sailing ship analogy. That may be yet another piece. Thank you. Here is what I have so far... You make a request and take some sort of action towards it. You can ask or claim it. If you ask there are implications by what asking implies - how we all view it. There is this idea of groveling, the question of whether or not we deserve it, the question of whether or not it is God's (or the Universe's) will. If you can ask without these subtle currents in your asking go for it. If not you probably should claim whatever it is you need or want. How you take action and proceed next should be flowing. There should be no force. You should not be trying to make anything happen. So if you were to ask for or claim a new car, perhaps you will clean out some extra space in your garage, or park your old car on the street, preparing to sell it. If you ask for or claim a mate maybe you join a dating site. You should flow through this, and you should be listing to that voice inside you, call it the Holy Spirit or whatever you like. Maybe you can't hear that voice yet and that is OK, But you should at least make a conscious attempt to be open to hearing it. Maybe through a few minutes meditation every day. Oh and you don't dwell on what it is you want, nor do you dwell on what it is you don't want. You make your claim or request then forget about it. You flow, you listen to your intuition. Using the sailing analogy you are tacking with the wind. You have set your course, checked your sextant, and now are tacking with the wind in the general direction you wish to go. Your feelings and intuition are the sextant. Your intention is the course you set. The thing you want to manifest is your destination. Now you just sit back and relax, keeping an eye on the currents and the wind. You could think of your vibrational level to the thing you have claimed or requested, the strength of how badly you want it, or don't want it, as the wind. Contrary winds may come and you will have to adjust accordingly. But you should never fight the waves and the winds. You should be a perfect martial artist, using the energy of the waves and wind against themselves. So this is as far as I have the process figured out. Any insights or thoughts?

Yasjua I have done something like this. I call it going with the flow. I was practicing this as well when I was trying so hard to manifest the absolute best Christmas for myself and my family, as detailed in my example. It is easy, very easy, to forget sometimes. To ask or claim then let it go. Let it flow. I need to figure out where this aspect of the process comes in. I have no experience with which to say this, but I don't feel we are not in control, or should not be in control. That said we should not seek control, be attached to controlling anything. But we have some control, some power, to choose our path, the life we want to live. Our choices may not be what is best for us, but the point is that it is our choice. Those who teach reincarnation say that we came into this life to do something or learn something. That is why we are here. if this is true, then we designed our initial life circumstances and set the vehicle on motion in the first place. Heck we even chose the car to drive in! There is merit to letting go, there is nothing wrong with taking control. We can have the universe provide for us exactly what we we ask for or claim, or we can let the universe provide for us just what we need. In that case we make our claim or request then let it go and let it flow. Maybe we are supposed to do a little of both. Take control a little, and give control over a little. Walk some sort of balance here. But yeah, I think you have just presented us with another piece. Thank you!

Thank you for your replies. I am not, to my knowledge, trying to justify anything. I am also not attached to any of my beliefs or thoughts about any of this. I can not honestly say I am 100% perfectly unattached, only that I am practicing non-attachment. Just part of my spiritual practices. What that means is that if the manifestation teachings are wrong, I will throw them out. But I feel, I sense, somewhere inside, that there is truth here. There may be new age bullshit to wade through, but there are golden nuggets of truth as well. Outside of my feelings I know there is something here because if Abraham's words were completely false, they would have no power, and would not affect me in any way. They wouldn't be charged up like they are. It seems to me that something dead, i.e. false, has no such power. All I am trying to do here is what Abraham, Tolle and about every other spiritual teacher instructs, that is to become one with Being (Tolle) or Source (My adoption, Hay House.) The closer I am to Being, to who I truly am, to that energy or entity inside, the closer I am to the things I need or want to manifest. Tree has it easy, because it is a tree, it is already as close to its true nature, in physical form, as it can be. This is another lesson tree teaches us. I feel like I am so close here to figuring out how to be, in what state to be, that allows the things I need or want to flow right into my life. I truly feel that we all have a right to enjoy our lives, to live them fully, to experience all good things. That pain and suffering come from belief in them more than attachment. That we are in the circumstances we are in now because of where we have invested our belief energy. Somehow inside me somewhere I set up circuits, due to my family, how I was raised, my religion, that bypass the Source. The original connection to Source is still there, just bypassed. I am unable to tap into that until I get inside there and so some re-wiring or something. I am just lost as to how to do that. It ha something to do with how I try to manifest things in my life. I adopted this way of being wired since I was a child, and now I wish to change that. I feel that it is a returning to some default, natural state we were in when we were born. Just can't put my finger on it. That's all this thread is about. How to go beyond and outside of what religion and society say, to look at this differently, see if we can figure this thing out. If we can't, so be it. But maybe someone will say something, and that will be the key, taken with what I have already learned, to unlocking this. It should be laughably easy, simple. It should not be a process.

I know very little about the man, but I suspect he was someone to be admired and respected. That many of the negative things said about him were to discredit him. I think if he had been able to freely continue his work our world would not be as polluted, everyone would have free electricity, and we would be in cars powered by gravity. I remember well the details of one of his experiments, lighting a field of light bulbs stuck in the ground. That information has been hidden, lost or repressed. It has set back mankind's technological development by at least a century. Plus if we could teach people to think like Tesla did when inventing something, seeing it there in the mind's eye and able to manipulate every part, can you imagine the benefits of this mental training? I find it interesting that many ideas I have had for things correlate to inventions he had sketched out. I don't know why I have these ideas, how to honor any sort of inventor that may reside in me. But if I was ever able to, I would work very hard to get all of Tesla's writings, even the classified ones, and continue his research. I can not think of anything that would be a greater contribution to our society and our world. If we master gravity, we master unlimited energy, and the ability to travel between galaxies effortlessly.

I am taking my blog, "A Different Path: http://adifferentpath.blog.com/ And moving it here: https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/ The blog is now called, "Bliss Writer." While it may not be immediately apparent, this is an evolutionary change for me. When I started, "A Different Path" it was more of a journal and called, "Romance Beyond Realty." It chronicled my whole tulpa experience. Then when that ended and I was leaving my Christian faith, "A Different Path" replaced it. With "Bliss Writer" I have come to embrace myself. love and accept myself, as a writer. Poetry is returning as you will see. I am coming to an understanding, an experiential knowing, of certain things. If you were to read the blog from the beginning you could track my spiritual growth. But it is not written as a record of that. Originally I just wanted to share things I had learned and express myself occasionally. That has remained generally the same. Blog.com is no longer a good place for me to use, as I have been having issues with using it for some time now. Wordpress, though severely limited, gives me the responsiveness I need. I can't have anything distracting me from sitting down to write, whenever I am compelled to do so. If you have bookmarked, "A Different Path" please update your links to, "Bliss Writer." You can also follow me if you have a Wordpress account.

In many of the spiritual books I read I keep encountering this advice to, "Oberve you thoughts..." Over and over I see this, yet I have yet to encounter instructions as to how one does this. In my mind, right now, if there are thoughts, I am not aware of them. But I am aware of my mental jukebox currently playing a song by Loreen. I can hear her voice, hear the song just like it sounds playing on speakers. Word for word sometimes. Currently in my meditation practice I tune into all the things going on around me, usually at an audio level. Right now that would be traffic going by and the children upstairs playing. I just tune into these sounds and listen to them, allow them to be there. There may be a thought on the sound, and I might see or partially hear the word, but that's it. I think when this is done right the sounds just sort of fade. Like you notice them and then you no longer notice them after a time. But how exactly do I see the thought of Loreen's song playing? How do I observe music? Furthermore, how to I observe thoughts happening? I keep getting told that after you do this there is a sense of space. You get a taste of whatever lies beyond thought. I have been meditating for a few years now and experienced nothing like that. Not seeking it either. Just never had that experience. The way it is said it seems as if this is something that should happen right away. Like you sit down, close your eyes, observe your thoughts and click. I never seem to get to the observe your thoughts stage. I have asked questions about meditation before, received lots of suggestions and video links. But I still don't get this. What is the exact process of looking inside and watching ones thoughts, as if one were separate from them? Because that is what I need to experience. I don't seek it either. but I know I need it. I need to get to this place where I know, not just believe or have faith, that I am not my thoughts. I never seem to get there. I have no experience, so sense, of not being this. So I remain trapped, and I wish to be free. I want to experience for myself that I am not my thoughts, that there is something outside of them, and I have no expectations of what that is, just that there is something outside my thoughts, and that I am not whet I think. Yes, I am reading Tolle's The Power of Now as suggested, if there is any relation between this and one of my other recent threads. Thank you for your help and patience.

I started this thread after reading one section in, "The Power of Now" then today I read the next section. He has pauses in between so I pause and sit with what I have read. In any case the next section brought me to my answer. I realized that I tend to speak my thoughts out loud. I don't know why I do this, but I guess initially it was to be aware of what I was thinking, as if vocalizing my thoughts would make me more aware, and I don't think this was conscious or anything, It's like there's a memory there but its too slippery to grasp at this moment. Whatever the reason, I was fooling myself that I was being aware of my thoughts, or had no thoughts, when they were coming out of my mouth! So I just started the practice of of observing my thoughts. It was kind of strange at first, because there is that tendency initially to speak them out loud, but somehow observing them makes me not want to speak them. Hard to explain. Now I can sort of hear my voice in my head saying stuff. I guess its the voice of my physical body, not really my voice. I can see it will be like any habit. I will have to practice for some time until it comes naturally. So for now I will practice awareness whenever I remember to do so, then attend, yes I attend is a better word, to them without attachment, aversion, criticism or judgment. I will come back with a status update once I try this for my first meditation practice of the day.

If you make one send me some pictures because I might buy one, should I have the funds manifested for it.

I sincerely apologize t anyone disconcerted, stressed out or worried about what I said. I can not justify that statement. But it is not my intention to cause harm. I am being authentic and honest about my feelings. I apologize if that concerns anyone. I wanted to add, for the record, that I am not looking to the femal to complete me. I know that is not the way. I am simply looking for someone to share my life and physical body with. Looking for someone to share things with, talk to. Looking for a physical presence whose path has converged with mine for a time. I do not know how to do it, but I intend to love her completely but loosely. So that if our paths part, we can go our separate ways, and instead of each of us focusing on what we have lost, we can leave loving each other and appreciating the time we had together. I think something stronger than a marriage contract should keep two people together, for as long as it is flowing and natural for them to be together. I know not to identify myself, make a part of my identity, the person I am with. It may be another chapter in my story. But I should not make boyfriend, lover, father a part of my identity, thinking that these are who I am. I have learned this lesson when I left my former faith.

What kind of pendant does a former Christian who is against fundamentalism, institutionalized religion and repression wear? A fancy cross in a circle with a diagonal line through it?

I have very strong feelings here, true. But I would never put that sort of pressure on a relationship. As you don't know me, you do not know why I have such strong feelings. As its is very personal, I am not sharing it. I will only say that I have been alone for well over 20 years, and enough is enough.