DreamBliss

The truth of the matter is that age is an illusion. Nobody has to grow old and die. They only believe and subscribe to this illusion of the aging and dying process.

I imagine that when you get old enough... You can sing at the top of your lungs and you won't care what others think. You couldn't hear what they are saying anyway! You decide that it isn't so scary talking to the opposite sex anymore. Hell the worse thing that could happen is you have a heart attack when you ask them out and they say yes! You love this movie, and can totally relate: You find you enjoy Woody Allen movies more. Death becomes a friend and is no longer a foe.

Life is not to be taken seriously. Seriously!

Does anyone really die?

Welcome Junko!

I have just read that on August 30th Wayne Dyer transition from the physical. I say it that way because I am sure this is how he views it. His is not a death to be mourned, but a life to be celebrated. I am almost 100% certain that he did exactly what he came here to do in his physical life. But I am left with feelings I can't sort out. Some of you read the process I went through to get tickets to see him in Portland this year. I walked away disappointed. But it turns out that if I had not gone, I would never have seen and heard from him (at a distance) in the physical. So now it seems there was something even more than what I thought was going on. I know some of you may come in here talking coincidence. So be it. I will use the word serendipitous. I think it was more serendipity behind all the ducks lining up in a row so I could go than coincidence. I have no more words right now. I almost feel something like guilt or shame at myself. As if I have not appreciated this opportunity I was granted as much as I should have. I am grasping at straws here, searching for meaning. I can't make any sense out of this. Thank you Mr. Dyer for coming to Portland, so that I had the opportunity to hear you. I will remember everything I have learned from you, even if I don't yet appreciate it.

Nikolai Some of what I have said in reply to you disturbs me. At the risk of wandering off-topic, I have some things I want to say, and some realizations I wish to share. I am not sure I feel the need to apologize, or that I owe you one, but if you feel that way, please let me know. I do feel sorry for how harsh my tone was with you. I do not feel that my tone, my responses, were loving or motivated by love at all. What I said was said from a place of ego or pain body. I struck out in pain, struck out because I felt I had been struck. I am sorry for any such striking out. This is not how I wish to be. I have been reading, "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. I just picked up the book tonight after not having read it for over a week. Sidhartha and his friend Govidna have just joined the Samanas, these ascetic holy men of the forest. Here is a quote that caused me to recognize something, "And Siddhartha said, 'So he has lived for sixty years and has not yet reached Nirvana. He will turn seventy and eighty, and you and I, we too will grow old and will continue to perform the exercises, to meditate and fast. But Nirvana will remain out of reach, both for him and for us. O Govidna, it seems to me that of all the Samanas that exist, there is perhaps not one, not a single one, who will reach Nirvana. We find consolations, we find numbness, we learn skills with which to deceive ourselves. But the essential, the Path of Paths, this we do not find.'" I realized, as I read this, a possible reason why it is so important to you that a teacher be enlightened. If we throw ourselves into a study of a religion, or the teachings of a teacher, who is teaching us how to reach Nirvana, or how to become Enlightened, yet find that the people in our religion, or the master we are studying under, have not reached Nirvana, are not Enlightened, then this casts serious doubt on the teachings. As you said, as I recall, Wayne Dyer was not enlightened. Or at least he was rumored not to act as if he is enlightened. If I were to compare his writing with that of Thich Nhat Hanh, who, if he is not enlightened, is certainly the only teacher I know who is close to it, I would see that Thay's words flow like honey. Love drips from them. But Mr. Dyer's words are far less refined, rougher. Love is there, certainly, and shows up every once in a while. His latest books show someone much more spiritually developed than earlier writings. But the difference is night and day. If Mr. Dyer was still alive, and I could choose to study at his feet or Thay's, I would go to Mr. Hanh. Even though I am not a Buddhist and have no interest in the religion. If there was a teacher I could think off off-hand that could bring me to enlightenment, if I were searching for it, Thich Nhat Hanh is such a teacher. If I was searching for enlightenment, what a waste of time for to study under anyone with the title of Master, if they themselves are not enlightened! Ram Dass should consider himself lucky, his teacher, by all accounts, was enlightened, even though whether or not Mr. Dass is enlightened is not certain. How few enlightened teachers there are out there! Of those few, how few are at even the fringes of the public eye! It almost seems like you have to make like Siddhartha and head up to the hills in India to find one of these people! At an intellectual level I understand that knowledge is the enemy of inner knowing, something else written in this book. Learning can get in the way. Seeking will keep you from finding. I do not have some burning desire to become enlightened, or discover nirvana. I would love to learn how to walk on water and fly, do these things some call miracles. But I have no great spiritual aspirations. I am not driven by my spirituality. I am just strolling along here, enjoying the scenery. My only burning desire is to figure out how to manifest things into my live that I need and want. That's it. I just want to live "high on the hog" until I get tired of it. Because I have been stuck here on the ass-end of things for a very long time. You get tired of the short end of the stick. Maybe these desires are all ego. But I want my own house, land, a woman to share my life with, children, enjoyable, meaningful and fulfilling work, lots of friends, a spiritual community I can be a part of, an easy bike ride or walking distance from where I live. I want a huge library in my house, I want a laboratory to invent things in. I want all the money I could ever need or want so that I never, ever again am limited by a lack of finances. I want the concept of financial lack and limitation to be some long-forgotten tale, almost as if it was told by somebody else. A nightmare I had as a child once that I barely remember now. As you can tell there is very little of spiritual interest in my life. I think I would be happier learning about what I am choosing to call my Higher Self (what I used to call Source and what others call God) myself. Have my own experience of this energy. Directly, not through others. In other words, I would be happier to have a direct experience of my Higher Self. If that leads to Nirvana or Enlightenment, fine. If not, fine. I do not want to live a life of servitude. But I will gladly serve others in the natural flow of my life. I will be there for my family. So for me I pick up a teacher, learn what I can from them, usually in the form of a book, and move on. I go where my interests take me. Currently meditation, lucid dreaming and astral projection. Also shamanism. I learn what I can and then move on. Maybe this is not the right way to do things. Maybe I should only seek those who are master practitioners of what they preach. At this moment I don't know any better way to do things. I am trying to make do with what I have. Wayne Dyer and Anita Moorjani came to Portland. I wanted a spiritual experience. I went. I failed to have what I went for. Maybe I felt something like this character Siddhartha must have felt after being with these Samanas for 3 years. I don't know. But I want you to know that I will practice more respect to the things that matter to you and others. Some seek Enlightenment or Nirvana. Some seek learning or knowledge. Some seek peace. Some just want to feel better! We should never, ever, speak harshly to someone in disagreement to what matters to them! Better to practice acceptance, love and respect. Let other people follow their path while we follow our own. Support each other, as much as possible. Stop tearing each other down. There has been far too much of that in the history of the religions of the world. I would like to create a better world, and a better future. But to build that world, I have to lay the foundation stones now. Acceptance, love and respect are 3 of the cornerstones of this particular foundation. Blessings and Love to you!

I am glad to hear that Mr. Dyer gave away copies of that movie. I do not think it is the same one freely available now, which, as I recall, is, "My Greatest Teacher." "The Shift" AKA "Ambition To Meaning" is one of my favorite videos of this kind. I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone. Which brings me to a final point I would like to make... I have not seen, yet, any enlightened teachers bothering to take the time to present a message that is in opposition to what we, at least here in America, receive on a daily basis through our entertainment and media. No matter what their flaws, at least these most likely unenlightened teachers bothered to take the time to write books and make public appearances with a message that is a whole lot more empowering than anything else you will find on TV. I think before we start criticizing and judging the teachers we should take a look at our society. America doesn't make it easy to get a message to thousands of people for free. It is a society concerned with and focused on making money, at every level. Just take a look at what Esalen has become. That is the best example I have of what any spiritual institute or teacher may likely become, over time, in this country.

As I said, I do not know what Esther Hicks is doing, I do not care, it is none of my business anyway. I took a moment to see if they had any way to contact them about your issue, but I didn't see any way to relay your concern. Please keep a few things in mind... Nobody ever went to see Jerry Hicks. They went to see his wife, Esther, and to hear from Abraham, through her. Secondly there is no way of knowing how directly Esther is involved with her website, it could have been relegated to others or to Hay House. Your concern should probably be addressed to Hay House, or Reid Tracy. Thirdly if Esther is manipulating things to bring in more money, that is her business, her path she must walk. It has nothing to do with you. Fourthly, what Esther does or how she lives does not invalidate the teachings that come through her. Last but not least, Esther Hicks has nothing to do with the subject of this thread, which is Wayne Dyer and his passing.

In answer to to an earlier question, I can not find what I could have sworn I written. Maybe I wrote it in my poetry journal. I thought for sure I had expressed somewhere, and kept a record of it, my thoughts on the event I attended, "I Am Light." This blog post gives some clues: https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/the-aftermath/ At this time that is the only answer I am willing to give. I am not willing to spend any more time looking for whatever it was I wrote. I do not wish to spend any more time looking back. All I can say is what I said, and I will expound just a little. I remember talking about how hard I worked to get the money for the tickets, helping some friends of my parents move to Kalamath Falls, Oregon. I figured out later that the money came that way because I had a mentality that I had to earn it. So I received an opportunity to earn the money, rather than say have someone give me tickets. In any case when the day was through I left early and remembered feeling like it hadn't been worth it. That I had learned some valuable lessons in earning the money to go. Also that I did have some good experiences in the form of meeting that woman at Red Robbins. That should be in my dating thread someone around here. But overall it wasn't worth it. As I said I guess I was expecting more. I apologize if that is not enough information. I must have talked about it here somewhere, it will be dated about the same time as my dating thread. I will leave you to your own research if it is important to you. I mean no offense, but I am done talking about this for now. Now to address what Nikolai has since posted... I just wrote a long rant that I have since relegated to a Bleedings document. I will instead keep things very simple. I don't give a flying fuck about enlightenment, or whether or not a teacher is enlightened! It is not important to me. No enlightened person has ever come to my area and made themselves physically available to me. But Wayne Dyer and Anita Moorjani have, so they have earned my respect. What I do have access to is Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Abraham, Seth, Neville Goddard, Thich Nhat Hanh. John Daido Loori, Ram Dass, Osho, Mike Dooley, Rumi (as translated by Coleman Barks) and a handful of other New Thought teachers. And I don't care if any of these folk are enlightened or not. What I do care about is if what I am reading feels right for me, at the moment I am reading it. What I do notice is if I am struggling to read a book, as I did when I started John Daido Loori's, "Zen of Creativity", and all of a sudden something shifts in me and I can understand it. Or when I read Richard Rohr's, "The Naked Now" and I have an experience that I still can't define. As far as what Esther Hicks is doing, again I don't care. All that matters to me is how a teaching feels to me at the moment I hear it or read it. The Abraham teachings speak to me, so I will continue to read them. I will believe in them. But if they prove to be false, I will release them and let them go. The same applies to any other teaching I choose to believe, whether the teacher was enlightened or not. Writing this has caused a turmoil in me, so I have to step away for a while.

He died of a heart attack, not leukemia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Dyer http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/08/30/wayne-dyer-obituary/71435806/ Part of my story here: https://blisswriter.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/as-posted-in-a-comment-i-made-at-the-i-am-light-event-page-on-facebook/ Searching the forums for the rest... Well I searched but can't find it. I thought I detailed that here or at my blog. I will check my writing folder later. For now I will have to leave the question of my disappointment not completely answered. Part of it, as I recall, was that I guess I had an expectation that seeing Mr. Dyer would be a spiritually transformative experience for me. But it wasn't.

There are circumstances and situations in my life that are going to cause major change and instability as they occur. There are things that I intend to do, and really have no choice but to do. Advice I have been given that feels right with me, and I am going to take it. I am also adopting a consciousness, a mindset, for something to happen by a particular date this year. But I can not get past the, "...the what?" If this thing I am working so hard to create in my life experience does not happen, if this thing I was advised to do, which I intend to do, falls through, this question remains. Then what? What will I do next? I have only one answer to this question. If this experience does not happen, and this thing I intend to do falls through, I have one definitive, final, answer. I see no other solution to the problem. If I can not create this experience in my life, allow it in, be receptive to its manifestation, by the date I have set, that's pretty much it for me. But I might be able to squeak by if this thing I intend to do works out and I am able to throw myself into that. The problem is, as I understand it, I have to have the consciousness, the mindset, I would have in the reality I have chosen. In that consciousness, that mindset, there is no room for this action I have determined I will take if I fail, if things do not work out. Nobody who thinks that way would do that to themselves. But I can not ignore the, "...then what?" I am unable, at this moment, to completely blind myself to it and think only about what I wish to experience in my life, and my success at experiencing these things. I don't know how. I know I am not in alignment with my Higher Self, with Source, because of these negative emotions, including doubt and fear. But I just can't see how to see the situation any differently. I don't feel like I have enough energy to focus solidly on the consciousness and mindset of the reality that I want. It feels too big, too difficult, too hard. It feels like too much. I also feel a definite lack of support. I feel as if I am completely and totally on my own. I know there are those who support me, who want only good for me. But they are at a distance from me. I am over here, they are over there, I am not physically immersed in their higher frequencies. I might be able to keep myself in the consciousness or mindset I desire if I had the right people around me. But that would make adopting a chosen consciousnesses or mindset conditional. It seems to me I should be strong enough to adopt it even if I was being drawn and quartered. But I just seem unable to do so. Maybe I am just not strong enough. I am a far cry away from any sort of physical abuse, yet even in these relatively comfortable and safe circumstances I find it hard to adopt and keep my chosen mindset! What can I do, right now, in this moment, in this instant, to completely forget about, "... then what?" and focus entirely on the consciousness or mindset I have chosen, to adopt completely, thereby creating the reality I desire? Is there anything at all I can do? Because all my spiritual practices, including meditation aren't cutting it, and that's the strongest way of dealing with it I know of, short of some sort of self-hypnosis. I appreciate your thoughts.

I would also like to mention that this kind of statement: Is uncalled for. Generally we don't attack one another at these forums. We might argue, even heatedly debate. But I think most, if not all, of us stop short of saying someone has a lack of intelligence, AKA that they are stupid. I think you will find some of the most intelligent people you are likely to meet on the internet here at these forums. They might believe in whatever religion they have adopted as deeply as you feel about science. So we can all be a little stubborn and set in our ways around here. Belligerent maybe, but not ignorant. Also if you want to win someone over to your side, my guess is that beating them over the head like that isn't the best way to go about it. Just sayin'...

I have said it before and I will say it again... Science is just another religion, by that I mean just another set of beliefs. It wasn't that long ago that scientists said the earth was flat . As far as imagination... Jules Verne took us into space long before NASA existed, and all these inventions science has brought us started off as nothing more than an idea, as something imagined. So I wouldn't write off your imagination just yet. Maybe the things you conceive of, that you imagine, are not true in this moment. But maybe in time they will be. Maybe all thoughts in any form manifest eventually on the physical plane. If you are going to be a scientist, you will need an open mind. Don't be so quick to write things off, unless you have proof beyond any shadow of doubt.

I am extricating myself from this thread. It seems I am just parroting a belief I have adopted. I have nothing with which to back up a single word I have said. What is that Bible verse... "Even a fool is considered wise if he shuts his mouth." Something like that. This fool is now shutting his mouth.

Thank you for your post. I will be spending some time with it in the next few days. Now there is one other aspect of this off-topic discussion that occurred to me tonight. Actually it is also loosely on-topic now that I think about it. Anyhow... I am presented with two ways I can approach this moment right now. I can be here, with what I am doing. Typing out this reply. Breathing. I can place all my awareness into this moment, right now. Or I can think about this alluded to course of action I have written about here. I can put all my awareness into this bleak future I am seeing. I am incapable of seeing any other future right now. I have this moment, how I am doing right now, or a bleak future. The bleak future is an illusion. But what is occurring right now, what I am doing, breathing and typing, that is real. That is the value in what Tolle is teaching. Because the natural tendency of almost every human on earth is to dwell in the future or the past. But the future they are dwelling on is only built on the foundation of the past. What they say they know, based on past experience. Not realizing that just because it happened that way once, and all the statistics say it will happen the same way again, even if it does happen again, that is not a guarantee it will always happen that way. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is set in stone. As I have only a limited human perspective, as my perception is based solely on past events, I am unable to see all possible futures from this moment in time. I am not sure anyone can. So it is better for me to dwell on this moment, right now, on what I am doing right now. It is best to tune in to this present moment, because otherwise I will be seeing this bleak future and considering a particular course of action based on that. Worse, in dwelling on this bleak future I may be tempted to to prepare and do research for that future, which means I will have that consciousness, which all but ensures that this is the future I will experience. The only way to create a brighter future for myself is to have a brighter consciousness, or mindset. As long as I am dwelling on one possible outcome from a near infinite number of possibilities, and that outcome is bleak, I am going to experience anger, frustration, what Buddha and the Buddhists call suffering. Lacking enlightenment at this moment, to free myself of suffering that way, and lacking the ability to release all desires, thereby freeing myself of suffering that way, the only thing I know to do is to just be with this moment. One moment at a time. Other spiritual teachers have relayed the same message. But the vast majority of them give that message under the influence of their religion. Their religion colors the message, in other words. However Tolle gives the message in the purest form a human can deliver it, with no coloring of any religion. It is a message that, for me at least, I needed and probably would not have been able to receive in any other way. The book found me, as strange as this may sound. I purchased it at a booksale, recognizing the author as a spiritual teacher. But someone here had warned me about him. So the book was boxed up. Forgotten for some length of time. Then something, not remembering what exactly, caused me to pull it out of the box and to read it. Maybe it sat on my shelf for some time first. Can't remember. But when I read it, that was the exact time, and I mean the exact, precise time, I needed it. This has only happened with a couple of books in my life so far. Whether or not this awareness of the present moment is a product of age or growing spirituality I can not say with any authority. I think this it is like a muscle of sorts that must be exercised, but you have to learn how to access it first. It is these instructions, allowing me to develop and flex this muscle, that Tolle has given to me through his books.

I am not so sure about this, and I am afraid I will have to disagree... Because it is not only young folk driving and talking while on their phone. And I am still young, at 39. Middle-aged really. While I can not be certain or prove it, I am fairly sure that my ability to "tune in" to what is happening right now has nothing to do with age. I think the older you get the more set in your ways you are. The more automatic things become, not less. My grandmother, at 90, is probably the least present minded person I know. If I compare how she talks and interacts with others to what I have seen of Tolle the difference is like night and day. Have you ever watched Tolle talking to people? It is as if he takes a few moments to consider everything he hears or says. I am sure there are older people out there who do that. But I doubt very highly it is a natural byproduct of aging. The mental grooves in the mind of older people are so much deeper. They can not help but play the same broken thought records again and again, skipping at the same places. Let's also not forget that if this thing called an ego exists, the only way you are ever going to free yourself of its influence is becoming aware of when you are acting from a place of ego. The only way to do that is to practice being aware and present-minded. It is the only way to observe yourself, what you do and say, and choose a response, rather than simply respond. No, I don't think what Tolle is talking about is any sort of natural state for any modern human being. Maybe some ascetic, Brahmin, enlightened being or monk. But for the vast majority of humanity, I think the tendency is towards more autopilot, not less. But as I am speaking without authority, I readily admit I could be wrong.

Never I claimed excellent grammatical skills to have them... From Google: Nunca he reclamado excelentes habilidades gramaticales tenerlos...

Well I guess you can test it out. It's very simple... Arm yourself with a pistol, baseball bat and knife. Now find your way to the local park where suspect people occasionally hang out. Or somewhere at the edges of your normal stomping ground that is a little run down. Enter the area with an attitude that you are going to hurt someone. That you are looking for a fight. That you are going to use the items you are carrying on someone. Knock your bat against the palm of your hand. See how long it takes until someone crosses your path in answer to your mental state. It is very simple... People who, at some level, expect to be bullied, or believe they deserve to be bullied, or think that everyone else is a bully, will get bullied. I had a friend in grade school. I was not popular, I hung out with him. Yet another boy always picked on him, even when I was standing right next to him. This boy would even get physical with him. But he completely ignored me, and I was just as scrawny and unpopular. The mere fact I hung out with this boy should have marked me. But I was left completely alone. If you look around you will see plenty of evidence that people get what they ask for, even if the request is just a state of mind, a way of thinking. Joker, the Riddler, Penguin and Two Face didn't show up until Batman. Lex Luther didn't show up until after superman crash landed. Every superhero creates their supervillain. Violence only breeds more violence. Hate only breeds more hate. Ghandi and Martin Luther King are right here, nodding their heads. Be with these thoughts. Test them. See for yourself if there is any pointing towards a truth here. Never take my work for anything...

Wandering off topic, but... As I understand Tolle, what he is saying is that, in general, humans just act without awareness. They aren't really there with whatever it is they are doing. You have seen this: People riving a car or walking down a street talking on their cell phone, paying no attention to anything going on in the world around them. You have experienced this: You get in your car to drive somewhere, usually some distance away on a familiar route, and finding yourself having arrived at your destination with little or no memory of what happened between when you departed and when you arrived. Humans in general just react, usually unconsciously. There is no awareness. It's like some knee-jerk reaction. I have observed this in myself. My mom does or says something that rubs me the wrong way, and I have my response, and I just respond, without thinking. It is only when I am present, putting my awareness in what arises when my mom says or does something that rubs me the wrong way, that I can catch myself and change my response. Tolle proved to be one of my most valuable teachers that time I was at my brother's, staying over. I have talked about this before on these forums. We do not usually get along. He does something and it just sets me off. It is almost as if I am helpless, carried along without choice. But this one time, I had been reading, "The Power of Now", I was tired, and getting breakfast ready, when my brother just blew up. Started throwing stuff around the room. Usually I would engage. Somehow I was able to just breathe, be aware, be present, completely focus on what I was doing, right then, in that moment, and I was able to calmly eat my breakfast as he was literally throwing stuff all around the room. I am not exaggerating here. A recliner and a softer were flipped and tossed, a bunch of stuff was thrown, including a glass in my general direction which shattered on a wall. I would just calmly get out of the way. I did not engage with my brother in any way. I just finished my food, fathered my stuff, and quietly left after calling my dad for a lift. It hurt me to be around him. I think maybe that was the first time I was hurt for him, rather than by him. That is the value in what Tolle teaches. Maybe I have the answers inside me somewhere. I have yet to prove this oft-taught message. But I didn't have them at that time. It took those words to affect the change in me that allowed me, in the applying of this knowledge, to handle the situation in the way I did. I can say with almost 100% certainty it would never have happened otherwise. My normal response would have been to engage. By being aware and present in the moment, I had the room needed to choose my response. OK, I am starting to wander here so I will leave it at that. Does that aid you in your understanding?

So, to paraphrase Tolle, you are advising me to "Be present." Makes sense. Certainly will give that hamster in his wheel up there a breather. So how am I right now, in this moment? Hmm...

Would I rather die a dreamer or live a jaded realist? Dream or nightmare? Which shall I choose... Is there really a monster under my bed? Is there really someone, or some group of someones, out to get me? Is the world for me or against me? Is my happiness in my hands, or the hands of others? Is everyone a potential enemy or a potential friend? Is life really worth living, or should I just give up, right now, because the cards are stacked against me, as they are against all others? Or shall I call the dealer's bluff, lay down my cards, take my losses or winnings, and move to another table? Or stop playing games entirely? So many questions... Can anyone be said to have the answers? For the record, I have not said anything against learning self-defense. I just decided that for me, carrying around a knife was like asking for trouble. But I would be right there with you, in a Krav Maga class, should I find one and the finances to pay for it. There is nothing wrong with preparation and self-defense training! But expecting trouble that you have to be prepared for or defend yourself against will certainly bring it!

Actually its bullets that kill people! So make guns legal and ban bullets!

Thank you everyone for your replies. Please note I am being purposefully vague here, for a variety of reasons. Some very good points about how I am thinking, the mindset I have adopted. So many people here telling me to go and get my head examined... What could it possibly mean? I will feel my way through what everyone has said here so far...