Welcome to this New Year.
This is often a time of reflection, a time of closure and a focus on new beginnings.
Often it is a time when we resolve to make ourselves better or happier in some way.
In this last Blessing for YOU ezine of the old year I want to suggest certain ways that will allow you to be more creative, more present and more at peace in this coming year.
The first resolution is that you promise not to divide yourself against yourself.
You promise not to judge yourself in any way.
You allow yourself to be as you are and your life situation to be as it is.
If you do judge yourself then you resolve to become aware if you judge yourself for judging yourself! In this way you become like a Russian Doll.
Inside you shrink.
Inside the heart shrinks.
See how long you can practice this loving kindness to yourself during this New Year.
Real change arises from awareness and insight.
Nothing really changes through judgement except increased division and the creation of a harder ego shell.
With a divided will you are like someone trying to increase the light (de light) in a room by turning down the dimmer switch.
Your New Years resolution might be to change what you call a bad habit.
You make it your intention by using will power to rid yourself of this so-called bad habit.
This is in one sense doing violence to you.
There is the one with the bad habit.
Then there is the one with the intention of overcoming by force of will the one who indulges in the habit that is judged bad.
The question then is, "Which one is the real you?"In this way you become what has been called in the Bible 'legion.
' When you use the will in this way you may well achieve a 'successful' outcome.
Usually, however, the root cause of the so-called bad habit remains and given enough stress in your life situation the bad habit will return.
Resolve to create some space in your life.
This is space for the arising of Love.
This Love that arises is not what has been called 'shopkeeper's love.
' This kind of love is ego-based.
It arises from our sense of feeling separate and is the result of being solely identified with our mind, body, emotions and memory that we call our personality.
The 'shopkeeper's love' gives love in exchange for something.
It gives to friends, family or others of like mind provided that they meet certain of our needs for companionship, security or belonging.
When our needs are not met then we quickly go shopping for love elsewhere.
This love of 'me' or 'mine' then often turns into jealousy, resentment, anger and sometimes hatred.
This New Year give yourself some real space.
Giving yourself space is a great kindness.
This is not merely physical space but deep internal space that gives freedom and allows for creation anew and for a sense of heightened energy.
This sense of space creates a gap that in the Zen tradition is called 'no mind.
'This space allows Love to arise in this world of form.
This is not the 'shopkeeper's love,' which seeks the best bargain.
This is Love that seeks no return for itself because it is in no sense separate.
It is Love that rains on the just and unjust.
It is not the love of 'little me.
' Where ego is involved love does not really flourish.
Do not be afraid of the idea of no mind.
No mind is not an idea.
It is the most intense and alive experience because it is pure experience.
Within the experience of no mind there are no opposites and divisions of thought.
There is no ego to be divided against itself.
What is this thing called Ego? I call it the Ever Grasping One.
It is that in each of us, which grasps experience in all its forms and calls it 'mine.
' It can be described as the total collection of thoughts, emotions, memories and experience that when gathered together forms what we then call 'me' or 'I.
' It is what we call personality, which means 'the mask.
' It is the role we play in the world and how people recognise who we think we are.
All religious teachings have one thing in common.
They all tell us that when we are solely identified with this collection of thoughts, this often frozen life force of emotions and past experiences called memory, then Love cannot be.
Of course, most all of us do not wish to give up our sense of persona that we consider to be our true self.
Most of us cannot imagine what it would be like to be in the world without our personality and without the psychological mask we don in order to face the world.
We ask, "Who would I be if not 'my' personality, thoughts or emotions?" We think that we would appear as nobody and as a nothing.
Better, we think, to go and engage with practices of self-improvement.
Better, we think to engage in learning to become a better person.
This learning only serves to change the mask but does not reveal who you are beyond the mask.
It can only really help one to learn to be more comfortable in the world of shopkeepers love.
At least for a time it makes one feel more attractive and less of a beggar for love in the world of form.
Those who know who they are and their true relationship to life still have thoughts, still have feelings and have memory.
They still have a personality.
Usually it is the vibrant, unpredictable dance of forever becoming anew.
The difference is that these people see beyond the mask.
Those who know who they are are a presence that is alive and new in each moment.
They are the river of life as it expresses uniquely through them.
A mask is not needed for this river to flow.
A mask only serves to get in the way.
This is the meaning of the Zen saying, "The river flows and the grass grows by itself.
" Experience as life simply is.
There is no requirement for it to be 'my' experience.
Such individuals, and they truly are individual, are neither really interested nor not interested in self-improvement.
They are the knowing of Love that recognises life as life cannot be improved upon.
This is not to say that one's life situation cannot be improved.
Only if you do not know the no-mind, the still point within, out of which all arises you can be living a life of luxury and still be a beggar.
You will still be a bargain hunter, a seeker after shopkeeper love, which is always conditional and subject to end within the limitation of time.
This New Year begin to create space that will give you a glimpse of what it means to be Love.
This is not the same as being in love.
To be Love is not even to be loved.
To be love is to know that beyond all things such as thoughts, feelings and memories that you are eternal.
It is to know that you are created in the image of Love.
There is no duality in this.
There is no one who is a subject being loved by an object.
There is only the being one.
When this is known - not simply believed in - then you will no longer be a beggar for Love.
Then you will not go shopping for something you think is missing.
You will be a multi-dimensional being who needs or wants for nothing because they are one with everything.
To enter the state of no mind is to enter the experience of Being.
This is the state, which is beyond time and out of which Love arises.
No mind is not a state where everything ceases to be.
It is not mindless.
It is an intense awareness and intense sense of being in the moment, an intense experience of this timeless now.
In Irish mythology this place is given the name Tir Na Nog - the land of the forever young.
It is from this no mind; this timeless placeless place of the forever now, that all that is new arises and gives rise to a sense of wonder.
It is from the stillness of no mind that deep peace is known not as the absence of conflict but peace beyond opposites.
This is the peace of God, which is to say the peace of Love.
Entry into no mind is through the simple but profound practice of silent witnessing.
You do not judge yourself as you simply witness thoughts arise, feelings arise like bubbles arising from a deep lake, but they are not the lake.
You are the lake.
You are that into which thought and emotions arise.
When you watch without judgement you are transmuting the straw of conditional acceptance into gold of unconditional Love.
You are bringing light into your world and into the world.
The darkness of non-acceptance is not overcome by wilfulness but by allowing it to be as it is.
This allowing it to be is not a licence for uncontrolled emotionality.
You allow the miracle of healing contained in one of the greatest and most misunderstood teaching of Jesus which is, "Resist not Evil.
" Then you can begin to know what it is to be in Love with who you are beyond judging yourself as unacceptable in any way.
Out of this arising of Love there is no requirement to make yourself a better person.
This is only tinkering at the edges with the mask that is ultimately not the real you.
Out of this arising of Love will be the enoughness of who you truly are beyond ego identification.
You will see beyond the Ever Grasping One.
You will know how to live in the new that is paradoxically forever changing within that which is forever changeless.
Let this New Years resolution be to simply be.
Let this be your intention so that you can be forever now and forever young.
Let this be your intention without forcing, without judgement, without wilfulness.
Let this be your intention with kindness and with self-caring.
Let your revolve be a flow rather than a fight.
Become the witness of your real life beyond all that arises within your fragile life situation.
Do not divide yourself in anyway.
Do not become legion but become the Blessing that you already are - the Blessing of Love.
Happy New Year.
© 2006 Tony Cuckson
This is often a time of reflection, a time of closure and a focus on new beginnings.
Often it is a time when we resolve to make ourselves better or happier in some way.
In this last Blessing for YOU ezine of the old year I want to suggest certain ways that will allow you to be more creative, more present and more at peace in this coming year.
The first resolution is that you promise not to divide yourself against yourself.
You promise not to judge yourself in any way.
You allow yourself to be as you are and your life situation to be as it is.
If you do judge yourself then you resolve to become aware if you judge yourself for judging yourself! In this way you become like a Russian Doll.
Inside you shrink.
Inside the heart shrinks.
See how long you can practice this loving kindness to yourself during this New Year.
Real change arises from awareness and insight.
Nothing really changes through judgement except increased division and the creation of a harder ego shell.
With a divided will you are like someone trying to increase the light (de light) in a room by turning down the dimmer switch.
Your New Years resolution might be to change what you call a bad habit.
You make it your intention by using will power to rid yourself of this so-called bad habit.
This is in one sense doing violence to you.
There is the one with the bad habit.
Then there is the one with the intention of overcoming by force of will the one who indulges in the habit that is judged bad.
The question then is, "Which one is the real you?"In this way you become what has been called in the Bible 'legion.
' When you use the will in this way you may well achieve a 'successful' outcome.
Usually, however, the root cause of the so-called bad habit remains and given enough stress in your life situation the bad habit will return.
Resolve to create some space in your life.
This is space for the arising of Love.
This Love that arises is not what has been called 'shopkeeper's love.
' This kind of love is ego-based.
It arises from our sense of feeling separate and is the result of being solely identified with our mind, body, emotions and memory that we call our personality.
The 'shopkeeper's love' gives love in exchange for something.
It gives to friends, family or others of like mind provided that they meet certain of our needs for companionship, security or belonging.
When our needs are not met then we quickly go shopping for love elsewhere.
This love of 'me' or 'mine' then often turns into jealousy, resentment, anger and sometimes hatred.
This New Year give yourself some real space.
Giving yourself space is a great kindness.
This is not merely physical space but deep internal space that gives freedom and allows for creation anew and for a sense of heightened energy.
This sense of space creates a gap that in the Zen tradition is called 'no mind.
'This space allows Love to arise in this world of form.
This is not the 'shopkeeper's love,' which seeks the best bargain.
This is Love that seeks no return for itself because it is in no sense separate.
It is Love that rains on the just and unjust.
It is not the love of 'little me.
' Where ego is involved love does not really flourish.
Do not be afraid of the idea of no mind.
No mind is not an idea.
It is the most intense and alive experience because it is pure experience.
Within the experience of no mind there are no opposites and divisions of thought.
There is no ego to be divided against itself.
What is this thing called Ego? I call it the Ever Grasping One.
It is that in each of us, which grasps experience in all its forms and calls it 'mine.
' It can be described as the total collection of thoughts, emotions, memories and experience that when gathered together forms what we then call 'me' or 'I.
' It is what we call personality, which means 'the mask.
' It is the role we play in the world and how people recognise who we think we are.
All religious teachings have one thing in common.
They all tell us that when we are solely identified with this collection of thoughts, this often frozen life force of emotions and past experiences called memory, then Love cannot be.
Of course, most all of us do not wish to give up our sense of persona that we consider to be our true self.
Most of us cannot imagine what it would be like to be in the world without our personality and without the psychological mask we don in order to face the world.
We ask, "Who would I be if not 'my' personality, thoughts or emotions?" We think that we would appear as nobody and as a nothing.
Better, we think, to go and engage with practices of self-improvement.
Better, we think to engage in learning to become a better person.
This learning only serves to change the mask but does not reveal who you are beyond the mask.
It can only really help one to learn to be more comfortable in the world of shopkeepers love.
At least for a time it makes one feel more attractive and less of a beggar for love in the world of form.
Those who know who they are and their true relationship to life still have thoughts, still have feelings and have memory.
They still have a personality.
Usually it is the vibrant, unpredictable dance of forever becoming anew.
The difference is that these people see beyond the mask.
Those who know who they are are a presence that is alive and new in each moment.
They are the river of life as it expresses uniquely through them.
A mask is not needed for this river to flow.
A mask only serves to get in the way.
This is the meaning of the Zen saying, "The river flows and the grass grows by itself.
" Experience as life simply is.
There is no requirement for it to be 'my' experience.
Such individuals, and they truly are individual, are neither really interested nor not interested in self-improvement.
They are the knowing of Love that recognises life as life cannot be improved upon.
This is not to say that one's life situation cannot be improved.
Only if you do not know the no-mind, the still point within, out of which all arises you can be living a life of luxury and still be a beggar.
You will still be a bargain hunter, a seeker after shopkeeper love, which is always conditional and subject to end within the limitation of time.
This New Year begin to create space that will give you a glimpse of what it means to be Love.
This is not the same as being in love.
To be Love is not even to be loved.
To be love is to know that beyond all things such as thoughts, feelings and memories that you are eternal.
It is to know that you are created in the image of Love.
There is no duality in this.
There is no one who is a subject being loved by an object.
There is only the being one.
When this is known - not simply believed in - then you will no longer be a beggar for Love.
Then you will not go shopping for something you think is missing.
You will be a multi-dimensional being who needs or wants for nothing because they are one with everything.
To enter the state of no mind is to enter the experience of Being.
This is the state, which is beyond time and out of which Love arises.
No mind is not a state where everything ceases to be.
It is not mindless.
It is an intense awareness and intense sense of being in the moment, an intense experience of this timeless now.
In Irish mythology this place is given the name Tir Na Nog - the land of the forever young.
It is from this no mind; this timeless placeless place of the forever now, that all that is new arises and gives rise to a sense of wonder.
It is from the stillness of no mind that deep peace is known not as the absence of conflict but peace beyond opposites.
This is the peace of God, which is to say the peace of Love.
Entry into no mind is through the simple but profound practice of silent witnessing.
You do not judge yourself as you simply witness thoughts arise, feelings arise like bubbles arising from a deep lake, but they are not the lake.
You are the lake.
You are that into which thought and emotions arise.
When you watch without judgement you are transmuting the straw of conditional acceptance into gold of unconditional Love.
You are bringing light into your world and into the world.
The darkness of non-acceptance is not overcome by wilfulness but by allowing it to be as it is.
This allowing it to be is not a licence for uncontrolled emotionality.
You allow the miracle of healing contained in one of the greatest and most misunderstood teaching of Jesus which is, "Resist not Evil.
" Then you can begin to know what it is to be in Love with who you are beyond judging yourself as unacceptable in any way.
Out of this arising of Love there is no requirement to make yourself a better person.
This is only tinkering at the edges with the mask that is ultimately not the real you.
Out of this arising of Love will be the enoughness of who you truly are beyond ego identification.
You will see beyond the Ever Grasping One.
You will know how to live in the new that is paradoxically forever changing within that which is forever changeless.
Let this New Years resolution be to simply be.
Let this be your intention so that you can be forever now and forever young.
Let this be your intention without forcing, without judgement, without wilfulness.
Let this be your intention with kindness and with self-caring.
Let your revolve be a flow rather than a fight.
Become the witness of your real life beyond all that arises within your fragile life situation.
Do not divide yourself in anyway.
Do not become legion but become the Blessing that you already are - the Blessing of Love.
Happy New Year.
© 2006 Tony Cuckson