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The Ego: An Illusion Pretending to Be Real
By Paul Lenda
Guest Writer for Wake Up World
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Although Rousseau was mainly referring to human society as a whole, even 250 years ago he understood that humanity can upgrade itself and live in a golden age by returning to nature and living a balanced life at peace with ourselves and each other. It’s almost hard to believe that, as a result of the ego (something that isn’t even fundamentally real), we can come to a point in our timeline where there is a probable possibility of species self-annihilation, whether by accident or by focused intention by the the most megalomaniacal of minds within our human collective. It’s is a very dangerous way to live and leaves the uncertainty of a bright future, if a future at all, at unsettling heights.
It’s time to finally come to terms with how big of a role the human ego plays in all the social and political issues we see all around us and that affect our daily lives. Putting band-aids on the symptoms will not cure the very deep causes of those symptoms.
Thanks to some wonderful luminaries of humanity, we can upgrade our understanding of what ego is from the rather simplistic Freudian view to a model that allows for more complexity. After all, the universe/multiverse as we understand it, is infinite in nature. Within this infinite reality time is irrelevant… the creation of a highly complex non-entity structure-process that has an illusion-generating nature is not an impossibility. The growth, metamorphosis, and transformation of the energy of Infinity can concoct aspects of Reality (algae, poetry, entheogens, lacrosse, etc.), one of them being of such a high level of sophistication that it has influenced the sentient life cycles of entire species like the human race.
Yes, rather than being an actual entity, the ego is a structure-process that has an illusion-generating nature…something that has been backed by not only thousands of years of personal and direct experiences & eastern philosophies, but also by the study of the nature of Reality and its various aspects through quantum physics and other forward-thinking sciences. Having the understanding of what the ego is in this expanded view can help us understand that whenever the ego exists, we exist in a state of confused perception thanks to the generated illusions it creates. This is why activities such as meditation are helpful in the minimization of the ego’s influence over our lives.
Understanding the Illusion
The powerful emotions of anger, fear, envy, and others can be seen as if they were mechanically following tiny signals…as if there was a switch that was pressed. The illusion is that we are seeing something that is an actual experience within an objective reality. However, the fact is that it is mostly a replay of past experience that is modified a little to fit present circumstances. This replay is recorded again in order to add to the previous memory, which ingrains things even deeper, leading us to have a greater conviction in its real-ness.
The more we experience in this way, the deeper we get stuck in the illusion. This entire time, we stay in a state of confusion where we think that we are basing our actions on experience itself. The delusional ego has made us prisoners of something that isn’t even real.
Take a look at how prevalent this is in older individuals. The older a person gets, the more ‘experienced’ he or she is in this illusion that has essentially entrained the brain to think a certain way. The older a person is, the more sure he or she is that they “know” what they’re doing, making it very difficult for them to think differently or delineate from the path the illusion has trained them to go down. The essence of such a person’s life is now made up of a series of illusions.
Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your own life and not have it controlled by something that isn’t even intrinsically real in the first place? You can and you will…if you can over come the great obstacle of fear. This incredibly powerful tool of the ego is a reflex that is set in movement when something that’s identified as very necessary is seen as being threatened. This reflex of fear causes a person to find every possible way of protecting what is felt as being necessary, or it failing this, to create illusions of escape from the approaching danger. In the strong words of physicist David Bohm, “fear confuses, corrodes, and corrupts the mind.”
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Tai Chi Practice is the most powerful art of individuation. Tai Chi is at the backdrop or at the root of innumerable meditative, martial, medicinal, and mystical arts. There are also several ideas in modern monoculture that propose diluted or impractical versions of Tai Chi, and of course many similar such that develop and build on Tai Chi principals and practices as well.
Of all of the adopted Tai Chi principals and practices of systems which parallel Tai Chi without the proper root or backdrop the most commonly accepted and commonly applied idea is called a manifestation technique of some sort of law of attraction practice. The idea is essentially that we can change the status of reality by changing the status of our mind, our mental perception. The idea is normally unrooted in grounded practice and often unrelated to practices and principals that involve the body.
Tai Chi is a mental and physical practice that involves the input of dexterity that enhances our awareness, it requires softness that refines our observations, concentration that enables our patience, and physical movement that changes the status of our mind -via our body. Such refinement enables a change in our mental perception during practice and as a result of practicing.
The manifestation techniques have transformed into and run parallel with quantum mechanics understandings, and perhaps some misunderstandings as well, to unite in ideas related to quantum manifestation techniques. The ideas propose that we can change things on timeless and spaceless levels in order to engage the energy of our manifestation.
Tai Chi principals and practices absolutely employ the same processes as quantum manifestation, or similar, however Tai Chi operates via more primal activation although perhaps in more refined mannerisms. Tai Chi employs quantum change through body and mind integration, concentration, connection, and circulation. Tai Chi directly works via an understanding and embodying of principles and practices in refined repetition so as to cause change within out mitochondria, our cells, our blood, our muscles our organs and our entire thought pattern throughout our entire system.
Tai Chi practice enables the change of small particles and energies in our own body in order to enable causation of small change outside of our own body, to potentially enable change in manners equivalent to the energy we are aligned with; quantum manifestation.
The more in line with the Tao your motivations for change are, the more the universal Tao will align with your motivations for change and quantum change is a possibility. The more integrated the body the more powerful the mind and the more powerful the domino effect of change is.
With Tai Chi practice we can refine our ability to change ourselves and influence outside ourselves albeit at first in small ways that cascade into greater potentials. What you want may not be the same being in alignment with Tao, but what you want will be more easily accessed being in alignment with Tao.
The Tai Chi Pill offers principals and practices to enable your individuation via quantum transformative change. The Tai Chi Pill enhances change. Change begins with the microscopic, and then as a tiny drip, then as powerful flow. Tai Chi, in all its subtlety, is transformative. Tai Chi is an internal art that produces shifts in tiny flutters that has wonderous results. Like The Butterfly Effect, Tai Chi produces great shifts with tiny movements.
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How to Practice Mindful Self-Compassion
6 Life-Changing Steps
September 14th, 2021
Guest writer for Wake Up World
Imagine you are in a theater watching a movie. It’s a suspense thriller. You have attached emotionally to the main character. You have seen the struggles the character has been through. You identify with her story. You are on the edge of your seat, waiting desperately to see how it all ends — to see the grand finale when everyone lives happily ever after.
When the movie ends, you know it is not real and that it never was. You are able to walk away, liberated from attachment to the movie.
The personal story of ‘me’ is much like a movie.
~ Scott Kiloby
Our lives are much like movies and we are the unknowing participants sitting in that theater. Throughout our days we become so involved in this movie that we forget that we’re just witnesses.
Memories, reenactments of past experiences, mental chatter, triggered emotions, beliefs, presumptions, judgments and future worries constantly play through our mind. And among all of this clutter, we cling to a story of us; of how bad, stupid, selfish, ugly, lost or messed up we are.
This constant stream within us is so subtle and elusive that we aren’t usually aware of it. Most of the time, this storyline stream is just below our consciousness, and because of that, we mindlessly carry out its bidding.
No wonder we feel so imbalanced, insecure and depressed! We have become so automatically attached to this dramatic story of ourselves that we forget that we are the unchanging observer — the eternal consciousness — behind this volatile stream.
Every story we have about ourselves has a beginning, a middle and an end. And in our lives, we identify ourselves with multiple stories — sometimes destructive, sometimes lofty and majestic. But they are all stories just the same.
Sometimes we get so heavily invested in these volatile stories that we create habits of pain, self-loathing and chaos in our lives.
This is where the practice of mindful self-compassion comes in. And I want to teach you it today.
How to Practice Mindful Self-Compassion
Mindful self-compassion is about learning how to be awake. Being awake is about recognizing that you are not your inner volatile stream of thoughts, emotions and sensations. Like clouds passing through the sky, these things come and go. But they are not you.
Whenever you have a judgemental or self-hating thought, it is actually possible to hold that thought in conscious awareness, allowing it to pass without believing it to be “you.”
But before you try to surrender these distressing feelings, you need to learn the practice of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is about becoming aware of the present moment, and it goes hand-in-hand with self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is the process of examining your inner story.
One of the best ways to start practicing mindful self-compassion is to dissect your self-beliefs. Why not take a moment now to inspect your story?
Ask yourself:
What does it look like written down?
When did it begin?
What core beliefs does it involve (e.g. “I feel unwanted,” “I am not good enough”)?
What things trigger you to repeat this story in your head (e.g. being alone at night, fighting with your partner)?
What “proof” is there that this story is real? Can you absolutely know that this proof is real?
How does your story influence your actions?
What would your life look like without this story?
Mindful self-compassion is an everyday practice that requires persistence and patience. Uprooting old, and sometimes deeply ingrained, habits of mind doesn’t just take a leisurely stroll in the park. So expect to put in time and effort. But if you persist with this practice, it could be the best decision you’ve ever made.
Mindful self-compassion involves the following steps:
1. Practice Mindfulness
Practice mindfulness every day. I recommend doing this through a meditation practice in the morning. This practice could be either a passive or active meditation. Start with 15 minutes, or if you can, ideally 45 minutes. When we really want something, we make time, even if life seems too busy. When there is a will, there is a way. If you struggle with mindfulness meditation at first, you might like to read up on the topic. Otherwise, here is some guidance:
Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight. Think of your body as a majestic mountain. Then, settle into your breath. Notice the cold sensation as it comes in your nostrils, and warmth as it goes out of your mouth. You can also focus on external sounds or other physical parts of your body.
Thoughts, sensations, memories and feelings will arise and pull you away at first, but you must draw yourself back towards that breath, becoming aware of them. For the first few weeks, or even months, this will be a difficult task. We are so used to becoming swept up in our mental chatter that it’s almost second-nature.
You can use imagery to connect with that conscious, unmoving, eternal essence within you. I like to use the image of a large ravine, that I must voyage down into in order to find that still ocean at the bottom. Others like to consciously “take a step back” and adopt the role of an observer. Still, others like to “peel back” their thoughts to become acquainted with that stillness inside.
Continue mindfulness practice each day. Make adjustments as you see fit. Some practices may aid you while others may inhibit you, so experiment with what works for you.
2. Notice External Triggers
Become aware of the triggers that cause your story to automatically arise. For example, triggers I have discovered in my own life include shopping centers, certain scenes in TV shows, busyness, the night time, prolonged eye contact, and even social media sites like Facebook. The point here is to not avoid these triggers, but to become aware of them. This will help you to become more conscious of any automated thoughts or feelings you have in the future.
3. Notice Uncomfortable Feelings and Sensations
Become aware of the feelings associated with your story. These feelings are both emotional and also sensory-based. For example, common feelings in the body involve stiff muscles, clenched jaws, biting nails, hot flushes, chills, increased heart beat, numbness, sweating, dizziness, etc. Common emotions involve shame, guilt, grief, anger, embarrassment, rejection and anxiety. Becoming aware of your triggers takes a lot of practice. Often I uncover a string of triggers involved in my storylines.
4. Face What You Are Avoiding
Consciously allow yourself to feel the mental, emotional and physical triggers that arise during your day. Notice your tendency to run away from them, dramatize them or distract yourself from them. Accept this tendency and show yourself compassion. Allow yourself to open up to whatever you feel. Notice how temporary the thought or feeling is. Allow it to pass in and out of consciousness.
5. Become Your Own Best Friend
Ask yourself, “How would I treat myself if I was my own best friend?” Reflect on the way you treat yourself when your story is dominating your mind. Are you cold-hearted, critical and ruthless? Would you treat a friend like that? It’s OK, we’re all like that sometimes. Allow yourself to forgive these tendencies and replace them with gentleness, kindness and tolerance — as you would with a good friend.
6. Acknowledge the Shared Humanity
When your story takes hold, allow yourself to acknowledge the shared humanity of these feelings. You are not alone in your feelings — how could you be? And yet your story would convince you otherwise and keep you feeling isolated. You can counteract this feeling of being alone in your suffering with a powerful phrase or mantra such as:
This is a moment of suffering. I will let it pass.
I unconditionally accept myself in this moment.
May I be kind to myself right now?
***
Very few of us take the time to actively explore and observe our inner storylines. But when truly examined, our thoughts and feelings are seen for what they are: temporary, changeable and passing. They are not truly “us” no matter what we tell ourselves, or what others make us believe.
Mindful self-compassion is so dynamic because it combines two of the most powerful practices out there: mindfulness and self-love.
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Are You Committed To Your Soul’s Integrity?
Guest Writer for Wake Up World
As part of my job, I am frequently asked to endorse books, products, and programs that might sell better if I give them my stamp of approval. I’m also asked to decide whether to get involved in media that will draw attention to what I’m selling in my own business. It would be so easy to just say “Yes” to everything. It would please others and gain me approval. Doing so would sell more books and attract more attention to the programs I lead (like my latest program for health care providers).
I used to indiscriminately endorse every book I was asked to endorse by author friends, until one reader accused me of what she called “bloggie incest”, claiming that I automatically endorsed all the books written by everyone in my little blog cliqué. I was guilty as charged. This reader told me she no longer trusted my endorsement because I didn’t seem to be picking the books I endorsed with discernment. I was just agreeing to support my friends. What she said needled me right in the gut and made me think twice about endorsing even well-intentioned books that feed the ego more than they feed the soul. I know my readers trust what I recommend, and I want my endorsement to actually mean something.
I also had to rethink my strategy for spreading the word about my message…
Sure, I could say yes to every famous person who promises to help me broadcast my message. Surely, it’s okay to sell out just a little if it means more people will hear the life-affirming message of my work, right? So what if some radio and television personalities can be offensive and use fear-based tactics for boosting ratings? If they get more spirit-lifting books in the hands of those who can benefit from them, isn’t it worth getting interviewed anyway?
After the spiritual awakening glimpse I experienced earlier this year (which I wrote about here), my soul gave me a lashing, and it’s as if I suddenly wasn’t allowed to ‘sell out’ anymore. It’s as if I used to be able to get up to about 30% out of alignment with my soul, and I could still get away with it. Now – if I’m 3% off center, I get the Cosmic Bitch Slap! This has required me to make some very uncomfortable decisions.
Does The Universe Test Your Soul’s Integrity?
You can probably relate.
Every day, you are probably asked to do something that requires you to betray your soul’s integrity. Maybe you’re in medicine and you’re asked to see 40 patients a day when you know that, to be a true healer, you need much more time. Maybe you’re in advertising and you’re asked to try to sell a product you don’t fully support. Maybe you’re a teacher and you’re not allowed to hug the child you know just needs to be held. Maybe you’re a lawyer asked to defend the client with the most money, rather than defending what’s fair. Maybe you’re the politician who got into politics to be the voice for the people, only now you’ve sold out to special interests because you can’t help the small people unless you get re-elected.
Maybe it’s not even about a job. Maybe you didn’t speak your truth when someone was excluded from your social group, even though her heart is pure. Maybe you skipped your child’s play because of the volunteer position that expected you to speak at the meeting, when you just wanted to cheer on your kid. Maybe you didn’t speak up on the church committee when they started talking about why they don’t want a gay preacher. Maybe you said yes when your soul begged you to say NO. Maybe you didn’t speak up for your own needs when you were asked to sacrifice your own self care for your family.
Every day, your soul’s integrity is tested, and every day, YOU HAVE A CHOICE.
Why You Sell Yourself Out
Your ego will make an argument for why you have to sell out. It will rationalize that you need security, safety, certainty, acceptance, and a paycheck. It will speak in the voice of your greatest fears, threatening you with loss of status, money, or approval unless you compromise what your soul knows. Sure, betraying your soul in this way gains you security and popularity, but at what price?
When you sell out your soul day after day, even if the sell outs are subtle and you’re barely aware of what you’re doing, the voice of your soul (I call it Your Inner Pilot Light) grows dim. It’s harder to hear this voice when you haven’t cultivated a personal relationship with this part of you. Every time you betray the truth of your soul, you split from your true self, and every time you do this, a little piece of you withers away, taking it with it your health and vitality.
I Know It’s Hard
Abiding by your soul’s integrity is hard. It won’t necessarily make you popular or put you next in line for that promotion. Such a commitment is not for the faint of heart. You’ll be asked to do scary things. You’ll be asked to say “NO”- a LOT. People you love may not support you. You become unpredictable, because you’re not ruled by the fears that people use to control one another, and this unpredictability makes some people wary. You may start to trigger others, especially the ones who have rationalized why they’re selling out their own souls every day. You become a mirror those who sell out can’t stand to look in.
You may have to turn down opportunities to make good money you could really use. You may feel helpless to align with your soul’s integrity because you’re embroiled in a system that leaves you feeling helpless- like medicine, education, corporate America, banking, publishing, or politics. You may feel like you don’t really have a choice…
It’s Worth The Sacrifices
But something magical happens when you commit to aligning with your soul 100% of the time. The others who long to live in alignment with their own souls will flock to you. Your true friends will resonate with you because your vibration changes. People who are finally ready to align with their own souls come out of the woodwork and join hands with you, filling in the vacancies that tend to appear when you lose those who aren’t so happy with how you’re making decisions in your life.
The good news is that, as a sort of thank you for aligning, your soul will magnetize into your life true joy, unconditional love, a sense of connection with the Divine, professional vitality, and physical health. Don’t be surprised if miracles start happening.
It’s almost as if, when this happens, the Cosmic Forces cheer, “We’ve got one!” and take you over, since you are now taking orders from the soul, rather than the ego.
It requires courage. You’ll be asked to do hard things. You may lose friends. You may even lose your job.
But what you’ll gain…it’s PRICELESS.
Are You Willing To Commit To Your Soul’s Integrity?
Once you decide to abide by the soul’s integrity, it’s easy to let the ego grab onto this new reason to inflate itself and judge others. But that’s not the point. This kind of decision doesn’t make one person superior and another inferior. It’s a personal decision- one you must make for yourself. We’re all on our own paths, doing the best we can. We have no right to judge whether others are aligning with their soul’s integrity. This is not why I wrote this blog post.
The reason I’m sharing this is because I’m inviting you to join me in making such a commitment for yourself- if you’re ready. In case you think I’ve got this all figured out, trust me. I don’t. I get confused. I get tempted. I still screw up. It’s a process and a practice, and when I veer off course, I comfort myself with the story of the Concorde, which you can read about here.
Are you willing to go outside your comfort zone to stand for what is true for you? Do you know your soul well enough to know when you’re compromising your soul’s integrity? Are you willing to let your soul take the driver’s seat in your decision making?
Committed to your soul growth,
Updated August 2014
Plants Are Far More Intelligent Than We Assumed
By April McCarthy
Guest Writer for Wake Up World
Like higher organisms, plants appear able to make complex decisions. A new study shows that plants may be able to initiate a survival mechanism by aborting their own seeds to prevent parasite infestation.
Plants have previously been shown to draw alternative sources of energy from other plants. Plants influence each other in many ways and they communicate through “nanomechanical oscillations” vibrations on the tiniest atomic or molecular scale or as close as you can get to telepathic communication.
Plants exhibit intelligence with an intrinsic ability to process information from several type of stimuli that allows optimal decisions about future activities in a given environment.
Stefano Mancuso from the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology at the University of Florence, Italy, and his colleagues are starting to apply rigorous standards to study plant hearing (Trends in Plant Sciences, vol17, p323). Their preliminary results indicate that corn roots grow towards specific frequencies of vibrations. What is even more surprising is their finding that roots themselves may also be emitting sound waves. For now, though, we have no idea how a plant might produce sound signals let alone how they might detect them.
Scientists from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Gottingen have now shown from their investigations on Barberry (Berberis vulgaris), that it is is able to abort its own seeds to prevent parasite infestation.
The results, as reported in a news release, are the first ecological evidence of complex behaviour in plants. They indicate that this species has a structural memory, is able to differentiate between inner and outer conditions as well as anticipate future risks, scientists write in the renowned journal American Naturalist — the premier peer-reviewed American journal for theoretical ecology.
The European barberry or simply Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) is a species of shrub distributed throughout Europe. It is related to the Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) that is native to North America and that has been spreading through Europe for years. Scientists compared both species to find a marked difference in parasite infestation: “a highly specialized species of tephritid fruit fly, whose larvae actually feed on the seeds of the native Barberry, was found to have a tenfold higher population density on its new host plant, the Oregon grape”, reports Dr. Harald Auge, a biologist at the UFZ.
This led scientists to examine the seeds of the Barberry more closely. Approximately 2000 berries were collected from different regions of Germany, examined for signs of piercing and then cut open to examine any infestation by the larvae of the tephritid fruit fly (Rhagoletis meigenii). This parasite punctures the berries in order to lay its eggs inside them. If the larva is able to develop, it will often feed on all of the seeds in the berry. A special characteristic of the Barberry is that each berry usually has two seeds and that the plant is able to stop the development of its seeds in order to save its resources. This mechanism is also employed to defend it from the tephritid fruit fly. If a seed is infested with the parasite, later on the developing larva will feed on both seeds. If however the plant aborts the infested seed, then the parasite in that seed will also die and the second seed in the berry is saved.
When analysing the seeds, the scientists came across a surprising discovery: “the seeds of the infested fruits are not always aborted, but rather it depends on how many seeds there are in the berries”, explains Dr. Katrin M. Meyer, who analysed the data at the UFZ and currently works at the University of Goettingen. If the infested fruit contains two seeds, then in 75 per cent of cases, the plants will abort the infested seeds, in order to save the second intact seed. If however the infested fruit only contains one seed, then the plant will only abort the infested seed in 5 per cent of cases. The data from fieldwork were put into a computer model which resulted in a conclusive picture. Using computer model calculations, scientists were able to demonstrate how those plants subjected to stress from parasite infestation reacted very differently from those without stress. “If the Barberry aborts a fruit with only one infested seed, then the entire fruit would be lost. Instead it appears to ‘speculate’ that the larva could die naturally, which is a possibility. Slight chances are better than none at all”, explains Dr. Hans-Hermann Thulke from the UFZ. “This anticipative behaviour, whereby anticipated losses and outer conditions are weighed up, very much surprised us. The message of our study is therefore that plant intelligence is entering the realms of ecological possibility.”
But how does the Barberry know what is in store for it after the tephritid fruit fly has punctured a berry? It is still unclear as to how the plant processes information and how this complex behaviour was able to develop over the course of its evolution. The Oregon grape that is closely related to the Barberry has been living in Europe for some 200 years with the risk of being infested by the tephritid fruit fly and yet it has not developed any such comparable defence strategy. These new insights shed some light on the underestimated abilities of plants, while at the same time bringing up many new questions.
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