Think about it. What would it be like for you to not defend yourself,
or blame anyone else, or try to justify your actions? What would
it be like to say "Yes, it is my fault." It is often a very powerful
experience for whoever has Tengo la Culpa for the week. It shifts
the energy in relationships of all kinds. It challenges the structure
of the Personal Dream.
Most conflict arises when one person's dream is different than
another person's, and both people think their dream is "right."
In order to remain right, they must prove the other person is
wrong. We see this effect in wars, gang fights, legal disputes,
and relationships all the time. "For me to be right, you have
to be wrong."
Tengo la Culpa says "You are right. It is my fault." Conflict
ends. Resistance ends. Arguing ends. It works in the inner world,
too. If your inner Judge makes you wrong for something you said
or did, try saying "you are right." No defense. Tengo la Culpa.
Being right is highly over-rated. "Tengo la Culpa" can be a potent
act of power for the Spiritual Warrior.
Give it a try. I am interested in hearing about your experience.
Return
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Love comes in many forms. We use the word for everything from
"I love you" to "I love my new car / chocolate chip cookie ice
cream / this weather / your outfit / peace." The thing that these
uses of "love" have in common is that they imply some bargain
made or some value received. "I (will) love you (if)..." Or, "I
love (the pleasure I receive from) ice cream."
There is another kind of love, of course. It is the love that
asks nothing in return, the love that creates no obligation, carries
no conditions, and has no expectations. In fact, this kind of
love does not even require an object to love... this is the love
coming out of us, the experience of love and acceptance in us.
It is our nature. We could then simply say "I love." Or, "I am
love." Or, just: "I AM."
To experience the love of "I AM" is to be at one with the Divine
Presence that is in and through all of creation. It is the source
of the true Happiness of the Spiritual Warrior.
I returned last week from two weeks in Teotihuacan and Oaxaca,
Mexico, with don Miguel Ruiz. His focus on that journey was our
experience of "I AM." Actually, his focus on our journey together
for all of the years we have worked with him has been to bring
us to this place of the individual experience of the I AM. His
dream is now being realized, both in the Toltec Community, and
with other teachers and groups around the world. Return
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I have just returned from Honduras and Guatemala with Miguel Ruiz
and a wonderful group of Toltecs. What an amazing place, from
howler monkeys sounding through the jungle tops around towering
Mayan pyramids, to the bright textiles and natural beauty of the
highlands.
While traveling, I was thinking about a Big Trick that the Parasite
tries to play on us. It says that if we can heal enough, if we
can fix ourselves, we can be free and happy. It says that if we
can get it all right (especially using the tools of the Toltec
path!) we can leave the suffering of our "hell" and live in the
happiness of "Heaven on Earth" forever.
DON'T FALL FOR IT! You can never be happy while you are rejecting
parts of yourself that need to be fixed before you will be OK.
You cannot heal yourself out of hell. You can only LOVE yourself
into Heaven on Earth-- and it is instant. No changes in habits,
weight, relationships, finances, diet, or spirituality needed.
When you accept yourself the way you are, you are free-- in Heaven.
You are perfect just the way you are, and just the way you are
not. Heaven on Earth is an instant reward for your self-love and
acceptance.Return
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The Toltec, holding the intention to be free, stalks those places
where fear denies personal freedom. One such place is the attachment
to the outcome of relationships, events, and to life itself. No
matter how happy one might feel when he or she has found the perfect
mate, or manifested the ideal job, or created excellent health
or the perfect self image... if there is the attachment to holding
onto the mate, job, health, or self image, then fear will be present.
It is something like building a big bright fire in the woods to
keep the hungry wolves away. As long as the fire is bright, the
fear is forgotten. But the wolves have not gone away. As the fire
dies down, as the love, the job, the health, or the image begins
to lose its warm glow, the wolves begin to close in. The fear
is always there, stalking, waiting.
There is only true freedom when the fear of change has been replaced
by acceptance of What Is. There can only be passionate involvement
in Life when there is not the fear of loss and the attachment
to outcomes. No matter how big and bright you build your fires,
if the wolves are still there you will never be truly present
to enjoy the warmth and safety.
Without the fear, without the wolves waiting, you are free to
build your fires, and to enjoy them with all of Life's passion.
"To
the eternal happiness of the humanity."Return
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Have you stopped and listened to the Storyteller in your mind
lately? What are the stories you hear? Often the Storyteller can
be telling some pretty scary stories, and that is no fun!
Perhaps today is a good day to pay attention to your Storyteller,
and if it is telling you scary stories, tell it that you would
like to hear Love Stories, instead. How many ways can you say
"I Love You" to yourself, to your partner, to your body, or to
your Life? Maybe today is a good day to read some beautiful Rumi
or Hafiz love poems to the Beloved.
God is the Beloved. Creation is the Beloved. Life is the Beloved.
You are the Beloved.
Perhaps today is a good day to tell your self only Love Stories,
and to sing only Love Songs.Return
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Beloved Divine Presence, I open my heart to you, to remember your
constant presence in my life. Help me to remember that your love
is always with me... your love that is without condition, without
expectation, without obligation. Help me to fan the flame that
is You burning in my heart. Let the light from that fire illuminate
my being, and shine into my world. Let me see You in my world,
always. Help me to love and respect all of your creation, as an
expression of my love communion with you.
I surrender my fear and expectations to the awesome power of the
love I feel from You within me. There is nothing more than this.
I open in this moment a direct channel between my heart and You.
I open this channel now, and I know You in, and as me, in this
moment. There is only this Oneness. There is only You. There is
only I AM.
In this place of pure I AM I feel the peace and love that is You.
There is no Other. There is only this. Love. Creation. Absolute
Peace. You. I AM.
And I know that this peace in me is You, and I know that this
peace in me shines into and becomes my world. I am peace, my world
is peace. There is only this. One. Love. Alive.
Divine Beloved, knowing You in my heart fills me with gratitude.
Gratitude for this day, for this life, gratitude for all that
is in this moment... gratitude for this moment that is filled
with your peace and love.
Beloved Divine Presence, in this gratitude, I offer You my life
that You have given me so freely. I am at your service, in the
Dream of Absolute Love. The Dream of Heaven on Earth.
And in this gratitude, I simply say "Thank You."
And so it is.Return
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There are many people recognizing this day, all around the world.
In the U.S.A. it is Our Day, the day we as a country and a people
lost our innocence. Most agree that we will never be the same.
I am wondering if the change will ultimately be for the better.
I hope so.
A year ago, I wrote a piece about how a "Storyteller" that lives
inside of each of our minds terrorizes us. It begins like this:
Every human's mind has a Storyteller... a small being who sits
in the mind and tells stories to the human. That Storyteller is
not there when the human is born. As soon as the new human is
able to understand stories-- in tones of voice, facial expressions,
and later with words-- the Storytellers living around that new
human put the seeds of their stories into the mind of the new
human. And they grow there, and become strong, and bear much fruit...
Maybe terrorism begins in the mind of each individual, and is
then projected out into the world. Perhaps we are the terrorists.
If you would like to explore this idea, the article continues
here:
However this day lives in your heart, I wish you a time of faith
and peace. There is much goodness in our world. My intention is
to use this day to create as much of that goodness as I can.
Love is the ultimate weapon against fear! You can only serve one
master... which master do you choose to serve today? Love, or
fear? I know my answer.Return
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We had a simple and very moving Solstice Ceremony here this clear
and bright morning, on a high bluff directly above the surf roaring
into the rocks of the Northern California coast. I felt a deep
connection with the Ancestors, for whom the return of the warmth
of the sun and the Light was so essential to life. And I heard
the words of the man Jesus, who knew himself as The Light, and
invited his world to join him in that awareness.
To the Toltecs, the Light is the messenger of Creator. And the
message is Life. The Creator as the Unmanifest sends the message
of Life into the manifest, where it becomes the material world
we live in. And we know our world because the Light reflects from
it and brings us the message of what is there: The creation of
the Divine. We are made by the Light, we are Light, we see/eat/digest
Light. The Universe is alive, the Light is alive, Light eating
Light. There is nothing else here. Matter is created by light.
The Toltecs knew it, now Quantum Physics knows it. Matter and
Light are interchangeable. We are Light.
This is the time of the year when much of the world celebrates
the birth of Jesus. Jesus said: "I am come a light into the world,
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness."
I believe that Jesus meant if we could believe we are Light, we
would no longer have to live in the darkness caused by our misunderstanding
of our nature. "I am Light, believe in Me" says to me "Believe
in the Light, believe in your own Divinity, you are created by
Light, you are the manifestation of the Divine." And since there
is only this Light, there is only One Divine Presence here, then
you must be that Divine Presence.
The wave in the ocean, is still the ocean. A manifestation of
the Light, is still the Light.
Am I making sense?
Happy Solstice. Happy return of the Light. Merry Celebration of
the awareness of You as the Light, as the Divine. That is the
message of the season, of these Holidays, and of this Thought
for the Day. Thank you for reading.Return
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At the end of my first period of apprenticeship with Miguel Ruiz,
he was encouraging me to begin guiding my own apprentices. I was
more than a little unsure of my capabilities at the time. As we
rode along in the car together, I was carrying on about "Should
I do a group or individuals? How many apprentices do you think
I should have? What if I find out I don't know what to do?" and
on and on.
After listening to me for a few moments, he turned, smiled, and
said in his simple way: "Try it, and if you don't like it, change
it."
The earth moved beneath my Perfectionist's feet. My "know how
it is going to turn out before you start" self was gasping for
air. My ducks would not stay in a row. And in a flash of Miguel's
Loving Wisdom, I was free.
It did not matter! I was free to act, to risk, to try it-- and
to be me. And you know, it has turned out pretty well.
Thank you, don Miguel. As I write this, my heart is filled with
gratitude for your patience, love, and wonderful wisdom. And I
am so grateful for the many opportunities I now have to share
my own love with others.
So, the next time you are agonizing over a difficult decision,
large or small, I encourage you to try this simple wisdom for
yourself: "Try it, and if you don't like it, change it." I think
you will be happy that you did. I am.Return
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An Apprentice in TACO told me this story recently, and we decided
it would be fun to pass it on. One can only smile at how our Inner
Judge is able to find fault, in spite of common sense or rational
logic:
Whenever she was cleaning up her kitchen, The Apprentice would
be quietly angry at her husband for not helping with the dishes.
One night she discovered some plates that were not washed well,
and she had to clean them over again. In that moment, she heard
herself judging her husband for not paying attention and not doing
a better job when he washed the dishes.
The Apprentice had enough self-awareness to catch herself in her
contradiction: She could have one of these judgements, but she
could not have both. Her husband could not be guilty of never
washing dishes AND washing them carelessly. In her moment of clarity
she found laughter, and released her husband from both judgments--
and the subtle punishments that had accompanied them.
By releasing her unconscious judgments, The Apprentice was free
to initiate a conversation with her husband which resulted in
more communication and mutual support in their relationship.
The moral of the story? Of course, it is that the more aware we
become of the "Mitote" in our minds, AND the more acceptance and
humor we can find in our own folly, the more love that we can
bring to our lives and our relationships. The Apprentice has dedicated
herself to exploring ALL of her inner dialog, and consciously
choosing her beliefs and attitudes.
If that is a goal in YOUR life, I believe this Toltec path offers
many valuable and powerful tools to make that dream a reality.
Here at Joydancer.com and TACO we are dedicated to supporting
your journey of awakening.Return
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The Toltecs teach us that everyone is dreaming their own personal
dream, based on their beliefs and the unique way they interpret
reality.
Conflict occurs between mates, parents and children, nations,
friends, neighbors or lovers when there is not mutual respect
for the beliefs of the other. When one side needs their dream
to be RIGHT, they must make the other wrong. Since nobody wants
to be wrong, each must fight to be right. In the fight to be right,
there are no winners.
Can you, today, respect those who believe differently than you,
and be free from conflict with them? Even their beliefs about
war? Nobody is wrong, because everyone is dreaming their own personal
dream, and that reality is perfectly right for them. (Note:
Accepting someone's dream does not mean that you like it or want
to have lunch or a war with them!). And can you love and accept
all of the different dreams and belief systems that live inside
your own mind? Each has its own story, and if each is respected
you will end the conflict that lives inside of you. An end to
the conflicts in our own minds will surely lead to an end to the
conflicts in your world. As within, so without.
Blessings in these challenging times.Return
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We come into this Life not knowing much of anything. As soon as
our attention can be hooked, we are taught words for all the objects,
actions, and opinions around us. The process continues through
school, religion, and all the way to our therapy and spiritual
practices. "You are not acting the way I need you to for me to
be happy so here is what I need you to do to change and then we
will be OK, unless Mercury is in retrograde, then we both need
to... and war is wrong because... and all you need to do for your
cold is... and nobody will like me if I... etc."
We learn SO much, we KNOW so much. And there is SO much more to
learn and know about in our busy world. What is a person to do?
I would suggest to you that you NOT KNOW!! To Not Know is to break
the illusion that your opinions and information are right for
anyone but yourself, and thus release the need to defend them
or impose them on anyone else. They are your PERSONAL opinions
and information. Love them, just don't take them too seriously.
Detach emotionally from your Knowledge.
The "down side" of this practice is that without the knowledge
distracting you, you will be brought very present into the Now--
which for many people is too glorious, overly Divine, and filled
with too much reality. If you are not intimidated by this prospect,
I invite you to release your grip on your Knowing. After all,
the truth is, you are spinning through space on a ball of molten
rock with a barely stable crust, spinning around a ball of exploding
gases, and you DO NOT KNOW what that means, what you are, or why
you are here. The Knowing is just stuff you made up so your mind/ego
can feel safe in the face of an unknowable mystery.
Surrender to that unknowable mystery, and you are free.Return
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In these challenging times, there is a very important prayer available
to us as a support for finding our way in a suddenly new world.
Several years ago, my teacher, Miguel Ruiz, author of "The Four
Agreements," gave we apprentices "The Circle of Fire Prayer."
I believe this to be a very significant resource in our new millennium--
perhaps as valuable in our time as the Lord's Prayer was 2000
years ago. It is a way of understanding our Divinity that changes
our relationship with God from one of asking for help from the
outside, to knowing and being responsible for the truth of our
Divine nature inside. I hope you will spend some time with it,
and that it will serve you in your life.
The words to the prayer are below. For a deeper teaching about
the origins of the Prayer and its meaning, and an invitation to
the Circle of Fire Ceremony in August, please go to my "Notebook"
here.
(Today's Date...)
This day of the Lord, when the Divinity returns to us.
When living our Free Will, and with all the Power of our Spirit,
We decide to live our lives in free Communion with God,
With no Expectations.
We will live our lives with Gratitude, Love, Loyalty and Justice,
Beginning with Ourselves,
And continuing with our Brothers and Sisters.
We will respect all Creations as the Symbol of our Love Communion
With the one who Created us.
To the Eternal Happiness of Humanity!
~ don Miguel Ruiz, "Prayers, A Communion with our
Creator"
© 2001. Amber-Allen Publishing, San Rafael, CA 94903
Happy New Year! May you be blessed with all of the abundance and
love that the Universe is, and that You are. I look forward to
our continued communication and sharing, and hope that we will
have a chance to travel the Toltec path together in person in
2002 and beyond.
Many people use this time of birth and renewal to make resolutions
about new behaviors and beliefs for the future. I want to share
some thoughts with you about why these resolves often fail in
the old way of dreaming them, and how they, and you, can succeed
in the New Dream.
In the old dream, perhaps you thought of something you wanted
to change that you often did (smoked, over-reacted emotionally),
or didn't do (get enough exercise, eat enough sprouts). And so
you made resolutions at New Year's to change, only to find that
your resolve did not hold, and you reverted to your old behavior.
Perhaps you got mad at yourself, and judged yourself for having
no "will power," maybe even going so far as to berate yourself
as "hopeless" because of how you continued your unacceptable behavior
and could not change.
The motivation for change in the Old Dream is fear and judgement:
You are not OK unless you change (stop smoking, eat sprouts),
and you are especially not OK if you cannot change the way you
are. Note that many of the things we think we should change are
habits we developed to protect or comfort ourselves from the hurt
of being judged! When you judge yourself for overeating ice cream,
it hurts your feelings to be made wrong, and so you need to be
comforted... so you eat more ice cream. And it all happens inside
your own mind, mostly subconsciously.
It can be a Hell from which there is no escape.
Without the Judge, the entire idea of resolutions changes dramatically.
Imagine that you desire to change a habit, not because you are
bad or lazy or stupid or inconsiderate, and not because you are
afraid you will get sick or fat without your exercise and sprouts--
but simply because you would like to change. You accept yourself
the way you are, knowing that your life is the perfect expression
of all of the choices and beliefs and experiences that have come
before, and now you would like to make a new choice. You decide
to be loyal to yourself, and not hurt or go against yourself anymore
in that particular way, because of your Self Love. So, you choose
to act differently. There is no Judge present, so there is no
rebellion, no conflict, no hurt, no resistance. There is only
the integration of a new way of being.
You can make a Heaven on Earth in which there is no resistance.
It is so simple of an idea to accept ourselves the way we are,
and yet so difficult to change the habit of self rejection.
Now there is a habit worth changing for 2002!! Let's make a resolution
for no more Self Rejection (And then not judge (reject) ourselves
when we revert to our old habit sometimes). We are talking about
loving ourselves here. Is that too much to ask of ourselves?!
"Practice
makes the master." What are you going to practice for 2002? I
am choosing Self Acceptance and Self Love.
