Dear friends,
how many books can we read to really be what is written in there? How many times do we have to bliss out in compassion on a cusion before we are actually treating people in our daily life with unconditional love? There obviously is a gap between what we believe in and what we are.

Maybe the moment is closer then we think, all it needs is awareness. Only because we are sitting on a desk in an office and have to answer phone calls doesn't mean that God is not with us in that moment/ that the potential to tap into our pure mind isn't there/ that we are not children of the light....

It is all there, always! It pays off to constantly check whether we are practicing what we are believing in. Step by step we are rebuilding our ordinary mind and connect body, mind and spirit.

Getting things intellectually right is a different ball game again. Changing behaviour and literally forcing ourselves to think differently about something is the start. Again, it needs awareness to see when we are actually in a situation that needs re-acting and re-thinking. The effort is worth it though, since it is re-creating what we are doing in that moment, and there couldn't be anything more sacred than that, can it?

Dear Andreas,
thank you for this post!! This has been on the top of my mind as well. Is there another way to be compassionate in real life and not only on "the cushion"? You are right when you say awareness is the key, but is there a technique to make this state of mind more stable I wonder??
Blessings,
Sophi

Hello Andreas and Sophia,

I also think it is not easy to conciliate what we read and know about meditation and balance searching and everyday western life style such as spending hours in an office or selling wasching machines...but maybe it is a matter of time and practice, and after all the time spent on a cushion practicing meditation gives already a lot and free mind and heart from chaos, which brings along peace to ourselves and those around us!

Best wishes,
Stefania

Stefania wrote:
the time spent on a cushion practicing meditation gives already a lot and free mind and heart from chaos, which brings along peace to ourselves and those around us!

Very true. Hello Stefania. Persistence and patience, that's what it all goes back to, the ripple effects of our efforts are there, even though we might never be aware of it.

Blessings and love,

Sophi

Hello there,

just wanted to share something that seemed to have worked for me.
Let's assume that we believe and intellectually understand that "all is one". There is no intellectual doubt about that any more - which is a good start. But then, how is it possible that we do perceive ourselves like separated? We experience this perception for example in a queue in a supermarket and the poor old lady in front of us doesn't get her change sorted fast enough - in our impatient perception.

Well, if all is one, why do we feel frustrated about the lady in front of us? "She is an aspect of me" says the intellect, yet, the emotional state/ego/subconscious/whatever tells us that grandma is just stealing our time! It might not be that obvious, but a tense feeling somewhere in our body (chest, heart, guts) indicates that we have got a similar thought in our programing.

Building the bridge between intellect and actual perception:
The program that comes up and says "grandma is stealing my time" has a story. It has a reason for being. It is a program that we once chose to protect ourself from something. Now that you are aware that this voice is not you, but just a simple program you can ask the program "What is your story?". Let the story come up and check for the underlying wrong assumption. The wrong assumption could be a perceived lack of love. Now if we are one, how can there be a lack of something? Look out for these wrong assumptions and tell this program that it is based upon an illusion, reality knows no separation.

I didn't even know how well that worked until I realized that some thought patterns stopped showing up or decreased in intensity.

However, this is just a tool - it might work for certain things, it might not. Maybe someone else will find this helpfull..

all the best,

andreas