Master Living

On the other hand, if you choose to invest in the system that we are thinking spiritual beings that are having a temporary physical experience, then you stand to develop solid, lasting self value based in an objective and unconditional state. When we teach our children that they are spiritual beings learning how to work the mind and the physical, it leaves the door open for them to find, firsthand, their spiritual source through self respect. In this system there is reason for self respect, looking deeper inside, because there is a deeper inside. They are free to explore the inner realms as well as the outer realms, and their point of reference, their point of identity, becomes established from the inside out, from the spiritual to the physical. When we truly accept this identification as first a spiritual being, then we can find the commonality among us all, the spiritual thread that connects us with each other, and our common source.

When we have firsthand experience with our spiritual identity, we can see through further self respect that we have an intrinsic value as a being. We can experience the divine quality that runs through everything in creation, that we are part of this divine creation, and therefore that we are also divine beings with tremendous intrinsic value in the whole. From this self respected perspective of unconditional self value we can then invest in improving our control of our minds, our hearts and our bodies, from the inside out, as it was meant to be. We will learn and master all the life skills and teach them and our common divine ancestry to our children, so they can also start with real self value.”

When purpose is added to attention the result is the causal factor of karma – intention. Intention is the power of thought to be made manifest.

The human body has five distinct means for receiving information from the environment. These are called senses. Watch a very young child. They see a block with their eyes. They reach for it with their hands, touching it. They smell it, taste it, and will rattle it to see if it makes sound. They are instinctively using all the body’s resources to identify something in their environment. It is the sixth sense – attention – that enables the child to determine the block’s usefulness. Does it taste good? Mental attention enables the mind to say, “No.” Does it smell good? Mental attention is indifferent, satisfied with the previous experience. Does it make noise? Mental attention says, “No, not until it hits the table.” How does it feel? Mental attention lets the child know the block is hard, unyielding under the pressure of fingers. What does it look like? Mental attention opens the mind to the possibility of future recognition of this chunk of wood.

Mental attention at any age is the key to all the mind’s abilities. It unlocks the experiences the world around us brings.

Your concentration ability is more than luck or chance. Concentration is a skill, and so it can be taught and learned. In School of Metaphysics classes we teach how to practice and strengthen concentration by using an object as the focal point for the attention. The word concentrate comes from the Latin com and centrum which means center. The Undivided Attention is directed toward a common center or objective, in this case a flame. Extending that attention over a predetermined length of time is the act of concentration.

Our ability to concentrate largely determines our success in life. It will be a key factor to the relationships you have, the money you make, the quality of your health and your longevity. Your capacity to hold what you desire within your mind’s eye guides your every thought and action toward the fulfillment of that desire.

Memory becomes more accessible as a function of Undivided Attention and Concentration. It builds upon the previous life skills. Keen attention creates nerve clusters which make Memory more accessible. Each cluster cell represents different aspect of a meaningful experience. Photographic memory is the result of mastery of the first four essential life skills.  we will eventually call Reasoning.

At its best, Memory is a tool in the mind of the reasoner to improve, learn, and grow in spirit. “Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” I’ve read this line in books, heard a wizard speak it in a movie about King Arthur, and seen it at Holocaust museums. It only holds truth when there is enough consciousness attached to it to understand the cause that has created that past. Just remembering the past is never enough. There must be other elements involved in our thinking for progress to be made by one person or by many.

Memory is the tool we use to make ourselves and our world stable and better.

One person speaks and the other, the listener, gives value to the speaker. How do you give value? You very simply decide that you want to find something valuable in what the other person has to say. You don’t have to agree with them, be persuaded, lose your identity or become like them. You just choose to welcome into your house a wealthy visitor who is going to give you a gold coin.

The visitor is the speaker, and there is bound to be something they say that is useful, clarifying, cheering, illuminating, or informative to you. In that way, you give them value, you give them importance. Whenever you give your attention to someone or something, you are giving it value, importance and the tremendous energy and power of the focused mind.   Today practice giving your full and undivided attention to each person you meet. When greeting them say aloud, “I look forward to what this interchange will bring!” You may be pleasantly surprised at the way this admonition influences you and your partners in experience.”

The ability for wonder opens the mind to imagine. The ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes is the beginning of expanding beyond the limits of yourself and being able to recognize the kinship with all of humanity, the reality that we are all, in spirit, brothers and sisters.

Imagination is the world of dreams. The ability to create the man or woman of your dreams and believe that someday you will find him or her and someday you will create a life with them is a faculty, not of memory, rather of imagination. The ability to experience something and believe it can be different, to believe it can be better, it can have an outcome which is more whole, more complete, happier and healthier, is a function of imagination.

By imaging, we create. With intelligence we can create anything we conjure up in our minds. Inventions, problem creating and solving, making things better, changing habits, becoming enlightened are all possible because we are mental creators.

Employing imagination opens us to the possibilities of a different way to look (think diet), speak (think foreign language or public speaking), live (think new job, house, position), or be (think self-reliant, self-disciplined, healthy). 

  Yogis can direct their breathing in such a way to slow down their internal organs and to increase their brain wave activity.

The breathing almost ceases entirely in the deepest of meditation as the body essentially switches over to a suspended state of animation and sustenance from pure energy rather than internal combustion.  As the yogi comes up from this deep meditative state, the breathing begins increasing and the body’s internal combustion engines begin again.

Breath is the way the body drives its energy system, just as air feeds a fire. Its importance to us is everywhere in our lives. It is the breath that stimulates the cleansing that brings health. It can also bring miraculous healing.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, or have a friend notify you when 10 minutes have passed. For the entire 10 minutes you will give your full attention to your breathing. Do not try to alter your breath in any way, just breathe naturally. Stay with the flow, experiencing the act of breathing, observing the movement.

After this exercise note your thoughts. What was your first thought when you learned your time was up? Did you stay with the breath the entire time? Did the breath remain the same or did it change? Did the time seem short or long? How do you feel now? Physically? Emotionally? Mentally?

Be as detailed as possible in your account, particularly if this is the first time you have tried something like this. You will reference this many times in the weeks and years ahead. Each day for the next week repeat this same exercise, journaling afterwards.

Reasoning is the result of past, present and future all converging into a single point, the now, with a thinker present to cause there to be motion somehow. Reasoning requires breath. It depends on the thinker being fully present, in command of the mind, the ego, and the body all at once. Conscious breathing is what brings the thinker fully into the present and physical so the thinker can guide a situation to a desired outcome.

Evolutionarily, we are in the later stages of developing reasoning. We as a human race have been developing our capacity to be fully present in the body, to know its workings and abilities through sport and science, as well as know our self as through introspection, psychology and science. Science keeps revealing indirectly that we are more than our physical bodies, and psychology keeps wondering what we actually are. Introspection, through meditation, reveals our true nature as light beings. Bit by bit science and spirituality are converging on the same conclusions, that we are spirit inside a body. The more these two systems converge, the more present the thinker is in the body, and the more purposeful the thinker can be. This is the development of responsibility as a thinker, which is the later stage of Reasoning Man as a sort of species.

Intuition is the direct grasp of truth. Intuition stands on the shoulders of Reasoning. Reasoning, in turn, stands on the foundation of the controlled use of images—memory images, present moment image interpretation, and the formation of new imagined images. Using images from past, present and future connects time into a continuum in the thinking, which in turn releases the thinking from separate, temporal identity. Reasoning in effect launches one from physical, temporal life into non-temporal life. Likewise, spatial separateness is decreased in reasoning also. Reasoning connects a problem with its solution. It connects a cause with its effect. In that way, events and circumstances in the life are connected over time and space, and spatial and temporal existence is merged with the non-temporal and non-spatial existence. Conscious and subconscious existence is unified, creating a fluid use of intuitive ability.

While the outer, waking conscious mind must discern truth through reasoning and direct experience, intuition frees man to draw upon timeless truths that are universally applicable. These are transcendental truths. They exist independent of physical differences, regardless of age, race, nationality, culture, while being relevant to all whether ourselves, our neighbors next door, or the strangers half a world away.

Entrainment is a blend of aggressive and receptive actions working in conjunction with one another. It is

symbolized in the Taoist symbol of yin and yang. The true symbol includes the light and the dark, in equal portions, swirling like a drop of water, each fitting comfortably into the other to form a whole, a circle. Within the largest area of light is a single drop of darkness. Within the largest area of dark is a single drop of light. Thus at all times receptivity exists in aggressiveness, and aggressiveness in receptivity. This is how wholeness is created.

Entrainment in the consciousness of the individual is built through the aggressive and receptive factors of concentration. The capacity to withdraw our attention from all stimuli save that which we desire to hold in mind. This is a receptive action of the mind centered upon an aggressive desire. Through aggressively focusing our attention upon a single idea, person, or thing we can receive that idea, person or thing.