A person may be a funny person, but unless they are expressing humor they are not being funny. A song is only beautiful when it is sung or played (expressed). Without expression its beauty cannot be heard. A woman or man may be intelligent, but they are only being intelligent when they are expressing intelligence. If you want more spiritual connection, you must express spirituality in your daily life.
The ego is one of those words that is thrown around in many different ways, and can have a different meaning depending on the context. Psychology speaks about the Ego and the Superego for example. In everyday conversation, we talk about ego as being equivalent to over inflated self-importance. However, in a spiritual growth context the meaning is specific and through understanding what the ego is and how it is formed we are better able to deal with it. We need to deal with it because ego prevents us from realizing our Unlimited Potential.  (more…)
A spiritual path is not meant to be a struggle. It is the most
difficult thing you will ever do, but it need not be a struggle. If
you are struggling, it simply means you are choosing to align to old
patterns, old fragments, old personalities, instead of aligning to
your Authentic Self.
Many people get discouraged and tired of struggling. Stop struggling.
Instead, shift to what is real in self and embrace what is in front of
you. Every morning, when you wake up stop – stop and go deep. Don’t
jump up and rush around trying to get ready for your day. Stop and
move into what is important in your life. Move deep into your bigger
hopes, dreams and desires. If you have a sense of your Life Purpose,
find the sensation of that. Feel the bigger picture of your life. Feel
the significance of your life. Intend your day from your depth.
When you do this, life will bring you challenges. But the challenges
need not be struggles. They are simply opportunities to grow,
strengthen and develop self. Life is your playing field. Use the
playing field to improve your game.
If you find yourself struggling with the same old patterns, it means
you are in motion, but not movement. It means you are choosing to
attach to the old self, instead of embracing the new Authentic you.
Stop struggling and embrace the new. Embrace the challenges the new
brings you. Old struggles are boring, and discouraging. New challenges
are invigorating and exciting.
A Spiritual Warrior embraces his or her day with excitement and
positive anticipation about what opportunities life will bring them
that day. Embrace change and transformation. Leave the struggle of the
old behind. Welcome the new into your life.
Do this and your old struggles will soon become a distant memory.
Love and Light,
Kristopher
http://masteryofawareness.com/
Here an audio version of this disseration:
“A certain man believed that the ordinary waking life, as people know it, could not possibly be complete.
He sought the real Teacher of the Age. He read many books and joined many circles, and he heard the words and witnessed the deeds of one master after another. He carried out the commands and spiritual exercises which seemed to him to be most attractive.
He became elated with some of his experiences. At other times he was confused; and he had no idea at all of what his stage was, or where and when his search might end.
This man was reviewing his behavior one day when he suddenly found himself near the house of a certain sage of high repute. In the garden of that house he enÂcountered Khidr, the secret guide who shows the way to Truth. (In Sufi lore, Khidr is also known as ‘the green one’. Green is the color of compassion). (more…)
What Causes Suffering
What causes suffering? It is really quite simple. Suffering occurs when we are disconnected from Self. The Self contains essential qualities of Love, Oneness, Merging, Trust, Knowingness, Abundance, Empowerment, true Value and Worth, and so on. The qualities are essential, authentic. They cannot be understood, only experienced.
The ego frantically tries to mimic essential qualities but they are far beyond ego’s capabilities. Essential qualities flow through the Self from All That Is. The ego’s existence is based on separateness. As such, it is cut off from Source, the very Source from which Essential qualities flow. Suffering occurs when there is this disconnection from Self. The ego tries to mimic Love, but is only capable of co-dependency. The ego tries to mimic Abundance, but is only capable of greed. It tries to mimic Merging and Oneness, but turns it into fear of loss.
The essential qualities of the Authentic Self are energetic in nature. In Toltec terms they lie just beyond the 2nd attention. Essential qualities can be access through energetic processes. However, the best way to live in essence is to live from the Self that we are, versus the layers of ego that surround Self.
There comes a point on one’s spiritual path when they have tasted the Authentic Self. One has worked diligently to peel off the layers of ego. They have connected with Self. However, it is fleeting and one becomes lost again in a fragmented self, or self-image – the false personality where ego resides. When one is disconnected, it is near impossible to recall the Authentic Essential qualities of Self.
After a substantial amount of work on healing and growth, one knows sufficiently what is Ego and what is Authentic in Self. One knows they always have a choice – to choose a fragmented self or false self-image, or to choose an Authentic aspect of Self. If they choose the false self, they inevitably set themselves up for suffering. Granted, in the short term, sometimes choosing the false self seems to give them a temporary fix of fulfillment or happiness. But, as it is not Authentic, it soon passes only to be replaced by suffering. Essential Qualities run far far deeper than a temporary happiness.
Many students in the Toltec Mystery School are at the place where it is simply a matter of choice. What will you choose in each moment? Will you choose the old, habitual ways of false self-image, or will you choose an Authentic aspect of Self? Will you continue to choose suffering, or will you choose, Love, Fulfillment, Bliss, Freedom – essential qualities that exude from Self?
Love and Light,
Kristopher
http://masteryofawareness.com/
If one looks at a cancerous cell through the eyes of ‘seeing’, what does one see? What causes a cell to become cancerous? Moreover, how does this relate to Self as a whole? (more…)
A common trap people on a spiritual path is one of self-introspection.
Self-introspection is not the same as self-observation, witnessing the
self or what Toltecs refer to as stalking the self.
The Toltec Path gives us three Masteries, the Mastery of Awareness, the
Mastery of Transformation and the Mastery of Intent. In the Mastery of
Awareness we become aware of something, that when brought into
awareness, seems so obvious we may surprise ourselves that we missed
it. This something is:
Our perception determines our experience
Until very recently (the last 50 years or so) most Esoteric schools were hidden from society as a whole. There is a simple yet important reason why.
Your Coming into Body Was Intentional
Toltecs speak much about the important of Intent. The use of Intent is one of the most basic and powerful tools you use to advance on your path. Even knowing the importance of Intent, what some people forgot is that coming into body is intentional. In fact, it is Intent itself that caused you to take on a body.