No thought has ever contained Truth… New Year’s Eve MJ Awakening Blog December 31, 2018

No thought has ever contained Truth.

It’s the other way around.

Happy New Year!!

Love and Peace to ALL Beings everywhere.

xoxo

Michael Jeffreys

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Silent night, holy night…Silent mind, holy mind… Silent mind, peaceful mind. Belated Christmas MJ Awakening Blog December 27, 2018

“If you want to have a quiet mind, don’t listen.” -Stuart Schwartz

MICHAEL: Silent night, holy night…Silent mind, holy mind… Silent mind, peaceful mind.

Merry Christmas, Love and Peace to Everyone!! xoxo

All is God. (Thinking pretends otherwise.) New MJ Awakening Blog December 22, 2018

“To me, living realization is a deep, deep understanding of the fact that everything is that, is the divine, is God, whatever word you want to use… truth, true nature, they’re all the same thing.

And it’s kind of like this circle we make… we go into forgetting what we are in truth, and then we become seekers and want to know what we are.

And what do you think is doing that? What do you think is calling itself back home? The separate self?? As if it exists? No. What is it that goes on this whole journey of seeming forgetfulness?”

-Susanne Marie

 

MICHAEL: All is God. (Thinking pretends otherwise.)

What do you call the space where clinging and aversion meet? New MJ Awakening Blog December 14, 2018

What do you call the space where clinging and aversion meet?

Freedom

Michael Jeffreys

LOVING YOUR TRIGGERS: “No way is the way.” New MJ Awakening Blog December 5, 2018

LOVING YOUR TRIGGERS

 

“No way is the way.” -Zen proverb

 

My friend Jim Dreaver suggested the theme, “Loving your triggers” for a satsang and I really like it! Because it’s exactly what no one is doing and thus staying stuck for decades, even a lifetime!! It’s our triggers that we see as separate from us, e.g., anger, fear, frustration, confusion, unworthiness, etc. and so we try to push them away/get them to change as quickly as possible.

 

Why? Because I fear them. I am afraid to look at all of me. And if I won’t look at something, won’t even acknowledge it for however long it appears to be showing up, how on earth am I going to be genuinely present with it??

 

But this ruse can only go on for so many lifetimes. Eventually it begins to dawn on you that you have been completely wrong about everything and everyone, including yourself. That the way you thought/imagined believed it was, is in truth not the way it actually is, because it isn’t any way. Or in Zen it’s said, “No way is the way.”

 

It takes humbleness to meet your pain. Because you have to first stop pretending you know what pain is. Or anything else. Which means starting from 0, and not 1. If I am a 1, I already know something. But what does a 0 know? Nothing.

 

Michael Jeffreys

Honesty in all Relationships starts with Yourself. New MJ Awakening Blog December 1, 2018

Most of us (myself included) have used relationships in the past to make ourselves happy. “I want you, because when I am with you I feel good.” But if we are honest, we will see that this is not love, but ownership. You want this person because you imagine they can/will make you happy. But it never works… not for long.

 

That’s because the other person is not an object whose purpose here is to make you happy (let that sink in). Rather, all relationships are for your spiritual growth (not being aware of this is why there is so much pain/confusion in most relationships).

 

And it starts with your relationship with yourself. Specifically, how you treat your own feelings that arise is how you treat other’s feelings. So, if I avoid being with my own feelings in an authentic, open, and exploratory way, then I am certainly not going to be authentic, open and willing to explore your feelings.

 

As a result, we are constantly trying to change other people’s stories to be more like our own stories so we’ll feel better, thus ensuring that we stay in our heads and disconnected from our heart and therefore our feelings.

 

So what’s the solution? First, notice this. If you don’t become consciously aware of this, it will continue. For example, if the thought comes, “I hate being alone!” Instead of logging on to plentyoffishdotcom, or some other singles site, trying to find someone so you don’t have to feel lonely, what if you were to just be with this loneliness? In other words, your interest shifts from the story, to the raw feeling underneath the story.

 

Yes, initially it can be hard as it can feel too painful to face these feelings directly. That’s because due to the masculine nature of this world, most of us have been taught to avoid our feelings (something that the feminine nature does naturally/intuitively) and “man up/toughen up.” An honest look at the state of the world should be enough to convince us that this approach does not work.

 

Feelings don’t go away just because you stuff them down, just like dirt doesn’t go away just because you sweep it under the rug. It’s still there! Waiting. Waiting for what? You! You to meet them, be with them, and hear them out. To listen to them in a nonjudgmental and open way. Only then, when your feelings feel safe, will they begin to come out to be seen.

 

This is the work. It’s a vulnerability that looks weak, but is actually anything but. And that’s why so few truly make any progress on the spiritual path. They want enlightenment, but they don’t want to do any of the work that it takes to end the illusion of separation.

 

Michael Jeffreys