A New Guide to
Self-Development, Development of Consciousness and Union with the Divine
© 2003 Copyright,
John Bradshaw – All Rights Reserved
10. One Foot in
front of the Other 25
13. Intuition 31
14. Silence 33
15. The Positive Mind 35
17. Prayer 39
18. Acceptance
41
19. The Misfortunes of The World 43
21. Surrender 47
22. Laughter 49
23. Thanks 51
24. Wonder 53
25. Emotional Health 55
26. Visualization and Light
57
27. Meeting Life Softly 59
29. Honour Yourself 63
30. Spiritual Growth 65
31. Know the Christ within You 67
32. Accept People, as they are 69
34. The Mystical Experience 73
35. The Lesser Man or Woman 75
36. The Unclouded Vision 77
37. Having Clear Boundaries 80
38. Give Yourself Credit 82
39.The Meaning of Spirituality 84
41. Dealing with Hatred 88
42. The New Consciousness 90
43. The New Day 92
45. Feeling is the voice of the soul 96
46. Clouds across a Blue Sky
98
47. Speak Your Truth 100
48. The Rose and the Sword 102
The Author 104
This small book contains forty-eight passages
on self-development, development of consciousness and union with the Divine.
The content of the book is presented in short precise passages that offer
guidance to the seeker. The book presents a concise, powerful and pragmatic
philosophy that will be of benefit to anybody wishing to live a more fulfilled
life. It is a book for those who must meet life’s challenges, but who wish to
do so with peace, principle and a sense of divine purpose. This book teaches
the reader about Life and how to live it from a place of strength and
detachment. It describes how to cultivate a strong and peaceful mind; it
describes how to fight when necessary and how to let go. It teaches the reader
about Love and gives a sense of what God is and what Life means at the deepest
levels.
This small book will bring the reader joy and
open the heart to new levels of peace and awareness. It addresses issues of the
deepest self and will empower the reader in meeting the challenges and
aspirations of his or her life. This book will show the reader how to integrate
and balance the rose of the spirit and the sword of the world.
This book is dedicated to God, the higher
power and to all who have spoken the truth of the Spirit.
The present is all there is. The past is
gone forever and the future is a figment of your imagination. Be fully with the
present. Bring your awareness to the present. Enrich the present by letting go
of any attachment to a conceptual future. For example when you are driving,
just drive. When you are walking, just walk. Bring your mind back to the
present moment and the full experience of being.
Do not confuse letting go of the future
with giving up on the future. Know what you want and where you want to go in
life, but remember to build it from the richness of the every day present.
Nurture your progress every minute of every day and remember again and again
that today is your reality, the rough clay of life. Mould it well. Break life down into its simple components. Engage
in each process no matter how trivial with full awareness. Appreciate the
journey and stop rushing towards an endless array of destinations. Give
attention to the people you meet and what they have to say. Slow it all down.
Take time to notice the richness and character of life. Think laterally,
observe, because a lot of the richness and beauty of life is in the detail that
manifests before you every day. Allow your heart to beat a little slower and
make room for life to surround you, interact with you and touch you.
The present is all there is. The past is gone forever and the future is a
figment of your imagination
I believe that what we feel as love is the same force that
orchestrates and animates all life in the universe. Quieten your mind and allow
yourself to feel the love and the life of creation. It will pulsate through
you, it will lift you, it will consume you in its ecstasy. You will feel it as
warmth in the core of your being. Allow your consciousness to spread out and
rest with all life. Become all life; enter the very soul of life until you are
not separate from it in all its manifestations. Become consumed by the wonder
of it to the extent that it beats within your own heart. This is the joy of
life behind all its veils and confusions. This is the heart of God that rests
within your own heart.
I
believe that what we feel as love is the same force that orchestrates and
animates all life in the universe
Do not fear Death. You will die into Death as you die into
Sleep. You will die into Death as you die into Meditation. You will die into
Death as you die into a dream. Your consciousness will move on to a place of
greater awareness, but it is important that you die well. You need to die well
with a mind that has known and felt compassion. You need to die with a mind
resting in Compassion.
Learn to feel God’s love during your life, because when you
die, this consciousness that you have developed and nurtured over a lifetime
will tumble forth from it’s earthly confines and it will be naked and exposed
in realms other than this. It will be the subtlest element of your mind and
imprinted on it will be the impressions of a lifetime. It will go out without a
mind or a body to deaden it or soften it. It will become its essence as in a
dream and it will wake up in the pure experience of what it is.
You are choosing now as to whether your soul will wake up
in peace or in turmoil, so have compassion for yourself and for all living
things. Allow compassion to become the essence of your being and remember that
this consciousness is your soul and one day it will be all of you.
You
need to die well, with a mind that has known and felt compassion
Meditation is useful. It brings us back to the present. Sit
with the breath and learn to watch it. This will calm you and make your
concentration better and make you focused, but more importantly, it will teach
you to see yourself from outside yourself and then you can intervene to cope
better with your emotions, attitudes, reactions, actions and beliefs. You can
learn to experience the feelings in your body and see your thought processes.
You can begin to detach from the experience of your emotions and put them into
a healthier context. Meditation softens you and makes you more balanced. You
will become more of a ship and less of a small boat to be
tossed and thrown by the tumultuous seas of life.
Meditation is
useful. It brings us back to the present
All is God. Respect all life and treat it as sacred, but
not in a sentimental way. The less suffering you cause, the better for you and
for all beings. Preserve life to the greatest extent possible. Do not kill a
creature unless you absolutely have to. If you can put an insect out of the
house instead of swatting it, do so. This is your gesture of respect for life
and for the creator. Nurture and care for all life to the best of your ability
and remember that every creature is an expression of God and should be treated
with the greatest respect possible.
Nurture and care
for all Life to the best of your ability
It is important that you do your best in every situation
and then let go. Do your bit in life and try to let go of your attachment to
the outcome. Make the supreme effort
and then let go and move on. The outcome is in the hands of God, fate or
however you choose to see it. The reality is you can only do your best at any
given time and then you must relinquish control. You need to emphasize
preparation, effort, focus, delivery and then letting go. You might do this
every day. Do your bit and then let go.
It
is important that you do your best in every situation and then let go
Take on the challenge of service, for out of it you will
grow and become greater. Service broadens you and takes you out of the myopic
obsessions of self-adulation and gratification. Reach out; make life nicer for
somebody else. Do something to help alleviate the suffering of the world.
Expand your world. Learn the wonder and the pleasure of
giving for the sake of giving. A river must empty itself to receive more. Empty
yourself, give and you will receive. Become the vessel through which God’s love
flows to others.
Something happens when we give, it brings out the best in
us; we become a channel for God’s love. The cravings of ego slide into the
background and something greater possesses us, however be aware of your own
needs, your own self-respect. Be strong for yourself and you will be strong for
others. Give from strength, not from weakness and resentment.
Do
something to help alleviate the suffering of the world
It
is important that you become the observer of your own stress. You need to
detach from it, watch it and then intervene to stop it. You might practice
observing the sensations in your body. You might sit quietly, close your eyes
and observe any tension in the body and where it is located. You might observe
your thoughts and your emotions as they present themselves to your
consciousness. You might take a little time every day to focus on these things
and also most importantly, you might observe your breathing. You need to note
whether your breathing is deep and peaceful or shallow and rapid. Check if it
is centred deep down in your abdomen or higher up in your chest. If it is
shallow and in the chest, you might take a few moments and breathe more deeply
but very gently into your abdomen. This will relax and calm your whole being.
In
general, it is important to learn what a peaceful balanced state of mind is and
then to make this your reference point. Becoming the observer of your own state
of mind, your thought processes, your emotions, your actions and reactions
represents the journey from unconscious to conscious mind and is probably the
most important journey that you will ever make. My Yoga teacher made the point
by repeatedly asking the following question “I am not the breath, I am not the
body, I am not the thoughts, what am I”? Think about this question and realize
that you are consciousness. You are the observer.
It
is important that you train your consciousness to detach from the mental,
emotional and physical processes. It is important that you become the observer
and that you relate to the world from a place of strong clear awareness.
It
is important that you become the observer of your own stress
It is important that you find what you love doing and do it.
Start to think about it. Let God flow through you. Your creativity is the
living expression of the creator (or creative power in the universe if you
prefer). You can live it. You can love it. You can accept it and take it on
board. Find what excites you, what motivates you, what stirs in your soul. You
can find it and express it, but it is important to be sensible. Sometimes your
creativity may come late in life. You need to integrate it and make room for it
in your busy life. It is important that you experience the satisfaction of
being who you really are no matter how busy you are with other work..
In general, where money is concerned it is important to
respect the learned wisdom of the world. You need to be sensible with money and
do all the right things, but remember that God is the source and your
creativity is the mind of God within you. Look for the spark, the fire, the
passion within and when you find it, run with it until it becomes you and you
become it. Let money become the byproduct of your passion and creativity rather
than an end in itself and you will know a greater and deeper prosperity.
It
is important that you find what you love doing and do it
There
are times when you may find yourselves in what can only be described as an
existential abyss. You may be filled with anxiety, fear, depression and even
despair. At such times, you might think about the natural world and especially
the Spring and ask yourself what is it that regenerates life year after year?
What is it that has the urge to grow, prosper, evolve and succeed? What is this
force inside the very core of life that wants to flourish and that will keep
trying no matter what? You can touch this force in yourself. Something in you
always wants to survive, to grow, to flourish even when the pain of life is
very great.
You
can allow God’s love to touch you in your pain and remember that there is a
great power within you. There exists within you the great power of life that
drives every living thing to evolve, flourish and grow with ever-greater
success. You might ask yourself “what am I evolving to now” and know that you
are evolving in consciousness, evolving in the love of God that shines on you
every day.
You
can reach out to the light and let it fill you. You can put one foot in front
of the other and you can pray and speak and ask for help. There are many who
will help you. Many have trodden this path. Remember that something in you will
survive and grow and prosper and be great because that is your innate nature
and the desire of your deepest self.
Something
in you always wants to survive, to grow, to flourish even when the pain of life
is very great
Our Buddhist friends speak a lot about compassion. They
speak about Infinite compassion. We are asked to have compassion for the
suffering of the world, to have compassion for the rude and the ignorant, the
violent and the judgmental. All are suffering. All will have to come to terms
with their pain and all will have to grow. Remember that the worst villain will
one day wake up in full consciousness and feel the pain of what he has done.
Understand that all crime, all evil, all coldness, all cruelty
is suffering, so have compassion for all. Have compassion for those who operate
at low levels of awareness, those who have not had the opportunity to grow,
those who have been abused and go on to abuse because they do not receive the
blessing of love and healing. Have great compassion for yourself in your
humanness and your struggles.
I reflected once on this issue and an image came to me. I
saw a great waterfall and all the souls in the world were tumbling down the
waterfall. Some laughed, some cried, some screamed in terror, some accepted,
some cursed and so on. At the bottom of the great waterfall, there was a pool
of water very deep and very peaceful and there every soul came to rest and know
peace, so it is with the process of life and death. Every soul will know peace
eventually and come into the realization of God and self. Every soul no matter
how mired in darkness will evolve into the light.
Remember
that the worst villain will one day wake up in full consciousness and feel the
pain of what he has done
All is God. God is all. God is infinite spirit, infinite
intelligence, infinite manifestation. God is the love that binds the universe
together. God is the Creator and God is all creation.
Fundamentally, God is love, infinite love. God is the love
that vibrates through the very fabric of existence. God is the love that binds
two strands of DNA together. God is infinite compassion and infinite patience,
the patience that will wait a million years for one soul to evolve into
awareness, consciousness, the light. God is the ecstasy, the joy, the blessing
of a flower opening its heart to the heavens.
We meet God quietly in the silence of our minds when we
take time to feel the love of Life, when we enter the very soul of life and
it’s infinite expressions. When we feel the love of life vibrating through us
and when our minds expand to accept it, we are touching the mind of God.
God is the wisdom and the softness of acceptance.
Everything is as it is and ultimately all will be one and all will rest in the
mind of God.
Fundamentally,
God is love, infinite love.
If you have enjoyed these sample
pages please click on Order Me Now to request the complete book, Twelve Thoughts
Series Order Me Now