What is Morality?

Morality is a fleeting thing. Thus, I will rely on trusty dictionary.com, which has, amongst other things, this to say:

–noun, plural -ties for 4–6.

1.	conformity to the rules of right conduct; moral or virtuous conduct.

2.	moral quality or character.

3.	virtue in sexual matters; chastity.

4.	a doctrine or system of morals.

5.	moral instruction; a moral lesson, precept, discourse, or utterance.

6.	morality play.

Note the common thread seems to have reference to something, whether set codes/rules or intention. (I have been reading The Blook, by Daniel Ingram, by the way, and highly recommend it.)

As I sit in contemplation of the nation of morality, I am considering Daniel's proposition that Morality is the first and the last training, and find that I cannot fault that position. There are different models of morality, and although I found the notion admirable in my study of enlightenment, it did not appeal to me as a potentially good place to begin enlightenment practice. But then again, I have a reputation for not entering through the front door of the paths. (Or, as my beloved teacher Jeddah Mali once put it, "Kaye, it's not true at all that you use the back door. I use the back door. You think that going through the front door puts you in with the unwashed masses, using the back door is too unflashy. Oh, no. You insist on coming down the chimney!")

However, I think morality has its place. It depends on the individual and the culture, I suppose. In a culture or society where unrestrained activity occurs, the notion of morality is certainly helpful in imposing certain "rules" on individuals, so that a basic environment for spiritual progress may be created. However, I do not particularly favour the continued pursuit of this set of rules (and I say rules because I do not see it as plausible to ask a grossly unrealised society to "live from their values" - they already are!) because in the long run, the blind following of rules creates more blocks than it dissolves.

Once the basic environment is created, I would progress as quickly as possible to the enlightenment practice. However, having come full circle, there is certainly something to be said for morality as the final frontier. Having gone into the mountains and attained some level of enlightenment, a practitioner's challenge now is to abide in his realisation, and to live and act from his highest level of realisation. Now, if that is the definition of morality, then it may certainly be considered the highest level.

Morality is, as I said, a subject I have not given much contemplation to, and so I will not blabber on. However, it is certainly an interesting notion. I still have a certain reticence towards framing actions in the colour of morality, but perhaps that is my emotional stuff around the word...

Astrology - Fate vs Free Will

Of all the objections I have heard to the use of astrology, the most interesting one is that it negates the idea of free will. It is objectionable to the human spirit that everything is somehow written, that we are really puppets following a cosmic dance.

Yet, astrology lives on in almost every civilisation, western or eastern. One wonders if entire civilisations have been misled? That is certainly one possible interpretation.

More importantly, how can one reconcile the theory of astrology with the nature of consciousness? If liberation and enlightenment are truly possible, then it would make a mockery of astrology. Or would it?

The explanation I put forward is one that comes from having the fortune of having observed both eastern and western astrological systems over the years. One fascinating observation is that Western astrology appears to be largely a prediction of one's mental state, and Eastern astrology appears to be a prediction of things that will happen to you. This is simplifying it hugely, but it sparked an idea.

I have a theory that astrology measures cycles of cosmic energy that sweeps across the planet at various times. In response to that, the individual's personal energy field will react in certain ways. These ways are not set in stone, but if nothing else is changed, then it is a likely response. And the way that energy impact arises will be through thought and emotion.

The thought and emotion will cause the mind to engage, and if the mind is unenlightened, then the slightest bit of attachment will cause the Law of Attraction to kick in, resulting in various events manifesting.

Can it be avoided? Yes. Typically, there are individuals who escape their "destiny". It seems to be a result of their environment and their thought processes, so that with the right touch the energies arising pass through the psyche without reacting and thus does not take hold.

Am I right? I don't know. The jury's still out on this one. However, it seems a reasonable proposition.

Four Thoughts That Turn The Mind

As I was researching Milarepa's (a Tibetan saint) life story today, I came across this article:

http://www.kagyu.org/kagyulineage/buddhism/dha/dha02.php

It talks about four thoughts that turn the mind to enlightenment. And as I read it, I thought, "Wow, this is like rediscovering the Four Noble Truths. The statements here outline a schema of belief that, if held and thoroughly experienced, would bring about an experience of enlightenment."

I will quote the summary of the four thoughts from Lama Ganga's teaching, and leave you to read the rest from the link:

"We have seen that the first thought is to appreciate that obtaining a precious human birth is not easy. The second is to recognize that because this precious human birth is impermanent we should practice as soon and quickly as possible. Third is karma and its result, knowing that if we act positively through body, speech, and mind we experience happiness, and if we act negatively we experience suffering. Fourth, we understand that the nature of samsara is suffering. These are sometimes called the four thoughts that turn the mind to Dharma, or the four ordinary foundations. They are the basis or foundation of all Dharma practice."

Is the Motivational and Human Potential Industry in a Bubble?

Has anyone noticed how the human potential movement seems to be huddling closer and closer to together lately? It is as though the recession has finally chipped through to even the pillars of the community and they are beginning to find that the methods they use may not be as foolproof as they once believed.

A colleague once told me, "If we really knew the answer, we wouldn't be teaching it."

Well, it looks like the moment of truth is upon us. Perhaps I'm being melodramatic, but judging from the number of endorsements people are giving, the testimonials, and the desperate inter-marketing to each others' lists, it does seem as though the boom in the self-help industry has finally run out of juice. The real question is...

Do the leaders dare to face the reality of it?

Understandably, it's scary when you notice that people aren't getting as much success as they used to. It's even more scary when the tactics you've been using over your life are beginning to show a decidedly lower hit rate. However, if it's a long-term solution you're looking for, getting a bunch of other people in the same boat to reassure you isn't going to do much.

So, ladies and gentlemen, the industry may not like it, but things are beginning to look decidedly like a bubble every bit as flimsy as the financial one that just burst.

Now, if they were looking for solutions, they are there, but I am also noting a reluctance to look past the fear at it.

A Personification of My Life

Click on the image to read.

Sometimes, Someone Just Says It Better

Sometimes, as today, I feel as if I have yammered on and on about truths and secrets all day, and made it as clear and accessible as I can. Then sometimes, as today, I am completely and totally floored by someone who tells it more clearly, more honestly, more sincerely and more truthfully than anything I have ever written. And it is a humbling and wonderful experience to remember that it really isn't up to me to lead the world to some kind of shining salvation. It gets on just fine without me. And I am no longer needed. What joy and freedom!

Don't waste your time on my blog. Go read Kashy's:

http://www.myspace.com/kashykeegan

Kashy, I salute you for daring to face the most scary thing a person can meet: themselves. I only really took the time to read your blog today, and in spite of your telling me how much The Work changed your life, the posts have finally driven it home. It is a humbling experience. Thank you for sharing.

(And yes, for the friends reading this who are inevitably going to ask, I did cry like a baby. So there.)

Does The Work mean the death of ambition?

This is rather a specialised piece - for people who are already familiar with The Work of Byron Katie. If you aren't one of them, this is where to look: www.thework.com

Tip: The videos are a nice way to get to know Katie's stuff.

When I was at a Byron Katie event earlier this year, there was the usual life-changing breakthrough of paradigms that accompany this fantastic woman. However, I did notice some confusion on one point - if we are completely at peace with our circumstances, won't we lack the motivation to change it?

This is symptomatic of a society which is used to using carrot and stick motivational tactics, not just to manipulate others, but to manipulate themselves.

I elaborate on the carrot and stick in the introduction post of the The Dialogues here.

For now, let me say it a little differently:

The awakened paradigm is not about from pain to peace. It is about from peace to peace.

We do not go towards something because we are attempting to escape pain, or trying to grab onto a shadow of hope, but rather because we are already in love with reality, and choose to move into another loving reality, having no need for it, but moving towards it because. Just because.

The Work of Byron Katie may be described as "from love to love" or "from joy to joy". That is her way of moving through life, and there is no kinder way that I know of. Wonderful woman, that one.

What is the DIFFERENCE between successful and unsuccessful manifesters?

Well, the title should read "differences", really, but this is one key one:

Unsuccessful manifesters do not know the difference between Thinking OF and Thinking FROM their desired imaginal result.

Let me say that slightly differently:

Successful manifesters conduct their manifestational activities, whatever technique they use, sitting in the energy of the result already attained.

Unsuccessful manifesters conduct their manifestational activities, whatever technique they use, sitting in the energy of the result UNobtained.

This was very key to my work in 2005. At the time, I was still what I would call wet behind the ears spiritually. I had attained tons of successes using manifestation techniques of all kinds and was ready to really Nail IT (NIT). And nit is a rather appropriate description for myself in that era. It promptly collapsed on me. So why are we having this conversation about something that didn't work?

Looking back now, knowing what I know, and living in harmony with the so-called Law of Attraction myself (everyone lives in harmony with the Law, just as everyone lives in harmony with gravity, with varying degrees of satisfaction), I find that the statements are still correct. This is cutting edge stuff - most people in the industry will not even have heard of Neville, much less know about the crucial differences revealed in those statements. In fact, they are extremely accurate descriptions. And they are not mine. They belong to the chap in the picture - Neville Goddard. You can read about him on Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Goddard

To read Neville's take on this stuff:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6408015/Neville-Goddard-The-Secret-of-Prayer-Lecture

He has tons of stuff which will be of value to people who are looking to deepen their understanding of the Law. However, I will caution that there is at least one serious flaw in his attitudinal paradigm which CAN and WILL cause the Law of Attraction to backfire in the long run! A colleague has told me that he discovered this flaw himself at the end of his life, but I have been up till now unable to verify that as historical fact.

What is that flaw?

Ahh...Now THERE is a secret worthy of masters. Ask me in The Dialogues. Coming?

The Yin Side of the Force - The Next Step in Human Evolution

I just returned from another human potential event. At this one was, amongst others, Janet Attwood, of The Passion Test. It was a great experience to sit through the test, and to see what it brought up. I have no doubt that it has proven and will continue to prove extremely beneficial to humanity. However, it is a process that lives in what I call the Yang side of the Force, the energy of evolution. For those who have evolved to the limit of the Yang side, the Yin side is the next step of evolution.

In the traditional chakra system, there are 7 major chakras. They are, starting from the bottom in the picture:

1. The root chakra (red) - related to survival
2. The sacral chakra (orange) - related to relationships
3. The solar plexus chakra (yellow) - related to the mental realm
4. The heart chakra (green) - related to love, compassion and balance
5. The throat chakra (blue) - related to expression
6. The third eye (indigo) - related to insight
7. The crown chakra (violet) - related to enlightenment

Each chakra naturally has a yin and yang side to it, but what I believe no one has mentioned is that by their very nature, the chakras have yin and yang functions. Read the descriptions again, and see if you can find them.

By my interpretation, survival is yang, relationships are the yin to the survival yang, the intellect is yang, the compassion is the balancing yin to it, the expression is yang, the insight the corresponding yin, and the enlightenment is perfect balance.

Why is this insight crucial?

Humanity has developed to the point where the intellect has been taken as far as it will go. This is particularly true of the human potential movement. We have kicked and dried out "self-empowerment", "goal-setting", NLP, mental programming and all that. They are not irrelevant. In fact, they are incredibly powerful spiritual tools. But they belong to the solar plexus chakra. It is ironic that as spiritual children we are given the tools before we have the maturity to use them, which is what the heart chakra is all about. And the heart's basic force is YIN. So, if we keep moving the industry along the YANG side, it will eventually erupt.

I am not saying that everything we have done till now is irrelevant, but as I have said in other posts, if you use the energies and techniques of the yang without the balancing force from the heart energies, you are letting yourself in for a world of pain.

Think You Know Your Law of Attraction?

I was chatting with a colleague in the field of human potential the other day, and I commented, "People who are spiritually immature have no business using spiritual techniques."

He agreed.

And I will be the first to admit that that comment sounds completely self-righteous and arrogant. However, there is a genuine reason for it, and I have found that unless I use blatant language it often slips past the attention of people in my trainings who go "Yes, yes, now let's get to the super duper special technique which is going to change my life forever."

So who counts as spiritually mature? It depends on the context and the technique. The by now well-publicised Secret of the Law of Attraction provides an example. On the surface, it seems innocuous enough - you get what you think about. Well, if you do not know the answers to the following questions, then using that spiritual law could let you in for a world of pain (some more than others):


1. Are there any limits to the Law of Attraction? If so, under what conditions are those limits rendered irrelevant?

2. Can you use the Law of Attraction for personal gain? If so, under what circumstances?

3. What is the most important reason for the Law of Attraction working in some cases and failing in others? (If you do not know this, step away from it as fast as you can!)

4. Does the Law of Attraction work equally for everyone? Why, or why not?

5. At what identity level does the Law work? Why does the Law even work?

And for those who have gotten great experiences with the Law and are telling me that I'm being a scaremonger, I will say that there is a general trend where people who have used the Law for a certain length of time will find it to stop working. Why? (And you better know the answer to this one, for if you don't, when it fails and you find that you have been relying on it, you could find yourself very, very stranded and very, very scared. Oh, and I know that because I've been there, having used the Law (although it wasn't called that in the good old days) since I was 12.)

Enough scaring for one day!

You Say Love, I Say Manipulation

Controversial title, huh?

In my work, relationships often come up as a source of dissatisfaction. Part of the problem is that it is one of the areas of life which has the most unquestioned assumptions. Unlike other areas of life, where certain rules and habits are established in earlier life (for better or for worse) e.g. health, completely no attention is given to relationships in the average household.

Problem: It is easy to assign unrealistic assumptions to the idea of a relationship.

Most won't admit to it, but if you go right down to it, there is a knight on a white charger or guardian angel or damsel in distress in there somewhere. Adjust the imagery for culture and upbringing, but you'll usually find it. (The picture for this post is particularly compelling!)

On the other hand, there is the other type, who have become so disillusioned with relationships that for them it can be nothing more than a dull exchange, a routine. The suffering here is more subtle than the huge struggle the first set get into when they realise their relationships aren't going where they want it to. However, there is a sense of disappointment, of hopelessness. Bad? Not really, unless it is a satisfying relationship you want.

Problem: "Needing" a relationship.

This one is sometimes linked up to the first bit. It is really part of the whole gestalt. However, the basic point is that there is a story going on in a person's head that they "need" a relationship somehow. This is true for the single, the dating, the married, the divorced and the remarried. In short, all of them. If you need a relationship, you'll never be fully present in one, even if the perfect mate comes along. It will turn into a constant game of manipulating the other into reassuring you of your insecurities, or of holding him or her to standards that are arbitrarily and uniquely your own.

As Byron Katie would put it: Who would you be without that thought?

You would see them for the first time. You would see them for the wonderful people they really are, when you no longer need them to do this, or that, or the other. And you would be fully present in the relationship, which you would now be free or continue or leave. Either way, the pain would be over. So would all the manipulation that goes on, trying to make someone act in a certain way or behave differently. Why would you do that, when you could experience full happiness right here and now?

If you think you need a mate to somehow "complete" your life, guess what? It's the thought that it's incomplete which really causes the pain. Yet somehow people choose to hang on to the paradigms of suffering which they have always had, preferring it to the pain-free world of really present relationships. And then of course they blame the pain on the cheating partner, on God, on the family, on friends, on gossip, on anything but themselves. Never do they stop to realise that if they would just let the thought go, they would experience all the happiness of union, right now. The physical mate would be an added bonus, nothing more.

Problem: The mental checkmate

This is for those who are in relationships of abuse, or of philandering spouses, who bring a further story into the picture. "I can't leave him because I'll have no money." And now they have double the pain! The pain of fearing to leave, and the pain of cheating and abuse. And there is no answer to what to do physically in these situations. Only they can decide. However, uniformly, the first thing to do is to get the stories out of the way. The pain they are causing themselves is completely unnecessary. Life can be painful enough without you giving it a hand!

Pain is unavoidable, suffering is optional...

...What is your story?

The Dialogues: Paths to Discontinue Suffering (Not for the Spiritually Immature)

There are only 2 types of personal paradigms - paradigms that bring peace of mind, and paradigms that cause suffering. Yes, there are circumstances and situations which apparently cause pain in our lives, and there are lots of courses which teach people how to deal with them. This isn't one of them.

Why?

Because it takes too long to create a situation of peace for a paradigm of suffering. And even we apparently succeed, paradigms of suffering will soon find a way to suffer just the same.

Examples:

Finance: I'll only be happy if I have a really secure job.
Relationships: I'll only be happy if I have the perfect man or woman.
Work: If only my colleagues would treat me better...

The list goes on. The situations may change or they may not. But waiting for them to change is hopeless, if you want peace now. And yes, the bills have to be paid. Yes, the children have to be fed. Somehow there seems a wrongness to feel satisfied unless those things happen first. That's called motivational pain.

You know the carrot and the stick?


The popular belief is that the stick is pain motivation, and the carrot is pleasure motivation. In fact, they are BOTH pain motivators. One brings perceived pain into the present (the stick) and the other pushes permission for peace into the future (the carrot). Well, the absence of peace is the presence of suffering!


Can you be fully present and satisfied and still carry out your life?

I don't know. I can. Can you? That depends on your willingness. Switching from the paradigm of stress to the paradigm of fulfilment actually involves a journey into fear. When faced with the fear, the temptation is to turn back to the paradigm of stress, which why so many continue to live in it.

Want to know more? Come to The Dialogues, and dialogue with me about it. There is no one path to end pain. There is no one way to enlightenment. There is not just one road to freedom. There are many, and only you can find your own. I will show you the paths I and many before me took, and you can shape your own. It is truly a dialogue.

It is NOT a journey for the spiritually immature.

• This is NOT for you if you want the situations and circumstances of your life to change before experiencing peace, because that doesn't create peace.
  
• This is NOT for you if you don't want your beliefs questioned, because they are the pillars of your paradigm.
• This is NOT for you if you don't want your paradigms challenged, because it will be a waste of your time.
• This is NOT for you if you are not willing to experience the feelings and sensations of shifting paradigms, because you will.
• This is NOT for you if you want to control your life, because this is about peace, not control.

In short, this is not for the spiritually immature.



If, however, you fulfill two conditions, then you are invited and welcomed to The Dialogues.

Condition #1: You are committed to your own peace above all else. You desire it over everything else. This is not the time to be selfless. In fact, my experience is that in being completely selfish, you will also become completely selfless.

Condition #2: You are open to different ways of perceiving and thinking. That is how paradigms are defined and changed.

See you there!

Master Kaye

Drop Trust

"On the journey of enlightenment, drop trust. There is no one and nothing to trust in. Even if you strive to merge with the universe, it is not trust, but surrender. Trust says, 'Take care of me and meet my wants. If you don't I will feel betrayed.' Surrender says, 'I will let go of my wants and allow myself to become one with the wants of the universe.' From surrender no betrayal is possible. Fully surrendering may mean bankrupcy, disease and even death. Surrender lets go of ego, while trust holds on to ego."

- Christopher Oliphant