A How to Survive Life (and Death) NYC Book Event

Join me as I'm hosted by the beautiful Namaste Bookshop, Friday, October 17th, 6:30pm, when I read selections from my unusually fun and philosophical self-help how-to book about living well (and dying well); inspired by a very varied life, my three "near death experiences," and the wisdom of the ages. Thought-provoking selections will be intermingled with a congenial Q&A and conversation, followed by a book signing opportunity. It's your chance to peek behind the curtain with me at some of life's deepest mysteries – in a (seriously) light-hearted way.

https://www.facebook.com/events/280828878790468/

Stick With the Love Group – "The Secret" To How It Saves Worlds

If you know me, you know I'm a pretty regular guy. I like baseball, and westerns, and swordfight movies. A big thick seitan steak, hot off the grill. Why, I even spit, occasionally. So why is it that, like some romantic schoolgirl, I always want to talk about Love? Well, it's because of what happened in here (he says, pointing to his heart).

In all of my very varied experiences, even to Hell and back, you might say, I have never, in all of my life, known a force to be even a fraction as powerful as Love. It's absolute. It's all-encompassing. Not only is it:  a) the purposeful power that animates every experience, interest, and expression of value in our lives;  b) the eternal, trans-dimensional quantum field of creation and communication; but it's even  c) the clearest, simplest solution to every misdirected ill and injury ever perpetrated on our planet (and beyond). Not bad, eh?

Think of your life (think of anyones life), and you'll find there isn't an episode of deep significance that wasn't created in the search to express Love – or in the struggle caused by a lack of it. Its presence, or absence is what drives, and has driven, every great accomplishment, and every sad passage in the roller coaster history of humanity. It's the truth of our lives – our families and friendships, art and culture, successful careers, unimaginable feats – all inspired by the search, or scarcity, of Love.

So what does that mean to us, really? It means you can quit overlooking the simple fact that Love is the foundation of everything. You can honestly acknowledge that solid bond in your heart, that unshakeable understanding that everything you do is really a means to find it, express it, experience it. Every encounter is an opportunity to engage, and depend on that energy. You can just start living that way.

"The love that you share is the only thing you need to know. It is the green place from which all good things grow and spread into every part of your life. That is where God lives and constantly cares for you, so that all your worries may disappear."

                                             Anne 

Do you believe in guardian angels, the spirits of your ancestors, or the Sweet Hereafter? Do you believe that by holding the focus of a dream in your heart, you can bring it into reality in your life? It doesn't matter, really, whether you believe those things or not, they're still real. If you need proof, if you want science, then you could consider the first law of thermodynamics – that energy is never lost, it only changes form. That's the energy of your ancestors' spirits, or the energy you put into making your dreams come true (hint: they're the same energy). Love is the source and channel of that creative focus; and the bridge between life and "death."

You can actually talk to your angels and ancestors – extra-dimensionally – but only if you've engaged them via the field of Love. Only if you believe in, and utilize the technology of the heart, that gives us access to that deep channel of communication, flowing through everything. Love provides the pathway to the light, like opening a gate, or like tuning it in, station-to-station. Carefully, too, Love can open the channel into the darkness, where curative mysteries lay suppressed – in which case, it is essential to be thoroughly grounded in Love, and use it as a kind of secure platform, or as a shield.

You can bring whatever you wish for, whatever you imagine, into being through Love – but not in the material way that usually leaps into mind. (There's a secret to "The Secret") You're not necessarily going to receive the obvious spoils of a material life (though they may come too), because you're not writing the story of your external life, you're forming the foundations of your inner life. You won't make a treasure appear by just thinking about it. Your most magical manifestations may not even be in a form you recognize, at first; you will have to get your material expectations out of the way. Listen to this lesson about how to use Love to get what you wish for from Krishna in The Bhagavad Gita, 7:21:

"When a person is devoted to something with complete faith, I unify [their] faith in that. Then, when [their] faith is completely unified, [they] gain the object of [their] devotion. In this way, every desire is fulfilled by me. Those whose understanding is small attain only transient satisfaction…"

Some people love the idea of something they want, then close their eyes, ball their fists, and try to will it into being – then resign themselves to disappointment when nothing comes of it. But that's not being devoted with Love. The real secret often lies in what a person already has. Love doesn't give them what they try to will into being, it has already given them the object of their deepest devotion. "The box you've been sitting on for so long actually contains your greatest treasure." Love is always providing purpose, and a deeper sanity and clarity, that empowers us to choose our path to fulfillment, in every moment. 

"None of the means employed...has a sixteenth part of the value of loving-kindness. Loving-kindness, which is freedom of the heart, absorbs them all; it glows, it shines, it blazes forth."

                                            The Buddha

And there is the solution to all the troubles of the world! The sanity and clarity that engaging the field of Love gives us, 'hidden' in plain sight, just beneath the layer of self-delusion that seems to be our deepest human [de]fault. In that clear light of Love's sanity, the insane elements of our destructive tendencies are revealed. With great wisdom and directness, Love segregates the 'evils' of willful ego, guiding each and every one of us to the proper actions we may take in our personal, and collective, lives.

For examples of the kind of boundaries Love can set, consider this: It is destructively insane to allow corporate interests to murder the most modestly powerful creatures of the world, pollinators like bees and butterflies; the base of the oceans food-chain, like krill and plankton. Love empowers you, personally, to refuse to allow it.

It is destructively insane to poison the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, when the solution is already viable and attainable. Love empowers you to support that solution, and reject the archaic (and criminal) motivations of a relatively small number of corporate profiteers.

It is insanity to continue to embrace the ignorance that limits our greatest potential – the recognition of our spiritual connection, and responsibility to our planet, and all of our fellow creatures. Love provides us the means to realize our sacred agreement – the dependence we share, and the real contributions we can make to the divine dynamic of this world, and any world we will ever inhabit.

So, when you want to make your dreams come true; or, when times get tough (and they will…), stick with the Love group – those with whom you may share the path of Love – for direction, protection, and your real life's purpose. 

"The deepest wisdom and power that Love can give you, lies in the energy you hold in your heart, and how you project it into your world." 

                                    Anne

Read about concepts like these and much more in: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor  from Llewellyn Worldwide available direct on this page, or online. The first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for it at your local bookstore!

Look Beneath the Surface (and Watch the Spirit Arise)

"I am ever present to those who have realized me

in every creature. Seeing all life as my manifestation,

they are never separated from me. They worship me

in the hearts of all, and all their actions proceed from me.

Wherever they live, they abide in me."

                   The Bhagavad Gita, 6:30-31

With that somewhat invisible foundation in place, let's consider that it's really basing our judgements on the surfaces of what we see that creates a great many of our world's problems. They insist that by being the "visible" parts of life, they are also the most important parts—the parts we're actually interacting with all the time. But that's not really true, is it? Aren't we seeing, and more importantly feeling, the invisible parts of life, perhaps more deeply, all the time?

You can neither tell a book by it's cover, nor the content of a person's heart from the clothes they wear. It's impossible for our limited vision to see into the whirring masses of sub-atomic particles all dancing inside of our supposedly solid world. There is an inwardly exponential relationship of the outsides of everything to their insides, where the real story is told in the many pages beneath the cover.

When we're confronted by surfaces—appearances, behaviors, "final outcomes"—it does us no good to compare our insides to those outward presentations, but to start by considering what we don't know about the insides of each. That's where we can find our real understanding. We've all experienced the illusion of something looking really good on the outside, only to find out that it's actually full of pain. (I've picked a lot of chocolates like that...)
So, it's our ability to witness this occupation by spirit, and the outward expression of it (as mysterious as it is miraculous,) that's the most important, truly interactive, and compellingly honest perception we can have—whether we can actually see past the physical surface of something (or someone) or not. When we don't get too wrapped-up with surface appearances, we can see that remarkable relationship pretty plainly...but we have to relax, stop labeling, and allow ourselves to. So try this sometimes—pay as little attention to the surface of things as possible. Practice looking into it (intuit); and just try to witness the spirit arising from within things and people, as often as you can. Like everything that's worth getting good at, it takes practice.

"To God belongs the East and the West;

and wherever you turn,

there is the face of God."

The Qu'ran, Surah 2

These quotes from ancient wisdom sources really say the same thing, don't they? We display a kind of silly ignorance when we rely on visible affirmations—on outside appearances—when we know that every surface changes, and that it's the mystery within that remains Eternal. Everything we witness with our minds, and our eyes, and our hearts, is actually just more proof of our shared elemental compo-sition—the substance of our Source, and our ineffable connec-tion to each other and every living thing. It's all the real "face of God."

 

So, it's just a matter of our perception, and allowing ourselves to look beneath the surface of things by looking with a vision that's free of judgment and comparison—that's the only way to be more fully, more realistically, engaged by our compassion, identifying with the insides, instead of the outsides. Heres a quote, from a wonderful egghead, that tells us the same thing:

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Albert Einstein

And this last natural note – did you know that bald eagles have naturally "polarized" vision? They can see right past the surface reflections, past the glare, into the river, at all the fish swimming by. Life looks like a parade of candy bars to them. They sit, fully and appropriately engaged, and, once they've learned the proper technique, they swoop down and snatch up the bounty of life, whenever they want.

                 "The disciples asked him:

'When will the Kingdom come?'

Yeshua answered:

It will not come by watching for it...

The Kingdom...is spread out over the whole earth,

and people do not have eyes to see it."

The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 113

The book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond, based on lessons (learned the hard way) by a three time near death survivor is now available everywhere – but ask for it it at your local bookstore! How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying) is due out early 2018, from Llewellyn Worldwide.