You Do Not Have a Life - Eckhart Tolle Explains

3-minute mindfulness meditation for clarity - Flow

Rossa - Real Love

 

Excerpt from “Space. The only Frontier” by Ainm Grá

“Silence is the true upadesa. It is the perfect upadesa. It is suited only for the most advanced seeker. The others are unable to draw full inspiration from it. Therefore, they require words to explain the truth. But truth is beyond words; it does not warrant explanation. All that is possible is to indicate it. How is that to be done?” - Ramana Maharshi Upadeśa (Sanskrit: उपदेश), “teaching,” Why? Why are you reading these words? Why did you buy this book, read it on a page or screen? Why are you listening to this if you are listening? Why did you find this in this time and space? Why do we ask questions? Why do we appear to be on a so-called planet hurtling through so called space around a so-called star? Why do we call that star “The Sun” or even a star? Why are you reading this? Who is reading this? You? Why do you think you are you? Who is the eye reading? The I? Yet. There must be some awareness for this to happen. Some space between and object and subject or so it appears to be. Being. Why are we called Human beings? Why are we not called Human doings? What is a human? What is doing and being? If we are Human beings who knows this? And in what space is this known or perceived. And what knows that? Nobody knows. Nobody knows what space is. Space. Have you ever truly noticed and understood space?  It is all around us. It is to the east, west, north and south. Everything seems to exist within space. If there was no space, there would be no thing. Nothing. And yet we are conscious that things appear to exist. The tree exists. It is surrounded by space. It has space in it. 99.99999% of your body is made up of empty space. Empty space is a kind of oxymoron. There is never a full space. A glass may be full of water but there is still space in it. There are intermolecular spaces between the water molecules. We say there is no water found in space. But is everywhere in the universe known? Where does this universe exist? As kids and as adults we have a feeling of awe when we look at space at night. We delight at the appearance of the stars or the moon in space. We have added the word space to many known terms. Office Space. Workspace. Outer space. Spaceships. Safe Space. Spacesuit. Spaceship. As you read notice the space between the words. Notice the spaces in the letters themselves! If there were no spaces here, there would be nothing to read. Everything exists in space. Or so we might think. Be present and look at your surroundings. Notice all the space. You might see your pet. You might notice the walls that surround you or the tree. There’s a floor there. You are on ground or in the air on a plane. Or on a spaceship! To perceive anything there must be space. Take away the space all around you and including the space in the objects that appear. What is left? Without space what is left? It there just a big black entity? Why black? And who would perceive it? If you think you know the answer to this question. Think again. If there is thinking is there not an object and subject? Does your thought exist in space? Does, your wisdom, intelligence, confusion and knowing exist in space. It must do. Because without space you, the thinker, would not exist. But here we are. If we find awe, joy, excitement and love about exploring outer space do we feel the same about exploring our inner space? We love our Star Trex, our Star Wars, Our Space oddities? Where are the movies and inner space oddities? Where is the Inner Space Trex? This is just one. There is only just one. We can make the inner journey with all the same excitement, love and awe that the journey into outer space creates. But these journeys also cause trepidation, anxiety and fear? What might we find out there in space? Aliens? What might we find on the journey into our inner space?   I am not here to teach you anything. There is nothing to teach. This may mean some of you stop reading at this point. That is OK too. These are merely words that point to something that cannot be described in words. But it can be realised. Or can it? Now. Or never. Never? But never never exists. Never never land. The present moment is all there is. It is always now. In the present space. The only space that ever exists. Forever. But what does forever mean? Is there space forever? We ask what exists at the edge of outer space. Is there an end to outer space? What is that? Is there an end to the space that exists in you, the body? Where is that? Nothing implies something. We are aware of space. But who is aware? You? I? If the “I” is aware of space what is that awareness? Does that awareness exist in a space? “But it’s just the brain. It’s just science. Everything just exists”. But where? In No thing? And then appears a circle of enquiry. Within as without. As Alan Watts said, “black implies white, night implies day and death implies life.”  Ying and Yang. Notice the symbol for Ying and Yang. It appears as a circle. It appears black and white. It appears to have space within the circle. A special hole appears in darkness. A dark hole appears in in the space. Dark hole. All within a circle that exists in space all around it. 500 pages of text on a computer is a megabyte. What is a megabyte? A unit of information equal to one million or, strictly, 1,048,576 bytes. What is a byte? The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. What are bits?   According to Wikipedia: “The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as either “1” or “0”, but other representations such as true/false, yes/no, on/off, or +/− are also commonly used. The relation between these values and the physical states of the underlying storage or device is a matter of convention, and different assignments may be used even within the same device or program. It may be physically implemented with a two-state device. A contiguous group of binary digits is commonly called a bit string, a bit vector, or a single-dimensional (or multi-dimensional) bit array. A group of eight bits is called one byte but historically the size of the byte is not strictly defined. Frequently, half, full, double and quadruple words consist of a number of bytes which is a low power of two. A string of four bits is a nibble.”   That “Nibble” is represented by this symbol (0–F) Shall we nibble on? What is nibbling you? Gravity interacts with spacetime. Or so thought Einstein. It was a theory of his. Another theory is that space was created in the Big Bang. The Big Bang! Bang! And a big one at that. That would be some bang! Getting bang for your bucks! Another theory is that time did not exist before the Big Bang. Does the Big Bang imply a creator? And if so who or what is aware of that creator. We are now going down the rabbit hole. The rabbit hole is a metaphor for something that transports someone into a surreal state or situation. Come join on this journey.

2 Daily Habits that Will Improve Your Life

 The Mindful (Or Mindless) Leader

We hear a lot about mindfulness in the world place today. But what does it truly mean?

After 25 years in leadership, I have discovered what it means. Bear in mind, this is only in the last 12 months or so.

In November 2022 my best friend died. John had introduced me to a new way of thinking. He introduces me to "The power of Now" and Eckhart Tolle. He introduced me to " A Course in Miracles"  and much more knowledge. I thought he was crazy.

But I still refer to these books today.

Later I had a medical procedure which saved me from having cancer in 2 to five months.

I took my family to Ireland although I always thought it would be too expensive.

But it manifested.

Then one day soon after I came back, it happened. Every opinion and feeling dropped way and I was frozen to the road as I walked my dogs. Stress and fear fell away. How can I label this experience with words. 

Because they all point to something that cannot be properly labeled with words. In words they label it mindfulness, being, God, consciousness, Buddha consciousness, Jesus' consciousness and a so-called awakened state. 

But words mean nothing. 

We react to labels. As the philosopher Alan Watts stated “We seldom realize, for example that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own"

The true leader must be devoid of labels. Label them a thought leader or expert and you have labeled then what you truly are in essence. 

When you are truly living in presence you know that the now always is and always has been and will never end.

Then the conscious or the mindful leader emerges.

You become more compassionate, more loving and more present in peace. You are still present in being, but your illusions of leadership slowly dissolve. You meet people where they are at now. You don't judge. You allow. Everything is as it is. You drop identification of mind. You actually become mindless. Not mindful.  Yet by this recognition alone you begin to radiate love, compassion and forgiveness for all that appears on your screen.

You become the mindful leader. You lead with love which becomes your primary focus and in that focus you never truly fail.

Wherever you go, there you are. You accept this and you accept everything that comes into your consciousness as thought and opinion as just that. You become that. That I am. And from there everything you wish for that is positive to you becomes reality in the unreal.

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.

You can be a leader who does nothing, or you can be a leader that changes the world. It's your choice and neither choice means anything. But which would you choose? Now. 

The Invisible woman

 

 

I recently heard from a colleague who I hadn’t spoken to for a while. Though she lives on the other side of the continent that is Australia we connected through online forums on volunteer management and she published a few articles on our profession which I felt were excellent. Sarah (Which is not her real name)* has been a Volunteer Manager for years. Working in a well-known organisation I thought she was thriving. Then I found out she had resigned at the start of the year. I found out when I enquired that I had not seen her on forums or writing for a while. Sarah told me that she had resigned and was considering a new career in a new industry. I asked her why. Her short reply had me staring at it for awhile

“I got tired of feeling that I was invisible”

Why was I shocked – after all I had often heard similar sentiments from people in the sector. But I don’t think that anyone has described their position is such a stark and awful way. I was also shock because I had seen what Sarah brought to the profession with her writing, her support of others in the sector and how she had built volunteer programs with flair and innovation.

“I got tired of feeling that I was invisible”

It got me thinking about the ups and downs in my career. There are days when I have felt valued and supported and days when I have not. I have struggled with some who don’t get the concept of Volunteer Management as a profession and I’ve had to argue for ethics around volunteer management. I’ve written articles that people have loved and also written some that people have strongly disagreed with.

But I’ve never felt invisible. Empathy teaches us to walk in another’s shoes. I’ve tried to remember times when I have felt ignored. They have existed and it’s not a nice feeling. I tried to recall times I’ve felt unappreciated. Not a pleasant feeling either.

But to feel invisible?

How many more people out there feel invisible in their roles? All because they have chosen to work in this profession.

Sarah will never be invisible to me. But it’s a reflection on the sector itself.

Because sometimes I feel the volunteering sector is invisible. And when it’s seen – it is described as nice and fluffy and the backbone of society and the lifeblood of organisations. But where is our federal minister for volunteering? Where is the financial support for our national peak and state bodies? Where is the…I pause here. It’s a blog I’ve written a hundred times before.

And I will still write them despite the commentators who say “well -  what are you going to do about it?” and the “We need solutions and not more articles” and “Nobody builds statues to the critic”

Yes I remember those comments. I still see you. You are still visible.

2020