What's New at Mystic Visions Website? Website Update
There been several interesting topics added to the Discussion
Forum this month. The difference between "Personal" and "Spiritual"
Development is being debated. So too is the distinction between
Detachment vs. Control. One reader has begun a thread listing
favorite spiritual books and encouraging others to do the same. Why
not drop by and share books that have really helped you on your
path? A discussion has just begun on the esoteric meaning of the
Cross. Meanwhile "light is being shed" on those strange little dots
of light some people see flashing across their eyeballs on certain
occasions! So, there is plenty to interest you. Why not drop by and
join in. Just click on:
Honest effort does not always promise a reward.
Trying too hard does not necessarily mean a good outcome.
The important part of living is to live every minute and every second.
This ezine is now into its second year! I am happy that it has
been providing you with thoughts and guidance that you value. A
big thank you to all those who have supported these writings,
some of whom have even written in to express their appreciation.
I recently returned from a two-week esoteric summer school led by
Dr. Douglas Baker. For those of you who don't know, his work is
closely linked to Theosophy, but goes beyond it in daring and
excellent ways. His experience on the inner planes is vast, and
he was treading the spiritual path over forty years ago. It was a
fortnight in which I gained a lot to ponder and grow from. I
would always recommend to all of you to attend seminars and
retreats. It is one of the major ways to grow as a person.
Since this is the first issue of the ezine's second year, I
thought something different would be refreshing. Hence, the first
article is written by YOU - the readers! Sometime ago, we had a
thread of posts on the Discussion Board where people contributed
what we called "Spiritual Quick Tips". Many of them are so good
that I wanted to share them with the entire readership in this
issue. Apart from anything, I hope it will stimulate interest in
the Discussion Board. Perhaps you have some Spiritual Quick Tips
of your own to share? You can find the board at:
If we're open to it, our conversation with God can be deep,
ongoing and brilliantly funny. When I abandoned my belief in
coincidence, I realized that God was talking to me constantly --
I just hadn't noticed before. For me, it usually involved turning
on the radio or picking up a magazine and hearing or seeing words
that had special, private significance in my life.
---
Suzanne
Quick Tip #2: If God is "All That Is", is there anyone (including
ourselves) that we shouldn't love?
Holding unconditional love for others can be sometimes be
challenging, but remembering that "everything is God" helps me in
this. If I feel hatred towards someone, am I not directing hatred
towards a part of God? I was taught that God is simply
manifesting itself in an infinite number of ways- who are we to
judge that only certain parts of God are worth loving? Instead, I
try to convert anger and hate into compassion, understanding that
another's negativity may simply be part of a lesson they are
trying to get through. And that its just another way God has of
expressing itself.
--- Stephen
Quick Tip #3: Remember that everything manifests in your life as
a teaching system for your growth.
People, circumstances, successes, disasters. There are no
coincidences or random events. Each of us manifests what our
heart and mind are full of. So look upon life as a feedback
system to tell you how you are progressing and what the next step
in growth needs to be.
Your Higher Self has also set up a curriculum of learning for you
to go through. If you fail to learn the lesson, it will not go
away. It will simply come back in the form of an identical
situation in a different time and place; possibly with different
people.
Looking at life as a Mystery School where we can learn from
everyone and everything we experience is the essence of this tip.
---
Asoka
Quick Tip #7 – Think of your spiritual growth as investing in
a relationship with God. Invest in the relationship daily just as
you would with any loved one. Coincidence, synchronicity,
intuition, lessons – God talking to you. Half the relationship.
Remember your contribution to the relationship goes beyond
listening and learning. Invest in the relationship with daily
feedback. Tell God thanks for the significant events of your day.
Ask God to work through you. You may be the instrument delivering
that coincidence, synchronicity, or lesson to someone else. Don’t
hesitate to ask for help when you find you need it and invite
support anytime.
Remember that every individual is having a relationship with God
weather they know it or not. The way you relate to that
individual is part of your relationship with God.
---
Brad
QUICK TIP #8: Remember that whatever you do to another, you are
actually doing to yourself.
This is another way of looking at karmic law, and it made the
concept suddenly fresh and new again for me. Since we are all
ultimately part of one Self, there is no way of injuring or
humiliating another without doing the same to ourselves (though
we may be fooled by a slight delay in our comeuppance).
Similarly, there is no way we can bless, honor or care for
others without effortlessly drawing to ourselves that same
measure of generosity and kindness.
---
Suzanne
Quick tip #9 native American Belief
Earth does not belong to man.
Man belongs to the Earth.
All things are connected like the blood
which unites a family.
Man does not weave the web of life,
he is only a strand in it.
Whatever happens to the Earth
happens to all of us.
Whatever man does to the web of life on Earth,
he does to himself.
---
Hilly Terrain
Quick tip #18
Just for today; I will not be angry. Just for today I will not
worry. Just for today I will do honest work, honest living. Be kind
to every living thing .I shall count my blessings, honor my
parents, teachers, and neighbors. Be thankful for my food and drink
and heal myself and the universe. TAKATA
---
Lola
Quick tip #20
When I feel conflict and do not want what is happening I remember
this: "the person or situation is my Buddha of the moment".
This worked often when my grown daughter and I were not well
connected and layers of tension came out sideways...in other
words judgement is at work. Even in traffic I see the jam-up as
my Buddha of the moment..More often than not a true Buddha smile
emerges...
---
Dee
Quick tip # >20
Collect and have available at a heartbeat's notice songs of
praise to sing. When a challenging moment arises, sing out. Sing
with your heart, spirit and mind.
Copyright Asoka Selvarajah 2001. All Rights Reserved.
Asoka Selvarajah is a writer on personal growth and
spirituality,
and the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your
Higher
Self". His work helps people achieve their full
potential, deepen their
understanding of mystical truth,
and discover their soul's purpose. Learn more about his work
Dr. Baker's book is an excellent course on meditation, gleaned
from many decades of personal practice. It not only gives
excellent material for the beginner to commence meditation
practice. There is much deep wisdom for the extremely experienced
practitioner too. Yet, all is explained in a most accessible
manner that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject.
The book goes much further still. It is no less than a course on
things esoteric. Dr. Baker hails from the Theosophy tradition.
However, he has made countless additional discoveries of his own
and shares much accumulated wisdom, culled from literally decades
of occult research. You will be given many meditation techniques,
as well as numerous objects for meditation. You will also learn
about the chakras, about keeping a spiritual diary, will learn
how to totally withdraw your senses into the inner world, and
much more. The book is lavishly illustrated with both color and
black and white drawings. However, be aware that this volume is
of considerable depth, and does not make light reading.
Dr. Baker's book will grow with your practice, as it has been
written by a master of meditation from direct personal experience.
The art of goal-setting is correctly said to be the key to
life-long success. At the same time, it is admitted that those
who set goals often fail to follow through. Yes, they
may be more likely to succeed than those who set no goals
whatsoever. However, how can you learn to set goals and then
follow through consistently to create the life you dream of?
First, be in no doubt about the critical importance of
having goals, and preferably creating them in writing. What is a
goal exactly? Tony Robbins defined a goal as a dream with a
deadline. In other words, you define your dreams, and then come
up with a time estimate of how long it will take for you to get
there.
Tests repeatedly prove that those with such goals outperform
those without. In one US study, it was found that university
undergraduates with specific written goals constituted only 2-3%
of the entire student population. However, several decades later,
this 2-3% were found to be worth more, in financial terms, than
the other 97% put together! Admittedly, money in the bank is only
one measure of success. However, you can be sure that the same
general effect is true in arenas other than the financial. If you
have specific written goals that you review often, you are far
more likely to succeed than those who merely dream about the
future with no action plan at all.
The Basic Goal-Setting Method
The traditional approach to goal-setting is still very effective,
if sincerely persevered with. The first step consists of doing a
brainstorming exercise in all the major areas of your life. This
has also been called "blue sky thinking". The idea is to write
down your dreams without inhibition and without giving any
thought as to how you might achieve them. You simply list them
all, as if a genie is going to appear and miraculously give you
everything you ask for, just as long as you can write it down.
The goal areas should cover Health, Finances, Family, Career,
Spiritual, Social, and as many other areas as are important to
you.
Once you have these listed, then go through your lists and rank
all the items with a score from 1 to 5. Give the ones you really
MUST achieve a ranking of 1, whereas the ones that are nice, but
not that important can be ranked 5. Try to ensure that you have
at least one rank 1 item in each category. Then eliminate all
those with rank 2 or more, so that only the rank 1 goals remain.
You should have at least one of these for each life area.
Next, assign a time deadline to each goal that remains. For
instance, your goal may be to become a proficient landscape
painter. For this, you may decide to allocate a time deadline of
three years. Or you may decide to double your salary, and you
give yourself a one-year deadline for this. Come up with a
deadline for each, but make sure that you have at least a few
goals with a one-year deadline.
You may keep all of these many goals you have created for later
reference. However, the best thing to do is to set aside all
goals with a time horizon of more than one year for the time
being. Keep the one goal in each area that would make the biggest
single impact on your life if you were to achieve it. In this
way, you end up with one goal in each of your major life areas
that is achievable in one year or less. Multi-year goals are
certainly important, and you can even break them into a series of
one-year goals once you have learned the process. To begin with
though, sticking to on-year goals is best.
This is by no means the only goal-setting technique, but it is
one that is immediate, easy and effective.
Once you have elicited your goals, the next job is to break them
up into mini-goals. Rather than attempt to do one gigantic task,
you break it up into mini-goals, each with their own time
deadline.
Thus, with the landscape painter goal, your mini goals
might be:
(a) Buy Art Materials (Deadline: 1 Week),
(b) Join an Art Class (Deadline: 2 Weeks),
(c) Become proficient at Watercolors (Deadline: 9 Months),
and so on.
Some of the larger mini-goals may themselves be broken up into
components in the same fashion. You continue this process of
mapping the whole thing out until you are left with small
easily accomplished tasks. As they say, "By the yard it's hard,
but by the inch it's a cinch!".
Then, the next important thing is to do something EVERY DAY in
the direction of your goals. One thing you can do that will
accelerate them tremendously is to write out your top ten goals
every morning. This keeps them foremost in your mind. However, it
also triggers your subconscious to move the universe to manifest
them in reality. In fact, creating a short daily routine around
your goals helps to make them a real present part of your life,
and not just some hoped-for future. You should also review your
goals periodically and make any necessary changes. Often, you
will find you no longer want the goal for perfectly good reasons.
It also super-charges your goals to employ visualization. See
yourself doing/acting/being whatever you desire, and you
accelerate your progress towards that goal tremendously. If you
employ all the senses - seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and
smelling your imagined future - then you make the visualization
even more powerful. The inner mind cannot tell the difference
between imagined reality and reality itself. Therefore, it will
work to manifest your imagined reality, i.e. it will rapidly make
it real in your outer life.
Important Considerations Beyond Goal-Setting
All of this is sound advice regarding goal-setting, and will
produce tremendous results if acted upon. However, we have to
realize that life is more than just one long to-do list. You
should create goals, review them, and engage in visualizing your
future in each and every area.
However, at the same time, you have to also realize that life is
a process to be lived. Any discipline you wish to master is the
same way. There is really no time at which you can have said to
have mastered any discipline whatsoever. Scientists, artists,
musicians and all others at the very peak of their profession
will be the first to agree.
Therefore, although goals are important, an attitude of
commitment is even more so. You have to be willing to give what
it takes in order to achieve what you wish. Moreover, you have to
be prepared to give what it takes for as long as it takes, which
is often much longer than you initially envisaged.
Incessant practise of any discipline is vital to achieving any
form of mastery. This is a well known principle in martial arts.
Although it IS possible to learn to break a six inch wooden board
with a blow of your hand within a couple of hours, truly
mastering a martial art is a life-long endeavor.
In the West, we are too much oriented around "quick fix"
solutions. That is often why goal-setting programs fail. They are
either too ambitious, or else motivated by this "have it now"
mentality. Goals WILL help you achieve all that you dream of.
However, be prepared for the commitment of time and effort too.
It will also help you tremendously if you spend a lot of time
discovering the ONE major thing you really want to achieve in
life above all else. A person can spectacularly achieve any ONE
goal if that is the sum total of his/her endeavor. In other
words, if you want to be a top Hollywood screenwriter, you almost
certainly can be if you are prepared to make it the ONE THING
that matters to you. However, it will require years of
single-minded study, practise and patience to achieve. It IS
possible, but most people are not prepared to pay the price.
Conversely, if you are unwilling to do this, you can spread your
efforts across a range of worthy goals. You may not achieve world
fame with any of them, or even be outstanding, but you will
probably achieve a high degree of proficiency. It may be enough
to make you happy and contented.
Thus, achieving goals is not merely a matter of setting them. It
is also crucial to decide how important they are to you. You must
also determine what price you are willing to pay to achieve them.
The key is to make goals congruent with your life; set goals in
areas that you actually WANT to be increasingly important to you;
that you would happily get up early and go to bed late to
achieve. Once you do this, almost anything is possible for you
for it is truly said that:
"What the mind of Man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
Copyright Asoka Selvarajah 2001. All Rights Reserved.
"You Can Manifest Your Desires FAST!
FREE7-Day
Course Reveals..."
How To get rich, happy, and attract anything you want into your
life. Secret technique known only by the world's elite few.
Magnetize your desires, attract your dreams, create a life of
happiness, success and luxury. Join the FREE 7-Day Course NOW! http://www.aksworld.com/Resources/RobertAnthony.htm
"How To Quickly & Easily Achieve Abundance & Power In Your Life!"
Starting today, you can create the life you've always
wanted. Discover how to use your own subconscious energies
for health, prosperity and personal achievement!
but their laughter turned to stunned silence when I made 16
million dollars. Discover how you too can use these simple
secrets to escape wage slavery & debt forever, and easily
generate the spare cash to live as you've always dreamed.
"Dream-Minder Helps You Break The Success Barrier NOW."
With Dream-Minder, you set goals, determine your life values,
record your achievements, and regularly review what really
matters to you. Life transformation is just one step away...
Find out more: http://www.aksworld.com/Resources/Dreams.htm
Disclaimers
Although Aspire To Wisdom is interested in presenting
you with advertisements for quality products and
services, Aspire To Wisdom cannot spend the time to do
the due diligence it takes to ensure that only reliable
services and products are advertised with us.
So you should understand that Aspire To Wisdom does not
represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any
of the advertisements in our newsletter or the
quality of any products, information or other
materials displayed, purchased, or obtained by you
as a result of an offer in connection with any
advertisement.
Aspire To Wisdom encourages you to do your due
diligence before purchasing any product, whether it is
offered here or anywhere else for that matter, before
purchasing. Please use your judgment and carefully
check out those products that interest you.
We accept no
responsibility whatsoever for the content, profitability
or legality of any published articles or advertisements
contained within Aspire To Wisdom.
And, although all of the articles have been chosen for
their content, the publishing of such articles within
this newsletter does NOT constitute a recommendation of
the products or services mentioned or advertised within
those articles.
Be responsible! Always do your Due Diligence before
responding to any offer.
