In the past few years, I think the point has been made that the lives we have created around us are just way too complicated.
Our current economic crisis proves that what we have created is a situation where our priorities are really just out of order.
We spend too much money, waste too much time, we stimulate ourselves into oblivion, and then take energy pills, red bull, and espresso shots to keep ourselves going. Something needs to change in this scenario.
And, the economic crisis has made this clear.
We need to reprioritize our lives. We need to figure out what is most important. I don’t want to tell you that it’s not OK to seek things in life that bring you pleasure. But, we need to grow out of the instant gratification model of over consumption and waste and acknowledge our responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us.
The point is that finding ways to simplify our lives is what’s most important. We need to kind of break the fabric down and rebuild.
I find this to be a pretty common sentiment among those that I talk to. On a whole, we are beginning to realize this. And, if there is any lesson that we can take out of the financial crisis, this is it.
We spend too much, we seek external pleasure that lasts but a moment, and never look at those things that will bring us true internal and lasting feelings of bliss. For a long time, I was no different.
In many ways, I have come to believe that life is simply about growth and learning. As human beings, the ultimate search is for the divine presence within us. The problem is that monetary gain, obtaining physical possessions, the ecstasy of orgasm, the heightened sense awareness created by hallucinogenic drugs….even lying blissed out in front of the television…has come to represent and take the place of the search for that inner divinity.
What is needed is to stop, center ourselves, and realize that the God presence is within us all.
We need to clear our lives of the clutter, clear our bodies of toxins, uplift ourselves in oneness, as well as in our relationships.
I seek pleasure in simplifying and focusing the goals of my life. There is great power in focusing our attention.
I seek to exalt myself through yoga, meditation, exercise, raw foods, good friends, and a focused engagement with life.
What else do we really need?
You don’t have to do what I do. But, some of the lessons you might learn from taking a look at my offerings may reveal some lessons that spark something in you.
And, if you want to learn a very simple approach to health, look no further than the Hacking the Body Mind Protocol which is outlined in the e-book for sale at my website.
It explains all of the things I have learned about over the years that contribute to lasting health andmvitality, and that will help you become clear on where you are headed in your life.
Take a look at what it has to offer.
For so many, as we begin to re establish changes in our lives, the realization hits that health must become a priority. We start to realize that without health, the big house, the Ferrari in the driveway, and that gorgeous yacht just doesn’t mean much.
Then, it becomes an uphill battle toward actually figuring out what information is good and what is not.
The point of the Hacking the Body Mind protocol was to break it all down to a very simple approach so that anyone could achieve wonderful results without all the technical back and forth.
So, I just finished my daily practice. I had a rest day from my workout so I basically did a couple qigong forms, some sexual cultivation work ( haha tisk tisk) and then finished off with an hour of yoga.
As is typical, I get pretty inspired as I start to notice the progress I am making in my practices because I start connecting the dots as to what aspects are doing what and it helps me to round things out.
As my practice has developed over the years I have indeed made some interesting realizations. And, I still do.
I wanted to go into one of them today. And, that is the role that a deep yogic and energetic cultivation practice can play in the development of foundational strength.
I have always been more of a health adventurer rather than a purist. In fact, I kind of hate the idea of doing only one thing because there are so many benefits to be taken from so many different types of practices and in many ways they all overlap.
Not only do they overlap, but, according to Ken Wilber’s integral model (which is what I look at when I truly want to understand the nature of holistic development), doing a range of practices (or spiritually cross training) actually enhances the effects that you take from each of the practices individually and creates an exponential growth curve.
I will go over that more deeply in a future blog post.
Today I just wanted to talk about what I believe yoga and energy cultivation methods bring to the table when being used as a support for a weightlifting or fitness regimen.
We all know what yoga is by now, I think. So, I will not go over that too much. Energy work though, can be a little confusing as it isn’t so well understood and it does encompass a vast quantity of practices developed over many thousands of years.
In my interpretation of energy work, I am basically using it as a generic term that refers to still or moving meditation (tai chi, qi gong etc.) and different types of sexual cultivation practices (tantra, Taoist sexual kung fu…). And, at its core, there is always some type of deep breath awareness that serves as its base and enables us to direct the flow of energy within our body (pranayama in yoga, Zen breathing etc.)
Now, over the years, and more so even recently, I am coming to the realization that, energy work sits on top of everything else as what effects us most deeply in the pursuit of strength development.
The reason for this is that as energy is released, cultivated, and allowed to flow more freely, it begins to provide a level of buoyancy. It really does make one feel lighter. What I mean to say is that it provides a deeper support to all other levels of matter manifestation, including what we see as the physical.
The Taoists have spent many millennia developing one of the most comprehensive approaches to development of any other culture and they maintain the perspective that developing the subtle body is of utmost importance. That is certainly not to say that they did not believe developing the physical body was important….because it absolutely is and has so many benefits that can NOT be understated.
But the Taoists believed that a well muscled person was only as strong as his or her internal body and organ system. Qi gong, although having a deep impact on the flow of energy, also develops the different organs. In their system of anatomy, the Chinese mapped out the many channels, meridians, and corresponding points that exist all over the body. Each one of these roughly corresponds to particular organs within the body….kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, spleen etc.
What lies within each pathway is what is known as chi (or qi, ki, energy, life force, or prana). And illness (physical, mental, or emotional) is created as a result of energy being blocked at a certain channel, meridian, or point. And, if the energy is flowing unimpeded than all of the body’s organs are strong and that in turn strengthens the body’s capacity for muscular development.
After all, it’s really the organs that feed the body its nutrients which allow muscles to develop properly. And, also as the organs and body centers are strengthened, than you will find that you can tend to go harder in your workout, you recover faster, and you don’t get injured nearly as often.
Yoga, at its base, is energy work as well and it actually gives you a range of benefits that are similar. What gives yoga its effect on energy is the concentration on the breath. Breathing deeply and with awareness is what enables someone to cultivate and move the energy. And, so that is why it forms the basis of all moving and still meditative practices.
But, the reason I wanted to go over it here, was due to its effect on strengthening those parts of the physical body that really cannot be developed through a standard weight training regimen.
Yoga, trains the body in a way that stimulates energetic production and awareness, it nourishes all the organs by creating a combined contraction and expansion within each of them, as you work into your folds, twists, and bends, it trains a deeper awareness of your nervous system, brain and spine, and it also strengthens the bones, all of the joints, and all of the muscles as it forces you to move in and out of positions that you would normally never move into.
I think this, to me, is the most compelling reason to undertake a yoga practice.
Yoga, though, goes so much deeper than that. It is much deeper than I can cover in a single blog post. It is so far removed from its current portrayal in the commercial world that it’s kind of ridiculous. But, there are many benefits that can be gained as a result of regular practice.
In so many ways and for so many reasons, yoga and energetic practice can enhance your approach to fitness.
Over the years, I have noticed a dramatic shift in the way I train, focusing less on lifting weights (a typical crossfit styled workout while being very tough and extremely effective lasts about 10-15 minutes) and really expanding my focus on energetic cultivation.
I have to say my yoga practice has gone in and out over the years as I have tried different cultivation means, but I always go back to it as a staple because it is so effective and multifaceted.
I would say out of a typical day of practice, I will spend between 3-5 hours doing different things. Out of that time, a fraction of it is spent working out with weights and focusing on the physical body. The vast majority is spent doing qigong, meditating, and doing yoga.
And that is how it seems to work best. Because I very very rarely if ever get injured and I haven’t gotten sick in a very long while (I used to be sick all the time in my younger days).
Fasting does so many things for us that it is hard to pin down a specific reason for why we should all do it. Fasting is most often linked to food but there are a great many ways to fast and a great many things to fast from.
This world is geared toward over consumption. We over consume food, television, and information. Sometimes creating a temporary space between you and something that you may otherwise think is extremely pleasurable is a good thing.
It often proves to be the case that when we do take that break from something we love, we find that the pleasure is greater once we bring it back into our daily life.
You should always remember that it is the space between the notes that make music what it is.
The moments apart from something that we love makes the moments we have with it just that much more special.
I suppose I am digressing a little bit. Fasting is important for many reasons. What I have found is that fasting shows us directly the hierarchy of needs that exists within our human structure.
In the Russian medicinal system, a weekly complete fast (no food or liquids) is advocated. Logic would tell you that the only thing you would really be craving by the end of it is food. That is what our tendency is. But, the real truth is that we so rarely go without and so we really wouldn’t know.
I did this sort of a fast on a regular basis for a long time and the only thing I would crave at the end of it was water. Now, this seemed funny to me the first time I experienced it. What I realized was that there was a specific hierarchy of requirements.
First requirement is air. We need to breathe. Breath is life and we can only go a few moments without it.
Water is next, and then food, and then sex. And, typically the need for sex will not typically arise unless the other needs are satisfied.
Beyond any other reason, fasting is a good way to really get an honest look at what it is we actually need and why.
It creates a deep sense of discipline. It revives your sensory acuity. It creates a sharper mind and a stronger body. This has been my experience.
It gives you a deeper understanding of the need to entertain the feeling of emptiness and to be able to learn from it.
Fasting rejuvenates all systems. It enables the body to burn up the stuck toxins and unnecessary fat cells as fuel. A complete fast goes one further, allowing the bacteria to be starved out.
Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the bible. In many holy texts, the concepts of fasting and prayer occur together quite often because they are intrinsically linked.
To connect with your higher source, it is important to first flush out the system of toxic matter. A clean body can better allow the light to move through it, which is kind of how I believe we connect with God consciousness. This is not a proven fact but science will eventually catch up.
The point is just to try it, even for very short periods of time. Just fast. Fast from something whether it is television, news, information, food…anything.
If you do try a nutritional fast, go at it slowly. It’s always good to begin slowly and build up. Start with fruit fasts, and then switch to juices along with green powders, then to water and/or complete fasting.
Do this over a period of months so you can build up your capacities.
If you follow the nutritional suggestions I outline in the Hacking the Body Mind protocol, you will soon find that the process of fasting becomes much much simpler because you will be building up the body’s nutritional stores to an amazingly high extent.
If you want a great book on fasting, try this one by Paul and Patricia Bragg.
There is something about this idea that rings true with all of us in this day and age. We know its true. Whether this idea is resonating with you on a conscious level or not, you know its true.
You feel it when you wake up in the morning. You see it when you look in the mirror. This is something from which no one can escape.
Books are being published in droves. Countless websites are being created that sell nutritional supplements, diet pills, colon cleanses. And, why do you think this is?
We know that fundamentally we are all going down the wrong path.
So much of the current world crisis can be linked back to the food we consume, the lack of focused effort we put into our lives, the blind eye we have turned to corporate practices, the selfishness, the greed.
Today, in the age of factory farming, all food consumed, is grown, processed, sold, purchased, prepared, and consumed without love.
We eat without awareness of those sacrifices made in order to feed us. And, this has created much sorrow.
Whether you know it or not, we are all being affected.
It starts from lack of awareness and then manifests through lack of understanding.
Creating health in this day and age is time consuming. Its confusing. We have come into an age of information overload. And it has made us into total skeptics.
But, what I have come to believe is that in many ways, we have what we need, we just have to find it. There are countless voices out there doing what they can to lead us in the right direction.
It is clear to see that our current path is leading us in two directions, toward a dead end, or over a cliff.
Years ago, my goal became to find those sources, those voices, and compile them. I wanted to make the process easier for everyone who truly wanted to know what it was to create a life that generated ever expanding levels of vitality.
And, that is what I have done with the Hacking the Body Mind system. For any of you who are lost on this search, please realize that there are amazing tools out there to help you in every area of life. And, what I want to do is open the door for you to find them.
My new e-book has been released and it is up on the website. Do yourself a favor and take a look at what it has to offer.
There is no more fulfilling love than that of self love. No one can love you in a way that is greater than your capacity to love yourself.
God, the universe, can only provide love to you in a way that matches your own level of self love. So, even then, it is dependent on your own capacity for being the source of your own love.
At a very basic level, woven within the fabric of our society there are a few pretty decent tenets. These are unwritten laws that are always there in the back of our minds, no matter how much we try to avoid them.
The golden rule, how does that go again? Treat others the way you want to be treated.
That really is beautiful fundamentally. And it is there even in the most heinous of violent crimes, as a backdrop in the subconscious. Even the killer who does his deed in cold blood has to shut off his subconscious mechanism of guilt and shame.
But, you know, I take issue with the golden rule because it takes into account the fact that we all like to be treated respectfully and with kindness and in a way that says, “I am unworthy!” That is self love.
Christianity acknowledges everyone as a sinner first! And the doctrine of original sin has deeply contributed to the creation of shame, guilt, and fear within its followers. Has any of you ever asked yourself how it is possible for a newborn baby to have sinned?
We are convicted as soon as we leave the womb. Is it any wonder why we have a society that has gone so wrong?
We project our fears, our anger, our frustration onto others so often because we do not consciously feel we are worthy or capable of dealing with our own problems. We do not feel fit to life.
And, god forbid, we actually find enjoyment in life!
We scream to ourselves, “I am unworthy!” “I do not deserve to be happy when others suffer!”
As immediately as good things come into our lives, we start looking for reasons why those things will be taken away from us. And what this does is create more suffering in this loveless world.
No one can bear such immense levels of hatred. But, this is what our religions are urging us to do. They urge us to look at ourselves as the creator of all of our problems while giving no way to constructively deal with those problems.
So we sit there, swimming in a sea of our own guilt, with no way to understand what we have done to deserve it and no way to therapeutically handle it and create positive change. What is the truth?
The truth is that humanity deserves only love. It does not deserve blame. A wall of hatred towards the self has been hoisted upon us with no reason given, because there is no reason for its existence.
Without the love and value of self…we continue to seek external validation. We seek validation from our parents, our siblings, from our teachers and priests and from every source except that which holds the only true love that can be found.
Love yourself. Value yourself. This is the mechanism that first teaches us what the feeling of love is and you cannot love others until you have felt that love within yourself.
If you try to love another. It inevitably manifests as clingy, hate filled, angry, and possessive love. This can only go either of two ways. You can be filled overflowing with a feeling of love or you can be filled overflowing with a feeling of deep fear.
While our fear manifests as a need to possess, control, and use others, true love manifests as a need to serve, bless, help, and give to others, with no thought to what we will receive in return because we ARE the love and we ARE the giving. That’s where we live.
Now, please know that I am still in the process of searching for this.
I grew up despising myself. I was treated harshly by others in many ways. I was picked on and made fun of. I felt unloved by my family and by those around me in just about every way that you can imagine. I was in perpetual fear. I was afraid of meeting new people and of showing others who I really was.
At some point, I snapped and decided that from then on, I would be me. I would create myself as the person I felt that I could be and wanted to be. And I would, most of all, love myself and stop hiding myself from the world.
Its been a very very long and hard path. No one around me reacted happily to the changes they noticed. Although, there were a few saviors who came into my life to show me that the path I had taken was the right one.
This world and the powers that be, have as their core power, an ability to force us to feel inferior. The hate that exists in the world is a simple manifestation out of the hate and anger we feel toward ourselves.
How do we change this?
You must manifest a deep love for you, for the you that you are, for the you that you were, and for the you that you will one day become.
You…everyone who reads this….everyone who will read this…who wont read this…you…all of us…everyone living, breathing, walking…..you….carry within you the capacity for unconditional love. You can only unleash that when you’ve begun to feel it for yourself.
You carry within you every thing that you need. So, stop fearing what you feel is inevitable and start feeling grateful for what you have now. Stop fearing being alone…or being unloved…or the torment of others…or that you cant pay the bills….
Its a proven fact that 90 percent of what we create in our minds out of fear is all false! Its all untrue and it only comes about in our existence as a result of us creating it!
Love yourself, with everything that you are. Become the light you wish to see in the world. You need not feed off of the energy of others. Create it within yourself with love. And as you begin to overwhelm yourself with this feeling, you will begin overflowing with so much of it that you will not be able to hold it back.
This overwhelming feel of love, joy, and bliss will spill out onto everyone you come across. And, you will begin to see the good in everything. In every so called bad thing that happens to you , there is a seed of goodness and a seed of truth.
Be a warrior and not a victim. Develop the capacity to see life as a set of challenges to face and plateaus to surpass and everything will change for you and in your world.
The way others see you will change. The way you are received by others will change. Your ability to communicate will deepen. Everything about you will grow and become better by the sole capacity of love you have within.
Until you can look into the mirror of the universe and look with a smile toward the image projected back at you, no matter what its current condition, things will never change and the love you seek will never be found.
Do it now. Love yourself from the depths of who you are. You cannot wait until you are deserving because you have been deserving since before you were even a concept in the minds of those who brought you into the world.
Don’t wait until you find the perfection you are seeking! Stop seeking perfection and begin SEEING that perfection in the mirror of the universe.
“Seek the kingdom of heaven and all will be given unto you.”
The kingdom of heaven is inside of you! Stop seeking it and begin manifesting it. It is in you and it is waiting to come forth. Love yourself. Believe in your own capacities and your own inherent right to all the goodness that the world has to offer.
If we all did this, don’t you think this would be a different world?
This is a topic that I am sure we all give a good bit of thought to. What is monogamy? Why has it become so intrinsically linked with the value system of our society? Is there a purpose that is served with the acquisition of it?
Well, we can address the question of purpose by saying that monogamy is needed for marriage to work. Marriage is needed for procreation to come about. And, procreation leads to the completion of the family. Within all those aspects are thought to be contained an intrinsic and absolute expression of love throughout.
All of the above, is absolutely true. Monogamy is absolutely necessary for a man and a woman to achieve a family. And that can indeed be considered to be at the pinnacle of happiness in this life. So, why do so many marriages and relationships fail? And, why are so many families being torn apart because either the man, woman, or both come to the conclusion that they are unfulfilled in some way?
This has always been the tough part to get for me. It is surprising that while so many relationships are failing, so many of us continue to press on, searching for that person that will finally complete us. Either side certainly has ample reason to blame the one opposing because both play an active role in this vicious cycle. But why is it this way?
I have concluded that we have come to look at the ideas of relationship, love, and sexuality in such a limited way, and from such a merely material perspective, that we have become unable to see the higher purpose of anyone of them. What do you think that could be? Do you think it is possible that these concepts can even have a purpose other than the aforementioned?
Well, if we look at them in the order in which they were originally intended, first there has existed the individual man and woman. They at some point meet and through a general attraction for each other, love is found. Then sexual union would be followed by the creation of a new living being.
If we look at that idea from the point of view of many of the ancient Taoist teachings we find that even in their system of spiritual cultivation the same thing exists but in an existential (rather than material) way. In those cultures, each individual would first be shown ways to cultivate their own singular conscious awareness, through meditation and so forth.
As that awareness increased then it would be obvious that another cultivated being would be needed for either person to reach a new level, the highest level, of ultimate consciousness. This would be done through a kind of ritualistic sexual alchemical union to produce the immortal seed.
Is it possible that the men and women of today are simply seeking to satisfy their need to experience this higher state without realizing it? I am sure no one would deny that they feel the happiest when they are connecting with another person. I know this for certain and have experienced it. Is it not pretty easy to see that the experience of orgasm is simply the highest and most satisfying expression of that connection?
I think it is. The fact that a whole new life can be sparked by this makes it pretty clear. There is such an abundance of energy within the experience of orgasm that it can almost mimic satori or samadhi in many ways.
It is unfortunate that so many people are beating themselves down emotionally by running around trying frantically to find that one person that they can spend their lives with without understanding the true underlying purpose.
As I said, you are never as fundamentally happy, as when you are connecting emotionally with another person. But to look at it so one-dimensionally puts us at odds with ourselves. Perhaps we can look at it another way. Perhaps we should begin to view it in a way that helps the idea of monogamy make more sense than it seems to at the moment.
What would happen if we changed our priorities a bit and if, instead we had as our top priority, personal cultivation?. Maybe the achievement of true love of another would come much easier because it would be simply an extension of the existing love that we have cultivated within.
If I achieved an overabundance of love for myself, does it not make sense that it would spill over into almost a need to express that excess of love to another (instead of only wanting to…be loved by another)?
And, then, the next would be to realize that that mutual connection, that other person, is needed for me to reach even higher levels of realization.
That other person would then seem more like a vessel or channel for self actualization. That would be opposed to the current idea of being merely someone to spend time with, or grow old with. That idea has been romanticized to death, but it really isn’t so romantic.
The idea of having a partner in life who is helping me to bring about my own capacity for understanding myself and the world around me. Now THAT is romantic.
If that idea was put in place and acted out maybe then could the idea of monogamy actual work quite well.
I know that there is nothing I want more than to find that person that will help me achieve a higher level of spiritual understanding. And I have no problem waiting for that person to show up in my life. And, when they do, if I am pure and spiritually evolved and complete, I haven’t even the slightest doubt that it will be right.
