Currently there are many people in this world that are searching for more. They have reached that point where they genuinely ask themselves the age old question, "Is this really all there is to life?"
The fact is that this world is such a wonderful place to learn these lessons, by that I mean that it shows one very effectively that material things cannot bring happiness. In this world of ours, one can see it so very clearly if one wishes. The following is a brief description of my path so far...
When we look around it is easy to see people that earn the kind of money that one can only ever dream of. Our television screens are littered with them. In this world one can have more money than it is possible spend in a lifetime. The thing is, when I look at these people, I mean really look, they are clearly not happy. One only has to look at Britney Spears at the moment to see this very plainly. This is because the thirst inside for something more always remains.
I thought, a long time ago, that it was just a case of earning more money. I thought this would quench this thirst and so I went after it and got it. I had so much money, that I literally did not know what to do with it, but I was still not fulfilled. Then I began thinking that perhaps it was freedom that I thirsted for; to be the master of my own destiny. So I pursued that. I dropped out of the ‘rat-race’ and attained that freedom. Still, the thirst was stronger than ever...
I thought that it was love and family so that was my next target. This did provide temporary relief. Children are apt to do that. They are so wonderful and take an inordinate amount of work that can distract you for a while. Yet soon the thirst was there again. Next I began to think that perhaps I choose the wrong career in the first place and so tried to live out childhood fantasies in the hope that they would satisfy the constant craving. They did not. I found myself left with little more than my ambitions. I tried fulfilling those. It did not work. Nothing worked.
One by one all the things that this world offered were left by the wayside as I began to realize that nothing would fill the hole inside. That is when I began to despair. I had tried everything I could think of and found that none of it worked. I had been to all the wild parties, taken numerous drugs, slept with more people than should be legal, earned more money than I could ever need, achieved goals I never thought possible, and so on and so on until I finally accepted that what I needed cannot be found in this world.
This was when depression set in. Thoughts of suicide plagued me. This stage lasted a long time. What I came to understand was that this too was an illusion. All I was really doing was trying to convince myself that I had not made wise choices in this life and if I had then everything would be alright and I would not feel this way. So, I thought, let's end this life and just try harder in the next, (I believe in reincarnation, by the way). Fortunately though, I am strong and know deep down that this is not the way. Having said that, this did not stop me fantasizing about it.
Then, suddenly, and without my even realizing it for a while, a wonderful thing happens. God came to me. It was not a ‘road to Damascus’ type of experience; it was so much smaller and so much quieter than that. There is light but it is not the light that is visible to human eyes. It is light on the inside. It is the light of God that fills you. You suddenly know what you must do and where you must go. Life takes on new meaning.
And yet … yet, I had absolutely no idea how to get there; no idea even where ‘there’ was. I had read much about it. Indeed, in reaching this place, that had been an inevitable necessity. None of it really helped at this time, though. There is so much confusion in this world that I came to a point where none of the information out there added anything other than more confusion. I had reached the stage where it all said the same thing, in the end. The problem, though I did not know it yet, was that my cup was simply full, as the saying goes. How can the spirit pour anything new into you when your cup is already overflowing with the ideas of this world? Soon I came to realize this.
This is where I understood that it was time to stop. By beginning the process of emptying my mind of all the thoughts that had got me this far I slowly began to be receive the spirit. The paradox is that I needed all that information to get me to this point but, now that I was there, I needed to completely empty myself of it.
I discovered, as did Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”, that I already possessed everything I would ever need to take me home. This is where the real work began; only it is not work at all. It is the absence of work, the absence of anything at all.
I began to go inside myself, and now everything is becoming clearer. This has not happened overnight and the path from here is still a very long one. What I did not realize for a long time is that the process changes you anyway. Truly, it is not a destination but a journey. It is how we travel that is the most important thing. When we travel in the right way, the destination will come to us and we will realize that we were there already. Again, just like Dorothy, we will realize that it was all just a dream.
I have been on the spiritual path almost all of my adult life now. I have left behind much that once mattered in this world of form. This is good. This is necessary and the process will continue. I see now that everything up until the point where I started to look inside was just preparation, though very necessary preparation at that. It was then that the true journey began...
We are all beginners in this thing called life. Experience and knowledge do not make wisdom. Wisdom comes only from the God within. It is not of this world.
Saturday, 22 December 2007
My Spiritual Path...
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Telesales Book
I have received a number of requests asking where people can get copies of my forthcoming telesales book.
It is currently still in the production stages but should be ready very early in 2008. Please check back here for progress updates...
Thank you.
End of post.
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Ramanama
I have, of late, begun to read Gandhi’s autobiography. I have not proceeded very far with it, as yet, but one thing has struck me with such a force that I am already thankful for beginning this reading. This is the concept of “Ramanama”.
Gandhi purports to have gained immense strength from this practice. I have conducted a brief web search but profess that I have yet to find the exact methodology behind this practice. However, I am particularly impressed at the notion of having a ‘practice’ that possesses the potential to imbue one with such power and motivation as had Gandhi.
I am, therefore, set to the task of finding such a practice as this for myself. It, of course, does not have to be ramanama, since that is based around the Hindu deity of Rama. Just as long as I find something, that is what counts. I am exceedingly glad to have discovered that such a thing as this exists”
Friday, 7 December 2007
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Religion: The Nature Of...
I would like to make it clear that I do not belong to any one religion. The things I have found to hold truth and the things I share on this site and in my writings belong only to the category of "truth" as I have experienced it. Many times I will use quotations from the bible or from Jesus. This is only because I grew up in the west where the dominant religion is Christianity. I am not a Christian. Certain things that the Christian Church holds as absolute, I cannot agree with; like Christianity being the only way, for example. ..
It is clear that each religion holds a spark of the truth. I believe that we can come to know the whole truth, but we must be prepared to search for it. One of the main tenets of Christianity is that we are helpless and cannot attain salvation by our own means. It wields this as one of its primary weapon against other religions. The thing to be pointed out though, is that other religions have the same tenet. Yes, they say that one should purify oneself through practices such as meditation, fasting and so forth, but then so too does the bible, if one reads it.
As a student of God I can say that, when one looks closely at the religions of this world, what leaps out most is the inherent similarities. Countless thousands of lives have been lost due to the differences between religions. It seems that not a single one of these religious leaders is prepared to say, "Oh, hang on a second; doesn't it say something, somewhere about thou shalt not kill?"
I remember all too well when the World Trade Towers were bombed on 9/11. At the time I used to participate in several spiritually based discussion forums on the net. I had, previously, been most impressed at the other participants' general level of tolerance and professed love of peace. On the morning of 9/11, I was shocked by the reactions of these same people. The posts called for America to retaliate with full force. I believe the exact words of one member were simply "Bomb the f***ing b*****ds". Needles to say, my eyes were opened on that day.
This is perhaps still a very sensitive issue and it may be that I am inviting hostilities here, but retaliation, even under extreme circumstances, is not the way of Love.
One of the things that this world does with amazing regularity is that when a messenger from God appears, it promptly kills that messenger, discards the message and then systematically works to create a religion based around worshipping the messenger whilst speedily sweeping as much of the message under the carpet as possible. Is it any wonder that people have rejected God as they have? How I would love to delve inside the Vatican and see just what they have concealed over the centuries. What is it they say about absolute power…?
Gandhi was only too well aware of the nature of this world. He repeatedly insisted that his followers did not create a religion based on his teachings and that he should not be worshipped.
Let us look, for example, at the history of Europe. It becomes clear that during feudal times, when feudal lords warred against each other to gain control over the masses, it was the Vatican state that became the ultimate victor and the ultimate feudal lord. The only difference is that it did not use physical weapons to defeat its enemies, (that came later!). It learned to control people’s minds.
The main point, to conclude, is that one should always question what is set before you. Never accept something just because you think, or are told, that you should. We experience this world through the five senses. They are the tools of the ego with which it maintains its illusory hold over us. The senses are, unfortunately, infinitely fallible and all too prone to deceive. Always remember that the devil's greatest feat was convincing mankind that he does not exist.
Friday, 30 November 2007
2 blog or not 2 blog?
I have come to the point where I am considering beginning a second blog site. I feel that what I am posting appears to be becoming some form of minestrone soup, in that it has no clear focus.
I guess I could start another blog. It would be far more spiritually biased. I could then split my blogs into their separate genres, in that one could be based around self development and the other could be more spiritual. The problem with that is that I would not really be being true to myself...
I have come to the point in my learning where the self-help/self development stuff has merged with the spiritual and the spiritual stuff has won out. What I mean by this is that the laws that govern self help and N.L.P. and so forth are a little like bastardisations of spiritual laws and are watered down versions for the masses.
Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying there is anything wrong with self-development teaching. There is not. It is just that it is primarily geared towards a lower level of learning. On the whole it is aimed at the mass market and, in truth, much of the deeper level teaching would more often than not be just dismissed as too strange by a beginning student. It is not that the deeper teachings are beyond the comprehension of beginners, no, not that at all. It is just that society has ingrained in us one thing and much of the deeper level teachings do not gel with that. So the student must come to the deeper understanding when they have absorbed the earlier material; when they have begun to seriously question what the world at large teaches. This does happen overnight in most cases.
Should I aim at the masses or should I share what I have found without watering it down? The answer to that is that I have to be true to myself. If what I have to say alienates some and drives them away then that is a risk I must take. I cannot be anything other than true to myself. It may be the case that I am mistaken in what I have found, but as long as I offer what I believe and have found to hold true in my life then my conscience is clear. I will certainly never stop learning and so if I find anything to be contrary to the things I have shared then I will openly and honestly declare that to be the case.
In fairness, I have found that what actually happens is not that the greater understanding proves that which came before to be false. The greater understanding merely deepens the knowledge and there is an unfolding of the subject thereof. It is like a child in school. Initially it will learn one thing but that will be a watered down and simplified version of the whole truth. As the child progresses, more and more shall be revealed, but this does not contradict the initial fact, it expounds upon it. The level of teaching is geared, in an ideal world, to the level of comprehension, or just slightly above to stretch the child.
I am extremely aware that much of what I say may come across as though I am blowing my own trumpet, as the saying goes. This is not my intention, and it is well to point out that in many, many respects I am, at least by the standards of this world, not currently a successful man. My income is very low at this time. True enough, in the past this was not the case. When my worldly aspirations held a different sway than they do presently, I was considered among the top of my field as a salesman, and had an income to match.
Yet that is not where I feel compelled to be now. The inner yearnings, that I have interpreted as God directing me from within, have lead me to this place and I am happy to a large extent. That does not mean that I have no worldly concerns, for I have not yet progressed to that level. It simply means that there are greater ones right now and it is these I must follow. These writings are examples of this.
I think that what I am saying, in the end, is that I must stay with just the one blog and trust that God will direct my posts.
Thursday, 29 November 2007
A lesson in humility
It seems that life has a sense of humour. Well, I guess I'm not saying anything new there, am I?! Still, I had a rather embarrassing lesson in humility this evening that I thought I would share with you...
I had been to the supermarket and on return to my car had found myself unable to start it. Since I am not good with cars I always ensure that I am a member of the AA. The truck arrived after about an hour. I did not consider this an unreasonable wait, but boy was it cold. Anyway, it took the mechanic about three seconds to, in an albeit friendly and understanding manner, inform me that automatic transmission cars will not start in the 'drive' position. Heck, I've only ever driven a manual gearbox before so I had no idea. Needless to say he was speedily on his way and so was I.
The lesson in humility came afterwards when I remembered what had happened to me at the tills in the supermarket. They have installed several new self-service till points. These have proved to be a firm favourite with men that often only have one or two items and are paying by cash. However, when the other tills are busy other people get a little more intrepid and have a bash at these 'new-fangled' marvels of modern technology.
This evening the tills were particularly busy and so I found myself waiting in line at the self-service tills watching as several hapless old ladies were trying to figure them out. They were struggling to say the least. While remaining calm and patient, outwardly at least anyway, inside I was debating, just for fun, whether the store owners should stick signs up around these tills saying "Not To Be Used By Women - especially old ones". (I had my sexist, non-tolerant head on, by the way).
Like I said, it was only afterwards in the car as I drove home that I realised the similarities between the two incidents and the irony hit me. Having mentally used up just about every stereotypical joke regarding the elderly ladies in the supermarket, I was now the proverbial 'woman driver'!!! (Please, I do not mean to offend, I use this image for humerous affect only).
Well, like I said at the beginning; a lesson in humility for me, I think!
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
A little about myself
I have lived the majority of my adult life as a seeker, (though not in the Harry Potter sense).
A seeker, for those unfamiliar with the term, is someone on a spiritual path. We are, all of us, on a spiritual path, though most are not aware of it. The path hopefully leads to God, enlightenment, Nirvana, oneness, or any other of a host of names that you could choose.
On a day to day level, this means living in an increasingly conscious manner. We are ultimately responsible for who we are, how our lives turn out and how we affect those around us. The knowledge of this carries great responsibility and the vast majority are not yet ready to face this.
There are those that believe, as I do, that people will have to make a choice in the days to come. All shall be presented with this choice though it is usually not obvious that this is what is happening. The choice we shall face is whether to live in a conscious manner or to continue to abdicate responsibility to the illusions of the ego.
More and more, people are accepting this and beginning to change their lives. We see this in the media with the advent of New Age philosophies. In bookstores and on the internet there has been an information explosion to this end. People are beginning to awaken to their inherent spiritual nature. It is a cliche, but the Age of Aquarius is now truly upon us.
Through this blog I will aim to provide a guiding light, or a signpost as it were, for the ones that would choose to see. I claim no secret knowledge nor as yet undiscovered wisdom that cannot be found elsewhere. I do not claim to offer a better way, for all must tread their own path. My only claim is that I have trodden the path to a greater degree than many and yet to a lesser one than many more still. I simply find myself now with the overwhelming urge to share what I have found in the hope of helping others. Some may say that this desire in and of itself would disqualify me from sharing this information. That is not my place to judge.
As with all information presented before you, take what you find to be of use and discard the rest.
Many blessings.
Solotow
First Post
Ok, so this is my very first blog. Hey, I bet no one ever started their blogging career with that sentence!
Why am I entering the world of blogging, then? I guess, to have my say. I think perhaps I have something to offer - I know I've spent a long time listening to what others have to say, so maybe it's time for me to give something back in return.
What would I like to talk about? I feel I have a little to add to the world in respect to searching for our reasons for being alive and our life purpose in this crazy world. I am aware that this may sound egotistical but I have learned that we should ALL try to teach as well as learn. Just as there is always someone better or more advanced than we are, so too is there always at least one person that is a little behind. If we can but help that one person then our life has been worthwhile and our time been well spent.
There you have it, I guess. I truly hope you enjoy what I have to offer and that, even in a very small way, it benefits your life as others have done so for mine.
Solotow
