What is a Bar Mitzvah?

What is a Bar Mitzvah?
Jewish texts from the time of the codification of the
Mishnah (circa 200 CE) convey the idea that along with
puberty comes responsibility for one's own actions. The
idea of accountability, goes back even further. The great
Samuel ha-Kaṭan writing at the close of the first
century states in a Baraita that the completion of the
thirteenth year marks the age for responsibility to the
commandments.

This concept of responsibility for personal actions and
more importantly adherence and fidelity to the covenant of
Torah was solidified in most Jewish communities as being
generally applicable to girls at age twelve and boys at
thirteen.

Over the centuries, the marking of this passage into
personal responsibility has developed significantly as a
joyous celebration, which some modern critics have stated
may overshadow the original religious significance.

In most non-Orthodox communities, both Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
(literally son or daughter of the commandment) are marked
by the individual's first time to read or chant a section
from the weekly Torah portion and its associated passage in
the Haftarah in Hebrew.

Many communities also require the individual to lead a
section of the service and present a brief commentary on
the text they have read and studied. The custom of
presenting a tallit (prayer shawl). has also become part of
the ritual for many.

In traditional communities the Bar Mitzvah is now counted
as part of the minyan (quorum) required for the public
reading of the Torah from that day forward as well as for
the recitation or repetition of certain prayers such as
Kaddish in the case of the former, and the Amidah in the
case of the latter.

In most traditional communities, the manner in which a
young woman marks her Bat Mitzvah is more limited than in
non-Orthodox communities and the young woman is not counted
as part of the minyan in accordance with Halachah. In
Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Renewal
communities, the celebration of a Bat Mitzvah equals that
of a Bar Mitzvah.

While individual responsibility traditionally begins at 12
(for girls) and 13 (for boys) years of age, the ceremony
itself may be observed at a later time. This practice has
increased in recent years as older individuals not having
celebrated their Bar or Bat Mitzvah's earlier in life
desire to mark their solidarity to the greater Jewish
community and tradition.

Jewish communities often see the Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah
as an opportunity for a Bar or Bat mitzvah to study Hebrew,
Bible, Jewish history, and a basic knowledge of Jewish
prayer and practice.

Of all the challenges associated with becoming a Bar of Bat
Mitzvah perhaps the most challenging is the task of
learning Biblical Hebrew, so an early start is of great
benefit.

----------------------------------------------------
Jacob Lumbroso writes articles on history, foreign
cultures, and Judaism for http://www.judaicaquest.com/

The Secret To Psychic Mediumship

The Secret To Psychic Mediumship
Did you ever wonder how Psychic Mediums in the media
contact deceased loved ones so accurately in front of an
audience? Does it all seem like magic, smoke and mirrors?
They seem to get names, facts and figures like "water
running off a duck's back!" Did it ever occur to you that
mediumship is a skill most people can do, provided they
know the right, extremely simple to learn, mind development
exercises?

When I first started studying mediumship, it all seemed
rather mystical to me. I strained, strived and struggled
to get accurate information. I believed it was difficult
and difficult it became. My teacher's all taught versions
of meditation to gain access, but the techniques they used
did not provide a foolproof method to go deeply enough into
trance at will.

But there is a way to do it. It is called hypnosis. Yes,
simple self-hypnosis as a technique can place you deeply in
trance so that access to the world of spirit is highly
probably and quite likely. This coupled with unblocking
any issues you might have are the foundation for success in
this work.

Mediumship can be explained in a minute. You relax, ask
for access to spirit, and then receive the information
without blocking it. But like riding a bike, instructions
are not enough. Developing the skill is everything. The
most critical skill to build for successful mediumship is
learning how to effectively enter trance and unblocking any
beliefs or past life issues which might prevent an open
channel.

The way to do this effectively is using hypnosis. To enter
a simple self induced trance take the following steps. You
might want to record these steps in your own voice for easy
playback.

1. Get into a comfortable position seated or lying down
where you will not be interrupted for at least five to ten
minutes.
2. Take in a few deep breaths and relax.
3. Imagine you are in a field and off in the distance you
see a water well.
4. You walk over to it and peer down into the well.
5. There is no water in the well, but rather you realize it
is a very long tunnel with a white light at the very end of
it way off in the distance.
6. You notice a stairway curving along the inner perimeter
of the tunnel. It starts at the top of the inside of the
tunnel curving down clockwise to the white light at the
very end.
7. You feel compelled to step into the well and climb onto
the staircase.
8. As you walk down the stairs you count backwards slowly
from 10. Each number represents a station and is separated
by at least five steps. At each station you suggest to
yourself you are going deeper and deeper into the well and
into a relaxed sleep until you arrive at the white light at
zero.
9. You enter the white light.
10. This is the spiritual realm. It looks like any place
that is extremely familiar, pleasant and relaxing to you.
This is the place where contact with the world of spirit is
possible.
11. Relax and begin to ask spirit to provide you the
information you need.

Quite often the things we think are exotic really are quite
ordinary provided we have the right tools. When you think
about flying, it was an outrageous idea before the airplane
was invented. Well, what if you had the right tools to
open your mind to connect to spirit with repeatable
accuracy? This is what the correct tools to go to trance
can do for you. It makes the exotic simple, repeatable and
quite possible.

----------------------------------------------------
Laura Bartolini Mendelsohn is The "Intuitive Magic" Coach,
a five star rated psychic with inherited talent and over 40
years metaphysic experience. She coaches people to
dramatically improve their "luck" by developing the magic
of their intuition. Move from wanting to winning today!
Order your FREE copy of "Intuitive Magic: The Secret To
Luck!" at http://www.intuitivemagiccoach.com/ .

Premonitions and confirmations

Premonitions and confirmations
Have you ever had the experience where you think of someone
and then the phone rings and it is that person calling you?
Or where you talk about someone and that person walks into
the room unexpectedly?

And then there are the many instances where people
disappear and their loved ones know in their heart of
hearts whether they are alive or dead, but have no way of
explaining that knowledge. An example is the disappearance
of Madeleine McCann in Portugal a year ago. I personally
am convinced that she is still alive - that is what my gut
feel tells me. Many other parents and loved ones are not
so fortunate - and they know it, and are just waiting for
confirmation. I really feel so sorry for them, but then
we all choose our experiences because we need to learn from
them.

I have learnt over the years to dread dreaming about people
close to me like my son or my partner. I know from
experience that those dreams invariably are warnings of
trouble ahead. For many years I was only aware of these
dreams that came true a few days later, and I did not
realize that they were early warnings. Once I have had
the dream, all I can do is wait for the trouble to
materialize and then deal with it. If I had known this
years ago when I first became aware of those particular
dreams, I would have made different life choices. My life
has turned out to be perfect for its purpose anyway,
because those experiences and the warning dreams have been
a very important part of my spiritual path and my growing
awareness.

How does this work? Here is my unscientific version.

Take a sheet of newspaper. Fold it in half, and then in
half again, so that you have four layers of newspaper. Now
take a pair of scissors and cut the outline of a person out
of the newspaper, but cut it out from the knees upwards.
You should end up with four people touching hands, and
joined from their knees downwards.

That is a representation of us, the people on earth and in
the universe. We are all unique and individual, but at the
same time we are all one and linked together. If you want
to, you can give names to the people you cut out. How
about calling them Me, Sister Teresa, Osama bin Laden and
Sarah Jessica Parker? Why not? Why would you want to be
one with Sarah Jessica Parker but not with Osama bin Laden?
We do not have much choice in this - we are all one. If
you had cut out six figures, you could have named the last
two Jesus and Adolf Hitler. Or you could have named them
after you most and least favourite teachers at school.
Either way, this gives you an idea of how we are all linked
together in this Universe.

We seem to have stronger links to some people than to
others, as if the paper was folded double so that the
figures would be joined from the knees downwards but also
touch closely on all the other parts. The people that we
have stronger links to are those that we associate with on
a daily basis. They would for example be lovers, close
family, friends and even animals.

I have read about an experiment that was done with a woman
and her dog. The woman would leave home to go somewhere
specifically for the experiment, in other words not part of
her daily routine. She would travel in a random direction,
and at some point decide to stop and turn back home. She
would note the time when she decided to turn back home.

At the same time there was a person at her home that would
observe the behaviour of the dog. Invariably, the dog
would get up and wag its tail in anticipation of the return
of the woman, a few minutes BEFORE the woman consciously
decided to stop and turn back. How did the dog know the
woman was on her way back? The dog had no hesitation
tuning into the quantum vacuum to ensure that he would
retain contact with his owner, because the dog has not
learnt yet to fear the unknown. We tune in the same way,
but we do it unconsciously, and that is how we become aware
of the well-being and distress of those that we feel
closest to us.

I grew up in an area where there would regularly be light
earth tremors - near the gold fields in South Africa. We
could also see in the behaviour of the animals when an
earthquake could be expected, and even how severe it would
be. If the animals - both chickens and dogs - became
restless, there would be a light tremor. If they started
behaving completely out of character, that would be the
time to go outside and expect a more severe tremor.

The same happened during the tsunami a few years ago.
There were a number of elephants with their mahouts or
drivers in one area. These elephants were tame and used to
having people on their backs. On the specific day, the
elephants ran to higher ground and nearly threw the people
off their backs. They then ran down again and grabbed
unsuspecting people with their trunks and dumped them on
higher ground.

The mahouts had no control over the animals, and only
realised what had happened when the devastating wall of
water came.

Imagine waves of energy around us and emanating from us.
Those waves of energy probably have the same strength for
each one of us, but we are only tuned into those that we
consciously want to pick up, like a radio that is tuned
into a specific station. The other stations are there, but
if we tune into all the stations, it would be too much for
our minds (and our ears) to cope with.

So we simply tune into those people that we care most
about, and then we are surprised when we know about their
well-being before they know themselves - because we do not
understand what we know intuitively. We live on the
surface of a sea of information, and we are only aware of a
tiny bit of that information.

So when you have a very strong and often apparently
completely irrational feeling about something, accept that
it is real, and act on it. It will make a huge difference
to your life and someone else's life.

----------------------------------------------------
Elsabe Smit is the author of A Tapestry of Life and of the
blog http://www.mypurpleblog.com , Spiritual
interpretations of everyday life.

What is a Tallit?

What is a Tallit?
For many, the tallit often referred to as a prayer shawl,
is one of the iconic symbols of Judaism. The purpose of the
tallit, however is often misunderstood. The principal
purpose or function of the tallit is to serve as the the
four corners from which to hang the the fringes in
compliance with the Torah's prescription in the book of
Numbers 15:37-40.

The rise of the Bar Mitzvah and of Bat Mitzvah's in the
20th century have added to the tallit's designation as a
Jewish garment of great significance. In certain
communities, it is used by men after marriage only.

In Kabbalistic circles, the tallit is a special garment for
the service of God, intended, in connection with tefillin,
to inspire awe and reverence for God at prayer.

The importance of these symbols in Kabbalistic circles can
be seen by the song sung on Shabbat known as the the Song
of Glory which ascribes God the wearing of Tefillin which
in turn connotes God's own dedication to prayer and hence
the tallit. In traditional circles, the tallit is worn by
all Jewish males at the morning prayer on weekdays,
Sabbaths, and holidays.

The tallit is also worn by the cantor at every prayer while
before the Ark; and by the reader of the scroll of the Law
when on the platform known as the Bimah. With the rise of
the various Progressive Jewish movements (e.g. Jewish
Renewal, Reconstructionist, Conservative, etc.), the use of
the tallit among women has been adopted. The tallit is
often spread over as a canopy wedding ceremonies.

The ṭallit, which can be spread out like a sheet, is
most often woven of wool or silk. Traditionally colors such
as white, with black or blue stripes at the ends was and
remains common. Woolen tallits remain preferable for most
traditional and Orthodox circles.

The most important part of the Tallit is the Tzitzit
(fringes) which according to Bet Shammai (House of Shammai)
consisted of four threads of white wool and four threads of
blue, but according to Bet Hillel (House of Shammai) of two
threads of each. The tallit katan (small tallit) is worn
today among more traditional Jewish men as an undergarment.

The reason a blue cord was entwined in the fringes is
addressed by R. Meïr who asked, "Why blue?" The
answer was, "Because this color resembles the sea, the sea
resembles the sky, and the sky resembles the "Chair of
Glory," of which it is said, "Under His feet . . . a
sapphire stone."

----------------------------------------------------
Jacob Lumbroso writes articles on history, foreign
cultures, and Judaism for http://www.judaicaquest.com/

Onesimus, Indiana floods, and a lesson in perseverance.

Onesimus, Indiana floods, and a lesson in perseverance.
The other day I was in Athens, Ohio hanging with a friend
of mine who runs a dynamic ministry to the rural poor near
the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. I had just
finished playing Frisbee with the staff-members when I got
a phone call from my wife telling me that we got an offer
on our house and that we had to sign the papers the next
day—and not a day later. Selling our house was the one
obstacle getting in the way of my wife and I's move to
Bethlehem next year, so I was elated. The only dimmer on
the evening was it was 9:00 p.m. and I knew that it would
take at least 10 hours to drive home. With little time to
think, I packed my stuff and headed home. I drove till
about 2:30 a.m. and found a Super 8 just outside of
Indianapolis.

The next day I got up--after about 4 hours of sleep--and
continued on my way. Everything was going well till about
10:00 a.m. I was in McDonalds having breakfast when the
windows of heaven started pouring down. The rain reminded
me of Noah's flood and for a brief minute I contemplated
what it must have felt like standing outside the ark after
the doors were shut. Then the lights went completely out. I
saw a man standing around that looked like he knew
something that I didn't, so I asked if he knew when the
storm was going to let up. He proceeded to tell me the bad
news that Hwy 70 W was closed down about 20 miles south of
where I was and the traffic was backed up for miles.

Knowing I couldn't risk letting more time go by, I decided
to head out anyway and sure enough, he was right. Luckily
the guy had an atlas in his truck and he helped me work
out an alternative route before I left. Just before the
traffic build-up I spotted an exit and decided to fuel up.
I also had to go to the bathroom, but, unfortunately the
bathroom was out of order--and that was the only bathroom
around for miles. I had a choice to make at that moment. I
could either lose my dignity and go in a bush at the corner
of the lawn attached to the station, or I could get back on
the road and wait about two hours in the traffic. Like any
man would do, I chose option one and silently thanked God
that he didn't create me a woman.

Once I finally got to the exit for the alternative route, I
pulled over to another gas station only to find out that
the road I was traveling on was also closed down further
down the way due to an overturned truck. This time, I had
to drive about 18 miles to another highway that was
supposed to get me back on 70 going west. Unbeknownst to me
at the time, the entire area was declared a disaster area
due to the flooding--which meant that I was going to have
to spend another 3 hours in stand still traffic. To make
matters worse, after I got back on the road and spendt
another two hours in agony, I pulled over to another gas
station only to find out that the station was temporarily
closed down. I seriously didn't think I was going to make
it back home that day, but thank God I did. The trip took
twice as long as it should have, but I made it back just in
the nick of time to sign the papers to close the deal.

I'm reminded of 2 Timothy 1:17 where the Apostle Paul
describes how a man named Onesimus arrived in Rome and
sought for Paul zealously until he found him. Just like the
way I was determined to get home to sign the papers on the
sale of my home despite the obstacles in my way, Onesimus
was a man that didn't allow obstacles to detract him from
his destination. Had Onesimus taken the same attitude that
many Christians do today, he would have concluded that it
simply wasn't God's will for him to find Paul after two or
three tries. I think that too often we pacify ourselves
for our lack of perseverance by saying, "Oh well, I guess
it wasn't God's will for me to finish my education or to go
on that missionary trip" when the real reason is we just
didn't want it bad enough. So the next time you think
about giving up on a dream or a destination, just remember
Onesimus, and if that doesn't do anything for you, just
picture a frustrated young man sitting in agony through
hours of traffic praying for a gas station. Just keep
driving!

----------------------------------------------------
Aaron D. Taylor is an author, speaker, and the founder of
Great Commission Society, an organization dedicated to
sharing the gospel and serving the persecuted Church. Aaron
is the author of "The Angels are Watching: How God Uses
Your Life to Teach the Angels" To learn more about Aaron's
ministry, go to his website at
http://www.greatcommissionsociety.com

Love and Marriage

Love and Marriage
We like ceremonies and celebrations. We scoff at
ceremonies like coronations, inaugurations, society
weddings and other public celebrations, but only after we
had watched them, so that we can ridicule the detail. We
silently place ourselves in the place of the main
characters in the celebration, and wish for our own turn.

I remember when Prince Charles and Princess Diana got
married. At the time I was working as a civil servant in
South Africa. For one day, we were allowed to break all
the rules. I had a portable television set in my office,
and we gathered around it all day so that we would not miss
even a tiny detail of the broadcast. This was years after
South Africa became a republic, and we had no official ties
with the royal family. It did not matter. We were caught
up in the magic.

I recently heard about a man who spent that entire day in
bed with his girlfriend, now his wife of many years. They
obviously had their own magic going on that day.

In England the expression "getting a hat" means that a
couple has decided to get married and it is time to prepare
for a celebration, part of which is to buy a hat to wear to
the ceremony.

Nowadays a wedding is preceded by months of planning and
huge expenses. Everything has to be just right, and there
are even mock weddings before the day so that every
participant can remember their steps for the big moment.

Sadly, the cost of a traditional wedding and the emphasis
on the legal aspects of the wedding put people off the idea
of marriage. Add to that the high divorce rate and the
negative emotions that go with divorce, and marriage
becomes a lot less attractive.

A website that i refer to on my blog contains a lot of
amusing and eye-opening information about the various
traditions that go with the modern Christian wedding
ceremony. Virtually nothing of the ceremony has anything
to do with being Christian - or belonging to any other
faith group.

Considering that marriage is not even mentioned in the
Bible, it is interesting how much emphasis the churches and
even some governments place on the institution of the
Christian marriage as a means of controlling relationships.

Among all the fuss, we miss the point. Does it really
matter what style the wedding dress is or which side the
groom stands on? What difference will the honeymoon
destination make to the ceremony, except to cause stress
when the couple are probably already not quite keeping up
with expectations?

What is far more important is the celebration of joy and
happiness when two people find each other and decide to be
a couple. And that does not need to be celebrated with
pomp and ceremony.

There is the modern practice of dating many people and
having no-strings-attached sex with various partners. As a
friend of mine once put it, there is nothing wrong with
good, happy, healthy sex, no matter who your partner is.
That would not work for me, but who are we to judge one
another? I once read somewhere a very cynical definition
of love: when two people wake up together in the same bed
in the morning and neither wants to leave, they have found
love. Such occasions probably call for a minor
celebration, but I wonder.

On the other hand, we have all seen couples that are
radiant together. They clearly belong together and they
want the world to know this. Now that is a celebration. I
mean every time they are in the presence of others and
their happiness spill over to other people, there is a
celebration of love. Whether they ever get married or not
becomes irrelevant.

I once had a colleague who had that kind of love with her
husband. They both had successful careers and they had two
lovely children. Because of discriminatory tax
legislation, they had to pay a huge penalty for being
married and successful. They got divorced and did not tell
anybody. She confided in me a few years after the divorce
and I wondered how she could be so matter-of-fact about
this. This was when my own acrimonious divorce was still
fresh in my mind.

Then she invited me to their house and I met her husband -
and all became clear to me. They had been together for
nearly thirty years, and they were still in love and acting
like newly-weds. There were moments when nobody else
existed for them in the room. I realised that what they
had was a meeting of souls, and that the angels celebrate
with them every time they are together. That is when I put
in my order for a similar relationship, and the angels
listened.

The union of two souls is a celebration. Does it matter
whether the union is between a man and a woman, or between
two people of the same sex in a relationship? Not for me.

And this union does not only happen between couples. I
have seen the same thing with a teenage girl holding her
mother's hand in the company of other adults. The girl was
a stunningly beautiful, well adjusted young lady who was
quite comfortable with expressing her obvious love for her
mother in this way.

I have seen two sisters with very different characters
embrace each other for no specific reason. And that was
not a once-off occasion. Those sisters are both married
women today and will still walk through the proverbial fire
for each other.

I have a friend that has shared my path with me for over
fifteen years now. We live on different sides of the
world, grew up in vastly different cultures, and she smokes
like a chimney, but I was with her when she waded through
hell and she has been there for me during my worst and best
times, often without question, sometimes with strong
criticism, but always with love. The bond between us
transcends all differences and our differences enrich our
friendship.

And I am fortunate enough to be able to often associate
with kindred spirits that radiate this kind of love.
Namaste to all my free flying friends out there!

No document or ceremony can capture this kind of love, and
when it happens to you, you will know, because the room
will be full of angels. When you find such love, hold on
to it.

----------------------------------------------------
Elsabe Smit is the author of the blog <A
HREF="http://www.mypurpleblog.com" Spiritual
interpretations of everyday life</a>

The Law of Harmlessness - Your Key to Creating Peace & Harmony!

The Law of Harmlessness - Your Key to Creating Peace & Harmony!
The law of harmlessness revolves around both our thoughts
and the words we use, but mostly it comes from our thought.
We all want to experience a higher consciousness, be free
from limitations and feel the goodness of life. However the
main thing that keeps us from achieving is the fact that we
compare, judge, denial and basically omit the things that
we want.

This is why the power of your thought and recognizing the
value of our thoughts and controlling them so they are
productive to peace, harmony and love is so critically
important to us.

We as human beings are quite skilled and controlled in our
use of words, so that disharmony isn't prevalent in our
lives from what we say, but for some reason we don't seem
to control our thoughts in a way that readily manifests our
destiny. You may or may not be aware that our destiny is
completely in our hands. However, we seem to make excuses
to not put into practice the law of harmlessness, and we
hand off responsibility, hence allowing others to handle
our fate for us.

So it is for this reason, the law of harmlessness appears
dysfunctional in many humans lives. In thinking about it
further, by not allowing in the law of harmlessness in our
lives and producing a life of love with our thoughts, we're
creating the opposite of life, which is that of death.

How can this be?

If you think about it, the law across the globe states that
"Thou Shalt Not Kill" in the physical sense that is. But
how then, can we be allowed to kill on a seemingly lesser
level (but still as deadly) with the use of our words and
thoughts. We can kill someone to a certain level with the
words we speak, and when asked we'll give many reasons as
justify what it is we're doing. The most destructive
killing comes as the by product of our thoughts, especially
when we don't take control of them.

Nature seems to have a knowing and the law of harmlessness
built into it, it self-heals as soon as the human race
stops abusing it. If we can learn to work with nature and
see ourselves as part of it, we'll begin to derive the
necessary insights that are offered by Mother Nature and
adopt them into our own lives, characteristics and actions.

By adopting the law of harmlessness and directing it
towards ourselves first, we'll in turn become harmless
towards others living in the world at the same time. This
means working on instilling this law into ourselves and
cease being destructive to ourselves.

The reason why we may be more destructive to ourselves than
harmless, is somewhere in society it has become accepted to
down talk ourselves, but if we talk ourselves up we're
often seen as egotistical. And as a result, we decrease our
own value in communications with others, because we've
given such a low opinion of our self, out intelligence, our
capabilities and our physical identity.

How many of us answer when asked, with "I am the best..."
whatever it is you do, in the world?

It's just not readily accepted as a positive response to
have self-pride and loving yourself, and it's rather sad
that self-love is seen as negative. Because all of this
sort of behaviour is not in conjunction with the law of
harmlessness. We have to identify and praise our God given
talents and qualities, not diminish them because of what
society will think about it.

As thoughts are things, we know the power of the spoken
word. And every time we speak lowly of ourselves or rather,
play our talents and strong points down in public, we are
effectively confirming that we aren't worthy of that talent
on a sub-conscious level. So in sending out this energy
which is supported by the actions of our body, we are
actually admitting to ourselves, our sub-conscious and
anyone who listens of our less than actual, state of
ability and accomplishments. Of course we're only doing
this because we're taught to be humble and wish to appear
to be a humble, regular person.

The challenge then is for us as talented individuals, each
with our various skills, to communicate in a spoken way
that surrenders this "regular person" demeanour. By
identifying how to convey our own unique talents that could
be important to those who we interact with.

By informing people from a perspective of balanced
understanding of ourselves and our identified talents, and
by respectfully sharing with others in how you're
developing your own creative opportunities you effectively
build your own self-esteem in a harmless "non-egotistical"
way. You could even end up really helping someone who needs
such talents you have, and this would once again be in
alignment with the law of harmlessness.

So to finalize, you need to be aware of how many times we
harm ourselves on a regular basis because we convey our
inadequacies, self-doubt and insecurities, just so we play
ourselves down with those sharing the similar stories
around us.

To be harmless to ourselves we need to cut back on the sin
of omitting our talents and information us that could help
others, as omission is denial.

With the law of harmlessness we get to practice active
listening and selective choosing, because we have the power
to be harmless to ourselves and therefore harmless to
everyone else as well.

And by being aware of the law of attraction, law of
compensation and law of cause and effect we know that the
scenarios we find ourselves in are from our own thought
process and manifestation, and these laws in action.

Now that you're more knowledgeable on this law of
harmlessness, you'll be able to sift through the
information and scenarios that you find yourself
manifesting into your life in a harmless way on yourself
and others. You'll be able to balance out your responses in
the way you handle each situation and people in a way that
works for you, rather than you being slave (and feel like a
victim) to the situation.

----------------------------------------------------
Adam Price is a holistic success author on the laws of the
universe for life & business. Learn how tap into the
powerful laws of the universe in your life by visiting:
http://www.Law-Of-Attraction-And-Success.com

Realise the illusion of problems

Realise the illusion of problems
This article is about something of such profound and
beautiful simplicity. We attempt to trigger your own
realization of your ability to relieve absolutely any
problem you can imagine. We wish to unearth the seed within
you that is forever invulnerable to the problems of the
material world. The pointers that we will use as a vehicle
involve the realization of the present moment, the illusion
of past and future and the controllable reality of your
thought processes.

First, we would like to say relax. This is fun, freeing and
peaceful. Give yourself the time and space to feel all that
this teaching has to offer. Sit down in your favourite
chair, perhaps with a mug of warm herbal tea. Seek to
quieten your mind using your favourite meditation, or if
you don't have one, feel the air entering and leaving your
body.

Let us begin. As you are reading this article, can you
still feel your breath? Can you feel the grain of the paper
in your hand, or the smoothness of the mouse resting under
your hand? Can you feel the temperature of the air on your
face and the touch of the chair upon your back? Can you
hear the wind caressing the walls of the building in which
you reside? Are you fully present?

Your thoughts may now enter and say "Am I fully present?
Hmm, I don't know, I think I am, but then again maybe I'm
not" etc. Release any such thoughts by simply returning to
the sensations in your body and senses. Touch on object
close to you and feel the quality of the material without
judging. Simply go to the feeling.

Notice how you can switch between two very distinct forms
of consciousness, one involving thought and the other
involving no thought. If this does not quite feel true for
you yet, then play with it a bit longer. There is no rush.
Enjoy the lesson that you are giving yourself. You may
notice the massive difference in quality between the two
types of consciousness, which again is to be enjoyed, and
can serve as a reminder of when your thought processes are
currently energized.

We are now going to use the mind as a tool. When you were
in the state of no thought, i.e. when you were simply
observing, did you have any problems? Your mind may well
now remind you of all your "problems". What if you were
able to spend your entire life in the state of no-thought?
Would your problems still exist? What if when you faced one
of your so called problems, you encountered it in the state
of open aware perception? Your boss shouts at you and
internally you listen to the tones in her voice, feel the
aggression of her body, all without judgement. And when
they have finished shouting, you sit back into your chair,
which you feel pressing against your back. Next you feel
the air entering and leaving your body. Would your problem
still exist?

Return to this moment, as you continue to read this
article, which we are so grateful for being able to
provide. Return once again to the sensations in your body.
Now let's acknowledge the existence of the "problems"
existing in your mind. They seem so real and hard, and in a
sense they are. It would be pointless to say that "they do
not really exist, it's just an illusion", because they are
there. They have an existence in this physical world
because your thoughts have such an existence. However,
notice how all of your problems are either a projection
into the past, or into the future.

You may be worried about something you have already said or
done, or about some major upcoming event that you are a
central part of. It is impossible to experience a problem
when you are focussed only on the present moment. Now it
may be that when you are in the situation you are dreading
you feel a sensation that the mind labels as pain. If when
the pain arises you can concentrate your focus into the now
and simply feel the pain without labelling it, then that is
the end of suffering for you. If you bring enough vigilance
to a challenging situation to stay conscious, you will
realise that your problem was completely a creation of the
mind.

Pain simply isn't a problem. Next time you stub your toe,
rather than screaming out and thinking "Oh no - I've
stubbed my toe", go silent and feel the sensation in your
toe from within. Is it then a problem? No, of course not.
Your new way of looking at a problem should be this: A
problem is a decision by the mind that this should not be
happening (or have happened). I am very happy for you if
you can feel the freedom offered by this realization.
Remember, you can choose to return to this moment at
anytime by simply feeling, perceiving, being, and then pain
is no longer a problem.

Returning to this moment - what does that mean? Surely you
are always in this moment? This is true. You only ever
experience this moment. As we proved above, you only ever
experience the past and future in your thought processes.
But what if I can't control my thoughts? You can. If you
believe that you cannot control your thoughts then that is
just another thought, as is the belief that you CAN control
your thoughts. Instead of trying to convince yourself,
again return to the sensations in your body, feel the
sunlight on your skin, or the carpet beneath your feet.
Listen to the cars rushing by or watch the bird fly across
the sky. Be really whole. You will then KNOW what it means
to say that past and future only exist in the mind. You
won't need to understand it in language.

When you can feel pleasure without judging with the mind,
and when you can feel pain without judging with the mind,
you are free of problems. This is much simpler than you
might currently believe. Feel the sensation rather than
judging it. Be really whole in this moment and live without
past or future. Realise that your thought processes do
exist in reality, but only when you give your conscious
energy to them. Life is to be experienced. That includes
both pain and pleasure, the effects from which your true
self is eternally immune. With love.

----------------------------------------------------
Know How to Flow. Profound teachings, realizations and
poetry to enjoy and draw inspiration from on your spiritual
journey.
http://www.knowhowtoflow.com