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The Infinity Symbol

7/8/2017

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Who invented the symbol for infinity? They must have been a genius. I always saw infinity as a continuous loop, never ending. It isn't just that, it is an illustration of everything.

I have seen the symbol of infinity carved into a stone brick on the outside of a Byzantine church in Athens. In one side of the loop there's a vine leaf and in the other, a bunch of grapes. Perhaps one could conjecture that drinking wine makes one philosophical. 
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The stone had been taken from an ancient Greek temple along with many other stones with symbols including the symbol of the Illuminati. I thought it was very interesting. I see the Christian church as a usurper of other religions, while my guide suggested they were integrating the symbols out of respect for the ancient world.


Wikipedia says the infinity symbol was introduced in 1655 made from the Roman symbol for 1000 - CƆ, which was sometimes used to mean many. May be John Wallis saw the same stone as me whilst drinking wine and came up with the mathematical idea of infinity.

For the past few years I have been working on the idea of keeping a balanced mind, like a set of scales. Good & bad things can happen, we feel positive & negative emotions. I see the good/bad, positive/negative like a wave moving up and down along the line, the balanced mind doesn't waver, the true self isn't affected by the positive/negative, though we feel the emotions.

Being a line, it stretches into the past and continues into the future, I guess it could go on infinitely, I haven't looked that far. I usually see it with a starting point and an ending point.

Think of the infinity symbol. It moves like a wave, it rises up then down, crosses at the center point, rises up and down and crosses at the center point again, just like the waves of positive & negative, good & bad except infinity doesnt move along a line, it moves around a point.

That point is the present. It is the only moment we ever have. Whatever good that happens has to be balanced by bad, whatever negative emotions we feel will be balanced by positive and always we are the pivotal center and in our present moment. 

In meditation our thoughts may rise and fall but we need to constantly return them to the center focus point.

That center focus point of infinity is the center of emptiness.  It is the nothingness. It is the point from which everything expands and forms.

There is a whole universe, full of infinite things. Our world is infinitely full of things. It is so full of things you could never have them all. Wanting things will only make you want more things. Following the loops of the symbol you will get more and then you will get less.

But if you stay in the center, in the point around which everything revolves then you will give up wanting anything, you will give up desire. You will be in harmony with infinity and the universe will revolve peacefully around you. 

Infinity is forever, it is all our lives past and future with your true self living now.
 

Infinity is the vastness of space and time. From before there was nothing till after there is everything, infinity will still go on.

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Realization of my True Nature

15/1/2017

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True nature is your essence, your real self, your spirit, your soul.

It has always existed. It was never born, it will never die, it will always exist. 

It is the divine spark you were born with. 

It is pure. It never changes, and it is always with you.

It is hidden beneath ego, experiences, thoughts and emotions. Like clouds that cover the sky above, when the clouds clear, the blue sky is revealed, it was always there, it was just obscured by clouds. True nature is obscured but it is always there.
When I was taught meditation, I was introduced to the nature of mind. 

My mind used to race like a chariot pulled by wild horses. I was the charioteer with no control over where my thoughts raced. With meditation practice I learnt to control my thoughts, I tamed the wild horses and steered them in whatever direction I chose for them to go. I became in charge of my mind. 

With more practice I learnt to still my thoughts completely. The true nature of mind is emptiness, without the fluctuations of thoughts and emotions. 

I cleared away ego and I realized the radiance of my true nature. I connected with the purity of the creation of the universe. I connected with the purity of my own essence, my true nature.

In the years since, I have seen my true nature many times. I know it is always with me. I think it's the reason people love to meet me around me around the world, it makes me glow and my heart fill with energy. 

It doesn't judge, it just observes. It is unaffected by what happens in my life, it is unaffected by emotions. 

I had a moment in class on Friday when my thoughts became still, my mind became empty and I focused on my true nature. I saw it as I had seen it many times before. 

Then I had an enlightening moment of realization...Everytime I see my true nature, it always appears the same, it has never changed. 

It was a deeply profound experience to actualize what I was taught and what I teach. It was different to be experiencing it than just to know it. It became wisdom, not knowledge.

I saw that thoughts  and emotions could circle around it, unaffecting it, it just observed them. It has been observing my life since I came into consciousness but nothing has ever affected it, it remains as the pure energy I was born with.
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For the rest of my extraordinarily busy day, I moved easily in and out of true nature, going with the gentle flow of the universe. When I was with people I could carry on as I usually do, when I had me to myself I rested in my true nature, watching the world happening around me, in the moment.

I had a very happy day. I'm glad I had the extra energy of the universe to draw on because I had to do a lot of stuff.

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A Picture On the Wall

5/5/2016

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4 years ago today, on May the 4th, I finished my yoga teacher training. Sunday was mother’s day and after lunch, William, Wayland and I went to the reject shop, one of our favorite pass times, browsing the shelves and rifling through the throw out bin. One of the isles had lots of yoga mats. Something had come over me during yoga teacher training, an awakening, a desire to follow a path in life that I had discovered. To go with the natural flow of the universe with the absolute belief that it would lead me in the right direction. We went and got a trolley from Franklin’s and filled it up with 20 yoga mats. I thought I might do classes in a hall somewhere or something like that. Wayland wheeled the trolley out to the car but something caught my eye and I stayed behind to buy it.

It was a 3 dimensional picture of a white Tiger and dragon entwined, or two dragons in combatant or a dragon under the sea, it changes as you walk past it hanging on the wall. Japanese dragons, symbolic of the martial arts, my sensei  and myself. I just needed a wall to hang it on.
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The next day was Monday and I was out for a walk. I looked up at an old building that had a for lease sign propped up in a dusty top window. An idea formed in my mind. I could open a school, I could teach yoga and karate. The real estate who’s name was on the sign told me it was only there to seal up a cracked window and pointed me across the road to David William's . The young lady behind the counter told me that someone had already put in an application for the lease. I was about to walk out when I turned around and asked if they had any other properties for lease and she pointed to a black folder on a little table. I sat down and started flipping through. When her customer left I said I was thinking about opening a yoga studio. She lit up and came out from behind her counter and pointed at the page I happened to have open in my lap. She offered to take me over and show the building to me, We had become best friends before we left the office.

She told me how much she loved yoga as we walked up the street. Also that she wasn’t going to be at the real estate much longer as she was about to spread her wings and start training as a airline stewardess.

An old Greek man was up a ladder doing repairs to the walls when we arrived. The big empty room was in a pretty bad state, with holes in the carpet and walls. It had been a gun shop but they had neglected the premises and to pay the rent.

I could see potential. Later I came back for another look. The Greek man was so cranky about what had been done to his shop. When I told him I was going to fix it up and turn it into a yoga studio his demeanor changed and his face lit up. He came down from the ladder, he was so happy and he asked me what colour I would like him to paint it. I asked for mauve inside and blue on the outside.

The picture of the Tiger and the dragon was hung on the wall as inspiration for my karate school. New carpet was laid. And my son's helped me hang my paintings in my own personal art gallery. I ordered blocks and bolsters and blankets, took out insurance and a business number. And I burnt A LOT of incense to clear out the smell and the negative energy.

I set a date for opening and though no one came to my first class, I did it anyway and waited for my first customer

Now 4 years later, 700 students have come through the door. My studio is more beautiful than ever with a giant Persian rug on the floor, stars on the ceiling and gold glitter on the walls, paintings have been hung and sold and most exciting of all, I woke up today knowing I am at last going to get my black belt in karate. Who would have imagined what would happen because I needed a wall to hang a picture on.
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Rapunzel's Fish

31/5/2015

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​Rapunzel was a baby who had been betrayed by her family and given up to a witch. The witch had betrayed her and locked her in a tower. Rapunzel had betrayed the witch by taking a secret lover. The witch had taken revenge on the lovers by cutting off Rapunzel’s hair and banishing her out into the desert and throwing the prince out of the window where his eyes had been scratched out by thorns. After years of wandering blindly through the desert Rapunzel had found her prince again and her tears of joy had healed his eyes.
                                                                                                                   
To help heal their wounds of betrayal at the hands of their family they decided to get a fish. First they bought a bowl, it came in a box but like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, the box was no longer needed and was discarded. They looked into the bowl and saw that it was full of emptiness. They looked harder and could see the emptiness was full of potential. 

They filled it with water, planted some weed, added magic rocks and voila! the bowl wasn't empty anymore; it had become the home for their fish. His name was David and he was blue. He was a very special fish because they loved him and he knew they loved him. They brought him fresh flowers and fed him every day. They talked to him and introduced him to all their friends. People came from near and far to see this miraculous fish, he charmed everyone with his humour and wit. 

Because David's a fish with the small mind of a fish, he doesn't realize that he is the creator of his potential. But he still has awareness and knows that he is a fish and that other fish are fish. If this amazing fish realized his full potential he could have conquered the world with his charisma. 

Rapunzel had seen the potential in the bowl. The bowl is like the ego, it is necessary to carry around what is inside, the water, weeds and magic rocks, the appearance of David’s home is essential to his happiness, it has to exist to carry around the potential. Our body carries around our potential, our potential is in our essence; it’s up to us to realize that potential. 

David once said “It has been taught by great sages that getting rid of ego is essential to obtaining enlightenment, but I think that the secret is not to get rid of ego but to train it to love your true-self, to train the ego to bring you happiness, like my bowl serves me.” 

When you were near David you could feel exactly what it felt like swimming around in the water, the calm state, the effortless floating, the feel of water around the body, the silence and the stillness.  

Like a school of fish, people share a common mind, it is called wisdom, like the wisdom found in a fairy tale, it is passed down through the millennium, it isn’t learnt, it is known, it is common feelings and knowing that we all share. When people get in touch with their higher self, the wisdom of the whole human age is available to them, it isn’t something that is written in books, it is something that every person is born with inside their genes. It is inside every person, and everyone has the potential to find it.  

When it is found, there is no wish to harm other people, or fish, you only wish for good things and happiness, for every being, you know that in their happiness you will also share happiness. We are all inter-connected. You feel loving kindness and compassion for every being in the universe because that is the way to find true joy, peace and contentment. 

Rapunzel listened to the lessons David taught her and forgave the witch. But the witch was so evil she poisoned David.

He is buried under an orange tree, the orange tree will blossom and David will become the scent of orange blossom. His little fish body and bones will become the bark, branches and leaves of the orange tree. He will become an orange full of juice, the juice that fills the orange from the water that was tipped from the bowl onto the tree. Everything is connected, all things are interconnected, and nothing is separate.

All things eventually have to die, that is the nature of life and though Rapunzel felt foolish to let the witch back into her life, she will always forgive because only through forgiveness can you be free of anger and hatred.

Rapunzel and the prince would never forget David and the fantastic flights of fantasy he had gone on. He had lived a life full of friends and admirers who were never envious of his beauty or fame because he appeared to be just a fish.

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Who am I? Who are You?

9/12/2014

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Four senses are in your head.

The Eyes that see are in your face, you can view from different perspectives, the optic nerve connects straight into your brain.

The nose is on your face, it breathes in the energy of life and inhales the memory of smells.

The Ears that listen are on either side of your head with the cochlear inside your brain.

The tongue with its palate for sweet and sour is inside your mouth, helping decide your tastes in life.

The fifth sense of touch, the nerves in the skin relay the information, a little delayed, through the spinal cord keeping your brain informed about how your body feels.

The impressions these senses gather travel to the brain where the information is analysed and is available instantly, every moment you are awake. Being mindful is being aware of the moment and the world around you without judging what your senses perceive.

There is a sixth sense, your mind, where you think about the information your senses gather and you form feelings, ideas and emotions based on your perceptions.

There is another sense beyond all the senses, beyond the mind. The mind chatters but who is it chattering to? It is your spirit, your true nature, your true self, your soul, psyche, the one who observes without judgement, beyond ego.

The other senses cover it over but if you can you can get in touch with it, it will unite you with the universe.

If you learn to quieten the senses in meditation you can go beyond your mind where the senses cease to exist. When your mind is open, still and quiet you can glimpse the essence of who you truly are.

Who am I? I am part of the universe. I am who we all are, I am energy. Your sense of being is your energy, the energy shared with the universe. It is you, it is part of you, it is all of you, it is in you, and it connects you with the spirit of the universe, in the way the five senses connect you with your physical world.
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