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Each one sees what he carries in his heart.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"A human always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what Those who think they are too small to make a big difference, have never been in bed with a mosquito.
he imagines to be true about himself and his environment."
~Maxwell Maltz, Author of Psycho-Cybernetics
~ The Dalai Lama
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't
matter and those who matter don't mind."
~Dr. Seuss
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
—From The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
I was getting ready to scramble an egg one morning and remembered back to when I was in Junior High School in Home Economics class, and we were learning how to scramble eggs. I made comments at the time about how the egg was actually something that came from a chicken and was going to become a chicken, and in my attempt to gross out my classmates, I thoroughly nauseated myself and could not eat eggs for a long time. For some reason the memory returned as I looked at the egg and yolk I was ready to beat together. I commanded to myself, “Don’t think about it!”…and of course, I thought about it. And it dawned on me how the mind is attracted to what it is directed to – even when it is directed to a don’t or a not – it moves towards the thing described. I thought about how as kids, when told not to touch something, we became more curious, and often did what we were told not to do. So as I stood scrambling my egg, I was thinking of things to command myself not to think of – and they came popping in after the admonition. However, as I was focused on the negative thing I’d told myself not to think of, I brought in a command to “think of a waterfall,” and I immediately saw a waterfall in my mind’s eye. I replaced the negative image with a positive one in an instant, and that reminded me of new techniques in parenting that are being used. When a child is misbehaving and focused on things they should not be doing, instead of telling them NOT to do that, the child is directed to an activity or thing that is positive. By shifting focus, a new image has been provided, and the child is not engulfed in guilt or defensiveness. They simply move on to the next thing. I’ve watched it work with my granddaughter, and amaze myself with the ease in which we move to a positive directive when there is no tag line attached, no guilt induction or fault. Hitting or engaging in dangerous behavior is a whole different thing – but helping children and ourselves train our minds to focus on positive imagery that nourishes us is a beneficial effort. For those of us who spend a lot of time in self-recrimination, the idea of transplanting the “I should haves” with positive imagery of what we have done right goes a long way to making us feel whole and refreshed – ready for a new project or attempt at something we may have failed at before. Try it. See if it makes a difference for you. In place of focusing on something negative, or berating yourself, turn immediately to an image of something that is joyous or peaceful, and remember the things you HAVE done well – and then remember to appreciate yourself for them!
From Seasons of the Soul 2006
Rude Awakenings, Helen Keller
Likewise those who have been mentally blinded "in the gradual furnace of the world" can, and must, be pressed to look for new capabilities within themselves and work out new ways to happiness. They may even resent faith that expects nobler things from them [...] How little we know ourselves! We need limitations and temptations to open our inner selves, dispel our ignorance, tear off disguises, throw down old idols, and destroy false standards. Only by such rude awakenings can we be led to dwell in a place where we are less cramped, less hindered by the ever-insistent External. Only then do we discover a new capacity and appreciation of goodness and beauty and truth.
-- Helen Keller
As I looked into the mirror, the unmistakable signs of aging were evident. Turning 60 was a reminder. The clock is ticking, and the direction is toward old age. As I thought of the many extreme makeover shows now so popular on television, it dawned on me that as much as my skin is sagging, my spirit is soaring. On the outside I am showing signs of wear and tear, but it is an indicator of a life lived. And I thought of our throw away culture. Women over 40 have few roles available in the movies. Most are banished from television when they are no longer cute to look at. In the Bay Area, we have one station that allows the older newscasters to have a show in the morning on weekends – when most people aren’t watching.
What is so interesting about this dichotomy of youth/age is that in our early years we are filled with curiosity about the world around us and about ourselves. We are discovering things all the time as we grow and develop. We go through the awkward stage of adolescence and then pass into the phase of nest and career building. Our efforts are directed outward and to procreating our species. It is only after the headlong rush into life that we take time as older age approaches to ask the relevant questions about life that are deepening and soul enhancing. We have to come to the point of having enough experience to strip away our own veneer – to be willing to see ourselves from a lifelong perspective. Our American preoccupation with facelifts and body makeovers and flaunting a tinsel image of sexuality is actually laughable. It is adolescence on a rampage. We are besieged by shows filled with violence and disrespect….an homage to testosterone. This past week I have been baby sitting my daughter’s kitten. She and her husband went to New York for five days, and we took care of her “baby”. As the week progressed, the bond between my grand-kitty and I increased. She was adorable and in to everything. I had to watch constantly to make sure no one would open a door to the outdoors without making sure she did not get out. Scooting here and there, she was inquisitive and investigative. Her moments of calm and loving were slim. Everything was action oriented. The kids came home yesterday and took their precious treasure away. It was quieter without the kitty, and we missed her amusing antics. However, in thinking about her, I was reminded of another cat years ago who came to visit the bookstore I worked in and loved. Minerva Books was located in an old house next to a residential section, and the visiting kitty was an elder who was close to the end of its life. This very old orange cat would come to visit and sit on our porch where she could bask in the full glory of sun without the noise of cars or the rush of wind bothering her slumber. We used to look at her as she sat, seemingly so grateful for the rays of sunshine beaming down on her frail body. And there was a certain repose in her countenance – a dignity of age. This memory juxtaposed with the rampaging curiosity of the kitten brought home again the specialness of each age: None better or worse – each having its own gift. The young cat wanted to play. The old cat was grateful for a pat or a comment. The little one had no time to be still, and the old cat had all the time in the world. She was moving into the twilight of her life, filled with memories that sustained her, while the little kitten was busy making them. And this brings me back to us. We are precious and wonderful and filled with possibility at every stage of life. To make one stage desirable and the rest dismissed is to deny the fullness of life. When we only look at surface images to determine what is acceptable and what is not, we miss the opportunity to enlarge our sphere of influence and depth because we see anything not conforming to the “image” as meaningless. Yet, in creation, there is nothing that is meaningless. In the interweaving of life, every element is dependent and supportive of every other element. We are mistaken when we think we can interfere with one aspect of life and there will be no consequences to the rest of life – because we are intricately linked to one another. So too, with age. No age should be dismissed.KJ From Seasons of the Soul 2005
“I think we ought to strip the cabinets.” My sweetie was looking at the thick layers of paint on kitchen cabinets that had been repeatedly painted over the years, and discussing what our options were now that it was once again time to paint.
“Oh, no…don’t go to all that trouble,” I countered. “Let’s just make this kind of a funky kitchen and paint some interesting colors.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I want to see what is underneath all this buildup of paint.” I sighed, knowing that once he’d made up his mind nothing was going to stop him. “Well, go ahead if you want…but it’s going to be a lot of work.”
He took the cabinets into the garage and put paint stripper on each of them. I heard him sanding them, and soon he was in the house with a big smile on his face. “Come look at what I found.” Surely, it was going to be marginal at best. But as I walked up to what had been heavily painted cabinet doors, there in their place were beautiful wooden doors that had intricate wood grain – absolutely gorgeous. And all this time, they had been covered over with layer upon layer of paint – hiding the natural beauty that was underneath, waiting to be freed!
If we’d had more money, we’d probably have thrown the old cabinets out. But because we had a limited budget, and because of his tenacity, we found something that was much nicer than anything new we could have bought.
Of course, that got me thinking about us humans. How many layers of “paint” have we got covering the exquisite natural beauty of who we really are under all the years of encrusted experiences, disappointment, and other residue that has created a buildup that dims our inherent light? And how often do we just paint more on top of what is there rather than stripping away the old and bringing ourselves back to our true essence? It seems so much easier in the moment just to cover over whatever isn’t working, but in the long run we are left with a shadow of our real selves.
Now that I’ve seen the miracle of stripping the cabinets, I’m looking to see where there is residue and layers of old stuff that is hiding my inner light. How about you? Is your true beauty shining through?KJ
From Seasons of the Soul 2006
The following article was sent to me, and I think it is important enough to reprint so that we can all sort out the terms that are thrown at us by advertisements and drug companies. The only way we can free ourselves from programming by institutionalized mindsets that are focused on making money is to educate ourselves to find root causes of what our own bodies experience. KJ
There is no Disease
by Robert O. Young
Disease names like diabetes and osteoporosis are misleading
and misinform patients about disease prevention.
There is a curious tendency in conventional medicine to name
a set of symptoms a disease. I was recently at a compounding
pharmacy having my bone mineral density measured to update
my health stats. I spotted a poster touting a new drug for
osteoporosis. It was written by a drug company and it said
exactly this: 'Osteoporosis is a disease that causes weak and
fragile bones.' Then, the poster went on to say that you need a
particular drug to counteract this 'disease.
Yet the language is all backwards. Osteoporosis isn't a disease
that causes weak bones, osteoporosis is the name given to a
diagnosis of weak bones. In other words, the weak bones are the
result of excess acidity, and then the diagnosis of osteoporosis
followed.
The drug poster makes it sound like osteoporosis strikes
first, and then you get weak bones. The cause and effect is all
backwards. And that's how drug companies want people to think
about diseases and symptoms: first you 'get' the disease, and then
you are 'diagnosed' just in time to take a new drug for the rest of
your life.
But it's all hogwash. There is no such disease as osteoporosis.
It's just a made-up name given to a pattern of symptoms that
indicate you are over-acid which causes your bones to get fragile.
As another example, when a person follows an unhealthy lifestyle
that results in a symptom such as high blood pressure, that
symptom is actually being assumed to be a disease all by itself
and it will be given a disease name. What disease? The disease
is, of course, 'high blood pressure.' Doctors throw this phrase
around as if it were an actual disease and not merely descriptive
of patient physiology.
This may all seem silly, right? But there's actually a very
important point to all this.
When we look at symptoms and give them disease names, we
automatically distort the selection of available treatments for
such a disease. If the disease is, by itself, high cholesterol, then
the cure for the disease must be nothing other than lowering
the high cholesterol. And that's how we end up with all these
pharmaceuticals treating high cholesterol in order to 'prevent'
this disease and lower the levels of LDL cholesterol in the
human patient. By lowering only the cholesterol, the doctor can
rest assured that he is, in fact, treating this 'disease,' since the
definition of this 'disease' is high cholesterol and nothing else.
But there is a fatal flaw in this approach to disease treatment: the
symptom is not the cause of the disease. There is another cause,
and this deeper cause is routinely ignored by conventional
medicine, doctors, drug companies, and even patients.
Let's take a closer look at high blood pressure. What actually
causes high blood pressure? Many doctors would say high blood
pressure is caused by a specific, measurable interaction between
circulating chemicals in the human body. Thus, the ill-behaved
chemical compounds are the cause of the high blood pressure,
and therefore the solution is to regulate these chemicals. That's
exactly what pharmaceuticals do -- they attempt to manipulate
the chemicals in the body to adjust the symptoms of high blood
pressure. Thus, they only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.
Or take a look at high cholesterol. The conventional medicine
approach says that high cholesterol is caused by a chemical
imbalance in the liver, which is the organ that produces
cholesterol. Thus the treatment for high cholesterol is a
prescription drug that inhibits the liver's production of cholesterol
(statin drugs). Upon taking these drugs, the high cholesterol
(the 'disease') is regulated, but what was causing the liver to
overproduce cholesterol in the first place? That causative factor
remains ignored.
The root cause of high cholesterol, as it turns out, is primarily
an over acidic diet. A person who eats foods that are acidic
will inevitably cause the body to go into preservation mode
and produce more cholesterol to neutralize the excess acid
thus showing the symptoms of this so-called disease of high
cholesterol. Its simple cause and effect. Eat the wrong foods,
and you'll produce too much acid which will cause the body to
release cholesterol from the liver to bind up that acid which can
be detected and diagnosed by conventional medical procedures.
You see it is not the cholesterol that is bad it is the acid producing
food we eat that is bad. Reduce the acid producing foods like
beef, chicken, pork, dairy, coffee, tea, soda pops, etc and you will
reduce the protective cholesterol that is saving your life from
excess acid foods.
Yet the root cause of all this is actually poor food choice, not
some bizarre behavior by the liver. If the disease were to be
accurately named, then, it would be called Acidic Food Choice
Disease, or simply AFCD.
AFCD would be a far more accurate name that would make sense
to people. If it's an acidic foods choice disease, then it seems that
the obvious solution to the disease would be to choose foods that
aren't so acidic. Of course that may be a bit of simplification
since you have to distinguish between healthy alkaline foods
and unhealthy acidic foods. But at least the name AFCD gives
patients a better idea of what's actually going on rather than
naming the disease after a symptom, such as high cholesterol.
You see, the symptom is not the disease, but conventional
medicine insists on calling the symptom the disease because that
way it can treat the symptom and claim success without actually
addressing the underlying cause, which remains a mystery to
modern medicine.
But let's move on to some other diseases so you get a clearer
picture of how this actually works. Another disease that's caused
by poor acidic food choice is diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is the
natural physiological and metabolic result of a person consuming
refined carbohydrates and added sugars in large quantities,
undigested proteins from beef, chicken, and pork without
engaging in regular physical exercise that would compensate for
such dietary practices.
The name 'diabetes' is meaningless to the average person. The
disease should be called Excessive Acid Disease, or EAD. If
it were called Excessive Acid Disease, the solution to it would
be rather apparent; simply eat less sugar, eliminate all animal
proteins, eggs, dairy, drink fewer soft drinks and so on. But of
course that would be far too simple for the medical community,
so the disease must be given a complex name such as diabetes
that puts its solution out of reach of the average patient.
Another disease that is named after its symptom is cancer. In
fact, to this day, most doctors and many patients still believe
that cancer is a physical thing: a tumor. In reality, a tumor is the
solution of cancer, not its cause. A tumor is simply a physical
manifestation of bound up acidic cells so they do not spoil other
healthy cells. The tumor is the solution to cells damaged by acids
not the problem. The truth is cancer is not a cell but an acidic
liquid. When a person 'has cancer,' what they really have is a
latent tissue acidosis. They are absorbing their own acidic urine.
It that would be a far better name for the disease: Latent Tissue
Acidosis or LTA.
If cancer were actually called Latent Tissue Acidosis, it would
seem ridiculous to try to cure cancer by cutting out tumors
through surgery and by destroying the immune system with
chemotherapy. And yet these are precisely the most popular
treatments for cancer offered by conventional medicine. These
treatments do absolutely nothing to support the patient's immune
system and prevent the build up of acids in the tissues. That's
exactly why most people who undergo chemotherapy or the
removal of tumors through surgical procedures end up with yet
more cancer a few months or a few years later. It's also another
reason why survival rates of cancer have barely budged over
the last twenty years. (In other words, conventional medicine's
treatments for cancer simply don't work.)
The main reason is current medical science wrongly perceives
cancer as a cell when in reality cancer is an acidic liquid, like
lactic acid. This whole situation stems from the fact that the
disease is misnamed. It isn't cancer, it isn't a tumor and it
certainly isn't a disease caused by having too strong of an
immune system that needs to be destroyed through chemo-
therapy. It is simply latent tissue acidosis. And if it were
called latent tissue acidosis disease or urine in the tissues,
the effective treatment for cancer would be apparent.
There are many other diseases that are given misleading names
by western medicine. But if you look around the world and take
a look at how diseases are named elsewhere, you will find many
countries have disease names that actually make sense.
For example, in Chinese medicine, Alzheimer's disease is given
a name that means, when translated, 'feeble mind disease.' In
Chinese medicine, the name of the disease more accurately
describes the actual cause of the disease which is caused by acids
or urine on the brain, whereas in western medicine, the name of
the disease seems to be intended to obscure the root cause of the
disease, thereby making all diseases sound far more complex and
mysterious than they really are.
This is one way in which doctors and practitioners of western
medicine keep medical treatments out of the reach of the average
citizen. Because, by God, they sure don't want people thinking
for themselves about the causes of disease!
By creating a whole new vocabulary for medical conditions, they
can speak their own secret language and make sure that people
who aren't schooled in medicine don't understand what they're
saying.
That's a shame, because the treatments and cures for virtually all
chronic diseases are actually quite simple and can be described
in plain language, such as making different alkaline food
choices, getting more natural sunlight, drinking more alkaline
water, engaging in regular physical exercise, avoiding specific
acidic foods, supplementing your diet with green foods and
green drinks and alkalizing nutritional supplements and so on.
See, western medicine prefers to describe diseases in terms of
chemistry. When you're depressed, you aren't suffering from a
lack of natural sunlight; you are suffering from a 'brain chemistry
imbalance' that can only be regulated, they claim, by ingesting
toxic chemicals to alter your brain chemistry. When your
bones are brittle, it's not acidic brittle bones disease; it's called
osteoporosis, something that sounds very technical and
complicated. And to treat it, western doctors and physicians will
give you prescriptions for expensive drugs that somehow claim
to make your bones less brittle. But in fact, the real treatment
for this can be described in plain language once again: regular
physical exercise, vitamin D supplementation, mineral
supplements that include calcium and strontium, natural sunlight,
and avoidance of acidic foods such as soft drinks, white flour
and added sugars.
In fact, virtually every disease that's prominent in modern
society -- diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, clinical
depression, irritable bowel syndrome and so on -- can be easily
described in plain language without using complex terms at all.
These diseases are simply misnamed. And I believe that they are
intentionally misnamed to put the jargon out of reach of everyday
citizens. As a result, there's a great deal of arrogance in the
language of western medicine, and this arrogance furthers the
language of separation. Separation never results in healing. In
order to effect healing, we must bring together the language of
healers and patients using plain language that real people
understand and that real people can act upon.
We need to start describing diseases in terms of their root causes,
not in terms of their arcane, biochemical actions. When someone
suffers from seasonal affective disorder or clinical depression,
for example, let's call it what it is: Sunlight Deficiency Disorder.
To treat it, the person simply needs to get more sunlight. This
isn't rocket science, it's not complex, and it doesn't require a
prescription.
If someone is suffering from osteoporosis, let's get realistic about
the words we use to describe the condition: it's really Acidic
Bones Disease. And it should be treated with things that will
enhance bone density, such as nutrition, physical exercise and
avoidance of acidic foods and drinks that strip away bone mass
from the human body to neutralize the excess acids in the blood
and tissues.
All of this information, of course, is rather shocking to old-school
doctors and practitioners of western medicine, and the bigger their
egos are, the more they hate the idea of naming diseases in plain
language that patients can actually comprehend. That's because
if the simple truths about diseases and their causes were known,
health would be more readily available to everyday people, and
that would lessen the importance of physicians and medical
researchers.
There's a great deal of ego invested in the medical community,
and they sure don't want to make sound health attainable to the
average person without their expert advice. Doctors all want to
serve as the translators of 'truth' and will balk at any attempts to
educate the public to either practice medicine on their own. But in
reality, health (and a connection with spirit) is attainable by every
single person. Health is easy, it is straightforward, it is direct and,
for the most part, it is available free of charge.
A personal connection with our Creator is the same if we ask
humbly in prayer for a relationship with Him, and guidance.
Don't believe the names of diseases given to you by your doctor.
Those names are designed to obscure, not to inform. They are
designed to separate you from self-healing, not to put you in
touch with your own inner healer. And thus, they are nothing
more than bad medicine masquerading as modern medical
practice.
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Slight not what is near though aiming at what is far.
-- Euripides
A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. I am only one; but still I am one. The web of life is woven with You see things; and you say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not,
~Anonymous
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something:
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
~ Helen Keller
dewdrops of grace—our challenge is to recognize them.
~K.J.
and I say, “Why not?”
~George Bernard Shaw
but rejoices in what he has.
~Epictetus
I love September and the onset of autumn, and we’ve had glorious days when the light is just right and makes everything look magical to my eyes—like a veil parting between worlds. It’s the transforming time of harvest and leaves falling, preparing for the next stage to come.
I was raking leaves the other day, tidying the front of my house, and was aware of the futile exercise it appears to be. One good wind and there are that many more leaves to sweep, but for the moment after I’ve finished, everything looks “just right.” It dawned on me that those “just right” moments are ephemeral. They cannot be grasped or clutched, because within a few moments they are gone. Change is the only permanence—paradoxical in definition—but true. I was reminded of the Zen teacher whose early training showed her this example in action. She was a fine crafts person and wanted to build a beautiful altar for the monastery where she studied, as they had none. Her teacher told her it was not necessary, but she insisted. Smiling, the head monk consented to her plan, and so she built a stunning altar with love and care. On the day of presentation when she gave her gift to the monastery, all smiled, bowed, and thanked her. Then the head monk tapped her on the shoulder and told her to tear it down. She was shocked, but he smiled again. “Everything is impermanence”. She had insisted on doing what was not necessary, and in the act of doing, she derived joy. When done, it was time to let go of her offering. It had been viewed, appreciated, and released because an altar was not needed. The monks of Tibet create beautiful Mandalas from colored sand. They are intricate and wondrous to view. Years ago, they came to San Francisco and created one over a series of weeks at the local museum. One day a woman who was mentally imbalanced jumped on the mandala and ruined it. People gasped in horror as she did this, but the monks merely smiled as she proved once again that nothing is permanent. We cannot do for the sake of permanence, but rather through our joy in creating or delight in an activity. I cannot rake leaves with an expectation that once done, always done. It is a process that I engage in over and over again. My delight is in the raking and sweeping and in the momentary illusion of neatness. Then the winds come, the leaves fall, and my garden is once again changed. Chaos and order. From one the other follows, just as the seasons go round and round.
Change is the only permanence.
From Seasons of the Soul 2005
It's tomatoe season. We get the most glorious tomatoes in Northern California called Molino Creek. They are dry farmed in Santa Cruz, and only come out for about a month between September and October.
We were in the market, commenting about these great tomatoes, and how hard it was for us to grow tomatoes in general. The man at the counter told us his secret for perfect tomatoes. He takes a ripe tomato that he likes such as Heirloom and chooses a full sun area, then drops it into a hole in the ground just as nature would. He works the ground with chicken manure and cuts out the bottom of a gallon milk or water plastic container and positions that over the planted tomato. This protects it through the winter from frost. In the spring when the vines grow, he digs the plant out and makes a deeper hole. He puts up to half of the plant underground, including the leaves. This creates a strong stalk and then he waters and feeds it, and has the best tomatoes ever as a result. No cage, not pots, no seeds. Just your favorite tomato plopped in the soil.
