 eaven and hell are considered by many to be physical places at which all humans will end up in one or the other after death. They are the ultimate reward or punishment passed eternally on humans by god after the day of judgment. With the promise of heaven in mind, humans can endure unthinkable hardship in life because they believe it to be a prize worth waiting a life time for. I believe heaven and hell exist, but I see them differently. Before explaining my view however, let’s examine the story behind heaven, hell and humans banishment out of the Garden of Eden.
According to the story, Adam and Eve were living in paradise and they were allowed to do anything and eat out of any tree except one, the tree of knowledge. The devil lured them to the tree and told them that god prohibited them from eating it because if they do, they will be like him, knowing everything. Adam and Eve fell for the trick and once they ate the fruit of knowledge they realized that they are naked and felt ashamed. God expelled them, along with the devil, out of paradise. He also condemned everyone born of them to carry the original sin, the sin of eating the fruit of knowledge. Again, most religions take this story literally. I, on the other hand, share the view with the Toltec who see the story as symbolic for where we came from and where we are today.
We can translate the symbols to see heaven and hell as states of mind. The tree of knowledge taught people the difference between “right” and “wrong”; it is the root from which judging arose. Every child is born in heaven; children have no labels for anything. As they learn judgment from their parents and society, everything has to have either “good” or “bad” label. And based on the definition of the label given to anything, they generate the appropriate emotion when dealing with it. With age, grownups have accumulated a lot more labels and they have a readily accessible library of emotions to deal with anything or any situation. If they witness more good than bad, they will be mostly living in heaven. If the opposite is true, they could be living squarely in hell.
There is a state in which adult humans can experience living in heaven totally, and this is the state of falling in love, especially young love when we were innocent and didn’t have layers of judgment to “protect” us from being “hurt”. A girl fall in love with a boy, she is so in love her feet hardly touch the ground. Her eyes sparkling, her smile radiant and everything in the world seems to be wonderful. A jealous friend, or a well-intending mother, whispers something to her that is coming out of their judgment. This common everyday act is exactly what the story has symbolized in the images of a snake giving humans an apple to bite. If she bites, she swallows the seed of the tree of knowledge. The tree would grow inside of her until it eventually drives her out of heaven and into hell where everything and everyone is bleak, gloomy, deceitful and not trustworthy. Welcome to everyday common reality.
For this reason, adults in their mid-years yearn to a love similar to what they have experienced as teenagers; yearn to their first love when they were still engulfed in innocence. This was the closest experience, they remember, to living in heaven. This was paradise claimed before judgment ruined the rest of their lives. This also explains why many middle aged people want to have relationships with younger people.
But as long as we don’t reject the seed of the tree of knowledge from inside us, as long as we don’t shed judgment away, we will live in hell and we will always yearn to a heavenly state which is becoming a distant flicker in our memories.
 iving in the shadow of an active volcano, old cave men saw every trembling of the earth under their feet as a sign of an angry deity. The volcano god has been angry because of something his people have done, or failed to do. And to placate their god, people used to give sacrifices that could range from a share in their harvest to throwing the most beautiful girl or boy into the volcano’s venting top. Little that did to stop the volcano from spewing lava anyway.
Although, none of us lives in the shadow of a volcano, but all of us still worship this angry god and pay him regular horrific sacrifices. Having an angry demanding god was one of the first and most difficult beliefs that I had to deal with; it was so ingrained in me that fighting it was like fighting a monster with three thousand heads, you sever one to find more still attacking you. Even today, some distant remnants of that belief come up in several disguises. It is not important what religion you have grown up believing in, even if you have grown up believing in no religion at all, you still have been affected by this belief, because it is an integral part of the reward and punishment system (or action and consequences if your conditioning is totally non-religious). And that system runs all societies and human interactions in general.
When I was a child, I have been told that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. Heaven has different names in different religions; it could be Bliss, or Nirvana. Hell also could be Inferno, oblivion, or just coming back as a cricket next time around; different images, but the same concept. The list of what takes you to Heaven or Hell is long, and it gets longer the older you get and the more complicated life becomes. And any item added to this list becomes automatically internalized as long as it fits the whole picture. Most of the items on the “condemned” list are not items that prohibit doing harm to others or to nature, to the contrary, in many religious views, it is ok to induce harm to someone who does not share the same views with you; it is even rewarded. The majority of the items are designed, however, to prevent you for living your life naturally, joyously and freely. And importantly, the rules are designed to strip you from the feeling that you are free to do whatever you please, or that you can control your life.
When you do something good off the list, you feel that god (or nature) is by your side, and you expect that sooner or later you will be rewarded. On the other hand, when you do something bad off the list, you anticipate punishment, consequences, or repercussions. In some cultures where these beliefs are strong, you expect something bad to happen to you physically, or you will be denied something you long for, and usually this happens. In cultures that take this concept less literally, you become burdened with guilt and the guilt can grow so bad inside you that it eventually affects your health and manifest as diseases. I am sure you could recall how much you have tormented yourself over something enjoyable you have done, but that was deemed bad or wrong by the society. Every time you recall that event, you feel a bang of guilt in your stomach, and you might flush with shame.
People around you have deep interest in reminding you of the rules, and the consequences of breaking them. They will tell you “No, you cannot do that! Have you considered how your action would affect this or that person?” No one tells you how your inaction would affect you, or even consider you in the equation. As if what you are obliged to do has to take into consideration everyone else but yourself, what a hypocrisy!
The reality is, there is no system of reward and punishment but in our heads. Our actions, or the lack thereof, affect, most and foremost, us not the people around us, especially when these actions concern our own lives. So free yourself from the fear of punishment, live your life not afraid of the consequences of what might occur if you take that daring step. Don’t be afraid of the god inside the volcano; he should have been long since dead.I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 Breathtaking video you should watch and come to watch again every time you feel down or in doubt. Breathe deeply, shut down your mind and just let your emotions watch and follow the sceneries.
I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 e yourself is easier said than done. Most people don’t know who they really are, to be that person. Their true identity got lost in the demands of the society and peer pressure, and is buried under layers of pretence that were needed to meet these demands. In the end, they only see outward projections which don’t have any traces of their true identity. No surprise they cannot be themselves.
The dictums of society force us to take specific roles, to assume a persona. Every time you meet someone they want to create an image of you, they want to pin you down and put you in a box. This way it is easier to deal with you. If you meet someone for the first time, they ask you about work, your education, maybe even your political or religious views. In some case, they are trying to find in you something they can relate to. But in many cases, these questions imply that they are looking for how to position you in relation to them; are you “better” than them and they should treat you with respect, or “worse” than them and you should be treated with aloofness? Even those who already know you need to renew your image in their minds by asking you every time they see you “what’s up with you?”
Try to answer any of these social interactions with “I don’t know who I am, I am still trying to figure that out”, and watch the dismissive look, the shrug and the person moving away from you. Or try, as I did, asking someone you are meeting for the first time about their dreams, instead of their jobs. I got a shocked look and “are you into that astrological shit?” Damn yeah, I am ;).
So the first step to find your true identity is to stop trying to be someone else. Stop trying to hide behind job title, social status, education, money or power. If you act in any social situation in any particular manner, ask yourself whether you are going this to enforce a certain social image or you are doing it because this is who you are. Gradually, you will uncover the beautiful gem that is YOU.I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 ecently, I have been reflecting seriously on the idea that the world is a mirror of my thoughts. One question has been calling for my attention persistently: if the world is really a reflection of my thoughts, what does this tell me about the ideas in my head? Can all the conflicts I am witnessing be only ideas I am responsible for?
It is easier to consider what you personally experience as something you believe in, but to try to include everything that you hear about globally is a bit of a stretch. At the same time, if we believe in the basic principle of only witnessing what we believe in, we cannot discard global events that are filtered to our perception as something that is none of our concern. The enormity of the conflict in my beliefs and ideas hit me square in the face then. But is it really possible that my ideas alone are responsible for all what is going around me? Or am I taking this concept to an insanely wider context?
I am not a man who shies away from a challenge, especially when this challenge is a mental one. And I have a feeling that I am on the verge of taking a leap from what is intimate and personal to what is global and impersonal. But I cannot stop now, otherwise I will be a hypocrite. These ideas (of programming) have to endure the acid test and have to be applicable at all levels or else, something is wrong. I need to find, in me, the core beliefs that result is such conflict on a global scale, and I need all the discipline and will power I can muster to overcome such beliefs. I also need your support and understanding at this crucial part of my journey, because I know that this is the point when people will start to think that I, egomaniacally, think that my thoughts alone are responsible for the world events! So bear with me for the time being, please.
The most apparent belief that can lead to or manifest conflict is the belief in separation. Only parts that feel separate from each other can fight against each other. If I feel that I stand alone in the world, then I would think that whatever I do to others does not affect me. On the other hand, if I ever feel connected to someone else, or part of something else, then anything I do to that person or that something I would feel that it would affect me directly. All the conflicts in the world originate from US against THEM, a group feels threaten by another group and based on that feeling, attacks the other. It is the worst form of separation, because you don’t only feel the other as different but as posing an existential threat to you.
To overcome such a belief, I need to start seeing everyone and everything as part of me. I need to heal the rift between ME and YOU. I need to rediscover the connection between us that makes me cry when you feel pain. Obviously, this is not extremely hard to do with certain people; I can feel this already with my kids, my family and my closest friends. But for the conflicts to cease altogether, I need to feel the same connection to everyone on this planet. There should be no strangers, and here lies the challenge.
But here also lies the biggest opportunity in my life. I have a feeling that I have reached the furthest point in my journey outward, and I am taking my first steps in my journey back. The journey affirming to me that I have never been separate from you to start with, that you and I have always been one and the same. It is the journey of return, the journey back home, and I will walk it with humbleness and open heart, hand in hand with YOU.I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 rose by any other name would smell as sweet, a Shakespearian statement that I don’t totally agree with. This sentence echoed in my head as I was falling asleep while pondering about life and my position in it. It also made me think about the symbolic significance of everything in my life including my own name.
The origin of my first name is quite old. It was given as an adjective to describe certain type of generous people who would light a fire at night on top of a high place so travelers would see it from afar. It was a signal for travelers that this person is offering food and shelter for the night. Rested and with full stomach, travelers would set on their journey again in the morning.
The link between the picture the meaning of my name invoked in my head and my current life situation made me feel that I have, finally, arrived at the right place for me, that I now occupy the place in the universe that has always been reserved for me. In my professional life, as much as in this blog, I am interested in bringing transformation into the lives of others. In a way, I am like that old man with a fire on top of a mountain calling people traveling in the dark to come for food, shelter and support. I give whatever I am able to give, no strings attached, because this is my purpose in life. Rested and restocked, my visitors often continue on their way after the sun rises again in their lives.
I see a lot of “soft” changes that are needed in our society, and I want to bring as much as I can of these soft values to light. Of course I cannot force people to adopt, or even accept them, but planting even a single seed, as I have done in this blog, would be considered a success by me. Even those who wouldn’t out right accept what I say, I hope with repeated exposure to these ideas that their views on life will incrementally change.
Tonight, I felt as if I have, for the first time ever, defined my purpose in life and found it to be the purpose I was born for. Tonight I felt that a bigger “presence” is smiling down at me, and welcoming me “home” where I belong. Suddenly, my life story started to make even more sense than it used to. I am finally claiming my birthright.
Now it became visible to me why I feel emotionally close to so many people, my purpose has always been to touch many lives, lightly and gently, enough to spark their inner fire, then flutter away like a butterfly. It is my destiny and my raison d'être. Can you sense and understand it?I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 ocabulary used every day between people is surprisingly short on love. We can talk about love as an issue, a topic, as something that is out there, but we hardly deal with it as an emotion. Love is, almost, a suspect emotion, an outlaw. It is officially banned from work spaces as if work environment are created in a void unrelated to us humans, and therefore no love needed to be expressed there. Out with love goes any sign of human intimacy or relatedness, like touching, hugging, no matter how innocent the reason behind the act is.
Even in normal relationship between two people, love cannot be mentioned early on. You are allowed to “like”, to “have emotions”, but you cannot just say “I love you” before certain time elapses, certain milestones crossed. Otherwise, you will be moving too fast and you will be freaking the other person out; you might even be labeled “intense”. Why? Because love is a suspect emotion.
I have been asking myself why people feel that way about love, and why it is hard for them to express love or accept being loved. And I feel it is because most people see love as an “entitlement”; if you have been granted the love of someone, you get certain preferential treatment, and you are expected to give the same in return. Love is seen as a privilege, not to be just “wasted” on anyone or anything. Love is always coupled with sex, commitment, long term relationships, or marriage. It is not accepted as a stand-alone feeling that does not necessary needs anything else. To me, this feels like turning love into a commodity that can be exchanged for the right price. And because of that view, love can be taken back if, at any time, the price demanded for that love was not delivered.
To feel that love is a privilege to the one beloved is, in my opinion, an inverse view. Love is a privilege to the one who is capable of expressing that beautiful emotion. You should be grateful to the person who inspires that feeling in you, and you also should be grateful to the person in whom you inspire that feeling. This gratefulness should not be attached to any exchange; you should not love someone only if you are loved back or only if you can couple that love with a concrete relationship. Give and receive love freely as if it is the life force needed to keep this world revolving.Attach no price tag and expect nothing in return and try it out, just love for the sake of love. Love because being in love in a beautiful state to be in, not because you need a mate or you are looking to settle down. Love even if the person you love does not know it, and don’t be afraid to express love or to receive it.
Love because it makes you alive.Just LoveI see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 ighting the parasite is not a battle, it is a war. The little programs in our heads have been running non-stop for decades, and we have been listening to the stories told by it so attentively, that we believe every word of it. We had no doubts in the validity of the story, or the realness of the circumstances and we believe it to be the unquestionable truth. That much faith invested in the story makes taking a neutral stand to examine the story a very hard step indeed.
The first ray of light breaking through the clandestine grip of the story on us, was the realization that it is just a story. Then came our decision to change the story to empower our lives with a different version of the tale. We decided to reprogram ourselves with a story of our choice, not a cheap universal copy. The day we start dictating our first program to ourselves was the day we declared an open war on the parasite. It is the day we said “we know you are here and now we have the weapon to fight you”. Every time, we change our perception to something of our choosing, we assert that we are aware and alive and we wound the parasite a little.
But let’s not be delusional; we have not killed the parasite. It is too strong because it has been feeding on us for a very long time and we have lost a lot of energy to it over the years. But every minute we stand aware, we win a small battle, and we weaken it.
Gradually, we gain more power over it. Once we started on this path, we became what the old Toltec called “warriors”, because we are in constant battle against our mortal enemy. However, I don’t want to give the impression that we are suffering all the time because of that war.
The warriors’ way of life is very interesting; warriors don’t mind losing a battle, or lapsing in their judgment. If they fall down, they just collect themselves and start anew. Every new moment, is a new start and a new chance to win another battle. They understand that there is no point WHATSOEVER in lamenting about what went wrong before, because this is exactly what the parasite wants you to do. Just try to be aware at the next moment, and the next and the next. The parasite at some point will have to surrender, because it is not used to struggle to subdue you. And then you will be free from it forever.
The style of living like that is called, an impeccable life, which does not mean “perfect”, but it means doing your best at every moment without caring about what the results are. It is just focusing on doing the right thing, right NOW. And if you cannot do it at any moment, that does not matter, just do your best at the next moment and so on. To reach that stage takes a long time, but you can start by trying to be aware as much as possible now, and not getting upset any time you cannot do it. A big challenge, especially for the latter part ;). Just be impeccable now.I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 ostsecret is an online community at which people share their “secrets”. I found this secret there and it touched all the issues we have been discussing recently, so I thought it is a good idea to look at what is being shared in this “secret”.
I would say that this girl doubting her boyfriend because of some serious underlying beliefs. Most probably, she does not believe that she deserves that much love or devotion. Low self-worth is more common than we think, and it hides in many small details, like refusing to be loved that much, for example.
The other belief which is obvious to me, is that she lacks trust in people, or maybe only in men. She believes that he is too good to be true, and that he is acting so well, because he is hiding something from her. Most probably, she thinks he is cheating on her.
I can bet any amount of money that she will discover something that will validate her doubts pretty soon.I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
 oltec call the little program running inside our heads, the parasite. In their mythology, they view the parasite as an alien installation inserted into the human minds by beings living on the negative energy coming out of human drama! To them, the way humans talk to themselves is so alien to human nature that they consider the parasite a highly contagious mental disease.
Regardless of the origin of the voice talking in your head right now, its effect on your life is undeniable. A quick look at the world around us reveals the prevalence of injustice, misery, mistrust and deceit, not only in the individual’s private life, but in the world affairs at large. Mistrust and deceit is considered so common that most of the readers not only don’t trust people around them, they also don’t trust themselves.
The parasite is very familiar with you and your fears and insecurities because it is its programming which inserted these fears in you. You fall in love and everything is happy and wonderful and your life is transformed by this love. But the voice in your head does not stop for a second questioning this newly found happiness; is it for real? Is he truly the gentleman he claims to be? Is he really not cheating on me? Am I good enough for him? Why is he “settling” for me? Nothing that wonderful has ever happened to me before, and it is too good to be true, so it cannot be true.
The parasite has already inserted the first seed of doubt in you; it was not able to survive while you were happy, because it feeds on negative energy, now the doubt is giving it time because it has generated some negative energy for it. The doubt, like any idea, needs self justification to continue on living; so it erects watchtowers looking for evidences that support its claim (that this love is too good to be true). Believe me, it is not hard at all to find evidences supporting your doubts all over the place. Who of us has not seen a movie with a comedy situation which started very innocently and morphed into a situation looking for the onlooker anything but innocent? A man is caught by his wife, who just came into his office, pants down, his hands tied to his desk and his secretary is kneeling in front of him. He says “this is not what it looks like”, and tells her a story that any “rational” person knows that not even and “idiot” would believe it.
As watchers of the movie, we know that he is saying the truth, the man was actually innocent; but the wife, who always harbored doubts about his fidelity and was jealous of his beautiful secretary, does not know. When she comes to his office and does not find the secretary in her place and her husband door is shut, the parasite propels her to go ahead and open the door instead of waiting for the secretary to come back. On witnessing what was going on in his office her doubts became FACTS, and huge surge of emotional hatred overtakes her. She shouts at both of them, storm out leaving the office shouting obscenities. The parasite kicks in big time, telling her all sorts of bad stories and make her feel small, humiliated, wronged, ridiculed, and tell her that only revenge is acceptable. It does not leave her until she is on her way to her lawyer filing for divorce. The parasites have feasted that day on a huge amount of negative energy to last them for a year.
I am using this analogy to familiarize you with a reality that you are only amusing yourself reading about, but not really believe its validity. Of you have believed its validity, you would never blame anyone for anything that you see them doing to you. Again, NO ONE DOES ANYTHING TO ANYONE. It is your programming which interprets events happening in front of you according to the code of this program. Whatever happens in front of you should tell you only one thing, YOU ARE WITNESSING WHAT YOU ARE WITNESSING BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS IS THE ONLY WAY IT IS. No matter who you deal with, as long as you believe people not to be trustworthy, you will only meet not trustworthy people. I know that you are reading these words, but do you really understand them? Or is the parasite telling you something else?I see light blogThe image is a courtesy of " Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische"
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