I wrote my vision and my goals. I created a vision map or board. I set out with good intentions. Nothing. Same ol’, same ol’.

I could blame it on the fact that my daughter is here visiting. That clients called. I had things that got in the way..projects, the need to learn to podcast, interviews to conduct, old work to get handled and out of the way, bills to pay, shopping to do, emails to answer, social media to attend to, etc., etc., etc.

It felt l like 2012 came in with a rush, driving me forward at breakneck speed. That’s how 2011 went out. Why would the new year be any different? I don’t seem to have brakes on this car I’m in. I’m not sure I’m driving. I’m trying to get control.

Here’s the fact: In the first eight days of 2012, I  didn’t keep to the schedule I set as part of my plan. I didn’t do even one of the things I said I would do. Well…I take that back. I did do one thing. I took a bit of time off to spend with my daughter. I relaxed with family. That is on my vision map and in my goals–to find balance in my life between work and personal.

Yay! I made one change. I made it consciously.

Changing habits can prove difficult. Yet, to achieve some new degree of success we must change our old habits. They’ve only gotten us the degree of success we enjoy right now.

Anything can get in the way and become an excuse. For me, getting up early to complete my client work first is a new goal, a new habit, I’d like to form. It’s easy to say I went to bed too late and simply not get up early. It’s easy to answer the phone when it rings during that time period, or to schedule an activity anyway (like walking with a friend, since that’s a goal, too), and to say that’s why I couldn’t meet my goal, make the change, create a new habit.

I find myself saying all too often I just don’t have the time to change, the energy to change. I’ll do it tomorrow or next week.

Well, a week has gone by of this new year…this year that everyone said would be one of such awesome change…when we could affect change in ways heretofore not possible. I, for one, have not found this year much different. It still remains up to me to make the change. (I hear the refrain of some song…I can’t quite put my finger on it…)

Ah, well…the Kabbalists must right. We are simply in transition. We have a long way to go before the predicted time of peace on Earth or the World to Come. (They say not until the year 6,000 on the Hebrew calendar.) Actually, many other people also say we are simply in a time of transition. And it’s likely our consciousness is changing. We can affect change and do so faster, more effectively if we do it in a conscious and focused manner. We don’t need a new year, a new era, a new anything for that.

The trick is to put that lesson–an old one really (and no “secret” either) to use now to create the desired change. For me, I’m starting small–in my life, with my habits. This helps me achieve what I need to achieve and then has a ripple affect, allowing me to affect others through my work.

I’ll go back and focus again on my vision, my goals, my vision board. I’ll work every day to keep on track, making those little changes that end up in new habits formed. By year’s end, I may have achieved a new level of success based upon those new habits.

What about you? How’s it going after the first week of the New Year? Does the energy of 2012 seem to be supporting you? Is change happening in your life or around you?

However, the idea that the world could have ended yesterday, today or tomorrow offers a wonderful reminder that we must live our lives to the fullest extent possible right now in this moment. And if we want to experience the “rapture”–that connection with God we all seek–we need only find a way to be fully in the present. That’s where God exists. Not in the past or in the future. Not on some cloud in the sky (or in heaven). God is right here with us on this earthly plane if only we become aware, conscious, present.

It’s not so easy. That’ s why we have spiritual and meditative practices and focus our attention on becoming aware of our thoughts. We work hard at being in the now because we’ve let ourselves fall into the habit of being anywhere but right here in this moment.

In this moment, we can experience the rapture. We can experience heaven on Earth and the World to Come. The world doesn’t even have to end. If we can learn to experience that now, we won’t even notice that the world has ended–should that event come to pass.

What if the world had ended and you and I had never managed to be in the now and experience God? I supposed that might feel a lot like being left behind in hell. But it didn’t. We have time to experience rapture right here, right now.

I’m not saying I don’t even get upset or angry over things that happen, but I try to switch gears quickly, problem solve and stay pretty positive and grateful. My husband, on the other hand, tends to just get angry and upset and to feel like a victim to circumstance. It becomes hard for him to see anything positive–any upside or opportunity.

So, for example, when our state tax refund showed up just in time to pay for the property taxes and my son’s summer dance program (both of which we were going to have to pay for out of our savings account), he saw that as something about which to be upset rather than happy. The money that we had just received went out the door as fast as it came in.

And when my old car died just as we were about to get our federal tax return, which we hoped to save, again this was something about which to feel angry.

I wasn’t pleased about spending the money we could have saved, but in both cases I simply accepted the fact that we had expenses–and we had been provided with the means to meet them. I felt grateful that we didn’t have to go into debt or deplete our savings. I also didn’t spend a lot of time getting upset or angry about the situation–or shaking my fist at God.

Rather I felt as if God were acting as my partner. As always, I believed in some way shape or form God’s hand was in all of this. I knew I just needed to trust that everything was okay and would be okay. I knew I just needed to feel connected.

Interestingly enough, this morning after more discussions with my husband about new cars and money, I got an email from one of my favorite rabbi–a man and teacher who has helped me with my own writing projects and who put me on the Jewish mystical (and Jewish spiritual) path. I took the time to visit Rabbi David Cooper’s website and found a post there that spoke to this point (and inspired my post today). In reading Rabbi Cooper’s words I was reminded how hard we must work every day to stay conscious and connected to Source, to not react to what we are presented with in our lives each day but instead to respond. That’s why we must stay on the spiritual path no matter how hard that feels, engaging in some sort of spiritual practice. And, and I’ve said before, it does take practice to stay conscious and connected. It doesn’t happen without effort and daily–almost hourly or minute-to-minute–sessions.

Rabbi Cooper writes:

The purpose of spiritual practice is to gently and consistently move us from our place, where we normally “hang out” in our day-to-day behavior, to a mind state of greater refinement. In this context, refinement is connected with our conditioning, our normal reflexes and responses to situations that arise every day. Through practice, we begin to reflect and react in different ways. This change in our behavior actually causes many significant results.

Spiritual practice, is this context, has a series of tiny ekstasis that arise when we behave out of place of our normal reactions. We must keep in mind that “normal” for most of us is quite different from “natural.” Normal is how we are conditioned to respond. Conditioning develops from the time we are conceived; some say that our propensities to be conditioned go back into our genetic dna. But the spiritual principal at the base of many traditions is that our natural inclinations arise when we fully recognize the basic nature of our own minds and thereby gain greater ability to resist conditioned reactions.

Through our spiritual practice we learn to respond rather than react, to stay connected and conscious. Another of my teachers, author Stuart Wilde, says this is like spiritual weight lifting. We become stronger, more able to change how we react to the irritations in our life–the situations that arise–by constantly practicing remaining conscious and connected no matter what arises–in spite of what arises–in our lives. Life becomes our training ground, our gym, our practice field.

Little by little, day by day, hour by hour we change simply by living. As Rabbi Cooper writes:

Skilled practice results from an ongoing engagement in the mystery of what everyday life presents. As we never know what life will bring, we need always to be prepared to meet this unknowable reality with our highest potential. Thus, to the best of our ability, we continuously are challenged to bring our awareness to the many opportunities that present themselves as a series of invitations for manifesting enlightened actions. Each and every time we succeed, we change the world.

I’ve still got a long way to go–a lot of practice before I become truly “awakened” or “enlightened.” I still react more than I’d like; I still get irritated by the irritations. I notice this when I angrily respond to the fact that my son forgot an essential item that prevented him from taking dance class–after I drove an hour and a half to take him there, the shelf in my living room has not been replaced by my husband after five months or the insurance agent takes two hours to ask me questions I already answered once before. So, you’ll find me in my spiritual gym on most days lifting weights in an effort to become more awakened.

As Rabbi Cooper explains:

The highest teachings are explicit in describing the idea that our most enlightened opportunities occur in the ordinary daily life we now experience. The difference is that one who is awakened recognizes the essential nature of what is happening while one who is not awakened is easily overwhelmed by an ongoing flow of “self” induced dramas.

To rid ourselves of this sense of drama, Rabbi Cooper says we must rid ourselves of the belief that we are separate. When we do so, we also lose many of the harmful actions, false beliefs, negative reactions, confusion, irritation, and suffering that go with it.

Instead of believing we are separate–something most of us have believed for a long, long time–we must remember we are connected and always have been. Connection is our normal state of being. We only think we are separate from the Source; the thought doesn’t happen to represent truth.  It’s a meme, a thought given to you by someone else that you adopted. You can choose to adopt the thought that you are connected instead, but knowing and feeling this connection comes with spiritual practice.

Some people end up feeling too irritated, too angry, and they fall off the spiritual path before they can change their reactions or thoughts. They leave the spiritual gym seeing no results from their efforts. They feel alone in their work there and without a personal trainer. They don’t feel connected, so they go off alone blaming the gym and it’s Proprietor for their failure. They don’t realize that if they don’t stay in spiritual shape, bit by bit, parts of their life start feeling harder and harder. Without connection and consciousness, everything begins to feel like an irritation and a struggle.You get stuck reacting to irritations in your life in the same old way you always have.

Is that what you want? I don’t. So I look for “enlightened opportunities” as they occur in my ordinary daily life to respond in conscious and connected manner. I lift spiritual weights daily. Sometimes I’m not strong enough to do all the sets, but I keep lifting.

How do you react to the irritations in your life?

According to halachah, or Jewish law, however, when we light the chanukiah, the Chanukah menorah, we are prohibited from using its light for any purpose. That means we can’t light the candles and then read by their light or do some other task by their light. We can’t hold up the chanukiah and look at the wold around us. Instead, we are told to simply look at the light.

Typically, when we light a candle, we look at what the light allows us to see— what we see in the light. On Chanukah, however, we focus on the light itself—on seeing the light…the light that is pure potential, the light that symbolizes the spiritual realm, the light that is God. We want our eyes to become filled with this light, so that when we turn away from the candles we see the world as if illuminated by this light. Our eyes illuminate it, and we see the world anew.

Just as Chanukah offers us a reminder that miracles are possible, and the Kabbalists tell us that during Chanukah we can access the energy of miracles, the light of the Chanukah candles reminds us to see everything as miraculous. Typically, we go through life seeing everything as normal and ordinary. We don’t see miracles.

Occasionally, I attend a gathering called “Miracles and Intentions.” During this gathering, we are asked to give voice to the miracles we’ve experienced over the last month. People talk about all sorts of things…large and small. A check that arrived in the mail unexpectedly. A cat coming home after being lost. A reconciliation. Waking up feeling well. A call about a potential job. The car needing only $100 worth of repair work. A new client. I love this gathering, because it reminds me to be aware of miracles, to look for them every day in all sorts of places, to acknowledge the miracles in my own life. I remember that miracles exist in the eyes of the beholder.

We are told that God stopped performing miracles here on Earth. I don’t believe it’s true. As Albert Einstein said, “There are two ways of looking at the world—either you see nothing as a miracle or you see everything as a miracle.” If you believe in and look for miracles, you’ll see them. (God’s hand is still at work.) At least try to spend some time looking at the Chanukah candles burning brightly and fill your eyes with the light of potential so you can be reminded to look for miracles. Afterwards, I’m sure if you try, you’ll spot an occasional miracle here and there.

]]> http://purespiritcreations.com/wordpress/2009/12/15/chanukah-light-helps-us-see-miracles/feed/ 0 http://purespiritcreations.com/wordpress/2009/12/03/what-do-you-have-and-what-are-you-worth/ http://purespiritcreations.com/wordpress/2009/12/03/what-do-you-have-and-what-are-you-worth/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:44:46 +0000 nina amir http://purespiritcreations.com/wordpress/?p=279 Today I was reading a commentary written by Rabbi Label Lam on this weeks parsha, the weekly torah portion. It happens to be about the reunion of Jacob and Esau, but it pertains to the giving and receiving, an important Kabbalistic concept that typically comes to the forefront of our minds during the holiday season.

Just when so many people are caught up in the “getting” of gifts–in what they desire to receive–I found it interesting to read about the different perspectives these two biblical characters had on their so-called “possessions. In Genesis 33:9, 11, Esau proclaims, “I have plenty.” Jacob says, “I have all.”  According to Rashi, one of the most famous commentators on the Torah, “Esau spoke boastfully, proclaiming :’I have plenty more than I could ever want.’ (Jacob said, ‘I have) everything that I require.’” Rabbi Lam points out that Easau “evaluates his personal wealth in terms of quantity (“plenty”), as opposed to Jacob, who does so in terms of quality (“all”). While the former is still hopelessly addicted to temporary material existence, the latter is living life on a higher frequency.”

I see this as the difference between someone who wants material “things” and often feels lack when those things are absent and a person who looks around at the world and sees the abundance of the universe and feels rich in every way. One person will always see something missing in his or her life, while the other person can always find something in his or her life about which to feel grateful and prosperous and abundant. It’s a different perspective, a different point of view, a different way of seeing the world. In fact, it’s a different consciousness.

During Christmas and Chanukah, a lot of stress is placed on presents. Most people enjoy giving presents as well as receiving them. The Kabbalists teach that we should really want is a new consciousness–a consciousness that desires to receive in order to give, or to share, with others unconditionally. The holiday season offers us a chance to practice this more so than at any other time of the year. We can ask ourselves as we make up our gift list, how can we share what we receive? How can we do so when we feel as if we don’t have enough ourselves? And how can we get out of feeling that sense of lack so we can give more freely and easily and unconditionally?

Additionally, how does what we have to give play into our concept of ourselves and what we feel we are worth? Many people’s self image is tied totally into their home, car, clothes, savings, and other material things. Do these things really say anything about who we are and what we are worth?

Read this story that Rabbi Lam told in his commentary on this week’s parsha, and you’ll realize that a person’s worth and value actually is tied to their unconditional giving.

A powerful king once approached the famous Baron Rothschild and candidly asked him what he was worth. The Baron is reputed to have answered that he was worth some 50 million francs. The king felt that the answer somehow understated his true holdings and did some investigation. When he discovered that Baron Rothschild really was worth 500 million francs, he felt betrayed, and confronted the Baron again. “Why have you misled me and violated our trusting relationship? I am aware that your assets exceed 500 million francs!”

The Baron humbly replied that true, his holdings were some 500 million francs – but the king had asked, “How much are you worth?” To that the Baron was compelled to tell the truth. “What I gave to charity approaches 50 million francs. What I have managed to give away is actually accounted to my “worth.” That is what I carry with me. It is locked in a vault of good deeds forever. As to what will happen to the remainder of my wealth, I am uncertain. I do not count it as my personal worth.’”

Rabbi Lam explains the moral of this story in this way: “The spiritually-oriented person is not compelled to impress or be impressed by that which lies outside of himself. His true ambition is aimed at goals that are within his reachable realm, and his physical possessions are merely a means to achieve those ends and not the ends themselves.”

I’d add this: We all have desires. We all want to learn how to manifest those desires. The key is to find desires that involve giving to others…helping others…becoming change agents… Try to manifest “things” that help you do this, and use them in that manner.  Then ask yourself what you have and what you are worth. You’ll probably discover that you have all, your worth has grown considerably and you are quite worthy of receiving more.

When my kids were young, I used to decorate the house with tons of Chanukah decorations. Albeit, this was not much different than what Christians do, but it helped my kids–indeed, my whole family–get into the Chanukah spirit. Last year, we pulled out a few at the last minute. It felt sort of anticlimactic. There was no “umph” to the whole holiday, because we were busy with school and work.

That’s the other problem. Christians get time off for Christmas, but unless Chanukah falls during that “Christmas break,” Jews have to fit the holiday into every-day life. It can be hard to find time to make latkes and play dreidle when you work all day and the kids have activities and homework.

Yet, Chanukah brings with it the energy of miracles. The Kabbalists said that during the eight days of this holiday, it was possible for humans to access that energy and create miracles in their lives. If we remember that one fact, we can make Chanukah feel magical even in the midst of homework, dishes, work, soccer, dance, and errands. We can focus on the possibility of miracles happening all around us.

I’ve heard it taught that we must actually raise our consciousness to the level of miracles–rather than expecting miracles to “befall” us, or for God to bring miracles “down” to us. If the Kabbalists are right about this fact, then despite our busy lives, during Chanukah we can work on raising our consciousness above the mundane to a higher spiritual level. By doing so, we access that miracle consciousness.

This doesn’t take much really…a little time spent offering gratitude, a few moments focusing on your breath, a quiet moment of prayer–even while driving, an awareness of God’s creation all around you, a blessing for another day of life as you awaken, a focus on the little miracles that happen in your life all the time.

Anticipation also brings us into the Chanukah spirit. Maybe that’s what my decorations accomplished. Putting them out a week or three or four days prior to the holiday helped me build energy around the holiday. Jews often do this by cleaning prior to a holiday, just as we do each week before the Sabbath. We can build energy by getting out our chanukiah, buying candles, making sure we have potatoes for latkes, purchasing gifts or getting brand new dollar bills to offer as “gelt” for the children, or putting out special Chanukah place mats. Or we can anticipate by meditating on the miracle that created the holiday…and the miracles we’d like to create during the current holiday.

We can purchase Chanukah music and play it not only during Chanukah but before the holiday begins. We can read about Chanukah and find new rituals and traditions to make part of our yearly observance. We can have a Chanukah party. (Read about the party I used to throw and the one the president throws in the White House here.)

Really, there’s no excuse to not get into the Chanukah spirit. It’s easy to look around at the Christmas spirit building and to become a grinch, grumbling about how everything is all about Christmas from Halloween all the way until New Year’s Eve…but wouldn’t it be better to get into the Chanukah spirit and create some miracles instead?

Has your life ever felt as if it is falling apart? Does it feel that way now? Sometimes mine feels that way…especially with the energy swirling around the world, the energy of transformation. It’s helpful to remember that sometimes things fall apart for a reason, and then God’s hand comes in to help us put the pieces back together in a manner that supports us in a new and better way. You’ll feel better if you think about the fact that you can take the pieces and co-create a new foundation upon which to stand or a new situation in which to exist.

We live in a time of change. What looks like falling apart actually is the opposite–putting together. We are all helping build the coming times, the next moment, the next day. And we do this with our energy, with our consciousness. So, we must stop focusing upon what is “falling apart” and instead focus on what we are creating out of the pieces of our lives.

When everyone in the house has gone to bed, a peace fall over the house. Even though I’m home alone during the day, the birds and squirrels keep me company with their constant chatter. At night, they, too are silent, except for an occasional horned owl. Since I’m on the West Coast, my email box also stops filling with new mail in the early morning, because the rest of the people around the United States have long ago gone to bed as well. The only people still awake seem to be on FaceBook and Twitter. 

Sometimes, if I want some company…or I just want to procrastinate…I go to Twitter, where I find a few cyber friends with whom to interact. In the darkness of my office, with just the light over my desk, I send out little messages across time and space. It’s an odd connection, but it makes me smile more often than not.

And then I go back to my writing…maybe a blog post or a piece for my San Jose Jewish Examiner.com column. Sometimes it’s an article for a dance magazine or a trade journal. Sometimes, if I’m lucky, it’s a piece on something close to my heart. Or possibly I’m just knocking out a project that I need to complete.

In the quiet of the early morning, I can finally focus. The house is quiet. The world is quiet. My mind is quiet. Well, the last may not be quiet true. My mind is filled with words, but I can finally hear them.

If I take a few minutes just to sit quietly, I can hear other things: my breath, the cat climbing onto the clean clothes in the living room (where she isn’t allowed to sleep), the fountain trickling behind me, the hum of the printer, the Still Small Voice. Ah…I remember that voice. 

That voice tells me to put aside the other projects and write from my heart. It tells me to finish my unfinished projects. It tells me to persevere. It tells me I’m on the right track. It tells me to slow down and listen.

And then it tells me to go to sleep. The rest can wait until morning…well, until I wake up.  The problem comes when I do slide into bed beside my sleeping (and snoring) husband, and I cannot sleep. My thoughts, my words, have become too loud. In the quiet of the morning, they have become amplified, and it takes a long time for me to find a way to turn down the volume and sleep. If only I could find a program that would type all those words into my computer for me as I lay there in bed and as I slept. Oh, the writing I could accomplish.

But would it record the Still Small Voice as well? Or can we only hear that when we are awake, when we are conscious? I think, somehow, the sound of that voice might not be picked up by even the best microphone.

Now, again, it whispers to me…