My Mission Statement
To invoke consciousness and healing through my dramatic
performance, music
and knowledge (This is catharsis: the process of releasing
and thereby creating relief/healing from strong or repressed emotion, thus
raising consciousness;
originally through dramatic art).
The purpose of this
page is to share what I have found of value in growth as a Spiritual Being.
Your comments and feedback are most welcome. You will find a valuable technical
exercise to increase your skills as a Spiritual Being further on in this write
up. I will be adding more to this section, so come back often and encourage
your friends to do so as well.
THE START OF THE
JOURNEY
Where does one
start... Well, I have heard it said that the beginning is always a good place
to begin...
I was born in
England, at the end of the second World War, into a world of slums, bomb sites,
anger, frustration, little money and a lot of hardships.
Probably the best
thing at that time was my parents love of music and their introducing me to the
violin. I started serious studies of violin at age seven. In retrospect this
had so much great value. It introduced discipline and a focus in my life, plus
the concept and value of persisting until one reaches a desired level of
accomplishment. It gave me the means of a passionate and artistic communication
skill. Probably of greatest value, it enabled me to start on a road to skill
and mastery in one area of life, which has acted as a model to shape other
areas of life for me.
From an early age I
questioned "Who am I?", "What is existence?". These are
thorny and painful questions for any of us, especially in our childhood years.
During adolescence I studied great political and philosophical writers. They
all had very little to say about the spiritual nature of man. Then I moved onto
Darwin, with his theory of evolution, substantiating the idea that we are just
higher animals - born out of the mud and dying back into the same mud some 70
or so years later. There was still no mention of spirituality. Then I moved
onto the existentialists (Jean-Paul Sartre, Kierkergard, etc.) They left me
with a suicidal condition and the perceived reality that we have no cause in
life other than to accept conditions as they are: mostly bad and undesirable.
Ugh!!
In the early 60's I
caught the first glimmer of light with my introduction to Zen-Macrobiotics.
Brown rice and a few veggies, and information that gave me glimpses of our
basic nature as Spiritual Beings.
After a most
elevating, but also most disastrous young marriage, I was left devastated. My
brother Ivan introduced me to what was to become the most important and life
changing information and set of tools that I have ever known. They still hold
their inestimable value to this day, about four decades later.
I should also note
that up to this point in my life, I was a complete introvert. I could not say
Boo to a Goose. This may well be unbelievable, especially to those of you who
have seen me so comfortably performing or talking, whether it be to one person
or 10,000. This information and set of tools has given me great skills as a
performing artist, as well as in all other areas of life.
What I have to tell
you next was the beginning of this miraculous and life changing journey, which
is still in progress.
Most of us have heard
the expression "Be here now." Ram Dass wrote a book in the late 60's
that popularized this idea all over the world. However, like so many things,
nobody seemed to know how you do it. Even worse, nobody appeared to be able to
teach us how.
My brother, Ivan,
seeing me in great distress, took me aside one day and said "Sit in that
chair opposite me, just look at and be aware of me. Don't do anything else, no
moving around, no thinking about stuff. Just be PRESENT in the moment, being aware
of me." At first my mind was racing and I was crying hysterically over my
upsets. But, after a few minutes I quieted down and the pain of past losses and
failures magically dropped away. I discovered the incredible joy of being in
the PRESENT, BEING HERE NOW. I was also aware of how huge I felt.
This was most curious! I felt huge, large, big. Right there was
something worthy of much more in-depth examination.
If you desire to
reach this same kind of awareness, I suggest you do the following short exercise
on yourself right now.
1a. Recall a time you felt upset, something
had gone wrong.
1b. While looking at that experience, ask
yourself, how big do you feel? This is an odd question I know, but as you work
through this, you will find that you do have an awareness of size of self.
NOW DO THE FOLLOWING:
2a. Recall a time and experience where
things were going very well, you felt happy and successful.
2b. How big do you feel right now?
On question 1b people
usually say they feel squashed, small, pinhead size. And on question 2b I have
had people say, large, big, expansive, even infinite. Curiouser and curiouser,
I saw no change in body size. Did you?
Also, remember my
question was "How big do YOU feel?" As you can see YOU can experience
an immense change in sense of size, from minuscule to huge or infinite.
Yes, the YOU is
spirit. We are Spiritual Beings. Spiritual Beings who are not solely of just our
minds or our bodies.
Definition:
Spirit: n. 1. You, the life force, the
power, the strength, the awareness, the knower, the perceiver, the
intelligence.
2. The vital principle or animating force
within living beings. A causative, activating, or essential principle.
Following this
breakthrough, I became a metaphysical student and teacher. A student and
teacher on an exciting search for spiritual information and growth. For over
four decades I have been consciously traveling this road. I am finally happy
and now actively seek to share my discoveries and the knowledge I have gained
through this ongoing discovery and learning process.
There is a large body
of spiritual technology available now to those who seek the path of true
happiness and self awareness and positive realization.
Come back and visit
my website often. I shall be changing it frequently, putting up new information
here. Let your friends know about it too. My goal is to help bring about more
optimum conditions for us all.
TECHNICAL
PRESENTATION DETAILS ON HOW TO DO PRESENCE
Presence is the most
important skill needed to successfully live life.
Our ability "to
be here now" determines our levels of skill, truth, love, happiness and
prosperity. How many times do we cut the grass, do the office work, etc, whilst
mentally and spiritually we are off on that fanciful Hawaiian holiday or
someplace else. Often of course, that place where our attention is stuck is not
even desirable, perhaps a crashed love affair, an argument at work, a failure
to achieve our dreams and desires, maybe just a sense of emptiness and despair.
We drive along in
rush hour traffic not even seeing the cars around and in front of us as we hash
and rehash that upset, that failure. Surprise, surprise when we have an
accident, or we fail to say the right thing to that girl or guy we've been
wanting to date for so long . We have allowed our attention be on losses and
failures in the past, or stuck in fears of what may occur in the future. We are
not being present.
You will find that
miracles occur as we become more present in life. We start to do what we are
doing while we are doing it. We start to see what is as it is (also a
definition for truth). The word PRESENCE describes US NOW.
Definition:
Presence: n.
1: The fact or condition of
being present (in or at this place).
2. The part of space within one's immediate
vicinity.
3a: The bearing, carriage, or air of a
person.
3b: A quality of poise and effectiveness
that enables a performer to achieve a close relationship with his audience.
Websters Dictionary
The purpose of this
exercise:
To be able to be more present and here in the moment IN DAY TO DAY
LIFE.
Instructions:
It
requires two people to do this exercise. So get together with a friend or
spouse. You will find it a very rewarding exercise that will also bring you
closer together in friendship. One will be the coach, and will be responsible
for seeing that the exercise goes well. The other the student.
Coach and student sit
comfortably in chairs facing each other with knees almost touching, hands in
your lap. Body position to be face to face. You want to be relaxed and
directly facing each other and looking squarely into each others eyes.
The coach should set
an amount of time, such as 5 minutes (to start with). The coach gets the
student to define "Presence" and "Being here". The coach
starts the exercise by telling the student "Be here", and both sit
there facing each other, just being there and nothing else.
You may find that at
first any number of things may occur, such as a fit of the giggles, thinking
about stuff, twitching, sight going foggy, etc., etc. When anything other than
just being there occurs, the coach should, on observing it, ask the student,
"What happened?" - The student answers "I got the giggles",
"felt uncomfortable", or whatever it was. The coach acknowledges what
the student said (lets the student know they have been heard and understood) by
saying "thank you", "OK", "I understand" or
"all right" or so forth. The coach then returns the student back to
doing Presence by saying "continue being here."
DO NOT GET INTO A BIG
DISCUSSION, you can do that later. You may experience different or altered
states of being while doing this exercise, especially when done for longer
periods of time, 30 to 60 minutes or more. A sense of peace and calm is quite a
normal experience n doing Presence, which will often stay with you for a while
during the day, perhaps all day. You will find that some truly powerful and
magical things can and will occur in your life by doing this exercise.
But, in order to
achieve this, that also means DOING the exercise.
This exercise should
not be confused with meditation. This is NOT a meditation. It is an exercise to
help us Be Here Now.
End the exercise
after the agreed amount of time and change roles, with the coach now becoming
the student and vice versa. Repeat the exercise for another agreed upon amount
of time.
As you do more of
this you will find it gets easier to be here in the moment for longer periods
of time. Once you are comfortable with the shorter periods, practice doing this
for 30 minutes or even longer.
Do 20 minutes, or
longer if you have time, at the beginning of each day. Especially before a
special meeting, interview or presentation. It will get you PRESENT and
everything will go smoothly and more easily than you ever imagined it could.
It is also of great
value to do this exercise with someone with whom you are upset, or with whom
you have a disagreement, as it brings you both into the present with each
other. Have your kids do it when they get into fights with each other; sit two
kids down facing each other to do presence just for a few minutes. In order to
work, both for the younger ones, as well as those of us further down the road
of life, this must not be approached as a punitive action. For the kids, I recommend that you coach the exercise. They will be back in harmony in moments.
NOTE:
This exercise
is to be done in a controlled and hopefully safe environment. The whole idea is
to now go out into life and use your new and or increased skill TO BE HERE NOW
IN LIFE.
BE HERE NOW with
friends, bosses, spouses, staff, children, associates, everybody. Do it all the
time in every situation. You will be amazed.
Much love,
P.S. There will be
more to come soon. So please do visit again. Your comments via email are most
appreciated.