NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5, #1
Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,
NEWSLETTER VOLUME 5, #1
Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,
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Our four great enemies
I've written about the Jaguar-kings before. Recently I told one of my « springboard stories » to a large management group. They really appreciated it. A springboard story is a narrative told so the audience learns things they can apply in their own lives.
I recounted a fascinating tale from the protomayan culture - the Olmec - who lived in Mexico and Central America from 2500 years ago back into antiquity. I told how they succeeded in uniting very large areas of the American Continent into a free trading empire. Travelers here started the legends of a paradise-on-earth, telling of a land that was composed of small, fully independent tribal-kingdoms of free people who lived by Creations laws.
The Olmec leaders explored Natures creative management principles and applied them to empower their daily life, thereby civilizing the jungle. As a secondary result, they generated such prosperity so as to liberate people from mindless toil, encouraging them to learn the art and science of creative living. If the story is to be repeated, you should know that way back in those olden times - ordinary folks became great leaders by disciplining themselves to abide by the jungles primary rule: Altruistic self-interest.
In the jungle, it is clearly in your interest to care for yourself. Rather than limit their thinking to that egocentric I am, the first citizens of America recognized that it was in their best interest to think about the welfare of all, the whole of Nature, as well as themselves. They determined that the basic law of motion - action/reaction is the same law of love that we learned from our religions or philosophies.
Emotionally speaking, the action/reaction law states that we must give off positive energy (put positive energy in motion) in order to receive positive energy. And while that's easy enough to understand - the law also says : the ONLY WAY to offset negative energy we might encounter is with MORE POSITIVE. Action/reaction says meeting negative energy with negative adds negative. Let me affirm that the word most often used to describe positive energy-in-motion (e-motion) is love. Love is more than an abstract or romantic notion, it is a universal principle.
The Olmec sorcerers saw that an indivisible law of motion requires a longer term view and so my story related how those great leaders made decisions after considering their impact on seven (7) generations to follow. No one can break a universal law they knew, but anyone can break him or herself against the law. They created a highly-advanced society by consciously deciding to abide by love's law. From their experience they learned that a creative, happy and successful life requires the discipline to love without condition. They also learned that humans have four enemies who prevent us from realizing it. These great enemies are Fear, Clarity, Lust for power and Old age.
Fear is our first enemy. In order to understand love, we must first experience it. Our initiation to the subject however, is often a fear-based dependence that we learn from parents or other care-givers. "I love you when you are good!" - is the condition they'll define. From that experience, many people carry a lot of emotional damage which will limit them and - as Nature plays no favorites and no one is above the law - they have to work through. Of course people want to be loved and many have a mind full of ideas about what that love should be like... we have conditions. Because most of us have little inkling about what those conditions might be, insisting on them is disastrous. Some will be afraid to make the first move, or of rejection, some are afraid to adjust to loves demands, some are afraid to commit to it or to lose it.
People who experience love without condition arrive at a new realization: Love is real when I am loving. The clarity from that insight can be blinding. Clarity is our second enemy. Recognizing what love is through personal experience, you'll also see what it isn't and that makes a lot of people back off. Clarity of mind drives us away from people who hide behind their fears, for example, as we can see that there's not much love there. Blinded by clarity, some shy away from the very hope of finding love. Others shy away from their responsibility to develop their own capacity to love without condition. Clarity becomes an enemy when you see out there - with all its flaws - and forget that it is in-here that's doing the seeing.
When fear and clarity are overcome, the lust for power is our third enemy. Imagine action/reaction ...as the power of attraction. Now imagine the power unleashed as a result of loving another without condition. That kind of acceptance is what most everybody is craving and so many will do most anything to get it. Studies on hormones, pheromones and receptor neurons are conclusive: Some people are emotional junkies. Now then - think about all the abuses of power you've heard about, the sins committed by persons who pretend to fill the cravings of others. And now, think about power's perks and privileges... as lustful trappings. Don't forget - love is real - and so is the universal action/reaction law behind it. Don't get caught up by the illusion.
Old age is our fourth great enemy. By the time we've learned from our experiences and have vanquished our petty power politics, we should have no doubt that love without condition is real magic. It must be cultivated as the Masters in history have said - but by the time we realize it, we may be too old to appreciate it. Remove your conditions to love. Those four great enemies are keeping you from living in the creative Spirit. Defeat your only real enemies. Cultivate love so it becomes a magic power. It'll take energy and time so act now. Action/reaction is also the karmic law and, in the final hour, no one is above it - nor beyond its judgment.
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At the heart of all mystical thought is the communion (union with) of human spirit and creating Spirit. This « unified spirit » has been described by sorcerers, saints and mystics since time immemorial. But is it real? Is it only metaphysical? Does the mystical state have a practical use? Learn the way this experience can benefit you by clicking here. See how your mind is a part of the whole, the creating MasterMind, and how to connect with it.
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Consider at a corporate retreat. Learn when and how to use strategic retreats in Nature. We stimulate leaders so they make the creative decisions that will assure their success. Our retreats have allowed our clients to create action-oriented plans that bring about real change and empower their workers to work as a unified whole.
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Im glad to see that educational tourism has really taken off in Costa Rica. Examples? if you want to know more about solar energy, the sun-power experts at are animating 2 workshops in the Southern Zone in February and March 2005. The details are available by clicking here.
Meanwhile, the folks who run a School Of Traditional Building are giving a timber framing workshop in the San Luis Mountains, from February 21-March 4, 2005. Check it out here.
My tantric friends Al and Pala are animating a Couples Workshop - see it here - in Northern Guanacaste Province from February 5-12 2005 . But if you'd rather learn tropical ecology, see this site and explore either the Monteverde Mountains or the Tortuguero beaches in July 2005.
Or how about photography in the tropics? Expert Roy Tofts 2004 tour-workshop sold out real fast - and hes already booking his 2005 Corcovado package right here. Of course, all our tours have to do with creative self-empowerment where any learning is good: See below.
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"Learn something new every day under the sun. You will never get old if you do." Lois Bey
"Everything must be made as simple as possible but not one bit simpler." Albert Einstein
"Real happiness is not dependent on external things. You must cultivate your mind if you wish to achieve enduring happiness." William Lyon Phelps
"One of the unfortunate things about our education system is that we do not teach students how to avail themselves of their subconscious capabilities." Bill Lear
"It's been said: All is an illusion. - but that's an insufficient distinction; more accurately: All is perception." Eldon Taylor
"Strength of mind comes from exercise, not rest." Alexander Pope
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One day, in the season when pickings were slim, a small, very hungry fox was intent on trying to reach a field mouse whod taken refuge in an old well. Absent-minded because of his hunger, while reaching for that tiny morsel, he fell into the water and, try as he did, couldn't find a way to get back out.
Feeling rather foolish, he sat there - perched on the old bucket - regretting his mistake and vowing - should destiny help him out - to never make that particular one again.
Soon, a goat overcome with thirst from his butt-heading day came to the well and, looking in, wondered how he could get a drink. He was very surprised to see the fox sitting comfortably at the bottom and, after a moment to compose himself, he pushed forward, bid the fox good day and inquired if the water was good enough to drink and - specifically - how he, a great goat, could avail himself of some.
Concealing his plight under the merriest guise, the fox indulged in extensive praise of the water, assuring the goat that it was excellent beyond any measure, and indeed why was he sitting there alone and enjoying it when it was clearly and coolly destined as water to be shared. Yet he uttered not one word on how the goat could get some.
The thirsty goat listened to the exaltations on wetness for the longest time and then butted in, as goats do, to ask the fox more directly - how he could get some. Well the fox just told him to jump down and serve himself. And because the goat was mindful only of his great thirst - without thinking - he did jump down the well and greedily drank his fill.
As soon as his thirst was sated though, he looked up whereupon the sly fox informed him of the difficulty they now both faced to get out. He went on and on about the problem and the challenge... until the goat butted in again to near beg him to quickly get to the solution. And so the fox instantly suggested a clever strategy he said assured their escape: "If you place your butt back and your front hooves high against the wall while bending your head and locking your horns into it, I'll leap onto your back, run a step, jump as high as I can and escape. After I'm free, itll be very easy to get you out."
Again, the desperate goat very quickly agreed - so the fox got him ready and set. Steadying him on back hooves, pushing his butt back and his horns high into the wells wall so they wouldnt budge, the fox suddenly leapt, ran and jumped to safely reach the mouth of the well.
He then started to run toward the small wood but heard the goat yell at him - insultingly - about not keeping his promise. The sly fox turned around and went back to the well, looked sadly down the shaft to say: "You old goat! You act much too quickly. Don't you know enough to look before you leap? If you had as many brains in your head as whiskers in your beard, you wouldn't go anywhere before you've figured out a strategy to get back. Only a fool exposes himself to a danger from which there is no escape. How do you expect me - a tiny fox - to help you - a great goat? As I did, now you must wait in good humor to see what destiny has in store for you."