Become all you can become by raising yourself higher on the Tree of Life

Everyone wants respect. No one gives respect. But why?

The biggest issue is: no one understands what respect means. Do I respect or disrespect my student I shout at? Do I respect or disrespect the visitor I tell to bug off when he is asking me questions, even though he hasn’t even understand what he is talking about?

Do you respect others or yourself when you buy up the toilet paper stocks in your local supermarket? Do you respect yourself or others when you keep on taking the bus, coughing at the exercise class?

In my city, about 140 thousand people, it is eerily quiet this morning. It is as quiet at 8:40 am, as it normally is at 4-5 in the morning. I can hear a bus here and there… but hardly any traffic, non in my street. Even the garbage collectors haven’t arrived… I hope they are still working. Continue reading “Everyone wants respect. No one gives respect. But why?”

Do you respect money? If not, you pay the price…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Why is respect hard and rare?

Because respect includes the capacity and the willingness to look again, but this time look from a different vantage point, preferably from the point of view of the other person. Of the big picture, away from the wishful thinking, the inflated self-image, and your expectations.

I remember, that all my life, all I ever wanted is to be considered a person. In a world where people consider themselves things in the world of things, being treated, being looked at, being listened to as a person is so rare that I can remember every time it happened. Or every time I detect that energy in a book… I tear up.

And yet, everyone wants to be treated like a person, and everyone treats themselves and others like they are things.

One of the big prices we pay is with our money.

I had this conversation this past Sunday with a friend who is working on becoming a millionaire: he is at minus lots-of-money, lots of zeros right now. Continue reading “Do you respect money? If not, you pay the price…”

If you saw that, your life would change to the better?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

One sign of low intelligence is thinking that you see everything that is relevant.

And when someone shows you something new: that doesn’t change your thinking… you think: now I really see everything. I even catch this last one myself… although not as frequently as I used to…

from Quora: Most low IQ people tend to almost be Fundamentalists and take things very literally due to lack of imagination, intuition, open-mindedness, cognitive flexibility, comprehension, critical thinking and are always relying on very direct impressions because of the lacking of depth in their thoughts and understanding of things.

It’s normal to think that you see everything but normal is also stupid. Because a person who thinks that doesn’t even look. And definitely won’t look differently… Won’t ask different questions. Will be more interested in what they have to say than what others have to say. Continue reading “If you saw that, your life would change to the better?”

What can you see and hear in the sideways view?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Even if you have the driftwood capacity activated… Even then you have to learn to be looking that way.

Yesterday’s article about assumptions should clue you in: you mostly are stuck with your assumption: you have never really looked and seen the facts… Reality defined in the simplest way: reality is facts.

It seems that to observe, to look, to look until you see something is not a low-vibration person’s activity, and most people ARE low vibration… so most people never look.

The ones that do are famous at least in what they do for a living.

Quentin Tarantino… Albert Einstein, Ayn Rand.

It really seems that this capacity to look and see is very rare. Continue reading “What can you see and hear in the sideways view?”

Assumptions of gratitude, appreciation, abundance

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What the f… are you talking about. Sophie?

Because 99% reality, 99% of all-there-is is invisible to most of us, we all developed some way to cope with that… and of those the most damaging, the most harmful is assumptions.

You assume you know. Youe assume the context. You assume what is wanted and needed.

Asking questions is below you… you think, and you don’t ask. Continue reading “Assumptions of gratitude, appreciation, abundance”

3 profound horoscope readings of this week

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Taurus (April 20-May 20): Taurus poet Gary Snyder said, “Three-fourths of philosophy and literature is the talk of people trying to convince themselves that they really like the cage they were tricked into entering.” Personally, I think that many of us, not just philosophers and writers, do the same thing. Are you one of us? Your first assignment during the next four weeks will be to explore whether you do indeed tend to convince yourself that you like the cage you were tricked into entering. Your second assignment: If you find that you are in a cage, do everything you can to stop liking it. Third assignment: Use all your ingenuity, call on all the favors you’re owed, and conjure up the necessary magic so that you can flee the cage.

What is a horoscope? It sounds like a prediction, but in my view it is best considered a spiritual practice for the week, or longer if it is necessary.

How so, Sophie?

A spiritual practice, a real spiritual practice is a context. Or else it is just something you do… worthless, if you ask me. Continue reading “3 profound horoscope readings of this week”

Driftwood? Why driftwood? Why do I talk about driftwood?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

There’s Nothing To Get And There’s No Place to get to…

A Cup Of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese Zen master during the Meiji era (1868 – 1912), received a university professor who came to him to inquire about Zen. Continue reading “Driftwood? Why driftwood? Why do I talk about driftwood?”

Sunday Rant or was it Sunday runt? lol

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The difference between occurrence and happening

I started this article in the middle of the week, but it was half-baked… it needed to sit a few days… baking. Is it fully baked? You be the judge…

I learn where I can, from where I can.

One of these are books. Another is movies, especially series, where there is enough time for character development.

I had been waiting for this series on Amazon Prime Video, Hunters. Nazi hunters that is.

One of the things I am learning is that a wound is a wound, and it may never heal, but every time I have a chance to weep about it, it cleanses.

So far, I am only half way through the first season, I have seen masterful re-enacting memories of people who were in the Holocaust, so well, that it clean opened up all the wounds and I have been crying and weeping, and sobbing for almost a whole day now. good for me. Continue reading “Sunday Rant or was it Sunday runt? lol”