Knowledge and Religion

Thanksgiving, the real celebration

On Thursday here in the United States we are going to celebrate Thanksgiving. This holiday seems to have gotten inextricably associated with eating turkeys and watching sports.

Now, because our aim is liberation, we have a few more things to be thankful for, like being born as a human being. For all of the creatures on the planet from the smallest plant on up, how many living creatures are born as human beings?

It’s difficult to find out about liberation
Now as human beings we can read this article and learn about this path to freedom. We can learn about the self-knowledge that transports us beyond the limitations of old age, disease, and death, and destroys the apparent limitations of our thoughts; that points us to what we are the whole time and just overlooked.

We can find the treasure that points the way to our real identity as Consciousness and Bliss, free of the limitations that we see. Now we know that we can step beyond suffering and become that which supports the whole universe and makes it seem so real.

For all the billions of human beings how many know about this truth, appreciate its value, and are working their way out of limitation and into the reality that puts the ups and downs of life into its proper perspective? Without a doubt this is the hidden gem that uncovers the secret to eternal life.

We have that which is really valuable
Indeed, even if we don’t have much to eat this year, our plate is full and overflowing with that which is really important. To recognize this, is the real meaning of giving thanks.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Question everything
Here I always encourage questions. People take too much for granted about the world, their body, mind, and their nature. Questioning encourages you to take a fresh look. Looking afresh, once again life becomes fresh and a real adventure. Without changing a thing, everyday experiences become completely new. If you need help with your questions you can write me at 
michael@light-up-your-life.com.

Please join us
Every Tuesday we hold a meeting here in our house in Los Gatos California. All too often it is only my wife and I that attend. But we still have a wonderful time. If you find yourself in this area and would like to attend here is a link where you can find more information

www.light-up-your-life.com/talks.html

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Michael Gluckman

 

Finding the right path and sticking to it

I noticed that oftentimes web sites and blogs like this talk about a smorgasbord of meditation techniques. While these sites may show the variety of paths available to you, we do not do that here. Here we focus on the path of self-knowledge.

That’s because while a smorgasbord may be good when it comes to food, when it comes to meditation, it just impedes your progress. To understand why this is true, you have to know that under the umbrella of meditation there are many different techniques that can take you to many different places.

For instance, if you want to calm your mind, you will need a technique that involves the mind. If you want to gain subtle powers like the ability to read minds and levitate, you will need another set of techniques.

And if you want the ultimate liberation that takes you beyond old age, disease and death, you will have to find out what you really are even now. This is the path of self-knowledge. For more information read, “How to find the right meditation technique.”

The pleasure of facing the obstacles and overcoming them
If you just drift from one path to another without following through and completing any of them, you will end up going nowhere. Not only that, you will never have the pleasure of facing the obstacles that occur along your path, and overcoming them. This is the key to real human growth and to reaching your full potential. The obstacles on the path of self-knowledge are just the things that seem to limit your freedom and happiness.

When you face an obstacle like a fear in your meditation and in your life, it feels like you are in a box with no way out. But if you keep chipping away at this obstacle you will find the door opening in a different way than you expect. You will find that there is a lot more to you than just thoughts in the mind. It is not that your mind gets corrected; rather you discover that you naturally stand beyond the conflicts in your mind. Centered in your real nature you will find things getting resolved in just the manner that they are supposed to; but you will be completely surprised by how things turn out. This is when life becomes fresh and new and you discover the real meaning of freedom.

Stick with your path to the end
So once you discover the path that is right for you, I would recommend sticking with it and following it through to the end. Just the intention to stick with your path, and the follow-through to continue when things seem to get rough, will lead to an extraordinary amount of spiritual growth. In the end you will find freedom that was always there and that you just overlooked. You find this by returning to your real identity.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Question everything
Here I always encourage questions. People take too much for granted about the world, their body, mind, and their nature. Questioning encourages you to take a fresh look. Looking afresh, once again life becomes fresh and a real adventure. Without changing a thing, everyday experiences become completely new. If you need help with your questions you can write me at 
michael@light-up-your-life.com.

Please join us
Every Tuesday we hold a meeting here in our house in Los Gatos California. All too often it is only my wife and I that attend. But we still have a wonderful time. If you find yourself in this area and would like to attend here is a link where you can find more information

www.light-up-your-life.com/talks.html

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Michael Gluckman

What is the ego?

If you are on the path of self-knowledge you probably heard that you're supposed to destroy the ego. Not only is “ego” used in spiritual practice, it is also used in psychology. This leads to multiple definitions that depend on what your knowledge is. Here we will discuss the ego with its spiritual meaning.

Oftentimes in our haste we look right past our actual experience and assume that we are limited by what we see. Meditation is the opportunity to slow down a bit, and reexamine our experience, to see if it matches up to our assumptions about it. So what I recommend here is to put all your definitions aside and take a fresh look right from your own experience. After all before we can destroy the ego, at least we have to know what it is, right?

So what is the ego anyway?
The ego is just a connecting thought that takes objects that we see, like the body and thoughts in the mind, and makes them seem like they are us. I am sure that you would agree that we are not objects; that there is something that is much deeper than an object that makes us up.

What hasn’t changed?
To find this, look for the thing that hasn’t changed one bit since the day you were born. As an example your body has changed quite a bit since you were a tiny infant coming out of your mother’s womb, hasn’t it? But for all these changes, did you really change? Isn’t there a place inside where you feel that despite the changes to your body, you don’t change? This place, aware of change but not affected by it, is where we want to abide in our meditations.

From here we get to see the body, mind and the world in its proper perspective. Here you will see that we are the seer of objects, not the one limited by them. From here everything looks fresh and new. It feels like you are seeing life for the first time just as it is. Standing here as the space-like awareness that we really are, we discover our innate oneness.

What makes it seem like we are limited?
So what is it that makes it seem like we are limited to the body and a few thoughts in the mind. It’s that little thought called ‘I’. But even this isn’t strictly true. The thought ‘I’ has no power of its own. Only when we give it the power that really belongs to Awareness does it seem to become us.

And when we return our identity to the Awareness that we really are, objects including the thought ‘I’, lose the power to limit us. It loses the power to connect us to objects like a body and mind that seem to limit us. When we abide as the Awareness that we truly are, this thought ‘I’ becomes another object that we see, a speck in Awareness. It no longer has anything to do with our identity. This shift from being a thought in the mind to being the limitless Awareness that we really are is the destruction of the ego.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Question everything
Here I always encourage questions. People take too much for granted about the world, their body, mind, and their nature. Questioning encourages you to take a fresh look. Looking afresh, once again life becomes fresh and a real adventure. Without changing a thing, everyday experiences become completely new. If you need help with your questions you can write me at 
michael@light-up-your-life.com.

Please join us
Every Tuesday we hold a meeting here in our house in Los Gatos California. All too often it is only my wife and I that attend. But we still have a wonderful time. If you find yourself in this area and would like to attend here is a link where you can find more information

www.light-up-your-life.com/talks.html

Other resources available to you
If you need a more basic understanding of this Self-Knowledge or if you just want support for your practice, go to www.light-up-your-life.com and read down the main column. Also check out the different links that we provide as resources. They can help you to sharpen the focus of your meditation practice.

Another resource that we offer is the book, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a step by step guide taking you from your everyday experience to the highest wisdom and truth. To find out more, click on the link below:

wisdom.light-up-your-life.com

To join our mailing list go to: http://www.light-up-your-life.com/join.html

Please Tell Your Friend
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

You have my best wishes,

Michael Gluckman