Tempus Fugit !

"The fate of man on earth is that of a soldier,
    His days are those of a mercenary.
    As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow,
    As the worker looks for his wages ,
    So I have to possess months of pain , I have my lot of nights of suffering.
    I lie down, I say, When I get up to ? When finish the night ?
    And I am full of agitations until daybreak .
    My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust ,
    My skin is broken and dissolved.
    My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle ,
    They vanish : more hope !
    Remember that my life is a breath! My eyes do not see happiness. "

Job 7

We are in a period of change which requires to be particularly attentive to one's actions and values.

It's time to make the Way spill on the other, on the world : it is time to share and to engage in the positive evolution of our universe. 

The Evolution of All depends on the Evolution of Each:The Profound Change of the Group must go through an Awakening of the Individual. 

The upheavals of the group, which reacts and is indignant can only bring a fragile change of society, the same cycles are constantly repeated. 

For a profound change, for a stable evolution of our world, we must go through a personal effort of self-transformation. 

The challenging our prejudices, the search for a better personal functioning, an increased knowledge of the other, an involvement in the world and a better observation of our world will allow this. 

Above all, we must accept to change, to evolve : let's recognize that we do not know everything and that we need to move towards a better and that we have to work on it.

Our imperfections, our pathological ways, all this can go towards a better, a realization of our human potential. 

Let's accept that we can take care of ourselves better, that we can change certain behaviors with others, that our work can also be a source of joy, that nothing is fixed... we can change everything in our lives if we want to. 

We are human beings, we have physiological, respiratory and mental workings: insofar as we try to better understand its functions, we will know what to do to better function.

Why not take advantage of our existence as human beings 

and have the best experience possible ? 

Let's enjoy our life fully, realizing ourselves and improving our consciousness: let's know our strengths and our weaknesses to highlight the first and fix the second. 

Let us not just settle down for what is, but let's tend toward the ideal of what we can be instead... and for that we need to work on the aspects of what makes us human. 

If we understand this need to work on ourselves, to try to improve, we have taken the first step.

This first step is crucial, it determines our ability to seek evolution, it is our strength to change what does not suit us in our lives, in our interactions with others and in our daily lives.

Without this awareness, we will not move away from our habits and we will remain in an imperfection seen as a punishment. 

We can not be perfect, it is also the beauty of our incarnation, 

but we have to go towards it and never stop evolving. 

Then comes the personal practice : it's pretty simple. 

We are an entity body/mind/vitality, an ensemble body/mind that has the breath of life . 

It is therefore possible to work one's body, breath and mind, to operate at our full potential. 

Nothing spiritual or new age here: if our body works better, if we know the rules of life to better take advantage of it, our life is easier. 

Much of our health problems come from our bad habits and our abandonment of our body... we just have to have the knowledge and do it, to solve this.

The practice of breathing is natural: without breathing, life is less fun ... 

But a practice of conscience in the breath allows a better understanding of it and a quickly increased vitality. 

Without mentioning the physiological effects that are a demonstrated reality, of a conscious breath work, the pleasure of spending time breathing calmly is a great opportunity. 

The work of the mind is not meditation, it is just the training of the functional components of our mind. 

Without going into deep detail, training the mind allows a more available spirit, more stable emotions and a better grip of the world.

 
The clearer our perception of the world, 

the best it is possible to see the reality 

and the changes of the world

and to streamline one's life. 

The work on oneself combines all of these aspects : body, breath and mind. 

The work of one's profound qualities depends on this work. 

This evolution of our own nature will allow to better know the other : our relationships with others will result. 

In addition, learning specific lessons (bazi , for example), can allow us to understand how personality types work and to interact intelligently with them all. 

A better relationships with others, an effort of behavior even with people you do not understand, sharing with everyone, all this shapes a nicer world around us. 

In this relational effort, we act directly on the positive evolution of our universe.

We are in a period where sharing is an obligation: we must be willing to give to those who need it. 

Selfishness is not acceptable, the times demand evolving and opening to others. 

We must give, especially the rest of us, the " lucky ones", we can not close our eyes to what can happen either in front of us or 5000 km away from home. 

Our commitment is needed to develop ourselves. 

Let's move towards each other, share, give... time is no longer to eyes wide shut, it is our duty as a human being to act now. 

All this confronts us to the need to properly observe the world : not staying focused on oneself, but reacting and reflecting on possible actions. 

Let's look at the realities of our world, it's injuries and evolution to act in the best sense : let us set to this important task for our next days. 

We are at the end of another Cycle, in a bigger cycle that accelerates, it's time to do more.

We are Responsible for the Way the World will Evolve !

    He who knows how to walk (in the Tao ) does not leave traces , one who speaks does not commit mistakes ;
    Those who can count do not use calculation tools ;
    He who knows how to close (something) does not use a lock, and it is impossible to open ;
    He who knows how to bind (something ) does not use ropes, and it is impossible to unbind.
    Hence the Holy constantly excels in saving men, which is why he does not abandon the men.
    He constantly excels in saving people , which is why he does not abandon beings.
    This is known to be doubly enlightened.
    That is why the accomplished man is the master of those who are not.
    The man who is not accomplished is the aide of the virtuous man .
    If one does not esteem his master, if the other one who is not fond of whom is his help, when we would give them great care, they are plunged into blindness.
    Here is what is most important and most subtle !

    Daodejing , Chapter 27

Expectations blocking the Way

Anyone who starts to Practice expects something. 

This is because in our daily lives, in listening to our body and our emotions, something is wrong. It is difficult to determine what "something" is, it is not defined, it is not clear but it is there.

We can believe that everything is going well and that we are moving towards a practice to "refine" the perfection of our perfect ... but actually not, if all went well, if we were in tune with life, the phenomena and changes, we should not be looking for a practice.

We try to forget and cover this "empty" feeling by a feverish activity, many with sex, shopping, drink and food, but there is only pathological love relationships and dependency or television. 

This external "filling" cannot overcome our internal emptiness.

The discovery of an opportunity of another choice, to meet with a teaching that should "help", has created a new disease: Expectations.

Now that we have found the solution in a spiritual practice or energetic (it's the same thing!), We want results! 

Like at the market, we invest 10 euros in carrots and we want a lot of vegetables ... unfortunately it is a little different with regard to the practice.

The Practice must pass through three distinct stages that we tend to mix up and and which lead to a real confusion (we should not be confused!).

These three stages are:

* Training;

* Intentional Practice

* The Natural Practice.

In the training phase we will work the exercises and practices which are not the Essence itself. 

For example, in the years of meditation exercises we learn to feel the "meditative state", but there are no exercises which are meditation (see "we should not be confused"). 

We must understand that in the training phase, we do not practice, we learn to practice. 

We seek to integrate intellectual exercises so that they become "habits" and are used with the minimum of intent and imagination. 

Take the subway, when you go for the first time in your life to a destination which will become a daily trip, like a new job or a new apartment, you are very careful on the trip. At each station you watch where you are relative to the destination, the route that you have and every step is a discovery. You stay on an alert and mentally: "I'm in the right place?" "will it be long?" ...

After two trips, two hundred or two million trips, you're sitting, relaxed, knowing every part of the progression of the train, and you can even have an activity, such as reading or work, without missing your stop. 

This is analogous to the end of the learning phase, which is more or less long according to the people.

We leave the training phase when we can do this exercise without thinking, without going to memory (or very little) and a soft and almost silent intention. 

"But I am never out of the learning phase!" I hear you say ... 

well yes! Hence the immobility of the practice that you undertake!

Thereby hindering the transition of training of the practice of awareness of these two stages. 

When we learn, we do not really evolve, so do not Expect! 

In the absence of Expectations, you'll slip into the practice. Voilà!

When you start to practice, after a more or less laborious learning phase, phenomena may occur. 

These perceived changes are another possible blockage to the accomplishment of your training. In the phenomena, which do not matter, we have the unfortunate habit of attaching to a host of unnecessary thoughts. 

This attachments to the moments of perception of our practice reminds us that we "expect" something, the results ... "I am currently feeling this or that?", "Am I on track?", "Is this a sign of accomplishment? "... so many questions about phenomena that do not matter who we bring to this expectation, this need to know that it will get better, that we are good students.

In practice, and into our daily life, we must seek our own Natural. 

It is actually quite simple in theory, practice for nothing else but practice, for no purpose, and find the Enthusiasm in this Way.

Our practices take us back to a loss of our mental structures, our structure separated from the world, our ego. This loss of structure is fatal to our mind, it blends into the rest of the universe and makes us lose our individuality. 

In our daily practices, our ego will survive on the basis of new limits in our teaching: then comes our commitment to our beliefs about our practice and our Teacher, waiting to feel better and become better and all these recent resistances of survival of our discriminative mental activity.

We can practice by strengthening our minds and our imagination, going to the opposite of what we release, and amplifying the sensation of unease linked to our "me determined and unique".

This Process will multiply our expectations because it is worse and worse, under the guise of mystical-spiritual-energetical confusing and destructive. 

As an example we can mention is the bogus "non-violent" in some ways that are ready to kill "meat eaters", or beat up those who insulted their guru…

To go in the direction of a peaceful practice, practice is the goal of practice. It is good to try!

When practice begins, nothing changes. 

We're not going to transform into anything. It is unnecessary to grow our hair and to eat incense, or dress in Orange…we will stay as we are. 

All the changes that we are trying are a way to hide this expectation that we lack: the bright colours of our garments will alleviate the stiffness of the body and the sadness of our thoughts, forced sessions of "silent" meditation (in appearance) will parody an internal silence which we lack, the soft-spoken voice and the non-violence will conceal as much of our fear as of others and the world.

All attempts to visibly change into others is a way to demonstrate our performance, our mind tries to show that we are right, that we are better than others, different ... still expecting to be better!

But the practice does not change us, the performance does nothing, we will remain what we were before our birth and which will continue after our death. 

In everyday life, we "work" just relax in silence and make us what we are, without the acquired blockages and without mundane conditioning.

There is nothing to seek, nothing to add. We will gently practice without expectation; to what we are. 

We will not add anything or learn, we will seek to return to a spontaneous phase with the changes of life. Without a morbid, compulsive use, for which the mind is used in everyday life. 

Without getting lost in the maze of our imagination, which is based on the past and projecting hopes in the future, we live free in the present. 

Leaving the time line, we will enter the world of perceptions without the filter of the world of thoughts. Without this bad link to the time of past and future, we leave expectations: we abandon the fantasy of the imagination that comes from the past and we don't plan hope in the future, there is no more expectations, we Practice, we Live, we are Free

While the secret of the Practice, is the Practice. 

This simple practice that demands only that we follow what we are advised by our Teacher, our feelings. 

By implementing these simple and practical teachings, we are moving towards our life with this clear sensation and empty of compulsive thoughts.

The relaxation allows us to live in peace and silence, without attachment to the images of an imposed separation from the world.

Oh, by the way, the feeling of unhappiness is long Gone.

Refining the Spirit to see the Magick

We often live exciting, or boring, and very busy lives, and we rush a lot.

With the reason, the intellect, having seized power since the 18th century, there is very little room left for superstition and ghost stories.

But at the same time, intuition and communion with the world are rarer, even absent in our lives: we are no longer able to look at the signs of life or the messages of the world.

Is it possible to keep living our modern life while rediscovering a part of sacred, of magic?

The sacred is a notion that allows to separate the mundane and the utilitarian from what is "something else", not rational.

It is not only religious, but also mystical and traditional.

The magical is using, through intention, the energies of the world, within the frame of one's attention.

It is nothing other than acting in perfect Consciousness.

Having very little relation to the sacred, we forget a part of our humanity: the Greater, the infinite part of our Consciousness.

Through practice, we ritualize a part of our everyday life, to make it slowly overflow into our  life.

But we often give to the practice, to these particular moments, a value that isn't real: when we practice, when we leave the mundane, to enter this workspace, we are in the "sacred".

In the realization of the energetic phenomenons, in the attention to breath, in listening to our emotions or in observing the mind, we really are in a deep contemplation of our body/mind entirety.

We are here, in daily practice, in a “Magical” space, a time apart from our daily life, and entirely devoted to the intention by the attention.

But the reality of this "magic" exists only if one becomes aware of it: the strength of our work depends of the importance that we will give it.

If the practice trains the subtlest energies, but the practitioner doesn't particularly respect it, we stay in the ordinary (of practice).

By practicing, in all the facets of the way of spiritual evolution, the extent of the changes in our lives depends, in a large part, on the importance we give to it.

Watch how some of your personal objects and possessions have a particular importance: the special T-shirt, the right tie or the shoes of success...

The strength of these objects directly depends on the passion of "devotion" that you give them: you can do the same with every aspect of your life.

The burning incense before practice, the respect given to the teacher when you arrive, the clothes you wear for practice... All this is a way to ritualize practice.

It is important to understand that very often, the ritualization done with devices is bad because it isn't conscious; but consciously done, it is a plus.

It is better to have no external devices, but a “modified” presence during practice.

The interest is not only that your practice will improve in terms of quality, but also that your life will open to subtler things, the signs and messages of the World.

The make a place for the "sacred", the "magic", the more it will manifest in your life.

Be careful, the idea is not at all to become a "spiritual weirdo, with a touch of ethereal", but just to know how to enjoy all of our human capacities available in our consciousness.

For all the volatility, instability or mimicry outbursts, the teacher is here to take you back (quickly) on the Way...

The more the practice becomes spiritual, the more the ways of doing things have to be down-to-earth, but the more the practice is present in your life, the more this awareness has to be part of it too.

The practice is not gymnastics, but if you treat it as such, it becomes so.

The basic exercises are gymnastics, but if you give them a greater value through a particular attention and a serious commitment, they become "something else".

This is a good reason to stop chuckling, whining and chatting during the course, to stop having a bad posture or being without a care in the world: this moment will give you what you put in it.

You are directly responsible for what you will acquire in the practice: give it its right place, a serious commitment, and you will enhance what is given to you.

Today’s world does not like what is magical, what can’t be explained, but at the same time the most advanced researches in the most advanced sciences force us to look at infinity in the eyes.

Let’s give the sacred a place back in our lives and we'll give it a place in the world back.

Getting out of the Torpor

Practice returns what you've invested into it, the importance you give to your Way gives it its reality and its transformation power.

We are in Way in life, which doesn't require seclusion, nor suffering, but which requires work and involvement.

We get used to live with our fears and our decisions whirl around them: we are victims of a failure strategy where we always anticipate the worst and the negative (otherwise we would more often ask for raises, we would do more parachute jumps or we'd talk more easily to this person we like so much...).

Practice is also bound by this fear of failure : we are afraid and this slows down our evolution.

If only it was possible to get out of this anxiety of not achieving or this terror of truly changing...

Well, good news, it is!

It only depends on three things:

• To commit oneself to a practice without expectations,
• To communicate honestly with the teacher,
• To be consistent on the whole.

The most difficult and the easiest : to commit oneself to a practice without expectations

It only requires to choose your Way, to get the information, to check it regularly and to set to work.

You're going to tell me that it's what you're doing, you the good practitioner, except maybe the fact to ensure you're really on the Way and not on Your way.

Well, let's have another look at what is necessary to do :

" It only requires to choose your Way, to get the information, to check it regularly and to set to work."

Here, It's not mentioned criticizing others, wanting to copy them, "wallowing" in envy, "whinning" because we don't succeed!

There's nothing talking about obligation of time, of result, about secrets and unspoken words. Nothing showing the need to scatter or mingle.

And looking a little closer, it says nothing about flaunting your needs of recognition or safety or to impress and show off.

And focusing on the details, there is nothing invoking the need to pretend or lie, to cheat or to "hang out".

No, it simply evokes a need for work based on information that is understood and regularly checked.

So easy!

Then comes : "Communicate honestly with the teacher"

It's important to underline here the adverb "Honnestly" and to stop there...

Maybe a reminder of the idea of communication is important also : there are two ways in the communication ; one going from us to the other and, usually, a return equally substential.

Communication must not mix up with monologue, which happens in only one way (whether knowingly or not).

Communication is oral, but also at all the levels of exchange; from the most mundane and practical to the most subtle : once again, it has to be both ways.

And we'll finish by : " Be coherent on the whole "

Even if we are here repeating ourselves here, you really need to understand the importance of return on invest : you can get back from your Way the importance you give it.

The "sacred" depends intention, the "magical" also.

Practice only produces the fruits of your work, of the real work.

Moreover, the proclaimed importance of the teaching must also comes out in reality and in actions, not only in selfishness and self-protection.

It's unthinkable to claim one million euros to the bank if you never deposit nothing. It's aberrant to ask for a service to someone to whom you're not respectful, in the same way you wouldn't expect to get a solution from a book you have not read.

Well, Practice is the same!

If you do everything to go in the direction of what you've understood from the Way, your life will be transformed and the changes in the world will be made-to-measure.

If you only do a little bit, because "it's complicated" or "it's difficult" or "you can't always do what you want" (my favorite); then all you get back is a superficial knowledge and maybe a t-shirt.

Furthermore you don't trust, in one way or another, the Way becomes impracticable.

In a world where information is everywhere and where it's possible to know all on everything, there is nonetheless not more practitioners.

In the ancient times, where everything was hidden, there was not less practitioners.

Today there is information, but people don't want to practice anymore, whereas in the past, people wanted the access to knowledge, but the teaching was rare.

Practitioners of today, you have a great chance to be on a Way of evolution of the being: we are in moment of changes which needs it, but the success of your progression depends on these three simple instructions.

Here's something to move in the direction of Spring...