What Might Happen...

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You may or may not have noticed, but most of our fears revolve around What Might Happen in the future.  We take these imagined scenarios to be real and we let them guide our decisions and behavior - limiting our choices and in effect creating a future shaped around our fears.

And most of the time our fears about What Might Happen are drearily predictable: fear of failure, fear of success, fear of looking stupid, fear of change, fear of death... on and on ad nauseum.  So since our fears are imaginary anyway, why not get crazy, why not give yourself permission to imagine some new, more creative and enjoyable versions of What Might Happen, for instance ~

• the discovery of Atlantis and a whole new race of fish-people
• David Letterman and Slash from Guns n Roses getting married in a Scottish castle and adopting Richard Simmons
• God appearing drunk, live on Oprah
• the Internet becoming sentient and taking a sabbatical in Thailand to get away from the crowds, then dropping out and starting a folk duo with Joaquin Phoenix.

Doesn't that sound like more fun? 

That list actually came from Steve Errey (The Confidence Guy) in a post entitled How To Beat the Fear of Success, where he not only reveals possible futures, but looks at the three main reasons we fear success.  It's an interesting article and I hope you enjoy it.  Maybe you can come up with some fun fears of your own.

A related RoadKill Post:
What Makes You Come Alive?

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Beat your fears of success by recognizing what’s real and what isn’t.  What might happen is not real.  What you’re doing right now is real.  What matters to you is real.  What you’re capable of is real.
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What If?

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What if  we realized that our "personal problems" are simply basic, ordinary manifestations of ego?

What if  we gave up the "endless and pointless archaeological dig" into our past traumas?

What if  we awakened to a part of our self that was never wounded or traumatized, that doesn't need to be healed, that is already whole and complete, that has access to boundless energy, creativity, and positivity, and is completely ready to participate in life fully, boldly, passionately, holding nothing back?
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For the answer to these and other questions, here's a wonderful article by Craig Hamilton of Integral Enlightenment.  If you like that one, here's a previous post by Andrew Cohen along the same lines.  Enjoy.

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Nothing is confined except what's in your mind.
- Bruce Cockburn
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Meditation is Training for Life

A quote of the week from Andrew Cohen:

Meditation is training for life. If we want to be free, it is important to learn how to directly experience the unbroken chaos and impersonal confusion of our own minds without being disturbed by any of it. Only if we can bear it will we be able to take responsibility for it. If we cannot calmly endure our own minds, others will inevitably suffer the consequences. If we cannot handle our own thoughts and emotions while we are simply being still and paying attention, then how are we ever going to be able to make the appropriate choices when we are walking, talking, and engaging with others?
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Waiter, There's a Fly in my Trash

Why Dumpster Diving will save the planet
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Browsing through the latest offerings from Reality Sandwich, came across this article by Jill Ettinger.  She starts with the teaser:

Americans throw away nearly 100 billion pounds of food every year - almost as much as we eat.  In Dive!, filmmaker Jeremy Seifert set out to find out why supermarkets are letting perfectly edible food end up in dumpsters instead of being donated to starving people.  What he discovered will shock you.
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What really surprised me was that they're not talking about spoiled food or leftovers scraped off plates at fancy restaurants - what supermarkets are tossing into the dumpsters is perfectly good, fresh meat, milk, eggs and vegetables which often have not even reached their expiry date.

You can read her full interview with Jerry Seifert HERE,  watch a trailer for the film HERE, and learn more about what's being done (and what you can do) around the issue of food waste HERE.

For me, an important first step to really caring about the issue of food waste was hopping in a dumpster, bringing home the food, and eating it. Eating trash is a subversive act. It goes against a culture of over-consumption and gratuitous wastefulness. Experience that initial rush, shame, fear, and exhilaration of "stealing" trash and eating it will change you in good ways.
- Jeremy Seifert.
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Ego, Soul and Self

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Aspects of Ego is Part 5 of a 6-part Guru & Pandit series entitled Creating New Structures in Consciousness, featuring Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber in conversation, filmed live in Denver, Colorado.  The series can be enjoyed in whole or in part - each segment is a profound teaching in itself and they hang together beautifully when viewed in sequence.

This short clip is by far the most eloquent discussion of ego that I have heard anywhere.


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What we are calling ego in the positive sense, I believe, emerges in its most beautiful radiance to the degree to which our attention is being compelled towards something which transcends it.
- Andrew Cohen
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Here are links to the other videos in the series:  
Part 1 - Creating New Structures in Consciousness 
Part 2 - Trust and the Creative Principle 
Part 3 - The Purpose of Meditation  
Part 4 - A Closed Loop  
Part 6 - The Evolving Soul   
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The Most Important Conversation Of Our Time

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Beyond Awakening: The Future of Spiritual Practice
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How can a living spirituality enable human beings to create more enlightened responses to our common problems?

There is no more important conversation—or commitment to action—in the world today.

Join 27 of the most dynamic contemporary spiritual teachers as they engage in this series of dialogues. Each teacher will bring a distinct, profound, and catalytic perspective to the Big Conversation. Each has drunk deeply from the wisdom of the past, and is also embodying their wisdom in a new way, freshly attuned to the challenges of our moment.

This groundbreaking series will explore an an "embodied, engaged, evolving spirituality that is true to who we are, here and now — and that can empower us to co-create a sustainable human future."  You will learn:

• How to turn the fast pace of life into a profound practice to experience clarity, purpose, and inner peace.
• How to find community in our fragmented, virtual world and get the support you need.
• What neuroscience can teach us about skillful, effective (and efficient) personal practice, and how you can apply this research in your everyday life.
• How to question our inherited spiritual wisdom, and at the same time rescue the light of that wisdom, like precious jewels, from being dimmed down and fragmented.
• How you can help catalyze the transformation of our culture as well as your own consciousness.

Through these dialogues you will meet such remarkable teachers as Ken Wilber, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ram Dass, Adyashanti, Surya Das, Diane Musho Hamilton, Andrew Cohen, Gangaji, Steve McIntosh, Katherine Woodward Thomas and others.

To learn more about this FREE teleseminar series, or to register, just  CLICK HERE.

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You are the Crown of Creation
and you've got no place to go
- Jefferson Airplane
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