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#2863 -
The Nondual Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
One: Essential Writings
on Nonduality: http://tinyurl.com/2blmhy
Featured is an excerpt
from
This book may be ordered
from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Return-Essence-Fulfill-Lifes-Purpose/dp/0615141196/ref=sr_1_1/102-5936403-4980917?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183653865&sr=1-1
Finding the Flow
Being in the flow is your
natural state. What could be more natural than experiencing your
true
nature—essence. When the mind is quiet for a moment or
stopped by something of beauty, for
instance, you find yourself automatically in the flow, where you
find peace, happiness,
contentment, and joy.
The flow is not just a
pleasant place to be, however, where nothing happens; it is
infinitely
intelligent and alive. Motivation, action, communication,
creativity, insight, inspiration, vision,
ideas, and wisdom all arise from it. Life happens, and it happens
the way it happens. All of life
comes out of the flow, and it does so easily and spontaneously.
It is possible for your
life to be lived from this place rather than from the mind, and
it is a
very different experience. So let’s look at what you can do
to live more in the flow.
You are already familiar
with the flow and probably experience it many times a day, at
least
briefly. It is easy to recognize: It feels good! Anyone who
performs at his or her peak is familiar
with what it feels like to be in the flow: Athletes know it,
artists and musicians know it, writers
and speakers know it, performers know it. However, you don’t
have to be at the top of your field to
experience the flow. You can experience it right now:
Just stop and give your
attention to what is going on right now, without evaluating it or
commenting on it. Just be, without thinking. If a thought or
desire arises, just notice that and
come back to just being. What do you notice? This moment is
packed with experience. Input is coming
in through your physical senses and through more subtle ones.
What are you experiencing in your
body? What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are you
smelling or tasting? Notice all of
these things without reacting to them, evaluating them, or
telling a story about them. If feelings
arise, just notice them as well. If you don’t become engaged
with them, they will simply disappear
into the same emptiness that gave birth to them.
What else is there
besides sensations, thoughts, desires, or feelings? What else do
you sense with
your more subtle senses? The peace, joy, and contentment of this
moment are sensed with more subtle
senses than you are used to using. The more you use them, the
more they develop and the more real
the subtle world becomes. When you are fully sensing the moment
this way instead of being in your
thoughts about it, you are in the flow.
Notice how this moment—this
flow—is always changing into something else. What is arising
now in
this new moment? Urges for action also arise and things happen,
so in the next moment you may find
yourself doing something rather than just being. Doing arises
from the moment without thinking.
This is an amazing experience when you first become aware of it.
The flow is simple and
ordinary. Because of that, it is overlooked and underrated by the
mind,
which will try to convince you that there is nothing in the
moment worth paying attention to. It
entices you to pay attention to it with thoughts about the
present, past, and future. You must
choose.
Take a moment and notice
how uninterested the mind is in the present. It is fascinated
with the
past and the future, and it likes to evaluate the present, but it
finds nothing of interest in the
actual experience of the moment. Notice this. Notice how
persistently it makes suggestions for
thinking about something or doing something other than just being
in the moment and expressing what
is coming out of that. It has a job to do, and that job is to
keep you out of the moment. Notice
how clever it is at doing this. Notice all of its tactics. How
does it attempt to do this? It is
programmed to do this, and it does a very good job.
Now that you have seen
this, you can be free of its manipulations. You are free to
choose: You can
give your attention to the moment and see what it has to offer,
or you can follow your thoughts to
where they take you. At some point, you become tired of doing the
latter and ready to find out what
else is possible. What would your life be like if you didn’t
follow your thoughts? What would you
do? What would you choose? What would you say? When you are in
the flow, doing, choosing, and
speaking still happen, but they come out of essence rather than
the ego.
This choice must be made
moment to moment. You can’t just make this choice once and
be done with
it. You must make this choice to give your attention to the
moment again and again until being
present in the moment becomes automatic and your natural way of
being. Making this choice takes an
ongoing commitment to waking up and allowing essence to live
through you.
Copyright © 2007 Gina
Excerpted with permission
from Return to Essence: How to Be in the Flow and Fulfill
Your Life’s Purpose by
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Essence-Fulfill-Lifes-Purpose/dp/0615141196/ref=sr_1_1/102-5936403-4980917?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183653865&sr=1-1
including: Radical Happiness, Living Your Destiny, Anatomy of
Desire, and Choosing Love.
Gina is available for
astrological and channeled phone consultations that support
spiritual
awakening. For more information or to order her books or read
excerpts or to download Radiance:
Experiencing Divine Presence for
free, visit www.radicalhappiness.com.