" alt="Featured 468x60 Ad" />
Living Spirit Show – The Masculine / Feminine Polarity
November 27, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 3 Comments
In this episode Alison Miller and I talk about the masculine / feminine polarity. We cover it’s radical imbalance in humanity at this time and the potential consequences of this imbalance. Naturally we also go into being men and women and the challenges of overcoming social conditioning and integrating and harmonizing the masculine and feminine in us.
I also talk about now being in the role of a father with a young boy and how I approach parenting to instill a healthy relationship to both his masculine and feminine energies. We also discuss some of the causes of wounding in both masculine and feminine polarities that we all carry and can all be part of healing now.
You can subscribe to the Living Spirit Show in iTunes
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
Don’t forget to let us know what you think of the show, and do write if you have a spiritual or personal development topic you would like to be discussed.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Get Real! – Learn Meditation
November 3, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 3 Comments
It has become an increasingly dominant belief that positive thinking is necessary for health, wealth and success in all things. But a new study* by psychology professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales, says ‘it ain’t necessarily so’.
The study has found that feeling sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and also boosts memory. It seems that people in a negative state are more critical of, and pay more attention to, their surroundings than happier people. The happy folk it seems are more likely to believe what they are told.
Dr Forgas said "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,"
He went on to add "Our research suggests that sadness … promotes
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreEckhart Tolle On Relationships
July 24, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Earlier in the year I wrote an post on karma in personal relationships It was very popular and very quickly rose up the most viewed list for the site. I just came across this video of Eckhart Tolle speaking on the same kind of subject. I really like what he has to say, and I enjoy his quirky humor too. Take a look and let me know what you think and what are your own experiences.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Leaping Into The Unknown
June 6, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 6 Comments
I tend to believe that human beings in their general nature are lazy, as such we tend to stay in our comfort zone. A comfort zone can be physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual. it takes something extra to push ourselves beyond the safe and known. I believe that extra something is an impulse from our soul.
When we do manage to extend ourselves that bit further, in whatever way, there is usually some benefit or reward. This can be as simple as we feel good about ourselves and hey that’s no small thing. when that pay off has greater attraction than our resistant to doing whatever it is, we tend to keep doing it.
I began performing on stage when I was around 17 or 18, possibly it saved my life and certainly I fell in love with it. I can still remember walking off stage after my very first public performance feeling like I was walking on air. The stage gave me the opportunity to be somebody other than the angry young man that I was. It was a kind of freedom.
It wasn’t long before I became strangely attracted to dance. I’d never really seen any but something in me started pushing in that direction. I really came up against my laziness when I started to dance. Dancers train really hard to make it look really easy when they perform, hours and hours and hours of training. obviously to be a dancer, passion and love for it is greater than the efforts of all that hard work.
Pretty much from the beginning I was interested in exploring the body itself as the site of human experience. Then when I was 25 the healing ability showed up and added another dimension to my exploration.
When I’m actually going with all of this is June 29th 1996. At 6 AM on that Saturday morning I began a 36 hour performance entitled “36 Hours In-Quest-ion". I’d been
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more8 Ways To Overcome Jealousy And Envy
May 11, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
I know that the fastest way to despair is by comparing one’s insides with another’s outsides, and that Max Ehrmann, the author of the classic poem "Desiderata," was absolutely correct when he said that if you compare yourself with others you become either vain or bitter, or, as Helen Keller put it: "Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged."
But Helen and Max don’t keep me from going to the land of comparisons and envy. Before long, I’m salivating over someone else’s book contract, or blog traffic numbers, or Today Show appearance. Then I have to pull out my set of directions–these 8 techniques–that will lead me out of the continent of jealousy and home, to self-acceptance:
1. Get more information.
Most of the time we envy one quality about a person, and we presume the rest of her qualities are as perfect as the one we want. That’s usually not the case. Think Rain Man. Boy did he know how to count those straws and play poker. But his social skills needed some fine-tuning, yes? Do some research on the person you want to temporarily destroy and you will find that she has her own set of problems and weaknesses. Moreover, if you consider her success in context, you’ll see that she hasn’t always been a superstar–that maybe, just maybe, back when you got a blue ribbon for the fastest freestyle swimmer in the 7 to 8 age group, she was afraid to dive in the pool or couldn’t figure out how to swim without getting water up her nose. My point: you don’t have the full story. Once you do, you’ll feel better. I think.
2. Compliment her.
"WHAT?!? You can’t be serious," you’re thinking to yourself. Actually I am. I have tried it numerous times and it works. Last year I came across a blogger I envied. She had two degrees from Yale. (I scored 1,000 on my SATs). Her books were bestsellers. (I had just received a royalty statement that said more copies of my book were returned than sold.) Her Technorati score (blog traffic) was, well, much better than mine.
So…. I did something very counterintuitive. I e-mailed her to tell her how impressed I was with her, and I would very much like to interview her on Beyond Blue. When I started reading through her blogs, I found this great story about her feelings of insecurity regarding a fellow writer whom she felt somewhat threatened by because he was writing on the same topics as she was. What did she do about it? She contacted him and took him out to lunch.
I couldn’t believe that she had moments of insecurity too! I mean, she’s got two Yale degrees! Nowhere in her bio did it mention insecurity. But by complimenting her, and connecting with her, and dare I say befriending her, I learned that she is just like me–with some outstanding strengths but some fears and reservations and insecurities, as well.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Loving Ourselves Unconditionally
May 11, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
"Love the one you are with. That will always include you."
Our Spiritual Nature
People often ask me how they can love themselves unconditionally, regardless of what they have done or how they think or feel. When we realize our spiritual nature, we have a better way of looking at what we do as human beings. By remembering who we are spiritually, we can more easily be loving and accepting towards ourselves and all that comes forward in our lives. So, I suggest that as we start out and complete with each day, we take the opportunity to engage ourselves inwardly in the Spirit first.
When we choose to realize ourselves spiritually, we find ourselves functioning according to the laws of Spirit — acceptance, cooperation, understanding, enthusiasm and empathy. There is an aligning of how we are intending ourselves spiritually, as souls who are one with God. A key is to appreciate with gratitude whatever comes your way. Everything has value. Nothing needs to be different from what it is, including you. Yet, in this world, change is constant. While living in the world and coping with change may be challenging, you can learn to align with and practice how to apply the laws of Spirit and love it all.
Gratitude
Begin the day by getting yourself in a consciousness of gratitude. There is a reason God is bringing a challenge to you. You can ask inside, "Help me to understand, Lord. What is it I am to learn?" Some days you just have to do the best you can. So say, "Thank you, Lord," and choose to handle the situation as best you can with what you know and the conditions present.
As you start the day, first surround and fill yourself with Light and love. You can do this as a prayer to God, an invocation of the Light, or through your creative imagination. Then, extend the Light into your day as you see yourself moving forward in the world. During the day, remember that the Light goes before you and prepares the way. All the things that come forward in your day, expected or unexpected, wanted or unwanted, are part of that Light action which is always present within you.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
How To Find Happiness – Adyashanti
March 30, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 3 Comments
How to find happiness, don’t we all want to know?
The pursuit of happiness outside ourselves can only lead to sorrow because anything attained can be lost. Even the search within ourselves can lead to suffering because of unconscious beliefs and misperceptions. In his sword-swinging yet playful manner, Adyashanti cuts to the heart of what’s really true and points to the causeless happiness that comes with knowing the sacred reality of who we are. How to find happiness? – Waking up to our true nature, it’s the only show in town!
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Four Quadrants Of Separation Consciousness
March 27, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
To help us understand separation consciousness we can break it down into the four quadrants of separation.
Quadrant one: I am separated from mind. This quadrant deals with judgement of our own thoughts. It is me against me and covers all aspects of self doubt, self criticism and self-consciousness. It is the kind of self talk that limits and inhibits us, that tells us we shouldn’t, we couldn’t, we can’t. Impacts our mental well-being and clarity.
Quadrant two: I am separated from body, and emotions. This quadrant contains all the emotions and feelings that we don’t like having and don’t want to have. It also contains all of our judgement and negative feeling about our bodies. Many of the emotional distortions here Impacts negatively on our self image. This impacts our emotional well-being and emotional intelligence.
Quadrant three: I am separated from you; as is separated from them. This is the source of all social division. It operates in all the ways that we create identification based on difference and ignoring similarity. The police and emotional distortions from quadrants one and two are the sources of these social identifications of separation.
Quadrant four: I am separated from Source. This is of course the ultimate source of separation consciousness, from which the previous three quadrants arise. All separation consciousness, egoic identification is the result of our loss of awareness of unity with Source, the Divine.
Obviously there is much more complexity that can be gone into as to how the first three quadrants come about and influence each other to create our experience and the world we live in. Some of this is covered in "What is Karma", "Karma & the Law of Attraction" and "Karma & the Evolution of Consciousness".
As a simple over view of separation consciousness I hope the four quadrants are helpful.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreValidation, Why It Matters
February 2, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
This is a really wonderful short film with a really powerful message. Pretty much every person alive will get a lift from validation, but hey a picture is worth a thousand words so click, enjoy and let me know what you think.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Spiritual, Love Relationship Guide
January 15, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 2 Comments
A simple guide of agreeable ideals and intentions as a foundation and touch stone for spiritual love relationship.
We believe that our relationship has a spiritual basis and serves our own evolution.
We experience this, manifest, as a deep and powerful desire to know love.
We experience the journey of healing and liberation through love and also in the reflection of what in us is separate from love, surfacing that it might be transformed, healed and unified into the love.
We acknowledge that what we feel, is ours and within us, and not ‘caused’ by what is outside of us. We are responsible for our feelings.
We acknowledge that to make the other responsible or to blame for what we feel is not true, and does not serve, but limits us both.
We acknowledge that leaving the other to try and stop feelings that are uncomfortable or painful for us will not bring us healing.
We acknowledge our own and the others right to leave.
We acknowledge that trying to change the other to try and stop feelings that are uncomfortable or painful for us will not do so and does not honor them.
We acknowledge and honor the other for their uniqueness, for all the ways we are alike and all the ways we are different.
We commit to focus on finding resolution and creating healing especially in times of conflict within us and between us.
We pledge to support the other in creating resolution and healing in themselves.
We pledge to forgive and release ourselves, and the other, from conflicts, misunderstandings, and separations from the love in the past and in the future.
We are committed to healing what in us limits us and is separate from love.
We commit to honoring and respecting ourselves.
We pledge to honor and respect the other, to the best of our ability.
We trust that the Divine and our souls guide and support us.
We invite and open to that support in everyway it can manifest.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
