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Ten Rules For Being Human
January 13, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Found this the other day and while I feel ‘school’ is somewhat an oversimplification it also has validity. Enjoy……
| 1. | You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period. |
| 2. | You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life." |
| 3. | There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work." |
| 4. | Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson. |
| 5. | Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned. |
| 6. | "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here." |
| 7. | Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself. |
| 8. | What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours. |
| 9. | Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust. |
| 10. | You will forget all this. |
by Cherie Carter-Scott
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreWayne Dyer Movie
January 7, 2009 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
Wayne Dyer has just released his first movie ‘Ambition to Meaning – finding your life’s purpose’. While I haven’t seen it yet Dr Dyer has consistently produced quality work for decades now and I’m sure this follows on.
Ambition to meaning is a compelling portrait of three modern lives in need of new direction and new meaning. In this his first-ever movie, Wayne Dyer explores the spiritual journey in the second half of life when we long to find the purpose that is our unique contribution to the world. Filmed on coastal California’s spectacular Monterey Peninsula, Ambition to Meaning captures every person’s longing for a more purposeful, soul-directed life.
Here is a list of screening locations and times. Ambition to Meaning is also available on DVD
Below is the trailer….enjoy!
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Profound Children’s Books
December 23, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
Doing our best to practice conscious parenting means being vigilant about what information and influences our children come in contact with. The kind of books we read them, and in time they read for themselves, is an important part of this. The mainstream marketing children’s Disney stories and their ilk, lack for me a deeper appreciation of life and humanity that I hope to instill in my child. It was a great pleasure then when we first discovered the books of Jon J Muth.
His books are always my favorites to read. There are two parts to a children’s book that are really crucial, the first is the illustration and the other is obviously the story. As an illustrator Jon J Muth is very talented, his pictures have a warmth and intimacy that I have found in few other book. The stories themselves carry profound human and spiritual teachings in a simple and unpretentious way.
I think the child in me loves the idea of a giant panda zen master friend like Stillwater living in my neighbourhood and being a mentor/friend. Of course my little boy doesn’t get the joke in Zen Ties, when Stillwater greets his young nephew Ku from a train, "hi Ku". Ku of course speaks in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 – a haiku.
Another favorite is The Three Questions, a young boy Nikolai in his pursuit of the questions "When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?". It was in this book that I first met the character ‘Old Turtle’, a mythic representation of the deepest wisdom.
Probably my favorite of all is ‘Old Turtle and the Broken Truth’, authored by Douglas Wood
I know that at the conscious level my 3 1/2-year-old boy probably doesn’t understand the depth and wisdom of these books. Until around age 8 children’s subconscious minds are wide open. So I know that on some level the repetition of reading these stories over the years, they are truths and values will be absorbed.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Letting Children Be Who They Are
December 16, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · Leave a Comment
This morning, after struggling with increasingly ill health for some time, our dog Samantha passed away. My son Sebastian who’s 3 and a half, has been aware that Sam has not been well and more recently we began talking to him about the fact that sooner or later she would die and no longer be with us.
Recently he had being doing things to take the illness away, which mostly consisted of crawling under her, coming out the other side and throwing away the illness once he got to the other side. Sam has been there his whole life, they had their own personal relationship and she was an integral part of our family.
I’m not sure quite what ‘dying’ or ‘dead’ mean to him and I wanted us to be prepared for questions that I imagined coming, about where she’s gone and why. I also imagined, some form of grief for him and hoped my wife and I in our own grief would handle it well. I was concerned that we have something consistent and clear to give him as answers, this being his first experience of death in a personal way.
So far there have been no questions and no overt or even subtle signs of grief. He has actually been very matter of fact about it. When we told him Sam had died this morning, he said ‘yes you told me she would’, and this morning before he went to school we had told him that she probably would die. This morning as my wife and I were in the first waves of grief, he brought us cups of milk to help us feel better
I had a memory during the day of myself as a young child coming home from school to find the rabbit hutch empty and told Penny had died. I was very upset, but my parents hadn’t spoken to me about her being ill or dying so it was a bolt out of the blue for which i had no preparation.
In other big changes in Sebastians life, we have begun talking to him about them months in advance, and when we have by the time the change comes it has passed easily and smoothly.
Today was another lesson for me to let him be who he is, the rewards are obvious already.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
3 Personality Types
November 25, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 4 Comments
There are many ways and systems of characterizing personality types. Here we will look at three basic types of human personality. The first type governs his or her life and reactions mainly with reason. The second type does so mainly with emotion, and the third does so with the will. A personality is never completely one-sided; every person is a mixture of types, but one is always predominant. In some cases, the predominance is obvious; in others, the mixture is more complicated, and therefore the predominant type is more difficult to detect.
In the ideal personality, each of the three aspects has a rightful place. The harmonious person functions with each aspect in a perfect way, each rising to the fore as appropriate. More often, the three trends are often in imbalance or predominance. For instance, where reason should prevail, emotions do, or vice versa.
Let us begin with the personality governed predominantly by reason. Those who conduct their lives mainly by the reasoning process are apt to neglect the emotions. They can be afraid of emotions, and tend to suppress and control them. Unfortunately those who are afraid of emotion often don’t trust their intuition as they distrust its
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out moreManaging Anger
November 17, 2008 by Maria · Leave a Comment
If you have a heart beat I am guessing you have felt anger. Anger is hard to deal with, it brings up a lot and often times leads to more sadness, blame and more anger. I invite you to try this on for a moment……………
Anger is a gift. If you are able to be angry and then step back and ask your self, ‘what are my unmet needs in this moment,’ you may find that the trigger for your anger is not truly the source of it.
Stimulus———-interpretation/judgment…………..=………anger
Please try
Stimulus————- "What are my unmet needs————-ex: Love, acceptance,hope,trust etc…
It is hard to be angry when your brain is busy naming the unmet needs.
By doing this exercises we take responsibility for our anger and learn to name needs and acquire a greater self connection.
Hopefully a quiet smile, a more empathic space for yourself and others will blossom.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Non Violent Communication
November 10, 2008 by Maria · Leave a Comment
I am wanting to begin by introducing myself…………. My name is Maria and I live on an island in the Pacific. I have a beautiful daughter who will turn four in January. I was born in Africa and have traveled to over 40 countries. I left home at 17 and recently have been in a period of life looking back. The thing that brings me the most peace, joy and ease in my life is Non Violent Communication. NVC is the work of Marshall Rosenberg. I started studying it almost four years ago and have come through challenging situations in my life in ways I never dreamed possible. I think out habitual responses in situations that cause pain and discomfort that are learned and very hard to change. We tend to reacts to disappointments, setbacks and other perceived negative situations with a reactionary response that does not usually serve the individual or those around. Non Violent Communication is a way to take a breath, get some space and then move forward in a conscious response to the moment. Ahhhhhhhh space in the moment, not a habitual reaction……..Yes!! Possible, I have learnt that with commitment and dedication it is possible.
In this post I would like to offer a quick exercise that may be applicable with anyone in your life. I am going to apply the explanation to my daughter. Time………. we can move it around and go back now and remember a time when your child (or other) was so precious to you that your heart melts, and deep love and joy is flooding it with feeling a real connection. Capture this snapshot and imprint it in your mind, heart and consciousness. When your child (or other) is really bringing up anger, sadness, frustration, hurt etc……………. I invite you in that moment to close your eyes and realize you have a CHOICE in how to proceed, how to respond……………. Bring up in your mind that snapshot of your precious child, this wonderful being and hold and feel the snapshot in your minds eye. Remembering how precious this little being is connects you with the deepest truth of who they are, an dyour relationship with them. Remembering them this way creates a space in which you can let go off your habitual response to the challenge of the moment and create a place of connection and empathy with the person
Try this exercise and see if it can help you to take that moment before your habitual response kicks in and more harm is done to both of you.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
Tides Of Passion
October 11, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
I am passionate about transformation, about living liberation and over the last twenty something years this passion has remained and evolved as other passions came and passed. Now looking back it is easier to see that each passion was a facet in the greater weave of my life’s evolving. Transformation and liberation were always present, explored in an entwined way through different means and forms. I consider myself fortunate that at a young age my souls compass was set in this direction by an experience beyond the veil of our three dimensions and five senses. While that experiences lasted only some brief weeks my life became, and is internally oriented to freeing myself of all that holds identification with less than the truth I know I am.
A dozen years ago, while also being a healer, dance was at the forefront of my life and passion. This strand of pursuit reached it’s Zenith when I did a 36 hour performance, beginning at 6am June 29 and ending 6pm June 30 1996. I began fasting about 10 hours before the performance and continued through it. By the Sunday afternoon I had transcended the limitations of body and mind and I embodied spirit. It had been my belief that this was possible, and the intent and purpose in the years I dedicated to that work. With that experience the passion that had driven my creative dance life, and inspired me to undergo my 36 hour experiment with myself had
passed. As I write this now it seems prophetic that I named the piece ’36 and Gone’ before I actually did it.
Our passions are just like anything else in our lives, if we are present, paying attention to where they take us, and integrate what we experience through them, they change. Maybe the form and appearance changes and we must be willing to cast it aside and go deeper into the essence of ourselves seeking a new frontier in our evolving.
The sharing of my passion for transformation and liberation is a passion of equal or greater measure. When I was a Butoh teacher people came to my classes from many walks of life. They all found something more of themselves that they took into their lives, their boundaries expanded. Today I have the same satisfaction working with clients and teaching. There is such joy in seeing another transform limitations and open to greater possibilities of who they are.
The latest passion in my life is my son Sebastian. Seeing him every day, a radiance of joy and excitement for life, keeps me in touch with an innocence too easily lost in the mundane and repetitious. His being, reminds me there are no ordinary moments, that passion for life is inherent within us. Every day he wants to explore and discover more about himself and what he can do. Our limitations are conditioning that we have accepted and maintain and whatever is conditioned can change.
Each one of us is unique and we each have a route through our lives that cannot be dictated. No one can do the things you do exactly like you. Imagine living your life from this moment on, knowing you can’t make a choice that is wrong. Instead simply look what it brings you, if it feels good and right. Now imagine that you can let your choice be of the moment and not just what you’ve done before. If you can imagine it you have begun creating it. Where do you want to go now?
Who’s ‘I’ Is It Anyway?
October 10, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 2 Comments
Self-Identity is something we take for granted. We are constantly creating it, defining it, defending it and projecting it. This process is a virtually ever-present occurrence that we rarely even notice is going on. From the moment we wake up until we once more slip into the selflessness of sleep we carry an image and story called me.
Every problem we perceive, in ourselves or in the world is directly attributable to this automatic process of differentiation and separation. Within ourselves, everything we experience is hijacked and made the means of perpetuating this imaginary self-identity; it is what our ego does to exist.
Spiritual traditions have taught for thousands of years that identity of this nature is a constructed self. Contemporary psychology agrees, understanding self-identity as a psychological-social-linguistic construct. Psychological because it is mental and based on mental conditioning; social because we share and maintain a collective belief in it’s validity and interact accordingly; linguistic because our language is a direct reflection of this agreement in it’s use of pronouns such as I, me, mine etc. We are conditioned to accept that ‘I’ as a pronoun does indicate an actual something, basing our reality on this non-existent foundation. So effectively and deeply layered are we in this conditioning that it is almost completely invisible to us.
As a spiritually oriented therapist I walk a line of balance between my knowing of the illusion of self-identity and the very real and tangible pains and challenges we face within it. The balance is to find means to unwind the causes of the condition while empathising but not colluding. My basic premise is that there is fundamentally nothing wrong with anyone so there is nothing to fix. It would be like saying there was something wrong with someone lost in a city without a map, because they don’t know where they are. Instead taking the view of each of us at our own particular point, on a process of remembering that we are not bound by the limitations of this small self-identity we call ‘me’.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
A Thriving Spirit
October 9, 2008 by Ray Baskerville · 1 Comment
In my opinion thriving cannot be separated from personal development, growth and our spiritual evolution. Once we are in our mid to late teens we don’t really grow physically any more (upwards at least!). So to thrive our growth must be within as more of our desires and needs become aligned with our evolutionary process.
You may say, what about thriving materially, financially? That is the yardstick our culture holds up, true. But doesn’t thriving indicate health, vitality and vigour as well as peace and happiness? So there have to be other elements for the presence of true thriving. Indeed truthfully for each of us, what the combination of elements will look like will be different.
A common belief is that in some way health in the dimensions of body, mind, emotion and spirit are common to all of us when we are thriving. And the artful blend of these elements creates thriving when harmonious. I prefer harmonious to balanced because balance seems precarious and harmony seems fluid. For example we can become obsessive in one area, taking care of
our body for example and lose harmony in our mental and emotional lives as we anxiously think about what we are eating, breathing, drinking being ok for us and so on. So stress on any level seems counter to thriving.
Thriving also seems to indicate that we are taking care of ourselves; we have what we need to nurture and develop. We cannot grow without food and nourishment in all the ways we need it. Just as a growing plant takes up more room as it grows, so we too need to be expanding beyond the outgrown limitations of our past.
It is easy to follow such ways of thinking when pursuing them as a lifestyle, when physical health is at least a possibility, when the possibility of change and expansion is entertained. A year ago my article might have ended around here, or continued in the same vein. I have in the last year however had the privilege of working extensively with someone at the end of their life, as their body and mind withered. Inside them, beyond the scope of physical detection this person was thriving in a way they hadn’t chosen or believed possible in life. The spirit, in large part through the love and commitment of a daughter awakened to inner growth with a passion. I served in my capacity as a healer to facilitate and keep opening this new vista of possibilities in spiritual growth. In the same way I have found working with children, things went very quickly because there was little or no egoic resistance. As the months passed this courageous spirit hung on to the woman’s body as the body gave access to the karma we were clearing. So in complete contradiction to the first three paragraphs, here was a woman growing weaker and more decrepit as the months passed, both physically and mentally, yet flourishing in probably the most important ways beyond the perception of normal sight.
So now I can conclude this article in the remembrance that we are all so easily fooled by appearance and form. We build beliefs and philosophies for life on this mirage foundation in the forgetting of the true power that moves within all life, whose only purpose is spiritual evolving.
“Living Liberation - Meditation Training, and so much more" "It changed my life"Find out more
