What is in common, what is a shared characteristic among people who become worth a damn?

libraryThere is not much in common. It is not talent. It is not ethnicity. Not personality. Not schooling. Not religious affiliation.

The one common characteristic I have found is books. People who become worth a damn are readers.

Even more importantly than being a reader: the most important commonality is when they started to read.

I just read in Wikipedia about Howard Zinn:

Both parents were factory workers with limited education when they met and married, and there were no books or magazines in the series of apartments where they raised their children. Zinn’s parents introduced him to literature by sending ten cents plus a coupon to the New York Post for each of the 20 volumes of Charles Dickens’ collect

The unanswerable question trap: it holds you by the balls

56104204Creativity comes from the “other than conscious” activity of the brain. The part that is neither linear nor word based.

I spend a large chunk of the day allowing it to do what it does…

It is allowing whatever is going on in the brain and in the body to go on… The best way is to make yourself busy.

Washing the dishes, vacuuming, doing the laundry, walking, or playing Freecell…

One of the useless things Tai teach is what he calls armchair meditation. He wants you to do serious linear thinking… which is proven to be a lot less accurate than your other than conscious brain doing the work unattended.

Why? Because the other than conscious mind is not corrupted. It doesn’t think one thing is good becau

Why do we have an ego, and how can we make it really useful? You don’t have any part that is not useful!

he-who-doesnt-laugh-probably-didnt-get-the-joke
I just had a “conversation” with a student, where I suggested that she uses ego to support her growth.

From her answers it has become clear that “using ego” is not a commonplace conversation, and that it needs instruction.

So let’s see what ego is, and what it isn’t.

Ego is a lot like a kitchen knife: you can use it for good, for useful, or for harm… kill with it. You can also use it to clean it under your nails… somewhat useful, but not the right tool…

You can also call it bad, and ban it from your house. ((It is also a lot like a nail. It concentrates the energy so it can go through thick planks

You want it effortlessly… Want thrilling, want pleasure, want abundance…

surviving the weekI read a lot of books. About 100 books a year. Cover to cover. I don’t subscribe to Tai’s reading method…

I left a 2000 book library when I left Hungary. that was 34 years ago.

Every book is an opportunity to shatter my view of the world. And many do. Sometimes not directly… sometimes through the effect the book has on other people.

This is what is happening with this book I am currently reading, The Upside of Your Dark Side. And previously with the book “Curiou

What is the intrinsic role of commitment… making a commitment, committing to something?

commitment-to-marryEver asked the question why people get engaged? Engaged to be married…

Engagement is making a commitment…

But commitment is tricky.

Real commitment comes from the Intrinsic Self, and you don’t need to make it. It is what the Intrinsic Self wants you to do…

Most things you call commitment, are impositions on the Intrinsic Self, impositions on you. Duty, obligation, drudgery.

They come from either an outside goal or an ego goal… and they don’t get the support of the Intrinsic Self.

The engagement period drives up the real sentiments, and if there is any honesty, will prove or disprove the authenticity of the commitment.

Authenticity means: coming from the intrinsic Self.
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Want to find your self? Express it? Be true to it? Be motivated by it?

brett-wilson-find-yourself-and-be-thatI started to read the book by Edward Deci, “Why we do what we do. Understanding self-motivation”.

This is the first book, that I know, that defines self the way, or similarly the way I do…

To become a person, to have autonomy, self-determination, self-expression, integrity, self-motivation, the most important job is to find the self, by distinguishing what is the driver of all your actions, whether it is inner or outer.

And if it is inner… is it the self, or is it the “not-self”?

Greed, narcissism, hate… area inner motivators, but they are all the not-self. So are all the “negative” emotions, like frustration, haste, the desir

What the Light taught me about YOLO

the secret for a long life well livedIt’s been an interesting week.

Ever since I’ve started to download the energy of the Days of Power, I’ve been wondering how I am going to know it’s working… how it will manifest, practically, in my life.

Whenever something new comes in, my imagination goes to the known, the familiar, and I guess that is how the human mind works.

So I had no idea what may happen, what could happen, given the energy.

born-liars-coverOb

The skill to identify and the skill to overcome your dominant way you avoid to grow

pikes_peak_from_garden_of_the_godsIt’s eerie how soul correction that is calculated from your date of birth and zodiac signs, calculated from just your birthday can be so very accurate in their core.

By core I mean your base nature. What you are inclined to do, the attitude you are inclined to have.

My horoscope for the next weeks or so… by Rob Brezsny:
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Pike’s Peak is a 14,115-foot mountain in Colorado. It’s not a simple task to trek to the top. Unless you’re well-trained, you might experience altitude sickness. Wicked thunderstorms are a regular occurrence during the summer. Snow falls year-round. But back in 1929, an adv

Slow down. Most things, maybe everything that is valuable is invisible when things are fast.

slow downThe psychologist, Paul Ekman. who discovered the micro expressions slowed down the film to see the emotion that gave the suicidal woman’s despair away.

Slowing down your reactions will show you your real emotions… so you know, so you know what you are running away from.

Slowing down you may be able to find your strait and narrow… your path to your own happiness and fulfillment.

Fast isn’t going to cut it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojT2k6Cwss
The fence that is built fast will fall down fast… and it is true for everything.

And interestingly everyone is looking

What seed are you growing?

the-empty-pot

Being able to be with what isn’t nice, what isn’t pretty, what isn’t pleasant, what is risky… facing the truth, facing the tiger

I had a webinar today. It was my regular monthly public webinar… but this time I wanted to show how to measure your food and supplements… so you don’t depend on me for all your answers.

I had to use my webcam, obviously, to show what I needed to show, for muscle testing is highly physical.

I look the way I look… not well groomed, I have a barber buzz-cut my hair, it is thinning, no makeup… and I had to stare at my reflection the whole time.

I don’t even look in the mirror, not even once a day.

I didn’t like the way I looked, but that is how I look.