Archive for September, 2008

By Seamus Anthony

We all face plenty of problems in life, but most of them can be overcome if we take to them like a Samurai takes to battle with his sword.

Be Objective

If you let your emotions over ride you, then you set yourself up for failure. Use your mind to pierce to the heart of the problem, making sure to recognise any hang-ups you may have that may cloud your judgment. Ask others around you to give you an outsider’s perception into events; it is often amazing how influenced we are by our own preconceived ideas about any situation.

Find Out The Facts

Don’t just accept the facts as you understand them from your own point of view. Go to lengths to understand what other facts may exist that you have missed or that others may have kept from you. Again, ask around, what are others aware of that you are not? This information could be the decisive element that wins the battle for you.

Have Fortitude

Draw on your internal strength. Most victories take persistence and determination. Being able to withstand the highs and lows of your own energy, motivation and drive may be just as important as anything else. If you can go the distance, you may find that your opponents cannot. Often the last man standing wins.

Act Outwardly, Be Still Within

Inner tranquility in the heat of battle is the ultimate aim of any martial artist. Modern sports people have also recognised this skill for many years now. If you can act while maintaining a peaceful calm mind, you will find yourself at an advantage. Make your day an exercise in moving meditation.

Conserve Energy

When there is no reason to fight, relax. Samurai warriors spent great amounts of time meditating, often until the very moment of battle. This will mean you have great reserves in stock for when the going gets tough.

Sit Up Straight

No, I am not joking. The classic Samurai pose is perfect for the modern desk bound worker – sit with your bottom on the front third of your chair, your legs shoulder width apart, your feet planted flat on the ground, your back straight and your shoulders relaxed.

Just doing this will make an enormous amount of difference to your ability to get through the day as it promotes good energy flow and reduces bodily aches and pains.

Accept Responsibility

Or in other words: be a person of honour. There is no glory in avoiding the truth; you will sleep better if you admit your mistakes, and others will respect you all the more.

Seek Justice

But not necessarily in a “Kill Bill” kind of way! What I mean is, take a stance that you believe in and you will find the inner-resources needed to win through in the end. This is why finding the right career is so very important for the human spirit.

Seek Clarity

Cut through confusion. Turn your bullshit-meter up high. Dispel doubt and find out what is real. If the problem involves others, there may be an element of subterfuge going on. Keep a keen eye out for those who would seek to discredit you in order to gain from your misfortune.

Have Courage in the Face of Adversity

Sooner or later a hurdle will appear in your path. You must face these with as much courage as you can muster. Courage for me is the ability to “feel the fear and do it anyway”. It is normal to feel fear. It is courageous to battle on regardless.

Choose Your Battles

Walk away from any fight that is not worth your time. Assess each problem you face as to whether or not it is worth investing your energy in. Would the problem go away if ignored? Would it matter if you did nothing? Has your opponent drawn his or her sword? If so, do you really want to be the first to do so?

Commit Hari Kiri if Dishonoured

Kidding!

Click here to get your free copy of our E-Book “Curly’s Law”

By Seamus Anthony

Once a young man called Snoozer sat dozing in his favourite spot at the bottom of a great mountain.

All of a sudden he was rudely awakened by a foot poking him in the ribs.

“Hey man! What’s up?! Snoozer demanded. He looked up through sleepy eyes to see an older man grinning down at him as if he had just thought of an extremely funny joke.

“I’ll tell you what’s up – the answer to all of your prayers, that’s what!”, chuckled the old man.

“What are you talking about, Old Dude?” Snoozer asked, not really wanting to know. Just what he needed, some old crackpot getting in his face. Snoozer scrambled to his feet and started making moves to leave.

“Not so fast! First you listen to me.” Old Dude said “I live at the top of the mountain, and from up there I can see everything very clearly. Each day I look down to see you wasting away your youth sleeping all the time, so I thought I’d walk down and let you know that if you venture up to the top of the mountain with me, there you’ll find the answer to all your prayers!”

“Huh?” Snoozer hadn’t really woken up properly yet, and this old geezer was a bit much.

“The great secret of life! The way! Enlightenment! If you walk up to the top with me you’ll be able to see it all as clear as day!”

“Look mate…I don’t know what you’re on, but I am totally not into it. So, I’m just gonna go now, and you have a nice day, OK?” And with that, Snoozer began to back away from the old man, who was obviously nuts.

“I thought you might say that – so that’s why I brought this!” Old Dude then pulled out a large wad of cash. “If you walk up the mountain with me and answer my questions correctly, I will give you the money! If you won’t walk up the mountain, then no money for you!”

Suddenly Snoozer was much more interested! The bundle of cash Old Dude was holding out was really quite large, and being a very lazy young man, Snoozer had a lot of bills that were overdue and needed paying up.

“And don’t think you can just snatch the money off me, I’m faster than I look! You’ll have to keep up with me all the way!” Giggling to himself, Old Dude started running at a speed that belied his advancing years. Snoozer hated running with a passion, but he really needed that money. So he took off after Old Dude who was bounding up the mountain path.

The mountain was pretty big. And Snoozer was a bit fat from lots of eating and sleeping, and not much exercise. He ran as hard as he could, but soon he began to get puffed out, and eventually he slowed to a hurried walking pace. Old Dude was ahead out of sight now, but every now and then Snoozer could here him cackling away at the top of his lungs. It began to get dark, and very cold. Snoozer fell over, cutting his knee and grazing his hands on the rocks. His chest hurt and he kept getting dizzy with fatigue, but he really wanted that money. So he didn’t stop chasing after Old Dude.

Snoozer ran and walked and climbed all night. It was the longest, most miserable night of his life. He felt like he would never get to the top of the mountain, and doubts began to plague him. What if the old man was playing a trick? What if he came to no good up on the mountain? Snoozer’s mind raced. He felt like he was going crazy. Delirious tears rolled down his dirt-smeared cheeks, as he moaned and sobbed from his gut like a child.

Then, as morning finally broke, Snoozer stumbled into a flat clearing and saw the whole of his country spread out before him. He saw all the places he knew and loved, his hometown, and the houses of his family and friends. He saw his own house and he wished he were back there now, cosy and warm, asleep.

Then a voice spoke from behind, making Snoozer jump. It was Old Dude.

“Tell me, young man, does this world that you are from look like it has changed now you are at the top of the mountain?”

“No”, Snoozer replied, “It is still the same place”.

“So, are you telling me that it does not look any different to you from up here?”

“Oh, it looks different all right. I can see most of it all at once. The way things are set out is very clear from up here, and it looks somehow less real, more like a dream. But I don’t think it has changed, it’s just that I am seeing it all from a different perspective. It’s as if I am seeing the world the way God might see it.”

“Good.” Old Dude smiled and placed his hand on Snoozer’s shoulder. “Now you know the ‘great secret of life’.”

“I do?” Snoozer looked out at the incredible view. He didn’t really feel as if he knew any great secret. He looked up at Old Dude in bewilderment.

“I do?” He repeated.

“Yes you do. Now off you go. You’ll have plenty of time to think about it as you make your way back down the mountain.” And with that, Old Dude turned and began to walk away.

“Wait a minute!” Snoozer piped up. “Where’s that money then, eh?”

“Oh, of course, the money.” Old Dude stopped, but didn’t turn around. “I left the money at your favourite spot down the bottom of mountain. I guess you were so sleepy you didn’t see what was really going on!”

Snoozer suddenly felt a bit sick, and had to sit down on a rock.

“Well go on!” Old Dude said. “You’d better get a move on, or someone else will find the cash before you do!”

“Hugh…” Snoozer’s head felt like it was spinning on a stick. “What about you? What are you going to do now?” Snoozer called after Old Dude, who was shambling off towards a small wooden hut.

“Why, I’m going to bed, of course! All this mountain climbing has left me plumb tuckered out!”

If Snoozer knew about Curly’s Law, then he might have been a bit more motivated in the first place. You can read about it now by clicking here to get your Rebel Zen “Curly’s Law” Ebook – FREE!

By Steve Mills

For most of our daily life, we are completely saturated with ideas and messages that do not originate from ourselves. Walk down the street and you are bombarded with advertisements, sit down on the internet and you are quickly mind boggled by the sheer amount of content available. The modern world has provided us with access to information that would be beyond the wildest dreams of someone even 20 years ago.

The paradox is with access to so much information about other things; we have become detached from a large amount of knowledge and wisdom about ourselves. There are so many distractions available, and so many different types of media to consume. The very fact that we may have to sit alone, with our own thoughts for even 30 minutes fills most people with a small sense of dread.

I am sure that this is not the natural state of human consciousness. In the past, you would assume that there were vast stretches of time, once food and shelter had been looked after, that men and women would be able to sit around and think. In this time they would have the power to consciously address the contents of their minds, rather than let themselves run on autopilot, never really exploring the depths of their inner life.

People in modern society however just aren’t used to the idea of having nothing to do, and we have been pre-conditioned to think that time not being productive or time spent with our internal thoughts and feelings is wrong. We get the idea that time with ourselves is time wasted, and so we push on without really taking stock of our own mental landscape. It seems as if the only types of introspection that people undertake on a regular basis are based on worry and anxiousness. People worry about the future endlessly, and they go over past events with an eye to what they could have done better.

Most people will do just about anything to escape their own company and feelings of “boredom.” They will read 5 year old gossip mags while waiting for the dentist, or watch endless repeats of shows on TV. They will surf the internet aimlessly, going to the same sites over again. But in reality, a little time addressing “boredom” is extremely well spent. When the mind finds that it has nothing active to address, it brings up unprocessed information, allowing it to come up to the surface, and be “seen” by your conscious mind. Your worries, your frustrations, your fixation on things like work, being productive or becoming free. All of these things which are always “kind of there” in the background become more real and tactile.

The three different points below are things that you can try to address next time you find yourself with a spare hour and nothing to do. Just sit and let the mind go where it wants, without your conscious interaction :

1. Use the time to break cyclic thinking
Realise that your mind is the most powerful tool and resource we know of in the UNIVERSE. There has been nothing more complex ever discovered. Although it may not fit in with a number of current scientific paradigms, I am here to tell you that for most practical purposes, YOU (the observer you) are in control of your brain and your thoughts.

If you find yourself in these times of introspection going over the same thoughts without ever resolving a solution, then make it your goal to break out of that cycle and get some closure. Look for patterns in your thinking, and devise some clear action points to get from where you are, to where you want to be. This is not worry time, this is looking at the deeper thoughts and addressing them head on.

As the Buddha said “Strive for your own liberation with diligence.”

2. Is there someone you need to call?
Quite often in times of introspection, my thoughts will (for no apparent reason that I can fathom at the time) find their way to a past or current friend or acquaintance. I think about something they once said, or what they are doing, or things that I may have said to them.

I can’t tell you the number of times that this has happened, and a week or so later I get a phone call or email from the person saying they really want to catch up with me, or I hear through the modern grapevine (facebook) that they are in need of something, or having a rough time. If you have thoughts about people that may have once been part of your life, perhaps it is time to give them a call “just because” and see what is going on.

3. Get to know your true self.

I am sure that there a lot of people out there in blogoland that don’t even know who they really are. I mean at a deep level, life is a process of discovering exactly who we are as people.

In quiet times, is there a voice inside you saying that the life you are presently living is not for you, that you yearn to do something different? Modern life is very good at pigeonholing people into neat little boxes, and railroading them into careers that sound promising, but in reality are a minefield of stress and boredom. Use the time to look at the possibilities, not just a few but the massive set of options that are available to everyone. I heard it said in the last week that people under a great deal of stress can only see 3 options at most to any situations, where in reality there may be 100’s

Also I am sure that there are people very well acquainted with their ego selves, as they see that aspect expressed every day, but not the true, deeper self that is connected to the universe and everyone else around you. That aspect needs time to come out on its own, in quiet and creative time. By listening to the quieter voices within, we get a sense of the whole of ourselves, and a more intimate understanding of the parts of our personality that make us unique.

As the Greek philosophers were fond of saying “Know Thyself!”

To find your true purpose, click here to get the first Rebel Zen Ebook – Its FREE!

Here’s three great personal development articles that are worth a look:

How to Climb Up the Ladder of Healing and Growth

Ari Koinuma gives us a short and a long version of this post. Having the attention span of a gnat, I went for the shorter version first but in fact the full essay makes more sense (although if I were Ari, I’d steer clear of calling something an essay, makes the schoolboy in me want to run a mile).

The concept he is exploring is that we are at any one time set to a default state-of-mind that appears on a scale of what he terms a “healing/growth spectrum”. This idea will be great for systematic minds that like classifications, numbers and graphs. That’s the complete opposite of how my brain works, but still I really enjoyed this post. Ari has good storytelling skills and the guts to reveal information about his personal journeys. And as a new father, I was especially interested in the idea of young children starting out at a fairly positive level, then moving up or down according to what cards life deals them. Definitely worth a look.

12 Techniques to Stop Worrying

This article over at PickTheBrain.com caught my eye because, despite my swaggering bravado, I am in fact a chronic worry wart.

Writer Cindy Holbrook runs us through some stats about worry which do a pretty good job convincing me that there’s not that much to worry about after all. Then we get the list of suggestions to help you stop worrying. I totally agree with most of them, especially to “get support” as I have found that discussing my concerns seems to dissolve a lot of worry. (I might add that this took me up until about 6 months ago to discover as being a typical male and all, I used to just clam up and tough it out. Not recommended.)

I also agree that gratitude or, as Cindy puts it, counting your blessings, is a fantastic way to change the mental channel you’re tuned into.

I wonder however, about the recommendations to “distract yourself” and to “get busy”. Sounds a bit like running from the issue. But then again, maybe it’s actually a good piece of advice and I am just a crazy opinionated hack!

I would add two suggestions:

One which is kind of hinted at in the first tip to “prepare for the worst” is to ask yourself, “what’s the worst thing that can happen?”. Usually it’s not that bad and if it is really, really bad then there’s usually not a whole lot can be done about it anyway.

Two is stop listening to the bullshit that mainstream journalists are constantly bombarding us with – it’s an unhealthy mental diet that plants seeds of worry and stress. (What’s with those guys anyway? Oh, that’s right, they’re arseholes, nearly forgot.)

Wilderness Shangri-la

Ok firstly I should admit that this is the latest post at a website built and managed by me and Steve (who also runs this blog with me). But it’s not ours, LivingNow are our client.

So full disclosure out of the way, it’s a lovely article. Admittedly it’s a bit hippy for Rebel Zen, especially the lame title, but it reflects a very pleasant state of mind that I experience quite often but (unlike violent rage) I don’t usually find the need to express: calm, peaceful and connected to nature.

Writer Steven Katsineris does an awesome job of describing how beautiful the Tasmanian wilderness truly must be. It’s just so important that we don’t screw these gifts up with our selfish ways, isn’t it?

I am actually off for my first visit to Tasmania early next year (about time too as it’s only a short flight from Melbourne, Australia). This article got me all freshly excited about it!

Anyway, there’s three great posts worth a look – I’m off to meditate before bed. Enjoy!

Seamus Anthony
Click here to get the first Rebel Zen e-book “Curly’s Law” – it’s free!

By Seamus Anthony

You will never, ever achieve enlightenment.

I will never, ever achieve enlightenment.

The Buddha did not achieve it.

Nor did Jesus.

Nor did Mohamed.

Nor did Lao Tzu.

Nor did Osho.

Nor did Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, Krishnamurti, Chogyam Trungpa, The Maharashi, Rudolf Steiner, Douglas Harding, Mother Theresa, Brad Warner, Deepack Chopra or Eckhart Tolle.

In fact nobody in the history of the world has ever achieved enlightenment.

And nobody ever will.

How can I say this?

Because enlightenment is not something you achieve, it’s something that you realise.

That might just be a little nit-picky matter of one word, but I believe it makes a lot of difference. Why? Because it changes your whole focus. My advice (not that you asked for it) is stop trying to achieve enlightenment (whatever that means to you anyway) and just let that shit go.

Enlightenment isn’t “out there”. You don’t have to become a ’seeker’ and go on a ’spiritual journey’
to find it. Nor do you need to go on some kind of Jules Verne type mission to centre of your being to find it either.

Enlightenment is right here in front of your nose. It is something innate. It is everything everywhere.

You realise your inherent enlightenment by accepting what is here now.

Click here to get the first Rebel Zen e-book – free. It contains a powerful trick to realising your inherent enlightenment – and what’s more it’ll help you kick butt in more pragmatic areas of life too (like career etc.). Go on – click already (it’s free).

By Seamus Anthony

I have always been a very Lazy Dude, and in fact I come from a long line of them. But the way I see it, laziness is in fact a Godly virtue. Here’s a few reasons why:

1) Lazy People Are Good For the Environment:

Lazy Dudes consume less. It makes sense: if you are too lazy to earn the big bucks, and too lazy to enjoy the (dreadful chore that is) shopping, then you just get by without a lot of stuff and this makes you an eco-warrior.

Put it this way, we need to stop using so much energy if we’re gonna save the planet right? Well, who do you think just opted to kick back and not drive anywhere for a few days? Not Anthony Robbins, that’s for sure.

2) Lazy People Are Safer:

Driving fast takes a lot of effort. It’s way easier to cruise just below the speed limit. Try not to drop the roach though, that can cause complications.

3) Lazy People Cause Less Noise Pollution:

If you’re lazy like me you get all self-righteous and grumpy on weekends when all those damn un-lazy psychos are out with their whipper-snippers and lawn-mowers making a bloody great racket. Why can’t they just do what me and all the other Lazy Dudes are doing – nothing much. Sure, the lawn might be out of control but A) who cares? and B) at least you can snuggle into bed at night knowing you weren’t responsible for any shift-workers going to work all sleep deprived due to edge trimmers and leaf blowers and then losing an arm in an industrial accident.

Motivated husbands of the world – hang your heads in shame.

4) Lazy People Promote World Peace:

You ever hear of a perennially Lazy Dude joining the Army? U-Uh.

Case in point: John and Yoko doing their whole bed-in routine. If everyone was as lazy as those cats were, there would never be another war ever because running around doing push ups and making your bed at 5am is hard work man!

5) Lazy People Provide Others With Awesome Career Opportunities:

I regularly see complete weeners with fantastic high paying careers.

You think the weener whose job I want would have their sweet gig if I was actually motivated enough to try and take it off him? No way!

I may be a Lazy Dude, but I am as cool as … you know … something refrigerated – okay?

If I were to walk in to their office with so much as an ounce of artificial motivation, that weener’s home for an early lunch (hopefully not to find his wife shagging some other ice cool Lazy Dude).

6) Lazy People Are Extremely Generous:

This is a bit like the employment thing.

Just say I had one of those hard rock candy things on a stick – the kind you get at the fair.

Now, I was probably planning to just sit on the steps all day and suck on it until my tongue was in shreds and my teeth that little bit closer to falling out, but then you come along and take it off me. I’m too lazy to do anything about that, which is the same as being generous for all practical purposes, if not intents.

7) Lazy People Make the Best Music:

Fact: I have never known a decent musician who was NOT a completely lazy, self-centered twat (myself included).

We make shocking flatmates but hey – can we strum a sweet ballad .

By the way, all those uber-motivated types you see bouncing up and down in video clips are not decent musicians. They are weird little ego-maniacs who need to read this post something fierce.

8 ) Lazy People Are Naturally Enlightened Masters:

Other people pay good money to learn how to meditate, then spend a week going bananas in some freezing cold temple while their minds do high speed laps inside their buzzing skulls.

Lazy Dudes spend so much time just happily staring into space, their minds a complete void of any content whatsoever, that they generally cross the enlightenment event-horizon in their mid-to-late twenties.

This is of course, where the old expression “Sipping frosty home-brew, reach enlightenment, still sipping frosty home-brew” originated from.

9) Lazy People Make the Best Gurus:

Spiritually enlightened they may be, but the fact remains that the average Lazy Dude will always be too habitually slack to ask you to stop coming around to their house just to sit cross legged at the foot of their couch all day (although they may grunt at you to get your head out of the way of the x-box).

Also, Lazy Dude Masters are incorruptible; they will never get it together to charge anyone for the above privilege.

(However it is a universal unspoken rule that you leave a small contribution on the fridge for any brewskies or *cough* other “peripherals” you may consume during your contemplative retreat.)

10) Lazy People Don’t Expect Anything Much Of Others:

This is the greatest thing about the wee Slack Folk. Unlike all the other demanding so-and-so’s that just never seem to get out of your face with their “urgent” this and their “important” that, us Lazy Dudes want but one thing from you: for you to call and order the pizza.

That’s right – us Lazy Dudes are a pretty easy bunch to please. We’re mostly happy just to quietly group up into little cliques of two or three and you know – bowl, drive around and enjoy the occasional acid flashback.

So the next time you feel like peeing on some Lazy Dude’s rug, think long and hard about whether it’s worth it. Because individually and as a whole, we Lazy Dudes are of such great benefit to the world that we pack a pretty awesome karmic punch.

And besides, you know, this aggression will not stand … man …

Steve and I have been trying to define what Rebel Zen is all about and one thing we want to convey is that it’s not just meant to be a mega-phone for what we have to say, but rather what we really want is to be part of the conversation.

Ok, that sounds like a bit of a Web 2.0 cliche I admit, but nevertheless it’s true.

Our reason for starting this website was to help others to see that there is so much information out there now that everybody who is seeking what we loosely call “Enlightenment” can truly ‘do it themselves’. Hence the DIY Enlightenment tag.

As for what enlightenment means, well that’s not something that we feel we have the right to define for you either. Defining what enlightenment is (and realising this enlightenment) is a totally personal and subjective thing. You might completely disagree with us, for example, by believing that your guru is the one and only path to true salvation. That’s okay as long as you’re prepared to enter into a discussion about that.

Or to give a less extreme example, you might not be so sure that everybody is already enlightened. So write about that (or make a video or whatever) and let us and every body else know.

Can You Hear the Voices?

I personally have been delighted by the bloggers and thinkers that I have discovered are out there over the months since we started Rebel Zen. With the motivation of wanting to attract some “traffic” (horrible term that) to this website, I started taking the time to read more blogs, and follow their commenter’s links back to their own blogs and I must admit I have been surprised and impressed. I now truthfully surf around each day just because I genuinely love reading the words of all these awesome people that are out there, shining their lights for all to see.

There are so many great thinkers who have been given voice by the social internet and so many different opinions, ideas and strategies for personal liberation. I just think it’s a wonderful thing. Not just wonderful but, really, it’s quite amazing, especially if you stop to think about how things were in the past, when information of this type was a scarce, top-down commodity. These days, to get back to the DIY Enlightenment theme, it really is possible to wade through mountains of inspiring words, sounds and images, and even better, to start or join in conversations about ideas you either don’t get, don’t agree with, or just think are so amazing that you must share them with the rest of the world.

So stay tuned to Rebel Zen over the coming weeks and months, because we have plans to really “open-house” this little corner of the web. They’re loose plans, and better to show than waffle on about them (because some of these ideas might not stick) but these cautions aside, we hope it’s going to mean that RebelZen.com becomes a very useful place to visit if you’re interested in deciding for yourself what “it’s all about”.

To kick things off, and why I made up the new category of “Worth A Look”, I am now going to roll through some of the most inspiring stuff I have come across via the tubes today. Feel free to point our noses in the direction of anything complementary (or not, doesn’t matter) via the comments function:

A Singularity in Time Part II

Here author Peter Russel talks of the dawning of a Wisdom Age, sprouting off the back of the Information Age. He says, “Never before have we been able to access so much spiritual wisdom.” – and that’s exactly what I was yammering on about above. Further to this Russel says, “Something completely new is emerging: a single spiritual teaching that is a distillation of the world’s wisdom traditions” and he gives the reason for this as being the amazing availability of information that the internet has facilitated. I couldn’t agree more. I see the perennial philosophy being discussed around the cyber-traps every day.

Don’t be a Sellout: A Guide to Staying Real

Jonathan Mead is back with a cracker of a post over at Illuminated Mind. This dude’s getting real popular and it’s in no small part due to the uncompromising stance he takes on a number of issues, mostly how to live an authentic life on your own terms. He includes a couple of links in this post, the following two of which really rocked my little socks.

What is the Meaning of Life?

Good question.

Umm, is it cheese cake?

I’m pretty sure it’s a cake of some kind…

Zen practitioner Mary Jaksch offers up some words for the wise here – pointing out that if you see life as a path then you’re likely to miss the point. You’d be forever projecting into the future instead of actually being aware of the present moment (i.e. reality). I like her quirky suggestion that life is better viewed as a spot than a linear progression.

Not Being a Real Person: The #1 Self-Development Anti-Hack

As I said in its comments section, this post really made me feel better about being a freak. I mean to say, I’m pretty cool with that fact most of the time, but today I was sort of feeling a bit guilty that all I really could be bothered doing was just lazily surfing through my RSS browser and eating butternut snaps.

Well – good God damn – why the hell shouldn’t I? For I am an “unreal person” not some lame-arse ‘fraidy-cat conformist.

Shit yeah.

And the late, great, drunken Rebel Zen Master, Alan Watts supports this unreservedly in Life and Music.

Don’t fall for the hoax kids! Live the here-now with passion and leave the future be.

Cheers,

Seamus Anthony

By Seamus Anthony

Have you noticed a shift in the personal development world lately?

I have, and I know I’m not alone. I believe there’s a quiet movement on the rise that straddles both the worldly “success” field and the spiritual “enlightenment” field.

We’re a movement of connected individuals who DO want powerful tools for personal advancement in this life – but aren’t about to buy into the “bleached teeth and power suit” cliche of the “Wow! Transform Your Life and Get Rich Instantly!” variety.

We’re a movement of connected individuals who DO want to find lasting inner peace and happiness (which is – the way I see it anyway – all enlightenment really is) but who scoff at the idea of the “all-knowing” guru. And we’d rather give the “dolphins and rainbows” aesthetic a miss too, thanks very much.

Choose to Cruise

Example: While there will always be those who worship productivity, and who will run around trying to find systems to leverage their every moment, there is a new movement of those of us who have tried all that shit and have come to the conclusion that it is truly better to just “flow with the Tao”. That doesn’t mean we don’t try and get awesome things done, but it does mean that we don’t invite complexity (even complexity disguised as “simple systems”) into our lives. And we don’t live in a panic, trying to cram so much into our day that we are perpetually stressed out.

Instead we ‘choose to cruise’. We figure out what the few most productive actions we can get done every day are and we Keep It Simple Stupid.

We value the moment. The moment is all we have and we know it. And a moment spent scratching your dog’s ear is no less well spent than a moment spent pummeling away doing the grunt work needed to get something done. I just stopped typing for a moment and looked out the window from my office. My office is a bungalow in my back yard, and my back yard is in the temperate rainforest hills outside of Melbourne, Australia. It’s spring and tiny insects are frolicking, diving and chasing each other through the warm afternoon air. Kookaburras are laughing and there are flowers everywhere.

I may have a to-do list as long as my arm but I’d be a fool not to stop and take all that in.

Sure, we get things done, but if it doesn’t get done on time, it’s not the the end of it the world. Why? Because we have perspective – we are fully aware that we are going to die one day – could be tomorrow even – and once we’re dead, all the glory and money and even the work itself will fade away and become nothing. Even Shakespeare will be a nobody one day and a time will come when Jesus, Mohamed and Buddha are forgotten relics of the past. So the chances of the good work we are doing lasting for ever are nil. Nothing lasts for ever, so why get all bent up out of shape about things?

That’s just one example of what I see as a shifting consciousness amongst those at the ground level of the personal development movement – i.e. the actual people who are developing. It’s not about all those bloody cheeseballs in the Secret DVD, nor is it some “amazing discovery” coming top-down at you from Anthony Robbins or whoever. I mean these people are probably lovely in their own right, but what they represent, or the way they try to sell to us, is off-base and losing relevance fast.

Step Off Dudes

I could go on all night, but I’ve got a lovely family to hang out with and I’m hungry, so I won’t. But if you resonate with what I’ve typed here today, with what is written throughout this blog, and more importantly, with what you are reading and hearing and seeing from other blogs and just from people you meet, then you should know that your time is now.

Our time is now. Let’s do it, in our own laid back way mind you, but let’s do it. Let’s stand up and say to the George Bush’s and Sarah Palin’s of this world “Step off dudes, you’ve got it all wrong.”

And if the Wicketty-Wak Ones question who you are to stand up to them, feel free to say “I’m a Rebel Zen Master, my friend, who are you?”

That’ll give ‘em something to think about

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Hey! Seamus Anthony here…

Well the stock market dorks may be freaking out – but it’s an exciting day here at Rebel Zen, with two great items of news!

1) Free, All-Natural, E-Book Goodness

As you can see to the right, we’ve just released a free 9500 word e-book called “Rebel Zen and the Art of Curly’s Law“.

It’s about an important secret to both worldly and spiritual success that is often overlooked in most personal development material.

It contains a three-part series already published here at Rebel Zen PLUS two articles originally published in the popular Australian holistic magazine “LivingNow” (but not available on their website) PLUS one totally new article never published anywhere.

So even if you’re a regular here, that’s three articles you haven’t read yet and all you need to do to read them is join up for our occasional email newsletter.

And look, we don’t just hate spam, we also hate email listers who bombard you day after day with sales pitches – so don’t worry about that. We’ll just email now and then when we actually have something worthwhile to contribute. Anyway, (for now) we don’t even have anything to sell, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

2) New Rebel Zen Article Published At PickTheBrain.com

The second piece of great news is that I have a new article published and online now over at Pick The Brain. It’s called “How To Leverage Your Regret” and I was going to publish it here early this week but then Peter from PTB asked me to contribute something to his great website so I got all excited and sent that article through straight away.

It’s probably the most personal article I have ever written, and I was almost going to leave it buried on my hard drive because it deals with some really painful moments in my life (and frankly, it doesn’t necessarily paint me in the greatest light). But I figured that it was an article that could really help you to empower yourself so *gulp* hopefully I don’t regret airing my regrets!

Well, that ought to keep you busy; don’t be a stranger now!

Oh – one last thing – we’d LOVE fedback on both the e-book and the PTB article so tell us what you think!

By Steve Mills

Many eastern spiritual texts put forward the idea that you must learn to have a full awareness of your whole self. While our self looks like it is an integrated whole from one level, scratch the surface (via meditation or other methods of self-enquiry) and you will find a whole heap of different parts of your personality, all striving to express themselves. The one that stands out the most initially is the Ego, the self-important, self-centric aspect of our personality . The ego (which is a modern western psychological term I might add) has been given a fairly bad rap in the modern “new age” scene.

image by Swiss Bones

Somewhere along the way, our Western minds have turned this into the ridiculous notion that to be happy you must get rid of, or even completely destroy the ego.

My own personal experience has brought me to a different understanding. I believe that there is no reason to destroy what is essentially a part of yourself. The real power is in learning to integrate this and all of the other interesting and unique parts of your personality into a functioning whole.

People go through life without a second thought to the idea that there are separate parts of their self, which manifest themselves at different times and in different situations. The ego is just one of these parts, the one that thinks that it is separate from the rest of creation, and that IT is the most important thing in the known Universe.

And quite frankly, it is good to have this instinct kick in from time to time. It stops you getting walked all over, gives you the confidence to claim your place in the world and also to create and express yourself. Knowing that YOU are you, what your place in the world is has a profound importance to our whole selves. But it also has a negative side of selfishness, aggressive behavior and helping us justify doing things that may not always work out best for everybody involved.

The image that makes the concepts more tangible for me is the Yin-Yang. Your personality is in constant flux, and each part must be in harmony with the other for balance. The Ego, or separate, selfish self must be brought into balance with your quiet, inner, calm, connected observer self. Let one part express itself too much and you become overbearing, self-important and obtuse. Too much of the other and you become meek, mild and can have no meaningful interaction with the outside world.

Hey, and don’t get too beat up if you find yourself acting like a complete tool from time to time. Seriously, everyone does it!

DYNAMIC balance means that even though you may find yourself at one end of the Ego scale, you have the self awareness to bring yourself down to a centered state at the appropriate time.

Of course it is not as clear cut as all that, and these are only arbitrary labels that we have placed on very strange and complex phenomena. But at least it gives you a framework to get our talking monkey-brains around and be able to see where all of the pieces fit in.

So in order to address this all important balance, here are my top 5 strategies to keep your ego in proportion.

1 Realise your size in proportion to the universe

When it comes down to it, you are a tiny speck on a tiny speck, floating in a vast sea of nothing more giant and unfathomable then you could ever get your head around. The very notion that what you do on a daily basis affects things at the scales that really seem to matter in the universe is wishful thinking gone crazy. As Seamus put it in his excellent “Looking through the wrong end of the telescope“: You. Don’t. Know. Anything. About. Anything.

The liberation and true freedom of insignificance is yours to grasp at any time. When the ego gets up and starts jumping up and down about its importance, just keep this fact in mind to bring it all back to perspective.

2 Realise that you are where you are only through the help of others

The network of other people you build up around you in friends, co-workers, family and neighbors is one of the most fundamental assets in life. Think that you have accomplished so much in your life? Sure, a lot was done by you, but there is no way anyone could get anything done without the help, co-operation and support of people around them. All of life is a team exercise.

3 Understand that everyone is just as important as you

A lot of the ego’s jumping up and down, complaining and self importance is because it believes it is more important than ANYONE else in the world. You know why so many people in traffic jams start getting irate and honking their horns? It is because each of those people think their journey is more important than the person in front of them. Next time you feel the anger and indignation that the ego fires up when it feels like it is being threatened, just remind yourself that everyone, and everything is just as important as you in the universe. No more, and no less.

4 Realise the inherent impermanence in all things

As I stated before in the “Impermanence Top 40“, today’s front page news is tomorrow’s forgotten fact. So many events in our life that the Ego blows up into monumental proportions seem trivial the next day, and are forgotten next week. Nothing lasts forever, and nothing remains in the same state as it is now for even a second. Strive for your goals, and enjoy the journey. But realise that everything is just a castle in the sand, to be washed out to sea by the waves of time.

5 Realise that humour is the true currency of the universe.

Just about anything in life has a funny side to it, when looked at from a certain perspective. The greatest way to disarm the Ego is to see the inherent humour in everything. When we laugh, we see the connectedness of things, the joy in everyday life and realise that the world is not such a serious place after all.

Humour is all about connectedness, it shows us how previously unthought-of concepts are connected in unexpected ways. It connects us to others in the shared experience of having a laugh and goofing off for a while. Next time you find yourself acting from ego, have a laugh.