105 Universal Laws - Part 3

This posting is based on what I have learned from the "105 Universal Laws" seminar on the 28th Jan 2007 in Singapore by Dr Aaron Lim. This seminar comprises a series of lectures conducted one Sunday a month, stretching 6 months. This is the fifth lecture of the series.

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Warning: This posting contains opinions that may be considered unacceptable by some people. If you are easily offended by unconventional views about religion and spiritualism, then DO NOT READ FURTHER THAN HERE. If you do, then do it at your own risk! If you do not agree with the views expressed below, it does not mean that you have not 'arrived', rather it just mean that you 'do not agree'. Meanwhile, try to be open. There are lots to discover about ourselves when we are open. Do feel free to leave comments. BELIEVING IS NOT NECESSARY!

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Universal Laws are there. Some like to call it 'God' and feel more comfortable about it. We like to put things into a 'box' so that we feel comfortable and secure about it. We look at God from our own understanding and behaviour. If one is loving, one has a loving God. If one is angry, one has an angry God. In other words, we create God in our own image, rather than vice versa.

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Putting Life on 'HOLD'

Some people put their life on 'hold'. Putting on 'hold' until they make a million dollars, until the children grow up, until they have finished paying the mortgage for the house...etc. This is living life miserably. Putting life on hold means having no life after the threshold or cross-over line is breached. Once the children grows up, they will leave the house and the parent having put life on 'hold' will find that he/she has no life of his/her own. This is called the Day of Reckoning.

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We plant seeds in our lives unconsciously and reap the fruits unconsciously. When the fruits are sour, then we ask why God doesn't like us. Why did God give me this result? However, it is not that God doesn't like us, it is just the Universal Laws in action. There is nothing personal. Hence those who don't understand seek refuge in religion. However, unless they change, converting to another religion will not change the result. So some go from being an angry Buddhist to being an angry Christian.

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Many people forget that we have a nature that is Love and that Love recognises itself.

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Short Story:

There was an elderly Chinese lady who was once converted to Islam when she was young, for reasons other than belief in the religion. However, that happened long ago, and since she was already 98 years old, those who knew about her conversion to Islam had died and were no longer around to make any difference by then. So literally, nobody living knew she was a Muslim once upon a time.

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This Chinese lady grew up as a practising and pious Buddhist, living a simple life. She did not have much of a formal education and most of her Buddhist knowledge came from other people and hearsay. However, she was one whom most will consider as a good Buddhist.

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Then one day, she suffered a stroke and become bedridden and paralysed. She felt that God was punishing her. There was no way to console her. She felt miserable as now she could not move her body and had to be fully reliant on her children to feed her and wash her. Her Buddhist friends didn't come to help her. She felt lonely.

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Then one of her daughters whom was given away as child to a Catholic family and converted to the religion came to visit her. Her daughter told her mother that she will not go to heaven because she is not 'saved' by Christ, and Buddha and Kuan Yin couldn't help her. She was devastated! After spending her life believing in Kuan Yin and Buddha and doing all the right things, she was now paralysed and was told that she could not go to heaven. It was an awful thought. At that instance, she converted to Catholicism. Besides, the church workers were with her most days to help her. She felt the love, was happy to be saved and that she would go to heaven.

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Then at 98 years old, she had to learn English, as all the prayers were in English. Which makes one wonder because Jesus didn't speak any English. She was also given a new name called 'Maria'. All went reasonably well until when she died, she couldn't be buried next to her family, as she had to be buried in a Christian cemetry.

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So why did she convert to the Catholic religion?

She did it because there was more love amongst the Catholics who took care of her. After being a converted Muslim, then practising Buddhist, she converted to Catholicism because she went to where love is.

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Her husband was a Buddhist/Taoist, but had always admired the simplicity of a Muslim burial, without the loud chimes and gongs of the Chinese traditions. However, he had also wanted to be buried next to his wife (who was a practising Buddhist at that time) and remained a Buddhist.

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So when the wife got buried in a Catholic cemetry, he realised he could not be buried next to his wife, since he was a Buddhist. Still, he resisted converting to Catholicism, but in the end yielded as he wanted to be buried next to his wife. In other words, he too went where love is. He converted to Catholicism because of love.

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The moral of the story is that eventually we are all attracted to where love is (regardless of religion), because love recognises itself.

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Tussle over a dead body

In Malaysia, there was an incident where there was a tussle over a dead body. The dead man was brought up a Hindu. When he died, the family wanted to bury him the Hindu way, but it was claimed that the dead man converted to Islam before his death and the state insisted on burying him the Muslim way. Isn't this silly?

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After 'Death'

It is said that a dead person wouldn't know that he is dead! After death, the dead person's spirit lives and he felt like being in a dream. Similarly, none of us know when exactly we fall asleep every night and when that we are in a state of dream. Just after death, the dead does not know and might wonder why nobody pay heed to his presence. It usually takes about seven days for him to realise that his physical body is dead.

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Then if the dead man's spirit is still attached to the physical world he may choose to hang around the places he is attached to when he was human. If the spirit lingers due to attachment then it will not progress to the next stages where it is supposed to go to.

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The Kingdom of Heaven

It is said that the "Kingdom of Heaven is in Me". How true! But better said, it would be, "The Kingdom of Heaven is ME". Isn't it so, if we stop thinking in Duality. That there is no 'inside me' or 'outside me', but all is ONE?

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Kindness vs Compassion

Kindness reacts to the moment and can't see beyond form. It does not see the spirit and the long term effects on the help he is giving. An act of kindness can sometimes be a result of making someone else happy. It can be due to a co-dependent relationship.

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Compassion sees beyond form. Compassion may even stop to let the person(s) learn his own lesson, which sometimes can be painful. Compassion considers the dignity of a person when it helps that person. For instance, is it good to give two dollars to old people who digs into garbage bins for coke cans at the food courts? Is that an act of kindness (due to pity) or compassion (where we presereve the person's pride of earning his own living)? Taking away the dignity of a person is not compassionate. Compassion looks deeper and further into a person, into his spirit and beyond its form.

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Love Expressed

It is better to live a life that cherishes love than one that is just knowing love. Expressing love is important. There are some who expressed love 100% with no love withheld. Examples are Mother Teresa, Master Chen Yun and an unknown Master in Pakistan. These enlightened beings love everyone beyond their own religion. No love withheld.

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100% Love = God

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Money

It is said that "Money is like manure. If it is not spreaded, it stinks."

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Many people don't trust they will have money, or enough money. However, many of us trust that we will have clean water and rice to eat the next day. All of us trust the process of pregnancy, as we do not cut the womb open to check. We trust that nature will grow the baby in the womb.

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In other words, we have selective trust of nature.

In Asia, most Chinese people are migrants of poor peasants. There is fear of not having enough money and they believe in sheer hard work.

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Care Taker vs Care Giver

Care Givers are people like Mother Teresa. She just cared about the people she served.

Care Taker is a passive controller of other people's life, though with the noble intention of helping other people.

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We must remove ourselves from the dramas of life and let other people figure out their own life, unless they seek us for help.

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When we are stuck in a 'situation', ask ourselves, "What would Love do? What would Jesus, Buddha,...etc) do?

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Think about the stories we repeat in our minds with emotions everyday. Our life is our message. Therefore focus on what makes your life sing!

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Pureland

In the aftermath of a war or global destruction, there will be no more religion, sacred places, etc.

Pureland would be pure if the person has a pure mind. An unpure mind will not feel comfortable in Pureland. In a spiritual mind, all places will be spiritual.

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27. The Law of Faith

Jesus said, "If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains."

The Law of Faith is well demonstrated in nature. Our ears, hair, skin...etc doesn't know the existence of each other. Yet they work together in good faith and the Whole becomes bigger than the sum of its parts.

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Similarly, we are all part of God. God wants to glorify itself through us. Much like we glorify ourselves through our hair, skin, eyes...etc. So if we are not living our lives in a glorious way, then we are not glorifying God.

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Be still and I know I am God. We know that. It is intuition. Intuition is natural to us. It happens before even thinking. So, we can't question intuition. It is there!

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Life without Faith is stressful. Faith and passion propels a person into action without fear.

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We start by:

1. Asking (not begging)

2. Whatever you have asked has already been given!!! It is already there!

3. Receive.

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Funnily, perhaps due to poor backgrounds, some people find it difficult to 'receive'. I remember when I was a kid, my parents will be very hesistant to receive gifts from other people as they knew the givers were poor. As a result, it has become a reflex in us not to accept gifts easily.

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If we don't know how to receive gracefully, we cannot get what we asked for.

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28. The Law of Fixation

Once we fix a point in the Universe (our minds) about something everything will happen in that direction.

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29. The Law of Flexibility

This law involves a pragmatic acceptance of the present moment.

• There is no permancy in this Universe. It is always in a flux.
• Anyyone who is living in the moment is a happy person.

We accept ourselves, others and the current circumstances rather than a rigid resistance of the moment. It requires an alert and expansive state of awareness, and embracing and making constructive use of the moment. Stumbling blocks become stepping stones and problems become opportunities. Everything serves our highest good if we make good use of it.

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30. The Law of Forgiveness

This law works with the energy of allowingness, and seeing all as love, so one may dispense with the unnatural feeling of getting even. The old energy of an eye for an eye keeps the vibrations of a person very low. To forgive, to release old energy, allows the law of grace to intercede and dispense with amounts of karma an individual has stored in his or her akasha. Non-violence is the natural outgrowth of the law of forgiveness and love. All good comes from forgiveness. It is a truth that the continuation of the human species is due to man's being forgiving. Forgivness is holiness (as in one-ness and everything is part of the whole). By forgiveness, the universe is held together. Forgiveness is the might of the mighty; forgiveness is quiet of mind. Forgiveness and gentleness are the qualities of the self possessed and represent eternal virtue.

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We ended the seminar with the song "Amazing Grace", written by John Newton (1725–1807) who was a slave trader. The lyrics are powerful:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that Grace appear,
The hour I first believed!

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Through many dangers, toils and pares,
We have already some;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And Grace will lead me home.(Lead me home!)

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The Lord hast promised good to me,
His word my hope secures!
He will my shield and portion be,
as long as life endures.

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When we've been here ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.

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Previous posts on "105 Universal Laws":

http://jupilier.blogspot.com/2006/12/105-universal-laws-notes-part-2.html

http://jupilier.blogspot.com/2006/10/105-universal-laws.html

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Next seminar

Date: 25 Feb 2007

Time: 9.30am to 5pm

Place: Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Lecture Theatre 1, Singapore

Fee: $30, for meals and drinks

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All Welcome!

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All financial surpluses from the seminar go to the orphanages that Dr Aaron Lim supports.

Babel - The Movie

A moving story surrounding two boys in rural Morroco, whom were handed a newly purchased hunting rifle from their father, to keep the jackals off their mountain goats.

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Amid the boredom sheperding their herd, one of the boys then decided to test how far the rifle can shoot by pointing it at a tour bus far away down the valley. Little did they know at the time that they would end up having shot an American woman in the bus. This shooting tragedy created diplomatic ripples between the American and Morrocan government, distress to the American couple's Mexican nanny and their children in the USA, and the distressed Japanese man who gave the rifle to the Morrocan native as a gift after a hunting trip a few years ago. The dramatic detonation of the sequence of calamities is akin to the flap of the butterfly wings that sets off a storm continents away.

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This movie may be a little stressful for parents watching it as it portrays the mischiefs that children get into during puberty without knowing the dangers lurking. The acting, particularly the Morrocan and Japanese natives was scarily realistic to have made my stomach turned.

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The moral of the story is that one single and seemingly small event or thought can affect many people, without the original thought being aware of the consequences. And the events can occur continents away simultaneously.

Time of Your Life - Days of Future Past

THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE - Days of Future Past!
by Mike George http://www.relax7.com/

20th January, 2007

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Where do you live most of your life? Where do go most frequently? The answer to both questions is the same. The past and the future. Sit down at the end of the day and review your day, and you will find around 80% (probably more) of your attention in the form of your conversations with others and with yourself went into the past or future. When you inhabit the past or future, in conversation or thought, it means you are not fully present in the moment. And when you miss the moment you miss your life because life can only be fully lived in this moment, in the now.

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The past and the future are stressful places to live. Repeatedly thinking about the past means there is either something incomplete or some regret or hurt that is being replayed mentally. Replaying it is like trying to change it. "I wish it hadn't happened… it should never have been like this… I shouldn't have said that". These are thoughts that indicate you are attempting the impossible – which is to change what can never be changed. You are trying to make the unreal real…again! This is a task that not only drains your energy, but is doomed to failure. And each failure chips away at your self-esteem. But most are not aware of this mental folly.

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Occasionally, you may switch your attention to the future. Then, if you are not careful, if you are not 'aware', you draw on the past and project it into the future. And then you are surprised that the future turns out just like the past! "I just can't see it working... it has always happened that way...we always argue". Are just a few past experiences that provide raw materials for the creation of the future. Past and future are stress filled dimensions. Sadness and anger always lie in the past, while fear and hopelessness lie in the future. Whenever you think of past and future you are unaware that you simply keep recreating these emotions over and over again in the 'now'. More than likely you are blaming the event or the person for what you felt then, and again for feeling what you feel now! This is why so many live lives of quiet desperation. And when the unhappiness of this self inflicted suffering reaches a certain level you may notice yourself escape into some physical stimulation - a movie, a relationship, a substance or perhaps just some food in order to relieve or distract from the suffering.

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The solution is learning to fully 'let go' of yesterday, and to 'let be' what will be tomorrow, and live in the present moment. This takes practice. When you are fully in the present moment you are free of all stressful emotions. Only in the present moment can you be truly at peace with yourself and with the world. In the present moment you are still, even while you are doing whatever you are doing. In the present moment, when you are free of past and future, you have no regrets, no worries and no desires. Whenever your think regret, worry or desire it blocks and distorts your heart. You stop flowing into your life. As you learn to live fully in the present moment these blockages to your heart, your spiritual heart, are quietly dissolved. Only then can your love arise and emerge into the world. Only then can you heal the habits of

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.a) the judgements (past) that kill your serenity

.b) the prejudices (past) that kill your compassion and

.c) the fear (future) that kills your integrity.
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When you live in the moment it is not an avoidance of the future or a denial of the past. It is not an avoidance of responsibility. In fact it is our first responsibility to be fully present in the moment when we are with others. Only then can we fully hear them, be fully with them and completely care about them. In present moment awareness the true meaning of care is restored and the false meaning, which most if us now carry i.e. worry, is discarded. Worry is not care. Worry is an escape to an fictional future and an avoidance of now. It is a selfish concern for how we may feel if the worst should happen. It also satisfies an addiction to fearfulness! You have a life time to spend the time of your life, and while you cannot lose any of that time, every time you drift or escape into past or future in your mind it is as if the time spent there is lost time. It's also tiring, feels draining and deep down in your heart of hearts it's as if you know you are wasting your time. But it's just a habit. And all habits can be changed.

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That's not to say you shouldn't value what happened in the past. You have a memory full of experiences. It's like a filing cabinet. Go there occasionally when you need to draw on the stored information. But don't live there. If you do, then it's like going to the office and spending the day in the filing cabinet! Clean out your filing cabinet regularly! Moreover it is not to say you should not make plans for the future. Aims and goals are good, some planning essential. But only enough to give coherent focus to your mental energy, and only when your aims and goals are connected to a clear sense of purpose and values. When your goals are not derived from your purpose and values they tend to turn into selfish desires. And that's when fear and absence enter again – fear of not getting what you want and absence from the moment now.

As you can see the dimension of this physical world has three dimensions built in (length, breadth and height). So too the fourth dimension, which is time, has three dimensions built in – the past, present and future. While we are all dwellers of the fourth dimension we need to be careful we don't fall asleep at the wheel and drift into the past or into dreams of imagined futures. The past is a trap, and while the future needs a map, we need to be fully in the present now to both create and take the right next step. One step at a time. Only then is nothing lost. Only then is nothing missed.

SELF ANALYSIS:

Question: What do you think about most that is in the past and why do you think that is?

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Reflection: Where attention goes energy flows and where energy flows things grow and where things grow the future will show.

Action: Practice for five minutes, three times a day, sitting quietly in the present moment. Pick something outside or inside ( e.g. your breathing) to focus your attention upon. Concentrate gently not forcefully, and watch how your awareness fills the present moment. Practice makes perfect. The practice also empowers.

Energy Exercises 2

I have been doing the Energy Exercises everyday. It takes only about twenty minutes every morning. Realised that my chronic neck pains and skin irritations are gradually disappearing. I will be joining the Energy Camp on this weekend (3-4 Feb 2007) at Pulau Ubin, Singapore. I will let you know how it is after I have attended the camp.

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Drop me an email if you are interested to attend this camp.

Sound of Peace

Sounds of Peace performed by David and Carmen, is a night of sounds from singing brass bowls, chimes and tamborine organised by the Brahma Kumaris, at the Alliance Francaise Theatrette in Singapore. The coordinated sound from these instruments was very soothing and I left the place feeling very peaceful.

Music samples:

Spirit

Calm

Revisit

Waiting room in Rosendaal Station, Holland - January 2007

This picture somehow gives me some serenity. It is taken in an attempt to look at ordinary places as if it was my first time. Try it! You will be amazed with the serenity that surrounds you.

Time of Your Life

A friend of mine, emailed me this inspiring article, which I would like to share with you all:


THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

by Mike George - www.relax7.com

In some parts of the world there is famine. But it's not a shortage of food. It's a shortage of time. You can tell people are starving when they keep saying, "I don't have enough time or I have too much to do or I'm just too busy".

Time pressure comes when we try to do more in less time than it would take if we did not create the need to hurry! Time pressure comes when we perceive there is too much to do in a given time. But it's just a perception. The feeling of time pressure is always entirely the result of our own perception.

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'Time famine' usually occurs in the so called 'developed' countries where speed is now God. And that's why by far the most popular workshop/course/seminar in those countries is... yes, you guessed, Time Management! But few realise that time management is an oxymoron. Time cannot be managed. Time shows up only to pass by. Time passes and never stops passing. The one thing in this world that never stops, and can never be stopped, is the flow of time.

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Once upon a time, sometime in the past, there was a young and brilliant carpenter. One day he built the most exquisite box. On the box he painted the most beautiful face and two perfect arms. That night, at around midnight, he went into the forests, high the mountains, and he whispered to TIME saying, "If you enter this box I promise you will control almost all human beings on this earth". After a moments hesitation TIME replied, "Are you sure?" To which the carpenter replied, "Absolutely certain. They will think they are controlling you, but it will be you that controls them. It's perfect". And so TIME accepted his offer and entered the box. The young carpenter returned down the mountain to his home and placed the box in the middle of high shelf so that all could see its face. And he called that box a clock.

It would not be long before the clock was mistaken for TIME itself and everyone would look at the clock for guidance. Every time we think about time we tend to look at a clock somewhere. We organise our life around periods and moments in clock time. We don't realise we look only at a machine, that we are surrendering to a false concept of time. The clock is not time, it is simply our way of attempting to measure our experience of the space between two events.

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So off we go on our Event Management workshop disguised as a Time Management workshop, and because 'management' implies control the first question is how do we control events? It\'s not long before the realisation dawns that you don't! In fact you cannot control anything more than three and half feet away from you! And besides, most events are other people! And that is the one thing you can never control ever. Unfortunately many, if not most, people beg to differ and live most of their lives believing, albeit subconsciously, that they can control what they cannot control i.e. other people. Little do they realise that is where most of their stress comes from.

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When you do realise that your stress is coming from your attempts to control what you cannot control, you realise that Event Management is really Stress Management. Actually stress management is another of those oxymorons. Whenever you are stressed you are not managing anything, the stress is managing you. If, by good fortune, you encounter a good stress management teacher in a world now saturated with stress management teachers, you will learn a) there is no such thing as positive stress and b) all your stress is entirely self-created, always! Which means Stress Management is really Self Management. It\'s not the other person or the event that causes your stress, it's your response that contains the stress. This can be a life changing insight for most people, as it appears that around 99% of us have been taught the opposite i.e. that we are victims of other people and the circumstances we find ourselves in.

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Slowly, if not suddenly, it dawns that prevention and freedom from stress requires deep changes to the way you respond to life as it happens around you. That means Self Management is really Change Management. Not changing anyone else, or anything else, except your self. And that means challenging your beliefs so that you can choose different perceptions in order to change your thinking, as all stress at a mental level is just negative thinking. Which means the workshop is not something that you attend 'out there' but something that you create and attend almost entirely within your own consciousness.

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And yet, even when you realise the need to change your responses, and the inner work you need to do, there will be one final, and sometimes fatal, barrier to you attending your own inner workshop. And it's that voice, sometimes faint, sometimes loud, that says, "But I just don't have the time!" This is the voice of 'urgent avoidance'. Behind the voice is the fear of facing what is most important.

And so we come full circle. Time Management IS Event Management IS Stress Management IS Self Management IS Change Management. And it will always take some time! Unless of course you learn to live outside of time, and then you don't need to change anything at all.
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SELF ANALYSIS

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Question:

Why do you think so many people find it so difficult to understand and manage their time?

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Reflection: Time is life and life is time and you have a lifetime. But are you having the time of your life or is someone else having the time of YOUR life?

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Action: Write down the ten most important things in your life. Prioritise them. Then decide what you will do to affirm their importance.

If you would like to subscribe to the weekly Clear Thinking send your email address to mike@relax7.com

Kids Play

Story 1:

This story is set in the background of a scandal involving the poultry industry - where chicken feed was wilfully contaminated with dioxines in Europe. A mother was shopping in the supermarket with her chatty 4 year old son. Taking the opportunity to educate her son, she took each item to ask him what he thought about the item and whether they should buy them.

Mother (takes a chicken): Should we take this?

Boy (jaw dropped astonished): No, it has dioxines.

Mother (smiles smugly and satisfied): Good

Mother (takes some chocolates): How about these?

Son: Yes, but not too much.

Mother happy and amused with her son's wisdom, nodded her head in approval.

Mother (takes some apples): How about apples?

Son (now really astonished with big eyes): No!!!!! God said "Cannot". :)

Story 2:

Mother is tutoring her nine year old son at home to prepare him for the next day's test, and came across, "La bise", which means in French, cold and dry northerly winds.

When the mother explained to her son. The son was furious! He disagreed with the meaning of the word.

The boy exclaimed, "It's wrong! The wind is not dry at all. I have felt it before, it is wet too!"

Then the mother said, "Yes, but this is a definition of La Bise, it is not up to you to say it's wrong".

The boy insisted, "Yes, it is wrong!"

Mother: "Look you have to learn this properly otherwise you are going to get it wrong for your test tomorrow."

Son: "No, I refuse to study."

Mother (insistent): "Yes, you should study"

Son (shouting): "But, what's the point of studying when what they say is all wrong?"

Mother: "There are 6 billion people around the world and they agree with this definition."

Son: "Yes, but all of them are wrong!!!!!"

At this point, the mother is dumbfounded and burst out laughing!

Selling Fear

It is difficult to sell security services. When there is a breach of security, the security man is blamed. When there are no breaches of security, the security man is seen to be a waste of time and money.

It is even more difficult to sell information security services, as we cannot see many of the services rendered. They are mostly management processes, and computer and network settings.

Many information security service salemen sell by emphasizing the dangers of cyberspace. In other words, selling FEAR.

Selling FEAR is not a pleasant experience, as nobody likes to feel fearful. In fact, FEAR is the mere absence of LOVE. That is to say, when one experiences the absence of LOVE, one FEARs. :)

I prefer to sell benefits. We can only benefit from the information age, only if our information is secure. That is plain and simple.

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Now do you feel better already? Better than someone selling you the awful thought of your information system crashing down and the conspiracy of the whole world lurking in the dark to victimise you? :)