Best Practice writer's blog

I have an exercise. First, I try to imagine the moment when Moses met God on Mount Sinai, as described to me by a friend in the clergy. He told me of one interpretation of that moment: There was an instant when God's back was turned, and as he passed in front of Moses, just for a moment, Moses saw the world through God's eyes.

Then I try to see the world through God's eyes - the eyes of a being that is loving, compassionate, and caring.Through these eyes, I look at my family and feel compassion for them. Then I feel my heart expand. And if I can keep looking through those eyes of love and compassion, perhaps I can see the world and all its people as God sees them. And, finally, I try to see myself through the eyes of that loving, compassionate God.

As a matter of fact, sometimes in the morning when I wake up, I look at myself in the mirror and make compassionate eye contact. Sometimes I see an old friend, other times I'm sad and moved to tears. But it always feels intimate.

Daniel Gottlieb
From his new book
Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving, and Listening
Sterling Publishing (March 2008, $17.95)

I don't think that you have to get all your inner stuff together and totally integrated before you can actually be what you've realized. You're going to wait forever if you wait for that. Just start being what you know now.

That's a scary thing for people, because all of a sudden we come out of hiding -- and then everything comes out of hiding. Even for people who've had an authentic awakening and realized the truth, it can be scary. Maybe they've had a relationship that really hasn't had truth in it. There are a lot of things that have not been discussed and those things we've pushed away into the corners. Now we have an awakening and those things we've pushed into the corners are just glaring at us. Are we going to keep pushing them into corners? If you keep pretending that things aren't out there that you know are there, you'll slip right out of your awakened state.

It might be frightening to totally come out of hiding, because who knows what's going to happen now? Am I going to  keep my relationship? Am I going to keep my job? Are my friends going to like me? There will be certain areas where it feels very risky, like there's quite a lot at stake. But there must be an absolute willingness to be totally truthful with yourself and with everybody.

Adyashanti

Excerpted from
Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life
by Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Cassandra Vieten, Tina Amorok
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Jan. 2008, $16.95

If you have painful thoughts or beliefs, try this practice to turn them around.

Ask yourself four simple questions about the painful belief or thought:

1. Is it true?

2. Can you absolutely know it is true?

3. How do you react when you believe that thought?

4. Who would you be without the thought?

Then apply a "turnaround" statement, a sentence expressing the reverse of your thought or belief.

For each turnaround, find three genuine examples of how the turnaround is true in your life. This is not about blaming yourself or feeling guilty. It's about discovering alternatives that can bring you peace.

When you believe your negative thoughts, you suffer. Turn them around, and the suffering and pain disappears.

Adapted from Happy for No Reason: Seven Steps to Being Happy From the Inside Out by Marci Shimoff, Free Press, Jan. 2008, $24.95.