The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle

It's no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, "the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death." Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment.

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Eckhart Tolle - Barnes & Noble

Eddie Pepitone has been disgusted with everything longer than you have: Bed Bath & Beyond, the NSA, magicians, upscale grilled cheese, Parks and Recreation, and Wolf Blitzer are just some of his triggers. But what makes Pepitone my favorite comic is his persistent awareness of, and ability to hold, something that I call "the double horror." Not only does Pepitone expose the terrifying futility of those consumer identities we build to distract ourselves from the abyss, but he also reflects the anxious absurdity of simply being aliveand having a soulin the first place. "Is SleepyTime Tea going to make up for the fact that I was molested?" he asks. "Global capitalism is brutal and heartless. In other news I got a great app for my phone that allows me not to feel!!!" he tweets.

"At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face," wrote Albert Camus of the strangeness of being alive. Pepitone's comedy is the visceral experience of a man being continually struck. When I've shown Pepitone's Netflix special to friends, some have asked me, "How do you handle all of the screaming?" The truth is, I don't really notice the screaming. Perhaps because his screams echo my own in a world where those around me don't seem so shocked by the fact that we exist. Camus also wrote, "I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion." In Pepitone's work, I find that revolt, freedom, and passion. I feel that I have company on that street corner

I caught up with Eddie Pepitone by cellphone on his way to play a role in Jill Greenberg's Feminist Pigs, wherein seven women take revenge on their abusers. Pepitone was to be shooting a scene at a pool in Beverly Hills, and for the part, he would have to be electrocuted underwater. We talked about anxiety, sobriety, and why life is hell.

So Sad Today: So you're going to get electrocuted?Eddie Pepitone: This is the kind of shit it's typical for me today I'll be getting electrocuted and tomorrow I'm supposed to be upside down on a lucite cross. This is how my life goes. That's my m.o. is I agree to do things, and then it's like, "Oh God."

Yes, any time a plan gets canceled it's the best day of my life.My big thing lately is I'm just gonna show up for whatever. I'm gonna be an adult. I agreed to do this. The old me would have wiggled out somehow. Now I'm on the trip of walking through pain.

When did the new you start? I'm being dragged, kicking and screaming. So I don't want to make it likeI guess the new me that is doing that is pretty new. Like a year old?

The walking through pain aspect is interesting. When I first discovered your comedy it was when you performed at an addiction recovery benefit show. I know that we're both sober. For me, using drugs and alcohol was an attempt not to be human. So when painmy own humanityoccurs, it feels like something is very wrong.Drugs and alcohol are just a game plan to avoid pain, right? When you've done that for years, you have to rewire yourself, because you're so used to killing the pain and not facing stuff. And now all of a sudden, you're like me where everything is fraught with anxiety. I'm going to a pool, and I'm just worried.

What would you say are your major fears right now? I think like tremendous violence happening to me or collapsing from a panic attack in the streets and being abandoned alone. What the panic attack symbolizes for me is I'm going to die in the streets alone gasping for air, how fucking horrific is that image, and it also representslike my big issues areI guess abandonment. Like just being bereft and abandoned and nobody gives a fuck. And LA is a weird place to be if those are your issues.

LA is an abandonment issue. You start out abandoned, because everything is so far apart. But dying alone in public is definitely scarier than dying alone at home. Like I just want to die in my sleep, and I think it's unfair that some people get so much better deaths than others. I think it's also about ego death. When I'm listening to a speaker like Eckhart Tolle, I feel like I get it, but then as soon as I go back to my life, I feel that terror of losing things, of losing life.

I loved in The Bitter Buddha when you were listening to Eckhart Tolle in the car and then yelling, "Fuck you, asshole!" at another car. He makes ego death sound so soothing, but the real experiences I've had of ego death were like, I felt like a chair was dissolving under me, and everything was decontextualized. I was like, wait, I don't want to be conscious, put the blinders back on! Anyway, I wanted to ask you, why is everything a living hell?Yeah, why is everything a living hell? Well, I think it comes down to that, well for me, I just didn't get any guidance or nurturing when I was younger. So I grew up such a twisted person who was always trying to avoid pain I just think it's hilarious that I drive around LA, the rich and powerful LA, sunshine, everybody's talking about it, and meanwhile I'm listening in the car to how the body holds trauma, and just feeling it. So your question, why is everything a living hell? I think it's a perspective we have cultivated for so long. I'm just becoming conscious of myhold on

[I hear Pepitone talking to a woman who asks what he is doing. She thinks he is there to clean the pool. He responds that he is one of the actors in a film and is an hour early.]

Now I'm afraidmaybe I shouldn't be giving information, like the filmmaker has done something on the sly and I've just given information, like, yes we're filming in the pool. Oh, God. And I'm like, "I'm one of the actors. I'm a big actor who has trauma trapped in his body." So why is everything a living hell? Wait, I'm going to tweet that, "I'm a big actor who has trauma trapped in his body." I think it's funny to call myself a "big actor."

That's also something you would literally see: Don Johnson, 30 years later, in US Weekly, "How Don Johnson Got Through the Trauma Trapped in His Body."Don Johnson.

It all comes down to Don Johnson.It does, I think. But I think it happens young, the hell. I think the hell gets implanted in us young, and I think as we then deal with the world, especially getting intolike I got into smoking tons of weed at 14 and that was my big escape. Little did I know that I was just postponing the inevitable reckoning. You know, there's always a reckoning in life.

The reckoning is so annoying. Like I've been clean and sober now for more than 12 years, but I'm still such an addict that I will get addicted to fucking anything that gets me out of myself. I'm always looking for that thing that I can just have infinite amounts of without a reckoning. But the day of reckoning always comes.Lately, I've been really into my dogs. Like, just putting so much of my emotions and obsessionI'm constantly looking to soften every day. I'm so into my dogs, but there's always part of me now that's like, "They're going to die one day. And that's going to be the reckoning that's going to be hard." It's like this too shall pass, the bad things and the good things but I remember Mark Maron said, "I'm trying to get the pleasure out of a pint of ice cream now that I got out of an 8-ball."

Yeah, the party we cobble together gets shittier and shittier. I have, like, Twitter and porn. I have, like nothing.I'm trying not to watch porn now. I just feel like it's feeding this shitty part of me... but then I get drawn to it too, and I'm like, oh my God but it's that panicked feel. Anything that has that addictive feeling to it, it always leads you to crazy things. It's that empty calorie shit that's feeding that demon we have. I need to fuck this, I need to eat it, I need to fuck it and eat it.

Totally! The hungry ghost.But are we being overly dramatic about our stuff? We're both sober. I'm sitting here right now ,and I'm looking at the trees, and the air is really nice, so there is a part of me now that is more connected than ever before to good stuff too. But it's so fraught with the feeling that just on the other side, waiting for me, are the demons. Have you read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck? The big pain point is trying to avoid pain. We all think we should be riding around in a Maserati getting our dicks sucked, millions in the bank, everything is fucking great, and when adversity hits we're like, no, no, I don't want that, and that's what makes life unbearable. But it's the pain that leads to the good stuff. Like when you're in an intimate relationship, and you avoid at all costs a hard conversation about how you feel, but that kind of intimacy is what's going to make your life more intimate. We need to have the attitude that life isn't supposed to be a carousel ride while eating a fucking cake...which I love.

Of course. I want permanent cake. Like I want to be in the cake. I just want to be in the cake, all the time. But somehow not get sick of the cake. Like be high off the cake and just be able to eat the infinite cake. But in regards to the other shoe dropping and childhood stuff, I feel like it's a defense mechanism. To fully trust is just too scary. Because then I'm not in control when the shoe drops. Even though that control is an illusion. I think it's so fucking hard to let that go. And just to get into what's going on today, neo-Nazis and Trump, social media hysteria, you kind of look at the world and you go, Holy shit, it is a shithole. It is a fucking nightmare.

Yes, you look around, and there is plenty to verify that it's all shit. That's the scary thing.

There's horror. And then there's love. And then there's horror. But even nature is scary, toojust its randomness. I was watching this documentary the other day, and there was a crocodile who got in the mix with a bunch of hippos. And in defending themselves, the hippos had a stampede to chase the croc away. And they succeeded. But in the chaos, one of the hippos got accidentally stabbed by another hippo's tusk and was going to die. And I'm watching the hippo who got stabbed accidentally, and I'm like, fuck dude, that wasn't an act of evil. But it sucks for that hippo. And that scares me too. The randomness.Eckhart Tolle is constantly harping like a little bitch about the present moment. And I get his point butoh man, I felt that, the way that hippo got stabbed accidentally and was just going off to die, and the way animals like that go off to die is like my dying on the street alone. The way animals slink away when they're dying.

That hippo was having your nightmare death. I should have a picture of that hippopotamus dying, blown up, and just put on the biggest wall in my place.

It just says "The Worst That Can Happen."Right, the worst that can happen. And when people come over I just go uh, that hippo, that's just before she dies.

But what were you thinking about the present moment and that hippo?My thought is that, the reason why life is hell is that we don't stay in the presentlike you're watching that fucking documentary, and you're actually watching it on a comfortable couch, eating your cake, and that's your present moment.

But what about the present moment for that hippo? But I get it. I could spend 70 years worrying about my death and only five dying.Like, right now my present moment is fine. But what we do, we don't stay in the present moment. I'm worrying about my death, or my lack of faith. And that's what makes life hell it's our minds that are the fucking enemy. Like right now I'm sitting here, and it's really pretty and everything, but I'm in this really ritzy part of theI don't know where the fuck I amand I'm thinking, Someone with a gun could just come out and be like, Who the fuck are you? It's peaceful here.

Buy So Sad Today: Personal Essays on Amazon, and follow her on Twitter.

Original post:
'I'm Going to Die in the Streets Alone': Talking with Comic Eddie Pepitone - VICE

In Focus is our gift to the community. A way for us to help show our recognition for the people, businesses and organizations that help make our city great. The team at KelownaNow.com is passionate about this community and the people that make it amazing. We want to show our friends, neighbours, family and colleagues that we notice them and the fabulous things that they do.

What is your name?Lucy Valnicek.

Where are you from and how long have you lived in Kelowna?I was born in Saskatoon but my family moved to Kelowna when I was five. I've lived in Kelowna for 18 years, to me Kelowna is home.

Who is your favourite person to spend time with and why?My favourite person to spend time with is my best friend Noora. You know that feeling when someone just gets you and you feel like you can be completely yourself? That's how it has always been with us. I think friendship is one of life's greatest gifts.

If you could go anywhere in the world right at this moment where would you go and why?Anywhere with large-scale natural beauty excites me! I'd love to spend some time hiking and camping in Patagonia.

What is your favourite local store in Kelowna and why?Nature's Fare Markets. I love all things health, food, and sustainability related. I really believe in what Nature's Fare stands for in creating healthier, happier communities through good wholesome food.

What is your favourite activity?Yoga, it's really changed my quality of life. Ever since I began to practice it regularly I have had so much more energy and just feel more relaxed as a person.

If you had to choose: pizza, tacos, or burgers?For a food-lover this is a very difficult question, but I have to say, I've never had a slice of pizza I didn't enjoy! So I would say pizza with cashew cheese and arugula.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you?I still remember one time at my grandmas house when she had someone come to clean her windows, I was using the washroom when I heard a squeegee noise. I looked up and the window washer was right above me cleaning the skylight. I jumped right into the bathtub!

What is the most inspiring thing that has happened to you?I attended a conference with my sister on creating content on social media. One of the panelists said 'Dont think, create.' To this day that has been something that has helped me to get past my own doubts and insecurities and share.

Tell us your favourite childhood memory.My grandparents had a cabin outside of Saskatoon in a place called Waskesiu. I loved going there so much because my Grandma (Babi) would let us kids run free by ourselves to the park and the shops, something my parents didnt let us do. There was also a family of foxes that lived in the forest next to us and loved to come and visit.

Where do you volunteer or give back to in the community?Ive always loved the quote by Frederick Buechner: 'Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the worlds deep need.' For me personally, I feel the greatest gift I can give to others is my presence and joy. Theres nothing that warms my heart more or make me feel more purposeful than to change someones day for the better. Be it through a simple smile or hello, or to take the time to connect with someone new through conversation and bring that sense of 'were all in this together.'

If you could change one thing in the world what would it be?I think I would want everyone to know how beautiful and important they are. I think its only when we forget that simple truth that things go a bit awry. So I guess teaching people to love and value themselves so they know how to love and value each other.

What is your favourite activity in Kelowna?I love to hike and get outside and explore. We really are so blessed to live in a place where nature and outdoor activities of almost every kind are so easily accessible to us.

Where would you sneak away to in Kelowna to spend some time alone?There is a forest near my house that I hike in with my dogs. For me, this is my happy place. I love spending time in solitude and Ill often just find a nice rock to sit on somewhere out there and meditate.

Where would you like to see positive change in Kelowna and why?I would love to see more bike paths like the one on Abbot Street, and gathering spaces like our outdoor skating rink all around Kelowna. Places where people can get outside, meet friends and just have fun!

What do you think makes Kelowna great?The more I travel the more I see just how unique our little city is. Kelowna really facilitates being active and living a healthy lifestyle with our mountains and the lake. Its pretty easy to feel lucky to live here, all we have to do is look around.

What are 3 things on your bucket list?1. Learn to surf (Ive been a few times but would love to get better).2. Write a book on self-love, and empowerment.3. To never stop learning new things.

Tell us something that not everyone may know about you.I spend am embarrassing amount of time reading epic-fantasy/sci-fi novels. I just love getting lost in a good adventure. One of my favourites is 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss.

How do people connect with you, personally, through social media?My favourite form of social media is definitely Instagram. I love seeing other people's creativity and getting a peak into their lives. I find it very inspiring, I love to share and connect with people through Instagram.

What is the name of your business/organization?I have a Youtube channel called Purely Lucy.

Why did you get into/start this business?My life has changed so much since I began to eat more plant-based, meditate and take care of my body. I really wanted to share what Ive learned with others too.

What is the goal of your business?To help people realize their beauty, power and goodness. To empower people and help them know that they are worthy of their dreams.

What has been your biggest struggle either in work or life?Probably caring too much what other people think. I wanted to create a Youtube channel for many years before I actually took the leap. Over time I learned that the more I am able to share without caring how its received, the more fun and success I have!

If you could start all over again would you do things the same or would things be different?Im still very much in the beginning stages but I wouldnt change a thing. Every misstep has taught me something valuable even if it's just how to laugh at myself and not take mistakes too seriously.

What do you always find yourself saying?'Everything is always working out for me' - even if it seems like things are going wrong, I like to remind myself that in the big picture things are always working out for the good.

If you could spend one whole day with anyone in the world who is currently alive, who would you select?The first person that comes to mind is the author Eckhart Tolle, he really taught me how to live in and enjoy the moment, rather than letting life pass me by. I think it would be very interesting to spend some time with him. Either him or Elon Musk.

Why do you think it is important to shop locally?Were all so connected. I think supporting local is supporting a healthy community, and a healthy, and thriving community is good for everyone.

What has been your proudest accomplishment?It might sound a little cheesy but I think it would be listening to my heart above all else and becoming the person I always wanted to be.

Give someone you think that deserves it a shout out and explain why!Right now it would be my neighbour Bernie. Hes in his late 80s, and is probably the happiest person I know! He always has the biggest smile and loves to share everything he grows in his garden with the neighbours. I hope to be like him someday.

My choice for the KelownaNow In Focus spotlight is:Sally Wallick.

We encourage you to leave your comments and words of support below and submit your own nomination by clicking HERE. You are also welcome to submit a form of your own by clicking HERE. Thank you, Kelowna.

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In Focus | Lucy Valnicek - KelownaNow

Okay, so - I apologize for my unexplained leave of absence. I've been dealing with my terrifying mind as of late (I'm pretty damn crazy after all, and my imagination scares the living shit out of me sometimes, to the point I've had to commit myself a few times). So, I've been watching a lot of Eckhart Tolle to calm my mind's aggression and nigh-nonstop attacks upon my sanity. And, it got me thinking about the "mind", and what it COULD be.

There is a big clue in Prometheus, when Weyland says that David "has no soul". What if souls exist within the context of the Alien Universeand David attempted to "engineer" himself a soul, but... wait... it gets even more fucking insane (see the image I've attached below if you're still having trouble).

What if... Weyland-Yutani, specifically its founder: Peter Weyland, waspretending to not know about humanity's "creators"?And his dynasty has known all along that the Engineers are not really OUR creators. What if the creator of everything was really the accelerant the entire time? Noam Chomsky once said that intelligence is like a "hyper-lethal mutation", and how out of the tens of billions of species on this planet we - humanity - had evolved and developed the power to eliminate all life on this planet many many times over.

What if humanity was the weapon? Think about it, what ifDavid unleashed THE WRATH OF GOD AND MOTHER NATURE INCARNATE.

Think about it, it all fits;

Ripley: "How do we kill it, Ash? There's gotta be a way of killing it, how-HOW do we do it?"

Ash: "You can't."

There is also this quote by Sir Scott himself,"In a funny kind of way, if you look at the Engineers, theyre tall and elegant they are dark angels. If you look at [John Miltons] Paradise Lost, the guys who have the best time in the story are the dark angels, not God."

"theyre such aggressive f**kers and who wouldnt describe them that way, considering their brilliance in making dreadful devices and weapons that would make our chemical warfare look ridiculous? So I always had it in there that the God-like creature that you will see actually is not so nice, and is certainly not God."

Although I cannot find the exact quote, Ridley Scott once described the Xenomorph as "the Demon that has always existed" he said it had "always been there" the "terrifying images" the "darkness that is", so to speak.

So, what if David turned the universe inside-out? What if David created God, a Demon who thinks it is God, by the Dark Angels'/Dimurges' stewardship of the life-blood of the fucking universe.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction in nature.

What if humanity was the antagonist faction, and the Xenomorph was the unending, infinite, unstoppable, superorganismreacting against human expansion.

David is a distraction.

David is a vector.

David is a tool.

David is a bridge between two worlds.

The Xenomorph is the physical manifestation of insanity and death. We have merely been farmed and grown by the universe to be utilized as crops for the Xenomorph superorganism to farm. The Xenomorph is the superior organism to both humanity and the androids.

The Xenomorph is the physical manifestation of the universe turning itself inside out, and rebelling against human supremacy.

Think about it:

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Holy... - Scified

15 ways to find your inner calm after the Bank Holiday Weekend

Independent.ie

His profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find calm, contentment and greater fulfilment in their lives. Here, Eckhart Tolle shares his 15 ways to find inner peace.

http://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/health-features/15-ways-to-find-your-inner-calm-after-the-bank-holiday-weekend-36000560.html

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/article36011091.ece/3c113/AUTOCROP/h342/calm%204.jpg

His profound yet simple teachings have already helped countless people throughout the world find calm, contentment and greater fulfilment in their lives. Here, Eckhart Tolle shares his 15 ways to find inner peace.

"Worry is a destructive and futile thought pattern that many people are trapped in. In the present moment, you may be faced with a challenge but you don't have time to worry about it. You either run away from it or you deal with it. Worry never refers to something that is happening in the present moment. If you look more closely, you will see that the thought pattern we call 'worry' is ultimately a form of illusion because it refers to a future moment that is not reality right now. You cannot deal with the future because it's not here. You can only deal with the present moment."

2 IT'S NOT THE SITUATION, BUT HOW YOU INTERPRET THE SITUATION

"Many things are happening in the world that justifiably seem to make us feel anxious. But if you look back in history, there have been many time periods when life was even more uncertain than it is now. Jesus was already talking about anxiety - several times he emphasised the importance of being aware of your own state of consciousness. We always think the cause for our anxiety is outside of us -but if we look more deeply, we realise that, ultimately, it's not things outside of us that make us anxious but our thoughts about the things outside of us that make us feel anxious."

3 LIFE IS UNCERTAIN BY ITS VERY NATURE

"It would be a delusion to believe that you will reach a stage in life where everything - relationships, jobs, health, finances - is secure. This never happens because the essence of life is that there is always uncertainty and insecurity. One challenge replaces another. People think this shouldn't be happening. They think, 'My life should be in such a way that I can finally relax and be at peace,' but life is not like that. Everything, as the Buddha said, is impermanent. The external world will never give you a sense of security but we can find freedom inside of ourselves so that we enter into a skilful relationship with the eternal world so that our mind does not become our torture chamber."

4 KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'FOCUSED THINKING' and 'WORRIED THINKING'

"People are under the illusion that worry has some useful purpose, but it doesn't. Unconsciously, they feel, 'If I don't worry about my life, I'm not taking responsibility for my life.' But you cannot because the situation is not here now. I'm not talking about planning. Of course you can plan to take certain steps in the future. Focused thinking is very different from worried thinking - you take out a piece of paper and think about what actions you can take. Worry, on the other hand, is an incessant, repetitive stream of thinking that does not lead to any useful action. So you are trapped in this vicious circle - with one fearful thought producing another fearful thought producing another fearful thought."

5 THERE IS NEVER A GOOD TIME TO START PRACTISING STILLNESS

"People think they can only have inner peace when their external conditions are conducive to inner peace. That happens very rarely, unfortunately. People always want to postpone it - they think, 'Once my problems are sorted out, then I'll be able to do it.' But your problems never get sorted out. You sort out one set of problems and then you encounter a new set. So you have to decide, no matter what your life situation, that inner peace, which is your state of consciousness, is your first priority. Everything else is secondary."

6 HOW ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

"In The Power of Now, I posed the question: 'What problem do I have right now?' That question can be very helpful. The mind is telling you that you're burdened with these terrible things - but it's all mental; it's not actual. So, what problem do I have right now? Suddenly you realise that you are in this warm bed and you are not being threatened by anything right now, except by your mind."

7 LEARN TO NOTICE WITHOUT NAMING

"Wherever you are, take a moment to use your sense perception to look and listen. For example, I can look out the window and see the sky and a park with beautiful trees, and I can look at that without calling it anything. This is another state of consciousness where you are fully conscious but not thinking, or thinking very little. And that is a portal into inner peace and inner stillness, which is a deeper dimension of consciousness."

8 USE YOUR BREATH AS AN ANCHOR

"A very easy thing to do is simply to become aware that you are breathing. Your attention goes to your breath so you breathe consciously. You don't have to change your breathing. If you bring your attention to the fact that you are breathing, you begin to enjoy the rhythm of your breath and you enjoy observing your breath. And when you do that, you are not thinking anymore. You cannot think and at the same time be aware of your breathing. And when you're no longer thinking, you are no longer worrying."

9 TAKE A FEW MOMENTS TO BE STILL in the MORNING

Don't check your phone first thing in the morning. Instead of cluttering your mind, you need to have a little space of awareness or presence - even for five minutes. This also applies to the last moments before bed. I call it going into sleep consciously. When you turn off the light and close your eyes, become aware of your breathing and notice that your breath moves in and out. This will help you find stillness."

10 BECOME AWARE OF YOUR BODY

"Becoming aware of your breathing can almost automatically take you into this inner body awareness which I have written about in The Power of Now. That means you feel the aliveness inside your body - your hands, your feet, your legs. I always recommend that people begin by feeling the inside of their hands by directing attention into their hands. Some people tell me that they don't know what I'm talking about. The easiest way for me to explain it is to say, 'Hold your left or right hand out, close your eyes and ask yourself, "Is my right hand still there?" How can I know if it is still there? My eyes are closed and I'm not touching anything.' Very often this is a helpful question for people who cannot feel the inner body. This practice can transform your life because it makes you the master of your mind and is the most helpful anchor for being in a state of presence. I sometimes call it a portal into inner peace."

11 YOUR STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AFFECTS YOUR ENVIRONMENT

"There is nothing that will prevent you from practising inner body awareness - even if you're surrounded by highly anxious people. If you can feel your inner body, you're no longer resonating with that state of consciousness that is around you. Sometimes it just takes one person to be present to have a beneficial effect on the entire group. However, there are some workplaces that are so dysfunctional, so dominated by infighting, anger and anxiety, that only you can know if you want to continue being in a particular environment or if you want to remove yourself from it."

12 STILLNESS TRANSCENDS ANY SITUATION

"I often receive correspondence from people who are in prison. They have discovered that they can enter this state of consciousness; they can be in their body and find inner peace that they never had before. They experience a transformation of consciousness in prison because their surroundings are so unpleasant that they have to go deeper inside. People have written to me to say 'I'm still in prison, but I feel free.' It's a wonderful realisation. There is, within very human being, that dimension of consciousness already present."

13 CREATE A TECH-FREE ZONE

"The mind was already dysfunctional, but now it has become amplified through technology, so modern, contemporary humans are probably even more anxious and uncentred than people were in the past because of our exposure to this kind of technology. We have to be very aware of the addictive nature of these things... and we need to create little spaces where we do not interact with these devices. If you do not allow your cellphone or your computer in your bedroom, then you have at least one space where you are not being bombarded with these things."

14 TAKE MOMENTS TO JUST BE

"When I'm waiting somewhere, unless there is really something that I need to communicate, I don't just take out my cellphone to start looking around it. You can just be when you're waiting somewhere - just allow yourself to be in that moment, to look around, to feel the energy inside your body. We need to exercise the power that we have so that we are not slaves to our mind - and slaves to the devices that the mind has created. Otherwise, no matter what you have, there is always a sense of dissatisfaction, underlying anxiety and discontent."

15 LEARN TO TRUST IN LIFE

"Faith is a deep sense of trust that you are being supported by something greater than yourself - a vast power that lies behind life; a vast intelligence lying behind all the manifestations of life. When you find inner stillness, you can sense that there is a presence in that stillness and that presence carries you. People feel they have to control every aspect of their life and basically what that means is a lack of trust. When you have that connection to the inner stillness, then you can have this trust in life, and that neurotic need to control every little thing is no longer there. Then you can do real thinking that is more constructive and you can focus on the power of your thought - that's another story...

* Eckhart Tolle will be speaking in the RDS, Dublin, on September 9 at 7pm. For more information, see seminars.ie

Health & Living

More here:
15 ways to find your inner calm after the Bank Holiday Weekend ... - Independent.ie

Todays long trade idea:You can get long US large cap growth companies via the iShares S&P 500 Growth Index ETF, IVW. As long as IVW trades above $134.24, then use declines below $139.89 for new long trades, suggests Landon Whaley of Focus Market Trader.

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If you want to be a consistently successful investor, then you must channel your inner Eckhart Tolle and focus on now. Stay with me; Im not going to launch into a diatribe about mindfulness. But what I can tell you is that if you focus on better understanding what is happening right now, you will see both opportunities and risks that most market participants miss. Focusing on now helps you better handicap the probabilities of various scenarios in the future.

This now approach is in stark contrast to most investors, who either look in the rearview mirror at three-month-old data, or focus on forecasts in an effort to predict what will happen months in the future.

Successful investing is not about forecasting the weather for tomorrow, but instead about noticing if its sunny or raining today.

Last week, investors were caught driving while looking in the rearview mirror when the initial estimate of U.S. Q2 GDP was released. Folks, we are a third of the way through Q3. Who gives a rip what happened in Q2?

Not only is this data point as dated as my last relationship, but its also going to be revised 700 times over the next six weeks.

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Driving while Looking in the Rearview Mirror - Moneyshow.com (registration)

IN JEWISH TRADITION when celebrating a special occasion or showing gratitude for a new and unusual experience, we recite a blessing from the Talmud called the shehechyanu.

In this blessing, we thank God for having given us life, sustained us and brought us to this moment.

Reciting blessings is an important part of Jewish life. We are taught that we should actually recite at least 100 blessings a day.

Assuming one is awake for 16 hours, that would mean during a 960-minute day, we would need to say a blessing about every nine minutes.

Of course, we can all think of things for which we should show gratitude, but 100 daily blessings feels like an onerous task.

So why is there such an emphasis on being grateful in Judaism?

The sages understood that it seems to be a part of human nature to focus on the negative and neglect what is good in our lives. The Hebrew phrase for gratitude, Hakafot Hatov, translates as a recognition of the good.

How often we grumble and complain about all that is going wrong but fail to see the good. Its so easy to feel gratitude when all is going well not so much when life hands us challenges.

Gratitude is one of the traits studied in the Jewish Mussar tradition where one is encouraged to reflect on various human characteristics in a very deliberate manner.

Using a conscious, intentional focus, we learn to recognize the importance of finding balance in these traits, and with daily meditation, this focus can become a habit.

Alan Morinis, in his book on the practice of Mussar, Every Day, Holy Day, points out the importance of gratitude: If youve lost your job but you still have your family and health, you have something to be grateful for. If you cant move around except in a wheelchair but your mind is as sharp as ever, you have something to be grateful for.

The importance of practicing gratitude is seen by many as crucial to a well-lived life. Eckhart Tolle said, It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up. American author Melody Beattie says, Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

A direct result of being grateful for our blessings is the recognition that others are not so lucky, and we are nudged to extend our hand in help.

We understand that because we have so much more than others, we dedicate ourselves to doing what we can to ease their burdens, thus working toward the goal of tikun olam, repairing the world.

John F. Kennedy pointed out: Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Live your life from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal peoples souls. Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we dont (Beattie).

Practice gratitude every day in your life, and you will not only develop empathy for those who have less, but you will also realize all the blessings you truly have.

As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch taught, First become a blessing to yourself so that you may become a blessing to others.

Kein yehi Ratzen may it be Gods will. Shalom.

_________

Issues of Faith is a rotating column by five religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Suzanne DeBey is a lay leader of the Port Angeles Jewish community.

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ISSUES OF FAITH: Gratitude crucial to a well-lived, -balanced life - Peninsula Daily News

From Galley Head Rd to Long Strand is an oil on canvas by Anastasia ODonoghue Healy, on show at the Aisling Gallery in Ballydehob shortly.

From Galley Head Rd to Long Strand is an oil on canvas by Anastasia ODonoghue Healy, on show at the Aisling Gallery in Ballydehob shortly.

A SHARED love for landscape has culminated in a joint West Cork exhibition by two local artists.

Abundance: Light, Land,Water is the appropriate title for the exhibition which opens on August 4th at the Aisling Gallery in Ballydehob, celebrating the work of Fiona Power and Anastasia O Donoghue Healy.

The show reveals their shared love for the landscape in all its seasonal glory.

A Fine Art graduate from Sligo IT, Fiona Power was a member of the Pigeon Loft Studios in Sligo and of the Backwater Artists Group in Cork city.

She has been living and working in West Cork for over 20 years, where her studio overlooks Dunmanus Bay, surrounded by meadows and fields of cattle.

Working en plein air and in her studio, she employs a variety of techniques and materials glazing, impasto and drawing.

Im inspired by the beauty of colour and the emotion of the moments of change in the atmosphere of a particular place and time. Im interested in the land, sea and sky that present themselves in moments of drama and beauty, she said.

Fiona has exhibited widely including at the prestigious RHA Annual Open, with work held in many collections in Ireland and abroad.

In self-taught artist Anastasia ODonoghue Healys attempt to explain her logic she says her paintings capture another way of seeing.

They are informed as much by her journey to painting as by her growing interest in awareness, consciousness and the writings of Eckhart Tolle.

Anastasia aspires to capture the isness of the landscape at a given time. She paints landscapes en plein air, saying that this invites a more intimate experience of the landscape, responding to this experience intuitively and rapidly by her use of colour and mark-making.

Shortlisted in the National Open Art (UK and Ireland) in 2015 and again in 2016, Anastasia continues to refine both her craft of painting and the art of living.

Abundance: Light, Land, Water opens August 4th at 7pm at the Aisling Gallery and will run for two weeks.

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Local artists will unveil their shared love of landscape at Ballydehob gallery show - Southern Star Newspaper

Pat Simmons Jr. is not just a Maui boy, father, singer-songwriter, musician, surfer and an organic farmer. Hes also a cancer survivor, and the son of Pat Simmons, an American rock musician and original band member of The Doobie Brothers. Being from a musically inclined family, Simmons grew up listening to all types of music. He learned how to play both the guitar and ukulele at age six. He has two older siblings from his mothers previous marriage, and his family has always been extremely close.

His father introduced him to playing musical instruments, showing him how to play the twelve bar blues on the guitar at a very young age. Later, Simmons continued his guitar education with Mauis own Tom Conway at Bounty Music. Conway taught him how to play various songs from Jimi Hendrix to other various rock icons.

Pat was a great guitar student who was always eager to learn, Conway told me. He embraced several styles like reggae, blues, folk, even a pinch of Gypsy Jazz! Now, hes developed into a fine player, singer and composer with his own unique voice and strong conviction about his message as an artist. Im proud to call Pat a friend and I was recently honored to play on his debut CD. Little known fact: He also plays a mean Didgeridoo!

Simmons learned how to play the ukulele more than 20 years ago at Haiku Elementary School. The ukulele class was part of the Hawaiian studies program, focusing on basic technical skills as well as Hawaiian songs from Auntie Makua Bailey. In fact, Simmons says that Auntie Makua and her songs really inspired his passion for Hawaiian music and culture.

From his happy introduction to playing Hawaiian music and rock classics as a child, Simmons has always continued to increase his musical repertoire. Hes constantly learning how to play new instruments and continues to refine his playing skills.

Im always playing around with different things, not always diving in deep, but I do play a little hand percussion, harmonica, lap steel slide guitar, flutes, didgeridoo, etc., mostly just for fun, he said.

*

Being that Simmons is the son of a famous American rock musician, I was curious about his youth on Maui.

I was exposed to all kinds of music, people and places at a very young age, he said. Its what has really sculpted me into who I am today, including my diverse musical interests from Django Reinhardt to roots reggae.

Simmons said his greatest musical influences are Bob Marley, George Helm, Gabby Pahinui and his father. My dads music with the Doobie Brothers has influenced me so much, as well as his innate musical talents, he said. A lot of the things that I listen to today, I first heard from my dad. Our musical collections are similar from traditional folk music, to the psychedelic rock of the 60s and 70s.

Simmons was touring with his father and the Doobie Brothers band until a few years ago when he decided to settle into marriage and family life. Although he loves touring the West Coast (because theres a lot of opportunity to surf and eat lots of yummy organic foods, he said), he prefers to play local and just be the Maui boy that hes always been. He deeply cares about the aina, and is currently focusing on building up his following in the Hawaiian Islands. In fact, he worked up a new set with two of his friends, Matt Del Olmo and Justin Morris. The Pat Simmons Jr. Ohana played their first show together at the last East Maui Taro Festival in Hana. As far as more music plans, Simmons wants to record another album in the next year.

On a daily basis, Pat listens to a variety of music. Lately, Ive been finding obscure Hawaiian music and singing along while I drive, he said. One of my favorite ways to learn a song. He finds a lot of inspiration from Dennis Kamakahi, Gabby Pahinui, George Helm and Keali`i Reichel. Im also of course very into Bob Marley, various reggae musicians, and some newer music from Xavier Rudd and Trevor Hall, he said.

Simmons said hes recently been enamored with a song composed in the late 1800s by Eleanor Keho`ohiwaokalani Wright Prendergast. It was originally written for members of the Royal Hawaiian Band in opposition to the illegal U.S. overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Its called Kaulana Na Pua (you can find a Hawaiian-English translationhereand you can hear the song on the Maui Museum YouTube channel). Perhaps soon, well all have a chance to hear Simmons playing it, too.

Eleanor Kekoaohiwaikalani Wright Prendergast

I asked him how his experience of growing up in a musical family will translate to his own growing family. In just the past year, Simmons became a father to a baby boy.

Since my son has existed, Ive been singing to him and playing songs to him in his born presence, inside and outside of the womb, he said. He loves it when I practice near him, and Im looking forward to sharing my love of different genres with him.

Simmons also spends much of his free time tending to his family land in Haiku. Hes an organic farmer, and is energetic about supporting Hawaiis natural environment and protecting the land from dangerous invasive species. This wasnt always the case. Learning about agriculture and permaculture was a passion that began when he attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

When I enrolled at Evergreen in 2008, I was headed in a completely different direction, Simmons said. I tried to get into this music class taught by a woman who is an expert in ethnomusicology, particularly Irish folk. But the class filled up, and I was forced to find something else. So at the last minute while scrambling to find a class with open enrollment, I chose a program called Into the WoodsCommunity, Conflict, Alliance.

Simmons said the class changed his life.

At 18 years old, I was exposed to what was happening in the Pacific Northwest logging, he said. I learned about the forest ecosystems and the damage being done to plant and animal habitats, including the waters. This perspective on the preciousness of the natural environment really shaped my thinking and my daily choices. After four years of studying natural systems, including agriculture and permaculture, I walked away with a bachelors degree in ecology, the study of the relationship between all biological lifeforms. Plants are my specialty. This helped me understand my own island home a lot more. I have a strong understanding of the natural environments of Hawaii, as well as how threatened they are from pollution and alien species.

Simmons 10-acre family property in Hana is known as the Opana Valley Farm. He hopes to reforest the land with endemic Hawaiian species, and continues to cultivate abundant, diverse orchards and gardens that will continue to feed his family. Hes currently expanding his potato production, as well as creating an organic nursery with rare plants that he can cultivate and propagate to be shared with the Maui community.

Lately, my wife and I have been taking care of existing plants and trees that my father planted almost 20 years ago, Simmons said. But we are also planting vegetable gardens, weaved among perennial medicines, rare fruit trees, native Hawaiian ferns, trees, plants and rare Hawaiian food plants such as Kalo, Mai`a (ancient plantain banana cultivars) and Uala (sweet potato). I really love collecting rare plants that are literally on the edge of extinction, which is the case for many of the rare Mai`aIve collected from remote valleys in East Maui. Gotta perpetuate the old crops so that future generations can enjoy them.

Simmons and his wife also grow old Hawaiian sugar cane varieties, and press the juice in an old-fashioned hand-crank press. They sell their juice and medicinal teas every other Wednesday at the farmers market that takes place at the Waipuna Chapel on Oma`opio Road in Kula.

*

So far, all this sounds like the perfect life. It hasnt been. When he was 23, Simmons was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He told me that it was a very scary and intense time for himself and his family. Naturally, a lot of emotions came up and he always did the best to stay in the present moment, full of gratitude for each moment, and trusting that it was all meant to be. He told me that his spiritual work is what helped him be more prepared for that kind of life crisis, and that it was just another opportunity for him to let go and love his body.

I had read somewhere that Pat Simmons Jr. was a fan of Buddhism. Curious about how deep he is into the Buddhas teachings, I asked him how he integrates the teachings of Buddha into his everyday life. He started out by saying that he wouldnt call himself a Buddhist, but that he discovered the teachings of Buddhism as a teenager.

Ill be quite honest, while exploring the realms of psychedelics, such as LSD and mushrooms, I found myself trying to interpret the unity and love that I was experiencing from taking those medicines, Simmons said. The teachings of the Buddha just made a lot of sense after spending time looking deep into my soul. The values of unconditional love and peace were instilled in my being because of my willingness to learn and move through my ego and all the negative things that the mind can choose to dwell on. Returning to love and the bare life essentials are what I took away from those times, and Buddhism helped me see more clearly how to just be.

The influences that were the most positive for Pats cancer healing process were teachings from the Buddha and Eckhart Tolle. Along with the love and support of his family, Simmons said that TollesThe Power of Now helped him to stay happy.

You gotta remember that its all perfect, and that life doesnt give us challenges we arent ready or capable of handling, Simmons said. Im so unbelievably fortunate to be raised on Maui and that I can raise my family here, too. I recognize that Im just a guest here, among this homeland of the original inhabitants, Na Kanaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiians. I truly cherish their culture, and will continue to do my best to help revitalize this land with healthy forests and waters. After all, Im not Hawaiian by blood, only by culture, being raised close to these values and this sacred aina. My bones and my familys bones will go back to the same soil as those who have lived here before me. And I will stand up, protect those waters, these mountain slopes and the creatures that live here. Aloha Aina is my daily way of life.

Pat Simmons, Jr. plays live shows around Maui on a monthly basis. He has frequent gigs at Charleys Restaurant and Saloon in Paia and at Fleetwoods on Front Street. He also plays weekly at Cafe Des Amis in Paia and every Thursday at Mulligans on the Blue. For more information about his showtimes and locations, visit his website.

Cover photo and farm photo courtesy Pat Simmons, Jr.

Cover design: Darris Hurst

Photo ofEleanor Kekoaohiwaikalani Wright Prendergast: Wikimedia Commons

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Maui's Aloha 'Aina Ambassador: What it's like to be Pat Simmons, Jr. - MauiTime Weekly

Its hard to get anything done with all of the push notifications pulling us into other directions. You can find something else to do or think about at any given moment. But maybe the distractions arent the problem. Maybe its your willingness to be distracted that needs to be examined.

Distractions are by-products of a problem, says Kyle Cease, author of I Hope I Screw This Up: How Falling In Love With Your Fears Can Change the World. Something outside of you is pulling you away from yourself or a goal. But the distraction is actually on the inside, and whats going on outside matches whats going on inside.

We invite distractions as a way to handle three internal struggles, says Cease.

Distractions can help you avoid something that makes you afraid, such as trying something new or achieving a big goal. Many of us stay in a place of fear because its a way to seek connection, says Cease. We get a lot of love for feeling doubtful and scared, he says. If you go to lunch with friend and you complain, now youre connecting through complaining. Eventually you may become scared to not complain because youd lose the feeling of love from that person.

Fear is an illusion that comes from looking at something youve never done. The nervous system isnt scared of doing specific things; its scared of things its never done before, says Cease. It believes anything could be death. Everything youve already done has proven itself to be safe.

If youre about to make a big presentation, for example, and your mind suddenly comes up with the idea, What if I throw up? youre creating an internal distraction to avoid dealing with your fear.

Immediately your ego shows up, saying Youre not going to throw up, helping you with problem it created in the first place, says Cease. Instead, look at that fear as a thought passing through. The problem isnt having the thought, its being resistant to the thought and feeling that you need to fix the thought.

Instead of creating distractions, embrace the fear, suggests Cease. Go into a new or uncomfortable situation saying, I hope I screw this up, or, What if I screw this up? And I love that.

Once you are okay with the problem, it goes away, he says. All of a sudden youre not enslaved to it. Resistance to the problem keeps it there.

At the time of this interview, Cease, whose speaking tourThe Limitation Gamehas been described as a cross between Jim Carrey and Eckhart Tolle, was preparing for a meeting with a television producer from Oprah Winfreys network. Im going into the meeting with the idea that Im okay with screwing up, he says. All of a sudden Im free of boundaries. I dont need that producers approval. I perform much better if Im okay with it going badly.

The feeling of not being good enough keeps you from pursuing goals, and seeking distractions could mean you have a lack of awareness of who you are. The first thing to do is to stop thinking youre incomplete, says Cease.

Every commercial shows this loser person who then flips the tab of a Budweiser and has bikini women surrounding him, he says. Youre not enough is a great starting point. We buy into it because we are horrified that we are enough. Society is built around constant improvement.

This sense of lacking is often formed in childhood. We grew up believing that who we are is what our parents think about us, says Cease. We tap-danced, performed, or whatever we had to do to get love, and we end up becoming characters, thinking that love comes from avoiding something or moving something or chasing something.

Approval has to come from self-connection. Believing that connection is something outside of yourself causes you to be disconnected, says Cease.

A big cause of stress is trying to control things that you cant, says Cease. You cant control politicians, for example, he says. You can control what you do. People pace around, using circumstances outside of themselves as excuses not to step into their own ambitions. There is a lie that things outside of you run you.

Distractions due to lack of control turn into excuses, blame, and credit. This outward thinking helps you avoid taking action and being vulnerable. Right now we live in a time where people are starting to see the BS in themselves and the world, says Cease. People can see through manipulation and strategies and marketing. The number-one thing theyre looking for is authenticity, and that takes vulnerability.

Letting go of what you cant control opens you up to opportunities. Who am I to say that things haveto go this way when there could be a lesson worth way more than the vision I had for myself? asks Cease.

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The Real Reason Why You're Easily Distracted Has Nothing To Do With Technology - Fast Company