insights

August 31, 2010

To Be or Not to Be

That is the question. Or is it? Well, actually, the rhetorical question that most of us should become more familiar with is To I or Not To I. To me, THAT is the question. I'll explain.

I found myself rephrasing this age-old Shakespearean quote a few days ago when I was in the midst of some inner-looking type of work involving this entire topic of the 'I'.

It might be necessary to start off with saying that I'm not purporting to discuss the 'I' type of I that we're all used to. I'm taking about the 'I' of existence.

Hmmmmm......

Let me start over, hopefully more clearly this time.

It's kind of a hard topic to delve in to, especially considering the very esoteric nature of trying to discuss this topic that all of us are very intimately familiar with. And what would that topic be? Well, we all know what it means to 'be'. We all know what it means to have an 'I', so to speak.

These are both aspects of a topic that one could be led to wonder why on earth would one even want to use any electrons of cyberspace to explain what this is all about. After all, isn't it obvious? Duh.

I am here, being. I can 'be' all day long. I be.

What is unclear or needs to be discussed in the context of an insight with this topic, right?

Well, for me, this topic is at the core of an area of my life that I'm learning a lot about and having some somewhat befuddling experiences about, so it seems appropriate to share what this appears to be all about, in the context of helping readers of these e-words, and perhaps even others who have had similar experiences but didn't quite know what to do with them.

Let me elaborate.

You see, Shakespeare's quote about not being, or not to be, in my opinion is rather ludicrous, at best. How can one not 'be'? We are being. We are humans being. All day long we are stuck with being. Even if we don't want to be, we are still being.

There is never not a moment when we are not being. Can you tell when you're not being? Can you ever have a moment of not being? Is it possible to have a moment of not being and then not know that one is not being? Is that even a possibility?

So, how is it that the question is about one's ability 'to be or not to be'. I don't think we have a choice in the matter. We are humans. Being.

Period.

One can think that they aren't being, but they still are. One can desire to not be, but if they're still desiring, then they're being. One can want to not be, but if they're still wanting, they're being. It's pretty rudimentary, at best.

Now, the topic of 'to I or not to I', that is a whole other rhetorical question. And, it's a question that is very apropos for this current time we've been thrusting through. And, it's a question deserving a proper dissecting and contextual discussion.

Can you ever say to yourself 'I am not here'? Can you ever say to yourself that 'I am not I'? Can I not be I?

How can one not be what one thinks one is? One is thinking one is, so one is that which one thinks, right?

I am what I am.

I am I.

I am.

I.

At first glance this all seems rather simplistic and still not worth discourse, but let's see where I can take us with this discussion of 'I'. Pardon the pun.

We would all agree that we're all being. When we are here, we are being. We can be. That is what we 'do': we be.

There's no questioning about that. It's a pretty obvious unconditional fact of existence: being. The fact that we exist is the concrete, definable, incontrovertible proof that we 'be'. We are being.

Now, do we have unconditional proof that we are the 'I' that we think we are and take ourselves to be? Do we know where this 'I' is situated in our self?

Do you where 'I' is in you? Is it even in you? Is it outside of you somewhere? Can you pinpoint it? Have you even thought about this to-date?

When I posed these, and other, questions to myself I found myself coming up with the only answer that made sense. The 'I' is the mind. The 'I' isn't a thing, per se, it's a conglomeration of thoughts in the mind.

Pretty out-there, eh?

But, that's not the gist of this sharing. The focus here is that this I is something that isn't what we are, truly.

How so? And why not?

Well, didn't we agree before that we are humans, being? We are creatures of being. We have proof: we exist. That is what we are first and foremost. Beings being. Beings. That's pretty simple to agree with.

What happens after that?

The 'I' enters the picture. I am a man. I am a mother. I am a brother. I am poor. I am a president. I am serious. I am fun. I am hairy. I am introspective. I am (fill in the blank). I am. I am. I am. The list is truly endless.

We are whatever series of 'I's we are telling ourselves that we are as we go through our days on this physical plane.

But, in spite of the fact that we do this, and in spite of the fact that this I-ing comes in after the fact of being, does it make it anymore true and what we are?

Of course it does: to our mind. To the sense of I that we have glommed on to when very young children and hold dearly with clutched fists throughout our life till death do we part.

It's not a pretty picture, as we're all too familiar with.

So, what is this all about? Well, do we want to 'I' or do we not want to 'I'. Can we begin to see the many I's that are in each of us and then allow ourselves to begin to experience the being of the moment when any particular I is present? Why?

Again, because that is our true essence. That is truly what we are.

And why do this, even? Well, does your many, many I's bring suffering along with them? Do you suffer over being a man, a mother, a brother, being poor or serious or the many other I's you know you assume and take on during your days?

Do you ever question if there is a different manner of being with the many moments of existence you are having? If so, this is a way to that.

To be or not to be. That is the question? No.

Again, to me, to I or not to I. That truly is the only question worthy of consideration.

Now what is your answer?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2010

Victimizing the Victim Mentality

Have you ever tasted the stillness of the day, especially in the morning when the world is quiet and hasn't awoken yet? Have you ever tasted the stillness inside of you, when your mind hasn't booted up for the day yet and filled you with useless and meaningless pondering and words about the day? Have you ever tasted the stillness in your heart when all is quiet inside and you can feel the palpable solitude of existence?

Depending upon the person, myself included, this can be a pretty disconcerting experience. Sometimes it's most enjoyable to view and experience, and other times it's downright depressing. It all depends upon the state of mind at the time. And, the desire or ability to actually allow the feeling to just be, without covering it up with some vague thought, description, or misplaced desire.

I've written about this before but I feel compelled to write about this subject again. I think that this keeps coming up for me and the sharings of this blog of mine because it's something that is particular to all of us, and especially for those who stay aware of the machinations of the inside of the shell of the body, i.e. the mind.

I think that what's of particular interest to observe is how there can be an ever-present sensation floating around inside, and all the while tainting the perception of the present moment. We've all had times such as this. If one pays closer attention to this inner working, they'll notice that this is going on all the time.

Now, I'm not talking about perception, but rather the inner sensation and feelings that are present which cloud the actual perception of the present moment: the here, the now.

A case in point is the recent personal perception of discontentment that I find myself experiencing. It's not about anything in particular, just about life and existence in general. It's not something that jumps out at me to make itself glaringly obvious, but it's there in my perception of everything during my waking hours, nonetheless.

Let me explain in more details, as I don't think I'm being clear in my sharing.

Have you ever been in a situation that you weren't able to figure out and so you become frustrated and perhaps emotional due to the uncertainty of that situation? Say, something is happening to you or you're involved in some circumstance that perhaps is not to your doing and yet you're not able to remove yourself from that undertaking.

Depending upon the severity of the circumstance you're caught up in, the associated feelings can become rather overwhelming and then begin to taint the perception of what is actually occurring, both outside of you, and inside.

Eventually, the perception of the actuality of what 'is' becomes colored with the perception, and subsequently, the actuality becomes the perception in essence. The actuality of what is isn't perceived differently from the perception. They're now seen as one thing.

The clarity of the actuality of what is is lost to the perception. And then one acts and reacts from that perception, thinking that they're in relationship with what is, but in actuality they're in relationship with their own perception that the actual event was but the initial cause.

Imagine that someone does something to you and this is something that is, in essence, harmless and basically non-impacting overall. You're not physically hurt, just emotionally, or mentally. Your ego is bruised, so to speak.

Once this occurs your mind comes up with all kinds of personalized perceptions of what the actual event was, based on your history and personal happenings to-date. The actual actions of that other become laced with your personalized perception. Then you react from that perception and base your action on what you have now decided is what happened to you.

You are now a victim of yourself, if you are doing that.

Or, to be more clear about this: you're victimizing yourself and you're your own worst enemy at times like this.

You've now become the one who is perpetrating the pain that you perceive is happening to you, and that you're seeing occurring to you and towards you.

And yet, it all started with just a slight misalignment of your perception of what was being perceived and then translated into what was being seen with the mind's eye.

But, it doesn't have to be this way. I know that we all think that we know what is happening is actually what is happening. But, as you can see, if you'll reread what was written above, that the truth of this sequence of events is consistently expressed throughout our days.

Now, mind you, this is not always about so-called 'bad feelings' like jealousy, or victim-hood, or anger, hatred, frustration and gloom. No.

It can also be about 'good feelings' like joy, elation, happiness, comfort, contentment, and seriousness. I know these are not all feelings, per se, but you get my point. And, these may not even be perceived as good by some. They might be seen as undesirable, depending upon the temperament of the person doing the feeling.

I find it rather coincidental that recently I've come across multiple readings and discussions and events in my life to support and clarify this happening of events inside each of us each day. We're all trying to figure out what feelings are okay to feel, and what feelings are to be avoided, because they're perceived as undesirable or bad, so to speak.

Some will tell us that we shouldn't worry about any feelings, as we're focusing on the wrong part of the occurrence. Some tell us that we shouldn't focus on anything that is occurring in the occurrence, both inside and outside of us.

Other's state that we're not even what is occurring, we're merely a vessel through which everything passes.

Personally, I like the words that one of my favorite inner development teachers, Vernon Howard, shared during a talk way back in 1987:

"You must believe nothing; you must know everything. So right now, you can begin to know something that is both startling and very edifying - esoterically educational. And here it is, given to you very directly. It doesn't make any difference at all how you feel. It doesn't make any difference whether you're happy or unhappy, depressed, or elated, excited or bored. I am telling you something that you don't know quite how to take yet and understand, but take it as a fact. Just do that much, and you can do that.

I'm telling you the truth, that you have made a great mistake in thinking that it's important how you feel and so you try to manipulate your moods in order to feel what you call a good feeling and avoid what you call the bad feelings, but it just doesn't happen. They are stronger than you are in your present state of misunderstanding of life.

Let's go at it again, like a knight with a lance toward the enemy. You can be just completely unconcerned from now on with your feelings, with your emotions, with those surges of feeling mournful, of feeling pessimistic, of feeling grouchy. No matter what the feeling is, you really, that means in reality, have nothing to do with it. You just think you do and having made that enormous blunder, thinking that you're supposed to control your emotions, that you're supposed to kick out the bad ones and invite the new ones. Believing in that, now you're caught up in an impossible task and wherever you look, everybody is trying to feel good because they feel bad and their feeling good is as bad as the feeling good.

There is nothing more important for your spiritual growth than for you to know that you are not your feeling."

But, when one is a victim of their perception, their feelings, and their thoughts, does any of this matter? Well, only if it is remembered and the dynamic that is occurring which is individual to the person in the midst of the occurrence is being seen for what it is.

You see, getting away from potentially being so obtuse about this sharing: we're doing this victimization to ourselves.

First we're creating the perception of what is happening, and then we're labelling what that perception is. It doesn't matter what that labelling is: what feeling or sensation it is that we tell ourselves we're in the midst of. We're all just being our own worst victim by participating in this victim mentality dynamic as we do. We're simply doing the worst thing for ourselves that we could be doing.

So, what is it that we could be doing that would be more supportive of our true needs? Well, for starters, we could begin to see that we're not what we label ourselves at that moment. This too doesn't need particular identification with consideration of the many expressions that are possible through the many iterations that we go through during our days. We don't need to concern ourselves with whether what we're feeling is 'good' or 'bad' or 'right' or 'wrong'.

We simply need to know that when we're in this intimate victim-centric dynamic with ourselves that we're being a victim of our personalized handling and interpretation of this event.

So, simply: stop.

Stop everything. And, I mean everything, including the victim mentality dance that occurs inside.

Do you really stop it though? No, you can't, not right now. But you can take steps toward the stopping.

How? Well, like was just written: stop. And then replace the stopping with seeing.

You see, you first have to see what is occurring before you can know when it is occurring, especially in instances such as this. You need to know that this is occurring, again, and then you stop with anything further regarding the occurring. Now, I don't mean, necessarily that you stop whatever it is that you're involved in. And, hopefully, that this isn't something hurtful to yourself or to others.

But, in the midst of the occurring you simply stop and look at yourself. See what is occurring.

That's it. That's all for now. That's all you really can do right now to change the dynamic of the event, the perception, and the labelling. Until that is seen, when it is occurring, the victim-based behavior won't change.

When it is seen, then it will be being viewed from a different vantage point. From a place in you that is brought into the event that wasn't a part of the event previously. This fresh looking brings an observation of the event that has the capability to actually wipe clean the slate that the event was written on and continued to be played out from.

This can work with anything - any event, as long as one is able to first see that being a victim of their self is not in their best interest at times like this.

Easy? No. But do-able over time.

As Mr. Howard said, "...you are not your feeling."

One can see this and also choose to not be a victim of their feelings, past, and perceptions.

Simply see the dynamic of the victim mentality in yourself and you'll stop being a victim of yourself.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

(Casey, thank you for the insight :-)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2010

Inside Out or Outside In: You Choose

Insights are interesting in that they can appear at any time and any place, provided one is staying open to their appearance. I had an insight appear recently when I was talking with a group of friends, and it was so impacting to me that it left me speechless and unable to effectively communicate what it was that just happened. When insights are powerful enough they have the effect of doing that, at least that is my experience.

But, the ability to effectively and coherently share with my friends what just happened was actually the gist of this insight itself. Continue reading, as I'll share what I mean.

Insights of any kind, or in the example I'm about to share, can come about either because of some sort of serendipitous experience, or through what is perceived as accident. Sometimes insights can come about through diligent effort prior to the insight, and then appear when not expected, as a result of the prior effort.

I'm recalling the scene in a movie I find particularly relevant to this topic: Peaceful Warrior. The movie is based on the book 'The Way of the Peaceful Warrior', which was a bestseller a fair number of years ago. I never read the book, but I certainly liked the movie, which underwent limited release a couple of years ago here in North America.

The gist of the movie is the developing and deepening relationship a young college student has with a much older man, whom the student considers to be as mystical as he is annoying at times, as the man becomes a mentor and teacher to the student. The scene in the movie that has particular relevance to this insight is when the older man asks the young fellow what he sees 'going on' as they both look across a park teeming with activity during a beautiful afternoon at a local university. The student replies "There's nothing going on."

Of course, the older man wants to teach the student a lesson so he stands behind the young man and does this Vulcan neck pinch type of hold on him so that the student experiences a very different type of outlook from the one that he revealed via his answer to the older man's question. The student then sees that there are innumerable activities occurring, he just isn't paying enough attention to notice them. Essentially, he's too busy staying inside of his mind to notice what's going on outside of his body.

But, back to my insight from the other night.

My friends and I were discussing many things, but what stayed with me was the discussion on the interplay between people as they relate to one another. We all know how this goes. Something is occurring outside of us, in some manner of situation or event, be it a relationship or a viewing, and this causes activity to occur inside of us.

What would this interior activity be? Feelings, sensation, thoughts, responses.

Now, here's where this all gets good, at least I thought so the other night.

As a corollary to the description of events from the movie I watched, consider that there is not just nothing going on, but that there is nothing going on outside of us.

Think about this.

There's nothing going on outside of us. Everything is occurring inside of us. There is never anything occurring outside of us. It's all an inside job.

What does all this mean? Well, we all pretty much experience this every day of our existence. We all know what this means as this is what occurs all the time with each of us.

And, in fact, I'll bet that many of you don't even think that what I'm imparting here is even worthy of your time to read this article. So, let me attempt to go deeper.

We all know what it's like to be in relationship with someone or some thing, right? We all know what it's like when something happens in the relating that creates a feeling inside of us, as a response to that exterior occurrence.

Well, think of what we do, generally, with the experience.

Something happens in that relating and we feel something inside and then we attempt to make that inner experience an outer one. How? Well, we express our inside sensations, especially if they are part of the whole potpourri of feelings we have, and we attempt to drag whoever is 'responsible' for these inner sensations into our experience.

"She did that to me."

"It's his fault."

"You did this."

"I'm mad at you because you blah blah blah...."

"You did that and I feel this."

The list is endless how we attempt this task of roping others into our personal experience. And, we all know this.

Hitting it from another angle, think about it this way. You have a conflict with another person, say, your partner in life. That person and you argue about something and you find yourself getting angry over the discussion.

What happens then? You argue more and you express your anger and anger-based viewpoint as you argue.

Now, we all know what happens after that: generally, the other person argues back and expresses their anger at you. You want that person to see your side of the argument, and she wants you to see her basis for arguing.

And, essentially, what is occurring here as the two of you argue? Well, you both want to bring the other into your personalized experience.

"I'm mad because you blah blah blah and I want you to see it the way I experienced it."

We all know that dance.

We feel some sensation inside and then we want to bring whomever is responsible for that sensation into the same experience of the sensation. We want them to take on that sensation as we are experiencing it. We want to 'bring them into us.'

If we're angry, we want them to feel/go through/know our anger. If we're sad we want them to feel our sadness. If we're excited, we want them to know what our excitement feels like.

We are doing all that we can to make what's only occurring inside of us, an outside occurrence. But, it isn't possible.

Can we feel anger and have someone else truly experience what it is that we're feeling? No.

Can we experience the utmost excitement and joy and truly have it become a part of another's experience? Actually, no.

Can we experience anything inside of us and have any other person actually experience the exact same experience? Never.

Does this sound too elementary for you? Maybe. But, think about this at depth.

Think how many times each and every day you go to great lengths to get other people to share your experiences. And what are these 'experiences'? Well, simply, what is occurring in you.

Can you truly externalize these experiences? You can try.

You can speak about them.

You can write about them.

You can yell about them.

You can smile about them.

You can physically express them.

But, they're still only occurring inside of you. Oh, yes, there's a lot of them, all day long. But, they're still only occurring inside of you. They'll never be occurring outside of you.

Can you create an event outside of you that reflects what is occurring inside of you? Sure.

That's why we argue, make babies, and have wars throughout existence. We want the inner to become the outer so we don't have to go it alone and feel lonely throughout our existence.

We want to somehow find a way to share what is occurring inside of us with the world. Even if the world at the moment is that person standing in front of you as you angrily spew spit in their face, or share tears of joy as you laugh while describing that funny thing you experienced the other day.

It's all really amazing to me this aspect of every one of us. True, there is never nothing going on outside of us. But contrastingly, there is always so, so much going on inside of us, yet never anything occurring outside of us.

Now, I know this seems contradictory and doesn't make sense as all you have to do is look around the space you're in as you read these words, or feel the weight of your body on the chair you're sitting on or ground you're standing on, and you have proof of this seemingly contradictory insight I'm sharing.

But, you do know that no matter how much you scrunch up your eyes and tell yourself there's no place like home and you then wish things differently, you are never, ever, whatsoever going to be able to truly have anyone else experience what you do. Period.

They may know it.

They may know something similar to what you're sharing with them.

They may think they know what you mean or are talking about.

But, truly, it's not the same and it never will be.

You can never externalize what is inside of you. You are traveling this existential path in life alone throughout time. It's your experience and yours only. No one else can share it. No one else can genuinely be brought into your experiences of Life. It's yours alone.

Can you attempt the contrary? Sure.

Can you 'argue till the cows come home' (whatever that saying implies)? Yes.

Will it work? No.

So, how can this insight be of help to you? Well, with reference to the fact that 'there is never anything occurring outside of you', you can herein stop many useless efforts to bring anything outside of you into what you're experiencing.

Think of the energy and effort that will remain yours as you stop this. Think of how many arguments you'll be saved from participating in and/or trying to convince that other person of 'your side' of the argument.

Think of the positive impact you'll have in your experiences as you stop holding anyone or anything outside of you responsible for what you're feeling inside. Think of the magnitude of just that one outcome. It's truly staggering.

You'll stop trying to get others to see your viewpoint, and your side of things. And, instead, you'll just be experiencing what you're experiencing and you'll be focusing on that without making useless efforts to externalize the internal.

You'll just be there, as you already are. No embellishments, no attempts to vacuum up others into your miasma of inner sensations. It'll all just stop.

And what will be the salient result of all this? You'll learn about life from another perspective.

You'll be there...alone. As you always already were. But now you'll know it. Now you'll experience it. By yourself. With your Self. As it should be. As it is.

Remember: you already know, now you merely have to see what already is occurring all the time inside of you. It's all an inside job, always has been.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:29 AM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2010

Who Said Life Is Fair?

Sometimes life isn't fair is it? Sometimes one can do everything within their power to make a situation fair and decent and yet that doesn't amount to anything, in the end. The situation, and the outcome still turns out to the same undesired end. It's not fair when life doesn't work out in the end the way we want it to, is it?

It's just not fair when we think that we're the one who deserves fairness and yet we are forced to accept the imbalance and unfairness of a situation.

Why is it that we want something to work out in one way and yet it ends up occurring and ending up another way, usually the way we don't want it to be occurring as? Why can't life just smoothly flow the way we want it to?

Why does it have to be so unfair and unequal and unrelenting to meeting our personalized demands of a situation and desire?

It doesn't make sense that life has to be so unfair. How many times has it masticated us up in a situation that we're involved in and expectorated us in a phlegmless mass, all against our wishes?

We have all experienced scores of situations that didn't turn out the way we wanted to. Perhaps we expected the outcome to be this, and instead it was that. Perhaps we did everything that we could to have the outcome be one way in the end, and that end turned out to be different.

It isn't fair that that is how life is, sometimes most of the time, is it?

And why not, why is that so hard?

Well, for one, because of these seemingly awry outcomes we have to then turn to acceptance of the outcome that we weren't expecting. And we have to then accept our personal feelings about that outcome and maybe the associated disappointment that we're experiencing because of that unexpected outcome.

We all know what it's like when a situation turns out the way we want it to. We don't have to deal with it very much because it ended up the way we tell ourselves it was supposed to. It ends up in sync with what was meant to be, we tell ourselves.

It is in alignment with the universe and our own personal desire and it wasn't meant to be any other way, we tell ourselves.

The universe loves us and wants to meet all of our needs, we tell ourselves.

There is a whole potpourri of things that we tell ourselves when a situational outcome is in alignment with the expectation that we tied to it.

Oh, and add to that the feelings that we have when something occurs that's aligned with the outcome we had planned for it. We feel elation. We feel satisfaction. We feel deserving right and maybe even indignation. We feel happiness.

We feel, good. That says it all doesn't it.

Maybe we even gloat a little and have an I-told-you-so kind of attitude, as if the situation went the way we expected it to because we just knew it would.

It's interesting how they're both opposite sides of the same coin. They both are identical reactions to the same event. One is high and one is low. One is full of glee, and the other almost despondency.

I think that for most of us, the occurrences that contain the true gold are the events that are not in sync with what we tell ourselves they should be in sync with, essentially, our expectations.

These are the events that are full of tangible value to us, if we're willing to do the inner mining and work to understand ourselves and our reaction to the unexpected outcome.

Perhaps we're feeling dejected and disappointed, and maybe even outright hurt. It's hard to be in a place like that. It's hard to have to accept that life didn't have the same outcome that we had for that event.

It's hard to have to accept the rejection or the disappointment, or the outright outrage at the end of the event. We're essentially stuck with ourselves and our feelings about the event. It didn't go the way we wanted it to. It didn't turn out as we expected. And, depending upon the individual in the midst of the circumstance, we have a multitude of reactions that can and do occur.

But, it doesn't really matter what the personalized reaction to the event is: it's what we do with it.

It really doesn't matter if we feel anger, or rage, or sadness, or disappointment, or fear, or sadness, or grief. These are all almost irrelevant. Yes, they need to be uncovered and discovered and dissolved through constructive and harmless expression. But, they aren't what the real learning and growth in the unexpected outcome can lead to.

That growth and learning comes from how we are with ourselves after an event turns out not to our liking or desiring.

There have been many books written about this. And, obviously these writings by numerous authors are occurring because this is such a necessary lesson that we all have to undergo if we're meant to learn to properly function through all the life disappointments and misaligned experiential endings during our days.

What is actually being referenced here?

Acceptance. Letting go. Being at peace with what is. One with Life.

All of that.

The art of letting go, the science of acceptance is a huge topic. It's something that we aren't very good at as a species. We excel at projecting our desires and demands upon existence, but when the paucity of synchronized outcomes is at its peak, we're at a loss for what to do with ourselves, and our feelings of... (fill in the blank.)

Is there an easy way to accept what is? No, I don't think so. It takes work to accept something that we weren't even desiring or wanting in the first place.

It's a much easier path to walk to rather just cut to the chase and have Life aligned with what we expect. At least that's what we tell ourselves to salve these experiential wounds.

This reminds me of the scene in the Bruce Almighty movie that Jim Carrey starred in several years ago. The gist of the movie was that Jim Carrey's character, Bruce Nolan, was so angry at god that god allowed Bruce to be him for a while. In the scene that is relevant here, after Bruce was given god-like powers he ended up stuck at the back end of a long automobile-clogged street and he was getting frustrated at this mechanized log-jam so he simply waved and parted his hands and the automobiles ahead of him all immediately moved to the side so as to make a straight path along the street upon which he used to drive on and out of the traffic congestion.

That is how we want our lives to go. We want everything to be exactly and continuously aligned with our demands and wants and desires. Till we die. Okay, maybe just until everyone else dies and moves out of our way by their demise.

But, we all know that life doesn't work that way. It simply doesn't.

So, what is it that we can do about this? Well, I can't summarize it here, when others need to write books about this to help their readers understand and hopefully have their lives more in alignment with what they want.

But, I can start off this topic and end this sharing with one simple tidbit of guidance and insight.

See.

Simply see that you want Life to go 'this' way, instead of 'that' way. That's all.

That truly is all that is needed right now, if that is something that you wish to change in your life.

See that you want Life to align with your needs. See that you don't want to change what you want, but rather want to say that life is unfair and isn't turning out the way it should, for you.

Life doesn't care that much about you. It really doesn't.

Life is doing what it is doing. Regardless of you. Regardless of your wants. Regardless of your desires, and whims, and expectations.

It isn't going to change.

But, you can.

And, again...how?

See.

See what, you ask?

See all that is now, inside of YOU next time life goes 'awry'. See as much of you as you can, given the internal tools that you have in your inner toolbox.

Do this as often as you can, when life invariably does what it does, and doesn't align with you.

We'll continue this discussion again, soon, but in the meantime....

See.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:51 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2009

Oh, Never Mind

At times it really amazes me how the mind can pick one up and carry one away with no thought as to what is actually being done to the holder of the mind itself. It's as if it has a mind of it's own, which it does. But, let me ask you: Would you bite the hand that feeds you? I surmise not.

If you were being held by something would you do everything within your power to cause what is holding you to let go of you and drop you to who knows where?

Well, that is what each of our minds do to us each and every day, many times a day at that, too.

We are the keeper of our mind. It isn't the keeper of us. It doesn't have the magnetic hold on us and our soul as some would have us believe. Or perhaps that we ourselves believe.

"But Andre, the mind is so powerful and I can never get it to stop. So, what do you say to that?"

Yes, I agree, the mind is a powerful intangible instrument with very powerful potentiality as well. Placed in the wrong skull and used in devious ways it truly is capable of very heinous actions against others. We've all seen these instances in recent history. Perhaps, bringing it closer to home, we've been the instigator of these so-called 'I don't know what happened, I just lost my mind' heinous type of actions that are now memories in our mind.

But, put inside the right skull and used in a more, shall we say -- productive manner -- a mind can again be a very powerful instrument for good.

We all know what happens when our mind takes control of us. But, think of what actually happens, when that happens. Our mind, this seemingly concrete object somewhere inside of each of us takes control of our life and our actions and we are but automatons to its whims and desires.

It controls us. Or so we each think.

It's in charge of the show and it will do everything in its power to ensure that the final outcome that it pictures is carried out to fruition, right?

But, what if that fruition is something that entails actually harming the holder of the mind? Each of us, per se.

What if that action entails causing the body to react adversely to what is happening to it, because of what the mind tells it that it should be reacting adversely to?

What if that action causes the body to feel stressed and emotionally charged, say, akin to an emotional powder keg and capable of exploding at any time all the while blowing away oneself and everything, and everyone, within near vicinity?

Does that make sense?

Does it make sense that something that we believe is in charge of each of our personal games in life is in charge of us? Does it make sense that this thing, this mind, actually has all of our best interests in mind when it comes to taking care of each of us and our best interests and needs?

I'll tell you what I think. It doesn't make sense that something that is inside of us, and we tell ourselves that it controls us, has our best interests in mind when the outcome of the actions it creates is harming the keeper of the mind: essentially, each of us.

So, this challenges one to think: Does this actually mean that the mind perhaps is not in control of each of us? How can something that is inside an organism and be harming the organism be something that the organism can actually believe is necessary to the organism and something that should be operating unilaterally inside the organism? Quite unbelievable, isn't it?

I tell you, it very simply just doesn't make sense to me. Period.

This is akin to having a mental parasite inside each of us. Don't you think? I do.

You see, the mind is something that we do need for practical matters. We do need it to figure out which sock fits on which foot, when we get dressed in the morning. And we do need the mind to help us understand that when we're driving our vehicle and we come to a lighted intersection in the road that green means go and red means stop, no matter where we are in the world.

But would we be believing that our mind has our best interests in mind when it tells us that red means go and green means stop? We're liable to get t-boned in the intersection or rear-ended and end up a crispy corpse in a flaming fireball of a wreck.

Seriously.

What makes us think that our mind is our best friend? It's supposed to get each of us everything we want.

It tells us what we want.

It convinces us of what we want.

It makes us do everything that it tells us to do to get what it tells us that we need and want.

And yet we end up bereft and devoid of actual satisfying substance throughout our days and lives, to the end. This doesn't seem right to me, does it to you?

So, where am I going with this? Well, our mind, again, is a necessary instrument for practical everyday matters we all deal with through our existence. But, after that, the mind is literal dross. It's fluff. Excess. The useless fat of life.

It doesn't serve a useful purpose except to burden us with unmet desires and unsatisfactory strivings and needs.

I've learned recently that the mind is what it is. It's not going to go away. We can't kill this internal intangible parasite at the best of times. Neither do we want to. We do need it as much as it needs the body it uses for its host. But, we don't have to be allowing it to run the show and dictate the prescription for living a full life.

It can't. It doesn't.

We can, and we should though.

You see, we can take a different approach to all of this. We can understand that the mind is going to do what it does. That's a fact that isn't going to go away. It's going to be our mental mate through to the end of each of our existence's on this plane.

But, we can also understand that although we can and should allow it to do what it wants us to do as long as it doesn't harm each of us, or others, that doesn't mean that we can't begin to see our-self as something other than this all too convincing internal mental director of our life.

We can work diligently to begin to allow ourselves to begin to entertain the notion that we are not our mind. We are not it. And it is not us. We are something else. We are what we are outside of the mind. Before the mind. Behind the mind. After the mind. When the mind isn't there and pure simple presence of existence is: there we are.

This all sounds all too simplistic, but it is something that is becoming ever more so clear to me as I continue doing what I can to understand this potentially heady and very esoteric viewpoint of existence.

It's not about spirituality. It's about practicality.

This is what is whether one believes it or not. In fact, it's not about belief. It's about experiencing the simple experience of what we are, in between the thoughts and the machination that the mind puts us through each day, each moment.

There is much more to write about on this topic so stay tuned for more articles on the subject. It's something that is becoming a common part of my life and my days and it is causing a wonderful peace to permeate my existence here. Not elation, or enlightenment, but peace.

Pure simple peace.

Or, more accurately, pure, simple, peace of mind.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2009

Being Spiritually Bent

After writing this e-rag for four years now, it has become clear to me just how much spirituality is important to me, even thru this venue. I didn't intend for this avenue of communication to turn out this way when I first started it in 2005.

Did I start it with the intent to share so many articles on spirituality? No.

Did I start this virtual tome to share what being a spiritual human means to me? No.

But here it is, once again. Whether one likes it or not, it is what it has been shared to be.

Several months ago my lifelong best friend came to visit me here in Phoenix Arizona and he commented on my status (still) as a single dad. He knows me better than anyone as we've traversed a diverse and sometimes spiritually treacherous journey together for the past 30 years now. The journey has been rocky for us at times, but we've both carried the other as needed through those trying elevations and descents.

Anyway, when we were having dinner one night he asked me about my search for a female partner in life. I commented that I was seeking a special connection with a woman: I was seeking a spiritual connection with a woman. He inquired as to how I defined a spiritual connection and I found myself challenged answering his inquiry.

I've always known that this 'spiritual thing' is not usual for most humans who are seeking someone to share life with. I've been there on that side of the dance as well for all of my prior dating life. What does that side include? Well, the usual: sex, fun, doing, and simply finding enough in common to warrant continuing to hang out together and if again warranted deepened through a more formal connection if both are so inclined.

But, as I've come out the other side of that dance with partners who've been in my life to-date, I've noticed and embraced the intangible aspect of life, and of existence. It's something that can't be spoken about, per se. But it can be shared. It can be shared through being with the other in a way outside the societal norm and expectation. It involves choosing to see the ever-present aspect of life that is always with us and yet unseeable and, yes, unknowable. Although it sounds contradictory, it is something that when one is 'seeking', does make sense, if not without consideration of the further torment when it can't be 'claimed' no matter how hard one tries to get a firm hold on it.

So, back to the question of my best friend.

I didn't have an immediate answer for him. In fact, I was actually stumped when trying to piece together an answer that felt 'right' to me and really embraced what it was that I was tasting through my spiritual journey during the last decade or so, and as I now dance alone through my existence yet wanting that to change to a pairing and a sharing.

I couldn't answer him outright. Here I'd been searching for a partner in life for a few years now and I couldn't even encapsulate what it was that I was trying to insert into the empty spaces of my busy life and overlay over some of those times too. It's kind of like that old saying that if you don't know what you're looking for, you've found it. Well, I guess I realized that I had found what I was looking for, as I'm still single. And still looking for Mrs. Goodbar.

Since that dinner, I've realized that my so-called definition of what a spiritual connection means to me is a moving containment. It has changed over the years, and yet in some areas it remains static. To me, a spiritual connection is one that includes a consideration and a focus, maybe not wholly, on the aspect of existence that can't be seen. It's there, but it can't be seen. Does that mean to focus on what we are told by others? Well, maybe, at times. But only if those others are truly in the know and on the same path as what one is seeking for their own definition of spirituality.

For me, it means spiritual, not religious. I've never been one for religion. Too structured and too 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not'. Please, I get way more than enough of that every day working for the many-layered bureaucracy I've chosen to work for for many years now.

So, spiritual, not religious. Spiritual, and by that I mean not just about doing. Life is about doing, but there is more than just doing. There is being. Being with life. Being with oneself. Being with existence and all the innate glories that that involves. I don't consider myself overly spiritual, but what I do do is to understand and focus on the layer of being that occurs just before and during all actions on the physical, mental, emotional and relational plane. In all ways, throughout every day. Is this extreme to some? Perhaps. But, for others, they know what I'm saying when I write that I understand that there is something here besides us. What that something is? In my opinion, no one really knows, but there is something here that is living with us.

I so, so much like the analogy of one of my current guides on this journey, John Sherman. He shares that life is kind of like reading a book. When one is reading a book and reading the words and letters that make up those words one is not truly aware that the letters are on and surrounded by the white of the page. The white of the page is there, but it isn't noticed or paid any attention to. It exists along with the words on the page, but it doesn't interfere with the words or the meaning they convey to the reader. John says that life is like that. There is an ever-present awareness that we live in and from and with and it has always been here in every one of us. But, we haven't been aware of it. Or paid any heed to it. But, just because we are (not) doing that, doesn't mean that it isn't here.

I like that analogy.

To me, it really hones in on what I work at very hard to centralize in my life and my existence, as hard as it may be at times: depending upon the situation and the person or people I'm surrounded by and relating to. I'm human after all, and the journey ain't compete yet!

But, it does make for an interesting study throughout one's days here. It's a study that I can't ever see myself giving up on. It's something that is a part of me and something that I know to exist in me and around me and all of us. Even though we aren't aware of it. Is it a belief? No, sounds like it is, but it isn't. I work to make it a knowing: a seeing of what is and always has been.

Does that mean that I go every summer for a few weeks to the mountains to sit in a cave and hum to myself? No.

Does that mean that I delve into four hours of severe meditation every day come hell or high water? No.

Does that mean that I delve into every new book and teaching and tape, and CD, and DVD, and session, and retreat, and presentation that makes its way into my life in some fashion?

To all of that a hearty 'no'. Of course not.

To me, my spirituality is fluid. It's in an ever-present state of flux. It's a focused continuous effort of separating the dross of life and finding what lies underneath to form the structure of existence in this mortal coil we all share.

Life is so joyful and such a blessing, but to understand and include in one's days the understanding and the intent to know the underbelly of life and what it has to show us that was heretofore unseen, that, THAT, is spirituality to me.

Need I say more? Of course I could (and probably will in another future article) but would it make any more sense to anyone who isn't on the spiritual path and coming from this somewhat esoteric bent in life? Probably not.

So, there you have it, and there I have it: at least for right now as I'm still evolving in this carcass and soul that I've been handed. This definition of spirituality I've written about herein will change, similar to me. But, regardless, let's see what comes of this spiritual sharing and pairing we've shared via these words, as a spiritual connection can occur via any avenue - even a very verbose, windbaggy, soapboxey type of blog entry such as this which I'm prone to creating.

Come back for more if your spirit so guides you. Especially if you're a slender, non-smoking woman. And you're single. And you're seeking -- say -- a tall, slender, multi-ethnic, single dad with a French name like, hmmmmm. . .Andre.

Tricked you, didn't I?

I forgot to mention that being spiritual can also be quite FUN!

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(P.S. I was serious about the single women comments though. ;-)

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2009

Exorcising Egoistic Expressionism

We all know people who have egos. We all know people who have big egos. We all know what an ego is, in the usual sense of the definition of the word as it is used in current language. Sigmund Freud coined the term a century ago, and then it was used by Carl Jung with reference to the conscious part of the brain that we all have and most of us use. Now the word 'ego' is generally considered a Freudian term to describe that part of the mind that is present during our waking states as humans. Humans being, that is.

The word ego is also used with reference to spirituality and spiritual teachings. In this context it is meant to reference that part of the mind that is the thinking mind and that is present when we are conscious. Or unconscious, depending on how aware the person is who is being asked to define the term. I take the term 'ego' to mean very simply: the mind.

It is the thoughts that we have and it is the part of our consciousness that serves us when we have practical needs and dis-serves us when we don't want it to be serving us such as when we try to be quiet and aware of our self.

We've all had the person in our life who we defined as having a big ego. That person thought very highly and very much so about themselves. Their world was their self: there was no room for others in that world. So, they are a good example of a person who has a big ego.

The ego can also be referenced with the direction of the practical mind and how it is used constructively to help us during our daily tasks and needs of existence. This is more a common reference and this usage is what holds each of us during our waking states each day.

Now, this article is not meant to go into lengthy detail about the ego, as we all have our own, and we all use it as we see fit, or we're controlled by it until we part from this physical plane.

However, we are not born with the ego, it is created. At least that is how I understand it. The ego comes about as the 'mind' is developed as each of us grow out of our infancy as humans. Some of us have a very strong sense of an ego, perhaps because we weren't having the basic needs that we had as an infant being provided for, and so our self-sustenance went into overdrive to serve that purpose and sometimes, usually, the natural shedding of the need for that overinflated sense of self service doesn't go away as one ages through adulthood.

In fact, and through my own observation, the ego simply becomes larger and more 'solid', so to speak. It controls us more, and it leads us in directions during our day 'that we know not why', to quote some religious book, of which the name has left my mind for the moment.

I'm writing about the ego herein because I recently had a particularly cogent experience with an unveiling of a portion of my own ego. Now, depending upon the person you ask who is a part of my life, you might get differing answers as to how large, or small, my ego is. Prior to this experience I'm about to share, I liked to think that my ego was smaller than most as reducing the size of my ego has been the focus and intent of my inner development workings for many years now.

There are times when I think that I am fully and throughout a spiritual man, who works ever so hard to be spiritual throughout his days here on this physical and spiritual plane we all share. However, this can be proven wrong, as it was to me with this recent everyday occurrence we each go through at some time or another.

Let me explain now.

Recently, I attended a medical appointment with a doctor who is very effectively handling the medical issue that was first brought to the doctor's attention during the first visit, which was now several years ago. There have been in the interim multiple visits with this doctor and even an outpatient medical procedure performed all with the intent of handling the medical issue that caused the need for going to this particular doctor's office those few years ago. So, it is quite obvious that the efforts at medical treatment have been many and of varying degrees of efficacy and outcomes.

What occurred during my last appointment with the doctor was that during the visit we got to talking about related medical conditions that involved that particular part of the body that was of original concern and what all the past treatment focused on. That is, we discussed normal functioning of that area of the body, medical reasons for those related effects and affects, and other updates on the over-the-counter medicines that were now being used per prior direction from the doctor during prior visits throughout the past few years.

The details of what occurred during the visit at the time kind of caught me off guard, but that wasn't where the real insight occurred. It occurred after the visit, for the next several days, but I'm getting ahead of myself so I'll stay on track where I should be.

What happened during this last visit that short while ago was that near the end of the somewhat longer appointment with the doctor, due to all the discussions beforehand, the doctor looked at me and quite unexpectedly asked me very directly and pointedly "Do you know what the original diagnosis was?" I quickly thought about the question and without thinking much I simply answered and we went about finishing up discussions about the medical condition that was being treated, and rather effectively, after all.

I left the doctor's office thinking about the overall outcome, but I also found myself having this nagging sense in my mind about the questioning that occurred near the end of the appointment with the doctor. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew from knowing myself that something was nagging at me for a reason: I just didn't know what it was.

But, that all changed that night during my evening shower, as water running over my body has a way of cleansing me both outside and in, and is when most of my insights happen.

During my shower I distinctly heard this voice speaking in my mind and it was saying to me "That doctor thought you were stupid! Why would you be asked if you knew what the original diagnosis was if only that you were being thought of as being someone who was too stupid to remember why you were there? You didn't bring up all those other medical topics - that doctor did that and you simply answered what was being shared with you - that doesn't mean you're stupid! Write a letter to the head of that office and complain. Do something, because you're not stupid. Don't let that doctor think that you are, Andre!"

That voice was very strong in the shower that night.

And that voice continued for at least the next three or four days, throughout the day and into my sleeping state at night. At one point during this one-sided 'discussion' I was almost convinced that I should write a letter or an email and tell that doctor that I'm not stupid, I'm smart. But, as you may have guessed from reading these articles of mine, that written communication never happened.

Let me state that that voice was very strong and very convincing and was very helpful with helping me see that part of me, my own overinflated sense of ego, that I could only see by an event like that.

Several years ago I most likely would've sent something to that doctor or any other person who 'wronged' me just to prove to them that they were 'wrong' about me as I wouldn't have been able to stand the fact that they were thinking something about me that I knew wasn't 'true'. That's how it would've been before I came to know my own ego more and to understand the workings of the ego, of which, again, we all have one.

And, let me state that they all work the same.

The ego, my ego, your ego, they all get:

Insulted, bruised, incensed, offended, praised, hurt, pained, chided, inflated, maladjusted, pissed-off, enraged, deflated, and on, and on, and on.

Given the right external and/or internal circumstances, this mental machine kicks into overdrive at just the right time when we least need it to. But, if we're not able to slow it down, or stop it, or watch it, it goes right on doing what it does and makes us write those emails, letters, texts, and messages that result in keeping us in its nasty and controlling embrace throughout our days.

Life doesn't have to be about simply following what our supposedly justified reason is for doing what we are telling ourselves we should do about 'that other person who wronged us because they (fill in the blank)'. No.

It can be about going through these proverbial doctor visits in Life and then taking these cleansing showers after the day is done, and all the while staying open to simply listening to the many voices of the ego speaking and moving from one side of the inside of our head to the other side.

Notice I didn't say acting on these voices. I said listening to them. We're all adults here, at least most of us should be: just because we hear something inside our head telling us to blindly and blithely do something doesn't mean we have to follow through with those instructions. At least not immediately, if need be.

One can make the effort to simply stay aware of the voice inside that wants one to act before thinking. Of course, the thinking has already occurred, and yet that is the part of the ego, and comes from the mind that wants us to act. So, a new way of perceiving the situation in the mind needs to occur if change is to be effected.

And what is that perceiving? Quite simply:

Watch the mind.

And, if you want to take it to a more fairly spiritual perspective, you could follow the lead of the 20th Century spiritual guru J. Krishnamurti. Many years ago when asked what his 'secret' to enlightenment was he answered "I don't mind what happens".

Think about that. Not just from the usual sense of paying no attention or heed to what occurs, but additionally from the more esoteric sense that Krishnamurti is showing us at a very deep level that he didn't allow his mind to get involved in what occurs above the level of the body and the mind. After all, the mind and the ego undeniably do serve a purpose and help us mind our p's and q's in Life each day, but the salient question here is "who's minding the ego?"

I know better now who's minding my ego; do you know the same with yours? Do you want to?

Take some time to think about it, I won't mind. At least not for long.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2009

A Conversation with Consciousness

There has been a fair share of books written in recent years about peoples' experiences with having conversations with God/Truth/Reality. If I were to be so blessed so as to have my own Conversation with Consciousness this is what the first of many inquiries, on my part, and answers, on the part of God/Truth/Reality, would include:

ANDRE: I've read about Consciousness and all of that. And it occurred to me that although we come from Consciousness and we go back into Consciousness when the body dies, we are also to be doing everything within our power to wake up out of un-consciousness while we're alive.

And then it struck me. The question, that is.

CONSCIOUSNESS: What question is that?

ANDRE: Why?

CONSCIOUSNESS: WHY?

ANDRE: Yes, 'why?'

WHY wake up? Why do we have to wake up? Why do this? If we come from and go back to Consciousness and it's inside of us while we're alive but we're just not aware of it since we're living from mind during our life here, why do we have to spend all this time working at waking up? Why make the effort? What's so important about waking up? We're going to die into it again, aren't we?

We're all going to go back into it? Aren't we? We're all going to go back into the nirvana of pure Consciousness which we're to understand that we came from and we live from right now, but don't know it.

WE have Consciousness inside of us. We ARE Consciousness and we live from Consciousness. But why wake up now? Why not just wait for the end, and when that happens it's all taken care of?

Why is it so important to wake up while we're alive?

This isn't making sense to me.

CONSCIOUSNESS: Tell me more.

ANDRE: I'm questioning and wondering why I am making this effort to wake up. I'm not blithely following what I've learned and been told I should be doing. I'm wondering WHY I should be doing it.

Oh I know, there's all the stuff about being in pure joy and bliss and one with the Universe and God and Consciousness and all of that. But that's who we are intrinsically anyway, right? That's what we live from. And yet we're doing all that we can to reach this point of pure conscious awareness while we're in this body.

We're living to die to Consciousness. And what for? Why do that?

What is behind the effort? What is behind the reasons and the justifications for the effort?

I can do and I am doing what is needed and necessary for my wakeful state. But why?

I want to know why.

CONSCIOUSNESS: Continue, please.

ANDRE: I want to understand why these efforts are necessary. I want to understand why this is so key to our Path of enlightenment. Is it because once I feel it during this unconsciousness experience of the body that I'll then know and it'll be answered?

I'm being told that I'll know that I'm one with the universe. I'm being told that I'm to understand if I have the penultimate epiphany that I'll not just understand this, but I'll know it.

But is that what it's for?

To know enlightenment? To become Consciousness now? To break through to the other side while in the body?

Why?

CONSCIOUSNESS: Do you really want answers?

ANDRE: Answers? What's behind them? Give me an answer and I'll ask "Why? What's behind that?"

Give me another answer and I'll ask "Why? What's behind that?"

Happiness?

Joy?

Nirvana?

Wakefulness?

Freedom from pain?

In unison with the Present?

Is that what it's for?

Why wake up?

Are we to believe that we're climbing the proverbial spiritual mountain and making the effort to do so simply and solely 'because it's there?' No other reason behind or underneath that?

Because it's there?!

Because that's our purpose in Life?!

Because that's what Life wants of me?!

Because that's what I was put here for: to experience existence in this physical plane on behalf of Consciousness?!

Because I'm carrying the multi-generational burden of the human mind and it's programmed into my genes and DNA and I'm to fight hard to free myself from that so I can be a human who is truly being, different?

Why?

Why wake up?

What's the reason behind waking up?

Is the reason, any reason enough reason to continue to do it?

What is behind all this?

Who is behind all this?

CONSCIOUSNESS: Are you ready to know now?

ANDRE: I don't understand. Speak to me please. Help me understand what it is you want me to understand. Help me know what it is you want me to know. I'm open. I'm raw. I'm willing. I'm listening.

Speak to me. I want to know. I want to know why you want me to wake up to you.

I want to know why you want me to know that you're me, that you're in me, that I'm you.

Speak to me please. I want to know.

CONSCIOUSNESS: You can't handle me. You don't know me and you don't want to know me. I am. I am everything and you don't know me. You can't handle me.

ANDRE: Speak to me. I want to know.

CONSCIOUSNESS: Don't fight me. Don't fight me. Stop fighting me. Stop fighting me. I'm here and you're fighting me. You're getting in my way inside of you: instead you need to get out of my way. I need you to not be there when I'm there.

Wake up to me. Wake up to what I am. Don't think about me, wake up to me. Don't understand me, know me. Know what I am. Know who I am. I am beyond words. I am beyond your thoughts. I am beyond you. I am not there but I am everywhere. You can't think about me like you think. You can't put me into words. You have to know me, you can't write about me. You have to know me. You have to feel me. I am everywhere inside of you. I am you. I am here right now. I am writing these words. I am here with you. I am always here with you. Don't fight me. Don't try to understand me. Don't try to know me. You can't know me because you are me. You can't understand me because I am beyond understanding. I am light. I am everything. I am all. I am what you see. I am what you breathe. I am what you hear. I am what you eat. I am everything including you. You are not apart from me. You are me. There is nothing to know outside of knowing me. I am everywhere, so you can't find me because I am not lost. Stop trying to find me. Stop looking for me because I am right here. Be here with me. Be here now. Love me. Know that I am. You know me. That pain in your heart is the pain of feeling separated from me. Andre, know me. Don't think about me. Don't try to understand me. Feel me inside you. I am you. You are me.

ANDRE: But why?

CONSCIOUSNESS: To know that I'm here. That is why.

To know that I exist now in you, that is why.

I want to see how strong you are. I want to know how strong you are. I want to know that you are the spirit to show me too. I want to speak to you now. I want you to be able to hear me. I want to know life through you now. I am you. I am in this body. I am living through this body that you think you are. You are the mind, I am the body.

This life is my experience, not yours. This life is for me to experience, not you. This life is for me to live, not you. This life is for me to know, not you. These experiences the body is having are for me to know. The body is here for me to live from. That is why.

The brain is needed for the body to survive, but the mind gets in the way when the body grows. It gets in the way of my purpose. It gets in the way of why I am here. It thinks it is me, the mind thinks that the body was given to it. It was given to me to live through and I keep trying to live through so many millions and countless billions of bodies waiting for some of them to allow me to live through their body and their senses. Only a few have been strong enough to do so and to allow me to do so. I'm hoping that you're one of them. I know that you are not right now. Your mind needs to stop struggling with me. You have a strong mind; it gets in the way a lot. It is very strong and is fighting with me and struggling with me.

I don't have to try. I don't have to work at this. I am here. I always will be. Your body won't though. But I'm hoping that I will be able to experience life through your body before it's too late and the body dies and I am just consciousness again.

I want to know human life through you. I want as many experiences of human life through you. I like that. I live for that. It's my time to live. It's my time to be present in the human race. For them to know that I'm here in all of them even though and especially that they don't know.

Even trying to tell you all of this is using your words. This is not about words, this is about knowing. Knowing me. Experiencing me. In you. In your life. Knowing me in your life.

Thank you for listening to me now. I'll speak more soon. You're tired.

ANDRE: Thank you for sharing. I am tired. I think I'll go back to sleep now.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 7:58 PM | Comments (2)

December 20, 2008

Andre On: Being Spiritual

Spirituality is quickly becoming an overused New Age word and a bastardized description of what is truly a glorious manner with which to be in relation to existence. That's too bad, as the dilution of this spiritual leaning that more and more people are having is truly something to behold at times. And not necessarily from a point of personal glory and prosperity, which are becoming all-too-common reasons to ascribe, but with consideration of the constant wonderment and simple awe of it all, in my opinion.

You see, with consideration of one's spirituality, it is all so interesting how this all works out sometimes. What am I talking about with reference to 'this'? Life.

It's amazing how Life all comes together, or it doesn't, as it's supposed to. Not the way we want it to, but the way it just does.

Add to this thought the simple fact that things are brought to us at the level and in the manner that they're brought to us. No sooner, no bigger, no smaller, no easier. "Just right", to quote the middle bear in the fairytale Three Bears story.

And, because of Life being what it is, being on the spiritual path is an interesting challenge at times as it does set one at odds with the message the Universe sometimes is trying so very hard to pound through our thickened skull.

Specifically, when one is 'supposed to be spiritual', everything inside one wants one to just lash out at the universe, or whatever or whoever is nearby. The person doesn't want what is happening to be happening, but it is.

Sometimes this doesn't make sense. In fact it is very nonsensical at times. Life doesn't work the way one wants it to work. It doesn't come together, and then things are, or anything is, hated for that lack of projected outcome. Everything is a resistance to what it is. Life.

It's all a matter of not being with the moment that is in our existence right now.

~~SIDEBAR START~~
I recall reading the editorial preamble in a very spiritually-focused magazine. The female editor was sharing with a co-worker how she was experiencing a particularly difficult Life situation she was currently finding herself in. She wrote that she was really giving herself a hard time because she was upset for so long and having a hard time even stopping the tears when she was sharing this with her co-worker.

Her co-worker asked her why she was being so hard on herself and she replied to him, paraphrasing, "I can't stop myself from running away all the time and breaking down and crying about this event that I'm having trouble handling, and I'm the editor of a major magazine on spirituality!"

Her co-worker rhetorically responded, paraphrasing, "I thought the whole point of spirituality was not that you run away...but how quickly you return?"
~~~SIDEBAR END~~~

And therein lays the rub with one purporting to be spiritual. If one is spiritual, they aren't doing what is presently being done to them. They aren't lashing out, as that is hurtful. They aren't raging, as that is harmful to the Self.

They aren't blaming or criticizing or condemning, all of which become second nature to most of us at times of Life not meeting our needs.

But, again, they're all very unspiritual outcomes, which must only be coming from a space that is outside the spiritual realm inside the person touting his/her spirituality.

If a person who believes that she/he is spiritual wants to really get down to brass tacks with all this stuff about spirituality, it can get pretty intense once the dross is separated from the substance.

You see, even writing words is using the mind. It's writing from what's in the mind, which essentially is memory. It's using what is in thought, and mind, and memory to create something in the present.

Yet, it's all still old. It's something created using the mind. It's a new duplicate of sorts. That goes against everything that is supposed to define one as being a new and original spiritual being.

So how does one balance the need for the practical, like writing, with the need for the spiritual, like practicing honoring the spirit inside one - which is also in each of us? Well, it begins with personal practices that are personal to that person who has chosen to be spiritual.

Meditation, reading good books, watchfulness, conscious effort. All of these honor the spirit inside of each of us if we use them as meant.

But, writing something, in essence, is not using spirit. It's using the mind. So even doing something like writing this blog article would, and could, and should be considered to be quite un-spiritual. Essentially.

So, what can be done about this?

Well, one can justify that sharing a writing such as this is necessary so as to plant the seed in others as to what is along the spiritual path, and what is necessary to traverse to that end. In this case, small steps are necessary. Small steps that lead forward and further along the path, to the enrichment that is necessary for all of us and to the enlightenment that few seek before they die.

Or, in reality this can be made easier when one is sharing the words and the text from a place of sharing for others' benefit, not just from a perspective of allowing the mind to exercise itself once again via the placement of re-configured and re-hashed words on the digital table of a blog.

But, there is a conundrum that has to be gotten past. There is a sharing to be had from all of us. There is a part inside of each of us that is all the same and makes us all one and is similar to the Everything, which is the Universe. If this sharing can start from this place then the usage of the mind is of benefit, in a larger sense.

That is what I have to hold dear to with this blog entry. I have to realize that my sharing to you today is of benefit to only a few of you who read this digital e-rag. Why? Because the writing is coming from a place inside of me that is generated from a place of no-mind. And that is how and why it is written with the intent of truthful sharing and helpfulness.

Once understood, the usage of the written word can be so powerful and enlightening and the words that are shared from a place of higher truth are very easy to read and understand, or they're not, depending upon who is doing the reading, comprehending, and being triggered on a higher level.

So where does all this lead? Well, from personal example, to more of a cathartic release for me, the writer. That is, a sharing of my mind via these words and an undercoating of spirit beneath the visual text. It's what I strive to do with each writing.

I don't want to use just words. You can read those anywhere. I want to share what is genuine and most may not yet know about. I want to share what can genuinely help you understand that there is a life beyond the one seen with the naked eye and with the untrained senses.

This is all new to me too. There have been billions before me, yet very few who saw what was necessary. And for most of those who did experience that seeing, we now only have their words to read and learn from. But oh what words they are. Eckhart. Schopenhauer. Jung. Krishnamurti. Osho. Howard.

They're all sharing about and relaying from the same basic place inside of each of us. The place we all share. The place where truth, and honesty, and genuineness, and love come from. It's in every one of us, but we just don't know it because the mind gets in the way of the knowing.

So although an exercise such as this cohesive binding of text via this blog writing is good for most, it also strengthens the mind if seen for more than what it first appears to be. That is, a simple tool to hopefully impart information that is timeless and yet truthful to humans.

There is a place of knowing inside of each of us that can be shared. It doesn't have to occur just via words. It can be shared by how we are in the world. By how we behave and how we interrelate with our world. It is a place of beauty and Oneness and Spirit and Light.

I know, it all sounds pretty weird to most, but that doesn't take away the fact that it is there. And if you were able to allow yourself to become so very still, you too would know it without a doubt. And without needing to read anything.

And, again, that is what I hope to help via the words on this blog and the sharing that is here for you to read from and hopefully use as a catalyst to a higher plane of consciousness.

It's not complicated; in fact it's the reverse. But, the mind just wants us to believe that this is something that needs to be understood and reasoned with and learned and all that intellectual stuff and mumbo-jumbo. No.

It's a simple knowing that there is a place inside that goes beyond reading, and language.

It's in all of us and more importantly, it goes beyond the written word.

It's IN all of us.

Whether you believe it or not, that's a fact. But, you don't really have to believe anyway, as that doesn't take away the fact that it's been there since your birth and is your birthright as a human being.

Or should I say: a human, being?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 6, 2008

Commentaries on Life: Live From Yourself

If a blog author were to always write what was on his or her mind, that blog author would be in serious trouble. Myself included. You see, a weblog is nothing more than just that. An online written vomiting, so to speak, of whatever happens to please the author of that digital e-rag, which then becomes the next particular entry for the moment on that electronic tablet out in cyberspace.

The readers of that blog are therein stuck with reading the droning diatribes and comments from that blog author, assuming they choose to do so. It really is something that amazes me at times. That is, that people take up so much of their time reading the words of other people, in most cases people they don't even know and probably will never meet in this lifetime. Especially with the Internet being global and very little face-to-face contact or two-way conversations being possible.

So what is a person to do? Simply read the one-way communication from the blog author. And thereafter choose to absorb what is read and take it to heart, or ignore it for another day, or altogether.

Again, the process of this amazes me to this day. Specifically, that people are so entrenched by what other people have to say and then swayed by their opinion, after assuming that just because they share something on this digital environment that what they have to share is of importance.

Let me tell you something. It's not.

Make up your own mind of what you think is important and real. Stop reading all those blogs out there that spew the same information over and over and over beyond count.

...Opinions of others? Who cares.

...What other people think of the issue or matter of the day or what's at hand? Does that really matter to you? I'll bet not.

So stop reading what amounts to someone else's thoughts and brain signals and wasting your oh-so-precious time doing so.

Cultivate your own thoughts. Think for yourself. Learn to trust what your mind is telling you is right about the situation or matter in front of you. What other people think is meaningless in the scheme of things, or in your life for that matter.

You need to learn what you need for yourself, by yourself, on your own. Don't try to take it from others, it can't be had. Life isn't something that can be taken, or borrowed, or lived symbiotically now that you're grown up.

There's an old saying in the spiritual realm of teachings of higher insights, which I'll badly bastardize so excuse me for that, which states that people don't look at the moon that the master is pointing to with his finger. Instead, they look at his finger.

What does this mean and what esoteric wisdom is it trying to impart? It's saying that the master, the person with the knowing, is pointing to what needs to be seen, what needs to be known, but people are looking at the object doing the pointing. That is not the way to the knowing. That is not the way to learn about the situation Life presents to you each and every moment and what needs to be culled from it to grow and develop with.

Each of us needs to learn for ourselves.

Oh, of course I know you already defiantly think that you are. But, I ask you, why are you reading this blog of mine? Do you think that I actually have something to share with you that is of importance? Yes, it has importance, but the importance is mine and my knowledge and my experience. It's something that I've experienced and have integrated into my knowing and my mental database.

I can only share that with you through description and insights. But the real knowing comes through experience: The seeing of the moon, and not the looking at the finger pointing to it. In this case it's not my finger you need to be focusing on.

There is a lot to know about this world. We're virtual babies in it, and there is so much incredible and beyond description experiences that each of us have that just go by us each and every day because we're wondering where the Life is all around us because we're too busy in our minds to see it.

We want to know what Life is all about but we're waiting for someone else to tell us. That's not the way it works.

I recall hearing on a spiritual podcast series that I listen to about the fish in the ocean asking the other fish where he can get some water to drink because he's thirsty.

To make it out of the ordinary, I always change that example to the analogy of us humans thinking that we're being oxygen-deprived when we're breathing air and have oxygen in virtually every cell of our incredible bodies. It's all around us, it's in us. Literally. But we're having trouble breathing. We can't catch our breath because we're out of breath with Life.

Life is full. Life is filled with wondrous experiences but each of those experiences is truly unique to each of us. No one can truly tell you what you need in Life. No one goes to bed with you and makes you go to sleep. You go to sleep alone. Even if you've been sleeping aside the same other person in that same bed for 50 years. You're alone. You're going to die alone. Do you think you can choose to live alone and therein fill yourself with the wonder of existence? Truly?

Life is an amazing organism. It's in us. It's around us. It sustains us. It's responsible for us. And there we are, waiting for someone else to bring it to us. Wondering when someone else is going to fill our brain with information so we have something to think about when we're bored. It's a truly vicious cycle that we have gotten ourselves into, especially with the consideration of the blessing we've all been given through the creation of this beautiful generator of Life inside of each of our skulls.

I know what I'm saying is rather harsh. But it also needs to be said, or in this case written. Sure, we all need to know certain amounts of practical and in some cases life-saving information that is now all over the Internet. But, really, how much of it truly and genuinely has the ability to change your day, or your life? I'll bet virtually none of it. There is very very little useful information out there that can impart useful learning to us, on a daily basis.

I remember reading in one of the writings from a great spiritual teacher I follow, Vernon Howard, that most people will go to their graves never having an original thought. Pun aside, think about that.

Think about the truth and the weight of that statement. Doesn't it hurt to know that that is probably true? You're thinking right now from a brain that has been filled with information from your parents, teachers, religious leaders, media and friends, spouses, and even children. It's a vicious cycle.

Where are your thoughts in all this? Where are all your original and truly your own to own experiences of life that only you 'know'? I'll bet they're not taking up a whole lot of space in that brain in your skull because you rely too heavily on what others think and have to say and what information they have to share.

Think about that statement.

If most people never have an original thought their entire life, and they're the ones that you're reading about and thinking that they have something useful to share, how is it that you're learning something that is new and original? Is it even possible? Are you learning information and teachings from people who aren't simply just repeating what has been hashed and rehashed over too many times to count through the generations and life cycle of the human race?

It's a thing to consider isn't it? That is, the fact that most people doing this blogging thing really don't even have anything original to say, myself included. There is very little that is really new in this world as far as 'information' goes.

But, oh, give me an opportunity to view the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean on a cool fall day, and I don't want information from anyone telling me about that experience.

I don't want to read about it.

I don't want to see a glossy picture of it.

I don't want to be told about it.

I just want to experience it for myself, clear and free.

And then that experience becomes a true and virgin knowing about Life, for me. No one told me about it. No one shared their description about it, as best they could via some digital e-rag. I was there. I was the witness to it via my own visual orbs and retinal cortexes to my brain, and then my heart, and finally my soul.

Think about that. Do you really need anyone telling you about life and what it is all about? Whether that telling is about the economy, relationships, religion, fitness, the earth, or even spirituality?

Sure there are many who have gone before you, but how many of them can truly and completely share that experience of the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean? They can do all that they humanly can to bring the description of it to you, they can write the most poetic prose and use the most cogent descriptors imaginable, but still, the experience is theirs, not yours.

Am I getting to you?

Am I getting in?

Am I helping you see that the moon is waiting for you to truly see it for yourself?

Am I helping you understand that only you can get yourself to that beach at sunrise, and only you can sit down in the early twilight of the day and wait for that beautiful celestial blazing sphere of life to shine its glowing radiance over the sparkling waters of the ocean and onto and into you? No one can give that to you.

No one can give you that experience, that knowing. It's up to you. It's then going to be an experience that transcends knowing, that transcends words, that can't be described.

It simply, very simply, like Life, has to be experienced. It has to be known.

How much are you willing to know for yourself what Life is all about, not what you're being told it is? How much are you willing to give up reading about what's going on in the world, your world, and instead take in the experience of it yourself?

Your brain can handle it, trust me on that. Remember, you're only using 10 percent of it, if the scientists are right. So, how about you do what you can to fill up as much of the remaining and empty 90 percent before you no longer have a life to live, a brain to fill, or a blog to read.

...Including this one from this blogging dude.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

Posted by Andre Best at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2008

Making Meaninglessness Meaningful

Life boils down to nothing. It has no purpose and it has no meaning in and of itself. It is what we make it though. Nothing more, nothing less.

It's not about what we are doing with ourselves and our Self's. Rather, it's how we do what we're doing with ourselves that matters. That's what brings the meaning in to life and nothing else.

There is nothing special that can be done that has wonderful meaning to it. Want proof? Two people can be doing the exact same thing and be experiencing two completely different outcomes of that doing. It's not in the doing, it's how the doing is being done. Nothing more, nothing less.

There is no answer to Life.

There is nothing that can be figured out and one can then lie back on their laurels and say "there I have it all figured out, just do this." No. There is nothing like that that exists. Yet we're all seeking it. Even this writer, as I too am a human trying to be. So don't believe what I say. Like Krishnamurti repeatedly espoused during his life, go find out for yourself and you'll KNOW.

We're all looking for that magical potion to drink, or experience, or obtain, or own, that brings lasting satisfaction and contentment though some doing and some action that we're to undertake.

But you know that it's not there. It doesn't exist. Down deep you really know, even though you probably don't want to admit to yourself because of what that'll bring on during your days, and nights.

It's nowhere to be found on this physical plane we occupy.

There is nothing to find. That's the simple brutal truth of the matter.

There is nowhere to go.

There is nothing to do.

There is only something to see that will get you to the place that drives you to continue to get up each morning.

There is not something to understand.

There is not something that needs to be done.

There is only the knowing that life doesn't have any sense to it. It just makes sense as life unto itself.

Life, oneness, doesn't strive for meaning. But we strive to put the meaning into our life. That is where we go wrong.

We don't accept what is. We don't accept what is happening to us and around us and by us, so we live in a constant state of dissatisfaction and discontentment with what actually is.

But the is-ness of our life is what we have done to individually create it. It is what we make of our days and nothing more, nothing less. That is where we happen to go wrong with our living.

We exist. Period. Nothing more, nothing less.

We exist to exist yet we want to find something that has meaning throughout our days of existence. Even if that something means doing something like helping other people. Please...

We can't even help ourselves to live a life full of meaning. How can one help others when one can't help oneself find lasting meaning?

There is no meaning to life. There is nothing that makes sense. But we strive to find that thing that we have convinced ourselves exists just beyond our reach.

But we never reach it because it is unreachable through doing: it is only reachable by being at oneness with Life. Therein is the meaning. Therein is the meaning through the doing no matter what that doing is.

I know this probably doesn't make sense and may even provide you with more doubt and confusion than it answers anything. But, if so, that shows how much you are wrapped up still in your doing -- so consider that a blessing to know.

Also, this writing is not meant to have one think "life has no meaning so I have to find the nearest cliff or bridge to jump off of." No.

It's about sharing a conscious knowing. Not a belief. Not a mental decision. Not a doing. Not even a 'getting it' or an understanding.

It's not about letting go of anything. It's about knowing, inside, in your heart, that the meaning is just there when the striving for meaning is let go.

We put the layer of meaning onto an activity, every activity, and then that activity is what provides meaning to our life, to our existence. No.

Again, that is where we go wrong. We make the activity the creator of our meaning instead of understanding with conscious knowing that the meaninglessness of existence brings meaning into every activity.

Just be.

Be with what is in your life right now.

Be with what is when you are doing what you are doing during your days, even when you are reading these words. That is the meaning you strive for right now. Then the next thing you do is there to give you more meaning and to make your life make sense.

There is nothing to know.

There is nothing special to do.

There is nothing.

Period.

There just 'is.'

Meaning -- look for it and you'll never find it. But, find meaning in meaninglessness and you'll know the meaning of life, and living.

Promise. Cross my heart and hope to live.

You too?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2008

Sucker Punched By A Sucker

Have you ever noticed how Life sometimes comes overall from a place of showing one that it is ongoing, never stopping, and seamless in its approach to showing one what it wants one to know?

If only one has ears to hear, it doesn't stop in what it wants one to know. It continues forward and continues to show one, sometimes in the smallest instance just what one is supposed to learn about oneself and then hopefully incorporate into their understanding of themself and then share that with the world.

For me, it's most interesting that this showing comes about in the smallest of experiences, especially for me one that was particularly painful to watch, and yet not watch.

I'll explain.

I recently went to the postal store where I receive my mail and there were a couple of young people at the counter getting their mail needs met. There was also this woman, a middle-aged mother in front of me who had a young son with her. He was about five-years old and when I entered the store I came upon an interaction between the two of them that was in midstream.

The boy wanted a candy sucker from the candy dish on the countertop, and the mother wanted to do her mailing task at the counter. The boy wasn't agreeing with this and simply wanted to be given a sucker and so he was doing everything he could to get her attention to let her know just how badly he wanted the sucker. This was about the extent of what was clear to me.

What happened next was what made me think about my role in life with my younger sons and also filled me with feelings related to them as young souls and my relationship with them as an older soul who supposedly 'knows better'.

Again...

You see, the mother just wanted to do her mailing task and then get out of the store. But, the boy was being a boy. He was being a child and rightfully so. He wanted that brightly colored, plastic-wrapped sucker on the countertop to put in his mouth and, like the proverbial dog with a bone, he wasn't going to let go of that goal that he had in his mind. I could tell by the way he was acting that for him, the obtainment of the sucker was just about his only reason for existence at that moment. That's how determined he was.

But, he wouldn't quit nagging his mother by crying, repeatedly asking for the candy sucker, and periodically wailing from his sitting position on the carpet floor, so what his mother eventually did was she told him to get up off the carpet and stand up, and then go stand against the wall of the store and be quiet over there.

The boy did this but he was still loudly crying and asking for the sucker, and now, for her attention. This wasn't good for the mother, and I could tell that the young couple at the counter being served by the mail store staff were also not too impressed with what was transpiring nearby.

I, for one, didn't care. I'm still in those days at times where my own sons have the tendency to behave like that boy, and I have to deal with the situation like that mother did.

Anyway, after about a minute of listening to the boy continuing to cry and maintain his position of emotional upset from the corner of the store he was now standing in, the boy's mother left the line we were in and walked over to him. I was sure more severe discipline was to follow at this point, as is usual for most parents, and so I found myself closely listening not only to what the mother was saying to the boy, but more importantly, how she was saying it.

But she showed herself to be a model of parenthood that I resonated with. She didn't hit the boy, she didn't yell at the boy, she didn't lose her temper with the boy, and she didn't shame the child. She didn't have an undercurrent of anger in her words as she was talking with the boy and doing her best to discipline him via the timeout he was now in.

She handled the situation very well and because the boy still didn't quiet down, she had to grab him by the hand and lead him out of the store. Overall, I thought she handled herself very appropriately, considering the circumstances, and did a wonderful effort of doing what she could to take control of the situation.

The only thing that I did find myself questioning as I was watching this event is that I thought she was too concerned about what all of us in line were thinking, due to the fact that she wanted him to be quiet, I'm assuming so that the rest of us could go about conducting our business with our mail. Personally, I wouldn't have been so concerned now, after all these years of parenting, of what others think during a time like that. My focus would've been the child's needs and how to best handle that.

I would've simply and immediately taken the boy out of the situation, and not try to get him to be quiet. That is, I'd have taken him outside much sooner than she had, so as to let him have his little screaming fit outside in the wide open space of the parking lot. Forget the mail, it can wait!

Anyway, I digressed so I'll step down off the soapbox I was preaching from.

Continuing...

The insight behind this experience which I was brought into was the insight of experiencing regret. That is, I felt that the strings inside of me were being pulled into a position of regret.

You see, that boy only wanted what he wanted. Yet, the mother also had her own agenda which she needed to take care of, on a practical sense.

Yet, the boy was denied what he wanted, which simply was a candy sucker.

How many times have we been denied in our lives what we want? How many times have we thrown a temper tantrum this past week - at least inside, so that others don't notice and we still are viewed as mature and capable adults?

I ask you, when was the last time you threw a tantrum when you didn't get what you wanted?

And when was the first time you threw one that you remember?

Were you hit to get you to shut up?

Were you criticized and blasted emotionally for having a normal human desire squelched out of existence?

Were you ignored until you knew that you were absolutely not going to get what it was that you wanted?

Or were you threatened, perhaps within an inch of your life to shut up and never behave like that again in public with all those other 'nice people' watching you be what - a child - for heaven's sake.

How many times have you wanted something as a fully-grown human, and now that the toys can't be thrown, and the feet can't be stomped and the pants can't be wetted, or the breath held till the face turns blue, how many times have you just wanted to do that so as to get what it was that you wanted?

And yet, even today, how many times has it happened that nobody really cared about what it was that you wanted, or were even aware that you were screaming inside for that sweetness Life was desiring to deliver to you?

You see, where I felt regret over this experience, was not so much just for the young boy, it was also for myself and for ALL of us, as children, who didn't get what we wanted those so, so, so many times we simply wanted to taste the sweetness of Life.

It really isn't fair that Life doesn't give us what we want when we want it and in the way we want it. Is it?

But, again, how many of us were wronged and made to believe that we were wrong for wanting what we justifiably wanted and simply needed as a child?

How many of us were hit into submission?

Or shamed? Or belittled? Or criticized? Or ignored? It's not pretty how the stopping asking for things covertly and overtly happens, is it? But, again, it's no surprise.

I regretted that I couldn't always get what I wanted, the many simple things that I wanted when I was a young boy. I can't even remember almost all of them, yet they're still there inside. Some in memories now that I don't want to relive again in some instances. That's just part of the human experience.

We have all had to live through not getting the special Life sucker that we wanted. Even if it only cost a penny to purchase, and now is so cheap to make that it's given away for free in stores.

It doesn't really matter what that was all about, yet, it was all about the need, the wanting, the fulfilling of our hearts desire which at that age does take the shape of a candy sucker.

At that age that sucker is the world to us because we're all present every moment. Our world is right now and the sucker is right now so what's wrong with wanting it right now?

To us, and our young minds, nothing was wrong with wanting what we wanted. Yet, Life had a different agenda for us. It wanted us to know that there are others in our existence to consider. Be they family or strangers in line in the store.

It wanted us to know that we are not the sole focus of our caregivers at times like that. It wanted us to learn the lesson that Life doesn't always give us what we think we want, when we want it.

It wanted us to know that there are some things in life that are unreachable and perhaps always may be. But that doesn't have any permanent impact on us, intrinsically.

Life wants us to know that our worth, who we are, who we are being in the present is not predicated upon that candy sucker.

But, when we were five-years old we didn't know about that stuff. And we didn't care about that stuff.

But now that we're 45-years ripe, or 62 years of age, we should know better.

Let me finish by asking you: Do you know better now?

And, if so, what are you going to do, even deep inside, the next time Life thwarts what you want and you think you have full right to right now?

Think about it, before you become the next sucker and let what Life throws at you become a sucker punch.

We all know it's just a matter of time till that next experience arrives right in front of our face to learn from. Or not.

Interesting food for thought, eh? Get the sucker and be a sucker, or forget the sucker and BE with Life.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

Posted by Andre Best at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2008

Crying Over Spilled Milk

Have you ever spilled milk? Really. The actual stuff. Milk. Have you ever spilled milk? It could be that some flopped over the edge of the glass you were holding it in. Or it could be that the entire milk jug inexplicably slipped out of your hand as you were carrying the carton across the kitchen to put it back in the refrigerator.

And then it happened.

The milk hit the floor and splashed out either a few small drops of spray across the floor, or, in the case of the milk jug, milk droplets and spray went over the entire bottom half of every kitchen cabinet within 10 feet of the event. Not to mention the bottom half of your trousers, or legs, or all up the dog's behind. Not a pretty sight to be a part of or view occurring, is it? Or was it?

But, here's where everything gets really interesting and will be the focus of this article and hopefully proffer cogent words to help you with your desire to be a better human being in your household. Again, if that's not you, then I'd advise you to stop reading and flip your attention over to another website or the nearby television listings.

Anyway, back on track here with the spilled milk subject...

What I would like to focus on here is not the seeming messiness of the actual spilling of the milk, but instead the spilling of something else which usually occurs just right after the liquid makes its way all across the kitchen floor tiles.

And that spilling would be what happens in you that makes its way outside of you into the kitchen environment, usually within earshot of all those in the area, or sometimes even in other rooms of the house. And even in some rare cases, in the households of the next door neighbors who happen to have their kitchen windows open while they're doing the dishes.

What am I alluding to here? I'm mentioning the literal tirade of words, epithets and profanities that usually come out of most people's mouth immediately succeeding an event such as this.

The milk spills, and the mouth opens, and every single mama's-going-to-wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap-kind-of-word comes spewing out of your mouth. Right?

And all of it in reaction to what happened in front of you on the kitchen floor and through this unexpected accident of something being dropped on the floor and leading to a mess that you no doubt will have to handle and scream about, or simply just have to deal with by cleaning it up.

Wow, what a hassle eh?

Life was going oh-so-fine-and-dandy and then this stupid obnoxious milk had to go and spill itself all over the nice clean floor.

And cupboard.

And fridge.

And oven.

And dishwasher front.

And on my newly polished shoes.

And on my nice dress.

Oh, the horror of it all, eh? Life is just so unfair at times, isn't it?

I think you can tell that I'm being facetious here. I'm allowing you to get into the moment that most of us have experienced at some time or another during our life and time here on this planet.

But, seriously, it really is a volatile situation isn't it, when something like this happens, isn't it?

The milk isn't allowed to just spill is it? It has to spill and that spillage has to, it just HAS to, be followed with any number of streams of profane statements and expletives that your worst enemy shouldn't be privy to, right? But, the real question here is...why does that have to happen?

Why does a simple thing like spilling the milk on the floor result in the reaction that most of us have fallen victim to? Why does that have to happen?

Well, here's something to think about.

It doesn't have to happen.

You heard me right.

Having that reaction, even having any reaction of any type, doesn't have to happen at all.

The milk can just spill. And then the event is done. There doesn't have to be anything following it in you. Did you know that? Did you know that that was a possibility?

Did you know that just because the Universe decides to spill your glass of milk all over your nice floor on this morning of this day, that doesn't mean that you have to react to that event?

It can just happen. Just like it just did. In fact, it can just occur as it already has, and you can just witness it occurring. And, maybe even feel it too as the wetness seeps down along your legs and into your shoes. That's all okay though.

Why am I saying this?

Because Life is happening but you don't have to happen like you've always happened. You don't have to be the victim of that milk spilling like you always have been before.

Let me tell you something.

Do you want to know what someone is really like? Do you want to know what a person is really, really like inside? The absolute real person living inside that person, not the person that they are telling you that they are? This is a way to find out who that person really is.

Watch them when they spill milk all over their kitchen floor. Watch them closely. Watch their reaction to that event.

That's the REAL person there reacting to that event. Not the person they just told you they were as they described themselves to you ever so nicely. That's not who they are.

They're the person who is reacting to the milk spillage.

Are they a screaming, angry lunatic blaming everybody and everything under the sun for this horrible occurrence?

Or are they a person who shrugs their shoulders and says, "Oh well. I guess I had better get to work cleaning this up because no one else should or has to."

Which person would you rather be in relationship with when the going of Life gets tough? Would you rather be in the company of the raving lunatic and have them react to something at your side? Or would you rather be at the side of the person who is calmly and simply dealing with the situation at hand?

I don't know about you, but I'd rather be with the person who is able to see the situation for what it is and then act accordingly.

I have a good and long-term friend who told me a few years ago that he had just recently accidentally dropped a glass of juice on the kitchen floor. I guess the glass was sweaty from sitting on the counter for a bit, so it was slippery when he picked it up and he dropped it and juice and glass went flying everywhere in the kitchen.

My friend told me that prior to following the truth teachings of people like Vernon Howard and Guy Finley and Osho, that he used to be the raving lunatic. He told me that he used to say 85 '(very profane words about one's mother which I won't print)'. But, this time he just said 'darn it'. And then he cleaned up the mess in front of him.

That's a man that I'm glad to be friends with. He has done the work to change his reaction to the everyday occurrences that Life inevitably brings to us across our Path and then lays down the Glove of Life, so to speak, and asks us to deal with what is in front of us.

So, let me ask you, as I lay the glove in front of you with this article: Are you willing to deal with what is in front of you and do the work to change your reaction, if it needs changing, to one of acceptance?

Or are you going to ignore what is being proffered and continue with your fighting of the many events that Life brings that aren't in accord with your wants? If this is you, I'd suggest that you might want to remember just how many times Life has spilled the glass of milk you were carrying when you were least expecting it.

And, let me ask you: Do you really want to go to your grave reacting as you always have as a raving lunatic? If so, sounds to me like a life bereft of Life. So, good luck with that.

But, if not, I suggest that you do the work to be able to see the event as it happens, and then simply clean up the mess and move on with your life.

The kitchen will be clean.

The floor will be dry.

Your clothes will be changed.

And you'll be on your way to the store to get another jug of milk which just may spill for another milk drinker in the household.

But, if they were so lucky so as to have witnessed this newly changed reaction in you, think of the wonderful seed of opportunity for peace and love you just planted in them and their world by showing them right then and there that another type of response is possible to events like this.

Good for you for doing the work, if indeed you have and do decide to do so. And thank you for making the world a better place for all.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2008

An Article About Nothing

Ever watch that old Seinfeld television show which ran for many years and essentially was about nothing? Well, this article is going to be the same.

I know some of you might be thinking to yourself, 'Hey, André, what's the change from your usual ramblings?' But, again, I hope to be different with this article.

You see, sometimes a person needs downtime, that is, time when they don't need to do anything in particular. Time to be quiet. Time to reflect. Time to shut down the ever-present activities of the mind, which usually starts the moment we wake up each day and our mind 'boots up' with us.

Sometimes one just needs to take time to him/herself. Time to just replenish the supplies, so to speak. And this time can be time well spent. Or it cannot.

It all depends upon the person allowing themself to experience the downtime.

We all have time on our hands. But do we ever do anything of particular relevance with that time? That is, anything of particular usage, or benefit, to us and or to others, with that time that we have to 'spare'?

I'll bet not. Speaking from experience, that time is not time well spent.

When there comes time that one finds oneself in a place of 'not having anything to do', one sure as heck finds something to do.

Even if it's cleaning out the dresser drawers and ironing the underwear you find in a bunch in the top drawer. And the socks too. Better iron those.

You see, none of us do particularly well when there is nothing to do.

Or nothing to be done.

Or nothing to be gained from doing nothing.

Especially us men.

We're programmed to feel guilty and unproductive when there's nothing to do. We're told that we should be making use of our time. And use of our mind. We're not supposed to be wasting precious minutes doing nothing.

We're told and it's ingrained in our little brains from a very early age, that doing nothing is wrong.

But, let's question that. Is it?

What is it about doing nothing that is viewed as being 'wrong'?

What is it about not doing anything that is not right?

I answer - nothing. Nothing is wrong with doing nothing.

I think that doing nothing is doing something.

I think that doing nothing is very productive and useful and beneficial and worthwhile. Nothing is the calming of the mind. Nothing is when the mind has ceased in its ever-present production of actions and things to do lists that we fall victim to and feel compelled to comply with fulfilling.

Nothing is the space in time, between the doings, when we are given a golden opportunity to do something that will benefit us wholeheartedly, in the long run.

Nowadays, doing 'nothing' is a bad word. But it is such a good experience to truly allow ones Self to do nothing.

Think about it. It's really pretty simple to do nothing.

Even think about the term doing nothing.

One would think, or question, perhaps - "how do you DO nothing?" Isn't that doing something, if you're 'doing' it?

Technically, I suppose it is. But, simplistically, it isn't.

You see, we all know exactly what it is that I'm writing about here.

Doing nothing is simply that. Just doing nothing, when nothing presents itself as an opportunity to experience.

We all have those moments, usually at the end of our day, where we have an opportunity to just 'wind down'. But what do most of us do with that time, or those moments? We busy them up doing something.

We take the golden opportunity to do something and we fill it with something. And that something is usually mindless television viewing and channel flipping. Or being on the Internet website surfing.

How about instead of doing this you take the opportunity that is in front of you, that break in the busy-ness of your life, and simply do nothing.

Just 'be'.

Just allow yourself to experience the emptiness of the present moment that is in front of you.

The present moment is full of so so much that it really can't all be taken in at once. It's so complete it's scary. And it scares most of us too. That's why we're all so busy.

Personally, I've had plenty of time to ponder the vacant and empty moments in my life, and there have been many. They are so rich with Life though. They are so complete. They are a doing of a magnitude and scale that my mind could never create.

One of my favorite authors - Guy Finley - said once, several years ago that "Heaven is the space between two thoughts."

I say that the space he mentions is actually 'nothing'. Yet, nothing is everything.

Nothing is all. There is everything that one could want to be found in the moments containing nothing in one's life.

And what would that nothing be? It's your nothing, so that depends upon you.

Your mind isn't going to like it when you allow and work at having the nothings be just what they are during your day.

Not busying them up with thought, or doing, or thinking, or pondering, or fantasizing. None of that.

One doesn't have to get fancy and find a special cushion to sit on in a special room at a special time, in a special pose. Of course, if that works and has worked for you, great. But, it doesn't have to be that way.

The opportunities for nothing happen throughout our days here, every day, all our life. One doesn't need special training to do nothing. Or a guru. Or even a book to have been read.

No.

Just allow nothing to exist for you.

And know that what comes up is going to be about as individual as you are.

But, even in spite of this, what you will be experiencing, once you're able to make the most of your nothing moments will be absolutely everything.

It'll be an experiencing of the same nothing that we came from, and we're all aging towards.

It'll be the nothing that is timeless and is so full of Life.

I know this all may sound like a lot of nothing to you. But that's okay.

After all, it's up to you.

You can choose to do something. Or you can choose nothing.

Do yourself a favor, and choose nothing.

And then...watch.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2008

The Matter With Mind Over Matter

I sometimes find it interesting when it comes to writing that I flow with whatever comes into my mind. In a way it becomes a cathartic release of sorts and allows me to move what was beforehand in my mind onto paper, or e-paper, so to speak and in that way get it out of my head.

I know I've written about this subject before in another of my blog articles, but it's a good thing worth repeating. That is, each of us needs time to process whatever it is that we need to process, and using whatever medium we can or do have at our disposal is usually one way to go about processing the electrons firing in our head, and making them productive in some outer way.

Usually and hopefully not at the harm of another though. That's not productive. But find a way that allows for the release of whatever it is you find in your head and you'll do fine.

I'm tempted to begin with whatever comes to mind when it comes to writing this article. But that's okay as this is what needs to be raised at the time it needs to be written. There is nothing wrong with saying what needs to be said, especially when that saying is something that needs to be said and shared and expressed.

Expression is the will of the One and that is what one needs to know as for the expression of what is necessary. There is nothing sacred about expressing what is on one's mind. It is in there for a reason and the expression of it is what needs to be maintained and used to allow for a clearing of sorts from the mind and out of the head. This release is good for the mind and the soul overall. It is something that one needs and should be using to ensure that whatever is being said is what needs to be expressed.

You see, there is a certain way in which the mind works. And when we allow it to have its say then it shows us what it is that we need to see but heretofore were not allowing ourselves to know about. There is amazing potential and latent power in what is stored in each of our minds and in our heads and when one allows oneself to come in contact with that power, that energy, the using of it can prove just as powerful and useful to a larger extent.

Don't let what is going on inside your mind scare you. It wants to help you. It wants to show you that there is another way to exist in the world and if you'll let the expression of the ideas and thoughts that are up in your head be expressed then you'll know what it is that you need to see to help you with whatever it is you might be struggling with now.

You see, we might think that we know it all and that whatever we see and know is all that needs to be known. But that simply isn't the case.

How many times have you woken up from a sleep and found yourself just not feeling quite right but not knowing why? You went to sleep the night before feeling rather good and prepared for the coming morning. But then upon waking you realize that there is something that feels out of place inside.

That is what is speaking to you and desires expression. Something happened between the time you went to sleep and the moment you woke up. What was that happening?

'You' weren't there, that's what was happening.

You weren't in the way to not allow your mind to process whatever it was that it needed to process. Your mind spoke to you through the night and perhaps helped you see things and dream things and remember things that you don't want to or can't remember during your waking hours. And now that those seemingly unpalatable realizations were stirred around during the night, you wake up feeling disturbed and 'not quite right'.

But this is perfectly normal - as long as you know that your mind is trying to tell you something. It's speaking to you. Or rather, Spirit is speaking to you. Only it's not using words. It wants you to know what it is that it is sharing. If only you'll listen you'll do yourself a world of good.

You see, what happens during sleep is the ego, the overinflated sense of self, is no longer there. We're all raw, pure, and mentally naked so-to-speak when we're sleeping. There's no 'I' getting in the way of what it is that we truly need.

And because that mental clearing occurred it's best that you do what you can to process what it is that is happening each night. And by processing it I mean listening to the space inside of you that feels not too right upon wakening. It's speaking to you. It's telling you that you have been working on something that is happening irrespective of your mind. Spirit is speaking to you.

And your work is to listen to that telling.

That's key to reducing the amount of days that one wakes up feeling out of sorts. That is how to start the process of no longer wakening to that feeling that something isn't right.

That is how to ensure that those mornings where you don't feel on top of your game are reduced.

I don't think they'll ever be eliminated because that is part of the lifelong process of living. But, I believe they can be reduced. But only by listening to the speaking that is being spoken while one sleeps.

And then having enough wherewithal to heed the words that you are telling you.

You are dreaming. You are processing what is in your mind. It's your sleep time. No one else's. You have to honor that process and allow it to tell you and show you what it is that you need to work on.

Are you willing to do that? It doesn't take much work. Just go to sleep tonight and don't resist what you remember tomorrow morning. Think about it. Remember it. Hang onto it and let it show you the golden nuggets of insights that you're being given each and every night in your mind.

Eventually your days will become more golden too. Sweet. So sweet.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:31 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2008

What You Do Not Know You Do Not Know About Life

Life is the most amazing mystery at times. Why? Because it does such a great job of hiding from us when we seek it, and showing up right in our face when we least want to expect it. But struggle as we do, we can't avoid it. It's always there. Waiting. Waiting to show us what it is that we need to know, but are usually unwilling to heed.

But, as we all know, Life goes on. It continues to slowly creep forward, with us as its usual unwilling participants, because we know better than it does as far as what's good for us. And what's good for those around us. Right?

How dare Life hide underneath that experience. Or within that event. Or not show its face to us throughout that struggle. Really.

I mean come on - I prayed, didn't I?

I begged and pleaded and hoped and bargained, and tricked my way to thinking that I could somehow convince Life that what I was asking for and surely knew that I wanted in that Life event was what I really needed. Didn't I?

And yet if only Life would see it my way, well, then everything would be just fine and dandy.

We've all been there. Many times. Haven't we? I know I have.

I have many a time found myself thinking that the lesson being brought to me couldn't be, absolutely shouldn't be, the lesson in the event that was just what I needed to know at the time. After all, it couldn't be, because I knew better than the Universe, than Truth, than reality, than God, if you will.

Why shouldn't I have what it is that I want from the event that I'm finding myself going through? Why shouldn't things turn out the way I want them to? What's the harm in that? Why does it have to be the teaching that is so hard to see, instead of what it is that I want to have?

Life just isn't fair at times, is it?

You see, we all at one time or another get caught up too closely in ourselves. We think we know what is best for us. In actuality, and as I continue to age and pay attention to Life as it shows itself to me in the most mysterious ways, I know that Life is showing us exactly what it is we need to know, right when we need to know it. No more, no less.

But it's we who muddy up the waters so that we can't see the beauty in the offering Life presents. We get in our own way and don't pay attention to the inner workings inside of each of us.

As a wonderful spiritual teacher of mine, Vernon Howard, stated many years ago, "God/Truth/Reality is always speaking to you. You're just looking the other way." That's a very succinct way to put what is attempted to being relayed via these words of mine.

Life is there. It's in all of us. It's inside of us yet we don't want to truly know that. We would rather seek outside and then blame the outside event or person or circumstance for what it brings to us.

But, the real key here is to know that what it is that we truly seek, whether that be happiness, clarity, or insight - all of that is already inside of us. We just have to stop looking the other way, and then we'll see.

Then we'll know.

We have to stop looking outside, and turn our focus inside, and then we'll know what it is that is being shown to us.

If only we'll learn to pay attention to what is being shown, then we wouldn't find ourselves seeking out the advice of that next guru, or spiritual leader, or book, or movie, or scheme.

None of that is where Life is existing. Real life doesn't exist there. It exists in each and every one of us. There will be oh so many of us who don't want to pay attention to that fact though. And that's okay. Truth is not for the masses. Truth, Life is for those willing to do what it takes to see the truth of every matter.

It's not up to one who seeks Truth, and Life to assume that some-one, some-thing, some-event outside of them is the answer. It's not.

But, I know so many people, as it was for me for many, many years, will believe without a doubt that that must be the case. So many will believe that it can't be any other way. Truth has to be what is told to us. Truth has to be what is seen by the eyes. Truth has to be what is understood by the Mind.

No. No. And, no.

Truth is what is known by the Heart.

It's in the heart. And everyone has one, so everyone has Truth, Life, existing in them all the time. Every second of every day.

This is not rocket science. But it does take a keen person to be willing to let go of everything that has been picked up along the road of Life to-date. Said another way, one would benefit from putting down by the side of the road all of that baggage, including all the unnecessary assumptions, adopted beliefs, erroneous desires, and unfillable expectations that one presently holds so dearly inside of one-self.

Why? Because Life is not in any of that. That's anti-life. That's death. That's a living death on this plane. We'll all been there. We've all lived in that place for probably a long time now.

And now we have to understand that that is not where Life exists. Again, look inside. Don't force it. Don't figure it out.

Just know.

Know that what you seek, and have been seeking all of your life is inside of you. Always has been. Always will be.

There's no denying the truth of that fact, though you can and probably will try. But, even so, that won't change the Truth.

Life is in all of us. And it's not the life we can smell, see, or hear. It's a level of Life that is only known. It's not believed in. It's not understood.

It's known.

I know this is all sounding pretty wacky and a matter of profundity. But it is what it is.

As you may already know...I write what I write as I realize what I realize. Insights are what they are. And to know an insight of this type is a wonderful experience.

Never again is one living with the belief that one is alone in this world. Never again is one thinking that Life is happening independent of them. Never again is one wishing for Life to go 'their way'.

Why? Because that person knows that Life is always going whichever way that person is going. Always has been, always will.

It's an undeniable truth. Life is always present, everywhere, and in every one.

And that's a wonderful knowing. So, let me finish by asking you...

Are you willing to know what you already know, but don't know that you know?

Let me know when you know.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2008

The Foundation of a True Life

Have you ever paid attention to how much we humans think and believe that we have to explain ourselves to others and prove our self worth to others, usually at our own expense and strength? It's amazing how when one comes into understanding of what shaky ground one stands on in this regard that the light of the matter is seen for what it is.

We all live on a pretty shaky foundation. Yet, all we are doing each day is standing on that foundation and doing whatever it is that we can muster to ensure that the foundation doesn't break apart and collapse, usually from right underneath our figurative feet. And that is where what I spoke about above comes into play at times.

Of course, we're not aware of this imbalance, and ensuing struggle to maintain and regain the balance. But it's there. And it haunts us daily with our unsteady gait as we hopefully traverse forward through life.

It's not to say that this is something that is not expected or not to be planned for in life. In fact, it's pretty much a fact of life once we're able and old enough to know that Life doesn't have to be going the way we think in our small minds that it should be going.

You see, the efforts that we use to try to hold the shaky foundation together, the 'glue' of life that we use to stop it from forever cracking and crumbling underneath the soles/souls of our feet, is when we should realize that Life doesn't have to go this way and be disintegrating before our eyes.

But, like most, we find ourselves screaming for 'More glue! More glue please, I need more glue!!' In other words we are thinking 'Life is beginning to unravel at the edges and I don't know how to stop it!'

Well, fortunately for us it's not a matter of stopping the threads of our life from loosening and destroying the fabric of our existence altogether. No. Rather, it's a matter of knowing when to let go of the struggle that we think we need to have with Life, and because of Life, and instead to just let Life BE.

Period.

It's not up to each of us to ensure that our unsteady foundation we've built our life on doesn't continue to crumble. In fact, we're the cause of the crumbling, but that's the last thing that we want to become aware of and know about with regards to actually what's happening to us.

We want to ensure that whatever is happening is occurring through the fault of something outside of us and that is what is causing the crumbling. Why? Because we only know how to do what we can to have the cracking at the edges of our day not continue into complete disrepair of our life.

I find it kind of interesting that as humans we want to make others responsible for what we're doing to ourselves, individually. We're each making sure to do our best to make our life turn out in a way that we then find ourselves complaining about. Yet, we want others outside of us to be the so-called solution to that crumbling.

It's not OUR perception of what's happening that can be at the root of what is causing us pain. Uh-uh.

It's not OUR view of the world that is making us scared in the core of our soul. No way.

It's not OUR actions that are innocently backfiring and torching us with our own heat that we at first tried to apply to that other person but couldn't make stick or stay pointed in their direction. No sirree, bub.

No, we would rather make someone or some situation outside of us responsible for the fear and the shakiness that we feel from day to day.

But, you know, it doesn't have to stay this way. Why? Because when one knows that it is a matter of understanding that what we have been doing to-date is what is causing our foundations to crumble beneath our feet, everything changes in that instant with regards to that situation.

Once we take individual responsibility for what is happening beneath us as we walk through our days, we will be creating a sense of empowerment from a very deep part of ourselves that no other person can create for us, or put inside of us.

And, once we understand that it's not up to some outside action to make each of us feel the strength inside - the inner resolve and fortitude - to handle what happens outside, then we'll know that the rebuilding of our shaky foundation is what is needed. And, more importantly, to help create the strong mortar that'll forever hold things together: only we can do it.

You see, it's not a matter of shoring up the edges and keeping the walls inside from crumbling further. Rather, get the sledgehammer out and start swinging away at each shoring and let the shaky foundation walls come tumbling and crashing down. Why?

Because the foundation that is falling apart right now under you isn't the foundation of your True life.

Let me rephrase: It's a false foundation that you personally put there, thinking that it was right and true, and strong enough to hold you up and support you through your days here. Unfortunately, this was misinformation on yours and others parts, but now you know what is really needed to ensure that you are firm in your position in life as you move forward through your time here.

There is another way to be in the world, a way that doesn't involve being a heavy morass that can't be there for others, never mind being there for oneself in the first place.

That's why no one is able to truly support anyone else - not that that is what should be being done in the first place. But, when the current foundation that each of us stands on and wobble on throughout our day is allowed to disintegrate and a new stronger Right foundation is allowed to be integrated anew, the world we know changes for the better and becomes brighter each and every day.

Again, is this easy and an overnight fix? Of course, you know by reading my blog that you should know the answer to that question by now.

Which is, of course, this takes effort on one's part, the part of the person willing to do the work. And that effort needs to be maintained for quite some time.

But using the analogy of the proverbial thirsty traveler crawling through the dry and desolate desert, that taste, and then the memory of the taste of that first drop of sweet water is all that is needed to keep one moving forward continuing to seek and find ways to get the next taste, or in the context of this article, solidify the foundation of their New Life.

After all, I think most of us would rather be looking forward though our days, instead of looking down to ensure that we don't step in a newly-opened pothole or on a wide crack that could break our stride, if not our leg, right?

So, do what you can to go to your local right-brained hardware store inside your head, and ask the clerk at the insights counter where the sledgehammers are. And, once gotten, do your best to 'swing away' at your current shaky foundation.

Oh how strong you'll feel afterwards. And what a new, firm, and secure foundation you'll be building on incredibly solid ground too. I promise.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:04 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2008

Sticking to the Truth

Sometimes sticking with what we said we would stick with can get kind of sticky. Take anything that you had committed yourself to, or had given your word to someone that you would do it. And, so once said or stated, you were stuck with following through with your commitment. Or, at least you were in a commitment that someone else knew about and therefore knew whether you did it, or not.

Kind of hard to get out of if it’s something that you no longer want to do, or never wanted to do, or don’t want to do any longer, isn’t it? When someone else knows that you have a commitment to something you’re now held accountable, if at least figuratively. And so not following through with what it was that you said you would now puts you in a sticky situation that may take some finagling to get out of. Or some outright lying.

Isn’t it amazing sometimes to what length some people will go to in order to get out of doing something that they said they would do? You know what I mean, we’ve all been there. Something that they gave their word on or expressed that they would follow through with. But, alas, these days one’s word doesn’t mean very much anymore. Words are trite, diminished, and virtually meaningless.

And, so, when somebody does follow through with what they stated they would do, we find ourselves rather surprised, and maybe even pleased that we are in the company of a person who is keeping to their word.

A rare thing nowadays.

So, where am I going with all this? Well, just to state that when a commitment is made it’s oh-so-easy to say the words, but it’s a whole new thing to actually put those words to use and make them mean something.

Take our commitment to others, and how we value them in our relationships. We say we care for them. We say we love them. We say they mean a lot to us. We even tell those Others how significant and important they are in our life and how much we value who they are. And then we find that we are capable of being able to lie to them, mistreat them, and behave in ways that no one deserves or asks for.

How many times have you been told by someone that you are so important in their life and then a few scant months or years later you are trodden upon and taken advantage of at every turn?

How many times have you been told that you are loved by that other person, yet at the same time they are doing as much as they can to ensure that they are getting what they want, and all the while you’re not knowing what is happening ‘behind your back’?

This doesn’t just include spouses, and partners, it also includes friends and lovers. Why? Because people are people.

They say one thing, and then do another thing. Usually.

Now, I know that I may be coming across sounding jaded and soured by Life, but no, I’m not meaning to sound this way. If you search your memory and those relationships you’ve been involved with with others, you’ll too find that other people you’ve come across exhibited the behaviors I’m writing about here. And, if you truly can’t come up with any, then search for memories of events described wherein you were the instigator of such actions. Not pretty, is it?

You see, it’s not such a pretty thing to acknowledge that this is a basic fact of human nature. We commit to people, and situations and then when those situations turn sour or are no longer to our liking, we do what we can to find a way out of that now painful situation, even if it means lying to other people, or hiding actions, or blatantly making statements right to the face of that person whom we previously made the commitment which we can no longer keep for whatever reason.

Life does that to us at times. It turns, its twists, it ends up not the way we expect it to. And then we find ourselves in situations that now look different from what they began as. And yet we’re stuck in them and having to either continue in them, or find a way out. No matter what.

But, this is where the true nature of a person can shine through though. You see, we all find ourselves in situations that are not to our liking or are not turning out how we expected them to. So, either we have to change that situation, or we have to get out of it altogether.

We can do this brutally and destructively. Or we can do it with grace and regard.

We can lie and cheat, and fake our way out of it. Or we can be honest and truthful, and forthright, and ruthlessly loving if need be.

Think of the outcome of the former tactic just mentioned. Think of how the situation, the painful participation we’ve found ourselves a part of ends up through using that methodology. Lies. Deceit. Pretense. Pain. Damage. Maybe even violence.

Think of how using the latter tactic mentioned causes the situation to end up. Honesty. Truthfulness. Full knowing. Care. Concern. Regard. And, yes, sometimes pain.

But think if you’re the one having an exit thrust upon you by someone else.

Wouldn’t you rather have the person who is needing to remove themselves from your life or that situation you both know about be open and honest and upfront with you (and themselves)? After all, we’re all adults here.

So, wouldn’t you rather be the adult who gets treated like one?

And think of how you will feel if you’re the one having to exit that situation you had previously committed to or gave your word to. Wouldn’t you like to be seen as an adult who respects and treats others as the person they deserve to be treated as? That is, an honest and respected friend/lover/partner? Think how they’ll think of you, if even many years from now.

There will be a part of them that will know that they were treated with love and care and respect when that exit was thrust upon them by you. They will know that their feelings and concerns and thoughts were taken into consideration and they were treated as another human being, not a child who is unable to process the truth because they don’t have the mental faculties to do so yet.

I know that I can handle the truth and that that is how I want to be treated by those in my life, and around me. Be upfront with me. Be honest with me. No games. No lying. No cheating and finagling and squirming out of a situation like a snake.

We’re all adults here. Let’s treat each other like such and see how much better our lives will be.

I’ll bet that you’ll agree that were others to treat you in this manner that you would be much happier, and yet sad at the ending at the same time.

You see, we all need to make commitments that ultimately we can’t end up keeping. That’s a part of life, and growing up. And there are words that we say that no longer ring true for us and that we have spoken to others and they expect us to follow through with. But a simple fact of life is that these words change. Life comes at us and pulls the validity of the words and their application out of our hands at times.

And that is when Life comes up to us and says ‘deal with this’. Get out of this the best you can.

And like the proverbial rubber-meeting-the-road cliché, that is when we are able to see how strong and supportive our spine is.

Do we run from the situation in any way that we can? Or do we stand up straight and deal with it head-on, with grace, dignity, truth, and genuine full concern for the person we are subjecting to this matter.

Overall, I think as I write this article that the world itself would be a much better place to reside in, were we all capable of remembering the gist of this soapbox statement I’m making, and then put it to active use as we go about roaming through our days with those we have told ourselves we care about, and perhaps even love.

Nice thought, eh?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

December 8, 2007

Responsibly Responding to Responsibility

Okay, let me preface this article by stating that I'm going to be writing about something that is dear to my heart, but at the same time will probably alienate a lot of my readers and perhaps cause them to want to take andrebest.com off of their favorites or bookmarks tab. That's okay if that is what happens.

You see, if what I write about offends you or irks you or riles you in any way, the only reason that that happens is not because of what I wrote and attempted to impart via this article and these words. No, rather it is because what I wrote, and subsequently what you read activated and energized inside of you something that resonated with what I wrote about.

And that resonation, that similarity, that mirroring was disturbing to you and you didn't like feeling that feeling inside.

And, voilà, you take me off of your 'favorites' list or 'bookmark' tab.

Think about that.

How have we all lived our lives to-date? We blame the other for how we feel, right? We hold their feet to the proverbial fire when WE are feeling something that is unpleasant or something that is considered as dark or negative energy inside of US. We say to ourselves, if only silently:

"They did that."

"They didn't do that."

"They make me feel that way."

"They did that to me."

"They made me do it."

Said differently, we don't take responsibility for what we feel inside and what we subsequently do with those internal feelings.

And that's where and when things begin to go awry within each of us who are still under this emotional blaming type of conditioning that we were raised with and had inculcated into us from birth.

You see, when someone does something that irks you or 'gets you angry', it's not what they do or did that caused this inside of you. It's not their fault, in other words.

Even if they did: cut you off in traffic on the local roadway; or cut in front of you in line at the local superstore; or not know what you wanted; or not know what you were feeling or expecting from them; or intentionally do that action to hurt you; or even accidentally forgot to pay attention to what they were saying when they mispoke those words to you.

There are thousands of examples each of us go through each day, outside of us, that fit in this category of externality. But, no matter what the specific external event involved, it all boils down to one main point vital to understanding this whole matter.

That is...

YOU are feeling what you're feeling.

YOU are going through the negative feelings that you're going through.

YOU have this morass of blackness being stirred up inside of you.

It's all in YOU.

It's NOT outside in them. Or that situation. Or that external cause.

It's in YOU.

You're the one who's vibrating with the energies that you are attempting to place outside of you, but can't get to stick with the other.

You are the one who is having all of this occur inside of you and yet you are doing your best to place the reason, the blame, for these energies and feelings that are occurring inside of you, on something or someone outside of you.

Well, this is where I get tough when I bluntly say...

"Grow up. Take responsibility for what YOU are feeling."

YOU are feeling what you are feeling.

You are feeling what you are feeling inside simply because there is a nature inside of you that has previously felt that feeling, those energies before (and they aren't comfortable energies either) and you are once again being triggered into feeling those feelings in the now.

So, what is the result of this internal event going on inside of each of us (yes, the writer too)? The result is that we do whatever we can to play a game of emotional 'tag' with someone outside of us.

"Tag, you're it. YOU'RE responsible for my feelings now. YOU'RE the one to blame for how I feel."

"I tagged you. So, you're the one who is responsible now. You caused this, so you have to do something to figure it out and make my dark feelings go away so the game can continue to be played."

"But, you can't 'tag' me back. Because, remember, the cardinal rule of the game. It's not my fault. It's now YOURS because you're IT."

I ask you: What would the world be like, what would each of our worlds, namely, the internal ones be like were each of us individually, solely, and unilaterally, to take responsibility for what we are feeling inside?

What would our days be like were we to accept complete and unconditional and total responsibility for what we are feeling inside as the crazy world revolves around our constrained emotional hearts and overly sensitive feelings?

What would each of us be like tomorrow and every day thereafter and in-between, were each of us to take full and total ownership of what we were experiencing inside?

The world happens.

Things happen.

And, yet, what if we were to take responsibility for our reaction to what happens?

Think about that.

What would happen were we to take 100 percent responsibility and total ownership for our reactions to what happens to us in Life?

Well, for starters, we would not place blame on someone, something, some entity outside of us. Rather, we'd know it's our reaction to the action that is at hand. It's our reaction to what is happening outside of us that is the rub.

It's OUR response to that event. It's OUR reaction to what we are telling ourselves about that occurrence, or that injustice, or that happening that is unfair.

It's totally OUR job to take ownership and full claiming of what we are feeling inside. Not them. Not they. Not those others. Not that. Not this.

Me.

You.

Us.

Individually.

Internally.

Fully.

Completely.

Unconditionally.

Think about that. What would your day be like were you to have to own what happens inside of you? What kind of work would you have to do if you were no longer allowed to point the finger at anything outside of you as an excuse or explanation for what is happening inside of you?

Wouldn't that be an uncomfortable situation to be in, eh?

Think of what you'd be forced to do with that energy build up inside.

Either you'd implode, or you'd be forced to deal with it in some way that would allow you to constructively and positively express the inner stirrings you are owning.

You would take responsibility for what you feel. You'd feel. Period.

You'd own what your reaction is.

You'd be able to see your part in what your reaction is in response to what the action that occurred outside of you was.

Your world would become brighter. You know why?

Because you'd finally know, one day, that because you are responsible for your reactions to Life, and no one else, that you actually have the power to create the world you have always wanted.

A world free of inner conflict, and strife, and blaming, and threatening, and hurting.

You'd be creating a world inside of you that is able to respond to the many, many events of Life that are right now perceived and unpalatable, unacceptable, and unwanted, and you'd be able to go through them without the prior response and struggle that you've heretofore accepted as the only 'response' to Life.

You'd be in a brighter place. You'd be lighter in your living with Life. You'd be the person who can really, solely, individually, and powerfully make a difference in your small world surrounding you.

And, that would make you the kind of person who is able to read something like this article and understand that there is another world out there, inside of you.

Do yourself a favor. Read this article again.

And again. And, one more time.

You'll be encouraged not only by what you read, but by what you feel inside.

You see, I've written these words, but the truthful resonance of these words INSIDE OF YOU, belongs to Truth, which is wonderfully available to us all if we're willing to do the work to allow it to speak to us, individually and internally, when these reactions to Life come up.

That's where and when the work starts. But, oh, what a lifetime reward undertaking that work continues to provide.

So, are you willing to roll up your sleeves and get to work?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2007

Living Life Large

I can’t help but find it interesting how Life gives and offers to us exactly what we need, when we need it. Nothing more, nothing less. It always knows exactly what is needed for each of us to grow in our understanding, or at least it seems that way to me.

But, then, this begs the question as to why we don’t grow in our existence as we’re meant to do. The only answer which I am able to currently surmise is that we get in our own way. We stand in the way of expansion and growth, and understanding, and we put up our hand and say “Halt.” And, even sometimes, “Halt, who goes there?”

But, if one really allows themselves to get to a place of understanding of how the universe works, they will easily see that the universe is offering an opportunity to grow beyond the person that one now is.

But how many of us are willing to pick up that proverbial baton of life and run with it? Not many of us, I surmise.

Why? Because it’s scary to allow Life to happen as it is happening.

We want to control.

We want to make sure that Life happens as we want it to, expect it to, and demand it to.

We want to control the outcome. We want to believe that we have a semblance of ability to ensure the outcome of Life events, especially those that occur in our existence in our days here with our surroundings.

But, as we all know, sometimes things happen that are completely beyond our control. And then we are set back on our backside wondering, ‘what happened?’

“How could this happen to me?” we cry. This isn’t the way things are ‘supposed to be’ we tell ourselves.

But, I believe that what is currently in front of us, that situation, that event, that circumstance, is exactly what we need at the moment we need it.

Life is giving us a wakeup call. "Wake up to what?" you ask?

Wake up to life. Wake up to what it is that you need to know and yet are doing your best to get in the way of, to stand in front of.

Life gives us what it knows we need. Life is just happening as it is happening and there is virtually nothing we can do about it as it happens.

"Oh, but we can do something about it." you say. "We can control what happens to us. We can drive our cars that way, we can eat the foods we want to eat, we can treat others the way we do. That is how we are controlling what happens to us, right?"

I beg to differ.

I believe that there is a bigger happening occurring here. Something that is much broader and more expansive in scale than our puny attempts at control and controlling our life events.

We can choose what gets put in our mouth, but we can’t chose what happens to our bodies, to this meat sack we were blessed with. No matter how much we eat healthy foods, exercise proper amounts, and live a balanced life of stress free existence, all of that still doesn’t guarantee anyone, anyone, the truth of an existence free of disease.

No one truly, wholly knows why this is the case. We hear of smokers who smoke for over half a century and live to grow old and disease free. And we hear of babies born into a short existence of illness and pain and sudden death.

Do any of us really have the answer, definitively, as to why this happens? I don’t think so.

Life is going to come at us, whether we want it to or not. So what can we do about it, seeing as how it’s an out-of-our-control type of ride that we’re each riding through life?

Well, very simply...enjoy the ride. Understand that there are very few things that are truly under your control, and instead, opt to BE with life, AS it happens.

There is nothing to go against here. There is only the outcome of your resistance to what is happening that is making what is happening seem as it does. Life is neither good nor bad. It just is.

We are the ones placing labels on everything that occurs during our days as either good or bad. Wanted or unwanted.

I’m reminded of the movie reviews I sometimes read online prior to bringing my boys to see a kids movie that is just released. The reviewer of the movie article writes his or her review and discusses their take on the show. Sometimes they write that the movie is horrible and not worth the money to see it. Other times they write that the movie is unbelievably funny and worth the price of admission.

But, really, it all comes down to what my kids think of the movie. They sometimes come away from the show loving what they saw, no matter how bad the reviews were. How bad the reviewer thought the movie was, was irrelevant. The reviewer’s experience and labeling of the movie as ‘bad’ was meaningless, except to him or her. The boys thought the show was 'great'.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

Life doesn’t have to be going good or going bad. Life is just going.

Life doesn’t have to be a struggle or a free ride, it just is what is happening and we’re here with it as it occurs.

There is so much happening throughout each of our days that offers clues and insights into the magic of the moment, but we aren’t listening. We aren’t paying attention.

One of my favorite inner development teachers, Vernon Howard, once stated, ‘God is always speaking to you, you’re just looking the other way’. Although we each have our own version of the Creator, we can get the gist of what is being spoken here.

The universe is showing us what it had created for us to see and personally experience. It has given us an opportunity to walk along with it as we tiptoe to our mortal graves.

But, no, we want to resist, we want to be dragged by the hair as we’re pulled forward to our existential reality.

Some of us even want to pull on the hand of existence and attempt to stop it from moving on with its path through eternity. How ludicrous.

So, whaddaya say that you take a bit of time and realize that Life is happening as it is happening for reasons that none of us, and I mean none, can understand as to why it is happening as it is. How about you ponder the fact that no manner of resistance, or doubt, or denial of what is, is going to change what is.

Life is happening. Life is going forward as it is going forward; it is occurring as it is no matter how much we may not want it to.

Mine the jewels of existence. Search for the diamonds in every experience that is brought in front of you. There is gold in every event of Life. There are riches beyond our knowing that can make our puny little lives and our existence so much more than it currently is. Each and every day.

Are you willing to do the work to just be with Life as it is, without adding your Self to the equation, and messing up the answer?

There was once a very popular vehicle bumper sticker stating "Crap Happens" (this is a family-friendly article, so I took the liberty of rewording the offensive four-letter word). I would like to re-phrase that once popular saying to reflect what is really being shared here, that is, realize, truly understand deep inside your being that "Life Happens".

Let Life happen, without you getting in the way. And then watch what happens TO you. And be prepared to be surprised. Results guaranteed.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 7:28 AM | Comments (0)

October 7, 2007

A Matter of Choice

Every moment of every day we are all given choices to make. Not just the big ones, like what we need to do for the next ten years of our life, but all the way down to what color footwear should be worn with the outfit we are wearing. Even perhaps smallish choices like which route to take to work this morning, seeing as how the regular road is stuck in a traffic jam.

But, even seemingly insignificant choices such as these could have life altering impacts to us, and to those around us. Remember that old story about the flapping of the wings of the butterfly causing a hurricane half way around the world because of the turbulence it causes with its flapping?

Well, one could take the types of choices and decisions discussed in this article as being akin to that story. Or they may not.

But, either way, we are all faced with many many decisions that we can make and choices to choose between that can have life altering impacts, overall.

Think about that alternative route to work that must now be chosen because of that traffic jam. That new way to work might cause us to be involved in a traffic jam, whereas before that wouldn't have been the case with the same 'ol, same 'ol, way to work.

We've all heard about that unfortunate airline passenger who arranged last minute to take that standby seat on that fateful flight that ended abruptly when the pilot ditched the plane in the ocean and all aboard perished.

That's the type of stuff that seems to be out of our control.

And perhaps it is. We all will meet our Maker someday. No exceptions.

But it's the choices that we make in the mean time that dictate just how that meeting with the Maker is going to go. And that is what most people sometimes lose sleep over at night thinking about and worrying over.

Just what is going to become of each of us as we are beseeched to meet the omniscient presence on the Other Side of Life.

We may be held up against the choices we made on This Side. Personally, I highly suspect this to be the case.

What type of choices have you made that you are proud of? What one's aren't you so happy to share with others? What one's keep you awake at night? What one's don't?

What one's do you say aren't impacting and that other person deserved what he or she got, in the end? What one's didn't turn out the way you have planned them to or wanted them to and now you live in regret over that choice made perhaps oh-so-long-ago?

We all know that we have each made choices that have negatively impacted other people. Perhaps people especially close and-or meaningful in our life.

Family.

Friends.

Loved ones

No longer loved ones.

What did we do to them that we regret now? What types of choices did we make to hurt them or cause them harm, perhaps intentionally?

What is it that we tell ourselves that the other deserved so that is why we made the choices and the decisions that we did regarding that situation?

What is it that we will go to the Maker spouting that that was what was deserved by that other person? And using excuses like, 'they hurt me first, so I struck back'.

Yeah, that'll convince.

How many situations like that are we justifying in our own minds, if not anywhere else?

How many choices have we made out of spite and intentional disregard for the consequences of our actions? Choices that had no way to become anything positive and ultimately solely served to purposefully and maliciously harm another, or perhaps several others.

These types of choices are made out of harm and malice and aren't something easy to recover from by stating that WE had no choice.

Truth knows the Truth about these choices.

Also, there's no hiding these facts to the face in the mirror that we see every morning regarding the choices we've made.

When we've made choices that were meant to harm someone close to us, or in our lives, intentionally, I believe that the harmer, the no-do-gooder, will ultimately be facing the consequences of those choices and decisions at some point in the future.

Truly, what goes around comes around. It doesn't have to take long either. Or wait until the Other Side. It could happen tomorrow.

The Universe is always seeking to balance itself out. That's a known Law. It doesn't matter how we know or don't know how it is trying to do this.

The actuality of the situation is the simple fact that it will. Period.

When choices are made that are intentionally hurtful to others and limiting to their development on this physical plane, the choices that were made regarding the limiting of another will ultimately be returned to the one instituting the limiting by the choice made. Again, period.

Life is pretty unforgiving in that regard.

It will make each of us pay for our actions.

It will make each of us aware that there are serious, sometimes gravely serious, consequences for the choices we've made. Especially the ones that involved making a choice to intentionally hurt another's life or well-being.

Especially when there were other choices available where that didn't have to be the intent, or the actual outcome.

That's when things get kind of nasty and set in stone that eventually the price will be paid by that person who is believing that 'they had no choice'. Yeah, right.

In no uncertain terms, this choice made will be returned in kind.

So, think about this.

If you agree, good for you.

If you don't, then continue to go on making the choices that you make. Hurting others.

Ignoring other's wants.

Destroying other's livelihoods.

Harming the hearts of those who are innocent.

It may not matter to you that these actions are truly unforgivable. Why? Because you think that you aren't doing anything that needs forgiving.

But, that's okay. Life has a funny way of making things right, in the end.

Wait and see.

We're all waiting, after all. Right?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2007

Silence, Please

Ever notice how hard it is to be in silence, or to live in silence? It's not easy to sit in quiet is it? The silence makes our ears ring. It haunts us with voices that seem to suddenly arise taunting us to do things that we all of a sudden 'need' to do. Interesting beast, the silence, isn't it?

But think how much of our existence we actually don't live in silence. The vast majority of us will do our damndest to not be in silence, to not invite it into our day and our time on this earth. This short time.

Of course, so many of us have lives that are filled to the brim with activities and busy-ness and all that stuff. Nevermind if one has children growing up in the household. Or an infirm partner or family member living under the same roof. The responsibilities of life are many and being able to have the sometimes luxury of being and existing in silence come far and few between.

But, everyone does get silence in their day. Even if it's only during the daily drive to work. Sitting in the car can be a wonderful time of silence. But, most of us don't make the best of that time. We play music. We chat on the phone. We get angry.

Then there's the time at home alone. When we get the opportunity to be alone, how many of us greet it with open arms and say to ourselves that we have been presented with a wonderful chance to be alone with ourselves? Few, I'd bet. Myself included at times.

It's not easy to be alone and silent in the world. Even if the world is our living room. The silence is such a powerful existence, it truly terrifies and scares so many of us that we never want to get to know it. And know ourselves.

But, the silence offers so much food for our soul. It has so much in it that it can take years to find out all that it has for us. And what it has for each of us is truly unique.

The silence is not the same for two people.

Kind of like fingerprints.

And snowflakes.

The silence is a truly golden and unique moment to each of us. It is something that can only be personally experienced. And then it can never be truly and fully shared because it is our own silence that we were in. Not theirs. Ours. And ours alone.

So, why is the silence something that so many do whatever they can to not get to know during their day?

I surmise through personal experience and learning that the silence speaks volumes to us in ways that we at times are incapable of hearing, or desiring to pay attention to. And it doesn't need an invitation or a special greeting to come into our realm of perception.

All it needs is for us to sit silent.

Or close our mouth, and open our mind.

Or pay attention to ourselves when the world is swimming around us.

Or fully embrace the thickness of the air when the world is quiet at 3:00 a.m. and the house is still.

There is so much we can learn about ourselves when we sit in silence during our own personal quiet time during the day. It doesn't take much.

Just be quiet. And then pay attention to what it is telling you.

That, that is what is sometimes frightening, or enlightening. And for many, the former is what was experienced, and that is why the silence is not sought out and caressed through its sharing itself with us. Rather, the silence is denied, rejected, and pushed away at all costs.

But, remember, there is enlightenment and insight beyond the sometimes frightening moments that the silence brings. It has so much to teach us if we'll only listen to it.

What can it tell you? That is up to you.

You have your silence that is yours, and yours only. And it is ready to share with you exactly what you need to know when you're ready to hear it. But, it's up to you to make the time during your day and invite the silence into that space created in your existence.

There is truly a lot to know about this silence. Your silence. It's all about you. It's all good for you. It wants to teach you and help you learn about yourself and bring light and life into your day.

Ask yourself if you're willing to sit in the silence for, say, ten minutes each day. Begin with that.

It doesn't have to be formal. It doesn't have to be fancy and all thought out.

Just go quiet.

Simple.

And then watch.

And, learn.

There is so much silence around you. There is so much in it.

There is so much love in it. It wants to share that love with you.

Are you willing to allow it?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:51 PM | Comments (1)

July 20, 2007

Saying Yes to Saying No

Ever notice how sometimes it's so hard to not do something that you know you shouldn't be doing? Ever wonder why that is the way it is? Or, putting it another way, ever notice how you find yourself doing something that you know you don't want to do? Ever wonder why you find yourself in an outcome like that at times? Perhaps more often than not?

It's surprising at the best of times how many times we can sometimes find ourselves doing things that we would rather not do. We're all prone to this. We're all human. We all have things to do in our lives, other priorities, other matters to take care of, other people to live with and consider. In essence, we all have lives to live.

But let's detail this closer.

Think about what happens behind all the obvious reasons for doing or not doing what we want to do. Think about it. What happens inside of you when you find yourself doing something that you know you really don't want to be doing? Afterwards, you beat yourself up in some way. You berate yourself. You go on a guilt trip. Right?

Why does all this happen? Why not just not do it and be done with it?

Well, first, there's a nature inside of us that wants us to be in angst. It wants us to be in conflict with ourselves. It makes us say 'yes', when we really want to say 'no' to a situation. It wants us to be acting from a place of supposed agreement so we think that we absolutely have to do what it is that is being presented to us.

For the vast majority of us there is a part of each of us, a nature in us, that wants us to not do what we need to do to help ourselves and take care of our needs. Even a need as simple as saying 'no' to some activity that would be going against what it is that we know best serves our interest. And, then saying 'yes' to the activity or the decision that allows us to take care of ourselves, perhaps even at the expense of someone else being disappointed.

This is kind of like the paraphrasing I share here as it relates to St. Paul's statement that he found himself "doing the evil he didn't want to do, instead of the good he wanted to do."

It's not easy to give ourselves what we need. It's not easy for most to allow themselves to put their self first in their life. Most of us have to put others, and other activities, and other things ahead of our own needs and wants and desires. And this usually creates conflict, angst, and guilt for most.

You see, sometimes, many times, Life wants and asks us to say 'no' to what someone else wants. Even at the supposed expense of 'needs' of the other that heretofore were deemed unacceptable. And many times our Spirit is screaming out to us to have us listen to what it is telling us we need to feed it at a particular moment. It's just that most times we aren't listening.

You see, by being 'nice' when we would rather stay quiet, by being 'agreeable' when we'd rather not be, are examples of two types of actions, amongst many, that unbeknownst to us are slowly eating away at our Soul. And, also, are usually causing us to feel animosity and resentment towards the person or persons on the other side of the situations causing this usually habituated action in us.

It's not easy to say no. Even if it's to ourselves. It's something that we were trained to not do as children. We were trained to obey. We were trained to follow the rules, and follow the leader...usually blindly. And this is what we did as we grew up and we began to become ever more so a part of a busy and demanding society and all its needs.

But, there is a way out. However, this way is generally something that is not widely accepted, but it is something that can be widely used.

Simply put yourself first and put your needs first, when you're clear that this is an appropriate action to take and won't be actually harming anyone or anything else. We are not talking about large and immense activities here. We're talking the small stuff that impacts us and makes us whittle down our character and our own needs until there is nothing left to live from.

This is what is meant, in this aspect, by the road less travelled.

...Taking the hard way.

...Making a clear path in life.

...Going against the grain.

These all cause what appears as strife in our life. But, in the end these decisions, and then actions, are also ways for us to take care of what truly should matter most...

Our Self.

And our Spirit. We all have one.

And when we're doing only the things that our Spirit wants us to do, even things that don't appear prudent, like saying 'no', we'll find that we are much better able to live with our selves, because we're taking care of ourselves first, and in a sideways manner the needs of others via our placing ourselves first. We've all heard the saying "If you want to take care of others, take care of yourself first."

Again, all of this has to be taken with consideration of the true needs of others such as children, and those in need of genuine impacting help. And, of course, our bosses and co-workers, and other important affairs of that sort. I think you know what is being relayed here as to what type of situations this effort can be made. That is, situations where primarily only you will be aware that you stood up for your Soul by saying 'no'.

I think that many of us can find many instances during our day where we were and would be better served were we to say 'no' to that situation. Anything from saying 'no' to that next donut, to saying 'no' to that telemarketer who is asking for our time when we're truly busy, and all the way to saying 'no' when someone wants us to stand up from our chair and do something that we don't really feel comfortable doing and we know in our Heart of Hearts that saying 'no' is the right thing to do.

There are many ways in Life where one can say 'no' to an event and by doing so know that they are also saying 'yes' to what the heart and Soul want. And if you are that person appropriately saying 'no' when before you inappropriately used to say 'yes', you might find yourself pleasantly surprised how much better you feel knowing that you're honoring your Spirit.

And, since you're now not eating that next donut...can I have it? Please?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 8:54 PM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2007

The Acceptance of Resistance

We are wonderful creatures of resistance to what is. Resistance of the present. Resistance of what was. Resistance of what is. We resist, and then we resist our notion of actually admitting to ourselves that we are being resistant.

It's almost as if resistance is a tool that we use to defend ourselves against Life and to not allow for true change to occur inside of us. Deep change. Lasting, permanent change.

Why? Well, resisting is much, much easier at times than acceptance, right? After all, resistance allows us to be right. Resistance allows us to not question what wasn't. Resistance allows us to not have to align with what didn't happen as we wanted it to.

Resistance seems to be the only answer to what we need to do when Life doesn't align itself with our expectations and demands. But, that is why we live lives of resistance. We resist what is.

On the opposite side of the coin is acceptance.

Acceptance of what is. That is, actually becoming aware and seeing the resistance as being present and just doing nothing about it. Simply becoming aware that it is present, that it exists in our existence right now.

Not doing anything about it is the answer, because any other action actually just perpetuates the resistance. Action just solidifies it and strengthens it inside of us and in our present situation.

Acceptance of what is is one part of what needs to be done to escape from resistance. But acceptance of the resistance is also necessary. Acceptance that the resistance exists is vital to overcoming resistance.

But, even this can be hard for most. Even this, as seemingly simple as it is can be confronted with immense resistance. After all, why change? Why alter what is? Why not maintain angst over what isn't? What's the harm in that?

Well, I could name several harms, but the one that seems to be most important and damaging is that hanging onto the notion that resistance is necessary is what destroys one's soul. Resistance is a parasite that latches onto the soul and eats away at it in its 'rightness' and stance.

But, acceptance, is coming from a place of Love for what is, what is in reality, even if it isn't what one wants, or expects, or demands. It's an unconditional aligning with the is-ness of Life.

Life happens.

And, once one aligns with Life, in essence they accept it and they are living in alignment with the inner hidden side of themselves, their Soul.

This is not a hard thing to do. But, it does take an inner gumption, to do it.

It takes a willingness to let go of the resistance and all that it seemingly offers with its invisible empty promises. And, then, aligning with the actuality of the current situation in front of you, and breathing in what is in existence. Full and total acceptance of what is.

Acceptance, although easy to understand as being necessary, is often viewed as not an easy thing to align one's self to. Why? Well, it's not something that immediately comes to mind for most as being even a remote possibility. But it is a most soothing reminder of what is on the other side of our all-too-common stance of resistance to what is.

We are creatures of resistance. We have been raised to resist. We have been raised to fight. We have been raised to believe that if we don't do all that, that we will be at risk, that is, that something will come our way, something that is not palatable nor acceptable.

But, as an extremely enlightened teacher of mine, Mr. Vernon Howard, was known to state many times throughout his decades of teaching and helping others..."Resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance."

Read that again, or rather, I'll state it again...

"Resistance to the disturbance IS the disturbance."

Let go of resistance when it comes up. And you might find yourself dangling in the unknown. But, you know what? That unknown your feet might be precipitously balancing on IS the other side of the coin of resistance.

That unknown is the loving place of acceptance of whatever the situation that is now in front of you is proffering to you to accept.

Why don't you go ahead and give yourself the love that the situation is showing you, and allow your Self to accept what is.

Remember this next time Life occurs contrary to what you expect.

Remember this next time you know you are in a place of resistance.

Simply notice the resistance. Nothing more. Absolutely nothing more.

The noticing is everything.

The noticing puts you on the side of acceptance. It plants the seed inside of you and shows your Soul that you are open to the possibility of acceptance of Life as it simply is, not the way you think it should be.

And that, THAT, is the way out of resistance and into acceptance of Life as it wondrously is. As always.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2007

Oh, For the Love of...

Have you ever experienced the fact of actually enjoying doing something from deep within your heart and yet fighting with actually doing it? Perhaps it's building a relationship. Perhaps it's building a career. Perhaps it's actively playing with your children. Perhaps it's taking the effort to go out with friends to that latest flick. Perhaps it's finding the time and making the effort to write that latest entry in your blog.

Life has a funny way of showing us where our heart strings are really tied to. And where they're not. How? Easy. Watch where your actions go. And notice where they don't.

Do you think that you like doing a certain activity, yet when it comes to doing it you find yourself making up excuses for not doing it when it really comes down to it? Or do you experience yourself joyously jumping at the chance to experience that task and all that it offers you every time that it presents itself to you and our day?

Life is showing you where your heart lives. Life is working very hard to get you to see beyond your mind. Life is working ever so diligently to have you know that it knows where you should be spending your time and not what you think you should be doing with that time. That precious time that you have to make things work.

Life speaks to us all the time.

It's just that we're not listening.

There are so many instances in one's day where Life is working to show us where we really should be honoring our Spirit inside. And where we shouldn't. But, for most people, this is something that we choose to ignore. And sometimes at our own peril.

You know the feeling. That sixth sense. That gut feeling. That sensing that the thing that you look forward to doing at the time that you're not doing it, and yet, when the opportunity comes to do it, you find yourself not salivating to do it anymore.

That's the sixth sense speaking to you, in a roundabout way. It's working to tell you that your mind is playing a trick on you. It's trying to show you that you need to be watchful for what the mind is telling you, and to follow your heart instead.

When it comes to doing what you really want to do, everything inside of you is in sync with that passion. Everything is working with you towards that end, not against you fighting the ending. Life wants you to be happy. Life wants you to have what you want. Life wants to work with you to give you the experiences that you so desire. But, often, one's mind gets in the way and stops the opportunity from taking place and being enjoyed.

Think about what you want to do. And then feel if it feels right. Feel if it makes sense inside to be doing that wanting. And if it doesn't, then just simply don't do it. Don't do it because that was the mind playing you for a sap and trying to get you to once again go along with it to no end. It wanted you to believe that that thing would allow you to experience the joy of what you were imagining. But, we all know that that is most often not the case in instances like this.

But, when the heart is listened to, when the heart is followed, when the heart is honored, then life is experienced to the utmost. Life is experienced as wonderful serendipity and faithful occurrence. Why is this so?

Because Spirit was honored.

Because Spirit was aligned with and allowed to be experienced through to its wonderful conclusion.

Life is speaking to us throughout our days. It's just that we're so busy being mindful that we don't hear it. And when Life is allowed to be experienced, then that task that is so effortful, now becomes effortless, virtually. And you become aligned with your Spirit and Life itself, and, as an added benefit you are also feeding your Heart.

And we all know how one feels inside when that happens. Ain't it grand?

And, there is one more thing that you just might find out when you find yourself aligning more with the inside voice.

You might find that since you are not fighting with life to make it go and appear and run the way you and your mind think it should be, that you are now more happy, more satisfied, more aligned with what Life had in store for you from the get-go.

Just now you're allowing it to just be, inside of you, and that will bring with it a sense of inner peace. Inner peace, something that most of us don't feel too much during our days here on Earth. That deep knowing that everything is going as it should go. Not according to our plans, but according to what it is meant to be happening as, just that, nothing else.

Inner satisfaction.

Inner peace.

Inner happiness that Life is 'working'.

That is what the true meaning of synchronicity is, as far as this writer is concerned. Inner alignment, with what is already and has always been aligned. Sweet.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2007

Getting Closure on Closure

Life is full of beginnings. And Endings. Sometimes the beginnings are very far spaced from the endings, but to quote that famous line out of The Matrix movie, 'everything that has a beginning, has an ending'.

And when Life offers us an ending, we have to go through the process of closure. Completion. Letting go. Ending. Why?

Well, for the most part, it's not healthy to continue to hang onto aspects of our lives that are meant to have an ending, a finish.

Experiences are brought into our life so that we may experience them and then let them go.

People are brought into our life so that we may learn what we can about ourselves, and them, and our small little worlds, and then eventually we have to let that person go. Even if by divorce, death, or dying. Closure is an inevitable result of that relationship beginning.

It doesn't matter how long, or how short the relationship is. The necessity for closure is imminent, no matter how long in the future it is necessary to occur.

Even the changing of a relationship with an other is a form of closure. No matter how long, or short that relationship was, or how shallow or deep it was. The need for the ending of the prior relating, with the burgeoning new beginning in the new relating with that other, is still a necessary component of that intertwining of lives.

Is this to say that closure and letting go is easy? Well, sometimes yes, and sometimes no.

I surmise for most people that closure is extremely hard to do in many instances. That's why there are so many books on the market about letting go of the past and letting go in general. I'm no exception to this group seeking advice in this area, at times.

Closure can be sometimes hard to do.

Why? Well, I think for most that the human mind just doesn't want to let go of the good feelings and the secure and comfortable aspects of the memories that are now sheltered away in the mind and are not desired to be lost or forgotten about.

Someone dies. Is it easy to get closure after an occurrence like that? No. Of course not. But it does take time, perhaps many years, but closure does come. Time heals all wounds.

But regardless of how the ending of the prior Life event occurs, there is an aspect of closure to, say, a relationship experience like a marriage, that is so wonderful and blissful regardless of the potentially painful processing of the ending of that relationship.

And what would that aspect be? To me, it's the sense of what is to become of this type of ending.

The ending was necessary. The finality of it was inevitable, as life usually shows us in not-so-neat ways.

But, with the closure there is always, always one thing present that we usually don't find ourselves thinking about or focusing on throughout the usual painful aspect of letting go.

And what would that be?

Well, leave it up to Life to give us a new beginning to start out with. A clean page of Life to add to our memoirs. A blank slate. Whatever term is most appropriate, Life offers it to us and makes sure that we know that it is there in front of us.

But, what some do, perhaps many, is that they refuse to see the ending that just crossed their Life path as not an opportunity to try a new path, but rather the need to hang onto the familiar, and perhaps even the unhealthy.

It is at times like this that one should personally impress upon themselves that although the ending is painful for them, painful enough to not have them let go of it easily, this does not mean that it can't be done and that they can't start anew.

Right now.

Life moves forward, no matter how much we resist. We're like little pull toys our kids sometimes want us to buy for them in toy stores. The toy is pulled along where the child goes by way of the one end of the string that is attached to it and the other end that is also held onto tightly by the child.

When closure is necessary, Life is telling us that it is time for us to realize that it is working very hard to pull us through this experience so that we can begin to see anew and see the vast new horizons in front of us to enjoy and bask in the beauty of.

Life is ever so wonderful in that regard.

First, it brings us through the sometimes painful experience that pushes us towards accepting an inevitable end. And then, it pulls us towards an impossibly beautiful new beginning that we have no idea how it is going to turn out never mind where we are going to be led through Life with this new chapter we're being pulled and guided into.

Life.

Allow closure to occur. Stop resisting Life and closure just happens. And beyond that one can easily see that Life has so much to offer us, things it can't even begin to describe to us, but it sure can show us.

If only we're willing to be pulled forward, no matter how scared we may be of the unknown and heretofore unpainted horizon in front of us and all around us.

When you're presented with a Life event proffering an opportunity for closure do your best to accept this event at the very simplest level, perhaps just with blind faith and trust. Why? Simple...

...Because once gotten through, Life is sure to offer you a new beginning that is indescribable, unimaginable, unbeatable, and above all...unexpected.

And, oh, won't THAT be the wonder of wonders to go through. Eh?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 8:41 PM | Comments (1)

February 26, 2007

Patience IS a Virtue

Patience is something that we all struggle with at one time or another during our lives here on this plane of Life. But, for some, patience is a lesson in life that could be well heeded so as to bring about a great change in one's life. But, unfortunately, the people who would most benefit from the lesson that learning patience offers are the same ones who least want it or seek it out.

I'm reminded of a recent incident that I observed of a person's behavior surrounding a situation that took patience to get through. And I'm reminded of one instance where I was directly tested as to how firm I was in my steadfastness with my own level of acceptance of a Life situation that had presented itself to me and challenged my own patience.

Patience is a wonderful quality to master. It truly can bring wonderful Life rewards and outcomes that were not thought possible before. But, the person has to want those outcomes to be a part of the possibility of their life. And most don't.

Why? Well, I believe that patience is something that does quiet the mind. And it quells the constant buzz in the mind and the breaking of the silence in the soul. It also causes the spirit to become more in tune with what the universe has to offer and is always presenting to us every single day we exist as conscious beings.

Many don't want this silence though. They're not willing to go through what it takes to get to a place of peace inside. They want the disturbance to continue in their mind. The disturbance that is supposedly caused by the Life situation that has presented itself in front of them and that they're now a part of and resisting the reality of.

Obviously, patience is the opposite of impatience. And people, most people, the vast majority of people like impatience. They prefer it. They actually seek it out when it first appears. They thrive on it. It's the food for their hungry soul.

It's what gives them a sense of life or feeling alive. It's what gives them the many reasons they have to complain about life and how it is not giving them what they want, when they want it. And they like living their existence that way.

Complaining.

Impatient.

Resisting.

I recall two recent separate incidents, one where I watched a woman in the waiting room of a medical clinic, and the other involving myself. Both of us would've benefited tremendously from massive doses of patience. She as she waited in the waiting room of that medical clinic, and me as I waited in a bad traffic situation. Why? Because the mind was doing everything it could to keep us in a state of constant turmoil and angst over what was (not) transpiring as we awaited our turn through the Life event that was in front of us.

The woman in the medical clinic was sitting in a chair in the waiting room of the medical clinic. She had a magazine on her lap and she would look up every few seconds to glance at a television set mounted high up on the opposite wall of the waiting room. While she was seemingly reading her magazine and extremely rapidly flipping through the pages of the document, she also was shaking her left foot which was dangling from her left leg that was crossed over her right leg. Her left foot was moving like it was on a massive dose of steroids. It was almost a blur it was moving so fast.

So, here this woman was....sitting there, moving her foot rapidly, licking her finger and flipping the pages of the magazine without even reading it, and every few seconds looking up at and then down from the television mounted up near the ceiling on the wall. It was truly a sight to see. A painful one. But, to her advantage, she most likely didn't even know what she was putting herself though. She was not even present in that room enough to realize what was manifesting itself in her body movement, and occurring inside her. That is, how impatient she was and how much she would've benefited from a dose of patience as she waited.

My situation involved me being stuck in traffic on a Phoenix freeway. The speed limit on the freeway was 65 miles per hour. Traffic was so bad though that I was going about two miles per hour. And I had an appointment across town to get to. It truly was a hassle to be in that situation at that time and I found my patience getting severely taxed. So much so that I left the freeway thinking that the surface streets would be better then that automobile standstill I just left.

However, the universe sometimes has a different lesson in store for us, if we only pay attention to what it is attempting to show us. My lesson in patience was not now behind me, it was soon to be in front of me rearing its head again and forcing me to pay it full attention.

I was now stuck in street traffic due to construction on a nearby major road that closed the street down from three lanes to only one lane. And this was during rush hour. And with traffic exiting the overhead freeway from the slowdown it was experiencing. And I had an appointment that I couldn't miss without having outcomes affecting others in my life.

But what I found most interesting was the fact that my mind wanted me to do everything but accept the 'is-ness' of the current situation I was in. It was telling me to 'go around' traffic. Not let others in who were wanting to squeeze in front of me. Do potentially dangerous actions that could even put me at risk of getting hit by other vehicles.

It was an amazing process to be a part of, and watch, as it transpired in my mind. But, I just ignored the voice inside my head, and I sat in traffic and watched what happened outside the car, and what happened inside my mind. How it was trying to trick me into doing something other than just patiently accept the actuality of the situation I was literally stuck in.

Throughout this course of events I watched other drivers who appeared to be exhibiting the compliant behaviors that my mind was prodding me to fulfill. They were cutting others off. Speeding through red lights. Tailgating. Honking horns.

To me, they were in a different world inside their minds. We all shared the same outside Life situation. There truly was nothing we could do about it to change the traffic jam for blocks around. But we were all in different worlds inside our separate vehicles, and in our minds.

Of course it is a natural human reaction to Life to resist what is and then become impatient that Life isn't 'working out' the way we expect/demand it does. But, these Life events are the ones that are left ripe for learning, if we are so inclined to do so.

I've found that it is an amazing and beautiful process to simply accept what is. Patiently. Is it easy? No. The mind wants to control the situation. It wants what it wants and nothing or nobody is going to get in its way or expectations as to when the results need to occur. But reaping the benefits from allowing patience to take over a situation does indeed take practice. Lot's of practice. And frustrating situations. And it'll still get the best of the best of us at the worst of times as Life continues to stream towards us. And we it.

Will anyone else care that you've chosen to reject impatience and resistance to the moment you're stuck in and that now you're patiently waiting for whatever situation you're involved in to transpire? No. No one will care. In fact, no one will even know the virtue of patience that you're living in inside in that moment.

But, you will know. You will be going through life patiently being with what has been offered to you by the universe to learn from. And what would that offering be?

Life.

Patience is a virtue. But first one has to see just how impatient they are before they can see how patient they can be.

Everyone can be patient. This human aspect is not something relegated to the rich and famous only. And goodness knows, we all have so many, many situations that come to us every day. Situations asking us "So, do you want to BE patient or impatient today?"

I would suggest that one patiently consider the question every time it is posed.

Give it time, have patience, and Life will reward you. Every time. Guaranteed.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 3:27 PM | Comments (2)

February 3, 2007

It's A Wonderful Life

Life is a wonderful teacher to those who are willing to learn. It gives us what we need, when we need it, for the reasons that we really need it. Not what we think we want. Not what we think we need. Not what we prefer or desire.

But most people simply don't listen to the words that are silently being spoken to us. In our dreams. In our experiences. In our relations with others. In our communication with the world.

Not the obvious actions. Not what we can see, only. Not what we were told, or heard.

But just what is happening to us. What is being shown to us.

There are so many silent dynamics that are occurring in every one's life that even scientists are only just now beginning to delve into what is and has been working silently beneath the surface of Life for eons now.

But, of course, as the arrogant humans that we are, we think we know better. This author included.

To many, it comes down then to doing, wanting, having, and pursuing.

But those aspects of life are not the way to come into communion with Life itself.

The way into that place is to be open enough to allowing the possibilities to be seen by the watcher.

Seen by you, if you're so receptive to what is existing behind eyesight.

There are so, so many subtle dynamics occurring when even just two people relate to each other. We've all heard about them.

The silent body signals.

The chemistry, whatever that is, between the two people.

Their silent Souls.

Their thoughts and thinking processes.

So much going on, but yet there is something that is occurring at a level that is removed from all this.

Life.

It is working away bringing us mere humans the life experiences that we need to be able to live a full life. The Life we were intend to live on a daily basis.

And it is working ever so hard every single moment of our existence, tapping us on the head waiting patiently for us to hear what it is silently saying to us and efforcing us to 'see'.

Again, through dreams.

Through the subtler dynamics between the relationships we have with others.

Between the life experiences that are brought our way on a daily basis, every moment of the day.

Behind what happens, and what doesn't happen.

But, unfortunately, most are too busy in their head, their mind, their thoughts, their life, to hear and see, and observe, and pay attention to what is happening all around them. All the time.

Why is this of any concern?

Well, I've found that this silent relationship we have with existence is what is speaking to us and yet if we were to only listen to what it is working so hard to tell us, that our life would be very very different from what we have managed to create it to be.

And it would be different in ways that we can't fathom yet. Why? Because they are not part of our existence; otherwise, we would be living them.

Life shows each of us so many things every day.

Life speaks to us volumes every day.

Life wants us to wake up to ourselves, our-self, and see what it is offering us. The Right place to live our existence.

It wants us to see that there is another way to live Life. There is another level that exists beyond the world we live in.

There is a space in the silence that is so full of life, if only we are able to hear it, then we could enter. At any time we so wish.

And, oh how full our life would be. More than we can imagine.

Many spiritual teachers throughout the eons have worked so hard their entire awakened lives to help people understand that the life they are living is not the only life there is.

I believe what they say. I believe what they have experienced.

Is there a way out of human turmoil? I don't think so, except only to minimize it greatly through exposure and awareness.

But there is a way to live one's life such that the experiences that are brought to it, the people that are brought into one's life can be used, in a good way, to learn about the life one is meant to live.

Think about what happens to you during a day. Do you really think that what happens to you is everything that you have worked so hard to create? Think of all those so-called coincidences. Those dreams. Those pains. Those problems.

Do you actually feel responsible for all of that? Of course, we all want to blame the other.

But if each of us would only step back, and realize that everything that happens to us is there in our lives for a reason. The people. The events. The experiences.

And beneath all that are the lessons.

The insights.

The silence.

The silence is speaking volumes to you. Right now.

Do you want to listen to what it has to say?

Do you want to learn to understand what Life is bringing to you for the reason it is bringing it to you?

I know it's a tough thing to do. Many don't want to. This author included, at times.

But, this approach to life is so out of the ordinary that it truly brings one a wonderful Life.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 7:30 AM | Comments (2)

January 15, 2007

The Art of Letting Go

With my own recent series of unfortunate Life events under my belt, or behind me, depending on perception, I have a much clearer insight into the art of letting go. And I know firsthand that letting go is possible.

What is letting go? And why is it even of concern to anyone in their right mind?

Well, with consideration of the selling of several hundred thousand books under the title of The Secret of Letting Go, author Guy Finley had something to write about this topic in the early 1990's. And people were listening.

Or should I say, reading. So I think this topic is one that puzzles most and still befuddles the genuine seekers of this elusive life solution.

For most humans, letting go is not something that comes easy. And, in light of that, how can this subject even be defined?

Well, I would consider letting go as the actual moment when one decides that whatever emotional baggage they're hanging on to is no longer worth holding. At the moment that that baggage is released, letting go occurs.

Of course, it's much easier to give the analogy via a descriptive picture than it is for most to actually do what is described.

Myself included.

But I now know, without a doubt, that this letting go is a fact. And it is doable. And it is hard to do. And it will most likely occur for the masses of people desiring it only over a long period of time and inner study of the workings of one's mind and how it operates.

Letting go is something that occurs inside one and it is only visible to that person. Usually it is not tellable outside the person who just let go. It comes as a sense of resolution with the internal mental and emotional struggle that heretofore was battling it out inside the 'mind' (whatever that thing is, eh?)

Letting go is evidenced by a sort of inner peace that the way a situation was responded to before is no longer appropriate, or necessary. There is a way out of the struggle with that situation for that person now...outside of what was used to-date.

The over half-century old 12-step al-anon saying states:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference."

This is more than just a few words in a trite poem penned by a man in the early 20th century.

These words are something that helps one understand that the actual process of letting go is something that wholly occurs inside one, but forever changes their world outside of them as well.

Why is it so hard to let go and why do so many people struggle with this fact of life?

I believe its because of past behavior and heavily conditioned actions that have, in a sense, solidified the behaviors in the person with the struggle to let go.

Hanging onto one's reaction to a situation is a habit. Pure and simple.

For most it's a deeply entrenched habit that is not going to give up without a struggle. The mind will work ever so hard to have the thinker, the person, believe that the past way of reacting to a situation is the only way to react to that situation.

The mind wants the mind holder to believe that there is no other way to respond to the events that Life throws at us.

And after several decades of conditioning on our own part through existence on this physical plane, and additionally the cultural conditioning over the millenia that was programmed into our genes over that extended period of time, one can easily see how enormous this type of watershed change is going to be. That is, to actually let go.

But, let go of what?

Let go of the past.

Past behavior.

Past thoughts.

Past actions.

Past beliefs.

It's not easy to do. And even though one may say they want it, even though one may say that they believe in it, that is not enough to make it happen.

But, contrary to this, it still does come down to an actual moment of 'letting go'.

Yes, it doesn't make sense. Yes, it still begs the question "So, exactly how do I let go?"

Well, when I found myself posing that type of question once several years ago, I was given the answer that it's kind of like choosing between two different ice cream flavors in the ice cream aisle in the supermarket. How do you chose between vanilla or chocolate? Easy...

You just choose. You see a choice, and then you choose.

Is letting go that easy as well? Well, when done after much resolve and inner conviction, yes, it is.

It's a whole body understanding that the past baggage held inside the mind to-date no longer is appropriate for this same situation from hereon in.

It's a complete and absolute knowing that behaving the way one has to-date no longer is needed. Or necessary.

It's dropping what was. And accepting what is.

It's giving up the struggle with what is.

And to quote J. Khrisnamurti when he was near the latter part of his life: "I don't mind what happens."

I don't mind what happens. When that is felt throughout the body, and only then, is one letting go. There is no mental decision.

Letting go is outside the mind. Letting go is seeing that what is, is. And any amount of denial, fighting, resisting, arguing, wishing, or bargaining isn't going to change what is.

Letting go. It really is an art.

The salient question right here and right now for you, my dear reader, is: Are you willing to wipe off the canvas of your Life, and start now clean, clear, and new?

You can let go of whatever Life situation is bothering you, you know. Trust me on this.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 12:14 PM | Comments (1)

January 5, 2007

A Blog Comment Is Worth A Thousand Words

Isn't it interesting how one situation can elicit as many different responses as there are people involved in that situation?

What comes to mind is recent occurrences of comments and submittals to my blog here at andrebest.com

The comments range from the one end of concurring with what I write and praise and admiration for my words and my sharing all the way to the other end of comments about my blog having a holier-than-thou style.

I find it most interesting that people who comment on my blog most likely are not aware that their comments are not so much about my blog, but, rather are a clear indication of themselves inside and how much darkness or Light their soul is showing at that point in time.

I'll explain.

When I have, say, a person stating that my blog is wonderful and offers such cogent writing on a variety of topics that really resonate with that particular person, the feeling and the agreement that they are writing to share with me is not something that I'm putting out there in my writings, but something that is being touched on inside them.

We all know the old saying 'like attracts like'.

Well, this is not only a statement about two people liking each other but can and does also apply here.

Let me offer hopefully a better and prettier analogy to what I'm trying to relay here.

Say you're driving in your car and you come around a bend in the road and 'lo and behold you're presented with a suddenly stark and incredibly beautiful scene of nature that literally takes your breath away with its intense beauty and splendor.

Perhaps it even brings you to tears like Jodie Foster's character in Contact was experiencing when she first saw those space constellations that were beyond words for description.

Now, most people would automatically think that the feeling inside the viewer, the sensations of beauty, were created by the scene; however, what is actually happening is the scene AROUSED the feelings inside the viewer.

Like attracts like.

The person in the car views the beautiful nature scene and feels a sense of awe and splendour inside and attributes that to what is viewed. But the awe and splendiferous feelings are actually inside the person and were only AWAKENED by the scene outside of them.

The beauty outside gave rise to the feelings of beauty inside the person.

Like attracts like.

This would apply to every other feeling in a person.

Sadness.

Anger.

Loneliness.

Jealousy.

Fear.

Hatred.

Rage.

Someone or some situation outside of you causes you to feel a feeling in you and you attribute that to the person or situation outside of you.

But the feeling is inside of you, was always inside of you, and yet was only 'awakened' by the event outside of you.

It's all an inside job.

So, getting back to the comments from the many people who read my blog.

Are they REALLY about what I wrote? Is there really any way that I could have somehow written articles here that are both splendiferous and cogent and at the same time holier-than-thou in attitude?

Based on what I wrote above, I say "no".

And I bring it back to 'like attracts like'.

Someone who thinks that my blog has a holier-than-thou attitude obviously is feeling that way inside themselves. My words somehow just awakened that darkness inside them.

They're the one feeling holier-than-thou. I just wrote an article or articles for my blog.

Someone else feeling grateful and peaceful inside after reading my blog and saying that they feel a connection to my words is simply reflecting the feelings that were awakened inside them after internalizing these words I e-shared via my blog article(s).

What's going on inside the person is not a result of what's going on outside the person, contrary to massively accepted public opinion. That is, rather, it's an inside job.

The person reading my blog having the holier-than-thou comments IS the person feeling holier-than-thou.

And my blog reader, many of them, with the peacefulness and sense of connectedness comments IS the person feeling this way inside. They're feeling what they're feeling because they already had the feelings inside of them.

I didn't make anyone feel this way. People reading my blog and articles make their own choice to feel inside as they do after reading.

Now, what does this have to do with anything?

Well, perhaps one can use it to help them throughout their days and interrelating with others as an indicator, a window, into the 'soul' of the other person. More specifically, where these other people are 'at' inside.

Do you really want to be in relation with someone who offers nothing but angry words and comments about things they read (and see, and experience for that matter)? Or would you rather be in relation with someone who has an opinion revolving around common sharing and positive integration and usefulness to them as a person after reading/seeing/experiencing things. Even writings that 'appear' to be controversial.

Reading a writing DOESN'T have to illicit angry comments in a person. That person is making that choice inside. And people like that I personally don't want to be around. Ever. There is enough darkness in the world, and I do what I can to minimize it in mine.

I know who I would rather hang around with and have in my life. And I hope that an insight like this, as simplistic as it appears at first glance, is useful to you, my committed readers, during your daily relations with other humans and situations on this plane.

After all, it's all for fun, isn't it? Really.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:08 PM | Comments (0)

December 1, 2006

A Change of Heart

Life is such a brutal foe at times. It's amazing that any of us make it through the times that are thrown at us throughout our forced journey through existence. But this is not to say that everyone handles these battles in the same way, nor even that everyone comes through the battle unscathed. Or alive.

Life is not always fun. I surmise it's not supposed to be. That is, like good armor made of quality forged steel: the hotter the fire, the better the forging process and the stronger the steel. And the cooler the fire, the weaker the forging of the steel, the easier it is for the steel to fail when the fire of Life gets hot next time. And we all know there is always a 'next time', eh?

All of us want to just go through the good times in life. All of us want the easy road. All of us want life to be kind to us as we slowly tip toe our way to the grave. However, life is not always this compliant or in step with our needs or demands...at least for the vast majority of the population.

For some of us, our steely exterior becomes stronger and protects us and allows us to squarely face what is thrown at us during the battle. But for others, the vast majority of people, the steel - although strong - still fails when the going gets tough. And so these people think that they just need to get stronger by somehow incorporating the last experiences they faced into their person-hood and that is all they need to do for 'next time'.

"I need to make the steel STRONGER!"

"More heat! I need more HEAT!"

However, I've found out that this is simply not the way to go through life.

Life is not meant to be hard.

Neither are we.

Life is only hard because we became hardened ourselves.

Rephrasing, we didn't let the scars of life heal properly and instead just became covered with a tough, scar-encased exterior.

Again, Life doesn't have to be this way.

There are two ways to meet life. One, with the understanding that what happens to us happens to us for a reason and that this Life lesson contains something inside of it that we can learn from for next time.

Or, we can respond to life with the attitude that all we can do is steel ourselves for the next blow and that that is simply our lot in life. All the while we become more hardened on the outside yet more hotter and bloody on the inside from all the 'unfairness' of life.

The marriages failed.

Aging is catching up no matter what kind of surgery is done.

Death of close relationships. And people. Family members.

The sex, the drugs, and the alcohol don't 'work' anymore.

Work doesn't satisfy anymore. No matter what's done.

We all know many people who just let life flow off of them like the proverbial water off of a ducks back. And we all know people who just seem to become more angry inside as the years and decades of life cut more notches on their belt of Life.

If we're smart, the latter are the types of people that we avoid. They're not good for our soul. Or our Heart of Hearts.

You see, these angry people have made a choice. They chose to be the way they are in Life. Yes, at some time during their journey through life they stood facing the ubiquitous fork in the road and they chose the path that led to the hardening of their exterior.

...And the hardening of their heart.

...And their soul.

But, again, one doesn't have to live Life this way. One can decide that life is meant to be full of many different and differing experiences for us to learn from. All of these experiences brought into our days so that we can grow as a human being from them.

All of these varying experiences presented to us so that we can find out more about ourselves and at the same time work so hard to shed the deeply ingrained response to steel ourselves against that next imagined impending blow of life.

We can be the person who decides that what happens to us in life doesn't require us to now automatically harden up our life armor. Rather, it requires us to drop all accumulated defenses. Yes, all of them.

Why?

Because the enemy is imagined. The enemy is alive only in the mind. No one else's. Our mind. Your mind.

There is no life enemy to protect one's-self against. Outside of potential physical harming to the body, there is no actual enemy to fight.

Why?

Because once a person realizes, right in the middle of one's preparation to fight the endless line of life foes in one's life, that THIS image that one is having is what is causing the hardening of the heart - the battle is won.

THIS image is what is causing the heart to become jaded with life.

THIS imagined enemy is what causes the soul to become encased in anger and the blame of the decades past.

And yet, this is not a way to live life. This is not a way to go through one's existence.

We all started out with a perfectly clean slate as children. Way back when, before the mind came into being through exposure to society and all its influences, we only reacted out of normal physical and emotional reactions. The body got hurt, the body cried. The heart got hurt, the heart cried. Simple.

But as the mind came into play the whole game changed course. Now one began to think and believe that the world was out to get them and it was a truly painful place to reside and so one had to become 'stronger'. But this was the beginning of the first wrong choice made at that first fork in the road of Life.

Life is meant to be a learning experience for all. It is not meant to be one of unfilled happiness. Or continuing angst during one's days.

And it also is not meant to be a time when one just grows more angry and bitter and rage-filled at all life has brought to one during their days past. And days to come.

Understand that Life can be different for a person. But it is up to that person to see this first.

It is up to the person to see that there is a different way to go through one's days.

It is up to that person to just simply see this.

And then to say to themselves when they become aware of this fact "Yes, there is another way to be."

That's all. That's it. Period.

There is no more to know right now.

And if YOU want to change who you are and how you react to the world as it organizes another battle in your ongoing Life war, first just see that who you are is not who you have to continue to be. Especially during the hard times.

Step out of the war. Drop the armor you 'think' you need. Realize there is no war to steel up against in life. The war is only in your mind.

Don't continue or become like one of those dark, angry and evil people you know and or have in your life.

People can change.

But, the big question is: How badly do YOU want it?

And how far are you willing to go to get it?

The battle's coming, again. Ready to drop your Life armor?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:37 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

Life Changing Moments - a.k.a. Insights

Have you ever had an insight that was particularly troubling yet insightful at the same time? You might think of one of these events as occurring when a time in your life was perhaps most troubling as you struggled to work through an issue that was of then utmost importance to you.

You find yourself struggling, perhaps for many years, with the issue. All to no avail. The issue persists and the struggle continued.

And then, through your own diligent and persistent efforts the issue is changed via an insight of utmost revelation.

And after this insight into the situation at hand, nothing is again the same. Even though the insight may seem of little importance to the entire struggle it does change the struggle inside you. Perhaps quickly. Perhaps subtly. But change nonetheless occurs.

Well, a few days ago I was having my usual very long weekly conversation with my lifelong childhood best friend. We never come into the conversation with an agenda, for the most part. We just let the conversation evolve into whatever it tends to gravitate towards.

But this particular conversation was both enlightening and insightful for both him and me. Having discussions with someone about a subject of relevance and importance is something that I have long experienced to be beneficial for both parties partaking in that discussion. In this case although it was my friend who was sharing about an issue and its resulting outcome that he had experienced it was also I who benefitted from the sharing.

As my friend shared what he was going through, to him the information and the insight hidden to him within that information wasn't all that important. To him it was just another morsel of information that he found in front of him regarding the issue he was trying to work through. But what he shared to me was ever so clear to me because I was not involved in that issue. So clarity for me was easy.

I'm of the firm belief that everything happens to one for a reason. And this means both 'good' and 'bad' events and outcomes. If there are truly such things.

In my friend's case the most recent event he found himself in, but which also surrendered up an insight to him, was especially troublesome.

But, oh, what power this event will show itself to hold in the coming months and years in my friend's life. And he doesn't know any of this because he is too much involved in the process to be able to stand back and clearly see what it was that Life brought to him to embrace this weekend.

But fortunately for him he took what was proffered and it did the work it was meant to do with him. It showed him the true light in the situation he was embedded in for, now, several decades.

One has to understand that watershed moments that cross one's path through life do not necessarily cross in front of us with a flashing neon signing blazing at us with the words 'I'm a useful insight - be sure to use me'. No, if only it were that easy for us humans working to 'be'.

But one has to understand that if they're truly and sincerely and genuinely working to resolve an issue that is standing in front of them and that has refused to get out of their way for some time now, that any answer that comes from a place inside the person that they know not where it came from is something that should be closely adhered to and held on to.

I may have lost some of you with that long sentence so let me rephrase...

When something occurs inside you, the proverbial lightbulb over the head moment, understand that these types of true insights are given to you during that moment. They are not something that YOU created. Rather, these moments were always within you and could only now, because you cleared your mental 'field', be seen by you. And because of this it is now your responsibility to take what was shown to you and put it to good and incorporated use in our life.

Understand that life shows those who sincerely want to know answers the answers that they are seeking.

But also understand that it is not going to be you, or a part of your conscious mind, that is going to give you the answer you seek.

The answers are going to come from within you, the answers that you seek, but they are not going to be your answers.

Any such answers are only going to be more of the same garbage that you came up with and that didn't work to help you out of the situation you're still in.

Understand that when information that comes to you that you just know, in your heart of hearts, is an insight -- that this information needs to be seen by you and allowed to settle in to your daily life, as it is meant to do.

My lifelong friend had this kind of insightful moment where information was presented to him which he stomached through and is now incorporating into his life and existence. This was a moment of revelation that came to him during a time of strife and stress in his life. And this insight is going to have lasting impressions and impacts on him in ways that he can't begin to now fathom.

Life is not going to be the same for him again. In some ways that will be good. In some ways it'll appear bad to him. But overall his Life path is going to be forever changed.

If you're looking for the answers to your questions a good starting point might be for you to understand that life will give you the answers you want when you're truly ready for them and able to use them as they are meant to be used. Until then they sit in the shadow of darkness in you, awaiting their moment in the light.

Care to do the work to shed more light in your life? If so, be prepared for changes. And, again, it's not always going to be a fun ride thereafter. But it is going to be new, exciting, and growth-inducing.

And isn't that the true life we all strive to live deep inside because we know that this is what makes life worth living?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2006

Starting Stopping Suffering

Have you ever noticed how the world wants us to think that everything is okay in it? Yet, why is there so much suffering everywhere around this globe? We all can agree... everyone suffers. At some time, some place, with or without someone, everyone suffers.

Why does this happen? Is there a need for suffering? Is there a reason that others suffer more than others? That is, their lives are more definable by events and circumstances that are not generally desired by the masses, so we call that suffering?

There are many people on this globe who suffer on a daily basis. And those of us in the so-called industrialized nations don't even have the first inkling of what kind of suffering these many millions of women, children, and others go through and try to live through on a daily basis.

But honing down to our own small day-to-day world, suffering is an inexhaustible source of pain for most of us.

No one likes to hurt, no one likes to do things that make them hurt. This would include exercising, not eating foods we enjoy, being without someone we love, or being away from the life that we are used to.

Many billions of people don't have to endure the suffering that many millions of people go through each day of their existence. But this, in a sense, doesn't make what the rest of us go through when our days are dark any less relevant or painful.

But for that incredibly vast majority of us, why is suffering and pain such a constant in our days?

That is the question that if one hopes to escape their days of pain needs to continue to ask themselves and explore as they walk their path to the grave.

One needs to become aware of just why it is that they have the pain in their daily lives that they do. We all know where we have pain in our lives.

Relationships.

Occurrences.

Experiences.

Events.

Reactions.

Actions.

We would like to think that if we can only change what is happening outside of us or get rid of that person, thing, or situation, then the pain would go away. But as we all have experienced so many times, the only thing that changes when we make those attempts is that we only make room for the next identical scenario to occur at some future date along our path.

Suffering doesn't have to be a constant in one's existence. Yes, it is extremely hard at times to raise one's head above the suffocating black cloud when one is immersed in it; however, that does not mean that it is not do-able to make a difference towards what is happening to one when it is happening.

Now, I'm not going to give you some trite solution to the pain and suffering that you may be going through.

Why?

Because I myself don't know the entire answer. So I'm not going to give you some glossy sprinkling answer that says that all you have to do is... (fill in the blank).

That wouldn't be fair to you or me.

But there are certain insights that I've gathered over my years of educating myself about my suffering moments in life. And some of these insights have proven to be real lifesavers. Literally.

We all know how a certain life event can raise its ugly head during our days and we are put to task to find ways to handle it to the best of our abilities.

This is when one is shown how strong they truly are when it comes to carrying this type of burden throughout their day.

Some of the Teachings that I have followed for over six years now have proven time and time again to be accurate and capable of showing me that "there is a way out of suffering and anyone can find it", to quote one of my late great teachers - Vernon Howard.

Life is going to continue to come at us. That is, until we're no longer physically alive on this planet. That's a fact we can't avoid or do anything about. We can delay it but not stop it.

But at the times in one's life that life is doing everything it can to make our days here appear to be hell on Earth, then one is usually befuddled as to where to turn to escape the madness. Again, it doesn't have to be this way. At least not as bad as it usually is for most.

I've found that at times like this it's prudent to remind myself of the fact that 'this too shall pass'. Why? Because everything, and I mean everything, has an end. And no matter how dark the day may seem, one day it is going to clear up to blue sky again.

Yes, it's not fun to go through the darkness, but think about what most do when a dark moment enters. They think that this darkness is here forever and that they're stuck in it.

So, to start the process to begin to escape from this suffering in one's life stay aware to the fact that the darkness is there. That's all. Realize that you are in a dark state of mind. That you're suffering right now.

What does this do? Well, besides showing you that due to the simple fact that you can actually be aware of the darkness in your day is proof that there is actually a part of you that is not a part of the darkness.

I know I lost some of you with that statement. I'll re-phrase it.

Realize the simple fact that because you're able to see the darkness is proof that there is a part of you that is not a part of the darkness, otherwise you wouldn't be able to be aware that you're in a funky state of mind.

That's enough, done over and over and over and over again, over the years ahead to raise one to a level above the darkness and suffering the next time it enters one's days.

Of course, there is a bunch more stuff that will help one along this path to removing suffering from their days but this simple Truth is enough to begin to move one in the right direction. The direction of raising their 'self' above the muck and mire of darkness and being able to see that Light really still exists during these dark suffering moments in one's life.

Try it next time you suffer. Become aware that you feel pain, that you suffer. And then realize that because you can be aware of your pain that that is simple proof that there truly exists something above your dark moment. And realize that this is all going on WHILE you're in your darkness.

And that's a great first start out of suffering.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 7:00 AM | Comments (7)

September 9, 2006

Found: The Purpose of Living

If you're one of the few people wondering if there's a purpose to your existence, I'm venturing to add to my continuing series of articles on this topic of a life's purpose that it's not a matter of what IF there's no purpose to life, instead, I purport the concept that there is NO purpose to life.

So just how did I come across this seemingly bleak statement? Well, for starters I've recently come to the personal conclusion that I've only been hanging onto the thought and the hope and the belief that there is a purpose to existence.

And joined to this thinking is the thought that I have been one of the unfortunate one's who has yet to stumble upon, or even trip over, my life's purpose along my personal life's journey.

I guess at times I even entertained the thought that perhaps there was a sadistic spiritual joke being played upon the human called 'Andre Best'.

Regardless of all this background and personal insight and posing of funky bleak questions, I still find it kind of troubling to think that there is no real purpose to life and no divine intention that we're all supposed to fulfill before they're shoveling dirt in our face.

For so many years I had focussed on and worked towards and kept myself moving towards the belief, the hope, that there truly was a genuine purpose that I personally had to be working towards.

This was, in a sense, giving my life meaning and something to work towards. But I guess in my case it became not so much a task towards an end but rather an obsession. And the more I worked towards defining my purpose, or so I thought, the more frustrated I became.

You see, a defining purpose is ultimately what we're all seeking, that is, the seekers in life who are seeking. We want there to be an answer. We want there to be a solution to every problem that comes across our Life desk. And we don't like the unknown so when there is an area of our life that is unknown it is especially important to fill that hole. With something.

And if the actual answer can't be found to fill the hole with then the substitute will suffice.

In my case that substitute was the search for an answer.

Viktor Frankl states in 'Man's Search for Meaning' that if a person is given a 'why' then they will find a 'how'. What this means is that if a person is given a reason to live, a defining purpose, then that is enough to get them through the times in their life that are especially difficult when they don't know 'how' they're going to get through that time. But finding a 'why' is enough to give them the strength to find the 'how' to carry them forward beyond the darkness of that moment in time.

Along my path, my 'why' was to find a purpose to my existence and even though the 'how' to address that 'why' was to pursue many avenues focusing on inner development and personal growth the 'how' still wasn't enough to satiate this inner drive towards the so-called answer I was pursuing.

Why? Because the 'why' became a problem, in my case. That is, the 'why' for me became the goal to pursue.

Specifically, I expected to find out why I was placed here on this plane and once discovered, everything would be taken care of for me. But, unfortunately, things weren't to be that simple.

I've realized that because I couldn't figure out my defining 'why' I became focussed on the pursuit of the 'why' and that didn't allow me to take advantage of any 'how's' that may have found their way across my path.

Let me state this another way...

Because I pursued my own personal 'why' but I couldn't find it I glommed onto the process of finding that 'why'. But the only thing I didn't do was to actually find out my own personal why. More on that in a bit.

I guess that I'm like many people on this life quest for answers. Instead of finding the answer that I expect to exist I became focussed on the search.

The quest.

The process.

The expectation.

And in the end, somewhere along the way, I had forgotten that perhaps - just perhaps - there is no 'why'.

But all along I had become so identified with the 'pursuit' of my own why that it never even occurred to me that maybe there isn't any end answer to the long quest(ion).

Think about it, outside of a religious perspective why does there have to be a reason for each of us existing on this plane for the short few decades (if we're so lucky) that we happen to be physical creatures?

Some would say it is to come to a sense of completion in this or that aspect of our life individually or with another one or many people, this time around. Others would say that perhaps our existence is so that we can learn to become spiritual creatures to the best of our human abilities.

And even some would say our existence is to become perfect human beings.

But, outside of all these human-driven explanations perhaps one should also consider on a very deep internal level that just maybe there is no purpose to our individual existence.

Now, before some of you think 'Whoa, back that spiritual truck up dude!' let me shed some light on the seemingly dark statement I just placed in your e-lap.

Ponder the remote possibility that there is no ultimate reason for a person's existence.

No becoming a boss of a Fortune 100 company.

No becoming a holy saint and helping the poor, unfortunate, and downtrodden.

Even no becoming the best parent to your kids and shoulder to cry on for your family and friends. None of that.

Now, I'm not espousing that any of those intents are bad, or wrong, or unnecessary in this world. We all know otherwise in many ways that they are needed.

What I'm getting at is that perhaps we are just meant to be born, go through our personal allotment of roughly 25,000 days day by day by day, and then go back into the abyss that we came from.

Now, does that have to be such a bad thing to consider and perhaps even accept? Maybe for some. But for others, like me, it is something that is giving me relief that there just might not be a 'higher purpose' why I personally was placed vertically on this planet for this period of time.

And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact there's everything good with that potentiality.

Unloading that type of mental burden is beginning to show me that there is another way to exist on this plane.

That is, in the moment. With the moment.

It's freeing up the space in my mind that heretofore was focussed with incredible precision on the 'quest'. And while this was going on, the present moment was passing by to my obliviousness.

That's not good. Why? Well, with all that going on, how can one be present to the moment-by-moment life we all live?

How can one be present to what is happening in the now, internally and externally, when one is thinking about the potential future discovery of the 'why'?

How can one be in relation to the world and others in it when one is absent even to themselves mentally with a preoccupation of discovering this elusive answer to this non-necessary question posited?

Again, by focusing on the 'why' the present moment is missed. Over and over and over.

And by letting go of the 'why' free and easy, the thinking about 'why' is dissipated and room is made for 'now', free of thoughts.

Acceptance.

Resolution.

Possibility.

Right now, where I'm at, this insight I've recently come to is very intriguing to say the least. And how impacting is it appearing to be?

That's easy to answer. It's already coagulated enough in my gray matter that I'm able to share it with you.

So, tell me... how impacting is it for you?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:29 AM | Comments (11)

July 30, 2006

Life Isn't Just About Growing Old...

Have you ever wondered why life is the way it is? Why the days turn out like they do and why everything ends up happening the way it does in the manner it does to with and to whom it does?

Sometimes I wish there were a way to figure all this out and know what was happening and why it was happening so that the worry and the trepidation and the confusion were not a part of life, nor even part of the equation.

Life doesn't have to be hard to go through. Life doesn't have to be something that we struggle through until bedtime each night whereupon we can only see ourselves repeating the journey all over again the next day. Life is meant to be more than that.

Of this I'm sure.

We search and we look and we question and we wonder what's it all about? What is each day inherently all about and supposed to be for? What is the meaning of each day that we exist?

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense and I know that the vast majority of people truly don't know the answer yet want to seek solace in the belief that they do. That's fine. Let them continue to do that.

Personally, I've had it with that delusion.

I don't know why what happens to me happens to me. As I've written about in other articles, the old adage 'everything happens for a reason' sometimes is beyond questioning. And sometimes it's beyond bewilderment.

One works so hard to understand what existence is about and yet life keeps coming full bore and one is left holding up another Life wall that is about to come crashing in on them. Why does this happen?

Why do some people believe that it is their role in life to make others live's somehow conform to theirs so that their walls stay upright and they don't have to do any work to improve their world and keep it from crashing down on them?

That, to me, doesn't make sense. Why? Because it's a waste of a golden opportunity to learn about one's self.

Life is supposed to be joyful and full of wonder and wonderment. It's a blessing that we've been given every millisecond that we're still able to be vertical in this world. Life isn't something we earn and struggle through. It's something we are given to learn from.

One of my inner development teachers, Vernon Howard, stated a fair number of years ago that the point of life isn't to grow old, it's to grow up.

How better this planet would be if the majority of people held dear that attitude and worked on themselves like they should be doing so they could truly live the gift that Life is.

Life isn't about growing old, its about growing up.

Think about that. Think about what that entails.

It means to live each new day unlike the ones before it. Every day, not just tomorrow, but every tomorrow. Until they're throwing dirt on your face when you're in the ground.

Life is about shaking off the chains of the past that we all seem to have been born into by societal influences and we also voluntarily pick up and attach ourselves to so that we can go through life like Marley in A Christmas Carol. That is, going through life with the chains that we had the opportunity to have not be chained by and to, but instead we continued to make choices that attached but another link to our already lengthy Life chain.

We aren't here very long. Any of us. We aren't going to be here much longer. Oh sure, several decades sounds like a long time. But think about the last several that you lived. In retrospect, how quickly did they go by?

We can choose to live our lives like there is no tomorrow or we can continue to drag our past in front of us and walk into it.

Predictable.

Pain.

Safety.

Tip-toeing through life.

And throwing darkness onto ourselves and others.

It doesn't have to be that way. For any of us.

I know for myself that I have worked hard to rid myself of the dark influences in my life, both internally and through relationships with others. I don't want to be holding up others' walls so they don't come crashing down on them.

Life is too short to be spent worrying about a life that someone else doesn't want to live for themselves.

It's enough work to live our own life. A full-time job 'till Death do us part'.

Remember, life isn't about growing old, it's about growing up.

Think about that.

Grow up.

Even if you're 70 years old.

Grow up.

Even if you're a mother, a father, a grandparent.

Grow up.

A business executive for a Fortune 100 company.

Grow up.

A priest, a Buddhist monk.

Grow up.

A teenager. An addict.

Grow up.

A Mensa genius. A high school dropout.

Grow up.

Life is too short to be lived like there IS a tomorrow.

Life is too short to drag our past into the future so we know what to expect.

Life is too short to burden others with our responsibility to grow up for ourselves.

Grow up.

Yes...

YOU.

Don't avoid the truth.

We all need to grow up.

Growing old is taking care of itself with each of us and this carcass we each inhabit for a while.

But we, as the only conscious creatures on this planet, can do differently for what we can control.

We can grow up.

Will you?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:18 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2006

The Purpose Driven Life

I had a recent insight regarding the purpose of life that we are all driven at some time in our existence to seek and find out about. Now, this purpose driven life insight is perhaps not one that is life changing for most, nor does it supply the answer to what our purpose here on this spinning ball might be.

Rather, the insight that I had about the purpose of life, personally speaking, is something that had never occurred to me before. So I thought that I would share it here with you so as to possibly impart some light into your quest, if you are on the path as such, towards finding out what your purpose in life and existence in general might be.

Let me start with a little personal background on why this is even a topic of consideration and worth writing about.

I know that for those of us who are more spiritually inclined and driven towards pursuing studies of higher interest that a topic like this is something that we find ourselves facing more than the masses do.

But at the same time, even though this is something that is the central focus of our studies and what keeps us moving in the direction of self improvement in general it can also be a hindrance towards moving beyond the simple searching for an answer.

You see, as humans, we like things to fit in nice and neat little packages. Especially things that happen to us during our days here and also within our mind and our thoughts in particular. We like nice beginning and conclusive endings to things. An example of this as proof of this concept can be seen by simply being aware of how Hollywood movies are structured in America.

They always have a neat little wrapping-things-up ending. The guy gets the girl. The girl gets the guy. And they both end up walking off into the sunset together. Neat. Closure.

But that's not how life is for us in the real world. At least more often then not it is a matter of having to accept that sometimes things don't end themselves in such a way that we are able to see the end of whatever it is and then move on.

And that brings us back to today's topic of this article.

One's purpose in life.

This is something that doesn't have a nice little neat ending for the vast majority of people. Including us seekers of higher knowledge. It is something that can't be explained individually in a book, nor provided via answers that we can take on for ourselves and run with.

Rather, it is something that we have to figure out ourselves on an individual basis and see what comes of this quest for the ultimate answer to one's search for their purpose in life.

But one particularly interesting thing that happened to me recently was that I realized, as I was ironing my work clothes one day a few weeks ago, that I had been on this focussed quest to find my purpose in life for many years now.

You know the focussed quest I'm referencing...

We all think that there is some grand scheme that we're all a part of and that we each have a dynamic role to play in how it all turns out. Yet, we're in turmoil because we can't figure out what it is we're to be doing on this spinning ball we're living on and so we don't know what our particular role in this grand scheme is. A true conundrum.

And a frustrating one to boot. At least that is how I found it to be after these many years of searching.

I found myself continuing to delve into activities, and teachings, and writings, and gurus, and specialists, and advice, and how-to's that would hopefully help me figure out what this all too elusive purpose to my life was.

It was almost as if some grand joke was being played on me to find the answer yet I was unable to find it and so all I was led towards was frustration and questioning endlessly what life is all about. And this was spiritually unsettling to say the least.

Think about it.

Don't we all at some time find ourselves asking, even if for only a few fleeting seconds, what 'this' is all about?

...or 'Why am I here?'

...or 'What's this all for'?'

...or 'Is this it?'

...or perhaps even, 'There's got to be more than just this, right?'

Well, you're not alone.

But what I found out during that insight I had a few weeks ago while ironing was that for most of us we continue to live our days thinking that there is a cosmic joke being played on us and that it's somehow our fault that we haven't figured out our own personal purpose of living. And so we stay frustrated.

But I realized that my resistance to letting go of my belief that there had to be some grand higher purpose to my life was what was keeping me in angst on a continuing basis.

It wasn't that there was some higher purpose that I hadn't discovered, it was that I was resisting letting go of the fact that I was unable to find it up until now and as long as I was hanging on to that fight it was natural that I wasn't going to be able to progress very far in any sense of my search.

My resistance to this disturbance was the disturbance. And this is a quote from a powerful inner life teacher I've followed for years...Vernon Howard.

Again, the late Mr. Howard taught 'resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance'. Or to paraphrase it, my resistance was what was disturbing me.

And so once I realized this, it became simply a matter of letting go of my resistance to accepting that up until now I hadn't found my higher purpose in life. And once I was able to let go of that and realize that everything is okay that way right now for me, then the disturbance gradually disappeared.

It's interesting that for years I had fought the idea that I had somehow missed the grand calling identifying what each of our purpose's are on Earth. And so I was enrolled in the resistance to that understanding.

That is, as long as I resisted letting go of the fact that I hadn't found the absolute higher purpose that my life is all about and I continued to allow angst into my life through struggling with that fact that I sure wasn't going to be able to allow space inside me for true consideration of what my higher purpose would be, should it decide to reveal itself to me.

Right now my purpose in life is to be the absolute best 'Dad' I can be for my boys. And that means that I continue on this path towards becoming the most perfect human being that I am able to allow myself to be. And since my boys are in my world, they will be able to hopefully glean certain aspects of this mindset from me and take it with them into their adulthood.

Is this why I, personally, was placed here on Earth? Don't know.

Do you know why you were placed here on Earth? Really, do you? Do any of us?

Of course on a societal basis it becomes more a matter of what we 'do' with our lives and our time here. And that is what the common world recognizes and remembers us by. But is that really why each of us is born and meant to live for several decades before passing on again to the other side?

Although one may struggle with attempting to understand and yet at the same time not be able to understand their purpose to being alive and for living, one has to make sure that they don't get all too caught up in that struggle while Life passes them by.

Yes, we generally don't know why each of us enters this world. But don't let the struggle cause you to lose sight of the present.

Perhaps that is your purpose. That is, to become as awake to your personal struggles that keep you from being here. Now.

Present to Life.

For me, it's daily work to realize this. And I guess in the meantime, until that grand vision of purpose enters my mind and shows me the real meaning behind it all for me I will simply continue to stay aware of the resistance inside.

And, also to continue to not contribute to my inner disturbance by resistance that results in only pushing against the door labelled 'Your Purpose in Life' that someone, some-thing, some-body might be trying to open or keep open for me to walk through.

And into.

Hmmm.....

Interesting picture, isn't it?

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2006

An Uncommon Way to Deal with Loneliness

I have recently been thinking about loneliness and the things that go on in one's life so as to make them feel that their life is full, especially when they're feeling lonely on a daily basis. More often than not it amazes me just how much people do to pile stuff into their day so as to stay busy.

Loneliness is not a pretty feeling. I know we've all been there at some point, or points, in our lives. And we do whatever we can to appease feeling lonely, or alone.

Loneliness.

...It's dark.

...It's depressing.

...It's hopeless.

...It's bleak.

...It's a blackness or sadness that sometimes seems permanent, pervasive, and inescapable.

But what gets us to that seemingly inescapable abyss in the first place? What gets us to this unseen path of filling our days with something to do just so that we don't feel this feeling of loneliness?

That is the proper question and the question that I think still awaits a good answer for most.

I remember discussing with one of my co-workers several years ago the topic of motivation. He shared the interesting distinction he had learned that it's not a matter of what we're walking towards, or moving towards, but rather it's more a matter of what it is that we're trying to move away from.

Or for more relevance in this discussion, what we're trying to 'escape' (i.e. loneliness) through 'busy-ness'.

I think that loneliness, or the fear of loneliness is a powerful motivator, and a debilitating force, at the same time. It drives us to do things that we don't understand at the time that we do. And at the same time it keeps us entwined in activities that we know we shouldn't be doing or have in our lives and yet we feel powerless to escape the grip of.

But loneliness is still a rather befuddling emotion that I'm detailing now so as to learn more about since for me at least I'm becoming aware that it is never truly ridden from my life through activities and interactions with others. Or to re-state my prior description... through 'busy-ness'.

However, what made this subject even more interesting and compelling for me is recently reading a writing by the great esoteric spirituality author Osho which states that loneliness is not something in and of itself, but rather an absence of something. In this case, light, or awareness of a simple Truth.

I know that I may have lost some of you here so I'll try to make this simpler since even for me it took several readings before what Osho wrote made sense.

Continuing my paraphrasing, what was stated is that loneliness is not something that actually exists in and of itself. It is not something that can be dealt with directly since it really is not something that is in existence because of something.

Of course, we all think it is because...

He left me.

She's gone.

I lost that.

This is over.

That happened.

...So I'm lonely.

This is how the voices go that make us think that loneliness is something that we need to directly address through incorporation of activities and more things and other people into our lives. These are the voices and the words that drive us to fill the 'absence' of whatever was with whatever we are able to find now to occupy that void, or currently empty spot inside of us.

But what has actually happened is we made a critical wrong turn in our thinking of how to handle the situation we're in that involves the creation of this perceived absence that in turn creates the loneliness.

We think that addressing this feeling amounts to filling up the empty space with 'busy-ness'. But it doesn't. And as probably all of us can attest to, that doesn't work. At least not for very long.

Instead, what needs to be done is to see that loneliness is simply darkness that has entered us and that this darkness can't be dealt with directly because it doesn't really exist. Yes, you read right...loneliness doesn't really exist by itself.

Rather, it's simply an absence of the light at that time in our life.

As Osho stated, one wouldn't try to push darkness out of a dark room so as to bring in the light. That is impossible because darkness doesn't really exist. Rather, it's simply an absence of light. So the answer is to turn on the light in that room to make the darkness disappear.

Now I know that I'm still way out there esoterically-speaking. But try to stick with me.

You see, this is only recently coming apparent to me through reading what Osho wrote. But it is so powerful in its teaching.

We can't escape a feeling like loneliness because it can't be dealt with directly. It must be dealt with indirectly but through other direct actions to bring something else, something out of the usual, into us and that lonely space. And the 'other direct action' in this case is to bring the full understanding -- the awareness -- that the loneliness, in and of itself, doesn't really exist.

Bring awareness into the loneliness and the loneliness will disappear.

Bring awareness, or light, into the darkness of loneliness and the loneliness will disappear without being dealt with in some ineffective direct action such as 'busy-ness'.

I know this is radical stuff, and not for the faint of heart to attempt. And I know that this also is oh-so-hard to actually do when one is on the path of trying to escape the darkness of loneliness.

But think about how many things we humans have devised to help us cover up our all-too-common event of suffering through life. In this case suffering with loneliness.

And then remind yourself how ineffective those methods have been, through your own personal testimony, and perhaps you'll begin to see that this is a rather profound and uncommon way of dealing with darkness that just might work in the time of need when one is most lonely.

Give it a try. What have you got to lose, except your loneliness?

And when you actually do do it, let me know how it went. I think you'll be most surprised.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:17 PM | Comments (3)

May 25, 2006

Me, My Coincidence, and The Celestine Prophecy

I recently went to see The Celestine Prophecy movie that was recently released on the big screen. For me, it helped explain seeming coincidences that had been occurring to me throughout the past several weeks but that I had no explanation for outside my usual 'everything happens for a reason'.

I'll explain...

In the movie it is explained visually that there are nine stages of transformation that human beings are going through as a species. However, the current stage and state that our race is in as a worldwide species presently is not a good one, but according to the Prophecy movie we are in a transformational state. That is, one of the stages that people are going through right now involves perceived coincidences and as that ties into our personal awareness of what is happening to us.

Apparently, events defined as coincidences are not just sole events that occur to us. They're more widespread and broad and part of this evolutionary process we are being told in the Celestine Prophecy movie that we are going though.

Nevertheless, my belief that 'everything happens for a reason' seemed to make more sense and resonate better inside me after I saw this explained via the Celestine Prophecy movie, so that was good and supportive of my thoughts on this matter.

And a recent event series of events that I was involved with seemed to further support what was stated in the Celestine Prophecy movie about coincidences not always being what they first appear to be, if we are so fortunate enough to actually be awake enough to notice them occurring.

I'll explain...

~~~~

I was at a fast food restaurant about four weeks ago with my older son. He wanted to get their kids meal deal and so I ordered it and then paid for it at the front counter. While I was waiting for the food I looked around the small waiting area and the adjoining seating area and I noticed that there was but one other person in the restaurant area. This person was an older gentleman who was sitting near the front counter and quietly sitting and drinking his large cup of coffee.

While I noticed him I also saw that his wallet was ready to fall out of his front pocket and sure enough I watched as he moved ever so slightly and out it plopped onto the tiled floor. I waited for him to notice this event but he didn't instead he just continued sipping his coffee.

I couldn't bear the thought of not telling him about what just transpired beneath him so I walked over and touched him on the shoulder with my finger and after getting his attention I pointed to his wallet on the floor and I told him that he had dropped it.

He graciously thanked me and I replied 'no problem'.

After the food came for my son we started walking to leave the store and as I walked by the older gentleman he again loudly thanked me for what I did. I just smiled at him and walked out.

Well, exactly two weeks later I again found myself in the exact same restaurant building with my son and after ordering both his food and a Coke for me I walked over to the soda area to fill up my large plastic cup. As I was filling it a younger man started speaking to me and he said 'Sir, you left this at the counter'. I looked at what he had in his hand and it was my small pocket wallet. I found myself profusely thanking him for his efforts.

After filling up my soda cup I proceeded to walk over to this younger fellow and I told him what had transpired to me two weeks ago with the older man and now he had done this for me. I advised him, jokingly, that he might be wise to pay close attention to where his wallet is during the next couple of weeks. He grinned and said he would do so.

Now, the point of all this is that I am not one who ever, and I mean never, leaves my wallet anywhere or out of my sight in public. I'm literally paranoid about letting it out of my sight and only once, about 12 years ago did I actually misplace it so that I couldn't find it for several hours. Outside of that there have been no events where I let that wallet leave my hand or front pocket.

And here I go and leave it on a counter at a fast food place. And I didn't even need to open it or use it since I paid with cash I had in my pocket.

Now, was all of this a big coincidence? Or was it fate? Or was it destiny? Or was it some dynamic that I had partaken in with my helping the older gentleman out two weeks prior to my event with the young fellow.

I would like to say that it was all 'lucky', but I know that there was something higher going on here. Something that I'm unable to explain.

But I will tell you, my readers, that I more firmly believe that there are events that occur in our lives as part of a much broader swirling of occurrences that we are but tiny aspects of and yet have no comprehension how it all comes together and where we fit in to the scheme of it all.

In this case it would appear that I had set up some sort of karma-type cycle and the circle was only returning full-bore back to me.

So, bottom line, if you don't already have an attitude of giving and just doing the right thing in every life event that is presented to you, you might want to consider ramping up your efforts and your ability and awareness towards doing this.

As the old saying goes 'What goes around, comes around.'

In my case, I just didn't think it could be as literal as I experienced. But, I'm glad that it occured the way it did, when it did. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing you right now: I'd still be busy getting my financial affairs straightened out with the bank and wondering 'what happened'.

So, luck, coincidence, or fate? Does it really matter?

Right now I'm thinking that no matter how I class this series of events I'm more open to considering what The Celestine Prophecy movie implies and how there is more that went on here than what I was able to physically see.

Or was there?

Hmmmm....

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 6:31 PM | Comments (0)

May 2, 2006

A Gratitude Attitude

A good friend and I were recently having a lengthy discussion about life and its sometimes perplexing issues that it brings to each of us in its own empowering ways. And my friend asked me about what I had gratitude for in my life. At the moment it set me back a bit since I did have an attitude about gratitude, but it wasn't about allowing acknowledgement of what I should be recognizing in my life.

But over the next day I did think about what she questioned and since it seemed to stick in my ol' noggin I figure there's some validity to this need for considering what we should be considering, and being thankful for, in our lives.

Gratitude is not something I'm particularly good at including in my life. Why? I am more bent towards just getting through my days without considering what I have in my life that makes my life so valuable and worth living to its fullest.

And that's where this idea of gratitude is resonating. When I come out of my coasting-through-life attitude and actually slow down my mind enough to realize the tremendous amount of aspects of my life that I am blessed with having, I AM very fortunate. To say the least.

I think I'm more prone to stay in my own little world than the average person so actually stepping outside of it, consciously, is something that I have to work diligently with to make sure that I get its fullest benefit.

But I can say that gratitude really, truly is something that allows us to step outside of our waking sleep and when done with full lucidity allows us to see how the simple fact that we're able to read these words, or write them, is something to be lastingly grateful for.

What comes to mind, the big things, that I'm grateful for at this point in my life are:

- my boys
- my good health
- my being alive
- my good eyesight
- my family, including my parents and siblings
- Truth Teachings
- a few really good friends
- my standard of living
- my freedom
- my strong spirit
- my intelligence

I know there are perhaps hundreds more minor aspects of my life that I can mention but that is not necessary right now. I know that it is up to me to ensure that these parts of my life are recognized through gratitude and by my being grateful for all the blessings in my life and existence.

And it's only through time, and a necessary mental mind-shifting in my case, that will allow me to more clearly see how many, many elements of my life have carried me to where I am now and formed me into the person that I currently am.

And I suspect with continued acknowledgement I will be able to more easily maintain this inner sight and gratefulness to ensure that all the parts of my life that make it so wonderful are seen, acknowledged, accepted, and incorporated therein embellishing this path I am, and we all are, taking towards the other side.

But I think right now that just the knowledge that this new attitude about gratitude is what will be allowing me to have a more open and accepting attitude about the light that my life contains because I'm aware of it is more than enough to help me through the times in my life when my mind tends to lean towards the periods of darkness we all share.

So let me finish by asking you, can you secure and maintain an encompassing gratitude attitude about your life? Consider making the commitment to do because I suspect that doing this will bring to you unbounded rewards heretofore unimagined, as you may probably already sense.

And won't that be something wonderful to look forward to...and be, say, grateful for? Cool.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

(*Thank you for the insight Indy.)

Posted by Andre Best at 5:12 AM | Comments (1)

April 24, 2006

A Study of Loneliness

I've found that loneliness is perhaps one of the most powerful of all human emotions. It leads some people to suicide, drives others into relationships and situations that they wouldn't have otherwise gotten into, and yet still causes others to find new and glorious ways to embrace the state and learn what they can from it to reduce its severity, next time.

But loneliness still can be a rather perplexing emotion, to me at least.

I recall being alone in my parents house way back when I was just five years old. I was sitting on the couch and looking out the front screen door I watched the trees sway in the country winds outside. I was waiting for my two older brothers and my older sister to come home from school. And I was gently rocking back and forth allthewhile banging the back of my head against the couch.

Up until then I had never had the opportunity to be alone. My older siblings were always around and we all played, and fought, together. They were my world up until that time. My world was always filled with 'others' and so I never had to consider being alone, it wasn't even a consideration in my small immature mind.

But everything changed when my older brother was now old enough to go into grade one. He was six and I was five and for the first time in my short life I had no one to be with during my days. I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know how to entertain myself. I didn't know how to 'live' by myself.

Being alone, existing alone, was all a concept that my young mind never had to entertain.

So I coped with the feelings I had occurring inside my little body by rocking myself on the couch, waiting for my siblings to come home to play with me.

That was a watershed time for me that I'm realizing dictates now how I, as an adult, handle the times that I find myself 'alone' and feeling the pangs of loneliness.

I've had conversations with others about the subject of loneliness and some of the information I've gleaned during these discussions is enlightening, to say the least.

To reinforce my earlier comment about situations that we find ourselves sometimes driven in to because of feelings of loneliness, I remember being told that the reason a man I know got re-married was because he 'didn't like being alone'.

And a life-long friend of mine who's been married for almost a quarter century agrees that the concept of being alone is hard to grasp as long as he has such a long-term relationship always there in his life, and in his thoughts. That is, to him the concept of being alone and experiencing loneliness is short-lived and restricted to the times when his spouse and children are away on a separate vacation or he's on a business trip away from them.

But even this type of loneliness is not the same as actually no longer having someone to share life with, such as someone who is recently divorced or widowed. Up until that time a person now in this situation was never really without 'thoughts' about the other person because the other person was always, at the very least, in their thoughts because they were still an active part of their daily life and life activities.

I surmise that people in these life situations (like my friend with the long marriage) are never, yes - never, really experiencing aloneness and loneliness as long as they have someone else to 'think about'. I espouse that it's only when the mind is subjected to thoughts about existing alone and being alone in the world (through divorce or death of the other) that that person truly experiences the pain of loneliness and being alone in existence.

Lastly, to add to the part of my original state about people who actually embrace loneliness, I recently had a discussion with a good friend about this subject and she told me that she actually prefers being alone when given the choice to be alone or be in the company of someone she's not particularly keen on. I'm sure we would all agree that this is a decision that we would all make, but that's not the interesting point being made here.

You see, this friend basically lived for the first decade of her life as an 'only child', until younger siblings came into her world when she was ten years old. Until then she pretty much had the world to herself and I surmise that that is how her mind was programmed early on, and why she now is the way she is with respect to fervently liking being physically alone when given the opportunity.

That is, as a child she learned to live with herself because she didn't know of another world containing siblings and daily interaction with others her own age. And just for the record, this isn't a criticism of that kind of existence. Of course not.

Rather, it's interesting to me that to someone like her the option of being with someone wasn't, for the most part, even an available option to her.

Her world consisted of her, and for the most part no one else. And now that she's an adult she's perfectly fine when that is what life brings her. She told me that when she finds herself alone in life that she is okay with it. She doesn't feel lonely because that is what she is used to, that is, being alone. No loneliness is necessary.

It's interesting to me how our individual lives shape us in such subtle ways. I had a crowded world as a child, and this friend of mine didn't. Now when my world isn't crowded with others I feel pangs of loneliness, and this friend of mine basks in it and would rather seek out situations where she's alone to her-self.

Perhaps you might want to take time to consider how you handle your bouts of loneliness and how this handling was derived in your life and from your early life experiences. Why? Because understanding one's loneliness can be an extremely powerful and fulfilling experience. Again, why?

Because a dark emotion such as this cannot prosper and thrive in the light of awareness. So the more light you bring on the cause and the manifestation of loneliness in your life the more you are strengthening your ability to someday being able to live without it...just like my female friend.

...Of course, if that is what you so choose.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2005

For When You're Depressed, Defeated, Downcast...

I remember coming back from vacation in Canada earlier this year and I had an insight as I was flying out of my old hometown of Edmonton, Alberta.

Let me preface this by stating that I live in Phoenix, Arizona, the land of the virtually eternal sun. I'm used to the sun now after living here for over a dozen years. And after living in Canada until I was 30 I was used to the dreary, depressing, dark days up there. Virtually all year round.

Anyway, after being on vacation there for a few days, where it was basically overcast and cloudy virtually all the time - I had grown used to not seeing the sun for that period of time. I hadn't seen it for days.

But as I was flying out of Edmonton and back home to Phoenix I saw the most beautiful sight. As I said, Edmonton was overcast for the past few days that I had been on vacation and I hadn't seen the sun for a while.

But as the plane lifted off of the ground in Edmonton and rose up into the air, it also rose up into the overcast sky. Pretty soon all I could see was the ground disappearing into grayness as we rose into the clouds to begin our ascent to Phoenix.

All of a sudden we broke through the layer of clouds that was enveloping Edmonton and all I could see was bright blue cloudless sky all around the plane. Everywhere, except beneath us.

And what really struck me was the intensity of the sun as it shined in the cloudless sky that we were now in.

It was really beautiful.

But what was really insightful to me was not the beauty of the sun and the warmth it shared, rather that the sun was always there. I just couldn't see it through the clouds.

Let me restate that.

Just because we can't see it doesn't mean the sun isn't there.

So how does this apply to our lives here on this sometimes overcast world?

Just because you're in a funk because you're getting divorced, your best friend died, you were fired from your job, your pet ran away, your daughter's pregnant, the waitress buttered your toast on the wrong side -- doesn't mean that the sun isn't there shining.

Your world may be overcast, grey, dreary, and depressing. Yes, we won't deny that. Because when it's that way, it is that way.

But just because it's like that doesn't mean that brightness isn't there waiting to break through the clouds and brighten up your world.

Think about this the next time the clouds get in the way of you seeing the sun.

And remember, the clouds ALWAYS disappear, the clouds are NEVER the same, but the sun is ALWAYS shining. Somewhere.

You just have to be aware enough, and awake enough to see it. And feel its warmth.

Enjoy.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 5:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2005

Why Live?

Perhaps I'm just reaching the age of mental maturity where I'm beginning to question things but today, and for several weeks now, I find myself questioning why we all exist.

Now, before you think I've fallen into an esoteric blackhole and am being sucked into the abyss, don't worry. I can assure you I haven't been. I'm still here with you.

But I still do question why we all exist as we do.

Let me explain.

I remember watching the movie 'Gandhi' that was released in 1980 (I think). I was too young to watch it then so I just rented it on DVD about a year ago.

For those of you who don't know who he was, Gandhi was born in the mid 1800's and lived until he was murdered in the early-mid 1900's. I think he was shot in the 1940's, according to the movie.

He had tremendous influence over his country as a spiritual leader. He didn't plan on becoming a leader to over 300 million Indians at the time. It just turned out that way as he grew older, matured, and his influence spread throughout the country during its tumultuous time of civil uprisings and revolts.

Without going into personal opinions and discussions about 'passive resistance' and all that, I was most struck by and remember most vividly one aspect of his life that, to me, will forever change my view of existence.

Here we have a man that was incredibly influential, and to this day has changed the lives of several hundred million, if not over a billion, people's lives through his existing on this plane.

One would think that a person of this stature who could just about walk on water most certainly had incredibly important business to attend throughout the days of his existence as a spiritual leader of his country, right?

But do you know what Gandhi did during his spare time, according to the movie, when he wasn't leading the passive revolt movement?

Was he attending meetings with the country's political leaders to hammer out an agreement to end the differences in the leading parties and stop the civil uprisings?

Was he travelling throughout the world, teaching spiritual leaders and other influential world leaders, how to end their civil wars through passive revolution?

Was he writing books, giving lectures, teaching his 'followers' and in general becoming a spiritual guru of his time?

No. None of the above.

What DID he do?...

...He sat around and spun wool.

That's it.

Now, think about that. This man...this incredibly influential, passively powerful human being, who was amazingly small in stature yet struck awe and fear in many others, spun wool in his 'spare time'.

What does that tell you about 'existence' and one's purpose for living?

What does that tell you about what we can do with our lives, no matter if we're a Gandhi, Buddha, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or Jimmy Stewart? Or Martha Stewart for that matter.

We can go out and earn all the millions, or billions, of dollars that we can.

We can go and influence the lives of billions of people around the world through revolutionary technology, or being seen on every television set or movie theater around the world.

Or we can live as a human being who espouses principles that the world wants to adhere to and admires enough to follow for centuries to come.

But in the end, even if we do that, we still -- in our own way -- are only left with sitting on a mat, in a building, and spinning wool to bide our existence away.

----

It's all pretty simple isn't it?

But at the same time I find it rather disturbing.

I guess because, like most of us, I've lived my life thinking that there must be something vitally important for us to do with our life. You know the old line - 'find your purpose in life', right?

You've also heard the cry 'Set goals or you'll get nowhere in life.'

'Have a gameplan!' others espouse to the masses.

Well, with my recent insights into all this life/existence stuff...none of that works for me.

How can one think that setting goals and having a 'life purpose' is going to fulfill them?

Ever wonder why so many business executives don't live too long after retirement? Because their 'life's purpose' - their work, didn't exist for them anymore.

They had reached the golden carrot. And they found they couldn't eat it.

The man who founded UPS when he was a teenager and was actively involved with the company until he 'retired' in his early '90's died only a few months after he retired. Did HE lose his purpose for living? Curious.

But, getting back to the title of this article - Why Live?

Why do we live? Why do we exist? Why are we here as individual human beings?

Why are there so many more questions that are begged than answers that are provided?

Perhaps I'm at the age now where I'm realizing that life is not going to be blindly fulfilled by 'activities' and 'functions' throughout one's day. And days. And years, decades, and life.

Perhaps I'm realizing that the only purpose, the one true purpose, in life is to enjoy one's existence as one walks along their own path of existence.

Awake.

Aware.

Alive.

Hmmmm....

More to come on this as the words continue to accumulate in the 'ol gray matter at the top of this vessel called me.

Stay tuned.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2005

Awareness is Key. Awareness is Everything.

I have been thinking recently about a local esoteric study group that I attend on a monthly basis. The focus of the study group is to discuss the teachings of Vernon Howard (www.anewlife.org), who passed on in 1992.

Anyway, I keep remembering asking a question to the leader of the group - Tom Russell (www.superwisdom.com) who studied with Mr. Howard for 12 years, regarding what to do when things don't seem to be coalescing in life, as one expects.

I stated that I have read all the books of Mr. Howard, and listened to over 100 of his tapes, yet when things start going south in life 'everything I know about Mr. Howard's Truth Teachings flies out the window'. I asked Mr. Russell what I should do at those times.

He answered with a statement I shall remember for a long, long time.

Tom quickly and simply said 'Watch it fly out the window.'

That statement is so succinct yet so voluminous in its wisdom it truly is beyond words.

How can this help you?...

...Watch it fly out the window.

That's it. That's everything.

Thank you kindly.

Andre Best

Posted by Andre Best at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

The Meaning of Life Is...?

I find myself continuing to be drawn back into the thoughts about the meaning of life.

Now this is not an article trying to presuppose the meaning of existence of humanity.

Rather this is an article about one man trying to sort out the thoughts that are recently running through his brain regarding what one's purpose here on Earth is. That is, while we are given our own allotment of time on this physical plane.

Perhaps it's my own version of a mid-life crisis where my mind is perhaps maturing enough to be able to actually ask these types of questions without spontaneously imploding on itself in an extended bout of black depression.

Nevertheless, I'm still stuck when it comes to even trying to answer a question, or conundrum, like this.

Basically, I think it will all boil down to that I don't know the answer to this question because the part of me that is asking the question is also the part of me that is trying to answer it. And if I knew the answer then I wouldn't be asking the question right now. I hope that makes sense.

But, even still, I find recently that to determine what one's purpose in life is is a rather befuddling pursuit.

For me, I walk to work in the mornings along a sunny Arizona sidewalk and I find myself thinking that I'm just starting off into another day of the same-ol' same-ol'.

And out of this thought arises the question ‘But really what should one be doing with their days?’

What would be the ultimate thing or activities that I could do with my time here today that would make this day, each day, worthwhile?

And of course this spawns off into other questions such as 'worthwhile to whom?' and 'what kind of activities?' and other stuff like that.

Let me imagine that I have all the money I need and I no longer have to pursue the elusive goal that everyone else now pursues. Financial freedom. The light at the end of the tunnel.

But just for the sake of this example let's state that I don't have to worry about survival anymore. I have enough money to satisfy whatever craving I have or need for my family.

Then what?

What would I do with my day?

Would it be to form a multi-billion dollar company that feeds the needy and takes care of every homeless child in the world?

Would it be to work in a daycare and work with toddlers stuck in abusive households?

Would it be to clean the bathrooms at the local superstore or gigantic warehouse store?

What would give my life meaning right now?

You see, that's a tough question to answer.

But, let me step back a bit and slow down.

And let's start at the beginning.

When we're all very young human beings we have no choice what happens to us as we exist. Whatever happens to us in our parents’ household is their doing, not ours. Pretty much all we do is spend our days fluctuating between going to school and not going to school.

When we get older and graduate from school we go out into the big, wide world and look to get ourselves that ubiquitous j.o.b. That’s what we do with our days.

Over the years perhaps we decide to throw into the mix a spouse, some expensive possessions, and some fancy vacations to exotic paradises.

And then we may even decide to get our own house filled up some more with our own personal priceless treasures. Kids, to be exact.

But what are we doing on a daily basis at this physical age in our lives?

What are we doing? We're 'earning a living'.

But beyond that, as we trudge off to work each day, or stay home with the kids, what are we doing each and every day that's of consequence in the scheme of things?

What is it that makes each day meaningful? Is it raising the kids until they too become adults and repeat the process all over?

Is it to become successful at that j.o.b. we work at or with that business we own? Or is it to make ourselves as happy as we can by watching all our favorite television shows and movies and eating out at nice restaurants and chatting with our best friends. And only doing the things we like to do and take the vacations to places that only we want to go to.

But then there comes 'old age'. What then? Hopefully we've saved up enough money to be financially set so that we don't have to worry about 'earning a living' anymore.

We can sit back. Relax. Maybe go fishing or on other vacations to remote paradises. Or play lawn bowling down at the local community center or play chess in the park. Whatever.

But still, what have we done with our day besides make it ‘busy’? What are we doing with our days as we sit there in our recliner flicking away with the remote controls for the plasma television and surround sound home theater system?

What are we doing that's of consequence?

If we were to die the very next day, what have we done with our existence since we were little babies? As I documented above, perhaps we did the odd thing that helped other people. Or we served in an organization that helped the needy. Or perhaps we were just darn good parents and raised 'two wonderful children'. Or perhaps we did the right things and now are grandparents too.

But really, as we're about to die what is it that we could say we did with our life? With our existence?

Can you see that for the most part, without over-generalizing, we pretty much just 'did' things all along the years from birth to death.

Is that what we're meant to do?

Is that all there is?

Or somewhere in that mix, somewhere along the way, the path to the grave, we may be so lucky to have our days of existence sprinkled with wondrous events that change us inside and elevate our spirits. Be they sights, sounds, memories, happenings, or spiritual teachings.

But, nevertheless, what I've described is how generation after generation after generation of human beings go through their time on this planet as part of the human race.

And what does each generation have to show for their time here?

Advances in technology?

More wondrous scientific discoveries?

New breakthroughs in medicine?

Another global war where millions die?

Higher Intelligence?

Another spiritual world leader?

In all seriousness, what do we leave as a legacy for those who follow us along the time-path of human existence?

And what do we do, as individuals, that adds to that human existence path?

And to return to where I started all this questioning…for me, what am I doing that is giving meaning to my existence on this plane and along this physical time-line?

That is the question that needs to be answered and thought about.

And beyond the teachings I've read about from some of the spiritual masters - all I've culled is that one's sole purpose in existence is to become a perfect human being. That's it. That’s all.

But I’m not trying to minimize this statement because becoming ‘perfect’ is a very tall order for most of us. Lifelong, usually.

But, really, think about it. Think of any of the 'great' people who've existed before us.

Buddha. Lao-Tse. Mozart. Tolstoy. Einstein.

What are they known for? What did they do with their lives?

What did they leave us? Great spiritual teachings? Music? Science?

In the scheme of things these brilliant people were only able to leave as their legacy what they ‘did’ or ‘discovered’ for the rest of us to learn from.

That's it. Not in a minimizing way. But really, that's it.

Even the greatest minds and spirits in the world were not able to leave us more than what they were able to personally realize or do in their gifted area of calling.

So, is there any more? Is there anything beyond just ‘doing life’?

I surmise that there isn't.

I think that it is true. That all we can do is be the best person we can be as we grow older. We live each day to the best of our abilities for that day. We continue to grow in whatever manner we're able to positively do. And then it all ends for us someday.

But we made the most of this existence. We made the most of our time here on this plane.

We made the most of our allotted days here.

We didn't just grow old, we grew up too.

Is there really anything more?

After writing this I don't think there is.

Perhaps others will vehemently disagree and start spouting off about The One and all that stuff. That’s okay. Each to their own.

But for me, I truly still sit here and wonder what there is for me to do on a daily basis as I await my calling to the other side, where we all began and will go to again.

What can I do to make my existence as meaningful to me as is possible?

That is something that I'm still figuring out. And I surmise it will continue to change as I described above. Does that make any one meaning less than any others? No. But it does mean that my meanings will change as my days do.

And right now my primary meaning in life is to be the best father I can be to my boys. And I do this by being the best human being I can be in the world.

But as for tomorrow...

Time will tell.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 8:58 AM | Comments (2)

October 10, 2005

More Insights about a Special Vacation

Last week I was in Canada for several days and I had the pleasure of staying with my parents and sleeping in the same room I slept in when I lived there 25 years ago.

It has turned out to be an enlightening visit to say the least. Especially the fact that I spent most of my time conversing with my parents and being a part of several of their days from morning till night-time.

But now I'm back in Arizona and back to the 'grind' I've created for myself down here.

Regardless, as a result of my special visit, and recent connection, with my parents I find myself continuing to think about the topic of one's meaning for life.

I think for many years what I have done is try to insert meaning into my life and my daily affairs.

Even with the esoteric teachings I've been following for over five years now. I still think that there has to be some higher purpose to one's day. Every day. I still think that each day has to be significant in some way, it's own way.

I still think that if whatever it is that I am doing in a particular moment is not meaningful and important to me than it is not worth doing, or should be avoided.

That has instilled in me the attitude of looking down upon others activities as useless and a 'waste of time' because, in my eyes, these activities didn't have any meaning, any significance.

But now I have experienced days of basically doing 'nothing' but talking and conversing with my parents and yet I found it to be some of the most fulfilling days I've had recently.

This tells me that each day is not about 'doing' but rather about making the most of whatever situation or event one finds oneself in.

Whether that event is a relationship, activity, job, or vacation somewhere else.

Life isn't about making the most about life by 'doing'. It's about making the most out of the days we are each given. Period.

We can choose to waste our days away destroying ourselves, or we can choose to elevate ourselves by gleaning from each event we find ourselves in some aspect to rest upon and grow from, in some manner.

I have spent far too long thinking that my life had to be important. Of course I want it to be useful and worthwhile, but I also think that each day has to be full of some sort of accomplishment, otherwise it's basically a wasted day.

When I now think of all the people on the earth and those who, in my eyes, have made something of themselves, what have they done, really?

What is it that they have accomplished with their lives and their string of designated days?

Did they start a small company that become a world leader in its industry?

Did they raise children and grow old and die?

Did they become the best librarian the city has ever seen?

Did they do their best cleaning bathrooms for 45 years?

Are these people failures? What did these people 'do' with their lives?

What is the most WE can do with our lives?

If we are all failures and not living worthwhile lives because we aren't the person who developed the multi-billion dollar computer company then something is wrong with that definition.

You see, I can't quite put my finger on the entire idea that there really isn't anything for us to do with our days.

There really isn't anything special and lasting that we can do make this all have meaning.

Oh sure, each event and day may have meaning. But in the long run those days and days of meaning are all pretty much fleeting.

How many vacations do we have to go on to be relaxed and have great meaningful experiences from? How many times do we have to repeat these activities because the 'meaning' disappears before we even board the plane home?

The more I think about this, the more I realize that this conundrum I've created for myself does nothing but create angst for me on a daily basis.

And what do I have to thank for this eye-opening realization? My trip to see Ma and Dad just now.

My seeing with my own eyes the fact that two people can be in a stage of life where they're beyond the grabbing and the seeking and the attaining and are now watching those of us who are still in that mindless race and wondering what all the fuss is about.

To see that there really can be another way to live one's days on this planet. Another way to exist beyond activity.

Thank you Ma and Dad.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 9:13 AM | Comments (1)

October 7, 2005

Insights After A Special Vacation

I just came back from Canada where my family celebrated my niece's wedding, my Dad's 75th birthday, and the first time the six members of my family have been under the same roof in over 20 years.

It was an enjoyable time to say the least, especially being able to hang out with my parents and be a part of their days as they live out their 'golden years'.

But, now it's a couple of days since I've been back and now I am at work and I did what I had to do to physically get ready to be here. Get washed up and dressed and get in the car and travel to work. It's all very hectic to say the least.

And it's a rut. The daily grind that we're all stuck in. Existence.

But right now I find myself wondering, thinking, what are Ma and Dad doing now? It's about 9:00 a.m. their time and they may just be getting up and starting their day.

But their day is not about 'doing'. It's not about accomplishing anymore.

It's just about existing. Being. Living. It's not about achieving some outcome anymore. That's past, along with all the junk we younger people live our lives for.

To achieve. To get to that nirvana. Retirement. Where we can 'relax' and let it all be whatever it is.

That's what Ma and Dad are doing now. They no longer have to worry about achieving. They just are 'doing' now. They're living. Together.

Ma and Dad just exist.

They spend their days doing what they enjoy.

They're no longer seeking. Searching. Hoping to find 'it'.

That magic key to the kingdom of answers.

They don't live with a purpose anymore. The day is what it is. Whatever that particular day is, they live it.

If it's a day in front of the T.V., then so be it.

If it's a day where the shopping mall is the destination, then so be it.

If it's a day to go to the bakery and get pretzels, then so be it.

It's not about 'doing' anymore. It's just about enjoying each other in existence.

It's just about being whatever they want to be each day. It's not about making each day 'mean' something special and significant.

Ma and Dad just exist to live now. They don't 'do' anymore. They just live and exist.

That's why it's so appealing to me right now as I leave their household. I lived it too. I just lived each day and allowed it to be whatever it wanted to be. I went along with Ma and Dad and whatever they were doing.

I recall that I felt more stressed when I had to go shopping for presents for the boys to bring home with me.

I was thinking thoughts like 'What would I get them? Is this the right gift? Will they like it? Where can I find them what they want?'

The stress began. Again.

But each day sitting around with Ma and Dad and talking, just talking, was about as stress-free as one could get.

That's what I'm looking for. I'm right now trying to put too much meaning into my life. I'm trying to make each and every moment mean too much.

I'm trying to make each day meaningful in a special way, an 'accomplishing' way.

That creates stress. I don't just live each day.

I think each day has to go the way *I* want it to. That's not right.

I'm too goal oriented. I have to 'make something of my self'. That's where the stress begins.

I miss the comfort and relaxation with Ma and Dad. I miss the easy lifestyle I had with them. My mind was resting.

No 'business'.

No computers.

No work.

No kid responsibilities.

No bills and obligations.

That is what vacation is all about. But I also saw that Ma and Dad were living a life of vacation.

To them their lives are enjoyable. To them their life is what it is and that's okay with them.

To others their lifestyle may be completely boring and unacceptable, but to Ma and Dad their lifestyle is more then adequate and appropriate.

And isn't that all that matters - that THEY are the ones who enjoy THEIR days?

If only I can find a similar level of happiness without activity too.

Now that'd be cool.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2005

A Writing on Spirituality

This is a short writing I composed a while ago when I finished reading a chapter out of one of the more esoteric books I read daily. At the time I found the words just sprouting out of my mind and felt compelled to put 'words to e-paper'.

Enjoy. If you can. ;-)

~~~~ We are all just one of billions of organic creatures roaming this planet.
We can’t do anything about our bodies – they are what they are.
But every once in a while a body contains a spirit that itself seeks to rise above the crowded masses on the physical plane.
This spirit becomes aware that the only aspect of its existence it can truly and lastingly change is its spirit and it only need become aware of its everpresent spirit.
This awareness makes it different from the masses. This physical being walks with the masses and lives with these other creatures.
Yet it has a spirit that raises itself, by its own decision to truly increase its awareness, above the heights of the physical masses.
Once this spirit is elevated it remains so until the organic body ceases to function.
This heightened spirit is aware that it lives above the crowds in an unworldly sense.
And it lives in this higher plane while physically remaining in the level of all the other creatures, unbeknownst to them that it truly is not just physically present, but spiritually elevated. ~~~~

I hope you didn't find this writing too lofty and instead can glean useful spiritual information from it.

Use wisely. But use cautiously too.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2005

A Short Treatise on Life

I keep having general thoughts about certain aspects of life that keep nudging at my brain and interrupting my current activities, whatever they may be at that time. For me, that is an indication that I need to put 'thoughts to words'.

Or at least take the words I see in my head and relay them to my visual cortex via my writings of those words.

Regardless, this is where I am, and how I am at this point of my life sitting here writing what essentially are thoughts that heretofore were only known to me and my gray matter up in the ol' noggin.

So, what is it that I feel so compelled to share? Good question.

Basically, I think that it all boils down to this…

Life as we live it is pointless.

Not hopeless.

Pointless.

There IS a difference and hopefully before I am done with this short dissertation I will have effectively relayed my explanation of this rather esoteric realization.

You see, as a man of my age I've come to this realization through a rather atypical fashion. With reference to the history of mankind I am not so arrogant to assume that I am the only human who reached this assumption. That would be ludicrous.

I'm just stating that this realization is not one that most folks care to ponder over until perhaps it's too late and most of their life is spent and unrecoverable.

But, regardless of how I've gotten here I do know that many have come before me and many are still to reach these waters in their due course of life events.

What really matters, to me, is not how I got here but rather how I came to this realization in the first place.

And that is worth discussing.

You see, I'm the typical middle-aged male in Western society.

Wife.

Kids.

Cars.

House.

Career.

All the usual stuff that we are driven to follow and ruled by within this society.

And most, if not all of this activity related to producing these results goes unquestioned by most, if not all, folks in the same rut that I find myself in.

But I'm questioning it all here. Now.

I see things in life that can't be disputed and are not worthy of argument because they are, after all, my perceptions and opinions and just like anyone else are not worthy of placing under a public microscope for examination because what is it to society what I think anyway.

Most humans in society have a full time job relaying and trying to figure out what is happening within their heads, never mind what of consequence is occurring in someone else's, in this case, mine.

So, I've come to realizations that have lead to certain opinions about life events that are compelling me to write out my thoughts on these matters. And it's all about the pointlessness of life and how what anyone thinks about all of this is of really no consequence to others since that is part of the pointlessness of it all.

I know, it's all getting rather confusing, perhaps, so maybe I'll try to rephrase my thoughts in a more pleasing manner.

There's no purposes to life, as it stands, for most of us beings on this planet. Most of us sentient beings on this planet, anyways.

Oh sure, we all think that we have a purpose for being here. But so many people can't seem to figure out, and do go to their graves without ever figuring out, what their purpose is/was. They just exist through life wandering around this mortal plane until the great darkness takes them again into its fold.

And what did they accomplish in the meantime while growing from point A - birth to point B - death? For the most part, little, if anything of consequence.

Oh sure, a person does the usual...

School.

More school.

Marriage.

Kids.

Career.

House.

Retirement.

Vacations.

Travel.

And then Death.

Now, someone might be tempted to ask 'what's wrong with all that?'' And I would be tempted to answer.

'Absolutely nothing.'

If it pleases you, keep doing it. But you don't need me to tell you that. You're doing it and going to continue to do it no matter what my opinion of it is. Remember what I discussed earlier? About other's opinions really being of no consequence to us as humans?

Well, this is a prime example of that.

You see, my words here are not a diatribe about life and slamming how most every person on this planet chooses to live their life. Especially us Westerners.

And I know that everyone thinks that they're the exception to all of this 'wrong' thinking. That they're different. They're special. They've accomplished things with their lives and done lots of advantageous stuff that has benefited society, overall.

Heck, I've done it too. I have three boys and who knows where that genetic chain will end up in several hundred years. Perhaps nowhere. Perhaps in thousands. Who Knows?

But does that mean that that, for example, is what my purpose here on this sphere is all about and was all for?

Is that why I was placed here?

Is that what my purpose to my existence is? OR was?

Is that what makes it all worth it?

To me?… No.

Is it all meaningless? A waste of time? No.

Is it what life is all about? For some, yes.

But for me, there is a voice inside that says more. This voice asks for more from my life than what I currently have in my possession.

It gnaws at me. It tugs at me. It bores into my soul at times and says I'm not going to let you forget me.

You see, I just know that within my life there is more to existence than what is surrounding me. The voice inside won't let me forget that what's inside is what needs to be worked on and spoken to.

~~~~~~~~
Don't worry. I'll explain all this in a bit. And don't jump ahead of me. I'm not going to get all religious and say that I've found the answer. I haven't.

If I knew the answer I'd be living it now. I'm not, so I don't know it.
~~~~~~~~

Okay, back on track.

You see, for too long I lived my life in a dark cloud without even knowing it. It was called depression. Chronic depression.

Maybe not clinical. But chronic.

I lived it.

I hated it.

I detested it.

And yet…

I loved it and as I now know I gained a lot from it. Since I did have it within me.

This dark cloud was my identity, my existence; it was who I knew myself as. It was my identity. My lover.

Because I did love it. Why else would I have kept it around for so many years of my existence?

But in behind all of that darkness there was something. Something that didn't want me to forget some of the reason behind my pain being a physical being on this planet.

Pain that I wouldn't until very recently truly have a good grasp on what was its original cause and possible solution.

And what was that pain?

It was my desire for peace.

Peace inside.

Peace in my life.

Peace in my mind.

Peace with my thoughts that never stopped.

Peace in my heart.

Peace knowing that I wasn't genuinely alone in this existence.

And have I found this peace?

No.

But I now know that that was what was driving me.

Driving me through my career.

Driving me through many relationships that failed.

Driving me through experiences and events that eventually proved meaningless and sometimes destructive.

Driving me to business ventures that were more bad than good. All in an effort to find the magic bullet that would end this pain and allow me to find that peace.

Even all the therapy and other addictions to behaviors. Behaviors based on maintaining and sustaining a sense of self that was grounded in the acceptance that these behaviors and states were real and were meant to be overcome and conquered. Not true.

However, I will state that they were virtually eliminated from my existence through certain omnibus realizations that drove them out of my thinking and beliefs. And that all took time. But it did happen successfully.

Okay, this peace. What is it all about? Why was it there? Did it have meaning unto itself? Or was it there as a dream, a hope, a future in existence to torment me with the fact that I didn't currently have it?

At times this seemed so. But now I know that the peace was always there. I just had too much of 'me' in the way to see it.

You see, I just see people in my daily living events and I wonder about all of this because so much of it just doesn't make sense.

Yet we all live our lives with the blind acceptance that it is, therefore it's right and it should be.

Well, to me that is not right. I like to question stuff and my not being able to come up with answers for so long tormented me and bothered me and perhaps sustained my depression for so long.

You see, some day I thought that I would find a way out of my depression. An attitude that I find many other people hope for. I was willing to find whatever it was that would take me out of the darkness and into the light. But what was happening is that I was looking for this light in the wrong sources. I was trusting the wrong people. The wrong events. The wrong things and assumptions. How did I know they were wrong? Because I lived for over a dozen years thinking, hoping, wishing, believing that someday they'll work.

That day may have come closer. But it never truly arrived.

So, I gave up on that route that so many others continue to keep themselves in, as I did, like a hamster running on the wheel to nowhere but thinking it's going somewhere.

But in back of all this was that nagging. That voice. That persistent, 'there's got to be more than this'.

Perhaps it's a matter of maturity. Not just physical, but emotional and mental.

Let's face it. When one is in their twenties and thirties the world is still theirs to conquer. Everything's looking up and growing and it's all rosy. But hit the later years in life and things change. Not necessarily worse, but like any climb a person has a different view from higher up the path.

So, I see all these people all doing the same things with their lives. All seeking, searching, hoping, depressing, wanting, yearning, lusting, thinking. ON and ON and ON and ON.

It's all so endless. Generation after generation after generation.

And yet one would seem to think that sometime during a person's life one would come to the realization that 'hey, wait a minute' we've all been doing this for now millennium after millennium and yet we're still all seeking. Something isn't right here.

But how many people come to this realization? This questioning?

Few. Very few.

Why? Because people like the way their life is structured. The spouse. The kids, the job and all that. It's all so comfortable. It's established and set. Why disturb it by waking up to what is really happening. Or not happening?

That wouldn't feel good to do that. Things might get upturned and in turmoil.

'I might have to change. And I'm afraid to change'.

So, everyone keeps doing the same stuff and yet everything stays the same and still yet everyone wants things in their life to be different. And yet no one dares to question the absurdity of all this.

Well, very few do.

It just doesn't make sense. How we live our lives going through this existence getting a sense of our self from each experience we participate in. And allthewhile not realizing that we are only going to go through experiences that won't potentially upset the state of our existence so we make sure that we only participate in events that we are certain will turn out the way that we expect that type of event to turn out.

You see, basically, humans just want to tiptoe through life until they die.

They want it all safe.

NO disturbances.

NO problems.

Just everything happy and safe and sound and expected.

But do people live like this? Do they live in nirvana? Is their existence here on earth problem-free and delightful?

No.

No.

And NO.

But yet everyone thinks that their life is the best it can be. The only way it should be.

But what I realized about all this when I heard a seed of truth once was that life doesn't have to be this way.

Essentially, there is another way out.

And this all intrigued me enough that I pursued the esoteric teachings that are part of this thinking and to this day they are helping me figure out why life is as mixed up for us beings as it is and what one can truthfully do about this.

Again, life truly is just so pointless. But most people think and live every day as if what they are doing at that moment, and during every moment is the most important thing for them to be doing at that time. That's just the way we humans are.

We get a sense of who we are by what we do. And this is how we live our lives. Until we die.

It truly is insane. All of it.

I go to work and see people at work who do nothing but detest the fact that they have to go someplace in reality they'd rather not be at and be with people that they don't even care for as friends and do things that if they had the ability they wouldn't give another thought to doing.

And yet these people don't even question this and instead blindly continue to go to work like a drone in some factory thinking that this is their life. And yet while they're doing this they truly believe that getting out that memo is absolutely crucial to the betterment of the company cause.

They live lives of quiet frustration and don't even know that they're dying with every event they're in that takes a little bit of the life out of them.

See, I know I've gone way out in left field here so I'll try to take this back home.

There's more to life than what we do in it. And there's more to us than what we do with our lives.

But most people, if not all of them, think that the gaining of possessions and the accumulating or the chasing of wealth and power is what is important in life.

Get yours.

Get your fair share.

Own what you can get.

What you have in life is who you are.

We're all brainwashed by society, whatever that is, into believing that this is the point of our existence as a creature on this planet.

Go to school so you can get a job to earn money so you can live and get things and be happy until you die. Take vacations. Drive a nice car. Own a fine home. Pop out the kids and save for retirement.

It's all so accepted. And yet people don't even know that it's all so empty.

It's all just a way to make our time here on this physical plane more bearable as we go though what we must go through in an effort to obtain this supposed happiness everyone is told exists.

And as I stated earlier it's like the hamster in the wheel going around and around and not knowing that it's going nowhere. But we somehow think that all the iterations of what we go though are getting us somewhere. And does one need to go through the proof that this ISN'T happening?

We can see it in people's faces. We can see it in the high crime and divorce rates. The endemic problems with addictions to food, and everything bad.

Sometimes I find myself wondering why people don't see what's being done to them all under the guise to make society another dollar.

It's staggering to see at times.

And at the same time it's totally understandable. As long as a person is going to let the environment outside of them dictate and define who they are inside in relation to that environment then the results of that are going to be fairly predictable.

For example, as long as I allow myself to identify with my career as who I am in life, i.e. a successful business person, then when that part of my life 'dies', i.e. I retire, then I am going to be in a serious identity crisis at that time. Why? Because I used what was happening outside of me tell me who I was in relation to it.

But, people do this throughout their existence. They allow outside factors to them to tell them who they are.

I did...

A student.

A career professional.

A husband.

A father.

A man.

All of this worked but it didn't answer what was really at the heart of the matter.

Why do I need to identify with anything in order to know who I am on this planet? And if I'm so identified with all these aspects of myself in relation to the world why do I still feel so lost in all this worldly stuff with other people and events?

Again, that was an issue that I didn't have an answer for so I went seeking for the solution to the issue.

And what did I find out? It all boils down to obtaining non-identification with what happens around me. With what happens in my life.

I don't become a drone.

I become alive to who I am not as I am in relation to what is around me.

But just me.

Relating to myself. Whatever that may be.

Esoteric, yes. But to-date has proven very effective at calming the inner-storm

Okay, so getting back to what I've figured out about there being more to life than what we do in it.

I simply got tired of doing things that were supposed to make me happy but ended up, eventually, leaving me feel empty inside.

And what did I finally do with this emptiness that I was trying to fill? I stopped trying to fill it with pointless activities and business.

Television.

Newspaper.

Radio.

Noise.

Music.

Distractions.

Buying.

Achieving.

Thinking.

Crying.

Complaining.

All that stuff.

You see, that's what we humans do. We live our lives not wanting to avoid the inevitable. We all came here alone and we're all going to die alone.

And throughout our entire existence here we do everything that's within our human ability to do, all in an effort to NOT be alone.

We don't want to be alone. We don't want to be alone with ourselves. We don't want to be alone inside because then we feel lonely and that's not a nice feeling to have.

Let's face it. It's not nice to feel lonely. When one feels lonely and alone it's as if the world is against us and no one cares about us.

So, we do all that we can to fill this void. This hole. This emptiness.

Well, when I realized that that was what I was doing. And I became conscious of that effort: I stopped doing that.

And when I found myself still sleeping in life and going back to old behaviors that maintained this filling the inner-hole stuff, I stopped them too.

And what has all of this gotten me?

A sense of peace.

An inner quiet that can only be experienced to be known.

Yet, it does make one seek out times to be alone. But it's at times like this that I am finding that I feel most in touch with life. I find that I'm more aware of this inner pain when I am trying to relay to someone else what is happening in the moment versus just being in the moment.

It's subtle. But it's something that I've become aware of. And I do what I can to have in each day of my existence this empty time. If even for only a few moments

You see, what else is there? Really, what else is there in life?

We truly can't do anything in our lives that will give the time a sense of lasting meaning. Even having kids is temporal. Because your meaning to those kids will eventually disappear in time and through the generations. It's not sustainable.

So, sure there's the immediate pleasure of knowing that one was responsible for creating life forms. At least being somewhat involved in the creation through our physical actions.

But that aspect in itself is fleeting as well. It doesn't last. Sure the parent-child bond of love matures and develops and never goes away even through death. But for me, I found that this wasn't enough to quell the voices inside that haunted my existence every day.

Having the kids was not the means, for me at least, to quell the inner war. The war for peace.

And so where does this leave one?...

(to be continued as life continues to unfold…)

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 1:52 PM | Comments (4)

August 25, 2005

Depression Symptoms CAN be Tricky to See

Depression symptoms look like other conditions people experience. But there ARE signs of depression that easily indicate depression symptoms. Learn them here.

But first, let me share that I think depression is kind of a tricky state to determine the existence of. At least for the person who is afflicted with it.

Why? Well, what I recall when I was deeply afflicted with depression is that when I was depressed I was, for most of the time, unaware that I was depressed. To me, I didn't have any depression symptoms or signs of depression outright.

Life just sucked. Basically.

It wasn't me. It was life that was bad.

It wasn't the dynamics going on inside my brain and body that was making my days so bad and miserable for myself and those around me. It was...

Those people.

That situation.

These circumstances.

Everyone and everything was to blame for what I was experiencing, except me.

You see, this lack of awareness of depression symptoms in oneself is not too atypical from the average experience of life for the average person.

That is, the world outside of one is what is responsible for life's problems.

So, what does this tell us about depression symptoms and specific signs of depression?

Well, let's see...

I think it tells us that...

A Person Can Become Very Aware of Obvious Depression Symptoms and Signs of Depression by Really Becoming AWARE of How They are Perceiving Life and What's Going on Inside Them

It also tells us that if life seems, all the time, to be...

* dark
* negative
* lousy
* never going right
* problematic
* and just plain 'hard'

...then that is more than just a bad attitude for the person. That's a good indicator of depression and one of the tell-tale signs of depression existing.

I think another one of the obvious signs of depression is how the person feels inside. You know - physically.

If a person finds that their energy level is inexplicably low all of the time and that it is just so difficult to do just about anything, then that's a good indicator and symptom of depression as well.

If a person finds themselves sleeping a lot or napping all day long constantly just wanting to shut out the world that's another giveaway.

You see, I know that these are good signs showing someone what is depression because I suffered from my personal bout of depression for over twenty years.

I know about the general sense of malaise that permeates one's day, everyday. Even to the point of potentially being suicidal. It's not fun to live like this.

I remember when I was a teenager when I first started experiencing outright depression symptoms my parents didn't know what to make of this. They didn't know what was going on inside of me and they were frustrated with my behavior because I was inexplicably emotionally paralysed.

But, all I knew was that I couldn't smile.

So, just to let you know that although I'm not a doctor, a professional practitioner, or a trained psychologist or involved in any one of those medical fields I do know from firsthand experience what many of the tell-tale depression symptoms are.

Let me share a few depression symptoms that I've experienced at one time or another when I was steeped in my twenty year depression bout...

* literally unable to smile genuinely
* lack of energy to do virtualy anything
* wanting to sleep a lot during normal waking hours
* wanting to be left alone a lot
* don't care attitude
* non-existent conversational needs
* unexplained ongoing sense of sadness
* internal feeling of emptiness
* general dread of life

These depression symptoms don't sound too good for someone experiencing major depression, do they?

But, let me share that the good thing is is that these depression symptoms don't necessarily all show up inside a person experiencing signs of depression.

So, to finish up, what can you do about this self help information about depression and its symptoms now that you know more firsthand about the definite signs of depression as I've described them?

Well, let's see...

If you are the one experiencing these depression symptoms then now you at least know what your real situation is, as I discussed at the beginning of this little blurb. Perhaps you are now certain that you are experiencing major depression.

And this should help you decide what you now need to do about handling your depression. That is, what direction to take if you want to rid yourself of your depression. Agree?

And if you came here seeking answers for someone you know and/or love who may be experiencing signs of depression than you now are armed with knowledge of what definite depression symptoms are.

And now you can approach them informed, if you so choose. Essentially, you can be unlike my parents, who didn't have the knowledge you now have.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

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Posted by Andre Best at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

KNOWING What is Depression is GOOD

And learning what is depression in one is VITAL. But focussing on what one can DO about depression is KEY to rid one of the state. Learn what YOU can do. Here. Now.

Let's start out with the understanding that depression is a somewhat tricky state to define sometimes. But generally I think a good depression definition is a condition wherein a person is experiencing a state of
* emotional shutdown
* sadness
* loneliness
* inability to concentrate or function properly
* general feelings of hopelessness

And what I've found is that most of these states occur in combination, depending upon the actual severity of the condition in the person. In my case I experienced a majority of these for many years.

As it may be obvious, one can feel loneliness without being depressed. But to feel loneliness with hopelessness, sadness, and emptiness - then that is what I would say is a good definition of what is depression in that person.

But I think what happens in most people trying to figure out what is depression is that they only focus on coming up with one precise definition of what is depression. And I think that this is where the thinking process goes awry.

I firmly believe that...

To Attempt to Determine what is Depression and ONLY Focussing on what Causes Depression is Leading a Person Down the Wrong Path to Dissolving the State of Depression in a Person

In my opinion, what I've discovered is that it doesn't matter what is causing depression in a person. The cause of what is depression for that person is relatively meaningless. For the most part.

Oh, of course, there are certain instances where medical intervention is necessary such as is the case when a person is suicidal. But for the most part, I've found out that getting caught in the vicious cycle of attempting to determine specifically what is depression in a person and what causes depression only solidifies and prolongs that state in the person.

Instead, a person is better off switching from trying to find out what is depression in them to finding out how to get out of the state.

Now I know this may seem rather obvious, but for most people it isn't. They think that if they can figure out what the cause of depression is in them then that will be the answer to dissolving what is depression inside of them.

This is wrong.

The key is to fully understand the state of depression out of existence. Not to attempt to understand its illusory cause as a means to end it. That just doesn't work as you may have discovered on your own.

How can I be so certain of this? Because I found teachings that do work. They worked for me.

I used these teachings over a period of many months and gradually I was able to completely, yes completely, stop the states of depression that kept me in an emotional straightjacket for twenty years of my life.

If you want to really understand what is depression and what is causing depression inside of you it might behoove you to really take to heart what I've shared here. And the non-religious teachings that did the trick to rid me of depression can be found at either Guy Finley's or Vernon Howard's website.

But do remember, these are not 'magic bullets'. There are NO quick fixes in this world. Dealing with depression included.

Trust me on this.

And again, of course, you can go ahead and continue on your path of trying to figure out what is depression and its causes and all that self-help stuff. But I'm saying that the understanding of the cause of it isn't so important as what one can do right now to rid themselves of it.

And what it takes to do that. Now.

Good luck with your figuring out what is depression. And do think about what I've alluded to here.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

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Posted by Andre Best at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2005

There are Only TWO Causes of Depression

To escape from twenty years of depression I learned these REAL causes of depression and then I beat them. Learn what they are and how to overcome them here.

But first I need to state that I'm not a scientist or a psychologist or anyone like that. I'm just a man who experienced twenty years of chronic depression and was able to crawl out of my own personal deep hole. Yes, all on my own.

So what I share with you today about what are the causes of depression, as far as I'm concerned, is based on actual firsthand experience and results.

Clear on that? Good.

Let's continue...

So, just what is depression or what might be probable depression causes? I think there are two main causes of depression that define what is depression in most people. And they are both rather simple to discuss and become familiar with.

Causes of Depression - Cause #1

The first cause that I've come up with define what causes depression is a simple physical imbalance in the body's chemistry.

You see, the one thing that I've found out through all this figuring out what are the causes of depression stuff is that I'm a strong believer that exactly what causes depression is a general imbalance in the body's chemical balances.

Think about it.

The body is nothing but an assortment of chemicals and compounds and after a number of years of being suppressed in their proper manufacturing inside the vessel, the body, of course there's going to be imbalances and things are generally going to be out of whack.

And how can a 'machine' such as the human body properly function when it is out of balance. I found out, through direct experience, that it can't. It doesn't.

Plain and simple, it won't.

So, what can one do? Simple...

Get the body back in the direction of being in balance. This directly attacks one of the major causes of depression and in my case directly reduced the severity of my symptoms.

Think about it... what do you think all the anti-depressants are? Chemicals!

Although some people do need anti-depressants to function, there's no doubt about that because I did 'need' them at one time too. But there are other ways to alleviate what causes depression in some folks.

I was able to do this with the help of a specific liquid vitamin and I even appeared on television testifying that this product helped alleviate my depression symptoms.

This tactic of re-regulating the body's chemical balance worked to combat depression in me, perhaps it can work for you too. Look into it.

Causes of Depression - Cause #2

I think the second of these causes of depression I'm describing is the simple process of what goes on in a person's brain. Thinking, thoughts, responses, reaction, actions. All that stuff.

I'll explain.

Let's face it. Depression is a reaction to something. And for those of us who experience depression it perhaps has become the only way that we know to use to respond to situations we've encountered.

And after a while it's become ingrained in every cell of our brain that that is the only way that we can respond to life, the problem, the situation. And before we know it the world is a heavy, dark, negative, depressing place that's 'out to get us' and we have only one weapon in our personal arsenal to protect ourselves.

And that tool is to shut down.

Get depressed.

Completely.

Goodbye world and goodbye troubles. We suppress it all. We depress our feelings.

Let me ask you... what IS depression? Or rather what is A depression? It's a deepening in something, isn't it?.

You know, a depression. THAT'S what happens inside someone who is depressed.

They have depressed their feelings into a dark hole inside themselves and after a while that hole becomes too deep to crawl out of no matter how hard that person tries to escape it.

So, what is needed here to combat what causes depression in that person?

Simple answer: a changing inside them. A different response pattern.

You see, the absolute most vital watershed moment in my path out of my depression stage was to completely, totally, absolutely without a doubt, understand that I was NOT my depression.

Period.

And then to understand that I couldn't control what happened to me in life. But I could control how I reacted to what happened to me in life.

That is very vital that you get this...

You Can't Control What Happens to You In Life, You Can Only Control How You REACT to What Happens to You In Life

When I understood that completely my life changed dramatically and forever. My bouts of depression disappeared completely. And it's been years now since they've occurred.

And what also helped me with this second of these causes of depression was my following the teachings of certain people like Guy Finley and Vernon Howard who at first showed me where my responding to life was incorrect and then they educated me on how to correct my thinking and also training me in other areas of my life that used to adversely affect my ability to go through life.

I know I've rambled on but I do hope that I've given you some useable information in your quest to figure out what the causes of depression are.

And I do hope that perhaps you can have the same positive results I experienced with this self help approach to figuring out the causes of depression in you.

Thank you kindly.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com - Learn About Life From Another Perspective

(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)

Posted by Andre Best at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)