The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

By Deepak Chopra

When ancient peoples considered the vastness of the universe, they felt something very surprising, they felt connected, a spiritual connection cannot be seen or touched, yet we have a way to verify invisible things by using a faculty more powerful and reliable than the five senses—consciousness. Only if you are aware that something is real can it become real. Awareness tells you that you are alive, that you think and breathe. It tells you if you are happy or sad, and also if you are succeeding in fulfilling your life. Everything that is alive is an example of the elegant expression of nature’s intelligence and this intelligence operates through what I call the Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. How they operate is a mystery as deep as spirit itself. Achieving success in nature is governed by the same laws that govern all of nature. When we put ourselves in harmony with nature we create a bond between our own desires and the power to make those desires materialize. Anything we want can be created. True success is measured by how efficiently, how effortlessly, you have learned to co-create with the universe. Here is how the Seven laws operate...

The Law of Pure Potential

The Law of Giving and Receiving

The Law of Karma.

The Law of Intention and Desire.

The Law of Detachment

The Law of Dharma

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Now on DVD

Conscious Relationaships With Our Children

An Interview with Dr. Joe Dispenza

While Dhara and I were at the Wesak Gathering in Mount Shasta, we had the opportunity to talk with and interview Dr. Joe Dispenza. You might remember him from the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? He spoke about how it's possible to create your day. (It was also interesting to find out that he knows our family in Yelm, Washington - it's a small world indeed.) We wanted to get some of Dr. Joe's ideas on being more conscious with our relationships in general and with our children in particular. For those of you who aren't familiar with Dr. Joe and his interview in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know? about creating your day, I have included it at the end of this interview.

LG: After listening to your lecture tonight about everything from "creating your reality" to actually changing our biology through changing our emotions, thereby becoming more conscious and aware, I can't help but wonder how this might apply to us as parents and our relationship to our children?

JD: Well, that's a great question. Children have an enormous amount of neurons, called mirror neurons, in their brains. And these neurons allow us to model or observe and then repeat an experience based on what we just observed. And so if a child observes someone being noble, more than likely he or she will develop those virtuous traits. If they observe someone being complaining and blaming and victimized, their mirror neurons will mold and shape based on what they're observing. And if you're giving mixed signals, children get very confused and they don't trust or believe anything you say. They're going to rebel against whatever you are saying because you're not doing it. If you're going to be a role model and teach them greatness, then you have to be willing to change yourself in the process. I have a very close relationship with my children and I make sure they know exactly what's going on with me. That's our base for them to begin their own form of change. Whatever it is, or what they dream or want. Children love that kind of relationship.

I never teach anything to my children that I can't demonstrate. And I never talk to my children when there's an emotional reaction. When they're struggling, I never interfere and try to redirect their behavior. I stop whatever I'm doing and I turn around and I observe them, and I stare at them and I observe until they know that I'm observing them. When they stop and turn around and know what I'm doing, they become self-aware in the process. Then, when they're no longer emotional, I say to them, "Hey, you know, I had a great day today, but I lost my presence at one point." And then, invariably, when I'm sitting with them later, they'll say, "Yeah, you know what? I lost it too today. And I'll say, "Yeah! You know, I saw you."

And they'll say, "Yeah! I was this, or I was that, I was insecure, I was angry."

And I'll say, "Well, that's OK. But here's the question. If you could do it differently, how would you do it differently tomorrow?" Then we talk.

And so then they begin to modify their behavior, look at possibilities in that moment. That's called change. I want them to speculate potentials as a result of their self-observation and their self-awareness. I want to make sure that those particular things that are based in their own curiosity, in their own sense of wonder, are never lost. I want them to stay children as long as they can, while they mature. Now, in an adolescent's world, the human frontal lobe doesn't finish developing until they're 25 years old. While the frontal lobe is still formulating, it's still molding, and so what that means is, most of an adolescent's blood flow is going through their midbrain, their emotional centers, because they're struggling to develop an identity. So when the blood flow moves to the midbrain, they're reacting more than they're thinking. A child learns how to pay attention, follow-through, and finishing tasks, and spontaneity, and practice. Practice is so important; they'll develop some very strong fundamental characteristics that will be the basis of their personality throughout their entire life. The adolescents who are doing drugs, or who are addicted to pornography or video games, are setting up a future where they're going to find it very difficult to pay attention to the rest of their life. The biggest thing about adolescents is they love role models that give them the freedom to be, which is what every adult wants. So giving them permission to expand and giving them permission to try things out, to me, is the most valuable thing for a teenager. And if they can scrutinize their behavior without emotion and learn to be able to change, then they're actually thinking for themselves. My children know the limits of what they can do, but they've got a lot of room, and they know that I pay attention to them and I ask them questions that stop the program. I ask those questions that are hard questions, not just, "How are you doing today?" "Did you do your homework?" More like, "What do you want?" "Have you thought about this?" "Have you given any thought or idea to your future, and what are you thinking about your future?" "Do you have any thoughts about things you want to change about yourself?" I ask them a question that makes them think.

LG: What do you think it is about you that gives them the freedom to be who they are?

JD: Because I've allowed myself to balance, to be vulnerable in front of them. I've allowed myself to be human and tell the truth with them. And at the same time, I'm very passionate about myself and my life. We talk about hard things, but they're only hard when you're not talking about them. So what is it about me that allows them to be who they are? I hope, as a parent, I can demonstrate what I teach, that I can tell the truth when I can. That's it for me.

LG: Do your kids ever complain and if they do, give us an example of how you handle it?

JD: I haven't seen my children complain any more. They don't normally do that. I don't really hear them complain. I love it, we talk of possibilities and we can talk about some amazing things. My daughter called me a while back and said she wanted to have an unlimited shopping experience. When she comes to visit me, we go to Abercrombie, to The Gap, and I sit in the chair, and I say, "Nope, not today. No. Yes. No. NO!" So we do this thing, and she does this fashion thing, and she's a cute kid, but she says, "Dad. Listen. I want to have an unlimited shopping spree. I want to have no boundaries." And I say, "Well, you know how to create that." My kids know how to create reality.

So she worked on it every day. Every day she worked on it and kept tossing it out there. A couple of weeks later she calls me, drunk in the experience, she's intoxicated in joy. And I said, "Gig, what's going on?" And she said, "You're not going to believe this. Sit down for this." And I said, "What happened?" And she said, "I went shopping at the Promenade in Santa Monica with one of my best friends, we go to this store (I don't know the name of the store but it's one of her favorite stores), and the owner of the store recognizes the girl I'm with and says, 'Oh, I know your father really well.' He whips out the company credit card and says, 'Here, girls. Use this. Have fun.' " And I said, "So what was it?" She said, "Well, I'll tell you this. We spent over $7,000 that day."

Now, I want her to have this experience because she applied her mind. She's attractive, she's exotic-looking, she's charismatic, but I don't ever want her to rely on those traits to get somewhere. I want her to rely on her mind. She's beginning to understand that, because she could very easily fall into those programs that define females. Not that they are the only programs, there are also equal programs that define men. But I don't want her to use her beauty for her break. I want her to use her mind. That's why I set up those things for her and now she's on to her next phase, and she's getting real close. And she's intoxicated again as she gets closer.

LG: Do you ever find it necessary to discipline your children?

JD: Yes, but in a very unusual way. I've never really formally sat down and cracked the whip with my children. I just set up experiences for all of us to participate in. My son is an incredible creator. But you know they have their own way of doing it. My daughter is very abstract and very artistic, way out there, my son is very focused and very intentioned. And single-minded. And so they have their own ways of doing it but they get it done.

I Create My Day

"I wake up in the morning and I consciously create my day the way I want it to happen. Now sometimes, because my mind is examining all the things that I need to get done, it takes me a little bit to settle down and get to the point of where I'm actually intentionally creating my day. But here's the thing: When I create my day and out of nowhere little things happen that are so unexplainable, I know that they are the process or the result of my creation. And the more I do that, the more I build a neural net in my brain that I accept that that's possible. (This) gives me the power and the incentive to do it the next day.

"So if we're consciously designing our destiny, and if we're consciously from a spiritual standpoint throwing in with the idea that our thoughts can affect our reality or affect our life -- because reality equals life -- then I have this little pact that I have when I create my day. I say, 'I'm taking this time to create my day and I'm infecting the quantum field. Now if (it) is in fact the observer's watching me the whole time that I'm doing this and there is a spiritual aspect to myself, then show me a sign today that you paid attention to any one of these things that I created, and bring them in a way that I won't expect, so I'm as surprised at my ability to be able to experience these things. And make it so that I have no doubt that it's come from you,' and so I live my life, in a sense, all day long thinking about being a genius or thinking about being the glory and the power of God or thinking about being unconditional love. "I'll use living as a genius, for example. And as I do that during parts of the day, I'll have thoughts that are so amazing, that cause a chill in my physical body that have come from nowhere. But then I remember that that thought has an associated energy that's produced an effect in my physical body. Now that's a subjective experience, but the truth is, is that I don't think that unless I was creating my day to have unlimited thought, that that thought would come."

Joe Dispenza, D.C., studied biochemistry at Rutgers University in New Brunswick , N.J. He received his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree at Life University in Atlanta , Georgia , graduating magna cum laude. Dr. Dispenza's postgraduate training and continuing education has been in neurology, neurophysiology, and brain function.

Often remembered for his remarks on creating his day in "What the Bleep", Dr. Joe is a student of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, a contemporary school of ancient wisdom located in the United States, where he learned to create his day and has personally experienced how the brain, consciousness, and intent work together to create reality in many forms, whether it be a day, an event, an object, or a future.

Dr. Joe's new DVD series, Your Immortal Brain , looks at the ways in which the human brain can be used to create reality through the mastery of thought.

For more about Dr. Joe Dispenza, visit www.drjoedispenza.com

Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Mind

By Wayne W. Dyer, Ph.D.

One can hardly help but look at our global societies and see that there’s a problem, and the problem lies in the fact that we seem to be stuck with traditional worldviews that simply do not work, as much as we like to pretend they do, or that they will someday. The truth is that every worldview becomes ineffective, dysfunctional, and divisive if it’s held on to and not allowed to evolve and mature. Societies are much like individuals, and as we know, most of our problems as individuals come about from holding on to “childish things.” This being the case, maybe it’s time we, as a global society, look at our own “childish things” and grow up. As I expand the boundaries of who I am I start to see that “I” am part of an amazing symphony called existence, and all that is is part of me, and I am part of everything and everyone. I am but a note in the grand symphony of life, and it may be true that the earth is but a small verse in the uni-verse (uni=one verse=song). All notes and verses come and go, but as we know, the song remains the same. —Rahasya Poe, Lotus Guide

Living Contentment

The third verse of the Tao Te Ching advises rearranging priorities to ensure contentment. Focusing on obtaining more objects of desire encourages external factors to have control over us. Pursuit of status, be it monetary or a position of power, blinds us to our relationship to the eternal Tao and the contented life that is available. Overvaluing possessions and accomplishments stems from our ego’s fixation on getting more—wealth, belongings, status, power, or the like. The Tao recommends refraining from this kind of discontented way of life, which leads to thievery, contentiousness, and confusion. Rather than seeking more, the Tao practice of gratitude is what leads us to the contented life. We must replace personal desires with the Tao-centered question: How may I serve? By simply changing these kinds of thoughts, we will begin to see major changes taking place in our lives. The advice to practice “not doing” and trusting that all will settle into a perfect place may sound like a prescription for laziness and a failed society, yet I don’t think that’s what Lao-tzu is offering here. He isn’t saying to be slothful or inactive; rather, he’s suggesting that trusting in the Tao is the way to be directed by the source of your creation and to be guided by a higher principle than your ego-driven desires. Ego-fixated wants can get in the way of divine essence, so practice getting ego out of the way and be guided by the Tao in all that you do. In a state of frenzy? Trust in the Tao. Listen for what urges you onward, free from ego domination, and you’ll paradoxically be more productive. Allow what’s within to come forward by suspending worldly determination. In this way, it will no longer be just you who is conducting this orchestration that you call your life. Much of the third verse contains advice on how to govern. I view this not as political or administrative advice but rather as it pertains to our personal lives and those we’re entrusted to guide—that is, our immediate family, and in a larger sense the human family that comprises all of those with whom we’re in daily contact. Encourage your relatives to empty their minds of thoughts about status and acquisitions and to think instead about serving others and contributing to the health and strength of all. Model the harmony of this attitude; after all, everyone has a calling to be inspired. The source of creation is not interested in material possessions or status. It will provide what is needed—it will guide, motivate, and influence you and everyone else. Ego (and its incessant inventory of desires) probably needs to be weakened so that the beauty of the Tao can be sensed. Demonstrate this to others by being a leader who removes the egocentric temptations that foster envy, anger, and competition. If Lao-tzu were able to view our contemporary world from his 2,500-year-old perspective, I believe that he’d offer the following advice based upon this third verse of the Tao Te Ching:

“Remind yourself daily that there is no way to happiness; rather, happiness is the way”

You may have a long list of goals that you believe will provide you with contentment when they’re achieved, yet if you examine your state of happiness in this moment, you’ll notice that the fulfillment of some previous ambitions didn’t create an enduring sense of joy. Desires can produce anxiety, stress, and competitiveness, and you need to recognize those that do. Bring happiness to every encounter in life instead of expecting external events to produce joy. By staying in harmony on the path of the Tao, all the contentment you could ever dream of will begin to flow into your life—the right people, the means to finance where you’re headed, and the necessary factors will come together. “Stop pushing yourself,” Lao-tzu would say, “and feel gratitude and awe for what is. Your life is controlled by something far bigger and more significant than the petty details of your lofty aspirations.”

“Trust the perfection of the eternal Tao, for it is the ultimate Source of the 10,000 things”

The Tao is working for and with you, so you needn’t remind it of what you crave or what you think it has forgotten on your behalf. Trust the harmony of the Tao. It took care of everything that you needed in your creation as well as your first nine months of life without any assistance from you and totally independent of any desires you may have had. The Tao will continue to do so if you just trust it and practice not doing. Inventory your desires and then turn them over to the unnameable. Yes, turn them over and do nothing but trust. At the same time, listen and watch for guidance, and then connect yourself to the perfect energy that sends whatever is necessary into your life. You (meaning your ego) don’t need to do anything. Instead, allow the eternal perfection of the Tao to work through you. This is Lao-tzu’s message for our world now. Henry David Thoreau made the following observation in the middle of the 19th century as he wrote at Walden Pond, and I feel that it personifies the third verse of the Tao Te Ching:

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. . . . If the engine whistles, let it whistle till it is hoarse for its pains. If the bell rings, why should we run? . . . I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

“Trust in your essential sageness.

Don’t let desires obscure your eternal connection to the Tao”

Do the Tao Now

Watch for an opportunity today to notice that you’re planning to buy something. Choose to do the Tao and listen for guidance. Be grateful that you have the choice to make the purchase, and then practice listening to yourself and not doing. Through your feelings, the Tao will reveal the way for you in that moment. Trust it. You might be guided to buy the item and savor it with gratitude, donate it, procure one for you and one for someone else, give the money to a charity instead of getting the item, or refrain from obtaining it altogether. Practice doing the Tao in everyday situations and you’ll know contentment in a deeper sense. As this verse says, “When action is pure and selfless, everything settles into its own perfect place.” Now that’s my definition of contentment!

Wayne W. Dyer, Ph.D., is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development. He’s the author of 30 books, has created many audio programs and videos, and has appeared on thousands of television and radio shows. His books Manifest Your Destiny, Wisdom of the Ages, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, and The New York Times best sellers 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace, The Power of Intention, Inspiration, and Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life have all been featured as National Public Television specials. Dr. Dyer’s Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Mind: Living the Wisdom of the Tao, published by Hay House, will be released July 31, 2007. He holds a doctorate in educational counseling from Wayne State University in Detroit and was an associate professor at St. John’s University in New York. Visit his website at www.DrWayneDyer.com

An Interview with Shakti Gawain about Transformation, Locally and Globally

By Rahasya and Dhara from Lotus Guide

Over the years, Shakti Gawain has been an inspiration to millions in matters of the heart and soul. She not only writes about the path that we're all on, she also walks the path.

Carolyn Myss, P.h.D. says this about her book, Transformation, How Healing Ourselves Can Change the World.

"In this wonderful guide for the new millennium, Shakti brings us the insight and direction we need to bring our spirituality into the human experience, reclaim our power, and effect real change. I highly recommend it."

Lotus Guide: Living in a small community, it's very easy to see that, for the most part, people are moving out of large cities to the more rural areas. Some people say it's because of fear and survival but I like to think that at least on a deeper level there's a more spiritual answer. What do you think?

Shakti Gawain : There are a couple of things I think about that. One is that I do believe that one of the major ways that we're out of alignment with our souls is in our disconnect from nature in this culture. I feel that we have kind of lost our natural way of being connected to the planet. We need to be rooted on the planet. We experience ourselves as kind of isolated from that, and I actually think that's a great cause of the suffering that many of us are experiencing, whether consciously or unconsciously. So I think that one of the reasons there may be a trend toward moving out of the cities, again, it may be conscious or it may be unconscious, but it is a desire to connect more with nature. And with the natural rhythms. We need that! We've been missing it.

Lotus Guide: Yes, we do. I feel totally different when I'm out camping or just walking here in Bidwell Park.

Shakti: Yes, you all in Chico are so lucky that you have that wonderful park. Although we're lucky here where I live in Mill Valley because we're near the bay and I love being near the big water. Of course my other home is in Kaua'i, where I'm really near the big water. Surrounded by it. And I love that. And yes, I have to get outside at least a little bit every day - get centered, and get connected, just get filled up.

So that's one of the motivations. I think it is to get more connected to nature and the more natural environment. And then another motivation, I believe - again it may be conscious or unconscious for any given person - but one of the things we're missing a lot these days is a sense of community. The natural way that humans have always connected with each other is by living close together, near each other, working together. Somehow we've managed to create, essentially in this last 50 years or so, an environment in which we may be living in great comfort, or even luxury, but we're living very isolated from each other, either in the suburbs or even in the cities, where there may be a lot of people crowded together but they aren't necessarily relating to each other in a fulfilling way. I think that there's that longing or that yearning for something that has been very natural for us and that we've lost. In some of the progress that we've been making in other ways we've definitely lost some things that are very precious.

Lotus Guide: I think the word 'progress' could be redefined at this point in time.

Shakti: Yes.

Lotus Guide: When my wife and I first visited Chico, we fell in love with it. It was the community - it was the fact that you could walk down the street and say, "Hi," and people would actually look at you and say, "Hi. How are you doing?" and wait for an answer.

Shakti: Right. Yes, they want to connect. And the other thing about Chico is you can ride your bicycle around everywhere. You can commute by bicycle. When you're riding a bike you're more connected to the outdoors and to other people than you are when you are stuck in your car. It might be nice to mention that my good friends Tanha & John were some of the people who helped put together the co-housing community in Chico, which I think is a wonderful model for learning how to live, even in a city or in a big town, in a way where people are really connecting with each other.

Lotus Guide: Yes, we did a meditation over there one day, and some of the people come to our house to meditate once in a while. We like the whole idea of what they've done there; it's an inspiration to people looking for a nice way to live together.

Shakti : Yes, I'd love to mention that; it's something that inspired me also. At this point I'm not living in cohousing but I would love to.

Lotus Guide: I wrote an article for the latest issue called "Islands of the Future," taken from Ken Carey's Starseed Transmissions . Let me just read you a little bit here. These are some of the things he says about small communities and centers: "As you reorientate toward the new way of being in the world, you will be drawn to centers where the vibrational atmosphere is more conducive to a healthy state of functioning. . . . These centers will represent the focal points around which the organs of Planetary Being will form. They will be, in a sense, islands of the future in a sea of the past. . . . These will be the first beachheads . . . the points of entry where the healing energies of transformation will be channeled."

And that's always struck a chord with me, because it seems to me that when people get together for the right ideas, they can receive some of this higher energy that most people just can't seem to tune in to in their daily lives. Then it can be put out into the community in a language they can connect with. Publishing the Lotus Guide puts us in touch with a lot of people that think along these lines.

Shakti:I like to think of it simply as we all have a life force moving through us, and if we allow ourselves to feel that and open up and allow it to move through, then we have a great sense of well-being, but when we get too overly active or overly involved in certain things then we kind of lose this connection to ourselves. And we suffer.

Lotus Guide: And we forget life is a process. . . . Do you think the trend that we see in the world today to unite and come together (and also the conflict in doing so) is a reflection of what's happening on an individual level within ourselves?

Shakti: Yes, I do. Absolutely. I think that everything in the world around us on one level is a reflection of what is going on inside of us. So each of us as an individual creates a life - we draw to us certain people and events and circumstances that reflect what's going on inside of us, so we can literally look at our life and see a mirror of our own consciousness. And if that's true on an individual level, it's also true that what's going on in the world in a bigger way is a reflection of the collective consciousness. All of us as human beings are connected by one energy and consciousness. So we all affect each other and everything that's happening in the world affects us individually. And what we're each doing as an individual affects what's going on in the world.

It's a wonderful mirroring process that, I believe, we set up to help us learn, to help us grow. So anything that's going on, for example, with a person in my life that's important to me is always a reflection of something that's going on inside of me. It's interesting to do that on a personal level - to start to look at how the people in your life reflect the different parts of you and what we might be able to learn from those things. And it's really interesting to see the whole world that way, to see everything that's going on out there on a bigger scale in the world, that's being played out on the world stage. It's really very similar to things that are going on inside each of us as individuals.

For example, a lot of us, probably most of us in our culture, have a lot of trouble accepting vulnerability of one part of us. There is a part of us that is vulnerable and has deep feelings that are very emotional, and we have not been taught to be comfortable with that part of ourselves. So most of us just bury it and we pretend to be really strong and really tough and say that things don't bother us or that we don't have deep feelings about things. A lot of us work that way. And unfortunately, not being in touch with your vulnerability and not learning to own it and accept it and be comfortable with it leaves you in a position where you're liable to look at and judge other people for being vulnerable because they're reflecting that part of yourself that you're not comfortable with.

So that might be going on with some of us in our personal lives. If we're not comfortable with our vulnerability, usually something comes along in life to trigger it. Like a relationship breaks up, or a health issue happens, or something forces us to acknowledge that as human beings we have vulnerabilities. We also have power, but we can't just be powerful all the time. We have to learn how to receive and be open as well. So this is true on a large scale as well as on the individual level. In the world we can reject vulnerability and reject people who are vulnerable. Some of these events that have been happening in recent times in the world I think partly are happening in order that each of us becomes aware of our own vulnerability and learn to work with that instead of just reject it. Does this make sense?

Lotus Guide: Yes. As you say, on the world view, sometimes when I watch the news, which is something I try not to do too much, I see the same conflict in my own life on a personal level. The same conflict I have with a sister or friend has the same energetic patterns as some national conflicts.

Shakti: Absolutely. All our relationships, especially the deep ones, stir up the deepest issues for us that we need to confront and work with.

So I see some of those issues that each of us is individually dealing with as definitely being played out in a big way in the world. And so in addition to just addressing those things externally with whatever solutions we may need, we also need to look inside and see: "How is this reflecting me and what can I learn from this and how can I shift the way I am living?" So that it has an effect on everyone.

Lotus Guide: Looking at it like that, it's like a gift.

Shakti: Yes, everything that happens to us can be looked at as a gift. Although it's quite difficult when you're in the middle of a hard struggle with something, it's hard to see it as a gift, but in retrospect, we can almost always look back and say, "Oh, I see why I had to go through that."

Lotus Guide: Sounds like the voice of experience, Shakti.

Shakti: Yes, indeed.

Lotus Guide: Do you have any ideas about why the more active type of meditations, like dance meditations for instance, seem to get better, or maybe I should say, quicker, results in the West than the more traditional Eastern meditations?

Shakti: Yes, I do have some ideas about that. I think in the Western world we have gotten overly identified with doing, and we've kind of forgotten about the art of being. And we don't see value in it; we think that if you're not doing something all of the time, being very active and producing something, then you're sort of wasting your time. And there isn't much value given to the necessity for just being quiet. And just resting, and just being, without a focus or a goal. At least a certain amount in our lives - we don't need to do half and half; it's okay if we're doing a lot of doing, we just need some being mixed in.

And a lot of us don't have that and we've never really learned how to do that. In many other cultures, and certainly in the Eastern world, there's great value put on being, contemplating, and even withdrawing from the world at certain times or for certain periods of time. But we don't really have that in our culture, so it's difficult for many Westerners to learn how to sit down or lie down and just be quiet without going to sleep. We're just not trained to do it. So I have found also, as obviously you have, that many times people can access that being stage more fully and more easily if at first you are actually doing something. If you run, or dance, or do something kind of vigorous, and let the energy release, then sometimes it's easier to sit or lie down and then feel at ease and rest and be quiet and move inside.

But even the very actions themselves can be a meditation. For me, walking is certainly a meditation if I walk for awhile. First my mind is busy and I'm thinking about all these things and after a while that starts to fall away and I start to become very present in the moment. And that feeling of being present in the moment is being. That's when we know we're connecting with being energy. Even driving a car, I find, driving long distances, I will start to shift into almost an altered state or a quiet being state, where I may be thinking about certain things but mostly I'm just kind of hanging. And then, oftentimes creative ideas will come or inspirations will come or I'll just be able to get a certain kind of breath.

Lotus Guide: Yes, I know what you mean about driving. I've had some wonderful drives; it seems like it gives your body just enough to do to shut it down and your mind is able to relax a little bit. We've had some really good results with the active meditations. I guess it's another thing too that people are so bombarded by advertisement and mental things - we think if we don't think, we don't exist. And it's hard to imagine consciousness without thinking. "I think, therefore I am" is exactly what the mind would come up with as a definition for existence.

Shakti: Right.

Lotus Guide: I can't tell you how much this means to all of us here in Chico and the North Valley, Shakti. When my wife and I moved here, we realized there are so many wonderful people and groups that are fragmented from each other. We wanted to do meditation and find all the meditation groups and we realized that a lot of the groups were difficult to find, and we thought, "Wow. This place needs a magazine." It's working out great so far. So many people coming to us, thanking us, and I'm sure you know what that feels like.

Shakti: Yes, that's a wonderful feeling, isn't it?

Lotus Guide: Yes. It really is.

Transformation by Shakti Gawain is available online through the Amazon.com link on the Lotus Guide Shopping page and most bookstores.

For anyone interested in ongoing co-housing projects, you can contact Lotus Guide or you can contact Tanha & John directly at 530-893-3426  www.shaktigawain.com