The emotional blow floored my pathetic hurt feelings and I believed.I had joined.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="p1"> Joinery the activity or skill of a joiner:</div> <div class="p3"> one of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organisation); "only members will be admitted"; "a member of the faculty"; "she was introduced to all the members of his family"</div> <div class="p4"> <br /></div> <div class="p3"> The greeting was not the one I expected,</div> <div class="p3"> Is it all right if I serve you tea,</div> <div class="p3"> Yes I said, thats your job</div> <div class="p3"> But is it a worthwhile job</div> <div class="p3"> Very worthwhile, in that you are doing a necessary job to make sure that the people are welcomed you are the first person that people see.</div> <div class="p3"> Being a professional joiner of social groups I had become used to reassuring members as to there worth inside the group. I had become accustomed to the tribal rituals that were used within social groups. My experience spanned over forty years and a certain confidence emulated from me. I recognised old faces some from my days as a student psychologist another tribe I belonged to.The skill of joinery and the ability join had become useful to me in many potentially dangerous situations whilst working in prisons.Here I felt relatively at ease.I moved into the modern hall acknowledging the large cross on the wall.Choosing a chair to left and on the back row I could observe the tribal group which was made up of an assortment of health professionals and patients.I silently said a prayer of anonymity hoping I would not be singled out for today was a class for meditation. </div> <div class="p4"> <br /></div> <div class="p3"> I had been having my own personal battle with meditation, when it worked it became satisfying, but something was missing.I struggled to understand that which was missing.lost in my own thoughts and preoccupations. I failed to see the small Indian man who had taken centre stage.</div> <div class="p3"> Today to get to know each other we are going to do an icebreaker. The Indian voice broke into my thoughts.We will each say a little and explain why we are here.I resigned myself to the fact that the one thing I didn't want to do was the first thing I would be doing. A ritual I would have to do refusal would have made me join the special and different label that would automatically banish me from joining the group. The small indian man beamed at his audience .</div> <div class="p3"> You yes you he pointed at the other side of the room you start. Apprehensively I realised it would take him some time to cover the whole room. The reasons people had arrived here were different but predictable and why was I here. I didn't have an answer, curiosity. I was drawn to this mans eyes they had enormous pupils the face was friendly the eyes all knowing. They were the eyes that had gazed at extreme poverty and shone with love. They sparked with mirth and laughter transcending pain. I caught myself day dreaming of course I knew none of those things I didn't even know his name and yet deep within I recognised him as if he was a member of my family. I must be losing it I thought,</div> <div class="p3"> He had started to work the room in a more random manner.His memory appeared to be excellent he had in a very short time covered the whole room. The only person left was me…….</div> <div class="p3">  Let me introduce myself my name is Father Joe.</div> <div class="p3"> He had missed me my silent prayer had been answered.I was shocked but he had my attention was it that he had heard my silent prayer or just forgotten. Shorty he led us into our first meditation.Why had he missed me,doubts and questions assailed what should have been a tranquil mind. Perhaps my ego had been dinted,I hadn't come here to be preoccupied. I would ask him at the first break.Thats it I would confront him.The gong sounded to break the first session.</div> <div class="p3"> Father Joe started to explain how he had come to the priesthood his crisis of faith and his relationship to Mother Teresa. I listened, I listened as if my very life depended on it. I had been to thousands of meetings, talks, seminars why was this different suddenly even though I had heard the message a thousand times from childhood I was joining wether I liked it or not something deep within me something was changing confirming long forgotten childhood beliefs. Solutions as old as time itself were being presented to me and I was being challenged by proofs I didn't think existed.This man was administering the grace of God. I was shocked all my intellectual arguments my education, my experience were as nothing. I had joined.</div> <div class="p4"> <br /></div> <div class="p3"> I didn't realise this fact at that time and my opportunity had arrived the break had come I made a beeline for him.I would confront him I would tell him who I was, The smile disarmed me.Why did you not introduce me.</div> <div class="p3"> I didn't need to you are a messenger from God.God needs no introduction.</div> <div class="p3"> The emotional blow floored my pathetic hurt feelings and I believed.I had joined.</div> <div class="p4"> <br /></div> <br /> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/we-lose-our-capacity-to-love-if-you.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_120_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/we-lose-our-capacity-to-love-if-you.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">We lose our capacity to love. If you wish to love, you must learn to see again.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/schadenfreude-there-is-no-direct.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_90_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/schadenfreude-there-is-no-direct.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">schadenfreude There is no direct English equivalent but I'd say it is malicious joy at another's discomfort..</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; 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The emotional blow floored my pathetic hurt feelings and I believed.I had joined.

Joinery the activity or skill of a joiner: one of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and pa...

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SURRENDER, STILLNESS, SILENCE Father Joe Pereira

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-43XM18NWH5Y/UI7G8Z0AlUI/AAAAAAAAL5o/f0VQgF_NHvs/s1600/FrJoePereira2011.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-43XM18NWH5Y/UI7G8Z0AlUI/AAAAAAAAL5o/f0VQgF_NHvs/s320/FrJoePereira2011.jpeg" width="244" /></a></div> <div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Father Joe Pereira<br /><br />SURRENDER, STILLNESS, SILENCE<br /><br />Despite having been born in India, Father Joe Pereira's coming to yoga was somewhat unlikely. For one thing, his Portuguese forebears, although settled in India since the sixteenth century (he was born in 1942 in the former Portuguese colony of Goa), were devoutly Catholic. For another, when as a young man he heard a spiritual calling, it was to the priesthood, and so he spent a decade in seminary and received advanced training before being ordained. But he was also a singer and a lover of music, which led Pereira to attend a performance in Mumbai (Bombay) of the internationally renowned violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin—whose own interest in Eastern arts led him to play with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar as well as write the foreword to the B. K. S. Iyengar classic Light on Yoga. At the performance, Menuhin introduced Iyengar as "my next violin instructor," piquing the young priest's interest; he soon began taking weekly classes from Iyengar near his Mumbai parish. That was in 1968; by 1971, Father Joe was teaching yoga, and in 1975, he became a certified Iyengar instructor. He incorporated hatha yoga and meditation into his pastoral duties and eventually added a ministry for alcoholics to the parish's services.<br /><br />By 1981, he and one of the recovering alcoholics he had brought into the parish program founded the Kripa ("Grace") Foundation, which focused on serving addicts through a unique recovery program combining the "12 steps" of Alcoholics Anonymous with instruction in yoga and meditation taught by Father Joe. Eventually, he added Western psychological models, such as dyads and gestalt therapy as well. From its humble origins in the annex of the parish church in Mumbai, the program has grown to include more than 30 counseling, detoxification, and rehabilitation centers throughout India, as well as offices in Germany and Canada; the program's recovery rate is an astonishing 65 percent. From unlikely beginnings, Kripa today enjoys the blessings of the Church and the patronage of the Archbishop of Mumbai, Ivan Cardinal Dias.<br /><br />For Father Joe, this work was perhaps the most fitting by-product of his own spiritual journey, for he struggled with alcohol abuse himself as a young man. "I have all the qualities of an addict," he told Yoga Journal in a 1997 article. "I am not exempt from the self-destructive behavior patterns people come here to be healed of." Father Joe's collegial relationship with Iyengar—he returns to the latter's institute in Pune every July for intensive studies in yoga therapy—led him to ask theyogacharya to devise practice techniques and sequences (of asana and pranayama) specifically to help people cope with addictive traits and residues.<br /><br />In time, the Kripa program, which is formulated around Patanjali's eight limbs, also began serving people who were HIV-positive or suffering from AIDS. The two populations exhibit many of the same emotional responses to their conditions, including anger, depression, guilt, and self-abnegation; Pereira's yoga and meditation instruction, along with the time-tested recovery "steps" and other psychological tools offered, help individuals "honor" abused and pained parts of themselves, find a centering still point from which they can draw strength, move beyond addictive and self-destructive patterns, and vastly improve their quality of life. Father Joe has even had clients who have been HIV-positive for more than a decade and have yet to develop AIDS.<br /><br />Valery Petrich, a Calgary, Alberta—based yoga teacher who is director of Kripa West Charity and has worked with Father Joe for years (together with senior Iyengar teacher Margot Kitchen, they produced a video, Living with AIDS Through Yoga and Meditation), describes Father Joe as "a healer" and talks about him in near-rapturous tones. "It's sort of like being in Mother Teresa's presence," she says, invoking one of Father Joe's heroes. (The Kripa newsletter calls her "our inspiration," and Father Joe leads yoga-and-meditation retreats several times a year in various parts of India for the religious order Mother Teresa founded, the Sisters of Charity.) "I consider him to be a true man of God in the sense that he's truly selfless," Petrich adds. "Father Joe seems to have unlimited energy from his meditation and yoga practice, which he does for about two-and-a-half hours every morning.<br /><br />But his spiritual presence is equaled by the practical impact of his work. "I think the best gift he has to offer," says Petrich, who also works with HIV-positive students, "is the successful model that Western countries can study and follow, and so better understand the value of Iyengar's restorative yoga. The brilliance of that model, Petrich notes, is the way in which yoga augments the AA steps. "It's all in the surrender," she says, "handing it over to a Higher Power.<br /><br />"In the restorative poses, the idea is a long hold, moving into stillness. Father Joe's 'steps include surrender, stillness, and silence; you can't get into silence without stillness, and you can't get into stillness without surrender." What is more, this practice allows the addict to get at root causes. "Addiction is usually about fear," she says, "and not wanting to experience pain. This is about surrendering into experiencing pain, rather than numbing it." As the practice deepens, something miraculous happens. "When the ego moves over," says Petrich, "then the healing takes place. People let their behavior get out of the way and surrender control. Then the divine can work.</span><div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/im-not-retired-alcoholic-im-defeated-one.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/174207131_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/im-not-retired-alcoholic-im-defeated-one.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">I'm not a retired alcoholic, I'm a defeated one.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/meditation-is-word-that-has-come-to-be.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_86_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/meditation-is-word-that-has-come-to-be.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Meditation is a word that has come to be used loosely and inaccurately in the modern world.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/understanding-or-rather-not.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_76_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/understanding-or-rather-not.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Understanding or rather not understanding meditation was for me a problem of unfathomable depths</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/people-are-afraid-to-connect-with.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_107_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/people-are-afraid-to-connect-with.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">People are afraid to connect with a Higher Power for two main reasons. 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SURRENDER, STILLNESS, SILENCE Father Joe Pereira

Father Joe Pereira SURRENDER, STILLNESS, SILENCE Despite having been born in India, Father Joe Pereira's coming to yoga was somewhat ...

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Father Joe Pereira, a Sr. Iyengar Yoga Teacher from India.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_Teresa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:left;"><img alt="Mother Teresa" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="418" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Mother_Teresa.jpg/300px-Mother_Teresa.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Mother Teresa (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mother_Teresa.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; text-align: justify;"> He is a very special yoga teacher who is also a Catholic priest. I never imagined a priest quoting Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. His perspective on yoga and his teachings are very different from my North American teachers. I found the stories of his many years of travel with Mother Teresa and his longtime friendship and teaching with BKS Iyengar inspirational.</div> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; text-align: justify;"> He told a story about breaking his back working with Mother Teresa. The doctors informed him he would need surgery and permanent metal supports would be inserted to steady his spine. He thanked the doctors and took the scan to BKS Iyengar. Mr. Iyengar looked at the scan and said, “26 asanas” and wrote the asanas right on the scan. Father Joe practiced these 26 asanas everyday for an hour and a half. He hung ropes and placed props outside the rectory. Mother Teresa got many comments from the villagers asking, “What kind of priest hangs from ropes like a bat?”</div> <div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.05em; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; text-align: justify;"> One of the students in the workshop asked how long it took to heal his back with these asanas. He said It took 2.5 years. The students gasped. He replied by saying that we North Americans don’t have fidelity in our practice. We want things fixed right away – resulting in a high percentage of shoulder surgeries, knee replacements and back surgeries in our country. The discussion went on, but it was his comment about our need to fix things quickly and our lack of ‘fidelity’ or commitment that struck me. We move so quickly through our lives, we have a need to do everything now, the need to be first in line, the need to rush through the light before it turns red, the need to place the hand on the floor in Triangle pose (Utthita Trikonasana) before our bodies are ready…… We need to learn to be present.</div> <br /> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul" style="clear: left;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-twelve-step-proposition-assumes.html" target="_blank">The Twelve Step proposition assumes a distinctly opposing perspective. It suggests that if you are in pain, if you are stuck and can't seem to change - the only solution is to stop trying.</a> (galatictours.blogspot.com)</li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/there-is-no-black-and-white-definition.html" target="_blank">There is no black and white definition of an alcoholic. It helps me to think of alcohol as a demon. 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He was searching for a teacher but none had the answers he sought.</a> (galatictours.blogspot.com)</li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-serenity-prayer-has-become-so.html" target="_blank">The Serenity prayer has become so famous because of its association with Alcoholics Anonymous as a personal prayer, spoken in the first person singular.</a> (galatictours.blogspot.com)</li> </ul> </div> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"> <a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=bb9291ab-10cb-4018-9313-57ddf4085024" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div> </div>

Father Joe Pereira, a Sr. Iyengar Yoga Teacher from India.

Mother Teresa (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) He is a very special yoga teacher who is also a Catholic priest. I never imagined a priest...

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You Are Not So Smart, You love your phone because it's the best, right?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7ggX3b0cS8/VgTD5hxRQUI/AAAAAAAATr0/0F_iKdsf22g/s1600/1-mindhacks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="109" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7ggX3b0cS8/VgTD5hxRQUI/AAAAAAAATr0/0F_iKdsf22g/s320/1-mindhacks.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br />So you remember your wedding day like it was yesterday. You can you spot when something is of high quality. You keep yourself well-informed about current affairs but would be open to debate and discussion, You love your phone because it's the best, right? Are you sure? David McRaney from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is here to tell you that you don't know yourself as well as you think. The journalist and self-described psychology nerd's new book, You Are Not So Smart, consists of 48 short chapters on the assorted ways that we mislead ourselves every day. "The central theme is that you are the unreliable narrator in the story of your life. And this is because you're unaware of how unaware you are," says McRaney. "It's fun to go through legitimate scientific research and pull out all of the examples that show how everyone, no matter how smart or educated or experienced, is radically self-deluded in predictable and quantifiable ways." Based on the blog of the same name, You Are Not So Smart is not so much a self-help book as a self-hurt book. Here McRaney gives some key examples<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Expectation<br /><br />The Misconception: Wine is a complicated elixir, full of subtle flavours only an expert can truly distinguish, and experienced tasters are impervious to deception.<br /><br />The Truth: Wine experts and consumers can be fooled by altering their expectations.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />An experiment in 2001 at the University of Bordeaux had wine experts taste a red and white wine, to determine which was the best. They dutifully explained what they liked about each wine but what they didn't realise was that scientists had just dyed the same white wine red and told them it was red wine. The tasters described the sorts of berries and tannins they could detect in the red wine as if it really was red. Another test had them judge a cheap bottle of wine and an expensive one. They rated the expensive wine much more highly than the cheap, with much more flattering descriptions. It was actually the same wine. It's not to say wine-tasting is pointless, it's to show that expectation can radically change experience. Yes, these people were experts, but that doesn't mean they can't be influenced by the same things as the rest of us, whether it be presentation or advertising or price. This drives home the idea that reality is a construction of the brain. You don't passively receive the outside world, you actively construct your experience moment by moment.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Misconception: We take randomness into account when determining cause and effect.<br /><br />The Truth: We tend to ignore random chance when the results seem meaningful or when we want a random event to have a meaningful cause.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Imagine a cowboy shooting at the side of a barn over and over again with a gun. The side of the barn fills up with holes. If you walk over and paint a bullseye around clusters of holes it will make it look like you have made quite a lot of correct shots. It's a metaphor for the way the human mind naturally works when trying to make sense out of chaos. The brain is very invested in taking chaos and turning it into order. For example, in America it's very popular to discuss how similar the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations were. Elected 100 years apart, Lincoln was killed in the Ford theatre; Kennedy was in a Lincoln automobile made by Ford. They were both killed on a Friday, sitting next to their wives, by men with three names. And so on and so on. It's not spooky. People take hold of the hits but ignore the misses. They are pulled into the things that line up, and are similar or coincidental, but they ignore everything else that's not. The similarities are merely bullseyes drawn around the many random facts.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Confirmation Bias<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Misconception: Your opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis.<br /><br />The Truth: Your opinions are the result of years of paying attention to information that confirmed what you believed, while ignoring information that challenged your preconceived notions.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Any cognitive bias is a tendency to think in one way and not another whenever your mind is on auto-pilot; whenever you're going with the flow. Confirmation bias is a tendency to pay attention to evidence that confirms pre-existing beliefs and notions and conclusions about life and to completely ignore other information. This happens so automatically that we don't even notice. Say you have a flatmate, and you are arguing over who does most of the housework, and both people believe that they do most of the work. What is really happening is that both people are noticing when they do the work and not noticing when they don't. The way it plays into most of our lives is the media that we choose to put into our brains; the television, news, magazines and books. We tend to only pick out things that line up with our pre-existing beliefs and rarely choose anything that challenges those beliefs. It relays the backfire effect, which is a cognitive bias where if we're presented with contradictory evidence, we tend to reject it and support our initial belief even more firmly. When people watch a news programme or pundit, they aren't looking for information so much as confirmation of what they already believe is going in.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Brand Loyalty<br /><br />The Misconception: We prefer the things we own over the things we don't because we made rational choices when we bought them.<br /><br />The Truth: We prefer the things we own because we rationalise our past choices to protect our sense of self.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Why do people argue over Apple vs Android? Or one car company versus another? After all, these are just corporations. Why would you defend a brand as if you are their PR representative? We believe that we prefer the things we own because we made these deep rational evaluations of them before we bought them, but most of the rationalisation takes place after you own the thing. It's the choosing of one thing over another that leads to narratives about why you did it, which usually tie in to your self-image.<br /><br />There are at least a dozen psychological effects that play into brand loyalty, the most potent of which is the endowment effect: you feel like the things you own are superior to the things you don't. When you buy a product you tend to connect the product to your self-image, then once it's connected to your self-image you will defend it as if you're defending your own ego or belief structure.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The Misinformation Effect<br /><br />The Misconception: Memories are played back like recordings.<br /><br />The Truth: Memories are constructed anew each time from whatever information is currently available, which makes them highly permeable to influences from the present.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />You might think your memory is a little fuzzy but not that it's completely inaccurate. People believe that memory is like a video or files stored in some sort of computer. But it's not like that at all. Memories are actually constructed anew each time that you remember something.<br /><br />Each time you take an old activation sequence in your brain and re-construct it; like building a toy airplane out of Lego and then smashing the Lego, putting it back into the box, and building it again. Each time you build it it's going to be a little bit different based on the context and experience you have had since the last time you created it.<br /><br />Oddly enough, the least remembered memory is the most accurate. Each time you bring it into your life you edit it a little more. In 1974 Elizabeth Loftus had people watch a film of two cars having a collision and divided them into groups. Asking each group the same question, she used a slightly different description: how fast were the cars going when they contacted, hit, bumped, collided or smashed? The more violent the wording, the higher they estimated the speed. The way in which questions were worded altered the memories subjects reported.<br /><br />They weren't looking back to the memory of the film they watched, they were building a new experience based on current information. Memory is actually very malleable and it's dangerous to think that memory is a perfect recording of a past event.<br /><br />'You Are Not So Smart: Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction, Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself' by David McRaney (Oneworld, £8.99)<br /><br /> Related articles <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/narcissits-you-might-think-they-love.html"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/EaLscSRd0Q3KuYQmn6ilj2nzmqf__NTKZD_sIKzC_jUKRIxztTZDg8pzw-tQOYJ2v3esZVPDvCM3cNM1" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/narcissits-you-might-think-they-love.html">Narcissists, you might think they love only themselves.</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/people-get-into-relationships-thinking.html"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/MxEy-tfW13Dy1pdZqlNum7kXw64F0gBu9pMWFW2xjP6gw2uR9pARNCV-2U8SyxF7y_E0PcfkfhX2DEeO" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/people-get-into-relationships-thinking.html">People get into relationships thinking that other people can give them security, or feelings of self-worth, feelings of worth at all, something to live for, validation.</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/need-to-belong-drives-belief-in-god.html"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/qK70zfENvHL4Cv6Pei4CWmyPhuEgUAt9tEu3VNO3dz7LLJZXNkfmuAjq8kesMLvJgE3yO9ebHqjvL0Ky" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/need-to-belong-drives-belief-in-god.html">Need to belong drives belief in God</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/detachment-manipulators-of-world-will.html"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/uxhKuNQ6L1acskpjNIfcX4e856oZHvNXilhbqqXu6UQlG9Lx92SIUM0dn0mpTKBu1sbb0MWMm5_QaEzq" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/detachment-manipulators-of-world-will.html">DETACHMENT: The manipulators of the world will test you from time to time to see if you bend.</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/are-you-perfectionist.html"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/8nrkugTQVJdVqnKVgMvzQmYaL3BMva0cu4k_VjGAxcDe7ixSqET3_twKj9UL4uzmb_zNKkyh_4sMW8RG" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/are-you-perfectionist.html">Are you a perfectionist?</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/people-are-afraid-to-connect-with.html"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/oz95t_MhCAzUo0tqADocFBZL24P3Q2H4FKjkNGRaa91ZUZC3B_CCZkyv-Cyj8loQ3XZxIocZEJhBl8Rf" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/people-are-afraid-to-connect-with.html">People are afraid to connect with a Higher Power for two main reasons. Fear of losing control and fear that they will be punished or judged by the powers that be, rather than loved and forgiven.</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/solution-based-recovery.html"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/AlyOoOpKq-M55rCizQC2-fcbxWYKliNh0lVEaAVkW26xTEf-cq60OAhx2w8_d4dgAiEyRi6XLcEFb60" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/solution-based-recovery.html">Solution based recovery, Fully working all Twelve Steps of this program produces results.</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/relationship-dependants-where-do-you.html"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/XXmP2LteT-_z8DNqGBkw7L_StOnUJBIsNHjihWeLOFZzGqrMOCb5M1ycyqfJeHtniZAm9YF3PzDe6CKd" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/relationship-dependants-where-do-you.html">RELATIONSHIP DEPENDANTS where do you start your healing process?</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/self-defeating-beliefs-along-with-ways.html"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/s2h5pXXVM8IWm3KsqzS3xi7J6bwhyMoQjlp286LH6X1Z5fOYGKorgeMVMohXd5l77JbUs8UwWTKfgHo" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/self-defeating-beliefs-along-with-ways.html">Self-defeating beliefs, along with the ways we can deal with them.</a> <br /><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/people-who-hold-beliefs-about-vengeful.html"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/amS1PQCIHQyl7VIryJgjKdVZyr6u599io1UxDUD4iPQsPHHEBIDHQ3uG1aCGWn65w5yA9yTVvKECpekb" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/people-who-hold-beliefs-about-vengeful.html">People who hold beliefs about a vengeful god were also more aggressive towards offenders, and that those who held beliefs about a loving god were more forgiving.</a> <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px"><img 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You Are Not So Smart, You love your phone because it's the best, right?

So you remember your wedding day like it was yesterday. You can you spot when something is of high quality. You keep yourself well-informe...

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Dreamwarrior will be touring Spain shortly

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.Disclaimer. Our materials are intended for information only. We are not doctors or professionals. This inter active blog does not offer, and we do not purport to offer, any medical, psychological, therapeutic, religious, or other professional advice to users. Non Affiliation. We are not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous or any other “12 Step” program.<br /> <br /> Dreamwarrior will be touring Spain shortly</div>

Dreamwarrior will be touring Spain shortly

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyri...

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Be still and know that I am God.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-43XM18NWH5Y/UI7G8Z0AlUI/AAAAAAAAL5o/f0VQgF_NHvs/s1600/FrJoePereira2011.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-43XM18NWH5Y/UI7G8Z0AlUI/AAAAAAAAL5o/f0VQgF_NHvs/s320/FrJoePereira2011.jpeg" width="244" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> With its elegant, aging cathedrals spread out across the countryside, Roman Cathollcism is Canada's largest official religion.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> But with hundreds of stylish new studios opening up across Canadian cities, sometimes it seems as if Catholicism's strongest new "competitor" is yoga.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Tension simmers between these traditions of the East and West, with polls suggesting each draws the support or interest of roughly 40 per cent of the Canadian population.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Yoga practitioners often dismiss Catholicism as a doctrinaire, uptight, hierarchical religion. Catholics often write off yoga as self-indulgent exercise -- and, at worst, a heretical form of Hindu spirituality that could open practitioners to satanic forces.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Not well-known in Canada, but famous in India, the brave man who has spent much of his life trying to ease suspicion and build bridges between these two traditions is Catholic Father Joe Pereira.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> The remarkable 65-year-old priest from India says the most influential figures in his life -- the teachers who represent "the yin and yang" of his spiritual education -- have been Mother Teresa of Calcutta and India's P.K.S. Iyengar, arguably the world's most influential living yoga master.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Father Joe, as he's called, was in Vancouver in late September to teach a weekend yoga workshop, speak about Christian mediation and seek support for his Indian organization's work with people who are addicted or diseased.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Admirably comfortable in multiple spiritual and cultural spheres, this veteran celibate priest in black shirt and white clerical collar makes quite a sight leading an audience in chanting "Hari Ommmm."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Pereira talked about Jesus as the "Supreme Yogi" in an interview. Only a yogi could say, "I and the Father are One," Pereira said. To the Catholic priest, yoga is ultimately a route to total surrender to, or unity, with God.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Like a yogi, Pereira says, Jesus spent much time in private contemplation and prayer -- to free himself from bondage to fear and "illusion," such as addictive thoughts and desires.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Despite his long friendship with Mother Teresa, Pereira remembers decades ago how she became a little concerned and asked him, "Father Joe: What is this yoga you are teaching my nuns?"</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Pereira had offered yoga to the nuns because they were falling asleep during their prayers. Yoga was a way for religious people to stop their ceaseless "babbling" in prayer, liturgy and conversation. Yoga, he said, allows religious people to heed God's plea in the Bible to open their body and heart to the "indwelling spirit of God."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> In the early 1980s, receiving Mother Teresa's staunch support for the therapeutic powers of yoga, Pereira founded what is now India's largest non-governmental charitable health organization, Kripa (www.kripafoundation.org).</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Kripa has grown to 50 institutes throughout India. They are devoted to bringing yoga, spirituality, psychology and other practices to the healing of addicts and the treatment of those struggling with HIV-AIDS.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Kripa boasts a recovery rate for addicts of 65 per cent in the first year, 38 per cent over subsequent years -- figures Pereira says are much higher than those obtained through western treatment programs.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> "Yoga is all about accessing the wisdom of the body," Pereira says. Since Jesus taught that the human body "is a temple of God," the priest says Kripa's goal is to help the suffering realize they have "damaged their temple" and need to "love it back to health."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Since he began to learn yoga almost 40 years ago when he was a young priest undergoing a spiritual crisis and fighting his own addictive tendencies, Pereira describes himself as a "sexual celibate" who's learned through yoga not to deny his sexual energy.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Disowning the sex drive, he says, leads to priestly pedophilia and other dangerous "explosions."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Instead, endlessly energetic Pereira says yoga teaches him to "sublimate" his sexual energy and "use it for healthy living."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Despite his bold beliefs and actions, Pereira has managed to maintain strong backing for his work from key Catholic leaders in India, including Mumbai's Cardinal Ivan Dias, who was in 2006 appointed prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of People.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> The Catholic church has generally blessed Pereira's yoga work as as an example of "inculturation," a Vatican-endorsed practice that encourages priests to adapt regional customs and religious rituals into Catholicism. About two per cent of India's 1.1-billion population is Christian.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Regardless of his success at convincing most fellow Catholics to keep open minds about the spiritual and health benefits of yoga, Pereira says many "fundamentalists" and "charismatics" in the Catholic and Protestant churches in India remain appalled by his close ties with Iyengar and yoga.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> "There are still many barking dogs."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Not content with challenging traditional Christians to open to yoga, however, Father Joe also has a message for the secular West -- which he thinks is dominated by overly rationalistic, technical, left-brain-thinking people.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> "I don't want to judge people, but I think if you do yoga without spiritual language and perspective, it just turns into gymnastics, into body work."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Louie Ettling, owner of The Yoga Space, where Pereira led a three-day workshop for 55 people, has also studied in India with Iyengar and appreciates the way Father Joe was careful not to use Christian language in a way that might alienate his Vancouver students.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Since B.C. yoga practitioners come from a variety of spiritual and secular backgrounds, Ettling said, "Father Joe asked them to focus on that which would help them connect with their own understanding of the absolute."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Calling yoga a "spiritual practice" rather than a religion, Pereira believes it dovetails with Christianity and other faiths because it aims to access the spirit of God that resides in all people.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Hindus might call this spirit the Self, or atman, Pereira says. Like Christians who believe God is incarnate in people, Hindus similarly believe the Self is, at the mystical level, the same as God, or Brahman.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> The priest says it's only through deep relaxation, which comes through yoga, meditation and related spiritual practices, that humans can calm their anxious minds and open to the presence of God. His message seems perfectly suited for many Canadians, especially those on the spiritually eclectic West Coast.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> Near the end of an evening lecture in Vancouver on Christian meditation, organized by Catholic lay person Colleen Donald, Father Joe was asked to offer some Biblical verses that could help meditators and yoga practitioners "open their bodies to God."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> He answered by raising up some of what he called the Bible's "yogic verses," which focus on the paradoxical need to forget your ego to find your true Self. One of them was from Psalm 46:</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-family: arial, verdana, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; line-height: 22px; width: auto;"> "Be still and know that I am God."</div> </div>

Be still and know that I am God.

With its elegant, aging cathedrals spread out across the countryside, Roman Cathollcism is Canada's largest official religion. Bu...

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There was a woman in a therapy group I was conducting once.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">  She was a religious sister. She said to me, "I don't feel supported by my superior." So I said, "What do you mean by that?" And she said, "Well, my superior, the provincial superior, never shows up at the novitiate where I am in charge, never. She never says a word of appreciation." I said to her, "All right let's do a little role playing. Pretend I know your provincial superior. In fact, pretend I know exactly what she thinks about you. So I say to you (acting the part of the provincial superior), 'You know, Mary, the reason I don't come to that place you're in is because it is the one place in the province that is trouble-free, no problems. I know you're in charge, so all is well.' How do you feel now?" She said, "I feel great." Then I said to her, "All right, would you mind leaving the room for a minute or two? This is part of the exercise." So she did. While she was away, I said to the others in the therapy group, "I am still the provincial superior, O.K.? Mary out there is the worst novice director I have ever had in the whole history of the province. In fact, the reason I don't go to the novitiate is because I can't bear to see what she is up to. It's simply awful. But if I tell her the truth, it's only going to make those novices suffer all the more. We are getting somebody to take her place in a year or two; we are training someone. In the meantime I thought I would say those nice things to her to keep her going. What do you think of that?" They answered, "Well, it was really the only thing you could do under the circumstances." Then I brought Mary back into the group and asked her if she still felt great. "Oh yes," she said. Poor Mary! She thought she was being supported when she wasn't. The point is that most of what we feel and think we conjure up for ourselves in our heads, including this business of being helped by people.<br /> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2012/12/people-don-really-want-to-grow-up.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_43_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2012/12/people-don-really-want-to-grow-up.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">: People don't really want to grow up, people don't really want to change, people don't really want to be happy</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/twelve-step-programs-one-to-one-and.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_86_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/twelve-step-programs-one-to-one-and.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twelve step programs, one to one and group therapy help to restore connection with others.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/treatment-and-therapy-jabber-new-lingo.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_108_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/treatment-and-therapy-jabber-new-lingo.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Treatment and Therapy Jabber a new psychobabble that crept onto the Twelve Step scene</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-big-part-of-aas-effectiveness-may.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_58_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-big-part-of-aas-effectiveness-may.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">A big part of AA's effectiveness may have nothing to do with the actual steps.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/there-is-no-question-that-people-who.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_37_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/06/there-is-no-question-that-people-who.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">There is no question that people who regularly attend support group meetings and "work the program" are more likely to recover and less likely to relapse.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/focus-on-working-12-steps-it-is-very.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_59_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/focus-on-working-12-steps-it-is-very.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">focus on working the 12 Steps, it is a very behaviorally oriented process.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/recovering-alcoholics-addicts-adult.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_83_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/recovering-alcoholics-addicts-adult.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Recovering alcoholics, addicts, adult children of alcoholics and co-dependents are especially susceptible to joining cults or sects.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-sexual-addiction-escalates.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_24_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-sexual-addiction-escalates.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">How Sexual Addiction Escalates</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"> <a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=0c360bcd-8ad6-4506-a3b5-0de63b983721" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div> </div>

There was a woman in a therapy group I was conducting once.

 She was a religious sister. She said to me, "I don't feel supported by my superior." So I said, "What do you mean by th...

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everything turning into good for those who love God

<p>Remember that sentence from scripture about everything turning into good for those who love God? When you finally awake, you don't try to make good things happen; they just happen. You understand suddenly that everything that happens to you is good. Think of some people you're living with whom you want to change. You find them moody, inconsiderate, unreliable, treacherous, or whatever. But when you are different, they'll be different. That's an infallible and miraculous cure. The day you are different, they will become different. And you will see them differently, too. Someone who seemed terrifying will now seem frightened. Someone who seemed rude will seem frightened. All of a sudden, no one has the power to hurt you anymore. No one has the power to put pressure on you. It's something like this: You leave a book on the table and I pick it up and say, "You're pressing this book on me. I have to pick it up or not pick it up." People are so busy accusing everyone else, blaming everyone else, blaming life, blaming society, blaming their neighbor. You'll never change that way; you'll continue in your nightmare, you'll never wake up. </p>

everything turning into good for those who love God

Remember that sentence from scripture about everything turning into good for those who love God? When you finally awake, you don't try t...

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Most people, Anthony de Mello maintained, are asleep.

<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MzBFT5V5nag/VhmBkhJM0TI/AAAAAAAAUDU/i1dlywlg15M/s1600/1-S14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MzBFT5V5nag/VhmBkhJM0TI/AAAAAAAAUDU/i1dlywlg15M/s320/1-S14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> They need to wake up, open up their eyes, see what is real, both inside and outside of themselves. The greatest human gift is to be aware, to be in touch with oneself, one's body, mind, feelings, thoughts, sensations.</span>

Most people, Anthony de Mello maintained, are asleep.

They need to wake up, open up their eyes, see what is real, both inside and outside of themselves. The greatest human gift is to be aware...

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When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="zemanta-img" style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/96466040@N00/2183544905" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt=""Science Friday" Recommendations" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="120" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2318/2183544905_8b5a71c268_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="200" /></a></div> The master made it his task to systematically destroy every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which were originally intended as pointers, were now taken as descriptions.<br /> He loved to quote the Eastern saying: "When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger."<br /> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/when-sage-points-to-moon-all-that-idiot.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_12_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/when-sage-points-to-moon-all-that-idiot.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">When the sage points to the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/time-is-needed-for-crescent-moon-to.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_41_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/time-is-needed-for-crescent-moon-to.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/meditation-is-word-that-has-come-to-be.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_86_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/meditation-is-word-that-has-come-to-be.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Meditation is a word that has come to be used loosely and inaccurately in the modern world.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/we-lose-our-capacity-to-love-if-you.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_120_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/we-lose-our-capacity-to-love-if-you.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">We lose our capacity to love. If you wish to love, you must learn to see again.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-forty-rules-of-love-by-elif-shafak.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/161950008_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-forty-rules-of-love-by-elif-shafak.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-way-world-is.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/163513857_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-way-world-is.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Way the World Is</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"> <a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=78c84843-4a6e-438c-8a82-3550d92f3efb" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div> </div>

When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.

The master made it his task to systematically destroy every doctrine, every belief, every concept of the divine, for these things, which ...

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Happiness is our natural state.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-osdxqo4Knlk/VhmB2m-AvuI/AAAAAAAAUDc/FJtQvzE14Us/s1600/1-HT_GreyWoman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-osdxqo4Knlk/VhmB2m-AvuI/AAAAAAAAUDc/FJtQvzE14Us/s320/1-HT_GreyWoman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture.<br /><br />To acquire happiness you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions.</span>

Happiness is our natural state.

Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been pollut...

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Happiness is not something you acquire

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OLUYYg-bOME/VhmA2SxtoZI/AAAAAAAAUDI/WDlru5J5WTA/s1600/1-Different%2BWallpaper%2B20013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OLUYYg-bOME/VhmA2SxtoZI/AAAAAAAAUDI/WDlru5J5WTA/s320/1-Different%2BWallpaper%2B20013.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><br /><br />"Happiness is not something you acquire; love is not something you produce; love is not something you have; love is something that has you." Anthony de Mello</span>

Happiness is not something you acquire

"Happiness is not something you acquire; love is not something you produce; love is not something you have; love is something that ha...

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