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Browse published articles attributed to David Samuel, with full-archive search.
Asking for the truth is the ultimate question but first we have to know how to know it. The way is through direct experience by our objective observation of our self.
Many people think that humanity is reaching a higher spiritual level than ever before. I think those people have not been to the historical sites and probably lived through TV and the internet. Certainly there are many things on the internet which simply based on volume and dissemination of information would justify that claim, but I disagree. The reaso I say that they have lived their life on TV is because a personal visit to the ancient sites will clearly show we are going backward. Watching a show or reading a book is simply not the same as being there.
There is a nice story of two old friends, one who never married. His friend asked one day, why he never found a wife. John said that he did look, but there was always something. One woman just could not cook well, another was too selfish, another was not a good homemaker. On and on he went about all the different problems that he found with each one. “Then one day”, John said, “I found the perfect woman.
Many people in Western countries have a very comfortable life with all the necessities that anyone can ask for, yet they are unfulfilled and dissatisfied. The normal course of action is to find a new job or relationship. It does not take long until another change is required since that is not the real problem. I am currently on a journey through South East Asia to research ways and places in which people can find a sense of purpose in their life to help ease this trouble and avoid unnecessary employment turmoil and relationship break-ups.
Let me tell you what frustrates me. The frustration comes from my own limitation to help people in a certain position, I simply do not know how to get this type of person past the point they are stuck at. This is not to say I do not know how to fix the problem, because I have a pretty good idea, but it is how to get people to take this bitter medicine that I am stuck.
Everything we are, meaning our reactions to situations, thoughts and emotions, is all based on our memories. Many of our pains and pleasures are felt when we think about, or associate the current moment, to an event that happened in the past, thus a memory.
Intuition is basically information about what is going to happen, which has nothing to do with what you want to happen in your life or at the moment. What blocks you from hearing the voice of perfect intuition is your ego and your desires. If you are trying to hear your intuition, but you have a desire for things to go a certain way, then you will never know if the thoughts in your head are from pure intuition or your own wishful thinking.
Many people are looking for a spiritual teacher, an enlightened being who can help them progress in their spiritual growth or path to enlightenment. Some jump from one teacher to another being perpetually dissatisfied, or maybe they find one teacher they like and stay there for the rest of their lives.
In my business career as well as with with my clients and students, I have developed a firm belief that our business success is 10% skill and 90% who we are, the quality of our character.
Right and wrong are a matter of personal opinion, this is the definition of morals. Your morals define what is right or wrong for you. If you do things you feel are wrong, but then convince yourself it is acceptable or divert your attention from feeling what you did is wrong, that takes energy and builds guilt.
Spiritual growth relies, in my opinion after decades of self work and study along with meeting many remarkable and unremarkable people, on the cultivation of your morals, personality and character. A strong character with correct standards and morals is the first prerequisite step a normal person must take towards spiritual growth to attain bliss and balance. To develop this requires many steps as all things of value do, the first being to eliminate negative emotions. Negative emotions include aggressive as well as passive traits from anger to guilt.
The past years have taken a trend in the concept that by changing the words, we can actually change the situation. This is clearly impossible, but yet it does work. I would like to explore how the impossible works. If there is a problem, no matter what you call it, or even if you ignore it, the objective reality of the situation is the same. If you get in the car and it does not start, calling it a problem or a disaster or a situation or an event will not make the car start.
The most attractive is of course enlightenment, spiritual realization, self-knowledge or anything in that direction. Promise of this draws many people, and although it would be wonderful to have a large following, I will not claim to have achieved or promise something I cannot deliver. What I can promise, and something I do have, is emotional freedom. The Sufi and the Kaballists say; "Freedom is not being conce ed with what anyone thinks or says about you."
I am in Cambodia now, the town of Siem Reap and am amazed at how many charity foundations there are in this town, three hundred NGO's (non-gove mental associations), one everywhere you look. I have visited with several projects so far and learnt about a very interesting problem.
Depression, which is partly anger at ourselves, is self-destructive and drains our energy to the point that it is sometimes difficult to function even minimally. Depression is an illness of will, which becomes diseased, making a person incapable of persevering in many pursuits. People always tell a depressed person to get control and stop wallowing in self-pity, but this is like telling a kindergarten child to solve a nuclear physics problem. There are many types of depression with a variety of causes.
There is a difference between ones character and abilities and ones self. The skills are temporary, they die with the body, ones self continues. When we compare our skills and personal growth to each other in the process of our self-improvement, we have superiority and inferiority. That is where we get lost in ego. Ego separates us from our true knowledge of what we really are.
I have found that there is a repeating theme, things that are reliant on something out of my control and must be done by a certain deadline, get done just in time.
Every machine has natural limitations, its individual capacity. When it is stretched beyond its capacity, it will be stressed. Please bear in mind for this talk that the word Stress is meant like stretched to its maximum. No machine exists that is a whole unit. All machines are a sum of parts. A machine does not get stressed, it is the parts that get stressed. Some parts get stressed in certain situations in which other parts remain within their limitations.
There are many paths to spiritual and worldly freedom. Every person can choose a path that suits them, and many work equally well. We can choose Zen, Kabbalah or Sufi for example which are very different paths but all lead to the same end. Some paths take a person further and quicker than others in the same time frame, but to choose a path that is not suitable to your character will be a disappointing waste of your life. If you buy a house that is more than you can afford and take a big mortgage, then cannot pay the mortgage each month, you will lose the house and the money you put in.
Negative is really positive. Accept what is and you will never be disappointed or fail. Generalities are the rule, we must play by the rules. Humans are unreliable. Know this and they are without failure, and you will be without failure. Everything is destined to fail and be destroyed, this is nature, the law of growth and decay.
Buddha said that life is suffering and that the cause of suffering is desire. That is a very clear and obvious truth. If I desire something, that means I do not have it, and if I want or need something that I do not have, that craving for it does imply suffering to some degree. Maybe it is a thought about a new iPhone that it would be nice to have but you do not need. Regardless, that desire will occupy your mind and anything that occupies your mind means you are not present in the moment, you are thinking of the object of desire.
There is a great power in the concept of the law of attraction, which has also been expressed in terms such as ‘magnetic centre’, ‘attractive force’, ‘the power of the mind’, and many others. The danger of the modern concept of the law of attraction (loa) is that it professes that you have incredible power, even that of God. You can bring anything to you, make anything happen, the world, and even the universe, will bend and bow to your desires.
If this were my last day alive and I was asked what I discovered in a lifetime of searching for Truth, I would have to say that the Beatles were correct, all you need is love.
The following are some examples which a reader presented from his life. Reader: 1.) During school days, many times I was home in the evening and thinking of some girl or boy from my class and tha I went out to the market and would see them there. This used to make me wonder how did they come to the market, but I used to think, that since I went to the market where lots of people come to do shopping so it's not strange to see them there as those markets sell everything so people always come there. But now I think why didn’t I meet other friends whom I was not thinking about.
For a bike wheel to roll smoothly, all the spokes must be strong and well connected. They connect to the hub. The hub is the central point of the wheel and connects to the axel. As I discovered by my own experience, when one spoke out of the 20 on my bike wheel broke, the whole wheel was wobbly and I could not ride safely.
This article is a gamble. When you read it, maybe you will identify with what is written, or think I am a fool. I have written this for a purpose and I am willing to take that risk. All I ask is that if the subject interests you, then please read the whole article so you hear the full thoughts and not just one side of an example.
Sincerity is the word. It is the power behind all success in personal refinement. Pure thought is the power to command. Thought is made impure by fears, falsity, distractions, false desires, false personality, fragmentation, identification and so on. Sincerity is pure thought. But what is sincere thought? Impeccable action. Being who you are, not who you think you are. To be sincere requires personal freedom. One must be free to be sincere. True sincerity is like freedom, it has no ego fear of being hurt.
There is no character trait or condition that affects one human that does not affect every human. It is just a matter of degree. The preceding statement must be part of every sincere persons wish to improve oneself. One of the greatest confusions about humans is their love for pain. Either self inflicted or inflicted upon others. Even if you may consider this statement completely foreign to your character, have you ever laughed or enjoyed a movie in which people are getting killed or hurt? Perhaps sports in which there is some form of violence or aggressive component?
When you go to the restaurant, you go with an empty stomach. They give you food, you give them money. There is the emptiness, which is filled, and then what is given gets something in return, money for food. When a child is born, it is empty and helpless. The parents give it food, shelter, and as it grows up, education along with the necessities of life. The expectation is that when the child is an adult, it will give back to the parent.
This subject is very tricky to understand, it is simple, yet difficult to grasp because it is so simple. For this reason, there will be many discussions about it in different ways for you to have the variety of concepts that one may reach your understanding. Although there will be many lessons on the same topic, they may be seen as parts of one long lesson, but in truth, you could grasp the concept from not only any single lesson, but even from one line of one lesson.
The Sufis say that the way to find God is either through a living teacher or, failing that, is through acceptance. Acceptance of all things that come to you without judging them. The way of accepting all things without complaining or feeling bad is to know that the reason these difficulties exist is so that you can be offered the opportunity to accept what is coming to you without your ego determining good or bad. It is training you in endurance, which is self will, inner strength, or, will power.
When we are young we ask the question of why am I here. This is normal for most people. Some have stopped asking and forgot they asked at all, and others still ask no matter how old they are. We look for an answer, ask our parents, teachers, anyone, but do not find anyone who can give a reasonable answer. We eventually shut the door to that question because it becomes too painful or frustrating to have it on our mind knowing that we most likely will never get a good answer. We know innately that there is more to life.
Many people are hindered by procrastination, and have no idea why they do it. There doesn’t seem to be any logic or reason as to the cause of putting things off, but it is almost impossible to get the simplest task done. My theory is that the problem lies in the aspiration of perceived perfection. How many people are actually fully content with being themselves compared to those who aspire to be like someone else?
The quality of your actions and the results are relative to the level of awareness that we possess. A strong character is the foundation and roots that hold up the massive structure of a complete human being. "Character is Destiny" Heraclitus, Pre-Socratic philosopher These character traits are the foundation of a successful business, personal and spiritual life. This is far from a complete list, however it is plenty to work with and will lead you to discover what else you must do. Responsibility.
If I treated Paul with great kindness and generosity, he would praise me at my funeral as being the most wonderful man who ever lived. But if I also treated John with cruelty and cheated him every chance I could, he would have only terrible things to say. The two would argue bitterly defending their position about what type of person I really was. Both would be right.
Stress and Conflict Every machine has natural limitations, its individual capacity. When it is stretched beyond its capacity, it will be stressed. No machine exists that is a singularly whole unit, all machines are merely a sum of parts. And so we can more accurately say that the machine does not get stressed, it is the parts that get stressed.
In the search for success, love or spiritual growth, everyone wants some new and exciting ‘tools’ or ‘method’, the magic pill. The problem is that success is not made in magic pill form, it comes from long hard work, and people are not interested in that. What constitutes ‘hard work’ is not necessarily physical labour, it is even harder to see your self and conquer your bad habits and weaknesses. Humans by nature are lazy, not only in a bad way, but as well, perhaps the original point of it, in a good way. Laziness is fueled by a desire for efficiency.
If the soul, your essence, is the smallest little dot of your being and is covered by layers of ego personality and there are layers for each experience of your life, how can you ever find it? Each layer is another illusion. Illusions are how we have interpreted situations and developed certain characteristics and because of that, we create an infinite number of layers to our personality, as each illusion creates another layer by causing another misinterpreted experience. Then there is the body and the body has more psychological layers due to its physical injuries.
I can tell you your block of finding happiness, but you will not understand. This is normal, and why it is the greatest stumbling block for a seeker of truth. Truth of the Universe and truth of oneself.r
The fact is that you pay for everything, every breath has a cost. When you receive something, anything, you pay for it in some way. If you don’t pay now, you will pay later, or you may have paid in advance. Self development cannot happen if you deny or ignore the reality that everything has a cost, and if we do not pay in some way, we will not get the value we could have.
Many people are focused on finding their true purpose. They spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to find their true purpose, but never get it no matter what methods they try.
Everything that comes and goes in your life is due to one thing that people give different names, chance, luck, destiny, God, or nature. The nature of the world is what it is. For example, using average people, the nature of a thief is to steal, the nature of an honest person is to be trusting. Nature rules that when a thief and an honest person meet in the right circumstances, the thief will steal and the honest person will lose. That is just nature. This has nothing to do with god or any angel or any being, or any amount of thought and thinking and creating. Nature rules.
There is a big difference between sincere gratitude and profusely saying thank you. The difference is sincerity, and that affects how the giver feels about giving to you in the future. When you sincerely feel gratitude, then one thank you is enough, even a smile will do, but if you do not have that sincerity, the more you say thank you, the worse it appears.
It is a common phenomena that people working with the law of attraction and positive thoughts towards a goal will receive many opportunities, but often, they never materialize. This leads to confusion and eventually dropping of the faith and efforts along with giving up hope. I have spent many years studying this problem and would now like to explain it and tell you how to correct it. The problem is in lying. Specifically self-lying. When you meet someone and they are lying to you, you may or may not know it.
It is clear that an accepted belief these days is that all is love. That all things exist because of love. In Sufism, we say that God is love and out of God’s love all things have come into being. So nothing exists save love. It is also commonly accepted that very few people know true love and what love really is, never mind have or share it. And this is the cause of much anguish. Also, it is common that people are unfulfilled in life, regardless of their belief about love, having it or not, or its permeating existence in all things.
There is a great danger in the whole idea that thoughts are things and we create what we think. This danger is to people who do not fully understand what that principle means, how it works, and how it can be confused with guidance and intuition. That danger lies in the ego which thinks it knows something it does not. I have noticed far too many instances in my life, and in other people’s lives, were guidance has come to mind and has been rejected as negative thoughts.
If you run from it, how will you ever attain it. If the world is a form manifested by God and, if we run from the world, then how can we find God? You must get to know the world, and you know the world by knowing your self. You know yourself by observing yourself. In your objective observation of your feelings, desires and experiences, you discover what is true and what is false. What is false is what you have learnt and accepted as real and permanent when it is only acquired and temporary. What can be changed is not real.
For those of you who know me and my views on ‘weekend enlightenment workshops’ you will be appropriately shocked by the title of this article, and even more shocked to know that I believe this to be true. The three minutes are spent in reading this article, which if understood, will in fact deliver on its promise, virtually instant elimination of anger and other associated negative emotions. After decades of study and exploration, and having met thousands of people who have followed the ‘instant magic to enlightenment and fixing all your problems in a day workshop’ with none having ever
How to Experience of Pure Contentment I shall here describe what I have attained and how I attained it. I hope to continue my progress as I know there is still so much further to go. It is my sincere wish that you will attain what I have, and surpass this level as well. Many paragraphs contain different teachings, if you can understand what the teaching is and digest it, you would be free. This is what the masters of the past taught, it is not my creation, nor is it theirs, it simply is how it is. Each teacher has said it in a different way, as I will now put it in my own words.
Misery or good things, almost every thing that happens to you, other than some exceptions, has happened due to your own decision at one point in time. You made a decision and that sent a chain of events in progress until what you are currently dealing with happened. Likewise, your innocent or assumed irrelevant decisions today will deliver certain results in your future. Even if you decide to turn left or right on a path, which route to take to your destination if you have a choice will determine the arrival time, early or late, alters who you may meet on the way.