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With this first post in over a year, I really just want to start at the very beginning with what my mentors and I call the Inside-Out Understanding. My grounding as a spiritual teacher and coach comes from this one understanding. The fundamental premise of this understanding is that our experience of life is 100% created within a Mind, and this Minds' natural state is Peace and Love.99.99% of people simply do not know or understand this. How could so many people not see something so essential? Well, In order to illustrate this, I'd like to invite you on a journey with me:
Imagine for a moment that you are a brand new member of the human race and on a planet completely foreign to you called Earth. As everybody does when they are new to being human, you want to try to learn as much as you can about how the human experience works so that you can make the best of your time here.
It doesn't take long before you discover the line where all of the other newcomers are shuffled. Apparently there is a rigorous orientation process that every new member must go through. Included in that are a large variety of classes all under the heading, "The School of Life". This is a required education designed to assist all human beings to learn everything they need to know about how to have a wonderful experience of life. The desk clerk explains to you that a wonderful life, is a life full of unimaginable peace and love and connection with everyone around you. Which, of course sounds amazing right? Well it gets even better, because the "School of Life" comes complete with a full and comprehensive user manual. A gigantic text that accompanies all of the classes you will eventually take.
Naturally, upon hearing this, you become very excited to begin your education. Soon you find yourself eagerly taking your seat in your very first class. Because you want this wonderful life so much, you pay very close attention and absorb everything you can that the teachers have to say.
The first thing you notice is that all of the classes have very strange sounding titles such as, "how to find the right mate, so they can give you love", "How to make enough money in order to feel permanently safe and secure", or "How to become physically attractive in order to experience self-esteem." The classes sound compelling and worthwhile, so you read every word of the very lengthy and complex course materials.
However, As you are busy studying and taking exams, something occurs to you as "odd" with the professors. None of them seem very happy themselves, at least not consistently. And your peers, who seem every bit as eager to learn as you; all seem to be experiencing more and more discontent. In fact you yourself seem less peaceful overall. A question begins to grow in your mind, "why do the classes seem to be having the opposite affect of what they are intended to do?" But, not one to ask too many questions, you push your curiosity to the background and continue on with your studies. Eventually, after a long time and a good deal of hard work, you earn a degree in what the humans call, The OUTSIDE-In Understanding. It's time to go create a wonderful life!
At this point, you start to suspect that something is very wrong here. For a moment you consider that maybe something is fundamentally wrong with you, but you look around and quickly(or not so quickly) discover that you are not alone in your fruitless search for peace and love. In fact, the world is full of people who are miserable a good portion of the time. And all of these people seem to be engaged in the exact same activities that you were taught to be the keys of happiness. And to top it all off, the people in the world who have actually achieved the golden standard of Circumstances, well they didn't seem all that peaceful and loving either.
Finally it occurs to you that maybe there is something wrong with the user manual itself. Maybe it is just incorrect somehow? Where did this thing actually come from anyway? Who wrote it? With these questions in mind, you decide to look into it.
Right away you discover that nobody has any clue as to the true source of the material, even though pretty much everyone has a theory. So, you set off on a journey to find some real answers. Little did you know, this would take you to every corner of the globe, and consume many years of your life. How could it be so hard to find the Truth!?
Finally, after decades of searching, you stumble upon an ancient library that is packed full of texts from a different age. So, you begin to pour over these ancient manuscripts, some thousands of years old. Eventually, you come across what seems to be the original user manual, covered in dust and heavily rotted, but still readable. To your horror, the title reads, "How to NOT have a wonderful life : The Outside-In Mis-Understanding."
It slowly begins to dawn on you that the sorrow and suffering of the world has all been a result of a simple mis-translation. You can't help but to break down into uncontrollable sobs. Your years of hard work and effort and endless searching, all wasted. The entire population was literally engaged in practices designed to create misery, thinking they would actually lead them to joy. It was the blind leading the blind.
But then, in your grief stricken state, the glimmer of another book catches your eye, this one even older than the first. As you pick it up and dust it off, you see that this title reads: "How To Have A Wonderful Life: The Inside-Out Understanding". As you slowly open it up with shaking hands, you realize there are only a few words scribbled on this ancient manuscript. "You ARE that which you are looking for!"
All of a sudden, a sense of deep and profound Peace washes over you, that you had not felt for a very very long time. And yet, you can't help but recognize, I am Home.
Love and Light,
Tyler