The Path to Freedom- an excerpt

Chapter one- Dreams Can Be Your Reality

What if dreaming the impossible dream enough times began to make the impossible possible? This book will re-establish the art of dreaming without limits into your everyday regimen, and you will once again see the world as a place of infinite possibilities. Upon completion of this book, you will be armed with tools to change the way you think, feel, see, and experience your world. Get prepared to have your entire life experience change. Veils will be lifted, and a whole new world will be revealed. This is the world as you were truly intended to see it.

The Good Student

To open up to new concepts, ideas, and thought processes, a commitment to being a good student is necessary. A closed mind cannot possibly take in new information. There is a Buddhist parable where a disciple says to his master, “Master, I have read every book on Zen and studied with many different teachers, yet I still can’t seem to get there myself. Can you please tell me how?” Instead of answering, the master asks the disciple to hand him the empty glass and picks up a pitcher filled with water, and begins to pour the water in the glass. The master continues pouring until the glass overflows with water, and yet he still pours on. The disciple, very disturbed, exclaims, “Master, the glass is full! Why do you keep pouring water?” The master puts down the pitcher and responds, “My son, this is what you are asking me to do: place more into a mind that is already full. You must first empty your mind. Then you will find Zen.”

Before embarking on the grand new venture this book is presenting, try to empty your mind and create a beautiful pasture rich with nourishing soil ready for the seeds of new intentions and affirmative ways of thinking to be planted. Let the mind be an open and expansive space where the light can shine and bountiful fruits can sprout. With a willingness to learn and an open mind to receive new concepts and ideas, this book can and will change your life.

To maximize the benefits of this book, take time to ponder these next few questions. Write your answers in a notebook and keep this notebook by your side to use for the worksheets at the end of the chapters.

Ask Yourself…

• Are you really ready to have abundance, happiness, and joy?
• Are you really ready to prosper in all areas of your life?
• Are you really available and willing to receive all that you desire?

 As you read on, keep in mind the answers you wrote down and watch your world miraculously change as you rediscover the power that you had all along.

Chapter two- The Power of Intention

“In the universe, there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.”  Carlos Castaneda 

 What is the power of intention? Simply stated, the power of intention is the mastery of manifestation in the material world. Why is it important? You are an evolving being—energy that has chosen a form to reflect the type of experience it needs to learn, grow, and evolve. The you or self that does not change with external circumstances, the you that just is—otherwise known as the I Am or soul—is thousands of years old and has worn many different cloaks. It chose to remove itself from the infinite, boundless state to this very limited, constrained human existence just so it could experience contrast. Contrast births desire and becomes the driving force toward evolution. The soul in its natural state doesn’t need to search for joy, because it knows it is joy.

Why have we lost touch with our divinity, and in so doing, lost our ability to know real joy? When the soul took human form, it chose to live in a lucid dream with a very specific purpose. Each one of us is a piece of the whole with a divine mission that is only true to us. We must fulfill this purpose and see the fulfillment in the external world. Aligning with your souls purpose is so important on the path to freedom because your soul has already seen your future and is not limited by your current circumstances.

How do you find this connection? Close your eyes to the outside world. This will open your inner eye, creating an opportunity to tune into your soul and reveal your truth. By tapping into the infinite knowledge of the divine you will be guided to realign with your true nature. This union will help you remember how to tap into the power of creation that lies within you. Once you remember, you will be able to create any life that you can imagine and believe is possible.

Imagine that you are a limitless being that is free of all constraints and you have chosen to stuff yourself into this tiny, physical body. The contrast would compel you to desire freedom. What if freedom is simply turning your attention away from the limitations of the mind and opening up to the infinite nature of your soul? I am not saying that you must become something new or find something outside of yourself. I am asking you to remember who you really are and what you are here to do.

Yoga was a big part of my remembering. When I first came to the yoga mat twenty-three years ago I was lucky to have a teacher who had reverence for the sacredness of the practice. She would say “although your physical body will see results like; strength and healing, this is not the goal. The goal of yoga is liberate the soul.”

Yoga is a moving meditation intended to reunite the mind and body. Once the practitioner has become masterful at this he/she can start the reunion with the soul. The great Vedic sage Anais Nin said it well with, “We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.” So, it is important to look at the Self.

Yoga began in India as a spiritual practice and because there were many different religions, many different types of yoga emerged. Tied into the yogic traditions from the Hindu religion were deities. Used as archetypes, these deities through focus and intention can release old programming. Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, referred to these archetypes as a primitive, mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, that is present in the collective unconscious. The activation of an archetype releases its patterning forces that allow us to become more of what we already are destined to be.

On my journey towards healing, I found myself diving into these myths. I would allow my subconscious mind to digest their symbolism in a way that my conscious mind with its limitations, was not capable of. One of these myths featured Lord Hanuman—a monkey headed deity who was born with limitless strength and ability. He is the deity that embodies courage, will, strength and devotion. I found his story when I had found myself in one of those situations where I was staying in a toxic relationship because it was easier than leaving. I needed to find my power, strength and courage.

“O monkey, disillusioned by our curse, you will for a long time be unaware of your own strength.” This was what was said to Lord Hanuman, just before he lost his superpowers. In the myth, it is said that “the power of the words of the great sages, left Lord Hanuman deprived of his strength.” However, there was no magic. His powers weren’t really taken from him. He was just put into a trance where he forgot he had ever had them. Knowing that Lord Hanuman was born for a reason, the Rishis knew if he forgot all his powers, then the reason for which he was born would not be fulfilled. So, they said that in time of need, if someone reminded him that he has powers, they will return.

Do you think it is possible if, like Lord Hanuman, you have fallen into a trance and forgotten your powers? What if you have been limited by the great sages in your life who have cast a spell when they told you, “be careful, slow down or you will get hurt.”

You see in the myth of Lord Hanuman he was born of the wind and given limitless powers. If he could dream it he could do it. But, he was mischievous and curious like most children. His constant disruptions while the holy men and Rishis were trying to perform their rituals got to be too much. He would playfully put out their fires. When he mistook the red, rising sun for a giant berry in the sky and tried to eat it, the rishis had enough and placed the curse.

I think of this story in relation to your ability to create the life you desire through the use of intention. Which involves harnessing the full power of your mind. This is a bit like attempting to harness the wind. However once you master your mind, you might just discover that you can fly. There is a part of you that knows your truly limitless power. This book will help you remember. As a child you spent hours daydreaming and imagining—anything seemed possible. Then the spell was cast. In an effort to keep you safe and away from mischief, your parents, teachers and loved ones all reaffirmed that you are powerless and at the mercy of life. Live in fear and you just might make it, they would say.

You have been drawn to this book because you are ready to free yourself. As you read through these pages you will be asked to choose a life on purpose with a limitless well of passion and enthusiasm. I intend to wake you from your disillusionment and give you back your power. By simply following this guide you will find yourself waking up every day excited for the adventure that awaits you. You will once again return to your childlike nature, filled with wonderment. You will begin to see miracles unfolding around you in every moment and you will find yourself connected to your community while, living in service to the whole of humanity. You will begin to derive joy from the sheer satisfaction of aligning with your true nature. This book is intended as a guide and by the end I hope to have revealed to you your unique purpose and gifts as well as instructions on how you can start revealing them right now!

Start by saying to yourself “I am special and unique and I have a purpose that the world is depending on me to fulfill.” Then ask yourself, what makes you unique? As a child what did all of your teachers say about you? What was different about you than the other children? Were you always helping others? Did you love to read? What were our unique interests?

The world is waiting for you! You have a divine mission a purpose that is only true to you. You must fulfill this purpose and see the fulfillment in the external world. Merely stepping onto the path and following your true nature will be rewarded with realizations that will take away fear and fill you with love. You will rediscover the power you had all along to create with intention. This power is without limits as long as it is used to fulfill your purpose.

If we are capable of creating our lives through the power of intention then why would we ever have an experience we deem as bad?

Even as you master intention and start deciding everyday what you want to create as your life, you will find yourself encountering contrast. The contrast has a very special purpose. We cannot know what we want or who we really are without first experiencing the opposite. In this world of contrast, you can use emotions as an EGS (Emotional Guidance System) to navigate through this terrain towards evolution, while learning through contrast. It is a very simplistic system when you break it down. Basically, it is sometimes necessary to experience something you deem negative in order to clarify what you really want. For example, consider a person who isn’t sure they are ready for a committed relationship, so they pursue someone who is equally uncommitted—perhaps someone who is already in a relationship or lives in a different state. Difficulties that arise from this sort of challenge might compel this person to change their wish to someone who is available; experiencing contrast clears the mind and allows it to move forward with new perspective. Simply thinking about what you want is the largest ingredient in the recipe of manifestation, and experiencing what you don’t want is often a strong enough catalyst to introduce contrasting thoughts into your life.

What is the soul?

The aspect of you that chose to be born into this world is pure and divine. In other words, it is made of the most divine energy known to man—love. This means at your very core, the part of you that is made of divinity and can never die is love, and it came from an even bigger love. The universe and the entire cosmos are one big love, and you are a piece of it—as am I. Since love is the universe and you were born of love, you hold within you the ability to access the infinite through love. Harnessing the power of love and using it to evolve your soul towards boundless joy—a literal heaven on earth—starts with mastering intention.

Love is your natural state. When you are in alignment with intention and on your path, flowing with the ease of life and fulfilling your purpose you will feel peace, ease, happiness and love. The EGS is there to show you when you are not aligned. If you are experiencing anger, guilt, frustration, sadness or pain you have momentarily stepped off your path. This is a time to sit with yourself, nurture yourself, love yourself until you can get back to peace again.

Consider for a moment that like Hanuman, you have superpowers that are only limited by the reach of your mind. Your abilities are only limited by your ability to conceive and believe with complete, undeniable faith in whatever it is you wish to create.

Your soul knows the infinite and has access to the secrets that can unlock your superpowers. It has chosen your body as the vessel it is using to move through contrast and experience for the sake of its own evolution. Your body is just your soul’s vehicle, designed with absolute specifications to navigate through this reality and complete its unique purpose. On the path toward the evolution of your soul the first step is intention. It is a critical element in this mastery because it has the ability to transform energy. Einstein says that energy cannot be created or destroyed; only transformed. Everything in this world is energy; therefore, the power of creation relies on intention.

You are waking up to the idea that there may be more to your own experience than what you have been allowing yourself to be, see, and know, and that is why this book has found its way to you. You have already had a glimpse of the infinite power that is within you, and you have been guided to this book in an effort to unleash the power that you already have to create the life that you desire and dream of. You are ready to stop just getting by and start living a life of joy, happiness, and service that is abundant without limits, and it starts with intention.

One of the reasons that very few can actually harness the power of intention is because to understand it, you have to first be prepared to take ownership of your life. This means becoming conscious of a force that has always been at work even without your knowing, a force that takes your thoughts and turns them into actions that ultimately become reality. You have to look at your life in its entirety, and to gain access to the secret power of intention, you must accept that you have created all of it—the good and the bad. You must decide that intention has always been there, working to deliver to you what you are focusing on even when you weren’t conscious of your thoughts or intentions. You must see that you have made a series of choices that have landed you in the life you are experiencing now, and the moment you recognize that, you must choose to stop reacting to the external experiences and start to become more aware of your internal experience (Emotional Guidance System). Find joy from within and intend your external experience to align with your internal experience.

From the moment of your conception, you have been accessing the power of intention. Creation through your intention isn’t a choice or something you can turn on or off. It is always happening, no matter what. From the moment you wake up, you are accessing intention through your thoughts, and thus creating your experiences each day. Most of us are on auto-pilot, waking up with the same thoughts day after day and creating the same experience with slight variations.

Your actions, thoughts, words, and choices have ultimately led you right where you are standing. You are already creating your life in every moment through the thoughts, words, and actions you are choosing. Although you are choosing these thoughts, words, and actions with the conscious mind, our choices are often being guiding by the beliefs driven by fear buried in our subconscious mind. The easiest way to know if your choices are driven by fear or being divinely guided is to check and see if you ever place the words “have to” or “should” in front of your decisions. Either of those words would indicate your intentions are being guided by fear.

Fear is born of the ego, and is the opposite of love. It takes the soul, which is expansive and limitless, and places limitations and restrictions on it. The soul, which is here for the sake of expansion and evolution, begins to feel stifled and suffocated, and the physical body often starts to take on these same sensations. This can manifest as depression or anxiety.

Setting intentions for the outcome of any situation—long term or short term—is how you take ownership of your life and free your spirit from the confines of fear. Setting intentions means that you have control over your own destiny and that you create your reality. By being intentional with your thoughts, actions, and words, you can shift from a mere passenger in your life to being the driver. Most of us have the belief that life happens to us—this is only true to an extent. When you set an intention, it focuses only on the outcome, but it does not fill in the pieces of how you will arrive there. The beauty is that you don’t have to know the how. You can leave the how up to the universal mind, which has a far broader scope of solutions than your limited experience will allow.

To understand intention, you must understand attention. How often do we tell children to pay attention? Think about the use of the word pay. We are inadvertently giving our attention a value—like currency. In fact, attention is one of the most valuable commodities we have. From the moment we are born attention is what we crave, good or bad. Even in an abusive situation, a child has a better chance of thriving someday than a child who suffered from neglect. What are you paying attention to? Once you have placed your attention on something, you have at that moment gathered all of the creative energy of the universe to that thing now all you need to do is ask yourself “why am I looking at it?

Notice where you tend to place your attention. Often times it is on the thing that is needing to be healed in some way. Your finances may have your attention because you can’t pay a bill or your body may be injured and your attention is on the discomfort. Once you have placed your attention on something to bring in your power to create, ask yourself, “what do I want? What is my intention or desired result?”

Think of holding a stick with both hands and imagine the stick being divided right down the middle. On the left side of the stick is that thing that has your attention. It is surrounded by fear, worry, discomfort, sadness, anger, grief or guilt. On the other side of the stick is what you want. It is surrounded by feelings of love, joy, peace, freedom, well-being etc. To utilize the power of intention and transform a situation that isn’t working into something that is, you have to give most, if not all, of your energy thoughts, words and actions to the side of the stick with what you want. You have to shift your attention from what you are experiencing by directing your thoughts, words, and actions to what you want as if it already is. Now imagine that stick as a magic wand willing to grant your wish all you have to do is state clearly what you want—this is using the power of intention to create.

Intentions are the secret of the masters—people who have conquered what seem to be impossible feats. If you intend to have something and stay true to that intention, it will be! To start being intentional, you must begin carefully guarding your thoughts, consistently keeping them in line with your intention. For example, you cannot intend to have a million dollars while consistently thinking, “I will never have a million dollars; I have nothing but bills everywhere!” You have to set the intention with blind faith that it will be, and leave the how up to the universe.

Let me fill you in on a little secret: rarely will you be able to see any link at all between your wishes or desires and your reality. Instead of looking for evidence that your wish is manifesting as your life, you will have to rely solely on imagination and creativity to pretend it into being. This is the opposite of what you are told as a small child. You were made to believe things like don’t spend it until you have it. Even as I write that I know you are reading it and feeling frustrated, because logic says, “Of course! How can I spend it until I have it to spend?” This is a very big catch. You have been programmed to look to the world to see how things are done. There are so many beliefs you have adopted without questioning them. When you see how your beliefs frame the way you see the world, you will start to…

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