the 2nd chakra's color is yellow

I Am, I Feel, and NOW … I DO

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whatever you DO is the 3rd chakra energy directing you

As we continue exploring the raising-up of our consciousness using the yogic system of chakras to help us better understand who and what we are, we are now at the third chakra, known as the seat of our personal power. This is an energy center most humans (not in a coma) experience on a regular basis. The next chakra, the heart chakra, is where we start on our spiritual journey. Truly! Stay tuned for next post. (Sign up on my blog and receive each post via email.)

If any of you have ever been forced to do something absolutely aligned with, or totally against your will, you are familiar with that “good warm feeling” or the opposite, the aching discomfort in your midsection, close to your navel. Both reactions, opposing yes I know, are referred to as a “gut reaction” or a “feeling in my gut.”

A good reaction: Let’s say you’ve just met someone/thing who rings your bell. You feel this instantly in your gut. Sometimes the reaction almost knocks you backward. Have you ever felt it? This is your own intuition telling you that something is very right about this person (a dog, a cat?) you’re meeting. It could be a business contact, a romantic interest, but whatever it is, it’s someone/thing you’ll greatly benefit from spending some time with, learning more about them.

A bad reaction is the other kind of gut feeling, an uncomfortable ache, and sometimes it’s harsher, like a punch. This is a negative reaction to whatever you are facing. Maybe it’s a person, but it could be a job, a house you’re not supposed to buy, a type of food you’re not meant to eat. I hope you pay attention to these uncomfortable signs from your own inner knowing, as well as the more intriguing signs that make you want to know more.

Both reactions, good or bad, if those word judgements apply (better choice is interesting or not interesting) — they come from your 3rd chakra center of energy, located very close to your navel. But the sensation can come anywhere in your midsection. (See my earlier post if you want more detailed description).

Ghandi’s mantra was Ram Ram Ram. People who were there say this was the last thing he spoke as he lay dying from an assassin’s bullet. Ram is also the mantra for the 3rd chakra, where we are made to be aware of what our will is. In Ghandi’s case, I’m sure he worked hard to align his will to the highest good. Every time I repeat the mantra for the 3rd chakra, my intention is to gain insight into what is best, for not only myself, but for my fellow humans and the entire planet.

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We Are ONE … Act and Do for the world’s highest good, not just your own

Sometimes we have to change our thinking, or our habits, when we become aware of what’s best for the highest good, rather than seeking to satisfy our own. Sometimes our “gut reaction” is based on our limited view, not a universally encompassing one.

I pray for our world to face these challenging times we’re all going through these days, with compassion and open-mindedness for what is best for all of humankind. I think it’s easy for people to forget that. That we can pray for change, to feel better about our uncomfortability (how’s that for a word?). When our own personal will gets damaged by things not going our way, we insist our way is the only way. If our 3rd chakra is always in a state of distress, it’s time to ask our self:

Perhaps I need to look at the bigger picture. Perhaps what’s happening (either in my own life or in world events) might be for the highest good of all, even if I don’t like it. Transformation is a great sea change. Many people get extremely nervous when things don’t go their way.

Spend time with your own 3rdd chakra, ask yourself, “Am I comfortable with what’s happening?”

If you answer, “NO!” then it’s time to take some action. You have a choice, don’t forget. Always, you have choices. If you’re uncomfortable with things around you, your choice is to either practice ACCEPTING that what’s happening, is happening. Or … you can take steps to change it.

This, in essence, is why I am a writer and an artist. This also, is why most people do what they do. Because I have never been happy with the materialism and non-spirituality of modern society, in my youth, I ran away from it. I fled to the Third World and stayed living in jungles and sailing on the deep blue sea for over a decade. When I came back to mainstream America, I swore I would use my talents of arting (creating object- and word-stories) to help others become more familiar with the Oneness Consciousness that, to me, is what this existence, called “life” is all about. You may call that consciousness something else: Nature, God, Allah, Spirit, whatever. But Oneness works for me.

These days I focus on what I can DO to be more comfortable in a world torn apart by divisiveness and materialism. I don’t run away anymore. Today I feel just great, actually, that my focus is on DO-ing, and not feeling weird, mad, confused, or … worse … destructive. My energy used to be “stuck” in the 2nd chakra, feeling pissed-off. Now my energy feels free and powerful, utilizing the direction the 3rd chakra connection gives me.

I share my experiences in hopes that each and every person realizes that when you get “signals” from your gut, that’s your 3rd chakra telling you something. Pay attention. If you numb it (with drugs or alcohol, shopping, work, gambling, or other addictions) — you’ll probably just get sick, sooner or later. You certainly won’t be happy, that’s a fact. If you work on clearing this disturbed energy from your solar plexus (another name for the 3rd chakra) … you will enjoy peace, happiness, and good health. Align your will with the highest, Ram, Ram, Ram.

the 2nd chakra's color is yellow

the 3rd chakra’s color is yellow

Try it!

And please, let me know how your inner power feels today. Sit quietly and ask yourself, “What is this weird feeling I get in my gut?” I want to know. Leave me your comment below. And don’t forget, I’m sending out a free mind-stiller audio-clip for people who leave me their emails. Below is an easy way I’m experimenting using. Please fill in and let’s BE CONNECTED! Tell me how your “gut” is feeling today.

I love you, each and every one of you. Your pal, teZa aka LordFlea

 

What do you Love? Me — Global Transformation!

For those of you who regularly visit my blog you’ve probably noticed I’ve been MIA for the past month or more. This is because of the choice I had to make about getting my book ready for publication instead of my usual spew of social media-ing, blogging, even hanging with friends. I do keep up my yoga and Spanish practice, however, and I do cook fabulous food for my consort Carter. We all must make choices. My post today is an excerpt from my soon-to-be-published book, which is now in another phase of being re-born, once again (like us, too!). Today I’m calling it “Rio Blisso” but you may know it from its former name “Global Bliss NOW.” Stay tuned for more excerpts and other juicy tidbits about la vie de teZ (Lordflea is me, teZa Lord, no longer anonymous!). Here’s a visual treat for you for starters, darlin’s, my 94-year old Mom who insisted I take her to Iceland last summer, as she inspects the myriad drying cod for dried fish called Bakaloa (salted cod) that’s used throughout the world. Yum.  And then the book’s tasty treat. Have a glorious day, my friends. Rainy nor’ester here in northern Florida.

mom Eve in Iceland grovin' on the Bakaloa

Rio Blisso: Reflections Along the Journey of Discovering Self by Nurturing Others

Our world is in immediate need of more than a major facelift. We need a complete overhaul, a consciousness-transfusion: this is global transformation. Who wouldn’t want to be part of this historic portal opening, resulting in the shift, the elevation of thinking that is leading all of humanity into the next, more expanded plateau of civilization’s understanding? All of us want to thrive in peace. All of us want to use our energies for something more constructive than dominance and warfare. All of us can enter the gateway of transformation by leading spiritually attuned lives—and guard our every thought.

Staying focused on positives is a challenge in today’s turmoil. The test of our belief in the incredible transformative power of the collective-human-mind is to believe and remain focused on positive things in the midst of such cruel soul-quakes.

The remedy?

Take action.

Choose not to see another degenerate film on any screen, or support in any other way, the commercialization of tragedy for “entertainment’s sake.”

After murdering both his parents a fourteen-year-old was asked why he did it. “Mom told me,” he wailed to court officials, “to stop watching those kinds of movies, ones that made me think about killing people all the time.”

Films, books, and any art form that depicts gore for sensationalistic effect, only trivialize the uplifting of the human spirit. These kinds of expression do not represent freedom of speech but erode the very soul of our culture. Unnecessary violence in the media doesn’t deserve my support or yours. Art’s original purpose was for celebrating the human soul’s magnificence, not causing its demise. Calling “art” anything that hurts humankind’s honoring of all life not only jeopardizes our future, but it’s a sham. That type of “free expression” can only be classified as malice for the sake of reaping the almighty buck. The only thing it adds to the world is bulking up certain fat pockets.

People love to laugh, and laughter is a healing balm. Comedians are better message-bearers than über-serioso types. Each of us in the Army of Love can sow smiles and laughter while educating any who remain bogged down in the quagmire of misinformation about our world’s need to change.

Be a spiritual activist and realize your Spiritual Correctness (SC) duty is to spread love and forgiveness through compassion. Surely, creative people can use their talents to heighten our awareness, not cast a toxic pall over it. Cast your vote at the real-or-virtual cash register. Stand up and shout and make Loving Compassion go viral!

If we hold these kinds of constructive choices in mind, and voice them whenever and however we can, our thought-seeds (ideas) will manifest (actions) in real life.

Approach your life like the prayer it is.

Think positive thoughts.

And spread the word.

12.12.12 — NOW to pump up work of LOVE & COMPASSION

the ripple effect creates the tipping point

the ripple effect creates the tipping point

(friends of Lord Flea, this is what I’m up to in my hometown…maybe you can do something similar in yours?)

Dear Friend,

A new opportunity is being created for all of us to come together to grow in a community-conscious way, by discussing and practicing — the idea of COMPASSION.

As an adjunct to the work of St. Augustine Initiative for Compassion (a non-affiliated group of compassionate citizens committed to spreading the simple, but oft-misunderstood concept of human compassion), we are proud to announce that starting this New Year of 2013 we will be holding a monthly discussion group of:

Simply Sharing about Compassion

We will use the “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life” as a guide (book’s link: http://amzn.to/S4WYtr) . The only affiliation our group holds is with the Charter for Compassion (more info at www.charterforcompassion.org), a grassroots movement to promote global healing.

People from all walks of life — all faiths, all cultures, all beliefs — are invited to participate in our 1-hour monthly discussion. Everyone is encouraged to share. There is no teaching, promotion or agenda — only sharing about how to make our world come together in true compassion. This is a great place to learn how to be more effective in our own private lives, and take what we learn out to others, creating the Ripple Effect.

Our meetings will take place on the FIRST Wednesday of each month 7-8pm at St. Cyprian’s Community Center (Address below).

Please forward this invitation to any individual(s) or group(s)s that you think would be interested in spreading compassion in this world. Our purpose is to heal differences with love and understanding of Self and Others by first understanding, and then practicing the Golden Rule.

Feel free to write back with any questions.
Future correspondences will come from the group’s new email: talkwalkcompassion@gmail.com
And we will be sending out a reminder just before each meeting.

So please mark your calenders NOW for January 2 so we can meet you at our first gathering, 7-8pm.

In the Light of Compassion,

teZa Lord and Ervin Bullock

Organizers for this community discussion group to be held at:
St. Cyp’s community center, on MLK at Lovett, in Lincolnville

St. Cyprian’s Church
37 Lovett St.
St. Augustine, FL  32084

How to Be Passionate about Compassion

the Tipping Point

the Tipping Point

When enough of us share with others that Compassion is the answer to our current global dilemma … the world will transform into a higher realm of understanding the diversity of our human condition. Now that so many of us are already aware of this need … we have arrived at “the Tipping Point” … the number of awakened souls already achieved, to ignite a worldwide transformation. We have done this one person at a time. YOU can help the Love Revolution already afoot by becoming more involved with thinking, and acting compassionately. Help spread the word that Compassion is needed to bridge gaps between people all across the globe: caused by political, cultural, and religious differences. There are many ways you can help.

The first is visit the Charter for Compassion’s website and add your “click” (your voice) to affirm the idea of a compassionate world. The Charter for Compassion is the worldwide grassroots movement, originally sponsored by TED (after Karen Armstrong won the “wish” of 2008). The Charter’s work is dedicated to spreading the word and educating others about the necessity of living more compassionately. Affirm the charter (no obligation!) then come back and read how to further spread the word by starting a discussion with your family, your neighbor … your community. Right below here I’ve included the guidelines by which we’ve started a group to discuss how-to-live-compassionately in our own community.

Start a compassion-discussion group in your neighborhood or community

These guidelines can be used to start a discussion group in your circle, your town, church/ temple/ synagogue/ tent/ living-room/ basement, organization, or within your own family. Each topic can be a focus of conversation for a group. The following is a summary of Karen Armstrong’s book, “12 Steps to a Compassionate Life.” Armstrong’s book is a more thorough explanation of the Charter for Compassion, which we’ve already discussed here on Lord Flea.

Read the synopsis of “12 Steps to a Compassionate Life” aloud, to begin a discussion.

1. Learn About Compassion –Study first how compassion is expressed in our own traditions, then explore similarities with other traditions. Understand that, Doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, is the future of humanity.

2. Look at Our Own World – Begin in our own family and community to practice the Golden Rule. Daily, make sure not to do to someone what we wouldn’t want done to ourselves.

3. Begin With Self – Love your own Self first, then you can love someone else.

4. Empathy – Learn to feel empathy for our own struggles, and then we will feel it for others.

5. Mindfulness – Cultivate wholesome states of mind. Change destructive thinking and behavior patterns to positive thinking. Observe, then choose to change by using the Awareness–Acceptance–Action method.

6. Action – Build new habits of mind-body-spirit by practicing repetitively the Golden Rule.

7. How Little We Know –Seek to understand rather than be understood, letting go of certainties and judgments. Recognize the unknown and unknowable.

8. Communicate with Others –Ask questions of others; listen intently and sympathetically; allow possibilities to expand our convictions. Accept that it’s okay not to have all the answers.

9. Concern for Everybody – Let go of certainties and believe in the absolute equality of human beings, knowing we are all part of the web of life, and our creed is the Golden Rule.

10. Knowledge –Recognize the dangers of habitual thought patterns. Open to understanding others throughout the world. Study other cultures and traditions with an impartial attitude.

11. Recognition –Look at another and see that we are the same; there is no us and them. Relate our own suffering to the distress of others.

12. Love Our Enemies – Acknowledge it’s difficult to love our enemies. Transcendence occurs when we learn how. This happens by recognizing the sanctity of all life. Now we can find compassionate solutions to all global problems.

How this group can succeed

Start a discussion group based on the points above, a good way to locally take action and help our world heal. In addition, while discussing the12 Steps for Living Compassionately privately or publicly, create a safe environment for heartfelt sharing by respectfully listening when others speak. Cross-talk, whispering or joking with someone else while another is sharing, muttering or making faces, countering or commenting on another’s point-of-view do not create an atmosphere of safety so essential to the process of discussing how meaningful change occurs.

In discussion, we strive to express only our point of view and truly hear (listen) to the others who speak by turn. In countering another, too often a cordial discussion can escalate into an argument. Sharing, then, is expressing your own view, not denying anybody else’s.

To clarify group’s intention, read this after the 12 Steps

These twelve steps to a compassionate life are neither aligned with any political movement or party, religious or social affiliation, nor any outside influence other than the Charter for Compassion.

We are self-sufficient and do not accept contributions from outside sources, relying solely on our members’ support. Our purpose is to help bring about peaceful change so the world can live more compassionately.

(The above two paragraphs could be read aloud at the beginning of a compassion group discussion meeting, passing the basket if funds are needed for space or refreshments. This format is copied from the successful manner in which anonymous meetings are run. Please begin a group in your community, as we have in ours. Share with us here at Lord Flea how your group is going, its successes, its challenges. Thanks!)

Love to you all from your pal,

Lord Flea aka teZa Lord

For You or the Entire World to Change — Awareness-Acceptance-Action!

Family BLISS NOW--a spiritual guide

Family BLISS NOW–a spiritual guide

When an issue keeps popping up and bothering us, resulting in our disturbed feelings of some description (usually of the negative sort: mad-sad-bad), this is a clear sign that a change must happen, either in your own life, the way your family is functioning, or your role in the outside world. This is having Awareness that something needs correcting or adjusting, the first step toward change.

Trying to ignore those nagging negative symptoms, or feelings, is futile. They’ll keep coming back, and each time they reoccur, bad feelings only increase in intensity. So don’t kid yourself by thinking that if you ignore uncomfortable feelings (or numb them with drugs, alcohol, food, shopping, gambling, sex, etc.) they’ll go away.

Change happens only when you make it happen.

The nature of uncomfortable feelings is that they’re signs that psychic or spiritual work is needed in order to experience happiness and a holistic sense of well being.

Emotions, therefore—and working with them—are the most useful tools a person can have to achieve true fulfillment. So when a bad feeling arises, know that it is catalyzed from an outside source. When that feeling comes insistently, over and over—do your best to identify what triggers this sensation within your body and mind.

Trying to ignore the reappearance of a bad feeling fits the well-known description of—

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.

After trying several or countless times to ignore the situation (and getting nowhere), you will be ready to practice Acceptance. This simply means that you recognize the experience of pain as many times as it appears.

This is where we have the opportunity to start realizing in our deepest being (our Big Heart and our logical mind) that in order for real change to occur, something has to change. Accepting something as true might happen over and over, but eventually—you’ll be filled with so much acceptance that you’ll be bursting at the seams to get on with the next step. You resemble an eager racehorse chafing at its bit, beating its hoofs, ready to pounce out of the gate at the starter’s gun during a high-stakes race—ready and willing to change.

These first two steps might take only a few moments’ clear thinking through for some. For others the process might take weeks or months. For those reluctant to change, or who use mood-altering chemicals, the stage of Awareness-Acceptance could take years.

Next, after the two stages of Awareness­–Acceptance have been reached, real change can start to happen.

As soon as a person has truly accepted—and has had sufficient awareness that something indeed is amiss in life—now a person can take Action to make real change happen.

Action can be something as simple as the mere act of thinking how to change. This is the beginning step, because truly, all action begins with thought.

Will Wonders Never Cease, part 2 — or is it Part 102?

Guess you’ve been wondering if I’ve been swallowed by a giant black hole, eh? Well, I’ve just finished, REALLY really finished the final edit (well … is it ever really finished?) for my upcoming nonfiction spiritual guide, “Family Bliss NOW: a holistic guide to global transformation … one blended family at a time.”

In honor of my coming out … as an author, silly! … after so many years, false starts, high hopes, dashed dreams, relentless tenacity (or is it utter madness?) I have created a NEW website so people get to know the real me, not the Lord Flea persona I’ve shared for these past five years with you. Please visit the new site tezalord.me and drop me a line to tell me how you like it.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch teZ … I’m readying to take my 94-year-old (young in heart and speedy afoot!) mom, Eve Mary, on her longed-for visit to Iceland, where she’s always wanted to soak in the thermal hot springs so abundant there, fed by the island 14 or 15 LIVE volcanoes (hope none blow while we’re there!). I’ll try to write another post in the next few days to tell you more adventures, always so much to share, so little time in which to do it.

Keep breathing! keep focused on positives! keep dancing, singing, and most of all — believe in LOVE!

all mine to you, Lord Flea aka teZa