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Faith in Spiritual Matters: Buddha with TMichael

Faith in Spiritual Matters, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/faith-in-spirit/
Faith

Conversation with Master Buddha and TMichael: Faith

TM:  What is the nature of faith as it relates to matters spiritual or religious?

Master Buddha:  The nature of faith rests on the premise that there are things one can’t know for certain through direct observation, and so one must imagine that given a strong feeling that something must be true, then it is accepted as true.  It becomes a belief in one’s truth based upon the strong feeling.

TM:  So what we consider to be evidence of truth through direct observation of facts is not faith?

Master Buddha: Well, that is faith also to some extent, because has one ever experienced absolute proof of truth?  Can you truly say that even the things you thought you proved to yourself through direct observation have always been really true?  Have there been occasions where you observed a thing to be true and later discovered your observations were not so accurate?  There is usually some element of doubt and faith fills in the gap.

TM:  Aren’t all these considerations about truth relative to time and our progressive understanding of many things that change over time?

Master Buddha: Yes, of course.  Your understanding of truth changes as you grow to reach new understandings about yourself, others and the universe.  There is always a measure of faith thrown in to close the gaps and to bridge your doubt and what you perceive is truth in that moment.  Once you think you have reached some absolute truth, you will soon discover the illusion inherent in that notion.  It is better to say, for now I think I know the truth of this matter and I’ll take it on faith as I continue searching for new information, new knowledge, new understanding about this.

There are those people who believe in a mechanistic universe.  That there are physical laws that behave in a way that explains all the phenomena that surrounds you.  You might say that even for those believers there is a measure of faith to fill in the parts that are missing.

TM:  Some people allow more room for faith and some it seems allow less room.  But you’re saying that we all allow some room for faith regardless of our beliefs?

Master Buddha:  Yes, I’m saying that.  As science has progressed, it has revealed the vast knowledge that humanity has amassed in understanding your world.  It has also revealed the vast ignorance.  If you plot that on a time continuum you can see that the more that you know, the greater your understanding that there is so much more you don’t know.  So, you take what you know and you project a little further into the future of the possibilities of things that could be true.  That is a form of faith.  If you act upon faith by assuming the projections are true, then it is meaningful.  To speculate is to explore ideas about truth and to act upon faith that something is true is commitment.

TM:  It seems to me that people of religious and spiritual faith rely upon teachings of the past to form their foundation, which requires faith that the teachings were accurately recording and interpreted.

Master Buddha: And that the projections of those truths are applicable to humanity today.  There are many new teachings brought forth today and they are received similarly as were the teachings given long ago.  There is a resistance to new teachings by humanity, because they cling to the old ones, the ones they were taught are true.  There is a lag in time for new beliefs to be accepted.

TM:  No way around that is there?

Master Buddha:  Not likely it will change any time soon.  It is human nature and probably a good characteristic if it is moderate.

© TM 2015

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Smoking Cigarettes: Buddha with TMichael

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Smoking Cigarettes, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/smoking-cigaret/ ‎
Smoking cigarettes

Background to Conversation with Buddha and TMichael on Smoking Cigarettes

Note from TM: This topic may be a bit off from the typical spiritual topics we talk about, but it’s one that I have been wondering about for some time from a spiritual perspective.  Many people I know, including myself, have struggled with trying to quit smoking cigarettes.  We all know about the health issues associated with smoking, yet continue.  Is there an understanding about smoking cigarettes that could help people quit?

Master Buddha:  It’s a good topic because it bridges the material and spiritual realms.  On the purely physical level smoking cigarettes is well known to create a physical addiction.  That is not so difficult to understand or accept.

It weakens the breath capacity and reduces the nutrients that can be carried by the blood.  Additionally, it carries with it potentially harmful chemicals throughout the body.  This is the part that is established.  Just a small amount of common sense can grasp this and say that it is not necessary to smoke cigarettes to achieve good health and that to the contrary it degrades health.On the emotional and mental levels other addictions are at work.  Smoking also creates an illusion of power.  And this is much harder to give up than the physical addiction.  Power can mean different things to different people, but I mean it I the sense that one feels powerful to do whatever one needs to do.  If one feels weak in some way, he will compensate by finding some way to feel powerful.  This is why so many people begin smoking as a teenager—a time in which a great sense of weakness is experienced.  Others experience the attraction to smoking during emotionally upsetting moments.  Still others enjoy smoking when they are drinking alcohol (this is more complicated because the source of weakness is not so apparent).

It should be obvious that real power is not gained from smoking cigarettes, but that is exactly what makes it a illusion.  For those who derive power from it, it is real, and thus an effective illusion.

There is a proverb that states, “The best way to eliminate is to substitute”.  In order to do this in a way that supports substituting real understanding for an illusion, one must understand that the apparent weakness for which the illusion is compensating, can be addressed through self-awareness and contemplation.  Some people, when quitting smoking, will substitute another substance or activity that supplies the power they seek.  This could be substituting one illusion for another; perhaps one that is less harmful in other ways.  The real benefit will come from a true understanding of the weakness perceived in the first place, and then proceed to cure it.  Some people can make the behavioral change without this deeper understanding I’m speaking of, and for them this is a success.  For others it requires the deeper contemplation and cure.  Most likely the underlying feeling of impotence, or weakness, is affecting them in other ways as well and this approach will be more helpful.

The worst thing that can happen is for one to come from an approach of judgment, self-loathing, guilt, shame or anger at oneself.  Be gentle with yourself as you begin to unravel the complexities that lead to behavior that is inherently harmful.  At one point, however erroneous, the smoking habit derived from an intent to cope by providing a power that compensated for a weakness.  Seeing that error in choice and seeking a new one confirms self-love and care.

© TM 2015

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Mind is Strength, Faith, Focus, Union with Spirit: Buddha with Zoe

Mind Is, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/mind-is/ ‎
Mind is

 

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Mind is Strength, Faith, Focus, Union with Spirit

Buddha: Zoë, you have been hearing my words in your head, ‘resist nothing, resist nothing’ and so on. Let me explain what this means.

For mind and mastery to be complete there needs to be a full understanding of the nature of mind, the workings of mind and the ability from that therefore to direct mind. “Resist nothing” does not refer to earthly pleasures or deliberately indulging in squalid, dirty, self gratification states. However, the fear that that is where the mind could take one, means that one resists certain thoughts, urges and in the resistance, one becomes unable to see what is real. In other words, the fear of what might be real creates resistance so that reality is never quite achieved albeit heavily sought by the individual.

Your mind takes you in a myriad of directions always towards the same point though: truth, honour, trust, faith, strength. Yet this is not the experience of mind that people have. For most, ‘mind’ equates perpetual thinking; perpetual thoughts that take you in a myriad of directions. When one approaches a type of thought that one identifies as ‘bad’, such as what we have already spoken about, one immediately censors those thoughts.

Yet where do these thoughts come from? Why would you censor one and not all thought?

If we were fully present we would be aware of the nature of our thoughts and the thinking process.

I will try to keep this clear and simple on this occasion.

Mind is strength, faith, focus, union with spirit. It is a gateway to the essence, to the soul, to God, and the God experience. The road to this union is paved and littered with thought. These thoughts are like leaves fallen from the trees in autumn. How do we choose to respond to our journey whilst in body? It is often to become distracted by the thoughts that are on the path to the point that we become concerned only with the nature of the leaves and the nature of do we like the leaves. And we have forgotten that the purpose of the path is to bring us to union: union with ourselves in the arms of God. Therefore, resist no leaf. As you are dedicated to following your path, the path to you, the path to union with God, falsehood comes only from focusing and identifying and creating relationships with thought forms. Therefore, resist nothing. Accept all and continue on your journey where we will await you.

© Zoe 2015

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The Great Peace: Buddha with Zoe

The Great Peace, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/the-great-peace/ ‎
The great peace

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: The Great Peace

Buddha: We are moving to a time where earth will be as one. A great peace will descend from on high, from on low and this peace will arise in those who are awake and those who are seeking to become awake. We are looking to help this process and this will indeed be speeded up. Speeded up by you, readers, as you choose to open yourselves to change, to love, to peace and work in your own lives to become centered. So for each of you who choose a centred life, one by one, you help choose peace, a new age. And we all thank you for this. There will come a time when there is a significant number walking the earth that will be able to pull us into their hearts. The mechanisms of this are with those who are seeking peace, seeking a different way of being. A harmonious one, a loving one, a joyful one and those that are taking the action to create a centered existence. So for all of you who wish to see the change be the change. These are words well known amongst several of you. Center your lives: not by changing what you do, but merely by focusing on how you do it. The new earth will not come about by the world becoming poets and philosophers. It will come about as each individual in their day to day lives awakens, makes choices and takes action to become the change, become the peace.

© Zoe 2015

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Being Centered: Buddha with Zoe

Being Centered, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/being-centered/
Being centered

 

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Being Centered

 Buddha: We wish to speak to you today about extremes. Because extremes move in different ways from a perceived central point, are they any different? No. To clarify, if one is looking to get fit, becoming a couch potato could be extreme, exercising for five hours a day could be perceived as extreme. Are they any different? While the behaviors of a couch potato person and someone who is exercising five hours a day may seem radically different, extremes are extremes.

People who move into extreme behaviors are cut off from their center, so, although we are speaking about extremes, we are actually speaking about those who are devoid of center.

At Wimbledon, the most prestigious court is center court. I like this! One of the best thing or compliments that can be given to a person is that they are centered. Would you trust someone more or less if you described them as centered? Would it be easier to love someone more or less if they were centered?

Humans were designed to be centered yet many spend their lives rushing around in extremes. What do I mean? I mean that ‘centered’ means feeling strong, feeling safe and sound within your own being. How many people actually spend time practicing this within their day-to-day activities? Equally, as there are so few people who practice feeling centered, there are also fewer people who exist in their center; center is all there is.

I ask that all readers find their center. How do you know where your center is? It’s the mind state that makes you feel ‘centered’. I try not to play with words. Sometimes I resist the opportunities to play with minds other times I don’t. The irony is that it is the mind that takes one out of ones center! But let’s not toy here.

To get into your center stop, breathe. You can still do all that you need to do in your day-to-day activities. You can go to work, be at work, come home from work, cook, sleep: centered. You can wake up the children, feed the children, take the children to school, get on with your daily chores, collect the children, feed the children, feed yourself: being centered. Or you can become un-centered and end up in extremes whereby you are in a rush to get to work, rush to complete your work, rush to get home, rush to cook, rush to get to bed. Similarly you can become lost in the chores or lose you own center by focusing on the children’s centers. Are the children fine, are the children fed, are the children ready are the children this, are the children that? These are extremes. I will speak about child rearing at a different time for now it is suffice to say if you are lucky enough to be raising children physically, then be aware- as they say on the airlines, fit your own oxygen mask before you fit that of the child’s. In this case center yourself. A centered parent will raise centered children: simple as that.

So this is your message today from the center to the center, saying find your center. How do you do that? Stop, breathe, be present. Once you have this go about your day to day activities and you will be successful. Success follows center. Spend a minute now thinking about how mundane tasks feel when you’re centered and how mundane tasks feel when you’re not. Similarly think about a big event. How does a big event feel when you’re centered and how does a big event feel when you’re not.

This exercise itself should conclude the importance to you of being centered at all times.

© Zoe 2015

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Uniting with the Body Using Breath: Buddha with Zoe

Uniting the Body, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/uniting-the-bo…ith-the-breath/
Body and breath

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Uniting with the Body Using Breath

Buddha: Today we are going to focus on respiration: in and out. Why have so many of my teachings, and those who have followed me, focused on the breath? Firstly, as everyone is aware, breathing happens with or without you. Secondly, when you consciously engage your breath you are consciously engaging with the state of being that is happening whether you are aware of it or not. This is one of the easiest, and always the most successful, way of being in the present moment. You cannot escape your breath for breathing is happening to you. But when you join with what is happening to you and offer no resistance, then oneness is developed. There is nothing quite like this. There need be no association with thought. So observation of breath and conjoining of being is my favorite tool for teaching people to become still and whole.

After a few breaths the system becomes energised. Energised not only from the oxygen it has been breathing, but from the release of energy that happens when one becomes present in any given moment. By being conscious of the breath, conscious and conjoining with what is happening and offering no resistance, a huge energy release is borne. It’s akin to a star burst. This is you, one, in ones full potential in any given time simply by being aware of the breath conjoining with being, activating energy. It is from here and only here that transcendental states can be reached.

And what is the message? The message is that one does not ever escape the body to achieve greater levels of spirituality. One doesn’t ever go anywhere else than where one is to achieve greater levels of spirituality. One simply stops, observes the breathes, star burst happens, and the transcendental experience can take place. Simple isn’t it?

In my life as Buddha, I tried everything I had ever heard of to achieve greater levels of spirituality, to reach nirvana. I tried everything that meant leaving the body, in some ways looking back now, killing the body. I also had had from my previous times experiences of indulging the body and all the body was doing was being! Simply responding to what I did with it. If I ate it would digest it, if I drank it would absorb, if I fell it would bruise, if I laughed it chortled. What a close relationship you have people, spiritual beings, with your body. This is something never to be overlooked, but something to be nurtured. This is your best friend. Look after it, but more importantly be one with it through oneness with it. The star burst happens the transcendental state can take place. Care not for what it looks like only its levels of health. If something needs fixed or restored work towards that goal in whichever way you know how. Do not criticise and judge it for being something that it is not, for it is and your development will happen through your uniting with the body, not from desecrating it for it being not something that is a construct of the mind.

So for all of you breathe, enjoy, relax, come and meet me [Buddha laughs].

© Zoe 2015

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A Day of Rest: Buddha with Zoe

A Day of Rest, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/a-day-of-rest/
A day of rest

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: A Day of Rest

Buddha: So, what have you been today, a Rose or a Lily? The truth is you have been unconcerned with all. There is a reality beyond that of knowledge, beyond that even of acceptance. It is the reality of just being-ness.

One knows when one has reached this stage for one is neither concerned with the state of the lily or the rose, one simply just is. Up until then be aware of who you are.

It is important for all of you to have days of rest. Days where you allow the mind to calm, even be listless, where you enjoy game playing, where you give yourself nothing much to do. You refer to these times as holidays. Yet even on holidays you can seemingly charge the mind, believing that because it is different information such as that picked up at a historical sight than what you’ve previously known, it’s a break.

Ensure that at all times that you give yourself breaks. It is through breaks that you will prosper. Perhaps not in the material sense, but certainly within a health and well being sense. And from all that I have seen and witnessed this is what you need more than anything else. So enjoy your times of rest and give them to yourselves deliberately and guilt-free.

© Zoe 2015

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Right Use of Mind: Buddha with Zoe

Right Use of Mind, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/right-use-of-mind/ ‎
Right use of mind

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Right Use of Mind

Buddha: We need to get to the bottom of why people do not choose to use their minds correctly.  A well working mind is like a well-oiled machine: it takes you clearly, decisively and definitively to where you need to be. Yet people choose to allow their minds to rust and take them down roads and paths to oblivion. There needs to be recognition, first, that the minds of men need to change.

Second, there needs to be a clear understanding that change can exist and thirdly, there needs to be easy to use methodical, logical, dependable, un-debatable tools.  You cannot escape the mind although the mind can escape you.  This is not something to be feared or fearful of.

Mind simply exists.  It was created as a means of allowing humans to rise above that of the levels of animal.  As I’ve said before, this has happened. However, for many this has meant dipping below the level of animal.  With needless violence, killing, disgracing, maiming and shocking. What for? For the purpose of satiating an out of control ego.

© Zoe 2015

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Be Yourself: Buddha with Zoe

Be Yourself, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/be-yourself/
Be yourself

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Be Yourself

Buddha: Lets speak more about mind. As you know there is no one conscious reality, there is no one consciousness. Instead, there are interlinking realities. And what is that interlinking reality? Love: love inter-relates all. What do we mean by love? The ability to be joyous in just being.

The flower is just a flower. A rose doesn’t try and be a lily; it simply extends the best of itself to try and meet the sun as a beautiful expression of the creative wonder of God. And this is what we want for humanity. If you are a rose don’t try and be a lily. If you are a lily don’t try and be a chrysanthemum. Simply be, learn to be.

There is nothing to do there is no way to be, other than through the suspension of mind. Yet, interestingly, it is mind that inter-relates all. There are many paradoxes to this as there are many layers of reality. What is real for your cat Zoë, is real. What is real for the bird that the cat is watching, is real. What is real for you watching the cat watch the bird, is real. What is real for me is the connective force that unites all of us, of which I am part, and the willingness for a transcendence. The transcendence of the current state of humanity. This current state is nothing but a state mind. When enough people change their state of mind there will be a change in the state of reality. This is not hard. It is easy to do and it starts with every individual taking account of their lives, their works and choosing to wake up.

Spending your time as a rose trying to be a lily is exhausting. Ultimately you will fail. But understanding that you are some sort of flower that through becoming peaceful with the self turns out to be a rose will be a wonder. And this is what we wait on: the return of the rose.

How do you know if you’re a rose trying to be a lily? It hurts. How do you know if you’re a lily trying to be a rose? It hurts. You are reaching for something that is beyond your form, beyond essence, beyond your blueprint, yet you bend and twist and dye, and contort. And ultimately there will be no peace, there will be no stillness, there will be no wholeness- there will only be pain for a rose cannot be a lily and a lily cannot be a rose. How do you know if you are a rose? You are a rose and you have peace. How do you know if you are a lily? You are a lily and you have peace.

What is peace? A fundamental feeling that all is well and all is well with you.

All that is not well can be resolved. Some things will take large efforts, some things will take smaller efforts. But ultimately only a rose can be a rose and ultimately only the lily can be the lily. To try and be something else is to inflict pain. This is not the purpose of a rose even though it has thorns! This is not the purpose of a lily even though its pollen can be toxic! A rose is a rose and a lily is a lily. Let that be for now.

© Zoe 2015

 

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It Simply Is (Part 4): Buddha with Zoe

It Simply Is Part 4, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/it-simply-is-part-4/
It simply is part 4

Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: It Simply Is (Part Four)

Buddha: How often is it then that a distractive mind becomes a fearful mind? There are very few of you who have spent time exploring their minds so that a distraction becomes fear, fear becomes a distraction and all that exists is the hamster wheel of being, of doing, as opposed to the presence of God in the moment. So I say to you explore the mind.

There is nothing to be frightened of.  You will find fearful thoughts, fearful forms, but more importantly, you will find distraction.  And of what you feel is fearful, only a small proportion will actually be fear-full; the rest will be distraction.  And of that which is fear-full, simply sitting and acknowledging it as a thought form will allow it to move. Simply state, “You are a thought form, go. I am capable of being. I need not acknowledge you, and in that acknowledgment, allow you to take me over and allow you to become.” For that is all that happens when one engages in these types of thought forms, the thought form is able to become.  And as a human being, is this not you worst nightmare? Engage not with the thought form.  Simply acknowledge it and state to it, “You are a thought form go. I am me, I will be.”

The minds of men are messy, are distracted—have become fear-full. Chaos reigns and only those who are willing to become a disciple of clarity will work to free themselves from the bondage. For this is the truth: Mankind as whole is in chains to itself, in chains to that which separated it from an animal, which for some has meant that part of the species has become lower than that of the animal and through desires, through allowing thought forms to become have allowed catastrophes and horrors of being, such as that not seen in the animal world.

This is not your destiny. This was never your destiny going below the level of animal, no. You were meant as a species to find us from the level of form; to explore new ways of love and being while inhabiting different forms.  This is all within you.  This is the blueprint of humanity.  However, this will require the disengagement of current mind, the individual to become disciple of clarity and from there mankind will be able to raise itself to its destiny.  And individuals, such as yourselves, will be able to see clearly what is the beauty of this place that you call your home, earth, the love that does exist within the hearts of all, the essence of God, the connection, the oneness to all that is an indisputable truth.

Work to become clear of mind and the gifts of gods will be yours.

© Zoe 2015

For It Simply Is Part 1 click here.

For It Simply Is Part 2 click here.

For It Simply Is Part 3 click here.