What I Believe is not as Important as I Once Thought
When I taught at the Federal Prison, I encountered three different groups of men who insisted that everything that happened, occurred because it was Allah's will. The reasoning was that Allah was all powerful and that nothing could happen without it being Allah's will.

My question was always, "So, you honestly believe that it was Allah's will that you ended up in prison?"

And the response was, "It could not have happened without it being Allah's will?"

I usually could not resist and I had to ask "So why do you think Allah would want you to rob a bank (or whatever the specific crime was) and spend ten years of your life away from your family?"

The typical response was, "It is not ours to understand the will of Allah."

When I inquired about free will they basically stuck to the story that nothing could happen that was not the will of Allah.

I have met many other people who, while of another faith, held a very similar, fatalistic view. If _____________ happened in my life, it had to be the will of God.

I probably should not do this but I am going to state this: I do not believe God has any will other than my own for my life.

I can feel the resistance to these words as many of us are invested in believing that God will's all sorts of things for our lives. Allow me to explain my logic.

If God is omnipresent, as I believe It to be, God must exist in every cell, in every neuron, in every quark, in every adamantine particle, in every nanoparticle which comprises my physical being, including my mind.

While it is true that I can use my mind, and most of us do, to create the thought of separation from this everywhere-present Divinity, I can never, in Truth, be separate from this Allness. Therefore, every thought I have springs from the great Nothingness (Everything that Is) which is God. Everything I choose is an exercise of my will. Everything I will becomes the will of God, because, in Truth, there is no separation between this idea of me and this omnipresent Being.

For there to be a God with a separate will for my life, there has to be a God which is at once All-there-Is and a God that is separate from creation. It can not be both ways.

So, does this destroy the comfort derived from believing that there is a God out there who is holding a will for a blessed life for me?

It does not change for me, because I believe this one force is Love. Not the love that we humans think we know the definition of and experience based on our stories; but Love beyond words, Love that never chooses to express itself to one aspect of creation and withhold it from another. Love that simply Is, and is always fully present, doing everything it is ever capable of doing.

My life is filled with grace when I drop all resistance to what is and flow with this One Power of the Universe. How do I know if I am resisting? In surrender there is complete Peace. Resistance involves countless levels of suffering.

Having said all of that, today I am considering how peaceful it can be to believe that everything which happens occurs because it is my Higher Power's Will.

I am not comfortable with taking this to the level of giving up all personal responsibility (in fact I personally believe the Secret to a life of total surrender is one of 100% responsibility) but how peaceful would I be if I honestly Loved God with all of my heart and soul, and knew, beyond any doubt, that everything that happened, was a gift from this benevolent Creator?

The point I am trying to make is that the Secret to life does not matter whether or not there is an Allah out there directing every event which occurs, in accordance to his will, or if there is some non-personal Creative Force from which every thought, every being, every action arises. The Secret to living in peace is found in complete and total surrender to that Power; complete and total faith that in giving up my resistance, all will be well.

Does that make sense?

If I believe God has a plan for my life, my work is to surrender to that plan. I do this by loving God with all of my heart, loving my neighbor, and loving myself as a creation of this Divine Force.

If I believe there is no such God, keeping score, and holding some vision for my life, my goal is to love what is. I learn to do this by loving Life with all my heart and soul, loving myself so that I may love all other things, because everything arises out of this One Source.

So, I have come full circle. It does not matter what I believe. How I handle that belief is where the rubber meets the road.

Peace and joy are mine when I drop all resistance to what is.

And living in Peace is living in alignment with Divine Intelligence.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 5/7/2010 9:59 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Thought on Unconditional Love
Today's Secret is very short.

As I sat at breakfast with a friend, this morning, we were discussing Unconditional Love. I wanted to share our consensus about this topic, and leave you to think about these words.

What I Am is unconditional Love; Love with no boundaries, no restrictions, no beginning or end.

Who I am, as long as an I is identified, can never experience unconditional Love. The same mind that identifies it's self cannot grasp or experience the Love that is the Truth of my being.

As long as I have a self-identity, which is other than Divine, I, because of the very nature of the human mind, am incapable of expressing Love without Conditions.

The human mind is constructed to create conditions, not work without them. Unconditional Love cannot be experienced intellectually.

Just food for thought.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 5/6/2010 10:05 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Focus Change, Act One
As a student of my own life, I am often astounded by the things I learn.

I have noticed a strange coincidence, over the last dozen years or so: whenever I am having a wonderful day, the rest of the world seems to join in.

I know you have experienced this. You are moving through your day with a bounce in your step and a song in your heart. Everything you see has a certain "newness", a brightness,which you have noticed, maybe a time or two, but overlook most of the time.

The people you encounter, on these days, are happier than usual. Even the ones, caught up in their own drama, seem to forget their sad story, for a minute when you are interacting with them.

The world is a most remarkable place, when I am in a loving, joyous state.

I laugh about this because I often wonder why I would ever choose to have any other type of day.

Yesterday, at the suggestion of a fried, I read this in Tricycle magazine: a moment of enlightenment is a moment when we realize"the blessings that are always pouring forth."

I know this is absolutely the Truth. Divine blessings are omnipresent just waiting for me to wake up and allow them in. It is proven to me each and every time I walk through my day In-Love.

I also loved this reminder in the article: The "blessings that are always pouring forth" include the love that has permeated our lives, peeking at us through many eyes."

When I am open and receptive, when I am free of the presence-stealing, droning of my story, I notice that everyone is just like me. Everyone wants to feel loved, even if only for a brief moment, even if only through a quick smile or an unexpected courtesy.

The whole world becomes more enlightened, each moment I allow myself to be the Love I Am.

It is remarkable how much more beautiful everything becomes, when the eyes I look through, are the eyes of Love.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 5/5/2010 8:26 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Surrendering to the Flow
"Elliott why, if this is a Secret to Peace, would you write and tell us about your Twitter experience?"

I think one of my ongoing challenges is fear of rejection. When I remember who I Am, I have absolutely no need for the approval of others. I do what my inner guidance directs and I float "merrily" down the stream.

When, however, I drift back into the illusion that you and I are separate, and that my self-worth is somehow dependent upon your acceptance and validation, I can feel hurt when you question my motives, when you question the love I am attempting to share.

My confession is that even though I spend most of my time, in remembrance of whom and what I am, I still find myself adrift in the "I'm only human" mindset from time to time. At 55 I have spent more years unconscious than I have striving to be conscious and to stay aware.

Despite many years on a spiritual path, I still slip back into moments where I find myself caught in the whirlpool of illusion. I find myself needing confirmation from others that what I think is valuable; that "who I am" matters.

In the flow of Truth, I have nothing to defend, no separate self to believe his own story. In this state there is no me who believes his thoughts are the one truth.

Unfortunately, after 26 years on my quest I still have moments when I try to squeeze back into my old illusions, even though I know they do not fit any longer.

Self-questioning of my motives is a habit that my ego perpetuates to try and remain in charge. Overcoming these critical voices has been a lifelong challenge for me.

I suppose I wrote of my twitter experience so that I could cite an example of where I follow my bliss and need to let go of what others think, in order to stay in my joy.

"To thine own self be true", is not just some lofty objective for me. It is a mantra that I must follow if I am to live authentically.

Thanks for the question. I know it was a different sort of Secret. These writings may be changing. There is some kind of shift taking place in me. I will talk more about that later.

Today I will surrender to the direction my soul wants to flow. At the very least, peace will be mine, with this commitment.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 5/4/2010 7:46 AM | View Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Twitter Love
On Twitter I have been having great fun, finding new friends and learning about them. I look for friends, in basically two ways:

    1) By recommendations of others. For example: A current friend sends out a tweet with four or five names of other Tweeters. I open their pages and click on follow, if they have similar interests to mine. Primarily I am only interested in following people, of any religion, who are examining the spiritual nature of life.

    2) By recommendations of others, on their lists. On Twitter, now, individuals can create lists and classify the people on up to ten lists. When I see someone I resonate with listed under the heading of spiritual, loving, or anything similar, I go into that list and look for like-minded people.
I do not only look for like minded people. I also search for people who are interesting in any other way. I seldom follow marketers, unless they write inspiring tweets or are dedicated to making a positive difference in the world.

I do not believe I have ever sent out a tweet which said anything ugly or negative. I strive to be the Love I Am in each and every tweet I send out. Yet, there are still a handful of people who have blocked me, and most people I follow do not follow me back. Seldom do I receive a reason, they just usually do not respond at all.

For those of you, not on Twitter, my short bio says that I am a student of Love seeking to always remember who he is and why he is here. I strive to send all of my tweets in alignment with what I discover and am currently investigating, in answer to those two questions.

The other day I received an interesting response from some Twitter-er I had followed. He or she wrote to me: "I do not believe there is love in the world that man dreams of. Why did you follow me? Are you trying to change me? No, thanks!"

What an interesting response to my bio.

There is a link to my blog, where I post these Daily Secrets, also in my bio, but I doubt this person went to all the trouble to investigate my blog.

This response has me questioning why I really do spend an average of 40 minutes a day working on my Twitter account. What is my real motive?

At first, I admit, I did this to try and build traffic to my blog. I do not think that I write to try and change people. I think I just enjoy writing and especially enjoy engaging in dialogue with those readers who return comments.

Now, I love Twitter because of the beautiful people I meet. I have made friends with some very kind, very loving people and my life is richer as a result.

Twitter time is play time for me. It is like a game. I search for and follow people I think I might like to learn more about, and I see which ones follow me back. I keep track of every minute I spend on Twitter, just to keep myself from losing track of the time I spend, and I have great fun exchanging thoughts with people all over the world.

I can honestly say that I do not think I have tried to change anyone. If offering a daily blog post is an effort to bring people around to my way of thinking, then I am guilty. I do not see it that way, however.

I have learned, over the years, that I can drive myself batty examining each and every motive I have for what I choose to do. I do not engage in that activity much, any more. For now, for me, if I enjoy what I am doing, and I am doing it as the best expression of Love that I am capable of being, I just go on, having fun.

Some will like what I do, some will not. It is a form of insanity to think that everyone will be pleased with my thoughts, my quotes, my writing, or me, in general.

I will love you, regardless of how you feel about me; not as a gift to you, but as a gift to myself.

The only love we ever keep is the love we give away.

I am thankful for each of you who choose to show up as the Love you are!

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 5/3/2010 7:56 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
To Experience the Flow, I Must Let Go
Love is omnipresent. There is no place where this One Power of the Universe is not.

As such Love, and I am speaking of Divine Love, is the basis for all of Life. It is the power behind every choice I make. If I choose love, it is a manifestation of Love. If I choose to hate, it is still a manifestation of the One Love.

Choosing to love brings me into greater alignment with Divine Love. It allows me to experience the Love, which is the One Power of life, flowing through me, as me.

Choosing to reject love, or to hate, blocks my awareness of being in this Divine Flow.

I can never, not be in the flow of Life. Life supports hatred just as it supports human love. This concept causes a lot of confusion. Love does not choose, it simply Is.

Hatred can be exceptionally powerful because it draws its power from this One Force just the same as love does. The difference is in my experience of being in the Flow.

How do I know if I am in the flow or resisting it?

When I am able to allow everyone and everything to be just as they are with no need or desire for them to be anything else, I am experiencing the flow.

When I accept all things, just as they are, without any longing for them to be something else, I have surrendered.

The result of such surrender is peace.

Resistance always leads to suffering.

Life still supports the sufferer, but seldom is the sufferer aware of this support or they would most likely make other choices.

The beauty about allowing everything to be just what it is, without any hope or demand that it be something else, is that my ability to do so is a great hallmark for the level of serenity I am choosing for my life.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 4/30/2010 6:43 AM | View Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
In At-ONE-Ment what is there to Fear?
This morning I spent a few minutes in the book Love Without Conditions by Paul Ferrini and I read these words: "Life is either resistance or surrender. These are the only choices. Resistance leads to suffering. Surrender leads to bliss. Rsistance is the decision to act alone. Surrender is the decision to act with God."

When I am surrendered to God it is impossible for me to perceive myself as being under attack. If the separate "me" is completely dissolved into the oneness of Source, what could possibly attack me?

When my self-identity is replaced by a knowing of Self, I cannot feel attacked because I know there is no "other" to attack me. It is only on the level of ego where I feel I have anything to defend.

What I feel, in any given situation is always a good indication of whether I am living in fear or in surrender. Fully surrendered, what could there possibly be to fear?

I will close with one other quote from Ferrini: "All experience happens for one reason only: to expand your awareness. Any other meaning in your life experience is a meaning you made up."

When I am in remembrance of who I am and I surrender to that Truth, it is impossible to be afraid. Fear resides only in an ego mind which believes separation is possible; which thinks there is a separate someone capable of hurting me.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 4/29/2010 6:12 AM | View Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Autonomic Thoughts
Today I am keenly aware of how quickly and habitually I allow my mind to make judgments.

I hear on the news that some tragedy has happened to a family. I am immediately in a place of thinking that is bad.

I read of some kindness and I find my self thinking that person is good.

I do not do this consciously, it just seems to happen. It typically happens before I even become conscious of the process.

I receive a piece of data, and the processing of this data begins before I seem to be aware that I am in this cycle.

Today I will watch how many times I do this.As quickly as I notice myself judging, I will shift my energy, back to a neutral state, and change "that is bad" or "that is good" to simply "that is".

I wonder how I will ever make my default position "that is" instead of filtering everything I see through the parameters of my story; my ideas of what is good or bad, right or wrong.

How do I expect to see everything, that is, as a blessing when I am challenged to get past the conditioned response I have to the event?

I am not sure yet, but I know it starts by becoming aware of how often my thoughts are autonomic. I shall pay extra attention to those thoughts as they arise today.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 4/28/2010 6:32 AM | View Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
My Definition of God is a Myth
Yesterday I saw a tweet, I had seen before, which read, "God is great because he still loves human beings."

I spent much of my life trying to please other people, convinced that if others loved me, I had worth. A part of that period, in my life, also included an attempt to live so that my idea of God (at the time) would be pleased with me.

I suppose, as a tool for making decisions, I could have done worse than attempting to choose that which would be pleasing to God.

Of course the problem with trying to please another or in trying to please a God is that I am always only guessing what behavior or choice might make the other happy.

But wait Elliott, you have the bible to tell you how to live a life which pleases God, so that should not be too hard. And you have history, in your human relationships, to remind you of which choices were rewarded and which were punished or ignored in the past.

This is all well and good, but am I being authentic to my True Self, if I look first to pleasing something outside of myself and only consider my inner guidance later?

I am astounded, when I look around the world, at the different "truths" we have invented about the nature of God. In some cases we have made God the benevolent Father. In others we have made this Power the Divine Mother. In some we have made the Almighty a fierce warrior, doing battle against its rivals. In each case, we are creating God in the image we decide is the truth. This is quite a different concept than that of surrendering to the Power from which we have been created.

In the example, I cited above, the individual believes that God exists outside himself and that this God has the choice to love or not to love human beings.

In the story I carry about God, this One Power is Love. It does not choose to love or not to love, it is Love itself.

But this too is just a story, because no matter how I define God, I limit this All-ness by the very nature of the thought that creates the definition.

So, I come back to my original point, "How can I possibly hope to please someone or something when I only have my own ideas about what pleases them?" The whole effort leads to madness. It feels good when the rewards match the intention for the action. It feels very sad when the intention does not result in the desired outcome.

At some point we must decide that in order to best serve, whatever our concept of God is, we must become the greatest expression of our authentic selves, we are capable of becoming.

To do this we must listen to the song which plays as us, within us.

As I write this I am reminded of the words from one of my favorite Cat Stevens songs. I recall them going something like this:

I listen to the wind
To the wind of my soul.
Where I'll end up
Well I think only God really knows.

I listen to my words
But they fall far below.
I let my music take me
Where my heart wants to go.

When I live from my heart,
When I march to the rhythm
I have been given
People will be pleased,
or they will not be.
The choice is theirs.

I am fulfilled by living my life, constantly saying "Yes" to the Truth I have found, in my heart of hearts.

Whether others choose to condemn or condone, belittle or applaud, my decisions, has no power over my life. In living an authentic life, I choose to surrender to the authority of the small still voice which never fails me.

This connection to Source never judges me. It always patiently waits for me to discover who I am; this connection, my true Identity.

I think a better way to rephrase the concept of God being great because he still loves humans, would be "I become a more authentic expression of the Source of all life, when I learn to Love all that is."

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 4/27/2010 5:24 AM | View Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)
Limited by my Story
In the present, I Am.

It is an interesting paradox that in order to fully "Be," all self identity must vanish.

All self identity is story. It is an accumulation of thoughts, beliefs, and "truths" which inform my idea of self.

Fully in this now moment, when this historical data is not defining this instant, I Am.

The minute I start to think again. The minute I pay notice to the fact that I just spent an instant without carrying around my fear or my incomplete self-identity, I am back in my story.

Unfortunately, my story only utilizes "what it has known" as its data base for determining who and what I am.

My story limits me, no matter how expansive I think my story to be.

It is the "I Think" part which limits me,which has me defining truth instead of experiencing Truth.

Everything I define is limited by the truth from which I draw my definition, including me.

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Posted by Elliott Teters at 4/26/2010 8:05 AM | View Comments (0) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (0)