In The Man of Destiny, George Bernard Shaw shows us the twenty seven year old Napoleon attacking all the courses of his meal simultaneously with his left hand while marking military positions on a map with his other hand. He calls for some red ink. The landlord of the inn says “Alas! Excellency, there is none.”

Napoleon answers, “Then kill something and bring me its blood.” Grinning, the host replies that there is nothing save the general’s own horse, the sentinel, the lady upstairs and his wife. Napoleon says, “Kill your wife.”

“Willingly, your Excellency,” replies the man, “but unhappily I am not strong enough. She would kill me.”

“That will do equally well,” says Napoleon.

A great playwright like Shaw knows how to grab attention from the time the curtain goes up. He doesn’t have to grab the audience by the lapels. In Act I, at the beginning, the playwright already has the audience’s attention.

What’s your own hook? How are you going to start this act? Who speaks first? How early was the outcome determined?

If that damn voice in your head is telling you things you don’t want to hear, don’t feed it.

What started me on this path, after initially searching to reunite with who I am, was in learning the voice in my head is really my ego. It’s subconscious thought, and even though it’s mainly negative, there were “rewards” the ego took from it. Negativity made it stronger, by feeding into the things that reinforced it. Intellectually, I already knew that. Day to day, however, I had forgotten that.

It’s a daily battle. I keep catching myself listening to that madding construct of ego-drivel. Except now I am conscious it’s my subconscious ego talking. And its starting to lose control over my emotions.

Yesterday, for the first time in so very long, I felt joy. There was no event that precipitated this feeling. I found myself tapping my fingers to Yael Naim’s New Soul while driving around doing errands. I smiled. It struck me, how expansive I felt. How in tune I was. I became aware I was joyful, and just then, how long it had been, and then, how I wanted more joy in my life. And then the voice in my head said, ‘Thank you for this simple reminder of the joy of Being.’

p.s. Yael Naim’s only other English language song is a remake of Toxic.

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How is it little kids fight like the dickens to stay up at night, then jump out of bed in the morning? Whatever happened to never wanting to miss a thing?

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Robert Frost said, ‘Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.’

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Recreating this feeling as adults is a chore at times. Yet, is it really all that taxing? Isn’t it simply a matter of creating fun? For me, adopting a life changing goal, and then implementing it with enthusiasm, and with a small step in the right direction each day, has brought the enthusiast back to the forefront.

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“Action is the foundational key to success.” (Pablo Picasso)

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If even the thought of a life changing goal has you constipated, consider: it doesn’t have to be something to die for. Instead, make it simply something you want to live for.

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“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.” (Dennis Wholey)

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Action and intention are the two sides of this coin. Thinking you’ll get to it tomorrow or next Tuesday isn’t effective. Never will be. And you will be forever frustrated, and negative, toward yourself in the process. Which is then what you will bring into your life. A vicious circle. Yet that same circle can work in reverse. Take positive action, use intention, bring into your life what you know is out there for you. Happiness? Joy? Love? The source is boundless. Outflow determines inflow. It’s just that simple.

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Pascal said, “Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”

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A good place to start, if still deciding what’s the goal, is simply to breath. Meditate on it. Quiet yourself. Become connected to that inner stillness. Your conscious self. Tip: try diaphragmatic breathing.

The ego asks how to make a situation fulfill its needs. The sorcerer asks how to respond to the needs of the moment.

Instead of reacting against a situation, merge with it. A solution will arise out of the situation itself. Not out of your mind; out of your alert stillness.

Of course, if along your journey you hear the snorting of a grizzly, become one with the tree! Quickly!!

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A Zen Master was walking along in silence with one of his disciples. When they came to a gnarled tree, they sat down for a simple meal and a rest. After eating their rice and vegetables, the young disciple broke the silence by asking, “Master, how do I enter Zen?”

The Master remained silent. Minutes passed. The disciple was so anxious he was just about to ask another question when the Master suddenly spoke. “Do you hear the mountain stream?”

The disciple had not been aware of any mountain stream. He had been too occupied thinking about the meaning of Zen. Now, as he concentrated, the disciple began to listen, and thus hear that which was around him. His noisy mind subsided. His alertness heightened. Suddenly he did hear the just perceptible murmur of a small stream running off of the side of the mountain.

“Yes, I can hear it now,” he said.

The Master raised his eyes, pointed his finger, and said, “Enter Zen from there.”

The disciple was taken aback. It was his first satori. A flash of enlightenment. He knew what Zen was without knowing what it was that he knew.

The pair continued on their journey. Nothing was spoken. The disciple was amazed at the sounds he was now hearing. The humming aliveness he now felt. He experienced everything as if for the first time. He started thinking again. His alertness became covered up by mental noise. “Master, I have been thinking. What would you have said if I hadn’t been able to hear that mountain stream?”

The Master stopped, looked up and pointed his finger. “Enter Zen from there.”

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“Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” (Pascal)

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Why is there such a difference between an event we can never forget and an event we will always remember?

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I leaned back and my mind sallied forth into my remembered yesterdays. I used to love driving, when my mother first allowed me to borrow her VW Bug. She was christened Hermionie, by my mother, but I didn’t ever tell my friends her official name. Driving was freedom, then. Still is when I can cruise down highways doing 75 to Door County, or on spring break to Washington D.C., or on any trip away from routine and toward an adventure.

Then I remembered driving my cousin’s rebuilt Ford Model T, about that same time in my life. My uncle in Iowa City had wisely purchased one well past it’s prime, and along with a mechanic or two and his sons, they’d got that big, boxy beast running, even learning how to fix minor mechanical malfunctions and to change the oil all on their own. That wasn’t why my uncle bought it, though. His sons were as likely to get into trouble as not, and the T’s top speed wasn’t much above 40, downhill. It was built with a whole lot of steel, too. Not like cars today.

I remembered one weekend in college, when I borrowed a friend’s MG, my brother borrowed a friend’s Triumph, and off the two of us went for a drive across and over country roads, neither knowing what that strip of blacktop was called or where we were going to spend the night, just driving those old sportsters for the sheer fun of it. God, what a romp through the north woods we had!

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Where once the car was sex symbol, and virility was at stake, what I drove and my enjoyment in the act were one.

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Somewhere between then and now driving has become a chore. I’ve come to think of this place where I live as Faraway, since everything where I live is a hike. Grocery store: 10 minutes. High school: 10 minutes. Book store: 15 and 20 minutes, respectively. Gas station: 7 minutes. Sporting events: anywhere between 10 and 40 minutes (amateur or professional).

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I’ve spent the last month driving in and out of potholes the like of which you can scarcely imagine. Both my car and I are overdue for an alignment.

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We own three cars now, one for the teenagers, and teenagers by themselves are expensive, let alone the cost of maintaining three vehicles. This year so far I’ve had the rotors replaced ($900), a tie-rod fixed ($85), and two oil changes ($27 each). My daughter is also talented at getting her dad to spring for gas. Just this morning I woke to find a note she’d left requesting a full tank before she had to leave for school at 6:45 a.m. Seven minutes each way. (Last weekend she and her mom returned from shopping with a very pretty prom dress at a very reasonable price ($175), and in a fit of gratitude I’d offered a tank of gas ($47). Now, if only some boy works up the nerve to ask, it’ll all work out.)

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That same daughter caused her mother and I some brittle moments this past winter, learning to drive while also learning to navigate through snow and ice. I noted with some surety that as often as not it was the inexperienced teenager who managed to put their car into the ditch beside the road, and often then on a straightaway with no reason to be steering in any direction but straight on. I’m becoming convinced the state allows 16 year olds the rights to drive simply because, in its infinite wisdom, it knows the younger they are the softer their bones.

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I just got a call from the Dentist’s office. I’d missed my 10:30 appointment (20 minutes). I was focused on writing, in the now as it were (after my detour down memory lane), and I’d completely let matters lapse. Time ceased. Of course time is important, and I’ve got to remember, when I lapse into the now (or time past if its on hand) that planting one foot in the here and now might help this body I inhabit get itself there when (Crown: $1200).

The source is generative. It is pure generation, the life of all things. And of all creatures, man is endowed with imagination; man is therefore also endowed with an ability to tap into the source for generative inspiration. Creativity lurks deep within us. Within our soul.

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
Albert Einstein

Among the Celts, “Imagination” means soul. Celtic scholar John O’Donohue points out that in the Celtic way of seeing the world, the “soul” is the place where the imagination lives. It operates where light and dark, visible and invisible, possibility and fact come together. “The linear, controlling, external mind will never even glimpse the gift that imagination is . What expands the soul, those revelations, comes from the cosmos, and not the thoughtful thinking.”

“Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”
Blaise Pascal

Imagination wakes us up from our slumber. Imagination is always bigger than reality, as a closed box always holds more than an open one. Imagination is liberation; liberating us from the here and now. Imagination is so vast, so large, so free that it allows us to contemplate grandeur. It transports us outside the immediate world to a world of infinity, to what if, a place of what-is-not-yet. It takes us to the realm of elsewhere.

“It is the pen which dreams.”
French Philosopher Gaston Bachelard

The sorcerer knows that by being in the Now, letting Flow course through him, all things are possible. He is an opening through which energy flows from the unmanifested source to the here and now for the benefit of all. The essence of source is within him, is him, it’s the fuel that fires his imagination, it energizes thought and enables him to connect with the invisible energy in all things. Imagination is the workshop in which his intentions are first visualized.

It isn’t a thought but a feeling. It is akin to experiencing the birth of light from the inside. It is the feeling experience of a sun rising within one’s deepest core.

We must be before we can do, we can do only to the extent that we are, what we are depends on what we think and feel. What we think, what we focus our attention on, and how strongly we feel, our desire, is what ultimately unleashes inspiration. It is through silence that we can hear. It is through intention that we control our attention. It is what we focus our attention on that grows within us. We cannot manifest what we want; we can only manifest what we already have. What is already within us is source. If we become conscious of the source within us, understand that we can tap into it, allow it to pave the walk ahead of us, serendipity follows.

Meditation Exercise: Vow to yourself to take one or more everyday activities and use them to bring empowerment and creative expansion into your life. When commuting or washing the dishes or whatever, let it be a time for alertness. Be absolutely present in that activity and note the alive stillness within you. You will then be noticing how the inner dimension of consciousness flows into what you are doing. This is the joy of Being

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.”
Pablo Picasso

Remember earlier when we talked about whatever we focus our attention on grows? If we focus our attention on discovering our true self, then we will become increasingly aware of our true self. Yes, we need to learn how to be defenseless in order to achieve, and so it becomes a continuous battle. However, each time we do so, we learn how fulfilling and tangible the experience is.

As in life, if you thrust the logic in front of you as you head out the door, hurtling experience ahead to pave the walk, then you invariably lose the revelation that informs that day. When we plan, organize and manage our day we predetermine what will come and limit the outcome. Instead, if we allow ‘flow’ we receive everything from inspiration to serendipity.

“You cannot solve a problem at the level it is created.”
Albert Einstein

Most people spend inordinate time and effort dwelling on the things we like, the things we wish for, or the things someone else has. However, this mind set manifests that same scarcity right back to us. Instead, we need to relearn ‘as you give, so shall you receive.’ Source delivers us our own, the things we’ve created by our own thoughts and deeds.

Ask yourself: Do I choose to remain hostage to my everyday thinking based on the illusion of weakness and limitations? Or, to my true self, and the miraculous creative abilities within?

Growth follows knowledge, action follows inspiration, opportunity follows perception. However, always preceding is awareness. It is the awareness of consciousness (not Ego-driven but I am aware that I am aware) and source. To keep the door of consciousness open is the secret of power. That power is within. We can’t know it except through stillness. And we can’t receive this power unless we give it. Outflow determines inflow.

Meditation Exercise: Visualization. Visualize a flower sprouting, growing and blooming. Pick your favorite, and bring it from the unseen to the seen. Plant a tiny seed. Water it. Care for it. See the seed burst; it is now a living thing. It now has spirit and is beginning to search for the means of subsistence. See the roots penetrating mother earth, shooting out in all directions. Watch the stem shoot upward, bursting through the surface to the sunlight, watch it divide, see how perfectly each branch is formed. Watch the buds begin to form, then unfold. Now, become conscious of the fragrance of the flower as the breeze lightly bends the creation which you have visualized. You now can take this same exercise and make a blueprint for whatever goal or activity or enterprise you wish, as long as it is in alignment or harmony with source.

Letting go is the key step. In this way we become a magnet for everyone and everything we need: intuition replaces thought, knowing replaces questioning, serendipity replaces effort and peace replaces stress. As Lao Tzu advises, “Tao abides in non-action. Yet nothing is left undone. If kings and lords observed this, the ten thousand things would develop naturally.”

However, letting go is perhaps the most difficult step. Not only have we programmed ourselves that if we work hard, study hard, strive continuously for what we want, we have a chance of attaining success, monetary reward and a comfortable retirement, but we have also consigned ourselves to face some painful truths. When we are stuck in the heat of an argument, or when we are feeling overwhelming emotion or stress, or when we have some physical impairment it is difficult to simply let go and experience it as it is.

“Whatever we resist persists.”
Carl Jung

Overcoming our innate resistence to letting go is a matter of coming to grips with both the intellectual and emotional aspects of this act. Intellectually, we need to understand that there is already within us the perfect ‘answer’ to every question, every situation, every need. It must be so, since the source is boundless. Emotionally, we need to understand the fear of facing life head on with surrender, or defencelessness. By learning from each negative feeling or event, by being in the now and accepting what is as what is, we receive the gift of understanding (true enlightenment) allowing us to move on wiser, richer and untroubled from that point onward.

“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
Dennis Wholey

The doing itself, not the outcome, is the essence of life. The sorcerer plans ahead of where he is going. As outlined in Book 1, his intentions become orchestrated space time events of what he intended. He reverses the ego’s process (When I get this > I will do this > I will think this > I will be like this) to one of actualization (I will be this > I will spontaneously fulfill my desires > I will do the things that are necessary > I will receive everything I want).

Knowing that what he gives, he receives, the sorcerer’s Being is in harmony with this essence of life. The road to this state is in simply relaxing into Being: when we allow ourselves to taste this for the first time we discover the experience is far more tangible and satisfying than anything we previously experienced in the physical world. Repeating this often reinforces this benefit, and so begins to replace whatever illusory benefits we took as our lot in life before. Because our attention begins to focus on this, those moments of enjoying our true self come to the forefront.

Meditation Exercise: This time we are going to meditate on something. It could be a picture, an object, anything. Concentrate all of your attention on it for ten minutes. You’ll find your mind wandering, and you will have to bring your mind back again and again to the original purpose. However, it is critical to learn how to focus your attention to overcome any obstacles that appear in your path. Now, bring a picture with you and focus on it for ten minutes. Note every detail. Then, cover your eyes and try to picture every detail. When you are able to do so, you will be ready for the next meditation.

Creativity is both elemental to being human and to the universe as a whole. From the big bang onward, creation defines. Geneticist Theodore Dobzhansky puts it this way: “The creativity of the evolutionary process follows the general pattern of all creativity. The emergent process is neither random nor determined but creative. Just as in the human order, creativity is neither a rational deductive process nor the irrational wandering of the undisciplined mind but the emergence of beauty as mysterious as the blossoming of a field of daisies out of the dark Earth.”

If Dobzhansky is right, it begs a question. If creativity is so central to everything, why is it so difficult to let our creative brilliance shine? The answer lies in our attempts to try, do or attain a state of creative ‘spark.’ Simply put, in the doing, we’ve moved away from being.

We are already unlimited, boundless creativity. If instead of doing we just relax, ‘aha’ comes into being because its already there. In the same vein, being in the ‘flow’ is always when we’re not thinking, but feeling. Thus, the trick isn’t to seek it, but simply to relax and let ourselves become aware. Seeking is our ego demanding attention, for it takes effort and will to make something, doesn’t it? Yet, in the seeking, so too is the loss of recognition of our true self. Our Presence is innately wise, and can be known by feelings of joy and love, not in thoughts and searching.

Instead of letting your ego determine what you focus your attention on, the sorcerer simply focuses his attention on what his intentions are. The principle is: whatever you focus your attention on expands in your life to the exclusion of other things. Instead of focusing all his attention on getting into the flow or getting out of this trap or that bad habit, the sorcerer simply focuses on getting better acquainted with his true self. With his intention focused on becoming more aware of his true self, his true self becomes better known. In that simple step comes Presence.

This takes a bit of trust, in the beginning. Is isn’t easy to disregard a lifetime of worry and a whole laundry list of looming responsibilities in the faith that the answers are already known to your true self. Most people concentrate on things they want, not on who they are. Yet there is nothing the true self cannot do; it isn’t constrained by time or space, economic or social laws. It is boundless, it is energy, it is part and parcel of the cosmic whole. Our true self can’t see any limitations, because those very limitations don’t exist in its realm. It is only our ego that sees limits, because our ego is so limited. Our true self can only see potential, and the avenues available to manifest that which is intended.

Ask yourself: Would you rather trust that very same ego that’s gotten you into this mess in the first place, or in your innately wise true self that knows no bounds?

Meditation Exercise: Relaxation. In this meditation, it is important to learn how to completely relax. First, empty your mind and get control of your thoughts. Focus on relaxing your muscles. Start at your toes. Tense, then relax them. Once you’ve learned how to relax the toes, move up to your calves, then thighs and so on all the way up to the face. Once you’ve mastered completely relaxing your self, note how completely at peace you are. Now, it is time to work on letting go of all negative thoughts. Visualize them disappearing, like a leaf on water flowing downstream, or sand escaping from top to bottom of an hour glass. All fear, doubt, worry thoughts are no longer the kind of thinking you will allow. Your intent is now to replace each negative thought with a positive one. Note how easy and reaffirming positive thoughts are to those negative ones that once occupied much too much of your time.

The reason to become the sorcerer that’s already within you is simply to be who you already are. If you don’t, if you can’t, if you won’t expand beyond the ego-driven dysfunction, you’ll die with the dance still in you.

The sorcerer understands our all too human ego; in that wisdom, and in tandem with creativity, a balance between head and heart, yin and yang, earth and sky, masculine and feminine, cosmos and psyche creates a whole being. (Cosmos, from the ancient Creek word kosmos, “whole.”)

Before the sorcerer delves into the realm of manifesting magic, of manifesting his intentions, he first must come to understand what and who he is. Which begs the age-old question, “What is the true nature of being human?” Is it to be consumers? (For 98.8% of our existence, it was hunter-gatherer.) Is it to be addicts? (Addiction comes from our relinquishing power over to our ego’s greed for ever more short-term fixes instead of the much more satisfying joy of creativity.) Is it to be bored, boring, lazy? (People who are creating things, alive and interacting with their world, are not bored, boring or lazy.)

When are we happiest? For me, it’s when I am in the moment. When I suspend judgement and predisposition and simply enjoy. It is when I am truly creative, in the ‘flow’, and intuitively know precisely what’s needed next. These are transcendental experiences, but all too infrequent.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his 1990 breakthrough book ‘Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,’ detailed the psychology behind living through opportunity, circumstance and purpose. That is to say, he outlined the conditions in which ‘flow’ occurred. However, it is here that this primer digresses, for it isn’t a matter of technique nor condition but rather simply Being (that is, ‘flow’ is our natural state). The question, then, is how to bring more ‘flow’ into our lives.

“The only really valuable thing is intuition.”
Albert Einstein

Archaeologists have traced the origins of Homo sapiens back to Africa at least one hundred thirty thousand years ago. However, archaeologists don’t really start humanity until about seventy-seven thousand years ago, when in caves high above the Indian Ocean man first began making artifacts. It is our very nature to create, to make artifacts.

“If you let hydrogen gas alone for 13 billion years it will become giraffes, rose bushes and humans.”

Brian Swimme (Physicist)

‘Who am I’ can’t be answered by thoughts, by the ego. Who I am is much more than the material world. There’s a whole other part of who we are. That part can only be known through direct experience. It isn’t thinking, it’s awareness. It is to be found when you are aware that you are aware. Its essence, our essence, is when we are experiencing ‘flow.’ Its when we are in harmony with Intent. Its when we let our intuition lead that we can be one with the moment, and thus one with ourselves.

“You don’t need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing.”
Bob Dylan

What would happen if we lost our attachment to who we think we are, and what we think? Wouldn’t we ‘see’ who we really are? Not only that what we previously thought was transient, ever-changing, but that our true essence which is doing the observing is both unchanging and pure intelligence. Who we are, in other words, is creative intelligence. It isn’t constrained by any self-concept. It doesn’t need to struggle to achieve anything at all. It is pure energy, as is everything else.

Meditation Exercise: Breathing. Find a quiet spot, one which you can return to day in and day out. You could sit in a chair, lie on the floor, wherever it is that for 15 uninterrupted minutes you can focus your mind. For the first week, simply practice being quiet. Try to empty your mind. Instead of listening to your inner voice, listen to your breathing. Feel your chest expand when you inhale. Hold it for a moment, then release it slowly. Repeat. Don’t get discouraged if thoughts keep entering. Just as the thought that this thought just occurred, as well. Simply, become aware that thoughts come and go, and that you can be aware of thoughts coming and going. Note ‘who’ is aware; that’s Presence. Who you really are is the one observing the thoughts, not the thoughts themselves. Who you really are is the awareness, and thus you can never know who you really are through your thoughts because that isn’t who you are. (If you’d like a little reading on how to meditate, here’s an ad free suggestion on a technique called Hamsa.)

“Tonight I feel like Zsa Zsa Gabor’s fifth husband. I know what to do but how do I make it interesting?”

What’s your script for today?

“This is like making love to Joan Collins. You know it’s been done before many, many times. And much, much better.”

What hook will you use to start it off?

“I feel like the young Arab sheik who inherited his father’s harem. I know what to do but where the hell do I begin?”

Will you expound on your theme from yesterday?

“As Henry VIII said to each of his wives in turn, I shall not keep you long.”

Whatever your script is today, it certainly must express the essence of what you know and feel and trust is right.

The first step is always in the seeking of the answer to “Who Am I?” In so doing comes the dawning of a heightened consciousness.

Is there a paradox at the center of this?

Getting to this juncture has been part-and-parcel a process of self-examination. Just as, self-examination is, by its very nature, self-paralysis.

And what I’m about doing, now and in the future, is quite the opposite.

Don’t think about breathing. Just breathe. Don’t think about who do I want to be, just be.

It’s a Tao thing.