The Mystic Path

I am reading The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power

It's sort of a self-help + spiritual book in one. In fact, I've never really read anything like it. But it seems to be resonating with me and providing some much needed relief for overwhelm:

My Notes

"Happiness follows a sincere effort towards self discovery." becomes "I am happy because I am curious enough to look for hidden (true) self. The more time I spend in honest self observation, the more I see the omnipresent state of happiness, peace, and love!

The best summary of the Tao I've ever read:

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; don't wish things to be different. Doing so only creates sorrow. Go along with it. Let reality be reality and let things flow naturally forward in whatever form they like. Be like a pebble carried effortlessly along the stream of life.

SLOW DOWN

Be careful - the goal can be a source of anxiety. How often is my impatience to achieve, fix or become something unnecessary a source of suffering? Life is easy, why do we make it so hard? Working at living as useless as pushing a ball downhill. The message is not to resist life - no matter how it shows up. When you see the ego and it's constant need to protect is self, you can begin to accept it for what it is, but you don't need to be caught up in it's drama. The true you is a witness to it all, the true you is pure awareness.

This book lights up the Mystic Path to success in every area of your life - the True Path to money, love, new friends, new energy, greater wisdom, and everything else your heart desires. And it is guaranteed to lead you to these things, because every step of the way is blessed with Cosmic Power. The Cosmic Power that comes from the center of the Universe, from the Source of all creation, from the Infinite Intelligence in Whose Mind all the things you want in life were first contemplated, as well as the way to obtain them.

The Mystic Path is for men and women who are dissatisfied with things as they are, for those who hear a faint whisper that things can be entirely different. For the plain fact is, things can be miraculously different - every tick of the clock can bring new victories, new rewards, new and exciting successes that you can bask in and point to for all to see.

If you will only let this book light up the Mystic Path to Cosmic Power for you, and by it be enlightened. What does the Mystic path reveal to you: There is a way out - the greatest secret on earth - The miraculous message of Mysticism - How to perform right action; The strange case of hypnotized humanity - How to wake up the world of wonder - The confessions of a famous nobleman - Your single greatest technique for newness - what the New Awakening does for you - How to walk the Mystic Path - How good things happen to you - Men who have walked he Mystic Path; How you can be happy right now - Your field of diamonds - How to contact Higher Power - Fifteen ways to gain new strength - Twenty special secrets - Answers to questions about love - How to handle difficulties with people; A vital secret for you - How pain magically disappears - Lights along the Mystic Path.

Inspired Reflections

Mystic path: There is nothing you need to learn, you simply must become aware of it all.

To be in awe of every moment. The miracle of life- being here now to experience it is enough!

Your recognition of the egoic false self weakens it.

Aim to see the AWEsome in others and they'll see the AWEsome in you. We are ALL AWEsome just being here.

A moonshot is when we do something OUTSIDE our comfort zone. The more MOONSHOTS you take, the more comfortable they become.

Landmines: Recognizing your weakness is the first step in overcoming them. Watch for the triggers (i.e. chocolate in the cupboard) and create obstacles to the the tiggers (i.e. putting dried fruit in the front of the cupboard and chocolate in the back!

Pure Awareness

What pulls me away from the 'awe' ? My false self - the one that is ego-driven.

I'm becoming an observer of myself... learning to see the distinction between the true self and the false self. The vast majority of us suffer because we've been brainwashed into believing our false self.

Too see the distinction between the true & false selves is a step towards enlightenment. Trust in the omnipresent higher power.

Ask: Is this thought/action elevating my true self or false self?

The $400k/year lesson

A close friend shared with me that he and her husband are reported their highest income ever in 2021. How did I react? Did this knowing fuel my ego-centric false self? Did it trigger my competitive false self? Her point was genuine and innocent enough, and I appreciate the fact that she trusts me enough to share this fact.

She wanted to make the point (while also asking me about our wealthiest friends) that everyone at every income level has 'issues.' Nobody is perfect and perceptions can be deceiving. But I am seeing a new distinction: We want to believe that the couple who appears to 'have it all' has some how figured out life, has some skeletons. Aspects of who they are that we want to believe we are better in. This is classic TPS and the classic payoff for the false self from schadenfreude.

One thing I can share is that this friend obsessively worships wealth, fame, and status. It's reflected in where they live, the car she drives, and the comments she makes.

So while my friend may possess immense 'outer wealth,' from the perspective of a mystic, she has 'inner poverty.' I often think of Jim Carrey - he's famously shared the point "I wish everyone could achieve all of the wealth, fame, and success as I have... because they will discover that none of it matters."

~~To be honest is to see that the world is unfair (always has been and always will be), that luck has a great deal to do with where we are in life, and that different values lead to different outcomes.~~

One thing I can share about this friend is that her career has always come first. For me (and my marriage), putting my career first was not a good fit for me. I likely harbored resentment people who put their self above others (including my friend). An alpha dog, take no prisoners, self-centered POV isn't aligned with my true self. But this is so much of what is drilled into us as a society. In many ways, it's the quintessential American life. And we as a culture, put achievements related to money, wealth, and fame on a pedestal. We worship them. And we envy those who have more, forgetting that there are so many more than have less. It reminds me of a common theme in my spiritual quest: the only way to win the game is not to play (wisdom from the movie War Games).

Infinite Intelligence - A Higher Power

Fifteen Ways to Gain New Strength

Fresh energy flows from you into every daily project when you:

See the attractiveness of the higher life.
Don't accept unhappiness as necessary.
Increase your self-awareness.
Abandon self-defeating attitudes.
Insist upon strict self-honesty.
Try to understand your desires.
Make simple and persistent efforts.
Refuse to sacrifice your integrity to anyone.
No longer take excitement as happiness.
Stop wasting energy in negative emotions.
Make self-change your aim in life.
Don't identify with anything.
Listen carefully to mystical principles.
Make self-discovery your daily hobby.
Want the Truth more than anything else.

Select any of these as your mental exercise for next few days. Think it through, try to see its full significance.

Embracing Presence and Community - Journal

I've been feeling more at peace lately. The Mystic Path book has helped me see the world differently and worry less about the future. It teaches to trust in life's unfolding events and focus on being present.

I realized this applies to my business as well. What matters most is putting in effort for our clients; we can't control the results. Judging myself based on outcomes isn't fair because it's not up to us. Effort is what counts—that’s where integrity comes in.

The book also shares practical ways to be mindful, like turning your attention outward when you notice negative thoughts or self-criticism creeping in. For me, focusing on sounds helps separate feelings from reality—sounds are heard while feelings are felt.

Reading Mystic Path made me realize many people (including myself) are caught up in a false sense of self through achievements that don’t reflect their true identity. But there’s no need for comparison or judgment since everyone deserves celebration simply by existing.

We should appreciate the journey from tadpole to human over 50+ years, creating what we have today: community! We're all worthy of praise just by making it this far—not only high achievers who set bars others may struggle with reaching.

This perspective helps combat my tendency toward judgment and comparison rooted within society’s expectations of success—we don’t need constant validation through accomplishments alone; finding meaning within ourselves is enough!

Celebrate communities formed by like-minded individuals coming together—it truly represents one of life’s greatest joys worth cherishing.

Raw Transcript

September 20th, 2022. I have been feeling a greater sense of peace as of late. I know that that Mystic Path book is helping me, but I'm just getting clarity into so many ways in my view of the world, and not so anxious about the future like I used to be. And that's, I think, a big theme of the book, is about sort of trusting in the perfection of everything as it unfolds, and just to be fully present, and to be confident, and to know that you're capable of being just fine, right?

So take a look at your notes, if you will, of what you've written as of the last 24, 48 hours. And what I wanted to reflect on was the fact that this does carry over to my business and my services. Really, it's all about, for us, putting in the effort, right? What we can control is the effort that we put into it. We can't control the results, and it's unfair to us, to myself, to judge myself based on the results that we get, because ultimately that's really not up to us. We put in the same amount of effort, and that's what's important. That's the integrity piece, which is a key value for me.

But it's all about the effort, and that's what we do for our clients. And as long as we're putting in the fair effort, then we don't need to, I don't need to be so anxious and critical. And here is, there are some really good gems in that book about practical ways to be more mindful. So one of them is, when you start to notice the sort of drama that you're getting sucked into, the thoughts, the habitual patterns that we fall into that are not serving us, right? The toxic thoughts, self-criticism, all that. Turn your attention to something external. Just look around and get lost, or just focus in on that external task and realize really, these feelings that you have are no different. And for me, it's sounds, right? That's, I'm really tuned into sounds. And I think that I see, that my ears hear. And likewise, I have, I recognize when I feel a certain way, but you know, feelings are felt. Sounds are heard. There's no difference. It's the meaning and the toxicity that we ultimately put into it that trips us up. Well, and the other observation I've been making the last couple of days, I don't think I've really been writing it down as much, but is about how reading Mystic Path is revealing the fact that, like, my father is highly, you know, bought into the false self, or sort of the achievements and accomplishments that are reflected upon really not a true identity or true self.

I just know that, yes, the most of the world is bought into that whole pseudo self. It feeds the ego. It feels good when you're getting accolades, and when you have momentum, you know, you want to lean into it. And the more you get, the more you sort of, it validates this sense of false self, which is very dangerous. And I also really want to remind myself, too, of the amazing accomplishment of just making it to becoming human, right? From that tadpole to humanity, and to live for 52 years, and to accomplish, and build, and create what we've created. The reality is, when you showed up, you were to be celebrated from that moment on. And when I look around and see everyone else, I recognize that these people, everyone, including myself, is to be celebrated, not just the high achievers, the folks that are, well, just setting this bar, which is great for them, but for the rest of us, we also are doing quite well just to arrive to where we are in this world. And I think why this perspective is so good for me is because I am so quick to judge, so quick to compare. And when you realize all that judgment and comparison plays into the false self, the identity crisis of what society says we need to be, we need to have, more, more, more, you recognize that you're just caught up in that, and that's completely unnecessary and not natural. It's not true. And what's really worth celebrating and acknowledging is community. So when a group of people with like-minded interests, like-minded people, come together and all the infrastructure that exists to support community, that really is the magic and, in my mind, one of the most important things to celebrate and take advantage of.