If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!

There is a book written by Sheldon Kopp called If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! I haven’t read it and I don’t plan to. The title alone caused a shift in my consciousness that has been irreversible.

For me, this book spoke volumes in my life. All my life I yearned for guidance. I knew I had these inherent abilities yet I had no idea how to cultivate them. I studied stories of successful people to try to learn how they made choices. I thought I needed confirmation from outside of myself that everything was going to be alright. I wanted a step by step guide to find my success.

The truth is, there is none.

Every successful person has been in the place where you are in. They didn’t know what to do or where to go. They had an idea in their mind, an end result and they bumped against walls, problem solving along the way until they met their answer.

The Buddha represents the answers you seek for your life questions.

Should I go back to school?

Should I leave him?

Am I dressed right?

Is this the right career for me?

We seek counselors and psychics and advisors to affirm what we already know. We already know what is right, but we do not trust ourselves.

The proverbial “road” the title mentions is symbolic of your life journey. If you meet anyone on your life journey who claims to have the answers to your life questions or who you believe is better suited to guide you on your life journey you should KILL that idea.

No one outside of you has the answers to your life questions. No one knows what you desire better than you. No one knows what you are capable of more than you know. No one feels the hunger you have for your dreams more than you feel it. No one outside of yourself is more capable of guiding you.

YOU ARE THE BUDDHA.

You know the answers.

Trust yourself to make the best decisions. You ALWAYS get it right, no matter what the outcome is.

YOU ARE THE BUDDHA.

The Buddha lives within you.

Walk in your own power, trust yourself and be free from trying to follow in anyone else’s path. You give away your personal power when you trust anyone above yourself.

Tap into your intuition. Your intuition is your smartest self. It will guide you.

You never get it wrong. You always get it right. You know just what to do. Now, go and do it. And do not apologize to anyone for what you choose because they are not your Buddha, YOU ARE.

Why Meditation May Not Be The Answer

Meditation is the magic trick that most new age students believe will get them to their intention of inner peace. Every supposedly ‘conscious’ person will ask, “Do you meditate?”

Well yes, I do meditate, but not as much as I once did and here’s why.

Meditation, in its purest form happens anytime you think a certain thought for more than 17 seconds. Whatever you are focusing on, you are meditating on. In the spiritual sense, meditation happens when you can clear your mind of all thoughts or when you allow your thoughts to flow freely without attaching any emotion to them.

Both of these tasks are difficult to do as we tend to allow our thoughts to dictate our emotions, which in turn influence how we react and interact in situations. In my opinion, meditation is useful simply to let you know that you do not have to be a slave to your thoughts. Your thoughts can be directed wherever you want them to be. Whatever you focus on, with emotional energy will often be magnetized into your life. Once I constructed that foundational premise I was ready to move on to exploring other philosophies.

Meditation, in my opinion, gives me a feeling of floating in space. There is no physical world. There is only thought. There is no color, no light, no goals, and no problems. There are no relationships, no worries, no bills, no deadlines- only thought.

One day I had an eerie feeling that death might be a lot like this. I imagine myself, or the lack of, floating off into space as nothing but a blast of joyful energy. Soon after I constructed that belief, I had a conversation with a friend who described sleep in the same way.

“Why do you think everyone runs home from work and immediately wants to go to sleep?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

“Because they want to die to this world, they don’t want to experience it anymore.”

So my mind tied sleeping to dying and then dying to meditation and then I realized that they may all be one and the same. If they are then why would I want to spend a considerable amount of my time being DEAD while I am alive? What is so wrong with my life that I feel that I have to experience death more often than I have to?

I am guaranteed to die; at least that’s what the medical professionals say. If I am guaranteed to one day experience that joyful energy permanently, then THIS life must be a gift to me. Why am I rushing back to become a part of the energy that I came from when I should be enjoying this gift?

Some say that meditation leads to clear thinking and the ability to “hear” from God or your higher power. I understand why they say that. When you attempt to void your mind, you can relax and make better decisions that are not affected by your emotions and fears. Your negative emotions and fears are sometimes caused by the social norms that we have established or the goals we are expected to experience by a certain time. Those expectations for the development of your character or capabilities will often paralyze us, leading us to believe that something is wrong with us and fills our mind with criticisms that do not serve us. Then we need to meditate to still our minds so we can gain peace of mind.

If you simply decide that you will define your own success and minimize your comparison of your life experiences to your neighbors you may find that you are doing just fine. If you decide that who you are, even with all your idiosyncrasies, is already good enough then you won’t have to quiet your mind from critical thoughts that cause unrest in your inner being.

You don’t HAVE to be anybody great. You don’t HAVE to race to the finish line. You don’t HAVE to have the biggest house on the block to be labeled a success and you don’t have to DIE (meditate) every night in order to feel peaceful.

I say this world is a PLAYGROUND in which we were meant to enjoy. We can’t seem to enjoy it because of the ideals cast upon us by society which tells us that life isn’t pleasurable if we do not achieve certain things in a certain time frame. Who made up those rules? Why are you following them? Why do you believe you must rush back to the experience of death in order to be comforted from the ills of this life?

This world is your playground. If you think of it in terms of a board game then imagine that it is your turn to be YOU. What will you do with all the capabilities and characteristics that you possess? Do it. Or do nothing. No one is timing you. No one is watching you. No one is judging you. You are your only judge. Make the judgment that your life is already great and your evolution is happening in perfect timing.

You may not even need to ‘meditate’ tonight.

What Does Your Favorite Song Say About You?

You may be humming a different tune after reading this article.

Can you think of your favorite song at this moment? What story do the lyrics tell? Is this a situation or feeling you have experienced in your life? For most the answer will be a resounding YES. That is simply because the we are magnetized toward the type of lyrics and music that reflect the conditions of our hearts.

I once met a guy who complained that all of the songs being aired on the radio were about heartache and pain. To which I replied, "Nope, those are only the songs you connect with and that is why you hear them more vividly than the others."

When we listen to music or a particular artist we are drawn to the energetic vibration of their artistic style because it reminds us of ourselves. For a time I couldn't go an hour without humming Kanye West's Touch The Sky because during that time I had visions of making my dreams come true.

Then I found myself being energized by rap artist Trina's verse on Trick Daddy's Na'an Ni$$a. It was because at that time I was becoming more open about my sexuality and sexual desires and hood upbringing. I was becoming more in tune with where I came from as both Trick Daddy and Trina were raised in my neighborhood.

A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to Wildflower by The New Birth an old group from the 70's and I felt so connected to the song that I made this video of my life.



The lyrics seemed to represent me.

She faced the hardest times you can imagine
And many times her eyes fall back the tears
And when her youthful world was about to fall in
Each time her slender shoulders
For the weight of all her tears
And a sorrow no one hears
Still rings in midnight silence in her ears

Chorus:
Let her cry
for she's a lady
Let her dream
for she's a child
Let the rain fall down upon her
She's a free and gentle flower growing wild

And if by chance that I should hold her
Let me hold her for a while
And if allowed just one possession
I would pick her from her garden to be mine

Be careful how you touch her for she'll awaken
Sleep's the only freedom that she knows
And when you look into her eyes you won't believe
For the way she's always paying for a debt she never owed
And a silent wind still blows that she can only hear
So she goes

Repeat chorus 2x

She's my free and gentle flower, growing growing growing wild
She's a free and gentle flower
growing growing wild
She's my flower,
growing growing growing wild
Growing growing growing growing wild
She's my free and gentle flower

You can guess how I feel about myself from reading the lyrics to this song and you can guess how you view life from studying the lyrics from your favorite song. If the lyrics are laced with fearful thoughts and heartache you can choose a new song to sing in your head and in your heart.

It's up to you to shift your focus. What you focus on will be magnetized to you in your life AND on the radio.

What song are you singing?

When Your Circumstances Shift, It's A Gift

If it seems like your entire world is shifting before your eyes you may be quite alarmed by all of the changes. Have you exhausted all possibilities for solving this “problem”? Are you out of time, energy and resources? Are you at the final hour and have no where to turn? Is your only hope a miracle?

What if this circumstance is actually a divine gift for you? We pray for change. We hope for better situations in our lives but we do not realize that the price we pay for wanting MORE is to give up what we have now.

Did you silently wish for a better, more fulfilling job and have recently received a pink slip? This is your opportunity to go after the position of your dreams.

Were you constantly annoyed by your lackluster relationship and wished that you could meet someone who really appreciated you? Did you just find out that your partner cheated or is in love with someone else? This is your chance to be free to find the person who is really meant for you.

Is your home in foreclosure and the creditors calling? This could be just what you need to live a more carefree life. If you let go of all the bills you had and downsize your lifestyle a bit you may be able to realize the dream of traveling like you always wanted.

You created this “loss” out of a yearning for something different. You did this to yourself and you now have the opportunity to make the most out of it. No wish or heart’s dream is without its drawbacks, but those drawbacks won’t seem so devastating once you realize that it is important to detach yourself from what you have now in order to gain more.

I was working two jobs, seven days a week and I wished that I could see my children more. As my wishes come true, and they always do, I lost both jobs all in one weekend and I am now able to spend more time with my children than I have had the opportunity to do in the last two years. At first I was devastated by the losses but as I held my two sons in my arms while watching The Sandlot late Saturday night I realized that this IS my dream come true.

Your wishes are made by your intense desires or your heart felt longings. Once these yearnings are sent out the thing you yearned for is magnetized to you, causing a shift in your circumstances.

You can choose to be devastated by the changing tides in your life or you can choose to ride the waves. I explained this to my sons in this way:

Your life is like the wheel of a bicycle. You are at the center and every person, situation or circumstance is a spoke in the wheel. When the wheel is turning, as life does, things appear and disappear from your life without cause and it would be wise to never try to hold the spokes in place or else you stop the wheel from spinning (or at least hurt your hand trying).

Be free from trying to control your circumstances. Every situation is a gift to you. Every person, place or thing that enters your life is a blessing. You need not fight to make someone or something stay. Simply enjoy its presence for it’s allotted time and then be willing to say goodbye when the time comes trusting that it will be replaced by something else. Life is a culmination of stories we tell about our existence. There’s always another story waiting to unfold. Do not get stuck in your last story. Live your adventure. Your shifting circumstance is really a gift to you.