Everyday Bliss For Women In Leadership

It’s official, I’m bigger than Oprah. (no, really, keep reading!)

Everyday Bliss For Busy Women finished out its birthday at #142 overall in General Books on Amazon.com, up from its starting number of 8,978. Wow. That’s a better than 8,000-fold increase in less than 24 hours. Pretty hot, I’m telling you what.  Everyday Bliss also finished #2 in Women’s Health on Amazon.com (!) and #5 in Personal Transformation, just above Eckhart Tolle’s Oprah’s Book Club choice "A New Earth" at #6 and just below the venerable Dale Carnegie’s "How To Win Friends and Influence People" at #4.

For a few brief shining moments, my book was number two and rose gracefully and with dignity, above the Oprah Book Club pick to sit at the feet of the all-wise and ever-chipper Mr. Carnegie. (and gee whiz, in company with Eckhart Tolle!) Hot holy bananacakes, Batman!

What a nice anniversary present. (yes, it was today as well) The Bear and I have been together for ten years this year. We’re still alive, still in love and still working on it as is fitting and proper. He thought this news above was the best anniversary present. It’s nice to have your partner proud of you.

And all this is illusion, is fancy, is ultimately, not important. Even though it is. Mr. Tolle was right on that front. And a lot of others. I’m just thrilled I was even if briefly, in his presence.   ;-)  Here’s the shot worth a thousand words, right here:

It’s a beautiful and longer clip of Tolle teaching the basic premise that your perception of Reality™ is not in fact Reality™ itself.  Luxuriate in Presence as you watch….

…Or, "Pain-bodies On Parade"…

Here is the first of several report posts on Eckhart Tolle’s teachings in San Rafael, CA. This first one concerns environment.

I am not a fully enlightened being. Let me preface the below by saying this, and that I regard what appear to be other people as parts of myself and myself as part of them. Everything around me is a constant and consistent teaching in surrendering to life as it arises, letting forms come and go as they will and being in Bliss with what is. Last week was a powerful, deep teaching in this, and a poignant part of it was my environment. 

That said…

Part of my spiritual teachings were in a genre known as Feri, taught by a man who considered himself a Hawai’ian huna priest. (here’s a link to a great mind-map of the Huna way) Hawai’ian locals, he taught, call while people "ha’ole" meaning "without the breath of God" due to the caucasian lack of skin color…at least as the indigenous Hawai’ians saw it.  Imagine, a whole race of ghost-like people come to your bright and sunny shores where all around you have a nice healthy tan - you’d think they didn’t have any God inside them too. And when the visitors acted like untutored children and desecrated sacred sites without thought or apology, well, call that corroborating evidence.

In the Hawai’i of today as in the California spiritual community, the word ha’ole has come to mean "those who don’t get it and are acting like imbeciles". It was unfortunate that more than a fair sprinkling of these met Eckhart Tolle in San Rafael this past week.

Tolle’s teachings were as always, inspiring, as always, relevant to a wide bandwidth of people. But since the Oprahfication of his message, the tourist element has been brought into play. Mind you, I’m as big a fan of Oprah bringing A New Earth to the world as anyone else. I think it’s a beautiful undertaking and may well be the best thing she has done yet to further the cause of peace and enlightenment in the world. Brava Oprah, for what you’re doing. You go, girl.

However, association with "Oprah, the brand" is known to produce a predictable array of side-effects. Mass runs on products Oprah endorses. Sudden over-subscription to the trainings and workshops of those she favors. Instant celebrity status conferred upon those fortunate enough to be interviewed by her. These are all to be expected. …

In a few minutes, I’ll be heading over to the Marin Center for the second day of Eckhart Tolle’s teachings on Life Purpose. Last night is still being processed, one more day or two and I should have a synthesis t o report. I can say that Tolle and The Dalai Lama have something in common: a puckish sense of good humor about humanity’s failings and delight in the world around them. I also noticed that Eckhart used a lot of sleight of mouth for the NLP’ers out there, with sentances to the effect of  "…this stream of consciousness is arising in you…NOW…" Excellent pacing and leading. More later. Words are truly ineffectual to convey the real meaning of the teachings which is found, as Tolle himself suggests, in the spaces between the words. In Stillness…

Hey there fellow Stillness fans. It’s not like Words can really capture an occasion like hearing Eckhart Tolle lecture, but I’ll try. I’m leaving in a few minutes for San Rafael, where we’ll hear Eckhart tonight from 8 - 9:30pm and Saturday from 1:30 - 4:30pm at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium. If you’re there and find me, we’ll meditate together.

At right is a picture I found on Tolle’s website of him looking even more puckish than usual with a calico mittie. He often speaks of animals, cats in particular, as being more aware than we are. He once said the most accomplished Zen master he ever knew was a cat, so it’s not suprising to see him with one. What mutual delight on the faces of these two friends.

Here’s what the event says about itself: "…Now you are invited to experience this visionary teacher in a live, face-to-face encounter. Here is a rare opportunity to be drawn into the "spaciousness that words can only point to" by the vibrant, conscious presence of Eckhart Tolle himself."

I’ve heard about the effects of an evolved spiritual teacher conferring shaktipat, spontaneous awakening and initiation, by merely sitting in the teacher’s presence. Where I have seen most reference to this is in what is said about the spiritual teacher Amma - the Hugging Saint as she is called. I have heard this said of Tolle as we. Without anticipation, am looking forward to feeling what a room full of people being in presence together will feel like.

It’s extraordinary how I’ve come to this feeling of not looking forward, yet taking all the actions I need to take to be there. An immense clearing occured this week that lasted four days. Before the clearing the mind was busybusybusy with monkey brained chatterings. As I reach today and am marvelling at how resilient the pain-body can be, yet also how easy to take out, once you know what it’s doing, a flushing of inattentiveness seems to have happened.

Presence is one of many states that I move in and out of as I continue coming to awareness of my own pain-body. To be constantly in that state must be truly miraculous. I will get back to you later on being in the presence of one who is there most of the time is like. 

I just wrote a post over at Oprah.com for those studying A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle. (gotta love it!)  I thought I’d duplicate it here, and also over at the 12 Keys to Bliss course for our own private forum of folks studying this book. If you’re having difficulty getting your head around any concept in any setting, try this:

"…I teach Eckhart’s philosophy in my courses and use it in my coaching program… Occasionally my students and/or clients have similar difficulties understanding these concepts. It really helps to remember that you have an immense resource and BS-detector in your physical body. While being a component of the overall pain-body for some people (it sure has been for me), it is also a wonderful truth-teller.

Research from the Hearthmath Institute in Boulder Creek California (www.heartmath.org) has shown there to be a huge correlation between the heart, emotions and your effectiveness in the world. When your heart is "in congruence" (or "agrees with") what you want to do, you’ll feel good about the thing and it usually turns out that was the best thing for you to have done.

Ever gone against that feeling? When you feel uneasy about doing something or hanging out with someone and the situation turns out badly? When you said "I wish I’d listened to my gut instincts on that one"?  That’s your heart, telling you what’s true. Ignore its advice at your risk. The heart always knows best and unlike the tongue (who will say anything), will never lie to you. The body as a whole is innately truthful.

So how does that relate to this class? Simple. Try out just one of the new concepts you’re reading. Put your hand over your heart. Take a deep breath in and out and ask yourself "Is this true/right/good for me?".  Pay attention to how your heart feels, to what it tells you.  Really, deeply listen to your heart, and feel with that hand that covers it. Listen not only with your ears, but with your whole body.

How does your heart feel as you contemplate this new concept? To start out with, is it broadly speaking "good",  "bad" or "neutral"?  Once you have a large direction to look in, you can seek refinement in your heart’s messages to you if you like.

One thing - your heart’s messages to you may not be "correct for all". They are messages meant only for you. But they will always be true for you, and always be in your best interest.

Hoping folks find this helpful….

Love & Blessings,
Maryam

One of the most important of the Bliss Keys that I’ve discovered is:

The German metaphysicist Eckhart Tolle speaks about our collected personal negative experiences - fear, anger, pain, sadness, guilt and the like, operating as a form of consciousness inside of us. He calls this collection of experience the "painbody". As humans, we are somewhat addicted to paying attention to negativity. When we constantly attend to our painbody, it prevents us from being fully Present. Added to our own personal negativity, we also have that of our immediate family lines and also, of the culture we we’re born into and the one in which we currently live. Sum all that up and the energy the painbody consumes can be a hellishly powerful force.

The painbody feeds upon negative input, and its existence is the reason we can sometimes experience very miserable lives.

Those joining me in the 12 Keys to Bliss Program will learn more about the Painbody, how it operates and how to move past it. You can still join us! Click here for more info  (opens in a new window)

Tolle and other spiritual authors point to the quality of having a fairly large painbody (most Westerners do) as being "compacted" or "compressed". This always makes me think of those trash compacter machines back in the 1980’s. Remember those? They took a whole houseful of trash and compacted it into a cube less than a quarter of its original size.

Imagine being only a quarter of YOUR original size. I’m barely 5"5" in stocking feet. If I were a quarter of my size, I would be less than a foot and a half tall (or, from 162.5cm to 43 cm for the decimal crowd).

Are there days when you FEEL as small as this? As if the weight of the world were bowing you down to the ground? This is the PHYSICAL SENSATION of Compaction - give thanks for this feeling! It is a powerful tool that will lead you towards Bliss.

How? By showing you the opposite of what you really want. Simply flip this state on its back and take a look at the flipside. This is what you DO want. Straighten your shoulders, elongate your upper spine and allow it to pull your entire body upward as you think about what you do want. Engage your abdominal muscles until you feel how strong you really are.

Think about it…
 

We had a bang-up call a week or so ago with the Everyday Bliss R&D Party folks. Aren’t a member of the party yet? join at left - you’ll get a hot gift to ring in your New Year!

In this call I shared a process I developed that you WON’T find in my Everyday Bliss For Busy Women book (out in May 2008 from New Harbinger Publishers), but you WILL learn, among many others, in my own lightspeed process, the:

((( I’ll be sharing this program to learn to live in complete Presence  — where NOTHING is truly a problem —  in February 2008. Go ahead, click on the name above, and catch the EARLYBIRD before it goes away on Christmas Eve! )))

Though we only had time to go through HALF the process, people have already written in claiming marvellous results! Gremlins gone, habits busted, relationship weirdness disappearing and crabby parents turned into lambs.

Such heartening news to hear, particularly in the holiday season!

So as promised, after giving you a good space of time to practice the process, here is a place to let us know what happened when you practiced the "Breathing Peace" process.

Simply click here and scroll to the bottom to share your experience of this powerful changework modality.

Weren’t on the call and want a replay? No problem! Get it here:

http://www.maryamwebster.com/holidayblissparty/

Happy Holidays!!!

Warmest Love & Blessings from Maryam
and the whole Everyday Bliss team