Surrender, Rumi Style!!

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Rod's World

I was so busy yesterday doing pre Xmas things, that the blog did not appear out of my fingers. And after a sumptuous lunch with the family and relatives I was wandering around the apartment looking on the walls for inspiration.

Thats where I go to when i’m stuck, I have posters, writing from courses and quotes from my favourites. When the real estate agent who recently sold my flat saw them he took a step backwards. its OK though another investor brought it and she loved them and wants me to stay.

I read through them and saw the following Rumi quote – This is Love: to fly toward a secret Sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of Life. Finally to take a step without Feet. I keep this on the wall because it challenges my logical way of thinking about Life.

I also recently did a find a word for the year exercise via the fine work of Susannah Conway Find Your Word for 2016. My Anam Cara Emeli passed this on to me , its really worth while over a 5 day period. My word is Sacredness but another word I was considering was Surrender.

I put Surrender quotes into Google images, thats where I get all mine from, but two listings underneath it was Surrender quotes by Rumi, I knew what I had to do. So lets look at 15 quotes by Rumi on surrender, here we go.

1. How much of our lives do we resist surrendering to new adventures, would you go with your dream partner if they came up to you in the street and said, lets runaway to Jamaica now?

2. I have been learning to surrender to my emotions more and more. I imagine I will be freer to deal with moments like these were they fly back and forth between extremes at the end of the rainbow.

3. We, or at least I have spent a lot of money on this question, some of it from a good place, some not so great. I have been hospitalised 5 times due to mental health issues. My last mentor has suggested I do body work and get out of my head. it has made profound changes in my life.

4. When we are coming from Conscious spirit the necessity to blame others drops away, responsibility becomes the gift it is.

5. I sure those of us still waiting, especially if you are in your 60’s like me find this one confronting. I surrender to its wisdom.

6. How often do we repeat the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, same with questions I’m afraid.

7. Underlying all there is Love, drink copiously of it and you will remember this.

8. Don’t know how this snuck in, but Eckhart is a fine philosopher on the subject of surrender as well.

9. Here’s the silent one, the one without words, drink it in.

10. I know I have looked in totally the wrong place for the friendships and love i seek in my life, when it has been there all along, surrender to what is so.

11. I have written lists and burnt them so that what my soulmate is like is out there in the ether. When I met someone who was one for a while, she was nothing like it, all my other desires did melt away.

12. Perhaps Rumi’s most famous quote on Love and Surrender, if we really got this we would be able to hear Sacred Love, that time when someone or you say I Love You and it never has to be said again because it is heard for a life time.

13. Surrender to this and have your life explode in 2016, I dare you.

14. Place you hand above your heart and knock, it has been waiting a long time for you to enter!!

15. We finish with one off my bucket list, Sufi spinning. Perhaps its as simple as this not to become a dizzy wreck as I do after 60 seconds. Sufi’s do it for hours.

I was speaking to one of the Iranian asylum seekers about my love for their poet Rumi, Abdul looked at me strangely, I think Wikipedia explains it well. Only in the west is he known but such a simple name.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد رومی‎‎), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى),Mawlānā/Mevlânâ (مولانا, “our master”), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, “my master”), and more popularly simply as Rumi (1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian^[1]^[8] poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.^[9] Rumi’s influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions: Iranians, Tajiks, Turks, Greeks, Pashtuns, other Central Asian Muslims, and the Muslims of South Asia have greatly appreciated his spiritual legacy for the past seven centuries.^[10] His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats. Rumi has been described as the “most popular poet”^[11] and the “best selling poet” in the United States.

Well I hope this gives you an idea of how highly I regard Rumi. Namaste until Monday my dear friends.

What’s on Your Wall?

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Rod's World

I recently received the phone call all renters dread a few weeks ago, the Real Estate agent advising you that the owners are selling. John advised me that if an investment buyer brought it I may be able to stay. My walls are covered with the displays of my life.

The Indigenous painting my sister gave me as a house-warming present four years ago, the Tiwi Island painting my friend did, the letters that you write at my friend Jules Sutherland’s extraordinary events like Mojo Tantra Dance. I thought they would want me to remove them but they liked the homely look of them, I only had to take the 50 or so thing I had on my fridge. It goes up for auction Saturday so here’s to fingers crossed.

So I have a commitment to write a blog every Monday and Thursday and when I didn’t have something planned I used to look at my wall at home and something would inspire me. I write them at my voluntary position at Darebin Intercultural Centre between English students and the only thing above my desk is a Life is a Gift sticker, so what do we think of life is a gift across the Universe. Here are my 15 quotes of Choice, Here we go :

1. Here is a formulae worth relating to, Who doesn’t like receiving a present or being in the present!!

2. Marinela Reka is a noted English poet, Her Web Page full of poems. This quote from her suggests that there is a way of living life that you could get presents daily not just on your birthday.

3. Life’s gifts do not come to you when you take your eyes off your vision and dreams on your daily journey.

4. Life is many things, these are all pretty cool ways of relating to it. Go forth and prosper.

5. David Viscott was a pioneer in the Talk Radio Therapy shows in the United States in the 1990’s . He points to the access to fulfilment in life is to give your gift away to others when you discover what it is.

6. Several of my friends are overseas at the moment at the bedside of their sick and ailing parents. One of the had not seen her mother for 15 years. She set up a fund to ask for help getting back to see her before she passed on, of course we contributed what we could.

7. It isn’t always the famous who come up with the best quotes or insights. This unknown quote speaks beautifully about the gift a simple kiss can be between two people.

8. Who would suspect that a revered Basketball Coach would be remembered more for his quotes than his sporting feats. Jim Vivano is remembered got this beautiful quote about the influence parental belief can have on their children.

9. Another unknown person came up with this quaint idea, live each day as a thank you note. If we did this the art of letter writing would be flourishing.

10. Do you unwrap your day as if it is a precious gift, or do you just fall out of bed, throw a coffee down , get in the car and speed off to work. Mindfulness added to your day adds something to its quality.

11.This person likes the number 15 like I do. 15 fantastic things to spark your day off on an ongoing basis.

12. Are you Awake? most of the great disciples aren’t asking you to become Muslim, Christian, Orthodox or Buddhist. They are asking you to awake to the power of Love in your life, Are you Awake?

13. Its always good to remember that life’s gifts are not always what you expect. This saying came from the Trojan War, when the Greek army left a wooden Horse full of soldiers outside the gates of Troy. The Trojans thought it was a parting gifts. Boy, did they get it wrong.

14. Maria Shriver calls herself an Architect for Change. Ex Wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger : Powered by Inspiration, Maria looks to the simple things such as friendship to fulfil your life’s purpose.

15. Finally the thing you cannot be paid enough for if you offer it from your heart, Your time. This is what your friends and family love you for, the giving of your time to them without attachments.

Some of these would be great posters to put on your walls, I am not a minimalist like my brother in law, I think wall space is to proudly display what you are up to in your life.

Namaste until next Monday my dear Friends.

How do I Love Me, and Can You?

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Rod's World

Been going through a really interesting process lately through two courses I am doing, Kundalini Dance for the second time : The Chakra Cleansing Journey and Creative Mastery for the fourth time : Living from Your Essence. I do them on a Sunday and Monday Nights, so after such a deep immersion a lot of stuff has been coming up.

I was raised in a family where such things as hugs and showing your emotions were verboten. So when I was sitting there Tuesday morning writing my Facebook birthday cards to my Facebook gods and goddesses of possibility, I call them that as we battle the negativity spread by others – I send a friend application to anyone who has a 100 mutual friends, its obvious we have been friends at another time just having not met on the physical plain this time in a lot of cases.

I have over 3,000 in my army and I was writing one to a friend from the conscious dance scene who is around the same age as me, I am 61. I was relating my transition to being an elder when I burst out crying for a solid half an hour. This is not something the well trained , in Control Rod Williams does. I got in touch with how I rip people off in not accepting the love they show me and the self love I often do not show myself.

So I did a process from Creative Mastery where you locate the Source of the decision that you have made that would allow this to control your actions so long after it occurred, Its called Renewal and its intention is to accept what happened and create another possibility from it after diving into it and for me to stop making it wrong which was giving it its power over me. I came up with the Essence of Blissful Love, we will see what happens.

I recognised that delving into Self Love would be useful,so I have chosen 15 quotes from that arena and yes, Oprah makes an appearance. here we go –

1. It takes courage to not listen to the negative messages that society puts out that there is a certain way you should be and you need this and that to achieve that state. Listen to your heart when this happens. It is the best judge of what you need to truly experience Self Love.

2. Self does not mean selfish. It means to look within for these three most valuable things. My friend Lissa Rankin calls it Your Inner Pilot Light : Listen to your Gut, it knows you Best.

3. We often define the world Love as being Lovey-Dovey in its context. Steve Maraboli, credited as the most quoted person on Earth, takes a different bent on it. Don’t buy into your own crap, thats self destruction not Self Love.

4. Zig Zaglar was an American author and motivational speaker who believed that if you did not include self love as one of the following tenets – The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty, you were dooming yourself to failure.

5. A simple message to tell yourself on waking. I’ve added it to my altar.

6. What food do you feed yourself to empower you on a day to day basis. Here’s a variety that will add lots of vitality to your overall health – Yes, Self Love is a superfood.

7. Back to the heart, the space that Self Love resides in. Not your image in the mirror or that thought in your head, they often leave you wondering , not filled with wonder as the heart does.

8. Dodinsky is the author of the NY Times bestselling book IN THE GARDEN OF THOUGHTS.

His intent was simply to share his reflections about life in order to help heal the wounds inflicted by life’s troubles. At the time, the man known by his readers as Dodinsky had no idea that within months of starting his blog In The Garden of Thoughts, thousands of readers would find healing through the modest words he planted.

9. To survive in life we need at least the bare necessities, do you include Self Love as one of them, At times I didn’t and ended up in Pysch Units five times.

10. MAC ANDERSON is the founder of Simple Truths and Successories, Inc., the leader in designing and marketing products for motivation and recognition.. My Self Love and Love of Music really, really like this quote of his.

11. Its not having your ego take control when you free yourself of certain people and situations in your life that no longer fit in. According to Charlie Chaplin back in 1929, its knowing what Love of Oneself is.

12. Here’s Oprah, she was in Melbourne last night, My friends Emeli and Alice went and said that took copious notes and it was fantastic. Oprah points to the value of Self Love. That if you do you don’t have to second guess your thoughts time and time again.

13. Brenna Smith, founder of SheNOW,is creating a community for women who want to focus on their own adventures and lives first. She wants them to use their twenties to help create a better, more successful, and healthier future version of themselves, whether they get married down the road or not. She sees Self Love as being the decisions you make today being ones that help you be the person you want to become tomorrow.

14. Authenticity, another way of saying Self Love takes you a lot quicker down the path of fulfilling the dreams that sleep within your soul.

15. Sometime images say more than a thousand words. This beautiful image of creating the heart shape with our hands doesn’t need the words Self Love written on it.

It will be an interesting journey creating the Essence of Blissful Love. Writing this expose on Self Love has helped me understand what is required a lot more.

Namaste until next Monday my dear friends.

Walking the Visionary Road!!

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Rod's World

Had an inspiring weekend crewing on my dear friend Emeli Paulo’s True Grit workshop. Twenty brave souls and Ten crew inquired into what does True Grit mean for them to fulfil their dreams and purpose.

The highlight of the weekend for me was the two times we did the process that saw people move from their current reality to embracing their vision by seeing what they needed to let go and what support they needed. I have called it Walking the Visionary Road because I forget the actual name used and I like mine better.

I got to play the current reality in one of them and saw so much out of it, primarily how I hang on to mine and how my vision is normally in the distance but without structures in place to get there.

So what do we as a society say about why we need and the power of having a vision. Fifteen quotes and yes Tony Robbins is in there, how could the big guy not be. Here we go –

1. And the rhythm of life is a powerful beat, feel the tingle in your fingers and the tingle in your feet. Having your Vision powerfully in presence is a truly creative act, take it today.

2. What is your position in Life, an oft asked question at parties as social chit chat. Who gives a flying rats, I wonder what that expression means. But what inspires is people speaking about their passion in Life, what turns them on and gets them hot under the collar. Cute little duckies by the way.

3. As a child I remember watching the old American series, The Invisible Man. It was mesmerising to a young child living in Country Victoria. A bit like our powerful vision is to others who cannot not see it and often become the naysayers in our life. Don’t listen to these folk.

4. I am old enough to remember when Muhammad Ali was named Cassius Clay. Here is his take on living from Vision and the forgettable song that was written about him : The Black Superman.

5. Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree. Here is her take on living an ordinary life.

6. Debbie Ford was an inspiring author who wrote on how our shadow world inhibited our chances of fulfilling our vision. her work had us look at our excuses and re aligning with our life’s vision. Unfortunately she died young, her fans have continued her insights at Debbie’s Work.

7. The legend goes that Thomas Edison broke 1 million light bulbs before he discovered the ones that worked. If this is true that definitely makes him an expert in the arena of execution.

8. Alice Cooper’s first hit was Welcome to my Nightmare – Alice in Action. The Japanese are very succinct and direct, with their sayings. Here is their input to the importance of action in our daily lives and the consequence of the lack thereof.

9. Nelson Mandela had one of the great Visions if our time. He attributes the power of being about to hold a huge Vision through your imagination as the reason for him succeeding.

10. In business there is a requirement to provide the Tax department with your Income statement and Balance Sheet. How many of us include our Vision in our assets list. Really it is the greatest one we have.

11. How many of you have been to Disney World. I have, it a place where our dreams and fantasies come alive. This is Walt Disney’s vision for the children of the world. Awesome, if I don’t say so myself.

12. I sing in a choir, The Moons a Balloon, our leader is my Friend Kavisha Mazzella, she is an award winning Singer Songwriter, here’s one of her songs Invisible Indivisible. I pay more to go and dance to recorded music that hear her sing her beautiful words.

13. I recently went to a public talk on healing the wounds of Love. The focus was not on making up a better story about them but Waking Up. Jeremiah kept stating our job is to Wake Up. This was a profound moment for me.

14. Saving the best nearly to the last. The Get it done man Tony/Anthony Robbins. Why Vision holders are special people. Combined with commitment and willingness to act, the world is your oyster.

15. Another way to sneak in another list of Possibilities, but this is a beautiful one, it included all the ingredients for an awesome life.

It was an extraordinary weekend, opening up a sense that we will fulfil our Visions, one step at a time, some taking fast steps even running towards it and others one solid step at a time, with periods of falling backwards. Remember we are now officially a member of the Collective Potential tribe, welcome aboard.

Namaste until Thursday, my dear friends.

Doing the Honourable Dance!!

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Rod's World

I went to my friends Jules Mojo Trance Dance on the weekend. Its a dance where you change partners each song and dance to a theme. This month it was on being Honoured, not a subject that I think of much when it comes to Conscious dance. Jules is a beautiful, beautiful soul who’s commitment in life is to empower people’s souls and build community. Here’s the link to her Facebook page – Perpetual Mojo.

So how do you honour one another at dance. You follow the two signals, I want to dance with you, but I don’t want to be touched, there are a lot of Contact Improv people among the attendees who just love being touched and the other signal that I want my own alone time. You always get so much out of the night and the group Hug at the end is worth the money alone.

So what do we as human beings have to say about honouring one another. No Oprah again but some quality insights among the fifteen I have chosen. here we go :

1. We go way back to 400 B.C. for our first look at honour. Sophocles is one of the three surviving Ancient Greek playwrights, imagine out of such a prolific era that only three people made it through. His message is simple, Honour is all that matters, corrupt success is bad for the health.

2. Our school system seems to be focusing more and more on the three R’s, turning out corporate clones. What matters later in life is how you relate to others not your ability to know the 12 times table.

3. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is Mark Twain’s real name. He lived by this famous quote above, a true man of honour.

4. Remembered for saving England and smoking Cigars Winston Churchill was meant to be a man of simple tastes and it seems simple words – freedom, justice and of course Honour.

5. Back to the 400 B.C. time frame Socrates is held to be one of the founders of Western Philosophy. This cute and pithy quote points to how to live a great life, be who you say you are going to be, Astronaut or President or Postman. it doesn’t matter, the joy is in the honouring.

6. Winston again, He had a profound belief in the fact that if you kept your word that you could do anything, but that honour and good sense were vital ingredients in the recipe required. He helped save a country with this belief.

7. I have several of Martin’s speeches on audio. They go for over 15 minutes but you are riveted the whole time. One of the most honourable men of all of history he made a race of people believe they weren’t niggers, they were proud African Americans.

8. Balastar is a cool name, he is a Spanish Jesuit prose writer. He was also known for his insightful quotes, why say something with more words that necessary. Balastar points to the value of keeping your words in the face of pleasing others is what counts.

9. Looks like this has been taken off a graffiti installation, How many of us create our present moment to moment. I know I’m guilty of not doing this 24 hours a day.

10. The Law of Abundance, always remember that abundance does not mean more possessions. In fact most awards are given to those who have contributed the most to society, get out there and be abundant by giving of yourself.

11. Taking us back to the the fact that Honouring oneself not be so significant is well known screen hero Chewbacca. I could’t find the language on Google Translate but I’m sure it is profound.

12. Prepared to die, not many people live by this creed. Nelson Mandela was one such inspirational being. I remember singing Free Nelson Mandela in our singing group Soulsong and how much we were moved by it each time we sang it. Here is the Specials great version of the song The Specials.

13. Off to ancient Egypt for this one, 1300 B.C. Akhenaton was a Pharaoh. I suppose the Pharaohs words got saved before anybody elses. Interesting that the soul had importance way back when.

14. I have been a bit male centric this Blog, and unfortunately this is by an other man. But it is about our mothers. Sai Baba, eccentric Indian Hindu guru from the 1970’s made a promise that we would come to no harm if we honoured our mothers.

15. Misunderstood critical thinker Werner Erhard, founder of the Landmark Forum, the mainstreams rite of passage into Transformational work came up with this classic. I did his work back in the 80’s and 90’s when he was still around. We did courses led by out there Americans who shocked us naive Aussies, so much that I went to the States and did two of their advanced course and ran the Moscow Peace Marathon the year before the Berlin Wall came down.

So I promise that my Blog on Thursday will be focused on that the wild women of our society have to contribute. Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Passion, Power or Fruit?

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Rod's World

I have recently been getting a lot of articles in my News Feed about how the education system is letting our children down, that they learn very few practical skills for later in life and definitely do not look at what are you passionate about. When they begin at the age of four or so they are astronauts Prime Ministers, League footballers, Rock Stars but this is soon crushed out of them as impractical and everybody is taught from the same book.

So how do we get our Passion back? For me it was a journey of lots of workshops, long periods of mental health issues, running marathons, drug taking , singing in choirs etc. I found it attending a film night at the end of my last period of Mental Health issues. A Colombian film at the Darebin Intercultural Centre in Preston, Victoria, Australia I was impressed by the sense of community. I asked if I could volunteer and that is when my love of Interculturalism began. Here are the links to the Facebook group I created called Interculturalism, a place people can post their examples of the ethos, Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included Interculturalism.

I have chosen 15 quotes on Passion and of course, one of them is from Oprah, here we go.

!. Oprah, loved or hated. I’m part of the former group. A newsreader who has created an empire based on possibility and sharing it. One passionate individual.

2. It is said that your dreams often reveal your passion in life to you. I have been remembering mine more and more lately and it looks like it includes travel.

3. I recently posted that Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa had the same 24 hours as we did. What made the difference is their level of passion, I think. My brother went ape-shit at it, is saying I was being arrogant. Not arrogant, passionate.

4. I receive a post called The Daily Flame from my friend Lissa Rankin who I met in Byron Bay. My friends think I write it. It is empowering your Inner Pilot Light, her latest book is about it The Fear Cure. If your Inner Pilot Light is aflame people will notice.

5. Beauty is one thing that attracts our attention. It interrupts the mundane. How to transform the mundane into beauty is live a life of passion fulfilling your dreams.

6. Passion begins now. You don’t have to know how it s going to be fulfilled, that’s called perfectionism , one of life’s booby prizes.

7. I find that as I get into filling my life with things I am passionate about this rings true. Don’t know about no sleep though. A different time and space continuum I’m thinking.

8. Deepak Chopra, doyen of the Spirituality genre, says Always, yes lets repeat that again, Always go with your passions, Are You doing this?

9. Vincent Van Gogh, In just over a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. This is passion, to me boredom is a made up concept that covers our profound laziness.

10. Love this, the Drunkenness of the mind, when we have lost control of our senses. Being sensible and being passionate do nor correlate in my world.

11. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the great philosophers of the 1700’s was a poet, novelist, playwright, diplomat and civil servant as well. He points to you see the world as angry or sad if you have an angry heart, but it is just as easy to have a happy and passionate one. Its your choice after all.

12. Our hearts, the lifeblood for our bodies. Why are more and more people dying from heart attacks in our heavily compartmentalised world. I think its time we etched Passion on them at birth.

13. Dennis Waitley is a founding member of the Council for Self Esteem, the old chestnut of make you life about what lives in your heart , not your wallet. Love the image as well.

14. I see the sun come up most days. This is a new occurrence over the last few years. For most of my life my sleep was a sacred site as it filled up my day as relevantly as what I was doing to fill up the rest of the day. No alarm clock for me.

15. Novelist Galen Watson combines the two things that will have you live an extraordinary life, Passion and Love in his moving quote.

Passion turn to the left, Passion turn to the right or whatever direction you need to to fulfil your dreams. Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Forgive and Forget, Is it that Easy?

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Rod's World

I was recently talking to a friend outside her house discussing what publicity I could help with for an event she was involved with to receive a discounted ticket when I recieved an SMS from my bestest friend asking me if I was off the airwaves.

I SMS’d her back and explained what I was doing or at least I thought I did. I then received another SMS asking where we still going out that night. I sent one back saying that going out with her was my main priority. The reply I received was not what I expected, It was that she had not felt that way for a long time and felt I was being negative to her.

After the initial shock of receiving such a reply I realise that we needed to discuss the difficulties we had been having in catching up and forgive each other and re- establish our friendship to what it had been when we first started going out with each other.

Wikipedia defines Forgiveness as follow –

Forgiveness – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//

Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.^[1]^[2] Forgiveness is different from condoning (failing to see the action as wrong and in need of forgiveness), excusing (not holding the offender as responsible for the action), pardoning (granted by a representative of society, such as a judge), forgetting (removing awareness of the offense from consciousness), and reconciliation (restoration of a relationship).^[1]

In certain contexts, forgiveness is a legal term for absolving or giving up all claims on account of debt, loan, obligation or other claims.^[3]^[4]

As a psychological concept and virtue, the benefits of forgiveness have been explored in religious thought, the social sciences and medicine. Forgiveness may be considered simply in terms of the person who forgives^[5] including forgiving themselves, in terms of the person forgiven or in terms of the relationship between the forgiver and the person forgiven. In most contexts, forgiveness is granted without any expectation of restorative justice, and without any response on the part of the offender (for example, one may forgive a person who is incommunicado or dead). In practical terms, it may be necessary for the offender to offer some form of acknowledgment, an apology, or even just ask for forgiveness, in order for the wronged person to believe himself able to forgive.^[1]

I have chosen quotes from across the Ages to see what our society has to say about it, Here we go –

1. In our love relationships we will always come across things that make us arc up. This enables us to practice the noble art of forgiveness on a daily basis to restore the deep state of Love that we committed too when choosing those particular people to fulfil these roles in our life.

2. When we are ruminating on the past and blaming others or being the victim of circumstances in our lives, it is valuable to realise tht we cannot change events as they occurred but we can drastically lessen the effect they will have on our future by uttering the words, silently or out Loud, I foryou you, me , them etc. etc.

3. Lissa Rankin, Author of the ground breaking book The Fear Cure points to that a major percentage of disease is caused by False Fears. On reading the books I discovered that a lot of these fears come from things and events where you have not forgiven ,even to the point of Heart Attacks, here is the link to her page about it – The Fear Cure .

4. Self Forgiveness is an important part of Self Love, a state that is required to allow other Love into your life. Be courageous in admitting that even you make mistakes.

5. Holding on to interactions and events that play on your minds days and years later is very bad for your mental health research shows. Converting these from a bitter experience to a valuable lesson will free you from the debilitating illnesses that often follow the practice of blame and shame.

6. Every Tuesday the local Council come and collect the rubbish I have been unable to recycle. If is was as easy to clear the mind of holding of things from the past that clutter up our lives.

7. The vow goes I will love and cherish, whether in Good Fortune or adversity. Its not always plain sailing on the good ship Matrimony. Moments of forgiving occur every single day as we journey down this sacred path.

8. How long have you sentenced yourself to. I had one shadow belief that was from the age of four. It only took to the tender age of 60 to realise what it was costing me, the world looked very different after letting this one go. I suppose there was no internet and Facebook when I took it on.

9. World Peace Day is 21st September, It is dedicated to world peace, and specifically the absence of war and violence, there have been a total of 26 days of peace since 1945, the end of World War 2, the War to End all Wars. Oops got that one a little eschewed.

10. Be in the Now, Moment to moment, Discipline – all words that point to what is needed to live in the state of the dignity of True Forgiveness.

11. Any you an anyone or a butterfly? Butterflies have beautiful colours and character and fly lightly in the wind because they are not carrying their past burdens around with them.

12. Two steps forward, three steps back doesn’t get much done. When you grant yourself and others the precious gift of forgiveness you free your feet from work-boots to the latest Nike runners and you have the ability to Just Do It!!

13. Promises, Promises was a minor hit for the band Naked Eyes in the eighties. What they sung in the 80’s. Its about how much value we place on them. When you forgive it better be of a reasonably high level.

14. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a fantasy about a man who grew younger not older. He grew smaller the longer his life went on, do you by holding on to those grudges?

15. Finally, the words you use in your life is what gives you your power. In Australia we are known for saying sorry for the simplest of things. So when you have cut someone deep those words have little effect, Try on Will you forgive me?

We had a frank and moving discussion that night when we went out and restored the relationship to nearer what it had been. I didn’t sat please forgive me. I will next time I see her.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends

Whatever gets you through the Night.

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Rod's World

Tonight my friend Emeli Paulo is leading a RAW session on Addiction : What’s Yours. I have been thinking about this and I think my friends may feel it is posting positivity on my Facebook page Positivity HQ, but I believe this to be a sacred calling to counter the evil mainstream media is spreading across the planet.

So I thought long and hard, not Sex, not Alcohol , I gave up drinking on my 40th Anniversary of doing that, not gambling, I see that as a waste and came across Music. I have 23,000 songs and lectures on my Itunes library, I am subscribed to both My Music and Spotify and have Mixcloud, Souncloud and Bandcamp accounts. 23,000 songs is 77.6 days of music to put it in perspective.

So what do we get from our love of Music. Here are the 15 thoughts I have put together that our sages, musicians and people of note have contributed to the matter.

1. What does this truly mean. To me it is in those moments when a chill goes up your spine. Years ago I worked on the door for my friend Kerri Simpson and I knew when she was on, She always sang Summertime and when it sent chills up my spine the effect would last for hours.

2. When first contact is made they will bring many new and exciting things with them. But one thing they will certainly bring is their music. Even Klingon’s had music in Star trek, admittedly it was hard to appreciate but they loved it as we do our favourite style.

3. Billy Thorpe’s Somewhere over the Rainbow doesn’t make me think what a great song, there are many finer versions. But what it does make me remember is the night at the Myer Music Bowl that I and 200,000 other people sang it along with him.

4. Among my 23,000 tracks I have quite a bit of meditation music. I listen to it primarily when I am travelling on public transport. I lowered my Carbon Footprint to an Electric Bike, a pushbike and Public transport several years ago. It takes me to a place of genuine bliss while journeying through the chaos of a major cities thoroughfares.

5. There are so many styles of music that one can listen to, It seems there are new ones being developed every year. I am not a huge fan of Death metal, Pagan Rock and such genres. More for me tunes that have a positive message.

6. We Live on our own part of the World, so in the other parts of the world our indigenous music is captured by the title World Music. This gives you many opportunities to learn and listen to the magic of other cultures as these year Five students did.

7. Here’s an image you will find hard to get out of your head. A naked 61 year old man bopping around his apartment’s kitchen to GodsKitchen doof.

8. Back to ancient Greece. Plato and his mates sitting around listening to an inspired bouzouki performance. He turns to them and says …….

9. Another cute memory, A hot 40 degree Celsius day in St. Arnaud primary school. Our class is singing the Yellow Rose of Texas, half way through we hear the class next door joining in. The power of music is irrepressible.

10. It is often said by people that a particular song touches their heart. In doing so these words give you access to precious moments of healing that enliven your human experience.

11. Nature plays music to us all the time, sometimes it is powerful in the form of destructive winds, sometimes almost silent like an early morning sunrise over the mountains. We cannot write such superb songs, just give it our best shot.

12. Eckhart Tolle speak of the inner stillness that music can conquer. I have seen this many times in my music listening career. The most memorable being when I went to my friend Alicia’s Melancholia event two years ago. A young musician named Dan Parsons did one of his original songs and you could have heard a pin drop. It was outstanding music.

13. What came first, the horse or the cart. Darwin one of the great naturalists discovered that music came before speech. I believe this to be true because Nature has always provided it from the beginning of time.

14. I had to get the comment of one musician in the list. Levon Helm from The Band points to the healing side of music. It has been used in shamanic ceremonies for thousands of years, It has never been seen to fail.

15. And for our last insight, we cross to one of history’s greatest minds. The best way to crack a case of the Sad’s is to go inner and drench it with the music that inspires you.

I am including links to some of my favourite inspiring music so that you can appreciate them as well The Voice of an Angel, Goddess Songs, Indigenous Bliss, Ben sings of Love, Australia’s Heart and Soul, The Outlaw Women from Down Under, Lilith – Wild and Alive

Here’s to our love of music, Namaste until next time my dear friends

The Kindness of Strangers.

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Rod's World

I just watched an inspiring TED talk by Kon Karapanagiotidus from the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre in Melbourne on what would be possible if we were kind to the people seeking refuge instead of locking families up in gulag like facilities on remote islands. here is the link : A Kind Alternative.

My friend Kavisha Mazzella has written a beautiful song about Kindness to Strangers, here is the link Kavisha’s beautiful Anthem. Both this and Kon’s talk point to another way besides the hate mongering that seems to be driving mainstream media these days.

So once again I have resourced 15 powerful quotes on what a difference kindness can make. here we go:

1. I used to work in a federal agency who paid the unemployed. I was walking through the main mall of Melbourne one day when a young man came up to me and hugged me. He said you probably don’t remember me but you saved my life. We started a weekly payment scheme in our office ILO fortnightly payment and doing this allowed this person to stop committing crime to feed his then drug habit. He was happily married with two children and meant what he said to me.

2. I watched Wayne Dyer’s film The Shift last night, in it there is a scene where a homeless man and a millionaire are speaking. The millionaire has lost his wallet and is stuck. The homeless man offers him his last coins and transforms the millionaires life through his act of kindness.

3. How much kindness should you offer. There is no official measure for how much you should put in your Loving cup. But the recipe works better if you add just a little bit more.

4. His Holiness AKA Tenzin Gyatso, the person on our planet that is most known for his kindness doesn’t want temples, mosques or churches to worship in. He wants humanity to show each other Kindness.

5. We often see righteousness being displayed as news on our TV screens and in the print media. What people who are finding it hard is the beating of another’s heart that is saying it will be O.K.

6. The speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. inspired millions. A simple man who committed himself to create a kinder world for his people. He never let the hatred that was poured upon his goods works lower his stand that human beings were by nature full of kindness.

7. Its also quite advantageous for your health to have boundaries, one of the people who needs kindness hangs out in your body.

8. My koan in life is Love and Respect for all : Everyone Included. I am a blogger and I hope my words give people confidence. I always come from what would fulfill it and I have declared this my Year of Love.

9 . The Buddha passed on many suggestions for how to live an enlightened life, here is his offering on kindness.

10. As i mentioned above we never know the difference our simple acts such as smiling at someone, offering a ride or home to a friend for the night can make. Don’t underestimate the difference, they can transform a life.

11. As a teenager I used to battle my mum and dad about this, after all we were rebellious teenagers, you did not do what your parents suggested. Luckily they had taught me well enough before this that when I came out of my cranky phase I saw the value of it.

12. The gift of saying thank you and excuse me take a millisecond. But in the heart of the person you say them to, they resonate for eons.

13. So what are acts of Kindness, this list contains many things we can do for ourselves and others to make the world a better place.

14. Never regret any act of Kindness that you take part in, be it by yourself or with others. They are treasures that empower our planet as well as our own hearts.

15. For the last one , I will let Charlie Brown have the final word. Yes everyone understands Kindness, even if they seem incredibly distant from it at the moment.

Well, I am so thankful my friends Kavisha and Kon contributed to me and inspired me to write this blog through their words and song. Namaste until we meet again my friends.

What Maketh the Man?

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Rod's World

I’m doing a workshop series called Sex and the Soul led by my friends Leyolah and Arion. Last night we looked at the divine masculine within us all, the get things done part of our personalities. As expected we men yelled a little to get in touch with our warrior side, but it made me think what does our society hold it to mean to be a man.

Wikipedia offers us the following: The term manhood is used to describe the period in a human male’s life after he has transitioned from boyhood, having passed through puberty, usually having attained male secondary sexual characteristics, and symbolizes a male’s coming of age. The word man is used to mean any adult male. In English-speaking countries, many other words can also be used to mean an adult male such as guy, dude, buddy, bloke, fellow, chap and sometimes boy or lad. The term manhood is associated with masculinity and virility, which refer to male qualities and male gender roles.

We of the Conscious Awakening Male movement believe that it means so much more than this. here are 15 examples of what has been said over the ages about the subject.

Manhood is granted to men via aging in a societal sense but it takes much more than turning 30 to access the warrior spirit that lies dormant within the cloned race of boys that our Education system is turning out.

2. How often have we heard the catch cry I wasn’t responsible for …… I was just doing my job. The entry to Manhood includes taking on full responsibility for everything that happens in our lives. 100% of it, nothing left out.

3. Winston Churchill was famous for smoking Cigars, he also turned a nation into a tribe of warriors. He knew that a man must do what he must, with out this ethic a different result could have occurred.

4. It is said of the great men of all times that they walked their own path. They were often seemed to be dancing when there was no music. They knew better.

5. When we are genuinely creating our life , not following the orders of others, there is no sense of having beaten anyone. it is all pure essence.

6. I went to a retreat in 2013 and wrote my own vows to keep. They are on my fridge to remind me of them. Do not walk this earth to the beat of another’s drum. Each of us has a true purpose, find yours and live it out fully.

7. Are you clever or wise, Often we are waiting for someone to finish speaking so we can show them how clever we are with our answer. The wise man truly listens and shows this via his question.

8. Society was so scared of this man they locked him up and threw away the key. A member of the notorious Black Panther Party in the 60’s. He did not compromise his beliefs and saw the journey to manhood as one of no compromises. Rdical then and still radical now.

9. Integrity, another of those things that seems to be slipping in our instant gratification society was paramount to Gandhi when he was leading the people of India to freedom. Looking around the world one does not find that many political leaders that give value to this these days.

10. The pictures of men standing around together in working clothes do not represent the true nature of the diverse brotherhood on the planet these days. Yes, some men even wear Pink.

11. They say that musicians and artists are the true healers of our planet. Power held in the hands of the wrong type of man can send out a call for them to restore the balance.

12. My other favourite quote of this extraordinary African American who lived in the 1800’s is “The soul that is within me no man can degrade” Such powerful words in a time where his brothers were still in slavery.

13. Why do so many men think that Arrogance is preferable to the vulnerability of being truthful about their mistakes and foibles. The more men can be in touch with their feelings around not meeting expectations and express them honestly the greater chance relationships have.

14. What makes a great relationship between a man and their partner. Authenticity, a sense of Safety and a good belly laugh are three ingredients that brew up a great broth.

15. This ones for you Arion, You question us to not look outside or in our knowledge for whats going on. How our lives would be different if we aced this test.

I don’t know what else will come up this week in regard to my Divine masculine, It’s an interesting journey so far down the Sex and the Soul path, I just know that I am so glad I chose to take it.

I hope you enjoy my thoughts on Manhood, Namaste my friends till next time