Since this will be the final issue of Your Spiritual Journey for 2008, I want to take this opportunity to thank ALL of you for being part of this global community where we can examine topics relating to spiritual growth.

I have enjoyed sending these messages to you throughout the year, and I am grateful for your active participation; it is a privilege to receive emails in which you share your experiences and your insights on the subjects covered in the newsletter.

We live in a diverse world, and this newsletter is a forum where we can exchange ideas and present a variety of viewpoints. Personally, I learn much from examining all religions and spiritual perspectives, even if I don’t agree with some of the beliefs expressed. Undoubtedly, I have presented some views (or a lot of views!) that you don’t agree with.

I appreciate the support and encouragement I received all year from the subscribers to this newsletter. And, I am equally grateful for the respectful way in which you have disagreed with me, when something I said did not ring true for you. Please continue to share your thoughts and feelings, whether or not you agree.

I welcome ALL comments. I want you to come to your own conclusions on these issues – not simply to accept anything I am saying. The one thing I am sure of…is that I know very little about this mystery called life.

In case you are wondering, there are approximately 3,300 subscribers to this newsletter and they are spread throughout the world. When I started the newsletter in November of 2007, I had about 3,300 subscribers. Thus, the list has not grown. New subscribers join the list on a regular basis; however just as many unsubscribe because these messages do not resonate with them.

While I welcome new subscribers, the size of the list is not important to me. This newsletter is not for everyone. My only wish is that you establish a deeper spiritual connection, in whatever way is best for you.

I feel blessed to have “met” all of you. Enjoy the holiday season and may the New Year bring you and your family peace and many blessings.

See you next year!

With love and gratitude,

Jeff Keller

Perhaps you’ve had a chance to consider the lens of YOUR perception and how it narrows and widens. This subject may seem very abstract and impractical to some, yet I assure you that this topic is very practical. The lens of your perception has a significant effect on your sense of peace and well-being.

After reading Part 1 of this message, there are those who might agree that a wider focus is preferable to a narrow focus. Yet the key question many of you have is: How do I maintain that wider focus, so I can experience more peace and contentment?

One approach is to extend kindness to others and find ways to serve others. These good deeds take us away from being preoccupied with ourselves, and the lens of perception widens. This strategy is helpful and certainly widens our focus.

Yet I think there is a “technique” that is even more effective. What I have personally experienced is that the lens of perception automatically widens when the mind is quiet and the body is relaxed. Simply put, just BE. Take it easy for a moment. Give your mind a little vacation whenever possible.

At first glance, we might think that the lens of perception relates to the quality of our thoughts. If we have a narrow focus, we might believe that the answer is to replace those thoughts with different thoughts – in the hope that the “new” thoughts will widen our focus. This may work temporarily, but once we activate our thought mechanism, watch out! Some of the thoughts that arise will not follow our wishes — and we will collapse once again into a narrow focus.

When we allow thought to slow down, a miraculous expansion happens naturally. When we feel peaceful and open watching the waves on the beach, it is NOT because we are thinking about anything. We are not thinking, “The water is beautiful” or “The sounds of the waves are calming.” On the contrary, the immense feeling of peace and interconnectedness comes in those moments when thinking has slowed down or is absent. We are simply aware in the present moment.

A quiet mind leads to a wider field of perception.

There are many reasons for this. Most important is the fact that the overwhelming majority of your thoughts are about ONE subject – namely YOU!! What percentage of your daily thoughts would you estimate are about YOU? I’m guessing that for most people, it is an extraordinarily high percentage – probably more than 90%. I’d call that a narrow focus.

When the mind is quieted, you will find that you are kinder to yourself, have more compassion for others, and are eager to serve others. Thus, quieting the mind and widening the perceptual field is not something that leads to passivity. You don’t turn into a lazy bum. You will be directed toward activities that serve you – and others.

Why do you trust your thoughts, while distrusting your innate sense of BEING? Thoughts are not beating your heart or digesting your food. Most of us would agree that God or the life force is responsible for those things taking place. What makes you believe you won’t be carried forward by this force if you relax your thinking?

Please understand that I am not declaring the mind to be an “enemy” that must be defeated or ignored. The thinking mind serves us in many ways. Yet we rely on thoughts too much – and overactive thinking will inevitably bring pain and suffering. We will find thoughts that we don’t like and we will resist them; this leads to a mental battle where the focus becomes narrow again.

We reject the idea of a quiet mind because we are convinced that we will accomplish less if we don’t stay on top of our thoughts and use them to create a better future. We feel our finances will suffer, our career will suffer, and our health might suffer if we don’t monitor our thoughts closely.

The mind says to you, “how can you possibly get ahead in life if you slow down your thoughts?”

All I can say is that the mind often deceives you. The mind is what has CREATED the narrow focus and the suffering that comes with it. Why would you look for the mind to fix the problem when the mind created the problem in the first place?

Relax the body. Relax the mind. Not an easy thing to do, but if you are committed to this, you’re going to have a wider lens of perception – and you’re going to make some amazing discoveries.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

In this message, I’ll begin a discussion of how our field of perception affects every area of our lives.

When I mention field of perception, I’m referring to what we focus on in any given moment. Many of us have been trained to have a very narrow focus. When we have a narrow focus, we concentrate mostly on ourselves, on our own aches and pains, our own job, or perhaps what we will eat for dinner tonight. The spotlight is on “me.”

This is a narrow, constricted focus, where we tend to forget about everything else in the world. In this state, we may feel a very dense, heavy energy.

On other hand, when we are not focusing on any ONE thought, object or sensation in our field, or exclusively on ourselves, we tend to feel lighter and more content. We’ve all experienced this feeling. Consider a moment when you were at the beach, relaxing peacefully and watching the waves move in and out. Consider those times you watched a beautiful sunrise or sunset.

At these moments, your attention was NOT on your body, your job or your possessions. In fact, even if you had difficulty describing it, you felt “at one” with the scene you were experiencing. You were part of the ocean or the sky or somehow blended into it, even if for a few seconds.

I’m not suggesting that a narrow or limited focus is “bad.” There are times when we are able to accomplish things because we put all of our attention on one objective, and are able to place laser-like attention on that one objective, while excluding the majority of the other items in our potential perceptual field.

It’s a matter of finding the right balance for you. For purposes of this message, I’m just inviting you to consider the lens through which you see the world. That lens changes throughout the day, and even moment to moment.

You might be relaxing and enjoying the sunset one minute (an expanded focus) and then you get a phone call from someone at work about a problem there (which then narrows your focus immediately) and you don’t even realize the sunset any longer.

Here’s another example. You’re walking around at home and you bump your toe into a piece of furniture. Ouch!! At that moment, your world collapses into the painful toe. From your perspective, the rest of the world doesn’t exist. What would happen if you allowed your perceptual field to remain open after bumping your toe – if you didn’t give 100% attention to the painful toe?

You might be shocked at what you would discover if your field of awareness remained more open. I’m not saying you wouldn’t feel pain. But the pain would be only part of your field of awareness, instead of being the only thing.

I think you’re going to find that when you feel tense or unhappy, you’re going to notice that those are the times when you are seeing the world from a narrow lens. You’ve collapsed into a focus on yourself and your problems.

The moment the lens of perception widens and you have less emphasis on you, your body and your life details, the tension seems to diminish and you feel better. You are more open to life and all it offers. It doesn’t mean your problems or your physical discomforts melt away completely; however, you don’t feel them as intensely as you did when the focus was narrow.

For now, just give a little thought to the lens through which you see the world. Is it usually wide open and expansive? Or, would you say it is limited and feels somewhat closed?

No matter what thoughts or feelings arise, there is no need to judge yourself or criticize yourself. There are no right or wrong answers.

Enough for now. Let’s continue this discussion in the next issue.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

There is a connection between mind and body. We know this from our own experience, as our thoughts and emotions seem to trigger certain bodily sensations. Countless scientific studies also confirm this connection.

Thus, when we relax our thoughts, we find that our body also tends to relax.

How about the other way around? If we relax the body, does this have a calming effect on the mind?

I have found that this is indeed the case. Perhaps you knew this all the time. It is something I didn’t consider too much until recently.

We’re all looking for ways to be more peaceful and less stressed. That is the environment where we feel connected with our spirit. Some engage in meditation and other mind techniques to slow the thinking and, in turn, relax the body.

Yet, as I mentioned above, you could also start with the body. Relax your body. Let your shoulders drop (if you are holding them up) and just allow all the bodily tension to be released. Let go of any muscles you are gripping or holding. If you search for any muscles you are “holding,” there’s a good chance you will find some.

After you release these muscles, you may find that a lot of your mind activity decreases and you feel very peaceful. Your mind may drag you back into a flurry of thoughts again, if that is the way you are conditioned to behave.

The way we hold and grip our muscles is a learned response. We develop the habit of contracting certain muscles, which leads to discomfort. I invite you to try an experiment.

Throughout the day, whenever you remember, relax the tense muscles. Let them settle back into relaxation. You’ll be building a new habit. It might take a while but you will be surprised when you walk around and recognize that all of a sudden you aren’t holding your shoulders up as often and you aren’t gripping other muscles.

It’s important that you be vigilant about this practice. One or two attempts to relax the body will not change a lifetime of conditioned behavior. Perhaps you can write “relax the body” on a small piece of paper and keep it on your desk or in your wallet. In essence, you are re-training your body to relax.

As you relax the body, you’re going to feel much better and your mind may not be as agitated and busy as it was before.

Start to become more aware of how YOUR mind-body, body-mind connection operates. What you find may lead you to more peace and more ease in your day-to-day activities.

–Jeff Keller
© 2008

Our minds seem to be obsessed with the concept of MORE.

No matter how much money we have, we’d like to have more. No matter how much strength and stamina we have, we’d like to have more. No matter how many possessions we’ve accumulated, we often want more.

When our basic needs are being met, do we really NEED more?

You can make lots of rational arguments about the benefit of obtaining more. If we have more money, we can live more comfortably and provide a good atmosphere for our family. We can offer our children a better education.

Perhaps we can own a car that is more reliable and safer to drive. If we save more money, we will be prepared for emergencies that may arise in the future. In these instances, more can be beneficial and add to the quality of our lives.

However, I’ve found that it is the rare person who doesn’t get caught up in the concept of MORE, even when more is totally unnecessary. The problem with MORE is that striving for it leads to stress. If we’re honest, we will admit that the obsession for more often takes us away from peace, and away from our enjoyment of the present moment.

When you come from the position of wanting more, you are in essence saying to yourself that where you are now is not sufficient. Happiness or fulfillment will come when you attain MORE. Of course, once you attain MORE, what do you want? MORE!
Throughout the world, many people are facing very difficult economic challenges. In some instances, people don’t have enough money to pay for food or shelter. In other cases, even when basic needs are being met, people are not able to provide themselves and their families with their desired standard of living. It is only natural to want more in these situations, and I am not suggesting otherwise.

What I’m inviting you to do is identify those areas where you might be seeking MORE without really needing it. I’m inviting you to consider if there are any areas where the pursuit of MORE is causing you stress.

The mind loves to play with the concept of MORE. Yet this is a game that borders on the ridiculous at times. We now have situations in sports where professional athletes, making millions of dollars a year, claim to be insulted (and unappreciated) if they are offered 10 million dollars a year when one of their teammates is making 15 million dollars.

How much money is enough?

So many businesses are based on the principle of MORE, of continued growth. If we made 10 million this year, we should seek to make 12 million next year. Says who? Perhaps the stress we need to put on our employees and suppliers to make that extra money isn’t worth it.

The quest for more often has negative consequences. We push employees to do more with less, leaving them burned out and frustrated. Their family relationships may suffer. When we push ourselves to exercise more, by running longer and longer distances, or lifting more and more weight, we inevitably get physical injuries. What are we proving by playing this game of MORE?

I know very well that some say the negative consequences are outweighed by the positive benefits one gets from achieving more. There is a price to pay for more and some may say the price is well worth paying. If you’re perfectly content with your pursuit of MORE, there’s no reason to change.

When we question the pursuit of MORE, we aren’t being lazy. We can have full, busy (yet peaceful) lives without striving for more all the time. We can still accomplish great things.

As for me, I’ve begun to question the need to obtain MORE in certain areas of my life. I no longer want MORE if it means stress and a disconnection from the present moment.

What I want more of is peace. I can only have that if I am vigilant when my mind tries to drag me again and again into its silly game of MORE.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008

If you did not read my original message, published on December 2, 2008, you can find it at www.YourSpiritualJourney.net  .

Here are some comments that I received from subscribers in response to that message.

* * *

“I am in total agreement with you when you say violence is met by violence.This attack has brought out so much of hatred and anger in the people of India it is frightening. It is I guess justified, but my question to everyone is What are you going to do with this anger? Is it going to be used productively…Is everyone going to reflect on their own attitudes? I feel it is time for all of us to seriously take stock of the way we have been living. This “Eye for an Eye” approach is just not working!”

* * *

One subscriber wrote in response to this sentence in the initial newsletter article:

“Violence will always be met with violence - it’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t lead to
peace.”

Subscriber’s comment:

“Tell me about the very violent bomb in Japan that led to a vicious cycle and no peace.
It was a horrendous option that was used to save lives on both sides and it seemed to work if you ask me. If you go by the more novel-style rewrite of history you will undoubtedly come to a different conclusion.
Anyway, don’t you have to test your theories in the real world?
We don’t have violence with Japan or Germany anymore not because we allowed their evil to overtake us while we showed them how loving and non-judgmental we could be, but absolutely we used violence to curb evil.
My opinion, since you asked, is that those who train themselves not to see evil may not cause evil to continue to expand, but they certainly would gladly benefit from those who are willing to stand up to it. “

* * *

“When I think of terrorists such as these - or even the person in my office that was yelling in the most denigrating and belittling way to someone a few desks down from mine - I just always feel that these are people that are totally lost in egoic mind, and that makes me realize they are almost under some kind of sick spell. It is only by the grace of the Divine, for some reason unknown to me, that I was put in a culture and a family and a place where I was given the gift of being able to learn about my egoic mind and to read and learn and find tools to work towards loosening its grip on me.”

* * *

“I concur with you in regard to not harbouring hate and I fully support your wish to spread compassion and love in any way that we can. If you look at the converse there must be a place for restricting evil and allowing mankind’s innate spirituality to flourish.

I think you will agree that we tend to get what we focus on. I wonder how prevalent this violence would be without the hysteria created by the media. I know some media people and I must say I am disappointed at their attitude. As long as it’s a good story let’s beat it up.

My second point is in relation to overcoming evil. As you say, terrorists have no regard for life, their own or others. Evil must be confronted. It has been said that evil can only flourish if good men do nothing. I believe that the crying need is for education. Knowledge frees people and, unfortunately, there is too little knowledge in the darker corners of the world. This then allows radical and destructive beliefs to flourish.

We can all do something, at least sharing what we know and trying to ’spread the good’.”

* * *

“The recent events in Mumbai have brought about feelings of helplessness and frustration as well as, I have to admit, anger. Setting the anger aside, I fell helpless (and you mentioned it in your article) due to the fact that the perpetrators seem to be saying, “Our way of thinking is the only right one and if you don’t agree with us we will destroy you…and, by the way, we don’t mind killing ourselves to do so.” How does one show those that choose this path that even though we have different beliefs and choose to live our lives differently it’s okay to live together on the same planet? To me it’s stunningly ignorant for anyone, or any religion, to be so arrogant as to believe they have a “lock” on God. I mean that to ALL religions.

Religions were formed by men. Perhaps men who were inspired and intended great things but many, if not most (if not all) have become corrupted by men who seek power and control. Until we give up the greed of power and realize that we are ALL the same in God’s eyes, and that we are ALL equally made up of the same God source it seems to me were doomed to continue on the horrific path we seem to be set on. There can be little doubt that there is a higher power and I don’t care whether you call her Allah, Jehovah, Jesus or any other name you choose…it’s all the same entity and it loves us ALL and wants us all to have everything we want, including love, happiness, health, prosperity and peace.”

* * *

“In today’s political climate of new-found HOPE (with the results of recent elections here in the U.S.), one only wonders how our new group of leaders will approach the many challenges they will face–I, for one, pray that they take OFF the blinders and approach all actual and potential threats for what they are, and not as “pie-in-the-sky”, wishful thinking, “wouldn’t it be nice if we could all just get along” situations. I am not a typical “sabre-wielding” type of individual. If anything, I lean much more toward the “let’s all just get along” philosophy. But, do you actually believe, for one second, that those holding the machine guns have the capacity to STOP and HEAR the person in front of them, who might have been a follower of GHANDI for heaven’s sake?

As you have pointed out, this type of situation is not uncommon, and has gone on for centuries, and will certainly not be resolved in a short period of time. For my part, Peace through Strength (strength of purpose, strength of will, strength in understanding that evil is real) is preferred to the “softer” message that we (in the West) are “nice guys” who value “getting along” more than we do our own survival.”

* * *

I appreciate all those who took the time to submit comments even though I was not able to publish all of them.

– Jeff Keller

Most of us were deeply affected by the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai. There is great compassion for those who lost friends and family members as a result of this incident.

There is also great compassion for those in and around Mumbai, who face the fear and anxiety that arises in the aftermath of this tragedy. I can’t imagine exactly what they are going through, although I got a taste of this kind of fear, since I live about 45 minutes from New York City and experienced the fear and anxiety that many New Yorkers felt in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

I’d like to open a discussion where subscribers can share some of their thoughts, emotions and insights surrounding the Mumbai incident. Sometimes, in the midst of horror and unspeakable acts, we can gain some insight into ourselves and the world in which we live.

Although you are free to vent and submit whatever comments you want, I will not publish any comments that express hatred for the terrorists or focus on who is to blame for these attacks. As I see it, hatred and judgment will not solve anything and do not advance us spiritually.

Also, I am not looking to engage in complex political discussions. These have their place, but I don’t wish to address political views in this forum. I am looking for an examination of the human side of this issue.

Although I was horrified and saddened to watch the events on TV and to read about them in the newspapers, I did not feel hatred toward the terrorists. That emotion simply did not arise, and I am not sure why. I am not looking for revenge. What could that produce, except for more violence back and forth?

These events reinforced my belief that the change I want to see in the world rests with me. I feel, even more strongly, that the most effective thing each of us can do is be a messenger of peace and love. If we eliminate hatred and judgment in our own hearts, we expand peace in the world. As long as we harbor hatred or judgment of anyone, including ourselves, WE are terrorists. We are terrorizing ourselves and others. While we are not committing murder and maiming people, we are still committing a form of terrorism.

I also see the Mumbai incident – and other terrorist incidents – as a clash of belief systems. It comes down to this: the terrorists are saying “our beliefs are right and your beliefs are wrong – and we will do anything to destroy you.” Peace will not come from trying to establish that our belief systems are “right,” even if we consider ourselves to be the “good guys.”

When someone does not value life, including his or her own life, how can we ever reason with them, or try to convince them that our belief system is better? That strategy has not worked for thousands of years, as countless wars and conflicts have demonstrated.

The answer does not lie in governmental policy. I understand that governments must take action, including some violent action, to protect citizens in the short term. But this can never be the long term solution. Violence will always be met with violence – it’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t lead to peace.

I welcome your comments on the insights you have gained from the events in Mumbai. Perhaps those in Mumbai and the surrounding areas can also share some of their experiences and feelings. It is one thing to watch the events from far, and quite another to be in the middle of it.

Please send your email to jeff@YourSpiritualJourney.net .

Hopefully, I can share some of the comments in upcoming issues of this newsletter. If any of your comments are published, your name and email address will NOT appear. Thus, your privacy will be maintained.

Through this discussion, perhaps we can make some progress in spreading peace in this world.

– Jeff Keller
© 2008