There are many doors, the sages say, and so it is that those of us on this path of beautiful groovy awesome greatness have many teachers to choose from. Whatever resonates, whatever raises the vibration, that’s where you go. It’s simple, say the sages of the ages. And they’re right. Just go with what feels good. Go where you can be yourself.

When you start watching the ego-centered power trips that rise up regularly in others and in yourself, you can begin to practice witnessing without judging.  You don’t get pulled into shit storms. It’s not automatic. But it will come. After a time the things people do evoke either laughter, inspiration or compassion, all of which are far more pleasurable and less disease-causing than trying to control the way others feel in general or the way they feel about you or the way you feel about them.

As I wrote in the pitch for my debut novel More Than You Think You Know, we all want to feel the same things. Safe. Happy. Loved. Even though it’s frequently considered inappropriate to admit these basic yearnings, it has always been so.

In the 1960s and ‘70s mellowing out was considered revolutionary. Uptight establishment types were threatened by the movement to be love and teach peace. I remember Vietnam footage and peace marches on the TV news, but I was more concerned with Donny Osmond, Bobby Sherman and the Partridge family than getting in touch with my spirit. Those were mind-blowing and –expanding times, as spacey and trippy as the kaleidoscopic journey created by the Beatle’s tune Tomorrow Never Knows, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLWPjGyEq1k on my playlist for Kundalini breathing exercises (especially good pacing for the ego eradicator.

I’m not sure if my mom has noticed her copy of Handbook to Higher Consciousness is missing. The classic by Ken Keyes, Jr. (Fifth Edition, 1975, copyright by the Living Love Center) is my current nightstand book, opened every morning for a couple ‘graphs to begin my day. I especially appreciate Keyes’ (pronounced “eyes”) description of brain as biocomputer, a component we ourselves are in charge of re-programming, maintaining and repairing as needed. I first heard the concept a couple of years back in Sukhmandir Singh’s Kundalini Yoga classes http://www.kundalinilive.com/sukhmandir-singh-biography/

This morning’s reading focused on interacting with children and how to avoid training them into “intense security, sensation and power addictions” along with other hang-ups. The specific example is how to react to a child spilling milk.

“So we’re losing a few ounces of milk, but that’s absolutely no reason to lose our love and serenity,” writes Keyes. “And you keep on talking about what you were saying before the milk was spilled. It should be cleaned up as a usual thing to do. You don’t need to head-trip the child by saying such things as ‘That’s all right, everybody spills milk,’ unless the feelings of the child call for further words.

“You convey those thoughts by your loving, flowing acceptance of the spilled milk and your simple, natural cleaning-up actions…” Plus, Keyes notes, “If you can really accept the spilled milk (as well as other non-preferred happenings in your life) and permit your consciousness to flow in a here-and-now loving way, there will be very little ‘spilled milk’ in your life.”

Do you have a bedside book that you turn to first thing in the morning or before you turn in for the night? What is it and what does it do for you?   

Bonus Inspiration:  Keyes (1921-1995) has rightly earned a place among beloved teachers guiding students toward a happy, safe, loving way of living. His work is freely accessible including this outline of the 12 Pathways and the Seven Centers of Consciousness, laid out in a way that leads the student toward personal freedom and ease interacting with others http://www.highvibrations.org/archive1/pathways.htm

Keyes also discusses the science of happiness in a three-part vintage video series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R0cKfBKPKQ