Apparition – Spirit FM

Gerard S. Hoff2 Comments

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Do you recognize that?
That constant stream of words going on in your head?
That is Mind.FM, the radio frequency of your ego. Mind.FM has a very powerful transmitter and has the power to overrule all.

That ego is not you, but pretends it is, and does anything to proof it.

In a way there’s nothing wrong with ego. In fact without it, life becomes perhaps boring. But ego is also responsible for a lot of negativity, like fear, jealousy, the feeling you’re not good enough, or the feeling of being a victim. In that sense it gives a wrong or fake purpose in life.

It is like looking in the mirror. The person you see is the one you recognize as yourself (or at least the image you have of yourself). When you smile, it smiles, when you frown it frowns, but when you raise your right hand it does the opposite. Looking at it from the perspective of the ego that is frustrating.

The trick is to become aware of the one watching the one who’s watching the image in the mirror. The one that is listening to your mind’s continuous flow of words and thoughts (and has some good laughs about the crazy things that happen there), that is the true you, your spirit, your connection to the source. The closer you get to the spirit, the less the ego can interfere.The real purpose in life is to live in the now and enjoy the moment. Watching your mind through the eyes of your spirit gets you there. The way is to be fully aware of the ego in order to learn and to grow.

Just remember there’s always the one watching you, watching yourself in the mirror. Try to connect to him or her at anytime, especially when you feel negative energy, like anger, envy, hate, frustration, jealousy. That awareness is the beginning of a new powerful radio frequency: the one of the spirit.

The one of the true you.

Animal Zen Masters: Salticidae

Gerard S. Hoff1 Comment

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the presence.

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The fear of spiders is funny, especially for this one, because it actually looks like a cute, little doggie with 8 legs.

Talking about the legs, they’re covered with hundreds of little hairs, with which the Salticidae or Jumping Spider, can smell, taste and hear. They’re not the spider-web kind of spider, they jump to catch their prey. To determine the precise location, they have four (!) pairs of eyes, that create an almost 360-degree vision and 3-D images. The eyes reflect in the dark when hit by light, imagine…

Looking at this beautiful, sophisticated, high-tech creature reminded me, that eyes are just one of our senses and should never rely solely on them.

You can’t depend on your eyes
when your imagination is out of focus.
– Mark Twain

Animal Zen Masters: The Lamb

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Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the presence.

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Estimates are, there are over a billion of them.

Sheep are one of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes and the most famous one is the Ovis aries. They are as practical as they get for humans, as they produce wool, milk, manure and meat.

Originally sheep is derived from the Old English word scēap (which is the same as Frisian) and it is a single and plural name for the animal. I find that very funny, because in a way they’re never alone.

Sheep play an important role in myths and religion, as they’ve been with people so long!

Egyptians worshipped animals and at various periods held certain animals to be sacred and as representations of their gods and goddesses. Agnus Dei is a Latin term meaning Lamb of God, it refers to Jesus as the perfect sacrificial offering that compensates for the sins of humanity.

In my mind, baby-sheep are the cutest animals. I still remember spring, waiting with my granddad for the lambs to be born. Within seconds they stand up and the next day, they lighten up the green grass fields next to his farm, with their funny jumps.

Happiness is the cause of a great day,
not the outcome.

Waylaid

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What is the flow of life?
Is it something you determine or is it something divine?

Life

I believe the flow of life is the thing you want, can and dare to embrace. It is about making decisions, without hesitation. Decisions that are instinctive, from the source.

The funny thing is that hesitations (can) come afterwards. Second thoughts, doubts, fear, things from the past, things from the future and it is rational.

It is the mind that furiously tries to avoid change. The mind wants to stay where it is and derives a large part of it’s (your) identity from that, change means an adaptation to something new.

Don’t hesitate, just do.
The nice things, the good things, the bad things, the things that need to be done, the things that have to be done, the things that should be done and even the things you don’t like to be done. Connect to the source, the original spirit that did not hesitate to embrace the opportunity, including the steps that need to be done to get there.

And it can be a long journey.
It can be a first stone of a long line of domino stones that need to fall down, small stones and huge stones, but eventually they all fall down and you get to the reward,
in order to find new stones to push over,
new prices to look forward to.

Don’t think big,
think small, one brilliant step at the time.

Feel big,
use every steps as inspiration and celebration.
Don’t let anybody else hold you up,
including your ego.

Don’t be waylaid

 

 

 

Waylaid orinated in Middle Dutch ‘wegelagen’ to lie in wait, derivative of wegelage a lying in wait

 

Animal Zen masters: The Mola

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Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.


The mola is the heaviest of all the bony fish, with large specimens reaching 4.3 m vertically and 3 m horizontally and weighing nearly 2,300 kg. They are frequently seen basking in the sun near the surface and are often mistaken for sharks when their huge dorsal fins emerge above the water.

Mola can become so infested with skin parasites, they jump out of the water up to 3.0 metres in the air, in an attempt to shake the parasites (and they are lousy swimmers). They’ll also often invite small fish or even birds to feast on them.

.It’s wiser to share burdens, then to drown under their weight.

Animal Zen Masters: The Albatross

Gerard S. Hoff3 Comments

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

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Albatrosses are the biggest birds on earth.
Some of them can have a wing span of 370 centimeters (12 feet). The bones in the wings are hollow to save weight and at the same time make them ultra strong. The front of the wing bone has a rounded shape for aerodynamics.

Albatrosses spend most of their life in the air.
They fly highly efficient and can lock-up the wings in with a special muscle and shoulder joint. By only moving their head they change direction, using dynamic soaring and slope soaring. That way they can fly distances up to a 1000 kilometers a day, effortless.
The only exertion is when they take off.

Life is not about carrying weight,
it’s about floating in the air.
Lock your wings.

Animal Zen Masters: The Earthworm

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Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

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Earthworms have a major impact on the soil structure. When we walk the earth, billions of worms dig tunnels and break down plant material, making the soil airy and healthy.

The most amazing thing about earthworms is their power to regenerate their body.

Segments of their body can be detached and then simply re-formed again. Even from internal organs it is known that the nervous system can regenerate.
Imagine.

To grow in life is to detach,
the soul will regenerate.

Animal Zen Masters: The Baby Giraffe

Gerard S. Hoff1 Comment

Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

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Giraffes spend most of their lives standing up; they even sleep and give birth standing up. That makes the birth of a giraffe baby, one of the most violent births in the animal kingdom. A drop of 2 meters, right off the smoothing womb.

The giraffe calf can already stand up and walk after about an hour is able to run the first day. Within week, it starts to collecting its own leaves.

Wisdom begins in wonder – Socrates

Animal Zen Masters: The Bee

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Nature delivers the greatest Zen masters in learning how to live in the now.

A bee is living in a hive with hundreds of thousands of other bees, where every bee plays it’s own distinctive role. Outside the hive the bee is on its own, but its role even more significant.
For us.

Bees are important for the pollination of many plants and therefore have an indirect role of about thirty percent of all of the chain in the human food.

Next time you see a bee, be aware of the importance of it.

Be yourself, everyone else is taken.