Welcome to Episode One of Season Two of the Stop Making Yourself Miserable podcast. I had to take a slightly longer hiatus because I'm now working on something called Higher Mind Training which will be the next release of the Better Angels Publishing company.           The basic concept of Higher Mind Training is that we each have an enormous amount of potential within our consciousness and most of us have tapped hardly any of it. But there's a part of us that is a truly noble and incredible part of our intelligence and Higher Mind Training is designed to be a guide that the normal, everyday person can use to access these highest and best sides of ourselves and realize our highest potential.     Our inner nature is actually quite a bit more than we might have imagined.  I had mentioned in an earlier podcast episode the idea of something called the Indwelling God Presence. This was a big deal for me when I first heard about it because as a product of Western religion, I had always been taught that God was somewhere far away, somewhere on the outside - maybe up some mountain or beyond some cloud. One way or another, we've all grown up with these theories and concepts, powerfully portrayed in books and movies.   But when I began opening up to some newer understandings I came upon this idea of the Indwelling God presence, which basically means that God (which is a very limiting term, but still a workable one) is within each person, and is actually an integral part of our consciousness. There is an energy that keeps us alive and this understanding says that this energy actually is God, dwelling within us. It was a radical for me to conceive of, and it took a long time for me to begin to even accept the idea, because it was the antithesis of the framework of original sin and separation, where you have to earn your way back into the divine good graces. Afterall some of the stuff in the Bible is pretty intense, that God was so angry at Eve for the whole snake thing that he threw us out of the safe and beautiful garden and he condemned her to suffering horrible pain in childbirth. It was a tough road ahead of us, filled with abandonment, separation, guilt and fear, all blocking our way back into paradise lost. So, it was quite liberating to come upon this idea that – no, God isn't far away from you. It's closer to you than your own breath. And no, God never deserted you. God never left you. God's love is always with you, and you don't have to earn your way back. You don't have to have the blood of somebody be spilled so that you can be redeemed from all this horrible sin. All you really have to do is open up to this divine presence within and accept it.   It was pretty radical for me and there were a two other expressions of the idea that made it all the more powerful. The first one comes from some information I had discovered when I was learning about Walter Russell, a figure you may remember from one of the earlier podcasts. Russell was probably the most accomplished person in American history. A fourth-grade dropout with very little formal education, something happened to him when he was eight or nine years old. Some inner illumination occurred and he was able to tap into this inner part of himself which producing amazing wisdom and talents in his awareness. He was an architect.  He was a businessman.  He made millions of dollars. He was a scientist and helped re-redefine some of the periodic table. He was also a close friend with Thomas J Watson, Senior who was the founder of IBM and Russell trained their sales force for twelve years. He was also a brilliant artist, sculptor and musician, and he used to say that he had the ability to go within himself and tap into the infinite intelligence which was in there. And he also used to say that everybody has the same ability to do it, but it was just untapped. So once, when I was reading one of his lectures, he said an incredible thing about this inner power we all have. He said that what's inside of you right now is not your higher self. It's not your God presence. It isn't the part of you that's connected with the infinite. No. What's inside of you right now is God Almighty.  It was a pretty heavy thing for me to read because it seems so hard to accept the idea that within, inside of you, right now is God Almighty. Then, in a completely different framework, I came across the same idea from the works of a mystical poet named Kabir from the 15th century. He also said that within you right now is this almighty power. Coming from a Hindu background, he said that even the creator preserver and destroyer and all the other gods, they all pray to this being. Like Russel, he said that it's within us right now, keeping us alive. And like Russel he said we have complete access to it, but we basically ignore it and continue chasing after the illusory pleasures of Earth-life.  Of course, this is really hard for our minds to understand. In fact, it's impossible, because if there really is a God, it would have to be infinite and our mind is a purely finite instrument. As an example, try this with your mind. Think about what is the largest number that could possibly exist. Your mind will spin and spin because no matter what number you come up with you can always add a 1 to it, or even a minute fraction, and that will always make it bigger. Your mind can't handle the riddle because it bumps up against infinity. You can also try to picture a box that is so large that there is no more space outside of it. Again, the mind just can't handle the idea of something with no end to it. It can grasp the theoretical concept of infinity, but it can never really understand the reality of it. Which brings up an interesting point about the actual nature of our inner make-up. We have a finite capacity for suffering and pain, but we have an infinite capacity for happiness and joy. In essence, we seem to be biased towards the highest. So, as an example, if you happened to meet a renown accurate psychic who told you that unfortunately, for the rest your life your suffering and pain was just going to keep getting worse and worse. Five years from now you're going to be in 50 times more pain. And 10 years from now you going to be in 1000 times more pain. Whether it's physical, emotional or psychological, it would be a terrible thing for anyone to hear. But what about if that same psychic said I've got some incredible news for you. Five years from now you're going to be 100 times happier. You're going to feel 100 times greater about life. You'll have 100 times more love in your heart and things are going to be 100 times more wonderful than they are now. And by the way 20 years and now it's going to be 10,000 times better. You're going to feel 10,000 times happier, or even more. And it's just going to keep on getting better and better. Now every human being who ever lived would love to hear that news. And what does that really tell us about ourselves. Maybe it says that the inner essence of our being is positive and all the negative thoughts, feelings and emotions are the just the results of learned behavior. And one critical thing to remember about learned behavior – it can always be unlearned, especially when it comes in contact with something greater than can turn it positive. Well, that wraps up this episode. Because of the work I am doing in preparing Higher Mind training, my time is a bit more limited, so you may find that the episodes in season two may be a little more casual than they were in season one. But the basics will still be the same. I'll be presenting a lot of different information for your consideration and as before, just allow the ideas to come into your awareness and see where they take you. And as always keep your eyes mind and hearts open and let's get together in the next one.

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