Archive for The Freedthinker

What Happened To Your Big Plans?

February 17, 2015Blessings, Business Development, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

Many humans suffer from Inadvertent Shrinkage. We shrink from our potential. How many people do you know who are shrinking from writing their book, building their inspired invention, getting their body into that dream shape, creating that amazing relationship, fixing that damaged friendship, learning the new instrument? Sometimes we will do anything to stay safe, regardless of the cost.

Some call it a comfort zone, but what is so comfortable about being miserable or frustrated because you are not fulfilling your vision? Here lies a health warning: Shrink From Your Potential And It May Cost Your Happiness.
“But I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing” say some. That’s ok. There are teachers, guides and mentors, to help you clarify your mission. Get in touch. If we are to hear the subtle voice of the Divine or our Higher Guidance, we need to cultivate silence to hear it.

There is a curious Biblical incident of a slave who makes the powerful choice to stay in the comfort of captivity. “If your slave chooses not to go free..bang their ear to the door with an awl” (Exodus 21:5-6). Other people always have an agenda for us. When was the last time you “lost” 20 minutes surfing online and became a mind-slave to someone else’s posts or buzzfeed?
When did you stop listening to your higher guidance? How are you like the slave who refuses to step up to their freedom? Is it in shrinking from bringing forth the big project you always dreamt of? How are you paying the price?

We all know regretful retirees whose life rushed by on someone else’s agenda. They chose a profession based on their parents’ choices and it took them a lifetime to figure out that they weren’t listening to themselves. They shrunk. The good news is that if you are reading this, you are still alive and it isn’t too late. The bad news is that you have to choose to be free and to take action.

Comfort zones are not so comfortable. The air is stagnant and the cocktails suck.

With Love-

Marcus

Check out Marcus Recommends on YouTube – powerful mini-infomercials to promote your business. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1uhPxzUYcFeePQ24UCy_mw.

Discover more about coaching packages: https://marcusjfreed.com/coaching-2/

FOOTNOTES
*Elijah experienced the Divine as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12).

From movie “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”

Burn or Blur?

November 24, 2014The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

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“First of all, hold a magnifying glass & focus the sun’s rays on a leaf,” said my teacher, “then take it out of focus & see how quickly the leaf burns”. “But not much is going to happen”, I responded. “Exactly,” he said, “and that is what you are doing with your energy”.

We may be seduced by false representations of power, be it cars, homes or cashflow, but the Masters stressed that true power is being able to control one’s emotions (Ethics, 4:1). Ultimate strength is the ability to harness your passions like the laser-focused sun under a magnifier.

The principle of Strength/“Gevurah” is the essential quality of the forefather Isaac. He appears nondescript at times, meditating in a field or performing the apparently unimaginative act of re-opening the wells that his father Abraham had previously excavated. He follows his father in so many other ways (moving to Egypt to avoid a famine, pretending his wife is his sister to avoid trouble, even getting married at 40) that we can wonder if he has any strength at all. Rather, the strength of Isaac is the potential strength of all of us: to use our available energy with the best possible focus.

A common objection to beginning meditation or yoga is “I can’t focus my mind”, “I’m just not good at meditation” or “I’m not flexible enough”. The logic makes initial sense, but it’s similar to a five-year-old child saying “there’s no point me trying to learn a bicycle because I’m not good at balancing. I’m not a bicycle-riding kind of person”. Rather, we work at it. We take the magnifying lens, practice & focus the sunbeam of our energy. Therein lies true strength.

This principle extends to our health, our relationship, our career & our business. If we strip away another layer, we see that everything we do is magnified anyway: Time is The Great Magnifier as the years go by quickly and we see the results of our behaviour, be it good or bad. Do you want to be a laser-focused or for life to go by in a blur? Harness your sunbeam!

Based on Parsha Chayei Sarah & Parsha Toldot.”

Sex & Death Before Breakfast

November 10, 2014The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

“I can’t understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: It’s like going round explaining how you sleep with your wife.” ― Philip Larkin

There is an art to healthy giving & well-intentioned sharing. The Kabbalah teaches about how the attribute of Love (“Hesed”) must be balanced with Discipline (“Gevurah”) to create the balanced element of Compassion or Justice (“Tiferet”). These energies are represented respectively by Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.

Giving is not automatically good. Our giving can be unbalanced. We might give too much, give too little, give with an intention to receive something or giving a bribe. Sometimes we can share the right thing at the wrong time, or not be pure-hearted in the way we are giving of ourselves. For example, a gentleman who meets a lady in a cocktail bar & offers her a drink may not always be doing so from a place of pure altruism, and giving for the sake of giving…

Kabbalistic wisdom teaches how Abraham’s story is the refining of giving, the “rectification” of the attribute of Hesed. He is in pain after circumcising himself – surely the ultimate act of manliness – yet three visitors arrive and he makes the effort to make them feel comfortable. I’m not sure I could do the same – the first or second part. Later on he is aware of when not to give, and when confronted with the potentially wife-stealing King Avimelech, Abraham pretends that his wife Sarah is his sister so that he does not have to give away his wife or his life. Nobody is given to anybody.

This contrasts with his nephew Lot, who offers to give his daughters to the sexual predators knocking on his front door in Sodom. The city is then destroyed at dawn, his wife dies, the girls mistakenly think they are the last people on earth and in order to continue to the human race they give their virginity to their father and give him sons – Moav (“from the father”) & Ammon (“from my kindred”). The girls’ hubris is overbearing as is their sons’ ironic nomenclature.

These stories teach principles that we can apply directly. This week I am reflecting on how I give, to whom I give, and where I need to balance my giving. When does my body need to eat, when does it need more exercise, less exercise, when do I need to give more to my work, give more to my parents, give less to my family, give more to my clients, give more to my creativity, give less time to certain projects, give a lot less time to reading FB & Buzzfeed, give more to my spiritual development? ‘Tis a fine line and one we must all determine for ourselves.

MJF
LA, 11-9-2014

IT IS YOU

October 28, 2014Blessings, Business Development, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

Pablo Picasso reveals his magic hands.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when he grows up” – Pablo Picasso.

Magicians and dramatists include a ‘reveal’ as part of their stock-in-trade. This might be the culmination of a great illusion, or the sudden plot twist, like the end of The Sixth Sense where Bruce Willis’ character is revealed as [——], or the finale of The Usual Suspects where we see that Kevin Spacey is really [——] (plot spoilers edited).

Here is a great reveal for you. You do not need a new Macbook to be creative, a Gucci coat to be stylish, or a massive Twitter following to be influential. Whilst material goods can be helpful & pleasurable, it can be easy to overlook our deeper foundation.

There are two messages that you will not see on a billboard, because nobody will profit from them but you. You are made “In The Divine Image” & “Divine Likeness” (Genesis 1:26). That means you have a deep, infinite capacity to be creative, regardless of whether you have been to Art School. Take a look at the nearest 5 year-old. They are still young enough to remember who they are. They can create worlds with the raw tools of pencil, paper, sticks or bedsheets. It is us adults who can forget.

Or try this counter-commercial message: “You Will Be The Blessing” (Genesis 12:2). There’s one to make the advertisers quake. You are perfect, whole & complete. When you interact with other people, you have the ability to be a source of blessing to others. That is your natural potential – WITHOUT THE NEED FOR ANY FURTHER TRAINING – just trust your nature and be that blessing.

Martial Arts teaches the importance of “holding your centre”. Without it, someone can be easily pushed over, like a tree without firm roots. The same is true with our lives, every day. If we do not define who we are, and remember our creative capacity & potential, there will always be somebody who is willing to take our centre. Cosmetic Surgery billboards by the LA freeways are a simple example of someone trying to knock you off centre, diminish you, remind you that you are not ok – and certainly not a Divine Image, a Walking Breathing Blessing.

We can get lost in a sea of messages, and buffeted by the waves. Rav Nachman of Breslov taught that the command Noah received to build an ark and make a window was a hint to something far deeper. The Hebrew word for ‘ark’ is synonymous for “word”, and ‘window’ means either a “shiny jewel”, or a “light” (Gen 6:16). Let your words be a light for others. When you speak, share thoughts that will illuminate the world.

We are beings of infinite potential but can easily keep our light covered up if we choose not to reveal it. Remember who you are and what you can create. A brand new day awaits.

********

AUTHOR’S NOTE: These teachings are designed to be applied in the world. Meditate on them, chew on them, take them to the yoga studio & gym. Work them into your business meetings, romantic dinners, desert discos & camping trips. More teachings available on marcusjfreed.com, Amazon & Kindle. Go fourth & conker.

_____
Inspired by Parshas Breisheet, Noach & Lech-Lecha.

Unhealthy Prophets Warning: How To Change Your Future

September 24, 2014Parsha, Success, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

usa_train_crash A great teacher will not only share information, but will impart wisdom as well. These days knowledge is free and you can get a university-level education on Youtube. Wisdom is another matter entirely. A business mentor once had the wisdom to tell me that a certain area of my life was hurtling along like a steam train headed towards a ravine, and the tracks were about to run out. He guided me to take fast action, the equivalent of building a bridge across the valley. I immediately started “construction”.

Where is your “train” headed right now? When we get really honest with ourselves, we often know the truth deep inside, although it certainly helps when the warning is voiced by an external source. Are your tracks strong, or do you need to make serious adjustments to your course? Where is there a potential “cliff” in your life, be it in your relationships, body, spiritual outlook or career & business?

In the ancient world there were differing views of destiny. Ancient Rome & Athens believed in fate. Accordingly to mythology there were three sisters, the “three fates” who decided your future. Ancient Jerusalem believed you could bend your karma and change your destiny, through action (teshuva), prayer (tefilla) and charitable karma-balancing (tzedakah). When Moses warned “you will surely become corrupt..[and] evil will befall you” (Deuteronomy 31:29), it was with the knowledge that the future could be changed.

Look ahead into your future and see if it needs changing it before you get there. Get in touch if you need help. The wisdom is out there. The story of your future can be rewritten today.

Today’s teachings were inspired by Nitzavim-Vayeilech.

Copper Skies, Iron Earth

September 18, 2014Blessings, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

A human proclivity is to live with a mindset of blame-and-complain. Things do not go our way so we blame others: parents, teachers, society, or anyone nearby. Life has not turned out how we would like so we complain to anybody who will listen.

One may find it hard to relate to ancient curses mentioned the Biblical narrative. Blessings are easy to hear, but curses? Until now I thought they were for another people at another time; “if you do not obey the Lord, your God…all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you.” (Deut 28:15), or, “The Lord will send the curse of shortages, confusion…every one of your endeavors which you undertake, until it destroys you and until you quickly vanish.” (28:20) “And your skies above you will be [like] copper, and the earth below you [like] iron.” (28:23).

Our Blame Game knows no limits and may extend to blaming God, or even our ancestors. One of my spiritual teachers specialises in showing people their dark side: All the areas where you have brought ‘curses’ upon yourself. All the places where you have taken a perfectly healthy situation, a ‘blessing’, and messed it up.

I recently found myself in tears when I realised how much I was blaming others when I had not achieved certain important goals. I was taking potential blessings and turning them into curses. “If you do not obey God” might be re-read as “if you do not obey the Laws of the Universe”. In other words, if you repeatedly think in a certain way, speak in a certain way and behave in a certain way, then you will create certain results. There is not necessarily some kind of magical Divine intervention: just bad human behaviour.

The yogis spoke of ‘samskaras’, soul-wounds or negative states of mind that we need to heal, and the Kabbalists taught of ‘tikkunim’, the spiritual aspects we need to heal. We need look no further than our relationships which are not going well, be it personal or business, or to look at our physical and spiritual wellbeing to discover where we need to get to work fixing things.

When I got to see how I was responsible for creating and repeating negative patterns in my life, it became clear that there was no Divine ‘curse’ but a man-made (or Marcus-made) problem. However, if the earth below has become tough like iron, perhaps a few tear drops are the first catalyst of change to soften the ground for growing something new.

HOW TO APPLY THIS:
What is the No#1 complaint you repeat most often? Meditate on how you have been a cause in this matter. Now, transform the situation…

storymaker-amazing-nature-photos-slideshow7-515x388

The Biblical Art of War: how to disarm your enemies & influence people

September 5, 2014Parsha, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

Many people switch off when reading the words “If you go out to war against your enemies” (Deuteronomy 21:10). ‘I am no soldier’, one may think, ‘so this is irrelevant’. Yet The Bhagavad Gita also begins with family tribes “assembling in the place of pilgrimage at Kurukshetra, desirous of battle” (BG 1:1). Perhaps it is wise to be battle-ready. The Huffington Post reported that “for business leaders, reading The Art of War is a rite of passage; quoting from it is de rigueur”.

Many of us behave as if we are going to war on a daily basis, getting angry with the driver who just cut you up, slightly resentful towards lovers, or vaguely frustrated with certain friends. The list goes on. The Biblical art of war is to be mindful when going into conflict, which means being sensitive to captives, respectful of powerless innocents and even honouring fruit trees (i.e. no ‘scorched earth’ policies). This way we maintain our human dignity, preserve a Divine connection and remember that the other people are also humans. Even that idiot in front who can’t drive and apparently bought a car without indicator lights.

There are selfish reasons to take on this perspective. We suffer when when hold hate. Hippy scientists have shown how this manifests in our body (see movie What the Bleep or read The Message from Water: The Message from Water is Telling Us to Take a Look at Ourselves). Whilst there is a time to go to war – there is a time for everything under the sun – our bodies and internal organs feel the stress if we jump to a battle response every single day, and it also doesn’t do much for our relationships.

These teachings were partially encoded in yoga postures. If you are practicing Warrior 1 then make sure you can stay grounded and free from hate. If you are entering a conflict situation in relationship, ensure you keep a higher intention of peace unless you are deliberately seeking destruction. If you enter a work situation with an attack mentality, expect to receive back what you are giving out. In The Book of Five Rings, famed Samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi taught ‘from one thing, know ten thousand things’, e.g., see how you overreact in some situations and realise you may be doing it in many situations.

We often have far more power than we recognise. By staying calm in the face of conflict we might release more energy to our brain to choose a course of peaceful action. Warriors, at ease.

640px-Musashi_ts_pic

FOOTNOTE: Parsha Ki Teitzei

Happy Thoughts

August 15, 2014Deuteronomy, Gratitude, Higher Purpose, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

Tootsie vs Mrs Doubtfire

What happens when the funniest man on earth kills himself? We rush to make sense of out of the seemingly nonsensical. Humans like things to fit into a logical order. Tragedies confuse us. We ask ‘why?’, as if the entire universe should fit into our limited understanding.

Can black be white, sadness be happy and day be night? Perhaps the apparent contradictions might lead us to a deeper insight. Maybe ambiguity is a footprint of the Divine.

A Biblical injunction suggests that people should not think they have received material wealth as a result of their own personal merit* but stay connected to the higher source. This opposes our ideal of the ‘self-made man’ – we have worked hard and deserve rewards. Wasn’t that what we were taught in school?

Our neat worldview gets disrupted when things don’t fit into the boundaries of our perception. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. Surely it is time to understand that we cannot fully understand, and that there are secrets beyond our grasp?

My offering for the week is simple; let us stop pretending that we are God, at least for a few days. Let us allow things not to make sense, to sit in a space of not-knowing and to experience a sense of awe, accepting that maybe we do not need to understand everything. In this space – what we might call the liminal space, that is, between two thresholds of certainty – we can experience a new sense of joy in our life.

 We can sit in not knowing everything about our loved ones and discover new things about them. We can experience not know everything about our work and enjoy a fresh creative flow and find new opportunities with clients and colleagues. We can try on the idea of not knowing everything about ourselves and realise there is more to our own lives that we have yet to discover.

Amidst all of this is the simple quest to find joy. My mind goes to the moment in the film Hook when Robin William’s grown-up Peter Pan forgets his worries, realises he doesn’t need to know how to fly, but must rediscover a sense of wonder and awe by holding happy thoughts; “look Wendy, I can fly!!”. If only life could have mirrored his happy art. Maybe now it is your turn to fly.

Marcus J Freed,
Los Angeles.
www.marcusjfreed.com

FOOTNOTES
*Deuteronomy 9:4. Do not say to yourself, when the Lord, your God, has repelled them from before you, saying, “Because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me to possess this land”

Hello Sunshine

August 3, 2014Blessings, The FreedthinkerLeave a comment

I once met a bright and happy girl about whom someone said “the sun shines upon her. Some people are just like that”.

Imagine a world where thoughts are things. You think of something and it immediately comes into existence. You experience a mood and everyone can see it. People walk around surrounded with dark clouds above the heads, and others carry their own rays of sunshine. This might be an interesting imaginative exercise until we apply it to ourselves – what are your thoughts creating?

The Hebrew word _Devarim_, eternally translated into its none-too-helpful Greek name ‘Deuteronomy’, means ‘words’, ’things’ or ‘matter’. In the ancient language there is no difference in this regard between thoughts and things. Sticks and stones may break stuff but words will hurt, words will heal, words will destroy and words will create. Add the letter ‘L’ into words and you have _worlds_ – even the English barely hides the power of our utterances.

The Kabbalistic theories of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria taught of four worlds which simultaneously exist in parallel dimensions. Our physical state exists within the World of Action (_Olam Assiyah_) and is preceded by the World of Formation (_Olam Yetzirah_). In the next dimension there is no sense of time or space and it was just a moment ago that Rome was sacked, King Lear was written, and Vesuvius erupted. In this world, we are taught, thoughts can be seen and our very emotions and words create matter. What exists on the inside can be seen on the outside.

Back to our initial world of action where thoughts are matter made real. Life would change if we could see the results of our thoughts and emotions, the same way that insects might see fragrances in the air or an MRI scanner can view layers that are hidden from the naked eye. We might move from a culture of blame, fear and anger to one of conscious love, and holding peaceful and powerful thoughts at every possible moment. Then, and only then, could we choose for the sun to shine upon us at all times.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Hamlet 1:V

_____________
FOOTNOTE:
Spiritual meditation for the coming week:
“One should concentrate his intellect and understanding deeply for a period every day, or at night before Tikkun Chatzot, to contemplate how through his sins he has brought about the exile of the Divine presence, and caused his spirit and Divine soul to be uprooted from the Divine Source in Life” (Iggeret HaTeshuva Middle of Chp 7).

Word Up

July 15, 2014Blessings, Business Development, Courage, Numbers, Parsha, Spiritual, Success, The Freedthinker, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Many of us were brought up with the same lie; “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”. Do you want to bet? Think back to the most hurtful and hateful words that somebody has ever said to you. Now consider how long it takes to heal a broken bone – maybe a few months, a year. And how long can it take for someone to heal from damaging words? The verbal weapon alone has kept many a therapist in business for years if not decades.

Words can hurt & words can heal…

Moses takes a moment to instill the importance of vows. He explains the spiritual weight of the spoken word, the way it can cause damage and how to renegotiate a promise that has been made. The most oft-misquoted opening to the Bible is ‘in the beginning there was the word’, which is in fact the opening to the gospel of John, but he was certainly in line with the Kabbalistic perspective which outlines how spiritual worlds can be created and destroyed with the power of our words*.

We all know what it is like to be betrayed by the words of others, to be let down by somebody’s promises or perhaps to be upset by their choice of vocabulary and the intent behind it. An even more powerful insight can be to understand how we have let ourselves down at times, or the words we use against ourself.

I for one have been completely guilty of this, making huge promises to myself about creative projects I planned to launch, short films I planned to make, productions I planned to stage, books I planned to write. When we make a vow to ourself, however subtle, we create something that exists. On a delicate level, that promise exists in our heart and our mind, which is why so many people live out of the would-a/should-a/could-a mindset of things could be different if..life would be different if.

When we realise the true power of our words and the potential they can generate, we can start harnessing that energy and using for the good. We begin by keeping the word to ourself, then to others, and bringing our visions into being.

(now..pre-order your copy of The Kabbalah Sutras and help get this wisdom out into the world!).
*See Sefer Tanya, Chp 40.

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