Templates that place meaning only in the future deny the present and the future as envisaged never comes.

"Technological mastery is no provider of well-being or peace of mind. Material goods offer a seductive and short-lived satisfaction to those who gain them and serve as a bitter disappointment to those who seek them without success. Technology and materialism are here to stay; these are the driving forces of contemporary society. We cannot change our own history, but we can find a greater vision where these twin powers have a place, but do not rule. When every waking moment has become consumed by consumerism, when the still voice of the heart has been drowned out by imagined glitz and glamour, we have paid too high a price for comfort, ease and security. When the sense of being trapped by the treadmill becomes overwhelming, we know we have failed to strike a healthy balance in our lives. When the relentless passing of time seems to diminish, rather than expand our opportunities for enrichment, who will not cry out, 'There must be more to life than this!'?

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We work directly with the mind from within. We step into the alchemical furnace of becoming. We come to work with ourselves in depth and finally we come fully to realize ourselves. This sharpens the spiritual quest, which is not undertaken as some vague existential adventure, but under a directive to know ultimate nature. On the journey into the nature of being human, much will transpire.

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we approach so many experiences through the lens of our pre-existing mindset. Reflect for a moment on the freshness and spontaneity that a child finds in everyday experiences. The child is almost surprised daily at the simple delights of ordinary things. The adult so often loses touch with sense of wonder and curiosity, which makes the experience is very close to the meditative mind. The child relates directly and without preconceptions to all experience. The processes of socialization and education shape behaviour and reactions into accepted norms. Something is gained, but something is lost along the way. It is perhaps ironic that we have to work so hard to find our way back to the simplicity of childlike consciousness. The educated mind has learned to think in particular and specialized ways, to think rationally and to provide solutions logically. The socialized individual has learned to respond in socially acceptable ways, to adopt the language and manners of the social group and to function within prescribed parameters.

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Values of self-aggrandisement, selfishness, survival, power and greed instead become the norm. Those too weak, too poor or too disadvantaged cannot compete in the human jungle. Who will serve them? Some might well argue that we have already created this world. Currently, the marketplace offers no morality except that of the right price and the short term. The cult of individuality has been raised to a fine art.

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Opening the heart does not come from being clever but from simplicity. It does not come from being knowledgeable but from being wise. It does not come from being full of self but from being empty of self. How difficult it is to live with an open heart in a society that values the clever, the knowledgeable and the egocentric.

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Recognizing the impermanence of all things is a powerful realization. The news of a life-threatening illness can shake us to the core; it brings us face to face with our own impermanence. So often such news serves to galvanize intentions and focus motivations. Priorities shift instantly and we suddenly see what is really important with devastating clarity. Such shocks put life in perspective. But it need not take a tragedy to remind us of the obvious. We can keep our priorities in focus through choice and awareness. We cannot hide in the delusion of permanence. We cannot halt the passing of time. We cannot control the flow of life, but we can flow with it.

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If we love life, let us affirm life. ... Let us choose life. If we live in the moment, death will have no fear. If the one-life model is your guiding light, affirm it fully and live it here and now. Heaven can wait. It is the certainty of death that provides life with its meaning, so, in our quest for meaning, let us also face the reality of death.

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We only have the moment, we do not have the future. Templates that place meaning only in the future deny the present and the future as envisaged never comes. Whether that future is a heavenly paradise, eternal glory or an ascended existence, the result is the same. The moment in hand evaporates in the face of a future which exists only within a particular belief system. ... Let us find ourselves here and now in this very moment.

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Western psychotherapy, in basing itself almost exclusively on the world view of scientific materialism, has impoverished its model of human consciousness and lost the meaning and significance of human life."

-- meditation, naomi ozaniec