Written on February 24, 2008 by Tom Stine
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Tom Stine dot com. The video above offers a short introduction to the site and what you will find here. Enjoy!
All of our thoughts are conditioned. We all are thinking exactly along the lines we are conditioned to think. Programmed like a computer. Anybody who thinks they are actually choosing of their own free will the line of thinking that they have is completely deluded by their thinking.
Behind most spiritual practices is the belief that you have to get someplace you’re not- a destination called realization or enlightenment. But realization isn’t someplace else; it’s the naturally occurring human state. It doesn’t belong to anybody. It’s who we all are. Spiritual practices also set up many pictures of what this state looks like. For example, when I described how much fear was present, people told me the fear meant that something must be wrong, because fear was an indication that I wasn’t in the proper state. But fear is just what it is, and it’s there too in the vastness of who we are.
In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.
Those who awaken never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.
On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.
Their food is knowledge.
They live on emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?
We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.
on February 25th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Way to go Tom. Great into video. It really sets the scene for your blog.
on February 25th, 2008 at 11:15 am
It sounds like you’re off to a great start, Tom. I’m looking forward to following along!
on February 25th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
The video was good. It’s away to get you out there and being different. Good job
on February 25th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Thank you all for the comments. It was fun putting the video together. I definitely want to do it again!
on February 27th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Tom
good to see you continue sharing your experiences with a new site. I look forward to reading & watching them because you are one of the few people applying the Sedona concepts and willing to share how that works for you with all of us. That helps me let go of whatever comes up in my own life and I thank you for that.
rgds
Mike
on February 27th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
LOL, Ok, are you going to change the comment about Oprah now since you’ll be doing the Eckhart Tolle webinar? (lol)
Very good video Tom, and that’s cool that you enjoyed making it. I haven’t done any video blogging yet but I’d like to have fun with it, too, like you did.
on February 27th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
@JoLynn I really should change my Oprah comment in the video, but editing what I had thought of as a “finished” work is not something I relish. I’m guessing that video will go quicker next time, but the first one took a while. It was lots of fun, don’t get me wrong. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. And, another friend called this afternoon to tell me all about Oprah and Eckhart. Either my friends are all conspiring against me or….