And Then the Silence

"And Then the Silence"

No one knows why the power of Teotihuacán was silenced around A.D. 700. People simply stopped living in the city. Perhaps the residents reached a spiritual state that allowed them to transcend their physical bodies and go home to their beloved sun. There is evidence of a great fire that burned most of the main buildings; however, there is no way to know who burned them, or why. Maybe the residents torched their city when they left, or it was conquered and plundered by a marauding tribe. 

Archeologists have not solved these mysteries, and probably never will. Whatever the cause, the great city of Teotihuacán, along with its mystique and magnificence, came to an end. Small village groups continued to live in the area, but the city itself was left alone and silent. The origins and destiny of Teotihuacán remain a secret today. Were these people the first Toltecs, who moved to Tula and began again? Or were they a forgotten group of Toltec masters who came together to manifest a magnificent vision of stone and spirit, and then disappeared into the annals of history?

Although the origins and purpose of Teotihuacán have been lost in history, the site remains alive as a tourist destination, and as a place of great spiritual power. Toltec and other teachers and groups from around the world visit to access the energy there for powerful personal and planetary healing.

~ An excerpt from The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book, by Allan Hardman

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Join me! Sign up now for a powerful journey to Teotihuacán, Mexico this October! 

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Active Self-Acceptance

"Active Self-Acceptance"

Many of us grew up in less than ideal situations. We were domesticated. We were taught what ways were good to be and what ways were bad, we were rewarded for doing right and punished for doing wrong. The worst punishments was rejection -- being ignored, sent to the corner or to our rooms, threatened with being left out, left behind, or exiled.

In time, we learned to internalize the rejection and reject ourselves. It actually seemed like a good defense against outside rejection -- if we beat them to it, we knew it would be less painful than if they rejected us. After all, we depended on them for all of the basics that supported our survival. 

So, we became the masters of self-rejection. We created a judging voice in our minds, reminding us to do it right, perform properly, be good, and follow the rules the best we could. I'm often surprised when people aren't aware of their inner judge voice, or accept it as a normal part of their mind.

It's painful to be made wrong all the time. Nobody likes it from the outside, but many people unconsciously tolerate it in their own minds. What about you? If someone was following you around talking to you critically like your inner judge, what would you do? How would you handle it?

We don't need to tolerate all that rejection. We came into this world totally IN love with all of creation, and we learned to judge and reject ourselves. There is no reason we can't go back to that default state and live our lives in that same acceptance we lived in at the beginning.

We need to become masters of self-acceptance. It was natural for us until we learned self-rejection. Let's make it natural again. An adult life lived in acceptance of ourselves extends naturally to an acceptance of all creation. This could be a description of "Enlightenment." I can tell you this: It will make you very happy. Perhaps that is a good description of Enlightenment.

For more about Active Self Acceptance, 

join the conversation on my radio show or check the archives, here.

So, since we actively learned to reject ourselves, I suggest we turn it around by actively learning to accept ourselves. Here are three simple (yet not necessarily easy) principles I use. They are borrowed from Nathaniel Brandon's book, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, with gratitude:

* Value Yourself: Be on your side! Be for yourself. You are a child of the universe and have a right to belong here, as you are. Repeat as needed: "I choose to value myself, to treat myself with respect, to stand up for my right to exist, as I am!"

* Tell Yourself the Truth: Make it real to yourself what is true about you, without denial or evasion. Refuse to have an adversarial relationship with any part of your physical, emotional, or spiritual bodies. "I choose to tell myself the truth about myself and to accept and love everything I am... and everything I am not."

* Be Your Own Best Friend: Have compassion for yourself. You are a perfect human being, doing your best. Be a good friend to yourself. Listen to your truth, your fears, loves, and needs, with compassion and acceptance. "I choose to be a gentle and loving friend to myself, and to accept my feelings and actions without judgment or blame."

There is absolutely no reason to allow the judge in our minds to continue the abuse of self-rejection. But we must take action to stop it, and to learn a new way of speaking to ourselves. 

With all my love,

Allan

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My Weekly Radio Show Continues! Please join me every Sunday evening 7:00 pm Pacific time for: 

"Living in Conscious Relationship ~ A Conversation in the Truth." This is a write-in and call-in internet radio show - I invite you to join the conversation.

Archives are here: HUMAN SPIRIT RADIO NETWORK

Exciting programs are starting once again in Sonoma County, CA, this spring. Please join me!

Every Wednesday evening we resume the amazing "Conscious Relationship Circle" ~ May 2 -September 26, 2012.

And on Tuesday evenings, something new: "Four Agreements Wisdom Circle" ~ May 1 - September 25, 2012

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I'm so grateful to be able to share with you here. My life and work and Joydancer and TACO (my online Toltec spiritual networking community) are all dedicated to helping us learn and remember the truth of our oneness as the Divine essence that creates and animates this universe... and each part of it in each moment. Including you and me!

I am available by phone, Skype, and e-mail if you would like support for your life journey. I look forward to hearing from you.

Details about consultations and apprenticeships in The Four Agreements and Toltec tradition are here.

The Super Bowl of Love!

"The Super Bowl of Love!"

In the USA and beyond, the Super Bowl is a very special event -- and a time that people eat more guacamole than the trees can provide! I hope your team wins, even in they're not included.

In the meantime, let's talk about the Super Bowl of Love. We don't need guacamole for the discussion, but if you want to, please go right ahead. I had some on a recent afternoon at the beach here in Chacala (Nayarít, Mexico) and it was superb.

We are in a time of changing and expanding consciousness now, and many people are searching for ways to participate and become more aware, conscious, loving, and/or enlightened. It is as though there is a championship at stake, people are competing for honors, going to workshops, reading books, finding teachers, traveling to foreign lands-- all in search of a very illusive commodity.

In fact, the commodity of "more conscious, more loving, more enlightened" really doesn't exist. If you are pursuing those goals in order to be "more," you are doomed. It means you are listening to that judge voice within who says you must be more something in order to be good enough for...? For what!? Aren't we good enough now? Must we be more to be enough? It's crazy! Like a dog throwing his own bone. Stop believing that voice, it's clearly insane!

For more on the voice of the inner judge, listen to the archive of my Conscious Relationship radio show, #27, "Here Come da' Judge," here, or read my newsletter on the subject here.

In the Super Bowl of Love there are no scores, no winning and no losing. There is no succeeding and no failing. There is only the perfect and beautiful What IS. And we are What IS. The inner or outer judge that says you should be more than you are is lying-- how is it possible? This is a trick that most people fall for, and spend their lives denying who and what they are while they pretend to be what they should be while they're trying to figure out how to actually become what they think they should be.

You can't. You cannot be other than you are.

In the Super Bowl of Love we stop trying to gain yardage, we stop counting penalties, and we play from the truth of our hearts, from the truth of who we are. We play without fear, because we know we are perfect just the way we are, and just the way we are not. We relax, and let the game play around us. We are at peace in the game, with ourselves, and with the world around us.

There is nothing to get right. We are already right. We are already winners. Every one of us, winners. You win the Super Bowl of Love the minute you quit trying to be what you are not, and accept yourself as you are. Every one of us is a unique expression of the love and divine energy of the creator of this universe, this planet, and as this wonderful human you already are.

Relax, eat some guacamole, and taste a little gratitude for being a unique expression of the love of the divine-- perfect as you are, right here, right now.

Touchdown!!

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You can also find freedom from the inner judge as a member of our online community "TACO."

I am available by phone, Skype, and e-mail if you would like support for your life journey. I look forward to hearing from you.  allanh@sonic.net

Details about consultations and apprenticeships in The Four Agreements and Toltec tradition are here.

Giving Meaning to Life (Chacala Style)

"Giving Meaning to Life (Chacala Style)"

What Gives Meaning to Your Life? 

A Chacala Story...

After the summer rains, the dirt street in front of my home in Chacala, Mexico, was in bad shape. The neighbors got together and brought in loads of rock and dirt and graded it nice and straight and smooth. AND dusty! With the new surface, people could drive faster on the road and the resulting clouds of dust swarmed around my house and snuck through windows and doors and settled on everything.

Some people here water the streets in front of their homes and business to keep down the dust. I tried it, but it took too much time and there often isn't much water pressure here. I was lamenting to a neighbor that I needed a helpful teen to do the job for me, but there aren't any right around here.

My neighbor suggested I ask my next door neighbor Señor B to do it. He is 80+ years old, and no longer very stable on his feet. I wasn't sure about the idea, partly because I often need a translator to help me understand Sr. B's Spanish!

The next day when I was watering the street again, Sr. B approached me about doing it for me. It turned out my neighbor had already shared her idea with him, so we agreed on a "salary,"and I gladly turned over my duty to him. As I watched him the next couple of days I realized we needed to turn up the energy and scope of his job description.

I added a length of hose so he could reach farther in both directions, took off the feeble spray nozzle, suggested he take more time to really soak the dirt, and I doubled his salary. "Mas mangera, mas tiempo, mas calle, y mas dinero." (More hose, more time, more street, and more money!).

Sr. B lives very simply on a very small pension. He lives in a cement block space of about 300 square feet with no windows and one steel door -- as many older people here do. After the first few days of the "job," my neighbor reported that Sr. B had shared a new sense of value and purpose to his life. His responsibility has given him new structure and meaning. I had no idea this would happen, I only wanted to get rid of the dust!

I'm delighted. Sr. B meticulously waters the street from edge to edge every day now. The dust problem is virtually eliminated. But even more important has been my realization that such a simple idea could change his life the way it has. Today he told me another neighbor asked him to keep going past my house to theirs! He has a new career!

I smile as I share this with you.

Side note: Sr. B was hit by a car years ago, and has been very afraid of cars since then. I often see him nervously scampering to safety when he is walking down the street and a car approaches. Today I watched him at his work and noticed he had more authority about his street. He seemed less anxious and even directed one truck around his hose.

What about you? What gives meaning to your life?

allanh@sonic.net -- Or (707) 206-7623 (rings through to Chacala from northern California toll free.)

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I'm so grateful to be able to share with you here. My life and work and Joydancer and TACO (my online Toltec spiritual and networking community) are all dedicated to helping us learn and remember the truth of our oneness as the Divine essence that creates and animates this universe... and each part of it in each moment. Including you and me!

I am available by phone, Skype, and e-mail if you would like support for your life journey. I look forward to hearing from you.

Phone: (707) 528-1271

Skype: (707) 206-7623

Email: allanh@sonic.net

Details about consultations and apprenticeship are here.

Sign up for my newsletter here!

Your Very Own Personal Companion

"Your Very Own Personal Companion"

The Toltecs say that humans are sick because there is a parasite in their minds that eats their negative emotions. It not only eats the negative emotions, but it also does everything it can to get the human to dream in fear, so it will have lots to eat.

In most people, the parasite is in charge of perception. It tells lies in the mind, and the person believes them: "You have to look good for other people. There is a limited amount of love and attention available, and you need them to survive. You have to be good and get it right for other people, to deserve your share of the love." The parasite learned all its lies during childhood, and continues to repeat them in the adult mind. The lies create more fear for the parasite to eat.

The parasite is a living dream, dreamed in different ways and degrees by all humans. When you were born into the parasite dream of your family, they began to take little pieces of their parasite and put them in your mind. These were like seeds -- little beliefs and lies based in fear -- and they grew in your mind. In time, those seeds grew into your unique personal parasite, which has been with you ever since.

Dictionaries define parasite as a living being that lives on or in another organism, sucking its energy, and offering no advantage to the host. Often parasites weaken their hosts a little at a time. The parasite in the human mind creates and eats negative thoughts and emotions, drains the human's personal power, and robs his body of its vitality. The Toltecs know that the parasite is the cause of many diseases of both the mind and body.

The parasite's job is to keep you in line, following the rules that the judge knows society wants you to follow, so you will be loved and accepted. The parasite controls your behavior with fear. The minute you try to create new beliefs for yourself, especially based in love, the parasite is terrified. It knows that in the past, going against the outside dream meant rejection, punishment, or worse. The parasite will do everything it can to sabotage your efforts to change your personal dream. It fears for your safety, and ultimately your life. Who could blame it? The parasite learned well, in a very tough school.

If your personal parasite can't control you, there is always the big parasite, the living being that is the dream of the planet. It taught your parasite everything it knows, and colludes with your parasite to keep you asleep. Everyone knows the rules and how to remind you of what will happen if you break them.

- An excerpt from The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book, by Allan Hardman

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Learn to break the spell of the parasite -- order The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book here.

Sign up for my newsletter.

Check out TACO -- my Online Toltec Community of men and women supporting each other and themselves on the road to personal freedom: http://tolteconline.com

I am available for counseling: allanh@sonic.net or call (707) 528-1271

A Blessing Prayer for the New Year

"A Blessing Prayer for the New Year"

"I Fling My Heart Open to Thee"

Divine Presence, I fling my heart open to thee.

Show me the way to your perfect Grace.

I dance with thee in this New Year.

My heart is open wide,

and your love pours through me,

and I see your love in all that is.

I see your love in my Beloveds,

In the rain and sun and wind and heat and cold.

I see your love in all success and adversity,

I see your love in every aspect of your Creation.

I say YES to all that is, knowing it is all You.

In this New Year, may I let nothing obscure my vision of you,

And your Grace.

My eyes are open wide,

and my heart is ripped open

In my desire to be possessed by you.

Take Me, Take Me, Take Me.

I have nothing to surrender,

because all that I AM is You.

Divine Presence, I fling my heart open to thee.

Show me the way to your perfect Grace.

I dance with you in this New Year.

IN Love.

And so it is.

    

    Allan

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I have been delighted and grateful to have shared part or all of 2011 with you here on my blog, in my newsletter, at Summer Celebration of Life, the pyramids, the Chacala beach, other events, and in our hearts. Thank you for traveling this journey with me.

I know 2012 will be a fascinating year, including the mixed predictions about the Mayan Calendar, changes in the consciousness of we humans, and so much more.

And 2012 also means a dream come true for me, as I begin a weekly radio show on Conscious Relationships -- starting Sunday January 8, 7:00-8:00 pm Pacific time. 

For radio show details, click here.

YOURS IN LOVE AND ANTICIPATION OF A GREAT YEAR!!

          Allan

I enjoy your feedback: allanh@sonic.net

Or (707) 206-7623 (rings through to Chacala from northern California toll free).

The Divine Child Within ~ Another Look at Christmas

The Divine Child Within

~~Another Look at Christmas~~

I would like to start this sharing with wishing you a Merry Christmas. And then I want to direct your attention to a way we can use this season of merriment and confusion to honor an important part of ourselves...one that often gets left behind in the busy shuffle of life.

The story of this season is about the birth of a divine child, and I would like to suggest the story is also a lovely reminder of the divine child each of us came here to be. When you came into this life, you had no judgments, no opinions, no fears, no self-consciousness -- you were completely free to be who and what you were. Without judgment there is perfection, and in that perfection is the divine.

So you came to this life as that divine perfection. We all did, of course. We lived in and through that perfection for the first several months of our lives-- we accepted our bodies, our emotions, and all the people and events around us without question. Everyone recognized our divine nature, and wanted to pick us up and bathe in our non-judgmental acceptance. We all want to make eye contact with an infant for as long as the child will tolerate it. We feel their love/acceptance, and we begin to mirror it and send it back. What's to judge about an infant? Bad hair day? Crooked diaper? Wrong attitude? There is nothing there but to fall INTO love.

Because of the dynamics of culture and social domestication, our caregivers began to feed us parts of how they were dreaming life-- much of it based in fears, rules, expectations, judgments, manners, and more fears. They taught us we were not perfect, not divine, and that we had to be good, better, more, in order to earn that value-- while at the same time letting us know the goal of perfection was unattainable. We learned to agree, although most of us vigorously resisted the loss of our own personal way of dreaming life. They call it the "terrible two's." It is terrible for a young child!

That divine child we came into this life as is still right here with us. He or she hasn't gone anywhere, except to be lost in the rubble of someone else's dream. To reclaim that divine perfection -- not as an innocent child now, but with the wisdom of an adult -- just might be a powerful and healing backdrop to the other events of this holiday season.

How do we reclaim that divine child within? First comes the desire, then the intention, then our attention to the task, then deliberate action. This intention and action is how I live my life and what I share with my clients and apprentices. We can do it!

First, recognize the universe as one perfect whole. If there is only one universe, there cannot be anything outside of it to judge it. If there is nothing to judge the universe, I claim it has to be called "perfect." If this universe is a perfect whole, then there cannot be any imperfect part in that perfect whole. YOU cannot be an imperfect part of the whole. The trees and squirrels and clouds and galaxies and microbes are all perfect parts of the whole. And YOU.

If you accept my logic, then the rest is easy: Retrain your mind to stop judging you as imperfect, as bad or wrong or not enough. Insist the judge in your mind leave you alone. Your job is to protect that divine child within from the lies of imperfection, the lies of "not _______ enough." Your job is to reclaim and bring back into your life the divine child within.

This then, is the second coming of the divine child within.

The reclaiming of your perfection in the eyes of Life.

If you want help, I am here. That's what I do. Please contact me. 

In the meantime, Merry Christmas, 

and a Very Happy New Year

God Bless us one and all.

Love.

        Allan

allanh@sonic.net

Or (707) 206-7623 (rings through to Chacala from northern California toll free).