Enlightenment Appetizers: A Taste of Enlightenment in Everyday Life

by Hc Vetere PhD

Overview

How can we do work that is more gratifying? How could we have more peaceful and loving relationships? And could we live lives of greater health and longevity? These are just a few of the real-life topics addressed in Enlightenment Appetizers!

This book is for avid students of energy science and also for their bewildered friends and family members! These writings and images are intended to inspire and encourage those who are already familiar with the concepts to actually live them. Written in a practical and light-hearted way, this book is also the perfect introduction for those who are unfamiliar with the powerful principles of energy science.

As a life coach, I help my clients live with greater ease and joy. This is also my intention in offering you this gift of Enlightenment. May we all contribute to a more enlightened world!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504328708
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	05/29/2015
Pages:	88
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.23(d)

Read an Excerpt

Enlightenment Appetizers

A Taste of Enlightenment in Everyday Life

---

By Victoria A. Vetere

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2015 Victoria A. Vetere, PhD, HC
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5043-2870-8

---

CHAPTER 1

Work

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music..... And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth....

--- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Failing at Success

How do you define "success?" Traditionally success meant doing all the "right" things, like knowing the right people, going to the right schools, being from the right families, getting the right jobs, etc. This is the DO-HAVE-BE model. "Do" the right things, and you will "have" lots of stuff, and "be" happy. How's that working for you? For most, it isn't. This is where the confusion and frustration sets in. If we did it "right" and we're still not happy, did we fail at success? Or is "success" itself and the ladder it rests on, somehow flawed?

Recently I saw a video of a talk given by an East Indian spiritual teacher who was discussing "The Shift." He referred to popular fears about earthly demise. He explained that those cultures which are based upon "thinking" and "clutching" will experience great depression and that those which are based upon "Being" will experience bliss and enlightenment. That is, cultures that live as BE-DO-HAVE will enjoy where we are headed. (BE authentic, Do from your Being, and Have abundance in all ways.)

Author Gregg Braden has expressed a similar perspective. He explains that we are now experiencing a dimensional shift in consciousness, from the third to the fourth dimension. We have lived in third dimensional consciousness for 2,000 years. This dimension is marked by judgment (good vs. bad), by putting oneself before others, and by competition, lack consciousness, and technology. We are now beginning to experience the lower and middle fourth dimensional consciousness marked by holistic understanding, as well as greater care and compassion. He states that we are heading for the higher fourth dimension of consciousness reflecting intuition, unconditional love, less attachment, more appreciation, and rewards to heart-centered people rather than money to the ambitious. So we are really taking a dimension and a half leap in a very short span of time. The current shift began in 2001. The years 2008 and 2012 were key hinge-point years. By 2020 the world will be a very different place.

So is "failing at success" really evidence of our maturation of consciousness? A movement from a focus on "doing" (the DO-HAVE-BE model) to one of "Being" (the BE-DO-HAVE model)?

The movie "Social Network" reflects what we are exploring here. This movie portrayed the problem of intellect over heart. It showed that speed eventually implodes into a heartless abyss. It revealed that intellectual brilliance becomes a weapon of its own destruction if coupled with low self-worth.

The way of human evolution clearly will require us to develop our capacity to love, ourselves & one another, and indeed all of life. It will require us to dim our ego and see from that place of inner Divinity, our spirit. Watch for the metaphors to teach you what you must learn. I'm sitting writing by lamplight as it is late at night. Hearing a sound outside, I instinctively turned off the lamp to see in the darkness outside. Turn down the ego so that you will have the eyes to see. And you will likely see that "success" itself has failed us.

Passion, Purpose and Gratitude at Work

How did you interpret the title of this article? Did you read it to mean applying the principles of passion, purpose and gratitude? Or the existence of these principles in the world of work/job? Which did you choose?

How many of us can easily see and feel passion, purpose and gratitude in what we are doing professionally? For so very many people these three powerfully fulfilling principles seem quite removed from their work world. Even the words "work" and "job" connote a sense of "toil" and "effort." Language is indeed powerful --- it shapes our belief system and ingrains it. What if we begin by choosing a different vocabulary for the concept of "work/job?" How about "career?" Or "calling?" Or "service?" Or "energy exchange?" Or even "joyful livelihood?"

Our culture teaches us both the language and meaning of "work." This is further ingrained by our families. We learn that work centers on performance and production. This begins early in life, specifically in school. We learn to be judged and measured. We learn to measure our worth by how we perform according to external standards. This lesson is then reinforced in many ways as it becomes the model for many aspects of our lives including relationships as well as work. And so goes the negative pattern that eventually colors much of our lives as we learn to live life from the outside in trying to measure up so that we can earn our way to love, approval, status, success, etc.

Dare we even imagine our "work" (career/calling/service/etc.) as an inside out experience? If we can, the principles of passion, purpose and gratitude begin to make sense in this context. Does this seem like a lofty and far-fetched suggestion? Might you be thinking, "Oh right -- I can just see my company, my supervisor, even my co-workers getting on the page with passion, purpose and gratitude! They coined the phrase 'starving artist' for some good reason, didn't they?!" May I simply point out that there are many very successful and affluent artists as well as many starving corporate leaders and business owners. The key here is this --- are they living their Doing from their Being? Another way to put this is --- are they living their careers from the outside in or from the inside out?

Most of us are taught the following formula --- Do (work), then you will Have (stuff), and you'll Be (happy). This is the outside in formula. How well does it really work? How many truly joyful and fulfilled people do you know who live their lives from the outside in? The formula of spiritual truth goes like this --- Be (who you truly are) and Do (from your Being) and you will Have (all you desire). This is the road to passion, purpose and gratitude in career as well as in all aspects of life!

"So how do I find this road?" you may ask. "It's nowhere on my navigational system!" Actually it is, although you likely have not been on it since you were very, very young! Here's how you will find it now!

Eckhart Tolle speaks to this dilemma in his book, A New Earth: Awakening To Your Life's Purpose. He explains that there are "three modalities of awakened doing" (i.e. doing from your Being, doing from the inside out). They are acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. He states that "What you do will be dysfunctional and of the ego unless it arises out of one of these three modalities. You need to be vigilant to make sure that one of them operates whenever you are engaged in doing anything at all --- from the most simple task to the most complex. If you are not in the state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others." (p.295)

Acceptance is acknowledging that the situation calls for some action and that you do it willingly. Acceptance is not passivity. Instead, it means that you are at peace while you are doing the action. Tolle further says that if you cannot accept or enjoy what you are doing --- stop! This is the only way to take responsibility for your life and the choices you make.

Enjoyment is the second modality of awakened doing and it links us into the universal creative power. Enjoyment is much more likely when you are thoroughly immersed in the moment, in the Now. (For more on this topic, I recommend the book Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).

Enthusiasm, the third modality of awakened doing, reflects both the deep enjoyment of your doing + also a vision or intention that you move toward. It is like feeling the wind in your sails! When you feel enthusiasm, you are being propelled by the creative power of the Universe!

So the road to purpose, passion, and gratitude at work is to accept what you are doing as your own choice. Then to be completely in the moment in doing it. Then to enthusiastically ride this wave, empowered by universal creative energy, in total alignment with the expression of your true gifts and talents!

If any element of this formula is not possible with the work that you are doing, then STOP! Make the choice to move toward true alignment and the authentic expression of your gifts and talents in line with your personal mission. Ask yourself, "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" Explore the answers, as they will lead you toward passion, purpose, and gratitude at work and in your life.

Procrastination As Wisdom

Whether it is a paper "Post-It" on your desk, or a virtual "Post-It" on your computer screen, "To-Do" lists have become a staple of modern life. A close cousin of the "To-Do" list is the practice of "Goal Setting." The satisfaction we feel in checking off items on our "To-Do" list or nailing those goals is second only to the shame we feel when we do not. In that case our self talk likely includes words such as "slacker," "lazy," "unmotivated," "failure," and "loser!" When we do triumph in crossing off tasks and goals, it is merely a moment of satisfaction before we instantly add on more.

More often than not we meet with our own resistance in the face of these listed hurdles. We distract ourselves, mistrust ourselves, and ultimately feel the sting of letting ourselves down. But did we really fail ourselves or simply our list? Maybe it would be better to ask ourselves, "Who wrote the list? Our Spirit or our ego?"

Have you ever experienced the following phenomenon? You have "procrastinated" about doing something and then, out of nowhere, you get the sudden urge and energy to complete the task (and then some!) Working away like a whirling dervish, effortlessly and with great focus, you finish what you had been putting off for days, weeks, or even months. Amazing, isn't it? "What just happened?" you ask yourself.

What happened is alignment and right timing. When we are not in alignment with something, there is a natural resistance to it. For reasons our ego is not aware of, we feel an aversion to engaging the activity. This is not laziness. Rather it is wisdom of the Spirit guiding us away from what is not for our highest good. If you are truly honest with yourself, many of those goals you set are actually in conflict with some part of you. Perhaps the goal is at odds with your deepest values, or with your sense of purpose, or with your true passion. Perhaps it is just the timing that is out of alignment, not the act itself. This is the phenomenon I described earlier.

The key to determining whether you are in alignment with your plan, and whether it is rightly timed is to approach your plan from the INSIDE OUT rather than from the OUTSIDE IN. From a place of authentic purpose and passion, and not from a desire to make a good impression, or to compete, or to prove something. This distinction is a crucial one. And it is the only path to true satisfaction and delight. Transform your "goals" into heartfelt "intentions" and notice how resistance is replaced by a feeling of flow!

Time Management As Oxymoron

Thousands of corporate dollars continue to be spent on "Time Management" training. As the world seems to be spinning faster, and the information highway is covered with huge traffic jams, "time management" has become an increasingly popular concept, and some would argue, a necessity. However I will offer that "time management" is a total misconception. The truth is, we cannot manage time. We can only manage ourselves in time. This is not merely semantic trickery. It is a paradigm shift, and a very important one.

In seminars on this topic, I illustrate this concept with the following demonstration. Holding a timer, I invite my audience to participate in two short exercises. First I ask that they get a pen and blank sheet of paper. When I say "GO" they are to write down every word they can think of beginning with a letter I provide. "Ready, set, GO --- the letter T." I run the timer for exactly one minute, then say "STOP" and ask them to put down their pens. For the second exercise I ask them to sit very comfortably in their chairs, take three nice deep breaths, and begin to release the tension in their face, neck, shoulders, and body. Then I say that in a moment, I will invite them to let their eyes gently close. When I say "BEGIN" they are simply to focus on their breathing and allow their muscles to melt away all tension, until I say "END." I then turn the lights low and say, "OK, now gently let your eyes close, and BEGIN." Again I run the timer for exactly one minute before gently saying, "END please, and gently open your eyes."

After turning the lights back up, I ask them to write down how long the first exercise was and how long the second one was. I then randomly ask participants for their estimates. Unfailingly, they estimate the initial exercise as taking a significantly shorter period of time than the second one. When I reveal that in fact each exercise took exactly one minute, they are totally shocked to the point of disbelief.

I then ask the group, "Did you manage time?" Or did you manage yourself in time?" When we are at ease, relaxed, and comfortable, time feels as though it expands. And when we are tense, rushed, and anxious, time seems to contract. It is the same measure of time, but it is our physical and emotional states that determine how we experience that period of time.

There is something very important to note here. Completely contrary to popular belief, when we rush and anxiously hurry, we actually get less done because we experience time as contracting and shrinking. In this case, we are likely to attempt to "multi-task" as well, which is actually impossible to really do. If we are focused on one thing, it gets 100% of our effort and attention. If we are attempting to do two things, each gets 50% of our effort and attention. You get the idea. In addition to the diminishing percentages, multi-tasking is really a version of distraction..... hardly recommended for optimum performance. In contrast, when we act leisurely and methodically, it feels like time expands and the clock slows down.

I have personally observed that advanced meditators seem to literally float as they move through their tasks and make the most amazing use of their time. Why? Because they are practiced at being very relaxed and focused.

Try it. Experiment yourself. I believe that you will be amazed. Remember, "time" is a constant. And YOU are the change agent!

CHAPTER 2

RELATIONSHIPS

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

--- Rumi

SEARCHING FOR INTIMACY

A man was frantically searching for something under a street light one night when a second man approached him. "What did you lose?," he asked. "A small key" replied the man as he crawled around feeling the ground. The second man bent down and began to help. When neither one was having much luck with the search the helper asked a second question, "Where did you last have it?" The first man pointed a distance away and said, "Over there." The second man asked, "Then why aren't we looking there?" The first one answered, "Because this is where the light is."

I believe this story accurately reflects the error in our search for intimacy. There is a lot of focus on that which ultimately brings intimacy no closer to us, and in fact seems to render it all the more elusive. Think of the countless media depictions of people searching for intimacy. It is always portrayed as the hunt for a relationship with all the associated drama surrounding attempts to secure it somehow. Is that where intimacy can be found? Just what do we mean by "intimacy" anyway? I am going to suggest some answers that will illustrate why the lamp post story really applies to the typical search for intimacy and why the "key" is really found elsewhere.

Webster defines intimacy as characterizing one's deepest nature and marked by a warm friendship in longtime association with another. This definition hints at something important. Is intimacy something that can be "found," or is it a state that exists and can be developed within and between us?

In other writings, I have applied this understanding to the word "love" as well. In so much of life we are directed outward, to seek for our needs to be met by acquiring something external to ourselves. Perhaps this is why disappointment and frustration seem to be facts of life. I offer that neither is necessary and that we must focus within if our journey on earth is to be joyful and truly satisfying.

To have intimacy in our lives we must first reach a place of absolute honesty and authenticity within ourselves. A comfortable place of self-knowing and self-acceptance, to the point of self-appreciation must be cultivated within us. This internal state allows us to relax in the presence of others, to be open and to share and explore with one another free of judgment or reservation. It is very much like being little children (as Jesus instructed us) who are alive with curiosity and spontaneity. I offer that intimacy requires something of us --- a level of trust, not in another, but in ourselves. I often remind my clients that if they truly trust themselves, then trusting others is no longer an issue. If you do not give yourself away, who can betray you? And if you are betrayed, isn't it always by you yourself?

So we see that the search for intimacy becomes the journey toward intimacy within each and every one of us. It is not something we find, but a capacity we develop. It is not something to be measured, but a quality to be enjoyed and appreciated and shared. It is always an inside out process where the process itself is indeed the prize! And that is something we can all celebrate!

DATING WITH WISDOM

Dating with wisdom feels a bit like an oxymoron given the number of sitcoms, movies, cartoons, and novels pointing out the impossibility of "dating with wisdom!" I thought that I would consult Webster to learn the actual definition of "dating." I was equally disappointed to see that it is defined as "a social engagement between two persons of opposite sex." My dictionary was published in 1977, and we've come a long way since then!

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Enlightenment Appetizers by Victoria A. Vetere. Copyright © 2015 Victoria A. Vetere, PhD, HC. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction, iii,
PART 1 Work,
Failing at Success, 2,
Passion, Purpose and Gratitude at Work, 4,
Procrastination As Wisdom, 6,
Time Management As Oxymoron, 8,
PART 2 Relationships,
Searching For Intimacy, 12,
Dating With Wisdom, 14,
The Nature of Intimacy (& a Few Words on Commitment), 16,
Giving Without Losing Yourself, 18,
The Law of Attraction in Relationships, 20,
Creating Healthy Relationships, 22,
Growing Our Relationships, 24,
The Deeper Aspects of Love, 26,
PART 3 Health,
Healing As Prayer, 30,
Holistic Living, 32,
Smart Heart, 34,
Can The War Against Disease Ever Be Won?, 36,
PART 4 Consciousness,
Connecting the Dots, 40,
Conscious Living, 42,
Life Cycles, 44,
Living Inside Out, 46,
Awakenings, 48,
Piercing Illusions, 50,
PART 5 Spirituality,
Giving & Receiving, 54,
Spiritual Intimacy, 56,
The Law of Intention & Desire, 58,
The Law of Detachment, 60,
Where Are The Miracles?, 62,
PART 6 Other Tantalizing Topics,
Transmuting Competing and Comparing, 66,
Trusting Intuition, 68,
A Holistic Approach to Living With Joy, 70,
What's The Score?, 72,
Ever Changing, 74,
Finding Peace in Your World, 76,
Living Beyond The Road Most Traveled, 78,
Bibliography, 80,