Welcome to December!  The last month of the year is here, now, and we have
the opportunity to end our year in very positive, loving ways, if we so choose.
What can you do this month to help bring your year to a close on the highest
notes possible?  How can we let go of expectations and focus on what is,
rather than on what we think should be?  That's always one of
the greatest challenges of this time of the year. . . .

Creating and Living Your Ideal Legacy
Steve Brunkhorst

Little Gifts
tom walsh

The True Measure of Greatness
Randall S. Weeks

Are You Hypnotized and Don't Even Know It?
Asoka Selvarajah

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One of the chief reasons for success in life is the ability to maintain a daily interest in one's work, to have a chronic enthusiasm, to regard each day as important.

William Lyon Phelps

Little Gifts

As the season for gift-giving comes upon us once more, we start to think a lot about gifts, those we're going to give, and those we're going to get.  As we grow older, hopefully, we focus more on the former than the latter, though that isn't always the case.  In the eyes of many people, gifts follow a simple rule:  the bigger the better.  Speaking realistically, though, that rule is far from valid.  In my life, I've found that the most important gifts that I've given and received have been the small ones that have special meaning.

When I sit at my desk and work, I always have around me plenty of small gifts that I've received from friends and students.  They do a great job of reminding me of people who have been a very important part of my life, and because they're small, they can go with me anywhere and I can keep plenty of them.  The memories of the people and the times I spent with them are much more important to me than the objects themselves, but the objects have the ability to refresh my memory of pleasant times at just a quick glance.

Even as I write, I see a small inch-high globe that a former student gave me at her graduation, and I remember how good she felt on that day.  I see a small dream catcher made out of colored pipe cleaners, and I remember the day at camp when one of the campers gave it to me as a gift.  There's also a small glass fish that my wife bought me when she was in the Bahamas, and I know how good it felt to know that someone was thinking about me when she was in such a lovely place.

The small gifts are the ones that keep me going, the ones that give me a great feeling inside.  They're the ones that let me know that someone tried to consider what I liked, and what would be most appropriate for me.

The same goes for when I give gifts--I try to find the small ones that are special to someone, the ones that show that I've considered who they are and what they would like.  From time to time I've bought the large gifts, but as time goes on I see that they don't have nearly the effect that the smaller ones do.

When we think about what kinds of gifts we're going to give this season, we always can choose to go for the gifts that are more special rather than the gifts that are more expensive of just plain big.  The most special gifts have nothing to do with money or size; rather, they reflect the fact that we've been thinking seriously about the recipient and what they would truly want to receive.  I would much rather get a small, cheap gift that shows that someone was thinking about me than a large expensive gift that's meant to impress me somehow.

Many people ruin their enjoyment of receiving gifts by allowing their expectations to blur their vision, not allowing themselves to see just how great a gift is because it might not be what they wanted, or it might not be big enough or special enough.  During this holiday season, we have choices to make on what types of gifts to give to others, and finding the very special ones is a great way to make the holidays special.  Likewise, we have choices to make as to how we react to gifts given to us by others, and we can make our holidays much brighter by recognizing how special gifts are.

A young student once asked his old teacher, "Teacher, what is the true measure of greatness?"  The teacher looked far away into the mountains and gave the following reply:

Some measure greatness in height and weight, but great people are never so tall as when they stoop to talk to a child or bend their knees to help a hurting friend.

Some measure greatness in physical strength, but great people are never so strong as when they shoulder the burden of the downtrodden stranger.

Some measure greatness in terms of financial gain, but those who show generosity to their family and friends, they are the ones who are truly rich.

Some measure greatness in applause and accolades, but those who seek opportunity to serve in the quiet places of the world, theirs is the higher reward.

Some measure greatness in commitment to achieving in material ways, but those who spur others on to reach their goals is great indeed.

Great people have vision and do not keep the truth to themselves.

Great people have passion for life and are not ashamed to show it.

Great people expect the best from others and give the best of themselves.

Great people know how to work and how to play, how to laugh and how to cry, how to give and how to receive, how to love and how to be loved.

There are many people who are by the world called "great," but those who bear honor in their hearts, who can, in the evening hours, lie upon their beds and peacefully close their eyes, knowing that they have done all that is within their power to live their lives fully and fruitfully, those are truly great people.

When I was at university, an astonishing thing happened one evening.  There was a hypnosis show on campus.  It was several hours later that night, long after the show had ended.  One girl, who had been hypnotized, was found in considerable distress in her room.  Nobody knew what the matter was, but the hypnotist was called on the telephone.  It seems that the girl was still in a hypnotic trance!  Anyway, he said a few words to her over the phone, and all was well.

The amazing thing is that the girl had seemed perfectly normal to both herself and her friends for hours after the show had ended.  Nobody imagined that she was still under the influence, not even the hypnotist himself.  Yet, she was.

So, how do you know if YOU are in a hypnotic trance right now?

"Easy", you retort, "I have never been hypnotized".  Oh, but you HAVE!...

What does hypnosis really do?  By accessing your subconscious mind, it changes, either temporarily or permanently, some part of your world view.  This can be as simple as making you forget your own name.  However, it can also be as profound as causing a long-standing severe allergy to vanish while you are in trance, or cause you to paint and draw with a talent you are incapable of during normal waking consciousness.

Now, this type of thing, amazing as it may seem, is fairly common and the change so dramatic that it is easy to detect.  However, you yourself may be experiencing a much more subtle trances.

These were created in a similar way, but over a longer period of time, and in a less deliberate fashion.  Who was the hypnotist in this instance?  None other than your environment, your parents, your peers, and even your TV set.  Through a process of repetition, you slowly became "conditioned", i.e. hypnotized" into accepting a certain view of reality.  It sinks deep into reality, and becomes part of "what is", and therefore is no longer questioned.

Think about this for a moment.  Where did your view about money come from?  Or of the opposite sex?  Or religion? Indeed, where did MOST of your deepest beliefs, i.e. what you consider to be irrefutable FACTS, actually come from?

If you are honest, you will agree that most of them did not come to you through a process of rational thinking.  Most people get their ideas about Money, for example, directly from their parents, through a process of osmosis.  From the time they were young, they were indicted into a hypnotic trance, where suggestions were repeated over and over about money, until they became the very beliefs of the person in question.

The same is true of many other deeply held beliefs.  We are walking around in multiple trances - the victims of countless hypnotists, and we don't even know it.  We think we are fully awake, just like the girl in the earlier story, but we are actually in trance.

When you are asleep and dreaming, you don't usually know it.  However, when you awaken, you can say "Oh, it was just a dream".  Yet, when you were asleep, you could not really tell. It all made perfect sense at the time, no matter how bizarre it seems on awakening.

BUT, when you are awake, how do you know that you are not really also in some other kind of dream?  Actually you do not.  And actually, you ARE!

That is precisely what Buddhism and many of the other esoteric traditions teach when they describe the world as illusory, and a condition to be woken up from in order to achieve enlightenment.  They are really talking about trance breaking.  Indeed, the name the Buddha gave himself, "Tathagata", means "The Awakened One".

In more ways than we can count, we are in the grip of hypnotic trance.  At present, political powers seek to condition the minds of the masses and enclose them within the hypnotic trance of FEAR.  It seems to be working, mainly because people are not awake and aware, and do not guard the doors of their minds.  Rather, they let anything come in without due examination. As each person participates in the trance, they reinforce its reality for everyone else.

Do you find yourself unable to break out of certain frustrating tendencies or habit?  Do you find the same situations cropping up for you wherever you go, even though the people and places change?  Do you "know" that you are incapable of certain things that other people find easy - drawing, making money, meeting people, public speaking or whatever?  If so, the chances are very strong that you are hypnotized, but don't know it.

The whole point of personal growth teachings is to help you examine yourself and see what is really there, i.e. to see the trances that have been imposed upon you by unknown hypnotists and break free of them so that you can live truly and authentically.  Otherwise, you are living someone else's idea of the way you should be.

The worst thing about a hypnotic trance is that you can't tell you are in one, and neither can anyone else.  Moreover, each person has their own set of trances to deal with, so how can they be of much help to you?  As Jesus said, if one blind man leads another, the only thing that is certain is that they will both fall into a ditch!

The way to break out of your trances is through rigorous self-examination and study of materials that can help you awaken, bit by bit.  Question yourself.  What ARE your attitudes to Money? Jews/Moslems?  Relationships?  Women/Men?  War?  Sex?  And so on.

Where DID you get these ideas?  Are they really your own, developed through a process of careful study and examination.  Or did you imbibe them from the hypnotists of Society, parents, friends, culture?  Are they helping you, or causing you to be much less than you could be?

If you seek, you shall find.  Indeed, you shall discover that many of the beliefs you hold sacred were placed in your brain before you could even speak.  Yes, the hypnosis began that early! 

Going back to the original story, they did manage to awaken that girl from her trance.  Arguably, when the hypnotist brought her back to her senses, she simply returned to her more conventional everyday hypnotic trance -- the one she was familiar and happy with.  In a sense, she merely awoke from one hypnotic trance into another.  So, what is it going to take to wake YOU up?..... 
  

Copyright Asoka Selvarajah 2004.  All Rights Reserved.  Asoka Selvarajah is a writer on personal growth and spirituality, and the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your Higher Self".  His work helps people achieve their full potential, deepen their understanding of mystical truth, and discover their soul's purpose.  You can subscribe to his FREE ezine, and get his FREE ebook "Inner Light Outer Wealth" at: http://www.aksworld.com/AspireToWisdom.htm?imk=?LLFU