As we ride the now-rocky road towards a more enlightened society, a large part of the challenge that we are collectively facing has to do with loyalty.

At what sometimes seems like a snail’s pace, we are communally learning that we have misplaced our loyalties on many levels.

Many have suggested that we support our government’s decision to wage war on multiple fronts and to have over 369,000 military personnel at over 761 military bases our country has around the world.  In many of these countries, our presence is not welcome.  Some are uneducated enough to suggest that the so-called a major part of the collective problem is that lower classes of society are taking advantage of “the rest of us” and thereby draining society of its wealth and its heart.  There is a different, "truthier"  truth:  It is the ultra-rich who are feeding at the public trough and milking the financial resources of the rest of society.  The corporate bail-outs are just an example.

Some people confuse the idea of being loyal to their country with being loyal to their government.  It has been suggested that we must support our troops, stand behind our elected officials, our Supreme Court judges, our religions and our other institutions.  There are those who think that to waiver in such loyalty would be wrong.  They do not consider that the purpose of our institutions is to serve the people.   They represent us and we must be awake enough to require that they do so effectively.

Our most popular religions, our American government, and other institutions designed, supposedly to serve the people, are not doing so.  They betray us consistently.  It is time to wake up to this in a way that empowers us.  Responses of fear, anger, indignation, violence or hopelessness are not the ways to meet the challenge of realizing the thorough corruption of the kinds of institutions we would most like to trust.

Our out-of-control institutions are a lot like the human ego.  We identify with ego just like we have aligned ourselves with the actions of our governments and our religions.  As we come to realize that our governments and our religions do not truly represent us, we may also come to realize that our ego does not either.

Consider the other ways that the human ego can be compared to our United States government and all of the more popular religions on our planet.  Madness, fear, manipulation, greed and arrogance characterize the actions of these institutions.

Through non-response to our government’s torture of foreign and domestic prisoners, we act in approval of it.  Remaining quiet and resentful of the corporate bailouts, we weaken ourselves and give inspiration to those who want to continue taking advantage of us.

The leaders---from politicians to clergy---often act insanely, yet, like the ego they ask us to identify with them, encouraging nationalistic fervor and religious exclusivity that clearly divides and weakens their followers.  In a sane world, the purpose of any religion would be to unite and empower.

When policy or creed is questioned, our institutions are quick to point a finger elsewhere.  Like the irresponsible ego,  they are quick to spin it so that it looks like they are innocent and there is definitely somebody else to blame.  Collectively, when we have heard the spin often enough, we tend to believe it.

It all comes down to this: We are being challenged now to see the truth about our identity and about the true definition of power.   As we identify with the heart/soul, and as we recognize that our communal identity is all about loving connection with each other and ourselves, we will grow in harmony.

When we communally recognize that the exercise of power has nothing to do with manipulation, provoking fear, money corruption, coercion or deception, then the door will be open to a society in harmony.  The only real power is that which is based in love.

Most governments and religions, like the ego, pretend to be servants of the people while they promote a thoroughly corrupt agenda.

Like the ego, our institutions have fostered fear, division, feelings of unworthiness and powerlessness.  Rather than get angry about it, we are being challenged to respond with love, to recognize the power of unity, and to grow in our willingness to be loving, and to live in the knowing that we are all divine and equal.

Like the ego, the leaders of our governments and religions fight daily to keep that kind of knowledge from the collective consciousness.  Our institutions have become like the spoiled child who fears that their teething rings may be repossessed.  They mirror for us the insanity of the human ego that sees love and power as polar opposites.

It’s counterproductive to get angry, indignant, isolated or weakened for any reason.  Our corrupt institutions want us that way.

We pledge allegiance to a flag.  We sit dumb while our government steals from us and systematically dismantles our freedoms.  In the world we are heading for, our allegiance will be a loving one that has compassion for everyone, even those who have stolen from us and have abused us.  This is the path of power.

The time has come to build our love for ourselves and each other.  As we do this, the world will be saved from the artificial masters.  The world of love will appear when we are willing first, to see what is in front of us and then to collectively become willing to respond consistently all experience with love

Sure, it’s a radical solution.  But is there any other?

When we are willing to respond more consistently with love, the world will be much happier and calm.  Does that possibility entice you?  Or are you afraid of losing the egoic life where everything can seem so chaotic, angry, judgmental and oppressing?

Please click on your pause button and contemplate these ideas.

With all the apparent craziness going on the world, what can we do about it?   In our search for stress relief, many still choose the old, tired, unproductive ways of reacting to the world.  Maybe the easiest road, because we likely know it already, is to react with some combination of avoidance, powerlessness, isolation or fear.  There is a more productive way that can also be easy and results in a better you and a better world.

When we focus our attention and energy on what we want to “remove”, we create fear and anxiety in ourselves. Many have been conditioned to believe that we must fight violence with violence.  As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”  Collectively, we are still in the process of integrating this knowledge.

We have all been conditioned to live and think in the ways that we do.  Our financial/corporate institutions, governments, religions and mass media---along with family, friends and co-workers---have repeated certain behaviors with us over the years.  The quality of our lives depends largely on how we have responded to their propaganda.  So many have reacted with fear, anger, isolation, anxiety…

There are some who would suggest that it is time for us to rise up in collective anger and righteous indignation over the events of the Gulf of Mexico oil “spill” or the disclosures of the WikiLeaks documents. The media repeatedly has been telling us that there is “nothing new” in the WikiLeaks disclosures, that it is just “business as usual”.

Our mass media, largely controlled by our financial institutions/corporations-—-as is our government---is telling a lie here.  And in doing so with frequency and repetition is attempting to condition us with false propaganda.  Since when is it “nothing new” that a country we fund with billions of dollars is funding and supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan?  Since when is it no big deal that our armed forces kill hundreds of innocent civilians so frequently?  Are we so collectively dumbed down that these things should make no difference to us.

Yet if we respond with fear, anger, anxiety or denial, we sap our own strength.  What we are being called to do is respond with loving compassion to all that is occurring in our world.  This means also not focusing on what we want to get rid of, but what we intend to create.

Key to this is to trust ourselves enough to be willing to be honest about what is happening in our lives and to have the courage to respond with love.  Sending loving compassion to the oil leakers, to the Taliban, to the WikiLeakers, and to all people---especially those experiencing pain or suffering---is what I believe we are all being called to do.

The agenda of the corrupt forces of the world is to promulgate fear.  That is how they have stayed in control.  These forces are very content having you focus on what you do not want because they know you are weakened by such focus.

We have been conditioned in this life to think and act as we do.  What we are collectively challenged to do now is to realize that we have the power to condition ourselves.

A synthesis of what is above:

With trust and courage, let’s be real about what is in front of us.

Let’s focus on what we intend to create.

Let’s create a world of loving compassion.

Let’s make all this important.

This is the gift of allowing Heart Propaganda to speak its voice.  Consider clicking on your pause button now to contemplate this.  Listening to our own Heart Propaganda may  just be the most effective form of stress relief available to us.

Heart Propaganda-Debugging Your Operating System

by Carlo Ami

Like our computers, we all have an operating system.  Think of your body and brain as part of your hardware.  Think of the mind as housing your data files and memory.  You might also consider, for a moment, that harbored in your heart is a great anti-virus program, something that can clean up incorrect or polluted data.

All your life you have been inputting data into yourself: experiences, emotions, assessments, and the judgments of your own self and of others.  Much of the input has been false data that has polluted your hard-drive, that part of you that stores your beliefs, your understanding of what is true.  Whether innocently or purposefully, the institutions in which you have placed your faith have been feeding you data about yourself  and your world that is often false.   The truth about the most important facets of life---who you are, why you are here, and what comes next when this life is over---has been corrupted.

Most of our religions on this planet feature a wrathful, commanding and judging god who can be very unhappy if you break “His” rules or if you happen to have chosen the “wrong” religion.  Most religious propaganda is very unforgiving.  If you mess up, you could end up frying forever on the rotisserie of some god’s eternal barbeque pit.

While heart sense might tell you that the purpose of any worthy religion would be to unite and empower people, most religion does exactly the opposite of that.  So many hold onto religious scriptures as the word of some omnipotent god when the truth is that most religious scriptures as we see them today are the product of men with an agenda that is spiritually blood-sucking.  The only reason people hold onto believing in a wrathful god is fear of that same non-existent god.

Likewise, we would prefer to see our governments as institutions that protect, respect and serve us while the reality of it is that most of our governments act in direct opposition to their originally-stated intention.  In the United States, our consitition is in tatters.  It is government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.  We have allowed their propaganda to keep us collectively docile, sleepy, and powerless.

Our religions and our governments tend to be very much like the human ego: judging, condemning, confused and afraid of losing their sense of power.  The input of faulty data into our personal operating systems, repeated frequently over the course of our lives has resulted in the reality of our not thinking too highly of ourselves, and in our not having a lot of faith in a better future.  For many, life is something to get through, to tolerate, and is often seen as probably a punishment for not living consistently with some moral or religious doctrine.

The mechanism of any propaganda is repetition.  Our religions, governments and media know this truth and how effective it can be.  It is now up to us to more and more consistently employ the secret weapon of Love: Heart Propaganda.  Being in touch frequently with what I call the Propaganda of the Heart is a fruitful path to a more enlightened you and a more enlightened world.

Disavowing the faulty input of religious, governmental or media propaganda does not work.  There is something strange but very true about the workings of the human mind: When it is fed data that has a negative word in it (“stop smoking”, “quit nagging”, “not do drugs”) the output of our inner computer is anxiety.  Affirming what we do not want can make us feel a little crazy.  When one thinks of something that one doesn’t want, one is still picturing what that thing or experience is.  This is a form of self-torture, a hallmark of futility and confusion. Please use your “pause button” and ponder what has been expressed here so far before continuing to read this article.

The human civilization sits largely asleep at a crucial crossroads in its history.  We have slugged along our collective path in a state of ignorance about what is important, about why we are here.

Most of us do not know what true power is.  We do not understand that we have defined it as something totally other than what it is.  Many see power as the ability to manipulate others, to dominate, to instill fear in others.  One cannot truly evolve until one sees that true power is based in love and respect for self and all other creatures.

Think about it: Who are you?  The heart will tell you that you cannot be your body.  The body is obviously quite temporary in nature and has all kinds of challenges, demands and breakdowns.   You cannot be your mind, either.  The mind has all kinds of obviously idiotic demands and constructs.

To put it simply: It helps to conceptualize who you are as some combination of heart and soul.  Operating with this as a belief can be very productive in all areas of your life.

I see my soul as infinite and fully connected to everything.  It lives forever.  There is no book that can convince me of this, no charismatic speaker who can instill this belief in me.  I just intuit it.  I trust my intuitive self.

If this is true, I have no reason to ever fear.  Of course, that has nothing to do with the motivation to be prudent.  It’s not that I fear running a red light; it’s that I am present and wise enough to intend to do things that preserve my life.  Please stop here for a moment, and ponder that idea.

So let’s get back to how to move beyond the bugs in your operating system.  Just as the propaganda—often “bugs”---of the world have corrupted the “hard drive” of your operating system, the propaganda of the heart is capable of debugging that system, cleaning it up.

These are the basic steps you can take to do that:

• Get clear on your beliefs and intentions concerning what is important to you.  Envision what you intend for your life to be.
• Create and practice ways of reminding yourself of the importance of these beliefs regularly and frequently.  Write down the most important aspects of your vision and read them daily when you get up and when you are ready for sleep.  Create a one-sentence power statement that you print and put in places where you will see it frequently.  My power statement: I am calm, humble, loving, trusting power now.
• Choose to be more and more aware of opportunities you get to practice these more loving beliefs.

Eventually, you will get to a point when you will have no more use for beliefs of any kind.  You will just be.

You are where you are now not because of the experiences you have had in life but because of how you have reacted to these experiences.  By utilizing heart propaganda, you can move beyond all the ways of reacting to life that have not worked for you.  I urge you to experiment with the ideas in this article as a way of being more kind to yourself, as a way of becoming the more loving being that you are at depth.

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For more ideas and tools on how to use heart propaganda in your life, see the homepage at YourPauseButton.com

Televised Poison: “America’s Got Talent”

Spiritually, much of American television is a cesspool that pollutes the mind and tends to muffle the voice of the heart.  A new low has been reached with the prime time series, “America’s Got Talent”.  The basic messages of the show are three: First, that we live in a cold, harsh judging world.   It sends a strong message that the judgment of others upon us is quite important.  The third basic theme is that each contestant is probably not good enough to go to Hollywood, especially if they make even the most minor misstep in an otherwise brilliant performance.

This show is gutless ego food.  It portrays the judges as gods and the contestants' performances as being crucially pivotal life events, leaving courtesy and compassion completely out of the picture.

Confusion and contradiction are the judges’ habits.  They often don’t know how to judge a performer whom they can be thrilled with one moment and dismissing the next.   The message underneath: "Even TV stars can be confused.  It's good to be confused.  I'm confused."

This is just a facet of the propaganda this series exemplifies.

The show’s three judges, who shall go nameless here, are obviously coached in the art of heartlessness.   Suffice it to say that one of the judges is a washed-up comedian who never really hit the big time until he became a game show host.  Another of the judges is married to a famously drug-addled rock musician.  A third judge who has a talent for subtle nastiness is somehow popular in Great Britain.  They are all like Simon Cowell on downers.

You might call some of the words above “judgment”.  They are simple observations.

Bringing on contestant performers who have never been on the big stage before, many of whom obviously have at least a bit of stage fright to begin with, is an opportunity for the judges to magnify many of the contestants’ fears.  Prior to their performances on the most recent show, some were reminded by the judges that they were about to make “the most important performance of their lives”.  How’s that for calming stage fright?

Miss a note or miss a step in an otherwise fine performance and the judges imply that you are probably not going to make the cut.  If you look a little “slow”, be prepared to have a judge imply that, regardless of your performance, you are probably too stupid to repeat it in Hollywood.

An extraordinary senior citizen who created something of a symphonic masterpiece whistling by blowing into her hands was panned by the cold judges.  A sweet guitarist’s vulnerable, open-hearted demeanor was characterized by one of the judges as meek and unprofessional.  A fire-thrower was warned he’d probably not make the grade because one of his fire machines failed to ignite, like that was enough to damn him.

The messages:

• “Fear the disapproval of others.  Their opinion of you is more important than your own.”

• “Do not mess up because you will be judged and the judgment will hurt.”

• Underneath that message: “Maybe it is wise to just not participate in life so that you do not risk embarrassment or disappointment. It is so much easier to judge others.”

Make no mistake about it: these judges are either witless allies for the dark side or are intentionally feeding a monster whose purpose is to spiritually and emotionally poison an audience that is already quite sick to begin with if they are even watching.

Who wants to model someone who can take delight in the mistakes of others?   Who wants to live their lives vicariously as “powerful judges” of performance art who have the influence to send an entertainer to either to the “glory” of Hollywood or hell of watching their “embarrassing”  performance on their own home television screen?  Can such delight have anything to do with truly feeling superior to another?

The ultimate message is one in which judgment is glorified as something that gives those who judge power.  But wait!   In the last episode of the season, the audience will get to judge.  The audience will have the power to damn or to elevate.  It will have been trained by the show’s judges to be cold, merciless and petty.

“America’s Got Talent” is brainwashing TV, and it is dangerous.

In this sick world in which we live, we have allowed our governments, most of our religions and our entertainment media do more than just judge us.  We have allowed them to bleed us of our self-respect, our dignity and our true power by making their ideas about what is important in life more important than our own beliefs.

What is true power?  Some would have you think that it has to do with making someone else look smaller so they, themselves, can look bigger.  Others may tell you that power has to do with manipulation, bank balances, the kind of car you drive or your ability and willingness to instill guilt or elicit fear.  Real power has nothing to do with any of that.  It is, at depth, only about loving response and being loving.

My challenge to you is to simply be aware of the kinds of activities and entertainments that pretend to entertain and empower but that really are sucking your energy, depleting your desire to exercise true and loving power.

I believe that we are all here in our lifetimes to realize our loving nature and our Oneness.  Watching heartless television programming sends us down a very unproductive path.  What path do you intend to be on?

Life is full of propaganda, from news media, from our governments, from our religions and from our entertainment sources.  The time has come to be aware of propaganda that is dangerous and destructive, and to identify with the heart and it's loving propaganda.  With consistent awareness, the practice of Heart Propaganda can set one free from the self-imposed prison of false, self-destructive belief.  What this entails is a clarity about what you truly believe along with the commitment to feed yourself these truths frequently and regularly.  This is what the various tools available on the Your Pause Button website is all about.

Feeding one’s brain with the kind of  toxic crap found on “America’s Got Talent” is simply a way of affirming that the needs of the ignorant brain are more important than the loving will of the heart.  If you are still a fan of that show, feel free to continue sleeping.

In choosing, rather, to live a more enlightened life and to help create a better, harmonious world, focus on what you intend to create.  It is destructive to focus on what you want to avoid.  Envisioning regularly and frequently a loving world is a powerful step in the creation of that world.  Let's create it together.

Whether you are looking for a new friend or a more intimate relationship with a new partner, you will tend to approach possibilities differently than when there was no emphasis on consciousness.  For those caught up in ego, the basic question when considering a new friendship or romantic relationship is, “Can I have fun with this person?”

We tend to have standards by which we decide whether to bring someone into our lives on a regular basis.  If you are stuck in the old school way, then the most influential criteria might be how much the other person lets you control them, or it may be about how they look or how well-connected they are to others you would like to spend time with.

As you evolve spiritually, your values change.  You learn that certain standards you may have had before are not as important as you had thought they were.  You learn that perfectly-formed body parts—your own or your potential partner’s ---are not as important as you had thought.  You learn that prioritizing spending time with someone based upon how much money they have is not something that feeds your higher self or theirs.

As we learn how to trust, we tend to look for friendships and partners who help push us along the spiritual path, and those who can learn to trust us to push them without control or attachment.   We also tend to learn how to let the other person be as they are, to not make the relationship about fixing them or about it being about them fixing you!

Ego-based relationships tend to be based in supporting what I call false power, the "power" that is experienced through control, attachment, and possession.  True power is that which is based in love.  Loving power is the only real power.

When deciding how much time you want to spend with any friend or lover, here are some questions that you might find worthy of your consideration:

• Do I trust this person or do I think I can develop trust with them?
• Am I willing to accept them as they are right now?
• Can I see our connection developing to a point where we are both strong enough to call each other on our “stuff”?
• Can I see our connection with each other growing to a point where we will both be OK with having the other challenge us on our “stuff”?
• Am I attracted to this person because I think I can control them?
• Are they attracted to me because they want to be controlled?
• What can I learn from this person?
• What might this person be asking me to teach them?

What other questions can you come up with here that might be worth asking yourself as you consider a new friendship or romantic relationship?

If you are single, or if you are just intending to increase your circle of friendships, you may find great value in journaling about this, writing your thoughts down about these questions as a way of more clearly understanding what you really want.  Push your "pause button" now, if you will, and tune into what your heart has to express about these questions.

Enjoy the process!

It sure is strange what is going on for so many of us at this time.   We want stress relief.  We want to learn how to trust.   The world is shifting as we are shifting.  Many of us feel less grounded, more chaotic.  Lots of people tend to think that this is a “bad” thing.  Is it, really?

The mind tends to lead us down all sorts of dead-end alleys, self-destructive paths and pain extenders.  Its basic design is to help us to take care of practical matters like when to eat, when to pee and what to do when there is a red light in traffic.  If we misguidedly make the mind our master in dealing with emotions and our spiritual nature, we set ourself up for a treadmill of pain...until we change our mind about how to use it.

It seems that the natural way to ground oneself is in the Earth.  As we are evolving individually and collectively, we are being pushed to consider another source for our grounding: our heart.    I see this intuitively as a truth.  If we see the Earth and the mind as vehicles, rather than as who we are, then the question arises: To who or what do I identify myself with as me, as my essential self?

When we have been challenged by stress, by the apparent chaos of life, how do we respond?  The old-school way takes one of two approaches:  The first is to look for ways to explain and solve it with the mind: psychological theory, religious scriptures, common sense, or what some teacher told you about how you should think.

The second approach, also very common and generally counter-productive, is to use the mind to “explain a problem away” or to avoid it as much as possible.  We can convince ourselves that a challenge is not a challenge if we tell ourselves so often enough.  When that doesn’t work, it is easy to slide into avoidance behavior such as addiction to distract ourselves from the pain we experience.  This kind of short-term “solution” not only numbs us temporarily, but it saps our strength to physically and emotionally deal with what is in front of us to face.

Especially during this high-change time of the Summer Solstice, we are served to find our balance in attuning ourselves with---and identifying ourselves with---the heart.  I suggest that you play with this as you have times when you are challenged emotionally.  See your heart as the essence of who your are, as your true home, and as your conduit to the feeling of connection with all Life.

To try to explain with clarity and verification why we are experiencing what we experience is futile.  Yet, taking two simple steps can make a significant impact on your success in more gracefully moving through life.

1. See everything that happens to you and all of the people in your life as your teachers.  Seeing anyone as simply a terrorist or tormentor wastes the lesson they have for you.  And it is suitably difficult to be upset with someone if you recongnize them as teaching you something of value.  Sometimes, their lesson to you is to say goodbye to them.  Sometimes their lesson is for you to be more loving.
2. Identify with your heart.  While so many identify with the neediness and chaos of the ego, seeing and feeling yourself as the will of your heart is empowering.

Are you dissecting what has been said so far here with your head?  Please stop it, already!  Pause for a moment and ask your heart: "If you are me, what would you have me know right now?"   Close your eyes as you ask this and then hush up and listen, feel.

In these shifting times, the messages that the apparent world gives to you can be food for the useless ego:  That you need some pill to make you happier, that your next partner will be kinder to you and that will solve all your problems, that the world will treat you better after you have lost a few pounds,  that the next job will be more supportive of you….

A major step along the path for so many of us as we learn how to trust and integrate the often simple perspective tools for stress relief comes when we more fully allow our lives to be managed by the will of the heart.

An experiment:  Read the sentence below three or four times and then close your eyes, focus on your heart, and be aware of any feelings or thoughts that arise:

I attune to the loving will of my heart

as I sense my true loving power

connected to all of creation

as one loving body.

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On Thursday evening , June 24, 2010, hear Carlo Ami on BlogTalk Radio's "I Love Authors" Show with Melissa Lierman.

See http://www.blogtalkradio.com/iloveauthors for details.

Much of what is written below is written with line breaks that are there for a purpose.  The end of each line is an opportunity to pause and to contemplate what you have just read before moving on to the next segment.

The world seems a mess.  Anxiety seems to be running rampant. The world seems to be imploding.

Is it time to wake up from the ignorant dream?

Has the time come to claim our fully loving nature?

How do we do this?

How do we become what be came here to become?

 

In the claiming of love comes the release of the imaginary ego,

That counter-productive imagination that sucks our loving energy, but only if we feed it.

Collectively, we have fed it by identifying with it, as if it is who we are.

We are challenged to see and feel and know that we are not that ignorant ego.

To do this, the true challenge---positively-stated---is to claim our true power.

 

Ego perverts the definition of true power.

For true power can only be an aspect of that which is based in love.

What is it to be in one’s true, full power, all the time?

It is to see, feel, taste and hear and trust the love in every experience,

And then do our best to practice always the fully loving response, in every moment.

It is too see the love in the most beautiful of creatures just as you see the opportunity

To practice it when confronted with the face of an angry, violent zealot.

It is to hear the love in the silence of meditation which is a ticket, of sorts,

To loving consciousness when practiced with optimum frequency and duration.

It is to hear it in the drone of a loud ambulance or fire truck siren,

As an opportunity to send love to someone who may be injured.

 

It is to taste the love in the most flavorful culinary delight just as you can choose loving patience and presence when you taste something extremely bitter, spicy or otherwise challenging.

It is trusting that whatever occurs in my experience can be accepted with grace,

Allowing  me to be more fully at peace with myself and my world.

 

We are collectively on our way to integrating this trust.

This is what I trust: That there are basically two kinds of experiences along the path.  One is the kind of experience that is easy to enjoy, easy to appreciate: the caress of your lover, the witnessing of the most kaleidoscopic of sunsets.

That brand of loving experience is easy to love unless you have bought into the foolish idea, fomented by misguided parents, political leaders and religions, that you are unworthy of experiencing joy and contentment.  I challenge you not to condemn those who would have you believe such lies, but to simply steer your life clear of their influence.

The other kind of experience that has been not so easy in the past to deal with is the emotionallychallenging one.  It’s when your world seems to scold you, judge you, manipulate you, ignore you, hate you or otherwise challenges you to be with what is just as it is. It is usually the opportunity to practice giving love to either yourself or another or both of you, or to just be calm in your response.  It’s your opportunity to respond to life with love.

While the term “enlightenment” can be defined in many ways, here is a simple way that might make sense to you:

There are three steps to it.

(1)  First is to deeply understand what true love and true power are.

Artificial love is a product of pity, guilt, obligation, condition, domination , manipulation or repression of the heart’s expression.  True love is unconditional.   False power is based in the false self of ego, enforced by the same factors shown above that make artificial power unreal.  All real power is loving power.

(2) Feeling worthy of living completely as a reflection of that kind of power.

(3)  Prioritzing your practice of fully loving power.

This means more and more ruthlessly choosing awareness, discipline and trust.

Are you willing to choose this, or would you just rather remain oblivious to your own deep power?

Please close your eyes now and contemplate what you have just read.

Press your pause button now and ask your heart: "Is it time for me to wake up from the ignorant dream?"

 

Here you will find a basic media kit that will answer many of your questions.  Carlo enjoys doing internet and standard radio interviews as well as group Pause Session Presentations. He lives in San Diego, California.

What makes Carlo Ami an interesting interview for radio, television or print media?

He brings a fresh perspective during these challenging times to the discussion of stress relief.

He has a unique, direct and calm approach to helping people with the challenges of life from the spiritual perspective.   As the challenges of depression and anxiety have reached new levels of challenge, he suggests going within oneself for solutions rather than on relying on external sources that often happen to be very counter-productive.  He teaches people how to trust their inner wisdom and their capacities for calm, happiness and love.  Over the last 11 years, he has developed the Pause Button System to help people gain further understanding and appreciation of their inner resources.  He is the author of two books, "All That Matters" and "The Seventh Direction".  He has also voiced, composed and produced the audio CD, "Quick Inner Retreats to Calm" which also makes use of the Pause Session method.

What is a Pause Session?

Pause sessions take a single belief statement or series of related beliefs and asks the reader to pause after each line to ponder the idea from the level of the heart.  In our information-overloaded society, it is important to pause and contemplate important ideas---particularly those that have to do with beliefs---in order to clarify what yours are.  Rather than present the beliefs in his books as truth or "dogma", Carlo encourages his readers to edit the lines in his Pause Sessions so that they fit the reader.  It may be a word or two changed in any given session statement, or it may be the entire basic idea that is changed.  The key to ensuring that the system benefits the reader is their willingness to be aware of how their life WILL teach them whether the belief is a spiritually, practically or emotionally effective in enhancing their life.

What are some of the more important points that he makes in his books and CD?

Each reader is encouraged to develop their own beliefs about the following, not simply take on those of the author.

*   You are your own best teacher, especially when learning about who you are and what is important to you

* The best way of finding stress relief is through simple practices you can do on your own

*   The only hells are those we create through unproductive action and thought

*   We are all connected with each other in a way that the mind cannot understand.

Some things were meant to be mysteries.

*  Most religions are spiritually counter-productive (This can be side-stepped for your group, if you wish!

Just know that there is direct content of this type in the books.)

*  Evolving spiritually requires discipline, risk and courage

*  Since we have been conditioned to live in ways that are not generally productive to our happiness and              contentment, it takes focus and repetition to integrate new ideas and ways of living that work better

What is the newest book?

Carlo's newest is "The Seventh Direction".

What does "Seventh Direction" mean?

From the preface of the book:

Among the beautiful spiritual traditions of many Native American tribes, seven directions are recognized.  In addition to the standard four are added Above

(Sky) and Below (Earth).  The Seventh

Direction is the most challenging

and rewarding of any that we

might take our

attention:

Within.

When you allow it, this book can be your framework to discover the depth of this wondrous and powerful direction.

More from the Preface:

“What am I here for?  What is the point of living?”

There are no other questions as important to answer.

Unless you have come very far on your spiritual path, if you read my reflections on these questions below, chances are strong that you will view it with the egoic mind that you may think defines you.

As you read this now, your egoic self may already be getting cranky, ready to reject what is written here, ready for a nap, some ice cream, a romance novel, some mindless television or another distraction .

Ego has no interest in exploring the spiritual path.  Ego thinks the present is to be avoided and rejected.

“More! More! More!”  This is the cry of the ego.  More money, more sex, more silly excuses for more silly ‘foods’, more people to tell me how wonderful I am, more people whom I can manipulate so that I can feel good about myself.

“Less! Less! Less!”  This is also the cry of the ego.  Less pain, less body weight,  a boss who is less mean, a lover who is less angry.

The egoic mind is rarely satisfied.  For it, there is never enough of what is wanted.  There is never so little of what is not wanted for it to be content.

So for our imaginary egoic selves, perverted little non-beings that the “are”, satisfaction is impossible.  Success is never complete enough for ego.

My suggestion for your consideration is that you are not your egoic mind.  You are heart/soul-centered.  If you choose to read the rest of this preface with that as at least a temporary supposition, then you may find powerful inspiration in these words.

I know at the deepest depth of my being I am a fully loving being.  I deeply sense that what I, and all of us, came into this life to do is to realize our loving  nature and to live it.

I am in the process of doing that.  Some have achieved it and become fully loving beings.    It is not about overcoming anything.  It is simply about realizing and practicing, more and more consistently, until each and every one of us realize that we are, in deed and in thought, completely loving beings.

Until one sees oneself as imprisoned, one cannot be released from our own prisons.  Until we can see ourselves creating a happy, loving, harmonious society, we will not see that society.

By more deeply recognizing the fullness of our loving nature, we also declare the truth that the worldly power brokers fight daily to keep us from knowing: that we are divine.  A united, loving divinity swallows any apparently negative forces.  The negative forces only have apparent power as the masses of humanity grant them via fear, doubt and a sense of unworthiness.

There is nothing more important for us to do in this life than to recognize the infinite nature of the power of Love to heal and unite.  As more and more of us fully recognize this, we heal our Selves and our world.

I have developed a simple system, as presented in “The Seventh Direction” and the “Quick Retreats” CD, to help people unfold their loving nature.  After over five decades on this planet, the vast majority of which I have resisted my loving nature, I am using this system to help myself evolve.

I believe with all my heart that anyone with an open mind and the courage to delve into their inner Self regularly, can accelerate the advent of our collective awakening by more rapidly unfolding their Loving Self.

This is the ambitious intent of The Seventh Direction.

This book will be helpful to you only if you are willing to be guided by your own heart.

What kind of radio voice does Carlo have?

Carlo has a deep and powerful voice.  People keep telling him that he ought to be a deejay.  For a sample, click here.

 

Jpeg images

Tell me about Carlo's personal presentations

Carlo offers presentations to groups of all sizes and age groups.  Most of the time spent with these presentations finds the audience in silent contemplation; several Pause Sessions are incorporated into each presentation.  Currently, Carlo works primarily in the Southern California and Arizona areas.  If you are outside of this area, please call to see if a presentation may be arranged for your group.  A calendar will be available in the Resources Section of this blog starting in July, 2010.

Presentation emphasis can be placed on the Pause Sessions or more specifically on simple practices one can do independently for stress relief.

What are the fees for such presentations?

At this time, Carlo does not charge any fees for his presentations as long as he is allowed to make his books and CDs available to the audience at the end of the presentation or after any following spiritual services.  For further information, please call or write.

How do I book Carlo Ami for an interview or presentation?

You may reach Carlo directly by phone at 760-990-1630 or write This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This article is formatted and spaced as it is for a reason.  Please consider reading it very slowly, pausing at the end of each line.  The reason why the world is where it is now is that we have been trained to think with our heads only.  Please think through the following with your heart.

 

Ego is the imaginary terrorist.

A great lesson of the world right now

Is that the terrorist is not who it seems to be.

 

We look outside for the terrorist,

But it is we who harbor terrorism in our imaginations.

 

In the world, the terrorist is the one who is pointing the finger at others as being terrorist.

Our most worldly-powerful governments, our biggest religions, our bankers and corporations who pretend to serve us are the terrorists.  And they are all pointing the finger at somebody else.

They all say, "Be afraid of them."

 

If we paid any attention to the history of our governments, our religions, our big corporations and the controllers of our money supply/value, we would see that we have allowed terrorists to seize apparent control of us.

 

If we paid any true attention to why our lives are the way they are, we would easily come to the conclusion that we have put both the “external” macro-terrorists and the apparently “internal” or ego terrorist in positions of power to run our lives.

 

The answer to this “internal” and “external” terrorism is not in escape from it but in simply choosing to see it for what it is and then calmly refusing to identify with it.

 

What more will it take for us to wake up to our loving power?

 

How many more oil spills need there be before we wake up to our collective power?

 

How many more broken relationships will it take to help us learn to be more loving?

 

How much more disingenuous behavior on the part of our governments, religions and corporations will it take for us to see that they do not represent us?

 

The imaginary ego that exists only as it is fed is our terrorist.

We feed it as we attempt to escape from our experience by busying ourselves with addictions and other distractions.

We feed it when we respond to life with fear or with the intent to dominate another.

We feed it by feeling unworthy or inferior.

We feed it by trying to become more arrogant or powerful in a way that has nothing to do with becoming more loving, nothing to do with the true power that is based in Love.

 

The ego is a great teacher.  It is teaching us that it is imaginary...and destructive if we feed it.

 

Let’s gently starve it with Love.

That's what we are all here to do, for in that doing we can realize what we are, collectively, at depth:

A connected Being infused with the true power of Love.

With all the changes going on in our world, often it seems that our natural choice is to respond with fear, anger, sadness or the feeling of powerlessness.

From catastrophic world events such as the current oil spilling into waters in the Gulf of Mexico to family matters that have to do with feeding our families, it seems like we are experiencing crisis and challenge with increasing harshness and frequency.

Life is seen as an ongoing hurricane of emotions, financial pressures, and what may appear to be endless evidence of our inability to find peace with our own selves and each other.  Escalating pressures seem to face us more forcefully.  Many turn to addictive distractions in a vain attempt to deal with daily life: drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sugar and carb addictions, reading escapist fiction, and numbing ourselves with mindless television.

Collectively, we are in the process of discovering that these distractions are not worth the price we pay for indulging in them.  After the hangover wears off, the bills still need to be paid.  When the high wears off, the pressure is felt again to either deal with life as it is or to get high again.  Life can become a seemingly endless cycle from anxiety to addictive indulgence to higher levels of anxiety.

For some, dealing with life may not be about addictive distractions as most people think of addiction.  We can let off emotional steam by regularly treating our loved ones in a mean-spirited way, stealing from a neighbor or employer, or finding some other way to artificially feel better about ourselves at the expense of others.

Just living from day to day can become a crushing weight upon your shoulders, a kind of living hell.  You may not feel that you have either the time or the energy to take the steps necessary to pull out of your cycle of pain, to deal with life positively and proactively.

Collectively, we are a society of avoidance addicts.  As we identify ourselves with our ego, the frequency with which we indulge this addiction expands in scope.  It can be seen as a way to self-medicate, a way to deal with the pain so we can feel better.  Whether it is shoveling excess food into yourself, sticking a needle in your veins or getting drunk, the satisfaction of avoiding the life that is yours is always short-lived if you are self-medicating in a way that hurts yourself or others.

What if for just one day you chose to see life in a completely different context.  For the next 24 hours, what if you chose to see everything that occurred in your life as your teacher?   If you look at everything that happens to you for this one day as an opportunity to become a better person rather than as a monstrous weight upon your shoulders, life takes on an entirely new meaning.

For one day, you can choose to respond to the challenges in your life by asking yourself three quick questions when you experience a tough time emotionally.

1. What is happening right now?
2. What emotions am I experiencing?
3. Can I allow these emotions? (Then take three deep and long breaths.)
4. What can I learn from this to enhance my life and to be of service?

By seeing your life as a teacher, you open up new possibilities for yourself.  If you see life as an endless series of burdens, you just create more burdens for yourself.

Viewed from the spiritual perspective---the only perspective that really matters in the long run---we might come to understand after a while that the only reason we are all here is to learn how to love more effectively and consistently.

For just one day, consider carrying these questions with you, giving yourself a little time out just as you would to a misbehaving young son or daughter.  What can we learn about ourselves in claiming this quiet time with ourselves when we ponder life’s challenging moments from the perspective of learning rather than feeling victimized by life?  We learn how to love.  This learning is the process of spiritual empowerment.

Notice how it works when you carry these questions as shown above with you for a day.  You might just find that it serves you to keep them with you beyond just this one day.  As you become more and more willing to be with what is, as you treat yourself more kindly, and as you learn to trust your life as your greatest teacher, you may also find that the world becomes more of a friend than a bully.