I once accidentally knocked a bottle of lemon juice off a shelf at Walgreens. As I continued down the aisle, I sort of pretended that: 1.) it never really happened— and the smashed bottle of liquid wasn't really there a few feet away. 2.) if it had happened, it wasn't me who had done it— and I looked at some passerby as if to say, "Was it you? It wasn't me?" All of a sudden, I heard a loudspeaker saying, "Someone go to Aisle 7 and clean up a spill." Closed circuit TV—oh no, caught in the act. There's not a whole lot we get away with in this life. Part of maturity is the willingness to accept our share of responsibility for what happens in this life. As Alan Watts once said, "There are really only three questions in life: Who made the mess? Who's responsible? Who's going to clean it up?" Let's not slink away from our messes in this life and pretend they didn't happen or that we don't have to clean them up. Let's be responsible for what happens to us, through us, and accept our share of what happens with peace and equanimity. 

Too often there is a disparity between our convictions and how we actually live. Do we believe we should be truthful but that it's OK to exaggerate or tell small lies? Albert Camus said that when we tell the truth we should never tell more than the truth. Do we believe in honesty; yet we are willing to bend things a little here and there to suit our convenience? When we decide to integrate our daily life around our highest and truest spiritual and ethical convictions, we discover that our life becomes much simpler and easier. The false divisions begin to fade away, and we live from a simple integrity and clarity without the need to second-guess ourselves. Mark Twain once said that it's always easier to tell the truth; then you don't have to worry about remembering what you said. 

There are times when no matter how positive we think, things don't seem to change for us. Then we can make a decision to change ourselves and let our thoughts change accordingly. We may not think our way into good behavior, but perhaps we can behave our way into good thinking. Some situations call for action, not just thought. In the book In Search of Excellence, Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman characterized top American corporations with the motto "Ready, Fire, Aim." In dealing with a habit or a compulsive behavior, we just need to make a decision to change; the decision itself has motive power that propels us forward and breaks through the crust of our inertia. When thinking doesn't push us into our breakthrough, acting will. Buddha said, "Work out your salvation with diligence." He didn't say, "Think out your salvation." So let's decide right now to act in the way that we want to become. 

So much of our life is based on our thoughts. Buddha said, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought." So if we wish to experience a healing and renewal in our life, we have to begin by changing our thinking. To have a new life, we need to have a new thought about ourselves and our life. Too often, we go around thinking of ourselves in old ways, with hard, unforgiving and unloving thoughts. But, this moment, we can choose to release the old thoughts, the old ideas of separation, lack and limitation, and we can begin to accept a New Thought: life is good, and we are already connected to the good. We can live from this new thought of Oneness and let it reveal a new life to us. 

What one thing do we have to know, the knowing of which makes everything else in our life work? Albert Camus said that we only need to understand one thing really well and through that one understanding we can understand everything else. When offered wealth, power and fame, King Solomon asked only for understanding. What is it that we need to understand right now that will really make a difference in our lives? Are we focused on that crucial point of self-knowledge? Or are we dissipating energy and intention by pursuing secondary goals? During this beginning of a new year, let's take some time to inquire into our hearts and ask if we are centered in understanding what we are about right now on our earth journey. Have we put the Highest and Best first, as far as we understand these? Have we discovered the one thing we need to know to live a full, joyous and real life on this earth? 

A paradigm is a mental construct for perceiving reality. Whenever a new paradigm comes into existence, everything pertaining to that paradigm shifts and changes— sometimes very dramatically. In the 1960's, researchers employed by Swiss watch manufacturers invented the quartz watch. At that time, the Swiss had been manufacturing watches in their own way for over 100 years, and they had 90 % of the world market. Why bother investing in some new invention, they reasoned; people have been buying our watches, and they will continue to do so. The Swiss manufacturers were so sure of themselves that they didn't even protect their invention with a patent. Japanese manufacturers attended a watch show in 1968, saw the possibilities in the quartz watch and immediately began production of the new invention. Today the Japanese have 90% of the world market in watches. In our lives, we need to be bold, creative and daring enough to adopt a new paradigm, a new mental construct for our life. 

Each of us had an image of our self—who we think and feel that we really are. Though our basic self-image is usually formed at a very young age, as we grow, we add bits and pieces of information to our perception of ourselves. As we continue to unfold, so does our self-image. As we mature, we come to understand that we are each a multi-faceted individual. We come to recognize and appreciate our own uniqueness— each of us is really unlike anyone else. We become less shy and more open to revealing and sharing ourselves as our life progresses. We also become more willing to experience a deeper understanding and even transformation of ourselves. Our life provides each of us with a choice: do we wish to rest on the surface, never questioning or inquiring into the deeper meaning of self, or do we want to plunge into the depths and experience a self-revelation so profound, so immense that we are transformed at the very roots of our being? Let's choose to go all the way in this life— to know ourselves at depth. 

I once turned down an opportunity for a free trip to Calgary, Canada because my first reaction was: Canada is too cold. I subsequently regretted this 'lost opportunity,' and when the offer was recently renewed, I quickly agreed to go, regardless of the cold. And the four days I spent in Calgary were indeed filled with beauty and wonder: the Canadian Rockies, Banff and Lake Louise are visions of blue and white loveliness. And strange to say, even though it was a much colder temperature by our standards, I hardly felt the cold at all. Sometimes we tend to say no to new possibilities because we have a mental image of how they will be for us; they may be uncomfortable or cost too much time or energy. But it just may be that something very exciting and unusual is trying to give itself to us, and all we need to do is be open and receptive to discover a good beyond our conception. Say yes to new life. 

Lao Tzu, the great Taoist philosopher, said, "The way to do is to be." And Emerson, the great American philosopher, said, "Who you are speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you are saying." It is useful at times to collect ourselves, to gather ourselves together in self-inquiry and silent recognition: Who is this person we are anyway? How are we feeling about ourself right now? Do we like ourself? Do we like spending time with this person we are? Would we rather be somebody else? Collecting oneself means standing on our own two spiritual feet, making our peace with who and what we are. We can accept ourselves very simply right here and right now and be happy that we are who we are— that we're not somebody else; we can release all of our self-regrets. Why not be this person we already are? Why postpone our arrival into full-blown personhood? 

Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we are celebrating today, said, "I have a dream that some day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and crooked places will be made straight...and all flesh shall see it together." King's dream was for equality, peace and freedom. Someone once said, "Dreams are not to put us to sleep, but to wake us up." King fulfilled as much of his dream as he could in his life, and we all live in a better world as a result. What are each of us doing right now to realize our own peace dream— our vision of peace and fulfillment within our world? Abraham Lincoln was once asked what he thought of a sermon he had just heard. Lincoln replied that he thought little of it for though it was well-constructed and well-presented, it did not provoke him to action and therefore had no meaning for him. Have we caught a big enough dream from the universe to provoke us to action, to manifest powerfully something that takes us beyond ourselves to a place no one has been before? 

Mohammed said, "Trust God, but tie your camel," meaning that we have a two-fold relationship and responsibility to this life. We need to develop a sense of trust in the ultimate benevolence and goodness of this life, and yet we also must be conscious of the needs of the moment and learn to fulfill our role in life in an appropriate and responsible way. The camel driver may know that God is good, but he also understands the tendency of the camel to wander away if left unattended. We may know that everything is working out in our lives, but we also have to do our share in bringing our fulfillment first into focus and then into concrete reality; to let our dreams remain abstractions is to forget to tie our camel; we are here to bring our dreams into manifestation in this life. Don't let your dream get away from you. 

What does it mean to be spiritually free? We think of human freedom in terms of being free from some oppressive influence or situation. Or we think of human freedom as being free to do things we've always wanted to do: complete some special project or take a trip somewhere or buy our dream home. But is there a freedom that is different in kind from our usual ideas of freedom?— a freedom which liberates us from the human predicament itself? On a human level, no matter how well things are going for us, we never seem to feel completely comfortable or at ease with ourselves or our situation in life. We say, "There has to be something more." Perhaps spiritual freedom is a point in our life where we come into total agreement and harmony with ourselves, our situation and our world, a time when we no longer feel uncomfortable being ourselves. What a blessing it is to feel total peace with ourselves in this life. And maybe all we need to do is say yes in the moment, and this freedom is ours. 

We all have made New Year's resolutions about quitting some habit or beginning some beneficial course of action only to realize a little later on that our firm resolve has evaporated in the winds of time. For a resolve to change to "take," inside of us, we need to be direct, clear and honest with ourselves—do we really want to change and are we really willing to pay the price for change? Will the perceived value of the change be a great enough compensation for whatever work or effort or pain that will be involved in bringing the change about? If we've ever tried to quit intoxicants or cigarettes or cut down on food or change a long-standing relationship, we realize how much effort is involved. There is really no easy way to make this sort of fundamental change in our life, and we may just have to come to terms with what is involved in any serious change we are contemplating. The deeper we go in our self-understanding, the simpler, if not easier, the change will be for us. We can resolve to change some basic pattern that is no longer beneficial for us and stay firmly rooted in our resolve until we achieve our goal. 

A man once went to a psychiatrist and said, "I feel like I'm a pair of curtains." The psychiatrist said, "Calm down and try to pull yourself together." We sometimes feel split apart inside of ourselves as if we are going in two directions at once. Sometimes we seem to want two contradictory things, both at the same time. A man was once allowed to choose a magic bottle that would give him whatever he really wanted— the only condition was that he had to offer up a magic bottle of his own in exchange for the bottle he was to receive. The man asked for the magic bottle that contained inner peace, but he realized he would have to give his own bottle which contained an overwhelming ambition. He realized that he was unwilling to give up his bottle of ambition, so he walked away without receiving the peace his heart yearned for. Perhaps we just need to really decide what it is we want out of this life, and then our wholeness will begin to manifest. 

Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existential philosopher, once said, "It took me 20 years to get Plato out of my system." We've all had teachers, mentors, role models or authority figures who have had tremendous influence over each of us, particularly during our formative years. But at some point, we realize that we have to release the influence of even the most awesome, august and inspiring authority figures in order to come into our own. An apprentice minister once called his mentor, a famous and successful minister, and said, "Jack, I've been trying to do things the way you do them and to be like you in my talks and now we are down to six people!" The famous minister replied, "Good! Now you can relax, be yourself and do it your way." When things aren't working, we can always ask ourselves: Am I being myself or am I trying to be like someone else? While it's comfortable and safe to be like our mentors and it's often scary and risky to be ourselves— when we are really who we are, we find our fulfillment. Be yourself! 

Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss." What do we really love to do more than anything else? Are we following that love, that joy and letting it guide our way through life? Campbell himself found that he loved to study legends from different peoples throughout the world— so he made a career of being a mythologist. Alan Watts loved to research and explore Asian religions; he created the Institute for Asian Studies and spent his life doing what he really loved. Don Juan says to follow "the path with a heart." What kind of pursuit is our heart drawing us to follow? Let's not play it so safe that we are locked into some job or activity that we find tedious and unfulfilling. Step out now and claim the good your heart is leading you to— follow your bliss. 

The Duke of Cambridge once protested that he wasn't against change. He favored it, he said, when there was no alternative. Change is the law of life. A king once summoned a group of wise men to his court. He said, "I want you to write down something that will make me happy when I am sad and sad when I am happy." After some time of meditation, one of the wise men wrote, "This, too, shall pass." Change in and of itself need not be distressing. Change is only alarming as long as we fear it, resist it and struggle to overcome it. But when we relax, let go and begin to welcome change into our life, we find that change itself becomes an ally and brings with it transformation and new life. Newspaper headlines at the turn of the century predicted the economic and social collapse of New York City within ten years due to a lack of horses. But with the automotive breakthrough came a whole new way of life for humanity. Let's let change have its way with us since there is no alternative. Change is inevitable; growth is optional, but we can choose growth as long as we are willing to change. 

Edna Ferber, the novelist, once said, "I know 10,000 would-be authors and only two people who actually write." Many of us have said to ourselves and to others, "I have a novel inside me." As Sartre says, a novel inside of us has no reality until we actually get it out and onto the paper. Too often we all tend to spend time in idle reverie or daydreaming instead of manifesting our true inner potential. To bring our inner dreams, aspirations and visions into concrete actuality in this world is one of the great joys of life. Whether our creation is recognized or not by the world, whether or not we achieve fame or fortune, there is a deep and abiding satisfaction in being a participant in the way something new comes into being. Like a mother giving birth, when a creative spark comes into being through us into this life, we feel ourselves totally connected to the creative energy of this universe. 

Are we waiting? Sitting on the fence is the most uncomfortable place in the whole world. When we are stuck in indecision and we are waiting for a sign from the outer world to tell us what to do, we may feel so bogged down in inertia that even if the sign came, we wouldn't recognize it. Sometimes the only thing to do, when nothing seems to be happening, is to spring into action, take a risk (even if we fail) and make something happen. When we rest too long in the status quo, we, like Hamlet, may lose the motive for action. In business, there's an old saying: There are those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who say, "What happened?" If you feel trapped in waiting for the outer world to do something for you or to you to make things different, maybe you just need to take the first step. The universe is holding its breath, waiting for us to Act. Let's go for it. 

In a constantly changing world, our demand for certainty and security causes us to try to force things to fit a pre-established mold. When we are trying to make everything fit our preconceived patterns, we find that we expend tremendous energy. We can exhaust ourselves by trying so hard to maintain the status quo in our lives. Sometimes the wisest course of action, when we feel uncertain or insecure, is to let ourselves just be insecure. The insecurity itself can provide an energy and a clarity of attention that gives us the strength and courage to go forward in our lives. Allowing ourselves to remain with our insecurity can be the means of direct seeing into the heart of life itself.