The Spiritual Explorer

"Follow your bliss and the universe will
open doors where there were only walls."
-Joseph Campbell

To find what has never been found, we must journey where no-one
has ventured before. To see what has never been seen, we must
gaze where no-one has looked before. To Learn what has never been
learned, we must imagine what has never been considered before.

All new inventions, ideas and discoveries are the result of a Spiritual
Explorer; a Trailblazer, who dared to venture into new, mysterious
and unknown realms; a Great Achiever who dared to boldly imagine
what no-one else dared to think about. Spiritual Explorers are the
"Changers of History" whose works and biographies line the book-
shelves of every library on the planet.

Einstein...Newton...daVinci...Aristotle...Pythagoras...Mozart,
just to name a few. We refer to them by a single name, yet we are
all aware of who they are and what they have accomplished.

These Spiritual Explorers understood that all New Discoveries
are found at the outer limits, the outer realms, of conventional
knowledge and Thought. These Spiritual Explorers chose to ignore
the stagnant conventions of their time and boldly ventured beyond
the visible Horizon of their Age.

In doing so they brought knowledge and Wisdom to a higher level.

Ridiculed and discredited at first, yet worshipped as Genius' at the
end, these Spiritual Explorers provided us with the Gift of Change
and re-wrote History. And, in doing so, they achieved Immortality.

Great Achievements are the most difficult to accomplish. They
require Great Awareness, Imagination, Enthusiasm and Courage.
That is why they are called Great Achievements. It is also why so
very few people dare to attempt them.

Each one of us has been sent into our Current Incarnation with the
ability to be great Spiritual Explorer. And though we may not change
the world, we have all the Spiritual Tools necessary to change our
world.

Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? Yes!

Everything of value has a price. The higher the value, the higher the
price. Should we pay this price? That is a question which only we,
individually, can answer to ourselves. For those of us who Choose
to enter the unknown, uncharted and wondrous realm of Adventure
and Imagination, we will have the opportunity to experience what
Einstein called "The Beauty of the Mysterious".

And, in our Travels to new and unexplored realms we may just find
ourselves enjoying a life and Destiny that many people only read
about in borrowed books.

Comments and Emails: I welcome comments and emails from
people with similar thoughts and feelings. My email address is
located in the upper-left area of this page. Comments can be
posted by using the "Comment" link located below each article.
Also: If you found value in this article please feel free to forward
it to other like-minded individuals, organizations and sites.

Disclaimer: None of my articles should be considered to be
either advice or expertise. They are simply personal opinions
and no more. Everyone is encouraged to seek competent
advice from a licensed, registered, or certified professional
should such advice or service be required.

© copyright Joseph Panek 2009

Free Will

"Our Free Will is 'Our Right To Choose'."
- Joseph Panek

We come into this Incarnation with a number of very customized
Spiritual Gifts. These Spiritual Gifts make up our Divine Nature.
These Gifts consist of our mind, our imagination, our intuition,
our instincts, and our emotions. These customized Gifts are the
"personality" we are born with. They are ready for us to use from
the moment we take our first breath.

The Spiritual Architect within us that determines how these Gifts
are used is what we refer to as our Free Will. And although we are
born with all our Spiritual Gifts intact, they cannot do anything
until "something" puts them in motion. That "something" is our
Free Will. It Chooses how we will use these Gifts to Create, Evaluate,
and React to every single Event and Decision that we encounter
on our Personal Path.

Our Free Will is the ultimate Decision maker for how we will
experience "life" in this Incarnation. It determines the Karma
we Create and the Destiny we Experience.

Our Free Will: how Precious it is. It is our Divine Right to make, and
carry out, a Decision whether it is right or wrong. It provides us
with the Opportunity to savor the satisfaction of our Achievements
and experience the discomforts of our Blunders. Our Free Will allows
us to Choose to learn from both Achievement and Failure.

Our Free Will is the one Gift that no-one can take away from us. We
can exercise its Magical Power any time we Choose. And although
we can Choose to not use it, or Choose to let it lie dormant, it is
something that can never be taken from us.

Our Free Will is the one Divine Gift over which we have complete
control. The Choices it allows us to make are limitless. Therefore,
we must be very careful when using our Gift of Free Will so that we
always Choose Wisely!

Comments and Emails: I welcome comments and emails from
people with similar thoughts and feelings. My email address is
located in the upper-left area of this page. Comments can be
posted by using the "Comment" link located below each article.
Also: If you found value in this article please feel free to forward
it to other like-minded individuals, organizations and sites.

Disclaimer: None of my articles should be considered to be
either advice or expertise. They are simply personal opinions
and no more. Everyone is encouraged to seek competent
advice from a licensed, registered, or certified professional
should such advice or service be required.

© copyright Joseph Panek 2009

Choosing Our Thoughts

"Whether you think you can
or whether you think you can't,
either way you are right!"
-Henry Ford

Think about this. What if most of what we have been Taught in
life is wrong?

Look at a child. A child has an unlimited Imagination and is full of
excitement. However, there comes a time when we turn this excited,
imaginative child over to society in order Learn how to become
"mature". We strip this child of Individuality and replace it with
conformity.

After a short period of time this enthusiastic, adventurous child
becomes a dispassionate, purposeless adult who is taught to
pursue the Specters of Conformity and mediocrity. This child is
taught to live a life not of their own creation, but a life based
upon the expectations of "society".

How very sad.

We can all relate to this scenario because, at one time, each one
of us was that excited, imaginative child who looked forward to
Becoming an adult in order to pursue our dreams and Adventures.

But, something happened along the way. We were told that our
dreams were immature and childish; that it was now time for us
to "grow up".

We Believed this Advice because it came to us from well-meaning
parents and teachers. We abandoned our childhood dreams and
succumbed to adulthood only to feel that "something is missing"...
"something is wrong".

For those of us who feel that life has somehow misled us, there is
good news!

That excited, imaginative child still lives within every one of us. This
Child is not dead; it is merely suppressed and is aching for a way
to re-become itself.

How do we re-become our Child-Self? We simply Change our
State Of Mind.

Ask anyone who has achieved Greatness in any field and they all
have one thing in common. Every one of these people is quoted
as saying that "it was their Thoughts that Created the person that
they ultimately became"!

Many of us believe that we must suppress our dreams and follow
the crowd.

By joining the crowd, we become "the crowd" and reap whatever
benefits, or shortcomings, which crowd-membership brings upon us.

However, there is always that small minority who refuse to follow
the "way-of-the-crowd". These Lone Wolves follow their own Path,
chase their own Dreams and Value their own Thoughts.

From this minority come the Individuals who go on to achieve
Greatness. They are the Individuals who ultimately become our
Heroes.

It is interesting to consider that each one these Heroes had been
told by the masses that what they want to achieve "could not be
done". It is only after their achievements were realized that the
masses worshipped these achievers as Heroes.

To be like everyone else does not make us Special. We can only
be Special by being different from, and standing apart from,
"the crowd". We do this by having a different State Of Mind.

But, what is this State Of Mind that retains the Excitement Of
Youth?

It is our Free Will to Choose. It is a Choice to Dream, Imagine, and
Fantasize.

It is a Decision to use Today as a building block for Tomorrow. It is
a Choice to look upon every day, every Action, and every Event as
an Adventure.

It is the Decision to discard the shackles of conformity in order to
pursue the Dreams that are forever within us and are desperately
Seeking a way to express themselves through us.

It is a Choice to Travel our own Path; to live in a different World.

Those who are Eternally Young understand, and live by, this
principle. They are the Adventurers who measure their lives
not in "earth-years", as most people do, but by their Experiences
and Pursuits.

Each one of us has the ability to remain Eternally Young...Travel
our own Path...create our own life...and experience new and
fulfilling Adventures.

We simply have to turn the Key that opens these doors to us. And
that Sacred Key is our State Of Mind. It is never too late to
Change our State Of Mind, re-become our Inner Child and pursue
the Dreams that still live within us...and excite us!

See also: "Your Choices Define Your Destiny"

Comments and Emails: I welcome comments and emails from
people with similar thoughts and feelings. My email address is
located in the upper-left area of this page. Comments can be
posted by using the "Comment" link located below each article.
Also: If you found value in this article please feel free to forward
it to other like-minded individuals, organizations and sites.

Disclaimer: None of my articles should be considered to be
either advice or expertise. They are simply personal opinions
and no more. Everyone is encouraged to seek competent
advice from a licensed, registered, or certified professional
should such advice or service be required.


© copyright Joseph Panek 2008

Prayer (A Spiritual Conversation)

Prayer is a Peaceful and Solemn conversation we have with our
Inner Self, Our God-Within, Our Atman. It is the same kind of
Simple, sincere, and Honest conversation we would have if we
were speaking to our best friend. When we access Our God-Within
through Prayer we are, in fact, having a conversation with our best
friend...our best Spiritual Friend.

We can have this Spiritual Conversation any time we Choose.
We can have this Conversation while lying in bed at night or while
taking a walk. All it requires is a calm, peaceful mind and a specific
topic on which we are Seeking Guidance.

This Spiritual Conversation has been called by many names: Prayer,
Meditation, and Thought Experiments (such as practiced by Albert
Einstein, Isaac Newton and others). This Spiritual Conversation can
even be called Imagination.

Regardless of what it is called, Spiritual Conversation (Prayer) is
simply accessing Our God-Within and asking for Guidance, Answers
and Strength.

We begin by taking all the Time we feel necessary to describe the
topic, or issue, that is concerning us. The longer we take to describe
our "issue" the more relaxed and peaceful we find ourselves
Becoming. There is no reason to hurry this process.

Finally, we end our Spiritual Conversation by asking Our God-Within
to "Show me how to...","Guide me...", "Teach me what I need to
learn to..." This is the Magical Process by which Prayer is created,
received and answered.

We need not go to any "designated place" to pray. Our Sacred Place,
our "Holy of Holies", is within us. We need not pray to a statue, idol,
or image. These are all external, material objects which simply
"represent" Sacred Essences. They are not Sacred Essences in and
of themselves.

Tragedy and "dire need" cause many people to "pray" for help and
rescue. However, this is not True Prayer. This kind of "praying" is
based on fear, desperation, and emotion and is directed outward
toward some "assumed" authority figure instead of inward toward
Our God-Within. This kind of "praying" is seldom, if ever, answered.

It is through Peaceful, Solemn Conversation (Prayer) with Our
God-Within that we obtain Calmness, Stability, Strength and
Awareness. Calmness, Stability, Strength, and Awareness are
Spiritual Tools that enable us to steer our way through the
ever-Changing currents of the Great Sea of Life.

Furthermore:

As any Seeker of Spiritual Truth will attest: One must exercise
patience and dig deeply when attempting to understand the
metaphors, parables, and quotations contained within scripture.

For this is the only way by which the Seeker can un-Veil the
Esoteric Lesson which lies hidden beneath the exoteric, or
common, story which that particular scripture presents.

Does modern scripture confirm what Prayer is?  Does
modern scripture teach us how to Pray? And is modern
scripture consistent with ancient teachings in regard to
Our God-Within; Our Atman?

The answer to these questions is a resounding "Yes"!

Let us look at one example:

The Lord's Prayer begins with "Our Father, which art in Heaven....."

Luke 17:20-21 tells us: "The Kingdom of God [ Heaven ] is within
you..."

Therefore, as per Luke: as God [ heaven ] is within us,
The Lord's Prayer is instructing us to Pray thusly:

"Our Father, which art within me..." OR "My Father, which art
within me..."

Therefore, The Lord's Prayer is Instructing us to recognize and
direct our Prayers to the God-Source...the Divine-Source...the
Atman which resides within us and is, IN FACT, our Spiritual Self.

Comments and Emails: I welcome comments and emails from
people with similar thoughts and feelings. My email address is
located in the upper-left area of this page. Comments can be
posted by using the "Comment" link located below each article.
Also: If you found value in this article please feel free to forward
it to other like-minded individuals, organizations and sites.

Disclaimer: None of my articles should be considered to be
either advice or expertise. They are simply personal opinions
and no more. Everyone is encouraged to seek competent
advice from a licensed, registered, or certified professional
should such advice or service be required.

© copyright Joseph Panek 2008