Informal Conversations: An Intimate Approach to Life - Softcover

Restrepo Perez, Dora L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1504384105 ISBN 13: 9781504384100

Publisher: BalboaPress, 2017

Synopsis

This book acts as a guide for people who are filled with doubt and who constantly experience internal conflict in their life, for people who are uncertain about who they really are and who they would like to become. It aims to help readers ask themselves essential questions about their past, their sense of identity, and their future goals and aspirations. In short, it aims to help readers find purpose in life and take action in order to fulfill that newfound purpose. From the outset, the author insists that, as individuals, we should strive to transform our consciousness--that is, the way we perceive the world. In order to do this, it is essential that we first switch our operating system (OS). Our operating system is a state of consciousness; it is our capacity to interpret events--the mental software, so to speak, through which we process every one of our experiences of the world. The following informal conversations offer us a practical approach to switching our operating system. They show us how to better understand our emotions, how to cope with them, and how to turn vulnerability into an advantage. Ultimately, they show us that it is indeed possible to live a life based on self-respect, self-approval, and self-discipline, one in which we can take effective action to both change our circumstances--our family, our friends, our relationships, our work--and the way we perceive them.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Informal Conversations

An Intimate Approach to Life

By Dora L. Restrepo Perez

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2017 Dora L. Restrepo Perez
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-8410-0

Contents

Part One An Intimate Approach to Life, 1, 
Introduction, 3, 
The Beginning The Journey Consciousness, 7, 
The Self and the Non-Self Spiritual Contracts, 21, 
Family – The Wound, 35, 
Emotions, 57, 
The Law of Attraction and Repulsion, 81, 
Friends, 87, 
The Couple Energies and Polarities, 93, 
Action: Achieving What I Set My Mind To, 115, 
Part Two An Approach to the Practice of Life, 183, 
Introduction, 185, 
Key Points to Remember, Strengthen and Integrate, 201, 
Inner Exercises–Practices, 221, 
Exercises: External Practices, 255, 
Worksheets, 263, 
About the Author, 313, 

CHAPTER 1

The Beginning The Journey Consciousness

The Beginning: Opening up Our Senses

Everything has a beginning, a starting point. Yet, I speak neither of the beginning of time, nor of the Big Bang. I encourage you to converse attentively, silently from within and in a low voice without, so that we may have a talk about our beginnings, about how the conscious self-began, about you being yourself and I being myself, and about how different it is to exist, to be oneself, to perceive ourselves, you and I, as separate from each other, struggling for and within our boundaries. To that end, let us outline a field, a space outside, and let us gaze at that space/field in which life grants us the opportunity of beginning.

By dint of simple observation, we notice that Life, and everything in it, is in permanent motion. At every instant, Life recreates and renews itself. At times, when it does manifest itself, we find it takes the form of matter; at other times, it remains calm, removed, and latent, like an immense field of possibilities. Life exists as if in a seed, yet it waits to be sown in order to manifest itself in a particular size, form, species, and color – it awaits to expand, grow and convey the information contained in it. Everything exists in space, and everything, in every kingdom and super kingdom in Nature (mineral, plant, and animal; or else archaea, bacteria, protozoa, chromista, fungi, plantae, and animalia), has been magically created by means of the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, aether), as well as of the phases of matter (solid, liquid, gas, and plasma).

The qualities common to all natural kingdoms are motion, learning, and transformation. Individual life, the self, comes into contact with this expression of outward life by means of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch). It is so. If your senses weren't alert, you wouldn't be able to perceive life.

I encourage you to put each one of your senses to the test, to perceive both life and all the elements that constitute our world by means of the organs of expression and motion: the arms, the legs, the heart, and the digestive system ...

Hence, you will realize that even if you are able to see the mountain, you will only experience it if you actually walk on it: you perceive it only by climbing it. Each sense has a different timeframe. Observe a bird in the distance, and you will notice that, when it sings, it'll take you an instant more to hear it than to see it. And it will take you even longer if you reach out your hand to touch it.

Each sense has its own expression in time, distance, and motion. Yet, there they are, each and every one of them taking its own time, coming into contact, in its own way, with what lies outside the self. It is thus that the senses gather and organize in your brain, allowing you to connect with and perceive outward reality, giving you the opportunity to experience life.

The Journey: The Adventure of Life

Dear friend: Life decides to set out on an adventure of feeling and knowledge. To that end, it chooses to inhabit a body (the means) during a historical moment of the species, as well as of Nature (the setting – the scenography). Life brings along with it a certain baggage (the senses, the organs of expression and motion), in addition to a powerful, unconscious, collective memory that, in the course of our conversations, we shall call the hard drive (HD).

The hard drive (HD) is that which contains everything that we, and most likely other beings of different races and conditions, have experienced. It comprises the knowledge of the species. Hence, we live connected to it. There is a part of the hard drive (HD) that is vital, that mustn't change, for it is the result of thousands of years of perfection. It mustn't be tampered with, because basic information, regarding indispensable mechanisms for survival, is stored in it: how to walk, how to breathe, how to shut the eyes, how to digest, how and why the heart beats, etc., as well as other automatic and reflexive conducts, themselves also predetermined programs. This is the vital part of the hard drive (HD) that only manifests itself by means of an operating system.

The operating system (OS) refers to the manner in which I interpret life's events. It is that from which I relate myself to the world, as well as the language that translates both the information and the impulses that come from the hard drive (HD). The operating system (OS), as a mode of interpreting and translating life, can be quite basic, archaic, or else cutting-edge and efficient. The operating system (OS) is a state of consciousness – the capacity to interpret events. Therefore, the state of consciousness in which we manifest ourselves at an the evolutionary level is determined by how we transform ourselves.

Generally speaking, our family, our setting, and the society to which we belong, have installed the operating system (OS) in us. Many programs stored in the hard drive (HD) are only accessible via the operating system (OS), even if these programs are predetermined expressions of the hard drive (HD). For example:

a) The workings of the senses and their connection to the brain.

b) Internal physiological functions.

c) The emotions, which are the relation between both the senses and the self with the outside world.

d) Programs having to do with history, the past, and survival.

Having mapped out how we function, we acknowledge that we are beings that can indeed survive with our original operating system (OS) and its predetermined information. Or else, we may decide to build our own Unity, by choosing to install a new operating system (OS), complete with all the programs of help and support that foster a fluid, efficient, joyful, and creative functioning.

There exist other alternatives:

1) We decide to surrender ourselves to such predetermined programming with regard to our senses, our emotions, our family, the outside, plus whatever has already taken place, therefore choosing a tortuous life that we do not understand, because we lack knowledge. This kind of life is based on what reaches me from the outside, on the opinions and judgments of others who, like me, experience the same situations, emotions, and feelings. As a result of these circumstances, I live a life of pain, barely enduring the kind of life that was allotted to me ...

Or perhaps you opt for:

2) Accepting my invitation to set out on the hero's journey, an inner journey, knowing that there's a world outside teeming with possibilities, with situations of every sort, and that you are neither a victim nor a consequence of it. My life is now different because I, by means of conscious decision and personal will, have alertly begun an inner journey, thus allowing myself to change. Consequently, from the standpoint of the RAM memory, which is the temporal memory, I attentively perceive each action or experience. I will now try out something new – I explore, acknowledge, feel, approve or reject it, according to what I wish for my life. Or else, I simply live through such experiences without registering them: in the end, I decide whether or not to incorporate such experiences into the hard drive (HD) of my own self.

In this way, with tremendous compromise, I may start my life anew at any moment. I flow with it, free not to predetermine every single detail: I simply feel it. Yes, dear friend, you are free to perceive yourself as a manifestation of life in both the micro and the macro, to feel that each action is a step towards, or a commitment to, this mission of excellence, to feel that indeed each action has an effect on your whole relational spectrum: your family, your work, or your partner.

Consciousness: Living Profoundly, Attentively, Day-to-Day

I suggest you install, my dear friend, a new operating system (OS) that will transform your character – which refers to the relation between personality (the self) and the soul (the Self).

In the course of our conversations, we will emphasize the fact that installing a new operating system (OS) will indeed have an effect on your outlook on life, as well as on whatever you choose to do with it your life. The outside world is real; it exists and manifests itself physically. When we speak of previous programming, or of illusion, we refer to those subtle worlds in which we create phantoms, like the should-have-been and its relation to the outside world.

In line with our new operating system (OS), we aspire to connect with life from within, from the source of Life itself, in order to flow with it.

Mystical traditions describe this as returning to the Father, as returning home, to the essence, to the interior – as communicating with the heart's fire. Yet, we must be wary, dear friend, since such a return to the Source of Life does not mean death, or that you should stop doing what you do every day. It means, on the contrary, living and committing to whatever you do. It means being efficient, living attentively, and being capable of instilling this new purpose in your day- to-day external or material life.

Let us explore, then, how this ancient system of imposed beliefs, in which we have lived, has worked so far. I encourage you to examine it in closer detail and realize how it affects you, so that you may be able to find strategies to transform yourself in the here and now, with the aid of your presence, with the impulse and strength that ensues from experiencing in your life the here and now and from acknowledging what it is that drives you, what it is that drives us.

What drives us? Is it strength, emotion, or reason? What guides us in the path we tread? An additional question arises: do we know what moves us?

We are definitely driven by emotions, and it is indeed quite an interesting starting point. Now, let us reflect in our heart, and find out which emotions move us. In the course of these conversations, let us turn ourselves, you and I, into the question: what motivates me to move forward? What are my motives? And thus, the answer will surely be revealed to us: we will know the path we must now begin to tread.

Let us look at what our life could be if we overhauled our operating system (OS), at how we could live based on a new non-paradigm paradigm. From our inner presence, we shall talk for a bit about this topic, delving into the various spaces and areas in which our life unfolds.

I suggest that, during each encounter, we broach these subjects in line with what we consider pertinent, and with whatever inspires us.

We have already made it clear that the operating system (OS) defines how I position myself in relation to the outside world, and that it is also the language I use to interpret this relation. We have also noted how the operating system (OS) permeates every aspect and area of our life. You therefore already know that life does not happen as though it were an index: first A, then B, and then C. No, life is not split: everything happens simultaneously. Let us now examine how our default operating system (OS) works.

We have said that everything inside us is related, that nothing is separated or happens at random. Everything has a simultaneous order that we surely ignore. Different occurrences, experiences, opportunities, and lessons take place at the same time, at different levels of our consciousness. This simultaneity influences the different aspects of our physical life. Consequently, let us first address issues that will help us understand this subject more globally, comfortably laying them out in the course of our conversation.

CHAPTER 2

The Self and the Non-Self Spiritual Contracts

The Self and the Non-Self

Life, dear friend, the flow of Life, learns, enjoys itself, and enriches itself by means of individualization. According to mystical and spiritual traditions the world over, once the Self leaves the immense and infinite flow of Self that is, has been and will be everything that ever existed (the great Self, in uppercase), it (the Self) delights, for a determined space-time, in the experience of being focalized and individualized as a self (in lowercase) – a small self that is but a spark, part of the great Self. Physicists have dubbed it "holon", a whole/part, a small portion of the Self that at the same time contains every one of its qualities, traits, and possibilities, without which the whole is not complete, is not the One.

Already established in this world as a small self, we complicate matters further when we forget that this is precisely what we are: a small self that is but a part of the great Self. At this point, the small self struggles with its origins, with its innermost being. We lose touch with that space within the Self, the great Self, in which everything is one. Day by day, as we gain more experience, of a sudden we feel like a small, separate, strong, seasoned self. Hence, with knowledge or power, as Unity is forgotten, rivalry is born. Forgetting why we are here, which is the basis of everything, we believe we are better than everyone else. We embroil ourselves in a battle to the death, so to speak: we suffer, struggle, deny ourselves, and reject everything and everyone. Yes, many a time we get what we want. We might feel successful after we have accomplished material, work-related, or relational goals, yet we still yearn for something else: we feel that something is missing. Then, after a moment of magical vulnerability, we sense that there is indeed something else. We long for it, hearing a voice that says: yes, you are certainly missing out on the power of Unity. We then feel incomplete. Even if we own things or have knowledge, we aren't happy. We feel that this is not who we are, that we don't know who we are, and so, in ignorance, we set out on the way back.

It is only when I become aware that I know neither what I'm looking for nor where I'm going, yet would like to find answers, that the journey begins. I only feel the impulse to find what I'm looking for as a result of such ardor and such ignorance. Have you experienced, as I have, such difficult, complex moments of emptiness, loneliness, and sadness, when you don't know where you're going or what you're doing? Have you experienced such moments of hollowness and longing, despite supposedly having "everything" you need?

There certainly is a close relation between the small self, forgetting the great Self, and the old operating system (OS), which refers to familial, group, and social forms of programming.

Let us now reminisce. Do you recall how, when you were but a child at home, you were always given instructions? How you were taught to behave? How you were educated? How you and I both, just like everyone else, were told: this is done a certain way, it is very important that you keep in mind these instructions so you won't forget this, in this family or social group such is the protocol we follow, this is who we are.

Later on, in line with such an education, whenever we wanted to question, doubt, or put something to the test; or else, whenever we asked for permission to do something or else made defiant inquiries, we were told: what were you thinking, how dare you, one must always follow these rules, things are so because that's just the way they are. Since as children we generally require the approval of tutors – be they parents, grandparents, or adults that look after us –, we normally accept what we're told in order to stay out of trouble.

This is what we call programming: what we take for granted, what we think is the case. What we believe to be true results in reflexive, automatic conducts that condition our acts, our relationships, and the different ways we choose to approach to life. Moreover, we were also told who were and what we had to do in life. The fact that we still believe ourselves to be what we were once told we were, is indeed quite significant. We were told: you are skillful at this ... you're only good for this ... you are ... We were labeled. Hence, we have gone through life believing we actually embody such labels. We do in fact believe ourselves to be what we were once told we were. As a result, we learned to label everything. And yet, this is not who we are.

Have you ever wondered who you really are? You could say your name out loud as an answer, but your name is just what everyone else calls you to differentiate you from others. This is not who you are. You might think of your profession, yet this is not who you are either. That is merely your work. You may carry on like this, but eventually you will notice that such answers come from the image that you have built of yourself: you are either male or female, your name is X, you live in X, your profession is X, you are tall, short, thin, etc. Yet, these are merely traits, descriptions of the body that you inhabit, of your sexual orientation, or of your external qualities.

I would like to know who you really are, not who you have considered yourself to be.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Informal Conversations by Dora L. Restrepo Perez. Copyright © 2017 Dora L. Restrepo Perez. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: BalboaPress
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1504384105
• ISBN 13: 9781504384100
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 326