Neale Walsch wrote:”The mind must agree to step out of itself. Without the mind’s agreement we will not be able to access the soul. The mind will attempt to block everything. Once the mind agrees then we can move on and start to connect to the soul.”

For me Boorstein’s guideline is more doable: “…to behave in a way that stretches the limits of conditioned responses.”

Furthermore, Boorstein explained: “…the mind has-as its essence- the CLARITY from which wisdom arises. It also implies that a full religious path must include tools for accessing that essence directly.”

“The Buddhism that had come to the West offered a clear explanation for suffering and tools for the direct, personal realization of a peaceful mind.”

Most of all: “It required practice not AFFILIATION. It was a great spiritual path. It promised transformation.”

I love the guidance of Sylvia Boorstein because it teaches me how to deal with my mind which is the root of most, if not all, of my problems. She writes things I would have wanted myself to express. She writes about experiences like mine. I prefer her Buddhist wisdom to religious teachings which I find mostly irrelevant.

For example, Boorstein wrote:”… the mind has – as its essence- the Clarity from which wisdom arises. It also implies that a full religious path must include TOOLS for accessing that essence directly.”

“The Buddhism that had come from the West offered a clear explanation of suffering and tools for the direct, personal realization of a peaceful mind.”

Most of all: “It required practice not AFFILIATION. It was a great spiritual path. It promised transformation.”

Neale Walsch wrote: “Like a tree outside your window, whose seed carried within it all the coding required for it to grow into what it has become , you arrived here knowing everything you needed to know to be everything you were designed to be.”

I interpret Walsch to say: “My belief that I was given all I need before I came to this life must explain why i get so many challenges for me to experience and respond using my personal gifts.”

My prayer, therefore, is that I am see.

When challenges come one after the other I forget that I was made to the image and likeness of God.

When I am scared I lose the essential nature of my mind. I get confused and my mind becomes even more upset and i fail to see what i already have.

“…love, joy, happiness, sense of true self that you experience – and that others experience in their life because of you- along the way.”

Neale Walsch along with Sylvia Boorstein make my pathway easier. No impossible dogmas to believe in Faith. No vague obligations and responsibilities.

Self-worth is enhanced. Both guides make me firm in my belief that “I was made to the image and likeness of God.” How empowering.

If only Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain had met Walsch and Boorstein!

What a relief! I don’t have to give up my basic self. I simply have to change my responses. “Emotional Agility” one of the articles in ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE is as kind as Sylvia Boorstein.

“The opposite of control is acceptance – not acting on every thought or resigning yourself to negativity but responding to your ideas and emotions with an open attitude, paying attention to them and letting yourself experience them.”

No religious violence to self. No running away.
“Here I am”
“It is the response to the challenge to acknowledge the truth of the present moment, to recognize what needs to be done, and to be prepared to do it.” (Sylvia Boorstein)

Alleluia! I can be myself.