Ariel

10:00 pm: That Light In Your Eye

Originally published at We Are All One. Please leave any comments there.

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Tags: awareness, eyes, light, presence

07:09 pm: Ariel Interviewed by Myrko of AwakeBlogger

Originally published at We Are All One. Please leave any comments there.

Hey guys, I recently did an interview with fellow spiritual blogger, Myrko, of awakeblogger.com.

Interview available here.

Check it out!

Topics discussed include:

• A basic introduction about me and how I got started on the spiritual path
• A metaphorical description of awakening itself
• The most important thing in spiritual practice
• The value of the Now moment
• The interplay of personal development and spirituality
• Today’s evolving spiritual collective consciousness

and more!

I encourage you to check out the interview and share with us what you think, either on his blog or on mine.

http://www.awakeblogger.com/2008/10/interview-with-ariel-bravy-of-arielbravycom/

Enjoy!

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Tags: enlightenment, interview, personal experiences

10:00 pm: Does Surrendering Control Mean I Don’t Do Anything?

Originally published at We Are All One. Please leave any comments there.

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Tags: control, surrender

10:00 pm: Does the Ego Play a Role In Ego Transcendence?

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Tags: ego, enlightenment, silence, surrender

10:00 pm: I Can Make My Mind Be Quiet For A Little While

Originally published at We Are All One. Please leave any comments there.

In a recent comment here on this site, Anthony brought up an excellent point. It is so important that it’s worth dedicating a post to. Let’s see what Anthony has to say:

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Tags: control, ego, enlightenment, mind, quieting the mind, thought

10:00 pm: Transcending The Mind’s Automatic Programming

Originally published at We Are All One. Please leave any comments there.

Question:

Hi Ariel,

The biggest difficulty that I have had so far has been trying to reconcile a fully conscious lifestyle with the brain’s automatic conditioned responses. It seems like our brains have evolved to compel us to behave in an evolutionarily advantageous way. For example, if I hold my breath for as long as I can, eventually my desire for air will increase to the point that it overwhelms everything else.

How does the idea of enlightenment deal with these automatic responses? No matter how spiritually enlightened we are, we are still human. I think that the root of my difficulties is coming from the fact that I am hoping to see true reality, yet I also believe that our minds are hardwired to experience reality in certain ways that are beneficial to our survival.

Thanks,

B.

My Response:

Hey B,

Great question.

You’re absolutely right. No matter how enlightened “you” are, “you” are still just as human.

All awakening boils down to is realizing your true nature. Sure, Jesus still ate food. The Buddha’s heart still beat. Ramana Maharshi still talked with people. Nisargadatta Maharaj still breathed naturally. Adyashanti still has the capacity to think. David Hawkins still has the ability to hold an intention in mind and see it come into manifestation.

You see, it’s not about overriding your body’s natural evolutionary patterns, but recognizing that they are not you. It’s not about trying to force the mind to go quiet, but recognizing the mind is not you. It’s not about perceiving an alternate reality beyond the mind, but recognizing that the mind’s perception of what is is not actually reality. What is is just what is, not what you think it is.

It is possible to look, to simply look at something without mentally creating a whole story about what’s being witnessed. Witness what is without engaging the mind.

Upon awakening it is still possible to discern the difference between a snake and a bed, for example. One is safe for the body to lie down on. The other is not. It’s not like that capacity is lost.

What changes is the idea that “external” objects are in any way separate from that which I am. We are all recognized to be an expression of Divinity.

The mind is not capable of truly coming to this realization. It can only adopt this, or something else, as a belief system.

You’re right that the mind is designed to ensure our own physical survival, for the most part. However, the mind can only discern appearance. Is this food healthy or not? Does this situation look dangerous or not? It uses logic, reasoning, and past experiences as its reference, but very often what’s happening now is very different from what happened in the past. The mind is only designed to perceive what happened. It’s not designed to understand what will happen. This is an inherent limitation of the mind.

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Tags: altered states, brain, enlightenment, evolution, light in your eyes, thought

10:00 pm: The Secret To Manifestation

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Tags: expectation, intention, law of attraction, manifestation, surrender, trusting the universe

10:00 pm: What Is Abundance?

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Tags: abundance, bashar, law of attraction, manifestation, surrender, synchronicity, trusting the universe, video

03:26 am: egg toss
Earlier today, I was thinking about which shot I'd want to toss up on el photoblogo, but it seems more fitting to post a series of shots. So here we go...

We had an egg tossing competition this morning. It was a lot of fun.

One person runs 25 yards with an egg.



Then they throw their egg to their fellow fraternity brothers or sorority sisters.



Who will hopefully catch the egg.



...or not



The rest of the people have made a sort of human pyramid. The top person has to break the egg into a cup on the forehead of another person. Sounds simple enough, right?



Sure, until you realize that egg yolk goes everywhere.



So people learned to hold the eggs closer to the cups.



Especially after getting yolk in each other's hair.



We're going to run this shot in this week's paper.



Some guys actually filled up their cups so much that it started to overflow.



Whoever gets the most number of yolks in the cup in the given time wins.



Eggs everywhere...



Good times... :)

02:41 am: so true...
How To Shower Like a Woman:

Take off clothing and place it in sectioned laundry hamper according to lights and darks.

Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

Look at your womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.

Get in the shower. Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and pumice stone.

Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.

Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.

Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner enhanced with real passion fruit.

Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.

Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.

Rinse conditioner off hair.

Shave armpits and legs.

Turn off shower.

Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower.

Spray mold spots with Tilex.

Get out of shower and stand on bathmat.

Dry with towel the size of a small country.

Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.

Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.


How To Shower Like a Man:

Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.

Walk naked to the bathroom.

If you see wife along the way, shake wiener at her making the 'woo-woo' sound.

Look at your manly physique in the mirror.

Admire the size of your wiener and scratch your ass.

Get in the shower Wash your face. Wash your armpits.

Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.

Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.

Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.

Wash your butt, leaving those coarse butt hairs stuck on the soap.

Wash your hair. Make a Shampoo Mohawk. Pee.

Rinse off and get out of shower. Avoid bathmat.

Dry off forearms and butt only.

Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of tub the whole time.

Admire wiener size in mirror again. Shake it to watch water fly off.

Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.

Return to bedroom with towel around waist.

If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake wiener at her and make the 'woo-woo' sound again.

Throw wet towel on bed.

01:00 pm: hi

03:14 am: ah, life
You really can't trust your mind. If you ever met a person who talked to you like your mind did, you'd probably punch them right out! "You're so fat. You're out of shape. Look at you, who's going to like that? You can't do it. You have to be afraid of this situation. What if this happened?"

It's interesting when you can get people who don't like you to open up. I've been making several visits to the framing place to get prints framed for my gallery. One guy who works there is this tatoooed punk looking guy. I normally come dressed pretty nicely and I can tell he really didn't like me. He'd constantly blow me off or flat out not look at me, while doing the opposite for other customers. I came in and talked to him today while some framing stuff was getting taken care of. I complimented him on his tattoos and he completely lit up. He started out telling me that those weren't the only ones he had and then telling me about the other ones he wanted to have done. He then pulled out a notepad and a calligraphy pen and started writing in calligraphy in various styles, including old gothic style and this rounded style that looked very lord of the ringsish. It was so cool!! You sit there and watch as this incredible looking writing kind of appears from the tip of his pen. I kept asking him about the different types of pens and inks and all and by the end of the conversation, he was like a totally different person. It was very cool!

They say life isn't about what you know, it's who you know. That seems to be pretty true. Connections can really get you into places and bring you opportunities that you would otherwise not have access to. Friends are good. ;)

They (whoever "they" are anyways) also say that "what you focus on expands" and that too seems to be very true. When you focus on problems, life throws more and more of them at you. When you focus on opportunities, life throws you more and more of those. It's not just that you see problems as possible opportunities necessarily, but when you stop focusing on the crap in your life and put your attention to the great things about it, great things really do start to spring up!

My calendar arrived today, filled with my images. It's a stepping stone on the way to getting my work out there. Sure, you can say that anyone can go online and order a picture calendar on the internet for a couple of bucks, but it's more than that. It's the idea of getting used to seeing your work in print, of seeing yourself published, of seeing yourself able to produce products that can be mass-produced, or really bringing your work to people. I get it now. It was my dad's idea and now I understand. He's coaching me through a lot of this and I should probably thank him in person rather than blog about it in here. Not being so hard on him would be good too...

I'll likely be soon picking up a tool to correctly calibrate the colors on my monitor. It's becoming more and more important to know that what I see when processing an image is what will show up in print. One of my bees look green in the calendar for example. Oops! The place I use for prints.. it turns out they use two different printers and two different color profiles for either small prints or large prints. I used the same image to print a 5x7 and 8x10 (small) as well as a 16x24 (large) and the colors were totally different. The little ones looked fine, but the colors in the large one were noticably off and the skin tones of the people make them look like they had just died! Ick! Plus, every computer/monitor I use looks strikingly different. A color calibration tool is definitely in order!

02:26 am: ...and it all started with getting a little point & shoot camera
Wow, today was more nerve-wracking that I thought it'd be.

I did my first full fledged shoot today for the Brookfield Country Club Swim Team. Today was the group shot for the 113 kids who came out of 180-something total. Monday I do all the individuals. I've done similar, if not identical work previously for Fotoillusion, though I was paid by the hour and only did photography. Now I'm moving it up a notch and handling all the client organization, administration, processing, printing, sales, etc. My mom has been kind enough to assist me at the sales table while I do the shooting. She did very well today too.

Today was pretty easy. Just one quick shoot. The longest part was actually waiting for the coaches to get all their little tykes arranged along the side of the pool. Still though, my heart really gets pumping when I think about all the administration I've taken on now, but it's totally worth it. Sales are excellent and my profits are WAY better running it as my own business than making the x dollars per hour.

I'm really pushing this as a business now, including improving my skills at marketing and dealing with people. I'm off to a great start and am also pushing the advertising of my new site, wonderfulphotos.com, with the aim of getting people to be wowed by my landscape and nature work and purchasing prints directly online.

My new badass business cards arrive tomorrow. I wish they arrived today (!) but they'll be in for the bigger shoot Monday which is good. I've also ordered prints of today's group shot in various sizes. Hopefully they'll be in in time to display during the individual shoots and boost sales.

I really want to bring the beauty of life and nature to the masses. I want them to see how amazing our world is. I would love to see my work displayed in calendars, coffee table books, greeting cards, etc. I already ordered a calendar with photos that correspond to the seasons during each month. ie. beach pictures in the summer and snowy mountain tops in the winter. I would REALLY like to get a book out with my best work. I've already started doing research on the whole process of getting books created, printing and publishing, costs, etc. It's definitely doable. That is one goal that will probably be realized in a few years after I have the opportunity to travel more and create even more remarkable work. Then again, how about a themed book all from one location? hmmm, the ideas!

There's no way I'm going to wind up with a 9-5 job. My personality isn't suited to working in a cubicle. I gotta be out there running around going slightly crazy. =) Okay, so maybe not slightly... ;)

What I really need now is training. My dad is an expert in marketing and psychology so he's a fantastic resource. I'll be going for my MBA upon graduation. I've also got some coaching and business seminars ready to help me out.

This is really exciting! This mission to bring the beauty of our world to others feels like the right thing to do. Similar to Webshots with their amazing array of photos, I'd like to be able to bring people amazing photos from around the world.

Right now is a pretty revolutionary time in my life. School is ending. Business is starting to become serious. I am becoming a much bigger and more driven person.

Booyah!

06:03 am: So they say it's better to give than to receive
"It's better to give than to receive."

Or is it?

Shouldn't they be equally important? When someone gives, someone else has to be willing to receive. One can't exist without the other. They must be in balance. Thus, since they must both exist equally, they must be equally important.

How does it feel to give to someone? Most people would agree that it feels wonderful! Now how does it feel when you want to give, but the other person isn't willing to receive? It feels terrible! Every time someone wishes to give to you, but you're not willing to receive, you're ripping them of the joy and pleasure they would feel by giving to you.

It's okay to be willing to receive. Everything must be in balance. The next time someone gives you a compliment, instead of deflecting the compliment by complimenting them right back, simply say "Thank you" and allow them room to give to you. Let it sink in and both of you will be much better off.

=)

02:45 am: random
You've been a bad taliban!

03:22 am: ahh, sleep
I spent the vast majority of this weekend sleeping. Things feel so much better after doing so.

10:01 pm: things get better with sleep
There's lots of stuff on my mind, though other things need to be taken care of first, mainly with respect to school. Gotta get through this week, next week which is dead week, then finals.

Lots of things will change. Change a great deal.

05:30 pm: WEEEEEE
OMG, WEEEE!!!!!

02:53 am: foo blah
The end of the semester is coming. People are starting to get more and more stressed out.

Maybe it's good to have professors that suck. If I become a professor one day, mental note to not be like them.

I get lots of traffic on my gallery from various forums, myspace, and google image searches (GIS). Recently, GIS has been returning hits to my photoblog. Sure enough, googling for match on fire brings up 2 hits on the first page. Sweet.

This semester really needs to end. We're getting close. It's incredible how empty this apartment is. I might as well not have roommates for all practical purposes.

On a similar note, you can't remove something without something filling the void. I mean this on many levels. The thing that just reminded me is my music. After listening to the same songs over and over, they started to get old and I'll delete them. More music needs to come take its place. There can't be a void.

There's a couple areas in my life that feel pretty empty.

Some of the smaller things in life are working out pretty well though. So that's good.

I'm so tired.. sleep time =\

11:54 pm: macro time
After heading over to Rocky Mountain last night w/ some of the coolest people on the planet, I headed over to Relay for Life and shot there for a bit and turned in the fundraising money we raised. We left around 1:30, well before the 6am finish the event was supposed to end. I handed out the rest of my business cards in my wallet. It's so nice having those, though I need to order some that are more professional now.

I slept in 'till 3pm this afternoon which was awesome. I needed that... Today was spent doing nothing particularly important. Just eating some, shooting some photos, watching a movie or two, etc. Dave, Cyrus, Neil, and Aaron Turcott showed up for a bit tonight which was awesome.

When I was shooting this afternoon, I focused on getting specific compositions of ladybugs. The thing is that the working distance is so incredibly small that I scare them and they run away. I shot with the 100mm naked and I felt like I was a mile away. 1:1 isn't close enough though.

Anyways, here's a few shots I managed to get today.

I love the red ladybug against the green leaf here:


This ladybug was curled up inside a flower petal for shade:


This little dude would sit perfectly still for me which was awesome since it gave me time to carefully focus my shot. I shot a bunch while trying to focus on his "fangs". I like how you can see the hair in his compound eyes and the pollen on his back:


This dead ant was being carried by another ant. I scared off the live ant since I was too close and managed to get a shot of this ant before the wind blew it away. Seeing the photo on the computer made me sad: