-Frannie Rose

When we speak about being, we speak about freedom. 
Freedom to be, to live, to choose over and over again, the same or different options in your life. 
No thing is as powerful as to make a free choice based only upon feelings
of love, compassion and goodness that freely flow from Essence.

Most of us find this most difficult to fathom –
“Make a choice based upon only one’s feelings? Why doesn’t mind play a role?  Isn’t it selfish not to take into consideration the feelings of another?  Shouldn’t we be thinking of others before ourselves?”

From a spiritual standpoint, anything that comes from our Essence is beautiful,
 to be shared with care and love.  The honesty of loving freely is refreshing. 
The integrity in pure goodness bypasses conflict between ego and Essence. 

There is only pure goodness emitted from the true core of being, your heart connection to God,
your inner Essence.  What do we usually do?  We make our decisions solely upon mind stuff.
Much of our essential goodness, freedom to be and liberation of choice are elusively hidden
under the heavy weight of the mind.

What are like boulders that lie on our paths? 
The most impeding of all obstacles is judgment. 
Judgment restricts us, keeping us from going deep into heart where goodness and love reside freely.
Become conscious of three pesky ways of judgment that interfere in the freedom to be: 
Judgment of one’s self, judgment of others, and judgment by others.

Look at your life situations.  How many of your decisions are made to please others? 
How many are made due to anticipation of another’s judgment and fearing bad thoughts of you?
Which of your decisions reflect an “old judge” from your past who haunts you
and conditions you until this very day?  And how hard are you on your own self
with the decisions you make?  How much second-guessing do you do?

If you know well who you are beneath the shell of ego that is cracking slowly,
you can know the intentions beneath your actions are always to do the right thing, to be good,
and kind and compassionate.  There is no doubt that if you did not have the judgment
of another to contend with, you could see this more clearly and feel your own integrity. 
But with the presence of judgment integrity is compromised. 
Simply, truth becomes elusive when decision making is clouded by judgment. 
The heart is elusive when mind takes over.
Solutions become more difficult because you are bound by fear.

Look at your life situations. 
Is it possible that much of the space in your life is filled with fear of judgment? 
“What will my sister say if I tell her how I really feel? How could I live with myself if I was that selfish?  What got into Sarah yesterday when she told her husband she wished to be free?” 
Judgment!  All different shades of judgment!  No freedom to be.

We have been conditioned all our lives to be untrue to our inner Essence, 
taught not to listen to our hearts and to be more conscious of what other people think.
Haven’t we stopped being true to our hearts by listening to our minds?

We have been taught to cover our feelings and hearts to protect them,
under the premise that our hearts need protection from our minds. 
So untrue! 
Our minds and egos are protecting themselves. 
Your heart is your greatest strength!

From this present moment on, take a moment to reflect
before you act on what you think you feel in a present moment. 
Feel and be the knowing of the feelings.
Putting aside ego or sense of self, let go of judgment – yours or another’s.  Instead, use the basic love, goodness and kindness inside you. 

Make your choices from your heart with integrity and watch your heart blossom with love!

April 2008 Teaching
The Separation of Mind From Heart
Frannie Rose

            
Did you ever go into a life situation with good intentions from heart, and come away from it hurt, angry and confused?  What does this chaos mean?  And what if anything can be done about it?

     Often chaos results from a conflict between Essence (heart) and mind (thought/ego).  One goes into a situation with feelings from heart, to create goodness and peace between your Self and another human being.  When speaking from one heart to another, the goodness and peace flows from your Essence.  But the other person is in a place of mind.  They cannot feel their heart.  And so they create a story from their mind around your feeling – a story very specific to them and their past events.  And they make that story part of their perception of the reason why you are stating the feelings you speak of.

    
From there, you hear or sense there is more that the other person has attached to your initial communication.  Your mind picks up on the other's sense of self-inflating (ego).  You do not know why.  But it appears a drama is unfolding.  You came in with a good intention – to create peace, and your co-worker appears to be angry.  Her angry feelings originating with feelings of pain from a story she created from her mind’s perception of your intention.

    
Before you realize it, you too are in mind.  You are trying to understand her piece of truth, and in doing so; it pushes your own pain from past similar experiences and your buttons.  Your mind begins creating a story around her story.  You try to guess her intentions, and you go with the flow of her angry feelings and inflated sense of self.  Your own sense of self spirals downward.  You begin to feel as if you shouldn’t have begun the discussion.  What’s more, this human being seems to have real anger and hurt about you.  What could you ever have done to create such feelings?  How could this be such a misunderstanding?

    
From there, your heart gets pushed down underneath by your mind.  Your mind rises to the top.  Your ego springs back and wants to achieve its sense of self – to rise to the top of the argument in full armor – wearing all its colors proudly.  It’s your turn to prove that you are somebody worth respecting, as your ego continues to create this story around her story.  You think you know her intentions and they were to hurt you.  You are farther now from the peace of your original intention than you have ever been.

     
You leave the situation thinking and feeling chaos.  You both agreed to disagree.  Pieces of torn egos are found everywhere in the dust.  You walk away totally confused.  What was that all about?  You sit for a while tossing and turning all possible ideas around in your mind.  You are in mind and deep thought – but the more thought, the more confusion, because your heart is deeply covered up by mind, thought and ego - it sits unheard deep within you.

     What do you do with this confusion and chaos?  How do you respond when a human being comes through your life like a storm brushing your heart aside and blowing around everything in sight?

     You rest.  You rest your mind as you would rest your body if you were sick with the flu.  You rest your mind, and you rest your heart.  You allow the mud to settle, the debris from the storm to be seen, so that in days to come you can pick up what remains – the old branches that blew off the trees, the rocks that have been misplaced, and the other rubble - to put them back into the places where they belong.

    
You try to be silent, and go deeply within.  You find a sense of awareness of the World of Essence, beauty and love slowly letting go of mind.  You let things rest inside of you – you do nothing.  You do not try to make things better, and you do not attempt to confront the individual.  You allow the mud to settle in order to feel where things really are.

     What was your original intention?  It was one of heart, to create peace.  And where did that intention go?  It was covered up by the story that the mind of your co-worker created around her perception of what you were trying to say.

     Revisit your initial intention and begin again from there.  Let go of all the stories because they are just that – stories that the mind created to cover up feelings.  Go with the feelings as they are who you are and they are what you came that day to say.

    
The stories our minds create around another’s intention can be so destructive and thick that we cannot find our way back to our heart. Often, they have nothing to do with the other person at all.  They are based upon our piece of truth:  past conditioning, past similar events and their outcomes, people from the past who have wronged us and righted us, and our own personal conditioned beliefs. They almost always have nothing to do with the original intention of heart.

     What does this really mean?  It means that we cannot allow our minds to control our communication from heart to heart with another individual.  It becomes an obstacle- a barrier between hearts.  When you speak to someone from heart, ask him or her their feelings and not their thoughts.  Ask them to tell you how they feel about what you said.  Be aware when they begin to use words like, “I think” and But” which indicate a switch into mind.  Try to bring them back to heart.  For when communication flows from heart to heart, it flows freely without barriers.  It feels beautiful and glides easily.

    
Learn to know the difference between speaking from heart or Essence, and speaking from mind.  There are times to speak from mind, when you are being asked a question about thought.  But when you speak to another from heart, or you sense that they speak to you from heart – stop for moment.  Put mind aside and feel.  Then slowly say your feelings in terms of your Self.  Do not speak for another’s feelings unless you are repeating back what you felt you heart them say.  Do not presume feelings ever.  For presuming or assuming is of mind – it is coming up with a conclusion based upon a past event.  This "now" is a now event and not a past event and in truth may manifest in any of infinite numbers of possibilities.

    
Essence-to-Essence communication is a thing of beauty.  It is a communication between three as one: One communicator to another with God ever present around you.

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March 2008 Teaching:
"The Prisons We Create"

Do You want Prisons or Freedom?

 1.      The human mind
because of its comfort in routine,
removes the infinite choices we can make
from the options open to us in the world.  

 2. The human mind fears the unknown. 
It sees the unknown as bad things that can happen.
Therefore our minds work tediously to create a comfortable routine with a more definitive outcome. 
The comfort routine we select then becomes habit to us.
This is an illusion. 
We alone do not create outcome. 
There is the element of Grace that affects every outcome. 

3.      We allow our habits to dictate and restrict what we do,
restricting how we see the world,
restricting how we see our choices,
how we see our options,
and how we see our life.

 4.       Are you conscious of the choices you can make in this exact moment? 
Do you realize the infinite possibilities of this present moment? 
Look at the infinite choices before you right now. 
You can do what you have always done,
or you can do one of the infinite things of your choosing. 
Can you list the things you might do at this moment that you have never thought of before?

5.      Habit is just that, habit. 
Our habits are based upon the routine that our minds created for ourselves
at some time long ago in the past. 
Since then you have grown,
but have you shined a light on the fact that you have grown out of many of your habits?
Habits can easily be broken. 
But only if you see the infinite possibilities for things you can do in their place.

6.      Habits create illusionary predictable outcomes. 
We stick to our habits because we think that the outcome will always be the same.
 These known outcomes are only based upon possible outcomes that our mind has already experienced.  
Our minds are not aware of outcomes that have not been taught to us. 
Minds can be wrong. 
We dont know all possible outcomes.
Outcomes can change. 
We do not have absolute control.

 7.      We try to control outcomes because we fear the unknown. 
But why do we choose to fear what we do not know? 
If there are infinite possibilities out there in our world, there are infinite good possibilities too!
Go within and ask yourself, why do you choose fear?

8.      Everything that exists in our world has infinite possibilities
and infinite variables that can affect their outcome and existence. 
We have used science to uncover predictability and provide illusionary comfort
for the unknowns we face and scary life situations.
Yet experiments are done in a vacuum.  Experiments are controlled. 
Life is not.

 9.      Be the knowing of the how and why we use science.
We are attempting to predict the outcome of situations – so we no longer have to fear a bad outcome. 
This we do to maintain our comfort - to know the future. 
Can we really predict outcome with certainty?

  10.  Why do we gain comfort from restricting ourSelves by routines and habits? 
Why don’t we gain comfort from the space in knowing there are infinite good possibilities. 
Why don't we make this choice instead?

11.  When did we learn to value predictability over the adventure of possibility?

 12.  If we can make peace with the fact that there are no ironclad answers, 
there is not one way to do things,
and that beautiful colors lay between the black and the white –
perhaps we can break from the restricting prisons of our routines
and begin to see the world with the freedom of vision that God gave us?

  Allow yourself to think in terms of infinite possibilities and you will no longer feel trapped
in your life situations or with your life choices.

xxxxxxx


February 2008 Teaching:
"Life By Way of the Heart"

     We are born as close to God as we can be, a living Essence – a bundle of love. 
Once born to parents who may nurture us and love us, they also use their minds
to teach us right from wrong – good from bad.

     Society tells us how to behave and how we must conform to the rules that have been made for us in order to live together in peace.  Many of us have lived long enough to know that these rules have the intention to create order from the possibilities of chaos, in the home and in the school environment.  But over time as the rules increase in complexity and depth, this living bundle of love becomes an egg yoke covered in shell.  The Essence of who we are becomes lost, deep underneath the structure of the rules of society.  We comply by continuing to follow these rules, without conscious choice, just to follow the rules – Losing the quintessence to follow our hearts.

     As one gets older school begins, and along with school comes more rules on “how to be”.  The mind of a child soon regimented in an eight-hour day of constant bombardment.  A child’s heart is pushed deeply underneath, no longer to appear in the daylight.  Feelings are seldom spoken of, while thought is pervasive.  More thickness is continually added to the covering of shell between the heart and the mind.

     And in current times for school what is valued is of thought, mind and ego.  Time is managed carefully, as students are paraded from one class to another.  Few present moments are spent in between classes to socialize as the psychology of fear makes it more important to keep children out of trouble.  And when the day is finally over and the mind is tired, there is homework to do and physical activities to pursue.  Every free moment in time is filled. 
All the empty space to just be is infused with activity.

     Throughout high school, future thinking is at its peak.  High school becomes a means to an end –
to get into a good college.  Students study for good grades, while they apply to colleges and wait to hear about their futures.  Waiting to find answers, the present moment no longer exists for either parent or child. 
The future is all that matters, rules and structure have given way to future thinking. 
There is no longer a present moment to live in.

    
From there, careers take flight and the future thinking becomes a way of living. 
Each career step made is based upon the mind’s path of where it might lead. 
The present moment again is reduced as a means to an end - a great career path. 
And one is fervently searching for the mind’s way to get there.

    
And what of the heart? 
As it lay underneath the layers and layers of shell that have covered it, it sits paralyzed and dormant. 
And as the emptiness from future thinking begins to give way to loneliness and feelings of being lost, the heart tries hard to speak.  “I have everything I have ever wanted but I feel this emptiness inside me. 
Why do I not feel any sense of gratification from having what I have worked toward my whole life?”
    
If one takes more than a few moments to sit with this question, and really tries to feel the answer, the heart may awaken.  However, most don’t even attempt to listen to its call. 
Yet from within the emptiness a heart is calling and wishing for an answer.  Mind gets in the way – trying to fill the space with things and more things or thoughts to appease it. 
But the space cannot be filled with things – it must sit still and allow the seeds that were planted long ago,
to erupt from the empty soil.

    
You see, it is from within the emptiness and space in your life that seeds can begin to take root and to grow.
And what do new seeds require in order to do this?  They require light to shine on them, water to nurture them and feed them, and space in which to grow.  In a crowded garden with little time to tend the flowers, the weeds soon take over.  In an empty garden with sprouting seeds, light, water and a conscious caretaker, a beautiful garden can grow. 
From the emptiness the heart learns to break through the shell of mind, ego and thought – pulling them down underneath the soil.  Heart erupts as fragrant blossoms in colors that only the imagination held before. 
And from within the heart a new garden grows – one of hope, long ago dreams and desires. 
Flowers that stir the heart and fill the garden with fresh blossoms it has never unveiled in any other season.

     How do we know our hearts' desire?  We let go of thinking about it, and begin to feel about it. 
We create space in our lives for feelings, quiet, and our journey within.
We learn to feel the present moment and live in it – letting go of future outcomes as
outcomes are invariably affected by the element of Grace. 

We observe the thinker. 
We realize that truth changes with every season and in every moment in time
and subject to the eyes that perceive it. 
We allow space for love, hope, faith and God
as they are as much of the garden, as the infinite colors of the blossoms.

    
Thought and mind are the biggest obstacles between us and God.
Deep within our hearts is where our connection to God lies. 
If one is in a place of mind, one cannot be in a place of heart. 
The mind is a tool to be employed, but the heart is the beacon that takes you to God.
The mind leads us by thinking, but the heart leads us by feeling.
We feel the things that speak to us, we feel the present moment,
and we live in presence as much as we can. 

    
Since we were young, we were conditioned and we listened to our minds and not to our hearts.
The results we have achieved are by way of thoughts – our thoughts and other people’s thoughts. 
Thoughts can be wrong. Thoughts cannot fufill your heart.
It is like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Thoughts only fill your mind.
They are empty, without the infinite depths or dimensions of feelings.

    
Success can also be one dimensional without the element of heart.
Our journey begins with the inverse.  It begins with the heart, putting mind aside.

1. Focusing on beauty
2. Focusing on the present moment
3. Focusing on awareness
4. Letting go of outcomes
5. Letting go of judgment of yourself, others or for others
6. Being an ego watcher – breaking the shell of ego
7. Employing your mind, don’t have it employ you.
8. Creating space in your life for the inward journey – pulling out those weeds! Making time for heart
9. Giving your garden light – let God in.
10. Nurturing your garden with water, time to be.

 
Deciding from a place of mind to take the inner journey is the beginning of a path of which there are no words, only feelings.  With each step forward taken, you find wisdom, depth and meaning that you had passed over many times before, when in a place of thought.  But from a place of heart, one begins an adventure of infinite possibilities –
an adventure of hope, love, joy and God. 
It’s a journey that forever changes you
and the direction of your life -
from a mind led journey,
to a journey by way of the heart.

xxxxxxxxxxx 

January 2008 Teaching
TRUTH IS: Honoring Each Human Being's Piece Of Truth

When you are listening to silence, silence exists.  It is, now. Sitting in a room, attending to our senses at any given moment, is an exercise in presence.  While we are practicing it, it is.

   Living in the present moment, each thing that occurs, each process begun, is.  Everything that exists, is. 

  Can we take something intangible and say the same thing about it?  Do intangibles exist?  And if so, what is something like truth?  How about space?  Or God?  Can you say that God is?  Is that a truth for you?

Truth is.... 

Yet when we go to think about it, it becomes a form of thought, or a “thought form.” So it is, with many aspects of our lives. The thought of truth is a thought form, or a concept that comes from thought.  It is a word that can be perceived differently by many diverse people and cultures. It can be a perception – something subjective to each ear it touches.

 
Truth is perceived differently from each set of eyes that fall on it; from each and every angle. A different day or a different hour can change the perception of truth in one set of eyes.

  We unknowingly spend so much time in our lives searching for “truth”.  We learn from the time we are toddlers what is right and what is wrong.  Our mothers taught us truths.  Truth is, if you cry you will be fed.  Truth is, when you coo, your mother smiles at you.  Truth is, the world is big.  Truth is, you want to feel safe.  Truth is, you want and need to be loved.

  Within a single moment, a perception of truth can change.

  Your truth is your piece of a picture in any single now moment .

  It is not in the past, because what was once truth may no longer be true.  It is not in future, as the future has not yet come to be.  It can only be found in the Now.  What is before you now from every sense of being within you, is the only truth you can ever know, the only truth that can be true for you.

  Once being the knowing of this, by seeing truth through your own individual lens of time, of place, vision, and sense, you will come to realize that no one else on Earth can ever know your exact piece of truth.

Pieces of truth are affected by a human beings past experiences, conditioning, thoughts, discipline and family life.  Each human being has an individual past with unique events and relationships that have led them to distinct responses to these situations.  This is why one person can respond differently to a similar situation than another.  Yet, when we view a human being responding in a foreign or unethical way to the way we judge to be right, we are quick to assume they should be responding as we would.

When you go to the place of judgment of another, stop for a moment.  Realize that no matter how well you think you know this person, you do not have their exact piece of truth. Due to infinite possibilities for past conditioning, their own personal histories, and relationships, their truths can never be the same as yours.

Honor the differences between you and another.  Try to avoid expecting someone to respond as you do.  Allow them to be as they are, without judging them harshly when they are not as you expected them to be.

And always remember.....You do not have their piece of truth.  


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