What if we forgot everything?

What if you forgot everything?

Yes, you woke up this morning and it was all gone. I mean everything was forgotten. How would you feel and what would you think? You would not have anything to remember, no past and no future. In fact, you would not even have a sense of time.

If we forgot everything, how would we know anything had happened or was about to happen? So, we would have no sense of waiting for something to happen. Not even the awareness of how long it has been since we had the awareness to time. It is all gone.




What about your family, friends and love ones? What about your enemies and foes? They would all appear the same. With no memory, how would you know who was your friend or foe? In fact, when you looked in the mirror you might see a stranger? Perhaps you might think everyone was you.


What would it really be like to forget it all? If only for a moment, just for one moment and then returned to all the memories that define you.

Perhaps it would just be like it is now. We cannot remember what we have forgotten! All would appear normal and correct. We have forgotten everything and no longer remember who we were.

Steve Oliver
June 2011

Dialling up Success and Happiness

Dialling up Success and Happiness

Is there a specific frequency or internal combination that determines our level of success and happiness? Why do some people seem to be happy and successful most of the time? Do they know the number or combination for personal happiness and success?

Can you recall the times when you were truly happy?  During those times of happiness did success come easy?  Did success make you happy? At other times, did failure make you feel sad?  Perhaps your un-happiness helped to determine your eventual failures...?  Yes, it does sound like the chicken or the egg dilemma. Which came first; your happiness or your success..?  Perhaps happiness and success are not really related.

So, could there be a specific combination of internal things that creates our happiness?  Is there a special “happiness” combination, a frequency or a feeling?  Do those happy people have a specific “feeling” that defines how to create happiness?  Could they be just “feeling” their way to success and happiness?

If we understood that “successful feeling” then we could just dial up that feeling whenever we wanted success and happiness.  Successful people are quoted as saying “They can create success!”.  Many self development books state that success comes from within.  Athletes often state that they can generate a winning “feeling”.

OK, so how can we get this winning feeling?  Are there specific rules and guidelines?  Or do we each have to discover our personal success combination?  If we do not have this ability to create success and happiness then how can we learn?  What would be the first step to achieving this ability?

So let’s start with becoming more aware of our selves. This sounds like a great place to begin the journey.  But there must be more...

Perhaps a quote from The Buddha teaching the Four Noble Truths, Sanskrit manuscript. Nālandā, Bihar, India.

Here are the first three translated for our North American ways :

1. Some times we get what we do not want and suffer
2. Some times we do not get what we want and suffer
3. Some times we get what we want then it goes away and we suffer

Steve Oliver

January 2011

What is in a Thought?

What is in a Thought?

What is in a thought? Have you ever wondered what a thought was made out of? We have these things called thoughts all the time. When we are talking, resting and working we may have thoughts. So what are these things called thoughts? Some thoughts make us happy and some make us sad. Some thoughts motivate us to take action and still others may cause us to procrastinate.

Scientist can measure our mental activity when we are thinking. Some measurements show the electrical activity changes while other research has shown the blood flow patterns associated with the thinking process. Then there is the more recent research that shows significant chemical activity changes take place when we are thinking. Scientist have mapped thousands of specialized chemicals generated in and around the brain when we are thinking.

We can recognize when we are thinking and identify when we are being quite. In fact, we have the ability to watch ourselves having a thought! The actual activity of thinking can be observed as if someone else was having our thoughts. Meditation can be used to enhance our ability to control our thoughts. It has been said that our thoughts are the only thing we can control. We can choose to think about anything we want.

How about this? Do we have thoughts when we are not consciences? What are we doing when are not have any thoughts? Are there ways of thinking that are more powerful or more desirable the other methods of thinking? What is the relationship between our senses and our thoughts?

Some of our thoughts are memories of the past, some thoughts are about the future and yet others contemplate our current experiences. The mind has the ability to think about the past, present and future in an elegant and fluid mix of images, sounds, textures and with all of our senses. Can you recall the Christmas mornings with the smell of your mother’s turkey cooking. Recall that feeling of getting your first childhood kiss. Or what will you new car look like? How will you feel when you receive that award?

Is there any limit to our ability to contemplate our reality?

What are our thoughts made out of? Where do our thoughts come from and where do they go? And.. Does it matter? Perhaps the answers to these questions do not matter. Perhaps by definition a thought cannot be held, measured or in any meaningful way be contained. Hey we do not question the act of sight; so why should we question the act of thinking. Thinking may be our six sense!  Perhaps thinking is our way of "feeling" or "sensing" our reality.

What do you think?

Steve Oliver
June 2010