Dr. Eric's Blog

The Jewish New Year

The year 5769!
A long time if you ask me....that being said...this holiday holds and important trinity that, even if you are not Jewish, you may want to institute in your life.

1.G-d's sovereignty
2.G-d's rememberence
3.Redemption

This is a time for self-examination and renewal!
So how does all this work?

Well, first it is a time to consider who you have been in the previous year and if you are living up to your highest good.

Second to ask for forgiveness for any transgressions you may have committed.
Third, a fresh start.

What if you brought a little bit of the Jewish New Year into your life every day.
Every day, a chance for receive and give forgiveness, a chance to see if you are living up to your highest good and a chance to start fresh!

Shana Tova!

I am finally in vogue!

Yes, it's true, I have finally come into vogue.  For more years than I care to talk about, I have been asserting  the concept of realistic spirituality.  By my very nature I am a practical man and while I consider myself very "spiritual" I have learned, painfully at times, the concepts of discipline, concentration, submission, structure and have discovered the freedom with in them.

We are all beings of power, love, divinity and wisdom.  May we all turn our attention inward first and contact those aspects of being and then and only then take action!

Many blessings,
Dr. Eric

Suzi Orman blasts Americans for not listening to her in the first place!

During the Oprah show the other day Suzi Orman blasted a couple who are in too much debt and need to sell their house.

The "I told you so session "was amazing to watch.  Suzi, of course, blamed the victim.  You should know better, be smarter and made wiser decisions.  Sure Suzi, hind sight is 20/20 and while all your advice was right on the money, no pun intended, you really don't understand the problem.  We can only be responsible for what we are aware of.  Just because someone tells you something does not mean one becomes aware. 

Fear and greed are very powerful emotional forces that get people to act and often act in ways that are not really even  aligned with their values in the first place.

It is not just about doing the right thing at the right time.  This is a time for all of us to wake up from the trance we are in, the one supported not just by the people but by our government, by the media etc...their has been a great deal of money, time and energy put into keeping the people entranced. 

Are we ultimately responsible for waking up.....of course..the Buddha said that 2500 years ago.

But let's really wake up from the trance that we have been in and realize that money does not make us safe, money does not make us happy, money does not fill our hearts and minds.  This is also true of things.  Things don't make us happy, safe or fill our hearts either.

It is time to STOP worshiping money, it is time to turn our attention inward and ok..upward.  It is time to put our faith in something bigger than all of us.  There is an old Jewish saying, " A shroud  has no pockets!"

Let me clarify here.  It is essential to respect money, understand money, appreciate money and also to know money's place. 

The opportunity is clear.  Lets all take advantage of it and begin our journey of sobriety and clarity.

Working with your mind

To begin with, let me define our terms:
The body and brain are the mind, and yet it is greater and different than the sum of it's parts.

As we begin to walk down the path of self-cultivation and discovery of the true self we must begin to understand that our perception of reality is not reality itself.  That our minds our filled with thoughts, our body's filled with feelings and that these two, in a constant feedback loop, result in a relationship with our world and at the same time create the world that we see.   

That we are so identified with our own thoughts, perceptions an beliefs and that this very filter blocks our ability to see truth.

This powerful identification, is often called the conditioned mind or in eastern psychology the ego.

All trouble in the world begins with our own mind and we are all responsible for cleaning it up!

Recession proof your mind!

Yes the economy is all over the place and yes the market is down and yes we live in challenging times.
That being said, it is not the recession we need to worry about or even do something about if we don't recession proof our mind.

Our battles are not out there somewhere they are right here with our own hearts and minds.  Our job is to ultimately mind our own business and rectify our hearts and minds.  Only then will we make enlightened choices with true wisdom.

This is a time for reflection, contemplation and prayer only then can we defeat the egoic mind and be recession proof!

Many blessings to you!

Hell in a hand basket

When the world is going to hell in a hand basket, what can one do?
We have been led by our own fear, our own greed, and our own desire for power.

The Buddhists say that the true mind is a mind of radiance. 

Our world situation reflects our conditioned mind and not our true mind.

My prayer is that we all return to our true mind.  The mind of crystal clear clarity.  That we are released from our conditioned mind and free to see and act in accordance with our true mind.

Many blessings to you!

The Pledge of Allegiance

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Written by he Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a baptist minister and christian socialist, Francis Bellamy.

I can remember as a kid in school reciting the words and not really knowing what it meant.

I want to want to recite these words again as an adult and mean them, believe them and live them.

How can we move closer to an America that we can all be proud of?
What needs to happen?
What changes really need to take place?

Dirty politics, yet again with McCain

I am not proud to be an American and I wish that was not the truth.  I want to be proud of my country and the leadership....

Here is more crap that just makes me feel so ashamed.

9/11

When I woke up this morning, I realized that this was yet another anniversary of 9/11.  It is my custom, in the morning to spend some time in reflection. 

It was a beautiful day in NYC that day.  The sky was just amazing and the sunlight was just beautiful.
I was sitting in my office on 23rd street when the phone rang.  It was my friend Marc.  "We are at war" he said.  Turn on the TV.  I did and there it was.  The twin towers with smoke billowing up into the sky.

I was stunned.  As the day went on, an assortment of emotions and concerns went through my heart and my mind. 

It was a day that I will never forget.

Where were you on September 11th 2001?