Soulmates

Feng-Shui of Love

I have been interested in Feng-Shui since the year 2000. I met some experts who knew what they were talking about, and some were just reciting what they gathered. Yet, when I started applying some of the principles I learned in 2000 in my home, my own true life path started opening up.

I teach and use energy methods. We are all made up of energy, us and the whole universe. And when we are aware of this fact and use this awareness to understand the dynamics of our lives, our paths unravel just naturally.

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Feng-Shui principles are used to improve the flow of energy in our physical environments, our homes, offices, apartment buildings, gardens, road paths, ponds, etc. As the energy flow and quality of energy improves in these spaces, so does the quality of our lives. I have seen it happen and that is why I would like to suggest you to be aware of it as well. Your life might change, for the better. 
Feng-Shui is not only about spaces. The power of the mind, positive thinking and increasing your personal energy level is an important aspect as well. We are an important part of our environment.

From Feng-Shui expert Lillian Too:
“Music will change the vibrations that surround you. Happy songs lift the spirits like nothing can! Control your moods with music. Make it happy music. In fact it is an excellent idea to make it a rule never to listen to melancholic music. And if you enjoy love songs go for those with a happy ending. Singing the blues is like chanting a negative mantra.”

How about giving uplifting music a try for a week? Who knows what ripple effects this may bring?

Story of Soul Mates

I do not write about soulmates a lot. A lot of people ask me to, however, when the desire to know comes from our ego, we do not benefit much from the information. The intention behind the desire to learn is very important.

Yet, once a year, when a special time comes, I do write about soulmate energy. Around this time of the year, if I feel the need, I share what seems appropriate.
Richard Bach’s “Bridge Across Forever” and Dr. Brian Weiss’s “Only Love Is Real” are two books you can also find in Turkish on the theme of soulmates. Being aware that there is an energy with exactly the same quality as ours with the opposite polarity creates an awareness for the dynamics of living on this earth and life.
For centuries, in literature there are hundreds of famous love stories of probable soulmates. Well, in the teachings of bioenergy, the same concept also exits.

According to Kabbalists, in August, in the month of Av, there is an opportunity to connect with our soulmate energy. And on a special day which can be determined by the moon calendar, it is easiest to make that connection. It is believed to be the day when we are able to connect with the other half of our soul, our unique half, which it is believed of which we got separated at creation.

This year it is the 16th of August in 2008. It is from sunset of August 15th until sunset on August 16th. To set the intention that you are open to unite with your soulmate, energetically and physical if your soulmate is alive.

Most people assume that their soulmate would be of the appropriate gender of their dream partner, or around their age or eligible for a relationship. None of this may be true. You might be a young graduate from college and your soulmate might be the elderly lady who owns a shop in the town you visited for business. You might be living in Inverness in Scotland, and yes your soulmate might be living in a small village in Fethiye. And as likely, you might be born and your soulmate energy might not have.

Are these all for real? There is no way to know for sure. These are what I find to be true from my studies, my personal sessions with various teachers and clients around the world. When these experiences seem to match and also ring true in my heart, I go with that information. As I am studying the topic of soulmates more over the years, I am becoming aware of the knowledge passed on by the ancient traditions.

What to do on that day?

Be your true self. Connecting with the energy of our soul mate does not necessarily mean finding or meeting a new or better partner. It could mean that. However, it also means connecting with an energy that will make us feel complete, content, happy and healthy. This union does not necessarily have to happen on the physical plane. It could, but doesn’t have to.

Will you get to meet your soulmate? Well, maybe you already did. And maybe you will never get the meet him or her in person. However, if you are open to that energy, and you intend to connect on a continuous basis with no strings attached, both you and that person-that energy will feel complete and in union with life, with the world, with the universe.

To Regress

I do astrological & numerology analysis for my clients. People do benefit a lot from learning about the main energies and influences that they are under during their lives and during various parts of their lives. I also do regressions especially through Inverse Wave Therapy if need arises. I do not choose to do regressions for people who just want to wonder around in their past. Maybe the past is available for us to look, yet we are born in a body in this lifetime on this earth. That is what we chose and we are here. I am for improving the quality of our lives here. However, in case of illnesses of various sorts, regressions create a lot of relief and cure.

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A Key, for Life:

Doing what is difficult for us to do.

This gets us out of the box.

For some this might mean keeping quiet, and for some this means talking in front of crowds. This may mean starting singing or simply stopping. Anything and everything you can think of. Doing what is beyond our safe limits brings growth and expansion. Do it. Try it. I do it and I love it. Not to repeat what Mark Twain said, I definitely regretted the things that I have done much less that what I haven’t.

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May your lives always be joyful and in union… and filled with wonderful adventures…

With lots of love,
Zeynep
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Angel of the Week: Harmony
Affirmation of the Week:
“It is important not only to bring about my own transformation but also to assist others.”
From The Kabbalah Centre

Quote of the Week:
“Art doesn’t transform. It just plain forms.”
Roy Lichtenstein

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation of the Week:
“Indigo Child-The New Kids Have Arrived” By Lee Carroll & Jan Tober
This book is available in Turkish under the title: “İndigo Çocuklar – Yeni Çocuklar Geldiler!”.

Childhood Dreams

Some of you might have heard of Professor Randy Pausch’s story and his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University last September. Randy Pausch passed away on July 25th, 2008, but the ripple effects of his lecture, his book “The Last Lecture”, his story will most probably continue to touch many lives.

I am not here to tell about his life, just how he used these circumstances to create a more positive outcome for others and especially for his kids. I am moved by this courageous man.

Randy Pausch, when he learned that he had pancreatic cancer gave a final speech at the university he was working in, Carnegie Mellon University in the US. And he also wrote a book with the aid of Jeffrey Zaslow and managed to complete and publish it before he passed away. His book became a best seller and it has been available in Turkish for about a few months.

One of my teachers, Moshe Abudaram had shown me the record of the lecture at Carnegie Mellon months ago. The title of his lecture was “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams“. Then I watched him on the Oprah Show when he gave an abridged version of his speech. He used the time he had to share and to tell what was closest to his heart. And he made a difference.

…Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams…

Are we aware that once we really did have dreams?

Do we remember how it felt to be a kid?

How would it feel to be like a kid?

Do we allow ourselves to dream?

What do we allow ourselves to think of?

To imagine?

To want?

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When I was a kid, there were a few things that I really wanted. I wanted to write and I wanted to dance. I have been writing since I was 13 or 14. I used to write for our Turkish and English newspapers and magazines when I was in high school. I wrote a lot of poems over the years. And since 2006 I have been writing for a couple of national magazines in Turkey, and of course for the Land of Lights newspaper for the last few years.

I just love writing. Today is a wonderful sunny summer Sunday in Istanbul. As I am writing today, I look out the window and it is wonderful to watch the sea, shining, and the boats that are going up and down the Bosphorous. Yet, I choose to stay, to stay inside and to write. To share what really excites me and what I believe will make or can make your life better.

What really makes me stay inside and on my own in front of the computer?
As for dancing, I never got the chance to learn or even to find much the time to dance. As a kid I remember that I would put a tape that I loved and dance. I would look for times when there was no one home, so that I could do this more freely. When I was at Cornell University, I remember that Friday and Saturday nights, there would be parties and there would be real dancing. I remember that we would dance till the early hours of the morning. It was such a wonderful feeling.

The last such experience I had was in a training called “The Butterfly Effect.” Our trainers Adi, Adir and Yair had created a wonderful atmosphere where all participants had free space to express their feeling with their bodies in the form of a dance. The music kept changing, and so did the dances. There was such joy, freedom and happiness that we all felt and shared.

Since then when I feel like it, I put on a CD that I like, or I turn the radio to a station that I like and I dance. And I each time I feel born anew…

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This is one of the weeks that I believe less is more, and I would like to request one thing from you:
To remember your childhood dreams and to see what you can do to get a taste of what you really wanted then.

Could you give it a try?
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Wish you lots of love and luck.
Zeynep
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Angel of the Week: Power

Affirmation of the Week:“Our soul gives us power to accomplish more that we can imagine.”
From The Kabbalah Centre

Quote of the Week:“I welcome all creatures of the world with grace.”
Hildegard of Bingen

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation of the Week:
“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch
This book is available in Turkish under the title: “Son Konuşma”.

To Have a Story to Tell

I chose an angel card for myself today and the card that came out was “Play”. I find myself with than quality that we call childlike many times. We indeed do forget to play – yes even during a vacation. When did we forget to play? And how?

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I have been playing and watch others playing a different kind of game – The Transformation Game lately. This game is an amazing tool to discover how we act, how we behave and respond to life. I fell in love with this game as a player and then wanted to learn how to facilitate it. That is how my trip to Findhorn got started.

I have been hearing of the Findhorn Foundation and Community in the last couple of years. I have been hearing about it with respect to Spirituality and Ecological Living and Ecological Footprints. I have been attending workshops on Sustainability and we also organized seminars to high school kids in Fethiye on Ecological Foot Prints. However, I learned about the Transformation Game, which was developed in Findhorn, for the first time last year in October. A few months later, the Turkish translation of the game was available in bookstores around the country under the name “Donusum Oyunu.”

Personal development and healing are topics very dear to my heart. I am a life coach and I am aware that we all have our unique ways of learning and digesting information. Some of us like to read, some of us would like to hear the words from a teacher. Some learn better under pressure. And some of us do learn while playing. The Transformation Game is an excellent tool to learn, about ourselves, while playing.

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What would you consider “playing”?
Do you play in life?
Did you play today?

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I have an art studio in Istanbul. For me painting is playing. I lose track of space and time when I paint and I love that feeling. I get a similar feeling when I am reading. The other day I was trying to figure out how and when I started to like reading. I couldn’t. Maybe I should ask my Mom. But I do. I do love reading.

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There is a famous Turkish author who had passed away in 1950s, Sait Faik. He surely is one of my heroes. And I discovered him when I was 13, when I saw my British math teacher reading Sait Faik in Turkish, a book called “Semaver Sarnıç”. First of all, in class he never gave us a clue that he knew Turkish and, now he was reading a book in Turkish. I was to discover this wonderful and very famous story teller in the most unusual way. One of the first things I did after started to live in Fethiye was to order a complete sets of Sait Faik’s books for my library here.

Do you ever get that feeling, the feeling of wanting to read a story again, a section of a book again, and to feel a restlessness that is hard to explain when you cannot seem to find it? I feel like that quite a lot. For that reason, I have a library in all my homes and my offices for the books that I love. And yes I do have various copies of the same books, maybe not of all, but of quite a lot of them. Why do I need to have their presence? Maybe it is to be closer with the energy of the words or of the energy of the authors. I realize that in some of my libraries I have more books on certain topics or more books of certain authors. And they are not related with the location of the library. Makes me wonder about the energy interactions we usually do not think about, but that exit.

Ah, one final note. In Sait Faik’s biography it is written: “Since Sait Faik considered writing his work, he decided to do nothing else.” Quite courageous for the 1930s in Turkey and I am so thankful and grateful to him for just doing that...

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I send you lots of love and may the books that will touch your heart appear on your journey.

Zeynep
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Angel of the Week: Patience

Affirmation of the Week:“My creative powers of imagination and my connection to all-encompassing consciousness show me the way to realize my ideas.”
Gerd Ziegler

Quote of the Week:
“Energy moves in waves. Waves move in patterns. Patterns move in rhythms. The rhythms gave me a way to map the movements of my own psyches as well as the ever-changing state of the universe.”
Gabrielle Roth

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation of the Week:
This week I have different book recommendations in English and Turkish.
In English: “Six Degrees, Our Future on a Hotter Planet” by Mark Lynas
In Turkish: “Semaver Sarnıç” by Sait Faik, with my deepest respect to the memory of this great Turkish story teller. He is one the reasons that I am writing today. May he rest in peace.

What Would Love Do Now?

I have been away from Fethiye almost since December. I came for a few days on and off, but I really missed it and missed my friends here. Still, I have a lot of catching up to do. By the way, currently I am back in Istanbul for a project on Life Coaching. Actually, I came back to Istanbul today with a morning flight. I flew with Pegasus Airlines for the first time. And also I used the Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Istanbul for the first time as well. I am amazed to see that London now has four airports, and having a second one was definitely needed in Istanbul. However, I have a feeling this second airport will turn out to be too small for the city’s growing needs for air travel.

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Well, back to Fethiye. I was talking with some friends about my trip to Japan this year in May. That trip has been like a Tibetian bowl in my life. I can still feel its influence, its vibration in my life. I am also trying to understand why I feel this connected to this country…

What makes us connected to a place?

What makes us feel close to, to like, to love a place, a country, a person?

It is about culture, language, or appearances?

Is it about being similar or different?

What are the underlying factors?

What are the reasons, if any?
…

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Fethiye is a place that I am really drawn to. There are other cities and towns that I have been to tens of times and I do not feel a similar connection with those places.
I also feel a very close connection with Japan, more than many of the countries that I have been to so many times.

Why?

Well, there are different answers:
My bio-energy teacher Moshe Abudaram says that sometimes the land, the energy of the physical land may call a person, to complete what is taking place there. Maybe that is why although distant healing works beautifully in many cases, sometimes healer needs to be physically close to the person in need of the healing.
What does this really mean

This can mean several things. First of all, those of you who might have read “The Celestine Prophecy” by James Redfield know that energies of groups of people come together at certain times at certain places to create a higher energy field. A person’s presence might be needed for the formation of such a circle. A circle of two or many. Second, either the person might need the energy of the land or the land might need the energy of that person. And this could be needed for many different reasons.

Of course, there is also the topic of previous life times. One of my friends is going to the US to attend a workshop by the famous psychiatrist Brian Weiss. I also wanted to go; yet I have been travelling so much in the last few months that I felt I needed stay this time. Brian Weiss is a must read for those who are interested in regressions and hypnotherapy.

There is a lot more happening energetically than we seem to be aware of. Also, to be aware of the energy exchanges that take place between people everyday have a look at James Redfield’s books. Also, the movie of the book “The Celestine Prophecy” is out, by the same name. I really do recommend watching it.

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Neale Donald Walsch in his book “Conversations with God” writes:
“Do what you love to do and nothing else. Make a life. Otherwise that is a dying.”
And there is also a powerful question that he uses and that I also use when things get difficult. And with that question I would like to leave you this week.
The question is: “What would love do now?”
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I wish all of you the best.
With love,
Zeynep

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Angel of the Week: Intention

Affirmation of the Week:
“As I become the right person, I find the right person.”
From The Kabbalah Centre

Quote of the Week:
“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.”
Vita Sackville-West

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation of the Week:
“Ask and It Is Given” by Esther and Jerry Hicks
This book is available in Turkish under the title: “Yeter ki İsteyin!”

Freedom, Is It Just a Boat?

I was on my brother’s boat Freedom a few days ago. It was our first time out in Fethiye in his boat. Cruising to the Şövalye Island from Ece Marina in Fethiye, I found myself thinking about what freedom really is. What was freedom for me? And what is freedom for me now?

For my brother Yaman, his boat brings him the feelings of freedom.

What makes you feel free?
What is really freedom for you?


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Being in Fethiye is freedom for me. Most of the time. Being on an airplane is both freedom and confinement. Being single is both freedom and not. Being rich is both freedom and confinement and so is being poor.
Life is so relative, and so simple and so difficult if we choose to make it so ...

Emotional Freedom Technique - EFT
Some of you might have heard of the Emotional Freedom Technique. It is one of the healing modalities that I am trained in. This system has been developed by an engineer like me, Gary Craig. There certainly is an aspect of freedom related to our emotions. Our experiences, our memories, the meanings that we attach to what we experience constrict us or expand us. During my trainings and in the cases I have worked on, I have seen so many emotional chains lifted that I have respect for this simple, but very effective method. Simple is beautiful. I have seen traumas of near-death experiences, phobias, child abuse, and many more lifted in less than 20 to 30 minutes. Of course, for each person and for each case, the time and effort needed may vary. However, to know that sometimes it can happen so quickly gives me hope.

One of my cousins is a doctor at the Med-American Clinic in Istanbul. He sometimes shares how difficult it is to find ways to help the elderly, especially in the terminal states. They have so much pain, so many health problems, so many issues and most of the time so little hope. Also, use of medications becomes more difficult as they get more fragile with age. I cannot help, but think that complementary therapies can be of help in providing pain relief as well as emotional support. It is comforting that in some hospitals in Istanbul heart yoga is taught to patients with heart surgeries. I know that in most of the cancer hospitals in the US, Reiki and many other complementary techniques are offered to patients if they choose to have such treatments. I have seen such great improvements in the health conditions and the quality of life in the elderly as well as the young that I would like to encourage all of you to learn and use complementary healing techniques to improve your lives.

Is it really possible to heal, to be more healthy, to be more energetic or to have a more positive – a truly positive approach to life? Health is a very delicate subject. It is very difficult to suggest or recommend a certain technique or approach when a person’s life is at stake for example. I believe that is why it is very important to use these techniques as preventive medicine, to keep the immune system up and running. They work. I use them for myself, for my family, for people who consult me. Reiki works. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) works, Jyorei works. Affirmations work. Foot Reflexology works. Flower Remedies work. Bio-energy and IPEC Work. Kinesiology works. I use them and through my own experiences I can say that they work and they work beautifully.

Time may be needed for the results to be scientifically documented and approved. I am happy to see that doctors in Turkey and abroad are trying to provide scientific documentation. The world wide famous Turkish heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz is the author of the award-winning book, Healing from the Heart) says that they are working with bio-energy healers on various microbes in petridishes to be able to document the effectiveness of these treatments scientifically. However, he also mentions in his books and programs that, even though not scientifically proven in the conventional sense, he believes in the support of complementary treatments. I would also like to mention that Dr. Mehmet Oz’s wife Lisa Oz is a Reiki Master.

Gorse and other Flower Remedies...

There were a lot of gorse flowers when I had arrived in Findhorn this June. I knew of Gorse as a Bach Flower Remedy which is very effective in removing depression. Seeing the yellow flowers made me realize how this flower can bring us life energy. In one of his books Japanese Masaru Emoto displays the pictures of water crystals of the Findhorn Flower Essences and one of the pictures of the crystals was of water with the gorse flower. It is quite a beautiful water crystal.

I really do recommend Bach Flower Remedies. They offer excellent support for emotional states. There are Findhorn Flower Remedies as well and the Australian Bush Remedies of Ian White. Currently I am trying some of the Findhorn Flower Remedies. They seem quite good. Flower Remedies work with the energy quality of the flower and there are no known side effects. Only, those with alcohol intake problems and allergies need to check with their doctors to see if and how they can take these remedies, since most of the flower remedies are preserved with a small amount of brandy. In such cases one suggestion is to take these in hot liquids so that the alcohol evaporates. I do recommend you to keep a bottle of the Rescue Remedy of Bach Flower Remedies at hand in your travels. It is very effective and supportive in case of emergencies.

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May your days bring you love, joy and true freedom...
Zeynep
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Affirmation of the Week:“As I accept my fears, they are transformed into love.”
Gerd Ziegler

Quote of the Week:“Magic has often been thought of as the art of making dreams come true; the art of realizing visions. Yet before we can bring birth to the vision … we have to see it.”
Starhawk

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation of the Week:
“Energy Medicine” by Donna Eden
This book is available in Turkish under the title: “Enerjilerle Pratik Şifa”

The Transformation Game

Zeynep Kocasinan is facilitating Transformation Games in Istanbul at Kocasinan Life Coaching and Personal Development Center and also in ROM Center. She is one of the four accrediated facilitators in Turkey

The Tranformation Game has been developed by Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler in Findhorn, Scotland. The Game is wonderful personal growth tool.

For more detailed information:
www.innerlinks.com
www.findhorn.com
www.donusumoyunu.com

From RUMI: Holiday Without Limits

From the great master, the Sufi poet of the 13th century – From Mevlana Celaleddin RUMI:


Holiday Without Limits

Going into battle, we carry no shield.
Playing in concert, unaware
of the beat or the melody.

We have become grains in the ground underfoot,
fold on fold, layers of love, nothing else.

Obliterated, as when the eye medicine
is no longer even a powder.
Then it cures sight.

An accident gradually gets accepted
as the thing that needed to happen.
Sickness melts into health.

There is nothing worse than staying congealed.
Let your liver dissolve into blood.
Let your heart break into such tiny pieces
it cannot be found.

The moon orb wanes.
Then for three days you could say
that there is no moon.

That is the moon that has drawn
so close to the sun,
it is nowhere, and everywhere.

Send us someone who can sing music
for the soul, though we know
such longing cannot rise from a lute
or a tambourine, not from the sun,
or Venus, or any star.

As day comes, give back
the night-fantasy things you stole.
Admit your arrogance as the stars do at dawn.

When the sun goes down, Venus begins bragging,
claiming lights, arguing her loveliness
over the moon’s. Jupiter lifts a gold coin
from his bag. Mars shows his blade
to Saturn. Mercury sits on a high throne
and gives himself successive titles.

That is how it goes in the middle
of the night. Then dawn. Jupiter
is suddenly poor. Mars and Saturn
have no plans. Venus and the moon
run away, broken and terrified.

Then the sun within the sun enters,
and this night-and-day talk
seems a meaningless convention,
the lighting business.

A true holy day for a man or a woman
is the one when they bring themselves
as the sacrifice.

When Shams shone his light from nowhere,
I felt a holiday without limits begin
where once was just a person.


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May your days bring you such holidays of true love.

With love and light,
Z.

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Quote of the Week:
“Create a future from your future, not your past.”

Werner Erhard
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How to Get There?

This week I would like to give you some notes from the famous physiatrist Brian Weiss. His regression therapies have changed the way millions of people look at life, past lives and the journey of the soul. One of my friends will be attending one of his courses at the end of July in the US. Who knows maybe I can make it there as well. The book “Many Lives, Many Masters” by Brian Weiss is a book that I really recommend.

There are so many books, so many methods and techniques and teacher.

Neale Donald Walsch in one of his books says: “The job of the soul, of course, is to cause us to choose the grandeur – to select the best of who you are –without condemning that which you do not select.”

Sometimes I feel as if no words are necessary; and that we will all find our chosen path on our perfectly fine. I know that. Yet, at times I also feel that I need to share whatever I am able to.

This week’s messages are from a doctor. From Brian Weiss:

- The path of our spiritual journey is an inward one, unique to each of us.
- Wise teachers can point the way, but only we can make the journey.
- Regressing to significant childhood events, to infancy, or even to past lives may provide considerable relief and benefit in the present time.
- I know that there is a reason for everything. Perhaps at the moment that an event occurs we have neither the insights nor the foresight to comprehend the reason, but with time and patience it will come to light.
- Most people recite prayers in their churches, synagogues, mosques, or temples, prayers that proclaim the immortality of the soul. Yet after worship is over, they go back into their competitive ruts, practicing greed and manipulation and self-centeredness. These traits retard the progress of the soul.
- I believe strongly that therapists must have open minds.
- The answers are there. We are immortal. We will always be together.
- There was much practical advice along the way: the value of patience and of waiting; the wisdom in the balance of nature; the eradication of fears, especially the fear of death; the need for learning about trust and forgiveness; the importance of learning not to judge others, or to halt anyone’s life; the accumulation and use of intuitive powers; and perhaps most of all, the unshakable knowledge that we are immortal. We are beyond life and death, beyond space and beyond time. We are the gods, and they are us.
- (Through my work) I have become more intuitive, more aware of the hidden, secret parts of my patients, colleagues, and friends. I seem to know a great deal about them, even before I should. My values and life goals have shifted to a more humanistic, less accumulative focus.
- I have begun to meditate, something that, until recently, I thought only Hindus and Californians practiced.
- I still write scientific papers, lecture at professional meetings, and run the Department of Psychiatry. But now I straddle two worlds: the phenomenal world of the five senses, represented by our bodies and physical needs; and the greater world of the nonphysical planes, represented by our souls and spirits. I know that the worlds are connected, that all is energy. Yet they often seem so far apart. My job is to connect the worlds, to carefully and scientifically document their unity.


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May your journeys lead you to true love and sharing.

With love and light,
Z.

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Affirmation of the Week:
“I love exploring the unknown.”
By Angeles Arrien
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Quote of the Week:
“Read every day something no one else is reading. Think every day something no one else is thinking. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”

Christopher Morley
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Suggested Reading:
“What God Wants” By Neale Donald Walsch. The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Tanrı Ne İster?”.

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Burgaz Island, Findhorn, Shambhala and More

This noon I was on a boat with my brother. We went to Burgaz Island in Istanbul for lunch. It was quite a windy and rough weather, but it was also wonderful to watch the waves wash the boat. There were only a few boats out apart from the municipality public catamarans and vapurs, the typical boat that give service in Istanbul.

As we were having lunch at the Barbayani Restaurant, we talked about two books. One of them was by Jack Canfield. The title of the book is “How to Get from Where You are to Where You Want to Be? The 25 Principles of Success.” Although I found the title a little cheesy at the beginning, I need to admit that I really did like the book. I was reading it again on a flight the other day.

Jack Canfield is famous for his part in the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series of books. I like his other books as well. As some of the might remember, he was in the popular movie “The Secret”.

The second book we talked about was “Eckhart Tolle’s Findhorn Retreat”. This is a book with 2 DVD and it is composed of footage from a retreat in Findhorn, Scotland with Eckhart Tolle as you probably have already figured out. Since I will be in Findhorn for a couple of weeks to attend a training, we could not help talking about Eckhart Tolle’s teachings as well as the role Findhorn played in the world both in the spiritual and the environmental sense.


Where is Shambhala?

I was reading a book by Doreen Virtue this week, and I came across a sentence:
“When you have to make a decision between two directions, take the path that brings you closer to your life’s mission.”

Being an engineer and doing engineering and construction work for years, I was expected to be very logical and analytical. And maybe I expected this from myself more than anyone else. As time went by I found myself on another path, and I am pretty happy with the way things were unfolding.

Life gives us quite a number of clues in its own mysterious ways. How? Probably you have your own ways of receiving these messages. James Redfield’s books are also wonderful in creating an awareness. “Celestine Prophecy” is one of my all time favourites. “The Secret of Shambhala” is also a book I like in the series.

Shambhala is also the name of the Buddist Retreat I will be staying at in June. When I am visiting Findhorn, I will be staying at this retreat for a few days.

Shambhala is a Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness". Shambhala is also believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened. I feel that I will find peace and tranquility at the Shambhala Retreat in Findhorn Bay.

Where is Shambhala for you? Could it exit, for you?

From Eckhart Tolle

This week I would like to quote Eckhart Tolle a little. It really fits my mood after a day on the sea and on an island:

- You are the sky. The clouds are what happens, what comes and goes.
- When you are present in this moment, you break the continuity of your story of past and future. Then true intelligence arises, and also love. The only way love can come into your life is not through form, but through that inner spaciousness that is Presence. Love has no form.
- The sun never sets. It is only an appearance due to the observer’s limited perspective. And yet, what a sublime illusion it is.
- Let go of excessive thinking and see how everything changes.
- You don’t solve problems by thinking; you create problems by thinking. The solution always appears when you step out of thinking and become still and absolutely present, even if only for a moment.
- Outer space and inner space are ultimately one.
- It has been said that there are two ways of being unhappy; not getting what you want, and getting what you want.
- When you awaken, nature awakens, too.

The Questions of the Week

Many masters say that questions bring about answers. Therefore here are
The Questions of the Week:
Q1: How many times a day do you use words such as “totally” , “always”, “certainly”, “must”, “never” and “absolutely”?
Q2: When you are closing a conversation do you usually end with a statement or a question?
Q3: What roles does each person in your family play?
Q4: How are the roles in the family interdependent?
Q5: Questions for the self:
a- What are my weaknesses, blind spots, and areas for improvement?
b- What are my strengths, my best qualities?
c- What can I do to be more effective, helpful, or sensitive?
*

May your questions bring you all of the answers that you seek.

May you find you own Shambhala.

With love and light,
Z.

______________________________________________________________________
Affirmation of the Week:
“I am excited about growing and becoming even more of who I am.”
By Angeles Arrien
________________________________________________________________________
Quote of the Week:
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark.
The real tragedy of life is when an adult is afraid of the light.”
Plato
______________________________________________________________________
Suggested Reading:
“The Secret of Shambhala” By James Redfield
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Kehanetlerin Gizemi”.

______________________________________________________________________

Mistakes and Mastery

What makes a teacher great?

As I am doing more and more teaching, I find myself asking this question to myself.
What made my great teachers great? What made the difference?

What made the difference for me?

*-*-*

I believe that what made my teachers special was the desire they created in me to learn and explore. How did they manage to create it?

This is the question I keep on asking myself - How can I create the desire to want to learn in others?

As I am getting older, I am also discovering that being a teacher is becoming a more difficult responsibility.

And I keep on uncovering pieces of this challenging and magical world...

*
I strongly believe that our approach to mistakes makes a big difference in our learning experience and in life. What are your own opinions about mistakes?
I would like to ask you some questions Michael Gelb poses in his book “How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci”:
? What did you learn at school about making mistakes?

? What did you parents teach you about making mistakes?

? What is the biggest mistake you ever made?

? What did you learn from it?

? What mistakes do you repeat?

? What role does the fear of making mistakes play in your daily life, at work and at home?

? Are you more likely to make mistakes of commission or omission?


These are tough questions to ask, and to answer.
The important point with mistakes is: How do we keep on going despite the mistakes?

For example, in the Reiki tradition Reiki teachers are called Reiki Masters. Master is a powerful word – a very strong word. I still find it difficult to use the term “Reiki Master” as I refer to what I do.

Who is a Master? I am not sure if I am certain about what I would prefer it to be. ...

Mastery also seems to be mastering the use of our time. Spending time where our heart belongs seems to make a big difference. Keeping cool and calm at times of change, turbulence and crisis seems to be a common trait of masters as well.
“It is not what you are that is holding you back in life. It’s what you think you’re not.”

“Remember, nothing can stop a person who refuses to be stopped” says Robin Sharma.


*-*-*

Back to now and back to questions that may help us.

My father used to tell me about the time when he broke his arm in elementary school. He had told me that he learned write with his left hand although he was right-handed. To increase our brain activity and to balance it, teachers recommend using both of our hands. Here are some simple exercises that you can do on your own:

- You could turn lights on and off with your non-dominant hand.
- Try drawing circles, squares, triangles with both hands at the same time.
- Try writing your name with your non-dominant hand.
- Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand.

Since left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, exercises like the ones mentioned above are known to balance the mind and the body.

*-*-*

If you would like to inject the taste of mastery, it is not all that difficult. There is a wonderful exercise that I use. It involves remembering something that we do with mastery, something like driving or cooking or writing or swimming, and transferring this energy to all of our actions, to our being.

Close your eyes. See yourself at your mastery of whatever it is that you do very well. It does not matter what the activity is; what matters is that you do it like a master, very well and without effort or tension. Then take this feeling, this energy and visualize it surrounding whatever you would like to master. You will see miraculous results.

Body and Mind
The state of our body also affects our mind. Words sometimes mean more that we realize. Moving our body is known to create flexibility in our thinking and increase our flexibility manoeuvring through life.

3 questions are suggested by Robin Sharma to test our words:
? Are these words truthful?
? Are these words necessary?
? Are these words kind?
He speaks of these 3 questions as the gates that the words that we would like to utter needs to pass through.
*
From Paul Arden:
There is a book that I read on and off. Its name is “Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite”. The author Paul Arden says “Good marks will not secure you an interesting life. Your imagination will.” And in the front cover of the book it says: “This book explains the benefits of making bad decisions. It shows how risk is your security in life. And why unreason is better than reason. It’s about having the confidence to roll the dice.” This book is now also available in Turkish.

Exercise of the Week:
Draw Music
Listen to your favourite song or music. And while listening to this piece of music, draw your feelings, thoughts and impressions with shapes and colours. Try this whenever you feel like it. Write the name of the song or piece and the date for future reference. You may try drawing with the same music at different times.


*-*-*

“The Last Samurai” was a movie that I really like. I watched it again after I came back from Japan. I believe it reflects what Japan really was and a lot about what it still is. There is a lot to be learned from that movie about mastery as well. Am I longing for feelings and times long forgotten?

There is a conversation I really like in this movie.
Preparing for battle:
Samurai Katsumoto asks: “Do you believe a man can change his destiny?”
Nathan Algren acted by Tom Cruise replies:
“…A man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed...”

…

______________________________________________________________________
Affirmation of the Week:
“Joy. Joy. Joy. I lovingly allow joy to flow through my mind and body and experience.”
By Louise L. Hay
________________________________________________________________________
Quote of the Week:
“What you do instead of your work is your real work.”
Caitlin Metthews
______________________________________________________________________
Suggested Reading:
“The Laws of Spirit” By Dan Millman
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Ruhun Yasaları”.

______________________________________________________________________

Konnichiwa from Fethiye

Konnichiwa from Fethiye

Konnichiwa. Hello from Fethiye. It is wonderful to be back home.

My friends know that I really love Fethiye. And I fell in love with Japan on my last trip. Japan is the land of gentle and respectful people and I really felt at home. Japanese people are kind, thoughtful and they are always smiling. This made me realize that how as a nation we do not smile as much anymore. Ok, maybe not that much in Fethiye. However, in Istanbul we forgot to smile and forgot to be respectful to each other.

I met an American couple in Japan, and they were sharing with me how they feel like “barbarians” in Japan. The husband also told me: “But I am also glad that I know that I act like one now.”

I believe that in our roots we Turks know how to be respectful and loving, honest and true. Unfortunately, after seeing Japan for the first time, I am faced with the fact that we forgot some of it. Maybe much less that the so-called western world, but we did forget.

When I used to look at my late father, he was a gentleman true to his word. He would tell me that “the word is the contract”. They were from a generation who took their words seriously and considered words to be enough to seal contracts. They were respectful and honour was very important. They cared and they worked for their country and worked for what they believed to be the benefit of the whole nation. Personal interests were always secondary to them. They were the nameless heroes that made this country grow from its ashes after the wars.

Well, then I am afraid that we forgot some of it ...
We forgot to show respect as we used to. We forgot the power of kind and loving words. We forgot the meaning of patience, tolerance and compassion, especially in the big cities and in the corporate world. We forgot to love, our friends, colleagues, neighbours, unconditionally as we used to.

I believe that it is time to remember. It is time to remember who we truly were and are.

I used to see how my parents were, and I used to think that the times have changed.

Well, it seems that there are parts of the world like Japan where it hasn’t.

This gives me hope.

I felt peacefulness and serenity in Japan, even in the busiest sections of cities.
Fethiye gives me that feeling and I wish to feel it in Istanbul.
People allow each other space in that crowdedness - a space to be, created by caring and respect.

*-*-*

Empowerment is a word that I like a lot. I believe empowerment to be an important concept in life – empowering myself and others. That is what my father taught me in the years that we worked together. He taught me to share the knowledge and to share the joy, accomplishments and success. He taught me the importance of being a team. He was a wonderful teacher.

There is a very good book titled “Empowerment” by John Randolph Price. There is another book by him called “The Angels Within Us” that I also love. His approach is always reminding us of our infinite potential.

Do we empower our family, our children, and our employees? Or do we go on to create dependent beings with low self confidence and motivation? Do we serve our ego or a higher purpose?

Are we living with concepts of limited resources and competition? Or are we living with the awareness that for our every action there is a reaction of similar intention and frequency?

Some say “the bad always wins”; I do not believe it to be so...

*-*-*

There was a conference in Fethiye a couple weeks ago by child psychiatrist Prof. Yankı Yazgan. He is an M.D. and a professor at the Medical School of Marmara University in Istanbul and he is also the author of 10 books on brain development and child and adolescent development. He also writes for the national Akşam Newspaper weekly.

I had met him a couple years ago in a training and had invited him to give a conference in Fethiye. He accepted and he gave a two hour conference to parents and teachers. The title of the conference was: “Being a Parent and an Educator in the Times of Change”.

I would like to share some of my notes from this conference with you this week.

Here is what I gathered from what Yankı Yazgan said:
- The importance of learning mathematics is learning to use the left side of our brain which teaches us problem solving in general. This is a tool beneficial for our whole life.
- Education is not learning things, rather something that gives us the capacity to think differently.
- What we learn is the system we use in the process of learning.
- The connection between the worst parent and the worst child is still the strongest than any other relationship.
- Be aware that children are excellent at reading faces and knowing the truth about the feelings and thoughts of adults.
- Schools are a place where we are taught to figure what happens to us and others when we take an action.
- Schools teach us when to fit in the crowd and when not to. Cheating because many do so is not ok. However, if there is a dress code, everyone also needs to respect it and obey it.
- Took at schools as areas to learn life.
- Intelligence of kids increase with the love given to a child and nourishment.
- Parents sometimes have issues with the teachers. Sometimes this may be the result of bad experiences that the parents had with their own teachers when they were kids. Be aware of the origin of the issues and problems.
- Going to schools, even with the worst grades, gives a general concept of culture and responsibility of fulfilling duties, essential all through life.
- Keep your babies and small kids away from television. Studies show that psychological disorders are directly linked to the number of hours a kid spends in front of the TV.
- The human brain develops the most rapidly between the ages of (0-4) and (12-16).
- Children are usually quite strong psychologically. What breaks a child’s psychology is bad behaviour from people the child loves and trusts and expects to be loved by.
- Teaching a child to lose, to learn to tolerate loss, defeat and failure and to try and to success despite past failures is very important. Teaching a child that life is a process is essential.
- Do not give your kids loads that they are not ready to carry. However, also make sure that you allow them to do the things that they are capable of. Not allowing the kids to carry out responsibilities that they would like to is interference and intervention. Please be careful in that respect.

*-*-*
Michell Cassou says “We live in a time in which most people believe there is not much inside them, only what teachers, parents, and others have out there.”

I believe that we are all here to uncover the potentials that are waiting to be expressed and gather the skills to do that the best.

*-*-*

With lots of love and light from Fethiye ...
Z.


______________________________________________________________________
Affirmation of the Week:
“I am well structured and balanced.”
By Louise L. Hay
________________________________________________________________________
Quote of the Week:
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.”
Thomas Merton

______________________________________________________________________
Suggested Reading:
“The Life You Were Born To Live” By Dan Millman
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Hayatınızın Amacı”.

______________________________________________________________________

With Love from Japan

Here I am in Japan.

Yesterday, on May 4th, I gave my speech in front of about ten thousand people at Meishusama Hall in Misono in Shigaraki Mountains.

Japan is so different and so very familiar in many ways.

I have been on a very busy schedule since we arrived and will keep on travelling to various different locations.

I would like to say many things, however I will probably need to wait to write about them until I come back to Turkey.

I would like to say that there is a lot of love and respect for Turkey.

I send you a picture taken in front of the Meishusama Hall where I gave my speech, and send all of you love and light.

Ah, one more interesting note, yesterday as I was walking to the Hall for the rehearsal of the speech at 7 am with my friends Chikako and Satoru Nakano, I saw an ad for a photography exhibition. If I recall correctly the title of the exhibition was ‘The Hallowed Land of Light’. Some of the pictures in the exhibition were taken in where I was, in Misono in the Shigaraki Mountais. I could not help myself from thinking about our wonderful Land of Lights, the wonderful area of Fethiye and its environs and our Land of Lights newspaper.

In my speech in one section I talked about coincidences and how they show us maybe more than we realize and about the messages that they store for us. I am thankful that they are happening wherever I am around the world.

I wish you all many happy coincidences and miracles.
With love and light from Japan.
Z.

Suggested Reading:
I would like to suggest to google or read about Japan this week, to discover this wonderful land for yourself.

Messages of the Week, from Napoleon Hill

Most of you have probably heard of the famous movie and book The Secret by now. There are also many books out about The Law of Attraction discussed in this book. There are also many books out by the teachers featured in The Secret such as Joe Vitale and Bob Proctor.

Jack Canfield, John Gary, Neale Donald Walsh and Fred Alan Wolf were some of the famous authors who were also featured in the movie The Secret.

There are also teachers from the past that have been credited and not credited in the book. Fewer people know of Napoleon Hill. He had his best seller in 1930 and wrote many books until he passed away in 1970.

Louise L. Hay is a teacher and author not mentioned in the Secret with respect to the law of attraction. However, I believe that with her enormous works on healing with affirmations, with changing our thoughts. “Heal Your Body”, “The Power is Within You”, “You Can Heal Your Life” are some of her great books. By the way, the movie “You Can Heal Your Life” is also out. www.hayhouseradio.com is a wonderful address where you can listen to many authors and teachers live. I recommend checking it out.

I would like to pay a visit to masters of all times and walks of life as much as I can. This week I would like to share messages from Napoleon Hill.

*
Messages from Napoleon Hill:

1. Edison failed 10.000 times before perfecting the incandescent electric light bulb. Don’t worry if you fail once.
2. The average person would have quit at the first failure. That’s why there have been many average men and only one Edison.
3. Drifting, without aim or purpose, is the first cause of failure.
4. Making life “easy” for children usually makes life “hard” for them in adulthood.
5. Most of us don’t mind being told of our faults if the critic is generous enough to mix in a few of our virtues as well.
6. Success requires no explanation; failures must be doctored with alibis.
7. There is a vast difference between failure and temporary defeat.
8. Your real courage shows best in the hour of adversity.
9. There always remains an opportunity to make a new start.
10. Most failures could have been converted into successes if someone had held on another minute or made more effort.
11. Success attracts success and failure attracts failure because of the law of harmonious attraction.
12. The one who tries to get something for nothing generally winds up getting nothing for something.
13. Failure is not a disgrace if you have sincerely done your best.
14. If you don’t know why you failed, you are no wiser than when you began.
15. You never know who your real friends are until adversity overtakes you and you need cooperation.
16. Before opportunity crowns you with great success, it usually tests you mettle through adversity.
17. The most important job is that of learning how to negotiate with others without friction.
18. If you have more enemies than friends, the odds are a thousand to one you have earned them.
19. Your reputation is what people think you are; your character is what you are.
20. Every thought you release becomes a permanent part of your character.
21. Some people resemble a cheap watch, they are not dependable.
22. If you are a shepherd, be the best and you may live to own the flock.
23. Take possession of your own mind, and you may soon make life pay off on your terms.
24. You cannot be entirely free until you are entirely honest with yourself.
25. Would you take a chance on being judged in heaven by the same rules you use to judge your fellow men?
26. Only one thing will attract love. And that is love.

*

As Doreen Virtue says “Keep expecting the best out of life, because you will truly get what you expect.”

With love and light,

Z.


______________________________________________________________________
Affirmation of the Week:
“I am the joy of Life expressing and receiving. I am a Magnet for Miracles.”
By Louise L. Hay
________________________________________________________________________
Quote of the Week:
“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.”
Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled

______________________________________________________________________
Suggested Reading:
“Biology of Belief” By Bruce H. Lipton
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “İnancın Biyolojisi”.

______________________________________________________________________

What Did the Master Say?

I am re-reading some of the books that I have. Some books are worth reading and reading again. “Many Lives, Many Masters” By Brian Weiss brought the topic to my mind.

What is mastery? We seem to associate the word ‘mastery’ either with skills of doing or on the opposite pole with spiritual practices.

In that sense is it something only a few lucky ones can achieve?

Is it an attainable concept or position in life?

What is “Mastery”?

And what does it mean to be a “Master”?

...

I believe that we all have an inner master, a higher intelligence. And also that we all have a connection waiting for us to give us all that we need to have or known. The pass code for that connection is also hidden within, for us to discover.

And there are Masters that lead the way. For me, mastery is more than being a teacher. A master is who lives by the principles he or she teaches...

They lead the way by just being and doing.

*-*-*

I received a message from the Kabbalah Centre that I would like to share:

“It is written that when a great Kabalist was on his death bed, all his students gathered around him and asked, "Master, please tell us, what was the most important thing you did in your life?" The Kabbalist thought for a moment and answered, "What I am doing this very minute."

What does this teach and reinforce for us? Thinking about the past or worrying about the future is a waste of time. It only takes us away from the importance of the moment we're in.

Today, be present in whatever it is you are doing. It is the most important thing you have ever done.

Impossibility is just an illusion of your ego, preventing you from true joy and contentment.

How do you allow your fears and insecurities to control you or limit you so that you don't take risks in your life?

Leaving behind the limitations of the physical world - what is your greatest dream yet unfulfilled? Let go of the critic within and truly dream outside the box today.”

*

Are you present now? Would you like to be?

For a day?
Or for a life time?

*-*-*

I believe that Brian Weiss is a brave Master.

Brain Weiss is a graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School. He is the founding chairman and chairman emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. This special medical doctor is a leading authority in past-life regression therapy.


He may be known as a psychiatrist; to me, he is an amazing healer with an open heart and mind. He is helping thousands remove barriers to reach freedom from fears, peace and happiness. His “Same Souls, Many Bodies” and “Mirrors of Time” are also intriguing books.

His biography is interesting:

“His background and extensive experience in traditional psychotherapy was set on a new course more than a decade ago when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. Astonished and initially skeptical, Weiss's skepticism eroded when his patient began to channel messages from "the space between lives," that contained remarkable revelations about Weiss's family and his dead son. Realizing that past-life regression presented potential as a powerful new therapy method, Weiss went on to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career.”

*

The Masters talking in the book “Many Lives, Many Masters” say interesting things:

“… We are given intuitive power we should follow and not try to resist. …. We are not sent back from each plane with equal powers. Some of us possess powers greater than others, because they have been accrued from other times. Thus people are not all created equal. But eventually we will reach a point where we will all be equal….

… Patience and timing . . . everything comes when it must come. . . . Everything will be clear to you in time. But you must have a chance to digest the knowledge that we have given you already. …

… Energy . . . everything is energy. So much is wasted. The mountains . . . inside the mountain it is quiet; it is calm at the center. But on the outside is where the trouble lies. Humans can only see the outside, but you can go much deeper. You have to see the volcano. To do it you have to go deep inside. …

… You were correct in assuming this is the proper treatment for those in the physical state. You must eradicate the fears from their minds. It is a waste of energy when fear is present. It stifles them from fulfilling what they were sent here to fulfill. Take your cues from your surroundings. ...

… To be in physical state is abnormal. When you are in spiritual state, that is natural to you …”

*

Brian Weiss says “Realize that life is more than meets the eye. Life goes beyond our five senses.”

*-*-*


‘Come to the edge,” he said.
‘We can’t, Master, we’re scared.’
‘Come to the edge,’, he said.
‘We can’t, Master, we’re scared.’
‘Come to the edge,’ he said.
They came.
He pushed them…
They flew.

*-*-*

My father was a master in solving problems and manifesting. He was a master as an engineer. Although he chose to leave his post in this lifetime, he will remain to be my Master.

With all my love and gratitude to all of my Masters in this life and beyond...
Z.


______________________________________________________________________
Affirmation of the Week:
“I now follow my heart. I am open, and ready to go wherever it may lead me.”
By G. Ziegler
________________________________________________________________________
Quote of the Week:
“As you teach so will you learn. If that is true, and it is true indeed, do not forget that what you teach is teaching you.”
From the Course in Miracles
______________________________________________________________________
Suggested Reading:
“Many Lives, Many Masters” By Brain L. Weiss, M.D.
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Birçok Yaşam Birçok Üstat”.

Two Roads Diverged, Which One to Take?

Sometimes, talking is too much. Words are too much. Or are they too little?

But what are we to do if that is all that we have at hand?


*

Emotions are more difficult to handle than thoughts. They need and require to be handled with honesty.

I am back in Fethiye for quite a long while. I really missed this city. I feel complete when I am here and feel connected to a different part of my soul that I seem to connect only here.

Then I will be going to Japan for a few weeks. I will be visiting various sites of the Japanese Shumei Foundation mainly in the Osaka, Kyoto and Okayama regions. I feel very close to the Japanese traditions. The Japanese energy healing and balancing technique “Reiki” is one the techniques that I use the most. Reiki is a wonderful energy, gentle, intelligent and strong.

The other Japanese energy technique that I learned this winter is called “Jyorei” It is a technique developed by the founder of the Shumei Foundaiton, Mokichi Okada. Mokichi Okada is also known as Meishusama “Master of Light.” Jyorei is a frequency that supports the purification of the soul, and to create health, prosperity and happiness in our daily lives.

The Shumei Foundation, through supporting energy purification healing technique Jyorei, through supporting natural agriculture and supporting art and increasing the awareness of the importance of beauty in our lives, wants to help create a peaceful and better world. The Shumei Foundation is a UN recognised NGO.

*

I am excited about this trip. Naturally I am excited when I am to visit new places.

However, I feel that this will be different. On May 4th, I will have the chance to give a short speech in front of a couple of thousand Japanese people in Misono, at the Meishuhama Hall at the Shigaraki Mountains north of Kyoto.



I am excited not because I will visit this sacred location or talk in front of such a crowd.

It was in a meditation that I heard a voice say “When you go to Kyoto, you will find some missing parts of your soul”...

I feel it to be true. I feel that something new waits for me and I am at a loss for words to describe it.

*

What to do when I am at a loss for words?

Then I turn to poetry.

I used to write poems; much more that I do now.

I was not that fond of prose. I loved poems.


*

I love Robert Frost’s poems. I think I read them first when I was in 8th or 9th grade.

In my freshman year in college my best friend’s sister gave me a book by M. Scott Peck, “The Road Less Travelled”. This was during the Thanksgiving holiday in 1988 in Boston. Looking back I feel that my journey might have begun with that book Renin game me. I was impressed and happy and sad and motivated. It definitely is a timeless book.

Remembering my own travels, I want to share with you Robert Frost’s famous poem of diverging roads. I see that there is a path, and with our choices we move along. I believe that we decide on a path as we plan to come to this world. How we decide to act when we start walking seems to be more difficult.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

….

How do I choose my path?

I cannot help but think that at each step, I am creating my life and destiny. However, I also believe that there is also a best scenario waiting to be discovered.

What to do? I try to take the one road that seems to call me - the one that my heart and soul wants. I believe that when I am able to listen to my mind, my heart and soul in union – then gateways open, even new roads are created. I believe that we are meant to discover our bliss when we are willing to hear.

I believe that– that has made the difference for me.


*-*-*

And I would like to share some inspiration from Eileen Caddy's book “Opening Doors Within”. She is one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. In October 2007 and in February 2008, I had the chance to meet various teachers from Findhorn. This is a community that is trying to make sustainable living possible on this planet. I am also thankful for their efforts and their contribution to Turkey.
From “Opening Doors Within”:

“It is important that there is balance in every situation at all times. You will find when everything you undertake is done under My guidance, there will always be perfect balance. That is why you have to allow life to unfold without trying to force anything, for as you do, nothing can go wrong and nothing can be out of timing. It does not mean that you sit and do nothing, expecting everything to fall into your lap. You have to keep ever alert; you have to keep your consciousness raised; you have to expect the very best; you have to have faith that all is very, very well. You have to wait upon Me in absolute faith and confidence. You have to know without a shadow of a doubt that I AM your constant guide and companion. You have to know that your ways are guided by Me and by Me alone, so that every step you take is firm and sure and everything you do is done in love.”

*-*-*

As Leroy Bornlow said “There are times when silence has the loudest voice”.

May you find your answers in the sweet silence of your soul. Please listen.

May all your paths always be filled with love and light.

Z.


______________________________________________________________________
Affirmation of the Week:
“I am excited about growing and becoming even more of who I am.”
By Angeles Arrien
________________________________________________________________________
Quote of the Week:
“What I am looking for is a blessing that’s not in disguise.”
Kitty O’Neill Collins
______________________________________________________________________
Suggested Reading:
“Tuesdays with Morrie” By Mitch Albom.
This book is one of my favourites of all times. There is also a movie of this book out, with Jack Lemmon as Morrie.
The Turkish translation of the book may be found under the name “Öğretmenim Mori ile Salı Buluşmaları”.

Our Big Transformaiton Game - Life

Last October I was introduced to a wonderful game called The Transformation Game. It is a game developed at Findhorn, in Scotland and I was introduced to it by Ms.Deniz Dinçel. Deniz was in Fethiye last November as a guest of the Fethiye Lions Club to give seminars in some of the high schools in Fethiye. The topic was ecological foot prints and global warming. She is a biologist by training and she is organising the eco-village design and sustainable living workshops with the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Deniz is also one of the current three certified facilitators of The Transformation Game in Turkey.

I was in Ankara in February to attend the second international workshop on Sustainable Living at METU (ODTÜ). Teachers from Findhorn, Scotland and from Torri Superiori Ecovillage in Italy were in Ankara, to share their knowledge and experiences on sustainable living and permaculture. Prof. Dr. Ali Gökmen and Prof. Dr. İnci Gökmen of the Chemistry Department of METU were the hosts of the workshop. I am very grateful for the effort and contributions to the workshop.

Sustainability was discussed from the social and ecological aspects in depth. Of course it is a very broad area; however it was a wonderful experience to share a whole week with like minded people from all around the world and Turkey. There were participants from Portugal, Israel, France and Australia. The instructors were from Turkey, Scotland and Italy. This was a confirmation for me that, in order to find solutions to global problems, we need to get together as citizens of this Earth.

*

When the topic is the welfare of the planet I cannot seem to stop myself.  Maybe what we can do is very little, but we can only do what we can do…

Back toThe Transformation Game… The game has been on sale in the D&R book stores for the last 5-6 months. At least I bought mine last November after Deniz told me that the game was available in Turkish.

This game is a wonderful representation of life. We can start playing the game with an intention about life and in about five to eight hours, we can see how things will turn out or what qualities about ourselves that we need to realize, see, accept or change.

The game gives us a wonderful opportunity for self-discovery and self-awareness, and also the truer and the more sincere we are to the game, the more we benefit. It becomes, it represents a very honest and concentrated version of our life.

We learn and experience possibilities in life, without the permanent effects. After the game, we can choose to take action or not. Hard to explain.

I really recommend experiencing this game. Do not be fooled by the word “game”. The Transformation Game gives us an opportunity to learn, to grown to live the life that we desire, or whatever we truly desire.

*-*-*

I was reading Neale Donald Walsch - again. My brother Yaman has been reading his books for the first time in the last few months and has been sharing with me his ideas about the books. I believe that Mr. Walsch has started a silent revolution for a happier world over a decade ago. I find his words sincere and from the heart. It has been maybe over four years since I listened to him in Istanbul. His approach to life and towards God could be worth listening to.

This week I would like to share some lines from his famous book series “Conversations with God”. So what could God be telling to us? Here it goes:

 You don’t have a clear focus; you’re not really sure what’s true for you. And the universe is just a big Xerox machine. It simply produces multiple copies of your thoughts. Now there’s only one way to change all that. You have to change your thought about it.

 Every prayer – every thought, every feeling, every statement – is creative. To the extent that it is fervently held as truth, to that degree will it be made manifest in your experience.


 We dare not solve all the problems, or there will be nothing left for us to do.

 Worry is the activity of a mind which does not understand its connection with God.

 Your perception of ultimate reality is more limited that you thought, and Truth is more unlimited than you can imagine.

 No one who has attained mastery is dull. Unusual, perhaps. Extraordinary, perhaps. But never dull.

 A true Master is not the one with the most students, but one who creates the most Masters.

 Your ideas about Right and Wrong are just that – ideas. They are the thoughts which form the shape and create the substance of Who You Are. There would be only one reason to change any of these; only one purpose in making alteration; if you are not happy with who you are.

 You have come here to work out an individual plan for your own salvation. Yet salvation does not mean saving yourself from the snares of the devil. You are saving yourself from the oblivion of non-realization.

 Why not simply acknowledge the truth when you hear it, and move towards it?

 You are not on this planet to produce anything with your body. You are on this planet to produce something with your soul. Your body is simply and merely the tool of your soul.

 The more you are, the more you can become, and the more you can become, the more you can yet be.

 There is no coincidence, and nothing happens “by accident.”

 You misunderstand your power. I tell you this: Your life proceeds out of you intentions for it.

 I talk to everyone. All the time. The question is not to whom do I talk, but who listens?

 A true teacher is not the one with the most knowledge, but one who causes the most others to have knowledge.

 Nothing occurs in your life - nothing – which is not first a thought. Thoughts are like magnets, drawing effects to you.

 Be patient. You are gaining wisdom.

 Every human thought, and every human action, is based in either love or fear. There is no other human motivation.

 You must first see yourself as worthy before you can see another as worthy. You must first see yourself as blessed before you can see another as blessed. You must first know Self to be holy before you can acknowledge holiness in another.

 You can know yourself to be generous, but unless you do something which displays generosity, you have nothing but a concept. You can know yourself to be kind, but unless you do someone a kindness, you have nothing but an idea about yourself.

 The soul – your soul – knows all there is to know all the time. There is nothing hidden to it, nothing unknown. Yet knowing is not enough. The soul seeks to experience.

 Treating others with love does not necessarily mean allowing others to do as they wish.

 God asks that you include yourself among those you love.


*-*-*

May your life be what you truly desire.

With love and light,
Z.


Affirmation of the Week:“Peace comes from remembering that only love is real.”
By Doreen Virtue

Quote of the Week:
“Lovers find secret places
Inside this violent world
Where they make transactions
With beauty.”
Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation:“Sincerity and Truth – The Life Story of Meishusama” by Gerard Rohlfing

I thank you Water - I respect you Water - I love you Water

On the way to the contemplation garden in the Cluny Hill campus of The Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, there is a man-made pond. It is a small pond that seems to capture a different kind of energy. Near the pond written on the rocks and pebbles, you can read the words “I thank you Water; I respect you Water; I love you Water” in English and in many other languages. This reminded me of Masaru Emoto’s books.

I have an English copy of “The Secret Life of Water” in Fethiye.

In this book Emoto shares a story when he almost drowned when he was six or seven years old:

* “When I went home and told my mother what has happened, she gave me some advice based on her own ability to swim and her understanding of water. ‘You can float if you just give in,’ she said. She told me that if I let the water lift me instead of trying to resist it, it would pick me up and carry me.”

And Masaru Emoto continues to share. I would like to do the same:

* “... About 70 percent of our bodies are water. This is the case for adults of all races, and it is why people should not be divided by political strategies and ideologies. Just like water, people must always be allowed to flow freely. ... The desire for peace and prayers of love cannot be contained within borders. Differences in skin colour or language are easily overcome when hearts resonate together, creating a new flowing wave ....”
* “When we start to compare our happiness with that of others, we soon start resonating with the hado of unhappiness. As long as we search for happiness from outside, then it’s unlikely that true happiness can ever be found.”
* “The search for happiness is ultimately and simply a search for self. You can go searching for it in distant lands, but you’ll only find it in the palm of your hand.”
* “One treatment suggested for people with cancer is ‘life-purpose treatment.’ By finding a purpose in life –giving speeches, climbing a mountain, laughing – the immune system is revitalized and the cancer often goes into remission. It’s now common knowledge in the medical community that your mind has an enormous impact in your body.”
* “For a business to succeed, it needs to focus on what is selling well, what’s most effective, and what they do best.”
* “ Thank you.
Let’s do it.
I love you.
Beautiful.
Well done. “ Water exposed to these words from beautiful crystals. Make sure that you use these words for yourself and for people and kids you come in contacts with, for an internal health and happiness.
*“The words that make beautiful crystals from the water that flows through your body are the words that fill you with a gentle feeling of peace.”
*“The ability of the spoken word to give life is much more powerful than we can imagine.”
*“Unless we can become one with the unlimited existence, we will never find true happiness.”
* “Many of the problems that we have not even started to solve require careful resolves and bold action. And what will be necessary for us to arrive at solutions? The answer is circulation.”

*-*-*

Masaru Emoto’s story reminded me of a time when I almost drowned when I was seven. I was in the summer swimming school and it was the beginning of my second week. I had learned to swim very quickly and they had moved me up 2 levels to another group in just one week.

Well, I believe that one of my beliefs that advancing rapidly and quickly is not good (even lethal) must have been influenced by what I lived through. That day I almost drowned if it was not for a teacher who realized what was going on and saved me from the bottom of the pool of the school under some platforms set for the students in the pool. I remember after being hit by the feet of some students practicing who did not see me, I remember sinking into the water or let me rephrase – floating with no clear sense of direction, which in Newtonian terms means sinking.

I made it. And I kept on swimming. However, this incident which I remembered in 2004 for the first time after 26-27 years, have been coming to my mind quite often lately. And finally I feel like I know what it wants to say:

There in this swimming school, I was very good. I had learned to swim very well and very quickly. My teachers realized this rapid advancement and they wanted to support me and acknowledge that and took me to a group 2 levels up from my beginning level. So I had started in Group 4 and in one week I was told to join Group 2 with good swimmers.

This is good so far. However, there was one point my teachers missed. I was not experienced. I had learned fast and well and I was able to apply the new knowledge. Yet, when I was by coincidence, by an unthinkable situation of not being seen by students of a lower level practicing the use of their legs in water, when I was under the influence of the waves made by 40-50 kids and under the direct influence of some those legs, I could not protect myself. And of course one thing my teachers might have also missed, I was near sighted and I was not able to see and realize that these kids were about the start to practice as I was getting out of the pool.

Many of my friends know that I like being well prepared, really well prepared. I do not like accidents and I do not like being in circumstances I am not very qualified at. People many times tell me to do things because I am very good at it; And I usually can find many excuses that I need to more of this and more of that to be qualified. When I feel ready, I am successful; but it takes time for me to accept my competence. I believe, I strongly believe, that this drowning experience has some effect.

I do not remember the name of the teacher who saved me. I only remember that I later learned that he was a friend of my piano teacher at the time, a friend of Faris Akarsu. I also remember that teacher in his wet clothes; he must have jumped into the pool with his clothes on.

... Just a short event that took place in a summer some 31 years ago. Which I almost totally forgot and of which I was reminded slowly...

*

I would like to remind parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters - be careful in the sea and the swimming pools. Make sure that your kids, relatives and friends know how to swim well and please keep a close eye on the kids.

At Cornell University, the university that I went to in Ithaca, New York, it was compulsory to know how to swim in order to graduate. I remember that quite a lot of friends from the USA and all around the world learned to swim after they started college. They had to – in order to graduate. If you do not know how to swim, how about starting to learn this summer? For yourself and for the ones you love.


With lots of light and love,
Zeynep



Affirmation of the Week:
“I am open channel for creative energy. I get rid of clutter and clear the energy around me.”
Gerd Ziegler

Quote of the Week:
“Every decision, even the ones considered wrong give us feelings of peace.”
Rita Mae Brown

Zeynep’s Movie Recommendation of the Week:
“What The Bleep Do We Know!? Down the Rabbit Hole.”
This movie is available in Turkish and also with Turkish subtitles and the Turkish title of the movie is “Biz Ne Biliyoruz ki!? Tavşan Deliği“.

Honest to Whom?

I am back in Fethiye. On the way from the Dalaman Airport to Fethiye, in the taxi I was talking to my mother. I was telling her about some of my experiences at the Findhorn Ecovillage which is about 45 minutes driving distance to Inverness in Northern Scotland.

I had been meeting teachers from Findhorn since last October, and finally had the chance to go up there for a couple of weeks. My main focus was to attend The Transformation Game Facilitator’s Training for 2 weeks and to spend some days exploring the Park and the Cluny Hill Campus in Findhorn.

I already miss the fennel tea one of our friends used to prepare for the group. It was quite an intense time of self discovery as well discovering the magic of The Transformation Game. It was an intense training of 14 days.

*

On the day that I arrived at the Cluny Hill Campus there was quite big group from Japan in Findhorn.

Interestingly the room that I was sharing with two ladies (Aneette was from Germany and Aija was from Latvia) was decorated with Japanese posters and paintings which were donated to Findhorn Foundation by another Japanese group a couple of years earlier. I found myself conversing with some of these Japanese visitors in my broken Japanese and in German. Yesterday I received an e-mail from one Japanese friend I met in Findhorn, and the e-mail was in German. J Isn’t it wonderful how international the world has become? I just love it.

Since I was 15 years old, I have been travelling around the world. I have seen quite a number of countries and I also had the chance to travel extensively in Turkey as well. I had the chance to see Steve Jobs, Tracy Chapman and Jon Bon Jovi, as well as Neale Donald Walsh, Steve Rother, Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, and many CEOs, governors, bureaucrats all around the world. I have also seen kids without shoes and proper clothing in the ghettos of Rio de Janerio and in the remote villages in Turkey. I have been with the very rich and famous and with the real poor and forgotten. I believe that this was the gift of life to me. I believe that this is Life’s gift for me.

Wherever I am and wherever I go, I know that we all share the same joys and the same fears, no matter where we live, regardless of the language we speak, regardless of the country we live in. I know it because I saw it, I lived it and I am grateful for it. I have so many friends around the world, and sometime I do forget that we speak different languages. I do forget that sometimes our countries are politically in disagreement or in too much agreement. Through all of these friends, Life is teaching me that we are all the same, we are all one.

You may find all this talk about people all being one big family, we all being one quite cheesy. How can we be, with all the wars and the terror around the world? My life put me in positions where I had friends from Bolivia to Ivory Coast, from Israel to Pakistan, from Ecuador to Latvia, from Japan to South Africa. And I would like to, I love to meet many more. This gives me hope because meeting seemingly different people makes me realize how similar we indeed are. This gives me hope that there is the possibility for us to act together, to make this world a better place for the human race and all living beings.

*

When I was in Findhorn, I also stayed at a Buddhist Retreat Center called Shambhala. My room had a wonderful view of the Findhorn Bay. I was amazed by the tide and how the bay is filled with water and is almost completely dry a couple of times a day.

I realized I did not know much about Buddhism. One night I took a couple of books from Shambhala’s library and read a little. In the Findhorn Community meditation is an important part of daily life. For example, one day I wanted to receive an energy treatment from a Japanese lady who was living in the community temporarily. When I asked her what her fee would be, she just said “tune in and you see what is appropriate”. On one level I know that a proper and just exchange is necessary in all healings; I was also happy to see that when we trust our inner knowledge and trust that everyone is willing to hear and follow that inner knowing, life changes in unimagined ways. I thank Kae-San for her support in my journey.

*

What do I want to say?
I want to say that I love Turkey. I love Istanbul and I really do love Fethiye. But this does not stop me from loving Kyoto or loving Florence (Firenze) or loving Ibiza or Ithaca, New York. I am able to love as much and as wide as I choose. There are no limitations and there is no need for any limitations.

I want to say that it is not being naive when I feel like loving everyone I meet and feel that they have a special place in my heart. I do not want to miss the opportunities of getting to know someone. I am becoming aware that sometimes all we got is just one shot, until and if we meet again. I do not want to live with should haves, could haves of missed opportunities of a missed life.

I want to choose my life to be true to who I am and trust that – that is what life has in store for me.

I am glad that I talked with the Turkish lady who had 20 months old twins and an American husband and who was going to Akyaka for her summer vacation. I am glad that I met those Japanese people in Findhorn one of which wants to start up a small scale Findhorn in Japan. I am glad that I talked with that lady from Switzerland whose mother was Spanish in the garden on a bench at Cluny Hill. And I am glad that I saw her and talked to her again on an EasyJet flight and learned that we will attend an Ecovillage Training in Findhorn next February. I am glad that life offers me the chance to meet people, and new people and I am taking the offer.

*

Then, why is it so difficult to love?
To love others?
And to love ourselves?

I chose one angel card for myself while writing this piece – the angel of Transformation came. I know that in the last 7-8 years I have been going through quite a lot of changes. Yet, something happened in the training in Findhorn. That was more like a completion of what has been taking place.

I also chose an angel card for Fethiye – the angel of Truth came. Truth is such a strong key that opens all doors.

Call me whatever you would like, but I want to contribute, I would like to share and increase the desire in others to do the same. That is all life is really about.

When I was in the training in Findhorn, honesty, simplicity, truth and sincerity have been qualities that I found myself anchoring to. Especially honesty. When I anchor to Honesty, the answers to my most difficult questions seem to open up.

May we all find our true anchors that will let us soar...

With lots of love,
Zeynep


Affirmation of the Week:
“As I nurture a child, I nurture my own inner child. Both activities are important for me right now.”
Doreen Virtue

Quote of the Week:
“The world is a mountain in which your works are echoed back to you.”
Mevlana Celaleddin RUMI

Zeynep’s Book Recommendation:
I request you to read and re-read “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz.
The Turkish translation of this book may be found under the title “Dört Anlaşma”


With Aija and Aneette:

TV Program: Understanding Mevlana

On December 17th, 2007 Zeynep Kocasinan was the guest on the program titled "Understanding Mevlana-Mevlana'yı Anlamak" on Channel 21.Yuzyil (21st Century) Television in Fethiye. She shared information on Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi's life, his books and poems, as well as his selected poems. The 30 minute long program was first aired on the death anniversary of the great Sufi and poet Rumi, also to commemorate the 800th year of Mevlana's birth in 2007. The year 2007 had been declared as the "Year of Mevlana" by UNESCO to emphize Mevlana's messages of love and tolerance in the world.