Here is a spiritual practice from the Playground that will raise your vibration

I find inspiration in his writing. I find that his vision of me and my life, and what can open up for me is a perfect match about 50 times out of 52 a year.

I am talking about Rob Brezsny.

Is this because he is so talented?

Without trying to make myself look better than Rob Brezsny, if it is true that it is not what happens to you but what you make it mean, what you say about it, then I will take full responsibility for the amazingly perfect match, the inspiration Rob Brezsny"s horoscopes give me.

And if they do the same for you: you should take pride in it. And if they don"t... consider that your creativity is at an all time low... that you can"t see...

Here is today"s example: (My birthday was a week ago, September 4)

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your keynote is the Japanese word *shizuka*. According to photographer Masao Yamamoto, it means "cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted." One of his artistic practices is to wander around forests looking in the soil for "treasures" that emanate *shizuka*. So in his definition, the term isn"t about being scrubbed or sanitized. Rather, he"s interested in pristine natural phenomena that are unspoiled by civilization. He regards them as food for his soul. I mention this, Virgo, because now is an excellent time for you to get big doses of people and places and things that are cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted. ((The actual Japanese meaning is silent, quiet or gentle. My interpretation is that it speaks of the inner silence: the silence of the mind: the silence of the meaning making machine, the one that has an opinion and a judgment about everything, and doesn"t shut up. That what Rob Brezsny is really talking about it the way of being when you actually see what is real... and it is beautiful. Or at least it is what it is... nothing added, no words, no meaning, no commentary, no story. The way of the Buddha.))

I am working with my students on telling apart, uncollapsing... the skill. On being able to tell what is real about what you are looking at, and what is added on... What is the taint...

So they can separate the "cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted." What is real.

That is the work that takes you to live on the vertical plane, that is the work that raises your vibration, that is the work that makes heaven on earth.

It is a never ending work, but each tiny bit that reveals itself as "taint" and therefore can be removed from life, takes you higher.

For someone who is fully lodged on the horizontal plane, on the plane of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, this is nonsensical... It is what it is... and that"s that.

No shades of gray, no distinction, no idea... only the illusion of reality... but none of it in its "cleansed, pure, clear, and untainted." form, but dirties, impure, unclear and tainted form. With words...

One of the things you can practice, even if you are not in my Playground program, is looking at the world, reading everything through the filter: is this a judgment, or is this an assessment?

If you are waiting for me to explain how to do it, then you are waiting for me to do your work for you.

I"ll give you some pointers, but you need to prove to yourself that you are willing and able to use the tools that are available to anyone who can read this article...

Assessment is not an opinion. It doesn"t have an emotional component. It doesn"t make the speaker look good, smart, knowledgeable for the sake of building themselves up and destroying another.

• So if I say: I am better than you: that is a judgment.


• If I say: my results are better than yours (results can be proven, they exist in reality): that is an assessment.

If I say all the things I say in your Starting Point Measurements, or in my Vibrational Reviews, I say what I got measuring... whether they are good numbers or bad numbers (both judgments, by the way, good and bad is relative!) I don"t look better, don"t feel better about myself, and worse about you. Those are all assessment.

And whether I am angry or happy: angry doesn"t make an assessment into a judgment by virtue of my emotional reaction to the words: an assessment remains an assessment.

So if I say to someone: your grade is F (fail) and I am very disappointed in you, that is still an assessment.

If your clarity score is 200 words, I may say: OMG, you are being is a stupid state... your clarity is 200 words... it is still an assessment, even the stupid state part. Now, had I said: you are stupid... that would be a judgment.

There is no stupid in reality. Neither is good, bad, right or wrong.

So the reason this is a good exercise of the reality/Playground muscle, because assessments deal in reality, while judgments deal in unreality.

When you live in the silence of the Playground mind, you can do what you want to do, you can love, you can care, you can succeed, because your energies are not spent on the drama of the noisy horizontal plane.