We have just completed two short videos on You Tube that capture what is happening with Slim, the brilliant homeless man who is selling SOULSHAPING on the streets of Toronto. Since the attached video, he has created a special push cart for the books, signs that emphasize what he is doing, and he has attempted to create a buzz for his efforts in various parts of the city. He has also been highlited in a local newspaper. I have never seen someone so DETERMINED to improve his life conditions..

I want to share the You tube link to the story about Slim, the homeless man who is determinedly selling SOULSHAPING on the streets of Toronto. It is starting to get more and more interesting... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7WrcrbgmcY

There is also a part two of the film there. If it doesn't come up, search   Jeff Brown Homelessness   and you will see it...

Blessings, Soulshaper

Last week, Slim got more involved in his own re-building. He continued to sell a steady number of copies of Soulshaping, and then proclaimed that he wanted to begin selling one hundred books per day. It may seem a little unrealistic, but this soul is on fire...

One afternoon, we went downtown and went to lunch. I don't remember ever being thanked so sincerely by anyone after buying them a meal. No envy, no bitterness, nothing but gratitude. So concerned that I couldn't afford it. A class act from head to toe.

Then we got him a couple of sales shirts so that people will identify what he is doing from a distance. One of them reads "I, Slim, sell a great self-help book. Buying it helps you and helps me to re-build my life". It was a joint languaging effort, but I had the feeling that I was in the presence of a marketing genius.

A few days ago, I agreed to clear everything out of my rear shed so he could put his push-cart there. The bulky push-cart was interfering with his new plan- to rove around Toronto with a baby stroller that he found in the garbage, selling the book on busy summer streets. He plans to load the stroller up with books and attach some banners to it to attract attention. Brilliant, huh? Not something we might expect from a homeless dude, with our limited lens and judgments..

Two days ago, he told me (with burgeoning confidence..) to go to Mark's Work Warehouse to get a quality hoodie that he can wear on cold days and nights. Words of salesmanship were added to the front of the sweater, his name on the back..

Today was wonderful. I went up to the main street to look for him and found him at a Churrasco chicken outlet. I wasn't sure it was him at first, because the dude buying the chicken seemed super positive and confident. He could finally afford to buy a meal that he had earned through his own efforts. He came outside and told me that he had sold out of books today. I do not think in my life I have EVER seen a human being look so bloody happy. I mean truly ecstatic. His teeth glistening, his heart alight... He had finally put one of the sales shirts on- the bright red one with "I sell a great self-help book" in bold white letters on the front and back.

Then he retreated a little, smile went away, probably because he was afraid to trust it, afraid it might be taken away from him. I encouraged him to let himself feel good. His teeth started to show again.

Monday we are shooting a little mini-doc about what is happening with Slim. Such a mitzvah, such an upframe of my usual sensibilities, it has to be recorded. I feel like I am standing in the heart of something profound and transformative, something that has the capacity to expose our usual notions of separateness as mundane, and deeply misguided.

Now I am wondering why I don't spread this concept to homeless people world-wide. In fact, why aren't we all doing something to bring the homeless back into the fold? This took SO LITTLE in the way of energy on my part, and has helped this man so very much. Haven't you something in your home that you could give to someone to sell? Haven't you some errands that you can hand over? What can you do that is not simply charitable but that also invites a homeless person to PARTICIPATE in the marketplace and the web of human relatedness?

There must be something.

I had a remarkable experience today I want to share with you. It involved me and a homeless man named Slim.

For years, I have seen Slim pushing his cart around the area where I live in Toronto. It is a big cart, almost like a caravan, filled with all kinds of mysteries. Whenever I would sit down to talk with him, I was startled by the positive energy that came off him. His energy was positive, his eyes alight. As we talked, I would notice others walk by, often racing to work or home. I noticed the discrepancy between Slim's energy and theirs. He was so positive, they seemed dreary and worn. Yet he was the homeless one. Or was he?

As I was in the midst of writing a book about spiritual homelessness, my discussions with Slim always stoked the fire of my inquiries. When I finished Soulshaping, I added him to my gratitudes section. He had made a big difference. And there was something between us, something...

The other day, I sat and talked with Slim at Starbucks. He likes to hang out there, meeting and greeting all the people he knows. Somehow the idea emerged- Slim could sell Soulshaping. It seemed preposterous at first. I was met with my own judgments about the homeless- "they don't want to work", "they will rip you off", "they are crazy". But I remembered my prior images of how this book would move into the world. When I refused a contractual offer for Soulshaping last summer, one of the key issues was my ability to buy the book for my own purposes- website, grass roots etc. The publisher refused that - it would be their book, not mine. The deal fell through.

Although I had no clear idea of how this book would move on a grass roots level, something was brewing inside me. I wrote Soulshaping through a grass roots lens- by the people, for the people, I-people. It was not about money or egoic satisfaction. It was about honoring my soul's voice and simultaneously elevating the lives of others, reminding them of their Essence. It was fine to move the book through a traditional distribution system, but something else had to happen as well. I needed more options.

I went home and got Slim 5 books. I brought them to him, and went home to sleep. When I came back to see him the next day, the books had been sold. He placed an order for 11 more. He was very focused. I brought them to him, and then saw him later in the day. He had sold another 3. All the books he has yet to sell are wrapped up in protective plastic, wrapped up with pride, and so as to protect them from the rain that falls onto his push cart.

I had given Slim money many times. He had accepted it, but he never looked happy about it. Today he looked happy. He had earned something for himself again, and he relished it. He let me know how many he planned to sell in the coming months, and what his financial goals were. For many years Slim has been studying the stock market. I called him "the push-cart guru." He seemed to know a tremendous amount about investing in the money markets. Now, instead of dreaming about it, he has a way to bring it on home.

After years of spiritual labor, I am delighted to stumble upon a situation that seems spiritually uplifted in every way. The book gets to those who resonate with it. I gain the satisfaction of honoring my calling by helping others. And my "St. Clair Avenue distributor" has a chance to re-build his self-esteem and save for a better reality. Wonder-full.

There is much learning here for all of us. First, let it not be said that homeless people don't want to work. Perhaps some are not in a state to do so, but many of them are and many of them want to. They just need an opportunity and someone who believes in them. They just need a gig. We should all start thinking about how we can provide them with that opportunity, however simple or humble it may be. Isn't that what unity consciousness is all about? Isn't that what it means to be non-separate? Second, this experience confirmed my own belief in basic human connectiveness. When we are left to our own devices, we are limited in our resources. Those eight books would still be sitting in a box if Slim and I had not connected. Instead, they have landed in the hands of those who need them because we crossed the barrier and made a human connection. We all need each other, and we all have something to offer, however simple it may be. Third, those of us who are on a spiritual path often get lost in the quest for egolessness. But we must also remember that there is a lot to say for self-esteem. The Eastern Quest for Oneness must be woven into the Western Quest for emotional health and self-love. Buddhists say "you have to become something before you becoming nothing....". In simple terms, this means that before we can evaporate into oneness, we have to build ourselves up. Handing Slim money may keep him alive, but giving him back his self-esteem is the key to his future.

Now I will turn my attention to finding ways to get this book into the hands of other homeless people, or individuals who are in difficult circumstances. If any of you have any suggestions, I invite you them to share them with me.

Today, everything looks perfect.

Soulshaping is a 'SOLE TO SOUL' philosophy. It is about grounded spirituality. It is about living in our bodies and ascending to God organically. It is about honoring our personal identity and our physical form as not simply the 'vessel' for the soul, but as the embodiment of the soul.

Soulshaping is not a detachment model. It is not a spiritual bypass model in any way, shape, or form. The spiritual bypass is the tendency to jump to spirit prematurely, usually in an effort to avoid difficult aspects of earthly reality. These realities can come in many forms: emotional discomfort, unresolved trauma, economic pressure..

In a world of pain, the spiritual bypass is an ongoing temptation. It gives us something to believe in, and a vision of what we are missing in our localized realities. It gives us an opportunity to catch our breath, to find our breath, to touch the sky. Without it, many of us would have to suffer unbearable situations and never recognize that there is another way of being available to us. We have to be compassionate towards our need to bypass in this difficult world.

At the same time, it can be a real detour on the path to genuine spirituality. In our efforts to leapfrog to something better, we often avoid something crucial. We think we have found bliss until we come back into relationship where our stuff is still waiting for us. By turning away from old pain, we have simply shackled ourselves with our unresolveds. Spirit has become a crutch rather than an expression of a natural unfolding. The bypass may be a necessary tool for survival for a time, but real growth demands that we come back down to earth and face our demons. We have to grow down, to grow up.

The Soulshaper understands that "spirituality" is just another word for reality. The most spiritual person lives in ALL aspects of reality simultaneously- the material, subtle, emotional etc.

The soulshaper strives to ASCEND WITH BOTH FEET ON THE GROUND. This is the idea that our ascension to the Godself can only be sustained if it is an embodied unfolding from the ground up. We begin with the root chakra -the quest for OM begins at home- and we work our way up from there. It is not enough for our feet to merely skim the ground. The mythic life begins with our feet planted on Mother Earth. With our soles firmly planted, our soul has a leg to stand on in its efforts to go higher.

In real terms, this means being aware of our practical needs. This means feeling our connection to the world around us. This means bringing the quest for the eternal that is intrinsic to the east together with the quest for mental health intrinsic to the west- earth and sky, shadow and light, grocery list and unity consciousness, all at once!
This means learning how to enjoy our bodies as gardens of truth. This means calling ourselves on our detachment from our shadow. This means doing the often difficult work to clear our emotional debris and gain control over our relational patterns. We clear our emotional debris both because it creates space inside for our authentic self to emerge, but also because inherent in those feelings and memories are the lessons we need to grow in our spirituality. We can't shape our souls without karmic fodder, without grist for the soul mill. We must 'cell our soul', linking our spiritual ascension to the energetic material that we are holding in the cells of our body. God is not some detached construct. God is in our personhood. I-God.

As we work through our chakras, we become organically present in our bodies and in the moment. From this delightful presence emerges a natural and sustainable movement upward, toward God. Instead of settling for the occasional enlightenment moment, we are now capable of a more enlightened way of being. One we can actually sustain. One we can actually ground into. From sole to soul...

Moving forward often demands that we live lost, knowingly surrendering our attachment to who we think we are, voluntarily stumbling around in the dark with little to guide us. Growing is all about leaps into the seeming unknown.

If there was one skill that I could not have done without on the journey of transformation, it was my (learned) capacity to befriend my confusion. As certain parts died, other parts invariably came to life. Before the transition was complete, there was a time, often a long time, when all of these parts were pressing up against me at the same time. In Soulshaping, I refer to this in-between phase as a "spiritual emergingcy"- that state of confusion and inner tumult that arises when a new pathway is forcing its way into consciousness, prior to its full emergence and integration. The bridge from one side to the other is confusion. You have to learn how to hold the space for all of your parts simultaneously and befriend your confusion, until clarity emerges on its own terms.

Unfortunately, befriending our confusion is difficult to hold to in a linear world. Those that walk the path of uncertainty are frequently characterized as flakes, drifters, and, ironically, lost souls. Nowhere in society are we taught to distinguish growth-full from aimless confusion, madness from truth aches, nervous breakdowns from nervous breakthroughs, habitual crisis from spiritual emergingcies. Confusion is sadly stigmatized as the mark of the "loser" without regard for the fact that one cannot come to know anything without first surrendering to the not knowing.

Our state of confusion often arises in the context of careers and relationships: Why do I hate my job? What are my callings? Who do I love? When we begin questioning our choices, many resistant voices float to the surface- the voices of habit and fear, internalized judgments, well-entrenched defenses. These voices reflect the survivalist stage of the collective unconscious and the world. Although progress has been made on many levels, most of us are still making our primary choices as to path through a survivalist lens, with a vigilant eye to what is most practical, safe and materially satisfying.

When we step out of this framework, when we make a move toward a more soul-full idea of success, we are opening the door to confusion, at least at first. The voices of the world arise within us in an effort to sweep away the whispers of a deeper truth. The desire to quit our unfulfilling job and find our callings is met with neurotic images of poverty. The longing to find a genuine soul-mate is overwhelmed with images of eternal aloneness. And then we are confronted with a choice- turn back to familiar harbors, or let the inner battle wage. Play it safe, or see it through...

Seeing it through is no easy feat. You will need support. You will have to be determined. You will need to work hard to identify the voices that are attempting to obstruct your transition. They will come in many difficult and credible forms, often disguised as your friends. You will have to patiently expand your capacity to sit in the 'not knowing' in ways that nobody ever taught you. And you may even have to hold to a state that feels a little mad now and then, as different aspects of your inner world come into conflict. You will have to become an expert at surrender.

But if you can see it all the way through, you will be rewarded. You will know a measure of soul-satisfaction that you will never know on a false path. You will see through different eyes and feel at peace in your soul-skin. You will not have to ask the universe for what you need because the door to humanifestation will open wide as the universe rewards you for your courage. You will know a remarkably enriched reality.

In the words of my dear friend and guide, Little Missy, "Welcome your confusion as a friend who has come from far away to bring you home. Be open to it. Keep it close."

I had listened to all kinds of perspectives on "The Secret" before watching it for the first time. It was "brilliant", "simplistic", "marketing hype" etc.. I even had my own opinions.

Then last week, I watched it. And, at first, I disliked it. It seemed so naive. 'Think it and you will attract it...', 'Change your feelings by thinking of something positive', 'Visualize it and its yours...'. It just doesn't work that way for most of us on this planet at this stage of human consciousness.

But then I sat back from it, and tried to see it through a broader lens. Human beings have known tremendous suffering and chaos. Many of our realities have been controlled by desperate circumstances and overwhelming odds. For many of us there has been very little evidence of a benevolent universe.

The fact that so many people are willing to embrace "The Secret" suggests to me that some measure of optimism is beginning to creep into our inner landscapes. That we are even open to the idea of a benevolent listener, a Law of (Positive) Attraction, manifestation itself...is a positive sign. We are becoming more faith-driven, more hope-full, more open...

The key is to take the principles inherent in "The Secret" to the next level and broaden our lens.

The first thing that comes to mind is emotional authenticity. I would suggest that we need to get our emotional world consistent with our "positive thinking" in order for our requests and visualizations to be taken seriously by the "Universal Broadcasting System." If we are all blocked up with pain and anger, our "positive thoughts" will not be authentically sourced and organically positive. The trick is to clear ourselves out from the inside first (inside-out) so that when we make a request it is emanating from a clear and unified channel. Then it might carry more weight...then it might fall on open ears...

It has been my experience that the UBS responds to 'wish-full thinking' when what we wish for is congruent with what we actually need on a spiritual level. If I ask for a Rolls Royce and what I really need is a karmic kick in the ass, I will be kicked in the ass. If I ask for love and I have not done the preparation work to become available to love, the universe will send me the hard ass lesson that I need to prepare myself. There is no sense in doing it any other way. The universe is only interested in authentic expansion. Nothing feigned will do.

It has been my experience that we attract exactly what we need to accelerate our journey, no matter what we ask for. If joy serves our expansion, joy will bump into us around the next corner. But only if joy serves our expansion at that moment in time.

If the universe is attuned to anything, it is attuned to our 'soulular state', how close or how far we are from honoring our innate image (the being we came here to humanifest) for this lifetime. So if I am born to be a healer, the Universe will make it difficult for me to truly enjoy my life as an accountant. We are each here to shape our soul to the next stage in its expansion. That shaping is essential on an individual level, and it is also essential on a collective level. To the extent that I honor my callings and lessons in this lifetime, other souls expand as well. The whole thing falls apart when souls choose not to humanifest their innate image.

Generally speaking, it has been my experience that when I am emotionally open and spiritually centered, I am in a more positive state of being and my requests are more likely to come true. But it has also been my experience that even when I am in the most authentically positive place, I don't always get what I think I want. Abundance is a funny thing. From an egoic perspective, what is abundant is achievement, material success, power over others etc. But from the soul's perspective, abundance is an entirely different story. For some of us, it is abundant to live a simple spiritual life. For others, the actualization of our innate image requires a lot of work in the pain realms in one form or another. Not everyone who clings to pain does so because they are addicted to it. Some of us are here to expand our capacity to feel our pain, without detachment or substitute gratifications getting in the way. Most of us have a certain number of painful lessons to learn in order to actually transform our soul's consciousness. Simply put, abundance can include an abundance of challenges, too. The ladder to heaven is composed of broken rungs. We need to understand this deeply.

The real secret to humanifestation is being true to your soulshape, whatever that means to you. When you make a request of the universe, be sure that your thoughts and your spirit are truly aligned. Be sure to know who is doing the asking (who am I, really?), know what you truly need, and be sure that you ask for it when you are truly ready to receive it. Otherwise, your wishful thinking will simply fall to the bottom of the fountain with all the rest of the pennies.

Bringing our lessons through takes more than awareness. It is an active process that demands a courageous willingness to live our experiences right through to completion. This means staying with our feelings until they are truly done with us, no matter how uncomfortable they are. Although we may not see it at first, there is a method to our sadness.

Oftentimes we distract ourselves out of the learning, particularly when the feelings are painful. We all know people like this. We have all been people like this. We choose not to get the hint. We ignore our grumbles and truth aches at all costs. If we don't break the habit, we just come back the next time with the same lessons waiting in the wings.

Contrary to what many of the 'detachment' teachers will tell you, the body is actually far more than just a vessel for the soul. It is the field where the soul's lessons are harvested. It is the breeding ground for the soul's emergence. In order to grow forward, we must bring our suffering through our emotional body until our spiritual lessons are birthed. We must cell our soul.

The recipe is simple. Be authentic and true to your felt experience. Feel the heartbreak. Feel the anger. Feel all of your feelings. If you had a cruel father, move your anger and feel into the heartbreak below. If you lose a loved one, go through all the stages of grieving. Don't stop halfway, never stop halfway. Let the feelings tell you if the fire was destructive or benevolent. Some fires are creating the way for new life.

Be careful not to go into your head. Unless your knowing arises from your felt experience, it is meaningless. Stay with the emotional process until your soul food is digested. It will be difficult at times, but the feelings will only hurt until they convert. Repressed emotions are unactualized spiritual lessons. Once they make it all the way through the conversion tunnel, the lesson will be revealed...

Lately, I have been having conversations with people who have read Soulshaping. The theme that emerges most often in these talks is that of shame. Something about the depth of self-admission in the book seems to trigger it. Some celebrate that self-revealing. Some are uncomfortable with it. Some are reminded of their own shame and want to head for the hills.

When I wrote Soulshaping, my shame was never very far away, diminishing my writing, listening in for that moment when I imagined myself relevant. If I kept myself small, it stayed asleep. But if I imagined myself worthwhile, the shame-a-thon began. There were times when I wanted to stop writing, stop the self-revealing, stop!

But I worked with it, talked to it, negotiated. Another voice inside told me to push on through: "Your call is to self-reveal and give others permission to do the same. Push on through. Tell the bloody truth." For a brief period, the shame-a-thon went quiet.

It began to re-surface when the book was released. Just when you think the monster has died, he shows up on your doorstep begging to see you. I would feel uncomfortable going places where I knew someone had read Soulshaping. Yoga class felt strange. My favorite restaurant, too. The inner voice was consistent: "They know everything about you. You've humiliated yourself. Hide your face in shame..."

And so I did. For three long weeks. But then something happened. My soul's voice rose to the rafters of consciousness to remind me that writing the book was only one step in my journey. It didn't end there. Self-revealing (soul-revealing) was at the heart of my journey. The next step was bringing the message of authenticity into the world, warts and all. For this moment at least, my face is exposed.

If there is anything that can prevent us from excavating and honoring our callings, it is our own shame. If we move through our lives ashamed of ourselves, it is very difficult to imagine our highest possibilities. If we think we are worthless, how can we spot the God-self that is living inside of us? How can we know our inherent magnificence?

Unfortunately we often don't know how much shame we carry. Some of us have no idea it is in there because it is all we have ever known. Some of us are simply too ashamed to face our shame. When we look in the mirror, we don't see the soul's light shining through. Blinded by misidentification and the messages of others, we can't see our essential self.

Shame is rooted in the shame pit of generations before, perpetuating the self-hatred of the collective unconsciousness, still lodged in dark energies and imaginings. It is deep in us, deep in the messaging many of us received from our parents, deep in the culture at large. Marketeers are expert at triggering the shame button. Consumerism preys on the shamed. If you don't buy the thing...if you don't look a certain way....you are not one of us.. People who like themselves already feel complete without having to make an unnecessary purchase.

There is no simple answer to the shame-a-thon. The one thing I am certain of is that we have to get to know it. We have to track it, understand its insiduous impact on our inner life. What is the shape of my shame? How deep does it go? How does it talk to me? How does it hold me back? How can I move forward despite it? How can I love myself in its presence?

We also have to talk about our shame and bring it into the light. We have to create shame pow-wows where everyone sits around and talks about their shame. We have to share those things that we are ashamed of with each other, thereby freeing ourselves and giving others permission to be liberated as well. Every week, make a point of sharing something you are ashamed of with someone else you trust. If you doubt your sexual prowess, express that. If you despise parts of your body, bring that out into the open. If you doubt your ability to achieve your goals, just admit it. Every deep dark secret you hide is fundamentally human. How can it be any other way?

Self-admission is the first step on the road to self-acceptance. Your shame has nothing to say about who you really are, never did, never will. In truth, you don't need anyone else's permission to be here. God gave you all the permission you need.

I went for a walk today through places I used to know when I was apprenticing with Eddie Greenspan to become a criminal lawyer. As I walked, I remembered the Jeff that existed then. I remembered how he walked (quickly!), how he breathed (barely), how he framed the moment (egoically). I remembered what it felt like to inhabit another way of being.

I sat down near the courthouse to breathe into myself, to connect to who I was now. Such a different inner world, such a different lens. Back then I had no body, or at least no felt experience of it. I knew it was down there, working hard to push my head from one achievement to another, but I couldn't really feel it. I was all mind, all will, all knowing. 

Yet now I could feel my heart beating, feel the rain falling on my head, notice when I felt cold and wanted to go inside. "I" was something more than cerebral constructs and brilliant strategies. I-body. I-soul.

I wondered what had carried me from one identity to another. What was the first step on the Soulshaping journey?

I sat with it and I remembered. The first step was the 'little voice that knows.' I called mine Little Missy, but the name didn't matter. The intention is what mattered. This little voice carried a karmic blueprint for my destiny and whispered sweet somethings in my ear whenever I dared to walk a false-path. I heard it when I was planning a law practice, in the wrong relationship, sitting in traffic on the way to work: "No, not that way Jeffrey...walk this way." Although it came through in hints and whispers, it had an odd sense of authority to it. A distant flute with the energy of a symphony.

Of course I didn't want to hear it. I wanted to be a lawyer and make my family proud. I wanted the illusion of economic security. I wanted to join the world after years on the outside. I wanted to eat lunch at the Law Society and get as far away as possible from where I came from, all those nagging memories of poverty and pain. The ego has such a wonderful way of erasing the past (if only for a moment....)

But the little voice persevered- dark nights of the soul, truth aches, agitation and despair. It knew who lived inside of me, and it refused to let me quit on him. It knew everything that mattered.

I would like to begin this blogging journey by honoring the 'little voice that knows'. We all have one, and it is the best friend we will ever have. Only now do I realize how much mine loved me.