March 25

Psalm 73 –

What else have I

in heaven but you?

Apart from you

I want nothing on earth

My heart leaps for joy,

For you, O God

Are my portion forever.

March 25

Now I am experiencing
the Clear Light of objective reality.
Nothing is happening,
nothing ever has happened or ever will happen.
My present sense of self, the voyager,
is in reality the void itself,
having no qualities or characteristics.
I remember myself as the voyager,
whose deepest nature is the Clear Light itself;
I am one; there is no other.
I am the voidness of the void, the eternal unborn,
the uncreated, neither real nor unreal.
All that I have been conscious of is my own
play of consciousness, a dance of light,
the swirling patterns of light in infinite extension,
endless endlessness,
the Absolute beyond change, existence, reality.
I, the voyager, am inseparable from the Clear Light;
I cannot be born, die, exist, or change.
I know now that this is my true nature.

- e.j. gold

March 25

I have lived on the lip
of insanity, wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door. It opens.
I have been knocking from the inside!

Sufi mystic - Jelaluddin Rumi - 13th century

on confronting the clear light

March 25
Etty Hillesum wrote from a German concentration camp: “My life is increasingly an inner one and the outer setting matters less and less.” What is there in your outer life that tells you that you need to develop more of an inner one, if the outer life is not to consume you?

March 25

Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee;
All things pass:
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Lacks for nothing:
God alone suffices.

St. Teresa of Avila - 16th century

March 25

Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee;
All things pass:
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Lacks for nothing:
God alone suffices.

St. Teresa of Avila - 16th century

March 25

One of the devotees at the temple was well known for his zealousness and effort. Day and night he would sit in meditation, not stopping even to eat or sleep. As time passed he grew thinner and more exhausted, The master of the temple advised him to slow down, to take more care of himself. But the devotee refused to heed his advice.

“Why are you rushing so? What is your hurry?” asked the master.
“I am after enlightenment,” replied the devotee, “there is no time to waste.”

“And how do you know,” asked the master, “that enlightenment is running on before you, so that you have to rush after it? Perhaps it is behind you, and all you need to encounter it is to stand still – but you are running away from it!”

March 25

Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

March 18

Simplicity of life in a complex and complicated world is marked, I think, by four characteristics: a life is simple if it is honest, if it is unencumbered. If it is open to the ideas of others, if it is serene in the midst of a mindless momentum that verges on the chaotic. And which of these do you do best? An which of these do you do poorly?

Joan Chittister

March 25
Live simply so that others may simply live. Mother Seton

March 18

The homeless live in boxes

Some live in a box of cardboard

Some live in a box of dates and times

Some live in a box of lists

Others an identity box

Or a box of expectations

All the homeless live in a world view

They swear their boxes free them

Each homeless person has a favorite box

Some homeless rave on
about thinking outside the box
They do this from within their box

Where can I find a person with no box

A person who is home in the universe?

Where can I find a person with no box

Who I can box with
and we can have a sip of this fine wine?

George Breed

March 18

Show me the suffering of the most miserable;
So I will know my people's plight.

Free me to pray for others;
For you are present in every person.

Help me take responsibility for my own life;
So that I can be free at last.

Grant me courage to serve others;
For in service there is true life.

Give me honesty and patience;
So that the Spirit will be alive among us.

Let the Spirit flourish and grow;
So that we will never tire of the struggle.

Let us remember those who have died for justice;
For they have given us life.

Help us love even those who hate us;
So we can change the world.

Amen.

prayer of the farm workers' struggle - césar e. chávez

March 18

At the center of the universe is a
loving heart that continues to beat
and that wants the best for every person.

Anything we can do to help foster
the intellect and spirit and emotional growth
of our fellow human beings, that is our job.

Those of us who have this particular vision
must continue against all odds.

Life is for service.

mister Rogers neighborhood - Fred Rogers - 1928-2003

March 18

· Karma Yoga is consecration of all actions and their fruits unto the Divine.

· Karma Yoga is performance of actions dwelling in union with the Divine, removing attachment and remaining balanced ever in success and failure.

· Karma Yoga is selfless service unto humanity. The important point is that you serve humanity without any attachment or egoism.

· Karma Yoga is the Yoga of action which purifies the heart and prepares the soul for the reception of Divine Light.

Action of some kind or the other is unavoidable. You cannot keep quiet without doing anything. Work unselfishly. Feel that you are only an instrument and that the Lord is working through you. Surrender the actions and their fruits to the Lord. The heavy load, which you felt previously on account of false notion, will vanish out of sight now. You will be freed from the bonds of Karma and enjoy peace.

March 18
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” – Edmund Burke

March 11
The sages all say that the path to liberation is found in entering the
stillness within. To experience that stillness, we need to be willing to
regularly stop the activity for a while.
How do we do this in a busy life? We set our priorities. Perhaps it
means giving up a TV program or using a coffee break to grab a few
moments of solitude. Perhaps we have to ask our partner, relative or
neighbour to give us 30 minutes of time away from the kids. If we really
want something, we can make it happen.
"Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."
-- Doug King

March 11
"We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value
that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with
being alive, is what it's all about."
-- Joseph Campbell

March 11
How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk that way to anyone else?
Our thoughts create our reality. How do you typically think about
yourself? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or
insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and
compassion? Stay alert to your self-talk and let go of judgments that
don't serve you.
"Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to
myself."
-- Nathaniel Branden

March 11

Letting go into fear, accepting it may seem counterintuitive. Yet because fear is an intrinsic part of being alive, resisting it means resisting life. The habit of avoidance seeps into every aspect of our being: It prevents us from loving well, from cherishing beauty within and around us, from being present to the moment. … Radical Acceptance of fear is right at the center of our spiritual awakening.

Tara Brach

March 11

A man is being chased by a tiger and he leaps off a cliff in his attempt to get away. Fortunately a tree growing on the side of the cliff breaks his fall. Dangling from it by one arm – tiger pacing above, jutting rocks hundreds of feet below – he yells out in desperation, “Help! Somebody help me!” A voice responds, “Yes?” The man screams, “God, God, is that you?” Again “Yes.” Terrified the man says, “God, I’ll do anything, just please, please help me!” God responds, “Okay then, just let go.”

The man pauses for a moment , and then calls out, “Is anyone else there?”

Buddhist story

March 11

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day
cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,
open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires
lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like the seeds dreaming beneath the snow
your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams,
for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd
when he stands before the king whose hand
is to be laid upon him in honour.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling,
that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind
and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing,
but to free the breath from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence
shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top,
then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
then shall you truly dance.

on death - kahlil gibran

March 11

The Universe continually gives Itself in sacrifice
and is forever reconciling, coming home.

This is happening now.
With you. With me.
With us. With all that is.

George Breed

March 11

Can we die to ourselves? Only if we do, can we be reborn in the truth of Gods Love for us.

The Goddess continually gives Herself in sacrifice.

"Sacrifice is a reliable ferry."
--Vedic Scriptures

March 5
The authentic self is the soul made visible. Sarah Ban Breathnach

March 5

Authentic power is the alignment of your personality with your soul. The creation of authentic power is a lifetime endeavor. It requires becoming aware, moment by moment, of what you are feeling and the decisions that you are making. The creation of authentic power confronts you with the most unhealhy parts of yourself - the parts that blame criticize, judge, resent, envy and hate others, yourself, and the universe.

You continue to encounter what your soul wants you to encounter. When you resist your encounters you resist: The purpose of your life; The beneficence of the universe; and, Nonphysical assistance. The result of the resistance becomes your pain. Gary Zukav (the heart of the soul)

March 5

Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year? Horace

March 5

Our mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may we tend the garden of our mind, weeding out all the damaging and useless thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection, the flowers and fruits of beneficial thought. By pursuing this process, we sooner or later discover that we are the master gardener of our soul. James Allen

Care and Feeding of th Soul

March 5, If you dig deep enough you will discover the SOURCE of your pain: The world not being the way you want it to be. Making the wants of your personality more important that the needs of your soul. Gary Zukavand Feeding of the Soul

Care and Feeding of the Soul

March 5,

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." say not, "I have found the path of the soul." say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." for the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, 1923

Care and Feeding of the Soul

March 5,

Soul is not a thing, but a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. It has to do with depth, value, relationships, heart, and personal substance. Care of the soul begins with observance of how the soul manifests itself and how it operates. It is when we are most human that we have the greatest access to soul. Thomas Moore