June 24, 2007

An ancient philosopher says the soul is made in between one and two. The one is eternity, ever alone and without variation. The two is time, changing and given to multiplication. He means to convey that the soul in her higher powers touches eternity, God, that is, while her lower powers being in contact with time make her subject to change and biased towards bodily things, which degrade her.

Meister Eckhart

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds to the promise of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.

Eckhart Tole

That’s the main thing. As long as you are wanting to be thinner, smarter, more enlightened, less uptight, or whatever it might be, some how you are always going to be approaching your problem with the same logic that created it to begin with: you’re not good enough.

Pema Chodron

What you thin k of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind of a former Now. When you remember the past, you reactivate a memory trace – and you do so now. The future is an imagined Now, a projection of the mind. When you think about the future, you do it now. Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power and reality of the eternal present. Their reality is “borrowed” from the now.

Eckhart Tole

A modern master described how the Buddha had encouraged the monks by stating that those who practiced diligently would surely be enlightened in seven days, or if not then in seven, months, or seven years. A young American Monk heard this and asked if it was still true. The master, Achaan Chah promised that if the young monk was continuously mindful without break for only seven days, he would be enlightened.

Excitedly the young monk started seven days, only to be lost in forgetfulness ten minutes later. Coming back to himself, he again started the seven days, only to be lost once again in mindless thought – perhaps about what he would do after his enlightenment. Again, and again. And again he began his seven days, and again and again he lost his continuity of mindfulness. A week later, he was not enlightened, but he had become very much aware of his habitual fantasies and wandering mind – a most instructive way to begin his practice on the Path to real awakening.

Buddhist story

Spiritually there is a lesson in every moment. When we are seemingly stuck in a boring routine, the miracle lies not so much in finding something else to do as in realizing how much we can do in a single moment – through the power of our own consciousness – to transform ourselves and the world around us. Marianne Williamson

Looking forwards and backwards [in time] is how we lose joy. How we become fragmented, shallow, and diversified. Once gotten beyond time and temporalities we are free and joyous all the time; then is the fullness of time, then is the Son of God born in you.

Meister Eckhart

The essence of what I am saying here cannot be understood by the mind. The moment you grasp it, there is a shift in consciousness from mind to Being, from time to presence. Suddenly, everything feels alive, radiates energy, and emanates Being.

Eckhart Tole

Saint Theresa's Prayer

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.