O God!Refresh and gladden my spirit.Purify my heart.Illumine my powers.I lay all my affairs in Thy hands.Thou art my Guide and my Refuge.I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved;I will be a happy and joyful being.O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety,nor will I let trouble harass me.I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself.I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.
Baha'i prayers - `Abdu'l-bahá
Amen.
Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.– Anon
Don't worry it's going to be ok.
It's all right little one you're safe and loved.
It's ok to cry, it's ok to be afraid, it's ok to be weak,
it's ok to be vulnerable, it's ok to be human.
It's from all these elements that we grow,
and it's from all these elements that I am born out of you.
I Love You.
You're not alone.
So long as you reach out to others you're never alone.
Ask for my help in loaning you the courage you already have.
It's not that I never give you more than you can handle,
I am not responsible for the consequences of your actions,
only you are.
Stay on the path if you're suffering
by taking the steps you need to take.
Hang on and hang in there, because it's now
that you're growing at light speed,
You're never going backward only forward.
Decay your loneliness, by making full use
of my greatest gift to mankind, which is mankind.
Feel my alleged absence, as proof,
for the paradox that I exist and have always existed.
Let me in by letting me out.
Love fear and all of the other feelings spored
are what create this reality.
These are the cause and effect of compassion and true forgiveness.
Ask for my help in walking through the anguish of forgiveness.
Do everything in your power to learn to forgive
and love those that hurt you,
Not for just them, but for others as well as yourself.
And never give up the hope that some day your ex-sufferingwill be able to help the ones who were sick and hurt you,
As well as those who suffered like you.
Learn all this by practicing to love everyone.
Always look into yourself first;
you're past, your present, your motives,
you're feelings, and share the secrets
you find with myself as well as others.
Be gentle and kind to yourself
by being vulnerable, and sharing yourselfwith others who are patient, kind and who can onlytry to love and accept you as much as I do.As you get better at this,take the risks that will enable you to venture outfurther and further, so that your true selfmay finally be exposed to the real worldI created for you to live in.Be honest with everyone by neveraccepting the blame that is not yours.Free yourself with the truth, by tellingthose stepping on your toes how you feel,no matter how difficult it may seem at first, orwhat it's consequences may beyou'll only get better at it.If you can learn to love/forgive,fully listen, understand and accept those around you,you will eventually begin to learn how to love/forgive,fully listen, understand and accept yourself.
A personal prayer - Kevin Morais
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.-- Joseph Campbell
How are you sabotaging your potential for change? We unconsciously use defense mechanisms to shield us from situations weperceive to be scary or painful. A part of you may want to grow andchange, but another part may be resisting because change always movesyou into new territory in your thinking and emotions. If you find you are getting anxious, fearful, angry, frustrated,dismissive or unmotivated, then defense mechanisms are at work. Watchfor them and know them to be signs of fear that wants to hold you back.Then courageously move through them. "I have never been contained except I made the prison." -- Mary Evans
Mulla Nasrudin was sitting on his cot in a homeless shelter. "You know," he said to the fellow on the next cot, "when I was seventeen years old, I made up my mind that nothing was going to stop me from getting rich." "Well, how came you never got rich?" his friend asked. "OH," said Nasrudin, "BY THE TIME I WAS NINETEEN, I REALIZED IT WOULD BE EASIER TO CHANGE MY MIND."
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Never regret a day in your life.
Good days give you Happiness.
Bad days give you Experiences.
Both are essential to life.
Keep going...
Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrows keep you Human,
Failures keep you Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going!
Have a great day! The Son is shining!!
God is so big He can cover the whole world with his Love and so small
He can curl up inside your heart.
http://club.live.com/chicktionary.aspx?icid=chick_hotmailtextlink2>
I realize that the body is not separate from the mindAs I let go my old attitude toward my bodyI appreciate the influence of the spirit and soulAnd I embrace my body and my entire selfMy body is a reflection of my thoughtsAs I give myself positive affirmationsI release my negative emotions and thoughtsAnd I let my body be healed as well as my mind
… I open my heart, my soul and my bodyI know the strength and the power of faithI feel the process of cleansing andI welcome the miracle of healing…May every cell of my body be healthyMay every feeling of my soul be radiantMay every thought of my being be vibrantMay every action be aligned with love… I am aware of the need to forgiveI am grateful for the opportunity to growI am confident that I will succeedI am expecting my freedom and healing…I am ONE and I am LOVING.I am HERE and I am NOW.I am HEALED and I am WHOLE.Thank YOU. Let it Be! And SO IT IS!
prayer for healing - Darina Stoyanova
Sunday, August 19, 2007
August 5, 2007
You are the Creator,
and You are the One
Who dissolves all creation.
You are the Non-doer;
ever changeless; resting in Yourself.
And You are the Doer behind everything,
without Whose will neither a leaf falls,
nor a cat licks it's paws,
nor a woman blinks her eyes.
You are the Infallible,
the Almighty,
the Soul of the Universe.
You are beyond all material qualities;
You are the Inconceivable!
devaki katja nagel
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
-- Lao Tzu
Letting go is one of the hardest lessons in life. In life, there are many things that we have to let go of. We have to let go of situations, things, memories, people and ultimately, even ourselves.
It's easy to form attachments to people and things. It is a kind of paradox because in fact, we need to form attachments to others. But when it’s time to let go, it is often very painful. Even the mere thought of not having that person or thing in your life may squeeze your heart in pain.
However, either death or some other form of change will bring a time where it will be necessary for you or that person to let go of the relationship or friendship, so that each of you can fulfill your life path.
Letting go of your past and memories is also extremely hard. Even though old memories can be tormenting, we might hold on to the past and refuse to move forward. However, by refusing to let go of the painful past, it'll serve as a roadblock to love.
Letting go of your old self and the process of letting the new you emerge can be one of the scariest experiences in your life. But by leaving behind your old self and taking a leap of faith into the unknown, it might just reveal what you are truly capable of becoming.
http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/letting-go-quotes.html
I have lots of things to teach you now,
in case we ever meet,
concerning the message that was transmitted to me
under a pine tree in North Carolina
on a cold winter moonlit night.
It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don't worry.
It's all like a dream.
Everything is ecstasy, inside.
We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds.
But in our true blissful essence of mind is known
that everything is alright forever and forever and forever.
Close your eyes,
let your hands and nerve-ends drop,
stop breathing for 3 seconds,
listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world,
and you will remember the lesson you forgot,
which was taught in immense milky ways
of cloudy innumerable worlds
long ago and not even at all.
It is all one vast awakened thing.
I call it the golden eternity.
It is perfect.
We were never really born,
we will never really die.
It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea
of a personal self,
other selves,
many selves everywhere,
or one universal self.
Self is only an idea, a mortal idea.
That which passes through everything, is one thing.
It's a dream already ended.
There's nothing from staring at mountains months on end.
They never show any expression,
they are like empty space.
Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away.
Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space,
which is the one universal essence of mind,
the one vast awakenerhood,
empty and awake,
will never crumble away because it was never born.
The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
letter to ex-wife - jack kerouac
There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and asked, "What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?"
Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life." The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed.
She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me."
They told her, "You've certainly come to the wrong place," and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them.
The woman said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my my own?"
She stayed to comfort them, then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hotels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.
The woman became so involved in helping others cope with their sorrows that she eventually let go of her own. She would later come to understand that it was the quest to find the magical mustard seed that drove away her suffering.
The Magical Mustard Seed
Author Unknown
To surrender oneself is something more
than to devote oneself, more than to give oneself,
it is even more than to abandon oneself to God.
To surrender oneself is to die to everything and to self,
to keep it continually turned towards God.
Self-surrender is no longer to seek self-satisfaction in anything
but solely God's good pleasure.
It should be added that self-surrender is to follow
that complete spirit of detachment
which holds to nothing;
neither to persons nor to things,
neither to time nor to place.
It means to accept everything, to submit to everything.
But perhaps you will think this is a difficult thing.
Do not let yourself be deceived; there is nothing so easy to do,
nothing so sweet to put into practice.
The whole thing consists in making a generous act at the very beginning,
by saying with all the sincerity of your heart:
"My God, I wish to be entirely thine; deign to accept my offering"
— then all is said. ...
You must always remember that you have surrendered yourself.
st. thérèse couderc - 1864
Do everything with a mind that lets go.
Do not expect any praise or reward.
If you let go a little, you will have a little peace.
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.
If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom.
Your struggles with the world
will have come to an end.
insight meditation - achaan chah
Let my heart be the vessel of God's Love.
Let my thoughts be the blossom of God's Love.
Let my words be the expression of God's Love.
Let my actions be the fulfillment of God's Love.
willingness - david ridge
and You are the One
Who dissolves all creation.
You are the Non-doer;
ever changeless; resting in Yourself.
And You are the Doer behind everything,
without Whose will neither a leaf falls,
nor a cat licks it's paws,
nor a woman blinks her eyes.
You are the Infallible,
the Almighty,
the Soul of the Universe.
You are beyond all material qualities;
You are the Inconceivable!
devaki katja nagel
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
-- Lao Tzu
Letting go is one of the hardest lessons in life. In life, there are many things that we have to let go of. We have to let go of situations, things, memories, people and ultimately, even ourselves.
It's easy to form attachments to people and things. It is a kind of paradox because in fact, we need to form attachments to others. But when it’s time to let go, it is often very painful. Even the mere thought of not having that person or thing in your life may squeeze your heart in pain.
However, either death or some other form of change will bring a time where it will be necessary for you or that person to let go of the relationship or friendship, so that each of you can fulfill your life path.
Letting go of your past and memories is also extremely hard. Even though old memories can be tormenting, we might hold on to the past and refuse to move forward. However, by refusing to let go of the painful past, it'll serve as a roadblock to love.
Letting go of your old self and the process of letting the new you emerge can be one of the scariest experiences in your life. But by leaving behind your old self and taking a leap of faith into the unknown, it might just reveal what you are truly capable of becoming.
http://www.great-inspirational-quotes.com/letting-go-quotes.html
I have lots of things to teach you now,
in case we ever meet,
concerning the message that was transmitted to me
under a pine tree in North Carolina
on a cold winter moonlit night.
It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don't worry.
It's all like a dream.
Everything is ecstasy, inside.
We just don't know it because of our thinking-minds.
But in our true blissful essence of mind is known
that everything is alright forever and forever and forever.
Close your eyes,
let your hands and nerve-ends drop,
stop breathing for 3 seconds,
listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world,
and you will remember the lesson you forgot,
which was taught in immense milky ways
of cloudy innumerable worlds
long ago and not even at all.
It is all one vast awakened thing.
I call it the golden eternity.
It is perfect.
We were never really born,
we will never really die.
It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea
of a personal self,
other selves,
many selves everywhere,
or one universal self.
Self is only an idea, a mortal idea.
That which passes through everything, is one thing.
It's a dream already ended.
There's nothing from staring at mountains months on end.
They never show any expression,
they are like empty space.
Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away.
Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space,
which is the one universal essence of mind,
the one vast awakenerhood,
empty and awake,
will never crumble away because it was never born.
The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
letter to ex-wife - jack kerouac
There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and asked, "What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?"
Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life." The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed.
She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me."
They told her, "You've certainly come to the wrong place," and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them.
The woman said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my my own?"
She stayed to comfort them, then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hotels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.
The woman became so involved in helping others cope with their sorrows that she eventually let go of her own. She would later come to understand that it was the quest to find the magical mustard seed that drove away her suffering.
The Magical Mustard Seed
Author Unknown
To surrender oneself is something more
than to devote oneself, more than to give oneself,
it is even more than to abandon oneself to God.
To surrender oneself is to die to everything and to self,
to keep it continually turned towards God.
Self-surrender is no longer to seek self-satisfaction in anything
but solely God's good pleasure.
It should be added that self-surrender is to follow
that complete spirit of detachment
which holds to nothing;
neither to persons nor to things,
neither to time nor to place.
It means to accept everything, to submit to everything.
But perhaps you will think this is a difficult thing.
Do not let yourself be deceived; there is nothing so easy to do,
nothing so sweet to put into practice.
The whole thing consists in making a generous act at the very beginning,
by saying with all the sincerity of your heart:
"My God, I wish to be entirely thine; deign to accept my offering"
— then all is said. ...
You must always remember that you have surrendered yourself.
st. thérèse couderc - 1864
Do everything with a mind that lets go.
Do not expect any praise or reward.
If you let go a little, you will have a little peace.
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.
If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom.
Your struggles with the world
will have come to an end.
insight meditation - achaan chah
Let my heart be the vessel of God's Love.
Let my thoughts be the blossom of God's Love.
Let my words be the expression of God's Love.
Let my actions be the fulfillment of God's Love.
willingness - david ridge
Friday, July 20, 2007
July 15
Help us, Holy One
to begin our quest for you
knowing and accepting
that you will forever escape
our every attempt to confine you
to what we can understand.
Our words cannot capture you.
Our imagination cannot define you.
Our hearts cannot limit you.
But support us, I beg you,
on a journey without end,
with a love that knows no bounds.
Angelus Silesius (1600’s)
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
God is the purest naught
untouched by time or space;
the more we reach for him,
the more he will escape.
Angelus Silesius (1600’s)
The life of letting go is the life of freedom, the life of nonattachment. Nonattachment doesn’t mean we are distant from things or have no warmth or no care for things; the word nonattachment is good because it suggests some distance and in love there always has to be some distance- some spaciousness or openness. In ordinary everyday human life there is always some desire- if there weren't any desire there couldn't be any life. But if desire is held onto too strongly it becomes very confining. If there’s too much strongly held desire in our loving then our loving becomes confining too and soon it is no longer love, it turns into dependency, or even antipathy; real love has to have some distance in it, some nonattachment.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
D.H. Lawrence wrote: “Men are not free when they are doing whatever they like. Men are only free when they are doing what the deepest self likes. And there is getting down to the deepest self. It takes some diving.”
When we are motivated by immediate gratification to do “just what we like”, we will feel continuously driven. No amount of productivity or consuming or recognition can break through the trance of unworthiness and put us in touch with the “deepest self”. As Lawrence points out, to do what the deepest self likes, “takes some diving.” To listen and respond to the heart requires a committed and genuine presence. The more completely we’re caught in the surface world of pursuing substitutes, the harder it is to dive.
Tara Brach
Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened to you.
For whoever asks, receives;
and he who seeks, finds;
and to him who knocks, the door is opened.
Matthew 7:7:8 - Jesus of Nazareth
With the eye of nonattachment we can see that the object of our love can never be possessed, can never be held onto. When I say this maybe it seems tragic to you. In a way it is tragic, tragic if you don’t like it and you don’t want to accept it. But if you accept it you see that it is a good thing that we cannot possess or hold onto the object of our love: because if we could it would not really be a living being; it would only be our invention, and inventions are not lovable. Any living being needs its own integrity and its own freedom and spaciousness- so there has to be always some distance and nonattachment in loving.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
As they could not agree on who was right they went to see the master. He listened as the first disciple praised the path of wholehearted effort and when asked by the disciple, “Is this the true path?” the master said, “You’re right.” The second disciple was quite upset and responded eloquently with the path of surrender and letting go.” When he had finished he asked, “Is this not the true path?” The ,master responded, “You are right.” A third disciple was in the room and said, “But master, they cannot both be right.” And the master smiled and said, “You are right too!”
It would be easier, Divine One
To stay with what I know
To take only well marked paths
to familiar places
in my heart and soul.
But if I am to come to you
then I must leave behind
the comfort of what I already know
and accept your invitation
to journey into your infinite mystery.
Take my hand,
guide my steps,
Give courage to my heart and soul.
John Kirvan
Friday, July 13, 2007
July 8, 2007
There ain’t no answer.
There ain’t going to be any answer.
There never has been an answer.
That’s the answer
Gertrude Stein
In the 16th century, St. John of the Cross counsels that after, and in the midst of, our liturgies, hymns and discursive prayers, Christians must also occasionally enter a dark night of the senses and soul, emptying ourselves of our self-centered preferences and ideas about God and everything else. Jesus modeled this discipline of self-emptying love for us, but he did not do it instead of us. We ourselves need to clear our minds of self-centered and habitual thinking. We must become inwardly nonattached in an ambience of love that continuously connects us to others and to creation. Our contemplative tradition tells us that when we open ourselves to the Divine movement within, the Holy Spirit will help us do this work. We do the work of creating a space within us for God, and then trust that the Holy Spirit will do the work in us: as we flow out of ourselves, the Holy Spirit flows in.
Wes Niskeryh
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Ho! If I am supposed to get sick, let me get sick, and I'll be happy. |
May this sickness purify my negative karma and the sickness of all sentient beings. |
If I am supposed to be healed, let all my sickness and confusion be healed, and I'll be happy. |
May all sentient beings be healed and filled with happiness. |
If I am supposed to die, let me die, and I'll be happy. |
May all the delusion and the causes of suffering of sentient beings die. |
If I am supposed to live a long life, let me live a long life, and I'll be happy. |
May my life be meaningful in service to sentient beings. |
If my life is to be cut short, let it be cut short, and I'll be happy. |
May I and all others be free from attachment and aversion. |
Letting go really is dying but dying isn’t just dying: dying is freedom, release, peacefulness. Dying means laying down the burden of our life and going off into the mountains for a big hike, just wandering around, like a cloud. Dying means that we don’t hold onto anything of the six senses- whatever we see hear smell taste touch or think we just appreciate it for what it actually is - we don’t “me” it and try to hold it fixed- we just let it come and go- we allow it to be born and die as it really is being born and dying moment by moment.
This is really the kindest way to live and it is the only way to love: to let each thing really be what it is and then to let it go- to let it be free. To try to hold ourselves or our world or another person in place is impossible. Nothing can be held in place. Life is very pressured, very stressful, very burdensome- and this is why- because we are trying mightily to hold in place what cannot be held in place, we are trying to preserve the unpreservable and fix the unfixable. Actually everything has integrity as it is; everything is surrounded by immense space: each of our thoughts, even our miseries, certainly trees and grasses, the sun and moon and clouds, our human body- everything passes and reappears as it is, all of it operating together in a marvelous harmony of freely passing by, if we will only let it, if we will only let go and allow it to be that way in the course of our living.
Zoketsu Norman Fischer
O, Brother of the Cosmos, focus your light within us -- make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other's guilt.
Don't let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.
THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS translated from the Aramaic by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz of the Sufi Order of the West
July 1, 2007
Let our hearts be the vessel of God's Love.
Let our thoughts be the blossom of God's Love.
Let our words be the expression of God's Love.
Let our actions be the fulfillment of God's Love.
willingness - David Ridge
Attachment is the origin, the root of suffering; hence it is the cause of suffering.’ [1]
Attachment is an attraction: a like or dislike, which we express in many different ways to people, situations, possessions and definitely in our own projections and expressions. In fact, we do not know how to live without attachment. It is a condition that can create some form of holding on to– sensory, sensual, emotional, intellectual, subjective or objective – some form of repulsion or attraction. This is the concept of attachment in a nutshell: It is the human tendency to identify with, to link up and to relate to something very intimately from a very personal point of view. We cannot develop objectivity in that situation because we are constantly projecting ourselves.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
If one
Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs
Attraction; from attraction grows desire,
Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds
Recklessness; then the memory—all betrayed—
Let noble purposes go, and saps the mind,
Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone.
Bhagavad Gita
Human beings get attached to ideas — ideas about who they are, what's the best way to live, ideas about what other people should be like, how other people should live, and so on — and our attachment to those ideas causes most of our day-to-day suffering. It really does. I know it seems like the circumstances and reality is what makes us unhappy. But it is our ideas about reality and believing that other people really should be different that causes the suffering, not the reality itself. When you change your ideas about something, it changes the way you feel about it.
Adam Khan
Do not expect any praise or reward.
If you let go a little, you will have a little peace.
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.
If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom.
Your struggles with the world
will have come to an end.
insight meditation - achaan chah
We tend to run away from discord. Discord and anger are real so what is the use of reacting against them? The moment we react we are creating a process within ourselves which holds on to the negativity, and the moment that happens, our mind, nature and behaviour are affected by that impression. Our past impressions and memories bring up the corresponding negative emotion and we project anger, frustration or discord, more so than it actually is.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.
mother teresa
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
Friday, July 6, 2007
June 24, 2007
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
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
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
Eckhart Tole
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.
Father's Day
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-- Annie Dillard
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for
they are gone forever."
-- Horace Mann
Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're
reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to
believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy,
more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming
of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your
awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and
what's happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each
moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
Marcelene Cox:
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.
Harry S Truman:
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the
calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to
return,' you will become time conscious."
-- A. B. Zu Tavern
"The Realm of God is here and now" — Jesus
In Philippians (2:5ff), St. Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself ” (Greek: kenosis), taking the form of a servant. Jesus’s many acts of service and healing did not come from a mind that was thinking and analyzing about what to do or say, but rather from a mind that had emptied itself into God. Jesus’s mind was emptied of self-reference and the centripetal force of merely personal preference. In his “emptiness,” God’s infinite love could shine through Jesus’s human form unencumbered. Through him, the invisible could become visible. In this way, the purified Christian mind is analogous to Tibetan Buddhist emptiness and to Zen’s “no-thought-ness” (Jap. munen). Visible, tangible compassion arises out of nothing, out of the emptiness that circulates in God. This spiritual emptiness is not a shallow nihilism, a nonchalant rejection of ultimate meaning, but rather a deep focused detachment of mind and heart that has been shaped within a profound ethical context Robert A. Jonas, 2006
"Remember God always, everywhere and in all situations…When you behold light, remember who gives it to you, when you see heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain, be in awe and give praise to their Creator. When you put on your clothes, remember whose gift they are and give thanks to Him who takes care of your needs.
Anonymous
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.
Robert A. Jonas, 2006
Friend, hope for a guest while you are alive
Jump into life while you are alive!
What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death
If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-- Annie Dillard
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for
they are gone forever."
-- Horace Mann
Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're
reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to
believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy,
more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming
of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your
awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and
what's happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each
moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
Marcelene Cox:
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.
Harry S Truman:
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the
calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to
return,' you will become time conscious."
-- A. B. Zu Tavern
"The Realm of God is here and now" — Jesus
In Philippians (2:5ff), St. Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself ” (Greek: kenosis), taking the form of a servant. Jesus’s many acts of service and healing did not come from a mind that was thinking and analyzing about what to do or say, but rather from a mind that had emptied itself into God. Jesus’s mind was emptied of self-reference and the centripetal force of merely personal preference. In his “emptiness,” God’s infinite love could shine through Jesus’s human form unencumbered. Through him, the invisible could become visible. In this way, the purified Christian mind is analogous to Tibetan Buddhist emptiness and to Zen’s “no-thought-ness” (Jap. munen). Visible, tangible compassion arises out of nothing, out of the emptiness that circulates in God. This spiritual emptiness is not a shallow nihilism, a nonchalant rejection of ultimate meaning, but rather a deep focused detachment of mind and heart that has been shaped within a profound ethical context Robert A. Jonas, 2006
From "The Way of the Pilgrim" (Christian writer):
"Remember God always, everywhere and in all situations…When you behold light, remember who gives it to you, when you see heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain, be in awe and give praise to their Creator. When you put on your clothes, remember whose gift they are and give thanks to Him who takes care of your needs.
Anonymous
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.
Robert A. Jonas, 2006
Friend, hope for a guest while you are alive
Jump into life while you are alive!
What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death
If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…
-- Annie Dillard
"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for
they are gone forever."
-- Horace Mann
Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're
reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to
believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy,
more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming
of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your
awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and
what's happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each
moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.
Marcelene Cox:
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.
Harry S Truman:
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the
calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to
return,' you will become time conscious."
-- A. B. Zu Tavern
"The Realm of God is here and now" — Jesus
In Philippians (2:5ff), St. Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself ” (Greek: kenosis), taking the form of a servant. Jesus’s many acts of service and healing did not come from a mind that was thinking and analyzing about what to do or say, but rather from a mind that had emptied itself into God. Jesus’s mind was emptied of self-reference and the centripetal force of merely personal preference. In his “emptiness,” God’s infinite love could shine through Jesus’s human form unencumbered. Through him, the invisible could become visible. In this way, the purified Christian mind is analogous to Tibetan Buddhist emptiness and to Zen’s “no-thought-ness” (Jap. munen). Visible, tangible compassion arises out of nothing, out of the emptiness that circulates in God. This spiritual emptiness is not a shallow nihilism, a nonchalant rejection of ultimate meaning, but rather a deep focused detachment of mind and heart that has been shaped within a profound ethical context Robert A. Jonas, 2006
"Remember God always, everywhere and in all situations…When you behold light, remember who gives it to you, when you see heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain, be in awe and give praise to their Creator. When you put on your clothes, remember whose gift they are and give thanks to Him who takes care of your needs.
Anonymous
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.
A healed person is . . . a person who realizes a new personal identity as one who comes from God and is going to God. Such a person knows that he or she lives a limited, chronologically circumscribed life, and yet one also feels oneself to be standing in a place of love, blessedness, freedom and healing that is timeless. In Jesus's mind, such a person refocuses his or her life to love God and others in unselfish ways. St. Paul would call such a state of consciousness the mind of Christ--something that we already have, if we but turn to God in each moment. This much seems clear.
Robert A. Jonas, 2006
Friend, hope for a guest while you are alive
Jump into life while you are alive!
What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death
If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…
Kabir
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