AWAKENING FROM THE DREAM

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2010-06-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

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Osho's Enlightenment

2010-05-22T22:54:00.000-05:00

Osho’s Enlightenment in His Own Words

I am reminded of the fateful day of twenty-first March, 1953. For many lives I had been working — working upon myself, struggling, doing whatsoever can be done — and nothing was happening.

Now I understand why nothing was happening. The very effort was the barrier, the very ladder was preventing, the very urge to seek was the obstacle. Not that one can reach without seeking. Seeking is needed, but then comes a point when seeking has to be dropped. The boat is needed to cross the river but then comes a moment when you have to get out of the boat and forget all about it and leave it behind. Effort is needed, without effort nothing is possible. And also only with effort, nothing is possible.

Just before twenty-first March, 1953, seven days before, I stopped working on myself. A moment comes when you see the whole futility of effort. You have done all that you can do and nothing is happening. You have done all that is humanly possible. Then what else can you do? In sheer helplessness one drops all search.

And the day the search stopped, the day I was not seeking for something, the day I was not expecting something to happen, it started happening. A new energy arose — out of nowhere. It was not coming from any source. It was coming from nowhere and everywhere. It was in the trees and in the rocks and the sky and the sun and the air — it was everywhere. And I was seeking so hard, and I was thinking it is very far away. And it was so near and so close.

Just because I was seeking I had become incapable of seeing the near. Seeking is always for the far, seeking is always for the distant — and it was not distant. I had become far-sighted, I had lost the near-sightedness. The eyes had become focussed on the far away, the horizon, and they had lost the quality to see that which is just close, surrounding you.

The day effort ceased, I also ceased. Because you cannot exist without effort, and you cannot exist without desire, and you cannot exist without striving.

The phenomenon of the ego, of the self, is not a thing, it is a process. It is not a substance sitting there inside you; you have to create it each moment. It is like pedalling bicycle. If you pedal it goes on and on, if you don’t pedal it stops. It may go a little because of the past momentum, but the moment you stop pedalling, in fact the bicycle starts stopping. It has no more energy, no more power to go anywhere. It is going to fall and collapse.

The ego exists because we go on pedalling desire, because we go on striving to get something, because we go on jumping ahead of ourselves. That is the very phenomenon of the ego — the jump ahead of yourself, the jump in the future, the jump in the tomorrow. The jump in the non-existential creates the ego. Because it comes out of the non-existential it is like a mirage. It consists only of desire and nothing else. It consists only of thirst and nothing else.

The ego is not in the present, it is in the future. If you are in the future, then ego seems to be very substantial. If you are in the present the ego is a mirage, it starts disappearing.

The day I stopped seeking… and it is not right to say that I stopped seeking, better will be to say the day seeking stopped. Let me repeat it: the better way to say it is the day the seeking stopped. Because if I stop it then I am there again. Now stopping becomes my effort, now stopping becomes my desire, and desire goes on existing in a very subtle way.

You cannot stop desire; you can only understand it. In the very understanding is the stopping of it. Remember, nobody can stop desiring, and the reality happens only when desire stops.

So this is the dilemma. What to do? Desire is there and Buddhas go on saying desire has to be stopped, and they go on saying in the next breath that you cannot stop desire. So what to do? You put people in a dilemma. They are in desire, certainly. You say it has to be stopped — okay. And then you say it cannot be stopped. Then what is to be done?

The desire has to be understood. You can understand it, you can just see the futility of it. A direct perception is needed, an immediate penetration is needed. Look into desire, just see what it is, and you will see the falsity of it, and you will see it is non-existential. And desire drops and something drops simultaneously within you.

Desire and the ego exist in cooperation, they coordinate. The ego cannot exist without desire, the desire cannot exist without the ego. Desire is projected ego, ego is introjected desire. They are together, two aspects of one phenomenon.

The day desiring stopped, I felt very hopeless and helpless. No hope because no future. Nothing to hope because all hoping has proved futile, it leads nowhere. You go in rounds. It goes on dangling in front of you, it goes on creating new mirages, it goes on calling you, ‘Come on, run fast, you will reach.’ But howsoever fast you run you never reach.

That’s why Buddha calls it a mirage. It is like the horizon that you see around the earth. It appears but it is not there. If you go it goes on running from you. The faster you run, the faster it moves away. The slower you go, the slower it moves away. But one thing is certain — the distance between you and the horizon remains absolutely the same. Not even a single inch can you reduce the distance between you and the horizon.

You cannot reduce the distance between you and your hope. Hope is horizon. You try to bridge yourself with the horizon, with the hope, with a projected desire. The desire is a bridge, a dream bridge — because the horizon exists not, so you cannot make a bridge towards it, you can only dream about the bridge. You cannot be joined with the non-existential.

The day the desire stopped, the day I looked and realized into it, it simply was futile. I was helpless and hopeless. But that very moment something started happening. The same started happening for which for many lives I was working and it was not happening.

In your hopelessness is the only hope, and in your desirelessness is your only fulfillment, and in your tremendous helplessness suddenly the whole existence starts helping you.

It is waiting. When it sees that you are working on your own, it does not interfere. It waits. It can wait infinitely because there is no hurry for it. It is eternity. The moment you are not on your own, the moment you drop, the moment you disappear, the whole existence rushes towards you, enters you. And for the first time things start happening.

Seven days I lived in a very hopeless and helpless state, but at the same time something was arising. When I say hopeless I don’t mean what you mean by the word hopeless. I simply mean there was no hope in me. Hope was absent. I am not saying that I was hopeless and sad. I was happy in fact, I was very tranquil, calm and collected and centered. Hopeless, but in a totally new meaning. There was no hope, so how could there be hopelessness. Both had disappeared.

The hopelessness was absolute and total. Hope had disappeared and with it its counterpart, hopelessness, had also disappeared. It was a totally new experience — of being without hope. It was not a negative state. I have to use words — but it was not a negative state. It was absolutely positive. It was not just absence, a presence was felt. Something was overflowing in me, overflooding me.

And when I say I was helpless, I don’t mean the word in the dictionary-sense. I simply say I was selfless. That’s what I mean when I say helpless. I have recognized the fact that I am not, so I cannot depend on myself, so I cannot stand on my own ground — there was no ground underneath. I was in an abyss… bottomless abyss. But there was no fear because there was nothing to protect. There was no fear because there was nobody to be afraid.

Those seven days were of tremendous transformation, total transformation. And the last day the presence of a totally new energy, a new light and new delight, became so intense that it was almost unbearable — as if I was exploding, as if I was going mad with blissfulness. The new generation in the West has the right word for it — I was blissed out, stoned.

It was impossible to make any sense out of it, what was happening. It was a very non-sense world — difficult to figure it out, difficult to manage in categories, difficult to use words, languages, explanations. All scriptures appeared dead and all the words that have been used for this experience looked very pale, anaemic. This was so alive. It was like a tidal wave of bliss.

The whole day was strange, stunning, and it was a shattering experience. The past was disappearing, as if it had never belonged to me, as if I had read about it somewhere, as if I had dreamed about it, as if it was somebody else’s story I have heard and somebody told it to me. I was becoming loose from my past, I was being uprooted from my history, I was losing my autobiography. I was becoming a non-being, what Buddha calls anatta. Boundaries were disappearing, distinctions were disappearing.

Mind was disappearing; it was millions of miles away. It was difficult to catch hold of it, it was rushing farther and farther away, and there was no urge to keep it close. I was simply indifferent about it all. It was okay. There was no urge to remain continuous with the past.

By the evening it became so difficult to bear it — it was hurting, it was painful. It was like when a woman goes into labour when a child is to be born, and the woman suffers tremendous pain — the birth pangs.

I used to go to sleep in those days near about twelve or one in the night, but that day it was impossible to remain awake. My eyes were closing, it was difficult to keep them open. Something was very imminent, something was going to happen. It was difficult to say what it was — maybe it is going to be my death — but there was no fear. I was ready for it. Those seven days had been so beautiful that I was ready to die, nothing more was needed. They had been so tremendously blissful, I was so contented, that if death was coming, it was welcome.

But something was going to happen — something like death, something very drastic, something which will be either a death or a new birth, a crucifixion or a resurrection — but something of tremendous import was around just by the corner. And it was impossible to keep my eyes open. I was drugged.

I went to sleep near about eight. It was not like sleep. Now I can understand what Patanjali means when he says that sleep and samadhi are similar. Only with one difference — that in samadhi you are fully awake and asleep also. Asleep and awake together, the whole body relaxed, every cell of the body totally relaxed, all functioning relaxed, and yet a light of awareness burns within you… clear, smokeless. You remain alert and yet relaxed, loose but fully awake. The body is in the deepest sleep possible and your consciousness is at its peak. The peak of consciousness and the valley of the body meet.

I went to sleep. It was a very strange sleep. The body was asleep, I was awake. It was so strange — as if one was torn apart into two directions, two dimensions; as if the polarity has become completely focused, as if I was both the polarities together… the positive and negative were meeting, sleep and awareness were meeting, death and life were meeting. That is the moment when you can say ‘the creator and the creation meet.’

It was weird. For the first time it shocks you to the very roots, it shakes your foundations. You can never be the same after that experience; it brings a new vision to your life, a new quality.

Near about twelve my eyes suddenly opened — I had not opened them. The sleep was broken by something else. I felt a great presence around me in the room. It was a very small room. I felt a throbbing life all around me, a great vibration — almost like a hurricane, a great storm of light, joy, ecstasy. I was drowning in it.

It was so tremendously real that everything became unreal. The walls of the room became unreal, the house became unreal, my own body became unreal. Everything was unreal because now there was for the first time reality.

That’s why when Buddha and Shankara say the world is maya, a mirage, it is difficult for us to understand. Because we know only this world, we don’t have any comparison. This is the only reality we know. What are these people talking about — this is maya, illusion? This is the only reality. Unless you come to know the really real, their words cannot be understood, their words remain theoretical. They look like hypotheses. Maybe this man is propounding a philosophy — ‘The world is unreal’.

When Berkley in the West said that the world is unreal, he was walking with one of his friends, a very logical man; the friend was almost a skeptic. He took a stone from the road and hit Berkley’s feet hard. Berkley screamed, blood rushed out, and the skeptic said, ‘Now, the world is unreal? You say the world is unreal? — then why did you scream? This stone is unreal? — then why did you scream? Then why are you holding your leg and why are you showing so much pain and anguish on your face. Stop this? It is all unreal.

Now this type of man cannot understand what Buddha means when he says the world is a mirage. He does not mean that you can pass through the wall. He is not saying this — that you can eat stones and it will make no difference whether you eat bread or stones. He is not saying that.

He is saying that there is a reality. Once you come to know it, this so-called reality simply pales out, simply becomes unreal. With a higher reality in vision the comparison arises, not otherwise.

In the dream; the dream is real. You dream every night. Dream is one of the greatest activities that you go on doing. If you live sixty years, twenty years you will sleep and almost ten years you will dream. Ten years in a life — nothing else do you do so much. Ten years of continuous dreaming — just think about it. And every night…. And every morning you say it was unreal, and again in the night when you dream, dream becomes real.

In a dream it is so difficult to remember that this is a dream. But in the morning it is so easy. What happens? You are the same person. In the dream there is only one reality. How to compare? How to say it is unreal? Compared to what? It is the only reality. Everything is as unreal as everything else so there is no comparison. In the morning when you open your eyes another reality is there. Now you can say it was all unreal. Compared to this reality, dream becomes unreal.

There is an awakening — compared to THAT reality of THAT awakening, this whole reality becomes unreal.

That night for the first time I understood the meaning of the word maya. Not that I had not known the word before, not that I was not aware of the meaning of the word. As you are aware, I was also aware of the meaning — but I had never understood it before. How can you understand without experience?

That night another reality opened its door, another dimension became available. Suddenly it was there, the other reality, the separate reality, the really real, or whatsoever you want to call it — call it god, call it truth, call it dhamma, call it tao, or whatsoever you will. It was nameless. But it was there — so opaque, so transparent, and yet so solid one could have touched it. It was almost suffocating me in that room. It was too much and I was not yet capable of absorbing it.

A deep urge arose in me to rush out of the room, to go under the sky — it was suffocating me. It was too much! It will kill me! If I had remained a few moments more, it would have suffocated me — it looked like that.

I rushed out of the room, came out in the street. A great urge was there just to be under the sky with the stars, with the trees, with the earth… to be with nature. And immediately as I came out, the feeling of being suffocated disappeared. It was too small a place for such a big phenomenon. Even the sky is a small place for that big phenomenon. It is bigger than the sky. Even the sky is not the limit for it. But then I felt more at ease.

I walked towards the nearest garden. It was a totally new walk, as if gravitation had disappeared. I was walking, or I was running, or I was simply flying; it was difficult to decide. There was no gravitation, I was feeling weightless — as if some energy was taking me. I was in the hands of some other energy.

For the first time I was not alone, for the first time I was no more an individual, for the first time the drop has come and fallen into the ocean. Now the whole ocean was mine, I was the ocean. There was no limitation. A tremendous power arose as if I could do anything whatsoever. I was not there, only the power was there.

I reached to the garden where I used to go every day. The garden was closed, closed for the night. It was too late, it was almost one o’clock in the night. The gardeners were fast asleep. I had to enter the garden like a thief, I had to climb the gate. But something was pulling me towards the garden. It was not within my capacity to prevent myself. I was just floating.

That’s what I mean when I say again and again ‘float with the river, don’t push the river’. I was relaxed, I was in a let-go. I was not there. IT was there, call it god — god was there.

I would like to call it IT, because god is too human a word, and has become too dirty by too much use, has become too polluted by so many people. Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, priests and politicians — they all have corrupted the beauty of the word. So let me call it IT. IT was there and I was just carried away… carried by a tidal wave.

The moment I entered the garden everything became luminous, it was all over the place — the benediction, the blessedness. I could see the trees for the first time — their green, their life, their very sap running. The whole garden was asleep, the trees were asleep. But I could see the whole garden alive, even the small grass leaves were so beautiful.

I looked around. One tree was tremendously luminous — the maulshree tree. It attracted me, it pulled me towards itself. I had not chosen it, god himself has chosen it. I went to the tree, I sat under the tree. As I sat there things started settling. The whole universe became a benediction.

It is difficult to say how long I was in that state. When I went back home it was four o’clock in the morning, so I must have been there by clock time at least three hours — but it was infinity. It had nothing to do with clock time. It was timeless.

Those three hours became the whole eternity, endless eternity. There was no time, there was no passage of time; it was the virgin reality — uncorrupted, untouchable, unmeasurable.

And that day something happened that has continued — not as a continuity — but it has still continued as an undercurrent. Not as a permanency — each moment it has been happening again and again. It has been a miracle each moment.

That night… and since that night I have never been in the body. I am hovering around it. I became tremendously powerful and at the same time very fragile. I became very strong, but that strength is not the strength of a Mohammed Ali. That strength is not the strength of a rock, that strength is the strength of a rose flower — so fragile in his strength… so fragile, so sensitive, so delicate.

The rock will be there, the flower can go any moment, but still the flower is stronger than the rock because it is more alive. Or, the strength of a dewdrop on a leaf of grass just shining; in the morning sun — so beautiful, so precious, and yet can slip any moment. So incomparable in its grace, but a small breeze can come and the dewdrop can slip and be lost forever.

Buddhas have a strength which is not of this world. Their strength is totally of love… Like a rose flower or a dewdrop. Their strength is very fragile, vulnerable. Their strength is the strength of life not of death. Their power is not of that which kills; their power is of that which creates. Their power is not of violence, aggression; their power is that of compassion.

But I have never been in the body again, I am just hovering around the body. And that’s why I say it has been a tremendous miracle. Each moment I am surprised I am still here, I should not be. I should have left any moment, still I am here. Every morning I open my eyes and I say, ‘So, again I am still here?’ Because it seems almost impossible. The miracle has been a continuity.

Just the other day somebody asked a question — ‘Osho, you are getting so fragile and delicate and so sensitive to the smells of hair oils and shampoos that it seems we will not be able to see you unless we all go bald.’ By the way, nothing is wrong with being bald — bald is beautiful. Just as ‘black is beautiful’, so ‘bald is beautiful’. But that is true and you have to be careful about it.

I am fragile, delicate and sensitive. That is my strength. If you throw a rock at a flower nothing will happen to the rock, the flower will be gone. But still you cannot say that the rock is more powerful than the flower. The flower will be gone because the flower was alive. And the rock — nothing will happen to it because it is dead. The flower will be gone because the flower has no strength to destroy. The flower will simply disappear and give way to the rock. The rock has a power to destroy because the rock is dead.

Remember, since that day I have never been in the body really; just a delicate thread joins me with the body. And I am continuously surprised that somehow the whole must be willing me to be here, because I am no more here with my own strength, I am no more here on my own. It must be the will of the whole to keep me here, to allow me to linger a little more on this shore. Maybe the whole wants to share something with you through me.

Since that day the world is unreal. Another world has been revealed. When I say the world is unreal I don’t mean that these trees are unreal. These trees are absolutely real — but the way you see these trees is unreal. These trees are not unreal in themselves — they exist in god, they exist in absolute reality — but the way you see them you never see them; you are seeing something else, a mirage.

You create your own dream around you and unless you become awake you will continue to dream. The world is unreal because the world that you know is the world of your dreams. When dreams drop and you simply encounter the world that is there, then the real world.

There are not two things, god and the world. God is the world if you have eyes, clear eyes, without any dreams, without any dust of the dreams, without any haze of sleep; if you have clear eyes, clarity, perceptiveness, there is only god.

Then somewhere god is a green tree, and somewhere else god is a shining star, and somewhere else god is a cuckoo, and somewhere else god is a flower, and somewhere else a child and somewhere else a river — then only god is. The moment you start seeing, only god is.

But right now whatsoever you see is not the truth, it is a projected lie. That is the meaning of a mirage. And once you see, even for a single split moment, if you can see, if you can allow yourself to see, you will find immense benediction present all over, everywhere — in the clouds, in the sun, on the earth.

This is a beautiful world. But I am not talking about your world, I am talking about my world. Your world is very ugly, your world is your world created by a self, your world is a projected world. You are using the real world as a screen and projecting your own ideas on it.

When I say the world is real, the world is tremendously beautiful, the world is luminous with infinity, the world is light and delight, it is a celebration, I mean my world — or your world if you drop your dreams.

When you drop your dreams you see the same world as any Buddha has ever seen. When you dream you dream privately. Have you watched it? — that dreams are private. You cannot share them even with your beloved. You cannot invite your wife to your dream — or your husband, or your friend. You cannot say, ‘Now, please come tonight in my dream. I would like to see the dream together.’ It is not possible. Dream is a private thing, hence it is illusory, it has no objective reality.

God is a universal thing. Once you come out of your private dreams, it is there. It has been always there. Once your eyes are clear, a sudden illumination — suddenly you are overflooded with beauty, grandeur and grace. That is the goal, that is the destiny.

Let me repeat. Without effort you will never reach it, with effort nobody has ever reached it. You will need great effort, and only then there comes a moment.when effort becomes futile. But it becomes futile only when you have come to the very peak of it, never before it. When you have come to the very pinnacle of your effort — all that you can do you have done — then suddenly there is no need to do anything any more. You drop the effort.

But nobody can drop it in the middle, it can be dropped only at the extreme end. So go to the extreme end if you want to drop it. Hence I go on insisting: make as much effort as you can, put your whole energy and total heart in it, so that one day you can see — now effort is not going to lead me anywhere. And that day it will not be you who will drop the effort, it drops on its own accord. And when it drops on its own accord, meditation happens.

Meditation is not a result of your efforts, meditation is a happening. When your efforts drop, suddenly meditation is there… the benediction of it, the blessedness of it, the glory of it. It is there like a presence… luminous, surrounding you and surrounding everything. It fills the whole earth and the whole sky.

That meditation cannot be created by human effort. Human effort is too limited. That blessedness is so infinite. You cannot manipulate it. It can happen only when you are in a tremendous surrender. When you are not there only then it can happen. When you are a no-self — no desire, not going anywhere — when you are just herenow, not doing anything in particular, just being, it happens. And it comes in waves and the waves become tidal. It comes like a storm, and takes you away into a totally new reality.

But first you have to do all that you can do, and then you have to learn non-doing. The doing of the non-doing is the greatest doing, and the effort of effortlessness is the greatest effort.

Your meditation that you create by chanting a mantra or by sitting quiet and still and forcing yourself, is a very mediocre meditation. It is created by you, it cannot be bigger than you. It is homemade, and the maker is always bigger than the made. You have made it by sitting, forcing in a yoga posture, chanting ‘rama, rama, rama’ or anything — ‘blah, blah, blah’ — anything. You have forced the mind to become still.

It is a forced stillness. It is not that quiet that comes when you are not there. It is not that silence which comes when you are almost non-existential. It is not that beautitude which descends on you like a dove.

It is said when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, god descended in him, or the holy ghost descended in him like a dove. Yes, that is exactly so. When you are not there peace descends in you… fluttering like a dove… reaches in your heart and abides there and abides there forever.

You are your undoing, you are the barrier. Meditation is when the meditator is not. When the mind ceases with all its activities — seeing that they are futile — then the unknown penetrates you, overwhelms you.

The mind must cease for god to be. Knowledge must cease for knowing to be. You must disappear, you must give way. You must become empty, then only you can be full.

That night I became empty and became full. I became non-existential and became existence. That night I died and was reborn. But the one that was reborn has nothing to do with that which died, it is a discontinuous thing. On the surface it looks continuous but it is discontinuous. The one who died, died totally; nothing of him has remained.

Believe me, nothing of him has remained, not even a shadow. It died totally, utterly. It is not that I am just a modified RUP, transformed, modified form, transformed form of the old. No, there has been no continuity. That day of March twenty-first, the person who had lived for many many lives, for millennia, simply died. Another being, absolutely new, not connected at all with the old, started to exist.

Religion just gives you a total death. Maybe that’s why the whole day previous to that happening I was feeling some urgency like death, as if I am going to die — and I really died. I have known many other deaths but they were nothing compared to it, they were partial deaths.

Sometimes the body died, sometimes a part of the mind died, sometimes a part of the ego died, but as far as the person was concerned, it remained. Renovated many times, decorated many times, changed a little bit here and there, but it remained, the continuity remained.

That night the death was total. It was a date with death and god simultaneously.

This is excerpted from The Discipline of Transcendence, Volume 2, Chapter 11. It has also been republished under the title The Buddha Said, Chapter 11. Watkins Publishing, London.

Rumi, as read by Coleman Barks

2010-05-20T23:43:00.002-05:00

The Dance of Consciousness and the Supreme Truth

2010-05-18T19:31:00.001-05:00

This particular interview with Muktananda was conducted in the summer of 1979 at Muktananda's Catskill Mountain ashram. It has been acknowledged by the Muktananda community to be the best interview with Baba during his Western tour. The interview was aired on In the Spirit in October. 1979. Approximately 25,000 persons heard this interview. It was, in a real sense, a cultural phenomenon. In keeping with that sense, Re-Vision has excerpted some of the radio commentary by Lex Hixon, made after the playing of his interview. For additional information about this interview and others which Lex Hixon has done, write to: In the Spirit Foundation, P.O. Box 279, Riverdale, NY 10471.

The Dance of Consciousness and the Supreme Truth:

An Interview with Swami Muktananda

Conducted by

LEX HIXON

Hixon: We are reminded again and again that life is impermanent. I would like to know what people should do when they eventually leave their bodies.

Baba: Life is not completely impermanent; we can make it permanent. Life itself is beautiful, so bewitching, so attractive. It can be anything that we want it to be. God gave birth to this creation from His own being, and it is not different from Him. God is very disciplined, very regular. He makes every second come at the right time. Why aren't we like that? We should think about this very carefully.

Hixon: When a person dies the impermanent parts of his being must disappear, leaving something permanent. What is it that remains after physical death?

Baba: That is the Truth. the Self, God. That is Consciousness or Shakti, energy. Through That we are able to perform all actions. The supreme Truth never changes; it always remains the same. It is not tainted by impurity or by purity or by anything else. Because of that Consciousness, we are able to perform actions.

We always say, "1, 1, 1,” but we are not aware of the true nature of that "I". Do we call the parts of this body "I"? The prana helps this body to function. Do we call that prana "I"? The Self of the universe, God, exists inside this body and makes the universe work. Do we call that “?”. Are we aware which "I" is "I"?

Hixon: So that "I" is not really a personal being. That "I" is not either Lex or Baba Muktananda.

Baba: That "I" is the supreme Truth. That "I" is neither Muktananda nor Carter nor the Pope. That "I" is the supreme Truth, Consciousness, and it is, in fact, everything. From this "I" many worlds arise and subside, arise and subside. From one seed comes a tree; from one tree come many seeds; from many seeds come many trees. Even if the trees do not exist, the seed is still there. From that seed come many more trees. So the seed is the "I," Supreme Truth. Consciousness, and it is the same for everybody. It belongs equally to all. That Consciousness exists within itself and, in the same measure, it also exists in us and in everyone - in Nityananda, my Guru, and also in Jesus.

Hixon: So when this form of Muktananda passes away, that same supreme "I" will remain exactly as it is now?

Baba: Yes, it will remain the same. Even if the body leaves, That does not leave. The body comes and goes, but That always remains. I can explain this to you in simple words. Just as the inner space of this room remains whether or not the walls remain standing, so regardless of the body's impermanence, That is permanent. It is the truth. Some people call it God. Whether you call it God or Rama or Allah, that truth remains the same.

Hixon: But there seems to be a special manifestation, for instance, through Baba. The supreme "I" is not as clearly manifest through other people, What is that particular stream of manifestation that we call Baba Muktananda?

Baba: The inner Truth that exists inside me also exists inside you and everybody else. There isn't the slightest difference. The only difference is that I have turned within and perceived it. I have made That reveal itself to me. However, you don't turn within and see it because you always want to be focused outside, If you also turn within, then the same stream that flows out of my body will flow out of yours. Truly speaking, in God's creation there is no disparity: there is only equality. In one factory the same objects are manufactured. They are all identical. Similarly, everything is the same in the Lord's factory.

Hixon: Still, there appears to be some difference because people find their spiritual consciousness being awakened in the presence of Baba but not in the presence of others – even other spiritual teachers.

Baba: There may be such a difference now, but if everybody were to become like me then the difference would vanish.

Hixon: What would be left?

Baba: Only the supreme Truth.

Hixon: Still manifesting as the world or formless?

Baba: Even in the form of the world the Truth exists. The world is not different from the Truth. Water becomes ice, and ice becomes water again. In the same way, the world comes out of the supreme Truth. That Truth exists in the world, and the world belongs to it. Because the world comes out of the supreme Truth, Shaivism says, "The world is the play of Consciousness." The first aphorism of Shaivism is, "The Self is Consciousness." The world is Consciousness.

Hixon: Baba, you have opened a door into pure Consciousness for those who love you. Will that door stay open through you for the next 100 or 200 years?

Baba: It will always remain open, because this lineage will never be broken. Baba Nityananda, my Guru, gave me his work to do. Similarly, when I leave this world, I will have to make somebody else responsible for the work. When Nixon left, Ford came, and when Ford left, Carter came.

Hixon: Do you have anyone in mind for this heavy burden?

Baba: Somebody will pop up from somewhere.

Hixon: Do you think it will be focused in one person or in several people?

Baba: There will be one main person; however, he will need many other people's help. Look at me. I do a lot of work; however, I have many people to help me. Does President Carter do all his work by himself? No. He has many aides. However, there is only one President.

Hixon: It seems that people who have been close to you have received your grace to the point where they can transmit it to some extent to other people. I wanted to say that we are very grateful that thousands upon thousands of these people have popped up in this country.

Baba: Yes, many people are working in the same line. The shakti is working in all of them. Many will also do this work in the future. This mission will continue to increase. Many will do the work.

Hixon: In your autobiography we read your marvelous experiences where you feel that your true being is permeating everything on all planes. I assume that some day when this form of Baba Muktananda disappears, your special presence will always be felt on all planes of being.

Baba: Yes, that will remain in all planes, continuing to do the work. My Baba, my Guru, -is still doing the work. Even if you put his photo somewhere, his photo also works. People should not feel strange about this. What place exists without Consciousness? So that Consciousness exists in the photo, too.

Hixon: When you say your Guru, Baba Nityananda, do you mean anything other than the supreme "I"? Is there something particular about him?

Baba: It's the same thing, the supreme Truth, Nityananda. In Nityananda, too, the same supreme Truth existed, and the same supreme Truth became Nityananda.

Hixon: Can we ask the same question about Jesus and Rama and other great beings? Are they really nothing more than the supreme Truth or are there different lineages extending from these different beings?

Baba: The Self is the same in all of them. However, their mission may be different. Take, for example, Krishna. People who lived in his time said that he was the incarnation of the supreme Truth. He was never defeated by wicked people- A great being or the supreme Truth is That which is never defeated by anybody, That which never falls. From the viewpoint of the Self, everyone is the same.

Hixon: You spoke about the fact that different teachers could have different missions. Baba, can you say something about what your mission is in this life.

Baba: My mission is not any particular religion. It is a spiritual revolution. My teaching is "Look within. Understand your own Self. Perceive your own Self. Attain your own ‘Self.' To learn this, I teach that you don't have to depend an external things. I don't say that somebody lives up there that one day he will come down to help you. I don't deny the existence of somebody up there, but I say He is in you, too, in the same measure. So look within and attain Him right inside yourself. I don't give much importance to class or caste or particular religions or anything of that kind. It does not matter whether you are black or white, yellow red. All colors and all classes have come from God. I don't like to make any distinctions. My purpose is to say, ‘The supreme Truth exists inside everybody, so look within, perceive That, and attain That.'

Hixon: But just by looking within, no one will achieve anything if he doesn't have your grace.

Baba: It is true that you need grace also. When I tell you to look within, to enter inside, grace follows with those words.

Hixon: It's not like the ordinary words, 'look within’. Somehow when Baba says to look within, it contains the actual Shakti, the energy that makes it possible.

Baba: You are absolutely right. Both the grace and the shakti follow those words. The Shakti, the energy of the Self, is so great.

Hixon: There may be thousands of people reading this -iterview, Baba. Please tell them to look within and transmit the Shakti right now.

Baba: Not only thousands - I want to tell the entire world. Give up your notions of different castes, different classes, different sects, different religions. Stop moving on the outside. Enter within, and see what you perceive inside. The reason you perceive differences from one society to another, from one caste to another, from one country to another, is that you are only looking outside. If you turn within and attain the inner Self, then you will see the same inner Self in all countries, in all individuals. and in all places. You will see and experience the same divine bliss everywhere. If everyone were to look within and perceive the inner Self, then weapons would become unnecessary. Nations wouldn't have to have hatred and hostility toward one another, wouldn't bomb one another and plot each other's destruction. God has created this world for His own pleasure. He has created wealth for His own joy. We use this wealth not for our own good, or for our own pleasure, but to make poisonous ammunitions.

Hixon: Even the ignorance of human beings, even their tendency to look outside, must also be a part of God's play.

Baba: It is the result of forgetting God.

Hixon: But if everything is the play of Consciousness how can one forget? How can Consciousness forget itself?

Baba: It's not that Consciousness has forgotten itself. We ourselves have kept Consciousness other than ourselves. A king who is sleeping dreams that he has become a beggar and he weeps and wails; however, when the king wakes up, he laughs at himself because he thought that he had become a beggar. We are in the same predicament.

Hixon: But the king has certain samskaras or tendencies and that's why he would have the dream of being a beggar.

But there are no tendencies or samskaras in pure Consciousness, so how can it have this dream of being limited persons?

Baba: There is no limitation in Consciousness. It is our own samskaras from the past which make us feel that we are contracted. Due to these samskaras we become contracted. Once we have right understanding, we again expand. Therefore, a person should expand himself.

Hixon: Doesn't some of the highest Vedantic teaching imply that there is ultimately no expansion or contraction?

Baba: It is very true. Once you attain that ultimate understanding then there is nothing. Then you will know that everything is the expansion or the pervasion of Consciousness. Therefore, Shaivism says, "The world is the sport of Consciousness."

Hixon: So when you, Baba, look at the seekers of truth who come here, and you see them expanding and contracting in their own eyes, you really ultimately don't see anything except the play of Consciousness - no expansion and no contraction?

Baba: From my point of view, they are not contracted. But they think they are contracted. When you take ornaments to the goldsmith he looks only at the gold; he does not look at the ornaments in different shapes and sizes. However, if the customer goes there he looks at the outward forms. He does not look only at the gold.

Hixon: Baba, thank you for sharing our limited dreams and nightmares with us even though you remain beyond the dream state.

Baba: It isn't that for me. From your viewpoint you are dreaming but from my viewpoint you are not. You are the Truth. You watch your own dream, but I don't watch your dream; I see you as my own Self.

Hixon: From Baba's point of view there really are no dreams? There are no limitations? There are no individuals apart from pure Consciousness?

Baba: Yes, only the play of Consciousness. Only the drama, only the dance of Consciousness. For example, take the ordinary drama. There is a producer. How does he look at the drama? Isn't it a mere play for him?

Hixon: You always mention the play of Consciousness and the dance of Consciousness. Why does it play? Why doesn't it remain entirely still?

Baba: Even while it is playing its stillness is not disturbed. In the ocean so many waves leap up and down, up and down. Although that happens, the ocean's profundity is not disturbed.

Hixon: So Shakti is the playful aspect and Shiva is the absolutely still aspect?

Baba: Yes, supreme Shiva always remains supremely serene, quiet, and still. The Shakti that vibrates from Him does all the play.

Hixon: Then the communion of Shiva and Shakti means that the play and the stillness exist exactly at the same time and are actually synonymous?

Baba: Even when the play takes place the stillness is not disturbed. For example, now, I am moving my hands, making gestures, but that inner stillness is not disturbed. In the same way, while the play goes on the total stillness of the supreme Truth is not disturbed. It's a matter of understanding.

Hixon: Are some people more drawn to the supreme stillness and others drawn to the play?

Baba: Most people are drawn to the play. The reason for this is that they don't have any understanding of the Truth.

Hixon: Baba, please bless us that we can be drawn to the stillness and grant us Shivapat as well as Shaktipat (the descent of Shiva as well as the descent of Shakti).

Baba: From all your questions I understand and I believe that you do have the understanding of Shiva to a certain extent.

Hixon: Please bless us that it may increase and deepen.

Baba: It will keep increasing and increasing and increasing. It will keep increasing to the state of Shiva. Once you reach that state it will rest. Even if people were to hear this much it would be enough for them. I give this message to everybody, not to a particular society or caste. My message is, 'meditate on your own Self, understand your own Self, attain your own Self; the supreme Truth dwells within you as you.' In infinite forms He pervades everywhere; however, He is One. However we categorize Him, there is no division in Him. We should stop categorizing Him, and should see Him as one. Whatever role you have taken upon yourself to play, play it very well and with great responsibility. Take care of your family life with great respect. With love, take care of your children. No matter what work you are doing, keep God and standards of morality before you at all times. Don't think that you, your actions, and God are separate. See Him in the entire universe. Although He is infinite and manifold, He is One. Attain this awareness.

I am very pleased with your interview, because you asked the exact questions that should be asked in an exact interview. Many reporters and television interviewers have come to me bringing lists of questions. You have asked questions without notes, so you are the right person to interview a saddhu, a holy man.

Hixon: Baba, the questions as well as the answers come from you.

Baba: They all come from the same place. In my entire tour, you are the only one who has come to me and has asked questions without a list of notes. And they are the right questions that you have asked. Otherwise, people ask questions about politics or Jim Jones or robbing banks. They don't ask the questions they should ask. They ask about the poverty of other countries, but they forget about their own poverty.

Hixon: Thank you, Baba.

Excerpts from Lex Hixon's Radio Commentary

I am extremely grateful to have had this time with as great a god-realized sage as Muktananda. It is very rare, particularly in an interview, to be able to capture something like this mind-to-mind and heart-to-heart contact, this mutuality between a realized person and a seeker of realization. Muktananda's discussion of stillness revealed something very deep to me, as if it solved a certain koan that's been tugging at me for a long time. He said, roughly, that the play of consciousness, the drama of the universe goes on without interrupting in the slightest the perfect stillness of the ultimate Truth. In fact, that play is not separate from that stillness. He gave the example of the ocean and its waves, the surface and the depth of which are not separate. The ocean is continuous, from the very stillness of its depths to the playfulness of its surface. And Muktananda has told us that we are the whole thing. We are ourselves as much the undisturbed depth as we are the surface in play. But there are definite tragedies and disasters in the surface play, and the Godrealized person has an intensified sense of compassion to help people to awaken from the idea that they are just on the surface and not also the undisturbed and peaceful depths.

This stillness is not really an experience, for all experience is part of the play. It is not a matter of some sort of energy, but of understanding of the whole. And I felt some sense of this understanding dawning in me through the grace of the contact with Muktananda, who insists again and again that there is nothing different in him from what is in the rest of us. He is simply turned entirely to That, whereas we are turning to all sorts of other places and imaginations. I think that Muktananda is one of the few people on the planet today who has achieved a universalness of mind and heart and spirit. Of course his ashram is run like an Indian ashram. Of course there is chanting, and he wears a burnished colored dhoti. Of course he uses imagery drawn from his tradition. But you can't have a piece of wood without some sort Of grain in it. It would be foolish to say that you're looking for a universal tree that, when you cut the wood, has no grain. What we're looking for are people who have been able to transcend all the structures and limits, both personal and cultural, while operating in them. And I think that Baba Muktananda is someone like that.

The supreme understanding that he speaks of is very precious. As this understanding itself dawns, it will have a powerful effect on creating the kind of planeft" situation that we all long for, one of harmony and peace. Baba implies that this isn't fust for a few advanced seekers studying sanskrit in the Himalayas. It is for everyone. He feels that everyone is capable to one degree or another of understanding and developing. From this ultimate understanding flows tremendous amounts of compassionate activity and creative energy. And from this ultimate understanding we each have this supreme "I," which is not the limited "I." We each share the same Self. It is on the basis of That that we can do anything creative or compassionate in the world.

There are so many more things that I could say, but I think that the main thing to do at this point, is to thank not Baba Muktananda, but to take him at his word and thank the Supreme Truth itself.

from : http://www.lexhixon.org/

Who Are You? What Are You?

2010-05-14T07:15:00.000-05:00

The teaching of Advaita is to know what you are

through knowing what you are not. You are not

thoughts or the body. There is no person, no

separate, independently functioning and

controlling I.

Negate all that you know, stop the search for just

a moment and notice the simplicity of This, with no

thoughts, labels, concepts; what is left is nothingness,

what you really are.

Nothingness arising as the world.

- Randall Friend

Surrender to the "Is-ness" of this moment

2010-05-13T11:22:00.006-05:00

Are you worried, stressed, having a bad day? No matter what is going on in your life right now, know that it is because your mind is creating thoughts, making it into a story, such as, "This shouldn't be happening", or "This is horrible", or "I won't stand for this!" Nothing is happening outside of your thoughts. No one, no thing is making you miserable that is "out there" beyond your thoughts.

That's all it is. Thoughts are just thoughts. Shine your light of awareness on the thoughts. If you take away concepts, beliefs, stories, etc., that you've attached to those thoughts, you are left with a quiet Awareness.

Be Awareness and watch the thoughts float by like clouds . As they float by, notice they have no meaning, no labels, no emotions......only thoughts.

You can let go and surrender all false ideas of who you think you are. Experience bliss right now. The only thing keeping you from it is resistance, which appears in the form of more thoughts! Go into the Stillness. You won't find it in time.....tomorrow or the day after. Awareness is always now, will always be now, and it's all there is. No need to complicate it.

"Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace."

~Eckhart Tolle

The Source.......Yourself

2010-05-10T23:15:00.002-05:00

Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word or mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you......

~Eckhart Tolle

Everything's Perfect, Even When It's Not Perfect

2010-05-03T23:30:00.000-05:00

When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

~Buddha quote

Presence

2010-04-29T19:06:00.000-05:00

Nature's mandala........center.........breathe.........going home

..........ahhhhhh

This is What You Are

2010-04-27T22:59:00.001-05:00

Everything you see, everything you touch, everything you think is you. Just after the thought, after the perception, after the feeling, you say, "I was there as a person and I was having this thought, this feeling, this perception." But, that isn't true, because at the time of the thought, feeling, or perception there was no thinker, feeler, or perceiver, and there was no object thought, felt, or perceived. There was only thinking, feeling, perceiving. So, from moment to moment there is only oneness. And this is what you are. This is the

real you. As such, you are not here or there. "I am here," is a

thought. When you eliminate this thought, where are you?

~~ Francis Lucille

Transient Moment ( )

2010-04-24T16:58:00.000-05:00

This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It's a little parenthesis in eternity.

~Deepak Chopra

No-thing or Some-thing

2010-04-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

You're tired of mysticism.

You're sick of paradox.

You want to know what's going on.

If you want meaning

Take these words to

Your professor

Or your priest.

It is their job

To make something

Out of nothing.

What is This Some-thing That is No-Thing?

2010-04-18T06:18:00.000-05:00

There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

It is serene. Empty.

Solitary. Unchanging.

Infinite. Eternally present.

It is the mother of the universe.

.....from the Tao Te Ching

The Spirit Soul

2010-04-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

The manifested Universe is not the living entity's natural environment. Like a fish out of water, he cannot find real happiness which is more than an absence of pain (just as real peace is more than a truce). The spirit soul must return to the transcendental realms beyond the worlds of the material Creation. The soul is going back go Godhead.

The soul finds satisfaction in itself, being part and parcel of the Supersoul. Becoming self-sufficient, it need not satisfy the senses separately.

One feels real pleasure only when serving the Absolute by offering Him the food one eats, dedicating every action, project and creation to Him. The struggle for existence separate from the Organic Whole fades away as Universal Life remains.

~ Patrick Bernard (from Atlantis Angelis II)

2010-04-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

On Ego

"Well," you ask.

"How do I get rid of it?"

And my answer to that is:
That's the wrong question.

How does one get rid of what?

You can't get rid of your hallucination of being an ego by an activity of the ego.

Sorry, but it can't be done . . .

If you try to get rid of your ego with your ego you will just end up in a vicious circle.

You'd be like somebody who worries because they worry because they worry.

~ Allen Watts

The Disappearing Self

2010-03-29T22:44:00.000-05:00

Enlightenment occurs when we discover and recognize something that is more important. When you awaken to something that has infinitely greater spiritual, moral, and philosophical value than your personal problems, when you discover a higher perspective that is inherently more meaningful than the woes of your wounded self, those problems and woes won’t necessarily disappear, but they suddenly appear to be dramatically less important. Now, in a deep and profound and significant way, you are just not as interested in that personal world any more. And that’s how you find liberation. It’s not because you work through your psychological problems; it’s because you begin to lose interest in them. The discovery of that which is higher is the secret to becoming a dignified, self-respecting, caring, and spiritually liberated human being, right now.

~ Andrew Cohen

Lose Your World

2010-03-23T23:16:00.001-05:00

“Are you ready to lose your world?” Because true awakening will not fit into the world as you imagine it or the self you imagine yourself to be. Reality is not something that you integrate into your personal view of things. Reality is life without your distorting stories, ideas, and beliefs. It is perfect unity free of all reference points, with nowhere to stand and nothing to grab hold of. It has never been spoken, never been written, never been imagined. It is not hidden, but in plain view. Cease to cherish opinions and it stands before your very eyes.
~ Adyashanti, 2007

What Is All the Fuss About?

2010-03-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Adyashanti: "While the world is trying to solve its problems and everyone around you is engaged in the same, you're not. While everybody around you is trying to figure it out, trying to arrive, trying to get there, trying to be worthy, you're not. While everyone thinks that awakening is a grand, noble, halo-enshrouded thing, for you it's not. While everybody is running from this life right now, in this moment, to try to get there, you're not. Where everybody has an argument with somebody else, mostly everybody else, starting with themselves, you don't. Where everybody is so sure that happiness will come when something is different than it is now, you know that it won't. When everybody else is looking to achieve the perfect state and hold on to it, you're not. When everybody around you has a whole host of ideas and beliefs about a whole variety of things, you don't....When you're living what you are in an awakened way, being simply what you've always been, you're actually very simple. You basically sit around wondering what all the fuss is about...

The swan is an important motif in Advaita. It symbolises two things: first, the swan is called hamsah in Sanskrit (which becomes hamso if the first letter in the next word is /h/). Upon repeating this hamso indefinitely, it becomes so-aham, meaning, "I am That". Second, just as a swan lives in water but its feathers are not soiled by water, similarly a liberated Advaitin lives in this world full of maya but is untouched by its illusion.

The Dream, the Illusion

2010-03-11T10:44:00.000-06:00

A reoccuring dream I have is that I am living in a city called Abilene. I had parents when I was very small that told me my name is Diane. I lived in a lot of other places, did so many amazing things, and I think that my memory of it all is real. In this dream it is the present, and I am 57 years old, a female, and I am married to a wonderful man. We share our lives with three dogs and two cats. I have three grown daughters. It seems and feels so real. Within this dream, at night I lie down in a comfortable bed and I dream other dreams about other faraway places, doing amazing things like flying, ice skating, and playing with childhood friends, all while my physical body lies still on the bed. The night dreams feel just as real as the daytime dreams.

Then I awake within this dream and I think that I am in a physical body. I believe I am awake, while actually I am living in another dream. Tthe illusion that most of us have, though, is that THIS dream is what is REAL.

Most people never understand this.  They keep creating an illusion of having a life, sometimes one full of problems, suffering, and sometimes fleeting happiness that comes and goes. Think of this: how can you have a life when you are Life?

"Wherever it leads you, it will be a dream. The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of the dream and not another. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done."


             ~Nisargadatta Maharaj

I'm Asking You To Do This.....

2010-03-10T16:52:00.000-06:00

This is it. Here is what I am asking you to do, and that is to question the belief that you are a separate entity who has destiny and free will, that you began at some time in the past, that you were born and that you will die at some future time. What I am suggesting is that there is no time at all, and that beginning and ending are only mental concepts and that what you are is the timeless - you in essence are timeless and space less! You never had any beginning and you will never have any ending, you were never born nor will you as THAT non dual Absolute, pure awareness or consciousness ever die.

Don't stop now. Do this: go into it, go deeper, question it, find out the truth for yourself. See THIS for yourself and actually realize the unquestioned assumptions and limitations that you have placed upon yourself with the help of society, culture, and religious beliefs and conditioning's. Question all this and see the prison of all these concepts and beliefs vanish before your very eyes. You are not what you have taken yourself to be - a limited, enclosed, sentient, human being, but the unlimited all knowing potential itself, what we call THAT in the great word or statement of Advaita Vedanta - I am THAT!

"That which is seeking is the sought." ~ Budddic Scripture

The Eyeless Eye

2010-03-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

The Eyeless Eye

When the Zen master Satcho was asked where the demarcation line lies between this vale of tears and the earthly paradise of fulfillment and peace, he answered:

"The eye is the demarcation line."

Paradise ... is accessible now and here, for it is our everyday world, but perceived by the awakened eye.

Frederick Franck

The field of vision is something open, but its openness is not due to our looking.

Heidegger

I am, as it were, an eye that the cosmos uses to look at itself.

The Mind is not mine alone; the Mind is everywhere.

Rudy Rucker, The Fourth Dimension

Real vision is eyeless.

Anandamayi Ma

It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Jesus of Nazareth

Standing on the bare ground, my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me - I am part or parcel of God.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jesus said to them: When you make the two one… then you will go into the Kingdom.

Gospel of Thomas

By what means do this body or mind perceive? Can they perceive with the eyes, ears…?

No. Your own Nature, being essentially pure and utterly still, is capable of perception.

Hui-hai

There is no seer but Him, no one to hear but him, no one thinking, no one aware but Him. He is the Self, the Ruler within, the One Immortal.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Seeing truly is not merely a change in the direction of seeing, but a change in its very center, in which the seer himself disappears.

Ramesh S Balsekar

Of inconceivable power am I; without eyes I see; without ears I hear.

Kaivalya Upanishad

Partly sourced from: www.headless.org

Who am I---Where Did "I" Go?

2010-03-06T23:00:00.000-06:00

Several years ago, I went on a journey to find "me". I didn't exactly know it at the time that I was attempting to do that, but that's what happened.

I traveled to northern Maine, quite a distance from where I have been living for the past forty-five years in the deep south. I wanted to see where I had once lived, there at Loring Air Force Base once again.

A significant part of my childhood was spent there on the air base that has long been closed down. It had once been bustling with hundreds of families, activity all around everywhere, and jet airplanes coming and going throughout the day and night. Seeing it now, however, was quite different. Most of the housing areas were gone. The school I once attended for five years was gone. Only an empty slab of concrete remained. Where my family's housing unit once stood, only a barren field existed.

Had I expected to find the small "me", the child I once was, still running and playing, riding bikes with my friends, racing into the house and finding my mother and father and sister waiting for me inside? Where were they? Where was I? Who was this "me" that was doing the observing and experiencing of that which seemed to be an illusion?

I was thrown into a quest to find the answers. I began reading books of famous philosophers thinking someone would surely know the Truth that I was seeking. No one, nobody could tell me who I was, and what Life was about. Years of searching, reading everything I could find only led to more frustration until finally I came back full circle to the beginning.

One day it just simply happened. I again wondered who I was. "I" heard "me" asking this to "myself" and it was absurd. I just laughed out loud and that was it. So simple, so uncomplicated, so pure is the TRUTH.
LIFE discovered it is LIFE and that's all there is. The illusions arise out of that which is.

What you seek you already are.

Losing Your World

2010-03-04T21:37:00.000-06:00

Adyashanti says he likes to ask people, “Are you ready to lose your world?” Because true awakening will not fit into the world as you imagine it or the self you imagine yourself to be. Reality is not something that you integrate into your personal view of things. Reality is life without your distorting stories, ideas, and beliefs. It is perfect unity free of all reference points, with nowhere to stand and nothing to grab hold of. It has never been spoken, never been written, never been imagined. It is not hidden, but in plain view. Cease to cherish opinions and it stands before your very eyes.

© Adyashanti 2007

Non-Duality

2010-02-27T20:45:00.003-06:00

Zen Biology Lesson for Enlightenment from Jarett on Vimeo.

Me = You....It'sTtrue

2010-02-26T17:03:00.000-06:00

I am you....you are me. How can this be? Most of us strive to be unique, different from the others, and if we aren't doing it outwardly, we at least think in our minds that we are separate from others. Until we understand that we are not separate from anyone or anything, we are living in a state of duality. How do we begin to understand the unity of wholeness, this oneness that we truly are?

"Abide in me as I abide in you", said Jesus. Also, he said "The Father and I are one". Deepak Chopra explains that these teachings of Jesus are rarely applied to ourselves. Yet we should. He says, "Consciousness is a shared phenomenon. No one is isolated from it, and when Jesus speaks from the level of spirit, he is speaking for all human beings. On the spiritual path you become less isolated as an individual and more universal as an expression of consciousness. This change occurs because in truth everything is happening in consciousness. "

I love Chopra's example of how convincing it can be to see ourselves as standing apart from others. He said that when he remembers his mother's face, it exists in his awareness. It's conjured up in his mind. When his mother was alive and he was with her in person, the same thing happened; it was conjured up in his mind.

Here's why: when photons of light hit the retina and are registered in the brain as an image, they create a delay. It takes only a few milliseconds for the brain to register that image and by the time it does, that image is just a memory. The image appears after the fact, much like the light from a star. Even in real life, each of us appears as a stream of memories in our awareness. All other senses, besides that of sight, holds true, also. When someone touches your hand, for instance, that, too, is registered through brain activity after the fact.

Chopra tells us that at the quantum level we are all blinking in and out of existence countless times per minute. Everything is in flux. The brain creates the illusion of constancy, yet in truth the person or thing you believe to be in front of you is actually a ghost of what was in front of ou a few thousandths of a second ago. In this illusion that we perceive as a continual reality, there are many gaps. We go away as much as we stay here. When you go away, blinking out of existence for a fleeting millisecond, you aren't anchored in physical reality. You voyage to the quantum dimension and beyond. Think of this: no one knows for sure where the universe goes when it blinks off and on. This is the glory of the creative process - it's constantly flowing and changing.

"Jesus taught that the spiritual aspect of a person also exists in awareness", states Chopra. A person's spirit comes from a shared source; we are all part of the Divine Source. When Jesus said, "I am in you", he was referring to his essence. When we are in a state of duality, or separatedness, we aren't aware of essence. It will seem as if the soul level of our existence is far away. "By entering another person's situation, by sharing and bonding, you begin to have the experience of literally abiding in someone else. God-consciousness carries this transformation to its final end. You are in everyone else, and everyone else is in you. Instead of perceiving any human being as an individual person, you see them as essence, or pure Being.

Know that you are not a separate person with “an understanding” to gain. You are already all of it.

The Eternal Now

2010-02-21T21:15:00.000-06:00

The Eternal Now

by Mooji

http://www.mooji.org/index.html

This mind is always oscillating between past and future, and it doesn't know right here, right now. There cannot be a history of Now! You don't need a concept to support Now. ... Now beyond the concept of now.

The Now I'm speaking about is not monitoring any external situation. It's not an 'event'!

And perceiving that which is, being what is, is also not an event. The perceiving of one's true nature is not an event. That happens in the eternal Now. That Now never becomes 'then' in the pure mind.

It means: Be totally present just as presence and Now means just being. It is just another reference name for yourself, your nature. What are you right here, right now? What can you define as yourself? How would you describe yourself? What can you say that holds the total fact of yourself?

From here, activity, however subtle, is seen as merely a transient play in consciousness. The whole universe is breathing in this.

Blessings to you, Mooji

Don't Think You Judge Others? Things?

2010-02-15T21:22:00.001-06:00

Ascension

Most of us would like to think that we don't judge other people, things, or circumstances. We all do it, though. For 13,000 years we humans have been doing exactly that. We see everything as polarized, opposites. Something is either good or bad, up or down, hot or cold. We like something or we don't like it. As a matter of fact, we judge everything that happens. This separate way of perceiving life has been keeping us separated from knowing the One Spirit.

For the last 13,000 years we have been in separation. Before that point in time, we were living in perfect balance, a Unity, a Oneness. According to the author, Bob Frissell, who wrote Nothing in This Book is True, But It's Exactly as Things Are, he states that: "Sixteen thousand years ago we violated galactic law. We were on a very high level of awareness at the time, far beyond where we are now, but by committing a certain illegal act we fell many dimensional levels until we landed in this dense aspect of the reality. We stopped breathing in the manner we formerly utilized, causing the prana or life force energy to bypass the pineal gland, the direct result of which is separation. We now experience ourselves as inside a body looking out at a world that is not us. "

We now know that there are no accidents, that this "fall" was necessary in order to allow for an ascent into higher consciousness. It is happening now, not someday out there in the future. Many will be ready for the ascent, when we will no longer be in separation, but in light bodies. We appear to be heading for an existence that is beyond our ability to even imagine!

There is No Bad

2010-02-08T22:41:00.000-06:00

A Secret Scrolls message from Rhonda Byrne

Creator of The Secret

From: The Secret Daily Teachings

Good is underneath every single thing that appears to be negative. If we can know that good is all there is, including in a negative situation, then we will see a negative situation transform into all good. Most people keep the good away from themselves because they label something as bad, and then, of course, that becomes their reality. But there is no bad in the Universe; it is just our inability to see things clearly from the bigger perspective.

Peace comes from knowing that good is all that exists.

May the joy be with you,

Dream Nature of the Universe

2010-02-03T16:00:00.001-06:00

There is a reason I chose this quote for today. It has to do with two friends of mine who died last week.

"When a man in the process of dreaming becomes conscious that he is dreaming, he is no longer identified with the phenomena; he is not affected exultantly or dolefully. God consciously dreams His cosmic play and is unaffected by it's dualities. A yogi who perceives his real self as separate from his active senses and their objects never becomes attached to anything. He is aware of the dream nature of the universe and watches it without being entangled in its complex but ephemeral nature."

~Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952)

Last week, two friends of mine died . It was a horrible murder/suicide committed by one of the friends against the other. I knew both of them well, one more so than the other one. The friend that I was closest to committed the murder and suicide. For a time in her life during a few months last year, I was caught up in her drama and her need for a close friend. I still have a picture of the three of us all having lunch together on a happy occasion, a birthday. But, she became possessive and needy, and I saw a manipulative, narcissistic side to her. I was afraid to pull back, knowing how depressed and unstable she was. I thought I could help her at one time, but discovered I was being pulled down with her into a dark place that I did not want to be. Finally, I knew I had to get away from her and suggested she seek professional help and possibly medication. Instead, she pulled the other friend into her web more closely and refused to let her go. About five months after I stopped all communications with her, she killed both of them.

I'm more aware of the dream nature of the universe, more unwilling to be entangled in its complex nature, as the quote from Yogananda stated. Instead, I'm more willing than ever before to live life fully, and to see God consciously dreaming his cosmic play through me and through everyone and everything.

Celebrate Life - No Suffering!

2010-01-22T08:57:00.000-06:00

Many of us are heart-broken from viewing the widespread pain in Haiti right now. We wonder how we would react if it were us lying on the ground waiting for help to arrive while our body limbs are crushed and useless. Most of us have never endured pain of that magnitude, but some of you may have.

I've noticed whenever something physically painful has occured in my body, that if I just notice it, flow with it, and be the observer, that it's not nearly as bad as previous times when I added my own beliefs and judgments to the situation. Whenever we make it our own personal story, label it, embellish it, and say, "this shouldn't be happening to me" or "why has this happened?" or even "I can't stand this pain!", then we add suffering on top of what is an already painful event. When we do that, we personalize it and claim it as though it is who we are.

Many people I've given healing sessions to have reported afterwards that they have noticed they are no longer fearful of the things they experienced in the past. Fear of any kind will add suffering to your life. Removal of fear allows you to be free to live.........to really live like you're entitled to as a live person here on earth! You are Consciousness experiencing Life! Enjoy and celebrate it!

How Healings Happen

2010-01-20T17:31:00.001-06:00

Some of you may already know that I am a healer, a Reconnective Healing Practitioner, to be exact. When I am with someone during a healing session, I've learned to not expect anything, not to desire a particular outcome, and to leave any ego I might have out of the picture. This is when the miracles happen, when there is no praying, no asking, no begging the Divine Source for a certain thing that I might wish to happen.

As I slowly let my hands flow across the person, my hands float and go almost instinctively where the energy is leading me to go. I have no private desires that a certain healing should occur. It is better that I don't know what the person is wanting or thinks he or she is needing. With ease, I let my energies flow with the universe and the universe flows through me. When I am at one with this flow, I trust and am grateful that God will deliver what is appropriate for the person at that particular time.

Life really is like that. Very simple. We humans have a tendency to complicate things. We act as if we know what is best for us, what is needed for the world, what we want to see happen with our loved ones or our friends. When we surrender to the flow, we can become like a piece of driftwood flowing with the stream, and nothing can ever be wrong. Have you listened to many people's prayers ? Asking, pleading, and imploring God to do this or that for them or their loved ones, and even telling God who to heal, and who needs comforting. When one fully trusts in the outcome, no matter what it is, no matter how painful it might be, and just surrenders to the "is-ness" of what is.........that's when we experience heaven on earth......even during painful, trying times.

Healings occur with there is no resistance to Life. Flow like the driftwood and be one with The One.

No Seeking, No Striving

2010-01-19T22:29:00.001-06:00

It's such a blessed relief not to be seeking any new idea, a philosophy, a religion, or an answer to the meaning of life. I spent a large portion of my life doing just that, and it was exhausting, like chasing myself around and around in a circle. I used to believe that somewhere someone out there knew what life was all about. And I needed to know what that was, or so I thought. But that was a good thing, because once I exhausted myself from trying and desiring to know these things, I finally came to a resting point.

It's not about finding something or looking for something, it's all about what's looking. Once you rest and relax as the looking itself rather than trying and sorting things out, you'll become crystal clear about who this "you" really is.

Many humans don't want to give up the ego, though. We are so accustomed to the story and drama that the ego loves. Even egos that suffer seem to enjoy their story of suffering. When one has had enough, however, he's ready to toss it out, to be rid of that garbage that holds us back from truly being alive and free.

So be at rest as you are and things will become clear. There's no need to seek here and there, stirring up the waters.

Come back to yourself, again and again. When you stop seeking and desiring for anything at all and simply rest as the simple looking that's present at all times, simply relax and be the simple awareness that you are. You will start to feel more and more freedom all the time.

These moments don't have to last hours at a time,. It's all about moments, returning again and again. In time, these moments will start to happen naturally and eventually they will chain together into longer periods of clarity and peaceful looking.

Simply return again and again to being completely at rest as you are.

Should I fear?

2010-01-18T22:44:00.000-06:00

Poem On Reincarnation

Written by Jalai Al-Din

I died from the mineral and became a plant;

I died from the plant, and reappeared in an animal;

I died from the animal and became a man;

Wherefore then should I fear?

When did I grow less by dying?

Next time I shall die from the man,

That I may grow the wings of angels.

From the angel, too, must I seek advance;

All things shall perish save His face

Once more shall I wing my way above the angels;

I shall become that which entereth not the imaginations.

Then let me become naught, naught, for the harp string crieth unto me,

Verily unto Him do we return...

Losing Your Faith?

2010-01-15T22:50:00.000-06:00

Someone I know was recently offered a book to read and he moved away quickly, adding, "Oh, no! I can't read THAT! I might lose my faith!". The book wasn't X-rated porno material. It was merely a book on the subject of the historical Jesus. I was shocked that he was so afraid.

Since then, I've wondered what would cause someone to be so afraid of losing his faith? Osho, a remarkable spiritual teacher of our times, has addressed this in one of his books. He says, " If a faith can be destroyed, it is not worth much. If a faith can be destroyed, it must be a faith in lies. A faith that is really a faith in truth is never afraid of being destroyed: it cannot be destroyed because truth cannot be destroyed."

So, what is this fear? Osho goes on to say, " Are you climging to lies? Only lies are afraid of being broken, only lies need protection. Truth in itself is self-evident. So if you have some faith which is just a lie, it makes you secure. Hindus are afraid, Christians are afraid, Mohammedans are afraid, Jainas are afraid, everybody is afraid - don't destroy our faith! In their faith they are just hiding their lies, their magic worlds, their dreams, their expectations. They are very touchy. If you just poke into their ribs their faith is skin-deep, not even that. They immediately become irritated because their faith is not anything deep in their heart, it is just a belief in the mind. "

There is no need to cling to anything outside of yourself. Only go inwards. Let go of beliefs for a while. You can pick them up again later, if you desire. Beliefs don't go anywhere and disappear - only if you want them to. Don't be bothered by the "should's and should not's" of beliefs. When you truly let go of them and turn inwards, let only one thing be your goal: to know who is this consciousness, what is this consciousness, who I am. Become more aware, more conscious, more courageous. There's no need to hide behind beliefs and theologies. Osho says, "Take your life into your own hands, burn bright your inner light and see whatsoever is. And once you have become courageous enough to accept it, it is a benediction. No belief is needed."

Meeting the Pleaidians

2010-01-14T16:09:00.000-06:00

Earth was once considered to be a living library, kind of a way-station of light and information for travelers throughout the universe. The people who were supposedly running the planet then were the Pleaidians. The travelers throughout the universe would stop here on earth to relax and rejuvenate and access information. At one point, a struggle arose and a schism formed between two Pleaidian factions. Each group wanted control over the other and also desired control over the whole planet. The members of each faction could foresee only a continuous battle. No one would win. They finally accepted a truce because neither side wanted an ongoing war.

Finally, the scientists of one group found a way to disconnect ten of the original twelve strands of DNA from the members of the other group. We are said to be descendents of the modified Pleaidians with only two strands of DNA.

For many enlightened people on earth now their DNA is apparently being restructed to include three strands of DNA. Many are called "Lightworkers".

Are you being called to do this work here on our planet? Are you someone who is here to help others evolve and become fully conscious of who they really are? If you feel that you are now ready to receive this information, be prepared, for you will receive it from many directions. Books will be shoved into your hands. Dreams will take you around the universe. Many will be coming to invite you to places or to share with you what they
have found. You are being given a picture of your reality so you can facilitate your experience here, so that you can enjoy yourself within these times, because these times are going to be full of change.

Seneca - What a Wise Man!

2010-01-05T21:10:00.004-06:00

A number of our blessings do us harm, for memory brings back the agony of fear, while foresight brings it on prematurely. No one confines his unhappiness to the present.
~Seneca, Roman philosopher and politician, Letters to Lucilius

There is no unhappiness in the present moment. If you find yourself unhappy, check your thoughts, watch them float by as you are the observer......they are but memories of something that has already occurred or an anticipation of a fear or anxiety of the future.

No Fear, No Ego

2009-12-28T22:00:00.013-06:00

Do good works, do unto others, put others first......these are the words of many well-meaning people (and religious institutions that enjoy inflicting guilt on others), but there is a manipulative aspect to it, also. We've been taught not to question these instructions. After all, what could be more "saintly" than helping others? That's exactly what is wrong with this. The very act of trying to be good, striving to be saintly, trying to help others will set you up for feelings of either superiority or inferiority. In order to help someone, that person you're helping becomes less than you, in need of something that you have, and you get to elevate yourself to being above him. Most likely you will also enjoy feeling superior to many of your friends and acquaintances.

Many do-gooders feel a tremendous amount of guilt, also. They secretly put themselves down for not doing enough. They compare theirselves to other do-gooders who achieve much more, so they are always coming up short. Above all, they do not accept theirselves as being "good enough" just as they are, and they are lacking love, especially a love they need from theirselves. A fear is involved in this process, too. You're told that you will only be loved by God and people if you go out and do good works and deeds for others. Especially if you want others to believe that you love Jesus, you feel that you have to show the world that you are doing such good works. The physical world wants proof and you have been trained to believe that you have to prove yourself to yourself in order to accept yourself. How insane is that?!!

Before one can share real love, real compassion with others, you have to love hyourself first. A total, pure love for your own sacred self. A total acceptance of yourself without any judgment is absolutely necessary to love and be kind and compassionate to yourself. Most of us don't know how to love ourselves first, and yet we let ourselves believe we have to "love" others and perform so-called good works. When we strive to be a good person before knowing our true essence, all we do is bring our own poison and garbage onto the scene and we try to cure or help others without knowing we are excreting poison. It's like a drowning man trying to save another drowning man. They both die. Nobody benefits from it ultimately and nothing changes. Humanity doesn't change, wars continue, and suffering continues.

No one can be good or love others by striving and forcing himself to be good and loving. The more you try, the more it evades you. Why is that? A thorn bush that strives to release a beautiful fragrance like a rose will try and try in vain. Only a genuine rose can have the beautiful scent of a rose. The rose does have to work at releasing it. It flows from the rose with ease. The rose does not even try to do this, he just is simply being a rose. He's at ease with his Oneness and Beingness. The rose is not trying to be anything at all. The rose doesn't say to itself, "I'm better than the thorn bush", or "I'm not good enough being a rose. I should be like a gardenia, and then I would like myself much more." No! The rose is in a perfect harmony with all that exists in the universe.

When you stop trying to be something, when you just accept that it's perfectly perfect to just "be", only then can one become enlightened. By giving up, or surrendering, an alchemical process occurs. You become like a new person, allowing your true essence to come through. There is no ego to block it from happening anymore. The ego disappears. You begin to accept and love yourself as a connection in the web of all life and all things. A natural love springs forth from you for all living and non-living things. You see the sacredness of all that is and you're a co-creator of the All and you are the All. An enlightened person can then be the candle that lights many others, not by striving and trying, but by simply resting in the space the Now. You become love itself, nothing more or less than anything in existence in the universe. You are whole and you live in Truth. Love springs forth from you without any effort, because that is who you are now......You are Love. Your fragrance is Love. God is Love. You are God. God is You. Everyone and Everything is God, and God is Everything. Are you beginning to see it now?

Only then will you have something of value for others to receive. You don't have to go looking for these others, either. They come to you to be in your presence, to be lit by your flame of love that glows without any effort on your part. You are now able to love others as you love yourself. And then you don't have to try to have love, forgiveness, and compassion for others, because that's who you now are....you are overflowing with love, forgiveness, compassion...so much so that you cannot contain it. There is then no need to be good because you ARE good.

As Andrew Cohen says, "So when you begin to recognize that your own presence here in this world is part of something infinitely bigger than yourself, you feel a sense of obligation awakening within you—a spiritually inspired obligation to be the very best you can be for the sake of the process itself. And the way you respond to that obligation, to that sense of cosmic responsibility, is by demonstrating that the process is profoundly positive, indeed the process is sacred, through your own example, through your own victory, through your own tangible and unmistakable higher development."

Have Bliss NOW, Here's How........

2009-12-24T14:42:00.005-06:00

I was out earlier today at the bookstore and leisurely browsing at the mall. It was an excuse to go out and drive around and look at the rare snowfall we're having today. I was peaceful and serene, yet so many people I encountered were unhappy and miserable. They were either complaining and yelling at unruly children, complaining about their health, complaining about the weather, etc. Much of their misery is an ingrained habit and they don't even realize they have a choice whether to be in misery or to be in a state of blissful joy.

Habits can change once we're aware of what it is we're doing to ourselves. It's your right as a human being to be blissful right now. This instant, you can choose to let go of whatever miserable thoughts are keeping you down. Simply slow down your thoughts. How do we do THAT, you ask? Easy - be like a cat watching a mouse hole, waiting for the little mouse, or your next thought, to appear. Notice as you watch for the next thought that there is a gap that appears. This gap is No-THING. Nothing. It's wonderful to be in that nothingness gap, where no problems, no troubles, no misery exists. That's what now feels like.

No one can stay like that for more than a second or two, though, I can hear you saying. And I'll bet many of you reading this are saying, "but, I have REAL problems that are important, REALLY big miseries". Besides, you would be boring to yourself if you existed in this so-called "gap". Right? But, who is this "you" that would find it so boring? It's the false "you", the you who is identified with ego. It is only the ego that invites and creates problems, misery, and something to complain about to others. Without it, the ego would disappear. Who would this "you" be if the ego disappeared? You would be blissfully happy. That's the answer. To be this blissfully happy person, you become no one special.

A lot of people don't want that, though. They would rather have their problems that give them a uniqueness to them, a story to tell, to embellish and tell to others. That's who they are and their identity is wrapped up in it. Without it they would feel like they are dying. You could say they enjoy their misery. Have you noticed that people like this love other miserable people, too? They surround theirselves with others like them to make theirselves feel as if this is a normal state to be in. They don't want to be around someone who is happy and joyful. It reminds them of who they could be if only they had the courage to let go of their false ego.

I'm sorry to say this, but churches, insitutions of all kinds, political parties, etc. are full of miserable people. The people all have their stories of woe and want to tell it to all who will listen. They all have "problems", need prayers, need attention from others who will "feed" their egos and allow them to build their stories up into bigger stories. It's good to be compassionate toward others, but when we pretend we're giving sympathy to someone, all we're doing for the poor soul is helping him to become more of a slave to the story of woe and misery.

The more we let go of ego, the more room we have for the state of bliss to take its place. There will be no room for this bliss, though, if you choose to hold on to greed, grievances, jealousy, revengeful thoughts, hurt feelings.........oh, my, the list can go on and on and on. What silly things the human mind wants to hold on to simply in order to have an egoic false self!

Let's get back to the topic of the ones who have "really, big problems". Are you sick right now, dying of a terminal disease, maybe? Or you've got a loved one who is about to pass or has recently passed on? Look for the little things to be grateful for RIGHT NOW! There you will find grace bestowed upon you. Animals, trees, and flowers don't go into a state of self-pity and regret. Humans are the only animals that like to create that and it's only the ego that is doing it. It's not the authentic YOU, the you that is divine love.

The past is gone. The future exists only in the imaginative mind. All there is and ever will be is the present moment. Be present NOW, watch the negative egoic mind patterns vanish from your thoughts. Be still and KNOW that this is who you really are. The "you" that is the authentic self is pure love, pure bliss and has no need to hold on to any mind created misery. You will not die from letting go of it. Only the false "you" will die.

Try it NOW and enjoy a blissful holiday!

Wait 24 Hours.......

2009-12-22T22:21:00.003-06:00

Before you gather with family and friends this holiday season, be aware that not every get-together is as joyful as we'd like it to be sometimes. A little preparation will help a lot:

“Whenever the mind begins to flow downward, become aware as early as possible — as early as possible!

“Someone has insulted you. For you to become angry, a little time is needed because it is a mechanism. You will get angry, but after a gap. Things will happen like a flash. First you will feel insulted. The moment you feel insulted, the second current will begin to flow: you will become angry. At first the anger will not be conscious; first it will be just like a fever. Then it will become conscious. Then you will begin to express or suppress it. So when I say ‘the earlier the better,’ I mean when someone insults you, become aware as soon as you begin to feel that you have been insulted. And whenever you become aware, just make an effort to stop. Don’t fall into the automatic track even for a single moment. Even a single moment’s stop will help much. Longer stops will help even more.

“When [the Russian mystic] Gurdjieff’s father was dying he called his boy. He was just nine, and Gurdjieff remembered the incident all his life. The father called him. He was the youngest child and the father said, ‘I am so poor, I cannot give you anything, my boy. But one thing which my father gave to me I can give you. You may not even be able to understand what it means now, because I myself was not able to understand what it meant when my father gave it to me. But it proved the most precious thing in my life, so I am just giving it to you. Preserve it! Sometime you may begin to understand it.’

“So Gurdjieff just listened. The father said, ‘Whenever you feel angry, never reply before twenty-four hours. Reply, but let there be a gap of twenty-four hours.’

“Gurdjieff followed his dying father’s advice. It became deeply impressed in his mind the very day his father died, and Gurdjieff said, ‘I have practised many, many, many spiritual exercises, but that was the best. I never could be angry in my life, and that changed the whole flow, the whole current, because I had to stick to the promise.

“‘Whenever someone would insult me, I would create something, some situation. I would just tell him that I would come back after twenty-four hours to reply, and I have never replied because it proved such nonsense to reply.’ Only a gap was needed. And the whole life of George Gurdjieff became something different.”

Osho The Ultimate Alchemy

NOW - is the kingdom of heaven, right here, right now!

2009-12-16T16:40:00.003-06:00

Discover the "Kingdom of Heaven" right NOW!
from Rhonda Byrne
Creator of The Secret

"How do I stop my negative thoughts?" - is a question that I have been asked many times. If you have ever asked this question then you will feel such enormous relief in knowing the answer, because it is so simple. How do you stop negative thoughts? You plant good thoughts!

When you try to stop negative thoughts, you are focusing on what you don't want - negative thoughts - and you will attract an abundance of them. They can never disappear if you are focused on them. The "stop" part is irrelevant - the negative thoughts are your focus. It doesn't matter if you are trying to stop negative thoughts or control them or push them away, the result is the same. Your focus is on negative thoughts, and by the law of attraction you are inviting more of them to you.

The truth is always simple and it is always easy. To stop negative thoughts, just plant good thoughts! Deliberately plant good thoughts! You plant good thoughts by making it a daily practice to appreciate all the things in your day. Appreciate your health, your car, your home, your family, your job, your friends, your surroundings, your meals, your pets, and the magnificent beauty of the day. Compliment, praise, and give thanks to all things. Every time you say "Thank you" it is a good thought! As you plant more and more good thoughts, the negative thoughts will be wiped out. Why? Because your focus is on good thoughts, and what you focus on you attract.

So don't give any attention to negative thoughts. Don't worry about them. If any come, make light of them, shrug them off, and let them be your reminder to deliberately think more good thoughts now.

The more good thoughts you can plant in a day, the faster your life will be utterly transformed into all good. If you spend only one day speaking of good things and saying "Thank you" at every single opportunity, you will not believe your tomorrow. Deliberately thinking good thoughts is exactly like planting seeds. As you think good thoughts you are planting good seeds inside you, and the Universe will transform those seeds into a garden of paradise. How will the garden of paradise appear? As your life!

May the joy be with you,

Rhonda Byrne
The Secret... bringing joy to billions

Shifting Into a Healthy Inner State

2009-12-04T08:29:00.003-06:00

If you are going to incorporate something you do every day as a part of your routine, it has to make absolute sense to you. That's the way it is for me. I have to understand why I should do it, it has to resonate with me as true, and it has to be simple and easy.

In that past few years, “The Law of Attraction” has become a popular field of study. Basically, the Law of Attraction says that “energetic vibrations tend to attract like vibrations”. We have learned from “The Secret” and many other sources that the key to success in all areas of life is to shift our vibration to match that which we desire. In other words, minding your inner state is the foundation for realizing your ideal possibilities.

If you want prosperity, shift into prosperity consciousness, and prosperous circumstances flow more easily to you.

If you want health, shift into a healthy inner state to promote healthy cells.

This is easy to do, so easy that you might want to dismiss it as insignificant. I can't say enough, though, about how transforming it can be for your life.

Take 5-10 minutes each morning to just close your eyes, feel the emotion of what it would actually be like to have exactly what you'd like to manifest in your life. Imagine it, believe it, and know that the universe will bring to you what you want and need. Now the key is to "feel" it as if you already have it. A radiant joy will envelope you as you know this is your gift that is on its way for you. You will attract more joy all day long, the right people will come into your life, and the universal flow of life will be guiding you in everything you do and wherever you go. Things that will seem like coincidences will occur. These are NOT coincidences! Accept and claim your gift. God, or the Universal Intelligence, is working for you when you are in this flow.

I like to spend another 5-10 minutes each night before I go to sleep and repeat the little exercise as described above. Try it for yourself and see how your life shifts into a more healthy inner state.

Resistance = Chaos and Fear

2009-12-01T09:13:00.004-06:00

So many of us wonder how it is possible to experience wonderful, happy moments one day, and then we turn around and are plunged into chaos, fear, anxiety, and depression which seems to come out of nowhere. How did we get into such a state, we wonder?

There is an unstoppable power, a primal force, within each of us. This force is a Divine Intelligence which generates energy, power, and strength. You are a spark of this Divineness, a manifestation of Spirit in a physical body. The power and energy that allow us to break through old patterns that keep our energy from flowing is always accessible, always instantenous, and will NEVER let you down. Many scientists call this "accessing the Field". Consciousness is The Field, or God, if you would like to call it. This is where your energy flows, Life itself flows, manifesting into new visions which allow us to follow our heart's desires. We are then in sync with everything within and around us.

You may have to go through a breakdown before you get to the breakthrough. It depends upon how much pain and suffering you are willing to go through before you surrender your resistance. Have you reached your pain tolerance level yet? If not, you may be enjoying your chaos, fear, misery, etc. in a sick, perverted kind of way.

I can hear some of you denying this right now. "No! I do not enjoy my suffering! How can you say that?" All right then, what is holding you back from surrendering it? Ask yourself this: Do you really want to love yourself, love others, and do whatever it takes to live and share more of your love? Abandon your "self", the self-centeredness that is holding you back, making you a prisoner of suffering. When you abandon yourself to be a conduit, or an agent, an unlimited energy flows through you. You will be overflowing with it, as a matter of fact! Your vibrational frequency is higher, others feel it, others are attracted to it, and they want what you have, too. You will have the willingness and energy to share your enthusiasm, your love of life, with them.

This power of clarity is what forges open the pathway for evolution to occur. This deep passion brings people together, egos dissolve, and a creative free flow forms a cohesive unity where souls unite without egoic agendas, beliefs, or feelings of inadequacy.

This all happens when you surrender resistance, when you embrace the flow of the Universal Intelligent Mind.

Just for today, "Let Go and Let God". Now relax in the Now, in the ultimate space of peace and see what happens for you. What do you have to lose except your pain, misery, chaos, and fear. When you let go, it's like dropping a hot coal from your hand. It's instant relief, instant bliss.

Creation vs. Evolution

2009-11-22T16:11:00.003-06:00

I thought this article was excellent:

Creation vs. Evolution
by Owen Waters

Life is hard. Species can die. In fact, the human race would
have died long ago if it weren't for the fact that our bodies
are designed to adapt to a constantly changing environment.

Evolution could be called adaptation, because the ability to
adapt is the one feature that keeps all life upon Earth alive
and functioning. In the laboratory, it has been noted that a
frog can be heated in a beaker of water to a degree that would
normally be fatal, but it remains alive because it has had the
time to adapt to the increasing temperature. Had the frog been
suddenly exposed to water of such high temperature, it would
have been unable to survive.

Charles Darwin, the pioneer of evolution theory, was a trained
minister of religion as well as a naturalist. He thought long
and hard about releasing his findings about the natural
evolution of the species because he was keenly aware of the
materialistic element in society which would use this
information against religion. He was right, of course.

Others used his work to claim that there was no need for
divine selection when natural selection occurs automatically.
They have since gone on to claim that all life could have
risen from prehistoric sludge completely by accident. What
they don't even begin to explain, however, is the existence
of consciousness in all of this.

Consciousness is necessary for natural selection and
adaptation to occur. If you move from a hot climate to a
cold climate, you will adapt to the new environment,
but first you had to have the consciousness to decide
upon the move.

What is consciousness? It is certainly more than a few
electrical signals bouncing around inside a brain.
Computers can mimic some limited aspects of the brain
such as human logic, but they are not self-aware.
There isn't a computer in the world that can think for
itself. Computers just follow sets of preset rules, and
they do so as quickly as possible.

Beneath all forms of consciousness is awareness. A sense of
being is fundamental to all life because all life is
constructed from consciousness. Even a solid object like
a rock is composed of original thought and original feeling
set into motion. All of life is contained within the
consciousness of the original Creator, including the
prehistoric sludge from which the first biological cells
were formed.

Materialistic science today is in a cul-de-sac.
There is no way forward for branches of science which
fail to include consciousness in their theories.
Consciousness is the most fundamental aspect of life.
You can't have a universe without it.

Human beings were originally designed and then evolved
within the framework of a conscious universe, one created
and developed by the original Creator. It took billions of
years for planets to form and biological life to emerge and
evolve, but remember this: Time is a creation of the Creator.

The Creator does not have to wait billions of years to see a
biological process emerge. Everything happens in the now,
just in different parts of the tapestry of time, which the
Creator sees as a whole.

The whole design, inception, development and evolution of the
universe is happening right now, within that overview, as
seen by the original Creator. A little tweak here and there
along the timeline can produce a perfect rendition of any form
of biological life. Life is too interesting to create in one
big bang and then just watch it unfold, as if on auto-pilot.
Life is a work in progress, a true work of art, and the
Creator has the ability to make adjustments at any point
along the timelines.

Science today searches for answers, but what it really needs
is a valid search path. Life did not begin by accident.
It began by design. Those branches of science which include
the presence of consciousness will find the answers that
they seek when they include the existence of original
consciousness and intelligent design in their search.

This article was written by Owen Waters, author of
"The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness"

Explaining Reconnective Healing and The Reconnection

2009-11-18T22:41:00.003-06:00

I've recently become certified as a Reconnective Healer, and to make things more confusing for you, I will be attending a seminar next month to be certified in The Reconnection. What are these new modalities of healing and how are each unique? I'll explain:

What is Reconnective Healing?

Reconnective Healing facilitates rapid, permanent change that continues to work for you as appropriate for the rest of your life.

It is a new and very powerful high frequency energy, that carries light and information from “The Field”. Reconnective Healing works very deeply at a quantum, inter-dimensional level to facilitate balance and healing of body, mind, emotion and spirit. It facilitates reconnection of your current Being with your energetic template as it was perfectly designed.

In comparison to other types of energy healing, Reconnective Healing works more directly with the core electromagnetic connections of the body and being at all levels. Besides being a very high frequency vibration, it is extremely expansive.

It seems to go more directly to the core origin of issues and imbalances rather than using the “onion peeling” method of clearing layers from surface to core. Therefore, in most cases, it seems to work more rapidly and usually requires fewer sessions.

When the core origin is effected, everything connected to the issue tends to shift into realignment more quickly. This facilitates rapid results and also unfolds long term as appropriate to your life path.

It is very grounding as well as very expansive. Reconnections are made with the Earth’s electromagnetic grids as well as at extended levels of The Field. This can help us more easily apply our highest gifts and potential in the physical world.
How many Reconnective Healing® sessions will I need?

Each session and each individual are unique. Most people begin to feel at least some result with the very first session. Many people further notice a deeper and more profound change around the time of the 3rd session.

However, the circumstances of your life and what you would like to accomplish are important in determining how you can best be served. It is best to release expectation, allow things to unfold in a natural way, and make your choices one step at a time.

You do not need regular ongoing sessions to maintain reconnective healing benefits. You will continue to experience these benefits in many ways as your life path unfolds.

While Reconnective Healing works to correct imbalances underlying a particular dis-ease, issue, or life challenge, The Reconnection is a full process that makes a complete reconnection of your foundational energetic structure.

This structure is comprised of over 100 energetic points and axiatonal lines, including those that connect you, as an individual, to the energetic grids of the Earth, the universal field, and the divine blueprint of your being in its perfect state.

The Reconnection allows you to access and use the full range of tools available to reach your highest potential and possibilities. This greatly accelerates your path toward higher consciousness and fulfillment of your life purpose.

This process includes all of what some other methods do in pieces (such as DNA activation; axiatonal alignment; grid realignment, etc).

This is a 1-time only, 2-session process, that propels you onward and works for you in many ways for the rest of your life.

Is the Reconnection a 1-time alternative to having individual
Reconnective Healing sessions?

No—because these are two different sets of techniques that benefit you in different ways. The Reconnection is like the foundation and framework of your home. It provides the basic structure to which everything else becomes connected.

A strong, well-built frame and structure does not preclude the need for design, connection and occasional repair of the electrical wiring or plumbing structure within.

Reconnective Healing repairs the inner structure related to specific areas of concern. The Reconnection assures that the full outer structure is in place for your whole being to operate at its fullest capacity.

Persistent challenges can occur when repair has been completed on the inner structures but the energetic lines in the larger, outer framework still have disconnects. The energy from your inner being attempts to appropriately move you forward, but becomes short-circuited on the way to its final destination.

Spectrum of Light and Information---The Reconnection

2009-11-08T22:31:00.007-06:00

When I first began reading the book "The Reconnection: Heal Others Heal Yourself" a palpable change began within my body. I would feel the energy of this new frequency in my body whenever I became quiet and still. I knew something powerful was happening, but what I didn't know was that I would be needing to use my new attunement so quickly after receiving it.

I had just finished reading the book when one day I accidentally caught my foot in the door as I was closing it. I was barefooted, and the door went over the top of my foot catching the big toe in it. This was the same foot that I had been experiencing pain in for several weeks and it had a sensation of being bruised and sore all the time, although there was no visible bruising. Now, I had excruciating pain all over the entire foot, a pulsating, throbbing pain. The toenail was partly ripped off and it was bleeding. By the next day, it was still throbbing and I could not put any weight on that foot, much less put on a shoe. I was wondering how I would spend the day without being to use my foot - on the sofa? That's when I remembered how in Eric Pearl's book he teaches a simple technique to do a self-healing. I decided to try it. At that point, I was willing to do anything! After a short session with myself, and I do mean short, I stood up and noticed I could put my foot down and even take a step. I was afraid to believe it at first, but the pain seemed to be gone. I started walking back and forth in my room, slowly at first, as if the pain would return at any moment and I would have to start limping again. The pain did NOT return and within minutes I was prancing and dancing all around the house with my shoes on! And, I did not loose the toenail like I thought I was going to. The side of my foot that had been feeling sore and bruised for weeks was no longer painful, either. I don't know how this worked, but I know something miraculous happened.

My husband had been reading Dr. Eric Pearl's book, also, but was not at that time experiencing the feeling of subtle electricity going throughout his body. However, he KNEW this energy was real. Our little dog, Bindi, had a place on her leg that she would not leave alone. It was a spot that was swollen, red and just wouldn't get better. We were thinking of taking her to the vet, when both of us (without telling the other one what we were doing) began giving her Reconnective healing. I didn't tell Russ, my husband, about what I was doing, and he never told me that he was working on Bindi, also. A day later, I thought I must be crazy, because the sore spot on Bindi's leg looked much better. Was I just imagining it because I wanted it to be so? I wasn't sure, so I did not tell Russ what I was observing. The next day, Russ asked me outloud if I noticed anything different about Bindi. I think my heart skipped a beat from sheer joy, because his comment was verifying what I thought I was noticing! That's when he admitted to me that he had given little Bindi a "treatment". Her leg is all better, all healed, with the only remaining evidence that a problem ever existed being a scab that covers the spot of healing.

Russ and I both attended a Reconnection seminar/workshop recently in Philadelphia and became certified to be a practitioners of Reconnective Healing. While we were there, we saw firsthand many, many more miracles. We believe in it and KNOW this is real. I'm already planning on attending a Level III seminar in Sedona in December in order to offer the full spectrum of healing to people who are wanting it. It's an entirely different level of experiencing a healing. Read more about it on the Reconnection website.

The following is a description of this type of healing from the website of The Reconnection:

Reconnective Healing is a form of healing that is here on the planet for the very first time. It reconnects us to the fullness of the universe as it reconnects us to the fullness of our beings and of who we are. It is considered to be able to reconnect us to the universe and to our very essence not just through a new set of healing frequencies, but through possibly an entirely new bandwidth. The reality of its existence has demonstrated itself clearly in practice as well as in science laboratories.

The Reconnection is the umbrella process of reconnecting to the universe, which allows Reconnective Healing to take place. These healings and evolutionary frequencies are of a new bandwidth brought in via a spectrum of light and information. It is through The Reconnection that we are able to interact with these new levels of light and information, and it is through these new levels of light and information that we are able to reconnect. This is something new. This is different. This is real—and it can be entrained in each of us.

How Does One Become a Healer?

2009-11-03T20:59:00.005-06:00

This blog began months ago as I was experiencing a spiritual awakening. When an awakening happens, one can either stay alert, be open, and see where it takes you, or choose to turn your back to it and pretend to be blinded by the light you've been shown. I've stayed the course, got lost at times through the mazes, twists and turns, and have enjoyed every second of it. I dropped all of my earlier beliefs I once had concerning the religion I was brought up in. A space opened up, a freedom to seek and discover my inward spirituality. I've spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours reading and learning about the mystics, explored miraculous stories of the greatest saints, masters, and healers....and I've been in awe of it all. What stunning mysteries of life itself I've discovered. Never would I have dreamed that this was all leading me to my life's purpose.

I am now a practitioner - a Reconnective Practitioner, a healer. If you're wondering why and how, believe me I've wondered, also. So,why me? I've asked myself these questions so many times lately. My answer, the only one I have, is that I was given a gift, one that I could have refused to receive. I could have dismissed the weird, crazy things that began happening to me as just weird and crazy. New bandwidths of energy and information began entangling and connecting with my physical and emotional/spiritual body. Day after day, new frequencies arrived and made it known physically in my body. Electrical currents, subtle ones sometimes, and other times not so subtle, kept me awake at night as they pulsated and flowed through every cell of my body. Like little sparks of light, they would begin in my feet and race throughout my body, up and down like electricity in live wires. And then, SHWOOSH!! Up through my head, exploding outwards like a swarm of fireflies being released. My ears began buzzing, a sound like thousands of tiny, little bees humming. Why didn't I race off to a doctor and ask questions like "Am I crazy?" or "What do you think is happening to me, doctor?" BECAUSE.......I knew I had nothing wrong with me, and I was enjoying the sensations, visions, colors. Once I even experienced a "being" in the room with me; a kind, compassionate, loving being. I welcomed its presence. I was given the message, "Receive". That's all, just the word receive. I KNEW intuitively that these new sensations I was experiencing were coming from something or someone from an unknown dimension, or at least it had been unknown to me until then. Perhaps this something or someone was God, or a Universal Intelligence. How could I turn away from such a gift? How could I refuse to share it with others or turn my back on people who are seeking a higher connectedness with consciousness?

Dr. Eric Pearl, the author of "The Reconnection" book and an amazing teacher at conference workshops across the globe is who I turned to for guidance and instruction. I've experienced firsthand his amazing workshop seminar and have taken with me the knowingness of what I now am: a healer, a Reconnective Practitioner, to be exact. This gift was there for me all along. All I did was allow myself to be open to it, to be a vehicle, to NOT turn the other way and deny it, and to claim it.

I'll be writing more - much more - about my amazing healing experiences with this new bandwidth of healing light frequencies. Also, see Dr. Eric Pearl's website at: http://www.thereconnection.com

The Wounded Healer

2009-10-20T16:57:00.007-05:00

This posting is from the beautiful video: The Wounded Healer

Mythology is a method to identify traits within the human psyche and use the archetypes to translate human experiences. In Greek myths, chiron was the wisest of Centaurs and the archetype of the Wounded Healer. He was accidently wounded by an arrow that had been dipped in the blood of Hydra. Because he was immortal the venom caused him eternal torment. In his search for his own cure, he discovered how to heal others. In teaching others the healing arts he found a measure of solace from his own pain.
"Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion."
---Buddha
Each of us goes through trials in life, rites of passage, physical illness and pain, mental confusion, emotional trauma, and spiritual distress. These trials help us to learn compassion. They teach us how to be a Wounded Healer.

"I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing."
----Leonard Nimoy

There is a difference between curing someone and healing someone. Medicine is a science, but healing is an art. Science is from the mind; art is from the heart. Healing energy flows when hearts connect.

"The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected. Only the wounded physician heals."
-------Carl Jung

Jung believed that a malady of the soul could be the best possible form of training for a Healer. The pains and burdens one bears and eventually overcomes is the source of great wisdom and healing power for others. The Wounded Healer understands what the patient feels because he has gone through the same pain. The Healer's experience is what makes him a brother of the patient, rather than his master. This triggers a fundamental change in perspective. Because he has learned through experience, the Healer is able to feel empathy instead of just sympathy. The patient can sense this subconsciously. This opens a conduit between the two on the spiritual level and connects them. The suffering patient can be cared for by the Healer and be instrumental in the Healer's own healing. Each encounter between the Healer and patient can be transforming for both.

The lesson of Chiron teaches us that we can overcome pain and transcend into knowledge that each of us can become a Wounded Healer.

"When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing."
-------Rabindranath Tagore

Have You Noticed The Shift?

2009-10-13T21:04:00.006-05:00

I've been noticing a change, or a shift, in people I know. Have you been noticing it, too? Some of these people I've known a long time, and some of them are new friends that have been arriving into my life. I include myself in this shift, also, because five or ten years ago, I wouldn't have been interested in the interconnectedness of time, energy, or mass.......or the frequencies that underlie all the dimensions of our universe. I wasn't ready then for what is unfolding now.

What am I referring to? It's the fact that people are more open about speaking about various spiritual matters and such things as "shifts". They are hungry to meet others they can connect to who are vibrating at their frequency levels or even higher. Maybe they are not putting it into those exact words, but this is what I see they are talking about. Just a few years back, some of these very people (myself included) would have looked at you oddly for even bringing up such subjects.

The movie industry has been giving us movies with an emphasis on spiritual issues. This reflects what our culture's interests lie. We've had films about angels, healers, life after death, paradigm shifts, parallel dimensions, and psychic abilities. More of the same can be viewed on television.

Many of us have chosen to be here in this universe at this time to help in this transition to the new, higher vibrations. Gregg Braden uses two terms to describe this transition: the Shift" and "Shift of the Ages". Many programs on the History Channel have focused on the predictions of this transition of the ancient Mayans, the Incas, the Hopi, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and the Kabbalah. You have have seen some of the programs yourself. The shift is a term which describes the process of Earth accelerating through a course of evolutionary change, with the human species linked, by choice, to the electro magnetic fields of Earth, following suit through a process of cellular change, says Gregg Braden.

These predictions from so many people in the past couldn't have just popped out of thin air. I believe they allowed themselves to be open to the Universal Intelligence to bring us this information.

The Shift is here. It's here now. As Braden says, "The Shift represents a rare opportunity of collectively repatterning the expression of human consciousness."

The Tao - Everything and Nothing

2009-10-05T13:00:00.002-05:00

Students of modern metaphysics are familiar with the concept
of a beingness which is behind all things. It has been referred
to as the Absolute, the Isness, the 'I Am' Presence, and 'the
All That Is which is behind all things.' My own choice of words
is Infinite Being. All of these terms refer to the same
perfect, unchanging beingness which is behind everything.

The universe exists within the field of silent consciousness
of Infinite Being, so its essence is within everything in the
world. That silent Isness is the ground state of consciousness
behind all life. Because of its silent, unmoving nature it
could be referred to as being 'nothing and nowhere,' at least
to our physical sense of awareness.

The Creator and its creation exist within Infinite Being.
Therefore, Infinite Being is within all things. The unchanging
is within everything in the changing world. Yet, our physical
senses will never detect this underlying, unchanging oneness.
It is only through developing an inner connection that we will
discover that which is behind all things.

The Tao is manifest as everything and yet the Tao, in the
world of material senses, appears to be nothing and nowhere.
So, the message of the Tao Te Ching is to develop an inner
connection with that which is real and then the manifest world
- this world which is unreal in comparison - begins to make
sense.
---------by Owen Waters (Infinite Being website)

Moving Forward, Disconnecting, and Letting Go

2009-09-25T11:24:00.004-05:00

As we move into higher dimensions there is much to consider. Anything that is not at our new, higher vibration can either move into a higher energy or not. If it does not, there is nothing we can do but disconnect from it or try to resist as it disconnects from us. While everything has a different energetic potential, all things have their vibrational limit, which is the upper level of their potential. When this is reached there are no more shifts that can occur for them.

Each element of the Universe has its own purpose and carries a corresponding vibration that is designed to fulfill a purpose. When we connect to a person or thing at that level we need the experience it has to teach us. But when we raise our own vibration it no longer has anything to teach us and we must decide what we will do next. Can we let go? Chances are, it has already let go of us and is trying to push us out of its energetic field.

This is the challenge of ascension, moving forward, disconnecting and letting go of our needs for validation in the outside world. And trusting that we will step into a bright future when we disconnect from our past and release what has reached its vibrational limit.

"To understand the whole it is necessary to understand the parts. To understand the parts, it is necessary to understand the whole. Such is the circle of understanding."
Ken Wilber, Eye of Spirit

Mind-stuff

2009-09-18T21:27:00.002-05:00

by Paramahansa Yogananda

From science, man learns the philosophic truth that there is no material universe, its warp and woof is maya, illusion.
How did Christ resurrect his crucified body? How did Lahiri Mahashaya and Sri Yukteshwar perform their miracles? Modern science has as yet, no answer, though with the advent of Atomic Age the scope of the world-mind has been abruptly enlarged. The word 'impossible' is becoming less prominent in man's vocabulary.

The Vedic scriptures declare that the physical world operates under one fundamental law of maya, the principle of relativity and duality. God, the Sole Life, is Absolute Unity; to appear as separate and diverse manifestations of a creation He wears a false or unreal veil. That illusory dualistic veil is maya. Many great scientific discoveries of modern times have confirmed this simple pronouncement of the ancient rishis.

Newton's Law of Motion is a law of maya. "To every action there is always an equal and contrary reaction; the mutual action of any two bodies is always equal and oppositely directed." Action and reaction are thus exactly equal. "To have a single force is impossible. There must be, and always is, a pair of forces equal and opposite."…

Physical science, then, cannot formulate laws outside of maya: the very fabric and structure of creation. Nature herself is maya; natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity. In her domain, she is eternal and inexhaustible; future scientists can do no more than probe one aspect after another of her varied infinitude. Science thus remains in a perpetual flux, unable to reach finality; fit indeed to discover the laws of an already existing and functioning cosmos but powerless to detect the Law Framer and Sole Operator. The majestic manifestations of gravitation and electricity have become known, but what gravitation and electricity are, no mortal knoweth….

Among the trillion mysteries of the cosmos, the most phenomenal is light. Unlike sound waves, whose transmission requires air or other material media, the light waves pass freely through the vacuum of interstellar space…light remains the most subtle, the freest from material dependence, of any natural manifestation.

In the gigantic conceptions of Albert Einstein, the velocity of light - 1,86,300 miles per second - dominates the whole Theory of Relativity. He proves mathematically that the velocity of light is, so far as man's finite mind is concerned, the only constant of a universe in flux. On the sole 'absolute' of light velocity depends all human standards of time and space. Not abstractly eternal as hitherto considered, time and space are relative and finite factors. They derive their conditional measurement-validities only in reference to the yardstick of light velocity. With a few equational strokes of his pen, Einstein banished from the universe every fixed reality except that of light.

In a later development, his Unified Field Theory, the great physicist sought to embody in one mathematical formula the laws of gravitation and of electromagnetism. Reducing the cosmic structure to variations on a single law, Einstein has reached across the ages to the rishis who proclaimed a sole fabric of creation: a protean maya. Great scientists are now boldly asserting not only that the atom is energy rather than matter, but that atomic energy is essentially mind-stuff.

"The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one the most significant advances," Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington writes in The Nature of the Physical World. "In the world of physics we watch a shadow graph performance of the drama of familiar life... To put the conclusion crudely, the stuff of the world is mind-stuff."

The New York Times gave the following report of a 1937 demonstration of the electron microscope... : "The principle of the electron microscope was first discovered in 1927 by Drs Clinton J. Davisson and Lesser H. Germer of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, New York City, who found that the electron has a dual personality, partaking the characteristics of a particle and a wave. (That is both matter and energy.)..."

From science, then, it must be so, let man learn the philosophic truth that there is no material universe, its warp and woof is maya, illusion. Under analysis all its mirages of reality dissolve. As, one by one, the reassuring props of a physical cosmos crash beneath him, man dimly perceives his idolatrous reliance, his transgression of the Divine Command: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."

In his famous equation outlining the equivalence of mass and energy, Einstein proved that the energy in any particle of matter is equal to its mass or weight multiplied by the square of the velocity of light… The 'death' of matter has given birth to an Atomic Age.

Light velocity is a mathematical standard or constant not because there is an absolute value in 1,86,300 miles a second, but because no material body, whose mass increases with its velocity, can ever attain the velocity of light. Stated another way: only a material body whose mass is infinite could equal the velocity of light…

"Let there be light! And there was light". In the creation of the universe, God's first command brought into being the structural essential: light. On the beams of this immaterial medium occur all divine manifestations…

Free from matter consciousness, free from the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time, a master transfers his body of light with equal ease over or through the light rays of earth, water, fire, and air…

The law of miracles is operable by any man who has realized that the essence of creation is light. A master is able to employ his divine knowledge of light phenomena to project instantly into perceptible manifestation the ubiquitous light atoms. The actual form of projection, whatever it be: a tree, a medicine, a human body, is determined by the yogi's wish and by his power of will and of visualization…

Source: Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Spirit Calling to Itself

2009-09-14T18:30:00.003-05:00

A Mysterious Summons
Why is it that some of us are driven blindly, madly, and passionately to struggle to transcend our own limitations? And to do so not merely for our own sake but for the sake of a higher purpose that we feel yet can barely see? Why is it that in those precious moments when we are most conscious and most awake, we intuit a deeper sense of conscience and care that is not personal? What is that soft vibration that tugs on our hearts and beckons us to courageously leap beyond the small confines of our ego so that we will participate in the life process in a much deeper and more authentic way? In the way I understand it, this is the deepest and most profound manifestation of the evolutionary impulse itself—the very same energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process fourteen billion years ago. That energy and intelligence is now awakening to itself as the spiritual impulse, the mysterious compulsion towards consciousness that serious seekers feel stirring deep within their very own souls. Why is it that some of us who come from a completely secular background find ourselves compelled towards our own spiritual depths, seemingly out of the blue? For many it feels like Consciousness or Spirit is calling the Self to Itself, unprompted by external circumstances. And where does this mystical summons originate? It comes from the same fathomless source that the big bang came from!

Andrew Cohen

Mother Earth Spirituality

2009-09-10T09:46:00.004-05:00

I've just ordered this book,"Mother Earth Spirituality", and I want to share this finding with everyone.

After reading "Black Elk Speaks" I picked up this book because I believe that Native American ways of living have much to offer us. We neglect their wisdom at our peril. It is a great privilege that we have access to their knowledge on how we can live in harmony with Mother Earth. The author starts with the question why he should teach non-Indians about Native American spirituality and answers that it is time to share that spirituality because it does not belong to the Indians alone but to others with the right attitude; we all live in one world. If kept within the Indian community their old wisdom will not be allowed to work its environmental medicine on the world where it is desperately needed. A spiritual fire that promotes a communal commitment to a worldwide environmental undertaking is needed. Native or primal ways will fuel that fire and give it great power. Mother Earth can be revered, respected and protected.
He then quotes the letter from Chief Seathl (Seattle) to the President of the United States of America in 1854 - one of the most unusual and eloquent letters that a President can have received. "How can we buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?" The truth is that we could really stop here, go into a quiet room and reflect on those three sentences and we will surely discover the root cause of many of our ills. We put a price on everything the Indians think has no value and we place no value on everything the Indians think is valuable. Sparkling water in a stream flowing through a wood has no value to us but it is the essence of life to the Indian. Having polluted our rivers and killed the fish we are at long last starting to ask ourselves those very questions that Chief Seattle asked of the President 150 years ago.

Another point made by Chief Seattle haunts me. "...to harm the earth is to heap contempt on the Creator. The Whites too shall pass; perhaps sooner than all other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste." How many of us today are saying somewhat similar things to our deaf leaders? But the heart and soul of the Indian way of life lies at the end of Seattle's letter, "So, if we sell our land, love it as we've loved it. Care for it as we've cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you take it. And with all your strength, with all your mind, with all your heart, preserve it for your children, and love it ... as God loves us all. One thing w know. Our God is the same God. This earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We shall see....." How many of us would claim that we have loved the land as the Indians loved the land, or cared for the land as the Indians cared for the land? If we answer 'no', then surely that means that we have something to learn from the Native Indians. I am sure that if Chief Seattle were here today he would cry to see what we have done to those lands the Indians held sacred. He would cry for the pain inflicted on the earth. He would cry for us who in our greed and selfishness have wrought such damage on ourselves and our children.

I agree with and applaud Ed McGaa. A spiritual fire that promotes a communal commitment to a worldwide environmental undertaking is needed. Native or primal ways will fuel that fire and give it great power. We should all learn something from this book. But not just read and think and speak. But act. This book is nothing if we do not act on it. This is what Stephen Covey was telling us in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" that first we have to change ourselves, and only then we can change others and the world.

Einstein told us that we need a higher level of thinking to get ourselves out of the mess than the thinking that got us into the mess. Stephen Covey tells us that in such situations as we are in today we need a quantum change that can only be brought about by a completely new paradigm. Our current way of living is the paradigm that got us into the mess. The Indian approach is probably the paradigm that will get us out of the mess. If we read this book with an open mind and without prejudice, I believe that the Native American paradigm should be at the top of the shortlist of new paradigms from which we should make our selection for building the world we want for our children.

By DAVID-LEONARD WILLIS

Connecting with Father Sky

2009-09-07T17:23:00.004-05:00

(Prairie Dog Rapture by Anthony Falbo)

Father Sky: From the earliest of times people honored and were in awe of all that they saw in the sky. The sun, moon, earth and stars, the thunder, lightening, rains, and winds were always power- full, mysterious, and represented deity and the unknown. Today, we can apply traditional ancient wisdom with current knowledge in these modern times. Understanding that all things are dependent on each other helps maintain the balance that exists in all nature. The ability to survive today still depends on establishing right relations with the animal, plant, mineral and human kingdoms. Respecting all things helps us live peacefully with all of our relations. Our ancestors knew that they were connected to the earth, fire, water and air. Father Sky was above them as elements: weather, air, thunder, storms, wind, clouds, rain, light, cold, warmth of the sun, and the shinning stars. Below them was Mother Earth and all that lived upon her. The partnership of both was needed to reproduce. Earth is the realm of Our Mother and Heaven is the realm of Our Father. All creation depends on this balanced relationship. We refer to the sky and earth as Father Sky and Mother Earth in respect of this cooperative, connected partnership.

There is a sacred flow that exists in all things. It is part of us and we are all part of it. When we still our minds, and touch the sky and earth and express gratitude for all that exists, we can then flow with the energy that is the Sacred Universe.

Be Still.....Be Now.....Be Present

2009-09-06T11:01:00.003-05:00

Now is all there is. There is no other time. The past and future are concepts that can be thought about now but they can never be experienced now.

We believe in the illusion of a separate self. Self is only a concept. Eckhart Tolle, (Stillness Speaks, 2003) explains, "The mind is incessantly looking not only for food for thought; it is looking for food for its identity, its sense of self. This is how the ego comes into existence and continuously re-creates itself."

Trees, water, sky, hills--why do we divide life up and name the parts we have created?

The ego, manufactured by the mind, tells you who you are. The ego tells you that you are a body and its thoughts. Since you are a body, you can die. Since you can die, you are always in danger. Now must be broken up into pleasurable things, that are to be moved toward, and painful things that are to be avoided. Life is divided in two-- living and dying. The ego tells you that pleasure and life are the same and that pain and death are the same. This perpetuates the ego's practice of constantly resisting now--telling you that your life has problems that must be avoided and solutions that must be found. Suffering is born out of the stories we tell ourselves about pain. "Inner alignment with now is the end of suffering." (Stillness Speaks, 2003)

There is a tension that constantly moves us away from now. It says, "Go do something." It says, "Accomplish this." When a goal is accomplished, it is quickly replaced by another goal, and the moving away from now continues. It constantly seeks some time other than now. Instead of experiencing now as it is without labels, judgments, and descriptions, this mind-made self causes your true self to become lost in thought. To keep denying the reality of now, just as it is, it perceives and then describes life to you. You begin to have a relationship with life.The fact that you are life becomes obscured.

The ego chatters incessantly. It tells you that there are things outside you and things inside you. Things that are inside you are admitted into consciousness. Things outside you are denied and become subconscious or are projected "out there" so that they can be judged and related to as if they are separate objects. The ego divides up the whole of reality into parts that it names and counts. "The landscape is made up of separate things. This is a tree, that is the ground, there is the sky." This abstracting denies the fact that there is no real dividing line between the tree, the ground, and the sky--or between anything and anything else. Everything is connected.

By moving away from now and into an imaginary future, or into a remembered past, the ego seeks to establish its existence and keep the mind from discovering the truth by accepting what is now. In the future, it tells you, you can add this or that or something else to yourself and become bigger. Tomorrow you will have accomplished more. Next year you will make more money. Further denying now, the ego ruminates about the past and all its horror. Still continuing its denial of now, the ego sometimes tells you about the "good ole days" of the past.

By breaking up life and moving away from now, the ego is addicted to dualistic knowledge. This is good. That is bad. It never allows reality to be experienced and known directly as a whole just as it is. The ego can only continue its existence by thinking about life. The ego cannot exist in the only time there ever is: Now.

How do you stay in the now? You feel life as it is. You experience instead of describing experience. You observe thought instead of believing it and becoming lost in it. You accept what is instead of resisting it. Even if something is happening that you would rather not be happening, you can feel and accept that you don't like what is happening now. Consistent with the Serenity Prayer, learn to change what should be changed and accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed. Just be and accept that there is nothing you need to do and nowhere you need to go. Things are the only way they can be. Stop resisting now.

That doesn't mean to stop living your life and having accomplishments. It means to be present while you are living life and having accomplishments. Feel your life. Accept and be with the feeling without labeling it or describing it or resisting it. Every success in recognizing the ego and its motivations can be built upon. Along the way, learn to observe the ego's criticizing of your progress in staying present. Eventually, it will lose its motivation to continue its chatter. When it collapses, along with its mindless emotional thinking, you will know yourself and find "the peace that surpasseth all understanding." All that is left is the timeless now.

SOURCES:

Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks (Novato: New World Library, 2003 and Vancouver: Namaste Publishing, 2003), p. 27, p. 118.
Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (Bantam Books, 1980).
Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness, 20th Anniversary Edition (The Theosophical Publishing House, 1993).
A Course in Miracles (Foundation for Inner Peace, 1985).
Tony Parsons, As It Is (Inner Directions Publishing, 2002).

Why Shamanism Now?

2009-08-23T10:19:00.009-05:00

Would I go to a shaman for healing? YES! In a heartbeat! Especially if I were having physical pain or a dis-ease that is not responding to Western medicine. I have a friend whose daughter and spiritual guide often travel to Peru to a certain shaman, Don Diego, for healing. Remarkable changes have occurred in their lives. As one participant put it, "My personal experience was intensly profound and life changing. The degree of healing experienced is beyond the scope of explanation possible here. Mother Vine is truly a healer - physical, emotional and spiritual - for me." So, I am holding on to this information for a "just in case" moment. Just in case I find the money to travel there, I (and my husband, also, would love to participate) would go right now for the emotional and spiritual healing. Just in case I should become ill or a family member or close friend needs physical healing, I keep this website close at hand. There are trained Western shamans in our country, also, that are true healers. Michael Harner's shamanism workshops have trained many that are now practicing all over the country, if you so desire to check on some of them. I just happen to know someone personally who goes to Peru for healing, and that is why this particular shaman attracts me.

So, why shamanism? Read on........

From ancient times, shamans have worked with the spirits of nature for healing, survival, and knowledge. By learning from the plants and animals, from the rocks and mountains, from the winds and waters, and from the sun, moon, and stars, shamans helped their peoples live in harmony with the universe. In a world now out of balance, the way of the shaman can teach how again to respect nature, our Earth, and its inhabitants at a deep spiritual level. As our ancestors everywhere once knew, our survival depends on the survival of the other species.

Michael Harner, in the preface to the Third Edition (tenth anniversary edition of The Way of the Shaman), considers some reasons why this renaissance is underway. Harner finds that:

1. The Age of Faith has been replaced by the Age of Science wherein individuals no longer are as willing to accept spiritual dogma and insist instead on firsthand experience as a teacher of important truths. This is an impact of the experimental method.

2. Scientific experimentation involving observations made under the influence of LSD could be understood from a shamanic perspective.

3. Near-death experiences, made more common by medical science, turned out to be personal experiments that challenged existing understandings of reality and the existence of spirits, which were clarified from a shamanic point-of-view.

4. Shamanic methods involving journeying with the drum are safe and effective.

5. Shamanic methods work quickly and fit well into the fast-paced lifestyle of modern life.

6. Holistic health approaches have rediscovered ancient shamanic methods and their effectiveness and now incorporate them into practice.

7. We are rediscovering spiritual ecology, which requires that we again connect with our planet and its other inhabitants in order to maintain our survival.

To this list I would add several observations. Our concern for our damaged environment has largely come from our new “priests”, the physical scientists, who have been warning about global warming, pollution of air and water, declining resources such as petroleum, loss of ozone, and such for decades. However, these priests carry no sacred authority to underwrite their warnings. In fact, they have purposely distanced themselves from the sacred and have taken refuge in the secular and objective aspects of reality. Scientists’ conclusions are only as good as their latest observations, a point easily and frequently exploited by politicians. Scientists command no moral authority. In the United States they have little political power at present. Shamanism, designed as it is around an animistic philosophy, can provide a sacred charter for the ecological imperatives we recognize. Underwriting ecology from this deep, heartfelt perspective provides the moral basis for supporting sound ecological practice and feeds back to validate shamanism.

From: The Reawakening of Shamanism in the West
By Bill Brunton

Spirit House

2009-08-19T08:20:00.006-05:00

Spirit houses provide appealing shelter for deities who protect and bless the family who reside in the "real" house on one's property. In Thailand, these tiny temples are perched high up on poles in every yard or garden. The Guardian of the House is the spirit that watches over and protects the home. It is uncertain whether there is one spirit that watches over all homes, or if individual spirits do this for each home. However, all you have to do in Thailand is look around and you'll see that every home has a spirit house. Thai families who believe wholeheartedly in the spirit house and it's importance light incense every morning and ask the spirit to watch over and protect the home.

I have decided I would like to have a spirit house, maybe perched by the front entrance to my house, or in the serenity of the garden in the back. Who wouldn't want protection and blessings from the spirits as one goes through the stresses of life? We would all like less suffering, and let's face it, we humans think we would like to alleviate it completely. Yet it appears as though the only way to grow spiritually, to be more enlightened, is through that door of suffering. We can choose to either be broken down or to be broke open.

In her book "Broken Open" by Elizabeth Lesser, she was given a gift by her sister and it was a beautiful spirit house. As she was unwrapping the treasure, she discovered to her amazement that the house had gotten broken from being sent through the mail. Disappointed from her discovery, she still had a good laugh from this. She said to herself, "A broken spirit house!" She had just spent the year finishing her book, which is about finding protection and blessings in the broken moments of our lives. She tells stories in her book of blessings that come disguised as disaster, not as cute little houses in lovely gardens. Elizabeth Lesser keeps the broken shards of her spirit house gift in a basket to remind herself that while she is never safe from breaking, she is always protected by spirit.

From her book she writes, "Over and over, we are broken on the shore of life. Our stubborn egos are knocked around, and our frightened hearts are broken open - not once, and not in predictable patterns, but in surprising ways and for as long as we live. The promise of being broken and the possibility of being opened are written into the contract of human life. When the sea is rough, and when we are suffering, we may want to give up hope and give in to despair. but brave pilgrims have gone before us. They tell us to venture forth with faith and vision. "

The poet Rumi tell us this:

Drum sounds rise on the air,
and with them, my heart.
A voice inside the beat says,
I know you are tired,
but come.
This is the way.

"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle

2009-08-16T10:34:00.006-05:00

I've learned to be a pretty joyful person, and the magnificent ideas, or pointers, from Eckhart Tolle's books have led me to experience for myself his concepts of how to live in the present moment. When I began living in the present, I've experienced heaven, and it's here for me (or you!) every moment we let go of thoughts of the past and of the future.

The Center for Contemplation (we meet in Abilene, TX - see the link to the right)is doing a review of "The Power of Now". Many of us have read it and are eager to discuss our personal experiences of how we've implemented the ideas from the book into our own personal lives. For many of us, it has been life changing and liberating, freeing us to be whole and at one with the great "I AM".

Here are some excerpts from this spirit inspired book:

"Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have remained a secret. It is certainly not taught in churches and temples. If you go to a church, you may hear readings from the Gospels, such as, "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for things of itself" or "Nobody who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of heaven". Or you may hear the passage about the beautiful flowers who are not anxious about tomorrow, but live with ease in the timeless now and are provided for abundantly by God. The true nature of these teachings is not recognized. No one seems to realize that they were meant to be lived and thereby bring about profound inner transformation."

"Having access to that formless realm is truly liberating. It frees you from bondage to form and identification with form. It is life in its undifferentiated state prior to its fragmentation into multiplicity. We may call it the Unmanifested, the invisible Source of all things, the Being within all beings. It is a realm of deep stillness and peace, but also of joy and intense aliveness. Whenever you are present, you become "transparent" to some extent to the light, the pure consciousness that emanates from this Source. You also realize that the light is not separate from who you are but constitutes your very essence."

"Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is our only chance of survival as a race. This will affect every aspect of your life and close relationships in particular. Never before have relationships been as problematic and conflict ridden as they are now. As you may continue to pursue the goal of salvation through a relationship, you will be disillusioned again and again. But if you accept that the relationship is here to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship will offer you salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world. For those who hold to the old patterns, there will be increasing pain, violence, confusion, and madness."

"To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them - while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease."

Namaste'

"Greet the Day" prayer

2009-08-15T17:16:00.003-05:00

This is an inspiring way to begin your morning and to stay grounded throughout the whole day. Try it and see what a difference it will make for you.

“Greet the Day”

I SALUTE THE SKY AND ALL THAT IS

OFFERING MYSELF TO THE DAY

GATHERING MY ENERGY

I PLANT MY VISION

AND ACCEPT THE CORE ENERGY OF THE EARTH INTO MYSELF

I GATHER AND ACCEPT THE ENERGY FROM THE UNIVERSE
INTO MY ENTIRE BEING.

I RELEASE WHAT I NO LONGER NEED

I GIVE MY GIFTS FROM THE HEART

AND I RECEIVE GIFTS FROM THE UNIVERSE

Enlightened or Awakened Beings

2009-08-09T10:38:00.006-05:00

Many people today believe we are in a global time of great transformation, in which we shall arrive as an awakened, enlightened, or ascended species. But, what does that mean? How do we get there? And, do those who embrace this understanding truly understand what that means?

So, how do we get there? How do we get into a Buddhistic Mind, be an enlightened or awakened being? Many in our contemporary times are into ‘healing', into their own healing path,or into the ‘healing arts'. But what is that? Do we truly understand the ‘healed’ state?
The path is one of recognizing, honoring, embracing,and embodying who we truly are as Divine Beings. Do we get that? Truly? Do we feel it? Do we live it, in a fundamental and daily way, in all our relations, on the highway to work, with the kids when they are doing something we feel is a poor choice in their lives? Are we living in our Divinity in our daily lives?

The Heart of all Creation emanates, pulses out into creation, indeed, is the cause of all creation. All Creation pulses in Harmony with that original pulse. The laws of Sacred Geometries and other studies of the sacred sciences disseminate this truth - "That all life unfolds in Divine proportions". When we enter the harmonic state within our own being, we activate that harmonic principal of our self which is in union with All Life, with All Creation, with All Harmony. And, through this visceral state, we can very easily feel what is in harmony and what is not. It is a VERY simple mechanical reality. Any great conductor can tell you when the bassoon or 3rd violin is not in pitch. It only requires practice, discernment, and trust in our own ability to discern. Given that this is a lesson from birth, allowing us to discern our own truth, with proper guidance to not do harm to ourselves or others during the learning stages, we SHALL come into seeing, believing, understanding and living from the principals of this divine truth - "That all life is in harmony, and we can enter into that harmony at any time, and discern all that is in or not in that harmony".

By Zacciah Blackburn

Zacciah is a gifted teacher, and sound healer. He is trained in classical healing, shamanic traditions, and sacred sound practices. He teaches internationally, and practices in Vermont, USA, at the Center of Light. Zacciah shares teachings on the nature of human consciousness, explorations into the Shamanic worlds of earth energies & awareness, and teachings on the nature of sound and sacred sound practices. His in-depth understanding provides life transforming experiences into the authentic nature, being, and wellness of who we are as spiritual beings. He is Director of Education at the International Sound Healing Network. See www.thecenteroflight.net for further information.

The Energy Healing Experiments

2009-08-03T12:01:00.004-05:00

This impressive book is one I really want to share with everyone. I've been delving into the world of energy healing, such as Reiki and Shamanic Touch. I know that energy healing works, but I just couldn't understand HOW it works. This amazing book explains it thoroughly. Anyone who is skeptical will be reassured by the scientific experiments that are presented here. I am the type of person who always wants to know why and how things work and I like to be shown proof. This book does that.

Here are some reviews I found from Amazon.com:

"Over the past three decades, an impressive body of scientific evidence has quietly emerged that points to stunning new insights into consciousness and itscapacity to mediate healing. Dr. Gary Schwartz's The Energy HealingExperiments is a stellar introduction to this dazzling evidence, which will transform the very meaning of 'healing.' " Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things

"For more than 30 years, I have known and learned from the truly creative genius of Dr. Gary Schwartz. In The Energy Healing Experiments his courageous odyssey continues with scientific rigor, penetrating insights, his characteristic twinkling humor, and true wisdom. "Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD(hc), author of New Medicine and internationalbestseller Mind As Healer, Mind As Slayer

"In The Energy Healing Experiments, scientist Gary Schwartz reveals his thrilling journey to the threshold of 21st-century medicine. There we encounter the promise of new classes of therapies based on the modulation of energy and intention. While we don't know yet exactly how these new therapies work, the fact that they work is being firmly established by Schwartz and others, as reported in this riveting first-person account. "Dean Radin, PhD, author of Entangled Minds and The Conscious Universe

"This is a lovely book. I congratulate Gary Schwartz, with William Simon, on a very readable and lucid book on the important and complex topic of energy/information healing as distinguished from chemical/nutritional healing. It is highly recommended for all readers because it will significantly transform the public mind-set in very beneficial ways."
William A. Tiller, PhD, author of Science and Human Transformation

"Through the able hand of a master scientist, this book is a reliable guide to the complex and sometimes perplexing engagement of mind, body, and spirit."

Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, PhD, Vice President for Research and Education, Institute of Noetic Sciences

Customer Reviews

By Nicole Wilde
While some other reviewers found this information dry, I found it fascinating. I'm not a scientist by a long shot, but when I read about scientific experiments I want to know the details, particularly because there are so many factors involved. Especially when it comes to this type of subject matter -- and I say this as an energy healer -- I want to know that the placebo effect or other factors are not contributing to the results. I began reading this book as research for one of my own books, and ended up finishing it before I knew it. Okay, it's not for those looking for scintillating prose that reads like a novel, but the information speaks for itself and Gary Schwartz has done an excellent job of presenting it a way that the non-scientists among us can understand.
- Nicole Wilde, author Energy Healing for Dogs: Using Hands-On Healing to Improve Canine Health and Behavior

By Jed Shlackman (Miami, FL United States)

This review is from: The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal (Hardcover)
I first came across Schwartz' work almost a decade ago in the Living Energy Universe. His subsequent books have been more focused, and the Energy Healing Experiments looks at the research and evidence validating the power of consciousness and intention to guide healing energies. This book provides solid evidence and explores important questions raised by both believers and skeptics. As an energy healer I know what I observe and experience with myself and clients, so I don't need convincing... but for those who lack the expanded sensory awareness to feel and perceive energy healing it's useful to have empirical findings and methodically designed experiments that confirm something is happening that can't be explained in a materialistic manner. Gary Schwartz has done well in collecting this evidence and presenting it within a thoughtful analysis and discussion of its implications. This book is practical and more scientifically-oriented than spiritually oriented even though it does bring up the spiritual and philosophical implications of energy healing. I recommend this for healers who want to have a collection of research that supports their work, as well as the general public and skeptics who wish to carefully consider the evidence regarding this phenomenon.

You - a latticework of energies

2009-07-29T11:13:00.004-05:00

My morning ritual is pictured above. Each day I start by sitting outdoors (along with my three dogs and a very special cat on my lap) and I commune with nature. I view nature, people, plants, animals, and everthing in the material world as energy. To connect with this energy, I light a candle, incense, and a white sage smudge stick. I begin by smudging myself by moving the smoke energy by using a feather. I smudge my four legged friends along with the area where we will be sitting. This creates a clean environment that is free of all negativity, and then I envision a pure white light of love surrounding us.

The four elements are being accessed - earth, fire, water, and air. We are all created from these elements and when we connect to them, spiritually and physically, we allow an energy medicine to come into our bodies and keep us whole and well.

In our modern world we live in, it can be a strange, unnatural, stress-filled environment. Many of us have lost our connections to nature. Our immune systems don't recognize this strange environment that our bodies are desperately trying to adapt to. It attacks what it doesn't know. Our chakras become unbalanced, and as a result physical and mental illnesses arise.

Everything is energy, or vibration. When we see this, we can understand why the ancient shamanic healing practices are now being introduced into modern cultures. According to Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel laureate in Medicine,"In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy."

When you cultivate your capacity to weave these energies into a part of your life, you can be a more conscious and sensitive instrument of energy medicine than all other technologies combined.

When I enjoy my morning coffee and surround myself with my ritual candles, incense, etc., I am focusing on my body as a living system of energy, and I realize that this powerful energy is already inherent in my hands and in my very being.

Life is About This

2009-07-25T16:54:00.003-05:00

Come home to yourself. Observe yourself. That's why I said earlier that self-observation is such a delightful and extraordinary thing. After a while you don't have to make any effort, because, as illusions begin to crumble, you begin to know things that cannot be described. It's called happiness. Everything changes and you become addicted to awareness.

There's the story of the disciple who went to the master and said, "Could you give me a word of wisdom? Could you tell me something that would guide me through my days?" It was the master's day of silence, so he picked up a pad. It said, "Awareness." When the disciple saw it, he said, "This is too brief. Can you expand on it a bit?" So the master took back the pad and wrote, "Awareness, awareness, awareness." The disciple said, "Yes, but what does it mean?" The master took back the pad and wrote, "Awareness, awareness, awareness means -- awareness."

That's what it is to watch yourself. No one can show you how to do it, because he would be giving you a technique, he would be programming you. But watch yourself. When you talk to someone, are you aware of it or are you simply identifying with it? When you got angry with somebody, were you aware that you were angry or were you simply identifying with your anger? Later, when you had the time, did you study your experience and attempt to understand it? Where did it come from? What brought it on? I don't know of any other way to awareness. You only change what you understand. What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress. You don't change. But when you understand it, it changes.

I am sometimes asked, "Is this growing in awareness a gradual thing, or is it a 'whammo' kind of thing?" There are some lucky people who see this in a flash. They just become aware. There are others who keep growing into it, slowly, gradually, increasingly. They begin to see things. Illusions drop away, fantasies are peeled away, and they start to get in touch with facts. There's no general rule. There's a famous story about the lion who came upon a flock of sheep and to his amazement found a lion among the sheep. It was a lion who had been brought up by the sheep ever since he was a cub. It would bleat like a sheep and run around like a sheep. The lion went straight for him, and when the sheep lion stood in front of the real one, he trembled in every limb. And the lion said to him, "What are you doing among the sheep?" And the sheep-lion said, "I am a sheep." And the lion said, "Oh no you're not. You're coming with me." So he took the sheep-lion to a pool and said, "Look!" And when the sheep-lion looked at his reflection in the water, he let out a mighty roar, and in that moment he was transformed. He was never the same again.

If you're lucky and the gods are gracious or if you are gifted with divine grace (use any theological expression you want), you might suddenly understand who "I" is, and you will never be the same again, never. Nothing will ever be able to touch you again and no one will ever be able to hurt you again.

You will fear no one and you will fear nothing. Isn't that extraordinary? You'll live like a king, like a queen. This is what it means to live like royalty. Not rubbish like getting your picture in the newspapers or having a lot of money. That's a lot of rot. You fear no one because you're perfectly content to be nobody. You don't give a damn about success or failure. They mean nothing. Honor, disgrace, they mean nothing! If you make a fool of yourself, that means nothing either. Isn't that a wonderful state to be in! Some people arrive at this goal painstakingly, step by step, through months and weeks of self-awareness. But I'll promise you this: I have not known a single person who gave time to being aware who didn't see a difference in a matter of weeks. The quality of their life changes, so they don't have to take it on faith anymore. They see it; they're different. They react differently. In fact, they react less and act more. You see things you've never seen before.

You're much more energetic, much more alive. People think that if they had no cravings, they'd be like deadwood. But in fact they'd lose their tension. Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn't be driving with your brakes on. That's what would happen.

There's a lovely saying of Tranxu, a great Chinese sage, that I took the trouble to learn by heart. It goes: "When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him. He cares! He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power." Isn't that an image of what most people are? When you're living for nothing, you've got all your skills, you've got all your energy, you're relaxed, you don't care, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose.

Now there's HUMAN living for you. That's what life is all about. That can only come from awareness. And in awareness you will understand that honor doesn't mean a thing. It's a social convention, that's all. That's why the mystics and the prophets didn't bother one bit about it. Honor or disgrace meant nothing to them. They were living in another world, in the world of the awakened. Success or failure meant nothing to them. They had the attitude: "I'm an ass, you're an ass, so where's the problem?"

Someone once said, "The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong." But these are the easiest things in the world if you haven't identified with the "me." You can say things like "I'm wrong! If you knew me better, you'd see how often I'm wrong. What would you expect from an ass?" But if I haven't identified with these aspects of "me," you can't hurt me. Initially, the old conditioning will kick in and you'll be depressed and anxious. You'll grieve, cry, and so on. "Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed: after enlightenment, 1 continue to be depressed." But there's a difference: I don't identify with it anymore. Do you know what a big difference that is?

You step outside of yourself and look at that depression, and don't identify with it. You don't do a thing to make it go away; you are perfectly willing to go on with your life while it passes through you and disappears. If you don't know what that means, you really have something to look forward to. And anxiety? There it comes and you're not troubled. How strange! You're anxious but you're not troubled.

Isn't that a paradox? And you're willing to let this cloud come in, because the more you fight it, the more power you give it. You're willing to observe it as it passes by. You can be happy in your anxiety. Isn't that crazy? You can be happy in your depression. But you can't have the wrong notion of happiness. Did you think happiness was excitement or thrills? That's what causes the depression. Didn't anyone tell you that? You're thrilled, all right, but you're just preparing the way for your next depression. You're thrilled but you pick up the anxiety behind that: How can I make it last? That's not happiness, that's addiction.

I wonder how many non-addicts there are reading this book? If you're anything like the average group, there are few, very few. Don't look down your nose at the alcoholics and the drug addicts: maybe you're just as addicted as they are. The first time I got a glimpse of this new world, it was terrifying. I understood what it meant to be alone, with nowhere to rest your head, to leave everyone free and be free yourself, to be special to no one and love everyone- because love does that. It shines on good and bad alike; it makes rain fall on saints and sinners alike.

Is it possible for the rose to say, "I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad"? Or is it possible for the lamp to say, "I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say, "I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad"? These are images of what love is about.

It's been there all along, staring us in the face in the scriptures, though we never cared to see it because we were so drowned in what our culture calls love with its love songs and poems -- that isn't love at all, that's the opposite of love. That's desire and control and possessiveness. That's manipulation, and fear, and anxiety -- that's not love. We were told that happiness is a smooth complexion, a holiday resort. It isn't these things, but we have subtle ways of making our happiness depend on other things, both within us and outside us. We say, "I refuse to be happy until my neurosis goes." I have good news for you: You can be happy right now, WITH the neurosis, You want even better news? There's only one reason why you're not experiencing what in India we call ANAND -- bliss, bliss. There's only one reason why you're not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it's because you're thinking or focusing on what you don't have. Otherwise you would be experiencing bliss. You're focusing on what you don't have. But, right now you have everything you need to be in bliss.

Jesus was talking horse sense to lay people, to starving people, to poor people. He was telling them good news: It's yours for the taking. But who listens? No one's interested, they'd rather be asleep................ Anthony de Mello, SJ

(C) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Spiritually_Speaking .........from Lisa Day
Permission to share freely as long as credit is given.

Shamanic Reiki and chakras

2009-07-22T11:02:00.004-05:00

This past year has been an amazing journey for me spiritually. Some wonderful people I've known have passed from their physical bodies into the spirit world. Books, classes, meeting new people, my cat's near-death experience and healing.....all have been a part of this human adventure.

Recently, I've taken a healing workshop and am now certified at Level I in the Shamanic Touch/ Tera-Mai Seichem Reiki. I'll explain a little about what it is. It is a complete universal life energy, incorporating all the basic elements of life—air, water, spirit, earth and fire. Unlike traditional reiki's passive healing, this focuses on the patient's mental, physical, emotional as well as spiritual well-being. Tera-Mai Seichem reiki is a form of comprehensive and intense channeled healing energy that treats human beings in entirety. It originated in the USA when traditional reiki masters Kathleen Milner and Marcy Miller were guided by a 'highly evolved being' during meditation to increase the vibration of the reiki ray. They were given additional energy symbols, told to modify the existing attunement procedure and subtly shift focus during the attunement. The resulting modified energy along with the new attunement is Tera-Mai reiki.

You may be completely confused by now, but let me introduce you to your chakras.

An important aspect of healing involves balancing one's chakras. To enjoy a healthy mind, body, and spirit, our chakras must be balanced. If one chakra is blocked, it affects the other chakras in your body.

"Chakra" is the sanskrit word meaning "wheel". Chakras are like wheels of light that vibrate and spin at different color frequencies and are located all throughout our body. We have seven major chakras and numerous minor chakras. The major chakras are the focal point for most chakra meditations. There is much more to us than just our physical body; we have subtle and energetic bodies as well. The chakras act as the organs of these bodies. We are all comprised of energy and when universal energy can flow unimpeded throughout all of our bodies, then we can experience balance and harmony. The chakras connect our physical selves to our energetic, etheric, and eternal selves. Each of the seven main chakras correlate to different aspects of our self. They are:

Red: known as the root chakra; governs the skeleton, lymph, and elimination systems; relates to issues concerning safety, security, trust, survival, money, home, and job

Orange: sometimes called the sacral chakra; governs the reproductive system and assimilation; relates to issues concerning feelings, sensations, food, sex, appetite, and sexuality

Yellow: known as the solar plexus; governs the muscles and digestive system; relates to issues concerning freedom, power, control, self-direction, and intellect

Green: known as the heart chakra; governs the respiratory, circulatory, and immune systems; relates to issues concerning relating to others, giving, perceptions of love and acceptance

Blue (Turquoise): known as the throat chakra; governs growth and metabolism; relates to issues concerning expression, receiving, abundance, flowing manifestation, and listening to intuition

Indigo: known as the third eye; governs the endocrine system; relates to issues concerning spiritual awareness, individualized consciousness, intuition and clairvoyance

Violet: known as the crown chakra; governs the nervous system; relates to issues concerning connection with the Divine, universal consciousness, Source-level direction and guidance

One Constant Thing

2009-07-11T18:47:00.004-05:00

What is sought remains hidden from the seeker by already being everything.

It is so obvious and simple that the grasping of it obscures it. Never found, never knowable, being is the consummate absence that is beyond measure.

Looking for being is believing it is lost. Has anything been lost, or is it simply that the looking keeps it away? Does the beloved always dance constantly just beyond our serious focus?

The very intention to seek for a mythical treasure within life inevitably obscures the reality that life is already the treasure.

By seeking the myth it dreams it can attain, the seeker effectively avoids that which it most fears … its absence.

Liberation is like a fuse that suddenly blows, and all the little lights go out and there is only light.

This is not a message about you or me or anyone getting anything. This is about the realisation that there’s nothing to get … that what has been sought has never been lost.

This isn’t about seeking or not seeking; it’s beyond the concepts of Advaita and non-dualism and beyond the idea of reaching states of awareness or mindfulness. There’s no goal. There’s nothing on offer. This is totally beyond knowing.

This is really a description – a sharing together of a description of something that is beyond attainment, something that can’t be lost and also can’t be grasped or gained.

All the time there’s separation there’s a sense of loss, there’s a sense of a feeling that there’s something that isn’t whole. And so the seeker attempts to fill that void, fill it with something – whatever. And some look to something called “enlightenment” because it is felt that enlightenment might be the thing that will fill this sense of loss; it could be the answer to some secret that we don’t quite get.

And it sounds, when we read about enlightenment, as though somebody else has found the secret. But nobody’s found the secret.

There’s no such thing as an enlightened person. It’s a complete misconception. But the difficulty is that being seekers, the energy of seeking pushes us into being attracted to the idea that somebody else has found something that we can find, because we grow up believing that effort brings results. So, if effort brings results, and we’ve heard of something called enlightenment or liberation, we can make the effort and then we can become liberated or enlightened … like this guy up the road we’ve heard about, or that woman that’s giving satsangs. They have got something that I want. If I go there I will learn how to get it.

In the dream there’s still an idea that enlightenment or liberation is something that’s attainable. And so there are teachings that reinforce the idea that you are an individual that has choice, so now you, as an individual, can choose to self-enquire or to meditate, or whatever else, and eventually you could become enlightened.

You can go all over the world and find teachings offering something to get. It is rare, however, to find an uncompromising communication that offers nothing at all to the seeker.

This aliveness is nothing being everything. It’s just life happening. It’s not happening to anyone. There’s a whole set of experiences happening here and they’re happening in emptiness … they’re happening in free fall. They’re just what’s happening. All there is is life. All there is is beingness. There isn’t anyone that ever has or does not have it. There’s nobody that has life and somebody else doesn’t have life. There just is life being life.

This message is so simple it totally confounds the mind. This message is too simple. Already your mind’s saying, “Yes, but come on … what about the levels of enlightenment and what about my emotional blocks, and what about my chakras, they’re not all fully open? What about my stillness – I’m not really still yet, and what about my ego? Somebody told me I still have an ego … it’s a bit reduced but it’s still there.”

But all of that, all of those ideas are adopted lessons about how it should be. The ego is what’s happening. The ego is just being ego. Thinking is just being thinking. There is only being. There is just being. There’s nothing else. There’s nobody that’s running that. There’s no destiny, there’s no God, there’s no plan, there’s no script, there’s nowhere to go because there is only timeless being. Being is totally whole just being. And it is alive and fleshy and sexy and juicy and immediately this; it’s not some concept about ‘there’s no-one here’. It’s not some concept about ‘there’s nowhere to go’. It is the aliveness that’s in that body right now. There is pure beingness, pure aliveness. That’s it. End of story.

Really it is simply that. So there is no-one, there is no choice. There is no choice at any level. Oneness didn’t choose to become two. There is just oneness. All there is, is oneness being alive with nobody doing it. Is anybody doing breathing? Is anybody doing blood circulation? Is anybody really doing anything? No. There is just apparent doing. Apparent life in freefall.

There is no answer to life because life is its own answer. It’s happening already. It’s this. You never lost it. That’s the amazing thing about liberation. When liberation apparently happens people say, “It’s amazing because the thing I was looking for has never left me. It’s the one thing that never comes and never goes – the one constant that can’t be known or held onto.” And the one constant is being.

Tony Parsons
May 2008

One Christ

2009-07-03T22:07:00.007-05:00

Only one Christ, THE Christ, has appeared throughout all time. Each incarnation, each manifestation brings the same essential core message, even though it is stated in different ways appropriate to the times and cultures. Jesus was no greater than any of the others because of some act performed, and to believe otherwise is ignorance.

Very few theologians would say Jesus is God. A common iteration of official belief is this: God reveals Self in Jesus. To this we can add the insight of Eastern sages and the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart.

"When the Father begets his Son in me, I am that Son and no other.... Thus, we are all in the Son and are the Son.
The Father gives birth to his Son without cease, and I say more: he gives birth to me his Son and the same Son.” - Meister Eckhart

Other Divine personalities who actually lived in the past are not simply imaginary human forms. Many have appeared to point the way for us to experience the Godhead within us, not merely to know about our divineness intellectually, but to actually experience it. Lord Buddha, Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Jesus.........many have come and gone to point us in the direction of Truth, the Christ within.

2009-06-29T07:37:00.008-05:00

Many of us have searched and searched and yet our heart craves nothing more than to be Whole. A Oneness, or Wholeness, in Spirit, or God. I'm smiling right now as I write this, and I almost want to laugh out loud. If that sounds strange, it's because of the simplicity of it all, and as a matter of fact, it's so simple that we all almost miss "it". I, too, had searched and exhausted myself from the effort. That's what is so funny. And when you "get it" you will feel like laughing, too. You'll be amazed at how silly we humans all are, trying and trying to find "it" when we are the "it" and have been "it" all along.

Do you know what is separating you from being Oneness? You want to be One while retaining your separate self. You're hesitant to be lost in Oneness, one as God. Your wish must be that you, or your - self, should not exist and only God exists. The two cannot exist simultaneously. You have to be merged in God. The Spirit, or Oneness (or God, if you want to use the word God) won't tell you that the "you" that exists is in fact getting in the way. Only by merging in Him and letting your existence be gone can you truly be who you are. Think of it this way: Imagine traffic merging when it comes into a freeway. It loses its existence.

May you be born into Oneness, pure Love, pure Consciousness - the only thing there is.

Blessings.

Healing with Nature - Shamanism & Reiki

2009-06-23T11:35:00.009-05:00

This is a picture of myself with my cat, Muffy, after her near death experience. Muffy had a stroke in February of this year, and she nearly lost her life. She was unable to eat or stand up on her own, and she really couldn't do anything but curl up and lie there in her little basket. One eye was terribly dilated and she couldn't see or hear. After intensive medical treatment involving IV's, medication, tube feeding and then hand-feeding liquids through a syringe, she began to respond and show some encouraging signs. Her vital signs were stable.

Major progress didn't occur, however until I began a therapy with her which is based on the healing elements of nature. I've not had any professional Reiki training, nor any in the Shamanic healing, but I had read enough about the two to know they work. Instinctively, I "knew" in my heart that the energies of nature could heal little Muffy. I began carrying her outdoors every single day, even on cold winter days. When it was cold, I wrapped her in a blanket just allowing her head to be uncovered. We ventured into the back yard and visited with tree spirits, father sun, and mother earth. The wind blew its magical breath on us, and I often felt Muffy inhale deeply taking it all into her tiny body. She enjoyed touching the flowers and plants with her nose, feeling the intense vibrations from the energies in the plants. On rainy days, we enjoyed the sprinkles of the raindrops, sending their healing waters down to us. The scent of the wet earth was stimulating beyond a doubt to my little cat. Her whole body, mind, and soul responded by healing itself dramatically each day.

Muffy is now doing very well. She has recovered and is enjoying her life again. We still go out and journey around the yard every day, and even at night. The stars, moon and night creatures we encounter all contribute to her well-being (mine, too, I might add!). As a matter of fact, she demands going out now,several times a day, and is VERY vocal about it, too!

I just thought I'd share this personal story with you to give hope to anyone who is suffering, or who has a four-legged or winged friend who may be in need of healing. Our connection to nature has its own way of healing us.

As a result of my experience with my cat's recovery, I have decided to take a class on Reiki Shamanic healing beginning in July with a wonderful woman named Shawna. She's a healer and a Golden Eagle minister and is the owner of Cassy's in Abilene, Texas. I don't know where this will take me, but for now I'm taking it one step at a time.

Willingness to Evolve Spiritually

2009-06-19T19:59:00.007-05:00

Why can't I evolve into a more spiritual person? What's holding me back? Most of us have asked ourselves these questions at one time or another. We've all secretly wondered if it's an impossible feat that only the spiritually gifted people can accomplish.

The key to evolving spiritually is willingness. A simple, heart-felt conviction of willingness is all that's required. Anyone and everyone can have that willingness at any moment - which is all we ever have - one moment, or the present Now. Saying that you should have done it last year, last week, etc. or that you will try to do it in the future, but not now, is an indication that you aren't understanding the illusion of time. We don't live in the past or the future. We are Now. The time is always Now, and your willingness to be connected to all there is, all that is God or Spirit, is the critical portal into being Oneness, a divine spark of Spirit, if you will, and that's all you ever are. That's all, you ask? YES, that's all. You are Spirit, pretending to be a separate self, until, that is, you find your real self, which is the ultimate core essence of who you are.

So, do you have the capacity to consciously evolve? YES, absolutely! When you have that compulsion to find something bigger, deeper, higher, and infinitely more real than anything you have ever known, nothing will hinder your search. We are pulled by an invisible web - a web connecting the universe, and we are grasping to become that something which is at the deepest level of our being. We feel choicelessly compelled to reach for it, not knowing what that "it" is.

Keep grasping, don't give up, and as the Persian poet, Rumi has said, "don't go back to sleep". Who knows when you will pass this way again.

Don't go back to sleep

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.
- Rumi

A Poem

2009-06-16T17:03:00.003-05:00

Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

Eternal Aura, Eternal Soul, Eternal Mind

2009-06-13T21:08:00.003-05:00

What a paradox it is that the higher frequency of vibration of the mind brings with it a slowing down of activity in the brain. Experts who study this say that during meditation, brain activity is reduced by 80%. No wonder we feel so calm, peaceful, and relaxed during meditation. Yet, one is acutely and intensely alert while meditating. How can this be?

The brain and the mind are not the same. The brain acts as a receiver of mental energy and then translates the energies of the nonphysical mind into physical functions. It also translates your perception of the outside world so that you can experience life in a physical body.

The mind is like an aura surrounding your physical body and is larger than the body. It is what is called the conscious awareness, or the soul, or the higher self. This is who you really are. Spirit. Awareness. One. It is the eternal part of you that never dies. You simply evolve back to that from which you originally came - to the ultimate state of Being, to that consciousness which is behind all things.

When we go into a meditative state, or stillness, we are in an alert awareness, or super consciousness. The more we quiet and still the chattering brain noise, the more we can simply be the presence, the awareness - where no problems exist. The illusion of the outside world ceases, and we are simply aware of the drama playing out around us. The problems of the physical world simply dissolve.

A True Seeker

2009-05-26T10:10:00.012-05:00

* The date shown above is incorrect. The correct date of this posting is June 7, 2009

Before I ever traveled the daring road less traveled, or in other words, before I "knew" I was on a spiritual path, I had to let go of of my beliefs about the world as I perceived it and who I thought I was. I believed I was a a separate self (a psuedo self) who had many labels and identities attached to it. Some of those labels I used in the past were: my name - Diane; my gender - female; my early religious upbringing - Baptist; birthplace - Louisiana; marital status - married; siblings - one; mother of three grown children; parents - deceased.........and so on and so on. Later in life, I added the label of agnostic to describe myself, and finally I attached the label atheist to myself. I also subscribed to the philosophy, "I think, therefore I am", and I was quite proud of myself for that which I perceived as being an individual entity, unconnected to the "others" who were different than myself.

The labels, thoughts, and beliefs of who I thought I was were all suspended one day when my very spirit, or soul, was called out of its deep sleep. A certain passage I read in a book blew me away, as if it were tailor-made for me. The words I read were from the book, "A New Earth", by Eckhart Tolle. There I was, standing in a store, reading from that book, and something within me transcended from the ordinary reality to the non-ordinary reality. My consciousness was forever altered on that seemingly very ordinary day. The non-ordinary reality I entered into was one in which something within me interacted with, saw it, touched it, heard it, felt it, and smelled it. The essence of my real self was responding in a way it had never done before. The "I Am" , or me, was awakening.

Although you may not perceive these following words as anything meaningful to you, I'll present them for you to ponder. The passage which transformed my life and is so sacred to me still to this day is as follows:

"Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones, and birds have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life-forms, they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special significance and the reason why humans feel such fascination for the affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality."

I have no way of knowing if those words are stirring your soul to awaken as they did mine. I do know that not many people want to come out of their sleep, not many want to give up their false self. When and if you are ready, you could become awakened anywhere or at any time. Your awakening moment will be tailor-made for YOU, and like me, you will be suspended like a bridge between this world and the next.

After an awakening experience, if you do not go to sleep again (and please don't go to sleep, as you may never pass this way again) the labels and identifying words you've used previously to describe your-self, meaning your false egoic self, will no longer be needed. You will no longer need to justify your existence when someone asks you, "...and what do you do?" You won't allow any person, including yourself, to put you into a box of society's making. You won't play the game of "let's measure, judge, and decide if you are part of the club", no matter how politely the question "what do you do?" is asked of you. It will no longer matter to you what another person "does" or how they spend their time. But, what you will want to know about someone whom you meet is who they think they are. "Who are you, really?" or "Do you know who you are?" or "Why are you here?" will be the questions you'll want answers of from others.

Once awakened, I began searching for others who were also awakened, or who are on the razor's edge of becoming awakened. I keep my radar out for the ones who have laid down their egos at the door, the ones who have no use for their "weapons of defense", the ones who have no need to live in their story, their drama, their right doing, their wrong doing and excuses. I watch and wait for the ones who KNOW who they are, or who they are awakening to - Spirit.

We find each other, we who are coming out of our sleep, we who are an intense, alert presence. We are the ones who have dropped our swords and shields at the door.

The following quote describes what a true seeker is:

Beyond the Boundaries of Already Knowing

To become a true seeker requires the heroic willingness to suspend, at a fundamental level, our most cherished beliefs. I'm not speaking about suspending our good judgment, discerning intellect, or common sense, but I am saying that we have to be willing to let go, even if only temporarily, of whatever our deepest convictions are about the nature of life, love, purpose, and the meaning—or meaninglessness—of existence.

Perennial enlightenment teachings tell us that we have to make room for the unknown. And to make this more specific, I always say that to seek in earnest means that we have to ceaselessly make the effort to peer beyond what we already know. It is only beyond the boundaries of already knowing that we come upon that miraculous domain of unmanifest creative potential and higher knowledge that always liberates and is ever new. And in an evolving world, this will always be the case, because there will always be infinitely more development at every level, more knowledge, and ever-deepening enlightenment to unfold within us.
- by Andrew Cohen

A Poem by Thich Naht Hahn

2009-05-24T10:33:00.005-05:00

A Teacher Looking For His Disciple

I have been looking for you, my child,
Since the time when rivers and mountains still lay in obscurity.
I was looking for you when you were still in a deep sleep
Although the conch had many times echoed in the ten directions.
Without leaving our ancient mountain I looked at distant lands
And recognized your steps on so many different paths.
Where are you going, my child?
There have been times when the mist has come
And enveloped the remote village but you are still
Wandering in far away lands.
I have called your name with each breath,
Confident that even though you have lost your
Way over there you will finally find a way back to me.
Sometimes I manifest myself right on the path
You are treading but you still look at me as if I were a stranger
You cannot see the connection between us in our
Former lives you cannot remember the old vow you made.
You have not recognized me
Because your mind is caught up in images concerning a distant future.
In former lifetimes you have often taken my hand
and we have enjoyed walking together.
We have sat together for a longtime at the foot of old pine trees.
We have stood side by side in silence for hours
Listening to the sound of the wind softly calling us
And looking up at the while clouds floating by.
You have picked up and given to me the firstred autumn leaf
And I have taken you through forests deep in snow.
But wherever we go we always return to our
Ancient mountain to be near to the moon and stars
To invite the big bell every morning to sound,
And help living beings to wake up.

We have sat quietly on the An Tu mountain' with the
Great Bamboo Forest Master
Alongside the frangipani trees in blossom.
We have taken boats out to sea to rescue the boat people as they drift.
We have helped Master Van Hanh design the Thang
Long capital we have built together a thatched hermitage,
And stretched out the net to rescue the nun Trac Tuyen When!
The sound of The rising tide was deafening
On the banks of The Tien Duong river.
Together we have opened the way and stepped
Into the immense space outside of space.

After many years of working to tear asunder the net of time.
We have saved up the light of shooting stars
And made a torch helping those who want to go home
After decades of wandering in distant places.
But still there have been times when the
Seeds of a vagabond in you have come back to life
you have left your teacher, your brothers and sisters
Alone you go...

I look at you with compassion
Although I know that this is not a true separation
(Because I am already in each cell of your body)
And that you may need once more to play the prodigal son.
That is why I promise I shall be there for you
Any time you are in danger.

Sometimes you have lain unconscious on the hot sands of frontier deserts.
I have manifested myself as a cloud to bring you cool shade.
Late at night the cloud became the dew
And the compassionate nectar falls drop by drop for you to drink.
Sometimes you sit in a deep abyss of darkness
Completely alienated from you true home.
I have manifested Myself as a long ladder and
Lightly thrown myself down
So that you can climb up to the area where there is light
To discover again the blue of the sky and the
Sounds of the brook and the birds.

Sometimes I recognised you in Birmingham,
In the Do Linh district or New England.
I have sometimes met you in Hang Chau, Xiamen, or Shanghai
I have sometimes found you in St. Petersburg or East Berlin.
Sometimes, though only five years old, I have
Seen you and recognized you.

Because of the seed of bodhchita, you carry in your tender heart.
Wherever I have seen you, I have always raised
My hand and made a signal to you,
Whether it be in the delta of the North, Saigon or the Thuan An Seaport.
Sometimes you were the golden full moon hanging
Over the summit of The Kim Son Mountain,
Or the little bird flying over the Dai Laoforest during a winter night.
Often I have seen you
But you have not seen me,
Though while walking in the evening mist your clothes have been soaked.
But finally you have always come home.

You have come home and sat at my feet on our ancient mountain
Listening to the birds calling and the monkeys
Screeching and the morning chanting echoing from the Buddha Hall.
You have come back to me determined not to be a vagabond any longer.
This morning the birds of the mountain joyfully welcome the bright sun.
Do you know, my child, that the white clouds
Are still floating in the vault of the sky?
Where are you now?

The ancient mountain is still there in this
Place of the present moment.
Although the white-crested wave still wants to
Go in the other direction,
Look again, you will see me in you and in every leaf and flower bud.
If you call my name, you will see me right away.
Where are you going?

The old frangipani tree offers its fragrant flowers this morning.
You and I have never really been apart. Spring has come.
The pines have put out new shining green needles
And on the edge of the forest, the wild Plum
Trees have burst into flower.

- Thich Naht Hahn

Becoming Fully Conscious

2009-05-16T22:00:00.007-05:00

Wouldn't it be lovely to be totally at peace with yourself or with any other human you encounter in your life? Imagine being a person who never begins an argument or who is not drawn into one when someone else tries pull you into conflict? A Course of Miracles states, "No one who is at one with himself can even conceive of conflict." Ahhh........what a refreshing thought, to not even conceive of conflict.

It's sometimes perplexing to observe humans who appear to be in love with conflict or drama in their lives. Whether they admit to it or not, the drama is self-created. The strategies used are defense, attack, resistance, control, power, and greed. Even someone living alone can create their own drama. Whether its feeling sorry for oneself, feeling guilty, or feeling anxious - these are all forms of conflict within oneself. I can imagine hearing someone right now saying, "My feelings are uncontrollable, and they are perfectly justified!"

And in a way, you'd be right. You're entitled to feel whatever you feel. You are entitled to defend your position when you perceive you're being unfairly attacked, and you're absolutely entitled to create any drama you choose when you perceive it's justified. One can hardly be happy, though, by engaging in these behaviours or dramas. I know I wasn't when I indulged in dramas of my own in the past. So, why continue doing it when there is a way out of the misery?

Many of us didn't know how to find the escape door from conflict to peace. Some, even when they're shown the path to peace, won't take it because their whole sense of self is wrapped up in their particular life drama. The little self, or the egoic self, wants to thrive and grow. In order for it to continue living, it must feed on something, and that something is conflict. The little "me" says, "I am a victim of such and such. I am mistreated, misunderstood, and life is unfair to me." Or when the little "me" has worn out the victim role for a while, he or she reverses the strategy and inflicts suffering on others by lashing out verbally, emotionally, or physically, and usually believes or pretends to believe it's all justified. The ego has to thrive, remember, at all costs. Ego thinks it is "you" and feels threatened and literally is scared to death. The ego, or you, will die if it ceases to grow or to feed off of conflict. Many people will never give up ego, because it is their personality, (although, a false personality) and it's what makes them who they are, or so they believe. They will not become fully conscious, or awakened, unless the decision is made to drop the ego.

For those on the path to enlightenment, or to being fully conscious, only one escape route exists and it is this: know that when you are in conflict with something or someone, you are creating a time problem, or psychological time, as the spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle, says. You have stepped out of the present moment, and have created either the past or the future. It's that simple. Become present, honor the present moment by allowing it to be and no drama or conflict is possible.

Tolle says, "When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life. Nobody can even have an argument with you, no matter how hard he or she tries. You cannot have an argument with a fully conscious person."

Finding Beauty in a Broken World

2009-05-14T21:18:00.004-05:00

This picture is from the Spring/Summer edition of Kosmos magazine.

Terry Tempest Williams was interviewed about her book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, and this is a segment of that interview:
"I watched prairie dogs every day rise before the sun, stand with their paws pressed together facing the rising sun in total stillness for up to 30 minutes. And then I watched them at the end of the day take that same gesture 30 minutes before the sun goes down. They would press their palms together in perfect stillness. I don't mean to anthropomorphize, but when you look at a creature that has survived over the millennium begin and end each day in that kind of stance, it causes one to think about one's own life and the speed and rapidity in which we live."

"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates" - The Kabalion

2009-05-09T23:54:00.006-05:00

Many people want to resist the idea that the universe is illusionary. We see, hear, smell, touch, and taste what we believe is real all around us, don't we? The universe is viewed through these five human senses simply because we are human.

When you pick up a heavy stone, notice it has a weight to it, it feels solid and dense, smooth perhaps, or it might even feel cool or warm to the touch, depending upon where it had been lying around, such as in the cool shade or out in the hot sunlight. Your brain perceives the stone as a very real object, a form of matter. But, think of your hands that hold the form. They're just another form of matter, just as your human brain is.

The scientific truth is that all matter is vibrating, even the stone you were holding. All matter not only vibrates, it is ever-changing, and it is transitory, including your human body. The body you are inhabiting seems real, and yet it is a mirage.

Why do we call it a mirage? Why is it an illusion? The truth is that every atom in your body, and every atom in everything is composed of more than 99.999% empty space, or quantum space. That sounds scary, empty and cold, but it's not. This wonderful, miraculous space that is within every atom is full of Intelligence, or Spirit. This Intelligence connects everything in the universe like an invisible web.

The physicist Sir James Jeans once said, "When an electron vibrates, the universe shakes." It takes only one teeny tiny flicker of any activity in any of your cells to go across the entire quantum field. One little brain cell vibrates and moves across everything that exists!

Humans perceive that our material earth plane is real, and as far as we are concerned, we must live and act as if all matter is real. There is nothing to fear, though, when we accept the fact that what seems to be real is always changing, always transitory. As Eckhart Tolle has said, "even the sun will die". When you know that who you are is Spirit manifesting itself in a seemingly physical body, you will know that Spirit, or the great Infinite Mind, holds us firmly. Own this knowledge, and nothing will feel threatening to you ever.

Why must everything be an illusion? Will this illusionary universe we live in ever seem not real to us? The Kybalion (translated by Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.)has an answer to these questions: "Only when The All finally withdraws us into itself will the illusion actually vanish.

BIRTH ---- DEATH

2009-05-07T22:47:00.006-05:00

"The day you were born
a ladder was set up to help you
escape from this world."
-Rumi

One Without a Second

2009-05-02T21:49:00.008-05:00

Dr. Russ Meier is contributing to this blog today:

To say that "All is God, or God is All" is not a logical proposition which contains some mental information about the universe. This "thinking" leads to the reduction of all multiplicity to uniform and unchanging mush, or a "vast grayness". We must remember that God is beyond all words or symbols. We can only use words and symbols to point to the Truth. In other words (and the very phrase "in other words" is itself an ironic use of words), God or Spirit must be seen through the special eye of contemplation, not through the eye of reason or logic.

God is not One opposed to a second (such as evil or satan), nor One outside of a second, nor over, above, or beyond a second - but One without a second. Nothing is outside of Spirit, including the universe and each one of us. We can only say, "Not-Two".

The Mysterious - by Albert Einstein

2009-04-28T10:10:00.005-05:00

This is one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein:

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate…it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man. I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason (or God) that manifests itself in nature."

Peace

2009-04-27T18:29:00.003-05:00

"I WANT PEACE!"

What's the importance of these words? First, let's look at the word, "I". Ego is attached with I. The word "want" is an expression of desire.

If you remove these two words, "I" and "want", you have only one thing left: peace

All of creation is One; an Eternal Oneness. Animals, trees, and flowers know this beingness, this oneness, not with an intellectual knowing, but a knowing which comes from stillness and just being, a beingness that comes only in the moment of Now.

The great spiritual master, Jesus, said, "Look at the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin."

Those who really want peace in their lives will let go of all ego and desire. Drop all negativity as if you're holding a hot coal in your hand.

Before You Die...........Die Now!

2009-04-24T22:05:00.006-05:00

Have you heard of the mythic bird with golden plumage? The story has been told for centuries and the Egyptians called the bird the Phoenix.

As it is told, every five hundred years this magical bird renewed his quest for his true self. The bird knew that to find his true self, he would have to let go of his bad habits, beliefs, and defenses. So he built a pyre of cinnamon and myrrh, sat in the flames, and burned to death.

Out of the ashes, however, he rose as a new being which was a fusion of who he had been before and who he had become. He became a new bird, yet ever more himself, changed, and at the same time the eternal Phoenix.

Elizabeth Lesser, founder of The Omega Institute, and author of the book, Broken Open, uses this ancient story to demonstrate how we humans, like the Phoenix bird, become shattered and broken at times, and our lives ask us to die before we die - to change within and to be reborn. She calls it the Phoenix Process.

Most people carry around an illusion of who they "think" they are and are searching for that generous, wise, loving, compassionate self within. What needs to burn in the ashes are fear, rigidity, blame, and a sense of separateness. By letting go, by turning loose of resistance to whatever comes our way in life, Elizabeth tells us that even the most momentous situation has the power to transform one's life. She says, "It's all in the way we listen for the messages in the flames and dig for the treasure in the ashes."

By dying before you die, the egoic mind disappears in time on its own, for some people it happens instantly, but most people don't notice it happening at all. One day, however, you will notice it has quietly been vanishing behind the scenes. You discover you are not afraid anymore, a gift of openness and empathy for all beings has enveloped you, and you enjoy a more potent experience of being human.

No Need for Fear - You Are Not Alone

2009-04-21T22:26:00.004-05:00

If I were to name a theme for this blog it would be this: "Everything is connected, nothing lasts, and you are not alone." I would also say this is a simple explanation of what Buddhism teaches.

Fear of death, fear of change, or just the fear of getting old is a common source of anxiety for many. How do we accept the inevitable?

First of all, by knowing that your physical body is not who you ultimately are is a liberating experience. When you turn inward, practice being in the moment of now, notice there are no problems in the stillness of now. Why is that? Because only now is where you find God, or you can use the words the Source, or Consciousness, or Awareness. You can call it any of these. They are just words I use to try to convey something that is actually impossible to express with words or ideas. Only by experiencing this moment of now,(which is all there ever is anyhow) and being the awareness to it, will you KNOW God. Be still and KNOW. Watch the thoughts and emotions float in and out of your mind, like soft clouds going by. You are not that. Feel your body, follow your breath. You are not that. Who is doing the noticing, the witnessing, and who is aware? Who is the Awareness? Isn't it who you are?

Fear of aging and dying comes from when we are attached to the "maya", or the illusion, of a false world and think that our body and thoughts are real. The body, thoughts and emotions, all of these forms, will perish, and they ARE perishing, in fact, every moment without you noticing any of it. So how can forms that are changing constantly and disappearing every moment be REAL? What is it that is REAL?

When we come to terms with radical impermanence, and turn the sorrows of that insight into joy and contentment, we will live in and on each moment.

Turn inward and there lies the peace that every living being desires.

Only Spirit

2009-04-17T14:23:00.012-05:00

This is a post by Dr. Russ Meier:

I am using my 65th birthday as a moment to share a realization with you. Words can only be used as pointers, but here are my words.

I have come to realize who I am at the deepest level. Let me first relate what I am not. I am not my thoughts, for I am aware of them. I am not my emotions, for I can
feel and sense my emotions. I am not my body, for I can see and feel my body. I am not my desires, for I am aware that desires come and go. I am not even a separate self, for I am aware that my self only exists behind a boundary line which I draw across the whole field of my experience. What would happen if I removed that boundary line?

What finally remains is a pure center of awareness, an unmoved WITNESS. What is it within me that is conscious of everything? What is that WITNESS? I...AM...THAT. I am the pure Spirit that witnesses everything that arises, moment to moment.

And then the strangest thing happens. As I rest in that empty,free,effortless witnessing, I notice a sense of freedom and a sense of release from identifying with any objects, including my body, my mind, or my separate self(the ego). So I abide as awareness.

Eventually, I notice that this feeling of freedom has no inside and no outside, no center and no surround. The whole universe is arising in this freedom, and I...AM...THIS. This is the final truth.

So write on the tombstone of my self that never even existed:

THERE IS ONLY SPIRIT.

>

--------written by Dr. Russ Meier

What Happens When We Die?

2009-04-17T10:07:00.008-05:00

A transcription from a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh during a retreat with five hundred people in Hong Kong on 15 May 2007

In order to answer what happens us when we die, we need to answer another question – what happens when we are alive?
What is happening now to us? In English we say ‘we are’ but it’s proper to say ‘we are becoming’ because things are becoming. We’re not the same person in two consecutive minutes.

A picture of you as baby looks different to you now. The fact is you are not exactly the same as that baby and not entirely a different person either. In a picture of you as a five year old, you are not exactly the same as that child and not entirely a different person either – the form, feelings and mental formations are different.
In the middle way there is no sameness and no otherness.

You may think you are still alive but in fact you have been dying everyday, every minute, cells die and are born - for neither do we have funerals or birthdays (laughter).
Death is a very necessary condition of birth. With no death, there is no birth. They inter-are and happen in every moment to the experienced meditator. For instance a cloud may have died many times, into rain, streams, water. The cloud may want to wave to itself on earth! Rain is a continuation of the cloud. With a meditation practitioner nothing can hide itself. When I drink tea, it’s very pleasant to be aware I am drinking cloud.

When you are a parent, you die and are reborn as your children. “You are my continuation, I love you.” The Buddha told us how to ensure a beautiful continuation – a compassionate thought, a beautiful thought. Forgiveness is our continuation. If anger, separation and hate arise, then we will not ensure a beautiful continuation. When we pronounce a word that is compassionate, good and beautiful that is our continuation.

When a cloud is polluted, the rain is polluted. So purifying thoughts, word and action creates a beautiful continuation. We can see the effects of our speech in our children. My disciples are my continuation – both monastic and lay. I want to transmit loving speech, action and thought. This is called karma in Buddhism.
This body of mine will disintegrate but my karma will continue – karma means action. My karma is already in the world. My continuation is everywhere in the world. When you look at one of my disciples walking with compassion, I know he is my continuation. I don’t want to transmit my negative emotions, I want to transform them before I transmit them. The dissolution of this body is not my end. Surely I will continue after the dissolution of this body. So don’t worry about my death, I am not going to die.

Let us meditate on the birth of a cloud. Does it have a birth certificate? (laughter) Examine the notion of birth – the notion that nothing can come from something, from no-one to someone. Is it possible for something to come from nothing? Scientifically this is not possible.

The cloud was water in an ocean, lake, river and heat from the sun gave it birth – the moment of continuation. For instance, birth – before you were born you were in your mother’s womb. The moment of birth is a moment of continuation. Is the moment of conception the start? You are half from your dad and half from your mum already, this is also a moment of continuation. When you practise meditation you can see things like that.

It is impossible for a cloud to die. It can become water, snow – it cannot become nothing. It is also impossible for us to die. Speech, action and thought continue in the future. The person who dies still continues because we are not capable of using meditators’ eyes. They continue in us and around us. All our ancestors are alive in us. Our ancestors are in our chromosomes.

I wrote a book ‘No Death, No Fear’. When conditions are right I manifest and when not, not. There is no coming, no going. Before she manifests we should not call her non-existing. Before manifestation you cannot call her non-being. They are a pair of opposites.

Meditating on the nature of creation and being may be the best way to understanding God. The theologian Paul Koenig describes God as the Ground of Being. Who then is the Ground of Non-being? This diminishes God. In Buddhism both notions of being and non-being can describe reality. Similarly, above and below, Europe and here.

Nirvana is the absence of all notions, birth and death, coming and going, sameness and otherness. According to Buddhism, ‘to be or not to be’ is not a real question.
Meditation takes us beyond to a place of fearlessness. We’re too busy, so we become victims of anger, fear. If we have really touched our nature of no birth/death, we know to die is one of the root conditions to realise oneself.

We have to learn how to die in every moment in order to be fully alive.
This teaching on the middle way is the cream of Buddha’s teaching. Many of our ancestors realised this and were not afraid of death.

We should be able to release our tensions. We are the karma we produce every day in our daily life, if we know how, to ensure continuation. I have a disciple in Vietnam who wants to build a stupa with my ashes. He wants to put a plaque with the words ‘Here lies my beloved teacher’. But I want to write ‘There is nothing here’ (lots of laughter). Because if you look deeply there is continuation.

I treasure the time I have left, more for me to practise. I want to generate energy of love, compassion and understanding so I can continue beautifully. I would like you to do the same. Use your time wisely. Every moment produce beautiful thoughts, loving, kindness, forgiveness. Say beautiful things, inspire, forgive, act physically to protect and help. We know we are capable of producing beautiful karma for good continuations and the happiness of other people.

When the time comes for dissolution of this body you may like to release it easily. You aren’t to grasp – releasing body and perception. Remember the image of a cloud in the sky seeing continuation in rice and ice-cream waving to itself. You can already see your continuation. The art of living is continuation. For myself and the other beings.

Sariputra – one of Buddha’s main disciples, Ananda and other friends went to see Anathapindika a lay disciple who was a businessman and dying. He had made time to come to dharma talks and weekly practice.
When the Venerables came they asked whether the pain had diminished. He replied that it was increasing. The monks led him on a meditation on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. After a few minutes there was no more suffering and he smiled.

When you sit close to a person dying talk to them of happy experiences in their life. Touch seeds of happiness in them.

The monks asked Anathapindika to look at his feelings and perceptions. “I am life without boundaries, this body is a residue.”

Help the dying person not to cling to his or her body. If there is regret, help them to see they are not their feelings. When conditions are manifested this body manifests and when not, it goes. The nature of this body is not birth, death, coming or going – not hurt by notion of being or non-being. I am free from birth or death. That practice helps me.

Anathapindika cried. Ananda asked, “why are you crying?”
“No, I don’t regret anything,” Anathapindika replied.
“Why are you crying?” asked Ananda.
“I cry because I am so moved by such a wonderful practice as today,” Anathapindika said.
“We monastics receive this every day,” said Ananda.
“There are those amongst us lay people who still need this, please tell the Lord Buddha this.”
Ananda promised to tell the Buddha, and Anathapindika died smiling peacefully.
Thich Nhat Hanh gave an illustration with a box of matches.
Holding up an unlit match, he said, “there is flame, but the conditions to manifest it are not here now.”

Then he lit the match and blew it out.
He said when the conditions were right (the conditions being his hand striking the match to the matchbox), the flame became. And when the conditions were not right, the flame was extinguished.

The Light is Dazzling!

2009-04-14T09:51:00.007-05:00

Christianity is one of many religions that casts a light that is purely dazzling! However, a 'shadow' has been following this brilliant jewel of a light for centuries now. I'll let the comments from another blog explain what I mean.

From the website of "Eternal Awareness": http://eternalawareness.ning.com/

Mark Walter:
Religions tend to have a ‘shadow’ which is the opposite of their strongest principles, or qualities. For Christianity, this seems to be intolerance – there is no other religion that has such resistance to embracing the beliefs of others (including, and perhaps especially, other Christian denominations), and such a need to ‘convert’ others. Islam, the religion of submission, seems to manifest its shadow in an inability to accept; Taoism, the religion of the formless, in an obsession with rituals and customs. And so forth.

Michael Larkin:
I so very much agree with this. It's one of the shadows of Christianity that somehow Jesus shouldered the responsibility for all our sins - just an extension of the old scapegoat idea. The doctrine of the redemption has long seemed to me to be total poppycock, and when you can get past it, the light it casts is dazzling. Christ didn't die so that we can live, but lived so that we can live. Study and imitate his life, don't be preoccupied with his death.

Mark Walter, creator of the "Eternal Awareness" web blog commented:
One day someone asked if I knew Jesus had died for my sins. "Yes, I do," I replied. "I think it is so awful that no one would take responsibility for their own sins... that everyone let him take all the blame. So, I have decided to take responsibility for my own sins, and am prepared to die for them at any time."

Dalai Lama Speaks - What About God?

2009-04-11T15:56:00.006-05:00

On the banks of the holy Ganga in North India, 40,000 people were gathered to hear the Dalai Lama speak. It was in January, 2001 and the audience included Hindus, Muslims, Christian, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs. When His Holiness took the microphone, a silence settled over the crowd. He spoke at first in his usual style which included telling a few jokes, reciting a prayer for the peace and welfare of mankind, and then he began explaing what the essence of dharma is. Dharma is the virtuous path, but it means more than accepting the beliefs of a specific religion. The Dalai Lama explained that compassion is the core of dharma. When you embrace all and exclude none, when you love all and hate none, selfless service becomes a natural part of your life, he said. Your inner conflicts and restlessness melt away, and you become established in peace. This peace begins to fill your surroundings. You are no longer a source of fear for others, and others are no longer a source of fear for you. This is how you create heaven, or paradise, here and now. It is within you.

Finally, at the end of his talk, questions were invited from the audience. A man said, "I understand Buddhism does not believe in God. What is your opinion about God? Does God exist or not?". His Holiness laughed, grabbed the hands of the two spiritual leaders on each side of him, lifted them in the air, fixed his gaze upon the audience, and said emphatically, "God exists or God does not exist. Leave it for us. Your task is to learn how to live peacefully."

The audience was awestruck. Many appeared perplexed at his reply. But, many did get it. Think of this: the Buddha , 2,500 years ago, was a spiritually enlightened leader who refrained from speaking about God. India possessed thousands of scriptures which were believed to be living revelations that proclaimed God's existence, gave methods for reaching God and receiving his grace. Yet, India was torn by strife. People believed that God was one and all-pervading, yet that belief did not lead them to experience their underlying unity. People believed God was an embodiment of love and compassion, yet that belief did not stop them from their hatred and cruelty. It was clear then, and it is clear in today's times, that a mere belief in God does not automatically make us good, and that a lack of such beliefs do not make us bad. Mere belief does not take away doubts, fear, or destructive and negative behaviour.

The Dalai Lama was telling everyone there that belief in God or religion doesn't ground one in the direct experience of the truth. To experience that truth, one must have a clear, calm, and tranquil mind, and this mind must be turned inward. Sadhana is the practice of turning inward. "Upon protection of the mind, the whole world is protected, and upon its destruction, the whole world is destroyed", say the scriptures. Cultivating a virtuous mind, then, is our dharma.

Integral Consciousness

2009-04-09T10:28:00.003-05:00

Please, view this video. It is worth your time of a few minutes.
Namaste'

God is Within

2009-04-08T21:55:00.009-05:00

LOOK WITHIN

Rama,Sri Ramakrishna -- Do you know what I see? I see Him as all. Men and other creatures appear to me only as hollow forms, moving their heads and hands and feet, but within is the Lord Himself.

Holy Mother -- When one realizes God, He grants knowledge and illumination from within; one knows it oneself. In the fullness of one’s spiritual realization one will find that He who resides in one’s heart, resides in the hearts of others as well - the oppressed, the persecuted, the untouchable, and the outcast.

Swami Vivekananda -- It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own souls contribute all of the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within ourselves.

Buddha -- The subject on which I meditate is truth. The practice to which I devote myself is the truth. The topic of my conversation is truth. My thoughts are always in truth. For lo! my self has become the truth.

Guru Nanak -- As fragrance abides in the flower,
As the reflection is within the mirror,
So doth thy Lord abide within thee,
Why search Him without?

Jesus Christ -- Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered them, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

Judaism -- Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not the holy Spirit from me.

Krishna -- I am the Self, O Gudekesa, seated in the hearts of all creatures. I am the beginning, the middle, and the end of all beings.

Mohammed -- He who knows his own self, knows God.

Native American -- The first peace, which is most important, is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its Powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real Peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.

Rama -- Think that you are Parabrahman, you have no attachment, you are all-knowing and you are pure. Always feel like this and establish your oneness with the Paramatman and derive bliss within yourself without caring to know what is outside of you.

Sankara -- Cherish your Guru’s lotus feet and free yourself without delay from the enslavement to this world. Curb your senses and your mind and see the Lord within your heart.

Vedas -- There is one Supreme Ruler, the inmost Self of all beings, who makes His one form manifold. Eternal happiness belongs to the wise, who perceive Him within themselves - not to others.

Zoroaster -- One need not scale the heights of the heavens nor travel along the highways of the world to find Ahura Mazda. With purity of mind and holiness of heart one can find Him in one’s own heart.

Evolutionary Enlightenment

2009-04-06T12:06:00.002-05:00

Rediscovering God

"Those of us who have transcended mythical belief systems know without any doubt that there is no God up in the sky. But when we awaken to what I call the evolutionary impulse—the mysterious passion to evolve, to become, to develop on every level—we rediscover who God is. When we begin to experience the aspiration to evolve as that unique ecstatic compulsion in our own heart and mind, that's when the God who fell out of the sky is awakening within ourselves, as the urge to take the next step.

Fourteen billion years ago, there was nothing. Then, suddenly, there was an enormous explosion—an explosion that never stopped and is still reverberating here and now. So what I'm describing is a perspective and a state of consciousness in which the very first cause is waking up to itself as we wake up to our own impulse to evolve. That's Evolutionary Enlightenment: when the spark that initiated fourteen billion years of development becomes conscious of itself. When you realize this and recognize this at the deepest level of your being, and then choose to take responsibility for it, it is then that you know without any doubt that it's up to you to make this world a better place. It's up to you. In that realization, you discover a reason for living, which is spiritually empowering. It is where you will find dignity, self-respect, ultimate meaning, and purposefulness."

Andrew Cohen

The Buddha Explaining Existence of God

2009-04-03T22:27:00.003-05:00

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Buddha entered a village. A man asked him as he was entering the village, "Does God exist?" He said, "No, absolutely no."

In the afternoon another man came and he asked, "Does God exist?" And he said, "Yes, absolutely yes."

In the evening a third man came and he asked, "Does God exist?" Buddha closed his eyes and remained utterly silent. The man also closed his eyes. Something transpired in that silence. After a few minutes the man touched Buddha's feet, bowed down, paid his respects and said, "You are the first man who has answered my question."

Now, Buddha's attendant, Ananda, was very much puzzled: "In the morning he said no, in the afternoon he said yes, in the evening he did not answer at all. What is the matter? What is really the truth?"

So when Buddha was going to sleep, Ananda said, "First you answer me; otherwise I will not be able to sleep. You have to be a little more compassionate towards me too. I have been with you the whole day. Those three people don't know about the other answers, but I have heard all the three answers. What about me? I am troubled."

Buddha said, "I was not talking to you at all! You had not asked, I had not answered YOU. The first man who came was a theist, the second man who came was an atheist, the third man who came was an agnostic. My answer had nothing to do with God, my answer had something to do with the questioner. I was answering the questioner; it was absolutely unconcerned with God.

"The person who believes in God, I will say no to him because I want him to drop his idea of God, I want him to be free of his idea of God -- which is borrowed. He has not experienced. If he had experienced he would not have asked me; there would have been no need.

"The person who believed in God, he was trying to find confirmation for his belief from me. I was not going to say yes to him -- I am not going to confirm anybody's belief. I had to say no, I had to deny, just to destroy his belief, because all beliefs are barriers to knowing the truth. Theist or atheist, all beliefs, Hindu or Christian or Mohammedan, all beliefs are barriers.

"And the person with whom I remained silent was the right inquirer. He had no belief, hence there was no question of destroying anything. I kept silent. That was my message to him: Be silent and know. Don't ask, there is no need to ask. It is not a question which can be answered. It is not an inquiry but a quest, a thirst. Be silent and know.

I had answered him also; through my silence I gave him the message and he immediately followed it -- he also became silent. I closed my eyes, he closed his eyes; I looked in, he looked in, and then something transpired. That's why he was so much overwhelmed, he felt so much gratitude, for the simple reason that I did not give him any intellectual answer. He had not come for any intellectual answer; intellectual answers are available very cheap. He needed something existential -- he needed a taste. I gave him a taste."

Source: Osho Books