Pages

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Thought for the day

It is a most difficult thing to give up is the clinging to this universe; few ever attain to that. There are two ways to do that: one way is called neti neti ("not this, not this"), the other is called iti iti ("this, this"). The former is the negative, the latter is the positive way.

The negative way is the most difficult. It is only possible to people of the very highest, exceptional minds and gigantic wills who simply stand up and say, "No, I will not have this," and the mind and body obey their will, and they come out successful. But such people are rare.

The vast majority choose the positive way, the way through the world, making use of all the bondages themselves to break those very bondages. This is also a kind of giving up; only it is done slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things and thus obtaining experience, and knowing the nature of things until the mind lets them all go at last and becomes unattached.

The former way of obtaining non-attachment is by reasoning, and the latter way is through work and experience. The first is the path of Jñāna Yoga, the second is that of Karma Yoga.

- Swami Vivekananda

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Thought for the day

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

- Howard Truman (clergy, civil rights activist and mystic)

Friday, February 19, 2010

A prayer for jnyan

This world intrudes, oh Lord
on my joyous contemplation of you.
Our ecstatic love-making it interrupts,
our blissful union it desecrates.

Wipe it away, oh Lord
with one swipe of your mighty hand.
Obliterate, blot it out,
this quivering chimera of dust.

Or else, even better, oh Lord
take me forthright out of it,
this needy body, this wily mind
this maddening beckoning of desire.

Even so, I know, oh Lord
liberation lies in realising that;
rise I must, like a lotus, clean
above the tainting dust, and the dream.

The dawning of truth, oh Lord
I await, when you and I shall be one.
The world will lose its grip on me,
the soul as free as a soul should be.

Thought for the day

"Once mighty waters hurled themselves against rock. And from these two harsh strengths came this most gentle sand." - Anon

Can't say more :) What I will say will just be words. Let the wisdom speak to the wisdom of your soul.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Thought for the day

"Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.

-Ferdinand de Saussure, linguist (1857-1913)"

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The challenge

When I meditate or when I am in a meditative state of mind when not meditating I find that I become silence itself, fearless, unmoved, infinite. Like the calm inside the eye of a storm. It’s almost like I’m a different person. The real me emerges. When I move out of that silence, I become subject to desires, fears, wayward thoughts and emotions, like a leaf tossed about in the storm. The challenge, the moment-by-moment challenge is to stay in that silence, to stay faithful to my true self.

Friday, February 05, 2010

A Banquet of Concise Wisdom

from Vernon Howard

The Dynamic Power of Awareness

The most trivial act becomes dynamic when you attempt it with self-awareness. Whether you are washing the dishes, or painting a table, or simply walking from one room to another, try to be aware of yourself doing just that. Don’t just paint or walk, but be conscious of yourself painting or walking. This detaches you from the dream state in which most people live, it puts you in touch with your energetic centre self. Any action performed with self-awareness becomes inspired.


The Natural Life Is True

A cheery relaxation is man’s natural state, just as nature itself is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like. It does not force us to think about it; it does not demand our attention and energy; it does not lean on us for gifts; it asks nothing of us. It simply gives what it is, and lets go at that. And that is why we enjoy its magnificence.

The usual phrase is, “Be yourself.” We are not following this counsel if we are strained and unsure. These are the sour fruits of the carelessly adopted synthetic self.


How To Be One With Life

When a stream approaches a series of rocks, it has no preconceived plans for passing them. It does not see the rocks as opponents or as threats to its own existence. The very fluid nature of water tells it how to rightly meet everything in its path. Let this natural wisdom also be in you. Meet everything with a free and flexible mind which is not tied to past experiences. You will then meet all events without alarm, with quiet progress.


Be True To Yourself

Behave the way you really are, even if it ends a relationship! Never suppress yourself in an effort to influence, hold, or win someone. When we are unreal, so are our rewards. To say this in another way, never behave the way you think the other person wants you to behave, but in the manner you must. Nothing you really need to do or have ever requires a yielding to person or custom.


The Secret To True Happiness

Do not deny yourself the normally nice pleasantries of the world in the belief that they are anti-spiritual. People who do this merely repress themselves, which results in secret bitterness and neurosis. Participate freely in your business and social activities, but do not form attachments to them in an effort to find security.

Also, never try to be more spiritually advanced than you are. That is a painful trap. When you do this, change occurs. However, YOU don’t change anything, it just changes.

Buddha found this secret to true happiness. In the early years of his search he practiced severe self-denial, including fasting. On one occasion he so weakened himself that his friends could hardly pull him out of a raging river. Seeing the folly of exterior exercise, he turned in the right direction - inner insight.


Fascinating Facts About the Richer Life

One of the most persistent of errors is the belief that the spiritual life is separate from our daily life in the home or office. The truly spiritual mind sees no difference in the two. Differences in geography seem to make them different in psychology, but the wise mind sees them as one world. A businessman is doing spiritual work when he refuses to waste his energy in feeling disappointed. At the same time that Ralph Waldo Emerson was writing his victorious philosophies, he was also raising the best commercial apples in his home town of Concord, Massachusetts.


Don’t Be Afraid to Play Through Life

Don;t be afraid to play through life. Retire from heavy thoughts. Take everything with lighthearted wisdom. We are heavy because we think we must make an impression, gain something, be somebody. In spite of what society tells you, you need not be anybody at all in the eyes of men. The only genuine need you have is to be a real human being. Try to see this, try to feel it with all your heart. Then you will know what it means to make the world your plaything.


How Love Creates New Energy

Remember that all energy is a single, unified force. The energy which lifts your left hand is the same energy which makes a carrot grow. The power which whirls through space is the same power by which you observe the mood you are in today. This vast energy is ready to renew whoever makes himself ready of it. We make ourselves ready by refusing to take pleasure in negative emotions, by wanting to know more about life than what we see on the surface.

Love is the full, free and uninterrupted flow of life-energy through your psychic system. It is the river with no dams or whirlpools or broken banks or dividing islands. Love is oneness, wholeness, mental health. This free flow starts by first becoming aware of self-division, and then by dissolving it through spiritual insight.

Copyright SuperWisdom Foundation

Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Warrior's Prayer

Beautiful video with soulful music and stirring words!

I especially like the words "In love, I unconditionally accept the evolution of others"

The Warrior's Prayer video

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The gentle art of blessing

A lovely video with some beautiful visuals and warm, touching words ...

The gentle art of blessing

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

in retrospect

there was an avalanche
of feelings
of things that defied words
or labels
behind the facade.

if you would have knocked
just a bit
I would have let it cascade
but you didn’t
so I stood mute behind the door.

what stayed your hand
I wonder
what brewed in the silence
so heavy
how do I calm this avalanche now?

Monday, February 01, 2010

teaching kids to take charge

A truly inspiring, life-changing idea. Be the change.

Teaching kids to take charge

Asia's rise - how and when

Very interesting !!!

Asia's rise - how and when...

a new way to fight corruption

Lots of potential in this one :)))

A new way to fight corruption

a warm embrace that saves lives

A novel idea to save the lives of premature babies in developing countries -

A warm embrace that saves lives

Very inspiring!