Surrender

We humans during the course of our lives build so many barriers between our innermost, vulnerable core and the outer world that for us to open up fully and surrender completely to another human being becomes virtually impossible. So terrified are we that the other will hurt us in some way that for all our adult lives we go about clad in armour and fortified with shields and swords.

I am one such person. However, fortunately for me, surrendering to God, or to my Higher Self is much more easier. It could be because I experience my Higher Self as being loving, benevolent and compassionate.When I surrender to this Higher Self, a lot of things happen. I not only lose the barriers that are imprisoning me, I am also able to shed my ego and face my Self egoless. This happens effortlessly, like as if I rise to a place where the ego is no longer needed, since I am now out of the survival mode and in my natural state.

The other thing I have noticed is that I become desire-less. This could be because desires arise in, and are created by the mind, and when we are able to rise above the mind, the desires also disappear. The only desire that can be said to exist is to remain in this state of surrender. But it cannot be called a desire as such, because it is spontaneously and simultaneously being fulfilled. Only when I drop back into the mind does the desire arise again, to regain or return to that state of grace.

Success, failure and beingness

I have been thinking these days about my performance in the workplace and sometimes I have periods when I feel that I have failed to perform my job successfully. The criteria for measuring success, of course, varies from person to person, but this sense of failure arises from my own self-judgment. However, today it occurred to me that only we humans have concepts like success and failure.

Take a lion for instance. It spots a bunch of deer and being hungry decides to hunt. After much stalking and preparing, it makes the attack, Deer, being nimble, scatter immediately and so begins the chase. Usually the lion wins, because its superior stamina outruns agility. But sometimes it so happens, that it does not catch up and the prey escapes. Does the lion sit down and analyse its own performance, does it mentally beat itself for pausing a second longer/ not taking a short cut / not going after an older deer, or does it just go ahead in search of its next source of food? Sounds so much more sensible.

Or yonder mango tree which has not produced any fruit this year? Does it bemoan its fate? Consider itself a failure of a mango tree? Or blame the bees and birds for not doing a good job of pollinating? Or blame the weather? Or humans? Or does it just stay calm and continue to put forth leaves and flowers, as if nothing happened, content in its own beingness?

Are we not part of nature too? Then why do we stray from beingness? Attach meaning to everything, analyse and postulate and feel guilty / happy until our being is buried under all this baggage and we cannot even feel its presence anymore. Dependent on external factors like outcomes to make us feel good. If we are in beingness, like the lion and the tree, wouldn’t our being prompt us to think and act in ways that are most appropriate to the situation, like hunting when hungry and putting forth flowers during spring. Wouldn’t all activity then become effortless (by which I don’t mean inactivity)?

Our own higher self is the best guide of all, it knows not success or failure, it does not even know effort, it only recognizes intention. If you follow its guidance, your intention will always be pure and strong, and your actions will always be right ones, and the results of those actions will not bother you.

Spread the word

You can help combat world hunger by going to www.freerice.com and taking the vocabulary quiz. For each right answer 10 grains of rice is donated to the UN World Health programme.

A fun way to help.

Please pass on the message ...

Boat rides amongst backwaters

Come take a ride on a boat amongst the laidback backwaters :)

God lives ...

God lives in the buzz of the bumble bee

Sometimes in the bark of a banyan tree

He showers from a monsoon cloud

And thunders with rage, clear and loud

She nurtures and loves from a mother's breast

Creates a baby's storm and puts it to rest

He is tender as the morning dew

Closes old wounds with a healing sew

She lives in the lover's ache

Longing a touch, for a moment's sake

He is the tsunami that washes away

He is also what is swept in the sway

He lives in each moment, in each sound

She is here and all around

God is none other than you and me

Waiting. Longing.

For us to remember and see.

~ Ajay Kalra on FB

Forgetfulness

We theorize, talk, philosophize; and the next moment something comes against us, and we instinctively become angry, we forget there is anything in this universe but this little limited self, we forget to say, "I am the spirit, what is this trifle to me? I am the spirit." We forget that it is the spirit playing with itself. We forget God. We forget freedom.

~ Swami Vivekananda

From a lecture on "What Is Religion?". Complete Works, 1.342.

Note from the Universe

There is always something to be happy about. Truly happy.

And if you have the audacity to find it and the courage to make it your focus, in spite of the countless temptations to do otherwise, you will have learned well, your life will be transformed, and all things will be added unto you.

~ The Universe

The Garden of Thoughts (on FB)

Even if you find your voice,

sometimes, it does not matter anymore,

when you speak 

to a man who is deaf

by choice.

~~~

Do not bury 

your own path

by creating an avalanche

of negativity.

~~~

We are the captains 

of our own ships

sailing the sea of life,

but in times

of stormy weather,

you will discover true friends

when they don't hesitate

to be a lighthouse.

~ Dodinsky on FB

if

if by the light of another’s attention,

you can see yourself better,

if by the balm of another’s kindness

you can heal,

if by the shower of another’s love

you can blossom,

that would be friendship.

cameo

my life unfolds

like an art film

in black and white

a moment seems like eternity

and I don’t wish it to end

caught in the spotlight

of the present

like an animal, i keep still

the next moment, unknown

it is liberating

this not knowing

it allows me to travel light

to drink deep of this moment

that stretches for eternity

Journey

In those elusive, far-apart moments of silence
I hear a drummer beat a different tune,
soft at first, then increasingly urgent,
Peter Pan-like, it leads me on.

Follow I must,
intrigued, tanatalised, mesmerised
as it most surely pulls me in,
away from the garish lights of the world,
and discordant sounds of humdrum,
into spectral spaces, full of mystery,
where truths lie sleeping at every turn
waiting to be discovered by me.

There among the shadowy mists of wonder
heartbeat quickening, eyes moistening,
I listen, as silence, so profound, speaks.
that things are not as they appear to be.

~~~

Suffering as teacher

... and so I spent all those years suffering not realising, that all the suffering that I actually experienced was part of my education. And the blessing of all of this is that education no matter how painful can now be used as an ongoing resource, an intuitive skill set and an ability that can help so many people be freed of their suffering and transform, just like the world is being transformed just now in these exciting times of change ...

Matt Kahn - healer

Here I am

Here I am,
snuggled,
into the curve of,
and reason for,
your smile.
The ‘lub’ to the ‘dub’
of your heartbeat.

Here I am,
enfolded,
in the quiet spaces
of your thoughts,
speaking to you,
in silence
and irrepressible joy.

Here I am,
sparkling,
in the cadences
of your laughter,
twinkle of your eyes,
Has anyone told you
you look divine lately.

Jab Tanhaiyan Bolti Hain

 

Deewar-O-Dar Se Utar Kar Perchaiyan Bolti Hain
Koi Nahi Bolta Jab Tanhaiyan Bolti Hain

Perdesh Ke Raaston Mein Rookte Kahan Hain Musafir
Har Ped Kehta Hai Kissa Khamoshiyan Bolti Hain

Ek Bar To Zindagi Mein Milti Hai Sabko Haqumat
Kuch Din To Har Aaine Mein Sehzadiyan Bolti Hain

Sun’ne Ki Mohlat Mile To Aawaz Hai Pathron Mein
Ujadi Hui Bastiyon Mein Aabadiyan Bolti Hain

- Nida Fazli

The Universe explained

The Universe Explained

Must read this, Rukmini.

New born magic :)

Be careful else they will steal your heart away


:)))

Dear Woman

Honouring the feminine

A video all must watch...

Love is always here

You cannot give out or receive love, you Are Love. You can live your life in a kind and compassionate manner, knowing the absolute perfection of every soul behind the image you are presented with, or you can choose otherwise.

Knowing you are love as are all others removes the feelings of needing to give or receive.

Love Is Always Here, Now, Within And Outside of you. Always, No Exceptions.

~ Kristal McVicar on Facebook

---

Saying: I love you. I observed this "I" as an imposter, love is flowing through me, I was witnessing it and I could see that through mind I tended to identify with objects or persons as if I was the doer, that is a delusion....

'I am you' seems more correct to express, reflecting oneness in one other, involving love and aware of no separation in this realm.

And still, we are love and beyond that...

~ Gilles Chamboraire (comment on Kristal's above post)

Forgiveness

To me, forgiveness is not something I do. It’s a result, a consequence, of inner work. When an issue has been healed, forgiveness is the natural result. Forgiveness expands. Forgiveness sets free and brings peace of mind.


If we want peace of mind we need to forgive. Forgiveness expands. And once we have forgiven everything we realize that there really wasn’t anything to forgive.


~ Lisbeth Mahnkopf, life coach