Some gems of thoughts

Manifestation is an act of trust. It is the soul pouring itself out into its world, like a fisherman casting a net to gather in the fish he seeks; with each cast properly made, we will bring what we need to us, but first we must hurl ourselves into the depths without knowing just what lies beneath us. ~ David Spangler

Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change. ~ Stephen Covey

How can you open to greater trust that you’ll always have what you need?
Fear, doubt, anxiety and disbelief all serve to repel abundance from us. Faith, love and gratitude for the gifts of our lives keep energy and abundance flowing. The more we trust in our well being, the more it will be realized. ~ Higher Awareness

 ~~~ from a friend's Facebook Wall

Love

Personal love is binding,

universal love, liberating.

Note from the Universe

When you understand why something hurts, it stops hurting.

When you understand you have options, you take action.

And when you understand you have wings, you can soar again.

~ The Universe

Haiku

A hazy morning

air thick with fog

and the dust of memories.

Seek Your Soul

"Often in the physical it is difficult to determine if one is evolving spiritually. Dramas unfold causing great confusion in the hearts of those incarnate.

In pursuit of the truth, outside linear input can often mislead those who seek a plateau of spiritual connection. It is spirit and only spirit in harmony with you that will lead to the advancement of your soul.

It is important to take time in the chaos of a life to center one's perception of the self. A quiet thought has great worth when seeking spiritual alignment. If you find yourself in a sea of doubt or a confused arena of perspective, seek your soul. As we have said many times, it will not abandon you... ever.

Physical life offers opportunity to experience, but the imperfect energy can often derail your progress. Your spiritual perspective can repair the misalignment. All one need do is step back from the dramas and align with spirit.

Feel the pulse of yourself and the pulse /vibration of your soul. It will make a difference. This life is but one chapter in a novel of your evolvement. It will resolve itself if you reach out spiritually.

Go ahead.

Give it a try."

- VERONICA

Conflict

All conflict is inner conflict because that's where we experience it. That's the good news !! Why? Because that's where we can change the perception of what it means and transform it into a new meaning that is more empowering and positive. The question is never "why is that person doing this" The power question is "What is it about my reaction that I need to learn from?"

~ Hal Tipper on Facebook

Haiku

I write not myself
words are given to me
a gift I must pass on.

Infinity

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. 

~ William Blake

Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.


~ Melody Beattie

Underwater babies

Click here to see some amazing photos that will take your breath away!

Power lies with us

Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation. 

~ James Allen

*#$%

Frustration is an exciting signal. it means that your brain believes you could be doing better than you currently are.

- Anthony Robbins

My Monday morning work motto

Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ~ Coco Chanel

Paraphrased to -

Don't spend time trying to motivate Indians hoping to transform them from apathetic workers to passionate ones...

(more like my Monday morning rant :(((( )

Quote Of The Day

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
~ Victor Frankl

Thought for the day ...

I have found that pain assaults my consciousness whenever I forget how blessed I am. I then go from a glorious feeling of abundance to one of abject lack. So, quite clearly, an attitude of gratitude is a powerful antidote to misery...

Connections?

Social interconnectedness is highly over-rated by those who don't know or understand or won't acknowledge the value of solitude and silence. What is the point of being interconnected and networked with the world but not being able to connect with one's own soul?

How true!

Perception is reality ...


(to think that I found this absolutely stunning bit of truth on a page full of technical matter shows that gems of truth can be found anywhere, one just has to keep his eyes open :))

Food for thought

I count braver him who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; 
for the hardest victory is over ones self.

Source - internet (possibly the Koran)

Quotes from Samsara

Saw a wonderful movie called Samsara, about a young man who becomes a Buddhist Llama but is unable is resist the lure of the world. He puts aside his robes, falls in love, marries and starts a family. The death of his old master and a cryptic note he leaves behind makes him rethink his purpose in life and brings him once again to the crossroads.

Some memorable quotes from the movie, quoted out of context here but still retain their wisdom and stay in mind for long after -

There are things we must unlearn in order to learn them
and there are things we must own in order to renounce them.

How can one prevent a drop of water from ever drying up?
By throwing it into the sea...
 
What is more important -
satisfying one thousand desires
or conquering just one?

The spark

Being in the state of awareness, one needs to examine closely the notion that one is a human being, examine the various thinking processes, concepts, assumptions that go into the making of that notion and one will find that it is nothing but a notion, carefully built up over the years by our own experiences and input from others. Once we clearly see that it is nothing but a notion then we can slowly deconstruct it. Take it apart, piece by piece, until it disappears and we stand revealed as divine.

Our whole world view of reality is based upon input mostly from our sense organs. And our mind then takes all that input and makes it own stories. What we call reality is nothing but a personalised story that we are constantly scripting. Therefore, my ‘reality’ will be totally different from everyone else’s and so likewise everyone’s else’s ‘reality’. If this so-called ‘reality’ exists only in our experience, then where or what is the real thing? For finding out, obviously, we have to get out of this illusion-churning-out thing called the mind.

Because our ‘reality’ is based upon input from the senses, the purview of our world is limited by the scope of the senses. Therefore we perceive ourselves as limited beings, separate from everything else. But once we debunk the myth that we are the body and lose our identification with it, then the limits that our senses have set fall away and then the boundaries that we have set for ourselves and for others also disappear. In that boundary-less world all is one. It is just one matrix of interconnected energy. This reality is universal. It is not personal and not defined by individual experience nor bound by the limits of the senses.

The desire to reach this state of universal consciousness is a spark that lies buried within all of us. Our job is to nurture this spark and make it grow. This desire to reach our real state is so strong that if nurtured it will attract all the knowledge and wisdom required to cut through the veil of illusion, to wake us up from the sleep state of maya. The only effort that is required of us is to nurture this spark, and see to it that it doesn’t get snuffed out. Then the flames will grow into a conflagration that will consume the false world of maya and reduce it to ashes. Then reality will stand revealed.

Zen and the Art of Car Driving in India - 2

Well, the day comes when Ismail announces that I have been first-gear-trained enough and now it’s time to take to the road. The actual road, not the back-roads of sleepy hamlets where we have been practicing so far. The only problem being that the ‘road’ in question is the National Highway which runs close to my house. So, heart pounding, pulse racing, hair standing on edge and hand-gripping-wheel, I set out to brush bumpers with overloaded interstate lorries, burly State Transport buses and autos with the hyperbolical legend ‘to seat only 7’, when there is thrice the number clinging to its insides and dripping from its sides. From then on it is pulse-racing, heart-stopping action. Terminator-look-alike lorries bear down on me with exhausts fuming and horns blaring. Buses stop in the middle of the road without warning to upload or download passengers, with scant regard for courtesy or the passengers’ lives, sending me into panic-mode and causing Ismail to jerk the hand-brake. Autos, with their over-flowing humanity materialise from nowhere and streak across my path, making me freeze with fright and Ismail to yet again, pull the hand-brake. And most inexplicably, vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road, approach us head-on, while I stare at them saucer-eyed, bracing myself for a collision, their occupants jaunty and mindless, while I pick up my scattered nerves and shake my head in disbelief. The only thin veneer of safety I have in this unruly medley is the ‘L’ board which we have decided to put up even though I don’t have a learner’s license, but which sends out hidden signals to other drivers, ‘be warned, this car is liable to behave irresponsibly and stop without notice or reason’.

Lesson five : Driving on the National Highway is good for the heart. It gives it a workout even while seated seat-belted in a vehicle with the AC on.



New Zealand as you might know is a pacifist state, in politics and temperament, where there are ‘give way’ signs everywhere and we have been taught to drive defensively. So it is common practice for motorists to stop and give way to other cars and pedestrians. So true to my NZ training, on the first days of my foray into the big, bad jungle of Indian roads, I am giving way with such tameez and taqaluff that would put any Lucknowi nawab to shame, until it prompts Ismail to proclaim in exasperation, ‘if you drive like this you will never get anywhere. You must not give in to muscling-in tactics, otherwise you’ll get edged out of the road’. I protest with equal belligerence that I am not used to vehicles coming so close to my vehicle, I am used to COURTESY. To which Ismail pointedly points out the obvious, ‘but you are not in NZ any more, this is India. Yahan koi bhi kissi ke liye rukne wala nahi’.  Reality check. And check-mate. Bolti band. Heart down in my boots wishing I was catching the next flight out to NZ.

Lesson six - Reality bites. Bites big-time in India. But what is reality but the people and their attitudes. And my response to them.



Anyway, it so transpires that after a few days of being edged out and pushed around and stopped in my tracks by the likes of pedestrians, cyclists, even buffaloes, my hitherto unknown Amazonian genes kick in and decide to kick-ass. No more taqaluff, and most certainly no more tameez! Stopping and giving way? Pooh! what is that? After all the road is mine too, I proclaim belligerently to Ismail, while kindness cringes in my heart and courtesy cowers dumb-struck. I stare aggressively at hungry-looking underpaid drivers, disdainfully turn my nose up at muscled-mustachioed glaring men and frown down at sneering autorickshaw wallas holding my own and not giving in an inch. All the ‘give-way’ rules are wiped clean from my brain, courtesy gets tossed overboard and crushed underfoot. Tameez dries up quickly in the dry heat, while taqaluff was last seen hitch-hiking in the direction of NZ as I slowly get programmed into ‘jungle’ mode in a brilliant case of regression. Sad to see it though, sad to see myself get into ‘survival’ mode, where all one is thinking about is ‘I, me, myself’ with all the others ‘gaye bhaad mein’. 



Lesson seven - when in Rome, drive as the Romans do. Even if it turns you from a sweet-tempered, courteous, pacifist into an aggressive gargoyle with a wicked glint in your eyes and a snarl on your lips. Like Chief Seattle so poignantly put it, “end of civilisation, beginning of survival’.

Home is where the heart is ...

Click here (Hutt Valley) to see a panoramic view of where my heart lies ! Sigh !


And here is where I used to work (Wellington)

Pleasure and pain

Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up,

if you don't want to suffer, don't go to sleep.

- Nisargadutta

I absolutely loooooooooooooooovvvvvvve this :))))))))

Listening

 
     "In the linear reality many aspire to be proactive in their participation.  They gallantly display their energy to anyone who may be near.  Seeking the connection to their existence they often speak of the connection of mind, body, and spirit.
 
     It is a habit of those embodied to speak more than they listen.  The resonating tenor of their voice makes them feel productive and vital in the physical environment.  It is happening everywhere one looks.... a lot of talkers but very few listeners.
 
     We are sure that the many who have much to say are lacking when it comes to hearing the whispers of their own souls.  An unfortunate moment since it is often the subtle expressions that provoke the most growth.
 
     We would advise all who aspire to connect with their souls to listen carefully to the breath of a newborn, the song of a grass hopper, and the cry of a kitten as it searches for its mother.
 
     The vibration of your own soul can be heard on a clear evening in the garden.  It is the desire to focus on these simple moments that begins the greatest growth.
 
     Be still.
 
     Listen to the pulse of your soul.
 
     The rhythm will sound out a clear message to your heart.  If only you would listen the wonders of the universe would be revealed.
 
     Try.
 
     See what occurs.
 
     Listen."
 
 - Inner Whispers by VERONICA.

discovery

Each day I’m discovering that the one person I can always depend on is me.
And I am finding out that I am much stronger than I ever imagined to be!

Bonding

People bond according to their highest values.

- Antony Robbins

Aashayein

Saw a beautiful movie called Aashayein. Made by Nagesh Kukunoor about a group of terminally ill people awaiting death. Not very deep, but quite sensitive. Had my ex-heart throb Girish Karnad now grown elderly :))) And a wonderful actress called Anaita Nair. And the added bonus of seeing John Abraham really actually ACTING :))))

Some lovely songs from the film with lyrics -

Ab mujhko jeena

listen to 'Ab mujhko jeena' here...

Ab hai ujaala, ab hai savera
Ab inn hawaon, pe kar loon basera
Ab main zamaane ko humraaz kar loon
Ab aasmaano pe parwaaz kar loon
Iss pal mein, hai mujh ko jeena
Ab mujhko jeena

Nakaamiyon se darna kya
Jeene se pehle marna kya
Jhoom kar mera dil ab yeh mujh se kahe
Zindagi hai to zinda dili bhi rahe
Ab iraadon ko hai thaan lena
Ab to khwaabon pe hai jaan dena
Iss pal mein, hai mujh ko jeena
Ab mujhko jeena

Anjaana kal na maanoon main
Yeh pal hai apna jaanoon main
Yahan chaaron taraf pyaar ke silsile
Dekho veeraniyon mein bhi dil hain mile
Apni manzil ki mujh ko khabar hai
Ab to himmat meri humsafar hai
Iss pal mein, hai mujh ko jeena
Ab mujhko jeena

Shukriya zindagi

listen to Shukriya zindagi here...

chan ke aai to kya, chaandni to mili

chand din hi sahi yeh kali to khili

shukriya zindagi, shukriya zindagi

teri mehrbaaniyan, teri mehrbaaniyan

sirf ek rang se tasveer hoti kahin

gham nahi to khushi ki qeemat nahi

dhoop, chaaon hain dono to dilkash jahaan

kya shikaayat karain, fursat kahaan

shukriya zindagi, shukriya zindagi

teri mehrbaaniyan, teri mehrbaaniyan

apni taqdeer ki hai yeh daastaan

kabhi qaatilaana, kabhi mehrbaan

mehrbaani jo dil ko qaraar aagaya

apne qaatil pe bhi pyaar aagaya

shukriya zindagi, shukriya zindagi

teri mehrbaaniyan, teri mehrbaaniyan

aaj kismat yahan humko laaye toh hai

ek lamha sahi muskuraaye toh hai

shamma bhuji hai toh kya gila

bhujta wohi hai joh tha jalaa

shukriya zindagi, shukriya zindagi

teri mehrbaaniyan, teri mehrbaaniyan

The greatest place of wonder

     "Most people in their lives are ever seeking the external, the perfect relationship, experience, job, place, etc.  As a culture it is taught to seek fulfilment outside the self.

     Of course being physical places you in a culture where survival is determined by the amount of physical abundance one has acquired.  This is not something disagreed with.  It is important to feel safe and secure in your environment.  The concern lies with where one looks to find this abundance.

     Much has been said of late about the ability to create what one wants through their thoughts.  It is interesting that most move directly towards material things before seeking alignment with their soul.

     Having said that, we reiterate the concept of thought creating reality.  The way to abundance does not begin externally.  It begins in that place of wonder called your soul. 

     If one discovers the beauty and power there, the reality will align its self.

     Seek then a relationship with your soulful energy.  It will lead you to the next place of wonder.... "abundance". Someone once said, money does not grow on trees.  Abundance, however, grows within you and will manifest according to the energy of your soul and your internal relationship with it.

     There is no greater place of wonder."

- excerpt from Inner Whispers by Venonica

Zen and the art of car driving (in India) - 1

-ONE-

Yes, yes, I went and bought a car. That too a brand new one. Silky silver. The reaction to this has been varied. Some people said, ‘Wow!" Most seemed happy, but my friend in New Zealand put it all into perspective. She said, “Jolly, I’m amazed you bought a car”. She should know. She's travelled widely in India and knows that traffic = chaos here. Another friend in NZ said, “Good for you with the car, you really are a strong person”. That was kinda perplexing. She has never been to India so I’m still trying to figure out the connection. Maybe she thinks that cars in India don't have power steering. Mum said, ‘What colour is it?” Gosh, Mum, now I have a vehicle capable of causing death and destruction and you are enquiring about the colour? Mum does make profound statements like that sometimes.
Lesson one - don’t take yourself or your acquisitions seriously and don’t lose perspective.

Well, step one over, the next challenge is to drive it. Hardly a challenge one would think for someone who has been zipping up and down highways in NZ at well past the speed limit, except for one small detail. This car has a clutch pedal. Never would I have thought that an insignificant looking piece of metal, less than 6 inches in length could make such a difference to my life. Or would turn driving from a pleasant meditative experience to a harrowing lesson in concentration and coordination. Yet, a challenge is a challenge and in order to tackle it I get myself an ally. Called Ismail. My self-appointed driving instructor.
Lesson two - when God gives you challenges, he also sends help. Sometimes it just materialises on your doorstep.

So driving lessons begin in ernest. At early hours of the morning. Too early for my protesting body clock to handle. So half-asleep and irritable, I try to solve the difficult enigma called the manual transmission and for the first time in my life I wish I was rich. Rich enough to buy an automatic transmission car. Yes, my angst is so great that when Ismail (he must have an especially large cruel bone) points out passing automatic cars, I almost drool with desire. Yes, yes, I keep reminding myself, (after the car has stopped again in the middle of the road), if 10th-fail taxi drivers can do this, so can I, after all it’s just a matter of making the left foot-brain connection. My poor left foot who for so long has relaxed comfortably against the car carpet rousing itself into action to render some foot-tapping accompaniment to zesty music is now being put through the drill of having to constantly ‘clutch dabaa ke 1st gear mein daalo’. Or to get even more scientific, my poor right brain who for so long was given to writing rhapsodies about the silken smoothness of petals silhouetted against summer skies has now got to frantically descramble stimuli coming thick and fast from all over the place and send messages to my left foot to not forget that there is a vital ‘under-6 inch’ piece of metal and to not (for the nth time) release it in first gear. Or even more important - to depress it while changing gears.
Lesson three. There exists a vestigial right-brain---left-foot connection which had been lying unconnected and dormant for long (or maybe holidaying in Greece) and which needs to be reconnected (holiday cut-short) pronto and on the double.

In my solitary moments I secretly think that Ismail is too much of a first gear enthusiast. In fact I think he’s obsessed with it. Else why would he spend so much time teaching me something that is used only while starting the car? Wait, he tells me ominously, wait until you start driving in traffic, then you’ll remember all your first gear lessons. I nod my head in great doubt. But in spite of his obsession with the first gear, this Ismail is quite a character, chatty and friendly and philosophical. It is easy to get talking to him and the topics of our conversations are wide-ranging. In fact we get into such deep discussions that I even begin to suspect that I am taking so long to master the first gear because my mind is focussing more on the topic on discussion rather than the topic under foot. One day I ask him if his wife wears a burkha. ‘Yes, it is said she must in the Koran.’ I digest that for a bit. Then, just out of curiosity, ‘is your wife good-looking?’ I’m thinking, why would anyone want to cover up a plain-looking woman? ‘It says so in the Koran’, is his stoic answer. ‘No, no,’ I protest, wondering what the connection is, ‘I’m not asking about the Koran, I’m asking if she looks good’. ‘I don’t know, but it says so in the Koran’. This parrot-like repetition irks me a bit so I say with some exaggerated patience, ‘Ismail, forget the Koran, what has the Koran to do with your wife’s looks, just tell me how she looks.’ ‘Parwah nahi’, he says. His tone has suddenly changed from open friendliness into stony coldness. I am stunned into silence, so stunned am I by the indifference in his voice that I take my eyes off the road and look at the closed indifference etched in his body language. Suddenly, the clutch pedal looks so much easier to handle, so much more amenable to reason than people’s attitudes.
Lesson four. Car mechanics, any mechanics, laws of physics, laws of pure science, all clean, all manageable, maybe tough to crack but easy to master. Laws made by man is another matter altogether.

------ to be continued --------

Poems from 'Udaan'

Lovely poems from a wonderful movie called 'Udaan'

Chhoti chhoti chitrayi yaadein

Chhoti-chhoti chhitrayi yaadein


Bichhi hui hain lamhon ki lawn par

Nange pair unpar chalte-chalte

Itni door chale aaye

Ki ab bhool gaye hain ki


Joote kahan utaare the.


Aedi komal thi, jab aaye the.


Thodi si naazuk hai abhi bhi.


Aur nazuk hi rahegi


In khatti-meethi yaadon ki shararat

Jab tak inhe gudgudati rahe.

Sach, bhool gaye hain

Ki joote kahan utaare the.


Par lagta hai,


Ab unki zaroorat nahin.

Jo lehron se aage nazar dekh paati toh ...

Jo lehron se aage nazar dekh paati toh tum jaan lete main kya sochta hoon,

Woh aawaz tumko bhi jo bhed jaati toh tum jaan lete main kya sochta hoon.

Zid ka tumhare jo parda sarakta khidkiyon se aage bhi tum dekh paate,

Aankhon se aadaton ki jo palken hatate toh tum jaan lete main kya sochta hoon.
Meri tarah khud par hota zara bharosa toh kuchh door tum bhi saath-saath aate,

Rang meri aankhon ka baant-te zara sa toh kuchh door tum bhi saath-saath aate,

Nasha aasmaan ka jo choomta tumhe bhi, hasraten tumhari naya janm paatin,

Khud doosre janam mein meri udaan chhoone kuchh door tum bhi saath-saath aate.

Aazaadiyan

Pairon ki bediyan khwabon ko baandhe nahi re, kabhi nahi re
Mitti ki parton ko nanne se ankur bhi cheeray, dheere dheere
Iraade hare hare, jinke seeno mein ghar kare
Woh dil ki sune kare na darre, na darre

Subah ki kirno ko rokein jo salaakhein hai kahan
Jo khayalon pe pehre daale woh aankhein hai kahan
Par khulne ki deri hai parinde udh ke choomenge
Aasman aasman aasman

Aazaadiyan, aazaadiyan
Maagey na kabhi, mile mile mile
Aazaadiyan, aazaadiyan 

Watch the 'aazadiyaan' song here

In essence

When I think of all the great poets, artists and other creative people down the ages and their creations, I realise that their creative expression is simply the purest expression of the Spirit. What is poetry but the pouring of Spirit into words and then taking form? Likewise, wouldn’t Spirit have ignited the imaginations of artists and moved their hands into creating works of awe-inspiring beauty. Similarly, we can look at ourselves and others and find pure expressions of Spirit. It could be the ability of someone to cook wonderful meals, or the simplicity of their nature, or their proclivity for going out of their way to help, or the mere sparkle in their eyes. It is all the Spirit showing through. From this point it would not be hard for us to see Spirit in everyone. If it is not immediately evident, it does not mean it is lacking, it only means that our vision could be clouded by prejudice and judgement. For aren't we all Spirit in essence ...

Mind Monkeynomics

"Throw out all you talking, concepts and words! After all, what is the mind? It is just the noise that goes on inside. With waking begins the chattering, and the talk goes on endlessly thereafter. This is your mind and you run after it"


- Nisargadatta, The Nectar of the Lord's Feet

Quote for today

"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius

Companionship

Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort, of feeling safe with a person. Having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together, and a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.  

 (George Eliot)

Know yourself

Leave aside all notion that you are a human being who has a body, mind, desires, fears and know yourself to be a being from another dimension, pouring yourself into little cups of life, now here, now there, but never confined to any, playfully tasting the flavours that each cup offers but never attached to any. Boundless, formless, that which gives life to life but is not life, that which gives intelligence but is not intelligence. That which cannot be quantified nor ascribed any quality. Here, but not confined to space. Present, but not confined by time. Know yourself as that which cannot even be named.

stillness ...

Only if you are utterly still can you hear the angels ...

a reminder

I’m feeling disappointed with myself. When I look at my desires, aspirations, even dreams, I find them so pedestrian, so lowly. Considering that the Universe is willing to grant me anything I ask for, here I am asking for petty things. When the world lies at my feet and wings have been provided, all I ask is the strength to take a tiny step. Surely, even the Universe would be disappointed. I need to get rid of the limitations my mind has set up, to break out of the confines I have boxed my self into and dream the dreams the Universe has already fulfilled for me. I need to remind myself once again that all things are possible for those who have the courage to dream and the faith to believe in their dreams.

Pure poetry...

Pure poetic lyrics, and such soothing, lilting melodious music, all in the velvety crooning voice of M.Rafi. And young, handsome Dharmendra simultaneously serenading two dreamy, lovely ladies ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcwF4KE6q4

aap ke haseen rukh pe aaj nayaa noor hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

aap ke nigaah ne kahaa to kuchh jarur hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

khulee laton kee chhaanv mein khilaa khilaa ye rup hain

ghataa se jaise chhan rahee, subah subah kee dhoop hain

jidhar nazar moodee, udhar surur hee surur hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

zukee zukee nigaah mein bhee hain balaa kee shaukhiyaan

dabee dabee haseen mein bhee tadap rahee hain bijaliyaan

shabaab aap kaa, nashe mein khud hee choor choor hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

jahaan jahaan pade kadam wahaan fizaa badal gayee

ke jaise sar basar bahaar aap hee mein dhal gayee

kisee mein ye kashish kahaa jo aap mein huzoor hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

aap ke haseen rukh pe aaj nayaa noor hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

aap ke nigaah ne kahaa to kuchh jarur hain

meraa dil machal gayaa to meraa kyaa kasoor hain

Words and beyond...

Try to go beyond words, concepts, paradigms. Reality is beyond all these and the nature of it cannot be grasped or confined in words. Let go of the need to frame everything into words, to prison things in concepts, to verbalise, to conceptualise. True wisdom is beyond understanding, it is a knowing that comes from deep within, that comes from a place that words cannot reach. It comes from a place utterly still.

Live and let go

I have found that if you wait for something long enough, patiently enough, without resistance, without anxiety, without even seemingly waiting for it, it comes to you, out of the blue, on stealthy feet, when you least expect it, by which time your desire is already diminished and you are in a state of acceptance and learnt to do without, and lo and behold, it comes as a pleasant surprise.

So the trick is in letting go, in not holding on to the desire. The soul has the knack of attracting all that it needs for evolvement - people, situations, experiences. They come and go as the need arises. Why complicate things by desiring, by clinging, by regretting? Why desire something that will pass, why cling to something which is already slipping through your fingers, why regret experiences that have long since passed or pine for them to come back?

Pass gently through life, the soul is in command, it knows where it is going. The choice is ours, whether to live in resistance and want, desiring something that we think we lack. Or to live in abundance knowing that all that we need is already in our life.

The world according to me

You need to come to a full and complete realisation that your world is entirely of your own making. It is held in your mind and is shaped by your thoughts, perceptions, experiences, responses etc to what is a neutral and meaningless set of events. Once you realise this you go from a position of dependency and powerlessness to complete empowerment. You become the creator of your own world rather than being a puppet and victim.

While creating software we use tools to mockup screens of how the user interface should look. We make tweaks here and changes there and when we find one design that is acceptable we finalise that as ‘the look’. This happens in all spheres of product design. It also happens in the world that we carry around in our mind. Tweak a thought and your mood can shift from hopelessness to optimism. reframe a perception and your rosy world can suddenly collapse into misery. In Photoshop, we can take an image and tweak it such that in a few minutes it will look totally different from the original image. We can do that to our world as well. Try sitting back and shifting your perceptions around a bit. You might come up with an entirely different world-view. The world according to you, completely made-over, enhanced and latest version.

Can something so changeable, so malleable, so unreliable, be the real thing? Obviously not. Then where is the real world? Wherein lies reality? Shouldn’t we all be trying to find out? Shouldn’t that be our primary concern? Instead of living immersed in a dream world where the only liberation is death of the body-mind? Shouldn’t we all be trying to wake up?  Shouldn’t you?

After-note: Today, for me clarity has returned after writhing for some days in unconsciousness. After thrashing about in turbulent waters, gasping for air. Who is it that pulled me out, that saved me from drowning? It must have been my real self, the Atman, who responding to some impulse in me to break free, must have brought about some shift in consciousness. No matter how the world might shift and change, the Atman is always there, steady, changeless. My lapses into unconsciousness will only cease when I fully realise that I am It, that I and the Atman are one. Then the world might shimmer and dance like a plaything but I will be the player only engaged in play, and cast aside the world when the play is done.

Submergence

A glorious sort of joy pervades my being, could it be you Oh Lord, whose presence I feel.

Is that your whisper, so soft, that stills my mind and makes fragrant the boundless spaces of my soul.

Is that your touch, so gentle, that transforms my soul into a million shimmering butterflies taking off in exuberant euphoric flight.

Is that your love, so sublime, that resounds in every particle of my being and turns me into a laughingly playful exultant melody.

In that your embrace so tender, that melts me into a river of a countless sparkling stars and leaves me willingly flowing flowing flowing into nothingness......

Nostalgia

A thousand varied memories
form patterns in my mind
a quilt-work of my past,
bright here, worn-out there
and yet holding me
in a comforting embrace.
The present must wait
while I snuggle into the folds
of remembered moments,
scratch the tear of old hurts,
feel the bumps of disappointments.
As enticing the future is not
as the seductive clasp of old joys
recollected wistfully on a rainy day.
I know, I must put it away,
this warm, enfolding familiarity
that smudges and detracts from
the aliveness of the present.

Poems by Lila

Steps

Breathe deeply
for the ocean of life is eager for your participation
start to sink into the unknown depths
of the folds of your heart

Swim quickly
for the shores of experience await your arrival
start to bathe in the beauty
of self made creations

Rest soundly
for the journey called life is never ending
start to be aware of the moment
as it presents itself NOW

Author of this spiritual poetry ~ Lila Star

~~~



Present

Slices of myself
find expression
in the rumble
of everyday noise

At times
To breathe
another breath
takes effort
of unknown proportions

Silence
to gather myself
is a commodity
that simply
does not exist
in any realm

Realisation
that movements
of this universe
are expressed
in the tiniest
particle of a cell
deep within my body
meandering on its path

always Here always Now


Author of this mystical poem ~ Lila Star

Oneness

You and I
what are we
but waves in the ocean,
we rise momentarily
and fall again
into the vast ocean.

You and I
what are we
but the immense ocean,
all waves contained
within us
rising and falling.

Into the void we dissolve
the ocean and the waves
the rising and the falling,
into the void we melt
where all is one
and the one is in all.

Irony

I seek tiny morsels of joy

in the world’s temporal pastures

like a bird pecks for grain

amongst dust,

while a universe of bliss

languishes unsought

right here within me

right now within reach.

:)

Putting a smile on a child's face is the bestest feeling in the world :)

Hafiz poems

The earth would die if the sun stopped kissing her...



What we speak
becomes the house
we live in.
Who will want
to sleep in your bed
if the roof leaks
right above it?


Fear is the
cheapest room
in the house,
I would like
to see you living
in better conditions.


There is only one reason
we have followed God
into this world:
to encourage laughter,
freedom,
dance and love ....


God and I are rushing
from every corner of
existence,
needing to say
we are yours.


The sun never says
to the earth,
even after all this time
“you owe me”.


I once asked a bird
how is it that you
fly in this gravity
of darkness?
she responded,
love lifts me.


I should not make
any promises right now
but I know if you pray
somewhere in this world
something good
will happen.

-Hafiz

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky and Robert Bly

Rain

by Hone Tuwhare, a New Zealand poet.

I can hear you
Making small holes
In the silence
Rain

If I were deaf
The pores of my skin
Would open to you
And shut

And I
Should know you
By the lick of you
If I were blind

The something
Special smell of you
When the sun cakes
The ground

The steady
Drum-roll sound
You make
When the wind drops

But if I
Should not hear
Smell or feel or see
You

You would still
Define me
Disperse me
Wash over me
Rain

- Hone Tuwhare

Boldness has genius.....

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

- Johann Wolfgang Goethe

A labour of love

Writing a poem is almost like a birthing process. Tremendously joyful and yet simultaneously painful. To know that something has been gestating within you and is now fully formed and knocking on the doors of your heart to get out. Those are the first pangs. But how does one find the words to give shape to something so ethereal, so ephemeral, so other-worldly. The soul does not easily translate into words. So then the labour starts. Some poems are short-laboured, some take days to give body to. To catch a fleeting feeling, to turn into phrase an ethereal thought, to solidify images that float ephemeral on the other side of consciousness. That is the labour of love.

And finishing a poem is always a joyous experience even though I sometimes put down the pen in exhaustion. But some dissatisfaction remains. Because words, no matter how cleverly woven and intricately embellished always fall short of the nebulous magnificence that was the original idea. But I like to think that somehow the soul speaks to the reader’s soul.

Self-knowledge

"That which is the Pure Atman is the Great Cause, The Cause of the cause. The gross, the subtle, the casual, and the Great Cause. The five elements are gross. Mind, buddhi, and ego are subtle. Prakriti, the Primal Energy, is the cause of all these. Brahman, Pure Atman, is the Cause of the cause.

This pure Atman alone is our real nature. What is jnana? It is to know one's own Self and keep the mind in It. It is to know the Pure Atman".

Sri Ramakrishna

Surrender

A beautiful song, lyrics quite literally out of the world!

jhoothi duniya
jhoothe bandan
jhoothi hai yeh maya
jhootha saans ka aana jaana
jhootha hai yeh kaya
yahan saancho tera naam re...

Sigh!

Click here to watch video

And Waheeda Rehman looking so breathtakingly beautiful. Sigh!

Stilness...

You do not need to leave your room…
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Do not even wait,
be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you
to be unmasked.
It has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

- Franz Kafka

Stop Calling Me a Pregnant Woman

My Master once entered a phase
That whenever I would see him
He would say,

"Hafiz,
How did you become a pregnant woman?"

And I would reply,

"Dear Attar,
You must be speaking the truth,
But all of what you say is a mystery to me."

Many months passed by in his blessed company.
But one day I lost my patience
Upon hearing that odd refrain
And blurted out,

"Stop calling me a pregnant woman!"

And Attar replied,
"Someday, my sweet Hafiz,
All the nonsense in your brain will dry up
Like a stagnant pool of water
Beneath the sun.

Though if you want to know the Truth
I can so clearly see that God has made love with you
And the whole universe is germinating
Inside your belly
And wonderful words,
Such enlightening words,
Will take birth from you

And be cradled against thousands
Of hearts."

- Hafiz

From 'The Gift - Poems by Hafiz' by Ladinsky

Heartsong

(this one is for you Selvi, if you ever happen to read this)

Sing, sing, oh crazy heart,
sing of the cross you bear.
Sing of the love you carried
to a beloved who did not care.

Weep, weep, oh grieving heart,
lay your pain out bare.
Weep at the scornful glances
and accusations unfair.

Rave, rave, oh angry heart,
rave and rant akin.
Rave at grievous injury,
rant at hideous sin.

Grieve, grieve, oh lonely heart,
grief is nature’s cure.
For the depth to which grief has cut,
joy shall fill for sure.

Still, still, oh troubled heart
let all tempests blow.
Unaffected, as you watch
life’s ebb and life’s flow.

Soar, soar, oh heavy heart,
forthright your cares shed.
For look! God has chosen you
to be His beloved.

Sing, sing, oh joyous heart,
sing of joys untold.
For in loving arms He shall
you most lovingly enfold.

The sacred grove

Drop your words, your thoughts,
drop, also, your body, my love,
strip down to your pure soul,
come, enter the sacred grove of silence.

There, among the wellsprings of love
let’s pluck blossoms of incredible joy,
string them on our dancing heartbeats
and offer them at the feet of the Lord.

Then, in total surrender, let us float
in the supreme bliss of the moment
when all but love dissolves
and we stand revealed as Divine.

Dancing moonbeams

The night is awash
in the aftermath of rain.
Fragrant breezes,
glistening leaves,
the earth that sighs a benediction.
The moon rises full,
and moonbeams dance playful
on shimmering waters.

A lone bird calls,
calls again
and stops,
as if to listen to the silence.
Fireflies float by
gliding on the fragrant air.
As moonbeams skip and slide
on sparkling waters.

The valley is still,
the fields asleep,
the earth lies rain-soaked
and fragrant.
Waters tumble down hillsides,
gather in streams,
and moonbeams ride laughing
on warbling waters.

In the ethereal silence
all dissolves,
earth, sky and space.
Even I.
And the soul exults,
ebullient, ecstatic
with the dancing moonbeams
on silvery waters.

Teachers all

No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher.

- old saying

The great dance of suchness

The Upanishads are the purest teaching possible; they do not make any compromise. They do not make any compromise for you. They are rigorous, very hard and they try to remain totally pure. So what do the Upanishads call Brahman? They simply call him TAT -- that. They do not give him a name. 'That' is not a name; 'that' is an indication. And there is a great difference. When you do not have a name, then you indicate and say "That." It is a finger pointing toward the unknown. 'That' is a finger pointing toward the unknown, so the Upanishads call him Tat.

You may have heard one of the most famous sentences of the Upanishads: TAT-VAM-ASI -- That art thou. You are also the Brahman, but the Upanishads go on calling him 'that'. Even to say calling him is not good because the moment we use he, him, the ultimate becomes a person. The Upanishads do not say that he is a person; he is just a force, energy, life, but not a person. So they insist on calling him Tat -- that. That is the only name given by the Upanishads to the ultimate.

Many things are implied, of course. One: if there is no name, or if Tat, that, is the only name, prayer becomes impossible. You can meditate on that but you cannot pray. The Upanishads really do not believe in prayer; they believe in meditation. Prayer is something addressed to a person. Meditation is simply sinking, drowning, within yourself. The person is somewhere outside you but that, the Brahman, the ultimate force, is within you. You need not relate to it as the other; you can simply drown yourself inwardly. You can simply sink within yourself and you will find that -- because "That art thou."

To take Brahman as the other is false for the Upanishads. Not that the other is not Brahman: everything is Brahman; the other also, the outer also, is Brahman. But the Upanishads say that if you cannot feel him within, it is impossible for you to feel him without -- because the nearest source is within; the without is far away. And if the nearest has not been known, how can you know the faraway, the distant? If you cannot feel him in yourself, how can you feel him in others? It is impossible.

The first step must be taken within. From there the Brahman, that, is nearest. You are that. To say nearest is false; there is not even that much distance -- because even when someone is near there is distance. Nearness shows a certain distance; nearness is a sort of distance. He is not even near you -- because you ARE that. So why go wandering without? He is in the home. You are looking for the guest and he is the host. You are waiting for the guest to come and he is already the host. He is you.

So the first implication is: for the Upanishads there is no prayer; there is meditation. Prayer is a relationship between two, just like love. Meditation is not a relationship between two. It is just like surrender. Meditation is going withinwards, surrendering yourself unto yourself -- not clinging to the periphery but sinking deep to the center. And when you are at your center you are in that -- Tat, Brahman.

The second implication: when the Upanishads call him that, it means he is not the creator; rather, he is the creation -- because the moment we say, "God is the creator," we have made him a person. And not only have we made him a person: we have divided existence into two -- the creator and the created. The duality has entered. The Upanishads say that he is the creation. Or, to be more accurate, he is the creativity -- the very force of creation.

I always like to illustrate this point by the phenomenon of dance. A painter paints but the moment he has painted his picture, the painter is separate from the picture. Now the painter can die and the picture will remain. Or you can destroy the picture but by doing that the painter will not be destroyed -- they are separate. Now the picture can exist for centuries without the painter. The painter is not needed. Once painted, it is finished; the relationship is broken.

Look at the dancer! He dances but the dance is not separate; it cannot be separated. If the dancer is dead, then the dance is dead. Dance is not separate from the dancer; the dance cannot exist without the dancer. And the dancer cannot exist without the dance either because the moment there is no dance, the person may be there but he is not a dancer.

God's relation to the world, for the Upanishads, is that of dance and the dancer. Hence, we have pictured Shiva as Nataraj, the dancer. A very deep meaning is there -- that this world is not something secondary that God has created, then forgotten about and become separate from. The world is not of a secondary order. It is as much of the first order as the divine himself because this world is just a dance, a LEELA, a play. It cannot be separated.

Calling Brahman That says all that is is Brahman, all that is, is he -- the manifested and the unmanifested, the creation and the creator. He is BOTH.

The word that -- Tat -- also has a very subtle meaning. Buddha has used that meaning very much and Buddhists have a separate school of teaching just based on this word. Buddha has called that suchness, he has called it TATHATA; hence Buddha's name, Tathagata -- the man who has achieved suchness, who has achieved That.

This word suchness is very beautiful. What does it mean? If you are born, Buddha will say, "Such is the case that you are born." No other comment. If you die he will say, "Such is the case -- you die!" No other comment, no reaction to it; things are such. Then everything becomes acceptable. If you say, "Things are such that now I have become old, ill; things are such that I am defeated; things are such that I am victorious; things are such..." then you don't claim anything, and you don't feel frustrated because you don't expect anything. Such is the nature of things. Then one who is born will die, one who is healthy will become ill, one who is young will become old, one who is beautiful will become ugly. Such is the nature of things.

Unnecessarily you get worried about it; this suchness is not going to change because of your worry. Unnecessarily you get involved in it; your involvement is not going to change anything. Things will go on moving in their own way. The suchness, the river of suchness, will go on moving in spite of you. Whatsoever you do makes no difference; whatsoever you think makes no difference. You cannot make any difference in the nature of things.

Once this feeling settles within your heart, then life has no frustration for you. Then life cannot frustrate you, then life cannot disappoint you. And with this feeling of suchness a subtle joy arises in your being. Then you can enjoy everything -- YOU are no more, really. With the feeling that "Such is the nature, such is existence, such is the course of things," your ego disappears.

How can your ego exist? It exists only when you think that you can make certain changes in the nature of things. It exists only when you think that you are a creator -- you can change the course, you can manipulate nature. This very moment, when you think that you can manipulate nature, ego enters, you become egoistic. You start functioning and thinking as if you are separate.

--- excerpt from 'The Supreme Doctrine, discourses on the Kena Upanishad' by Osho ---

The new man will be earthly

The new man will be earthly. And by 'earthly' I don't mean materialistic. The new man will be a realist. He will love this earth. Because we have not loved this earth and our so-called religions have been teaching us to hate this earth, we have destroyed it. It is a beautiful planet, one of the most beautiful, because one of the most alive. This planet has to be loved, this planet has to be rejoiced in. It is a gift. This body has so many mysteries in it that even a Buddha is possible only because of this body. This body becomes the temple of the greatest possibility: Buddhahood, nirvana. This body has to be loved. This earth has to be loved.

The new man will find his religion in nature -- not in dead stone statues, but in living dancing trees in the wind. He will find his religion surfing on the sea, climbing on the virgin mountain. He will find his prayer with the snow, with the moon, with the stars. He will be in dialogue with existence as it is. He will not live with abstract ideas, he will live with realities. His commitment will be to nature, and through that commitment he will come to know super-nature. God is hidden here in this earth, in this very body. This very body, the Buddha. This very earth, the paradise.

The new man will read the scripture of nature. This will be his Veda, his Koran, his Bible. Here he will find sermons in the stones. He will try to decipher the mysteries of life, he will not try to demystify life. He will try to love those mysteries, to enter in those mysteries. He will be a poet, he will not be a philosopher. He will be an artist, he will not be a theologian. His science will also have a different tone. His science will be that of Tao, not an effort to conquer nature, because that effort is just foolish. How can you conquer nature? -- you are part of nature. His science will be of understanding nature, not of conquering nature. He will not rape nature, he will love and persuade nature to reveal its secrets.

The new man will not be ambitious, will not be political.
Politics has no future; politics has existed because of the neurosis of humankind. Once the neurosis disappears, politics will disappear. Ambition simply means you are missing something and you are consoling yourself that you will get it in the future. Ambition is a consolation. Today it is all misery, tomorrow there will be joy. Looking at tomorrow you become capable of tolerating today and its misery: today is always hell, tomorrow is heaven. You keep on looking at heaven, you keep on hoping.

But that hope is not going to be fulfilled ever because tomorrow never comes. Ambition means you are incapable of transforming your today into a beatitude; you are impotent. Only impotent people are ambitious: they seek money, they seek power. Only impotent people seek power and money. The potential person lives. If money comes his way, he lives the money too, but he does not seek it, he is not after it. He is not afraid of it either.

The old man was either after money or afraid of money, either after power or afraid of power; but in both ways his whole focus was on power and money. He was ambitious. The old man is pitiable. He was ambitious because he was unable to live, unable to love. The new man will be able to live and able to love. And his herenow is going to be so beautiful, why should he be worried about tomorrow? His concern will not be with having more, his concern will be with BEING more -- another very important distinction to be remembered. His concern will be with being more, not having more. Having more is just a substitute for being more. You have more money, so you think you are more. You have more power, so you think you are more. Deep down you remain the same beggar.
Alexander dies as empty-handed as any beggar.

Being more is a totally different dimension. Being more means getting in touch with your reality, getting in tune with your being, and helping yourself to fall in harmony with the universe. To be in harmony with the universe you become more. The more you are in tune with existence, the more you are. If the harmony is total, you are a god. That's why we call Buddha a god, Mahavira a god -- utter total harmony with existence, no conflict at all. They have dissolved themselves into the whole, they have become the whole -- just as a dewdrop disappears into the ocean and becomes the ocean. They have died in their egos, now they live as existence itself.

The new man will have no use for sham, facade or pretense, he will be true, because only through truth is there liberation. All lies create bondages.

OSHO
The Secret of Secrets….Vol-1…# 14

Light up the Fire

I gaze into the heart, lowly it may be,
Thought the words be higher still.
For the heart is all the substance,
The speech an accident.
How many phrases will you speak,
Too many for me.
How much burning, burning will you feel,
Be friendly with the fire, enough for me.
Light up the fire of love inside,
And blaze the thoughts away.

- Rumi

From The Love Poems of Rumi by Philip Dunn

The Temple of Love

The temple of love is not love itself;
True love is the treasure,
Not the walls about it.
Do not admire the decoration,
But involve yourself in the essence,
The perfume that invades and touches you-
The beginning and the end.
Discovered, this replace all else,
The apparent and the unknowable.
Time and space are slaves to this presence.

- Rumi


From The Love Poems of Rumi by Philip Dunn

Defeated by Love

The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon

So powerful
I fell to the ground

Your love
has made me sure

I am ready to forsake
this worldly life
and surrender
to the magnificence
of your Being.

- Rumi

from 'Love Poems of Rumi' by Deepak Chopra
Translated by: Fereydoun Kia

Love poems from God

LOVE IS THE CURE

Love is the cure,
for your pain will keep giving birth to more pain
until your eyes constantly exhale love
as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.


WITH PASSION

With
passion pray. With
passion work. With passion make love.

With passion eat and drink and dance and play.

Why look like a dead fish
in this ocean
of
God?

From 'Love poems from God' by Rumi
translated by Daniel Ladinsky

O Love

O Love, O pure deep Love, be here, be now,
Be all – worlds dissolve into your
stainless endless radiance,
Frail living leaves burn with your brighter
than cold stares –
Make me your servant, your breath, your core.

From: Perfume of the Desert - Andrew Harvey – Inspirations from Sufi Wisdom

The Meaning of Love by Rumi

Both light and shadow
are the dance of Love.

Love has no cause;
it is the astrolabe of God’s secrets.

Lover and Loving are inseparable
and timeless.

Although I may try to describe Love
when I experience it I am speechless.

Although I may try to write about Love
I am rendered helpless;
my pen breaks and the paper slips away
at the ineffable place
where Lover, Loving and Loved are one.

Every moment is made glorious
by the light of Love.

- Rumi

from 'Love Poems of Rumi' by Deepak Chopra

Translated by: Fereydoun Kia

A song sung in silence

In the fragrant spaces of my soul,
is that you who stirs, Oh Silent One.
In the vast immensity of my soul,
is that your footfall I hear, Oh Silent One.
Is that your hand that strums my soul-strings
and sets them aquiver.
Is that your whisper that transforms my soul
into one unending melody.

The lamp that you lit with your love
is now a conflagration.
The note that you whispered in my soul
is now a symphony.
And so it flows from life to life
until it finally meets the mighty sea.
Therein it shall lose itself,
therein it shall forever be.

Love

Love is nothing but oneness. All barriers, boundaries, differences, separateness are created by the ego-mind. No such thing exists. When all barriers come down, when boundaries disappear, differences melt, and when one no longer feels separate from the loved one, but one, that is love. The body doesn’t figure in this, neither the mind, nor the emotions. It is not an emotional state but the state of pure being. There is no ‘you’ or ‘I’ or ‘us’. Even one’s identity disappears, not that it merges with the other’s. The identity itself which is a mind-creation disappears and we see ourselves revealed in our true state. There is surrender, bliss, union. This is love.

However, it is extremely difficult to remain in this state of oneness and freedom all the time. Interacting in the world puts us in the state of fear, instantly creating barriers between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and instantly cutting off our awareness of our inner self, our source of love. During such moments it helps to step back from the mind and remain in awareness of what is going on. To see the fear for what it is, a mere mind-construction, a trick of the ego, to see how it is creating separateness and division. And how it disconnects us from our own self.

But most of us have in our lives have experienced rare moments of total trusting surrender whether it be in relation to a close loved one or in relation with what we call God. The Sufi mystic Rumi found his beloved in his friend Shams of whom he wrote after Shams’ death

Why should I seek? I am the same as
He. His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself!

The symbolic union of Radha with Lord Krishna epitomises the merging with God. The bliss that she feels upon her union is as fervent as the pining for that state when she is not in the presence of the Lord. Truly, once we have experienced that oneness with the beloved then it is always our fervent desire to return to that state of love. In such moments we are able to let go of our fear, transcend the mind and come home to our own loving self. When we become one with the beloved, we become one with the whole universe. We stand revealed as divine, yes, truly, we stand revealed as God.

An ode to trees

- a beautiful poem by Mara Freeman

A ninefold blessing of the sacred grove
Now be upon all forests of Earth:
For willow of the streams,
Hazel of the rocks,
Alder of the marshes,
Birch of the waterfalls,
Ash of the shade,
Yew of resilience,
Elm of the brae,
Oak of the sun,
And all trees that grow and live and breathe
On hill and brake and glen:

No axe, no saw, no fire shall harm you,
No mind of ownership shall seize you,
No hand of greed or profit claim you.
But grace of the stepping deer among you,
Strength of the rooting boar beneath you,
Power of the gliding hawk above you.

Deep peace of the running stream through your roots,
Deep peace of the flowing air in your boughs,
Deep peace of the shining stars on your leaves,

That the harp of the woods be heard once more
Throughout the green and living Earth.