Patient Trust

 By Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God 

We are quite naturally impatient in everything
      to reach the end withour delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
      unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of progress
      that it is made by passing through
      some states of instability ---
      and that it may take a very long time. 

And so I think it is with you.
      Your ideas mature gradually --- let them grow,
      let them shape themselves, without undue haste. 

Don't try to force them on,
      as though you could be today what time
      (that is to say, grace and circumstances
      acting on your own good will)
      will make of you tomorrow. 

Only God could say what this new spirit
      gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
      that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
      in suspense and incomplete.

 
Copyright: The Institute of Jesuit Sources

You are me, and I am you ...

You are me, and I am you.

You cultivate the flower in yourself, so that I will be beautiful.

I transform the garbage in myself, so that you will not have to suffer.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Beauty

We have come to restore women to full power and beauty, to bring the world into balance. Power is beauty, beauty is power.

It is not power over or power in order to but being 100% oneself, and living in the truth of who you are.
Since beauty is the outward manifestation of one's essence, every being is beautiful when expressing this essence.
Turn your awareness toward the source of power that lies within you. When you begin to seek inside yourselves, you will find that power and beauty do go together.

Feminine power is a fearsome thing.
Fierce.
Dignity has to do with the sacredness of the being that you are.
Grow into your Spirit.
Know your body. Your body is your compass.
Both physical and emotional feelings are registered in the body.
There is wholeness, a grounded-ness in this way of perceiving that is more reliable than the mind. You will FEEL the truth. Trust the FEELING.
Step into the Light and own the verticality of this power.
When you walk tall, the Divine is in you.
The alignment of your spine will bring in the Divine - always.
Stand tall, sit tall, be the light that you are, and whenever you doubt, stand tall.


Sharon McErlane

Meeting and parting

Often times, in the physical world, people come into our lives and then leave, for whatever reason. This causes us a lot of pain - the pain of separation, the pain of loss, absence. We cling to their memory, we pine for their presence, we cannot let go.

But deep, at the soul level, the soul knows that other souls come into our lives at the appropriate time to teach us lessons and stay for the length of time as is needed. There is no pain, no clinging, no longing, only knowing, that all is as is meant to be, that all is well.

Unlimited potential (reminder)

(First written on 5th August 2006, needed a reminder)

Today as I was meditating I found suddenly that the feeling of 'I' had disappeared along with all self-identity and I realised that there is no me, just the Divine realising Itself, being Itself. And strangely enough it was a very humbling experience. Because the ego had disappeared, as also the mind and the emotions, just an awareness remained. And the feeling of slight pain in my shoulder and the body touching the ground. There was no joy nor pain, no want, no desire, no bliss or sorrow, just nothingness.

Afterwards when I came out of meditation I had the feeling that nothing mattered anymore, all the mundane concerns of daily life had disappeared. Just the feeling that everything had been taken care of. And the Divine which is not the narrow false self has the power to create anything It wanted to. And then it occurred to me that if the entity which is called 'me' is the Divine expressing Itself then how can 'I' entertain the idea of being limited by anything. Because the Divine is limitless and has the endless potential to create anything and be anything.

Duality within the eternal moment

Duality within the eternal moment exposes non-moving consciousness as what and who you are, with the moving mind providing character to that non-alterable center.

Time is a self-created or adopted illusion that we believe is real, and it is not.

There are obviously many practical uses for that illusion but its one major fault is using it to judge our physical lifespan. It establishes false borders, artificially squashing our life between them. That falsity arises because we have conditioned ourselves to live within one-half of a duality, time, while ignoring the other half of that duality, timelessness.

The perceived interval between each moment, creating the illusion of time, is non-existent as there is only the moment. Or, the beginning of each moment is also the beginning of what is perceived as the next moment, but it is the same moment. The original moment never ends, exposing its timeless nature.

The artificial space created by perceiving the moment as having a beginning and end, establishes the illusion of time. Time is associated with the ‘things’ we do from what is perceived as moment to moment, but timelessness is the moment we do those ‘things’ within. Learning to live in the moment releases the timelessness nature of that duality from out of its artificial time-encapsulated bondage, providing you with the opportunity to bring the time/timeless duality into a liberated state of being. The moment between the time/timelessness duality is where you live your life, with time gauging your material existence, and timelessness holding the potential for you to liberate yourself from that self-imposed bondage.

Everything exists within a duality, yes/no, black/white, restriction/non-restriction, time/timeless, material/nonmaterial, and on and on its goes. However, what duality is there for infinity? If infinity is something then its duality is nothingness, but if nothingness is a reality, how did the universe appear out of nothingness? Therefore, it is a nonsensical assumption, making infinity uniquely singular with no duality.

That singularity is its timeless nature as there was not an infinity before it, nor can it move, as it has no where to move to as it is infinite. Consequently, infinity is singular, timeless, and motionless. It may come as a surprise that those three characteristics are what you can discover within yourself. The moment you live within is singular: there are not two moments impinging upon each other. There is only a succession of the same moment, creating the illusion of time. The moment you live within is timeless: from moment to moment, that moment is all there is, making it timeless and, of course, motionless as it is always the same moment, making that moment motionless. Therefore, somewhere within you there exists a place that is singular, timeless, and motionless, but where is it, what does it do for you, and how can you discover it? In addition, since those characteristics are the same characteristics as infinity, is infinity somehow an embedded aspect of your personal existence?

The search begins within the duality to those three characteristics. What moves? What is caught within time, and what can become duplicitous to the embedded singularity? When you are just sitting, thinking about nothing and seeing nothing in particular, not aware of any sound either internal or external, then you are sitting within motionlessness, and that motionlessness is singular and timeless.

The instant something activates your attention, either internal or external, you become aware of it, or the mind is aware of some activity and begins processing information about that activity. Meaning, the mind is now in motion within the motionless moment. Therefore, the mind is what moves within and upon what is motionless. If that motionlessness did not exist, the mind could not exist as it uses that motionless characteristic as its foundation, to not only recognize itself as moving but also to recognize anything that moves, which is itself and referred to as self-awareness and awareness of ‘things’ as activated self-awareness. Meaning, the mind subliminally and constantly references non-motion to know and understand motion.

Hence, the requirement, or need, for a motionless center within yourself, and whether you know it or not that motionless center is what you are. The moving mind only adds character to that motionless center, but cannot alter it in any fashion. That center never changes from your first breath upon this planet to your last breath upon this planet, as it is motionless. It is unalterable, making that motionless center nonmaterial as everything material alters in some fashion. Your existence is then composed of a motionless nonmaterial, or non-biological, center activated by a biological self-created mind and that combination is what you refer to as yourself.

As you created the information the mind uses, you take what you create as who and what you are, ignoring your unmoving center that everything is centered within and upon, which sets the stage for an unrecognized duplicity that can have negative consequences within all aspects of your existence. Disregarding your non-biological nonmoving center establishes the immense difficulty of discovering a source of creation, as you focus upon what the mind creates or accepts and not what the mind rests or rides upon. As the source of creation is infinite and the motionless moment you live within is infinite, that moment is a valid place to begin your search for that Source, as that Source is located within that moment. Moreover, since both are infinite, the foundation for your existence is indestructible as infinity is indestructible, giving the saying ‘heaven is within you’ more credence and a logical foundation.

The other two characteristics of that motionless moment are its singularity and timelessness. The timeless nature becomes self-evident when you ‘awake’ to your awareness of being aware, or the mind recognizes its nonmoving foundation, which is activated self-awareness discovering subliminal self-awareness. The combination of subliminal self-awareness and activated self-awareness is your existence, and what you refer to as yourself, as subliminal self-awareness establishes consciousness and activated self-awareness establishes the mind.

Experientially knowing that dual awareness occurs the moment you close your eyes. In that moment you are experiencing your own existence as you really are, as the mind (activated self-awareness) has not had sufficient time to begin processing information. Meaning, the quiescent mind has created sufficient ‘space’ for it to recognize that non-moving center (consciousness) as the core of your existence. At any stage in your life, the moment you close your eyes your nonmoving center is experienced as pure awareness (subliminal self-awareness or consciousness) and is experienced identically every time you do it.

Meaning, that center is timeless as the feeling or experience of that center never alters in any fashion throughout your entire physical life span. Time has no effect upon that nonmoving center; or it is timeless. It is experienced identically when you are one year old or when you are eighty years old. That motionless center is your timeless awareness. As everything physical is time conditioned, that center is then nonmaterial as it is not affected by time, and is non-biological as your biology is time conditioned. It is within the material/nonmaterial or biological/non-biological duality where you can discover the indestructibility of your timeless, nonmoving, and singular foundation.

The other characteristic of that motionless moment is its singularity. There is only one motionless center, establishing a subliminal sense of continuous ‘stability’ as that center never alters. However, that singularity is forgotten the moment the mind begins to move. The movement is a natural and normal aspect of the mind, establishing all your learning. That learning creates patterns of behavior that conform to the learning, or rebels against it, establishing patterns-of-living that you take as ‘who’ and ‘what’ you are. Meaning, those patterns created by the moving mind, and used for your protection and security, have established a self-created sense of stability that overlays your innate nonmoving stable center, creating what can be referred to as a second you. Your innate awareness stable singularity now has competition. A non-moving you and a self-created you that is in constant motion, which is where a good percentage of identity difficulties have their origin. The singularity of your nonmoving center is your inherent stability, experienced as peaceful and restful. The artificial stability created by the moving mind is rarely peaceful and is constantly moving, providing little or no peace-of-mind, establishing a subliminal duplicity that allows hypocrisy to breed within various forms of self-indulgence and self-interest. This self-created artificial center is what forms societies, and destroys them. It gives birth to the duality playground of good and evil and that playground is where you materially live.

Birth upon this planet provides you with a motionless, singular, and timeless center that is stable and nonmaterial or non-biological, as everything else in the visible universe is time dependent and in some form of movement. As such, that center is a reflection of infinity as infinity is motionless, singular and timeless, making that reflected center indestructible, as infinity is indestructible. The physical form will come and go but your indestructible center has nowhere to go, as it is a reflection of infinity and infinity has nowhere to go, as it is infinite.

Therefore, know that immovable, timeless and singular center and you know yourself, which means knowing the moment you exist within, as that moment is a reflection of the infinite, which is also reflected within you. Meaning, know that center and you know the Source of that center as that center, which is you, is a reflection of that Source. However, if you focus upon the biology for that discovery, only the mind will be discovered as it is biologically created. Rather, focus upon what is not biological or non-material, which is your stable non-moving, singular and timeless center existing within the moment you are now experiencing. That focus reveals consciousness as your non-moving, timeless, singular, and stable center that exists within the endless moment, with the mind bringing consciousness into life, but consciousness is the life of the mind. Therefore, ‘knowing yourself’ requires knowing the moving mind and what it moves upon and within, which is non-moving consciousness.

The difficultly with ‘knowing yourself’ arises as the mind has established a new artificial stable center creating two different selves: a non-moving self (consciousness) and a constantly moving self, created by the mind. Hence, the problem with discovering which self is really you. Interestingly enough, both are necessary for that discovery. However, only one self is real, whilst the other is artificially real. The non-moving you (real self or consciousness) is the foundation for the moving you (artificial self, created by the mind), allowing you to recognize its movement upon your motionless center. Your motionless, timeless, singular center (consciousness) is the peaceful core of your being, providing the foundation for the moving mind to function.

However, without the moving mind you would never know that you have a motionless center that all movement swings around. Thus, the great difficulty of ‘knowing yourself’ or discovering your true identity as your motionless center (consciousness) and moving mind establish two potentially separate selves. Which one you take as ‘who’ and ‘what’ you are determines the outcome of your life. If you take what the moving mind creates as ‘who’ and ‘what’ you are, you will discover what the mind creates continually changes shape. That changing shape means that you continually change shape.

There is no stability in continual change, only artificial security, maintaining constant instability in your life that perpetually affects or undermines your self-created protection and security. If you take the artificial self, that the mind has created, as ‘who’ and ‘what’ you are, your life will be thrown to and fro by the ceaseless changing landscape of daily living, establishing constant insecurity that requires the moving mind to endlessly repair or recreate itself to meet those changing circumstances.
For all the benefits the moving mind creates in your life, it cannot establish true and permanent security as somehow and somewhere your self-created patterns-of-living will always come under threat or attack requiring you to defend yourself or, in turn, attack another that has attacked you or has caused your artificial self to somehow feel threatened. It is a constant recycling battle of attack/defend or win/lose, providing no peace of mind, security or stability.

On the other hand, your motionless, timeless, and singular center (consciousness) is innately stable as it is a non-material reflection of infinity. The center provides peace, protection and security simply by being what it is.

The trick, if it can be referred to as a trick, is to remain actively centered within that center (awareness that you are there) and allow the mind to process information as it normally does. If you do that one little act, you will discover that you appear to be removed, or separate from your own thinking. You can observe the mind doing its process work as it is moving, and you can recognize that movement as you are centered within what is not moving, consciousness.

Because you are observing the mind doing its process work, you are also separate from it, providing you with the opportunity to free yourself from the result of your thinking, which is a form of liberation as you are no longer subject to the results of your own thought-forms. Or, your thinking no longer owns you, which does not mean that you own it. It means you have become a passerby to your own thinking, not allowing it to stick anywhere or create an attack/defend or win/lose ensnaring duality scenario. Practicing that one little action creates its own pattern, until one day the pattern becomes what you are, which is joining the two selves as one, but now that one is not affected by the moving mind thought processes.

You are well and truly centered within your motionless center (consciousness) observing the moving mind, remaining unconditioned by either positive or negative thought-forms that the mind is playing with. It is new sense of freedom, engendering a peaceful, stable position, free of all encumbrances. Then comes the fun part, discovering what that motionless, singular and timeless center is, which is discovering the nature of consciousness. This is unveiling the experiential core of consciousness, knowing where it comes from and goes to, which means experientially knowing ‘how’ and ‘why’ that center is indestructible, making your real self indestructible and your combined self eternal. There is no short cut to understanding those processes. If you are interested, read the book The Mind of Consciousness as it provides all the experiential information for you to discover the answers for yourself. No one can do it for you. You either do, or do not, as there is absolutely no in-between.

By Ray Morose

Reasons to believe

Reasons to believe

The video says it all :)

Awareness

When you are in awareness, life happens like a movie. You can watch your thoughts, your feelings, your experiences, the various events taking place around you, like as if it is was a flow of images flitting across your consciousness and you are the observer watching it all flit by. Thoughts, feelings, experiences, all arise from and fall back into that vast boundlessness that is awareness. You are simultaneously experiencing and yet not experiencing. You are in the world and yet detached from it. Things pass through your consciousness, yet nothing sticks. Things just flow. You are simultaneously the river and the banks ......

Happiness :)

"Happy people do not demand a lot from the world because their happiness proceeds from a place deeper than the world can touch."


~ Alan Cohen

Voices Empowering the Voiceless

We have started a new website, a group of friends from Facebook, all of us with the passion for writing and who also wanted to make a difference.

Voices Empowering the Voiceless

All are invited to join in to make that difference by spreading the word and sending in contributions - prose, poetry, links, articles, audio, video ....

What are we waiting for?

Riding home in the train along the seashore in Wellington, I used to witness the most beautiful sunsets.

One day, in awe, I asked God, “How do you manage to paint a masterpiece everyday?”

He whispered softly, “You can too...”

Our life is that blank canvas, and God is eagerly waiting for us to produce our masterpiece. What are we waiting for?

a story short

A story short

His manner was casual,
his voice was deep,
“I have secrets”, said he,
“that you may keep”.

I bowed grateful
to this humble offer,
this was more trust
than most would proffer.

It started thus,
this simple thing,
little did I know,
what it would bring.

Moonbeams on oceans,
a touch of rain,
and luminous beings
to take away pain.

Long conversations
on just everything,
longer silences that
made the heart sing.

But words have this knack
of getting in the way,
beating reason down
and sweeping it away.

The heart stood dumb
on a silence vow.
It must have been fled,
this thing called love.

It ended thus,
this story short.
Oh! why do we meet,
so soon to part?

Each parting leaves
a mark so deep,
and secrets and secrets
that I must keep.

It remains to be seen
how this will flow.
Will a flower bloom,
or a thorn grow?

This is love

"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky,
to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of life.
In the end, to take a step without feet;
to regard this world as invisible,
and to disregard what appears to be the self.

Heart, I said, what a gift it has been
to enter this circle of lovers,
to see beyond seeing itself,
to reach and feel within the breast."

~ Rumi

Change

“… 
change is frightening and waiting for that feeling of safety to come along before one makes a move only results in more internal torment because the only way to acquire that feeling of security is to enter the whirlwind of change and come out the other end, feeling alive again."

Anatomy of the Spirt, Caroline Myss.

What do you see?

Questioner: Still, you are different. Your mind seems to be always quiet and happy. And miracles happen around you.

Maharaj: I know nothing about miracles, and I wonder whether nature admits exceptions to her laws, unless we agree that everything is a miracle. As to my mind, there is no such thing. There is consciousness in which everything happens. It is quite obvious and within the experience of everybody. You just do not look carefully enough. Look well, and see what I see.

Questioner: What do you see?

Maharaj: I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself by inadvertence. By knowing what you are not, you come to know your self. The way back to your self is through refusal and rejection. One thing is certain: the real is not imaginary, it is not a product of the mind. Even the sense ‘I am’ is not continuous, though it is a useful pointer; it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about your self anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over -- you are no longer intent on verbalising what you are. All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define your self. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state, spontaneously and effortlessly. The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused. Just like gold made into ornaments has no advantage over gold dust, except when the mind makes it so, so are we one in being -- we differ only in appearance. We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's life to this discovery.

~ excerpt from 'I am That' by Nisargadutta Maharaj

Only time

Ethereal Enya singing 'Only time' 

Watch the 'Only Time' video

Lovely, flowing song with stunning visuals ...

Honesty

To be willing to look honestly at ourselves, our own behavior, intentions and motivations is to me the most courageous way of taking responsibility for our life and one of the most efficient ways to personal growth and inner freedom. As soon as we see and acknowledge what we do to ourselves and others, we can step out of it, out of the stories, let the light in, and return to inner peace.

~ Lisbeth Mahnkopf

True emergence

Usually when we feel love towards another and give expression to the feeling of love, our attention is usually focused on the other person. But if you will turn your attention on yourself, you will find a few interesting things. You will find that you are experiencing a feeling on expansion. Of being out of your usual limited self and beyond the constraints that you have set for yourself. You will find yourself experiencing greater freedom, more aliveness, great joy and immense lightness. Why is this so?

What is love but our natural state? Beneath our layers of personality, our fears, our socially conditioned masks, our protective barriers, what are we but pure loving beings? When you are in the presence of someone with whom you can shed all these extraneous burdensome stuff, then love cannot help but emerge. In that state, in our expression of our feelings to the other we say ‘I love you’ but if you quietly remove the ‘I’ and the ‘you’, only love remains and that is pretty much the true state of things.

Discontent

Occasionally, (thankfully not often) I am assailed by such strong feeling of discontent that the resulting discomfort is almost physical. A quiet voice (no doubt angelic) gently reminds me that Providence has been so kind as to shower me with so many blessing I must not be ungrateful and therefore unkind. But even though the logic is sound and the sentiment worthy, the discontent will not go away. It rages on in my breast with such ferocity that I am forced to focus all my attention on it. It may be argued that discontent is a positive emotion. Even though it has negative connotations and makes one feel miserable, just think, if it wasn’t for discontent, most major explorations and therefore discoveries and inventions would not have taken place. There is a joke that the English were so fed up with their food that they sailed forth to other lands in search of better-tasting food J And discovered (and to the natives dismay, conquered) other lands. 

So what is this discontent telling me? That there is something in my life / in my worldview that is in urgent need of changing. Bells are going off loud and clear announcing the need for urgent renovation. Something is stagnating and putrefying that needs to be set in flow once again. Discontent, in this case, seems to be the soul’s cry to be set loose from lack of growth and inaction.

Unfortunately, as I find out, it is not as easy as it sounds. Hearing the soul's call is one thing, but actually setting out to follow it is a different thing altogether. I guess, I'll have to live with this discontent until that happens. Churning and burning and giving me no rest ....

I just Am

I am already there.
I am already immersed in Divinity.
I already Am.
I am not this or that. Not daughter or wife or friend, or neighbour or employee.
I am not this name or that.
I am not bound by labels or roles.
I just Am.

It is mind-blowingly liberating to realise this ...

Attachment

People need something or someone to fasten themselves
to in order to reassure themselves that they are real.

~ Ani Difranco

On Death

When I think of death I find that I am not frightened of it. Death that seems like a fullstop to most people, the end to life’s experiences, and staring terrified into the unknown, on the contrary seems like a continuation to me. If life is a big adventure, with challenges everyday, lessons to be learnt every moment, death seems like an even greater adventure. “Now you see as through the mirror dimly, then you shall see with greater clarity” - so promises the Bible and so I believe too. Now all our experiences are sensory ones, bound and limited by the senses. Even concepts and imaginations are limited because they are thought up my a limited mind, but once we are free of these, then a whole new world opens up, unbound and limitless. I am tired of seeing dimly, as though thick curtains, looking at a limited worldview. I wish to experience boundlessness. Therefore, for me, death is not an end, it  is a door, leading on to a bigger and greater reality, where we are reunited with our Higher Selves, experiencing Love and boundlessness. Truly, death is fascinating and most welcome.

More gems

How would you feel if you had no fear? Feel like that. How would you behave toward other people if you realized their powerlessness to hurt you? Behave like that. How would your react to so-called misfortune if you saw its inability to bother you? React like that. How would you think toward yourself if you knew you were really all right? Think like that. ~ Vernon Howard

 ~~~~~~~

It's one thing to be touched and inspired by words of wisdom and power.
To be moved enough to put them into practice is an entirely different story.
The kind of story telling that allows you to be the author of your own life.

~ Hal Tipper

 ~~~~~~~

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

~ James Arthur Baldwin

 ~~~~~~~

We don’t need to wait for some golden moment before we can be free and something can be good. We don’t need to wait for something special to happen. When we try to accept things and allow them to be as they are right now and know that we can learn and grow from every experience, we already have set ourselves free.

~ Lisbeth Mahnkopf

 

Ways of seeing

Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back. They're like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we're stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we are. ~ Pema Chodron

 

Our experience of life is conceived -- moment to moment -- by how it's perceived; this means that before there can be a change in what is seen, there must first come a change in the nature of the seer. ~ Guy Finley

The past is as powerless to darken the present moment
as is a shadow to reach up and drag down the form that casts it. ~ Guy Finley

 

Parrots, the universe and everything

Witty, hilarious, informative, and thoroughly entertaining :)

A must-watch talk by Douglas Adams on parrots, the universe and everything.

Watch this wonderful talk here

Inner work

Having the willingness to invite our unconscious beliefs into awareness will make us free one step at a time. When we become aware of something we have believed, it leads to aha moments of insights, our energy pattern changes and so do our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. We become more free and gain more space. To ourselves, to others, and to the next round inviting limiting beliefs to the surface.

~ Lisbeth Mahnkopf (life coach)

Right action

For some time now, I have been seized with restlessness and my mind keeps buzzing, “I must do something”. With my life. As if living was not sufficient, but there had to be some activity that proved I was alive and that life was worthwhile. I cast my mind about a lot looking for something to do and mind you, there are a lot of worthwhile things to do. Uplift the poor, save the downtrodden, save the planet, start an enterprise, start a new hobby, change jobs, change cities ..... the list is as long as the list of human activities, but somehow I was not able to zoom in to anything and this restlessness was bothering me too much.

So today I decided to get to the root of it. I observed it for a while, for a long, long while. And realised it was rising entirely in the mind. My thoughts were getting churned up by watching other people involved in social service or taking time out and performing commendable works and I had somehow compared myself to them and found my self wanting. This thought process was unconscious, but that was how the mind had worked.

So, I asked myself, is that what I really want to do. Activity for the sake of it, or activity that imitates others’ activity. With such dubious motivations any activity is bound to end in failure. Either it gets badly done, or started and never finished. I realised that the motivation has to be deeper than that, and has to come from a place that is beyond the mind, has to come from the source itself. It should be ‘I want to do this’ and arising out of clarity of purpose, not ‘I must do this’ for the sake of doing it / everyone is doing it / society tells us to do it / it has been done for centuries etc.

This motivation from the source, with clarity and intentness of purpose, I realised, will always result in right action, not the haphazard action that comes from the restless mind prompting one that ‘I must do something’. When love motivates one to do something, then there is no restlessness, no urgency, action just flows effortlessly. For then it is life giving unto life.

Be grateful

Be grateful for what you have, for your life, for your experiences, for yourself and you don’t need to wait for anything specific to happen in order to bloom, because then you already are. Have a beautiful weekend.

~ Personal development, energy work, healing, coach Lisbeth Mahnkopf on FB

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

Seeing God

We can see God everywhere. Do not seek for him, just see him.

~ Swami Vivekananda

Weak

We of the fluttering soul.
We who grind our teeth
to your joyous beat
and rejoice when you are grounded.
We who never slow down
and trample your soul
till our green self cackles.
We love our mediocrity.
and we would love
if you would be a part of it.
We on our pendulum of apathy
We have bartered stillness of our hearts
for restlessness of our mouths.
Silence is best served as shards
and spaces between us, as words.

~ Roop Majumdar (FB friend)

Relationships

Whatever relationships you have attracted in your life at this moment, are precisely the ones you need in your life at this moment. There is a hidden meaning behind all events, and this hidden meaning is serving your own evolution.


~ Deepak Chopra

love story

God writes only love stories,
in it you are the lover and the beloved,
if you realise this,
there are only happy endings.

Come, let us...

Come, let us still our words,

turn off our thoughts

and break open our silence.

Come, let us plunge within

into that bottomless ocean

called the heart of God.

Come, let us drown in it,

lose everything in it

and find ourselves in it.

Come, let us discover that

this silence is alive
and is filled with love.

Say I am you

Poem by Rumi on video

... set to soothing music and lovely visuals.

For lyrics, click here ...

look within ...

If you find me not within, you will never find me, for I have been with you from the beginning.


~ Rumi

What am I?

If I think, and therefore I am, am I just a thought?

Rumi to music

Rumi chanted (on video)

In the orchard and rose garden
I long to see your face.
In the taste of Sweetness
I long to kiss your lips.
In the shadows of passion
I long for your love.

Oh! Supreme Lover!
Let me leave aside my worries.
The flowers are blooming
with the exultation of your Spirit.

By Allah!
I long to escape the prison of my ego
and lose myself
in the mountains and the desert.

These sad and lonely people tire me.
I long to revel in the drunken frenzy of your love
and feel the strength of Rustam in my hands.

I'm sick of mortal kings.
I long to see your light.
With lamps in hand
the sheikhs and mullahs roam
the dark alleys of these towns
not finding what they seek.

You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing your praises
but stand mute
with the agony of wishing in my heart.

~ Rumi

The 'chalta-hai' attitude

Dominique: "Roark, I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between." 

~ Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead

Me neither. Why do anything if you can't do it whole-heartedly? Like my friend Usha says 'Indifference is the opposite of love'.

Our lovely planet

Great visuals of our lovey planet

Let's try to keep it that way - wonderous, beautiful, awesome...

Spoken poetry

Great spoken poetry, wonderful talk !!!

Must see this


B
As Performed by Sarah Kay

Instead of Mom, she’s gonna call me Point B,
Because that way she knows that no matter what happens,
At least she can always find her way to me.

And I’m going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands,
So she would have to learn the entire universe before she could say,
“Oh, I know that like the back of my hand.”

She’s gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face,
Wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach,
But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry.
So the first time she realizes that Wonder Woman isn’t coming,
I’ll make sure she knows she doesn’t have to wear the cape all by herself,
‘Cause no matter how wide you stretch your fingers,
Your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal.

Believe me. I’ve tried.

And, “Baby,” I’ll tell her, “Don’t keep your nose up in the air like that; I know that trick.
You’re just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house,
So you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him,
Or else find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him.”

But I know that she will anyway.

So instead, I’ll always keep an extra supply of chocolates and rain boots nearby,
‘Cause there’s no heartbreak that chocolate can’t fix.
OK. There’s a few heartbreaks that chocolates can’t fix,
But that’s what the rain boots are for,
Because rain will wash away everything if you let it.

I want her to see the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat,
To look through a magnifying glass at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind,
Because that’s the way my mom taught me,
That there’ll be days like this.

“There’ll be days like this,” my Mama said,
When you open your hands to catch, and wind up only with blisters and bruises,
When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly,
And the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape,
When your boots will fill with rain, and you’ll be up to your knees in disappointment,

And those are the very days you have all the more reason to say “thank you”.
‘Cause there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline,
No matter how many times it's sent away.

You will put the wind in win some, lose some.
You will put the star in starting over and over.
No matter how many landmines are up to the minute,
Be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny thing called life.

And, yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting,
I am pretty fucking naïve,
But I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar.
It can crumble so easily,
But don’t be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.

“Baby,” I’ll tell her, “Remember your Mama is a worrier, but your Papa is a warrior,
And you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more.
Remember that good things come in three’s, and…so do bad things, and
Always apologize when you’ve done something wrong,
But don’t you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.
Your voice is small, but don’t ever stop singing.
And when they finally hand you heartbreak,
Slip hatred and war under your doorstep,
And hand you handouts on street corners of cynicism and defeat,
You tell them,
That they really ought to meet your mother.”

at peace

From a healed peaceful heart humility is born,
from humility a willingness to listen to others is born,
from a willing to listen to others mutual understanding is born and
from mutual understanding... a peaceful society is born.


- Daisaku Ikeda.

Be who you are...

The Universe won't hear your resonant words.
The Universe won't be impressed by your numerous certifications.
The Universe won't be in awe by your popular writings.
But the entire Universe will genuflect in front of your heart.
So, off the masks and just be who you are.
The rest is useless.

~ Teddylight Andrea Puddu

Love yourself

Rather than focus on whether others seem to care about you or not, and allow yourself to generate negative energy, focus on how much you care about yourself. If you are not selfish enough to love you, then you have nothing positive to give others. The way to shift energy vibration and the nature of unfoldings in the outer world is to shift energy inside. Choose to love and appreciate all that you are. We are one.

I wish ...

I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.

~ Hafiz of Persia

I will meet you yet again

I will meet you yet again

How and Where?
I know not Perhaps
I will become a
figment of your imagination and
spreading myself
in a mysterious line
on your canvas
I will keep gazing at you
Perhaps I will become a ray
of sunshine to be
embraced by your colours
I will paint myself on your canvas
I know not how and where
but I will meet you for sure
Maybe I will turn into a spring
and rub the foaming
drops of water on your body
and rest my coolness on
your burning chest. I know nothing else
but that this life
will walk along with me
When the body perishes
all perishes
but the threads of memory
are woven with enduring specs
I will pick these particles
weave the threads
and I will meet you yet again

~ last poem Amrita Preetam wrote to Imroz

Awareness

Awareness : seeing what is in front of you and loving, accepting and honoring it without judgement.

~ Kristal McVicar

Words that empower

The simple fact is that if one person can achieve success in any area starting with nothing but willingness and determination, anyone can...! The only thing that holds us back from achieving our dreams is our own inner resistance. Uncover what those limiting beliefs are, remove them and prepare to be amazed.

 ~ Hal Tipper

Worry

Now that all your worry has proved such an unlucrative business,

Why not find a better job.
 
~ Hafiz of Persia

Silence

Wisdom arrives in silence ...

... and silence is always there.

- The Universe

Teaching ...

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.


~ Kahlil Gibran

Love

We will illustrate love by a triangle, of which the first angle at the base is fearlessness. So long as there is fear, it is not love. Love banishes all fear. A mother with her baby will face a tiger to save her child. The second angle is that love never asks, never begs. The third or the apex is that love loves for the sake of love itself. Even the idea of object vanishes. Love is the only form in which love is loved. This is the highest abstraction and the same as the Absolute.

- Swami Vivekananda

All the hemispheres

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.

~ Hafiz

From: 'The Subject Tonight is Love'
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

We have a choice...

When it gets right down to the bottom line, we seem to have 2 basic choices in how to respond or react to circumstances. To be grateful and in wonder that we have been given an opportunity to witness whatever happens....or complain that it's not looking like our perceived ideal of the way things "should" be to feel ok?

We have a choice...
 
~ Hal Tipper on FB

My tryst with Arabia

When one thinks of Arabia, a vision of camel caravans, hot dusty deserts, mirages and oases and dark-skinned Bedouin nomads come to mind. But here I am in Abu Dhabi and none of the above are in sight. Instead, I am surrounded by nothing but tall buildings and in the intervening spaces, lots of shiny metallic cars. It is as if seeds were planted in the desert and concrete and glass trees have sprouted up miraculously. And since petrol is in abundant supply, the cars just needed an excuse to be created.

And so I sit in my hotel room dreaming of the desert, of nights around the campfire, surrounded by camels, all under the canopy of a star-studded sky shining bright in the clear desert air. To compensate for the non-realisation of the dream, I go for walks. The pavements are clean and clear of clutter. Human traffic is sparse as compared to India, and traffic is orderly. The streets come alive in the evening, when the lights in the shop windows start to glow as if the departing day had left its lighted footprints in the bulbs. People stream into the numerous malls, shops, eating places or just go for walks. The pace is unhurried and relaxed. And whatever stress I might have accumulated during the day fall off me into the twilight.

The most fascinating thing is the people themselves. I make it a mental game to try to guess the nationality of each person that I pass for there are people of almost every race to be found here. Frizzy hair, straight hair, blond and black, to be found on brown, yellow, white or black bodies. The natives themselves are the most fascinating. A wonderful blend of cultures down the ages has resulted in beautiful, smooth, olive skin draped over slim bodies rounded off with beautiful olive-shaped eyes, sharp noses, full mouths and dark hair. Especially the women, of whom (if you are lucky) you can see only the face (if not, only the eyes).

I have a feeling that my tryst with Arabia has only begun. There are so many places to visit here of differing topographical features and different attractions. But yes, must get to the desert first, lie on the sands under the starry sky and space out :)

'the book that changed my life...'

---------------- excerpt from delanceyplace newletter ----------------------------


In today's excerpt - William Kamkwamba, a Malawian inventor, speaker and author. He gained fame in his country when, in 2002, at the age of fourteen, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other windmills and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi. As the son of a subsistence farmer in his poverty-ravaged African country, his family's house had no electricity or running water, and he could not afford to go to school after famine left his family destitute. Then he stumbled upon the book that changed his life:

"Most students at Kachokolo Secondary and Wimby Primary stopped going to school during the famine. After I dropped out ... fewer and fewer classmates showed up. The teachers would call recess around 9 A.M. and then disappear themselves into the fields and trading center to search for food. By February there was no school at all.

"But as the dowe and pumpkins became ready ... students began returning to school and classes resumed ... because my family still couldn't afford my school fees, I was forced to stay home doing nothing.

"I remembered that the previous year a group called the Malawi Teacher Training Activity had opened a small library in Wimbe Primary School that was stocked with books donated by the American Government. Perhaps reading could keep my brain from getting soft while being a drop out.

"The library was in a small room near the main office. A woman was sitting behind a desk when I walked in. She smiled, 'Come to borrow some books?' she said. This was Mrs. Edith Sikelo, a teacher at Wimbe who taught English and social studies and also operated the library. I nodded yes, then asked, 'What are the rules of this place?' I'd never used such a facility.

"Mrs. Sikelo took me behind a curtain to a smaller room, where three floor-to-ceiling shelves were filled with books. It smelled sweet and musty, like nothing I'd ever encountered. I took another deep breath. Mrs. Sikelo then explained the rules for borrowing books and showed me the collection. I'd expected to find nothing but primary readers and textbooks, boring things. But to my surprise, I saw American textbooks on Eng­lish, history, and science; secondary texts from Zambia and Zimba­bwe; and novels for leisurely reading.

"I spent the day combing through the books while Mrs. Sikelo graded papers at her desk. Despite the variety of titles, I left that afternoon with books on geography, social studies, and basic spell­ing - the same textbooks my friends were studying in school. It was the end of the term, and my hope was to get caught up before classes started again.

"At home I planted a thick blue gum pole deep in the ground near the mango tree out front, then made my own hammock out of knotted maize sacks. For the next three weeks, I began a rigorous course in independent study, visiting the library in the mornings, and spending the afternoons reading in the shade. ...

After about a month, the school term finally ended and [my friend] Gil­bert was free to hang out. One morning we went to the library to kill some time - we often stayed for hours, just sitting in chairs and reading-but today Mrs. Sikelo was in a rush.

" 'You boys spend hours in here taking my time,' she said, 'but today I have an appointment. Just find something quickly.'

" 'Yes, Madame.'

"The reason it took so long was that none of the books were arranged properly. The titles weren't shelved alphabetically, or by sub­ject or author, which meant we had to scan every title to find some­thing we liked. So that day while Gilbert and I looked for a good read, I remembered an English word I'd stumbled across in one of my books.

" 'Gilbert, what's the word grapes mean?'

" 'Hmmm' he said, never heard of it. 'Look it up in the dictionary.'

"The English-Chichewa dictionaries were actually kept on the bottom shelf, but I never really spent much time looking down there. Instead I asked Mrs. Sikelo. So I squatted down to grab one of the Dictionaries, and when I did, I noticed a book I'd never seen, pushed into the shelf and slightly concealed. 'What is this?' I thought. Pulling it out, I saw it was an American textbook called Using Energy, and this book has since changed my life.

"The cover featured a long row of windmills - though at the time I had no idea what a windmill was. All I saw were tall white towers with three blades spinning like a giant fan. They looked like the pin­wheel toys Geoffrey and I once made as kids when we were bored. We'd find old water bottles people threw away in the trading center, cut the plastic into blades like a fan, then put a nail through the cen­ter attached to a stick. When the wind blew, they would spin. That's it, just a stupid pinwheel.

"But the fans on this book were not toys. They were giant beauti­ful machines that towered into the sky, so powerful that they made the photo itself appear to be in motion. I opened the book and began to read."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author: William Kamkwamba

Title: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition

Date: July 27, 2010

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heaven and hell

I sent my soul to the invisible, some letter of that afterlife to spell.
And by and by my soul returned to me
and said, 'you yourself are heaven and hell'.

- Omar Khayyam

Haiku and poems of Ikkyu

Why do people
Lavish decorations
On this set of bones
Destined to disappear
Without a trace?

Many paths lead
from the foot of the mountain,
But at the peak
We all gaze at the
Single bright moon.

If at the end of our journey
There is no final
Resting place,
Then we need not fear
Losing our Way.

No beginning,
No end.
Our mind
is born and dies:
The emptiness of emptiness!

Rain, hail, snow and ice:
All are different,
But when they fall
They become the same water
As the valley stream.

- The Haiku and Poems of Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481)

Listening

An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart. ~ David Augsburger

Patiently Love awaits ...

Patiently Love awaits as we rush about, search, seek, do, want, think, study, hope, dream and so much more.
Love awaits.
In the exhausted moments when there is nothing left to rush after it is there.
In the quiet moments when thought has ceased it is there.
All We Ever Sought Was But A Veil From All We Ever Were Or Will Be.
Love.
You Are Love, now and always.

- From FB friend Kristal's Wall

Find the gap ...

Between each thought, there is a gap. Look for the gap between everything. That is when the mind momentarily keeps still. That is the place of no-mind. Try to extend these gaps, so that more time is spent in no-mind. Then stillness can't help but be yours ......

Surrender

Just surrender to love
then you will find yourself free
free of the world
free of illusion
free of barriers
you will find that
you have reached the Source.

Laughter to make your day :)

If you laugh, this is how you should laugh :))))))

Hahahahaha :D

Such an adorable baby....

The reality as we know it does not exist

So says quantum physiscs -

This takes you there

A lot of things have begun to make sense now ...

Reel wisdom

Lessons from 40 films in 7 minutes ...

Click here to watch

Oh! I simply love the Jedi :)