Words to live by.
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"All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. "
- Lord Buddha
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him.
If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought,
happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him. "
- Lord Buddha
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--Alan Cohen
Improving our lives might just be simple, if we let it. We can upgrade all kinds of old patterns and situations in a much shorter time than it took to create them.
Before we can do that, however, we have to let go of the notion that healing takes a long time, is hard, and requires pain. Sigmund Freud taught that our childhood programming molds us for life, and is difficult, if not impossible, for us to rise above. Yet a later psychologist noted, "Creative minds have been known to overcome even the worst programming." That psychologist was Anna Freud -- daughter of Sigmund.
A student asked the spiritual teacher Abraham if it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. Abraham’s answer was swift and incisive: "You have no idea what an old dog you are." Our true self, Abraham explains, runs deeper than any programming we have learned. As spiritual beings, our nature as wisdom and love provides us the strength to transcend the limits we have adopted. [...]
If a rock has been submerged in a stream for 30 years, it takes only a few minutes or hours to dry out, not 30 years. If you turn on a light in a dark room, it does not matter whether the room was dark for ten minutes or ten years; it is just as light now.
You are light now, and part of you always has been.
--Alan Cohen
Improving our lives might just be simple, if we let it. We can upgrade all kinds of old patterns and situations in a much shorter time than it took to create them.
Before we can do that, however, we have to let go of the notion that healing takes a long time, is hard, and requires pain. Sigmund Freud taught that our childhood programming molds us for life, and is difficult, if not impossible, for us to rise above. Yet a later psychologist noted, "Creative minds have been known to overcome even the worst programming." That psychologist was Anna Freud -- daughter of Sigmund.
A student asked the spiritual teacher Abraham if it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. Abraham’s answer was swift and incisive: "You have no idea what an old dog you are." Our true self, Abraham explains, runs deeper than any programming we have learned. As spiritual beings, our nature as wisdom and love provides us the strength to transcend the limits we have adopted. [...]
If a rock has been submerged in a stream for 30 years, it takes only a few minutes or hours to dry out, not 30 years. If you turn on a light in a dark room, it does not matter whether the room was dark for ten minutes or ten years; it is just as light now.
You are light now, and part of you always has been.
--Alan Cohen
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Holiday Practices:
Extend an act of generosity and loving kindness toward someone everyday.
Holiday means holy day - Take 15 minutes each day to connect with the sacred in your life.
Take an action each day that alleviates suffering in the world. Bring light into darkness.
... May the spirit of the holidays provide comfort, peace and well being for everyone... - Angeles Arrien
Extend an act of generosity and loving kindness toward someone everyday.
Holiday means holy day - Take 15 minutes each day to connect with the sacred in your life.
Take an action each day that alleviates suffering in the world. Bring light into darkness.
... May the spirit of the holidays provide comfort, peace and well being for everyone... - Angeles Arrien
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The Soul - Bird
O world-ignorance,
Although
You have shackled my feet,
I am free.
Although
You have chained my hands,
I am free.
Although
You have enslaved my body,
I am free.
I am free because I am not of the body.
I am free because I am not the body,
I am free because I am the soul-bird
That flies in Infinity- Sky.
I am the soul-child that dreams
On the Lap of the immortal King Supreme.
By: Sri Chinmoy
O world-ignorance,
Although
You have shackled my feet,
I am free.
Although
You have chained my hands,
I am free.
Although
You have enslaved my body,
I am free.
I am free because I am not of the body.
I am free because I am not the body,
I am free because I am the soul-bird
That flies in Infinity- Sky.
I am the soul-child that dreams
On the Lap of the immortal King Supreme.
By: Sri Chinmoy
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Any ordinary favor we do for someone or any compassionate reaching out may seem to be going nowhere at first, but may be planting a seed we can't see right now. Sometimes we need to just do the best we can and then trust in an unfolding we can't design or ordain.
Sharon Salzberg,
Sharon Salzberg,
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: By The Lake
Posts: 60,328
...and every time I feel the shine, I am called to follow it, to sing it, to live it.
And thank you, Annie, for bringing your light here to shine on all of us.
Hugs
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Become What You Are
--Alan Watts
Begin with the practice of concentration, that is, of attentive looking. It is as if to say, "If you want to know what reality is, you must look directly at it and see for yourself. But this needs a certain kind of concentration, because reality is not symbols, it is not words and thoughts, it is not reflections and fantasies. Therefore to see it clearly, your mind must be free from wandering words and from the floating fantasies of memory." [...]
Now the great deal of talk about the difficulty of action, or the difficulty of concentration, is sheer nonsense. If we are sitting together at a meal, and I say to you, "Please pass the salt" –- you just do it, and there is no difficulty about it. You do not stop to consider the right method. You do not trouble yourself with the problem of how, when you have picked the saltshaker up, you are going to be able to concentrate on it long enough to bring it to my end of the table. Now there is absolutely no difference between this and concentrating the mind’s attention to see into the nature of reality. If you can concentrate the mind for two seconds, you can do it for two minutes, and you can do it for two hours. Of course, if you want to *make* this kind of thing horribly difficult, you begin to think about whether you are concentrating, about how long you have concentrated, and about how much longer you are going to keep it up, All this is totally off the point. Concentrate for one second. If, at the end of this time, your mind has wandered off, concentrate for another second, and then another. Nobody ever has to concentrate for more than one second –- this one. [...]
If you try to watch your mind concentrate, it will not concentrate. And if, when it is concentrated, you begin to watch for the arrival of some insight into reality, you have stopped concentrating. Real concentration is therefore a rather curious and seemingly paradoxical state, since it is at once the maximum of consciousness and the minimum of ego-feeling ... The only way to enter into this state is precipitately –- without delay or hesitation, just to do it.
--Alan Watts
--Alan Watts
Begin with the practice of concentration, that is, of attentive looking. It is as if to say, "If you want to know what reality is, you must look directly at it and see for yourself. But this needs a certain kind of concentration, because reality is not symbols, it is not words and thoughts, it is not reflections and fantasies. Therefore to see it clearly, your mind must be free from wandering words and from the floating fantasies of memory." [...]
Now the great deal of talk about the difficulty of action, or the difficulty of concentration, is sheer nonsense. If we are sitting together at a meal, and I say to you, "Please pass the salt" –- you just do it, and there is no difficulty about it. You do not stop to consider the right method. You do not trouble yourself with the problem of how, when you have picked the saltshaker up, you are going to be able to concentrate on it long enough to bring it to my end of the table. Now there is absolutely no difference between this and concentrating the mind’s attention to see into the nature of reality. If you can concentrate the mind for two seconds, you can do it for two minutes, and you can do it for two hours. Of course, if you want to *make* this kind of thing horribly difficult, you begin to think about whether you are concentrating, about how long you have concentrated, and about how much longer you are going to keep it up, All this is totally off the point. Concentrate for one second. If, at the end of this time, your mind has wandered off, concentrate for another second, and then another. Nobody ever has to concentrate for more than one second –- this one. [...]
If you try to watch your mind concentrate, it will not concentrate. And if, when it is concentrated, you begin to watch for the arrival of some insight into reality, you have stopped concentrating. Real concentration is therefore a rather curious and seemingly paradoxical state, since it is at once the maximum of consciousness and the minimum of ego-feeling ... The only way to enter into this state is precipitately –- without delay or hesitation, just to do it.
--Alan Watts
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude
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Alan Watts quotes:
“Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery -- the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets -- is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.”
“How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.”
“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”
Alan is one of my mentors.
& I like mashed potatoes 
“Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery -- the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets -- is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.”
“How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.”
“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”
Alan is one of my mentors.
& I like mashed potatoes 
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Location: Fluttering About
Posts: 3,760
What's right with your life
"There are plenty of things that are right with your life. Have you thought about any of them lately?
The goodness in your life is so much a part of you that you can easily take it for granted and rarely give it a second thought. On a regular basis, though, it pays to think about that goodness.
Whatever else may be going on in your world, the fact is that you are extremely blessed in many ways. Think about those blessings that blend quietly into the background, supporting and sustaining you in every moment.
Think for a little while about what's right with your life. The more often you connect with the value that's already yours, the more new value you will create.
When you feel that the troubles and frustrations are dominating your thoughts, stop and turn your mind in a more positive direction. Remember that wherever your thoughts go, the rest of you will quickly follow.
Focus your awareness on the many good things that make up your life. For with your nurturing, those good and valuable things can indeed grow into greatness."
-- Ralph Marston
"There are plenty of things that are right with your life. Have you thought about any of them lately?
The goodness in your life is so much a part of you that you can easily take it for granted and rarely give it a second thought. On a regular basis, though, it pays to think about that goodness.
Whatever else may be going on in your world, the fact is that you are extremely blessed in many ways. Think about those blessings that blend quietly into the background, supporting and sustaining you in every moment.
Think for a little while about what's right with your life. The more often you connect with the value that's already yours, the more new value you will create.
When you feel that the troubles and frustrations are dominating your thoughts, stop and turn your mind in a more positive direction. Remember that wherever your thoughts go, the rest of you will quickly follow.
Focus your awareness on the many good things that make up your life. For with your nurturing, those good and valuable things can indeed grow into greatness."
-- Ralph Marston
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The chamber of your heart
Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.
The tavern-haunter wanders alone in a desolate place,
seeing the whole world as a mirage.
The tavern-haunter is a seeker of Unity,
a soul freed from the shackles of himself.
Through the chamber of the heart is small,
it's large enough for the Lord of both worlds
to gladly make His home there.
- Shabistari
Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart out,
He will enter it.
In you,
void of yourself,
will He display His beauties.
The tavern-haunter wanders alone in a desolate place,
seeing the whole world as a mirage.
The tavern-haunter is a seeker of Unity,
a soul freed from the shackles of himself.
Through the chamber of the heart is small,
it's large enough for the Lord of both worlds
to gladly make His home there.
- Shabistari
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Mid-Life Express
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Barrio De Paz: Peace Town
"Everything in society tells us to distrust others. I think it's the other way around. We need to profoundly trust in those around us, in their potential and in who they are," the grandmotherly Nelsa Curbelo Cora says. In 1999, she walked into the violence infested city of Guayaquil, Ecuador to BE peace. Through her grassroot work, today, Guayaquil's most dangerous gangs have disarmed, agreed to abandon violence and are now working together to rebuild the community!
"Everything in society tells us to distrust others. I think it's the other way around. We need to profoundly trust in those around us, in their potential and in who they are," the grandmotherly Nelsa Curbelo Cora says. In 1999, she walked into the violence infested city of Guayaquil, Ecuador to BE peace. Through her grassroot work, today, Guayaquil's most dangerous gangs have disarmed, agreed to abandon violence and are now working together to rebuild the community!
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