the field
Out beyond ideas
of wrong doing
and right doing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies
down in the grass,
the world is too full
to talk about ideas,
language,
even the phrase 'each other',
doesn't make sense anymore.
-Rumi
how to attract lasting love
None of us has the slightest chance of a healthy relationship until we make a conscious commitment to it. Now for the truly good news. Making a commitment - a genuine, heartfelt, soulshifting commitment - takes no effort whatsoever. Once you do it, there are some things you'll need to learn and some moves you'll have to make under pressure, but the actual making of the commitment is something you do inside yourself, with no effort whatsoever.
So, how about it? Do you commit, body and soul, to living your life-expanding waves of consciousness and love? Or, by default, do you commit to perpetuating whatever drama you've been engaged in for the last umpteen years since you first sucked air?
It's that simple.
Right now, commit to one or the other.
Fill in the blank:
I, _____________, commit to living my life in expanding waves of love and consciousness.
or
I, _____________, commit to perpetuating the painful drama I've been engaged in for much of my life.
If you have made the first commitment, you're ready to move - fast. If you made the second, come back and try again later.
from: Conscious Living, © 2000, by Gay Hendricks
pub. HarperSanFrancisco
teachings on love
"Darling, I am here for you." If you are fully present, this mantra will produce a miracle. You become real, the person you say it to becomes real, and life becomes real in that moment. You bring happiness to yourself and to the other person. This is the greatest gift you can offer your loved one. To love is to be there for him, for her, and for them.
"I know you are there, and I am very happy" is a second mantra. When I look deeply at the moon, I breathe in and out deeply and say, "Full moon, I know you are there, and I am very happy." I do the same when I see the morning star. Walking among the beautiful spring magnolia trees in Korea, I looked at the beautiful flowers and said, "I know you are there, and I am very happy." To be truly present and know that the other is also there is a miracle. Whenever you are really there, you are able to recognize and appreciate the presence of the other -- the full moon, the morning star, the magnolia flowers, the person you love the most. First practice breathing in and out mindfully to recover yourself. Then sit close to the one you love and, in that state of deep concentration, pronounce the second mantra. You will be happy, and the person you love will be happy at the same time. These mantras can be practiced in daily life. To be a true lover, you have to practice mindful breathing in order to produce your true presence.
There is a third mantra: "Darling, I know you are suffering. That is why I am here for you." If you are mindful, you will notice when your beloved is suffering. Sit close to him and say, "Darling, I know you are suffering. That is why I am here for you." That alone will bring a lot of relief.
There is a fourth mantra you can practice when you yourself suffer: "Darling, I am suffering. Please help." Only six words, but sometimes they are difficult to say because of the pride in our hearts, especially if it was the person we love whom we believe caused us to suffer. If it had been someone else, it would not be so hard. But because it was him, we feel deeply hurt. We want to go to our room and weep. But if we really love him, when we suffer like that, we have to ask for help. We must overcome our pride.
from Teachings on Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh
pub. Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA, © 1998
change your perception of aging
As we enter the new millennium, the insights of our most advanced scientists are just beginning to influence our collective views. Our ideas about the human body, its aging, and even time itself are undergoing a dramatic shift, opening the possibility for unprecendented health, vitality, and longevity...
We know from many scientific studies that what ever you anticipate happening with your health is much more likely to occur. Doctors sometimes ridicule this as the placebo effect, but the placebo effect is a testimony to the power of intention. When a doctor and a patient believe in a treatment, the positive results can be as high as 100 percent, even if the treatment is later found to have no pharmacological effect. If patients with asthma are given salt water and told it will help their breathing, they will breathe more easily due to the placebo effect. Given the same salt water with the suggestion that their breathing will worsen, they experience the expected deterioration. This is called the nocebo effect. In every condition imaginable--from high blood pressure to cancer, from stomach ulcers to anginal heart pain--your expectations can make the difference between health and illness, life and death. We can summarize the principle in one line: What you believe you become.
We can use this principle to great effect. Set the intention to grow younger and live longer. Your intention is a powerful activator of your inner pharmacy. Your expectation of growing younger will lead to the reversal of your aging.
...choose an age within the last fifteen years that you would like to be in biological terms. This means you would like to have the physical and mental capacity of a healthy person at that age... let's assume you are sixty years old. Choose an age between forty-five and sixty. Let's say you choose the age of forty-nine years. This becomes your Biostat... (Then repeat to yourself at five different times each day) each of the following phrases at least three times:
...My Biostat is set at a healthy ____ years of age.
I look and feel a healthy ____ years old.Within a few days of performing this ritual you will actually begin to think and act from the level of your Biosat. ... You will start to believe in your Biostat and its organizing power.
from: "Grow Younger, Live Longer",
by Deepak Chopra, M.D. & David Simon, M.D.
pub. Harmony Books, NY, NY, © 2001
forgiveness
Sometimes strong action may be needed for our defense. Let this be done with compassion or our own hatred will poison the response. We can meet the tragedies of the world with what Gandhi called "soul force".
In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual.
Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, each recalling the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy, is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length.
This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.
from: The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
by Jack Kornfield, pub. Bantam Books, © 2002
our society
.... I feel very strongly about the kinds of images that we access into our homes in the form of TV signals. These signals are energy vibrations that are transmitted into the atmosphere, and we use our receiver to access this energy into our homes. If we allow signals that carry the energy images of violence, sexual promiscuity, disrespect, vulgarity, and the like to come into our homes to poison the minds of our children, then they will resonate with that energy and emulate it in their everyday lives. Public television does not send out energy signals tainted with vulgar or violent images.
.... If we have a spiritual deficit in our country in which violence and vulgarity have become a way of life, particularly as it impacts our young people, perhaps it is related to the kinds of energy signals that we access in our homes. If the average child has seen over twelve thousand murders on commercial and cable television by the time he has reached his fourteenth birthday, maybe, just maybe, this is a collective influence on the high incidence of violence and mass school killings.
from: There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem,
by Wayne W. Dyer, pub. HarperCollins, © 2001
Our society has forgotten to teach love.
In the words of John Gatto, New York City Teacher of the Year:
~ Think of the things that are killing us as a nation: drugs, brainless competition, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling, alcohol, and the worst pornography of all - lives devoted to buying things, accumulation as a religion.
from: The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace,
by Jack Kornfield, pub. Bantam Books, © 2002
some divine wisdom
There appears to be a striving for what is considered an ultimate these days, such as the ultimate machine; ultimate health, the ultimate physical body; ultimate mind, or ultimate consciousness perfection. In fact, the conception of what an ultimate is, is confusing achievement in any category with perfection. But none of this is accurate in Truth.
The ultimate car, or house, or physical vehicle, is not a completion. An ultimate is not the Absolute, but a diversion from it. Trying to grasp a whole by a mere section of the myriad parts that constitute a complete circle, is like concentrating only on one spoke of the wheel, rather than focusing on the necessity for the strength of all the extensions that furnish the balance needed - and here is a proper use of "ultimate" - for the ultimate function for which the manifestation of the idea was originally created.
This is rather an obscure way to try to illustrate how easy it is to become diverted from the Absolute, the Reality of Truth, or All. Just as the many spokes of a wheel are needed to turn it effectively, so there are many pathways that converge upon one center in order to proceed or progress along the evolutionary pathway. To follow the pursuit of what is perceived as an "ultimate" goal of any sort, is merely a spoke in the wheel, and, although a useful and necessary support, it is only functional and useful when combined with the remainder expanders which sustain the inward rim so that movement may be created. Whether that movement is forward or backward, however, depends upon the one who creates the wheel, and beyond that one, the Master-Teacher, the Source from which it originated.
I think this is about as far as this can be taken without becoming mired in obscurity. Simply stated: all ideas and ultimates originate from the One Source of All-consciousness, without which there can be no evolutionary forward progress.
from "Divine Wisdom from John", 1993
John
Asacredcenter@aol.com
from the Dalai Lama
If humanity is to survive, happiness and inner balance are crucial.
Otherwise the lives of our children and their children are more likely
to be unhappy, desperate and short. Material development certainly
contributes to happiness - to some extent - and a comfortable way of
life. But this is not sufficient. To achieve a deeper level of
happiness we cannot neglect our inner development.
the power of thought
....although the wrong use of the mind has been a major contributor to world problems, fortunately there has been enough positive thinking in the world to balance it out and prevent us from totally destroying ourselves. There are a number of ways that we can all contribute to a positive mental energy field:
· Every time we hold a positive, hopeful image of a national leader or a major world event, we help make it easier for that person or event to express the highest good.
· Every time we insist on seeing a problem from a broader perspective, noting how it is interconnected with many other factors and understanding its deeper causes, we make a positive contribution toward finding a lasting solution.
· Every time we refuse to become entrenched in a polarizing position on a controversial issue, and clearly and objectively affirm the positive in each perspective to create a higher synthesis, we help to bring greater healing and unity into our world.
· Every time we refuse to separate questions of ethics or universal spiritual values from public life, we are helping to restore a sense of wholeness and spiritual strength to our national life.
From: Spiritual Politics, changing the world from the inside out,
by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, pub. by Ballantine Books, NY, © 1994
song of the sky loom
O our Mother the Earth, O our Father the Sky,
Your children are we, and with tired backs,
We bring you gifts.May the warp be the white light of morning,
May the weft be the red light of evening,
May the fringes be the falling rain,
May the border be the standing rainbow.
Thus weave for us a garment of brightness.Anonymous, Tewa, North American Native
black turkey gobbler chant
The black turkey gobbler, the tips of his beautiful
......tail; above us the dawn becomes yellow.
The sunbeams stream forward.Anonymous, Apache, North American Native
invitation song
Screaming the night away
With his great wing feathers
Swooping the darkness up;
I hear the Eagle bird
Pulling the blanket back
Off from the eastern sky.Anonymous, Iroquois, North American Native
war chant
Behold the man of flint, that's me!
Four lightnings zigzag from me, strike and return.The ancient folk with evil spirits, dashed to earth,
plowed under!Anonymous, Navaho, North American Native
night chant
House made of dawn,
House made of evening light,
House made of the dark cloud. . . .
Dark cloud is at the house's door,
The trail out of it is a dark cloud,
The zigzag lightning stands high upon it.Happily may I walk.
May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.Anonymous, Navaho, North American Native
.......Translated by Washington MatthewsAll from .Familiar Quotations, by John Barlett, 16th ed
kindnessThe ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty and Truth....
The trite subjects of human efforts - possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible.Albert Einstein
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man [or woman] can sincerely try to help another without helping himself [or herself].
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The quality of mercy is not strained;
it dropeth as the gentle rain from heaven;
upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed;
it blesseth him that giveth and him that takes.William Shakespeare
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
The Dalai Lama
Random acts of kindness are those little sweet or grand lovely things we do for no reason except that, momentarily, the best of our humanity has sprung, exquisitely, into full bloom.
Daphne Rose Kingma
All from Random Acts of Kindness, Conari Press, © 1993
real time
I'm fallin' through space........ to find a place.........
To put myself together....... face the weather.........
With crazy glue and memories...... of DNA.........
I'll try to find a way...... to stand up to the solar wind.
The pieces of my puzzle...... that are lost.........
Were in the news today..... but then the picture changed.........
I'm wired to a current event...... heaven sent me to be mine.........
If I can only find...... a tick or two of real time.Lookin' for real time to be in...... Don't they have real time anymore?.........
I asked the watchman..... but all the clocks were out on strike and.........
The digital replacements were all....... hesitatin'.........
Can't find any real time....... Lookin' for a place to put my face.........
Want to be in real time..........I'm expiration dated ....... My half life's on the shelf.........
Feelin' discontinued...... l'm beside...... myself.........
Fillin' in the spaces........ of my bingo card.........
Lookin' for some real time......... to be in.Lookin' for real time to be in....... Don't they have real time anymore?.........
Went to the time-bank..... all they had was daylight savings.........
Am I the only one who's...... got these cravin's?.........
Want to be in real time..... Lookin' for a zone to call my home.........
Gotta find some real time.........
Can't find any real time.........
Wanta be in real time...........song by ted knerr, ©1985
more quotes ...... 2000...... 2001...... 2002...... 2003...... 2004...... 2005...... 2006...... 2007
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