Relationship With Thought

That state of consciousness that is not caught in the compulsive state of mind, compulsive thinking, that state of consciousness which is outside of compulsive thinking, that is the state of awakening. That is the state of enlightenment. That’s why they call it pure consciousness. It’s just pure. It’s  just pure perception. Pure awareness. No compulsive labeling. To most human beings we have to label everything. Everything is good or bad or beautiful or ugly or everyone is right or wrong or safe or not safe.

Everything in the dream state of consciousness is compulsively labeled. We know what should and shouldn’t be happening. We know what should and shouldn’t have happen. It’s all the sort of compulsive nature of thinking. And the simplest way to talk about awakening is one wakes up from that. And as soon as we wake up from that, what we realize, not intellectually realize, our whole being realizes….there’s no truth in it. There’s no truth in that compulsive nature of thought.

There’s no truth in ones thoughts about themselves, or others, or the world, or anything else. It doesn’t mean you can’t think. You can still think. It doesn’t mean a thought never comes through your brain. Thoughts can still come through your brain, but it means that your sense of reality of what is true is no longer derived from the compulsive movement of thought. And then there is pure perception, pure consciousness. There is no interpretation. This is what unconditioned is.

Unconditioned in a practical way, in a way that relates on a human level just means not translating, not judging, not getting caught in the minds matrix, because the mind is always translating experience, and so the pure state of consciousness is when we’re perceiving from outside of that whole movement. Whether that movement is happening or not doesn’t much matter. 

~by Adyashanti

Squelch the Little Label Maker In Your Mind

It’s amazing to uncover that you can spend an entire lifetime and never know yourself at all, but rather only know a perception of yourself. A projected self image (ego) which virtually has nothing to do with who and what you are. Likewise people pass in and out of our lives every day. We talk to them, we eat lunch with them, we go to work with them and most of what we know and think about them are merely thoughts and perceptions.

"They are like that", "she is this way," "He’s a republican," "She’s a liberal." Label after label, we cast them upon those around us and remain blind to the very people before our eyes. In turn, almost everyone else is also walking around with perceptions of themselves and with perceptions about you and I, that are nothing more than fiction.

It’s like we’re all in virtual bumper cars bouncing off each other without ever truly making contact. The endless stream of labels and perceptions we cast upon each other, perpetually keeps us immersed in a world of delusion in regards to our relationship with the universe around us and to the common bond we all share.

The next time you find yourself at odds with somebody, try and squelch the little label maker in your mind and just see the person as they are. In silence we can uncover: that the differences just don't exist. They were never really there to begin with.

Our thoughts and perceptions are made of nothing. They have no substance at all other than the life we breathe into them. If you look long enough at those around you and let the labels fall away back into the nothingness from which they came, eventually you may find yourself here in this moment, looking straight back upon yourself through their eyes.

As we learn to listen and watch without labeling one another, our common thread shines through and through.

~Written by Russell Satori

It Was How I Was Processing the Situation

I finally learned that when I react to a situation, which normally happens immediately after the situation has occurred, that I regret it and feel worse afterwards. I found that removing myself from that situation and the thoughts of it that I see it more objectively instead of getting caught up in the emotion and energy of it.

Like Dr. Wayne Dyer said once from his own experience with someone who was angry with him for no apparent reason. Dyer said, "It was how I was processing the situation, and I had to come to the realization that this person was on his own path, that we are all on our own paths, and sometimes we cross paths with each other."

Release Our Expectations of Others

I have got caught up in that mindset many times in the past. It took me awhile to realize that. When we release our expectations of others, we free ourselves in the process and come to a place of peace.

~Written by Pamela J. Wells

Step Closer to Your Essence by Giving Gratitude Rather Than Taking for Granted.

By Walking Buffalo & Wayne Dyer

“Lots of people hardly ever feel real soil under their feet, see plants grow except in flower pots, or get far enough beyond the street light to catch the enchantment of a night sky studded with stars. When people live far from scenes of the Great Spirit’s making, it’s easy for them to forget his laws.”

These are the words of Walking Buffalo, a chief of the Nakoda First Nation of Alberta, Canada, who in 1958 traveled the world on a mission of peace and understanding. He reminds us that harmony with the natural world connects us to Spirit—and the essence of who we really are. To have peace and understanding among ourselves and within our world, we need to be in touch with our common Source.

It’s all too easy to forget our connection to the natural world when we live surrounded by technology and the artificial constructions of our amazing modern life. Nature has a way of reminding us, however, when we have overstepped our bounds. The Native wisdom of Walking Buffalo asks us not to forget the sacredness of life and to pay attention to the natural laws at work around us. The air, water, trees, minerals, clouds, animals, birds, and insects are all essential to the sacred web of life which we too often take for granted.

Step closer to your essence by giving gratitude rather than taking for granted. Take a break from the city walls and spend time appreciating those “scenes of the Great Spirit’s making.”  Notice and appreciate your surroundings. Bless the gifts of sun, rain, ocean, lake, river, mountain, desert, and forest. Listen to the sounds of nature and walk barefoot on the earth to reconnect yourself to all that supports and sustains life. Promote ecological awareness in your life and live by example. Let a child see you care for the earth and pay forward the gifts of the Great Spirit that we were lucky enough to inherit.

Namaste

Image Source: butterfly-garden by blah blah photos on Foter.com

The Indispensable Qualities of Awakening

Without sincerity it is so very easy for even the greatest spiritual teachings to become little more than playthings of the mind. In our fast-moving world of quick fixes, big promises, and short attention spans, it is easy to remain on a very surface level of consciousness without even knowing it. While the awakened state is ever present and closer than your feet, hands, or eyes, it cannot be approached in a casual or insincere fashion.

Sincerity is a word that I often use in teaching to convey the importance of being rooted in the qualities of honesty, authenticity, and genuineness. There can be nothing phony or contrived in our motivations if we are to fully awaken to our natural and integral state of unified awareness. While teachings and teachers can point us inward to “the peace beyond all understanding,” it is always along the thread of our inner sincerity, or lack thereof, that we will travel.

For the ego is clever and artful in the ways of deception, and only the honesty and genuineness of our ineffable being are beyond its influence. At each step and with each breath we are given the option of acting and responding, both inwardly and outwardly, from the conditioning of egoic consciousness which values control and separation above all else, or from the intuitive awareness of unity which resides in the inner silence of our being.

There is a reason that seekers the world over are instructed to remove their shoes and quiet their voices before entering into sacred spaces. The message being conveyed is that one’s ego must be “taken off and quieted” before access to the divine is granted. All of our ego’s attempts to control, demand, and plead with reality have no influence on it other than to make life more conflicted and difficult. But an open mind and sincere heart have the power to grant us access to realizing what has always been present all along.

In essence the entire spiritual endeavor is a very simple thing: Spirituality is essentially about awakening as the intuitive awareness of unity and dissolving our attachment to egoic consciousness. By saying that spirituality is a very simple thing, I do not mean to imply that it is either an easy or difficult endeavor. For some it may be very easy, while for others it may be more difficult. There are many factors and influences that play a role in one’s awakening to the greater reality, but the greatest factors by far are one’s sincerity, one-pointedness, and courage.

When people asked the great Indian sage Nisargadatta what he thought was the most important quality to have in order to awaken, he would say “earnestness.” When you are earnest, you are both sincere and one-pointed; to be one-pointed means to keep your attention on one thing.

I have found that the most challenging thing for most spiritual seekers to do is to stay focused on one thing for very long. The mind jumps around with its concerns and questions from moment to moment. Rarely does it stay with one question long enough to penetrate it deeply. In spirituality it is very important not to let the egoic mind keep jumping from one concern to the next like an untrained dog. Remember, awakening is about realizing your true nature and dissolving all attachment to egoic consciousness.

My grandmother who passed away a few years ago used to say to me jokingly, “Getting old is not for wimps.” She was well aware of the challenges of an aging body, and while she never complained or felt any pity for herself, she knew firsthand that aging had its challenges as well as its benefits. There was a courage within my grandmother that served her well as she approached the end of her life, and I am happy to say that when she passed, it was willingly and without fear. In a similar way the process of coming into a full and mature awakening requires courage, as not only our view of life but life itself transforms to align itself with the inner mystic vision. A sincere heart is a robust and courageous heart willing to let go in the face of the great unknown expanse of Being—an expanse which the egoic mind has no way of knowing or understanding.

When one’s awareness opens beyond the dream state of egoic consciousness to the infinite no-thing-ness of intuitive awareness, it is common for the ego to feel much fear and terror as this transition begins. While there is nothing to fear about our natural state of infinite Being, such a state is beyond the ego’s ability to understand, and as always, egos fear whatever they do not understand and cannot control. As soon as our identity leaves the ego realm and assumes its rightful place as the infinite no-thing-ness/every-thing-ness of awareness, all fear vanishes in the same manner as when we awaken from a bad dream. In the same manner in which my grandmother said, “Getting old is not for wimps,” it can also be said that making the transition from the dream state to the mature, awakened state requires courage.

Sincerity, one-pointedness, and courage are indispensable qualities in awakening from the dream state of ego to the peace and ease of awakened Being. All there is left to do is to live it. 

~Adyashanti

Are You Ready to Lose Your World?

There is a very famous poem written by the third patriarch of Zen, Seng-ts’an, called the Hsin-Hsin Ming, which translates as Verses in Faith Mind. In this poem Seng-ts’an writes these lines: “Do not seek the truth; only cease to cherish opinions.” This is a reversal of the way most people go about trying to realize absolute truth. Most people seek truth, but Seng-ts’an is saying not to seek truth. This sounds very strange indeed. How will you find truth if you don’t seek it? How will you find happiness if you do not seek it? How will you find God if you do not seek God? Everyone seems to be seeking something. In spirituality seeking is highly honored and respected, and here comes Seng-ts’an saying not to seek.

The reason Seng-ts’an is saying not to seek is because truth, or reality, is not something objective. Truth is not something “out there.” It is not something you will find as an object of perception or as a temporal experience. Reality is neither inside of you nor outside of you. Both “outside” and “inside” are not getting to the point. They both miss the mark because outside and inside are conceptual constructs with no inherent reality. They are simply abstract points of reference. Even words like “you,” or “me,” or “I,” are nothing more than conceptual points of reference existing only in the mind. Such concepts may have a practical value in daily life, but when assumed to be true they distort perception and create a virtual reality, or what in the East is called the world of samsara.

Seng-ts’an was a wily old Zen master. He viewed things through the eye of enlightenment and was intimately aware of how the conditioned mind fools itself into false pursuits and blind alleys. He knew that seeking truth, or reality, is as silly as a dog thinking that it must chase its tail in order to attain its tail. The dog already has full possession of its tail from the very beginning. Besides, once the dog grasps his tail, he will have to let go of it in order to function. So even if you were to find the truth through grasping, you will have to let it go at some point in order to function. But even so, any truth that is attained through grasping is not the real truth because such a truth would be an object and therefore not real to begin with. In order to seek, you must first have an idea, ideal, or an image, what it is you are seeking.

That idea may not even be very conscious or clear but it must be there in order for you to seek. Being an idea it cannot be real. That’s why Seng-ts’an says “only cease to cherish opinions.” By opinions he means ideas, ideals, beliefs, and images, as well as personal opinions. This sounds easy but it is rarely as easy as it seems. Seng-ts’an is not saying you should never have a thought in your head, he is saying not to cherish the thoughts in your head. To cherish implies an emotional attachment and holding on to. When you cherish something, you place value on it because you think that it is real or because it defines who you think you are. This cherishing of thoughts and opinions is what the false self thrives on. It is what the false self is made of. When you realize that none of your ideas about truth are real, it is quite a shock to your system. It is an unexpected blow to the seeker and the seeking.

The task of any useful spiritual practice is therefore to dismantle cherishing the thoughts, opinions, and ideas that make up the false self, the self that is seeking. This is the true task of both meditation and inquiry. Through meditation we can come to see that the only thing that makes us suffer is our own mind. Sitting quietly reveals the mind to be nothing but conditioned thinking spontaneously arising within awareness. Through cherishing this thinking, through taking it to be real and relevant, we create internal images of self and others and the world. Then we live in these images as if they were real. To be caught within these images is to live in an illusory virtual reality.

Through observing the illusory nature of thought without resisting it, we can begin to question and inquire into the underlying belief structures that support it. These belief structures are what form our emotional attachments to the false self and the world our minds create.

This is why I sometimes ask people, “Are you ready to lose your world?” Because true awakening will not fit into the world as you imagine it or the self you imagine yourself to be. Reality is not something that you integrate into your personal view of things. Reality is life without your distorting stories, ideas, and beliefs. It is perfect unity free of all reference points, with nowhere to stand and nothing to grab hold of. It has never been spoken, never been written, never been imagined. It is not hidden, but in plain view. Cease to cherish opinions and it stands before your very eyes.

~Adyashanti

I Am That Emptiness Looking and Perceiving Only Itself. ~Satsang with Mooji

Mooji reads a written comment from a guest: Through the eyes of all of the creatures, I see the same emptiness. It is emptiness looking at me. I am that emptiness looking and perceiving only itself.

Mooji: This is complete. What is there that you can say? What conversation would emptiness have with emptiness?

Mooji continues reading comment: What a miraculous game. What overwhelming seeing. What peace to have finally found that to be reality.

Mooji: And then in the last part you say, “How to get firm in this?” So, the first part is the testimony arising out of the self itself. And in the last part, the mind comes in and says, “How to get firm in this?” Only when you touch this, then doubt come. So many things we accommodated, so many concepts, so many ideas. You never checked it out. How simple we absorb so many impressions.

Some ideas that you have were your friends ideas and you just took them. Ideas were passed on to you. Your grandmother, mother, father, cousins, school, society, newspaper, television, put in everything. And you are just like the conceptual dustbin. And then you imagine these are my opinions. Just you remember that, “I cannot be that. I am the one to witness this. How much has it cost me in the past to say that I am that?”

~Satsang with Mooji

Compassion & Good Deeds Unites Humanity, Creating a Better World for ALL

By Pamela J. Wells

Published on 01/27/11

In order to have compassion for others, we have to release ego’s hold on us, to actively and unconditionally contribute good deeds to others, which ultimately causes a chain reaction of compassion and good deeds throughout the world that transcends boundaries, geographically and culturally, regardless of one’s beliefs--uniting the world, uniting people, to consciously participate in creating a better world.

Without a healthy planet there would be no people. Without a compassionate and loving society there is no unity, but only suffering and separation, that ultimately destroys humanity. To be more compassionate towards others we have to step back and take a look at ourselves and what is holding us back from fully embracing one another. At the end of the day we have to ask ourselves a question, “How do I feel?”

Most of the time, when we feel unsettled, angry, jealous, or bitter, we are focused on our "Self," what we think we deserve, what we should be getting, and what others are not giving us. If we forget about our Self and only think of others, having compassion for others, finding ways to help and being kind to others, then we will feel good inside, feel love and joy, radiating outward from within.

When you are grasping, you are not getting. 

When you are giving, unconditionally,
you are also receiving love in return.

Being selfless frees everyone including our self.

Copyright © 2012 Pamela J. Wells. All Rights Reserved

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

What Is Life?

It is the flash 

of a firefly 

in the night. 

It is the breath 

of a buffalo 

in the wintertime. 

It is the 

little shadow 

which runs 

across the 

grass and 

loses itself 

in the sunset.

~Written by Crowfoot-Blackfoot Warrior and Orator, 1890

SHE…..

CELEBRATE HER PASSION...
She loved life and it loved her right back.

CELEBRATE HER WISDOM...
She listened to her heart above all the other voices.

CELEBRATE HER PRIORITIES...
She pursued big dreams instead of small realities.

CELEBRATE HER RESILIENCY...
She saw every ending as a new beginning.

CELEBRATE HER SELF-ESTEEM...
She discovered her real measurements had nothing to do with numbers or statistics.

CELEBRATE HER TENDERNESS...
She was kind, loving and patient with herself.

CELEBRATE HER ACCOUNTABILITY...
She woke up one day and threw away all her excuses.

CELEBRATE HER SPIRIT...
She realized that she was missing a great deal by being sensible.

CELEBRATE HER GOALS...
She turned her cant's into cans, and her dreams into plans.

CELEBRATE HER INDEPENDENCE...
She ignored people who said it couldn't be done.

CELEBRATE HER MAGIC...
She had a way of turning obstacles into opportunities.

CELEBRATE HER FAITH...
She went out on a limb, had it break off behind her, and discovered she could fly.

CELEBRATE HER SELF-RELIANCE...
She discovered that she was the one she'd been waiting for.

CELEBRATE HER PRESENCE...
She added so much beauty to being human.

CELEBRATE HER FRIENDSHIP...
She walked in when everyone else walked out.

CELEBRATE HER RADIANCE...
She just had this way of brightening the day.

CELEBRATE HER WARMTH...
She made the whole world feel like home.

CELEBRATE HER CHOICES...
She decided to enjoy more and endure less.

CELEBRATE HER FREEDOM...
She decided to start living the life she'd imagined.

CELEBRATE HER OPTIMISM...
She colored her thoughts with only the brightest hues.

CELEBRATE HER BRILLIANCE...
She was an artist and her life was her canvas.

CELEBRATE HER BRAVERY...
She ran ahead where there were no paths.

CELEBRATE HER JOIE DE VIVRE...
She crossed borders, recklessly, refusing to recognize limits, saying bonjour and buon giorno as though she owned both France and Italy and the day itself.

CELEBRATE HER STRENGTH...
She held her head high and looked the world straight in the eye.

CELEBRATE HER COMPASSION...
She not only saw a light at the end of the tunnel, she became that light for others.

CELEBRATE HER JOY...
She designed a life she loved.

CELEBRATE HER DARING...
She took the leap and built her wings on the way down.

CELEBRATE HER HAPPINESS...
She said bye-bye to unhealthy relationships.

CELEBRATE HER AUTHENTICITY...
She remained true to herself.

CELEBRATE HER...
She made the world a better place.

~Poem by Kobi Yamada

~Painting by Freydoon Rassouli

That Deep Stillness Is There In You

When you look at a flower, an amazing thing happens. You notice that it is very still. Anything in nature; you suddenly notice that there is an essence beyond that which you see. It lives in a state of deep stillness. And when you notice that, at that moment, that deep stillness is there in you, when you notice it in the flower.

The flower lives in that state. The noticing of it is that arising in you of that state of stillness, and that is the state of great sacredness and aliveness and beauty, but deeper than the beauty of form. It is the formless that arises in you. The formless consciousness.

~Written by Eckhart Tolle

Silence and Stillness

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.


You are that awareness, disguised as a person.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.

The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness. Whenever there is some silence around you — listen to it. That means just notice it. Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness within yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence. See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you, you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking. When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness. When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become still yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level. You feel a oneness with whatever you perceive in and through stillness. Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.

Silence is helpful, but you don’t need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself. You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.

Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence. How? By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness. Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace.

Pay attention to the gap — the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and out-breath. When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of “something” becomes — just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.

True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.

Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself — the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are? The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it. It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms. Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.

When you look at a tree or a human being in stillness, who is looking? Something deeper than the person. Consciousness is looking at its creation.

Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time?

But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.

~Written by Eckhart Tolle

Replacing Turmoil with Peace

I am often asked, “How do I know whether it is my ego or my higher spirit beckoning me at any given moment in life?” At any given moment, you are choosing between two pictures or evaluations of yourself. Your choices include the one offered by your soul, or higher self, which I think of as the voice of God, and the one offered by the ego, or your false idea of yourself.

The answer to the question above is, “If it brings you a sense of peace, then it is your higher self at work.”

Your higher self is always nudging you toward a resolution of the conflicts that you experience in your life, so that you will have room for serenity and harmony. If you are living with inner turmoil, continually quarreling with yourself and feeling anxious and fearful, then you are allowing ego to dominate your life.

In every moment, you have the option to choose peace for yourself. Your false self thrives on inner anxiety because that is what it thinks it needs to stay alive. Ego promotes thoughts like these: I cannot be happy or content; I must be a bad person; If I am feeling peaceful then I will simply vegetate; I must constantly look at how others are living and performing in order to assess my value.

The ego wants you in a constant state of turmoil. It convinces you that if you are not always on edge, you can’t grow. Keep in mind, though, that experiencing this inner turmoil is a choice you’ve made to allow your false self to dominate your life. When you make the choice for peace, you are literally allowing the Divine into your life. And rather than vegetate, you will discover that you can be busy, purposeful, blissful and still have peace.

Replacing the turmoil you feel with peace is then a simple matter of allowing your higher self to take over in any situation where you are about to allow turmoil to enter. Your ego will push you in the direction of the fight. You must be ready to see it as it is about to happen and invite your higher self to send your ego a not-wanted-right-now message. Know within that you always have the choice.

When you opt for turmoil and anxiety, you allow your ego to take over. You can instead be a home for peace.

~Written by Dr. Wayne Dyer

A Gift To Yourself & Others

Think, “Whenever I am trying to control another with my beliefs, opinions, views, self-righteousness; this is an egoic-state of consciousness.” 

Love, being kind to others, having compassion, selflessness, brings people together. Ego, of the mind, separates, creates bitterness, anger, hatred, resentment, defensiveness, and ultimately separates oneself from others. 

Stillness of the mind, silence, and awareness allows you to return to your natural state of being; allowing peace to be uncontaminated by the mind is a gift to yourself and others.

~Written by Pamela J. Wells

Silence is All-Knowing

You are the silent, formless awareness that is aware of the mind; its random babbling's, and its irrelevant thinking. That thinking is irrelevant because Silence is All-Knowing, which explains perfectly why people experience sudden epiphanies and intuition in moments of inner quietude. Epiphanies happen in the Silence of the mind, not because of the mind, but the mind likes to mistakenly take credit for those brilliant ideas that come out of seemingly nowhere. The mind thinks it "knows", but only Silence actually does.

“The Truths of Life” by Jarett Sabirsh

Lines Written In Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made,
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

~Written by William Wordsworth

True Nature Is Effortless

True nature is always there with or without you. You allow that space, uncontaminated by perceptions and reactions to be felt by those around you, which allows them the opportunity to experience their being, their space, their peace. You are in that space, being, without expectations of yourself and others, whether or not those around you allow themselves to release the ego and join you in a state of being, you are always in a state of being, a state of peace; not aroused by externalities of phenomena or internalities of the mind and its endless chatter, undisturbed by perceptions; conflict, whether inside or out. True nature is always there with or without you. True nature is effortless.

~Written by Pamela J. Wells

The Ten Indian Commandments

1. Remain Close to the Great Spirit.
2. Show Great Respect For Your Fellow Beings.
3. Give Assistance and Kindness Wherever Needed.
4. Be Truthful and Honest at All Times.
5. Do What You Know To Be Right.
6. Look After the Wellbeing of Mind and Body.
7. Treat the Earth and All That Dwell Thereon With Respect.
8. Take Full Responsibility for Your Actions.
9. Dedicate a Share of Your Efforts for the Greater Good.
10. Work Together for the Benefit of All Mankind.

Listen With Your Heart

Connecting from the heart center, and the common language we have is LOVE. All life forms respond to LOVE. That's the way it is. ~by Oribel

                            

A Phenomenon On The Screen of Consciousness ~Mooji

"You Want to Be Tired? Live in Your Mind. You will be very tired."

~by Mooji

You Have The Power

Each Day

You are Living Your Life

Up to Its Full Potential.

Everything That You

have Ever Dreamed of

Is Just Ahead

and Is Possible

When You

Take Action

Every Day

Towards

Fulfilling Your Dream.

You Have

What It Takes

Inside of You.

You Always Did.

You Just

Didn’t Know It

Until Now.

BELIEVE

LOVE YOURSELF,

&

KNOW that

YOU

HAVE The POWER

To ACCOMPLISH

YOUR DREAMS.

It Is UP TO YOU.

~written by Pamela J. Wells

Peace is Every Step

In Out , Flower Fresh , Mountain Solid , Space Free.

Dear friends, I would like to invite you to practice breathing with me. I have a new gatha for the practice of breathing, so let us learn together. Let us learn together, an exercise on breathing.

“Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.”

When we breathe in, we just focus our attention on our in breath, and nothing else. And when we breathe out, we just focus our attention on our out breath, and nothing else.

And then, after that, we may like to try this:

"Breathing in, I see myself as a flower. Breathing out, I feel fresh."

And we can use the word "flower" as we breathe in, and we can use the word "Fresh" as we breathe out.

If you look at children, they look very much like flowers. And all of us were born as flowers, but because we have not taken care of ourselves well, that is why sometimes our flower is tired, we wither a little bit. And breathing in like that is to refresh our flower, to make it beautiful again.

So, "Breathing in, I see myself as a flower. Breathing out, I feel fresh."

I see the human body as a flower too. Our eyes, they look like rose petals. Our lips can be a very beautiful flower. Our hands, beautiful flowers.

“Breathing in I see myself as a flower. Breathing out,
I feel fresh.”

And then we might like to switch to the third breath:

“Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain. A mountain,
breathing out, I feel solid."

If you practice Buddhist meditation, you like to sit in the lotus position, and that is a very beautiful position of the human body. And you feel very solid, like a mountain, especially when you practice breathing in that position.

A mountain is not swayed by the wind. And human beings, if they don't know how to sit, to breathe, they may be swayed back and forth by their emotions, strong emotions, like winds. And practicing this, we become more solid, like a mountain.

There are people who do not know how to handle their emotions, especially the big emotions. And when they are overwhelmed by these emotions they don't know what to do, and sometimes they have to commit suicide. They do not know that you are more than your emotions. So when there is a strong emotion, you just breathe, in and out, and become a mountain. And be aware that we are more, much more than one emotion. And we will overcome that emotion.

"Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain. Breathing out, I feel solid."

And then the next one is water:

"Breathing in, I see myself as still waters..."

Let us imagine a pond on the highland, very still. The water is so limpid and still that it reflects truthfully the color of the sky, and also the shapes of the mountains. And if you look into the water, you see your face, not distorted.

When we are still like that, we will reflect reality as it is. We will have right perceptions. If you are agitated, and then we cannot reflect things as they are.

Therefore, "Breathing in, I make myself still like a pond on a mountain; and, breathing out, I reflect things as they are." So we use the words "water", "reflecting".

Many times, when we listen to other people, we don't really listen. We listen to our prejudices, we listen to our emotion, and therefore we miss the point that the people want to make. It is because we are not still enough, clear enough. That is why we have a wrong perception concerning what is going on. So this exercise is quite important.

And the last one is "space" and "free". Space inside me and space around me, because we do need space in order to be happy.

A flower does need space in order to be happy. If you want to arrange flowers, you know that each flower needs space around her. So if you arrange flowers well, you don't need a lot of flowers. Maybe you need 1, or 2, or 3, and you give each flower a lot of space. And we human beings, we are like that too, we need space in order to be happy. And not only space outside, but space inside.

If we are so full of emotions, so full of anger and hatred, and fear, and then we don't have enough space within us, we cannot be happy. Therefore the practice is to let go in order to have space inside and around. And if we love each other we should give each other enough space inside and also outside, so that the person, these people, will flower.

"Breathing in, I see myself as space. Breathing out, I feel free." Freedom is the base of happiness.

So these exercises you might practice like this:

In - Out
Flower - Fresh
Mountain - Solid
Water - Reflecting
Space - Free

And then, if you want, you just practice one, like "flower, fresh", for 3 times; or, "mountain, solid", for three times. And we shall do that every time we hear the bell, we practice peace as a community, as a sangha. Let us try. And, enjoy your breathing.

(Bell)

I would like to say one more thing concerning the last exercise, "space", "freedom". I would like to tell you a story that I saw in the sutras. I think it is in the Samuta Nikaya. One day the Buddha was sitting with a number of monks, in the wood, near the city of Vajali. Suddenly one person came by. He looked very unhappy. He was a farmer.

He asked the Buddha whether he had seen his cows passing by. The Buddha asked, "What cows?" He said that he had twelve cows and they have all run away. "Monk, I am the most unhappy person on earth. I think I am going to die. I only have twelve cows and they have gone, all of them.”

“And, I also have two pieces of land where I cultivate sesame seed plants and they are all eaten up by insects. So I think I will die." The Buddha said he didn't see any cows and he suggested that the farmer go in the other direction in order to look for his cows.

And, after the farmer was gone, the Buddha turned to his monks and said this:

"Monks, you are very lucky, you don't have any cows."

So, if we have any cows, either inside and outside, let them go. Our happiness, our freedom, our peace depends very much on our capacity to release our cows.

(Bell)

I have said that every time we are overwhelmed by the emotions, we can hardly be ourselves. We are like a tree, when there are strong winds blowing. The top of the tree sways very much. And, we have the impression if we look at the top of the tree, that the tree is not very solid. It can be broken. But, if we go down, to the trunk of the tree, and if you are more aware of the roots of the trees, deep in the soil, you will have another feeling, the tree is much more solid.

So we are a kind of tree. Our emotions are on this level, but if we know how to bring our attention to this level, the level of our navel, and then this is the trunk of the tree. So every time you are possessed by one strong emotion, try to hold your attention here, a little bit below the navel, and breathe according to this gatha;

"In, out", "mountain, solid", and so on…. And, you will find that you are much more solid.

Pay attention to the movement of your abdomen. Help your abdomen to do the work of pumping the air, and after a few minutes you'll feel much better. So this method may save your life in the future. If you know how to practice it in your daily life, and when you face a danger, a big danger, you will know how to breathe in and out in order to regain your control, and your solidity.

Of course, when we practice like this there is something present in us. That something is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is the capacity to be there, in the present moment; solid, calmer, more lucid. And that is the fruit of the practice of mindfulness. You need only to practice breathing in and out like that in order for mindfulness to be present. And, mindfulness will bring you many good things; solidity, freshness, calmness, clear-sightedness, and freedom.

When you breathe in and out, and release things, you become a freer person. And, this practice should be done every day, by yourself, and by the people you love, and by the community. We practice as an individual and we practice as a community. This is the practice of peace.

Mindfulness has the capacity of transforming. It can transform a neutral feeling into a wonderful, pleasant feeling. When you look at the sky, the blue sky with mindfulness, the sky becomes more beautiful.

"Breathing in, I am aware of the blue sky. Breathing out, I feel so happy."

When you contemplate a beautiful sunset, and if you know how to breathe in and out with mindfulness, you enjoy the beautiful sunset much more than if you are possessed by the past or future, or by a feeling like anger or fear.

When you contemplate a flower in mindfulness, the flower will reveal herself to you deeply. When you eat a tangerine in mindfulness, the tangerine will reveal itself to you deeply. If you breathe in and out, and look deeply at the tangerine, you will see that the whole cosmos has come together in order to make the tangerine possible. Looking deeply at the tangerine, we can see the sunshine, the rain, the earth, and many more things. And looking at the tangerine like that, and seeing the tangerine like that, you will eat it in a very different way. Your encounter with the tangerine will be very deep.

When you look at the tangerine with your mindfulness, the tangerine will become a very wonderful thing. And you, the one who eats the tangerine, will become a wonderful person; awake, deep, solid. And the encounter between you and the tangerine will be a deep one. Life is present in that moment.

The same thing is true when you hold your baby. Your child is coming like a flower, smiling, sparkling eyes, and if you are not there, well, you sit there, but you are not really there, your mind is on something else, then you will not be available to your child. But if you know how to breathe in and out, and go back to the present moment, you receive the child deeply. At that moment you become available to him. You open your arms and you hug your child.

"Breathing in, my child is in my arms, breathing out, I feel happy." And, if you feel happy, the child will feel happy at the same time.

So, mindfulness, the present moment, will improve the situation, will transform the situation, will reveal to you the marvel, the wonders of life that are in you and around you.

Suppose you touch your eyes and breathe in:

"Breathing in, I am aware of my eyes. Breathing out, I smile to my eyes."

And then your eyes will reveal themselves to you as wonderful things. You know of course that your eyes are very important. You need only to open them in order to see the blue sky, the beautiful trees, your beloved ones.

And, you know that the people who cannot see things, they suffer. They say that if they can recover their eyesight they would be like in paradise. It means that all of us who have eyes, we are in paradise, but we are not aware of that.

So breathing in and out may bring us to paradise. We need only to open our eyes in order to see all kinds of forms and colors. And, we enter into the pure land, the land of bliss, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.

One time, in a church, I said something like this, "You don't have to die in order to enter the kingdom of God, in fact you have to be alive in order to do so."

The kingdom of God is available only in the present moment. So breathe in and out, smile, and you see that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of peace and happiness, is available to you. Just make one step and enter the kingdom of God with mindfulness.

And if we know how to get in touch with the refreshing, healing things in us, like our eyes, like the beautiful sunset, a little child, the beautiful rivers, the air we breathe; well, we will get nourished by these things, and peace is available in the present moment to some extent. And we have to profit from it.

So the first function of mindfulness is to help you to get in touch with the refreshing and healing elements in you and around you so that you may be nourished. And that is the practice of peace itself. Because if you are not healthy, you are not peaceful; you cannot do anything to help anyone, including your beloved ones.

I think a tree can look happy. When you look at a tree you can see if a tree is happy or not. A tree is happy when it is a real tree; solid, fresh. And we human beings, we are like that too. If we practice we become more fresh, more solid, truly a human being, and then we are happy. And before we do anything in order to help other people, we already help. I think that the best thing that a tree can do for us is to be a tree, to be a real tree, a healthy, happy tree. Because if a tree is less than a tree, then all of us will be in trouble.

The same thing is true with a human being. So, a human being should be a real, a true human being. And if a human being is less than a human being, then the whole cosmos will suffer, will be in trouble. And, that is why we need to be ourselves; refreshing, solid, peaceful.

(Bell)

When we are not happy, we try to escape ourselves. We try to think that our happiness is in the future, and that we should run to the future. But we know that running to the future means to deny the present moment. But life can only be found in the present moment.

If you do not want to miss your appointment with life, you have to go back to the present moment.

Everything you look for, peace, happiness, calm, Buddha, kingdom of God, they are all in the present moment.

If you are running to the future it means that you are not happy in the present moment. If someone takes refuge in drugs and alcohol, it means that she is not happy, he is not happy and peaceful. And if someone is taking refuge in action, even peace action, he is not peaceful and happy.

If someone is doing a lot of things to protect the environment, to protest the war, it may be that that someone is not happy, and they take refuge in the action in order to forget their unhappiness. But, if they do things like that, they do things in that situation, they will not help, because their happiness, their solidity should be the base for the action. So, action should be based on non-action. It means based on being. And, the quality of our being determines the quality of our action.

And therefore, let us not take refuge in action in order to escape being.

~by Thich Nhat Hanh

"Peace is Every Step; An Evening with Thich Nhat Hahn" Berkeley, California, April, 1991

You Are the Artist of Your Life

Well, one often feels victim to their linear life. They feel that perhaps things are being created that they follow rather than [following] what they create. They say that "I am at the receiving end of the energy", and we think that perhaps some... of them have been brought up to believe that structure, that they are at the receiving end of a higher power that is designing their life, and if it comes up a little bit difficult, well then, one must suffer through it.

We'd say that it is important for all of you to understand that you are the artists of your life. Your life is a canvas. It is created by you, the parameters are set up by you, and whatever you want to paint, you can paint.

There's not a free moment where it is designed and you are just following the numbers and coloring in what is going to occur. It is actually you drawing, deciding, contouring what it is you are going to paint. And then you spend a whole lifetime bringing in textures of color, mixtures of color that bring new nuances to the moment that you might not have ever considered before. Life isn't a paint-by-number. Life is an artistic creation by your soul, and you are the master artist in this regard.

~ by April Crawford

For One Whole Day

Try taking the focus off of yourself for one whole day. What you want, your expectations of others, what they can do for you, how you would be happier if they just changed. Everyone that you come into contact with for that one day, focus on listening to them. Find something great about them and compliment them on it. Even if you find it hard to find something positive about a particular person, find something positive about them anyway, it is there. Try this for one whole day. And when you lay your head down to go to sleep at night, focus on how you feel inside. Love Listens…

~by Pamela J. Wells

Beyond the Mind

The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the thinker. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter - beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace - arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.

~ by Eckhart Tolle

Whatever You Perceive Is Not You

Just look and remember, whatever you perceive is not you, nor yours. It is there in the field of consciousness, but you are not the field and its contents, nor even the knower of the field. Simply look at whatever happens and know you are beyond it.

~by Nisargadatta Maharaj

Silence Is All Knowing

by Jarett Sabirsh

The body is a collective community of individually living cells that are all co-operating together to make a larger whole. The brain's neural network, and its thoughts and thinking are just another part of that overall cellular functioning. So, if the mind and body are working all by themselves as a result of cells doing work, why do we identify the mind's thoughts and the body's actions as being "me"?

Are we the mind and body, or are we the Energy, Life, Consciousness, Awareness within the body that is aware of itself as existing? Are we the mind and body, or are we the awareness that is watching the body/mind's automatic functioning? Are we the doer and thinker, or are we the Silent Observer?

Out of being identified with the body/mind, we are being controlled by it. We are enslaved by it because we falsely identify it as being "me". This is a part of the evolution of consciousness that we all go through. The ultimate goal of life, and really the only one worth pursuing, is to set oneself free from this false identification that creates suffering.

Silence is All-Knowing.

You are the silent, formless Awareness that is aware of the mind, its random babblings, and its irrelevant thinking. That thinking is irrelevant because silence is all-knowing, which explains perfectly why people experience sudden epiphanies and intuition in moments of inner quietude.

Epiphanies happen in the Silence of the mind, not because of the mind, but the mind likes to mistakenly take credit for those brilliant ideas that come out of seemingly nowhere. The mind thinks it "knows", but only Silence actually does.

“The Truths of Life” by Jarett Sabirsh

Motivated by Love Vs. Fear

It’s very easy to be motivated by fear; what I don’t want to happen; what I want to correct. That’s not very powerful though. We've tried that for centuries and centuries. We come up with a new political system, a new spiritual system, a new philosophy. We can even come up with a new philosophy of oneness, whatever it is, if it’s motivated by fear then it is still in the old consciousness, but when it’s motivated by love, then it has power, then we’re not so interested in what I am against, we’re interested in what we’re for, that’s a very different thing. 

~ by Adyashanti

Let It All Fall Away

If you feel good about yourself it is easy to feel bad about yourself. When we wake up to our true nature it all falls away. Its not just the negative that falls away. There’s only one thing better than I’m bad or I’m good and that’s I am. Only something as insane as a human being would ever ask themselves if I am good.

You don’t find oak trees having existential crisis. I feel so rotten about myself. I don’t produce as many acorns as the one next to me. I’m not as beautiful. A branch broke off last year, or whatever. Could you imagine if the natural world around you did that? What a disaster! If you walked past a flower and didn’t acknowledge it; that you could just ruin its whole day, or if they could talk.

You go to one of those beautiful rose bushes. Just think of the disaster if you had to be worried about, if I smelled this rose…sniff…sniff, and I think, gosh that’s beautiful, but if I don’t smell the rose next to it I’m going to insult it. It would be insane!

You would think, my God the whole world went insane, when actually, no its fine. It’s us! We’re insane! We are the ones that do the very things we laugh at. That’s why we laugh about it, because when we are in our separateness, the illusion of separateness, then all of this is very important. This is what falls away. It begins to fall away when we start to realize the truth of our being. We’re not good or bad. We’re one! We’re all one!

~by Adyashanti

Seeds of Wisdom

Choices, Toil and Care

~ Written by Carrie Hart

Sometimes the rains fall from heaven and gently nourish your fields, even though you do little.  And sometimes the sky dries up, the plants begin to wither, and you wonder where the love and bounty have gone.  Look, look over here.  See this well going deep into the river of love, the endless river that never goes dry.  Pull up a bucket of this love and drink it.  Let the love flow through your body, nourishing you, filling you with peace and joy.

Look at your hands.  See that they are tools that you can use to clear away the weeds of old ways of thinking and being, the weeds of regret and blame, so that the new shoots can reach the sun.  See how strong your hands are, strong enough to remove the chains of fear and doubt that are shackled to your ankles, making your life a burden and keeping you from freely walking your fields in joy.

When the drought comes, it is necessary to roll up your sleeves, lower your bucket, pull up the water and walk your fields, pulling the weeds and pouring on the water.  You must toil hard in the field, deciding which plants are the most important to you and spending your time there.  For when you water by hand, you see that it is not always possible to nourish everything. And you must choose, choose to spend your time building an irrigation system or watering the soil with a bucket.  Choose how much to allocate to the tree that will bear fruit in the spring and how much to the vegetables that will flourish soon.  Choose whether to pour your love on a beautiful flower so that your heart may be filled with beauty as you work. 

Choose how much time you should spend working in someone else's field to provide for your household while waiting for your fields to mature. There are no right or wrong answers, simply choices, toil and care. But know this:  the fields are full of seeds that are awaiting your care.  And where you put your attention, is where life will spring up.  Where you pour the waters of your love and attention is where the sprouts will push up through the fertile soil of your life and reach the sun. 

Where you take the time to plant stakes and tie up the saplings to support them against the winds that blow, this is where you will find the strongest trees in years to come.  Where you take the time to prune the roses is where you will have the biggest blooms when the spring inevitably comes. Remove those chains of fear and doubt and begin to walk.  Dip into your well of love and attention and begin to pour.  Work on your irrigation system a little every day, even as you walk the fields to save what can be saved.  Plant new seeds of deep-rooted trees for the future and nourish these as well, even as you focus most of your efforts on the crop that will sustain you right now.

And while you do this, while you begin to transform your fields, toiling under the burning sun, feel the sweat pouring down your body and be glad.  This is what it feels like to be alive, fully alive.  This is a part of the path, a part of the vast and wondrous experience of being who you are.  This, rising to the challenge, using your wits and your sweat, feeling your muscles strain against the hoe and the plow, then lying in the open field at night, the freshly plowed earth warm under your back, the moon shining in beauty above you, this is life.

Yes, this is life.  This is the glory of and wonder of life, to spend the day removing stones from the field so that tomorrow's crop may flourish, to rise up to the challenges of life with courage and commitment, enjoying the strength of your soul and body as you overcome.  Yes, this is life, a great journey through all the seasons, through the droughts of summer and the storms of winter, as well as the fertile, gentle days of spring, when all that you have done begins to bear fruit.

For no matter what happens, the well of love is always full, if you will only lower your bucket down into it and use your strength to pull it up.  And the seeds are always there in the soil, if only you will water them with love and attention.  And if you have only the strength to bring forth one flower, then bring it forth and let it grace your life.  For this single flower is enough to light up your life and see you through until spring comes and the gentle showers from the heavens once more grace your life with bounty and beauty.

And know that when this spring arrives, you will look back on this time of toil, sweat and courage with pride.  You will remember how you let your power surge through you, how you filled your heart with courage and your mind with new ideas, how you used your wits and your faith to do what needed to be done, how you dug deep into your well of peace and patience, love and joy, to create bounty, how you poured your sweat and blood into the fertile earth.

Someday, you will look down at your callused hands and feel the joy surging through you.  Ah, yes, you will say, I knew then what it was to be fully alive.