Saturday 31 March 2012

“‘Q: What can each one of us do to help alleviate the suffering of the world?

‘That’s a good question. The first thing is that you be aware of it and recognize it unsentimentally… that you just be aware of what it’s really like. Then the next thing you do is that you don’t get bummed by it, because that makes you contribute to it.’

‘What you do is that you take care of the first thing at hand, which is right between your ears. Fix your head….’

Q: How do you fix your head?

‘You have to tell the truth all the time even in uncomfortable situations, even if there’s great social difficulty.’

‘What that does is that it keeps you from having [things] subconscious; and if you don’t have subconscious you should be smart enough to figure everything else out yourself. If you don’t have subconscious the clear light of God can shine through you. Your own subconscious is the filter that keeps that out.’

–Stephen Gaskin


“Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.”


–Bruce Lee


Tantra is the natural way to God

In a Tantra coitus you can remain for hours. It is a kind of melting with the woman or with the man, it is a kind of relaxation into each other's being. And it is meditative, because there is no ego, no thought stirs. And time stops. This is a glimpse of God. Tantra is the natural way to God, the normal way to "God" The object is to become so completely instinctual, so mindless, that we merge with ultimate nature -- that the woman disappears and becomes a door for the ultimate, the man disappears and becomes a door for the ultimate.
Buddha sitting under his Bodhi tree" is in a deep inner orgasm. The inner forces have met, they have melted into each other. Now there will be no need to seek a woman outside because the meeting has happened with the inner woman. And Buddha  is non-attached to, or detached from, woman outside, not because he is against woman, but because the ultimate phenomenon has happened within. Now there is no need. An inner circle has become whole, now it is complete. That is why such grace comes to Buddha's face. It is the grace of being complete. Now nothing is lacking, a deep fulfillment has happened, now there is no further journey. He has achieved the ultimate destiny. The inner forces have come to a meeting and now there is no "conflict". But it is a sexual phenomenon.
 
 



The way that your body feels is a direct reflection of your state of being. It is an indicator of where your attention is, in every moment. If your body is feeling tight or contracted it is telling you that your attention is with the activity of the mind.
Bring your attention back to this moment and feel what is happening in the body. If there is any tension or contraction there, you can let it go right now. There is no need to hold onto it. Release the knot in your stomach, unclench your hands, and let your shoulders drop.
As you release the tension in your body, you will notice that your attention naturally comes to rest at the eyes, and the opportunity opens for you to connect to your true nature. Here you will find that you come to a place of natural rest and relaxation.
You can use the feeling in the body as a guide to your level of peace and relaxation. This can be done in any moment or situation. It is particularly powerful if you are aware that you are stressed or anxious about an event. Shifting your attention to the body and letting go of any tension only takes a moment, and the benefits are immediate.
If you feel yourself tense up again you can be assured that your attention has again wandered into the mind and you can use this as a cue to bring your attention back into this moment. The more you relax your body, the more you will find yourself at rest.
Nothing is more important, ever!
The more you practice this, the more evident the movement of your attention will become to you. As you become attuned to where your attention is in each moment and you consciously align to this moment, you will find more peace and relaxation in your daily life.



Waiting for the sunshine



When we become lost in our lover,
what is happening is that our souls are merging.
This is an experience that is independent of the physical body.
It can be compared to two lights moving
closer and closer until they occupy the same space.



Meditation is Witnessing

Meditation starts by being separate from the mind, by being a witness. That is the only way of separating yourself from anything. If you are looking at the light, naturally one thing is certain: you are not the light, you are the one who is looking at it. If you are watching the flowers, one thing is certain: you are not the flower, you are the watcher.

Watching is the key of meditation.

Watch your mind.

Don't do anything - no repetition of mantra, no repetition of the name of god - just watch whatever the mind is doing. Don't disturb it, don't prevent it, don't repress it; don't do anything at all on your part. You just be a watcher, and the miracle of watching is meditation. As you watch, slowly mind becomes empty of thoughts; but you are not falling asleep, you are becoming more alert, more aware.

As the mind becomes completely empty, your whole energy becomes aflame of awakening. This flame is the result of meditation. So you can say meditation is another name of watching, witnessing, observing - without any judgement, without any evaluation. Just by watching, you immediately get out of the mind....

Whatever Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and other people like him are doing is good, but they are calling something meditation which is not. That's where they are leading people astray. If they had remained sincere and authentic and told people that this will give you mental health, physical health, a more relaxed life, a more peaceful existence, it would have been right. But once they started calling it 'transcendental meditation' they have raised a very trivial thing to an ultimate significance which it cannot fulfill. People have been in transcendental meditation for years, and in the East, for thousands of years. But that has not become their self-knowing, and that has not made them Gautam Buddhas.

If you want to understand exactly what meditation is, Gautam Buddha is the first man to come to its right, exact definition - that is witnessing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"When you are angry with someone and you throw your anger on him, you are creating a chain reaction. Now he too will be angry. This may continue for lives and you will go on being enemies. You can continue this for centuries without end. How can you end it? There is only one possibility. You can end it only in meditation, nowhere else, because in meditation you are not angry with someone: you are simply angry.

"Remember, this difference is basic. You are not angry with someone. You are simply angry and the anger is released into the cosmos. You are not hateful towards anyone. If hate comes, you are simply hateful and the hate is thrown out. In meditation, emotions are not addressed. They are unaddressed. They move into the cosmos, and the cosmos purifies everything.

"Remember, it is just like a dirty river falling into the ocean: the ocean will purify it. Whenever your anger, your hate, your sexuality, moves into the cosmos, into the ocean – it purifies it. If a dirty river falls into another river, then the other river also becomes dirty. When you are angry with someone, you are throwing your dirt at him. Then he will also throw his at you and this will become a mutual dirtying process.

"In meditation you are throwing yourself into the cosmos to be purified. All the energy that you throw, is purified in the cosmos. The cosmos is so vast and so great an ocean, you cannot make it dirty. In meditation we are not related with persons. In meditation we are related directly to the cosmos."
 
 
 
THE LAW OF HUMILITY

What you refuse to accept, will continue for you. If what we see is an enemy, or someone with a character trait that we find to be negative, then we ourselves are not focused on a higher level of existence...
All the buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be - don´t try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.
 
 
 
 
"Live as if you do not know how to live."




The truth is there's nothing to find.
Life and death are important.
Don't suffer them in vain.
There's no advantage in deceiving yourself.
Even if you have mountains of jewels
and as many servants as there are
grains of sand along the Ganges,
you see them when your eyes are open.
But what about when your eyes are shut?
You should realize that everything
you see is like a dream or illusion.

- Bodhidharma


Just because you can become frustrated, doesn’t mean you must. Just because there are reasons to be angry or envious, resentful or disillusioned, doesn’t mean you have to choose any of those negative states. Your choice of how to feel does not have to be dictated by the world around you. Instead, you can allow your feelings to come from the beauty that’s inside you. Don’t base your feelings on the problems. Base them on the positive possibilities. Envelop your awareness not in judgments about what has been, but in the goodness that can now come from your life. Time moves forward, so look forward, and feel the limitless future as it arrives. Feel the power and promise of all the possibilities that are now open to you. Inject your own unique goodness and passion into the best of those possibilities to create a beautiful, fulfilling reality. Your future is what you make it right now. Feel your purpose, feel your beauty, feel your passion for truth and goodness, and lift the future to express and fulfill the best you can imagine.




Friday 30 March 2012

Only when you are still inside do you have access to the realm of stillness that rocks, plants, and animals inhabit. Only when your noisy mind subsides can you connect with nature at a deep level and go beyond the sense of separation created by excessive thinking.
 
 
The contemplation of nature can free you of that "me," the great troublemaker.
 
 
 
 
Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore
 
 
 
 
Bring awareness to the many subtle sounds of nature - the rustling of leaves in the wind, raindrops falling, the humming of an insect, the first birdsong at dawn. Give yourself completely to the act of listening. Beyond the sounds there is something greater: a sacredness that cannot be understood through thought.
 
 
 
One who has wisely chosen the straight path of Self-inquiry, can never go astray; for like the bright, clear Sun, the Self-Awareness reveals itself to whomever turns towards it.



So much of what I hear these days is from those that have been on the path of healing and changing for such a long time. We are all a little weary of the constant challenges and circumstances that keep pulling us back into our old ways. Sometimes it is just habit, and other times it is a contract that we have not yet completed that is being played out over and over again until we are done doing it.
The circles of our kharmic connections radiate out and around us from the inner most sanctuary of our own heart. The same way the lesson was initiated by us, it is also completed by us when we have surrendered to the notion we are responsible for our own creations. Not always easy to take ownership of them though. That would be admitting we are the source of our own misery, and that takes courage and strength for us to acknowledge.

The idea that we are victims in any way, is simply an illusion that we have set into motion for us to learn from. If we are truthful and honest with ourselves, we will accept that through the life lessons and journey we are on, we have learned so much about life, love and living it fully.

If you ask yourself - 'how have I learned the most important and significant lessons in life?', - it has not been through the easy things that have happened. It tends to be through the powerfully painful, difficult and challenging experiences that we acquire our most significant growth. How truly brave and determined we must be to finish what we started.

As part of the collective blessing we are all creating, we have chosen to co-create together as many variations and variables, or 'unloving conditions' as we can imagine. Through this journey and process, we are now able to define very clearly what conditional love is. So now our attention and direction is set on co-creating ways and means of being as unconditionally loving as we possibly can.

It begins by loving ourselves - fully and completely knowing everything we have done - and everything we are - just as it is.

Donna Hamilton
 
 
 
 
TODAY'S LIFE LESSON: Encourages us to let go of the old illusions and perceptions that keep us living in limitation. This was once a required field of potential that we all entered into to see what life would be like without the freedom to ...do, or be, all that we can be.

As we all agreed to share this experience in as many ways as possible, we became very creative in manifesting the various ways of limiting ourselves and each other. The imagination knows no end as to how we can be limited or limiting towards ourselves and each other. It is an endless, mindless, heartless game that breaks the spirit down to virtually nothingness. Now that is the ultimate in limitation!

Once you wake up and realize you are simply being a volunteer for this project, and are now required to continue playing any longer it is a real revelation.

Donna Hamilton
 
 
 
 
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure, but scattered along the life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

To insure peace of mind ignore the rules and regulations
 
 
I love life because what more is there
 
 
 
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
 
 
Today is a choice. Choose to make it beautiful and productive. Today is filled with challenges, opportunities, frustrations, possibilities and much more. Choose to make good and meaningful use of it all. No matter what you have chosen or failed to choose in the past, today you can choose to live at your highest, most fulfilling level. No matter what today brings, you can respond with love, kindness, joy, gratitude and genuine enthusiasm for making a positive difference. In all of time, today is the one day with which you can now work. Today you can choose to express the miracle of existence in a way that is uniquely yours. Today, you can choose to lift up and strengthen the values and visions that truly mean the most to you. Today you can choose to rise above the petty negativity and to focus on bringing new beauty and richness to life.
Today is a choice, and you are in a position to make it the smartest, most loving, authentic and meaningful choice you’ve ever made. Today is your choice, so choose to make it the best one yet.


Thursday 29 March 2012

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
 
 
 
A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
 
 
 
If you have made love to a woman or to a man, and the love was really total and orgasmic, you forget who you are. It is mindblowing. You simply don’t know who you are. In a certain moment of deep orgasmic bliss, oneness happens. That is the whole effort of Tantra: to transform sex into an experience of oneness — because that will be your first experience of oneness, and enlightenment is the last experience of oneness.
 
 
 
Enter the temple of your most sacred power, the power of love.

If you see it as something you merely should do, you’ll resent it. Yet when you know it is something you must do, you’ll find a way to get it done. If you feel that the task has been imposed on you by some outside influence, you’ll find ways to avoid it. Yet when you understand how the task is connected to your true purpose, you’ll find a way to get it done as quickly and effectively as possible. Knowing why is not merely an interesting bit of information. It is everything.
If you don’t know why, you’re wasting your precious time. When you are clear about why, when what you’re doing truly matters, you’re on the path to creating the best life you can imagine. If you’re complaining and resisting, delaying and making excuses, you’re not following your why. You can be infinitely more enthusiastic and effective simply by connecting your actions to your purpose. Choose to intentionally and persistently follow your why. And truly fulfill the unique, magnificent possibility that is your life.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Bliss can be a state of profound spiritual satisfaction, happiness and joy, often associated with religious ideas of the afterlife. Bliss is a constant state of mind undisturbed by gain or loss.


The world is our Teacher, every person mirrors to us our unconscious self. The enemy outside mirrors to us the enemy within. If we consciously choose to be in the present moment we will be able to realize that every person or situation that makes us upset, or angry is actually showing us the things within us that we have failed to reconcile. It takes courage to ask the question "what in me has made this angry person, or this hopeless situation come into my space?" . Only the mind that is open to being questioned can take this journey.
 
~Premlatha Rajkumar~
 
 

Buddha's Peace by

Within the chaos of the world a buddha finds peace


Emozione non ha voce (emotion has no voice)



To find a buddha,
all you have to do is see your nature.
Your nature is the buddha.
And the buddha is the person who's free,
free of plans, free of cares.
If you don't see your nature
and run around all day looking
somewhere else, you'll never find a buddha.

- Bodhidharma


Step back from the loud and pressing concerns of the moment. Step back, get some perspective, and remind yourself of how good life can be. Many of the things you see as problems would have been considered to be blessings by people in an earlier era. Think of how good you have it, and of how you can make good and fulfilling use of what you do have. You are able to make a difference, and that ability can literally take you anywhere you wish to go. Though your efforts may be difficult and challenging, those efforts give you some extremely valuable options. Don’t take those options for granted by letting them sit idle and unused. Instead, take them to heart and consider how you can make life richer and more beautiful by making use of what you have. Take a step back, and look objectively at where you are. What you will see is the great and wonderful opportunity that is your life. Now, while you have it, seize that opportunity. Life is always good, because you can always make it better.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Do your best at doing what you do, and accept that the rest is as it is. Hold yourself to the highest standards, while letting go of your need to place judgments on others. Free yourself from the burdens of anger and resentment. No amount of negativity can change what has already happened. Tap into life’s immense abundance by gracefully and gratefully accepting what is. Give richness and meaning to that abundance by putting it to good use with focused effort and persistence. Nothing is achieved by getting uptight about things that don’t really matter anyway. Let it all be, take it all in, and put all your focus and energy into making a positive difference going forward. Make life good in every moment by allowing life’s goodness to be and to grow. Instead of fighting against what has already come to be, make a point of finding the value in it all, and in making that value grow. From here, you can go anywhere. Let this moment be, and rise from it into the reality of the very best life you can envision.




Open yourself to the Truth ~ Love is Everywhere

Tony Samara





In the mountains,
A monk's robe hangs
In the meditation hall.
Outside the window,
No one's to be seen,
Only birds skimming over the creek.
As I descend,
Dusk meets me halfway
Down the mountain road.
Still hearing the creek fall,
I hesitate, reluctant
To leave these blue heights.

- Meng Hao-jan


People are trying to live in a dream world, trying to pretend either that they're something they're not or just trying to get away from it all and avoiding reality… it's saying wake up, and face what is actually real. Some people try to push themselves far away from reality as possible because they just don’t want to face it, it's all too much for them. Instead of trying to make something of themselves they just let everyone else do everything for them, become dependent on other people. The actual picture I wanted to look very surreal to stress the whole idea of this dream world that some people live in. Her eyes are bleeding to show how blind she is from the truth.

Emma Black


This piece is all about holding ourselves back. Often we confine ourselves in mental cages, not letting our true thoughts out or expressing what we want. The right side is plain, symbolising this confinement and lack of being unique, and gradually as she becomes more sure of herself her life is being filled with colour and originality. So basically don’t hold yourself back, be who you want to be.


Monday 26 March 2012

"When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space."

~Pema Chodron


"A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us."

~Pema Chodron


"Every moment is unique, unknown, completely fresh."

~Pema Chodron