Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Greatness Is Not In Me, I Am In The Greatness


The flow between our spiritual and material worlds is how we live joyfully and with purpose. Prismatic droplets of mist seen in sunlight's clear ray becomes the breath-catching rainbow that arches across the sky. When we are those droplets of mist for Spirit's beam of light, this connection, this touching, creates beauty, from the unexpressed potential of both.

Physical objects in our everyday world can be manifestations of their spiritual essence, just as Spiritual belief, divorced from the tangible world, can be naive. Consider the happiness of bringing a creative idea from the world of spirit into the world of matter.

We are not the source of generosity and fruitful acts, but we can be the vessels through which these virtues flow upon others. Unconditional love expresses in actual service. We build our earthly and spiritual lives by the state of our consciousness. And we create our consciousness in that balance - just as gravity acts on a pendulum's swing, and the droplets of mist are transformed with the sunlight into the rainbow.

Inspired from John Marks Templeton's Worldwide Laws of Life - week 27, law 5, page 322.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Accept, Enjoy, Enthuse




Awakened Doing

  1. Acceptance
  2. Enjoyment
  3. Enthusiasm


Saturday, March 14, 2009

Alert to Our Unconscious Patterns


Now here's a sentence for you. It's from A New Earth by Tolle again. I was struck by it.
Be alert to detect your unconscious patterns of form identity like: demanding recognition; getting attention by talking about your problems or illnesses; giving your opinion when nobody asked for it and it won't change anything; concern with how you're seen such as trying to impress others or appear important; taking things personally, feeling offended; making yourself right and others wrong through mental or verbal complaining.
Once you detect one of these patterns, let it go. Just drop it and see what happens. Discover the enormous power that flows through you into the world when you stop emphasizing your form-identity.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Another ancient story from the New Earth by Tolle

How to stay at peace


Once there was a king who was continuously torn between happiness and despondency. The slightest thing would cause him great upset or provoke an intense reaction, and his happiness would quickly turn into disappointment and despair. A time came when the king became tired of himself and of life, and he began to seek a way out.

He sent for a wise man who lived in his kingdom and who was reputed to be enlightened. When the wise man came, the king said to him, "I want to be like you. Can you give me something that will bring me balance, serenity, and wisdom into my life? I will pay you any price you ask."

The wise man said, "I may be able to help you. But the price is so great that your entire kingdom would not be sufficient to pay for it. Therefore it will be a gift to you if you will honor it."
The king gave his assurance and the wise man left.
A few weeks later, he returned and handed the king an ornate box carved in jade. The king opened the ox and found a simple gold ring inside. Some letters were inscribed onthe ring. The inscription read: "This, too, will pass."
"What is the meaning of this?" asked the king.
The wise man said, "Wear this ring always. Whatever happens, before you judge it good or bad, touch the ring and read the inscription. That way, you will always be at peace."

Monday, March 9, 2009

Quotes from "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle

pg 18 "Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy. It is the cause of untold misery and unhappiness, as well as of disease."
pg 21 "So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger."
"One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it."

Saturday, March 7, 2009

My New Age version of Humpty Dumpty - misspelled and all...



Humpety Dumpety sat on a wall, Humpety Dumpety started rockin' and thought he might fall. But his joy and enthusiasm came to call and Humpety Dumpety was surrounded by vibrations of golden light that lifted him into the air to float easily over the farmyard until he saw his mother Mama Dumpety. Mama opened her wings for Humpety to get underneath where he was warm and filled with the light. In a few days he broke out of his shell into joyous chickhood.

Sharon talked me into putting this humorous jotting from my notebook in the blog for comic relief.

Friday, March 6, 2009

From my Collected Notes while reading "A New Earth"



One of the things I enjoyed about A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle was the stories he told that illustrated the principles he was discussing. Here's one:

The Story of Tanzan and Ekido. Two Zen monks were walking along a country road that had become muddy after heavy rains. Near a village, they came upon a young woman who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep it would have ruined the silk kimona she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side.

The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn't restrain himself any longer, "Why did you carry that girl across the road?" he asked. "We monks are not supposed to do things like that."

"I put the girl down hours ago," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

******

pg. 141 "We can learn not to keep situations or events alive in our minds, but to return our attention continuously to the pristine, timeless present moment rather than be caught up in a mental movie-making. Our Presence becomes our identity rather than our thoughts and emotions."

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Flower of Self-Blessing



Here is part of a poem by Galway Kinnell


“for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing…”


We, you and I, are full of life, unfolding into flower. A blessing is an act of reverence, usually freely given from one to another, and traditionally within some religious context, but in this poem Kinnell says that the deepest blessing comes from ourselves. It arises, spontaneously, from the silence in us. Or not.
Blessings give life meaning, make life richer. Like the feeling of emerging from cloud cover into an endless expanse of blue. Like a flood of warmth from the top of your head down to your toes. Or like the sensation of belonging, of realizing that you have your own unique place in the family of things. A blessing is an influx of grace.
To listen quietly and deeply to the stirring of your own life is an act of self-blessing. To be kind to yourself. To have faith that your life has its own intelligent design and is doing exactly what it needs to, even if it doesn’t feel that way; that is a blessing.