Category: Meditation

Morning Reverie

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coffee-plumeria

You’ve got up early when it’s quiet and serene, made a cup of coffee and sat down on your porch with your laptop in the coolness of the morning to take in the splendor of the rising sun while you slowly reply to the questions of the outside world. This is your first attempt to be mindful, to really try and put into practice the sermons of the great Zen teachers you’ve been reading and listening to on YouTube. You’re mindful of your own mindfulness, and as you reproach your ego for telling you you’re doing a great job, chuckling at this little joke the universe has decided to share, you don’t notice the light from your laptop screen has attracted a mosquito.

 

The parasitic little mosquito lands unseen on the wrist you’re using to hold your coffee mug, and promptly digs in to the feast under your skin. You have a vague sensation of discomfort and your coffee hand jerks slightly, but you’re distracted by a must-read article on your news feed and you don’t notice the blood-sucking critter, nor do you see the small drop of coffee that has spilled onto your space bar.

 

You teeter unknowingly on the edge of catastrophe, and then, while still sitting comfortably in your chair, fall headlong into the abyss.

 

Your wrist begins to itch. A lot. At first you scratch it half-heartedly, but this soon turns into a frenzied, four-nail digging that provides only temporary relief. Half-way through each sentence in response to an important email from a client, you have to stop typing and scratch. You lose your train of thought repeatedly.

 

In between seeing to the agitation of your epidermis and trying to construct a coherent paragraph, you’re also having to stop writing to move the cursor backwards and at times fairly hammer the spacebar to affect standard grammatical norms. This is extremely annoying as it is slowing you down even more and why won’t the thing just work, anyway?

 

Suddenly you realise your feet are overheating. You’ve got socks and slippers on, as is customary in the morning, but the sun is turning these into a sheepskin kiln and there is sweat between your toes. Just as you’re about to do something about this the dog runs past with the remote control in its mouth. You prepare to shout at it but now you really need the toilet. Caught between the call of nature and the summary destruction of an important piece of technology, sweating profusely at both ends, unable to work and not knowing how to proceed, inside you the clam pool becomes a torrid heaving sea and you break.

 

As the smoke clears the remote has been saved by the sudden appearance of the neighbour’s cat, your wrist has stopped itching, you’re dressed and ready for work as usual, and you’ll answer those emails later with no trouble. But the day is lost. All attempts at mindfulness are on hold as your bad mood propels you through the following hours with all the joy of a fly moving through treacle, resigned to the end and simply willing it to come.

 

You tried so hard, you really did. You were so proud of that effort, and you had such high hopes.

 

Somewhere, the Buddha laughs.

 

SEEDS FOR MEDITATION

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Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

Do you consider yourself creative?  Creativity is not found just in the chosen few who exhibit artistic talent. It is a force that flows through every single one of us, allowing us to dream things up and make them happen.  Creativity, in other words, is more than art, it’s a key that unlocks our basic goodness.

What story could you tell about yourself in three minutes that would significantly shift people’s views of you? Tell it to someone.

Seeds for Meditation

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There is no other message today but this:  live in joy.

 

Find moments to create happiness, to draw from the deep well of the Divinity within you to literally create joy.   You can find the places where joy is not, and put it there.  You can find the hearts where joy is missing and share.  Let joy be your net of love, and use it to catch the life you want and the love you deserve.

 

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Image:  This date, the flowers called Zeni’aoi, or Malva sylvestris, are open on the roadside in Osaka, Japan.

Maya Angelou ~ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

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The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

 

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

~ Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

 

Dylan Thomas, poet ~ “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” (1951)

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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

For more information about Dylan Thomas visit http://www.dylanthomas.com

 

Impermanence, The Great Existential Bummer

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How do you feel when you look at your boyfriend, your wife, your children, your dog? Do you thank god for the joy they bring and treasure every moment with them, or are you a bit sad because you know one day you will lose them forever? Jason Silva asks us to contemplate the fact that everyone, everything, everywhere ends, and to choose how we would like to respond to that fact.

El Morya ~ The Final Chapter

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This letter spontaneously appeared as an unsigned typewritten letter amongst David Crawford’s personal papers just at the moment of his departure from New Mexico for California.

We believe it is a spiritual message from Ascended Master El Morya intended as our compass in these, the latter days of our Journey on The Path together.  Peace be with you all.

 

You have made a magnificent journey.

 

As you’ve listened to these words … as you’ve looked at ancient mysteries, the insights of the metaphysical realm and the laws of Quantum Physics … looked at your own personal experiences, you come now to the Final Chapter.

 

It is the final chapter of this book, but also the final chapter of Life and its multitude of experiences. What lies beyond this moment in Time? Look into this moment, where you exist now, where you are experiencing life … it’s joy, its sorrows, its disappointments, its frustrations, its passions, its tears and its laughter … contemplating all that is beyond here, all that is here and all that has been … Look into the moment of NOW.

 

You are listening to these words. Perhaps they say things you already know, truths you have already gained … and they have not told you anything you didn’t know somewhere inside yourself.

 

Now, move beyond these words.

 

You can see the greater truth unfold for the future … for a battle rages during this time in Life. It is an ancient battle where fear and greed fight love and hope. There is only one outcome and it is beyond this moment of Now. No matter what course mankind takes, we will eventually move out of this realm.

 

Following the path of fear and greed, the apocalypse of natural disasters, war and famine looms large. Yet, this apocalypse will force mankind to find a higher way. Following the path of Love, the same inevitable end comes … but through a different way: through a loving, gentle way … Man passes into the millennium, which prepares those for eternity.

 

Through your personal experiences of love, you learn of your eternal home. Moving through life, you learn the deep understanding that you are loved by your Father; that you are loved eternally. Within that understanding is a reward of love, hope, comfort and security.

 

Within the consciousness of fear and greed, you feel unworthy, undeserving … that you have not done enough. You cannot accept yourself. You struggle to gain through the illusion of what is waiting for you in eternity. And in that struggle, love and hope elude you. From fear and greed, you offer a kind of superficial love: Duty and Labor.

 

Even with the knowledge and ability to cause mountains to be moved, and having infinite knowledge of all things … you still do not have what you seek. You miss it. You do not realize that the necessary offering is the true offering of the heart shining through your motive, not your intent and deeds.

 

When the offering is from the heart, perception and judgment are not clouded and truth gives manifestation to your motive. You then learn that to love others is to understand and accept their ability to receive love, to accept their sense of perception and interpretation of love as precious, unique and a part of their eternal identity. You offer your love, expanding it to encompass the perception that each unique individual has.

 

It does not mean that you agree or disagree, or you respond or don’t respond with them.

 

Unfolding from that sense of loving and being loved, in that atmosphere of hope and comfort will be a 1,000-year reign. The spirit of mankind emerges from life to a much higher, greater sense of man’s own being … that which man will be in eternity.

 

You have come to the final chapter. You are loved with the total love of your Creator. If you are not conscious of that love, take comfort: by all that is True, you are loved.

 

Your expression of love may be fraught with every imaginable curse of psychology or personal debauchery, fear, hatred or anger. Your fear and your anger exist because you don’t feel that love surrounds you. You hate because you think that what you really want is not given.

 

But, love is always with you. You are loved in a unique way. Take comfort from these words.

 

You that do not know the deep comfort of the truth of love itself, of its creation … of this reality in life. You that only know the bitterness of the physical, emotional and spiritual pain that you feel in this reality.

 

Know the hope that this pain comes to an end. It comes to and end and is completed. The eternal truth, the truth that gave this creation reality, you will appreciate more than others whose path is not as difficult as yours. Your reward will be great in the love and richness you will experience. A love designed uniquely for you, awaiting you at a moment in the future.

 

Allow yourself to unfold and allow it to unfold for you.

 

Allow the truth of your eternal identity to unfold within your consciousness. You are an eternal being, an eternal entity, embodied in flesh … but you are not limited by life and the constrictions of that body. You are eternal, and you shall find love, joy and happiness that is unique to you.

 

You will feel love as an infant within the womb. You will feel love as a child that goes through the pain of birth and feels life for the first time. You will feel love from nurturing arms. You will feel love of family, friends and loved ones caring for you. You will feel the liberty to express love, and the liberty to receive it.

 

How will this moment of emergence come for you?

 

Will it be ­­­­through understanding the quantum physics that bind all the forces together … or, through seeing the eternal reality itself as the greatest example?

 

Will it be through understanding that you express the Divine Formula in your deepest desire to love and be loved?

 

Will it be through your realization that you desire to be loved by others as you truly are, rather than through trying to be what you think others want you to be?

 

Will it be from your acceptance of the truth preparing the pathway of your consciousness to enter into eternity into the great spectrum of reality beyond this life?

 

Will it be from your acceptance that this earthly life is an illusion and the dream?

 

No matter what your path is, the reality of love and its eternal sense will bring us to a place where we can greet one another with love that is unconditional and non-judgmental, revealing the profound beauty in each aspect and action of every individual.

 

We will experience that same love for ourselves and know that it is the same love God has for each, as you, His precious child. This is the gift you wear as the mantle as you ascend into the Presence.

 

At this final chapter in the school of our lives on this planet look deeply into what all of this means to you here in the present and to the physical consciousness of mankind.

 

Two roads are parting, both coming to the same end. One is Fear and Greed, reaping as much as it can gather for itself with no regard for anything else. You can see how we have traveled on this very road in what we have experienced in our own lives … how it has brought us here. It has brought us here as much as the Love and Hope we have experienced. We’re just sharing a small dream about what it is like to be in the body of an animal … to feel the pain, the heartache and the pleasure … to have victory and defeat … to have hope, passion, desire and anguish. We are dreaming of life at the level of Light where it slows to a place called Earth … GAIA …

 

And when you awaken you will remember you were here walking down that pathway finding in your dream our true character.

 

The master of this insight, the worker, or the Enlightened One has always laid down his life for God to help him guide the lives of others into Truth, Light and Love, maintaining God’s covenant with Man. The masters have served mankind continuously. Their numbers are great.

 

It may be that you stand within that group yourself, even unaware. For those of you who do stand within this midst … within these Temples … within your private lives … standing alone within the Light of Truth and Love in whatever you do in your service to Him is what you do to others.

 

You may be called from this life experience at any moment, so that the Divine Formula can unfold. The prophecies have proclaimed it and the Time approaches when a new and unique pattern is formed for this human race. The subatomic universe is the same as the cosmic galaxies of the stars. It is the same fractal pattern. The future of mankind unfolds naturally, as it unfolds in everyone’s life … in YOUR life. Mankind’s battle is the same battle as yours: the battle of Love and Hope versus Fear and Greed.

 

To experience the struggle is the Prize. It is simply the way that it is. It is based in the Hope of Mankind to love and be loved. It is your hope to love and be loved. This is man’s deepest desire and your deepest desire. Its manifestation is within the spectrum of perception and is unique to each individual unique to you.

 

The pattern you manifest is just as true and real to all as it is to you. What can you do to change the course of events for yourself? What can you do to change the course of events for Mankind?

 

Simply open your heart to love and be loved … to God’s unconditional non-judgmental love.

 

If it is a smile … if it is a kind word for another … if it is that unselfish charitable act, which you simply do spontaneously … It is the greatest victory you can give to your brothers and sisters. It is the greatest triumph throughout Eternity.

 

For in your dream of life, you were loving …

In your dream of life, you learned that you were … you just were.

In your dream of life, you discovered the Truth and lived the final chapter.

In your dream of life, you awakened and found the way Home.

 

Seeds for Meditation

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Have you ever experienced the majesty of a very tall, very wide Sequoia tree?  Sequoias are one of Earth’s oldest living organisms, veritable witnesses to our humanity.  Imagine these ancient trees as Elders of our world community … those who possess the greatest stories of resilience, stories of tragedy and triumph, past and future … but above all, stories that humble our human lives, which seem like the blink of a cosmic eye against the timescales of these ancient organisms …  organisms that have unflinchingly witnessed all of our own tragedies and triumphs, our wars and our revolutions, our holocausts and our renaissances, and have remained anchored to existence more firmly than we can ever hope to be.

Now, imagine you have the fortitude of a Sequoia tree … Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Today, try to notice the living things around you that have been around longer than you have. Take a moment to feel the interconnection to that which is beyond your own individual existence.

Alan Watts ~ The Art of Meditation

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We’re always thinking about something else these days, and missing what is here right now. Our obsession with the expectations of a global society continually pulls us away from our true selves, and to find that, we have to stop the chatter in our heads. The guru Alan Watts explains this, in simply the best and most concise interpretation of, and justification for, meditation out there.

Awakening — Going Beyond The Horizon

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It’s often believed that awakening will make us strong and confident, somehow immune to the vulnerabilities of being human. It’s believed that in awakening we are made “perfect”, that every word we say is a reflection of the utmost clarity, that every action is aligned with the highest frequency, that we have somehow transcended the fragility of human expression. But this is not so. What is more accurate, is that awakening has nothing to do with strength or confidence or perfection. It has everything to do with openness and honesty and innocence.
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The personality vehicle is always “flawed” in some way, it is bent into shape – and out of shape – by the particular storm that passes through our lives, the circumstances of our specific karma and conditioning. For some, this so-called storm is more like a gentle breeze, for others it is a hurricane of immense proportions. The expression of awakeness is inevitably filtered through this vehicle. What matters is not the vehicle itself, not even the perfection of the words spoken, but the capacity to be meet every nuance of the human experience in open discovery, in beginner’s mind and beginner’s heart .. and to be OK with this.
light stream
Awakening brings an often excruciating sensitivity to all movement of energies, both inner and outer. This sensitivity is both a blessing and a burden. There is a sense of rawness, of nakedness, nowhere to hide, no defenses, no running away from the depths of what is. It’s also a transparency, a permeability, in which the personality becomes more fluid, unattached to opinions or ideas of how things should be. It is not the words that matter, but the emanation of light or presence that reveals itself through the spaces between words. Stability comes from inner silence, from the open emptiness of being. It’s like free-falling into the unknown. And it’s unavoidable once the flower of awakeness has revealed itself!

 

From This Day Forward, Be More Loving … but how?

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Our ability to experience love has nothing to do with getting love from someone else. We don’t need to be good enough or gorgeous enough in order to make love a dominant part of our daily experience. We are the only person who is responsible for how much love we experience in our lives.

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So … take some time out today … each day … and get to know yourself a little better.  You might think you know everything about yourself, but chances are there are a lot of things about yourself that you have ignored or overlooked because they weren’t “important”.  Listen, and ask yourself how you are really feeling.  Get out some nice paper and a nice pen and share these real feelings, as if you were writing to a best friend.  Take this time to listen to yourself, and get used to the feeling.  Ask yourself:  what things are important to you that you are neglecting right now?

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Take action to show love to yourself by honoring something that is important to you, even if someone else might not approve or think you deserve what it is that’s important to you.

As you go through the day, stop to remind yourself that you deserve respect and admiration, just for no other reason than that you deserve love. Let your heart open, and enjoy the feeling. This feeling can become a constant companion, and it becomes something we can share with the world around us.

The Beauty of Gratitude

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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.  — Carl Sagan

Passion … is the element that makes it possible for a real breakthrough in thought to take place. And beauty … goes a long way in establishing the bona fide results of scientific experiments.

Where do you see beauty when you take a closer look?

Take a moment to write down one small (perhaps even microscopic) thing for which you are grateful.

 

France, Pont d'arc, nature, travel
Pont d’arc – France

Inspiration

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Head into the difficult parts. Dive into the things that scare you. For inside the fear, there is wisdom. When you sit with it consciously, it will soften and often like a blossom, transforming into something entirely different. You would not suppose a cocoon held a butterfly if you didn’t know the life cycle of a caterpillar. You would not realize that fear holds within it understanding, if you did not see the Grace that is present in the evolution of all things. With the power of the Light Source flowing through you, fear will dissolve, blocks will dissolve. You will be left loving all, relating to all. The world will exist in your heart. It might have to grow a few sizes, but it will fit.

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