Underneath the eaves
A blooming large hydrangea
Overbrims its leaves
Tag: peace
Finding Freedom in the Least Likely Places | Wake Up World
So much of our freedom revolves around healing the wounds that have caused us to disavow important aspects of ourselves. Too often we unilaterally gauge freedom in terms of being able to do and have things: lots of money, being able to travel, or being able to act as we like. These are external, feel-good freedoms. But how often do we gauge our freedom by the inner freedom we get to experience from imposing certain external limitations and making sacrifices? By Contributing Writer Jack Adam Weber
Source: Finding Freedom in the Least Likely Places | Wake Up World
Midday Brownbag Discussion ~ with Alan Watts
Thought For The Day
Be Mindful and go gently forth into your New World!
Pāli Word a Day ~ October 19, 2014
asāhasa — absence of violence, peaceableness
Daily Words of the Buddha ~ September 23, 2014
Sabbā āsattiyo chetvā,
vineyya hadaye daraṃ,
upasanto sukhaṃ seti,
santiṃ pappuyya cetasā.
With all one’s attachments cut,
with the heart’s pining subdued,
calm and serene and happy is one,
for one has attained peace of mind.
Saṃyutta Nikāya 1.242
Gemstones of the Good Dhamma,
compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika
Middle East Transmission ~ Children of The Sun Foundation
ONE WEEK UNTIL TRANSMISSION TIME!
The Middle East Transmissions
Beginning on the Equinox
Sept 23, 28 & October 5, 12
REGISTER HERE – it’s FREE to participate:
http://childrenofthesun.org/middle-east-transmissions-registration/
The Middle East transmission team is building strong! There is still time to get more people linked in though, so let’s keep the publicity energy really high!
Thank you in advance for liking and sharing our campaign posts on Facebook and Twitter. This is very helpful and appreciated.
Starting on September 23, our group force field will deliver a transference to the entire Middle Eastern region, likened to a walloping love vaccine, purposed to trigger eradication of a most deadly, hate empowered virus and its contagious influence.
If you haven’t signed up yet, please take a moment to complete the free registration process. Everyone of us is needed to make a transforming difference.
Let’s show the world what the power of unified love can do!
OUR GROUP LOVE IS A KEY TO PLANETARY PEACE
Seeds for Meditation ~ “A Newly Rich Life With Yourself,” by Martha Nussbaum
Do not despise your inner world. That is the first and most general piece of advice I would offer. Our society is very outward-looking, very taken up with the latest new object, the latest piece of gossip, the latest opportunity for self-assertion and status. But we all begin our lives as helpless babies, dependent on others for comfort, food, and survival itself. And even though we develop a degree of mastery and independence, we always remain alarmingly weak and incomplete, dependent on others and on an uncertain world for whatever we are able to achieve.
As we grow, we all develop a wide range of emotions responding to this predicament: fear that bad things will happen and that we will be powerless to ward them off; love for those who help and support us; grief when a loved one is lost; hope for good things in the future; anger when someone else damages something we care about. Our emotional life maps our incompleteness: A creature without any needs would never have reasons for fear, or grief, or hope, or anger. But for that very reason we are often ashamed of our emotions, and of the relations of need and dependency bound up with them. […] People don’t know how to deal with their own emotions, or to communicate them to others. When they are frightened, they don’t know how to say it, or even to become fully aware of it. Often they turn their own fear into aggression. Often, too, this lack of a rich inner life catapults them into depression in later life. We are all going to encounter illness, loss, and aging, and we’re not well prepared for these inevitable events by a culture that directs us to think of externals only, and to measure ourselves in terms of our possessions of externals.
What is the remedy of these ills? A kind of self-love that does not shrink from the needy and incomplete parts of the self, but accepts those with interest and curiosity, and tries to develop a language with which to talk about needs and feelings. Storytelling plays a big role in the process of development. As we tell stories about the lives of others, we learn how to imagine what another creature might feel in response to various events. At the same time, we identify with the other creature and learn something about ourselves. As we grow older, we encounter more and more complex stories — in literature, film, visual art, music — that give us a richer and more subtle grasp of human emotions and of our own inner world.
So my second piece of advice, closely related to the first, is: Read a lot of stories, listen to a lot of music, and think about what the stories you encounter mean for your own life and lives of those you love. In that way, you will not be alone with an empty self; you will have a newly rich life with yourself, and enhanced possibilities of real communication with others.
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Discussion about enjoying A Newly Rich Life With Yourself:
1 – What do you understand by a self-love that does not shrink from the needy and incomplete parts of the self?
2 – Can you share a personal experience of a time when you discovered a newly rich life with yourself?
3 – What works for you in relating to yourself at a deeper level?
Daily Affirmation … Indulge!
I know that peaceful sleep awaits me in dreamland.
Indulge your spirituality and inner bliss. Open the door to wisdom and love. Celebrate your new awareness. Celebrate your path and your miracles. Become divine again and again. Only those of tranquil minds, and none else, can attain abiding joy, by realizing within their souls the Being who manifests one essence in a multiplicity of forms.
Daily Words of the Buddha ~ August 27, 2014
Dhamme ca ye ariyapavedite ratā
anuttarā te vacasā, manasā kammunā ca.
Te santisoraccasamādhisaṇṭhitā,
sutassa paññāya ca sāramajjhagū.
Those who are devoted to the Dhamma made known by the Noble Ones
are unsurpassed in speech, thought and action.
They are established in peace, gentleness and concentration,
and have reached the essence of learning and wisdom.
Sutta Nipāta 3.332
The Discourse Collection: Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipāta
translated by John D. Ireland
Pāli Word a Day ~ August 07, 2014
khema — full of peace, safe, tranquil, calm
Reiki Meditation ~ For Peace
WEEKLY WORDWIDE PEACE MEDITATION
Below is a Prayer and Meditation for Peace. I invite you to read this holy message and hold the energy of Peace and Love for our Holy Mother Earth. Our Planet can move toward restorative justice- we just need to hold to the Truth! We are One Being and We all want Peace to Reign Supreme in our World.
Hold Sacred Space – Envision Peace…
Hold sacred space several times throughout the day and envision Peace. Peace and healing for all individuals and peace and healing for our Holy Mother Earth. Now feel the Peace and Love well up inside of your body. Listen as it speaks its Truth to you. Feel yourself embrace accept and embody Peace. Rest in your forgiveness of all others. Become the energy of Peace and send it out to all beings and all of the warring nations and to our very own blessed Planet.
Daily affirm that there is enough of everything necessary to sustain all of life. Imagine that there is now equal distribution of all goods, including enough clean foods and nourishments, enough medicines healers’ medical equipment and support teams, enough clean water that is always available, dependable shelter, solar systems and wind energy. Affirm that there are enough of all life giving structures and systems that will support and sustain all human beings, including animals, and the biosphere throughout the world.
Claim that the political parties leaders and governments of the world are working together to create and uphold global harmony and peace. Affirm that everyone and everything that appears to be anything other than peace has transmuted transformed transcended into Harmony Joy Love and Peace.
Envision a world full of compassionate loving people who deeply embrace and accept each other’s race, religious, cultural and political beliefs, their gender, their looks and sexual preferences, the level of their education and their current socio-economic conditions.
Open your heart space and call forth the protection and healing of all women and children living in an active war zone. Open your heart space and call forth the protection and healing of all men who live in an active war zone and those men who are active participants of war.
Envision now the individual and collective healing energy of love light and deep peace and see it penetrate embrace and blanket all warring lands as it heals the deep sense of separation that is felt within the hearts and minds of all.
I call out to the lands and infuse the very grounds of Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Hamas, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Congo, the CARS (Central African Republic), Egypt, North and South Korea, South American and Mexico (drug wars), Ukraine and Russia, with DEEP PEACE. I include in this call for Peace, any of the forgotten lands or nations here not mentioned.
Let us now meditate on healing the very ground we walk on the air that we breathe the water we drink the foods we eat and heal the hearts and minds of us all as we move along the path toward realizing Peace in our lifetime.
Thích Nhất Hạnh said that “peace is every step”. So allow Peace to literally breathe you in and out each day. Remember that the Peace we demonstrate each day is in the reflection of every step we take.
Peace takes Practice Peace takes Effort Peace is Now.
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Theresa (1910-1997)
Namaste’
-Spirit Heart Counsel – Cathy Greer Gonzales
New Moon Intention ~ For Peace
BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN … KEEP THEM SAFE …
Daily Chabad ~ On Dual Peace
Working from above and staying above, any transformation you effect does not last. Yet while it is there, it is all-consuming. While it is there, everything experiences a whole new state of being.
Working from within, the transformation is self-sustaining, but only skin deep. The beast within remains a beast, just slightly more enlightened. The world remains a world, only a brighter world.
Ultimately, both approaches are needed. We can teach and provide knowledge, yet preserve a sense of the transcendent and unknowable. We can work with the world on it’s own terms, but we must show it that it is only a world. Within a higher context, it is nothing at all.
Until, eventually, that beast and that world will become the devices through which an unknowable G‑d can be known.
Maamar Padah B’Shalom 5722
SEEDS FOR MEDITATION …
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is the thirst of people for an easier life. But there is a trade-off between peace and convenience.
Experiment with such trade-offs between peace and convenience in your own life. What could be changed and what left alone to flower in its own way?
AFFIRMATIONS …
I let go of my anger so I can see clearly.
Stay With The Breath ~ by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Put aside your old ways of using your eyes and ears and nose, tongue, body, and mind to focus on issues outside there in the world, to get your knowledge about the world, to figure out how to gain what you want out of the world — and of course getting complacent and careless when you get what you want, and upset when you don’t, and trying to find new ways of getting it. Now we want to use our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind for other purposes, just to see the processes of the senses as they happen, in and of themselves. Look at them in a way that highlights the movements of the mind, how the mind makes a choice, and how it enforces that choice, how it justifies that choice to itself.
All these processes are going on all the time, but we usually don’t look at them because our attention is focused somewhere else far away. So stay right here at the breath, because this is a great place to observe all these other things. The Buddha makes a comparison to six kinds of animals. If you tie them all to leashes and tie the leashes together, the animals will all pull in their various directions to feed. The crocodile will want to go down to feed in the river, the monkey will want to go climb up to feed in the tree, the hyena will want to go to feed in a charnel ground, and so on. Depending on which animal is the strongest, the others get dragged along.
But if you tie them all to an immovable post, then no matter how hard they pull, they all end up staying right there at the post. The post here is mindfulness immersed in the body. The prime way of immersing mindfulness in the body is to be mindful of the breath. When you stay with the breath, you can detect the pull that goes out the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind to past and future, to your likes and dislikes. But you don’t have to give in to that pull because you’ve got a place where you can stay grounded and secure. […]
These things are all here to be observed. They’re all happening all the time. But to see them we have to change our focus. To change our focus requires a change of heart, telling ourselves that this really is important, much more important than things outside. That’s what conviction is all about. Appropriate attention is the change of focus; conviction, the change of heart. You make up your mind — and your heart — that this is an important issue that’s got to be resolved, and this is the way to do it.
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Reflection:
What does using our senses to see the process of the senses mean to you?
Can you share an experience where staying with your breath allowed you to be more aware of where you were being pulled, and to act with true freedom?
How can we get immovable in ‘mindfulness immersed in the body’?
Crystals ~ Rose Quartz Crystal
Metaphysical Properties of Rose Quartz:
Rose Quartz is the stone of unconditional love and infinite peace. This crystal connects to the heart chakra. Rose Quartz teaches the true essence of love. It purifies and opens the heart on all levels and brings deep inner healing and self-love. It is calming, reassuring and encourages forgiveness and acceptance of self and others. Rose quartz is also an excellent heart-healing gemstone. It is a nature remedy that can be used for treating any issue that needs emotional healing. Rose quartz is a crystal that carries a very gentle and soothing energy and gives comfort to anyone whose heart has been wounded.
Remedy Benefits of Rose Quartz:
Encourages self love
Heals emotional body
Eases heartache
Relieves loneliness
Releases repressed hurts
Promotes forgiveness
Offers inner peace
General
The pale pink color of quartz, which can range from transparent to translucent, is known as rose quartz. The color is a very pale and delicate powder pink. Transparent rose quartz is very rare and is usually so pale that it does not show very much color except in large sizes. The translucent quality of rose quartz is much more available and is used for beads, cabochons, carvings, and architectural purposes.
Often called the “Love Stone” or the “Heart Stone”, it is a gem of unconditional love that opens oneself to all forms of love, self love, family love, platonic love, romantic love. This quartz will give the proper enhancement of love in virtually any situation. In addition it is known to lower stress as well as brining happiness and soothing to the soul. It is said to enhance one’s capacity to love others as well as oneself.
Mystical
Emotionally rose quartz brings gentleness, forgiveness, compassion, kindness and tolerance as well as balancing one’s emotions; thus bringing inner peace and harmony. It raises one’s self-esteem and sense of self-worth. It helps balance emotions and heal emotional wounds and traumas, even grief, bringing peace and calm. Rose quartz removes fears, resentments and anger. It can also heal and release childhood traumas, neglect, and lack of love, in part by enhancing inner awareness. It can help with reconciliation with family and others. Overwhelming or unreasonable guilt is eased by rose quartz.
Healing
Physically rose quartz is used in crystal healing to benefit the heart, it is said to aid in the proper functioning of the circulatory system, kidneys, adrenals, genitals, liver, lungs and heart, and to increase fertility and protect against radiation. As well as assisting with fertility, headaches, kidney disease, migraines, sexual dysfunction, sinus problems, throat problems, depression, addictions, ear aches, slowing signs of aging, reducing wrinkles, spleen problems, fibromyalgia, and reaching one’s ideal weight and in weight loss.
Rose quartz is helpful and protective during pregnancy and with childbirth. It is also sometimes said that rose quartz is helpful for supporting brain functions and increasing intellect. It is said to give a clear soft complexion and to prevent wrinkles.
Magical
Energy: Receptive
Used in rituals and spells associated with love. To attract love, wear a heart shaped rose quarts. Magically rose quartz is used to promote peace, happiness and fidelity in established relationships.
Rose quartz is an excellent calming stone for children. If you purchase one for a child though, please be careful with your choice as children tend to place things in their mouths. Simply handling the stone can have a calming effect, in addition to adding a vibration of warmth and security.
Wear or carry rose quartz when you are feeling despondent and need to feel loved and deeply cared for, it is an excellent stone for that. It’s also quite more effective on the psyche than chicken soup when you are feeling ill.
Zodiac
Rose quartz is linked to the star sign of Taurus, and to Libra as a secondary stone.
Chakra
Rose quartz is associated with the 4th, Heart Chakra
Here are some more links about Rose Quartz and its uses:
http://healing.about.com/u/ua/talkrocks/rose-quartz.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5UZuO0aoUs
http://www.ehow.com/how_2223877_use-rose-quartz-energy.html
Crystals ~ Chrysocolla
This natural Chrysocolla contains lovely blues and greens in gray matrix and is considered to be “extra” high quality because it is pure Chrysocolla of the same quality that goes into many jewelry pieces. Chrysocolla is found wherever copper is mined, and is often found mixed with malachite, turquoise and azurite.
Chrysocolla is a very peaceful stone. Unlike Quartz, which is high energy, or Malachite, which brings things to the surface, Chrysocolla is soothing and calming in times of stress, and brings about gentle release. Chrysocolla is used most often with the Throat Chakra, where it helps with wise communication, but can also be used to balance and strengthen the Heart Chakra, helping one to learn how to live from the truth of the Heart.
The Essene Holy Communion For SATURDAY
The Earthly Mother / Angel of Eternal Life
Sabbath and Fasting Ends
Evening and morning and at noonday I will pray; and He shall hear my voice. ~ Psalms 55:15
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SEASONAL FOCUS: Flowers announce the promise of fruition.
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The Earthly Mother – Saturday Morning
The purpose of this Communion is to establish unity between man’s physical organism and the nutritive forces of the earth.
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THE PHYSICAL COMMUNION: Saturday, which begins Friday at sunset, is the beginning of the Essene week and is generally reserved for fasting. Take in only water, or perhaps juice or herbal tea (caffeine free). Become conscious of the important cleansing effects of fasting. Become aware of the quality of today’s foods.
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THE DEEPENING: Fasting is the first principle. Fast from negative thoughts, words and deeds. Fast from ego, pride and desire. Fast from all physical ills and Ye shall behold the strength and the wisdom of the spirit.
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MORNING COMMUNION: The EARTHLY MOTHER and I are one. Blessed is the child who knoweth the Earthy Mother, for she is the provider and the sustainer of life. Her harvest becomes thy body, her waters become thy blood, her winds will carry thy spirit, and as each morning comes, I shall embrace her.
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MEDITATION: The richness of the Mother’s garden surrounds us. The forces of nature toil unendingly for the benefit of all. For this we are blessed. The kingdom which guides and nurtures the plants and the forests is yet another manifestation of the Mother’s love for us, and we within this kingdom must return her blessings with respect, with caring, and with love.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION: Peace with the HEAVENLY FATHER — Ye that love thy Heavenly Father do Ye then his bidding; Walk Ye with his Holy Angels and you shall find peace within his Holy Law.
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EVENING COMMUNION: Angel of ETERNAL LIFE I invoke thee; descend upon my soul and bless my spirit with the splendor and the knowledge of eternal life. And as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee. (Sabbath ends)
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THE BLESSING: The food upon my table shares its life with me. And as this life nourishes my body, one day my body shall nourish this earth. And until that time shall pass, I shall return her blessings with kindness, with respect, and with my love.
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“Verily I say unto you, if in the daytime the Earthly Mother holds you in her arms, and in the night the Heavenly Father breathes his kiss upon you, then will the Sons of Men become the Sons of God.” ~ Gospel of Peace of Jesus Christ
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Peace be with you
The Essene Holy Communion For MONDAY
Angel of Life / Angel of Peace
Evening and morning and at noonday I will pray; and He shall hear my voice. ~Psalms 55:15
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SEASONAL FOCUS: Flowers announce the promise of fruition.
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The Angel Of Life – Monday Morning. This Communion was dedicated to the life, health and vitality of the human organism and that of the planet and brought about a dynamic unity between them.
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THE PHYSICAL COMMUNION: A day of practicing silence. Change nothing in your daily routine with the exception of talking. “See” the world around you. Contemplate how the medium of speech dilutes the meaning of actions and intentions. Always abstain from false speech, idle gossip and making promises that cannot be kept.
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THE DEEPENING: God so made life and ALL living things that they, by the living word, would teach the laws of the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother, to the sons and the daughters of men.
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MORNING COMMUNION: Angel of LIFE I invoke thee; for in everything that has life is the Holy Law written. In the grass, in the flowers, in the forest and in the trees. In the animals, and the birds and the fishes in the seas. All life speaks to us and if we listen, we can understand the tongue and the will of the living God.
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MEDITATION: The life-force within me cries out. That which I am longs for experience, and to know, and to understand. May I gain the wisdom of the connectedness with all that there is, for I am the one, and I am the many.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION OF PEACE: Peace with the MIND. Evil thoughts cannot abide in a mind filled with the Light of the Holy Law. He who hath found Peace with the Mind, hath learned to soar beyond the realm of the Angels; For I tell you truly, the lightning that cleaves the mighty oak, or the quaking that opens great cracks in the earth, are as the play of children, compared to the powers of the thoughts of men.
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The Angel of Peace – Monday Evening.
The Communion with the Angel of Peace was dedicated to man’s deep inner intuition of peace within himself, with the earth, and with the cosmos.
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EVENING COMMUNION: Angel of PEACE I invoke thee. Cast your blessings to the peoples of the world and to all that are weary or do suffer. And as long as the sun and moon endure, and throughout all the generations to come, may peace prevail over the earth as the waters cover the sea. And in remembrance of thee, I shall ever greet my brother by your name, and as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee. ~ Peace be with you.
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THE BLESSING: The whispering of a flame invokes peace within me. Reminding me of my task and of my journey. I have been given a peaceful heart and my path is before me. I joyfully take up the task, to reach the center, and to realize that I am a channel for peace.
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Thou hast purified my body to join the angels of the earth, and my spirit to reach the congregation of the heavenly angels. Thou gavest man eternity to praise at dawn and dusk Thy works and wonders in joyful song. ~ from the Thanksgiving Psalms; The Dead Sea Scrolls
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The Communions are a bridge between man and the angels. And like a bridge, can only be built with patience. Yea, even as a bridge over a river that is fashioned with the stones that are found along the water’s edge. ~Gospel of the Essenes
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Peace be with you.
Finding The Peace
“One cannot find peace,
in work or in pleasure,
in the world or in a convent
but only in one’s soul.”
~ W. Somerset Maugham
classes and Resources 