Tag: Spirituality

SEEDS FOR MEDITATION ~ 10 Things To Be Grateful For

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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Grace and gratitude have the same Latin root, gratus. Whenever we find ourselves in a stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off mindset, we can remember that there is another way and open ourselves to grace. And it often starts with taking a moment to be grateful for this day, for being alive, for anything.

Exercise:  once a day, list ten things you’re grateful for and count them out on your fingers. Try it this week.

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.

 

The Dark Night of the Soul

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Dark Night of the Soul is a term used to describe a specific phase in a person’s spiritual life. It is used as a metaphor to describe the experience of loneliness and desolation that can occur during psychic or spiritual growth.

 The term and metaphysicality of the phrase “dark night of the soul” is taken from the writings of the Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic, Saint John of the Cross, a Carmelite priest of the 16th century.

 Dark Night of the Soul is the name of both a poem, and a commentary on that poem, and are among the Carmelite priest’s most famous writings. They tell of his mystic development and the stages he went through on his quest for holiness.

 Spiritual purification is a process in which the soul is opened to receive the light of God. As it does so, it lets go of the darkness, that of all worldly attachments.

 This emptying of the spirit, known in later centuries as kenosis, literally meaning self-emptying and can be very painful and entail profound suffering for those to attached to the material world.

 Everything that links us to the realm of human perception and its way of being, needs to be expurgated. Saint John of the Cross elucidated to this process in that all who embark upon the spiritual path shall endure, and likens it to a dark night of the soul, in which the human spirit slowly transforms into a vessel for the divine.

 The “dark night” can generally be described as a letting go of our ego’s hold on the psyche, making room for change that can bring about a complete transformation of a person’s Way of defining his/her self and their relationship to God.

 In the Christian tradition, during the “dark night,” one who has developed a strong prayer life and consistent devotion to God suddenly finds traditional prayer extremely difficult or unrewarding for an extended period of time.

 The seeker may begin to feel as though God has suddenly either abandoned them, that their prayer life has collapsed, or they may begin to feel that perhaps God doesn’t even exist.

 But rather than being a negative event, the dark night is believed by mystics and others to be a blessing in disguise. The individual is trained to grow from a vocal or mental prayer, to a more contemplative prayer from deep within the soul.

The Dark Night comes in two phases: a first the “Night of the Senses,” and the second “Night of the Spirit.” Both are seen as the ultimate test of one’s faith and spiritual understanding.

 The Dark Night of the Soul is the ultimate expression for the adept seeker. It details the often difficult journey of estranged spiritual despair to a blissful reunion with the Holy and the Divine. –
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 Peace be with you.

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.

In These Times of Crisis, Anxiety and Uncertainty

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ImageIn these times of crisis, anxiety and uncertainty, there are certain things which we would do well to remember, and certain things which we should endeavor to do.

First we must remember that the Hierarchy stands. Behind all that is going on today, the same group of spiritual Forces and the same Elder Brothers, Prophets and Masters are to be found as before, guiding humanity along the path of life and bringing us safely and satisfactorily to our present point of understanding and development.

The teachings of the Christ, Who expressed to us the unchanging love of God, is still with us, and the Hierarchy stands as a bulwark of strength between us and possible disaster; this center of spiritual life is “like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

 The second thing we must remember is that mankind has marched steadily forward from a state of blind ignorance and unawareness to one of an intelligent preoccupation with life and a growing sense of responsibility. This sense of responsibility, which is awakening in all of us is – on its present large scale – relatively new and is one of the factors definitely increasing the distress and pain we are all feeling.

 We ask ourselves, where, as a race, have we failed and what can we do to rectify our mistakes? In spite of everything, however, men have gone from stage to stage of intelligent and spiritual unfoldment and no matter what the outer happenings have been or may be, the race has made progress.

 There has been no turning back, and there will be none. Mankind has weathered many storms and survived many difficulties; men have emerged from periods of crisis better and stronger, purified “so as by fire” and definitely nearer the ultimate goal.

 We must be reminded also of the integrity and solidarity of the human family. We are one people – one in our relationships, and capacities and desires, our origin and our goal. It is this essential and recognizable integrity which is emerging at this time powerfully in the human consciousness.

 We are apt to think that this may not be so, that our position in believing is somewhat unique and that we stand alone. But this is in error and is not true to the facts of the case.

 In every land and among widely differing peoples, the same desire exists for understanding, for the establishing of right and peaceful relations, and for the expression of that basic goodwill which is one of the deepest human characteristics and our divine inheritance.

 These are the things which are important at this time, and which all of us would do well to remember. No matter what may take place in the world – whether war or peace, strife and aggression or understanding conciliation and conference – we face a difficult period of adjustment, and for this we must be prepared.

 Much will depend upon what all peoples of goodwill and disciples of the Way think and what they do. The power wielded by those who are seeking to live as souls and in touch with the soul and the world of spiritual realities is out of all proportion to their registered sense of power and usefulness.

 You, as you endeavor to wield spiritual force constructively and selflessly, are far more potent than you realize. If you add to this realization the recognition that you are not alone in this, but that people with a vision similar to yours and with the same ideals and spiritual aspiration are to be found in every country without exception of any kind, in every religion, group and organization, then indeed you can go forward with courage and with hopeful faith.

 All must go forward in unison with our brothers and sisters everywhere, conscious of opportunity, of strength, of responsibility and of the joy of service.

 Refuse to allow yourself to be swept away by any fear psychosis or to be stampeded into any attitude through which the anxiety and unrest and distress in the world can overwhelm you. Strive to stand in spiritual being.

 Each morning, in your communions and meditations, seek to take spiritual attitude with a new and fresh definiteness and to hold it fast during the hours of service which lie ahead each day. This is not an easy thing to do, but it can be done.

 Focus, just a few minutes each morning – be completely and internally quiet – and fill your days with vital occupation and true service, guarding with care all thought, speech and deed.

 Let each of us gain control of our speech which has often been our goal but seldom our achievement, and remember that the most powerful factor in the control of speech is a loving heart.

 Wild and fearful talk, hateful gossip, cruel innuendo, suspicion, the ascribing of wrong and wicked motives to persons and peoples, and the divergences of attitude which have separated the many different nations in the world are rampant today and have brought the world to its present distressing situation.

 It is so easy to drift into the same habits of speech and thought which we find around us, in the news and on TV and to discover ourselves participating in opinion, in attack and in the spirit of hate.

 Guard yourselves strenuously against these things and say nothing which could inflame suspicion in connection with any race, any person, any group or any leaders of groups, religions or nations.

 You will have to guard yourself with care, so that even in defense of that which you may personally or nationally approve you do not find yourselves full of hate and breaking the law of love – the only law which can truly save the world. The key to success is the silence of the tongue and love of the heart.

 It is good also to cultivate the joy that brings strength. This is not the time for gloom, despair or depression. If we give way to these, we become entangled in negative and destructive focal points in our environment.

 If we truly believe that the spiritual life is fundamental in the world today, if we believe that divinity guides the world, if we truly grasp the fact that all men are our brothers and that we are all the children of the One Father, and if we are convinced that the heart of humanity is sound – then these adequately potent ideas will hold us joyously steady in the midst of a changing world.

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 Peace be with you.

The Essene Holy Communion For FRIDAY

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Angel of Air / The Heavenly Father
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Sabbath and Fasting begins 18 minutes prior to sunset
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 Air – Friday Morning.
The purpose of this Communion was to make man conscious of the dynamic unity between air and life and that breath is the link between the organism and the cosmos.
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THE PHYSICAL COMMUNION:   The inbreath and outbreath of the cosmos is contemplated this day.  Continually bring your awareness to your breath, taking long, deep inhalations frequently.  Contemplate the “stillpoint,” the moment between exhalation and inhalation. The point where we “die” with each outbreath, and are “reborn” with each inbreath.
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THE DEEPENING:   In the gentle breeze of the forests and in the winds of the fields, thou shalt find the Angel of Air. Breath long and deeply, for the rhythm of thy breath is the key of knowledge which will unlock the secrets of the Holy Law.
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MORNING COMMUNION:   Angel of AIR, I invoke thee; for no man may come before the face of God whom the Angel of Air hath not passed. Thy body must breath the air of the Earthly Mother before thy spirit may breath the Holy Law of thy Heavenly Father. And as each morning comes, I shall embrace thee.
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MEDITATION:   This morning brings a different breeze. The winds of inner change and reflection. These winds blow strong as I unfurl my sails and set a course for yet another journey. May the wind be my guide, and the calmness of the truth lead my way.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION:  
Peace with the EARTHLY MOTHER — Blessed is the Child of Light who knoweth the Earthly Mother and brings peace unto her. Know that thy Mother is in thee and Thou art in her, for she is the sustainer and the provider of all life.   The Heavenly Father – Friday Evening. This Communion with the Heavenly Father, was the Essenes’ central communion, dedicated to the totality of cosmic laws and to the realization that the universe is a process of continuous creation in which man must take his part.
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EVENING COMMUNION:   The HEAVENLY FATHER and I are One; Thou hast made known unto me the deepest of mysteries. By thy fourteen fruits of the Tree of Life thou hast directed my heart, and guided my steps, that I may walk in your presence and dwell eternally in the essence of the divine.   (Sabbath Begins)
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THE BLESSING:   What is man, that thou art be so mindful of he? Thou hast made a covenant with the Children of Light, and thou hast given unto all the Holy Law. To some it has been lost, and to some it is forgotten. But to some it is lived, and those whom walk with thy Holy Angels shall dwell forever in the kingdoms of God.
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Hear me, Sons of Light, for I will impart to you the gift of tongues, that by speaking to your Earthly Mother in the morning, and to your Heavenly Father in the evening, you may go closer and closer to oneness with the kingdoms of earth and heaven, that oneness for which the Son of Man is destined from the beginning of the times.  ~ Essene Gospel of Peace
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With the coming of day I embrace my Mother. With the coming of night I join my Father. With the outgoing of the evening and morning I will breathe their Law. And I will not interrupt these Communions until the end of time.  ~ Manual of Discipline – Dead Sea Scrolls
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 Peace be with you.

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ June 04, 2014

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Sail into the Sunset tommyanderson

Kāyena saṃvutā dhīrā,
atho vācāya saṃvutā manasā saṃvutā dhīrā.
Te ve suparisaṃvutā.

The wise are controlled in bodily action,
controlled in speech and controlled in thought.
They are truly well-controlled.

Dhammapada 17.234

The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom,
translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita

The Essene Holy Communion For WEDNESDAY

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Angel of Sun / Angel of Love
“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 the Sun – Wednesday Morning.
The purpose of this Communion was to become receptive to the solar energies and establish a perfect unity between the self and the sun and distribute its power throughout the body.
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THE PHYSICAL COMMUNION:   This day’s focus is on the Sun. Allow its power and light to enter your body. Rise early and go to a place where you can observe the Sun rise. Begin your morning meditation with the first rays of light. With arms outstretched and palms facing the light, let the Sun nourish your body and soul.
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Note:  Exposure to Sunlight is an important source of Vitamin D. Ultraviolet (UV) rays from Sunlight trigger Vitamin D synthesis in the skin. 10 minutes of exposure to the Sun three times a week is enough to maintain healthy Vitamin D levels in the body. (Most people have Vitamin D deficiencies.)
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THE DEEPENING:   Let thy love be as the Angel of Sun which shines upon ALL the creatures of the earth, and does not favor even one blade of grass for another.
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MORNING COMMUNION:   Angel of SUN I invoke thee. Thou art the fountain of light that warms our days and lights our path. It is by your glory that man is destined to live within the Holy Law, and as each morning comes, I shall embrace thee.
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MEDITATION:   This day brings to the world the divine blessings of the glorious Sun and its radiant gifts of warmth and of light. How mindlessly we go about our days shielded from your nourishment and unable the receive your blessed gifts. Without fail, I shall find time this day to take the gift of your light into my soul, so that my own light may shine unto others with the same power and glory that you have given unto me.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION OF PEACE:  Peace with HUMANITY, Social Peace.  Let thy love be as the Sun which shines on ALL creatures of the earth, and does not favor even one blade of grass for another.
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The Angel of Love – Wednesday Evening.
Love was considered by the Essenes to be the highest creative feeling and they held that a cosmic ocean of love exists everywhere uniting all forms of life and, that life itself is an expression of love.
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EVENING COMMUNION:   Angel of LOVE I invoke thee; for love is the first blessing of the Heavenly Father. Yea, it was said in the days of old, thou shalt love thy brother as thyself; and to every one who loveth another is born of the Heavenly Order, and shall drink from the well of eternity; and as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee.
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THE BLESSING:   The warmth of this day has filled me. How natural it is to feel this blessing and to radiate it back into the world. I look into the eyes of another and see only shared divinity. The boundaries have disappeared. Thou are no longer a stranger to my heart.
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“They (Essenes) greeted the Sun each morning with great reverence”~ Josephus, Jewish historian, 1st century CE
Truly, all must be born again of Sun and of truth, for your body basks in the sunlight of the Earthly Mother, and your spirit basks in the sunlight of truth of the Heavenly Father. ~ Gospel of Peace of Jesus Christ
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I will praise Thy works with songs of Thanksgiving continually, from period to period, in the circuits of the day, and in its fixed order; with the coming of light from its source and at the turn of evening and the outgoing of light, at the outgoing of darkness and the coming in of day, continually, in all the generations of time. ~The Thanksgiving Psalms: The Dead Sea Scrolls
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A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another and all creatures of God. Love is the fulfillment of the Law. Love IS God and God IS love. Whoso loveth not, knoweth not God.  ~ Jesus, Gospel of the Holy Twelve
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Peace be with you.

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.

The Essene Holy Communion For TUESDAY

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Angel of Joy / Angel of Power  
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 PHYSICAL COMMUNION:   This day contemplate the joys of life and the fullness of your many blessings. Quietly walk in a natural setting. Avoid distractions. Focus on the state of nature at this point in the seasonal cycle. Listen to the wind blowing in the trees and the songs of the birds. Become one with your surroundings.
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THE DEEPENING:  The heavens smile and the earth celebrates as the children of light sing the song of life; and the bodily world of thy Earthly Mother, and the celestial worlds of thy Heavenly Father, give praise to the joyous voices.
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The Angel of Joy – Tuesday Morning
All forms of beauty are joyously contemplated in this Communion in order to make man conscious of the beauties of nature and the joy within himself.
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MORNING COMMUNION:   Angel of JOY I invoke thee. I come before you with the voice of the wind for thy Holy Law is within me. Descend upon this Earth and spread your blessings to ALL living beings. Touch those who walk in darkness so they may see the light, and partake in the Holy Communions, and eat of the fruits of your blessings; And as each morning comes, shall embrace thee.
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MEDITATION:   Meditate from the perspective and the innocence of a child. See the world and its blessings through newborn eyes. Behold the splendor of the peace-able kingdom.
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NOON CONTEMPLATION OF PEACE:   Peace with the FAMILY. He who hath found peace with his brother hath entered the kingdom of love and shall experience the Oneness of God. The Heavenly Father knoweth the hearts and the minds of his Children, and their inheritance shall forever be Peace.
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The Angel of Power – Tuesday Evening
The Essenes conceived of the whole universe as a cosmic ocean of life in which currents of cosmic power are continually uniting all forms of life and connecting man with all other organisms.
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EVENING COMMUNION:   Angel of POWER I invoke thee; descend upon my body and give me thy strength. Help me to direct my thoughts, my actions, my words and my deeds in accordance with that of thy Holy Law; and as each evening comes, I shall embrace thee.
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THE BLESSING:  Within me lives the meditating Monk. The builder of the temple. In this season of transformation I shall discover the center, for I am guided by the light from within.
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The Holy Temple can be built only with the ancient Communions. Those which are spoken, those which are thought, and those which are lived.  ~ Gospel of the Essenes
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To make the human heart a temple, the soul an alter, and the mind a priest. These were the missions of Jesus the Nazarene.  ~ Kahlil Gibran
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Peace be with you.

I Ching For The Week of June 2, 2014

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Image#22   —     Bi   —    Adorning       

Above :  Gen   bound, quiet, mountain
Below :  Li       radiance, brightness, fire                       

 

The Wisdom:

Fire adorns the mountain.
Like a necklace of light
The greater good is quietly revealed.
Success is achieved without litigation.
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The image is of a magnificent mountain in the early morning, quiet and unmoving, lit by a brilliant sunrise by which everything is seen with utter clarity.It is time for quietude, so that you may realize and accept that you are in a state of grace.This is not a time to attempt to press forward in your situation or affairs—not yet, anyway. It is rather a time to quietly let your influence be felt. Not heard, not seen, but felt. You have not come to this moment of grace to put form to your future or to enhance the value of your efforts. You are to walk with grace and dignity.These are precious times that do not come often in one’s life. With renewed clarity you are seeing the highest good, for yourself and others. This is a high mark, one hard to achieve and maintain, so make no great decisions or commitments from this lofty perspective. Make your only commitment be to love and to let yourself be loved. Just be fully present with no fear and no judgment, and with this momentarily enhanced view, let things take their own form and fall their own way. You have nothing to do other than to be the quiet witness, the compassionate observer.
You are the mountain and you are still.
It is your symbol for this moment.
The mountain attempts to change nothing,
Yet its form and strength of presence
Changes all without effort.
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Grace may seem like a small thing, yet in its smallness it is greater than great. As you travel through life’s ups and downs, consider the importance of proper behavior. Good manners, ones that consider our fellows on Earth, set the tone for how the world as a whole will be and how you will be in it. Your life is your creation.You are given this time of grace to allow the fire you feel at the base of the mountain, in your belly, to burn away all that is not true and that does not serve your highest good.In this moment you are presented with moving out of fear and allowing yourself to let go of judgmental thoughts and seeing the negative side of life. You are now adorned with a mantle of grace, and in this moment you have the ability to go inside, into the beauty of spirit, to grow emotionally and spiritually. It is all there for the taking, just allow yourself the quiet stillness and you will see and feel it.This is now an era of great planetary change, perhaps the greatest change the Earth has ever experienced. We are moving into a time where the benefit will be to adjust your actions and your thinking by living and acting in a radically different manner and in a way that is accepting of peace and of love that will be led by a fierceness of being when necessary. This is the passion for life and for living in a way that feeds the spirit and the soul.The message we so often hear at this time is that we must make these changes now so that our children and our children’s children will have a bountiful Earth on which to live. While there is great truth in this message concerning the future, it is of utmost importance that we focus on the present, for it is the present that is in need of our grace, compassion, and kindness. We can and must use moments of clarity that are being offered to us now to adjust ourselves—adjusting our attitude and behavior, adorning it with love for Gaia and with compassion and kindness for all those with whom we share this time and space. As we make this earth a better place, a paradise for us now, future generations will inherit not only the glorious outcome, they will inherit the knowledge of honoring and caring for what has been gifted to them by you, the warrior generation that is ushering in the new golden age on earth.

The benefit now is to fully embrace the truth that we share every day on Earth with everybody and everything else here—no boundaries of states or countries, or species. We are at the tipping point. If we do not accept that we are all indeed of one great tribe that needs one another and feels one another, then we are destined to experience more war, fear, hunger, crime, greed, poverty, and annihilation of what we hold dear: Gaia, that is our mother.

This sacred cycle of adornment and grace is a psychedelic opportunity to experience the clarity to see through to the truth of the unity of all beings, and in so doing to act with grace, good manners, kindness, dignity and compassion.

This week take some moments of absolute stillness and you will see the beauty in this gift of grace you are offered. You have worked hard for it. It is a reward and a surprise—an unexpected gift, which is the best kind.

Adorn yourself not with fancy clothes, designer this or that and expensive accouterments. Not that these things are intrinsically bad—they’re not, but now is not the appropriate time. Now is the time to adorn oneself with the jewels of humility, grace, dignity, and compassion.

You can dance in the shadows no longer… now, reveal yourself and dance in the light of love.

Much love and many blessings

BobbyK    

www.bobbyklein.com

Maya Angelou ~ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

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Image
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)

 

Aloha In Action

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What can you do when your blessings feel so abundant you don’t know how they are all going to fit into your heart? Go into the world, provide comfort, live for people.

Who can you help today? Who can you smile at at the farmer’s markets, or be extra kind to at the bank? For the people you know and don’t know … do something special to let them know there is goodness in the world today, because there is goodness out there (and if you have forgotten that, then just by reminding others, you will remember.)

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.

Buddha ~ A Knotty Situation

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One day Buddha came into his assembly of the monks. It must have been just a morning like this. His sannyasins were sitting and waiting for him. They were puzzled because this was for the first time that Buddha had come with something in his hand – a handkerchief. They all looked at the handkerchief What was the matter? There must be something special in it. And Buddha sat on the platform and rather than starting speaking to the assembly he looked at the handkerchief, started tying a few knots in it, five knots in all. The whole assembly watched – what is going on?

And then he asked the assembly, “Can anybody tell me: is this handkerchief the same as it was before the knots were tied?”
Sariputta said, “This is a tricky question. In a way the handkerchief is the same because nothing has changed, in a way it is not the same because these five knots have appeared which were not there before. But as far as the inner nature of the handkerchief is concerned – its nature is concerned – it is the same; but as far as its form is concerned it is no more the same. The form has changed: the substance is the same.”

Buddha said, “Right. Now I want to open these knots.” And he started stretching both ends of the handkerchief farther away from each other. He asked Sariputta. “What do you think? By stretching farther will I be able to open the knots?”

He said, “You will be making knots even more difficult to open because they will become smaller, more tighter.”

Buddha said, “Right. Then I want to ask the last question: what should I do so that I can open the knots, the tied knots? How I can untie them again?”

Sariputta said, “Bhagwan, I would like first to come close and see how in the first place the knots have been tied. Unless I know how they have been tied it is difficult for me to suggest any solution.”

Buddha said, “Right, Sariputta. You are blessed, because that is the most fundamental question to ask. If you are in a certain fix, the first thing is how you got into it rather than trying to get out of it. Without asking the most fundamental and the primary question, you will make things worse.”

Buddha’s whole approach is, first see how you get into trouble. If you can see the entrance, the same door is the exit; no other door is needed. But without knowing the entrance if you try to find out the exit you are not going to find; you will get more and more desperate. And that’s what people go on doing.

OM SHANTI

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ June 01, 2014

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Vacīpakopaṃ rakkheyya;
vācāya saṃvuto siyā.
Vacīduccaritaṃ hitvā,
vācāya sucaritaṃ care.

Let one guard oneself against irritability in speech;
let one be controlled in speech.
Abandoning verbal misconduct,
let one practice good conduct in speech.

Dhammapada 17.232

The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom,
translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita

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.

 

Rumi ~ The Inner Garment of Love

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That spirit which does not wear
the inner garment of love
should never have been.
Its being is just shame.

Be drunken with Love,
For Love is all that exists.
Where is intimacy found,
If not in the give and take of Love?

If they ask what Love is,
Say, ‘the sacrifice of will.
If you have not left will behind,
You will have no will at all.’

The lover is a king of kings
With both worlds beneath him;
And a king does not regard
What lies at his feet.

Only Love and the lover
Can resurrect beyond time.
Give your heart to this –
The rest is second hand.

How long will you embrace
A lifeless beloved?
Embrace that entity
To which nothing can cling.

What sprouts up every spring
Will wither by autumn,
But the rose-garden of Love
Needs no special season.

Both the rose and the thorn
Appear together in spring,
And the wine of the grape
Is not without its headaches.

Do not be an impatient
Bystander on this path –
By God there is no death
Worse than expectancy.

Set your heart on hard cash
If you are not counterfeit,
And listen to my advice
If you are not a slave:

Don’t falter on the horse
Of the body – go lighter on foot.
God gives wings to those
Who are not content to ride an ass.

Let go of your worries
And be completely clear hearted,
Like the face of a mirror
That contains no images.

When it is empty of forms,
All forms are contained in it.
No face would be ashamed
To be so clear.

If you want a clear mirror,
Behold yourself,
And see the shameless truth
Which the mirror reflects.

If metal can be polished
To a mirror-like finish –
What polishing does the mirror
Of the heart require?

Between the mirror and the heart
Is this single difference:
The heart conceals secrets
While the mirror does not.

(Rumi. “The Ruins of the Heart”. Edmund Helminski. pp. 30-32)

 

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.

Lao Tzu ~ “We Join Thirty Spokes”

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Remain aware that Lao Tzu reminds us that there is always Yin (the passive and empty component) that coexists with Yang (the active and shaping component).  The two together provide the means to total action, total responsibility, lifefulness, and lovefulness.  The importance of what is not defines the classical paradigm called enlightenment.
small pink lotus
We join thirty spokes
To the hub of a wheel,
Yet it’s the centre hole
That drives the chariot.
We shape clay
To birth a vessel,
Yet it’s the hallow within
That makes it useful.
We chisel doors and windows
To construct a room,
Yet it’s the inner space
That makes it livable.
 
Thus do we create what is
To use what is not.