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12 Elements of Emotional Intelligence
Teaching
20 May 2013 - 12:00pm
    12 Elements of Emotional Intelligence By Marcia Sirota MD FRCP http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marcia-sirota/emotional-intelligence_b_994141.html   Intellect and emotional intelligence are very different things. The former is the cognitive ability to synthesize and analyze data; to problem-solve and make associations based on available information. The latter is a set of innate and learned skills which facilitate relationships and enable a person to negotiate more easily through all areas of life.   Intellect can be measured by standardized IQ tests but there is no actual measure of the “EQ,” or Emotional Quotient. Even without a test, it’s obvious when someone has a high IQ and it’s just as obvious when someone has a high EQ. Rather than try to measure it, though, it’s more useful to look at the various elements that go into emotional intelligence.   While the IQ remains stable over a person’s lifetime, the EQ can be developed. Acquiring and practicing the following elements will enable you to boost your EQ.     Practicing the following elements will enable you to boost your EQ and improve your life.   1: Empathy. The ability to understand what other people are feeling will make you more sensitive and aware, resulting in more meaningful relationships.   2: Associating actions with consequences. This understanding will enable you to make conscious choices in your life, so as to avoid unnecessary difficulties.   3: Good judgment. The gift of making well thought-out decisions and seeing people for who they really are will maximize the possibilities of success in all areas of your life.   4: Personal responsibility. When you hold yourself accountable and don't blame anyone else for your mistakes or misfortunes, you're empowered to change things for the better. Other people respect you because you own up to your part in your relationships.   5: Insight. The ability to see yourself clearly and to understand your own motivations allows for the possibility of personal growth. Insight into others makes you more empowered in your relationships.   6: Mental flexibility. Being able to change your mind or to see things from different points of view makes it possible for you to navigate all sorts of relationships and to succeed where other, more rigid thinkers would fail.   7: Compassion. Being honest with yourself or about the people in your life can be painful. With a kind and gentle attitude, seeing the truth is much easier. Compassion towards yourself facilitates personal transformation, and compassion toward others supports deeper, more loving connections.   8: Integrity. Following through on commitments and keeping your promises creates good-will in your personal and professional relationships, promoting success in both arenas.   9: Impulse control. Thinking before speaking or acting gives you a chance to make deliberate, even sophisticated choices about how you present yourself to others. Not acting out of primitive impulses, urges or emotions prevents social consequences.   10: Deferring gratification. Empowered individuals are able to tolerate waiting for the things they want. Mastery of your needs allows you to to prioritize around life goals.   11: Perseverance. Sticking with something, especially when it's challenging, allows you to see it through to completion as well as demonstrating to others that you're dependable and potentially a high achiever.   12: Courage. Emotional courage (as opposed to the physical variety) enables you to do the right thing, see the truth, open your heart and trust yourself enough to be vulnerable despite any fears. Others hold you in high regard, as a result.   All these elements combine within you to make up your emotional intelligence. With a high EQ, even a simple person is at an advantage in life. Without it, even someone with the most brilliant intellect is at a distinct disadvantage.
Accepting Who We Are and Celebrating It
Blog entry
20 May 2013 - 9:35am
                                        Namaste Dear Friends  ~                     What came to me today is this:   Accept yourself no matter what you feel you should be                     or what you feel is missing within.   This came after reading some blogs and it wasn't                     a personal message, but one for those who cannot accept who they are, in this Now,                     and also from observing and talking with people on my daily travels.                     The world we live in, outside of ourselves, is a world that demands perfection!                     But, not the perfection of character, but  physical perfection and also what society                     dictates is 'normal.'   Things are changing though, as Australia may be coming round                     to accepting gay marriage and giving it the same status as male and female unions.                     No matter what our opinion is on this topic, people will be people and choose to live                     their life by THEIR choice and not be told otherwise, as we live in a democratic society,                     or so they say............   Even one of the senior Members of Parliament and her partner                     have had a child last year and are always seen together smiling broadly and very happy                     to finally be parents.   They have been together since university days.  This member has                     to serve in a Party that doesn't support gay marriage!  Our Prime Minister is a woman                     who lives with her boyfriend, vowing never to marry.   So she also has her choice and                     because that union is under the title of 'de facto' they enjoy the same legal rights as a                     married couple.                     It is only a matter of time before gay marriage is legalised in most western societies.                    The protests are becoming louder and stronger and also being supported by non-gay                    couples.   Equality is very important.                     No one should feel ashamed for who they are and what they believe in when it comes to                     their choice of lifestyle.  Unfortunately, it's still a physical world and we have courts to decide                     on such matters as 'who gets the child if we separate' and also in doing Wills. Just to name                     a few scenarios that happen in life.                       If you feel you are lacking in something, or missing something within, try changing your                     perception on how you see yourself.    You are a unique being, there is no one else like you                     on this planet !!   True !!   Celebrate your uniqueness   ~   give yourself a hug and begin to                     LOVE YOUR-SELF  ! ! !    It all starts with you, as what vibe you send out is what others feel.                                                       *~*   And that is the single most important thing you can do for yourself.   *~*                                                                           *  Tara   *                      
IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG TIME
Blog entry
20 May 2013 - 9:32am
 It has been a long time since I have blogged here in lightworkers.org I have decided to have a human experience. I have shunned being the angel incarnate that I am and tried to see if I am allowed to have dreams, goals and manifest them all in front of my eyes, just like how other humans do it. Unfortunately, after 3 years of doing so, it seems like - no - I have been called back by the Angels again to do my work.  I felt angry at first. I felt duped. I thought that I was free to do what I needed to do. Unfortunately, it is not true.  I am not allowed to have these experiences. I have made a fool out of myself for believing that I am meant to experience what the rest of the human race is experiencing, when I am only meant to help them achieve what they need to achieve. I know that this sounds depressing but somehow, knowing and remember who I am is somewhat liberating. At least I know my place in this world. So how is everyone doing?
Ugh... The Higher I Have Tried To Rise, The Harder I Have Fallen... Any Advice?
Blog entry
19 May 2013 - 3:54am
This is a very very serious post so any sincere response would be appreciated. Okay I know that, on my spiritual path, the first step is to detox my body and diet, etc. I need to be able to meditate and go within and start healing and dealing with what is inside, and in my case a detoxed body and mind is essential because right now my mind is way over-active. There is a large problem, however. Not only do I have an enormous ridiculous appetite (since I am in this stupid male body ~ I am female/feminine in a male body ugh) but I also use food emotionally to make my life seem fulfilled, because it is otherwise pretty empty. SO point is, when I start such a detox it is Hell. Impounding this Hell is the fact that I am surrounded by millions upon millions of young people in this culture who are busy revelling and having fun while I suffer. That has been the case for years. I wanted to be among humans and have pleasure like they do, but all God permitted was me being an outcast. I have long been overly romantic and zestful for life, so my ego is VERY starved because I never really received my heart's desires all these years. So when I start trying to do the "right thing" and fast and begin trying to seek Spirit and Life, my ego FREAKS out and soon I become this very carnal materialistic beast and even sometimes start seeing "666" and some of its variants here and there, while in that state. It is as if to compensate for choosing something Angelic, my ego balances it out with something deviant and devilish. So I feel trapped. If I was in a third-world country surrounded by starving people it would be easy to starve and suffer. But being here surrounded by this oversexed, luxurious, pleasured culture where the normal person my age is having fun ~ the energy is too much for me. Maybe I seem "selfish" but you do not know my backstory either. I once spent hours almost every day just helping people and giving away my energy and also so much money, and God repaid me by sending an extremely demonized negative person into my life (in disguise) which made my already-bad life become worse. I am running out of hope. I once had a huge reserve of hope and as the years go by it just seems to keep dwindling. I am realising that God IS really a sadist ~ a fact which I have mercifully put myself in denial of for many years. Any advice/suggestions/encouragements? I want out of this Death Trap before it is too late and before I die or go back into miserable old belief systems. Thanks for reading.
Out From Under
Blog entry
18 May 2013 - 10:14am
                                                           " All the darkness !    I'm going to walk into the Light! " Sometimes there is just too much to consider, too much to understand and analyze, too many consequences to play out in our mind, too many things to clean, unpack, or repair before we can go out and play. Sometimes the simplest and best use of our will is to drop it all and just walk out from under everything that is covering us, even if only for an hour or so - just walk out from under the webs we've spun, the tasks we've assumed, the problems we have to solve. They'll be there when we get back, and maybe some of them will fall apart without our worry to hold them up. Wouldn't that be nice?                                                                                            **   E X E R C I S E   **                              * Sit quietly and try to stop working your problems.                              * With each breath, put a concern down and feel your being                                 intact without it.                                * Breathe freely and realize that your being is whole whether you                                solve your problems or not.                                                                    Typed from:    The Book of Awakening                                                                          by Mark Nepo ~                              
The Energy Of Grief
Blog entry
18 May 2013 - 6:27am
05-18-13 How can hollowness Feel... so heavy? * * * The weight of waiting Waiting... Waiting for what? * * * For life? For death?... * * * This grief, I... I try distracting myself from it From the deep cavern in my soul * * * Though distraction does not destroy Nor fill Nor stop it from attracting more... * * * As I live in a neighborhood where three families have lost children Four children They are my angelic mirrors... * * * For it was I, who attracted this grief Fate's design... But I was the tool * * * Of grief, ever-present This deep hole, hiding somewhere in my chest... * * * In chambers of the heart My dream-ghost children rest * * *
fears
Blog entry
17 May 2013 - 5:37pm
i have one problem at the moment.one of my problems i have is the following:1)i have this fear that even though some people tell me that i am on the right path for me because we all have our own paths that work best for us.well i believe them also go based on my intuition as well.if it feels right and sounds right to me through the brain i believe it.well my intuition is telling i am on the right path as well but why does this damn fear that i could be on the wrong path tell me otherwise.i believe is a irrational fear.to be honest well this persistent fear does not go away.and sometimes i have a problem trusting my intuition because i ask and wonder to myself is this truly my intuition or just fear a.k.a irrational fear?its not easy for me to open up about my problems to anybody.it's not because i am afraid of what people might think,we all have problems i know.but its a trust issue if i am going to open up to someone i have to really trust you and know one will not talk bad or etc.i must trust you.trust is earned not given with me.well i am opening up right now with one of my problems.my question is how do i combat this fear.its persistent and won't go away.i know one way and for me sounds like the best way at the moment and that is to face my inner demons and fears directly and say enough is enough!!!because i had enough of this already.I'm sick and tired of these irrational fears seriously.
This miessence pop up makes it very hard to communicate with each other
Blog entry
17 May 2013 - 1:22pm
I know that it is because of my iPad Can't anything be done with this glitch? ( not to mention all the frustration and negativity being sent to the company that keeps popping up.) It keeps us from communicating and on a website where communication is key so we can share experiences ...this is a big problem. Tablets are becoming the norm for many... And we share invaluable information in our replies...I feel this glitch is keeping many from sharing the experiences. They want to but can't. If there is a way to fix it and I don't know it maybe it needs to be posted on the home page so that those with tablets will know the right steps to be able to reply. I know the admin has been working on this...maybe I am not aware there is a solution already? Thank you for all you do. I'm sure it is endless... I hope that this is fixed and we return to being a full working website for all that come here. iPad or not. Sharing from my heart Marie
The Five Principles for Manifesting Your Desires, Spirit Junkie Style
Teaching
17 May 2013 - 9:39am
  The Five Principles for Manifesting Your Desires, Spirit Junkie Style   by Gabrielle Bernstein http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabrielle-bernstein/manifest-desires_b_1404543.html We are always manifesting. Each thought we have creates an energy flow within and around our physical beings. This energy attracts its likeness. So if you're thinking, "I suck," then your energy kinda, well, sucks -- and you attract sucky experiences. The opposite experience occurs when you think high-level thoughts like, "I rock!" When you think and feel, "I rock," you exude an energy of confidence and in turn attract great experiences into your life. Each thought you have informs your energy, and your energy manifests into your experiences. Your thoughts and energy create your reality. Manifesting Mishaps Manifestation has become a buzzword lately. Though it's totally awesome that the law of attraction is now trendy, it also can be a bit misleading for folks who are unwilling to do the heavy lifting. If you truly want to use your energetic power to manifest greatness, you must clear all that blocks you from believing in your greatness. A Course in Miracles teaches that on some level, you've asked for everything that happens in your life. Your intentions create your reality. There's no need to beat yourself up: Simply recognizing how your low-level thoughts negatively affect your life is the first powerful step toward changing your experiences. Begin your manifesting process by getting honest about how your low-level thoughts, energy and feelings of disbelief block you from receiving what you desire. Once you get clear about the blocks, you can begin to clean them up to clear space for positive manifestations to occur. Many people, when trying to manifest, focus too much on the outside form rather than the internal condition. From A Course in Miracles' perspective, what's important is our internal experience -- whether we choose to experience love or fear. When we commit to our internal experience of love, we begin to attract more love. Many people approach manifestation from a place of "How can I get something to feel better?" Instead, the focus should be: "How can I feel better and therefore be an energetic match for attracting more greatness into my life?" The emphasis must be placed on healing the internal condition, not getting a hot new car or boyfriend. The Five Principles for Manifesting Your Desires Below are my five key principles for genuine manifesting. When practicing these steps, make sure to stay committed to the goal of feeling good first and attracting stuff second. Continue to remind yourself that when you feel good, you energetically attract goodness into your life. When your primary function is to be happy, then whatever comes to you is irrelevant. Happiness is your true manifestation. Principle One: Clear Space Before you begin the manifestation process, you must take the necessary time to release all your disbelief in your power to be happy. One of the best ways to clear the blocks of disbelief is to pray for release. Begin a daily prayer practice of asking the universe to set you free from all the limiting beliefs that block you from believing in your greatness. Stay open for signs from the universe, and show up for the assignments that are brought to you. Universal assignments come in many forms. Maybe you're guided to the relationship that brings up all your shit so that you have to finally heal your fear. Or maybe you lose your job so that you can learn the lessons of self-reliance and strengthen your self-love. Trust that these assignments, however tough at times, are incredible opportunities for you to clean your energy and clear space to call in what you desire. Your job in this step is to pray for guidance to clear all that blocks you from believing in your greatness. Then allow the universe to help guide you to whatever assignments you need to aid in the healing process. Show up for the assignments, and trust that the more you clean your thoughts and energy, the more positive experiences you will attract into your life. Principle Two: Get Clear Clarity is king when it comes to manifesting your desires. You must have clear intentions for what you want to call in -- otherwise you can manifest a lot of what you don't want. Focus on what you desire and then make a list of all that goes along with it. If you're getting clear about the job you want, make a list of all the things about the job that make you happy: the office, the people, the salary, etc. Be unapologetic about what you want. This list helps you clarify your intentions and access a vibrant mental picture of what you desire. The most important part of this step is to clarify how you want to feel. When you get clear on how you want to feel, you can begin to access that feeling. That feeling is what makes the manifestation come into form. You can write a thousand lists and make a million vision boards, but if you don't clearly feel what you want to experience, it will never truly manifest into form. Principle Three: Think It, Feel It, Believe It! Now let's put these steps together. Take your clear intention and spend time every day sitting in the feeling of what it is that you desire. You might access the feeling through meditation and visioning exercises, or call on the feeling when you're in nature or doing a form of exercise you love. Let the thought inform the feeling and let the feeling take over your energy. The more you feel the feeling of what you desire, the more you believe it is on the way. From a metaphysical perspective, if you believe it then it is already here. So make time for contemplating, thinking, feeling and believing. Principle Four: Chill! The next step is crucial to the manifestation process. In order to truly manifest your desires into form, you gotta chill out! A Course in Miracles teaches: "Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait and wait without anxiety." Take this message with you and allow your faithfulness to guide you into the belief that what you desire is on the way. Also trust that the universe has a much better plan than you do. Though you are clear about what you want, you cannot control the timing or the form in which it comes. Stay calm, relax and trust that the universe has your back! Principle Five: Know the Universe Has Your Back When you're in the know, you're deliberate about what you want. When you're in the know, you no longer vibrate energy of fear or disbelief. You just know. As your disbelief wilts away, wanting is replaced by knowing. Getting into the know happens naturally. When you diligently practice steps one through four, you will clean house, get clear and feel happier. This process is healing and powerful, and it leads to a deep inner knowing that you are right where you need to be. Accepting your greatness in this moment, right now, is what manifests more greatness. Being in the know helps you accept that you already are living in your desired manifestation. When you feel it, you live it -- regardless of what is happening on the outside. In time, the universe catches up with your energy and your desires come into form. This process of allowing the manifestation to follow your internal faith is the true process of co-creation. Stay Committed to Happiness Stay committed to this five-step process and trust that you're exactly where you need to be. Is your main desire to feel good? Trust you will be given everything you need to create that feeling. Know that feeling good is the true manifestation -- and everything else is the icing on the already delicious cake! Gabrielle Bernstein Featured in the New York Times Sunday Styles section as “a new role model”, speaker, and author Gabrielle Bernstein is making her mark. Expanding the lexicon for the next generation spiritual seekers, Gabrielle is a #1 bestselling author of the book Add More ~ing to Your Life – A hip guide to happiness. Gabrielle recently launched her second book, Spirit Junkie – A Radical Road to Self-Love and Miracles. In January of 2013 Gabrielle launches her third book, May Cause Miracles, published by Random House. Gabrielle is also the founder of the social networking site HerFuture.com for women to inspire, empower and connect. Gabrielle has a weekly radio show every Wednesday on Hay House Radio and is a featured curator for Opensky. She has been featured in media outlets such as the New York Times Sunday Styles, ELLE, Oprah Radio, Marie Claire, Health, SELF, Women’s Health, Glamor, Sunday Times UK, Forbes List: 20 Best Branded Women, Covers of Experience Life and Self-Made Magazines (top 50 Women in Business), US Weekly, People and many more.
The Answer to Anger & Aggression is Patience
Teaching
16 May 2013 - 9:57am
The Answer to Anger & Aggression is Patience By Pema Chödrön http://shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1309&Itemid=0&limit=1&limitstart=0     We can suppress anger and aggression or act it out, either way making things worse for ourselves and others. Or we can practice patience: wait, experience the anger and investigate its nature. Pema Chödrön takes us step by step through this powerful practice.     The Buddhist teachings tell us that patience is the antidote to anger and aggression. When we feel aggression in all its many forms—resentment, bitterness, being very critical, complaining and so forth—we can apply the different practices we’ve been given and all the good advice we’ve heard and given to other people. But those often don’t seem to help us. That’s why this teaching about patience caught my interest a few years ago, because it’s so hard to know what to do when one feels anger and aggression.   I thought, if patience is the antidote to aggression, maybe I’ll just try that. In the process I learned a lot about what patience is and about what it isn’t. I would like to share with you what I’ve learned, to encourage you to find out for yourself how patience works with aggression.   To begin with, I learned about patience and the cessation of suffering. It’s said that patience is a way to de-escalate aggression. I’m thinking here of aggression as synonymous with pain. When we’re feeling aggressive—and in some sense this would apply to any strong feeling—there’s an enormous pregnant quality that pulls us in the direction of wanting to get some resolution. It hurts so much to feel the aggression that we want it to be resolved.   So what do we usually do? We do exactly what is going to escalate the aggression and the suffering. We strike out; we hit back. Something hurts our feelings, and initially there is some softness there—if you’re fast, you can catch it—but usually you don’t even realize there is any softness. You find yourself in the middle of a hot, noisy, pulsating, wanting-to-just-get-even-with-someone state of mind: it has a very hard quality to it. With your words or your actions, in order to escape the pain of aggression, you create more aggression and pain.   At that point, patience means getting smart: you stop and wait. You also have to shut up, because if you say anything it’s going to come out aggressive, even if you say, “I love you.”   Once, when I was very angry at a colleague of mine, I called him on the telephone. I can’t even remember now what I was angry about, but at the time I couldn’t sleep because I was so furious. I tried meditating with my anger and working with it and doing practices with it, but nothing helped, so I just got up in the middle of the night and called him. When he answered the phone, all I said was, “Hi, Yeshe.” But he immediately asked, “Did I do something wrong?” I thought I would very sweetly cover over what I was really feeling and say something pleasant about all the bad things he had done, whatever they were. But just by the tone of my greeting to him, he knew. That’s what it’s like with aggression: you can’t speak because everyone will feel the vibes. No matter what is coming out of your mouth, it’s like you’re sitting on top of a keg of dynamite and it’s vibrating.   Patience has a lot to do with getting smart at that point and just waiting: not speaking or doing anything. On the other hand, it also means being completely and totally honest with yourself about the fact that you’re furious. You’re not suppressing anything—patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself. If you wait and don’t feed your discursive thought, you can be honest about the fact that you’re angry. But at the same time you can continue to let go of the internal dialogue. In that dialogue you are blaming and criticizing, and then probably feeling guilty and beating yourself up for doing that. It’s torturous, because you feel bad about being so angry at the same time that you really are extremely angry, and you can’t drop it. It’s painful to experience such awful confusion. Still, you just wait and remain patient with your confusion and the pain that comes with it.   Patience has a quality of enormous honesty in it, but it also has a quality of not escalating things, allowing a lot of space for the other person to speak, for the other person to express themselves, while you don’t react, even though inside you are reacting. You let the words go and just be there.   This suggests the fearlessness that goes with patience. If you practice the kind of patience that leads to the de-escalation of aggression and the cessation of suffering, you will be cultivating enormous courage. You will really get to know anger and how it breeds violent words and actions. You will see the whole thing without acting it out. When you practice patience, you’re not repressing anger, you’re just sitting there with it—going cold turkey with the aggression. As a result, you really get to know the energy of anger and you also get to know where it leads, even without going there. You’ve expressed your anger so many times, you know where it will lead. The desire to say something mean, to gossip or slander, to complain—to just somehow get rid of that aggression—is like a tidal wave. But you realize that such actions don’t get rid of the aggression; they escalate it. So instead you’re patient, patient with yourself.   Developing patience and fearlessness means learning to sit still with the edginess of the energy. It’s like sitting on a wild horse, or on a wild tiger that could eat you up. There’s a limerick to that effect: “There was a young lady of Niger, who smiled as she rode on a tiger. They came back from the ride with the lady inside and the smile on the face of the tiger.” Sitting with your discomfort feels like riding on that tiger, because it’s so frightening.   When we examine this process we learn something very interesting: there is no resolution. The resolution that human beings seek comes from a tremendous misunderstanding. We think we can resolve everything! When we human beings feel powerful energy, we tend to be extremely uncomfortable until things are resolved in some kind of secure and comforting way, either on the side of yes or the side of no. Or the side of right or the side of wrong. Or the side of anything at all that we can hold on to.   But the practice we’re doing gives us nothing to hold on to. Actually, the teachings themselves give us nothing to hold on to. In working with patience and fearlessness, we learn to be patient with the fact that we’re human beings, that everyone who is born and dies from the beginning of time until the end of time is naturally going to want some kind of resolution to this edgy, moody energy. And there isn’t any. The only resolution is temporary and just causes more suffering. We discover that as a matter of fact joy and happiness, peace, harmony and being at home with yourself and your world come from sitting still with the moodiness of the energy until it rises, dwells and passes away. The energy never resolves itself into something solid.   So all the while, we stay in the middle of the energy. The path of touching in on the inherent softness of the genuine heart is to sit still and be patient with that kind of energy. We don’t have to criticize ourselves when we fail, even for a moment, because we’re just completely typical human beings; the only thing that’s unique about us is that we’re brave enough to go into these things more deeply and explore beneath our surface reaction of trying to get solid ground under our feet.   Patience is an enormously wonderful and supportive and even magical practice. It’s a way of completely changing the fundamental human habit of trying to resolve things by going either to the right or the left, calling things right or calling things wrong. It’s the way to develop courage, the way to find out what life is really about.   Patience is also not ignoring. In fact, patience and curiosity go together. You wonder, Who am I? Who am I at the level of my neurotic patterns? Who am I at the level beyond birth and death? If you wish to look into the nature of your own being, you need to be inquisitive. The path is a journey of investigation, beginning to look more deeply at what’s going on. The teachings give us a lot of suggestions about what we can look for, and the practices give us a lot of suggestions on how to look. Patience is one extremely helpful suggestion. Aggression, on the other hand, prevents us from looking: it puts a tight lid on our curiosity. Aggression is an energy that is determined to resolve the situation into a hard, solid, fixed pattern in which somebody wins and somebody loses.   When you begin to investigate, you notice, for one thing, that whenever there is pain of any kind—the pain of aggression, grieving, loss, irritation, resentment, jealousy, indigestion, physical pain—if you really look into that, you can find out for yourself that behind the pain there is always something we are attached to. There is always something we’re holding on to.   I say that with such confidence, but you have to find out for yourself whether this is really true. You can read about it: the first thing the Buddha ever taught was the truth that suffering comes from attachment. That’s in the books. But when you discover it yourself, it goes a little deeper right away.   As soon as you discover that behind your pain is something you’re holding on to, you are at a place that you will frequently experience on the spiritual path. After a while it seems like almost every moment of your life you’re there, at a point where you realize you actually have a choice. You have a choice whether to open or close, whether to hold on or let go, whether to harden or soften.   That choice is presented to you again and again and again. For instance, you’re feeling pain, you look deeply into it, and you notice that there’s something very hard you’re holding on to. And then you have a choice: you can let go of it, which basically means you connect with the softness behind all that hardness. Perhaps each one of us has made the discovery that behind all the hardness of resistance, stress, aggression and jealousy, there is enormous softness that we’re trying to cover over. Aggression usually begins when someone hurts our feelings. The first response is very soft, but before we even notice what we’re doing, we harden. So we can either let go and connect with that softness or we can continue to hold on, which means that the suffering will continue.   It requires enormous patience even to be curious enough to look, to investigate. And then when you realize you have a choice, and that there’s actually something there that you’re attached to, it requires great patience to keep going into it. Because you will want to go into denial, to shut down. You’re going to say to yourself, “I don’t want to see this.” You’ll be afraid, because even if you’re starting to get close to it, the thought of letting go is usually very frightening. You may feel that you’re going to die, or that something is going to die. And you will be right. If you let go, something will die. But it’s something that needs to die and you will benefit greatly from its death.   On the other hand, sometimes it’s easy to let go. If you make this journey of looking to see if there’s something you’re holding on to, often it’s going to be just a little thing. Once when I was stuck with something huge, Trungpa Rinpoche gave me some advice. He said, “It’s too big; you can’t let go of it yet, so practice with the little ones. Just start noticing all the little ways you hold when it’s actually pretty easy and just get the hang of letting go.”   That was extremely good advice. You don’t have to do the big one, because usually you can’t. It’s too threatening. It may even be too harsh to let go right then and there, on the spot. But even with small things, you may—perhaps just intellectually—begin to see that letting go can bring a sense of enormous relief, relaxation and connection with the softness and tenderness of the genuine heart. True joy comes from that.   You can also see that holding on increases the pain, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to let go, because there’s a lot at stake. What’s at stake is your whole sense of who you are, your whole identity. You’re beginning to move into the territory of egolessness, the insubstantial nature of oneself—and of everything, for that matter. Theoretical, philosophical, distant-sounding teachings can get pretty real when you’re beginning to have an inkling of what they’re actually talking about.   It takes a lot of patience not to beat up on yourself for being a failure at letting go. But if you apply patience to the fact that you can’t let go, somehow that helps you to do it. Patience with the fact that you can’t let go helps you to get to the point of letting go gradually—at a very sane and loving speed, at the speed that your basic wisdom allows you to move. It’s a big moment even to get to the point where you realize you have a choice. Patience is what you need at that point to just wait and soften, to sit with the restlessness and edginess and discomfort of the energy.   I’ve come to find that patience has a lot of humor and playfulness in it. It’s a misunderstanding to think of it as endurance, as in, “Just grin and bear it.” Endurance involves some kind of repression or trying to live up to somebody else’s standards of perfection. Instead, you find you have to be pretty patient with what you see as your own imperfections. Patience is a kind of synonym for loving-kindness, because the speed of loving-kindness can be extremely slow. You are developing patience and loving-kindness for your own imperfections, for your own limitations, for not living up to your own high ideals. There’s a slogan someone once came up with that I like: “Lower your standards and relax as it is.” That’s patience.   One of the Indian Buddhist teacher Atisha’s slogans says, “Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.” It means that if a painful situation occurs, be patient, and if a pleasant situation occurs, be patient. This is an interesting point in terms of patience and the cessation of suffering, patience and fearlessness, and patience and curiosity. We are actually jumping all the time: whether it’s pain or pleasure, we want resolution. So if we’re really happy and something is great, we could also be patient then, in terms of not just filling up the space, going a million miles an hour—impulse buying, impulse speaking, impulse acting.   I’d like to stress that one of the things you most have to be patient with is, “Oops, I did it again!” There’s a slogan that says, “One at the beginning and one at the end.” That means that when you wake up in the morning you make your resolve, and at the end of the day you review, with a caring and gentle attitude, how you have done. Our normal resolve is to say something like, “I am going to be patient today,” or some other such set-up (as someone put it, we plan our next failure). Instead of setting yourself up, you can say, “Today, I’m going to try to the best of my ability to be patient.” And then in the evening you can look back over the whole day with loving-kindness and not beat yourself up. You’re patient with the fact that when you review your day, or even the last forty minutes, you discover, “I’ve talked and filled up all the space, just like I’ve done all my life, as long as I can remember. I was aggressive with the same style of aggression that I’ve used as long as I can remember. I got carried away with irritation exactly the same way that I have for the last...” If you’re twenty years old, it’s been twenty years that you’ve been doing it that way; if you’re seventy-five years old, it’s seventy-five years that you’ve been doing it that way. You see this and you say, “Give me a break!”   The path of developing loving-kindness and compassion is to be patientwith the fact that you’re human and that you make these mistakes. That’s more important than getting it right. It seems to work only if you’re aspiring to give yourself a break, to lighten up, as you practice developing patience and other qualities such as generosity, discipline and insight. As with the rest of the teachings, you can’t win and you can’t lose. You don’t get to just say, “Well, since I am never able to do it, I’m not going to try.” You are never able to do it and still you try. And, interestingly enough, that adds up to something; it adds up to loving-kindness for yourself and for others. You look out your eyes and you see yourself wherever you go. You see all these people who are losing it, just like you do. Then, you see all these people who catch themselves and give you the gift of fearlessness. You say, “Oh wow, what a brave one—he or she caught themselves.” You begin to appreciate even the slightest gesture of bravery on the part of others because you know it’s not easy, and that inspires you tremendously. That’s how we can really help each other.
Enjoy Being You!
Blog entry
16 May 2013 - 7:50am
                                                                                                         Secrets of Spiritual Happiness                                                                                               Enjoy Being You By Sharon Janis http://www.spiritual-happiness.com/sosh4.html How great you are, and how great your life is. Open the windows, take a brisk walk, breathe deeply, and relish the most basic and beautiful experience of being alive. Even if you have a challenging life, make a decision to appreciate yourself, and to fully enjoy being you, with all that entails. Don't wait for other people to appreciate you first - it rarely works that way. If your happiness and self-worth are dependent on what others think of you, well then, you're in a precarious position, aren't you? Simply decide that you are wonderful, faults and all. Stand by yourself with love, and from there, you'll also be better able to make positive changes and improvements in your character, actions, and life circumstances. Consider how you feel when looking at someone you have a crush on, or with whom you're falling in love. Even their faults are cute - at least for a while. You may love the way they play with their hair, or the way they walk, talk, or dance. You may like the way their mouth moves when they're thinking, or how they get quiet when their heart is touched. Or if you have a child, you may delight in how they behave a bit mischievously at times, or how they are curious and like to get into things. You may see the sun reflecting on your child's hair, and think that this must be the perfect angel of God sent down to bless you - at least during the best moments. Well, you can also love yourself this way. You can appreciate yourself, have a crush on yourself, and view yourself with loving eyes. You can learn to chuckle away your shortcomings, and to find positive interpretations for how your lacks may be helping you to grow, or perhaps for how they may be helping others to grow. You can love being you, just as you are, while still striving to grow into an even greater image of possibility. You can notice the styles you like, and appreciate your individual taste and way of being. Many times, we may find it easier to focus on someone else's life than our own, so this secret of spiritual happiness is asking us to also pay attention to ourselves, in a positive way. This doesn't mean that you have to become an egotistical narcissist. People may be afraid of being criticized for paying attention to themselves, because they don't want to be judged as self-absorbed. Certain "political correctness police" seem to think that you should never talk about yourself or think too well or too often about yourself. However, don't let their judgments deter you from focusing on yourself in the right way. After all, if there is one thing you've got in this world, it's you. You are the divine light of creation, shining through as a very interesting tale - the story of your life. Whether you choose to share your story publicly with others, at least you can read and enjoy your own story. Relish being whoever you are, and you'll find contentment and spiritual happiness in every moment.                                                      
2013 and It's Getting Later...
Blog entry
15 May 2013 - 12:41pm
Like many people looking at the calendar and wondering what the heck is happening in this time of global change, I have some thoughts about the state of the world. What is happening with the sun, the weather, the earth, the social order…. all this is troubling to me and to many. Yet on another level of awareness, I know that everything is working out for the soul of humanity to experience the most remarkable transformation into understanding its innate divinity and expressing that in a way that will forever be remembered as a new birth for the planet. But for now, to look around, there are some troubling things going on. What to do in the face of them? Not get overwhelmed, and not shut down. Remember that your experience of healing is connected to a greater collective consciousness which is also healing. Your awareness and mindfulness in moving through your own buried trauma, however small, your realization of your own power to transform your life, is going to ripple into that collective and have an impact on the whole. Remember that, and be encouraged. Trying to keep balanced with the knowledge that there’s a bigger picture I’m not fully aware of, I have nonetheless watched with increasing alarm the situations playing out that are bringing to the surface aspects of human experience most in need of healing. Brutality. Toxicity. Hypocrisy. Cruelty. For example, last week’s big news story: Now that the women in Cleveland are free from their decade-long horror of exploitation, how will they integrate their experience and heal from it? What they lived through is beyond the ability of most people to even approach comprehending. How are we as the ones witnessing it going to process a level of pain and inhumanity this unfathomable? How can you release your own pain of isolation, slavery, powerlessness, pain? I have been watching the recognitions coming out of this event, and working on my own inner pain with the awareness of connection to the global consciousness of enslavement that has been part of our culture, overtly and covertly, for much too long. It is not easy to confront, but doing the work is what leads to being free for everyone. I am humbled to participate in this collective healing, brought into focus by these survivors, these great souls.   This is just one example. There are so many these days to choose from. We could use them as crowbars to wrench ourselves as a people free from the hidden bonds of night. Is it useful to apply what we witness to bring ourselves into alignment with our soul’s plan, and the plan of the soul of the planet? Can greater understanding be found in exploring our own pain? How do you deal with the distress that comes up on your screen? It’s necessary to take a clear and honest look at what is dying in our world to be ready to welcome rebirth. It is time to let go of the pain that has caused so much degradation, so much poisoning of our people and our world, and to do what we can do to stay above the level of worry about what might happen, or what is happening that we have no control over. You are the only one who can help yourself come out of the darkness of sleep. In sharing the light you discover in healing, in bringing together the shattered aspects of self living in this world of 3D, you help. To open up this discussion further, I invite you to engage in some of the groups going on at the O9 website, and to create new groups to stimulate a greater healing with the community. Bring your fears and your hopes, your concerns and observations. Post videos, photos, words, music to enrich understanding and transformation. Share what you know! Every voice is precious. This is the time for bringing it all together and out in the open. Remember: The site exists for you, in resonance with the deep vibration of love that the League of Light have been opening up for us all. Take advantage of what’s there and create it to be what serves the collective of humanity in this time of transformation.   I wish you all peace and wholeness. Posted on Bends of Light
The Runaway Train
video
15 May 2013 - 7:57am
150 years today heralded the birth of Frank Hornby :-)... He brought much joy into the world, in the form of his 'toys for boys' - especially, perhaps, with his Hornby model trains - which proved to be a runaway success :-)... Anyway, it seems fitting to remember his achievements in the form of a light-hearted children's song :-)
Solar Activity Alerts: A new idea in the new way of things
Blog entry
14 May 2013 - 3:17pm
Solar Activity Alerts... The time has come to speak about and educate each other about the symptoms which affect everyone wether they know what is happening or not. It seems to start with my digestion...and the nausea is so intense that it makes me violently gag. My brain gets foggy and I have trouble putting sentences together. A dull ache starts in the middle of my head and it adds to the confusion. I feel off, my balance off, my body does not feel like mine. I lay down exhausted but cannot sleep. Sometimes my feet get very cold, my hands hot. I feel as if I am in a microwave. That is what earthbound solar flares do to me. Anything over an M-class flare starts to bring about these symptoms for me. Two weeks ago when we had the M-Class flare after all the consecutive C-class ones, I lost my mind. In the middle of the night. I remember thinking somewhere along that endless night "thank god i don't have a gun..." I forgot everything. The thoughts running through my mind were disturbing to say the least. Somewhere in the fog I realized that something was happening to me and at three in the morning I called a friend for help. He was my lightworker that night. He kept me seeing the light while I was lost in the darkness of my mind. After several hours I was able to center and rest a bit. Yesterday we had three X-class flares, they were not earth directed...(but what if they had been...?) This last experience shook me up, to say the least, and I realized that as I continue to raise my vibration,I am becoming more and more sensitive to the effects of the solar storms and magnetic storms that are so active right now. I know I am not the only one. I realized I am so blessed to have had someone that could hold the light for me and to support me as these energies released the "madness" within... For that is exactly what it felt like, like I released thoughts and ideas that were indeed insane from within me. And then I thought... What would I have done in that state of madness if I had NO ONE to reach out to? And if it had been an X-class flare and ensuing magnetic storm had been earth directed... What would I have done...? So I researched and found out some interesting things...(there really is a ton of information out there...as always,please use discernment)  This I found interesting: From http://moonlightenedshelves.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/solar-storm-january-2012-how-is-it-changing-you-and-the-world Russian scientist Oleg Shumilov of the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems in Russia researched activity in the Earth’s geomagnetic field from 1948 to 1997 and found a remarkable increase in the amount of depression, anxiety, bi-polar (mood swings), aggression and even suicides in the northern Russian city of Kirovsk over the same period. And from the same website... Cold hard evidence points to the fact that wars and international conflicts most often erupt when sunspots, the cause of these lovely solar flares, are rapidly forming or rapidly decaying. In 1915 Russian scientist Alexander Chizhevsky began work on a study that observed mass changes in human behavior correlated to sunspot cycles. Professor Raymond Wheeler, a historian at the University of Kansas, then took this observation even further in the 1930s, assigning numerical rankings to the severity of battles as they correlated to solar cycles. Edward Dewey then validated the existence of these war cycles but couldn’t make a provable connection to sunspot cycles because sufficient data at that time wasn’t available. By the 1980s it was. Wheeler’s data was analyzed in more detail and the correlation was proven valid. The research points to a correlation between these solar flares and the ensuing magnetic storms and how they do indeed afffect us,our bodies,our emotions, our pineal gland(it's so sensitive to magnetic fields). So I thought what if? We have Amber alerts, tornado alerts, hurricane alerts...all types of alerts to help us to unite and prepare... What about Solar Activity Alerts? (or something like that?) I have a free app that alerts me to solar activity...everyone can have the information. So imagine this... You are a neonatal nurse with a ton of experience and you start to notice a new born who seems to be affected by solar flares...sensitivity to magnetic fields...you tell the parent...who starts to build a support system around this child so that in school their different behavior is understood...it isn't that they are "bad" they are just affected differently...so the individual grows up aware of their sensitivity and is not afraid of himself or afraid they could hurt others...their friends would know that in times of intense solar activity these sensitives need extra support to navigate the brain confusion and strange thoughts... Drinking a ton of water and taking showers or salted baths seem to help calm the body down. I believe education is key. Making the public aware of these symptoms...so that if they are the ones experiencing they can stay out of fear...and if they are not they can help others stay out of fear. I wish to spread this information far and wide my light family. I ask for  assistance from ALL. As the vibrations of our Mother Earth rise, so will the sensitivity to solar activity by all life here on earth... My heart guides me to help prepare so that those that  begin to experience these symptoms can stay out of fear... And step into their own Light. Afterall we are love and love is all there is. And what incredible gratitude I feel to know this Truth. WE are all amazing. In Light and Love Shine Bright. : ) marie
A Skewed World...
Blog entry
14 May 2013 - 9:49am
A seemingly entrenched view amongst the powers that be, that saddens me the most, is that 'unproductive' people - those at the bottom of the heap, if you will - are somehow much less worthy than those who so readily deem them to be so... It is merely a view of convenience of course, because it doesn't reflect the reality of the situation... That reality is, quite obviously, that resources have always been skewed in favor of those that already have the most within our world societies... Is it not obvious, that if such malignly defined 'scum' were provided with a more equal status in life, then their latent talents/intelligences/gifts would then bear fruit???... And that the bearing of such additional fruits would, collectively, be of great benefit to the peaceful and harmonious evolution of humanity - both physically and spiritually???... Or, is it perhaps, that such people are only too aware of such obvious truths, but that their seemingly unquenchable greed and quest for domination, dictates their highly selfish and distorted actions/viewpoints???... Whatever the truth of the situation, from a Spiritual Perspective this can clearly be seen as folly/ignorance - willful or otherwise... For, as was Taught, that which we sow, we also reap - the meaning of which, being that if we abuse a life of plenty, a life/lives of little will surely follow... So when is such a state of seemingly perpetual samsara (birth, suffering, death, and rebirth) going to be ended by Skillful actions, rather than unskillful actions, being taken by those who are much more readily in positions to do so???... Evidence provided by the relevant sciences, shows us that, thus far, all Ages/Cycles have ended in cataclysmic destruction - followed by yet another restart for humanity... Some may say that such cycles of destruction are unavoidable - but are they really???... Could it not be the case that if decisions were taken to live more Skillful, Harmonious and Meritorious lives, as equals, then Assistance would be provided in order that we travel safely through our repeating 26000 year cycles of passage through the galactic rift/plane - thus providing our evolution with much needed continuity???...
Living our Passion
Blog entry
13 May 2013 - 11:15am
                          Namaste dear friends  ~ I think it really sad that many people I have seen on the internet have stopped living their passion by exchanging it for worry about the future.   Reading about the ascension process and what is interpreted by many writers is what is creating much disharmony.    But, I can rephrase that by saying  -  that many people who believe everything they read about this spiritual process have brought upon themselves a life of disharmony. We create our future with moment after moment of living !   The ones who believe it is an off-world event seem to be the most unhappy, for they are waiting for that time to come, and also WHO is going to take them there!    Those who believe that the Galactic family or ET's are going to land with new technology and a new way of life will be waiting forever.   Also, that an Ascended Master is going to set up a new banking system........well, that is just not going to happen.  The whole problem is that the ones who have no spiritual background before coming to the computer and reading all of these different scenarios will be fair game to every spiritual entrepreneur who has set up a very impressive website.   The point of my blog is about giving up what makes your heart sing, your passion in life, for many, many "maybes."    Life is...  well.......about living!    What a shame to waste all of that passion that generated such happiness and perhaps also helped many people   -   if it was about helping other people.   The doubts can easily set up about whether one should assist others or not, because of what someone has said about karma on the computer.  Even the law of attraction has many thinking that everything that happens to them is their own fault!   We cannot control the actions of others around us, so how can we attract bad things to happen if an unstable person decides to go on a rampage, or someone has a fight with their partner and drives recklessly and kills others through their actions. I really do not think that any of these websites who profess to know all of this realize that they themselves are racking up some pretty bad karma themselves by wrongly influencing others.  If someone takes on a position of 'knowing' and preaches what they believe to the vulnerable folk out there in cyberspace,  then that is consciously misleading others on their path.  And that also applies to teachers and fake channeled messages.   All in all, I find it very sad to hear of anyone who has stopped doing what they know in their hearts they should continue.   The best guide is always within yourself  -  just check within your heart and you will get an immediate answer through a feeling.    Go with that because your heart never lies when it comes to taking care of you.   Much love to All, namaste, Tara.    
To Know Someone Deeply
Blog entry
13 May 2013 - 2:35am
                                                     To  know  someone  deeply                                               is like hearing the moon through the ocean                                               or having a hawk lay bright leaves at your feet.                                               It seems impossible, even while it happens. Discovering who we are is like breaking a trail up the side of a mountain.  Yet the deepest friendships begin when we look into the eye of another and discover that they have been there too.  It is always astonishing to me to find out that someone else sees what I have seen, and always humbling to learn that what I thought was my path and my mountain is everyone's. We carry whole worlds within us as we brush by each other in the supermarket to read mayonnaise jars.  The entire drama of life churns in our blood as we rush underground to catch a train.  We are always both so known and so unknown. This is why knowing someone deeply is such a treasure.  It opens the sky of all time.  It lets the song come out of the sea.  It lets the heart like a photographer be developed for being touched by another. And though we may find someone along the way who's been where we are going or going where we have been, we must never stop breaking our own trail up the mountain.  For only by daring to be ourselves can we deeply know others.                                                                                                                      **  E X E R C I S E  **             *  This is a walking meditation.  As you make your way to work or the store,                 walk steadily and breathe slowly.              *  As you breathe, feel the inwardness that is you.              *  As you walk and breathe, notice others doing the same.              *  As you meet the eyes of others, realize that they are just as deep as you.                                                               **  Typed from:  The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo  **            
The World I Dream is Illumined
Teaching
12 May 2013 - 1:46pm
              By Llyn Roberts M.A. The Earth is abundant with ecstatic life forms and expressions. Ponder waterfalls and oceans.  Look up at a starlit sky. Remember mountain vistas. Think of the structure of cells, the scent of flowers or the softness of an infant's skin. Magic can be ordinary yet it's omnipresent. All we have to do is remember to look for the beauty, mystery and intelligence of life to see that it's everywhere. In doing so we glimpse what Heaven on Earth could be; and we fuel its possibility. Why live as we do when our sentient planet can bountifully nourish body, heart and soul? In my dreaming I see that our human family is capable of greatness yet untapped.  We can live in harmony with each other and our planet in ways beyond imagining now.  Every moment breathes potential. We just need to wake up to it. I dream this reality to be very close at this time in the evolutionary cycle of humankind. In the face of unprecedented personal and global challenge, our Universal aspects now pressure to the surface. I envision a world where humans are illumined. How we experience reality, what we desire and create is different.  In this world, interconnection is valued over separation. We live respectfully and in balance with our planet.  Doing so makes our communities wholesome and we’re aware that doing otherwise doesn't make any sense. In knowing we're parts of the same whole, we live harmoniously with each other. War doesn't exist because we feel complete in ourselves and know our connection to all things. There are no foreign threats because nothing is seen as separate. The desire to dominate others and nature has dissolved. The incentive to amass wealth, territory, power has fallen away. In letting go of self-serving values we are spiritually lifted and gain esteem through compassionate action. Suffering, famine and disease are vanquished. Problems that were once insurmountable have either instinctively disappeared, or solutions have come to light. We depend on few physical resources to survive. As we're fabricated more of energy in this world, what was physical and solid prior to our awakening, has changed. We select foods for their energetic vibrancy yet have less need to eat. There are some of us who breathe in life force from the atmosphere, or absorb it from sunlight and nature, with such efficiency that we don't require food at all. Some of us live in urban areas but there are much smaller numbers of people concentrated in cities and they have different qualities than before. They're quieter, calmer, and are healthy places to be. We use natural power sources that are unlike any alternative methods we knew. In understanding ourselves as energy, we’ve tapped our natural ability to move about in this world and explore others, without external vehicles. These are natural human capacities of teleportation that until current times were only remembered by Eastern yogis and spiritual adepts. Illumination has caused what was previously hidden or veiled from perception to be seen for what it is. This includes innate human capacities. Energy transfers also propel visitors from other places in the Universe who come and go, some living with us here on the Earth.  Balls of light frequent the skies and the larger Universal community is now an intimate point of reference.  We’ve rejoined with stellar families, whose existence we had forgotten, and they share many things with us including advanced technologies. The Universe is more expansive and loving than we ever could’ve dreamed. Old ways of knowing and fears have transformed.  The nature of reality has not changed, our acuity has expanded to see its true patterns. We realize now how limited we were, how compartmentalized was our experience; the life we knew was but a small slice of what’s possible.  We've awakened from a nightmarish slumber and consciously dream our lives. We direct energy and intention to effortlessly manifest what we desire and need, in consonance with all living things. Many more of us live simply and closer to the Earth in small communities. Nature invigorates, balances us and our communities thrive because we’re in harmony with the perfection all around us. The natural world is translucent and individuals relate as intimately with the elements and animals as they do with other people. Humans are also luminous. Spiritual centers in the brain connected with pineal and pituitary glands called Nodes of Luminaria have lighted, opening inner faculties. We emanate light, much like the halos in the renderings of Christ and sanctified beings. In times past a human being’s sense of self was focused on sex, survival and on mental projections. Today, we’re in balance with all aspects of our humanness, with more of our energy focused around the heart center than it was before. This enables some of us to keep the thymus functioning throughout life. In others, immunity remains robust despite any physical evidence of the gland. This is one reason we’re resistant to disease, but primary is that we know only oneness. As heart and mind are one, life force suffuses us unobstructed. Much of our communication these days is telepathic, which is not simply a mental transfer of thoughts as people used to define it. Telepathy is an empathic exchange projected from, and felt within, our hearts and bodies. This is intimate beyond what language could ever be. Because mind and heart are inseparable, we think and converse differently, through feeling and vibration.  We understand one another instantaneously and with a depth that words could never convey. As we share, we extend energy and love as humans are fulfilled by the goodness they radiate. As these changes occur, pollution problems on the Earth impulsively clear. Everything physical is awake to its energetic quality and the higher frequencies renew form to its perfected state. In waking up to our own, and the world's, true character we’ve created new options for living. In awakening to the dream that is life, we’ve recognized that we can co-create it. We use light and sound waves to heal, yet serious illness only rarely occurs and previous medical paradigms are seen as archaic. We choose when to stop living in human form. Those who awaken first, help others open to the grace that is our world. This is a reality of wholeness, union with nature and the Divine.                                                                                                                                                     Infinity In my dream world humanity is boundless; who we are is consciously entwined with the infinite potential of the Cosmos.  I dream this as coming about more naturally than what one might ponder. Think of the symbol for infinity, the figure eight.  Imagine that Universal Intelligence, or Source, travels a path of Becoming and Returning as portrayed by the figure eight.  The center point of the eight is pure, dynamic consciousness. This consciousness expands out from its own center in a primordial longing to create, a path of Becoming. The Universe's expression is ecstatic as worlds, planets, galaxies, star systems, life forms, come into being. Separation is the vehicle through which form manifests.  Separation isn't a problem, it’s inherent to the anatomy of generation. But as a result, form isn't conscious of itself or its beginnings. As manifestation peaks, forgetting is most prevalent--on our figure eight this point in the journey would be the outer curve of the first loop. Yet Source longs to know itself through creation, affecting the Cycle of Return--calling all that It has manifested, back to Itself. In moving closer to its origin, pure consciousness, creation quakes.  Polarities exaggerate because all is called back to know itself as Source, light as well as dark. In my imagined world, this would be the time period within which we now live. Nearing the hub of the figure eight, the Cycle of Return approaches completion. In reaching Its heart, as Universal Intelligence remembers Itself through form, all of creation is illumined. All that is manifest now knows itself as Source. The Universe embarks on a fresh journey of Becoming, a new world is born. Indigenous shamanic peoples of diverse cultures say we and our world are an interconnected dream.  We are one with everything, all is one with us. As in sleeping dreams, this dream of who we are is malleable.  We and our world can transform. We can re-shape at anytime. Prophecies from all over the planet point to this time in human history as one of monumental change. As Universal Intelligence is ecstatic, its repertoire, infinite; the time is ripe to dream ourselves freshly.  In doing so, we can realize our true potential and create a new world for our own, and all the Earth's children.                               Llyn Roberts, M.A. is a prominent teacher of healing and shamanism, spiritual ecologist, director Dream Change, Inc., author Shapeshifting into Higher Consciousness and other titles. Excerpted from the book, The World I Dream Of by Curt Butz published by O-Books 2010.
I am not your mirror...
Blog entry
10 May 2013 - 1:18pm
The energies of the moon were fired up in my heart yesterday... Many fell by the wayside as the moment of letting go finally occurred. As the divine masculine ignited within the divine feminine in a fiery union(to say the least)... The ring of fire indeed...these were my experiences... I am still processing so much I can barely write or spell... And with this energy came the realization that sometimes the person or situation in front of me is NOT my mirror. My mirror is not always my mirror... We were each other's mirroors at the time of the initial encounter,sometimes many,many years ago...sometimes a few short months... But that is not who I am NOW. My mirror is loving and treats me in a loving way. Those are the kind of mirrors I wish and dream of in my life... And I look around today those are the ones that are here with me today. And for them I am so grateful. Shine on my light family. Getting bumpy ,got to do some tricky surfing in these amazing energies... But we are doing great. Afterall we know the TRUTH. WE ARE LOVE BECAUSE LOVE IS ALL THERE IS. My love to you marie
Tax Haven Investigations...
Blog entry
10 May 2013 - 9:39am
Another interesting article, published within The Guardian online newspaper, yesterday... http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/09/100-richest-uk-billions-offshore-tax-havens So, as Snow Patrol advised, in the single, 'Run', taken from their album, 'Final Straw' - 'light(en) up, light(en) up', and 'have heart my dear(s)'...
Yeouch LIMBO
Blog entry
9 May 2013 - 7:21pm
I thought this eclipse energy was supposed to be nice? I feel so low I could fall into the floor and not notice. By Thursday I am usually tearing my hair out any way but today has been worse. Nearly Gandolf guy I think went by the by. - Did you see? It added up to 22. That's no good. Yes I know we are supposed to think about love and whizz up the lightbody but well it's a bit like an astral game of limbo. In both senses. I haven't got a clue where I am, I just about know my own name and hey...how low can you go? Well, in all honesty, not that low. What are we being taught here? I don't know, some kind of balance? I look at my non lightworker friends and they are doing as predicted. They are following our lead and there is less bickering and falseness and more appreciating the things that matter. I know they probably won't even realised the change in themselves and that's brilliant but hey, we are going to have to come up with a what's next sharpish else they are not going to be very happy in six months time when they are feeling all of this. Did I stop believing in love? I don't mean the love for everyone, or being loving or oneness even but humans you know, I don't think they are capable of it. I asked that scary guy who wants to marry me why he loves me and the first day he couldn't tell me why he loved me. The second day he found an answer, there is a certain part of my anatomy he says always attracts him. Really? I am supposed to base a marriage on something as pathetic as that? What do we do if a woman pops along with more impressive parts of her anatomy? Divorce? When I think of all the work I've had to do on myself and my perceptions of love over the years and really, pointless because love appears to be based on the stupidest of things for some people. I can do lonely, I'm a starseed, I'm a lightworker, I am used to being on my own and working away quietly in a corner. I find all this very hard to deal with though. Is it my job to teach this guy? Do I have to keep on at him until he realises how shiny people can be from the inside out? It doesn't sound very twin flame does it? It's ok I know the drill, insence, music, candles, hot showers, nice smelly moisturiser and lashings of celebrating me until I feel better. - Except I don't feel better, I just smell nicer. Waiting for some magic to happen... which I am sure it will I just don't know when. x x x
Struggle: Punishment or gift?
Blog entry
9 May 2013 - 2:24am
Why do bad things happen to good people? Our struggling and suffering stems from our continuous growth. Your situations aid in strengthening your mental and emotional cognition. German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, said at 45 years old, “What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.” Cliché? Maybe, but ever so true. We cannot expand out intellect nor ascend our awareness to a higher dimensional consciousness without the experience of finding solutions and overcoming these situations that are placed in our life. Our entire lives, since childhood, we have dealt with struggle but now those things seem so minute compared to what we struggle with now. When we were in the moment though, some things made ud feel that life would never go on. But, it always did and we were much stronger when the next test was presented. The same is now, with each completion of a negative situation rebirths a new, brighter life style. The darker the night is, the brighter the day will be when it comes; another cliché quote, but when you study past philosophers and truly meditate on what they said, then look at your life objectively and apply the quotes left to us, one can easily find meaning which opens an entirely new mindset and outlook. Ascension, connection and rememberance of where we came from and who we are. Our lifes purpose, though different for every being, needs priming before we have reached the level of awareness necessary for us to excel in our life's purpose. In order to fulfill our lifes purpose there is a great deal of learning involved. Similar to our educational systems today. When we choose what we want to be or what we want to do for the rest of our human lives on this planet we must first complete all of the necessary training before we have reached the level of intelligence necessary to begin the next phase. Always, we start at the bottom with the simplest of tasks: prerequisites, minor coursework, major coursework, and exams. Those tasks required hard work and struggle but in the end, when you've passed all of your tests we finally step into a new life style and earn our place in that field. Similar to our life problems, we cannot one day be “ready” if we have not surpassed all the necessities first. The struggles we experience today, we have been preparing for all of our lives. Imagine, struggling with the exact same issue ten years ago. We wouldnt have the intellect to overcome. The learning process is never ending. To truly define the word struggle, “To strive, to labor in difficulty, to fight (for or against), to contend.” Theses situations can be looked at one of two ways: positively or negatively. So ask yourself, “Am I struggling through? Or am I striving for more?” The negative aspect tells us to fear because we doubt what we can't physically grasp just yet. In a positive light, we strive to accomplish a better outcome for our current situations, or, if your current situations is content for you, we still strive for more than content. We desire comfort, happiness, stability, bliss. The situations we find outselves in are a result of our own actions. Somewhere along our path we made a free will decision that led us to this moment. No matter how the situations arose, causing confusion, doubt, fear of the unknown... Forget all of that for the past is exactly that, it is past and nothing can change it, dwelling on it will only attract more of that to you. Instead, step back and look, then ask, “What is my next plan of action to help fix this.” Quantum physics and The Law of attraction will draw to you what you desire, negative or positive. So choose wisely. When all seems hopeless and you can't find a single thing positive about this situation and how you will get out of it, what you will get out of it. Step back and ask, “What can I learn from my current situation?” Remember, the night doesn't stay dark forever, eventually the sun must come up. How quick it comes up is up to you and your conscious effort to change your outlook and therefore change your preception and reality. Also, recall some of the past hardest situations in your life, when you never saw a way up, out, through, and a shimmer of positivity was unseen for miles. Eventually, light overpwered the dark in someway or another. The most important thing to remember: We never know how these things will happen; where the slution is going to come from, the finances, the support. The key is to know that the universe works in miraculous ways and if you believe with unwaivering Faith, then sit back, relax, and enjoy the roller coaster. It's always got to stop eventually. Final note: A positive thought is 100 times more powerful than a negative thought (The Secret Law of attractions, Rhonda Bynes), do think on that!
Hold the Love and Light of God within your Heart - channelled by The Crystal Team
Story
8 May 2013 - 10:09am
a beautiful and insightful communication from The Crystal Team channelled through Lindsay Ball - Atlantean Crystal Master Ah, blessed be, to all travellers in this journey through this existence in this lifetime, and what a wonderful existence it is and can be for you all. In the bigger picture, in a universal viewpoint from a distance aspect, we see many things happening which cause distress on your earthly plane and make you wonder – how does this fit into the new Golden Age, the new era that people are talking about? Why does God let these things happen? How can we live a happy life when there is so much dissatisfaction and unhappiness around for so many people? These and many questions of a similar type are being proposed and debated among you on the earthly plane. Well beloved souls, there are many answers to these questions, much is being made available to you, and massive assistance is being offered to you all to help create and support this new opportunity for a wonderful new life. When this opportunity, on this Earth, was offered as a means of experiencing life in a physical body, it was also considered that having free will would create opportunities to experience this experiment in a more fulfilling and expansive way. The energies and opportunities of being in a physical body enabled more facets to be explored and more contrasts of lifestyle, of energies, and more complex ways of being. Common Unity And this started a journey that encompassed free will in a way that is not experienced by any other life forms. And having free will enables people to make decisions that are not always in their best interests, or the best interests of others, of their communities, their country or for Mother Earth. Self aggrandisement, power, inequality, injustice, all arise out of decisions made using free will in an undesirable state. Control of others, violence, fear; are all aspects that arise from decisions which are not based on common unity, on the ‘good for all’ ethos, or for Mother Earth, and as those elements of humanity have become further detached from their soul essence, their true being and purpose in this existence, so they have created an imbalance in energies around the earthly plane. And as we know also, life on Earth is cyclical; things do not remain the same for any length of time, they do not remain in a set position for all times. The earth plates move causing land masses to move and rearrange the position of land masses, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, all created different landscapes, animals move around according to season and food availability. Temperatures change over time in different areas creating new vegetation, and opportunities for new forms of life and conditions. The concept of continual change And so life on the earthly plane has the opportunity to keep changing and moving and reforming. The land mass of Atlantis, visible below the sea, demonstrates ancient cultures that have existed before, and so other cultures and civilizations have existed and evolved and left evidence of their existence. And so as this concept of continual change becomes a reality, as we see the evidence of having free will on this Earth at this time, so we can also see that changes in the future can also be based on the positive use of free will, that the energies of love, happiness, contentment, common unity, collaboration, trust, peace, co-operation and living in harmony with all living things and Mother Earth can be achieved. And add into this the evidence of the Divine Plan, the evidence of this glorious Plan devised and created eons of time ago, dear ones, for you all to experience your various life forms and life times here on Earth as part of your total soul journey. Knowing that energies were established and laid down in the glorious year of 2012 to enable the energies of life on Earth to raise to the 5th dimension, to raise to a level and frequency that will awaken your inner knowledge, your inner wisdom, your inner joy, and allow for all ancient knowledge and wisdom from all cultures past to come forward to assist in creating this new Golden Age. And knowing that we are all energy, knowing that and understanding the light and love energy from God, Source, call it what you will, is available for you all, is around you and within you, and is within your cellular structure, your DNA, your crystalline grid, all in place and ready to assist you all move forwards with ease and joy into the new era, the new Golden Age. And this will continue to unfold as part of the Divine Plan as part of the love and light of God, created for you all. Cause for celebration And so adding all these aspects together, dear ones, the ancient wisdom and knowledge now becoming available to you all, the goodwill and intent of many, many of your Earth soul beings who are living a life of common unity and peace, of light workers, peace workers, joy workers, of Earth workers, all these combining to use free will in a positive way, a positive force for good. This is indeed cause for celebration is it not? Understanding that positive energy attracts positive energy and likewise negative energy attracts more negative energy, then it will make sense to hold the light, to hold the vision of the Plan, to hold the light and love of God within our hearts, within our thoughts, words and actions. To allow the love and light of God to light up in our crystalline grid, our cellular structure, our DNA, to light up and shine out brightly for all to see and benefit from. And as more people add to this light, as more people open up to their wisdom and knowledge stored within them, as more people see the benefit of holding the faith, and trusting in the Plan, then the more energy will raise, the more goodwill will be generated, and the more the Plan will unfold in all its glory for you all. And yes, many aspects of life do need to be addressed and changed, and made more real and genuinely good for the benefit of all, and these matters cannot be overlooked. Intention among world leaders needs to change to take into consideration, fairness, equality, justice, honesty, openness and good management. And many aspects are now being bought to the surface for clearance; financial matters are being bought out for examination, land masses of inherent injustice and inequality are being cleansed and cleared, areas of land are being cleared and cleansed by physical means, and all these are happening now at this pivotal time and creating opportunities for new energies to raise the intentions and purpose of these aspects of life. Faith and trust These institutions are being cleared and new ways of managing and leading are offered to create fairer, more harmonious ways of life for all. And so these negative aspects can also be looked at positively in that they are now being shown to be false, dishonest, unfair and unjust. Changes can and must occur to create a better way forward for the future, and being positive, holding the light, holding the faith and the trust that they will result in better outcomes, allows the energies to raise to a higher level. And when the energies of enough souls have raised to the higher level, when faith and trust, goodwill and good intent have created sufficient mass, then critical mass will bring all energies up to the required level and at this point all souls will awaken and understand all that they know within their hearts, within their souls and within their subconscious. And then all actions, intentions, and decisions will be based on harmony, joy, love and the best outcome for all living beings and Mother Earth. And so, dear ones, there are many reasons to have faith and trust in the unfolding of the Divine Plan. Many of you have already experienced and witnessed changes since the crystallisation of the 144 grid and the new energies bought in on 21.12.12. And these allow for the structure, the basis of the establishing and holding of the new higher energies, and so you can already see the outcome of this. And many more are starting on their journey of awakening and are reading books and looking for groups of like-minded people to chat, discuss, meditate, heal and so on. And so, dear ones, delight in experiencing these beautiful energies, delight in your inner knowing and awareness, those ‘light bulb’ moments of new understanding, the joining together with people of similar intention to spread the light, to bring peace and understanding into the world, and know that your intuition will be guiding you, your inner light will shine brighter, and your life will flow more easily and beautifully, and you will be a beacon to others to join in this magnificent way of life. We are with you always, watching over you and offering guidance and support and we leave you with our greatest love, till time again.” Channelled by The Crystal Team through Lindsay Ball Atlantean Crystal Master www.lindsayball.co.uk Copyright @ Lindsay Ball – you are invited to share these beautiful words, energies and intentions provided they are not altered or taken out of context in any way and a proper credit line is given – thank you.
In the Now I Am Whole ~
Blog entry
8 May 2013 - 9:37am
                                                                                   ~~**~~          In  the  Now  is  where  I  find  Peace.             ~~**~~                                                                                                                           *~*   Each day when I am out walking, I am experiencing everything in and around me as it is.....Now.  *~*                                       *~*   Life on Earth is tough .........I find I do not need to be striving in every    *~*                                                     ~       moment to discover something 'better' or 'easier.'       ~                                                         ~        My Path will lead me to where I need to be.....     ~                                                                                                     *~*     When I Allow Myself to be in Peace and Serenity, whatever answers   *~*                                      ~      I need in this day, will find their way into my Awareness.     ~               *~*     I have realized that everything I need for this incarnation is already within me.     *~*                                                    ~    A well-trodden path has led me to know this.     ~                                                                                                                  *~*     No soul on earth is ever alone   ~   We are all Loved beyond Measure     *~*                                                           **     Deep peace of the running wave to you.    **                                                                    Deep peace of the flowing air to you.                                                                    Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.                                                                    Deep peace of the shining stars to you.                                                             **    Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.    **                                                                                 ~  Adapted from ancient gaelic runes                                                                                                                                                         *~*      May the Light Within Always Guide and Protect You      *~*                                                                             ~     Love  and  Blessings     ~
Building Healthy Emotions
Teaching
7 May 2013 - 10:00am
Building Healthy Emotions Written by Audrey Marlene http://www.audreymarlene-lifecoach.com/emotions.html The depth of one’s spiritual experience is directly related to the strength and capacity of their emotions. Our emotions are a dimension of our spirituality, which play a significant role in how we perceive all aspects of our lives and how we benefit from them. Emotions are triggered through our senses-- touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting and how we perceive the world around us. Our brains interpret the incoming messages from our senses but sometimes these messages can be misinterpreted giving us a false impression of what is happening. Our perceptions are not always perfect. What we sense can move us to react in some of the following ways:   Anger, Rage, Contempt Fear, Guilt Anxiety, Anticipation Sadness, Despair, Hurt Shame, Humiliation Joy, Happiness, Love, Desire, Pleasure Pride, Satisfaction, Fulfillment, Sense of Accomplishment Jealousy, Greed, Suspicion Hope, Faith, Courage    Emotions such as shame, guilt, anxiety, hurtfulness and sadness are most often caused by the thoughts we perceive. They can affect our mood, cloud our judgment, and influence our decisions. A lot of what we perceive determines the limits we place on our lives. The mind feeds on what we perceive and any misconceptions can become compulsive, preventing us from finding emotional peace and strength. Our thoughts can create unnecessary pain and suffering, or a life of hope and promise for the future. By changing our perception we can change our emotions and how we feel. When you are emotionally healthy you are in control of your thoughts, feelings and behavior. When in this state of mind, you feel good about yourself and can readily engage in good relationships. Without a doubt, emotions must be sound in order to have a healthy mind.   How would you rate your emotional state? A large part of my responsibility as a life strategist is to help you to recognize your emotional condition and give you the tools necessary to build strong and healthy emotions. Without emotional balance and stability, your efforts for achieving great things in life are compromised. Healthy emotions are essential in maintaining a clear, objective perspective in order to rise above mediocrity and ultimately achieve the greatness within you. Healthy emotions indicate a more meaningful life.   Are your emotions stable? We are highly emotional beings. We feel emotions, we communicate emotions, and we remember emotions. Our emotions drive us to feel good or bad, feel more or less in control, or more or less powerful. When we feel strong negative emotions, it’s our body’s way of alerting us that something in our lives requires attention; this is our built in alarm system warning us that changes need to be made. Naturally, we need to feel emotional balance in order to feel good inside. Here's your chance to investigate and diagnose your emotional health. By clicking on each link below, you can begin to identify the emotions that need attention and how to address them. You can acquire a better understanding of your emotional limitations and strengths and take the first steps toward achieving emotional equilibrium   No matter how intelligent, educated, wealthy, or beautiful you are, if your emotions are unbalanced, you are at a disadvantage regarding your capacity to reach your desired goals or, put simply, that good feeling inside. I urge you to begin cultivating emotional balance. Once you have achieved it, your emotional intelligence will exponentially increase, allowing you the energy and power within to take the next step towards reaching anything you aspire to.   It is important to recognize the extent to which one’s emotions can enhance or hinder their development. I, personally, have had my share of emotional setbacks, but with perseverance, I have discovered emotional balance and a kind of happiness that I never ever expected to enjoy. It's amazing how we can go through life year after year wondering why we feel the way we do -- faced with issues of sadness, depression, fear anxiety, doubt and that dreadful feeling in the pit of our stomachs-- never knowing when the feelings will pass. Everyone longs to feel confident, to be able to hold their head high and feel great about who they are as a person.   Now it's time to stop longing; it's time to take action to feel those good emotions you deserve to feel every day of your life. Once you can understand and diagnose your emotional state and learn to manage them, you move closer to experiencing true happiness.  
Counseling
Blog entry
7 May 2013 - 6:39am
So, when I'm not busting my butt with spring cleaning to prepare for a future, or planting more flowers, I sometimes find time to write a bit for a planned book. Yes I do.  And, the time maybe right for posting up this little snippet here.  Hope you enjoy!  :) COUNSELING I learned what I know about counseling from a Marine. He was a Special Forces/Black Beret/Seal Team member guy with combat experience. Bob knew about force. He knew how a three member team could take out a whole enemy division of soldiers. Bob knew about patience and adaptability. He knew what it was like to wait for days, stranded behind enemy lines, for a helicopter to finally arrive. Bob knew about direction and perseverance. You could drop Bob naked into any wilderness, and he would survive and eventually find his way out.   You might imagine that Bob talked a lot about discipline and authority. But you would be wrong. Bob was a very practical man. Bob was all about getting the job done, and Bob studied how things actually work.   Having successfully counseled hundreds of people, Bob described the experience like this:   “For most people, life is like leaving the center aisle of a big warehouse, and running down a side aisle, frivolously knocking piles of boxes off the shelves in their wake behind them with their arms. Until one day, they reach the outer wall of the warehouse, and they realize that their path is a dead end, and they realize it doesn’t lead where they thought it did, and now they turn around, and they see that the only way back, is littered with the wreckage of a careless life lived in vain.”   “To be a counselor, you have to love them right there. You can’t wait for them to get back to the center aisle and be right before you love them. You have to love them where you find them, hug them, and hold their hand, and help them put the boxes back on the shelves, and climb over the wreckage and the obstacles, to find the path back.”   Bob knew. You must love them where they are. You cannot put conditions on it. They are at point X and you know they should be waaaay over here at point Y. You cannot wait until they get to point  Y to love them. You  just can’t. You have to love them right now, right where they are, or just forget it. It won’t work, and you can’t be a counselor.   Think of them as a toddler with a cereal bowl on their head and oatmeal running down their face, throwing cups, screaming bad words that you have no idea how they learned, with flailing arms, a red face, and a diaper full of stinky poo. You can’t fix that, if you don’t love it first. You cannot obsess over how they are doing EVERYTHING wrong, or about how what they are doing is BAD for them. It starts with love, and it takes time.   Counseling is no different than God loving you. You are God’s loud messy stinky little toddler. Yes you are. So am I. You didn’t deserve it, but God loved you anyway. It’s called grace. If you accept it, you get fed. If you don’t accept it, you stay hungry. Counseling is just you being mature enough to pass on the same grace and love that you accepted, on to someone else now.   Counseling is a spirit of adoption. You don’t adopt a parent. The parent adopts you. Just like God did. You just agree to it, accept it, and get fed. It changes you. Your name changes. Just like with God, there is no abandonment. Once you are part of the family, it’s forever. My daughter can move half way around the globe and do everything I find horrible, disgusting, and shocking, but she is still forever, always, my daughter.  Nothing she ever does can change that fact. Counseling and discipleship are like that. It is you adopting someone in love and grace, the same way God loves and adopted you.   Remember, God never excommunicates anybody … Humans do that.   -  “Adam, where art thou?” (c)
WAGNER - Tristan und Isolde - Prelude and Liebestod (Georg Solti - Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
video
7 May 2013 - 3:32am
Vulnerability Holds the Key to Emotional Intimacy
Teaching
6 May 2013 - 10:03am
How Vulnerability Holds the Key to Emotional Intimacy By Brené Brown Issue:  2012 November-December of Spirituality & Health     She may not be a household name just yet, but when you refer to “the woman who talks about vulnerability,” the seven million viewers of her TEDTalks videos know you mean Brené Brown. A research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, Brown has been studying shame, fear, and vulnerability for 12 years. She has presented her findings in three books, on national television, and in lectures across the country. A mix of no-nonsense Texan and best-friend warmth, Brown shines a light into the inner chambers of our hearts—and illuminates a reason to hope. She discusses her new book,Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, with S&H’s Karen Bouris. S&H: In your new book Daring Greatly, you introduce the idea of a shame-based emotion that seems unique to our contemporary society. One aspect you name is the “fear of being ordinary.” Brené Brown: The overwhelming message in our culture today is that an ordinary life is a meaningless life unless you are grabbing a lot of attention and you have lots of Twitter followers and Facebook fans who know everything you know. I use the shame-based fear of being ordinary as my definition for narcissism. I definitely see it in younger generations, where people fear they are not big enough. No matter how happy and fulfilling their small, quiet life is, they feel it must not mean very much, because it’s not the way people are measuring success. Which is just terrifying.   So there’s excess, but at the same time, you talk about a culture of scarcity. Can you explain what you mean by that? The root of the scarcity issue is fear. The questions we are living by—what are we supposed to fear, and who is to blame?—are exhausting for us spiritually, emotionally. Fear consumes an enormous amount of energy in our lives, and to me that’s probably the greatest casualty of the scarcity culture. We are spending so much time and energy being afraid that we are not fully walking into our power and our gifts. During your 12 years of research, you found people who do feel adequate; you coined the term “wholehearted” for this feeling, a feeling of being enough. How did they arrive at that emotional place? There are two things they shared in common. The first is a sense of worthiness—they engage in the world, with the world, from a place of worthiness. Second, they make choices every day in their life, choices that almost feel subversive in our culture. They are mindful about things like rest and play. They cultivate creativity, they practice self-compassion. They have an understanding of the importance of vulnerability and the perception of vulnerability as courage. They show up in their lives in a very open way that I think scares most of us.  Why should we foster vulnerability in our relationships?  When I asked people “What is vulnerability?” a large percentage of them used the example of “initiating sex with my wife” or “initiating sex with my husband.” Yet there can be no intimacy—emotional intimacy, spiritual intimacy, physical intimacy—without vulnerability. One of the reasons there is such an intimacy deficit today is because we don’t know how to be vulnerable. It’s about being honest with how we feel, about our fears, about what we need, and, asking for what we need. Vulnerability is a glue that holds intimate relationships together. How does vulnerability relate to our capacity for joy? As someone who spent more than a decade studying fear, vulnerability, and shame, I never thought in a million years that I would say that joy is probably the most difficult emotion to feel. It’s hard to feel joy because we are so keenly aware that it’s fleeting. When we lose our tolerance for vulnerability, we lose the courage to be joyful. Joy is a daring emotion! We are going to let ourselves stop in a moment that won’t last forever, that can be taken away. We feel almost that “you are a schmuck if you let yourself feel too deeply because the bad stuff is going to happen.”   Is that because we feel undeserving of joy? I think what drives it, even more than feeling undeserving, is “if I let myself feel this joy, pain will be all that much harder. If I let myself just really sink into the joy of my child, something is going to happen to him or her, and I will be devastated.” It comes back to the idea that it’s easier to live disappointed than feel disappointed. And yet we are starving for joy. I have never met anyone who doesn’t want more joy in their life.  You use a term, “the betrayal of disengagement.” Before I started this research, when someone used the word “betrayal,” I thought of high drama, of cheating or mistrust. During the interviews, though, the most hurt and the deepest hurt I saw, over and over, was when people would talk about relationships— whether it was with a friend, a parent, with adult children—where people had just stopped trying. Where at some point, they threw their hands in the air and said, “it’s not supposed to be this much work or this hard.” Our capacity for wholeheartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be brokenhearted; again, it goes back to the idea that we are so afraid of feeling pain and feeling loss that we opt to live disappointed rather than to feel disappointed. We are never fully in; there is no raw engagement.   A lot of your work examines how humans experience the emotion of shame. Can you explain how shame relates to vulnerability?  If vulnerability is the willingness to show up and let ourselves be seen, shame gets in the way. How can we be authentically known when we are paralyzed with fear about what people might see? Setting boundaries is a great example; it’s something that people don’t think about as vulnerability, but saying “no” and protecting our time—whether it’s family time, our creative time, whatever our self-care time is—that’s a huge act of vulnerability in a culture where productivity is so highly valued.   Where does shame come from? Are we born with it? We are born with the hardwiring for connection, and I think we learn shame. It starts as a parenting tool. It’s also a tool for social control; it’s a tool in classrooms; it’s a tool in synagogues and churches and mosques. But if it’s everywhere, how can we overcome it? Shame needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. And when you start naming [the cause of your shame] and talking about it with people who have earned the right to hear these stories in your life, it dissipates, because shame only works when it keeps you in this false belief that you are alone. The good news is that the men and women I have interviewed who have high levels of shame resilience share things in common that we can all learn from.  You first studied women, then men. Did you find that the genders experience shame differently? Shame is a human experience, but the expectations and messages that fuel shame are definitely organized by gender. I would say that men have a tendency, and this is painting with a broad stroke, but men have a tendency to have one or two responses to shame, which is anger or disengagement. Women have a tendency to turn against themselves. We tend to join the choir of the gremlins and engage in some destructive self-loathing.   Does that shame affect our bodies and health? I think we carry shame in our bodies just like we carry trauma in our bodies. One of the interesting studies on this was from James Pennebaker at the University of Texas at Austin. He studied trauma, expressive writing, and physical wellness. What he found is that for people who held on to a secret of trauma—because of shame or because of guilt—keeping that secret had a worse effect on their physical well-being than the actual traumatic event.  In Daring Greatly, you also address how many men have feelings of shame surrounding sex. Can you share what you found in your research? There is so much pressure on men. In the book I share some of the conformities I found in female norms and the conformities in male norms. Women [are supposed to be] thin, nice, pretty, and quiet. For men, the norms are emotional stoicism, primacy of work, and control over women. It’s still about “don’t be perceived as weak,” and men have a lot of shame and fear around rejection and criticism. So sex can become a very scary thing for them because it feels like their worthiness is on the line.  You gave me some fresh insight into our culture’s obsession with pornography. I remember interviewing this man who was a therapist, and he’d worked with men for years. He said that what people don’t understand is, pornography is looking for connection in all the wrong places. [People think] it’s five dollars, five minutes—no rejection, no shame, no criticism. Then when they’re engaging in that behavior, that drives shame and then it becomes cyclical. That shame trigger bumps right up against women’s body-shame issues, so it just becomes the perfect storm. Imagine the vulnerability barricades that go up when that starts to play out between a couple. What everyone is really looking for is worthiness, and the belief that they are worthy of love and belonging.   You share in your TEDTalks and your books about having a breakdown, and you call it a spiritual awakening. What does that mean to you? For me, it was reconnecting with my vulnerability and letting joy back in my life, practicing gratitude, and letting go of perfection. My faith life is my greatest act and source of daring. I am a believer; I am all in! I believe in God, I believe in the goodness of people, I believe that we are all interconnected by something deeply spiritual and profound that’s bigger than us, and so for me, personally, my path to engaging with the world and having the courage to be vulnerable was strictly the result of reconnecting with my faith life.  Is your faith an internal or external expression? It’s fully both. I am engaged in a faith community; I go to an Episcopal church here in Houston, and I am very involved and my family is very involved. That’s part of it. But there is the deeper part of it that is just my relationship with God. At one point in my life, the organizing principle was acceptance and approval. Now, the organizing principles in my life are my faith and my values, which are driven completely by my faith. It’s about doing my work in service to my beliefs, as opposed to doing my work for gold stars—and I am so crazy about a gold star every now and then! I am not that evolved. However, it’s not the guiding principle anymore. I also don’t have the fear of failure I used to have. Because of grace. You know, grace allows for failure.  What do you hope people will get from Daring Greatly? That we need what everyone has to bring to the table. If we are so afraid of what people think, we’re not going to show up in the way that we need to show up for ourselves and for the people around us. We’re all in this together, and time is short. So get the show on the road!  —S&H Stop Shame in Its Tracks Everyone is going to experience feelings of shame, yet we can become more “shame resilient,” says Brown. She observed that some people have higher levels of what she calls shame resilience, and that this characteristic can lead to deeper connections with themselves and others. There were four traits that she found shame-resilient people had in common, and she shares them with us here:   THEY KNOW WHAT SHAME IS. “They talk about the feelings, they ask for what they need,” says Brown. “And they don’t call it embarrassment, they don’t call it guilt, they don’t call it self-esteem—they call it shame.”   THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT ACTIVATES THEIR FEELINGS OF SHAME. “For example, I can expect to be triggered as soon as I feel like I have disappointed someone or let them down,” she says. “I am going to hear a mental tape playing ‘you are not enough.’ Because I am expecting it, I can greet it and say, ‘I get it, but not this time.’ ”   THEY PRACTICE CRITICAL AWARENESS. Brown might, for example, ask herself, Is it really true that my worth hinges on making someone else happy?   THEY REACH OUT. “I might call a good friend and say, ‘Hey, this guy has been asking me to speak at a conference, but it’s on Charlie’s birthday. I said no and he got upset. I know I did the right thing, yet I am feeling like I am not good enough.’” Shame can’t survive being spoken, says Brown. “Talking cuts shame off at its knees.”  
A Beautiful Day...
Blog entry
6 May 2013 - 8:44am
Well, the sun is shining and it's promising to be a Beautiful day :-)... But what type of Beautiful day will it become, i wonder :-)... Will it become the first???...Will it become the second???...Or will it become a completely different type of Beautiful day??? - only time will tell... :-)
My wish and my dream...
Blog entry
6 May 2013 - 1:55am
  I wish to share my heart and love with all others unconditionally and that all others share their heart and love with me unconditionally as well! In Light and Love Forever And so it is. : ) marie
Mudita ~ The Practice of Sympathetic Joy
Teaching
2 May 2013 - 2:21pm
Mudita ~ The Practice of Sympathetic Joy By Barbara O'Brien http://buddhism.about.com/od/basicbuddhistteachings/a/Mudita.htm     Mudita is word from Sanskrit and Pali that has no counterpart in English. It means sympathetic or unselfish joy, or joy in the good fortune of others. In Buddhism, mudita is significant as one of the Four Immeasurables (Brahma-vihara).   Defining mudita, we might consider its opposites. One of those is jealousy. Another is schadenfreude, a word frequently borrowed from German that means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others. Obviously, both of these emotions are marked by selfishness and malice. Cultivating mudita is the antidote to both.   Mudita is described as an inner wellspring of joy that is always available, in all circumstances. It is extended to all beings, not just to those close to you. In the Mettam Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya 46.54) the Buddha said, "I declare that the heart's release by sympathetic joy has the sphere of infinite consciousness for its excellence."   Cultivating Mudita   The 5th century scholar Buddhaghosa included advice on growing mudita in his best-known work, the Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification. The person just beginning to develop mudita, Buddhaghosa said, should not focus on someone dearly loved, or someone despised, or someone one feels neutral about.   Instead, begin with a cheerful person who is a good friend. Contemplate this cheerfulness with appreciation and let it fill you. When this state of sympathetic joy is strong, then direct it toward a dearly loved person, a "neutral" person, and a person who causes difficulty.   The next stage is to develop impartiality among the four --the loved one, the neutral person, the difficult person, and oneself. And then sympathetic joy is extended on behalf of all beings.   Obviously, this process is not going to happen in an afternoon. Further, Buddhaghosa said, only a person who has developed powers of absorption will succeed. "Absorption" refers to the deepest meditative state; in which sense of self and other disappear.   Fighting Off Boredom   Mudita also is said to be an antidote to indifference and boredom. Psychologists define boredom as an inability to connect with an activity. This may be because we're being forced to do something we don't want to do or because, for some reason, we can't seem to keep our attention focused on what we're supposed to be doing. And plugging away at this onerous task makes us feel sluggish and depressed.   Looked at this way, boredom is the opposite of absorption. Through mudita comes a sense of energized concern that sweeps away the fog of boredom.   Wisdom   In developing mudita, we come to appreciate other people as complete and complex beings, not as characters in our personal play. In this way, mudita is something of a prerequisite for compassion (karuna) and loving kindness (metta). Further, the Buddha taught that these practices are a prerequisite for awakening to enlightenment.   Here we see that the quest for enlightenment does not require detaching from the world. It may require retreating into quieter places to study and meditate. But the world is where we find practice -- in our lives, our relationships, our challenges. The Buddha said,     "Here, O, Monks, a disciple lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts of unselfish joy, and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above, below, around, everywhere and equally, he continues to pervade with a heart of unselfish joy, abundant, grown great, measureless, without hostility or ill-will." -- (Digha Nikaya 13)   The teachings tell us that the practice of mudita produces a mental state that is cam, free and fearless, open to deep insight. In this way, mudita is an important preparation for enlightenment.
When others hurt you in the name of Love...(the illusion that love hurts)
Blog entry
1 May 2013 - 10:22pm
I am heartbroken. I shared my heart with someone and they shared theirs with mine. And the syncs and the signs were unbelievable. We were both awake in the flow and creating such beautiful moments. Sharing of hearts when both awake is indescribable. Our communication was often telephatic. The voice recognition tremendous. The connection was unlike any I have ever felt. And then with the intense energies of the moon it all changed... Fear stepped in. Logic took over. The mind said wait!!!!! And the heart closed up. Hidden issues rose to the top to be cleared. Fear took root in the fog... Now because the love they feel is so strong they have pulled away completely. Leaving me completely bewildered. Breaking my heart in the name of too much love? Now the fear is so strong for them that there is nothing I can do except step away from the relationship. For they have closed themselves off to their heart. And that hurts me. I am done being hurt. I cannot stay,even though it breaks my heart to go. So I am going to say goodbye for now to the relationship that is no longer for the highest good. Not because of not loving them, but because I love me and them too much to let them hurt me. I let the relationship go with all my love. The heart connection will always remain. They are always welcome back as long as the new relationship is based on love and not hurt or fear. I deserve no pain from love in my life. That is an illusion,the belief that love hurts. Love does not hurt. If it hurts it is NOT love. There might be love in there but it is mucked up with other non-love things. I cannot accept a relationship in my life that hurts me. The timeline merging between us, one that needed to happen. The ending of many lifetimes. Yet the love is still so deep. And even though I will miss them so much, I also love them and I am so happy we came together one last time. And we remembered each other. And our hearts recognized each other. And while I understand that this is all part of the process...I have to say I am tired. Very tired. The light within me wavering. But I know that it will pass. I know the release will bring such clarity. I know I am loved and this will pass. So know my light family that even in times of heartbreak there is always hope. The light within us may feel dim because we are hurting, but it is not. It is always within us and ready to help us heal. Our Source of Love and Light within our hearts never wavers. It instantly starts the healing process. So does Mother Nature. And so are ALL that love us, here and beyond. I have to keep reminding myself to go within and allow myself to be healed. And to ask for help with this heartbreak. Love never hurts. Never. That is the illusion that reared its ugly head during these past week's(or so) extreme energies for me. Thinking it was ok to be hurt in the name of love just because the heart connection was so strong. And accepting others' behaviors that hurt me in the name of love... because they love me it's ok... No it is not. It never is. It never will be. However,when we feel pain in our hearts, it's ok to ask for help and show our vulnerability to others... It's ok to cry and feel. Feel the anger and rage for the pain another causes us...and then let it go. I might be shifting and expanding, but last I checked feelings are what makes me human...daing it, I am feeling very human right now. (Kinda sucks.) But this WILL pass and the clarity will be enormous. And that keeps me going, even when I have a broken heart. I know this will pass. The love felt was well worth it. I would do it all over again. And I do know that when I release those things which are not for the highest good of all, I get a ton of clarity and love which fills me and gets me closer to being one with my Source. I'm holding on to that approaching moment right now. I know it is on the way. In Light and Love Shine Bright my beautiful family marie
The Test
Teaching
1 May 2013 - 10:16am
The Test M. Fethullah Gulen http://www.fountainmagazine.com/Issue/detail/the-test-2013 Life is a chain of tests, ensuing one after another. It is a human condition we experience from childhood until the moment we breathe our last. For the discerning souls, each of these minor tests is an elimination to determine the souls that make it to the finals; a matter to be determined within the human conscience and in the eyes of heavenly spirits.  We sit for tests of all sorts throughout our lives, tests in varying scopes and levels of difficulty. Tests to enroll a school, to pass a class, to graduate, the test a son happens to endure with his father or the other way around, and many more tests. An exceptionally difficult and humiliating test is being disqualified, pushed aside, and stripped of civil rights due to one’s humanistic thoughts and lofty ideals. The most unbearable test, however, is the one that comes with the hands of disloyal friends, particularly when one is already suffering from the words and actions of relentless and merciless foes. Although, regardless of however inhumane and short of dignity a foe may be, his or her enmity can still be reconciled by an antagonistic logic. One may rationalize—using the same logic—that the more differences in thought, worldview, and values increase, so does enmity. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable and irrational when those striving on the same line of fate, those who cherish the same feelings and ideas, betray one another because of jealousy and competition. This is no way reconcilable with human dignity. Indeed, it hurts—as much as it is worrying—when one ends up with betrayal and pain while expecting faithfulness. What else one can do other than enduring it, as tests of this nature are rampant in a world in which deceit is considered equal to being smart, obsession is equal to to loyalty, and bigotry means conservatism. Yes, as individuals, families, and community as a whole, we have no other option than to endure and say: A reprimand from Your Majesty  or a favor from Your Grace;  Both are a pleasure for my soul;  How pleasant is Your grace  How pleasant is Your wrath A community or a nation may have suffered from the greatest and most painful of all tribulations and betrayals from foes, some of who were in the disguise of friends. The entire world might have advanced upon them and brought them under siege from all corners, leading some to a vain belief of their complete annihilation. Yet, they were able to survive all these tests of life-or-death, nullifying all the destructive plans. It is highly probable for similar tests to come up along the way through hills of flames and oceans of blood, all of which will in fact help them with renewal and with metaphysical regeneration. Each of these tests will be a means of awareness for them to identify who is who, for self-empowerment through learning how to recollect and get back on their feet after being knocked down by them. A human being is purified through tests and gets hold of his or her inner essence, thus their life is saved from stagnancy and becomes colorful. Our spirit matures in the face of tests and becomes prepared for bigger challenges, as the bigger the tests and harder the questions are, the more entitled the human is to pass the class and to rise higher in the school of human values and perfection. Refinement of the individual and empowerment of the society cannot take place without tests. Only souls who have been burdened and pressured by tests can coil like a spring, thrust like an arrow, and reach their target with the blink of an eye. Worries that haunt them all day, hunger and thirst, harm and damage, troubles of all kinds that befell their properties or lives, and being trodden under the metal tracks of unexpected events will all make them as strong as steel and prepare them for the future. Deadened hearts and raw spirits that have not been tested whatsoever cannot rise to their human potential, nor are they of any use to the community. Distinguishing the diamond-like souls from coal-like ones is only possible by way of testing, at the lack of which gold cannot be distinguished from soil, or diamond from coal. If it was not for testing, the most inauspicious ones would be confused with the highest soaring souls, for it is through testing that angel-like ones can be told apart from the evil souls and ascend to their predestined zeniths.  For those who are appreciative of this truth, each test is one added feather to a wing that will enable him or her to take off to the realms beyond the heavens, and each difficulty faced during a test is an elixir of strength and vigor. For these lofty spirits, being cast into fire is the greatest leap into a friendship with the Creator, and being nailed on the cross is an exalted means of ascension to Him. For a heart directed towards the highest of ideals, a test is a whip lashed on his or her perseverance, a spell that makes their willpower rear up, and a ray of light that shines on the dial of heart. After each test they crystallize even more, tighten like a bow, and soar high up to the Gardens they already built in their hearts.  * The rest is found within the website I enclosed at the top
How to Find Your Emotional Balance
Teaching
30 Apr 2013 - 10:06am
How to Find Your Emotional Balance We all seek emotional balance, but what exactly does that mean? By Liz Brody http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Emotional-Balance-Strategies-Lluminari/1     There's no 98.6° of the mind, no 130 over 85 for mood pressure. And, although the popularity of drugs like Prozac and Zoloft might lead us to believe that brain neurotransmitters can be mixed like a smart martini (one jigger of serotonin, two of dopamine...), so far no one has come up with a cocktail for happiness. Most of us know, however, what it feels like to be emotionally out of whack. Patience rubbed bald, making the slightest irritation unbearable. No energy to care about anyone else's difficulties. A shuttered outlook, leaving you increasingly closed to both pleasure and possibility.   Now is the time to attend to your inner fitness, says LLuminari, Oprah's team of 15 doctors and wellness experts who are coaching us toward greater health. It doesn't take decoding the genome to prove that when you're feeling good about yourself, your body stays in better shape and your general condition is more resilient. "The people who age best are those who have positive things happening in their lives and positive feelings," says Norman Rosenthal, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine and the author of The Emotional Revolution, which details the latest science of emotions and argues that they profoundly affect your health and survival.   Forty to 55 percent of a happy disposition is genetic, studies suggest, but the rest can be learned. It may be helpful to think of emotional balance as mastering a surfboard—honing the ability to take life's gnarliest waves without wiping out, while catching the good ones and riding them all the way to shore, enjoying every last splash. What it takes to stay on the board will vary for each of us. Outwardly, life delivers different ups and downs; inwardly, there are many styles of maintaining equilibrium.   To dive in, the LLuminari experts suggest first giving yourself an emotional checkup, then practicing a few basic mood-stabilizing techniques, and finally determining, if appropriate, when it's time to get help. "Some days are tougher than others," says surgeon Nancy Snyderman, MD, the author of Dr. Nancy Snyderman's Guide to Good Health, "but if you generally love waking up in the morning, you're in a good spot. If you're not, challenge what's amiss and see how you can fix it."   Step 1: Emotional Checkup   Sit down with a calendar and ask yourself how you've been feeling over the past couple of weeks—depressed, anxious, joyful, angry? Do you seem uncharacteristically blue and lethargic? If yes, can you see a good reason for it? The questions may seem obvious, but if you don't ask them, Rosenthal says, "it's easy to shove the problem out of your mind."   Next check your expectations. The big mistake people make is confusing emotional balance with happiness, says Alice Domar, PhD, director of the Mind/Body Center for Women's Health at Boston IVF and the author of Self-Nurture. "The huge number of people on Prozac in this country includes many, I think, who were experiencing life's ups and downs normally but had an expectation of constant happiness," she says. "A normal life means feeling pretty satisfied with the way things are, having some moments of joy and some moments of sadness and anxiety."   Step 2: The Keys to Balance   No matter where you are on your emotional surfboard (even if you're off it), these mood-steadying strategies make for easier riding.   1. Mind Rx: Taking a break—imaginary or real—can help settle emotions on a bumpy day. 2. Daydream: "When you think about pleasurable things like sex or food, PET scans show different patterns lighting up in your brain than when you think about work or something unpleasant," says Mehmet Oz, MD, director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. 3. Fake it: Research shows that when you put on a smile, even a forced one, your mood often follows. Hold your head high, walk confidently, and pretend you're Serena Williams after winning the Grand Slam. 4. Listen to music: Put on a pair of headphones and let yourself get carried away. 5. Go to a bookstore and just browse: "Look at travel books, photography books," suggests Byllye Avery, founder of the National Black Women's Health Project. "Dip into some fiction and let your mind go there." 6. Run away: Spas are ideal, Snyderman says (when she books herself for a quick getaway, she tells her kids to "call only in an emergency—and homework doesn't count"). But you can also escape to a friend's house for the weekend, get in the car and just drive, or take a day to be a tourist in your own town.   Step 3: Do You Need Help?   Depression and anxiety, which often occur together, may be pulling you off-kilter, and subtle symptoms can creep up on you without your realizing it.   With mild depression, you might get your work done and perform all your other duties but have trouble mustering enthusiasm for any of it. Getting ready to go to a party often requires a gargantuan effort (although if you can manage that hurdle, you're capable of having a good time). And when little things go wrong—a train is late, a friend cancels—you can be totally knocked off course.   With mild anxiety, you worry about things that most people don't: If there are rumors of a management change at the office, you'll stay up all night thinking about it while everyone else waits for more information before getting worked up. You wish, perhaps, that you were more easygoing—sometimes your fears keep you from trying things.   In both cases, the LLuminari experts recommend the following:   1. Meditation: A proven treatment for anxiety, and, to a lesser extent, depression, "it lowers blood pressure and heart rate and counteracts the secretion of stress hormones like cortisol," Oz says. "We use it in the hospital for anxious heart surgery patients and for post-op depression." 2. Yoga: The mental focus, breathing, and limbering postures combined into one activity work like a multivitamin for inner stability. 3. Reorganization: Look at your daily schedule and sort out what gives you pleasure and what stresses you out. Then think of every way possible to remove the latter from your life. 4. Saint-John's-Wort: Although a large study funded by the National Institutes of Health recently suggested that this herb has no effect on severely depressed people, more than 20 studies, mostly in Europe, show that the herb helps alleviate mild depression. Christopher Hobbs, a clinical herbalist and consultant to the herb industry who has written 22 books, including Herbal Remedies for Dummies, says the optimal dosage is 300 milligrams three times a day (of a formula with 0.3 percent hypericin), although a small person might try twice a day. He also says it may take four to six weeks to notice any effects. Caution: If you're on any medication, consult your doctor before trying Saint-John's-Wort, because it has been shown to interfere with a number of drugs, including some types of chemotherapy and possibly birth control pills.
High Council of Orion Message USE YOUR INTERNAL COMPASS TO GUIDE YOU - 19 APRIL 2013
Story
29 Apr 2013 - 5:43am
Channeled Ascension Message from the High Council of Orion April 19th 2013.   Channeled by Holly Hawkins Marwood Transcribed by Paul Marwood Audio file is available at http://www.akashahealingstudio.com/high-council-of-orion-channeled-message-19th-apr-2013/   USE YOUR INTERNAL COMPASS TO GUIDE YOU   “Greetings Dear Ones,   We are the High Council of Orion.   Today we would like to speak with you about hierarchy and stratification in the world of receiving spiritual inspiration, guidance, knowingness that many more people on the planet are reaching out for at this point in time.   From our point of view what we see happening is many people having some levels of snobbery, if you will, or feelings of superiority or even in inferiority relative to the perceptions of who is a “good” or a “bad” guide or where the source of information coming. So much of what our messages are about, we would like to share with you this idea that if the information you are receiving uplifts you, allows you to feel better, find relief, new answers, solutions to questions or problems you have in your life, bringing you into greater connection with your heart, or, to summarize, to a more positive place it matters not whether you receive that information from somebody who is a relative who’s passed on, someone from the Archangelic realm, or some being from another planetary or star system. We encourage each and every one of you to follow that level of inner guidance where you know and respond to what’s most appropriate for you.   If you ask the co-founders of Orion Network for Evolution, when we first started speaking with them we did not reveal our name. Why? Because we wanted the information to be more important than our names, than our personalities. The guidance you receive from Spirit, regardless of whether it is from a high-level master or some being who you are not familiar with, it matters not as long as it feels positive and resonant in your energy field and allows you to connect with the “more” that you desire to be in your life! There are many out there who are bringing through high levels of information and feel a little prideful of whether or not it might seem like a “higher realm” or a more exalted source of information, yet the truth is the individual receiver is the one who decides how meaningful that relationship and that information is.   We encouraged many of you to celebrate the influx and the infusion of greater levels of information from the worlds beyond and not worry so much about the name attached to the source of the information and feel your internal resonance, your internal compass, guiding you in the direction that feels best. If it's information you feel is coming from a wise dog or cat who was your pet (yes, they are very wise!) or whether it is from a master such as Jesus or Buddha or Archangel Michael or even the High Council of Orion, tune in to how you feel with the information. That is your compass! That is your guide, which is far more important then the name of the source. For remembering always that Source is Source. You know you are interacting with a positive aspect of Source based on how you feel. You will feel better. You will feel uplifted. You will feel inspired. You might feel relief. Whatever it is that you feel brings you in a positive direction and if it does, then it's good! You have been made better in your world and your human existence because of that information and because of that interaction.   Removing labels, removing judgment, removing stratification that all creates barriers is the place that you are all moving to in the future, where gifts are seen for what they are, where each individual soul is allowed to shine in its unique way, not needing to be like everyone else….only be their unique expression.   What a beautiful future to live into! As you listen to information beyond your third dimensional realm, we ask that you just open your heart to receive the information, regardless of the source and use your internal compass to guide you. It's the positive feelings that are the guide as well.   Be Blessed.   We are the High Council of Orion.”   ============================================================================ © 2013 Copyright Holly Hawkins Family Trust        www.AkashaHealingStudio.com This channeled message may be reproduced in it’s entirety provided it is kept in it’s original form and not altered or changed in any way, with the Author and website clearly included.  
Finding Beauty in a Blue Mood
Teaching
28 Apr 2013 - 7:40pm
Finding Beauty in a Blue Mood By: Jennifer Haupt March-April issue of Spirituality and Health   I wouldn't exactly call depression a gift, but I’ve come to accept the restless emptiness and nagging sadness as signals from my soul instead of merely the symptoms of an illness to be excised.   This didn’t come easy. I spent two decades coping with the side effects of antidepressants, the ups and downs of biofeedback, and expensive weekend seminars, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Then about 10 years ago, in my early 40s, I decided to take a different tack and listen to my depression instead of trying to tamp it down or explain it away. It’s still a daily battle, but there have been joyful triumphs along the way.   Learning to listen to my depression has transformed my career over the past seven years. I’d always wanted to write a novel but was instead encouraged by family and teachers to use my writing skills in more practical ways: advertising, marketing, and then journalism. I enjoyed the work but longed for something more—and I wondered whether that longing might be related to my depression. I began writing fiction, just a half hour each morning, as an experiment: What would happen if I devoted time to something I was passionate about, just for me, at the beginning of every day?   Depression May Boost Creativity   Decades of research have found that introversion, emotional sensitivity, and vulnerability to negativity—seeing the glass as half empty—are all common personality traits of highly creative people. They are also common symptoms of depression—symptoms that I’ve struggled with since childhood and had always seen as impediments to success. But more recently I’ve begun to consider that, perhaps, my depression may actually help my creativity. In fact, artists and writers are eight to ten times as likely as the general population to suffer from mood disorders. Many studies speculate that this is because artists tend to examine their lives more deeply than the average person and that they draw on unpleasant experiences to feed their work.   “Creative people might be more likely to experience negative emotions,” says Wendy Berry Mendes, the Sarlo/Ekman associate professor of emotion at the University of California, San Francisco, who conducted a study while at Harvard University to look at how mood change can affect creativity. In one study, researchers measured levels of DHEAS (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate), a hormone that when at lower-than-normal levels is associated with depression, before people received either harsh negative criticism or positive feedback in a mock job interview. Then the subjects were assigned a creative task. “Receiving negative compared to positive feedback was associated with enhanced creativity,” says Berry Mendes. “This was especially the case for individuals who had lower levels of DHEAS,” indicating they were predisposed to depression.   Artistic Endeavors Enhance Your Mood   Even as I struggled with depression, I found that delving into a fantasy world of my own making was satisfying and even joyful. Working on my novel settled the restlessness I’d labeled as anxiety and helped to shade in the piece I imagined was missing from my soul. An amazing thing began happening: I wanted more of myself, not less. A friend suggested, half joking, that I might be addicted to writing my novel. But it turns out that the body releases natural opiates as a result of the creative process.   “Creative endeavors are intrinsically rewarding, and you get these little shots of dopamine in the rewards center of the brain,” says Shelley Carson, a professor at Harvard University and the author of Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity, and Innovation in Your Life. Dopamine is a mood-elevating neurotransmitter that is released with pleasurable experiences such as food, sex, and drugs—and creativity.   Research over the past two decades by Kay Redfield Jamison, co-director of the Mood Disorders Center at Johns Hopkins University, has found a strong link between creative productivity and elevated mood, but it’s difficult to tell which comes first. “As your mood improves, activation of the brain automatically shifts from avoidance to approach,” explains Carson. “When you’re more engaged with your environment—internal as well as external—there’s an increased flow of dopamine. And that, obviously, keeps your spirits up and keeps you writing or painting or whatever is giving you pleasure. Positive emotions and creativity reinforce each other.”   Accepting the Creative Gift of Depression   “All of your emotions color the way you see your environment, the way you recall memories, and, indeed, all aspects of your cognition,” says Carson. “They can either get in the way of your creative efforts, or you can use them to enhance your creativity.”   Mendes’s study found that people who produced a higher level of creative work (as judged by a panel of respected artists) had improved their mood considerably by the end of the study, showing that creativity may reduce negative emotions.   As for me, seven years after I began taking my creative “hobby” of writing fiction seriously, my first novel is finally finished. While I still have days when depression dictates that I should be gentle with myself, it’s no longer debilitating. Now I know what to do to soothe my mind as well as my soul: pick up a pen and write. —S&H   THE HEALING POWER OF CREATIVITY   Creative therapy—including art, dance, and writing—can be a powerful therapeutic tool. “When someone who’s depressed isn’t in touch with their feelings, they may be able to project those feelings into the creative process and better understand their emotions,” says Amanda Alders, president of the Florida chapter of the American Art Therapy Association.   The connection between art and joy is by no means a new concept, and recent research by Semir Zeki, a professor of neuroesthetics at University College London, connects the mere viewing of beautiful paintings with an increase of dopamine and activity in the pleasure center of the brain, resulting in feelings similar to the throes of romantic love.   “Someone who is depressed may be responding to internalized thoughts and images that are overwhelmingly negative,” explains Alders. “Art therapy shifts the focus to creating, enjoying, and sharing positive external stimuli.” Patients choose colors and textures they enjoy, and there’s often a group aspect of sharing both feelings and finished projects. According to recent studies measuring EEG brain waves, all of these aspects may increase the experiences of joy, raising the levels of dopamine as well as the neurotransmitter serotonin. LIZA PAIZIS Unicorn painting   
Inspire Yourself and BECOME a Beacon of Light and Hope to Others
Story
28 Apr 2013 - 11:06am
Inspire Yourself and BECOME a Beacon of Light and Hope to Others Melchizedek’s Weekly Message ~ April 28 – May 05, 2013 Received by Julie Miller April 28, 2013   Beautiful dear hearts what we often see within many of you is a deep rooted fear that your own light is not strong enough. You are never inadequate; each of you has a power deep within you that is beyond any measure. We do not size the role you have within this journey that is before you because every mission and purpose for each individual is special and important. We ask of you, each of you to stop shrinking back just to please others and so they do not feel any amount of insecurity while in your company. When you finally allow your own Brilliant Light to shine, what you are doing dear ones is unconsciously providing other people with the empowerment to do just the same. As you learn to free yourself from your fear, your very own Divine Presence automatically begins to free others.   We observe more often-than-not some of your best characteristics, traits, skills and talents you take for granted. For the most part dear ones, you are well aware of this, yet while you are ignoring your own traits, you are admiring others by the respect you give through the active listening you apply. We suggest and urge that you apply the same energy to yourself. There is so much within each of you that holds enormous potential and the talents each of you carries are just as special as the ones you admire in someone else.   Through quiet observation we are able to witness the difficulty to effectively listen to all the good that crosses your path because of the many distractions that interfere. Much of your distraction stems from your busy mind that can create destructive agents to your enlightening journey. Learn to listen dear ones, not just to what others are expressing as good and valuable but to your heart. Quiet your busy mind, give the Ego a vacation and listen with your heart. The root of many of your issues is derived from over-thinking. Many problems that are easily solved become larger than mountains when the problem is overthought. Learn to adopt a peaceful nature, allow yourself to see the whole scope of any situation, do not fear what you may find, embrace all and trust that all will be okay.   It is well understood dear ones that attentive listening, one that is purely focused will foster peace and learning becomes a constant opportunity. When listening is noticed by others involved in any interaction of communication, those involved feel connected and included and that their own ideas and thoughts that they may offer will be and are relevant. The truth is dear ones; so much can be learned when you apply the effort to truly listen.   Within the roles of leadership and friendship, are the potential and capability of constructing a relationship that is based on mutual respect, even if there is a lacking of agreement. You are already aware dear ones that disagreements are part of every relationship, but rarely are they are considered fatal. The relationship only becomes shaky and unstable when there is a loss of respect. When respect becomes lost, creditability also has a decrease and often when working relationships get to this point, correcting and fixing where the problem began is no longer a consideration or viable as there no longer rests any resonating factor that brought certain individuals together so the initial bond becomes broken.   We have observed that some ties to re-establish but only after an uncertain amount of time when all who was involved has had time to clearly think on what is important to them, what they can live with or without. Your life is filled with so many choices and each choice you are responsible for. You cannot be held accountable for another person’s actions or reactions. We encourage you to remember dear ones that all Thought, Word, Action, Feeling and Will all carries energy and energy carries weight. Due to the interconnectedness of one dear soul to another, it’s important to be reminded of how one person’s actions can affect another even if they are not part of the relationship and may be miles away. When you change negative thoughts into positive thoughts you are helping to raise the vibrations that move around each and every dear soul.   It is essential to all relationships that active and attentive listening and respect is given to yourself as well. Stop sacrificing your own needs and talents just to appear useful to another, this kind of thinking and the energy derived truly benefits no one. Always tune-in to your heart with unconditional love and apply this positive love-filled energy into all you do and you will discover you will excel at every turn. Changing the way you think and do things in a more positive light can be viewed from a distance as being easy, seriously dear ones this change will become one of the hardest things you do.   We hear many complain, how unfair their life is. Yes all life has its challenges. Any gift or talent that you already have, you didn’t ask for, they are a part of who you are. Many of the challenges you have faced were extremely difficult and sometimes you may have felt inadequate while you forged ahead at the same time wishing things were different, less hard. But what we see dear ones is the positive lessons you have learned, the knowledge you have gained from each excruciating situation and the wisdom you now have from each one. All that you have experienced and persevered through speaks highly of who you are. You cannot ever change what has already been done and taken place, but there is so much that can be gleaned. From all that you have learned you can create new history through your ability and will to adopt newer and lighter ways of thinking and doing. Learn to resolve and master all your many characteristic gifts and talents and through your own efforts and hard work of self-improvement you will become a beacon of light and inspiration to others and from your own positive self-action you are encouraging them to shine their own brilliant light. It is always possible dear ones to inspire others who may be experiencing difficulties, when you take the time to lift them through positive encouragement that is found through the joy you carry within your dear and precious heart.   You will have an Inner Knowing if you have been a Light of Inspiration to other dear souls by how you feel inside. The light of your joy is long-lasting when you truly have inspired another, the light of your own Self shines brilliantly from the good feelings you will experience. If you begin feeling heavy from any problem, then this is an indicator to you dear ones that the negativity of the issue has affected you and at that point it’s crucial for you to step away and reclaim your peace of mind. Understand dear ones, there is nothing you have to give unless the joy and love that is within you is glowing outward.   Comprehend dear ones that there is absolutely zero limit to how high you can expand your own energy vibration and frequency because there is an unlimited amount of good thoughts, feelings, actions, words, Will that you can exercise and apply. Acts of kindness does not have to be limited when love is unconditional.   You transform your life when you learn to change the way you think and do. And when you change your life by adopting more positive actions, you are also helping to raise the frequency of others. Welcome your re-birth, embrace each stage with love and allow your whole self to open to all possibilities in perfect harmony. Throw away the blinders and truly see the beauty of your Self and the life you are living and what you have been helping to create. You have gone through so much to get where you are, weathered many difficult storms. Appreciate all you have achieved, listen to the messages that your heart whispers to you dear ones and respect yourself always.   Each of you has your own Inner Power and Strengths. We see many comparing their Strengths and Inner Powers with others when this kind of action is completely unnecessary. Remember dear ones you are meant to be unique, to not be the same. Each of you has your own personal Inner Power and viable Strengths that are perfect. Stop selling yourself short and see yourself as tall.  We know you wish to see so much change around you dear ones. All change begins when you take the first shaky step forward and begin changing yourself for the better. To recognize change anywhere you need to see this change within yourself. Inspire yourself, encourage yourself to take the brave step to bring more positive change into your life and watch your life grow exponentially. Don’t always look for others to give you your inspiration, you have within you all you need to meet every challenge, every obstacle or hurdle. All that you have progressed through and what you have gained can be an inspiration to others and when you allow yourself to be open enough to inspire other dear souls you will finally see and meet your own special purpose.   When you finally discover what your special purpose is, you will feel a glow coming from your Spiritual Heart that spreads throughout your entire body. This divine glow blazes you with renewed passion and you will recognize this brilliancy without any Egoic doubts – all the good you have thought, felt, spoke and done becomes an unstoppable purpose that declares to you in a profound and deep way of the turn of your journey that is for the betterment of all. You will meet many who will try to undermine you, we urge you to press forward and continue being the beacon of light and hope for all others.   I AM Melchizedek through Julie Miller 
Tired of Feeling Hurt, Angry, Alone? Face Your Ego
Teaching
27 Apr 2013 - 10:31am
Tired of Feeling Hurt, Angry, Alone? Face Your Ego Written by, GEORGE P.H. http://themanupblog.com/tired-of-being-hurt-angry-alone-face-your-ego/   “Ego” is a buzzword we hear all the time, especially when talking about men. Still, few people understand what the term means and how it affects their lives.   Believe it or not, most of your negative emotions – fear, loneliness, anger, etc – come from the ego. It’s the source of all mental resistance and pain.   But much like the boogeyman in a child’s closet, the ego disappears when you turn on the lights and take a closer look at it. Let’s begin by doing just that.   What Is The Ego?   In a broad sense, the ego is your self-image; who you view yourself as. It is the voice inside saying “I am this way” and judging, comparing and analyzing everything and everyone in your life.   It is easier to feel the ego than it is to understand it logically. Definitions of the term are deliberately vague in all traditions – Buddhism, Hinduism, modern spirituality – for this reason. The best way to “get it” is through examples and self-observation.   Let’s say a man walks up to you, says you’re a jackass and walks away. You haven’t been physically hurt and your life hasn’t changed. And yet you might feel angry or upset because your self-image – your ego – has been challenged. “How dare he say that to me? I’m not a jackass!” is what you might think inside.   The ego also tells you what “should be” based on who you think you are. Imagine a girl you were planning to bring home suddenly says she’d rather eat dry paint than touch you. You might get upset, even though the only thing being attacked is your expectation of what “should have been” and the image of yourself as a guy who can get this girl.   In both scenarios, nothing really happens – and yet most people would experience great emotional pain. This is because they are deeply invested into their self-image and the expectations that come with it. When reality interferes, resistance – the source of all mental pain – enters their lives.   Ego, Resistance and Pain   Your hopes, expectations and predictions (based on past experiences) are all extensions of your self-image; who you view yourself as.   Of course, what we want and expect and what happens in reality are often two very different things. The resulting gap creates resistance.   Resistance is refusing to accept what is; struggling against it. It’s the feeling of unhappiness and discontent associated with an unsatisfactory past. It’s the anticipation of a worse – or better – future.   Here’s how resistance creates negative emotions:   > Anxiety happens when we expect a future that we don’t want. > Anger happens when our self-image is aggressively challenged. > Jealousy happens when another person has something we feel we should have. > Sadness happens when we yearn for something we can’t have. > Heartbreak happens when we refuse to accept life without someone. > Do you see where this is going? Fundamentally, all pain comes from the resistance created by a gap between the ego’s wants and reality. If you were to accept everything that happens to you, you would only experience physical pain – e.g. from physical injury, hunger.   You Are Not Your Ego   Here’s what you must understand about your ego. It’s not you– but it wants you to think it’s you. The ego fears annihilation, and if you associate yourself with it strongly enough, you will begin to share that fear.   Imagine you approach a beautiful girl you’ve never seen before; she literally tells you to fuck off. Have you lost anything? Has the world changed in any real way? No, it hasn’t.   The only thing that got damaged is your ego with its expectations. Nothing happened to you, but your self-image is now one step closer to being destroyed.   To avoid such injuries and eventual “death,” your ego will do everything in its power to survive. It will direct you away from situations that threaten it, pull you into meaningless arguments to defend it and take over your life however it can. This is how irrational fears like “approach anxiety” and “stage fright” are born.   The ego will also try to strengthen itself as often as possible. Whenever you compare, judge and resist – whether a person, a situation or yourself – it is strengthened. You, on the other hand, are weakened and eventually must pay the price in pain.   You might think that the ego is necessary for your survival. If you don’t have a self-image, how can you have a sense of identity? If you don’t have hopes and expectations, what could possibly motivate you to do anything in life?   This couldn’t be more false. The ego is only good for creating pain. You are never more free to take action or be yourself than when you let go of your self-image and live without resistance.   Of course, it’s not enough to explain what ego is and say “it’s bad” – there’s a lot more to it. There are more interesting articles to be found here: http://themanupblog.com/ . 
Letting Go and Daily Life
Teaching
27 Apr 2013 - 10:12am
Letting Go and Daily Life An Interview with Ven. Thubten Chodron For Eastern Horizon, 2005 http://www.thubtenchodron.org/DealingWithEmotions/letting_go_and_daily_life.pdf    1. The Buddha says that attachment leads to suffering; hence, we should practice detachment in our lives. What does the Buddha mean by this?   By examining our own life experiences, we can clearly see that attachment leads to suffering. When our mind is needy or greedy, thinking, “I want this. I need that,” we aren’t at peace. We’re searching for something external to fill the emotional void inside our hearts, but external people and things don’t have the ability to do that.   How do we know that? Many times before we’ve gotten what we’ve wanted—delicious food, romantic relationships, prestige, and so forth—and while we may have been happy for a while, it didn’t solve the uneasiness in our hearts and minds. Why not? Because it’s not the lack of something that causes our mental and emotional suffering, it’s the attachment itself that does. Getting what we think we want or need doesn’t eliminate the attachment, it simply masks it for a while, and thus the dissatisfaction remains.   Under the influence of attachment, we lie and deceive others to get what we want. We retaliate, physically or verbally, when someone prevents us from procuring the love, appreciation, possessions, respect, fame, or ideal situation we want. This leads to problems in this life, and through creating so much negative karma, we create problems for ourselves in future lives as well. Our mind becomes more and more obscured, and we are further from enlightenment. While temporarily satisfying a craving may give us a hit of happiness, in the long run, it’s like drinking salt water—our thirst and frustration increase.   Detachment—maybe a better translation is non-attachment—is the state of mind that is the antidote to clinging and craving. It’s a balanced state of mind that is free from obsession. With it, we won’t be pulled here and there by the whims of attachment, but will be peaceful, content, and open.   Many people misunderstand the word “detachment” and think it means apathy or indifference. They have the image of Buddhists just sitting there like a bump on a log, shrugging their shoulders and saying, “I’m detached. I don’t care.” That is not non-attachment; that’s laziness and boredom, which are afflictions to be abandoned on the path.   When non-attachment is present, the mind is clear and we are able to exercise wisdom in our daily lives and make wise decisions. Free from the bias and prejudice of attachment, our heart is open and concerned with all beings equally. We feel connected to others and care about them. But this care is free from the expectations of attachment.   2. Can you provide some guidelines on how we can practice detachment without becoming monks or nuns? Many people assume letting go of attachment is a painful process. They think, “I can’t have what I want and will be unhappy.” These people haven’t reflected on their own experience, as I mentioned above, and thus have come to an incorrect conclusion. Actually, the more we understand how clinging causes suffering, the more we’ll be eager, even joyful, to vigilantly counteract our attachment.   How do we do this? First, contemplate the disadvantages of attachment, clinging, and craving. Make many examples from your life so that you understand how so many of your repeated difficulties and emotional pain are due to attachment. When we see that clinging and craving harm us, we will have the energy to do something about them.   What do we do? Meditating on impermanence and death is an effective antidote. For example, when we see that the object, situation, or person that we’re attached to is changing every moment, we’ll understand that it’s impossible to hold onto it. One time I was in a park with a teenage girl, who was so distracted looking at the attractive guys playing basketball that she couldn’t enjoy the people she was with. I said to her, “You know, these guys are in the process of aging. Before too long, they’re going to look like that old man over there.” Her jaw dropped as she imagined them aging before her eyes. After that, she was able to enjoy our company during the picnic and had a lot of fun.   Through reflecting on our own mortality, we ask, “What is important in life? What goes on to the next life?” We see that the things we’re attached to don’t go with us into the next life, and in fact, the attachment to them makes us do many negative actions, and that karma will influence what we will experience. Through this wise reflection, we’ll begin to set priorities and will do what we’ve determined to be important for ourselves and others.   When we live according to wise priorities, our life is much more harmonious. This small taste of non-attachment brings peace in our mind. Through experiencing even a little of the happiness that comes from non-attachment, we’ll be inspired to let go of deeper and deeper attachments. As we do so, we’ll experience more and more satisfaction in our minds.   3. Some Buddhists, after undergoing long meditation practices, become introverted, reclusive, and want to let go of everything, including their responsibility as parents and breadwinners for the family. How can they reconcile their spiritual pursuits with their responsibilities?   At the Buddha’s time, some householders gained genuine understanding of the suffering of cyclic existence and the value of their precious human life. They chose to become monastics. These people were not abandoning their responsibilities. This is quite different from someone who has become introverted and reclusive in an unbalanced way and wants to neglect their responsibilities. People in the latter group may have an intellectual understanding or an emotional feeling of renunciation, but it’s superficial and unstable. Someone can redirect them, explaining that with a motivation of bodhicitta one is able to fulfill their responsibilities as well as practice Dharma within having a family life and career.   To prevent this type of imbalance, it’s important to include meditation on the four immeasurables—equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion, and joy—in our Dharma practice. In this way, we balance the compassion side of the path and the wisdom side of the path. We live in a world in which we are completely dependent on the kindness of other living beings. These sentient beings also want to be happy and avoid suffering as intensely as we do. It’s essential to understand how deeply we are connected to others. It’s reality, and in addition it prevents us from getting self-obsessed in our Dharma practice. Meditating on bodhicitta, the loving and compassionate aspiration to become a Buddha in order to benefit sentient beings, keeps us from getting stuck in our meditation practice.   4. Can the practice of detachment also lead to a state of indifference?   Not if people understand correctly what non-attachment means and how to cultivate it.   5. What about compassion—can too much of it lead to attachment, especially towards someone we love?   If it does, then it’s contaminated compassion not genuine, compassion. Of course, for us ordinary beings, our loving-kindness and compassion are bias towards those people we’re attached to. That’s why meditating on equanimity towards all sentient beings is important. With equanimity as a basis, the love and compassion we cultivate become pure. For example, the love and compassion of a bodhisattva are extended equally to all living beings. They are unsullied by attachment, expectations, and disappointment and thus are stable and unshakable. Bodhisattvas don’t lose their compassion if someone insults them or betrays their trust. Of course, due to social conventions and different social relationships, bodhisattvas act differently with each sentient being, but in their hearts, they care about all of them equally. It’s said that bodhisattvas love us more than we love ourselves and that their compassion for us is deeper than our compassion for ourselves. Such love and compassion are difficult to actualize, but if we continue to practice the methods for doing so, we’ll experience the result.   6. Can a husband and wife practice detachment and letting go in their relationship?   Yes, of course. The more they are able to let go of unrealistic expectations about each other, the more harmonious and satisfying their relationship will be. If a couple puts the Dharma at the center of their relationship, the ups and downs of life won’t dismay them.   7. To inculcate spiritual values among children, how best can we teach them detachment or letting go?   By modeling it yourself! It’s essential for parents to cultivate and live what they wish to teach their children. Children learn more by observing their parents, than by listening to lectures. When parents cultivate appreciation and respect for other living beings, their children will directly see that happiness comes from caring about others, not through being attached to them. When parents cultivate generosity, their children will learn that joy comes from giving.   8. In the modern business environment, competition is the key word. How can we apply this principle of “letting go” in such an environment? Someone who lets go and is less greedy will be more honest in his or her business dealings. Thus his clients and customers will trust him and will continue to do business with him as well as refer their friends to his company. In the long-term, this means his business will be more stable and successful. People who are greedy and competitive will do or say anything to make the business deal, including deceive the other person. Inevitably the other person finds out that they’ve been lied to or cheated and will no longer do business with that greedy and selfish individual. Thus, in the long term, honesty and genuine caring bring success and stability in one’s business.   9. Finally, Tibetan monks and nuns are cheerful and smiling whenever we meet them. Has this anything to do with their letting go of attachment?   Yes, I believe so. This goes not only for Tibetan monastics, but also for any human being who lets goes of the afflictions of clinging and craving. Letting go isn’t accomplished by nonchalantly saying, “I don’t care,” but by actively applying the counter-forces to attachment and other afflictions and by cultivating compassion and wisdom.
Hee hee hee
Blog entry
25 Apr 2013 - 6:37am
A red head and a blonde are chatting while eating lunch. "I had sex with a brazilian" says the red head. "OH, jeez, how many is that?" replies the blonde :)
In the flow of madness and yuck!(Again???)
Blog entry
23 Apr 2013 - 2:27pm
ok... I don't know how to say this but it feels gross(crappy) out there... Dude!!! what kinda of yucky,dross is this I am having to flow through? Again??? I rather have lovelier spaces than this energy that is right now flowing through the grid. So hold on and do what YOU need to do to stay in your heart. Whatever it is. I feel at this point we are just having to transmute,for this feels like someone has found an open sewer hiding in the grid... but it seems to be collective energy,(know what I mean?...but it will drag out a lot of deep hidden issues that will have to be dealt with...) All I know is I rather surf it than fall in it... Are others feeling this? I feel this will pass quicker than other times, for all of us holding the intent for healing for this beautiful earth is going to make it flow faster... Through our hearts we access the love that is the fuel that supports and sustains us through these shifting times. The light that shows us how to be the light for others that need us. For me? I'm going to take lots of showers and baths and go swimming so I can wash yucky energy off me... anything that involves water and nature. Shine Bright my family. Do things that make you happy. Stay connected to your heart. Seems it's time to surf. In Light and Love : ) marie
The Importance Of Self-Responsibility...
Blog entry
23 Apr 2013 - 8:18am
Whenever i encounter personal problems in life that effect me negatively, i tend not to discuss them with others, (unless there is an obvious need to do so, of course) - or if i do discuss them, i try to treat them less seriously than i could, perhaps 'justify' :-)... This is because i understand that such problems are MY responsibility, and not others :-)... So i simply allow time for the effects of such problems to dissipate, whilst trying not to give them more energy by overly engaging such problems, either internally within mind, or externally through mouth - thus allowing others to be, at least less effected, by any emotional lows that i may experience :-)
A Perfick Knight...
Blog entry
22 Apr 2013 - 9:15pm
...for the darling Reds of Manchester :-)... Yes, Manchester United won the Premiership title this evening by beating Aston Villa 3-0 at Old Trafford :-)... A 20th 'Premiership' title for Sir Alex and all concerned at the club to enjoy - including us fans, of course :-)
The Key to Happiness is in Your Expression of Love
Teaching
22 Apr 2013 - 2:04pm
The Key to Happiness is in Your Expression of Love Self Help and Goal Setting Can Foster Unhappiness. http://www.pathwaytohappiness.com/writings_happiness_key.html     The process of self-improvement often has a destructive impact mentally and emotionally. If you ask what you “should do” or “should be” you become set up for self-rejection. Your mind immediately creates a conceptual image of what you should be and another part of your mind determines that you are not the conceptual image you just created. The voice in your head makes a judgment that you are a failure for not meeting the mental image and you end up feeling “not good enough.” All of this because you don’t meet the conceptual image you fabricated in your mind; an image that isn’t even real.   By desiring to be “something” different, you have formed a mental criteria of what you should be, and subconsciously reject yourself the way you are. An example of this “self-help ” approach is the way people approach weight loss. Weight loss is likely motivated by the judgment that your body is not acceptable the way it is. The stronger the rejection of your body, the stronger your commitment to lose weight. Losing weight appears to be the way to relieve ourselves from the unhappy self-rejection. The problem is that the body isn't causing the unhappiness. The self-rejection dynamic is happening in the mind.    Rejection from the voice in our head is painful if we believe it The motivation to lose weight is directly coupled to emotional pain. Our natural tendency to avoid emotional pain will cause us to look away from our body and give up the commitments to lose weight. An alternative some people engage in to repress the unpleasant emotion is to eat. As a result you may get no results at all or even the exact opposite of what you desire. This type of self-sabotaging behavior can occur in any area of your life where you desire and try to make changes, including, financial, career, emotional, spiritual, and relationships. Any time you establish goals or create an image of perfection your mind has an opportunity for self-rejection. The pain of that rejection will drive us to focus our attention on something else. As long as we allow the voice in our head to direct our self-improvement we are a slave to criticism.   Self-help is a growing industry and it’s no wonder; many of its clients never end up happy and fulfilled because they sabotage their efforts and motivation with self-rejection. Or they reach their goals only to find they haven't really dealt with the self-rejecting mind that is causing the unhappiness. A successful promotion, plastic surgery or a lottery win doesn't change the mental self-rejection dynamic. Studies have shown that these external things don't affect a person's happiness beyond a short time. More than one Hollywood star has reached their goals only to turn to drugs and alcohol to deaden the emotional pain caused by their beliefs about themselves. If striving for goals and improvement leaves us feeling unfulfilled and unhappy then what is the answer?   At some point awareness that you are unhappy tells you that something needs to change. After society is done selling you all its cures you are finally left to turn inward and be aware of what really creates unhappiness. It is by believing the critical voice in our head that expressing judgments and rejection that creates unhappiness.   The key to happiness and fulfillment in life doesn't come by achieving but rather is a result of how we express ourselves. When you express love and acceptance you are happy. When you express rejection and judgment you will be unhappy.   Self-Acceptance is the way out of self-rejection You don’t have to change what you are or what you have to be happy, but instead change the emotion you are expressing. If you are expressing anger then you will feel angry. If you express jealousy or guilt, then you will feel jealousy and guilt. If you are expressing love then you are likely to experience happiness and fulfillment. Think back to different times in your life and make a note of what you were expressing. We often associate feeling happy with who we were with what we had, or what we were doing. Those external things were not making us happy. It was the love we were expressing at the time that fulfilled us.   Studies show that people who are happy are spending time gardening, with people they love, and working on things they are passionate about. The common element is not the things they achieve, or what they are doing. The common element that creates happiness is that they are expressing love in all those instances. They are expressing love to who they are with or for what they are doing.   Self-acceptance is the first step toward expressing love for yourself. If trying to “be something different” creates an expression of self-rejection, then the solution is to create an expression of self-acceptance. Saying this in words is simple, but doing this is not necessarily easy.   Steps towards Happiness begin with Awareness The first step is to be aware of your attention and your expression in the moment. You can not change something you are not aware you are doing. This also takes the attention away from the images in your mind of what you “should be.” Just by shifting your attention you interrupt the pattern of rejection. To help you make the shift ask these types of questions throughout the day. What am I expressing? What is my attitude? What emotion am I conveying in my voice? These questions will bring your attention to your expression in the moment. They also shift your expression and point of view to one of inquiry instead of letting the voice in your head express a story of rejection.   Being aware of your expression is the first step in change. You cannot change something that you are not aware of. One reason why this step is effective is that being aware does not create the expression of self-rejection.   The mind leads us in circles and illusions. The mind's solution to stopping self-rejection is to just stop it and act differently. But this again drives our mind to create a conceptual self-image of being someone else. This approach feeds the self-rejection for not having accomplished the change yet. To avoid this trap start with awareness of your expression and your attention. It allows you to better circumvent the critical voice in your head and the self-rejecting dynamic that it fosters. The activity of observation and curiosity is an expression that doesn’t create rejection.   Happiness and joy aren’t guaranteed because you achieve your self-help goals. These are just games we set up in the mind to trigger our expression of love and acceptance. It is your expression in the moment that determines the happiness and joy in your life. When you express love you are happy. When you express emotions of fear and anger you are unhappy. We have become conditioned in our life to express ourselves in reaction to outside events. Only when we break these conditioned emotional responses and consciously choose our attitude will our happiness be assured. Having awareness and direction over your expression is the key to assuring your happiness.   The key to create authentic happiness in your life is to express love. Since your expression of love is solely up to you, you already have the key to your own happiness. What remains is for you to determine what you do with your key.
Chila (Suffering)
Teaching
22 Apr 2013 - 10:27am
Chila (Suffering) by Fethullah Gülen http://www.fethullahgulen.org/en/fethullah-gulens-works/sufism/key-concepts-in-the-practice-of-sufism-2/25759-chila-Suffering?highlight=WyJzdWZmZXJpbmciXQ==     Denoting abandonment of all (worldly) pleasures and delights, and the affliction and hardship one bears when overcoming corporeality, chila (Suffering) is used to express an initiate's spending at least forty days in strict austerity and self-discipline in the name of spiritual training. During this period, initiates keep to the absolute bare minimum in meeting such bodily needs as eating, drinking, sleeping and speaking, and spend most of their time in worshipping, mentioning God, thinking and self-supervision. As if they had died before dying, they concentrate on death and are annihilated with respect to their carnal self and prepares for a new, spiritual life with the necessary endowment to be persons devoted to God.   Dervishes spend the period of Suffering either in a silent corner of a dervish lodge or in a quiet room in their homes. Associated with austerity and even serving to fulfill some of its functions, Suffering is an attempt to gain nearness to God or an active expectation of meeting with Him in the spirit. The original word used, chila in Persian and arba’in in Arabic, means forty, because such a period lasts at least forty days, although it may last less or more than forty days. It may even occur that the dervish feels obliged to suffer the whole life long in order to surmount the animal aspect of his or her nature. Regarding all hardships that dervishes suffer in God's way as His precious gifts, they like life more as its griefs and hardships increase, and they welcome afflictions in the delight of living a conscious, deeply felt life. Some people of the heart consider misfortunes as Divine favors presented in that form, and desire more. Fuduli expresses his thoughts in this respect in the voice of Majnun as follows:   Never reduce Your grace on people of affliction; That is, make me addicted to more and more misfortunes.   Jalal al-Din al-Rumi likens Suffering and afflictions to a guest knocking on our door every morning and stresses that the dear guest should be welcomed and entertained:   Every moment a grief comes upon your heart like a dear guest. When that emissary of grief visits you, welcome it as a friend; In fact, it is not a stranger to you, for You and it are acquainted.   Ibrahim Haqqi voices the same thoughts, dressing them in the style of his age:   If grief and melancholy come upon your heart, Suffer it and know that it is acquainted with you. If anything occurs to you from the Truth, Accept it with warm welcome. Sorrow is a guest, entertain it, so that God may find you welcoming every misfortune. ............ Hold not back from affliction so as not to become unmanly; Many people relying on God are happy with affliction.   Ashrafoghlu Rumi[1] advises that poison should be accepted as if it were honey or sugar:   Ashrafoghlu Rumi, this is what behoves those who love the Beloved, They should swallow poison as if it were sugar for the sake of the Friend.   In this way, it is essential to be very welcoming toward misfortunes, and to welcome with the same contentment whatever comes from God-good or bad, happiness or Suffering. Moreover, there are some other principles which dervishes should observe during certain periods of Suffering that they spend in retreat.   Suffering, which usually lasts for forty days, is the most direct way for travelers to God who are in pursuit of lofty ideals to purify their minds and hearts and to deepen in thought and feelings in consideration of the world beyond, and to rise to the level of life in the horizon of the heart and spirit where they will share the same aura with spiritual beings. Suffering exists in all the heavenly or unheavenly religions and religion-like spiritual systems; it is necessary in order to discover the innate power of the spirit. But here we will not discuss that aspect of it, which rather concerns mystical movements and parapsychology.   Muslim Sufis base their consideration of Suffering on the forty days which the Prophet Moses spent on Mount Sinai before being addressed by God (see, the Qur'an 2:51; 7:142). They also refer to the forty years the Children of Israel had to spend in the desert of Sinai as a punishment for their refraining from fighting and as a preparation for their future life. In Christianity, there is the time of Lent (a period of forty days before Easter), which shows that Suffering is common to almost all religions and religion-like systems. Furthermore, even if it only lasts ten days, retreat into a mosque without going out during the last ten days of Ramadan for the purpose of more devotion can also be considered as having some relation with Suffering.   In the Muslim, Christian and Jewish worlds, and in different schools of thought in Islam, there have always been retreat and seclusion for the purpose of spiritual refinement and training. While such refinement and training have been performed in special rooms of retreat and seclusion, called houses of Suffering, followers of others religions have performed the same in the seclusion of their places of worship.   Dervishes are taken into a retreat or a house of Suffering by their spiritual guide. There they live alone, eating, sleeping, and speaking little, and spending most of their time in worship. They hold themselves under strict control and self-supervision, continuously breathing life into the heart, and traveling in the mind between their inner world and the outer world. Wholly dedicated to attaining a purely spiritual life, they try to feel the Lord with all their being and to see beyond the door half-opened on the heart. Endeavoring to discern and attain unity, they fear missing any signs of the Divine manifestations that may dawn on the hills of the heart. They express the limits of their capacity and the insufficiency of their will-power with sighs of poverty and helplessness, and become more hopeful with their reliance on the limitless Power of the Truth. When left with no means at all, they expect to be surprised by the opening of a door, and unburdens themselves to their Lord, Who sees everything, in the manner of a poor beggar, saying:   Be kind to me, O my Sovereign, do not abandon favoring the needy and destitute! Does it befit the All-Kind and Munificent to stop favoring His slaves?   As long as they grow in knowledge and love of God, they deepen in relationship with the Lord, and devote themselves wholly to feeling and thinking of Him. Keeping the satisfaction of their essential needs to the barest minimum, and overcoming their corporeality, they become confidants of heavenly beings in their states, attributes and being, and begin to breathe the breezes of friendship with the Sovereign.   Although Suffering always takes on the same form, dervishes experience it differently according to their capacities and their powers of resistance. Some are almost completely freed from corporeality and worldliness, and are content with extremely little to meet the essentials of life, spending all their time in worship, thinking and mentioning God. Some others try to live consciously every hour, minute and second, letting no part of life pass without an effort to attain His nearness. Hours pass, weeks follow one upon another, and hunger, thirst and other hardships continue, without any sign of ending, but a dervish who has been accustomed to Suffering as a way of life never desires the periods of Suffering to come to an end. However, when the first period of forty days ends, the guide investigates to see at what stage the dervish is. The guide looks into the heart of the individual or reflects upon any dreams or visions reported. If the dervish has reached the point of being able to lead a life at the level of the heart and spirit, the guide will then put an end to the period of Suffering with certain ceremonies. But it is always possible that new periods will be assigned if the guide considers that the dervish still needs more Suffering in order to complete the spiritual purification.   In addition to the Mawlawis-followers of the Sufi order attributed to Mawlana Jalal al-Din al-Rumi-Persians, Azerbeijanis and even some Baktashis-followers of a Turkish mystical order-have ceremonies of their own for Suffering. To whatever spiritual order or way a dervish belongs, the purpose of Suffering is that travelers to God should purify themselves, discover their inner world and advance toward new horizons through the steps that are to be taken during the spiritual journey, leading a life at the level of the heart and then deepening through their other innermost faculties, such as "the secret" and "the private," and "the more private," observing their relations with and duties to the guide, perceiving the significance of obedience to orders, and endowing their spirit with humility and a feeling of nothingness, sincerely adopting the principle of being a simple human being among the people. This is what the guides, who teach dervishes Suffering, and the dervishes who suffer, are seeking and what they expect from Suffering. The final goal is to become true, perfect human beings.   However, it is not inevitable that one must suffer a certain period in order to attain what is expected from Suffering. It is possible to obtain the expected result by abstention from doubtful things, being content with the pleasures inherent in the lawful sphere under the supervision of a guide who has truly succeeded God's Messenger, upon him be pace and blesssings, and who has achieved the degree of great sainthood, by the acknowledgment of one's innate poverty and helplessness before God, by thankfulness to Him, by zeal in serving His cause, and by exceptional piety, abstinence, and sincerity. What is absolutely essential in this way is that we should not approach the forbidden things, we should be careful about doubtful things, and we should benefit from the lawful only to the extent of what is necessary.   For those who succeed the Prophets, Suffering is, rather than preoccupation with worship and the recitation of God's Names in seclusion, and the abandonment of an easy life for the sake of torment, the pursuit only of God's good pleasure and approval, always being aware of God's company even while among people, arousing in hearts zeal for worshipping God with sincere Islamic thoughts, feelings and attitudes, representing Islam in daily life in the best way possible, stirring up Islamic feelings in others, and by developing in others the desire to believe. This is the way of the Companions.   Suffering in this sense becomes, beyond our own spiritual progress, the dedication of our lives to the happiness of others in both worlds and  living for others. In other words, we should seek our spiritual progress in the happiness of others. This is the most advisable and the best approved kind of Suffering: that is, we die and are revived a few times a day for the guidance and happiness of others, we feel any fire raging in another heart also in our own heart, and we feel the Suffering of all people in our spirits. Rather than only being aware of selfish considerations, such as "One who has not suffered does not mean what Suffering is," we groan with the afflictions and pains which others in our immediate and distant surroundings endure.   Actively expecting (exerting the necessary efforts for) the subsidence of the storms of denial and heresy is a great Suffering, while enduring with humility and grace life among rude and ignorant people in order to enlighten them both mentally and spiritually is double Suffering. The struggle with the cruel people who take belief in and submission to God as a sport and who reject Islamic values is Suffering upon Suffering. Finally, in an atmosphere where all the causes of Suffering already mentioned exist, and where friends are unfaithful, where time and conditions are pitiless, where troubles are numerous, where cures are extremely scant, where enemies are powerful, and where the wheel of events turn in the opposite direction, to always breathe in the atmosphere of the Truth while having to live every moment of life as if sipping poison is the greatest of Sufferings. All of this will help travelers to God to reach the final point in a very short time.   Those who suffered the most in this sense are the Prophets, and on their right and left are the pure, verifying scholars who succeed them and the saints. The hadith, Those who are subjected to the greatest afflictions and Suffering are the Prophets, and then come others (according to the depth of their belief)[2] indicates this fact and reminds us that the intensity of Suffering is directly proportional to the resistance of the sufferer.   There are few who really suffer in the sense that has been discussed here. It is not genuine Suffering that people are subjected to in daily life. Those who really suffer feel Suffering and bear it in their private worlds. It cannot be shared by others. The Prophet Joseph, upon him be peace, whose Suffering began when he was cast into a well, experienced Suffering doubly in a foreign county when he was sold as a slave and thrown into jail, and left among a people who had a different culture and language, and who did not sympathize with him. The Suffering he experienced purified and perfected him in the name of his mission as a Messenger; and God made him nearer to Him. The Prophet Adam bore his Suffering with tears, and Noah had to breast terrible disasters and destruction, while Abraham, whom God took to Himself as an intimate friend, always had to travel in rings of fire. The Prophet Moses, whom God addressed directly, struggled fiercely against the rebellion of brute force. Jesus, a pure spirit from God, called people to God under the fatal shadows of the gallows. And finally, the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, suffered all that the other Prophets and Messengers suffered. He wept tears, groaned and burnt inwardly for the salvation and happiness of others, but without displaying any sign of Suffering.   Hundreds of sufferers from the first day of human history have tasted the pleasure of Suffering for the salvation and happiness of others in both worlds in utmost submission to God and have been wholly dedicated to the life of others, without ever considering that they have been made to experience the greatest of Sufferings. More than this, they have welcomed such Suffering and have been intoxicated with the pleasure thus received.   Suffering of thought is also another great Suffering. Thinking, leading others to think, setting themselves to solve the severest problems and world-heavy enigmas, including that of existence, is a form of Suffering. Thought does not yield, but rather builds bridges between and composes the Divine Revelation and human thought, presenting to "hungry" and "thirsty" hearts and minds the pure extract produced from this composition. This is the Suffering in which the heroes of Suffering, who are as sincere as angels and who have followed the Messengers, have found an antidote for poison in the poison itself, peace and coolness in the fire, having experienced such with the greatest pleasure. Such people are fortunate that there is no end to their periods of Suffering; they cannot be pleased with the idea that such Suffering is bound to come to an end. If you attempt to take them out of gardens of Suffering, you will not be able to do so; if you were able to do so, you would extinguish their fire and leave them to die.   It is this Suffering which is the purest source that feeds the spirit of a true dervish, and which is the most powerful means for travelers to the Truth to reach eternality.   Our Lord! In You we trust, and to You we turn in contrition, and to You is our homecoming. Our Lord! Pour out upon us patience, and set our feet firm, and help us to victory over the unbelievers. And let God's blessings be upon our master Muhammad, our leader, and on his family and Companions, who were the patient and faithful.   [1] Ashrafoghlu 'Abdullah Rumi (d., 1484) was a Sufi scholar and poet who lived in Iznik in the North-Western Turkey. He was taught by Haji Bayram Wali in Ankara and Husayn Hamawi in Hama, Syria. He wrote several books, the most well-known of which is Muzakki'n-Nufus ("The Book Which Purifies Souls"). (Trans.) [2] Al-Tirmidhi, "Zuhd," 57; Ibn Maja, "Fitan," 23.
Why Do We Suffer? Buddhism Vs. Christianity
Teaching
22 Apr 2013 - 10:04am
Why Do We Suffer? Buddhism vs. Christianity       by Sharon L. Bratcher http://reformedperspective.ca/index.php/resources/196-why-do-we-suffer-buddhism-vs-christianity?catid=55%3Achristian-living The current prevailing philosophy in our western world is that everyone's opinion is equal and no one is wrong or even less good. I am free to enjoy my religion (so far) as long as I don't impose it on you or let it provoke me to “hate speech.” The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. Since we are surrounded by so many prompts to affirm and celebrate diversity, it is easy to get so used to focusing on what we have in common that we might be tempted to accept the general notion that there really isn't much difference between Christianity and the religions around us. After all, don't we all want peace and harmony and brotherly love? Doesn't meditation provide the same freedom from stress and problems that people have formerly sought through prayer? Can't we all just seek the good of man and leave one another to whatever spoke of the wheel might be followed to get to the God/god in the hub? Recently, I conversed with some Buddhists who claimed that I could be a Christian and still practice Buddhist philosophy. I studied about how Buddhism started as a quest by Siddharta Buddha around 4 BC to relieve suffering in this world. I was intrigued to note that there are some similarities between the two religions, and I began to understand why some people might think that they are essentially alike. Buddhism and Christianity are similar in their view that suffering is going to happen and that people need to be prepared with their manner of dealing with it. They are similar in their promotion of a lack of attachment to material things so that the loss will be less difficult. They are similar in many of their ethics regarding people’s actions and attitudes in life. But they are very different in their way of handling the suffering that comes, and in the meaning of that suffering. Therein all surface similarities take a wide fork in the road, to different destinations. Let's take the “Four Noble Truths of Buddhism” as a format on which to compare and contrast these two viewpoints on suffering. In brief form, they state: 1 – Suffering is our existence. 2 – Suffering is caused by craving, wanting or desirousness. 3 – Freedom from suffering can be secured. 4 – The way out of suffering is to follow the path. 1- Is suffering our existence? In order to conclude that suffering is our existence, the Buddha employed a wide view, which included not only tragedies and grief, but daily sadness, old age, sickness, association with the unpleasant, and all forms of mental and physical sufferings as well. He also included such ideas as imperfection, impermanence, insubstantiality, and a lack of lasting satisfaction. He believed that everyone suffers it, and must become truly aware of that suffering before anything can be done about it. If there is no lasting satisfaction, it is no wonder that he said suffering is our existence! Christians are taught to expect suffering to be a part of our lives, but there is also joy, peace, and comfort. Jesus spoke of his upcoming suffering in Luke 9:22 and then followed with the words, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (9:23). By this he meant that his followers would indeed suffer in this world as they followed him. In Matthew 5 he told his disciples that they would mourn and that they would be persecuted for righteousness' sake. Hebrews chapter 11 tells of many peoples’ suffering, and the faith which caused them to continue. And 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 talks of being "hard-pressed," "perplexed," "persecuted," and "struck down." Both religions involve people looking out at the world and beholding the misery to be found there and describing it. But what is the cause of this suffering? 2 - Is suffering caused by craving, wanting, or desirousness? The Buddha taught that the cause of suffering was found in craving, wanting or desirousness. By this he did not mean just wanting something that is possible or needed, but wanting what is impossible for one to have. He described it as a "wish to possess wholly, to cling to," as something that we want "to remain as it is at that moment" (Adrienne Howley, The Naked Buddha). We want people we love to stay the same, for no one to ever die or be sick, and for any good thing we have to always be with us. This leads us to feelings of greed, hatred, passion, aggression, and ignorance. We want what we want when we want it. Instead, the Buddha taught that we need to accept the truth of impermanence. If we do not expect it, we do not miss it. Howley explains that "nothing can make us joyful in the face of sorrow,” but states that being aware of this truth will reduce the pain, because the craving and clinging cause more pain than the loss itself does. Otherwise, we may suffer loss and continue on in blaming, anger, and hatred for whomever brought about our loss; it might even lead to war or personal wars of jealousy and envy. He taught that the attachment itself is the cause of suffering in this life. The Bible expresses somewhat similar views regarding our attachments and cravings. But the underlying cause for suffering in the world is completely different. In Matthew 6:19 Jesus says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Colossians 3:1-2a implores followers to, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." James 4:1 asks, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight." From all of these verses, we see that the Christian faith leads us to realize that our attachments to "things" can lead us to suffering. If we desire our brother's possessions, we will be unhappy and also ungrateful for what we do have. If we are attached to our goods and they are stolen, we will feel loss. If we become really envious, we may even fight someone else to get what we want. But while our actions are the cause which leads to the effect of suffering, the Bible leads us back a step further into the cause behind this step in the process of suffering. Romans 3 teaches us that "there is no one who does good, not even one" and states that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (3:12,23). There will be no sinless thinking this side of heaven. Throughout the Old Testament there were many admonitions to follow God's path in order to be blessed, and examples of being punished because of not obeying God. We see that it was because of their sin that they acted in rebellion against God's commandments, and they brought suffering upon themselves. We should also note that the groups that Israel conquered and destroyed were receiving the result of their sins against God as well (Psalm 2). But Christians also know from the Book of Job that God allows His people to suffer for reasons other than their sins. Satan, the deceiver, contributed to the suffering by coming to God and receiving permission to afflict Job in terrible ways. This test to discover whether Job would be faithful was limited by the hand of God. The Book of James explains this testing well in 1:2-4: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." The Heidelberg Catechism explains it thus: God's providence is His almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand (Lord's Day 10). So we see then that the Buddhist understands the cause of suffering to arise from peoples' attitudes and actions. The Christian will agree that one's cravings and actions can sometimes be the cause of the suffering. But the Christian sees it as arising either because those attitudes and actions are sinful, or as a test brought upon him/her by God for His higher purposes. It is no wonder that Howley states that "nothing can make us joyful in the face of sorrow" because there is no comfort from God for the Buddhist. 3- Can freedom from suffering be secured? The Buddha's aim in teaching us about suffering was not to deny that there is beauty and joy in everyday life, but rather to show us how to be happy right now and in the very next moment of this existence. Howley states that, "If it weren't for a third noble truth, we'd create a god or demon and blame our suffering on that." Instead, she says that Buddhism leads us to become truly aware of the real condition of existence: "Enjoy what you have now but accept that is already changing. Do no harm to living beings, including yourself. Learn to control your mind by being aware of things as they are, now." The similarity with Christianity is that the Bible always implores people to take an accurate and honest look at what is truly happening. But the interpretation of what is truly happening is entirely different! Note the words of the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:8-10: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Christians are admonished to control ourselves, and to be aware. We are to watch for the temptations that can come from the devil, and resist them and him, which we learn from other passages is done by regular prayer, Bible reading, and worshipping as a community. We see also that we will suffer, but that after "a little while" God will restore us. Jesus promised in John 17:5-15 that after he left, he would send the "Counselor," who is the Holy Spirit who would lead us into truth, convict men of sin, and provide comfort as well. There is an anticipation built up throughout the progression of the Four Noble Truths. We now know the nature of the problem of suffering, and truly, we are eager to find out just exactly what we must do in order to solve it. 4 - Which is the path that leads us out of suffering? The Fourth Noble Truth presents an eightfold path as the way out of suffering. In summary, this path promotes "right views, aims, speech, action, livelihood, perseverance, mindfulness, and meditation." Mindfulness is the awareness I spoke of, and meditation will be discussed in the next section. Perseverance is just as it says. The first five are further expressed in the Buddha's "Five Precepts" which were against "lying, stealing, killing, unnatural sexual activity and intoxication." It is important to note that these steps and precepts are not considered by Buddhists to be commandments, but rather they are guidelines for beginning a life free from unnecessary suffering. It is thought that we can live happier lives by understanding, not by obeying rules or believing that help comes from "out there" or "up there." They are given as advice which can be used or ignored; but one must take responsibility for the consequences of one's actions. Most Christians can easily see that this path and these precepts correspond to our Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Commandments. And the Precept regarding intoxication is covered in the list of sinful activities in Galatians 5:19-21 as "drunkenness." Furthermore, Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:8-9b to "...live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing...." And in 1 Peter 3:10 we read “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.” Clearly, this last verse is the same as number three, “Right Speech.” So there is some agreement between Buddhists and Christians, therefore, as to how one should interact with other people. Both would agree that there will be less suffering encountered in this lifetime when one lives in harmony with others, and both even agree to a great degree on the description of that harmony. Does this then mean that the two religions are similar? In their very essence, they are not. Buddhists look within themselves to find their ease, and do not look to a "god" to provide for them in any way. Christians look to the God who is the Creator of the universe, for our care. We believe he is personally involved with each of us, for "all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move" (Heidelberg Catechism LD 10). The Buddha taught his followers to escape suffering while Jesus showed us the way to go through it. If the Buddhists are right, there is no God to help us; and from the Christian's viewpoint, the Buddhists are just trying to get by as best as they can because they do not want to bow before Almighty God. Ravi Zacharias has stated, "Buddhism is a well-thought through belief that is bereft of God. More accurately, it is a philosophy of how one can be good without God, pulling oneself up by one's own moral bootstraps" (Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks With Buddha). The Buddha said, "Be a light to yourselves," but Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). Meditation or Prayer? Furthermore, Buddhism teaches that one can overcome suffering by right meditation. Buddhist meditation is not a “trance,” but rather a time of becoming more aware of what is going on in your mind. It is a time of not being distracted by other things. The word bhavana actually means development or “culture” as in mental development or mental yoga. This “insight meditation” deals with our bodies, feelings, sensations, the mind, and moral and intellectual subjects. Buddhist meditation develops control of one's own mind. This is very important because as Howley states: “where the mind goes, the body tends to follow. A controlled mind can be directed skillfully while an uncontrolled mind chatters like a ‘drunken monkey’ and its misperceptions lead to unskillful behavior and unnecessary suffering.” Thoughts and actions in Buddhism are divided into those which are skillful and those which are unskillful. Skillful ones are those which are the most useful and beneficial, and the least harmful. Karma is the word which describes the accumulated effect of actions. Since they do not believe in sinfulness or commands, this terminology represents the strongest persuasion for our compliance to that which will benefit ourself. With insightful meditation, we move away from our problem temporarily, by reaching deep within ourself, examining the issue carefully, determining how to deal with it, and then putting it behind ourself. There is simply no point to "hanging on" to what was desired since that causes suffering. When the Bible speaks of meditation, this is not what it means. Meditation in Scripture is on Scripture: it is looking at what God has to say about life and thinking it through so that one might learn to think God's thoughts after Him. And Christianity promotes prayer. Prayer is addressed to God the Father through His son Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Heidelberg Catechism explains that Christians "address God as Our Father – To awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer that childlike reverence and trust toward God which should be basic to our prayer (LD 46). Christians pray for Him to be glorified and honored in all of our words, thoughts and actions. We ask for His will to be done and for all of our needs to be provided, our sins to be forgiven, and for strength to fight temptation and the evil one. We conclude by joyfully stating, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." As Ravi Zacharias has written, “Prayer is a constant reminder that the human being is not autonomous...there are cardinal differences between one who prays and one who meditates. One looks beyond and the other looks within." Conclusion A Christian is a person who has realized that he is sinful in and of himself, and he cannot come to God directly because of that sin. Therefore, through God's Word, he realizes that he needs a Savior. Christians believe that within all men is the knowledge of a Being higher than themselves who created the intricate yet vast universe and all within it, who knows all and is all powerful. We do not believe that we can handle all of life by looking into our sinful selves, nor that we were left to do so by an impersonal Creator. Rather we rejoice in the love that sought us, bought us, and keeps us in His care. We trust His decisions, even when we are suffering, knowing that He has a purpose in that suffering. Unlike the Buddhist nun, who claims that, “nothing can make us joyful in the face of sorrow,” we are able to experience a sense of peace, and even joy in accepting God's will. James 1:2 encourages us to “consider it pure joy...whenever you face trials of any kind,” and 1 Peter 1:6 states “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." It was also mentioned before that 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 spoke of suffering – but it also speaks of God's strength being applied: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. This is seen by the Christian as a true "letting go" of a situation, but it involves a total trust in God rather than the Buddhist's "true awareness of the real condition of existence" (Howley). There is great benefit in understanding God's providence, because as Lord's Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism states: We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move. This is the Christian's response to suffering. At first sight, some might consider that the Buddha and the Christ taught very similar concepts which can be happily used by all people to ease their sufferings. It might even look like meditation and prayer are quite alike, since both seem to be "mind activities." Even the medical societies are promoting Yoga and meditation for one's health, although a recent study showed no real improvement in health in those who tried it. Before I studied about Buddhism, I did not realize that it is really the underlying philosophy of so many self-improvement techniques seen all around us. It is simply not acceptable to view Jesus Christ as just another great teacher similar to the Buddha, for Jesus claimed to be the Son of God who came to save people from their sins. So either He was who He claimed to be, or he was a lunatic not worthy to be followed, for He claimed to be the Son of God. He stated, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Christians believe that suffering can only be ended by coming into a right relationship with God, and this can only be done through Jesus Christ. Suffering ends because it is faced with God's strength and comfort here in this world, and it ends ultimately when one enters Heaven after death. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:5 of those who come "having a form of godliness, but denying its power." Buddhists attempt to bring themselves out of suffering by a type of righteous living, without connecting themselves to the God who created them. In other words, they seek to provide their own salvation from suffering. Therefore, there is very little similarity between Buddhism and Christianity on the topic of suffering. 45 of Sharon Bratcher’s articles are available in Soup and Buns: Nourishment from God’s Word for Your Daily Struggles.
Personal Celebrations...
Blog entry
21 Apr 2013 - 8:43pm
Birthdays, and indeed Xmas, seem to be the assigned times for showing 'love' to each other :-)... Such 'love' usually results in us giving and receiving 'gifts', that more often than not, are not TRUELY welcomed by the recipients of such 'generosity' :-)... Such 'gifts' of 'love' help sustain, and even bolster, commercialism, which in turn, results in further damage being inflicted onto Mother Earth - it's amazing how conditioned we have become to such demonstrations of 'love'... :-)
Finding Peace And Contentment Through Spiritual Development
Teaching
21 Apr 2013 - 10:40am
Finding Peace And Contentment Through Spiritual Development by Shyrell Wisdom http://www.howtoee.com/how-to-find-peace-and-contentment-through-spiritual-development/ First I must give the definition of peace which is a experienced quietude within oneself. There is contentment; contentment is being satisfied with the self and spirituality means a true connection with the savior through whatever method used. Some people connect by prayer, a experience you cannot touch but through faith you identify. Development is growth. It can occur in many ways such as financial, mental, spiritual, physical and so on. My main focus here is spiritual growth, a crucial aspect of man’s life that remains amiss in many of us. I call it the missing link now a days, spirituality is was the main player in the creation of the earth and still remain dominant in many people lifestyle. But let us ask ourselves what is spiritual growth and how could we find it? Spirituality is being able to communicate through faith with your Divine Being and Faith is a belief not seen but can be experienced. We find spirituality through peace and contentment; Here is a example of what I want to bring across, there are instances where your needs are met through Divine Intervention and manifestation when you arrive at certain point in your spirituality. Spirituality occur through true connection through prayer or by networking with people who is experiencing the same growth effect , drawing each other energy in a Divine way. Arriving at this point you experience word play like freedom, peace and contentment in your life. You become aware be more accepting being able to be open to love and forgive more readily. You are rich even though poor, you are fed when hungry and clothes when naked, learning to appreciate the beauty of the world and not take little things and life for granted. You become a survivor, contented, peaceful, free and rich in spirit. You are able to ride the storm because your faith increases tremendously. Everyone need to experience and try to accomplish this close relationship with God, so one can gain strength and revelation in oneself and find favor in the good qualities that life has to offer. This writer is able to rely upon His understanding and strength so I have the will power not to turn to artificial substances that mankind offers. I am no bible beater nor am I perfect but I have strength. These connections are deep stuff that some people ignore in their lives, but everything has it rightful place. You just have to find the right slot that’s open. One of man’s objectives is to find happiness; they will do anything to find it. Is man looking in the right direction in pursuit of happiness? Some might argue otherwise, I am going to argue that there is a chain connection in all these things mention, they exist from beginning of time but they have its rightful place. It Is your job to find the right place by connection through inspiration. Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. You can achieve all these that lead to self development and security through Divine strength. Some have become powerful thus gaining the wealth of the world yet deep inside they are lonely and unhappy because they lost focus and forget the fundamental formation that fill the gap of loneness and happiness leading from spirituality. Following all the inspired format in Divine strength , balancing our lives the best way we can in moderation through humbling our selves. We should recognize our blessing and favors by being thankful. Owning and claiming the many talents and favors givens but not being boastful about it. I mention mental and physical growth through spirituality. If one is not well in mind body and soul it will be impossible to function well. We ought be able to identify the functions of our bodies to love and appreciate this valuable temple from God and not sacrum to the use and abuse through drug and alcohol addiction which some of us fall prey to. If we seek spirituality we will find peace , joy and live in his mercy and grace , gaining strength. We should refresh our spirits, laugh more we should smile and welcome upon our face the glow of his presence that some will try unssuccefully to wipe away. God can create peace within us. We will be to explore our spirituality by being the light of the world. Let his light shine in our lives, welcoming love and joy in us. We can be able to address our physical wellness by staying healthy to enter into a longer life expectancy. Now we can be of assistance to others we have better health, state of mind and peace around us which we work to create. Live it into practice. Practice becomes perfect and you will strive to be the best of the fruit given from God. Fall you will fall, you are a survivor. You are the cream of God’s crop. You will be able to dance yourself onto victories and sing yourself into melodies. You will be able to nature and appreciate the natural love of GOD.  
I Am Really Sad !
Blog entry
21 Apr 2013 - 8:40am
We are living in very fragile times, and the work of a Lightworker on this planet and in the spirit realms has stepped up, considerably!!    I, for one, am very sad at the events happening around the world when two or a handful of people can cause so much devastation, changing other peoples' lives to lives of pain and suffering just for the sake of utter HATRED towards others. There was a time on Lightworkers, a few years ago, when we used to all gather together as One great Light and Love Vibration in Meditation to send our energies out into the collective.  I don't see that anymore. Everyone who had their hopes set on 'escaping' to a higher dimension in Dec. 2012 seems to have lost their OOMPH !    It takes a LOT of personal work to be able to step-up into another dimension. I am also sad and crying this evening to see 'jabs' and other attacks at me, like the one on that day of the Boston bombing when my comment was mistaken for something it was NOT !   My heart is wide-open all of the time, and today I feel very vulnerable and hurt that we cannot just team together like we used to and BE LOVE ! I am going away from here for sometime, and continue to blog and share love and kinship on the other websites where the atmosphere is clear and friendly.   I love my friends here, but my heart can't take anymore.                      Take care, love Tara *~~ P.S.  Please don't give me advice on how to handle things, my life, or anything else, thank-you!
When our newly remembered divine gifts overwhelm us...
Blog entry
20 Apr 2013 - 5:38pm
I know many are starting to expand their senses and becoming extra sensitive to one or more senses. I see it with all the awakening ones I work with, which are starting to remember the Light Within Themselves. One of the most experienced senses to develop first seems to be empathy (clairsentience)Feeling "extra". Empathy blossoms and what a trip that is when it first turns up to the "extra" party. They become like sponges, picking up feelings from those all around them. They have to remember how to discern what is theirs and what is not. Going out in public becomes something to be avoided at all costs. But still it must happen,somewhat... Eventually for me, I am now more comfortable with crowds. I am learning how to keep myself at my own vibration and shielded so I am not drained by those around me. But it has been baby steps for me... Or they begin to see through the veil, and are seeing freaky-deaky stuff. Which can be very frightening and overwhelming. As our third eye begins to decalcify, it begins to "see". At first it can be very overwhelming because the images can be hard to interpret, but eventually this becomes more integrated into who we are and the transition becomes smoother as our "vision" becomes clearer. Sometimes they see an event but do not have any information to do anything about it, just see/feel something happening in the world. This can be very difficult as our first instinct is to stop it but yet we don't have the information. For me it has been a process of acceptance. I have come to believe that an event is being presented to me which I just send love with the intent of healing and for the highest good of all. I used to freak out about it but now I view it as an opportunity to send light to a manifested situation which needs healing. Some hear more than they had in the past. The sounds of bells, or music often accompany them. Sounds divine, but if one does not know what they are hearing it can quickly make them think they are going crazy... Clairaudience is enhanced hearing...it's like our hearing has hopped on the steroid band wagon. Sometimes too we hear messages from"others out there"... Please know that there is NO consciousness, or entity "out there" that should bring ANY ANXIETY AT ALL to your heart(if they say the are Light beings) and IF they do, then tell them to bug off(hahaha)or to take a hike. Surround yourself with White Light and reach out to your Source. Only YOU give another the right to share your energy if you so choose, they MAY NOT take it from you. I feel it is time we start to empower ourselves and nothing makes one feel stronger than to say "no" to something or someone that hurts us. In fact all senses are being expanded, even our internal senses,so the experiences are endless. None the less,it can all become overwhelming. When this happens to me I try to get out in nature as soon as possible and just breathe. Sometimes just breathing correctly and filling our bodies with prana will help us to center and once again move into our hearts. Also try to drink water. I imagine liquid Light filling me and helping me to once again find my center. Or I take a marathon salted bath and just allow myself to be in a quiet space. As we grow and expand in the Light of our selves and our Source,every day is different. But it is another day that we are here. And I try to keep reminding myself that this path might be very difficult as I reach further and further within... But with the painful releases come the breathtaking expansion of my world and the ability to finally see what is real and what is not. Including me. Who am I and who am I not...? It seems that everyday I get more and more comfortable being in my new self. And I look forward to where this path is taking me with a ton of curiosity...what awesome thing, what miracle will happen today? How will my Source show me how I am loved? And how many can I share that love with others? Challenging times indeed,when it's rough it's sooo dark, but when the Light shines it's so amazing. Shine Bright my family. We are all doing an amazing job. And if these newly acquired gifts seem more of a curse that a gift,remember it is a sign your are expanding and growing in the Light. You might surprise yourself at how much you start to enjoy these enhanced senses,once you understand them,this new way of being. In fact, you might like it...a lot. In Light and Love : ) marie
Accepting What Is Offered...
Blog entry
20 Apr 2013 - 8:49am
When i was investigating Spiritualism, i remember a common saying amongst Spiritualists - never demand of Spirit :-)... The same can be said of people - never demand of them :-)... Enquire by all means, but if such enquiry is tactfully sidestepped, simply accept that person's right to decide that which they feel comfortable offering :-)... The More You Live, The More You Love ~ Flock Of Seagulls
Being Something Vs. Being , Dwal Khul
Story
19 Apr 2013 - 6:25pm
Being  Something   Vs.   Being          ,     Dwal  Khul   ‘   Your ‘something’ is getting in the way of your  ‘being’ ,  your just being.   Being  something is different than  being without taking it to the point of   being something.   At any moment   At every moment   In each moment   That is why attachment and desire can lead one away from  pure ,   undifferentiated  source  identification within.   It is your choice.   .   Dwal Khul   April 13, 2, 013  
Where Do You/I Belong?
Blog entry
18 Apr 2013 - 11:23pm
   by Daylle Deanna Schwartz People tend to fall into patterns and make life decisions based on what they’ve been guided to do. Sometimes they were kind of programmed to go in a certain direction. Many women are taught young that their biggest goal as adults should be to find a husband, get married and have kids. A job is like an extra component. If everyone in your family is in a medical field, chances are you’ll be expected to follow suit. We’re often guided or gently nudged into a direction by parents, teachers, and even the media about where we should belong and carry what they teach us around like baggage. Sometimes it’s so subtle you don’t even realize it till you find yourself unhappy and feeling helpless about how to switch your course. I began adulthood as a DoorMat and did what I was told. After being with the same guy through college, our parents joined forces to convince us we should get married. I was just twenty years old and felt like I hadn’t lived as an adult yet. I wanted to explore life on my terms and see what I wanted to do for a career. But since I hadn’t found my voice yet, I succumbed to pressure, got married, and became a teacher like my husband, which I never wanted to be. Trapped! That’s how I saw myself back then. Since I’d always been told what I was supposed to do, I didn’t know how to find a path I’d be happy on. So I stayed a teacher and housewife for years, worrying about everyone’s needs but my own. A friend suggested I try to figure out what I wanted out of life but I had no idea where to look or how to know what to do that would feel good. It was scary to think about going against the grain. What would people think? A big question we often have is: Where do I belong?? When you don’t think for, or about yourself, it’s hard to know where you belong. When I was a DoorMat, my whole life was about who I was to others. I felt like I only belonged where others put me, helping them out and being there for them. I had no “Daylle place.” I never had ME time. That wasn’t on my agenda when I lived to please others. So I felt lost most of the time. People pleasers often feel lost when they don’t feel like they fit into themselves. Now that I love myself completely, I belong to me and my place on this earth is of my choosing—whatever makes me happy. Until you belong to yourself, and love yourself enough to own that honor, it’s hard to find where you belong in the world. When you belong to you, you make decisions based on what you’d like, not what others would like from you. So when you choose to belong in a direction that’s satisfying to YOU, not to people you please, you’ll find out where you belong. I belong where my heart feels good. You belong where you feel good. I remember loving the line from the old Metallica song, “Where I lay my head is home.” I equate feeling like I’m home to being where I belong. I belong behind a computer, writing. I belong in the park, running. I belong in any place that makes me happy, any place that feels peaceful and satisfying. I no longer belong in DoorMatville! That need is way over! Pack up the old baggage of where others think you belong and get rid of it so you can find out where home is to you!             http://blog.beliefnet.com/lessonsfromarecoveringdoormat/
Ascension Symptoms-April 2013
Blog entry
17 Apr 2013 - 1:18am
Every time I think of the word ascension I imagine Jesus softly floating up to the sky. Waving and smiling to all his loved ones, until he disappears of into the distance. What can I say? I was raised catholic in Argentina... But the reality is that the symptoms experienced when our body's vibration is rising can be very overwhelming at times. So I went looking to see what others were experiencing and found an article that was truly right on for me. I thought I would share it, and add what I have experienced so far. This is indeed a Divine process and a path that is being experienced by many in this world at this time. I feel the more information we can all share, the better we help each other to stay out of fear. This information is from the website : http://ascensionsymptoms.com/index.html Remember that not all of these symptoms may be due to the ascension process. Please follow your own inner guidance and consult a health care professional as needed. If you are experiencing a majority of these symptoms it is a good indication that you are experiencing the ascension process more fully. Ascension Signs & Symptoms You just 'know' or sense that something is happening to your body and you feel different. Your body doesn’t respond as it did previously to physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual patterns. Your body just feels “different” for reasons you can't explain.  (This was very obvious to me, I KNEW that something different was going on inside of me, but I had no idea what.My mind could not comprehend what was happening because the experience was outside my reality) Changes in eating habits, food tastes and digestion. You may fluctuate between feeling hungry all the time to the inability to ingest food or lack of appetite. Sudden cravings for particular foods; suddenly liking foods you never liked before and sudden aversions to foods you used to enjoy.  ( I was born in Argentina and meat was the main staple in my diet, I am now unable to eat meat, and this is one of many things my body can no longer ingest)  Body aches and pains all over or in particular areas; soreness in joints, muscles and bones for no apparent reason, and not due to physical exercise or fatigue. (This morning I woke up and my body hurting everywhere. My best friends this morning were a very hot bath with dead sea salts, a ton of distilled water, and a natural salve to help with soreness.) Feeling out of breath, like you can’t breathe deep enough, or breathing too fast for normal comfort; sometimes noticing you are holding your breath a lot.  ( This started for me after December, but it seems to be tapering down now. I feel it is almost as if I am learning how to breathe correctly again.)  Blurred vision when reading or looking at long distances. Light sparkles or flashes of light in the peripheral vision from time to time, even after any eye problems have been ruled out. Awakening of the Third Eye (inner vision). (This happens to me all the time, but of course when I try to see it all disappears. I feel I am trying too hard to "see" with my 3d eyes as opposed to seeing with my inner vision. I'm working on this, I am ready to see what I have been missing)  Rapid heart rate, heart palpitations or flutters that occurs from time to time spontaneously and not related to physical exercise or emotional upset. Awakening of the Heart Chakra (heart-centered consciousness and love). (I had an EKG done three months ago, and all results came back negative.My doctor was amazed and told me I had the heart of a twenty year old.But please make sure and get everything checked out, it also helps to accept the symptoms and stay out of fear if there is physical proof that your heart is normal,or any other medical concern) Pressure and pain in or around the head and face area, including skull, eyes, ears, sinuses, teeth and gums, often times shifting from one side to another. (This I experienced, especially in my teeth and the back of my skull)  Irritable bowl symptoms or changes in digestion; fluctuating between periods of diarrhea and constipation; Increased gas, bloating or a feeling of 'fullness' not necessarily due to diet. (Yes I know it is icky,but it is an amazing way of releasing lower energies from our bodies...plus if you ingest anything of a lower vibration which your body can't handle, you better start running to find a bathroom...that's all I'm saying...)  Feeling ungrounded at times for no apprent reason; feeling disoriented, confused, spacey or lightheaded or dizzy. (Yes,yes,yes.Big issue with me. I feel it is because as I connect more to my Source,that is where I want to hang out, so part of me is there and part of me is here...I get lost driving alot.Best way to ground for me is to go out in Mother Nature,for she has amazing grounding and healing properties)  Weight gain or loss, suddenly or slowly, especially in the abdominal area, even if there are no changes in your diet. (In the beginning of the process I gained about twenty pounds. Made me deal with a lot of self-esteem issues.In the last year I have lost that weight and probably about ten more.I feel too that many times I gain water weight to help regulate the intense energies which are flowing through me, and once I begin to integrate them, I lose weight from one day to the next.Sometimes as much as three or four pounds).  Back aches in any or all areas, pain along the spine, pain or soreness in the neck and shoulder areas. (Especially along my spine, used to have intense pain along my shoulder blades but that has subsided)  Changes in body temperatures; increased sensitivity or intolerance to heat or cold. (This is one of the toughest ones for me.I can be freezing inside and hot and clammy on my skin, or vice versa,often with unbelievable chills.Or burning up and being drenched in sweat.I feel that this is all part of the hypothalamus and the pineal glands starting to come back "online") Frequent headaches or migraines that don't respond to medicine; sharp pains or strange sensations that suddenly occur in the head/skull area, often in one particular spot or side, often alternating sides. (Another of the toughest for me. The headaches are absolutely debilitating when they occur. Sometimes if I feel one starting I take aspirin((with nothing else in it)) and this seems to help with the intensity Often times I end up in bed and ask for help(I call in my medical team) with the pain, shortly afterwards I fall asleep.When I wake up it is gone.)  Feeling of intense or uncomfortable head pressure, often at the skull/crown area as if your head is being squeezed.  (For me especially at the bottom of my skull) Moments of memory loss that may occur on and off or for short periods of time; brain freezes or brain fog, forgetting why you've walked into a room; often forgetting simple words during conversations or forgetting what you are about to say.  (What? I forgot what I was going to say...24/7) Clumsiness, lack of coordination control at times, bumping into walls or objects more often at times. (Nothing is funnier than to see a full grown woman walk into the wall.Or the table.Or the chair.I have to remind myself that we are multidimensional beings of light and I am remembering that.At the moment of impact I was in another place, there was no wall,but here there is one.It is a hard wall.Got it.) Tingling sensations or 'falling asleep' of limbs, particularly the arms, hands, legs or feet, but sometimes feeling this sensation at the top of your head or in other parts of the body that are uncommon. (My hands tingle a lot,this has been pretty constant for me.)  Experiencing moments of audio dyslexia where someone is speaking but it is as if you can't process the information or understand what they are saying; periods where words seem to lose their meaning or don't make sense in the same way they used to.  (This is weird la-la-land stuff.I see their mouths moving but the words coming out are not connecting to my ears because I don't understand them.Or I think I understand them but it is a million miles away from what they were actually saying,and when I answer everyone looks at me like I am a goofball) Bouts of crying for no apparent reason; bouts of hysterical laughter for no apparent reason. (Yes,still, both are very intense but I feel such clarity afterwards because it is such an intense release.All emotional release for me is always welcome, especially as I cry I release issues,thoughts,paradigms,ideas,etc...,all which are no longer for my highest good or for the highest good of all.I try to drink a lot of distilled water afterwards so that I don't get a headache, because if I cry a lot it can bring on bad headaches due to dehydrating myself.) Sudden itching all over or in various areas of the body for no reason; also, skin rashes, swelling, and other unusal skin changes. (I have had skin rashes lately as well as a lot of itching.This is something new for me.As I scratch my head uncontrollably, I tell my friends that my lice are acting up...)  Changes in hair texture and even slight changes in color or highlights; thinning or dry looking hair that suddenly returns to normal; hair and nails frowing at a faster rate than usual.  (One day my hair looks and feels great, the next day I have dead hair.Lately my nails have been growing very quickly) Feeling unsual vibrations or a vibrating sensation within the body; periods of unexplainable nervousness or anxiety that comes and goes spontaneously for no apprent reason. ( I feel that sometimes the feelings of anxiety are not mine, I am just transmuting them for the collective)  Unusual, intense or wild dreams or visions that can be pleasant, or even frightening; reoccuring dream themes or certain people appearing in dreams often; bizarre abstract dreams that are difficult to explain. Periods where you can not recall any dream activity at all.  (I have always had prophetic dreams, even as a child, but since December I pretty much have no recollection at all of any dreams) Periods of extreme fatigue for no apprent reason that happens out of the blue, or upon awakening although being fully rested; also, periods of feeling wide awake and energized despite lack of sleep. (This is common for me.When these times occurr it is impossible for me to stay awake.I will usually fall into a deep sleep between 1 to 2 hours.I feel these are times when I am receiving information, or downloads as I call them)  Changes in hearing or unusual sounds; ringing in the ears, hearing beeps, pings, tones, frequencies, whoosing or pulsating sensations. Periods of extreme sensitivity to sounds where they appear louder than usual, and periods where sounds seem more muffled. (Lately I hear bells,or tones, but when I pay attention,of course they disappear.I feel that, as with all my senses which are expanding, I am starting to develop enhanced hearing,or clairaudience.Another of the skills we possess, which we have forgotten)  Cold/Flu like symptoms that appear and then dissapear without actually developing a cold or flu. ( This usually happens to me if the place where I am is not a confortable vibration for me, sometimes this is called a "vibrational flu")  Hot flashes or night sweats; feeling heat sensations throughout your body for no apparent reason, or sometimes unsual chills that come and go. (This is one of the first symptoms that I had.I went to the doctor at the time but all my hormones were normally balanced.I feel this happens as the body burns off the dross from lower energies which are being released.)  Increased psychic awareness and sensitivity, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, heightened intuition, prophetic or precognitive dreams or visions occuring more often. (As we expand our consciousness we also expand our senses.We are able to see,feel,taste,hear and smell  more than what we used to be able to do with our senses)  Noticing shimmers or sparkles of light within the environment, especially in nature, a strange haze, halos or aurus around people or trees, plants and animals. Lights may suddenly appear more bright and intense, or unusual. Objects appear to fade away or dim in and out of focus. (Adjusting to a new way of seeing...our third eye opening)  Causing interference in electrical appliances; electronic devices behaving in an unsual way or malfunctioning within your presense, especially when you are in a heightened state of emotion such as anger or sadness; having light bulbs blow out or flicker when you are near.  (This is getting expensive.Blew out another hair dryer.I blow out electronics often, too much energy transferring between me and electronics I think...) The feeling or perception that time is speeding up or moving faster; feeling that you can't accomplish all that you want or experiencing a sense of urgency or that 'time running out'; also, a feeling that 'something is about to happen'. ( I no longer have a sense of time, but I did indeed feel a sense of urgency in the beginning of this process for me.I no longer feel this.)  Changes in sleep patterns; sleeping for shorter periods and then awakening and falling asleep again; awakening often between the hours of 2 am - 4 am for no apparent reason. (We process so much during our sleep that we need to wake up to take breaks.Early morning is when it is quiet and therefore a great time to integrate these new energies flowing through our bodies. Don't let it upset you, try to find something that you enjoy doing and use that time to do it)  A feeling of detachment or wanting to withdraw suddenly from family, friends and coworkers and habitual patterns that once excited you. The feeling is not due to depression, but more from a sense of wanting to be in your own space or not being able to relate to them in the same way as before. (As our body's vibration rises ,it becomes more and more difficult  to be around lower energies.We withdraw from all that is no longer in alignment with our new,shiny selves)  Feeling as you don’t belong, as if you are invisible to others, or as if you are a total stranger. Strange moments where you feel others can’t hear you, or you can’t hear or see them. (Also many times people will walk into me as if they don't see me.My guess is that I am in between spaces and so in a way they really can't see me)  Looking out at your environment and feeling as if you are experiencing a dream world or alternative reality, that it’s not real or something looks 'fake', out of place or unusal. (A very unusual feeling, to look around and have the world look not quite right. I feel that once again I am adjusting to seeing the world with my new "senses") A strong feeling that you are lost and don't know 'who you are'. A feeling of being someone other than you thought you were before. Periods of wanting to 'find yourself'. (Yes this is still me to an extent. For I am nothing like the person I was for 47 years,everything about me is different, and therefore I am starting to discover this new self)  A sudden feeling of being connected to nature and animals like never before; an increased sensitivity to plants, trees, flowers; a deep understanding and appreciation of nature and animals, and more natural or serene environments. (This is amazing for my connection to nature is unbelievable now. All I need to do is step outside and my vibration instantly rises.I feel such incredible love for this earth)   Abrupt changes in job, friends, hobbies, interests, or living environments, or a sudden feeling of wanting to relocate or being drawn to a particular area. (If it is not for your highest good, it is not for the greatest good of all,for we are all connected.It will be released one way or another and abrupt changes will occur to help you get back in alignment with your true self))  Profound sense of connection with angelic and cosmic beings and an Increase feeling of Divine Love; moments of deep revelation and appreciation for life; a feeling of love, peace, understanding and interconnectedness. (When we connect and realize that we have never been alone, the sense of peace and love is amazing)  A sudden increase in synchronicity - meaningful coincidences that occur when you least expect them. You may notice 11:11 and other repeating number sequences such as 111, 1212, 333, 444, 144, etc., popping up in your day-to-day life in unusual ways whenever you 'happen to look'.  (Yes,yes,yes! And this is so amazing,for signs come to us in the form of numbers to give us guidance and support.The message conveyed? You are on the right path.Keep going, for you are amazing.) Increased "self talk." You'll find yourself talking to your Self more often. Experiencing more telepathic communication with close friends and family, and even animals. Moments in conversation where you feel energized with extremely clear and profound speaking and then not being able to recall or repeat it the same way or with the same clarity, as if it were profound wisdom coming from your higher self. (I talk to myself all the time.Incredibly connected to my dog Sally, our relationship seems to have changed because I do communicate with her so easily now, and she with me.Telepathy starting to develop between me and soul family members.I have had instances where I said things which I had no recollection of, which later I am told have really helped others.The first time it happened it freaked me out for it felt as if I was standing beside myself hearing myself speak,but now the integration is smoother)  A deep longing to go Home. You may experience a deep and overwhelming desire to leave the planet and return to Home. This is not a "suicidal" feeling. It is not based in anger or frustration.  (When you finally connect to the Source of Light and Love and remember that love is the answer, it makes us want to leave this dense planet and return to our Source. Eventually this feeling changes as instead of thinking of home "out ther, you think of home inside your heart and therefore always with you.However the feeling of wanting to go Home still pops up for me,but it is getting better to handle emotionally) Lately I have also had bouts of extreme nausea,especially during solar flares and magnetic storms,sometimes making me throw up, other times making me dizzy. Also lately I have developed what I call a "honeybadger attitude"( this is a very funny video on youtube which explains how honeybadgers don't really care about much except eating and so even if they get stung a million times they just don't care...) don't really care about rules or laws or whatever, at this point my goal is to raise my vibration so I can ground the light and help support the raising of the planet's vibration, in which ever way is for the highest good of all. Now with this heavy list I will give you the light list,here are more signs that you are raising your vibration... Feeling inner peace Looking younger Wanting to play,play,play Bliss Ecstasy Happiness Contentment Completeness Creativity Wisdom Humility Heart Centered No judgment Good health Compassion Completion of your Soul Journey Feeling One with All Shine bright my beautiful family of light. We are doing a beautiful job, for we are divine in everything we do. Don't forget that this is a process, therefore eventually these symptoms do pass as we release more and more of who we are not. And as we release, we make more room within us for more light to fill us...connecting us more and more to our Source of All that Is. All we need to do is stay in our hearts and remember to ask for help when needed,for this is a free will planet, and our light family cannot actively help us, unless we ask for help. And don't forget to love yourself through this, after all you are here, and you are doing it, you are helping raise the vibration of this planet.  How amazing is that? How amazing are we? In Light and Love : ) marie
Pooling Of Resources...
Blog entry
16 Apr 2013 - 10:54am
As 'Lightworkers' i feel we should be making more effort in predicting tragedies, such as the Boston marathon tragedy... Some people tend to receive snippets of information regarding future events... If we were to have a facility on this site that allowed us to offer such snippets of information, then maybe our pooled efforts would enable a more detailed picture to emerge???...
So grateful for the welcome
Blog entry
16 Apr 2013 - 2:40am
I'd just like to say a huge grateful thank you to people who have replied to my blogs and messaged me on here <3 I never expected people to accept me and welcome me into the fold so fast and without my having to really do anything! I'm just so very grateful, thanks and peace and love to everyone <3 <3
Love and Fear
Teaching
13 Apr 2013 - 11:03am
Love and Fear by Chuck Danes http://www.abundance-and-happiness.com/love-and-fear.html   Love and Fear Are The Unseen Governing Forces Determining Each Of Your Physical Outcomes...You Get To Choose Which You Utilize...Consciously Choose Love And You'll Have Discovered How To "Really" Live   "Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudice and the acceptance of love back into our hearts." ~ - Marianne Williamson   Love and Fear are the most powerful ways of being that you can experience. In fact everything in your life every thought that you think, every word that you speak, every action you take falls under one of these powerfully creative headings.   You are at all times thinking, speaking and acting out of love or out of fear. They cannot coexist. In the same way all sponsoring emotions experienced can be and are categorized under one or the other...either love or fear.   When you begin to understand this you can then become more "conscious" of which you are expressing as you go about your day to day life which will provide you with a much deeper understanding as to how the day to day events, conditions and circumstances in the various areas of your life unfold.   It's no secret in today's world that the predominant thoughts that you think become things...physical things.   The more you focus on the things you want, (love) the more of those things you'll see manifest in your life. By the same token, the more you focus on those things that you don't want, (fear) that realization becomes just as apparent and shows up in the various areas of your life as events, conditions and circumstances that you don't want.   In fact becoming consciously aware of the power of both love and fear and learning to consciously direct your thoughts, beliefs and emotions toward love, regardless of the "perceived" appearances in your physical world, will prove to provide "profound" transformation in each of your physical outcomes.   Your physical experiences in life...those things that you can see, touch, taste, hear and smell are merely effects.   These effects are determined by the predominant thoughts that you choose to think and become increasingly creative as emotions are attached to them.   A thought consistently focused on what you love will produce what you love in physical form. Consistent thoughts of fear (things you don't want) are intensified by fear and create what is feared.   How can that be?   As with everything both Love and fear at their core in their purest and most basic form exist as a vibrational frequency of energy. These vibrational frequencies attract to themselves additional frequencies that harmonize with them creating in physical form whatever choice you make.   Quite simply Love attracts to you what you love and fear pushes what you love away. Put another way fear attracts to you what you fear and love pushes what you fear away.   Both love and fear are powerfully attractive forces. We get to choose which we will use because of "Unconditional Love" and that Unconditional Love attracts to us and provides us what we choose without fail whether that individual choice is based on love or fear.   The Law of Attraction is a scientific expression that we can use to better understand and define "Unconditional Love" which is continually unfolding, and attracts to us our physical experiences…what we "perceive" to be our reality which is based on and determined by our inalienable right of free will to choose either love or fear or a mix of.   We can choose to focus on lack, limitation and discontent which falls under the "fear" heading or we can choose to place and keep that focus on abundance, plenty and fulfillment which is categorized under the love heading.   Unconditional Love says "Whatsoever ye desire, "believe" and ye shall receive."   Fearing in something happening in your life is due to an underlying belief just as the Love and experience of something is due to an underlying belief.   Fear is merely a "faith" or belief that the things we fear will be experienced by us in physical form and as a result of that underlying "belief", that is what we will experience at some point unless and until the fear is changed within ourselves and we make the choice to shift the focus from what is feared to what is loved.   Learning to become consciously aware of our reactions to specific outcomes whether it be love or fear can be a great way to let us know what we are believing in at any given moment and begin to understand how to better utilize our creative power "consciously", intentionally and purposefully.   From a scientific perspective...   The Law of Attraction says "Thought correlates with it's object."   Your choice to focus on Love and experiencing what you love is a belief that you can and "Unconditional Love" )the Law of Attraction) makes certain that you do. Love projects a much different thought frequency than fear and attracts what you love in the same way that fear projects a much different frequency than love and too, you draw precisely what you fear.   Thought correlates with it's object. Thoughts of fear correlate, attract and create what is feared. Thoughts of love correlate, attract and create what is loved.   Either choice delivers precisely what we choose because "Unconditional Love" says "Whatsoever ye desire..."believe" and ye shall receive."   Unconditional Love or The Law Of Attraction, whichever you choose to call it makes no judgments or determinations as to your choices, it only provides outcomes unfailingly and unconditionally just as you ask..."Whatsoever" you ask.   Unconditional Love provides you with the choice as to what you will experience and the same Unconditional Love provides it too you just as you choose.   When you really begin to grasp and internalize this truth you begin to understand that you have nothing to fear. You get to choose your experience. You only need become conscious of that fact…awaken and begin "consciously" choosing what you love by placing and consistently keeping your predominant focus on what it is that you love.   Many today...the mass majority in fact are inundated with various fears and as a result of what they are "unconsciously" asking for through their vibrational output or energetic projection are continually attracting events, conditions and circumstances that are harmonious with that choice resulting in outcomes which further reinforce the "perceptions" that life is hard, difficult or at best bearable.   Life is what you choose. You choose your own way....your own experience. An expression of Love is a choice just as an expression of fear is a choice.   Although you are unable to change the fact that you think, you do have a choice and can consciously choose "what" you think.   If you have a desire to see your big dreams and desires unfold, don't fear what you don't want…learn to shift and focus your predominant thoughts on loving what you do want. Both provide physical outcomes "unconditionally" that harmonize and correlate precisely and with unwavering certainty with your individual choice.   Make certain that what you are projecting through your thoughts and emotional output is filled with love which cannot fail to draw to you more of that which you love.   When focusing on and projecting love, remain in love and unattach from the outcome. Love doesn't require effort for attraction to occur.   An attachment to or "anxiousness toward" an outcome projects and communicates want which implies not having or the lack of which projects an energy frequency which is tainted by fear and pushes away rather than draws to you the desired outcome.   An "anxious" expectation of receiving is a communication that you are waiting for and expecting an outcome which the Universe responds to in precisely the way it is being communicated which keeps you in a place of continual waiting and expectation with the desired outcome remaining just outside of your reach.   There are those who perceive that what was taught by the greatest spiritual teachers is outdated and can't be applied in today’s world. Truth will NEVER become outdated. "Truth" is eternal.   What the most enlightened masters of the past taught is being validated by modern day science today. Although the language...the way in which it is communicated by scientists varies a bit in word structure, both say the very same thing...the VERY same thing.   In fact the Judeo Christian Bible states 365 times..."Fear Not." Do you suppose they had a bit of insight as to why? My personal opinion is that they did...BIG TIME!!   Let's look at how fear effects various people in their day to day lives and keeps them from fulfilling the BIG dreams and desires that so many have but so few attain....     Fear Is The Silent and Unseen Killer Of Hopes Dreams, Desires And The Creation Of "Real Wealth"   Why do you suppose that according to a recent Harris Poll, of the 72% of people surveyed in the US alone who expressed a desire to begin a home based business that so few ever follow through and do so? FEAR.   Fear, when not understood and "properly" dealt with, is the crippler to fulfilling hopes, dreams and desires whether it be in the business arena or any other area of life.   Why is it that based on a recent CNN poll taken in 2006, it was found that 86% of those polled expressed dislike and dissatisfaction in their careers, yet the majority of those "believed" that they had no choice in the matter? Why wouldn't they change them? FEAR.   It's been proven that career dissatisfaction is one of the greatest underlying causes for depression yet those who feel stuck in their careers due to fear choose to remain there.   As many that claim that they would like to experience the freedom and financial rewards that comes from entrepreneurship or engaging in a career that that they would find enjoyable and fulfilling, the majority allow fear to dominate and as a result never experience what they love choosing to remain in what they "perceive" to be "secure" career fields.   Fear keeps the majority trapped in a self-imposed prison. Fear of a lack of security…fear of failure…fear of the unknown...fear of the future based on the past experiences they've encountered that were experienced simply as a result of fear based beliefs chosen and held in the past which created and caused the experience to begin with.   Many will claim it's not fear that keeps them stuck in undesirable careers but rather that it's wanting or needing security. "I stay where I am because I'm seeking security." If that makes you feel better you have the ability as well as the choice to stand by your claim, but seeking security is a widely accepted form of logic which under the surface is operating under fear.   How is that?   When looked at from a deeper perspective, seeking security is simply another form of fear disguised. Seeking security implies that you don't already have available to you what is needed to be secure and the reality is that you already do. As you'll recall in a previous chapter, EVERYTHING already exists as a "probability of existence." You only need to create it and call it to you…to "attract" it to you through a focus of Love.   Fear keeps people stuck doing what they feel they "have" to do to have their security and as a result few rarely venture out to fulfill their passion and purpose which would, when done with the proper intention...out of love...provide them with far more security than any "trade your time for money" J.O.B. could EVER provide.   Regardless of which area of life it might be, fear is a very limiting and sad way to live life. It will in fact keep the majority from ever "truly" living life to the fullest unless a conscious choice is made to choose something different.   A choice of focusing on Love in everything done is the answer.   Fear is merely a "faith" that whatever it is that is being feared will unfold and as a result it does. Fear of failure keeps you from "doing" those things which would create the success that you desire and IS the "underlying" cause for creating what is "perceived" as failure or mediocre results at best.   Although in reality there is no such thing as failure, fear keeps many from achieving what they desire and already have the ability to do.   Creation NEVER fails. "Perceived" failure is merely a successful creation with the "underlying cause" often going undetected by the one experiencing it. Failure is merely fear created in physical form but creation is ALWAYS successful...It NEVER fails and ALWAYS provides just what you ask.   Many are just doing the "asking" unconsciously.   There are MANY forms of fear…   Fear Of Loss Fear of Failure Fear of Success Fear of The Unknown Fear of The Future Fear of The Past Fear of…???   The list is endless..."Infinite" in fact. All that needs to be done is to replace the fear with love. That happens as a choice. An individual choice that you have the right as well as the ability to make.   Fear creates outcomes…physical outcomes just as love does. Fear paralyzes and keeps hopes dreams and desires from being fulfilled in life just as love makes certain that they're experienced.   What so few fail to realize and grasp is that Fear is merely "faith" disguised.   Do you remember talking about polarity in a previous lesson? Fear is merely a form of faith that resides on the opposite end of the spectrum of love.   Most have heard and are familiar with the saying that Love and fear cannot co-exist. Although in reality they do co-exist in the physical world they cannot be experienced by the heart or mind at the same time.   Both Love and fear are based on faith and projected from the mind based on individual choice. Fear is merely a form of faith, often unrecognized which is determined by choosing to place your predominant focus on that which is feared.   Remaining in and focusing on fear will produce results in your life just as certainly as focusing on what you love will produce results that correlate and harmonize with that which is loved.   Faith is constant and unfailing in delivering outcomes in each and every area of life. It will provide physical outcomes that are feared just as certainly as it will provide outcomes that are loved.   Far too many attempt to create and experience what they love by experiencing and placing focus on what they fear. Put another way, you will never experience what you desire to experience in your life by keeping your predominant focus on what you would rather not experience. Faith never misses and as modern day scientists have proven, energy flows where attention goes without fail.   "Thought correlates with it's object."   Although both love and fear, or ANY other emotional output for that matter, at their core exist as vibrational energies, love resonates and projects a much higher vibrational resonance than fear which can only draw to you energies that harmonize with the energy being projected which is transmuted from the unseen, metaphysical or spiritual realm and through the unwavering and immutable process of creation produces a harvest which shows up as the events, conditions and circumstances in your life. The rest of this article can be found here: http://www.abundance-and-happiness.com/love-and-fear.html
Perspectives needed
Blog entry
13 Apr 2013 - 5:14am
So my life seems to be going through rapid changes, and my life (as I knew it) is literally being swept out from under my feet. Being that it is that I am a person who is no stranger to depression I immediately started to feel like something I have done has initiated failure (funny how we tend to take things so personally sometimes). But as I started looking deeper into the situation, part of me realized that "Hey, you've been down roads like these before and regardless of how this situation looks on the surface you yourself can FEEL that your current living conditions haven't in anyway been contributing to your spiritual growth". Now whether I heed that inner advice is up to me I know (which a very well AM). I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced rapid changes where their entire world is literally destroyed and flipped inside out to a point of forcing you to give up everything (except your family of course) and pretty much taking a complete leap of faith towards a whole new life. If so, what were the results?
Your Broken Heart
Teaching
13 Apr 2013 - 12:54am
YOUR BROKEN HEART Your broken heart is a call for help. When your beloved’s behavior does not meet your ideals, your expectations or ideas about love or how a lover should behave, you become so utterly disappointed and hurt that your heart constricts and shuts down. The song that your madly in love heart was singing is silenced and the winds of love that carried you high, crash lands you down on the flats of your barren and cold existence. There is no spring in your step, no zing to your creativity and no spark to your smile. That high energy that you felt being in love and being able to love is gone. The contrast in energy is greatly and gravely felt in your entire being. The heart being the master battery of your energy machine shuts down the entire system. Desire, drive, creativity and libido vanish in the one fell swoop of a broken heart. You have lost your mojo, and everything appears bleak and dull. This is the landscape of a broken heart. And, surprise, surprise, it can be your greatest gift and teacher. Your broken heart is a wake-up call if you heed it as such. Your poor heart is sending an SOS to your entire body, to your senses, your moods and your appetite. Tell me, is there anyone of you, who has never experienced a broken heart? There is deep compassion here. Your pain is known, seen, felt and heard. Please know that you are being held in deep love, that this experience is happening for a very powerful reason. Your broken heart is actually a strong message from your soul for you to let go of all those ideas, expectations and ideals about love. It is a call to surrender, to let go of opinions and preferences, to release the old ways of being and loving. It is a call from your heart to heal and become wide open, even more wide open than before, for all your heart really wants to do, is made to do, is to love. Your broken heart is actually a precious gift, if you can recognize it as such. Your broken heart actually wants with all its might, even though it may not seem like it, to be broken wide open, to be able to hold and receive and give even more love than you ever even knew existed. Every relationship that your heart enters into is a gateway, a portal into a new universe that you are creating for yourself. Every relationship that you are drawn to is a call for you to move into a deeper and deeper state of self-love, self-respect and self-worth. This is not selfishness as many have been led erroneously to believe. It is instead a deep recognition and respect of your own divine self. As you begin to love yourself more, the Hermetic Law of ‘As above so below, as within so without’ begins to be activated. What you create deep within you is mirrored back as the love in your Beloved’s eyes. You cannot truly love another if you do not have self-love. Any measure of a lack of self-love is reflected back in the vagaries of relationship. By the same token, any judgment, wound or belief is reflected back by those around us. If you have been hurt by the behavior of another, look deep within to see what issue within yourself has been reflected back to you. If you can process your shadow and use this process to continuously love yourself more, your heart will become more open and receptive to giving and receiving love, and your experiences will gradually become more enriching and rewarding. We are conditioned by society, our culture, traditions and beliefs about what love is, what it looks like and the ways in which we want to be loved or think we want to be loved. Many of these ideas are based on old, outworn, unrealistic expectations that may no longer serve the new model that we humans are being called to embrace. These old outworn ideas about love keep being bandied around in novels, movies, and the media. They perpetuate a continuous trend that keeps humans in an unsustainable loop, of playing by the rules of this love game, which in essence keeps creating more broken hearts. As humans awaken to their divine nature, they realize that sovereignty and authenticity matter more than living up to some unrealistic ideal. Being true to yourself, your guidance, and your path becomes a necessity more than an option simply because you have learned through the pain of your broken heart what happens when you are not. This year, 2013, the Year of the Snake is a very powerful year for many, for it will mean the shedding of skins, the shedding of much – inauthenticity, irrelevancy, redundancy, that which no longer serves the higher purpose of the individual and the planet at large. It is a dawning of a new understanding, that we as a species are all interconnected, not only to each other, but to every living creature and to the Earth herself. The process of awakening can be slow and gradual or it can be instantaneous. The choices are ours to make. We can use our broken hearts to our advantage, to help in our awakening process, to open ourselves up to love, to be love, to live from the heart, to embrace all forms of life with lovingness. Sadly, some people suffer from a broken heart their entire life, never being able to open up their hearts again. Society and culture do not teach us a different way of loving. It is imperative to create your own code for loving, one that works for you. Never fear, you will find your beloved and your tribe to share your Love Code with. Share this with a friend who may be suffering from the pain of a broken heart. We all need to learn, to grow and to help each other in lovingness. Please remember to be kind to the one in pain. It is in our human compassion that we learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness. May the joyful gift of a wide-open and loving heart be yours. Aloha. Veenaa Saynana Laughing Dolphin 04/02/13 www.veenaasaynana.com ©2013 Veenaa Saynana. All Rights Reserved You are absolutely welcome to share and distribute this article with others as you feel guided. Please make sure to keep the integrity of this article by including the author & source website link.
Twin Flame Resistance Issues
Blog entry
12 Apr 2013 - 11:45pm
I think, therefore I pee. See, I learned a long time ago, if I am going to think, I have to drink, lots of fluid and keep my brain cool.   All just is not right with the world.  Too much Mars/Venus energy for widdle ole me this past week/10 days. Wowsa. Now Jovial Jupiter's expansive smile is increasing us, and I’m not even feeling the Jupiter Juice yet, because my ass is still sore from being shot with so many arrows of love.  I need one of those soft doughnut pillows to rest my tushy on now.    Damn, what an onslaught! Someone should maybe tell Mr. Cupid that if I get one more arrow shot into my butt I just might pull it out and impale each half of his cute little cherub self on each end, and twirl it into deep space like a baton. . .   Do I sound resistant? I might be. I might have TWIN FLAME RESISTANCE ISSUES.   Lol, this stupid post will probably get more comments than any I’ve written. Sad, isn’t it? Just sound more human, and people will moan along with you, Or poke you with their stiff index fingers, And then pour advice on your head like liquid lard. And -   Oh well.     Sweet chili peppers, Batman! If I get disquieted, it can be really bad for a lot of nouns that people hold near and dear. Especially with Jupiter energy expanding things. . . So, hey, maybe a little venting could be a good thing today, and carthatic. Except that women do find angry men attractive, So it is a bit like spitting into the wind here, and bravely daring Mr. Cupid to hit me again. “Go on sucker, hit me again see what happens to your little bow. . .”   Is it reeeeeally a good thing to have me distracted with romantic notions ? No. C’mon, who is going to do the important things, like mercilessly heckle the good citizens here, if I get distracted. Should we really leave this to amateurs? No, I don’t think so.   Hey,You might want to take this opportunity to grab you some popcorn if you are enjoying all this, because I’m not sure this is winding down just yet.   I think there are still some splinters I may need to tweezer out of my sore ass here. See that, spellcheck doesn’t recognize tweezer as a verb. So, here we are, creating language together, and boldly going where some have gone before, but rarely dare to speak about. We've already gone from terse one liners to actual paragraphs too.  How much more civilized this is making me. woot!   And yeah, I think there is probably a good chance these words never see the light of day. Private pixels. But, if we do dare to publish, and you get blessed to nosey, well that’s fine, you can pick the popcorn out of your teeth whilst I vent my way back to zen, and my own solitary harmonic settles back into a snuggly resonance. Hey, reader, if we all clean our teeth really good, then maybe our teeth can return to having the comfortable gaps they once had.  Do we speak in metaphor here? Oh surely not.   No. But I’m thinking that the next time Lucy holds out another football for my Charlie Brown to kick, I might be wise to ignore the ball and just kick Lucy through the goalposts of life instead.  Only problem is that I think this particular Lucy means well, unlike cartoon Lucy.   Real life is just more complicated than cartoon life, even in multidimensional stereo isn't it.   Can we not,  just let a romantic volcano sleep in peace? Where is the logic in stirring it up, to settle it down. C’mon. This could get really really really wild.  I can dream this dream, and it goes where it goes, waaaaay beyond the intent of the matchmakers I bet.   Ugh. I feel so flippin common. Having twin flame issues like everyone else is, and even at the same time as they are… where has my everpresent uniqueness gone? Probably nowhere. They will probably hook up and solve their issues, and I will just write about mine. Maybe vent this energy elsewhere. Years late, and dollars short. Just pathetic. And some think I only overreact when someone tries to kill me.   Ha. Surprise, surprise, that would be me.   Surely I jest (Who, me?). But nay I do not. I am a really a victim of my Taurus Moon. Yep.  Being a victim is all the rage too, so I'm stylish, struttin my victimhood. Maybe if I just approach it that way, then I get through this just fine as a victim. Yep. Others may not. Yep.  But I think I can slide right into victimhood and just wallow and thrash around comfortably here.  This should fit right in at Lightworkers. Surely I be having me some real ascension symptoms in all of this. . . Me too, me three, . . . blame it all on leaving that bad 3d. . . Yeah, that’s a go.     Besides, twin flame stuff is strictly a women’s issue. Most guys don’t even think in those terms. I probably overbalanced my female side, so I could finally appear evolved or something.  I just need to kick up my male side again, and all will be fine.   A few good sporting events and I should be all back in black. (woot, investment banker lingo, don’t you know!) ( and no more twin flame stuff either, - just sweat and soot.)   I should probably make a YouTube video as a public service announcement, to warn people that these twin flame thoughts are dangerous stuff, and steer clear of that fire, and do not ever, ever attempt this yourself, it is bad bad bad stuff. Include in some shocking graphic comparison stuff like: this is your brain, and this is your brain on twin flame thoughts, etc etc.     Do you ever wonder how I can get you to read all the way down here?   Morbid curiosity, that’s what it is.   I sound like I’m having a train wreck, and you want to gawk at all of it. Go on, admit it.  See, look at that now. . . I think my spunky self is returning back to normal already. : )   It was probably just  your intent being manifested, that has helped me heal. You are good.  Well, actually, I think if I would just learn to lie like that more often,  then you would probably feel very good about yourself, because then you would think that you actually did help, and then I would become very popular here. . . I could even start a website, and write channelings, and make loads of money doing that.   Yeah. I feel like I’m returning to normal again. Ain’t it grand?   For some reason I want a chilidog now, don’t you?  .  
Emotions, Mind and Ego
Teaching
11 Apr 2013 - 1:43pm
Emotions, Mind, and Ego Written by Swami Rama Excerpt from: The Essence of Spiritual Life   http://www.swamij.com/swami-rama-emotions-mind.htm   Emotions   All of your emotions are related to the four primitive fountains. From these four urges or motivations rise the six main streams of emotions. Kama is the prime desire. The second stream is krodha or anger; if a desire is not fulfilled, you become angry and frustrated. If that same desire is fulfilled, you become puffed up with pride, mada, the third stream. If the desire is fulfilled, you become attached to the object that fulfilled your desire. That is moha. The next stream is lobha, which means that you become greedy and want more and more. When greed takes over, you do everything to feed ahamkara (ego); that prevents you from knowing your true Self.   Learn to have an even temperament by not losing your temper every now and then.   Sadness and loneliness are two companions on the path of sadhana. Your mantra is your great companion and you should never have to face moments of despair.   Emotions, if properly directed, can lead you to the highest state of ecstasy.   Mind   All sadhanas have a central theme: to have an orderly mind that does not create obstacles to the path of unfoldment within and does not hinder success in the external world.   The body is your physical instrument for living in the external world. Your mind or internal instrument is antah-karana. The antahkarana has four faculties that function in the interior world: manas (active mind), chitta (subconscious; storehouse or reservoir of subtle impressions or samskaras), buddhi (intellect), and ahamkara (ego, the sense of “I-am-ness” or individuality). Manas has five subtle senses and five gross senses to experience the external world—the world of objects. Coordinating the four faculties requires real effort and makes the mind creative, useful, and productive.   These four faculties of the mind should carefully be observed and their functioning should be analyzed in day to day life. As you keep accounts and know how much money you have spent and what your reserves are, you should also be able to keep account of the functions of the mind, both within and without.   Thought, action, and speech are the three main objects to be observed. How am I thinking and feeling, how am I speaking, and what motivates me to speak? Is the way that I am speaking helpful for me and others?   Thoughts come and go—do not brood on them. All thoughts have some origin. Find out from where they arise. If you throw a pebble into a lake, it will create ripples twice; first, when you throw it, and then again when it settles at the bottom of the lake.     Don’t allow thoughts to settle in the lake of your mind. If an unpleasant thought comes, let it go. Don’t get disturbed. Otherwise, you will lose the constant battle waged by your thoughts. Be friendly to your mind and don’t create animosity toward it.   Any creative thought enveloped with selfless love and selfless service toward others, if not expressed and executed, is like a treachery and an abortion. If creative thoughts are not brought into action, frustration arises, which can create repression. One day that repression is projected through the body as a disease or ‘dis-ease.’   Wherever you go, you will carry your mind with you. You have to start working with it, wherever you are. It is of no use knowing God, for he always exists everywhere. It is of no use knowing the world, because it is already there, and it has been known and analyzed by many in the past. The mystery lies between the two, and that is the mind. The mind can transport you to a higher realm of wisdom, and can come in touch with the collective consciousness.   Sadhana is for the mind. If the mind is trained, you have attained. If the mind is not purified with a definite discipline, it will suffer from the age-old epidemic of hallucination. Those who do not know sadhana, go on quarreling with the mind until the last breath of their lives.   Unless the mind is trained in a coordinated way by understanding all of its modifications, it remains unruly, disorderly, and enveloped in its primitive dharma. An untrained mind interferes with the spontaneous feelings arising from the heart.   Mind is the cause of both bondage and liberation. A one-pointed mind can help one go within and unveil the mystery of inner life, whereas an undisciplined mind remains dissipated.   An outwardly oriented mind runs from one object to another, hoping to find peace and happiness in the external world. Lacking inner awareness, the mind refuses the guidance and inspiration of the subtle Divine Force. A mind not guided by divine illumination stands as a wall between the aspirant and his goal. Having such a mind, one fails to study the inner dimensions of life, and as a result, considers the external world to be the sole reality.   To attain perfection here and now, one must undertake some spiritual discipline. Without practice one cannot attain control over the modifications of the mind. Unless the mind is made one-pointed, one cannot unfold one’s inner potentials.   The method of making the mind one-pointed is called meditation. Through meditation, an aspirant withdraws his mind from the external world, focuses on a given internal object, and develops an interest in delving within.   Once an aspirant has attained freedom from the distractions originating in the conscious part of the mind, he can have a better grasp of the thought constructs that originate from the unconscious mind. Through undisturbed, prolonged practice, a student dives deep and becomes familiar with his inherent potentials. He observes how the experiences of the external world are a mere reflection of the inner world.   There is no conflict in life. Conflict lies in the mind. The mind needs training. Even though a trained mind is not capable of leading one to the summit, it will remove all the obstacles along the way. A free mind is the grace of the Lord.   When an aspirant has understood the conscious part of the mind, and has attained mastery over it, he naturally performs his actions skillfully and efficiently. Compared to the unconscious, the conscious part of mind is very small; however, there is close interaction between the unconscious and the conscious mind.   Enjoy life moment to moment and do not get disturbed. That which is not going to happen will not happen, and that which is going to happen is going to happen. Therefore, tranquility should not be disturbed. A mind that is balanced and tranquil cannot be a workshop of the devil.   Never identify yourself with your mind, its objects, emotions, speech, or actions.   The doer is different from the deeds. Never identify with your actions, thoughts, and emotions, but remain in eternal delight by establishing yourself in your essential nature that is peace, happiness, and bliss.   Ego   A person walking on the path of self-transformation should be aware of the dangers of egoism. Even while practicing the great virtues of truthfulness and nonviolence, a person can feed the ego. The ego related to the realm of spirituality is more subtle and injurious than the ego related to one’s worldly success.   During the period of seeking, the student may become too intellectual, ignoring sahaja bhava (spontaneous intuition); conversely, he may become too emotional; ignoring reason. An emotional trip is as dangerous as an intellectual trip; each feeds the ego.   A person becomes a slave to his ego when he thinks of selfish gains. A selfish person dwells in a state of doubt since his conscience constantly reminds him of his wrong attitude. On the one hand, he is pulled by his selfish desires, and on the other, he is alarmed by his inner voice. He is torn apart by these two forces.   Do not ever condemn yourself in any way. Learn to appreciate and admire yourself, but see that you do not feed your ego. It is the arch enemy on the path, though it can be polished with some effort.   Acknowledge your weak points, let the power of discrimination counsel your ego, and make a strong resolution to overcome your weaknesses. While working on the removal of weaknesses, you have to be very vigilant. Ego does not want its weaknesses exposed. The more you hide your weaknesses, the more they grow. Remind yourself that you are on the path of inner purification and self-discovery. It requires great courage. Stand firm during this internal battle, and support your Atman, even at the cost of dismounting the ego and all its retinue.   A human being is miserable if he fails to unfold and use his inner potentials. In order to unfold his inner potentials, he must purify the ego or surrender it to the higher Reality. After renouncing slavery to the ego, he can emerge from the confines of body, senses, and mind.   Only a profound method of meditation can help to purify the ego. A purified ego does not create barriers.   By practicing diligently, one may attain concentration of mind, one may speak the truth, and one may serve others, but one cannot realize the Truth unless one surrenders one’s ego to the higher Self. Only after rising above egocentric awareness, can one find the universe within. Only then can one learn to love all and exclude none. One who does not love one’s fellow beings, cannot love God at all.   Humanity is suffering from ego-born differences and inequality. People discriminate against their own brothers and sisters simply on the basis of race, religion, caste, or complexion. In order to be free from these problems, a political settlement alone is not enough.   When all human beings understand that their suffering has been brought on by ego, only then will they resolve all their differences. They will throw aside the confinements of race, caste, religion, and sectarian feelings. Instead of identifying themselves with a particular group or community, they will identify themselves with all human beings. They will love all as their own family members.   The ego is very useful in helping you to function in the world, but it’s not very useful as far as deeper happiness is concerned. The ego is that which separates you from the Reality, from the Truth, from the ultimate Source.   The most important step toward self-transformation is to shed one’s ego, to surrender it to the higher Reality, and thereby attain the light of discrimination and pure faith.   Once ego surrenders itself to the highest Truth, you have attained victory, and spiritual illumination is yours. Soon after the victory over ego, all other virtues, such as humility, love, selflessness, compassion, and kindness, spontaneously unfold. These virtues are prerequisites for self-transformation. When these virtues blossom, a human being becomes a saint. These saintly qualities send a silent invitation to the Lord of Life.
5 Year Old Prodigy Aelita Andre: A Secret Universe/a solo exhibition 2012
video
10 Apr 2013 - 10:04pm
MUSIC... oh my!
Blog entry
10 Apr 2013 - 3:45pm
It seems lately that music has taken over my life. From the minute I wake up to the end of the night. I want music all around me. At all times. Day and night and in between... Spontaneous dancing erupts as well. Have fallen in love with the sound of this "techomusic" as I call it. I don't care how silly my dancing looks like... It feels too good to have the music go through me and then to express it with my body. When I dance I feel so happy, like a kid happy. Remember what kid happy feels like? So I figured since it is time in my life for me to be happy(I deserve it), I am going to do things that make me happy. Listening to cool music and dancing is free AND it is great exercise. Raises my vibration incredibly fast. During the night I often times wake up and realize a song has been going through my head in my sleep. Of course I tell myself to remember it, remember it...but by the morning it dissipates like fog with the rising sun. I hope whatever important message I was getting is still in there somewhere and I can find it at the moment I need it... I need to remember to put a pad of paper and pen by my bed. Remember,remember... So I hear music during the day, all different kinds from my computer. Have found several internet radios that will organize the station with the music I like. I give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. My own version of my divine radio sort to speak. Because I tell you what, those songs talk to me. I know sounds nuts, right? But they always seem to pop up at the perfect time with the perfect message. Always seem to bring a smile to my face when I need it the most. My own private little cosmic picker upper. A straight shot of 5 Hour energy with extra energy hehehehe... AND in between all that music there is the In Between Music. Ok so here it is...I am hearing bells of all different kinds,different tones and sounds... but not when I wish. They seem to pop up when I am doing something that I enjoy. All of the sudden I become aware that there have been sweet little bells and deep tones and tunes playing in my head(I think). I don't think they come from outside of me(but I am not ruling anything out)...I think they are in my head... But, the minute I realize that I am hearing them- they stop! So new thing. New gift to open. Cool thing. I want to be in that state of happy creation so I can hear those lovely bells and sounds. They make sense to me but I don't know how. Like a long lost language of sorts... "Music of the Spheres" comes to mind...going to have to research that term and see what I find. It is not really a feeling...more like a state of being in... I don't know where that is but I know it's there somewhere waiting to be discovered by me because I have stumbled upon it. I only stumble onto things when I am ready to open the box and explore it... New carrot for me! So I think for me I am connecting to different type of language through music, one of vibration and frequency and waves and such... A new tool for connecting to the Light in a very strong way Music quickly raises my vibration and puts me in the Flow of Divine Energy and Creation. Being in the Flow is really important for me right now. Anything that feels off-kilter or not right...Anything that rubs me the wrong way...I simply cannot stand it for very long. Ugly issues within me have to be looked at, so I can let them go and make more room for the Light to expand within me. Music along with nature helps me heal as I release yucky,icky issues within me,all those issues and beliefs and ideas that are no longer me. Here are a couple of songs that are much fun for me... The first one goes out to my Beloved.We are getting closer everyday.Can you feel it in your heart? And here is one that goes out to my sister...I love you beyond words. Listen to your own music and dance my beautiful family. Life can truly be full of joy if we let ourselves experience it with an open heart. Music and dancing takes us to that happy place within...Wherever that might be. In Light and Love : ) marie
Why You're Afraid to Claim Your Power
Story
10 Apr 2013 - 2:43pm
Welcome to Brenda's Blog Channeled by Brenda Hoffman for www.LifeTapestryCreations.com Summary of Brenda’s April 7, 2013 free, 15-minute, channeled “Creation Energies” show at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/brenda-hoffman: It is likely that recently pieces of information just appeared or were sensed by your being. It is time to further stretch your new skills by asking for assistance of your new being for specific concerns such as finances or how to live with earth’s density. The title of last week’s “Brenda’s Blog” – her free, weekly, channeled blog for www.LifeTapestryCreations.com: “Your DNA is Unfolding” Brenda’s “Creation Energies” BlogTalkRadio.com show and “Brenda’s Blog” contain different channeled materials. Dear Ones, Let us discuss the fears of Lightworkers, Wayshowers or whatever term you use who have not yet claimed your birthright to be you in all your glory. Many channels have described your fears as an unwillingness to claim your full being. We wish to help you understand why you are hesitant to do so. In the past, many of you have hidden your true beings under cloaks of passivity, religious orders or outer-directed power. You easily accept that you hid your true power in religious orders – but not that you did the same by fully exploring outer-directed power. The same power many of you are now speaking of with disdain – political power, corporate power, race dominance, gender or sexual orientation or any type of power that made you feel more powerful than others. And using that power to control those who were willing to be controlled. You have explored outer-directed power in all its formats. Many of you speak with anger about those politicians, corporate moguls or religious beings who cannot be trusted. Yet, your current mantra of “we are one” is more accurate than you realize. In this lifetime, you are reaching for the stars. But that has not always been the case. You could not have reached this point without exploring all aspects of outer-directed power – including harming others emotionally, physically and spiritually. Many of you do not wish to hear this truth. You would rather blame the “dark ones” for keeping you in captivity instead of accepting that you have been one of those “dark” entities on more than one occasion. You have completed your outer-directed lessons with flying colors. Logic will tell you that such would not be so if you were a victim or caretaker life after life on earth. To complete your outer-directed lessons, you needed to explore all aspects and so you have. It is futile – even silly – to address those who wish to remain in an outer-directed world. You believe that your wisdom will help others move into their place – a place that is consistent with your current beliefs. That somehow they have taken a wrong turn or have not yet claimed their true place in this transition – that you can lead them to that place. Such thoughts are outer-directed for they are about controlling and thus directing others to the true message. If you change a few words, you will realize that such thoughts are little different from those of church leaders who are certain all should be of whatever denomination that leader is affiliated with – or politicians who believe you must be of their party to be correct. Each entity on earth is finding their place when and how it is correct for them to do so. You cannot force someone to think and act as you and expect that to be a New Age action. This transition is about everyone finding their place at the time that is correct for their being. Indeed there are nuclear hazards, religious thinkers and political leaders who do not feel the same as you. How will earth ever shift with those terrible people drawing others into their dark net? And you know how dark that net can be for you have played all the roles you find unpleasant or frightening now. You understand their need for outer-directed power for you have displayed it fully on more than one occasion. This transition is not about dividing earth entities into good and bad columns. But instead, helping you accept the joys and peace of inner-power. You know how uncomfortable you now feel when you rant within your being or in whatever format you use to draw others to your outer-directed belief patterns. You feel a disconnect with the peace you have worked so hard to uncover. A few years ago such anger and rage would have felt cathartic – now it feels wrong. That is not to say you no longer feel anger if you are a true Lightworker – merely that you no longer have to feel it at the depth you did so in the past. It is time for you to be concerned with yourself. The beliefs and concerns of others are no longer part of your being. Perhaps that thought seems cold and calculating. It is not. You have an inner compass that will radiate joy and peace when you discover actions, activities and groups that are part of your path. There are entities yet on earth who fully enjoy outer-directed power. They feel complete experiencing or displaying it. They are in the right place for them – but not for you. Your need to move them into the light is no different from their need to move you into the dark. And if you accept their anger and play into their rages, you are returning to outer-directed power. Many of you are concerned that you do not have the strength to move yourself into the new earth with your Pollyanna attitude. You do. You merely need to be concerned about your direction. Others will take care of themselves. Do not be surprised if those who try to maintain outer-directed power are not successful. But then, do not be surprised if they are. For indeed there are those who wish to continue their outer-directed lives. They are the ones you find most offensive. But as you do, realize that you have played the very same role numerous times and that your anger is more about your anger at your past lives on earth than about them. For you are uncovering pieces of yourself you did not expect to find – including the need to harm others. Your rage at the behavior of those still enmeshed in outer-directed power is merely shame of your past behavior. You needed to move through all pieces of outer-directed power to accept your new inner-being – including outer-directed power, victim hood, care taking and every element in the Old Age bag of tricks. You are now opening your New Age bag of tricks – joy, peace, love and harmony. Allow those who enjoy their outer-directed lessons to complete those lessons. You have a new lesson plan that is much more fun for you. All you have to do to claim these new lessons is to move in joy, harmony and love. You no longer have to do what others tell you to do if it does not feel comfortable – that is victim hood. You no longer need to slow your progress to match someone else’s pace – that is care taking. And you no longer need to control anyone – including yourself – that is outer-directed power. So be it. Amen. http://www.LifeTapestryCreations.com If you would like to receive Brenda’s free blogs when posted, please click the Subscribe Button on the upper part of her subscribe and blog page and then click the – Subscribe to Brenda’s Blog by E-mail – line. Complete your subscription by entering your e-mail address and accepting the e-mail confirmation. Copyright © 2009-2013, Brenda Hoffman. All rights reserved. www.LifeTapestryCreations.com. Feel free to share this content with others, post on your blog, add to your newsletter, etc. But please keep this article’s integrity by including the author: Brenda Hoffman & source website link: www.LifeTapestryCreations.com
Leaving Hermitland behind...(no wait, let me stay a little longer)...
Blog entry
9 Apr 2013 - 3:09pm
So I know I am not the only one when I say I like being alone. Which is funny because I used to be a big party girl. (Can you say Master Tequila Shot Drinker?) Always a party somewhere...the more the merrier...people everywhere. Life is a little different for me now. I support those in the first stages of their awakening(mostly spontaneous awakenings which was my experience),they always find their way to me,often times in miraculous ways,often times while out in nature...it truly is an amazing process to experience. I have met close to a hundred people in the last twelve months who are awakening. I see it almost everyday. The ways of how we connect to our Source is both humbling and creative. The way of how we connect to our true selves and remember truly amazing. I am deeply grateful for this gift, of knowing there are others who are awakening and I can actually "see" them. (Somehow I know this first hand knowledge helps strengthen me, but then again I feel deeply in my heart this is one of my soul's missions.) Sometimes they stay with me during the first weeks as they integrate the Light. They ALL think they are going crazy. Yet the really cool thing is that once they hear my "freaky deaky" Light story, they instantly relax. They remember very quickly too. And they all say they cannot be around other people. All of them. Telepathy is also very quickly increasing. I think this is one of the biggest signs to me of those around me as they raise their vibration and begin to awaken and remember...when people tell me of their need to be alone. They withdraw and disconnect from society. They want to be alone at home in the quiet. The thought of being in a large crowd of people makes them squirm. They don't know anything except that they NEED to be alone. The out side world has become too much... I know alone. Got that Hermit t-shirt. For about the last three years. At one point I could count on one hand the amount of people in my life in a month. But that is the beauty of this incredible process. One of the first gifts which seem to develop the strongest(this is my observation only) is empathy. Happened to me too. So being out with many people is like being blasted by constant waves of emotional energy because we feel everything. This makes us search for respite, for quiet,for peace. It makes us go within to quiet all the outside noise which has become unbearable. Go within? VOILA! You are now connected to SOURCE. That guy you just walked by as you walked into the store and he walked out? Just got fired and hates everything about his life. Here's a helping of hate for you. Feel that!!!!( WHY am I feeling so angry and hateful????) As you get away from that guy... you feel a young couple who is very much in love...and love washes over you like a tidal wave and now you feel love. Feel that!!!!(Love,Love,Love...) A second ago you felt hate...now love...and that is just the first three people you have seen in the store...OMG there are hundreds of them in there... you are not even ten feet in!!!!!!!! BY the time you leave the store... a) you didn't buy anything because once in there you forgot what you needed due to the fog and confusion of feelings, thinking you are nuts. b) you bought stuff but it is all wrong. c) you got stuff but by the time you made it to the cashier to check out...you just leave the buggy and can't bring yourself to buy anything as that requires to actually come into verbal contact with another human being and you are wiped out...Don't know what might come out of your mouth...best to escape. d) you walk in and feel all the weird crap and you can't even get your ass in there...so you walk out after twelve feet in. e) you go to pay for it but have lost your wallet,your glasses or your car keys...or forgot your debit code. I used to go to the store at very odd hours. Like 11 pm when there is no one there. 6 a.m. works well too. On certain days I didn't even bother to go out. Just couldn't find the energy to do so. It wasn't worth it. I was safe in Hermitland. Free to feel the Light washing through me and bathing me in Love. But now I am starting a new life and have realized that I need to come out of the cave. So I have. But just so you know I am bringing myself out of Hermitland kicking and screaming. Grabbing myself by the cuff and pulling myself out, while cussing at myself to leave me alone. But the next step for me is to find the balance of being spiritual AND physical. Because now that I am connected to my Source, that is all I want to do. I just want to Be. Connected. Not necessarily doing anything. Now that I have that peace within, I am finding it very difficult to leave it and step out into this new world we are all creating and clean up my own personal mess, so I can create too. It is in times of this push and pull between the being in this world but not of it that makes it difficult for me to leave my beloved Hermitland. But then I remember those first stages of my awakening...and I see how far I have come. I understand and see the need to be alone. That Divine aspect of Myself meeting Myself. The need to be alone to remember how to reach within me to connect to my Source. I know I can handle anything if I am connected to my Source. Just have to go through the process. It doesn't matter where each individual is in their path. Our Creator loves all of us. Every soul life experience. Human or not. Here or in another D. Another realm. Another time. Doesn't matter. It is all a Divine Process. Know that this wish for being alone is just a natural,divine way in which your heart calls you back. Reminds you how it is to feel...when you feel what your heart says to you, then Universal Truth from Our Creator will speak loud and clear. Discernment develops. The ability to see past the veil of illusion increases. This process washes away everything that is not real. Leaves behind the truth of who we are. It is occurring for ALL on this amazing beautiful Mother Earth, and beyond... A Divine Process that is always moving,expanding,creating and growing. Different for all. Deeply rooted and flowing from the Source that Created All That Is and Is not. Shine bright my beautiful family. Remember that once connected through our hearts to our Source of Love and Light, our Creator, anything is possible. Anything. Everything. And if I have trouble getting out of Hermitland? I am going to call on Buddha. After all he did eventually come out of his cave. When the time was right for him. And look what happened afterwards...he met a dog. Lucky him. In Light and Love : ) marie
happy Tuesday
Blog entry
9 Apr 2013 - 3:01pm
“Whatever you do, you should do it with feeling.” — Yogi Berra
please respond
Blog entry
5 Apr 2013 - 8:27pm
I would like to chat with anyone about everything or some things, I would like to know your perspective of it all. Someone please help out a fellow lightworker by messaging, adding just communicate with me. please and thank you
High Council of Orion Message YOUR VIBRATORY RATE - PART 2 - 2 APRIL 2013
Story
5 Apr 2013 - 4:43am
Channeled Ascension Message from the High Council of Orion April 2nd 2013.   Channeled by Holly Hawkins Marwood Transcribed by Paul Marwood Audio file is available at http://www.akashahealingstudio.com/high-council-of-orion-channeled-message-2nd-apr-2013/      YOUR VIBRATORY RATE - PART 2   “Greetings Dear Ones,   We are the High Council of Orion.   Today lets continue on our journey with the idea of vibratory rate, and last time we were talking about shifting and changing your own vibratory rate in a somewhat counter way to what’s out in the world right now.  It's not always about just changing your thinking; you can change your physical environment around you to allow that to uplift you, which allows you to then raise your vibratory rate, which improves your experience of life.   Now the flipside of this is the judgment that we see on the planet about lower vibrations as one would say.  As we mentioned in the previous channeling, this could be referred to with regard to people, music, TV shows, environments, and on and on and on, it terms of the “Oh it’s low vibrational” or “Oh that’s a low vibrational person.”   We encourage you to be moving out of a place of judgment around that other person or situation or experience, and look at it from your Soul level point of view. Why would you say that that is a lower vibrational experience, what it really is is a vibrational experience that’s not in alignment with your Soul. The reason the music doesn't sound good, the reason the movie doesn't feel good, the book doesn’t feel good, the people or what they're saying don't feel good, is it is evidence that it is out of alignment with your Souls inherent vibration.   Does that mean better or worse, from our point of view we will wholeheartedly say no.  From our point of view what it means is there is just a dissonant vibration, and it's not better or worse, for those things that you say are worse could be quite in alignment with other people's Souls.   Out of respect for the Soul level progress and the Soul level of truth of each individual incarnation on the planet, we encourage you to again look at your own vibratory rate, and instead of giving a summary dismissal and judgment about something being better or worse, and particularly in this case worse, which implies that you in fact are better.  We would ask you to reframe that to be different.   It’s not in alignment with my Souls natural resonance so it doesn't feel good to me.  Now does that mean you then embrace it, No, you are receiving the input from the evidence of the dissonant vibration, not at better than or less than, it’s a dissonant vibration to your Souls inherent vibratory rate.   The evidence can tell you whether or not you would like to move towards or move away from something, which is perfect.  We would encourage each one of you to be tuned into your own Vibratory rate, and what feels comfortable, and what doesn't feel comfortable, what feels uplifting and joyful and happy and exciting and inspiring, and what might take you down a rabbit hole of not feeling either good about yourself, or good about the situation.   That is evidence that allows you to move toward some situations or experiences, and away from others.  Which is perfect!  That’s a great feedback mechanism. But what we'd like to encourage you to do, is move away from this need to categorize and stratify the Souls on your planet.  The stratification is unnecessary.  To say that somebody is it better or worse than you, it's just about vibratory rate.   You can use that again as evidence of the direction you need to go, to bring yourself into that vibratory alignment with your Souls nature, respecting others’ Souls to find those experiences that are resonant with their nature, and as you do so and you allow people to be in the space that is most comfortable for them, at that point in their Souls progress or evolution or transformation.   Then you release the constriction of judgment and you allow more to come to you, allowing you to be more in resonance with your own vibratory rate.  For your energy is not worried about the others or the other situations, you are responding to your own vibratory rate. Does this make sense?   The release of the need to stratify and judge, allows you to have more of your own connection to your inherent vibratory rate that, in a sense gives you greater fuel for your own process of exploration and ascension.   Play with these concepts of vibratory rate for yourself.  What are the things that you can do and bring into your life that are more of the same, or even new experiences that give you those uplifting feelings and thoughts, that bring you in closer alignment with your Souls inherent vibration?  Play with the concept of removing the judgment, and the need to stratify and make oneself better by making judgment about Vibratory rates of other people or situations.   Just observe how that shifts your point of view; it's very freeing not to need to worry about others' vibratory rates.   Instead of saying mind your own business you could say, “Mind your own vibratory rate!”  {Laugh} And as you do you have a greater possibility every moment to experience more joy, more freedom.  Not only for yourself but also for those who are doing nothing more than vibrating at their Souls perfect vibratory rate at that moment in time.   Be Blessed.   We are the High Council of Orion”   ============================================================================ © 2013 Copyright Holly Hawkins Family Trust        www.AkashaHealingStudio.com This channeled message may be reproduced in it’s entirety provided it is kept in it’s original form and not altered or changed in any way, with the Author and website clearly included.  
7 Secretes to Experiencing Bliss
Teaching
4 Apr 2013 - 10:19am
  The 7 Secrets To Experiencing Bliss Written by Jafree Oswald http://shiftfrequency.com/enlightened-beings-the-7-secrets-to-experiencing-bliss/   What is meditation?  Many believe that meditation is focusing and concentrating the mind on one particular object, such as a candle flame, a yoga posture or the rise and fall of your breath. The truth is that these concentration techniques lead one into the experience of meditation, they are a taxi service, yet are not the actual destination of meditation itself. True meditation is an effortless space of unbounded consciousness where the mind is set aside, and you are completely alert, alive and very very still. It is this total stillness of the mind that leads one into bliss. Without any effort or concentration on anything, you drop deep inside and become the playful witness of your divinity. One small piece of advice before you begin meditating is to teach your body to totally let go and relax. Once the body is relaxed, then the next step is to let go of the mind. It’s important to not try to control the mind, nor let it get out of control. Meditation is a state of equanimity where everything just is the way it is. As your explore your experience, do not let the mind get attached to what meditating should feel like, or be impatient with how long it takes you to quiet your mind chatter. Let go of all of your “shoulds” about meditation. Simply relax into whatever experience you are having, and explore this experience with curiosity. Below are 7 steps that will take you deeper into this effortless place, no matter what you are doing in your world…Enjoy #1 ~ Embrace the God Source. What is happening now is the God Source, and it is showing up for you as the existence. Now your mind is going to have some very limiting ideas of what “God” is, yet do not pay attention to the mind. Just welcome and embrace this entire existence and welcome everything that is here now. Doing this is tricky, yet if you can open your heart to the God Source it will give you a fragrance and feeling of indescribable bliss! The very moment you embrace the God Source is when bliss begins. A powerful light feeling enters your body the very instant you say YES to the ever present divine “Is-ness”. Suddenly, all your mind chatter and problems are gone when you discover the sweet sacred loving presence which is always here now. When you find yourself feeling connected with it, all you’ll feel is total love, bliss, abundance and joy. Creating a relationship with the God Source is like creating a relationship with anyone or anything. You may at first have some hesitations, fears, or walls protecting your heart. Just remember that the God Source is all loving and unconditional bliss. If you encounter resistance to embracing the God-Source and are up in your head about it, or don’t believe that existence is divine intelligence in its nature, then look at the story and judgment you have inside. Notice if you have any old anti-religious programming from your past. Step out of the judgment and step into life’s most amazing spiritual exploration. Breathing in this connection to this divine intelligence is like fire that burns through the mind’s illusions…and in an instant you’re in a state of meditation. Whatever you have trouble accepting in life is a teacher, here to push you deeper towards the God Source. By embracing and welcoming “everything that is” you just discovered the essential key to releasing all suffering and entering the land of unending bliss. #2 ~ Allow yourself to be exactly the way you are. What does it feel like to know that you are perfect whole and complete exactly as you are. Especially with all your human faults and issues, you are just as you should be and your life is EXACTLY the way it needs to be for your highest growth and potentiality. Do you sense the relief in having this understanding? What if every single belief you have about you, is also perfect as it is? It doesn’t mean you need to hold onto them, quite the contrary. When you let go of your judgments and beliefs about you, and can welcome all your parts with an open heart, you can forgive yourself for your judgments and love your life as it is right now. The deeper you can relax into the feeling of self-acceptance, the more enjoyable just sitting in stillness becomes. Self-acceptance always makes one feel loved, relaxed and at ease. Don’t you want more of this in your life? You can totally accept yourself as you are now, it only creates a trickle down effect of lightness in your life. As you practice allowing yourself to be at peace with all your shortcomings and faults, you start living a life of laughter, lightness and love. Depending on how long you’ve been avoiding or ignoring certain issues in your life, the longer it may take you to actually train yourself to relax the body and quiet the mind. Yet the very moment you let go of your self-criticism and become infinitely patient and accepting of yourself the way you are, a completely over-flowing abundance of relaxation and energy will flow into you! When you stop all efforting to try and fix, improve and change yourself in anyway, you can relax into your divine nature. From here you can truly take a good long deep look inside you and discover the blissful essence which is who/what you truly are as a soul. The day you have accepted all parts of you, something very magical happens. Your first real taste of unbounded freedom and unlimited potentiality is unleashed! To find this blissful state of being today, simply look inside at what you cannot accept about you, and welcome it with open arms. “You have been here before you were born, and you will be here after you are dead. Mind has a very limited existence, very momentary —one day it comes, another day it is gone. You are forever. Have some experience of your forever-ness. But that is possible only through no-mind. No-mind is another name for meditation.” ~ Osho #3 ~ Explore everything with a childlike state of wonder. Dive into each experience with a state of curiosity and wonder. When you’re full of wonder, your life simply becomes wonderful! There is a childlike presence deep inside you who loves to laugh, play and enjoy the exploration of life in every way. When you are serious about anything in life, you are missing it! Life is grand when you let your innocence shine through. As you practice being child-like (not childish) you’ll find that you have all the time that you need to do whatever you want to do in life, and everything you do choose to do becomes a exploration of the Divine. This is a state of divine curiosity where you can easily dance your way through any serious problems that may arise in the adult mind. By remaining curious, you cannot get upset again. You can only stay open to exploring the next possible experience that is coming your way. #4 ~ Practice Self Inquiry. Self inquiry stops the mind in its tracks and puts you on the road to bliss-ville. This is done by asking yourself questions like, “Who am I…really? To whom are these thoughts coming to? Who is having this experience right now? Who is creating this interpretation of this experience right now? Who is experiencing this breath in this body? Where is the source of this thought coming from?” When you turn your attention in and focus on these questions, you eventually bring the mind back to the God-Source. By noticing how your mind responds to these questions, can create a deeper answer inside of you to the ancient enlightening question of “Why are we here?”. When you’re ready to take on a deeper state of bliss in life and be free on all levels, then you are ready to practice Self Inquiry. The more you practice having no attachment to “getting it” and continuously practice diving into these questions all day and night long, you will soon wake up to an experience of bliss like nothing you’ve ever known before. Know you are a Divine Spiritual Being without boundaries. This one simple understanding will transform your life forever. You are not your thoughts, your feelings, or your body. You are also not your income, job, relationships, or lack of all the above. You are MUCH bigger than all of this. You are a soul that is beyond time, space and has no real boundaries. The mind will not give you the truth, it is too small of a container. Do not buy into the mind nor participate in its judgments and drama. When you are relaxed in your body you find it is your home base, and you stop living up in your head. When you take time to be still, and totally present to the body you’ll discover the state of spiritual bliss is already here in your heart! Notice how your body is breathing for you right now…follow it and listen to your breath giving you life. This will take you into the experience of finding the bliss that is always within your spiritual nature. If you’re demanding or trying to hard to have a certain experience, then you’re cutting yourself off from having this one and completely missing the ever flowing river of consciousness. It is simple and effortless to know yourself as a spiritual being, just let yourself relax deeper inside than you ever have before. #5 ~ Surrender to the experience that is arising right now. Surrender is the ultimate key to finding bliss. We are imprisoned in the present moment for an eternity. Your body cannot escape the Now. The mind pretends it can, and tries to jump into the past and future by dreaming about them, yet the Truth always contains you here. The moment you surrender to ANY internal battle in the mind and be present to the now, you’ll notice the issue simply disappears. If you are having trouble surrendering, let your greatest fear arise in you. Face it directly. See if your fear is coming from a fear of loss, or a fear of separation from the Source. Follow the fear back until you reach the Source where it came from. The meditative mind doesn’t participate in such illusions because it is not attached to anything. It knows each experience of life will come and go. The moment you stop trying to make something happen, then bliss happens to you. If whatever you’re doing to try and surrender doesn’t work, then do the opposite of what didn’t work before. The more you can simply let go, let God and simply be, the easier it becomes to find the Source of infinite riches within you. The greatest meditators blend heaven and earth at all times. They surrender to both ideas of heaven and hell, and within each moment they find true peace. They have a deeper “knowing-ness” that they are always connected to an Infinite Source of love and goodness inside. Their roots of relaxation into this Source deepen, and one day grow into wings of spiritual freedom! Whenever you practice sitting in silence, and perhaps experience an increasing feeling of anxiety, discomfort or pain… go with it! Surrender to the core of it. Find out what is at the core and you can then release it from your body with the breath. It’s best to remain centered in the core of your being and integrate your experiences as they arise, rather than get lost in the phenomena they produce. Surrender is total victory for the soul, and its your job to enjoy the ride! “You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no other choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” ~ Franz Kafka #6 ~ Watch The Mind Vigilantly  This moment contains an entire Universe of ideas, and they are showing up faster than you can follow them. The mind cannot keep up with the moment, there is too much happening in this NOW moment to be contained or controlled by the mind. The mind is a very small vessel compared to the vastness of existence. It is only through stepping back from the mind can you experience the whole universe and its amazing divine qualities. The mind is slippery so you must be very vigilant with it and aware of its manipulative agendas. The mind can get caught in very subtle moments of the past and future. When you are totally in the moment, you’ll see that there truly is NO mind, and only a pure awareness remains. When you’re sitting and being silent, being open to everything and resisting nothing, this Enlightening process happens in an instant. The day your mind is completely at peace, when it has absolutely no worries, no concerns, or agendas at all, notice what is here! There is an untainted being who is eternally present. It is the river of consciousness in this existence, fully alive and awake! Be aware that any striving, trying, reaching, efforting, and entertaining any over-achiever mindset will stop ALL bliss from flowing in. Meditation is the simple experience of watching the mind and resting in your very essence, your inner most core. This is what makes this ordinary experience of life soooo rich and full! This divine ordinariness is what the experience of meditation truly is about. #7 ~ Always, always, always Be Super Gentle with your Self. Gentleness is the golden key to developing a permanent state of bliss. No matter what occurs in your life, always be extremely gentle with yourself. Especially if this is your first attempt at living a spiritual life. If you ever get lost in the journey…great! This is a process of awakening and your chance to lose your old self again and again until you find that you are nothingness itself again. When you have gentleness you have love. If you can’t be gentle with yourself for more than 30 seconds it’s O.K! You’ve just been stuck in the habit of letting the mind control you. Pull back on the reigns of the mind and tell it to relax, and be patient with yourself. You have an infinite amount of time to get it right. Always encourage yourself to be extra gentle with you when dealing with feelings of guilt, shame and self blame. Make the commitment to yourself that you will be gentle with you no matter what happens! Hey, you are the most important person in your life, you deserve this gift! When you are 100% gentle with yourself you merge with your past, present and future and at this point the blissfulness simply takes over. If you have trouble relaxing into this gentleness… imagine a warm gentle light entering in through your toes and then moving all the way up your legs, torso, chest, neck, arms, hands, head and finally all throughout your body. Breathe in and out slowly repeating this affirmation, “I am safe, I am loved, all is well in my world.” Let these words sink deeply into your body. Allow any calming energy to grow and spread to the areas of tension. Give yourself permission to absorb feelings of relaxation and dissolve the stress that arises in the body and mind. This process will breed great gentleness in your life and carry you over and through the many challenges yet to come.
The Source of Happiness According to Buddhism
Teaching
3 Apr 2013 - 9:52am
The Sources of Happiness According to Buddhism   Alexander Berzin Berne, Switzerland, March 2010 Originally published in "Glück" (Berner Universitätsschriften, Band 56), pp. 41-52 Andrè Holenstein, Ruth Meyer Schwiezer, Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello, Peter Rusterholz, Christian von Zimmermann, Andreas Wagner, Sara Margarita Zwahlen, eds. Bern-Stuttgart-Wien, Haupt Verlag, 2011. http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level2_lamrim/initial_scope/karma/sources_happiness_according_bsm.html   Ordinary Happiness: The Suffering of Change Some people have characterized Buddhism as a negative religion that identifies all that we experience as suffering and does not acknowledge happiness at all. This, however, is a misinformed view. It is true that Buddhism speaks of our usual, ordinary happiness as the suffering of change. This means that this type of happiness is unsatisfying: it never lasts and we never have enough of it. It is not true happiness. If, for example, eating ice cream were true happiness, then the more we ate of it at one sitting, the happier we would become. But soon we reach a point at which the happiness at eating ice cream changes into unhappiness and suffering. The same is the case with sitting out in the sun or moving into the shade. This is what is meant by the suffering of change.   Buddhism, however, provides many methods for overcoming the limitations of our ordinary happiness, this suffering of change, so that we reach the everlasting joyous state of a Buddha. Nevertheless, despite the drawbacks of our ordinary happiness, Buddhism also explains the sources for achieving that kind of happiness. Buddhism provides this teaching because one of its basic axioms is that everyone wants to be happy and no one wants to be unhappy. And, since everyone is looking for happiness and, as ordinary beings, we do not know of any type of happiness other than the ordinary, usual kind, Buddhism tells us how to achieve it. Only when that wish and need for happiness has been fulfilled on the most basic level of ordinary happiness can we go on to aim for deeper, more satisfying levels of it with more advanced spiritual practices.   Unfortunately, however, as the great Indian Buddhist master Shantideva wrote in Engaging in Bodhisattva Behavior (sPyod-‘jug, Skt. Bodhicharyavatara) (I.28):   Although having the mind that wishes to shun suffering, They rush headlong into suffering itself. Although wishing for happiness, yet out of naivety (gti-mug, Skt. moha), They destroy their own happiness as if it were a foe.   In other words, although we wish for happiness, we are naive about its sources and so, instead of creating more happiness for ourselves, we create only more unhappiness and sorrow.   Happiness Is a Feeling Although there are many types of happiness, here let us focus our attention on ordinary happiness. To understand its sources, we first need to be clear about what is meant by “happiness.” What is this happiness (bde-ba, Skt. sukha) that we all want? According to the Buddhist analysis, happiness is a mental factor – in other words, it is a type of mental activity with which we are aware of an object in a certain way. It is one section of a broader mental factor called “feeling” (tshor-ba, Skt. vedana), which covers a spectrum that spans a wide range from totally happy to totally unhappy.   What is the definition of “feeling?” Feeling is the mental factor having the nature of experiencing (myong-ba). It is the mental activity of experiencing an object or situation in a way that actually makes it an experience of that object or situation. Without a feeling somewhere on the spectrum between happiness and unhappiness, we do not actually experience an object or a situation. A computer takes in and processes data, but since a computer does not feel happy or unhappy in doing this, a computer does not experience the data. This is the difference between a computer and a mind.   Feeling a level of happiness or unhappiness accompanies either cognition of a sensory object – a sight, sound, smell, taste, or physical sensation such as pleasure or pain – or cognition of a mental object such as when thinking something. It does not need to be dramatic or extreme. It can be very low level. In fact, some level of feeling happy or unhappy accompanies every moment of our life – even when we are deeply asleep with no dreams, we experience it with a neutral feeling.   The Definition of Happiness Buddhism provides two definitions for happiness. One is defined in terms of our relation to an object, while the other is defined in terms of our relation with the state of mind of the feeling itself.   The first defines happiness as the experiencing of something in a satisfying manner, based on believing that it is of benefit to ourselves, whether or not it actually is. Unhappiness is the experiencing of something in an unsatisfying, tormenting way. We experience something neutrally when it is in neither a satisfying nor a tormenting way. The second defines happiness as that feeling which, when it has ended, we wish to meet with it once more. Unhappiness as that feeling which, when it arises, we wish to be parted from it. While a neutral feeling is that feeling which, when it arises or ends, we have neither of the two wishes. The two definitions are related. When we experience something in a satisfying way, the way we experience the object is that the object, literally, “comes to our mind” (yid-du ‘ong-ba, Skt. manapa) in a pleasant manner. We accept the object and it remains comfortably as the object of our attention. This implies that we feel our experience of the object is of benefit to us: it makes us happy; it feels good. Because of that, we want the benefit from this experience to continue and, if it ended, we would want it to come back. Colloquially, we would say that we enjoy the object and the experience of it.   When we experience an object in a tormenting manner, this unhappy experience of the object, literally, “does not come to our mind” (yid-du ma-‘ong-ba, Skt. amanapa) in a pleasant manner. We do not accept the object and it does not stay as the object of our attention comfortably. We feel that our experience of the object is of no benefit and, in fact, it is hurting us. We want it to end. Colloquially, we would say that we do not enjoy the object or the experience of it.   Exaggeration of the Qualities of an Object What does it mean to feel comfortable with an object? When we are comfortable with an object, we accept it as it is, without being naive, and without exaggerating or denying its good qualities or its shortcomings. This point brings us to the discussion of disturbing emotions (nyon-rmongs, Skt. klesha; afflictive emotions) and their relation with whether we experience an object with happiness or unhappiness.   One set of disturbing emotions is lust, attachment, and greed. With all three of them, we exaggerate the good qualities of an object. With lust, we want to get the object if we don’t have it. With attachment, we don’t want to lose it when we do have it; and with greed, we want more even if we do have it. With these disturbing emotions, we tend to ignore the shortcomings of the object. These are not happy states of mind, since we do not find the object satisfying. That means we are not satisfied with the object. We do not accept it for what it is.   For instance, when we see our girlfriend or boyfriend to whom we are very attached, we may experience the sight with happiness. We are satisfied to see the person; we find it satisfying. But as soon as our attachment arises as we exaggerate the good qualities of the person and of being with him or her and we exaggerate the negative qualities of our being without this person, then we feel dissatisfied and unhappy. We do not accept the situation of seeing the person just now and merely enjoying the moment, but we want more and dread his or her going away. Consequently, all of a sudden, we now experience seeing our loved one with dissatisfaction, uneasiness, and unhappiness.   Another set of disturbing emotions is repulsion, anger, and hatred. With these, we exaggerate the shortcomings or negative qualities of the object and want to avoid it if don’t have it; we want to get rid of it when have it; and when it ends, we don’t want it to recur. These three disturbing emotions are usually mixed with fear. They too are not happy states of mind, since we are not satisfied with the object. We do not accept it for what it is.   For example, we could be having root canal work. The object of our experience is a physical sensation of pain. But if we accept it for what it is, without exaggerating its negative qualities, we will not be unhappy during the procedure. We could have a neutral feeling as the way in which we experience the pain: we accept that as long as the procedure takes, it takes and so we are not praying for it to be over quickly; and when the dentist stops drilling, we do not wish for him or her to drill more. We have equanimity about the pain of the drilling – neither repulsion nor attraction nor naivety. In fact, during the procedure, we could experience happiness focused on the thought that we are preventing the future pain of more toothaches.   Note that being happy or satisfied with something does not preclude wanting more or wanting less of something, based on need. It does not make us inactive so that we never try to improve things or to improve ourselves or our situations in life. For example, we can accept, be satisfied and consequently be happy with the progress we have made on carrying out a project at work or on recovering from surgery. But based on need, we can still want to make further progress without being unhappy with what we have achieved so far. The same is the case with the amount of food on our plate or the amount of money we have in the bank, if in fact the reality is that we do not have enough and need more. Without exaggerating the negative aspects of not having enough food to eat or money in the bank, or denying the benefits of having more, we can make efforts to get more food or money without being unhappy about it. If we succeed, it’s OK; and if we fail, that’s OK too, we will somehow manage. But still we try. Most importantly, we try to get more, but without the mental wandering of expectations for success or worries about failure.   Shantideva put it nicely in his chapter on patience (VI.10):   If it can be remedied, Why get into a foul mood over something? And if it can’t be remedied, What help is it to get into a foul mood over it? Constructive Behavior as the Principal Source of Happiness In the long term, the main cause for happiness is constructive behavior. This means refraining from acting, speaking, or thinking under the influence of disturbing emotions such as lust, attachment, greed, repulsion, anger, naivety, and so on, without concern for the long term effect of our behavior on ourselves and on others. Destructive behavior, as the main cause for unhappiness, is not refraining from that type of behavior, but rather engaging in it. For example, with longing desire, we exaggerate the good qualities of an object in a store and ignoring the legal consequences, we steal it. With anger, we exaggerate the negative qualities of something our partner has said and, ignoring the effect it will have on our relationship, we yell at him or her and say cruel words.   Acting, speaking, and thinking while refraining from being under the influence of disturbing emotions builds up the habit to refrain from being under such influence in the future. As a result, if a disturbing emotion arises in the future, we do not act on the basis of it and, eventually, the strength of the disturbing emotion will weaken and eventually the disturbing emotion will hardly arise at all. On the other hand, the more we act on the basis of the disturbing emotions, the more they will arise in the future and the stronger they will be.   As we have seen, when we experience an object with happiness, we experience it without the disturbing emotions of naivety, lust, attachment, greed, repulsion, or anger. Our experiencing of the object is based on accepting its actual nature as what it is, without exaggerating or denying its good or bad points. This way of experiencing things, then, comes from the habit of constructive behavior with which we act, speak, and think likewise based on accepting the actual nature of what people or things or situations are, without exaggerating or denying their good or bad points.   The Circumstances for the Potentials for Happiness to Ripen Our way of experiencing objects or thoughts – with happiness or unhappiness – is not determined, then, by the object or the thought itself. As we have seen, if with our long-term previous behavior we have built up the habit of refraining from exaggerating or denying the positive or negative aspects of these things, we can experience even the pain of having root canal work in a happy state of mind. Going back to the definition of happiness, we experience the procedure in a satisfying manner, based on believing that it is of benefit to ourselves.   Although we might have built up the habit of refraining from acting, speaking, or thinking under the influence of disturbing emotions and so built up the potential to experience objects and thoughts with happiness, still certain circumstances are necessary for that potential to ripen into an experience of happiness. As we have seen, the object of our experience does not necessarily determine whether we experience it with happiness or unhappiness. Rather, experiencing an object with happiness depends more strongly on our attitude of accepting the actual reality of what the object is, regardless of what that object might be – the painful physical sensation of root canal work or the sight of a loved one. So, our attitude, our state of mind, is critical for whether at the moment we feel happy or unhappy, no matter what object we might be seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, physically sensing, or thinking.   We have also seen that when we accept the reality of what something is and are not naive about it, then we do not exaggerate or deny its good or bad qualities and so we do not experience the object with lust, greed, or attachment or with repulsion or anger. Therefore, what helps to trigger the ripening of happiness at any particular moment is being free of naivety.   Naivety In any given moment of unhappiness, our naivety is not necessarily restricted to being naive about the object we are experiencing. Naivety has a much wider range. It can also be focused on ourselves. When we are experiencing a problem with great unhappiness, then with naivety we tend to become fixated only on ourselves and we might even think that we are the only one who has ever experienced this problem.   Take the example of losing our job. The reality is that there are millions of people around the world who have lost their jobs and are now unemployed. We can think about our situation without being naive about impermanence, for instance. We remember that all phenomena that arise from causes and circumstances will be affected by further causes and circumstances, and will eventually end. That can be very helpful. But even more effective is to expand the scope of our thinking further to include not only our own but also everyone else’s problem of losing their jobs, if that has happened to them. We need to think, “This is not just my problem alone; it is the problem of an enormous number of people. I am not the only one who needs a solution; everyone else needs a solution too. Everyone needs to overcome such problems and unhappiness.” That is, in fact, the reality.   With this way of thinking, which is without naivety, we develop compassion (snying-rje, Skt. karuna) for others, rather than wallowing in self-pity. Our minds are no longer narrowly focused on just ourselves, but are much more open in thinking about all others in a similar situation. With the wish to help them overcome their problems too, our own individual problems diminish in importance and we develop the courage and strength to deal with them in an objective manner. We certainly did not want to lose our job, but with equanimity we accept the reality of the situation and, thinking of others, we might even be happy at the thought that now we have the opportunity to try to help them.   The Relation between Compassion and Happiness Compassion, then, is one of the key factors for triggering our potentials to experience an object or a situation with happiness. But how does that work? Compassion is the wish for others to be free of their suffering and the causes for their suffering, just as we wish the same for ourselves. But when we focus on the suffering and unhappiness of others, we naturally feel sad about that, not happy. Or we may have blocked feelings and feel nothing. In either case, we don’t feel happy about their suffering. So, how does compassion bring about a happy state of mind?   To understand this, we need to differentiate upsetting (zang-zing) feelings from nonupsetting (zang-zing med-pa) feelings. Here, I am using these terms not with their strict definitions, but in a more colloquial, nontechnical manner. The difference is whether or not the feeling of happy, unhappy, or neutral is mixed with naivety and confusion about the feeling itself. Remember, when we differentiated happiness from unhappiness in general, the variable was whether or not we were naive about the object we were experiencing. Here, even if we do not exaggerate or deny the qualities of an object that we experience with unhappiness, for example, we might still make that unhappy feeling into some sort of solid, truly existent “thing,” like a dark heavy cloud hanging over our heads. We then exaggerate the negative qualities of that feeling and imagine it to be, for instance, “a horrible depression” and we feel trapped inside it. In this case, the naivety is not accepted the unhappy feeling for what it is. After all, a feeling of unhappiness is something that changes from moment to moment as its intensity varies: it is not some sort of solid monolithic object that exists truly on its own, unaffected by anything else.   We can apply a similar analysis to when we experience feeling nothing when thinking of the suffering of others. In this case, when we exaggerate the negative quality of feeling sad or unhappy, we are afraid to feel it and so we block it. We then experience a neutral feeling, neither unhappy nor happy. But then we exaggerate that neutral feeling too, imagining it to be something solid, like a big solid “nothing” that is sitting inside us, preventing us from sincerely feeling anything.   To develop compassion, it is important not to deny that the difficult situations of others are sad, as may be ours, such as when losing our job. It would be unhealthy to be afraid to feel that sadness or to block or repress it. We need to feel this sadness, but in a nonupsetting manner in order to be able to empathize with others’ suffering, to develop the deep sincere wish for others to be free of it, and to take some responsibility to try to help them overcome it. In short, the Buddhist advice is, “Don’t make a solid ‘thing’ out of feeling sad; don’t make a big deal out of it.”   Quieting the Mind To experience the feeling of sadness in a nonupsetting manner, we need to quiet our minds of all mental wandering and dullness. With mental wandering, our attention flies off to disturbing extraneous thoughts such as thoughts filled with worry, doubt, fear, or thoughts filled with expectations of what we hope will be something more pleasant. With mental dullness, we fall into a mental fog and so become inattentive of everything.   Buddhism is rich in methods for ridding our states of mind of mental wandering and dullness. One of the most basic methods is to quiet down by focusing on our breath. With minimal mental wandering and dullness, our minds are tranquil and serene. In such a state, we can more easily calm down as well any exaggeration or repulsion or indifference to others’ problems and suffering and to our feelings about them. Then even if we initially feel sad, it is not upsetting.   Eventually, however, as our mind relaxes and calms down further, we naturally feel a low level of happiness. In a tranquil mental and emotional state, the natural warmth and happiness of the mind become manifest. If we have built up strong enough potentials for experiencing happiness from having engaged in constructive behavior, our tranquil state of mind helps to trigger them to ripen as well.   Developing Love We then enhance this happiness with thoughts of love (byams-pa, Skt. maitri). Love is the wish for others to be happy and to have the causes for happiness. Such a wish naturally follows from compassionate sympathy. Though we feel sad at someone’s pain and sorrow, feeling that way is difficult while actively wishing the person to be happy. When we stop thinking about ourselves and focus instead on someone’s happiness, our heart naturally warms. This automatically brings us a further gentle feeling of joy and can trigger even more potentials to feel happy that were built up over a long time by our constructive behavior. Thus, when love is selfless and sincere, a gentle happiness accompanies it that is not upsetting and our sadness disappears. Just as a parent suffering from a headache forgets the pain while comforting his or her sick child, similarly the sadness we feel at someone’s misfortune disappears while we radiate thoughts of love.   Summary In short, the long-term, most basic source of happiness according to Buddhism is building up a habit of refraining from acting, speaking or thinking destructively under the influence of disturbing emotions and attitudes such as lust, greed, attachment, repulsion and anger, all of which are rooted in naivety. Such constructive behavior builds up the potentials on our mental continuums for experiencing happiness in the future. We can trigger those potentials to ripen by not exaggerating or denying the good or bad qualities of any object or situation we experience or any level of happiness or unhappiness with which we experience it – regardless of what the object or situation may be. Without naivety, and so without attachment, repulsion, or indifference, we then need to quiet our minds of mental wandering and dullness. We need especially to quiet our minds of worries or expectations. In that serene and tranquil state of mind, we will already feel a low level of happiness and trigger the potentials we might have for feeling even greater happiness.   We then expand our minds by turning our attention to the problems of others and how they might be in even worse situations than ours. We stop thinking of only ourselves. We think how wonderful it would be if all others could be free of their suffering, and how great it would be if we could help them to accomplish that. This strong compassion naturally leads to a feeling of love – the wish for them to be happy. Thinking of their happiness triggers even more of our own potentials for happiness to ripen.   With these thoughts of compassion and love, we may then turn our thoughts to the Buddhas or to any great humanitarian figures. Thinking of their examples, we gain the inspiration (byin-gyis rlabs, Skt. adhisthana) to take some responsibility to actually try to help others. This helps us to gain the strength and courage to tackle not only the problems of others, but our own as well – but again, without exaggerating them and without worries about failure or expectations of success.  
Time to clean up this mess I have made...
Blog entry
2 Apr 2013 - 5:24pm
I have been cleaning up the mess left over from the life I am no longer living. A life that I know is no longer for me,back in another state... The life before my awakening. A year and a half ago I was standing in my kitchen when I felt the Light go through me and experienced a spontaneous spiritual awakening. I instantly became a completely different person. My life as I knew it ended on that day. In the two years before that day, I was hearing things, feeling things, seeing things, having visions and having tons of prophetic dreams. I was experiencing heart palpitations and night sweats and my head was tingling and itching like crazy. I had all kinds of constant, crazy physical symptoms. I would go to the doctor but they couldn't really explain it... I was having spiritual awakening symptoms that I had no idea existed, for I was deep asleep. I thought I was going crazy. Lost the house, the 18 year marriage and the businesses all within that time too. Went into my dark night. Became a hermit. Found my Heart,my Self and my Source. Not only was my life an emotional mess but a physical mess as well. For my old life was about acquiring things. I was an excellent disposable consumer. And I helped others in that consumption, by owning high end fashion boutiques(can you say spend,spend,spend...) I have done my share of polluting this beautiful world while asleep with all the crap I bought and threw away without a thought to disposing of it and the environment... Looking outside of myself for things and people that would fill the hole within my heart which I did not understand. Always that aching within, that searching for I did not know what. Always felt like I was missing something really important...but no clue what it was. Today I stand at the beginning of my new life. Amazing synchronicities and miracles have taken me to another state where I have been called by my heart to go and start anew. Very few people from my past are with me. Most seem to have disappeared somehow...no longer a part of the life. The ones with me now love me for just me. Not because of what I have or don't have...or what I can or can't do for them...or because it is convenient or it looks good. They are with me because they choose to be. I choose to be with them as well. So I have been going back and forth between my new home and my old home. Cleaning things up. Disposing of things. Very slowly... for when I go back there it feels like I am swimming through molasses...it is obvious to me that the energy there is not longer at my vibration... I am foggy and sleep a lot back there so it seems as if this cleaning up is taking forever. What I really want is to be like Genie and just blink my eyes and have it all just magically disappear. I don't want to even see it. It feels like crap. The energy attached to all those things old and stale. But the good news is that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am almost finished with my personal clean up. I feel the lightness of the release already, often finding myself in very synchronistic circumstances which help me to get rid of things. Even had extra cash flow come my way even though I did not expect it. So why do I write of this today? Because I know I am not the only one experiencing this. As we all leave behind things, places and people that are no longer in alignment with us, there is all kinds of cleanup left behind. It can be excruciatingly hard. It can paralyze us, the monumental obstacle which comes from ending a life which is no longer us. Emotionally it can drag us back into the past, memories of what was and sometimes the hidden longing within that it doesn't have to end...reliving the past,getting stuck in it... Our minds meanwhile are trying to sort what is happening as we hear our hearts more and more and begin to do things which our mind thinks of as irrational...(like turning down money in exchange for inner peace...) It wants us to remember the past, it wants us to get lost in what was, for there is security in what was, as opposed to the unknown. It wants to plan for our future in a rational way, make sure we are SAFE and SECURE. It doesn't want to let go...making us question ourselves at every turn...keeping us trapped in thoughts which keep us from hearing our hearts... What I do? I constantly remind myself that I am more than just this body, this experience. I accept that I created this situation and only I can get me out of it. And I take time out for myself. Quiet time for just me...A lot of time. Lots of salted baths. Lots of walks on the beach. Mother Earth is just waiting to connect with me and help me heal. Nothing raises my vibration faster and helps me clear and center in my heart, than being out in nature. Lots of fresh juice and fresh distilled water too. So my body gets clear. I baby myself because I know that I am ending things and it is extremely difficult to end one life and start a new one. I tell myself I am doing the best I can within my abilities. I give myself a break. I ask for my light family to help guide me and support me and help me to see the signs which point in the right direction, the direction of being in the flow within my heart. Connected to my Source. I expect miracles to help me along the way. And most importantly I remember I am Love and I am so Loved. A fractal of my Creator that has set out from being One with All in a quest to experience and learn. To experience ALL life has to offer,here at this moment, as a separate consciousness(yet connected), during this great shift of ages. My heart says it is time to clean my mess up. To what extent I do that is up to me. But I do know I am not alone in the clean up. I have never been alone... Shine bright my light family. Thank you for sharing this path with me. We are all cleaning up together in all different kinds of ways, in all different levels,even if we don't know it. The energies of the Light from our Creator are helping us to clean up...so it's gonna happen,want it or not...asleep or awake... I have no doubt of it, because when all is said and done... I believe we are the Light of our Creator , and we can achieve anything we set out to do. We just have to believe in ourselves. We need to remember that we can... In Light and Love : ) marie
A Beautiful Moment
Blog entry
1 Apr 2013 - 9:58pm
Morning chores finished, I decided to enjoy a coffee outside in the beautiful mid-morning spring sunshine. The kids were concentrated on building a dam for the run-off from the snow bank , so I thought I'd steal the moment to run out back and enjoy a quick meditation . Finally! Outside in the sun with the birds singing their awakening anthem. My mind was drooling in anticipation as I found my way to the back of our yard. I carefully arranged myself in a half lotus on the bench beside our trampoline and beamed at the sun. It beamed back. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, turning my focus inward. Starting with my third eye, then moving to my heart. The universal love floods through, I love how quickly I can make this flow. I'm so thankful that I finally received my lifelong wish. All I ever wanted was to be happy. Every birthday wish and shooting star had me asking for just that. I had to laugh when I saw that picture quoting John Lennon: "When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." Now I'm the happiest I've ever been; I've learned how to fully rid myself of negative emotion. It is a work in progress, but I'm well on my way. I see the ugly truth, but I also see the beautiful truth, the light, and the magnificent interconnected web of life. I slowly opened my eyes, in a semi-trance, just taking in the smaller details. That morning while doing chores I had reflected about the meaning of Easter. Christ is risen. I had come to the realization earlier this year that whatever you want to call it, it's in all of us. We were fooled by our religions to think that God is exoteric. We need to look into ourselves. I had an extra special buzz inside me since I woke up, finding it a pretty special thing, and wondering if it was a buzz from the collective. After a few moments I looked to the sky and was amazed to see a halo around the sun. The colors were splendid. I understand the science behind the making of these, but the combination of my thoughts, feelings, and intentions, the significance of the day, and the halo upon coming out of meditation, it was a very special moment and I couldn't help but revel in it. Blessed Be
The feeling that things are shifting,very fast...
Blog entry
30 Mar 2013 - 9:44pm
Boy lately time has gotten wacky... I feel like I am in a tunnel and things are rushing past me,like bands of energy which seem to be penetrating deep within into our Mother Earth. I feel the pull of this new energy within the earth as it builds, very crystal like it feels...and it matches a new energy that I feel building within me. As above so below... I feel this same energy building above me as well, something big it feels to be happening "out" there as well as "in" here...galactic level especially strong to me, the feel is that of a big shift happening above as well. Is anyone else feeling this buildup of very powerful energy within and without? Not bad, not good, just energy shifting very fast...and building? Gotta stay in our hearts and trust the process I feel. It feels as if the energies are once again starting to "move"... If I feel tossed about I remind myself to stay in my heart so I never forget my connection to my Source. I imagine being surrounded in White Light filled with Love. I remind myself of who I am. I remind myself I am never alone. And I try to see past the illusion of the experience into the lesson to be learned... Shine bright my family. You are always in my heart. I feel it is through our hearts we are all One and can achieve what is deemed impossible. In light and love marie
High Council of Orion Message YOUR VIBRATORY RATE - PART 1 - 29 MAR 2013
Story
30 Mar 2013 - 3:16am
Channeled Ascension Message from the High Council of Orion March 29th 2013.   Channeled by Holly Hawkins Marwood Transcribed by Paul Marwood Audio file is available at http://www.akashahealingstudio.com/high-council-of-orion-channeled-message-29th-mar-2013/      YOUR VIBRATORY RATE - PART 1   “Greetings Dear Ones,   We are the High Council of Orion.   Our message today is about vibratory rate.  There is much talk on your planet at this time about vibration and comparative comments, about things being low vibration and high vibration, and people being low vibration and high vibration, and that could be about places, it could it be about individuals, it could be about thought forms.   The good news is that there is a growing awareness about vibratory rates, and how it can influence one and impact one.  The downside of it, from our point of view, is that it does get quite judgmental, as if one can feel “higher” or “lower” than another based on the perception of a vibratory rate.   First and foremost we would like to point out that what is best is to tend to your “own vibratory rate”.  Don’t worry about other people's vibratory rate, don't worry about their thought form vibratory rate, such as “that is low vibrational thinking” as some might say.   The key here is paying attention to your “own vibratory rate” and see how it feels. Is it moving in a direction that uplifts and enhances and improves your life? Or Is it moving in a direction that there doesn't seem to be improvement with?   You can affect the vibratory rate of your body and the things around you consciously: ·  Through the way you think; ·  Through the words you use; ·  Through the music you listen to; ·  Through the pleasing nature of the things around you; ·  Through the way you paint your house and decorate; ·  And yes in fact the people you hang around with.   But rather than making judgments about other people's vibratory rate, we ask you to observe your own vibratory rate and notice: ·  What are the things that you do; ·  What are the things that you say; ·  What are the ways you think; ·  What are the things that you have a round you; ·  What are the goals you have in your life that shift your vibratory rate to what would be set at a higher level, And that higher level is really in fact the level of your Souls resonance.   When one feels high, positive, aligned, and in the flow, it's because your vibratory rate is closer in alignment or in complete alignment with your Soul and when that happens you feel good, and when you feel good the evidence is that things around you are happening well.  You have insights your business moves well, your relationships work well, and the synchronicities seem to happen.   If one wants to increase their vibratory rate, meaning they want to live more in synchronicity and alignment with your Soul, and you are not feeling it, you can do so through the things that individually uplift you like: ·  Are there movies that you watch that you feel good about yourself and the world; ·  Is there music, are there books that you read; ·  Is being out in nature uplifting to you; ·  Exercising; ·  Being with good friends?   These are the things that lift your vibration and as they do, yes your vibratory rate increases, not relative to those around you, but relative to the baseline that you as a Soul had with yourself.   As you shift and change your vibratory rate not concerned about other people's vibratory rate, you bring yourself in closer resonance with your Soul, and as we said a moment ago, that Soul level alignment of your vibratory rate allows you to start living that “magical life”, where things flow.  The right people come into your lives, whether it's relationships, whether it's business connections, you have the inspiration, the right book falls off the shelf, somebody in the store happens to be just the person you need to meet.  Whatever it is, it's starting to live in vibratory synchronicity with yours Soul, which allows it to flow.   What happens if you feel like you're perhaps not in the best vibratory rate that you'd like to be?  Sometimes saying the affirmations or telling yourself you should feel differently, well I should feel differently because I am abundant, I have money coming in, I have friends and family and yet I don't feel good, meaning your vibratory rate is lower as evidenced by how you're feeling. Don't try and shift it would be our suggestion by willing or should-ing it away.   Do it through other means like: ·  Listening to the music that you love and uplifts you whatever it is.  It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about it, but are you feeling better more alive aligned inspired; ·  Reading the words of great people who inspire you whoever they are; ·  Being around people who inspire you, that inspiration comes from that alignment of the vibration; ·  Observing yourself as you go out in nature because that helps you feel better; ·  Observing yourself as you do the YOGA class; ·  Going to the beach at sunset.   Whatever it is, observe yourself and how you feel about yourself in relation to the world, in relation to your goals, in relation to all aspects of your humanity as you choose to interact with those experiences around you that raise your vibratory rate.  It's not always about changing your thinking, sometimes it's about shifting the environment around you in whatever way you can, so that it changes your vibratory great to be inline with your Soul.   And that's where the magic happens.   The vibratory rate in-sync with the Soul is where you wake up and you feel good.  You're on top of the world things go well, the trauma dramas around you don't bother you the same way, and as that vibratory rate shifts and you have those wonderful days, and you practice shifting your vibratory rate, not just through your mind but through your environment, and you see the evidence of that shifting and changing your life, then it becomes this self propelling machine, where you shift your environment, you feel better, “you notice”. You go “Wow that worked!” I’m going to do that again, and you shift your environment and you feel better and you notice “Wow that worked again!”   This time I’m going to try something different and you keep going and it keeps changing, and at you live in alignment with your Soul, you receive more of that Soul level guidance.  You are vibrating at the same rates so the information can come through so you have ideas that are again more magical, that are inspired, that lead you in the right direction, that bring the right people to you, that allow you to feel fulfilled and uplifted and aligned.   Again we ask you, try not to worry about the vibratory rate of others or other situations, and just take care of your vibratory rate.  Play with it and as we’ve said so many times, have fun, enjoy exploring the ways the experiences around you that can lift you, so that you can draw in more, and resonate in tune more with your Soul level experience.   Be Blessed.   We are the High Council of Orion”     ============================================================================ © 2013 Copyright Holly Hawkins Family Trust        www.AkashaHealingStudio.com This channeled message may be reproduced in it’s entirety provided it is kept in it’s original form and not altered or changed in any way, with the Author and website clearly included.  
Life's Simplicity Offers Much to be Admired
Blog entry
29 Mar 2013 - 2:27am
                                                Beautiful light particles surround us every moment, but when they can be                                          captured like the image above, it can take my breath away !                             Speaking for myself, I find no benefit in focusing on "what needs to be changed"                             and lowering my vibrations to dwell in those thoughts.  We live in a world that is                             going through many trials as change is not only a good thing, it is also painful                             in it's process.   Neglecting the elements of life that could nurture our spirit is not                             beneficial for our soul  -  it needs to sing its song of Grace and Love.                                                                              That is its True Nature.                                                                                       The  playful  babies  in  all  shapes  and  form.                                                                                                                                                                                              Celebrating this precious human birth  -                                       "  Of all the things that exist, we breathe and wake and turn it into song.  "                             A beautiful view of life that offers us the chance to feel enormous appreciation for                                    the fact that we are here as individual spirits filled with consciousness.                                                                                                          Between Peace and Joy   -                        "  We could never have guessed, We were already blessed, where we are........ "                                 Whatever our path, whatever the color or grain of our days, whatever riddles                                  we must solve to stay alive, the secret of life somehow always has to do                                             with the awakening and freeing of what has been asleep.                                                                                                                                Awakening to the Light that is already in our Lives                                                                                  And Celebrating It.                                                                                                                       *~*     Wishing  you  All  a  Most  Amazing  Re-Awakening  to  Your-Self      *~*                                                                 *~*      I AM Love    ~    I AM Tara       *~*           
When the Heart Sings
Story
28 Mar 2013 - 11:25am
The following is an example of the poetic style that Mr. LePar's spiritual source, The Council, often used in the closing of a trance session. There is really nothing that I can add to the words below. The Council: Something to think about: When the heart sings, when the eyes can see a little beauty in small things, when the heart laughs, when the heart experiences joy and warmth, when the lips smile, and the voice is raised in a loving laugh of joy, then that soul is given proof that it has created a thing of beauty, and the seed of that creation was planted in the past. If that soul will choose to look even more at the beauty in the small things that exist, it will continue to create for itself not only small beautiful things but it will gradually begin to create large beautiful things for itself. So when the eye sees a little beauty here or a little joy there and it appreciates it, it will then begin to look a little more or a little harder, and it will then begin to see even more beauty and more joy. And in so doing then the heart begins to laugh and feel joy to a greater proportion than what it did before, and if the heart is happy, if it sees beauty, if it experienced joy, then it is a reflection of the thought, the mind, of the entity, and if that is the reflection, then it means it is creating even more. So it becomes an unending circle. It is an unending spiral that grows upward. Look for something joyful. Look for something small and tiny that is joyful. Then look for something small and tiny that is beautiful. Appreciate that joy, that beauty, savor it, place it in your heart, and keep it in your thoughts. And in so doing you open your blind eyes to greater light, greater beauty, thus the heart rises up and the consciousness creates more and more that is godly. If you laugh today, it is because you have created something joyful yesterday. For more on William LePar and The Council visit www.WilliamLePar.com
You're the First Wave - What if No One Follows?
Blog entry
27 Mar 2013 - 12:48pm
Welcome to Brenda's Blog Channeled by Brenda Hoffman for www.LifeTapestryCreations.com Summary of Brenda’s March 17, 2013 free, 15-minute, channeled “Creation Energies” show at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/brenda-hoffman: Last week’s equinox opened your color frequencies. You’re no longer coloring your life with a box of eight crayons – now you’re coloring with seventy-two color crayons. The title of last week’s “Brenda’s Blog” – her free, weekly, channeled blog for www.LifeTapestryCreations.com: “This Equinox is Your First Gossamer Layer” Brenda’s “Creation Energies” BlogTalkRadio.com show and “Brenda’s Blog” contain different channeled materials. Dear Ones, Many of you are finding that what was interesting is no longer. Those people you found intriguing are now boring. That what you once enjoyed feels lifeless. We predicted such. But it is one thing to read about changes and quite another to experience them. Indeed, many of you find yourself reverting to the fears or patterns of old. You feel as if you alone have not grasped the Lightworker brass ring. Or that your dream of a loving new age is a myth like King Arthur and the round table. Such is not true – but you do not necessarily believe that yet. You and all Lightworkers of whatever degree of activity are creating New Age myths. Even though not all King Arthur stories are based in reality – those myths, stories and dreams have a basis in the reality of the time. Tales were once relayed by story tellers. Each story-teller – as is true for the party game “Pass the Message” – changed the tale a bit so it was more colorful or appropriate for the listening audience – until the truth was more fiction than reality. Your tribulations transitioning into the New Age will make a wonderful story for your children and grandchildren as they piece together the courage of those who went before. But as was true in the past, they will color you with more wisdom and courage than what you now feel is reality. You know you need to wake up when the alarm sounds to prepare for a job you may or may not like so that in your free time – what little there is – you can access the New Age materials that make your heart sing. Yet, your initial transition history will probably read like: “You knew from the beginning you needed to change the world, so you put aside all that did not help you move in that direction.” Within a few generations your history will change again to: “You knew the company you worked for required a complete restructuring so, as a clerk in the mail room, you managed to change your corporation and all similar corporations.” Perhaps you find our thoughts amusing or even frightening, but certainly not reality. So it is for the tales of courage you share. No one who is in the midst of a shift – certainly not of this magnitude – truly understands how complicated the shift is or will be in their personal life. Many of you marvel at the courage required to hide Anne Frank and her family during the Holocaust of World War II. You are in the midst of something similar. That is not to frighten you or to compare those who hid Anne Frank and her family with you, but for you to understand the courage you find within yourselves despite so many indicators that your role will not be a success. There were many signs that Adolf Hitler’s vision would overtake Europe and all who helped those Hitler found subhuman would be destroyed. Yet, those who accepted the role of savior in cases similar to those who protected the Anne Frank family had the courage to continue whatever the consequences. So it is for you now. You really do yet understand how courageous you are. Or that there will be days, perhaps weeks, when you wish this transition would go away. Not because it is not a wonderful dream. But because you do not know if you have the strength to continue; or if continuing will produce anything other than more pain. The New Age/new earth has arrived. The outcome of this shift is now predictable. Even though there will be a few skirmishes, perhaps even battles of will, the New Age is not going away. You are no longer alone as was true for those few voices decades ago predicting the New Age was possible. Perhaps your family or friends have not yet jumped on the New Age/new earth band wagon, but they will eventually. For if you feel a loving need to interact with them, they too are part of the Lightworker movement – just perhaps not at the same pace as you. Those of you reading this blog and others like it, are most likely advance Lightworkerers. But thousands of other waves will follow. You are the first wave. The feelings of the first wave of any concept – loneliness and questioning the validity of beliefs – seldom deviate. As is true of the fears that you have moved too far beyond society’s expectations to return to “normal” if this new earth/New Age is not reality. Do you suppose the first explorers of earth were so certain of their goal that they had no fears as their food and water dwindled and the expected land mass was not in sight? The difference is you are exploring inner-worlds, instead of your physical world. To complete your new earth mission, the outer-world must match your new feelings. You feel more joyful, more love. But is the same true for your brother, mother, friends, neighbors or employer? Where is the love? You may feel it – but few others seem to feel the same. Was your arduous inner journey worth the effort? Will others join you? Or are you now so different you cannot return to Old Age society if others decide not to transition into the New Age? You are explorers of the inner-world and creators of the new earth/New Age. What if no one follows? What if you are stuck in an environment that feels right only to you? Rest assured, you are not alone. It is time. You are merely the first, but most certainly not the last. Others will follow more quickly than you now imagine. Your pining for others to be part of your loving new earth will last for just a bit. Others will sense your light and wish to know more. They will suddenly find new earth materials fascinating and wars unproductive. In truth, they are loading their wagons impatiently waiting for you to give the sign that the new earth is safe. This you will do with the joy you display when you remember to live through your heart, instead of your mind. When you allow yourself to know you are courageous beyond words. And allow yourself to be in all your glory. Others will follow. Maybe not today, but certainly tomorrow. For they too are programmed to awaken to the new earth/New Age. Programs just not activated as soon as was true for you. You are not alone – merely the first wave of courageous and loving human spirits exploring your inner-worlds to create new life and joy throughout the Universes. So be it. Amen. http://www.LifeTapestryCreations.com If you would like to receive Brenda’s free blogs when posted, please click the Subscribe Button on the upper part of her subscribe and blog page and then click the – Subscribe to Brenda’s Blog by E-mail – line. Complete your subscription by entering your e-mail address and accepting the e-mail confirmation. Copyright © 2009-2013, Brenda Hoffman. All rights reserved. www.LifeTapestryCreations.com. Feel free to share this content with others, post on your blog, add to your newsletter, etc. But please keep this article’s integrity by including the author: Brenda Hoffman & source website link: www.LifeTapestryCreations.com
High Council of Orion Message MUSIC - ADDING MORE JOY TO YOUR LIFE - 22 MAR 2013
Story
26 Mar 2013 - 6:10am
Channeled Ascension Message from the High Council of Orion March 22nd 2013.   Channeled by Holly Hawkins Marwood Transcribed by Paul Marwood Audio file is available at http://www.akashahealingstudio.com/high-council-of-orion-channeled-message-22nd-mar-2013/  MUSIC - ADDING MORE JOY TO YOUR LIFE (On the audio version our Cat “Bodhi” was with us today, we ask you to enjoy the “cat noises” as well)   “Greetings Dear Ones,   We are the High Council of Orion.   As many of you know all that you experience is that of a vibrational rate, and the things that appear solid are at a vibrational rate that creates density which allows it to feel solid, and those that are less solid or fluid or even elusive to the senses are still there, yet the vibratory rate is different, so you experience them differently in your world.   But the key here is that your world is a vibratory rate at different levels, and some of it is more sympathetic more in line with your inner nature, and some is more dissonant or uncomfortable.  Many of you have experienced this through being around particular people that you might not feel comfortable with, or being in certain situations that don't feel comfortable.   We’d like to talk about how you can positively influence your world with the ever present vibration of music, and how as many of you know, you can alter how you think and feel and even manifest, through the use of the music that you bring into your life.  Many of you have those songs those tunes that you love that bring you joy or happiness, or energize you, or as you listen to them they may make you more contemplative, or bring you inward.   Just as you work with yourself, your environment the color in your environment, the smells the people the experiences you have; to uplift you or to shift you into the place where you feel most comfortable moving.  We ask you to entertain the idea of the entertainment, in this case the musical entertainment you bring into your world.   We make no judgment about the many different vibratory rates there are in music, yet we will ask you to observe that some of them allow you to feel more connected to your upper chakras, and what one might call those higher level of emotions of happiness joy of love connection, and even bliss.   What a beautiful way to influence the vibratory rate of all that's around you, by bringing in the music that allows you to connect with the vibratory rate of the chakras, that bring you joy and love and happiness and connection.   For each of you the music will be different, but the music that as you listen to it you feel inspired, you feel the I AM presence you feel joy you feel like smiling, you feel like the cares and worries of the day have an opportunity to fall way. You can be shifted to a place of looking at your friends your family your loved ones your co-workers your neighbors around you, and feel that all is well in the world because of the vibratory shift that comes through the music that you are playing, and the better you feel, with those what we will call higher level emotions as you listen to certain types of music.   It’s because that music is starting to replicate the inherent vibration of your particular Soul. Some of you may be aware that there is music out there that as you listen to it, it feels as if it speaks to your Soul, it feels as if it is a natural conduit for who you are, and brings you to that place of quiet confidence in your knowingness of who you are.   If you are one who loves music and plays lots of different types of music, we ask you to be aware of how you feel and how you look at the world, and your outlook on the world as you listen to that music.  If you listen to music that you would say “Pumps you up!” in the morning, yet also makes you feel agitated, perhaps there is another type of music that could energize you that doesn't allow you to bring in the feeling of agitation.   Perhaps at the end of the day you're feeling a bit “Done in by the day”, you could play the music that brings you to that place of inner peace, knowing also that as you play the music into the space where you are, your home your office your room your car, that all that's around begins to vibrate at that level, and you imbue the space with that energetic resonance.  If you choose to create a room in your home as a sacred space, or you see your home as sacred space, what better way to imbue it with the energies of where you want to be and where you're going, and that feel resonant to your Souls nature.   Then playing the music in the space whether you're there or not, you are shifting the vibratory rate so that as you move into that space, you naturally move there and flow there more easily.   Music in your world is a beautiful support for where you want to go, and where you want to go is always guided by your Soul.  But for those of you who listen to the messages of the High Council of Orion, we know that your Soul is calling you to an expansion of love and conscious connection with all that is.  So the music in your world is a beautiful support of that vibratory striving that you feel and that you yearn for.   There is much beautiful music on your planet, available to you in the vibratory residence that uplifts your Soul, and if you haven't found it yet seek it out, and we need not tell you that you will know when you've found it, for the feelings of joy hope love peace and connection will abound in your life with a smile in your face and the twinkle in your eye, when you connect with that beautiful vibratory rate of your Soul.   Be Blessed.   We are the High Council of Orion”     ============================================================================ Personal Note from Paul & Holly Marwood. Holly and I use music all the time at Akasha Healing Studio and in our home, giving both of them a feeling of sacred space.  The music expands our joy, love and peace.   Samples of music we use are: “Crystal Bowl 444 Toning by Paul Marwood, Holly Hawkins Marwood & Laural Davis” “Prelude to Infinity by Robert Haig Coxon” “Healing Touch II by Nadama”.     © 2013 Copyright Holly Hawkins Family Trust        www.AkashaHealingStudio.com This channeled message may be reproduced in it’s entirety provided it is kept in it’s original form and not altered or changed in any way, with the Author and website clearly included.  
The Human Game
video
24 Mar 2013 - 5:06pm
hmmmmmm...it's really crazy out there...
Blog entry
22 Mar 2013 - 3:09pm
It's funny how when one becomes an observer in their own life,so much is learned. I have for the last year and a half gone within,within,within,exploring something so much grander than what I can see with my physical self... I have all along been preparing for the time when I once again turned to observing the out side world however. I knew the time (?) would come when I could no longer be a hermit. The safety of the hermit bubble would have to burst. When I would have to step back into the world and do whatever it is I am to do... Now I know in my heart the time is here for me to turn from complete within and once again join whatever my world is out there. I feel I have the strength of Love within me 24/7,very easy access...My Source ALWAYS with me in my heart. And now I see things from such a different perspective. As if from above myself, to where I can see more of the picture. A bird's eye view so to speak lol... I came out of my cave finally. And I see people losing it...and it is quickly intensifying this time as we return to the full moon. This full moon is going to give lunacy quite the name, my goodness. Combine that with all extra energetic help from the sun and comets and asteroids etc...lol, can you say extreme roller coaster? People are losing their programming or something and they have no idea what the heck is happening to them. Their vibrations are rising and flushing out all that which does not serve the highest good of all. I see a matrix of energy of sorts that is vibrating too high...I imagine a race car engine exceeding its limits,violently shaking before exploding. Shattering the engine pushed beyond its limits. Too high of a frequency to be contained within the old limiting vessel. Expansion its only option. And that is what I see around me. People being pushed beyond their limits. Both by the outside world AND their inside world. Outside,people are feeling strangled by all the taxes, the rules, the regulations, the limitations,the loss, the chaos,cornered like animals...that's the 3d world. Inside, the energies bombarding our planet are doing the same thing to them as they are doing to me. Except I am so blessed to be aware and conscious of what is happening. They are going through this shift of ages on the other side of the veil. Very courageous. Because high energies don't just affect me and my "like-minded" friends and family Lol! We are all human. All the same when it comes to energy. The whole planet is. Everyone is in on this ride folks! Experiencing it from their own beautiful perspective. Humans,plants animals,sea life...down to the most miniscule of miniscule... The 3d world is quickly crumbling,institutions and old,useless paradigms falling daily. A strange mix of complete madness and miracles, like two worlds over lapping. I feel I am in the middle of a Venn diagram...two circles...two ways of living... Two completely different possible worlds. So when I find myself with someone who is falling apart, which is quite often, I try to be as clear as possible so I can be there with them 100%. I make sure to cut,clear, heal and shield myself. So my energy is not affected. I dissolve all energy to and from me and I heal the cuts, and fill with Light. I surround myself in White Light,all the colors within it. (Otherwise it is very easy for me to get foggy, and lose being centered in my heart...caught up in the intensity of their emotions, as I am highly empathic.) I take a moment and reach to my Source asking for wisdom,patience,(still working on it...)and love. If I am physically with them I hug them. A lot. Long and tight until I feel their bodies release. Because distraught people are so tense, they forget how it feels to release. I remind them by hugging them. Then I listen. Encourage for them to talk it out...another form of release... Tell them it is ok to feel and to cry. I remind them about going out in nature and taking care of themselves, remembering how to love themselves again. Mostly I find that it seems I say just the right things, often times not remembering what I said. I remember everything they said though. When I get home I usually take a long salted bath, and meditate. And I do the only thing I know what to do, I throw love at them. Imagine them bathed in love. And I feel such joy. So as the roller coaster starts going up once again- stay in your heart. Be the anchor in the rough seas. Know all is divinely planned exactly as it all should be. New energies are flowing through us also from the equinox(and everything else...),and they are helping all to expand beyond their illusional limits. We are in the vibrationary space before the new expansion, it's gonna get bumpy. But then we knew that... After all we signed up for it didn't we? For this is how I see us...raising our vibrations to become new. Shine bright my family. Enjoy the ride. Share your Light. Don't forget to laugh. In Light and Love : ) marie
oh man!where did I put my glasses?
Blog entry
21 Mar 2013 - 6:10am
Where are my car keys? Where's my wallet? What did I come into this room for? What did I come to get at the store? Where the heck am I?(as I am driving down a familiar road) What day is today?(what year) Who am I?( I don't know but I am very ditzy right now...) Oh yes, it seems that my inability to remember jack has actually gotten worse. How that is possible... I don't know. I have now come to accept that I really can't function out in the "real"(haha yeah right!) world. They are beyond crazy out there and I want no part of it. But it also takes me forever to get out of my daing house(to go to the real world) because I lose everything. In the house. It all just seems to disappear. Seems I have lost my mind as well... I have started a new habit...(let's call it that, shall we?) It seems I talk to myself and answer myself without thinking about it. I guess all those years of being a hermit and talking to myself have finally payed off. I have no idea how long I have been doing this. I caught myself in the store looking at a shirt and having a conversation with myself about it. All of the sudden I looked up and there was a lady staring at me...she then basically walked off, quickly. I have no idea how long she was there. Or how long I was not... Then I kept laughing at myself and running more people off. I can see how easy it would be to get labeled as the crazy lady who talks to herself...I better start getting cats... Good thing I don't give a sh*t about what people think of me. I still remember how to get home.(within and without) Because in my home is where I want to be. I feel I am disconnecting more and more from people and situations in the 3d world. It just seems so insane and I have no desire to be a part of it,at all. I have also disconnected from what I call "outside resources". But with those disconnects has come a huge connect to Mother Earth and all her healing powers. And I am able to go within my heart and center quickly now. I feel always connected to my Source within my heart. But getting back to my memory. I feel as if it is all in there like a huge library, but my librarian is drunk or something and forgot how to get to needed information...I am not staying grounded. And then out of the blue, I will have such moments of complete clarity and remembering it is a staggering experience. Like a partly cloudy day when the sun peeks out every now and then from behind the clouds... A moment of being smart again. And then it's gone. And I walk around the house again looking for missing items which were just there... So at this point I am not worried. Add this to the long list of weird things in my life. And I have a feeling that those moments of clarity will expand and grow as I continue to release what is not for the highest good of all. And if my memory gets worse...well I guess I will cross that bridge when and if I get there... Right now however, my memory is shot.(Something going on in my brain...) I cannot remember much. I am exceptionally ditzy. It is pretty funny though. And it seems people around me laugh a lot , so that's a good thing. I think they are amazed that somehow I manage to make it through every day... But there is one thing I do always remember now. All the time. I am a spiritual being having a physical experience on this beautiful earth,who is greatly loved and who loves greatly, eternally. And I believe that as long as I remember that,everything else will work out as it should for the highest good of all. My heart tells me this. It is easy to remember. Shine Bright my beautiful light family. You are always in my heart. In Light and Love : ) marie
A few giggles
Blog entry
21 Mar 2013 - 4:33am
1. While leaving her father’s house immediately after marriage, Tina was crying herself hoarse. Her father too could not control himself and was weeping loudly. Finally somebody separated them and led Tina to the groom’s car. On an impulse Tina turned around, ran to her father and gave him something from her purse. Immediately her father’s face brightened and there was a smile on his face. Later Tina’s mother asked him: “What did she give you to make you so happy?” Father: “My ATM card.” 2. (I don't know why but this really made me chuckle) Actual answers given on Family Feud Name something a blind person might use - A sword Name a song with moon in the title - Blue Suede Moon Name a bird with a long neck - Naomi Campbell Name an occupation where you need a torch - A burglar Name a famous brother & sister - Bonnie & Clyde Name an item of clothing worn by the 3 musketeers - A horse A kind of ache - Fillet 'O' Fish Something you open other than a door - Your bowels A food that can be brown or white - Potato A jacket potato topping - Jam A famous Scotsman - Jock Another famous Scotsman - Vinnie Jones Something with a hole in it - Window A non living object with legs - Plant A domestic animal - Leopard A part of the body beginning with 'N' - Knee A way of cooking fish - Cod Something that flies that doesn't have an engine - A bicycle with wings Something you might be allergic to - Skiing Name a famous bridge - The bridge over troubled waters Something a cat does - Goes to the toilet Something you do in the bathroom - Decorate Name an animal you might see at the zoo - A dog Something associated with the police - Pigs A sign of the zodiac - April Something slippery - A conman Name something that floats in the bath - Water Name something you wear on the beach - A deckchair Name something Red - My cardigan Name a famous cowboy - Buck Rogers Name a famous royal - Mail A number you have to memorize - 7 Something you do before going to bed - Sleep Something you put on walls - Roofs Something in the garden that's green - Shed 3. Confucious Say On wisdom, Confucius say... Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok. Man who run in front of car get tired. Man who run behind car get exhausted. Man with one chopstick go hungry. Baseball is wrong: man with four balls cannot walk. War not determine who is right, war determine who is left. Man who drive like hell, bound to get there. Man who stand on toilet is high on pot. Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement. Man who sit on tack get point! Man who jump off cliff, jump to conclusion! Man stuck in pantry have ass in jam. When called an idiot sometimes is better to be quiet than to open mouth and remove all doubt. Man who behaves like an ass will be the butt of those who crack jokes. He who thinks only of number one must remember this number is next to nothing. Man who put head on railroad track to listen for train likely to end up with splitting headache. He who buries a man's wife alive, should not expect to sit at that man's dinner table without the subject coming up. Man who eats photo of father, soon spitting-image of father. Man who pushes piano down mineshaft get tone of A flat miner. Wise man never play leapfrog with unicorn. Man who fall in vat of molten glass make spectacle of self. Man who fly airplane upside-down bound to have crack up. Confucius say too damn much. Black man with white dog go to prison, white man with black dog gets praise. On hygiene, Confucius say... Man who drop watch in toilet have ****** time. Man who sneezes without tissue takes matters in his own hands. Man who take sleeping pill and laxative on the same night will wake up in deep ****. A bird in hand makes hard to blow nose. House without toilet is uncanny. Man who cut self while shaving, lose face. He who eats too many prunes, sits on toilet many moons. Man who stick foot in mouth get athlete's tongue. Man that go to bed with itchy butt wake up with sticky fingers. Man who fart in church sit in own pew. Crowded elevator smell different to midget. Grease monkey who go to bed without bathing wake up oily in the morning. Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails. Man who eat many prunes get good run for money 4. A woman was shopping at her local supermarket where she selected: A Litre of 2% milk, A carton of eggs, A Litre of orange juice, A head of lettuce, A can of coffee, And one pack of bacon. As she was unloading her items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind her watched as she placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up her purchases, the drunk calmly stated,"You must be single." The woman was a bit startled by this proclamation, but she was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since she was indeed single. She looked at her six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about her selections that could have tipped off the drunk to her marital status. Curiosity getting the better of her, she said "Well, you know what, you're absolutely correct. But how on earth did you know that?" The drunk replied, "'Cause you're ugly. " (That's just wrong....he he he) 5. A pirate walks into a bar and the bartender asks, "Sir, did you know there's a steering wheel sticking out of your pants?" The pirate replies, "Arghhh... and it's been driving me nuts." 6. Two aliens landed in the Arizona desert near an abandoned gas station. They approached one of the gas pumps, and one of the aliens addressed it. "Greetings, Earthling. We come in peace. Take us to your leader." The gas pumps of course, didn't respond. The alien repeated the greeting. Again there was no response. The alien, annoyed by what he perceived to be the gas pumps haughty attitude, drew his ray gun, and said impatiently, "Greetings earthling. We come in peace. How dare you ignore us in this way! Take us to your leader, or I'll fire!" The other alien shouted to his comrade, "No, you don't want to make him mad!" But before he finished his warning, the first alien fired. There was a huge explosion that blew both of them 200 meters into the desert, where they landed in a heap rather abruptly. When they finally regained consciousness, the one who fired turned to the other one and said, "What a ferocious creature. It damn near killed us! How did you know it was so dangerous?" The other alien answered, "If there's one thing I've learned during my travels through the galaxy, when a guy has a penis he can wrap around himself twice and then stick it in his own ear, you don't mess with him." 7. Really Funny Joke - I'd Really Rather Have A Job Guy walked into the local welfare office to pick up his check. He marched straight up to the counter and said, "Hi, You know I just HATE drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job." The social worker behind the counter said, "Your timing is Excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur and bodyguard for his beautiful daughter. You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes, and he'll supply all of your clothes." "Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll be expected to escort the daughter on her overseas holiday trips and you will have to satisfy her sexual urges. You'll be provided a two-bedroom apartment above the garage. The salary is $200,000 a year." The guy, wide-eyed, said, "You're bullshittin' me!" The social worker said, "Yeah, well ... You started it." 8. Two little boys, ages 8 and 10, are excessively mischievous. They always get into trouble and if any mischief occurs in their town, the two boys are always involved. The boys' mother heard that a preacher in town had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The preacher agreed, but he asked to see them individually. So the mother sent the 8 year old first in the morning, with the older boy to see the preacher in the afternoon. The preacher, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, "Do you know where God is, son?" The boy's mouth dropped open, but he made no response, sitting there wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open. So the preacher repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God?!" Again, the boy made no attempt to answer. The preacher raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's face and bellowed, "Where is God?!" The boy screamed & bolted from the room, ran directly home & dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, "What happened?" The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time. "GOD is missing, and they think we did it!" 9. A woman goes to church with her husband every week, but she is always humiliated by her husband falling asleep. So after one service she approached the vicar and asked him what she should do to stop him. The vicar gave her a sewing needle and said, "Just stab him with this sewing needle when he falls asleep" So the next week they're at church, as the vicar gave a sermon he asked "Who is the creator of all?" the woman poked her sleeping husband to wake him up and he shouted in pain "GOD!!!!", "That’s right!" said the vicar. Ten minutes later, he fell asleep again, as the vicar asked the audience "Who is the son of god?" she poked him with the needle and he jolted awake shouting "JESUS!!" "Yes" replied the vicar Near the end of the sermon he fell asleep again, and the vicar asked the audience "And what did Eve say to Adam after she gave birth to his 99th child?" and the woman poked her husband awake again, and he screamed at her "IF YOU STICK THAT F*CKING THING INSIDE ME ONE MORE TIME I'LL SNAP IT IN HALF AND STICK IT UP YOUR A$$!!" 10. A cab driver reaches the pearly gates. St. Peter looks him up in his Big Book and tells him to pick up a gold staff and a silk robe and proceed into Heaven. Next in line is a preacher. St. Peter looks him up in his Big Book, furrows his brow and says, "OK, we'll let you in, but take that cloth robe and wooden staff." The preacher is shocked and replies, "But I am a man of the cloth. You gave that cab driver a gold staff and a silk robe. Surely I rate higher than a cabbie!" St. Peter responds matter-of-factly, "This is Heaven and up here, we are interested in results. When you preached, people slept. When the cabbie drove his taxi, people prayed."
In Your Veins
Blog entry
21 Mar 2013 - 12:17am
                    This is typed from: The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. " When starting out writing, I wanted so badly to become a poet that I held it in view like some hill I need to climb to see from.  But getting to the top, something was missing, and so I had to climb the next hill.  Finally, I realized I didn't need to climb to become a poet  -  I was a poet. " The same thing happened with love.  I wanted so badly to become a lover, but climbing through relationships like hills, I realized again that I was a lover all along. " Then, I wanted to become wise, but after much travel and study, it was during my bedridden days with cancer that I realized I was already wise.  I just didn't know the language of my wisdom. " Now I understand that all these incarnations come alive in us when we dare to live the days before us, when we dare to listen to the wind singing in our veins.  We carry the love and wisdom like seeds and the days sprout us. "                                                                   *  Sit down wherever you are, and simply breathe.                                       *  With each breath, put down the names of what you aspire to.                                         *  Breathe steadily, and put down the names of relationship too:                                          lover, father, mother, daughter, son.                                       *  Sit where you are without any names covering you, and listen to                                          the wind in your veins.                                                                                                    **  Have a wonderful day    ~   Tara   **
It Is Not What Is Right Or What Is Wrong It is if You Can See - Hilarion
Story
20 Mar 2013 - 11:11pm
 It Is Not What Is Right Or What Is Wrong It is if You Can See   It is not what is right or wrong.   It is if you can see.   If you can see,  all will become apparent.   No ruses will work against you,   neither any of yours against anyone else.   Nor yours against yourself.   At least not if you don’t choose that.   Most failure relies on shielded or hidden realities.   And if your vision is not open, by definition, most will be shielded or hidden from you.   Within and without.   Whether you consider it a simple endeavor or a complex endeavor,    If you can see, you have the opportunity to dismantle your falsehoods   and to reveal your truthhoods.   Yet, if one is not comfortable with, and does not find meaning with   their own falsehoods continually exposing themselves to that one,   (not falsehoods in relation to others or to belief systems or realities,   but rather in relation to accurate observations in relation to the all that is),   then that one will withdraw their attention from seeing, meaning perceiving,   beyond the level of the amount of falsehood that that one is willing to perceive within theirself.   You could almost write a sort of epitaph, such as here lies so and so,   They fell down and didn’t feel like getting up again.     Hilarion
This Equinox is Your First Gossamer Layer
Blog entry
20 Mar 2013 - 8:26pm
Welcome to Brenda's Blog Channeled by Brenda Hoffman for www.LifeTapestryCreations.com Summary of Brenda’s March 17, 2013 free, 15-minute, channeled “Creation Energies” show at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/brenda-hoffman: This week’s equinox helps you place a filter over those people, things and places that make you fearful or angry. Additional energy bursts throughout 2013 will add layers to this first filter until those fearful pieces are no longer an important part of your life. The title of last week’s “Brenda’s Blog” – her free, weekly, channeled blog for www.LifeTapestryCreations.com: “Are Your Teachers Clinging to 3D?” Brenda’s “Creation Energies” BlogTalkRadio.com show and “Brenda’s Blog” contain different channeled materials. Dear Ones, Much will happen in the next several days but few of you will notice. For the happenings are within you. This shift is like a gossamer layer that is difficult to discern. You have cleared and cleansed for months – perhaps even years. Yet there are people, places and things that upset you. The mention of someone’s name makes you uncomfortable. The thought of a particular place sends you scurrying for emotional cover. And anger or even rage continues when faced with certain concepts such as those of a political party or a heinous crime. The Universes are addressing those fears this week and throughout the coming year. For there are pieces you cannot release in the time you wish to. It is difficult, as many of you are discovering, to radiate or even feel love when you are experiencing hurt, anger or fear. Feelings generated by people, places and things so deeply embedded within you that you cannot move beyond them – no matter what exercise you try. You have requested assistance in progressing more rapidly than your physical being seems able. This equinox is our first response in a salvo of many energy bursts. Not to clear you of those feelings – only you can do that. But to place the first filter on those deeply felt fears and angers. As each new filter is added, you will feel less and less about those issues. After this week, you are likely to still feel anger or fear given the right trigger, but it will be a bit less than was true a week ago. And by the end of 2013, you will not be concerned about those pieces. Again, we are not removing those pieces from your being – only you can do that. We are providing you with Novocaine or a similar deadening agent in small doses so the pain is less each time you re-visit that fear. Some are worried that we are turning you into zombies. Such is not the case for you do not need to accept the filters, anymore than you need to accept the new earth/New Age. This is not a forced transition. It is a transition of joy and love. Force is never part of either joy or love. Now you are concerned that you cannot be separated from your physical, emotional or spiritual pain with mere filters, that the Novocaine will wear off and you will be as you were before. Such is not true. For once you separate your being from the pain, that pain drifts into the ethers. Think of something you found extremely shameful or fearful in elementary school.Perhaps you did not learn your alphabet as assigned by your teacher or you wet yourself in a classroom. Both shattering incidents then. Now that you are an adult you retain the memories, but fewer feelings are attached. So it will be for you. You will remember that someone or some place made you fearful, but you will no longer feel fear. Instead, you will know you are a spiritual adult who moved beyond those pieces. Perhaps you are wondering why we are expediting your clearing of fears. A key reason is for you to transition to a life of love and joy. But of greater importance now – for you are moving more rapidly than we thought possible – is your ongoing request for assistance in moving into the new earth/New Age. You are an impatient lot – which we marvel at – even chuckle about. You long ago negated the phrase we provided just a few years ago: “Baby Boomers will build a bridge to the New Age. Their children will cross that bridge. And their grandchildren will blow it up.” For us, three generations is a mere blink of an eye. But for those of you on earth at this time, it seems forever. As usual, Baby Boomers want it NOW. You Baby Boomers have always been a belligerent group. A personality trait necessary for introducing new thoughts and actions. Why did you Baby Boomers not continue your belligerent pose throughout your lifetime? Why did you feel the need to get married, have children and continue the traditions of your parents and grandparents? Baby Boomers could have introduced the New Age decades ago. But as a group, you wanted to determine if your parents and grandparents were enjoying their life. For indeed, your memories of other lives on earth were not particularly wonderful. But your parents’ generation and the media convinced you that they had discovered a life you wished to explore. Your exploration ended abruptly a few years ago when you realized that all was an illusion. That the Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best life did occur – but most likely not for you or most of those you know. That all was a gloss of joy and harmony that did not exist. That even though your media and your relatives touted joy, they had not truly experienced it. That your belligerent activities of the 1960′s and 1970′s were indeed “right on.” That is when you began searching for your true New Age accompanied by Starseeds, Indigos, Crystal Children and so many other titles you have given to those who have joined forces with you to transition earth into joy. Do you remember a few months ago when many were channeling that you and others had to decide whether you wished to be part of the New Age? That is when the New Age began. You were indeed willing and quite excited about bringing true joy to earth – rather than the illusion of joy touted by your family, society and media. So you have. But during your Old Age exploration to discover if former generations had found joy, you picked up many physical and emotional fears. Fears that you are having difficulties ridding yourself of now. Some of those fears are generational – for how could you explore your parents’ fears and joys without exploring generational issues? And some of those fears you created for a variety of reasons including the fears of those who have never before experienced life on dense 3D earth. Those fears no longer serve you or help you hide your true being. It is time to claim you in all your glorious, radiant joy. And so you are – with “Just a little help from your friends.” We are sending filters starting with this week’s equinox to expedite your exploration of joy and love. Know that you are glorious beings – far more glorious and mature than your fears now display. So be it. Amen. http://www.LifeTapestryCreations.com If you would like to receive Brenda’s free blogs when posted, please click the Subscribe Button on the upper part of her subscribe and blog page and then click the – Subscribe to Brenda’s Blog by E-mail – line. Complete your subscription by entering your e-mail address and accepting the e-mail confirmation. Copyright © 2009-2013, Brenda Hoffman. All rights reserved. www.LifeTapestryCreations.com. Feel free to share this content with others, post on your blog, add to your newsletter, etc. But please keep this article’s integrity by including the author: Brenda Hoffman & source website link: www.LifeTapestryCreations.com
I Need Serenity
Blog entry
20 Mar 2013 - 3:03am
~W~I~L~D~F~L~O~W~E~R~S~
Blog entry
19 Mar 2013 - 11:40pm
The Dogwoods are a bloomin! And in every field and swath of lawn along the country roads here at home the wildflowers are up and smiling at the sky! :) lyrics The hills were alive with wildflowers And I was as wild, even wilder than they For at least I could run, they just died in the sun And I refused to just wither in place Just a wild mountain rose, needing freedom to grow So I ran fearing not where I'd go When a flower grows wild, it can always survive Wildflowers don't care where they grow And the flowers I knew in the fields where I grew Were content to be lost in the crowd They were common and close, I had no room for growth I wanted so much to branch out I uprooted myself from home ground and left Took my dreams and I took to the road When a flower grows wild, it can always survive Wildflowers don't care where they grow I grew up fast and wild and I never felt right In a garden so different from me I just never belonged, I just longed to be gone So the garden, one day, set me free Hitched a ride with the wind and since he was my friend I just let him decide where we'd go When a flower grows wild, it can always survive Wildflowers don't care where they grow This one is for MY wildflower.... She faced the hardest times you can imagine And many times her eyes fall back the tears And when her youthful world was about to fall in Each time her slender shoulders For the weight of all her fears And a sorrow no one hears Still rings in midnight silence in her ears Chorus: Let her cry for she's a lady Let her dream for she's a child Let the rain fall down upon her She's a free and gentle flower growing wild And if by chance that I should hold her Let me hold her for all time And if allowed just one posession I would pick her from her garden to be mine Be careful how you touch her for she'll awaken And sleep's the only freedom that she knows And when you look into her eyes you won't believe For the way she's always paying for a debt she never owed And a silent wind still blows that she can only hear So she goes Repeat chorus 2x She's my free and gentle flower, growing growing growing wild She's a free and gentle flower growing growing wild She's my flower, growing growing growing wild
Being Both Strong and Hurt
Blog entry
19 Mar 2013 - 1:13pm
                                             Even the most firmly rooted tree can break its branches in a storm.                                                    Strength doesn’t mean we’re invincible.                                It means we have the capacity to move through the pain and heal.                                                                                                                             ~  Tiny Buddha                       
To be Free like the birds
Blog entry
19 Mar 2013 - 1:03pm
I am hugely fascinated by birds lately. I have always loved them mind you, but now it is something different... Like a loving obsession of sorts, if such thing is possible. I love to watch them. There are two bird feeders with tons of birds which feed all day long off my front and back deck. I go through a lot of bird food. I don't care. It is well worth the expense. They make flying look so easy... I love to hear them too. The sound their wings make when they land and take off. I can imagine it is the sound little fairies might make... That hummingbird sound. And of course there is their birdsong. I am learning their different songs and chirps. More intricate than I ever imagined. It really is fascinating to me. So why this loving fascination, I ask myself? This loving obsession? I think it is because to me birds represent ultimate freedom. I dream of being free like them. They fly. They come,they go. They hang out by a bird feeder. If there is nothing there they fly off to another diner. But the whole earth is their diner...and they carry no passport I assure you...so they go wherever they wish. Ultimate freedom. The ability to travel great distances and live off the land while exploring,that's the ultimate freedom with(out)... But what is ultimate freedom with(in)? The freedom to be myself. The ability to empower myself so that this life I am living is the life I chose, not one dictated by others. (After all they need to worry about their own lives.) The freedom to be who I am. Whatever that might be at the moment. With this sense of freedom has come a sense of disconnection. And at the moment I am feeling no longer connected in the old way with my guides and star families. Before I often felt them beside me. Now they are connected through my heart. An instant library of knowledge and wisdom,there when I need guidance from within. And as I disconnect from "outside resources" as I call them, I feel more and more freedom. I am not saying that they enslaved me, it was more like they helped me how to make the connection myself. Now I have remembered how to go within my heart, and in that silence reconnect instantly with my Source. No longer needing a middle man,...(the thought: sounds like religion doesn't it? just popped into my mind...Lol)for I am never not connected to my Source. You know one of those illusion things...yet another blinder to help us to forget. So it all brings me back to my adored birds. And what freedom they must feel. To them,in their collective consciousness, they are in heaven. And every time I see them, with their beautiful plumage and their song,every day joyful to just be, I feel their love for that freedom. And I long for it. But deep in my heart I know that that sense of freedom which is growing everyday from deep within me,expanding and surprising me at every turn,will one day encompass all of me. We are becoming free one soul at a time. Becoming free from fear. Becoming free to be our true selves. Detaching from the illusion of what is not. The Light reaching every aspect of our beings and baring all that no longer serves the highest good. So that each soul individually remembers how to go within and connect to their hearts. To the Source of All. Our Creator. And that is when the healing begins. That is when the world begins to change. One soul at a time. Allow yourselves to soar my Light family. It is you that keeps you from soaring. Listen to your heart and let go. Soar free like the birds do. I am so grateful to be in this journey with all of you. In Light and Love Shine Bright : ) marie
The Goalkeeper's Fear of The Penalty Kick
video
19 Mar 2013 - 12:07am
A Test of Will
video
17 Mar 2013 - 4:28pm
You are worth fighting for until the very end. Not because you needed someone to save you, but because I needed you to save me. Now we're all here fulfilling our roles. This is one of my favorite abilities. Much more difficult then it appears though :P lol
Blogs & Comments...
Blog entry
16 Mar 2013 - 2:16pm
My attention span can be a little suspect, so i try to limit my blogs and comments to three lines, whenever possible :-)... In doing so, i sometimes have to adopt a more Creative approach :-)... So, if my blogs or comments don't conform to 'standard protocol', please don't automatically assume that such offerings have no Merit - instead, try looking a little deeper, for who knows, there may be more contained within such few words than initially meets the eye :-)
The Rhythm and Blues of Love:)
Blog entry
16 Mar 2013 - 12:13am
Merry Go Round
Blog entry
15 Mar 2013 - 11:43pm
Man don't I know just how this goes, round and round and round.........except I finally decided I didn't want to ride anymore so I simply got off.... Still, I think it is a pretty song.
77 Degrees and Sunshine......What a gorgeous day.
Blog entry
15 Mar 2013 - 11:21pm
One thing I really love about living in Arkansas is ~S~P~I~N~G~T~I~M~E~. Good God ya'll it has been so perfect here today I can't even begin to describe it. 77 degrees and sunny with a gentle southernly breeze blowing. The trees all have buds on them, the early perrenials are blooming everywhere, and the grass is turning green. The birds are singing their praises and so am I. THANK YOU GOD for such a lovely spring day, I Am forever grateful to have experienced it! Makes me wanna kick off my shoes and let the cool green grass run through my toes as I lay in a spring field and stare at the clouds. The only way this day could have been any more perfect is if I had someone to share it with...lol.
Do What Makes Your Heart Sing
Blog entry
15 Mar 2013 - 7:40am
                                                  Gently  Pay  Attention  to  whatever  makes  Your  Heart  Sing.                                                                                  Namaste Dear Friends ~ During all of the energy downloads and integrating and coping with physical discomforts, etc., we may have stopped doing some favourite activities that realy touched our hearts and lifted us up to Heaven. It can be as simple as listening to your favourite music, or even picking up that instrument you play or were learning to play, to give some examples. I found out a few weeks ago that I had done this myself, and started listening again to my very favourite songs that always put me into a very high vibration............a very high love within. The music I loved so much in my late teens was written and sung by John Denver. His songs about Nature and the passion he put into singing about it tugged very strongly at my heart-strings. It was a spiritual experience, not just a passing fad. When I was 19 yrs old I had all of his albums and continued to collect them for several years after that. The albums' music got deeper and deeper into one's soul, and I must say that no mantra has done the same for me. I believe it's because of who John was (and is) plus the love he felt for Nature and conservation that touched me and many others. And I am very pleased that even over 30 years later it still puts my spirit into raptures............ I stopped playing them a long time ago to focus on saying mantra for energies, etc. There's a mantra for whatever you need. And being in Sanskrit, they work through the pronunciation of the words that directly affect the chakra or the part of the body that it's meant for. They certainly work, very powerful indeed.  But..........when wanting to just relax, close the eyes and drift into Paradise, I play John's music. There is another group, completely different style of music altogether, that also make my heart sing, and they are The Gypsy Kings. They also sing from the heart and put their soul into all of their music. Some of their slower songs are very mysteriously haunting........... just love them ! With the start of this new year, I am going to take more notice of the things I use to do that made my heart sing. Another is my creative side which I had neglected for years now. I love to create nice things with sewing. I use to make my own clothes when I was raising my daughter, and sometimes for her as well. Also the clown costumes, etc., needed for school carnivals were always very challenging! When I married Hubby I continued to make my own clothes and also all of the curtains for our large home.  And Yes ! Even our Labrador Retriever, Rami, had some nice winter coats to parade around in when taking a walk around the neighbourhood !! With me, of course!! All the kids would come out of their homes to cuddle Rami. He would sit or lie on the grass footpath and allow them to cuddle him tightly around the neck and kiss him !! He was very soft golden and had tons of patience! Once I made him a winter coat from red flannette with teddy-bear sailors all over it. That really made the kids squeal with laughter !  He had sausage sizzles for his birthdays at our house with the kids who were allowed to come.  One girl made him his own birthday card on the computer, and I still have that one, too. Anyway, back to activities that enliven the heart and the senses. Hmmmm, interesting year coming up all round, really.  Can't you feel it too?  I think the blog section is going to be very busy.......! [ Written Jan.1,  2013.]                                                                                         ***      Love  and  Peace  ~  Tara       ***
Telesomatic events
Blog entry
14 Mar 2013 - 11:33am
..starting of Straight from the Heart by Valerie Donner~~~~ March13, 2013 Dear Ground Crew, How are you doing? Has your life been in a little intense lately? We have been dealing with some challenging energies with Mercury Retrograde in Pisces that is bringing up a lot of emotions. It looks like after Mercury goes direct on the 18h of March things should start heating up. Have any of you felt like it has been challenging to focus and get much accomplished? We are also coming out of three days of the Dark Moon energies.   It has felt “funky” as one of my friends described it. Did any of you feel sadness in your heart around the end of last week March 6-8th? I have talked with other Lightworkers who felt similarly. It might have been something happening with the Earth that we don’t know about. As Lightworkers we are not only sensitive to the Earth but we are clearing energies for the entire planet. Don’t you agree that Mother Earth needs it? Our Earth needs our love, support and healing. There are some hot spots that require intense focus. These include Syria, Egypt, Israel, Palestine and North and South Korea and any other place where you feel called to focus. Prayers, love and Light are necessary for us to create the peace that we believe is our future. The future is now so let’s get with it, ground crew. Relationships that are out of alignment or out of integrity are being transparently brought to the Light for new choices. One enlightened friend said “The person with the highest consciousness in a situation is responsible for the resolution.” Think about what a responsibility we have as Lightworkers to clean up a lot of injustices and to right some wrongs. The media continue to drive home guns, violence, fear, and upheaval, as their fear about losing control rises. Some of us have observed an influx of chemtrails. Mira said “They are doing this all around the world to keep humanity under control.” Who knows exactly what their nefarious intentions are but they are making their statements. They live in fear of the Light and it is our job to keep anchoring in the Light. There are also some strange new diseases that spread rapidly and can keep people sick for several weeks. We must keep up our immune systems. Have you noticed your increased empathy levels this year? It can be uncomfortable to feel as much as we do now however, it is necessary for our increased awareness and the expansion of our gifts. It might seem like we are making sacrifices but the rewards are plenty. Victim consciousness is endemic. It is our opportunity to make empowered choices for ourselves. This gets us out of the blame game and into knowing that we always have choice. It is up to us to make choices that make us feel good about ourselves. How are you doing with polarity since 12/21/12? Does is still fit in your consciousness? Someone said to me today that they think that “Obama is the anti-Christ.” My response to her was that I believe anyone who does not believe in love is the anti-Christ because what Christ taught was love. He represents unconditional love and truth. Most of you know that great souls such as Christ, Buddha, Mother Mary and others, are composite souls. Their energy is so massive that it cannot fit into a single soul for the work they came to the planet to do. They are comprised of aspects of perhaps millions of souls. It has been said that Jesus’ aura was so large it was 30 miles around. If one touched his aura they could be healed. The upshot of this is that if someone tells you they are channeling one of these beings they are only speaking for maybe an aspect of that great being not the entire being. They can only bring in some of the energies of these powerfully gifted beings from our Creator. It took a huge amount of energy and focus in the Light Realms to set the energies for Jeshua Ben Joseph to incarnate on the Earth 2000 years ago. Since his incarnation the Christed Family of Light continue to incarnate and anchor in these Christed energies. This is part of the work that the Lightworkers are doing. That is why we must stay focused on the Light and not get caught up in the dark. Polarity does not belong in the fourth dimension, which is what we are in now, even though we still have to be a part of 3D. If you notice the subtle shifts in consciousness, the timelessness and almost nothingness of linear time, the need to be in the now moment, the ability for instantaneous manifestation, the closeness of the Light Realms, our guides, Masters, our Creator, you will begin to honor that we shifted since 12/21/12 and that we are creating Heaven on Earth. ~The Ground Crew My focus Here Is(Is) the Importance of; Empathy, Compassion, Sharing and Caring ~~http://www.realitysandwich.com/human_interconnection @ ...in healing and healthcare. I had reviewed empirical evidence suggesting that empathy and compassion are more than vaporous emotions that float in our bodies somewhere above our clavicles. They are part of our biological makeup, I suggested. Although empathy and compassion arise when we are in the presence of another person, as when a nurse or physician is at the bedside of a patient, evidence suggests their effects are also felt between individuals at a distance, beyond the reach of the senses. Distant individuals often share feelings, sensations, and thoughts, particularly if they are emotionally close. These experiences, I explained, are called telesomatic events. Hundreds of such cases have been reported over the years but have been largely ignored. ~~~Part 129, Psychedelic Fizz, the Pope-avar, and Justice Celebrations Ahead @ Imagine what it looks like when you drop a tablet of Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water; it fizzes and bubbles as soon as it hits the liquid. This is a small suggestion of what you will be able to feel in your bodies. You may also have incredibly vivid and colorful dreams, filled with feelings of love, ecstasy and well-being. ~~~~Have You Heard new “We love you one and all, Your Mother/Father God in concert with the Great Legions of Light.” <3That is all new
Three Bite Practice
Blog entry
12 Mar 2013 - 10:53am
THREE-BITE PRACTICE By, Pema Chodron "You can do this anytime you eat a meal. Before taking the first bite, just pause and think of those men and women of wisdom and mentally offer them your food. In this way, you connect with the virtue of devotion. Before taking the second bite, pause and offer your food to all those who’ve been kind to you. This nurtures the virtues of gratitude and appreciation. The third bite is offered to those who are suffering: all the people and animals who are starving, or being tortured or neglected, without comfort or friends. Think, too, of all of us who suffer from aggression, craving, and indifference. This simple gesture awakens the virtue of compassion. In this way—by relying on our teachers, our benefactors, and those in need—we gather the virtues of devotion, gratitude, and kindness." (From Pema's book No Time To Lose) http://pemachodronfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/NoTimeToLose.png 
IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING ISSUES WITH BEING REDIRECTED?????
Blog entry
12 Mar 2013 - 3:05am
I AM SO ANNOYED, I AM BECOMING PISSED OFF..... I AM TRYING TO RESPOND TO YOU AMAZING PEOPLE, BUT THIS SITE KEEPS INTERFEARING, https://netasys.miessence.com/home Every fraking time i hit reply to a comment, this shit pops up and does not allow me to reply, over & over again i attempt to reply, & mmmmm maybe after the 6th time, i might get lucky. So i pretty much type everything on microsoft first, due to the reloading of the freakin link, kept wiping out my writing.. and after 30 minutes of typing, channeling & so on, you could imagine how frustrating trying to retype something more then 3 times.. OK THANK YOU ALL FOR ALLOWING ME TO VENT..... I DEEPLY LOVE YOU ALL <3 BRIGHTEST OF BLESSINGS XOXOXO GODDESS IN ME 143
Just a Ride
video
11 Mar 2013 - 7:52pm
:)
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