Friday, February 26, 2010



-BUDDHA TEACHING 1 : Nothing is lost in the universe-

The first truth is that nothing is lost in the universe. Matter turns into energy, energy turns into matter. A dead leaf turns into soil. A seed sprouts and becomes a new plant. Old solar systems disintegrate and turn into cosmic rays. We are born of our parents, our children are born of us.
We are the same as plants, as trees, as other people, as the rain that falls. We consist of that which is around us, we are the same as everything. If we destroy something around us, we destroy ourselves. If we cheat another, we cheat ourselves. Understanding this truth, the Buddha and his disciples never killed any animal.

-BUDDHA TEACHING 2 : Everything Changes-

The second universal truth of the Buddha is that everything is continuously changing. Life is like a river flowing on and on, ever-changing. Sometimes it flows slowly and sometimes swiftly. It is smooth and gentle in some places, but later on snags and rocks crop up out of nowhere. As soon as we think we are safe, something unexpected happens.
Once dinosaurs, mammoths, and saber-toothed tigers roamed this earth. They all died out, yet this was not the end of life. Other life forms like smaller mammals appeared, and eventually humans, too. Now we can even see the Earth from space and understand the changes that have taken place on this planet. Our ideas about life also change. People once believed that the world was flat, but now we know that it is round.

-BUDDHA TEACHING 2: Law of Cause and Effect-

The third universal truth explained by the Buddha is that there is continuous changes due to the law of cause and effect. This is the same law of cause and effect found in every modern science textbook. In this way, science and Buddhism are alike.
The law of cause and effect is known as karma. Nothing ever happens to us unless we deserves it. We receive exactly what we earn, whether it is good or bad. We are the way we are now due to the things we have done in the past. Our thoughts and actions determine the kind of life we can have. If we do good things, in the future good things will happen to us. If we do bad things, in the future bad things will happen to us. Every moment we create new karma by what we say, do, and think. If we understand this, we do not need to fear karma. It becomes our friend. It teaches us to create a bright future.
Buddha said...
"The kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, You will joyfully gather good fruit."

On Forward moving...

In fact,the ability to start out upon you own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going upon your own terms,not to mention the further and more fulfilling gift of getting started all over again-never resting upon the oars of success or in the doldrums of disappointment......getting started,keeping going,getting started again-in art and in life it seems to me this is the essential rhythm....
-Seamus Heaney-

Creativity


"(Art)... rescues us from our self chosen triviality, to which we are so prone. It is like a deep organ note that makes my hair stir and a shiver run through me. I 'pull back' from life, like a camera taking a long shot with a wide angle lens. I quite simply become aware of more reality than before." -Colin Wilson (The Occult)

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Lao-Tzu
“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.”
-Jiddu Krishnamurti-
Indian Theosophist Philosopher, wrote The Future of Humanity, Songs of Life, Kingdom Happiness. 1895-1986

Pushkar-India


-Be at one with the World, Nothing Less, Nothing More-

Rumi



Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.

mevlana jelaluddin rumi - 13th century


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

You Are a Prophet

You Are a Prophet

excerpted from PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia

Your imagination is the single most important asset you possess.

Your imagination is your power to create mental pictures of things that don't exist yet and that you want to bring into being.

Your imagination is what you use to shape your future.

And so in your own way, you are a prophet. You generate countless predictions every day. Your imagination is the source, tirelessly churning out mental pictures of what you'll be doing in the future.

The featured prophecy of the moment may be as simple as a psychic impression of yourself devouring a fudge brownie at lunch or as monumental as a daydream of some year building your dream home on a mountainside in Hawaii.

Your imagination is a treasure when it spins out scenarios that are aligned with your deepest desires. Indeed, it is an indispensable tool in creating the life you want; it's what you use to form images of the conditions you'd like to inhabit and the objects you hope to wield. Nothing manifests on the material plane unless it first exists as a mental picture.

But for most of us, the imagination is as much a curse as a blessing. We're often just as likely to use it to conjure up premonitions that are at odds with our conscious values -- that's the result of having absorbed toxic programming from the media and from our parents at an early age and from other influential people in our past.

Fearful fantasies regularly pop up into our awareness, many disguising themselves as rational thoughts and genuine intuitions. Thos fearful fantasies may hijack our psychic energy, directing it to exhaust itself in dead-end meditations.

Every time we entertain a vision of being rejected or hurt or frustrated, every time we rouse and dwell on a memory of a painful experience, we're basically blasting ourselves with a hex.

Meanwhile, ill-suited longings are also lurking in our unconscious mind, impelling us to want things that aren't good for us and that we don't really need. Anytime we surrender to the allure of these false and trivial and counterproductive desires, our imagination is practicing a form of black magic.

This is the unsavory aspect of the imagination that the Zen Buddhists deride as the "monkey mind." The monkey mind is the part of our mental apparatus that's filled with pictures that endlessly zip around with the energy of an agitated monkey. If we can stop locating our sense of self in the endless surge of the monkey mind's slapdash fantasies, only then might we be able to be here now and want what we actually have.

But whether our imagination is in service to our noble desires or in the thrall of compulsive fears and inappropriate yearnings, there is one constant: The prophecies of our imagination can be pretty accurate. Many of our visions of the future do come to pass. The situations we expect to occur and the experiences we rehearse and dwell on are at least sometimes reflected back to us as events that confirm our expectations.

Does that mean that our mental projections create the future? Let's consider that possibility. What if it's at least partially true that what we expect will happen does tend to materialize?

Well, here's the logical conclusion: It's downright stupid and self-destructive to keep infecting our imaginations with pictures of loss and failure, doom and gloom, fear and loathing. The far more sensible approach is to expect blessings and joy and peace and fulfillment and understanding and meaningfulness.

And that's the reason why I'm so reverent in composing my messages for you. If I'm to be one of the influences you invite into the intimate sanctuary where you nurse your self-fulfilling prophecies, I really want to be gentle with you. It's why I avoid invoking worry and doubt, and instead nudge you in the direction of passion, integrity, happiness, and generosity.

And that's exactly the approach I'd like you to take. I want you to pay ultimate respect to yourself. Understand your power as a potent prophet of your own life. Flush away the images running around your imagination that are not in harmony with your life goals. Create images that encourage you to be your best. Cultivate feelings and ideas and imaginations that are in alignment with your highest ideals and deepest desires.

Dreamers

Poem from an Ashram, Kerela

Some people do not have to search, for they find their niche easily in life and rest there seemingly content and resigned.
At times I envy them, but usually I do not understand them... and seldom do they understand me.
I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we completely content. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand.
We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by it's power and unceasing motion, it's mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests, mountains, deserts, hidden rivers and lovely cities, aswell.
Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as our laughter.

We searchers are ambitious only for life itself and for anything beautiful it can provide. Most of all, we want to love and be loved, to live in relationship that will not impede our wanderings and prevent our search. We do not want to prove ourselves to others or compete for love.

This passage is for wanderers, dreamers, and lovers who dare to ask of life everything which is good and beautiful.

Love


Where is that promise of Love? Love is in the nature all around you
and in the eyes of your true soul friends,
some have found you
and the others will continue to find you... always.