"To see, purely and simply, without name,
Without expectations, fears, or hopes,
At the edge where there is no I
or not-I."

—Czeslaw Milosz

Change can happen at any time, but transition comes along when one chapter of your life is over and another is waiting in the wings to make its entrance.

~William Bridges

The more often you listen to your discriminating awareness, the more easily you will be able to change your negative moods yourself, see through them, and even laugh at them for the absurd dramas and ridiculous illusions that they are.

Gradually you will find yourself able to free yourself more and more quickly from the dark emotions that have ruled your life, and this ability to do so is the greatest miracle of all.

The Tibetan mystic, Tertön Sogyal, said that he was not really impressed by someone who could turn the floor into the ceiling or fire into water. A real miracle, he said, was if someone could liberate just one negative emotion.

“Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

—2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt
“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

The word has a magic in it, it can turn friends into your enemies, and it can make your enemies your friends. The mystery of all success in every direction of life is in the word. The word has power to turn the mind of the listener warm or cold. The word can produce the effect of earth, water, fire, air, or ether. The word can produce depression or joy. The one who knows the chemistry of the word does not need drugs or herbs. He has medicine for every disease in the world, not only for bodily disease, but also for the disorders of the mind, which still remain unexplored by science. By a constant study of life, by special thought given to one's word, by careful watching of the effects of one's speech upon others, one arrives at a state of realization where one can heal hearts.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XIII/XIII_6.htm

The True Teacher's Transmission:

A true teacher is one who opens space within your mind.

If you turn your attention away from everything else and merge with that space, you awaken as that consciousness.

This space is the true teacher's gift.

It is an open door, but you must walk through it. Surrender to the space within yourself that the teacher awakens.

Emptiness is the true teacher's transmission. Surrender to that alone, and you will discover limitless fullness of being.

~ From: The Impact of Awakening, by Adyashanti www.adyashanti.org

Wisdom is the ultimate power. In wisdom is rooted religion, which connotes law and inspiration. But the point of view of the wise differs from that of the simple followers of a religious faith. Whatever their faith, the wise have always been able to meet each other beyond those boundaries of external forms and conventions, which are natural and necessary to human life, but which none the less separate humanity.

The same herb planted in various atmospheric conditions will vary in form accordingly, but will retain its characteristics.

by Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry your stillness within you. Then the chaotic movement around you will never overshadow your access to the reservoir of creativity, the field of pure potentiality."

(Deepak Chopra)

Thou hast only to follow the wall far enough and there will be a door in it.

~Marguerite De Angeli

Spiritual Freedom

National, economic, religious and cultural freedoms are the reflections of the duality of existence. They exist only in varying degrees, subject to constant discordant adjustment. Even when won through persistent effort, they cannot be permanently maintained because the external conditions upon which they have been constructed are themselves subject to deterioration.

Only spiritual freedom is absolute and unlimited; when it is won through persistent effort, it is won forever. For, although spiritual freedom can and does express itself in the duality of existence, it is grounded in and sustained by the realization of the inviolable unity of all life....

One important condition of spiritual freedom is freedom from all wanting. It is wanting itself which chains life by attaching it to the conditions in environment which would fulfil that want. If there is no wanting, there is no dependence, and therefore no limitation.

The individual never achieves true freedom until he is no longer pushed or pulled by any inner compulsion. When he has worked through all the desires and worn them so threadbare that he can be, or not be -- have, or have not -- then he is free.

When the individualized soul breaks through the encasing steel armour of wanting, it emancipates itself from its illusory bondage to bodies, mind and ego. This is the spiritual freedom which brings with it the final realization of the unity of all life and puts an end to all doubts and worries....

It is only in spiritual freedom that one can have enduring happiness and unhampered self-knowledge. It is only in spiritual freedom that one finds the supreme certainty of truth-realization. It is only in spiritual freedom that there is a final end to sorrow and limitation. It is only in spiritual freedom that one can live for all, and yet remain detached in the midst of all activity.

Any other lesser type of freedom is like a house built on sand, and any lesser attainment is fraught with fear of decay. There is no gift greater than that of spiritual freedom, and no task more important than helping others to find spiritual freedom.

~ Meher Baba, in, The Narrow Lane, ed. William Le Page, pp. 133-134

What most of us need, almost more than anything, is the courage and humility really to ask for help, from the depths of our hearts: to ask for the compassion of the enlightened beings, to ask for purification and healing, to ask for the power to understand the meaning of our suffering and transform it; at a relative level to ask for the growth in our lives of clarity, peace, and discernment, and to ask for the realization of the absolute nature of mind that comes from merging with the deathless wisdom mind of the master.

~SOYGAL RINPOCHE

Transcending Both Worlds

Lost in myself I reappeared I know not where
a drop that rose from the sea and fell and dissolved again;
a shadow that stretched itself out at dawn,
when the sun reached noon I disappeared.
I have no news of my coming or passing away --
the whole thing happened quicker than a breath;
ask no questions of the moth.
In the candle flame of his face
I have forgotten all the answers.
In the way of love there must be
knowledge and ignorance
so I have become both a dullard and a sage;
one must be an eye and yet not see
so I am blind and yet I still perceive,
Dust be on my head if I can say
where I in bewilderment have wandered:
Attar watched his heart transcend both worlds
and under its shadow now is gone mad with love.

~ Farid ud-Din Attar (1120?-1220?), The Drunken Universe: An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry Trans. Wilson & Pourjavady

Dense Pain Bodies

Some people carry dense pain bodies that are never completely dormant. They may appear normal and indifferent, having normal relationships, going to work and socializing. Yet, just underneath the surface is a seething mass of disturbance just waiting for the next thing to react to or the next person or group to blame. These pain bodies are hungry ghosts. They are always in a state of blaming, wanting revenge, feeling outraged and betrayed. The ego’s need for enemies is always magnified in people like this.

Because of this heightened reactivity, something that really is relatively insignificant gets magnified into a life and death situation that pulls other people into their drama. Some people get themselves involved in extended, exhausting court battles with organizations or corporations like the couple in England who sued McDonald’s over a period of 17 years.

Others are consumed with hatred toward an ex-partner or family member. Because they are not aware of the pain they are constantly carrying inside, this dense pain body is superimposed onto ordinary situations. This sets up a scenario where the person cannot tell the difference between what is happening in their reality and their reaction to it.

The resolution of this pain and suffering therefore must be outside of themselves, so split-off are these people from their dense pain-bodies. This usually brings about actions that recreate the pain body in real life real world events. This is what seems to have happened to the Norwegian mass-murderer who appeared to everyone as an ordinary citizen, yet, for years an incredible internal hatred was brewing inside -— a pain body so dense that even to this day, there is no remorse for acting out on innocent victims.

As shocking as these extremely dense pain bodies are, they are an exaggerated symptom of the human pain body as a whole — a warning to all of us that the pain body in each of us must be recognized and resolved through understanding, compassion, and the present moment.

~ Eckhart Tolle www.tolleteachings.com

"Life is what it is, you cannot change it; but you can always change yourself."

Life is a continual series of experiences, one leading to the other, until the soul arrives at its destination.

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The truth is to be realized from all things, from religion, from philosophy, from science, from art, from industry. The only difference is that one takes a shorter way and the other takes a longer way. One goes round about and the other takes a straight path. There is no difference in the destination; the only difference is in the journey, whether one goes on foot or whether one drives, whether one is awake or whether one is asleep and is taken blindly to the destination, not knowing the beauties of the way.

'I wandered in the pursuit of my own self; I was the traveler, and I am the destination.'

For all its dangers, today’s world is also a very exciting one. The modern mind is slowly opening to different visions of reality. Great teachers like the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa can be seen on television; many masters from the East now visit and teach in the West; and books from all the mystical traditions are winning an increasingly large audience. The desperate situation of the planet is slowly waking people up to the necessity for transformation on a global scale.

Enlightenment is real, and there are enlightened masters still on the earth. When you actually meet one, you will be shaken and moved in the depths of your heart and you will realize that all the words, such as illumination and wisdom, that you thought were only ideas are in fact true.

When the sun of fierce devotion shines on the snow mountain of the master, the stream of his blessing will pour down.

The Tibetan Saint, DRIKUNG KYOBPA

"Whatever you do, whatever you eat,
whatever sacrifice you undertake,
whatever charity you give, whatever efforts you make,
do all that as an offering to Me."

--Bhagavad Gita (9.27)

Considering others to be just the same as yourself helps you to open up your relationships and give them a new and richer meaning. Imagine If societies and nations began to view one another in the same way; at last we would have the beginnings of a solid basis for peace on earth, and the happy coexistence of all peoples.

~Soygal Rinpoche

Souls on earth are born imperfect and show imperfection, and from this they develop naturally, coming to perfection. If all were perfect, there would have been no purpose in their creation. And manifestation has taken place so that every being here may rise from imperfection towards perfection. That is the object and joy of life and for that this world was created. And if we expected every person to be perfect and conditions to be perfect, then there would be no joy in living and no purpose in coming here. ... When in this world of imperfection we seek for all that is good and beautiful, there are many chances of disappointment. But at the same time if we keep on looking for it, not looking at the dust but looking for the gold, we shall find it. And once we begin to find it we shall find more and more. There comes a time in the life of a man when he can see some good in the worst man in the world. And when he has reached that point, though the good were covered with a thousand covers, he would put his hand on what is good, because he looks for good and attracts what is good.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IV/IV_18.htm

You have to start knowing yourself so well that you begin to know other people.
A piece of us is in every person we can ever meet.
When we foster compassion for ourselves we can have compassion for others.

~ Stephen King

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9OWmku3U1M

Today is a # 9 TUESDAY, powerful day, in the nakshatra of MULA ( going to the root of things) and dedicated to Lord Hanuman!

AUM NAMOH HANUMATE HUNG AUM

O friend, understand.
The body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures.
Open your innermost chamber
And light its lamp.
Within the body are gardens,
Rare flowers, peacocks; the inner music;
Within the body a lake of bliss,
On it, the white soul-swans take their joy.

- Mirabai

There may perhaps be someone among our friends or acquaintances whose one word has weight and power; whereas another person says a thousand words that go in at one ear and out at the other. And this is because in one person his mouth speaks, in another person his heart speaks, and in another his soul speaks. There is a great difference.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/II/II_26.htm

The world is evolving from imperfection towards perfection; it needs all love and sympathy; great tenderness and watchfulness is required from each one of us.

~ SUFI quote

There is a light within every soul; it only needs the clouds that overshadow it to be broken for it to beam forth.

~ by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Every being has an individual ego produced from his own illusion. This limits his view which is led in the direction of his own interest, and he judges of good and bad, high or low, right or wrong in relation to himself and others, through his limited view, which is generally partial and imaginary rather than true. This darkness is caused by the overshadowing of the soul by the external self. Thus a person becomes blind to his own infirmities as well as to the merits of another, and the right action of another becomes wrong in his eyes and the fault of the self seems right. This is the case with mankind in general, until the veil of darkness is lifted from his eyes.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/II/II_3.htm

Two people have been living in you all your life. One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating; the other is the hidden spiritual being, whose still voice of wisdom you have only rarely heard or attended to. As you listen more and more to the teachings, contemplate them, and integrate them into your life, your inner voice, your innate wisdom of discernment, what we call in Buddhism “discriminating awareness,” is awakened and strengthened, and you begin to distinguish between its guidance and the various clamorous and enthralling voices of ego. The memory of your real nature, with all its splendor and confidence, begins to return to you.

You will find, in fact, that you have uncovered in yourself your own wise guide, and as the voice of your wise guide, or discriminating awareness, grows stronger and clearer, you will start to distinguish between its truth and the various deceptions of the ego, and you will be able to listen to it with discernment and confidence.

~SOYGAL RINPOCHE

The process of creation is the same for all things, whether you want to bring something to you or remove something negative from your life.

If you have a habit you wish to break, or anything negative you wish to remove from your life, you must focus on what you want. That means you visualize and imagine yourself in that negative-free state right now. Imagine yourself in as many scenes as you possibly can where the negative situation is completely absent. Imagine yourself happy and free. Eliminate any picture from your mind of you with the negative situation. Just imagine yourself in the state you want to be in, and feel that you are that, right now.

May the joy be with you, Rhonda Byrne (creator of THE SECRET)