May the Wind, Lord of the middle air, protect me in this my prayer, in this my act, in this my priestly duty, in this my performance, in this my thought, in this my purpose and desire, in this my calling on the Gods! All Hail!

Atharva Veda V, 24, 8

May the Sun, Lord of every eye, protect me in this my prayer, in this my act, in this my priestly duty, in this my performance, in this my thought, in this my purpose and desire, in this my calling on the Gods! All Hail!

Atharva Veda V, 24, 9

May the Moon, Lord of constellations, save me in this my prayer, in this my act, in this my priestly duty, in this my performance, in this my thought, in this my purpose and desire, in this my calling on the Gods! All Hail!

Atharva Veda V, 24, 10

May Indra, the Lord of the Gods, protect me in this my prayer, in this my act, in this my priestly duty, in this my performance, in this my thought, in this my purpose and desire, in this my calling on the Gods! All Hail!

Atharva Veda V, 24, 11

May the Father of the Winds, Lord of cattle, save me in this my prayer, in this my act, in this my priestly duty, in this my performance, in this my thought, in this my purpose and desire, in this my calling on the Gods! All Hail!

Atharva Veda V, 24, 12

"When another person makes you suffer,
it is because he suffers deeply within himself,
and his suffering is spilling over.

He does not need punishment; he needs help.
That’s the message he is sending."

―Thich Nhat Hanh

In what manner prayer be offered matters little if only the sentiment be right. The orthodox world has fought with each other, each claiming that, "Our manner of prayer is the best. Our church is the best. Our temple is the best. Our sermon is the best. The others are astray;" not knowing that in the house of God it is not asked, "To which church do you belong? To which temple do you belong?" but it is asked, "How sincere were you in your prayer?"

~~~ "Supplementary Papers, Religion ", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

For most of us, karma and negative emotions obscure the ability to see our own intrinsic nature, and the nature of reality. As a result we clutch on to happiness and suffering as real, and in our unskillful and ignorant actions go on sowing the seeds of our next birth. Our actions keep us bound to the continuous cycle of worldly existence, to the endless round of birth and death. So everything is at risk in how we live now at this very moment: How we live now can cost us our entire future.

This is the real and urgent reason why we must prepare now to meet death wisely, to transform our karmic future, and to avoid the tragedy of falling into delusion again and again and repeating the painful round of birth and death. This life is the only time and place we can prepare in, and we can only truly prepare through spiritual practice: This is the inescapable message of the natural bardo of this life.

~ SOYGAL RINPOCHE

Even Buddha died. His death was a teaching to shock the naive, the indolent, and the complacent, to wake us up to the truth that everything is impermanent and death an inescapable fact of life. As he was approaching death, Buddha said:

Of all footprints
That of the elephant is supreme.
Of all mindfulness meditations
That on death is supreme.

Akshaya Tritiya is considered one of the most auspicious days in Hindu calendar. This day is chosen as the best time to perform religious activities like Homa & Pujas. People start new ventures and businesses on this day of Akshaya Tritiya hoping that this will bring in sheer fortune and opulence to their lives. People worship Devi Lakshmi and purchase Gold coins, lands and jewelry on Akshaya Tritiya to retain fortune and wealth forever.

Very often people ask, 'How long has one to go on the spiritual path?' There is no limit to the length of this path, and yet if one is ready, it does not need a long time. It is a moment and one is there. How true it is, what the wise of past ages said to their followers, 'Do not go directly into the temple; first walk around it fifty times!' The meaning was, first get tired and then enter. Then you value it. One values something for which one makes an effort.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/I/I_IV_2.htm

It is not solid wood that can become a flute, but the empty reed. It is the perfection of that passiveness in the heart of the messenger which gives scope for the message from above; for the messenger is the reed, the instrument. The difference between his life and the life of the average man is that the latter is full of self. It is the blessed soul whose heart is empty of self, who is filled with the light of God.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_29.htm

Until the heart is empty, it cannot receive the knowledge of God.

B

Taking impermanence truly to heart is to be slowly freed from the idea of grasping, from our flawed and destructive view of permanence, from the false passion for security on which we have built everything. Slowly it dawns on us that all the heartache we have been through from grasping at the ungraspable was, in the deepest sense, unnecessary.

At the beginning this too may be painful to accept, because it seems so unfamiliar. But as we reflect, slowly our hearts and minds go through a gradual transformation. Letting go begins to feel more natural, and becomes easier and easier.

It may take a long time for the extent of our foolishness to sink in, but the more we reflect, the more we develop the view of letting go. It is then that a complete shift takes place

~SOYGAL RINPOCHE

When one realizes the ultimate truth, one comes to understand that one single underlying current to which all the different religions, philosophies and faiths are attached. These are all only different expressions of the same truth, and it is the absence of that knowledge which causes all to be divided into so many different sects and religions.

In India there is a well-known story exemplifying this fact: that some blind men were very anxious to see an elephant. So a kind man one day took them to see one. There, standing by its side, he said, "Now, here is the elephant, see what you can make of it." Each one tried to make out by touch what the elephant looked like, and afterwards when they met together they began to discuss its appearance. One said, "It looks like the big pillar of a palace," another said, "It looks like a fan." And so they differed and discussed amongst one another, then they quarreled so much as to come to a hand-to-hand fight. Each one said, "I have seen it, I know what it is; I have touched it." Then the man who took them to the elephant came and said, "You are every one of you right, but you have each seen only a part of the elephant."

So it is with the religions. A person says, "This religion is the one, this doctrine is the only one, this truth is the only truth possible." That shows a lack of knowledge of the ultimate truth. As soon as one comes to the realization of the depth of truth, one begins to discern that it is the same truth which the great ones have tried to express in words. They could not put it fully into words. They have done their best to help humanity to evolve and reach to a point at which it is able to understand what can never be explained in words.

~~~ "Supplementary Papers, Philosophy V", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

The extraordinary qualities of great beings who hide their nature escapes ordinary people like us, despite our best efforts in examining them. On the other hand, even ordinary charlatans are expert at deceiving others by behaving like saints.

~ PATRUL RINPOCHE

The Secret

Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.

I who don’t know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me

(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even

what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,

the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can’t find,

and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that

a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines

in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for

assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.

—Denise Levertov from O Taste and See.

“Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well-pleased with ourselves when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O Lord when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life when, having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim. Stir us, O Lord to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas where storms show Thy mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow. Amen.”

―Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu adapted from an original prayer by Sir Francis Drake

Verily, he is victorious who has conquered himself.

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

If a man has control over himself, he will smile and be patient even if he is exposed to rages a thousand times. He will just wait. He who has spiritual control has great control; but he who has it not can control neither spiritual nor physical events. He cannot control his own sons and daughters, for he never listens to himself first. If he listened to himself, not only persons but even objects would listen to him.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/VII/VII_14.htm

When we die we leave everything behind, especially this body we have cherished so much and relied upon so blindly and tried so hard to keep alive. But our minds are no more dependable than our bodies. Just look at your mind for a few minutes.

You will see that it is like a flea, constantly hopping to and fro. You will see that thoughts arise without any reason, without any connection. Swept along by the chaos of every moment, we are the victims of the fickleness of our minds. If this is the only state of consciousness we are familiar with, then to rely on our minds at the moment of death is an absurd gamble.

~SOYGAL RINPOCHE

Our greatest enemy is ourself. All weakness, all ignorance keeps us from the truth of our being, from all the virtues hidden in us and all perfection hidden in our souls. The first self we realize is the false self. Unless the soul is born again it will not see the kingdom of heaven. The soul is born into the false self; it is blind. In the true self the soul opens its eyes. Unless the false self is fought with, the true self cannot be realized.

“You wake from dreams of doom and--for a moment--you know: beyond all the noise and the gestures, the only real thing, love's calm unwavering flame in the half-light of an early dawn.”

―Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

12 Super Foods! Lifetime Dietary Life-Style.
http://wakeup-world.com/2012/03/07/12-super-foods-lifetime-dietary-life-style/


Eating is An Act of Creation.
http://wakeup-world.com/2012/03/06/eating-is-an-act-of-creation/


The Yoga of Eating – Part 2 of 3.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine announced "Vegetarian Diets
Improve Mood and Lower Stress"
http://wakeup-world.com/2012/03/09/the-yoga-of-eating-%e2%80%93-part-2-of-3/

When an ordinary or an illiterate person meets a poet, he sees the man-part and not the poet-part. But if he is told that this person is a poet he may see the poet-part when he meets him. He now sees that he is a poet in his actions and in his words; in everything about him he sees the poet, whereas otherwise he would not have been able to see this. Thus a great poet may go among a crowd and the people will only see the man in him; they do not see the poet, and they do not know how profound his thoughts are. So once a person begins to recognize God in man he does not see the man any more but God. The man is the surface, while God is deep within him. Such recognition brings a person into touch with everyone's innermost being, and then he knows more about people than they know themselves. ...

It is said, 'By the vision of God, their self will become God.' This happens when we come to see God in everybody. We develop goodness in our actions; our words become God's words because we are impressed with all that reflects only goodness and is mirrored around us. Then we become a museum or a picture of goodness. We reflect it from morning till evening, we reflect forgiveness, we reflect tolerance, and we reflect all these lovely qualities. As it is said, 'If my Beloved is in every kind of man, how considerate I ought to be towards all!' The lover is always very careful when he is with his beloved; he becomes thoughtful and tender. ...

Divine perfection is perfection in all powers and mysteries. All these are manifested without specially striving for them. Perfection and annihilation is that stage where there is no longer 'I' and no longer 'you', where there is what there is.

from http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XII/XII_I_12.htm

Exposure to foreign systems of belief can touch you deeply today, causing you to question your devotion to the path you are presently following. You may seek profundities in the words of wise women and men or in books that outline foreign cultural and spiritual practices. Your curiosity, already sparked by what you have seen and heard, can inspire you to study humankind’s most revered sacred texts in order to fully understand the principles you find so enlightening. Consider seeking the aid of one or more individuals who are wholly immersed in the philosophies and faiths that have stirred your soul. You may discover today that there are elements of every system of belief you study that you can easily incorporate into your life.

When we allow ourselves to be inspired by the wisdom we see and hear, we empower ourselves to integrate the principles we observe into our own lives. Frequently, we encounter information that excites our intellectual and emotional minds yet finds no permanent place in the landscapes of our memory. Drawing inspiration from knowledge and insight allows us to make it a functional part of our experience. As we find a place for facts and ideologies in our existences, we commit them to memory by making conscious use of them. And the greater our comprehension of the wisdom we retain, the more effectively we can apply it to the circumstances we find ourselves in each day.

Man sees what he sees; beyond it he cannot see.

Hazrat Inayat Khan



Ah! how desirous I was to see the divine Beloved!
It is not the fault of the Beloved that you do not see;

He is before you!
It is the fault of you who recognize Him not.

Everything, whatever you see is nothing else but
The Presence of God!

ANIMALS HAVE MORE FUN!

The soul brings its light from Heaven; the mind acquires its knowledge from earth. Therefore, when the soul believes readily, the mind may still doubt.

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

Buddha sat in serene and humble dignity on the ground, with the sky above him and around him, as if to show us that in meditation you sit with open, skylike attitude of mind, yet remain present, earthed, and grounded. The sky is our absolute nature, which has no barriers and is boundless, and the ground is our reality, our relative, ordinary condition.

The posture we take when we meditate signifies that we are linking absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth, like two wings of a bird, integrating the skylike deathless nature of mind and the ground of our transient, mortal nature.