A deep gut feeling

"Instead of an intellectual search, there was suddenly a very deep gut feeling that something was different. It occurred when looking at Earth and seeing this blue-and-white planet floating there, and knowing it was orbiting the Sun, seeing that Sun, seeing it set in the background of the very deep black and velvety cosmos, seeing - rather, knowing for sure - that there was a purposefulness of flow, of energy, of time, of space in the cosmos - that it was beyond man's rational ability to understand, that suddenly there was a non-rational way of understanding that had been beyond my previous experience. There seems to be more to the universe than random, chaotic, purposeless movement of a collection of molecular particles.  On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious."  

Edgar D. Mitchell, astronaut and sixth person to walk on the moon

Anger

Like a newborn child ...

He who is in harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child.  Its bones are soft, its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful.  It doesn't know about the union of male and female, yet its penis can stand erect, so intense is its vital power.  It can scream its head off all day, yet it never becomes hoarse, so complete is its harmony.

Energy

Your Song

When a woman of the Ubuntu African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes into a consecrated circle with other women, and together they pray and meditate until they get to "The song of the child. "When a child is born, the community gets together and sings the child's song. When the child begins his education,  he sings his song. When he or she becomes an adult, the community get together again and sings it. When it comes to their weddings, those persons hear their songs sung.  Finally, when their soul is going from this world, family and friends approach and sing their song to accompany it in the "journey".  In the Ubuntu tribe, there is another occasion when men sing the song. If at some point a man commits a crime or aberrant social act, the men take him to the center of town and the people of the community form a circle around her. Then they sing "your song." The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment, but is the love and memory of true identity.   Those who love you can not be fooled by mistakes you have committed, or dark images you show to others. They remember your beauty as you feel ugly, your total when you're broke, your innocence when you feel guilty and your purpose when you're confused.  When we recognize our own song, we have no desire or need to hurt anyone. 

The term Enlightenment ...

"The term "enlightenment" is used to translate a variety of words in various Asian languages that, while closely related, aren't exactly identical. Most fundamentally, enlighten­ment refers to the Pali and Sanskrit word bodhi, which is more literally "awakening."  Enlightenment is our true nature and our home, but the complexities of human life cause us to forget. That forgetting feels like exile, and we make elaborate structures of habit, conviction, and strategy to defend against its desolation. But this condition isn't hopeless; it's possible to dis­mantle those structures so we can return from an exile that was always illusory to a home that was always right under our feet.  For many of us, there is something that pushes us and something that pulls us. We're pushed by our own pain and the pain we see in the world around us; we're pulled by intimations not random, not chance, but readily and consistently present. It's possible to make ourselves available, in all the hours of our days, to the grace we so long to be touched by, and to spread that grace to the world around us."

(Roshi Joan Sutherland)

All concepts

"All concepts setting boundaries to what we term the self are arbitrary.  In the systems view, we consist of and are sustained by interweaving currents of matter, energy, and information that flow through us interconnecting us with our environment and other beings.  Yet, we are accustomed to identifying ourselves only with that small arc of the flow-through that is lit, like the narrow beam of a flashlight, by our individual subjective awareness.  But we don't have to so limit our self-perceptions... It is as plausible to align our identity with the larger pattern, interexistent with all beings, as to break off one segment of the process and build our borders there."

Joanna Macy 

The Path Goes Down

"On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of the sky.  Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward turbulence and doubt however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away.  If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, companions in awakening from fear.
Pema Chodron

Self-importance

The acme of skill

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

Lao Tse

FDR

Keep going

“If you hear the dogs, keep going.  If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.  If there's shouting after you, keep going.  Don't ever stop. Keep going.  If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”  

Harriet Tubman

Beyond the ordinary

"Physicists explore levels of matter; mystics explore levels of mind.  What they have in common is that both levels lie beyond ordinary sense perception."  (Fritjof Capra)

What I lost ...

Purpose

Dream Song

In some aboriginal tribes the first thing a person does upon awakening is to wander alone into the bush or along the seashore and create a song based on the dreams of the previous night.  The animals and birds, the Aborigines believe, hear the dream being sung and recognize that the singer is in touch with the innerworld, and therefore they assist him or her in daily hunting and gathering."
Robert Lawlor, "Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime"

Seeking to express

"Having been brought up in a mythical culture, I was very familiar with the different motifs and themes that were encapsulated in say a mythical being, whether it was Lord Shiva, or Ganesha, or a Goddess. Just thinking the name of that person the whole story was evoked. Carl Jung called these archetypes. Archetypes are primordial encapsulated stories or mythologies and they are in the form of a seed in consciousness. When you plant that seed in consciousness, that archetypal seed,  that mythical journey, then that seed starts to sprout. And as it sprouts, the patterning forces creates the situations, circumstances, events, and relationships for the unfolding of the story.  I say select two or three heroes or heroines in mythology, or religion, or history and then ask these mythical beings to incarnate through you. And then don't be surprised when your see situations, circumstances, coincidences, synchronicity, and relationships finally show up that actually are part of the story you have been seeking to express."   (Deepak Chopra)

What is presence?

What is presence? At its root, it is wholeness - the rare but attainable inner alignment of self-identity, purpose and feelings that eventually leads to freedom from fear. It reveals itself as the magnetic, radiating effect you have on others when you're being the authentic you, giving them your full respect and attention, speaking honestly and letting your unique character traits flow. As leaders, we must be technically competent to gain others' respect, but it's our unique genuine presence that inspires people and prompts them to trust us - in short, to want us as their leader

Fear is not real

Anam Cara

Anam Cara refers to the Celtic spiritual belief of souls connecting and bonding.   

In Celtic Spiritual tradition, it is believed that the soul radiates all about the physical body, what some refer to as an aura. When you connect with another person and become completely open and trusting with that individual, your two souls begin to flow together. Should such a deep bond be formed, it is said you have found your Anam Cara or soul friend.  

Your Anam Cara always accepts you as you truly are, holding you in beauty and light. In order to appreciate this relationship, you must first recognize your own inner light and beauty. This is not always easy to do. The Celts believed that forming an Anam Cara friendship would help you to awaken your awareness of your own nature and experience the joys of others.  

"...You are joined in an ancient and eternal union with humanity that cuts across all barriers of time, convention, philosophy and definition. When you are blessed with an anam cara, the Irish believe, you have arrived at that most sacred place: home.

John O'Donahue, Irish poet, philosopher, and Catholic priest

Sensation of the Mystical

"The Most Beautiful and Most Profound Emotion we can experience is the sensation of the Mystical. It is the sower of all True Science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.   To 'Know' that what is impenetrable to us 'Really Exists,' manifesting 'Itself' as the Highest Wisdom and the Most Radiant Beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - This Knowledge, This Feeling, is at the Center of True Religiousness."
Albert Einstein

Make no mistake

Awake

Spiritual Intelligence

Spiritual capital is the wealth or power an individual or organization has, based on their deepest meanings, values, and purposes. It is reflected in what that individual or organization exists for, believes in, aspires to, and takes responsibility for.  We build spiritual capital by asking spiritually intelligent questions, such as why do I exist, what is the purpose of my life, what do I really want to achieve?

Rules

Ignorance

Stone Men

That is all ...

"We live in illusion and the appearance of things.  

There is a Reality.  

You are that Reality.  

Seeing this, you know that you are everything.  

And being everything, you are no-thing.  

That is all."  - 

Kalu Rinpoche

"Emptiness is two things at once:  

the absence of self and the presence of the Divine.  

Thus as self decreases, the Divine increases." 

- Sister Bernadette Roberts

"Wisdom tells me I am no-thing.  

Love tells me I am everything.  

And between the two my life flows."  

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

Going out is going in

"Learn how to see.  Realize that everything connects to everything else."

Leonardo da Vinci 

 

"When we try to pick anything out by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."

John Muir

No Where To Go

Stepping stones

Changing Things

Enlightenment

  

"Bodhi means enlightenment, the state devoid of all defects and endowed with all good qualities. Sattva refers to someone who has courage and confidence and who strives to attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Those who have this spontaneous, sincere wish to attain enlightenment for the ultimate benefit of all beings are called bodhisattvas. Through wisdom, they direct their minds to enlightenment, and through their compassion, they have concern for beings. This wish for perfect enlightenment for the sake of others is what we call bodhichitta, and it is the starting point on the path."

Dalai Lama

Different eyes

Tom Paine

Attention

Let Me Be A Free Man

Do It Now

African Proverb

What Love Really Is

"How few understand what love really is, and how it arises in the human heart. It is so frequently equated with good feelings toward others, with benevolence or nonviolence or service. But these things in themselves are not love. Love springs from awareness. It is only inasmuch as you see someone as he or she really is here and how and not as they are in your memory or your desire or in your imagination or projection that you can truly love them, otherwise it is not the person that you love but the idea that you have formed of this person, or this person as the object of your desire not as he or she is in themselves.  The first act of love is to see this person or this object, this reality as it truly is. And this involves the enormous discipline of dropping your desires, your prejudices, your memories, your projections, your selective way of looking ...a discipline so great that most people would rather plunge headlong into good actions and service than submit to the burning fire of this asceticism. When you set out to serve someone whom you have not taken the trouble to see, are you meeting that person's need or your own?"

-- Father Anthony de Mello