Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of Go(o)d. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of Go(o)d that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson

Because we share an identical need for love, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or a sister. No matter how new the face or how different the dress or behavior, there is no significant division between us and other people. It is foolish to dwell on external differences, because our basic natures are the same.

Ultimately humanity is ONE and this small planet is our only home. If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another. If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self-worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others.

I believe that at every level of society -familial, tribal, national, and international- the key to a happier more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop out good human qualities.
I try and treat whoever I meet as an old friend. This gives me a genuine feeling of happiness. It is the practice of compassion.

-Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dali Lama
From The Compassionate Life

Siddhartha... (via reminder from Amazonika)

He learned many things from her wise red lips. Her smooth gentle hand taught him many things.

He, who was still a boy as regards love and was inclined to plunge to the depths of it blindly and insatiably, was taught by her that one cannot have pleasure without giving it, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every single part of the body has its secret which can give pleasure to one who can understand.

She taught him that lovers should not separate from each other after making love without admiring each other, without being conquered as well as conquering, so that no feeling of satiation or desolation arises nor the horrid feeling of misusing or having been misused.

He spent wonderful hours with the clever, beautiful courtesan and became her pupil, her lover, her friend.

"He drew a circle that shut me out.
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But Love and I had the will to win;
We drew a circle that took him in!"
Outwitted
by Edwin Markam

"Thinking that the world is here to entertain you leads to boredom and sloth. Thinking that you are here to entertain the world leads to bright clothes, odd graffiti, and amazing grace in running for the bus."

We are not here to find out who we are;
We're here to create who we are.

We are spiritual beings here for a human experience.
-Yogi Bhajan

"Be careful what you pretend to be;
One day you may find out, that's what you have become."
Kilgour Trout (Kurt Vonnegut)

"Reasonable people conform to the world. Unreasonable people have the world conform to them. Therefore, all change is dependent on unreasonable people."
Author unknown

Are the gods just mischievious;
entwining and unravelling we marionettes for their amusement?
Or do they compel us together so we can experience
life more full; our emotions more deep; our passion more acute?
Or both?
For wouldn't that be the greater interest
to dangle and dance all, all the more to and fro?
Author known

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did." -- Mark Twain

There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.
-Herman Hesse

"Love hath reason that reason itself knows nothing of."
Pascal

And in the end, the love you take;
Is equal to the love, you make.
-Beatles

The best party advice EVER
"If you get confused; listen to the music play."
Captain Trips (Jerry Garcia)

I do not want what I do not have.

The secret to life is: keep breathing

Be Here Now
and
Wherever you go; well there you are.

"There are two types of people--those who come into a room and say, 'Well, here I am!' and those who come in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'"
~ Frederick L Collins

Doobie, doobie, doobie, doobie,doobie, doobie,
-Kootenay mantra

Do be a do bee
Don't be a don't bee
-Romper Room (kids tv show)

Scooby doobie do
-Frank Sinatra

The Most Important Dimension of Human Existence
by Eckhart Tolle
copyright 2006
source Stillness Amidst the World - Findhorn Retreat

We’re here to find that dimension
within ourselves
that is deeper than thought.

This teaching isn’t based on knowledge, on new interesting facts, new information. The world is full of that already. You can push any button on the many devices you have and get information. You’re drowning in information.

And ultimately, what is the point of it all? More information, more things, more of this, more of that. Are we going to find the fullness of life through more things and greater and bigger shopping malls?

Are we going to find ourselves through improving our ability to think and analyze, and accumulate more information, more stuff? Is “more” going to save the world?? It’s all form.

You can never make it on the level of form. You can never quite arrange and accumulate all the forms that you think you need so that you can be yourself fully.

Sometimes you can do it for a brief time span. You can suddenly find everything working in your life: Your health is good, your relationship is great, you have money, possessions, love and respect from other people.

But before long, something starts to crumble here or there, either the finances or the relationship, your health or your work or living situation. It is the nature of the world of form that nothing stays fixed for very long — and so it starts to fall apart again.


The voice in the head that never stops speaking
becomes a civilization that is obsessed with form,
and therefore knows nothing of the most important
dimension of human existence:
the sacred,
the stillness,
the formless,
the divine.
“What does it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose yourself?”

It has been said: There are two ways of being unhappy: not getting what you want, and getting what you want.

When people attain what the world tells us is desirable — wealth, recognition, property, achievement — they’re still not happy, at least not for long. They’re not at peace with themselves. They don’t have a true sense of security, a sense of finally having arrived.

Their achievements have not provided them with what they were really looking for — themselves. They have not given them the sense of being rooted in life, or as Jesus calls it, the fullness of life.

The form of this moment is the portal into the formless dimension. It is the narrow gate that Jesus talks about that leads to life. Yes, it’s very narrow: it’s only this moment.

To find it, you need to roll up the scroll of your life on which your story is written, past and future. Before there were books, there were scrolls, and you rolled them up when you were done with them.

So put your story away. It is not who you are. People usually live carrying a burden of past and future, a burden of their personal history, which they hope will fulfill itself in the future. It won’t, so roll up that old scroll. Be done with it.

You don’t solve problems by thinking; you create problems by thinking. The solution always appears when you step out of thinking and become still and absolutely present, even if only for a moment. Then, a little later when thought comes back, you suddenly have a creative insight that wasn’t there before.

Let go of excessive thinking and see how everything changes. Your relationships change because you don’t demand that the other person should do something for you to enhance your sense of self. You don’t compare yourself to others or try to be more than someone else to strengthen your sense of identity.

You allow everyone to be as they are. You don’t need to change them; you don’t need them to behave differently so that you can be happy.

There’s nothing wrong with doing new things, pursuing activities, exploring new countries, meeting new people, acquiring knowledge and expertise, developing your physical or mental abilities, and creating whatever you’re called upon to create in this world.

It is beautiful to create in this world, and there is always more that you can do.

Now the question is, Are you looking for yourself in what you do? Are you attempting to add more to who you think you are? Are you compulsively striving toward the next moment and the next and the next, hoping to find some sense of completion and fulfillment?

The preciousness of Being is your true specialness. What the egoic self had been looking for on the level of the story —I want to be special —

obscured the fact that you could not be more special than you already are now. Not special because you are better or more wretched than someone else, but because you can sense a beauty, a preciousness, an aliveness deep within.

When you are present in this moment,
you break the continuity of your story, of past and future.
Then true intelligence arises,
and also love.
The only way love can come into your life
is not through form, but through that inner spaciousness that is Presence.
Love has no form.


Reprinted with permission from Eckhart Tolle’s Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Amidst the World, © 2006 by Eckhart Tolle, Eckhart Teachings Inc. www.EckhartTolle.com.

With gratitude to Satori

The following poem is such a good reminder not to put one's happiness in another's hands because the fluid nature of life requires one to be responsible for their own attitude. (And what a terrible burden to put on one you care about!)

Posted with gratitude to Inessa and Dr. Trix

After A While
by Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your lessons
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of woman, not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn...