YOU LEARN...
Current mood: blissful
Category: Writing and Poetry

 

YOU LEARN

 

"After some time you learn the difference, the subtle difference between giving a hand and fettering a soul.
And you learn that to love doesn't mean to support yourself, and that company doesn't always mean security.
And you learn that kisses are not contracts and that gifts are not promises.
And you start to accept your loss with your head up and eyes straight ahead, with the grace of a grown-up, not the sadness of a child.
You learn to build the roads of today, because tomorrow's land is too unknown to make plans and the future usually falls from nowhere.
After a while you learn that the sun burns if you expose yourself to it for very long.
And you learn that it doesn't matter how much you care, some people just don't.
And you accept that it doesn't matter how good someone can be, they will hurt you once in a while and you have to forgive them for that.
And you learn that talking can be a relief to emotional pain.
You learn that it takes years to build trust and just seconds to destroy it, and you can do things in a second that you will regret for the rest of your life.
You learn that friendship continuous to grow even with the distance and that what matters is not what you have in life, but who you are in life.
And you learn that you don't have to change friends if you understand that friends change, and you realize that you and your friend can do nothing or everything and still have good times together.
And you learn that the people you care the most are taken away from you too fast, that is why we should always say caring things to those we love, because it might be the last time we see them.
And you learn that you shouldn't compare yourself to others, but to the best you can become.
You learn that it takes a long time for you to become the person you want to be, and that life is too short.
And you learn that it doesn't matter where you've already gotten to, but where you are going, and if you don't know where you're going, anywhere will do.
You learn that either you control your acts or they will control you, and that being flexible doesn't mean you are being weak, or that you don't have a personality, for no matter how delicate and fragile a situation is, there are always two sides of it.
And you learn that heroes are those that did only what was necessary.
You learn that patience requires a lot of practice.
You find out that sometimes the person that you expect to kick you when you fall, is one of the few that will help you up.
You learn that maturity is about what kind of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them, not how many birthdays you have already celebrated.
You learn that there's more of your parents in you than you suppose.
You learn that you should never tell a child that dreams are foolishness, few things are so humiliating that it would be a tragedy if he believed that.
You learn that when you are angry you have the right to be angry, but that does not give you the right to be cruel.
You learn that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want to be loved, it doesn't mean that the person doesn't know how to love, and s/he loves you as much as s/he can, because there are people who love you, but simply don't know how to show it.
You learn that being forgiven is never enough, sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
You learn that with the same harshness that you judge, you someday, will be condemned.
You learn that no matter how many pieces your heart was broken into, the world doesn't stop so you can fix it.
You learn that you cannot go back in time, so you have to take care of your garden and not wait for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn you can really bear it, that you're really strong and that you can go farther than you think, and that life has a value and you have a value before life!
And you learn that our doubts are disloyal and that makes us lose what we could achieve, if it weren't for the fear of trying."

 

I FOUND THIS WONDERFUL WORK HERE

Someone thinks it is a Shakespearean work but in fact is not! It's an Adaptation of Veronica Shoffstall's original text "After a While" and I knew this misundestanding in the site where i found the English version, thanks to a Yahoo user's good answer.

 

Thanks to my dear friend Jacques Nery and to Silvia.

Currently listening : Raga Do Cerrado By Alberto Marsicano & Caito Marcondes Release date: 2001-01-23

12:29 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Love Sustains Life
Current mood: happy
Category: Religion and Philosophy

love sustains life

thanks Kaley "When you feel awful - angry, resentful, stressful, envious, depressed, worried, guilty, frustrated, etc - at the root of it is FEAR. But what happens to your body, on a molecular level, when you experience fear? Something quite destructive, actually. You see, the basis of fear is SEPARATION. That means that, at a molecular level, there is less communication between the cells of your body - you're separating yourself from your healing power. Whereas, when you're happy - feeling joyful, playful, eager, enthusiastic, excited, generous, etc., you are experiencing LOVE. And here's why love is so powerful: the basis of love is CONNECTION. At a molecular level, your cells "talk" to each other more freely. There's an open flow of energy and communication from one part of your body to another - from the life-giving energy in the universe directly into and through your body. LOVE sustains life, while FEAR destroys it." ~ Deepak Chopra

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How Would the Buddha Date?
Current mood: relaxed
Category: Romance and Relationships

How Would the Buddha Date?
By Lama Surya Das

Certainly primary among life's lessons is how to love and to love well, and to BE love, as well to give and receive it. I believe love is central to happiness, growth and fulfillment.

How would Buddha love? By seeing every single being, human and otherwise, as fundamentally like himself, and thus able to treat them and love them in the way he would be treated. We call this infinitely benevolent, selfless love, Bodhicitta or the Awakened Heart, the very spirit of enlightenment.

Each relationship and every single encounter can be a vehicle for meaningful spiritual connection, through the transformative magic of Bodhicitta, or spiritual love. This is how we love, Buddha-style: impartial to all, free from excessive attachment or false hope and expectation; accepting, tolerant, and forgiving. Buddhist nonattachment doesn't imply complacence or indifference, or not having committed relationships or being passionately engaged with society, but rather has to do with our effort to defy change and resist the fact of impermanence and our mortality. By holding on to that which in any case is forever slipping through our fingers, we just get rope burn.

Buddhist love is based on recognizing our fundamental interconnectedness and knowing that all beings are like ourselves in wanting and needing happiness, safety, fulfillment, and not wanting suffering and misery. The Dalai Lama says, "If you want to be wisely selfish, care for others." All the happiness and virtue in this world comes from selflessness and generosity, all the sorrow from egotism, selfishness, and greed.

Four Boundless Attitudes

Every single encounter can be a vehicle for meaningful spiritual connection. The immaculate image of Buddhist love is the four-armed Avalokitsevara, known as Chenrayzig in Tibet and Kuan Yin in China. Each of his/her four arms represent one of the Four Boundless Attitudes, and each one of her four radiant faces or aspects - peaceful, magnetizing, powerful, and fierce-express one of the four styles or modes of active compassion.

The first arm of Buddhist love is maitri or lovingkindness, a boundless feeling of friendliness and wishing well for others. Maitri, or metta in the Pali language, implies friendliness: befriending and accepting yourself, your body and mind, and the world.

The second is karuna, or compassion, empathy, being moved by feeling what others feel. The third arm is upeksha, equanimity, recognizing the equality of all that lives. This recognition leads to the wisdom of detachment but not indifference or complacence, which are its near enemies.

The fourth arm is mudita, spiritual joy and satisfaction. This includes rejoicing in the virtue and success of others, -- the antidote to envy and jealousy.
Cultivate the cling-free relationship

The essence of Buddhist relationship is to cultivate the cling-free relationship, enriched with caring and equanimity. It is helpful in intimate relationships to communicate honestly, stay present, tell the truth of your experience using I-statements rather than accusations and judgments, and honor the other enough to show up with an open heart and mind and really listen.

Passion becomes compassion when we bring it into the path, when we recognize every moment in life as a possibility of awakening. Human love and sexual consummation can be like the tip of the iceberg of divine love, an ecstatic intimation of eternity, a portal to infinite depths of the groundlessness and boundarylessness that transports us beyond our limited, ego selves. People often ask me how to find their Soul Mate, or even if I believe in such a concept. I think that rather than focusing on past lives or on finding the perfect mate in this world, we would generally do better to work on improving and developing ourselves. Make yourself the "perfect" mate, without being too perfectionistic about it, and you will be a good mate with almost anyone. When your heart is pure, your life and the entire world is pure.

We all feel the desire to possess and be possessed, to love and be loved, to connect and be embraced and to belong. However, I think that the most important thing in being together is the tenderness of a good heart. If our relationships aren't nurturing the growth and development of goodness of heart, openness, generosity, authenticity and intimate connection, they are not serving us or furthering a better world. I notice that children let go of anger and would rather be happy than right, unlike so many of us adults. Like them, my dog reminds me that love is a verb, not a noun. Staying present in this very moment, through mindful awareness and paying attention to what is -- rather than dwelling on the past or the future, or on who I think I am and who I imagine others are -- helps free me from excess baggage, anxiety and neurosis - and opens me to love.

Thank you, Barry!!!

3:48 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Sufism
Current mood: curious
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Sufism's Many Paths

Dr. Alan Godlas, University of Georgia

"Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic, is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam. Nevertheless, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam. After nearly 30 years of the study of Sufism, I would say that in spite of its many variations and voluminous expressions, the essence of Sufi practice is quite simple. It is that the Sufi surrenders to God, in love, over and over; which involves embracing with love at each moment the content of one's consciousness (one's perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one's sense of self) as gifts of God or, more precisely, as manifestations of God. Sufis--which is what practioners of Sufism are called--see themselves to be on a spiritual journey toward God. In order to guide spiritual travellers and to express the states of consciousness experienced on this journey, Sufis produced an enormously rich body of literature, often using a specialized technical vocabulary, some of the terms of which can be found in this Glossary of Sufi Terms. This journey is referred to as the path (tariqah). While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in Paradise--after death and the "Final Judgment"-- Sufis believe as well that it is possible to become close to God and to experience this closeness--while one is alive. Furthermore, the attainment of the knowledge that comes with such intimacy with God, Sufis assert, is the very purpose of the creation. Here they mention the hadith qudsi in which God states, "I was a hidden treasure and I loved that I be known, so I created the creation in order to be known." Hence for the Sufis there is already a momentum, a continuous attraction on their hearts exerted by God, pulling them, in love, towards God. They experience the joyful ecstasy of being gently drawn to their Eternal Beloved, yet this primordially blissful return seems to have been interrupted. The Persian poet Hafiz remarked,

 O Wine giver, pour me a cup and pass it around for love seemed easy at first, but later the difficulties arose. "

For some more, try these:

http://www.uga.edu/islam/sufismintro.html

http://godlas.myweb.uga.edu/Sufism.html

Peace be upon you!

8:15 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Poetry by John de Boer
Current mood: in deep samadhi...
Category: in deep samadhi... Writing and Poetry

Autumn Colors

The leaves float from the sky and drift slowly, gracefully to cover the path with the colors of rust and luminous gold. Brilliant colored leaves yellows mixed with dark reds, lush greens and radiant oranges.

The trees reach to the heavens with the beauty of Mother Nature dazzling and breath taking as she paints the forest in the dapple shades of crimson, emerald, auburn, gold, ginger blending to jade green, scarlet red, chocolate browns, canary yellow with the sapphire blue sky as her background.

These are the times that take me back to my childhood playing in the picturesque woods in awe of its splendor. Knowing this was a very special time nature's last spectacular flourish of color before the grays of the freezing winter set in.

The fall has fell, but Indian summer is upon us with warm breezes from the southlands and sun breaking through the trees making dancing shadows as father wind blows gently on your face.

My flute sings the songs of my heart and fills the air as I am over come with the joy of such a gift of exquisite beauty. My eyes drink in the majestic pallet of colors and I am drunk with the creation of this masterpiece. I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful gifts the Creator gives us.

Spirit
john de boer

We all have a song inside us

it tells us who we are.

Walk in Peace 

http://stores.ebay.com/Skydancer-Designs CD's
http://www.myspace.com/johndeboer Stories, Videos and Music

Thanks, Danno!

Currently listening : Better Way By Ben Harper Release date: 14 March, 2006

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Mysticism: The Soul in All Religions
Current mood: jubilant
Category: Religion and Philosophy

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Abrahamic religions conceive of a soul that lies within each individual, which is of great spiritual significance. However Judaism, placing more focus on this world than others, has resulted in multiple views... that man is a partner in God, all the way to the mysticism of numerology and the Kabbalah. Christian mysticism has diverse takes on the relationship between God, the soul, and the individual. In Islam the mystical path is often incorporated within Sufi.

Quakers view the soul as inner light, an inherent presence of God within the individual. Other Christian traditions, such as Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, hold a more distinct division between the individual soul and God, given the traditional belief that the salvation of the soul and union with God will occur after death at the resurrection, but these faiths generally hold that righteousness is possible during life. Christian mystics seek this state, variously, through intense prayer, ascetism, monasticism, or even mortification of the flesh.

In Catholicism, saints and other beatific individuals are said to have received the Holy Spirit—a movement of God in their souls that grants them miraculous, prophetic, or other transcendent abilities—and this belief is taken up in certain charismatic and evangelical faiths that seek out testaments to divine revalation through speaking in tongues, faith healing, the casting out of demons, etc.

Islam shares this conception of a distinct soul, but with less focus on miraculous powers; the muslim world emphasizes remembrance (dhikr, zikr): the recalling of one's original and innate connection to Allah's grace. In traditional Islam this connection is maintained by angels, who carry out God's will—though only prophets have the ability to see and hear them directly.

Sufism (the mystical aspect of Islam) holds that God can be experienced directly as a universal love that pervades the universe. Remembrance, for Sufis, explicitly means remembrance of divine states of love, and Sufis are particularly noted for the artistic turn their forms of worship often take.

Eastern philosophies, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism are less concerned with the individual, and instead seek dissolution of the soul and ego (moksha) into transcedent reality (generally Brahmanor Ishvara). In the mystical aspects of the Vedic tradition Atman (something not entirely different from the werstern concepion of the soul) is believed to be identical with Brahman. Hindu mystical practices aim for God-consciousness and loss of self.

Buddhist teaching holds that all suffering (dukkha) in the world comes from attachment to objects or ideas, and that freedom from suffering comes by freeing one's self from attachments. The doctrine of anatta suggests that the soul, or the perception of an unchanging and cohesive self, is a mental construct to which one may be attached, and thus a source of suffering. While conventional Buddhist religion has an assortment of deities and venerated beings, the mystical sects of Buddhism at minimum avoid affirming, and in some cases overtly deny the existence of a permanent or unchanging soul, or of any permanent or unchanging being to the universe.

Taoism is largely unconcerned with the soul. Instead, Taoism centers around the tao ('the way' or 'the path'). The human tendency, according to Taoism, is to conceive of dualisms; the Taoist mystical practice is to recapture and conform with that original unity (called te, de, which is translated as virtue).

Regardless of particular conceptions of the soul, a common thread of mysticism is collective peace, joy, compassion or love.

For some more, check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism

Thank you, Hish.

1:19 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Sathya's Wise Words
Current mood: peaceful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

 Develop broad-mindedness and live in bliss

by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

"God will tolerate anything but not anger and ego. He does not appreciate these qualities. What is this ego? What for is this ego? Is it for physical beauty or strength of the senses or intellectual acumen or wealth? None of these is permanent. Ego breeds several other evil qualities. God has gifted every human being with such sacred and noble qualities as sathya (truth), dharma (righteousness), santhi (peace), prema (love), and ahimsa (nonviolence). Develop these qualities. These are the pancha pranas (five vital airs) for a human being.

The human body is like an iron safe. The Atma residing inside this iron safe is like a precious diamond. You are supposed to give value to the precious diamond-studded ornaments inside, not to the outer iron safe. There are invaluable ornaments like sathya, dharma, santhi, prema, and ahimsa inside the human body. The physical body, which is made up of the five elements, is bound to perish one day or the other.

4:43 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

1. Be impeccable with your word - Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't take anything personally - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't make assumptions - Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always do your best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Thanks, Lumen! 

Currently listening : Que Falta Você Me Faz: Músicas de Vinicius de Moraes By Maria Bethânia Release date: 19 April, 2005

1:37 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Being Aware of Ego
Current mood: peaceful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

"The sense of  'I' pertains to the person, the body and brain.  When a person knows his true Self for the first time, something else arises from the depths of his being and takes possession of him.  That something is behind the mind; it is infinite, divine and eternal.  Some people call it the Kingdom of Heaven, others call it the soul, still others name it nirvana.  We Hindus call it mukti (liberation).  When this happens, a man has not really lost himself, rather he has found himself." (Sri Ramana Maharshi)

Sri Ramana explained that the attempt to turn the mind inwards through the method of Self Enquiry would gradually 'awaken a current of awareness, a feeling of the essential 'I' who is the universal Self - unaffected by good or ill fortune, sickness or health.  This awareness was to be gradually developed by constant effort until it became a constant undertone to all the actions of life.'  Self Enquiry was not a meditation practice to be undertaken at certain hours, in certain positions.  He often repeated that there was no need for a man to renounce the world in order to live a spiritual life.  Giving up the ego, the false self, was the true renunciation.  The ancient path of Self Enquiry had been followed for the most part, by sages living in silence and solitude, away from the hubbub of the world.   Sri Ramana showed that the path could be followed by anyone, anywhere and right in the midst of worldly activity.  There was no conflict he always said, between work and wisdom.

Self Enquiry, sincerely practised, even for a quarter of an hour a day, he told a devotee, would result after four or five months, "in all sorts of unconscious clairvoyance, in peace of mind, in power to deal with troubles, yet always unconscious power."

The path of Self Enquiry, like every spiritual path, requires pure, dispassionate living as well as intense spiritual effort.  In moments of both pain and pleasure, the enquiry - who is hurt? who is pleased? who actually am I? - gradually destroys the I-am-the-doer, I-am-the-enjoyer or sufferer illusion created by the ego of the individual.  Striking directly at the egoism in every action and reaction, the discipline of Self Enquiry, honestly pursued, does away with the need for any formal code of conduct.

It makes it possible for a person to live serenely, without vanity, without attachment.  Such an individual can attend to all aspects of her or his life because she or he remains unaffected by them, centred in the real Self within. ...

From "Sri Ramana Maharshi - Sage of the People", Anupa Lal, Rupa & Co, New Delhi, 2002 (chapter seven, pg 46-53)

8:09 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Samadhi with Ramana Maharshi
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy

    By Paul Branton

"The Maharshi's seated form floats in a vivid manner before my mind's eye.  Following his frequently repeated instruction, I endeavour to pierce through the mental picture into that which is formless, his real being and inner nature his soul.  To my surprise the effort meets with almost instant success and the picture disappears again, leaving me with nothing more than a strongly felt sense of his intimate presence...

But how to divorce oneself from the age old tyranny of thoughts?  I remember that the Maharshi had never suggested that I should attempt to force the stoppage of thinking.

'Trace thought to its place of origin,' is his reiterated counsel.  'Watch for the real self to reveal itself and then your thoughts will die down of their own accord'.

I surrender myself to complete passivity until I discover the correctness of the sage's prophecy.  The waves of thought naturally begin to diminish.  The strangest sensation I have experienced till now grips me.  Time seems to reel dizzily as the antennae of my rapidly growing intuition begins do reach out into the unknown...

Finally it happens.  Thought is extinguished like a snuffed candle.  I perceive what the Maharshi has confidently affirmed, that the mind takes its rise in a transcendental source.  The brain passed into a state of complete suspension, as it does in deep sleep, yet there is not the slightest loss of consciousness.  Something that is far superior to the unimportant personality which was I, some deeper, divine being rises into counsciousness and becomes me and with it arises an amazing new sense of absolute freedom...  I find myself outside the rim of world consciousness...  in the midst of an ocean of blazing light, increadibly alive...  my arms embrace all creation with profound sympathy...  my heart is remoulded in rapture...

'You have been in a spiritual trance for nearly two hours', a devotee informed me when I returned to ordinary counsciousness.  'The Maharshi watched you closely all the time.  I believe his thoughts guided you.' "

What I'm reading: "Sri Ramana Maharshi - Sage of The People", Anupa Lal, Rupa & Co, New Delhi, 2002.

7:34 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment