Tomorrow is the day I will get back on track with my goals, specifically writing.
This is inspired by the fact that the local writer’s group meets then. Although I will not be joining them physically, I will in spirit through the act of writing. It will be a minimum of one paragraph.
I began reading this sci-fi book to learn writing style, but then I got so caught up in the story that I am disregarding the learning process altogether, and am forging ahead to get to the meat of the story to find out how it will end (a page turner -- classic sign of a good book). Of course, this defeats the purpose I started reading the book, but I fully intend to go back and reread for style.
I don’t really want to address any other goals at this time, as I’ve been working on them more than I have writing.
Brian’s trial is Monday. I am optimistic.
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"The way to find out who you are is not by comparing yourself with others, but by looking to see whether you are fulfilling your own potential in the best way you know how."
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Relinquish the need to control
Lighting is everything to a photographer. While outside, in nature, one can revel in the current light, but it is not fixed and changes from one moment to the next. One cannot make it come back. Nor can one change what once was. Put into this perspective, it is ludicrous to mourn for the light prior, as there is the light of now and the light of future moments.
Each moment is real. Each experience in that moment is real. Everything within a moment occurs due to a culmination of events that lead to such moment. Hence, blame and judgment become inappropriate.
I just came across a channel (posted prior) and it is about relinquishing control on other people’s experience. What they choose to experience is their business. How they choose to react is their business. It is so. I particularly like this part:
Each moment is real. Each experience in that moment is real. Everything within a moment occurs due to a culmination of events that lead to such moment. Hence, blame and judgment become inappropriate.
I just came across a channel (posted prior) and it is about relinquishing control on other people’s experience. What they choose to experience is their business. How they choose to react is their business. It is so. I particularly like this part:
“Try taking a back seat. You are not the driver of every car. Let's face it, beloveds, you are a passenger in life. Sometimes you may be the driver of the bus. Most of the time, you just go along for the ride. This is the ride of your life that you are on. You do not take the food off someone else's plate. You do not hand-feed anyone. Everyone has to be left to his or her own devices. Hands off your self-elected directorship. Hands off interference. That's what control is - interference. It is not for you to interfere in anyone's life. You may think you are taking responsibility, yet your responsibility is to let go. Beloveds, you cannot have your finger in every pie.”
Seek Simplicity
~by Gloria Wendroff
When you are impatient, you are trying to take control. Controlling is not the same as leading. Leaders lead by inspiration. Bossing people is like changing an artist's painting. It is like going to the museum with a brush and paint box and changing a painting that you would prefer to be another way. You want to make it different from it is. You want to change the artist's perception to your own. Paint your own paintings. Make them the way you want. You may find that you too fall short of your vision. Why is it so important that things be the way you like?
When you are impatient, you take too much upon yourself. When you try to control, you try to take over. When you try to control, you are showing your displeasure. Reap pleasure instead.
Learn acceptance, beloveds. That does not mean to be passive. It just means not to try to rule. Well, rule yourself, beloveds, if you must, but not others.
You are not in charge of the universe. Certainly you influence it. The universe is a product of your thought, yet, still, you are not to foster impatience with it. When you play in the orchestra, you play in the orchestra. You do not get up, shove the conductor out of the way, and wave the baton. You wouldn't do that. That would be too impertinent, and yet you would whip the universe and your environs into shape. You would censor the words from your friends' mouths. You would supervise everything within reach. Who appointed you supervisor of the world?
Do not even supervise yourself, beloveds, for then you are your own pain in the neck. Supervising, second-guessing, and all those other faultfinding habits are not the same as living life. Living life is spontaneous. Faultfinding comes from long practice. Will you now live life as a novice? You really are not an expert in life. No one is. You agree that no one knows everything. Why do you sometimes think you do? Who appointed you? Who told you to mind everyone else's business? Who proclaimed you the expert in even one thing let alone everything?
Try taking a back seat. You are not the driver of every car. Let's face it, beloveds, you are a passenger in life. Sometimes you may be the driver of the bus. Most of the time, you just go along for the ride. This is the ride of your life that you are on. You do not take the food off someone else's plate. You do not hand-feed anyone. Everyone has to be left to his or her own devices. Hands off your self-elected directorship. Hands off interference. That's what control is - interference. It is not for you to interfere in anyone's life. You may think you are taking responsibility, yet your responsibility is to let go. Beloveds, you cannot have your finger in every pie.
When you are impatient, when you feel you have to take over, take a deep breath instead. Tension makes you haughty. Let go of your tension, and you will be more amenable to life.
Seek simplicity rather than control. Seek ease rather than impatience. Choose the servants who best serve you. Send control and impatience out the door. They have been great restraints on you. They have blocked your path. You got caught up in them, and so you tripped yourself.
You don't need control, and you don't have it. Let's be realistic, dear ones. You have thought you were a very practical person, and yet a need to control and its accompanying impatience are quite impractical. They haven't worked yet, have they?
When you are impatient, you are trying to take control. Controlling is not the same as leading. Leaders lead by inspiration. Bossing people is like changing an artist's painting. It is like going to the museum with a brush and paint box and changing a painting that you would prefer to be another way. You want to make it different from it is. You want to change the artist's perception to your own. Paint your own paintings. Make them the way you want. You may find that you too fall short of your vision. Why is it so important that things be the way you like?
When you are impatient, you take too much upon yourself. When you try to control, you try to take over. When you try to control, you are showing your displeasure. Reap pleasure instead.
Learn acceptance, beloveds. That does not mean to be passive. It just means not to try to rule. Well, rule yourself, beloveds, if you must, but not others.
You are not in charge of the universe. Certainly you influence it. The universe is a product of your thought, yet, still, you are not to foster impatience with it. When you play in the orchestra, you play in the orchestra. You do not get up, shove the conductor out of the way, and wave the baton. You wouldn't do that. That would be too impertinent, and yet you would whip the universe and your environs into shape. You would censor the words from your friends' mouths. You would supervise everything within reach. Who appointed you supervisor of the world?
Do not even supervise yourself, beloveds, for then you are your own pain in the neck. Supervising, second-guessing, and all those other faultfinding habits are not the same as living life. Living life is spontaneous. Faultfinding comes from long practice. Will you now live life as a novice? You really are not an expert in life. No one is. You agree that no one knows everything. Why do you sometimes think you do? Who appointed you? Who told you to mind everyone else's business? Who proclaimed you the expert in even one thing let alone everything?
Try taking a back seat. You are not the driver of every car. Let's face it, beloveds, you are a passenger in life. Sometimes you may be the driver of the bus. Most of the time, you just go along for the ride. This is the ride of your life that you are on. You do not take the food off someone else's plate. You do not hand-feed anyone. Everyone has to be left to his or her own devices. Hands off your self-elected directorship. Hands off interference. That's what control is - interference. It is not for you to interfere in anyone's life. You may think you are taking responsibility, yet your responsibility is to let go. Beloveds, you cannot have your finger in every pie.
When you are impatient, when you feel you have to take over, take a deep breath instead. Tension makes you haughty. Let go of your tension, and you will be more amenable to life.
Seek simplicity rather than control. Seek ease rather than impatience. Choose the servants who best serve you. Send control and impatience out the door. They have been great restraints on you. They have blocked your path. You got caught up in them, and so you tripped yourself.
You don't need control, and you don't have it. Let's be realistic, dear ones. You have thought you were a very practical person, and yet a need to control and its accompanying impatience are quite impractical. They haven't worked yet, have they?
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Quickening Quotes
Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. ~Charles Kettering
What is the meaning of life? Whatever you want it to be. ~James Frey
There is no set path. Just follow your heart. ~Unknown
What is the meaning of life? Whatever you want it to be. ~James Frey
There is no set path. Just follow your heart. ~Unknown
See the Rainbow
~By Gloria Wendroff
No longer will you be ego-centered. If you have negative thoughts or emotions, you will know they are just passing thoughts or emotions. They will be no bother at all, just like, when you see a tree in autumn, you’re not upset that its leaves are falling. You don’t feel that trees always have to be in full spring bloom.
Ego thoughts and emotions will become much like a scratch you notice on your finger. You notice it and then not think any more about it. The scratch will not plague you. It will be okay to have a scratch. It won’t matter. It will be like a scrap of paper blown by the wind. Just something there in your vision for a moment.
You understand that love, as We know it, is not an emotion. Emotions are small things. Love is big.
Your emotions are conditioned like Pavlov’s dog. No more than that. Something occurs, and your mind has decided that a certain response from you is needed. The response has a name such as anger or jealousy. It got programmed into your system.
As you grow toward the light, you will have a different response to irritations than you do now. You will not be bounded to a certain response. You really won’t be bothered at all, even when you notice a bother. You will not have all the repercussions that you have been accustomed to. You will not call in the troops, as it were.
You won’t have to fight back. You won’t have to fight anything. You won’t see anything to fight. When you don’t fight, your imagined opponent disappears. He cannot exist in your light. If you don’t fight with him, he can’t fight with you. You would be no fun for him. He can’t even exist without your cooperation. You won’t react with fervor. You won’t react.
When your vision is on the rainbow, it is on the rainbow. It is not on other things. When your vision is so happy on the rainbow, why would it look elsewhere for distraction. Your vision would not want to go backwards. Who would want to look at pouting emotions when he can look at a rainbow – when he is looking at a rainbow? Who can take his eyes off a rainbow? Why would anyone want to?
When you are on the peak of a mountain, you can see a wide expanse. You are not looking at every detail or impediment. When you are at the peak of existence, why would you want to see impediments to spoil your joy? In fact, from the height you stand, you cannot see the annoying ants and gnats. They do not exist for you. Out of sight, out of mind.
When you can create Vastness with your thoughts, you wouldn’t even think about creating littleness. When you are in the full spectrum of light, you don’t ask for darkness. You don’t even know what darkness is anymore, so why would you care about it at all. You certainly would not wrest darkness from the light.
You cannot return to a lesser state of consciousness. You would not choose to. You don’t want to get back the old ways of thinking. As you come into the light, you leave old baggage behind. You can’t take it with you and, at the same time, progress in the light. Baggage can only hold you back, and so you choose freedom, and you choose clarity of purpose, never old thoughts. Old thoughts ride away on a motorcycle in the desert, leaving a little dust behind. You, the rider, never think of looking back, nor do you want to. You keep your eyes front forward, straight ahead.
No longer will you be ego-centered. If you have negative thoughts or emotions, you will know they are just passing thoughts or emotions. They will be no bother at all, just like, when you see a tree in autumn, you’re not upset that its leaves are falling. You don’t feel that trees always have to be in full spring bloom.
Ego thoughts and emotions will become much like a scratch you notice on your finger. You notice it and then not think any more about it. The scratch will not plague you. It will be okay to have a scratch. It won’t matter. It will be like a scrap of paper blown by the wind. Just something there in your vision for a moment.
You understand that love, as We know it, is not an emotion. Emotions are small things. Love is big.
Your emotions are conditioned like Pavlov’s dog. No more than that. Something occurs, and your mind has decided that a certain response from you is needed. The response has a name such as anger or jealousy. It got programmed into your system.
As you grow toward the light, you will have a different response to irritations than you do now. You will not be bounded to a certain response. You really won’t be bothered at all, even when you notice a bother. You will not have all the repercussions that you have been accustomed to. You will not call in the troops, as it were.
You won’t have to fight back. You won’t have to fight anything. You won’t see anything to fight. When you don’t fight, your imagined opponent disappears. He cannot exist in your light. If you don’t fight with him, he can’t fight with you. You would be no fun for him. He can’t even exist without your cooperation. You won’t react with fervor. You won’t react.
When your vision is on the rainbow, it is on the rainbow. It is not on other things. When your vision is so happy on the rainbow, why would it look elsewhere for distraction. Your vision would not want to go backwards. Who would want to look at pouting emotions when he can look at a rainbow – when he is looking at a rainbow? Who can take his eyes off a rainbow? Why would anyone want to?
When you are on the peak of a mountain, you can see a wide expanse. You are not looking at every detail or impediment. When you are at the peak of existence, why would you want to see impediments to spoil your joy? In fact, from the height you stand, you cannot see the annoying ants and gnats. They do not exist for you. Out of sight, out of mind.
When you can create Vastness with your thoughts, you wouldn’t even think about creating littleness. When you are in the full spectrum of light, you don’t ask for darkness. You don’t even know what darkness is anymore, so why would you care about it at all. You certainly would not wrest darkness from the light.
You cannot return to a lesser state of consciousness. You would not choose to. You don’t want to get back the old ways of thinking. As you come into the light, you leave old baggage behind. You can’t take it with you and, at the same time, progress in the light. Baggage can only hold you back, and so you choose freedom, and you choose clarity of purpose, never old thoughts. Old thoughts ride away on a motorcycle in the desert, leaving a little dust behind. You, the rider, never think of looking back, nor do you want to. You keep your eyes front forward, straight ahead.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Be Success
Friday, March 21, 2008
Be success
Only when you're able to accept the possibility of getting it wrong will you have the persistence to get it right. Meaningful success rarely comes from a single transaction.
Success is a consistent pattern more than it is an isolated event. It is the way you live rather than some object or experience you acquire.
In fact, the way to truly have success is to be success. Success is yours when you persistently embody the discipline, the integrity, the positive attitude, the respect and all the other attributes of which it is made.
Visualize yourself today as a living, breathing, active and dynamic manifestation of success. In what way does such a vision compel you to think, to speak, to act and to live?
If you consider success to be something outside of you, that's where it will always remain -- outside of you and apart from you. Instead, choose to not merely be successful, but to be success itself.
In your thoughts, your words, your actions and your expectations, be the living embodiment of success. And whatever you envision will surely be within your reach.
-- Ralph Marston
Be success
Only when you're able to accept the possibility of getting it wrong will you have the persistence to get it right. Meaningful success rarely comes from a single transaction.
Success is a consistent pattern more than it is an isolated event. It is the way you live rather than some object or experience you acquire.
In fact, the way to truly have success is to be success. Success is yours when you persistently embody the discipline, the integrity, the positive attitude, the respect and all the other attributes of which it is made.
Visualize yourself today as a living, breathing, active and dynamic manifestation of success. In what way does such a vision compel you to think, to speak, to act and to live?
If you consider success to be something outside of you, that's where it will always remain -- outside of you and apart from you. Instead, choose to not merely be successful, but to be success itself.
In your thoughts, your words, your actions and your expectations, be the living embodiment of success. And whatever you envision will surely be within your reach.
-- Ralph Marston
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Here To Do Great Things
(Rather timely feeling)
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Here to do great things
You are worthy of all the goodness that life can hold. You are capable of making a valuable contribution to the moment you're in.
You do not need to beg for the kindness of others. For you have within you the ability to express and manifest enough kindness to fill your world.
There is no reason for you to feel sorry for yourself, and there is no point in acting in such a way that others feel sorry for you. For a world full of positive possibilities awaits you, if you will simply lift your head and open your eyes.
You have no cause to be ashamed of who you are or where you come from. For there is so much you have to offer.
You were born to do things that have never been done, to understand things that have never been understood. You are here in this place to express the rich and unique beauty that lives within you.
Don't let the silly little dramas of each day get you down. For you are here to do great things.
-- Ralph Marston
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Here to do great things
You are worthy of all the goodness that life can hold. You are capable of making a valuable contribution to the moment you're in.
You do not need to beg for the kindness of others. For you have within you the ability to express and manifest enough kindness to fill your world.
There is no reason for you to feel sorry for yourself, and there is no point in acting in such a way that others feel sorry for you. For a world full of positive possibilities awaits you, if you will simply lift your head and open your eyes.
You have no cause to be ashamed of who you are or where you come from. For there is so much you have to offer.
You were born to do things that have never been done, to understand things that have never been understood. You are here in this place to express the rich and unique beauty that lives within you.
Don't let the silly little dramas of each day get you down. For you are here to do great things.
-- Ralph Marston
Monday, March 17, 2008
Peaceful Effectiveness
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Peaceful effectiveness
Be continually at peace with yourself, and absolutely anything is possible. Rid your mind of all inner conflict, and the outer conflicts will not matter.
Realize that you can transcend anything, and everything becomes an opportunity. Decline to be caught up in the wasteful, destructive power struggles of the world, and you'll find the real power to create according to your highest vision.
Gratefully and graciously accept each day as it comes. Let go of what has been, and eagerly take in all that is.
Choose your intentions as if they will come to life in great abundance. For when those intentions are sincerely filled with positive, meaningful purpose, they will indeed become real.
Instead of struggling to get one up on everyone else, raise your awareness to the point at which the competition is insignificant. Get in the habit of creating value, and you won't feel the need to take it from others.
To be truly effective, be truly peaceful, sincere, thankful and accepting. Find delight and fulfillment in pulling all of life forward.
-- Ralph Marston
Peaceful effectiveness
Be continually at peace with yourself, and absolutely anything is possible. Rid your mind of all inner conflict, and the outer conflicts will not matter.
Realize that you can transcend anything, and everything becomes an opportunity. Decline to be caught up in the wasteful, destructive power struggles of the world, and you'll find the real power to create according to your highest vision.
Gratefully and graciously accept each day as it comes. Let go of what has been, and eagerly take in all that is.
Choose your intentions as if they will come to life in great abundance. For when those intentions are sincerely filled with positive, meaningful purpose, they will indeed become real.
Instead of struggling to get one up on everyone else, raise your awareness to the point at which the competition is insignificant. Get in the habit of creating value, and you won't feel the need to take it from others.
To be truly effective, be truly peaceful, sincere, thankful and accepting. Find delight and fulfillment in pulling all of life forward.
-- Ralph Marston
Friday, March 14, 2008
Be Clear About Why
Friday, March 14, 2008
Be clear about why
When your reason for doing so is meaningful enough, you can bear any burden and prevail through any challenge. When you know why, you'll have what it takes to work through how.
If you have a sense that something is too complicated, that merely means that you don't have a compelling enough reason to figure it out. Know why you seek to understand, and that understanding will surely come.
Before beginning any endeavor, take the time to be completely clear with yourself about the reason why. Solidly connecting with the why will activate skills, capabilities and effectiveness that you may not have even known you had.
Whether you seek to motivate yourself or others, a fundamental, essential part of that motivation is knowing why. Without a reason, all the abilities, opportunities, efforts and resources in the world will yield nothing of any value.
Purpose is what makes possibilities come to life. Keep reminding yourself why, in rich and colorful detail, and you will find a way to do whatever you intend to do.
Before you even think about how to proceed, make sure you clearly know why. After that, you'll begin moving forward faster and more reliably than you ever could have thought possible.
-- Ralph Marston
Be clear about why
When your reason for doing so is meaningful enough, you can bear any burden and prevail through any challenge. When you know why, you'll have what it takes to work through how.
If you have a sense that something is too complicated, that merely means that you don't have a compelling enough reason to figure it out. Know why you seek to understand, and that understanding will surely come.
Before beginning any endeavor, take the time to be completely clear with yourself about the reason why. Solidly connecting with the why will activate skills, capabilities and effectiveness that you may not have even known you had.
Whether you seek to motivate yourself or others, a fundamental, essential part of that motivation is knowing why. Without a reason, all the abilities, opportunities, efforts and resources in the world will yield nothing of any value.
Purpose is what makes possibilities come to life. Keep reminding yourself why, in rich and colorful detail, and you will find a way to do whatever you intend to do.
Before you even think about how to proceed, make sure you clearly know why. After that, you'll begin moving forward faster and more reliably than you ever could have thought possible.
-- Ralph Marston
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Faithful Expression
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Faithful expression
Fulfillment does not come from grabbing and holding something outside of you. Fulfillment is brought about by being the living expression of what you value most.
The possibilities in life have no limit. Those possibilities you fulfill are the possibilities you choose to embrace and embody.
Life is whatever you can sincerely imagine it to be. Those possibilities that you conceive of, understand, and value are the ones you bring to life.
If you continually hold conflicting possibilities in your mind, then that same conflict will shape the events and circumstances of your life. Focus instead on the good, valuable, desirable possibilities that support and complement each other.
The things you seek become yours when you allow your life to express them. Think of what you can do right now, in this moment, to bring to life your most treasured dreams and values.
Every thought, every word, every action matters, and adds to the substance of your life. When all that you do faithfully expresses the person you are, life is filled with richness and meaning.
-- Ralph Marston
Faithful expression
Fulfillment does not come from grabbing and holding something outside of you. Fulfillment is brought about by being the living expression of what you value most.
The possibilities in life have no limit. Those possibilities you fulfill are the possibilities you choose to embrace and embody.
Life is whatever you can sincerely imagine it to be. Those possibilities that you conceive of, understand, and value are the ones you bring to life.
If you continually hold conflicting possibilities in your mind, then that same conflict will shape the events and circumstances of your life. Focus instead on the good, valuable, desirable possibilities that support and complement each other.
The things you seek become yours when you allow your life to express them. Think of what you can do right now, in this moment, to bring to life your most treasured dreams and values.
Every thought, every word, every action matters, and adds to the substance of your life. When all that you do faithfully expresses the person you are, life is filled with richness and meaning.
-- Ralph Marston
Monday, March 10, 2008
For the sake of note-taking
I'm going public again solely for the sake of note-taking. Anything of inspiration or messages I find noteworthy will be posted here for easy reference.
In love with life
Monday, March 10, 2008
In love with life
Fall in love again each moment with life. Breathe in the rich, new wondrous possibilities that are continually being born.
Realize what a grand opportunity exists in even the smallest of matters. Today is a day like no other, and you are magnificently blessed to be a part of all that it encompasses.
The wind blows, the sun shines, night falls, and some days bring brutal cold while others offer stifling heat. There is beauty, there is tragedy, and there is exquisite fulfillment along with bitter disappointment.
On the surface, life is filled with much adventure, activity, change, confusion, excitement, joy and frustration. Underlying it all you'll find abiding peace and goodness that can never be denied.
You have the unique, unmatched good fortune of being you, right here and right now. Take a brief moment to realize and remember who you truly are.
Then look out at the vast expanse of possibilities that surrounds you. And dive lovingly into it in your own special way.
-- Ralph Marston
In love with life
Fall in love again each moment with life. Breathe in the rich, new wondrous possibilities that are continually being born.
Realize what a grand opportunity exists in even the smallest of matters. Today is a day like no other, and you are magnificently blessed to be a part of all that it encompasses.
The wind blows, the sun shines, night falls, and some days bring brutal cold while others offer stifling heat. There is beauty, there is tragedy, and there is exquisite fulfillment along with bitter disappointment.
On the surface, life is filled with much adventure, activity, change, confusion, excitement, joy and frustration. Underlying it all you'll find abiding peace and goodness that can never be denied.
You have the unique, unmatched good fortune of being you, right here and right now. Take a brief moment to realize and remember who you truly are.
Then look out at the vast expanse of possibilities that surrounds you. And dive lovingly into it in your own special way.
-- Ralph Marston
Friday, March 7, 2008
Awareness
Osho Zen Tarot
7. Awareness
------------------------
Awareness
Mind can never be intelligent - only no-mind is intelligent. Only no-mind is original and radical. Only no-mind is revolutionary - revolution in action.
This mind gives you a sort of stupor. Burdened by the memories of the past, burdened by the projections of the future, you go on living - at the minimum. You don't live at the maximum. Your flame remains very dim.
Once you start dropping thoughts, the dust that you have collected in the past, the flame arises - clean, clear, alive, young. Your whole life becomes a flame, and a flame without any smoke. That is what awareness is.
Osho A Sudden Clash of Thunder Chapter 1
Commentary:
The veil of illusion, or maya, that has been keeping you from perceiving reality as it is, is starting to burn away. The fire is not the heated fire of passion, but the cool flame of awareness. As it burns the veil, the face of a very delicate and childlike buddha becomes visible.
The awareness that is growing in you now is not the result of any conscious "doing", nor do you need to struggle to make something happen. Any sense you might have had that you've been groping in the dark is dissolving now, or will be dissolving soon. Let yourself settle, and remember that deep inside you are just a witness, eternally silent, aware and unchanged.
A channel is now opening from the circumference of activity to that center of witnessing. It will help you to become detached, and a new awareness will lift the veil from your eyes.
7. Awareness
------------------------
Awareness
Mind can never be intelligent - only no-mind is intelligent. Only no-mind is original and radical. Only no-mind is revolutionary - revolution in action.
This mind gives you a sort of stupor. Burdened by the memories of the past, burdened by the projections of the future, you go on living - at the minimum. You don't live at the maximum. Your flame remains very dim.
Once you start dropping thoughts, the dust that you have collected in the past, the flame arises - clean, clear, alive, young. Your whole life becomes a flame, and a flame without any smoke. That is what awareness is.
Osho A Sudden Clash of Thunder Chapter 1
Commentary:
The veil of illusion, or maya, that has been keeping you from perceiving reality as it is, is starting to burn away. The fire is not the heated fire of passion, but the cool flame of awareness. As it burns the veil, the face of a very delicate and childlike buddha becomes visible.
The awareness that is growing in you now is not the result of any conscious "doing", nor do you need to struggle to make something happen. Any sense you might have had that you've been groping in the dark is dissolving now, or will be dissolving soon. Let yourself settle, and remember that deep inside you are just a witness, eternally silent, aware and unchanged.
A channel is now opening from the circumference of activity to that center of witnessing. It will help you to become detached, and a new awareness will lift the veil from your eyes.
Always enough
Friday, March 7, 2008
Always enough
Instead of striving to get where you wish to go, simply allow yourself to be there. All that is, is available to you in the moment you're in.
As long as you're trying to understand something, you will fall short. Let go of the desperate need to understand, and you'll find that the understanding is part of you already.
When you think you lack something, that blocks it from your awareness, your experience and your life. Instead of filling your thoughts with what is missing, focus on what is possible.
Relax into the limitless abundance of now. There is always enough, and it is all here for you to allow.
Life's overwhelming richness is mirrored in every little detail. The only thing separating you from that richness is the wall you imagine to be around yourself.
Allow the goodness, the possibilities, the value and joy to fill your life in this moment that is now.
-- Ralph Marston
Always enough
Instead of striving to get where you wish to go, simply allow yourself to be there. All that is, is available to you in the moment you're in.
As long as you're trying to understand something, you will fall short. Let go of the desperate need to understand, and you'll find that the understanding is part of you already.
When you think you lack something, that blocks it from your awareness, your experience and your life. Instead of filling your thoughts with what is missing, focus on what is possible.
Relax into the limitless abundance of now. There is always enough, and it is all here for you to allow.
Life's overwhelming richness is mirrored in every little detail. The only thing separating you from that richness is the wall you imagine to be around yourself.
Allow the goodness, the possibilities, the value and joy to fill your life in this moment that is now.
-- Ralph Marston
Thursday, March 6, 2008
In Plain View
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Hidden in plain view
The most valuable secret of success is that there is no secret. Success comes not from seeking to uncover some exotic hidden formula, but rather through persistently following through on opportunities to create value.
The best shortcut to achievement is to avoid looking for a shortcut. Simply get busy and do the work required, for that is the quickest way to reach the goal you've set.
The most effective way to handle what must be done is to do it. Procrastinating, agonizing, complaining and avoiding will only prolong the task and add greater difficulty to it.
Life is not always easy, and wishing for things to be easier will usually make them more difficult. The time-tested strategy for making life truly easier is to go ahead and work through each challenge as it comes along.
By so doing, you grow stronger, more capable, more effective and more experienced. You put yourself in position to live life on your own terms.
The route to success is no secret, and is in fact hidden in plain view. Use every opportunity to make a difference, and you'll go precisely where you choose to go.
-- Ralph Marston
Hidden in plain view
The most valuable secret of success is that there is no secret. Success comes not from seeking to uncover some exotic hidden formula, but rather through persistently following through on opportunities to create value.
The best shortcut to achievement is to avoid looking for a shortcut. Simply get busy and do the work required, for that is the quickest way to reach the goal you've set.
The most effective way to handle what must be done is to do it. Procrastinating, agonizing, complaining and avoiding will only prolong the task and add greater difficulty to it.
Life is not always easy, and wishing for things to be easier will usually make them more difficult. The time-tested strategy for making life truly easier is to go ahead and work through each challenge as it comes along.
By so doing, you grow stronger, more capable, more effective and more experienced. You put yourself in position to live life on your own terms.
The route to success is no secret, and is in fact hidden in plain view. Use every opportunity to make a difference, and you'll go precisely where you choose to go.
-- Ralph Marston
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Vibration of Fear, a Feeling of Powerlessness
-- by Esther and Jerry Hicks
Question: What causes my fear?
Abraham: Fear is the feeling sensation that is present within you when you have both a desire and a belief that contradicts it. Fear is a response to the state of your vibration. You are a vibrational being, and every moment offering a signal. Your vibration could be called thought, it could be called memory, it could be called fantasy, it could be called imagination, it could be called Energy. In other words, your vibration could be called, "As I stand in my now, and I think about the present, or I think about the future, or I think about the past -- all of that is thought. Whatever it is I'm perceiving is causing me to offer a vibration, and that vibration is being answered or matched by All-That-Is.
So when I feel fear, what it always means is, I am offering a thought that you might call desire and a thought that you might call belief that are contradictory. The presence of fear always means the presence of resistance. The presence of resistance always means not allowing the Energy of desire to flow through me--always, without exception. Same with confusion; same with vulnerability; same with anger; same with unworthiness; same with guilt. All negative emotions mean the same thing. You just call them different things because they play out differently in your experience -- but they all mean the same thing.
The vibration of fear is usually a very strong vibration, which usually means there is the presence of a very strong desire within you. Often, when you feel fear, it is because you have a belief that contradicts basic elements that are natural to you. Your natural instinct, from your broadest Nonphysical perspective, is to know your power. Fear is a vibration when you feel powerless. Your natural instinctual Nonphysical vibration is to know your worthiness, know your rightness, know your value. And the feeling of fear is always when you are contradicting that thought.
We would want you to say, "Quite a bit of the time I feel fearful or vulnerable or limited, and what that feeling means is: I'm in that moment holding a desire that contradicts my past thought, or my beliefs..." Remember that a belief is just a thought you keep thinking, it's just a habit of thought. It's just sort of the way you've always thought it, and so it is the way you are now thinking it.
And so, as you are feeling fear, all it means is, "I've got a desire that my belief is not agreeing with. Now, what thought feels better about this? I've got hold of this stick, where my desire is here, my belief is here. What thought feels better?" And as you just softly talk to yourself about that subject, reaching for the thought that feels better, what happens is you shift the Energy.
It's like the teeter-totter on the fulcrum, and it's clearly down here, and you would like it to be up here. And so, you reach for the thought that feels better, and you reach for the thought that feels better, and you reach for the thought that feels better...and it doesn't look like anything's happening. And then, all of a sudden, one more time, you reach for the thought that feels better, and there it goes! The fear is gone without even knowing it, just by reaching for the thought that feels better. There is so much reward in just feeling better in your "now". Because, so often, you're wanting to reach for the thought that feels better because, "Whoop-de-doo, this is big time good fun!" In other words, "I want to get there! I would like every effort to take me there. I would like every thought that I think, and every time I go to a workshop, and every time I make a little bit of effort, I would like it to take me there!" And it's irritating that it doesn't take you there, to that manifestation.
We want you to not get so hung up on the manifestation, and start taking pleasure in the incremental relief. Pleasure in the fact that this feels a little better. Pleasure in the fact that you can actually, with your own will power and your own determination, choose a thought that feels better.
It is Unnatural to Not Feel Good
We offer an analogy, about the cork bobbing on the body of water. It's up here floating, floating, floating. And in our analogy this cork is bobbing in the place of Pure Positive Energy. When you take hold of the cork and hold it under the water, that's what negative emotion is. You're not allowing the natural quality of the cork, you're doing something that does not allow the cork to do what it usually would do. You're holding it in an unnatural place with your attention to this thought of something that you do not want.
But when you withdraw your attention from it, and you let go of the cork, it bobs right back up there. It is natural for you to be in this pure positive place. It is unnatural for you not to feel good. But what happens in your physical environment where you've been trained by other humans who didn't feel so good either, is that you've come to accept the way you feel as being the natural way that you feel.
And now, through meditation, or through consciously reaching for the better feeling, you set higher standards. Until then it becomes consciously uncomfortable for you to dip into the lower Energies. You will never be at a place where you won't feel negative emotion. Nor would we ever want you to be at that place, because that would be like shooting Novocaine into your fingers so that you don't feel anything hot or sharp. You say, "Well, it sure is a lot better now that I can bang my hands on things. You know, I can shut my hands in car doors and it doesn't even bother me any more. I feel no pain." But it's not good for your fingers. Pretty soon you have flat, little flabby hands flapping around. You've destroyed your hands, even though it was painless.
And so, that's what that fear is. It's sort of an acquiescence. It's submission to a vibration that's not natural to who you really are. And you're awakening now to those higher standards.
Take mood checks and ask yourself, what is my mood? Well, I'm feeling fearful. And then ask yourself, well overall, do I have reason to fear? And as you reach for the more general statement, you recognize, you don't have anything to be fearful about.
We think what you're doing is sort of very specifically, channeling the worries of a larger mass consciousness. You are susceptible to Energy. And so, for example, if you were living in a retirement community where there were many people who were feeling vulnerable about their money, or feeling worried about what their future would provide, and you are sensitive to Energy, you could very well be picking up on the consensus of the group around you, even though it has nothing to do with who you are.
But you must have a little spattering of that within you, or you could not be finding harmony with that greater consensus. Every thought that has ever been thought exists. And then, by Law of Attraction, those thoughts coalesce, so that there are pockets of Thought Forms. And so, very often, just driving from city to city, if you are sensitive to vibration, you can feel different Energies in different cities. Well, what we are wanting you to do, is get so good at setting your own Tone, that it doesn't matter what the fluctuations of Energies are around you, you are always holding a steady course.
Question: What causes my fear?
Abraham: Fear is the feeling sensation that is present within you when you have both a desire and a belief that contradicts it. Fear is a response to the state of your vibration. You are a vibrational being, and every moment offering a signal. Your vibration could be called thought, it could be called memory, it could be called fantasy, it could be called imagination, it could be called Energy. In other words, your vibration could be called, "As I stand in my now, and I think about the present, or I think about the future, or I think about the past -- all of that is thought. Whatever it is I'm perceiving is causing me to offer a vibration, and that vibration is being answered or matched by All-That-Is.
So when I feel fear, what it always means is, I am offering a thought that you might call desire and a thought that you might call belief that are contradictory. The presence of fear always means the presence of resistance. The presence of resistance always means not allowing the Energy of desire to flow through me--always, without exception. Same with confusion; same with vulnerability; same with anger; same with unworthiness; same with guilt. All negative emotions mean the same thing. You just call them different things because they play out differently in your experience -- but they all mean the same thing.
The vibration of fear is usually a very strong vibration, which usually means there is the presence of a very strong desire within you. Often, when you feel fear, it is because you have a belief that contradicts basic elements that are natural to you. Your natural instinct, from your broadest Nonphysical perspective, is to know your power. Fear is a vibration when you feel powerless. Your natural instinctual Nonphysical vibration is to know your worthiness, know your rightness, know your value. And the feeling of fear is always when you are contradicting that thought.
We would want you to say, "Quite a bit of the time I feel fearful or vulnerable or limited, and what that feeling means is: I'm in that moment holding a desire that contradicts my past thought, or my beliefs..." Remember that a belief is just a thought you keep thinking, it's just a habit of thought. It's just sort of the way you've always thought it, and so it is the way you are now thinking it.
And so, as you are feeling fear, all it means is, "I've got a desire that my belief is not agreeing with. Now, what thought feels better about this? I've got hold of this stick, where my desire is here, my belief is here. What thought feels better?" And as you just softly talk to yourself about that subject, reaching for the thought that feels better, what happens is you shift the Energy.
It's like the teeter-totter on the fulcrum, and it's clearly down here, and you would like it to be up here. And so, you reach for the thought that feels better, and you reach for the thought that feels better, and you reach for the thought that feels better...and it doesn't look like anything's happening. And then, all of a sudden, one more time, you reach for the thought that feels better, and there it goes! The fear is gone without even knowing it, just by reaching for the thought that feels better. There is so much reward in just feeling better in your "now". Because, so often, you're wanting to reach for the thought that feels better because, "Whoop-de-doo, this is big time good fun!" In other words, "I want to get there! I would like every effort to take me there. I would like every thought that I think, and every time I go to a workshop, and every time I make a little bit of effort, I would like it to take me there!" And it's irritating that it doesn't take you there, to that manifestation.
We want you to not get so hung up on the manifestation, and start taking pleasure in the incremental relief. Pleasure in the fact that this feels a little better. Pleasure in the fact that you can actually, with your own will power and your own determination, choose a thought that feels better.
It is Unnatural to Not Feel Good
We offer an analogy, about the cork bobbing on the body of water. It's up here floating, floating, floating. And in our analogy this cork is bobbing in the place of Pure Positive Energy. When you take hold of the cork and hold it under the water, that's what negative emotion is. You're not allowing the natural quality of the cork, you're doing something that does not allow the cork to do what it usually would do. You're holding it in an unnatural place with your attention to this thought of something that you do not want.
But when you withdraw your attention from it, and you let go of the cork, it bobs right back up there. It is natural for you to be in this pure positive place. It is unnatural for you not to feel good. But what happens in your physical environment where you've been trained by other humans who didn't feel so good either, is that you've come to accept the way you feel as being the natural way that you feel.
And now, through meditation, or through consciously reaching for the better feeling, you set higher standards. Until then it becomes consciously uncomfortable for you to dip into the lower Energies. You will never be at a place where you won't feel negative emotion. Nor would we ever want you to be at that place, because that would be like shooting Novocaine into your fingers so that you don't feel anything hot or sharp. You say, "Well, it sure is a lot better now that I can bang my hands on things. You know, I can shut my hands in car doors and it doesn't even bother me any more. I feel no pain." But it's not good for your fingers. Pretty soon you have flat, little flabby hands flapping around. You've destroyed your hands, even though it was painless.
And so, that's what that fear is. It's sort of an acquiescence. It's submission to a vibration that's not natural to who you really are. And you're awakening now to those higher standards.
Take mood checks and ask yourself, what is my mood? Well, I'm feeling fearful. And then ask yourself, well overall, do I have reason to fear? And as you reach for the more general statement, you recognize, you don't have anything to be fearful about.
We think what you're doing is sort of very specifically, channeling the worries of a larger mass consciousness. You are susceptible to Energy. And so, for example, if you were living in a retirement community where there were many people who were feeling vulnerable about their money, or feeling worried about what their future would provide, and you are sensitive to Energy, you could very well be picking up on the consensus of the group around you, even though it has nothing to do with who you are.
But you must have a little spattering of that within you, or you could not be finding harmony with that greater consensus. Every thought that has ever been thought exists. And then, by Law of Attraction, those thoughts coalesce, so that there are pockets of Thought Forms. And so, very often, just driving from city to city, if you are sensitive to vibration, you can feel different Energies in different cities. Well, what we are wanting you to do, is get so good at setting your own Tone, that it doesn't matter what the fluctuations of Energies are around you, you are always holding a steady course.
Daily Motivators
(3/4/08) The Chorus of All That Is:
You are part of a greater whole. Without you, the whole cannot fully express itself, and without the whole, you are desperately empty.
You are vitally and uniquely important. But that does not make you more important than others. Your thoughts, ideas and actions have the power to transform. But that doesn't give you the right to overwhelm.
Instead, it gives you the obligation to serve. It gives you the opportunity to contribute to something bigger than yourself, something that gracefully encompasses all you are.
By so giving, you enlarge your own life and the world around you. By so giving, you create real value and meaning, and experience profound fulfillment.
Sing your own song, with a passion that comes from the center of your being. And delight in how beautifully it resonates within the chorus of all that is.
-- Ralph Marston
(3/3/08) The Future Is Bright:
The future is bright. Because the future is created by positive people.
Those who are negative make a lot of noise about how bad things are. Those who are positive quietly and steadily make a lot of real improvements and contributions to life.
There are always problems and there are always challenges. And there are always people willing to transform those challenges into great opportunities.
Those who have the courage, commitment and discipline to follow their own best dreams, bring the rest of the world along with them. Those who choose to do the best they can with what they have, create a better life for everyone.
For every high-profile guru of doom who wails about how hopeless and unfair life is, there are millions of others working tirelessly to make life better than ever. For every frightening crisis that is breathlessly reported, there are millions of real, meaningful success stories that don't get noticed, but that do have enormous positive influence.
Negative people obsess over the past while positive people work their way eagerly toward the future. Life gets better and better when you choose to make it so, and the future is bright indeed.
-- Ralph Marston
You are part of a greater whole. Without you, the whole cannot fully express itself, and without the whole, you are desperately empty.
You are vitally and uniquely important. But that does not make you more important than others. Your thoughts, ideas and actions have the power to transform. But that doesn't give you the right to overwhelm.
Instead, it gives you the obligation to serve. It gives you the opportunity to contribute to something bigger than yourself, something that gracefully encompasses all you are.
By so giving, you enlarge your own life and the world around you. By so giving, you create real value and meaning, and experience profound fulfillment.
Sing your own song, with a passion that comes from the center of your being. And delight in how beautifully it resonates within the chorus of all that is.
-- Ralph Marston
(3/3/08) The Future Is Bright:
The future is bright. Because the future is created by positive people.
Those who are negative make a lot of noise about how bad things are. Those who are positive quietly and steadily make a lot of real improvements and contributions to life.
There are always problems and there are always challenges. And there are always people willing to transform those challenges into great opportunities.
Those who have the courage, commitment and discipline to follow their own best dreams, bring the rest of the world along with them. Those who choose to do the best they can with what they have, create a better life for everyone.
For every high-profile guru of doom who wails about how hopeless and unfair life is, there are millions of others working tirelessly to make life better than ever. For every frightening crisis that is breathlessly reported, there are millions of real, meaningful success stories that don't get noticed, but that do have enormous positive influence.
Negative people obsess over the past while positive people work their way eagerly toward the future. Life gets better and better when you choose to make it so, and the future is bright indeed.
-- Ralph Marston
Jumping Over The Past
by Gloria Wendroff
"... What I desire to the exclusion of all else is that you be happy, and be happy with yourself, your beautiful self, as you are, without your doubts and faultfinding.
... The world will tell you to atone and repent. I do not. I tell you to leave all that behind and move on. Say so long to it. You are not who you were yesterday, that is, who you thought you were yesterday.
I tell you to forget the past because it was only a blip anyway. It is no longer. It actually never was. You can see that it is past, and yet you have not reconciled to yourself that the past is behind you. You do tend to keep the past in front of you as if it were a shield or a placard or notes for you to memorize. You do like to keep the past in sight while it really behooves you to abandon it. It matters not whether you are grateful for the past any more than it matters if you feel intimidated by it. Get past it.
The past is no more than leaves that have fallen. Do not even rake up the leaves of the past. Just leave them where they lie. The past is not for posterity. It is meant to be jumped over. Drop it off the cliff of your mind. Say Sayonara to it.
Be My simple child who comes to Me today the same way a child brings his mother a dandelion. What you offer Me is yourself, and I am so pleased with what you offer Me. When you offer Me yourself, you offer Me love, and that is exactly what I offer you."
"... What I desire to the exclusion of all else is that you be happy, and be happy with yourself, your beautiful self, as you are, without your doubts and faultfinding.
... The world will tell you to atone and repent. I do not. I tell you to leave all that behind and move on. Say so long to it. You are not who you were yesterday, that is, who you thought you were yesterday.
I tell you to forget the past because it was only a blip anyway. It is no longer. It actually never was. You can see that it is past, and yet you have not reconciled to yourself that the past is behind you. You do tend to keep the past in front of you as if it were a shield or a placard or notes for you to memorize. You do like to keep the past in sight while it really behooves you to abandon it. It matters not whether you are grateful for the past any more than it matters if you feel intimidated by it. Get past it.
The past is no more than leaves that have fallen. Do not even rake up the leaves of the past. Just leave them where they lie. The past is not for posterity. It is meant to be jumped over. Drop it off the cliff of your mind. Say Sayonara to it.
Be My simple child who comes to Me today the same way a child brings his mother a dandelion. What you offer Me is yourself, and I am so pleased with what you offer Me. When you offer Me yourself, you offer Me love, and that is exactly what I offer you."
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