Living from the Heart

You Tube - Yoga Nidra.wmv

2011-09-25T20:57:00.000-05:00

Passioneering Moment #4: 100 Things that You Love

2011-02-17T21:21:00.000-06:00

Passioneering Moment #3: Let Go and Get Messy in Unleashing Your Passions

2011-01-28T21:46:00.000-06:00

There is Good Here

2010-06-28T22:42:00.003-05:00

Take a minute and watch the video, and when your heart is moved to help build a school in Cambodia, help out. It feels good and I am glad to be a part of it. Spread the joy and love to these children. Proceeds from the sale of the download for the CD go to help the children of Cambodia. The download is 99 cents.
Here's the direct link for the download. Every one helps! http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/DavidAult

Dare to Dream

2009-11-23T23:03:00.002-06:00

I learned this, at least, by my experiment;
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
from the "Conclusion" to Walden by Henry David Thoreau

For several years in talking to my sons, I have talked about pursuing their dreams, and yet found myself unable to take the risk for myself. The weekend of Nov 13, 2008, at a retreat in Northern Minnesota on Gull Lake the idea and dream surfaced and an active discussion followed. This time, it went further than dreams and idle talk, but actually moved into a mind mapping of the idea, and before long we had on paper given some hard reasons to follow the dream.

We listed the advantages and disadvantages to pursuing the venture of building small houses, tiny cabins, tiny homes, and tiny houses. The experience side started with the ability to design small house plans and cabin plans, then use those small house plans to build the actual small house and tiny green cabins.

For Experience; I do have 35 years of carpentry and management experience in building small and large houses of all types and styles; managing crews, design teams, manufacturing departments, and improvement teams for businesses.

Another advantage is the location of property that is owned on a busy highway, along with a large shop building to build small houses and tiny cabins, and a display area on highway 61 for showing off the completed tiny cabins. The highway has a traffic count of 10,000 hits a day and projected to 25,000 within 5 years. The potential is there for a lot of growth.

The downside of all the advantages is the state of the economy, locally and nationally. And if a business makes it in this environment, it will definitely be strategically ready when the business climate recovers. And it will recover!

Part of the planning of the business, besides drawing small house plans, and building a model of a tiny cabin, is having a network of support in the venture, be it financial, emotional or mentoring. Rev. Nancy Herrick from Our Spiritual Center , Elizabeth Traff, Carol Austin from Cross Dental Care, Daisy Mckinley, Jerry Wescott, and Bill Schmidt along with many others provided emotional support, guidance, and a open forum to bounce ideas around with. I thank each of these special friends for being along with me on this journey.

This blog, will follow that dream, and currently, I am in the stage of writing the business plan and laying out the website. Thinking funding would be limited, there was a concern, until a friend who believed in the dream offered hard cash as an investor. I know this dream is taking hold and all I need to do is follow the steps of the dream and hold onto the trolley strap for the ride. Italics from Wayne Dyers book, "Power of Intention"

Here's Thoreau's cabin:

This Thing Called You

2009-01-10T08:18:00.002-06:00

From This Thing Called YOU by Ernest Holmes
Chapter 1, pg 13

The barriers between you and your greater good are not barriers in themselves. They are things of thought. It is because of this that all things are possible to faith. Jesus summed up the whole proposition when he said, "It is done unto you as you believe." In interpreting this saying, however, you must pause after the word as. Think about its meaning and you will discover that he was saying that life not only responds to your belief, it responds after the manner of your believing, as you believe. It is like a mirror reflecting the image of your belief.

While the laws of mind, like all laws of nature, are neutral, good must finally overcome evil. Evil is a negation. Good is positive. Like light and darkness - darkness cannot overcome light, but light can neutralize darkness. This is why Jesus said if you seek the Kingdom first "everything else" is included all things in this life that make for full livingness and joy, peace and happiness, health and harmony, and the success that rightfully belongs to a Divine Being.

The only warning Jesus made against the use of this highest law of your being was that it should not be used destructively. "...for all they take the sword shall perish with the sword." The Kingdom of God contains everything that is or could be disirable. This everything already exists as a potential something to be drawn upon. You may use this potential for any good purpose, not only with certainty of success but with safety. It is only when we use natural forces wrongly that they can destroy, and it is ordained that this destruction be of a temporary nature.

You wish to use the laws of your being in such a way that they cannot bring evil to yourself or others. Therefore, you must be certain that your desire is toward more life for everyone, including yourself. If you follow this rule you cannot use the law wrongly.

There is a law of faith and belief which is just as definite as any other law in nature. This law utilizes the Creative Principle of Life in such a way that all lesser uses of It become submerged. This is the triumphof Spirit.

BLESSING:

There is a Power for good in the universe, available to everyone, part of
each soul's journey, and I can learn to use it wonderfully. This power is my
Power of attention, for what I contemplate, I become. This is the eternal
spiritual law, and nothing can stop it. I can rail against it, complain
about it, or whimper about life not being fair. But ultimately, it is done
unto me as I believe.

I know that in truth, life is just. My habits of attention and perception
literally create the experience I have in the world. I choose to pay
attention to that which is life-supporting, that which nurtures and
encourages. I choose to place my attention on that which draws out of me a
greater Self, a stronger identification with The Self. This isn't about
ego-boosting; it's about Soul-freeing! I see the world as the play of
Spirit, unfolding from unseen substance. I see the actions and choices of
others as Spirit's action through the form of others. There's nothing to
fear here, for we're all part of the same great Soul, all on the same team.
I refuse to think in terms of separation or duality, and because I think in
terms of Unity and Wholeness, that's what I experience.

Because I discover the purity and the beauty and the grace even in the
middle of absolute chaos, I find an unshakable order within. Nothing can
get a rise out of me, for I am rooted deeply in spirit. And for this I am
grateful. And so it is.

Seeds for Thought

2008-09-01T08:13:00.002-05:00

"Where love is present, miracles happen. Where the consciousness of God is present - the desire and willingness to love - there God is, for He is invoked through our willingness to serve His children. Commitment to love produces expanded possibilities."
Marianne Williamson

"A still mind is inherently tolerant. Because minds are already joined, only a busy mind can block communication. The ability to see another person clearly springs from gentle tolerance, not from scrutiny. Tolerance is the child of stillness."
Hugh Prather

"Your ego can blame as many people as you want for the choices you make, but at the end of the day, your conscience - your soul - does not assign blame."
Carolyn Myss

"The ego doesn't know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now. Or maybe it does know, and it is afraid that you might this out. Peace, after all, is the end of the ego."
Eckhart Tolle

Seeds for Thought

2008-08-29T20:39:00.002-05:00

"Asking the Holy Spirit to heal us when we are sick means asking him to heal the thoughts within us that give rise to sickness." ~ Marianne Williamson

"Commitment does not preclude peace, and peace does not preclude commitment. Most of us think we are in situations we should not have to accept and around people we should not have to endure. Yet the life of every saint, prophet, and master is a story of acceptance that endures and endurance that accepts." ~ Hugh Prather

"You can tell yourself that you do indeed trust in this God, but do you really believe that your basic needs will be met in life? Do you require order in your physical world to feel safe? What do you pray for? How many prayers do you offer for safety? For protection? How many prayers do you make that stem from your desire to survive? How many prayers do you offer in surrender? How much do you fear that if you surrender, God will reduce you to poverty? Do you still need a reason for even one experience or trauma that happened to you? Do you still question why chaos swept through your life and reordered the plans you had?" ~ Carolyn Myss

"Negativity is not intelligent. It is always of the ego. The ego may be clever, but it is not intelligent. Cleverness pursues its own little aims. Intelligence sees the larger whole in which all things are connected. Cleverness is motivated by self-interest, and it is extremely short-sighted. Most politicians and businesspeople are clever. Very few are intelligent. Whatever is attained through cleverness is short-lived and always turns out to be eventually self-defeating. Cleverness divides; intelligence includes." ~ Eckhart Tolle

A Contemplative Moment

2008-05-11T07:50:00.002-05:00

The Sunday group that I belong to is currently reading "A Contemplative Life," by Joel Goldsmith and the question was posed, does anyone live a contemplative life? A contemplative life defined by Goldsmith is, I am consciously one with God, I am instantaneously one within the good necessary for my experience. The unfoldment of scriptural truth is, “I and my Father are one.” The initial answer from several was no, it cannot be achieved. The initial look at the question may lure you into thinking no one does, as we may think it refers to all of the time. The question posed does not state all of the time, and so in reply, the answer is "yes" we do for brief instances, fleeting moments. And as we mature into our spiritual growth, we start having longer fleeting instances.

One of the real issues is that in this US culture, we think or expect it to happen at the moment we envision it or desire it. We have Wendy's, McDonalds, drive thru coffee dispensers, and just by slowing down to go thru a drive thru, we do get whatever super sized we want at that instant. And off we zoom, with an eye on the time.

We have not learned patience, and not really let go, as we still have an expectation tied to those brief instances. We WANT a spiritual life and a contemplative life now! We want that fleeting moment all of the time, now, not years from now. This culture has a focus on time, and possibly one of the reasons is that this country is a young country. The other part may be our Puritan ancestors coming over on the Mayflower and engraining into all of us not to waste time. We do not see buildings, or history beyond maybe three to four hundred years old. In other parts of the world, buildings, monuments, and generations of tombstones of family members are within walking distance, and are thousands of years old. Those cultures also seem to be not as wired into "what time is it" as we are.

So we keep running, and running as the following poem speaks of.

“Now I become Myself” by May Sarton

Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

We do not take the time to understand, to reclaim our lost self, and see the sun stand still. Have you noticed that when we have stop running, we then notice that time is irrelevant, and the only relevancy is seeing and being love? It is this moment that counts, as this is the only moment we really have. We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us day and night. I have noticed that for me, when the sun stops, I am being of service in some way to someone. I am living my life thru love.

As Jack Kornfield writes in “A Path with Heart”

“Each state we encounter will succumb to the next. There is no way to avoid the transitions of our life. The chief means of entering them gracefully is to practice them mindfully over and over again. It is like learning to ride a horse: over and over again walking, trotting, cantering, over smooth and rough terrain, mounting and dismounting, starting and stopping, until it becomes possible for us to move through life in a graceful conscious way. In moving through the difficult stages of our lives, we can learn to trust our heart to these cycles and their unfolding as surely as we can trust roots to go down and leaves to push up through the earth in our garden We can trust each petal of a flower will open in the right order from outside to inside. We can trust that whatever calls our attention to practice – our body, our personal history, the community around us – in or out or retreat, it will bring to us what we need to live fully and genuinely in the timeless here and now."

Namaste

Feelings

2008-05-11T06:20:00.002-05:00

I'm big on feeling feelings. I am an advocate of knowing what one feels. I'll get behind just about anyone who wants to know more about what they feel. Why? Because without feelings I couldn't tell if I was alive or dead. For years, I saw myself as this masculine lone wolf, capable of surviving anything all by myself. I have been working hard to regain awareness of my emotional self. I am now reasonably sensitive to my feelings and for the most part I honor them.

Sometimes I still drop the ball. I don't like feeling "hurt". Because I have trouble welcoming feeling hurt. I don't notice it as quickly as the rest of my emotions. I deny it. I stuff it. I hide it from myself. I get angry with myself for allowing myself to feel and be open to feeling hurt. Last night, I was hurt and angry at myself more than my friend. And I was angry at my friend for admonishing and attacking me on what I had worked hard on in front of the group.

Then, this morning, sitting quietly as I do every morning, I meditated. I wasn't angry with my friend any longer, but I felt unfinished. Something in me was bugging me, wanting recognition. I had been angry with myself for seemingly falling short and failing.

Here's part of what I have learned. I have a judgment against feeling hurt. It is unmanly to admit feeling hurt. Feeling hurt means I am not using the lessons I've studied over the years as tools to take care of myself. So, I feel ashamed of myself as a failure. Feeling hurt and saying so makes me vulnerable to further hurt. I could go on and on, but you get my drift. I admit that I just don't like that damn feeling.

What this means is that as long as I hang on to my judgment against the feeling I will continue to fall victim to it. If I want to grow up, truly be a spiritual being, I have to come to terms with accepting feeling hurt with more warmth. I have to embrace it with love and see the gift in the moment. If I deny hurt feelings, and I do at times, I shut off the flow of all other feelings and I like a lot of them. Since they all rise from the same place within me, if I put the cork in the jug, so to speak, nothing moves. I feel no appreciation, no joy, no warmth, no tenderness, and no heart presence at all. I don't like being without heart presence because I feel the same way when I saw myself as a lone wolf. I feel dead inside and untouchable. That is a very lonely place to be inside of me. I can understand why being shunned is considered the ultimate punishment of one person by another. When I'm untouchable I have effectively shunned myself out of contact with anyone outside myself. The feeling sucks.

So, the task at hand for me is to look openly at my judgment against feeling hurt and its relatives. You know, feeling ignored, unheard, dismissed, or otherwise out of touch with other people.

What's the core of the lesson I'm learning? That when I feel hurt I am far better off to announce it and immediately see if that's what is intended by the other person, rather than to deny the feeling and end up getting angst with friends. I still have work to do on angst with myself.

A teacher told me four things were necessary to make a relationship work between people. Remember, these are my brothers and sisters in the spiritual sense.

One: a willingness to be vulnerable.

Two: a willingness to give up control.

Three: a willingness to feel hurt, again.

Four: a willingness to hurt someone else, again.

I no longer see myself as a lone wolf capable of surviving anything all by myself. I like being in relationships with other human beings. There's nourishment in them. Some kind of sustenance. And, I am unwilling to continue to disrupt them unnecessarily all due to my unwillingness to feel hurt and say it aloud. I may screw up again, but I'm willing to bet it won't take near as long for me to make a correction next time. It's time for me to learn it is innocent to say, "Ouch!"

Snips

2008-02-13T07:11:00.001-06:00

Life, at its best, is a flowing, changing process in which nothing is fixed. I find I am at my best when I can let the flow of my experience carry me, in a direction which appears to be forward, toward a goal of which I am but dimly aware. In thus floating with the complex stream of my experiencing and in trying to understand its ever-changing complexity, it should be evident that there are no fixed points. When I am thus able to be in the process, it is clear that there can be no closed system of beliefs, no unchanging set of principles that I hold. Life is guide by a changing of and interpretation of my experience. It is always in process of becoming.
Carl Rogers

You're free now, free to take the journey of a lifetime. Free to experience life, in it's newness, its freshness, its magic-in a way you never have before.
The only limitations on you are the ones you've placed on yourself. Your prison has been of your own making. Don't blame or chastise yourself. Life has created certain challenges for you. But the purpose hasn't been to imprison you. The purpose has been to set you free, to provide you with lessons, experiences, circumstances that would trigger growth and healing. Life has been provoking, promoting, urging you to grow, stretch, learn, heal. Life has been trying to break you out of your prison.
Set yourself free. Let yourself go on journey of love. Take notes. Be present. Experience. Learn. Love and laugh, and cry when you need to. Rest when you're tired. Take a flashlight to help you see in the dark. But most of all, take yourself and go.
Melody Beattie ©

You are a once-in-a-universe kind of person. No one can ask God what matters to you but you. No one will receive the exact Guidance as you. And in accepting what may at first seem illogical or confounding, you open to a bigger space where God's love can move through you and benefit others in ways you cannot begin to imagine.
Mary Manin Morrissey

There is a power for good in the Universe, greater than we are, available to everyone, and we can use it.
Ernest Holmes

Snips

2008-01-25T10:08:00.000-06:00

Feelings are our bodies signaling us that we need something we are not getting at the moment. They are the "stuff" of which close, intimate relationships are made. They are the nourishment of the psyche, mind and heart. They enrich and add passion to our experience of being alive. Suppress them and you miss out. Identify and express them and you become a lot happier and more fulfilled.
Lloyd Thomas

Can you imagine what your life would be like if you simply dropped your complaints? It's a radical proposal, since most of us have been trained to question, analyze, and criticize everything we see. But then we end up questioning, analyzing, and criticizing ourselves. Then we miss out on joy, the only true measure of success.
Alan Cohen

"Do not expect or think things should be certain way. They never or rarely are. It is wonderful to plan, but be able to move freely."
Ron Rathbun

"Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life-- learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some."
Robert Fulghum

Perception has a focus. It is this that gives consistency to what you see. Change but this focus, and what you behold will change accordingly. Your vision now will shift, to give support to the intent which has replaced the one you held before.
ACIM

Daily Guide

2008-01-23T07:28:00.000-06:00

Ask the large questions, but seek small answers. A flower, or the space between a branch and a rock, these are enough.
Kent Nerburn, Small Graces

We can sit in the shade or move into the sunshine.
The Science of Mind, page 411

In the Details

My young friend was talking about the flame orange tree she had just seen and the rush of appreciation it gave her. Then, as she realized the color was a short-lived phenomenon, gone just a few days, she felt sad. She asked, "How do I learn to trust that there will be something else beautiful?" My friend Margie replied, "Life is in the details. There is something in every scene that sparkles."

If we look for beauty, and expect it to be there, it will be there. Beauty is a glimpse of the divine. The sparkle originates in the focus of the beholder. In this moment, we may see beauty in the colors of a sunset. In the next, the divine appears as laughter with a friend. Then, we might appreciate the softly glowing cheek of a baby. Now, we see the brilliance of reflected light, catching a wind swell on the water. Next, we catch the scent of ruby raspberries in the winter time. We may cherish the rush of hot water in our showers, or the sound of our furnace chasing away the chill in a winter room.

There is nowhere joy is not, once we tune into the frequency and invite it to
come play with us. Rumi said, “Every object, every being, is a jar full of delight. Be a connoisseur.”

Today I am a connoisseur of life. I look for the beauty in everyone and everything I encounter. My life sparkles.

Snips

2008-01-23T07:08:00.000-06:00

The void is where God is. Empty places, empty moments are not really empty; they're pregnant. God is the potential fullness gushing out from every empty space, the ever-present possibility of a magic moment or miraculous thought. Off the blank page jumps a cosmic summons to write your own names. Out of that silence came the opening chords of Beethoven's Fifth. We try to consume the external, to give us a feeling of internal satisfaction. And yet we cannot satisfy that yearning, because nothing outside of us is the stuff for which we hunger. The more we grab, the less centered we are. And so we disintegrate; we do not grow. We take on the characteristics of neurotic, needy people, for that is who we decide to be when we look to the world for what the word cannot give us.
Marianne Williamson

At moments in our lives when we really need help, the universe moves to support us in ways that may seem strange to us. Angels sometimes show up in our lives in odd bodies, odd shapes, odd forms, odd experiences. Our job is to keep our hearts open to angels in disguise.
Mary Manin Morrissey

Looking for God is like seeking a path in a field of snow; if there is no path and you are looking for one, walk across it and there is your path.
Thomas Merton

There is a Divine current that will bear us with peace and safety on its bosom if we are sufficiently alert and determined to find it – and go with it. The natural, normal life is by a law divine under the guidance of the Spirit.
Ralph Waldo Trine

We can learn a great deal from the nature of a tree if we are open to the lesson. Watch how a tree bends and sways gracefully when the wind blows against it. It does not stand rigid, resisting the flow of energy. It does not push back. The tree accepts the strong wind as a blessing that helps it grow. Like a tree, we too need the contrast of the winds of life pushing against us. In those times, we need to remember that God is the soil, the essential foundation upon which we grow our lives. Then we can view the challenges in our lives as blessings. It is that contrast that develops our character and deepens our spiritual roots in the soil of God’s presence and power. Be flexible . . . bend and sway with the wind. Grow deep and you will stand tall.
Dennis Merritt Jones

Your thoughts are tools that you use in affirming the Creative Power into your experience.
Ernest Holmes

Snips

2008-01-19T14:00:00.000-06:00

"..... when people know each other well, they create an implicit joint memory system - a
transactive memory system - which is based on an understanding about who is best suited to
remember what kind of things"
Malcolm Gladwell

Good is the enemy of great.
And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great………Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.
Jim Collins

One of the biggest lessons on the spiritual journey is learning to love unconditionally. However, what is often overlooked, is the importance of loving yourself along with everything else. After all, aren't you a part of the whole of Life? There's a wonderful Japanese poem - a haiku - which cleverly illustrates this. It goes, "On my horse, clip-clopping through the field. Oho! I'm part of the picture!" As you grow to realize that you are an integral part of Life's grand picture, it becomes clear that loving yourself along with everything else is part of the mission.
Jim Malloy

"The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own furtive of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit; bad thought, bad fruit.
James Allen

Oh, I sing grandeurs and glories about you! You have not known who you are. You have slumbered upon yourself all your life. The mockeries are not you; Underneath them and within them I see you lurk. Whoever you are, claim your own!
Walt Whitman

You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stomp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
Shakti Gawain

"A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without."
Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

Daily Thought

2008-01-15T16:28:00.000-06:00

We're like the sea, people our waves; Necessarily we are associated with everyone.
--Shah Ni'matullah Wali (1330-1431)

We should consciously harmonize ourselves with everything and everyone about us.
--The Science of Mind, page 252.

Interdependence

People we don’t know positively effect our lives every day. Looking for evidence of our interdependence is a fun game, to be played in any setting. Walking alone in a lovely local park, for example, I appreciate the person who blazed this trail. I consciously savor the smooth, open path before me. I feel the love for this beautiful ground which inspired the folks who donated it to the city. I am grateful to the community minded politicians who appropriate the tax dollars to fund the park operations, and the tax payers who make all this possible. I enjoy the excitement of children who come to play and explore here.

As I walk, I notice the woods are full of birds. I see a bird I can't identify. I lift my binoculars. I think of those who invented, manufactured, shipped and sold them. My Mom gave them to me for Christmas. So many people aided me in creating this perfect moment. A bright yellow, narrow band on the underside of the bird’s tail gives me a clue identify it. I look it up later in my bird book (author, photographer, publisher, printer, binder, book seller,) handy in the glove compartment of my car (dealership, trucking company, car plant, investors, inventors, engineers.) I find the bird, a cedar waxwing. I go to park headquarters (architect, builder, construction workers) where the ranger confirms waxwings have been sighted recently, flocking with the robins among the cedar trees. I bask in the Oneness of life, grateful to see it so clearly demonstrated in the park.

I easily appreciate the incredible beauty of life’s network: the trees, birds, and animals. I equally give thanks for the many people who, through their daily actions, allow my life to be so rich and full. My gratitude harmonizes me with everything and everyone about me.
Connee Chandler, RScP

Snips

2008-01-15T16:27:00.000-06:00

When we look inside the great religions of the world, where the differences melt, we find that every one of them teaches us that we're here to learn the lesson of love, to really learn how to love one another and love God. And when we wonder how to do that, all we have to do is look at the content of our lives where the lesson of love is trying to be made known for us. That's where God shows up for us, in the everyday of our lives. That's where we find the holy encounter.
Mary Manin Morrissey

Instead of dwelling on how difficult things are for you, turn often to the center of your being and relax in the assurance that you are God's living enterprise and that your good fortune is secure because it is God's good pleasure to give it to you.
Eric Butterworth

“This universe that we live in operates according to set laws of nature and unfolds according to orderly principles. Because of this, one does not have to assume that choices are forced on us. There is also the possibility of simple being, of letting the flow of life take care of us.”
Deepak Chopra

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.
Albert Einstein

“Refuse to see the negative side of anyone. Refuse to let yourself misunderstand or be misunderstood. Know that everyone wants you to have the best. Affirm this wherever you go, and you will find things just as you wish them to be.”
Ernest Holmes

Snips

2008-01-11T07:03:00.000-06:00

Once we let go of historical habits, we discover we have more enthusiasm for trying out new ways of behaving, new thoughts and feelings surrounding the change. We develop a sense of self-confidence and "being in charge" of our lives once again. We
begin to "test the limits" of the new circumstances evoked by this change.
Lloyd J. Thomas

"Care more than others think wise. Risk more than others think safe. Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible."
Howard Schultz

"There is no way to peace; peace is the way."
Abraham Johannes Muste

"So divinely is the world organized that
every one of us, in our place and time,
is in balance with everything else."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"We can be spacious yet full of loving-kindness;
full of compassion, yet serene."
Buddha

"Body and breath,
essence and energy are one..."
Sun Simiao
(581-682)

"He who binds himself to joy
Does the winged life destroy
But he who kisses joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise."
William Blake

Daily Thought

2008-01-09T14:17:00.000-06:00

All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.
Francis Bacon

I rest in calm trust and rely on the Law of Spirit to bring good into my experience.
The Science of Mind, page 264

Under Sail

Do you know the feeling of tacking in a boat under sail? Wind seldom blows directly toward the final destination, so mariners set a zigzag course. They sail off in this direction for a bit, then turn and sail in the other direction, each leg moving them closer to their goal. Finally, they arrive!

I know the feeling of tacking and arriving in my life. My heart calls me. I study something deeply. Then I turn and try something entirely different. Then, one day, I arrive. I discover how all the actions I have taken intuitively have prepared me for this particular culmination, this task, this moment. All the necessary equipment, skills, and even supplies are readily available. I just have to show up and do the new work at hand. Even when the subject of my arrival is quite ordinary, I feel thrill bumps upon recognizing I have arrived. Moments like this inspire me with a sense of inevitability, fulfillment, and trust.

A significant gap may exist between our intuitive knowing, which propels us toward a short-term goal, and our conscious understanding of why we really want to go there. Sometimes the gap spans a decade or even more. We learn to trust our journey’s unfolding. When we arrive, we glimpse the broader perspective, seeing there was a divine order unfolding the whole time.

Today I am sailing through my glorious life. Experiences unfold divinely. I trust my clear guidance, directing me toward moments of exquisite realization and arrival.

Snips

2008-01-09T14:15:00.000-06:00

Do no harm to the earth, she is your mother. Being is more important than having. Never promote yourself at another's expense. Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence. Allow each person the dignity of his or her labor. Open your home to the wayfarer. Be ready to receive your deepest dreams; sometimes they are the speech of unblighted conscience. Always make restitutions to the ones you have harmed. Never think less of yourself than you are. Never think that you are more than another.
Arthur Dobrin

No one on the planet will ever have exactly the mix of the people in their lives that you do. No one else has the assignment to touch those particular people with love. You have been given a divine purpose that no one else can fulfill. We can do a hundred other things but if we don't do this one thing, at the end, it will be as if we have done nothing at all.
Mary Manin Morrissey

Learn to nurture that voice inside. We can trust ourselves. We can take care of ourselves. We are wiser than we think. Our guide is within, ever present. Listen to, trust, and nurture that guide.
Melody Beattie

Too many of the young have forgotten how to laugh, and too many of the elders have forgotten how to love. Would not our lives be lightened if only we could all learn to laugh more easily at ourselves and to love one another?"
Theodore Hesburgh

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight and know that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
Wendell Berry

"People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown,
they prefer suffering that is familiar."
Thich Nhat Hanh

The smallest change in perspective can transform a life. What tiny attitude adjustment might turn your world around?
Oprah

Daily Thought

2007-12-28T05:37:00.001-06:00

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.

-Teilhard de Chardin

What joy to know that all is well with the soul!

-The Science of Mind, page 486

Allowing Joy

Happiness, for me, is a feeling response to something happening, like receiving a compliment or watching a friend fall in love. Joy is more an inside job, the revealing of a quality of God that resides within me always. In fact, the joy we find anywhere is more a reflection of the joy we put into it than the joy we take out.

Joy wells up in response to awareness of Spirit. In prayer, meditation, or while walking contemplatively in the woods, I often feel overflowing joyful gratitude. In those moments, I am touched by a love much greater than I usually dare to experience.

We may see evidence of divine life expressing anywhere. I remember how, as a child, I gazed at the thick, shaggy winter coat of a pony with tears of joy streaming down my face. I was appreciating the beauty of God’s Universe, the perfection keeping our animal companions safe in all seasons.

I listened to the leaves crunching merrily with each step on the path. I saw the wonder of wild berries in the harvest time. Berries of every color! A profusion of blue ones adorned the spruce trees, and bright red and orange glistened on the bittersweet. Next I saw maroon ones assembled in natural cornucopias, red clusters on the dogwoods, and patent leather shiny black ones. A squirrel, with a brilliant reddish-orange fruit in his mouth, joyfully leaped between fallen logs. I stopped for a moment simply allowing the joy of being alive to overtake me. I knew all this evidence of an abundant Universe was simply God in action.

I go about this day knowing God in all things. I allow joy to well up within me, connecting me to the wonder of Spirit. Life guides me into byways and paths of beauty, where God expressing as abundance reflects back to me the joy I carry within my own soul.

Connee Chandler, RScP

Published in SOM Magazine April 13, 2001, page 61

Snips

2007-12-28T05:32:00.000-06:00

You are a once-in-a-universe kind of person. No one can ask God what matters to you but you. No one will receive the exact Guidance as you. And in accepting what may at first seem illogical or confounding, you open to a bigger space where God's love can move through you and benefit others in ways you cannot begin to imagine.
Mary Manin Morrissey

"Like a stone dropped into a lake, our acts of kindness can create a ripple effect. The long-term effects may be unknown to us, but the ripples of one wave creating another and another, to forever impact - that is a definite fact. Make your ripples today."
Susan Fahncke

Go easy. You may have to push forward, but you don't have to push so hard. Go in gentleness - go in peace. Do not be in so much of a hurry. At no day, no hour, no time are you required to do more than you can do in peace. Frantic behaviors and urgency are not the foundation for our new way of life.
Do not be in too much of a hurry to begin. Begin, but do not force the beginning if it is not time. Beginnings will arrive soon enough. Enjoy and relish middles, the heart of the matter.
Do not be in too much of a hurry to finish. You may be almost done, but enjoy the final moments. Give yourself fully to those moments so that you may give and get all there is.
Let the pace flow naturally. Move forward. Start. Keep moving forward. Do it gently, though. Do it in peace. Cherish each moment.
Today, God, help me focus on a peaceful pace rather than a harried one. I will keep moving forward gently, not frantically. Help me let go of my need to be anxious, upset, and harried. Help me replace it with a need to be a peace and in harmony.
Melody Beattie ©

"Meditation helps me feel the shape, the texture of my inner life. Here, in the quiet, I can begin to taste what Buddhists would call my true nature, what Jews call the still, small voice, what Christians call the holy spirit."
Wayne Muller

Heaven is accessible to us right here and now if we only step out of our self-made prison and free ourselves. We can create heaven on earth in our day to day experience, simply by reclaiming our right to freedom and happiness. It can be done slowly, little by little, if the shock of discovering your total freedom is too much to handle.
Marie T. Russell

Snips

2007-12-24T08:44:00.000-06:00

Once we are really coming from the heart in all our decisions and perceptions, then we are truly free. We then become independent of petty thoughts and fears. We become free from worry, doubt, anger, resentments, and feeling that we have been unfairly treated. When we can elevate our thoughts out of the muck of fear, we see that we have truly been free all along. We simply needed to change our perception from one of lack and separation, to one of Oneness.
Marie T. Russell

If we are allowing ourselves to "learn" and "change" and "grow" from what is taking place in our lives, there are no "final" outcomes, no end points, and we can not fail at anything.
Charles Frost

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
Galileo Galilei

"Making our goal anything other than peace is emotionally self-destructive. If our goal is to get the job, then that's fine if we do, but if we don't get the job, we'll feel depressed. If we make peace our goal, then if we get the job, that's great, but if we don't, we're still peaceful."
Marianne Williamson

"I can choose peace, rather than this."
A Course in Miracles

"There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"You do not seek peace by looking into the lives of others and wishing that they would change so that you could become more peaceful. Rather, you bring your own sense of calm to everyone you encounter."
Wayne Dyer

Snips

2007-12-23T06:57:00.000-06:00

What a journey! This process of growth and change takes us along and ever-changing road. Sometimes the way is hard and craggy. Sometimes we climb mountains. Sometimes we slide down the other side on a toboggan. Sometimes we rest. Sometimes we grope through the darkness. Sometimes we're blinded by sunlight.
At times many may walk with us on the road; sometimes we feel nearly alone.
Ever changing, always interesting, always someplace better, someplace good.
What a journey!
Today, God, help me relax and enjoy the scenery. Help me know I'm right when I need to be on my journey
Melody Beattie ©

There is an awesome power that is at work in every one of us, and when we withhold forgiveness, we filter that power down to a mere trickle of itself through the stubborn judgments that we hold in our minds. Ask God to let you see the way God sees and open your heart to the great flow of God's power in your life.
Mary Manin Morrissey

"We are not valuable because we are a member of a certain group or because we call God by a certain name. We are not valuable because we follow a guru or observe a certain diet. We are valuable because we are a spark of the divine. And the only thing Gurus, priests, rabbis and elders can do for us is point us back in the direction of home, and home is, of course, within."
Darren John Main

"The wonder of any land is not in the land but in the mind seeing it. If you have wonder in your mind, you will see wonder in your life. Leave not the wonder of your childhood behind. When the wonder of your childhood has become the wonder in your adult life the world has gained one more wonder."
Ron Rathbun

There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.
George Burton Adams

"In understanding ourselves, we come to understand the world. In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world. In praying for peace, we become bringers of peace."
Marianne Williamson

Seek goodness in others. Love more persons... more impersonally, more unselfishly, without thought of return. The return, never fear, will take care of itself.
Henry Drummond

This life and all its experiences are for your upliftment and to assist you in your journey home to God.
John-Roger

"To find truth you must experience it in your soul. You can read hundreds of books, or study the religions of all time, and find that all of them have one common point, one common denominator: and this is love - which is another word for light or soul illumination. To realize this soul illumination you have to shut away the clamor of the lower mind, to become humble, very simple."
White Eagle

Snips

2007-12-22T06:39:00.000-06:00

Stop picking on yourself, worrying if your good enough, wondering what people will see if you let them see your heart.
This is what they'll see: that you are lovable and delightful soul, a beautiful child of God.
Be yourself and accept yourself -- warts, waistline and all. You don't have to sit up that straight, be that proper, or fear what others may see. Let your imperfections show! When you do that, your life will be fun and a joyful gift to others. People who comfortably accept who they are -- both their flaws and their good points -- are healing, delightful, and are fun to be around. Look at any work of nature: a canyon, a flower, a bird. A mountain or a forest trail. Where does the perfection begin and imperfection end? It's the combination that makes a perfect scene. So it is with you.
Relax. Lighten up. Let go of shame and fear. The whole picture is perfect, and perfectly okay.
Melody Beattie ©

“Your personal power is not something that is going to reveal itself at some later date. Your power is a result of your decision to reveal it. You are powerful in whatever moment you choose to be. The choice to be used as an instrument of love, right here, right now, is a choice for personal empowerment.”
Marianne Williamson

At the deepest level, it's real love and care that people crave. Give those things, and you'll receive them. Through your caring deeds and actions, you'll truly make your mark on the world.
Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Practice appreciating for the first fifteen minutes you are awake every day. Appreciation first thing in the morning is one of the most valuable efforts you can make to create more heart coherence in your system and release you from old attitudes that no longer serve you.
Doc Childre

"All that is required now is that you continue to till the soil of your soul. Just as you would not neglect seeds that you planted with the hope that they will bear vegetables and fruits and flowers, so you must attend to and nourish the garden of your becoming."
Jean Houston

"Of all the creature of earth, only human beings can change their patterns. Man alone is the architect of his destiny. Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."
William James

See God in every person, place, and thing, and all will be well in your world.
Louise Hay

Snips

2007-12-18T11:38:00.000-06:00

"Every positive change - every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness - involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception."
Dan Millman

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Kahlil Gibran

"You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace that is already around your neck!"
Jalal-Uddin Rumi

" . . . sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see."
Conductor in the movie “The Polar Express”

Belief in limitation is the one and only thing that causes limitation, because we thus impress limitation upon the creative principle; and in proportion as we lay that belief aside our boundaries will expand, and increasing life and more abundant blessing will be ours.
Thomas Troward

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
on which the world earth revolves
- slowly, evenly, without
rushing toward the future;
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Snips

2007-12-16T07:22:00.000-06:00

"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."
Sydney J. Harris

The miracle is not to walk on water, but to walk with love on earth - as if your feet are kissing the ground. We must remember that our presence alone is a miracle. We must learn to say 'Yes' to the miracles of life.
Thich Nhat Hanh

"A miracle is merely a shift, a change in perception. It comes from changing the mind, not other people or situations."
Karen Casey

Why are you so afraid of silence, silence is the root of everything. If you spiral into its void a hundred voices will thunder messages you long to hear.
Rumi

How to make our lives an embodiment of wisdom and compassion is the greatest challenge spiritual seekers face. The truths we have come to understand need to find their visible expression in our lives. Our every thought, word, or action holds the possibility of being a living expression of clarity and love. It is not enough to be a possessor of wisdom. To believe ourselves to be custodians of truth is to become its opposite, is a direct path to becoming stale, self-righteous, or rigid. Ideas and memories do not hold liberating or healing power. There is no such state as enlightened retirement, where we can live on the bounty of past attainments. Wisdom is alive only as long as it is lived, understanding is liberating only as long as it is applied. A bulging portfolio of spiritual experiences matters little if it does not have the power to sustain us through the inevitable moments of grief, loss, and change. Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched.
Jack Kornfield

Snips

2007-12-13T08:16:00.000-06:00

Snips

2007-12-12T06:54:00.000-06:00

“We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are.”
Don Miguel Ruiz

“After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our ‘cosmic sense of humor.’ We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge.”
Paul Ferrini

“Enjoy the journey, enjoy ever moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing.”
Matt Biondi

“Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.”
Earl Nightingale

“Fill your life with as many moments and experiences of joy and passion as you humanly can. Start with one experience and build on it.”
Marcia Wieder

Snips

2007-12-11T19:29:00.000-06:00

The only quality of character that will guide you reliably through the many changes happening in and around you, is realness. Trust who and what you are, and the universe will support you in miraculous ways. The world is being transformed through people like you, who love themselves enough to trust their inner guidance, and relax enough to let the universe take care of the means.
Alan Cohen

"The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of
contemplation rather than upon mere survival."
Aristotle

"Insight occurs when, and to the degree that, one knows oneself."
Andrew Schneider

"We are not what we know. We are what we are willing to learn."
Council on Ideas

Your life is like a pebble dropped into a pool of water, creating ripples endlessly. You do not know the end of a word, a thought, an action.
White Eagle

"A good rest is half the work."
Yugoslav Proverb

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it."
Sidney J. Harris

"I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the
main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently."
Ernest Hemingway

Snips

2007-12-06T20:25:00.000-06:00

“We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are.”
Don Miguel Ruiz

“The maxim ‘Nothing but perfection’ may be spelled ‘Paralysis.’”
Winston Churchill

“After enough mirror gazing, we all develop our ‘cosmic sense of humor.’ We no longer try to be perfect, or try to get all our work done in time. We become content with whatever life brings. Just to deal with what comes up without crucifying ourselves or others is enough of a challenge.”
Paul Ferrini

“Good enough never is.”
Debbi Fields

Paul Ferrini "The Love Gospel" Excerpt

2007-12-06T20:03:00.000-06:00

The Spiritual Mastery Process

The Spiritual Mastery Process is a three-fold process.
The three steps in this Process are as follows:

• Healing
• Empowerment
• Service

Healing is the first step in the process. We are all wounded and must discover and heal from our core wounds. These wounds block our connection to our core self and our divine Source.

As we heal, we reestablish our connection to our core self. This enables us to know and experience ourselves as an authentic person who has unique gifts to offer the world. Empowerment is therefore the second step in the process. During this phase we stop the patterns of self betrayal in our life, begin to trust our guidance and learn to develop and express our gifts.

The third step in the Mastery process is Service. Once we have experienced healing and empowerment, we become capable of helping others with similar core wounds to heal those wounds and to discover and value their gifts. In this third step, we give to others the kind of help that we received from mentors and helpers when we were healing. The process of giving back is essential to the collective healing process, as it is the way that the world is redeemed, one heart at a time.

In that sense, the healing of human consciousness is inextricably linked to our own healing process. As we wake up, so do our brothers and sisters.

Jesus was well aware of this process. That is why he worked so intensely with his disciples. He knew that it would be through them that the work of healing and empowerment would be passed on.

You cannot remain small, insignificant, invisible
and be a student of these teachings.

The teachings ask you to expand your idea of who you are. You are not just a bag of skin and bones with emotional needs and an ego structure.

You are a unique expression of the Creator’s love and wisdom.

You are a Servant of God waiting to be born.

Jesus did not come here to tell us he was the only Christ. He came to show us the way to Christhood so that each one of us could do our part in serving the greater good.

Just as “smallness”is an illusion, so is “grandiosity.”

Just as you can’t get away with believing that you are unimportant and insignificant, you also cannot get away with believing that you are greater than anyone else.

What makes you important and significant makes everyone else equally so.

In other words, no one has more Christ potential than anyone else. Those who remove the barriers to Love become the pure expressions of Love. It is that simple.

What are the barriers?

Pride is a barrier. Hatred is a barrier. Judgment is a barrier. Envy is a barrier. Selfishness is a barrier. Greed is a barrier. Shame or unworthiness is a barrier.

There are many barriers. You know them as well as I do. And you encounter these barriers not just in the minds and hearts of others, but in your own consciousness as well.

2007-12-01T21:37:00.000-06:00

"We don't always know what makes us happy. We know, instead, what we think
SHOULD. We are baffled and confused when our attempts at happiness fail...We are
mute when it comes to naming accurately our own preferences, delights, gifts,
talents. The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even
strangled, by the voices of other people's expectations. The tongue of the
original self is the language of the heart."
Julie Cameron

"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. ...I want to know what you
ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing."
Oriah Mountain Dreamer

"Let me listen to me and not to them."
Gertrude Stein

"What you must dare is to be yourself."
Dag Hammarskjold

Snips

2007-12-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

We try to consume the external, to give us a feeling of internal satisfaction. And yet we cannot satisfy that yearning, because nothing outside of us is the stuff for which we hunger.

The more we grab, the less centered we are. And so we disintegrate; we do not grow. We take on the characteristics of neurotic, needy people, for that is who we decide to be when we look to the world for what the word cannot give us.

Marianne Williamson

“For it is not physical solitude that actually separates one from others, not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the people you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger.
When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others.
Only when one is connected to one's own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

We're all going to have winds and waves in our lives but nothing that happens can destroy your life unless you allow it to destroy what's in you. Work on building conscious contact with God that is stronger than anything in the world, so you don't look to the world as your guidance. Look within and you will find the power and love of God.

Mary Manin Morrissey

Our history is not our destiny, and our destiny begins now.

Alan Cohen

Taking a Shower

2007-11-30T09:46:00.000-06:00

Taking a Shower

The other day, I was asked what I thought of the ads and debates starting for the elections next year. I choose not to watch much TV, even in the middle of a 40 below cold snap in Minnesota. I rarely purchase the daily newspaper; limit my viewing of TV programming, and the many newscasts. I will watch the history channel, Discovery Channel, HGTV, and I do read a lot of books. I generally have 7- 8 books open at one time, in all various states of being read. I belong to a study group that meets on Sunday evening, and every 3 - 6 months we read a new book and discuss it. I know the more I read, the more I will learn and advance in my career, but I really like to read, so any advancement is incidental.

I have traveled the globe, sailed the high seas with folks seeking new lands and riches, swash buckled with pirates, rode the Mongolian Rim in the southwest with the Sacketts, traversed with Rand al’Thor - alias “Dragon Reborn” – from the “THE WHEEL OF TIME™” series - in the time of prophesies to be filled, traveled to far off galaxies with Luke and other star travelers, and sought enlightenment from the world foremost authorities, past and present. I have traveled back 2000 years and found that spin-doctors were very much alive and well then making changes in “sacred” texts and rewriting history. Some things do not change much at times. The winners “do” get to rewrite history.

Keeping my focus on positive thoughts, and staying away from the negative thoughts that sells fear and advertising is an ongoing lesson and challenge.

If you wish to use this lifetime in a constructive fashion, in the only life focus of real value to your path, you will turn your attention away from the garbage of remote events reported by the media to inform you, but which really only divert your attention away from your life. Your life consists of the events you encounter first hand and the relationships you maintain in the ongoing days, is your prime concern. If problems are encountered there, those problems are indicative of real elements of you that need attention. The problems of the extended world are not you.

Understand, those problems, out there in the famines and disasters of the world, will always be there—at least until major portions of humanity outgrow their restricted vision of the workings of reality. Certainly you cannot solve them, cannot divert their problematic energies by your focus on their details. Only the problems you encounter in the daily course of your life can you deal with—and those, in that they reflect your inner state, you must delve into within yourself. The only part of the world that you can impact is you world and your thoughts. By changing your thoughts, your reality and your life, will then change your view of the world.

As you delve inward to clean your mind of its limiting values and hidden beliefs, you do find that when you focus your attention on the crud and debris of the world’s disasters, you will be effectively taking a shower while standing deep in the mud. It’s impossible to take a good shower while standing in that mud. You might get the top part of you clean, but a lot of you—including some rather significant parts—will still be mighty dirty when you are finished.

One of the best tools to focus on the positive aspects that a person can use is meditating daily; be it a walking meditation, form finding meditation, mantra meditation, guided meditation, or my personal favorite of going inward to the silence.

"In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It's the place of reflection and contemplation, and it's the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way."
Angeles Arrien

“God intended us to have dominion over our lives, to be the captains of our souls. Of course, in the ship of life, you cannot make port unless all sails are set. You must pursue the spiritual life wholeheartedly. You cannot expect to reach port if you are faithful in your prayers and meditations for a time, and then for a time you forget God.”
Emmet Fox

Authored by jimmyjames

Snips

2007-11-27T07:31:00.000-06:00

“How do we nurture the soul? By revering our own life. By treating it as supremely important. By reaching for the best within ourselves. By learning to love it all, not only the joys and the victories, but also the pain and the struggles.”
Nathaniel Branden

“Nourishing the soul is the process of drinking at the life stream, coming back to one’s true self, embracing the whole of one’s experience – good, bad, or ugly; painful or exalted; dull or boring.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn

What we are really doing when we are setting goals is directing our faith. Having directed faith means having a heart-felt specific desire, coupled with a deep and abiding trust in the goodness and generosity of God, and therein lies the magic and power of setting our goals.
Edwene Gaines

It has been said, “where we are tightest, there we need stretching.” The Law of Life is exacting. It provides, with uncanny precision, just the growth that each one needs. To us is given a choice; we can struggle with the problem, railing at Life for sending it, or we can bless the growth that it contains and set about to find the hidden Truth that will unlock the door to the perfect solution. It is like a jig-saw puzzle; once the missing piece is found, the other pieces fall into place. The finished picture emerges.
Jack & Cornelia Addington

The first step to be taken in anything we wish to do is to seek divine assistance. To ask God to go with us and work with us, and to enter into such perfect spiritual harmony with God that we can feel His supreme power through and through – that is the first and most important, be it work pertaining to body, mind or soul.
Christian Larson

"Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit."
Henry David Thoreau

Snips

2007-11-25T04:57:00.000-06:00

If we wish to support and restructure our global community in genuinely new and liberating ways, we cannot do so just by the decree of manmade law. Instead, we have to start closer to home, with ourselves, our personal integrity, our own energy. In other words, we have to become ourselves, whole and healthy individuals. We have to think for ourselves, wean ourselves away from undue outside influence, take good care of ourselves emotionally and physically, and follow our purpose in life - and we have to be open and intuitively grasp the particular strands of universal law that apply in a given situation.
Janeanne Narrin

Listen. Trust. Empower the good in your life by paying attention to what you want and need. Write it down. Affirm it mentally. Pray about it. Then, let it go. Give it to God, and see what happens. The results may be better than you think.
Melody Beattie

"Or is that too much work, to think before you speak? For some people, it is. It's a lot of work. For all of you who want to walk a spiritual path, I suggest you stop and take a look at all the things you think and all the assumptions that you make... before you speak. Try some discipline and see if you can, for a whole week, just watch your thoughts."
Hinono

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?
Buddha

"Everyone wants to be able to trust their relationships. We want to trust our partners, children, friends - those we're close to. But the funny thing about trust is that even a small breach can cause separation between family members, friends or business partners, that often lasts for years - or forever.
Trust is loaded when we put others in a box made of our expectations. It sets up for disappointment and hurt. Trust is really an inside job. As we build trust in our own heart we become secure in ourselves. Then we can enjoy people without being so desperate about trusting them."
Doc Childre

Snips

2007-11-24T08:50:00.000-06:00

There is an abundance of hope in the world, but what we need is more faith. Everybody is hoping for better things; the poor hope to get rich; the sick hope to get well; the sad hope to gain happiness; the troubled hope to find peace; everybody is hoping for something, but few have the faith that is necessary to secure that something. When we are in bondage, or keenly realize our bondage, we hope that the Great Deliverer will come; we pray that He may come; we hope that our prayers will be answered, and we are so absorbed in our hopes that we fail to hear Him knocking at the door even now. To have hope is to face the door, but hope stands still; it never moves toward the door. To live in hope is simply to face the great goal, but we may continue to face that goal for ages, and never move forward a step. “To live in hope is to die in despair,” because hope remains stationary; it never gains what it hopes to gain. But when faith begins we remain stationary no more. We press on directly, and with power, towards the coveted goal; our hopes are soon realized; our desires are granted; what we wished for is withheld no more; through faith we have entered that world where every prayer is answered and every wish made true.
Christian Larson

Intuition is the open end, within one’s own being, of the invisible channel ever connecting each individual with God. Faith is, as it were, a ray of light shot out from the central sun – God – one end of which ray comes into your being and mine through the open door of intuition. With our consciousness we perceive the ray of light, and though intellect cannot grasp it, or give the why or wherefore thereof, yet we instinctively feel that the other end of the ray opens out into all there is of God (good). This is “blind” faith. It is based on Truth, but a Truth of which everyone is not at the time conscious. Even this kind of faith will, if persisted in, bring results.
H. Emilie Cady

On the material plane light is the freest process of nature. You cannot bottle it up. It will shed itself to the farthest that its nature tells it to. If you hide it under a bushel, it burns the bushel and makes a greater light than ever. If you hide it in iron vaults, it heats things red hot and melts and destroys them. While it lasts you may hide it behind some screen, but you cannot quench it by confinement. So of the eternal, unquenchable light of the reasoning based on the truth that there is one God, above you all, and through you all, and in your all – it cannot be spoken without shedding its light through the next statement of Science. And once it is set streaming through the mind, we must speak and think and write and live the doctrine.
Emma Curtis Hopkins

Our path, therefore, is plain; it is simply to contemplate the Life, Love, and Beauty of the Originating Spirit and affirm that we are already giving expression to it in our thoughts and in our actions however insignificant they may at present appear. This path may be very narrow and humble in its beginning, but it ever grows wider and mounts higher, for it is the continually expanding expression of the Life of the Spirit which is infinite and knows no limits.
Thomas Troward

I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.
Charles Fillmore

So we, and we alone, control our destiny.
Ernest Holmes

Your Lake, Canada

2007-11-21T07:28:00.001-06:00

Snips

2007-11-21T07:26:00.000-06:00

We are fragments of something whose size and shape we do not know, but as fragments of it, we are essential to its wholeness. This means that you and I have an assignment, an opportunity, a call to the light. There are dark places where love is not yet felt and known and expressed in our world, and it is our opportunity to bring the light into those places. It is in this way that we begin to discover and feel God's presence, and we begin to find a deeper relationship with God.
Mary Manin Morrissey

We are not victims of life. We can learn to remove ourselves as victims of life. By letting go of our belief that life has to be hard and difficult, we make our life much easier.
Melody Beattie

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just is some of us; it's in everyone.
Marianne Williamson

Taking off your shoes is a sacred ritual. It is a hallowed moment of remembering the goodness of space and time. It is a way of celebrating the holy ground on which you started.
Marcina Wiederkehr

Only decisions made in peace can be carried out in peace. There is no right thought about any issue or difficulty, yet the ego searches ceaselessly to come up with one. Ultimately, this mental agitation is more distressing than the problem I face. There are countless good ways to proceed but only one good motivation. Any time I act in peace, I ensure peace of mind within the outcome.
Hugh Prather

Do not say,"it is morning," and dismiss it with a name of yesterday. See it for the first time as a newborn child that has no name.
Rabindranath Tagore

Gratitude is here presented as more than a feeling, a virtue, or an experience; gratitude emerges as an attitude we can freely choose in order to create a better life for ourselves and for others. The Nigerian Hausa put it this way: Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.
David Steindl-Rast

Letting Go the Ego World

2007-11-20T15:54:00.000-06:00

You might think that if you let go of your ego world, you become passive and defenseless like some kind of crash dummy and people will take advantage of you. Or that you might wander around aimlessly in the street without an agenda. If this were the case, as one contemporary Buddhist master pointed out, it would be necessary to have enlightenment wards in hospitals to take care of bruised or socially inoperative buddhas. But this is not the case.

Rather than being inmate types, people who have become enlightened to any degree are builders of hospitals for other people. Their intelligence and compassion are relatively unobstructed, and they tend to become quite active and effective citizens.

Samuel Bercholz, in Entering the Stream from Everyday Mind

Photo: Watching the sunrise

Snips

2007-11-20T07:26:00.000-06:00

Life does not have to be difficult. Life is good. We don't have to "awfulize" it, or ourselves. We do have power, more power than we know, even in the difficult times. And the difficult times don't prove life is bad; they are part of the ups and downs of life. We can change our attitude; we can change ourselves; sometimes, we can change our circumstances. Life is challenging. Sometimes, there's more pain than we asked for; sometimes, there's more joy than we imagined. It's all part of the package, and the package is good.
Melody Beattie

One of the great mental laws is the Law of Substitution. This means that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute another one for it. You cannot dismiss a thought directly. You can do so only by substituting another one for it. If I say to you, "Do not think of the Statue of Liberty," of course, you immediately think of it. If I say, "I am not going to think of the Statue of Liberty," that is thinking about it. But if you become interested in something else, you forget all about the Statue of Liberty--and this is a case of substitution. When negative thoughts come to you, do not fight them, but think of something positive. Preferably think of God; but if that is difficult at the moment, turn your attention to something quite different.
Emmet Fox

We all experience "soul moments" in life-when we see a magnificent sunrise, hear the call of the loon, see the wrinkles in our mother's hands, or smell the sweetness of a baby. During these moments, our body, as well as our brain, resonates as we experience the glory of being a human being.
Marion Woodman

"It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it."
Carl Gustav Jung

The belief that there is no way out of the human jungle is nothing but a hoax, a bluff, a false alarm, an evil deception which you can unmask. The way out starts by really wanting out.
Vernon Howard

Soul is our appetite, driving us to eat from the banquet of life. People filled with the hunger of soul take food from every dish before them, whether it be sweet or bitter.
Matthew Fox

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."
Hugh Downs

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving."
W.T. Purkiser

"There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it."
Edith Wharton

Rev David Ault's Minnesota Visit in Pictures

2007-11-19T10:06:00.000-06:00

Rev David at Mall of America Newest Ride Banner

Rev David Meets a new friend "Charlie"

Guests welcoming Rev David to the Guthrie

Rev Nancy and Rev David on the "bridge" at the Guthrie

Rev Nancy and Rev David at Taylor Falls
(Showing David Minnesota Rocks!)

Rev David being welcomed at Our Spiritual Center

Congregates enjoying Rev Davids' Message

Rev David singing from his heart

Standing Ovation for Rev David
To View more pictures click on the link
http://under-the-ledge.blogspot.com/

Snips

2007-11-19T08:09:00.000-06:00

To ultimately "make it" in this Work of Awakening, of Transformation, you have to embrace the miraculous -- always. And that miracle is you being so much at peace with yourself that you can turn your energy towards welcoming and using the opportunities that are always falling into your lap. To embrace and devour these opportunities will make you free, happy, full of life, full of passion. Then your circumstances won't affect you so dramatically.
Lee Lozowick

Every relationship we have is a reflection of the relationship we have with God. If we believe that God can love us, then we will believe that others can love us, and if we believe that we are not good enough for God to love, how will we be able to accept the love of others?
Paula Sunray

Long ago, I began to understand that the desires of the heart are not placed there to torture us. God could never do that, for God is and always has been love. To dangle the proverbial carrot to get us to be subservient or obedient does not even register within the Divine.
My passion for music is not given to me to ignore even though I may have been taught I can’t make a respectable living singing. An interest in sculpting didn’t just surface for someone to become frustrated working at a more sensible and safe profession. Something is drawing each of us to examine more fully what role that creative urge is begging to play in our lives. It is the call. It is constant.
David Ault

You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
Henry Drummond

Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible, it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could.
Barbara De Angelis

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
Andre Brink

Snips

2007-11-18T20:32:00.001-06:00

Be here now

"This moment is the moment of reality, of union, of truth. Nothing needs to be
done to it or to you for this to be so. Nothing needs to be avoided,
transcended, or found for it to be so."
Da Avabhasa

Creativity, connection, soul, inspiration and intuition are available only in
the present moment for the present moment.

We choose how actively we take part in the cosmic dance of life. We can become
wallflowers, mere spectators to life, if we get trapped in the patterns and
habits of the past. Or we can choose to dance by being present and open to the
energies, the opportunities and the guidance available to us each moment.

"Each today, well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and each tomorrow
a vision of hope. Look, therefore, to this one day, for it and it alone is life."
Sanskrit poem

"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."
Henry David Thoreau

Snips

2007-11-18T08:18:00.000-06:00

If your passion starts to die, it won't be because of your spiritual work, your friends, your lover, or because of life's down times. Your passion will die because you have bought -- hook, line, and sinker -- an attitude that was sold to you by your parents, your school teachers, and this society. You've bought the attitude that you've got to look like that Playgirl man (if you're a man) or that Playboy woman (if you're a woman). You think you've got to be cool and cultured, that you've got to dress right and smell like the corporate world wants you to smell. If your passion dies it will be because you've bought that appearances are everything, including the appearance of your worldview, politics, opinions, and beliefs.

Lee Lozowick

In order to reclaim our natural connection with life, we must begin living with greater presence, respect, and gratefulness. We have been living under the illusion that evolution has ended with us at its helm. Perhaps the dinosaurs thought that, too!

Jacob Leiberman

Enlightenment is not what you think. It is not about becoming something or gaining something. It is about giving up something. It is about losing or emptying; it is about emptying ourselves of our fears and our personal dragons.

Paula Sunray

"For undefended intimacy to unfold, we must not only develop the ability to be close to another in a healthy way, we must also develop the capacity to relate to ourselves in a healthy way."

Jett Psaris / Marlena Lyons

"How to love yourself:-
(1) Stop all criticism.
Criticism never changes a thing. Refuse to criticize yourself. Accept yourself exactly as you are. Everybody changes. When you criticize yourself, your changes are negative. When you approve of yourself, your changes are positive.
(2) Forgive yourself.
Let the past go. You did the best you could at the time with the understanding, awareness and knowledge that you had. Now you are growing and changing and you will live life differently.
(3) Don't scare yourself.
Stop terrorizing yourself with your thoughts. It's a dreadful way to live. Find a mental image that gives you pleasure (mine is yellow roses), and immediately switch your scary thought to a pleasure thought.
(4) Be gentle and kind and patient.
Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be patient with yourself as you learn the new ways of thinking. Treat yourself as you would someone you really loved.
(5) Be kind to your mind.
Self-hatred is only hating your own thoughts. Don't hate yourself for having the thoughts. Gently change your thoughts.
(6) Praise yourself.
Criticism breaks down the inner spirit. Praise builds it up. Praise yourself as much as you can. Tell yourself how well you are doing with every little thing.
(7) Support yourself.
Find ways to support yourself. Reach out to friends and allow them to help you. It is being strong to ask for help when you need it.
(8) Be loving to your negatives.
Acknowledge that you created them to fulfill a need. Now you are finding new, positive ways to fulfill those needs. So lovingly release the old negative patterns.
(9) Take care of your body.
Learn about nutrition. What kind of fuel does your body need to have optimum energy and vitality? Learn about exercise. What kind of exercise can you enjoy? Cherish and revere the temple you live in.
(10) Mirror work.
Look into your eyes often. Express this growing sense of love you have for yourself. Forgive yourself looking into the mirror. Talk to your parents looking into the mirror. Forgive them too. At least once a day say: "I love you, I really love you!"
(11) Love yourself... do it now.
Don't wait until you get well, or lose the weight, or get the new job, or the new relationship. Begin now - and do the best you can."
Louise Hay

2007-11-17T06:10:00.000-06:00

You can always access the largeness, the unlimitlessness of life, no matter how hopeless things appear. You don't get that by romancing your partner. You get that if you have a love affair with life itself -- a passionate life. Then your relationships will be passionate and juicy too.
Lee Lozowick

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who make excuses and those who get results. An excuse person will find any excuse for why a job was not done, and a results person will find any reason why it can be done. Be a creator, not a reactor.
Alan Cohen

Our path, therefore, is plain; it is simply to contemplate the Life, Love, and Beauty of the Originating Spirit and affirm that we are already giving expression to it in our thoughts and in our actions however insignificant they may at present appear. This path may be very narrow and humble in its beginning, but it ever grows wider and mounts higher, for it is the continually expanding expression of the Life of the Spirit which is infinite and knows no limits.
Thomas Troward

Learn to relax in peace and knowing. Detaching from the outcome means avoiding the process of rushing and pushing through life. Think of that acorn that has been planted in the ground and is on its way to manifesting an oak tree. Imagine digging up the acorn after three weeks to see how it is doing, and to see if there is anything that you might do to hurry the process along so as to fit your schedule. Obviously, the acorn and the oak would perish as a result of your efforts to rush the process.
Wayne W. Dyer

Snips

2007-11-16T05:40:00.000-06:00

The Work [used in many spiritual traditions to refer to the Work of God] wants your life -- but only when you are in a love affair with life itself, only when you are bright, strong, confident, capable, in short: ALIVE. The Work does not want some kind of dull, dispassionate, struggling, agonizing humanoid. To give your life to the Work is to give breath and activity to the Work everyday; to give passion to the Work everyday. You have to have a childlike, eternal beginner's mind [approaching each moment as new], a belief in miracles, like, "Any day anything can happen!"
Lee Lozowick

All the things in our lives, all the complicated structures we spent so much time and energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other people endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens, only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh.
Rabbi Harold Kushner

Along our spiritual journey, every one of us is thrust into the desert. We find ourselves in a relationship wasteland or financially barren. We feel lost and abandoned, but it is during this time in the desert that God grows our souls.
Mary Manin Morrissey

. . . there is only one way by which you can achieve prosperity. It is to take charge of your mind. You may be looking for some magic formula, some new metaphysical cliché that will change things. But if you want to change your life, you will have to alter your thoughts. The whole of infinite substance is present where you are, but you will have to get that awareness into your consciousness by your own discipline and commitment.
Eric Butterworth

Snips

2007-11-13T07:18:00.001-06:00

“Choosing to walk the humble path – and to stay on it – requires that you reflect frequently: “What is my true power? and “Whose approval really matters – those who live outside my Castle or the company I keep inside my Castle?”

Carolyn Myss

"All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy."

Wayne Dyer

We see ourselves as broken, and then set out on a long and frustrating journey to fill our emptiness. But it is not fixing that we require; it is awakening.
Alan Cohen

“You can see the glass half empty, or you can see it half full.” You can focus on what wrong in your life, or you can focus on what’s right. But whatever you focus on, you’re going to get more of. Creation is an extension of thought. Think lack, and you get lack. Think abundance, and you get more.”

Marianne Williamson

Spiritual Warriors manifest themselves through correct action, because their only true intention is spiritual growth, expansion, and revelation. Whatever else comes is a bonus, to be enjoyed, to participate in, but never to get caught up in.
John-Roger

Tao te Ching

2007-11-08T13:25:00.001-06:00

Photo; Antennae Galaxy

Linking with Ancient Times

In ancient times
The people knew the Great Integrity
With subtletly and profoundity.

Because they are so unfathomable to us,
We describe the ancients
Only with great effort.

They were –
Cautious as those crossing an icy stream,
Wary as those surrounded by dangers,
Dignified as quests,
Yielding as melting ice,
Innocent as virgin wood,
Open and broad as valleys,
Merging freely as muddy water.

But today, who can remain patient
While the mud so gradually clears?
Who can remain still
While the moment for action
So slowly emerges?

Who?
We observers of the Great Integrity,
Who in our times,
Like those ancients,
When never seeking fulfillment,
Are never unfulfilled.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 15

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

The ancient masters were profound and subtle.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it.
One can only describe them vaguely by their appearance.

Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream.
Alert, like men aware of danger.
Simple as uncarved wood.
Hollow like caves.
Yielding, like ice about to melt.
Amorphous, like muddy water.

But, the muddiest water clears
As it is stilled.
And out of that stillness
Life arises.

He who keeps the Tao does not want to be full.
But precisely because he is never full,
He can remain like a hidden sprout
And does not rush to ripening.

Snips

2007-11-08T06:33:00.000-06:00

When we find the right question to ask, the answer will be within the question.

Rev. Nancy Herrick

He who is plenteously provided for from within, needs but little from without.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You're a happy fellow, for you'll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Our task is to allow ourselves to come into harmony with our Source. Our task is to believe in, and look to, our true Source. Our task is to release fear; negative thinking, limitations, and short supply thinking. Everything we need shall be provided to us. Let it become a natural response to all situations, and all situations of need. Reject fear. Reject short supply and limited thinking notions. Be open to abundance. No need is too small or too great. If we care and value our need, God will too.

Melody Beattie

The Great Affirmation, therefore, is the perception that the “I AM” is ONE, always harmonious with itself, and including all things in this harmony for the simple reason that there is no second creative power; and when the individual realizes that this always-single power is the root of his own being, and therefore has centre in himself and finds expression through him, he learns to trust its singleness and the consequent harmony of its action in him with what it is doing around him.

Thomas Troward

Snips

2007-11-06T08:26:00.000-06:00

We want to help you regain clarity about your individual power. Everyone has it. No one can ever take it away from you. No one can ever do anything "bad" to you. No one can assert into your experience. Everything, without exception, comes only by your individual invitation to it. Do you understand the process of asking? When you give something your attention and it becomes your dominant vibration relative to the subject--that is your asking. So, deliberate creating is not so much about looking out into the world and saying, "Oh, there are things that are good that I want to create or attract into my experience, and there are things that are bad that I don't want to create or attract into my experience." Deliberate creating is more about deliberate allowing. Deliberate allowing is more like deliberate vibration.

Abraham

Throughout the world we find stories of this journey, images of the longing to awaken, the steps along the path that we all follow, the voices that call, the intensity of the initiation we may meet, the courage we need. At the heart of each is the original sincerity of the seeker, who must honestly admit how small is our knowledge of the universe, how great the unknown.

Jack Kornfield

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

Andre Brink

To discover joy is to return to a state of oneness with the universe.

Peggy Jenkins

Taking nearly two years to complete, this epic one-song production involved 90 coast-to-coast recording sessions to include a diverse range of people from scores of nations. Click on the link to listen to the world anthem, or copy paste into your web browser.

http://www.aworldanthem.org/listen.html

Tao te Ching

2007-11-05T08:08:00.000-06:00

Photo; Black Eye Nebula

Beyond Reason

That which we look at
But cannot see is the invisible.

That which we listen to
But cannot hear is the inaudible.

That which we reach for
But cannot grasp is the intangible.

Beyond reason, these three merge,
Contradicting experience.

Their rising side isn’t bright,
Their setting side isn’t dark.

Sense-less, unnamable,
They return to the realms of nothingness.

Form without form,
Image without image,
Indefinable, ineluctable, elusive.

Confronting them, you see no beginning,
Following them, you see no end.

Yes, riding the plowless plow
Can seed the timeless Tao,
Harvesting the secret
Transcendence of the Now.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 14

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

That which cannot be seen is called invisible.
That which cannot be heard is called inaudible.
That which cannot be held is called intangible.
These lines cannot be defined
Therefore, they are merged as one.

Each of these three is subtle for description.
By intuition you can see it,
Hear it,
And feel it.
Then the unseen,
Unheard,
and untouched
are present in one.

Its rising brings no dawn,
Its setting brings no darkness
It goes on and one, unnamable,
Returning into nothingness.

Approach it and there is no beginning;
Follow it and there is no end.
You cannot know it, but you can be it,
At ease in your own life.

Discovering how things have always been
Brings one into harmony with the way.

Snips

2007-11-05T08:06:00.000-06:00

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
Charles Bukowski

Listen to your life. All moments are key moments.

Frederick Buechner

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

Andre Brink

You're never going to get to any final place. And so, we want to remind you to relax and
start having fun on the way.

Abraham-Hicks

Snips

2007-11-04T08:20:00.001-06:00

"Every time you are about to have a thought which keeps you in those same patterns of negativity, those same patterns of small-mindedness, those same patterns of dysfunction and toxicity in your life, may the angels minister unto you. May Spirit deliver a conversation, a phone call, a book, a song lyric, or just a spontaneous realization on your part that says, “You know, I’m not going to go in that direction, because that direction is where I’ve been, and where I’ve been is not great, and it’s been a part of the realm of consciousness that’s gotten the whole world where it is."
Marianne Williamson

"To live your life the way you choose, you have to be a bit rebellious. You have to be willing to stand up for yourself."
Wayne Dyer

The goal of life is balance, but sometimes we get there by going to extremes.
Today, I will be gentle with myself, understanding that sometimes to reach the middle ground of balance; I need to explore the peaks and valleys. Sometimes, the only way I can extricate myself from a valley is to jump high enough to land on a peak, and then slowly ease myself down.
Melody Beattie

"I wanted to change the world.
But I have found that the only thing
one can be sure of changing is oneself."
Aldous Huxley

"None of us has the power to make someone else love us. But we all have the power to give away love, to love other people. And if we do so, we change the kind of person we are, and we change the kind of world we live in."
Rabbi Harold Kushner

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere they are in each other all along."
Rumi

Snips

2007-11-01T07:31:00.000-05:00

Wildfires scorch large chunks of western United States every summer. It's part of the natural cycle of things. After a while, nature decides that it's time to start over and a patch of the woods goes up in smoke.
This year, one fire burned near Mesa Vere National Park in southwestern Colorado. I read the news wires with interest, hoping that the archeological sites there wouldn't be destroyed. The crews worked on the fires, and though there was damage in the area, the main ruins were left unharmed. While the fires had burned thousand of acres around the park, they had also done something else-they had burned away the undergrowth that had sprung up around twelve previously undiscovered sites.
Sometimes life sends fires raging through our lives, too. Those fires are also part of the natural cycle of things. Life, nature, or our Higher Power says it's time to start over, again.
Use misfortune as an opportunity. Who knows? That fire rampaging through your life just might clear away the brush of the past. Keep your heart open and stay aware. You might learn something new and previously undiscovered about yourself.
God, help me stay alert to the lessons of today.
Melody Beattie ©

When we have a transcendent experience of God, whether it is born of a despairing cry for help or from a single moment of sheer beauty, we sometimes enter into an evangelistic phase, and we think we should go tell other people what they need to do and be. But there's a difference between telling other people what they need and sharing our experience. Sharing our experience gives others a handle to the door of their own experience. Sharing what is happening in our lives becomes an open door to other people who want to walk through that doorway themselves. Let someone know today the difference that God's love has made in your life.
Mary Manin Morrissey

Learning to follow your intuition can sometimes feel a bit like "living on the edge". In a sense, it's learning to live without the false sense of security that comes from trying to control everything that happens to us. It's recognizing that as we follow our inner guidance, wonderful things are going to unfold for us, things that we may not yet even imagine.
Gradually we become less afraid and more comfortable with uncertainty. We can learn to enjoy not knowing! It's actually a very exciting, alive feeling. We can learn to move into the unknown with the confidence that we have a guiding force within us that is showing us the way.
Shakti Gawain

Remember that forgiveness is not a sudden, quick event. No more than a physical wound instantly heals with the application of a bandage; forgiveness does not occur in a single moment of tear-streaked reunion. Forgiveness is a journey. It is a process.
So learn to be patient and persistent as you travel the road of forgiveness with the end of the journey, the freedom and internal peace, kept firmly in the forefront of your mind.
Lloyd J. Thomas, Ph.D.
Love
"Watch the people around you express love. Learn from praying, from knowing God. Don't be distracted by rap music, Hollywood, soap operas, or other earthly offerings that are merely entertainment, not spiritual sustenance. Remember: love exists in our lives at all times, even if we feel especially alone because we do not have a significant other. Love is all around us and inside of us."
Patrice Gaines

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.
St. Francis De Sales

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tzu

Tao te Ching

2007-10-31T07:46:00.001-05:00

Identity

Accolades can usher in
Great trouble for your body,
Censure can herald misery.

Why can favor and disfavor
Both be harmful?

Because both accolades and censure,
When filtered through self as ego,
Always place us in jeopardy.

But when the universe becomes your self,
When you love the world as yourself,
All reality becomes your haven,
Reinventing you as your own heaven.

Only then, will you transcend tense
To fully be here now.
Only then, no harm
Will the universe proffer
Nor you to her,
Nor you will be
Not you but she
And both – the universal Great Integrity.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 13

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Favor and disgrace seem alarming
High status greatly afflicts your person.

Why are favor and disgrace alarming?
Seeking favor is degrading;
Alarming when it is gotten,
Alarming when it is lost.

Why does high status greatly afflict your person?
The reason we have a lot of trouble
Is that we have selves
If we had no selves,
What trouble would we have?

Man’s true self is eternal,
Yet he thinks, I am this body and will soon die.
If we have no body, what calamities can we have?
One who sees himself as everything
Is fit to be guardian of the world.
One who loves himself as everyone
Is fit to be teacher of the world.

Photo; Planetary Nebula NGC 7009

Snips..

2007-10-31T07:45:00.001-05:00

"I trust so much in the power of the heart and the soul; I know that the answer to what we need to do next is in our own hearts. All we have to do is listen, then take that one step further and trust what we hear. We will be taught what we need to learn."

Melody Beattie

Think of the new vocabulary that would emerge if the world embraced an attitude of service and generosity of the heart, rather than work! When you perform that which has been given you to do with an attitude of work, you are actually in servitude to that work. You are a servant to your own burdensome false idea. Service, on the other hand, is freedom.

Dr. Michael Beckwith

Service at its very basic core is an inner choice to offer a helpful and healing attitude to others as well as to ourselves. . . .

Service is best thought of as a continual focus in your life rather than being limited to certain kinds of giving activities and the sharing in relationships. Service is a state of mind that expresses love rather than fear, and trust rather than distrust. It is focusing on meeting all others as equals with whom we share a spiritual identity. This inner attitude of love reveals itself in action.

Wayne W. Dyer

Whether you are an extrovert who thrives in social settings, or an introvert who finds joy in quiet moments, you are a unique individual with gifts that can enrich the lives of others. You are part of the vast One-ness that is God.

Mary Manin Morrissey

Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.

Nido Qubein

Tao te Ching

2007-10-30T04:55:00.001-05:00

Choices

Colors can make us blind!
Music can make us deaf!
Flavors can destroy our taste!
Possessions can close our options!
Racing can drive us mad
And its rewards obstruct our peace!

Thus, the wise
Fill the inner gut
Rather than the eyes,
Always sacrificing the superficial
For the essential

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 12

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors dull the taste.
The chase and the hunt craze people’s minds.

Wasting energy to obtain rare objects
Only impedes ones growth.

The master observes the world
But trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
He prefers what is within to what is without.

Photo; Rose Nebula

Snips

2007-10-30T04:52:00.000-05:00

Often, once we get started with the day, we may not listen as closely to life and ourselves as we do in those still moments when we first awaken. An ideal time to listen to ourselves is when we are laying quietly, our defenses are down, and we're open and most vulnerable. What is the first feeling that floods through us, the feeling that perhaps we are trying to avoid during the business of the day? That is what we need to focus on and work through. That's the issue we need to address.
Melody Beattie

The master addiction is control. It is not lack of courage that keeps us from moving forward, as most people think; it is the fear of losing control.
John-Roger

Those who are Awake live in a state of constant amazement ...
Jack Kornfield

You're never going to get to any final place. And so, we want to remind you to relax and
start having fun on the way.
Abraham-Hicks

Harmony resides with those who choose to align themselves with the flow of the universe. People who live harmonious lives are in synchronicity with Spirit. Its course becomes their course. Instead of blindly pursuing their own ego-agenda, they remain flexible and open to new possibilities. They worry less. They rarely panic. They live in faith, and trust that no matter what shows up in life, they are in the presence of a power whose only intention for their lives is to unfold the highest good. They are not afraid to “float” on their own.
Chris Michaels

Tao te Ching

2007-10-29T08:02:00.000-05:00

The Importance of What is Not

We join thirty spokes
to the hub of a wheel,
yet it's the center hole
that drives the chariot.

We shape clay
to birth a vessel,
yet it's the hollow within
that makes it useful.

We chisel doors and windows
to construct a room,
yet it's the inner space
that makes it livable.

Thus we create what is
to use what is not.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 11

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Thirty spokes converge onto a single hub;
It is the hole in the center that
The use of the cart hinges

Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Carve fine doors and windows,
But the room is useful in its emptiness.

The usefulness of what is
Depends on what is not.

Photo; Barred Spiral Galaxy

Snips

2007-10-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival; a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and attend them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honourable. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the same, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each guest has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Malal al-Din Rumi

When we look to the life of Jesus, we see He lived his life in a way that provides a template for our own. Jesus took the task that was his to do, and he did it with Love. For Jesus, that task was teaching. Your task may be to deliver the mail or to run a corporation. But whatever your livelihood, be fully present, fully engaged. Honor those at your workplace with your attention and support. Following Jesus, treat your work as a sacred art.
Mary Manin Morrissey

At any given moment we have two voices in our head: one which tells us we can't, and another which tells us we can. Which will prove true? The one we give the most attention to. The one we act on. The one we make a stand for.

Alan Cohen

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
Betty Smith

"You just have to listen to your heart, no matter what," he told the other children, 'cause somewhere inside of us, where we feel our feelings, like in our hearts, there's a little voice. Not really a voice that talks out loud. But if you really listen, you can hear it. And it will know what you should do."
Sara O'Meara/Yvonne Fedderson co-founders, Childhelp USA, the book; Silence Broken

Snips

2007-10-28T08:03:00.000-05:00

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.
M. Scott Peck

Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk.
Leo Buscaglia

If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't.
Denis Waitley

Who would fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him?

Tao te Ching

2007-10-26T08:20:00.001-05:00

Limitations

When embracing the unity
Of mind, body, emotions
And spiritual being,
Can we transcend our fragmentations
Without leaving a trace?

When Qi Gong sculpts sinew suppleness,
Can our flesh become soft
As a new-born babe?

Can we cleanse the inner vision,
Leaving mind in spiritual purity?

Can our affairs of the heart,
And our affairs of state
Be so unconditional
That we grant unqualified permissibility?

Can the gate to yin be opened
Without inviting yang?

Can our reasoning mind
Be purged of coercion,
Allowing our heart its unfettered joy?

Can we act like other species,
Seeking no reward,
Taking no pride,
Guiding without enslaving?

Such is our vision of the Great Integrity
On whose path we have at last
Planted both feet,
Ready to move, step by step.
Until we arrive at the great unfettered gate.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 10

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Carrying body and soul
And embracing the one,
Can you avoid separation?

Can you let your body become
As supple as a newborn child’s?
In the opening and shutting of heavens gate,
Can you play the feminine part?

Can you love your people
and govern your domain
Without self-importance?

Giving birth and nourishing;
Having, yet not possessing
Working, yet not taking credit;
Leading without controlling or dominating.

One who heeds this power
Brings the Tao to this very earth.
This is the primal virtue.

Photo; Starry Night

Snips

2007-10-26T08:16:00.000-05:00

Keep your heart clear and transparent, and you will never be bound. A single disturbed thought creates ten thousand distractions.
Ryokan

...As it relates to forgiveness, you must give up what you do not want in order to make room for what you do want. You must give up pain, anger, resentment, and fear in order to experience goodness, joy, peace, and love. As long you hold on to the belief that anyone on earth can do anything to you, you will be unable to forgive.
Iyanla Vanzant

The truth of who we are, and the greatness we are meant to experience, is bigger than anyone or any circumstance that would try to hold us back.
Mary Manin Morrissey

Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as it is leaping.
Julius Hare

To be seeing the world made new every morning, as if it were the morning of the first day, and then to make the most of it for the individual soul as if each were the last day—it is the daily curriculum of the mind's desire.
John H Finley

Spiritual courage grows through our willingness to keep on remembering, to keep on searching for the sacred behind all the seemingly mundane and even terrible facets of life.
Fire In The Soul

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.
Teilhard de Chardin

Love washes away all conflicts because unlimited love keeps no records of mistakes and shortcomings.
Sir John Templeton

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."
Nido Qubein

The key to happiness and fulfillment lies not in money, property or prestige, not in what you own, what you drive or where you live.
The true key to happiness and fulfillment lies in being totally, authentically and ecstatically who and what the Creator made you to be; exactly who and what you is.
Jim Wilkins

Tao te Ching

2007-10-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

Overfulfillment

Keep filling your bowl,
And it will spill over.

Keep sharpening your knife,
And it will blunt.

Keep hoarding gold in your house,
And you will be robbed.

Keep seeking approval,
And you will be chained.

The Greatest Integrity leads to actualization,
Never overfulfillment.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 9

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

To keep on filling
Is not as good as stopping,
Overfilled, the cup hands drip,
Better to stop pouring.

Sharpen a blade too much
And its edge will soon be lost.
Fill your house with jade and gold
And it brings insecurity.
Puff yourself with honor and pride
And no one can save you from a fall.

Retire when the work is done;
This is the way of heaven.

Photo; Firestorm of Star Birth

Snips

2007-10-25T08:38:00.000-05:00

Trust your instincts. Trust that small inner voice that guides you to the right, loving action. That small inner voice is who you really are. That terrible person you have imagined yourself to be is a machination of your imagination, fears, and self-doubts. Yes, you have made mistakes... haven't we all? Yes, you had instances where you were unjust, petty, and did not express loving or peaceful thoughts. Those are nothing more than experiences that you went
through -- errors in judgment. Your true inner self is still an innocent, loving being -- an angel in physical form. That is who you are. You can reclaim it now! You are free to be who you really are! A divine child of the Universe.
Marie T. Russell

Along our spiritual journey, every one of us is thrust into the desert. We find ourselves in a relationship wasteland or financially barren. We feel lost and abandoned, but it is during this time in the desert that God grows our souls.
Mary Manin Morrissey

Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps
D.Lloyd George

Let Go of what is not working in our lives. Anger, fear, resentment, perfectionism, struggle, ego, and the need for approval are just some of the emotions and beliefs that don't serve us. We may also need to let go of an abusive relationship, a dead-end job, or our preconceived ideas of how situations and people should be. Releasing the negative in our lives makes room for the positive - like love, serendipity, and abundance.
Fred Luskin, Ph.D., Director of Stanford University's Forgiveness Project

"We must give up our will, give up control, and release our expectations about a specific result. This is where the going starts to get tough. We want what we want, and usually we want it yesterday. We need to open ourselves up to the possibility that we don't always know what's best for us."
--Kathy Cordova

Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time -- just like it does for you and me.
Sara Paddison

Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.
I CHING

Everyone can be great. Because everyone can serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.
G.K. Chesterton

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
Henry David Thoreau

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.
Leonardo Da Vinci

"The Divine intends freedom for us..."
Ernest Holmes

Share your heart with the world. Share willingly, openly, joyfully what you have seen, what you have learned. Don't tell people how you think you should have handled things. That's shame. It teachers others to feel ashamed, too. Don't tell people how you wish you had handled things. That's needless regret that we pass on to others.
Share honestly and openly about yourself, the way you felt, the things you thought. Share how going through your experience changed you. Talk about your resistance, your pain, the imperfect way you did things, the way you handle things now.
Sharing honestly and openly teaches people around us the most helpful truth - that the imperfect way we live our lives is right for us at the time. When we love and accept ourselves enough to honestly share who we are, it helps those we touch to believe that they're good enough too.
Sharing your heart with the world and you will bring healing to those you touch.
Melody Beattie

Tao te Ching

2007-10-24T07:53:00.000-05:00

The Highest Good

The highest good is like water,
Nourishing life effortlessly,
Flowing without prejudice
To the lowliest places.

It springs from all
Who nourish their community
With a benevolent heart
As deep as an abyss,
Who are incapable of lies and injustices,
Who are rooted in the earth,
And whose natural rhythms of action
Play midwife to the highest good
Of each joyful moment.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 8

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

The supreme good is like water,
Which nourishes all things without trying to.
It flows to low places loathed by all men.
Therefore, it is like the Tao.

Live in accordance with the nature of things.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
Stand by your word.
Govern with equity,
Be timely in choosing the right moment.

One who lives in accordance with nature
Does not go against the way of things.
He moves in harmony with the present moment,
Always knowing the truth of just what to do.

Photo; Cats Eye Nebula

Snips

2007-10-24T07:51:00.000-05:00

No matter how painful our early experiences were, our Essence cannot be harmed. Our Essence is waiting for the opportunity to reveal itself. In a very true sense, we are waiting for the opportunity to become ourselves. Our spirit is yearning to break free, to express itself.
Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -and achieve it, generation after generation.
Pearl S. Buck

Live in love and do your work; make amends of your sorrows; for just as the jasmine releases and lets fall its withered flowers, let fall willfulness and hatred.
The Dhammapada

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.
Mother Teresa

Tao te Ching

2007-10-23T08:01:00.000-05:00

Modesty

The Great Integrity, having had no birth,
Expresses its immortality
Without pronouncements.

The wise are heard
Through their silence
Always self-full through selflessness.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 7

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Heaven is eternal – the earth endures.
Why do heaven and earth last forever?
They do not live for themselves only.
This is the secret of their durability.

For this reason the sage puts himself last
And so ends up ahead.
He stays a witness to life,
So he endures.

Serve the needs of others,
And all your own needs will be fulfilled.
Through selfless action, fulfillment is attained.

Photo;Blue Horse & Sombrero

Snips

2007-10-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

One message that keeps us separate from the love that can free us goes like this: If I've been hurt, I never want to hurt like that again. I'm going to build a wall and never really trust. Never let go again. I'm going to build that wall of isolation. We feel that way at times, but closing your heart doesn't build what we want to experience. We require something greater.
Mary Manin Morrissey

We will get the love we need and desire when we begin to believe we're lovable, and when we allow that to happen.
Melody Beattie

We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.
Brian Tracy

To know what you know and to know what you don't know, that is real wisdom.
Confucius

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.
Maya Angelou ~

Tao te Ching

2007-10-22T01:44:00.000-05:00

Life’s Spirit

The spirit of Life
Never dies.

It is the infinite gateway
To mysteries within mysteries

It is the seed of yin,
The spark of yang

Always elusive,
Endlessly available

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 6

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

The spirit that never dies
Is called the mysterious feminine.
Although she becomes the whole universe,
Her immaculate purity is never lost.
Although she assumes countless forms,
Her true identity remains intact.

The gateway to the mysterious female
Is called the root of creation.

Listen to her voice,
Hear it echo through creation.
Without fail, she reveals her presence.
Without fail, she brings us to our perfection.
Although it is invisible, it endures;
It will never end.

Photo;

Snips

2007-10-22T01:41:00.000-05:00

The key to calming down and quieting a busy mind is to trust that, if you do, everything will be okay. If you empty your mind, you won't be turning it off. It will still be working. In fact,
it will be smarter and work better and more efficiently. A wise, intelligent, and orderly thought process will take over, and the appropriate thoughts will emerge when needed.

Richard Carlson

The thoughts always precede the actions. Thus the importance of "managing" our thoughts and not let them run rampant. They are not the "directors" of our show. They are simply the precursors to action. So if you don't like the direction your life is taking, or your day, or a particular interaction, take a look at your thoughts.

Marie T. Russell

Times are changing for the better. Continue on the path of trust and obedience. Be open to the new.

Melody Beattie

You are not responsible for the choices that others make, nor are they responsible for yours. However, you can and must learn from one another, for what you choose is not that different from the choice your brother makes. You make many of the same mistakes. Mistakes are opportunities for learning. To condemn your brother for making mistakes is to pretend to be mistake free, which you are not. I have asked you before and I will ask you again: which one of you will throw the first stone?
Paul Ferrini

Humor is a gateway to wisdom. Walk through it and you will master a spiritual skill that will create space between you and the fictional character you call yourself. It will put the smile of Buddha that is in your soul upon your face.
Dr. Michael Beckwith

We do not possess our home, our children, or even our own body. They are only given to us for a short while to treat with care and respect.
Jack Kornfield

A little light in a dark room is still a great illumination.
Ernest Holmes

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
Madame Curie

A great man is he who does not lose his child's heart.
Mencius

Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

2007-10-20T07:54:00.001-05:00

Snips

2007-10-20T07:53:00.000-05:00

One day, I decided to try something new. I took my ten-year-old son out on the St. Croix River on a Waverunner.
We donned life jackets and embarked on an experience that turned out to be both exhilarating and frightening: exhilarating when I let myself enjoy it; frightening when I thought too much about what I was doing and all the terrible things that could happen.
Midway through our ride, my worst fear came true. We took a spill. We were floundering in thirty feet of water. The Waverunner was bobbing on the waves in front of me, like a motorized turtle on its back. "Don't panic," my son said calmly.
"What if we drown?" I objected.
"We can't," he said. "We have life jackets on. See! We're floating."
"The machine is upside down," I said. "How are we going to turn it over?"
"Just like the man said," my son answered. "The arrow points this way."
With an easy gesture, we turned the machine right-side up.
"What if we can't climb back on?" I asked.
"We can," my son replied. "That's what Waverunners were made for: climbing on in the water."
I relaxed and as we drove off, I wondered why I had become so frightened. I thought maybe it's because I don't trust my ability to solve problems. Maybe it's because once I almost drowned when I wasn't wearing a life jacket.
But you didn't drown then either, a small voice inside reassured me. You survived.
Don't panic. Problems were made to be solved. Life was made to be lived. Although sometimes we may be in over our heads-yes, we may even go under for a few moments and gulp a few mouthfuls of waer, we won't drown. We're wearing-and always have been wearing-a life jacket. That support jacket is called "God."
Today, I will remember to take care of myself. When I get in over my head, God is there supporting me-even when my fears try to make me forget.
--Melody Beattie

Thoughts held in mind reproduce after their kind, just as apple seeds, pear seeds and carrot seeds, if nurtured, give rise to the expression of themselves. Recognizing that the very nature of God is imbued in us, it only makes sense that we would nurture and give rise to God thoughts. Yet many of us spend far more time thinking about what could or did go wrong than we do manifesting our own divinity. What thoughts
might bring you closer to your own God-like nature?
Mary Manin Morrissey

Your life is valuable not for how it looks, but for what is happening in your heart and soul. If a relationship falls apart in the outer world, but you extract personal growth from it, you are succeeding in a far more meaningful way than one who amasses the symbols of success but fails to recognize his or her own inner worth. The only true measure of success, we eventually discover, is happiness.
Alan Cohen

Regardless of its configuration, the essence of what creates and sustains a healthy family is love.
Mary Manin Morrissey

If we have not peace within ourselves, it is vain to seek it from outside sources.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What happens to you is not as important as what you make of it.
Alan Cohen

Trust the messages your feelings are giving you as feedback on how well your current choice matches your well-being. Living from joy is like building a muscle; the more you trust and act on your intuition, the louder, stronger, and more real it becomes. If you don't live from your truth, your ability to access it will atrophy, and you will not know who you are, what you want, or what you are doing here. Live from the truth and you will be set free.

Alan Cohen

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.
Lao-Tzu

When they think that they know the answers, people are difficult to guide. When they know that they don't know, People can find their own way.

Tao Te Ching

Tao te Ching

2007-10-19T13:50:00.001-05:00

Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang aren’t sentimental.
They exist without moralizing.
They act regardless of our wishes
Within the ebb and flow
Of every pregnant moment.

The space between the yin and yang
Is like a bellows—
Empty, yet infinitely full.
The more it yields,
The more it fills.

Countless words
Count less
That the silent balance
Between the yin and yang.

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 5

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Heaven and earth are impartial
They see the 10,000 things as straw dogs.
The sage is not sentimental;
He treats all his people as straw dogs.

The sage is like heaven and earth;
To him none are especially dear,
Nor is there anyone he disfavors.
He gives and gives, without condition,
Offering his treasures to everyone.

Between heaven and earth
Is a space like a bellows;
Empty and inexhaustible,
The more it is used, the more it produces.

Hold on to the center.
Man was made to sit quietly and find
The truth within.

Photo; Cosmic Pearls

Snips

2007-10-19T13:48:00.001-05:00

We will not accomplish our task any sooner, or any better, by performing it out of a sense of urgency, fear, anger, or sadness. Let go of unrest. Let peace fill the void. We do not have to forfeit our power, our God given personal power - or our peace - to do the work as we are called upon to do today. We will be given all the power we need to do what we are meant to do, when it is time. Let peace come first. Then proceed. The task will get done, naturally and on time.

Melody Beattie

Until we are ready to look at the truth we will continue to create illusions that support our fears. With clarity we can no longer be in fear, we must face what we have done our best to ignore, hide or cover up. Now we have a decision to make, do we continue with the illusion or do we find the courage to change direction and step out in a different path?

Jennifer Hoffman

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.

Abraham Maslow

"Love is the most important ingredient in life. When there is love there is no fear or doubt. It is compassion, forgiveness and total detachment. Love is the ever-extending and expanding life itself. Have faith in love. It is the solution to whatever confronts you, the answer to every question, the healer of every wound, the friend when you feel lonely, the nurturer in hard times. Love cannot be given to you. It can only come from yourself. You do not know that there is love until you have and give it yourself. When you have love for yourself you will see love in everyone and everything, without comparison and judgment."
~ Gudrun Kretschman

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfilment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Don't hide your heart but reveal it,
so that mine might be revealed,
and I might accept what I am capable of."
~ Rumi

Tao te Ching

2007-10-18T08:15:00.001-05:00

The Great Integrity
The Great Integrity is an endless abyss
Yet, it is the inexhaustibly fertile
Source of the universe

It blunts all sharpness
Unties the entangled
And merges with the dust!

Hidden but ever present-
This parent of the gods-
Whose child it may be?

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 4

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

The Tao is empty
But inexhaustible,
Bottomless,
And the ancestor of it all.

Within it, the sharp edges become smooth;
The twisted knots loosen;
The sun is softened by a cloud;
The dust settles into place.

It is hidden but always present.
I do not know who gave birth to it.
It seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father of all things.

Photo; Sombrero Galaxy

Snips

2007-10-18T08:10:00.000-05:00

The solution to our pain and frustration, however valid is to acknowledge our own feelings. We feel the anger, the grief; then we let go of the feelings and find peace - within ourselves. We know our happiness isn't controlled by another person, even though we may have convinced ourselves it is. We call this acceptance.
Melody Beattie

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Carl Jung

Be patient and loving with every fearful thought.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

When you move outside your comfort zone, it is highly likely that you’re going to feel fear. After all, fear is the invisible barbed wire fence that keeps us safely and securely within our comfort zones. But if you are going to live the life that God brought you here to live, you are going to have to learn to work through that fear because God has extraordinary plans for you. God wants you to walk on water. But before you can walk on water, you have to get out of your boat. You’re too comfortable in your familiar little boat.
Edwene Gaines

Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much he lacks in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, the same as worry is: so expensive are they that no one can afford to entertain them. We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude of mind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire. The mind dominated by fear opens the door to the entrance of the very things, for the actualization of the very conditions it fears.
Ralph Waldo Trine

Now by what name can we call such an inherent desire to add to the fullness of any individual life – that is, to make it stronger, brighter, and happier? If this is not Love, then I do not know what else it is; and so we are philosophically led to the conclusion that Love is the prime moving power of the Creating Spirit.
Thomas Troward

Make love a priority in your life and everything you will do will be for the best. Love makes the universe turn if we but knew it. The intelligence of love is as supreme as it is subtle, and too seldom we dismiss its great power as some romantic fantasy that cannot be applied to the hard and fast reality of life. Live by love and see how miraculous everything becomes. Love is the universal truth that conquers all.
Manuela Dunn Mascetti

Tao te Ching

2007-10-17T05:59:00.001-05:00

Tempering

Overpraising the gifted
Leads to contentiousness
Overvaluing the precious
Invites stealing
Craving the desirable
Loses contentment

The natural person
Desires without craving
And acts without excess

By not doing,
Everything is done

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale
Verse 3

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Putting a value on status
Will create contentiousness,
If you overvalue possessions,
People begin to steal.
By not displaying what is desirable, you will
Cause the peoples hearts to remain undisturbed.

The sage governs
By emptying minds and hearts
By weakening ambitions and strengthening bones.

Practice not doing…
When action is pure and selfless,
Everything settles into its own perfect place.

Photo; White Heart Galaxy

Snips

2007-10-17T05:56:00.001-05:00

A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts, By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny.

James Allen

"...we need to abandon the idea that wisdom is knowing everything—the whys, the wherefores, the how-tos. Wisdom is often more subtle, both far simpler and exceedingly more complex. For wisdom requires the discerning, the listening to, the acknowledgement of nudges and notions, of senses and sensations, of the minute and what we often mistakenly assume is the mundane. Wisdom means listening to the still, small voice, the whisper that can be easily lost in the whirlwind of busyness, expectations, and conventions of the world....”
Jean M. Blomquist

There is a magnificent artist in you just waiting to be brought forth. You can reproduce your parent's story, leave the canvas blank, or you can recognize your true identity and create a masterpiece. The life you hold is in your hands.

Mary Manin Morrissey

A basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.

Jack Kornfield

Tao te Ching

2007-10-16T07:35:00.000-05:00

Relativity
We know there is beauty because there is ugly
We know good because there is evil
Being and not being
Having and not having
Create each other
Difficulty and easy
Long and short
High and low
Define each other
Just as before and after follow each other
The dialectic of sound
Gives voice to music
Always transforming"is" from "was"
As the ancestors of "to be"
The wise teach without telling
Allow without commanding
Have without possessing
Care without claiming
In this way we harvest eternal importance
Because we never announce it.

Verse 2
Translator; Ralph Alan Dale

Another Version from Wayne Dyer
Living the Wisdom of the Tao..

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty,
Only because there is ugliness.
All can know good only because there is evil.

Being and nonbeing produce each other,
The difficult is born in the easy,
Long is defined by short, the high by the low.
Before and after go along with each other.

So the sage lives openly and with apparent duality
And paradoxical unity.
The sage can act without effort
And teach without words.
Nurturing things without possessing them,
He works, but not for the rewards;
He competes, but not for the results.

When the work is done, it is forgotten.
That is why it lasts forever.

Photo; Thor Galaxy

Snips

2007-10-16T07:33:00.001-05:00

I've started to realize that waiting is an art, that waiting achieves things. Waiting can be very, very powerful. Time is a valuable thing. If you can wait two years, you can sometimes achieve something that you could not achieve today, however hard you worked, however much money you threw up in the air, however many times you banged your head against the wall.

Dennis Wholey

The best way to prepare for tomorrow is to make today's consciousness serene and harmonious. All other good things will follow upon that.

Emmet Fox

How do you teach and encourage? Words can help, but they aren't the primary teaching tool. Love is the greatest instructor.

John-Roger

A special kind of freedom is available to you if you are willing to take the risks involved in getting it: the freedom to wander where you will about life’s terrain, to make all your own choices.

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Freedom is a condition of the Soul. As we turn to the kingdom of our inner Self, we find the reign of divine Power in the outer world. As we seek peace within, we find harmony without. We reach the depth of the Soul, and It takes over our existence, providing activity and newness of life, a peace and serenity, the like of which we have never dreamed. We then have achieved the freedom of the Soul, the freedom of grace.

Joel Goldsmith

Never fear to be yourself. If Mental Science does not teach you to be yourself it teaches you nothing. Yourself, more yourself, and yet more yourself is what you want; only with the knowledge that the true self includes the inner and higher self which is always in immediate touch with the Great Divine Mind.

Thomas Troward

Tao te Ching

2007-10-15T10:03:00.000-05:00

The Tao that can be told

is not the universal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the universal name.

In the infancy of the universe,

there were no names.

Naming fragments the mysteries of life

into a thousand things

and their manifestations.

Yet mysteries and manifestations

spring from the same source:

The Great Integrity

which is the mystery within the manifestation,

the manifestation within the mystery,

the naming of the unnamed,

and the unnaming of the named.

When these interpretations

are in full attendance,

we will pass the gates of naming notions

in our journey toward transcendence.

Verse 1

Translator; Ralph Alan Dale

Photo, Whale and Hockey Stick

Another Version from Wayne Dyer

The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal name.

The Tao is both named and nameless,
As nameless it is the origin of all things;
as named it is Mother of 10,000 things.

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery;
ever desiring, one sees only the manifestations.
And the mystery itself is the doorway
to all understanding.

Snips

2007-10-15T07:44:00.000-05:00

To have abundance in Soul does not mean having lots of things; it means having access to, and communication with, the essence of all things. Once you are in touch with that, you have all things inside you. You don't feel any lack. You have fullness and gratitude, and you walk free, knowing that whatever you need will come to you.

John-Roger with Paul Kaye

Try shifting your perspective to an even bigger place. Can you imagine the world as God sees it? What is the perspective of the wind? How does rain or snow feel as it falls against the earth? How does a tree feel, rooted in the earth and reaching toward heaven?

Carlos Warter

We see ourselves as broken, and then set out on a long and frustrating journey to fill our emptiness. But it is not fixing that we require; it is awakening.

Alan Cohen

Every man must take time daily for quiet and meditation. In daily meditation lies the secret of power. No one can grow in either spiritual knowledge or power without it. Practice the presence of God just as you would practice music. No one would ever dream of becoming a master in music except by spending some time daily alone with music. Daily meditation alone with God focuses the divine presence within us and brings it to our consciousness.

H. Emilie Cady

But the basis of our work is to “leave your nets,” to leave this search for more and better human good and open consciousness to the spiritual realities. Then the things which come to us in the outer world are the fruits of an inward grace. Grace can only be attained by a state of inner silence, a state of inner awareness and receptivity; therefore it is necessary for us to prepare ourselves for the experience of receiving that grace. This is the whole purpose of meditation.

Joel Goldsmith

Snips

2007-10-14T08:03:00.000-05:00

We will know what we need to know, when we need to know that. We don't have to feel badly about taking our own time to reach our insights. We don't have to force insight or awareness before it's time. The most growth-producing concept we can develop for others and ourselves is to allow ourselves to have our own process. We can give and receive support and encouragement while we go through this process. We can listen to others and say what we think. We can set boundaries and take care of ourselves, when needed. But we still give others and ourselves the right to grow at our own pace, without judgment, and with much trust that all is well and is on schedule.
Melody Beattie

What we've learned is that if a relationship isn't working out, it is not a bad thing or a failure as our society likes to label it. It just may be that you have learned what it is that you were supposed to learn by being in a relationship with that other person and it's time to move on to other "lessons."
Susie and Otto Collins

The joy we seek lies less in something new happening and more in our opening our hearts more fully to the love in our lives already. Only love can make us happy, and only we ourselves can determine its presence or absence inside our hearts. To acknowledge love is to increase its capacity to heal us; to ignore love is to let it slip away.
Marianne Williamson

"Remember, you become what you think about all day long. How often do you clutter your mind with thoughts of non-peace? How many times a day do you say out loud how terrible the world is? How violent we have all become? How uncaring we seem to be? How racist we are? How little government cares about us? All of these thoughts and their expressions are indications that you have become trapped in a non-peaceful mind and therefore, a non-peaceful world."
Wayne Dyer

"I do only want to advise you to keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer."
Rainer Maria Rilke

"When you feel inspired, more than ordinary thinking is involved. There is a sense of being uplifted, of suddenly breaking through. Old boundaries fall away, and one feels, if only for a moment, a rush of liberation"
Deepak Chopra

As I watched the seagulls, I thought: That's the road to take. Find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust.
Nikos Kazantzakis

Snips

2007-10-10T07:39:00.000-05:00

We all have an ingrained sense of right and wrong, of what is loving and what is not, of what is "right" and what is not. It is time to return to trusting ourselves - to trusting that small
inner voice, that sense of true joy and spontaneity. We need to free up our true selves by releasing them from the chains and rules of conduct that were imposed on us. We are trustworthy! We can follow our inner wisdom and it will always support us and guide us.
Marie T. Russell

If you are not progressing as fast as you wish to, the remedy is-to be still more careful to hold only harmonious thoughts. Do not dwell upon your mistakes or upon the slowness of your progress, but claim the Presence of God with you, all the more.
Emmet Fox

“Everything is made of light; everything is alive. The Great Mystery of life has little to do with intelligence. The universe is not an intellectual process. The intellect is helpful; but our hearts are the wiser part of ourselves.”
Mellen-Thomas Benedict

"The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past. Between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists."
William Jefferson Clinton

Snips

2007-10-08T08:35:00.001-05:00

I have learned that, if we set our mind to it, we have an incredible, almost awesome ability to find misery in any situation, even the most wonderful of circumstances. Shoulders bent, head down, we shuffle through life taking our blows. Be done with it. Take off the gray cloak of despair, negativity, and victimization. Hurl it; let it blow away in the wind. Set a boundary! Deal with the anger! Tell someone no, or stop that! Walk away from a relationship! Ask for what you need! Make choices and take responsibility for them. Explore options. Give yourself what you need! Stand up straight, head up, and claim your power. Claim responsibility for yourself! And learn to enjoy what's good.

Melody Beattie

You can start finding your own divine love when you start loving others. But that doesn't count until you can love yourself.

John-Roger

“It is while trying to get everything straight in my head that I get confused.”
Mary Virginia Micka

"Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places? Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own heart."

Ryokan

Shortly thereafter I read a passage by the metaphysician Ernest Holmes that encouraged the reader to sit, meditate and realize that we/you/I are the Center of Divine Attraction. Something about that statement leapt off the page! To actually affirm and proclaim that I am the center, the very core of divine attraction summoned up all sorts of remarkable images. The most exciting was that of a bulls-eye in the center of a target.

"Here I am" I joyously proclaimed, "a walking bulls-eye, declaring that I am the center of divine attraction! C'mon God, hit me with the good!"

I visualized Spirit as the master archer shooting arrows of outrageously awesome good fortune at me, piercing me in the very core of my being with all things grand and glorious. I began singing/chanting

I AM,
I AM THE CENTER OF,
I AM THE CENTER OF DIVINE ATTRACTION
ALL THINGS
ALL PURE AND BLESSED THINGS
ALL PURE AND BLESSED THINGS COME TO ME NOW

Rev David Ault

Snips

2007-10-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

It's so easy - this quest - this search for the meaning of life. It's not a search at all - at least not a physical searching. It's an allowing – giving ourselves permission to be happy regardless of what may lay in front of us or behind us. Choosing to be happy is the combination to the padlocked door separating us from all that we can be, do or have.
Rev. David Ault

"Most of the time, we fall in love but can’t remain there. The world then calls the state we were in a delusion or infatuation ... But we merely lacked, or someone else lacked, the emotional skills to hold on to the magic when the morning came. ... In truth, we can go to the moon and retain its magic for a lifetime."
Marianne Williamson

"We think, sometimes, there’s not a dragon left. Not one brave knight, not a single princess gliding through secret forests ... What a pleasure to be wrong. Princesses, knights, enchantments and dragons, mystery and adventure ... not only are they here-and-now, they’re all that ever lived on earth! Masters of reality still meet us in dreams to tell us that we’ve never lost the shield we need against dragons, that blue-fire voltage arcs through us now to change our world as we wish. Intuition whispers true: We’re not dust, we’re magic!"
Richard Bach

Try shifting your perspective to an even bigger place. Can you imagine the world as God sees it? What is the perspective of the wind? How does rain or snow feel as it falls against the earth? How does a tree feel, rooted in the earth and reaching toward heaven?
Carlos Warter

"Authentic power is the energy that is formed by the intentions of the Soul. It is the light shaped by the intentions of love and compassion guided by wisdom"
Gary Zukav

The best way to prepare for tomorrow is to make today's consciousness serene and harmonious. All other good things will follow upon that.
Emmet Fox

The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love.
Jack Kornfield

Awakening is not a single event in time; it is a river endlessly flowing in this moment now.
Arjuna Ardagh

The answer's already here. You just have to host it in your heart.
Rev. David Ault

Snips...

2007-10-06T07:40:00.001-05:00

There are many different languages for love. Pay attention to the language someone else is using. Then love them in the way they recognize that they're loved, instead of the way you would prefer to be loved. Talk their language of love.
Mary Manin Morrissey

With this being so, how is it possible we have chosen to build our entire lives and self-images around such events? How is it possible we have decided to endlessly relive some thing which occurred many years ago rather than to live in the present and get on with the rest of our lives? As long as we choose to see this event, or events, as the measuring stick for our lives, we are trapped in the past and have no real chance of changing our
Beliefs, or our lives, and it is all based on the Perception that Life somehow singled us out in some manner, and that whatever happened to us is who, and what, we are.
It is not so much the FACTS, or our BELIEFS, which have limited us. It has been the PERCEPTION of the FACTS which created our BELIEFS which has limited us. If we will allow ourselves to PERCEIVE ourselves, and our lives, differently, then everything else will start to change.
Charles Frost

The choice between love and fear is made every moment in our hearts and minds. That is where the peace process begins. Without peace within, peace in the world is an empty wish. Like love, peace is extended. It cannot be brought from the world to the heart. It must be brought from each heart to another, and thus to all mankind.
Paul Ferrini

When we develop a spiritual consciousness, we transfer this personal love to a higher and more stable plane, from the love of money and material things to the love of God, and thus conceived it will attract to us all the resources of infinite Mind forever and ever.
Charles Fillmore

If you are not progressing as fast as you wish to, the remedy is-to be still more careful, to hold only harmonious thoughts. Do not dwell upon your mistakes or upon the slowness of your progress, but claim the Presence of God with you, all the more.
Emmet Fox

Ask not: What do you do for a living? Ask rather: What do you live to do?
Colleen Joy Page

Be comfortable with your humanness, but don't believe in it.
Emmanuel

Snips...

2007-10-05T08:05:00.000-05:00

The Universe holds nothing back from us. We hold back because we don't feel we're worthy and then we don't let the gifts grow into their fullness because we ignore them. For instance, suppose someone pays you a compliment. How much do you really let that in? Do you fend it off right away, or acknowledge your own goodness? The next time someone shows appreciation for you or what you've done, try simply accepting the gift without disparagement. Then consider how that acceptance makes you feel.
Mary Manin Morrissey

If you're a silent sufferer, as I was, good luck. Whatever it is you're suffering over is growing like an overfed weed. Same thing if you're a controller, nagger, worrier, or people-pleaser. You have to take your relationship-killing focus OFF whatever it is that's closing your valve and put it ON to what you want in life. In other words, take your focus off your Don't Wants, put it on your Wants and keep it there.
Lynn Grabhorn

I have good news and I have bad news. the bad news is that there is no key to the universe. The good news is that the door has never been locked.
Swami Beyondananda

Shining Affirmations
I am joyous, loving, spiritual being
I go within the silence and allow Spirit to lead
I am ready, willing, and open to change in my life and work
As I change, I grow and know that soft, loving gifts and lessons are my desire

Snips...

2007-10-04T11:43:00.001-05:00

“I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a person’s life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.”
Martin Buber

One thing at a time. That's all we have to do. Not two things at once, but one thing done in peace. One task at a time. One feeling at a time. One day at a time. One problem at a time. One step at a time. One pleasure at a time. Relax. Let go of urgency. Begin calmly now. Take one thing at a time.

Melody Beattie

Every person has thier own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads.

Henry Miller

"The past is already past. Don't try to regain it. The present does not stay. Don't try to touch it from moment to moment. The future has not come. Don't think about it beforehand."

Layman P'ang

Shining Affirmations

I begin this day rested and refreshed

I am open and receptive to wonderful new adventures

I am grateful for the ability to start each day as a new beginning

My spirit is energized with increasing health, love, wisdom, charity, now and forever

Namaste - Jim

Snips...

2007-10-03T07:30:00.000-05:00

It is said that we teach people how to treat us. How we treat others invites similar treatment. Our response to the external conditions of our lives can be greatly altered by our perceptions of those conditions. And we have control of that perception. No experience has to demoralize us. Each situation can be appreciated for its long-term contribution to our growth as happy, secure people.

Melody Beattie

We look at some people as if they were special, gifted, divine. Nobody is special and gifted and divine. No more than you are, no more than I am. The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it.

Richard Bach

The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.

Freeman Dyson

Life is like music for its own sake. We are living in the eternal now, and when we listen to music we are not listening to the past, we are not listening to the future, we are listening to an expanded present.

. . . the key to lasting happiness is to stop looking for it, and to know you already have it. If you look for happiness, you will never find it. If you think it is around the corner, then you will keep turning corners. The real key to happiness is to live and play in the field of intelligence that is beyond positive and negative. That field is your source, and it is magical, holy, joyful, and free.
Deepak Chopra

Shining Affirmations

I live my life confidently thru love

I choose to express love in each moment

I have the sizzling zeal of Love within me

I live my life as a beautiful expression of Spirit

in love - Jim