Happiness...

Pleasure is found in who we know - what we do - where we are . . . happiness exists inside whoever, whenever, and wherever we are. Happiness is wired into human DNA . . . pleasure gets us all wired up in the chase to locate it on the outside. Happiness is our birthright . . . pleasure is found in the hierarchies of birthing.

The most important conclusion to draw — as early in life as possible — is the one that allows you to set your own course. This is also where your greatest challenges dwell. You must face your worst fears in this process . . . they will try and force you to give up and run back. It is your job to dive deep into the core of your being and move forward.

If you choose to move forward, you will bump into the seeds of happiness along the way. Plant them in the soil of your dreams and nourish them with each and every day.

- Guru Singh

bliss..

The nature of experience is bliss...it is independent of content of experience
- Sri Bhagavan
Whenever I experience the above, I am always fascinated.
Currently, I am going through an experience which can conventionally be termed unpleasant.A few years back I would have been anxiety driven and reactive.
Today, I am just experiencing the event and am responsive.
Thank You Bhagavan for this invaluable gift of grace......

pain and suffering....

suffering is the story created to escape raw, naked pain....

suffering is illusionary, pain is real.....miracles can happen if we are in touch with raw pain...instead we focus on content or people and escape the experience of pain which can liberate us.

living on the edge...

Within the unknown adventures of expanding your awareness on the path of your destiny, any comfort zone will soon become exceedingly uncomfortable. At such a point in your evolution, a safety/comfort zone becomes the most dangerous place to be.

All your exalted efforts fail when safety tries to mix with destiny.

The path of destiny requires tremendous trust and faith, courage and character, consciousness and caliber.

The path of destiny has no side rails; no net; no back door with an escape hatch . . . it is the ride of your life and is exclusively - perfectly - effectively attuned to your life.

Tune in to this . . . turn life on to this . . . prepare for the ride of your life.

- Guru Singh

unlimited potential

In a "perfect" world - who are you? In a world where the playing field is level, what are your possibilities . . . what are your inclinations? What are your dreams and what are the probabilities of achieving such dreams when the playing field is devoid of limiting preconditions?Life came to you without real limits — make it very clear in your consciousness — the limits are not necessarily yours. The limitations you've been given are not laws — they are very often merely generational - or genealogical - or socially structured "suggestions." They have been in place for a very long time and the suggestions are nearly carved in stone, but when you test them you will learn that they are not absolute. Learn to ignore them — it will test your courage to the very core — but it will also help you to live with more honesty and a greater love for adventure. It will create your relationships with more passion and trust and commit you to your highest destiny.Learn to think in this way on a daily basis . . . learn to write and rewrite all the governing rules of - who you are — and — who you can become. Learn to disassemble your opinions of what is possible and give yourself the entitlement that the most entitled are able to live by. Learn to create level playing fields on a daily basis . . . then the game of life is fair . . . then the game of life becomes real . . . then the game of life has integrity.

- Guru Singhji

a thin line...

"Men are disturbed, not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen."
- Epictetus

Suffering arises in perception, never in fact.....

evolution

Never mind what state the world is in. Ignore, too, whatever seems possible or impossible in your own world. If you have got a dream, you can pursue it. If you have a hope, you can nurture it. And if you do your best to make the right thing happen, you can somehow make real progress.

- Jonathan Cainer

quotes

For everything in me that I do not change, my list of reasons include other people......conveniently.....

- R. Ganesh, Mentor , Oracle Financial Technologies

relationships...

taking charge....

For an awakening to happen, we have to take charge. Enough of blaming others, events, situations and the like. We have to become responsible and keep watching controlling mind aspects of our lives. If fear is guiding our lives, it is important we be aware because the consequences can be disastrous for us and for those around.

Every attempt at looking outside takes us away from the real solution.

Every moment is a potential moment of awakening...Some of our most unpleasant encounters ( in our perception) can be the greatest of blessings, if we only are able to recognize them.Every challenge is but an opportunity to grow and evolve.And to live demands a certain risk appetite.Ships are safer in the harbour but not meant to be there.

Sadly, most of us trade in growth and creativity for security. Security becomes the only need we address. Consequently, other needs are left out.

Life is a choice between existing and living.....

mindbreak

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen

oneness

we get what we give....

Friendship isn't a big thing―it's a million little things.~Author Unknown
It wasn't that I was embarrassed my husband was out of work. The situation was what it was. It's just that we are private people and don't share our problems easily with others. So when he lost his job, we just acted like nothing had changed and no one seemed to notice.
It didn't take too long, maybe two weeks, and my kids' friends noticed that Kyle's dad was home a lot more. When asked about it, I told my good friend and neighbor, Tammy, we were out of work and looking. She then told me that her husband had been applying for graveyard shifts all over town because his company was going under. I was shocked! We were constantly doing things together and I hadn't a clue they were struggling.
I didn't feel like we were the only ones going through this anymore. I always knew that others were struggling with the economy in a downturn, but now I had a comrade to share my woes with.
Knowing what they were going through, I wanted to help them, even though we didn't have much ourselves. So, I became the reconnaissance shopper. I scour the coupons and ads, and match things up to pay half-price for many items. I call Tammy when I get done with my planning session and offer to pick up things for her at the discounted price. It seems like our money goes even farther because we are willing to share.
It goes the other way too. Tammy and her husband have given us enough wood to heat our home this winter. They have the tools to cut firewood and they did extra for us. It has been a huge help to reduce our gas bill to almost nothing.
There are other examples of helping each other. I taught Tammy how to make bread and rolls; she watches my kids when I go to job interviews; I make dessert for Tammy's family party; she drives my kid to the bus stop in a snow storm… and the list goes on.
I don't have much to give but I can give of myself. I can have charity, love, and hope in my heart, and the more I give those away, the more I get them back.

- chicken soup for the soul series

the presence...

a couple of days back, somebody, to defend their positionality told me that their inner dweller, the antaryamin was guiding them. How I pray and wish that this happens to one and all.

It is , however, a challenge to be able to distinguish between Higher Consciosuness guidances and mind level games of manipulation. This is not a recognition driver event.We do not need to prove to someone that we are being guided. It suffices for us to know the same and celebrate Grace in our lives. Gratitude flows abundantly and spontaneously and every moment of our life is filled in awe of the presence. Living in an awakened presence is naturally joyous and blissful, full of love for one and all, it revels in itself. Events outside do not touch us. We just flow through them and move on. The anchored joy and love sustains across the most devastating mind cyclones.

Pain and suffering

Pain is real and ceases with the event. Suffering is psychological and carries forward in thought.Suffering is sourced not in reality but rather in our divisive perception of reality. When our perceptions change, the experience of life changes dramatically.

- Sri Krishna

Growth

Happiness is the index of growth.
- Sri Bhagavan

awe and wonder

Check out this great link
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/other/mello.html

Openness

May the angels keep you till morning.

May they guide you through the night.

May they comfort all your sorrows.

May they help you win the fight.
May they keep watch on your soul.

May they show you better ways.

May they guard you while you're sleeping.

May they see you through your days.
May they show you new hopes.

May they still your every doubt.

May they calm your every fear.

May they hear you when you shout.
May the angels keep you till morning.

More than this I cannot pray.

And if the angels ever fail you.

Then may God be there that day.
-Author Unknown

gems from the Master

Experiencing is knowing.

- Sri Bhagavan

spiritual anchors

We are spiritual beings going through a human experience, nay the other way around.

It necessitates us to be explorers in life, experiencing events as they arise in life. We normally run away from the blessings accompanying experiences , the real grace of our lives. One of the greatest benedictions I have received in my life from my master is the ability to discern perception from fact and pain from suffering.

Suffering is hallucination emerging in psychological fear . There is no fact to it. And we let this control our lives more often than not. Only to be rudely awakened when reality confronts us. No man has a choice on this process. Mankind as a whole has to wake up to their reality as it is.

-inspirations from Sri Bhagavan

spiritual anchoring

We are spiritual beings going towards a human experience, not the other way around.

Life is designed to be exploratory , to get into experiences . The mind has a need for certainty but it also has a need for variety. They are conflicting intrinsically.

The mind more often than not takes us towards security but then security can be suffocating , inhibiting. We become dead, inert.

Each of usd seeks to come alive in what we do, in the way we relate to everyone and everything in life.

To operate as a spiritual being is achoice we make to live rather than exist.And it comes with it's challenges.We invest in it because we chose life over dead habit and monotony - meaningless and boring.....

work quotes

You work so that you keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

Work is love made visible.

- Kahlil Gibran

shadows

when you turn your face towards the sun, the shadows fall behind. - old maori saying.
we manage suffering, escape it all the time. We focus on the content and do not face the pain squarely. Again, pain is real while suffering is hallucinatory.
Watching and being in touch with suffering is the key to inner joy and freedom.

Learning and tuning....

Learning is all about tuning in to the most fundamental and critical of our needs. If we have a cancer, we have to address it, no point in addressing the headache arising from it in isolation.

Our understanding of Grace emerges from here. Grace is forever focussed on the cancer in our lives, nay the passing headache.

Surfacing of inner world mind chatter is a blessing, managing the events arising out of it , an escape.Transcending the inner chatter through watching it and through a rise in our awareness levels enables an implementaion of the spiritual blessing as well as either a solution or a resolution of the problem as a "happening" when we come in touch with factual pain.

Awareness is the learning facilitator here....

oneness of suffering

We tend to think that events cause suffering. In a landmark statement, Sri Bhagavan declares that it is suffering which causes events.
At any given moment in our lives, physical + psychological + spiritual suffering is a constant. In colloquial life, what we call healing is a mere management. We may encounter suffering through the platform of business and manage it desperately.All our lives, we only mange sorrow. We never face sorrow and transcend it.
Managing suffering arising in our business space would lead for the pain to manifest itself in some other area of our life - maybe relationships, maybe our health or the health of our dear ones.
This is a principle of the universe.The pain within has to come out. There is no choice.
And man focusses on changing events.How erroneous can he get?
So man continues fire-fighting , only the events change....and he seeks liberation, little knowing that he has to die the way he is and be reborn in a new light.
He takes solace in the fact that the whole world is like him, but that is an illusion which will soon collapse for one and all.
It is a time of the world for a movement of one and all from perception to fact.Coulkd be a rude awakening for some but then it is compassion at work.
The universe knows best and we have to bow down to it.

Success Mindset - repeat post

When we think of failure,

Failure would be ours.

If we remain undecided,

Nothing will ever change.

All we need to do

Is want to achieve something great,

And then simply do it.

Never think of failure.

For, what we think will come about.

- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Taking this further, thought is really not ours.We do not create it. So if a thought of failure emerges from the recesses of the unconscious, all we have to do is watch it. Watching enables a response as different from an automated reaction.

hallucinations...

Sri Bhagavan says that our outer world is a reflection of our inner world.

Every moment of our life is a choice of breakthru approaches over breakdown perspectives. It is our direction of thought which solely matters.Seeing the cup as half empty or half full makes all the difference.

The tendency of the mind is to focus on the negative in most cases. We have to re-orient ourselves away from this tendency .The technique is to merely watch the tendency for negative orientation which is more often than not, merely hallucinatory.Most of our suffering emerges in imaginary realms of what could happen - erroneous perceptions , not based on fact.

And Bhagavan reminds us, "Suffering is never in the fact, it emerges only in perception."

People often say that this is removed from everyday reality. I wonder where else it should find application if not in everyday life. Can we really live without it in our daily lives? Guess people will continue doing so until they are woken up by the universe. I hope it is not too late for some....

power of thought and forgiveness

The Buddha was walking along with his disciples when someone suddenly came and spat at him. The Buddha was calm and unruffled.He just wiped it off and washed it.
His disciples wanted to act on the miscreant but the Buddha stopped them.
He smilingly said, "When someone offers you a gift , you can accept it or reject it. When you reject it, it stays back with the person who made the offer.And it builds up a thousand fold within him."
Nothing can ever happen to the sun. Anybody who spits on it is the loser. The sun , by itself is unaffected.
We sometimes get consumed by fear, anger, lust or any other and controlled by this, we vent out words on another. If the other chooses to accept within and continues sending his blessings, the words boomerang a thousand times and in myriad ways to the person from whom it has emerged.
Ignorance is not considered here.The principle of cause and its' manifold effect works here and in the process , man is hurtling towards self-destruction.

light

recent events in my life as a spiritual reflector indicate that we have got so accustomed to darkness that we fear light.
and then we want masters to help us in easy ways.
we have to unlearn our mistrust for light.

no half measures in enlightenment....

"Gamble everything for love,if you're a true human being.If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness doesn't reach into majesty.Don't wait any longer. Dive in the ocean, and let the sea be you."
~Rumi

the self - an idea...

Most of us are more attached to our self-identities than we realize. Our personal histories, psychological personalities, social roles, and purpose in life are all derived from the idea of a fixed self. Indeed, our very search for meaning in the universe is based on the sense of a personal identity. What would we be left with when this begins to dissolve? Who would we be when we are no longer recognizable as a fixed and separate self?
- dark night of the soul

The Bhagavad Gita

In the Bhagavad Gita, Master Teacher , Krishna came as a charioteer in Arjuna's life when he came in touch with his suffering. A teacher and solutions are a happening when one comes in touch with his raw , throbbing suffering. Normally, our everyday life is an escape, a move away from this very fact. We avoid coming in touch with our suffering.

In India, we often come across people quoting the Gita to validate their actions.

makes me wonder sometimes...

The way I see it, the most critical aspect of the Gita is Arjuna coming in touch with his suffering. He was unique in that aspect in the entire battleground of Kurukshetra. And when he was in touch with his suffering, Krishna happened to him.

Similarly, a crucial lesson in the Mahabharata comes from the choice made by the leaders of the two warring factions.Duryodhana is given the first choice and he selects Krishna's army over Krishna - very symbolic. We need favours from God but not God himself. God comes as a package - it is not about what we like or don't; it is absolute integrity of life processes.....the Dharma of life.