Life 03 (Jun 09 - Jul 09)

[winston]

On Forgiveness:-

Love your enemies, and be good to everyone who hates you.

Luke 6:27

[winston]

To learn about oneself one needs humility

To learn about oneself one needs a great deal of humility. If you start by saying, “I know myself”, you’ve already stopped learning about yourself. Or if you say, “There is nothing much to learn about myself because I know what I am—I’m a bundle of memories, ideas, experiences, tradition, a conditioned entity with innumerable contradictory reactions”—you’ve stopped learning about yourself.

To learn about oneself requires considerable humility, never assuming that you know anything: that is, learning about oneself from the beginning and never accumulating. The moment you accumulate knowledge about yourself through your own discovery, that becomes the platform from which you begin to examine, learn, and therefore what you learn is merely further addition to what you already know.

Humility is a state of mind that never acquires, never says, “I know”.

Talks & Dialogues Saanen 1967, p 212

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Great devotees knew the secret of spiritual surrender. Their worship was not tainted by any bargaining spirit.

For those who bargain and crave for profit, reverence is equated with returns. They sell homage at so much per unit of satisfactory response. They are like paid servants, clamoring for wages, overtime allowance, bonus, etc. They calculate how much they are able to extract for the service rendered.

Be on the other hand, a member of the family, a kinsman, a friend. Feel that you are the Divine's own. Then, work will not tire. It will be done much better. It will yield more satisfaction. And what about the wages? The Master will maintain you in bliss!

- Divine Discourse, June 16, 1977.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

On Attitude:-

Paul: Dear friends, you must never become tired of doing right.

2 Thessalonians 3:13

[winston]

Your Devoted Supporters

Think of the world as your advocate. See everyone in it as your devoted supporters. When you filter life through this lens, you also filter out the people who don't support you. They tend to naturally fall out of your life or they change. You don't have to directly do anything to cause this, they'll simply either leave because they no longer fit within the lens of your new vision or they will change to fit your new perspective.

The Universe gives you an incredible amount of support, in the form of people, circumstances and events. It's up to you to see it. The more you look for ways in which you are supported, the more you find them.

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Source: www.followyoursoul.com

[winston]

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*** Article: Yellow Bugs - By Gail Lynn Goodwin ***
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My husband and I are spending time in the Seattle area, house-sitting for a friend. Today I began the drive from Boulder to Seattle, through Wyoming and Montana. It rained most of the morning, but by early afternoon, the scenery was simply spectacular. The colors seemed so alive and vivid, the landscape fresh and new. One particular field of sunflowers simply took my breath away.

I'd driven for more than 700 miles when I started to pay attention to the ribbon of highway in front of me. The road looked just like the ribbon candy that my grandmother used to have in a dish on her coffee table. It was just one ripple after the next, continuing into the distance. Just like I have done so many times before, I picked a spot in the distance, several ripples away, and tried to determine how far it was from my location to that point. Five miles? Ten miles? More? I decided that I would focus on the spot until I reached it and clock the mileage. I've done this so many times on long drives before, or should I say that I've tried to do this.

The problem is, I can't remember one time when I actually remembered to maintain my focus that long. It always seems that a half hour passes and I remember, "Oh yeah, I was looking for that spot... now where was that?" when I'm long past that point. I'm not sure I've EVER remembered and actually clocked it in the many times I've attempted to do this. Something always takes my concentration away.

Today I was determined. I looked at the spot in the distance and thought of it as one of my goals. I thought of this experience as a metaphor for life -- knowing that life always brings interesting things to us to take our focus from our goal. I reaffirmed my commitment to achieving this goal and not forgetting or losing focus. I looked at my odometer and guessed the spot was at least 10-15 miles away. Certainly I can hold my concentration for that long!

It was almost like a meditation in that I was training my mind to stay focused on the goal at the end. Just like in life, if we stay focused on the goal and not the things that appear, we're so much more successful. I was quite proud of myself, going 80 mph for more than 5 minutes and still maintaining my focus on the spot in the distance. I was even saying my goal out loud, talking to myself to reinforce where I was going.

And just as I was beginning to get cocky, wham! I drove into a swarm of flying bugs. Splat, splat, splat all over my windshield. At first I thought it was big raindrops; then I realized that it was yellow bugs! Yuck! It went on for at least a minute or two, but the bugs were constant. I felt badly about smashing them, but there was no alternative. They were everywhere. I had to turn on the windshield wipers to be able to see where I was going. I was so grateful that I wasn't on a motorcycle.

And just that quickly, a hilltop, then a mountain came and went, and about 20 minutes later I realized I'd gone right past my focus point -- without noticing it or remembering it at all. Once again I was distracted with other things -- in this case bugs -- and drove right past it. I never did figure out how far those two points were from one another.

The experience made me think of how many times we do the same thing in life. We'll choose a goal that we want, and six months later we wonder what happened to that path. We're so caught up in another situation that just showed up, that we barely remember what it was we were looking for. My guess is that the yellow bugs of life sideswipe us all. Perhaps your bugs are bills, getting fired from that job, illness, or whatever. Regardless, if we let the bugs take our focus off of the goal, who knows where we'll end up? Try to watch for the bugs in your life today and stay focused on what you want -- not just what shows up.

(Note: Just as I was posting this I noticed a glitch in our site ranking. I immediately went into fix it/panic mode, for only a few seconds. Then I realized it for what it is -- a bug. Just a yellow bug. Instead of changing my focus, I went back to be goal and retained my focus on the end goal. There will always be bugs, but I know I get to choose if I chase them or not!)

[winston]

The self is a book of many volumes

To understand oneself requires patience, tolerant awareness; the self is a book of many volumes which you cannot read in a day, but when once you begin to read, you must read every word, every sentence, every paragraph for in them are the intimations of the whole.

The beginning of it is the ending of it. If you know how to read, supreme wisdom is to be found.

The Collected Works vol III, p 219

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[Cherry]

PEACE OF MIND

If you were to ask your neighbor,
"What would give you peace of mind?" he might tell you, "A vacation in Bermuda!" or
"An extra hundred grand would give me peace!", or
"A new Ferrari would make me content!"
But going to places - and getting stuff - is usually a temporary solution ...

Peace of mind rarely comes from getting more stuff.
Getting more stuff usually leads to wanting even more stuff!
Peace of mind starts with being grateful for what we have right now.

GRATITUDE is POWER

When we are thankful for what we have - for the friends we have, and for the things we've got, we attract more good people and good things!

People who always complain about what they DON'T HAVE, stay stuck. Complainers attract more things to complain about! It is a law of life. It's hard to explain, but you can observe it around you. We get more of what we dwell upon.

That's why all the spiritual masters have taught the same lesson:

"Start by being thankful. Be happy with what you have now, and more will come your way."

[Cherry]

Faith

This dog, Faith, was born on Christmas Eve in the year 2002. He was born with 2 legs.
He of course could not walk when he was born.. Even his mother did not want him.

His first owner also did not think that he could survive and he was thinking of 'putting him to sleep'.
But then, his present owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted to take care of him.
She became determined to teach and train this little dog to walk by himself. She named him 'Faith'.

In the beginning, she put Faith on a surfboard to let him feel the movement.

Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and reward for him for standing up and jumping around.
Even the other dog at home encouraged him to walk.
Amazingly, only after 6 months, like a miracle,
Faith learned to balance on his hind legs and to jump to move forward.
After further training in the snow, he could now walk like a human being.

Faith loves to walk around now.
No matter where he goes, he attracts people to him.
He is fast becoming famous on the international scene and has appeared on
various newspapers and TV shows. There
is now a book entitled 'With a Little Faith' being published about him.
He was even considered to appear in one of Harry Potter movies.

His present owner Jude Stringfellew has given up her teaching post and plans to take him around the world
to preach that even without a perfect body, one can have a perfect soul'..


In life there are always undesirable things, so in order to feel better
one just need to look at life from another direction and be thankful for each beautiful day.
Faith is the continual demonstration of the strength and wonder of life.

[winston]

Wellness that is being allowed, or the wellness that is being denied, is all about the mindset, the mood, the attitude, the practiced thoughts.

There is not one exception, in any human or beast; because, you can patch them up again and again, and they will just find another way of reverting back to the natural rhythm of their mind. Treating the body really is about treating the mind. It is all psychosomatic. Every bit of it, no exceptions.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Monday, May 13th, 2002

Source: abraham-hicks.com