Light Stuff
The shortest distance between me, my, mine and the divine I that I AM is often the measured distance of a smile. Light Stuff can help to put things in a lighter perspective when the weight of change feels burdensome.
Commitment
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth,
The ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:
That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
Raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance,
Which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can,
Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.
The Great Wall of China: Stories and Reflections
Franz Kafka
You do not need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait.
Be quiet, still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked,
It has no choice,
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Our Deepest Fear
Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear
is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people
won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And when we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
HUA HU CHING: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
Brian Browne Walker
The Tao gives birth to One
One gives birth to yin and yang
Yin and yang give birth to all things...
Now forget this.
The complete whole is the complete whole
So also is any part the complete whole.
Forget this, too.
Pain and happiness are simply conditions of the ego.
Forget the ego.
Time and space are changing and dissolving, not fixed and real.
They can be thought of as accessories,
but don't think of them.
Supernatural beings without form extend their life
force throughout the universe to support beings
both formed and unformed.
But never mind this; the supernatural is just a part of
nature, like the natural.
The subtle truth emphasizes neither and includes both.
All truth is tai chi: to cultivate the mind, body or
spirit, simply balance the polarities.
If people understood this, world peace and universal
harmony would naturally arise.
But forget about understanding and harmonizing and
making all things one.
The universe is already a harmonious oneness; just realize it.
If you scramble about in search of inner peace, you
will lose your inner peace.
Love Without End (page 244)
Glenda Green
You have the right to experience infinity from your own viewpoint and to appreciate within its vast potential the values and meanings which support your reason for being.
What do you seek?
Records of Wisdom
What do you seek, O Pilgrim on the Path?
“Liberation from pain and freedom from all suffering.”
The answer to thy quest is already in thy heart.
Listen, O Pilgrim, to the whispering of thy Soul…
Know thyself… for in thyself is found ALL there is to be known.
The Essential Rumi
Version by Coleman Barks - HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
Love has taken away my practices
and filled me with poetry.
I tried to keep quietly repeating,
No strength but Yours, but I couldn't.
I had to clap and sing.
I used to be respectable and chaste and stable,
but who can stand in this strong wind
and remember those things?
A mountain keeps an echo deep inside itself.
That's how I hold your Voice.
I am scrap wood thrown in your Fire,
and quickly reduced to smoke.
I saw You and became empty. This Emptiness,
more beautiful than existence, it obliterates existence;
and yet when It comes, existence thrives and creates more existence!
The sky is blue. The world is a blind man squatting on the road.
But whoever sees Your Emptiness
sees beyond blue and beyond the blind man.
A great soul hides like Muhammed, or Jesus,
moving through a crowd in a city where no one knows Him.
To praise is to praise how one surrenders to the Emptiness.
To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.
Praise, the Ocean. What we say, a little ship.
So the sea-journey goes on, and who knows where!
Just to be held by the Ocean is the best luck we could have.
It's a total waking up!
Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping?
It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious.
We're groggy, but let the guilt go.
Feel the motions of tenderness around you, the buoyancy.
The Art of Gentle Blessing
by Pierre Pradervand
Upon awakening, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good, which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all.
On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play, bless them. The peace of your blessing will accompany them on their way and the aura of its gentle fragrance will be a light to their path.
On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their health, their work, their joy, their relationships to God, themselves, and others. Bless them in their abundance, their finances . . . bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing but one day will spring forth as flowers of joy in the waste places of your own life.
As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers, its nurses and street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priests and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing: bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield which protects them from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you.
To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total, unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest wellspring in the innermost chamber of your heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe that which is always a gift from the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is set aside, consecrated, holy, whole. To bless is yet to invoke divine care upon, to think or speak gratefully for, to confer happiness upon - although we ourselves are never the bestower, but simply the joyful witnesses of Life's abundance.
To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate form of giving, because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray of sun that burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.
When something goes completely askew in your day, some unexpected event knocks down your plans and you also, burst into blessing: for life is teaching you a lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted, you yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson you might balk against were you not to bless it. Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels follow in their path.
To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty hidden to material eyes; it is to activate that law of attraction which, from the furthest reaches of the universe, will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy.
When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their present wholeness, for even in their suffering, this wholeness awaits in them to be discovered. When your eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by life, bless him in his vitality and joy: for the material senses present but the inverted image of the ultimate splendor and perfection which only the inner eye beholds.
It is impossible to bless and to judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought that desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall, everywhere, behold the very face of God.
~P.S.~
And of course, above all, do not forget to bless the utterly beautiful person YOU are.
Meditations
Sometimes, we need a way to quiet our mind, to center ourselves. Meditations can give the mind something quieting to focus on, gradually stilling the inner noise.
Prayers
Prayers are a way to simply say thank you to an unknown but truly felt presence within us. Prayers can help to begin an inner conversation with self and SELF.