Monthly Archives: March 2015

Many of the wisest humans have not been people of great fame and power or leaders of vast numbers of followers. Much of the profound healing and transformation that takes place in any age emanates from people who are not known for great abilities or miraculous deeds. Great compassion and transformation often radiate from the simplest of people, those whose lives embody love and truth.

There is a great truth in the statement, “If you want to know a Zen master, you must ask his or her spouse.” We are known through our most personal actions, our care, our words, and our feelings. Living in inner harmony and peace means including every thought and action in the living expression of that harmony and peace. Those rooted in true wisdom and compassion feel no need to proclaim it from a pedestal. They know that the only meaningful way to live is to enact the spirit of love and wisdom every day in every way.

We are moved by the stories of great sages and spiritual masters because they are living examples of a profound wisdom that we can also sense in ourself. They have discovered how to find a great calm amongst chaos, how to greet conflict and disrespect with forgiveness and acceptance. They live a life of profound faith in the midst of suspicion and doubt. Their mission is not to impose their truths upon others but to live in accord with the truths they have come to understand to express that inner harmony in every area of their lives.

It is said that one of the greatest miracles in spiritual life is a change of heart/a change of consciousness – this change occurs through first awakening and then through the process of transformation and transfiguration. When people say they are grateful for the Teaching, this means to me that their life has a sense of direction. That they live a life filled with principle and virtue. They practice forgiveness and understanding. It is not how much they know it is how they put their knowledge into their day-to-day lives. This is how a student gives respect to his Teacher and to the Teaching. It is not by proclaiming how long they “have been in the Teaching” or how many books they have on their shelves…those who show gratitude to the Teaching are those who live it.

For example, a very simple example, we embody the Teaching through the way we treat our neighbors, our families, our communities, our country and environment and ourselves. The power of our heart is contagious, the spirit of being awake and conscious is contagious. If we wish to have inner and outer peace, we must be peace; if we wish to have love in this world, we must be love. Our children, friends, and co-workers will most benefit when we are a brother or sister to them, bringing our minds and hearts, our integrity and wakefulness when we are together.

Remember in last week’s blog where I wrote that when Gandhi was asked if he had any message for the world, he said, “My life is my message.” If you are bringing the Teaching to the world by being living examples of the Teaching…what is your message?

It is said about a brother – that when he had concluded weaving his baskets and put handles on them, he heard a monk next door saying: What shall I do? The trader is coming but I don’t have handles to put on my baskets! The Basket weaver took the handles off his own baskets and brought them to the monk saying: Look I have these left over. Why don’t you put them on your baskets? He made his brother’s work complete, as there was need, leaving his own unfinished.” (Desert Fathers)

This is the example of living the Teaching; it is an example of being the Teaching, of giving respect to our Teachers who gave so much to us; do you see? The basket weaver didn’t first serve himself and then another – he engaged in sacrificial service by forgetting himself to help another.

It is said that soon after His enlightenment, the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by the extraordinary radiance and peacefulness of his presence. The man stopped and asked, “My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?”

It is recommended for many patients that struggle with cancer, as well as those that have a diagnosed secretworldchronicle.com order viagra infection of HIV. A product that is advertised as a medical therapy rather viagra effects women than a treatment as it has been dealing the top lifting equipment manufacturers across the world. Virility drug turn works by inhibiting associate accelerator known as PDE-5 that slows best buy cialis http://secretworldchronicle.com/2014/04/ the flow of blood throughout a sexual movement. Kamagra brand viagra pfizer tablets should be consumed orally prior to an assured duration of time that is maximum 30 minutes to carry out the natural episodes of sexual performance in bed. “No,” said the Buddha.

“Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard?”

Again the Buddha answered, “No.”

“Are you a man?”

“No.”

“Well, my friend, what then are you?”

The Buddha replied, “I am awake.”

Are you living the Teaching? Does your life exemplify respect for the Teaching? Are you awake?

Love, Hatred, & Their Effects in Your Life

We know what it feels like to live with anger, hatred, and alienation. We know, too, what it feels like to be filled with love, friendliness, and warmth, and the power those feelings have to connect us. I truly believe that it is our own life stories which serve us as our greatest teachers for they reveal to us what we need to nurture in our hearts and the ill will we must let go of.

To learn from our life lessons is not to ask how we can learn to be compassionate but to appreciate that we cannot afford to live without love. No matter how justified our anger and resentment seems to be, we must open our hearts to love. Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye is a terrible way to blind the world.”

There is a Buddhist verse which says:

Hatred never ceases by hatred

But by love alone is healed.

This is an ancient and eternal law.

When Gandhi was asked if he had any message for the world, he said, “My life is my message.” What message does your life give?

What qualities of your being do you bring into the difficult situations in your life? Is it love or hatred? What are the effects? Without words, in what way do you touch your friends, family, and strangers? What is the spirit you touch them with and how will they remember you? How do you live and embody the wisdom of the Teaching; the love and ethics of the Teaching? Where do you not do so?

A prophet once came to a city to convert its inhabitants. At first the people listened to his sermons, but they gradually drifted away till there was not a single soul to hear the prophet when he spoke.
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One day a traveler said to him, “Why do you go on preaching?”

Said the prophet, “In the beginning I hoped to change these people. Now, if I still shout it is only to prevent them from changing me.

A young man was living in a monastery, and there was a very rich but stingy man who would come to the meetings. The young man’s Teacher told him one time to come to the meeting after 10:30. He did. When the rich man came there was no place to sit and no one was getting up to offer him a chair. Then the Teacher asked, “Do you like the situation?” “No, I do not like the situation because I had to stand through the whole lecture.” “Write a check then, so that we build a new Temple.”

Hatred is not a popular subject so it is rarely talked about. But if you really think about hatred and do a research on it, you will see that hatred is a source of every kind of disease – physical diseases, emotional diseases, mental diseases. It is important for us to teach our family and friends, our children, what hatred does to humanity and what it is doing now so that from the beginning our children can stop the source of their future sicknesses, pains, and sufferings.

I would so love to hear from you – about your own experiences of events, for example, how love healed a relationship you were in, whether it was a partner, a spouse, a family member, a child or a co-worker or friend. What did you do to mend the relationship? Was there a time you thought you “just couldn’t do it” yet you found the strength to forgive? Where did you find the resources of your strength? What were the effects?

Much love on this day of Pi 3.14.15

Joleen

In the Upanishads, a student comes to the Teacher and asks, “What am I?” The Teacher replies, “You are not the body.” The student goes away for six months and thinks, “I am not the body.” Then he returns and asks, “What else am I not?” The Teacher replies, “You are not the emotions.” For three years he contemplates this. Then he returns to the Teacher, where he is told that he is not even his thoughts. He asks, “If thought evaporates, how will I exist?” By asking and discovering what he is not – not what he is – he eventually discovers what he is.

The Sanskrit term Upanishad refers to the student sitting down near the teacher while receiving esoteric knowledge. The general area of the composition of the early Upanishads was northern India. The two earliest texts of the Upanishad are pre-Buddhist. It is believed that they may be placed in the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, give or take a century or so. Yet – they are still timeless.

The essential point underlying the student’s questions of the Teacher is to realize that until he, until you, until all of us can sacrifice our little self, we cannot find our greater Self. We also hear other phrases in the Teaching about sacrificing the little self, such as “renunciation,” and to“empty yourself.” Renunciation and emptying oneself means until we can sacrifice our little self we will continue to live in darkness; in illusion; in the “unknown.”

To live in darkness, to live in illusion, to live in the “unknown,” means to live in a world of hindrances which halt our life. To live in darkness, means we are asleep and unconscious.

“There was a Zen master who passed from this world when he was 61 years old. Fulfilling his life’s work, he left a great teaching, far richer than that of most Zen masters. His pupils used to sleep in the daytime during midsummer, and while he overlooked this he himself never wasted a minute.

When he was but 12 years old, he was already studying philosophy. One summer day the air had been so sultry that little Soyen, stretched his legs and went to sleep while his teacher was away.

Three hours passed when, suddenly waking, he heard his master enter, but it was too late. There he lay, sprawled across the doorway.

“I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon,” his teacher whispered, stepping carefully over Soyen’s body as if it were that of some distinguished guest. After this Soyen never slept again in the afternoon.”

The Teaching tells us that “there are three major hindrances that prevent us from becoming greater. By analyzing and working on them, we can eliminate most obstacles on our path that prevent us from progressing.

These three obstacles are:

1. Our criticisms of others.
2. Our own failures and,
3. The image that others build in us.

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2.- We emphasize, think, feel, and write so much about our own failures that we mold ourselves into a concrete “I am bad” image. As you mold yourself, you prevent all kinds of possibilities to grow.

3.-“You are stupid.” You absorb that image and say, “I am stupid. Every one is saying I am stupid, so I must be stupid.” Or, “I am fat, so I must be ugly and sick.” Then you become stupid, ugly and sick. Eventually, you assimilate, digest, and absorb whatever they say about you to such a degree that you play the game of having others direct you by remote control.

A rabbi name Zusha told his students, “When I die, God will not ask me, was I like Moses or was I like Joshua in my life. He will ask me, was I Zusha.”

To see with clarity and to respect what is here, right now in your life, to fulfill and offer your own inner gifts – that is the spiritual path. To let your life be a deep expression of your heartfelt values, of the Higher Self; to know what awakens you and to nurture it – this is your way; our way. This is the real Self; the real you. The real Life.

We must all take a look at our lives and determine what in our life is the most essential and also determine what is preventing us from progressing? What obstacles are hindering and halting us from advancing our consciousness? It is only our inner treasures, our talents and our Soul that can save our life. It is in renouncing ourselves, in emptying ourselves that allows the Higher Self to be at the helm of our ship; the beacon of our life. When our Higher Self leads us, when our Solar Angel guides and directs us, when we hear the Call and respond…we will be able to crush the hindrances that are halting our life and preventing the process of transformation.

With love and compassion,

Joleen