Yearly Archive: 2006

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me
new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and
truth.”
– Albert Einstein

Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat.
– Ben Hecht

Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the
beaten. And seeing them… he cried, ˜Great God, how is it that a
loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?…
God said, ˜I did do something. I made you.’
– Sufi Teaching

The descent into the darkness of our own psyche is essential to our
healing process.  Without the descent, we cannot become
light-bearers.
 – Paul Ferrini

The unforgiving mind is full of fear, and offers love no room to be
itself; no place where it can spread its wings in peace and soar above
the turmoil of the world. The unforgiving mind is sad, without the hope
of respite and release from pain. It suffers and abides in misery,
peering about in darkness, seeing not, yet certain of the danger
lurking there.
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles

Spiritual Thoughts

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

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.
– Albert Einstein

…what I am proposing is that you open yourself to an idea that allows
you to gradually and steadily remember your identity as a divine
spiritual connected-to-God entity. In moments you previously labeled as
stressful or problematic, you will begin to see the fruits of good
deeds (another way of saying problem solving) show up without having to
labor long and hard to solve your difficulty.
– Wayne Dyer, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

Spirituality is very similar to health. Everyone has health. For some
their health is excellent and for others it is poor, yet you cannot
escape having it at some level or another. The same is true for
spirituality. Every single human being is a spiritual being.
– Wayne Dyer, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem

We each journey on a path of mistakes. When I look back, I don’t have a
consistent interpretation of which acts were victories or defeats. And
I have seen the same childhood circumstances as both damaging and
beneficial. This much is clear: Many important gains have come on the
heels of my greatest mistakes. Progress is the process of correcting
mistakes, not of being perfect. Today I will make starting over more
important than looking back. Those who make no mistakes have already
arrived. I simply don’t know what mistakes anyone needs to make.
Therefore, I am in no position to be ‘helpful’.
– Hugh Prather, Morning Notes

God knows the way to my heart. God is not nearer because we think about
God. God could not be nearer. God’s strength is our strength. God’s
life is our life. God’s happiness is our happiness. We are each made
out of God. Even now, God breathes into us our purpose, our motivation,
and our fulfillment.
– Hugh Prather, Morning Notes

Negative emotions have a place in intimacy. They need to be released in
order to be detoxed. Having negative emotions doesn’t make us bade.
Thinking that they do is what keeps so many people from exposing their
emotions. It is when our feelings – all our feelings – are revealed
appropriately and then forgiven that we have a chance to heal.
– Marianne Williamson, A Year of Daily Wisdom

If you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The
recognition of illusion is also its ending. Its survival depends on
your mistaking it for reality. In the seeing of who you are not, the
reality of who you are emerges by itself.
– Eckhart Tolle

Questions of Happiness

Someone sent me this list.  I thought it was really cool… 
but don’t like starting these things.  Tell you what, you send me
your answers (to zaivalananda@yahoo.com ) and I’ll send you mine back.

Hugs,
Moss

* What gives you the most happiness in your life?
* What were your greatest moments?
* What are your favorite childhood memories?
* What are some of the nicest things that people have said to you?
* What was your best vacation?
* What makes you smile?
* What makes you laugh?
* Who makes you feel good just by being in that person’s presence?
* What do you enjoy reading?
* What songs put you in positive states?
* What is your favorite possession?
* What is your favorite day of the year?
* When have you unexpectedly had a better time than you thought you would?
* When have you been pleasantly surprised by the way something you did turned out?
* When did you feel you would succeed and you actually did?
* When have you felt joy about seeing someone you hadn’t seen in a long time?!
* What praises and positive feedback have you appreciated?
* What is the nicest thing a teacher ever told you?
* When did you surprise yourself by being more skillful at something than you thought you could?
* How do you look when you smile at yourself in a mirror?
* When has someone given you a gift that you greatly appreciated?
* What do you consider your wisest decision?
* What advice do you have for others to increase their happiness?
* What did you do for someone else that you felt great about?
* What is the nicest thing a total stranger ever did for you?
* What have you been grateful for in the past?
* What are you grateful for in the present?
* When have you felt joyous for no special reason?
* What healthy activities give you a natural high?
* When were you about to give up and someone’s encouragement kept you motivated?
* (For grandparents): What is a clever thing one of your grandchildren said?
* What is your favorite question that anyone ever asked you?

We Are Being Called

We Are Being Called

Sharon Oxendine

We are being called by our Ancestors to return to the Medicine Wheel of Life.

We are being called to the East, the place of the Eagle and the element
of Fire, we must now know who we are, the time for remembering is over.

We are being called to the North, the place of the White Buffalo and
the element of Air, we are being called to the Spirit walk of life and
we must circle our selves with protection.

We are being called to the West, the place of the Bear, the element of
Water, we are being called to embrace and honor the element of Water by
listening to her as she moves through our rivers and streams of life.

We are being called to the South, the place of coyote, the element of
Earth, we are being called to trust, the chaos and confusion in our
world as part of a great change that is coming.

We are being called to bring in the Grandmothers, the divine feminine, into all of our ceremonies and rituals.

We are being called to look a little deeper at our friends and our
enemies and find a place in our deep and wise souls to show compassion
and kindness.

We are being called by the Stars, the Moon and the Sun in a voice that
many will recognize.  We are now the teachers we have been seeking.

We are being called to stand up for our truth and to sit down and
listen to those who are not being heard.  It is those who are
called mentally ill and addicts, they are the ones who are bringing in
the prophecies.

We are being called to be guardians over the animals, especially those
that have been abused or neglected.  The animals are our teachers
of love and joy.

We are being called to transpire the grief we have felt for years into
action and call on the Earth, Air, Fire and Water to support us now on
our Earth walk.

We are being called and all we have to do is listen.

Twenty Special Secrets

The Power of Love Among People – “Twenty Special Secrets”
(From “Mystic Path to Cosmic Power” by Vernon Howard)
==============================================
 
1.  When two people meet, the prize always goes to the one with
the most self-insight.  He will be calmer, more confident, more at
ease with the other.
 
2.  Never permit the behavior of other people to tell you how to feel.
 
3.  Pay little attention to what people say or do.  Instead,
try to see their innermost motive for speaking and acting.  (Now,
apply this very same rule to yourself and you become an enlightened
person!)
 
4.  Any friendship requiring the submission of your original nature and dignity to another person is all wrong.
 
5.  Mystically speaking, there is no difference between you and
another person.  This is why we cannot hurt another without
hurting ourselves, nor help another without helping ourselves.
 
6.  When we are free of all unnecessary desires toward other people, we can never be deceived or hurt.
 
7.  You take a giant step toward psychological maturity when you
refuse to angrily defend yourself against unjust slander.  For one
thing, resistance disturbs your own peace of mind.
 
8.  You understand others to the exact degree that you really understand yourself. Work for more self-knowledge.
 
9.  Do not be afraid to fully experience everything that happens
to you in your human relations, especially the pains and
disappointments. Do this, and everything becomes clear at last.
 
10.  The individual who really knows what it means to love has no anxiety when his love is unseen and rejected.
 
11.  If you painfully lose a valuable friend, do not rush out at
once for a replacement.  Such action prevents you from examining
your heartache and breaking free of it.
 
12.  Do not be afraid to be a nobody in the social world. 
This is a deeper and richer truth than appears on the surface.
 
13.  Every unpleasant experience with another person is an
opportunity to see people as they are, not as we mistakenly idealize
them. The more unpleasant the other person is, the more he can teach
you.
 
14.  You can be so wonderfully free from a sense of injury and
injustice that you are surprised when you hear others complain of them.
 
15.  We cannot recognize a virtue in another person that we do not
possess in ourselves.  It takes a truly loving and patient person
to recognize those virtues in another.
 
16.  Do not mistake desire for love.  Desire leaves home in a
frantic search for one gratification after another.  Love is at
home with itself.
 
17.  There are parts of you that want the loving life and parts
that do not. Place yourself on the side of your positive forces; do all
you can to aid and encourage them.
 
18.  You must stop living so timidly, from fixed fears of what
others will think of you and of what you will think of yourself.
 
19.  Do not contrive to be a loving person; work to be a real person. Being real is being loving.
 
20.  The greatest love you could ever offer to another is to so
transform your life that others are attracted to your genuine example
of goodness.

Believing in yourself is not just for you; it’s for every person who
has touched your life in a significant way and for every person your
life will touch the same way five minutes from now,
or five centuries from now.
– Anon

If someone talked to you the way you talk to yourself, you would have left them a long time ago.
– Carla Gordan

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
– David Viscott

Despite what your subconscious may be telling you, you can have love
with no limits. The key is to unconditionally love yourself first.
– Cynthia Legette Davis

When love is missing in our lives, we must look at ourselves and see
how we are not being loving to ourselves and to others. Since what we
give out comes back, then if we’re short on love, we need to give
ourselves and others love, and then there will be plenty of love to go
around.
– Marie T. Russell

Let God be your teacher. Let the Tao flower in you. You don’t need to
control things anymore. When you are willing to be helpful, life flows
through you. You become the channel, the means by which love without
conditions can reach into the world.
– Paul Ferrini

As you push our your thoughts and revel in the silence, you will feel
the energy of the loving presence flowing through you. Give yourself a
holy instant to make a silent affirmation that you are with God.
– Wayne Dyer
 
Fear grows out of the things we think; it lives in our minds.
Compassion grows out of the things we are, and lives in our hearts.
– Barbara Garrison

Align with your life purpose by focusing on BEING the truth of who you
are. Focus on transforming all of the fear inherent in your body about
BEING who you are born to be. Then the doing becomes a natural
expression of who you are, as easy as an apple tree making apples.
– Colleen-Joy Page
 
When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you treat
them you will treat yourself. As you think of them you will think of
yourself. Never forget this, for in them you will find yourself or lose
your Self.
A Course in Miracles
 
You progress not through improving what has been done, but reaching toward what has yet to be done.
– Kahlil Gibran
 
Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less.
– Ken Blanchard
 
A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.
– Maya Angelou

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 guided by a changing of and interpretation of my experience. It
is always in process of becoming.
– (Mister) Carl Rogers
 
You may only feel like a drop in the ocean, but I tell you this, you
have the power of the ocean inside of you — and the ocean knows you,
even if you have forgotten the ocean. When you find the ocean in you,
you will feel like the river the runs towards the sea, not trying to
climb hills but simply flowing in accordance with the deeper calling
that draws you nearer to fully merge with your greatest self.
– Colleen-Joy Page

It is not action or effort that we must surrender; it is self-will, and
this is terribly difficult. You must do your best constantly, yet never
allow yourself to become involved in whether things work out the way
you want.
– Eknath Easwaran
 
When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my
vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
– Audre Lorde
 
The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order.
– Henry Miller

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

It is never easy to embrace a new way of doing things even when we know
it is in our best interest. Initially, we feel immobilized, and forcing
ourselves to do something new feels unnatural. But if we understand how
energy works, we realize that it is precisely this feeling that is
heralding a change for the better. We are stuck. We have gone as far as
we can go without doing something different. Unless we are willing to
stretch ourselves and reach out into the world, we will never be able
to create new forms to express who we are. We cannot use our inner life
as a weapon, retreating from a world that won’t let us hide. When we
do, we cut ourselves off from a lifeline of possibilities, fresh and
different ways to experience the world.
– Chandra Alexander
 
People are the way they are, and your need to dominate or change them
in any way is the edict of your false self. Your ego is, as usual,
trying to convince you of your separateness. It also doesn’t want you
to catch on to how it is controlling your life, so it convinces you
that if you don’t dominate others, they will get the best of you.
– Wayne Dyer
 
As we receive God’s love and impart it to others, we are given the power to repair the world.
– Marianne Williamson

If we don’t forgive ourselves for our mistakes, and others for the
wounds they have inflicted upon us, we end up crippled with guilt. And
the soul cannot grow under a blanket of guilt, because guilt is
isolating, while growth is a gradual process of reconnection to
ourselves, to other people, and to a larger whole.
– Joan Borysenko

And what is healing? Healing is joining. Healing is the coming together
that brings peace and denies separation. And healing, as I have told
you, is quite simply the release from the past. Because it is the past
that determines where you are, that defines your ego, that places
within your ego the demand to get and to become. And all of that is
really the demand to isolate yourself from your brothers and your
world. And as you would release the past, you shall be healed.
Brent Haskell
 
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep
your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep
your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your
values positive because your values become your destiny.
– Mohandas Gandhi

Prejudiced thinking comes from treating your mind like a rental space
for the thoughts and beliefs of others. Learning to furnish your mind
with your personal interpretation, even for a moment, frees you to know
yourself and others through your higher self. When your mind is
occupied by prejudice, ego is the landlord.
– Wayne Dyer

Alone we can do nothing, but together our minds fude into something
whose power is far beyond the power of its separate parts. By not being
separate, the Mind of God is established in ours and as ours. The Mind
is invincible because it is undivided.
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles


There can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving
thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal.
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles

All of time is but the made belief that what is over is still here and now.
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles

When you maintain that you are guilty but the source of your guilt lies
in the past, you are not looking inward. The past is not in you. Your
weird associations to it have no meaning in the present. Yet you let
them stand between you and your brothers, with whom you find no real
relationships at all.
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles

Child of peace, the light has come to you. The light you bring you do
not recognize, and yet you will remember. Who can deny himself the
vision that he brings to others?
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles

The end of guilt will never come as long as you believe there is a
reason for it. For you must learn that guilt is always totally insane,
and has no reason.
– Gifts from A Course In Miracles

You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren.
– William Henry Hudson, Afoot in England, 1909

I have a problem.  I’ve never had this problem before.

I don’t have enough problems. 

And the ones I have go away. 

And good things are happening to me every day, all the time.

That’s not the problem.  The problem is, all my friends are still
having problems.  They don’t believe that all I did was change my
attitude, my way of looking at life in general.  And when it
really gets bad, they look at me like I’ve turned into an evangelist.

OK.  I’m going to miss a lot of you.  But “Ain’t It Awful”
was never a fun game for me, it usually meant that everyone was trying
to make ME awful.  I guess I have to move on.  That
hurts.  So my lack of problems has itself become a problem. 

I have enough friends left, even some who sometimes play the old game
but still cheer me on, that I won’t feel totally isolated.  And if
“the other shoe drops”, I will know that we all have setbacks,
and working up the setback will create new symptoms.  I don’t like
symptoms, so I won’t work myself up.

I think I like the new problem better.  It means good things keep happening to me.  I can live with that. 

Hugs,
Me

Whew.  This was a blessed day, and I’m glad the work part of it is
over.  I initiated my student, Sapphire Spirit, at SerpentStone
House, with a fairly large group of people from at least two Traditions
adding their skills and hearts to the ritual.  Everything went
extremely well.  There is always one glitch or other, and the only
one was not major.  I also called Rudra afterwards to introduce
her to her new Sister in the Craft.  Good food, good friends, good
ritual.  The weather was a little cool, but more from a brisk wind
than actual temperature.  It was about as beautiful a day as you
can expect around Imbolc.

May your day be filled with blessings!

Hugs,
Moss

For those of you who just KNEW somewhere in your heart that today was about more than some rodent in Pennsylvania…

Happy Imbolc!



…also called Oimelg by the Druids (pronounced Imm – olg), Candlemas by
the English, and other names throughout the world.  This is a
major holiday in nearly all pagan calendars, a “cross-quarter”
day.  Quarter days are the equinoxes and solstices —
cross-quarter days are the High Holidays, the heart of each
season.  Imbolc is the time when it becomes clear that the Sun is
returning and the days are lengthening.  It is traditional to
light all your candles tonight and burn them all night or until they
burn out, to show the Sun what light is and how much you yearn for it.

Since candles are mostly (especially traditionally) made of fat, this
means that you are burning all the fat in your house (WeightWatchers,
take note!) and will then go out and replace it.  Can you say
“Mardi Gras” boys and girls?  I knew you could…

Let us rejoice!  The Sun is coming back!

Hugs,

Me

The ego tends to equate having with Being: I have, therefore I am. And
the more I have, the more I am. The ego lives through comparison. How
you are seen by others turns into how you see yourself…How you are
seen by others becomes the mirror that tells you what you are like and
who you are. The ego’s sense of self-worth is in most cases bound up
with the worth you have in the eyes of others. You need others to give
you a sense of self, and if you live in a culture that to a large
extent equates self-worth with how much and what you have, if you
cannot look through this collective delusion, you will be condemned to
chasing after things for the rest of your life in vain hope of finding
your worth and completion of your sense of self there.
– Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

Our past is neither an accident nor a mistake. We have been where we
needed to be, with the necessary people. We can embrace our history,
with its pain, its imperfections, its mistakes, even its tragedies. It
is uniquely ours; it was intended just for us. Today, we are right
where we need to be. Our present circumstances are exactly as they need
to be, for now.
– Melody Beattie

Life doesn’t have to be hard. Yes, there are times we need to endure,
struggle through, and rely on our survival skills. But we don’t have to
make life, growth, recovery, change, or our day-to-day affairs that
hard all the time. Having life be that hard is a remnant of our
martyrdom, a leftover from old ways of thinking, feeling, and
believing.  We are worthy, even when life isn’t that hard. Our
value and worth are not determined by how hard we struggle.  If
we’re making it that hard, we may be making it harder than it needs to
be. Learn to let things happen easily and naturally. Learn to let
events, and our participation in them, fall into place. It can be easy
now. Easier than it has been. We can go with the flow, take the world
off our shoulders, and let our Higher Power ease us into where we need
to be.
– Melody Beattie

It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable
with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits
that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he
forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it
does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a
particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we
need to throw the old ones away.
– Kenich Ohmae

If you have a healthy sense of self love, you will find it much easier
to love others, and much easier to accept the love of others. When you
love yourself, you feel deserving of the good things in life and the
powerful support of the Universe.
– Jim Malloy

… reality stands before them, yet they don’t see it, because what you call real is just the mirror image of your expectations.
– Deepak Chopra

For some, healing is too much to bear, and they hand it back, exchanging it for the fear they are accustomed to.
– Deepak Chopra

We constantly ask how and why, but we won’t stop and listen long enough
to hear the answer. The answer sits inside of us. In fact it has been
sitting there so long that we don’t recognize it because it has become
familiar. Alignment helps us to find all the forgotten answers. When
you are aligned with Spirit, you are left, not with information, but
with clarity.
– John-Roger

The One we are waiting for and the One we have been looking for is
already here, and has been here for a long time. You are the spiritual
being you’ve been searching to find.
– John-Roger

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

We seem to want our relationships to fix whatever we perceive to be
wrong with us. Now, I have a problem with this whole “fixing” concept.
In the first place, we’re not broken — we’re simply human.  Of
course we’ve got some sore spots, bruises, and wounds that haven’t
healed yet, but if we can just wake up, we can ultimately become our
own doctor in these areas. I’m not talking about slapping a Band-Aid on
the past and letting it fester for another day. I’m talking about
really allowing ourselves to heal from the core of the internal trauma.
The more we can let go of the self-criticism, the higher the degree of
healing will be. Only then will our relationships with each other
improve, because love can’t truly exist without self-awareness. Love is
a conscious choice, whose genesis lies in basic respect for one’s self.
– Wyatt Webb