One's attitude determines the quality of one's life. If you want to improve the quality of your life, accumulating more money or more material possessions isn't going to do it.But improving your attitude will!
Heaven (and happiness) is not a place to get to ,but a way of seeing the place you're at.It is an internal process that is a matter of choice--of shifting focus and feeling grateful even in the midst of seemingly discouraging circumstances (hardship).
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Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:28:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: "bill dality"
Subject: It's Spring!
To: tomas
It's a beautiful time of the year here.All plant life has awakened and come to life again---fruit trees blossoming and leafing out, flowers blooming,grass green again.
It's Spring!
I am occupied with planting the garden,yardwork, and going to market on weekends.
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The more difficulties one encounters in one's life, the more one developes an appreciation for one's breath as a source of security,strength, comfort,and fulfillment,and as a means of balancing all one's energy . By maintaining the focus of one's attention on one's breath one can block out all other unwanted sensations and remain centered even under the most difficult circumstances.
In the womb the child is totally self-sufficient and experiences no threat from it's environment.Proprioceptive sensory input (i.e. sensory input of internal origin)provides security and comfort because of it's constancy and stability.After birth our attention is drawn outward and much of the sensory stimuli wch are of internal origin are filtered out and disregarded as being unimportant and not worthy of attention.As we form greater attachment and dependence upon sensory stimuli from the external environment we cease to value sensory stimuli from our internal environment as a valid source of fulfillment and security.When our internal biorhythms become entrained to the chaos of ever-changing external stimuli--this is a recipe for disintegration.We are at the mercy of external forces and circumstances over wch we have no control.
Sensory stimulation is a nutrient wch promotes the development of specific loci in the brain.Thus the kind/modalty of sensory input wch we value and give our attention to ,directly affects the development of our brain not just during the formative period of gestation but throughout adult life as well.
We continuosly build our own brain by what we give our attention to.
Man cannot know God until he constructs a brain (or rather a neural network within the brain) by wch God can be known!
Through meditation on and absorption in Naam , one purifies the mind, frees oneself from the confusion of duality, and diminishes one's dependence on the external world(as a source of fulfillment).That is, one frees oneself from addiction to the external environment .
Again and again we turn our back on our breath and give our attention to the world for fulfillment ,wch again and again betrays our trust and destroys all that we give our love to (all that we love)
It is difficult to let go of something so beautiful as the world...unless one finds something of even greater beauty.Then one readily relinquishes that wch is of lesser value.
Joy is the portion of those whose hearts are turned away from the world and who have no worldly possessions/attachments.They really enjoy this world ,because it cannot cause them any sorrow/loss nor separate them from God.The one object of their desire is God alone.
There is a prevalent cultural misconception in our society that success and fulfillment comes from the acquisition of wealth.This despite numerous studies showing that wealth is not an indicator of happiness.
I was fortunate to learn that money does not make one happy. The secret to happiness lies in counting one's blessings--in cultivating one's capacity for appreciation/love and an "attitude of gratitude".--that is ,the amassing of "spiritual wealth".
Supposing for a moment that you worshipped money/wealth,...would you not be overjoyed to win a lottery!?
Well it just happens that we have won the biggest lottery in the universe --by virtue of the fact that we are breathing.We have paid nothing to obtain this life.
So why are we not overjoyed to simply be alive!?
Why do we not realize the immense value of what we have been given?
Why is breathiing not paradise enough!?
It is wonderfully ironic that this simplest Truth turns out to also be the greatest Truth!
If we are not filled to overflowing with joy,the deficiency lies not in any lack other than our failure to use our capacity to appreciate all that we have been given!
Each day a million miracles go unnoticed and unappreciated for lack of attention.
"There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the gtround--let the beauty we love be what we do" --Rumi ...for what we do will determine what we become!
If we are alive we are a miracle—we are the result of that one gold medal swimmer who has beaten out millions of other contenders for the coveted prize of first place at the egg.
Conception and birth are miracles. Then there are all the moment-by-moment miracles wch sustain this life.In our bodies we digest food and grow. We repair ourselves…all unconscious acts. We maintain our blood pressure and temperature. We accomplish great feats on a daily basis.We need to remind ourselves of our greatness—to pay attention to all the great things we do every day . If we were to take the time to write down all the fantastic things we have accomplished in our life we would quickly come to appreciate our greatness.
We spend so much of our lives focusing our attention on and pursueing what we don’t have and ignoring all that we do have—such as life and breath!
Stop to tell yourself that you already have everything essential—that you are already great!
Gratitude is the mother of joy!
Ingratitude is the greatest sin!
The greatest wealth within us is the power of appreciation!
Without this capacity nothing would be of any value!
"Worship" is the attribution of worth and value to an object.
see "Breathing as Worship"
I had "discovered" a truth about life that was previously concealed to me and to most other people. And once I discovered this new reality, I was able to do things and accomplish things with a greater degree of success and efficiency, not to mention much less STRESS!
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There is no salvation for the soul But to fall in love. It has to creep and crawl Among the Lovers first. (Only through love can ego and pride be eliminated.Love dissolves the boundaries of identities so that we can no longer distinquish between self and the beloved.
Only Lovers can escape From these two worlds. This was written in creation.
Only from the Heart can you reach the sky. The Rose of Glory can only be raised in one's Heart.
-- Rumi
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http://onetruename.com/
To pursue a purely intellectual understanding of God is like trying to see with your ears. That which is without color or form, unlimited and unfathomable, beyond imagination, without beginning or end, is impossible to conceive with the mind. When it comes to knowing God, the mind is blind and will always be. But there is a way to intuit with the inner self and recognize with the heart. This is the message of the mystic poets, who see the relationship between a seeker and God as the same as between a lover and their Beloved. They emphasize the importance of consistent remembrance, treating all with respect, and a simple faith. Their love of God awakens in the heart a yearning to rise up and touch the ocean of Oneness, to be consumed in the transcendental fire, to die in Love and be reborn anew.
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Repeat the Name of Allah, O Bahu, and free yourself from the worries of life.
Those who enshrine the Lord in their hearts, O Bahu, have both the worlds at their command.
-- Hazrat Sultan Bahu
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The mystical traditions of all religions share the common goal of enligtenment--to understand the true nature of Self.
Our eyes are always looking outward. We are always looking/turned away from our selves,always looking outside of our self,always facing the wrong way.
we've all been taught to look outside ourselves for our sustenance and our fulfillment. We've come to believe that all of life's rewards /promise lies outside of ourselves ,become attached to external physical objects thinking them to be the only possible source of fulfillment/happiness.
to know oneself (to discover who you are)one has to turn around and face inward.When we reverse the direction of our attention from outward to inward we become aware of an energy that permeates our body--the energy that keeps our physical body alive,that moves our breath,our thoughts ,our muscles and enables all the functions that a living being is capable of.
Ordinarily this energy --wch is nothing less than the life within us--is not given much of our awareness/attention.
But when we experience this inner energy directly within inside our self,and allow it to guide our life
we experience the fulfillment (the radiance and joy) that we have always yearned for and have always sought /looked for outside ourself--where it could not be found/experienced!
You realize that the entire universe is made of this primordial energy(indeed nothing else/other exists:this is the mystic experience of "Oneness") and that It is not confined to the body,but is unlimited (co-extensive with the universe) and eternal(deathless). You realize/recognize this spiritual energy is your essential Self/nature,and it is you who are reflected everywhere--that is,it is your own reflection that passes before you all the time.
This knowledge can only be gained during the short time one inhabits a living human body.
As long as one fears death ,one remains identified with(attached to ) that wch is perishable and subject to dissolution (the body).A drop of water upon merging with the ocean gives up it's individual identity and becomes the ocean.At the moment of death we must relinguish our attachment to our body and surrender ourselves to the ocean of the universe.
