Sri Dvorahji i wanted to seek a clarification – is there a distinction between a good thought and a bad thought? I somehow struggle internally as I judge my thoughts and find them to be negative most times than positive….
Yea big difference! Good thoughts feel GOOD and make others feel good because you do. Bad thoughts feel BAD and makes others feel bad cause you’re usually irritated when you have bad thoughts.
HOWEVER…all THOUGHTS COME & GO bad & good. Has judging your thoughts helped you in any way? NO, I don’t think so! So what good is it to judge yourthoughts? Relax and let the negative thoughts come & go – NO judgements, they’re just moving through…If there’s alot of them, put on some music and dance. Exercise and good food always helps…
No mind if you EVEN judge or not…just say OM namah Shivaya, or halleluia or whatever whether you judge or not and move on to the next thought or action or dance. Just turn your head or feet & keep moving along…
jeff honey, people think they’re depressed everytime they’re bored for 5 minutes or feel tired. People need to use common sense when they read anything, I’m not passing out drugs here, I don’t need a disclaimer everytime I write a status rep
ort.
I think some thoughts come from fear and some come from hapiness and love….If we stay for a long period of time in fear, we go crazy…If we stay longer in love, we have a beautiful smile.
ALLLLLL thoughts come & go, and like a cold, no matter what you do, they go when they go…Having a little bhajan in your head can always be helpful or a mantra…I’ve always liked Om Namah Shivaya (but that’s my training). “Even I use” If it could be different-it would be different”…….or be still go to the space between those thoughts… Or if you’re having a lot of thoughts, change the scenery, get up walk around, go outside, eat an orange…move…Relax-WHO’S doing WHAT here?
Freedom is recognizing FULLY that “Deeds are done and there is no individual Doer”. In other words: If it could be different, It would be different. IT IS AS IT IS AND you are FREE to live your life WITHOUT regret, remorse, guilt, concerns over your ego and other nonsense that you’ve fabricated to make you and everyone else miserable.
There are no “what ifs”. Your life is exactly as it could’ve, would’ve, is, and will be. Relax and live your life in “Awesome, Wondrous, Sacred” Meaningless Freed-Om…
I think Joplin sang that but Kris Kristofferson may have wrote it….It is the absolute truth of course…give up attachments and there is nothing else to lose…..
Or as Bob Dylan used to sing in ‘Like a Rolling Stone’: “When you ain’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose”. haha music conversation–hadda chime in. ♥ But yeah, sometimes our attachments represent ‘baggage’ that we can use to immobilize ourselves. I think those songwriters understood that.
I loved this video the first time I saw it and still love it. Great wisdom mixed with a lot of humor. You are amazing Dvorah. Keep on laughing and be one with your giggle. Jai Gurudev
By saying life is “meaningless” do you mean it in a nihilistic or atheistic sense of the term? For instance, would you support the view of Richard Dawkins, who stated:
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.”
As a believer in God, isn’t this contradictory? For, theists would see this life in terms of an envisaged goal and intention; a continious development of the heart’s feelings toward joyous, ever-conscious experience and perpetual self-transendence.
I may have misunderstood what you mean by “meaningless”, but life, surely, is bursting with meaning!
You know….give the intellect a rest. Really. Just give the intellectual, spiritual, conceptual God hype that you’ve learned and accumulated a rest…and FALL INTO GOD WITH OPEN HAPPY ARMS and just listen and enjoy the music.
Life is NOT meaningless…IT’s Awesomely, wondrously, incredibly, unfathomably MEANINGLESS…and that distinction is EVERYTHING….
Life is OPEN-ENDED- never understood, IT’s LIVED…This incessant desire to understand life, to give it meaning, purpose, UNDERSTANDING is keeping seekers in their HEAD, ignorant & Unhappy. Faith based in fear.
All these IDEAS about God, what “he” means, wants and does – keeps seekers twisted with meaning. Life is AWESOMELY MEANINGLESS.. is a ode, a joyful celebration of the Awesome/MEANINGLESS UN-UNDERSTANDABLE magic of life. Life itself is the Miracle, the magic – NOT all these fantasies you have about manipulating the laws of nature to suit you, to heal you, to save you. it’s so infantile, ridiculous; Spirituality for pre-schoolers.
Rejoice in the DIVINE MEANINGLESS-NESS OF IT ALL. The freedom of it All – when this BURDEN OF meaning is FINALLY REMOVED. Relax, Rejoice and enjoy the music. SADHANA without feverishness…Longing without worry, LOVE without end…
BTW, longing for the Divine/God, desiring to “know” God/praying to know God is one thing and leads you to GRACE, your Nature…However, thinking you understand this creation and God and the ins & out of what “He” wants/does and having the answers is what shows your ignorance.
If you want to learn…then you’ll learn HOWEVER, if you want to be FREE…then you’ll stop learning and find out about BEING.
learning is for students NOT devotees…You want to be a student, looking forward to your next complicated/sufferring lifetime OR you want to be a devottee FOREVER IN LOVE/FREE in the DIVINE SPACE THAT YOU ARE? Think about it…
I think we are someone else’s purpose – God, Universe whatever you may choose to define it – till such time while we are alive, we can just sing and dance as you’ve rightly mentioned…
I’m not a novice at this game, my dear, and I certainly don’t look forward to another incarnation of suffering, but know it’s part of life – until I have LEARNED non attachment. However I believe that state of grace comes only after myriads of lifetimes, so in the mean time, as I said, in my opinion life is for learning. A status that does not exclude joy, fun and what have you. And certainly dancing, because, as Isadora Duncan said – those who don’t dance will have to be shot.
My life is not meaningless. My children and granchildren are not meaningless. My work as an aromatherapist and writer is not meaningless.And freedom is just another word for noting left to lose.
And I, on the other hand, believe that attachments, lived and experienced in spritual grace is what life is all about. And I also believe that everyone if fully allowed their opinion – even though they may be attached to it.
You know, I am FULLY AWARE that everything is possible in consciousness and the variety in life is infinite, from ants to spiriitual teachers (I call OUT all ants too)…and I really find it all to be Amazingly, astoundingly, lovingly Fantastically miraculous…Truly unbelievable how everything does it’s BIT IN LIFE…I can barely speak after thinking about this even for an instant…
The fun in life is the Play, the positive and the negative…what fun is it (for me anyway) to constantly make you feel good and speak with golden tongue? Really really boring for me & for you…Why not give you a chance to feel Confused, indignant, upset, angry and see how much fun IT ALL IS without LOSING YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR?
TRAGEDY is heartbreaking and I cry like a baby with the rest of humanity (as a matter of fact I cry easily about everything beautiful or sad)…and I laugh just as easily about ANYTHING (and I mean anything!)
All knowledge is pretty much IGNORANCE. Nisagaddatta ( I do love him) said:
“As far as I am concerned, I have no faith in anything which has been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. ONLY MY OWN EXPERIENCE. You have had many visions, Is there any truth in the visions? What is the basis of these visions?”
Only your own experience is really worth anything…everything else is HERESAY, DISCUSSION, FOOD FOR a restless, inquiring, unsatisfied MIND. It’s all part of that Mysterious ongoing mind that keep churning out ideas and the world as we know it.
I can only speak from my own experience and I do. And this is my truth.
1. Life is a continual happening.
2. The Divine runs the show ALWAYS.
3. IF IT COULD BE DIFFERENT IT WOULD BE, so relax with your life exactly as it is.
4. Shut Up (fall silent/meditate) and be Happy!
5. Make fun of everything and EVERYBODY, because it’s all a thought in consciousness -EVERYTHING.
6. NOTHING AND I MEAN NOTHING IS SERIOUS. You can always find a funny twist in everything, yes I mean everything; including sexual abuse, murder, Haiti, EVERYTHING.
7. AND OF COURSE THE BIG ONE by Beethoven:
“I console myself by the fact that God made me”
Every thought, every feeling, every action (gd bad & horrible) is God’s Will.
So I relax in the TRUTH that God Made me. PERIOD. AND I AM HAPPY/AT PEACE. ALWAYS (even when I’m crying, screaming and cursing at the way life is presenting ITSELF)- Because I know it just couldn’t have shown up any different then it did. Capish? Relax and be at Peace with your life exactly as it is.
AND, don’t bother to defend your spiritual teachers, they usually don’t care what anyone thinks of them beause they’re too busy serving others or just plain happy! OR some are tooooo busy making money and saving the “I” and the world with their rhetoric.
I’m gonna give you a smack if you don’t wake up soon! How many more advaita carrots are you going to buy into before you just relax into your Nature?
Repeat after me: I EXIST, I AM FREE and I’m not giving another penny to Katie, Gangaji, Mooji, Tony or Pamelai!! I’m going to buy myself a new car, a wardrobe and a house instead. Maybe I’ll even get a new boob job or a hair transplant (for the guys).
Just be yourself! That’s all that’s asked of you in this life. Don’t try to be like anyone else, think like anyone else, feel like anyone else, have enlightened experiences like anyones else. JUST BE YOURSELF THROUGH & THROUGH. BE Natural. Relaxing about yourself and your life will guide you home…Being feverish and wanting to be like someone else will keep you in knots and unhappy.
Who cares if someone else experiences the Transcendence (whatever that means)? Who cares if someone else experiences dancing with Krishna or the dissolutions of the universe or no “I”?
You keep your eye on YOUR PRIZE because no body else’s prize matters. We’re happy for them but the only one that matters is our own experieces when it comes to Being knowledge.
And be patient. The rule of thumb goes like this. “What’s yours will always be yours – what’s NOT yours will never be yours!”.
Ok? Now relax and be happy with your spiriitual programs, your progress and your life in general.
Haha! – A friend of mine came along to the last Tony P meeting. Tony’s wife Clare was collecting the entrance fee of £10. She looked at my friend and said “Hello, I don’t recognise you”. My friend replied “Oh, you should – I’m a regular – I come once every 10 years”. Tony came up and said “That’s a bargain – it’s only £1 a year!”. My friend replied “Yes – I’ve been saving up!” Much laughter ensued.. lots of love from David.
Tony is actually hilarious…when I’ve listen to one of his tapes I’m GONE!…His knowledge is that strawberry effect. You can only experience him fully after you’ve had your own experience. Before then, It’s a maze of words & confusion, but it is magical/enigmatic rhetoric.
The tape that I was listening to, he was calling out Gangaji, for charging so much money. Someone asked him about why he does what he does – and he said (I’m paraphrasing): “to support myself of course, but I’m cheap compared to Gangaji; she’ll take your whole checkbook!”
You know interestingly enough…all these teachers really do it to share their knowledge, and Tony is relatively “free=er” in stance then others, cause he doesn’t take enough to be “beholden” to a way of being and speaking.
But once you start TAKING THE BUCKS” there are certain expectations from your “students/devotees” that you have to live up to. And when you don’t live up to those expectations, they throw you RIGHT OFF that pedestal they Put you ON!
Say something negative, have an affair, show your emotions (in a negative way) and they STOP WANTING TO PAY YOUR BILLS ANYMORE AND OFF THEY GO TO THE NEXT ENLIGHTENED smoke & mirror PONY SHOW.
From my perspective, set the record straight right away. 1. Tell them you don’t know ANYTHING except what you’ve experienced & can offer for sure… 1. Don’t take their money (except for expenses) 2. Do & say WHATEVER COMES NATURALLY AND BE FREE of opinions of your “enlightenment and all their fictitious theories.. 3. Offer all that YOU ARE – and help others catch fire, marvel & laugh in freedom. 4. Be funny (sometimes in the strangest ways)
Some will call you crazy and some will just be entertained. EITHER way: “IDIDITMYWAY”!!!! (and that is definitely a song!)
PS. and what other way could you ever do it?
I do love you all, Dvorah (Dvorahji is a fabulous character I made up to give me that “guru” credibility!!!!
There really are some wonderful teachers/Guru’s around. We are very lucky nowadays. From my perspective, One will move you deeply…stay with that ONE and relax…
(from the shut Up book) What if I told you the only lesson you have to learn is to “Shut up and be happy?” That …See More
it’s funny you should mention the Artofliving…I’m not very much of an organization person, I never have been, I’m just too eccentric for them to put up with really, but I happen to look on the website yesterday to see Sri Sri’s schedule because he’s coming to LA to inaugurate a new center in central LA in April and I happened across what he’s accomplished (THROUGH THE ORGANIZATION) and it’s really impressive, & love stirring…
Someone’s got to do the HEAVY LIFTING. SOMEONE’S got to get the money and man power together to SERVE OTHER’S less fortunate and you need buildings and volunteers and constant travel and hotels and food and advertisement to tell people you’re here to help them and the list goes on and on and on…My friends (aol teachers) travel all over teaching trauma relief courses to Veterans thru the organization. And my kids (together with many others) went to New Orleans and worked with the children there through AOL (& someone had to pay for that).
I’m actually very proud of what Art of living does and that Sri Sri (despite the hype) has served so many in multitude of ways (physical, spiritual, trauma relief, & bucks). I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to go to Haiti,new orleans, Africa etc… I don’t even want to give them money or my time…I’m not built that way…but I’ll give someone a necklace I’m wearing because they want/need it in some way…Or I’ll sit at my computer writing a note or make a video or write a book, when I’d rather be outside walking lilly by the ocean. So we all serve our loved ones (the world) in our own way.
Sri Sri for me has the flavor (the aroma) of all the other great Guru’s. I love Ramana, Nisagaddatta, Vasistha, Astavakra, Shankara, and actually I only read their stuff not Sri Sri’s – but when I’m deeply quiet/in-love, it’s HIS aroma I get (I don’t know why)….
Check out srisri.org or artofliving.org…they’re worth a look/see…
I agree with D’ji, AOL is into good work. Perhaps as I notice, the org needs more transparency and accountabilty to show what they are doing and where exactly the money that is being donated, is going. I get receipts and follow-ups when I donate to other orgs, but AOl doesn’t do this very well. Perhaps it needs to
mature in this area. I have heardmany of my friends voice this very same opinion.
Plus the teachers need to update the videos on service being conducted at AOL- they show the same videos over and over and some of them don’t even mention the link www.artofliving.org as a reference.
I’m now not much into AOL but just help out with causes that mean something to me (including some projects at AOL). I am too individualistic and some of the teachers branded me as being too in the mind. But I am sure Guruji understands me…
It is strange isn’t it? My gig was always meditation asanas, pranayama, bhakti, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the vedas….i start reading Nisagaddatta, Ramana, Ramesh…and all I can see is SriSri and he says to me one day while reading ashtavakra in a tape: “Dvorah, when will you get it?” and the whole world began to unravel and THERE WAS ONLY THIS!.
I can only tell you that LOVE/DIVINE are MY NATURE…everything else is a HAPPENING…and SriSri is my Guru, like Esther & Leo are my parents. IT IS AS IT IS.
Sri Sri is an enigma to me, I do not understand HIM at all and I don’t try to, not possible. I only know that it’s incredible to be blessed with good parents and it’s a real blessing to have a Guru step into your life, want nothing and continually hold up a mirror so you can see your SELF clearly.
I am in adoration of my Guru, and I’m in adoration of everyone else’s Guru too (regardless of talking trash about them!!!) I just love playing it’s my nature.
This is why the “positive thinking’ movement is so ridiculous! For every positive thought you “think” you control – there’s a negative thought that’s going to come sneaking into your brain. And because you put so much value on “positive thinking” you also put an equal amount of value on “negative thinking”.
IN OTHER WORDS – YOU’RE STUCK THINKING – PERIOD!! And your silly concepts on trying to keep it positive is KEEPING YOU NEGATIVE MOST OF THE TIME.
There is this huge picture I used to keep on the wall near my desk of an EAGLE looking straight at me and the caption said: I AM smiling.
That’s what all this positive nonsense is all about, appearances. Your face is smiling and your insides are going crazy and your mind is filled with thoughts upon thoughts upon thoughts, trying to THINK yourself positive.
If you want to be happy, If you want to be Free, If you want to be real, If you want to offer something genuine to humanity, you’ll give UP THIS PHONY POSITIVE ATTITUDE and accept Yourself and others exactly as you/they are – NEGATIVITY AND ALL – AND Be HAPPY WITH YOUR POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE THOUGHTS.
And finally realize that LIFE ITSELF is comprised of opposites Good & Bad and you can’t have one without the other. (isn’t that a song?) If you relax about all these concepts, you will find that you are NATURALLY AT PEACE…which equates into being more positive, happier and having more to offer your family, friends, and the rest of the world….
Be positive or negative and have some FUN! Be Mischievous! BE NATURAL..LET ALL THOUGHTS come and go back to the ether where they originate…you BE HAPPY and NOT so obsessed with your thoughts!!!!!!!
This strikes at the heart of the “Happier than Thou” movement. How cruel of you! I pay my “Life Coach” lots of money to give me a desperate new positive affirmation every day. Now I can save lots of money by just accepting my misery as another uproariously funny part of my melodrama~! Thanks.
WOW…..i was crying for my 2 beloved friends that passed away in Haiti, we was friends for more than 25 years. My heart was broken, and somebody told me, oh you always positive , smiling, making jokes…..why are you crying ? and i say….what the heck do you want me to do with the tears ? if tears wasnt part of life, we wont have the tears and the tears holes…….you always makes my days better…
Trying to pretend is to no avail at all, when sad, angry, we have to become the sadness. Not try to get rid of it. It means a accepting it and often accepting we can’t accept. Sigh. Lol
I wish students would stop looking at their teachers with such “awe” and “intellectual eagerness”, LIKE something the teacher says is going to save you!!!
GOOD LORD-YOU ARE SAVED! Stop groveling for one more word, one more something or other that’s going to DO IT FOR YOU. NOTHING IS GOING TO HELP YOU!! CAN YOU JUST STOP AND BE HAPPY, JUST FOR A SECOND, without all this gimme gimme gimme?
..What do you think you’re going to learn from all these talking heads except what you “THINK” you are NOT?
After seeing someone like Mooj or Adi or Katie, or Foster, or Wheeler, or Gangaji, or sailor Bob or Tony or Pamela or Scott, or the myriad of Ramana/Nisagaddatta/Papaji wannabe’s that have cropped up, Do you EVER LEAVE SATISFIED, ENLIGHTENED? Hell NO! You need more and more explanations of what “IT” is. Ridiculous!
IT’s always another lecture, another class. another speech, another crying session, another blessing, another experience, another Ah-ha moment!! Another and another and another person who supposedly ‘GOT IT” and can talk about the “you” that isn’t here and how it’s all an illusion.
Shut UP!@ Just Shut UP and be still without all this HANKERING for something you think you DON’T HAVE. STOP. Relax, walk outside and smell the SPACE! Enlightenment is your Nature and guess what? NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING…so relax…we’re all in the same boat…the ENLIGHTENED JUST KNOW THEY DON’T KNOW ANYTHING…the unenlightened think that “anything” is a subject to be explored.
Most teachers should get themselves a ridiculous hat, a big fat plastic rose, a bubble blower, and tell everyone to Shut Up and Be Happy! They might also give their friends a big hug.
And instead of taking a ton of money from their students, they should be giving THEM MONEY for taking time our of their busy lives to come visit and listen to their intellectual or emotional gibberish!
Satsang is for Meditating, Music and dancing and clapping your hands in song and FUN…it’s not for having an spiritual intellectual BullSh$% session!
Old…….wow, i never think about it, I am still shaking my big latin ass, better than ever before…..I love to show my middle finger, go bed with heartburn because I ate a whole box of chocolates, and I make a joke of it…..and I am enlighted……Now everybody is talking about shifting, and I wonder, where the hell we going ? I hope I cant rent a uhaul truck.
rotfpml go you good thing! love the boldness and age is a state of mind you look beautiful captivating and cute all at once ! lets put on a gown get our hair done wear a funny hat no shoes and dance in rain and splash puddles outside the plastic surgens
I just realized I’m CALLING wholelotof spiritual teachers OUT! I feel like Braveheart – only instead of showing my “Arse” under my kilt, I got my “ENLIGHTENMENT” BADGE on saying: “I talk about “THAT” better than you do!!!” What’s a Dvorahji to do to have some fun around here? ALL this Awareness,Enlightenment discussion is so serious with jokes like: What did the buddha say to the hot dog vender?” He said: Give me one with everything!” hahahahaha! Now tell me? Is that really funny? (Only the first time, and only if you’re stoned!)
I just watched 2 dozen “advaita teachers” droning on and on and on and on, barely cracking a smile inbetween soft voices and sighs of superior silence…YUCK!! I’m telling you, they all look like they know something you don’t know, and the audience believes it. It drives me C_R_A_Z_Y IN LOVE WITH MYSELF. (YEP that’s mememememe MYMYMY) I’m calling you ALL OUT! WE’LL JUST SIT IN SILENCE UNTIL ONE OF US CRACKS OR has to go to the bathroom. Let’s just see who has a better vocabulary describing ‘THAT’ and who has the best most beautiful expensive retreats and devotees?
Oh I just love this Enlightenment profession, keeps me in hats. My Guru, who is sweet as honey and doesn’t talk negative about anybody, would probably smack me and tell me to shut Up – but from him I WOULDN’T MIND. WHY? CAUSE HE’S FUNNNNNNNNNY AND WEARS HATS!! AND he doesn’t drone on and on about enlightenment.
He just closes his eyes and lets us have a party. I close my eyes and dissappear in LOVE and leave the “hot dogs with everything” behind.
Why do you need to say these things? I have called off darling Sri Sri long time ago… his knowledge does nothing for me… I mean we are NOT desperate for enlightenment, in time, in many lifetimes surely we’ll all get there… But the totally of our longing is why we go to different masters… IN ZEN tradition it is the metaforically Search for the BULL where one makes tremendous effort to the point where one drops ALL EFFORT..When you say relax, I feel like saying relax totally, I don’t disagree… but then don’t be guilty about a thing, (sex, meat, habits etc.)- but your point of relaxation come
s after a certain maturity, a certain let-go… For so many people I know, I see transformation around Osho, Mooji, Adi, Gangaji – really really tranformative blossoming… I don’t see much of it in Art of Living circles… Although they seem happy and contented, at leat on the surface.. I wonder why you seem to be so fiery about the advaita teachers..? Isn’t it about AWARENESS in essence? Maybe even relax into your own centre of your own awareness.. may the word knowledge be replaced by the word UNDERSTANDING…. Hmmm….
You can only understand the taste of a strawberry after you’ve tasted a strawberry. All the discussion of what a strawberry tastes like only confuses you more. So my advice is, First taste a strawberry, then let’s talk about what it tastes like. Until then, go experience a strawberry.
It’s the same with all these discussions oF what “IT” is. And “Who Am I” and “Nothing exists” and “There is only This” . Even the word “Being” is misleading and turns POINTERS into a PATH. Seekers who experience their Nature still doubt their experience – because they’re looking for what OTHER’S have told them IT SHOULD look like.
That ‘s why from my perspective, Do what you do. Do your meditations, follow your Gurus, LIVE your life and have confidence that LIFE WILL TAKE YOU to your NATURE and Know ‘If it could be different It Would be Different”. Then after, you’ve experienced your NATURE, you’ll understand what all these teachers are ACTUALLY referring to.
My suggestion until then is: LIVE your LIFE-Let your Enlightened NATURE reveal ITSELF. Relax, Life will guide u HOME. Don’t stress about Enlightenment-waste of FUN -Be Happy!
Will you really tell someone who has suffered loss of a child, a spouse, been in a shock of trauma – just relax and have fun? Isn’t that kind of mocking? I would never do so – but the way f.ex Mooji answers people in Satsang, it is done with such a compassion and it does help people in a most beautiful way.. IN the buddhafield of an Enlightened Master it is fun, it is light, and there is infinite compassion that heals, that soothes, that helps… With Sri Sr I find it is a MAD Circus, it is a whole lot of superficiality.. .Not for everyone… With Osho it is catharsis and transformation, and people come out smiling, celebrating… with a deep understanding of them self… Sorry Dvorahji, I am really annoyed with your postings, you can delete me from your list of friends if you want… I guess my resentment after the sexual abuse I experienced in AoL circles is still operating in me…
AHHHHHH MY DARLING HEGE…I Like you so much because you’re so Fierrrrry!…
You ask: “why do you seem to be so fiery about the advaita teachers?”….because it gives me JOY and I can! It’s my opinion, It’s really very simple…They TALK TOOOOOOOO MUCH ABOUT “NOTHING” instead of encouraging people to live their life and be happy!
And Sri Sri is the first to let people go whereever they want for their happines, and so AM I. I’M REALLY for whatever works for you, for whatever Guru or teacher works for you… ALWAYS. Actually, I’m totally on your side….
Now Darling Hege, why would I ever delete you…You are ADORABLE…and I’m glad you found a teacher that makes you happy. And I am truly deeply sorry you experienced any sexual abuse by anyone anywhere. I love you and wish you well ALWAYS…
Right on Dvorahji!!, who knows.. maybe I do know the taste of strawberrys… I don’t even care for happiness…: 0 ) Duality transcends.. and bliss comes and bliss goes..
I’m a psychologist by nature & education and SO WHAT? I rationalize for fun. I love explaining everything and SO WHAT? How can I take any of it seriously???? An explanation is like talking about why an orange tastes so good and then you eat it and IT’S GONE…..eat your oranges and eat you explanations, they’re both yummy and fun and SO WHAT? move along to the next moment…
All these reasons of why you are the way you are, and how you got this way, and how to change yourself and on & on keeps you in ignorance! Go outside, open your eyes and ask your yourself: “How did that tree grow that particular way and why is that bird in it, and how did that funny looking branch grow that way”… and on and on….. You don’t know how why the tree got that way and you don’t REALLY KNOW why you got this way, Every moment really is a new day! no past, no present, no future…JUST WHAT’S HAPPENING, THAT’S YOUR REALITY RIGHT NOW, ISN’T IT? Everything else is a thought, isn’t it?
I know I go ” wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! ” everytime I get a “tall” starbucks “drink” Hehehehehe It is not regularly that i get one of those, so it does have a nice effect on my short term behavioral craziness! lol! But yeah! Dvorah is so right! At least think about that for a sec. … we spend so much precious time worrying about the “what could be” that we let the “what IS” slip by our fingers! Many spend their whole life saddened because of “what I should have done – and didn’t” and that sorta thing… LET ALL THAT GO! DROP IT! LOOK AROUND! See where those events lead you, I am sure – whatever happened, happened for a reason… and 99.99999% of the time, we just cannot fathom the reasons… so why spend time thinking about those things? Enjoy life for what is is! A JOY RIDE! XD
Seeker believe in so much nonsense, so much spiritual hype. How can there be Karma, when every moment is a FRESH/NEW/UNIMAGINABLE HAPPENING? But to the ignorant – karma, reincarnation, heaven, hell, continues to float in their mind as if it had substance: as if it had a past, present and future. Karma is A JOKE, just like “you” are a JOKE!
Instead of constantly referring to your good & bad karma – refer to the WHOLE IN YOUR HEAD…the SPACE BETWEEN your ears that extends out beyond the universe….You are NOT your Karma, YOU ARE EVERYTHING…relax and be HAPPY….
that “But” is the beginning of the cycle of the world of thought & misery…that’s why most seekers no matter how intent on knowing the truth always have a “but” in there somewhere. IT’S ALL OR NOTHING NO BUTS, MAYBES OR WHAT IFS, NOTHING!!!!!
You wanna be free or you wanna have “BUTS”. Which one do you choose??? and Unfortunately the answer usually is “give me another “BUT” another go around with questions and WHAT IFS. STOP!! STOP ALREADY!
You don’t need another go around!! You don’t need to experience Life again and again and again, looking at the same pictures in different colors & shapes. OPEN YOU EYES. NO BUTS. IT ALL OR NOTHING. God is everything, God sees Everything, God knows everything, God makes everything. DIVINE RUNS THE SHOW, PERIOD.
NOW….NO buts, ands, maybes, another life, some more karma, RELAX into what’s coming up for you at every moment AND JUST LIVE AS IF YOU HAVE NO KARMA, NO PAST, NO PRESENT, AND ABSOLUTELY NO FUTURE…just live your life and BE HAPPY. IN other words: SHUT UP WITH THE BUTS- and go for EVERYTHING AND JUMP INTO THE VAST UNKNOWN HEAD FIRST!! and leave your butt behind!
DIVINE RUNS THE SHOW regardless of what anyone thinks. The Divine IS…karma, past, present, futures are thoughts that arise in the DIVINE…and come and go, all arises in Consciousness…and WHO CARES ANYWAY? be Happy!
If the Divine runs the show, that means that we need to accept everithing as is ? Supose that there is something in our lifes that we dont like it or is hurting us, should we pray, meditate of chant for this things to change, or we should accept this events in our lifes as part of the show ?
It’s all part of the show EVERYTHING GD & BD IS part of the show.
ACCEPT THINGS AS THEY ARE and Pray, meditate, chant, DO things to change your situation…Do what you do; Knowing deep in your heart that “if it could Be different, It would be different”
Isn’t it all about seeing/realizing/experiencing it to be so..? – otherwise that too becomes a concept – everything does, unless it is authentic – somewhat beyond mind!?
Everything is a concept but at least we can go for a concept that nourishes, brings us solice, confidence, and makes us feel taken care of….”you were never born” makes you “feel” barren, dry, isolated, alonek useless, meaningless, why bother…
If I was in emotional turmoil, I woudn’t want to hear “you were never born”—-I would want to hear, “LOVE IS MY NATURE, I AM LOVE AND ALWAYS TAKEN CARE OF.
Now there is a time and a place to say “you were never born” and it can trigger some profound realizations…but it’s used in a very HEAD HEAD WAY..INTELLECTUAL BS…and it brings no love or peace. A little Bhakti, whether it’s a concept or not goes a long way.
Both exist together, right! for example: Love is your Nature (your are ALWAYS LOVE) and you can fall in love with someone. Both exist together. YOU ARE AWARENESS/BEING/ AND everything that comes out of BEING which is everything you see, hear smell, touch, think ,imagine and on and on ……YOU ARE EVERYTHING.
so Chandelle YOU ARE GOD/AND YOU ARE EVERYTHING YOU CREATED, RIGHT. Only God is not a person…It is YOUR Nautre, the very life blood of your being & of your life as it shows up for you.
Now you don’t have to sit and think about this, although it’s a nice idea to know.
Just say to yourself, once: I AM EVERYTHING gently before you go to bed and let that statement go into space before you go to sleep, and a couple of times during the day…and see what happens. Ok? See if anything comes up for you…
Just relax and know, YOU ARE LOVE…and then let it go….I’m telling you that statement with the full confidence of my Being and all he Beings that came before me. YOU ARE LOVE….now relax and be happy.
Me being LOVE doesn’t do it for me, because when the feeling of ” being kissed from within” enters, I am not a separate being to be it (LOVE). Love or no-love has no meaning, but somehow loving becomes all that there is, something unfathomable, something non-dual permates everything in all ways, in all forms..and no-ways and no-forms…
@karen, only if you’re having lunch with someone who continuously talks about how positive they are and the latest doohickey they manifested! And when they start telling me they’re finalyl co-creating with God, that’s when I gotta gooooooooooooo!
@Jeremiah…Once you recognize FULLY that your life is a happening and REALLY beyond your control (although the appearance of control Is so strong) then you just move along with your life…apologize when you need to, take consequences when they come (because they come naturally) do the best you can and just move along, like the character in play…he just moves along with his life til the end of the play and then HE TAKES A BIG BOW and says good bye…
Guilt has never changed or helped anyone. Take the most heineous situations. A child molester feels guilty and SO WHAT? Does it stop him? A murderer feels guilty, did it stop him, does it stop him? A person who trying to lose weight swears he won’t have another cookie, does it stop him? Or You swear you’ll never lose your temper again, does it stop you? No matter how guilty you feel? NOOOOO.
But if you eradicate those past impressions, If make the person feel worthy, that they are a child of God in God’s image, One with the Divine, then they let go of that misery and their thinking and acting changes, becomes natural and not GUIDED BY GUILT OR REMOSE. They live their life as it shows up and move along….
Guilt is completely USELESS, except in it’s early initial stages when it warns you that your thinking or actions didn’t make you or someone else feel good. So say I’M SORRY…and MOVE ALONG….and continue to say I’m sorry…and MOVE Along..because you have a life to LIVE, and there is FUN TO BE HAD!
There is a “life” to be lived here, a story to be told…why waste a day on it feeling guilty? Why? In a movie the guilt lasts for “one take” maybe two, then it’s over and on to the next scene.
Our lives aren’t much different. Sunday, take one, Monday, take two and on and on…Have fun…Good Lord Jeremiah, a beauty like you? It would be a SIN for you to hang on to any guilt….you were born to ride FREEEEEEEEEE!
thank you for the compliment 🙂 I’ve only recently (the last few years) learn it’s okay to emote / acknowledge negative feelings. So, I’m learning to process them instead of bottling them up. Baby steps.
Well Darling J, you are not a baby…you’re a full grown man and you don’t Have to crawl into freedom you can JUMP IN! I don’t know who gave you the “baby step” rap, but It’s NOT TRUE. They probably took babysteps and some sold them the same bill of goods.
Check out artofliving.org – they have a great breathing course and some cool knowledge that doesn’t involve baby stepping…at least check it out and decide for yourself….
…Babies are allowed, but if you still leave a cying, crawling baby you get your money back!!!! and of course ANYTHING I recommend is easy…cause being Happy is EASY, a laugh is easy…it’s all these ideas about how life should be that’s HARD….ok, love Dvorah
And of course here’s what I mean by easy! Pick a mountain any mountain, like a “green mountain in Vermont”—-and CALL IT Arunachala, and there you go! NOW you got yourself a HOLY MOUNTAIN AND NOW you can get yourself enlightened!…All this shlepping to Tiruvannamalai, India, is for the delusional hippie….
IT’S ALL right here folks! right in front of your mirror… Put some sandlewood on your forehead, get a diaper, ask “Who AM I?” And call yourself Ramana…and YOU TOO CAN BECOME FREE TOO! (and I’m not kidding!!!!)
ha! you have just saved me a fortune in air fare. we live right at the base of a big hill called mt.tom (new englanders tend not to give anything a big pretentious name.) so holy mt. tom it is. i may pass on the diaper & i may need one of your hats . . .
Dear Dvorahji, What is a guru? a guru is a teacher who has followers. It seems like the guru doesn’t get to choose their followers. they just do their thing and people follow. Teach me guru.****
Darling: Well I guess I am the SHUT UP GURU – so HA! Here are my 5 GURU SUTRAS and THAT’S IT:
1. Life is a Happening
2. If It Could Be Different! It Would Be Different
3. Shut UP! (fall silent) and Be Happy! Accept life exactly as it shows up
4. You are not your thoughts, you are not your Feelings you are EVERYTHING!!!
5. Enlightenment, Peace, Compassion, Grace, LOVE are your NATURE.
Ok baby, the rest is up to you. Relax and know without a doubt that you are LOVED, always have been, and always will be. NO other possibIlities EVER!
OK, Love you, kisses…Your friend “the Shut Up Guru” (and don’t even try & shut me up!)
I know I’m a Guru…Maybe not the same as others, but I am the Master of some things. Yea! I got a small group of followers who have made me their Guru at work. “Let ask Laura and see what she would do” or “Ms. Laura, I have a situation that I want to share with you and I need your advice”. Hell, I didn’t even know that they were watching me for the past 12 years. I didn’t ask to be anyone’s teacher or pillow to lay on, it just happened. My co-workers are teaching me to have patience with those who are confused and asleep. I want to say “SHUT UP” or “PUT UP” but I don’t have the guts yet!!!
Dvorahji: I always find it fascinating and somewhat disturbing that some intensely religious and spiritual people lose sight of God at some point and fall into deep despair.
Darling Baby: The reason they fall into deep despair is cause they fall into deep despair (one of those miserable happenings). And in some way, THEY still “THINK” they can make life go THEIR WAY…and what a shocker after all that tapas, good works, sacrifice they still get crucified or hit by a red bus. It’s a real bummer, don’t you think?
It’s so hard to accept that “you” have no control and LIFE IS GOING TO DO IT’S THING, isn’t it? But just take a look at your own life. You’re a good person aren’t you? You try and be kind and helpful and feed your kids, and do you meditation and wish the world well, don’t you? And you even have several organization that you help, who feed children and give medical care, don’t you? And still after all this, you still got very sick, can’t work and lose your home. OR get in an accident, trash your new car just as you were going to pick up your son for his important recital. OR, your husband just had an affair and now you’re getting divorced? So tell me, how much control do you really have over your life?
Well, religious/spiritual people have just as little control as you do!! it’s a natural happening that they can fall into deep despair, because life is still an enigma with no rhyme or reason, and maybe somewhere along the line they thought they had it all figured out spiritually, expected more and believed their own rhetoric. Once you buy into your thoughts & feelings, you’re sunk!
Of COURSE no one has it worked out. WE NEVER DO. It’s an open-ended mystery and all you can do is FREE FALL INTO THAT AWESOME MYSTERY. IT’S to be lived not thought about. IT IS WHAT IT IS. A continuous circus with flashing red lights, green parades and the Divine posing as a Guru or two passing by with an OM life raft.
Life works IT’S WAY… AND GOD is your Nature not your pawn & master to become servile to. LIFE IS A HAPPENING AND SO ARE YOU. It’s really kinda cool, cause then you can just let go and be nothing special, instead of a spiritual person or a person of god. Just breath into your own BEING…THAT’S ALL THAT’S REALLY HAPPENING. And be happy, because it’s going to be over soon, in IT’S OWN WAY….Love you, Dvorahji
If you fall into despair, just bow down and give it all UPPPPP! Cause there is NOTHING to hold on to except the Divine….
The great Hebrew prophets Jeremiah and Amos were often n despair and suffered cosmic depression at times over the pain of all sentient beings. Jesus was in despair in the garden of Gethsemane. Buddha taught that a true Bodhisattva not only feels the joy of all who enjoy, but the suffering of all who suffer. Maraharishi once told us that the suffering of the universe would tear him apart if he did not also have the dispassion of the Witnessing Pure Awareness along with all that pain. It is a total crock when New Age bliss ninnies imagine that the enlightened are always giggling and never feel the immense dignity of universal suffering.
You know every thought & feeling has it’s degree of intenseness…It’s impossible not to be intense about anything you’re passionate about and seekers can’t wait to get “enlightened” to be spiritually secure in some way…moderation is a myth but OMG don’t we try! (especially if you’re a double scorpio!)
Oh Fred…Heartbreaking isn’t it? BIG LOVE/BIG HURT…love hurts!… I was just listening to Norah Jones & Keith Richards singing Love Hurts….I feel I seriously missed my calling.
I always wanted to be a musician instead of talking about all this “spiritual stuff”…I may really just drop all this and start singing…and I mean the … See More
Everyone experiences suffering to certain degrees. But what I don’t understand, is that pain part of our “karma” from another life? In other words, have we inflicted that pain on somebody in another life and it keeps coming up in this life until we finally “get it?”
I remember riding on the train in Chicago 10 years ago, going to meet my fellow editors from the Chicago Tribune. I looked over at the people on the train, and at that moment a flood of compassion hit me & I could feel
their emotions, and I began to cry deeply.
I knew at that moment that whatever it was that My Guru had to deal with all this pain…I couldn’t do it. I was definitely didn’t want to be a guru…I didn’t have all the equipment. Because even the pain that i felt from those in the subway was overwhelming…
It’s been ten years…and I’m more relaxed, spacious, …but when those dolphins get massacred it’s heartbreaking…so it’s not just the pain of people, it goes on and on, animals, the earth, a bee, a plant…everything contains the beauty & the beast. Life is excruciatingly painful & ecstatic (ecstasy can also be very very painful.
@Kathryn, there are so many opinions on your questions and so many books from different teachers written on the subject. From my perspective these questions just don’t make any difference to your life in the present moment. Things happen, regardless of “where they came from”…Our job, if we want to be happy and productive and in peace in this LIFE, IS TO TAKE/RELAX with EVERYTHING/LIFE AS IT COMES.
Don’t look back, every moment is a new opportunity to be happy/in humor/to put on a hat and have fun, regardless of the past.
Sometimes I do just that, and sometimes not. However, your beautiful loving wisdom does help me let go sooner and just let life be as it is in the moment, whatever that is. The happening commonly called Life is just that, a happening like a dream at night. It cannot touch Who We Really Are. The dream of Life from moment to moment Just Is. Why…Because it is…as in your beautiful song “Life is Totally Meaningless”, so Shut Up/Relax & Be Happy/Be Centered…a reminder to myself, the little me. 🙂
You know Margaret, there are all these “words” to describe what’s happening to us, and what it all means, and what enlightenment is, and How we are “unconditional love” and how when we become aware, nothing bothers us, and so manananananany words…and always it boils down to:
Life is what it is and continues to be what it is for each person and flows like a river and IF IT COULD BE DIFFERENT, IT WOULD BE…and since it isn’t, relax with the flow of your life, what choice do you Have?
You can Suffer, fight, resist – OR flow, surrender, move along on your back, relaxed, flowing with the river until it takes you to shore…
EXactly…I’m not interested in being a Sri Sri…I’m a Dvorahji and I serve where I can and what my life’s path/happening is…(but I remember wanting to be a Sri Sri and I see others wanting to be HIM). And I say forget it! I mean who wants to be Jesus or one of the saints…it’s just ego, fantasy, ignorance that thinks being one thing is better then another. JUST BE YOURSELF, serve in your own HAPPENING – and happilllyyyyy!
The problem comes in when people think in order to be “enlightened” at peace, they have to be like their Guru, but that’s nonsense and that’s where suffering comes in for the seeker.
There are “enlightened/at peace” people hanging out at home taking a bath, watching tv and eating cookies, and at peace with all.
A fly is equipped to be a fly, a gorilla is equipped to be a gorilla, a guruji is equipped to be a guruji and a Tanbir is equiped to be a Tanbir. Everything has it’s gig and it’s as enlightened as the next gig.
There’s a saying in the Gita and I’m paraphrasing badly: “…Better to die in your own dharma then be in the dharma of another…”
It is absolutely so, and easy to know who and what you are when all is blissful, or bliss is like a readily available box of chocolates one can nibble on to keep the bliss alive from time to time, but when everything falls apart, or some belief in some thing, that germinated, begins to expand, and it gets all inter twined in the freedom, then it can be disturbing, and despairing.
disturbing and desparing are part of the human condition…bliss is not a constant for anybody…it comes & goes like everything else. It’s just that when despair, misery comes and everything falls apart, a person of true knowledge or faith, gets on their knees and cries.
They know they DON’T KNOW ANYTHING, They don’t keep asking why and going over the “why this happened to me” and on and on. They just CRY, PRAY AND KNOW DEEP IN THEIR HEART THAT IF THIS MOMENT COULD BE DIFFERENT, IT WOULD BE! And that can bring an inward peaceful acceptance of this Vast mysterious life that we’re in, instead of putting one in a psychological mess of thoughts & feelings of why and why and why – and HOW could “I” have prevented this.
A person of knowledge GIVES IT UP TO THE DIVINE Space, Vast unknown, because he knows there is NOWHERE ELSE to go. A person of knowledge knows in their heart THAT IT IS AS IT IS. They may not like it, and they may whine/cry/beg/
plead/complain or witness it…and YET there is a “peace” knowing THAT YOU ARE NOT THE DOER AND IT IS AS IT IS.
There is a difference between being religious or intensely spiritual AND being at PEACE with your life exactly as it shows up. AND that difference is EVERYTHING.
The main trap of the deeply religious or deeply spriitual people with a lot of knowledge, is that they believe their own rhetoric, their own belief system. Unfortunately it just doesn’t usually pan out!
A person of wisdom really “knows” he KNOWS NOTHING, EVER, so he throws his head back and just LAUGHS when the “red bus hits him”! What else can he do??????
and he doesn’t go searching for answers frantically to change that confusion or make himself feel better – (in other words he doesn’t add to the confusion) Confusion is Happening – But IT (that observing principle) is not confused.
It’s just more of the same old same old cycle of sunshine, rain, clouds, midnight, on & on & on….
Buddhist’s say “pain is inevitable, suffering optional”… As we rest as awareness we experience the world around as a nothing less than perfect love…nothing to do, just be..perfect love. That which we naturally always are. Nothing to learn, or study, or cultivate..simply recognize what already is….perfect love.
:-))) Dearest Dvorahji! Thanks seems so inadequate. Ahhh…all the lovely ‘knowledge’ where yes, we experience that we are not body/mind/world since we can observe them constantly changing…blah, blah, blah,…it still seems at times to help me drop the ‘attachment to the changing”. But I see what you’re saying, the shortest route is IF IT COULD BE DIFFERENT IT WOULD BE, so relax and flow with the river of life AS IT IS.
And thank you for the wisdom on, in my words, ‘when there’s physical pain, cry, plead, beg, doctors, body work, yanh, ynah, ynah. But the important thing is IF IT COULD BE DIFFERENT IT WOULD BE. Silence. The mind (yanh, yanh, yanh) has no argument for that but to dissolve.
that’s ok Dvorahji, you can suffer if you wish… The point of it is, that we have choice to suffer or not suffer…and that we have a choice as to how we experience what appears to happening in the world around us..
D
ear Dvorahji, thanks for the great elaboration. By the way, in Javanese culture there a teaching that is “sumeleh marang sing gawe urip” meaning that we should “take it for granted”… allow the God deposes our destiny…
Dear Linda, NO, I do NOT choose to suffer, who in their right mind would choose to suffer?
However from my perspective, THERE IS NO CHOICE. LIFE IS A HAPPENING…You think somewhere along the line that “you” choose your thoughts. and that of course is a VERY NICE THOUGHT. From my perspective “As the BUDDHA SAID: “Deeds are done but there is no individual DOER!”. IN other words. “THOUGHTS done and there is NO individual thinker!”
From my perspective, today’s “New AGE” thinking wants to control their life, just like the “old AGE thinkers ” did. Great! See what you can control. You can’t even control your sneeze or your tripping & falling, but somewhere along the line you want to control your suffering. GREAT!
Keep trying to control your life and let me know how that works out for you…chances are you can’t even control the thought of a pink elephant at this moment.
I’m not trying to be rude here…everyone is entitled to their opinion and spiritual trip…My opinion goes like this:
LIFE IS A HAPPENING. IF IT COULD BE DIFFERENT IT WOULD BE and since it NEVER IS, accept your life as it is….and then MASSIVE HUGE, BUDDHIST VERY COOOL SELF/SILENCE….and then with an open beautiful clear fully enlivened mind, go out into the world and give them Happiness or hell, depending on what you’re glorius happening is!
THE DIVINE RUNS THE SHOW – ALL OF IT – INCLUDING YOUR little tiny winy thoughts and mind….and by the way..THE DIVINE IS MY NATURE and so is BUDDHA…
and darling Green – GOD IS ALL THERE IS….Somewhere along the line, our heads got screwed up about God. So we say, yes, “god is everything, he knows everything, he does everything” and then we put a big “BUT NOT THIS” in there. And that’s where we’ve gone astray.
God does everything, knows everything and IS OUR VERY SELF, not buts, no ands, no maybes! No nothing. God/The Divine runs the show.
But that really isn’t fate, because everything is still a HAPPENING, a new every moment.
Dearest Dvorahji, I didn’t mean to say that you or anyone would want to suffer. I was only making a joke, you know to lighten things up a bit. What I see is that the only suffering is imagining that we are separate from our source of perfect love. The solution then in all problems is to rest as awareness, which connects us with our source of perfect love. In the light of awareness there is no need to try to control anything because we are able to see that all that exists is perfect love. Just like a piece of paper held under a pure crystal ball appears to be part of the ball, the perfection of the crystal ball is left undisturbed. Much like the images that appear in the world around us. When we are connected to source no matter what we are feeling, thinking, or experiencing, our true inner peace is left undisturbed. As we rest as awareness for short moments repeated many times until it becomes automatic we eventually stabilize our well being. From this pure space of stable well being we avoid nothing, face everything, free of the need to control, fix, change or modify anything. When we recognize our true nature of stable well being in perfect love there is nothing to seek or achieve. This is freedom. This is living an optimum human life. If you have any further interest in resting as awareness you please check out www.greatfreedom.org. Love & Hugs, Linda
Dearest Dvorahji, I wish you the happiest of holidays!!Thank you for all of your loving support and the beautiful work that you are also doing in our world. Love & Hugs, Linda
Very nicely said, Dvorahji. Yes, “Life is what happens to you while you’re making plans to do otherwise.” “It is what it is” (except when it isn’t haha). The true challenge you have is to truly ACCEPT (not EXCEPT) what IS, actual REALITY, before you can move on. It’s not necessary to LIKE it! In fact, if you hate it, you’ll have greater motivation to take action! Byron Katie says “If you argue with reality, you will lose 100% of the time!”
I believe that adversity and despair are gifts from our Soul to lead us in the right direction when we go astray from the “agenda” we came to incarnation to learn and accomplish.
I have experienced several long periods of despair in this lifetime, all of which resulted in significant growth. My last “dark night of the Soul” – a 15 month deep, deep depression from June 2000 to October 2001 – was my Soul SCREAMING at me to change my direction in life. It could not be dismissed or ignored! Painful as it was, it worked! I turned away from my life of pursuit of material “wealth” and the four “P’s”: Possessions, Prestige, Power and Pleasure, which wasn’t working very well for me, to my Spiritual Path, where I found the only “P” that really mattered – deep Inner
“Peace”!… See More
Dear Ray Honey…If you believe/live ” LIFE IS A HAPPENING” and there is ONLY the Divine…then you begin to see very clearly that “depression,” changing your direction” and WHEN you do it (change direction), is in fact NOT YOUR FAULT, but compeltely in the hands of GOD/the Divine/THIS/ whatever you want to call it.
From my perspective IT REALLY IS EXACTLY AS IT IS ALLL THE TIME…..
And from my perspective “adversity & despair” are thoughts and feeling that COME & GO and are PART OF THE AGENDA THAT YOU CAME HERE TO DO! (not astray from the agenda you came to do)
And from my perspective ONE NEVER, EVER, IMPOSSIBLE to go astray…Why? BECAUSE, you are not the doer. GOD IS. the DIVINE IS, IT IS. And:
” IF YOU’RE LIFE COULD BE DIFFERENT, IT WOULD BE”
From my perspective this simple/yet profound mantra is THE END TO MISERY and really let’s ONE “shut UP (fall silent) and BE Happy, even when they are NOT….love you Ash, your friend, Dvorah
Hey, Dvorah! Thanks for your quick and insightful response. I agree, completely, that everything that happens to us is part of our Journey and the learning experience we came here to have. And also, that “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”.
Happiness is a choice..I have come to believe that the big “H” – HAPPINESS – is a result of attitude, not of circumstances. I see it as an STATE of (spiritual and emotional) well-BEING which results from an ATTITUDE of hopefulness. A STATE OF BEING which we create for ourselves with an ATTITUDE! So, rather than working so hard to change our circumstances, and declaring that “I’ll be happy WHEN (in the “future”, not NOW) this or that circumstance is the way I want it to be, we can change our attitude about our current circumstances and be happy right now! In 12-step programs they call this ACCEPTANCE [not “EXCEPTANCE” 🙂 ] of “what is”. It Is What It Is (except when it isn’t, and then it all depends on what the meaning of the word “IS” is…lol). Byron Katie says, “When we argue with Reality, we Lose, 100% of the time.”
acceptance is a happing, attitude of hopefullness is a happening, “what we create for ourselves” IS A HAPPENING!…”you creat nothing for yoursel”….LIFE IS A HAPPENING.
Just think about that statement, like a sutra…no answers…just think about that statement and let it go. LiFE IS A HAPPENING! rest with it, and see where it takes you….
I’m off now..check some of the posts I’ve written at 250….LIFE IS AN HAPPENING…PERIOD. YOU do nothing, (although the appearance of doing, the lila) is magnetically powerful, so in a sense there is the appearance of doing.
But the key to relaxation to TRUE HAPPINESS…IS “LIFE IS A HAPPENING and rest in that for awhile.
Go one step beyond Bryran Katie…and don’t argue with reality or unreality….just rest in what I’ve suggested….
