October | 2012 | Religion4All

PEACE-FIELD OF LOVE

October 30, 2012 at 2:37 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: destroy their darkness and hatred, Eckhart Tolle, find peace, ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, Love is a weapon of Light, not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, Rumi, the world is too full to talk about, When the soul lies down in that grass, When we offer love even to our enemies, Yehuda Berg, you are at the deepest level

My words to meditate on today:

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“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”

`- Eckhart Tolle

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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”

– Rumi

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“Love is a weapon of Light, and it has the power to eradicate all forms of darkness. That is the key. When we offer love even to our enemies, we destroy their darkness and hatred …”

– Yehuda Berg

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pic from travelimg.org

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Knowing What You Want

October 28, 2012 at 6:29 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Paolo Coelho

I’ve been meditating on the concept of “knowing what you want”. On some level I’ve come to see it more as knowing what you NEED to want, or SHOULD want, in order to be on “the Path” (as it is sometimes referred to) … that place that uniquely fits you. You can “know what you want” until you’re blue in the face … it doesn’t mean that even if you get it you will find happiness. Whereas if you open yourself to be divinely guided to what you SHOULD want (which is very different than dictating your will to God, or the Universe) … THAT is what will bring contentment, joy, and happiness into your life.

At any rate, here are my words to meditate on … coming at the issue from varying angles:

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“Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is like when you trust yourself to the water. You don’t grab hold of the water when you swim, because if you do you will become stiff and tight in the water, and sink. You have to relax, and the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging, and holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.”

– Alan Watts

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“Don’t allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily”

– Paulo Coelho

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“Accept and express your underlying certitude, and it shall be worldwide sagacity.”

– Ogwo David Emenike

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

;

More Important Than Looking Good

October 25, 2012 at 4:30 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Alan Cohen, Be honest and transparent anyway, Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable, how far you've traveled from your original self, Jean Haner, knowing and living the truth, let go of that stress, Mother Theresa, move forward in life, stop blaming yourself for being who you are, that pure essence is really perfect as it is

My words for meditation today:

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“Everything will line up perfectly when knowing and living the truth becomes more important than looking good.”

– Alan Cohen

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“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.”

– Mother Theresa

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“So much of the stress you hold and the ways you keep yourself stuck have to do with how far you’ve traveled from your original self. You can release that tension by identifying who’s actually there under all those layers and why that pure essence is really perfect as it is. And when you let go of that stress… when you can stop blaming yourself for being who you are, it frees up an enormous amount of energy to move forward in life.”

– Jean Haner

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pic from documentary.org – regarding “Beauty CULTure”

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Comments (3)

How God Sees Us

October 24, 2012 at 8:51 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

I recently heard a friend pose the following question (which actually was asked quite harmlessly to their dog),

“Am I deserving of that??”

My friend corrected the statement instantly by saying,

“Well of course I deserve it, what a silly thing to say!”

Oh, how the things we say to animals, or babies, can actually reveal SO much about ourselves!

Thus began a very interesting conversation about how we are constantly asking ourselves this very question … and where such an idea comes from. This was ultimately a conversation that caused me to ruminate and meditate upon this very question for the entirety of the day!

Truthfully? There are SO many ways that we live our lives by asking this question. Are we deserving of treating ourselves special (from simple things like a treat, a massage, or an hour to ourselves all the way to how we act on a daily basis … and who we love, or how we allow ourselves to be loved!)???

For myself, I realized something significant. I realized that I have always sought after significant relationships that have lax boundaries … I admit, I have had a lot of fear in my life about absolute commitments. I have always told myself that I am afraid that if I engage in such a relationship that I will eventually hurt the other person … we see it all around us every day, so why would it be any different for me?? How am I any better than all these millions of well-intentioned people who wind up hurting their spouses, or children?

In truth … what I discovered is that what I have really been afraid of is that I will NEVER find someone who actually loves me for who I am, on that level! I was deceiving myself … I wanted it to be about me trying to be noble … that I was trying to save whoever I was with from pain. What I really found is that I have been avoiding such a unique level of purity in a relationship, because I am SO scared of being hurt on that level.

Here’s the thing though … when you embrace a life of open-heartedness … you simply can’t shut yourself down any more. It’s impossible. Every day you are either deciding to keep your heart open, no matter what, or you decide to keep reacting in the same defensive patterns that have marked your entire personal history.

I will never consciously shut myself down for an extended period of time … ever again. I might have lapses that I notice in an hour, or half a day … but that is it. Closing my heart is SO apparent to me now, that I can’t engage in it for long without those haunting symptoms of fear, anxiety, and other things from my past to kick in. When they do? Well then I simply open my heart, center myself in God, and move forward again … no self flagellation, or personal guilt trips … I just let go, and keep my heart open. It really is that simple.

So now, as I arrived at this new level of myself … I realized … YES! I AM WORTHY of being loved on that level. I AM DESERVING of having somebody see me for who I am, and loving me for being that person. I don’t have to pretend to be ANYBODY else. I don’t have to live up to anyone else’s expectations on anything! All I have to be is me … a being who ultimately was created to LOVE. If I can be that person all the time; always centered in the purity of God’s Love … then I have achieved the purpose I was intended for … and it doesn’t matter what that looks like on the outside.

That is how God sees me … and isn’t it fitting that we each have somebody out there who will eventually see us how God see us? The only way they will ever see us that way though … is if we allow that authenticity to be manifested in our daily lives. If we hide that person … then we WILL end up being rejected … but somehow we think we are protecting ourselves because having our “false selves” be rejected is something we can excuse:

“Well, they didn’t really know the real me.”

Whose fault is that?? The only way you will be accepted for your True Self, is to BE your True Self … to LIVE as your True Self. Sure, if you get rejected as that person, it hurts more … but if you keep your heart open through that, it really doesn’t linger. When you are actually LOVED for your True Self? WOW!!! That will be the finest moment of your entire life … and hopefully continue on for many more of the increasingly finest moments you will even know beyond.

You can’t get there by being the person you feel everyone thinks you should be though … you have to be the real YOU. Otherwise? You will never really be loved for who you are … and isn’t THAT what we all ultimately want?????

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pic from bipolarmuse. This post is the meditative result of my prior post, “Worthiness is our Birthright“.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Worthiness is our Birthright

October 24, 2012 at 12:11 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: being worthy, believing in our own worth, deserving happiness, deserving love, Oprah Winfrey, Prem Prakash, Ram Dass, seeing yourself as God sees you, you are beautiful, you are loved, you are worthy

My words to meditate on today … on a topic with breakthrough potentiality. 🙂

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“Our stresses, anxieties, pains, and problems arise because we do not see the world, others, or even ourselves as worthy of love.”

– Prem Prakash

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“Your problem is you are too busy holding on to your unworthiness.”

– Ram Dass

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“In every aspect of our lives, we are always asking ourselves, How am I of value? What is my worth? Yet I believe that worthiness is our birthright.”

– Oprah Winfrey

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Pic from Trend Hunter
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

;

When we were children

October 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Be courageous, Bob Marley, Love takes courage, Madeleine L'Engle, Mary Manin Morrissey, the greatest hazard in my life is to risk nothing, To be alive is to be vulnerable, to grow up is to accept vulnerability, To hope is to risk pain, To love is to risk not being loved in return, To try is to risk failure, We take a risk when we open our hearts

My words to meditate upon today:

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“To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in my life is to risk nothing.”

– Bob Marley

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“When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.”

– Madeleine L’Engle

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“We take a risk when we open our hearts because the truth is, if we open our hearts, we will get hurt. You can’t open your heart and not have some hurt because you’re in a human experience. Even if it’s the love of your life and you have many wonderful, deepening, growing, powerful years together, it’s a human experience and that person will pass over. Love takes courage. Be courageous.”

– Mary Manin Morrissey

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

“Flame On!”

October 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

One of the things I love most about music is that it has the ability to transport you back to any number of places or times. I hear Coldplay’s XY and I’m going off to try and fulfill my dreams in Germany. I hear Mozart’s overture to The Magic Flute, and I’m in Rome again waiting to perform.

This morning I listened to Adele’s most recent album again. Anyone who’s followed my blog for a decent amount of time knows that I had a string of meditative breakthroughs while listening to Adele’s albums over the past year (as detailed in prior posts: “Chasing Pavements – Adele”, “Make You Feel My Love – Adele”, “Someone Like You – Adele”, “Adele meets the Dalai Lama”, and ““Letting Go” does not mean “Giving Up”“) … all from the perspective of listening to those heart wrenching songs as if God were singing them to me … that God loves each of us every bit that much (and more).

As I listened to each song, the magic that is music took me back to each one of those spiritual breakthroughs … and I realized something:

For the past month or two I have been strangely absent in regard to posting on the results of my meditations. I suppose I have felt as if I’m in sort of a state of spiritual shock. I’ve made decisions and taken actions that have transformed my outer life much in the same way that my inner world has been transformed over this past year. Relationships have changed, life courses altered, a new place to live, the list goes on. All these changes have left me feeling … numb … hence my description of spiritual shock. It’s all been good and necessary … but still a shock to the system.

What I discovered as I revisited all of those places within me is that in some way I had been shutting myself down without even realizing it. A subconscious way of protecting myself I suppose. So instead of changing the music, which ironically was my immediate reaction, I made myself listen and even sing along to the songs. I made myself revisit those places and open them back up again.

Suddenly there was a literal jolt within me. I felt like that comic book hero from the Fantastic Four … the Human Torch. He would shout, “Flame on!”, and instantly turn into a raging inferno of flames. Somehow that seemed to happen for me spiritually … that searing flame always emanating from my heart chakra was back.

I hadn’t intentionally shut it down … but it somehow had been, at least somewhat. It felt good to have it back … like a long-lost friend making a grand, long-awaited return.

I realized that I need to take that flame into the new areas of internal exploration, as well as the changes that have become my new life.

Feels good to be awoken again … 🙂

Peace and Love.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach

The Happiness Habit

October 20, 2012 at 12:57 pm · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Albert Camus, Choosing happiness, creating pleasure in your life, Cultivate the merry heart, Happiness, happiness depends on the habit of mind, harmony between a person and life they lead, in harmony, life will become a continual feast, Mahatma Gandhi, Norman Vincent Peale, practice happy thinking

My words for meditation:

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“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

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“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a person and life they lead.”

– Albert Camus

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“Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

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pic from Viva Institute

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

October 19, 2012 at 1:51 pm · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

My words to meditate on for the day:

“If you knew the power within yourself to be truly happy, to be truly whole, then you would never ask another to become the image you desire for yourself, in order to be happy and whole.”

– Stephen Richards

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“Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives.”

– Robert Collier

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“You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure about you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.”

– Nelson Rockefeller

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pic from “The Incredible Shrinking Man“.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Jesus, Gandhi, and Buddha – what did they have in common?

October 18, 2012 at 12:35 pm · Filed under Bible Verse, Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Buddha, gain the whole world, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, living to please others, lose your own soul, Mahatma Gandhi, opinions of others, Peace comes from within, peace to be real, Siddhartha Gautama, unaffected by outside circumstances, What is important in life?

My words to meditate upon today:

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“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

– Siddhartha Gautama

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“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

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“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”

– Jesus of Nazareth

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

To love without role, without power plays, is revolution..

Pema Chodron on Tonglen

October 17, 2012 at 1:53 pm · Filed under Authors, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

THE PRACTICE OF TONGLEN: by Pema Chodron

In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves.

In particular, to care about other people who are fearful, angry, jealous, overpowered by addictions of all kinds, arrogant, proud, miserly, selfish, mean —you name it— to have compassion and to care for these people, means not to run from the pain of finding these things in ourselves. In fact, one’s whole attitude toward pain can change. Instead of fending it off and hiding from it, one could open one’s heart and allow oneself to feel that pain, feel it as something that will soften and purify us and make us far more loving and kind.

The tonglen practice is a method for connecting with suffering —ours and that which is all around us— everywhere we go. It is a method for overcoming fear of suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our heart. Primarily it is a method for awakening the compassion that is inherent in all of us, no matter how cruel or cold we might seem
to be.

We begin the practice by taking on the suffering of a person we know to be hurting and who we wish to help. For instance, if you know of a child who is being hurt, you breathe in the wish to take away all the pain and fear of that child. Then, as you breathe out, you send the child happiness, joy or whatever would relieve their pain. This is the core of the practice: breathing in other’s pain so they can be well and have more space to relax and open, and breathing out, sending them relaxation or whatever you feel would bring them relief and happiness. However, we often cannot do this practice because we come face to face with our own fear, our own resistance, anger, or whatever our personal pain, our personal stuckness happens to be at that moment.

At that point you can change the focus and begin to do tonglen for what you are feeling and for millions of others just like you who at that very moment of time are feeling exactly the same stuckness and misery. Maybe you are able to name your pain. You recognize it clearly as terror or revulsion or anger or wanting to get revenge. So you breathe in for all the people who are caught with that same emotion and you send out relief or whatever opens up the space for yourself and all those countless others. Maybe you can’t name what you’re feeling. But you can feel it —a tightness in the stomach, a heavy darkness or whatever. Just contact what you are feeling and breathe in, take it in —for all of us and send out relief to all of us.

People often say that this practice goes against the grain of how we usually hold ourselves together. Truthfully, this practice does go against the grain of wanting things on our own terms, of wanting it to work out for ourselves no matter what happens to the others. The practice dissolves the armor of self-protection we’ve tried so hard to create around ourselves. In Buddhist language one would say that it dissolves the fixation and clinging of ego.

Tonglen reverses the usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure and, in the process, we become liberated from a very ancient prison of selfishness. We begin to feel love both for ourselves and others and also we begin to take care of ourselves and others. It awakens our compassion and it also introduces us to a far larger view of reality. It introduces us to the unlimited spaciousness that Buddhists call shunyata. By doing the practice, we begin to connect with the open dimension of our being. At first we experience this as things not being such a big deal or so solid as they seemed before.

Tonglen can be done for those who are ill, those who are dying or have just died, or for those that are in pain of any kind. It can be done either as a formal meditation practice or right on the spot at any time. For example, if you are out walking and you see someone in pain —right on the spot you can begin to breathe in their pain and send some out some relief. Or, more likely, you might see someone in pain and look away because it brings up your fear or anger; it brings up your resistance and confusion.

So on the spot you can do tonglen for all the people who are just like you, for everyone who wishes to be compassionate but instead is afraid, for everyone who wishes to be brave but instead is a coward.

Rather than beating yourself up, use your own stuckness as a stepping stone to understanding what people are up against all over the world.

Breathe in for all of us and breathe out for all of us.

Use what seems like poison as medicine. Use your personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Comments (3)

To love without role, without power plays, is revolution.

October 17, 2012 at 8:30 am · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: "Uprising", A life of reaction is a life of slavery, Love is our resistance, Muse, Rita Mae Brown, the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it

I woke up this morning with this phrase on my mind. I knew I had used it in a prior posting as a quote to meditate on … when I did a search I found it was one of the very first postings I made! Definitely worth revisiting.

I take on the mantle of a revolutionary, if LOVE is the revolution … that is an uprising I will be at the forefront of! 🙂

You become more divine as you become more creative

October 16, 2012 at 2:36 pm · Filed under Creativity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism

My words to consider today:

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“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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“Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of doing it is not purely economical, then it is creative. If you have something growing out of it within you, if it gives you growth, it is spiritual, it is creative, it is divine.

You become more divine as you become more creative. all the religions of the world have said: God is the Creator. I don’t know whether He is the Creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So He must be the Creator because people who have been creative have been closest to Him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it — whatsoever it is! irrelevant of the fact of what it is.”

– Osho

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Breathe In … Breathe Out

October 14, 2012 at 10:14 am · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Addiction, Allah, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, healing, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mithraism, Mithras, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pagan, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac, Zoroastrianism · ·

Recently I was introduced to a new form of meditation. I was at a friend’s house and was simply leafing through a book while waiting when I was a chapter that said, “Practice Tenshin meditation”. So I thought I’d try to grasp it in the short time that I had … it has very greatly affected my life this week, so I thought I would pass it on.

Basically, from the chapter I read, this form of meditation consists of taking on the negativity, or pain, of another person. When I told my friend about it, who hadn’t read that far in the book yet, he said,

“Why would anyone want to take on somebody else’s problems!? Our own problems are MORE than enough to deal with.”

I have to say that I agreed with his assessment, but the author spoke so movingly about how this had changed his life that I wanted to try it. Taking on other’s pain and suffering was not the whole of the process, thankfully! What was described was to visualize the negativity or pain of others as a thick, black smoke. Once you have that visualization you breathe the smoke into your lungs, and then when you exhale you send out peace and love into the world. Sort of the opposite of many breathing meditations I have heard where you breathe in love, and then breathe out your worries, fears, pain, etc. In this form of meditation you are actually sending negativity into the world … so the thinking was that this form of meditation was more pure as you are taking negativity out of the world and replacing it with love and peace.

Even still, I thought there must be more to this that I’m not getting so I was eager to get started and try it out. I thought of the people I love, some of whom are certainly in times of hardship or pain, and I visualized it as being that toxic black smoke. I breathed it in, and it didn’t feel very comfortable. So I naturally turned to God and asked God to transform this pain into Love and Peace. I then had the visualization that the black, sooty clouds became rain-clouds that shed water on the soil of my soul. I saw flowers shoot up from that inner landscape and as I exhaled I was breathing out the fragrance from those blooms … I was sending out what had once been negative and painful, but had now been transformed into Beauty, Love, and Peace.

It was a VERY powerful experience to repeat throughout that meditation. Since then I have used it more and more. Yesterday I was in a crowded public space. I found myself observing the people around me … seeing the lines of worry in their faces, seeing some whose outer aggression was merely a result of their own suffering. At various points I repeated this meditation for these complete strangers … I breathed in their pain, I allowed it to be transformed within me by God, and then I exhaled God’s Love back to them.

What was even more surprising is that I found that this had a dramatic effect on how I interacted with people throughout the day. I no longer got even the slightest bit defensive at other’s judgements, or attempts to attain their form of social dominance out of their own insecurity … I simply smiled, received their pain, and gave them Peace and Love in return.

I look forward to seeing what more I can learn from this very powerful practice throughout my day today.

Peace and Love.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Be A Watcher – Osho

October 13, 2012 at 12:49 pm · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: Be a witness, beyond birth, beyond darkness and beyond light, beyond death, beyond happiness, beyond unhappiness, birth/death, Buddha has called it peace, days and nights, happiness/unhappiness, Life needs both: thorns and roses, negative and positive poles of electricity, neither positive nor negative, nirvana, nor is it negative, Osho, transcendence, transcendental consciousness, True religion is not positive

My words for meditating on throughout the day:

“I don’t teach you optimism. In the West it is very fashionable nowadays; it is called “positive thinking.” That is a new name for optimism; the old name has become a little too out of fashion, out-of-date. The new name is positive thinking. I don’t teach you positive thinking, because positive thinking carries the negative in its wake.

I teach you transcendence — neither positive nor negative. Be a watcher: witness both. When there is day, witness the day, and when there is night, witness the night — and don’t get identified with either. You are neither the day nor the night; you are the transcendental consciousness. Become more and more centered there in that transcendence. True religion is not positive, nor is it negative. It is neither via negativa nor via positiva; it is via transcendence.

If you look for the positive, you will find the positive. But by finding the positive you cannot destroy the negative; the negative is there, side by side. They are always together like negative and positive poles of electricity. You can’t have electricity with one pole, you will need both.

Life needs both: thorns and roses, days and nights, happiness/unhappiness, birth/death.

Be a witness to it all and you will know something that is beyond birth, beyond death; something that is beyond darkness and beyond light; something that is beyond happiness, beyond unhappiness. Buddha has called it peace, nirvana.”

– Osho

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pic from Silver Spur Tours

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Reserve a plot for weeds

October 12, 2012 at 10:58 am · Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: All cruelty springs from weakness, Buddha, Dag Hammarskjold, play with falsehood, play with the animal, reserve a plot for weeds, Seneca, Siddhartha Gautama, without becoming wholly animal

The words I have chosen to meditate upon for the day:

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“You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.”

– Dag Hammarskjold

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“All cruelty springs from weakness.”

– Seneca

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“You yourself as well as anybody in the entire Universe deserve your love and affection.”

– Siddhartha Gautama

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

Everything is Possible!

October 11, 2012 at 11:04 am · Filed under Spirituality

Everything is Possible!.

YES!!

“You are an unlimited spiritual being of immeasurable potential.”

http://spiritualmysticism.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/be-content-tao-te-ching-quote/#comments

The Essence of God

October 11, 2012 at 10:43 am · Filed under Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen

A beautiful post … I couldn’t help but think that this quote also describes the epitome of how God sees us, and interacts with us … thus also explaining why such a state is what we should strive (or rather, not strive … if you catch my drift) for:

The most important thing is – to bloom

October 11, 2012 at 10:16 am · Filed under Art, Christianity, Faith, Healing, Health, Hope, Inspiration, Life, Living, Meditation, Movies, Painting, Philosophy, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality, Zen and tagged: a flower opening, a hand extended by the whole to reach the ultimate, a wave coming from the whole to touch the moon, Algerian Beauty in a Lilac Field, blooming is hard, existence CARES what happens to you, filled with fragrance through you, flowering of our humanity, Joseph Campbell, Leon Louis Tanzi, lilac branches are bowed, Osho, the ultimate should happen to you, what best fosters, Yevgeny Zamyatin

My words for meditation today:

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“The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is – to bloom.”

– Yevgeny Zamyatin

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“One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.”

– Joseph Campbell

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“The first thing: existence CARES what happens to you. Existence is continuously praying that the ultimate should happen to you. In fact you are nothing but a hand extended by the whole to reach the ultimate. You are nothing but a wave coming from the whole to touch the moon. You are nothing but a flower opening, so that the whole is filled with fragrance through you.”

– Osho

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“Algerian Beauty in a Lilac Field” is a painting by Leon Louis Tanzi.

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.