The larger tree leaned close to the smaller tree, protecting and guiding it on its journey upward.

Learn from your mistakes

"I see no reason why I should be consciously wrong today because I was unconsciously wrong yesterday."—Robert H. Jackson  (1892—1954)  — U.S. Supreme Court Justice

—Massachusetts v. United States, 333 U.S. 611-40 (1943) 

—Robert Jackson was a  country lawyer from Chautauqua County. He was also the Chief American Prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Trials. Also Solicitor General, U.S. Attorney General, as well as  U.S. Supreme Court Justice. 

Writing, Drawing, Learning, Evolving

I have talked a lot about writing in our monthly school lessons. But it seems I have neglected drawing. I just found this about drawing: https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/drawing-is-fastest-most-effective-way-to-learn-according-to-new-research.html 

This article says that drawing is a way to learn better and faster. Research studies confirm this. You can read the article if you want to know more.

I am extrapolating this to higher learning. When you have a problem—try drawing it out. If it is with another person, draw that person. Draw yourself. Draw all aspects of the situation. You don't have to be talented at drawing. The study above says it doesn't matter how well you draw to learn more effectively—just draw.

Besides, drawing helps develop hand/eye coordination. And the more you draw, the better you become at it—learning by doing.

Drawing can also be a meditation. You focus all of your energy in that moment. It is also creative. You and Creation working together as One. You can draw out any problem or situation. Drawing allows you to tune into intuition. To the creative process. To possibly contact deeper and higher places within yourself.

Draw out decisions you are struggling with. Maybe draw all the possible outcomes you can think of.
Draw your emotions. 

Maybe have a drawing group. I am thinking of Britta now, as I write, who is a new student here. Britta teaches painting. To paint really well, it's best if you know how to draw first, at least according to most artists. Certainly this was true for Leonardo da Vinci, who spent time mastering drawing, as did most great artists. This doesn't mean that one must or should draw as part of therapeutic painting, because painting and the use of color also has great benefits. I encourage artistic creation of all kinds.

My beloved Hirth was an artist, a master guitar player, singer/songwriter, and musician. He did these things everyday: He drew. He created art using different media. He played his guitar. He sang. He wrote. He meditated. Everyday. He was very disciplined in this way.

So think about drawing. Think about using your creative powers. Whatever I have written about writing in your lessons, you can probably apply most of it to drawing too.

Much love, Indira
Drawings by Hirth Martinez

Prayer for Spiritual Healing

I ask the great Unseen Healing Force

to remove all obstructions 

from my mind and body

and to restore me to perfect health.

I ask this in all sincerity and honesty

and I will do my part.

I ask this great Unseen Healing Force

to help both present and absent ones 

who are in need of help

and to restore them to perfect health

I put my trust in the love and power of God.

 

Where I live I often find animal tracks in the morning, when there is snow to see them. This looks like a bear track, because it has 5 toes, but it is probably a skunk who circled my house. It is smaller than the picture appears, although bears have come, circled my house, walked on my porch, looked in my windows. Deer also. 

 

This winter, there hasn't been much snow. In fact, yesterday it rained, the temperatures warmed up, and this morning, the snow is gone again. Unusual. I haven't lived here for many years, only recently having returned, and I expected white winters, the kind I knew growing up here. 

 

I wonder if the bears stay in hibernation anyway, even with these springlike temperatures? Anyway, it is interesting to see what is invisible to the eye without the snow--to see where the animals walk. Just as the Great Healing Force is always there, even when we can't see it, so are the animals strolling around my house, even when the snow isn't there to show their tracks.

If you can feel it, you can live it

How would your life be different if you had no fear? How would you feel? If you can feel it, you can be it. Live that way now. What would your life be like if you no longer feared other people? How would you act if you realized that others were powerless to hurt you? Imagine living in such a way.  Feel it. If you can feel it, you can live it. How would you live if you knew you were absolutely okay? Live that way now.

Hirth Martinez Art

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 “Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.” -Ramana Maharshi

Truth is within the heart. The heart is always open. It is not the heart that is closed―it is the mind, which blames the heart for its own limitations and defects of character. People often speak about "opening the heart"―which assumes that the heart is closed, which is not the case. As I have written in your lessons, esoteric means: hidden in plain sight. So you could say that God hid the Truth where most humans will never look. Within the heart. Cease to turn outward. Turn within and you will find your True Self shining in Radiant Splendor. Radiant Splendor? Well, yes. Just because you are not aware of it does not mean it is not there.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

The basic Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj  are complied in the book, I AM THAT. As some of you know, I was with Nisargadatta Maharaj for satsang in his home in Mumbai, which remains sweetly in my heart. Meetings with awakened saints and sages and angels are like that—no matter how brief they may be, they remain forever with us, because they are more real than anything. 

 

When seen through the eyes of enlightenment, nothing is ordinary, at least not not according to the way the unenlightened see. It's like seeing with the light of a thousand suns. Unawakened human beings see "through a glass darkly" as the New Testament says—with imperfect vision. When we awaken, we begin to see in a new way.

 

Question: I understand that everybody is under the obligation to realize. Is it his duty, or his destiny? 

 

Answer (Maharaj): Realization is the fact that you are not a person. Therefore, it cannot be the duty of the person, whose destiny is to disappear. Find out who he is and the imagined person will dissolve. Freedom is from something. What are you to be free from? Obviously, you must be free from the person you take yourself to be, for it is the idea you have of yourself that keeps you in bondage. I AM THAT

Spanish translation:

Pergunta: Entendo que todo mundo tem a obrigação de realizar. É seu dever ou seu destino?
Resposta (Maharaj): Realização é o fato de você não ser uma pessoa. Portanto, não pode ser dever da pessoa cujo destino é desaparecer. Descubra quem ele é e a pessoa imaginada se dissolverá. A liberdade é de alg
uma coisa. Do que você deve se libertar? Obviamente, você deve estar livre da pessoa que considera ser, pois é a ideia que você tem de si mesmo que o mantém em cativeiro. EU SOU ISSO

1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV:—12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

2020 Year of the Rat in Chinese Zodiac

Alert, Adaptable, Observant
According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2020 is the Year of the Rat. It begins on Chinese New Year,  January 25 and lasts until the Lunar New Year's Eve on February 11. The rat symbolizes strong vitality. The rat's personality is Alert, Adaptable, and Observant.