"Turn, Turn, Turn" - The Seekers

The words to this song are from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, adapted by Pete Seeger. Beautiful and uplifting words of wisdom.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRg9NkIdjVs

A thought...

I tend to want to do things I can't do rather than do things I can do. I think that once you can do something why bother anymore?

Krishnamurti Words of Wisdom

There's more to read, if you are interested...

Only the body dies...

August 21 was Hirth's birthday. I went to sleep after midnight, so it was already the date of his birth. We were born at the same time, in different years. All that night, Hirth was with me. As real and solid as this moment. We embraced and I could feel his body, strong and healthy and full of light. We looked into each other's eyes. I asked him if he was hurt or in pain. He told me there is no hurt or pain where he is. 
I never thought I'd 'see' him again, but there are many worlds and we can meet in other worlds, besides this one. We think this world is so real, so solid, and yet it isn't. We think we are so real, and yet our bodies change every minute. 
We are in love with what is unreal. People talk a great deal about loving yourself, especially 'spiritual' folks. And yet people seldom think about what this means. For most people, it means loving the you that you are think you. Since that 'you' that 'me' that 'I' exists only in your thoughts -- only in your thoughts -- than what can you be loving?

Willow in the rain (my friend's dog)

Understand...

Angelic Animals

All over the world our animal kingdom is trying to show us what love and oneness looks like. 

A pelican befriended a stray dog who was often spotted hanging out all alone along the boat docks. The man who photographed this has adopted the dog, but brings him back every day to see his friend, Petey the Pelican.

Dreams of Truth

Last night I was dreaming that there is no "I". I was looking for this "I" but I could not find it anywhere. It did not exist.
The more that we do spiritual work each day, the more we find that this work continues unbroken.

Today's quote

It's all a dream.....

the other night I had a dream that I was being chased by a huge snake -- really big. I was running. At some point, I looked down at my right foot and saw the snake had bitten it. I realized the snake was venomous, and I was going to die. I thought, no, this can't be. And so I changed the dream. I got away from the snake, and it didn't bite me. I looked down at my foot, and it was fine!

A few days later, I realized I had made a decision that did not serve my best interests. I became aware of thoughts making me feel bad about it. I was trying to deal with that in a spiritual way. I was sure I could not change the situation, that it was out of my hands. I was inspired to make a phone call anyway...and found that I COULD make the change I was hoping to make.

Had I accepted the negative voices as true, I never would have made that phone call.

It is all a dream. A sleeping dream. A waking dream. In both of these cases, I was able to change the course of the dream. The more conscious we become, the less we are controlled by mechanical thinking, the freer and happier we become.

Now, it just started raining in Austin, Texas -- and the clothes are still hanging on the line. They were almost dry when the rain suddenly fell down. Oh well. Some things cannot be changed. My clothing must need to be cleansed again...by the rain.

ANGELS ABOUND

Angels around you, 

Angels surround you, 

Angels ground you 

In the light of healing peace.

TASK

Three angels flew down from the skies to Earth and contacted those who were worthy of being saved. They gave them an exercise. They told the few people present to practice the -  I am not  - exercise. They told the people to Work with: I am not my plans. I am not my blood or physical body. I am not my thoughts. I am not my moods. I am not my feelings.

“I am not this, I am not that, will lead you finally to who you are, which will make you speechless, and also put you in wonder. Speechless means thought has come to an end. There’s no one to think about, and you've become wordless, and become silent. And you become filled with real awe in the wonderment of what has happened to you.

"This is a healing exercise - to pull oneself - out of oneself - then there's nothing there to be tempted," 

The angels continued, "You are not your own sorrow, your own pain, your own friends and own family. So why are you humans bothering to own sorrow or pain?

"Please, dear ones," one Angel implored, "You recklessly enter into  - I am this - with such great enthusiasm! Just because you want to be what you call you! Which you are not. Please use everything you've learned to Work against this!"

Someone exclaimed, "But if I'm a nothing, a nobody - who am I?"

"That is a wrong question," the eldest angel said. "With your true being-efforts, you have known that there’s a Creator. Something has been created in you from the stars, (which existed all the time by the way) - but has been crystalized in you for the first time because you, over the years, knew this planet had nothing Real for you.

"So remember: I am not that, I am not my shame. I’m not anything that I can think about or feel or talk about or possess, protect, or give away or hide from. I am not anything at all that I previously thought I was.” 

"Soon appears the vacant space, and that space holds Everything! You all need to complete this task before two of your earth weeks. We shall return at that time to assess your efforts."

quote

A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake. -George Gurdjieff

Mandala Beauty

just remember . . .

wise words

"Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?" ~ Diogenes (pupil of Socrates)

Those of you who have been in my seminars may have experienced your feelings being hurt, and heard me talk about that. We protect and defend our feelings as if they were our reality. They aren't. That's good to remember.

Intuition is not the same as feelings that are generated by the mind -- by thoughts. For example, you believe someone insulted you (and maybe they did) and you feel hurt. Whatever that person did, belongs to that person. Your reaction belongs to you. Your feelings are not based upon anything real. They are based upon what your thoughts are telling you to feel.

If a teacher is willing to tiptoe around you so that your feelings are not hurt, then the teacher is of no real use to you. Don't you want someone who will tell you the truth? Don't you? Doesn't it take so much energy to protect and defend your precious feelings? Wouldn't you rather use that energy for what is important and valuable?

Nature is alive with its own spirit, nature spirits, and God

Do Trees Communicate?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSGPNm3bFmQ 

https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other?language=en "A forest is much more than what you see," says ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery — trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees and prepare to see the natural world with new eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrrSAc-vjG4

moment...by...moment...we move towards awakening...

Change

"It is very difficult to change---and no change is possible as long as life and imagination are the source of meaning for you." ~Maurice Nicoll

Hello from Kevin

I opened the classroom today and immediately felt like sharing. So often I think I do not have the time, that something else is more important, but I seem to have time for other things, like stopping for coffee at my favorite coffee shop, parking the car, going in, chatting with people, spending my money. Or browsing the web. Or flicking on the TV.

Why don't I make at least as much time for my spiritual work? Good question! My answer today was: Make time now. Forget about the times I don't! That keeps me neither here nor there and prevents me from doing my spiritual work today.

I've been noticing how my mind tells me, when I am in a negative state, that it will never end. I have read this in our school, and I can say, it is true. Every time I am feeling bad, without energy, low, my mind wants to tell me it's no use; why don't I just give up; everyone is better than me; I am a lost cause; I have made too many mistakes; it is too late me. 

Whew! These are the quality of thoughts that are running my life! That have been running my life for years. And I have not been aware of them. It is like digging up the basement under a house that is full of poisonous gas that has been seeping through slowing killing that one who lives in that house -- --which is me.

Now I am becoming aware of those thoughts, but not so aware as I could be. I don't keep the spiritual sentry awake at the door of my mind and so before I know it, negative thoughts seep in like the poison they are and begin to poison my day. I become heavy and despondent. It is hard to get through the day when I am full of this poison. And when I go to sleep with these thoughts, they wake up even fatter--like your poem says, Indira.

Right now I am going through this phase of negativity taking over. I am learning about it. I can see the thoughts, whereas before I didn't even know they were there. I blindly believed them. I am watching the effect they have on my mind, emotions, and body. Especially, I notice what happens in my body, how I do not want to move--I'd rather sit and do something mindless, like play a computer game or sit and feel sorry for myself. I do not want to do the things that are healthy for my body, like go to the gym or take a walk.

Negative thoughts are powerful things with powerful influences, very harmful influences, when I let them take over. I know that becoming more aware of my negative thinking is positive, even when it feels negative. I know that as the light gets brighter, more negativity is revealed. I know I am not so different--I mean, my ego nature is not--I am just becoming more aware of my darkness, and so it seems worse. I know all of this from our school. At least I know it mentally--it has not yet reached that internal knowing. I am still on the edges. It is not the deep inner knowing you talk about, Indira.
So today this is what is going on for me. I am relieved I stopped by today to share this. I feel something lifting already--a little more understanding reaching me.
 p.s. I like the changes you make in our open classroom, Indira. It is true I get used to one look and do get attached to some of them and hate to see them go. So I find it amusing that I open one day and everything is different. It is a great teaching. I dig that everything about our school is used as a teaching.  It really does make the school seem like a living thing, and I think it is. It is alive with the energy of the angels and I can feel that to be true. Very cool.

Conscious Awareness

Dear Students, ...in our last few email messages, we have been offering you a brief review of your first lesson, Conscious Awareness. This lesson gave you the basics. We can all use these basics, whether we are on lesson 1 or lesson 91. The best and most successful way to approach Truth is as if we know nothing. If we are full of our own knowing, how can we have an empty place to receive new words of wisdom? All the great teachers and scriptures have taught us to be humble on our path.

“…unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…” Matthew 18:3

What does this mean to you? So often we cannot hear scriptures because we come from religions that have done our thinking for us. Try reading with an open mind and an open heart. Then your intuition will kick in and enlighten you.

It really is clear and simple — when we approach Truth heavy with ego, thinking we already know, how can we hear inner guidance? How can our heart be open? How can we receive? The first and foremost important quality on the spiritual path is receptivity. We must be open to receive. Each moment. Now. Are you open and ready to receive now? Otherwise, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven….
….the kingdom of heaven referred to here is not a place you go when you die, although that is what many religions would have you believe. It is a place here and now. It exists for you here and now. It is Truth. Most of us enter this kingdom gradually, step by step. Each time we receive a spiritual Truth, another candle is lit in the darkness of ignorance. We take another step closer to wholeness.

So ponder all of this. Don’t just read these words and forget them. Read them with an open heart, as if you were a little child. Receive them into your heart. Let them stay with you and enlighten you. See how they apply to your daily life — your daily moments, moment by moment. The kingdom of heaven is available to you. Now. It always is. Each moment of Truth received becomes a moment of enlightenment. It is entering the kingdom of heaven, moment by moment.

all my love,
your fellow classmate & humble teacher