AWAKEN TO YOUR COSMIC RICHES

 "HOW TO AWAKEN TO YOUR COSMIC RICHES"

The contrasting lives of two famous teachers show the difference between Forced Living and Easy Flow.

CONFUCIUS was an advocate of correct public behavior. He taught good manners, social reform, and submission to man-made moral codes. He offered shallow formulas for getting through life, admitting that his platitudes were borrowed from other men. The inner life of cosmic peace was unknown to Confucius; he himself was a victim of Forced Living.

LAO-TSE was the exact opposite. He cared nothing for the public parading of self-proclaimed virtues. He pointed out that human rules of conduct do not make men truly moral; to the contrary, they supply clever masks for hypocrisy and cruelty. As for living by popular slogans, they create mass misery and national neurosis. Lao-tse stressed individual effort toward personal freedom, teaching that happiness lies in a spontaneous outflowing of one's natural self. Lao-tse was himself a living example of Easy Flow."

How to Let Yourself Be Carried by Life's Easy Flow, Pathways to Perfect Living, Chapter 9, page 107

On Death and Dying...

Dear Students,

A student wrote to me regarding the death of her father. There has always been conflict with her family. She did not know her father was ill from Covid and had died in the hospital, so she did not see him. Her mother wrote to her that she should not attend the funeral, so this student is asking what she should do. This is my response to her.  

Dear ____

Of course, it is a decision only you can make deep in your heart.

He is your father. His life and his death are between you and him...and God. No one else.

The past — is past. Whatever letter your wrote, even that is past. The present is now. If your family wants to hold onto the past — that is their misfortune.

YOU can choose to live now. You do not have to be bound by the past, even your own. The past has already been burned in the fire of time.

Your mother's letter to you does not come from her heart, which always seeks love and unity, but from her mind.

YOU do not have to live from your mind, except at a practical level.

There will be reactions among the family if you attend the funeral service. If you attend, can you be strong enough within yourself to not react to their reactions in a way that will bring you down?

Can you simply attend with dignity and love because you feel it is the right thing for you?

Most important is to avoid regret. The mind is very good at causing regret. Regret is useless because the past is the past. If you don't attend the funeral, will you feel regret later?

A funeral is simply a social function where people come together— because death is so final, so hard — and the living must find ways to deal with it. That is the significance of a funeral — to help people deal with their grief, say farewell, support each other, and move on. It's not for the dead, but for the living.

It is unlikely that you will feel supported by your family. So going to the funeral must be because you choose to take your place as the eldest child — because it is your place. You can claim your place — no matter what anyone says.

Do what brings peace to your heart and soul.

This is your father. His death is a completion of your soul journey together on earth. His spirit is free now, on his new journey. You can honor your soul journey with your father no matter what.

Do not let your family make this important decision for you. Do not let outer circumstances tell you what to do (except at practical levels). Use this time to enter into your heart and soul to find what is right for you.

You do not need their permission to tell you what to do. You do not have to please them. You must only be pleasing unto God. When you please God, you are pleased. 

Angels live by no prescribed rules. Angels do not need rules to govern them, because angels are governed by love. Angels are not trying to please anyone. Angels know their being is pleasing to God. This is all an angel needs to know. Angels are free and spontaneous because they do not have to decide if what they are going to do or say will please you. Angels are completely open because angels have nothing to hide.

If you do travel, travel safe...because of Covid. Wearing a mask at the funeral will help keep you safe from Covid, and protect others — and it may also help keep you safe emotionally. 

I am sorry for your father's illness and death without you by his side.

With deepest love, as always,

Indira

we are all interconnected

 

Question & Answer

A student asked recently if there is an afterlife?

The question isn't really, Do you have an "after" life—it's do you have a life NOW? The moment of NOW is all there ever is, and yet we choose instead to live in mental dreams of past and future. 

Competition

 

I often get email questions from students, which I respond to—eventually. When I post them here, I remove identifying information. This student said he felt competitive with a friend of his, which bothered him, since he didn't want to feel this way.

I replied...Of course, you know there's nothing to compare. Of course, you do, but such feelings are not logical, or they'd never exist.

You and he are different people. Seek to be true to your nature, not his (the mental construct you create about him). He is quite lovely at expressing his nature, and you are equally lovely at expressing yours. SO remind yourself that any thought of competition comes from the dark side. Not from the light. Not from Truth. Just observe it.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

It's madness

to hate all roses

because you got scratched with one thorn,

to give up all dreams

because one of them didn't come true,

to give up all attempts

because one of them failed.

It's folly to condemn all your friends

because one has betrayed you,

to no longer believe in love

just because someone was unfaithful

or didn't love you back,

to throw away all your chances to be happy

because something went wrong.

There will always be another opportunity,

another friend,

another love,

a new strength.

For every end,

there is always a new beginning.....

And now here is my secret,

a very simple secret:

It is only with the heart

that one can see rightly;

what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Cartoon Wisdom

 

THE OCEAN

My body is the ocean

Shining beneath the moonlight

I rise up to meet the shore

And back again

To meet my destiny

My mantra

Is the sound of waves

My meditation

Is upon my own sweet self

My passion flows like honey

My sighs are sighs of love

I sink into my own depths

And know that I Am God.

Fear Not

A picture of a new stamp that JP, one of our classmates, sent me from Germany today. So perfect with the Biblical message of the angels, which I often quote: Fear Not.

The entire phrase on the stamp, for those of you who don’t know German, is… The message of the Angels: Fear Not. 

The messages of the angels are everywhere. And what would the angels be telling us during these difficult times, if they could broadcast a message across the skies? Fear Not. (Weihnachten means Christmas 2021)

Cartoon wisdom :-)

 

Let God In

A human believes that he is supposed to create his own feelings, his own life. That is all most of us have been taught from childhood by other humans that have done the same thing. It's all they have ever known so they pass it on to their children. But look what it has brought the world, and himself or herself, to. This world, and the people in it, are not right, not what it was supposed to be. How could it be? Would an omnipotent intelligence for good ever create such a world? People took a wrong turn.

The wrong turn is that we were never supposed to create our own feelings and our own life. We were supposed to let God teach us, show us the way. We did not do this and what we have is the result. Still, it's available to the person who wants to do this. God did not abandon anyone that wants to live the life he wanted to give us. You can still do this but you must leave this sick world inwardly, psychologically, and allow God, Truth, Reality, to show you the way out. Few will, but you can.

We are what we feel, moment to moment. Have you ever looked at the way you feel, the cause, source of your feelings, instead of just feeling them? Do you understand the cause of your feelings? Which are negative and which are not? Can you classify, know, a right higher feeling and a lower, destructive feeling?

We are not a time being, as much as we like to think we are. That is the life we created for ourselves. We do not have a past and a future, we simply believe, think, we do. Thinking about the past, the future, creates the illusion that there is such a thing. You are a new being, every second, that has no connection to even the last five seconds, other than the fact that you can think about the last five seconds. Is there a requirement that you do so? Where is it written that you must do so?

Does true life exist in those last five seconds, or is it right now, in this present moment? How can you ever have a new life, if it's never new?

What is happening inside of you, right now? Does a right feeling, from God, Truth, Reality, come from the outside world and enter you, or does it come from what is inside you, without the influence of the outside world?

The spiritual world is not outside of you, it's inside. We are put on the earth to see if we will free ourselves from the outside world's sickness and influence, and look inside to find what is waiting for us to find it, which is God himself. The Truth wants us to find it, but it is not where everyone is looking. It is INSIDE of you, not out there. Nothing outside of you can do it. Trying to be a good person cannot do it, because you cannot be a good person without finding God within first. In fact you can never be a good person, but you can let the goodness of God live through you.

Truth does not fear the outside world, because it can't touch it. The Truth within is stronger than anything in this physical world. You are a spiritual being. If you were your body and thoughts, how can you ever be free of fear, because you know your body and thoughts come to an end one day. But if you don't find the Truth within, which can never die, you will always live in fear. God, Truth, Reality is always now, and that is why you can always have a new life right now, completely new, because is it never in the past or the future, it can't be, that is only the movement of memory, which must come to an end.

You must throw out the negativity that has entered your body, system, so that you can receive higher feelings, feelings that you have never had, because all you have is negativity now. Feelings that you don't create. If you do that, then it's not from the spiritual world. Why do we do that? You look out at the outside world and think you have to change it, make things right, in order for you to feel good. You don't. You don't need the outside to be right, you need the INSIDE of you to be right. This is not dependent on the outside world. It is only dependent on finding the inner world of God. If you are afraid right now, you have not found it. Fear is impossible when living in the spiritual world that can exist inside of you. If you are afraid, you have not found it.

You are afraid, because you are still looking for something outside to do it. Even if the world was perfect, you would still be afraid, because you are still a 'this world being'. A thought being, a time being, because of your belief in your personal past and future, which is an illusion. Why don't you trust God to know what he is doing, and go to work inside of you instead? God did not put us at the mercy of this world, he put us here to find him, and in doing so, eternity.

The world does not need to be fixed, you need to be fixed. But we don't allow it because we always live in negativity. Fear, anger, confusion, which creates a lost feeling. You are lost, and that is why you are afraid. Allow yourself to be found by something that comes from the inside of you.

What are the emotions, feelings, that pass through you all day long? Do you look and see them, or just feel them? And in doing so allow those feelings to control all the negative thoughts that those feeling manifest inside of you, from moment to moment. This feeds those feelings and so take you over. An unconscious, feeling, machine. No higher insights, which is the way out.

So turn your attention from the outside, to the inside of you. Study you. Don't try to fix you, study you. This requires observation, something that IS from the higher world. Quit thinking, quit trying to figure out. Don't see, and fix. Just see. The fact that you try to fix you is why it never happens. A stream of thoughts cannot fix anything. A silent mind is the way out. That is achieved by inner observation, not by your mind. Look, don't talk, don't have opinions that you share. Don't share you, because that is the time self, which does not really exist except in memory.

Get out of you, become silent, except for practical purposes. No longer create your own feelings. If you do this then something will happen to you. You will see that God will begin teaching you. You will begin to get the life you were supposed to. Do not sacrifice yourself to this world.

Get out, and let God in. He will do so. He did not place you at the mercy of this world.

THE BRAIN OF AN ELDERLY PERSON.

Enlightening information about the ‘aging’ of the brain.

Although your true self is never born, never ages, and never dies.

The director of the George Washington University College of Medicine argues that the brain of an elderly person is much more plastic than is commonly believed. At this age, the interaction of the right and left hemispheres of the brain becomes harmonious, which expands our creative possibilities. That is why among people over 60 you can find many personalities who have just started their creative activities.

Of course, the brain is no longer as fast as it was in youth. However, it wins in flexibility. That is why, with age, we are more likely to make the right decisions and are less exposed to negative emotions. The peak of human intellectual activity occurs at about 70 years old, when the brain begins to work at full strength.

Over time, the amount of myelin in the brain increases, a substance that facilitates the rapid passage of signals between neurons. Due to this, intellectual abilities are increased by 300% compared to the average.

And the peak of active production of this substance falls on 60-80 years of age. Also interesting is the fact that after 60 years, a person can use 2 hemispheres at the same time. This allows you to solve much more complex problems.

Professor Monchi Uri from the University of Montreal believes that the brain of an elderly person chooses the least energy-intensive path, cutting unnecessary and leaving only the right options for solving the problem. A study was conducted in which different age groups took part. Young people were confused a lot when passing the tests, while those over 60 made the right decisions.

Now let's look at the features of the brain at the age of 60-80. They are really rosy.

FEATURES OF THE BRAIN OF AN ELDERLY PERSON.

1. The neurons of the brain do not die off, as everyone around them says. Connections between them simply disappear if a person does not engage in mental work.

2. Absent-mindedness and forgetfulness appear due to an overabundance of information. Therefore, you do not need to focus your whole life on unnecessary trifles.

3. Beginning at the age of 60, a person, when making decisions, uses not one hemisphere at the same time, like young people, but both.

4. Conclusion: if a person leads a healthy lifestyle, moves, has a feasible physical activity and has full mental activity, intellectual abilities DO NOT decrease with age, but only GROW, reaching a peak by the age of 80-90 years.

So don't be afraid of old age. Strive to develop intellectually. Learn new crafts, make music, learn to play musical instruments, paint pictures! Dance! Take an interest in life, meet and communicate with friends, make plans for the future, travel as best you can. Don't forget to go to shops, cafes, concerts. Do not lock yourself alone—it is destructive for any person. Live with the thought: all the good things are still ahead of me!

A large study in the United States found that:

The most productive age of a person is from 60 to 70 years;

The 2nd most productive human stage is the age from 70 to 80 years old; 3rd most productive stage - 50 and 60 years old. Before that, the person has not yet reached his peak.

The average age of the Nobel Prize laureates is 62;

The average age of the presidents of the 100 largest companies in the world is 63 years;

The average age of pastors in the 100 largest churches in the United States is 71; 

The average age of dads is 76 years.

This confirms that a person's best and most productive years are between 60 and 80 years of age.

This study was published by a team of doctors and psychologists in the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE. They found that at 60 you reach the peak of your emotional and mental potential, and this continues until you are 80. Therefore, if you are 60, 70 or 80 years old, you are at the best level of your life

* SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine *.

Nothing Ever Happened

Jack Kerouac wrote to his former wife: ‘I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night:

It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream.

Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is all right forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect.

We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It’s a dream already ended.

There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born.

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.

Rocks don’t see it.

Bless and sit down.

Forgive and forget.

Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.

That’s the story.

That’s the message.

Nobody understands it, nobody listens, they’re all running around like chickens with heads cut off. I will try to teach it but it will be in vain, s’why I’ll end up in a shack praying and being cool and singing by my woodstove making pancakes.'

Nisargadatta Maharaj Q&A

Dialogue between a visitor and Nisargadatta Maharaj (from I AM THAT)

Question: I come from a far off country. I had some inner experiences on my own and I would like to compare notes.

Maharaj: By all means. Do you know yourself?

Q: I know that I am not the body. Nor am I the mind.

M: What makes you say so?

Q: I do not feel I am in the body. I seem to be all over the place, everywhere. As to the mind, I can switch it on and off, so to say. This makes me feel I am not the mind.

M: When you feel yourself everywhere in the world, do you remain separate from the world? Or, are you the world?

Q: Both. Sometimes I feel myself to be neither mind nor body, but one single all-seeing eye. When I go deeper into it, I find myself to be all I see and the world and myself become one.

M: Very well. What about desires? Do you have any?

Q: Yes, they come, short and superficial.

M: And what do you do about them?

Q: What can I do? They come and go. I look at them. Sometimes I see my body and my mind engaged in fulfilling them.

M: Whose desires are being fulfilled?

Q: They are a part of the world I live in. They are just as trees and clouds are there.

M: Are they not a sign of some imperfection?

Q: Why should they be? They are as they are, and I am as I am. How can the appearance and disappearance of desires affect me? Of course, they affect the shape and content of the mind.

M: Very well. What is your work?

Q: I am a probation officer.

M: What does it mean?

Q: Juvenile offenders are let off on probation and there are special officers to watch their behaviour and to help them get training and find work.

M: Must you work?

Q: Who works? Work happens to take place.

M: Do you need to work?

Q: I need it for the sake of the money I like it because it puts me in touch with living beings.

M: What do you need them for?

Q: They may need me and it is their destinies that made me take up this work. It is one life, after all.

M: How did you come to your present state?

Q: Sri Ramana Maharshi's teachings have put me on my way. Then I met one Douglas Harding who helped me by showing me how to work on the 'Who am I?'

M: Was it sudden or gradual?

Q: It was quite sudden. Like something quite forgotten, coming back to one's mind. Or, like a sudden flash of understanding. 'How simple,' I said. 'How simple, I am not what I thought I am. I am neither the perceived nor the perceiver. I'm the perceiving only.

M: Not even the perceiving, but that which makes all this possible.

Q: What is love?

M: When the sense of distinction and separation is absent, you may call it love.

Q: Why so much stress on love between man and woman?

M: Because the element of happiness in it is so prominent.

Q: Is it not so in all love?

M: Not necessarily. Love may cause pain. You call it then compassion.

Q: What is happiness?

M: Harmony between the inner and the outer is happiness. On the other hand, self-identification with the outer causes suffering.

Q: How does self-identification happen?

M: The Self, by its nature knows itself only. For lack of experience whatever it perceives it takes to be itself. Battered, it learns to look out (Viveka) and to live alone (Vairagya). When right behaviour (uparati) becomes normal, a powerful inner urge (mumukshutva) makes it seek its source. The candle of the body is lighted and all becomes clear and bright (atmaprakash).

Q: What is the real cause of suffering?

M: Self-identification with the limited (vyaktitva). Sensations as such, however strong, do not cause suffering. It is the mind, bewildered by wrong ideas, addicted to thinking: 'I am this', ' I am that', that fears loss and craves gain and suffers when frustrated.

Q: A friends of mine, used to have horrible dreams night after night. Going to sleep would terrorise him. Nothing could help him.

M: Company of the truly good (Satsang) would help him.

Q: Life itself is a nightmare.

M: Noble friendship (Satsang) is the supreme remedy for all ills, physical and mental.

Q: Generally, one cannot find such friendship.

M: Seek within. Your own Self is your best friend.

Trust

 

When a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself. The cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. But if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly make up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing.

In the same way, it is the philosophy of the Tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives. As a matter of fact, the moment we were born, we were kicked off a precipice, and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it.

So instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat. —Alan Watts

Your Many True Names...

Dearest Light, 

Compassionate Being, 

Wonderful Wisdom, 

Radiant Being, 

Inner Beauty Shining with Outer Beauty

Peacefulness

Wondrous One

Confident in Truth

Strong with the Strength of God

Powerful with the Power of God

Existing in Truth

Existing in Light

Divine Nature

Infinite Love

Beyond All Labels

MIND AND BODY

Please illustrate the connection between mind and body...

Have you ever noticed how the body obeys the thought? Think of food and
the body heads for the refrigerator. Think of entertainment and the legs
move toward the television set. With enough watchfulness you can see
how thoughts do indeed place the physical body wherever it finds itself,
for either benefit or harm. This insight arouses powerful motivation
for thinking only constructive thoughts.'"
                                   

— There is a Way Out, Vernon Howard

Sometimes all you can do is breathe...

 

Cleansing Prayer