good morning {03.16.12} | hello spring allergies by Lori Paquette

When all your desires are distilled
You will cast just two votes
To love more
And be happy.

Hafiz

There's this idea that enlightenment exists outside of "real life". That we can have so-called spiritual experiences, but inevitably we must return to the real world of work, family, relationships and all the struggles we face each day.

However, awakening to the truth of Who You Are doesn't mean you leave your life behind. It doesn't mean you move to a mountain top and exist in a perpetual state of selflessness. It simply means you walk the journey of your life with the realization of who you really are — your essential Self. Carrying that knowledge and that wisdom with you, even as you move through your daily chores and experiences.

Your essential Self is not found somewhere "out there". It's not something to strive for or work toward.

It's simply the You that exists closer than that which you can observe and label. Whatever you can observe or label, is not You. It is merely phenomena that You are witnessing. Closer than all that, is a space of pure Being, that which cannot be observed or labelled.

When you let go of all questions about yourself, all expectations, all labels that you or others have applied to you, you are left only with this subtle space of Being. A space of living presence.

What is this space, exactly?

I Am.

I Am is a constant flow of presence, an ever-blossoming newness. It's like a river, flowing continually into the Now.

No history or future, just Being.

It is an emptiness that is somehow overflowing with aliveness. Observing, flowing, arising. Being. Without expectation or remembrance, without worry or fear.

I Am just... is.

And what arises in the space of I Am? Joy. A sense of wholeness and completeness.

Lightness. Love.

Not the kind of love that attaches to someone or something, but an experience of Love radiating. It can't be described with words, really. It's kind of an experience of Oneness, a joyful feeling of Being and presence.

And yet it's not really a feeling at all.

It just is.

...Now What?

We can take the truth and beauty of I Am with us, even as we return to our mind, and all the experiences of living life.

Even as we go through our day and all its drama, we can remember the truth of I Am: We are not the drama. We are not our sadness, our anxiety, our worry, our fear. We are not the perceived flaws in our personality and our body. We are not the struggle. These are all ripples on the surface of the water — we are the Ocean Floor, observing all of this.

As you set aside the time to turn down the volume of your mind, your expectations, and your labels of Self, you become more attuned to the I Am that is always present and essential beyond them. More and more you can "return" to this space for clarity and perspective — yet you aren't really returning. You're simply experiencing the essential Self, that which always is. You, without labels and observations.

Let this be your practice. To know your true Self, to awaken to it. To know the transparency of all the dramas that unfold throughout your day, how fleeting and non-essential they are, and to walk in the freedom of I Am. Let this be your journey.

And realize that the I Am that exists in You, also exists in all others. It is our most fundamental connection. I Am is the Source that we all arise from and return to. In this, we are brothers and sisters. We are One.

May a sense of love, compassion and an intimate understanding of each other arise in You from this realization.

May you walk in freedom and joy.

And may your priorities be simply this: To love more, and be happy.

Neil Degrasse Tyson Vs Mr Piper - The Most Astounding Fact by James Piper

Life is beautiful, painful and surprising – it is so many things. Often we think we are too small for our own life – including the painful parts. But that doesn’t have to be the case. We can be big enough for our own life.

Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel

Sometimes the roads all disappear and the maps stop making sense. We find ourselves in the wilderness.

In the wilderness, we have a choice: We can focus on the oppression, the darkness, and the fear, or we can use the experience to know ourselves more profoundly.

Where is the intensity being felt? Where is the epicenter of it? What deeper pain is it re-awakening? There lies the wisdom. We find ourselves in the wilderness because something has triggered our own darkness to cry out, wanting to be known, wanting to be embraced, wanting to be healed.

Natural mandala from the top of a juicy fruit by Debbie Friedrich

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.

Sam Keen

We all come across folks who are difficult, irrational or unkind. Our first instinct may be to mirror the person, countering their negative attitude with one of our own. It's normal to feel angry, hurt, and frustrated. What's worse, is the time we spend afterward thinking about how we were treated, perhaps staying emotionally charged for hours after the encounter.

The purpose of this article isn't to show you how to turn a difficult person into someone easier to deal with, although that can certainly happen. The point here is to offer a deeper look at what is happening within you when you experience a difficult encounter, and to present a few ways of handling it in a more favorable way.

Newness by Daniel Collinsworth

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever been around someone who made you feel really good about yourself? Not through words of simple flattery, but through a genuine quality of their presence that just seemed to magnify the good and beautiful aspects of You?

It's truly inspiring to be in the presence of someone like that. Someone who shines a bright, loving light on your potential, and reflects a glimpse of who you are underneath all the filters of fear and yuck that we tend to see ourselves through.

Now... what if you could be that mirror for others?

good morning! {01.19.12} | gratuitous beams by Lori Paquette

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Rumi

Cultivating a profound, compassionate respect for folks goes beyond feelings and attitudes. We can enjoy a deeper experience of connection with others through a simple shift of focus.

Sun-set Bunting by Robyn Woolston

To live without the creative potential of our own destructiveness is to be a cardboard angel.

Sheldon B. Kopp

Your Shadow. A name for those unconscious aspects of yourself that you either deny, resist ownership of, or simply aren't aware of.

We all have one. And as long as we aren't taking ownership of it, our shadow is right there behind the scenes of our daily lives — directing our actions in ways that cause suffering and frustration in ourselves and others.

Cliffs of Panther by Sathish J

The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished.

Deng Ming-Dao
{ Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony }

I think one of our biggest challenges in day-to-day life can be communicating with people whose perspectives are very different from our own. It's natural for feelings of agitation and even hurt feelings to arise when our wants/needs aren't met in the space of an interaction, or when we get an unexpected response that doesn't match our view of a situation.

Sunrise at the Mittens by Laura Gooch

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart

I've recently begun a practice of being thankful for little things throughout the day, and ending each day with gratitude for at least 5 people or events that happened that day. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that it is changing my life.

Something very special happens when you focus your awareness on gratitude. Your mind illuminates. The tension in your body eases up a little bit. The Now becomes free-flowing and a sense of joy unfolds.

This is because gratitude is an acknowledgment of Oneness. It's a way of connecting to Oneness in a very intimate way. Think about something right now that you are thankful for, and notice how present you become. The feeling of lightness radiating from your center. The feeling of love and connection.

Grenadier Pond by Wanda Gould

The world I see all around me

Is the world that is inside me

And as I am slowly becoming

So the world is slowly becoming around me.


I cannot look outside for a way, a teaching,

Because I only see reflections of myself.

Only when I am silent and still

Do I glimpse the truth of Being.


As I Am

So this world is

And so I understand —


There is no outside in this Universe.

Everything is inside.

Reflections by Danny Plas

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.

Buddha

Who is your enemy?

The one who talks down to you and criticizes your work? The one who treats you carelessly? The one who puts obstacles in your path and makes your life more difficult?

Perhaps you sometimes see an enemy in your friend, or your lover, or your co-worker. The distinction can be blurred, at times. We can all be many things to many people.

We can even be an enemy to ourselves.

Photo by Danikapierce

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Biblical Proverb

Thoughtful, soothing presence.

Take a moment to let that imagery develop in your mind.

How does it feel? What does it look like? What does it sound like?

I've been thinking about that a lot lately.

So often, we speak to each other with haste and self-interest. We react to negativity with negativity. We speak abruptly. We let our own mental and emotional storylines command our way of thinking and speaking.

There is freedom – although it is challenging to walk in, at first – in taking total responsibility for how we speak to others. To let our words and demeanor be proactive, rather than reactive, in the presence of negativity or intensity. To be a calm presence in the face of someone else's drama.

Mountain in highlands of Scotland by Michael King

Become totally empty
Quiet the restlessness of the mind
Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness.

Lao Tzu

A big part of our experience of the world is to know things as "things". We look around and see trees, buildings, people. Sometimes we notice their beauty, sometimes we don't.

Something special and amazing happens when we look beyond ideas of beauty/ugliness, interest/disinterest, and all the other concepts that we form around the phenomena in our world.

Featherhead by Oliver Beattie

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Anne Lamott

Unconditional grace – one of my biggest lessons.

Grace has been defined as giving someone that which they don't deserve. The flaw in this definition, though, is the concept of deserving something – nowhere in nature is this teaching found. We humans, at some point, made it up and it's become a central tenet of our worldview.

I define grace simply as showing unconditional loving-kindness. This is much easier said than done, sometimes. But there are a few good reasons to become an ambassador of grace.

Your Choices Will Change The World by Lori Paquette

A handful of pine-seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of a forest. I too will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high.

Fiona MacLeod

As I sit down to write this post, the news of Steve Job's passing is only a few hours old.

I have been greatly inspired by Steve's philosophy of using one's short lifespan to change the world. He has said it in countless ways, but he summed it up best when he said this:

"You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Tree of Peace by h.koppdelaney

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover
the prisoner was you.

Author Unknown

This past week, with the 10th anniversary of 9/11, forgiveness has been an issue on many of our minds.

Forgiveness is something we all struggle with in this life. Some have experienced trauma so devastating, forgiveness seems impossible. Some are willing to forgive, but simply don’t know how – the wounds are too deep, the events too unforgettable.

The purpose of this article is not to convince anyone that you must forgive in order to move on with your life. That is not for me to say. I would simply like to share an insight on forgiveness, one that has given me a new outlook in my own walk.

I will also share my own deeply personal story of forgiveness with you.

Evening Glow by Care_SMC

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Anne Lamott

So easily we become frustrated by the actions (or inactions) of others. Whether with friends, family, lovers, co-workers or complete strangers – when someone does something we find unacceptable, we tend to ascribe undue meaning or chalk it up to a faulty personality.