Capturing The Essence
Last night, I took Pearlie for a walk at dusk. We saw a doe with her fawn. A beautiful shooting star highlighted this simple natural experience.
Tonight, the night sky will offer new and miraculous shows for our physical and spiritual joys.
Walking out under the night sky with or without our dog expands vision and memory of all the times we felt small compared to the awesome externality of the galaxy.
Who are we and who made all of this?
Will we become a star when we pass from this life to the next?
Is there a different explanation we haven’t thought of?
I remember when I was a child looking at the stars with my father, an astronomy enthusiast. He taught me the name of all the constellations in the Pennsylvania sky. Each season revealed and still reveals a new set of seasonal stars.
My mother, meanwhile, studied astrology while we identified the signs across the ecliptic, where the astrological constellations reside.
Children are aware of this awesome expanse reflected in the sky and in the soul.
As we age, we may become less sensitized to all that is possible. Our enthusiasm for such things is replaced by the truth: we are facing our mortality, with or without a life threatening diagnosis.
In the words of Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-/-/
So I think that death somehow boils down to Love. I am not sure how, but all the great sages tell us so. As long as we align our gaze to the vertical line we all have to our Divine Creator, the Stars give way to a light unequaled in this or any other life time.
Kate’s Prayer Prescription Series, her podcast, and her mission has, at its foundation, the intent to relieve suffering through the spiritual practice and the remedies brought about through the healing power of Prayer, Love and Compassion.
Please consider coming and actually come to our Meditation Workshop!
What Is God’s Will? Podcast 231
The modern world seems to think God’s duty is to give us anything we ask for.
The house, the car, the dog, the award, the book deal.
But God’s Will is simply we grow into our birthright, which is to create Heaven in our consciousness and heart.
Heaven on earth is inside you.
Heaven and Hell cannot coexist simultaneously.
Addendum: My podcast today is not working, so instead, I will post an interview I did with Echo Bodine.
Echo Bodine is the bestselling author of Echoes of the Soul, The Gift, A Still, Small Voice, and most recently What Happens When We Die. She is a renowned spiritual healer, psychic, and teacher who lectures widely on intuition, spiritual healing, and life after death. She also has a monthly radio show and popular blog.
Inspired Living-Podcast 230
Today, we reflect upon our lives. Reflecting like this helps us to begin anew with a happiness that can never be gotten by rushing, speeding or mindlessly talking. It also fosters an inspired view of life. It creates an open channel to our Divine Creative Intelligence.
So slow down today and take a few naps with your snoring dog and purring cat.
Then make sure you walk your dog after the nap times.
What you discover is between you and your beloved companion animal. It is a secret you keep together as bonding grows strong between both of you.
Have you ever experienced star gazing with your dog and cat? Do that, too.
Life is too precious not to.
Dog is God spelled backwards. That is not a coincidence.
Ramana Maharshi: In His Words
Ramana Maharshi
Ramana Maharshi
Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world.
Ramana Maharshi
Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. ‘I am that I am’ sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the words ‘Be still’. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself. Because any form or shape is the cause for trouble. Give up the notion that ‘I am so and so’. All that is required to realize the Self is to be still. What can be easier than that?
Ramana Maharshi
Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.
Ramana Maharshi
Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore, is to remain silent.
Ramana Maharshi
Have faith in God and in yourself; that will cure all. Hope for the best, expect the best, toil for the best and everything will come right for you in the end.
Ramana Maharshi
There is neither creation nor destruction,
neither destiny nor free will, neither
path nor achievement.
This is the final truth.
Ramana Maharshi, Sayings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present.
Ramana Maharshi
Aim high, aim at the highest, and all lower aims are thereby achieved. It is looking below on the stormy sea of differences that makes you sink. Look up, beyond these and see the One Glorious Real, and you are saved.
Ramana Maharshi
If the mind falls asleep, awaken it. Then if it starts wandering, make it quiet. If you reach the state where there is neither sleep nor movement of mind, stay still in that, the natural (real) state.
Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi
Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage
Ramana Maharshi
If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you.
Ramana Maharshi
What is illusion?
M.: To whom is the illusion? Find it out. Then illusion will vanish.
Generally people want to know about illusion and do not examine
to whom it is. It is foolish. Illusion is outside and unknown. But
the seeker is considered to be known and is inside. Find out what
is immediate, intimate, instead of trying to find out what is distant
and unknown.
Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Ramana Maharshi: On Realizing Abiding Peace and Happiness
Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality Whatever you
think it is, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you
call it existence, it is existence, and so on. After calling it time, you
divide it into days and nights, months, years, hours, minutes, etc.
Time is immaterial for the Path of Knowledge. But some of these
rules and discipline are good for beginners.
Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Ramana Maharshi: On Realizing Abiding Peace and Happiness
The pure mind is itself Brahman; it therefore follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage.
Ramana Maharshi, Talks with Ramana Maharshi: On Realizing Abiding Peace and Happiness
Know that the eradication of the identification with the body is charity, spiritual austerity and ritual sacrifice; it is virtue, divine union and devotion; it is heaven, wealth, peace and truth; it is grace; it is the state of divine silence; it is the deathless death; it is jnana, renunciation, final liberation and bliss.
Ramana Maharshi
All that is required to realise the Self is to “Be Still.
Ramana Maharshi
It will come all right in the end.
Ramana Maharshi
Remain still, with the conviction that the Self shines as everything yet nothing, within, without, and everywhere.
Ramana Maharshi
All are gurus to us, the wicked by their evil deeds say ‘do not come near me’. the good are always good, therefore all are like gurus to us.
Ramana Maharshi
No one succeeds without effort… Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance.
Ramana Maharshi
The explorers seek happiness in finding curiosities, discovering new lands and undergoing risks in adventures. They are thrilling. But where is pleasure found? Only within. Pleasure is not to be sought in the external world.
Ramana Maharshi
There is nothing like ‘within’ or ‘without.’ Both mean either the same thing or nothing.
Ramana Maharshi
If you hold this feeling of ‘I’ long enough and strongly enough, the false ‘I’ will vanish leaving only the unbroken awareness of
the real, immanent ‘I’, consciousness itself
Ramana Maharshi
Eventually, all that one has learnt will have to be forgotten.
Ramana Maharshi
You must achieve liberation during your life time.
Even if you fail to do it during your lifetime, you must think of god at least at the time of death, since one becomes what he thinks of at the time of death. But unless all your life you have been thinking of God, unless you have accustomed yourself to dhyana of ‘God always during life, it would not at all be possible for you think of God at the time of death.
Ramana Maharshi
Mind your business. Take care of what you came here for. Find the ‘I’ first and you may afterwards speak of other matters.
Ramana Maharshi
Your concentration must come as easily as the breath. Fix yourself on one thing and try to hold onto it. All will come right. Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away other thoughts. The dissipated mind is a sign of its weakness. By constant meditation it gains strength.
Ramana Maharshi, The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words
The only useful purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realize the Self.
Ramana Maharshi
One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered.
Ramana Maharshi
A Climate Warning-Podcast 228
Here is another reminder to get Paul Lewis’ book called After The Devastation, about what could happen if we don’t get moving as a human race to halt climate change.
A new article in Rolling Stone brings this point to the center of my mind.
Spiritual Practice or a “positive attitude” does not mean denying or ignoring this challenge.
This is what today’s podcast is all about.
Your Spiritual Path–Podcast 227
What is your spiritual path? We have one whether we are focused on it or not. Spirituality is our heritage and links us to immortality.
I am doing ACIM, (A Course In Miracles) I figure for the 10th or 11th time, but this time seems to be much different than all the others. First of all, it’s been years since I’ve done it. Secondly, I am taking it much more seriously than ever before.
I started a meditation practice, and I am meditating three times a day. I realize I was suffering from acute anxiety.
The question is, how could I not? We are poised on the brink of human extinction brought about by loveless perception, greed and corruption.
How could I not? How could you not?
That’s what today’s podcast is all about.
Tao Meditation- Podcast 226
Tao Meditation- Podcast 226
I just did an hour long meditation on The Tao. Wayne Dyer has an iPhone app where he goes through all 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching with a chant after each verse. This particular meditation sends me into a deep subconscious state where I receive the teachings on an almost subatomic particle reality.
Little Gidding
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot
My prayer prescription today?
Get this app!!
Soar With Spirit-Podcast 225
I just heard an awesome spiritual insight: ground yourself in the spiritual and soar in the physical world.
I have heard all of my life that I must ground myself in the physical when I had become too spacey.
Now I see it differently.
That’s with the short podcast today is all about.
Life Is Love- Podcast 224
Your dreams can only be expressed through creative communication. Seen in this way, cheerfulness, grace and joy, are the best ways for you to impart your genius upon the world.
One of the ways to pinpoint where your mind and heart resides is to recognize the symptoms of resisting Life.
My guiding star, and you all probably have another one, is the presence of impatience, resulting in judgment, lack of compassion and mindless hurry.
We have 100% control and responsibility over where we choose to focus our mind. Is it going to be Love or Fear, today?
Resisting “what is” is wrought with knee jerk reactions and loveless perception, and therefore never brings me or anyone else happiness.
Letting Go/Letting God synchronizes with healing breath and breathing, with radiant peaceful love. As we consciously choose this reality, and make this way of thinking a habit, the more we see that our entire essence is nothing more or less than Love.
That’s why I now meditate at least three times a day. Stress is released, I am relaxed, and I am in a transcendent state of Loving grace.
That’s what today’s podcast is about.
Baby Boomer Commune Stories
Although the adventures in this book happened nearly forty-four years ago, they serve as record and reminder of the Baby Boomer legacy to American history.
Our generation woke up America from the slumbering 1950’s and all that preceded, to the electric flower power of the 1960’s, and everything happening thereafter.
The only thing not out of the closet is Death and reverence for our elders.
The Baby Boomers have stories they may be afraid to tell. I hope these stories stir memories needing expression in journal or memoir, painting or sculpture. Perhaps your story can be shared around a fuel efficient wood stove with trusted friends on a long winter’s night.
This book is a steal on Kindle! 99 cents! Steal This Book!!
Prayer Prescriptions For Nurse Healers
(The Prayer Prescription Series)
365 Prayer Prescriptions For Dog And Cat Lovers
(The Prayer Prescription Series)
