I've been gone a while…

And I hope you understand,

That I must do what I must do

To become a better man.

If I was to just to act a fool, and

Do nothing with myself

Then all my blessings would be cursed.

It's a joy when I sit down, and

Remember the good times that we had.

Well I hope you'll find it in your heart,

And know these words are true.

And please don't fuss —

Because I must go do what I must do.

Even though the road is rocky,

I'll be home with you again.

I just had to bare my cross.

Now I'm free: in time,

Space, and a different place.

How perfect we might be.

I would be the blowing wind,

You'd be that willow tree.

And I could never bear the thought of you not by my side.

So I would be the warmth of day,

You'd be the cool of night.

And everyday I pray you will see I must fulfill my destiny.

I hope you'll find it in your heart,

And know these words are true.

God knows,

Life is one big road.

With a lot of turns and twists, 

And curves.

But hold on, every single road I roll on,

Comes to an end and I’ll be back home again.

So baby please don't cry. 

There's no valley too low and there's no mountain too high.

Our love don't die with the passage of time.

It just grows and just keeps strong.

And even though I'm gone, I am never too far.

You're the light through the dark, shining right through my heart.

So my journey must start!

There Must Be More

Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart. Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes Lives in the Self. He is the source of love And may be known through love but not through thought. He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!   The shining Self dwells hidden in the heart. Everything in the cosmos, great and small, Lives in the Self. He is the source of life, Truth beyond the transcience of this world. He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!   Take the great bow of the sacred scriptures. Place on it the arrow of devotion; Then draw the bowstring of meditation And aim at the target, the Lord of Love. The mantram is the bow, the aspirant Is the arrow, and the Lord the target. Now draw the bowstring of meditation, And hitting the target be one with Him. The Mundaka Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaren Being human is not a simple thing. We come into these bodies, into this world, with no skills whatsoever. Anything we may have picked up in past lives are of necessity forgotten. Many of us end up with parents who know next to nothing about child-rearing, and whose own life skills may be lacking, who parent by trial and error, or simply by expediency and happenstance (for when you're struggling to figure it out yourself while making enough money to support a family and building a career and "working on" your marriage/relationship, much subtlety can fall by the wayside).    Then we go to school, to be taught and socialized, and what they teach us is not how to be in the moment, how to be present to each other and to the world; rather they teach us, mainly, to memorize, to speculate, to break things down into their constituent parts and leave our understanding of the movement and operation of the whole to someone or something else. We are taught to follow orders, often without knowing the "why" of things; we are taught to conform, all of us saying the pledge of allegiance together (do they still do that?), often dressing alike, being asked to "behave" alike; we are taught to see what's wrong with things: remember those puzzlers? "What's wrong with this picture?" and there'd be someone riding a bicycle that is upside down, and someone with three hands, and you'd go through and circle all the "wrong" things?   Then we're sent out into the world and told to thrive.   It's no one's fault. We can teach only what we know, and what most know is only what they were taught by others who didn't know.   Eventually, though, we realize there must be more. We begin to seek. And eventually that seeking leads us back to ourselves and we must find the way to transcend this relative world, transcend our limited thinking, transcend our narrow experience of life; somehow finding our way to experience the wholeness of life and our place in it, rather than our felt separation from it..   Our meditation is one way. One way to have an actual experience of Being. An experience of our true Self. It is not the only way, but it is a way that works, consistently, and that consistently leads us in the direction of the joy and bliss of Being that is our birthright. And as we embrace this practice and the world view from which it comes, we become able to pass on to our own children some ideas and some tools--of wholeness and peace, joy and compassion, endless possibility--the sum of which will grow in them the ability to find for themselves a meaningful life, a joyful existence. And that makes the first part of all this worth going through.   Today I will have compassion for myself, and others like me, for those learned beliefs and behaviors that have ceased to work, and that have kept me separate from the world and from my fellows. I will dedicate myself at least once today to knowing what I am beyond these beliefs and behaviors.   All original material copyright © 2015 Jeff Kober

One thing [Jesus] said was 'Blessed are the peacemakers for they are called the children of God'. He did not say a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, a Jew or a Sikh. If he or she is a peacemaker, he is a child of God. He also said 'Bless those that curse you, do good to those who hate you'. This is the complete opposite of what we usually want to do when someone curses us.

He also said, 'Lay treasures in your heart where no thieves will break in and steal'. This is what we were just talking about. This treasure is the spark of the Supreme Being that resides in the heart of each and every one of us. 'Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.' It is a Vedantic statement. Its very nature is peace, bliss and happiness. If you hold on to that, you will need nothing.

Can you imagine someone saying, 'Bless them that curse you'? This can come only from a person who has a pure heart.The way of the world is to bless those that bless you and catch those that curse you and beat them up.

Our religions may be different, our ideologies may be different, we may come from different places, but we should remember one thing - we are all human beings and we all seek peace and happiness. When the Jew says Shalom he means peace. When the Muslim says Salaamhe means peace. And, what do they do? Sometimes, in this world, people do exactly the opposite of what their religion says.

And for us, in the ancient Hindu system of thought, everything starts with 'Om Shaanti, Shaanti, Shaanti.' When you go to a temple and you get prasaad - it means may you have peace. If you look up the meaning of the word prasaad in Sanskrit, this is what it means - peace.

There is nobody who does not seek it. In this, we are all the same - we all desire peace and happiness. As human beings with the same desires and same yearnings, we are One and are not different from each other.

Sri M, in a talk at the Nirahaar Satyagraha against Terrorism and Violence in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, October 20, 2015

There is a Universal Wholeness seeking expression through everything. We are calling it simply Life. The religionist calls it God. The philosopher calls it Reality. Life is infinite energy coupled with limitless creative imagination. 

...[Life] is the invisible essence and substance of every visible form. Its nature is goodness, truth, wisdom and beauty, as well as energy and imagination. Our highest satisfaction comes from a sense of conscious union with this invisible Life. 

All human endeavor is an attempt to get back to first principles, to find such an inward wholeness that all sense of fear, doubt and uncertainty vanishes.

All quotes from Ernest Holmes,

This Thing Called You

Don't

Surrender

Your loneliness so quickly.

Let it cut more

Deep.

 

Let it ferment and season you

As few human

Or even divine ingredients can.

 

Something missing in my heart tonight

Has made my eyes so soft,

My voice so

Tender,

 

My need of God

Absolutely

Clear.

Hafiz,

My Eyes So Soft

This journey has taken its toll
     My body, older, less agile
          Struggles as it faces
The cold, the rain, and...
                                       uncertainty.

Yet, my heart knows where I must be.

As I shed these ill-considered
    Personal choices, commitments,
          And, yes, relationships

I find myself inner resolve, focused
    On what I know
          Is best for me.

What I seek has been inside of me
    All along, ...and, now,

It will be fulfilled, and
   I'll be transformed into who
        and where I'm meant to be.

The universe is programmed to manifest, through you, the highest possibilities for your creativity and joy. And that never, ever changes. In God's Mind you are never too old; in God's Mind you are never inadequate; in God's Mind you are not your resume or your failures. In God's Mind, there is no mistake that you are not given the opportunity to correct, nor anything anyone did to you that cannot be compensated for when you forgive and move on.

 

Nothing about your material circumstances has the power to stop the engine of cosmic intention that you be blessed. And you are blessed "eternally," which means moment after moment after moment. In any instant, regardless of what has happened in the past, the universe has arranged and is continuing to arrange infinite possibilities for you to prosper. If you cannot see this now--if despair and anxiety hang like a veil before your eyes, preventing you from mustering any faith in God at all--then in this moment lean on mine. One mind joined with another, regardless of their position in time or space, can remove whatever chains would bind us and deliver us to that sweet, sweet realm where things come full circle and there is always a chance to begin again.

Marianne Williamson,

The Law of Divine Compensation

Spiritual experience is a fact. Spirituality may be defined as an atmosphere of good, the realization of God. It cannot--and does not--borrow its light from another, no matter how great or noble that other may be. It springs from within, coming from that never-failing fountain of life, which quenches every thirst, whose Source is in eternity; the well-spring of self-existence. It is a revelation of the self to the self, putting one back on the track of his own self-dependence on Spirit, his own at-one-ment with Reality.

Ernest Holmes,

The Science of Mind

One basic truth that is of inestimable value and usefulness is this dictum: all fear is fallacious and not based in fact. Fear is overcome by walking directly through it until one breaks through into the joy that the fear is blocking. The joy that follows facing any spiritual fear comes from the discovery that it was merely an illusion without basis or reality.

David Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., 

Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self

Of all the world Those who want Freedom are few. Those who are burning for Freedom are even fewer. Those who strive one pointedly are even fewer. Those who do not return to the senses are even fewer. Those who go on the razors edge are even fewer still. Those who do not fall off this edge are even fewer still. Those who attain the Self are so few! Strive, strive, it is so rare that you are here. You have a mountain of merits to bring you here. Do not waste it! Strive! Sri H. W. L. Poonja, The Truth Is

You should have
             heard him.
                      his voice was
unforgettable, irresistible, hi voice
was an imaginary garden woven though with fragrance.

Did you ever have a family?
                      Their eyes are closed.
That's how I know
            we're there
                      inside it.
it's made of sound and steam
that weaves between dark
dining room, bright kitchen.
We're there because I'm hungry,
and we'll all be eating soon
                     together, and the hunger's sweet.

                       -- Alan Shapiro, "Song and Dance"

Questioner:  How are we to treat others?

Ramana Maharishi:  There are no others.

I have been thinking of the difference between water

         and the waves on it.

Rising, water's still water,

            falling back,

                     it is water,

will you give me a hint

         how to tell them apart?

 

         Because someone has made up the word

                     wave, do I have to distinguish it from water?

 

         There is a Secret One inside us;

         the planets in all the galaxies

                     pass through his hands like beads.

 

         That is a string of beads one should look at with luminous eyes.

    Kabir

Woke up

     Too warm and in need

          Of a cool breeze.

Went to the window

     I had left the shade up.

          As I stared out into a night of diamonds.

Within seconds a brightly bit of brilliance

     Fell from the sky

         A flash of insight, innocence and hope.

Was this a stark reminder?

     Out of the fathomless darkness

          A treasured gift of hope.

Long ago I was taught how to explore myself, assessing my strengths and weaknesses. And, dealing with the difference between lonely and alone.  Here is something I refer to whenever doubts enter my mind about who I am, where I am headed and what I expect to find when I arrive.

Own the uncomfortable in-between where you experience the mélange of weird and wild. Play around in the lingering space that the world calls “loneliness.” Dance in your thoughts and make sure they don’t get too boring. Feel out the difference between your mind and everyone else’s and appreciate your inner-monologue as your longest standing friend.

Be alone. But never, ever, for as long as you live, be lonely.

I have been in love in numberless forms, numberless times.
     In life after life, in age after age, forever.

My spellbound heart has made and remade itself.

I take you a gift, which you wear in your many forms,
     In life after life, in age after age, forever.

I force myself to examine what substance, if any, 
     my cherished views possess.

I dare myself to comprehend 
     the emptiness of my stated position.

I challenge myself to determine whether I own the capacity 
     to embrace effortlessly the quiet mind.

I realize the emptiness of notions of ownership, 
     and find my true home. 

I understand the emptiness of selfishness,
     only then do I touch upon true wealth.

For my granddaughter...

Finding out who you are
requires searching,
seeing,
hiding your eyes from distractions. 
Not believing you should 
never open
your soul. 
Nor, hoping someone
will save you. 
And knowing,
realizing,
that only you can.

This past few days I finally knew 
what I had to do. 
Voices around me kept
kept promoting their bad advice.
But I did not stop. 

The wind pried with stiff fingers 
at the very foundations
of my resolve. 
It was already late. 

But, gradually, I left
those voices behind.
The stars burnt 
through the clouds. 
And, I heard a new voice.

Slowly I recognized it as my own.
It kept me company 
as I ventured 
into this vivid world.

Determined to accomplish 
the only thing I knew I could do.
Determined to save 
the only life I could save.

(after Mary Oliver)

The melody will not be denied,

     Gleaned from dreams,

          Crafted with skill and grace.

The tune reveals itself in black on white,

     Echoing into ivory,

          While a full moon prowls rakish clouds. 

The stillness outside belies the churn within,

     The refrain encases the song,

          As darkness unlocks perfect symphonies.