Sitting with the unknown may arouse a variety of experiences. fear and anxiety. Excitement and adventure. It may even evoke a sense of awe, halting our running mind. Whatever the reaction there is one thing for sure, our life is pervaded by it. It lies beneath our thin facade of control.
The tantras view the human body as sacred, as a temple of divine beings. Present the best food you can imagine to this body mandala of yourself and others. It is inhabited by gods and goddesses living there as in a heavenly realm, in forms made of subtle light and vibration.
Listen to your favorite piece of music. It is not your ears that hear, but your consciousness. Usually we think that we hear better by concentrating and focusing, but it is only apparently true. We hear much better by staying unoccupied.
“Timing is only everything”, A professor whose name has been washed away by the sands of time, recalling the words of his professor when he and his fiancé were never happy with one another and ready to get married at the same time.
His legs are outstretched in length while he sits upon the ground. In action thus rendered passive. His torso folding forward
with hands that touch the feet. The body thus becoming halved.
Grace be you, Peace deceived you, Love enveloped you, Time consumed you, Hate destroyed you, Anger burnt you, Age wore you, Pain tamed you, Happiness faked you, Freedom invited you, Illusions showed you, Life lived you.
Trungpa Rinpoche gave particular emphasis to four rulers as exemplars of the spontaneous appearance of the Shambhala path: Ashoka Maharaja, Gesar, King of Ling, the third Ming Emperor, Yong Le and Prince Shotoku Taishi who was Regent of Japan. Trungpa Rinpoche referred to these four as the ancestral sovereigns of Shambhala.
Today we celebrate article number 108 from LEVEKUNST art of life with a reminder of the symbolic meaning of the mala with its 108 beads.
While biodynamic food and farming now are household words, you may wonder where it began. Rudolf Steiner formed his ideas and came forth with a radical principle, putting the individual human being at the forefront rather than the system.
Walking on the soil of Mother Earth is a way for me to feel a deep connection to myself. Taking this precious moment to really connect to the earth step by step, moment by moment, breath by breath immediately transforms my inner and outer landscape.
Tonight, or this morning early hours, I felt compelled to revisit the memory of a retreat. I share a poem, which is inspired by my stay at Nagi Gompa, Nepal.
Today, on a very special day, I want to share for the first time in English, some words from a real saint and true of master of freedom. Just thinking of him brings tears to my eyes and my heart aches to realize the awakened state completely. His name was Adeu Rinpoche.
This verse of four lines is the first utterance of Buddha Shakyamuni after awakening to true and complete enlightenment, in the peaceful shade of a large pipal tree. It which expresses the very essence of realization.
How would you imagine the most compassionate beings in the universe? Would they be like the Mondoshawans, aliens hailing from a far away planet who visit every five millennium to save us from the evil?
If there is natural medicine which everyone should have in their home pharmacy, Swedish Bitters deserves to be near the top of the list. It is a very reliable combination of herbs turned into a tonic and it can help for so many complaints.
Spiritual means more open-minded, sensitive and intelligent. It means combining heart and mind by being willing to allow natural intelligence to coexist with sincerity and honesty. Being this way, we appreciate people’s noble heart and good qualities.
The story goes: when Barack Obama was in high school, a teacher asked him what is the most powerful thing in the world and he responded without hesitation, “Words.” Most of us learn them quickly from an early age and accumulate more and more of them.
Suddenly embraced, By softness of knowing, Grateful, but confused, I reach for my ground
So simple, yet I resist, This softness of knowing, Come fruitless habits, Drown this heart
They had obviously done this many times before. He fought as hard as he could, hitting and kicking, and screaming curses the whole time. But there were four of them, and his body though tall and imposing no longer had enough strength. In the end, they wore him down, lying on top of him on the dusty floor.
Night closes in with its breath taking grip, Night that walks in the guise of day. Light footed across the rubble, morning comes as if rising from the dead. That which came and came again leveled a world. In that sudden tolling, what great works were interrupted?
The beating of a heart. A heart! Nine thousand hearts!
We may start clinging to certain meditative states or experiences, and may believe that we are very good meditators, or close to enlightenment. However, the moment we begin to see and recognize these patterns, it is actually quite funny. We can have a good laugh at ourselves and our habitual tendencies.