Taking a moment

Been a busy morning helping with the house work. We are taking a break and I just made me a cup of peppermint tea and sitting out back smoking a cigar. I always start thinking when I sit back here. So what am I thinking?

I am thinking about the story of our lives. From childhood until now. I am thinking about how we all as individuals start equally.

Then from that point on its a matter of how we each respond to our environments and our moments. We make the decisions, no one else. I just wonder what the world would be like if we all realized that and that we really are no different. We need and want the same things in the end. Love, respect, peace, security and the list goes on. Think what it would be like....

Peace

What exactly makes for peace and why should we pursue it.  It's such a simple word.  Peace is not simply the absence of conflict, whether it be personal or international.  Peace is not simply tolerance of others, regardless of their beliefs, behavior, or attitudes.  In order to have peace on a grand scale, it is necessary to have peace on a personal level.  Peace cannot be found in wealth.  It cannot be found in power.  It cannot be found in pleasure.  Our world is filled with miserable people who have tried to find peace in all of these things.  True peace comes from our Creator.  However, we must seek it out.  Again, the world is filled with miserable Christians who thought that their Christian label would bring peace.  We are not promised wealth.  We are not promised power.  We are not promised a life filled with pleasure.  We are promised that the God, who created us and sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins, will give us peace in the midst of our surroundings.  Regardless of our position in life and the circumstances we find ourselves in, if we can look to God Almighty and truly say, "It Is Well With My Soul", then we have found peace.  May you and yours find peace.  Enjoy

Ten Rules for Being Human

1.            You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.

2.            You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."

3.            There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."

4.            Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5.            Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.

6.            "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

7.            Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8.            What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9.            Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10.          You will forget all this.

Awareness itself is always free.

If you are completely aware

in this moment,

watching what is arising

instead of being caught up

in what is arising,

then the experience is freedom.

Yet if you remain aware

without getting caught up,

at some point it will no longer

feel like freedom.

The urge to again attach

yourself and identify yourself

to what is here

is so strong

that eventually

it will overpower awareness

and again you will identify

with what is here in order

to release this build up

of pressure.

Many will simply

dip in and out

of awareness.

They will have a taste of awareness

and then go back to identification

and in this way,

the bliss of awareness

begins to flow over

into mind identification.

This is certainly one method.

Another method

is to consciously lengthen

that time of awareness

or even break out of that

urge to identify with thinking

all together.

Then there is the willingness

to do whatever it takes;

to commit yourself

to spiritual practice

and disciplines

which are conducive to awareness.

You really either fall in love

with awareness

or you are so desperate

to break out of mind identification

that you give yourself fully to the task.

And although outer things

get addressed like

diet, exercise, relinquishing

addictions, creating an enlightened

energetic environment around you,

there is an inner movement

that takes place:

The willingness to remain

firm in awareness

use whatever techniques

or non techniques

to break through that

urge to identify with the mind.

Or, through observation,

you pick that

mind identification mechanism apart piece by piece

until it breaks,

until you are released

into an unconditional awareness

that does not pull you back.

In this method

you most likely move beyond

the social aspect

of spirituality,

you go beyond the beliefs

and ideas of how it is supposed

to be and investigate for yourself

what really is true in this moment,

what really works for you

to fully awaken to freedom.

And what really works

maybe completely

different than what

you thought it would be.

You come out the other end

completely different

than who you thought you were

in the first place.

And that is magnificent,

that is true freedom.

To realize bliss

all ideas of who you think

you are and what you know

fly out the window.

A little consideration...

A little consideration of what takes place around us every day would show us that a higher law than that of our will regulates events; that only in our easy, simple spontaneous action are we strong, and by contenting ourselves with obedience we become divine.