BLESSINGS

We Send You Our Blessings

I choose a serene way of life .

I choose a serene way of life.


If I want to live in a peaceful world, then it is up to me to make sure that I am a peaceful person. No matter how others behave, I keep peace in my heart. I declare peace in the midst of chaos or madness. I surround all difficult situations with peace and love. I send thoughts of peace to all troubled parts of the world. If I want the world to change for the better, then I need to change the way I see the world. I am now willing to see life in a very positive way. I know that peace begins with my own thoughts. As I choose peaceful thoughts, I am connected with like-minded, peaceful-thinking people. Together we will help bring peace and loving kindness to our world.Peace begins with me.

Louise Hay

HAIR and now EN-LIGHT-EN-MEANT

Our space songs on a spider web sitar
Life is around you and in you
Answer for Timothy Leary, dearie
Let the sunshineLet the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sun shine in...


and

Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song

Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song
Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song
Singing a song
Humming a song
Singing a song
Loving a song
Laughing a song
Singing a song
Sing the song
Song song song sing
Sing sing sing sing song

all from HAIR

Summer Solstice 2006

How are we all doing ??

Here in the northern hemisphere we are in the middle of summer while our Aussie friends are in the middle of winter.

I spent the day with my soul sisters J&G. Our peer group meeting was at G's place. We'd all been longing to meet as several weeks had

whizzed by since our last meeting.

Our meeting lasted all day in the mos tbeautiful of surroundings .. it's always a treat to be at G&Js house which overlooks the Baltic sea and you can see the big ferries passing by .. it is soooo beautiful there.

J. came home and joined us for dinner of fresh salmon baked in the oven with leeks and new potatoes with lots of dill , then yummy chocolate cake with strawberries and icecream .. crisp white wine well chilled ..." Nottinghill "

At one point i was gazing out of the kitchen window onto lilacs and lots of green shrubbery and many lupins .. It was raining and everything looked so beautiful intensely GREEN and fresh through the haze of the gentle warm summer rain. There is such power and potency in nature right now.

SUMMER SOLSTICE yesterday !!! Longest day . Midsummer this weekend . I'm feeling a sort of urgency ....wanting to make the most of this .. passion .. a desire to say YES YES YES to everything. But HOW ???

" Passion emerges when your essence expresses itself." I read today .

In what situations have you experienced your life to the fullest?

and

How do you stop yourself from fully expressing who you are?
How do you ration your passion ???




LOVE LOVE LOVE to us all .. happy SOLSTICE and MIDSUMMER / MIDWINTER to us all.



paintings by Diane Ainsworth .
http://www.anneirwinfineart.com/

A couple of very special cats

Lara's cats .

Lara's flowers from Siberia

More about Mara

Karma HalW's blog : Mara, Satan and Identity Theft

" Not all the travellers did this, but a lot did. So when they encountered stories of the Buddha being tempted by Mara - well you don't need to be a genius to see what happens next. 'Mara' is equated with 'Satan' - tempting and being behind all the pain and suffering. Let me suggest a radical re-interpretation.'Mara' itself has multiple identities. 'Mara' is the daemon holding the 'Wheel of Becoming' (also known as the wheel of life'). So Mara is a personification of Death or more accurately of Transience. And that is simply the way things are. Samsara is transience plus clinging. So Mara is holding the wheel of becoming. But Mara is also the highest god of the sensual realm. So Mara is also a personification of all the sense pleasures that make corporeal existence so desirable. When Mara famously sent his daughters to tempt the (historical)Buddha when he was on the point of liberation, this is very similar to the imagery and thinking behind the infamous 'Last Temptation' film. Sensual desire is a fact until you see through it. Denial is not seeing through it, and denial implies the thing to be denied. What the Buddha did at liberation was disolve the mirage - that is why he gained liberation. Mara is said to fight to hold all beings within his domain. Mara hates liberation. This is simply symbolism for the mighty hold of sensuality - and possibly that mighty hold is so strong that it has created a plane of existence in which entities such as Mara can existence independent of any individual human existence.Think about that for a moment. Mara is simply trying to keep people enjoying the world. It is not trying to drag people into Hell. Everyday transient existence is Mara's realm. Mara doesn't need to drag beings into an existence disfigured by old-age, disease and death - it is there all around us.

So it seems to me that the correct parallel is that Mara is the same personification as Yahweh. Yahweh is the jealous god, the one that brooks no other, the one that seeks to hold on to every soul.Seeing Mara directly literally means Death - it means coming face to face with the dissolution of your identity. Yahweh was also famously dangerous in that respect.So I put it to you that Mara does not represent some rebellious creation, but is the very essence of daily existence ('Samsara') - and only Yahweh permeates all of existence.
Mara = Yahweh. "

About Mara

Mantra: The Sound Of Your Name as a Mantra
The Sound Of Your Name
In the famous Tantra Book, Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, there's one sutra, "Enter the sound of your name and through this sound, all sounds", that talks about the science of mantra. Your name can be used as a mantra wich serve you a double purpose.

Mâra ( Latvian mythology )

Goddess of Birth and Death; Protector of Women and Children; Goddess of the Hearth; Goddess of Earth and Water

Mâra had a number of functions. Considering how complicated a deity she is, it seems likely that her many functions are the result of a syncretism of several deities (possibly including the Virgin Mary!).

She is strongly associated with childbirth; children are said to enter the world "through the gates of Mâra". She is the protector of women, especially mothers, and children. She is also the goddess of the hearth.

Mâra is also linked with death, and often takes the form of black animals such as ravens or black hens. Finally, she is also the goddess who was responsible for the land, the waters, and every living thing.

Mâra has several symbols attributed to her.
Mâra's Sign (Mâras Zîme) looks something like God's sign (which represents the sky, as a roof over the earth), but
Mâra's Sign is an inverted version.

Mâra's Cross (Mâras Krusts) is also called the Cross of Crosses (Krustu Krusta Raksts). This cross of crosses is composed of four crosses, and was often hewn into the sacrificial stones. It was said to have significant magical powers in ancient Latvian times. It was used from the Bronze and Iron Ages into historic times in Latvia.

Ancient Latvians believed that the goddess Mâra was the provider of bread and fire and through this belief, Mâra's Cross has also become the symbol of hearth and home.

Mâra's Wave (or Mâra's Zigzag) represents water, as Mâra is also the goddess of the rivers, lakes, and seas.

In modern Dievturiba, Mara is the highest-ranking goddess, a feminine Dievs. She may be thought as alternate side of God (Like in Yin Yang). Other goddesses, sometimes all other goddesses, are considered her alternate aspects. Mara may have been the same goddess as Lopu mate as well. She is the patroness of all the feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made table, Mara - bread"), even money and markets. Being the alterante side of God, she takes away with her the body after person's death while God (Dievs) taking the soul. She is the goddess of land, it is called The Mara land. In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity. The festival Maras was held in her honor every August 15.Alternative: Marsava (Western Latvia), Moschel, Marha ---- The ogress who hags people when sleeping is also called Mara. People feel pressure on their chest, and some people report that they observed Mara laying on their chest sometimes choking their necks, and mostly accompanying with sleep paralysis. See also: incubus, succubus, Mara experience, Lucid dreaming, Kama ----- In the Bible, Naomi called herself Mara after she suffered the deaths of her husband and her two sons. -Ruth nn:mm ---- Mara was the nickname of career diplomat and former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. ----------------- In Buddhism Mara is the demon that tempted Gautama Buddha trying to seduce him with the vision of beautiful women with huge breasts and fragrant hips.

Out of the crown of an angel

Moldavite is a green meteorite and is especially good for channelling healing energy. Moldavite helps us to communicate with our higher self and extra -terrestrials.

Moldavites are in the Tektite family. They are never found alone, but rather in a strewn field. Their size ranges from microscopic (.1mm) to the size of a football, weighing many kilos. Their shape can be spherical, oval, drop shaped, dumbell, elliptical, rod-like, spiral, etc. These are all shapes found in splash patterns of liquids.

On the Mohs scale of hardness they rate anywhere from a 6.5 to 7. Diamond is a 10 and common glass about a 5. The melting point of Moldavite is 1400 degrees, whereas glass is about 1100 degrees. They contain silica and various metallic oxides, including alumina, low amounts of iron oxides and potassium oxide. They have an extremely low water content. Moldavites often contain bubbles which have a rather high vacuum, equaling the air pressure at a height of around twenty kilometers.

It is theorized that Tektites were formed when a meteor collided with the Earth with such force that melted rock was thrown at high speeds into the upper atmosphere. It is believed that they are shaped during their flight passing through the atmosphere. This occurred about 15 million years ago.

Stone age man found and used these prized stones as tools and later they were valued as talismans. We are now able to enjoy collecting or wearing these meteoric stones either in their natural state or faceted into gemstones

In legend, Moldavite is associated with the fabled Stone of the Holy Grail, which was said to be an emerald that fell from the sky, out of the crown of an angel. Exposure to the Stone of the Grail was said to quicken one's spiritual evolution.

( http://www.astrosystems.biz/AstroJewelry/moldavite_info.htm )

06-06-2006 The prayer of my heart.

A Prayer to Humankind A Poem of the Heart

HEAR, O HUMANKIND, the prayer of my heart.For are we not one, have we not one desire,to heal our Mother Earth and bind her wounds?And still to be free as the spotted Eagle climbingthe laughing breath of our Father Sky,to hear again from dark forests and flashing riversthe varied ever-changing Song of Creation?

O Humankind, are we not all brothers and sisters,are we not the grandchildren of the Great Mystery?Do we not all want to love and be loved, to workand to play, to sing and dance together?But we live with fear. Fear that is hate,fear that is ambition, competition, aggression,fear that is loneliness, anger, bitterness, cruelty,fear that is mistrust. envy. greed. vanity. . . and yet fear is only twisted love, love turned backupon itself, devouring itself, hating itself,love that was denied, love that was rejected . . .

andlove...Love is life - creation, seed and leafand blossom and fruit and seed, love is growthand search and reach and touch and dance,love is nurture and succor and feed and pleasure,love is pleasuring ourself, pleasuring each other,love is life believing in itself.

And life. . .Life is the Sacred Mystery singing to itself, dancingto its drum, telling tales, improvising, playingand we are all that Spirit, our stories allbut one cosmic story that we are loved indeed,that perfect love we seek we are already.That the love in me seeks the love in you,and if our eyes could ever meet without fear,we would recognize each other and rejoice,for love is life believing in itself.O Humankind, we must stop fearing life,fearing each other, we must absolutelystop hating ourself, resenting Creation

.... Life,O Humankind, life is the only treasure.We are the custodians of it, it is our sacred trust.Life is wondrous, awesome and holy, a burning glory,and its price is simply this: courage . . .we must be brave enough to love.Hear my heart's prayer,

O Humankind,trust in love, don't be afraid. I love youas I love life, I love myself, pleaselove me too, love yourself, for perfect love,as a wise one said, casts out all fear.If we are to live, there is no other choice,for love is life believing in itself.Above all,let us set the children free, break the trapsof fear that history has fashioned for them,free to grow, to seek and question, to dance and sing,to be dreamers of tomorrow's rainbows,and if we but give them our trust they will guide us to a New Creation,for love is life believing in itself.

Hear, O Humankind, the prayer of my heart.~Manitongquat

Manitongquat (Medicine Story) is a medicine man and storyteller of the Wampanoag Nation. This prayer came to him at the first Rainbow Gathering in 1971. Its beauty and truth moves me to my very core.


Note from Arif :
This prayer was published by the Context Institute in 1983. Here's the reference for anyone who might be interested: Being A Planetary Villager (IC#1) Winter 1983, Page 59 Copyright (c)1983, 1996 by Context Institute.

Project19 - Spice From another BLOG

Project19 - Spice
I will not fearFear is the mindkiller,Fear is the little deathThat brings total OblivionI will permit my fear to passOver me and through meAnd where it has goneI will turn the inner eyeNothing will be thereOnly I will remain.
Frank Herbert ( DUNE )

Susanne's creativity workshop

A playful weekend of expressive art; self-expression through painting , movement, writing, working with clay individually and as a group.

Here we are with our mandala .

My notes from Piero Ferrucci talk

My notes from Piero Ferrucci talk , Thursday 25 May 2006
Turning difficulties into strengths
Our failures can help us learn and grow.
Our most painful situations can be seen as challenges.
Our weakest points can become sources of hope.
Some personal details

Piero referred to several stories in his talk :

The two vases
One beautiful , the other cracked and ugly. Used every day by owner to carry water from the well . The way is long and by the time he reaches destination the cracked vase is almost empty. This makes it feel useless and sad. The owner points out all the beautiful flowers growing alongside the path and tells the vase that without the leaks these flowers would not be there.

The bags of suffering
People always complaining to the Rabbi that their suffering is the worst, worse than other people’s suffering. One day the Rabbit tells them to out their suffering in a bag and hang it on the tree. The next day instructs them to choose another person’s suffering , since that is obviously better. They soon realize that they prefer their own suffering.

We make our own suffering. Attachment to suffering makes things worse. We are not troubled by things but by our opinion of things. Can we entertain another kind of thinking ? There is no good or bad. Facts are facts .
When there seems to be no way out .

Re- framing or re-naming , is a way to turn a problem into an advantage. When the Prussians ( ? ) invaded France they had to blow up a certain bridge .The French however changed the name of the bridge. This confused the Prussians, who did not want to blow up the wrong bridge and so it was saved.
In the same way we can reframe our problems
Being less fixed and rigid in our thinking helps.

Anther story of a Jewish man who finds his family really difficult to get on with. He complains to the Rabbit that he wants heaven , not hell . The Rabbi tells him to walk along the road until he reaches heaven and points out the road ."But how far ? " asks the man – " you’ll know " replies the Rabbi . " just keep on walking ". So he walks an walks until he gets tired and then stops at an inn to rest. Before getting in to bed he puts his shoes to point in the direction he was going. During the night the devil turns his shoes around . In the morning , the man thinks – odd – but continues on his way. The path becomes familiar .. and the man delights in this as he recognises one landmark after the other and feels happier and happier . Finally he recognises a house – just like his house .. finally heaven ! And so it is. He meets his wife and children in a new light.

Lucky people
Lucky people – born that way ? or can one learn to be lucky ?
There are 4 characteristics of lucky people
Lucky people are open and maximise their life experience
Lucky people go on their hunches.
Lucky people have faith that their dreams can be realised
Lucky people will see the positive in difficult situations.

Gratefulness
Live a healthier life - For a period of six months , write down 5 things a week that you liked .Write about what might have happened and didn’t.

Happiness and unhappiness can co- exist.
Janusian thinking ( Janus with the two faces that look in two directions as the same time )
Creative people have creative thinking and hold both .
Have tolerance for ambiguity.
If we are open to contradiction more things can happen.
Pain is more unbearable when we try to resist. Go with the pain don’t resist.
Resistance creates more pain

Greek Myth of Chiron " The wounded healer "
– centaur , half man half god . Despite his immortality he was to end up dying. There was a fight bewteen Hercules and the centaurs. Chiron took no part in the fight but, was accidentally wounded by Hercules. As an immortal Chiron could not die but, lived in terrible pain. Chiron had tried to forget the human part then chose to trade his life for the release of Prometheus.Compassion developed him and allowed him to heal- became the compassionate teacher of healing.
him and allowed him to heal- became the compassionate teacher of healing.
Depression is denial of true Self- when we deny what we could be.
Joy that is mot experienced becomes depression.
Distortions of re-framing- important to listen and empathise then start thinking .
There is something very significant in pain
Your Self can be your best friend or worst enemy .
If we are open to our Higher Self we are happy
When we resist, suffering results.
" what is trying to emerge ? "
Techniques are secondary – RELATIONSHIP Is important.

R.A. " In the silence of the eternal I rest and regenerate myself "
Every part that we acknowledge tends to grow; the parts we ignore become smaller.
Study all the spectrum .

P.F. Met R. Assagioli in the sixties .
Assisted Assagioli with the writing of The Will

I found Piero Ferrucci’s talk very human , inspiring and beautiful full of simple truths and seeds for thought.

Clay in the life of a LIfe Artist

A snippet from my playful Expressive Art weekend: three days of playing, creating and self- expression together with six other " Life Artists ". Painting , directing , and " sculpting" multidimensional kinetic forms using fellow participants are all on the agenda .Finally ,working with clay and creating of a huge mandala painting together. The mandala is my height , painted on paper and gracing the only still empty white wall of my living room.

I've worked with clay before , but not quite like this. Anyway , Sunday morning found me sitting with a two pound slab of clay in my lap wondering what to do next.

" Make friends with it "" Talk to it. Listen to what it says "come the instructions.

It's the first time I've sat with a two pound lump of clay in my lap and I decide to jump in and give it my all involving the whole of my body in the shape - giving process. I decide too that this particular lump of clay will remain whole. First thing to do is to get this heavy lump of stuff into to a more manageable pliable state.

I've no idea of what it was going to be and I don't want to know either , just yet and I resist the urge to make it into something practical like a bowl or vase !!!
" trust the process "" allow "
come further instructions this time from my higher self as I sit there with my lump of clay , the parent creator responsible for breathing life into it, for birthing it. As in creating your life trusting is easier said than done. So I knead, I squeeze, I pull and pummel this lump of grey stuff. Bits of it fill my nails as they too dig in.Sweat starts to appear on my brow from the sheer effort of it all , the concentration and the focus, Then it starts to become malleable .. pliable ..bendy and formable .

First a container appears , then a chair or is it a throne but that disappears too and I know that that's not what is going to be .Next , the whole lump goes into a plastic bag and I knead it from the outside before taking out and inspecting the result . This is such fun !

Tiny cracks have appeared in its parched " skin ". It looks like an elephant's skin .
I add water .. smoothing surfaces . This is as sensuous a process as moving oil paint around on a canvas and soon the thing starts taking on a life of its own .A snake appears ....and compartments.. chambers.. rooms and more clay gets stuck under my finger nails but who cares .I'm hooked and creating , totally immersed , lost in the process of giving birth .... and then .. time is up. Voila ..... a work of art is born !

Hope

Hope

It hovers in dark cornersbefore the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyesand drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels that sail from the tops of maples.
It sprouts in each occluded eye of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segmentsurviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungsof the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,all we know of God.
It is the serum which makes us swear not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak. ~ Lisel Mueller ~


(Alive Together: New and Selected Poems)




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Cordless phones and health

Last year , I bought a cordless phone with a built- in answering machine. Great , I thought, convenient, no wires getting all tangled up. Recently my doctor and shrink , had me fill in a questionnaire and averted me to the dangers of cordless phones. He'd noticed that there was a connection between cordless phones and mental/ phsyical health. I slept on this question for 2 weeks before I finally unplugged my cordless phone.

Check this link :

http://www.tetrawatch.net/science/dect.php

My dilema now - what do I do with it ? Conscience doesn't allow me to sell it and these things need to be diposed of properly!

ON A DAY WHEN THE WIND IS PERFECT -- Rumi

ON A DAY WHEN THE WIND IS PERFECT -- Rumi


On a day when the wind is perfect,the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.Today is such a day.

My eyes are like the sun that makes promises;the promise of lifethat it always keeps

each morning.

The living heart gives to us as does that luminous sphere,both caress the earth with greattenderness.

This is a breeze that can enter the soul.This love I know plays a drum. Arms move around me;who can contain their self before my beauty?

Peace is wonderful,but ecstatic dance is more fun, and less narcissistic; gregarious He makes our lips.

On a day when the wind is perfect,the sail just needs to openand the love starts.

Today is such a day.

~ Rumi ~

Vipassana Meditation

Interesting.

The Buddhists monks at the Vihara taught me Vipassana meditation years ago and I've done weekend retreats observing the 5 precepts , but 10 days seems quite a challenge.

All who attend a Vipassana course must conscientiously undertake the following five precepts for the duration of the course:

1. to abstain from killing any living creature;

2. to abstain from stealing;

3. to abstain from all sexual activity;

4. to abstain from telling lies;

5. to abstain from all intoxicants.

Do I dare? Ten days. The process of self-purification by introspection is certainly never easy. The code of discipline at the centre is strict , but then rewards are great.

" Vipassana is a technique that will eradicate suffering.
It is an art of living that one can use to make positive contributions to society.
It is a method of mental purification which allows one to face life's tensions and problems in a calm, balanced way. "

Dhamma Dipa Vipassana Meditation Centre, UK

Poets

Poets are not those who write poetry,

but all those whose hearts are filled with the sacred spirit of Love.

What if death is like an orgasm ?

What if death is like an orgasm ?
The French call the orgasm " le petit mort " - the little death.
Apparently , the moment of orgasm can be intensified by holding the breath.
People have died while practising and experimenting with this technique.
There's a name for this ... can't remember it right now.
BREATH .. yet another common denominator in life and death.
Breathe life into something
Hold your breath and die.
Breathe in.... and be IN-SPIRED !