THE WAY TO BE...

Words of spiritual teachers

If your mind assumes a defensive posture, you thereby make your attacker.

(Hugh Prather)

Waiting is intentional intent of expectancy; patience is being. In a state of being you are without pressure, you are without demand and you are allowed to create.

(Ramtha)

The surest way to become tense, awkward, and confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much. While the clear mind listens to a bird singing, the overstuffed – full – of – knowledge mind wonders what kind of bird is singing!            (Benjamine Hoff)

In spite of great distances, there is nowhere to go, in spite of everywhere else in the universe, the answer is here. There are no destinations, only the journey reached where ever we are.

(Tao)

When you find yourself in a battle with life, lose. There is no triumph over truth.

(Hugh Prather)

I am satisfied there is nothing to be done but to make the best of what cannot be helped, to act with reason oneself and with a good conscience. And that will not give all the joys some people wish for, yet it will make one very quiet.

(Lao Tzu)

The wise are who they are. They work with what they’ve got and do what they can do.

(Benjamine Hoff)

In terms of having, life is experienced as a horizontal expanse precipitating towards ever receding horizons; in terms of being, life is felt in vertical depths as awesome, foreboding and silently mysterious.

(Stephen Batchelor)

Life is most skillfully lived when one sails a boat, rather than rowing it.

(Ramtha)

It is the truth that liberates, not your effort to be free. When the mind is still – it is only then that it perceives the truth.

(J. Krishnamurti)

The substance of a thought is the peace it brings.

(Hugh Prather)

Water is humble, it always seeks the low level, which men abhor. But yet, water finally overcomes everything and wears away the hardest rocks.

(Lao Tzu)

To hide anything is to keep it. And tight is the grip of guilt.

(Hugh Prather)

We cannot change the way the world is, but by opening ourselves to the world as it is, we may find that gentleness, decency, and bravery are available – not only to us, but to all human beings.

(Chaoyang Trungpa)

If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people. It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.

(Anthony de Mello)

Don’t fight a fact, deal with it.

(Hugh Prather)

Just as searching creates looking that prevents seeing, needing creates seeking that prevents finding. Finding is the opening that recognizes!

(Tao)

It is only through radical acceptance of what we are and the adoption of a path that takes into account the unfolding of our totality, that anxiety can be transcended and finally overcome.

(Stephen Batchelor)

Reverence is a way of being, but the path to reverence is through your heart, and only an awareness of your feelings can open your heart.

(Gary Zukav)

Become an ear that gives heed to every single thing the universe is saying. The moment you hear something you yourself are saying, stop.

(Anthony de Mello)

To experience peace, it is only necessary to practice the condition that will allow peace to come to your awareness. Peace is a given.

(Hugh Prather)

***

GLOBAL WELL-BEING

The word prevention [from the Latin “praeventire”, to anticipate] is any action directed to prevent or tending to slow, stop or interrupt the course of an illness or suffering. At the same time, we should remember that health by definition is a bio-psycho-social well-being and not just absence of disease.

The recent global health reports made me more convinced that in spite of all the achievements, the world in general and the developing countries in particular, are still in need of help and support in relation to the scope of health care which includes the diseases or health problems, equity, monitoring of progress and performance improvement. Major challenges in health care are related to reduction of maternal and child mortality, nutritional health, dealing with infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases and their risk factors, air pollution, the need for drinking water, sanitation and much more. In addition, there are major data gaps for many health indicators which require investments in strengthening the health information and statistical system.

Having lived and worked in both the developing and the developed world I believe that more resources have to be allocated to enable anticipation and immediate prevention of health problems rather than just dealing with consequences.

To all of the above-mentioned challenges we should also add Anthropocene which is viewed as the dominant influence of humans on climate, environment, and life of other species.

You can read my blog post about this issue using the following link:

http://metanoia.unknown.blogspot.com/2016/09/did-we-permanently-change-planet.html

Please note that in the list of healthcare challenges, the first one is and has always been, reducing the mother and child mortality which is high because of their vulnerabilities. How can we not have global orientation when year after year we witness that mothers and children are the victims and the ones who are suffering and dying the most. Why do we have wars and why don’t we let those who need help to seek our help.

There is a global need for spreading kindness instead of fear and unkindness!

LOVE IS ....

Words of Spiritual Teachers:

A word used to describe a specialness of feeling, a demonstrable affection for a person or idea. Unfortunately, man rarely understands the pure, undiluted essence of “love as harmony” or “love as concern for the whole”.

(Meredith Young).

Love is not sentiment. To be sentimental, to be emotional, is not love, because sentimentality and emotions are mere sensations, a form of self-expansion. To be full of emotion is obviously not love, because a sentimental person can be cruel when his sentiments are not responded to, when his feelings have no outlet. An emotional person can be stirred to hatred, to war, to butchery.

(J. Krishnamurti).

You must learn to love everything and everyone without distinction or discrimination. The highest kind of love of all is the perfectly impartial love. Then you will be love itself and you can only act in love, you will only need to radiate yourself, to be yourself, and the whole universe will be able to draw from your warmth, from your light, and from your strength.

(Elizabeth Haich).

It is love alone that can solve our human problems. It is only when we know how to love each other that there can be cooperation, that there can be intelligent functioning, a coming together over any question. Where there is action of the self there is no love, it is a self-conscious activity of the “me” which hopes through loving to gain a result.

(J. Krishnamurti).

Love does not seek to hold, but to give.

(Dorothy McClean).

Love is pursuit of the whole.

(Rick Fields).

When you love someone, when you know they’re ready to learn and grow, you set them free. How could you learn, how could you feel your experiences if you knew I was there, a shield between you and your choices.

(Richard Bach).

A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.

(Ken Keyes Jr.)

Limitless love and truth is always transmitting to and through us, if we can awaken to it.

(David Spangler).

Only my sincere wish that you continue following what speaks within you, that you take your own time and your own way and that you never feel the need to even notice my blessing, because a blessing can have no price. Just my recognition that you are free, because that is what love is.

(Hugh Prather).

One cannot create love in a fragmentary way, though one can create desire. One can realize the oneness we all share, and this realization itself is the vision of love that will reflect itself though our actions.

(David Spangler).

Fear is the condition of mind that accompanies a deep disbelief in love.

(Hugh Prather).

The human emotional spectrum can be broken down into two basic elements: Love and Fear.

The highest frequency current, the highest energy current is love. It produces buoyancy, radiance, lightness and joy.

(Gary Zukav).

Intensities of joy and grief produce the same “heartbreak” feeling which is expressed in weeping. To fall deeply in love is to enter a state where delight and anguish are at times so interwoven as to be indistinguishable. But the context of the feeling changes its interpretation, depending on whether the circumstances which arouse it are for us or against us.

(Alan Watts).

To love is to free all you see from how you remember it. See it now. Now and love are the same.

(Hugh Prather).

Action guided by a sense of inadequacy will express the emptiness from which it springs rather than fullness, hunger rather than strength. Thus, when our love for others is based simply on mutual need it becomes strangling.

(Alan Watts).

Love is total absence of fear of love.

(Anthony de Mello).

People who are conscious on this planet do not possess anybody; they feel themselves one with the infinite all.

(Elizabeth Haich).

All actions are based on an idea or previous experience, shaping actions. An action without ideation is real love.

(J. Krishnamurti).

***

IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS

Words of Spiritual Teachers

Happiness is a present attitude and not a future condition.

(Hugh Prather)

Happiness happens when your consciousness is not dominated by addictions and demands.

(Ken Keyes)

Happiness is appreciating, learning from, and working with whatever happens in everyday life. The natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.

(Benjamine Hoff)

  

The moment I ceased to rely so desperately on others for my happiness, I found it in myself.

(Liv Ulman)

Wisdom, happiness, and courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they are part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. They are not only the ending, but the beginning as well.

(Benjamine Hoff)

The state of creativeness by itself brings happiness.

(J. Krishnamurti)

Do you want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got.

(Benjamine Hoff)

Real happiness does not exist because each and everything is so unstable.

(Buddha)

The brain doesn’t care if its stimulation is happy or sad, and once it receives that stimulation, it is unwilling to give it up easily. Change your negative thoughts and open your mind and heart to the joy of day to day life.

(Paul Pearsall)

There is no separation between sadness and happiness in life and we should not prefer one to the other. We should be able to live fully with both and hold both in our heart to experience balance and completeness. This is what is behind rituals and life is a ritual of mindfulness.

(Pema Chodron)

Be present enough to recognize happiness!

(Bernard De Koven)

Acknowledging the preciousness of each day is a good way to live, a good way to reconnect with our basic joy.

(Pema Chodron)

  

What do the sad people have in common?

It seems they have all

built a shrine to the past.

What is the beginning of happiness?

It is to stop doing that.

(Hafiz)

The secret of happiness is to observe and see all the marvels of the world, and never forget what is entrusted to you.

(Paulo Coelho)

There are five things we cannot change and we find happiness by embracing them:

·       Everything changes and ends

·       Things do not always go according to plan

·       Life is not always fair

·       Pain is part of life

·       People are not loving and loyal all the time

(David Richo)

Happiness is our natural state and it cannot be acquired. We don’t have to add anything in order to be happy but we’ve got to drop somethings which are the illusions, the cravings and the negative feelings that we have.

(Anthony De Mello)

INTENTIONAL LIFE

Every action in life is motivated by and begins with an intention. The important question is whether we are conscious of our intentions or life is just happening to us!

The facts are as follows:

Most people are simply unaware of their intentions behind what they think or what they do in day to day life, and as a result, they accumulate a collection of life experiences based on what happens to them without seeing the significance of their intentions.

When we think about doing something we are in fact following an intention which may be known or unknown to us but at the same time we should know that at that moment we are co-creating our own realities and we better be clear about our intentions.

To be able to live an intentional life we need to be aware of who we are, what do we really want and why we want that. If not, we will constantly find ourselves saying something but intending something else.

Any change begins with an intention because our intentions open us to new perceptions which consequently lead us to a new direction in life.

To live an intentional life means to be at peace within oneself and to lead a life which does not create animosity but it is full of kindness and generosity to all other beings. Our behaviors reflect our intentions which means “we say so”!

In an intentional life, there is no separation between us and other beings and we try to solve the problems of existence and not just our own personal problems. We choose the most positive thoughts and actions in each moment while remembering that we are the world and not just individuals.

Living an intentional life means that we listen to others without interpretation, we observe without judgment and we deal with what is at hand with compassion. The question to ask ourselves is – why am I thinking of doing this and what are my true intentions.

I would think that if the human beings were intentionally more careful in their lives we would not have caused all the atrocities in nature, in the environment and for many other beings on earth, the way that we have done so far.

Let us live an intentional life in 2017 and onward hoping to create better realities for ourselves and for all other beings.