READ: Gitmo or Gandhi by Ed and Deb Shapiro
May 8, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Ego, Forgiveness, Insights, Mindfulness, Oneness In Action, Personal Growth, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Mahatma Gandhi
The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, built on a legacy of fear, was established to deal with violent terrorists but, instead, became the cause of further suffering and chaos. It is a prime example of the mindless, cruel and inhuman way we abuse our fellow human beings. For despite whatever these men may or may not have done they are our human beings and inflicting pain, especially the methods used at Gitmo, achieves nothing but further pain. Two wrongs do not make a right; to meet violence with more violence does not bring peace. Closing Gitmo does not say we condone violence, but that we do not intend to continue to act in such a barbaric way.
Of course, there are those who oppose closing the camp. Fear is a powerful seductress waiting around every corner to grab our attention; hatred is like a snake always ready to bite. The nature of fear is to hold us back, to keep us in a place of closed heartedness. It will create an enemy even if one does not exist. Being fearless does not mean we have to stop or deny the fear; fearlessness is not a state of being without fear. Rather, it is fully feeling the fear, getting to know it, and then making friends with it.
If we divide reality into two camps—the violent and the nonviolent— and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace. Thich Nhat Hanh, Noble Peace Prize Nominee
Mahatma Gandhi changed the course of history in India by proving that non-violence is more powerful than violence, bringing an end to British domination as he inspired millions of others to follow his lead. The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize for practicing non-violence towards the invading Chinese. Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Ang San Suu Kyi, and Archbishop Tutu have all stood out as practicing harmlessness or pacifism, often in the face of tremendous opposition, while Swami Satchidananda taught ahimsa or non-injury is the one practice in yoga that leads to Self-realization.
Deb was raised a Quaker, whose creed is found in the statement, To travel over the earth meeting that of God in every man. This is reflected in the Buddhist and Yoga teaching of ahimsa. This sounds so simple, but harmlessness actually requires a complete shift in attitude. In a world where selfishness and self-interest are the norm it takes great courage not to react with greed or anger, which only cause harm. Simply by causing less pain, each of us can bring greater dignity to or world. By recognizing the fundamental equality of all beings, harm is replaced with harmlessness, disrespect with respect.
We will always blame and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the degree of violence in ourselves. We must work on ourselves as well as with those we condemn if we wish to move towards peace. Thich Nhat Hanh
Aspiring to live harmlessly confronts us with the many ways we may be causing harm without realizing it, whether by ignoring someone’s feelings, by using more of the earth’s resources than we need, or by buying products made by underage and underpaid workers. What to do when ants or cockroaches invade the kitchen or slugs eat away at the vegetable garden, yet we do not want to harm them?
And how often do we do things that are hurtful or harmful to ourselves? How many times a day, subtly or otherwise, do we put ourselves down, reaffirm our hopelessness, dislike our appearance, or see ourselves as incompetent or unworthy? How much resentment, guilt or shame are we holding on to, thus perpetuating past negativity?
Are you ready to honor yourself and others? Is it not time to end the war within? For only then can we end the violence in the world.
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
Read more from Ed and Deb Shapiro:
Why Do We Enjoy Making Fun of Others? by Ed and Deb Shapiro
What The Buddha Might Say To Mitt Romney by Ed and Deb Shapiro
READ: Healing ~ Name it, Move it, Mind it, Soul it! by Em Claire
April 26, 2012 by Em Claire
Filed under •-Feature, Em Claire, Enlightenment, Meditation, Mindfulness, Nature, Personal Growth, Poetry, Reflection, Spirituality
And did you get what you
wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself Beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
(Raymond Carver, Late Fragment)
It was a springlike day, my close girlfriend and I sitting with hot mugs of tea, watching the hail and the sun alternate outside the window. We were sharing comfy galpal time together on a spacious Sunday afternoon, but with the intention of “keeping it real” – a shared intention not to simply get together and engage in our stories about ourselves, or our stories about others – but to do The Work with our beliefs, a process discovered and shared by the beloved Byron Katie, author of Loving What Is.
Sometimes I’ll ask my friends how I can best support them when they come to me with stuff roiling and boiling, churning and turning. Would it be most helpful if I just listen and say nothing, allowing them to get it all out? Would they like my feedback afterward, or would they like me to simply bear witness and listen with compassion?
In this case, my friend wanted both – to get it all out, and then to have me reflect back to her what I heard or observed, and any insights I might have. “I got it,” I said. “Go for it!”
So she began to tell me about something that had recently happened between herself and her mother. At one point, when she was really rolling, she said, “You know I just hate my mother sometimes,” her face darkening, her lip shaking with a mixture of deep anger and sadness. “Okay,” she said, “I don’t really hate my mother – I don’t hate anything – but she makes me so angry.” At this point I felt drawn to interrupt her flow, not wanting to miss what I felt like was an important moment.
“Hon?” I said. “You know how I shared with you about a friend of mine who keeps having these ongoing dreams at night where he is hollering and yelling at the top of his lungs at his parents?” Her eyes lit up and she said, “Yes!” already sensing where I was going. I said, “Well, what I’m picking up on is that in those seemingly unsolicited dreams he must be speaking from a very real, very young place that needs to say those things.”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t any longer try to be “spiritual” or lofty about what feels like hatred or rage but I would name it – and then find a way to express that stuck energy in a way that’s not harmful to myself or anyone else. Then the log jam is finally moving and we are more free and in the flow and coming from a more balanced place from which to address the Mind, and to work with the core beliefs we took on as an infant, or a toddler, or young child or teen, and have carried with us for often many decades.”
My friend said, “That’s exactly right, Em. It reminds me of a process I use where I allow my body to “tone” sounds but don’t allow them to become words or anything intelligible. I drop into that feeling of anger or sadness and then just let it rip, allowing whatever sounds to come, and allowing my body to move in whatever way it does during that time – being kind to my body in the process, of course. I used to wait until I was alone in my house for a few hours and knew no one would be coming and going, and then do this practice. Even more healing was to have a close friend watch and witness it, feeding back to me what they saw that might provide even more insight later. I realize that this part is for those of us who are a little less self-conscious, but it’s profoundly helpful.”
“This is really timely,” she went on to say, setting her writing journal and pen aside. “This is exactly what’s needed before I next look at the beliefs I have around my relationship with my mom. I’m glad I’m reminding myself about this in the form of our conversation today!”
*
A day or so later I was recounting this experience to my husband in the dawning hours of the morning, triangles and rectangles of light playing across the ceiling above our bed. He said, “Yes. I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, if I may, I would add a another piece to that process. – I would say that once you have approached it from the Body, and the Mind, you want to definitely come back around and include the Soul. I’m not surprised that you are right on top of this, because in the book I’m writing right now I’m addressing the identical topic, and our explorations always seem to be right in sync.”
“Yes, Honey! – “I said, replumping my pillow emphatically. “But what I notice about myself and many of us who have been on “the spiritual path” is that we have learned to bypass what we actually feel, and we edit ourselves – even to ourselves – in order to try to fit the saintly, or enlightened ideal we have conceptualized. We try to “be” farther along the path than we actually are in that particular moment. And I think this serves no one, but only serves to increase our resentment that will come to the fore later. That’s why I no longer want to skip over what has been true for me in my body for years or decades or perhaps many generations – I want to move and release that stuck energy. Expression is our birthright and our natural state, and I think when we weren’t allowed to express in those moments our individuality or what was true for us, that energy stayed “stuck” somewhere and now is a time when we can lovingly bring our adult, aware attention to it, and allow it to move on. Let’s hear it for Recycling!”
“Agreed,” he said, apparently missing my awesome Recycling reference. “You don’t try to leap to the Soul’s perspective first – but without that larger perspective, I believe that it would be hard for any of us to make any “logical” sense of the seemingly complex relationships we have in our lives, and why they are appearing in our reality to be experienced. And my belief is that they will – keep appearing in our experience – until we understand what it is they are trying to show us.”
These are the kinds of things my Beloved and I awaken at five in the morning and lie in bed talking about. Then, we bound out of bed and onto our laptops, warmed by socks and robes and by having been met, and having felt heard.
And for me, the crucial part about having someone in my life who can truly hear me is that it has given me a cellular experience of feeling expressed and heard, which can then help me to listen to myself more of the time and yes – “to call myself Beloved; to feel myself beloved on the earth.”
As I wrote this article, I came up with a mantra to help bring consciousness to any moment in time when I feel suddenly as if something young, or deep in me has been triggered:
Name it, Move it, Mind it, Soul it
Naming it is simply telling the truth to yourself about yourself. It’s a momentary truth, but if you’re feeling it, you’re feeling it. Too late to pretend it didn’t come up and rationalize it away. So be gentle with yourself. You are really BE-ing with You, for perhaps the first time in your life!
Moving it can be done in a number of ways, too many to count here. I’ve used 1) Exercise: running, biking, or even walking straight up a steep hill to really get the energy moving out of my solar plexus 2) Yoga 3) Breathing Techniques 4) Singing 5) Chanting 6) Dancing 7) Laughing 
Toning/Moaning/Crying
Specific techniques focused on clearing the emotional body might be found on the following website, as it begins by introducing the idea that we each have a “signature sound” we came in with, and that once we discover this, it can be used to heal and balance our own mind/body whenever we choose to. As you read on, you will come to the section on releasing trauma, etc. if that is a particular section that is calling out to you. http://www.juliarogershamrick.com/articles.html?article=vocal_toning&title=Vocal%20Toning:%20Discover%20One%20of%20Your%20Power%20Tools
Minding it is turning our attention toward our longstanding thoughts, beliefs, and concepts that make up one’s constant inner dialogue and I’ve yet to find anything more helpful than Byron Katie’s process called The Work. If you are new to it, you can watch every video on her site, or on Youtube, and then download the worksheet (lovingly called the “Judge Your Neighbor” worksheet) having become more familiar with the 4 Questions and what are called “Turnarounds”. There is also a 24-hour free helpline where facilitators will take you through The Work. To find this number click on Resources, after visiting the homepage at: www.thework.com
I have also found great value in a book by Richard Moss that was recently published called Inside-Out Healing. I give it Five Stars!
Souling it can of course be achieved in countless ways as well, and although Neale is my husband, I try mightily not to frequently bring his material into my own website or into blogs so that no one feels as if they are being “upsold” once there. However, his books had a tremendous impact on my life back when I was 23, and this many years later, I continue to see incredible value in what he brings through for each of us to contemplate. Although the SouLogic Process is found in the When Everything Changes, Change Everything addendum workbook by Neale, and will appear as a deeper exploration and explanation in The Only Thing That Matters (his next book due out this fall), I wanted to give you a link here to his website where he has posted the process as well as a transcript of him taking someone through it, creating the possibility for someone to acquire a much broader understanding of what has transpired in their lives, and to find a place of true peace with what has happened. Click here: http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com/index.php?p=doc&c=soulogicprocess
(To read the transcript section first, scroll down to The SouLogic Process in Action, once there.)
My wish is that in the sharing of what is working for me, others may also benefit. Please always trust your own inner guidance as to whether any of these tools are timely for you.
All My Love and Deep Blessings, as we end this Chapter & Verse blog entry with, as always, a poem…
A Mind Full of Joy
Whereas the Heart is used to being
the only place where Love is found
a Mind full of joy
draws the Heart like a moth,
into a surprisingly different flame.
A flame where nothing burns -
no wings are forfeited.
As if God stretches the length of The Home
to abide in every room at once,
simply
because
We
can
*
“A Mind Full of Joy” – Em Claire ©2008 – All Rights Reserved
READ: What The Buddha Might Say To Mitt Romney by Ed and Deb Shapiro
April 24, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Buddhism, Insights, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Purpose, Reflection, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality, Vision
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Buddha
One of the truly great things in life is to discover our genuine and authentic self, to dance to the beat of our own drum. And so, conversely, one of the greatest challenges is to know what we think, feel, and believe, for ourselves. It is far easier to agree with others, or be influenced by them to believe as they do, than it is to be firm in our own convictions.
Trying to please others by always agreeing with them, or saying what he thinks they want to hear even if it means constantly contradicting himself, is an obvious trait of Mitt Romney’s. He appears to have no idea what he really thinks, feels, and believes for himself. As a result he is constantly flip-flopping to fit in with current policies. Hence the comparison to Etch-A-Sketch. For instance:
Flip: “I saw my father march with Martin Luther King.” Flop: “I did not see it with my own eyes.”
Flip: “Roe v. Wade has gone too far.” Flop: “I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years we should sustain and support it.”
Flip: “I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose.” Flop: “I never really called myself pro-choice.”
Flip: “I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I’m a member of the NRA and believe firmly in the right to bear arms.” Flop: Asked by reporters at the gun show whether he personally owned a gun, Romney said he did not.
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. Buddha
Another word for flip flop is confusion. When we are confused we lose sight of what is real or where we are going. This is what can happen when money and power take over and add to the delusion that we are invincible. The Buddha taught of the dangers of greed, hatred and ignorance, that he called the three poisons. Where greed grabs our desires, hatred abuses our fears, while ignorance clouds our vision.
Greed has many relatives, such as jealousy, ambition, self-centeredness, pride, and grasping, which lead to dissatisfaction, irritation, even depression. The craving to possess generates a fear of not having and limits our generosity. Romney personifies greed, not just in his many houses and cars, but in his desperate desire to win, no matter how.
Hate is destructive, indiscriminate, like a snake it can rise up out of nowhere and attack. When we are fixed in the belief that we are right then anything that questions or threatens that belief becomes the enemy to be done away with. Such hatred becomes its own worst enemy, however, for no matter how much we try to annihilate the hated one the hate remains within us.
Words have power to destroy or heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world. Buddha
Where hatred closes our heart, delusion makes us believe there is a permanent, separate and fixed ‘me,’ which means we take ourselves much too seriously; it is the belief that ‘me’ is all-powerful, and the ignorance of our essential connectedness with others. But when we constantly focus on ourselves we create suffering; such selfishness means there is no room for kindness or compassion.
When we met with the Dalai Lama, he said to us: “We are all equal here.” This is something that Mitt Romney seems to have a real difficulty with, as he continues making insensitive comments such as: “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me,” and how his wife Anne “drives a couple of Cadillacs”. Or, as Arianna Huffington said in her last Sunday Roundup blog: “Mitt Romney once again failed to defuse the dog-on-car-roof controversy, conceding that if given the chance he’d do things differently — not because it was cruel but because of the flak he’s received in the ensuing years.”
Surely it’s time for Mitt to stop trying to be loved and convince everyone he is the man of the people. He comes across as hopelessly awkward when he attempts to put himself in someone else’s shoes or equate himself with their problems, such as saying that he too was unemployed while at the same time having $100 million in the bank. Rather, it’s time for him to discover who he is and what he genuinely believes.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
Read more from VividLife.me bloggers:
Compassion The Dalai Lama Way by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Shortly after we were married we went to India and spent our honeymoon in ashrams and monasteries, and then in McCleod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile in northern India along with other Tibetan refugees who have escaped Chinese rule in Tibet. Once there we went to the Office of Securities to request a meeting with the Dalai Lama.
What Is Compassion by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Recently, a woman I met told me about her daughter who is living in South America. Her daughter is being threatened by a powerful crime family for setting up a business in their geographic area. The mother said, “I just told her, when the universe knocks you around it’s because you need to be knocked around. It’s to make you stronger for something coming down the road. You have to take it!”
READ: If You Could Question God? by Panache Desai
April 18, 2012 by Panache Desai
Filed under •-Feature, Conceptions of God, Insights, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Spiritual Guidance, Spiritual Retreats, Spiritual teachers, Spirituality
I received a thought-provoking email that I would like to share with you… someone wrote and asked: If I could ask God three questions… what would they be?
My mind immediately jumped to questions like: Who killed John F. Kennedy? Did you really make Mickey Rourke in your own image? And do you think Morgan Freeman does a good job of playing you in movies?
Then, after spending some time getting in touch with the deeper meaning of what I was being asked, I came to a surprising conclusion… I honestly don’t feel compelled to ask God anything!
At first I was honestly and deeply surprised by this revelation. The conversation in my head went a little like this: “Come on Panache… if given the chance, you really wouldn’t ask the most omnipotent being in all creation about anything? No questions at all? ”
No, I really wouldn’t. Not about the past. Not about what is unfolding right now. Not about what is going to happen in the future.
The simple truth is this. The daily interaction I have with God has shifted dramatically as I have progressed along my vibrational journey. As my own vibrational density is lovingly integrated I’ve reached deeper levels of internal harmony. Rather than questioning how life is unfolding, I simply say “thank you.”
My daily practice is one of gratitude.
From my vantage point, I have humbly witnessed that life is about trusting in the experiences I am having. Rather than getting caught up in what ifs, I chose to focus on where I am right now. If this moment is exactly where God wants me to be then who am I not to embrace and accept what’s unfolding? It is all a Divine journey and in truth I’m just along for the ride.
When you reach the point where you can accept that all that is transpiring TODAY is leading you to a greater TOMORROW, something shifts. The profound recognition and loving acceptance that you are whole and complete is unveiled. And with this realization there is nothing more you need to know.
Indeed, at this level of conscious awareness the only question left to ask is, “What’s for dinner?”
Panache Desai is an inspirational visionary and contemporary spiritual master whose gift of vibrational transformation has inspired and shifted the lives of tens of thousands. He shares eternal truths, inspirational insights, and vibrational tools to create the life of your dreams. Panache is a modern-day avatar who acts as a direct link to Divine consciousness empowering people of all ages, economic and educational backgrounds to transform their lives by connecting them with their limitless Divine nature. Young, hip and funny, Panache brings his global community together weekly via LIVE webcasting.
Read more from VividLife.me bloggers:
SCHMALTZING MY WAY TO GOD by Jeff Brown
On my spiritual journey, I searched for God everywhere: the yoga studio, the holistic workshop circuit, the shiatsu mat. A well-practiced head tripper, I hunted for God in my thoughts, somehow certain that God would arise in the form of a concept. During my materialistic phases, I imagined God a slick car, large house, a Hugo Boss suit, as though God himself wore Gucci. And for some time, I looked for God on the skyways of self-avoidance, mistaking the short-term benefits of the ungrounded bliss trip for enlightenment itself. I went down this road for some time, seemingly joyous on the outside, but a bubbling cauldron of unresolved feelings and memories in the deep within.
God is IN the People by Jeff Brown
At the heart of Soulshaping is a profound faith in the human experience, in the karmic significance of our personal identity. This stands in real contrast to some of the detachment models that are gaining favor in Western culture. These models present true-path as something distinct from the emotional body, as though our usual self-identifications are inherently inauthentic, as though our physical forms are inferior. At the extremes, they seem to suggest that God made a mistake when she placed us in human bodies. These models worry me and present an image of heightened consciousness that often feels more robotic than human, more heady than hearty.
READ: Compassion The Dalai Lama Way by Ed and Deb Shapiro
April 17, 2012 by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Filed under •-Feature, Love, Meditation, Mindfulness, Spiritual Guidance, Spirituality
Shortly after we were married we went to India and spent our honeymoon in ashrams and monasteries, and then in McCleod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile in northern India along with other Tibetan refugees who have escaped Chinese rule in Tibet. Once there we went to the Office of Securities to request a meeting with the Dalai Lama.
The following day we were scheduled for an interview. While we were waiting Ed was standing on the veranda of the Dalai Lama’s palace, which is really a very large bungalow. “I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the vast Himalayan mountain range stretching in front of me. Then I saw a monk at the further end of the veranda trying to get my attention and beckoning me to come. I called for Deb, thinking we were being taken in to see the Dalai Lama, but as we approached the monk we realized that the beckoning monk was the Dalai Lama!”
In traditional Buddhist custom, we immediately began to prostrate but he took our hands and lifted us up, saying, “No, we are all equal here.”
For Deb this was a powerful reminder of our real oneness. For Ed he felt he was with the most compassionate being he had ever met. “The Dalai Lama made me feel as if I was the most important person in the world, as if nothing mattered more than the three of us being together. He radiated kindness and true presence.”
We both saw the meaning of real compassion in him, someone who was so ordinary, so simple, and his feelings for others so genuine. We spent about 45 minutes talking with him. Looking into his eyes, we could saw all of the suffering of the world as well as oceans of compassion. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is known as Chenrezig, which means the Embodiment of Compassion, but as he says himself, “My religion is kindness.”
Compassion is probably the most important quality any of us could live by as it allows us to live with sanity and love. It is the wish that all beings be free from suffering. And that includes ourselves.
Every time we see suffering, every time we feel suffering in either ourselves or another, every time we make a mistake or say something stupid and are just about to put ourselves down, every time we encounter the confusion and difficulty of being human, every time we see someone else struggling, upset or irritated, we can transform it into acceptance, loving kindness and compassion, for that is also who we are. Just a few breaths of compassion will bring armfuls of understanding and caring into any situation. We can be compassionate because it is the foundation of who we are. It’s like a band-aide made in the heart.
Any of us are capable of losing our cool, losing connectedness to our hearts, losing perspective, getting caught up in hot emotions and causing harm. That is why compassion for ourselves is as important as compassion for others. Self-compassion enables us to transform fear, anger or resentment into forgiveness, acceptance and friendliness. By knowing our own pain and conflict, so we can more easily offer compassion to others.
Compassion is the willingness to witness and be present with whatever we see around us, not to turn away or pretend it’s not there: the hungry, the victims of abuse, the injustice, the senseless fighting, the homeless, the fear of the enemy. It is easy to feel hopeless, to want to walk away from it all, but compassion means we can’t be indifferent and uncaring. In recognizing our essential interconnectedness we can’t separate ourselves from anyone else. We are all here together and the least we can do is offer a helping hand.
Ed and Deb Shapiro are the authors of BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, with forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman and Winner of the 2010 Nautilus Gold Book Award. Deb is the author of the bestselling book, YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND, winner of the 2007 Visionary Book Award. They are featured bloggers on Oprah.com/spirit, HuffingtonPost.com/Living, and Care2.com. They have 3 meditation CD’s: Metta — Loving Kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious Relaxation. See: www.EdandDebShapiro.com
Read more from VividLife.me bloggers:
If You’re Not Here Then Where Are You? by Ed and Deb Shapiro
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. John Lennon
Who said life would be like walking the yellow brick road, or that the human condition would be easy? And why is it so important to be here? What’s the big deal? It appears that the reason we’re not happy is because we long for things to be other than they are. We’re not satisfied being here. Not satisfied being with what is. We want things to be different, because we believe that if they were we would be happier. Therefore, we’re not truly present with our reality.
Why is Love so Painful? by Pragito Dove
Love is painful because it creates the way for joy, for ecstasy, for bliss. Love is painful because it transforms you. Love is growth.
Love itself does not hurt. It is growth that hurts, the ego that stings.
Each transformation is painful because the old situation is being left behind for the new. Hence, fear arises.
The real problem is the mind. Fear lives in the mind and the mind wants you to hang on to a situation that is known and comfortable for you. The ego-mind resists change because it is afraid of losing control and feels insecure about the unpredictability of the unknown. Love means the death of the ego because love cannot be controlled, it can only be received, accepted. Love is fragile. One day it is there, the next day it may be gone, like the wind. We cannot grasp the wind in our fist. We can only enjoy and appreciate it while it is there.
