[melanie]

Originally Posted by Drifter "When deeply I gaze into the eye's of my friends, I see Buddha."

"Light gives of itself freely,
filling all available space.
It does not seek anything in return;
it asks not whether you are friend or foe.
It gives of itself and is not thereby diminished."

Michael Strassfeld

[sillysally]

Originally Posted by Drifter "Look In Vain for I" was written by Roger-Paul Droit In his book, "Astonish Your Friends". A little compendium of helpful insights. imho do you read, at all, or just watch T.V.?

Most everything I read is on the internet, besides signs and whatever else is written outside that I happen to glance at, sometimes bus ads. I don't watch tv, I don't subscribe to networks, I could get cable for free since my family owns a division of warner, but I don't. I would rather not have a tv but my husband just bought one so the kids can watch movies we steal off the internet. Oh yeah, I like to watch movies too.

[melanie]

The true Self is
Beyond the Gross,
Beyond the Subtle,
Beyond the Causal.

When one tugs at a
single thing in nature,
he finds it attached
to the rest of the world.

[sillysally]

Sorry it's so small, it says; Individuality Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.
http://www.despair.com/individuality.html

[sillysally]

"Teamwork; A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction"



despair.com

[Drifter]

The Heart that is open to give
is also open to receive. . .

Originally Posted by melanie "To hold, you must first open your hand. Let go. Lao Tzu~

[Drifter]

Quality not quantity.
Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, Simon and Schuster; in "The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading" denotes four "Levels of Reading."
1. Elementary Reading: rudimentary or basic, initial, one passes from this non-literacy to at least beginning literacy.
2. Inspectional Reading: You cannot read on the inspectional level unless you can read effectively on the elementary level. When reading on this level it is characterized by it's emphasis on time. [not having to look up words and such]
3. Analytical Reading: Is thorough reading, complete reading, or good reading-the best reading you can do. The reader must ask questions of what he is reading. When reading at this level your aim is to examine. Reading a book analytically is chewing and digesting it. This analytical reading, is preeminently for "understanding"
4. Syn-topical Reading: The Highest level of Reading. another name might be comparative reading. i.e. Reading many books, not just one, and the reader places them in relation to one another. Results in the reader being able to construct an analysis that may not be in any of the books.

The benefits are so great that it is well worth the trouble of learning how to do it.

I would recommend it for kids [teen-agers] on up.

Best regards
D.

ps, while I am not "a doctor" per se, there is a slight recurring appearance of a.d.d.[e.g. inability to focus on a specific subject for any given length of time, i.e. to maintain the interest to read a book], which might be beneficial for one to be at least cognizant of. imho[no offence meant]

Originally Posted by sillysally Most everything I read is on the internet, besides signs and whatever else is written outside that I happen to glance at, sometimes bus ads. I don't watch tv, I don't subscribe to networks, I could get cable for free since my family owns a division of warner, but I don't. I would rather not have a tv but my husband just bought one so the kids can watch movies we steal off the internet. Oh yeah, I like to watch movies too.

[Drifter]

The Guardian Angel

I ask your very reverent attention to a profound and beautiful fact of nature. To me this thought is one of the most beautiful of the theosophical doctrines. It is that of the "angels" guarding us, or what the Christians call guardian angels; but this wonderful doctrine, which is such a comfort and help to men in time of stress and trouble, is no longer understood by the Christians of this day, because they have lost the original meaning of it. They seem to think that it is an angel outside of oneself deputed by Almighty God to be a kind of protecting parent over the child; and some Christians seem to think that when the child attains adulthood the guardian angel departs. This doctrine of protective and guiding spiritual influences in the world is a very old doctrine of the wisdom-religion. It was taught in Persia, India, Egypt, amongst the Druids; in fact, as far as I know, everywhere.
It is simply this: that there is in and over man a spirit or power guiding him, instilling hope and comfort and peace and righteousness into his mind and heart; and that he who is ready to receive this and does receive it will guide himself by the inner mandates, and do so openly. He will be more or less conscious of the companionship of the guardian angel, be conscious of this companionship as a helper, with him day and night, never failing, always guiding, teaching him to save himself. But the mind and heart must be ready to receive, otherwise the brain does not catch the guidance and the inspiration.
What is this guardian angel? You may call it a dhyani-chohan. Our own particular name for it is Sanskrit: chitkara: "thoughtworker. " You remember it was stated of the great Greek philosopher, Socrates, that he was guided by his inner daimon, his constant companion, which in his case strangely enough never told him what to do, but always warned him what not to do. It is stated of him that frequently when he was undecided as to what course to pursue, he would go apart and close his eyes and remain quiet, trying to free his mind from all the debris, claptrap, noise, and hurly-burly of tramping thoughts in other words, cleansing and emptying the brain so that the guardian angel inside could penetrate into the brain-stuff. Such in his case was the guardian angel.
Again, what is this guardian angel? Is it outside of man? It is a part of man's spirit, pertinent to his pneumatology; not the human part but a part of his spiritual being. You can call it the higher self, but I prefer to call it the spiritual self, because the phrase "higher self" in theosophy has a meaning containing certain restricted ideas. Thus, man's inmost entity, the guardian angel, this spiritual self, is like a god compared with the man of flesh, the man of this brain. Compared with his knowledge it has omniscience; compared with his vision it has vision of the past, the present, and the future, which three really are but one eternal NOW in the ever present.
This guardian angel will always strive and is incessantly striving to guide its willful errant child, the man of flesh. If you can make your mind pervious to this inner monitor, and follow its mandates, your life will be safe and happy and prosperous. Of course, you have to go through whatever your karma has for you, that is, whatever you have wrought in the past; it will have to work itself out. If you put your finger in the fire, it will be burned. If you catch your foot in the machine it will be crushed. But the inner warrior, the guardian angel, once you come into its fellowship, in time will prevent your putting your finger into the fire, or placing your foot where it could be crushed. As for myself, my own life has been saved six times by this. I only blame myself for not having begun sooner as a younger man to try to cultivate and to try to bring about an even closer consciousness or self-realization of this wonderful guide, this divine spark, this spiritual self in me: the very stuff of divinity. Compared to me my guardian is an angel, a god.
The only difference between the ordinary man and the Christ-man and the Buddha-man is this: that we ordinary men have not succeeded in becoming absolutely at one with the guardian angel within, and the Buddhas and the Christs have. The Buddha or Christ is one who has made himself, his whole being, his heart, so pervious to the entrance of the guardian angel within him that that guardian angel has actually imbodied in him so that the lower man is scarcely any longer there: it is then the guardian angel that speaks with the lips of flesh, it is the bodhisattva, the inner Christ.
These are some of the forgotten values in human life, and I know no values greater than these two. First, you are one with the universe, one with divinity, inseparable from it. Then it does not much matter what happens to you. Whatever comes is a part of the universal destiny. You become filled with courage and hope and peace. And the other forgotten value is what I have just called chitkara: let that guardian angel live in you, and speak through you, and as soon as may be. I speak what I know, not only with regard to saving from trouble and from peril, but from dangers of all kinds. It will instill peace and comfort and happiness and wisdom and love, for all these are its nature. These things are especially needed in the world today by poor mankind, most of humanity feeling that all the trouble in the world has happened by chance, that there is no way out except by a lucky fluke of fate. That is all tommyrot. This world is a world of law and order, and if we break these rules of law and order we suffer.
Oh, that man would realize these simple verities of universal nature! They are so helpful. They give meaning to life and inject a marvelous purpose into it. They give incentive to do our jobs and to do them like men. They make us love our fellowmen, and that is ennobling. The man who loves none but himself is constricting his consciousness into a little knot, and there is no expansion or grandeur in him; whereas the man who loves his fellowmen and thereby begins to love all things, both great and small -- his consciousness goes out, begins to embrace, comprehend, to take in all. It becomes finally universal feeling, universal sympathy, universal understanding. This is grand, and this is godlike.

"FREE AT LAST . . . FREE AT LAST!"


Vladimir Kush: Sunrise by the Ocean [The Crack In The Cosmic Egg]. "Split the atom and LO! Behold the Sun!" ~Rumi

The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness. And once having said yes to the instant, the affirmation is contagious. It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit. To say yes to one instant is to say yes to all of existence. -- Behold; "This Dream Called: 'Waking Life' "

[Drifter]

" 'There Is A Greatness' within every human soul.
I sense this greatness in growing degree.
Something there is in every man, to which I offer the gesture of respect.
As men become truly sane they reveal to Me new facets of My-self, and I feel a kind of wonder before these.
These Brothers (and Sisters) enrich Me by revealing Myself to Myself and myself." ~Dr. Franklin Merrell Wolff

[melanie]

Human Consciousness Goes Beyond The Physical

Intuition and Imagination:
Art Promotes Awareness:

Knowledge of Self should be the most important criteria for existence, not survival!
I believe it is the primary purpose of human consciousness, and the use of the human mind as its gathering tool.
It is our most precious element, far greater than food, shelter, sex or power over others.


The miracle is not to walk on water
but to walk on the Earth.
It's not that we are afraid to Die. We are afraid to Live.