In my previous blog, I tried to summarize some of the key aspects of Sydney Banks' insights that have helped me "feel nice" - Banks' name for "uncaused joy" that is, feeling peaceful, happy, loving independent of circumstances. This arises from within - 'an inside job' or an inside-out process - the opposite of how most of us incorrectly assume things work ie that our circumstances directly determine our mood. Actually, all it takes is choosing to not entertain oneself with negative thoughts.
Open your mind & heart to these valuable mystical insights, and you too may be surprised to feel sustained gratitude, peace, happiness, kindness ...
“I thought that ‘All we are is peace, love & wisdom, and the power to create the illusion that we’re not,’ was sufficiently simple.
But recently I realized that, at any moment, we are either in our essence, or we are in illusion. Now I’m not saying that we ever lose our essence, but I’m saying that we don’t have an experience of our essence. SO we are EITHER having an experience of our essence - being in pure peace, love & wisdom, for example OR we are caught in the illusion that we have inadvertently created for ourselves with this incredible gift of the power of thought.”
Jack Pransky "Things That Have Been on My Mind – A Three Principles Keynote" - Viva 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kni9VRMIuD4 .
Jack Pransky "Somebody Should Have Told Us! : Simple Truths for Living Well" CCB Publishing, 2011.
ruled by the mind,
made by the mind.
If you speak or act
with a calm, bright mind,
then happiness follows you,
like a shadow that never leaves.
Dhammapada 2
The Creator gathered all of creation and said,
‘I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it.
It is the realization that they create their own reality.’
The eagle said, ‘Give it to me, I will take it to the moon.’
The Creator said, ‘No. One day they will go there and find it.’
The salmon said, ‘I will hide it on the bottom of the ocean.’
‘No. They will go there too.’
The buffalo said, ‘I will bury it on the great plains.’
The Creator said, ‘They will cut the skin of the earth and find it even there.’ …
Then Grandmother Mole … who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes,
said, ‘Put it inside them’ [for that is the last place they will look.]
The Creator said, ‘It is done.’” Gary Zukav
“Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful.
To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects.
How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow?
It is natural – you need to smile to your sorrow because
you are more than your sorrow.”
"A true healer simply remains fully present as the storm of healing rages, providing a safe field in which unfamiliar and intense energies can be felt, bound-up emotions can be released, and we can come out of time together, out of the drama and chaos of My Life, and breathe into our bodies, fall into our own being, reset, recharge, simplify, rest.
Healing is not a destination, nor a special power in the hands of a few. Healing means recontacting That which is already whole, beyond the healer and the healed - our true nature, simple and beautiful and ever-present.
In this field of true healing, we can truly meet..."
Jeff Foster
“Everyone in mental institutions is sitting in the middle of mental health
“You can’t get wisdom from another person.
Michael Neill "Can a TEDx talk really change the world?" TEDxHSG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv0EH93k8QY
“Not knowing how long we have here makes today extraordinary. Here. Now. A shocking gift. A humbling gift. Inhabit your days, friend. Step into them. Let them step back into you. Reach towards life and let life reach back into your soul. If you are reading this, you have today! Let today matter, deeply. Let today steady you. Let it bring you back to the ground. Let it breathe you awake. Again and again. Let today be the day you finally stop waiting to live.” Jeff Foster
A number of modern thinkers have reflected on how our Earth has an incomprehensibly huge array of features (eg gravity, oxygen, humidity, temperature, etc, etc, etc,), each set at an incredibly narrow range, that precisely allows life to flourish. No clear-thinking person would call this 'mere chance.' Then to be born a human being on Earth is, again, an incredible gift. As Iain McGilchrist, in one of his wonderful interviews recently said, the only reasonable response to our Earth, and our gift of life, is awe and gratitude.
As Ram Dass famously advised, "Be here now" - remain lovingly, intimately engaged with present-moment reality, moment-by-moment-by-moment co-creating our ever-evolving reality.
"The first sip from the cup of natural science
makes one an atheist,
but at the bottom of the cup,
God awaits."
Werner Heisenberg, Nobel prize in physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics"
"A person is not a thing or a process,
but an opening through which the absolute manifests."
Martin Heidegger, widely regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century
No comments:
Post a Comment