God I love Latin!

Auribus teneo lupum literally means, “I grasp a wolf by the ears”. It’s supposed to convey a situation where you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. In other words, grabbing on to the wolf’s ears or letting go could both end in disaster.

Today is that phrase... my sacred friend will soon be no more.

Simple Kindness is the Greatest Way to World Peace

Simple understanding of the beauty of this life is the answer to world peace.  This 5 senses world full of sensationalism and exhibitionists bring to light the need to go within to find it.  Peace is never found in outward actions that feel good for a moment. It is found in maintaining the state of mind that shuns confusion and complicated thoughts of betrayal, revenge, and excess, and focuses on kindness and compassion.  

Thankful to be simple today.

Harry Potter Has a Charm for that...

We are watching the entire series of Harry Potter movies, one each weekend.  Of course my Sweetheart has never seen any of them but he is enjoying watching with me.  Last night we were watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Professor Lupin is teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts to the students.  He is teaching them to take their most fearful thing and use the Expecto Protronus charm to turn the fearful thing into a thing to laugh at.  

There is a huge wardrobe in the classroom that the door opens and the thing you think of that you fear enters the room.  Example: Ron Weasley turned a giant spider into a spider with roller skates with a wave of his wand and the spoken words.  

I see Daniel Radcliffe, aka Harry Potter is suffering from a disease, dyspraxia, he does not talk about. So I look it up and it seems he has a mild case as he cannot tie his shoes.  Have you seen the great resume of acting this guy has done since being a little tyke?  He first came to my attention in David Copperfield, he was an amazing gifted actor when he was a child!  It seems the remedy for Dyspraxia is keep a positive attitude and focus on a high self esteem.  Really? That's it?

Compared to the draw backs I have experienced with ADHD I can hardly say his Dyspaxia has caused him any real problems.  Can we talk problems?

My Sweetheart said, "Why doesn't he say Expecto Protieous and be done with it?"

We Need to Apply the Teachings to our Lives, not Worship the Person.

Lions Roar is a magazine I enjoy. It features meditation and Buddhist "Rinpoches." (teachers)  No doubt I am thankful I have lived in an era to meet the 14th Dalai Lama especially since China is determined to wipe the Tibetans off the map and choose the next Dalai Lama, one that supports Chinese government.  So sad.  The Buddhist religion or culture whichever you prefer, is beautiful, but may soon be a thing of the past if China rules.

The rituals, the chimes, the gongs, the flags for peace, the meditation, cushions, supplies, I do love them all. The teachings are all recorded for all to study. This religion has given me much inner peace and taught inner reflection before I found Byron Katie's "work" and Eckhart Tolle's teachings.  (My first choice of inspiration to live by is these)

There are those who focus on the person, the 14^th Dalai Lama, and Christians in Christianity focus on Jesus. This recent issue of Lions Roar has on the front page as a main article  The Dalai Lama, “We Need Him Now More Than Ever."

The truth is, even the Dalai Lama would say, "Is we need more people to do the peaceful practices every day, not focus on the person teaching it."

I Changed My Mind...

I love the present moment in everything Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie teach except…

Loving your significant other, I want that love to be for a lifetime.

Parents Teach more through Actions than Words

My life has been one of studying why people, including myself, have not reached the fullest potential at different times in our life. Is it anything in the 5 senses world?  No.  Through many books read, listening to people tell me their story, it is this...it is the angry thoughts about us, others, and life situations that if not quieted through reason and logic grows into a monster of destruction, first these thoughts will destroy you, and then the world around you. 

In the beginning it may be simple self-confusion. Then the world betrays the innocence of understanding through a series of experiences that do not turn out the way we think it should in a world of order. We see life is unfair now.  In youth, still hopeful, we work and try to make a difference in a world that can be chaotic and seemingly against us. But is it?  Maybe it is our misunderstanding of the imperfect world we live in and the ignorance that we alone, can have “inner peace."

Inner peace. Where do we find it? Where do we begin to look? What if it does not exist?  What if this whole life is not worth the effort to find the inner peace?  Each of us has the answer for these questions and each of us will live the result of the answers we decide are true.

Having money can make a destructive mind settle sooner for the uncomfortable answers.  Money allows an individual to slink into the darkness, disappear into an unnoticed existence, and stop seeking the answers needed for a fuller peaceful life, basically just live without anyone till you die. But if the destructive thoughts are not silenced in reason and logic, the confused, unconscious, person will silence these with alcohol and drugs, one way or the other these angry disagreeing opinions will stop. Alcohol is a slow suicide.

Thankful I am not an alcoholic. Thankful I am not married to one.  My dear mother-in-law died of alcoholism and I loved her so much.  I asked her once in the early years of my marriage, "Was she ever going to stop drinking alcohol?"  She said. "No." That was the day I decided I would never be a part of an intervention or ask her to stop.  It is her life and she has a right to it.  I steered clear of her when I stopped in and she was drunk.  Yet I could see the potential she had if she had not decided to drown herself in vodka.  She was a Political Science major, Vassar graduate, spoke several languages and was preparing to be an Ambassador to Mexico for the United Nations when her father died before she graduated college. Unprepared to deal with this, she struggled and settled on a life she did not really want, to end up on this farm, unhappy. Her words, not mine. 

I have learned if someone is determined to drink and be angry, I cannot help. As a matter of fact, it is not my job to do so.  I can however separate from the alcohol and the anger to save myself, to not make my life a sacrifice to their destructive behaviors or an unending feeble attempt to save her or him.  However I cannot help but have compassion for them. Today I heard of another relative that gave up to alcohol and is losing friends quickly. This one, a lawyer who inherited money, and no longer practices law.  She too now is becoming a recluse that drinks alone in the darkness of her mind and home. Her mother and father were educated, well off, and they drank themselves to death too.

Parents teach more through their actions than their words.

It makes me sad to see a family so full of potential, separate and wither away drinking her/himself to death.  Thankful for finding my way to inner peace and sending vibrations of goodness to others. Namaste.

Another Ministry Started? No thanks.

There are some acquaintances that we have known for years.  This one couple we know use to be Catholic but like so many Catholics I know today they ventured out to learn more about God for themselves instead of being spoon fed (ceremonies in another language) the rules of God to live by. Of course this leads to breaking away from the Catholic Church.  Cafeteria Catholics are those left behind to pick and choose what they attend or believe.  People are waking up to NOT being happy wearing blinders and not questioning leaders in the church anymore.  

Think religion is not big business?  All of them once inside your brain are getting people to give their money mindlessly to the church.  There are so many people that could use that money in a more constructive way.  Lookup "Heifer International", "Ten Thousand Villages", etc.  Church personalities get bigger houses and planes, and how is this helping to end war and poverty worldwide? It is NOT.

Many Catholics friends do not easily go with a belief system that requires deep connection with the essence of what it is to be human and therefore letting go of a book, a church group or an organized religion.  My Catholic friends therefore go to a new age Christian church like Grace Fellowship here, others down south go to Congregational Christian Church.  Nevertheless it is a building with a group of believers that have a support group of their beliefs. That is good for them. To be weightless on earth to trust intuition to live is out of the question. They need 5 senses book to touch.

I have never felt comfortable in any group in any building and have traveled a path to find my own truth.  The only thing that felt right to me was the teachings of Buddhism that incorporates the 5 senses into my actions and outcomes. Still I am not Buddhist.  I do not join groups because groups are not necessary.

Then in my continued seeking I found the work with Byron Katie and eventually Eckhart Tolle.  To be free to live on my terms, taking responsibility for my own life and actions, is the greatest freedom of all, weightless.  To be in touch with my inner peace which is loving and kind is my guide post.  I am not responsible for others salvation and they are not responsible for mine.  I can be non-judgmental of others and only take action to protect another when violence is subjugating innocents.  

There are enough religions and ministries around and there is NOT enough acceptance and unity among them.  Personally I do not think we need another ministry started but our acquaintances are starting another one. They will be the self-proclaimed leaders and invite us to join. No thanks, been there got that t-shirt, moving beyond.  

So thankful for BK and ET.  These teachers share and leave the rest of us to think with our brain to wake up to conscious thinking and live as we choose with no condemnation or need to tell us this way is "the only way."  No judgments against those that require another ministry, it is just not for me anymore. We are all one.