Life Lessons from Charlie Chaplin - As I Began To Love Myself

Life Lessons from Charlie Chaplin - As I Began To Love Myself

From the speech that Charlie Chaplin gave on his 70th birthday.
As I Began to Love Myself

As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering
are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth.

Today, I know, this is AUTHENTICITY.

As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody
As I try to force my desires on this person,
even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it,
and even though this person was me.

Today I call it RESPECT.

As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life,
and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow.

Today I call it MATURITY.

As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance,
I am in the right place at the right time,
and everything happens at the exactly right moment.
So I could be calm.

Today I call it SELF-CONFIDENCE.

As I began to love myself I quit stealing my own time,
and I stopped designing huge projects for the future.
Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do
and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm.

Today I call it SIMPLICITY.

As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health—
food, people, things, situations, and everything the drew me down and away from myself.
At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism.

Today I know it is LOVE OF ONESELF.

As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right,
and ever since I was wrong less of the time.

Today I discovered that is MODESTY.

As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worry about the future.
Now, I only live for the moment, where EVERYTHING is happening.

Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it FULFILLMENT.

As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me
and it can make me sick.
But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally.

Today I call this connection WISDOM OF THE HEART.

We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems
with ourselves or others.

Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born.

Today I know THAT IS LIFE!

THE TEACHER

No~One can give you that which already exists within you.The Teacher only awakens what lies dormant. The Teacher can share knowledge but cannot give you understanding.The Teacher cannot give you their wisdom but can lead you to the threshold of your own. The True Teacher guides you to Re-member what you are. Knowledge ...transforms to wisdom through experience & Understanding. You are responsible for that.~Judah Isvaran

On Giving ~Kahlil Gibrand

 This is one of my absolute favorites from this Master Poet;  Remember Giving & Receiving are ONE........enjoy.
On Giving
 Kahlil Gibran
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have--and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving?
And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth it is life that gives unto life while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers... and you are all receivers... assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.

My Friendships/Relationships...

My Friendships...

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True friendship is about the willingness to BE an intervention for Greatness no matter what that looks like, no matter who you get to become, & no matter how uncomfortable the moment is, demonstrate the willingness to dance in the Fire so that your (((Reflection))) RE~MEMBERS who & what they truly are. Most importantly Be willing to lose the relationship/friendship in order to experience it Authentically & Powerfully. My friendship holds no space for appropriateness. Appropriateness is a LIE and are why most friendships do not last. What kind of friend are you? How do stand in relationship? Are your friends winning? Living on purpose? Evolving? Connected? Dreaming Big? If they are not...just Notice...How are you living?
~Judah Isvaran

I AM the person..I will ACT NOW.

"I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I AM not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I AM not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I AM the person."

From Complaining to Acceptance

 
Ekhart Tolle wrote a wonderful book titled The Power of Now and in that book he says this: ‘See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought about a situation you find yourself in. What other people say or do, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. See if you can catch yourself complaining.

For to complain is always non-acceptance of what is and it invariable carries an unconscious negative charge. So when you complain you make yourself a victim. Either leave the situation, change the situation or accept it. All else is madness.’

On this day, let's shift every complaining thought, word or deed. Let’s accept the situation, change the situation or leave the situation and bring ourselves in harmony with what is.


With Peace and Harmony,

Mary Morrisey

Self Reliance & Redesign

I have never met a being, no matter what the circumstance or condition, in whom I could not see possibilities...no matter if they call themselves a failure. I have faith that anyone can rise above any experience, so long as they are willing and ready to do so...When One summons the force of desire to change and transform the “thing” that is defeating their life. The capacity for re-creation, re-invention, re-design lies within & in the power of a new thought.~ Judah Isvaran

Rumi on Love...Thanks Touie Bluey

—

The intellectual is always showing off,

the lover is always getting lost.

The intellectual runs away.

afraid of drowning;

the whole business of love

is to drown in the sea.

Intellectuals plan their repose;

lovers are ashamed to rest.

The lover is always alone.

even surrounded by people;

like water and oil, he remains apart.

The man who goes to the trouble 

of giving advice to a lover

get nothing. He's mocked by passion.

Love is like musk. It attracts attention.

Love is a tree, and the lovers are its shade.

—

Love is reckless; not reason.

Reason seeks a profit.

Love comes on strong,

consuming herself, unabashed.

Yet, in the midst of suffering,

Love proceeds like a millstone,

hard surfaced and straightforward.

Having died of self-interest,

she risks everything and asks for nothing.

Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being;

without cause, give it back again.

—

Those who don't feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change, 

let them sleep. 

This Love is beyond the study of theology,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
If you want to improve your mind that way, 

sleep on. 

I've given up on my brain.
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away. 

If you're not completely naked,
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you, 

and sleep. 

The Anatomy of Fear

Dennis Merritt Jones: The Anatomy of Fear

"Driven by fear, people run for security to mountains and forests, to sacred spots and shrines. But none of these can be a safe refuge, because they cannot free the mind from fear." ~ The Dhammapada

Have you heard this acronym for F.E.A.R.?: False Evidence Appearing Real. Well, I have another one for you: Forget Everything And Run. Isn’t that what we often do when a fear thought appears in our mind, triggering our emotions? We turn from the fear and run as fast as we can. Sometimes we numb the fear with drugs, alcohol, food, and other such diversions, when what we really need to do is turn and meet our fears head on. In his book The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav states, “When fear ceases to scare you, it cannot stay.” We might best understand the anatomy of fear by first dissecting it and seeing it for what it is and what it is not.

Where does fear originate? At first, it might appear that fear comes from the very thing we are fearing, be it a threat of physical harm, a scary prognosis from a doctor, or so on. The reality is, fear can’t come from outside of us--fear is a feeling that wells up inside us as a reaction to an outer stimulus that comes from a concern about the loss of something. The stimulus could be the fear of losing a job, a reputation, a material possession, or _________ (fill in the blank). It might even be a fear of the ultimate loss: a loss of the life of a loved one or even our own. In fact, we could say that all fear is attached to the death or the demise of something or someone we don’t want to lose.

Perhaps that to which we cling the most tightly, fearing the most of losing is what causes the greatest pain and suffering. If there is one thing I have learned as I followed my own spiritual path is that we come into this life without any possessions and, irrespective of who or what we may be fearfully hanging on to, we can’t take it or them with us when we leave. Their is great wisdom to be found in poet Don Blanding’s words when he wrote,“Because there is no desire to possess, there is no fear of losing -- we live in an anticipation of life, not in dread of death.”

Much of our fear originates in our mind because, try as we may, we can’t control tomorrow. As we spiritually evolve we automatically loosen our grasp (death-grip) on that which we want most to possess or control and, as a result, the fear attached to its loss dissolves as well. Even our worst fears can be mitigated by our awareness of our oneness with the Source of all life, all good. Fear is the offspring of the imagined belief that somehow we could possibly be separated from our Source, which is an impossibility.

Fear is a great messenger to get our attention and can even serve us well in certain circumstances but it has no life of its own other than that which we choose to give it. As we call forth the awareness of Infinite Presence as our sole Source, we in turn take back all the power we have bestowed on that fear. When fear ceases to scare us, we can then watch it disappear into the nothingness from which it came. Fear knocked at the door and faith answered...no one was there.

Peace, Dennis

P.S. For those of you who read "Science of Mind" Magazine, I will have a featured article in the February issue titled, "Mindful Living - The Art of Remembering to Remember." I hope you'll take time to read the article!


*** Please feel free to forward this to those you care about ***


* Join Dennis at his annual Mindfulness & Meditation Retreat on April 10th!


* A new Sacred Journey to Thailand with Dennis scheduled for November 2010


* To subscribe free to Dennis’ weekly MindfulPurpose eMessage

GO TO: m> for all the details!


Copyright 2010 ~ New Reality Press ~ All rights reserved

The Invitation (((Oriah Mountain Dreamer)))

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

By Oriah © Mountain Dreamer,
from the book The Invitation
published by HarperONE, San Francisco,

1999 All rights reserved

Moving Beyond Judgment to serve the "Offender"....

"In South Africa the Babemba tribe treats people who step out of line in a remarkable way. Instead of treating the person with judgment and punishment, the tribe treats the offender with love and appreciation.

If a member of the Babemba acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he or she is placed at the center of the village, alone. All work ceases, and the entire tribe gathers in a large circle around the violator. Then each person in the tribe, regardless of age, speaks to the accused, one at a time, recalling all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his or her lifetime.

Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All the individual's positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. No one is permitted to fabricate, exaggerate or be facetious about the accomplishments or the positive aspects of the person. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days and does not end until everyone is drained of every positive comment he or she can state about the person in question.

At the end, the circle is broken and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe with joyful celebration."

(Excerpted from "Contact, The First Four Minutes" by Leonard Sunin -out of print)

The Gift of Relationship

All Life is born out of Relationship.
In the absence of Relationship we are Nothing....
Through the gift of Relationship we are given the mirror to experience & proclaim our Becoming...it is the very foundation & greatest opportunity  for Spiritual Evolution.
An Ever~Giving Source of Awakening, Healing & Fulfillment.
Relationships challenge us, stretch us, uplift us, enlighten us, inspire us , nurture us & bestows us with opportunities to expand in Love, Wisdom,Generosity, Service & Compassion.
Everyday we are faced with endless possibilities to demonstrate our Divine Nature.
When I speak of Relationship I speak of Oneness...Union with All Life....


~Judah Isvaran