who or what is the wheel of life for?

ANNAMALAI SWAMI - FINAL TALKS

sit. be still, and know. I AM is prior to thought.

"Question: The wheel of life - manifestation, samsara - seems to continue whether one is established in that peace or not. Is there nothing in this manifestation that provides a key to peace?
 
Annamalai Swami: If you understand the true nature of this wheel of life, this wheel that is giving everyone so much alternating happiness and misery, this understanding will lead you to where there is no wheel, no change, no movement. This wheel is spinning in the substratum of the changeless Self. If you take your position in the still, peaceful centre of the Self you will know, simultaneously, that the Self is motionless peace, and the spinning wheel is also the Self.
 
Q: Why is there a need to have this spinning wheel in the Self? Why a need for manifestation at all?
 
Annamalai Swami: This question is only happening in your mind. If you remain in the Self, the question will not arise. Whether you move your hand or keep it still, it is still a hand. Its nature is not changed in either case.Maya is the Self. All is the Self. If you give up all distinctions, you will know this for yourself. That's all you need to do."

Sarah: We've been duped - by the collective consciousness prior to any manifestation. Sometimes I experience this realization as humorous, and sometimes I feel rage, and sometimes I feel absolutely nothing. Humor definitely feels better than rage, in my experience. And nothing just feels like nothing. I am nothing. I AM is everything. Word of caution - I AM doesn't pay the bills. There's that.

Posted by Sarah Nolt, maker of handmade zafu meditation cushions...available at zafuChi on etsy

a house of LOVE, with no limits...

Natural Linen Zafu

"I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can't distinguish the birdseed from the snare.

A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than venus 

or the moon,
a beauty whose image 

close-up of embroidery detail

fills the mirror of the heart."

- Rumi

"The main point to grasp is that you have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination, based on memories, on desires and fears, and that you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free."
Nisargadatta, I Am That, Chapter 44

"By choosing Love, and letting Love choose for us, we end the internal battle of good vs evil."

(Posted by Sarah Nolt, owner of zafuChi, a small business in the U.S. that makes and sells zafu meditation cushions, bolster pillows and floor pillows.)

sun halos, and divine equality...

This morning, on my morning walk I saw a sun bow, or sun halo as it is also referred to. I felt it might have interesting significance (to me) so I did a little research. The Native Americans speak of it as “The Whirling Rainbow”...(found at the following link) For images of a sun halo, see google images for sun halo.

https://lifeheartandsoulblog.wordpress.com/...

“The Whirling Rainbow – Prophecy

There will come a day when people of all races, colors, and creeds will put aside their differences. They will come together in love, joining hands in unification, to heal the Earth and all Her children. They will move over the Earth like a great Whirling Rainbow, bringing peace, understanding and healing everywhere they go. Many creatures thought to be extinct or mythical will resurface at this time; the great trees that perished will return almost overnight. All living things will flourish, drawing sustenance from the breast of our Mother, the Earth.

The great spiritual Teachers who walked the Earth and taught the basics of the truths of the Whirling Rainbow Prophecy will return and walk amongst us once more, sharing their power and understanding with all. We will learn how to see and hear in a sacred manner. Men and women will be equals in the way Creator intended them to be; all children will be safe anywhere they want to go. Elders will be respected and valued for their contributions to life. Their wisdom will be sought out. The whole Human race will be called The People and there will be no more war, sickness or hunger forever.” 

~Ancient American Indian Prophecy

sincere awareness watching awareness...

~0~ AWARENESS WATCHING AWARENESS  ~0~

"What you really are at your core is awareness. Therefore, in awareness watching awareness, you are for the first time observing yourself and knowing yourself. However, you should not think about that or anything else written in this chapter while practicing awareness watching awareness, because then you would be adding those thoughts to the practice. It is being pointed out that you are doing some thing extraordinary when awareness is watching awareness because at first you might think: “what else?”or “so what?”. Just continue to practice and forget about “what else?” or “so what?”.  Just by turning your attention away from thought and towards awareness watching awareness, you are doing something that will change your life completely, if you are sincere and continue to practice."

- Michael Langford
~0~
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nothing can deprive you of your heritage...

"I can see with the utmost clarity that you have never been, nor are, nor will be estranged from reality; that you are the fullness of perfection here and now and that nothing can deprive you of your heritage, of what you are.
You do not know what you are and therefore you imagine your self to be what you are not. Hence desires and fear and overwhelming despair. And, meaningless activity in order to escape.
You are the Supreme Reality beyond the world and its creator, beyond consciousness and its witness, beyond all assertions and denials.
Remember it, think of it, act on it. Abandon all sense of separation, see yourself in all and act accordingly. With action bliss will come, and with bliss conviction."

Nisargadatta, I Am That, Chapter 83

morning - Siesta Key Beach, Sarasota, Fla.

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self-realization is the greatest service you can give to the world...

Self-Realization

" I was then in an infinite ocean of pure being that was aware of nothing other than itself.
The nescience of sleep was lost forever. I am now that screen of consciousness on which this endless shadow-play of the world is going on, with a shadow body carrying the label N. R. K. actively engaged in singing the five hymns on Arunachala and Ramana by turns. It has now made this record of its sojourn on earth. In due course this screen and all its contents will disappear into the one Self that stands alone as pure Awareness-Being."
 N.R. KRISHNAMURTI AYER
The Power of the Presence, part 1

"...and there was Light..."

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there are no others...

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what is bluer then blue, and truer than True?

"There is no such thing as an absolutely True thought.

This doesn’t mean that some thoughts are not truer than others, only that no thought is absolutely True.
What IS is what’s happening before you have a thought about it.Notice the difference between what your mind thinks about this moment, and this moment as it is before you have any thought about it."
- Adyashanti

getting along with, or without...

To this I would add...or get along without. ;)

leave a little somthing for others along the way...

the importance of solitude...

"Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. 

Solitude begins with a time and a place for God and God only."
~ Henri Nouwen

what is now is real...

photo source: facebook page of Let Life Be

~Nisargadatta~

"Things and thoughts 

have been changing 

all the time.
But the feeling 

that what is now is real 

has never changed,
even in dream."

from I Am That

Chapter 3

cultivate a willingness to live this moment as keenly as possible...

Siesta Key Beach, Fla.

carl mccolman quote

"The core of our being, the most 

treasured part of our existence, 

is a contemplative life - 

a life lived in awareness 

of the divinity within. The challenge 

of maintaining this awareness

 is to sit openhanded to receive all that comes.

 It is not possible to hold on to one thought,

 memory, or idea and continue the contemplative journey. 

It requires a willingness to live this moment as keenly as possible, always aware of the many dimensions of now. Staying openhanded, treasuring but not grasping, is critical to the contemplative stance."

(Without permission I changed a few words to adapt it from the personal to impersonal - "my" to "our", and then from the impersonal to the personal "the divine" to "divinity within".)

superimpositions on the screen of reality vs reality

"Consciousness, 

you may say, 

is the screen of reality 

and all of the images 

of the whole universe 

are superimpositions 

on the screen of reality."

-Robert Adams, 

 from Silence of the Heart

plant spirit...

 - Pablo Amaringo

Fern - Watercolor Painting

"Every tree, every plant, has a spirit.
People may say that the plant has no mind.
 I tell them that the plant is alive & conscious.
A plant may not talk, but there is a spirit
 in it that is conscious, that sees everything, 
which is the soul of the plant, its essence, 
what makes it alive. The channels through 
which the water & sap move 
are the veins of the spirit." 

Fern Watercolor painting by MaiAutumn on etsy

find the Light within - use your breath to come Home...

"Our struggles make us seek enlightenment from those around us and the stars above. However, it is when we uncover the light within that we finally illuminate a path once enshrouded by our false sense of incompleteness." ~Dodinsky

Akahi Ricardo - youtube interview with Ethann Fox on AAE tv

I AM prior to my story...

I Am I Am I Am by Sylvia Plath

(etsy-seller)

~ Byron Katie

"When I walk into a room, 

I know that everyone in it loves me.

I just don’t expect them to realize it yet.
For me, reality is God, because it rules.
Personalities don’t love—they want something.
You are what exists before all stories. 

You are what remains 

when the story is understood."

~()~

Living Lightly - the power of the feminine principle...

Come on in...the Light is fine!!!

~)(~

 

 Message from the Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers:

"As you move through these changing times... be easy on yourself and be easy on one another. You are at the beginning of something new. You are learning a new way of being. You will find that you are working less in the yang modes that you are used to.

You will stop working so hard at getting from point A to point B the way you have in the past, but instead, will spend more time experiencing yourself in the whole, and your place in it.

Instead of traveling to a goal out there, you will voyage deeper into yourself. Your mother's grandmother knew how to do this. Your ancestors from long ago knew how to do this. They knew the power of the feminine principle... and because you carry their DNA in your body, this wisdom and this way of being is within you.
Call on it. Call it up. Invite your ancestors in. As the yang based habits and the decaying institutions on our planet begin to crumble, look up. A breeze is stirring. Feel the sun on your wings."
sourced: maria.broom facebook page 

create your sacred space...

Zafu Meditation Cushion

 

"The beginning of having a sustainable 

and overflowing spiritual life is having 

a devotional time and place. We create 

a sacred place where we worship. 

Create your own sacred space where 

you can have your morning devotions"

~ Bob Holmes

 

law of attraction - by Rumi...

Sit. Let Love come to you.

Rumi:
"When I run after what I think I want,
my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;
if I sit in my own place of patience,
what I need flows to me, and without pain.
From this I understand that
what I want also wants me,
is looking for me and attracting me.
There is a great secret here
for anyone who can grasp it."

Pink Meditation Cushion - Zafu