"QUOTES"
"Spirituality is the ability to get
our minds off ourselves."anon
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DAILY
Gratitude In Action
The story of Dave B., one of the founders of A.A. in Canada in 1944.
For the first year, all the meetings were held in my home.
There were people all over the house. The wives of members
used to come with their husbands, though we didn’t allow them
in our closed meetings. They used to sit on the bed or in the
kitchen, where they would make coffee and snacks.
I believe they were wondering what would happen to us.
Yet they were as happy as we were.
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition p. 198
Step Six - "Were entirely ready to have God remove
all these defects of character."
So Step Six–"Were entirely ready to have God remove
all these defects of character"–is A.A.’s way of stating
the best possible attitude one can take in order to make
a beginning on this lifetime job. This does not mean that
we expect all our character defects to be lifted out of us
as the drive to drink was. A few of them may be, but with
most of them we shall have to be content with patient
improvement. The key words "entirely ready" underline
the fact that we want to aim at the very best we know or can learn.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions p. 65
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ABRAHAM
1.our promise to you …
Let your undivided attention and your dominant intention, the thing that matters more to you than all other things put together, be to get into the vortex, to consistently get into the Vortex and milk it while you are there.If you let being in the Vortex be what matters most, ALL of these problems that have produced all of these solutions will appear to you. It takes the trying out of it. You don’t have to try to get in the Vortex.
When you swim with those dolphins, it takes you right there. There’s no effort there - you’re just in the Vortex!
But there is something in this physical world that says, "Because it’s easy or because it is joyful, you must not be paying enough price. You’re supposed to suffer. You should get on that pitcher’s mound and pitch until your arm aches. You should get on that focus wheel that Abraham has offered and practice it until your mind is numb… You should suffer your way into the Vortex" is what humans want to say.
And we say, "Nah! Just get in the Vortex! Use the easiest thing in the world that you can find to do to get in the Vortex. Focus, think it, do it, drink it! Whatever it is, Get in the Vortex! Get in the Vortex!
And as you consistently do it, it is our promise to you that the Universe will deliver to you the path to all the dreams that you have dreamed.And then we want to say, it’s the PATH that is the exciting part!
Phoenix 12/5/09
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Vernon Howard’s SECRETS OF LIFE
"An individual sadly and badly injures himself by calling himself
a winner, when in fact he is a loser. We have our ideas and opinions as to what constitutes winning and according to those false standards and values think thereby that it is legitimate to call ourselves a winner. For example, you have certain prides, certain vanities and you have certain accomplishments and possessions in your home, in your garage, in your bank. These - to a sleeping human being – are called evidences of having won, of having succeeded at what you were supposed to succeed at as a human being.
Very seldom does a man or a woman challenge this disastrous
self-concept of what it means to win.
If you even need to win anything, including the argument,
including getting your way, the very fact that you have a
compulsive need to win means that there is a loser there
trying to win, which means that the winning must be losing
in actuality.
It is so essential for you to listen to yourself talk to
yourself and catch instantly all such definitions of you
being right, being the winner."
from a talk given 4/5/1986 Vernon Howard’s
Higher World - MP3 CD Volume 3, talk 54
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Ralph Towner is a multi-instrumentalist
playin the twelve-string and acoustic
guitars, piano, synthesizer, percussion
and trumpet.
He began his career as a conservatory-trained
classical guitarist, which you will hear in his playing.
In 1970 he formed "Oregon," which integrated folk music, Indian
classical forms, and avant-garde jazz-influenced free improvisation.
He also played on Weather Report’s 1972 jazz fusion album
"I Sing the Body Electric."
http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/391.html
SEEDS FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR MIND
The paradox of life’s journey
"It is only when we realize that life is taking
us nowhere that it begins to have meaning."
P.D. Ouspensky
"All major mystical traditions have recognized
that there is a paradox at the heart of the
journey of return to Origin. …Put simply,
this is that we are already what we seek,
and that what we are looking for on the
Path with such an intensity of striving and
passion and discipline is already within
and around us at all moments. The journey
and all its different ordeals are all emanations
of the One Spirit that is manifesting everything
in all dimensions; every rung of the ladder
we climb toward final awareness is made of
the divine stuff of awareness itself; Divine
Consciousness is at once creating and manifesting
all things and acting in and as all things in
various states of self-disguise throughout all
the different levels and dimensions of the universe."
Andrew Harvey
"Look at you, you madman, Screaming you are
thirsty And are dying in a desert When all around
you there is nothing but water!"
Kabir
"After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same."
Paul Simon
The Daily Guru
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A SCATTERING OF SEEDS
BUDDHISM
The deva asked,What causes ruin in the world?
What breaks off friendships?
What is the most violent fever?
Who is the best physician?"
The Blessed One replied,
Ruin in the world is caused by ignorance;
friendships are broken off by envy and selfishness;
the most violent fever is hatred;
the best physician is the Buddha;
The deva continued,
Now I have only one doubt to resolve and absolve:
What is it fire cannot burn, nor moisture corrode,
nor wind crush down,
but is able to enlighten the whole world.
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Robin Williams on Charlie Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SS4LGOKPuU&feature=fvw
HUMOR
I’ll trust you that you paid
A man walks into a bar and has a couple of beers.
Once he is donem the bartender tells him he owes $9.00.
"But I paid, don’t you remember?" says the customer.
"Okay," says the bartender, "If you said you paid, you did."
The man then goes outside and tells the first person
he sees that the bartender can’t keep track of
whether his customers have paid.
The second man then rushes in, orders a beer
and later pulls the same stunt.
The barkeep replies, "If you say you paid,
I’ll take your word for it."
Soon the customer goes into the street,
sees an old friend, and tells him how to get free drinks.
The man hurries into the bar and begins to
drink high-balls when, suddenly, the bartender
leans over sand says, "You know, a funny thing
happened in here tonight. Two men were drinking beer,
neither paid and both claimed that they did.
The next guy who tries that is going to get punched right in the nose."
"Don’t bother me with your troubles," the final patron responds.
"Just give me my change and I’ll be on my way."