Lightworker

Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all.

Only Then…

A rabbi asked his students, “When is it at dawn that one can tell the light from the darkness?”

One student replied, “When I can tell a goat from a donkey.”
“No,” answered the rabbi.

Another said, “When I can tell a palm tree from a fig.”

“No,” answered the rabbi again.

“Well, then what is the answer?” his students pressed him.

“Only when you look into the face of every man and every woman and see your brother and your sister,” said the rabbi.

“Only then have you seen the light. All else is still darkness.”

A Hasidic teaching

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.

Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.

Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing. There are no hills to go down unless you start from the top.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

Prayer for Protection
The light of God surrounds you.
The love of God enfolds you.
The power of God protects you.
And the presence of God watches over you.
Wherever you are, God is.

Just stand aside, and watch yourself go by;
Think of yourself, as ‘he’ instead of ‘I.’
Pick flaws, find fault, forget the man is you,
And strive to make your estimate ring true.
The faults of others then will dwarf and shrink.
Love’s chin grows stronger by one mighty link,
When you with ‘he’ as substitute for ‘I,’
Have stood aside, and watched yourself go by.

S.W. Gillilan

Be Patient

“I want to beg you as much as I can, to be patient to all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Do not seek now answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live with them.
And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then someday without knowing it live along gradually into the answer…
Take whatever comes with great trust, and if only it comes out of your own will, out of some need of your innermost being, take it into yourself…and hate nothing.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

There were two lovers, who were really into spiritualism and reincarnation. They vowed that if either of them died, the one remaining would try to contact the partner in the world beyond exactly 30 days after their death.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later, the young man died in a car wreck. True to her word, his sweetheart tried to contact him in the spirit world exactly 30 days later.

At the séance, she called out, “John, John, this is Martha. Do you hear me?”A ghostly voice answered her, “Yes Martha, this is John. I can hear you.”

Martha tearfully asked, “Oh John, what is it like where you are?”

“It’s beautiful. There are azure skies, a soft breeze, sunshine most of the time.”

“What do you do all day?” asked Martha.

“Well, Martha, we get up before sunrise, eat some good breakfast, and there’s nothing but making love until noon. After lunch, we nap until two and then make love again until about five. After dinner, we go at it again until we fall asleep about 11 p.m.”

Martha was somewhat taken aback. “Is that what heaven really is like?”

“Heaven? I’m not in heaven, Martha.”

“Well, then, where are you?”

“I’m a rabbit in Arizona.”

Don’t take yourself too seriously There is almost no greater joy for your personality than when you fully believe the rules and the complex image he made of your life. The idea is that it is very bad when you make mistakes or are not acknowledged for your point of view. That the world will surely fall apart when you forgive someone without him or her having apologized to you first, or at least has crawled through the dust. Rules like you have to eat with fork and knife, love does not exist except in some rare occasions, you have to be in time for your work, your vision is right, like that when you sneeze you have to put your hand in front of your mouth, it is essential that you somehow communicate your feelings of uneasiness when someone does something that you do not like. Etcetera. Comedians will make us laugh at ourselves in a quite harmless way, because we recognize the situations that they use, but it does not come too close so that your personality has to see it as a personal attack (and needs to defend himself). In Holland there once was a famous show about a hippy figure from the sixties, who opposed almost everything the people thought was normal in those days. But the performer did it in such a way, that everybody had to laugh. Laughing at yourself can make a difference in some way, be it more or less conscious. Since you have laughed about something you took very serious before, might ring a little bell within you that could help you to remember that a situation may not be the way you always thought it to be. The serious way in which you used to defend your point of view, now may be a little less worth while to give your energy to. Even columnists, comedy writers and other lighthearted program makers can do this. There is a Dutch program in which the news of the last week is commented on in a very funny way. This makes you aware of at least two ways you can interpret a news item: funny or sad, depending on the person who brings it to you and the way he tells it. There is not one truth, not one way of looking at the world. The way you look at it is not the ultimate truth. So what? Then why are you so frantically defending it? Be a bit more of a comedian in your own life by not taking yourself too serious, your personality is likely to have less chances of becoming stronger and stronger, and that saves you time and energy. The only thing you know for sure is that the way that you experience something, is the result of the way that your personality applies all rules and judgments, and that no one will have exactly the same set of rules. You may know the saying: when you are a doctor, everybody seems to be a patient, which expresses the one-sidedness of your focus. While the rest of the world knows better!

http://www.thebecompany.com/not_too_serious.htm

I will gain more understanding when I realize …

little creatures can teach me big lessons.
Few people appreciate mice. To most of us, they are dirty,
annoying little creatures who destroy property and invade our
personal space. A mouse will make its way through the smallest
of openings to come into your home and help itself to the best you
have to offer, leavings its droppings behind. Ever try to catch a mouse?
They will dodge your broom as they scurry into a hole you never knew
existed, leaving you out of breath and out of control! Then there is another
side of the mouse you may have never considered. Because mice are so
small, they have the ability to get into places and to see things that other
creatures can’t. In other words, mice see opportunities that other creatures
miss. At the same time, mice are a source of food for many other animals.
For this reason, they must be very careful about how they move, where they
move and when they move. They don’t eat from every hand. They must first
know you and feel comfortable around you. Mice know that they must be
flexible in order to get into and out of tight places safely. The mouse teaches
us to pay attention to details. Things like cheese in a trap! Mice know that
there are details, which if ignores, could cost you your hide.
Caution in movement. Focus of direction. Scrutiny of association. Flexibility.
The mouse teaches us that it is possible to move in and out of the experiences
of our lives without being trapped. The key is to be aware of what you are
at all times.

Until today, you may not have had a healthy appreciation of the skills of mice.

Just for today, set aside any dislike of little creepy things. Instead, examine
Today I am devoted to moving with caution, focusing on what I am doing;
and to scrutinizing everything
and everyone, including myself!

Reading from Until today by Iyanla Vanzant

The Real Meaning Of Peace”

“There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest - in perfect peace.

Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. “Because,” explained the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”