So did we say a prayer today ?

For who ? For ourselves. Did we do something, some ritual that affirmed our faith today ? In what ? In ourselves. Our ability to connect with our inner selves. For if we do not, who is this person that is working, loving, talking etc. It’s certainly not you.


It’s an everyday search for me. For that something that can put me in touch with myself. My connection to consciousness. My connection to loving nature.
Of course many people have faith. Which is a wonderful ability. I don’t have blind faith. I am more of a searcher. Questioner. Good, bad ? I don’t know. No value judgements on any faith or the question of faith. Or on myself.
Some people do it with meditation first thing in the morning. I have never been able to do that. I have to connect to something, however small, however little, to loose my sense of individuality. That’s the daily struggle. Against my own exaggarated sense of myself. I am so used to it. I have relied on it for so many years. So tough to let go now. Not that I have never questioned it before. But now, it is really important for me to be truly ‘active’ rather than ‘reactive’, which is what I have done most of my life. And how do I know what that ‘true’ action is ? Unless I am constantly in touch with something larger, more immense, more universal than myself ?
Yes I know. By letting go. By allowing yourself not to be addicted to the result of your action. By allowing chaos to invade your life. Yes, I agree. All of that. I do allow chaos to prevade in my life. I am impeteous (spelling). But then the individual in me fights back hard.
It’s an everyday battle. This battle to let go of one’s addiction to one’s sense of individuality.
Yet, the smallest of things can provoke the sensing of my flowing into something much much larger. Something infinite.
This morning it was my 5 year old daughter waking me up with a loud ‘Peekaboo’ and the tinkling of an early morning laugh.
Sometimes it;s just getting up early enough to watch the first shades of dark blue brush across the sky. Something deeply stirring about that.
Sometimes it’s unexpected gestures of affection that were not sought. Or given so instinctually that you were not aware of them.
Sometimes, it’s writing a poem. But only if the words are coming from somewhere else. As if something is flowing through you, a river of emotion you can physically feel that flows through your being.
But it is always so unexpected. So much that I am constantly aware now. My senses hightened. Waiting for that unexpected moment.
When something deeper will reach out and engulf me, and give my life, and all my actions, however small, a deeper and all encompassing context. On a daily basis.
So say a prayer for me. And for yourself.
Shekhar

1,544 thoughts on “So did we say a prayer today ?

  1. Looking at the Looking Trap
    an essay
    2.25.05

    It is amazing how many people are caught in the trap of being deeply concerned with how things are looking to others. Keeping Up Appearances has become, for some, an obsession. Many of us will even give up our own happiness (or our chance at it) in order to keep “looking good” in the eyes of others. This is beyond sad. It is tragic.
    It is tragic because all we have is the Time of Our Life. It is the essential gift. It is the treasure of treasures. And it is not infinite, but finite. Indeed, it could run out at any moment.
    During this Time of Our Life we should be having the time of our lives. Instead, many of us are living lives of dulled acceptance-and some are even living lives of quiet desperation. Waiting, waiting, for what, we know not. Just something, anything, other than what is going on right now, or at least richer, fuller, grander. Because there’s something missing, and we dare not name it, or the name itself will do us in.
    It is, of course, love. We are lacking in love, and we are dying inside. We are lacking in someone TO love, and we are lacking in someone loving us. And who we are lacking in loving us is, in the supreme irony, ourselves.
    Not finding it possible to love ourselves exactly as we are and exactly as we would like to be “showing up” if we could do whatever we wanted, we do, instead, whatever “others” want us to do, in order to acquire the love for which we so desperately yearn. We pay utmost attention to how we are looking.
    I call this The Looking Trap. In it we are so confined in our thinking, so caught up in our appearances, so imprisoned in our outlook, that we have no outlook at all. We cannot look out for our Selves. We cannot look out of our own self-made prison. We cannot see over the walls of our own need for approval.
    The Looking Trap binds people to the rigidity of what others would choose for them. It ties them down, limits their choices, dramatically alters their course, and all in the name of pleasing others even as the self is never pleased. Meanwhile, Time-that most precious of all life’s treasures-is running out.
    You will never see this day again. You will never again see this week, this month, this year again. You will see this time only during the moment you are living it. Be sure, then, that you ARE “living it.” Try very hard not to be killing it. There shall be time enough after death to experiencing dying. It is time now to experience living. It is time now to spring free of The Looking Trap.

    Spring free, my soul! Spring free, spring free!
    And give me back, right now, to me.
    I shall not see the time I took
    To fret and stress o’er how I look.
    I shall not have these days again.
    For this is Now, and that was Then.

    What’s gone is past, yet all’s not lost.
    I’ll seize this day, forget the cost.
    I’ll seize this time, forget the price.
    I’ll seize this Now, and throw the dice!
    My gamble’s won before the toss,
    For now I have become the boss!

    My life’s my own, my choices, mine.
    I’ll take a stand, I’ll draw the line.
    No more! No more I’ll give to you
    The power to influence what I do.
    No more! No more I’ll keep from me
    The very things that set me free!

    This day I claim again my choice.
    This day I give myself a voice.
    And how I look to you is not
    Of my concern, and so you’ve got
    No more power to wield o’er me.
    My God, it’s true! I’ve set me free!
    ~Neale

  2. …for Greg Rich…
    Om Mani Padme Hum…ommm

    In peace, love, kindness, gratitude and mindfulness, thank you for being “you”
    Namaste

    May your new journey meet you with joy and bliss…

  3. My dear friends…

    If you were to die tomorrow, would you be happy about how you spent today?
    Get on the phone today and say something special to everyone who is special to you.
    Go around today to everyone you love who is close to you and give them a hug and a smooch and a real sign of your love.
    Write a note today to all of your distant but still good friends and tell them what having them in your life has meant to you.
    Then sit down and draft a letter to your children or your grandchildren and share with them everything that you have learned about life, everything that you want them to know about how to get through, how to make things work, how to find joy and have fun and bring themselves and other people some happiness amidst all the challenges they are going to face.
    Tell them what those challenges are about and why they have arisen and how to best meet them and the way to celebrate them.
    And when you’re through with all of that write yourself a letter, telling yourself how good you have been and how well you have done, given all that you have had to deal with and everything you have encountered. And then write a letter to God, saying thanks for all the blessings, and that you can’t wait `til you get back Home to tell all of your loved ones there all about what your adventure here is has been like, what you have learned, and what you’re going to do Next Time Around to apply all that you have learned.
    If you do not die tomorrow, if you are still alive by the end of the week, decide how you want to spend whatever time you have left with your present body. Make a New Decision about the meaning and the purpose of your life. Elevate it beyond the survival level. Look to see what you would choose as the reason you are living if you thought that the choice is being made by your Soul and not by your Mind.
    Live whatever days you have left from that space, in the best way that you can. Serve the agenda of your Soul. Your life, however much longer it goes on, will never be the same. It will have some meaning, at last. It will have some meaningful purpose. And that will make every moment special. …love and hugs,

    Love and Hugs,
    Neale.

  4. RICH, Gregory Charles –
    Suddenly, on Sunday, August 15, 2010 at the age of 54 in Toronto, Ontario. Beloved son of Lois Irene Rich, of Ottawa and the late Richard Austin Rich. Cherished brother of Leslie Joiner (Tom) of Limoges, Brenda Rich-Agnew (Richard) of Brampton, and Susan Dumas of Ottawa. Devoted uncle to Ryan and Lindsay Joiner, Robin Agnew-Romenelli, Kayla Agnew, and Steven Dumas. Predeceased by his life partner, Jerry Wayne Belan, of Leamington, Ontario.

    Greg’s love of the outdoors was reflected in his work as a landscape architect for the City of Toronto. Through his many projects, he leaves behind a legacy of improvements to the Toronto cityscape, particularly the Toronto Waterfront Rejuvenation Project. An avid hiker and travel enthusiast, he enjoyed exploring and volunteering for the local parks of Ontario, his favourites including Flowerpot Island, Point Pelee National Park and the Bruce Trail. Family and friends may call at the Chapel, Pinecrest Cemetery, 2500 Baseline Road in Ottawa for a memorial service to be held on Friday August 27, 2010 at 11 a.m.

    In lieu of flowers, donations to the charity of your choice would be appreciated.

  5. for universal intelligence in thoughts, words & deeds —

    ? ??? ???? ????
    ????????? ???????
    ????? ?????? ?????
    ???? ?? ?? ?????????? ?

  6. (wordpress does not support transliterated text, above? perhaps an invisible force to repeat the mantra!

    for universal intelligence in thoughts, words & deeds –

    Om bhur bhuvah svah
    tat savitur varenyam
    bhargo devasya dhimahi
    dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

  7. “May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god:
    So may he stimulate our prayers.”

    —The Hymns of the Rigveda (1896), Ralph T.H. Griffith

    ~~~

    AUM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
    TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
    BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
    DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT.

    Summary of the Gayatri Mantra
    Gayatri Mantra (the mother of the vedas), the foremost mantra in hinduism and hindu beliefs, inspires wisdom. Its meaning is that “May the Almighty God illuminate our intellect to lead us along the righteous path”. The mantra is also a prayer to the “giver of light and life” – the sun (savitur).

  8. …for all suffering if the flood victims…a prayer of peace, help, comfort, healing…love,,,om

  9. My dear friends…

    If you are a regular reader of the Weekly Bulletin you know that last week in this space we talked about what you might do today if you were to die tomorrow.
    This week, let’s look at all this from another angle. What if you were to live forever?
    When I was a child, machines were made to last forever. That was one of their chief selling points. If you bought a Kenmore washing machine, you could count on it lasting a lifetime. If you bought a Maytag, you could include your children’s lifetime.
    That was before Planned Obsolescence.
    When I was a child, everything lasted longer and worked better. Nothing broke down. Not nearly as fast, anyway. But then manufacturers in places like the United States became clear that once “everybody had one” (like, for instance, a vacuum cleaner) there was no more market for their machines. But they wanted to keep on making machines (and making money), so they found that they had to stop making machines with parts that lasted forever, and begin making machines with parts that broke down.
    When I was a kid, a Hoover vacuum lasted forever. My mother used my grandmother’s, and when I moved into my own place, Mom finally got a new one and gave me hers-which I used for five more years! That’s why people bought Hoover.
    That was before Planned Obsolescence.
    Today, there is only one machine I can think of that is designed to last forever.
    The human body.
    We all know that your body is not who you are, it is something you have. It is a tool. A piece of equipment. A machine.
    What we may not know is that it is a 1950’s Maytag. An old-fashioned Hoover. It was made to last forever.
    That may be hard for you to believe, but it’s true. Conversations with God tells us that the human body was made to function indefinitely. In simple terms, we were never meant to die.
    How is it that we do die, in that case? Why does death occur?
    The great secret is, it does not have to. It never had to. But the conditions we have created-both within ourselves and outside of ourselves-have made it impossible even for this wonderfully designed machine called our bodies to function forever. Yet now our civilization has reached an interesting and fascinating plateau. We have come to an era in which our technology has caught up with our sociology, and then surpassed it. We have reached a time when we will be finding ways to correct and heal through the modern miracles of regenerative medicine the effects of a degenerative society.
    We are on the threshold now, once again, of being able to live forever. We will soon be able to undo what we are doing to ourselves by creating environments within which healthful living is becoming virtually impossible, by putting things into our bodies that make healthful living virtually impossible, by producing stresses in our world that make healthful living virtually impossible.
    Before too many more years pass we will be able, through stem-cell manipulation, to create almost any non-functioning body part. What do you need, a new heart? A new liver? A new pancreas? Coming right up. If you have the money (always, always, always it works that way) you’ll be able to go to the Stem Cell Store and purchase repair units for any part of you that has broken down.
    You think I’m kidding? I’m not. Okay, it may not be an actual cellular department store, but you get the picture. Walk into any major medical facility and they’ll fix you right up.
    And while we still may not choose to live forever, we’ll certainly live a heckuva lot longer than our present and puny 65 or 78 or 89 years. We’ll hang round for something more like two or three hundred years. And then we’ll leave not because we have to, but, perhaps, out of sheer boredom. We’ll want to return to the Other Dimension, and we’ll do so, quite at will.
    All of which raises an interesting question. What could make us want to live another two or three hundred years? Well, probably very little if our lives had to include the kind of pain, misery, and suffering that we endure today. And so, an interesting side effect of being able to live so much longer will be more focus on how to live much, much better. Because even if we will be able to run into the Stem Cell Store and get a new body part, we’re not going to want to keep putting ourselves through all that we’re going through these days that make us need to get a new body part. We’re not going to want to endure the stress, the strain, the mess, the pain of human life as we are these days creating it. Not for two or three hundred years. Sixty or seventy years of this is enough.
    So the funny thing is that when we no longer have to, we’ll finally choose to eat better, exercise more, damage ourselves less (the idea of inhaling known carcinogens 10 or 20 times a day, for instance, will seem idiotic), think purposefully, and live intentionally and joyously. We’ll learn to co-exist with each other in peace and harmony, because, since we won’t have to die any other way, the idea of dying in war, by killing each other, will seem even more ridiculous than it does now.
    Right now we think, well, we all have to die anyway, so if we have to die for a “good cause,” or to protect our honor, or for whatever other reason we’ve given ourselves that makes war acceptable-fine. We may not like it, but we’ll do it. Obviously, we’ll do it, because we are doing it. Voluntarily. But when dying is an option, we’ll be taking a whole new look at the absurdity of dying on purpose-and the immorality of killing each other on purpose will be strikingly and starkly apparent.
    Yes, we are on the verge of living in this New Way now. Yet the question before any race of sentient beings must be: Why wait? What would it take to make our puny hundred years or less here more joyful and less painful right now? Do we have to wait for immortality to create cordiality? Do we have to produce a much more extended life to produce a much more wonderful life?
    No. We can do so right now. We can do so when we are clear about The Only Thing That Matters. That’s the title of a new book, which I am writing-and which people from all over the world are discussing as it is being written, right now at http://www.TheOnlyThingThatMatters.net.
    Join us there if you like. The conversation is becoming fascinating. …love and hugs,

    Love and Hugs,
    Neale

  10. Death is a natural part of life.
    Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force.
    Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealously.
    The shadow of greed, that is.”
    ~Yoda

  11. Thank you Anatoli for the shift in energy, transformation in attitude and sharing of love vibes…om

  12. My dear friends…

    I was re-reading When Everything Changes, Change Everything the other day and I was deeply impressed again (as I was the first time around) with its statement that there are two sentences that can change your entire life. These are two sentences that you will want to remember verbatim. I mean, really remember. As in, never forget. As in, tattooed on your left wrist, written in soap on your bathroom mirror, or magnetized to your refrigerator door.
    These two utterances are paradigm-shifting and life changing. I call them…
    1. The Life-Altering Question
    2. The Answer to Everything

    The Life-Altering Question is:

    IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE
    REALITY I AM EXPERIENCING IS NOT REAL?

    It is the soul that encourages this question.
    And then there is The Answer to Everything. What I am about to tell you can make it possible for you to never have a negative experience of change again. This is the final piece of the puzzle. This is the lost key, the unknown combination, the secret of secrets.

    Here it is…

    ALL CHANGE IS FOR THE BETTER.
    THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHANGE FOR THE WORSE.

    What I have just told you changes everything. No other piece of information is needed, no other data is required. The mind is now empowered to come to a whole new set of conclusions about Life.
    All that we need to do to deal with unexpected, unwanted change in our life is…

    Change our idea about Change Itself

    We have been seeing change as a disruption, as a break in the flow, as a shift in direction, as an alteration in the condition or circumstance of our lives. Especially with regard to what we view as unwelcome change, this has been our truth. From this truth has emerged our thought, which has created our emotion, which has produced our experience, which has eventuated our reality.
    I want you to think about what I just said. An event is what brings about our reality. Our reality is, in the literal sense, eventuated.
    This is true until we are out of our mind. When we leave the mind and enter the realm of the soul, then it is no longer events that bring about our reality, but pure awareness.
    From awareness emerges Actual Truth, while from events emerges, at best, Apparent Truth and, more usually, Imagined Truth. Thus, from events we travel into a Distorted Reality, while from awareness we move at last into the Ultimate Reality.
    And what is it of which we become aware, that produces such a quantum shift in our overall experience? We become aware of the Actual Truth about Change Itself. We see that change is not a DISruption, but an Eruption. It is life erupting into fuller bloom. We see that change is not a break in the flow, it IS the flow. We see that change is not a shift in direction, it is the direction itself in which all life moves. We see that change is not an alteration in the condition and circumstance of our lives, it IS the condition and circumstance of our lives.
    In our expanded awareness we observe that without change, life itself would not be, for life is movement, and movement is change, by definition.
    The question is not, therefore, whether life will contain change, but what kind of change life will contain?
    And the answer to that question depends upon how (and whether) you utilize your Mind and your Soul, in collaboration.
    The soul is energy. It is the energy of life itself, animating life itself. Life energizes and animates life itself through the process of Life Itself. It is a self-feeding, self-sustaining system.
    Those last few words are vitally important to remember. Life is a self-sustaining system. It never ends, but sustains itself eternally. How? By adapting. Why? So that it can remain forever functional. When it can no longer function in a particular way, it adapts. By its adaptation does it render itself sustainable.
    Life is making its adaptations in every moment. It is always changing. The question is not whether life is always changing, but why? Life is always changing in order to remain always sustainable. Thus, every change that ever occurs is change for the better.
    This new idea about change that I’m inviting you to embrace, when put on a more personal level, reads like this: All change is for your own good.
    Most of us experience this-after the fact.
    Most of us have experienced events which we have called, when they were happening, the worst moments of our lives, only to find, as time went by, that what occurred was one of the best things that ever happened to us.
    The fact is that this is true of everything that has ever happened to us, but we do not know this, we cannot accept this, because some things have turned out for the worst-according to our definition. Yet our definition is warped, constrained as it is by the Mechanics of the Mind, and their inherent limitations.
    The mind may very well know all about what has gone before, but it does not know why. The mind may very well hold all of life’s Past Data, but it does not hold all of life’s information (which is another thing altogether). The mind may very well contain knowledge, but it does not contain wisdom.
    Wisdom lies outside the mind. Wisdom resides within the soul.
    That is why we need to hold both handles of this magnificent tool of creation that I shall now call by its proper name: YOU.
    Let me make something very clear. “Facts” and “awareness” are not the same thing. We can know all the facts about gravity, but if we do not have an awareness of why gravity works, we know nothing. We can know all the facts about electricity, and we can even use electricity, but if we have no awareness of what electricity is and of why it works, we know nothing. We can know all the facts about light, and we can even use light, but if we have no awareness of what light is and of why it works, we know nothing.
    Likewise, we can know all the facts about change, but if we have no awareness of what change is and of why it occurs, we know nothing.
    For instance, we may not know that…
    Nothing changes for the worse. Everything only changes for the better.
    That’s a pretty big statement, and I understand if it’s hard for you to believe. Yet it is true. And next week, we’ll explore that here, as I am wanting to make you more aware of the wonderful wisdom in When Everything Changes, Change Everything-a book than can truly change your life.
    See you then!

    Love and Hugs,
    Neale.

  13. My dear friends…

    We were talking here last week about the life experience of Change, and I made the statement that…
    Nothing changes for the worse. Everything only changes for the better.
    I said, “That’s a pretty big statement, and I understand if it’s hard for you to believe. Yet it is true. And next week, we’ll explore that here.”
    So let’s do so, yes?
    Let’s start by stepping back a little from this enormous idea and give it some basis in physics. Yes, I said physics.
    All of life is a mechanism, and like all mechanisms, life operates on energy. Unlike most other mechanisms, life is the energy on which life operates. That is, it feeds on itself.
    And so, stars implode and entire star systems disappear into black holes; and so, earthquakes and tornadoes and hurricanes ravage the earth; and so, big fish consume little fish; and so, humans are born, live their lives, and die-ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Yet the energy of none of this-none of it-disappears, but merely changes form. Energy is never, and can never be, lost, it can only be transformed.
    It is through the transformation of energy that light is produced. It is through the transformation of energy that heat is produced. It is through the transformation of energy that electricity is produced. It is through the transformation of energy that gravity is produced. It is through the transformation of energy that everything is produced, including Life Itself.
    Energy acts upon itself. The transformation of energy produces energy in formation. Energy is life’s information. Life is always in formation. It is forever forming itself into something it was not before it became what it is. It is through the becoming that life breathes life into Life Itself. In simple terms, this is called change.
    Yes, there’s that word again…change.
    That is what life is all about. Life nourishes life through the process of life itself, in which life changes its form a hundred million times in the blink of an eye, a million million times in seconds, a billion million times in a minute, and more times than Time Itself can count in the time that has passed since counting began.
    Change for the worse is literally impossible within the expression of energy that we call Life. That’s because Life Itself can fundamentally alter itself in only one direction: the direction that evolution requires; the direction that expansion demands, the direction that keeps it flourishing. Things can only change for the better, things can only improve, because “improvement” is the only Nature of God.
    Put another way, God has no intention of doing Itself in.
    Life is God’s way of proving Itself to Itself. The process by which It does this is called Improvement.
    But wait a minute! Who even says there is a “God”?
    I do. But I am not using the word God as many other people do. I do not use the word to denote or describe a huge Super Being existing somewhere in the cosmos, exhibiting proclivities and tendencies, needs and desires, frustrations and emotions identical to those of humans. I am not talking about an Entity Divine who has needs that must be fulfilled or else, who presumably has a temper (or, at least, a determination to punish those who disobey), and who also has, presumably, a penis, and, presumably, fair skin, and, presumably, no wife, but One Son.
    This is not the God I am referring to when I use the word “God.”
    I am referring to the Source of Supreme Intelligence manifesting itself as the Pure Energy that we call Life itself. I am referring to the Largest Manifestation of a System That Replicates Itself in Smaller and Smaller Versions Through a Process that Empowers the System Itself to Exist and to Expand. I am talking about the biggest undifferentiated stem cell in existence, from which life in all its forms emerges.
    Indeed, in my understanding and experience the words “God” and “Life” are interchangeable, and in this equation evolution is the constant. It is the ever present mandate of Life Itself. It is the continual, the unending adjustment, adaptation, and alteration of All That Is. No adjustment, adaptation, or alteration contracts Life, but can only expand it. No adjustment, adaptation, or alteration diminishes Life, but can only enhance it.
    Life evolves to higher and higher levels of complexity. Life could not devolve if It wanted to. It is incapable of doing that.
    Now, it is true that life can look like it is devolving. Changes can look like they are not “for the better.” But, in fact, change can only be for the better or it would not occur. All spiritual masters know this. That is why all spiritual masters teach, each in their own articulation…
    …judge not by appearances.
    The wonderful information I am sharing with you here comes out of the insight in When Everything Changes, Change Everything. And next week, we’ll look at more thoughts and ideas from this remarkable text-a book than can truly change your life.
    See you then!

    Love and Hugs,
    Neale

  14. My dear friends…
    Let’s explore something really fascinating this week. Let’s look at the place in the universe in which God resides; the location in which God exists.
    Many people believe that God is everywhere, but do not believe that God resides inside of them. They may say this out of humility, but actually it is the height of arrogance to imagine that God exists everywhere in the Universe except in you.
    That would make your body, mind, and soul pretty exclusive real estate.
    If we accept, on the other hand, what even traditional religions say: that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the All-In-All, then we must necessarily conclude that God exists in us.
    This is a big conclusion, because if it is accurate (and it is), we come upon a most intriguing and significant inquiry: Where in us does God exist? In our little finger? In our big toe? In our brain? In our heart? In our soul? (Do we even have a soul?) (Yes.)
    The answer: if God really is the All-In-All, the Alpha and the Omega, than there can be nowhere in us that God is not. In fact, there is nowhere in anything that God is not. God is everywhere, and is made manifest in everything.
    This brings us back to the Unspoken Truth. If God is everywhere in you, if there is nowhere in you that God is not, then God is you.
    And everything else.
    Once you understand this, you cannot imagine that life is about “you” ever again. Not in the sense of “you” having to be, do, or have anything in particular in order to be happy. Not in the sense of you “needing” anything, or requiring anything, in order to survive.
    Living in this truth makes it extremely difficult to be “caught up” in the minor daily “dramas” of life as it is currently lived by most people on the earth, and provides a fresh perspective on the really major tragedies and turmoil of our species.
    For 50 years I was living a case of mistaken identity. I thought I was separate from God. Now I know that this is not true, and that God and I are One. This does not mean that “I am God” in the arrogant sense of those words. This means that “I am what God is, and God is what I am.” This means that I truly have been made in the image and likeness of God!
    And so have you.
    On a strictly personal level, this means that you have no need for anything at all, and so you can drop all of your personal day-to-day “dramas” right now. Since you are everything you could ever imagine that you need or desire, what is there to be agitated about?
    You desire love? You are love. You desire abundance? You are abundance. You desire compassion, forgiveness, understanding? You are compassion, forgiveness, understanding.
    You may not experience that you are these things if you have been living a case of mistaken identity, yet the fastest way to experience that you are these things is to be these things. And the fastest way to experience yourself being these things is to give these things away. For it is in the giving that you realize and multiply the having, and it is in the having that you experience and expand the being, and it is in the being that you embrace and express the knowing of Who You Are-and this is the purpose of all of life.
    These are understandings that, once truly embraced, can alter your experience of life forever.

    Love and Hugs,
    Neale.

  15. One of my greatest joys is that I know I am not walking alone. All of you are walking with me. We are embarked on this journey together, and together, with compassion and love as our guide, we can lead each other back Home. That is our invitation, that is our opportunity, and that is our reason for encountering each other as we are in this very moment. When I understand that, this becomes the Holy Moment, and I honor it and experience it as sacred, both now and even forevermore.

    And life is never again the same.

    Love and Hugs,
    Neale.

  16. This week’s offering:

    The transcript of a talk by Neale on December 24, 2004 at the annual Christmas Eve Service offered by the ReCreation Foundation in Ashland, Oregon.

    Well, here we are again.

    Time has a way scrunching everything up, and here we are again, at that time on the yearly cycle that is so special to so many of us.

    Isn’t it wonderful?

    I’m going to keep this short and sweet tonight, which is going to make it even more wonderful.

    No long sermons, no long messages. I think the message of this night need not come from me. It’s what we’re feeling in our hearts that counts tonight, and nobody needs to tell us what those feelings are.

    So I thought I’d make just a few gentle observations, if you will permit, and let it go at that-allowing the evening, and tomorrow, and this delicious time we are in, to speak to each of us as it will. As it always has, each year at this moment.

    Each year at this moment we celebrate. But I was thinking this morning as I got up-what if I made it a different kind of celebration tonight?

    Not the celebration of the birth of the savior, but the celebration of the birth of the savior.

    Let me explain.

    The Christmas celebration itself has gotten so big, so almost out of hand, that it seems that a lot of different people have a lot of different ideas about what it’s all about.

    One thing that I know it’s not about, for me, is a doctrine or a dogma. It’s about celebrating the birth of Christ, for sure, because that is a cause for celebration, but it’s not about, for me, the birth of a religion or a theology.

    It’s about the birth of the savior, for sure, but only if the savior is born on this night.

    There was a savior born, in a manger, so we are told, many, many years ago. But here is something that we have not often been told: There has been a savior born every night, and every day, and every minute somewhere on this planet, from the beginning.

    That’s my thought about it, anyway. And I place it before you this evening as a possible consideration, as an idea. Nothing more.

    Not a dogma, not a doctrine. Just something to consider, to think about, to ponder in our hearts.

    What if each of us was intended to be a savior? What if we all were? What if every time someone is born, a savior is born? The only question then would be, whether we know it or not…

    There is something we are celebrating tonight, and it feels to me like it’s larger than any one person or any one religion or any one spiritual doctrine.

    There’s a feeling that millions of people experience tonight-they experience it in common and they experience it together. And boy, I’m sorry if this sounds naïve, or even sappy, but I think that feeling can be put into one word: LOVE.

    Now if Love really is what we are celebrating tonight, it will not matter what kind of package it comes in, what kind of dogma it’s wrapped in, or what kind of doctrine it’s flavored with. It would only matter whether it was real and true, and present, here and now-in our lives and in our world.

    And there is one way to guarantee that it is. By putting it there.

    It is, in the end, up to us.

    If we want humanity to receive the true gift of Christmas, and to have it last the whole year through, we have to agree to become, each of us in our own way, the savior.

    I realized this morning as I was thinking about this that nothing that is going on during this special time will have any meaning until I give it meaning in my own life, and in the lives of others. We’re living in a world right now that is not the kind of world we would choose, if we thought we had a choice.

    Here is the news on this day. It is the news that Christ came to tell us.

    We do.

    We do have a choice.

    All of us do, and if we will give ourselves permission to see it that way, and to see ourselves that way-as the person making the choice, as the person modeling the choice, as the person sharing the choice, we can save the day for humanity. The savior can be born tonight, when we allow love unconditional to be born again in our hearts.

    I got something in my email the other day, and I want to share it with you. It’s perfect for tonight, because it reveals to us just how easy it is to love, just how easy it is to be an individual savior in a world that’s begging to be saved, person by person, moment by moment.

    This is a story which comes to us from a woman who, many years ago, worked as a volunteer at a hospital. She got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease.

    Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

    The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. The boy hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save her.”

    As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks.

    Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?”

    You see, being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

    What we’re talking about here is love. Plain and simple, short and sweet. We’re talking about love.

    Love can be sent to others in a thousand ways. Even thoughts of love can change things. They can be felt. Be you, and by the person you are thinking of, too.

    Yes, they can.

    You can literally “send love to another” with the power of your thought. In fact, you’ll have a chance to do that tonight. In just a short while, we’ll be lighting these candles, and that ritual can mean more than you know. If you think of someone with love tonight as you light that candle, whether they are in their body or have left their earthly body, it will not matter. They will feel it.

    And this is how it begins. Through simple acts such as this. I promise you. The love for another that you ignite in your heart is ignited in the heart of the other. The light may be dim at first, but it will never go out. It cannot, as long as you keep placing it there.

    That was the message of the man whose birth we celebrate tonight. And, as I said, you don’t need me to tell you that. But I need you. I have not done so good in this love department in my life. I would have liked to do better. I wish I could be more loving. So here’s the gift you can give tonight. Help me be that. And, for that matter, help everyone whose life you touch.

    Do it by loving them, simply, plainly, openly, without condition. Return them to themselves. If you’ll give me back to myself, maybe I can do better.

    You’re my only hope. You’ve got to see me as I have stopped seeing myself. You’ve got to see in me what I, myself, have lost sight of. That’s when you give me the unspeakable gift. That’s the treasure of treasures.

    I’ll try my very best to give it to you. I know you’ll try to give it to me. Let’s give it to each other, and to all people everywhere. Then, the savior is born….in us.

    And then we can bring, we can truly bring, Joy to the World.

    Merry Christmas, everyone. Love…Neale.

  17. Wiñay – Growth and Initiation (Quechua language of the Andes)

    ~This Solstice, Full Moon and Eclipse…we have been waiting for millions of years for this exact moment, a moment that has been recorded in the Planetary Records.

    ~Some of the effects, especially at night, will be stronger because during the night the eclipse moves northward. (This actually happens between 18 and 28 December)

    ~Due to major global changes that have to occur in the next two years (Dec. 21, 2010 – Dec. 21, 2012) the Divine Plan will raise a ‘Great Call’ to all Servants of the Light that are available.

    ~This purpose is to carry out a complete change in personality where the soul is infused and transfigured to that of our intelligence, through Divine Intervention.

    ~ We will dramatically be elevated to work intuitively next to the Great, the Forces of the Elements and the Powers of Nature. This purpose is to bring into being, change that will take place on a large scale.

    ~This is a great time of realization in which our skills will be greatly expanded to assist the Great Revealing of the Power, the Radiation and the Presence, through us as Servants of the Planetary Light and crew of the earth.

    Sincerely,
    Kucho (Shaman)

  18. All of us at Zildjian and Vic Firth thank you for your continued support and wish you and your families a very happy holiday.

    Sincerely,
    Craigie Zildjian
    CEO
    Avedis Zildjian Company

  19. For…Vicky, Victor and family…for Ericc and family…for Marylin and family…may all your loved ones be at rest in a dimension of peace and joy!
    om shanti

  20. Notes From Neale

    Hello, Everyone…

    We have been discussing here the movement from the Mind to the Soul as you live your life, and last week, in Part II of this exploration, I said:

    “In the very instant that anything occurs in the Outside World, the Master goes within to feel the way he wishes to feel about it.”

    You feel the way to wish to feel — and most people think it is the other way around: that you feel the way you feel, whether you wish to or not. They speak about being “overcome” by their feelings. Yet Conversations with God tells us that all feelings are chosen.

    Could this be true?

    It is, indeed. Feelings are chosen by the Soul, however, not by the Mind. And so if we are not listening to our Soul, we will not hear the voice of our Soul, and so will not know the choice of our Soul.

    We will listen to the voice of our Mind, and we will react, saying: “I can’t help it. That’s just the way I feel.”

    In this, we will have confused feeling with emotion. These are not the same thing. Emotion is based on your thought. Feeling is based on your truth. Emotion is a product of the Mind. Feeling emerges from your True Identity.

    Emotions are chosen by the Mind. Feelings are chosen by the Soul.

    Most of the time you deny your innermost, tender feelings.
    Your True Identity is something you decide, not something you discover.
    When you do this, your whole life changes.

    You will then replace compassion with anger, understanding with frustration, helpfulness with haplessness, forgiveness with resentment, giving with getting — and love with fear. As you do this, your whole life will take on a new façade, almost as if you were wearing a mask. You may even find yourself looking in the mirror and asking, “Who is this person?” You will have succumbed to the experience of being so angry or so sad or so resentful or so depressed…that you won’t even know who you are anymore.

    Yet if you have decided Who You Are ahead of time, in advance of anything occurring in your Outside World, your Being will replace your Mind’s anger with your Soul’s compassion, your Mind’s frustration with your Soul’s understanding, your Mind’s haplessness with your Soul’s helpfulness, your Mind’s resentment with your Soul’s forgiveness, your Mind’s need to get with your Soul’s desire to give, and your Mind’s fear with your Soul’s love. In this blessed moment your life will be transformed.

    You will say, “Once I was lost, but now I am found.” And it will be, indeed, an Amazing Grace.

    To achieve this breathtaking transformation you must know one thing. Your True Identity is not something that you discover, it is something you decide. When Decisions replace Discoveries, you will have moved from Student to Master in the Journey to Awareness.

    NEXT WEEK: The Movement to Mastery: Replacing Discovery with Decision. I can’t wait to tell you about this. Until then…make it a wonderful seven days!

    Love and Hugs,

    Neale

  21. Rainbow Fullmoon in is our dimenson…open to manifestation of our thoughts and will…om shanti shanti shanti…bowing to the energies of the universe…namaste

  22. We leave no one ‘behind’ when we die!

    The good news and the incredible news is that we do not leave beloved ones behind. And so, there is no emotional pain involved in death for the Soul that has died. When we die, we meet our “still living” loved ones on the Other Side – where the largest part of them exists in the place of No Time/No Space.

    A truth that religions do not teach us is this: We exist simultaneously on both sides of the veil that separates the Realm of the Physical from the Realm of the Spiritual. We divide ourselves in order to experience the Realm of the Physical, we do not leave the Spiritual Realm.

    Leaving the Spiritual Realm is not necessary for us to experience ourselves as Who We Really Are. We simply send a Part of Ourselves into the physical world, collecting and coalescing a portion of our Soul Energy in a particular location of Here and Now, in order to identify as who we are to be in any given life.

    What actually happens at the moment of death

    When we do the thing called “die” we simply Dissipate Identifying Energies (DIE), flowing our Essence once again back into the Whole Soul and the One Identity that we are.

    There, waiting for us on the Other Side when we pass, are the Whole Souls of all those we have loved – in this lifetime and in all lifetimes. These Whole Souls have the ability to coalesce themselves into any shape or form they wish…and they do so…assuming the shape of the beloved ones that we have just left in the Physical Realm.

    We recognize these Souls at once, of course! And we laugh and dance with joy at the immediate knowing that we never left each other at all – and never will, for WE ARE All ONE, existing always and all ways in the eternal glory of the Singularization Of Unified life (S-O-U-L) that is God knowing Itself!

    ~Neale

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