“Know yourself as the ocean of being, the womb of all existence. You can know it only by being it. Without it all is trouble. If you want to live sanely, creatively and happily and have infinite riches to share, search for what you are!” ~Sri Nasargadatta Maharaj from the book I AM That
“The soul that moves in the world of the senses and yet keeps the senses in harmony finds rest in quietness.”
~Bhagvad Gita
An inspiring story and a good lesson on thinking outside the box. A passage from The Element by Ken Robinson
“One of the results of seeing our lives as leaner and unidirectional is that it leads to a culture of segregating people by age. We send the very young to nursery schools and kindergartens as a group. We educate teenagers in batches. We move the elderly into retirement homes. There are some good reasons for all of this. After all, As Gail Sheehy noted decades ago, there are predictable passages in our lives, and it makes some sense to create environments where people can experience those passages in an optimal way.
However, there are also good reasons to challenge the routines of what really amounts to age discrimination. An inspiring example is a unique education program in the Jenks school district of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The state of Oklahoma has a nationally acclaimed early-years reading program, providing reading classes for three-to five-year olds throughout the state. The Jenks district offers a unique version of the program. This came about when the owner of another institution in Jenks – one across the street from one of the elementary schools – approached the superintendent of schools. He’d heard about the reading program and wondered if his institution could offer some help.
The other institution is the Grace Living Center, a retirement home.
Over the next few months, the district established a preschool and kindergarten classroom in the very heart of Grace Living Center. Surrounded by clear glass walls(with a gap at the top to allow the sounds of children to filter out), the classroom sits in the foyer of the main building. The children and their teachers go to school there every day as thought it were any other classroom. Because it’s in the foyer, the residents walk past it at least three times a day to get to their meals.
As soon as the class opened, many of the residents stopped to look through the glass walls at what was going on. The teachers told them that the children were learning to read. One by one, several residents asked if they could help. The teachers were glad to have the assistance, and they quickly set up a program called Book Buddies. The program pairs a member of the retirement home with one of the children. The adults listen to the children read, and they read to them.
The program has had some remarkable results. One is that the majority of the children at the Grace Living Center are outperforming other children in the district on the state’s standardized reading tests. More than 70 percent are leaving the program at age five reading at third-grade level or higher. But the children are learning much more than how to read. As they sit with their book buddies, the kids have rich conversations with the adults about a wide variety of subjects, and especially about the elders’ memories of their childhoods growing up in Oklahoma. The children ask things about how big iPods were when the adults were growing up, and the adults explain that their lives really weren’t like the lives that kids have now. This leads to stories about how they lived and played seventy, eighty, or even ninety years ago. The children are getting a wonderfully textured social history of their hometowns from people who have seen the town evolve over the decades. Parents are so pleased with this extracurricular benefit that a lottery is now required because the demand for sixty available desks is so strong.
Something else has been going on at the Grace Living Center though: medication levels are plummeting. Many of the residents on the program have stopped or cut back on their drugs.
Why is this happening? Because the adult participants in the program have come back to life. Instead of whiling away their days waiting for the inevitable, they have a reason to get up in the morning and a renewed excitement about what the day might bring. Because they are reconnecting with their creative energies, they are literally living longer.
There’s something else the children learn. Every now and then, the teachers have to tell them that one of their book buddies won’t be coming any more’ that this person has passed. So the children come to appreciate at a tender age that life has its rhythms and cycles, and that even the people they become close to are part of that cycle.
In a way, the Grace Living Center has restored an ancient, traditional relationship between the generations. The Book Buddies program shows in a simple yet profound way the enrichment possible when generations come together. It shows too that elderly can revive long-lost energies if the circumstances are right and the inspiration is there.”
For those times when you’r just not sure what to do, when your feeling lost and confused, here is a quote just for that occasion.
” Life gets better when your headed in the right direction,
And you’l know its right because you’re sure enough to be unsure about,
But never unsure enough to not do it “
From Frogs into Princes, a book on NLP – Neuro Linguistic Programing
There are two books that I treasure above all others in my life. I have already written about the first, it is the Ptanjali Yoga Sutras by Swami Satchidananda, this book is the second.
I have flipped through many different versions and translations of the Tao Te Ching, but this one always strikes me as the best and clearest of them all. The author has had years of experience as a Zen practitioner and meditator. I believe that this background and experience has helped him understand the deeper meaning behind the paradoxical language found in the Toa Te Ching. Stephen Mitchell himself says, “I have often been fairly literal – as as literal as one ca be with such a subtle, kaleidoscopic book… If I haven’t always translated Lao Tzu’s words, my intention has always been to translate his mind.”
I have had this little book for many years and it never ceases to amaze me just how much insight and perspective I can gain from re-reading just a few passages. Sometimes, I just open it at random to a page and read it, like a horoscope for that day. Other times, I search greedily for the passage that moves me and re-read it over and over again until it is burned into my memory. Like a soft whisper in my mind, the lines come back to me when I most need them to remind me to stay present and embody the Tao in my life.
The word “kaleidoscopic” seems very fitting for such a book because there are are hundreds of lessons or paths that you can take to understanding. There are 81 stanzas in total, and yet there is mainly one bold and central idea that underlies all passages. Lao Tzu wants to make sure that the reader really gets it. Even though he then laughs at the idea because it is not a matter of “getting it” but rather using it.
To quote another passage, “The Tao is like a bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable. The more you use it, the more it produces; the more you talk of it, the less you understand.”
I frequently think of this book as a spiritual instruction manual. Its not philosophy, its not psychology, rather, its like an Ikea manual for assembling a lamp or table. Of course the Ikea manual will give only enough instructions on how to assemble the object, while the Tao Te Ching gives 81 instructions – often referencing “The Master” or one who is in alignment with the Tao. Thus, this is a unique spiritual book unlike any other simply because it was written to confuse the intellectual mind. A rational and reasonable person will find this book frustrating, certainly illogical, and quite possibly even useless. It is a brilliant way to filter readers and pass down wisdom without having the original message garbled up. This book is a gem of wisdom, its no wonder that it has survived all this time and continues to inspire new generations of readers. A few final words from master Lao Tzu.
“In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added.
In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things, untill finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way.
It can’t be gained by interfering.” (Stanza 48).
Book Review: Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce
For those who are seriously interested in developing their awareness of subtle energies and wish to practice astral
projection or out of body experience, I highly recommend the book Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce. This comprehensive book gives specific techniques on how to go about leaving your body and has several extremely helpful chapters on energy work. Bruce also presents his theory of astral travel, how it works and potential dangers.
In order to achieve out of body experience consciously, Bruce says it is helpful to develop the energy body. The first stage is to become aware of energy and learn to sense where it is, which direction it is moving and guiding it through the body. Second, each minor energy center such as the hands and feet must be awakened. One may discover energy blockages in the body and those must be undone, similar to massaging a tight muscle in order to release it. Once energy is able to move freely, a circular pattern is established from the toes to head and back down again. Specific techniques are then introduced to aid the process of separating the energy body from the physical body.
I practiced the exercises in this book diligently for several weeks and saw amazing results. I began to sense energy not only in my own body but also in other people’s energetic fields which greatly informed me about their personality and character. I almost succeeded in having an out of body experience at the end of the first week but the experience was extremely frightening and exhilarating at the same time. Since then, I have given up on attempting to leave my body but I still practice the energy exercises that I learned from the book. They are intuitive, simple, and extremely effective. For anyone interested in this topic, this is a must read.
With so many books being published on the topics of yoga and meditation, it can be difficult, confusing, and frustrating to know exactly which book to pick, who to believe and which path to follow.
One of my favorite books on the subject is The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: by Sri Swami Satchidananda. Sutra in Sanskrit means strand and the book is a compilation of ancient strands of text that are woven together to form the foundation of yoga philosophy. With over four thousand years of recorded history, yoga is surprisingly scientific and logical in its approach to enlightenment and the achieving of Samadhi – the ultimate meditative state. Unlike many watered-down new age books out there, this is the real deal and I can honestly say that reading and following the wisdom in this book has dramatically transformed my life. I check in with the book from time to time to find out where I am at and how far I have come in my understanding of the sutras. I would encourage anybody interested in yoga, meditation, awareness, stress relief, and inner peace to get this book. There are many meditation practices out there and you can find numerous techniques on this website but ultimately it’s not so much about the road you take, rather it’s your level of dedication and consistent practice that will make the difference. Ultimately, all roads lead to the same place.
My first flute album- Embers, available online for only $5.99
Check out my book Road To Involution available on Amazon.com as a paper back or in electronic form for the kindle.