A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset

A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset.
When you wake up,
take a second to think about what a privilege
it is to simply be alive and healthy.
The moment you start acting like life is a blessing,
I assure you it will start to feel like one.
Time spent appreciating is time worth living

Desiderata

~Desiderata~

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

~ Max Ehrmann, 1927

Far Beyond Explanations

One can spend a lifetime seeking explanations.
It is even worse if one finds them.
What the heart requires is not explanation,
but breaking open entirely
far beyond explanations.

 ---Robert Saltzman---

We are Still the Big Bang

"There was a big bang at the beginning of things and it spread. And you and I, sitting here in this room, as complicated human beings, are way, way out on the fringe of that bang. We are the complicated little patterns on the end of it. Very interesting.

But so we define ourselves as being only that. If you think that you are only inside your skin, you define yourself as one very complicated little curlique, way out on the edge of that explosion. Way out in space, and way out in time. Billions of years ago, you were a big bang, but now you're a complicated human being.

And then we cut ourselves off, and don't feel that we're still the big bang. But you are. Depends how you define yourself. You are actually--if this is the way things started, if there was a big bang in the beginning-- you're not something that's a result of the big bang. You're not something that is a sort of puppet on the end of the process. You are still the process.

You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are. When I meet you, I see not just what you define yourself as--Mr so-and- so, Ms so-and-so, Mrs so-and-so--I see every one of you as the primordial energy of the universe coming on at me in this particular way. I know I'm that, too. But we've learned to define ourselves as separate from it.”

― Alan W. Watts

You are Here Now -- Robert Saltzman

Muere Lentamente by Martha Medeiros

Muere lentamente
quien se transforma en esclavo del hábito,
repitiendo todos los días los mismos trayectos,
quien no cambia de marca.
No arriesga vestir un color nuevo y no le habla a quien no conoce.

Muere lentamente
quien hace de la televisión su gurú.

Muere lentamente
quien evita una pasión,
quien prefiere el negro sobre blanco
y los puntos sobre las “íes” a un remolino de emociones,
justamente las que rescatan el brillo de los ojos,
sonrisas de los bostezos,
corazones a los tropiezos y sentimientos.



Muere lentamente
quien no voltea la mesa cuando está infeliz en el trabajo,
quien no arriesga lo cierto por lo incierto para ir detrás de un sueño,
quien no se permite por lo menos una vez en la vida,
huir de los consejos sensatos.

Muere lentamente
quien no viaja,
quien no lee,
quien no oye música,
quien no encuentra gracia en si mismo.

Muere lentamente
quien destruye su amor propio,
quien no se deja ayudar.

Muere lentamente,
quien pasa los días quejándose de su mala suerte
o de la lluvia incesante.

Muere lentamente,
quien abandona un proyecto antes de iniciarlo,
no preguntando de un asunto que desconoce
o no respondiendo cuando le indagan sobre algo que sabe.

Evitemos la muerte en suaves cuotas,
recordando siempre que estar vivo exige un esfuerzo mucho mayor
que el simple hecho de respirar.
Solamente la ardiente paciencia hará que conquistemos
una espléndida felicidad.

Dying Slowly by Martha Medeiros

“You start dying slowly
if you do not travel,
if you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem;
When you do not let others help you.

You start dying slowly
If you become a slave of your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths…
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colours
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And their turbulent emotions;
Those which make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime,
To run away from sensible advice.”

― Martha Medeiros

Embrace the One

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.

Therefore the wise embrace the one
And set an example to all.
Not putting on a display,
They shine forth.
Not justifying themselves,
They are distinguished.
Not boasting,
They receive recognition.
Not bragging,
They never falter.
They do not quarrel,
So no one quarrels with them.

Therefore the ancients say,
'Yield and overcome.'
Is that an empty saying?
Be really whole,
And all things will come to you.

Lao Tsu,
Tao Te Ching - chapter 22

(translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)

Alan Watts - Awakening Within the Illusion of the Dream

THE MIDDLE GROUND

There is a middle ground, a basic Reality embracing self
and Self. It may be called my true nature. To discover what
prevents me from the experience of it, I have only to look
at myself, just as I am.
It is so simple.
At this moment, what is my state?
I let my attention embrace the whole of myself, from the
top of the head through the torso, solar plexus, the entire
structure.
I am very still in the body. I follow the breath. I watch
the movements of thoughts and associations. The feelings
become quiet, and the activity in the head diminishes. I
am more. I perceive the whole of my world, just as it is.
I remain very still, refusing the mind’s inclinations to reach
for anything.
Thoughts and feelings come and go like floating clouds.
They are not me.
The experience is at one and the same time, both active
and passive. Through sensation of the body, I perceive that
I am. Yet, I do not know who or what I am. I am witness to
my existence.
I am aware of a feeling which suffuses the interior of myself.
It is a choiceless, an accepting awareness. With it comes a
sensation that extends to and envelopes all the parts of the
body. I am very still, relating to the silence that is both
inside and outside.
Nothing is lacking at this moment.

by William Segal

Nothingness is the Ultimate Reality - Alan Watts

Alan Watts - Why the Apple Tree Apples

Alan Watts & David Lindberg - Why Your Life Is Not A Journey

Never Forget

Remember
You are braver than you believe
Stronger than you seem
Smarter than you think
And twice as beautiful as you'd ever imagined.

The Meaning of Life (ongoing)

"If you learn to use a perfect afternoon
in a perfectly useless manner,
you have learned the meaning of life."

 ―Lin Yutang

Prepare for the Future

“Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”

― Albert Einstein

The Secret of Life -- Alan Watts

You are the Eternal Universe --Alan Watts

“Every one of us is an aperture through which the whole cosmos looks out." Alan Watts

The Real You -- Alan Watts

"The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real deep down YOU is the Whole Universe. And It's doing... Your living organism and all its behavior, it's expressing it as a singer sings a song... You are something that the Whole Universe is doing, in the same way that a wave is something that the Whole Ocean is doing..."

 ~Alan Watts

Dissolving in the Infinite

I have opened all the windows in my house.
Eagles fly in and out, as do any words spoken about me.
Anything my ears might detect, firsthand or second.........
I might give that news a moment's attention
and then just let it be the tiny evaporating whiff of smoke it is,
dissolving in the Infinite. ~ Hafiz