Daily meditation Monday 31st of August 2009

"So many of you think clairvoyance is the be-all and end-all of spiritual life! Well, actually, it’s not. And you should even know that clairvoyance will hinder your progress if you have developed it prematurely, that is, before you have sufficiently purified or strengthened yourself. If you are not pure, what do you think you are going to see? You will not be able to see beyond the lower regions of the astral plane, where you will encounter nothing but larvae and monsters. And you will be so horrified, you will end up begging the Lord to take away this ability; what once seemed so desirable is now the cause of all your torments.
You must purify yourself if you wish to be capable of rising very high, high enough to contemplate heavenly realities. And you must also strengthen yourself so you can endure the sight of all the scheming in the hearts and minds of human beings. It is not enough to ‘see’, you must be capable of seeing all that heaven reveals to you, and strong enough to endure the visions of hell."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Sunday, Aug. 30

Gratitude for the gift of life is

the primary wellspring of all

religions, the hallmark of the

mystic, the source of all true

art....It is a privilege to be

alive in this time when we can

choose to take part in the

self-healing of our world.

Joanna Macy

WORD FOR THE DAY
Sunday, Aug. 30

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art....It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Joanna Macy

Daily meditation 30th of August 2009

"In an initiatic school, music, and especially singing, has a great role to play. While we are singing we ourselves are the instrument producing the sounds, so singing has very powerful effects on us, on our physical body and on our subtle bodies. Through singing we emit waves, currents of force that create forms within us. That’s why it is so important to rediscover the mystical role of singing, by concentrating our whole attention not only on the melody but also on the words. And above all, we must know how to choose what songs we sing.
Words are the creator of worlds, and these worlds may remain in existence for a very long time; you cannot know how long the effects of a word will last. So, what should we make of all the music that is so prevalent at the present time, hysterical songs made even worse by their violent, destructive lyrics? Never underestimate the effects of music, and especially singing."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Saturday, Aug. 29

This world is a mountain,

in which your works are

echoed back to you.

Jelaluddin Rumi

Daily meditation Thursday 27th of August 2009

"Only an inner attitude of humility and respect will allow you to achieve your spiritual goals. If you ask heavenly entities to come and satisfy your desires and lusts, you cut yourself off from the ascending current, which connects you, through the angelic hierarchies, to God. It is you who must serve the higher beings, the angels, archangels and the Deity, for that is the natural order of things. Everywhere in nature you will find a summit and a base, a head and a tail, and it’s the tail that must follow the head, not the other way round. When you pray to heaven, ask it to take you into its service, not to come down and serve you.
You’ll say, ‘But the rays from the sun and the stars reach us, and the angels also come down to visit us.’ Of course, but it is only those who inwardly accept the cosmic order that benefit from their coming. Similarly, angels travel across space distributing their blessings, but these are only received by those who recognize the true hierarchy."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Wednesday, Aug. 26

Trifles make perfection,

and perfection is no trifle.

Michelangelo

WORD FOR THE DAY
Tuesday, Aug. 25

Love is so exquisitely elusive.

It cannot be bought, cannot

be badgered, cannot be

hijacked. It is available only

in one rare form: as the natural

response of a healthy mind

and healthy heart.

Eknath Easwaran
Words to Live By

Daily meditation  Tuesday 25th of August 2009

"You cannot deny that evil exists, you must recognize it and take precautions. But just because evil exists doesn’t mean you should see nothing but that. Unfortunately, there are people who delight in evil as though it were food and drink to them: they’re obsessed with scandals, tragedies and filth. They claim they talk about evil so as to denounce and confront it. But no, that’s untrue, they talk about it because they love it, and they revel in it. They would be bored without it, there’d be nothing to say, nothing to write about.
Children should be taught to prefer all that is beautiful, good, noble and pure while they are still very young. It’s much more beneficial for the formation of their character! And besides, that’s what true education is: to try to nurture in children a love of all that is best, for only the love of beauty, goodness and justice truly allows us to neutralize the evil in ourselves and in others."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Monday, Aug. 24

Ours is not the task of fixing

the entire world at once, but

of stretching out to mend the

part of the world that is within

our reach.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Daily meditation Monday 24th of August 2009

"Every day our activities cause us to work on the three planes: the physical (the body), psychic (soul) and spiritual (spirit). We can do this work on these three planes simultaneously; we just have to learn to coordinate them so that the physical work is in harmony with the other kinds of work, and vice versa.
As most human beings are unaware of these different planes and the activities that correspond to each of them, they are often engaged in activities that are incompatible with each other. They don’t realize it until the day they’re caught in a web of such inextricable contradictions, they feel as though they’re being gripped by the throat and strangled. If you wish to develop harmoniously, you must not accept any inner dissonance between the worlds of thought, feeling and action."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Sunday, Aug. 23

Drop by drop fills the pot.

Duala Proverb

Daily meditation 23rd of August 2009

"If you are always busy helping and supporting others, you will of course, on the face of it, lose something: you will notice a certain physical or even psychic tiredness. But if you know how to work, you will become stronger. This is a law that is known to initiates: in helping and enlightening others, they expend a great deal of energy, but at the same time they receive forces and energies from the divine world. And they receive them in far greater quantities than they’ve given them, because while they are giving to the earth they are receiving from heaven, and the blessings of heaven are infinite. They give and they receive, they receive and they give.
Those who have not learned to receive heavenly energies are quickly exhausted, and they later regret expending their energies on others. If you really want to give to human beings, you must begin by learning to receive from heaven."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Saturday, Aug. 22

When you can do the common

things of life in an uncommon

way, you will command the

attention of the world.

George Washington Carver

Daily meditation  Saturday 22nd of August 2009

"As they are convinced human beings are wicked and the world is going from bad to worse, pessimists are content to deal with their own affairs without worrying about other people. And how satisfied they are when the difficulties or misfortune they have predicted actually occur! So pessimism is the cause of selfishness, unkindness even, but also laziness. Yes, as they are convinced there’s nothing anyone can do to improve the situation, pessimists become lazy… except for when they are explaining all the good reasons there are for being pessimistic!
There are so many books written by people needing to reiterate that the world is doomed, existence is absurd, and nothing is worth any trouble! But, heavens above, why even make the effort to speak or write if good can never win, if there’s no meaning to anything, and nothing’s worth any trouble? It would be more logical to remain silent. Yes, what is the unhealthy need that makes these people cast black clouds over the heart and mind of all those who will hear or read them?"

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Friday, Aug. 21

Fundamentally, what everyone

needs is mental strength and

confidence, to manage the mind,

just as we manage the outside

world.

Amma (Sudhamani)

Daily meditation Friday 21st of August 2009

"In the book of Genesis, it is said that after Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit on the suggestion of the serpent, they hid from the Lord as he was walking through the garden in the cool of evening. God calls to Adam, ‘“Where are you?… Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”’
One tradition tells how the fruit eaten by Adam and Eve was an apple; another says it was a fig… it doesn’t matter which. What we must understand in this text is that the temptations we succumb to can be compared to the food we take in. The serpent, which is a personification of evil, tempts Eve by suggesting she eat the forbidden fruit; after that Eve suggests the same thing to Adam. And when God asks them what has happened, Adam accuses Eve and Eve accuses the serpent. In reality, blaming your faults on a tempter (or a temptress) is no excuse. If we have acted badly, we are guilty. We just shouldn’t succumb, shouldn’t ‘eat’, that’s all, and then we will not be ashamed to face the Lord whenever he asks us, ‘Where are you?’"

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Thursday, Aug. 20

In an age where there is

much talk about "being yourself,"

I reserve to myself the right to

forget about being myself, since

in any case there is very little

chance of my being anybody else.

Thomas Merton
"Day of a Stranger," Thomas

 Merton Reader, p. 431

Daily meditation Wednesday 19th of August 2009

"One fine summer afternoon, Nastradine Hodja was riding his donkey home from town, where he had just bought some sacks of wheat. The weather was hot, and he told himself a little siesta would be very pleasant! He so liked the idea of stretching out on a fine carpet of grass, he forgot there had been rumours about thieves in the region. He tied his donkey to a tree so it couldn’t escape and fell asleep. When he woke up, the donkey had disappeared, and all that was left was the rope tied to the tree trunk. Then he said to himself, ‘If I’m not Nastradine Hodja, I’ve gained a rope. But if I am indeed Nastradine Hodja, I’ve lost my donkey.’ And the same applies to you too; if thieves come and take what belongs to you while your consciousness is asleep, you will just have to be philosophical about it like Nastradine Hodja.
Attraction and the desire for pleasure are what lull our vigilance to sleep. How can anyone be vigilant, realistically, when their only desire is to abandon themselves to pleasure?"

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

WORD FOR THE DAY
Tuesday, Aug. 18

Emptiness is bound to bloom, 

like hundreds of grasses

blossoming.

Eihei Dogen
Sky Flowers

Daily meditation Tuesday 18th of August 2009

"If the laughter of children is so pleasant to hear, it’s because it’s an expression of life. There are currents continuously passing through children, contributing to their physical, emotional and mental development; their reservoirs are full of energies, and their laughter is an explosion of life.
For adults also, laughter is a means of communicating life. When you laugh, the energies that have been accumulating in you overflow, and you feel the need to share something with others. Each time you feel life expanding within you, you experience the wish to meet your friends and make new acquaintances, because you have something to give: the surfeit of life within you demands an outlet somewhere, and laughter between friends is often an expression of this need to communicate life."

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov