"The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the

practice of meditation."

-- Milarepa

In our busy schedules, we can often complain that we don’t have

time to meditate. But if we are sincere in our desire to go

inside, we can create our own moments of stillness in the midst

of our activity.

Stopped at a traffic light? Do some deep breathing. Waiting in

line at the bank or grocery store? Repeat an uplifting word such

as ‘love’ or ‘peace.’ Riding the bus to and from work? Value

these times as an opportunity to close your eyes and go within or

to say a little prayer.

"Wherever you go in the midst of movement and activity, carry

your stillness within you. Then the chaotic movement around you

will never overshadow your access to the reservoir of creativity,

the field of pure potentiality."

-- Deepak Chopra

"Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was

exactly what it needed to be. Don't think that you've lost time.

There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every

situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now

is right on time."

-- Asha Tyson

No regrets. As we become more aware, we begin to realize that

there’s a purpose to everything that happens. This builds our

trust, and supports us in being willing to be more open and

daring to really experience life as it unfolds.

If we pay attention to what’s happening in each moment, we will

discover that life continually brings us opportunities to heal

our past wounds. When a painful memory surfaces, we can take the

time to feel it fully, give compassion to ourselves and any

others and allow the energy to release. As we deal with the past

in this way IN THE PRESENT, we free ourselves to more fully

connect with life.

"The next message you need is right where you are."

-- Ram Dass

Ponder the spectre of yourself as one human being in the over six

billion people on Earth. See Earth as one tiny planet in a galaxy

of billions of stars, and that galaxy as just one of billions of

galaxies in our expanding universe. We are so minute as to be

nonexistent. And yet, we have the power to visualize, to imagine

the entirety of the cosmos.

In your journal, write about the paradox of being both

microscopic and immense.

"I think we would be able to live in this world more peaceably if

our spirituality were to come from looking not just into infinity

but very closely at the world around us -- and appreciating its

depth and divinity."

-- Thomas Moore

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by

mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could

comprehend it."

-- Harry Emerson Fosdick

Great forces are directing you to conform to the patterns of your

society. You have DNA that has been handed down from generation

to generation, coding repeated behaviour patterns into your

being. You have archetypal energies setting the standards for how

you behave as a man or a woman, as husband or wife, as father or

mother .... You are immersed in consensual reality, whereby the

world around you reflects societal understanding of how life has

been and is to be.

At the same time, you have an even greater force within you

inspiring you to wake up and recognize the reality of who you

are. This force, the creative power underlying the entire

universe, is urging you to create brand new standards of reality.

The status quo is blind to our creative power. Create a brand new

world for yourself, one that meets your deepest needs, and you

will help raise the quality of consciousness of the entire world.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

-- Gandhi

Please continue to keep the people of Japan in your prayers.

Our Mother Earth is under stress and turmoil and this island has felt the brunt of our ailing planet. It is up to all of us to do all we can to soothe and heal our world. Our ancestors have used and abused our world and as enlightened beings, it is up to us to repair this ongoing damage.

Prayers, rituals, positive thinking, right action, and total awareness are what is needed every day for the rest of our lives to correct our errors. We are powerful people! We can do it together.

It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that

it begins to have meaning."

-- P.D. Ouspensky

"All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a

paradox at the heart of the journey of return to Origin. ...Put

simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what

we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving

and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all

moments. The journey and all its different ordeals are all

emanations of the One Spirit that is manifesting everything in

all dimensions; every rung of the ladder we climb toward final

awareness is made of the divine stuff of awareness itself; Divine

Consciousness is at once creating and manifesting all things and

acting in and as all things in various states of self-disguise

throughout all the different levels and dimensions of the

universe."

-- Andrew Harvey

"After changes upon changes, we are more or less the same."

-- Paul Simon

As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy

rent-free space in your mind."

-- Isabelle Holland

We cannot avoid daily resentment and thoughts of guilt. They are

a part of human nature. What we can do is release their grip on

us. We can forgive others and ourselves daily.

Forgiveness requires nothing in return. There are no conditions.

It gets rid of old baggage and clears up unfinished business. It

leads us to a life of authenticity, lightness and directness.

Forgiveness is the highest form of letting go of resentment and

ego.

True forgiveness is more than an apology, understanding and

acceptance. There is an element of recreating and re-imagining.

There is a need to envision ourselves as more loving,

interdependent, courageous and compassionate. Forgiveness

requires honouring the sacred journey of learning about life -

our life and others'.

"Whatever we have done, we can always make amends for it without

ever looking back in guilt or sorrow."

-- Eknath Easwaran

If I feel depressed I will sing.

If I feel sad I will laugh.

If I feel ill I will double my labor.

If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.

If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.

If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.

If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.

If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.

If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.

Today I will be the master of my emotions.

- Og Mandino

"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering

before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through

them."

-- Orison Swett Marden

We can’t escape problems and negativity. Escaping just brings

denial and suppression - we continue to carry the problem with

us. Ironically, it is our lack of acceptance and resistance to

the problem that creates the pain. Resistance builds up an energy

wall or block that, if not discharged, gets suppressed into the

body. These blocks identify places where we have not enough

understanding or love.

For health, we must work through what we seek to avoid. How do we

do this? We can love parts of ourselves that we don’t like. We

can seek the lessons we are being invited to learn through the

problem. We can examine our beliefs and seek to see different

perspectives and a bigger picture. As our perspectives grow, more

of life makes sense and has meaning.

"The Lord is a good psychologist: he knows the way our minds

run. Turmoil can be the Lord's way of tapping us on the shoulder

and saying, 'Don't forget me.'"

-- Eknath Easwaran

Dalai Lama

Whatever the intellectual quality of the education given our children, it is vital that it include elements of love and compassion, for nothing guarantees that knowledge alone will be truly useful to human beings. Among the major troublemakers society has known, many were well-educated and had great knowledge, but they lacked a moral education in qualities such as compassion, wisdom and clarity of vision.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."

-- Chinese Proverb

What passes over your lips each day?

Are your words typically negative, critical, gossiping,

deceptive, illusory, justifying, blaming, manipulative and

argumentative? Are they more uplifting, inspirational, positive,

questioning, beautiful, loving, universal, truthful, accepting

and supportive?

The throat is our center of expression. Who we are sneaks out in

our attitudes and in what we say.

"Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom

bombs."

-- Pearl Strachan Hurd

"The wise weigh their words on a scale with gold."

-- Bible

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their

own hearts."

-- Albert Einstein

Take awareness to new levels. Explore experiencing yourself in

the act of being aware. Be aware of awareness itself. To do this,

we need to go beyond our old mechanical patterns, compulsions and

rejections. We need to uproot the arrogance of ego.

Higher awareness is conscious of spirit and form working

together. We must be conscious and present within before we can

tune in to the guidance of our soul. Develop awareness to hear

the subtlest whispers of intuition through your thoughts,

feelings and sensations.

"Most of us are in touch with our intuition whether we know it or

not, but we're usually in the habit of doubting or contradicting

it so automatically that we don't even know it has spoken."

-- Shakti Gawain

The idea of elemental compatibility is very simple: If you have a Sun in a certain element (Fire for example), then you tend to get energized by the presence of someone who also has the Sun in the same element (Fire), or at least in a compatible element (Air in this case.)

If, on the other hand, if you are in a prolonged contact with someone who is attuned to an incompatible element from yours (Water or Earth in this example), then you may start to feel drained, and may need to get some space in order to regain your energy.

Just to review the basics, Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) are compatible with Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius), and Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) are compatible with Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn.) Each element is, of course, compatible with its own element. All other combinations are considered incompatible.

The Elements of Your Natal Sun & Moon

If your Sun and Moon occupy the signs in the same or compatible elements, then there is a natural harmony within your energy system, which makes it easier for you to spend a long time together with someone who is compatible with you.

If, on the other hand, your Sun and Moon occupy the signs in incompatible elements, then there is a disruption in the energy system, creating a seasaw effect (i.e. forcing you to switch between two incompatible elements.) This means that whoever you'll have a relationship with will likely be compatible with 1/2 of your energy system, and be incompatible with the other half.

"Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It

is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention,

intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that

attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become

more in touch with our life as it is unfolding."

-- Myla & Jon Kabat-Zinn

Why do we want to become more aware?

If we remain unaware, we:

- repeat the past,

- remain stuck in relationships,

- live superficial, literal and one dimensional lives,

- lack experiences of love and beauty, and

- have limited connection to others and the universe.

With awareness, we are fully involved with life. Awareness is

sensing deeply and sensitively for what really is. To do this, we

need to approach the present as totally new. When we can be open

and attentive in each moment, we begin to free ourselves from the

conditioning of the past and the suffering that it so often

brings.

"If moment by moment you can keep your mind clear then nothing

will confuse you."

"It is permissible to take life's blessings with both hands

provided thou dost know thyself prepared in the opposite event to

take them just as gladly. This applies to food and friends and

kindred, to anything God gives and takes away... As long as God

is satisfied do thou rest content. If he is pleased to want

something else of thee, still rest content."

-- Meister Eckhart

Our life begins to change in magical ways when we open to the

experience of life AS IT IS. With acceptance, we stop fighting

what is happening. And this creates space, an opening for new

relationships to unfold.

Explore unconditionally saying yes to the facts of life. Accept

your past and where you are now. Unconditional acceptance is

unconditional love and this is healing.

"Sometimes what seems like surrender isn't surrender at all. It's

about what's going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way

life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain,

because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater."

-- Nicholas Evans

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may

have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn

how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to

entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the

past is holding you back from a new life."

-- Mary Manin Morrissey

Journaling is a great way to release and let go. To get things

off your chest. Our minds are our own worst enemies. The same

thoughts go round and round in the same old ways and keep us

stuck.

If something bothers you, write about it. Get it out so you can

see it from a different perspective. Let it out. Let it go.

Owning and healing your pressure cooker is an important step in

claiming your power, building your esteem and making your stand.

"In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to

pass through the contrary to peace. Such is the teaching of the

Sages."

-- Swami Brahmanada

.

YOU KNOW THE WAY

"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope,

to love ... and to put its trust in life."-- Joseph Conrad

How deeply do you trust your own guidance?

Always trust that you know what's best for you. To move forward

in your life, gather information from the "experts," consider how

their advice relates to your situation and then act only on what

feels right for you. You are the only expert for your own life.

"I trust so much in the power of the heart and the soul; I know

that the answer to what we need to do next is in our own hearts.

All we have to do is listen, then take that one step further and

trust what we hear. We will be taught what we need to learn."

-- Melody Beattie

"I never know what the next lesson is going to be, because we’re

not supposed to know; we’re supposed to trust ourselves to

discover it."

-- Melody Beattie