Great Spirits

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds

~Albert Einstein

It's all about Attitude

Many are suffering now becuse of the economy.  If you are one,  then read the following quote;  Remember it, memorize it, until you get it, it will make all the difference.  I am doing the exact thing:

"What's true in sports is also true in our business and personal lives. There is only a fractional difference between winners in life and those who merely exist. The difference is attitude under pressure. It's the winner's edge. The Edge is not a gifted birth. The world is full of wasted talent. The Edge is not academic degrees. Education is important, but the world is full of educated misfits. The Edge is not luck. If it were, Las Vegas would be a ghost town. The Edge is not capital. Many of today's self-made, multi-millionaires started building their fortunes with under $5,000. The Edge is all attitude. Attitude, not aptitude, is the criterion for success."

- Denis Waitley

H/T: Attitude trader

Ego & Bliss

If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.

Deepak Chopra

Painting

Experiance

Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can’t retire his experience. He must use it. Experience achieves more with less energy and time.

Bernard Mannes Baruch

LOVE

Love will give you light;

Love will give you faith and hope,

Love will bring you bliss'

Love will lead you,

Love will shield you - 

Let Love dwell in your Soul.

`Swami Paramanada

Cheer up! You do have the power to create!

Lately, most people I meet, are in a gloomy state of mind and who can blame them with the current global economical state.  I suggest everyone to read Charles Fillmor's book on Prosperity.  Here is an excerpt:

You can conjure up in your mind a thousand imaginary things that will seem real to you. This shows that the mind creates by forming things according to its ideas. The world is awakening in a wonderful way to the truth about the creative power of the mind.  Everywhere people are studying psychology or soul culture. The imagination builds things out of the one substance. If you will associate with in its creative work, the things you make will be just as real that God makes.  Whatever you make in mind and really put faith in will become substantial. Then you must be constantly on your guard as to what you believe, in order that you may bring what is for your good into manifestation.

All is well

While the earth remains, 

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

winter and summer,

and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22

It's seem that the world is crumbling down with all the global financial and economical news.  Keep reading the verse, and be assured that somethings will never change, and all is well.  Not all changes are good.

The Soul

Even though Freud and Jung disagreed on many points, one thing that emerges from twentieth century psychoanalysis is the fact that dreams go beyond their individual dreamers and often show patterns that are common to all cultures. Indeed, dreams are only partially rooted in consciousness and tend to reveal deeper parts of the human psyche.

One of the eldest books on dreams - the Oneirocritica «The Interpretation of dreams” - was written by the Greek thinker Artemidorus in the second century AD. In it he distinguishes between dreams that forecast the future and “allegorical dreams” that need interpretation.

Unlike Freud that reduced dreams to repression of infantile sexual experiences, Jung stated that besides these personal dreams, there was an unconscious collective dream, the very backbone of imagination. He saw then in dreams the manifestation of a certain truth that went beyond the dreamer, as if planted by a higher consciousness that he calls “the soul”.

Borrowed from Paulo Coelho's Blog

Controlling who should love you!

Suffering occurs when we want

other people to love us in the way

that we imagine we want to be loved,

and not in the way that love should manifest itself - free and untrammeled,

guiding us with its force and driving us on.

~excerpt from The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

The Moon is Always Full

The moon is always full

Our human eyes
See only its phases

Love is always here
Our human heart
Sees only its shadow

Joy is always present
Our human mind
Reasons it away

God is always near
Our human spirit
Knows this without words

O Moon, display your full beauty
to my inner eye
O Love, come into the light that casts
no shadow
O Joy, overflow my cup of reason
with your wine
O God, fill me, fill me, fill me
with Your knowing

That my heart may rejoice in You
My eyes may be filled with You
My reason overcome by You
My spirit abound in You

Ameen!

- Irving Karchmar, 

This poem is the most uplifting and promising poem. I read it when I need something to cheer me up. I hope you will like it too. Do visit Irving's blog, you wont be disappointed.

Your Reaction To Adversity

The beautiful part about having problems is whom you become because of them. The ancient philosopher Horace said it best: "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant."

This was my horoscope today!  I could not believe how timely this advise was for me.  Because I had an incident last week, which I am not proud of my own reaction to it.  I did not like the person I became because of that incident.  It was yet another reminder how hard it is to be a mature human being at all times.  I have been dwelling about this issue for most of the week, and then I read this horoscope today.  How strange!

 Holiday Mathis is not your usual horoscope writer, she has daily wisdom for everyone.  Check yours here.

Find YOUR own meaning in life

He who has a "why to live', can bear with almost any "how"....
Nietzeche

In these times of global uncertainties, it's good to think about your spiritual compass and know where you stand.  When you know your "why to live", all these uncertainties will not seem like uncertainties but just another sign to ponder our spiritual goal.

"Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therfore no point in carrying on. He will be lost. "  Victor Frankl

I am re-reading Viktor Frankl's book called, Man's Search For Meaning. If you have time please pick up this book to read. Dr. Fankl endured years of unspeakable horror in Nazi death camps. During, and partly because of his suffering, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man's primary motivational force is HIS SEARCH FOR MEANING .  So go ahead a find YOUR meaning in life.  When you find that meaning, there will be no uncertainties in life, global or not!

If I Had Wings

Why do we hate, why do we suffer
Why do we make our mistakes and constantly blame one another
Why is there war and why is there killing
Have we forgotten some secret we knew back when we were just children

If I had wings, I'd fly up to heaven
I'd look down from the clouds on everything
Then I could find all the things we've been missing
I would have all the answers, if I had wings

Like why am I aching and where did I come from
And where will I go when my time here on this earth is done
And what will I leave that will go one forever, oh no
And what can I do while I'm here to make someone’s life better

If I had wings, I'd fly up to heaven
I'd look down from the clouds on everything
Then I could find all the things we've been missing
I would have all the answers, if I had wings

Written by: Darius Rucker, Frank Mandeville Rogers, Melvern Ri Rutherford Ii

Borrowed this post from a talented bloger called Confessions of an Ordinary Sinner

2009, Year if Ox

We are finishing off the Rat year and entering the Ox year (the year 4706 in the Chinese calendar ). It's fun for me to read the predictions from the last year and to see if they were any close to reality?   Yes, the Chinese astrology did predict that the Rat year will usher in the "unpredictable and intangible."!!  They also referred to 2008 as "The Roller Coaster Year".  There was also a guy who actually predicted the fall of oil prices . It certainly was a roller coaster year!

So do you wonder what they are saying about the OX year?  In Buddhism, the ox symbolizes the essential goodness of human nature. The ox year will see a slow moving pace in the beginning of the year for all areas and every task given or implemented will only bear results in autumn and every sector will pick up and shall improve there after. They say that the Ox sign is the sign of prosperity found through fortitude and hard work!  

So, lets welcome 2009 with open arms and open heart, may you will have the wisdom and patience to make this year your best year ever, regardless of what the horoscope and astrology says!

Iraq Declares Christmas an Official Holiday for First Year!

Now this news is indeed an inspiring and moving news.  I believe Iraq will be the first Muslim country to do so and what a great way to make Christians feel welcomed.  Here is more from Iraq:

Iraq's Christians, a small minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim country, quietly celebrated Christmas on Thursday with a present from the government, which declared it an official holiday for the first time.

But security worries overshadowed the day for many, particularly in the north where thousands of Christians have fled to escape religious attacks.

Overall security in Iraq has improved markedly in the past year, but a fatal car bombing in Baghdad on Christmas morning was a gruesome reminder that serious problems remain.

Another good news was when I read that The EU Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering called on Arab governments to allow Christian Churches to be built in their countries.

About the picture: Shiite tribal leaders and Iraqi officials attend Christmas Day mass at Mary's Daughters Monastery in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008. This year, Christmas Day for the first time, declared an official holiday in Iraq.
(AP/Khalid Mohammed)