Quote of the Day – April 6 2012

“Consciousness is the place of worship. Consciousness is the sacred text. Consciousness is the way. Consciousness is the place of sacrifice. Consciousness is the fire. Consciousness is the place of ritual union. Consciousness is the place of samadhi. Consciousness is the Awakening. Consciousness is the dwelling place of the gods. Consciousness is time. Consciousness is space. Consciousness is the jar, the vessel out of which flows the divine.”
— Daniel Odier, Tantric Quest

Recently I have started reading Tantric Quest by Daniel Odier, an account of one man’s study of Tantra with a female yogi in the Himalayans. It is a fantastic recounting of an amazing story that I recommend highly. I may have a few more quotes from it before I am done. I always find it instructive to read of the paths of others and the relationship between a spiritual teacher and a student has always been fascinating to me.

 


Three more days to vote in this months contest. Let me know your favourite picture in the 2012 art gallery and you may win it.
Blessings,

 

Click on image to see full-size

Observing the Shadows of Love by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 5 2012

“How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on”
–Antoine de Saint-Exupery

We know ourselves to be part of a greater whole and at times we feel it. We cannot know  what it is to be that whole yet still we exist both sovereign and part. And still we flow

Blessings, G

(Below is the start of a story I was playing around with to go with tonight’s picture. It needs some reworking tho. I am starting to understand better what it is to write. )

She stands at the entrance to the temple
I was told I may be allowed in
Three questions to be asked and answered
Honesty counts
but then it always has..

Click on image to see full-sized

Priestess In the New Temple by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 4 2012

““This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
― Rumi

I know many people who say they refuse to entertain any negative thought. Somehow they manage to just not think them. I find that to be rather a neat trick and one I have not been able to master. Far too often when I refuse entrance to negativity, I find that I am actually refusing exit and pushing the negativity back inside where it came from, only this time deeper.

What happens then when we entertain any thought positive or negative. We hang out with it and look at it and give it our attention. We ask it where it came from and listen as it tells us of its journeys up through our psyche. Maybe then we can deal with its origin, usually pain which we had not been ready to deal with before. After we have hung out then I can explain to my guest that the hour grows late and I must rest. Usually then it takes the hint and leaves of its own accord.

Sometimes the negative, angry or painful thought returns for it still has stories and lessons to teach me but more often than not if I have been a good host and truly listened it has gone on its way forever.
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full-size

Creating by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 3 2012

“The universe isn’t vague and ignorant. I am vague and ignorant. Something is true, and it doesn’t matter what it is, I’m not going to be false any more. I have not even the slightest trace of the slightest reservation that I would rather suffer and die figuring out what is true than continue this life as a slave to lies and ignorance.”
–Jed McKenna

Wow, I am relating to this on so many levels. THere are periods on this journey where I see just how far I have to go. The parts of my life that feel less authentic needing to be shed like a snake sheds his skin to find what lies beneath. Longing for the truth of the moment every moment and reaching for the courage to not only say it but live it.I know I have nothing to loose but my chains. Some chains are easier to loose than others. Yet all will fall away in time. Each moment brings new opportunities and new beginnings.
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full-size

Protection by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 2 2012

“You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book Of Five Rings

So many times we settle on one tool for a particular task. We have one way we meditate. We have one recipe for roasted eggplant. We have one position we sleep in. We hone our tools to perfection and we grow stale. We try to apply our tools to all similar types of problems, sometimes losing sight of whether or not they work. We fear experimentation because the result is unknown. We grow stale and take the simple things for granted. Is this not the opposite of mindfulness? What if instead we decide to approach things differently?

This week I intend to try an experiment. Each day I will try to approach a common task in a new way as if I’ve never done it before. It may be something simple or it may be something more complex depending on the opportunities that the day brings. This could be interesting.

Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized
Multiversal Gateway by G A Rosenberg

I See Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – April 1 2012

““The beauty of empowering others is that your own power is not diminished in the process.”
— Barbara Colorose

Wow. It seems so easy to find quotes about relationships that reflect disempowerment. People talk about how they have been dumped on, hurt and diminished by connecting with people. It seems relatively harder to find quotes that talk about empowering and being empowered by others in our relationships.

What does it mean to empower others? How can we learn to build on the strengths of people we love and enable them to feel like they can accomplish anything they wish? How do we say ‘I believe in you and mean it’?
Perhaps the question might be better phrased. Why don’t we say it more often? It seems so easy to feel over-sensitized in our relationships especially our long-term ones. Little things build up day by day and we not only diminish our partners in our eyes but we diminish ourselves. Resentment seems easy and praise difficult.
We even justify it in our minds. We aren’t harder on them than we are on ourselves or Wow look at all the things that bug them about us. But perhaps like so many other things, the answer is contained in the question. It’s easy.
It’s so easy to settle on the traits we love and hate that we have seen many times before. It’s like there is a checklist in our heads. Yep there he is being kind again, He forgot that again. Yep, she’s complaining about this. Yep, she’s so organized. How much more difficult it is to look at our partners as if we were seeing them for the first time with fresh eyes. When was the last time you noticed a new quality to admire in your partner? If you don’t have a partner how about friends or family members? If it takes us a lifetime to know ourselves completely than I can guarantee that there are qualities in each person you know who you have yet to discover.
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full-sized

Masqued Response by G A Rosenberg