Month: May 2012

Quote of the Day – May 5 2012

“If you know the value of every article of merchandise,
but you don’t know the value of your own soul,
it will all have been pointless.
You’ve come to know the fortunate and the inauspicious stars,
but you don’t know whether you yourself
are fortunate or unlucky.
This then is the essence of all sciences–
that you should know who you will be
when the Day of Reckoning arrives”
–Rumi

Take two on this one with some apology for cluttering email boxes. As I was saying last night when I was a young adult I studied all manner of things spiritual and philosophical. I had a guide through the thicket, a friend and brother who I loved and through lack of self-knowledge betrayed. Was it ignorance or innocence, not quite sure but in the years to come as I threw myself at life, scattered and tattered, exploring, explored, living, and perhaps learning. I played the instrument of life rather than listened to the music. I was the band, the singer and the song. If innocence was the price of knowledge I played gladly. No lesson was learned the easy way and eventually I was too full and too empty. I skim way too much in this brief description and will no doubt write more but my life experiences have given me context for the knowledge I’ve gained before and since. Perhaps it is the same for many of us.
Blessings, G

 

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Woman with Snake by G A Rosenberg

Crawling Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 4 2012

“Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships.”
–Robert Pirsig

For too many years this described me. I read so much about spirituality. Castaneda, Crowley, Blavatsky, Leadbeater, Alice Bailey, Eliphas Levi, an endless list. Yet I never meditated or did any real work on myself. I fooled myself into thinking that I was discovering answers and gaining insight. It was pretty funny actually. At one point I grew disillusioned with, well not so much what I was learning but with myself. I acted in ways that felt a lot like self-betrayal so I left my studying behind. That was when I truly began to climb the mountain. Oh for years I circled the base learned much about relationships, much about my own capacity for self-deception and slowly with much time and much practice quite a bit about love and compassion. Then I started to meditate and create and other things to work on within and the climbing began. I look at the few steps I’ve come since then and look up and up and up at the inner mountains ahead and I smile and I climb.
Blessings, G

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Volcano by G A Rosenberg

Fireworks from the Inside by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 3 2012

“The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it.”
― Hermann Hesse

So many of the writers who have meant a lot to me have a myriad of fantastic quotes to explore and choosing between them can be difficult. Hermann Hesse and his books inspired me and helped me get through my high school and young adult years and his words still speak to me. Perhaps I should go back and reread Demian and see whether it still resonates as strongly. But then I may have to read Narcissus and Goldmund and The Glass Bead Game as well. That’s how my reading list grows so long.
Somewhere beyond our concepts of space and time is the universe already complete and perfect all layers and all dimensions? If that is so and these days i lean towards that in my thinking than everything that is to happen has already done so (or is doing so now in a very dynamic way). Everything has balanced out and is complete. Which means that everything we do, every way we react in moments or in lifetimes is part of that completion. We sin (my definition of that these days is that we go against our true being) and through that sin we expose who we really are or who we will become. Each sin we have been involved in is but a snapshot of a moment in our soul’s becoming. If nothing else, it teaches us compassion and forgiveness for the sins of others.
Blessings, G

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Heart Centred by G A Rosenberg

Serpentine by G A Rosenberg

Additional Quote of the Day – May 2 2012

“There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally”
— Don Miguel Ruiz

So little of what most people do or say has to do with others. Most of us tend to have shall we call an inward focus. Many inner voices, fears and dreams all clamouring to be heard or to at least be the focus with which we relate to the world. If all this goes on in our head why would we find it different for others?
So next time someone says something that causes you pain or makes you angry or upset consider whom they are addressing or which filter it comes from It also helps to realize that what is causing that reaction in you tends to be one of your voices or filters as well.
Blessings, G

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Infinite by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 2 2012

“If you live in a past dream, you don’t enjoy what is happening right now because you will always wish it to be different than it is. There is no time to miss anyone or anything because you are alive. Not enjoying what is happening right now is living in the past and being only half alive. This leads to self pity, suffering and tears.”
― Miguel Ruiz

There are points in our life that stick out, usually ones with strong emotion either strong pain or strong bliss. Either one of them can be traps. We relive when someone hurt us or sometimes even worse when we hurt someone else when we could have avoided it or possibly a sublime moment with someone loved that can never be repeated. Notice I don’t say it can’t be surpassed, merely that it can’t be repeated. We relive those memories (funny how they lose fidelity with repetition a lot like old cassette tapes) over and over either trying to find the sense, what we did right or what we did wrong. Somewhere along the way we find ourselves forgetting to live.
I remember breaking up with someone whose company I really enjoyed. We had a great time together. We could talk for hours and enjoyed many of the same things. Even the sex was good. That person could not live up to the intensity of a relationship I had before that was an exercise in self-destruction that had left me wounded. I hadn’t yet given myself permission to move on. Luckily I’ve since grown up quite a bit. Still tho, I work at living in the present. To be honest, I kind of prefer it this way.
Blessings, G

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Deserted Highway by G A Rosenberg

Fractal Net by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – May 1 2012

I acknowledge the privilege of being alive in a human body at this moment, endowed with senses, memories, emotions, thoughts, and the space of mind in its wisdom aspect.”
–Alex Grey

Not only do I acknowledge the privilege but gratitude flows through me for my existence. I worry at the word wisdom tho much as a dog worries at a bone. Wisdom sure feels a lot easier when dealing with the situations of others and so much harder when dealing with my own emotional storms. Perhaps that is not the time to expect wisdom. As long as I can check in with myself and know that I’m ok. That’s the funny thing isn’t it? I have had days when it felt like emotional meltdowns were happening all over the place yet each time I checked in with myself I was OK. I mean I wasn’t in any present danger. There were no immediate threats to my existence so in that moment things were ok. Perhaps five minutes later I’d be worried about some large unexpected bills or something about the kids and dogs but even then I’d check in with myself and I’d be fine. Could that be all that most stress encompasses, things in the future or things in the past and in the present moment fine??? Hmmm pretty interesting reality check. Since I came to that realization, I’ve been a lot calmer. I just have to keep reminding myself to check in.
Blessings, G

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Spirit Wolf by G A Rosenberg

Flowing Mandala by G A Rosenberg