Puppetji

Socksang for everyone:
http://www.puppetji.blogspot.com/

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

Bliss is not added to your nature,
it is merely revealed
as you true and natural state,
eternal and imperishable.

You are really
the Infinite, Pure Being,
the Self Absolute.

The only way to be rid of your grief
is to know and be the Self.

Om Asatoma

Om Asatoma Sat Gamaya
Tamasoma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityorma Anritam Gamaya

Lead me from the unreal to the Real
Lead me from the darkness to the Light
Lead me from the temporary to the Eternal

Soul Work

I Dedicate Myself to the Lovework of the Soul:

Love, real love, brings out the best in us. When we are available to love and be loved, there is a fullness of being that leads us out beyond our self-centered concerns as we extend to embrace a wider and wider world.

What could be a better arena for this kind of soul work than relationship. The differences between two people, and the challenges they provide, compel us to consider the otherness of ourselves. They also offer an ongoing variety of experiences which lead us beyond what we could have ever imagined. When we take up our lovework, we give a gift of will and commitment to the soul which returns to us a connection to the infinite.

So, that is what your relationship offers--nothing less than a bridge from the infinite below to the infinite above, from what is within you that that which is around you, from the mundane to the sacred--from life to love to the Divine to source to God.

Relationship...was created as your perfect tool in the work of the soul.

~Neal Donald Walsch
(thanks to CJ)

Mask

MASK

I see you. Behind that mask...I know it's you.

Like characters in a pantomime or celebrating Mardi Gras, we all wear a mask. You don't know everything about the people closest to you, and so much less about people just outside your immediate circle - including colleagues and neighbors, and even some relatives.

And they know about as much about you, because the rest of the details are all hidden behind your mask.

The lighter your mask, the more open you are, the more fruitful your relationships will be. And the more risk of getting bruised. But without risk, there is no reward.

I am not going to ask you to remove your mask, as such a drastic move would be more traumatic than helpful. But I do ask you to find ways to make that mask lighter, to share more of yourself with more people, and to invite them to do the same. The more fruitful our relationships, the happier we are.

So let me see a little more of the you behind that mask.

~courtesey of http://TheHappyGuy.com

Meet It Here - Now...

If objects have an independent existence,
i.e., if they exist anywhere apart from you,
then it may be possible for you to go away from them.

But they do not exist apart from you;
they owe their existence to you, to your thoughts.
So where can you go to escape them?

...Sri Ramana Maharshi


Don't run away...turn and face yourSELF everywhere.

Be in Love with...

I just fell in love with this quote from John Taylor:



"Be in Love with Knowing that you are going Home"












For more info on John Taylor, check out his website:
www.choosetobefree.com

Santa and his reinDear

Lessons to be Learned from Your Dog:

Lessons to be Learned from Your Dog:
Eckhart Tolle on Being in the Now

There are various portals that you can use to enter the Now. One portal is to become aware of the energy field of your body as you sit there. To feel that you are actually alive in your hands and your arms and your legs, throughout your body. There is an aliveness that most people cannot feel because they are only in their heads, thinking. All their attention is absorbed by thinking and they are not present where they are. So you can use this portal, the aliveness of your inner body. You can use sense perceptions…watch nature—trees or animals or your dog. Just be alert as you watch a dog, playing, resting; play with a dog…you can learn being present from an animal. Your dog can teach you to be present because the dog is ready to enjoy, celebrate life any moment… the Now. The dog is in the Now so it can teach you or remind you. When you become burdened with problems, look at your dog and see how the dog is always ready to celebrate life. Another opening is to ask yourself whether you are friendly with the present moment or whether you are making the present moment into an obstacle or enemy. If you are against it or want to run away from it, you create stress, you create anxiety, you create past guilt or resentment…all these things that people carry around, they are in the past, and then you have the burden of the future which you can’t control, so to come to the present moment is actually a transformation of consciousness. That’s why The Power of Now has had such an impact because it has told people that they didn’t realize they could be present and they could simplify and deepen their lives tremendously and make it more joyful. They show us what we have lost and, once we realize that, they can help us in our shift into a deeper state of consciousness.

Stop and Tell the Truth

Many of us live our lives very superficially. We suffer for that
superficiality, because within each one of us lives a depth of being
that wants itself known, wants itself felt, wants itself expressed
and met.

As long as we settle for the superficial truths, we tragically miss
the deeper revelation.

We experience a huge collective suffering on this planet, yet at any
point we have the full capacity to stop and tell the truth -- what is
here? Sadness may be here, anger may be here, but what else is here?


What is deeper than that? At any point we have the opportunity to
direct our attention away from the future or the past, and toward
this moment so that we can truly self-inquire into what is final,
what is always present.

Gangaji -- The Diamond In Your Pocket

Compassion

Compassion is the willingness to play in the field of dreams even though you are awake.

-Matthew Flickstein, "Swallowing the River Ganges"

God Bless the Child

Them thats got shall get
Them thats not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, papa may have
But God bless the child thats got his own
Thats got his own

Yes, the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
Mama may have, papa may have
But God bless the child thats got his own
Thats got his own

Money, you've got lots of friends
Crowding round the door
When you're gone, spending ends
They don't come no more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don't take too much
Mama may have, papa may have
But God bless the child thats got his own
Thats got his own

Mama may have, papa may have
But God bless the child thats got his own
Thats got his own
He just worry bout nothin'
Cause he's got his own

(Dedicated to my niece)

Love wants to reach out and manhandle us...

Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,

Break all our teacup talk of God.

If you had the courage and

Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights,

He would just drag you around the room

By your hair,

Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world

That bring you no joy.

Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly

And wants to rip to shreds

All your erroneous notions of truth

That make you fight with yourself, dear one,

And with others,

Causing the world to weep

On too many fine days.

God wants to manhandle us,

Lock us inside a tiny room with Himself

And practice His dropkick.

The Beloved sometimes wants

To do us a great favor:

Hold us upside down

And shake all the nonsense out.

But when we hear

He is in such a "playful drunken mood"

Most everyone I know

Quickly packs their bags and hightails it

Out of town.

~Hafiz

Kindle a Fire by Any Means

"Who is it that loves and who that suffers?
He alone stages a play with Himself.
The individual suffers because he perceives duality.
Find the One everywhere and in everything
and there will be an end to pain and suffering."

"I find one vast garden spread out all over the universe.
All plants, all human beings, all higher mind bodies
are about in this garden in various ways,
each has his own uniqueness and beauty.
Their presence and variety give me great delight.
Every one of you adds with his special feature to the glory of the garden."

"God is without form, without quality as well as with form and quality.
Watch and see with what endless variety of beautiful forms
He plays the play of his maya with Himself alone.
The lila of the all pervading One goes on and on in this way in infinite diversity.
He is without beginning and without end.
He is the whole and also the part.
The whole and part together make up real Perfection."

"He alone knows to whom He will reveal Himself under which form.
By what path and in what manner He attracts any particular man to Himself
with great force is incomprehensible to the hu ma n intellect.
The Path differs indeed for different pilgrims."

"You should kindle fire by any means,
either with clarified butter or sandalwood or even straw.
Once alight, the fire burns on; all worries, darkness and gloom gradually disappear.
The fire will burn to ash all obstacles."

"Just as fire burns away all dross and rubbish,
so the three fold suffering purges man's heart from all impurity
and results in a growing single mindedness in his search after Truth.
When he becomes deeply conscious of his weakness and tormented by the thoughts
of his undesirable impulses and distressing characteristics,
when afflictions like poverty, bereavement or humiliation ma ke him feel his life is futile,
then and then only does he develop real faith and religious fervor,
and becomes anxious to surrender himself at the feet of the Supreme Being.
Suffering should therefore be welcomed.
Never does the soft moonlight appear more soothing than after the scorching heat of a summer day."

"Always bear this in mind:
Everything is in God's hands,
and you are His tool to be used by Him as He pleases.
Try to grasp the significance of 'all is His'
and you will immediately feel free from all burdens.
What will be the result of your surrender to Him?
None will seem alien, all will be your very own Self."

"To believe in Him under any particular form is not enough.
Accept Him in His numberless forms, shapes and modes of being, in everything that exists.
Aim at the whole and all your actions will be whole."

- Anandamayi Ma