Illumination in our midst!

Think Sunny, let it shine!

May the heart and soul of Egypt be healed, sun of righteousness bring healing in your arms!

“Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered the Eye of Horus, the shining one, the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the Father of the Gods.” The winged sun disk: the primary symbol of Ra, a very ancient symbol that signifies the “Sun of Righteousness with healing in his arms.” Ra rose in the shape of a phoenix from the primordial ocean of Nun and landed on a single mound of dry land and then let the sun’s rays shine forth. Ra formed himself from the chaos of Nun and emerged from the lotus petals.  Ancient Texts

Healing to the heart and soul of Egypt!

Queer little twists go into the making of an individual. To suppress them all and follow clock and calendar and creed until the individual is lost in the neutral grey of the host is to be less than true to our inheritance…. Life, that gorgeous quality of life, is not accomplished by following another man’s rules. It is true we have the same hungers and same thirsts, but they are for different things and in different ways and in different seasons…. Lay down your own day, follow it to its noon, your own noon, or you will sit in an outer hall listening to the chimes but never reaching high enough to strike your own. -Angelo Patri

“The eye by which I see God is the same eye as the eye by which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye are one in the same—one in seeing, one in knowing, and one in loving.” –Meister Eckhart

Filled with Understanding of its perfect law, I am guided,
moment by moment, along the path of liberation.

Living from that Will, supported by its unfailing Wisdom and Understanding,

mine is the Victorious Life!

Notes on the Tao Te Ching

1. Words are words, they are not life. Words are used to draw lines and describe concepts. Life is not a concept, nor is it divided or explained by words. Words cause nonsense. Life is lived, not described.
2. Words separate things: There is life/death, difficult/easy, long/short, high/low … and all points in between. Music comes from varying tones. No sane person can determine the law of life, the way of life in between these points. No one knows the way, or what will or should happen next. How can a leader be important and show the way when they are limited. Never be important.
3. Good government comes from many people who live by their hearts and not some important person’s rule and direction based on their limited knowledge.
4. The Universe can take care of itself. It does not need important people.
5. People go crazy arguing about the Universe, though it has taken care of itself very long.
6. Life is free — the more you breathe, the more breath is left to breathe.
7. The Universe is deathless.
8. A human is like this also. They take care of themselves. There is an inherent undertone and current of health and integrity which takes care of a person. A person seeks a natural level with their Universe.
9. Tao is quiet and unnoticed by the outside world.
10. We live in the space (emptiness) of a house. Tao is empty of outside appearances.
11. External orientation causes problems. Internal orientation is quiet and sensible.
12. Life flows deeper than the rising and setting of the sun. A deeper existence is in each person as well. This is timeless.
13. This cannot be understood, but it flows. “When the river is murky, be patient and let the rivers flow and take its course, it will clear the mud.”
14. Accept life (birth, flowering, death) quietly and openly. Accept the flowing of the River.
15. A good leader leads others to leading themselves.
16. People lose Tao, distortion in the outward comes — law, ritual, words, hypocrisy. This is not the inward quiet flow of life, but confusion and chaos.
17. Again, words or analysis of life distracts from life; status carries problems; law causes thieves — these ways fail to bring happiness. Tao is in the heart, not in greed, status, or knowledge.
18. People’s knowledge is a distraction, their leaders are a fake. How can someone know the way for other people? The material world is so important to people, they make their mark, while I am quietly nursing at the breast of life.
19. You try to know or measure what cannot be understood or measured. Accept life that way, it proceeds anyway.
20. Yield to life forces. What can happen that cannot be mended?
21. Be natural following life, don’t insist or force. Nature does not insist. Follow life naturally and you will be alive.

These notes paraphrase in common language
a modern translation of the Tao Te Ching

Choose to treat others how you yourself choose to be treated    -AncientEye

Inspiring DVD on the subject: “My Name is Khan” (2010)

A prime function of a leader is to keep hope alive

John W. Gardner

A person can succeed at anything for which there is enthusiasm

Charles M. Schwab

A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he gives up

A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work

“I must do something” will always solve more problems than “Something must be done.”

A rose only becomes beautiful and blesses others when it opens up and blooms. Its greatest tragedy is to stay in a tight-closed bud, never fulfilling its potential

Anonymous

“The Soul Refuses All Limits” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Paradise & Hell

A soldier named Nobushige came to Hakuin, the Zen master, and asked: “Is there really a paradise and a hell?”

“Who are you?” inquired Hakuin.

“I am a samurai,” the warrior replied.

“You, a soldier!” exclaimed Hakuin. “What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar.”

Nobushige became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued: “So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably much too dull to cut off my head.”

As Nobushige drew his sword Hakuin remarked: “Here open the gates of hell!”

At these words the samurai, perceiving the master’s discipline, sheathed his sword and bowed.

“Here open the gates of paradise,” said Hakuin.

The Whole World Stinks

Wise men and philosophers throughout the ages have disagreed on many things, but many are in unanimous agreement on one point: “We become what we think about.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A man is what he thinks about all day long.” The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius put it this way: “A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.” In the Bible we find: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

One Sunday afternoon, a cranky grandfather was visiting his family. As he lay down to take a nap, his grandson decided to have a little fun by putting Limburger cheese on Grandfather’s mustache. Soon, grandpa awoke with a snort and charged out of the bedroom saying, “This room stinks.” Through the house he went, finding every room smelling the same. Desperately he made his way outside only to find that “the whole world stinks!”

So it is when we fill our minds with negativism. Everything we experience and everybody we encounter will carry the scent we hold in our mind.

Total Self Confidence

1. I am resourceful and I have the ability to do whatever it takes to succeed, and to support all those whom I love.
2. I enjoy life’s challenges, and I learn from everything that happens in my life.
3. I live each day with passion and power.
4. I feel strong and powerful, happy, and excited.
5. I have tremendous confidence in my talents and my abilities.
6. I meet every situation knowing I am its master.
7. I have deep respect for myself and for everyone I meet each day.
8. I am committed to perform at the best of my ability in all that
9. I do.
10. I forgive myself and others easily.
11. I am aware of the priceless value of my life and the life of everyone I meet.
12. My confidence is unshakable because I live with integrity.
13. I am always at peace because I trust and follow my internal guidance.

Peak Performer

One of the wonderful by-products of high self-esteem is that you become a “Peak Performer.”

Every day you become more aware of your abilities and recognize that opportunities to stretch your capabilities are limitless. You desire change, growth, and challenge, and a healthy self-esteem provides the energy.

Peak performers have more than goals, they have a vision of what their life will mean to themselves and others. Peak performers do not live in the future. Peak performers make sure each step taken in the present keeps them on the road toward their life goal.

Peak Performers Can Say:

1. I am motivated and have a mission with realistic and measurable goals.
2. I accept complete responsibility for everything I think, say, feel, and do.
3. I look for the window of opportunity in every situation and know that I will learn from every experience if I choose.
4. I always help others to do their best, and I encourage everyone to contribute something.
5. I correct my course when I reach an obstacle. This way, when things go wrong, I am still headed in the right direction.
6. I expect and appreciate change. It does not overwhelm me because I am prepared.
7. I stand up for my own opinions and values and respect others.
8. I am able to manage myself. I do not require instruction every step of the way.
9. I am not afraid of making mistakes or of taking reasonable risks.
10. I am my own coach. I engage in positive self-talk and rehearsal.
11. I am a life-long student. I am always ready to learn, and I know growth takes sustained effort.
12. I know myself well and still expect to find hidden talents, resources, strengths, weaknesses, energy, and interests.
13. I respect reality both pleasant and painful.
14. I engage in self-confrontation and do not blame others.
15. I readily forgive others and myself and correct mistakes when possible.
16. I am patient, kind, gentle, and compassionate with myself.
17. I have no need to prove I am better or worse than anybody else.

(Adapted from the Self Esteem Workbook)

Beginning

This is the moment of embarking.
All auspicious signs are in place.

In the beginning, all things are hopeful. We prepare ourselves to start anew. Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in the first moment: our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.

In order to start, we must make a decision. The decision is a commitment to daily self- cultivation. We must make a strong connection to our inner selves. Outside matters are superfluous. Alone and naked, we negotiate all of life’s travails. Therefore, we alone must make something of ourselves, transforming ourselves into the instruments for experiencing the deepest spiritual essence of life.

Once we make our decision, all things will come to us. Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation. They are a response. It is said that if one chooses to pray to a rock with enough devotion, even that rock will come alive. In the same way, once we choose to commit ourselves to spiritual practice, even the mountains and valleys will reverberate to the sound of our purpose.

(Deng Ming-Dao)

The Mountain

There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.

The lowlanders didn’t know how to climb the mountain. They didn’t know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn’t know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain.

Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.

The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet.

Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.

As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother walking toward them. They realized that she was coming down the mountain that they hadn’t figured out how to climb.

And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back. How could that be?

One man greeted her and said, “We couldn’t climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn’t do it?”

She shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t your baby.”