Becoming our True Reality - Pure Love

Well today (Friday) is "tomorrow". I got here a day early "accidently", and thank Love, there are no "accidents"! The staff make me feel right at home, they teach metta (loving kindness) and practice it very well. There is even a meeting for the "servers" after the day is done called 'Metta", and it reminds me of a "Prayer for forgiveness" meeting. "I am sorry if I offended anyone today in any way, please forgive me...thank you, I love you."
In addition, I enjoyed joining them in their happy service, and in their daily sittings (meditation). It appears that the more these beings hang out here at the patapa, the more joyous light shine from them - great role models!
S. N. Goenka our primary teacher was asked "what would you say is the purpose of life"? "To come out of misery. A human being has the wonderful ability to go deep inside, observe reality, and come out of suffering. Not to use this ability is to waste one's life. Use it to live a really healthy, happy life."
Another question to Goenka: "You speak of being overpowered by negativity. How about being overpowered by positivity, for example, by love?"
"What you call 'positivity' is the real nature of the mind, it is always full of love-pure love-and you feel peaceful and happy. If you remove the negativity, then positivity remains, purity remains. Let the entire world be overwhelmed by this positivity."

Similar to Thich Nhat Hanh below, His Holiness the Dalai Lama describes Vipassana as the "second-level training" of meditation practice. "...it is not adequate simply to have a focused mind. We must acquire the skill of probing the nature and characteristics of the object of our observation with as much precision as possible. This second level training is known in the Buddhist literature as insight (vipassana in Sanskrit). In tranquil abiding the emphasis on holding one's focus without distraction, and single-pointedness is the key quality being sought. In vipassana (insight), the emphasis is on discerning investigation and analysis while maintaining one-pointedness without distraction." (THE UNIVERSE IN A SINGLE ATOM).




Be still, and know." Psalm 46:10
"'Be still" means to become peaceful and concentrated. The Buddhist term is 'samatha' (stopping, calming). 'Know' means to acquire wisdom or understanding. The Buddhist term is 'vispassana' (insight, or looking deeply). When we are still, looking deeply, and touching the source of our true wisdom, we touch the living Buddha and the living Christ in ourselves and in each person we meet." Thich Nhat Hanh

"There is a silence into which the world cannot intrude.
There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.
There is a sense of holiness in you that the thought of sin has never touched.
All this today you will remember." A Course in Miracles


Jay Bieber: Go placidly amidst the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.- Desiderata

'Let every voice but God's be still in me. In deepest silence, would I come to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive your Word." A Course In Miracles (lesson 254)

"In the silence of listening,
you can know yourself in everyone,
the unseen singing softly to itself
and to you.
Rachel Naomi Remen

"In the stillness of the quiet,
if we listen, we can hear
the whisper of the heart
giving strength to weakness,
courage to fear, hope to despair."

Howard Thurman

"If you love truth, be a lover of silence.
Silence, like the sunlight will
illuminate you in God."
St. Issac - 7th Century Hermit Monk

From my Vipassana (Crone to the Bone) friend Jeanne:"
I hadn't heard from you in awhile and thought you might be at a retreat... so cool that you're doing another. its incredible, the sensations we become aware of when exploring energy fields... so good that vipassana disciplines us to remain in a detached state of observation... so we can separate ourself from the the intensity of various energies. i don't do anything with the kundalini... other than observe it. In my 20's, I went too far, too fast, with it and other practices... and then backed off for many years. But there again... vipassana puts it in perspective.
I've become such a hermit... that just going out in public is like leaving a retreat... and I'm a walking nerve, not in a bad way, like nervous, but in a way of being attuned and sensitized - and the energies are so wild and untamed out there... at the wilds of the grocery store and on the street.
Funny how it was only a few short decades ago and I was raring to be in the fray of it all. Now... I'm grateful to be out. I once read that the losses of old age are not what we lose, but what we leave. I think I understand. And crone-wise... I'm just a young-in...
But what we gain or change in perspective... when we slow down... after we've let go of much, is magnificent. And I especially love the seniors I see at vipassana courses, with their good posture and sparkly eyes. I'm happy that my senior years hold such promise.
metta,
Jeanne "


God created all of us to love and to be loved. Mother Teresa

I do believe Love is the most powerful healing medicine. Yes, Love is the energy for Divine Oneness ... Love is all there is .... You are Divine Love Precious One ... You are Sweetness itself ... .
Dear Patricia, I am getting some t-shirts made (already made a deposit). On the back is "We are created to love and be loved." Mother Teresa. And that is a done deal. However, on the front pocket (I like pockets) will be Divine Mirror (my favorite so far), We are One, God is love, One Love, Love & Be Loved...what Sacred Phrase would you use? We are One in Love, ron .
"Teach only Love for that is what you are." A Course in Miracles