The flooding of the Somerset Levels UK, seen through a different lens.
♡.¸¸.✧˙˚
“Although Devastating and Heartbreaking the levels still look Stunning.
Hopefully there is brightness ahead for all those suffering.” A. King
Just reading the Facebook posts (where I borrowed these quotes and some of these images from), it seems that that brightness and loving-kindness is already shining through people. Like M. Perry said, “I think that it has brought many people together.“
Empowering Ourselves
Because seeing things with a lighter mind makes us feel brighter.
Changing how things appear to us, changes what they are in the here and now.
…It’s what we do with our time on this planet that is the important part.
☆ * •. ¸ A sparkly, spiritual podcast of my thoughts after the Perseid Meteor Shower, and stargazing up at the Pleiadies.
The universe is so big and special and we’re not separate from it,
so we’re all special too. Which is a humbling thought.
─━★ Our place in space
─━☆ Please turn your volume up! I get even quieter later on ❤.¸¸.✧ (Video taken from previous post on the Perseids)
We Are All One ~
Not as Different as We Think
“Just as I wish to be free from suffering and experience happiness so do all other beings. In this respect I am no different from any other being; we are all equal.”
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
“We are all equal; we are all one.”
Ashtar, Pleiades
“Consider your own place in the universal oneness of which we are all a part, from which we all arise, and to which we all return.”
David Fontana
“We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate each other.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We Are All Stardust
Krauss’s quote rocks until the last few lines.
That we are all born in the heart of a dying star isn’t just inspirational poetry, it’s scientific fact. (And used to be Cosmic Loti’s tagline ;~)
99% of the elements on Earth were formed at the heart of a star, and scattered throughout the universe as the supernova exploded into death, forming the basic make-up of planet and people.
Prof Brian Cox deliciously shows this here,
where he explains that ‘C’ is for Carbon:
Going back to Krauss, it’s fact that at the very least, Jesus was a historical figure who taught beautiful and profound truths which remain with us today.
Invidiously offending his followers is rude and unnecessary; and completely misses the point.
* nb. If you want to offend the deserving, then this is far more accurate:
* •. ¸ re: top video: * that 1st line: “Perseid Meteor Shower – didn’t see many, but the Pleiades looked sweet.”
** this is just one Buddhist take on why We Are All One. ♡ Thanks for watching :~)
From Sci-Fact to Sci-Fi, earlier posts on how we are all cosmically equal:
Dream-like emptiness ~ the True Nature of our Reality, pt 3
“Buddha said ‘you should know that all phenomena are like dreams.”
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Modern Buddhism
Everything we see and perceive is no more real than last night’s dream.
Our experiences in this waking world certainly feel more real, and follow a more logical set of rules. If we jaywalk in front of a bus for example, it tends to matter a lot more if we do it when we’re awake, rather than tucked up safely in our beds.
So why would Milarepa, the Tibetan yogi and Saint, come out with:
“Last night’s dream was my teacher.
Is it the same for you?”
Not because he was likely to get run over by a bus in 10th century Tibet, but because he knew we create our reality. Reality doesn’t really exist, we unknowingly create it for ourselves via emptiness, one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism.
That’s why co-creation can work so well. We’re taking resposibility for the world we create.
Buddha often taught using analogies, and the dream state is a brilliant analogy for how our waking world doesn’t have any inherent, concrete existence. So Buddha explained emptiness using the dream analogy.
As we’re falling asleep, our mind becomes increasingly subtle.
“In that subtle level of mind, a dream world appears.” Chönden
“This world may be similar to the world of our waking state, or it may be quite bizarre, but in either case, while we are dreaming, it appears to be utterly real.”
old Heart of Wisdom, Geshe-la
Check it out! Remember a vivid dream, or, if we only remember fragments from our dreams last night, did they feel real to us at the time, and did we we react as we normally would?
The answer for most of us will be yes. But if we knew we were dreaming, we could change our reactions to something more productive.
Je Tsongkhapa was said to have laughed for a week when he realised emptiness.
Such is the power of this wisdom, that even a glimpse of it lightens our mind.
Imagine how completely blissful it would be if we knew the dream wasn’t even real (✿◠‿◠)
“Emptiness and bliss in fact go together very well, like water mixed with water, enhancing each other in a virtuous spiral.“
“Buddha said ‘you should know that all phenomena are like dreams”.
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Modern Buddhism
—=====◊<
Nagarjuna
“Nagarjuna was a great Indian Buddhist scholar and meditation master who devoted himself entirely to reviving the Mahayana Dharma in the first century AD and who brought to light the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras.
Nagarjuna’s extraordinary life and works were prophesied by Buddha Shakyamuni. For his life story, see the book Ocean of Nectar.”
via Kadampa Buddhism (http://kadampa.org/reference/buddhas/nagarjuna/)
>◊=====—
Like this on here:
❖ Continued from: pt 1, Cosmic Loti: Dream Like Emptiness ~ the True Nature of our Reality None of this could exist without our mind perceiving it. It’s all empty of independent existence, a state known as ‘emptiness’.
❖ Continued in: pt 3, Cosmic Loti: Dream a Better World Dream lands and the waking world are experientially the same. That’s why they both feel equally real, and that’s why we can influence them far more than we give ourselves credit for.
pt 4, Kadampa Life:Am I Dreaming?
Buddha’s teachings reveal the truth that everything is like a dream.
There is no reality in a dream but nevertheless we believe in the reality of the things seen in a dream. After waking up, we recognize the falsity of the dream and we smile at ourselves. In the same way, the person deep in the sleep of the fetters (saṃyojananidra) clings (abhiniviśate) to the things that do not exist; but when he has found the Path, at the moment of enlightenment, he understands that there is no reality and laughs at himself. This is why it is said: like in a dream.
Moreover, by the power of sleep (nidrābala), the dreamer sees something there where there is nothing. In the same way, by the power of the sleep of ignorance (avidyānidrā), a person believes in the existence of all kinds of things that do not exist, e.g., ‘me’ and ‘mine’ (ātmātmīya), male and female, etc.
Like this: Poet 4 Justice’s Wolves (the Cherokee story) Everyday Guru’s Friends and Enemies
(The Malleable Keys to Peace) and Reiki Heidi’s My Own A.R.K. (Act of Random Kindness)
Bodhisattva in Training’s poem on forgiveness and Electronicbaglady on the challenges and joys of forgiveness
=^••^= * There’s white graphics on this post, but all apologies if the little fluffy clouds don’t show up on your screen, they were artistically irresistible ;~)
We have so little control over external conditions,
it’s our attitude we have to change.”
Kadam Bridget
º o
Sounds reasonable, like wearing shoes instead of trying to cover the world in asphalt. But how do we do it?
Get a realistic view of our world
Not some Disney fantasy of how it should be.
The world we live in is painful. Geshe Kelsang likens it to trying to get comfortable living in a thorn bush. This is the nature of our samsara, the endless cycle of dissatisfaction and pain we’re all stuck in.
So relax and stop fighting it. “Our natural human response to fear is to avoid it. I am asking you to look straight at it, feel the feeling, and lean into it instead of away from it.”
Terri Cole (viayogachocolatelove)
“Be empowered by this wisdom” Kadam Bridget
Knowing and using this wisdom enables us to cope and deal with our problems.
Our lives are full of endless difficulties.
“At the end of the day we can just feel broken sometimes, can’t we.” Bridget
Patient acceptance can dissolve these negative, disempowering feelings away, and in doing so evaporate painful situations. This allows us progress in our lives in a pro-active way. Accepting difficulties with a patient mind, is far from passive, it is taking a “very strong, active stance.” Geshe Kelsang
Image and Short video clip from the ’80’s Monkey! TV series.
∞
“Forever is composed of nows.” Emily Dickinson
“The living moment is everything.” D.H. Lawrence
“I find that the past and the future are both easier to take if I live in the present,
free of temporal demons.”
Jas Baku
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past,
not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles,
but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
Buddha
“Meditation makes our lives happy and meaningful” Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Mahayana meditation master
“Breathing in, I calm body and mind.
Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen meditation master
“Meditation is a means of focusing the mind to give relief from the often negative “chatter” which goes on most of the time in our heads and to assist you in discovering your peace and stillness within.“ Kat Day, Bristol Intuitive Group Co-Organiser
“Meditation allows you to become one with the Divine and discover the divine within your inner being.” Spring Wolf, author of the Pagan’s Path
As the New Year Begins ~
Make the Perfect Resolution
Gen Chönden’s advice to “Follow the path of peaceful, positive minds” sounds like the perfect New Year’s resolution.
But for this to work we have to want that change.
⌛ ✞ ⌚
But really, do any New Year’s resolutions last longer than a week? It’s not that folk don’t want to stop procrastinating, exercise more, or to learn how to meditate.
It just doesn’t seem to happen.
My take on that is that if you’ve got time to breathe, you’ve got time to meditate. But I’m a fine one to talk, I’m a terrible procrastinator.
“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” Mark Twain
♡.¸¸.✧˙˚
