so i can just hooray over here..

Long live paulo coelho.

May we all be more sensitive to Wisdom and allow our hearts and souls to bathe in the warmth of enlightenment!!!!

savita, was zesus enligthend when he was being crucified ! did he feel pain , did he suffer ? did buddha allow tears to escape his eyes, did zesus live a passionate life ?

journey is important, because journey is all that is.

once a person develops this ability to maintain a dual awareness, of the journey and destination too, one is in the present. something like paulo’s boys in alchemist who went around the palace with spoons and oil.

now some ‘light stuff’

would it have been better had the master replied that the bird was dead, this way the disciple would have let go the bird ! proving the master wrong. a master would be more concerned about love and compassion then about his reputation !

“‘I am a learned man who has come in search of knowledge,’ insisted the foreigner.” an oxymoron – a learned man in search of knowledge, why should learned people look for knowledge, they are learned so they must alreday know, no.

buddha beacme mulla nasiruddin, he had not laughed enough when he was a buddha !

Love,
Mirela(the woman in elevator)

I am inspired*

Thank U

As mentioned in other posts, I spent several years in an Ashram, following the teachings of a certain guru. When I decided to leave from the Ashram to pursue my own path, another disciple, a very dear friend of mine, left too, for her own reasons. We set out in different directs – she, toward New York, and I, eventually, back to the place of my birth, in Texas. Over the years that have since passed, we have kept in touch and often call one another on the phone. As well as reminiscing, we also share whatever is going on in our lives now and what we are learning from that.

Whereas my path has led me toward a more eclectic and all-inclusive view of religion and spirituality, hers had led her to maintain and uphold much the same world-view as constructed by our former teachings. Often, she takes it upon herself to remind me of how important it is to “stay focused.” We are getting older, she says – time is running out, fast. We have to remember why we are here, the one true purpose of this life: to become Enlightened. We must hold this goal at the forefront of our minds, above all other concerns of this world – we must avoid getting caught up in the battles of life so that we can stay completely focused on that one aim: to become Enlightened before we die. Otherwise, we will be reincarnated and the whole struggle will start over again.

She is right in the sense that she is reciting precisely what we were both taught. But the problem with this bit of wisdom, at least for me, is that somewhere along the way I ceased to think of it as a “struggle.” I ceased to think of bodily existence – life with all of its challenges and defeats and triumphs – as a curse, as a form of “bondage” from which I need “free myself.” Somewhere along the way, and I’m not sure exactly at what point – it didn’t happen all in one day, one hour, one moment – but somewhere along the path, I actually began to find enormous joy in the battles, the ups AND the downs, the good times AND the bad. It was at that point that life (as bodily incarnation) began to take on a whole new meaning for me. It no longer seemed like something from which I needed to escape. It no longer seemed important to hurry toward some end goal – Enlightenment – to get out of here and never return.

Even when I consider the possibility of being reincarnated – and who knows into what sort of situation or condition – even the uncertainties involved in that do not seem particularly daunting. I do believe in reincarnation, and, certainly, I could be born less wealthy, less intelligent, less healthy, less fortunate in any number of ways. For that matter, I could come back as a dog, or a wolf, or even as a tree. In the traditional world-view, the perspective from which we were taught at the Ashram, this is the worst thing that could happen, because animals, unlike humans, do not have free will. Whatever conditions they are born into, they simply have to accept and suffer through. They are powerless to change their own destiny. But somehow even that does not deter me, it is not enough to make me think, “I’ve got to speed it up – I just have to reach enlightenment before I die.” I just feel like, if I come back as a wolf, I’ll be wolfish – the wolf spirit within me will sustain me and in it I shall revel and find great joy. If I am a dog, or a tree, the same: I will be what I am, and in being that fully, without reserve or regret or hesitation, I will know happiness, contentment and extreme fulfillment.

So, my friend tells me, “Stay focused. Work hard. You must make it your goal to become enlightened IN THIS LIFE.” I listen to her, and I do not contradict, as I see no point in raising an argument. Her path is her path, mine is my own. The two are different, but they need not clash.

For a long time, however, I have thought – primarily due to my previous teachings – “Perhaps she is right. Maybe I am just an utter failure at this quest called Enlightenment.” I can’t even manage to hold it solidly in my mind as a definable and desirable goal. I can’t even imagine that I am trying to reach some specified “destination” – some end, some final culmination – because, for me, I am just having so much fun getting there. The path itself is enough for me. It gives me everything that I could ever want, and more.

And the challenges, the “pain and suffering” – I even find a queer sort of joy in that. Perhaps this seems to some as a perverse sort of joy – if I were “normal,” I would wish never to feel pain or anguish, I would wish to escape from all suffering. But I do not feel as this. Therefore, the promise that is presented by the concept of “Enlightenment” – the cessation of all suffering – does very little to allure me. It is not enough to make me feel like I need to hurry to get somewhere else, somewhere beyond and removed from the trials of bodily existence.

I’m definitely not suggesting that I am enlightened, and I do hope that it doesn’t come across as that. (I am not “enlightened;” I am just like anyone else.) All I’m saying is that there is another way to experience life that negates the perceived need to escape from it, whether the promise is one of Heaven or one of Enlightenment. I’m fine right where I am, so long as I can keep my feet on this path, and keep moving forward. I like the way the dirt feels beneath my feet. The road itself, the sense of motion, is enough to make me happy. In traversing it, I am content. I don’t feel the need to look ahead longingly toward some ultimate destination: My journey in itself IS my goal. I am already there.

Africa has taught me indeed to walk slowly and it is really really hard!! especially since i have fast paced parents; but it is doing the world of good… i feel i am aware more of which path i am on, the people around me, my connection to/with them and most of all i feel prepared…

eg: for all the april fools around today’s corner LOL. ;o) xxx