"It's not them, it's you.
It's not there, it's here.
It's not then, it's now."

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled.
For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort,
that we are likely to step out of our ruts
and start searching for different ways
or truer answers."

M. Scott Peck

"This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival;
a joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and attend them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house empty
of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honourable.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the same, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each guest has been sent
as a guide from beyond."

Rumi

"Giving to others selflesly,
radiating light throughout the world
and illuminating your own darkness,
your virtue becomes a sanctuary
for yourself and all beings."
Lao tzu (570-490 BC)

"It often feels like two steps forward
one step back,
but if you keep going,
before you know it,
you have climbed a mountain."

David Williams, Openhand

or in English:

"If you wish for peace, prepare for war"

Vegetius

...peaceful war...

"If you tell the truth
you don't have to remember anything."
Mark Twain

Let no man pray that he not know sorrow,

Let no soul ask to be free from pain,

For the gall of today is the sweet of tomorrow,

And the moment's loss is the lifetime's gain,

Through want of a thing does it's worth redouble,

Through hunger's pangs does the feast content,

And only the heart that had harboured trouble

Can fully rejoice when joy is sent.

Let no man shrink from bitter tonics

Of grief, and yearning, and need, and strife,

For the rarest of chords in the soul's harmonics

Are found in the minor strains of life.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"Most of the shadows of this life
are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Watch the little things;
a small leak will sink a great ship."

Benjamin Franklin

"I have come into the world to see this:
the sword drop from mens' hands
even at the height of their arc of rage,
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh we can wound."

Hafiz

If you don't get out of the box you've been raised in, you won't understand how much bigger the world is.

Angelina Jolie

The Way It Is

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

~ William Stafford ~

(The Way It Is)

‎

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend".

Albert Camus

Thank you, Trin!
xxx

and thanks to Camus

"Experience is a hard teacher because
she gives the test first,
the lesson afterward."

Chinese Proverb

So true!

Chris

"Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life."

Buddha

"Everything that irritates us about others
can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

Carl Jung

I have found this to be so valid and true. When we feel irritated it is only because there is something inside of ourselves that we need to unravel (that is not to say that the other should absolve themselves of their own responsibility of course)...

"The source of all creation is pure consciousness . . . pure potentiality seeking expression from the unmanifest to the manifest. And when we realize that our true Self is one of pure potentiality, we align with the power that manifests everything in the universe"

Deepak Chopra

Your time is limited,so don`t waste it living someone
else`s life. Don`t be trapped by Dogma - which is living
the results of other people`s thinking. Don`t let the
noise of other`s drown out your own inner voice. And most
important,have the courage to follow your heart and
intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want
to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs Apple founder.

Came across this after watching the video diary,
being IS the change, seemed very apt.

I find, there is some dogmatic touch in something formulated in this way and repeated more than 1 time... I kind of get some impression that I am being invited to do like this guy does

And... and... I don't feel like my time is limited. Nonetheless,I do feel like I don't want to waste it.

And also, if to be completely annoying, I don't feel anything is secondary. Everything is important equally, if I find my truth in it (through it)...

(with the deepest respect to the author)

Hi Someone,

I did nt feel it to be prescriptive myself. From what
experience i have of Openhand, which is not a lot - it
felt like an Openhander reporting deep from within the
matrix.

love and blessings to you.

The message is very inspiring and I didn't feel it coming from the Matrix at all, but from YOU!

I just felt to express what I feel about the specific lines, as they happen to be here out of context...

Sometimes it is a different energy, when the lines are separate from their friends

Love,
Yulia

Hi Yulia,

Yes I can understand what you mean in the Steve Jobs' quote "follow your heart" and "everything else is secondary".

What I took from it personally was that if we do follow our heart, then everything else falls naturally into place. We don't have to effort about other issues in life because they become increasingly obvious.

At least that's my take!

Chris

I agree Chris;

If you follow your heart, the law of least effort becomes increasingly evident, and we no longer swim against the currents of the universe.

Your mental process comes from two sides; one is love, other is fear."

Yogi Bhajan

The physical universe is nothing other than the Self curving back within Itself to experience Itself as spirit, mind, and physical matter. In other words, all processes of creation are processes through which the Self or divinity expresses Itself. Consciousness in motion expresses itself as the objects of the universe in the eternal dance of life."

Deepak Chopra

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality"

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Why run around sprinkling holy water?
There's an ocean inside you, and when you're
ready you'll drink.

Kabir

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn
to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Every experience is a paradox in that it means to be absolute, and yet is relative; in that it somehow always goes beyond itself and yet never escapes itself.

T. S. Eliot

"In one drop of water
are found all the secrets
of all the oceans;
in one aspect of You
are found all the aspects
of existence"

Rumi ♥

"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."

- Telamon of Arcadia, mercenary of the fifth century B.C.

“Make no mistake about it—enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the façade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.”

—Adyashanti from The End of Your World

That's just how it seems to me.

Yes indeed! Sometimes that's the hardest thing to accept. It's a destructive process not constructive. If you find yourself building something up, you're likely heading in the wrong direction.

But here's the paradox, destruction is construction when it contains the seeds of the future. So up to enlightenment, it's all about destruction. But then a truly authentic reality can arise and shape out of that, tenderly though, like the new shoots of spring flowers.

Thanks so much for the quote.

Chris

Thanks Teresa and Chris

People close to me always accused me of destructivity. These days I begin to see that I can use this feature... in a constructive way

Yulia- Good for you ! I guess in the process you learn to have a better relationship and understanding with yourself Yet when being alone, there is no real confrontation of self. It’s much easier!I was always self-destructive, and somehow could not vent my feelings(very unlike you)……...

But it is there in all of us ,a destructive element , all aspects of creation, there is just life disguised as everything and nothing. Whether we have had difficult backgrounds or not. And we indeed can be our own heaven and hell. I believe it is what we choose to align with and the way that we do things that counts ! . And the funny thing is Yulia is that the way other people treat us is always their karma and the way we react is always ours !

But to me it is an interesting notion to link destruction with enlightenment in a positve transformative way and a negative (even though this is mind led), way of demolishing the personality that people come to know as this person or that…..a real test of authentic love, which in effect is love for destruction and creation- since there is no one really there to love!! All aspects of human relationships….. everything it seems in a constant flux of demoliotion and construction……Yet something always pulls us back to the centre, to the core. ……….

Chris. Thank-you. And thank-you to the 9 –you reached me as they did!. Awakening at deeper levels can indeed be a painful process but it pulls us back to who we truly are ! There does seem a widespread notion that awakening or enlightenment is just about a joyful process of love ,light and bliss……… a nice retreat that I will allow myself from time to time. Because it seems to me people going through the awakened/enlightened process, can often loose touch with the simple things in life, like fresh air and trees etc To me that is where it is all found. in nature. But then there is living in the human body as a human being and not just as a tree. That’s when it gets complicated.The human experience.

So it ends and starts here. Once you have touched the deeper aspects of our core being there and tasted more truth there is no turning back .No mistake. It is a point of no return and I feel different. It is like the lights have been switched on in a different way. I kind of feel melancholic, but okay with it, a feeling of equanimity with life. Infact perfectly okay with it and more confrontational with it. I am just waiting to return back to my old self but only catch moments of it. It is also quite scary to realise how I had created a safe spiritual bubble. Like a holy sancturary, that nobody could enter. But it was static and not moving or reaching my full potential. It may have been necessary, but I was stuck .And as I have slowly been releasing myself from the prison I created, I watch my son spurting out the bubble a t a speedy rate that sometimes feels out of my control…..The bubble thing was a clear and concise way of keeping things tightly in order………only but to find that I am beimng told everything will resort back to natural chaos and I have to bend.and not resist and not try to hold it and control it so tightly,but just let the waters take me where it will.
I think my resistance towards enlightenment has been the non acceptance of the destructive side, the eradication, annihiliation of all that is tangible and comfortable… The fear of being destroyed….but how stupid because the soul is immutable and can never be destroyed, it just shape shifts…
…It is when I look back, only when I have really walked on a razor edged side of life, fearless in the dark that I truly evolved and became more the flow. I guess the important aspect is non attachment to outcome, because life is breathing for us in a sense, we just have to go with it. The deeper we dig, the more we confront our stuff and can no longer delude ourselves. What I did notice was that I met a place of open expansiveness it was everything and nothing at the same time and I realised there is nothing there…. So all the worrying and fearsand of my own imagination are slowly becoming more disregarded and truth alone is becoming more real.
So destruction is the cleansing of the transformative cycle .It is the changing of the old that makes way for the new and spiritual destruction flows from universal consciousness and is integrated into our being by the way we would choose to evolve ourselves and the planet that we interact with. The enlightenment does seem a process of excavation, eradication and shedding of layers of conditioning instead of polishing and disguising the truth behind the dormant sediments.

Yes acceptance is the word.

"We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows."

Robert Frost, "In the Clearing," 1962

The white light streams down to be broken up by those human prisms into all the colors of the rainbow. ~Charles R. Brown

"Wisdom ceases to be wisdom
when it becomes too proud to weep,
too grave to laugh,
and too selfish to seek other than itself."

Kahlil Gibran

"All you have to do is pay attention;
lessons always arrive when you are ready,
and if you can read the signs,
you will learn everything you need to know
in order to take the next step"

Paulo Coelho (The Zahir)

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.Dream. Discover"

MARK TWAIN

“The ultimate cause of atheism, Newton asserted, is ‘this notion of bodies having, as it were, a complete, absolute and independent reality in themselves.’”
…
The 1925 discovery of quantum mechanics solved the problem of the Universe’s nature. Bright physicists were again led to believe the unbelievable — this time, that the Universe is mental.
…
According to Sir James Jeans: “the stream of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter… we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.”
….
The Universe is immaterial — mental and spiritual.

Richard Conn Henry
The Mental Universe: Nature Volume 436

Connectedness: Quantum theory tells that all things that have ever interacted are forever connected. For example, your friend’s freely made decision of what to do in Moscow (or on Mars) can instantaneously influence what you find in Manhattan. And this happens without any physical force being involved. Einstein called such influences “spooky actions.” They have now been demonstrated to exist. So far just for small things, but they are no less spooky.

…
The facts described in our book are completely undisputed. But mentioning “consciousness” is controversial. The encounter of physics with “non-physical” stuff like consciousness has been called our “skeleton in the closet.” Look at the undisputed facts, and think for yourself about what they mean.

Quantum Enigma in a Nutshell

Looks like there's nowhere to hide! The universe is speaking through everything

"In the silence between your heartbeat bides a summons.
Do you hear it?
Name it if you must, or leave it forever nameless,
but why pretend it is not there?

Mevlana Rumi (1207 - 1273)

"What in your life is calling you,
When all the noise is silenced,
The meetings adjourned...
The lists laid aside,
And the Wild Iris blooms
By itself
In the dark forest...
What still pulls on your soul?

Mevlana Rumi

Oh Trinity, those last 2 quotes are so perfect right now - thankyou. For the past week I have ‘adjourned meetings’ and ‘laid aside lists’ and I know exactly what is 'pulling on my soul'. I hear that ‘summons’ and part of me is scared and trying to ‘pretend it is not there’ – just last night I likened myself to Jonah in the Bible, when God is calling him but he keeps running away and trying to hide, but he knows in his heart of hearts that he can’t!

Thankyou, you lovely lady and also the ever-wise Rumi!
Becky x

"There are two kinds of light-the glow that illumines and the glare which obscures " James Thurber

"Confront the dark parts of yourself and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness.Use pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength" August Wilson

Go Becky!

Yes, once the song has been sung, there is no running away anymore. It is what you, on a soul level have yearned for, for so long; it is what you have asked for. Daunting at time but exhileratingly liberating right!

My heart is with you.
Trinity
x

"If you are waiting for anything in order
to live and love without holding back,
then you suffer.
Every moment is the most important moment of your life.
No future time is better than now to
let down your guard and love."

David Deida

is in the region between the two bubbles

"When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above as the below and when you make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female not be female. Then you shall enter the Kingdom."

Jesus (Gnostoic gospel of Thomas)

Hello 'baby' Yulia! Your quote reminds me of this quote of Rumi about the experience of rotting and composting the separate self:

The Truth stands before me,
On my left is a blazing fire, and
On my right, a cool flowing stream.

One group of people walk toward the fire, into the fire,
And the other towards the cool flowing waters.
No one knows which is blessed and which is not.

But just as someone enters the fire,
That head bobs up from the water,
And just as a head sinks into the water,
That face appears in the fire.

Those who love the sweet water of pleasure
And make it their devotion are cheated by this reversal.

The deception goes further-
The voice of the fire says:
“I am not fire, I am fountainhead,
Come into me and don’t mind the sparks.”

Oh just realised that quote was Teresa's! I mistook it as from Yulia..

That's okay Lei! Perception of words is always interesting. Actually I was getting at the balance of feminine & masculine energies to support the other to function- a kind of transcendental androgynous nature which the quotation from the gnostic gospel of Thomas states.

How we interpret stuff,and what it evokes inside of us is always left open ....

I think it's Yulia's photo directly above your quote, that's why I mistook it.

The balance of feminine and masculine energies is certainly interesting, something I've just been working on myself and talking about.. so it's interesting you mentioned it here again. And you said 'a kind of transcendental androgynous nature', which made me think the two quotes really speak of the same realization after all.

Hi Lei,
And I thought it was a joke for a minute! The quote of Rumi is interesting and I see in one way why it evoked such in you to quote it as the reversable opposites.

I had been experiencing the masculine aspects of my soul during some astral experiences over the past weeks and dealing with some past life karma, you could say I felt an element of composting in another realm, which then became an experience of the androgynous nature of the soul....
But yes it does all seem about balance and harmony....

Very interesting what you experienced, also I like the way you express in words, seem to me very shapeshifting, fluid and multifaceted..(almost androgynous in a way)..

Keep nothing for later. Like letting a bird fly out of your hand, the whole being, here! (Outstretches hand.) Anything that you think you have to carry can be given to the fire that’s here. When we’re empty, then something else fills us. Something that holds its head up. Something that is our birthright.
- Jeannie Zandi

"When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world."
unknown monk

This is a lovely perspective.

I see 'changing ourselves' more like summoning up the will that allows us to move the debris that surrounds ourselves. Then we can begin to know ourselves for the first time. Then everything around us changes accordingly.
Trinity
x

To laugh
Is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep
Is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another
Is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings
Is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before the crowd
Is to risk loss.
To love
Is to risk not being loved in return.
To live
Is to risk dying.
To hope
Is to risk despair.
To try it all
Is to risk failure,
But risk we must
Because the greatest hazard in life
Is to risk nothing.
(author unknown)

" If the honey bee ever disappeared, man will only have 4 years left to live" Einstein

Physicality is a gift. It lets us literally touch each other. I am not interested in theories or practices aimed at getting out of here. I do not want to focus on preparing to go to heaven or evolving into formlessness. I want to learn how to be here fully, in this body, in this world. And I want to live in a world infused with the power of. . . . physical sensation inseparable from heart and soul that calls us to live. . . . The meaning enfolded in our very cells is unfolded as we touch and are touched. This is Beauty." ~ Oriah from The Invitation (c) 1999

with love to the Openhand community

"Most of the shadows of this life
are caused by standing in one's own sunshine."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf".

Rabindranath Tagor

wow! this is such an inspiring talk!
If taken out of original context (Harvard Commencement), I feel this is for us all, Humanity at our graduation moment in history, and commencement of a new era...
Her speech is full of ideas I'd love to stick up as witty quotes around my space to remind me of living without fear; without forgetting about the lessons of my failures, remembering compassion and empathy, and reminding me of always confronting my frames of existence...
I hope you'll enjoy
Though totally out of style of in fashionable esoteric psycho-blabber (which is highly refreshing) I feel it is for all Lightworkers, Gatekeepers, or whatever you name the part of you responsible for more than your momentary well-being and imaginary success of survival...
First she is humorous but just watch the energy spreading from around 8 (?) -ish mins...

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

"Holding a grievance is like drinking poison
and hoping the other person will keel over and die"

Miranda Holden

Although I may try to describe Love,
When I experience it, I am speechless.
Rumi ♥

"Take the first step in faith.
You don’t have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step."

Martin Luther King, Jr

This is such a simple, yet profound quote. All we can ever do is take the next step and TRUST that, that which is divinely given to unfold... will.
x

'Let go of the idea that the path will
lead you to your goal.
The truth is that with each step we take, we arrive'

Paulo Coelho

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone"
Neale Donald Walsen

A quotation I was looking at yesterday and thinking how true!

"Love is nothing if it is not spontaneous.
It cannot be a conclusion of reasoning.
It is not a fruit of the spirit of bargain.
If you want to be certain about the object of love before giving your love, it is only a form of calculating selfishness."
Meher Baba

How easy it is to see jewels that are embellished for the world to see. Yet how many of us see the gems hiding in the dirt??? Where are you looking?

"A diamond was laying in the street covered with dirt.
Many fools passed by.
Someone who knew diamonds picked it up."
Kabir

“Every phase of evolution commences by being in a state of unstable force and proceeds through organization to equilibrium. Equilibrium having been achieved, no further development is possible without once more oversetting the A journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet. Whosoever acts spoils it. Whosoever keeps loses it.”
Kabbalah quote

It seems to me for every move-creates new angels and demons

Socrates said

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

I wrote this some 7 years ago, now it found me again...

"No Question"
there was this road that called,
and i laughed
or maybe mourned?
but like one moment comes after the other,
i followed.
and it felt like melting gold
pouring into my bones.

and i shone.

running, all the way up that road
and all the way up that hill
and bliss!
'cause where all things meet,
i know, is
where we will,
and there
it will be
Me.

you see?
i'm facing the big sky now,
and love, my angel,
i'm lost 'cause
what was the question you asked?
i'm running wild --
please don't hold me down
'cause now i see clouds,
and more,
unfolding, swimming
through sky's blue oceans.

Are these the waters, maybe,
Where Noah sailed on before?

what was the question you asked?

you know i made a deal with God,
and that you won't be unhappy.
'cause it's me.
so come on angel,
let me steal this moment from you,
now.

And i will
put it
HERE.

Reka, sweet Angel

That just took my breath away.
Right there with you on this magical journey sister.
xxx

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."

J. R. R. Tolkien

"Life's not about waiting for the storms to pass,
it's about learning to dance in the rain."
Vivian Greene

(Thanks Veronica for posting this on FB)

"To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak."

Hopi Indian Saying

"There are no mistakes ,the events we bring upon ourselves,no matter how unpleasant are necessary in order to learn; whatever steps we take they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go".
Richard Bach

"If you want to awaken all of humanity then awaken all of yourself

If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative inside yourself

Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self transformation"

Lao Tzu

So true!

Chris

" Your heart is the size of the ocean. Go find ypourself in its hidden depths" Rumi

I'm speechless - thanks for sharing

Chris

Beautiful quote too. I really love it. I am always looking at how life make me go deeper and deeper within. As soon as I have gone as far as I think it is possible to go, then a new level opens up to reveal more.

This thread is now full. I have started a new thread here:
"Profound Spiritual Quotes 8"