Category Archives: Spirituality

When we begin to feel free at last of past hurts, able to fearlessly love again…

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“It isn’t easy, giving birth to our spiritual potential. Spiritual labor can be very arduous – one holy instant at a time, when we give up, surrender, soften, don’t care if we’re right, forgo our impatience, detach from the opinions and prizes of the world, and rest in the arms of God. But at the end result is the love of our lives. We begin to feel more comfortable within ourselves, less laden by the chronic angst that marks the times in which we live. We begin to feel free at last of past hurts, able to fearlessly love again. We begin to exhibit the maturity and strength that were lacking in our personalities before. A new energy emanates from who we are, and others can see it too.” From the book a Year full of Miracles

8-bird-tanzania-serengetti-safari-animal-jungle-36

 

From my Readings – What a Monk had to say about Hell and Heaven

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Once upon a time a Samurai goes to a Monk and says, “Monk, teach me about heaven & hell.” The Monk looks up at this huge Samurai and he says, “teach you all about heaven & hell? I suppose you think you are special? You’re dirty, you smell, your blade is rusty. Who would hire a Samurai like you? You’re ugly. You’re terrible. You’re stupid. I couldn’t teach you anything. Get away from me.”

doors, door, heaven and hell, monk, quote, prologue The Samurai, with his neck muscles budging, his blood vessels almost bursting in fury & rage, whips out his sword to kill the monk. Just as he is about to cut off the monk’s head with his sword, the monk looks up at him and says, “This is hell.”

And the Samurai realizes that the monk has almost sacrificed his life to give him the teaching. He is so overwhelmed by the courage and compassion of the monk in doing what he had just done that he puts his sword back in its scabbard and bows in incredible appreciation of the beauty of that courage and compassion. He says to the monk, “I can’t believe you just did that, risked your life to teach me.”

The monk replies, “And that’s heaven.”

 

Quote of the day – On Love

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rumi, love, zanzibar, safari, hot air balloon

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Rumi

Quote of the day – Be You

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quote, africa, unique, different, daring“Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare the truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold and proclaim it everywhere; They only live who dare.” – Voltaire

Photographed in Zanzibar, Tanzania

Quote of the day – You can make a difference

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Quote, Union, Love, community, positive

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Robert F. Kennedy

Photograph taken in Zanzibar

Quotes are powerful – Quote of the day

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acumen, change, makes

Photograph taken at a village in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

On being Awakened – Words to Live by

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If you want to believe that what your physical eyes can see is all that’s there, then fine, you can. Stay in that small fraction of perceptual reality if you choose. But at some point, even if that point is at the point of death, we all know better. I’ve seen cynics become mystics on their deathbeds. We are here as though in a material dream, from which the spiritual nature of our larger reality is calling us to awaken. The magician, the alchemist, the miracle-worker, is simply someone who has woken up to the material delusions of the world and decided to live another way. In a world gone mad, we can choose to be sane. In order to move ourselves, and our civilization, into the next phase of our evolutionary journey, it’s time for all of us to awaken. – Marianne Williamson from the book “A year of Miracles”

You who live by the life of this world, shame on you. Why do you live like this? If you don’t want to be dead, never be without love. Die in love if you want to be truly alive. – Shams-e Tabrizi

Swing at the Brandenburger

From a Different Perspective – An Ancient Asian Philosophy  

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From a different perspective, and although this photograph was taken in Africa, Zanzibar, I want to share a philosophy from Ancient Asia that says: Life is not a circle but a spiral. Every life lesson that has ever been presented to you (which means everything you have ever been through) will come back again, in some form, until you learn it. And the stakes each time will be higher. Whatever you’ve learned will be greater fruit. Whatever didn’t work in your life before this point was a reflection of the fact that you hadn’t yet integrated the different parts in yourself. Where you didn’t yet accept yourself, you attracted a lack of acceptance in others. Where you hadn’t yet dealt with your shadows, you manifested shadowy situations. Broken parts of you encountered broken parts of others. So now you know! That was then and this is now.

 

From my readings |On Forgiveness | 03.12.2015

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We sometimes can not imagine forgiving someone for the pain they have caused us, but the more we think about it, the more it pains us, and we can not let go. Even when we do let go, if the name of that person arises it forms bitterness in our hearts, if we cross paths with that person in coincidence, it aches and breaks our thoughts and feelings into rot. So why should we forgive someone or something for being so painful to us? Would you forgive it if you knew that, it really is the only solution to your pain?

Forgiveness really is the cure, it is your only medicine, and there is a reason for that. A cut will only burn you until it heals, and it heals because your body forgives you for the cut. For putting yourself in places where it can hurt itself. We learn by experiencing, by going through with the pain. But not wanting to forgive is self harshness. Because you are the only one capable to forgive yourself first, and then forgiving the cause.

وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ ۗ وَإِنَّ السَّاعَةَ لَآتِيَةٌ ۖ فَاصْفَحِ الصَّفْحَ الْجَمِيلَ [Al-Hijr : 85] And We have not created the heavens and earth and that between them except in truth. And indeed, the Hour is coming; so forgive with gracious forgiveness.

Where do I put my faith? Do I put my faith in something loveless that someone did to me, or in the eternal love that lies beyond & corrects all things? To the extent that I withdraw my attachment to what you did, I will no longer be affected by what you did. I have decided to put my faith elsewhere. That is the miracle of forgiveness. [from my readings of: A year of miracles]

The beach and sea in Lebanon

From my Readings |Let your Heart be your Reflection| 01.12.2015

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I have read this verse from the Quran not so long ago, and it really struck me, and it stayed with me.

How beautiful it is written,

how beautiful it means.

From my understanding, the verse stuck with me in the sense of allowing myself to be a color reflection from the colors of the Divine. And what are the colors of the Divine, I then asked myself? How many colors can I wear to be a mirror of the Divine?

But as I continued living, I would remember this verse at different encountering, and I would see different colors to put on, to reflect the act that comes from and within the Divine in us.

‎صِبْغَةَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ صِبْغَةً ۖ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ عَابِدُونَ [Al-Baqara : 138] (We take our) color from Divine (Allah), and who is better than Allah at coloring. We surrender to Him

We all face difficulties in our lives, and staying true to yourself is the best possible way to deal with everything you come across. Being true to yourself, is being true to your heart, and this is where the Divine in all of us reside. So be a reflection of God, surrender to your inner love, become you, the love that is within you.

The spirit within leads to joy, as it inspired me to see the love in everyone & the possibility of miracles that lie inherent in all things. The universe itself is the handwriting of God, as He constantly creates & re-creates the perfection that he is. Within that perfection I have my true being, and within my true being I am happy & at peace. [from the book: A Year of Miracles]

Become a Dervish, become free of everything and anything, surrender only to the color of Love, to the Divine, to the Divine in you, the reflection of everything else.

What does “Dervish” mean?

He is the heart of the world, because by means of his heart, the body attains to its true art.

If the heart is not there, how can the body speak? If the heart doesn’t seek, how can the body seek & search? The dervish that glows with the fire is the theater of the holy rays; and so the heart, not the body; is the theater of God.

All lesser hearts are like a body to the heart of the human being whose heart is complete, aligned with its original source. [from the book: the Rumi daybook]

Rumi, Serhat Atlığ

Photo by; Serhat Atlığ