Posts Tagged ‘Freedom From Self-Imposed Limitations’

Change Your Thoughts and Change Your Life

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

“To accept the innate godlike power of our Spiritual Self is very frightening to the ego mind, and we will often fight for the viewpoint that various things are impossible and that our powers are limited. Such power is actually the opposite of the ego, which feels its boundary to be of the body. But remember that our ego has no power beyond that which we give it, and in the moments we come to this full realization, then the ego will cease to exist, or at least for that moment will loose its primary place in our thoughts. By recognizing our own potential divinity, we will loose nothing but our mistaken sense of littleness, the feeling of being out of control of our lives, and our fears and suffering in relationships.”  Henry Grayson, PH.D, Mindful Loving, page 85.

“The connection between our thoughts and our lives is inseparable. The degree to which our thoughts are out of control is the degree to which our lives and our relationships feel out of control. Just as we can easily understand that an athlete or musician cannot perform well if his thoughts are out of control-that is, not focused-so it is true in every arena of our lives. A person with angry thoughts is likely to be an angry person. A person who houses fear thoughts is likely to be a frightened person; and, as we saw above, this often attracts like a powerful force field what he is afraid of into his life. A person with a disorganized mind is likely to be disorganized in his life. A person with hopeless, judgmental, guilty, or powerless thoughts is likely to be depressed. And on it goes, all affecting how our relationships progress.”  Henry Grayson, PH.D., Mindful Loving, page 85.

“What we need to experience, and what we can experience, is a saner and gentler state of mind. This experience is not found in something outside of us…We must work with our minds, with our abilities, in order to have peaceful, rich minds.”  Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, Transforming Mental Afflictions and Other Selected Teachings.

Thoughts

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”   Jesus

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”   Norman Vincent Peale

“Give your thoughts no tongue.”  William Shakespeare

“When we direct our thoughts properly, we can control our emotions.”  W.Clement Stone

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”  Albert Einstein

“The more man meditates on good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.”  Confucius

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”   Swani Vivekananda

“Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.”  Soren Kierkegaard

“It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.”  Robert H. Schuller

Developing Compassion For Ourselves

Monday, May 31st, 2010

“Compassion is not codependency. It does not arise from an avoidance of one’s own pain. Codependency arises from a perceived need for love and approval from outside oneself. Compassion does not arise from any such deficiency. Codependency arises from one’s own unacknowledged suffering and unhealed wounds. Compassion arises from our willingness to embrace all our life experiences-both pleasant and unpleasant.”

“We cultivate compassion for others as we cultivate compassion for ourselves. We cultivate compassion for ourselves when we treat ourselves as friends and consider ourselves with the same kindness that we desire for others. We cultivate compassion for ourselves as we begin to acknowledge our own pain rather than deny it or discount it. To truly love others, we must first love ourselves. To develop compassion for others, we must first develop compassion for ourselves.”

“Love is a divine idea, has infinite possibilities for expression. Compassion is a quality of love. It can be expressed in infinite ways. Compassion can be expressed as a feeling, such as a deep sense of warmth and caring. Nevertheless, true compassion is more that just feeling or intention. True compassion is action. True compassion is kindness, service, and commitment to the well-being of others.”

Robert Brumet, The Quest For Wholeness, Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World, pages 218 & 219.

Becoming Whole

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

“We are whole creatures in potential,

and the true purpose of desire is to unfold

that wholeness, to become what we can be.”

Eric Butterworth

Rise Above Challenges

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Photo Taken by Nicole Wolcott

“Stride forward with a firm, steady step knowing with a deep, certain inner knowing that you will reach every goal you set yourselves, that you will achieve every aim.”  Eileen Caddy, Footprints On The Path.

No soul that aspires can ever fail to rise; no heart that loves can ever be abandoned. Difficulties exist only that in overcoming them we may grow strong, and they only who have suffered are able to save.”  Annie Besant, Some Difficulties Of The Inner Life.

“You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief. But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”  Kahlil Gibran

Prepare the Mind for Creating The Life You Want

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

“The noblest employment of the mind of man is the study of the works of his creator.”  Unto Thee I Grant

“The light of the creator shines in the light of you.”  Douglas De Long, Ancient Teachings For Beginners, page 97.

“Metaphors won’t get you to a place where you can love the mind; you have to find the actual experience of peace and calmness on your own. The secret for doing that is to free the mind. When it is free, the mind settles down. It gives up its restlessness and becomes a channel for peace. This is a counterintuitive solution because nobody would say that a wild elephant or monkey can be tamed by setting it free. They’d say that the freed animal would only run wilder, yet this secret is based on actual experience: The animal is “wild” because we try to confine and control it. At a deeper level lies complete orderliness. Here, thoughts and impulses flow in harmony with what is right and best for each person.”  Deepak Chopra, M.D.,  The Book of Secrets, Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life, page 82.

Finding Your Strength

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Dancing on the rooftops in NYC.

“Strength does not come after one climbs the ladder or the mountain, not after one “makes it” -whatever that “it” represents. Strengthening oneself is essential to the process of striving-especially before and during-as well as after. It is my belief that attention to and devotion to the nature of soul represents the quintessential strength.”

“There is much afoot at any given time that can make a shambles of spirit and soul by attempting to destroy intent, or by pressuring one to forget the important questions; Questions such as, not only what are the pragmatics of a situation, but also “where is the soul in this matter?” One proceeds in life, gains ground, reverses injustice, and stands against the winds, through strength of spirit.”

“This strengthening, whether with words, prayer, contemplation of various kinds, or by other means, comes from a numen, a greatness that rests at the center of the psyche and yet is greater than the whole of the psyche. This numen is entirely accessible, must be attended to and nourished. Its existence, regardless of its many appellations, is an incontrovertible psychic fact.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PH.D., Women Who Run With The Wolves, Myths and Stores of the Wild Woman Archetypes, page 478.

The True Self

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Taken at Yuko-En, The Kentucky - Japan Friendship Garden.

“If you’ve been practicing thought monitoring, erasing your core beliefs and traumas, and making perceptual shifts in order to remove barriers to love that interfere with your relationships, then you have begun to unblock your flow of love. As I’m sure you see by now, this work you’ve been doing not only lifts the stress and conflicts out of your relationship, it also-and necessarily-begins to heal the self.” page 237

“When we begin to see how the promises of the ego are untrustworthy and unworkable, and that they actually cause many of our problems, we begin to break out of its illusion and enter into the realm of the True Self.” page 237

“And once you live in this place, you are living in a spiritual way, and your relationships are increasingly transformed from ego–based to spiritual.” page 238

Henry Grayson, PH.D., Mindful Loving, Ten Practices for creating Deeper Connections.

Changing Adversity To Good

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Photo of beach in Phillipines taken by Brian Franchell

“You can learn a helpful lesson from the lowly oyster. He is normally a very placid fellow, but occasionally little grains of sand work their way inside his shell and begin irritating him. Naturally, he tries to get rid of them. But when he discovers he can’t do this, he settles down and produces one of the most priceless and beautiful things in the world. He turns the irritation into a pearl. So, no matter what the difficulty, the loss, the financial adversity; if you are feeling negative, get busy pearling.”

“By the ‘all things work together for good’ principle, any experience of life can become the best thing that ever happened to you. Haven’t you said or heard someone say, ‘I was certainly upset about that challenge, but now as I see it in retrospect, it was the best possible thing that could have happened’?”

“Why not pick out the most difficult thing facing you right now and say: I know that this is the best thing that could happen to me, for I know that in the happening there is revealed a new lesson to learn and some new growth to experience. I know that within me is an unborn possibility of limitless potentialities, and this is my opportunity to give birth to new ideas, new strength, and new vision. I accept the reality of the difficulty but not its permanence. I am not at the end of anything. I am simply between opportunities, between jobs. I know that in the movement of ‘it has to come to pass,’ something wonderful is on its way to me far surpassing anything I have ever known before. And if I should feel the slightest irritation of fear and anxiety, I will say to myself, ‘All right, let’s get busy pearling.’”

Eric Butterworth, Spiritual Economics, pages 128 – 130.