few gems

• if you don't hold on pleasure, pain will never bother you.

• be indifferent to your indifference.

• nothing is. nothing is not. what's there to say.

• a true statement of "i love you": God as the Love in me is in Love with His Love in you.

-- Shibendu Lahiri

Personality and Emotions

"Every personality in the course of a lifetime, usually in earliest childhood, forms certain wrong conclusions about life. As the years go by, thse conclusions and attitudes sink more and more into the unconscious where they mold, to some extent, the life of the person."

"You have to learn to be tolerant with your negative emotions. You have to understand them. By having the emotions on the surface, confronting their ignorance, selfishness, and immaturity, without being ashamed or self-rejecting, you will gradually break the vicious circle. Thus you will become free and independent."

-Susan Thesenga

The Circle of Life

A metaphor for duality and unity is to see all of life as a great circle. As human beings we stand only at one small point on the circumference of the circle, often believing that the limited perceptions we have from a particular spot at a particular time are all that there is. We forget that there are a million different lenses on the whole. Or we try to cling to certain kinds of experiences rather than allowing whatever comes to us. If we stay sufficiently humble and allow the full range of our human experience, we can occasionally glimpse and eventually learn to embrace the whole of the circle of life.

At the center of the circle is God, or the life force, constantly flowing out from the center to the periphery. The life force expresses itself in manifestation as all the points of consciousness from the center to the outermost edge.

From the periphery of the circle, wearing blinders which restrict our vision to only what we see directly in front of us, we human beings usually look around the circle and see only the dualities. At one point on the wheel we see birth, and at a point across from it we see the opposite, death. At one point of the circumference is darkness, across from it, light; pleasure and pain we see at opposite points on the wheel. Neither reality is better or worse than the other; both are equal, balanced, inevitable. If we try to cling to one and deny the other, we become unbalanced. The wheel of our own life will create a bumpy journey unless we can embrace and flow with all the dualities. The more we embrace whatever comes to us, the more harmonious will be our ride on the wheel.

As we move toward the spititual center of our being, the center of the circle of life, we also accept and unite with the opposites, with all that exists at the periphery. In this way, our center keeps expanding to include the whole circle, no longer dualistically perceived.

Excerpt from The Undefended Self by Susan Thesenga

intention of the month - October

October Inspiration: Learning something new can be transformative if put it into action. Knowledge without action informs but doesn’t inspire. Be inspirational this month! Learn new skills and take new actions as a result. In frequently repeating these new skills, you will soon have new set of tools at your disposal.

October Question for Reflection: We are all students and we are all teachers; we are all influenced and we are all influential. Who has inspired you lately and whom have you inspired? When you reflect on the people and ideas that influence you, what are the common themes? What skills or attitudes do you model yourself? Are your beliefs, words, and actions all aligned?

This month’s intention comes to us from an anonymous member, who reminds us to do the following: To live consciously. To be present in each moment. To not just do automatically, but to let my entire being take part in decisions, activities, and interactions with people and nature. To be curious. To inhale good scents. To turn off the television and read.

www.noetic.org/membership/join.cfm

depressed people

How to deal with depressed people:

• don't give them verbal advice.
• don't judge them.
• be there for them, connect with them with humanity.

- from an interview in a radio show on PRI.

healing foods pyramid

University of Michigan Integrative Medicine - Healing Foods Pyramid