happiness

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.

- Dennis Waitley
Word of the Day - Gratefulness

pleasure and pain

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

- Shibendu Lahiri

It's out attachment to pleasure that causes us to be bothered by pain.

sangha

Sangha (sangat): the community of friends on the spiritual path.

We need help, because the spiritual path is a difficult one. It's difficult because it goes against our addictions - our anger, hatred, and obsession.

Qualities recommended by Buddha for good sangha members:

1. "Well-settled" well-settled in terms of morality
people who refrain from harming themselves and others.

2. "Well-seeing" - a person who sticks to his or her principles. It supports the first quality.

3. "Straightforward" but with wisdom of knowing what to say and when to say it.

4. Be able to get along with others and be adaptable. (adaptable to culture, customs, and be able to entertain other points of views.)

5. Someone we can admire - anyone who comes close to that person will be benefited, spiritually as well as in daily life. They are a source of joy.

6. Someone who will stick with you to the end.

Sangha friends are also good mirrors. They reflect not only the good qualities mentioned above but also the difficult ones we all have and often don't wish to admit to. If somebody's behavior is really bothering you, it is a good indication that there might be something being reflected in that person that you don't like about yourself.

Source: "Sangha" by Gehlek Rimpoche in Parabola Winter 2004, theme: "Friendship"

center for the study of spirituality

not a spiritual insight but a related news item

Hukum - God's Will or Order

- God and God's Will is like dancer and the dance. Two are inseparable.

- It's God's Will for planets to rotate, for wind to blow, for wild animals to prey, for sugar to be sweet and God's Hukum for human beings is to merge in Him. Rest of the nature is following his Order, are we working towards it?

- Thank you to what is already here, yes to what will be here.

- Two aspects of Hukum: Rahmat and Raza
everything good we have is due to his mercy or Rahmat. Everything else is due to his Will or Raza.

Actually everything that happens is for good. Due to our limited knowledge and lack of wisdom we categorize events into good and bad. Our focus needs to be on our reaction to events not the events themselves. We need to make our reactions better and compatible with the Order. We won't be going against the current but with the current to the Ocean where we the stream, the river, the ravine will merge into the Ocean and take all the properties of the Ocean, we won't be ourselves, there won't be a "We" or "You" or "I".

-- Inspired by various commentaries on Guru Granth Sahib's teachings.

seeds

How many trees are in the seed?

A tiny seed becomes a tree. That tree produces many more seeds, which become trees, which produce seeds, and so on. So how many trees are in the seed?

There are no trees in the seed. Crack it open, and you won't find even a single tree.

The seed contains only the idea of a tree, the potential for a tree, and the plans for building that tree. The tree itself appears only when the seed is nourished with water and soil and sunlight.

The people you meet, the new things you learn, the experiences you live, the choices you make, the days and moments of your life -- all are seeds with limitless potential to bear fruit. But only when placed in fertile ground and nourished.

That's where you come in. Though you can't always control the seeds that fall into your life, you can control the way they're planted and cared for. In every moment is a lifetime of possibilities. Think of that!

You can change the course of the rest of your life right now, this very instant. By deciding which seeds to plant, which choices to make, which relationships to nurture. By giving the seeds of opportunity a fertile soil in which to grow.

Source: an email from "Sikh Heroes" - A Yahoo Group

intention of the month

September Inspiration:
For the next month you’re invited to view the world through eyes of awe. Contemplate the principles of discovery vs. comparison and apply them to the events of your day.
Your life will transform. You will learn things you never knew, see things you never saw and think things you’ve never thought. When you walk around with the intention of discovery you see the world differently. You become an open invitation for wisdom.

September Question for Reflection:
If not now, when? Is there something you’ve been wanting to study? What do you want to learn more about? Is there any area where you have opinions that are not as informed as they could be? Schedule some time this month to actively pursue any area you’re interested in. Pick one so you don’t overwhelm yourself, remember, concentration is the secret to strength.

This month we have an intention from Magy Rehayem:
All I can do is be present. One never knows what form transformation will come in. Know that a subtle shift can signal a major crossroads....and what we think is a major crossroads, is really a subtle shift. All I can do is be present.

Source: IONS Monthly Intention

remembering God

When we are learning how to drive, our mind cannot focus on anything but driving. Once we have mastered it, our mind can do many other activities while our body is driving such as listening to radio, talking on cell phone etc...

We can train our mind to be awake and remember God at all times while our body is busy in doing daily activities.

- Paraphrased from a lecture at Gurdwara Sahib - Plymouth, Michigan

Katrina - how to help

donate to Katrina vicitims: Red Cross

Tips:

# Financial contributions are usually the best way to help.

# Give by check to the (local) disaster relief charity of your choice.

# For specific disasters, indicate on your check what relief effort you would like the funds applied towards, e.g., hurricane Andrew or tsunami relief.

# If you must donate goods, donate through a genuine relief organization that has announced a need for the goods.

# Otherwise donated goods require warehouse space that may not be available, not to mention packaging and transportation resources.

And please don't give your used clothing to disaster victims!

It adds to the relief workload because it needs sorting, cleaning and transporting.

Usually, used clothes end up in a thrift store or the landfill.

# Confirm the need for specific goods before beginning a collection drive.

# Don't wait for the disaster to become a volunteer.

Get disaster training through a voluntary organization or your faith community (many of which have national or regional disaster relief units).

Source

reincarnate everyday

Every morning is like a new reincarnation into this world.
Let us take it then for what it is and live each moment anew.

-- Paul Brunton



To be able to reincarnate everyday, one has to be detached from his past including past concepts and conclusions. To live each moment, we have to not let our mind judge and categorize each event that occurs in our day. Categorizing events and people into good and bad, pleasant and painful, beneficial and harmful and all other dichotomies is the source of all problems. All this requires us to be aware at all times.

We do need our memory but more for technical reasons so this body can live not for judgements and categorizations.