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A powerful live clock that allows you to see how rapidly life on earth is changing, from population growth to species extinction. Brought to you by Peter Russell.

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song of the morning - golden lotus - vanderbilt, michigan

the true name (sat-naam)

In an earlier post, there was a link to audio files of Osho lectures on Guru Nanak ji's Japji Sahib. Link below is the e-book of English translation of the same lecture. You need to use IE to view this page, it doesn't work with FireFox browser.

The True Name - English translation of Osho's lecture on Guru Nanak's Japji Sahib

an excerpt:

What is fear? Fear always involves the other: if someone can take something away from you it destroys your security. Then there is death and there is illness -- both are the other. Hell is being surrounded by the other; hell is the other. But how can you escape the other? Should you run away to the Himalayas you will still not be alone. Sit under a tree; a crow's dropping falls on your head, and you are filled with anger towards the crow. There are the rains and the sun -- irritations everywhere. How will you escape the other who is present everywhere? The only way to escape the other is to seek the one; then no other remains. Then all fear fades away. There is no death, no illness; there are no inconveniences, because there is no other. Finally you are alone. Fear persists as long as the other remains the other for you. Ek Omkar Satnam. Once this mantra has penetrated your being, where is fear? God has no fear. Whom should He fear? He is the only one, there is no one besides Him.

sand and stone

A story tells of two friends who were walking through the desert.
During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, she wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE"

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but her friend saved her. After she recovered from the near drowning, she wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE"

The friend, who had slapped and saved her best friend, asked her, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone, so no wind can ever erase it." LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BLESSINGS IN STONE.

- from a forwarded email

God is One

What is the secret? "God is One."
The sunlight splits when entering the windows of the house.
This multiplicity exists in the cluster of grapes;
It is not in the juice made from grapes.

-- Rumi

celebrate Rumi's 800th birthday in Ann Arbor -2007 is the international year of Rumi

the amazing grace

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.

John New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­i­ver, 1779)

prayer and surrender

gems from "kabbalah works"

• God is not someone who is up there and judges every moment and punishes us. God is the reality that was, that is and that will be. God is the Reality within which we all exist. We are all his manifestations.
• Our relationship to God is the same as relationship between thought and the thinker.
  
• We suffer when we think of ourselves separate from this Reality. We are never really outside of this Reality. The suffering will cease if we align our thoughts and actions with the divine Will of this Reality.
  
• We are souls who have come here to play a role. We are not fathers, mothers, sons, workers, students, or bloggers. We are the soul and playing a particular role in this lifetime.
  
• We could be lost in two ways. We may have lost our character and not know what our strengths are or what are our skills. The more dangerous loss is when our soul is lost in our character, in our role -- when our soul has become a slave to our role.

"Kabbalah Works - Secrets for Purposeful Living" by Rabbi David Aaron