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Looking for Love?

There’s a saying that prostitutes (often having hearts of gold) look for love in all the wrong places. That might be true, but if it’s true of the women who work in the “oldest profession in the world,” it’s also true of many others. Social Media has brought this to light big time. 

What’s coming into center stage is the importance of truly loving ourselves in the right way. Because if you look at some of the postings and photos, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of true self-love and a healthy dose of self-respect out there. Many people are unable to even look in a mirror and say these five words: “Hey you, I love you.” Why can’t they say this simple and lovely sentence to themselves? It’s obvious, isn’t it?  And it’s sad. It’s sad because it impacts most areas of life. Whereas, if it were the other way around, if when waking up every morning, looking in a mirror on the way to the bathroom, and saying and believing, “Hey you, I love you! Let’s get ready for an extraordinary day today.” Life would perk up and begin to be different from that day on. Of course, it would perhaps start slowly as most love affairs do, the momentum has to build, love has to take hold, and energy has to shift. Then one morning on the way to the bathroom, a feeling  creeps out of the blue, with a look in the mirror, there’s an overwhelming sense that something is indeed different, and the words “Hey you, I love you” are no longer painful when said; they no longer bring tears laced with sadness to the eyes. 

Happily and gratefully it doesn’t end there for we are ever unfolding just as the the Universe is. The collection of a unique set of tools for a journey that has many stops and goes has begun. The hum-drum of an ordinary existence has been replaced. We’re no longer looking for love in all the wrong places, just as the women with hearts of gold are. We have found our first and true love, and from there the Universe shows us how to love the world we live in.

  
Imagine that!

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ilie cioara -the silence of the mind

Recently on  facebook.com/silencebook  was posted the following quote by Osho:

“Unless a person decides that ‘Whatever the cost, I want just to be myself. Condemned, unaccepted, losing respectability – everything is okay but I cannot pretend anymore to be somebody else’…

“This decision and this declaration – this declaration of freedom, freedom from the weight of the crowd – gives birth to your natural being, to your individuality. Then you don`t need any mask. Then you can be simply yourself, just as you are. And the moment you can be just as you are, there is tremendous peace that passeth understanding.”

I  like Osho’s way; he had a brilliant mind and often said to take off the mask and return to the original self,  and Ilie Cioara reminds me of Osho.

Ilie Cioara deeply affected the writer of the article I read, and the energy he felt came through in the article, and that prompted me to want to know more about the enlightened Romanian mystic called Ilie Cioara.

 He was born in 1916 and died in 2004. He lived at a time in Eastern Europe when the secret police was everywhere, hence, no freedom. And so Ilie Cioara was mostly in complete isolation for twenty years, occupied with his own way of seeking enlightenment – twenty years by himself – exploring, searching, meditating, discovering.

Petrica Verdes whose life was completely changed by the mystic, was the translator of his books.  He has much to say at batgap.com/petrica-verdes-ilie-cioara

I’ve taken passages about Ilie Cioara from the THE SEER, SHARING SPIRITUAL AWAKENING to the truth of who we really are, a very interesting website by Peter and Pearl Sumner at peterspearls.com.au/cioara.htm :

“If I had to sum his teaching in one sentence, it would be: when the mind is silent our inner divinity is revealed.

“Witnessing our thoughts is a practice that can be done in any circumstances, throughout our waking hours, 7 days a week. Remembering not to give energy to the mind, knowing that when the mind is resting, a higher energy takes over, and it guides us through flashes of intuitive understanding.

“From the moment you wake up in the morning, until you fall asleep at night, realize you’re not the mind. Just witness it. Whatever you do, whichever the circumstance. You get up, go to the bathroom to brush your teeth — this witnessing continues. You get dressed to go to work, witnessing is there, in the background. You get in the car and start driving, you keep on witnessing.” And this:

” . . . Until the age of 55, when Ilie awakened spiritually, he hadn’t written a single page, and never tried to be a teacher. Because he lived in almost complete isolation, his words have a freshness and a direct simplicity, devoid of any spiritual jargon. Ilie felt the impulse to share his experience and insights using short verses which could give the reader a taste of no-mind. The verses were followed by prose explanations (see example below).
“Most of these writings had to be hidden in the apartment of a friend, until 1990, when the iron curtain fell, so as not to be confiscated by the communist authorities. They describe the practice of ‘Self-knowing’ using all-encompassing Attention. Like Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti etc, his is a simple message of discovering our inner divine nature through the silence of the mind.”

The Silence of the Mind was the first of Ilie Cioara’s books published by o-books.com to read some of the comments on this site is to get a glimpse of the way the book affects its readers.

With the world needing a balance, ourselves included, it’s helpful to understand that, no matter the situation, we human beings are resilient beyond anything we can imagine. The enlightened Romanian mystic, among others, proved this to be true.

 

It was a lovely, sunny day in Cuenca today. I hope the same for you wherever you are.

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“false evidence appearing real”

Fear – “false evidence appearing real” – could entrench itself within our whole being if we let it. The stories of killings, poverty, attacks, abuses, bombings, muggings, etc., they won’t go away, even for a day. It would be so easy to set up a case for fear. So easy to bring fear into our every day lives. But many of us know that that would serve no purpose, that fear has never worked; it paralyzes. We are all brave souls, so much braver than we realize – I would call us warriors – wise in the way of the world we live in. And we won’t let fear have its way in our lives!

We live in a kind of world where many children, who, during their entire childhood, have experienced killings, rapes, starvation, lack of love, guns placed in their small hands, hate, neighborhoods destroyed by “the enemy.” Why are we surprised when these children become people having hearts of stone, and now able to destroy without blinking an eye? Can it be more obvious that wars don’t work?

The so-called leaders of the world (that’s anyone wielding the kind of power that’s destroying our world, and pretending it’s on our behalf) could put an end to wars (of course they could!), but instead spend billions upon billions upon billions of dollars keeping them going. Is it really all about empty souls lusting for power and money? Is it all about greed? No judging here, simply longing for leaders who are truly for the people.

It’s safe to say that the majority of people are sick and tired of what’s happening, and know in their hearts that there most certainly is a better way. Planet Earth belongs to no one. Though we know there are those who seem to believe that they created and own the universe.

Ahh yes, the world – how wonderful it could be!

RIP, All those who died this weekend in Paris, and all who suffer at the hands of ignorance.
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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I keep in close touch with what happens in the world. And there are times when I feel deeply grieved by the suffering I read about, and wonder why life has to be this way. But I never despair. At those times I go deep, deep into meditation until I reach the very source of love and wisdom that exists in each of us.

“So what I would tell all of you is this: meditate every day, throw yourself into some form of selfless work, and use your sense of suffering to relieve the suffering of others. It is a wonderful gift to be able to give.” – Eknath Easwaran
Read more from the Spring 2015 journal, in which Easwaran gives his views on violence, and how our meditation helps the world, easwaran.org/blue-mountain-journal.html We’re repeating our mantram for the people of Paris.


 

 

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about coffee grounds

Whenever I see the word coffee, I click and read. This time it was at: sprudge.com/10-ways-use-leftover-coffee-grounds.html
The write up:

“10 Cute Animals Show You How To Recycle Leftover Coffee Grounds
JULY 21, 2014 BY ANNA BRONES

A daily morning coffee routine means one thing: daily leftover coffee grounds. Most of the time, they just get tossed in the trash. That’s your first mistake; coffee grounds are happy to be composted, along with coffee filters. But you might not want to be so fast to throw your grounds out at all. Leftover coffee grounds are actually quite useful, from keeping your dishes clean to keeping you looking your best. Not convinced? Here are 10 ways to use your leftover coffee grounds.”

I had a lot of hope for suggestion #2, which is: Exfoliate Your Skin – with 1 part coffee grounds and 1 part oil, “like olive oil or coconut oil.” It worked beautifully; it did what was suggested it would do, and with enough oil left on after rinsing to feel nicely moisturized.

Now suggestion #9, Get the Best Looking Hair Ever – by massaging your hair with coffee grounds, then rinsing. True; those coffee grounds worked like a charm. However, in the shower they seemed to have taken on a life of their own during the rinsing – they went here, there, and everywhere. Cleaning took a while, to say the least. Though . . . I must be a glutton for work because I did this a second time. The results are remarkable.

It’s time to look at that useful write-up again as there are eight other suggestions on what to do with leftover coffee grounds. It’s such a shame that all this time I’ve been discarding them. Although, I remember that years ago my father put coffee grounds around all the shrubs. I wonder where his source of information came from.

sprudge.com is all about coffee. So very interesting!

I hope you enjoy, too.

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that gut feeling

I’ve been in Cuenca, Ecuador a while, and I can say that it’s a nice lifestyle. The city is alive with culture, there are festivals of all kinds, music, restaurants, new foods to taste, inexpensive, sometimes hair-raising, bus rides to north, south, east, west, people eager to meet people, there’s a lot of support, a good medical system in place, lots of possibilities to learn Spanish either with a tutor or at a school, it’s a marvelous walking city, the big mercados are filled to the brim with fresh fruits and vegetables at unbelievable prices, there always seem to be a number of spacious homes and apartments to buy or rent, and, listen to this . . . that’s not all.

Sometimes though one’s heart says it’s time to move on. And as strange as that sounds after just listing the delights of living in Cuenca, that just might be the case. The Quito/Otavalo/Cotacachi area is beckoning. Every time I read or hear about that land north of Cuenca, I imagine what it would be like to live there. It was my original destination before I second-guessed myself, and that says something for listening to one’s gut feeling. Though, Cuenca, thank you, you have been so good to me. Perhaps at heart I’m a vagabond – at least for now.

IMG_1596-3.JPG An invitation to join in the festivities.

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“Just stop! Go in the heart. You can change reality that way. Move from brain to your heart. You can do this very fast. Tune into heart.” – Hira Hosen
tantraoftheheart.com

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it’s that word trust again

I just deleted a post I wasn’t sure about. That word delete makes me think of other ways we delete events in our lives. It can happen when we have a thought that manages to take over, and soon we’re second-guessing what was once a solid plan.

For instance, I like reading travel essays, travel books, and, well, most anything having to do with travel. Lately there’s plenty written about moving to Cuenca, Ecuador where I live. However, I don’t often hear or read about what happens when people cancel a move, or make the move and find that it’s not what they expected. I suppose it could be a good thing that quite a few travel writers don’t write a whole lot about the downside of living abroad because doubts would take hold, and once that happens, the thought of, I’m not going because if it didn’t work for them, it probably won’t work for me would/could easily sabotage what were once solid plans.

Too bad because simply stated, change is probably calling – change in all its many wonderful possibilities, and moving for movings’s sake becomes a secondary reason. For instance, we move abroad and a feeling of regret begins to creep over us. But before we stress about it, we try to understand the situation we’re in, and why we thought it would work.

Then we stop second-guessing ourselves. perhaps it’s not only about the move, but that we had to go from here to there to meet an extraordinary person who will be instrumental in helping us in a meaningful way, or maybe the love of our life is waiting for us when we get to our destination, or we needed a good enough reason to quit that awful job that was pulling us down.

And so, when a decision is made, we simply trust whatever comes our way – trust we have what it takes to expand, explore, spread some joy, have fun with new experiences, meet people, and at times be open to serendipity and spontaneity. Otherwise, we’ll never know the incredible opportunities waiting for us if we don’t go, or if we let regret take hold. Because for sure, if we trust, they’ll be there.

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Simply be who you are, do what you do best, be where you are called by joy, and let life work its magic on your behalf. ~ Alan Cohen

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the power by rhonda byrnes

There’s a lot to say about the CD The Power by Rhonda Byrnes. Listening to it can serve as a clearing out of unnecessary stuff we’ve accumulated in mind, body, emotions. Basically, it’s about being grateful, the power of our imaginations, and finding all the things to love about life.

It’s a joy listening to the stories and quotes, and as we continue to listen, we begin to sense the power in living a life of gratitude, and the fun we can have in using our imaginations and witnessing the results.

It’s raining in Cuenca. The rivers need it, the flowers and trees, too. Rain has a way of contributing to a tranquil day. So, I’m grateful for the rain. I love the rain. I imagine the rivers rapidly flowing once again. I listen to the rain.

How’s your day going?

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We choose our joys and sorrows before we experience them. – Kahlil Gibran

 

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ancient secret of the fountain of youth book 2

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It could be that some people might consider not buying ANCIENT SECRET OF THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH because of the title. Though once the book is opened, a treasure trove is revealed. Book 1 tells of how it all began. It’s a marvelous story, almost in the category of a delightful fairy tale. It’s a story that you’ll want to read before picking up Book 2 “A companion to the book by Peter Kelder.”

It’s written in Book 2 about Book 1: “. . . It is not essential for you to read it, but it is highly recommended that you do so. In Kelder’s book you’ll find inspiration and magic that can’t be duplicated here. Many people who read the book cherish the experience and return to reread it again and again.”

There are amazing stories of those adventurers who dared to wander into territory most people thought they could only dream about. And then there are the amazing five rites which are fairly simple to do and which have innumerable benefits. The only way to discover their power is to practice them yourself. It’s one of the few books I took along with me to Ecuador. That’s how much I like the book.

To give you a glimpse of what the five rites do, I’ll quote the inside cover:

“In this book, readers were introduced to the Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation, a series of exercises developed over centuries in the monasteries of Tibet and credited by thousands for everything from increased energy to better memory, weight loss, and just looking and feeling younger. Almost as quickly as the books filtered across the globe, letters began to pour into Harbor Press requesting more information on these mysterious rites. Now more than ten years and two million books later, comes a comprehensive companion volume that addresses the unanswered questions of so many readers.”

It’s good to know what’s in the marketplace so that we can choose what works for us, right? Now, if I could find a normal yoga mat in Cuenca, I’d be on the floor practicing those Five Rites:-)

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Someone said, “Have a happy day.” I am; you, too?

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paul selig

I watched an interview – Bob Olson of www.afterlifetv.com interviewed Paul Selig, teacher, playwriter, and writer of three books that were channeled.

Watching and listening was immensely interesting and informative, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this one.

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@JamesVanPraagh: There is no need for judgment. Judgment comes from the lower physical self, or the ego. Open yourself to the light of tolerance & love.

One of Cuenca’s finest

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the magic of some words

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I’m retweeting . . . my way . . . these words want to be shared . . . they speak to the heart, to the spirit, they have their own kind of magic – they show us another way of understanding ourselves and each other.

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@Soulseedzforall: Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn’t lie.

@PanacheDesai: Every one of us embarks on this journey from the Divine and every one of us is returning to the Divine. So what are you worried about?

@soniachoquette: You cannot breathe deeply and worry at the same time. Breathe. Let the worry go. Breathe. Allow the love and intuition in.

I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance. ~Reuben Blades

@james odea: The world is also facing a lot of new problems, most of which are man-made.

@james odea: A great Tibetan teacher of mind training once remarked that 1 of the mind’s most marvelous qualities is that it can b transformed.

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We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. – Marcel Proust