Kittens

Imagine a kitten climbing a tree. It is engaged in experimenting.

It balances itself, it tests its strength and its agility.

But the mother cat will not leave it alone: she insists that it come down. “You may break your neck, you naughty kitten” she hisses. How this would interrupt the kitten’s pleasure in growing!

It would even interrupt the growth process itself.

“Sit still- don’t touch that- don’t do that……. smack-smack-smack”

But cats, of course, do not behave so stupidly.

They leave the pursuit of safety and security and the passing on of neurosis to human beings.

Tao

Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness? Can you let your body become supple as a new-born child’s? Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light? Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will? Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course? Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things? Giving birth and nourishing. having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue. Tao Te Ching 10

Banking

This article appeared in Finweek, sent in by a reader:-

"MY bank is not MY friend. MY bank takes My money. MY bank charges me for taking MY money. MY bank uses MY money to make money for itself, not for me. MY bank charges me for taking MY money back. MY bank charges me for giving MY money to someone else. MY bank charges me if I want to know where MY money is.

"MY bank charges me when I want to know how much of MY money MY bank holds. MY bank is one of the richest companies in SA because of MY money. MY money does'nt make me rich; MY money makes MY bank rich. MY bank is not MY friend. I can choose MY friends. MY friends dont rob me every month."

THE PRIEST

An actor picked up a hitchhiker who revealed that he was a Catholic priest who had left the church. Explaining his current situation, the former cleric said, “I’m living with a woman. I love her and we want to get married. This morning two representatives of the church came to where I live. They told me to appear at a hearing in San Francisco to determine my relationship with the Church. I told them that I’m doing God’s will, but they didn’t believe me. Do you believe me?”

The actor replied, “Yes, I believe you. As part of my preparation to become an actor, I studied Zen. One of the things I learned is that if God’s actions appear irrational and inconsistent, you must remember that he is playing to the broadest possible audience.”

Character.

“The only thing that walks back from the graveyard with the mourners and refuses to be buried is the character of the man. This is true. What a man is survives him. It can never be buried.”

J.R. Miller.

Thank You Crissie.

"I am that I am" "I have, at last, reached MY goal, And solved the secret of MY soul. I am THAT, to whom I prayed, THAT, to whom I looked for aid. I am THAT, whom I did seek. I am MY own mountain peak. I, upon creation look, As a page from MY own book. For I am the ONE, the many make, Of substance, which from ME I take. For ALL is ME, there are not two, Creation is MYSELF, all through. What I grant, unto MYSELF, I just take, from MYSELF. And give it to ME, the only ONE, For I am the Father, and the Son. What I want, I do but see, MY wishes flowing forth from ME. For I am the knower, and the known, Subject, ruler, and the throne. The three in ONE, is what I am, And hell itself is but a dam, That I did put in MY own stream, When in a nightmare, I did dream. That I did dream; That I was not the only ONE, And thus by ME, was doubt begun, Which ran its course, 'til I awoke, And found that I, with ME, did joke. So now, that I do stand awake, MY throne, I do surely take, And rule MY kingdom, which is ME, The master, through eternity."

Translation from an ancient Egyptian text carved into a doorway, a sacred place.

On and On

Sting - Fragile Lyrics

If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one

Drying in the colour of the evening sun

Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away

But something in our minds will always stay

Perhaps this final act was meant

To clinch a lifetime's argument

That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could

For all those born beneath an angry star

Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall

Like tears from a star like tears from a star

On and on the rain will say

How fragile we are how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall

Like tears from a star like tears from a star

On and on the rain will say

How fragile we are how fragile we are

How fragile we are how fragile we are

How will I die one day?

I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.

24 April 1958

When I was born... the doctor came out to the waiting room and said to my father... I'm very sorry... We did everything we could... But he pulled through.

I'm so ugly... My mother had morning sickness... AFTER I was born.

I was so poor growing up... If I wasn't born a boy... I'd have nothing to play with.

I could tell that my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.

I remember the time I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof.

Life

We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse.

Good as a Dog

If you can start the day without caffeine, If you can get along without pep pills, If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it, If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when something goes wrong, If you can take criticism and blame without resentment, If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him, If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor one, if you can face the world without lies and deceit, if you can conquer tension without Medical help, If you can relax without liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, colour, religion or politics, If you can give love unconditionally without pressure or expectation, Then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.

-Author Unknown

Gone to the dogs

My dear friends.

Sunday night 10:45pm - My life will never be the same again. I did an angel card reading tonight as I am in a space that I am content but somehow something is not quite there?

The feeling of sitting on your own veranda and missing home?

My spirit told me to draw 3 cards and as always as I shuffle them they literally fly out of my hand.

1. PEACE – Archangel Chamuel: “Peace comes from remembering that only love is real”
2. TEACHING AND LEARNING – Archangel Zadkiel: “Keep an open mind, and learn new ideas. Then, teach these ideas to others.”
3. CREATIVE WRITING – Archangel Gabriel: “Make time to write down your thoughts in a journal, or pen an article or book.”

Hence the writing here on my blog on a Sunday night at 11pm.

I went to have my dogs groomed on Friday in Magaliesberg and at one stage went to visit the kennels where Lynette breeds the most wonderful Wire Fox Terriers in the world. She is the only person that can groom my dogs that they don’t end up looking like poodles. (yuck)

I do not know if you know the breed? Do a bit of a search on the Net. As a kid I asked my Mom to get me a dog the same as Tintin has for my birthday. As I was mad about all the adventures that he got up to and the dog (Snowy) that accompanied him on these wild adventures.

Anyway as I was sitting in the kennel on the step enjoying the energy these dogs have, this one mutt (puppy) came up to me and started tugging on my jean and shoelace. The most interesting, confident and amazing character. The most wonderful dog.

As I got back to the grooming room I stared chatting to Lynette about this dog and was informed that he is actually blind!! I MEAN REALLY BLIND. Why did I have my camera with me and were taking pictures of this dog?

She told me that she had considered putting it down but just could not do it and so asked God to send her the right person to give it a good home as she has this philosophy of not only having a business selling Wire Foxes but also making sure that each and every dog she sells goes to the right people. If you know the breed then you will understand. They are very intelligent, active and fun dogs. Not for people that just want a dog for the kids and after the next Xmas and a 4 week holiday this model is obsolete and time for another dog. Ask the SPCA and they will tell you about animals that are left on the side of the road or thrown out of moving vehicles etc. (SICK)

Once you have owned a Wire Fox Terrier - NO other dog will ever match. (Like driving and owning Audi) The best companion a 10 year old kid could ever wish to have. Yet alone an adult with a big yard.

Somehow my spiritual guides spoke to me and said…. Take it!! The message was very direct and clear.

Anyway back to the story……… I offered to take the dog immediately. I know I should not have another dog as it is one hell of a responsibility. She wanted to give it to me. You must understand her dogs go for R2500.00 a piece?? Being the wonderful soul she is we settled on R100.00

This dog is a full pedigree but because of the “defect” cannot get papers.

Before I left Lynette presented Bella and Trissie with a special gift wrap pack of Kudu biltong with their names on it and "The Dog's" blanket that he slept on as well as a new blanket and a little packet of puppy food and all the papers and inoculation booklet. If you do not believe me check out the picks above! Lynete is just one hell of a special woman.

On the way back to Joburg I phoned my business partner and told him about this crazy experience I had and this “dog” I had bought and could not put a name to. Chris had already left for a well deserved weekend break and immediately came up with the name for “this dog”

RAMBO…….. YES!! This incredible blind dog will hence be called RAMBO.

Lindy and I had the most awesome weekend and this morning I spent the entire time in the garden getting it ready for summer with “the dog” in tow. I showed this dog the pool area by taking him to the edge and slowly holding him over halfway and them letting him feel the water. He immediately cottoned on and as I did most of the weeding and watering and making flower beds around the pool he not once fell into the pool. It is almost as if he is using his “Third Eye” to see / and or sense his surrounding. I have started talking to him spiritually and he is showing signs of responding.

Anyway Tristan and Bella (my other two Wire Foxes) cannot understand this blind dog and feel very let down by all the attention this little mutt is all of a sudden getting.

He has started moving around the house and has walked into many a wall and door with a big bang. I can see that it is going to be near impossible to train Rambo to go to the toilet in one place. But he has come into my life to be my teacher. To teach me about tolerance, patience, love, understanding, connecting on a spiritual level. I get this right with Trissie already by calling him mentally at 3am in the morning when he is barking at the moon on the other side of the property and keeping the neighbours awake. It takes about 5/ 10 minutes of me mentally calling him and he responds and comes back to the house and goes and lies down in his basket. (This always amazes me)

Almost like the many, many times I think of somebody and they call. My friends (that I have not spoken to and or seen for awhile) get tired of hearing my same old story of………… Shhiiiittt!! I was thinking about you a few days ago and or hours ago??

When I go into a space of spirituality my hands start to tingle. As I write here now my hands are going crazy. The wind is howling outside and it is quite cold, so I can reassure you that the weather has nothing to do with it.

RAMBO ended up in the bathroom tonight and all of a sudden freaked out and started biting my feet and crying like a lost child. I could feel the frustration in him as he was walking into every single wall with quite a bang. I took hold of him and tried to calm him down. He even bit my hand. (You know how sharp a puppy’s teeth can be) As I sat down on the bathroom floor and held him my spiritual guides said to me……… Write this story and put it on your blog.

Sooo….. my friends the feeling of sitting on my Veranda and missing my own home is gone and I feel empty now. I am back in the NOW – this moment listening to the wind howling through the trees outside and the smell of wet soil blowing through the open window in my bedroom.

I thank the Universe for this weekend and the fact that I am alive and can have all these experiences…… And RAMBO.

I THANK YOU.

As the Eastern saying goes…… WHEN THE PUPIL IS READY, THE TEACHER WILL APPEAR!

THE RIGHT TO DIE.

A potential suicide was talking to Ho Chi Zen, asking if he had the right to commit suicide if he wanted to.

Ho replied, “Anyone has the right to do anything. Every one else has the right to resist it.”

The student said, “Do you see suicide as a moral act?”

Ho’s answer was, “Where there is no victim, every act is morally right, but I personally think suicide is a symptom of taking oneself too seriously.”

THE DRUNK

A drunken man falls out of a cart, though he may suffer, does not die. His bones are the same as other people’s; but he meets his accident in a different way. His spirit is in a condition of security.

He is not conscious of riding in the cart; neither is he conscious of falling out of it. Ideas of life, death, fear, etc. cannot penetrate his breast; and so he does not suffer from contact with objective existence. And if such security is to be got from wine, how much more is to be got from God. It is in God that the sage seeks his refuge and so he is free from harm.

The enemy within

A person who single-handedly conquers a thousand adversaries in a thousand battles but cannot conquer the self is unworthy to be called a victor among victors.

Like becoming a hero, overcoming the self demands all one’s strength.

The enemy in the mind is more fearsome than the enemy in the mountains.

Conquering the self is extremely difficult; however, only by doing so can one make progress in attaining one’s ideals and goals.

Not Available!

Pain has a way of magnetizing our attention to ourselves. Almost continually we experience some feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, anxiety and guilt.

If we let these feelings attract all our attention, we will have little presence to offer others.

We will have a neon sign on our foreheads, flashing: “Not Available.”

What is a Friend.

What is a friend? I’ll tell you. He is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can go naked with him. He seems to ask you to put on nothing. Only to be what you really are.

When you are with him, you do not have to be on your guard.

You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you.

He understands those contradictions in your nature that cause others to misjudge you. With him you can breathe freely – you can avow your little vanities and envies and absurdities, and in opening them up to him they are dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty.

He understands. – You can weep with him, laugh with him, and pray with him – through and underneath it all he sees, knows and loves you.

Anonymous

TRUST!

It is a greater compliment to be trusted, than to be loved.

What is Real?

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others.

He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces.

He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced, like the Skin Horse, understand all about it.

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” ……

“Does it hurt?” asked the rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become.

It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.

But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

From The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

Love?

Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being "drawn toward." Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one's friends and enemies. Love creates righteousness, or justice, here on earth. To make love is to make justice. As advocates and activists for justice know, loving involves struggle, resistance, risk. People working today on behalf of women, blacks, lesbians and gay men, the aging, the poor in this country and elsewhere know that making justice is not a warm, fuzzy experience. I think also that sexual lovers and good friends know that the most compelling relationships demand hard work, patience, and a willingness to endure tensions and anxiety in creating mutually empowering bonds.

For this reason loving involves commitment. We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen. We are not love machines, puppets on the strings of a deity called "love." Love is a choice -- not simply, or necessarily, a rational choice, but rather a willingness to be present to others without pretense or guile. Love is a conversion to humanity -- a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives. Love is the choice to experience life as a member of the human family, a partner in the dance of life, rather than as an alien in the world or as a deity above the world, aloof and apart from human flesh.

Carter Heyward Passion for Justice

The Journey goes on.

Funny how life sometimes works? As you all know this year has been a most challenging time for me, and last year my Clairvoyant said to me that I would be meeting a person that would compliment my entire being. In spite of all the hardship I have encountered there was always that “Thankfulness” to the universe for the lessons within the lessons. So a woman walks into my life and I ask......... Sooooo where have you been all this time and it has never been the same again. After so much time of being alone, (Please note - not LONELY - I am actually very comfortable with my own space within my head and enjoy my own best friend I see in front of the mirror every morning) reflecting, asking questions, contemplating, wondering about the wonder of it all and this “intimacy” happens with another soul. Powerful stuff!! Yet there is not this “IN LOVE” feeling but more a knowingness of the greater scheme of things. As the eastern philosophers say: BEFORE ENLIGHTENMENT - CHOPPING WOOD AND CARRYING WATER. AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT - CHOPPING WOOD AND CARRYING WATER. And so it is……… life goes on as usual but with new shared energy. This person is not now my happiness or came into my life to “MAKE” me happy and / or to take away my pain, or to “SAVE” me from my loneliness or myself. Rather she is an enhancement of my happiness and my being. A compliment to my life’s journey. I leave you with a few thoughts on Love.

Unconditional Love

Unconditional Love is Absolute Freedom to Screw Up Your Life

In my lifetime, I have never witnessed enduring unconditional love from another human being. I do not believe it is physically possible. I think that once we have reached that position of being able to give it, we have already passed over to join with the one that is unconditional love. I believe that this state is only experienced spiritually.

It is our inborn desire to move to a place of unconditional love and that is what we strive to do, once we reach a measure of enlightenment that facilitates this kind of growth. As human beings, we attach conditions to our physical love (emotion). I will love you as long as you fit into a set of parameters that I can accept, and live with. Once you have crossed over the line, I can no longer love you. For humans, this is a matter of ownership. Love is not abstract, but something that is real and physical. It is a feeling that we possess and can access.

Universal love (Gods love) is abstract and impartial. It is not felt, but acknowledged. The creator acknowledges the love of humanity, by granting unconditional love (freedom) from him/her.

Humanity is free to screw up his whole life, come back in another lifetime and screw it up again and again until he no longer wishes to experience screwing it up and wants to move on. Can there be a greater example of unconditional love? Re-incarnation is the ultimate expression of unconditional love and helps us with the screwing up process. Every lifetime is a screw-up until we get it perfect, then it becomes a perfect screw-up. Unless of course we choose to call it something else.

There is no reason, save the one you give to your life for being perfect. You are just trying to get there. You do not have to be there. You can take as long as you want to reach that plateau.

This may seem strange coming from a spiritualist, but I believe it is my way of demonstrating unconditional love. We all take our lives away too seriously. We need to chill out. There isn't any advantage to being able to stand back from our lives as the silent observer and judge ourselves without condemnation about who, what and where we are.

All of us are perfect the way we are. Each of us is in the exact place in time and space that is appropriate for us. We do not need anyone's permission to be so. Because we are creating the circumstances and events of our lives, we can do as we please. Any punishment or retribution that we experience will come from others in this lifetime because we have chosen to experience that punishment at some level.

The more aware we are that we create our own experiences, the more freedom we will have to manifest others on demand. Any negative thoughts we may have about the process will determine how successful we are at it.

Once again, the greatest love of all is freedom to live our lives as we CHOOSE with the guarantee that we can do it over and over again until we know longer choose to.

Man does not have the ability to grant unconditional love to another, because in fact he cannot give it away, until he grants it to himself first.

Go within

“ The days pass and are gone, and one finds that one never once had time to really think……..

One who does not meditate cannot have wisdom.”

“In truth, the one thing man is afraid of is within himself, and one thing he craves is within himself.”

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav

We are a sick and perverted species!!

Even if people see wastelands in the wake of war, they still take pride in their weapons.

Even though people are to be eaten by the animals of the graveyards, they still cling to material goods.

There is a saying that goes, “It is easier to tame wild beasts than to conquer the human mind; it is easier to fill up a canyon than to satisfy the human mind.”

How much time do we have?

Life passes by in a flash, yet people vie and compete with each other.

How much time do we have?

There is very little room, yet people contest and debate with each other.

How big is the world?

Life and Death.

Lieh-Tzu left his home in Cheng and journeyed to the kingdom of Wei. While walking down a dusty road, he saw the remains of a skull lying by the wayside. Lieh-Tzu saw that it was the skull of a human that was over a hundred years old. He picked up the bone, brushed the dirt off it, and looked at it for a while. Finally, he put the skull down, sighed, and said to his student who was standing nearby, “In this world, only you and I understand life and death.” Turning to the skull he said, “Are you unfortunate to be dead and we fortunate to be alive? Maybe it is you who are fortunate and we who are unfortunate!”

Lieh-Tzu then said to his student, “Many people sweat and toil and feel satisfied that they have accomplished many things. However, in the end we are not all that different from this polished piece of bone. In a hundred years, everyone we know will just be a pile of bones. What is there to gain in life, and what is there to lose in death?”

The ancients knew that life cannot go on forever, and death is not the end of everything. Therefore, they are not excited by the event of life nor depressed by the occurrence of death. Birth and death are part of the natural cycle of things. Only those who can see through the illusions of life and death can be renewed with heaven and earth and age with the sun, moon, and stars.

Bring me the children

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." - Jesus Christ

Hello

The further one travels on the journey of life

the more births one will experience

and therefore the more deaths

the more joys and the more pain

but for all that is given up

even more is gained.

A dance of energy

Science has taught us that all creation is matter and energy interacting in an elegant dance of life and that biological and cultural diversity are the foundation of stability

Global NCO conference proceedings Paris Dec 1991

Can life be more simple?

Your soul inhabits a body, it borrows it from the Earth, and then eventually it’s going to have to give it back!

Heaven or Hell?

"Religion is for people who are scared of hell, Spirituality is for people who have been there."

What If?

What would happen if we lived our lives backwards?

Life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time, all your weekends and what do you get at the end of it? Death, a great reward.

The life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, and get that out of the way. Then you live for twenty years in an old age home, and get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch and then you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You go to college and you party until you’re ready for high school. Then you go to grade school, you become a little kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating, and you finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye.