Quote of the Week 268 - A Community That Values Giving

A community that values giving over having is a community of healthy people, oriented toward thriving through empathy, solidarity and love among its members. Sharing enhances the community of life while possessing and accumulating creates demarcation, invites competition and fuels envy. The share-society is the norm for all the communities of life on the planet; the have-society is typical only of modern-day humanity, and it is an aberration.

--One of the Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness comprising The Oneness Declaration by Ervin Laszlo, as contained in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

New Book - THE BOOK ABOUT ALWAYS BEING AT HOME

Announcing the publication of my latest book, probably my one and only children’s book. It is available only at the publisher’s site, Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-book-about-always-being-at-home/13831123

or www.lulu.com/spotlight/yajc. See the entire book at the preview available at the Lulu site. (Please note: because this book is available only from Lulu and will not be sold at any other online retailers, the normal Lulu discount I have set up for the other books sold at online retailers does not apply for this book, as the discount-level pricing is already built into the list price).

THE BOOK ABOUT ALWAYS BEING AT HOME

By Steve Gold

Illustrated by Elaine Sklar Gold

This is a children's book about being, not doing. It contains a simple, yet important message about how children can connect with and cultivate an inner sense of love and security, of always being at home, no matter where they are or what they are doing. This message will delight children of all ages (adults too!) as they connect with their innate sense of inner joy and happiness. The text is enhanced by beautiful color illustrations which manage to capture and convey the abstract inner feelings being conveyed. See the entire book at the preview at the Lulu site. (Primary targeted audience: children ages 4-7).

The Truth is absolute, transcendent, and unmanifest. One single, non-dual Reality manifests in the external world in countless names and forms. From the very beginning of our childhood we were taught about the multiplicity of external objects, we were taught to believe in the reality of names and forms. Consequently, the more we grow, the more we lose awareness of the non-dual absolute reality. We fail to comprehend the existence of non-dual Truth. If we change our educational  system and inspire our children to contemplate the Truth at an early age, they can recognize the source of their inner potential. They will be able to recognize the Truth much more easily than those who have gone through a learning process that emphasizes duality and the multiplicity of external objects.

Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas

Quote of the Week 267 - Losing Happiness

For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote of the Week 266 - Shamanic Cure

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?

--Gabrielle Roth

Quote of the Week 265 - The Significance of Music

How fortunate is he or she who loves to sing or play an instrument!...Singing, playing instruments, dancing painting, and composing poetry are all various ways of expressing human emotions in a creative manner…Music is the highest way of expressing emotions…

Permit me to say that the many diseases of man are being researched here, there, and everywhere, but nowhere is there a research center helping people to rid themselves of the great inborn disease of human beings – loneliness. Every human being is lonely. Loneliness is actually the leading cause of death – only then followed by strokes, heart disease, and cancer – and it may even have a role in their development as well. Music, if used as either a preventive therapy or as a cure, can be a wonderful and powerful method of removing that great killer called loneliness. 

Among the different forms of music, singing is the first and most powerful. Next in order of importance comes the ability to produce music by playing instruments…Music is the highest way of expressing emotions…When I observe the effect of music on students, it is evident that those who acquire the taste for singing or playing music are happier than those who do not.

--from Indian Music, Volume 1, by Swami Rama

Quote of the Week 264 - Art and the Spirit

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.

--Leonardo da Vinci

Quote of the Week 263 - Nada: Ahata and Anahata

The word nada means “sound”, or that which is heard by the human ear… Nada is sound produced through the regular and constant vibration of some object in space…When the equilibrium of an object is disturbed (for example, by striking it, hitting it, shaking it, or rubbing it against another object), then sound is produced. Such sound is called: ahata nada, or “struck sound.”

In deep meditation, the yogi actually hears another type of nada. There is no sound in the external world that corresponds to this internal one. This eternal inner sound vibrates in space (akasha) without apparent cause. It is called anahata nada, or “unstruck sound.” 

--from Indian Music, Volume 1, by Swami Rama

Quote of the Week 262 - Bitul: Self-nullification or Selflessness

Bitul is the spiritual state associated with the inner experience of chochmah, whereby one's consciousness opens up to a continuous flow of Divine wisdom and new insight through one's nullifying his sense of autonomous and self-sustained being. Bitul is the experience of ayin, of being nothing within the omnipresent radiance of God's infinite light. In general, there are two identified levels of bitul:

Bitul b'metziut ("existential nullification") constitutes the absolute form of bitul whereby one loses all sense of independent existence. This is the state of bitul in the world of Atzilut, whose consciousness, permeated by the supernal level of chochmah (Abba mekanen b'Atzilut), is solely that of God's omnipresence.

Bitul hayesh ("nullification of [one's] somethingness") constitutes a lower form of bitul whereby one is consciously involved in the process of nullifying the outer layer of self (ego). This is accomplished by the concentrated effort to experience the continual recreation of all reality, including oneself, as "something from nothing." This impresses upon one's consciousness that there is no independent reality attached to one's sense of "somethingness." This is the state of bitul present within the three lower worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, while its conscious experience is dependent upon one's Divine service. Divine consciousness in the three lower worlds derives from the chochmah of malchut d'Atzilut, referred to as the lower chochmah, thus giving rise to the lower level of bitul.

--From the teachings of Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, as prepared by the Gal Einai Institute, www.inner.org

Quote of the Week 261 - The Role of Conscious Beings

 

I acknowledge my role and responsibility in evolving a planetary consciousness in me, and by example in others around me. I have been part of the aberration of human consciousness in the modern age and now wish to become part of the evolution that overcomes the aberration and heals the wounds inflicted by it. This is my right as well as my duty as a conscious member of a conscious species on a precious and now critically endangered planet.

--One of the Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness comprising The Oneness Declaration by Ervin Laszlo, as contained in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

Quote of the Week 260 - The Revenge of the Spirit

Perhaps environmental pollution and the painful gap between the rich and the poor do not constitute the major challenges of our civilization. Perhaps the real challenge lies in the way humankind meets the world- that is, in human consciousness. Consciousness is what makes us unique in the history of evolution. But we have yet to embrace fully what it means to be human…

External evolution requires internal evolution. That was the dimension Abraham Maslow added to the basic Freudian needs: our search for meaning. We strive to develop our consciousness to achieve self-actualization…

The time has come for the spirit to escape from institutions, organizations, structures, strictures and systems. The development of the economy, technology and society is bringing human autonomy closer and closer. Modern individuals have infinitely more opportunities to organize their own lives than did those of previous generations We are at the threshold of a revenge of the spirit. This is the top of Maslow’s pyramid; self-realization. Consciousness separates the human being from other living creatures. We are all recognizably unique and our desire is to fulfill that uniqueness. The next phase of evolution is about becoming conscious beings that direct ourselves. That’s the way to happiness vitality intelligence and health.

The vision of the autonomous individual should not be confused with the current culture of individualism. At a higher level of awareness, the autonomous person realizes her independence relies on the respect and tolerance of others. As more and more people find their own way to spiritual development, they realize that every person, every creature, is part o a greater whole. This growing awareness is changing society. Personal development on a large scale – in sharp contrast with the collective mass hysteria of the various religious – adds a new dimension to the evolution.

If the expansion of consciousness is the mark of the future, it will have a profound effect on the way we equip and organize our world. As awareness rises, equality and community become stronger forces at the expense of old-fashioned, overly controlling rules and overly dominant institutions that promote competition. We will see less emphasis on power, more space for self-organization. That will amount to less winning or losing and more spontaneous synergy on the road to a common outcome.

We are discovering that the pollution of the mind gave rise to the pollution of the environment and that ecology is not just about preserving resources and nature but about realizing humanity’s place in the creation of the universe. “Self-realization will make us spontaneously inclined to value and defend the integrity of the world around us,” said Arne Naess, the founder of the deep ecology movement.

Self-direction will transform standardized education systems, as children cease to be asked to parrot what they read in books selected by their teachers and parents but learn to discover, develop and capitalize on their own talents. Self-determination is also crucial for our health. Autonomous individuals are more healthy individuals. And so increased consciousness will dismantle the expensive, rule-bound system of health care…

In the end, what an Indian master once told me accurately describes our mission: “The greatest journey we can make is the journey within. While going nowhere, while staying right here, we can travel an even greater distance inside.” That journey begins with feeling, listening, looking and experiencing, and sometimes by taking a moment in our busy lives to experience our connection with creation, to invite the future in, to discover that happiness is more than matter or property, to learn that health is, first and foremost, an individual, inner experience…

Come, let’s invest in our dreams of a world renewed, trusting that a new era is now supporting our longing. “It is our duty – as men and women – to behave as though limits to our ability do not exist. We are collaborators in the creation of the universe,” said French philosopoher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. And we should never forget that we are here to trust and realize our dreams. There’s no more fundamental change.

--Excerpts from the article, The Revenge of the Spirit in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

by Jurriaan Kamp, editor-in-chief

Quote of the Week 259 - The Spirituality of the Original Inhabitants of America

Their world was multitudinous, densely populated by active, sentient and sensitive spirits, spirits with consciences, memories and purposes, that surrounded them, instructed them, impinged on their lives at every turn. No less real for being invisible…the whole of life was a spiritual enterprise…the universe in all its movements and animations and nature was suffused with spiritual potency.

--Excerpt from a book by Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn, The Barbarous Years, as contained in an article by Ron Rosenbaum in the Smithsonian magazine, March 2013. Bailyn does not use the term “Native Americans” in designating the “original inhabitants” of America, but simply “Americans”.

Quote of the Week 258 - What You Are Looking For

What you are looking for is who is looking.

--St. Thomas Aquinas