Tag Archives for enlightenment

The Path of Real Love

affection afterglow backlit blur

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Our life experience and level of consciousness creates different planes of existence. This can be seen in how we perceive love and how it shows in our lives.

Conditional love relies on others to make us feel happy. This conditioning comes from our childhood, when we were small, helpless and dependent on others to take care of us. We loved them for making us feel safe and loved. When we love conditionally we expect others to fulfill our needs and support us in what we want.

When we seek approval from an other by trying to please them, this is conditional love. We may think “If I do this for you, then you will love me more. I will be rewarded with attention. If I buy you the best ring, the world will see how much I love you” This kind of conditional love remains for many of us as we go through life.

We need other people to make us feel special, important and loved. We expect our wives, husbands or children to make us happy by behaving the way our ego desires.
And so begins married life with expectations and demands from each other, based on individual desires and needs.

This kind of love keeps us separate and apart. It makes us feel better as long as we feel we are receiving it. However, as soon as we feel neglected or ignored, or when the love is withdrawn, we feel bereft and unloved, or worse, unlovable.

Conditional love prevents us from growing spiritually. It has nothing to do with real or unconditional love.

Unconditional love comes from a deeper sense of awareness and being. It is essential for us to grow as spiritual beings and awaken to our fullest potential.

When you truly love someone, you love the Light within them.

With true love you are happy for others and want them to express themselves in the world…. not follow a certain path that you believe is right.
You love yourself, warts and all, and have let go of inner criticism. You appreciate and have love for humankind…. without condition.

The sense of separateness and isolation diminishes, as you see the Love in others. The ego’s desires lose their power over your choices and decisions in life.  The fullness of Love grows and you feel connection to your inner Self, as well as others.

The process of enlightenment is the path to appreciate the Light within yourself and recognizing it in those you love,  then allowing it to expand and express itself to others and into the world.

Find the Light and Love within yourself in your Middle Ground.

Namaste

Enlightenment and Spending Time with Family

For everyone spending time with the Fokkers this year. This is a re-post and reminder just in time for Christmas and New Years.

☯︎☮︎☯︎☮︎☯︎☮︎☯︎☮︎☯︎

meet the parents

“If you think you are truly enlightened, go and spend a week with your parents.”

~ Ram Dass

I laughed out loud when I read this today! Visiting back home definitely brings me back down to earth. I then googled to see what others said about this and found this wisdom from Eckhart Tolle.

“It is a good test for your degree of Presence. The more shared past there is in a relationship, the more present you need to be; otherwise, you will be forced to relive the past again and again.

… You will gain the most from this experience if you don’t take it too seriously, if you don’t create impossible standards for your conduct of behavior, if you try so hard to be Present and Still that you behave like a robot, if you withdraw into a cocoon of self-protection, or if you blame your family members for every little imperfect act from the past that harmed you in some way.

Instead, and above all, choose to relax, reduce your expectations for what may or may not happen, expect little skirmishes, disagreements, moments of humility or failure, and the distance you may feel with your family as a whole, knowing that you are trying to move beyond the ego patterns that have been impediments to your soul and that they care less about ego and Presence and even Truth.

Love and accept them where they’re at. Have compassion for their pain. Be observant while being engaged as guilelessly as possible. Watch yourself and your reactions, out of curiosity, not judgment or blame, but for the benefit of learning how and where you’re really at in your spiritual evolution.”

So … Don’t take it too seriously. Relax. Expect to re-live some moments rooted in the past. Love and accept them for who they are, rather than wishing them to be different. And above all, don’t just bring a present Be Present.

Namaste

 

Inspiration – Knowing

This repost just about sums it up for me today. Its one of my favorite passages from the Tao Te Ching.

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“Knowing the world is intelligent.
Knowing yourself is enlightenment.

Bending the world to your will takes force.
Willing yourself to bend is true strength.

Succeeding in the world yields riches.
Being content with what is yields wealth.

Apply Tao to the physical world and you will have a long life.
See past the physical world to the enduring presence of Tao and death will lose its meaning.”*

 

New to Lao Tzu and the Tao Te Ching? Read more about it here and here.

* Translation by Braun Jr., John; Tzu, Lao; von Bargen, Julian; Warkentin, David (2012-12-02). Tao Te Ching (Kindle Locations 492-499). . Kindle Edition.

Contentment and Yoga

 

“We must live in the now to follow the path to enlightenment. In the lower realms of the mind, where time and space seem very real, we are worried about the past and the future. These two intermingle and limit conscious awareness.

A person functioning in the now is in control of his own mind. He is naturally happier, more successful. He is performing every task with his fullest attention, and the rewards are to be seen equally in the quality of his work and the radiance of his face. He cannot be bored with anything he does, however simple or mundane. Everything i interesting challenging, fulfilling. A person living fully in the now is a content person.”

~ Satguru Sivaya Subramaniyaswami

 

May we all let go of attachment to the past or to a particular future. Our thoughts move from one to the other and prevents us from being fully present.

 

Notice your thinking

Come home to your body and breath

Find your content ground

 

See you in my regular yoga classes this weekend.

 

Haiku – peace

grow towards the light

Source: © creativecommonsstockphotos ID 83078359 | Dreamstime Stock Photos

~
Peace starts within us.
Let the seed found in darkness
Grow towards the light
~

Sometimes we need to step back and take time to nurture ourselves and explore the seed within us that’s longing to be nurtured.

I tell myself there’s no rush. It’s okay to get my hands dirty. Everything will unfold and grow in its own way.

It feels good to catch up and connect with my WordPress community again❣

 

 

 

Capturing the World

balloon

” In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.

It will be a permanent Self, rooted in awareness and creativity.

Once you have captured this you have captured the world.”

~ Deepak Chopra

I’m inspired by Deepak Chopra’s words today.

When I was searching for an image to use, I come across photos of playful girls letting go of balloons. This is not what it feels like to let go of our persona and who we have always believed we are.
Surrendering to the unknown beyond our ego mind is a journey that is rarely filled with light hearted balloons. There is loss and sorrow.

Yet, on the other side, the world unfolds with clarity … with a smile and a different kind of balloon. 🎈

* True Love

light within us

When we truly love someone, it isn’t because of  their looks, personality, how they behave, or their values. It isn’t about how they make us feel either…

When we truly love someone, we love the Light within the person. Our soul, or divine essence, recognizes the soul or divine essence of the other.

As enlightened human beings we see this Light within ourselves and in those we love.

As we evolve more, we see the Light within all people. We open ourselves to be loving and compassionate towards all others.

Namaste

_/\_

(Namaste = I bow to you as the Light within me recognizes the Light within you)