Discussion of spiritual practices: awakening, meditation, and the freedom that cannot be lost or found. All perspectives are welcome; advaita, christian, buddhist, islam or even no perspective at all. Just pointing to that which is nearest and dearest.


For some "awakening hints" take a peek at: www.robertflegal.com



Wednesday, October 27, 2010

surrender

Meditation is the practice of being at peace no matter what is presenting itself.

Most of us live in the dream of "how things ought to be" rather than in the actuality of the present moment. In other words. we are "playing God".

The habit of continually seeking for things to be other than they are can be broken. The key to breaking this habit is repeated surrender.

One of the things I admire about Muslims is that they pray five times each day. Can you imagine what your life would be like if you surrendered to "what is" that often every day. Here are some comforting words about the power of surrender from the Quran (2:186):

When My servants ask you about Me, I am always near. I answer their prayers when they pray to Me. The people shall respond to Me and believe in Me, in order to be guided.

The path to truth is surrender ... come on in ... the water's fine,
bob

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

surrender

Meditation is surrender. During practice we surrender our beliefs, aspirations, and troubles. Once we have surrendered these we then surrender the surrendering and join The Living One.

It's the straight path...
Bob

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

mistakes in meditation practice

Meditation is sitting in silence and simply noticing what is presenting itself right now ... when we do this we notice that which has always been true: that life is free from a separate 'you'. Here are four common mistakes that we make in our practice that dull this insight.

expecting certain results
trying to “do it right”
getting lost in “small-self” negativity
trying to have some particular “spiritual experience”

bob

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

the make up of prison bars

prison of our own making

My wife and I went to see Shakespeare's play Hamlet this weekend. If you are wondering what life looks like to the awakened then read Shakespeare and see. Here's a snippet from a conversation between Hamlet and two of his friends from college (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) about Hamlet's depressive state ... meditate on this: it's all you ever need to know about the real prison.

HAMLET
Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Then is the world one.
HAMLET
oodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
ROSENCRANTZ
We think not so, my lord.
HAMLET
Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
it is a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
narrow for your mind.
HAMLET
O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
have bad dreams.
GUILDENSTERN
Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
HAMLET
A dream itself is but a shadow.

see ... bob

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