SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

When the mind is still and
the world is seen through the eyes of Silence,
everything is beautiful.
Not just beautiful, but radiant,
shining, gorgeous, stunning, perfect...no,
these words are not adequate.
No words are.
That is the trouble with words:
they force us to say things that are not true.
But we have Silence.
And we have a
way of looking at others as lovers do.
And we have a way of touching things,
caressing their soft and delicate skins.
To compensate for
the inadequacy of words,
we should become lovers
who delight in all things.

Happiness and joy are not the same.
Happiness arises when our life experiences,
circumstances, and conditions are pleasant and pleasing.
Happiness is dependent upon external conditions.
When we feel safe, secure,
and assured of all good things, we are happy.
Joy is a characteristic of life itself,
the life that is not filtered,
interpreted, or analyzed by the mind.
Joy arises when we stop clinging to happiness,
when we let go of our dependencies and attachments.
Joy is independent of and unrelated to our life
experiences, circumstances, and conditions.
We will not know joy as
long as we want happiness.
Our very search for happiness,
our obsession with happiness,
stands like a mountain range between us and
what we really want, which is joy.
Joy arises naturally when we learn
to live in Silence,
when we forget ourselves,
when we give away our
desire for happiness.
Compared to joy,
happiness is a petty project.

Some things seem real,
but only because of how they appear
from where we are standing.
In mountaineering, one such seeming reality is
called a "false summit."
From a particular height and angle on the mountain,
it appears that the summit is in view and within reach.
As one climbs higher,
one's perspective changes.
What had seemed like
the real summit turns out to not be that at all:
there is another summit that couldn't be seen from below,
and perhaps another beyond that.
So it is with personal will.
It appears as real, but it is real
only when one stands in the limited self.
When one moves higher,
beyond the mind and into Silence,
one understands that personal will
does not exist.
It is an appearance created by the
perspective of the limited self.
But for as long as it seems real, do not misuse it by
chasing after the false summits of fame and fortune,
of power and the perfect relationship.
Use it to climb higher on the mountain,
towards the true summit of Silence.

Children are God's ambassadors to our world.
As such, we must treat children,
all children,
with the same regard and respect,
the same care and consideration,
with which we would treat God.
To disrespect children
is to disrespect God.
We must learn to love every child in
the world well and with our whole heart.
That means that the
well-being of children
must be the first priority and commitment of
all societies and their governments.
Every child in the world must be
safe and secure,
must be loved and treasured,
must be accorded every advantage
to nurture their creative spirit and develop
their unique skills and abilities.
If we want to know God's commandment to us,
this is it.
If we want a great project to give our life meaning,
this is it.
If we want to bring peace and justice into the world,
this is how.
Children are God's ambassadors to our world.
Are we welcoming all children with the same reverence
with which we would welcome God?

Trust your Self.
This may not seem like much,
but it is more than enough:
it is everything.
Trust your Self and what you hear
when you listen to your soul.
Tell the truth about what you hear.
Follow what you hear.
You will not be lead astray.
It will set you free.
Take some time every day to sit in Silence,
to listen deeply and carefully
to your magnificent spirit.
There is nothing to be afraid of,
and your life will only deepen with beauty.
Within you are great gathering forces of creativity
converging like many rivers in your soul,
wanting outlet and expression in your life.
Sometimes, we don't recognize our own
gifts and feel lost and desperate.
We are not lost or desperate.
We have to just become still,
so as to listen to those
rivers rushing in our soul.
Trust your Self,
listen to your Self,
obey your Self-and your bridges to the future
will be built for you,
by your soul,
with love and beauty and joy.

A proverb says you can't be a prophet in your own land.
It is easy for us to recognize
a prophet from another country,
a sage with a foreign name,
a sage whose clothes and language are exotic and whose
practices are mysterious.
But what about those closest to us?
Why can't we see them as prophets, as sages,
as enlightened people?
My teacher used to say,
"See God in each other."
He made it easy to see God in him.
Others made it difficult.
Still, we cannot wait for
others to make it easy for us to see God in them;
we have to do it right now,
even without their help.
We have to polish our eyes until they gleam,
and in that gleaming we will see others as God,
especially those with whom we are most familiar:
spouses, parents, siblings,
old friends, lovers, colleagues.
Don't be lazy,
don't imprison them in your memory,
set them free from your old pictures
and stories.
Meet them every time in a new time,
with gleaming eyes
ready to see beneath the surface soil
to their root of pure Silence.
This is what sages and prophets do.

An epiphany is a sudden,
intuitive comprehension of the nature of reality,
an intuitive experience full of awe,
joy, and beauty.
It is impossible to describe these experiences,
but such words as awe, beauty,
grace, love, silence, enchantment,
perfection-these words come to mind.
On numerous occasions
I have experienced this oneness with life.
I experienced myself as pure awareness,
as pure consciousness,
as Silence,
and I saw that this Silent consciousness
pervades all of existence.
I saw that everything actually grows out
of this immaterial consciousness,
is sustained by it,
and returns to it.
Time and time again,
I became aware of this consciousness as the
fundamental reality of existence.
Suddenly, and over time,
the rock
of my separateness was worn smooth,
and smoother, by the waves of
Silence, until it finally disappeared.
The true power of epiphanies
lies in its power to dissolve the hardness of separation.
That's why
it is important to turn towards them.
Do not turn away.
Do not become
a stone again.

Every person,
regardless of their circumstances in life,
has an equal opportunity to experience the truth
of who they are because that truth,
that Silent consciousness,
is the fundamental essence of all people.
The recognition of that is always available
to anyone who sincerely wants it.
Each person's life provides the
perfect conditions for awakening.
Wherever we are,
the same opportunity exists to examine ourselves,
to find out who we are,
to find the
center of truth within ourselves.
It is most certainly not necessary
to live in an ashram or monastery.
The important thing is the longing
to know the true nature of self and mind and reality,
to want to see into life and it's meaning
and purpose directly and deeply.
With that longing,
one's spiritual path will appear automatically,
wherever they are.
In fact, that longing itself is the path.
When that longing is all that is left,
it turns into fulfillment.
Robert Rabbin

Thanks to Robert Rabbin and the many sources
and the teachers for this knowledge
and wisdom that is helping us on our journey.