3/27/2010

Happy Birthday

Every day we awake from the womb of sleep resurrected from the death of yesterday, born again to the life of today. Every day is our birthday; a day to rejoice, to celebrate, to dance.

Too many of us are caught up in ritual, tradition, and our own ambition; too many of us make the extraordinary ordinary, our every day everyday; too many of us leave the living for the dead.

Each day, for our birthday, the cake of opportunity is baked, the candle of being is lit, the gift of Life presented; but we spit on our cake, blow out our candle, and curse our gift.

Like a spoiled child we pull our hair, cry our eyes, and scream for more, more, more! Our pulling only causes suffering, our tears only blur beauty, our screams only express our wildest fear of emptiness, emptiness, emptiness.

What more can be given to us who have it all? What present, what gift, is more precious and valuable than life itself?

We do not wish to understand, instead, we the spoiled children of the world work jobs we hate to buy things we don’t need, marry people we don’t love to save us from being alone, and let our whiny roar for more, more, more tear us apart like an internal civil war.

We must treat the child like an adult, we must listen to our emotions and thoughts; we must watch as they are created and destroyed, understand how and why they come and go.

Only then can we give birth to a new us, a new child, who is not spoiled, but feels spoiled with all the wonder and joy life offers. Who shares one’s cake with one’s enemies, who kindles others’ candles with one’s own, who blushingly, with gratitude and humbleness, accepts the gift of Life.

Only then will we realize that every day is truly our birthday. That birthdays don’t just celebrate the yearly anniversary of coming from the womb, but the daily regeneration of life’s bloom.

3/24/2010

The Fountain of Youth

Dear explorer, the Fountain of Youth flows neither in the East nor the West. Its sunny spring hides not in the tropical forest or on the mythical island. Its gushing waters are neither bound in the pages of a book nor sealed within a drug.

The Fountain of Youth rests within our body, its waters waiting to be tapped by our heart; unleashed with the disillusion of the mind and freeing of our being; its spring let loose to swim in our blood, circulate through our body, pulsate under our skin, and emanate from our being.

So throw away your ships, my explorers, and set your sails within, for the greatest exploration exists not across the deepest ocean or in the farthest reaches of space, but in the bodies and minds of the explorers themselves.

3/22/2010

The Greatest Book of All

We are the author of the book called Life. We write its story only once with the pen of our actions and the language of our being. Performed by the heart, not the imagination; written in blood, not ink; upon the soul, not paper; from our birthly beginning to our peaceful ending, we control the swift movements of our actions upon the soul, determining character, deciding whether, Life be a tragedy or triumph.

The greatest stories are not remembered for their length, but for the truth and being emanating from their each and every sentence. The yearly chapters order the chaos, giving structure to the beautiful masterpiece, making Life a wholly book. A wholly book authored not by destiny, but by ourselves; a wholly book which is not just any book, but the greatest book of all.

Do not let Life's pages go to waste, my brothers and sisters, for each and every square inch is a testament to Humanity.

3/17/2010

Concrete Belief

Truth cannot penetrate walls built before the ear, for bricks of belief do nothing but make the mind concrete.

3/16/2010

The State of Heaven

Heaven is not a holy state, but a state of mind. It exists not in the clouds, but on earth. It requires not a journey of flight, but a journey of mind. Ruled by oneself, not by one god; reached by the sacrifice of the Ego, not the Savior. A state where all present are loved as one, not where all loved ones past are present; a state of satisfaction derived from overcoming sensual pleasure, not a place where one is overcome by sensual pleasures and satisfied.

One need not look up for Heaven, nor down, but inside; one need not search the skies for a god, nor the seas, but the body; one need not believe in myth, nor in legend, but in oneself; for Heaven is an earth, and Earth is a heaven.

3/11/2010

True Love is Not Love

True Love is not a kiss on the lips, a sexual embrace, the ring on a finger. True Love is not fragile as to swing like a pendulum from love to hate, hate to love. True Love is not selective as to pick, like a contest, one among all. True Love is not dependent as to cause withdrawal like a drug when a lover is absent. True Love is not violent as to be guarded like a possession coveted by its owner. True Love is not temporary as to flee like a thief when attraction fades. True Love is not limited as to be expressed like an idea in a word.

True love is not separation, but cooperation; True Love is not hindrance, but dance; True Love is not love, but an all encompassing state of being that unites this and that, us and them, I and you.

3/09/2010

The Sleeping Dream

We sleepwalk through life and awake in our dreams, never fully living life and awakening our dreams; discouraged by others; transformed in time; from a child of hope and wonder to a grave of despair and expectation.

Our dreams can wait till we sleep or our life can act out our dreams, the choice is ours, to dream life away or live the life we dream.

3/04/2010

Universal Reflection

We all want to change the world, but no one wants to change oneself.

I hear many of us say why can’t there be peace in the world when there’s no peace within ourselves. I hear many of us scream stop the wars when there’s a war ongoing within ourselves. I hear many of us say there’s too much hate in the world when there’s too much hate in our heart. I hear many of us yell stop the violence when we are violent ourselves.

In order for there to be change outside, there must be change inside. In order for there to be love in the world, there must be love in our hearts, in order for there to be peace without, there must be peace within, in order for the world to be one, we must be one, for we are a reflection of the world and the world is a reflection of us.

3/01/2010

Waiting is the Easiest Part

We are always waiting; waiting for someone, something, some moment, hoping that they or it will make life worth living. And sometimes they or it do, sometimes we feel alive again, we feel our heart beating, our blood pumping, we feel full of life. But then it goes, out of nowhere our heart runs cold, our blood runs dry, the joy we felt dissipates and in its place is a hard emptiness like before, but worse, because now we are without that person, that thing, that moment which made us feel so free, so in tune with life.

This is the cycle of humanity, these are the peaks and valleys we subject ourselves to each and every time we look outside ourselves for happiness. And then we pass it on to our children hoping that maybe our life was a failure and maybe they will find that special someone, something, or time that will make them feel alive forever, that will never go away, never flee when you need it most. But this is a serious mistake, a way of perpetuating sadness and suffering to our children and their children’s children.

We must stop waiting; we must stop looking outside for happiness. No matter how many people tell us this, no matter how many cute quotes we read, no matter how much we realize the truth of it we still fail to apply it. We are not serious.

We are serious about getting a job, buying a home, starting a family, but we are not serious about solving our problems, finding out who we truly are, what this world truly is. If we could see and touch our happiness, walk it around in a baby carriage and show it off to the world, we would be serious about it, but because it is intangible we leave it for the supposed “holy men” of the world. Medicine can be left to the doctors and food to the farmers, but we must not leave our happiness for someone else to supply because it will always be insufficient.

Waiting is the easiest part, it is time we get serious and take action. It is time we stop waiting for someone, for something, for some moment to breathe life into us. It is time we breathe life into ourselves. For that someone is us, that something is Love, and that some moment is now.