Awakening

All posts tagged Awakening

Happiness, What Does It Mean To You?

Published 25/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Happiness, what does that word mean to you?

The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of Happiness is ” The quality or condition of being happy.”

But what does that mean, whats makes us/you happy?

Well for me, being happy and happiness generally is simple, it is often the most simple things in life that make me happy e.d:-

Seeing my wife laugh

Hearing the voices of my children on the phone

My Dogs wagging their tail

The comfortable feeling after a good meal

The taste of honey on fresh brown toast

My morning coffee

Watching children play without a care in the world

Hearing the birds sing

Watching the sun rise or the sun set

Being in nature

The smell of freshly mown grass

The sound of the ocean, waves crashing on the shore

Feeling the sunshine on my face

Listening to the soft breeze through bamboo leaves

Walking alone in the countryside

Meditation and what its peace brings to my life

Meeting friends on a Friday evening for drinks and some laughs

My dogs cuddling on my lap, fast asleep and safe

My spiritual journey and what it still has in offer to me

The unconditional love of my wife

I could go on and on with this list because there are so many things in my life that i’m thankful for and of which make me happy.

How about you, what makes you happy?

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

 

Inner Peace…Achievable?

Published 20/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Achieving ‘Inner Peace’…What!, with all I have going on in my life, what with work, the kids, extra hours trying to learn new things, taking the kids to gym, dance, swimming lessons, looking after the dog, cat and goldfish, ego talking constantly to me to do better, work faster, loose weight etc…Chance would be a fine thing!……Does this or some of it resonate with you?

Well, if it does; then you can achieve ‘Inner Peace’ but you have to make the effort to achieve it, it wont just happen overnight. You need to set yourself up to learn, you need to dedicate time each and every day to meditate, if only for a few minutes…’No excuses, don’t put it off until tomorrow, because as you well know, ‘Tomorrow, never comes‘!

When I first started meditation, i found it hard, i always felt as though I was doing something wrong, everyone i knew or met that meditated looked so calm, they all said how they could go into a deep, calm and reflective space where they connected with themselves, this may be in a garden, or by the ocean, on a mountain top, in a fantasy playground, floating on a cloud etc but for me all I could get was thoughts springing into my mind, thoughts about work, my vacation, children, what i needed to do later that day, i could hear the children, the phone, car horns blaring… but no inner peace. I could not feel the calmness that all my friends were experiencing…So I thought, ‘maybe there is something wrong with me’, or do they really experience that or are they just saying that to make me feel inadequate, perhaps they are also experiencing what I am but don’t really want to tell me!  🙂 Well, I stuck at it, at first for 5 minutes a day, then i tried 5 minutes twice per day, then after a few days i realised i was becoming more calm so i extended to 10 minutes, then twice per day and on and on it went, now I can easily achieve 1 or more hours and these sessions flash by like they were only minutes, i go into a deep quiet place but I am always aware, i can hear all that is going on around me, i feel the touch of the dogs wagging tail, the sounds are still there but now i can control them, i label my thoughts as ‘Thoughts’ and sounds as ‘sounds’ and i welcome connections from my heart, my soul and anyone else that wants to connect with me….I have over time started to achieve inner peace, it is a place of joy, of smiles, of reflection, a place where i can connect to my self, where i can spend quality time with myself, where i can feel my body, be aware of my health and all that ails me and concentrate for once on ‘Me’

Meditation is available to everyone, young or old, rich or poor and it costs you nothing, only time….and in my humble opinion…’Time well spent’ 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend my friends

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Calming The Mind…Meditation

Published 19/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

Following on from yesterday’s post on anger, hatred and loving compassion, I thought I would share with you another video by Mingyur Rinpoche. His smile and his softly spoken voice always calm me down and help me with my meditations, I hope he will have that effect on you too?

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Transforming Anger into Loving Kindness

Published 18/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

Do you have trouble with anger, or does your mind raise levels of hatred towards others? If so, then this short video from Mingyur Rinpoche may be useful for you and help you become aware of your anger, hatred and turn them into feelings of compassion and loving kindness.

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Energy, Darkness and Light, Positive and Negative

Published 17/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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A dear Chinese friend of mine asked me to explain ‘Energy’ to another Chinese friend last night…..’Wow’ ! I thought, how do I explain that one’ in one easy sentence 😦

I was slightly lucky because just at that moment these two lovely Chinese ladies were being harassed a little by a foreigner who was a little drunk, very loud, argumentative, highly non-empathetic and downright arrogant…I therefore had the perfect way to explain ‘Energy’ to this young lady who is going through some severe relationship problems at the moment. She had come out for the evening to meet with her friend in order to gain some help and hopefully some advice regarding her problems. I was just a bystander being asked to help, so here is what I said to this young lady…

‘Energy’, is something that some of us can feel but others cannot! You called your friend and asked her to meet you this evening in order for her to listen to your relationship troubles and hopefully help you with her advice, you called her because you trust her, she is quietly spoken, friendly and she listens to you, she will not judge you and she will hold your hand and be there for you, her ‘Energy’ is calm and you feel comfortable sharing these intimate problems with her, right? She nodded and said yes, I feel she can really help me :)…

I then turned to this foreigner and said to her, he is the opposite of your friend, you turn your back to him, your shoulders are rounded away from him, your head is down and you try to be as far away from him as possible, he is loud, he is aggressive, he is pushy towards you, he invades your personal space and only thinks of himself, you feel insecure and threatened by him, right? She nodded and said yes!…

His energy is bad, it is dark, it is forceful and he wants to control you, can you see the difference?…She immediately nodded her head and said yes with a smile, I said this is ‘Energy’… 🙂 and the difference between positive (happy) and negative (dark, threatening)

From that moment on, she opened up to her friend and to me and we were able to connect to her problems, the arrogant guy got the message and left us alone and at the end of the evening she went home feeling happier and carried with her a little love and positive energy from us both 🙂

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Remember my friends, ‘the darkness cannot prevail if you turn on the light’ 🙂

Namaste my friends

With Love

Always

Mark

Time To let Go, Start Living Your Life and Be Free

Published 16/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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I have read and also written many posts regarding ‘Letting Go’, letting go of the past, breaking free from the chains that bind you down and hold you back from enjoying your life and reaching your full potential. These chains, shackles from the past can be of different sorts, they can be relationships, family, work based, life experiences, traumatic events, abuse etc but in the end they are all the same in their effect on your life. Never a day goes by without your mind relating to these past events or experiences, or thinking about ways in which you can change the past, re-connect with the person who grieves you, wishing they would be loving towards you, these experiences conjure up many awful thoughts and bad memories in your mind, they take over your life and effect everything you try to do. For the majority of us we push on with our lives and hope we will feel better, we try to mend the past through the things we try to do in the ‘now’ and also plan things for the future that we hope will take away the pain and make amends for these past experiences which have had so much of a negative effect on our life.

I too have had my own fair share of burdens in this life time, and I’m sure many others in previous lives too, I try to think positively most of the time (highlight on ‘most’ 🙂 ) but those nagging memories just come back time and time again, they continue to bring our morale down and control our lives in the ‘Now’….

So,…’Now’ is the time to take a real stance, it’s time to let go once and for all, to break the chains that shackle us down, that tie our wings to our bodies and restrict our flight.

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We need to smile at the experience, the memory, at a picture of the person or re-connect to the past event and say goodbye, to wish them well and give thanks for the good things we now have in our lives, for all the love we have ‘right now’ and for all the love that is waiting for us on the other side of this experience, we need to break free from these chains, spread our wings and ‘FLY’ move on to pastures green, to a new life of positive possibilities, to live our lives as they should be lived without the burden and weight of these past events…’Now’ is where we should and need to be, always ‘Now’

If you are struggling with the past and need any help breaking free of these chains that hold you back, please reach out and I will be there for you, my sword at the ready breaking those chains that tie your wings my friends…

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Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

I Have Nothing to Write About Today…So Here’s My Post Anyway!

Published 14/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Well, the weekend is here again and I’m a little stuck for words, my mind is blank and I’m having difficulty thinking of ideas for inspirational posts! I guess it’s the old ‘writers block’, maybe my meditations are taking me to the point of total relaxation where absolutely nothing seems to pass through my mind…. or, maybe I just don’t have anything much to say!

This feeling of empty-ness worries me, I feel I owe you a post and when I cannot think of a subject to write about I do start to worry and I become a little anxious!…will I loose followers?, what will my friends think when I don’t post for a day?… and the anxiety becomes even worse if I don’t post for more than one day…

But then I relax and let my fingers do the walking, I introduced them to the keyboard and like magic they began to type, nothing in this post so far anyway has come from my mind, my fingers have just flowed around the keyboard doing a magical dance on the keys and this is what you’re reading right now…I have no idea of the theme, I have no idea what the title of this post will be and where the post will end up…I guess its just a few rambling words to you all, my blogging friends, friends from all around the world, friends of different races, religions, gender and age..but friends you are and I would miss not having you all in my life, you give me strength, you give me pleasure and sometimes I get to feel a sense of happiness when I hear that I have managed to help one of you get through a difficult time in your life.

For me blogging is not about finding followers, it’s not really about spirituality (although spirituality and my spiritual journey are very important to me), faith or religion…In my case its just the words and feelings from me, nothing special, just my thoughts on any given day, on any subject that I feel will bring you some joy, a post that may help you overcome a fear, guide you to a solution to a problem or maybe a video or music post that will bring a smile to your face.

Now, while I’m writing this post I too feel a sense of joy, because the words flowing from my finger tips are saying what is inside my heart, no thought has gone into these words and no pattern has been put together of the structure or the outcome, but the words are as I said from my heart, and to me that’s a great thing because I honestly believe that if we; as humans used our hearts to their full capacity of loving kindness each and every day, we would live in a world filled with love and peace…I know I cannot bring about world peace on my own through this humble blog but I do know that I can bring about change, I can make you smile, I can bring joy and a little happiness to your life even if only for the briefest moment in time, but time is the essence, time has no meaning so that smile that you have on your face right now is a blessing from God and hopefully brought to you from the words or pictures that I send you 🙂

So in essence I guess this post is about happiness, it is about loving kindness, it is about bringing about change in our lives, it is about helping others, it is about my own spiritual journey, it is about living life in the now, it is about caring, it is about humanity, it is about giving…….

Some days I sit and cry a little, I care passionately about our world, I care passionately about humanity, I care passionately about the environment and I wonder what more I can do to help those in need! Those tears then lead to meditation when I connect to my heart and I realise I can do more, do something simple, bring a smile to someones face, give thanks for what I have in my life and I feel good again, this feeling then brings about action…actions can be simple, they can be small and they can cost you nothing… but these actions will and do make a difference to someone or something in our world…so when ever you feel down…just stop…meditate, connect with your heart, give thanks for your life and give thanks for all you have in your life…this will lead you to open your eyes with a fresh view which will bring about change and you will do good, you will help someone, you will share a smile..and on and on the circle of loving kindness will go…

from me to you,

from you to someone,

from them to someone else

and on and on the love gets shared:)

Blessings of Love, unconditional Love

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Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Hugs For Free Today :)

Published 11/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Go on, you know you want one…Reach out, close your eyes and feel the warmth of my hug, my arms around you, comforting you. It comes to you with my love and best wishes for a wonderful day filled with happiness, joy and peace wherever you are in this world 🙂

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Your Self Reflection Manifesto, Food For Thought!

Published 09/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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A few questions for you my Dear Friends!

 

Do you need any help answering any of these questions?

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Touching base with your Heart & Trusting your Intuition

Published 06/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Touching base with your heart and your soul, easy?…… No!….Achievable?…Yes! 🙂

Our lives are so full of madness…time, the clock, rushing here, rushing there, eating while watching tv, reading the news, checking and responding to emails….working, parenting, relationships,’…their up’s and down’s…children and our fear for their future, challenges at work, career prospects, learning, financial difficulties….Is it all doom and gloom?….Only if you let it be!

I too have been a victim of all these things, my life has been filled with education, doing better, achieving more, working hard, working harder, working more hours, doing more of everything, wanting more of everything, buying for the sake of buying, mounting debt problems, children, the worries of being a parent, relationship challenges, divorce, grieving for the loss of loved ones, changing careers, re-educating myself, starting again, fighting to survive, living on the breadline, finding new love, emerging from the flames, being born again, awakening to the realities of life, becoming aware of what is important in life, caring from the heart, wanting to see change in our world, fighting for change, being frustrated that I cannot do enough, or make change happen overnight…an on; and on the cycle goes….So now what?…Where am I and what does the future hold?

Should I give up, should I buckle down and follow the pack, work every hour god sends, chase the dreams of others, or follow my heart, live in the ‘now’, do as ‘I’; my soul, my higher self wants?….

A dilemma felt by many….., choices…which way to go?…

The choice is yours, either be controlled or be in control….

I choose life, I choose to live in the now, to work in ‘Mindfulness’ of the other sometimes more important things in my life, for my family, for our future, for humanity, for our environment, for Mother Earth, for others less fortunate than I, I choose to serve for the betterment of my self, for my soul. My heart is now free, free to choose which way to go, I listen to my heart, I trust my intuition, I listen with Empathy to others with the intent to understand, and I place my feet firmly down on my own spiritual pathway, the journey which leads me through life with a smile; not a burden of weight placed upon my shoulders by others who want to control my destiny.

Be ‘Mindful’ my dear friends, live your life according to your own destiny, allow yourself the luxury right to enjoy your life to the full, take time out for yourself, connect with your heart and soul through meditation, free your mind from the distractions of modern life, see life as it really is and start enjoying each and every day to the full, see the blueness of the sky or if your sky is grey; see the blueness of the sky up above the clouds, watch the sun rise and set, see the smiles of the children around you , reconnect with your inner child, smile, always smile and breathe….just breathe 🙂

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

 

 

Love, She Keeps Me Warm

Published 05/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

My Dear Friends,

Love….It is in everyone, sometimes we just need to find it….Love, has no limits and it does not discriminate….’Love Is’

I Can’t change even if I tried, even if I wanted to…Love, She keeps me warm 🙂

My Heart does not see race

Love has no age limit

Love has no gender

Love has no disability

Love is Love

Love has no race

Our family is no less than any other family

Love has no religion

We have universal love

Namaste with Love

Always
Mark

Spiritual or Religious, Which are you?

Published 04/03/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Interesting graphic from Ken Wilber and one in which I am sure is and will continue to be a very controversial topic.

I would love to know your thoughts and which side of the fence you personally sit on so here is a short poll for you to complete.

Prioritising Solutions to Your Problems

Published 27/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Chinese Wisdom:

Once there was a man walking along a empty road. Suddenly he heard a feeble cry. He looked around but saw nothing. Thinking he heard nothing, he continued to walk along. Once more he heard the faint cry. This time the call was nearby. He searched high and low, and found the sound was coming out of a little fish lying in a drying pond, his mouth was bubbling.

That fellow looked at the fish strangely and asked: “Was that you who were just calling me? Did you need my help? “

The small fish looking suppliant at the man gasping and breathless said, “Please save me quickly, I am dying, I need water. I am not a normal fish, rather I am the eastern sea dragon’s official.  Please give me a little water.”

That person hearing this quickly nodded his head and said: “I understand, I will immediately go to the south and let the southern king direct a river to here so that you can swim and return to the eastern sea.”

The fish angrily cried out, “Can a fish live out of water? I am only in need of a little water. Your idea is pointless. I think that the next time you see me will be in a shop that sells dried fish. “

Moral : Sometimes an “ideal” solution isn’t practical because it requires too much time in a time-critical situation.

Enjoy your weekend and don’t overthink too much, sometimes the solution to your life’s problems is easier than your mind will allow you to believe.

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Going with the Flow of Life

Published 16/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Do not struggle with life.
Go with the flow of things,
and you will find yourself
at one with the
mysterious unity of the universe.

Self observation brings man to the
realisation of the necessity of self change.
And in observing himself
a man notices that self observation itself
brings about certain changes in his
inner processes.
He begins to understand that
self observation
is an instrument of self change,
a means of
awakening.

and remember..

You are never alone or hopeless
during your life’s journey.
The force that guides the stars
guides you too.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

Dormant Seeds Ready to Sprout

Published 10/02/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Excerpt from Grist of the Mill Ram Dass

There is a story about an old Zen monk who was dying, who had finished everything and was about to get off the wheel. He was just floating away, free and in his pure Buddha-mind, when a thought passed by of a beautiful deer he had once seen in a field. And he held on to that thought for just a second because of its beauty, and immediately he took birth again as a deer. It’s as subtle as that.

It’s like when we begin to see the work that is to be done, and we go to an ashram or a monastery, or we hang out with satsang. We surround ourselves with a community of beings who think the way we think. And then none of the stuff, the really hairy stuff inside ourselves, comes up. It all gets pushed underground. We can sit in a temple or a cave in India and get so holy, so clear and radiant, the light is pouring out of us. But when we come out of that cave, when we leave that supportive structure that worked with our strengths but seldom confronted us with our weaknesses, our old habit patterns tend to reappear, and we come back into the same old games, the games we were sure we had finished with. Because there were uncooked seeds, seeds of desires that sprout again the minute they are stimulated. We can stay in very holy places, and the seeds sit there dormant and uncooked. But there is fear in such individuals, because they know they’re still vulnerable.

Nothing goes under the rug. We can’t hide in our highness any more than we’ve hidden in our unworthiness. If we have finally decided we want God, we’ve got to give it all up. The process is one of keeping the ground as we go up, so we always have ground, so that we’re high and low at the same moment – that’s a tough game to learn, but it’s a very important one. So at the same moment that if I could, I would like to take us all up higher and higher, we see that the game isn’t to get high – the game is to get balanced and liberated.

Namaste with Love

Always

Mark

Focussed Intent to Manifest Your Dreams

Published 15/01/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Focussing Your Intent

You may have heard that ‘The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too’ This refers to an inexplicable yet very real power that comes into play when one truly decides to move forward. Coincidences occur and help comes in from unexpected directions. It is as iff the entire universe is conspiring to propel you toward success.

Lao Tzu taught the same lesson when he wrote “Hold the great image. All under heaven will come” The great image is the clear visualisation of what you intend to manifest. When you hold this image clearly in your mind with focussed intent, everything and everyone around you will automatically become aligned with you.
The net effect is that the Tao becomes like an omnipresent director, orchestrating entire sequences of events in your favor. When this happens, you solve problems with ease, accomplish tasks that seemed difficult before. Nothing can stand in your way.

In order to leverage the great power to move on your behalf, you must make a decision at the deepest core of your being and back it up with actual action. Thinking really hard by itself will accomplish nothing. Taking action, on the other hand, is the trigger that will open up the floodgates. Wield the great image, and let all under heaven come to you.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

My Way or The Highway!…Or Is It?

Published 14/01/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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My dear friends,

There are I believe many true words written in the image above. Words that reflect some of the problems we have in this world, where one country believes it is greater than another, one religion believes it is the only religion, one corporate which believes it is the only business on earth or one person who believes they are better than you or I, or one media outlet which believes it is the only voice or opinion to what is going on in our world!

When I sit down and talk to anyone, I use empathy, I listen with the intent to understand, I may not fully agree with everything that person says but I will observe their thoughts and treat them with respect in the understanding that they will offer me the same levels of support and courtesy. This is how I was brought up. I remember my grandfather talking to us children and saying that everyone we come to meet in our lives irrespective of their name, their title, the colour of their skin, their job etc was to be treated with the same levels of courtesy and respect and I have thankfully remembered those words all my life, I still get sad when I see people being treated badly, often on the street, in restaurants, service counters and of course the media, where people think ‘They’ are better and look down upon the people they are talking to (or often shouting at)!

Wouldn’t it be nice for once to have a world full of respect, where ‘We’ as human beings started to actually respect each other, to look at each other eye to eye, to look inside the eyes of the person we are talking to and to see their soul, to connect with empathy and to listen with actual intent to understand what they are saying or trying to say, to reflect on their thoughts and digest the emotions that are shown to us before we respond with our reply.

I believe that respect is a genuine staring place towards world peace, once respect is established, we can foster love, build relationships and live happier lives.

Just a thought…..

Namaste with love
Always
Mark

Meditation, Gratitude, Giving Thanks and Joy

Published 12/01/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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“If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice?”

~Maha Ghosananda

Buddhist monks begin each day with a chant of gratitude for the blessings of their life. Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to mother earth and father sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given: “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.”

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small, an appreciation of the moments of good fortune that sustain our life every day. We have so much to be grateful for.

Gratitude is confidence in life itself. It is not sentimental, not jealous, nor judgmental. Gratitude does not envy or compare. Gratitude receives in wonder the myriad offerings of the rain and the earth, the care that supports every single life.

As gratitude grows it gives rise to joy. We experience the courage to rejoice in our own good fortune and in the good fortune of others.

Joy is natural to an open heart. In it, we are not afraid of pleasure. We do not mistakenly believe it is disloyal to the suffering of the world to honor the happiness we have been given.

Like gratitude, joy gladdens the heart. We can be joyful for people we love, for moments of goodness, for sunlight and trees, and for the breath within our breast. And as our joy grows we finally discover a happiness without cause. Like an innocent child who does not have to do anything to be happy, we can rejoice in life itself, in being alive.

Let yourself sit quietly and at ease. Allow your body to be relaxed and open, your breath natural, your heart easy. Begin the practice of gratitude by feeling how year after year you have cared for your own life. Now let yourself begin to acknowledge all that has supported you in this care:

With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day.

With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me.

I offer my gratitude for the safety and well-being I have been given.

I offer my gratitude for the blessing of this earth I have been given.

I offer my gratitude for the measure of health I have been given.

I offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given.

I offer my gratitude for the community I have been given.

I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given.

I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given.

Just as we are grateful for our blessings, so we can be grateful for the blessings of others.

Continue to breathe gently. Bring to mind someone you care about, someone it is easy to rejoice for. Picture them and feel the natural joy you have for their well-being, for their happiness and success. With each breath, offer them your grateful, heartfelt wishes:

May you be joyful.

May your happiness increase.

May you not be separated from great happiness.

May your good fortune and the causes for your joy and happiness increase.

Sense the sympathetic joy and caring in each phrase. When you feel some degree of natural gratitude for the happiness of this loved one, extend this practice to another person you care about. Recite the same simple phrases that express your heart’s intention.

Then gradually open the meditation to include neutral people, difficult people, and even enemies- until you extend sympathetic joy to all beings everywhere, young and old, near and far.

This excerpt is taken from the book, “The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace“ by Jack Kornfield

My Dear friends, we certainly have so much to be thankful for, need I mention even a few? However, we do forget to give thanks and speak out our gratitude on a daily basis. It has been shown that being grateful raises our levels of happiness and joy and these raised levels of happiness attract others that are also happy; thus enabling our lives to be filled with more joy each and every day. So today, ‘Go on, give it a go’, meditate, bring people and things into your minds eye and into your heart, give thanks for everything in your life, good and bad and feel the peace and the love that this meditation brings to your heart and soul.

I did this; this morning….’A big smile on my face right now’ when I think of this process of gratitude 🙂 A simple meditation and mindful eating of my toast and honey. I gave thanks for the honey, the sweetness on my tongue, gave thanks to the Bee for collecting the honey, to the flower that attracted the bee, for the sun the rain and the soil that raised the flower in order to attract the bee, for the seedling that brought life to the flower, for the person or animal that brought that seed to that piece of soil, for the soil that gave its nutrients to the seed, for the sun that shone its warmth and helped the seeding grow, for the rain that gave the flower life, for the cloud that made the rain, for the rivers and oceans that brought about the cloud, for God for his creation of the earth and then I came on to the toast and the butter on my toast, and my mouth, my tongue for experiencing the sweet sensation of the honey, for the goodness and nutrition the honey, the toast and the butter were giving to my body, and this process of thankfulness went on, and on…Interestingly, this process of giving thanks brought about a real enlightenment to me, honestly I have never experienced mindful eating so much as I did this morning, I have experienced it many, many times before but this morning it was different, set at a really different level, I awakened to something very new, something great, something that brought peace to my heart and my soul, a total experience of joy…

Toast and Honey will never be the same again 🙂

Namaste with Love my dear friends
Always
Mark

The Essence of Life

Published 09/01/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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The Essence of Life

There is an essence that embodies the universe and yet it exists beyond all space and time. It is infinitely ancient because it is eternal. In comparison to this, the universe’s age of fourteen billion years is nothing.

Human beings have made many inadequate attempts to describe it. Some may call it God, others may prefer a term like Tao, which means ‘The Way’ for the simple reason that this essence is the way of existence, the way or reality.

We do not know much about it, but we do know that the essence is within us. Our highest hopes and dreams, ideals and aspirations all come from its power to express itself. We manage to catch a glimpse of it when we exchange smiles with one another, we can feel it when one hand reaches out to touch another. It is what we are at the most essential level.

Try to meditate upon the essence of your truest nature, and call it by its original name: Love. The essence is no more or less than the energy of love in its purest form. Human beings are simply the solidified manifestation of this energy. That is why it is so important to us, and why we can never be without it. Embrace the essence, for it is the reason for existence itself, and the reason why we exist at all.

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark

What Is Your Calling In Life?

Published 08/01/2015 by inspiringyourspirit

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Having a Complete Life

How can we live a complete life, an ideal life that is full of happiness joy and fulfillment? The key to this success lies in making the best use of the limited time we have. We only have decades to live, and if we then subtract all the time we spend sleeping and eating, what’s then left isn’t much.

The sacred and spiritual task is the reason we came into this world. These specific tasks are different for each person, but most of them involve being of service to something greater than oneself. People who manage to actively work on their own sacred tasks are filled with happiness and joy, because they understand the mission, and they know what to do.
Their reward is a profound sense of satisfaction.

When they look back at their experiences, the people they have helped, the friendships they have made, they cannot help but smile. They have done a hundred out of a hundred things they wanted to accomplish. Theirs is the complete life, a life of meaning.

The sacred task is your primary purpose in life. I wonder if you have already identified it? If not, look for something that leverages your talents and abilities to serve a greater purpose. It will be a calling, something you are called upon to do. Discovering what it is will be your first step to start living the complete life of your own.

Have you found yours?

Food for thought my friends, food for thought!

Namaste with Love
Always
Mark