Legend has it that Bodhidharma wished to return to India and called together his disciples and the following exchange took part;
Bodhidharma asked, “Can each of you say something to demonstrate your understanding?”
Dao Fu stepped forward and said, “It is not bound by words and phrases, nor is it separate from words and phrases. This is the function of the Tao.”
Bodhidharma: “You have attained my skin.”
The nun Zong Chi stepped up and said, “It is like a glorious glimpse of the realm of Akshobhya Buddha . Seen once, it need not be seen again.”
Bodhidharma; “You have attained my flesh.”
Dao Yu said, “The four elements are all empty. The five skandhas are without actual existence. Not a single dharma can be grasped.” Bodhidharma: “You have attained my bones.”
Finally, Huike came forth, bowed deeply in silence and stood up straight.
Bodhidharma said, “You have attained my marrow.”

Thus in this intense state of Bhakti, worship is offered
to every one, to every life, and to every being.


“Knowing that Hari, the Lord, is in every being, the wise
have thus to manifest unswerving love towards all beings.”

Vivekananda | Bhakti Yoga

God is the Samashti, and this visible universe is God
differentiated and made manifest. If we love this sum total,
we love everything. Loving the world and doing it good will
all come easily then; we have to obtain this power only by
loving God first; otherwise it is no joke to do good to the
world.

Vivekanda [Bhakti Yoga]

Q: Then, why was I unhappy all my life?
M: Because you did not go down to the very roots of your being. It is your complete ignorance of yourself, that covered up your love and happiness and made you seek for what you had never lost. Love is will, the will to share your happiness with all. Being happy -- making happy -- this is the rhythm of love.

Q: I understood that suffering is inherent in limitation.
M: Differences and distinctions are not the causes of sorrow. Unity in diversity is natural and good. It is only with separateness and self-seeking that real suffering appears in the world.




Under the right teacher the disciple learns to learn, not to remember and obey. Satsang, the company of the noble, does not mould, it liberates.




Q: Is not life by its very nature repetitive? Will not following life lead to stagnation?
M: By itself life is immensely creative. A seed, in course of time, becomes a forest. The mind is like a forester -- protecting and regulating the immense vital urge of existence.


Q: Is brahmacharya, continence, imperative in Yoga?
M: A life of constraint and suppression is not Yoga. Mind must be free of desires and relaxed. It comes with understanding, not with determination, which is but another form of memory. An understanding mind is free of desires and fears.

It is not on the verbal level that one becomes a disciple, but in the silent depths of one’s being.


We grow through investigation, and to investigate we need experience. We tend to repeat what we have not understood. If we are sensitive and intelligent, we need not suffer. Pain is a call for attention and the penalty of carelessness. Intelligent and compassionate action is the only remedy.




Q: Why do we seek worldly happiness, even after having tasted one’s own natural spontaneous happiness?
M: When the mind is engaged in serving the body, happiness is lost. To regain it, it seeks pleasure. The urge to be happy is right, but the means of securing it are misleading, unreliable and
destructive of true happiness.

I AM THAT


Q: Has devotion (bhakti) any place in your teaching?

M: When you are not well, you go to a physician who tells you what is wrong and what is the remedy. If you have confidence in him, it makes things simple: you take the medicine, follow the diet restrictions and get well. But if you do not trust him, you may still take a chance, or you may study medicine yourself! In all cases it is your desire for recovery that moves you, not the physician.
Without trust there is no peace. Somebody or other you always trust -- it may be your mother, or your wife. Of all the people the knower of the self, the liberated man, is the most trust-worthy. But merely to trust is not enough. You must also desire. Without desire for freedom of what use is the confidence that you can acquire freedom? Desire and confidence must go together. The stronger your desire, the easier comes the help. The greatest Guru is helpless as long as the disciple is not eager to learn. Eagerness and earnestness are all-important. Confidence will come with experience. Be devoted to your goal -- and devotion to him who can guide you will follow. If your desire and
confidence are strong, they will operate and take you to your goal, for you will not cause delay by hesitation and compromise.
The greatest Guru is your inner self. Truly, he is the supreme teacher. He alone can take you to your goal and he alone meets you at the end of the road. Confide in him and you need no outer Guru. But again you must have the strong desire to find him and do nothing that will create obstacles and delays. And do not waste energy and time on regrets. Learn from your mistakes and do not repeat them.

In Michigan I spoke to Amma about twice

Amma had said whre is durvasu with the peanuts to geeta one day
as Amma told me to bring it the next day
I finally brought it for Devi Bhava, Amma ate from her hand a lot of it
while talking about that book to some devotee through Radhika.

I told Amma I am born alone, live alone and die alone, but the viraha will kill me.
Amma said i-yo-h and gave me two chocolates and an apple

Later I told Amma again about the doctor and I had yelled at him.
Amma said be careful, you are a kalian.
And then told me doctors cant be told like that, he has to decide- like its his ego to do so,
you have to describe the symptoms that lead to that conclusion.

Amma told me to wear a neck brace for a month. I think while sleeping too and see if that works.

Then I told Amma I am leaving. It was very hard to leave.

Experiences of San Ramon Devi Bhava




First
I went up to Amma
with the peanuts
Amma said she is not going to eat them until later
and said Madhu had brought earlier

and then began talking about gayatri.gales
and her nonsense, she is and always was mentally distrubed

ammas room is 10 X 7 with the two patis
laksmi aka has been ammas attendant for 27 years

said that gale writing is like a pornography
dont read it keep it out of your mind

amma said even ramana maharshi and satya sai baba had devotees tried to kill them

amma said people tried to bring poison with food (3 women - 15 years devotees- madhu would later say this from amma-- and that amma told them all that she did for them )

anyways i told amma in the olden time we cut off their  head and make a mala to amma
and if a mother is insulted the children will never standy by, i got very emotional
and amma was laughing while darshan to other people sort of

i said we should cut their heads. and amma said that is not the way basically.

then amma spoke at length about this gales

how she insulted Suggudnana acchan
about his something.

i said one strand of hair and She - Amma can make a crore of vira bhadras.

amma simply smiled and kept talking about the gale and her shit.
how amma had anu had them write sort of.

amma told me dont read it
and dont keep it in your mind

so then later madhu went to see amma told about the dog
amma told him all mahtamas of the past- ramamna maharshi had such love for animals, they came of their own sake and in amritapuri the two dogs are ammas so they can stay even then there was some trouble amma told me had to pay 1 million rupees cause tumbin bit somebody ; these people harasss the tail and stuff.



amma told madhu people here dont know
also amma said my dog is pavam
apparently asha checi tried to say its not a puppy its this big
and madhu said its only 11 months
and amma told asha chechi are you listening through ur ear and seeing?


anyways so amma called me durvasa, and said oh i made him wait after making the peanuts.
and so she called me has i was sitting by the bhajan group.

and then Amma said get the peanuts
so i squeezed back there but didnt see it
amma said durvasa or something.

and then amma siad choke radhikas neck you better get it
then amma got upset at me and said i told you to keep it didnt i

then i said amma i can make another batch

madhu said he will go find it from sudha

so amma said then go get me a paripap vada and i ll eat it from you
and gita looked into my face

so i was about to and madhu came with the peanuts

and amma told me to get a spoon
but slyly and assuredly said oh we have one back here

and then i got to feed ammas mouth the peanuts in a spoon.
Radhika said take out the cumba (the stalks) and Amma looked at her with eyes - she had disturbed the moment i guess sort of- anyways so i gave it
and madhu said ok amma we will go
and amma told me to sit back there

and i did
dayamrita swami asked me to move. apparently his knee is not good
but then amma told me to sit again and i sat like a child on top of the wooden box.


and then i came around

and we talked  about  the dog

amma said they have rules here

and then everyone will bring their pet and there wont be space

and said but amma likes dogs
they are only creature to love niskama


i told amma about boss too


amma gave prasad

then i also said during darshan about - something - mahadeva- the right margam
and Amma loudly yelled in my ear you are my son dont worry- like it will be fine - in  a roaring tone as if i was far away

it was an incredible devi bhava

Amma told madhu oh i made him wait after making those peanuts all out there
and said look there is the durvasa sitting
and Amma told madhu to call me
amma pointed and then madhu did
i was dozing off kind of


then i almost moved my hand over this guy
and Amma said oh his leg is bad and he is still doing seva
and then i said oh and patted him




ah what amma said when she told me to sit back there
was you sit and laugh in moments  and feed me

Physical strength is
as important to withstand the strain of spiritual disciplines one
has to undergo, as intellectual acumen is incumbent to
understand the subtle truths of religion

Swami Vivekananda puts this quite clearly in his lecture
Sannyasa: Its Ideal and Practise. “You must try to combine in your
life immense idealism with immense practicality. You must be
prepared to go into deep meditation now and the next moment
you must be ready to go and cultivate these fields (meadows of
the Math). You must be prepared to explain the difficult
intricacies of the scriptures now, and the next moment to go and
sell the products of the fields in the market." This is a new
approach to the monastic ideal of India and it is based on the
concept that there is no contradiction between Aham Brahmasmi (I
am Brahman) and Tattvamasi (Thou art That). By closing the eyes a
spiritual aspirant can say “I am Brahman:” then, opening his eyes,
he can say “Thou art That” and with that attitude worship all
beings.



“The sannyasin, verily, is born into this world to lay down his life
for others, to stop the bitter cries of men, to wipe away the tears of
the widow, to bring peace to the soul of the bereaved mother, to
equip the ignorant masses for the struggle for existence, to
accomplish the secular and spiritual well-being of all through the
diffusion of spiritual teaching and to arouse the sleeping lion of
Brahman in all by throwing in the light of knowledge.”


For that monk, by whom not the smallest danger
even, is caused to created beings, there will be no danger from any
quarter after he is freed from his body
Samhita :: Manu

The pang of separation from the Beloved Lord cannot be described in human words, nor comprehended by the logical mind, but it can be felt by a devoted heart.

| Swami Aseshananda
Sri Ramakrishna Deva Order

One of America’s bestselling snacks is a cheese dip designed to be scooped up with nacho chips. It’s runny, it’s orange, it tastes like cheese, but a label on the jar says that it’s a ‘non-dairy product’.



Have you ever tried an American apple? They look perfect — enormous, red and shiny — but have the consistency of cotton wool. It’s the same with the meat: huge, juicy-looking steaks, and chops, perfectly grilled, pink inside, but tasting of wet paper.

Diocletian, perhaps the only Roman emperor to retire voluntarily (he was the one who first split the empire into East and West), when receiving word that Maximian (his partner, who had been forced to abdicate as per their prior agreement) was urging him to come out of retirement, is said to have written that "if he could show Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power." (John Julius Norwich, "Byzantium: The Early Centuries, Knopf, 1988, p.34.) Norwich's trilogy on the Byzantine Empire is truly memorable, by the way.

Even when he is absorbed in practical matters that have life-or-death consequences, our ancient mariner maintains a sense of style; there is a subtle self-consciousness in his efforts to embody the old Hemingway-esque ideal of grace under pressure. He is a model of masculine virtue and he knows it.


The ancient Greeks believed that character should be revealed through action.

He told the story of an Indian nun who was

asked when a man could be certain of

safety on this road, and who sent back,

for answer, a little plate of ashes. For

the fight against passion was long and

fierce, and at any moment the conqueror

might become the conquered.

stains of life.


 | Vivekananda

Do you know how a silversmith determines when the metal is pure? It is only when he sees his face upon the shining, pure metal. We are like gold or silver, melted in the fire of tribulation, so that the dross (waste or impurity) is burned away. We are to reflect God's face upon our face or surface. Life is a process of purification.

God , Country & Tattoos
Dennis E. Dwyer

Who-ever expected such language, out of a book like this. Mr. Dwyer had the privilege of meeting Horitoshi back in the late 1980s during a visit to Japan and several of his deshi's (some of which no longer are- e.g. Daisuke)

the 1958 lecture Indeterminacy:
After I had been studying with him for two years, Schoenberg said, "In order to write music, you must have a feeling for harmony." I explained to him that I had no feeling for
harmony. He then said that I would always encounter an obstacle, that it would be as though I came to a wall through which I could not pass. I said, "In that case I will devote my life to
beating my head against that wall."[37]

| John Cage

 Dawn columnist Huma Yusuf summarized three main complaints of Yousafzai's critics: "Her fame highlights Pakistan’s most negative aspect (rampant militancy); her education campaign echoes Western agendas; and the West's admiration of her is hypocritical because it overlooks the plight of other innocent victims, like the casualties of U.S. drone strikes."

In the United States, where health experts estimate half of adults will be obese by 2030 unless lifestyle habits change, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says less than 48 percent of adults exercise enough to improve their health.

From Organic Gardening Magazine, July/August 2000 Issue:

Miracle-Gro is a synthetic fertilizer that contains ammonium phosphate and several other chemicals that can be toxic to your soil and plants. It is prohibited from use in certified-organic farming. Here’s what soil expert Robert Parnes, Ph.D., says in his book Fertile Soil: "[Ammonium fertilizer] acidifies the soil, and thus it is probably more harmful to soil organisms than any other nitrogen fertilizer . . . . The application has to be timed carefully and placed properly to avoid burning the leaves and roots . . . . In addition, ammonium tends to inhibit the release of . . . potassium . . . Ammonium fertilizers are deliberately manufactured to be spread at high application rates in order to obtain maximum yields with no regard to adverse effects on the soil. Probably nowhere is the conflict between the mass production of food to feed the world and the preservation of the soil more obvious than in the confrontation over the use of either ammonium fertilizers or liquid ammonia."

And there’s more: long-term studies at the University of Wisconsin have shown that acidic chemical fertilizers are causing serious, permanent damage to our soils. Usually these fertilizers are also highly soluble, so they leach away and pollute our water systems, too. Soil fertility authority Garn Wallace, Ph.D., of Wallace Laboratories in El Segundo, California, points out that Miracle-Gro contains muriate of potash, which contains excess chlorine that will burn plants and inhibit the uptake of nitrogen. Dr. Wallace also warns that products such as Miracle-Gro often contain unsafe levels of zinc and copper that will be toxic to soil life.

It may not be out of place to mention that in a speech made in 1993, Federico
Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, stated:
I am indeed struck by the similarity of the constitution of the Ramakrishna Mission which
Vivekananda established as early as 1897 with that of UNESCO drawn up in 1945. Both
place the human being at the centre of their efforts aimed at development. Both place
tolerance at the top of the agenda for building peace and democracy. Both recognize the
variety of human cultures and societies as an essential aspect of the common heritage




Tell me what you have done. Couldn’t you give away one life for the sake of others? [. . .]
Let this body go in the service of others – and then I shall know you have not come to
me in vain! (Rolland, 1992, p. 166).
Vivekananda


The Light Divine within is obscured in most people. It is like a lamp in a cask of
iron, no gleam of light can shine through. Gradually, by purity and unselfishness,
we can make the obscuring medium less and less dense, until at last it becomes transparent
as glass (CW, vol. VII, p. 21).
Vivekananda






The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves
for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of
philanthropy, and the courage of a lion – is it worth the name? Real education is
that which enables one to stand on one’s own legs (CW, vol. VII, pp. 147–148).

Vivekananda







Vivekananda also observed that, if education is to serve the entire human being,
in all his/her dimensions, the pursuit of knowledge will be a lifelong process. Even
an illustrious being like Sri Ramakrishna said, from his own experience, ‘As long as I
live, so long do I learn.’


To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of
facts’ (CW, vol. VI, p. 38).




It is culture that withstands shocks, not a simple mass of knowledge. [. . .] Knowledge
is only skin-deep, as civilisation is, and a little scratch brings out the old savage (CW,
vol. III, p. 291).





Intellect has been cultured with the result that hundreds of sciences have been discovered,
and their effect has been that the few have made slaves of the many – that is all the good
that has been done. Artificial wants have been created; and every poor man, whether he
has money or not, desires to have those wants satisfied, and when he cannot, he struggles,
and dies in the struggle (CW, vol. I, p. 414).

Waiting for me, you are here. You, the Lord of the worlds, the refuge of all in quest of whom devotees ever roam in this world."

| Gauri-Ma
(Upon Visiting Sri Ramakrishna Dev at the Ganges- at age 25 after 15 years period of elapsed when she was initiated by him in a banana grove at age 10)


It is true that Sri Ramakrishna would often say in everyone's presence, "Gauri Ma is the greatest tapasvini. She is very fortunate and full of holiness." In a serious tone he would add, "Gauri is that gopi who has received the grace of the Lord through many births. She is a gopi from Brindavan."


Name and fame are like the excreta of pigs. Do your work with a detached attitude. You must treat name and fame like garbage. When you go to serve others, if you find lurking in the corner of your heart any desire for praise or prestige, it is like committing suicide in your spiritual life.
| Gauri-Ma


On one such occasion she said to the devotees, "In Durga Saptashati the Divine Mother is described as 'the most beneficent among the beneficent,' 'the fulfiller of wishes.' The Divine Mother fulfills all the wishes of Her devotees. Everything is in Her hands. Like a stubborn child, we hold on to Her sari and pester Her continuously. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'If you cannot do anything else, then be a child who pesters Mother. Have you not seen how a child clings to his mother's sari and insists on candy? The mother goes from one room to another room and the child follows her, still holding on to her sari, grumbling and demanding all the time. She cannot free herself from his grasp. Finally, she relents. It is her own child and she cannot watch him cry for long, so she opens her cupboard, picks him up on her lap, pats him, and calms him.'"
| Gauri-Ma



Another time when she was speaking with some women devotees, Gauri Ma reminded them, "Are you as women less than anybody else? Through the ages, countless sadhus and sannyasins have
been born for the welfare of the universe – they were all born to women. Women are the preservers of society and religion. They have more faith and devotion. If they try, they can realize God more quickly."
| Gauri-Ma


My ideal indeed can be put into a few words and that is: to preach unto mankind their Divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life
| Vivekananda


The American ideal of equality had special appeal to Vivekananda. Prior to coming to America, he had traversed the vast Indian subcontinent. He had witnessed the squalid conditions of its poor and experienced first-hand the great gulf separating the elites from the downtrodden. He lamented the fact that rich and poor would treat him, as a Sannyasin, with great respect and hospitality but would turn a blind eye to those millions suffering at the lowest rung of society. While he had also encountered inequality in America, he noted an important difference. Americans saw inequity as a moral failing to be corrected. In his view, this made American society particularly predisposed to Vedanta.



What is the God of Vedanta? He is principle, not person


I accept all religions that were in the past, and worship them all … I shall keep my heart open for all that may come in the future. Is God’s book finished? Or is it still a continuous revelation going on?




'Unceasing battle is indeed the worship of the Divine [Mother Kali].
Let not continuous defeat in this battle unnerve thee at all. Pulverized, pounded be all
self-centeredness, base cravings and vain self-esteem. The  heart  be  thus  made the  cremation
ground; And let Shyama (the Divine Mother Kali) dance there.'

'Speaking of San Francisco reminds me of a remark he made to me one evening after one of his lectures here. Several of us were walking home with him. I was in front with someone, and he behind with some others. Apropos of something he had been discussing, he said, "You have heard that Christ said, 'My words are spirit and they are life'." He pointed his finger at me and declared, "So are my words spirit and life; and they will burn their way into your brain and you will never get away from them."'

 | MRS. ALICE. M. HANSBROUGH

http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/reminiscences/other_02_amh.htm

I dont like to dance unless You lead me.
If You want me to dance,
You must sing Yourself.
Mechthild

Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others;
that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to
seem some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.
The way in which power works is a mystery
- Schweitzer

Detachment lends one vision
to see clearly and so
to judge correctly;
hence from it springs justice.






And how may fearlessness come to us?

to the measure that the ego is less dominant,
to that measure will fearlessness grow ; and the easiest way to outgrow the ego is to grow towards an ideal.


Hence detachment brings with it
clear and correct judgement . and fearlessness the strength & courage to put into execution the judgement arrived at. so from these two parent qualities are born righteousness.
And how may mercy grow within us ?
It comes in larger or smaller measure, to the extent that we learn to identify ourselves
one with the other.

| Mi Cao Bu of Burma

Was there any use in repeating God’s name
if one did not have love for Him?’ asked a disciple.
‘If you fall into water, whether willingly or
unwillingly, your cloth will get wet all the same,
will it not?’ was her answer that immediately
quietened him.

 | Sri Sarada Devi




Why does one not experience God-absorption,
though one is constantly repeating God’s
name—is a problem that perplexes a spiritual
aspirant occasionally. When the Holy Mother was
asked that question, her practical advice was: ‘It
will come, by and by. But do not give up japa even
if the mind is unwilling and unsteady. You must
go on with the repetition of the name and you
will find that the mind is gradually getting
steadier, like a flame in calm air. Any movement
in the air disturbs the steady burning of a flame;
even so the presence of any thought or desire
makes the mind unsteady. The mantra must be
correctly repeated. As incorrect utterance delays
progress.’

-------------

But, then, a single utterance of the Lord’s name
is as effective as a million repetitions if you do it
with a steady, concentrated mind. What is the use
of repeating the mantra a million times with an
absent mind? You must do it whole-heartedly. Then
only can you deserve his grace,’ was her answer to
a similar question on another occasion.


When a man sees defects in others, his
own mind first gets polluted. What does he gain
by finding faults in others? He only hurts himself
by that.


Just as clouds are blown away by the wind,
so the thirst for material pleasure will be driven
away by the utterance of the Lord’s name

Surely the ‘wonderful things of God’ are all quiet—
stealing unnoticed into our lives—the air and the sunlight
and the sweetness of gardens and of the Ganges


| Sister Nivedita (A Short Life of Holy Mother)
Chief Disciple of Swami Vivekananda

If we are to judge what happens in spiritual life, what are the fruits
of spiritual practice, we must remember one thing. In worldly life,
many of those who have had splendid success did not dream that their
success in life would be so great. They began their life in an
ordinary way, they were struggling, and success began to come. The
greater the success, the greater was their boldness. They began to
aspire for more and more. Success leads to success. In the beginning
they were not so bold.

Einstein was dull when young. His father despaired of him. Afterwards
things came out. So also in spiritual life. Let us not, just in the
beginning, think in terms of the highest. Naturally we shall get
frightened. We shall see a great distance between us and the ideal.
That is not the way to reach the ideal.

In mountain climbing, from the foot of the hill you see first a peak
perhaps one thousand feet high, and what lies beyond is covered. When
you go to the top of that peak, you find another thousand or two
thousand feet above you. I remember the first time I went mountain
climbing. From the foot of the hill we could see, at a great height, a
peak covered with forest. When we reached that peak, we saw another
big peak in front of us. That is what happens in mountain climbing,
until you reach Mount Everest.

This is the way one attains the highest worldly success. Why should
you think, as soon as you feel interested in religion, that the
spiritual struggle is not possible for you because you will not be
able to reach the highest?

| Swami Pavitrananda



 You cannot have
religion, as Swami Vivekananda said, like an Oriental vase to decorate
your table. If you have it as a decoration, it will remain a
decoration. Not even that: it will dry up. Cut flowers will dry up
tomorrow or the next day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Describing the different stages of spiritual life, Buddha said that
first comes the practice of ethical virtues, then faith, then energy.
But that energy is of a different kind. When you have faith, your
energy becomes different. You assert your claim. "Why should truth be
denied to me?" Conviction has arisen. It is not simply a dreamy idea.
>From that conviction comes energy. Ramakrishna used to say to the
Divine Mother. "Thou didst reveal thyself to Ramprasad, so why not to
me?" This is how one prays when energy comes.

Then afterwards comes concentration, afterwards comes wisdom. These
are the higher stages. But as in ordinary life we find our level, in
spiritual life also, according to our struggle, according to the
intensity of our spiritual practice, we shall find our level. But no
one will go hungry if he has real hunger. One will get one's fruits at
the right time. The greater the hunger, the greater the fulfillment.
That is spiritual life.

"Hold your money merely as custodian for what is God's. Have no attachment for it. Let name and fame and money go; they are a terrible bondage. Feel the wonderful atmosphere of freedom. You are free, free, tree! Oh blessed am I! Freedom am I! I am the Infinite! In my soul I can find no beginning and no end. All is my Self. Say this unceasingly."

Once when a student asked him why there is
so much evil in the world, the Swami replied,
" Tulsidas says, ' to the good the world is full
of good, but to the bad the world is full of evil.'
The world is neither good nor bad. What I call
good, you perhaps call bad, and the reverse.
Where is the standard ? The standard is in our
own attitude towards life. Each one has his
own standard. And with increased experience
and insight, the standard changes

|Turiyananda of the Puri Order

It's easy to live forever.
All you have to do is
hunt down a wild elephant
that's lived its whole life
in your heart,
and teach it to go down on one knee
and fan you

One's destiny is in one's own hands — the Guru
only makes this much understood

Vivekanada



Through the power of the seed itself the tree grows,
the air and water are only aids.




Only get your mind to cling to Him as far as you can. For then
only the great magic of this world will break of itself. But then, you must persevere. You
must take off your mind from lust and lucre, must discriminate always between the real
and the unreal — must settle down into the mood of bodilessness with the brooding
thought that you are not this body, and must always have the realisation that you are the
all-pervading Atman. This persevering practice is called Purushakâra (self-exertion — as
distinguished from grace). By such self-exertion will come true reliance on Him, and that
is the goal of human achievement.


Whoever cannot cook well cannot
become a good Sâdhu; unless the mind is pure, good tasteful cooking is not possible

 "The outside world is the projection of your own mind. As you give out to the world, so you receive back from it. It is just like looking into the mirror. The reflection in the mirror exactly shows what faces you make at it."

| Durga_Charan_Nag

“Incarnations arrive to give grihasthas [householders] self-confidence, prestige,
and strength,” the swami says. “Even the incarnations are born in grihastha
families. The entire world, the entire society, depends upon the grihastha.”2
Quoting from the Manu Smriti, he adds, “The grihastha ashrama is the greatest
among the ashramas, because it is only the grihastha who provides food and
education to the people of the other three ashramas.”

| Swami Ranganathananda  of the Puri Order

Swami Akhilananda specialized in the study of psychology. My feeling is
that his thinking may have gone like this: “Most people are not suited for
monastic life. Even in India, out of our huge population only a small percentage
even want to become monks, despite coming from a deeply religious culture that
extols monastic life and glorifies its heroes. Of those who do become monks,
many fail and many more become charlatans.
“The situation of the Americans is infinitely worse. Their secular culture not
only discourages monasticism; it is saturated with materialism and sensuality.
From the time they are born, Americans are bombarded with materialistic and
sensory stimuli that render them completely unfit for monastic life. There may
be a few rare Americans who might make good monks, but it is unlikely that I
shall meet them in this lifetime. If I were to encourage Americans to become
monks, and if they were later to break their monastic vows, they would be guilty
of a great sin. And it would be my fault for having encouraged them.”

“Who taught you all this, Doctor?”
The reply came promptly:
“Suffering.”
—Albert Camus

If people consider every human being to be God, how can they
consider themselves to be superior to others and harbor anger, hatred
and arrogance—or even compassion—toward them? Their minds will
become pure as they serve all beings as God, and soon they will
experience themselves as parts of the blissful God—by nature pure,
illumined and free

| Vivekananda

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach.

| Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Although a man has not studied a single system of philosophy,
although he does not believe in any God, and never has believed,
although he has not prayed even once in his whole life, if the simple
power of good actions has brought him to that state where he is ready
to give up his life and all else for others, he has arrived at the same
point to which the religious man will come through his prayers and
the philosopher through his knowledge; and so you may find that the
philosopher, the worker, and the devotee, all meet at one point, that
one point being self-abnegation. However much their systems of
philosophy and religion may differ, all mankind stand in reverence
and awe before the man who is ready to sacrifice himself for others.
Here, it is not at all any question of creed, or doctrine—even men who
are very much opposed to all religious ideas, when they see one of
these acts of complete self-sacrifice, feel that they must revere it.
—Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works I: 86)

Swami Vivekananda used to say that
advaita means always seeking the cause of the objective in the subjective. That
is, always seeking the cause of outer things within ourselves. Advaita says that
this whole universe exists within my consciousness. So, then, how can I find
fault with others? The whole universe exists within me. As the Ashtavakra
Samhita says, “You alone appear as whatever you perceive. Do armlets,
bracelets, wristlets appear different from the gold they are made of? It is
through your ignorance alone that you see a universe outside of yourself.”

Do you know why a mother has so much love for her children? Because she sees
her own existence in them.



Why are people so attracted to their children, and to
wealth? Because people identify themselves with them. In the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad Yajnavalkya said to his wife Maitreyi: “Verily, not for the sake of the
sons, my dear, are the sons loved, but they are loved for the sake of the self.”
This makes us understand that one feels attraction to a person when one
experiences one’s own existence in him or her. The devotees were attracted to
Holy Mother because they saw their existence in her.

The Butterfly
I’d like to leave you with this story. Think of it when you find life’s
experiences difficult to deal with.
A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening
appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to
force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any
progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no
farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors
and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged
easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled
wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any
moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body,
which would contract in time.
Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling
around with a swollen body and deformed wings. It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the
restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through
the small opening of the cocoon are God's way of forcing fluid from the
body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it
achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles,
that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could
have been. Not only that, we could never fly.
—Origin Unknown

The night, in silence, under many a star,
The river shore, and the husky, whispering waves, whose voice I know,
And the soul turning to Thee, O vast and well-veiled Truth,
And the body gratefully nestling close to Thee.*

Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.”



that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on,—
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul:
While with the eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.


“Lines Composed a Few Miles
above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth


I pervade the whole universe, I am the sustainer of gods.
I am the strength behind the activities of all beings.
| ancient hymn of the Goddess:

Swami Pavitrananda was a man of intense inner feeling. As the young
boy Bhupen Datta, he specially liked the prayer, “O Divine Mother, teach me
how to pray to you, so that by one prayer I shall be saved from praying to
you, life after life. Teach me how to pray once in the right way.”



It is not really so much a matter of belief. It is a matter of
following the appropriate methods and obtaining the result.”
| Swami Bhramanada

He further observed: 'The epithet "mild Hindu" instead of being a word of reproach, ought really to point to our glory, as expressing greatness of character. For see how much moral and spiritual advancement and how much development of the qualities of love and compassion have to be acquired before one can get rid of the brutish force of one's nature, which impels a man to slaughter his brother men for self-aggrandizement!'

All through this wandering life he exchanged ideas with people in all stations and stages of life and impressed everyone with his earnestness, eloquence, gentleness, and vast knowledge of India and Western culture. Many of the ideas he expressed at this time were later repeated in his public lectures in America and India. But the thought nearest to his heart concerned the poor and ignorant villagers, victims of social injustice: how to improve the sanitary condition of the villages, introduce scientific methods of agriculture, and procure pure water for daily drinking; how to free the peasants from their illiteracy and ignorance, how to give back to them their lost confidence. Problems like these tormented him day and night. He remembered vividly the words of Sri Ramakrishna that religion was not meant for 'empty stomachs.'


To his hypochondriac disciple Haripada he gave the following sound advice: 'What is the use of thinking always of disease? Keep cheerful, lead a religious life, cherish elevating thoughts, be merry, but never indulge in pleasures which tax the body or for which you will feel remorse afterwards; then all will be well. And as regards death, what does it matter if people like you and me die? That will not make the earth deviate from its axis! We should not consider ourselves so important as to think that the world cannot move on without us.'



Now the Swami turned his steps towards picturesque Malabar. At Trivandrum, the capital of Travancore, he moved in the company of college professors, state officials, and in general among the educated people of the city. They found him equally at ease whether discussing Spencer or Sankaracharya, Shakespeare or Kalidasa, Darwin or Patanjali, Jewish history or Aryan civilization. He pointed out to them the limitations of the physical sciences and the failure of Western psychology to understand the superconscious aspect of human nature.

Orthodox brahmins regarded with abhorrence the habit of eating animal food. The Swami courageously told them about the eating of beef by the brahmins in Vedic times. One day, asked about what he considered the most glorious period of Indian history, the Swami mentioned the Vedic period, when 'five brahmins used to polish off one cow.' He advocated animal food for the Hindus if they were to cope at all with the rest of the world in the present reign of power and find a place among the other great nations, whether within or outside the British Empire.

| Vivekananda


What caste can a true devotee or the perfect soul have?
When the individual soul merges in God (like rivers in the sea), they can no more have any individuality. So how can there be then, the distinction of caste, as Brahmin, Shudra etc., belonging to the body and never to the soul?
| Yogananda (of Puri Order)

What started for me as an act of civil disobedience back in the ninth grade became a lifelong habit. I cook every day. I cook because I love to eat. And I want control. I don’t want someone else choosing the flavors and textures of my dinner. I cook; therefore, I am.

| Cooking is Freedom (NYT)
JIM SOLLISCH


Food is the most shareable currency we have. You probably don’t pass out money to your friends, but you can pass the paella. But first you have to know how to make it.

 King called the US government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today", as well as the leading exponent of "the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long

In a rare breach of silence surrounding Obama’s 50th birthday bash at the White House in 2011, comedian Chris Rock described a party where entertainers Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder led the dance floor in an electric slide and the president’s daughters did the Dougie.
“I felt like I died and went to black heaven,” he told a Los Angeles audience in 2012. “Think about this [expletive] moment: A bunch of black people doing the [expletive] Dougie in the house that slaves made.”

| NYT - OBAMA on Race Relations and MLK
For Many Who Marched in 1963, Progress Has Seemed Fitful

I'm a 26-year-old woman just starting my career and this is exactly what my mom has always told me. She's a lawyer who was about to make partner when she stopped working to raise my sister and me. Part of that decision was driven by the difficulty she was having being accepted as a full member of the firm while trying to raise kids at the same time and part of it was driven by the fact that she realized she barely knew me during my first year of life.

When she tried to get back into the workforce when my sister and I were teenagers, she had a very difficult time of it, despite her excellent credentials. She has since started a second career and has been working full-time (albeit making much less than she would have had she kept working as a lawyer) for the last 10 years or so.

She has always told me to never stop working, even if it's part-time, and to always make sure you can support yourself, no matter how certain you are that your partner won't leave you.

On a related note, this is one of the reasons my fiance and I are almost certainly only having one child. We think it'll only make it easier for us to both keep working full-time.

NYT Commentator The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In

There was one thing deep in Master's nature that he himself never knew how to adjust. This was his love of his country and the resentment of her suffering. Throughout the years in which I saw him daily, the thought of India was to him like the air he breathed. True, he was a worker at foundations. He neither used the word 'nationality' nor proclaimed an era of 'nation-making'. 'Man Making', he said was his own task. But he was born a lover, and the queen of his adoration was his Motherland. Like some delicately poised bell, thrilled and vibrated at every sound that falls upon it, was his heart to all that concerned her. Not a sob was heard within her shores, that did not find in him, the responsive echo.....

His country's religion, history, geography, ethnology poured from his lips in an inexhaustible stream..... Just as Sri Ramakrishna, in fact, without knowing any book, had been a living epitome of the Vedanta, so was Vivekananda of the national life...But of the theory of this, he was unconscious...

-Excerpts from The Master As I saw Him
Sister Nivedita

She also argued against the prevailing belief that the country’s economic expansion was “pro-poor,” demonstrating that most of the benefits accrued to the rich because there were few mechanisms to let growth trickle down to lower-income households.

#Poor Myth
#Takeda
Economic Analysis of Poverty in Transitional Russia: A Microeconometric Approach

"The studies are clear," says Dr. Walter Willlett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health. "It’s a myth that it’s just the fat in your diet that makes you fat. ... It doesn’t make any difference where your calories come from."

| Dr. Walter Willlett
Harvard School of Public Health

Fat of the Land

What kind of sanity is it that cheers the mining of ever dirtier and more polluting petroleum in a world climate fast changing to conditions where those claiming their sanity can no longer live?

This week, the world marked the passage, upward, of the benchmark 400 ppm atmospheric CO2, the highest it's been since the dinosaurs. We are fast heading toward a climate only dinosaurs can live in, and you claim this sanity?

| In Response to Pipelines :: Enbridge’s (ENB) Northern Gateway pipeline project

There are so many gains from fat talk. It signals submissiveness -- to one's conversational partner, to society. It fishes for compliments (oh, no, not you!) and in a wierd way, it exonerates with a half-hearted helplessness that often gets masqueraded as "self-acceptance.

First friend: “I can’t believe I ate that brownie. I am so fat!”

Second friend: “You must be joking — you are so not fat. Just look at my thighs.”

The second friend’s reply, an “empathetic” self-deprecating retort to maintain the friendship on equal standing, includes reflexive praise of the first friend’s body, supposedly feeding the first friend’s hungry cry for affirmation, Dr. Corning said. But to do so, the second friend has eviscerated herself, a toxic tear-down by comparison.

| NYT

And who said women are the greater sex !?



Rob Poh |

As a graduate student, I had the dubious pleasure of watching primates in social troops behave as primates do. Undoubtedly the experience of those years has shaped my perception of humans-as-primates. Monkeys certainly, and it seems to me humans, interfere with each other's socio-sexual lives. Doing well? Here, let us fix that for you. Fat-talk looks to me an awful lot like the incessant low-level harassment primates employ to keep one another in check while jockeying for social advantage. To some that will sound critical or even cynical, but it seems to me that fat-talk is just one expression of social behavior that tries to balance cooperation and competition.

--------------------

Both sexes do a certain amount of 'our gender only' behavior regulation. Men, a little less, I contend, because they're not nearly as dependent on being liked by members of their own sex, as women are. Guys instead tell larger than life stories about themselves to one another. There's an understanding that the stories are hyperbolic. The dance carries its own limitations. Men don't beat up on one another much once they mature because that's just a stage in their lives. Also, they avoid judging one another once they mature because they've learned from experience its not healthy to judge. There is pressure to succeed by a male standard but usually not enough to create neurosis. I think it comes down to emotional support. Rightly or wrongly, men often try to get along without it. Women seem to have a whole series of emotional needs that have been nurtured during socialization stages of their early lives. I have had women tell me they feel sometimes the need to escape this. That its a relief to have men to work with because the world of women is so constantly challenging.

There’s a line from the Lovin’ Spoonful: ‘You came upon a quiet day, and simply seemed to take your place.  

| Mr.Black
 NYT :: Discovered at age 64; a Brooklyn Artist

I am 62 and started jogging in graduate school in my mid-twenties. I felt good enough in my mid-thirties to complete two NYC marathons and several shorter races. Now I do four-to-six combined run/walk routines on the tread mill per week, covering a little more than three miles per session at about an 11:45 pace. I also do 30-40 minutes a week of weight work and stretching. Had I not started out running all those years ago, there's no way I'd be able to do what I do now.

 | Runner Post- on NYT

The power of the mantra has been explained by Shiva himself in the Netra Tantra, a conversation recorded between Shiva and his wife, Parvati. At the opening of the text Parvati asks, “Your eyes are so beautiful; they are filled with the tears of compassion. How is it possible that from such eyes flared forth the terrible fire capable of reducing death itself to ashes?”

Shiva said, “Be joined in yoga, O Parvati, for only then will you be able to understand how the fire inherent in my eyes is the immortal elixir. The light in my eyes is all-pervading. It faces every direction and it resides in all states of waking, dreaming, and sleep. It is the source of life for all living beings. It can be known only through the practice of yoga, and can never be experienced by those who lack self-effort.

“The light in my eyes is the same as one’s own radiance. It is self-evident. It is the highest form of inner strength. It is eternal and it is ojas (the radiant energy that infuses matter with life). It is the power of will—the indomitable will of the soul. In it lies the seed of omniscience, the power to know, and the power to act. It is through this force, intrinsic to me, that I destroy and I create.

“The whole universe is filled and sustained by this energy. In fact the powers of will, knowledge, and action together are my eyes. They are the source of immortality, the ultimate force of healing and nourishment. They are the embodiment of my radiant vitality. The knowers of mantra science call it Mrityunjaya, “the conqueror of death.” It enables one to attain freedom from all forms of misery, for it is the destroyer of all diseases. Meditation on this brilliant light manifesting in the form of Mrityunjaya mantra cools down the scorching heat of worldly and spiritual poverty. It is pure, peaceful, and unfailing.

“The light of this mantric shakti outshines millions of suns. It is with this fire of radiant divine energy that I destroy the world in a flash and breathe life into it in no time. There is nothing beyond this power….

With this mantra one is able to conquer all one’s enemies (anger, hatred, jealousy, and greed). It is the source of longevity, health, and well-being…. Assuming different forms and shapes, the power of this light, the Mrityunjaya mantra pervades the whole universe. It is the source of all protection, physical, mental, and spiritual. There is no mystery higher than this, the mystery of my eyes, the fire residing in them, and how that fire manifests in the form of Mrityunjaya mantra.”
—Excerpted from the Netra Tantra, translated by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD

As our ox cart came up the road facing Skandasramam, Kunju Swami reminisced, "Bhagavan used to come up this road. The houses at night would be lit up, the doors and windows open, and people would be quiet, just like this. 'This is like the turiya state,' Bhagavan would say, 'All the doors of the senses are wide open, and yet the mind is quiet.'"

There are several striking parallels between the Machu Picchu site and the Shakti culture. The Inca's worshipped Machu Picchu as the manifestation of the Divine Mother Goddess of the Universe. They referred to Her as "Paachamama," a name that bears a striking similarity to the name "Pachaiamman" used for Parvathi in South Indian shrines. [In the early 1900s, the Maharshi spent many months at the Pachaiamman Temple at the foot of the Hill, outside the town of Tiruvannamalai.] The architecture of the temple city was astrologically and astronomically determined. Various points of the city serve as a kind of giant sextant or observatory from where specific constellations and celestial objects can be plotted and observed. A closer look at the topology of the city reveals a striking resemblance to the Sri Chakra, the Meru architectural topology that characterizes Indian Shakti shrines.

You Must Love All

"There never was and never will be a time when all are equally happy or rich or wise or healthy. In fact none of these terms has any meaning except in so far as the opposite to it exists. But that does not mean that when you come across anyone who is less happy or more miserable than yourself, you are not to be moved to compassion or to seek to relieve him as best you can. On the contrary, you must love all and help all, since only in that way can you help yourself. When you seek to reduce the suffering of any fellow-man or fellow-creature, whether your efforts succeed or not, you are yourself evolving spiritually thereby, especially if such service is rendered disinterestedly, without the egoistic feeling 'I am doing this', but in the spirit 'God is making me the channel of this service; He is the doer and I the instrument.'"


Bhagvan Ramana Maharshi
| My Recollections
           Devaraj Mudaliar

There is the light of Uma in your eyes for dispelling your devotees' dark ignorance. Your face gleams lotus-like with the grace and brilliance of Lakshmi. Your words contain the secret lore of Saraswati. Preceptor of the worlds! How can a mortal sing your glory?

| Devotee of Bhagvan Ramana Maharshi

When I knew a little I was blinded by pride as an elephant by rut, and my mind was covered over by the thought, 'I know everything'. But when through the company of the enlightened I learned little by little, then I found that I was a fool and the fever of my pride departed
| Bhavatrihari

We should not lose sight of the scheme of creation and ideal because of our attachment to human relations in this life. Serve them, but seek not your happiness in them. Seek it within where it is eternally flowing. That is the only way to serve and be happy in life.

I always think of the brilliant biologist/writer Rachel Carson's words when accepting the John Borroughs Medal for Environmental Science Writing for "Under the Sea Wind", prior to her courageous defense of the natural world in Congressional hearings and her landmark book The Silent Spring: ""I myself am convinced that there has never been a greater need than there is today for the reporter and interpreter of the natural world. Mankind has gone very far into an artificial world of his own creation. He has sought to insulate himself, in his cities of steel and concrete, from the realities of earth and water and the growing seed. Intoxicated with a sense of his own power, he seems to be going farther and farther into more experiments for the destruction of himself and his world. For this unhappy trend there is no single remedy - no panacea. But I believe that the more clearly we can focus on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for its destruction"

ONE day it was suggested to Sri Maharshi that no spiritual progress could ever be made without sadhana, or discipline. After a pause he made these observations: "Mind it is that binds man, and the same mind it is that liberates him. Mind is constituted of sankalpa and vikalpa desire and disposition. Desire is of two kinds the noble and the base. The base desires are lust and greed. Noble desire is directed towards enlightenment and emancipation. Base desire contaminates and clouds the understanding. Sadhana is easy for the aspirant who is endowed with noble desires. Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over. This is the essence of all spiritual discipline!"

We enjoy the heat because we have felt cold. We value the light, because we know the darkness. And we understand happiness because we have known sadness.

| Taxi - Cab Dancer in NY  [Open-City Mag]

For all those men who say, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free,” here’s an update for you. Now 80 percent of women are against marriage, why? Because women realize it’s not worth buying an entire pig, just to get a little sausage.

| Andy Rooney

Always, always the encircling sea,
eternal : lazylapping, crisscrossed with stillness;
Or windruffed, aglitter with gold.....
Her lullaby, her singing, her moaning; on sand,
On shingle, on breakwater, and on rock;
By sunlight, starlight, moonlight, darkness:
I must always be remembering the sea.

There will fall on my restless spirit
A calm, oh so wonderful sweet
And I shall cross over the river
To rest at my Savior's feet.

| Frank Collymore

We are not prompted solely by the defining of our identities but by their relation to everything possible as well– the mutual mutations generated in this interplay of relations

| Edouard Glissant

There are some things that you know to be true, and others that you know to be false; yet, despite this extensive knowledge that you have, there remain many things whose truth or falsity is not known to you. We say that you are uncertain about them. You are uncertain, to varying degrees, about everything in the future; much of the past is hidden from you; and there is a lot of the present about which you do not have full information. Uncertainty is everywhere and you cannot escape from it.

Dennis Lindley
Understanding Uncertainty

Reasons for action

Williams's insistence that morality is about people and their real lives, and that acting out of rational self-interest and even selfishness are not contrary to moral action, is illustrated in his "internal reasons for action" argument, part of what philosophers call the "internal/external reasons" debate. Philosophers have tried to argue that moral agents can have "external reasons" for performing a moral act; that is, they are able to act for reasons that are independent of their inner mental states. Williams argued that this is meaningless. For something to be a "reason to act," it must be "magnetic"; that is, it must move people to action. Williams argued that something entirely external to us – for example, the proposition that X is good – cannot do this, because cognition (belief) is not magnetic; a person must feel something before they are moved to act. He argued that reasons for action are always internal – that is, they always boil down to desire

| Bernard Williams

Gregory packs have defined quality, comfort, and fit for the past 30 years. It’s hard to imagine that Wayne Gregory first operated the now hugely successful company with little more than a sewing machine and a Volkswagen van. Party on, Wayne.

Workers in microwave popcorn factories have actually developed an extremely rare form of lung cancer from inhaling fumes. If that isn’t enough of a reason to avoid the stuff, here’s another: the lining of the bags contains perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a substance that has been linked to several other forms of cancer and infertility. Plus, so many microwave popcorns are loaded with bad fats and sodium. Homemade air-popped popcorn can actually be a health food, believe it or not, so stick to that for your next movie night.

Basil and oregano contain large amounts of (E)-beta-caryophyllene (BCP), which might have a use in treating inflammatory bowel diseases and arthritis. BCP is the only product identified in nature that activates CB2 selectively; it interacts with one of two cannabinoid receptors (CB2), blocking chemical signals that lead to inflammation, without triggering cannabis's mood-altering effects.[12]

The German nation lost its autonomy completely and has never been able to recover it. The socialist Carlo Schmidt, one of the experts in international law that were asked to elaborate the German ‘basic law’ (‘Grundgesetz’ – the FRG does not have a real constitution) under American supervision said about the new American client state Federal Republic of Germany:

This organization as a state-like entity, of course, can go very far. However, it will always be different from a democratically legitimated state because the self-organization in the face of not existing liberty depends on the acceptance of a superior foreign power as the legitimate ruler; it thus is noting more than the organized form of a modality of foreign domination.


| http://carolynyeager.net/

 No other wise and kind medicine man would love me the way he did. I realized: my dad had been my Prozac.

| Nicole Bokat

Glory of Motherhood


And I know that every boy idolizes his mom, but my mom was really something else. And I think the determining factor was that she had a way of instilling in us this fact, this idea that she had expectations of her children. 

| Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Pitts Jr. (Becoming Dad)

If—
BY RUDYARD KIPLING
(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you  
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;  
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;  
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,  
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Unfortunately, well-educated people resist this, convinced that there actually is a recipe for guaranteed marital success that goes something like this: Add a postgraduate education to a college degree, toss in a visible amount of career success and a healthy helping of wealth, let simmer in a pan of sexual variety for several years, allow to cool and settle, then serve. Presto: a marriage with math on its side.

| Mark Regnerus -- Freedom to Marry Young


Michigan State ecologists estimate that the extra households created by divorce cost the nation 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and more than 600 billion gallons of water in a year. That's a mighty big carbon footprint created in the name of solitude.

Maatu hamru, paani hamru, hamra hi chhan yi baun bhi... Pitron na lagai baun, hamunahi ta bachon bhi"
Soil ours, water ours, ours are these forests. Our forefathers raised them, it’s we who must protect them.
-- Old Chipko Song

| The original tree huggers

Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European mind



|
An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1975), a hard-hitting critique of Conrad in which he says the author turned the African continent into "a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognisable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril", asking------

 Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (Dead March 22/13)


Achebe has twice rejected the Nigerian government's attempt to name him a Commander of the Federal Republic – a national honour – first in 2004, and second in 2011. In 2004 he wrote that "for some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the presidency … Nigeria's condition today under your watch is, however, too dangerous for silence. I must register my disappointment and protest by declining to accept the high honour awarded me in the 2004 honours list."

Hes so Hot !!!!!!!!!!
I Love Yhu !!!!!! ♥
I Wonder How Big His Dick His . 0.o


 | Teresa - Commentator in response to the Biebs appearing without a top on somewhere in the UK.


He is a handsome kid, no doubt, with dumb-ass tattoos but aint nothing wurstkuche
 I would look good with a six pack.


#justin-bieber-shirtless-london-birthday-pics-girls

“You attracted people who were not yet buffed by rejection or molded into conventional ways of doing things,” he continued. “You weren’t afraid to make a mistake.”

Do not be sad if you struggle.
There are no intentions of God, to let prevail the wealthy.
All asked of you, is for your benefit.
But in the end, it is only how often you recalled Her
that will have any merit.

Your life is for you,
your success and failures.
But within the recesses of our hearts
She is ever waiting.

She never left these shores, but I feel the separation all the same

Composer Leonard Bernstein once said that in order to achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time

A tidal wave of sorrow overtakes me.

What is it that others know that I do not?

Alone, who awaits your unexpected arrival.

Yesterday a friends niece turned 13. They had a surprise party for her at his brothers home.
It occurred to me, who celebrates the SatGuru ?

I know the Bible says Jesus turned water into wine , but it never said liquor store wine

Old lady in 'Bernie'

Must have been non alcoholic

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important...they do not mean to do harm...they are absorbed in their endless struggle to think well of themselves.

One should never direct people towards happiness, because happiness too is an idol of the market-place. One should direct them towards mutual affection. A beast gnawing at its prey can be happy too, but only human beings can feel affection for each other, and this is the highest achievement they can aspire to.


 Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Cold showers provide a gentle form of stress that leads to thermogenesis (internal generation of body heat), which in turn activates the body’s adaptive repair systems. If you suffer from chronically cold hands and feet, or feel that you sweat an abnormal amount, try a cold shower.

In a society where youth is the supreme value; where wrinkles have to be camouflaged; where old people are hidden as soon as they become cumbersome, where, for lack of time or desire, it is easier to put our elders in hospices rather than take care of them, I wanted to show that happiness in aging was also possible.


Mamika: My Might Little Grandmother

In the lonely cottage of my heart I will place Him (my Ideal) , who is the Lord of my heart and soul, and will spend this life with Him in happiness and Divine bliss.

|The Path of Devotion
Swami Paramanada of the Puri order

Russia will ban imports of meat from U.S. turkeys because of the industry's use of the feed additive ractopamine after saying it would ban imports of all U.S. pork and feed earlier this week

|Source: Bloomberg

The absolute best is the following exercise which I got from brother-in-law who actually is a Hospital of Special Surgery trained orthopedic surgeon specializing in joint replacement (and a great guy--my sister did well). It is pretty simple:

After you stretch, put on ankle weights on both ankles, start with 2-3 pounds and you can eventually move up to 5 pounds or higher as needed. Then lie flat on your back with both heels on the floor. Raise your right leg about 6 inches off the ground and draw the alphabet. Draw the letter A, the B, etc. with your foot. See how far you can go. Once you can't go any further drop your right leg and do the same with your left. Do this three times with for each leg. After several days you should be able to go through the whole alphabet and at that point increase the weight and start again.

Why the alphabet? Well your quads (which support the patella) are made up of multiple muscles and the up, down, lateral and twisting movement in drawing the letters strengthens each muscle. This has side benefits for core strength as well.

The Chinese are like raging barbarians.


"I pray that my aspirations will be fulfilled. If you are your mother’s son - rise up. Sons of the Land of Snows - rise up. Singers of the Snow Land - rise up. May His Holiness the Dalai Lama live for thousands of aeons. My respect to the white snow lion (symbol of Tibet). My prayers for happiness in Tibet."
"Father and mother, it is my hope that you will take care of yourselves. You are the most loving people in this world. I will repay your kindness in my next life."


[Jigjey Kyab]
He made an attempt to self-immolate but he apparently died before he could set himself on fire

Mother to Son
BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Nothing had ever obliged him to do anything. He had spent his childhood alone. He never joined any group. He never pursued a course of study. He never belonged to a crowd. The circumstances of his life were marked by that strange but rather common phenomenon – [perhaps, in fact, it’s true for all lives] – of being tailored to the image and likeness of his instincts, which tended towards inertia and withdrawal.


The Book of Disquiet

“I’m nothing.
I’ll always be nothing.
I can’t want to be something.
But I have in me all the dreams of the world.”

Pessoa

It is important in life to conclude things properly.
Only then can you let go.
Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did,
and your heart is heavy with remorse.

| Pi

Oaktown Spice Shop  |OAKLAND

http://www.yelp.com/biz/oaktown-spice-shop-oakland

Humorist Will Rogers:
I'm not a member of any organized political party.
I am a Democrat.