Living in Flow

Adapted from Power, Freedom, and Grace, by Deepak Chopra (Amber Allen, 2006).

When you are conceived, all you are is a double strand of DNA—a speck of information and intelligence that differentiates into a hundred trillion cells, which then become a fully formed baby with eyes, nose, ears, brain, arms, legs, genitals. You didn’t do anything to make that happen, and yet you made it happen. In that blueprint, that speck of information is a plan for when your teeth will grow out, when you will reach puberty, when you will generate sex hormones, so you can produce another human being. It is spontaneity, with effortless ease, with no resistance. The impulse of the universe is coming through you in the form of that double strand of DNA.

Now if you can make a hundred trillion cells without any confusion, if each cell can do its own unique thing and correlate its activity with every other cell without any confusion, it’s because of the intelligence of the universe is flowing through that speck of DNA, which you can’t even see under a microscope. So the best thing you can do is to allow it to happen. It isn’t wise to interfere with it.

And how do you interfere with this intelligence? In spiritual terms, we can say that you interfere when you identify with your self-image and lose your inner self; when you lose your sense of connection with your soul, your source. In more common terms, we can say that you interfere when you start worrying, when you start anticipating problems, when you start thinking, What can go wrong? When you try to control everything, when you are afraid, when you feel isolated—all these things interfere with the flow of nature’s intelligence.

Your inner self is your innate intelligence; it is being becoming. It is your ability to create, to grow, to evolve, to express. Your self-image is the indoctrination by society, by education; it’s the image you have created for yourself based on what other people think of you. As soon as you sacrifice the self for self-image you lose divinity for something that is illusory and doesn’t exist. The self-image is a hallucination; it isn’t even real, but it interferes with the flow of intelligence.

More Information about Deepak Chopra:

Intentblog

Care2 Profile: Deepak Chopra

DeepakChopra.com

Chopra.com

Random House: Deepak Chopra

Watchman: Profiles: Deepak Chopra

How To Plant Your Garden

First, you Come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses....

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING,
PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:

1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:

1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:

1. Lettuce be faithful

2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:

1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnip for service
3. Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:

1. Thyme for each other
2.. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends

WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE.

From: penniless fairy

How Well Are You Doing at Being a Responsible Integral Global Citizen?

People fight passionately for their human rights, but these rights also have their corresponding and equally important responsibilities. This quiz and article is the responsibility-side companion to the the rights defined in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As you review it, you may find yourself repeatedly surprised by the integral perspectives held within every true global citizen's social and spiritual responsibilities.

Much of its content of the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities below was written by members and clergy from the world’s spiritual denominations. It is recognized by our organization, Integrative Spirituality, as part of our statement of "good citizen" responsibilities that we encourage our members to embrace in order to better live a congruent spiritual lifestyle in the globalized 21st century. Recently, we have added new responsibilities not seen anywhere else in any other versions of this article.

As you read it, use it as a quiz to see how you are doing.

The Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities


WE PROCLAIM

Fundamental Principles for Humanity:

Article 1
Every person, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, race, social status, political opinion, language, age, nationality, or religion, has a responsibility to treat all people in a humane way.

Article 2
No person should lend support to any form of inhumane behavior, but all people have a responsibility to strive for the dignity and self-esteem of all others.

Article 3
No person, no group or organization, no state, no army or police stands above good and evil; all are subject to ethical standards. Everyone has a responsibility to promote good and to avoid evil in all things.

Article 4
All people, endowed with reason and conscience, must accept a responsibility to each and all, to families and communities, to races, nations, and religions in a spirit of solidarity: What you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not do to others.

Non-Violence and Respect for Life:

Article 5
Every person has a responsibility to respect life. No one has the right to injure, to torture or to kill another human person. This does not exclude the right of justified self-defense of individuals or communities.

Article 6
Every human being is always to be treated as an end, never as a mere means, always as a subject of rights, never as a mere object, whether in business, politics, communication, scientific research or other areas of life. No person or organization has the right to use undue psychological influence, coercive psychological tactics or any form of physical or technological mind control that robs the individual of the meaningful execution of their informed consent or free will.

Article 7
Disputes between states, groups or individuals should be resolved without violence. No government should tolerate or participate in acts of genocide or terrorism, nor should it abuse women, children, or any other civilians as instruments of war. Every citizen and public official has a responsibility to act in a peaceful, non-violent way.

Article 8
Every person is infinitely precious and must be protected unconditionally.

Article 9
The lives of animals and plants which inhabit this planet with us likewise deserve protection, preservation, and care. That is, we humans are a part of nature, not apart from nature. Hence, as beings with the capacity of foresight we bear a special responsibility - especially with a view to future generations - for the air, water, and soil, that is, for the earth, and even the Kosmos.

Justice and Solidarity:

Article 10
Every person has a responsibility to behave with integrity, honesty and fairness. No person or group should rob or arbitrarily deprive any other person or group of their property.

Article 11
Property, limited or large, carries with it an obligation; ownership not only permits the personal use of property but also entails the responsibility to serve the common good.

Article 12
All people, given the necessary tools, have a responsibility to make serious efforts to overcome poverty, malnutrition, ignorance, and inequality. They should promote sustainable development all over the world in order to assure dignity, freedom, security and justice for all people.

Article 13
Economic and political power should not be misused as instruments of domination, but for service to humanity. Therefore mutual respect and the will to mediation should be fostered so as to reach a reasonable balance of interests in a sense of moderation and fairness.

Article 14
Wherever rulers repress the ruled, institutions threaten persons, or might oppresses right, human beings have not only the right but the responsibility to resist - always initially and whenever possible non-violently.

Article 15
All people have a responsibility to develop their talents through diligent endeavor; they should have equal access to education and to meaningful work. Everyone should lend support to the needy, the disadvantaged, the disabled and to the victims of discrimination.

Article 16
All property and wealth must be used responsibly in accordance with justice and for the advancement of the human race. Economic and political power must not be handled as an instrument of domination, but in the service of economic justice and of the social order.

Truthfulness and Tolerance:

Article 17
Every person has a responsibility to speak and act truthfully. No one, however high or mighty, should speak lies. The right to privacy and to personal and professional confidentiality is to be respected.

Article 18
No politicians, public servants, members of the military, intelligence agency members, business leaders, scientists, writers or artists are exempt from general or universal human ethical standards and law, nor are physicians, lawyers and other professionals who have special duties to clients.

Professional and other codes of ethics should reflect the priority of general standards such as those of truthfulness and fairness.

Article 19
The freedom of the media to inform the public and to criticize institutions of society and governmental actions, which is essential for a just society, must be used with responsibility and discretion. Freedom of the media carries a special responsibility for accurate and truthful reporting. Sensational reporting that degrades the human person or dignity must at all times be avoided. The communications media, to whom the freedom to report for the sake of truth is entrusted and to whom the office of guardian granted, do not stand above ethics but have the obligation to respect human dignity, human rights, and fundamental values. They are duty-bound to objectivity, fairness, and humaneness. Hence, they have no right to intrude into individuals' private spheres, manipulate public opinion, or distort reality.

Article 20
While religious freedom must be guaranteed, the representatives of religions have a special responsibility to avoid expressions of prejudice and acts of discrimination toward those of different beliefs. They should not incite or legitimize hatred, fanaticism and religious wars, but should foster tolerance and mutual respect between all people. Nor should the representatives of religions ever physically or mentally harm or abuse their own members or those they deem to be adversarial to their religious beliefs.

Mutual Respect and Partnership:

Article 21
All individuals and groups are obliged not to treat other persons as mere sex objects or disadvantage them because of their sexuality. No one should subject another person to sexual exploitation or dependence. Rather, sexual partners should accept the responsibility of caring for each other's well-being and should treat each other in their sexual and kindred relationships with respect and as equal partners.

Article 22
Marriage, which, despite its cultural and religious variety, should be characterized by love, loyalty, and permanence and guarantee mutual security and support.

Article 23
Sensible family planning is the responsibility of every couple. The relationship between parents and children should reflect mutual love, respect, appreciation and concern. No parents or other adults should exploit, abuse or maltreat children.

Article 24
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any state, secretive government agency, group, corporation or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the responsibilities, rights and freedom set forth in this Declaration and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

Conclusion:

Our world is precious, fragile and beautiful. The earth and her people need to be cherished and nurtured with care and vision. They can survive and flourish only if a shared world ethic is both affirmed and followed.

As women and men who embrace precepts and practices of the spiritual wisdom of the world's religions:

WE ACKNOWLEDGE that we have fallen short of these guidelines and principles. In many places our world is broken and in agony. In many places the suffering is so pervasive that we must urgently recognize the anguish so that the depth of weeping and pain may be made clear. In many places peace and justice is elusive... the planet is being destroyed...neighbors live in fear... women and men are estranged from one another... the young die needlessly.

WE CONFESS our complicity in this tragedy. We have too often failed in the interpretations or the living of our traditions and thus contributed to injustice.. We seek divine and human forgiveness, so that we might begin afresh to live together a global ethic.

A global ethic challenges and helps to heal the abuses of earth's ecosystem; the poverty that stifles life's potential; the hunger that weakens the human body; the economic disparities that threaten so many families and nations with ruin; the social disarray of the nations; the disregard for justice which pushes citizens to the margin; the anarchy overtaking communities; the insane death from violence. In particular, a global ethic helps correct all exploitation, aggression and hatred committed in the name of religion.

WE BELIEVE a global ethic is necessary for healing and celebrating life. This ethic offers the possibility of a better individual and global order, and leads individuals away from dispute and societies away from chaos.

WE PLEDGE ourselves as members of society and the world's religions to implement this global ethic in order to sustain our precious, fragile, and beautiful world; in order to serve and to understand one another better, and in order to hold one another accountable for creating ways that lead to justice and peace.

WE INVITE ALL PEOPLE TO MAKE THIS PLEDGE IN THEIR OWN WORDS AND DEEDS:

- Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world and implies obligations or responsibilities,

- whereas the exclusive insistence on rights can result in conflict, division, and endless dispute, and the neglect of human responsibilities can lead to lawlessness and chaos,

- whereas the rule of law and the promotion of human rights depend on the readiness of men and women to act justly,

- whereas global problems demand global solutions which can only be achieved through ideas, values, and norms respected by all cultures and societies,

- whereas all people, to the best of their knowledge and ability, have a responsibility to foster a better social order, both at home and globally, a goal which cannot be achieved by laws, prescriptions, and conventions alone,

- whereas human aspirations for progress and improvement can only be realized by agreed values and standards applying to all people and institutions at all times,we hereby proclaim our agreement with and action based support for the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities.


From: http://www.integrativespirituality.org/postnuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=494&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

This article is derived also in part from the following web documents:
http://www.interactioncouncil.org/udhr/udhr.htmlÂ
http://astro.temple.edu/~dialogue/Antho/unesco.htmÂ
http://users.online.be/interfaith_guidelines/paginas/6andere teksten/global ethic draft text, chicago 1993.htm

Create Your Own Reality

Adapted from Power, Freedom, and Grace by Deepak Chopra (Amber-Allen Publishing, 2006).

Our senses tell us that events happen within space and time. There is a past, present and future, and the world operates through linear cause-effect relationships. I have to walk from here to there, from one location to another. This causes a timeline to appear.

That is how our senses experience the world, but in fact the world is not like that. The world is synchronistic, it's coincidental, it's happening simultaneously. Infinite possibilities coexist at the same time. Everything is happening all at once, and everything is correlated and instantly synchronized with everything else. This simultaneity can only happen through what is called infinite correlation. Infinite correlation is the ability to do an infinite number of things and correlate them with one another at the same time.

SIMPLE SOLUTION: Physicists no longer use the word time; they use the term space-time continuum because they know that time is a relative phenomenon; it's not absolute. The movement of planet Earth spinning on its axis and hurling around the sun at thousands of miles per hour creates our experience of time. But time is an illusion; it's an internal dialogue we use to explain our experience or perception of change and relationship.

How does all of this apply to us? Well, the way we interpret the concept of time—how we metabolize our experience of time—brings about distinct physiological changes in the body-mind.

In the present, you can experience the past; in the present, you can anticipate the future. But if you can stay in the present, if you can be with the present, then even the physical changes that normally occur with the passage of time will not occur in your body. There is a saying from a Vedic master: "The only reason people grow old and die is that they see other people growing old and dying."

Compassion is the Gateway to True Love

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


*Love for your mother, father and siblings is natural and organic. We can have love for our partner if we have one and love for past partners. To have unconditional or true love is to love other beings whether or not they love you or even like you.~dharma teaching.


True love is the answer to all problems, pain and suffering. If you have true love and compassion for your fellow man then you shall inflict no harm. Love is an earnest and anxious desire for and an active and beneficent interest in the well-being of the one loved. Yet, at times, you will feel a rage of anger, frustration and wish your fellow man ill not because you hate her but because modern views of compassion has taught us this.

Common definitions of compassion read like the following: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. There is a strong desire to 'get your point across' to the one loved to help them release their pain and problems. These definitions create the idea that compassion requires us to join another in their misery and can lead to you becoming angry and sometimes wishing them ill for making you feel so terrible. Does this really help anyone? We may need a definition of compassion that is more powerful. For true compassion we will have to expand our understanding so we don’t mistakenly create more sorrow from suffering.


Think of the modern definition of compassion is not true. Say to yourself: What if compassion does not allow us to feel the suffering or pain of another? What if compassion is simply the active expression of acceptance for the world and people just as they are?

In Buddhist practices sadness, sorrow, and pity are referred to as the near enemies of compassion. Being compassionate involves understanding the suffering of another without feeling sorrow or pity. When there are these emotions, compassion has turned into personal unhappiness and only adds to suffering. Feeling the emotional pain of another doesn’t relieve their suffering. In actuality it adds to the collective field of unconsciousness creating suffering.

An example of Buddhist logic:
If you see a peron suffering and unhappy then you would feel sad for her. Now there are two unhappy people. If two people saw the two unhappy people and took the same approach then there would be four people suffering over frustration and sadness. Four more people could feel saddened and frustrated by our plight and then there would be eight more unhappy.If we keep going in this direction the whole world would end up feeling sorrow and pity because one person was unhappy. As you see, now we have several unhappy people and most will agree that unhappiness is harmful and a form of suffering.


"Just as compassion is a natural effect of true love for just being, so ahimsa or ‘non-harming’ is a natural effect of compassion. If we feel true compassion and tenderness for the feelings of others, we will automatically take care not to do any action that might cause any harm or suffering. Therefore the most important quality that we should strive to cultivate is the true love to subside and rest in our natural state of self-conscious being." [from the Happiness of Being: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana]




A Zen teaching:
Empathy Practice. The first step in cultivating compassion is to develop empathy for your fellow human beings. Many of us believe that we have empathy, and on some level nearly all of us do. But many times we are centered on ourselves (I’m no exception) and we let our sense of empathy get rusty. Try this practice: Imagine that a loved one is suffering. Something terrible has happened to him or her. Now try to imagine the pain they are going through. Imagine the suffering in as much detail as possible. After doing this practice for a couple of weeks, you should try moving on to imagining the suffering of others you know, not just those who are close to you.

A Buddhist teaching:
Compassion can take active forms - helping others who are having difficulties of whatever kind (mental, emotional, physical) - but can also be seen as a broad approach inherent in all that one does. Knowing that all beings are suffering in some way, compassion can become a permanent part of one's mindset. If something practical can't be done, then there is the inner feeling of concern for all beings and a desire for their suffering to be alleviated.


A Jainism teaching:
The teaching of ahimsa (non-violence) refers not only to wars and visible physicalacts of violence but to violence in the hearts and minds of human beings, their lack of concern and compassion for their fellow humans and for any other living being. Ancient Jain texts explain that violence (Himsa) is not defined by actual harm, for this may be unintentional. It is the intention to harm, the absence of compassion that makes action violent. Without violent thought there could be no violent actions.In a positive sense ahimsa means caring for and sharing with all living beings, tending, protecting and serving them. It entrails universal friendliness (maitri), universal forgiveness (kshama)and universalfearlessness (abhaya).


Compassion knows no limits; there are no exceptions. Compassion is continuing learning process. There is never a point when one can say "I'm compassionate enough" or "I'm done being compassionate with you". That way of thinking is not compassion. True compassion is infinite, it knows no boundaries.

Once we learn true empathy we can develop true compassion. Once we learn true compassion we can develop true love for our fellow man as strong as we love those close to us.



Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. - Confucius



References:
http://zenhabits.net/
http://happinessofbeing.blogspot.com/
http://trueanduseful.eponym.com/blog
http://www.pathwaytohappiness.com/index.htm