Leo Tolstoy on God

LEO TOLSTOY ON GOD: "When you look inside yourself, you see what is called 'your own self' or your soul. You cannot touch it or see it or understand it, but you know it is there. And this part of yourself--that which you cannot understand--is what is called God. God is both around us and inside of us--in our souls.

The more you understand that you are at one with God, the more you will understand that you are at one with all His worldly manifestations."

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Book Review: "My Stroke of Insight" by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor


"I felt like a genie liberated from its bottle," that's all I could think of after I'd finished reading Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's recounting of her experience having a stroke in "Stroke of Insight."

I don't think she'd disagree with me either for having those recurring thoughts. She'd placed a vivid image to explain this line,"it was obvious to me that I would never be able to squeeze the enormousness of my spirit back inside this tiny cellular matrix" [that was her body].



She awoke one day in December 1996, on what should have been an ordinary day in her life as a neuroanatomist, realizing that she was having a stroke at age 37!

What is a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, who focuses on the functioning of the brain, to do?


She paid attention and recorded in her mind each step of her experience!

"I had become a pile of waste, leftovers, but I still retained a consciousness. A consciousness that was different from the one I had known before, however, because my left hemisphere had been packed with details about how to make sense of the world."

At the time the stroke was unfolding, she obviously did not think of "recording" it! But to read her full details of the day it happened, and the how, what and why of the experience, you know that somewhere...somehow...she'd managed to keep a detailed "record" of the event.

"My Stroke of Insight" is a fascinating recounting of Jill Taylor's life before and after the stroke.

What winds up happening at the end is that Jill Taylor has been able to provide us all with keen and clear insights into the functions performed by the right and left hemispheres of our brains. This time, even scientists cannot question her wisdom, as she IS one of them!

Despite the negatives of the tremendous suffering she must have endured and the slow crawl back to mental wholeness and wellness, this book should be considered as one of God's gift to us all!


It offers a straightforward look at why some people who are more right-brained than left tend to be more emotional, more into "feeling," than those who are left-brained oriented.


Jill Bolte Taylor writes:

"Our right brain perceives the big picture and recognizes that everything around us, about us, among us and within us is made up of energy particles tha are woven together into a universal tapestry.

Since everything is connected, there is an intimate relationship between the atomic space around and within me, and the atomic space around and within you---regardless of where you are. On an energetic level, if I think about you, send good vibrations your way, hold you in the light, or pray for you, then I am consciously sending my energy to you with a healing intention."


Enjoy these other soulful insights:

"Everything around us, about us, among us, within us and between us is made up of atoms and molecules vibrating in space.

Although the ego center of our language center prefers defining our self as individual and solid, most of us are aware that we are made up of trillions of cells, gallons of water, and ultimately everything about us exists in a constant and dynamic state of activity."

"My right hemisphere is all about right here, right now...

"My right mind is all about the richness of this present moment. It is filled with gratitude for my life and everyone and everything in it. It is content, compassionate, nurturing and eternally optimistic.."




About the left hemisphere, she writes:

"Our left brain truly is one of the finest tools in the universe when it comes to organizing information. My left hemisphere personality takes pride in its ability to categorize, organize, describe, judge, and critically analyze absolutely everything. It thrives in its constant contemplation and calculation. Regardless of whether or not my mouth is running, my left mind stays busy theorizing, rationalizing and memorizing.

"It is a perfectionist and an amazing housekeeper of corporation or home. It constantly says, 'everything has a place and everything belongs in its place.'"


You will enjoy the richness of her spiritual experience:

"My soul was as big as the universe and frolicked with glee in a boundless sea."

Or



"Clearly, we are each trillions upon trillions of particles in soft vibration. We exist as fulid-filled sacs in a fluid world where everything exists in motion."


You will be filled with compassion for this single woman, living alone, who managed to inch her way through remembering her colleague's number at work and find a way to call him for help:

"To my great fortune, my colleague and good friend, Dr. Stephen Vincent, was sitting at his desk...

"This is Jill. I need help!"




Even as I write this, I feel touched by the knowingness of TRUTH:

Each day we interact with people at work and do not KNOW the day we may need them to come to our aid, perhaps, in one of our most desperate...or final moments! Had Stephen Vincent NOT been there...had he NOT recognized her voice, which she describes sounded like "grunts and groans," who knows what the outcome may have been.

So many lessons we learn...so many truths...so many insights...


from "My Stroke of Insight!"

Pick up a copy and like me, you'll read and absorb it all in ONE swift stroke to the right brain!

Namaste',
Che'


NOTE: Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor also can be seen on a YouTube Video that has been widely viewed throughout the world. She also was a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show in 2009, which is when I first heard her presentation.

Monday, July 12, 2010

"Shake the Dust Off Your Feet..."

I dedicate this blog to some beautiful people I know: first, the BEST friendship I've had from a stranger: Scott P. I also give a special thank you to: Sereena J, Kiersten S, Santino W, Marina B, Maria T, Armando L, Shawn L, Mario A, Jason S, Russell H, Chris A, Henry F, Joel and Ron B, and especially, especially, Ben B...



Matthew 10:14 +18

..."And whosoever shall not receive you and hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet...


"...Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
"


Sometimes we're given an assignment that just comes from the Soul.

We wonderful WHY here, WHY now???

Over time, it becomes evident that we're being called to a time and place because that's WHERE we belong at that time ...

We follow...we go ...we do.

We're even more thrilled when we begin having FUN on this assignment of the Soul.

When folks, strangers all, begin to hug and love you, just the way you are...



They don't know your history; they don't seem to care.
They don't know your story; they create one with just you and them.

These are the folks that make it so very, very easy to love and be a light and simply to BE HAPPY!


Because this is an assignment of the Soul, you begin to look around to see the others... troubled folks in your midst...

They are evident with their sad or long faces ...or simply a vacuous look that you know came from too many blows to their psyche...

You reach out...in any way you can...

I buy gifts...anything I think would give them HOPE, CONFIDENCE AND PEACE...

You see them smile.

You are happy and settle into their midst.

Then slowly ...

the injuries they'd sustained to their psyche begin
to come forward again.

Whatever had transpired before you were even in their consciousness...suddenly makes YOU their target.

They look around and see...

"Ah...those DARN GIFTS...those DARN GIFTS...she gave me!!!!

They JINXED ME.

I am NOT ABLE...

I CAN'T ...

because of HER!"


The fingers begin to point.

The bruises begin to appear...

The love you'd felt SO STRONG FOR ALL...

simply wanting to love and BE LOVE...

begins to choke you...

as you begin to swallow back...

the hurt and pain...

of gifts returned.

"Yes, they are jinxed." You, too, begin to believe.

You take them to the Thrift Shop, where people trying to build histories, just long to hold something of their own.

They don't know they are jinxed.

You drop them off there...

one...

by ...

one...as you see them ...

abandoned....

left everywhere.

Eventually, though, you begin to see,

it is so MUCH MORE than about the returned gifts...

It's about people attempting to STEAL YOUR ESSENCE...YOUR LIGHT...YOUR LOVE...


FOR PEOPLE...FOR THE WORLD...

As your light grows dim...

You have two choices:

RUN or HIDE!


I refuse to do the latter.

So, as Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10:14:

"Shake off the Dust of your feet."


The love of those who gave of themselves so freely
will always remain a part of my heritage and personal
history.



You gave love to a stranger in your midst.

You embraced me in kindness.

You came to my aid when you needed to.

You gave me LOVE!

To you, I dedicate these words:

"The Peace Prayer"

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

"O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To Be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be Loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

May you all be BLESSED with the Glory of the LORD
in your place and in your life!



Brandon O: You were a light! Continue to walk in your way!
Jon L: Continue to be the "silent" witness.
Ulises: You were BORN A WINNER! Remember that...and you'll never, ever want to compete again!;-)


Namaste',

Che'

Personal Authenticity: "To Thine Own Self Be True"...

"To Thine Own Self Be True and it must follow as the night, the day, Thou canst not then be false to ANY man."
William Shakespeare.