Laboring Without Pain...

This is a pencil sketch by Russian Artist Olga Melamory Larionova. 
Look at the picture above. Who could have occupied their days getting this image to perfection but someone who loves her craft?

Those of us without a trust fund to sustain us through life must make a living, and we're trained  to do so from birth. Of the many things we're taught in life, the most critical are those surrounding work and success.

We are told to get good grades in school... to succeed... so we can go out into the world and get the right job to make a life. Throughout this process, we are implicitly being trained about how to transition successfully into retirement with enough money for our Golden Years. (Some GenZers are going to buck the system. Check out this recent Bloomberg Businessweek piece: ("Boy King of The Evil Geniuses" )

Isn't this the crux of what we learn about life and living? But dare I now say that our time on Earth deserves more than a preparation for retirement, and ultimately, our death?

If we are not aware and awake to the purpose of our lives, the societies in which we live would have seduced into believing that life is the process of work: preparing to work, going to work, retiring from work.

Yet, while we're here, we are being offered a chance for so much more!

Each day we awaken to a new opportunity to see life with fresh eyes.

Each day, we're being called to wake up to the truth about life and its promises.Whether we're beginning our career, in mid-career or retired, here are some of the questions we wrestle with daily;

•  Am I saving enough for a good retirement?

• How can I get the next promotion?

• What type of raise am I going to get at my review?

• Did I pick the right career?
• Are others doing better than I in their achievements at work?
• How can I get the next right job?
• Am I Bored?
• Did I retire too early? 

 Few questions focus on what should be fundamental considerations about work:

•  Am I happy with my work?
• Is my work the reason for my happiness or sadness?

Earning a living is at the center of how we live our lives. So, our work is critical to our happiness.

We should begin then to focus on work in the sense of "occupying" our time. 

Each week, a new listing comes out for the Top 10 "best paying jobs," or Top 100 colleges that provide the best paying jobs or best paying college majors. Here are a few samples:
(Highest Paying College Majors),
(America's Top Colleges), (Schools With The Highest Salaries Upon Graduation), and (Top 10 State Universities With Highest Earnings Graduates)


We never will see listed the "Top 10 Most Satisfying College Majors Leading to A Happy Life."

Why?

When we think of a career, we rarely think about whether we will be happy with our occupation for the rest of our lives. The focus is on the money we would earn. For most, this translates into the happiness we can buy with that money: house, clothes, car, life partner, friends, entertainment, travel and other past times.


We assume that happiness will follow where the money goes. But this is not often the case.
There are many, many unhappy people occupying their days in work they try to fit into, though that work is totally wrong for their dispositions and real interests.

"Prosperity is at first a spirit, an attitude of mind, a moral power, a life, which manifests outwardly in the form of plenty, happiness, joy. Just as a man cannot become a genius by writing poems, essays, plays, but must develop and acquire the soul of genius---when the writing will follow as effect to cause---so one cannot become prosperous by hoarding up money, and by gaining property and possessions, but must develop and acquire the soul of virtue---when the material accessories follow as effect to cause--the spirit of virtue is the spirit of joy, and it contains within itself all abundance, all satisfaction, all fullness of life."  - James Allen, "Mind is The Master"

An employer may provide the right types of benefits, give a fair salary, be considerate about the time we need to take off...yet, not all of their employees will be happy. So, they wind up with bad or sloppy performers. This is bad practice for both the companies and the employees.

Employees are a company's greatest assets. Companies should  not suffer because we are doing the wrong type of work. Neither should we.

We may have been conditioned from birth to look for work that pays us the most in terms of salaries and benefits, but we must look within ourselves to know the kind of work that would satisfy our Souls. We must be active participants in our lives to make sure that the work we do leads us to both satisfaction and happiness. (Sometimes, due to economics, we may have to take work that is unsuitable to our desires, talents and skills, but we must make sure that work is only temporary. Do not stay long term in work you have no interest in.)

Even if all our conditioning led us to finding work, we must look for work of the right kind.  We must be active participants in our lives to make sure that what we do to occupy our days leads us to both satisfaction and happiness.

When we think of choosing a career or the work we would like to do, the real question we should be asking is: "How would I like to occupy my days?"


This question speaks to each second, each minute and each hour we spend doing what we do. Then, when we think of our work, we can envision (or not) the seconds, minutes and hours being spent pleasantly, happily and joyously doing what we feel most called to do. Once we can envision our joy in the work, then we can begin to drill down to the company and people with whom we'll be occupying our days: look in terms of the seconds, minutes and hours spent in that "company" in both a figurative and literal sense.

Do the companies practices and policies support our values?
Are the people we'd be working/interacting with on a daily basis pleasant folks?

We don't always get it right the first time. But each time, we get an opportunity to start anew to move unrelentingly towards retirement.

Is that the goal? Should moving unrelenting towards "the safe harbor of retirement" be the goal?
Indeed not.

Again we must get back to the seconds, minutes, hours...then days.

Are we occupying our days in the right way?

The purpose of our life is not to simply get through it.

The purpose of our life is to live through it, making each day one of value...a day that honors our Soul.

When we sell out our Souls, we know that only chaos, unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment can ensue.

This Labor Day weekend, I invite you to begin to focus on how you're occupying your time..
By doing so, excellent work, and all of its concomitant benefits, will follow.

"There is no joy in money, there is no joy in property, there is no joy in material accumulations or in any material thing of itself. These things are dead and lifeless. The spirit of joy must be in the man, or, it is nowhere. "- James Allen

Namaste',
Che'

"Overcoming Selfishness Is Key To Our Growth in 21st Century..."

Photo Credit: Sociedad Argentina de Horitcultura 

Things Left Undone by Adelaide Proctor

It isn't the thing you do, dear

It's the thing you leave undone,

That gives you the bitter heartache

At the setting of the sun;

The tender word unspoken,

The letter you did not write,

The flower you might have sent, dear,

Are your haunting ghosts at night.

The stone you might have lifted

Out of your brother's way,

The bit of heartfelt counsel

You were hurried too much to say;

The loving touch of the hand, dear,

The gentle and winsome tone,

That you had not time or thought for,

With troubles enough your own.

These little acts of kindness,

So easily out of mind,

These chances to be angels,

Which even mortals find--

They come in nights of silence,

To take away the grief,

When hope is faint and feeble,

And a drought has stopped belief.

For life is all too short dear.

And sorrow is all to great,

TO allow our slow compassion

That tarries until too late.

And it's not the thing you do dear,

It's the thing you leave undone,

That gives you the bitter heartache,

At the setting of the sun.

Selfishness is suffocating the individual, stifling the family's ability to grow in meaningful ways, and stunting our overall spiritual elevation.

Most of us think of ourselves as giving, caring and loving people. But a closer look at what truly is being demanded of us by the spirit of God working in and through us, we'd see an abysmal picture.

We can't really see the myriad ways of our selfishness, because we don't have the awareness to discern it. But selfishness goes beyond giving, or not wanting to give, away "stuff" and sharing. Selfishness describes the ways we walk through life.

• If we close ourselves off from the world by not staying open to how our days can be changed in a minute by a stranger needing our help or attention: we are being selfish.

•  If we're inflexible so that we remain totally unaffected by people, places and events in our environment: we are being selfish.

• When no one and nothing else matters but meeting our needs and seeing the world only through our eyes: we are being selfish.

We Must Allow the Flow Of Our Talents and Gifts Into Life!     

There's a parable that's shared in Christianity about three men who were each given a talent by their master. The first man brought back three talents for the one he'd received; the second man brought back two talents for the one received, and the third man saved his and returned it to his master. This third man was promptly thrown in jail.

Why?

He'd hoarded his "talent."


Let's look more deeply at the real  message of this story.

God gives us each skills, talents and gifts to walk in the world a certain way.

• Some of us will expand and use those talents, helping others along the way, thus multiplying our skills and talents into many generations.

• Others will do the best they can to grow in ways they feel led and will expand circumstances to benefit many others as well as themselves. They, too, will be blessed.

Giving Our Gifts To The World Contributes To Growth for All

• The third set will try to preserve their gifts and talents by staying focused on one thing, not expanding beyond where they started. Doing so, they limit those very gifts, stifling the good for all and shutting off a flow of good into the world.

When we close off the flow of good into the world, we also close it off from flowing back to us and our families. But many people don't see it that way. Instead, they view their selfishness as a form of self preservation. But this truly is wrong thinking!

Competitiveness breeds selfishness. We all want to win at any cost. We'd prefer to close off our skills and talents to preserve them for ourselves and our families, rather than share them with the larger community. Why share, when we can have it all? By being this way, we can elevate ourselves in our own eyes and those of the world. And, after all, isn't this what life is all about?

This stinking thinking must stop, if we are going to grow forward as a progressive society during this 21st Century.  We see when those who think beyond their own companies, and their own needs, manage to elevate the ways of life for many. For examples, we've only got to look at the many critical developments made in the late 20th Century and being made today by those in the Information Technology field and in other industries changing and improving the quality of life for us all. See this  FORTUNE piece: ("Must you be ruthless and selfish to be a really successful entrepreneur.") Yet, we've got much further to go: we've got to go beyond individual companies' ROI and our own individual wealth and riches and grow into societies where no group of people is left behind. 

In "Mind Is The Master," James Allen writes that we must first discover this selfishness within ourselves, and understand it, before it can be removed.

"Seeing that in selfishness there is no security, no stability, no peace, the whole process of seeking the Kingdom resolves itself into a search for a principle; a divine and permanent Principle on which a man can stand secure, freed from himself---that is, from the personal element, from the tyranny and slavery which that personal self exacts and demands. A man must first of all be willing to lose himself (this self-seeking self) before he can find himself (his divine self.) He must realize that selfishness is not worth clinging to, that it is a master altogether unworthy of his service , and that divine Goodness alone is worthy to be enthroned in his heart as the supreme master of his life."  -James Allen

We can rid ourselves of Selfishness, Allen writes, by going through Three Gateways of Surrender:
1. Surrender of Desire
2. Surrender of Opinion
3. Surrender of Self

Surrender of Desire is the first step to Selflessness

Surrender of Desire is achieved when we realize that we are a slave to both ourselves and our surroundings and circumstances. Realizing this, then, we are able to get to the second Gate, Surrender of Opinion, which relies on self-control, self-reliance, fearlessness and independence of thought.

 "Here also he  (man) will have to pass through ridicule and mockery and false accusation; so much so that some of his best friends, yea, even those whom he most unselfishly loves, will accuse him of folly and inconsistency, and will do all they can to argue him back to the life of animal indulgence, self-seeking and petty personal strife.

"Nearly everybody around him will suddenly discover that they know his duty better than he knows it himself, and, knowing no other and higher life than their own of mingled excitement and suffering, they will take great pains to win him back to it, imagining, in their ignorance, that he is losing so much pleasure and happiness, and is gaining nothing in return.

Build Your Mountain by Surrender of Self

"At first, this attitude of others toward him will arouse in him acute suffering, but he will rapidly discover that this suffering is caused by his own vanity and selfishness and is the result of his subtle desire to be appreciated, admired, and thought well of; and immediately this knowledge is arrived at, he will rise into a higher state of consciousness, where these things can no longer reach him and inflict pain."

Through development of humility, we learn to distinguish between Truth and others' opinions about Truth. We must learn that opinions about Goodness, Purity, Compassion and Love are very distinct from those qualities themselves, and that we must stand upon those divine Principles, and not upon people's opinions, Allen writes.

We must Build A Community
Photo Credit: Sociedad Argentina de Horticultura

"The journey to freedom by walking through the gateway of Surrender of Self may be long and tedious one, or it may be short and rapid. It may occupy a minute, or it may take a thousand ages. Everything depends on the faith and belief of the searcher." -James Allen

Walking through these three gates to freedom ultimately boils down to things: 1. Having faith  2. Having the wisdom to discern the Truth.

Are you able to develop these key attributes to walk away from Selfishness and into Freedom?

As for me? I'm taking a slow, long walk to Freedom. It's trying on many days, but still I persevere.

Namaste',
Che'

Man: "King of Inner Thoughts and Outer Circumstances"

You are Free! 

Photos Credit: Loni Love

The nation was ablaze on the night of June 26, 2015 with lights the colors of the rainbow being displayed in prominent places. (As noted in the photos above, rainbow-colored lights were displayed at: Niagara Falls, Disney World, The White House, One World Trade Center.) There was dancing in the streets, and shouts of joy permeated news broadcasts throughout the nation as people celebrated the majority justices of The Supreme Court of United States (SCOTUS) handing down a decision to make marriage apply to all men and women in the nation, regardless of sexual orientation.

Lilian and Mike changed
their Facebook photo 

Althea Alexis changed her Facebook photo

Throughout the weekend, millions of people took to social media to express their joy. As of June 30, more than 26 million people had the rainbow covering their Facebook profile photos.(26 Million People Express Rainbow Pride on Facebook) These are the folks whose consciousness changed the world! (Heterosexual couples and singles (pictured) joined in the celebration with their gay friends to support passage of the national "Marriage" law.)

Ten years ago, whether the law was on their side or not, those same SCOTUS justices could not have dared to pass such a law that now applies to all 50 states in the United States. The reason was simple: the nation was not yet ready for such a law.

David Gerson's Photo: members of the SCOTUS 

The majority of Americans simply were not ready to accept that a marriage license should be granted to men and women of the same sex. But here's how fast Americans changed their minds, accepted gay relationships and "gay marriage" was considered "marriage" and the law of the land. (Pace of Social Change)

See this link: (Same Sex Marriage: From 0 to 100 percent)

So, how did the United States get to the June 26 decision?

The changing of the consciousness of the people in the United States: mass consciousness. And this is just not me talking.

Scores of years ago, scientists talked about the 100th Monkey Effect, where there was significant behavioral changes among a colony of macaque monkeys in 1952 on the Japanese Island of Koshima. When a certain way of washing sweet potatoes reached a critical mass of 100 monkeys, the behavior was passed down to the new generation of monkeys and became practice. More recently, Epoch Times published a piece on the effect of group consciousness on conditions in the world. (Evidence of Group Consciousness Having an Effect on the World.)

With enough people changing their minds about what they thought marriage ought to be, SCOTUS could not then overlook the truth of the law: a marriage license could not be denied men and women based on their choice of partners.

We see how mass consciousness (thinking) has worked over generations to change many unfair rules and situations. Yet, somehow when we get to our own individual lives, we may not see how the same thinking can affect the circumstances of our lives.

But know this: We are not helpless creatures doomed to a certain fate! We are creators of our circumstances and can change the direction of our lives. If you don't like the direction in which your life is moving: change the screen.

In his most recent book, The 13th Disciple, Master Teacher Deepak Chopra uses the analogy of your life being the movie you see on the screen, with you as the director, projecting the image that you see.

Deepak Chopra on CNBC discussing his novel.

"It's (still) a huge leap to believe that the entire world is a projection, and an even bigger leap to realize that you are watching the movie and projecting it at the same time. Magicians don't believe in their illusions, after all."  - Deepak Chopra, The 13th Disciple 

"Things" do not happen to you. They happen for you, based on the level of your thinking and expectations.

You are the master of your thoughts, and in the same way, you are a master of your circumstances, based on the power of those thoughts.

Yes. It is that simple.

No mumbo jumbo.

Credit: Mentors' Channel

Credit: Mentors' Channel

I do believe that our lives are "fated" to lead us in a certain way. But we are meant to be co-creators with that fate. The way it is 'fated' is based on the circumstances in which we were born.
However, we get to choose where we place our thoughts: Are we going to resign our lives to poverty, because we were born to poor parents? No.

This is when we begin to see the "magician" within us at work, visualizing and creating new lives for ourselves, based on the level of our thinking. We think poor, and: yes, undoubtedly, we will project onto our life's screen a poor and even helpless way of living.

Change those thoughts, and you begin to see a new movie appearing...you get to increasingly see the pictures change and more and more of what you want begins to show up on your life's screen.

If you doubt that your thoughts are connected to your actions, thus ultimately your success, read this piece:
"Science Unlocked The Key To Reading People's Minds."

We can create our heaven or our hell, as we grow through and go through certain circumstances in our lives.

As we previously discussed, we will be focusing on "Mind is the Master: The Complete James Allen Treasury" in each of the upcoming months. We will discuss one of the 19 volumes in Allen's book and share his insights on how our thinking affects our lives.

Beginning with the first volume, "The Path of Prosperity: From Poverty to Power,"Chapter 2: "The World a Reflex of Mental States," Allen says:

"It matters little what is without, for it is all a reflection of your own state of consciousness. It matters everything, what you are within, for everything without will be mirrored and colored accordingly.
"All that you positively know is contained in your own experience; all that you ever will know must pass through the gateway of experience, and so become part of yourself.
"Your own thoughts, desires, and aspirations comprise your world, and, to you, all that there is in the universe of beauty and joy and bliss, or of ugliness and sorrow and pain, is contained within yourself. By your own thoughts you make or mar your life, your world, your universe. As you build within by the power of thought, so will your outward life and circumstances shape themselves accordingly. Whatsoever you harbor in the inmost chambers of your heart will, sooner or later by the inevitable law of reaction, shape inself in your outward life. The soul that is impure, sordid, and selfish is gravitating with unerring precision toward misfortune and catastrophe; the soul that is pure, unselfish and noble is gravitating with equal precision toward happiness and prosperity. Every soul attracts its own, and nothing can possibly come to it that does not belong to it. To realize this is to recognize the universality of Divine Law. The incidents of every human life, which both make and mar, are drawn to it by the quality and power of its own inner thought-life. Every soul is a complex combination of gathered experiences and thoughts, and the body is but an improvised vehicle for its manifestation. What, therefore, your thoughts are, that is your real self; the world around, both animate and inanimate, wears the aspects with which your thoughts clothe it. 'All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts.'" 

What we must realize, Allen says, is that although outer circumstances do affect our minds,  we still are in control of how we allow those outward circumstances to affect us. 

The way to prevent ourselves from being influenced by outside circumstances that would want to corrupt our thinking is to understand that we are in control of what we think about what we see. By not allowing ourselves to be influenced by the good or bad we see in the outward things, we remain in control of our thoughts and become master over them.

"One cannot alter external things to suit for passing whims and wishes, but he can set aside his whims and wishes; he can so alter his attitude of mind toward externals that they will assume a different aspect." James Allen

Here are some ways to be "King of Your Inner Thoughts and Outer Circumstances":

* Free yourself from the habit of bad thoughts: "Habit is repetition," Allen writes. Repeating the same thoughts cause us to repeat the same actions, and these in turn give us the same experiences over and over again.  But we should remember that we are not "ready-made." We're always in a state of "becoming." By remembering that our main goal in life is to become more...pure in thought, compassion, and an expression of love...we can change our circumstances and experiences by first changing our thinking about a thing.
Don't fight life! Don't fight the negatives that show up. Instead, figure out what they are there to teach you.

  *Free yourself from thoughts about the bodily conditions to be changed: "Men of robust minds do not dwell upon their bodily condition if it be in any way disordered--they ignore it, and work on, live on, as though it were not. This ignoring of the body not only keeps the mind sane and strong, but it is the best resource for curing the body. If we cannot have a perfectly sound body, we can have a healthy mind, and a healthy mind is the best route to a sound body."

Credit: Mentors' Channel

*Free yourself from poverty thoughts: Those who are dissatisfied with their poverty will always seek to rise above it, Allen writes. But those who view their financial state and poor conditions as "their lot" in life will never seek to rise above it, as they remain contented with the conditions. Then there are others who may still be discontented in what they view as "poverty," though they may have millions of dollars. But these individuals are more consumed with covetousness, rather than about living in squalor. Poverty thoughts limit us to either being discontented in our riches, or dissatisfied enough to want to rise above it. We get to choose which one we become a slave to in our thinking!

Through Devotion to Duty and Self-Conquest by the power of thought, we can be free of every undesirable condition in our lives, including our ability to go  from poverty to affluence, influence and lasting joy, Allen writes. 

Each day in the news, we read of someone overcoming certain limitations or achieving great results in life when the odds were against them. These results don't "just happen." First, they believed they could achieve it, then they went about getting the movie screen of their lives set right with their thinking. See this recent story (Misty Copeland promoted to principal ballerina at American Ballet Theater) about Misty Copeland and the YouTube video below.  

Poem: "The Path To Prosperity: From Poverty to Power." 

"If thou would'st right the world
And banish all its evil and its woes
make its wild places bloom, 
And its drear deserts blossom as a rose---
Then right thyself.

If thou would'st turn the world
From its long, lone captivity in sin.
Restore all broken hearts, 
Slay grief and let sweet consolations in---
Turn thou thyself.

if thou would'st cure the world
Of its long sickness, end its grief and pain;
Bring in all-healing Joy,
And give the afflicted rest again---
Then cure thyself.

If thou would'st wake the world
out of its dream of death and dark'ning strife,
Bring it to love and Peace,
And Light and brightness of immortal Life---
Wake thou thyself."

Namaste',
Che'

How To Gain The Whole World And NOT Lose Your Soul: Rise Above Your Basic Instincts

Cecilia Weber, creater of this image,  is one of several artists using the human body to create beautiful art of flowers.
See others human-body art  pieces on this post.

Lust and Greed are  on equal footing. The difference is that  one focuses on a person, the other on a thing.

Human Bodies "formed" into beautiful flowers. 

Lust is defined as having a strong sexual desire for someone.
Greed is defined as having intense and selfish desire for something, especially weatlh, power or food.

But both come from a place of consciousness, where there is a lack of connection with the soul/spirit within.

Once there is a void, there will be longing for something...anything... outside ourselves.

The key to overcoming lust and greed is to rise above our basic instincts and develop a consciousness that sees we're operating strictly from our animal nature, which is instinctual. 

  Recognize this rose, as a rose? Or are you focused only on the naked bodies forming the rose?
"A rose by any other name is still a rose," line from Romeo and Juliet

SEE WITH RIGHT EYES! 

Yes. Cecilia Weber sees the human body in its totality and as a beautiful object, so she creates beautiful art from the perspective of her inner eyes. But most people who are lusting after someone do not see the human body from those of the eyes of an artist. Most reduce a person to a human frame with parts and lust after those individual parts: breasts, legs, thighs, and buttocks. If we were to just casually glance through Twitter or other social media feeds, we see the extent some are going to today to sculpt various parts of their body, not for functionality, but to create desire and appeal. Those who are born with certain attributes are displaying them without cover...with no modesty...for the world to see. If being vulgar is our new way of showcasing beauty, then we should consider that even our basic instincts are failing us: we've gone over the edge. 

By viewing our bodies in this way, we essentially are reducing our senses to those of animals. They, too, operate from their basic instincts: animals use all their senses to attract and capture the objects of their desires, even if it means preying and hunting them down only to kill and eat them. As humans, we are given more than our five senses.

SELF DISCIPLINE = POWER

We are given the power of self-discipline and self control. These can be used to help us separate even more from the lower species in the animal kingdom.

One of my favorite spiritual master teachers is James Allen, author of "As a Man Thinketh." I was blessed recently by discoverng that an entire volume of his works, "Mind is the Master," has been compiled. Yes. I have been exercising my own form of gluttony, foraging through the 866 pages with the behavior of a beast. 

 Yes. I admit: I've been shameless.The good part for you, my readers, is that you also get to read what "Allen says" in this and the next six blog posts of the year. (See the "Coming Up" section on the right side.)  

Here's what Allen says about Self-Discipline:

Click here to read about 'The Wolf Man."(Wolf Researcher Werner Freund)

 "A man does not live until he begins to discipline himself; he merely exists. like an animal, he gratifies his desires and pursues his inclinations just where they may lead him.  he is happy as a beast, because he is not conscious of what he is depriving himself; he suffers as the beast suffers, becaues he does no know the way out of suffering. he does not intelligently reflect upon life, and lives in a series of sensations, longings, and confused memories which are unrelated to any central idea or principle. A man whose inner life is so ungoverned and chaotic must necessarily manifest this confusion in the visible conditions of his outer life in the world; and though for a time, running with the stream of his desires, he may draw to himself a more or less large share of necessities and comforts of life, he never achieves any real success nor accomplishes any real good, and sooner or later worldly failure and disaster are inevitable, as the direct result of the inward failure to properly adjust and regulate those mental forces which make the outer life. 

"Before a man accomplish anything of an enduring nature in the world, he must first of all acquire some measure of success in the management of his own mind." 
  

Recognize the bodies for what they form: a beautiful flower.

Lack of Self-Discipline Is Toxic To Our Soul

We may gain the whole world and lose our Soul by not recognizing a strong and unhealthy attraction to someone else for what it is in truth. It is such an unhealthy emotion that right thinking is not involved, when lust takes over. See this piece about a doctor and patient. ((Doctor Began Affair With Patient After Seeing Her Undress.) Others, get into similar trouble when they lose perspective on money and things and people. Whatever the object of desire, it's still lust! Congressman's Rise Ends With a Thud

 "Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. For she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her."

-Proverb 7: 25-27 

RISING ABOVE!

Another beautiful piece from Cecilia Weber: Human Body creating art. 

From the proverb, we can see that throughout the ages men and women have succumbed to lust and often to their destruction. It's time now for us to wake up to Truth and see lust for the role it plays in our lives. 

• We must get beyond our animal desires and reach for higher goals. 

• We must begin to view the body as God's vessel, as an entire "entity" here for a purpose, and strive to see beyond the outward appearance.

• We must remember that self-discipline applies to several areas of our lives: emotion, attitude and behavior. 

Here are meditation, I found in "Metaphysical Meditations," by Paramahansa Yoganada that should work help you to "rise above" if used with sincerity:

• "Teach me, O spirit, to distinguish between the soul's lasting happiness and the temporary pleasures of the senses."

• "Teach me not to engross myself in the passing sense pleasures. Teach me to discipline my senses that they may always make me really hapy. Teach me to substitute for flesh temptation the greater allurement of soul happiness."

Namaste',
Che'