"I like to live in the sound of water,
in the feel of mountain air. A sharp
reminder hits me: this world is still alive;
it stretches out there shivering toward its own
creation, and I'm a part of it. Even my breathing
enters into an elaborate give-and-take,
this bowing to sun and moon, day or night,
winter, summer, storm, still –- this tranquil
chaos that seems to be going somewhere.
This wilderness with a great peacefulness in it.
This motionless turmoil, this everything dance."

- Wiliam Stafford, "Time for Serenity, Anyone?"
from the book *Even in Quiet Places*

According to his evolution, man knows the truth; and the more he knows, the more he finds there is to know!

Commentary by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Which is the most desirable thing in life, to seek for the goal or to dwell in this changing life? The answer is that every person's desire is according to his evolution. That for which he is ready is desirable for him. Milk is a desirable food for the infant, other foods for the grown-up person. Every stage in life has its own appropriate and desirable things.

The Edge of Oblivion: Conservationists Name 25 Primates about To Disappear
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/26/4838/

The source of the realization of truth is within man; he himself is the object of his realization

Commentary by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

Men have differed in all ages because they have called their Deity by different names. There have existed wars, fights and family feuds for ages, men dividing themselves merely for the difference of the names they gave to their Deity. Man always sees just what he sees; he cannot see beyond it. With the ideal of his Deity, with the separate names of man's Deities, with all the different attitudes of worshipping his Deity, man remains separate from God, for God is truth and truth is God.
Then the question arises: what is the way to attain the truth? Can it be attained through study? The answer is that the source of realizing the truth is within man - but man is the object of his realization. There are words of Hazrat 'Ali, saying that the one who knows himself truly knows God.

The purpose of life is to become more living, to allow the soul to live more, and that is the limit given by Christ when he says, 'Raise your light high'. This means allowing the soul to express itself. It does not matter what your life is, what your pursuit is; in order to fulfill the purpose of life you need not be in a temple or a church. Whatever your life's pursuit -- art, poetry, sculpture, music, whatever your occupation may be -- you can be as spiritual as a priest or clergyman, always living a life of praise. Your work in life must be your religion; let the soul express itself in every aspect and it will surely fulfill the purpose of life. The soul's life comes naturally if we open ourselves for the spirit to rise.Your work in life must be your religion, whatever your occupation may be.

"Strictly speaking there are no enlightened people, there is only
enlightened activity."

- Suzuki Roshi

http://www.sanatansociety.org/vedic_astrology_and_numerology.htm

Today begins Navaratri, which literally means nine nights. It is
one of the most revered celebrations in India. During these nine
nights the Divine mother is worshiped in her three most common
forms. Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. The first three nights
Goddess Durga is worshiped -- the second three nights Lakshmi is
worshiped -- a third of the three nights Saraswati is worshiped.
Goddess Durga is related to removing darkness and protecting us
from the part of ourselves that is destructive and stuck in
debilitating and deadening routines. Invoking her mantras and
inviting her grace is to admit that we need help and protection,
mostly from ourselves. Her energy is very humbling. Goddess Durga
is the female expression of Lord Shiva, the God of transformation
and destruction.
Goddess Lakshmi is related to love and prosperity. Once the
darkness and confusion is removed from our hearts, only then can
we truly love and be happy. A mind tangled up in confusion is too
distracted with its own problems. Lakshmi is very much related to
things in life that make us happy. The word "Lakshmi" literally
means "prosperity". Goddess Lakshmi is the female expression of
Lord Vishnu, the God of balance.
Goddess Saraswati is related to creativity, knowledge and truth.
Only when we're happy are we able to learn the truth. Saraswati
is also related to the arts and creativity, as these things lead
us to the truth about ourselves. But in general, Saraswati is
related to the truth of life itself -- the truth that we are all
God. Goddess Saraswati is the daughter of Lord Brahma, the
creator.
After worshiping each Goddess on her three nights, the 10th night
there's a big celebration where her victory over Mahisasura, the
big buffalo demon, is celebrated. At the end of the 10 nights all
facets of divinity on earth have been worshiped and sanctified.
If you have been considering investigating a deeper connection to
spirituality, goddess worship or any kind of greater appreciation
for cosmic truth, the next 10 days will be great opportunities to
see and experience beautiful ceremonies to the Divine mother.
Hindu temples in your area will certainly be worshiping the
Divine mother for the next 10 days.


AUM DUM DURGAYE NAMAHA AUM
AUM SHRI MAHALAKSMAYE NAMAHA AUM
AUM EIM SARASWATAYE NAMAHA AUM

Oct. 12 to Oct. 21 is Navaratri, the Nine Nights of the Mother Divine, a celebration for health, wealth, wisdom, and longevity. Listen to the Vedic chants for Durga (purity) for the first three days, Lakshmi (wealth) for the middle three days, and Saraswati (wisdom) for the final three days. Details to follow ...

JAI MA MA MA

It is a very high stage on the path of love when a man really learns to love another with a love that asks no return.


Blessed be!

When the stream of love flows in its full strength, it purifies all that stands in its way, as the Ganges - according to the teaching of the ancients - purifies all those who plunge into its sacred waters.

by Hazrat Inayat Khan:

When God's divine love rises as a wave, it washes away the sins of the whole life in a moment, for law has no power to stand before love: the stream of love sweeps it away.

Forgiveness is a stream of love which washes away all impurities wherever it flows. By keeping this spring of love, which is in the heart of man, running, man is able to forgive, however great the fault of his fellow man may seem. One who cannot forgive closes his heart. The sign of spirituality is that there is nothing you cannot forgive, there is no fault you cannot forget. Do not think that he who has committed a fault yesterday must do the same today, for life is constantly teaching and it is possible in one moment a sinner may turn into a saint.

True happiness is in love, which is the stream that springs from one's soul. He who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to him, the source of which is not without, but within. If there is a constant outpouring of love one becomes a divine fountain, for from the depth of the fountain rises the stream and, on its return, it pours upon the fountain, bathing it continually. It is a divine bath, the true bath in the Ganges, the sacred river.

DARK GODDESS WELCOMED BACK IN?

In 2004, astronomers announced the discovery of a shiny red planet-like
world orbiting the sun far beyond Pluto. They called it Sedna, a name they
said was derived from the Inuit deity that created the Arctic's sea
creatures. But the truth about the myth of Sedna is more complicated.

She is the Dark Goddess, embodiment of the wild female potencies that
are feared yet sorely needed by cultures in which the masculine
perspective dominates. Dwelling on the edge of life and death in her home
at the bottom of the sea, Sedna is both a source of fertile abundance and
a mysterious prodigy. Shamans from the world above swim down to sing
her songs and comb her long black hair. If they win her favor, she gives
them the magic necessary to heal their suffering patients.

The Beauty and Truth Laboratory enjoys entertaining the possibility that
the discovery of Sedna is an omen signaling our collective readiness to
welcome back the long-repressed influence of the Dark Goddess.

We'd like to direct your attention to two further omens. The first is a
book I wrote, *The Televisionary Oracle.* If you don't want to buy it, you
can read it for free on the Web at http://tinyurl.com/3c2j4x.

A second hopeful omen of the Dark Goddess's return is the work of
Andrew Harvey (http://www.andrewharvey.net). He has graciously
allowed us to publish a taste of his writing in the piece below.


BLACK MADONNA RETURNS
by Andrew Harvey

The entire world is now going through a massive crucifixion on all levels.
It's going through an environmental crucifixion. Hundreds of species are
vanishing every month. It's going through a personal crucifixion. There are
two billion people living on less than a dollar a day. It's going through a
crucifixion of all the patriarchal systems. Look at Enron and what it has
shown us about Corporate America. Look at the Catholic Church's
scandals of pedophilia and what it shows us about authority. Look at the
growing disillusionment with politicians of all kinds. All of the systems are
being exposed as illusory and fantasy-ridden, as deeply corrupt and
exploitative.

There's another kind of crucifixion going on: crucifixion of purpose and
hope. Everybody is totally bewildered. They know that the world is
potentially on the brink of total apocalypse. There's a tremendous danger
that as people wake up to the horror of what is going on, they will run
into political extremism or into fundamentalism of one kind or another.

So it's extremely important that the wisdom of the 'dark night of the
soul' gets across, because if people understand the necessity for this
crucifixion, and understand that it's preparing a resurrection and
empowerment, then they will be prepared to go through it without too
much fear, trusting in the logic of the divine transformation.

The Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths shared with me his experience of the
dark night of the soul. He said he was sitting outside his hut one day
when he felt as if a hand hit him on the right side of his being. He had
suffered a massive heart attack that destroyed what he described as his
patriarchal mind and gave him access to a much deeper elaboration of
Oneness with all things.

He said, "It's a very strange thing, but when I thought of surrendering to
the Mother I of course thought of Mary--I often say the 'Hail Mary'--but it
was Mary as the Black Madonna that came into my mind. She is the
mother of the earth as well as heaven, of the body as well as the soul, the
mother of the subconscious, the hidden, of all those powers that the
'masculine' mind represses; the Mother of the sacred darkness. In Her the
Western Christian vision of the Divine Mother and the Eastern one merge
and meet; you can think of her as both Mary and Kali, both preserver and
destroyer. From that time on, I have turned to Her again and again.
Invoking Her strength and grace, I find, makes the 'birth' go so much
faster and more cleanly."

The power that is doing this to us is coming towards us simultaneously
with terrifying destruction and extreme grace and prosperity. The
destruction is, in fact, a form of that extreme grace. It's quite clear that
humanity is now terminally ill, and can only be transfigured by a totally
shocking revelation of its shadow side. And this is what we're living
through, these shadow sides exploding in every direction because we have
done nothing but betray the sacred in us.

We have lacerated the sacred in others. We have betrayed the sacred in
an orgy of fundamentalism. We have brutalized the sacred in nature. We
are now terminally destructive.

So only an almost terminal destruction that reveals to us the full extent
of our responsibility in this destruction can wake us up. And that is what
is happening, and it will get worse. It's bound to get worse. But it is only
being done to us for our own redemption.

Those who turn to the Mother in total faith, those who turn to the Black
Madonna in total admiration, those who realize the mercy behind the
violence will be given extraordinary protection, strength, and revelation.
They will be empowered in the core of themselves to become what
everybody who has a heart and a mind must now become--a spiritual
revolutionary devoting their entire life and all their resources to the
preservation of the planet.

Finding the Black Madonna, in whatever form you want to find her,
realizing the massive task that she's doing and turning to her for
protection is now crucial to the preservation of the planet. It's extremely
important that people really come to understand the feminine and turn
towards it, because it's our betrayal of the feminine in ourselves and in
the divine that has led to this crisis.

--Andrew Harvey, in an interview with Colleen O'Connor on the Grace
Cathedral website at http://tinyurl.com/3avtf6
Copyright Andrew Harvey 2004--All Rights Reserved

For more information about Andrew Harvey, see his website at
http://www.andrewharvey.net

Opinion is an outcome of mind. It is an outburst of its reasoning and judging faculty. And so, according to the evolution of a particular mind, its opinion is. Opinions clash when two people of different stages of evolution express themselves. Therefore the wise are more reluctant to express their opinion, whereas for the unwise it is easy. A simpleton is only too glad to express his opinion uninvited.

Everyone, consciously or unconsciously, is striving after spiritual attainment. Sometimes he does not take the same way as we do, sometimes his point of view and his method differ, and sometimes one person attains to spiritual realization much sooner than another. It may be reached in a day, and another person may have striven for it all his life and yet not have attained to it. What determines it? It is the evolution of a particular soul.

Every step one takes in evolution changes one's ideal. In your stage, if you love a jasmine today, it is possible that in your next step in evolution you may have grown above it and you love a rose. And it is not necessary that you should keep to the jasmine when your evolution brings you to the love for the rose -- thus one is kept from progressing.