"It is a well-known fact that, when our circumstances are well off, we do not remember
God, but when calamities and adversities overtake us, we are reminded of Him."

-Sai Satcharitra

Until the heart is empty, it cannot receive the knowledge of God.

When a person comes to take a lesson on any subject, and he brings his own knowledge with him, the teacher has little to teach him, for the doors of his heart are not open. His heart that should be empty in order to receive knowledge is occupied by the knowledge that he already had acquired.
It is not solid wood that can become a flute, but the empty reed. It is the perfection of that passiveness in the heart of the messenger which gives scope for the message from above; for the messenger is the reed, the instrument. The difference between his life and the life of the average man is that the latter is full of self. It is the blessed soul whose heart is empty of self, who is filled with the light of God.
There are many ideas which intoxicate man, many feelings there are which act upon the soul as wine, but there is no stronger wine than the wine of selflessness. It is a might and it is a pride that no worldly rank can give. To become something is a limitation, whatever one may become. Even if a person were to be called the king of the world, he would still not be emperor of the universe. If he were the master of earth, he would still be the slave of Heaven. It is the person who is no one, who is no one and yet all.

We start our lives trying to be teachers; it is very hard to learn to be a pupil.

The principal teaching of Spirituality is that of learning to become a pupil, for it is the pupil who has a chance of becoming a teacher, and once a person considers that he is a teacher, his responsiveness is gone. The greatest teachers of the world have been the greatest pupils.
We often start our lives as teachers, and then it is hard to become a pupil. From childhood on we start to teach our parents. There are seldom souls who have more inclination for pupilship than for teaching, and there are many whose only difficulty in life is that they are teachers already. Man thinks that perhaps his reading or study of different religions and doctrines has qualified him and made him capable to understand the truth and to have the knowledge of God, but he forgets that there is only one teacher, and that is God Himself. We all are pupils, and what we can do in life is to qualify ourselves to become true pupils.

It should be remembered that all the great teachers of humanity, such as Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammad and Zarathushtra, have been great pupils; they have learned from the innocent child, they have learned from everyone, from every person that came near them. They have learned from every situation and every condition of the world. They have understood and they have learned. It is the desire to learn continually that makes one a teacher, and not the desire to become a teacher. As soon as a person thinks, 'I am something of a teacher,' he has lost ground. For there is only one teacher: God alone is the Teacher, and all others are His pupils. We all learn from life what life teaches us. When a soul begins to think that he has learned all he had to learn and that now he is a teacher, he is very much mistaken.

Truth is the very self of man. Truth is the divine element in man. Truth is every soul's seeking. Therefore as soon as the clouds of illusion are scattered, that which man now begins to see is nothing but the truth which has been there all the time. He finds that the truth was never absent; it was only covered by clouds of illusion.

There is a time when toys are treasures. But the child who cries for a toy comes to an age when he gives it away. And at every step in a man's evolution the values of power and position and wealth change in his eyes. And so as he evolves there arises in him a spirit of renunciation which may be called the Spirit of God. Gradually he recognizes the real value of those fair and lovely qualities of the spirit that change not.
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/III/III_II_15.htm
Every step in evolution makes life more valuable. The more evolved you are, the more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it. Life is miserable when a person is absorbed in himself.

at the touch of love,
everyone becomes a poet,

- plato

WE'RE JUST AT THE BEGINNING
*The Lives of a Cell* by Lewis Thomas
http://tinyurl.com/2vraqn
"We pass thoughts around, from mind to mind, so compulsively and with
such speed that the brains of mankind often appear, functionally, to be
undergoing fusion . . . Or perhaps we are only at the beginning of learning
to use the system, with almost all our evolution as a species still ahead of
us. Maybe the thoughts we generate today and flick around from mind to
mind are the primitive precursors of more complicated, polymerized
structures that will come later, analogous to the prokaryotic cells that
drifted through shallow pools in the early days of biological evolution.
Later, when the time is right, there may be fusion and symbiosis among
the bits, and then we will see eukaryotic thought, metazoans of thought,
huge interliving coral shoals of thought . . . The mechanism is there [in
the human brain], and there is no doubt that it is already capable of
functioning."

"The criteria for success: you are free, you live in the present moment,
you are useful to the people around you, and you feel love for all humanity."

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

this wwwsite and art work by Greg Colbert:
www.ashesandsnow.com
check it out!!!

The ego has two sides: the first one is the one we know, and the next one we must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say, 'I'. What is it in us that we call 'I'? We say, 'This is my body, my mind, these are my thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life.' We identify our self with all that concerns us and the sum total of all these we call 'I'. In the light of truth this conception is false, it is a false identity.

~ Commentary by Hazrat Inayat Khan

This is the 3-minute poem that Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 April 5, 1997)
wants us to remember him by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-pmFZJtS4E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ8CoCqCA0o

Friday, February 7, 2008. The moon is still in Aquarius today and
Venus changes signs, moving into Aquarius as well. The New moon
will be in the nakshatra of Purva Bhadra, which is ruled by
Jupiter - a martial and fighting Star, but one concerned with
higher causes. We can get the full benefit of this Saturn/Sun
Association today, as yesterday, if we keep committed. A
psychology of responsibility, duty and commitment. Yet, as Venus
is changing signs there may be some sensual weaknesses,
especially since she is very close to Rahu also in the sky today.
In a long term sense / this week - Mars and Pluto conjunction
awaits - showing the potential for violence and upheaval as
discussed last week .

The exact new moon occurs on Friday, Mar.7, at 12:15 PM EST in
Toronto, and in Gujarat, India it will be on Mar. 7 at 10:45 PM, IST. The
new moon occurs in Pisces in Line 1 of the I Ching hexagram "The
Clinging, Fire". Fire is dependent on the fuel it burns from. The
challenge in this hexagram is to burn your dependencies and maintain
the clarity of true insight. It is so easy to be attracted by someone else's
light and to think that they have more than you. This is a false
dependency. The light is yours. The light is you.
Chanting on this Piscean new moon will revitalize faith and self-reliance.
It will allow one to let go of guilt and sorrow and forgive oneself and
others. If one can be silent here and turn the mind inwards towards the
true light of God, a deep affirmation will result. This will uplift your spirit
and allow you to move through the world around us in a state of
tranquility and compassion. There is light and there is ignorance. Chant
and burn the ignorance! In other Ages it takes long periods of time to find
enlightenment, but only in the Age of Kali can one find enlightenment
and God by simply chanting.
Chanting creates an emotional experience of God. It revitalizes our
entire psyche and creates a positive attitude towards dealing with life's
challenges. Join us and see for yourself.
The New Moon can energize and enhance the seeds of bhakti and
bhava (divine love and devotion). It will also give the psyche a bath and
quiet the mind. Chant and love yourself. It can only improve your life and
the world.
When you are chanting God's name, God is there. The more you chant
God's name the more God is there. It's as simple as that. Envision to
create sound flowers, with petals of God's name, and offer them to God.
A divine offering. A holy event.

Chanting puts a song in your heart and light in the darkness.

Food for thought:

The heart and the intellect are not two separate things. When you
have a discriminating intellect, you will naturally become
expansive. From that expansiveness, a spirit of innocence,
compromise, humility and compassion will naturally arise. The
word ?heart? stands for that expansiveness.
We should understand that God is not confined to the temple or
the church. God is within each one of us. Whenever we share what
we have with others and help one another, we are, in fact,
worshipping God.
Heaven and hell are right here. They are within us. By doing good
deeds, we reap good results ? and that is heaven. If our actions
are evil, we will reap the corresponding results ? and that is
hell.
Together we are a power, an undefeatable power. When we work
together, hand in hand, with love, it is not just one life force
but the life energy of the group that flows in harmony,
unimpeded. From that constant stream of unity, real progress will
take place, and we will see the birth of peace.
_____________________________________________________________

A week-long Spiritual Camp

March 14th-21st, 2008

Aloha Dear Family & Friends,

Envision Yourself: In the sacred temple of nature in Hawaii swimming
with friends in playful exuberance.

Being purified by waterfalls and gentle streams. Singing and
dancing into Unified Bliss. Experiencing the magical power of
breath. Deepening your commitment in the heart of silence with
God. Being inspired to fulfill your destiny, standing in a circle
of love, sending healing to the world.

Over the years many have made the annual pilgrimage from all parts
of the world to spend a week being healed in nature and
participating in a group process moving toward the ideal of LOVE,
HARMONY & BEAUTY . . . going deeply into the heart of Aloha!

I hope you can join us for this Divine week of sharing that has
transformed many lives and extended our Spiritual Ohana throughout
the world.

Me Ke Akua Ke Aloha
May God indeed shower you with many Blessings!

Lovingly,

Camp Co-Directors:

Jason Groode and
Dechen Dronkar

(808) 879-5554