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Be kind to yourself

“Be kind to yourself as you proceed along this journey. This kindness, in itself, is a means of awakening the spark of love within you and helping others to discover that spark within themselves.”

– Tsoknyi Rinpoche

As the month of June comes to an end we bring our discussion of awakening to a close. But the work continues. It is up to us to continue awaking and encouraging that spark within others, even when things get messy.

We are seeing the birth of a new consciousness, a new age, and a new world. What we are seeing in the turmoil are the birth pains. But we know that someone wonderful waits for us on the other side of the turmoil.

As we sing our closing song let us reaffirm our commitment to our own awakening, recognizing our oneness with God and each other and weaving a beautiful tapestry of unity and love.

What is enlightenment?

“What is Enlightenment? Enlightenment is to be vigilant when everyone is sleeping; it is to see when everyone is blind; to hear when everyone is deaf!”

― Mehmet Murat ildan

Life gives us many gifts

“Life gives us many gifts that we could hardly imagine. When we let go of preconceptions and witness life without the turmoil that a self-indulgent ego perpetuates we perceive what heretofore eluded us.”

― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

Yes, this is for real. You may read more about Kilroy J. Oldster and the Dead Toad Scrolls here.

Simplicity is the key to everything

“People often associate complexity with deeper meaning,

when often after precious time has been lost, it is realized that

simplicity is the key to everything.”

― Gary Hopkins

You are spiritual beings

“You think of yourselves as humans searching for a spiritual awakening, when in fact you are spiritual beings attempting to cope with a human awakening. Seeing yourselves from the perspective of the spirit within will help you to remember why you came here and what you came here to do.”

— Neale Donald Walsch

Two Obstacles to Enlightenment

“There are two obstacles to enlightenment:

1. Thinking you know.

2 Thinking you don’t know.”

—Gautama Buddha

Your purpose

Copyright 2017 by R.A. Robbins

“You are here for no other purpose than to realize your inner divinity and manifest your inner enlightenment. “

—Morihei Ueshiba

Being who you really are

“Not every sky will be blue and not every day is springtime.

So on the spiritual path a person learns to find this kind of happiness without needing nice things to happen on the outside.

Rather, you find happiness by being who you really are.

This isn’t mystical. Young children are happy being who they are.

The trick is to regain such a state when you are grown

and have seen the light and dark sides of life.”

Deepak Chopra

How am I seeing separation where it doesn’t exist?

“It is easy to imagine that the Buddha, the awakened one, is something or somewhere other than here or that awakening to reality will happen sometime other than now. But as long as we continue to think in terms of time we will deceive ourselves. The you who is chasing enlightenment will never become enlightened.

“Instead of striving towards some distant goal that you will never reach, I invite you to stop and ask: How am I avoiding the enlightenment that is already present in each moment? How am I seeing separation where it doesn’t exist?”

—Adyashanti

An opportunity to correct our vision

Have you heard people calling 2020 a “lost” year or “the year that wasn’t?” Do you believe that?

We had high hopes for this year didn’t we? Perhaps higher than normal. After all this is 2020 the year of clear vision. And that is exactly what we are getting. Not in the way we expected, but it is happening.

On the physical level with pollution levels down in cities sights are being seen that have not been visible for years. Here at the lake we are seeing the return of birds that have not been here for several years. Being at home many families are spending more time together and seeing each other in a new light. People are beginning to awaken spiritually. Here in the US, blinders are coming off as the divisions in our country and crimes committed based on the victims race, nationality or creed are now painfully apparent.

So is this a lost year? Only if we make it so. This is the year of clear vision. We are finally seeing things we have been refusing to see. We have the opportunity to correct our vision. Will we act on what we are seeing?