When the end of the world knocks on our doors, we all shall hold hands in silent peace; Yet we invited suchan unwelcome guest to visit.

Love

"Therefore it's also the reality that we must become peacemakers, even if the job is currently a cursed one." ~Deepak

I agree and blessed are the peacemakers.

Love, Char

I walk this labyrinth with the intention to become a peacemaker

And I give this intention to the Universe

Because:

“Inherent in every intention and desire
Is the mechanics for its fulfilment…
Intention and desire in the field
Of pure potentiality have
Infinite organizing power.
And when we introduce an intention
In the fertile ground of pure potentiality
We put this infinite organizing power
To work for us” ~~~~ Deepak Chopra

Peace inside

Mieke

Deepak,
Does the Alliance for New Humanity have a program to help unfortunate Muslims with education, health or any other kind of support?

these jihadist nutbars need love...yes love...i suppose if their oldman angrilly slapped them about the head over and over again as a form of discipline, they would have a hard time understanding what real love is...and would think they have to kill to attract attention to express what they mean by "brotherly" love...and love for felow man...

"The image of India as progressive and modern has been shattered."

How does it happen? Because of the bad company India is keeping of neighborhood Pakistan ?

"India has long hated and fought against Pakistan"
India has shown lot of restraint for years against Pakistan which is a known fact for those who have been observers in South Asian political scene.

"It will be gospel among the Indian population that Pakistan is totally responsible for the raids."
It is a sad FACT which is known to Indian population as well the world population. If there are any other facts known to you as for the responsibility of the attacks, please let us all know.

Deepak, Your writing appears too much disconnected from the ground realities. I would suggest, you live in India and mix with the crowds before writing such articles.

Why I feel concerned with your articles is because many people do believe in you.

Yes, I agree, we live in a world where peace is considered wrong, dangerous, irresponsible, too unhuman, too unspiritual, boring and who knows what... :))) I find it a really entertaining job, you get to hear so many excuses... some of which your own ego hasn't even thought of itself!

Symalaya,
the ANH is an alliance of people everywhere who have understood that transformation happens inside and from there, do all kinds of things for our world. I don't know if anyone is already doing what you suggest, but check it out on www.anhglobal.org and see if there already is such a group. If not, you can be the one to start it.

Anurag,
Deepak is pointing to the reality beyond the masks of nicety we hold up. Restraint of hate is still hate. We have come to a point in human history where if we can't get over our hurt egos (yes, every ego is hurt), if not all of us no matter what we call ourselves get over our egos, we will blow up the whole planet. In that way, our blue home, children, husbands, wifes, friends, music, poetry, mountains, rivers, lady-bugs and the eyes to see them with will die, but our egos will prevail! And that, according to Ego, would be a wonderful accomplishment :)))

So, sincerely - do you have an ego (it often uses a name, gender, nationality and righteousness to create itself)? Has it ever brought you closer to others, to peace, to harmony? Then why not drop it!

Aurora,

If you have been following what India had been going through on the hands of terrorists, you will come to know that India has never reacted in knee jerk way , which possibly US had done after 9/11.

"Now it's time to stop reacting against "the other" as crazed fanatics"

Who is crazed fanatics? To ask Pakistan to hand over the people involved in terrorists activities ,is that a crazed fanatics reaction?

You say "mask of nicety". Who holds that? We deplore the inefficiencies of our government equally as we deplore the terrorists and the government protecting them.

Remember, Deepak is talking here of psychological reactions on international scene supported by facts. I am telling, his assessment of facts is not correct.

There is no ego involved here. To stand on my feet and call a spade a spade does not build or destroy my ego.

Anurag,

It is wonderful if India does not react in a knee-jerk way, absolutely fantastic! It is wonderful if even one person does not react to violence with violence.

But even without being a news addict, I know that India means too many people to assume that they are all as peaceful as you describe. The man I saw in an interview, who demanded that India's troups cross the borders to Pakistan to kill the terrorists was certainly not peaceful. An image posted here on IB calling to a "peaceful" meeting was showing a fist and speaking of killing. I am not judging these people, they have a most understandable reaction and god only knows how big their pain is.

But... the problem with one's pain is that it makes us forget the humanity and equal pain of what we call the other. As soon as you say "what India had been going through on the hands of terrorists" you probably forget that just about anyone on this planet can say the same thing about just about everyone else.

In essence you are saying "you can't even imagine the pain I've been going through because of this OTHER". Well... maybe that is India talking about Pakistan, or Pakistan talking about India , maybe it is the USA talking about shadowy terrorists or a Stockholm teenager talking about the immigrant gang next door, maybe it is a boy in Canada talking about his parents or maybe a wife in Japan lamenting about her husband... or maybe it is our ego making us all crazy!

We have all gone through the pain of our own ignorance which tells us that we are in conflict with each other. We are fighting like mad waving our atom bombs, fists, words or lawyers in each other's face, calling out our pain and asking for justice. Yes, some do it physically, some do it subtly, in the civilized secrecy of their own hearts. The difference is of degree, not substance.

It is immensely important that we turn our attention INWARD, and realize that what is hurting is our own old pain. Our pain is hurting, not the other. It is hurting so much that in our attempts to end it, we are destroying our world.

This world needs healing and we cannot have that if we don't put down our actual or psychological guns and understand each other, help each other, reach out to each other and reverse the tide. If everyone keeps holding on to their perceived injustices... then that's it. Would we rather be right or happy? And nowadays, considering the modern weapon technology... would we rather be right or alive?!

A political or personal approach that involves reaching out in peace is one-sided. It may work or not, depending on the mind(s) of the other. And the other is real, we don't make it out of our imaginations, it's what's beyond our boundaries, in layers. We are all one, and we are all individual, too. If there is no other, what need is there to reach out? Ah, because the same has made itself into the other, willfully, egotistically, in a fit of delusion, childishly, ignorantly, and we need to bring it back into the fold so it feels at home not being the other. But the other keeps reasserting its right to be. This is because similarity and difference are both real. And each needs its due.

Our best chance with a reaching-out approach when dealing with political and social dangers is through the mind, which can reach beyond space and time to support peace and connection. It takes great focus, discipline and experience built over time, to be able to be effective this way, through prayer and meditation. Making a start helps.

The problem is one of immediate threats. And this is what Mumbai has just faced, and continues to face. And other parts of India and the world face these things, too.

There have been too many events in world history that show how a small group of highly-motivated people who base their self-esteem in personal power, which always means the denial of others' rights, on small or large scale, and destruction, of rights, property, land, animals and people, can overcome a larger population that lives in a peaceful, positive way.

To use an appeasement approach to such threats as they are beginning to increase in strength and number of supporters is like facing an oncoming out-of-control truck by reaching out to it.

The first, and proper, defense, is to see if one can divert or stop the truck so it harms the fewest number of people.

The reason the truck went out of control something that has to be dealt with after the threat of immediate danger is over. That means one must address the threat of immediate danger first, so one can be alive to counter the reasons the truck went out of control.

To show why focus is being given to stopping terrorists now, rather than reaching out to them, consider this scenario:

A man holds a knife to my baby son's throat. My first thought is for my son's safety. My second is for my own. My third is how to quell my feelings of panic and fear so I can act. My fourth is how to prevent the danger from happening again. When the danger happens a second time, reactions one, two, and three remain approximately the same. But reaction four must shift radically, because my first response did not stop the threat from being repeated. Countering future danger is the place where I must put my new energies. Once I develop a strategy that allows me and my son to live without having a knife put to my son's throat, I can then think about the man and what I can do to help him so he doesn't do that kind of thing to other people. If I am essentially a peaceful person, I will react to this threat, once it's been brought under control, by being understanding and positive and trying to find a long-term solution to prevent a recurrence. If I'm not a peaceful person, I may react more violently, becoming vengeful. Most people will react peacefully, because, over the long term, peacefulness supports their own chances for survival better than reacting violently.

This is the situation which Mumbai, and the rest of India, and others responding to groups of terrorists, small or large, are facing right now.

Dear Deepak

I wonder what your thoughts are on Zardari's piece in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/opinion/09zardari.html

(or click my name)

Aurora,

When we talk of countries, essentially we are referring to Governments. By essential nature average citizens are peaceful and do not ask for blood of other country's citizens.Even an army man or security force person as an individual is peaceful and surely retrospects and feel the guilt of the human killing that one makes in the line of duty.

For that matter, I believe and have written somewhere in IB that every human being is peaceful as default attribute of Nature.

It is the mind, the desires for power, money and so many things that overcome this sense of balance and the value of other's life is lost in a wronged perspective. This is a well known understanding. Every country and civilization is comprised of with these vices and virtues.

The terrorism that we face today has roots in structured poisoning of the minds of young generations. The real perpetrators are the people who have chosen their ideology as a weapon they are handing over to the young population. Final objective is to achieve some socioeconomic advantages, just like ordinary criminals. But the ideological tool is not only deadly, it is a virus which spreads fast.

Now to deal with this lot of education is required, efforts are required at all the levels of the society and governments. Now the real situation is that some of the governments are not doing enough to deal with it, further they happen to promote this as well.

Now if we have to live in our bodies and defend our selves and spread the right message of education, then we need to rely on some of the discipline that our civilizations have evolved with. If your or Deepak's argument is that violence for violence, or hate for hate will take the generations to destruction, so will the anarchy of the minds of the individuals if we do not work to certain norms to punish the wronged minds.

Now the methods of punishments, retributions may vary in degree but how can you do away with it , Please explain?

We the common people in India have been trying to make this country better, and have been living and working with so many other struggles of a developing country which go unnoticed in every day life. But our secular fabric of life, our happiness is consistently being disturbed.

Do we not have the right to be angry? The fist you saw was symbolic for calling for change within our political and bureaucratic systems and eliminating acts of terrorism and not for killing the people. It was calling for modernization of defense system of people of India and not for fighting the enemy across the border. You see, even our reactions are not violent by nature. We have right to self defense and we are just expressing that.

INWARD bound changes to my understanding happen only when there is a call from within. NOT before that. Every ones call occur at different instants in life and this can be encouraged by education and awareness but difficult to induce. Changing a terrorist mindset will have to deal with mind, the basics of values and finally calling out the humanity inside him. This being a long process, we shall have both the system of enforcement and inducement of effecting the non-violence shall go in parallel.

Dear Anurag,

There is something very sincere and innocent about your mind, and I will speak with words and not only.

To your mind, I will say that yes, most people consciously wish a peaceful life. Yes, ideology is a dangerous weapon. Yes, poisoning young minds is a very sad and destructive process. Yes, it is natural to want to live in peace and to be scared by violence. No, punishment has never taught anyone peace nor truly solved a situation. No, defense systems will never ever make anyone safe.

Of course you have the right to be angry. It is crazy that people kill people. It hurts, it is unfair and absurd. But the thing is... we need to hear our own cries for sanity, and follow them. Our anger is hurting us, we are creating the anger together, and the world out there is just a projection of our collective inner turmoil.

This is not an easy thing to understand without the experience, but you might know what I'm talking about: the world out there responds to the world in here. Many have noticed that the outer influences the inner, but not as many have noticed that it goes the other way around too. When the inner is at deep peace, the outer will be influenced- inner and outer are actually not separate. When someone calls from the soul, it is often heard by the other soul too. This, friend, is the strongest "weapon". A reaching out from inner peace. Nothing creates peace more truly and effectively, without armies, tactics or even diplomacy. But this peace is a field event and there has to be a strong enough field of peace to influence turbulence. That is why we need a lot of peaceful people to change the world. Until then, we will have to do our best to contribute as little as possible to the violence.

Hello Deepak and Everyone,

Deepak you write, ..."The image of India as progressive and modern has been shattered."

Really?.......hmmmmm...I didn' get that, in fact I think by saying that you give power to these homicide attacks, when, in fact, the only real power they have had is in taking the lives of the innocent, by, murdering, as many, as, they were able to in the situation that they created and carried out...in fact, Mumbai, reminded me a lot like NYC, in their response to their homicidial attacks by criminals who had the advantage of complete and total surprise while acting out their crimes.

Yes, homicidial maniacs have that effect, shock, on folks who are just going about their normal everday boring routines, but, once the shock had warn off they did their upmost to gain back control...

And, I don't think everyone is invested in peacemaking....really, I think there are those who are just not that into peace.... I think peace is just not the way...for some..and, right now, it seems our global community is dealing with a trend in homicide as a cause to rally round, and, as, all trends tend to fade, in their time, this one will too, eventually.

have a great day all, ruth

Dear Heath,
Thanks for the link to Zadar's article in NYT. Zadari expressed more sympathy to India than Deepak did. At least Zadari did not say "India has long hated Pakistan". Deepak is intelligent, talented in writing and speaking. He knows how to say to the people of India "I share your pain but this is not the time to react because reaction may make matters worse" but he is not saying that. On the other hand, he is trying to provoke Indians by suggestions that they are at fault for everything that happenned. One of my friends on the other site intent.com wrote to me "what Deepak and his followers do is very troubling. They blame the victims." I do not understand why Deepak has chosen this "blame the victim" approach. He must have a reason.

Aurora C says this about Anurag,

“There is something very sincere and innocent about your mind, and I will speak with words and not only”.

Aurora also says this about her kind,

“The most hilarious thing about us people is just that... everyone makes up their mind according to what their senses perceive and calls it reality”

So much for a sincere and innocent mind!

Dear Aurora,
I checked www.anhglobal.org before I wrote the question. I did not find such a program on the website. But that does not mean Deepak's org does not have such a program; it is not always easy to find things on a website and also the program info might not have been entered on that site because it appears on other sites, he maintains many websites. I see his sympathy for the unfortunate Muslims. That is why I asked.

I do not know how to start a national or international program just like you do not know how to meet with the extrimists living on the border of Pakistan and make peaceful conversations with them (refering to the Ten Questions thread). I asked you "Can you do it" because you are claiming the "call from within" and the "inner experience"; you are also telling people that outward control of violence is not enough (although physical manifestation of even extreme violence is justified in your view). I am not claiming to be a preacher. I am not claiming anything. I am simply not able to see the victims being blamed.

Dear Deepak, it's Karma isn't it? Are the terrorists not part of our own consciousness?

You mention the wealthy elites of the Arab States, how about the wealthy elites across the entire planet?

How is it we have a planet where 2% control 90% of the wealth when the other 90% actually create 90% of the value? It is the result of an illusion; it is non genuine prosperity and a bogus framework supports it and I suppose that this framework was just fine at previous points in our evolution but it is time for change.

They all share the same guilt of generating passive violence as a result of the systems design they benefit from, killing with pen strokes instead of a sword or gun.

We all don’t think a child seeing their parents fight over finances is not terror?

Let me aks that again

We all don’t think a child seeing their parents fight over finances is not terror?

The Medical Industrial complex kills 1,000 times the number attributed to terrorists and war combined each year. Where is the outcry on this account? I suppose it is just not as clearly visible, since it is a slow death and suffering. I don't think the Universe makes any distinction between passive and aggressive violence the divine consequences are the same.

One might also realize that the worst culprits are those trying to get rich in the wrong way.

"We should be focusing our efforts on helping the dispossessed of the world to rise" ~D

One outlined the solutions with executable steps over two years ago that no one else seemed to be able to come up with, and they fell on mostly deaf ears at the time. Some heard and delivered the messages but not enough embraced. These are large projects requiring substantial energy (money) to pay the people implementing them the solutions are only a phone call away.

I am seeing some very positive changes demonstrating increased awareness.
The world should be thankful Barack Obama listened, and things look to be unfolding as one hoped and outlined.

The Ego Empire is falling and those that attempt to keep it propped up will fall with it.

The artificial economy is collapsing as prophesized. I admit I had the order in which the industries would collapse wrong when I detailed it here. I didn't realize that investors would react so quickly to the anticipated collapse of the other industries when they saw the truth of the situation, which brought to the surface the ugly truth they were hiding or were oblivious to.

There could be an all out effort to usher in the new genuine economy and new systems.

There could be an all out effort to nail each popular fiction to the cross in the public forum with the truth.

Here is a truth Saudi Arabia is an Oligarchy not unlike most of the countries on the planet run by the good old boys networks. It’s no wonder they are scared. Oligarchies are just not going to fly anymore because they end up creating disparity as a result of greed and corruption. Here is another truth about ten Jewish families own most of the business and property in Israel they bought it all up when things were being privatized is there wisdom to have so much power in the hands of a few? Does it subject us to the fictions in their minds?

Yet it is all good, everything happens perfectly as it should have for an intelligent reason related to our evolution. You don’t choose your destination, only the path taken.

#17,
I wish to add: If I know how to start a national or international program, I would have started an anti-Deepak Peace program because that is how much I am bothered by his anti-Indian statements.

Caught in the drama?

Life is Like a Movie

Click my name

There is no comparison beween the histories of African Americans and Muslims. Muslims were never slaves like African Americans and one cannot blame the US or India or any other secular nation if some Muslim nations are poor. Arab countries who have oil are in fact rich though not modernized and that is because of their religion. Their education is confined to Madarasaas. Muslims once ruled India and some in Pakistan think that they must rule India again.

Indian Muslims have special privileges. They do not practise family planning because it is against their religion but every other Indian community does. The government pays for Muslims' religious pilgrimages but not Hindus'. There is no discrimination, none whatsoever in jobs at any level, including the President of India. At the time of indepenence from the British, both India and Pakistan were terribly poor. Though still poor, India has progressed whereas Pakistan is close to a failed state. Is India responsible for Pakistan's economic failure? How is US, who gave millions and millions of dollars to Pakistan responsible for its failure?

The word "Cursed" in the title shows that Deepak is feeling low because his recent TV interviews did not get him accolades. He is reacting to some negative feedback from the US audience to his public remarks on the Mumbai terror. He is preaching "no reaction" to others while he himself reacts even to vocal criticism.

Dear Syamala,

I see you want to know and I have tried to explain shortly about the ANH, but I'll try again because that was probably too succint- the Alliance is not an organization in the traditional sense, where some central leadership develops programs, etc. It is a platform with the intention to bring together people and organizations who are inspired to apply their talent and passion for our world. It is a network, based on the principles of satsang-simran-seva.

So if you go to the website and click on "Groups", you will see the 93 groups that have formed in the world up to today, around different regions, issues and domains of interest. There is a lot to do in our world. I was saying that maybe you want to start such a group if it is something that is your passion and is relevant to where you live. These groups are not pompous, they are just gatherings of people who are driven by their hearts to do something together, and who agree that the love and desire for peace in their hearts combined with their talents and a desire to serve are all that is needed to change the world.

----
Thank you for taking up our dialogue again, and for a chance to understand and be understood. You feel that I'm preaching and claiming stuff, that I am justifying violence and blaiming the victims. I am speaking from my life experience and trying to explain what I have learned and what I see. I don't know how to do it without it sounding like preaching, unless I tell you my whole life's story, which has become too long for this forum :)

So I'll have to try to explain this thing that puzzles you about blaming the victims, and do my best to not make it sound like preaching, which it isn't. Bear with me please and tell me if this helps you understand what I mean:

I am in no way blaming the victims. But I am neither blaming the aggressors.

This is the essence.

Can you see it? I see no blame, just like an old mother would see no blame when her two beloved adult children fight with each other for the fiftieth year in a row. Yes- one of them might have hit the other first once upon a time out of some reason, but ... they have been fighting for a lifetime, and they just get deeper and deeper into a conflict that shouldn't be there to begin with. They are brothers and deep down they love each other, even if they hardly remember it anymore.

If I try to tell any of them about the other's pain, to awaken their compassion and bring them out of their focus with their own story... they will feel hurt because they will think that I blame them for what is happening. I am not blaming either of them, just pointing out their responsibility in the conflict- they are the ones keeping up the conflict and hurting themselves and the other in the process.

There is a HUGE difference between blame and responsibility. Blame is about the past and all our memories of pain, while responsibility is what a mature human being can take in this very moment. We can all take responsibility for our thoughts, speech or actions. Maybe we feel victimized, but it is still up to us how we respond and in what way we increase or decrease the conflict.

You see, dear Syamala? I am not talking about the past with all its pain and list of wrongs done to us, but about right now. Taking responsibility for my actions this very moment means taking back my power as a conscious being. At the moment when I consciously decide what I want to do in this moment, I am no victim anymore. I am in power. And a victim empowered in this way deeply transforms its counterpart- the aggressor, on an energy level. It is a phenomenon which I have experienced and studied thoroughly, and which is what I encourage everyone I know to try out in their own lives, to observe the effects. Do not believe me- try it out. All I can do is speak about it and live it in my life as well as I can, and invite everyone to do the same. We are not two brothers fighting, we are 6 billions brothers and sisters caught up in madness. Nobody is to blame, and those of us who decide to take responsibility are the ones who find the real power, the power to change. I wish peace for us all, I wish to see us in power, I wish to see us back to sanity. And to me, peace has proven itself to be the way.

One of the most obvious pitfalls for peacemakers is:

“If someone acts in a hurtful way to me, or someone else, I will respond with a gesture of loving kindness”

If one is really able to take the above action, in one’s personal life environment, then one truly has the gift of love, unconditional love.

This is an act of pure awareness.

What does pure awareness mean?

To me it means: who is the one experiencing? When one is able to ask this question at that moment, one finds out that in one’s deepest core one is not touched by the situation. One is grounded in inner peace. Yet one is able to place oneself into the attitude of the other, knowing the other has the same fears and uncertainties to endure as oneself.

It almost seems impossible to me to be able to act in this way when such events like 9/11 and now recently in Mumbai occur.

According to me one can only practice this in a one on one situation.

So becoming and being a peacemaker can only be done in one’s own awareness in that particular situation one finds oneself in.

Grown-ups can never tell another one how to behave.

Grown-ups have to find it out by oneself, once they feel the need to cut the umbilical cord.

This is also not a political issue, although we would want it to be, because there are only very few of us who really seriously try to practice the above :)

And perhaps it will always stay with those few, who then can become an example for humanity.

Perhaps it is a lifetime evolution to reach this state and most of us reach it when they are already in the fourth stage of their life, preparing themselves for inevitable death.

To be peaceful in the face of death seems to me to be the ultimate goal. This world will pass, whether be a bullet away or a prescribed amount of years.

This is my personal meditation and I see it's too ethereal to be made to fit this earthly condition and its natural laws.

One cannot get a quart into a pint pot. Life's blood is inevitably spilled.

Syamala, I agree. I was surprised and impressed by what seems to be Zardaris' complete understanding of both the balance he needs to keep as he governs (between complete fairness/openness, and supporting his people and their positions), and the complex historical and political feeds into the current situation. It takes a particular political courage to write that openly in a Western publication, too. If he has the strength to back up his insights, he will turn out to be the leader Pakistan has been waiting for. And that puts him in danger, of course.

Mieke and Ed, you're discussing aspects of these issues that the rest of us prefer to skirt, verbally. Kudos for your courage in doing so.

The reasons for Islamic communities seeming to have an economic disadvantage are threefold, imho. First, there is the separation of boys from their mothers at an early age, which reduces their exposure to variety in human nature and emotions, and creates the potential for a brittle character. Second is the proscription against credit-based transactions. Third is the limitation of social experience -- dance, some kinds of music, representative visual arts, and pre-marriage informal social exchanges between the sexes. Freedom of spirit -- social and emotional litheness and flexibility -- is lost. Gender-integrated families, credit-based economies, and social intercourse that includes exposure to and participation in arts and entertainment evolved in most cultures naturally, as an expression of human nature. These things are limited by rule in Islamic cultures. This goes against human nature. When human nature is thwarted, actions and expressions become limited and distorted.

An extremely realised person once said to me... "Beware of all that is written; because it comes from the mind of man and not the hand of God"

Thats why as I have said before on here, I believe in No Thing. That which I AM is belief.

Its hard to accept this I know better than most but once it is realised then nothing can poison your mind.

Become belief itself instead of believing.

xx

Mieki, I think it is important to note when "I will respond with a gesture of loving kindness" one is connecting the "seemingly" other to the source and it can be very transformative. The reason for the original transgression is source disconnection.

I got that from the "Life is a Movie .com" web site.

Passive violence is the cause of all aggressive violence

Greed is a form of passive violence, denial of the self in the "seemingly" other is also a form of passive violence

Then should we focus on and move to end all passive violence through awareness, rather than trying to treat aggressive violence which is only a symptom?

Passive violence being the cause of the imbalance leading to dis-ease with violence as a symptom?

Thanks Deepak

Sometimes the job gets discouraging, but words like that helps me keep believing in Ahimsa.

Yes Simon, it cannot be expressed in words.

It is no thing.

I feel it as a kind of protection, a kind of awareness that you only "(k)gnow" you possess, after reflecting.

It is the same as the Paradox life - death - life. You only know the difference because of the duality. I have experienced this in the Gardens of Life, and tried to explain it on my website.

And Richard, it goes beyond passive and aggressive violence. It is the awareness of our deepest core, that is untouched.
If we are able to focus on that it is pure awareness, but everyone has that inside and actions from that core come spontaneously. You cannot reason this out.

It may seem to others that that means the same as indifferent but that is not the case.

Well so far me trying to express it in words, i cannot :)

Mieke

I think you're doing a great job expressing it, Mieke.

(((Hi Aurora)))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fnyfnrX6cU

One of my most beautiful memories of our conversations here :)

Wishing you all a warm and cosy holiday season!

Mieke

Thank you Mieke, a happy holiday to you and your loved ones!

Help me understand,

perhaps our friend, Aurora...
is speaking here in one reference about the "silent' mind...not afraid to view more and more of it's true essence..

and in her second reference is speaking about the constantly "judging" mind that believes itself to be separate and in continual opposition to others...perhaps...
love, carolyn

Talk is not only cheap but deceptive also.

luckily we are not only talking about it but living it too.

And it doesn't cost a penny and makes one happy inside :)

http://www.heartphone.org/labyrinths_in_nature.htm

Making natural labyrinths in nature is rewarding and not deceiving
It is a natural meditation that makes one happy inside.

http://www.heartphone.org/poems_from_the_heartphone.htm

Inspired by one wonderful IB member

http://www.heartphone.org/poem_of_the_stone.htm

How people can inspire one another all over the world!

And the music you hear in the background of my website is made and played by the father of Simon Freejohn, another one of our respected bloggers here.

dear Mieke,
your words and pictures and the music create a wonderful energy!

with love,
~ Kate

Hi Kate,

So did your words and the words, poems, music of many here on IB.

Many of us really meant a lot to one another here :)

Perhaps we did not only move a stone but, who knows, a whole mountain :)

Wish you wonderful Season's Holidays.

Mieke

Dear Meike,
Thanks for the link. I can see you ARE living it. You ARE blessed.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone on IB!

dear Mieke,
There are so many symbols contained in your labyrinth. Symbols of ... beauty, creativity, playfulness, Love.
Yours is a generous and warm heart.

My journey of walking began in 2000, walking in nature each day, or as often as I could.
Now, when I can't - I do miss it.
Nature has so much to reveal, as seasons change and the colors dance on the river.
Leaves sprout out, and the autumn comes - and they fall, at just the right time.
I see an amazing variety of birds and watch their migrant patterns. Little ones being born. New life begins and takes off.

I have walked with wounds, and I have walked in freedom (freedom feels better :-).

Thank you for sharing your creations! I hope you and Frank have a great time on your holiday!

Happy Holidays and warm wishes to you syamala!

with love,
~ Kate

p.s.
thanks to simon's father - for the music on Mieke's site

Thank you Syamala for your appreciation :)

Happy Holidays to you too! And all the best to you.

Dear Kate,

I had my share of wounds too, but freedom of the heart(or freedom and peace inside) made me realize rather early in my life that that was the way for me to go and thanks to that realization I have met so many angels in my life pointing me the way at the exact moment I needed it :)

I can only be very grateful for that.

Much love to everyone here, from the heart,

Mieke