Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?

"There is a very little word that we often use. It has only two letters, but it is full of power for good or evil. It is the word 'if'. Do not be always fancying that if your circumstances were different you would be different; if only other people would be agreeable, you would; if only you were somebody else and had their chances you would do differently; if this, that and the other might be, all would be well with you."  ~Hermes
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I tend to say "if" a lot - If only I had more money.  If only I lived in better home.  If only this person treated me with more kindness.  If only I had this or that or did this or that I would be happy.  But the fact is, IF I were to get this or that or achieve this or that, I'd only be wanting something more, something bigger, something else.  Life can turn into a cycle of wants if I'm not careful, instead of a cycle of thanks for what I have which has the power to bring a sense of contentedness.  I sometimes think the grass is greener on the other side, but I must remember that to someone else my grass is green and healthy and lush.  I have a beautiful field and if I tend to it with love and gratitude it will allow me to feel satisfied with things the way they are, which will allow me to be satisfied with myself, which will allow me to be in harmony with my Higher Self.

Thanks, Universe, for the lovely pasture I have and for the rain and sunshine you provide to keep it green and in production of some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen.

Negative Thoughts, Negative Energy

"It is your belief in vulnerability that causes things to get bigger. It is the absence of your awareness of well-being. There is nothing creeping after you. There is no bad stuff coming after you...it is only you holding yourself in a place where you are disallowing the well-being, that would be there otherwise. There is no bad stuff out there. Everything is a by-product of how you flow your energy." ~Abraham Hicks
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Negative thoughts create more negative energy.  The snowball effect definitely applies to my thoughts, and before I know it the negative energy I have created is monstrous.  Luckily I have Ray around to remind me of the good I have in my life.  When I start thinking I don't have enough money, or our apartment is too small, or the neighbor's music is too loud, or about the people in my life who have hurt me, he reminds me that I have a roof over my head when the homeless are trying to stay warm by sleeping on the sewer grates.  He reminds me of the comfortable bed I have to sleep on when some people are sleeping on benches.  He reminds me of the women in the world who go to bed lonely without a man that loves them.  He reminds me that I have lots to be thankful for.  Yesterday he asked that I write a list of things I have in my life to be thankful for.  (Of course he was first on the list!)  When he puts things in perspective for me it lifts me up and makes me feel that I am lucky to have what I have and there are some people in this world who would give anything to be in my position.

Ray takes all my gloomy clouds and paints silver linings on them.

Ray reminds me that even on cloudy days the sun is still shining above and beyond them.  The sun is always shining.

The Soulmate Holds the Key

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we’re pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we’re safe in our own paradise.
~Richard Bach

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That is how I feel about my soulmate.

Like Children With a Game

"You are like children with a game, and you think that the game is played by everyone. Physical life is not the rule. Identity and consciousness existed long before your earth was formed. You suppose that any personality must appear in physical terms. Consciousness is the force behind matter, and it forms many other realities besides the physical one. It is, again, your own viewpoint that is presently so limited that it seems to you that physical reality is the rule and mode of existence." -- Future Seth

Stop Thinking

How long will you think about this painful life?
How long will you think about this harmful world?
The only thing it can take from you is your body.
Don't say all this rubbish and stop thinking.

~Rumi

Long Time in the Making

When you think objectively about how much work went into creating your own capacity to have the experience you are having in this very moment – fourteen billion years of hard work - then it might even begin to strike you as immoral to spend too much time sitting around and worrying about the fears and desires of your personal ego. Surely the purpose of all that cosmic effort and creativity and positivity – from nothing to energy to light to matter to life to consciousness to you - could not possibly have been just for that. When you awaken to the evolutionary process and its endless creativity, and you discover how profound and complex the structure of our universe is, you start to recognize and appreciate, at a soul level, what a precious gift it is to be here.  (p. 37, Andrew Cohen, Evolutionary Enlightenment: a new path to spiritual awakening,ch. A Big Yes)
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When looked at from that perspective it seems like more than just a grand fluke!  It gives life so much more meaning.  I should keep this in mind when I'm feeling down and wondering if there really is any meaning to life after all.  Since before the beginning of time I was an idea, a thought that became an action!  Now here I am, and to get me here the Universe had to line things up JUST SO.  I was a long time in the making, and SO WERE YOU.

Just Try

With each morning’s awakening try to live through the day in harmony with the Higher Self. “Try” is the battle-cry taught by the Teachers to each pupil. Naught else is expected of you. One who does his best does all that can be asked. There is a moment when even a Buddha ceases to be a sinning mortal and takes his first step toward Buddhahood. (Blavatsky Collected Writings, Vol. 12, Esoteric Instructions)
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In the mornings I have been doing exactly that - trying.  I may be forgetful when it comes to thinking positive thoughts or showing gratitude to the Universe but some mornings I have succeeded in remembering.  I feel that if I work with the Universe then the Universe will work with me.  We get out of something what we put into it.  As above so below.  Have you heard this koan below?

"A new student approached the Zen master and asked how he should prepare himself for his training. "Think of me a bell," the master explained. "Give me a soft tap, and you will get a tiny ping. Strike hard, and you'll receive a loud, resounding peal."

OK, Universe.  I'm pounding on that bell with my thoughts and I'm putting feeling into them.  Hope You can hear me.  Thanks for listening.  (Since gratitude is important.)

What To Do With All These Thoughts

Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everyone is suffering from it, so it is considered normal.  This incessant mental noise prevents you from
finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.
-Eckhart Tolle
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I don't know that I could ever stop the incessant chatter inside my head but I have been trying to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones.  We'll never be able to watch all our thoughts because we have about 60,000 thoughts a day, but anytime I can become aware of them and catch myself "in the act", so to speak,  is a good thing.  So, anytime I can I'm going to think good thoughts and thoughts of gratitude to the Universe.  As someone with OCD I tend to think the same thought over and over and over again.  (...and did I say "over and over and over again"?  Good.)  So, I'd much rather say, "It's a great day!" many times, instead of, "Oh, it's a gloomy old boring day."

Dear Universe

" Your happiness depends on your ability to change your state of consciousness, to extricate yourself from the realms of the unconscious, the subconscious, and even the self-conscious, in order to elevate yourselves to the realms of the superconscious, or divine consciousness, so that you may dive into it as into an ocean of light. Doing this, you realize not only that you are free from the limitations of your physical body and the impressions of the five senses, but also that your whole being extends to infinity. In this fusion with divine light, even if it only lasts for a brief moment, you feel that you are gradually being taken over by your superior self, which is a tiny part of the Godhead. And then, one fine day, all of a sudden, you will be given all the comprehension, sensations, or achievements you previously lacked."  ~Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov
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I've been very pumped up and excited about the Law of Attraction.  My main goal at this point in time is to make myself feel good.  I'm putting effort into thinking positive thoughts.  So, my first order from the Universal Catalog is HAPPINESS!  Ever since I put my order in I've been feeling some of these blues lifting.  It's an actual sensation that I can feel physically when depression starts to fade away, and I'm feeling it.  I'm starting to realize that I need to put a little bit of effort into making myself feel good beside just taking some magical pill which really isn't very magical at all since it doesn't work 100%.  It might work 50% but I need to do the rest.  I am programming myself like a computer.

Universe, I will be happy.
Universe, I am the Master of my thoughts.
Universe, thank you for all that you have given me.  (Because gratitude helps bring more good things into one's life.)

Tosui's Vinegar

Tosui was the Zen master who left the formalism of temples to live under a bridge with beggars. When he was getting very old, a friend helped him earn his living without begging. He showed Tosui how to collect rice and manufacture vinegar from it, and Tosui did this until he passed away.

While Tosui was making vinegar, one of the beggars gave him a picture of the Buddha. Tosui hung it on the wall of his hut and put a sign beside it. The sign read:

"Mr. Amida Buddha: This little room is quite narrow. I can let you remain as a transient. But don't think I am asking you to help me to be reborn in your paradise."
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This is a funny Zen koan.  Just yesterday I was joking around with Ray about how I was hoping it could be possible to hop off the merry-go-round of reincarnation, as if we had a choice.  Round and round we go again, and I am getting rather dizzy!

I know that my speaking of koans probably defeats the purpose, which is to silence the mind, but I can't help myself.  :)