You are beautiful, without changing a thing; beauty is not earned...

Look at yourself in the mirror and at first perhaps you will feel disgust and shame because that's what you were taught to feel. 

But allow yourself to feel disgust and shame, and know they are not 'you', only feelings moving. And let thoughts appear in the mind like 'ugly' and 'fat' and 'bad' and 'broken' and know that they are just words, and familiar, and old. 

Let the mind chatter away and feel your feelings too. You have to love yourself by also loving the part that doesn't love yet, or trust yet. 

Allowing all of you to be reflected now.

Begin to see yourself through the eyes of a loving mother who sees you as precious even if you have pimples or deformities or rashes or birthmarks, even if you have half a face or missing limbs. 

You have to see yourself through these bigger eyes, eyes of pure loving attention, eyes that do not judge but allow judgements too. Your eyes have been too small up until now. 

You were taught by people who hated themselves and you got infected. Until you looked at yourself today.

And the medicine now is naked, choiceless attention; being as spacious as the mirror itself, making room for thoughts and feelings but not mistaking them for the truth. 

Your beauty lies in your willingness to feel, and see beyond the labels. Hold the totality of the image the way the mirror holds it; not resisting, not hiding, not shaming, not trying to adapt yourself to some second-hand idea of beauty or perfection. 

Your imperfections are so perfect in this light; your wrinkles and blotches a work of divine art, fascinating and real, and so human.

See. And in the seeing, allow yourself to be seen.

No matter how the body looks on the outside, we are all Beautiful, especially our True Being which is Perfect. 

Dedicated to  'Imah'

love light and peace

ps/smoh

As I search for a piece of kindness And I find Hitler in my heart From the corpses flowers grow.....

"FAITH: YOUR FIRST STEP

Expect to be knocked down. Expect to find yourself on your knees, sometimes. 

Life is not only the ups, it is the downs too. Like the breath, there is the falling and there is also the rising. Like the ocean tides, like the heart that pounds moment by moment in your chest, there is expansion and contraction too, swelling and descent, and one is not 'better' than the other, one is not more 'alive'. 

Both are essential for existence.

Finding yourself on your knees, close to the ground, know that faith is not the fearful holding of the in-breath, nor necessarily the belief in a better tomorrow, but the deep trust in today, finding the sacredness in the out-breath, the contraction, the fall; knowing the drop, the descent, the ground itself, is as sacred as any imagined destination.

Sometimes you have to fall to climb, friend, and sometimes, finding yourself on your knees, you discover a courage and a faith the summit could never give you. 

The drop is not cruel or shameful; it is a fresh beginning, an invitation to be present.

Dust yourself off, friend, the next step is not far, and I am here to catch you, always."

Be present, watch your steps. It's a fresh beginning, trust in today & have faith. Find yourself. Discover your courage....

love, light and peace

ps/smoh

Goose bumps never lie.....

I have taken to call 'goose-bumps' truth-chills, like one of the ways that the body signals what is resonant for it, what is deeply true. 
Those bumps are like a trail to follow home...

Flow feelers...I usually get them when I feel like I'm in the flow.

The fear we feel when we consider taking the next step on our true-path is entirely normal. We live in a frightening world and our habitual range of e-motion secures us. 

It also imprisons us. 

My experience is that the key is converting the fear into the fire that pushes you outward. Not to be squelched by it, but to use it as the fiery furnace for transformation itself.

Some say it's good to keep busy, and that has some truth to it. But are you keeping busy because it's hard for you to handle 'nothingness?' 

If that's the case, busy is just another form of escape from something we have yet to face and let go of...

The only way to fail at life is to abstain...

"The underlying principle of life is the unity of the human personality. We are creative thinker and feeling animal – and we are just a man or a woman. 
We a rational mind and non rational body and we are just a living organism. We must live on all levels at once, and that is no easy task…
To be an integrated individual, we must be identified with our body and with our word. To achieve this integration one must start with being the body – you are your body. 
But it does not stop there. 
One must end with being the word – you are your word. 
But the word must come from the heart."

love, light and peace

ps/smoh

Spirituality is the foundations for good health. When you spiritually connect to that which is important to you magical and amazing things start to happen.

There is no end to the journey or complete absolute point. As with everything, there will always be seasons and variables in energy. 

How we react and the state we choose to live in most that matters. Challenges will come and go and with that more opportunities to lift our level of awareness higher. 

Yes these things diminish greatly but what we resist will persist until we can observe learn and grow...and then sweet release.

My joy is when I could not get angry anymore and became more compassionate. 

I cannot stop meditating no matter what. Interestingly am not religious. Yes it is possible to be spiritual without being religious. 

Most of all just be thankful for your assembly, who, what, why, if something made you is irrelevant. You get a look at the world.

Spirituality is the essence of human soul. 

As I go deep into longer periods of meditation, I just get more aware of blessings and sweetness of present moments. 

I am also gradually able to recognize the aura of people around me, I am able to understand myself to a greater extent and I am proud to say - 

Whatever I have and where I am at life, this is exactly what was meant for me and I love it. smile emoticon 

We judge ourselves and others each moment, heading towards non judgmental life and mind, mindfulness meditation is amazing in those terms and making you so self aware.

All human experience is a soul learning and growing, very natural and understandable. We all learn at different times. 

Don't feel bad about yourself. 

We are all one.

ps/smoh

(•_•)
\) (>
/ \ Knowledge is different than intelligence. Building one's knowledge base is a very intelligent choice for people who want to perform at a high intellectual level. 
Organized information is the raw ingredients of Understanding; not Understanding itself. We must use intelligence to prepare that dish. 
Wisdom happens after we eat it. 
Intelligence is from within and we use that intelligence to acquire and process that knowledge we are given. 
Knowledge is knowledge; intelligence is how well you use knowledge.

ps/smoh

Through our heart mind we shift.... Perception is interesting.

(•_•)
\) (>
/ \ Even very accomplished thinkers find themselves quite susceptible to 'arguing on the internet'. If they can't sort it out, who can?
I'd love to read an account of two people who enter into a conversation with diametrically opposing views, who work it out. 
Better yet would be an example of where this occurred online. 
I think genuinely communicating would be a start. Then understanding one another might follow. I don't believe the former occurred until they agreed to stop the correspondence.

I think generally what occurs is that people become so wedded to their positions that it interferes with their capacity or at least willingness to really communicate.
I don't think either attempted to overlook their position about what was going on for the other long enough to try to understand the point of view of the other. 

They were both attached to being right (about different aspects of the argument). That commitment is always going to be an obstacle to understanding the other as the other understands them which to my mind is where the real value in conversation lies.
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's organic in nature and so wonderful to observe. I've seen chat groups that seem to thrive in debating, act as one mind. Also, the more extensive the vocabulary, the more of a challenge it is.

I have been bewildered by this. So much debating and arguing going on, and in a shocking number of cases, by people that are claiming that they have transcended such things, that they have attained some place of freedom where they are clear that they (or anyone else) actually don't exist. 
It amazes me that such non-existent entities would find the need to argue, to demonstrate that they are right.
Thinkers like to debate, to be right. 

Thinking says nothing about the state of one's heart, and what one has actually experienced and realized. 
Too often, being able to clearly articulate truths and teachings passes for knowledge or some form of attainment - but the proof of the pudding is always in how it's actually lived, and the act of arguing usually runs counter to what they're actually purporting to know.

ps/shoh

The only meaning in life is the meaning you give it....

Wisdom can only unfold with life experiences. It's not a sprint and there are no easy short-cuts to it. It's a lifelong marathon and requires unlimited patience to learn the next lesson and the next lesson and the next....

Embracing the WHOLE journey - with its entire spectrum of bittersweet surprises - is the most challenging ingredient to multidimensional Success.
All the evil in the world, all the oppression, famines, and wars can be traced back to one thing - the unthinking and unfeeling majority of humankind who enabled the evil ones.

Most spend the first third of life living it for their parents, the second third for their children and the last third wondering how the previous two fleeted by so fast. 
WHEN will you live for YOU? 
No, this isn't about narcissism or being Self-cantered, it's about living your PURPOSE. There will always be attachments to point fingers at, and yet Life won't wait for any man or woman. 

So when, WHEN will you live to BE the real 'you'?

We own nothing but we don't get it until we reach the death bed, in the meantime we feel like we are the rulers of the world and try to rule it in our own norms. There is a life and death cycle, everyone has to face karma, even if it is an infant or 5 year old or adult or old. Nothing can stop this. 
Even if there is no religion, no terrorism we can't stop somebody's death as it is already decided before the life has to takes place. 
And death is the beginning of new life. If we believe it or not, no matter, ultimately this is the only reality 

That's why think good, do good, this is universal. Humanity is the and my reality. I believe thoughts and intentions are prayers or the observer effect to the logical minds.

Being is the beginning and end of everything. Whatever you do starts from the fact you exist. It ends with the fact that the consequence of your actions return to your own existence.

Rise up to face the day good friends, may good will and thoughts abound this day and always.

smoh