Peace that Passeth all Understanding

RECYCLED FROM 2008...

INTRODUCTION: Real peace has no reason, or foundation, or rationale, because it emerges from a place much deeper than thoughts. Real peace requires no anchor (as in god, or teacher, or a mental position)

Sometimes in life situations arise that put you in a storm. This storm can and will blow you away and sometimes does.

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I don't know how it happens, but it just happens. No books can teach you how, no one can explain why, but it comes. 'The peace that passeth all understanding'.

My experience with this 'peace that passeth all understanding' is that it has a beautiful tinge of silver to it. When I say silver, I mean the 'feeling' that this peace is silvery in nature. Very difficult to explain in words, but it is beautiful and intense, silent and calm.

My experience reminds me of a book I read recently. A book on Tibetan Buddhism named 'Luminous Emptiness' by Francesca Fremantle, an associate of Chogyam Trungpa, the founder of Naropa University. This book talks of 'wrathful compassion' and 'crazy wisdom' that it's deities/dakinis use, to 'force' their student into stillness and mental peace.

The author talks of 'sanity and insanity' working simultaneously, 'cruelty and compassion' working together. Under ordinary circumstances, 'sanity and insanity' working together is nonsense, it is just insanity.

But, under special circumstances, when there is love and trust between the partners, sanity and insanity working together can do wonders, like Francesca Fremantle explains.

The thread of love holds people together, when 'sanity-insanity' operates. Without love, it would all be insanity.

When sanity and insanity, cruelty and compassion, all work together in the envelope of love, 'peace that passeth all understanding' starts manifesting, for brief periods at first, and slowly the time for which this peace stays keeps on increasing. But only if you don't expect it to.

Human relationships are sane and insane, both. There is cruelty in them, there is compassion in them, both at the same time. But this is immature love.

In mature love, there can be no cruelty, no revenge, no brutality. Love is not about beating each other black and blue(emotionally or physically) and then weeping and crying and apologising later.

If love enters the cruel-compassionate-sane-insane relationships that humans strike with each other, they will all heal in time, and 'peace that passeth all understanding' will manifest.

Love can heal everything.
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Guardian Angels

Guardian Angels are always around, says Doreen Virtue.

A lot of us are convinced that demons walk this planet.

If that is true, then angels have to be around too.

The Nature of Panic & The Imposter

Introduction:

Fears tend to be much worse than reality.
Panic makes us visualise a very dark future.

The future is never as dark as the state of panic might might portray.

Humans, it is true, live in a state of panic, more or less.

Somnambulating from one state of panic to another. But that's not you, it's this 'thing', very accurately represented by...



Newspapers are evidence of panic. News channels are evidence. From one scam to another. From one tragedy to another. There are good things happening too, in this world, but the focus is only on tragedy and doom. That is what the state of panic is all about. All other things melt into nothing, only doom, tragedy linger in the perspective. And very often, things appear much more dangerous than they actually are.

Like Jim Bishop says, "The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face."

The interesting thing about panic is, it can never take you over completely. The fragmentation in the human psyche is the reason for this.

When panic takes over, some aspects of you will remain cool and calm. Always.

This is an excellent video on the nature of panic, and dealing with it.

Teal Scott suggests that DO NOT RESIST fear, anxiety, panic. Embrace them, and they will melt.


Teal Scott quote.

"You can't control thoughts because thoughts don't exist in the brain. Ignorance is not the result of choosing to think what benefits you to think. Ignorance is the result of fully believing in your thoughts... thoughts that are most often distortions."

Invite the fear to become worse. Ask it to get more intense. Ask it to give you more. When the fear no longer meets resistance mentally, it loses its power. Just like a stray dog stops chasing you when you no longer run from it.



Pema Chodron quote.
"The “Lion’s Roar” is the fearless proclamation that any state of mind, including the emotions, is a workable situation, a reminder in the practice of meditation. We realize that chaotic situations must not be rejected. Nor must we regard them as regressive, as a return to confusion. We must respect whatever happens to our state of mind. Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news."

And a highly interesting Jim Bishop quote.

Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.

And an interesting Steve Hagen quote.

Truth and Reality are always here for us to see. We don’t need to stand on any particular idea, belief, answer, or other mental structure. In each moment we can see what’s actually going on without grasping — without needing to find something to bolster us or comfort us. After all, what is there to bolster? What’s being threatened?

A brilliant solution, by Pema Chodron
One way to practice staying present is to simply sit still for a while and listen. For one minute, listen to the sounds close to you. For one minute, listen to the sounds at a distance. Just listen attentively."
(Taking the Leap)

CONCLUDING NOTE:

A lot of weakness and sorrow is the result of lack of self esteem, and guilt over past actions, sorrow over past failures.

But then, like Teal Scott points out, most thoughts are distortions. And once this is seen, self esteem will automatically repair itself. You will heal once you see the truth of your past.



A very wise quote from: MarcandAngel.

Think positive. Life is good. Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting pure gold. Positive thinking isn’t about expecting the best to always happen, but accepting that whatever happens is the best for the moment. So keep smiling and keep staying true to your heart. Someday, the negative voice inside you will have nothing left to say.

Must Read:Raptitude

Kalpa Vṛkṣa -2

In the BhagvadGita, in many many verses, earthly life is called an illusion.

In this blog entry we'll look at just one. Chapter 15, Verse 1. In which it is suggested that the human world is only a reflection of Krishna Loka, and being a reflection, the human world is unreal and "upside down". Metaphorically speaking.

श्रीभगवानुवाच
ऊर्ध्वमूलमधःशाखमश्वत्थं प्राहुरव्ययम्।
छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित् ॥१५- १॥
अधश्चोर्ध्वं प्रसृतास्तस्य शाखा गुणप्रवृद्धा विषयप्रवालाः।
अधश्च मूलान्यनुसंततानि कर्मानुबन्धीनि मनुष्यलोके ॥१५- २॥
न रूपमस्येह तथोपलभ्यते नान्तो न चादिर्न च संप्रतिष्ठा।
अश्वत्थमेनं सुविरूढमूल-मसङ्गशस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्त्वा ॥१५- ३॥
ततः पदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यं यस्मिन्गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः।
तमेव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी॥१५- ४॥

The Lord said: They (or the wise) speak of the eternal Ashvattha tree having its origin above and its branches below (in the visible cosmos) whose leaves are hymns. One who understands this is a knower of the truth.

The branches (of this world tree of Maya) spread below and above (or all over the cosmos). The tree is nourished by the Gunas; sense pleasures are its sprouts; and its roots (of ego and desires) stretch below in the human world causing Karmic bondage.

Neither its (real) form nor its beginning, neither its end nor its existence is perceptible here on the earth. Having cut these firm roots of the Ashvattha tree by the mighty ax of detachment;

The goal (of nirvana) should be sought reaching which one does not come back; thus thinking: In that very primal spirit I take refuge from which this primal manifestation comes forth.

MY MUSINGS.....
The reflection of a tree in water or a mirror, if closely observed, will have ALL the details, that the real tree has. But it's not real. Of course.

QUESTION:

So if earthly life is only an "upside down" reflection of Krishna Loka, where is Krishna Loka? Where is the evidence of its existence?

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