From Gurumayi’s book, Smile, Smile, Smile – a book of 31 poems and one very wonderful talk.

Setting a New Direction

by Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

 

Setting a new direction

exceeds the reach of the intellect.

Steady self-examination

gives you access to your own soul.

Deep inside the cave of your heart

you receive unmistakable guidance.

By following the beam of its light

you comprehend the heart’s desires.

Otherwise, you steer your life

by the impulses of the senses’

there is no self-control, no sensible decision,

just endless striving to satisfy restless ambition.

The scriptures have set forth

clear directions for all seekers.

Read them, study them, imbibe them,

and choose a direction

to reach the higher goal.

There will be times, unforeseen,

when you will need the Guru’s guidance.

Don’t get stuck in any one pattern;

remain open and humble,

without binding notions.

You may think it is you

who is setting the new directions,

Truly however , it is God

who is shedding light on your path.

Sometimes, midstream, you are forced

to find a new direction.

Look deep into your heart;

it already knows the way.

The truth is,

your heart is already there.

A Weapon Against Delusion

1. Mudha jahihi dhanagama-trsnam

   kuru sadbuddhim manasi vitrsnam,

   Yal-labhase nija-karmopattam

   vittam ten vinodaya-cittam

   O fool, renounce your thirst for hoarding wealth. Fill your mind with righteous thoughts and learn dispassion. Be content with what comes to you as a result of the actions you have previously performed.

2. Artham-anartham bhavaya nityam

   nasti tatah sukhalesah satyam,

   Putrad-api dhana-bhajam bhitih

   sarvatraisa vhita nitih.

   Remember, wealth only brings grief; truly, not a drop of joy can be derived from it. A rich man fears even his own son. This is what happens everywhere.

3. Ka te kanta kas-te putrah

   samsaro’yam-ativa vicitrah,

   Kasya tvam kah kuta ayatas-

   tattvan cintaya yad-idam bhratah.

   Who is you wife, and who is  your child? This mortal world is very strange. Who are you and to whom do you belong? From what place have you come? O brother, contemplate these things.

4. Ma kuru jana-dhana-yauvana-garvam

   harati nimsat-kalah sarvam,

   Mayamayam-idam akhilam hitva

   brahma-padam tvam pravisa viditva.

   Do not boast of you youth, friends, or wealth. In the blinking of an eye, time robs you of all these things. Renounce the illusion of the world. Understand the eternal Truth and become one with It.

5. Kamam krodham moham lobham

   tyaktvatmanam bhavaya ko’ham

   Atma-jnana-vihina mudhas-

   te pachante marak-nigudhah.

   Give up the curse of lust and anger. Renounce delusion and greed. Remember who you really are. Those who are blind to the Self are fools. They are cast into hell, where they suffer.

6. Sura-mandira-taru-mula-nivasah

   sayya bhutalam-ajinam vasah,

   Sarva-parigha-bhoga-tyagah

   kasya sukham na karoti viragah.

   Make a temple or a tree your home, and the bare ground your bed. Clothe yourself in deerskin. Give up collection objects and avoid sense pleasures. Could a person fail to be happy if he has this kind of dispassion?

7. Satrau mitre putre bandhau

   ma kuru yatnam vigraha-sandhau,

   Bhava samacittah sarvatra tvam

   Vanchasyacirad yadi visnutvam.

   Remain detached from friend or enemy, son or relative, peace or war, If  you want to become one with God quickly, without losing any time, then consider ll things to be equal.

8. Tvayi mayi canyatraiko visnur-

   vyarham kupyasi sarvsahisnuh,

   Sarvasminnapi pasyatmanam

   sarvatrotsrja bheda-jnanam

   God dwells in you, in me, in everything. Your anger is futile, as well as you impatience. See your Self in everyone and renounce diversity.

9. Pranyamam prayaharam

   nityanitya-viveka-vicaram,

   Japya-sameta-samadhi-vidhanam

   kurvadhanam mahad-avadhanam.

   Practice self-restraint and control of the breath. Distinguish the fleeting from the Eternal. Repeat God’s holy name and calm your restless mind. Apply yourself wholeheartedl to this unchanging spiritual law.

10. Nalini-dala-gata-salilam taralam

    tad-vaj-jivitam-atisaya-capalam,

    Viddhi vyadhyabhimana-grastam

    lokam soka-hatam ca samstam.

    Human life is as uncertain as raindrops resting on a lotus leaf. All mankind is prey to grief, ego, and disease. Remember this without fail.

11. Ka te-stadas-dese cinta

    Vatual tava kim nasti niyanta,

    Yas-tvam harate sudrdhani-baddham

    bodhayati prabhavadi-viruddham.

    Why do all kinds of things agitate your mind? Has your reason left you? Don’t you have a guide to hold you firm, to teach you about life and death?

12. Guru-charanambuja-nirbhara-bhaktah

    samsarad-adirad-bhava-muktah,

    Sendriya-manasa-niyamad-evam

    draksyasi nija-hrdaya-stham devam.

    Cherish your Guru’s lotus feet, and free yourself from the bondage of this world. Control your senses and your mind, and see the Lord within your heart.

13. Dvadasa-panjarikamaya esah

    sisyanam kathito hyupadesha,

    Yesam citte naiva vivekas-

    te pacyante narakam-anekam.

    I have composed these twelve verses as a teacher to all disciples. Unless seekers exercise their discrimination, they will undergo much suffering.

A text by Shankaracharya. No credit is given in the book I copied it from, The Power of Chanting, an SYDA publication, 1990.

Time

Been a long time since I posted to WordPress. WordPress adopted my Yahoo! blog when Yahoo! decided not to offer blogging anymore. So, I had an account there called edsaves77 but I lost the password and they were finicky about my proof that I owned the account and all. I wonder if everything there is lost or what. I guess I could go and copy and paste, butthat would take a lot of work.

Dentist

It takes me so long to get into this site I often forget what I wanted to write when I get here.

Oh, it says on the unpaid sites, 9 out of 10 dentists recommend and I just went to the dentist on Monday. Acorn Clinic in Alachua.  I need some serious work on my teeth.

Need

I need $115 for another new tire, plus I have a payment to AAA coming up, for $18.  That will be the end of the AA payments.

Just can’t find anyone who can help me. Just looking for a loan.

Pro Hillary, posted to Facebook

Remember when “we” had a democratic congress? How many of those democrats were Reagan Democrats? I know at least Jim Webb was. We gained so many revolting against the going into debt Bush administration. True, they were hard to count on for the health care law we all wanted, the one with the public option but we did get a law, which is a beginning. We need to encourage those who are opposed to the new radicalism in the Republican Party. Socialism is a buzz word in American politics. I was surprised when Obama was critical of Hugo Chavez, but that’s the way it is. I thought Chavez was a good leader who saved the poor in his country. The President distanced himself from Chavez. That’s okay. I understand that because everyone thinks socialism is communism and Marxism. It doesn’t have to be. It can be democratic and I am not thinking of something like Nicaragua but of Sweden. All we can do in America is move closer to caring about all of our people and less about our vanity and wealth. Laws must be passed to do that. There has to be compromise and negotiations. That’s good, but I believe in Hillary. I believe in Women. I am reading a book called the Hillary Doctrine. With all the discussion of this woman I had never heard of this, that as Secretary of State she established a doctrine that women’s rights around the world were essential to American national security and this book by Valerie M. Hudson and Patricia Leidl provides a great argument that that is the truth. I am reading how terrorism has spread from Saudi Arabia. Nowhere are women’s rights more violated than in Saudi Arabia. In fact it is there that radical fundamentalist Islam has established a beach head to go about the world terrorizing governments into equally oppressive government. That’s foreign policy and that is a great strength. Yes, I suppose I will hear of drones and Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Those continue under Secretary Kerry and remember who is the President, who was more anti-war than Hillary according to his supporters. This denial of rights to women is not just an issue around the world but in America, too. Look at how abusive fundamentalist Christianity can be to women or our rural areas (keep ’em barefoot and pregnant). Doesn’t it disgust you how women are kept down. We call them Ho’s and LAUGH? What is that all about? How is that good for our democracy and our world?

Chicago

David Robertson, the Yanks closer from last year went to Chicago, the AL team this year. The story says the Yanks GM, Cashman, didn’t even offer a competitive offer. The little Steinbrenner (Shallow Hal) is more money conscious than dad was so maybe there just wasn’t enough money. So, Chicago is a big city I don’t mind getting to know. Cathy and I stopped there on our trip in 1975. We were just off the freeway at some parking lot. Doesn’t matter. I am interested in the big cities. I’m not big on farms and such, don’t like huntin’ and fishin’. My sister and one of her daughters live in Boston. Her other daughter lives in Brooklyn and her boy lives in Denver. Big cities all. Please don’t say I live in Jacksonville because I don’t. I live in the college town of Gainesville, Florida, 60 miles from Jacksonville.

Yeah, so the President is a Chicagoan and Hillary was born there. So, good things to be said for Chicago as well as that the 5th Epochal Revelation or the papers claiming to be that is said to have been revealed there. Diversey Parkway was where a lot of my letters were sent after I first started reading the better book. I can’t remember the number. 534 goes through my head but I am pretty sure that was the Kerista Commune in San Francisco. It’s the street in that instance I can’t remember. Anyway, I had this friend when I was a kid who preferred Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley. His dad, of course, listened to Frank is how I remember it. My daddy didn’t listen to Elvis, it was my step brother, 12 and 1/2 years my senior. My daddy liked Hoot Gibson. My dad enjoyed tunes like Hillbilly Heaven. Frank famously sang Chicago, My Kind of Town. Being a big Elvis fan even after the acid rock and poetry and left wing politics of a lifetime I have ignored the great Mr. Sinatra. Elvis really is looking better against Franky than the Beatles so I offered a little bit of that on my Facebook page.

You know they play Sinatra’s New York, New York at the end of Yankee games. Do they play his Chicago at the end of White Sox games?

Shiv Mahimna Stotra

Good, quite literate. Great background on the story of the Shiva Mahimna Stotram.

Spirituality and God - A guide

The story behind Shiv Mahimna stotra is as follows.

Pushpa danta was a Gandharva (a musician for the Gods).  He would visit and enjoy the Garden of the King Chitraratha.  He enjoyed the gardens and the flowers immensely and subsequently started stealing flowers from the Garden.  King Chitraratha could not catch him because he had the power to become invisible.  So King Chitraratha spread Bilipatra on the garden.  Pushpadanta not realizing it, stepped into the garden and was caught.  Since the bilipatra is something offered to Shiv as oblation, Shiv was displeased.   The result of this transgression was he could no longer remain invisible. Pushpadanta wanted to have the powers to remain invisible again and he prayed to Sada shiv and created the Shiv Mahimna.

Reciting the Shiv Mahimna 11 times is called the laghu rudri and reciting it 108 times is called Maharudri.

The interpretation :  King Chitraratha refers…

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Work

Hard drugs to Hard Work?

Hard work. Hard drugs?

Hardening. Of the Arteries?

Arteriosclerosis.

Hard life. Hard hearts. Hard world.

Hard ball.

I looked up hard in the French dictionary and

it said if I meant hard as in the hardness of a brick

then it is durs, but if I meant hard as in it is hard

to learn french then it is difficile.

I wondered at the differences. If you said

difficult in English you would be being polite. By

saying hard you are being serious.

Of course a brick can never be difficult.

I have worked hard for two days. The question

arises, should I work again for another?

There was no agreement between myself

and Labor Ready that I should work another

day, I had no plans, but the group of workers

I was with when we quit tonight though we

could get another day and requested the

manager to write repeat on their work sheets.

They had a quarrel it seemed. There seems

to be a quarrel in Labor Ready. Yes, I wanted

more work and I thought maybe about another

day, this next day and I told the manager to

wrote repeat on mine, too. Later, i doubted.

I had no gas for another day. I had planned to

go to the office Monday morning, after 10 when

Karen was in and submit my work sheets, but

ambitious people said get in early, see Billy,

get your money and go to work another 8 hours.

Ambitious people. Some people admire ambition

and it can be a worthy trait. Others have another

take on ambition and say “kill it out.”

D. R. Butler says, take life lightly. Be of a light

Heart. I am with him.

Journal post PSY 496 A01

Reading about intervention in the book. That word sounds of Vietnam, so military and actually awful. You know in the 80’s there were these places that really didn’t have a patients best interests at heart and abused those in their care. There should be more talk to that. It could be difficult to even find it on the internet.
I remember Straight, Inc. and then thereafter a local group in Jacksonville, Florida called Charter by the Sea was abusing the people who went to it for help. Intervention, the word, symbolizes that for me.I understand that the book is speaking of clinical settings but I still hear that ugly Vietnam era kind of thing,like sending 500,000 men to Vietnam. There is policing attitude, to it, although
I understand it could be medical where someone’s life is at stake.
The problem with drugs abuse is it runs the gamut from very intellectual kids trying marijuana to middle aged men strung out on heroin. Very different things. I visited a web site recently called The Truth About Drugs and it was plainly a vey biased site. I happened upon the LSD part of it and it is just frightening. I have taken LSD and I did not have any hallucinations. I was consumed, though, more or less for entire day. A couple of times, maybe more and the mushrooms. And I smoked pot daily as did my more successful friends. I presume it is a site that is flattered by a news outlet like FOX News whose lies are a daily occurrrence.
I hope it is just the way I hear it, intervention. I know there are medical terms about that are new to me, like I had a “procedure” to insert 2 stents into an artery in 2004 and people speak of health incidents. That is a preferable way to look at it but this is psychology and many people are suspicious and afraid of what psychology can accomplish.
An interesting term came up in the reading about “personality.” I can see the client freaking out saying, “ARE THEY TRYING TO CHANGE MY VERY PERSONALITY?” Many believe their personality to be the very foundation of their being, the egoic entity if you will. They are frightened when they hear Buddhists speaking of no personality and of Hindus who speak of the destruction of the ego.
These other philosophies being involved might be my problem. If I could just be about 12 years old again, oh, yeah, 18 or 21 maybe.