The Field Of Life

Every moment has its special message.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Every step in evolution makes life more valuable.
The more evolved you are, the more priceless is every moment; it becomes an opportunity for you to do good to others, to serve others, to give love to others, to be gentle to others, to give your sympathy to souls who are longing and hungering for it.
Life is miserable when a person is absorbed in himself; as soon as he forgets himself he is happy.
The more he thinks of himself, his own affairs, work and interests, the less he knows the meaning of life.
If we only understood that every moment in life, every day, every month, and every year, has its particular blessing; if we only knew life's opportunity! But the greatest opportunity that one can realize in life is to accomplish that purpose for which man was sent on earth.
And if he has lost that opportunity, then whatever he may have accomplished in the world, whether he has gathered wealth, possesses much property, or has made a great name for himself, he will not be satisfied.
Once man's eyes are opened and he begins to look at the world, he will find there is a greater opportunity than he had ever thought before.
Man is as poor as he is, as limited as he is, as troubled as he is; yet there is nothing in this world which could not be accomplished by man if he only knew what thought can do.
It is ignorance which keeps him from what he ought to accomplish. Man should know how to operate his thought, how to accomplish certain things, how to focus his mind on the object that should be accomplished.
If he does not know then he has not made use of his mind but has lived like a machine. If man knew the power of feeling, and realized that the power of feeling can reach anywhere and penetrate anything, he could achieve whatever he might wish. . . . Every man is a captive in some form or other; his life is limited in some form or other; but one could get above this limitation by realizing the latent power and inspiration of the soul.
Kabir, the great poet of India says, 'Life is a field and you are born to cultivate it. And if you know how to cultivate this field you can produce anything you like. All the need of your life can be produced in this field. All that your soul yearns after and all you need is to be got from the field, if you know how to cultivate it and how to reap the fruit.'
But if this opportunity is only studied in order to make the best of life by taking all that one can take and by being more comfortable, that is not satisfying.
We must enrich ourselves with thought, with that happiness which is spiritual happiness, with that peace which belongs to our soul, with that liberty, that freedom, for which our soul longs; and attain to that higher knowledge which breaks all the fetters of life and raises our consciousness to look at life from a different point of view.
Once a person has realized this opportunity he has fulfilled the purpose of Life.

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Today

I must walk into darkness to find the light and walk into fear to find peace.
Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.
My thoughts create my future.
What I will be tomorrow is determined by what I think today.

More Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), our third president and principal author of the Declaration of Independence .
He was a horticulturist, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of theUniversity of Virginia .
When President John F. Kennedy welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest presidents.

Thomas Jefferson could be called a prophet.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

Thomas Jefferson

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Thomas Jefferson

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Thomas Jefferson

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson On Banking

In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

I Did Not Know

I did not know that it was physically impossible for me to drink moderately.
I did not know that my body's drinking machinery had worn out, and that the parts could not be replaced.
I did not know that just one drink made it impossible for me to control my behavior and conduct and my future drinking.
I did not know, in short, that I was powerless over alcohol.

Experience, Strength and Hope, p. 153

Accepting What Is & Letting Go of What Isn't

Humility is to make a right estimate of oneself. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

What does it take to come to the place where we can exchange pride for humility?
First we must stop the blasphemous charade of pretending that we are no good.
"I'm worthless" has often been spoken in the name of humility.
But these words, or any other words that express the same sentiment, are a self-indulgence and a cop-out.
The essence of humility is summed up in the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

Humility is truth.
To be humble is to know the truth about our limits, to recognize what can be changed, and to accept that all good things are possible with the help of our Higher Power.
Excessive pride prohibits acceptance because it prohibits the truth, and the truth is that some things are unchangeable.
Refusal to accept that truth gets us plenty of frustrations and anger - and no humility at all.

Today, I humbly ask God for the wisdom to accept what is and to let go of what isn't.

Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen & Carol Larsen Hegarty

When Love Beckons

When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.-- Kahlil Gibran

There will be many opportunities to express love in the days ahead, and some may be cloaked in harsh wrappings.
Perhaps an argument will wound and then be healed by the exchange of loving words and intimate gestures.
Maybe a friend or lover will be called away for a while, and the painful loneliness will make us question our commitment to love.
Yet, in loving unconditionally, we'll find peace.
Love, though a soft word and a gentle image, doesn't always promise us soft, gentle moments.
Sometimes love offers us a pained heart and empty arms.
We know love comforts, but not always.
Love heals, but in its own time.
The desire to know love draws us together, always.

Worthy of Love by Karen Casey

South Carolina

A new blog for you to checkout: http://south-carolina.blogspot.com/

Discipline

My father taught me that only through
self-discipline can you achieve freedom.
Pour water into a cup and you can drink.
Without the cup, the water would splash over.
The cup is discipline. -- Ricardo Montalban

It is no accident that the words discipline and disciple come from the same root.
To be a disciple of any path, one must be disciplined. Life works best when we learn to discipline ourselves.
Discipline liberates rather than confines you.
Discipline allows you to function with ease and grace.
After years of practicing his strokes, a tennis player can hit the ball without having to think about it. What once took conscious effort is now second nature.
Unfortunately, many of us had discipline forced upon us as children.
Naturally, we rebelled against an externally imposed structure.
We were not shown that true discipline always comes from within, and the motivation for that urge is love.
When we are doing what we love, when we are pursuing something that has meaning, discipline comes naturally.
As one Olympic athlete explained, "I don't mind working out every day. Because I love what I am doing, my training is not a burden but a joy."

Discipline is your ticket to freedom and path to excellence.
Choose to be disciplined in all your endeavors and become the master of yourself and your life.

Listening to Your Inner Voice by Douglas Bloch

God’s Will vs. My Will

Our success or failure depends upon the harmony or disharmony of our individual will with the Divine Will. -- Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

It is the Divine Will that is manifested throughout the whole universe, which has created the whole universe; and it is part of the divine will that manifests itself through us.
Everything we do in life is governed and directed by that power. ... Now coming to the question of the will of man as opposed to the will of God: which is which?
We understand the difference when we perceive that the nature of will power differs only according to whether it exists in its fullness, or whether it is limited.
The will power in its fullness is divine power; the will power in its limited state is the individual will.
Resignation is a quality of the saintly souls.
It is bitter in taste but sweet in result.
Whatever a man's power and position in life may be, he has always to meet with a more powerful will, in whatever form it may manifest.
In truth this is the divine will.
By opposing the divine will one may break oneself; but by resigning oneself to the divine will one opens up a way.
We come to understand that there are two aspects of will working through all things in life.
One is the individual will, the other the divine will.
When a person goes against the divine will, naturally his human will fails and he finds difficulties, because he is swimming against the tide.
The moment a person works in consonance, in harmony with the divine will, things become smooth.
Sometimes things are accomplished without the least effort.
When it is the divine will it is like something floating on water; it advances without effort.
Problems and actions may be achieved in a moment then, whilst at other times the smallest problem cannot be solved without great difficulty.
One finds that some persons are very clever and experienced in industrial work or in politics; and they have striven very hard to attain their goal, and yet have accomplished nothing; they are always a failure.
And there are others who take up a thing, and without much effort, without much worry on their part they complete it and attain their goal.
All this is accounted for by harmony with the divine will.
Everyone experiences such a thing at some time or other.
When things are in harmony with the divine will, everything is there; we just glance towards a thing and it is found, as in the saying, 'Word spoken, action done.'
When we strive with all the material in our hands and yet cannot achieve our desire, that is when the matter is contrary to the divine will.
Our success or failure all depends upon the harmony or disharmony of our individual will with the divine will. ... Contentment and perfect resignation open up a harmonious feeling and bring the divine will into harmony with our own.
Our blessing now becomes a divine blessing, our words divine words, our atmosphere a divine atmosphere, although we seem to be limited beings; for our will becomes absorbed into the whole, and so our will becomes the will of God.

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

The Depth of Inner Silence

It is the surface of the sea
that makes waves and roaring breakers;
the depth is silent.
Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

The bubbles are to be found on the surface of the sea.
The depth of the sea is free from bubbles.
The commotion is to be seen on the surface, the depth of the sea is still.
The mind is the commotion of that something that is within us, that something which we call heart.
The happiness, knowledge, pleasure and love that is stored in our innermost being is in our profound depth.
Changing emotions and passions, dreams, ever-rising thoughts and imaginations, all belong to the surface, as the bubbles belong to the surface of the sea.

To attain peace, what one has to do is to seek that rhythm which is in the depth of our being.
It is just like the sea: the surface of the sea is ever moving; the depth of the sea is still.
And so it is with our life.
If our life is thrown into the sea of activity, it is on the surface.
We still live in the profound depths, in that peace.
But the thing is to become conscious of that peace which can be found within ourselves.
It is this which can bring us the answer to all our problems.
If not, when we want to solve one problem, there is another difficult problem coming. There is no end to our problems.
There is no end to the difficulties of the outer life.
And if we get excited over them, we shall never be able to solve them.
Some think, 'We might wait. Perhaps the conditions will become better. We shall see then what to do.'
But when will the conditions become better?
They will become still worse!
Whether the conditions become better or worse, the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God within ourselves, in which there is our peace.
As soon as we have found that, we have found our support, we have found our self.
And in spite of all the activity and movement on the surface, we shall be able to keep that peace undisturbed if only we hold it fast by becoming conscious of it.

Spiritual knowledge is nothing but this: that there is a constant longing in the heart of man to have something of its origin, to experience something of its original state, the state of peace and joy which has been disturbed, and yet is sought after throughout its whole life, and never can cease to be sought after until the real source has at length been realized.
What was it in the wilderness that gave peace and joy?
What was it that came to us in the forest, the solitude?
In either case it was nothing else but the depth of our own life, which is silent like the depths of the great sea, so silent and still. It is the surface of the sea that makes waves and roaring breakers; the depth is silent.
So the depth of our own being is silent also.

And this all-pervading, unbroken, inseparable, unlimited, ever-present, omnipotent silence unites with our silence like the meeting of flames.
Something goes out from the depths of our being to receive something from there, which comes to meet us; our eyes cannot see and our ears cannot hear and our mind cannot perceive because it is beyond mind, thought, and comprehension.
It is the meeting of the soul and the Spirit.

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Man's Reflection

Man is the picture of the reflection of his imagination;
he is as large or as small as he thinks himself.

Man is the picture or reflection of his imagination.
He is as large as he thinks himself,
as great as he thinks himself,
as small as he thinks himself to be.

If he thinks he is incapable, he remains incapable;
if he thinks himself foolish, he will be foolish and will remain foolish;
if he thinks himself wise, he will be wise and become wiser every moment;
if he thinks himself mighty, he will be mighty. . . .

Whatever is impressed on man's soul,
with that the soul becomes endowed,
and that the soul will become.

Gathers and Reunites

Sin divides and scatters.

Sin drives us from the home that God has built for us in the depths of our hearts.

God's love gathers and reunites.

Liberty Bars

A Sailor Remembering His Seafaring Education

Our favorite liberty bars were unlike no other watering holes or dens of iniquity inhabited by seagoing men and women. They had to meet strict standards to be in compliance with the acceptable requirement for a sailor beer-swilling dump.
The first and foremost requirement was a crusty old gal serving suds. She had to be able to wrestle King Kong to parade rest. Be able to balance a tray with one hand, knock bluejackets out of the way with the other hand and skillfully navigate through a roomful of milling around drunks. On slow nights, she had to be the kind of gal who would give you a back scratch with a fly swatter handle or put her foot on the table so you could admire her new ankle bracelet some "mook" brought her back from a Hong Kong liberty.
A good barmaid had to be able to whisper sweet nothings in your ear like, "Sailor, your thirteen button flap is twelve buttons short of a green board." And,"Buy a pack of Clorets and chew up the whole thing before you get within heaving range of any gal you ever want to see again." And, "Hey animals, I know we have a crowd tonight, but if any of you guys find the head facilities fully occupied and start urinating down the floor drain, you're gonna find yourself scrubbing the deck with your white hats!"
They had to be able to admire great tattoos, look at pictures of ugly bucktooth kids and smile. Be able to help haul drunks to cabs and comfort 19 year-olds who had lost someone close to them. They could look at your ship's identification shoulder tab and tell you the names of the Skippers back to the time you were a Cub Scout.
If you came in after a late night maintenance problem and fell asleep with a half eaten Slim-Jim in your hand, they tucked your peacoat around you, put out the cigarette you left burning in the ashtray and replaced the warm draft you left sitting on the table with a cold one when you woke up.
Why?
Simply because they were one of the few people on the face of the earth that knew what you did, and appreciated what you were doing. And if you treated them like a decent human being and didn't drive 'em nuts by playing songs they hated on the juke box, they would lean over the back of the booth and park their soft warm breasts on your neck when they sat two Rolling Rocks in front of you.
Imported table wipe down guy and glass washer, trash dumper, deck swabber and paper towel replacement officer. The guy had to have baggy tweed pants and a gold tooth and a grin like a 1950 Buick. And a name like "Ramon", "Juan", "Pedro" or "Tico". He had to smoke unfiltered Luckies, Camels or Raleighs. He wiped the tables down with a sour wash rag that smelled like a skunk diaper and said, "How are choo navee mans tonight?
He was the indispensable man. The guy with credentials that allowed him to borrow Slim-Jims, Beer Nuts and pickled hard boiled eggs from other beer joints when they ran out where he worked.
The establishment itself had to have walls covered with ship and squadron plaques. The walls were adorned with enlarged unit patches and the dates of previous deployments. A dozen or more old, yellowed photographs of fellows named "Buster", "Chicago", "P-Boat Barney", "Flaming Hooker Harry", "Malone", "Honshu Harry", Jackson, Douche Bag Doug, and Capt. Slade Cutter decorated any unused space.
It had to have the obligatory Michelob, Pabst Blue Ribbon and "Beer Nuts sold here" neon signs. An eight-ball mystery beer tap handle and signs reading:
“Your mother does not work here, so clean away your frickin' trash."
"Keep your hands off the barmaid."
"Don't throw butts in urinal."
"Barmaid's word is final in settling bets."
"Take your fights out in the alley behind the bar!"
"Owner reserves the right to waltz your worthless sorry ass outside."
"Shipmates are responsible for riding herd on their ship/squadron drunks."
This was typical signage found in classy establishments catering to sophisticated as well as unsophisticated clientele.
You had to have a juke box built along the lines of a Sherman tank loaded with Hank Williams, Mother Maybelle Carter, Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash and twenty other crooning goobers nobody ever heard of. The damn thing has to have "La Bamba", Herb Alpert's "Lonely Bull" and Johnny Cash's "Don't take your guns to town" in memory of Alameda's barmaid goddess, Thelma. If Thelma is within a twelve-mile radius of where any of those three recordings can be found on a jukebox, it is wise to have a stack of life insurance applications within reach of the coin slot.
The furniture in a real good liberty bar had to be made from coal mine shoring lumber and was not fully acceptable until it had 600 cigarette burns and your ship's numbers or "FTN" carved into it. The bar had to have a brass foot rail and at least six Slim-Jim containers, an oversized glass cookie jar full of Beer-Nuts, a jar of pickled hard boiled eggs that could produce rectal gas emissions that could shut down a sorority party, and big glass containers full of something called Pickled Pigs Feet and Polish Sausage. Only drunk Chiefs and starving Ethiopians ate pickled pigs feet and unless the last three feet of your colon had been manufactured by Midas, you didn't want to get any where near the Polish Napalm Dogs.
No liberty bar was complete without a couple of hundred faded ship or airplane pictures and a "Shut the hell up!" sign taped on the mirror behind the bar along with several rather tasteless naked lady pictures. The pool table felt had to have at least three strategic rips as a result of drunken competitors and balls that looked as if a gorilla baby had teethed on the sonuvabitches.
Liberty bars were home and it didn't matter what country, state, or city you were in. When you walked into a good liberty bar, you felt at home. They were also establishments where 19 year-old kids received an education available nowhere else on earth. You learned how to "tell" and "listen" to sea stories. You learned about sex at $25 a pop! -- from professional ladies who taught you things your high school biology teacher didn't know were anatomically possible. You learned how to make a two cushion bank shot and how to toss down a beer and shot of Sun Torry known as a "depth charge."
We were young, and a helluva long way from home. We were pulling down crappy wages for twenty-four hours a day, seven days a-week availability and loving the life we lived. We didn't know it at the time, but our association with the men we served with forged us into the men we became. And a lot of that association took place in bars where we shared the stories accumulated in our, up to then, short lives. We learned about women and that life could be tough on a gal.
While many of our classmates were attending college, we were getting an education slicing through the green rolling seas in WestPac, experiencing the orgasmic rush of a night cat shot, the heart pounding drama of the return to the ship with the gut wrenching arrestment to a pitching deck. The hours of tedium, boring holes in the sky late at night, experiencing the periodic discomfort of turbulence, marveling at the creation of St. Elmo's Fire, and sometimes having our reverie interrupted with stark terror.
But when we came ashore on liberty, we could rub shoulders with some of the finest men we would ever know, in bars our mothers would never have approved of, in saloons and cabarets that would live in our memories forever.
Long live those liberties in WestPac and in the Med! They were the greatest teachers about life and how to live it.

. . . Shipwrecked In South Carolina . . .

Crabby Old Man

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in North Platte, Nebraska, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Missouri. The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St. Louis Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem. And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.

Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurses? . . . . . What do you see?
What are you thinking . . . . . when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man, . . . . . not very wise,
Uncertain of habit . . . . . with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food . . . . . and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice . . . . . 'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice . . . . . the things that you do.
And forever is losing . . . . . a sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not . . . . . lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding . . . . . The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? . . . . . Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse . . . . . you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am, . . . . . as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, . . . . . as I eat at your will
I'm a small child of Ten . . . . . with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters . . . . . who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen . . . . . with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . . . . a lover he'll meet.
A groom soon at Twenty . . . . . my heart gives a leap.
Remembering the vows . . . . . that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now . . . . . I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide . . . . . and a secure happy home.
A man of Thirty . . . . . My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other . . . . . With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons . . . . . have grown and are gone,
But my woman's beside me . . . . . to see I don't mourn.
At Fifty, once more, . . . . . babies play 'round my knee,
gain, we know children . . . . . my loved one and me ..

Dark days are upon me . . . . . my wife is no w dead.
I look at the future . . . . . I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing . . . . . young of their own.
And I think of the years . . . . . and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man . . . . . and nature is cruel.
Tis jest to make old age. . . . . look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles . . . . . grace and vigor depart.
There is now a stone . . . . . where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass . . . . . a young guy still dwells,
And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells
I remember the joys . . . . . I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living . . . . . life over again.

I think of the years . all too few . . . . . gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact . . . . . that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people . . . . . open and see..
Not a crabby old man. . . . . Look closer . . . . . see . . . . . ME!!

. . . Shipwrecked In South Carolina . . .

Cease To Believe

God does not die on the day
when we cease to believe in a personal deity,
but we die on the day
when our lives cease to be
illuminated by the steady radiance,
renewed daily,
of a wonder,
the source of which is beyond all reason.

Dag Hammarskjold

You Give Me Strength

Lord God, thank You for loving me

Even when I turn away from You.

I am grateful for Your
constant care and concern.

Though I feel unworthy
of Your great love,

I thank You that
through my weakness

You give me strength,

And in my wandering
You show me the way.

--Author unknown

Acceptance

It was a matter of developing the willingness to accept these new facts of living.
We neither ran nor fought. But accept we did. And then we were free.
There had been no irretrievable disaster.

- Bill W., AA Grapevine, September, 1975

My serenity is directly proportional to my level of acceptance.

All I Need to Learn about Life . . .

All I Need to Learn about Life I learned from the Easter Bunny!

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Walk softly and carry a big carrot.

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.

There's no such thing as too much candy.

All work and no play can make you a basket case.

A cute little tail attracts a lot of attention.

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

Some body parts should be floppy.

Keep you paws off other people's jellybeans.

Good things come in small-sugarcoated packages.

The grass is greener in someone else's basket.

An Easter bonnet can tame even the wildest hare.

To show your true colors you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

~Author Unknown~