Real Self

There is in man a false self and a real self.
The real self contains the eternal; the false self contains the mortal.
The real self has wisdom; the false self ignorance.
The real self can rise to perfection; the false self ends in limitation.
The real self has all good, the false self is productive of all evil.
One can see both in oneself: God and the other one.
By conquering the other one, one realizes God.
This other power has been called Satan; but is it a power?
In reality it is not.
It is and it is not.
It is a shadow.
We see shadow and yet it is nothing.
We should realize that this false self has no existence of its own.
As soon as the soul has risen above the false self, it begins to realize its nobility. -- Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

NRC Rules Against DOE

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission legal panel says the federal Department of Energy can’t withdraw its application to build a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled Tuesday that Congress directed the DOE to file an application for the Yucca Mountain repository, and directed the NRC to consider it. It says letting the department “single-handedly derail” the process would be “contrary to congressional intent.” The NRC legal panel held hearings on the issue earlier this month in Las Vegas. Neither Nevada nor DOE officials have said whether they will appeal. Nevada opposes the plan that’s been studied since the 1980s to bury the nation’s spent nuclear fuel 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.


--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

Change

In order for me to enjoy a happy, peaceful, sober existence, I had to change -- change my attitudes, my way of thinking, my habits. As a matter of fact, I had to change everything about me. . . However, to my amazement, after some time, I was able to notice changes in me
and I liked the changes. What's even more miraculous is that the changing is still going on.

Courage is the ability to change the familiar.


--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

Think

I can't afford resentments against anyone, because they are a build-up of another drunk. I must live and let live. And "think" -- that one important word means so much to me. My life was always act and react. I never stopped to think. I just didn't give a whoop about myself or anyone else.

The Seven T's -- Take Time To Think The Thing Through.


--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

True Joy

Life in this world is full of pain. But pain, which is the contrary of pleasure, is not necessarily the contrary of happiness or joy. Because spiritual joy flowers in the full expansion of freedom that reaches out without obstacle to its supreme object, fulfilling itself in the perfect activity of disinterested love for which it was created.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

True joy is found...in the intense and supple and free movement of our will rejoicing in what is good not merely for us but in Itself.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation


--James
The winds of grace are always blowing, but you have to raise the sail.
You cannot change the direction of the wind but you can adjust your sail.
Have a beautiful day unless you plan otherwise.

Pride is the greatest weakness

People like to think they are strong characters who can take care of their own destinies. That is always fictitious thinking. Everybody in this world is some kind of weakling, and if he thinks he is not, then pride is his weakness, and that is the greatest weakness of all.

PRIDE ... Putting "I" in the center.

The Soul Is All Light

Those who have avoided love in life from fear of its pain have lost more than the lover, who by losing himself gains all.
The loveless first lose all, until at last their self is also snatched away from their hands.
The warmth of the lover's atmosphere, the piercing effect of his voice, the appeal of his words, all come from the pain of his heart.
The heart is not living until it has experienced pain.
Man has not lived if he has lived and worked with his body and mind without heart.
The soul is all light, but all darkness is caused by the death of the heart.
Pain makes it alive.
The same heart that was once full of bitterness, when purified by love becomes the source of all goodness.
All deeds of kindness spring from it.
-- Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

All the Good I Can

Dear God, guide me to
Do all the good I can
By all means I can
In all ways I can
In all places I can
To all people I can
As long as I can.

Listening

If you really listen to (not just hear) what is being said, you may find the person talking has quietly slipped inside your head and seems to be describing the landscape there -- the shifting shapes of nameless fears, the color and chill of impending doom -- if not the actual events and words stored in your brain.

Centered In God

Once I am born of the spirit, that is my life's breath.
Within me is the Life of life, so that I can never perish.
The Life down through the ages has kept God's children through peril, adversity, and sorrow.
I must try never to doubt or worry but to follow where the Life leads me.
How often, when I am least aware, God goes before me to prepare the way, soften a heart, or put aside a resentment.
As the Life spirit grows, my natural wants become less important.


I pray that my life may become centered in God more than in myself.
I pray that my will may be directed toward doing God's will.

Sponsorship

A sponsor is simply a sober alcoholic who can help solve only one problem: how to stay sober.
And the sponsor has only one tool to use -- personal experience, not scientific wisdom. Sponsors have been there, and they often have more concern, hope, compassion, and confidence for us than we have for ourselves. - Living Sober, p. 27

Don't look for a sponsor, listen for one.
S P O N S O R = Sober, Practical, Optimistic, Noble, Spiritual, Open-minded, Respectful.

"Who am I?" ... "Where am I? ... Whence do I go?"

You are asking yourself, as all of us must:  "Who am I?" . . . "Where am I? . . . Whence do I go?"  The process of enlightenment is usually slow.  But, in the end, our asking always brings a finding.  These great mysteries are, after all, enshrined in complete simplicity.

Justice

The development of the sense of justice lies in unselfishness; one cannot be just and selfish at the same time. The selfish person can be just, but only for himself. He has his own law most suited to himself, and he can change it, and his reason will help him to do so, in order to suit his own requirements in life. A spark of justice is to be found in every heart, in every person, whatever be his stage of evolution in life; but the one who loves fairness, so to speak blows on that spark, thus raising it to a flame, in the light of which life becomes more clear to him.

We cannot be a judge of the action of another until we ourselves are selfless. Only then will justice come to us; only then will we understand the nature of justice. Self is the wall between us and justice. There is only one thing that is truly just, and that is to say, 'I must not do this.'

Real justice cannot be perceived until the veil of selfishness has been removed from his eyes. The least spark of selfishness will prevent man from being just. He will continue to have a partial interest, because he will be looking after his own interest. Whatever furthers his own interests, he will call his right and his justice.

Attitude Adjustment

Accepting my Higher Power did not fully change my attitude of resistance.
It just made yielding to instruction a more rational and acceptable mode of behavior.
For each Step, I still had to go through the process of recognizing that I had no control over my drinking. -- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 541


Thought to Ponder . . . We are in charge of our attitudes.

African Saying

Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself.

They remember your beauty when you feel ugly;
your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty;

and your purpose when you are confused.