Harinam and Healing Heart Center
Healer, Teacher, Yogi
The Reverend William Barber II has been working with Sister Simone and others, preaching to rehabilitate spiritual consciousness in America, which has been compromised by materialistic interests and co-opted by politics. See his sermon on Isaiah 10 at the DNC July 28, 2016:
Rev William Barber II
Audio
Isaiah 10
Stephen Hawking’s Machine of Life, part of the Genius Series on PBS. The question of life and its origins is one of the most closely examined issues in history. Are we alone in the universe? How likely is it that life exists anywhere, or at all? How is it explained? What is the prime motivation for life to exist? How does simple life evolve into more complex life forms? What is the relationship between the physical phenomenon of life and consciousness, e.g., God?
Stephen Hawking’s treatment of this subject is clear, precise and accessible to non-scientists. It stimulates thought on levels of consciousness that transcend the physical experience and scientific scrutiny. It exposes the patterns and tendencies of nature that produce, sustain and evolve life.
The treatment is described mainly in terms of experiments performed by innocent participants who do not know ahead of time what’s going on, but who discover along with us some simple and profound truths.
A fair conclusion to be drawn from the experiments is that their is a strong tendency for life to form when conditions are favorable. Only the right ingredients, some range of temperate climate, however localized, and some form of activation energy are enough to allow life to form. The blueprint is in the ingredients themselves, and not a preconfigured process that operates on them. Once organic molecules are formed from elements, and then animo acids and proteins, a unique DNA configuration may become organized and begin producing life. The “machine” is in the ingredients themselves, which possess the chemical, physical and energetic tendencies for the formation life, and is not an external agent operating on those ingredients.
Another experiment illustrates how life evolves into more complex forms by virtue of the suitablility of some life forms to survive long enough to propagate: survival of the fittest.
Seeing this reminds me of Ek Ong Kar. “One God, One Creation”. This model of cosmology and theology has the Creator of all Creation remaining within and inextricably part of creation in its most subtle levels of matter, energy and consciousness. The macroscopic physical being is fundamentally comprised of tissues, cells, DNA, proteins, amino acids, organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen and other trace elements and the tendency in consciousness to exist and to keep on reinventing and replicating itself using semi-undifferentiated energy that is absorbed from the environment. What created the universe continues to recreate the universe and its life forms.
“You have not learned how to depend on the unseen and unlimited within you. Your soul has a fundamental property that when aligned with your mind gives you impact, intelligence, and effectiveness. Its fundamental property is to be saibhang ~ a self-illumined, aware, and radiant identity of God. It is not subject to anything.
“There’s nothing outside of us. It’s all inside of us. Nanak said if you search outside you are wasting time. It’s inside. When we feel beautiful inside, fulfilled inside, inside our own inside, wow, its so good.” — Yogi Bhajan
In 1905 Albert Einstein published his (Wikipedia) Theory of General Relativity .
This post has been included on this site mainly because that in order to understand the theory or explain it in basic terms, one must be willing to view it as a reality whose phenomena are modified by and become a part of one’s perception of it. In that way it has some similarity to our practice of healing in the tradition of Sat Nam Rasayan. In either case, we recognize that we are immersed in a universe that defies any orthogonal or even linear representation of it. In it our perception becomes a “transverse” experience of what we commonly agree to as time and space. Practitioners of the Healing Art of Sat Nam Rasayan may be able to recognize intuitively some aspects of what Einstein’s theory explains. Physicists recognize that the fabric of time and space, i.e., space-time geometry is distorted in the presence of a strong gravitational field. In it neither space nor time behave independently nor in the linear way in which we are accustomed to observing the universe. One can still devise equations that describe the mechanics of motion and time, much like Sir Isaac Newton did centuries ago, but they must operate in a new geometry where space-time is not orthogonal nor a constant, but distorted by gravity.
It has been agreed generally among physicists that Einstein’s theory of general relativity should reliably predict the behavior of matter and energy in space-time. The question in the scientific community has been, does it describe reality? Where is the proof?
A generally agreed on basis for a proof for this lay in the measurement of “gravity waves”. Gravity waves are described as phenomena that appear in the presence of a gravitational field that produce forces that interact with matter producing local orthogonal periodic “tides” and that travel over vast distances much as electromagnetic radiation does. The proof rests in the assumption that gravity waves could be detected and that the observed behavior of matter under their influence matches the mathematical models. The problem is that gravity is a weak force and astronomical events that could produce measurable tidal distortions across a vast distance would have to be enormous, even by astrophysical standards.
Well, Professor Kip Thorne and his colleagues built an apparatus (LIGO) that measured just such an event one night in February. It was the merging of two black holes 1.3 billion light years distant that produced an energy output of about 3 solar (our sun) masses (E=mc2) of energy, over a duration of about 0.5 second. The measured tidal distortion waves matched the mathematical models perfectly, not once, but twice, in two redundant instruments located in Louisiana and in Washington State…QED
On this page below is a link to an audio recording of Professor Thorne’s lecture on the subject from March 11, 2016.
My audio recording of the event
See Caltech’s You Tube video of the same event
Kip Thorne is a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech http://www.its.caltech.edu/~kip/
He was involved with the project to build apparatus to measure gravity waves. LIGO
He consulted with the producers of the movie Interstellar regarding what happens in the vicinity of a black hole.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Interstellar-Kip-Thorne/dp/0393351378.
It’s kind of like how Arthur C Clark wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey after the movie came out. There is also an article in Scientific American
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/parsing-the-science-of-interstellar-with-physicist-kip-thorne/
Here’s a meditation: Master Time and Space
Life leads the thoughtful man on a path of many windings.
Now the course is checked, now it runs straight again.
Here winged thoughts may pour freely forth in words,
There the heavy burden of knowledge must be shut away in silence.
But when two people are at one in their inmost hearts,
They shatter even the strength of iron or of bronze.
And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts,
Their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids.
— Confucius
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Sat Nam Dear Family,
“When your flow
of thoughts becomes complementary, not contradictory, life comes to a state of real relaxation,” the Siri Singh Sahib, Yogi Bhajan, answered me driving back from a dinner function at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. It was one of those balmy L.A. nights when, even the smell of the ocean traveled all the way to Beverly Hills. For a guy like me from St. Louis, this smell was always romantic and intoxicating. It produced a feeling of well-being in my consciousness.
It was spring of 1988 and we were beginning to spread our wings spiritually, socially, and business-wise. An added perk for me was that Beverly Hills was our jumping off point! On this occasion, we had just come from a big party for the U.S. Marshals Service. This is the United States law enforcing arm working in many areas for the U.S. Government.
The Siri Singh Sahib Ji often relaxed in the afternoons by visiting Artin’s Jewelry Shop in the heart of Beverly Hills. A colorful varied cast of people visited this shop: tourists, Hollywood stars, executives, Hollywood want-to-be’s, businessmen, etc. frequented this lively shop. It was like the social salons of the olden days! Notably, this is where we forged many new relationships. Fortuitously, one gentleman we met happened to be closely tied in with the U.S. Marshal’s Service. He promoted events like this dinner which raised money for the Marshal Officers who needed more help than the Government provided. It was a noble cause and a genuine seva, selfless service.
I attended this gala event with Yogi Bhajan along with two of his secretaries. Our security team remained in the lobby as dinner seats were at a premium. The audience was also filled with many movie stars and movers & shakers – big wigs from every professing vying for their place in the social status of Beverly Hill. Our host’s wife owned the Hollywood Reported, the newspaper bible of the Hollywood entertainment industry. Beverly Hills is a relatively new city, so money and celebrity status can do there what it can’t do in many other places and the money and prestige of the industry people was present everywhere. This was a very very successful event. Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart, and Donald O’Conner entertained – old Hollywood at its best! Our host and promoter of this event was the gentleman we had met at Artin’s.
As we entered the large ballroom, fashionably late, we were escorted to the front table with our host. I could feel all eyes on us as our presence spoke before we did. Our beloved teacher had done it again. We were dressed beautifully in bana (our spiritual clothing). The best Beverly Hills could provide accented our appearance – jewelry, purses, shoes, manners, grace were all provided for us through our teacher’s grace. We were not only comfortable in this environment; we were respected and even celebrities among the celebrities! Because of our bana, everyone noticed us. And, do you know who was the most pleased, our host, that’s who. Our relationship was bonded.
The following week, we met our host again at Artin’s. He, again, was greatly appreciative of our appearance at the gala and then mentioned something very auspicious to our teacher. He told him that the bidding process for the security industry for some venues of the Marshal’s Service was coming up and we should submit bids. Just one of these contracts can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Our host offered to do whatever he could to help us in this process, and he did. We had a small security company in New Mexico at the time. Just the process of getting ourselves into position to bid was a miracle, but that’s another story.
This giant step was the beginning of the ascension of Akal Security, our business which, today, is one of the largest security companies in the world. All this was because of our teacher. He delivered. I was just lucky to tag along. This is just a part of his grand legacy. It’s up to us to continue to grow it.
Anyway, back to his answer to me in the car on the way home from this grand gala affair. I half wondered and half asked him, “Sir, you have more guts than anyone I’ve ever seen. Where does this confidence come from? Were you always this way?” He chuckled, smiled and said, “When your flow of thoughts becomes complementary, not contradictory, life comes to a state of real relaxation.
It took me a while to figure out what he was saying. I understand it now. His answer had several meanings as usual. First, it meant that confidence and relaxation go together. If you’re not relaxed about who you are the confidence you have will not be experienced by others. And, it’s confidence which attracts others, including big wig movers and shakers. Confidence trumps all other attractiveness. Our teacher’s confidence was displayed and experienced by those present at this event.
Next, the key to his confidence was his complimentary flows of thought. What he meant by this is that insecurity no longer haunted this process. Fear, hate, jealousy, anger and frustration were no longer interferences. There is always more to learn, more awareness to behold, but as we learn more, we do so without insecurity getting in the way; we don’t have to overcome our previous thinking anymore. Thoughts then become building blocks for growth, not issues to overcome and discard.
Finally, his intuition took him up the golden chain of spirituality, the Golden Chain of Raj Yog, of Guru Ram Das. His flow of thought was consistent with Guru Ram Das. He was connected straight to his Guru. He had the confidence of his Guru. He was protected, guided, and blessed by the Guru. Thus total confidence and relaxation was the result. Wherever he went, he was Guru’s representative. He was set. He was a king.
However, the most I learned about his statement was that we lived off of his blessings. He was the reason for our growth, individually and collectively. This story is just one example of how I saw his life create who we are. We can’t deny this because we saw how he opened up for us all such a life of spirituality, health, service and fun!! And he took us where our “guts” weren’t prepared to go, at least at this time. And he not only led this way, he was this way. His Guru made him so. So, once again, on this evening he delivered what his Guru wanted: another brick in building this dharma. Stay tuned,
In the Humility of Service and Gratitude,
MSS Hari Jiwan Singh Khalsa
Chief of Protocol
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Life With Yogi Bhajan | hjiwan@ninetreasjures.com | Nine Treasures | 718 McCurdy Rd. | Espanola, NM 87532 |
ONCE upon a time, not a thousand miles from here, there lived a poor old wood-cutter, who was a widower, and his little daughter. He used to go every day into the mountains to cut firewood which he brought home and tied into bundles. Then he used to have breakfast and walk into the nearest town, where he would sell his wood and rest for a time before returning home.
One day, when he got home very late, the girl said to him: ‘Father, I sometimes wish that we would have some nicer food, and more and different kinds of things to eat.’
‘Very well, my child,’ said the old man, ‘tomorrow I shall get up much earlier than I usually do. I shall go further into the mountains where there is more wood, and I shall bring back a much larger quantity than usual. I will get home earlier and I will be able to bundle the wood sooner, and I will go into town and sell it so that we can have more money and I shall bring you back all kinds of nice things to eat.’
The next morning the wood-cutter rose before dawn and went into the mountains. He worked very hard cutting wood and trimming it and made it into a huge bundle which he carried on his back to his little house.
When he got home, it was still very early. He put his load of wood down, and knocked on the door, saying, ‘Daughter, Daughter, open the door, for I am hungry and thirsty and I need a meal before I go to market.’
But the door was locked. The wood-cutter was so tired that he lay down and was soon fast asleep beside his bundle. The little girl, having forgotten all about their conversation the night before, was fast asleep in bed. When he woke up a few hours later, the sun was high. The wood-cutter knocked at the door again and again and said, ‘Daughter, Daughter, come quickly; I must have a little food and go to market to sell the wood; for it is already much later than my usual time of starting.’
But, having forgotten all about the conversation the night before, the little girl had meanwhile got up, tidied the house, and gone out for a walk. She had locked the door assuming in her forgetfulness that her father was still in the town.
So the wood-cutter thought to himself, ‘It is now rather late to go into the town. I will therefore return to the mountains and cut another bundle of wood, which I will bring home, and tomorrow I will take a double load to market.’
All that day the old man toiled in the mountains cutting wood and shaping the branches. When he got home with the wood on his shoulders, it was evening.
He put down his burden behind the house, knocked on the door and said, ‘Daughter, Daughter, open the door for I am tired and I have eaten nothing all the day. I have a double bundle of wood which I hope to take to market tomorrow. Tonight I must sleep well so that I will be strong.’
But there was no answer, for the little girl when she came home had felt very sleepy, and had made a meal for herself, and gone to bed. She had been rather worried at first that her father was not at home, but she decided that he must have arranged to stay in the town overnight.
Once again the wood-cutter, finding that he could not get into the house, tired, hungry and thirsty, lay down by his bundles of wood and fell fast asleep. He could not keep awake, although he was fearful for what might have happened to the little girl.
Now the wood-cutter, because he was so cold and hungry and tired, woke up very, very early the next morning: before it was even light.
He sat up, and looked around, but he could not see anything. And then a strange thing happened. The wood-cutter thought he heard a voice saying: ‘Hurry, hurry! Leave your wood and come this way. If you need enough, and you want little enough, you shall have delicious food.’
The wood-cutter stood up and walked in the direction of the voice. And he walked and he walked; but he found nothing.
By now he was colder and hungrier and more tired than ever, and he was lost. He had been full of hope, but that did not seem to have helped him. Now he felt sad, and he wanted to cry. But he realized that crying would not help him either, so he lay down and fell asleep.
Quite soon he woke up again. It was too cold, and he was too hungry, to sleep. So he decided to tell himself, as if in a story, everything that had happened to him since his little daughter had first said that she wanted a different kind of food.
As soon as he had finished his story, he thought he heard another voice, saying, somewhere above him, out of the dawn, ‘Old man, what are you doing sitting there?’
‘I am telling myself my own story,’ said the wood-cutter.
‘And what is that?’ said the voice.
The old man repeated his tale. ‘Very well,’ said the voice. And then the voice told the old wood-cutter to close his eyes and to mount as it were, a step. ‘But I do not see any step,’ said the old man. ‘Never mind, but do as I say,’ said the voice.
The old man did as he was told. As soon as he had closed his eyes he found that he was standing up and as he raised his right foot he felt that there was something like a step under it. He started to ascend what seemed to be a staircase. Suddenly the whole flight of steps started to move, very fast, and the voice said, ‘Do not open your eyes until I tell you to do so.’
In a very short time, the voice told the old man to open his eyes. When he did he found that he was in a place which looked rather like a desert, with the sun beating down on him. He was surrounded by masses and masses of pebbles; pebbles of all colours: red, green, blue and white. But he seemed to be alone. He looked all around him, and could not see anyone, but the voice started to speak again.
‘Take up as many of these stones as you can,’ said the voice, ‘Then close your eyes, and walk down the steps once more.’
The wood-cutter did as he was told, and he found himself, when he opened his eyes again at the voice’s bidding, standing before the door of his own house.
He knocked at the door and his little daughter answered it. She asked him where he had been, and he told her, although she could hardly understand what he was saying, it all sounded so confusing.
They went into the house, and the little girl and her father shared the last food which they had, which was a handful of dried dates. When they had finished, the old man thought that he heard the voice speaking to him again, a voice just like the other one which had told him to climb the stairs.
The voice said, ‘Although you may not know it yet, you have been saved by Mushkil Gusha. Remember that Mushkil Gusha is always here. Make sure that every Thursday night you eat some dates and give some to any needy person, and tell the story of Mushkil Gusha. Or give a gift in the name of Mushkil Gusha to someone who will help the needy. Make sure that the story of Mushkil Gusha is never, never forgotten. If you do this, and if this is done by those to whom you tell the story, the people who are in real need will always find their way.’
The wood-cutter put all the stones which he had brought back from the desert in a corner of his little house. They looked very much like ordinary stones, and he did not know what to do with them.
The next day he took his two enormous bundles of wood to the market, and sold them easily for a high price. When he got home he took his daughter all sort of delicious kinds of food, which she had never tasted before. And when they had eaten it, the old wood-cutter said, ‘Now I am going to tell you the whole story of Mushkil Gusha. Mushkil Gusha is the remover of all difficulties. Our difficulties have been removed through Mushkil Gusha and we must always remember it.’
For nearly a week after that the old man carried on as usual. He went into the mountains, brought back wood, had a meal, took the wood to market and sold it. He always found a buyer without difficulty.
Now the next Thursday came, and, as it is the way of men, the wood-cutter forgot to repeat the tale of Mushkil Gusha.
Late that evening, in the house of the wood-cutter’s neighbours, the fire had gone out. The neighbourshad nothing with which to re-light the fire, and they went to the house of the wood-cutter. They said, ‘Neighbour, neighbour, please give us a light from those wonderful lamps of yours which we see shining through the window.’
‘What lamps?’ said the wood-cutter.
‘Come outside,’ said the neighbours, ‘and see what we mean.’
So the wood-cutter went outside and then he saw, sure enough, all kinds of brilliant lights shining through the window from the inside.
He went back to the house, and saw that the light was streaming from the pile of pebbles which he had put in the corner. But the rays of light were cold, and it was not possible to use them to light a fire. So he went out to the neighbours and said, ‘Neighbours, I am sorry, but I have no fire.’ And he banged the door in their faces. They were annoyed and confused, and went back to their house, muttering. They leave our story here.
The wood-cutter and his daughter quickly covered up the brilliant lights with every piece of cloth they could find, for fear that anyone would see what a treasure they had. The next morning, when they uncovered the stones, they discovered that they were precious, luminous gems.
They took the jewels, one by one, to neighbouring towns, where they sold them for a huge price. Now the wood-cutter decided to build for himself and for his daughter a wonderful palace. They chose a site just opposite the castle of the king of their country. In a very short time a marvellous building had come into being.
Now that particular king had a beautiful daughter, and one day when she got up in the morning, she saw a sort of fairy-tale castle just opposite her father’s and she was amazed. She asked her servants, ‘Who has built this castle? What right have these people to do such a thing so near to our home?’
The servants went away and made enquiries and they came back and told the story, as far as they could collect it, to the princess.
The princess called for the little daughter of the wood-cutter, for she was angry with her, but when the two girls met and talked they soon became fast friends. They started to meet every day and went to swim and play in the stream which had been made for the princess by her father. A few days after they first met, the princess took off a beautiful and valuable necklace and hung it up on a tree just beside the stream. She forgot to take it down when she came out of the water, and when she got home she thought it must have been lost.
The princess thought a little and then decided that the daughter of the wood-cutter had stolen her necklace. So she told her father, and he had the wood-cutter arrested; he confiscated the castle and declared forfeit everything that the wood-cutter had. The old man was thrown into prison, and the daughter was put into an orphanage.
As it was the custom in that country, after a period of time the wood-cutter was taken from the dungeon and put in the public square, chained to a post, with a sign around his neck. On the sign was written ‘This is what happens to those who steal from Kings.’
At first people gathered around him, and jeered and threw things at him. He was most unhappy.
But quite soon, as is the way of men, everyone became used to the sight of the old man sitting there by his post, and took very little notice of him. Sometimes people threw him scraps of food, sometimes they did not.
One day he overheard somebody saying that it was Thursday afternoon. Suddenly, the thought came into his mind that it would soon be the evening of Mushkil Gusha, the remover of all difficulties, and that he had forgotten to commemorate him for so many days. No sooner had this thought come into his head, than a charitable man, passing by, threw him a tiny coin. The wood-cutter called out: ‘Generous friend, you have given me money, which is of no use to me. If, however, your kindness could extend to buying one or two dates and coming and sitting and eating them with me, I would be eternally grateful to you.’
The other man went and bought a few dates. And they sat and ate them together. When they had finished, the wood-cutter told the other man the story of Mushkil Gusha. ‘I think you must be mad,’ said the generous man. But he was a kindly person who himself had many difficulties. When he arrived home after this incident, he found that all his problems had disappeared. And that made him start to think a great deal about Mushkil Gusha. But he leaves our story here.
The very next morning the princess went back to her bathing-place. As she was about to go into the water, she saw what looked like her necklace down at the bottom of the stream. As she was going to dive in to try to get it back, she happened to sneeze. Her head went up, and she saw that what she had thought was the necklace was only its reflection in the water. It was hanging on the bough of the tree where she had left it such a long time before. Taking the necklace down, the princess ran excitedly to her father and told him what had happened. The King gave orders for the wood-cutter to be released and given a public apology. The little girl was brought back from the orphanage, and everyone lived happily ever after.
These are some of the incidents in the story of Mushkil Gusha. It is a very long tale and it is never ended. It has many forms. Some of them are even not called the story of Mushkil Gusha at all, so people do not recognise it. But it is because of Mushkil Gusha that his story, in whatever form, is remembered by somebody, somewhere in the world, day and night, wherever there are people. As his story had always been recited, so it will always continue to be told.
Will you repeat the story of Mushkil Gusha on Thursday nights, and help the work of Mushkil Gusha?
* * *
A hand and a foot do not clap together.
Proverb.
Idries Shah: CARAVAN OF DREAMS, The Octagon Press, London 1968
Four holy dervishes of the second rank met together and determined that they would search the face of the whole earth for objects which would enable them to help mankind. They had studied everything they could, and had realized that by this kind of operation they could serve best.
They arranged among themselves to meet after thirty years.
On that appointed day they came together again. The first brought with him from the farthest North a magical staff. Whoever rode upon it could reach his destination instantly. The second, from the farthest West, had brought a magical hood. Whoever put it over his head could immediately change his appearance to resemble anyone in existence. The third, from his travels and searches in the farthest East, brought a magic mirror. In this any part of the world could be seen at will. The fourth dervish, working in the farthest South, had brought back with him a magical cup, with which any disease could be healed.
Thus equipped, the dervishes looked into the Mirror, to find the source of the Water of Life, which would enable them to live long enough to put these articles to effective use. They found the Fountain of Life, flew to it on the magic staff, and drank of the Water.
Then they performed an invocation, to who was most in need of their services.Into the mirror swam the face of a man who was almost on the point of death. He was many days’ journey away. The dervishes at once mounted their magic staff and flew, in the twinkling of an eye, into the house of the sick man.
‘We are famous healers’, they said to the man at the gate, ‘who understand that your master is ill. Admit us and we will help him.’ When the sick man heard this he ordered the dervishes to be brought to his bedside. As soon as he saw them, however, he became worse, almost as if seized by a fit. They were ejected from his presence, while one of the attendants explained that the patient was an enemy of dervishes and hated them.
Putting their heads one by one into the magical hood, they changed their appearance so that they were agreeable to the sick man,and presented themselves again, this time as four different healers.
As soon as the man had drunk some medicine from the Magic Cup he was better than he had ever been in his life. He was delighted — and being rich, rewarded the dervishes with a house of his own into which they settled.
They continued to live in this house, and every day they went their separate ways, using the magical apparatus which they had brought together, for the good of mankind.
One day, however, when the other dervishes were out on their rounds, soldiers arrived and arrested the dervish with the healing cup. The king of the country had heard about this great doctor, and had sent for him to cure his daughter,who was suffering from a strange illness.
The dervish was taken to the princess’s bedside, and he offered her some medicine of her own,but in the special cup. But, because he had been unable to consult the magic Mirror for the cure, it did not work.
The princess was no better, and the king ordered the dervish to be nailed up on a wall. He begged for some time to consult with his friends, but the king was impatient and believed that this was just a stratagem, and that the dervish might escape.
As soon as the other dervishes go home, they looked int the magic Mirror to find where their companion had gone. Seeing him on the pint of death, they sped on the magic Staffto his aid. They saved him in the nick of time. But they were unable to save the king’s daughter, because the cup was nowhere to be found.
Looking in the magic Mirror, the dervishes saw that it had been thrown, by the king’s order, into the depths of the deepest ocean in the world.
In spite of the miraculous apparatus at their disposal, it took them a thousand years to recover the cup. Ever after the experience with the princess, thes four dervishes mad it their practice to work in secret, making it appear, through skillful arrangement, that whatever they did for the good of mankind would appear to have been done in some easily explicable way.
in Tales of the Dervishes
by Idries Shah
I was given a gift by Hari Bhajan Kaur on the occasion of my birthday. It was a journal which contains verses from the bible, which I would like to share here.
The First Principle of Success
Siri Singh Sahib ji
You want to know the key to success? Simple – don’t walk on others. Don’t step on others’ toes. Carry others, carry people with you, above you; God shall carry you.
Some people ask me, “How do you know the answer to everything?” I said, “What is there to know? You know everything anyway.” You only need to know one thing: anybody who approaches you, just put him one step higher than he is. The job will be done, and you’ll be blessed.
Once a teacher came to his master and said, “Master, I am in a lot of trouble.” The master said, “What’s the problem? Why are you yelling and screaming for me? What’s your problem?” “You sent me to the city to teach, but everybody is just yelling at me and calling me a fake.” “They come and abuse you?” “Many people gather in the morning, and they are just mad.” “Oh, you are on a very successful note.” “Master, none have come in; none have come to learn from me; no one has come to say hello. All they do is yell and scream abuse at me. They shout and ridicule me.” “You are a great success. That’s all I wanted to hear.” “But what should I do about it?” “Go and stay there. When they come in the morning, smile; when they yell at you, smile; when they throw eggs at you, smile; when they throw stones at you, stand erect, with discipline and smile – keep smiling. Let us see what happens.”
He went, and people came, and they yelled, screamed, made faces, and he just smiled and blessed them. He stood as they threw vegetables at him and dirt at him and shoes at him; and he kept smiling, saying, “thank you, thank you.” Three days they continued. On the fourth day, they gave up and came and sat down. On the fifth day, they started abusing him again, but then stopped and looked at each other saying, “What are we doing?”
They decided they should go and apologize to him. So, two thousand people from the village came and told him, “We are very sorry; we never understood you.” he still smiled. They said, “Are you not happy?” He still smiled. “It doesn’t mean anything to you?” He smiled. Finally they said, “All right, give us the one final answer: Why are you smiling? He said “What else is there to do?” Let us pray and meditate – that’s the meditation. Smile.”
One smile can win the world, and one frown can lose it.
Just smile at adversity. I tell you it runs away. Two things cannot live together: adversity cannot remain where a man is smiling, and prosperity doesn’t live with those who are frowning. The face is an index not to the mind but to the soul.
You see people who are very unsuccessful – what do they do? When you start telling them many things, they lean in; they listen. There is no vitamin C that can stop them. That’s how they are. You must understand when somebody talks to you, if you are not willing to hear them out, you are foolishly going for an unsuccessful future. The first principle of success is, when somebody is talking, hear it. Don’t interrupt. Let him complete the sentence; hear him properly. When they are done and you are asked to speak, do not answer the question if you cannot uplift the person. If your answer uplifts that person, you shall be prosperous.
Siri Singh Sahib Ji
© Teachings of Yogi Bhajan
Reprinted from February 2014 Dasvandh Flyer.
I see two beautiful people. Gods in their own domain.
They both left the stage this week.
People who saw them admired their art and were elevated.
One saw his own grace and beauty in their eyes, and was elevated.
The other did not see clearly that precious soul that was himself.
The life of the artist is lived polishing what others see.
Giving in that way can overcome extraordinary obstacles and hardship. It can also distract one to forget to turn that kindness inward and cultivate an inner projection that makes one one’s own beloved friend. Giving ones’ self away can allow one to form an intimate relationship with the self.
When one realizes that the self is empty, then how one perceives the self in that reality can determine whether one looks to fill it up from the outside, like the the drug dependent artist or insatiable wall street tycoon, or with one’s own (God’s) love and admiration. Ang Sang Waheguru.
May I suggest a nice meditation for polishing the radiant body, which is what others see and also what we see inside us: NM345 Mind and Mentality II Scope and Projection I ?
A STREAM, from its source in far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert. Just as it had crossed every other barrier, the stream tried to cross this one, but found that as fast as it ran into the sand, its waters disappeared.
It was convinced, however, that its destiny was to cross this desert. and yet there was no way.Now a hidden voice, coming from the desert itself, whispered: “The Wind crosses the desert, and so can the stream.”
The stream objected that it was dashing itself against the sand, and only getting absorbed: that the wind could fly, and this was why it could cross a desert.
“By hurtling in your won accustomed way you cannot get across. You will either disappear or become a marsh. You must allow this wind to carry you over to your destination.”
But how could this happen?”By allowing yourself to be absorbed in the wind.”
This idea was not acceptable to the stream, After all, it had never been absorbed before. It did not want to lose its individuality. And, once having lost it, how was on to know that it could ever be regained?
“The wind”, said the sand, “Performs this function. It takes up water, caries it over the desert, and then lets it fall agin. Falling as rain, the water again becomes a river.”
“How can I know that this is true?”
“It is so, and if you don’t believe it, you cannot become more than a quagmire, and even that could take many, many year; and it certainly is not the same as a stream.”
“But can I not remain the same stream that I am today?”
“You cannot in either case remain so,” the whisper said. “Your essential part is carried away and forms a stream again. You are called what you are even today because you do not know which part of you is the essential one.”
When he heard this, certain echoes began to arise in the thoughts of the stream. Dimly, he remembered a state in which he – or some part of him, was it? – had been held in the arms of a wind. He also remembered – or did he? – that this was the real thing; not necessarily the obvious thing, to do.
And the stream raised his vapour into the welcoming arms of the wind, which gently and easily bore it upwards and along, letting it fall softly as soon as they reached the roof of a mountain, many, many miles away. And because he had his doubts, the stream was able to remember and record more strongly in his mind the details of the experience. He reflected “Yes, now I have learned my true identity.”
The stream was learning. But the sands whispered: “We know. because we see it happen day after day: and because we, the sands, extend from the riverside all the way to the mountain.”
And that is why it is said that the way in which the Stream of Life is to continue on its journey is written in the Sands.
from Awad Afifi the Tunisian
in Tales of the Dervishes
by Idries Shah
A WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him. He thus addressed him: “Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.” “Indeed,” bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, “I was not then born.” Then said the Wolf, “You feed in my pasture.” “No, good sir,” replied the Lamb, “I have not yet tasted grass.” Again said the Wolf, “You drink of my well.” “No,” exclaimed the Lamb, “I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.” Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, “Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.” The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.
Translated by George Fyler Townsend. Aesop’s Fables (p. 15). Amazon Digital Services, Inc..
