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Deepak Chopra, Peace Is the Way
The program for peace asks you to become a peacemaker by following a specific practice every day, each centered on the theme of making peace real, one step at a time, in your personal life.
Sunday: Being for Peace
Monday: Thinking for Peace
Tuesday: Feeling for Peace
Wednesday: Speaking for Peace
Thursday: Acting for Peace
Friday: Creating for Peace
Saturday: Sharing for Peace
Each practice takes only a few minutes. You can be as private or outspoken as you wish. But those around you will know that you work for peace by the way you conduct your life on a daily basis.
The program for peace
Nevada Barr, Seeking Enlightenment. . . Hat by Hat
When I lie, I destroy the truth. When I say kind things, I engender kindness. When I spew words of anger and hatred, anger and hatred become living entities that reproduce both in my heart and mind and those within range of my words. Words of fear frighten. Words of hope create hope. Words of despair crush hearts with despair.
When I lie, I destroy truth
Kindness is Relaxing
Let yourself sail away on an ocean of kindness. Allow the idea of perpetual kindness to take root in your heart and mind. What would that be like? What if you treated yourself with kindness in each moment? How would that feel?
Relaxing. Your struggle would fall away. Your psyche could take a vacation from telling you to suck in your stomach or work longer hours because you are too lazy. What if you only spoke to yourself, in your mind or aloud about yourself, with kindness?
You have heard the saying "If you don't have anything nice to say, then say nothing at all." Could you do that? Specifically, to and about yourself? Not only can you, but you will also find it is not that difficult. It just takes a little self-observation.
Become aware of the "voice in your head," the one who is reading right now. The one who says things in your mind like "Did I remember to lock the car? Better check. I'll check later. What if I didn't lock it? Maybe I should just do it now. After I finish this . . ." You know, your inner narrator, in there chattering away to you about everything.
Now, make a conscious decision to respectfully demand that your inner narrator only speak to you with kindness. Define what that means to you now. And actually tell your brain, in no uncertain terms, "We are now choosing kindness, all the time." You may make some missteps along the way, that is perfectly natural. Just dust yourself off, get back on the horse of kindness, and keep galloping toward true happiness. You are getting closer every moment, and mental relaxation is courting you now.
It's also important to be in touch with your true emotions. You never want to repress them or stuff them down deeply. And if anything is ever harming you physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, then you must take action on it and pay attention to it. So when emotions come up, once you are sure that they are not harming you, it’s useful to simply observe them and see what they are trying to tell you or get you to notice. If needed, respond constructively to the message they are bringing you. When appropriate, bring your focus back to kindness and compassion.
Talk to yourself like a cherished friend.
Treat yourself with love and care.
You are perfect, just as you are.
#thecompassionrevolution
Advice on kind and compassionate self-talk.
A Discernment for the Heart
Meditate on the insight of Sufi masters who teach: "In dealing with the other, do what is right. Protect yourself. Don't allow yourself to be abused. But please do not leave the other person's being out of your heart." We are asked to make a distinction between behavior and being. A person's behavior might be evil, but a person's being is sacred and inviolable. It is filled with Christ Nature, Buddha Nature, Elohim Nature, Allah Nature, Krishna Nature. Just keeping this discernment in mind in our speech and actions has the power to shift heaven and earth.
Counsel on holding the sacredness of all persons in your heart regardless of their behavior.
Speak in a Low Voice
A great and wonderful method of avoiding anger is to accustom yourself to speak always in the lowest voice possible. This is more effective than any other method for attaining to the quality of patience. With other methods you are not able to work regularly on changing your nature, but just at those times when someone is insulting you or doing something against your will, and there can be a long period when something like that does not happen. As a result, it is hard to change yourself using those methods, because changing one's nature requires regular and consistent work to alter ingrained habits. … But this matter of speaking with a low voice is something that can be done consistently, and therefore, with enough effort it is easily possible to change yourself so that you get in the habit of always speaking in a low voice. As a result of this you will automatically be protected from anger.
Therefore, anyone who is an angry type by nature, and wants to overcome his fault, should put all his energy into this. He should always speak in the lowest voice possible. With God's help it will enable him to become patient and to move towards great lowliness and humility also. Furthermore, it is a wonderful aid in achieving purity of speech, because when you are always alert to be careful to speak in a low voice, you will also be reminded to be careful about forbidden speech [slander, for example] and idle conversation. … In Or Tzaddikim it is written that: "Someone who speaks with a low voice and favors silence, becomes a chariot for the Divine Presence." (Erech Apayim, 4:13, pp. 83-84)
A way to protect yourself from anger.
Civility
Civility is a rare commodity these days — in fact, courtliness and consideration seem downright superfluous in many circles. And yet it is no less true than ever that protecting each other's dignity through thoughtful actions and kind speech hold together humanity and our wider circle of relations with the Earth and her creatures.
In this topic's many selections — articles, blog posts, books, films, quotes, and more — you will find ancient teachings about and contemporary depictions of what it means to be civil and how to develop this essential quality. Like any spiritual practice, the practice of civility begins with training in specifics as seemingly insignificant as how to close a door without slamming it, and from there it expands out to being a quality that pervades a person's entire demeanor. Thank you for giving time to deepen your understanding of civility through these resources!
Practices, articles, books, excerpts, quotes, and more about what it means to be civil and how to develop this essential quality.
Prayer of Hieroglyphics
Do you know at this moment you are praying the ancient prayer of hieroglyphics? That word, which means "sacred marks or pictographs," was used by Egyptians for the art of writing. They believed writing to be a sacred gift from the gods.
Our modern world is awash in words — in ink, pencil, paint, neon and especially electronically on your computer screens. Yet words can continue to be gifts from God. . . .
God has not stopped speaking. God speaks to you, encourages and inspires you in countless ways. Perhaps our primary spiritual task is to pay attention and learn how to listen. God communicates to you through the signs of the times and the events of daily life. God speaks to you in the holy words of scripture as well as in the commonplace words in your spiritual reading. . . .
I propose a small ritual to assist you in seeing your time of spiritual reading as the Prayer of Hieroglyphics. Pause before you begin reading, and with your thumb make a sign of the cross on your forehead and heart. Then as you read, be alert for hidden messages from God addressed personally to you concealed in the words on the page. A good rule for spiritual reading is: Read a little and reflect a lot.
Looking for hidden messages from God.
I'm God; You're Not
Lawrence Kushner is an author, lecturer, and spiritual leader who is recognized as one of the most creative religious thinkers in America. A commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," he is known for his wit and wisdom. Kushner is currently the Emanu-El scholar at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, and an adjunct faculty member at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion. This formidable spiritual seer is profiled as a Living Spiritual Teacher at Spirituality & Practice.
I'm God; You're Not draws together 50 short essays, stories, and teachings from Kushner's writings and experiences as a rabbi and spiritual leader. In the introduction, he states:
"The goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way — outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing that are the ineluctable redoubts of the ego. . . . I now suspect that the real reason for religion is to help you keep your ego under control."
Kushner shares some of his spiritual adventures over the years including his decision to be a rabbi in the ninth grade; the death of his beloved teacher in 2009; a list of 28 heretical and humorous truths about surviving and healing congregational life; his salty observations about wedding rehearsals and the "puerile" nature of family services; the goal of seeing a spiritually mature community as one that "helps its members learn how to give and receive love;" the important place of "I don't know" in a rabbi's toolkit; the sign that five coughs from the audience means that the troops are restless; the challenges of intermarriage; the case for kosher; his wariness of Jesus; and a commentary on the Kabbalah.
In a section titled "Holiness," Kushner hits high stride with pieces on praising God, spiritual greed, silent prayer, blessings, memory and redemption, and death without dying.
Fifty wise and witty short essays, stories, and teachings from Lawrence Kushner's experiences as a rabbi.
You're a Rude Pig, Bertie!
Bertie is a pig with a problem. He is all wrapped up in himself. When he walks down the street and meets others, all he does is criticize them. But all that changes when he sees Ruby, the prettiest rabbit he's ever come across. Bertie decides to throw a huge party to impress her. When the big day comes, the community sends him a message about their response to his constant rude behavior.
Claudia Boldt graduated with a master's degree in illustration from the Glasgow School of Art and in this nifty children's picture book, she delivers a sobering message about the dead-end street of rude behavior. In a clever twist, some of the message comes from Bertie's toothbrush who doesn't get any respect from him.
There is another way to relate to people and those who walk it find that it does change their lives and brings a glow to their relationships. You're a Rude Pig, Bertie! shows the down-side of selfish, me-first-behavior and advocates courtesy as a path with heart.
A children's book that advocates courtesy as a path with heart.
The Path of Centering Prayer
David Frenette is a leader and senior teacher in the Centering Prayer movement, and a friend and advisor of Father Thomas Keating for 30 years. He co-created and co-led a contemplative retreat community and is spiritual director at the Center for Contemplative Living in Denver, Colorado. For more information you can visit their website: www.incarnationalcontemplation.com
Frenette calls this book "a complete handbook to Christian contemplation and the practice of Centering Prayer." This means that it takes within its warm embrace new and longtime practitioners of centering prayer and reaches out to seekers of all types looking for a rich, deep, and meaningful devotional life.
The 2000-year-old Christian contemplative tradition offers plenty of insights into praying in silence. In Open Mind, Open Heart (2006) and other books, Father Thomas Keating has written about centering prayer as a form of Christian meditation, and hundreds of thousands of readers have taken up the practice.
In the first section of this book, Frenette presents four ways to deepen your centering prayer practice, beginning with use of the sacred word. He explains how to apply eight active contemplative attitudes with the sacred word. The same attitudes can be beneficial as you work with the other sacred symbols — the sacred breath, the sacred glance, and the sacred nothingness. The last practice is by far the most difficult. Frenette describes it in the following way:
"Trust in your deepening experience of God. Self-empty in love. Let your prayer be found in God. . . . Practicing centering prayer with the sacred nothingness lets God's presence and action find you."
In Part II, Frenette expands on his discussion of Christian contemplation. It all begins, he writes, with saying "Yes":
"You cannot do anything to produce an experience of God in you, but you can say yes to receiving divine love, to awakening to this sacred gift. You can say yes to letting it come into your consciousness and transform the pain of your own contraction, separation, unconscious resistance, and self-isolating behavior. You can be transformed in God's own image, awakening to the sun rising in you."
In these chapters, Frenette revisits the contemplative attitudes, providing "Reflective Exercises" for each one:
• Consent and Giving God Consent to Act in You
• Opening and Recognizing
• Simplicity and Awakening in God
• Gentleness and Effortlesesness
• Letting Go and Letting Be
• Resting and Being
• Embracing and Being Embraced
• Integrating in Life and Emerging in God
Frenette's enthusiasm for centering prayer, his use of illustrative material from his own life and mystical experiences, and his flair for creativity give this handbook a vibrancy that carries the reader along. We were especially taken with his comparisons of contemplation with dancing and with floating on water.
A complete handbook on Christian contemplation and the practice of centering prayer.