Hints For Happiness
Synchronicity Story: Ask and It Shall Be Given, Seek and Ye Shall Find
“Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.”
~ Carl Jung
“Our deepest fears hide our highest potentials.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Ask and it shall be given; Seek and ye shall find.
~ Matthew 7:7
During my frequent walks to Aquatic Beach, I occasionally met there a lovely young woman swimmer, Simone, who found time to swim. while attending school and working to support herself. Several times we talked before or after her swims. During one of our chats, Simone remarked to me that some day she’d like to swim out at the opening of the harbor where it was deep with different tides than those closer to the beach where she was then swimming. But she said that she was afraid to swim there alone, and wouldn’t try to do so without others accompanying her.
Later, in November on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, I took one of my frequent walks out onto the San Francisco Municipal Pier. The pier juts far into the Bay and is a breakwater for the Aquatic Beach harbor. The deep waters at the end of the pier had enticed Simone as a new place to swim, but her fears had precluded that experience.
As I walked toward the very end of the pier, I saw a large crowd gathered there. Never before in many such walks onto the pier had I ever seen such a crowd. So I was quite curious as I neared them. And when I arrived at the end of the pier, I discovered that the people were gathered around and observing a young woman in a swimsuit who had climbed over the wall of the pier, and was standing on the ledge above the water, poised but afraid to dive into the water. It was Simone, fearfully hesitating for a long time before jumping off the pier to swim back to Aquatic Beach.
As we recognized each other, Simone asked for my encouragement. I obliged and, motivated by my reassurance, Simone finally jumped into the water, as the large crowd of well-wishing onlookers cheered her on. Just as Simone finally ‘took the plunge’ I gave her a “namaste” salute. Thereafter, she swam back to Aquatic Beach with Ned, another regular swimmer with whom I also was having synchronistic encounters and chats. Responding to Simone’s wish for a deep water swimming companion, Ned had walked with Simone onto the pier and had been treading water awaiting her dive to join him in swimming back to the beach.
As Simone and Ned swam together back to the beach, I wondered how Simone would feel after overcoming her fear of swimming in such deep waters. So, I intended to quickly walk back to the beach and greet them when they arrived there. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, I had a very long and lovely synchronistic and spiritual chat with one of the other onlookers, Janice, a long-time Buddhist practitioner who had observed with curiosity my “namaste” salute to Simone. So I didn’t again see Simone or Ned that day as wished, and wondered thereafter about Simone’s experience of breaking her fear barrier about deep water swimming.
More than four months passed before I again saw either Simone or Ned. Then, on a Sunday afternoon in March, just as I began walking onto the sand at the West end of Aquatic Beach, I encountered Ned who was walking in his swim suit toward the Municipal Pier, where he planned to jump into the Bay and swim back to the beach. We chatted for a while about that November day and about Simone. He told me that he had seen pictures of Simone taken on the pier that day by an onlooker, but didn’t have them. As we parted, at my request, he offered to try getting me the pictures via email exchange with Simone, with whom he’d continued to communicate. And I asked him to give Simone my regards, expressing a desire to see her soon. We thereupon parted and I continued walking toward the East end of Aquatic Beach, as Ned walked to the pier.
A few minutes later, just as I arrived at the East end of the beach, a female swimmer emerged from the water and began drying off. It was Simone. My wish to see her again was almost instantly fulfilled. Then I told her about my encounter with Ned, and wish to see pictures of that memorable November happening. She took my email address, and later sent them.
Though neither Ned nor Simone was aware of each other’s “coincidental” presence that day on the beach, the Lone Arranger knew, and staged those quick consecutive encounters fulfilling my wish to see Simone and the November pictures of her.
What is Life? – Quotes
“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
~ Crowfoot
What is Life? – Quotes
“Life is like an onion; you peel off layer after layer
and then you find there is nothing in it.”
~ James Gibbons Huneker
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life.
‘It goes on.’”
~ Robert Frost
“All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. ……
To live remains an art which everyone must learn, and which no one can teach.”
~ Havelock Ellis
“In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.”
~ Charlie Brown
“If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z,
where X is work, Y is play, and Z is keep your mouth shut.
~ Albert Einstein
“Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust –
we all dance to a mysterious tune,
intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”
~ Albert Einstein
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.”
~ Joseph Campbell
“Life is a long lesson in humility.”
~ James M. Barrie
“..the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”
~ Walt Whitman, “O Me! O Life!”, Leaves of Grass
“Life is the hyphen between matter and spirit.”
~ Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare
“Life is a whim of several trillion cells to be you for a while.”
~ Author Unknown
“When we remember we are all mad,
the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.”
~ Mark Twain
The Lightworker Objective
~ by Owen Waters
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness
that created it. ”
~ Albert Einstein
Ron Rattner’s introductory comments
Except for timeless awareness, nothing is permanent ‘neath Heaven’s vast firmament’. Science shows us that our world and everything in it is ever changing energy. Yet we have been spell-bound by cultural conditioning, language and perception to believe ourselves separate subjects in a solid “objective” world.
Until now, acting on the illusionary belief that we are separate from Nature, we have ignorantly, fearfully and greedily been despoiling and exploiting our precious planet and its lifeforms, thereby creating immense ecologic, economic, humanitarian and interpersonal crises.
Yet, paradoxically, though confronted with extraordinary peril, we now have unprecedented potential for solving and transcending our planetary problems, intuitively, scientifically, and technologically.
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, and Humanity is achieving a critical mass of higher consciousness which will resolve our critical mess as we transcend the separate subject-object illusion, realizing that Nature is our nature; that what we do to Nature and others we do to ourselves.
The news media are now filled with reports of important new social phenomena – like Occupy Wall Street – emblematic of elevated societal awareness of crucial need for revolutionary systemic change.
Here is an excellent essay by spiritual author and teacher Owen Waters, explaining how ultimate power to transcend human problems is within each of us; and how we are now experiencing a subtle shift in human consciousness which is being led by a critical mass of spiritual seekers – sometimes called “lightworkers”.
The Lightworker Objective ~ by Owen Waters*
We are in the midst of a revolution in consciousness which is affecting everyone. Even the most staunch traditionalists in society are being dragged into a vortex of ever-increasing change.
The 80-20 rule states that 80% of any change is typically caused by 20% of the people. The 20% consists of the leading thinkers of the day. In spiritual matters, these leading edge people are sometimes called lightworkers or old souls, indicating that they have learned more from their experiences through many incarnations. This advanced learning is stored as wisdom in their souls and they benefit from it consciously through intuitive inner guidance.
Today’s leading edge thinkers planned ahead to be incarnate at this time in history to help make the essential positive changes in society possible. Social science has begun to recognize them as a major group in today’s society.
A survey in the 1990’s by researchers Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson found that 26 percent of American adults had become what they termed Cultural Creatives. Over fifty million Americans now fit the definition of a newly emerging type of humanity that has made a comprehensive upward shift in worldview, values and way of life. In Europe, a 1997 survey conducted in fifteen European countries showed figures that are very similar to the United States.
So, in a social setting the term ‘leading edge thinker’ actually applies to more than 20% of the people today. Most of them don’t think of themselves as leading edge, nor do they typically realize how many other people are just like them.
The term ‘lightworker’ is synonymous with ‘spiritual seeker.’ You may or may not think of yourself a lightworker but, if you’re reading this, then you fit the definition perfectly.
The two categories of Cultural Creatives identified by Ray and Anderson fit exactly into the consciousness patterns of lower and upper fourth density. While our physical bodies are currently located in upper third density, our minds are free to soar through heart-centered fourth density and into fifth-density soul consciousness.
When a person moves from the third-density challenge of developing basic intellect into lower fourth density, their worldview expands and they become more aware of the needs of society. They take into account the local and global effects of their own actions and the actions of others that they support. Environmental, organic and peace-making concerns all come under this frequency band of consciousness.
Then, as outlined in my book, The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness, when people move from lower to upper fourth-density consciousness they pass through the gateway of the heart. This brings them into the first level of spiritual awareness and they become more concerned with inner development and enlightenment.
Leading thinkers are simply people whose normal frequency of consciousness is higher than average. The higher your frequency, the greater your awareness and the greater your ability to lead change by showing others how to resolve the challenges in life.
Two very popular issues today are control issues and self-empowerment. People who were raised to feel the need to be in control are now recognizing that this was just another form of fear which has no substance in reality. Reality comes from your soul’s intuitive guidance because, at a soul level, your consciousness sees everything that you need to succeed and achieve your purpose in life.
The opposite side of the same coin is the issue of self-empowerment, which is learned by people who break free of control by others and establish their own sense of inner strength and self-dependence.
The issue of self-empowerment is being explored at a societal level as well as an individual level. Every person who begins to realize that they are being deliberately disempowered and turns off the fear-inducing news broadcasts leads the world another step towards liberty from the chains that are designed to bind people to a life of servitude. Thanks to the awakening of lightworkers and leading thinkers, the world is waking up to a whole new standard of personal power and dignity.
Here is the point that I am being told to make by The Lord Protector of The Shift: Lightworkers often choose to experience major challenges in their lives, not because they need the experience, because they have mastered those challenges in previous incarnations. Instead, lightworkers choose to experience challenges because other people need leading thinkers to show them how to resolve these issues. The more the leading-edge people succeed in resolving these issues, the easier it becomes for the rest to follow.
There is a global mind atmosphere or ‘mind belt’ of human consciousness around the planet. You are subconsciously linked with the mind belt 24 hours a day. It affects you and you affect it. Your contribution to the mental and spiritual health of the world is made every second of every day.
The Lightworker Objective is to be a pioneer in the advancement of consciousness, often adopting certain challenges in order to work through them and, by doing so, creating a pattern in the mind belt to make it easier for others to follow.
If you are currently working through a major life challenge and feel as though you’re going round in circles and getting nowhere, STOP and look for the gift in that challenge.
The gift is that, by loving yourself and others more, you can rise above the challenge and become more of who you really are. Then, the experience changes from one of challenge to one of self-empowerment.
Real strength does not lie anywhere in the outside world. It lies within you. Once you find that inner power, you rise above any limitation and stand as a self-realized leading thinker in a world desperate for spiritual freedom.
——
*Owen Waters is the author of The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness, and other spiritual books and articles described at: http://www.infinitebeing.com/index.html
Your Religion Is Not Important
Introduction. The following is a brief dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Brazilian theologist Leonardo Boff, one of the renovators of the Theology of Freedom, as recounted by Boff:
Boff’s Narative.
“In a round table discussion about religion and freedom in which
Dalai Lama and myself were participating, at recess I maliciously, and also with interest, asked him:
“Your holiness, what is the best religion?”
“I thought he would say: “The Tibetan Buddhism” or “The oriental religions, much older than Christianity”
“Dalai Lama paused, smiled and looked me in the eyes ….which surprised me because I knew of the malice contained in my question. “He answered:
“The best religion is the one that gets you closest to God.
It is the one that makes you a better person.”
“To get out of my embarrassment with such a wise answer, I asked:
“What is it that makes me better?”
“He responded:
“Whatever makes you
more Compassionate,
more Sensible,
more Detached,
more Loving,
more Humanitarian,
more Responsible,
more Ethical.”
“The religion that will do that for you is the best religion”
“I was silent for a moment, marveling and even today
thinking of his wise and irrefutable response:
“I am not interested, my friend, about your religion
or if you are religious or not.
“What really is important to me is your behavior in
front of your peers, family, work, community,
and in front of the world.”
“Remember, the universe is the echo of our actions and our thoughts.
“The law of action and reaction is not exclusively for physics.
It is also of human relations.
If I act with goodness, I will receive goodness.
If I act with evil, I will get evil.
“What our grandparents told us is the pure truth.
You will always have what you desire for others.
Being happy is not a matter of destiny.
It is a matter of options.”
Finally he said:
“Take care of your Thoughts because they become Words.
Take care of your Words because they will become Actions.
Take care of your Actions because they will become Habits.
Take care of your Habits because they will form your Character.
Take care of your Character because it will form your Destiny,
and your Destiny will be your Life
… and …
“There is no religion higher than the Truth.”
You Tube presentation of this dialogue:
Introduction to Ron’s Memoirs
Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“Follow your heart – even if it contradicts my words”
“If there is love in your heart, you don’t have to worry about rules.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
During a traumatic divorce and “mid-life crisis” in 1975, I experienced what Hindus call a spontaneous awakening of the kundalini energy with sudden realization that I was much more than my physical body, its story and thoughts with which until then I had always self-identified.
That realization triggered an extraordinary and unforgettable “rebirth” experience, accompanied and followed by many amazing mystical experiences, which forever changed my life and impelled me to begin questioning whether the universe worked the way I’d thought or been taught; and to soulfully seek answers to ultimate questions and a new paradigm guiding the remainder of my life time. So, paradoxically, a broken heart opened me to a wonderful new way of experiencing life.
Since then my life has unfolded in ways I couldn’t previously have imagined, like a spiritual mystery story. For example, after starting life as a non-observant Jew – a secular Hebrew, I was initiated into a Hindu tradition by a venerable Hindu guru, and for many years thereafter regarded myself as a “born-again Hindu”. Though I no longer consider myself a “born-again Hindu”, but an “uncertain Undo”, I write today because of what my guru told me eighteen years ago.
It was February, 1992. I had just retired after thirty four years of practicing as a San Francisco litigation attorney, and had come to Ahmedabad, India, to pay my respects to my then 114 year old venerable Hindu guru, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhasudandas (Guruji). Guruji was living in the apartment of a local doctor. His mental, intuitive and prescient powers were amazingly acute – as ever, but his 114 year old body was weak, and he was obliged to spend his days mostly in bed. On one of those days, I was granted an audience together with a small group of Guruji’s closest Indian devotees, including his female successor Shri Anandi Ma, her parents and her husband, Dileepji. Except for me, all present were Indians with whom Guruji conversed in Gujarati, while I knelt facing an altar at the foot of his bed.
After a while, Shri Anandi Ma’s father, Pravin Jani, a Vedic astrologer and pundit, spoke in English to me: “Guruji wants to know if you have any questions.” Having just retired, I was thinking of starting a daily diary of spiritual experiences as a way of promoting my spiritual progress – my “sadhana”. So I asked if this would be OK, and received an answer which astounded me, and which I’ve been considering until now.
Guruji said: “Rasik should write and publish his spiritual memoirs. They will inspire many people”. Rasik – meaning “one engrossed in devotion” – was the spiritual name he had given me upon my initiation in 1978. I listened in astonishment and bewilderment, thinking: “Publish my personal memoirs? Shouldn’t they be kept private? How could the experiences of an ordinary person like Ron Rattner inspire many people?.”
Eighteen years have passed since that day in India. Since then, I lived for many years in introspective semi-seclusion, without a TV, computer, newspaper, or radio news of the “real world”, meditating, praying, seeking answers to ultimate questions, and “enlightenment”. Since then I’ve made many mistakes and have had many experiences and insights from which I think I’ve learned and benefited a lot. Though I haven’t stopped making mistakes and learning, I’ve now lived long enough to realize the prescience of Guruji’s instructions to me, and wish to honor them and you by sharing with you some of my spiritual stories, and their significance and lessons for me.
I feel that Humankind is now processing an extraordinary evolutionary leap in our common consciousness; that we are evolving from millennia of hierarchical dominance and constraints to an epoch of egalitarian and democratic sharing and openness; that we are democratizing and merging the spiritual and secular aspects of our lives. So, though I began my mid-life spiritual journey with an hierarchical Guru-disciple relationship, which I eternally honor, I now consider Life to be my spiritual teacher. But I am guided by Dhyanyogi’s highest teachings: “Follow your heart – even if it contradicts my words”; and, “If there is love in your heart, you don’t have to worry about rules.”
Many meaningful and noteworthy experiences have revealed to me the deep and essential commonality, connection and interdependence of all life on Earth, so that everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way.
This life has become like an amazing spiritual mystery story. Without yet – and perhaps never – solving the Mystery, more and more I’ve learned to honor it, with gratitude and awe. And I now gratefully experience my life as synchronistically magical and miraculous – feeling happier than ever before. So in sharing with you what I’ve learned from these spiritual experiences, I do not and can not write as a Guru, but as just another participating ‘fellow traveler’ on the spiritual path to an ever mysterious shared destiny.
My deepest aspiration is that everyone everywhere – all life forms – flourish and be happy; that all humankind be empowered to use their unique gifts to fulfill their highest potentialities, and thereby harmoniously to benefit all life on our precious planet – and beyond.
So in now sharing with you some of my experiences and perspectives my intention and dedication is to contribute to that vision and goal. As a ‘senior citizen’ and member of ‘Generation Exit’, I especially wish to be of help to younger people to whom we bequeath our future, as they inherit the mistakes and learning experiences of their forebears in an ever changing world.
