Posts Tagged ‘Deepak Chopra’

Synchronicity Story: Dr. King, Alice Walker, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and “If I Was President”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

“We must learn to live together as brothers
or perish together as fools.”
“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence,
but between nonviolence and nonexistence.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If I was President
The first thing I would do
is call Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
~ Alice Walker
Dare to be a nonconformist.
Society rewards conformers.
But, posterity honors reformers.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Let us elevate our aspirations,
from the bottom line to the highest good.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
In these critical times,
we need a critical mass
to solve our critical mess.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968


Ron’s Introduction.

Dear Friends,

Today’s posting honors American hero and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his 95th birthday anniversary.

Sixty years have passed since Dr. King’s 1963 “dream” speech, and his later assassination at age 39. Yet, as discussed in my following commentary, the US population still endures most of the flagrant societal injustices Dr. King addressed – and which were noted by Alice Walker in today’s synchronicity story about her poem “If I Was President”, including unjust imprisonment of countless political truth-tellers and societal reformers, like Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Nonetheless, I again share this amazing synchronicity story with the deepest faith that together we can and will awaken the world from its present fearful ‘nightmare’ to realize Dr. King’s prophetic ‘dream’:

That ‘free at last’, we will honor the equality and divinity of everyone everywhere, and thereby transcend exploitation and discrimination against the world’s most vulnerable people, using our common-wealth for our common-weal to end the iniquity of inequity in our society.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Synchronicity Story.

One January morning I received an email notice of an archived lecture about departed hero Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. given by poet, author, and Buddhist peace activist Alice Walker, in Atlanta in 2006. The lecture was entitled “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For.” [a YouTube video is linked below]

Because of my great respect for Dr. King as a national hero, and for Alice Walker’s wisdom, artistic genius and exemplary engagement in non-violent peace activism, I listened to the lecture. It was eloquent and moving.

At one point Alice Walker noted the posthumous persistence of social problems addressed by Dr. King before he was assassinated, and she cited as emblematic of our continuing societal injustices the political incarceration and threatened execution of brilliant truth teller journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, following his egregiously wrongful political conviction for a crime committed by someone else.


Mumia Abu-Jamal


Especially, because I regard Abu-Jamal as an unjustly imprisoned ‘great soul’ who was subjected to an extraordinarily unjust trial, I had been amongst the millions world-wide protesting his political incarceration and threatened execution.

Synchronistically, a couple of hours after I listened to the Alice Walker lecture mentioning Abu-Jamal, I received a rare phone call from Prison Radio, a charitable organization dedicated to recording and distributing worldwide weekly radio commentaries by Abu-Jamal then telephoned from death row. (If interested you can listen to those commentaries at the Prison Radio website http://www.prisonradio.org/.)

The caller, Sharyn, invited me to a house party at which Abu-Jamal’s current legal situation was to be be discussed in depth. I told Sharyn that I had just been thinking about Mumia because of Alice Walker’s reference to him in her eloquent Atlanta talk about Dr. King. In response, Sharyn told me that shortly before she called me, Prison Radio had that day just received a new poem written and sent by Alice Walker from Mexico about Mumia and other prominent political prisoners.

Entitled, “If I Was President”, the opening lines of the poem say:


“If I was President
The first thing I would do
is call Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

 

Alice Walker

Synchronicity Questions and Reflections.

So why did the universe decide to synchronistically communicate with me that day through Dr. King, Alice Walker and Prison Radio about Mumia Abu-Jamal? It is a mystery, and a reminder of how little we understand our miraculous world “reality”.

From space/time perspective, synchronicities are noteworthy or meaningful coincidences in time. But from a cosmic perspective serial time is just an illusory way we think. So Albert Einstein has said:

“People … who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Inspired by Einstein I have tentatively explained such synchroncities this way:

“Synchronicities are noteworthy “coincidences” in time,
which show us that in Nature,
there is no time and there are no “coincidences –
that everything that is, was, or will be is NOW;
that everything happens in harmony and synchrony
concurrently, not coincidentally.
Synchronicities are like Nature’s positive “bio-feedback’ or ‘radar’ signals showing when we are existing out of time and in the eternal NOW.”

And here is an interesting quote from Deepak Chopra:

“According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment, just two indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher consciousness. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.”

How do you explain synchronicities in your life?

Whether or not we can ever really explain mysterious synchronicities, may they ever infuse us with feelings of awe and gratitude for our interdependence with all miraculous and mysterious Life on this precious planet.


Alice Walker: “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For.”


Ron’s Commentary Honoring Dr. King.

Dear Friends,

On the 95th birthday anniversary of departed hero Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let us join countless others worldwide in honoring and ardently following his visionary legacy of nonviolently seeking world peace and social justice with forgiveness and Love.

Regrettably realization of Dr. King’s vision of world harmony still seems distant, as societal problems he addressed more than half a century ago perilously persist. Moreover, threats of nuclear and ecological holocaust appear more imminent than ever before, as the US empire continues to insanely squander more than than half its budget on wars and weapons, while neglecting the human rights of most of its own citizens, as well as countless other innocent victims worldwide.


Dr. King’s history.

Dr. King was a fourth generation Baptist preacher and non-violent peace and social justice activist especially inspired by Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi.  He honored and followed Gandhi as “guiding light  …. of nonviolent social change’’, and in 1959 journeyed to India to study Gandhian methods.  On arrival there, King said:

“To other countries, I may go as a tourist,
but to India, I come as a pilgrim.” 

Afterwards, inspired by Jesus and Gandhi, Dr. King ardently preached non-violence, saying 

“We must learn to live together as brothers
or perish together as fools.”
“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.” 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Ultimately, Dr. King’s life paralleled Gandhi’s life.  Each began as an outspoken advocate of inter-racial equality and social justice in racially segregated societies:  Gandhi as a South African civil rights lawyer; and King as a Southern-Baptist preacher.  Gradually their missions expanded to encompass universal peace, freedom and social justice for everyone everywhere.  

Gandhi ultimately inspired independence of the entire Indian subcontinent from almost a century of colonial domination and exploitation by the British raj. 

Dr. King conscientiously  and eloquently decried the fraudulent and immoral US war in Viet Nam, and the entire exploitive US corporate capitalist economic system which fostered perpetual war for perpetual profit of a privileged few, to the undemocratic detriment of an impoverished majority.  He said:


“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”

“Capitalism does not permit an even flow of economic resources. With this system, a small privileged few are rich beyond conscience, and almost all others are doomed to be poor at some level. That’s the way the system works. And since we know that the system will not change the rules, we are going to have to change the system.”

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

“Don’t let anybody make you think God chose America as His divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.” .. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

“The choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence.” 


Like Jesus and Gandhi, Reverend King preached love and forgiveness, saying:

“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”


1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1964 Dr. King was awarded and humbly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, as ‘trustee’ for countless unknown others. And he cited Mahatma Gandhi’s success in India as a key precedent encouraging nonviolent civil rights activism in the USA, saying:

“This [nonviolent] approach to the problem of racial injustice …. was used in a magnificent way by Mohandas K. Gandhi to challenge the might of the British Empire and free his people from the political domination and economic exploitation inflicted upon them for centuries.”

And Dr. King described how (because of technological advances which threaten global nuclear/ecological catastrophe) the survival of humanity depends upon our nonviolently solving

“the problems of racial injustice, poverty, and war” by “living in harmony” with “all-embracing and unconditional love for all men”.


Eloquently he explained unconditional love as

“that force which all of the great religions [Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist] have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. . . . the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate Reality.”


Dr. King’s 1968 Martyrdom.

Like Jesus and Gandhi, Reverend King was martyred at the pinnacle of his powers.   Dr. King (like President John F. Kennedy) was assassinated by the US military/industrial secret government when his expanding influence became an intolerable barrier to their psychopathic war plans for Viet Nam and beyond.

Concluding Dedication and Invocation.

To honor Dr. King’s lasting legacy as one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, I have shared this posting with deepest faith that together we can and will awaken the world from its present fearful ‘nightmare’ to realize Dr. King’s visionary ‘dream’ of worldwide peace and justice, with love and forgiveness. 

That ‘free at last’, we will honor the equality and divinity of everyone everywhere, and thereby transcend immoral exploitation and discrimination against the world’s most vulnerable people, using our common-wealth for our common-weal to end the iniquity of inequity in our society.

So that as Abraham Lincoln envisioned:

“Under God, [we] shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

 
And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Awakening to Ever Present Synchronicity
~ Ron’s Memoirs

“There are no mistakes, no coincidences,
all events are blessings given to us to learn from.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful
for the evolution of your consciousness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“As I look back upon my own life, I see how many events – which at the time appeared horribly painful or unnecessary – contained remarkable lessons which I sometimes did not understand until many years later. Now life appears to me – more and more – as a gorgeous Persian rug. Seen from underneath (that is, from the ordinary human viewpoint), it may be a mess of loose strands, knots, pieces of wool hanging in a disorderly manner; but seen from above – from another level of perspective – what perfect order, harmony and beauty!”
~ Pierre Pradervand
“Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.”
~ Carl Jung
“According to Vedanta, there are seven states of consciousness.
Each of the seven states of consciousness represents an increase in our experience of synchronicity, and each progressive state moves us closer to the ideal of enlightenment.”
~ Deepak Chopra, SynchroDestiny
“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control.
It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star.
Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”
~ Albert Einstein
“There is no such thing as chance;
and what seems to us merest accident
springs from the deepest source of destiny.”
~ Friedrich Schiller
”All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions.
Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.”
~ Buddha
“The Now is as it is because it cannot be otherwise.
What Buddhists have always known, physicists now confirm:
there are no isolated things or events.
Underneath the surface appearance,
all things are interconnected,
are part of the totality of the cosmos
that has brought about the form that this moment takes.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
Q. “Are only the important events in a man’s life,
such as his main occupation or profession, predetermined,
or are trifling acts also, such as taking a cup of water or
moving from one part of the room to another?”
A. “Everything is predetermined.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Nothing perceivable is real.
Your attachment is your bondage.
You cannot control the future.
There is no such thing as free will. Will is bondage.
You identify yourself with your desires and become their slave.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
In the mind there is no absolute or free will;
but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause,
which has also been determined by another cause,
and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity.
~ Baruch Spinoza

Marc Chagall – The Praying Jew

Ron’s Introduction to Awakening to Ever Present Synchronicity.

Dear Friends,

At age ninety, I now retrospectively view my entire precious human lifetime as consisting of meaningful and interdependently interrelated synchronicities from it’s beginning on election day November 8th, 1932.

And I’m gratefully enjoying much greater happiness than ever before imagined, with continuing harmonious earth-life synchronicities. But this life-stage has come only after many years of living and learning from my life’s experiences.

Many people experience and wonder about amazing coincidences that can’t be explained rationally or statistically. Those “coincidences” have opened some of us to reflect upon their possible spiritual or psychical causes. And such investigation has advanced our spiritual awakening.

The following two memoirs stories tell about an amazing “coincidence” (almost forty years ago) which awakened me to the immense spiritual importance of synchronicities and have helped me find unimagined happiness.

I didn’t realize the existence and immeasurable spiritual importance of synchronicities until January 2013, when my daughter Jessica, a professional photographer, asked me – and I agreed – to accompany her to Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco’s largest Jewish synagogue. She had been engaged to do a photo shoot there of a Bar Mitzvah “coming of age” ceremony, and asked me to act as a focal point so she could check out lighting and lens requirements at various places where photos might be appropriate.

So, at the synagogue I stood for Jessica at various places, including the raised platform or ‘bimah’ at the front of the vast synagogue sanctuary, so she could focus on the place where the Bar Mitzvah honoree would be standing. Thereupon, I nostalgically recalled how twenty nine years earlier I stood at that very place at the Bar Mitzvah of my then thirteen year old son Joshua.

The two Bar Mitzvah stories were originally published soon after the SillySutras website was launched, when the second noteworthy Bar Mitzvah synchronicity reminded me of the original one.

As hereafter explained, I’m again posting both stories because we are living in extraordinary times when countless synchronous events provide infinite opportunities for realization and radiation of our Eternal spiritual Self-identity as Divine Light and LOVE

Therefore, I pray you’ll find awakening inspiration from the two related Bar Mitzvah stories.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Awakening to Ever Present Synchronicity Background

In my “Channeling” for Joseph Campbell memoir I recounted how forty years ago, in October, 1983, I began realizing that at times I was receiving ideas from higher dimensions when – as Board Chairman of CIIS, an academic institution – I bestowed on Dr. Joseph Campbell an honorary PhD. degree.

Four months after the Campbell investiture ceremony, in January, 1984, I participated in two more important investiture ceremonies involving an amazing “coincidence” which proved especially significant for me because it aroused my initial awareness of and curiosity about synchronicities.

Before that pivotal “coincidence”, I had been largely unaware of synchronicities or their evolutionary importance. But since then synchronicities have become ever more meaningful in my spiritual life.

As explained in my above introduction, I originally wrote about that 1984 inauguration “coincidence” experience because twenty nine years later I was reminded of it by another noteworthy Bar Mitzvah synchronicity at the identical place where the first one happened.

Prior to my son Joshua’s Bar Mitzvah at Temple Emanu-El, I met with one of the Emanu-El associate rabbis who informed me that I was to accompany Joshua to the raised platform or ‘bimah’ at the front of the sanctuary, where I would introduce him to the congregation and place on his shoulders a prayer shawl or tallit, as a ‘coming of age’ mantle. Whereupon he would recite a portion of the Torah (Jewish bible) and give a talk. Then the rabbi gave me mimeographed templates of suggested introductory remarks, but encouraged me to offer my own.

Soon thereafter, an ‘inner voice’ dictated and I quickly wrote the following words:

“Lord God, Divine Master, we remember Thee with deepest devotion and reverence;
with unshakable faith in Thee and the perfection of Thy Way;
and, with unspeakable gratitude for Thy blessings
which are beyond comprehension or imagination.
“On this blessed day, we affirm to Thee our devotion, faith and gratitude
by presenting for initiation into the congregation of Israel
our beloved son Joshua David Rattner.
We pray that his life may be a Divine blessing
in the ancient and holy tradition of Israel
of service to all people and to all of Thy creation.”*


A few days later, on Saturday morning January 28th, 1984, I recited those words at the Bar Mitzvah, with a prescribed opening prayer and then placed a prayer shawl (or tallit) on Josh’s shoulders.

That very evening, I was “coincidentally” scheduled (by The Lone Arranger) to make another investiture presentation at the San Francisco Unitarian Church, also one of city’s largest religious sanctuaries.

CIIS was publicly inaugurating there a new President, Dr. John Broomfield. And as CIIS Board Chairman I was to officially welcome him.

Upon arriving early Saturday evening at the Unitarian Church, I was informed for the first time that I was to place a shawl around Dr. Broomfield’s shoulders as a symbolic mantle of authority. Thereupon, I quickly “channeled” and wrote down the following words:

“Dr. Broomfield I invest in you, with this mantle,
the authority of President and the position of Professor of History and Comparative Studies of the California Institute of Integral Studies.
The entire CIIS community welcomes you with support and love.
We look forward to many fruitful and auspicious years under your leadership.”

Soon thereafter I addressed those words to Dr. Broomfield and placed the mantle on his shoulders as we stood at the Church pulpit.


Dr. John Broomfield and Ron Rattner, 1/28/84
Courtesy of California Institute of Integral Studies archives



Then, Dr. Broomfield gave his evening acceptance address while wearing the mantle of authority I’d placed on his shoulders, just as Josh had recited a Torah bible portion and given a talk while wearing the prayer shawl ‘coming of age’ mantle I placed on his shoulders.

Never before and never yet again, have I placed a shawl or mantle of symbolic authority on anyone’s shoulders.

Why did it happen twice on January 28, 1984?

Why in January 2013 was I asked by my daughter to stand at the same Synogogue sanctuary place where I stood twenty nine years earlier?

*Postscript.

A few days after the Bar Mitzvah ceremony a Congregation Emanu–El assistant rabbi asked and received my permission to print my “channeled” message to Josh as a template for other parents’ use.

Also, at age ninety, I continue to gratefully remember the Divine with deepest devotion and reverence. And more than ever before, as my Spiritual SELF – Eternally immanent all manifestation as ONE Divine LOVE.



Ron’s 2023 concluding comments about his Awakening to Ever Present Synchronicity 

Dear Friends,

At age ninety, I am gratefully enjoying much greater happiness than ever before imagined, with continuing harmonious earth-life synchronicities. But this life-stage has come only after many years of living and learning from my life’s experiences.

Prior to my midlife spiritual awakening, I was unfamiliar with the word “synchronicity” (coined by C.G. Jung in the 1950’s)
However, like many others I occasionally noted unusual “coincidences” in linear time which could not be explained rationally or statistically. Then, following a 1977 miraculous week of pre-cognitive events in New York City, I began questioning the reality of “coincidences” in linear time.

But it was not until the foregoing amazing 1984 apparent “coincidence” events that I was first awakened to the immense spiritual significance of synchronicities, suggesting that “There are no mistakes, no coincidences, that “all events are blessings given to us to learn from.” [Elisabeth Kubler-Ross]

Since the SillySutras website was later launched, I’ve considered Synchronicity one of its most important spiritual categories. (So there has always been a tab-highlighted “Synchronicity” category link at the top of every website page.)

Thus I’ve published and republished both the above original 1984 “coincidence” story, and the second noteworthy synchronicity story which reminded me of the first story, since it happened at the same place where the first one happened.

Because of their spiritual significance both stories have been told and retold today, to further our awareness and appreciation of synchronicities, and thereby to help us find happiness through spiritual awakening.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


Faith-Based Surrender:
Comments and Predictions
~ Ron’s Memoirs

“Setting aside all noble deeds,
just surrender completely to the will of God.

I shall liberate you from all sins. Do not grieve.”

~ Bhagavad Gita 18:66

“They are the chosen ones who have surrendered.”

~ Rumi
Grace is ever present.

All that is necessary is that you surrender to it.”

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“By letting it go it all gets done.

The world is won by those who let it go.

But when you try and try,
the world is beyond the winning.”

~ Lao Tzu
“Two things are necessary for the realization of God;
faith and self-surrender.”
“Surrender everything at the feet of God. …
Give Him the power of attorney.
Let Him do whatever He thinks best.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
“Surrender is faith
that the power of Love
can accomplish anything,
even when you cannot foresee the outcome.”

~ Deepak Chopra
We have nothing to surrender

But the idea

That we’re someone,

With something

To surrender.

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings




Ron’s Introduction to Faith-Based Surrender: Comments and Predictions

Dear Friends,

Because we are experiencing an illusory low energy Earth ‘reality’ of third dimension [3D] space/time/and duality separation from each other and Nature, most SillySutras postings have separately considered fundamental spiritual principles such as God, Love, Faith, Surrender, Ego, Devotion, Humility, Karma, Evolution and Transformation.

However, as a ninety year old faith-based optimist, I now foresee our imminent quantum-leap ascension to a New Reality beyond unavoidable Earthly ego-mind illusions of seeming separation from Source.

So today’s posting is dedicated to inspiring our newly elevated view of the above seemingly separate spiritual concepts, as interdependent appearances of Divine Grace, Faith, and Love, beyond all ego-mind illusions; thereby encouraging us to instinctively and irreversibly surrender such illusions with supreme Faith in our Eternal existence as ONE Divine LOVE.

Spiritual stories or parables have often metaphorically likened each of us as a traveler on an evolutionary journey, each with a unique dharmic path and perspective. In truth we are ONE non-dual Divinity which has incarnated into unique ’space/time soul-suits’ to experiment in time the infinite possibilities of such separate existence.

However, forgetting our true immortality and Divinity, we’ve egoically self-identified as separate and fallible mortal beings. And while mistakenly believing ourselves mortal, we have feared death, acted selfishly and suffered karmically.

But now, after countless reincarnations with countless trials and tribulations, we are remembering and realizing our Eternal Divinity as ONE Infinite LOVE. And to hasten our return process, many of us are skillfully and fearlessly using our thoughts as servants to our souls, instead of ignorantly suffering from ego-mind psychic domination.

And as we approach our return ‘destination’ we are realizing that everything and everyone is equally Divine, though each is in an apparently differing stage of returning to ONENESS. We are remembering that “In the beginning was the word and the word was God” ( John 1:1 ) And that “With our [human] thoughts, [we’ve made] the world.” ( Buddha )

Thus, as a global family of empathetic humans we are about to achieve a “critical mass” transformation enabling us to resolve our apparent Earth-life ‘critical mess’, by following our Sacred Heart’s innate empathy, compassion and LOVE for all people and all Life everywhere.

And with irreversible intuitive Faith, we shall surrender all ego-mind fears and separation illusions, to our heartfelt Eternal existence as ONE Divine LOVE.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Surrender and Let Go of Ego
~ Quotations and Sutra Sayings
~ Ron’s Memoirs

“Ego is the biggest enemy of humans.”
~ Rig Veda
“Free of ego, living naturally, working virtuously,
you become filled with inexhaustible vitality 
and are liberated forever from the cycle of death and rebirth.”
~ Lao Tzu
“In the end these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you love?
How deeply did you learn to let go?”
~ The Buddha
By letting it go it all gets done.

The world is won by those who let it go.

But when you try and try,
the world is beyond the winning.

~ Lao Tzu
“They are the chosen ones who have surrendered.”
~ Rumi
“Surrender is faith
that the power of Love can accomplish anything,
even when you cannot foresee the outcome.”
~ Deepak Chopra
Love is the sacrifice of will.
If you cannot leave will behind
You have no will at all.
~ Rumi
Q. How much “ego” do you need?
A. Just enough so that you don’t step in front of a bus.
~ Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
We have nothing to surrender
But the idea
That we’re someone,
With something
To surrender.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings





Ron’s Introduction to Surrender and Let Go of Ego

Dear Friends,

Beginning thirty years ago, during a long post-retirement secluded period of meditation, introspection, and prayer, I began wondering and writing about the evolutionary spiritual significance of surrendering and letting go of ego. [See https://sillysutras.com/?p=2411]

At age ninety, as I update my memoirs with perspectives learned so far from this precious human lifetime, surrendering and letting go of our false separate ego-mind identity remains fundamental to our individual and collective karmic and dharmic spiritual evolution.

So I’m republishing the above and following quotations and large collection of sutra sayings (with recorded mp3 recitation), and my explanatory comments concerning the critical importance of surrendering and transcending ego.

May these writings help us, individually and as a global family, let go of ego to reveal and heal all sufferings from unfulfilled and futile ego-mind ideas and desires.

And so may it be!




Ron’s Sutra Sayings on Surrendering Ego.

We have nothing to surrender
but the idea that
we’re someone,
with something
to surrender.

Let’s let go
and
let life live us,
as Love.

Let’s leave it to the
Lone Arranger.

Let’s let go, and “go with the flow”.*

*Being “in the flow” is thought-free, effortless, and focused
merging of intention, action, and awareness
as consciousness – consciously letting Life happen through you.

Tao is Now,
Tao is One,
Tao is Doer,
Tao will be done.

Tao will be done.
So let Tao do it.

Give your spiritual
‘power of attorney’
to God.

“Let go, and let God.”*

*Unity Church maxim

Leave it to the Lone Arranger.

Ego Antidote:
The root of all problems is
I/me/mine.
End it with antidote,
Thy/Thee/Thine.

Ego: Use it to lose it!

Immolate ego
in the fire of faith.

As ego goes
consciousness grows
until it Knows –
Itself.

Ego is free to choose,
but is never free.
Self does not choose,
but is ever free.

Our only choice
is to accept
or reject
“what is”.

Acceptance is pleasure;
rejection is suffering.
Acceptance is freedom;
rejection is bondage.
Acceptance is NOW;
rejection is then.

So, if choose you must,
then with faith and trust,
say “yes” to Life.

With radical trust
we do as we must.

The more we trust
the less we try.

Enter a state of enlightened amnesia:

Be now;
forget then.

Remember God;
forget the rest.

Forget who you think you are,
to remember what you really are.



Ron’s audio recitation of Sutra Sayings- Surrender and Let Go of Ego

Listen to


Ron’s explanation of Sutra Sayings– Surrender and Let Go of Ego

Dear Friends,

I consider of critical importance to our spiritual evolution the surrendering and transcending of our false separate self/identity with our ego-mind “I” thoughts.

In many prior postings I’ve explained that the greatest obstacle to our spiritual evolution is ego-mind, our “phantom self” misidentification with thoughts and labels, rather than with Eternal infinite existence as Divine LOVE, our true immortal SELF.

Ancient Rig Veda scripture says that “Ego is the biggest enemy of humans”. And transcending ego is the fundamental message of all enduring spiritual teachings.

Therefore at age ninety, and while we are now experiencing exceptionally advantageous cosmic energies and auspicious astrological planetary alignments favorable to spiritual evolution, I’m updating and republishing postings which can most help us benefit from that energy.

Previously in “Words About Wishes” I’ve explained that ego-mind’s futile pursuit of illusory and impermanent external pleasures and desires can never give lasting happiness. So this posting discusses the most effective ‘antidotes’ to such futile pursuit of external pleasures and desires – viz. the letting go, surrendering and thought-free acceptance of those egoic desires.
 
In “The Power of Now” Eckhart Tolle defines “ego” as a “phantom self” and explains that transcending ego is of universally pre-eminent importance, because as long as we are identified with our mind the ego runs our life.

I agree with Tolle and have composed many silly sutras about surrendering ego, including those published above. They are respectfully offered to remind us to follow our eternal inner guidance and always “go with the flow” for the benefit of others. 

This message is especially important in current turbulent times, which have disrupted and jeopardized earth-life for billions of people worldwide.

If we let life live us as LOVE, these challenging times can afford us immense evolutionary opportunities to co-create not just a better world, but a radically transformed world – with constant kindness and compassion for all life-forms everywhere.

Dedication

May these writings help us,
individually and as a global family,
let go of ego to reveal and heal all sufferings
from unfulfilled and futile ego-mind ideas and desires.



And so may it be!



Ron Rattner

Awakening

“Spiritual awakening is the most essential thing in man’s life, and it is the sole purpose of being. Is not civilization, in all its tragic forms, a supreme motive for spiritual awakening?”
~ Khalil Gibran
“Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“The greatest obstacle to enlightenment is getting past your delusion that you are not already enlightened.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”
~ Lao Tzu
“When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the supreme state will come to you uninvited and unexpected.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“Meditation is the process of understanding your own mind.”
~ J Krishnamurti
“In Buddhism, mindfulness is the key. Mindfulness is the energy that sheds light on all things and all activities, producing the power of concentration, bringing forth deep insight and awakening. Mindfulness is the base of Buddhist practice”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“The discipline which I have imparted to you will lead you when I am gone. Practice mindfulness diligently, to attain the goal of awakening.”
~ Gautama Buddha
“All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact:
Be — don´t try to become.
Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained.
Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance.”
~ Osho”
“NOW is the only reality. All else is either memory or imagination.”
~ Rajneesh
“God is not in heaven – God is in the present moment.
If you are also in the present moment you enter the temple.”
~ Rajneesh
“God is the ultimate experience of silence, of beauty, of bliss, a state of inner celebration.”
~ Rajneesh
“In meditation, silently and serenely, all words are transcended.
In Illumination, all things appear as is.
Silence is the ceasing of ego-grasping. Illumination is the functioning of the wonder of wisdom.
The unity of these two is awakening to Buddha Nature.”
~ Zen Master Sheng-yen
“Those whose spiritual awareness has been awakened never make a false move. They don’t have to avoid evil. They are so replete with love that whatever they do is a good action. They are fully conscious that they are not the doer of their actions, but only servants of God.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa
“When the love of God comes to you,
it will overwhelm your heart with a fulfillment
unequaled by the nectar of a thousand million human loves.
Overflowing all boundaries, that Love embraces everyone and everything.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“Divine desperateness is the beginning of spiritual awakening
because it gives rise to the aspiration for God-realisation.”
~ Meher Baba
“Love has to spring spontaneously from within And it is no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; But though love cannot be forced on anyone, It can be awakened in him through love itself. Love is essentially self communicative; Those who do not have it catch it from those who have it. True love is unconquerable and irresistible, And it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, Until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.”
~ Meher Baba
“You are a Buddha, and so is everyone else. I didn’t make that up. . . the Buddha himself said so. He said that all beings have the potential to become awakened.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma,
nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.”
~ Bodhidharma
“There is a power now slumbering within us, which if awakened would do to evil what light does to darkness.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“What we usually call human evolution is the awakening of the divine nature within us.”
~ Peace Pilgrim
“That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of that word.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Spiritual Awakening is awakening from the dream of thought.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“All arts lie in man, though not all are apparent.
Awakening brings them out.
To be taught is nothing; everything is in man waiting to be awakened.”
~ Paracelsus
“The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best that is in us. It is only through our own personal awakening that the world can be awakened. We cannot give what we do not have.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
~ Carl Jung
“The path of awakening is not about becoming who you are. Rather it is about unbecoming who you are not.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.”
~ Deepak Chopra
“Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be”
~ Alan Watts
“Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of what already is.”
~ Alan Watts
“There is none dwelling in the house but God.
When a man is awakened he melts and perishes.”
~ Rumi
“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
~  Carl Gustav Jung
My friends, it is through the establishment of the clarity of mindfulness
that you let go of grasping after past and future,
overcome attachment and grief,
abandon all clinging and anxiety,
and awaken an unshakable freedom of heart,
here and now.
~ Buddha [the Awakened One]
“Those who awaken never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.
On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.
Their food is knowledge.
They live on emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?
~ Buddha [the Awakened One]
“If you want to awaken all of humanity,
then awaken all of yourself.
If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world,
then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.”
~ Lao Tzu , Hua Hu Ching
“The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is
. . . freedom: freedom absolute, total, unconditional.
He does not want to give you an ideology,
because every ideology creates its own slavery.”

~ Osho
“An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.”
~ Bodhidharma





Introduction to “Awakening”

Dear Friends,

Thirty years ago, during a long post-retirement secluded period of meditation, prayer, and introspection, I “channelled” the following sutra-poem about “Awakening” to Buddhahood.
It was inspired by very rare beings (like Jesus, Gautama Buddha, and Krishna) who intentionally incarnated in mortal earthly bodies to teach and help Humanity.
They appeared as Awakened beings in an Infinite Ocean of Divine LOVE, rather than as mere Ego “I”-drops in that limitless Divine Ocean.

Because we’re now experiencing extraordinary global wars, fears, and sufferings, the “Awakening” verses seem more crucial now than when they were “channelled” thirty years ago. So they are re-published today with additional explanatory sutras, quotes, and comments, consistent with most recent postings about “Interdependence” and “Egocide”.

Those postings explained that although we can’t avoid ego illusion upon physical incarnation in low energy Third Dimension [3D] space/time and duality, we can choose to hasten our elevation to higher dimensions beyond fear and suffering with thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that are loving and helpful, not selfish and harmful.

Therefore, let us now choose to live loving and helpful lives, so that with all life forms everywhere we can consciously exist cooperatively and interdependently, not selfishly and exploitively; and so may we hasten our destined realization of Being immortally ONE with Divine SELF as LOVE.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Awakening

Through eons of ignorance,
we have been asleep –

Dreaming “I am a body,
a name, a form, a story” separate from
the rest of “reality”.

Now, blessed with a precious human
existence and truth teachings,
we are awakening gradually,

And experiencing ever more
moments of living truth.

But still, from the habits of countless
lives of ignorance,
we suffer a kind of spiritual narcolepcy –
involuntarily falling asleep again and again.

Only when those habits are
totally transcended,
will we awaken –

FOREVER!



Ron’s audio recitation of “Awakening”

Listen to



Ron’s “Awakening” Sutra Sayings

“Bliss abides when thought subsides.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Mind and memory are “then”,

But–
Life is NOW,

ever NOW,
n
ever then!”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Life is NOW

Ever NOW

Never then.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

Life is NOW or never,

Life is NOW forever.

Life is NOW

Ever NOW

Never then.

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“There’s nothing to say,

but words point the way.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

When no one’s a “doer”

nothing’s undone.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Tao is now,

Tao is one,

Tao is doer,

Tao will be done.

Tao will be done,

So let Tao do it.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

Everything’s NOW,

So nothing is new.

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

Time is how we measure NOW,

and spaces

are for places
where we think we are in time.

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Remember God, forget the rest.

Forget who you think you are,

to know what you really are.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“We are not merely mortal drops

in an ocean of ephemeral forms,

but the eternally Infinite Ocean of Universal Awareness,

appearing as drops!”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“As ego goes,

consciousness grows,

until it Knows –
Its-SELF.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings


“Cultivate compassion; harvest happiness.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Love blesses the world; 
fear afflicts it.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“You are not a mortal; you are immortal.

So never fear being a non-being.”
 
***

“Our deepest fears
 hide our highest potentials.”
 
***

“As we lose our fear of leaving life,

we gain the art of living life.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“The Witness and the witnessed are ONE.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“This world is wrought with naught but thought.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Thought divides Awareness as a prism divides light.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Thinking and Being can’t coexist.

So stop thinking and start Being.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Forget who you think you are

to Know what you really are.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Spirit speaks when mind is mute.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Theory Of Everything:

Consciousness = Subject = Object = Self”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings


“We’re whole,
we’re whole,
we’re whole.
Nothing ever
can dissever our soul.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings


“We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.

Freedom is beyond belief.”

~ Ron Rattner – Sutra Sayings

“May we bless the whole

as we play our role

in the cosmic theater of life.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings



Ron’s Dedication of “Awakening”

As recognized by the above sutras and quotes, awakening from the illusion of existing separate from our innate Divinity is the essential purpose of spiritual evolution.

Thus the word “Buddha” is not just a name but an honorific title, meaning in Sanskrit “one who is awake” to Reality.

So the foregoing verses gratefully honor and are dedicated to all “awakened” boundless beings – whether historically known or unknown – who help other beings awaken from a fearfully persistent illusion of individual mortality to joyous realization of our deathless ONENESS as Eternal Divinity.

May such ‘Awakened Ones’ inspire our uniquely destined realizations of eternal oneness of Life as LOVE, in this precious lifetime.

Embedded below is four minute YouTube video of H.H. the Dalai Lama’s July 6th, 2023, 88th Birthday Message that eloquently expresses The Buddhist Bodhisattva’s aspiration for happiness of all sentient beings and powerfully summarizes the purpose of this “Awakening” posting.

Let us enjoy and deeply reflect on it.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 88th Birthday Message, July 6th, 2023

“Finding Freedom” as the Spiritual message of the Passover story


“Be empty of worrying,
Think of Who Created Thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?”
~ Rumi

“You will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free.”

~ John 8:32

“Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land
Tell old Pharaoh to let my people go.”
~ Afro-American Spiritual Song

“Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.

Freedom is beyond belief.”

~ Ron Rattner – Sutra Sayings

“There is only one central issue, crisis, or challenge for man,
which is, that he must be completely free.
As long as the mind is holding on to a structure, a method, a system, there is no freedom.”
~ J. Krishnamurti

“Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice.
Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness
of our daily existence and activity.”
~ J. Krishnamurti

“Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind.
If you say ‘I am a free soul.
I am a son of God who can bind me’
free you shall be.”
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him–
that moment I am free from bondage,
everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”
~ Swami Vivekananda

All life is an effort to attain freedom from self-created entanglement;
it is a desperate struggle to undo what has been done under ignorance,
to throw away the accumulated burden of the past,
to find rescue from the debris left by a series of temporary achievements and failures.”
~ Meher Baba

“Freedom is of the nature of the soul, it is its birthright:
.. real freedom of the soul shines through veils of matter
in the form of the apparent freedom of man.”
~ Swami Vivekananda

“To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe;
it cannot be found here. ….
The only way to come out of bondage
is to go beyond the limitations of [karmic] law,
to go beyond causation.”
~ Swami Vivekananda

“Liberation is our very nature. We are that.
The very fact that we wish for liberation
shows that freedom from all bondage is our real nature.”
~ Ramana Maharshi

“Spiritual freedom is freedom from all wanting. . .
When the soul breaks asunder the shackles of wanting,
it is emancipated from bondage to body, mind, and ego.
This freedom brings realization of the unity of all life
and puts an end to all doubts and worries.”
~ Meher Baba

“True freedom and the end of suffering
is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen
whatever you feel or experience at this moment.
This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering.”
~ Eckhart Tolle

“The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is not God, is not soul… it is freedom: freedom absolute, total, unconditional. He does not want to give you an ideology, because every ideology creates its own slavery. He does not want to give you a religion, because religion binds you.”
~ Osho

“We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.
Freedom is beyond belief.”
~ Ron Rattner – Sutra Sayings

“You are truly free when you are not a person.”
~ Deepak Chopra – The Book of Secrets

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual,
“Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. — “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963

 

“Finding Freedom”




Ron’s introduction to “Finding Freedom” as the spiritual message of the biblical Passover story
 
Dear Friends,

Happy Easter/Passover/Ramadan/Navratri/Nowruz etc. vernal holiday season!

As Passover begins today, this posting explains why metaphorically “Finding Freedom” as Eternal LOVE is the spiritual message of the biblical Passover story, and the transcendental inner goal of all non-dual religious, ethical and perennial wisdom paths.

Most people associate “freedom” with personal, political, and economic liberty.  But spiritual freedom is an extraordinarily rare transcendental state which can be inwardly attained even by those who do not enjoy external freedoms, like slaves or prison inmates.

Only after my 1976 spiritual awakening, did I begin reflecting upon and discovering inner spiritual freedom. 

My Background in “Finding Freedom”


I first deeply reflected on transcendental concepts of “freedom” during the 1950’s on learning of Abraham Maslow’s humanistic psychology theories concerning self-actuated people, and when I read “Escape From Freedom” by German-born psychotherapist Erich Fromm, who endorsed the fundamental importance of not submitting to outer-dictates from an authoritarian societal system that prescribes inauthentic beliefs and behaviors.

Though I’ve always been instinctively inner-directed, after becoming a lawyer I rarely reflected about inner “freedom” until I had a memorable face-to-face exchange with my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, just prior to his 1980 return to India. 

While then residing in my apartment, Guruji told me: “Rasik, a yogi’s body is like a baby’s body. Your body is like a prison. I am like a jailer with the prison key. I come and go as I please.”

Thereupon, I became intensely curious about Guruji’s surprising revelation that my body was “like a prison”. And I wondered how and why ‘I’ was ‘imprisoned’, and how ‘I’ could get out of ‘jail’ – free like Guruji. So I began deeply exploring inner spiritual freedom, as distinguished from personal, political, and economic freedoms.  



Soon, I was reminded of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary  “I Have a Dream” speech, and wondered why his words “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last” were so deeply powerful. 



Ultimately, I realized that those words were rooted in the biblical Exodus Passover story; and I intuited that spiritual “freedom” is the essential mythical message of that story.  I concluded that the Passover story symbolically emphasizes escape from outer bondage to a Divinely ‘promised land’ within – viz. escape from enslavement by mistaken beliefs in false external idols, Gods or goals to an inner ‘promised land’ of ONE eternal Divinity imminent in each of us.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is ONE!”

~ Deuteronomy 6:4


Later, I noted that Jesus powerfully alluded to spiritual freedom by prophesying:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

~ John 8:32


So Jesus was teaching that we will find freedom (from psychologically self-imposed worldly slavery) only when we transcend entity identity, and commonly self-identify as ONE Divine spirit – the kingdom of heaven within – rather than as embodied personalities, 
supposedly separate from each other and Nature.


Ultimately, I concluded that our limited and limiting ego ideas about separate self-identity and reality confine each of us within a kind of psychological prison in which suffering is inevitable, and which restricts realization of our infinite potentialities.  



However, the masters teach and demonstrate that we can each mentally transcend that “prison” and emerge “free at last” from our self-woven karmic cocoons, no matter what our outer circumstances.  



Thus, Rumi reminded us:

“Be empty of worrying,

Think of Who Created Thought!

Why do you stay in prison

when the door is so wide open?”

~ Rumi



The ultimate possibility of getting out of thought-jail FREE is explained in the foregoing quotations and following sutra-essay.  May these writings encourage our evolution to precious inner freedom, our divine birthright.



And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


Sutra-essay: How can we find “Freedom”?

Q. What is “freedom”, and how can we experience it?



A. “Freedom” is a word with different meanings.
Here we define “freedom” as ultimate spiritual Reality beyond thought or ego – beyond human comprehension, imagination, description or belief – which can only be known experientially, not rationally or mentally.



Ultimate “freedom” is our divine birthright, our nature and our destiny. Freedom is ever NOW, never then. Knowingly or unknowingly, all people – including atheists, non-theists, and agnostics – long for “freedom”.



After mystically experiencing “freedom”, great beings like Jesus, the Buddha and Krishna have encouraged us to aspire to this ultimate transcendent experience. Mystics say that as long we self-identify only with our thoughts in ever changing space/time/causality reality we are inescapably ‘imprisoned’ in a state of psychological bondage, with inevitable suffering; that we experience ultimate “freedom” only in the present moment – the NOW – as we choicelessly self-identify with timeless universal awareness or spirit immanent in each of us. And essential non-dualistic wisdom teachings of all enduring spiritual, mystical and mythic paths allude to spiritual “freedom”.



Thus, the most important Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, is a teaching by Divine Avatar Krishna about the ultimate spiritual goal (“moksha”) of liberation or “freedom” from the cycle of death and rebirth (“samsara”).



Similarly, all of Gautama Buddha’s teachings were aimed at ending human suffering through attainment of “freedom” from mental fetters or chains (samyojana) of mistaken self-identification with samsara.



When Jesus said: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) he meant that we will experience “freedom” on realizing our true self-identity as eternal soul or spirit. And in declaring: “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30), Jesus showed that we can only find such freedom when we self-identify with ONE Divine spirit – the kingdom of heaven within – rather than as supposedly separate embodied personalities.



“Finding Freedom” is the spiritual message of the biblical Passover story.

Many Jews and Christians annually remember and ritually observe the biblical Exodus story about God miraculously rescuing Jews from bondage as slaves in Egypt, with Christians recalling that a Passover Seder dinner was Jesus’ last supper.   Some Afro-American Christians celebrate by singing the popular spiritual song “Go Down Moses”

.

The Exodus story symbolizes humanity’s eternal quest for spiritual freedom – for societal escape from enslavement by mistaken beliefs in false external Gods or goals to an inner ‘promised land’ of ONE eternal Divinity universally imminent as LOVE within each of us, regardless of religious or spiritual beliefs.  So Passover rituals of lighting outer candles, can symbolically remind us of humanity’s perpetual quest for the eternal inner light of universal freedom.



Conclusions



1) We find and experience ultimate freedom only in choiceless awareness that we are ONE Universal LOVE, beyond our apparent subject/object separateness; and beyond our beliefs, religions, ideologies or philosophies.

2) By recognizing and transcending illusory belief barriers which seem to imprison us, we are –

“Free at last, free at last!”

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


3) The current era of worldwide turmoil and war, with global fear and suffering is paradoxically a time of both our species’ apparent catastrophic threat to all Earth-life, and an unprecedented opportunity for a wonderful new era of peace and prosperity.

4) This is impelling a “critical mass” of humankind to deeply reconsider our life purposes and priorities as sentient Earth beings instinctively seeking “freedom” as our Divine birthright.

5) Whatever our outer life circumstances, there always exists within us a God-given egoless state of “freedom” as LOVE, attainable by all humans.

Dedication

This “Finding Freedom” posting is deeply dedicated to inspiring our destined spiritual realization of that wonderful world, beyond fear and suffering, where we shall be “Free at last, free at last!”


Please enjoy and consider it’s key quotations, sutra-essay and comments, and embedded spiritual music explaining that ultimate “Freedom”, is spiritual freedom as Eternal LOVE, which is the transcendental goal of all perennial wisdom paths.

Invocation



May today’s writings and music

inspire our instinctive and destined realization
of 
a wonderful world of LOVE
where we are “Free at last, free at last.”


And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

“Go Down Moses”

Afro-American spiritual about exodus story, sung by Louis Armstrong and chorus.




“Harmony”
~ Quotation Collection

“Love is the energizing elixir of the Universe,

the cause and effect of all Harmony.”

~ Rumi
“When there is harmony
between the mind, heart and resolution
then nothing is impossible.”
~ Rig Veda
“Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another . . And over all these virtues put on LOVE, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
~ Colossians 3: 12-17
“Let us live in harmless harmony,

and stay in cosmic synchrony,

as we play in Nature’s symphony.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings




Ron’s introduction to “Harmony” ~ Quotation Collection

Dear Friends,



Over thirty years ago I began deeply reflecting about the crucial importance of living harmoniously with each other and Nature. Since then I’ve accumulated the following treasury of inspiring quotations about “Harmony”, which express ever enduring ideas and ideals of fundamental spiritual significance.

May these quotations encourage and inspire our harmonious thoughts, emotions and behaviors to help heal the world, beyond illusory perceived separation from Nature and each other.



And so may it be!



Ron Rattner


Quotations and Sayings about “Harmony”

“Harmony is the secret principle of life.”

~ Paramahansa Yogananda


“When there is harmony between the mind, heart and resolution

then nothing is impossible.”

~ Rig Veda


”Neither human wisdom nor divine inspiration
can confer upon man any greater blessing than
[to live a life of happiness and harmony here on earth].”

~ Plato

“Clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another . .
And over all these virtues put on LOVE,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

~ Colossians 3: 12-17


“Love is the energizing elixir of the Universe,

the cause and effect of all Harmony.”

~ Rumi

“(A)ll problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony.”
~ Sri Aurobindo

“The heart and mind can find peace and harmony
by contemplating the transcendental nature
of the true Self as supreme effulgent life.”
~ Patanjali

“Where the heart is full of kindness which seeks no injury to another,
either in act or thought or wish, this full love creates an atmosphere of harmony,
whose benign power touches with healing all who come within its influence.
Peace in the heart radiates peace to other hearts,
even more surely than contention breeds contention.”
~ Patanjali, Yoga Sutra

“Affirm divine calmness and peace,
and send out only thoughts of love and goodwill
if you want to live in peace and harmony.
Never get angry, for anger poisons your system.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

“A harmonized mind produces harmony
in this world of seeming discord.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

“Go forth in every direction –
for the happiness, the harmony, the welfare of the many.
Offer your heart, the seeds of understanding,
like a lamp overturned and re-lit, illuminating the darkness.”
~ Buddha

“The life ahead can only be glorious
if you learn to live in total harmony with the Lord.”
~ Shirdi Sai Baba

“Happiness is when what you think,
what you say,
and what you do are in harmony.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi


“Virtue is harmony.”

~ Pythagoras

“God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed.
Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The sage is one with the world,
and lives in harmony with it.”
~ Lao Tzu



”One who lives in accordance with nature

does not go against the way of things,

but moves in harmony with the present moment.”

~ Lao Tzu

“He who lives in harmony with himself
lives in harmony with the universe.”
~ Marcus Aurelius

“The essence of saintliness is total acceptance of the present moment, harmony with things as they happen.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.”
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


”The superior person is in Harmony,

but does not follow the crowd.

The lesser person follows the crowd,

but is not in Harmony.”

~ Confucius


“Love opens all doors,

no matter how tightly closed they may be,

no matter how rusty from lack of use.

Your work is to bring unity and harmony,

to open all those doors which have been closed for a long time.

Have patience and tolerance. Open your heart all the time.”

~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

“The life of this world is nothing but the harmony of opposites”
~ Rumi


“Where there is discord,

let us sow Harmony.”

~ Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi


”Without law or compulsion,

men would dwell in harmony.”

~ Lao Tzu


As soon as laws are necessary for men,

they are no longer fit for freedom.

~ Pythagoras


”Happy the man whose lot it is to know

The secrets of the earth.

He hastens not

To work his fellows hurt by unjust deeds,

But with rapt admiration contemplates

Immortal Nature’s ageless harmony,

And how and when the order came to be.”

~ Euripides



”To have a positive religion is not necessary.

To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts,

and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


“The unlike is joined together,

and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.”

~ Heraclitus

”Mutual respect and mutual listening

are the foundations of harmony within the family.”

~ Buddha



“Harmony can not thrive in a climate of
mistrust, cheating, bullying; mean-spirited competition.”

~ Dalai Lama


”Wherever I go meeting the public… spreading a message of human values …
[and] harmony, is the most important thing.”

~ Dalai Lama


”If you want peace and harmony in the world,

you must have peace and harmony in your hearts and minds.”

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj



“Happiness is not a matter of intensity

but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.”

~ Thomas Merton


”Harmony sinks deep into the recesses of the soul

and takes its strongest hold there,

bringing grace also to the body and mind as well.

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe,

wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness,

and life to everything. It is the essence of order.”

~ Plato



”Music then is simply the result of the effects of Love on rhythm and harmony.”

~ Plato


”Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God

and the permissible delights of the soul.”

”Harmony is next to Godliness”

~ Johann Sebastian Bach


“If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony.”

~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart



“Every element has a sound, an original sound from the order of God; 
all those sounds unite like the harmony from harps and zithers.”

~ Hildegard of Bingen



“A life in harmony with nature,

the love of truth and virtue,

will purge the eyes to understanding her text.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


“With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony,

and the deep power of joy,

we see into the life of things.”

~ William Wordsworth



“Life’s errors cry for the merciful beauty
that
 can modulate their isolation

into a harmony with the whole.”

~ Rabindranath Tagore



“The highest education is that

which does not merely give us information

but makes our life in harmony with all existence.”

~ Rabindranath Tagore

“Training the intellect does not result in intelligence.
Intelligence comes into being when one acts in perfect harmony,
both intellectually and emotionally.”
~ J. Krishnamurti

“As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures
there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people.
Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.”
~ Isaac Bashevis Singer


”I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world,
 not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind…”

~ Albert Einstein



”The harmony of natural law reveals an Intelligence of such superiority that, 
compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings
is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

~ Albert Einstein


“In art, and in the higher ranges of science,

there is a feeling of harmony which underlies all endeavor.

There is no true greatness in art or science

without that sense of harmony.”

~ Albert Einstein



“My feeling is religious insofar as I am imbued

with the consciousness of the insufficiency of the human mind

to understand more deeply the harmony of the Universe

which we try to formulate as “laws of nature”

~ Albert Einstein



”Today wherever you go, carry the intention of peace, love, and harmony in your heart.”

“Just as light brightens darkness, discovering inner fulfillment can eliminate any disorder or discomfort.
This is truly the key to creating balance and harmony in everything you do.”

~ Deepak Chopra


”There is great freedom in simplicity of living,

and after I began to feel this,

I found harmony in my life between inner and outer well-being.

There is a great deal to be said about such harmony,

not only for an individual life but also for the life of a society.

It’s because as a world we have gotten ourselves so far out of harmony,

so way off on the material side,
 that when we discover something like nuclear energy
 we are still capable of putting it into a bomb 
and using it to kill people!

This is because our inner well-being lags so far behind our outer well-being.”

~ Peace Pilgrim



”Everyone has the perfect gift to give the world-
and if each of us is freed up to give our unique gift,
the world will be in total harmony.”

~ R. Buckminster Fuller


“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”

~ Plato (The Republic)



“Out of clutter find simplicity.

From discord make harmony.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

~ Albert Einstein


“The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.

A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being

that places harmony in one’s life.”

~ Peace Pilgrim



“Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life’s relationships,
just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes,
which vanish with the warmth.”

~ Soren Kierkegaard



“Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend;

you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left”

~ Aldo Leopold


“Live harmlessly in Harmony.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings


“How can there be harm in me,

when I’m in harmless Harmony?”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Let us live in harmless harmony,

and stay in cosmic synchrony,

as we play in Nature’s symphony.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“Don’t disrupt and polarize,

but syncretize and harmonize.”

~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings





And so may it be!



Ron Rattner



Transcending Violence


“Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.”


“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent?
Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence.
So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”
~ J. Krishnamurti
“Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don’t see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.”


“The moment you put a mental label on another human being,
you can no longer truly relate to that person. . .
It then becomes possible to perpetrate any act of violence.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred
against anyone in the world at this moment,
we are contributing to the wounding of the world.”
~ Deepak Chopra


J. Krishnamurti ~ May 11, 1895 – February 17, 1986



Introduction to “Transcending Violence”

Dear Friends,

The following Q and A essay about transcending violence was first composed and published almost four years ago. Since then we’ve begun experiencing an extraordinarily stressful, turbulent, and polarized “new normal” post-pandemic period with widespread global human violence and threats to life on Earth and innate human rights never before imagined by most of us, including me.

Accordingly I’ve felt intuitively impelled to amend and update the essay, (and to supplement it with a collection of important spiritual quotations), thereby explaining why to transcend violence it is crucial that humanity must now elevate our behavioral and emotional energies beyond those which have long-prevailed prior to this unprecedented “new normal” post-pandemic period.

These writings are deeply dedicated to transcendence of current unprecedented global violence by our loving, compassionate, fearless, and forgiving behaviors and emotions, beyond prevailing disharmonious levels of human consciousness.

May they encourage our conscious harmony with Nature, and unconditional Love and forgiveness for all Life everywhere.

May we thereby help bless the world as LOVE.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner

Quotation Collection concerning “Violence”


“I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”
~ Albert Einstein

“The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one’s opponent.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi 

“Violence is not only impractical but immoral.” 
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Nothing good ever comes of violence.”
~ Martin Luther 

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart,
cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Intolerance is itself a form of violence
and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“ An unjust law is itself a species of violence.
Arrest for its breach is more so.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things,
and generally return upon him who began.”
~ Lucretius

“Every leaf that grows will tell you:
what you sow will bear fruit,
so if you have any sense my friend,
don’t plant anything but Love.”
~ Rumi

“If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.”
~ Lao Tzu

“Violence should not be responded to with violence.
The only way out of violence and conflict is for us to embrace the practice of peace, to think and act with compassion, love, and understanding.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. ”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct,
and tends to produce ferocity toward those
who are not regarded as members of the herd.”
~ Bertrand Russell

“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation.
Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people,
but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people
who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Violence does not necessarily take people by the throat and strangle them.
Usually it demands no more than an ultimate allegiance from its subjects.
They are required merely to become accomplices in its lies.”
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“Violence can only be concealed by a lie,
and the lie can only be maintained by violence.”
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred
against anyone in the world at this moment,
we are contributing to the wounding of the world.”
~ Deepak Chopra



Transcending Violence

Q. We live in stressful, turbulent and crazy times, with widespread violence. How can we transcend such violence?

A. “Violence” has different meanings for different people in different societies. So we must first define violence to address this question.

From a spiritual perspective “violence” includes much more than just overt physical or emotional acts of violence. As long as we egotistically view the world and others conceptually, and not conciously, there is violence.

Subtly, violence is unconscious human mental separation from others and Nature. So all such mental separation “breeds violence”.

Thus, spiritually this is a world of inevitable “violence”, which can never be totally eliminated, but can be appreciably alleviated by harmoniously loving behaviors. Yet even individually “enlightened” loving beings living in mentally sick societies overtly experience societal violence.

Hence Jesus endured violent crucifixion, mockery and humiliation from ignorant crowds, because ‘heretically’ he preached “love your neighbors” and even “your enemies”; repudiated socially condoned hypocrisy, brutality and thirst for worldly power and gains; and even audaciously proclaimed the ultimate non-duality ‘forbidden mystical Truth’ – that “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

So as long as we abide in this space/time world, we can never totally transcend its inevitable violence and suffering. To transcend violence we must transcend this world of karmic cause and effect. We must BE choiceless Universal Awareness beyond all mental conceptualization, including the ‘transcendence’ concept.

“To acquire freedom we have to get beyond the limitations of this universe;

it cannot be found here. ….
The only way to come out of bondage

is to go beyond the limitations of [natural] law,

to go beyond causation.”

~ Swami Vivekananda

However, as human consciousness inevitably evolves we will gradually reduce violence and suffering, individually and societally. Most earthly violence arises from human ignorance of our spiritual Oneness with Nature. So as human spiritual ignorance ends, violence will be appreciably alleviated as disharmonious behaviors and emotions are dispelled and supplanted with love and compassion.

And so it shall be!

Ron Rattner

From co-dependent exploitation,
to co-creative realization
~ A rare turning point in Human history

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I —
 I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”
~ Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken



Dear Friends,

We have reached a rare turning point in modern human history. Confronted by apparent dire threats to survival of life on Earth as we’ve known it, our species is awakening to a prophesied new enlightened Earth age. After eons of imagined darkness, we are now realizing our infinite potential as timeless wholeness and Oneness with Source – as LOVE beyond comprehension, imagination or description.

Thus a “critical mass” of Humankind will soon be energetically (not spatially) uplifted to a compassionate new world, dynamically harmonious with Nature and all life everywhere – a “new reality” foreseen for millennia by non-materialist mystic seers.

Accordingly this essay is dedicated to inspiring our awakened inclusion in that uplifted “critical mass”.

Historic Background

Throughout recorded history, in order to evolve, human societies have been compelled to abandon previously cherished inflexible beliefs about “reality” (our cosmology, religion, science, philosophy etc.) which limited learning, impeded progress, and facilitated evil and harmful behaviors.

How could we have advanced believing that the earth was flat, or that it was the center of our solar system? And now, because of unprecedented anthropogenic threats to survival of Earth life as we’ve known it, we are again urgently compelled to transcend cherished beliefs about our perceived (three dimensional) illusionary “reality”.

Refusing Ruling Class Exploitation

Human societies have mostly been undemocratically governed by self-proclaimed elite rulers. But for eons our earthly human societies have been secretly dominated and energetically exploited by psychopathic “leaders” representing a few unimaginably malevolent and unknown astral “rulers”.

Thus, until now we’ve lived unaware of our existence in addictive codependent relationships with our “leaders” and “rulers”, which relationships are parasitically exploitive and dysfunctional. And so far this tiny ruling class has cleverly and selfishly used their understanding of our subliminal Oneness with Source (and all other perceived energy forms) to successfully exploit us.

Currently, using controlled mainstream media of mass deception, they have subliminally “brainwashed”, indoctrinated, and inculcated most of humanity into erroneously and fearfully accepting parasitic servitude to them. Such subliminal servitude has precluded us from realizing our infinite power to fearlessly co-create elevated energetic realities, beyond all domination or exploitation, and thereby to fulfill our deepest evolutionary aspirations.

But in recent “new normal” times our ruling “leaders” have enacted immoral laws, orders and edicts which are so flagrantly outrageous that they are painfully awakening many people to our innate human rights and freedoms. Accordingly, those people are resisting and refusing to follow such insanely immoral and unlawful decrees, rather than degenerate into a locked-down Malthusian global 3D society of unprecedented and insidious human control and enslavement by a few malignant psychopaths.

Thus by their civil disobedience and adamant moral refusal to bear such insanity, a critical mass of humankind are about to be energetically uplifted to co-create a wonderful new era in human history.

Though we appear separate, we are all One with Source

“Human beings are made of body, mind and spirit.
Of these, spirit is primary, for it connects us to the source of everything,
the eternal field of consciousness.”
~ Deepak Chopra

All is a play in consciousness. All divisions are illusory.
You can know the false only. The true you must yourself be.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“You are awareness, disguised as a person.”

~ Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

Although each human is unique in apparent physical form, (like hexagonal crystalline snowflakes) we all subliminally share the same mysterious spiritual Source, which is inconceivable and indescribable. Because we are so subliminally connected we are all affected by a lack of harmony or morality anywhere in our perceived 3D “reality”. Therefore, we are awakening globally to resist immoral edicts which wickedly violate our innate human rights and freedoms.

Until now our subconscious oneness with all Earth life has permitted subliminal matrix control over our species. But growing human awareness of such Oneness with Source is paradoxically enabling us to irreversibly escape from our current codependent bondage in an imperceptible matrix “prison”.

The following quotations and explanations are about how and why we can soon escape:

Escaping from co-dependent exploitation, to co-creative realization.

“When fear becomes collective, when anger becomes collective,
it’s extremely dangerous. It is overwhelming…
The mass media and the military-industrial complex create a prison for us,
so we continue to think, see, and act in the same way…
We need the courage to express ourselves even when the majority is going in the opposite direction…
because a change of direction can happen only when there is a collective awakening…
Therefore, it is very important to say, ‘I am here!’ to those who share the same kind of insight.” 
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power

“The choice that frees or imprisons us is the choice of love or fear.
Love liberates. Fear imprisons.”
~ Gary Zukav

“Deep down, at our cores, there are only two emotions:
love and fear.
All positive emotions come from love,
all negative emotions from fear.
From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy.
From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler – When You Don’t Choose Love You Choose Fear

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” . . .
~ 1 John 4:18


Discussion: Until now parasitic lower realm entities have been able to subliminally exploit third dimension humans, only by cleverly fomenting widespread divisive beliefs, fears, anger and other negative emotions. Without such fears and emotions these evil entities can not exploit us. They cannot function in energetically loving dimensions. Fear and Love can’t coexist. And love is “contagious”.

So provoked by outrageously immoral orders and edicts, and aided by unprecedentedly propitious Earth energy cycles, we are now remembering and choosing our true Self identity as Divine LOVE, beyond comprehension, imagination or description.

And as we realize that as eternal LOVE we have nothing to fear, but fear itself, we will inevitably irreversibly escape from captured codependence to fearlessly co-create a wonderful new era in human history.

Methods which are hastening our escape from matrix imprisonment:

1) Living lovingly and gratefully

“Love Is The Law Of Life:

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. 

Love is therefore the only law of life.

He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. 

Therefore, love for love’s sake,

because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.”

~ Swami Vivekananda


“It is not joy that makes us grateful;

it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”

~ Brother David Steindl-Rast

“Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence …

For thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.”

~ Rumi


2) Becoming mindfully conscious of eternal LOVE

“By the definite science of meditation known for millenniums to the yogis and sages of India, and to Jesus,
any seeker of God can enlarge the caliber of his consciousness to omniscience to receive within himself the Universal Intelligence of God.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda

“Meditation is one of the most direct and powerful ways to awaken to who we really are and to experience happiness as a state of consciousness that already exists within us.”
~ Deepak Chopra


A focused or stilled mind is crucial to spiritual evolution. With stilled minds we access intuition and imagination, and are uplifted beyond darkness of negative emotions.
With stilled minds we telepathically ‘hear’ and follow our Sacred Heart’s message of Love.
With stilled minds we follow our heart – not our ego.
With stilled minds we instinctively reject dark “leaders” who’ve betrayed and ‘imprisoned’ us.

“The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.” 
~ Blaise Pascal

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart,

beyond the reach of proof.” 
~ Kahlil Gibran

“The way is not in the sky.
The way is in the heart.”
~ Buddha

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift,

and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honors the servant

and has forgotten the gift.” 
~ Albert Einstein


3) Practicing nonviolent Gandhian civil disobedience.

“Satyagraha means resisting untruth by truthful means”

“It is a religious duty to fight untruth.

If one remains steadfast in it in a spirit of dedication,
it always brings success.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi


Those of us who already realize how humans are being psychopathically dominated and immorally imprisoned in an invisible ‘matrix’, must now morally and truthfully act to preserve inherent human rights and protect our planet and progeny. With righteous courage, we must speak out and nonviolently disobey unlawful and immoral edicts.

4) Being the change we wish to see.

“[T]he world will not change if we don’t change.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

“If we are to make progress,

we must not repeat history but make new history.

We must add to inheritance left by our ancestors.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.”
~ Buddha

“The world is a projection of our collective consciousness.
If our collective consciousness reaches that place of peace, harmony, laughter and love,
it will be a different world.”
~ Deepak Chopra


Energetically we live in a labyrinth of thoughts, intentions, feelings and behaviors which create our “reality”. “Whatever we think, do, or say, is changing this world in some way.”

Accordingly, as we prioritize our intention to mindfully radiate loving and forgiving thoughts, behaviors, and emotions we are inevitably and irreversibly elevating and enlightening our earthly “reality” beyond malevolent darkness.

5) Turning off mainstream media.

“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.”
~ Edward Bernays

“Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated
are confident they are acting on their own free will.”
~ Joseph Goebbels

“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”
~ Aldous Huxley

“All propaganda is lies, even when one is telling the truth.”
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
~ George Orwell


All mainstream information media have become propagandist instruments dishonestly dominated and controlled by our “leaders”. Whenever possible we must turn them off, even if they seem to publish information with which we agree. We must not be diverted or confused by information or speculation, which is published with insidious motives.

If we seek information (not speculation) about purported current events or history, we need to investigate non-mainstream sources, especially those which are ridiculed, slandered or censored by mainstream media – like Robert F. Kennedy’s Children’s Health Foundation. However, in reviewing such alternative information outlets we must carefully consider their facts and sources, and not assume their accuracy or credibility.

6) Mindfully recognizing that this world is a mere mental illusion

“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha


“…this separation between man and man, between nation and nation,
between earth and moon, between moon and sun.
Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery.
But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist, it is not real.”

“Your own will is all that answers prayer,
only it appears under the guise of different religious conceptions to each mind.
We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein

“What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, is an illusion.”
“Objective reality does not exist” ….
“the universe is fundamentally a gigantic … hologram.”

~ David Bohm, Quantum Physicist

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi


We now exist in a perceived relative “reality” where everything is energy (e=Mc2), and suffering is omnipresent. But enlightened mystics and scientists remind us that our “reality” and its seeming separation of perceived thought forms is merely “an optical illusion of consciousness” and that we avert suffering by “recognizing that the world is but an illusion.”

As we consciously identify our comparative “reality” as merely an illusion, we will transcend suffering from negative intentions, actions, thoughts and emotions. And thereby we’ll live with ever growing kindness, and with compassion for others who are still suffering.

Inevitably our kindness will quicken and elevate our subtle energy emanations, until we irreversibly experience our lives from higher dimensions where there is no suffering, just oneness with Source – as LOVE.

Like Gandhi and other great souls we’ll then perceive this world like a metaphoric good versus evil “movie” in which Divine Truth and Love always prevail.

7) Laughter and humor are always uplifting

“When you realize how perfect everything is

you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.”

~ Buddha

“Sing because this is a food our starving world needs.
Laugh because that is the purest sound.”

~ Hafiz

“What is soap to the body, laughter is to the soul.”

~ Yiddish Proverb

“Time spent laughing is time spent with the Gods.”

~ Japanese proverb

“I laugh when I think how I once sought paradise as a realm outside of the world of birth.
It is right in the world of birth and death that the miraculous truth is revealed.
But this is not the laughter of someone who suddenly acquires a great fortune;
neither is it the laughter of one who has won a victory.
It is, rather, the laughter of one who; after having painfully searched for something for a long time,
finds it one morning in the pocket of his coat.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh

“If a person can laugh totally, wholeheartedly, not holding anything back at all,
in that very moment something tremendous can happen
because laughter, when it is total, is absolutely egoless,
and that is the only condition in which to know God, to be egoless.”
~ Osho

“If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse.”
“That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”
~ George Carlin


Invocation

At this unprecedented turning point in modern human history,
may we mindfully recognize and intentionally radiate
truth of our common Self-identity as LOVE.

May we thereby be part of an irreversibly uplifted “critical mass” of Humankind,
which will co-create a prophesied compassionate new world,
dynamically harmonious with Nature and all life everywhere.

And so shall it be!


Namasté!

Ron Rattner

Synchronicity and Spirituality

“Synchronicity is choreographed by a great,
pervasive intelligence that lies at the heart of nature,
and is manifest in each of us through what we call the soul.”
~ Deepak Chopra, Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire
How can the divine Oneness be seen?
In beautiful forms, breathtaking wonders, awe-inspiring miracles?
The Tao is not obliged to present itself in this way.
If you are willing to be lived by it, you will
 see it everywhere,
even in the most ordinary things.

~ Lao Tzu




Synchronicities and Spirituality

Q. Why are coincidences and synchronicities in time and space noteworthy spiritual experiences?

A. Synchronicities and coincidences in time and space are noteworthy reminders of ONE Divine spiritual Reality, where there is no time or space, and where all that ever was or will be is eternally NOW.

Great mystics and scientists tell us that planet Earth’s space/time duality “reality” is a persistent mental illusion, like a mirage; that without our illusionary perceptions and egoic thoughts of separation, there no separate experiencers of separate space/time “coincidences” and “synchronicities”.

Thus, coincidences and synchronicities are like Nature’s ‘radar’ signals’ reminding us that: “Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.” and that “space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think.” [Albert Einstein]

Therefore, synchronicities and coincidences in space and time are noteworthy spiritual experiences reminding us that WE ARE ONE; that in Reality we are inseparable from Nature and eternal Divine Source.


Ron’s discussion of “Synchronicity and Spirituality”

Dear Friends,

In 1992 my beloved Guruji, Sri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, asked that I write and publish spiritual memoirs to “inspire many people.“ To honor that request, in 2010 I launched SillySutras.com, with “Ron’s Memoirs” as most important and tab-highlighted website category.

Also, similarly tab-highlighted is the “Synchronicity” category, because I’ve realized that my life has been guided by synchronicities, which I now notice with amazing frequency. [“Synchronicity” postings include definitions and explanations, followed by many of my favorite synchronicity stories.]

I’ve realized the spiritual importance of synchronicities, not only from my own experiences but from those of others. Many people commonly experience and wonder about synchronicities because they can’t be explained rationally or statistically. So that opens us to consider their possible spiritual or psychical causes.



For reasons explained in numerous posts on SillySutras.com I have concluded that synchronicities are signs of subtle and ordinarily imperceptible dimensions into which we are inevitably evolving, individually and collectively.



So I regard synchronicities as significant spiritual experiences, impelling us to question skeptics and mainstream materialist scientists who fail to recognize overwhelming empirical evidence that consciousness and mind are independent of physical bodies; that our physical bodies and brains are not originators of consciousness and mind, but their receptors, tuners and transducers.



Thus according to scientifically trained Dr. Deepak Chopra:

“Synchronicity is choreographed by a great,
pervasive intelligence that lies at the heart of nature,
and is manifest in each of us through what we call the soul.”
~ Deepak Chopra, Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire


Especially if you have ever wondered about ‘miraculous’ synchronicities or coincidences in your life, I hope that you’ll find this post helpful in your further reflections on their spiritual significance.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner