Posts Tagged ‘Paramhansa Yogananda’
Everyday Thoughts For Thanksgiving
“To be a presence of perpetual thanksgiving may be the ultimate goal of life.
The thankful person is the one for whom life is simply one long exercise in the sacred.”
~ Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB from The Psalms: Meditations for Every Day of the Year
“Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence …
For thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.”
~ Rumi
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
but the parent of all others.”
~ Cicero
Ron’s Introduction to “Everyday Thoughts For Thanksgiving”
Dear Friends,
For everyone’s Thanksgiving happiness every day, I’m again publishing the following perennial wisdom quotations about thankfulness.
Thanksgiving became my favorite holiday long ago, when I realized that thankfulness is a universal blessing uplifting everyone everywhere, regardless of their cultural, spiritual, secular or religious attitudes or beliefs.
Now at age ninety one, I’m unspeakably grateful for still being alive, aware, ambulatory and interdependently-independent – especially since miraculously surviving a deadly taxi rundown nine years ago. Thus, I’ve learned that continual thankfulness is a state of Divine Grace – that every day’s a bonus, and every breath a blessing, not just during Thanksgiving holidays, but always!
May every day be a day of Thanksgiving, for everyone everywhere.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Everyday Thoughts For Thanksgiving
“Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
~ Rumi
“Join me in the pure atmosphere of gratitude for life.
Join my eyes and soul in their divine applause.”
~ Hafiz
“You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy.”
~ Buddha
“It is not joy that makes us grateful;
it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you,
it will be enough.”
~ Meister Eckhart
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends,
the old and the new.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”
~ Buddha
“I thank God for my handicaps for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.”
~ Helen Keller
“O Lord, who lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”
~ William Shakespeare
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
~ Albert Einstein
”A grateful mind is a great mind,
which eventually attracts to itself great things.”
~ Plato
“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.”
~ Aesop
”Gratitude bestows reverence,
allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies,
those transcendent moments of awe
that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
~ John Milton
“I am grateful for what I am and have.
My thanksgiving is perpetual.
It is surprising how contented one can be
with – only a sense of existence.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
“Gratitude is heaven itself.”
~ William Blake
“No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.”
~ John Greenleaf Whittier
“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”
~ Psalm 100
“When you allow your heart to open to the universe’s flow of love, gratitude comes with that flow. Gratitude for the people that you love, and for those who share your life. Gratitude for the Creation of the beautiful Earth as our home in this great cosmos. Gratitude for the Sun that gives us life. Gratitude for being alive, for just existing, for being in the flow of the wonder of life.”
~ Owen Waters
“Gratitude flows unimpeded from an open heart. When you allow it, gratitude will flow as freely as the sunshine, unobstructed by judgments or conditions.”
~ Owen Waters
“Every day should be a day of Thanksgiving for all the gifts of Life — sunshine, water, the luscious fruits and greens,
which we receive as indirect gifts from the Great Giver.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us – and He has given us everything.
Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God.
For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.”
~ Thomas Merton
“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful
and has nobody to thank.”
~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti
I thank you God for most this amazing day
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky,
and for everything which is natural
which is infinite
which is yes….
I who have died am alive again today
and this is the sun’s birthday;
this is the birth day of life and of love and wings…
~ e. e. cummings
“When we develop a right attitude of compassion and gratitude,
we take a giant step towards solving our personal and international problems.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
It’s not our longitude
Or our latitude,
But the elevation of our attitude,
That brings beatitude.
***
So an attitude of gratitude
Brings beatitude.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Remember with gratitude,
Life is beatitude –
Even its sorrows and pain;
For we’re all in God’s Grace,
Every time, every place, and
Forever (S)HE will reign!
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Dedication
The foregoing quotations and thoughts For Thanksgiving are dedicated to encouraging, inspiring and guiding us to enjoy ever growing gratitude, on Thanksgiving holidays and every day.
May every day be a Thanksgiving day for everyone everywhere.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Happy Thanksgiving Day – Every Day!
Enjoy! – Beautiful Gratitude Video
Narrated by Brother David Steindl-Rast, a now 97-year-old Benedictine monk
Awakening as LOVE, Till the end of time
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“Be thankful for everything at all times.
Realize that all power to think,
and speak, and act comes from God.
And that S/He is with you now, guiding and inspiring you.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“Be thankful for everything at all times.
Realize that all power to think,
and speak, and act comes from God.
And that S/He is with you now, guiding and inspiring you.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Awakening as LOVE, Till the end of time
~ Ron’s Memoirs
Dear Friends,
At age ninety, on November 8th, 2022, I became the longest lived male member of my Rattner surname Ukrainian Jewish lineage. All other Rattner men died in their 70’s, except for my father and maternal grandfather who lived until 89.
But my family’s Ukrainian Rattner women, have lived much longer than the men. And I’ve discovered that Mother/Father/God always controls our 3D experiment in time. That our illusionary perceived earth-life separation from ONE LOVE never happened. So we’ve nothing to fear – EVER.
Also, I’ve optimistically learned that our earthly experiment in time is soon ending, as a “critical mass” of human souls imminently awakens from eons of matrix thralldom by evil entities, which cannot survive in energy realms beyond illusionary fearful lower realm space/time separation.
Family History
In the mid-1950’s, at age 41, my dear Mother Sue had two serious heart attacks, and a cardiologist then predicted she’d soon die. She didn’t die as predicted, but with God’s Grace she lived until Thanksgiving day 2007, a few weeks before her 100th birthday in January, 2008. This helped me realize that God’s in charge of our lives, not expert doctors.
And despite a very difficult life history, my Mother’s youngest sister Florence is still living gratefully and independently with sharp mental acuity at age 106, in a Los Angeles senior care facility where the majority of other elderly residents are senile.
My life experience helps explain why I NOW optimistically anticipate that our thought-formed separate 3D Earth-world of fears and sufferings is neither appropriately chosen by Humankind, nor Divinely planned. That Mother/Father/God will soon honor Nature to preserve it, rather than cataclysmically end Earth-life as we’ve known it.
Previous Memoirs
In recent memoirs, I’ve demonstrated how music communicates deep feelings of instinctive perennial wisdom beyond words. Until now I’ve focussed on traditional Jewish musical themes, of Kol Nidré and Sunrise Sunset.
But historically societies which honor all their artists, whether musical, visual, literary, theatrical, photographic, or other arts, enjoy loving energies beyond separate fearful evil-entity lower realms.
So in this memoirs chapter, I’m optimistically demonstrating the importance of honoring all art and artists until we gratefully Awaken as ONE LOVE beyond time.
In 1945 the timeless music of Frederic Chopin’s Polonaise No.6, in A Flat-Major, Op. 53, was set to words titled “TILL THE END OF TIME”, by lyricist Buddy Kaye.
To show how all musical art communicates deep feelings of instinctive perennial wisdom beyond words, I’m hereafter cantorially singing edited lyrics from “Till the End of Time”. Please enjoy and listen with an open heart.
Ron’s recitation of “Till the end of time”
Till the end of time
Till the end of time,
Long as stars are in the blue,
Long as there’s a spring, a bird to sing,
I’ll go on loving you.
Till the end of time,
Long as roses bloom in May,
My love for you will grow deeper,
With every passing day.
Till the wells run dry,
And each mountain disappears,
I’ll be there for you, to care for you,
Through laughter and through tears.
So, with your Heart in sweet surrender,
Tenderly Know that I’m,
The ONE LOVE you’ve lived for,
Till the end of time . .
Till the end of time.
Dedication
May these memoirs ever honor
ONE DIVINE LOVE
“Till the end of time”;
While we remember through all artists
that until then, nothing else is possible;
So there’s nothing to fear – EVER.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Go For The “God” Spot
“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
~ Dr. Seuss
“The greatest discovery of any generation
is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering the attitudes of their minds.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“It’s not our longitude
Or our latitude,
But the elevation of our attitude,
That brings beatitude.”
“So an attitude of gratitude
Brings beatitude.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing:
the last of the human freedoms –
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.”
~ Viktor Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning
“The mind is like an elastic band.
The more you pull, the more it stretches.
Every time you feel limitations,
close your eyes and say to yourself,
“I am the Infinite,”
and you will see what power you have.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Go For The “God” Spot
Introduction
Dear Friends,
Today – as a Halloween “trick or treat” – I’ve posted below Go For The “God” Spot, a whimsical sutra-poem with mp3 recitation, and the above quotations about discovering and choosing happiness within.
They are explained in my comments below about choosing happiness.
Like most SillySutras postings Go For The “God” Spot, is dedicated to helping us find ever greater inner happiness no matter what our outer circumstances may be.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Go For The “God” Spot
Don’t complain
about your pain,
Or of what you have,
or have not.
Just get into your brain,
and find the spot
Where all you want –
you’ve got.
Ron’s audio recitation of Go For The “God” Spot
Ron’s Reflections on Choosing Happiness
Dear Friends,
Today – as a Halloween “trick or treat” – I’ve posted for your enjoyment and edification the above “Go For The “God” Spot” whimsical poem, and quotations about discovering and choosing happiness within.
At almost age ninety, I’ve found ever increasing happiness by more and more accepting each moment with the attitude that it could not be otherwise. As explained by Eckhart Tolle:
“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.”
Albert Schweitzer once proclaimed that
“The greatest discovery of any generation
is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering the attitudes of their minds.”
We may not be free to choose our outer circumstances in life. But, while self identifying as separate entities, we can choose our attitudes and thoughts about those circumstances.
So happiness is a choice!
Because choosing happiness has greatly helped me, I’ve often tried to share this insight on SillySutras.com, with apt aphorisms, essays, quotations, and stories that might help everyone.
So today’s whimsical Go For The “God” Spot poem is intended to humorously help us find and choose inner happiness.
May we see it as truth said in jest; not as a Halloween trick, but as a timeless treat.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Different Person, Different Path
Q. “Sir, shall I ever leave the spiritual path?”
A. “How could you?
Everyone in the world is on the spiritual path.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Q. “What is the path?”
A. “Everyday life is the path.”
~ Zen Master Nansen
“The spiritual path –
is simply the journey of living our lives.
Everyone is on a spiritual path;
most people just don’t know it.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“Overcoming negative tendencies
and enhancing positive potential
are the very essence of the spiritual path.”
~ Dalai Lama
“When I let go of what [I believe] I am,
I become what I might be.”
~ Lao Tzu
“Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.”
~ Shirdi Sai Baba
“Each person’s life – each lifeform,
in fact – represents a world,
a unique way in which the universe experiences itself.
And when your form dissolves,
a world comes to an end –
one of countless worlds.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
At bottom every man knows well enough
that he is a unique being,
only once on this earth;
and by no extraordinary chance
will such a marvelously picturesque
piece of diversity in unity as he is,
ever be put together a second time.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“Today you are You,
that is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is Youer than You.”
~ Dr. Seuss
Introduction to “Different Person, Different Path”
Dear Friends,
“Different Person, Different Path” is an essay-poem (with oral recitation) about perennial principles intended to help us respect and accept all other humans as Divine spiritual siblings, each following a unique ‘spiritual path’ to ultimate Self Realization of our common inner Divinity.
Also to realize that (through mistaken illusory perception-projection) we continuously appear and reappear as supposedly separate ‘players’ in differing ‘roles’ on the world’s ‘stage’, in an endless Divine process and play in and of Cosmic consciousness, until we realize our true Universal non-duality Self-identity as Eternal LOVE.
The essay’s principles (with above quotations and explanatory comments below) are especially important in current unprecedentedly troubled times, when a majority of humans are fearful and polarized by earthly illusions, which they can transcend spiritually.
To help each other and the world, please enjoy and intuitively reflect upon these writings.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Different Person, Different Path
No two people experience identical perceptions
or states of consciousness;
Each one’s awareness
is mediated and limited by a unique body/mind;
And each person’s consciousness state
is ever changing and unique.
Beyond each individuated body/mind, is
Unlimited Awareness – Cosmic Consciousness – Infinite Potentiality.
But, body/mind consciousness is
localized and limited, and uniquely experienced.
Purpose of body/mind
is transformation of human consciousness,
which is collectively and individually
created by our thoughts.
Since each body/mind is unique,
each person’s transformational path is also unique.
Different person, different path.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Different Person, Different Path”
Ron’s Comments on “Different Person, Different Path”
Dear Friends,
The foregoing essay-poem and quotations concern perennial wisdom principles about spiritual paths. Unlike earthly paths, spiritual paths do not lead to space/time destinations, but to experiencing and ultimately transcending karmic limitations which are unique to each person.
As each human soul evolves, it repeatedly incarnates into distinct body/minds, to experience and to learn from the effects of its unique karmic causal history. (Like snowflake crystals, not even identical twins are exactly the same.)
Upon incarnation as human body/mind lifeforms we experience ‘amnesia’ about our true spiritual Self-identity. Then, perceiving and believing ourselves to be separate from each other and Nature, we mistakenly identify, think and behave as separate entities, and thereby become subject to the universal law of cause and effect – karma.
Whereupon each soul becomes ‘encapsulated’ and ‘entangled’ in a self-woven “karmic cocoon” attributable to its unique behaviors – through which we inevitably experience personal and world sufferings.
Spiritual transcendence of our mistaken earthly illusions of being separate from each other and Nature is especially important in current unprecedentedly troubled times, because a majority of humans worldwide are polarized and fearful of death, disease and/or deprivation of necessities and God-given rights.
Thus, this posting is dedicated to our helping each other and the world advance toward achievement of such transcendence with our loving emotions and behaviors.
Invocation.
May we transcend such sufferings,
as we learn to forgive and accept ourselves
and all other humans
as Divine but fallible spiritual siblings;
as children of Eternal LOVE.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
Close Out Your ‘Karma Card’ Accounts
“Karma is a cosmic incentive system.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“The Book of Life is a karmic comic book.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Every action, every thought, reaps its own corresponding rewards. Human suffering is not a sign of God’s, or Nature’s, anger with mankind. It is a sign, rather, of man’s ignorance of divine law. . . .
Such is the law of karma: As you sow, so shall you reap. If you sow evil, you will reap evil in the form of suffering. And if you sow goodness, you will reap goodness in the form of inner joy.”
~ Paramhansa Yogananda
“It is true that we are not bound. That is to say, the real Self has no bondage. And it is true that you will eventually return to your Source. But meanwhile, if you commit sins, as you call them, you have to face the consequences. You cannot escape them.”
~ Ramana Maharshi
“Clear your past, to live as presence.
Clear your karma, to live your dharma.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma,
nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.”
~ Bodhidharma
Introduction
Dear Friends,
We are living in difficult times, with many people enduring much suffering.
In such hard times, laughter and levity always help. Also, truth said in jest can help us understand and remember previously unknown ways to transcend suffering.
So the following “Close Out Your ‘Karma Card’ Accounts” whimsical sutra-poem is about suffering from karma, a spiritually significant subject that many people don’t yet consider or comprehend.
As hereafter explained, it is dedicated to helping us transcend inevitable cause and effect suffering from the earthly illusion of duality.
And so may it be,
Ron Rattner
Close Out Your ‘Karma Card’ Accounts
Coming from subtle planes to Earth
(the plane of space/time and causation)
the soul dons an “earth suit” – a human body/mind –
as its vehicle to explore this realm.
Each such vehicle comes equipped with
a revolving “karma card” account.
The object of the visit is to clear all “karma card” debits,
without incurring new ones.
Until we close out all our “karma card” accounts,
our visits to Earth become endless revolving round trips
repeated in a different vehicle for each trip.
So, we’re here to try closing out
all our “karma card” accounts.
Ron’s Karmic Commentary:
Dear Friends,
Karma is the subtle spiritual manifestation of Newton’s Third Law of Motion, that for every physical action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is a natural tendency which governs all space/time interactions including those on on subtle or spiritual planes, where we ‘reap as we sow’.
Thus, for every space/time thought, word or deed – there is also an equivalent and opposite reaction on subtle or spiritual planes. So karma can be seen as “a cosmic incentive system”, of cause and effect.
As explained by Paramhansa Yogananda: “Every action, every thought, reaps its own corresponding rewards” – either joy or suffering.
Hence, knowing the law of karma can encourage us to do good and be good – even if initially we are motivated by what the Dalai Lama has called ‘enlightened selfishness’. Yogis say that by selflessly doing good we can transcend inevitable suffering from identification with this physical world, which they see as unreal illusion – maya or samsara.
But, as Swami Yogananda observed, “those who cling to the cosmic illusion must accept its essential law of polarity: flow and ebb, rise and fall, day and night, pleasure and pain, good and evil, birth and death.”
So to help us transcend suffering from the illusion of polarity, I sincerely invite your mindful consideration of the foregoing whimsical sutra-poem verses about karma.
May they help us sow ever more loving-kindness and compassion, bringing everyone everywhere ever more worldly happiness and fulfillment, until ultimately we reap eternal joy.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Ron’s audio explanation and recitation of Close Out Your ‘Karma Card’ Accounts
Pursuit of Happiness
~ Quotations
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life,
the whole aim and end of human existence”
~ Aristotle
“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”
~ Chuang-Tzu
“All happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy.”
~ Shantideva
“Seek first the kingdom of heaven,
which is within.”
~ Matthew 6:33; Luke 17:20-21
Introduction.
Dear Friends,
Everyone wants lasting happiness; no-one wants to suffer. For millennia great mystics have revealed that ever abiding Happiness is our true inner nature – our Self. So how do we discover and experience such Happiness?
This posting is a carefully selected collection of wisdom quotations about the Pursuit of Happiness which reveal perennial insights to the fundamental happiness goal of every human being – whether or not they knowingly follow an enduring religious, spiritual, or ethical path or principle.
These Pursuit of Happiness quotations follow my recent posting about why everyone wants happiness, which suggested that incarnation is limitation and that lasting happiness can only be found in transcendence of ego and merger with Source, after eons of inner evolution with ever elevated heart levels of awareness.
Today’s quotations provide pragmatic insights into ways which can help everyone experience increasing happiness as we evolve beyond ego to Self-identification as Eternal spirit, rather than as mere mortal bodies and their stories. They can help each of us from our unique perspectives find our most suitable path to lasting happiness.
Because we’re each unique with ever fluctuating enegies and unique evolutionary perspectives, different ‘pursuit of happiness’ quotations may apply to different people, concurrently or at different times. Therefore, as you carefully consider these quotations, please follow your heart to determine which ones and when they may apply to your unique perspectives.
Namasté!
Ron Rattner
Pursuit of Happiness ~ Quotations
We hold these truths to be self evident:
that all men are created equal:
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Declaration of Independence
“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…”
~ Dalai Lama
“From the moment of birth every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
~ Dalai Lama
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
“Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Material progress and a higher standard of living bring us greater comfort and health, but do not lead to a transformation of the mind, which is the only thing capable of providing lasting peace. Profound happiness, unlike fleeting pleasures, is spiritual in nature. It depends on the happiness of others and it is based on love and affection.”
~ Dalai Lama
“Those who are not looking for happiness
are the most likely to find it,
because those who are searching forget that
the surest way to be happy
is to seek happiness for others.”
~ Martin Luther King,Jr.
“Joy comes not through possession or ownership
but through a wise and loving heart.”
“If one speaks or acts with a pure mind,
happiness follows like a shadow.”
~ Buddha
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold,
happiness dwells in the soul.”
~ Democritus
“The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more,
but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”
~ Socrates
“Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.”
~ Aristotle
“The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live
that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”
~ Epictetus
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;
remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
~ Epicurus
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
“Very little is needed to make a happy life;
it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
“Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!”
~ Rumi
“There is only one way to happiness
and that is to cease worrying about things
which are beyond the power of our will.”
~ Epictetus
“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
“If you want to be sad, no one in the world can make you happy.
But if you make up your mind to be happy,
no one and nothing on earth can take that happiness from you.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains.
Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun,
go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God.
Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you,
and be happy.”
~ Anne Frank
“Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them.
You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature.
Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain.
Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase;
if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”
~ C. P. Snow
“Don’t seek happiness. If you seek it, you won’t find it, because seeking is the antithesis of happiness. Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is attainable now, by facing what is, rather than making up stories about it. Unhappiness covers up your natural state of wellbeing and inner peace, the source of true happiness.”
~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth
“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
“I am a happy camper so I guess I’m doing something right.
Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you,
but if you turn your attention to other things,
it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
“Fame or integrity: which is more important?
Money or happiness: which is more valuable?
Success or failure: which is more destructive?
If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled.
If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself.
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
~ Lao Tzu
“In the pursuit of learning every day something is gained.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.”
~ Lao Tzu
“What is the worth of a happiness for which you must strive and work?
Real happiness is spontaneous and effortless.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
“True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away.
Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably.
Happiness comes from the Self and can be found in the Self only.
Find your real Self and all else will come with it.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it.
What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi
“I am happy even before I have a reason.”
~ Hafiz
The word “happiness” would lose its meaning
if it were not balanced by sadness.
~ Carl Jung
“The root of joy is gratefulness…
We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands.
For it is not joy that makes us grateful;
it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast
Spiritual Psychotherapy
“It is no measure of health
to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
~ J. Krishnamurti
“The ego is a psychological prison
in which suffering is inevitable.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Be empty of worrying,
Think of Who Created Thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?”
~ Rumi
“You were born with wings.
Why prefer to crawl through life?”
~ Rumi
“The world is a prison and we are the prisoners:
Dig a hole in the prison and let yourself out!”
~ Rumi
“Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?”
~ Rumi
“You have been a prisoner of a little pond,
I am the ocean and its turbulent flood.
Come merge with me, leave this world of ignorance.
Be with me, I will open the gate to your love.”
~ Rumi
“I long to escape the prison of my ego
and lose myself in you.”
~ Rumi
“The foundation of the Buddha’s teachings lies in compassion,
and the reason for practicing the teachings
is to wipe out the persistence of ego,
the number-one enemy of compassion.”
~ H.H. Dalai Lama
Spiritual Psychotherapy
The ego is a psychological prison
in which suffering is inevitable.
Secular psychology attempts to alleviate that suffering.
Spiritual psychotherapy aims at ending our imprisonment.
Ron’s comments about “Spiritual Psychotherapy”
Dear Friends,
The foregoing quotations and sutras epigrammatically express my post-awakening perspectives about secular versus spiritual psychotherapies.
We live in an age of mental malaise – in an extremely stressful, disharmonious and crazy world, with widespread psychological suffering, individually and societally.
From a spiritual perspective this entire space/time world and all its disharmonies and sufferings originate mentally, and can only be healed by lovingly clearing egotistically agitated human minds, with opened hearts:
“The mind is nature’s incinerator wherein you can burn to ashes all mental dross that is not worthy to be saved: your waste thoughts and desires, your misconceptions and grievances, and your discords in human relationships. There is not a single relationship, however estranged, you cannot reconcile, provided you do so first in your own mind. There is not a single problem in life you cannot resolve, provided you first solve it in your inner world, its place of origin. . . . A harmonized mind produces harmony in this world of seeming discord.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda – Journey To Self-Realization: Collected Talks And Essays On Realizing God In Daily Life
“We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. . . . a kind of prison for us. . . Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
~ Albert Einstein (edited excisions)
‘All that we are arises with our thoughts [which] make the world. But the world and its treasures are an illusion – like an alluring mirage. So to escape suffering we must recognize that illusion, and not act [egotistically] as if the world is real.’
~ Buddha (edited)
Spiritually, “ego” is our mistaken mental identification with, and reification of, this illusory world of separation from Nature. Thus the foregoing Spiritual Psychotherapy sutra metaphorically describes “ego” as “a psychological prison in which suffering is inevitable.”
So psychotherapies aimed at transcending all egotistic sufferings are defined as spiritual and preferable.
May these Spiritual Psychotherapy concepts and foregoing quotations hasten our spiritual healing process, freeing us from subconscious psychological imprisonment, as we harmoniously uncover and discover our Wholeness, Holiness, SELF!
And as we transcend our “optical delusion” of imagined separation from each other and Nature, may we thereby help heal the world for everyone and everything everywhere.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Human Body – A Precious ‘Prison’?
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“A yogi’s body is like a baby’s body.”
~ Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
“Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become supple as a newborn child’s?
Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?
Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.”
~ Lao Tzu – Tao Te Ching – Chapter 10, Translated by Stephen Mitchell
“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.”
“To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear.”
~ Buddha
“The first preliminary practice consists of recognizing and giving value in its right measure to the precious human existence and the extraordinary opportunity that it gives to us to practice Dharma and to develop spiritually. It is naive to expect that such a favorable juncture will repeat continuously. Moreover, life is too short. ….If we bear in mind all these things, we will soon realize the need to take advantage of the opportunity that the precious human existence gives us to fully develop all the potential of our being.”
~ Kalu Rinpoche – Foundations of Tibetan Buddhism
Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas
Human Body – A Precious ‘Prison’?
Eastern spiritual paths identify human incarnation as an extraordinarily precious opportunity to evolve – beyond that of any other life-form; Buddhist and Hindu teachings say that for enlightenment it is better to be born human than even in a heavenly realm.
Before my mid-life spiritual awakening, I self-identified only with my body/mind and its story. Though I cherished my health, I was totally unaware of esoteric evolutionary perspectives about preciousness of human incarnation. But, since realizing that I was and am much more than my body and its story, I have deeply reflected on the significance and purpose of a human lifetime.
My 1976 realization that I was not my body or its thoughts, but pure awareness, followed a prior out of body experience [OOB] and sparked an amazingly intense ‘rebirth’ process, with convulsive crying, hyperventilation and spasmodic bodily movements. Immediately after that realization/rebirth process I briefly experienced myself not as pure consciousness but as meridians of flowing life-force energy, like those corresponding to ancient Chinese acupuncture teachings. Then I soon returned to “normal” bodily consciousness, but with greatly enhanced vital energies which continued for several months.
Thereafter, with great curiosity sparked by these new experiences, I began wondering about the nature and importance of the human body. And, synchronistically, I gradually learned with interest about body-work disciplines like massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathic, and various mind-body bio-energetic therapies. All these therapies aimed to stimulate or release flow of ‘trapped’ or blocked life-force energies.
I realized that my intense rebirth experience had temporarily released for me a previously unimaginable flow of vital energies (chi or prana), which gradually had abated as I returned to ‘normal’ consciousness. So, I became highly motivated to again access that hidden reservoir of vital energy. Thus, before meeting Guruji I had received chiropractic manipulations and had several sessions with a Reichian therapist to enhance and balance vital body energies. But I had not again experienced the extraordinary vitality which immediately followed my rebirth experience.
Then, after meeting Guruji and observing his amazing physical prowess, even as a centenarian, I learned that he received frequent massages from very few close disciples, which supposedly enhanced his physical well-being, while blessing those privileged disciple/masseurs who in touching his body experienced direct transmission of his extraordinarily intense and powerful cosmic life-force energy (“shakti”).
I began wondering about the relationship, if any, between Guruji’s regular massages, his extraordinary physical condition and his amazing ability to transcend ‘normal’ physical limitations. Then, while Guruji was staying at my apartment, just before his 1980 return to India, I had an unforgettable synchronistic experience with him that related to my mind/body questions.
One weekend morning when I was home from work, I was invited for the first and only time to give Guruji a massage – a rare blessing and privilege. As I began massaging Guruji’s then 100 year old body, I was astonished at its flexibility and softness.
Then, suddenly, I exclaimed in utter amazement:
“Guruji your body is so supple!”
Unforgettably, he replied:
“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.”
I became and remained intensely curious about Guruji’s revelation that my body was like a prison. I wondered how and why ‘I’ was ‘imprisoned’, and how ‘I’ could get out of ‘jail’ – free like Guruji. Was I imprisoned by body stiffness from subconsciously stored traumas? It was apparent that my body was not supple like Guruji’s body. Though half his age, I couldn’t even sit with crossed legs, much less stand on my head or perform the other advanced yogic postures (asanas) that Guruji demonstrated.
As I remembered the extraordinary vitality which temporarily followed my rebirth “peek” experience, I intuited that it was a glimpse of a potentially achievable bodily state well beyond anything I had theretofore imagined. But how could I restore that state? And even if possible, would the restoration of such a state allow me to get out of prison at will, like Guruji? That remained a mystery.
Gradually and synchronistically, I have been given insights about the bodily ‘prison’ mystery, but haven’t yet ‘solved’ it.
Most memorably, in 1982 I was profoundly moved and inspired by Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi”. There in Chapter 43, Yogananda recounts an unforgettable visit from his beloved Guru, Sri Yukteswar, who miraculously resurrected and reappeared to Yogananda in physical form a few months after his physical death. Yukteswar then explained to Yogananda the genesis of human physical, astral, and causal bodies, saying:
“The mere presence of a body signifies that its existence is made possible by unfulfilled desires.” “The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man’s slavery…”
“Physical desires are rooted in egotism and sense pleasures.”
“So long as the soul of man is encased in one, two, or three body-containers,
sealed tightly with the corks of ignorance and desires, he cannot merge with the sea of Spirit.”
~ Sri Yukteswar
(As recounted by Paramahansa Yogananda in Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 43)
Upon reading Sri Yuktewar’s words, I intuitively and reflectively accepted them as true. And I remembered that Guruji had revealed in San Francisco lectures on “Death, Dying and Beyond” that during a 1971 ‘near death experience’ he had been sent back by Lord Rama from a heavenly realm to his physical body because of his unfulfilled desires to help people.
*[See footnote]
I realized that all phenomena and forms – including human forms – that appear in this space/time reality interdependently originate in subtle energy planes pursuant to mysterious laws of causality. And I remembered that even though Guruji had evolved beyond limits of ordinary human consciousness, he had remained in a human body, but with amazing ability to transcend ordinary physical limitations, only because of his unselfish desires to help others. Whereas it was obvious that I was ‘imprisoned’ by bonds of ego desire and ignorance mentioned by Sri Yukteswar.
So, thereafter, I became highly motivated to transcend all such egotistic bonds, and to get out of ‘prison’ – free like Guruji. Expressing these aspirations, I soon wrote (or channeled) sutras and poems like these:
DOING TIME
Time is how
“I” Measure “Now”
And space’s for places
Where I’m –
Entangled here in time.
But I long to be – FREE
Where there is no “ME”-
Nowhere,
Out of time,
Beyond I’m,
Beyond hereness/thereness-
As just Awareness –
NOW!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
WISH LIST
We’ll never have all we want ’til we want just all we have;
So – topping our wish list, is our wish to be wish-less.
For ’til we stop wishing, we’ll ever be wanting.
Though at first – longing to be merged with the Divine – I fervently aspired to transcend all physical and subtle desires, I came to realize that my aspiration was in itself a subtle desire. So, intuitively I began with ever increasing heartfelt faith in universal Awareness – the Tao – to surrender to the mysterious Infinite – “to let go, and go with the flow”.
Deeply inspired by the Buddhist Bodhisattva ideal of altruistically helping all beings end their sufferings, I gradually stopped trying to transcend this world. But with ever growing gratitude I began accepting my life as a cherished evolutionary opportunity; an opportunity to be in my precious human body in a compassionate and loving way which – at subtle levels – might help all life everywhere.
And the more I have gratefully accepted my human incarnation, the greater has been my happiness and the more I have experientially and synchronistically learned from this precious human life.
Though I always cherished and appreciated good health, more than ever before I have become mindful of my bodily needs for appropriate nourishment, exercise, and rest, and have tried to satisfy those needs in a natural way. And remembering that subtle life-force energies are the genesis of every physical form or phenomenon, I have become ever more alert to my thoughts, emotions and attitudes which may influence physical well-being.
Though, unlike Guruji, I have not yet transcended subtle desires and ignorance and am still ‘imprisoned’ in my body, I aspire to emulate his wise and compassionate way of being in this world. Recently, for the first time in this life, I have even started treating my body to regular massages.
Who knows, maybe some day I’ll be able to report to you the massage that ‘sets me free’?
*Footnote
In 1971, during a terrible Gujarati draught and famine, Guruji became extremely sick and exhausted from selflessly helping people and animals. Guruji’s physical body died, and his soul traveled to the heavenly domain of his “Ishta-Devata” Lord Rama – the principal Divine form of his devotional practices. Though Guruji wished to remain forever in Rama’s indescribably loving Presence, he was told that he would have to return to his Earthly body because of his unfulfilled desires to help people, whose images were then shown to Guruji. Rama told him: “So long as there are any desires in your mind, … you must return to fulfill those desires.”
