you are the universe

When you recognize that you are the entire universe what is there to do?
Where can you possibly go?
It's all within you.
Everything is within you, everything.
Why not accept this for yourself?
Your needs will be fulfilled of their own accord.
Everything will unfold the way it's supposed to in your life.
Give it a chance.
It is when you are peaceful that things resolve themselves in the right way for the good of all concerned.
When you are at total peace with yourself.
You are the power, the totality of everything.
Accept this about yourself.

~ Robert Adams

Kuan Yin’s Prayer for the Abuser

Kuan Yin’s Prayer for the Abuser

To those who withhold refuge, 
I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being. 
To those that cause a child to cry out, 
I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.
 To those that inflict terror,
I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.
To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,
I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.
To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,
I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.
To those who cling and grasp,
I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.
 To those who vent their rage on small children,
I return to you your deepest innocence.
To those who must frighten into submission,
I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.
To those who cause agony to others,
I give the gift of free flowing tears.
To those that deny another's right to be,
I remind you that the angels sang in celebration of you on the day of your birth.
To those who see only division and separateness,
I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.
For those who have forgotten the tender mercy of a mother's embrace,
I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.
To those who still feel somehow incomplete,
I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.

rebirth

I remember a conversation, I once had, with a Jain woman on rebirth. She said that according to her religion, the soul can take another form after centuries or just after death, depending on its karma. The soul can even reincarnate as a maggot feeding on the body it had just discarded. My initial reaction to this was one of revulsion. But then thinking of it, I find in this a wonderful example of transience. Of universality. For the soul, no form is high or low, good or bad. Its all about taking a form and experiencing.

The body I now occupy can become food for someone. Possibly, even for me in another form. This thought hits at the core of the illusion or Maya. And that is why maybe I felt the initial shiver of repulsion. Maya's way of telling me to stay away from such thoughts! Or else I will get too close to the truth.

Hospice cities

Yesterday, a doctor who works in palliative care, said to me that much care is taken while bringing a new life into the world and the same care needs to be shown when someone is leaving the world. I found this touching, as many times, I have heard that working with the dying is not fruitful or rewarding as it is akin to 'watering of dying plants'. I also heard, yesterday, of 'hospice cities' in India. Banaras, Gaya, Puri are some, where people go to die.The spiritual ambience and accompaniment of others who are facing their end, gives peace and solace in last days.I wonder, whether such cities exist anywhere else in the world.