Yoga, stillness, clarity, Joseph Campbell quote...

"Just try this some time. Take into your mind an image––somebody that you care for, some image that you would care to contemplate––and try to hold this image still in your mind. You will find that you are immediately thinking of other images, associated with the first; for the mind continues spontaneously to move. Yoga is the intentional stopping of this spontaneous activity of the mind stuff. It is an intentional bringing to rest of this continuous action. "But why should one wish to do this? "A favorite simile used in Indian discussions of this is that of the surface of a pond with its waves in action––a wind blowing over the pond and the waves moving. If you look at the surface of a pond moving in this way you will see the many reflections––many broken forms; nothing will be perfect, nothing complete; you will have only broken images before you. But if the wind dies down and the waters become perfectly still and clear, suddenly the whole perspective shifts and you are not seeing a lot of broken images, reflecting things round about. You are looking down through the clear water to the lovely sandy bottom, and perhaps you will see fish in the water. The whole perspective changes and you behold, not a multitude of broken images, but a single, still, unmoving image. "This is the idea of yoga. The notion is that what we see when we look around, like this, are the broken images of a perfect form. And what is that form? It is the form of a divine reality, which appears to us only in broken images when our mind stuff is in action."

Recognize the positive values in the negative moments... Suki, 23rd psalm, Venkman, negative reinforcement on ESP ability.

“It’s important to live life with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of its mystery and of your own mystery. This gives life a new radiance, a new harmony, a new splendor. Thinking in mythological terms helps to put you in accord with the inevitables of this vale of tears. You learn to recognize the positive values in what appear to be the negative moments and aspects of your life. The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure." Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth

Romney and 47% comments historical perspective...

"The notion that ones economic fortunes were connected with ones character ones hard work, ones thrift, ones persistence and dependability ran strong in the American bloodstream throughout the nineteenth century. The theme had its origins partly in the old Calvinist idea that good economic fortunes were a sign of Gods favor, a visible symbol of belonging to the elect. It was also an outgrowth of individual experience, since many, like Lincoln, found that hard work did enable them to get ahead. But with the dawn of the Gilded Age, this belief was transmuted from Lincolns message of hope into a verdict of condemnation. It became a rationale for blaming laborers for their desperation and condemning the working poor for their very poverty. Meanwhile, any government effort to intervene on workers behalf was to be fiercely resisted as a violation of natural law. Proposals for legislation to mandate an eight-hour workday threatened the very foundation of civilization. Even laws forbidding child labor were anathema. Godkin editorialized against a proposal for a New York state constitutional amendment forbidding employment in factories of children under ten. The government, wrote Godkin, might as well tell us what to eat, drink, avoid, hope, fear, and believe." Garfinkle, Norton. American Dream vs. the Gospel of Wealth : The Fight for a Productive Middle-Class Economy. New Haven, CT, USA: Yale University Press, 2006. p 67. From the dawn of the Gilded Age. The 8 hour workday, the minimum wage. I wonder if it would be okay to increase the minimum wage by 3 or 4 dollars per hour. Then some low paid minimum wage earning full-time workers would actually make enough money not to be "takers" and would have to pay some taxes, would earn enough to pay some taxes! As if those who make minimum wage working full time and pay no taxes aren't giving society and the company they work for some service and profit!!!!

It is never late to ask yourself “Am I ready to change my life, am I ready to change myself?”. However old we are, whatever we went through, it is always possible to reborn. If each day is a copy of the last one, what a pity! Every breath is a chance to reborn. But to reborn into a new life, you have to die before dying.

Rumi

Rumi and Joyce Meyer

"Nothing should stand between yourself and God. Not imims, priests, rabbis, or any other custodians of moral or religious leadership. Not spiritual masters, not even your faith. Believe in your values and your rules, but never lord them over others. If you keep breaking other people’s hearts, whatever religious duty you perform is no good. Stay away from all sorts of idolatry, for they will blur your vision. Let God and only God be your guide. Learn the Truth, my friend, but be careful not to make a fetish out of your truths."
RUMI

Your real life is the life that's IN you. It’s not your circumstances, the kind of job you have or how much money you have.
Joyce Meyer Ministries

"The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man. The objective world remains what it was, but, because of a shift of emphasis within the subject, is beheld as though transformed. Where formerly life and death contended, now enduring being is made manifest - as indifferent to the accidents of time as water boiling in a pot is to the destiny of a bubble, or as the cosmos to the appearance and disappearance of a galaxy of stars."

Joseph Campbell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces

Everyday - develop, expand, achieve, benefit.

Everyday, think as you wake up, ‘today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.’ - Dalai Lama