RUMI: Telling It Like It Is
Keep walking, there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances,
That's not for human beings. Move within,
but don't move the way fear makes you move.
One day, you will take me completely out of my self,
I'll do what the angels cannot do,
Your eyelash will write on my cheek
the poem that hasn't been thought of.
Since I've been away from you,
I only know how to weep.
Like a candle melting is who I am.
Like a harp, any sound I make is music.
Happy, not from anything that happens.
Warm, not from fire or a hot bath,
Light, I register zero on a scale.
(Who remains to write the last line of this poem?)
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:36 PM | Comments (1)
VIDEO: Dearest MaharajiBeautiful images of love, devotion, and happiness. Beautiful vocals by Tim Hain. Beautiful life! We are all so lucky to be alive. We have so much to be thankful for. Count your blessings! Enjoy each breath! The past is over. The future is a dream. Now is the moment!
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A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
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October 29, 2008The Fisherman and the Banker
An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The fisherman replied, "Only a little while."
The banker then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The fisherman said, "Why bother? I now have more than enough to support my family's needs."
The banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening and spend time with my family, I have a full and busy life."
The banker scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat! With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to the capital city. After that, who knows, maybe you could take on the world!"
The fisherman asked, "How long will all of this take?"
To which the banker replied, "I'd say about 15 to 20 years."
"But what then?" asked the fisherman.
The Banker laughed, "That's the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions?...Then what?" the fisherman replied.
"Then you would retire and do whatever you want," said the banker. "What would you want to do?"
The fisherman answered: "I would sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening and spend time with my family."
Thanks to Neil Evans for submitting this wonderful story.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)
Puppet-Ji on SeeingNow you see it, now you don't. Join Puppet-Ji, world-class pundit, on the nuances of what seeing is really all about...
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October 26, 2008The Diamond Cutter's Stroke of Love
This morning, on a weekend jaunt in New York City with my wife and two kids, getting ready to go out for brunch at an overpriced West Village restaurant and obsessing about cash flow, U.S. politics, and the sound of my two kids bickering in the kitchen, I clicked on a 20 second mp3 of Maharaji.
"Listen and try to have that bond of affinity with the silence that is so simple, so precious. Try to have that relationship with the eternal. If a little rubs off on you, that's a good thing."
This is one of the amazing things about Maharaji -- his ability to cut through the Gordian Knot of my own illusion and awaken the very best of WHO I AM in just a few seconds.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2008Puppet-Ji Speaks!
Today, it is my honor to welcome a very special guest speaker to The Heart of the Matter -- a highly esteemed, cosmically conscious, beyond duality channel of peace and love. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming, the ONE, the ONLY... Puppet-Ji!
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October 23, 2008The Ten Commandments for Visiting a New Age Ashram
During the past two decades, a curious phenomenon has swept this nation. Inspired by the teachings of several Master souls from the East, an unusually large number of ashrams and retreats have made their appearance on the scene -- spiritual centers designed to provide seekers of the truth with a focused environment in which to practice their particular spiritual path.
While most people who spend time in these places are extremely dedicated and sincere, there still remains a goodly number who, in their attempt to have "an experience," miss the point completely.
Seduced by the Western notion of cause and effect, they somehow think that spiritual attainment is related to the way they act -- as if God were some kind of transcultural Santa Claus looking for good little boys and girls to bring his shiny red fire trucks to.
Not surprisingly, the spirit of the law is all too often traded for the letter -- a letter that, no matter how many stamps are put on it, is continually returned for insufficient postage. Surrender is replaced by submission; patience by hesitation; and humility by timidity.
Alas, in the name of finding themselves, our God-seeking brothers and sisters have tended to lose the very thing that makes them truly human -- their individuality.
And so, with great respect to your personal God, your Guru, your Guru's Guru, and your favorite tax-deductible charity, I humbly offer you the following soul-saving tips should you decide to visit (or move into) the ashram or spiritual center of your choice. Take what you can, leave the rest, and remember -- it's not whether your shoes are on or off, but if your heart is open.
1. Do Not Change the Way You Walk
Most visitors to a spiritual retreat think they have to change the way they walk if they are truly going to have a meaningful experience. Somehow, they believe there is a direct correlation between the way they move their feet and the amount of "grace" or "blessings" about to enter their lives. The "spiritual walk," is actually a not-too-distant cousin of the "museum walk," the curious way a person slows down and shuffles knowingly, yet humbly, past a Monet (or is it a Manet?), silently getting the essence of the Masterpiece even as they move noddingly towards that incomprehensible cubist piece in the next room.
If you like, think of the spiritual walk as the complete opposite of the on-the-way-to-work-walk or the exiting-a-disco-in-New York walk. Simply put, the spiritual walk is a way of moving that practitioners believe will attract small deer from nearby forests -- deer that will literally walk right up to them and eat from their hand -- more proof to anyone in the general vicinity that they are, in fact, enlightened souls, humble devotees, children of God, or the so-far-unacknowledged successors to their guru's lineage.
Ideally, the spiritual walk should be taken in sandals, though Reeboks or Chinese slippers will do in a pinch. Cowboy boots are definitely out, as are galoshes, high heels, and Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars.
2. Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Succumb to the Spiritual Nod
Closely related to the spiritual walk, the spiritual nod is routinely practiced in retreats the world over. And while no one completely comprehends it's divine origins, many believe it began when a blissful brother simply forgot the name of his roommate on his way to the bathroom. Instead of issuing the familiar Sanskrit phrase of the week, our trend-setting friend simply tightened his lips, looked at the ground and... well... nodded. Now, every time you walk by someone at the ashram, you are half-expected to flash them the nod, the non-verbal equivalent of "Hi! I know you know, and you know I know, and you know that I know that you know, and in my knowing, I know that I know you know, and by so knowing, need not speak, since words are finite and cannot express the knowingness which the two of us (being one) share from such a knowful place. Know what I mean?"
3. Do Not Judge Anyone, Including Yourself
This is the hardest of all commandments to obey. Why? Because spiritual environments not only bring out the best in people, they also bring out the worst. And while the worst is often more difficult to detect than the bliss of people wanting you to notice how blissful they are, the higher you get, the easier it is to notice -- that is, if you are looking for it.
Of course, it would be very easy to spend your entire spiritualized retreat noticing all the subtle ego trips going on around you. Resist this temptation with all your might! Do not, I repeat, do not, focus on the stuff that would make good material for this article. You have no right. In fact, you have absolutely no idea why anyone is there, what their motivation is, or how they will learn the kinds of lessons you are absolutely sure they need to learn.
In reality, you are most likely seeing your own projections -- those disowned parts of your self that you've refused to acknowledge all these years: your spiritual groupie, your brownie point collector, your junkie for more experience, your suburban yogi , your guilty seeker of God, your con man, your eunuch, your resolution maker, your ass watcher, your closet fanatic, your glutton for humble pie, your too poetic definer of ecstasy, your flaming bullshit artist, your know-it-all, your have-it-all, your spring-headed bower towards anyone with more than two devotees.
All of them are you! Every single one of them! Don't judge them. Love them! Bring them tea! Rub their feet every chance you get!
4. Do Not Think That This Is the Only Place Where It Is Happening
Spiritual retreatants have a marked propensity to think that the grounds they inhabit are somehow more blessed than any place else on earth -- that they are privy to a special command performance by God, revealing himself in thousands of exotic ways for those lucky enough to be there, while thousands, nay millions, of George Bush-like souls are stumbling around in uncool places recently vacated by the Power of Life so a very cosmic thing can happen here and only here this weekend.
Life, in fact, is often perceived as so good in the "Center," that the rest of the world becomes eerily cast as the "booby prize." Indeed, to new age seekers, everything else is simply referred to as "the world," much like Manhattanites speak of New Jersey. In short, the new age retreat comes to represent all that is good -- about God, about the Guru, about life itself.
Somehow ("and I don't know how, but you could ask anyone who was there this weekend") flowers seem sweeter there, the moon seems fuller, the air seems cleaner. Even the bread tastes better. If you glimpse a shooting star at night, it's the "guru's grace." If you see a double rainbow, it's directly over the meditation hall.
I guess it's all in how you look at it. The same shooting star convincing you that your guru is, in fact, the Supreme Guru, was also seen by a plumber named Leroy who just happened to be drinking a beer in between innings of the Mets game. His conclusion? The Mets were gonna win 20 of the next 25 and bring the pennant home to Flushing!
What do the signs in the sky (or what we perceive as signs) really mean? Isn't the whole world our ashram? Isn't the real issue one of appreciating what is happening all around us? The flowers? The stars? The beggars asking for spare change? Flowers aren't any sweeter on retreat. It's our willingness to breathe deeply and enjoy them that's different. What's stopping us from being in this place right now? What's stopping us from realizing that the very ground beneath our feet is the promised land -- wherever we happen to be at the time.
5. Don't Put a Red Dot on Your Forehead If You Don't Want To
Unless you've been living in a trailer park your whole life, you probably already know what the red dot thing is all about. That's right. The third eye. The sixth chakra. High holiness. INDIA!! While sometimes mistaken for a beauty mark or a random bit of watermelon, the little red dot is actually a useful reminder to focus one's attention on the space between the eyebrows, which, for some people, is where God lives (or if not lives, at least vacations). Nothing wrong with that, now is there?
Still, you have to concede that the third eye isn't the only spot on the human body that's sacred. What about the earlobes? The belly button? The nipples? They come from God, too -- not too mention chakras #1 - 5 and the highly under-represented center of consciousness at the crown of the head. Sacred, every one of them!
Don't you think that, if the body is the temple of the soul, it follows that our entire physical structure is sacred? Shouldn't we be covered from head to toe with little red dots? And if so, why is it that we routinely quarantine people with measles -- the very people who have selflessly chosen to manifest disease just to remind us to honor our body's ultimate holiness?
6. Play With the Children
The only sentient beings free from the collective mentality of spiritual seekers are the children. Children visiting "holy places," in fact, behave the same way the world over no matter what adjectives their elders use for the unspeakable name of God. When they're hungry, they eat. When they're tired, they sleep. They cry when they want to, laugh for no reason, consume ice cream without guilt, and rarely wonder why your picture of the Master is bigger, newer, or better framed.
7. Fart At Your Own Risk
If you fart, and there's no one around to hear it at the ashram, did it happen? And if it did happen, does that mean you've been disrespectful? Is the resident Guru able to hear you? And if he or she is meditating, out of the country, or dead, is their guru or their guru's guru able to hear you? And if so, so what? Will you be reborn as a gerbil? Does the Guru fart? And if it's OK for him or her to pass wind, why not you?
OK, so it's their place and you're a guest. But after all, aren't we all guests here? Even the Guru? Who do they answer to? And if it's not the same one you're answering to, what the hell are you doing getting up at five in the morning and sitting in the lotus position?
Maybe the real question isn't whether or not it's permissible to fart on holy ground, but how you fart. For instance, if you're farting out of a blatant disregard for the Master's teachings or the sincerity of his or her followers, you might want to reconsider where you're coming from. However, if your farting is just a random release of gas, relax! Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. You see, a typical visit to a spiritual center quickens one's ability to "let go" -- so what you call "farting" may, in fact, be a timely sign of your evolving spiritual condition.
8. Do Not Think You Are Higher or Lower Than Anyone Else
One of the favorite pastimes of people visiting a spiritual retreat is comparing themselves to everyone else. "See the guy over there carrying firewood? He's a very old soul -- way older than me. Been on the path for years. And that dude laughing hysterically in the corner? That's Shiva. Oops, he can probably see through me, maybe I better walk around the other way."
Want to save yourself some time? Don't try to figure out how "on the path" anybody else is. It's impossible. Stare into the eyes all you want, watch for tell-tale signs of liberation, but when it comes right down to it, the only conclusion you'll reach will be your own -- one that may have absolutely nothing to do with the anything but your own projections.
Face it, how accurate is your assessment going to be when 99 percent of humanity couldn't tell that the carpenter from Galilee had something special going for him? Indeed, it's not at all unlikely that the beer-bellied, first-time visitor you met this morning at the ashram is, at this very moment, being treated like a spiritual mongoloid by everyone who meets him (repeatedly being asked if "this is your first time") when, in fact, the beer-bellied, first-time visitor is actually the reincarnation of Buddha.
9. Do Not Think That You Are Going to Get Something
Many people visit a a spiritual retreat because they want to get something. They want "clarity" or "contentment," "enlightenment" or "grace," "blessings" or "peace of mind." At the very least, they want their business to improve or their marriage to be saved. Alas, they miss the point completely: If you try to get, you will lose, left only with the sinking feeling of having just bought $300 worth of lottery tickets only to learn that some electrician from Staten Island just won the whole thing.
Look, it's really very simple. You don't go to a spiritual center (or a Big Time Teacher, for that matter) to get. You go to give, to let go -- to relax your grip on the very thing that's been separating you from getting all these years: Your grasping. Your fear. Your well-rehearsed strategy to realize God.
10. Do Not Feel Compelled to Change Your Name
OK, so your name is Joey. Ever since you were knee high to a can of Cheese Whiz, everyone called you Joey -- as in, "Hey, Joey, what's goin' down, bro'?" Yeah, you grew up in Brooklyn, cut school once a week, and dated a chick named Angela with very big boobs. Great. So, here you are at the ashram and ba-bing, you run smack into a bunch of dudes with names like Arjuna, Govinda, Namdev,Shanti, Krishna. "Hey," you think to yourself, "maybe they got something I don't."
Guess what? They do. They have spiritual names given to them by their Guru -- names that make their mothers somewhat close-lipped around the canasta table. And while these names are clearly given with a purpose, the fact of the matter is -- they are irrelevant. Do you think the people in India who have spiritual experiences get their names changed to Eddie, Gino, Stacey, or Shirley ?
Hey, what difference does it make? You are not your name -- even if your namesake was enlightened. It doesn't matter what they call you, when it's time to go, you're gone. The only name worth knowing at that time is God's name -- and that, my friend, no matter how many mantras you've memorized, can never be pronounced.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2008Falling in Love?
There's a phrase in the English language that makes no sense to me even though I've used it hundreds of times: "Falling in love."
Falling? Really?
Certainly there must be a better way to describe one of the sweetest feelings a human being can have. Falling isn't exactly the word we associate with great experiences.
The stock market falls. The temperature falls. Civilizations fall. Adam fell from grace. Nobody in their right mind really wants to fall.
Falling is all about coming down, descending.
Love, on the other hand, is an elevation, a rising, a being uplifted.
Then again, if you stop to think about it, the phrase "falling in love" makes some sense -- because the act of falling ends in "hitting bottom."
The phenomenon is all too recognizable. You meet someone special. Your heart opens. You're flying, you're free, you're feeling no pain -- not unlike the feeling of weightlessness that comes from falling.
Eventually, however, the falling ends. You land. Hard. The object of your devotion, proves less than unconditional. Their attentions drift. Their flaws become apparent. And so begins the painful process of falling out of love.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
There IS a love that is unconditional. There is a love that only gets better with time -- a love that neither disappoints or disillusions.
Human beings have been searching for this love from the beginning of time.
That's what Maharaji talks about. And that's what he reveals to those who are truly thirst to experience it.
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October 19, 2008Love in 60 Seconds
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October 18, 2008VIDEO: The Value of a Breath
Four brief interviews with people about the value of Maharaji's gift -- and then a 4 min. video of Maharaji speaking about thirst, breath, and Knowledge.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)
October 17, 2008The One For Whom It All Makes Sense
I have written a thousand poems for you
that have never left my room.
They fill the pages of notebooks stacked high on a shelf
no one can reach.
Orphans they are, beggars afraid
they are not noble enough for the King,
would never make it past the guards.
I make a vain attempt to dress them up,
disguise their ridiculous origins,
but still they smell bad.
There are times, late at night, however,
when they think I'm asleep,
I can almost hear them talking to each other,
conjuring ways to make it to your court.
Oh, the arguments they have! The barroom brawls!
Some of them actually think a shower and a shave
is all they need.
Others insist on practicing, all night long,
the perfect way of greeting you.
There is much to be said for these backroom bards,
these arm wrestling vagrants from another world.
Indeed, if I was dead,
my ambitious biographer, after paying his respects
and asking permission of my dear, sweet wife,
would borrow them just long enough to search for pearls
and find the perfect turn of phrase, the verse,
the sudden storm of brilliance
even my harshest critics would have to praise.
He'd think of clever titles for the tome,
describing, in his carefully written way,
the "man who left his muse too soon"
or some such thing that might make you wonder
why I never gave these poems to you --
the one for whom it all makes sense even when it doesn't.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2008The Best Archer in All of China
All of us try so hard to DO stuff, to ACCOMPLISH things, to leave our MARK. We sweat, we strain, we hustle -- all in an attempt to get a result we feel good about. That's all well and good, of course, but sometimes, in the act of accomplishing a goal, we lose touch with who we are. We forget that we are human beings not human doings. The following story, adapted from an old Zen tale, elaborates on this curious phenomenon.
Once upon a time there was a man named Wu Li, a most gifted archer. Time and again, Wu Li would enter archery tournaments and win. He won so often and so convincingly that word of his accomplishments soon spread throughout the land. By the time he was 22, Wu Li was known as the best archer in all of China.
One day, upon returning home from yet another victory, Wu Li found himself rushing through a marketplace and bumping into an old man carrying a basket of potatoes. Potatoes went flying everywhere and the old man fell to the ground with a thud.
"Old man!" shouted Wu Li, "Get out of my way! Don't you know who I am?"
The old man looked up, squinting.
"Oh yes. I know who you are," he replied. "You are Wu Li. Second best archer in all the land."
"Second best?" bellowed the gifted one. "Second? Not so! I am the best. There is no one in the world who can beat me."
The old man smiled as he stood, slowly gathering his potatoes. "Yes, you are great! But there is one even greater than you!"
"Greater than me?" replied Wu Li. "Impossible! No one has ever beaten me. No one can beat me. Who is this imposter? Where does he live?"
"Oh," the old man said slowly, as if entering a temple. "His name is Master Po. He lives many miles to the North -- high atop Mt. Fuji.
"Then I will challenge him!" the archer exclaimed. "And put an end to such nonsense."
Pushing his way past the old man, Wu Li stormed off.
For 60 days he travelled. Through underbrush and overgrowth. Through overbrush and undergrowth.
When he finally arrived at the foot of Mt. Fuji, the young archer could not believe his eyes. The mountain was sheer rock face, covered with ice, and pitched at a 90 degree angle straight to the top, hidden by clouds. A lesser man would have ended his journey then and there. But not Wu Li.
He climbed.
On the 8th day of his ascent, the young archer found himself at the top, seeing what appeared to be a little old man sitting on a blanket.
"Welcome wayfarer, I have been expecting you."
The young archer took a deep breath. "I... am... Wu Li... best archer in all the land and I... I challenge you!"
The old man smiled, bowed once, then looked to the sky. "Very well, as you are my guest, please go first."
Without a second's hesitation, Wu Li grabbed an arrow from his quiver, notched it on the string of his immense bow, closed an eye, tilted his head, looked up, drew the string back and with all of his might, let the arrow fly. As it neared the top of its flight, he pulled a second from the quiver and shot it high, halving the first in two and, in a rapid succession of ten, continued, each arrow splitting the one before it, arrow halves landing in a perfect circle around the seated master and making the ancient sound of "Hmm," upon entering the ground.
"Hmm," said Master Po. "Impressive. Most impressive. Now, I believe, it is my turn."
Reaching behind him (where there would have been a quiver if he had a quiver), he pulled what would have been an arrow (if he had an arrow), notched what would have been a string on what would have been a bow, closed one eye, pulled slowly back, paused for what seemed like eternity, and then -- in slow motion pantomime -- let go.
Smiling ever so slightly, he turned to the puzzled challenger.
"You, my friend," said Master Po, "have mastered the art of shooting with a bow and arrow. I, on the other hand, have mastered the art of shooting without a bow and arrow."
Excerpted from Awake at the Wheel.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)
Selma Speaks
My mother, Sylvia, was a Jewish mother. She played canasta. She ate bagels. She got her hair done once a week. And, knock on wood and spit three times, she thought I could do no wrong.
That is, until my 24th year when I received Knowledge from that "boy Guru," Maharaji.
Bottom line, my mother had no way to relate to the whole thing. First of all, Maharaji wasn't Jewish. Second of all, he was from India. And third of all, see reasons #1 and #2.
Of course, my over-the-top proclamations about Knowledge and Maharaji's perfection didn't help matters in the least. Nor did my sudden habit of lighting incense in my parent's home.
It wasn't enough that my girlfriend wasn't Jewish (a shiksa!) -- now I had an Indian Guru.
As they say in the old country, "Oy Vey."
All of which led my mother, one fine Spring day, to forbid me -- for all time -- from ever speaking about the Guru in her home.
"No problem, ma," I replied, affecting my best suburban yogi's attempt at being non-attached. "Mum's the word."
Five years passed. I said nothing to her about Maharaji. And had no plans to.
Life was good. I was practicing Knowledge. I was happy. And my adolescent need to convince my parents of anything had vanished.
Then I got word that Maharaji was coming to Miami for a weekend event, one that I absolutely wanted to attend. This, I figured, my parents didn't really need to know, so I simply told them I was flying in to visit them that Sunday. I didn't want to push their buttons.
As usual, when the golden boy, Jewish prodigal son returns home, his parents invite their friends to celebrate the return. All the regulars were there: Blanche, Shirley, Ellie, Irving, Bert, Seymour, Solly, and some new friends of my folks I hadn't yet met.
Just having seen Maharaji, I was feeling especially alive and in the moment.
Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door and let myself in, surveying the room and enjoying that sweet moment of arrival before the slightly deflating reality of visiting one's parents truly sinks in.
An elderly Jewish woman in the back of the room stood up and smiled at me -- someone I'd never met before.
"Oy gevalt, Mitchell," she said. "Wasn't Maharaji beautiful? I could have plotzed!" (I later found out this woman, Selma, had received Knowledge three years earlier).
I looked at my mother. My mother looked at me.
"Hey, Mom," I said, shrugging. "She's your friend. I didn't say a thing."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:16 PM | Comments (4)
The Seed Once Sown, the Rune
I talk too much, too loud, too soon,
like one who pulls a sword from stone
and speaks
before the King has had his turn.
My words are ghosts of moments gone,
the poetry you want to hear is not my own,
but yours, the sacred sound long buried
in your bones -- the seed once sown,
the rune,
something born within you to be told.
This is what you want to hear,
the perfect eloquence of one
upon the throne,
whose prayer, these words, are heard
before a single word is said.
Live there! Breathe deep! Fly!
Free the priests and, if the angels die,
know you'll be dancing in the air.
That's the poetry you want to hear!
What you really want is this:
The lyrical flood of fullness within,
the drowning in bliss,
the letting down, like mother's milk,
of all there ever is --
the place where all the poets you have ever loved
are riding homeward on a train, alone,
looking out a window on a perfect summer day.
What they see is only their reflection
and, just beyond, golden fields of hay.
Somewhere in between them both their breathing slows,
they close their eyes and pause,
clear they never have to write again or think.
This is the poetry you long to hear,
when all the poets turn for home
and all their blood has turned to ink.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2008Just This Crazy Laughter
Now that you have ruined what I thought was my life,
what do you want me to do?
Sing your praises?
No can do, I'm mute.
Write poetry?
Impossible,
my hands are shaking
and so is the ground.
Oh Friend,
it's clear my life is very different now
than what I thought it would be
when first we met.
An ocean of unexpected tears
I have become,
a fool,
lunatic walking on moonlight,
singing, singing, singing.
This is not at all what I imagined.
It's a billion times better than that.
Even if my story could be told,
no one would believe me.
I have no proof,
not a single shred of evidence,
just this crazy laughter
and the kind of late night sighing that comes
when there is nothing left to say.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:59 PM | Comments (1)
October 14, 2008Radiant Being of Light
Radiant being of light, vortex of love,
alchemist supreme, magnifier of prayer,
the one I dream about
and the one who wakes me from the dream,
why the dervish spins
and the earth.
Teacher, teaching, and the taught,
first breath, last breath,
what lovers look for in each other but rarely find,
center around which everything revolves,
endless night of love
and the ecstatic aching of a moon-howling heart
that does not want the morning to come.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:08 PM | Comments (2)
October 13, 2008Failure Is Not What You Think It Is
If you're inspired and have an idea you think will make a difference in the world, chances are good that you are feeling two things -- excitement and a fear of failure.
You're excited because you're motivated from the inside and see how your idea can help. At the same time, you're hesitating, because you don't want to fail.
This is the same challenge all people face. It's been going on for thousands of years. Failure? The only failure that can happen is you choosing not to act because you are afraid to fail.
Take a risk! Step up to the plate. The force is with you! As a great pundit once put it, "If not YOU, who? If not NOW, when?
But hey, don't take my word for it. Click below for some juicy quotes on the topic -- everyone from Miles Davis to Thomas Edison.
"An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots." -- Charles Kettering
"Do not fear mistakes. There are none." -- Miles Davis
"The way to succeed is to double your failure rate."
-- Thomas Watson, Founder of IBM
"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
-- Henry Ford
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." -- Confucius
"Give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself." -- Robert Louis Stevenson
"Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it." -- Horace
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- Bill Cosby
"I have not failed once. I've just found 10,000 ways that didn't work." -- Thomas Edison
"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
-- Robert F. Kennedy
"No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy." -- Sir Laurence Olivier
"If your life is free of failures, you're not taking enough risks."
-- H. Jackson Brown
"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try." -- Beverly Sills
"I failed my way to success." -- Thomas Edison
"99 percent of success is built on failure." -- Charles Kettering
"Act as if it were impossible to fail." -- Dorothea Brande
"Failure is success if we learn from it." -- Malcolm Forbes
"You can only be as good as you dare to be bad." -- John Barrymore
"The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success." -- Paramahansa Yogananda
"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald
"You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down." -- Mary Pickford
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." -- Winston Churchill
"We are not retreating -- we are advancing in another direction."
-- Douglas MacArthur
"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." -- Thomas A. Edison
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." -- Japanese Proverb
"Stumbling is not falling." -- Portuguese Proverb
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2008Excerpts from Maharaji's Talk in Montreal, Part 2
The following excerpts are my best attempts at capturing, live, some of what Maharaji said at the Montreal event on October 7th. In some cases, I have paraphrased his words. MD
"You have the incredible ability to be fulfilled and feel joy in your heart. Not once. Not twice, but have the impossible at your command whenever you want. Experience it! Experience what? Joy! Of what? Of being alive. What does alive mean? Alive means the infinite is residing within you."
"Sit back, relax, and feel this passion, even if it is only for a few minutes. It will do you a lifetime of good."
"Gratitude is a song that is sung."
"Understand, if just for a fraction of a second that within you the immortal resides, in you is the infinite -- not was -- IS! It can't be bought or thought or created."
"People know what they don't want. The Master asks, 'What is it that you DO want?'"
"If you don't want to be separated from Knowledge, it has to be renewed everyday."
"You inherently know that which you value above everything else in this world is peace, understanding, and joy. What do you do to make sure that this joy does not waver and this understanding does not come and go?"
"The possibilities are endless. There is no end to the possibilities. Here is the most amazing magic that is taking place."
"The joy that exists here in the company of the beautiful inside of you, in the practice of this Knowledge, does not exist in heaven."
"We all have these little deflectors -- concepts that deflect the reality away from us. We say, 'Oh, Kabir was enlightened, but not me. We say, 'this experience might be true for that other person sitting next to me, but not for me. I am nothing.' Not true. We are blessed beyond belief. The most incredible wish has come true."
"Invest a little every day in this Knowledge. Your piggy bank will become huge. Massive."
"Practice. Participate. Enjoy Knowledge. Enjoy life. Enjoy this existence. Forever. Now."
"What is my message to you? There is more."
"Sometimes the words of a Master come as a storm and sometimes they come gingerly, like the rain in the middle of the desert."
"I have seen joy in the eyes and smiles on the faces of people who have been told they have less than six days to live. Can you imagine that?"
"This Knowledge is the only thing I know of that will be there to the very end. I'm asking you to make a sound investment in that."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:03 AM | Comments (1)
October 08, 2008Excerpts from Maharaji's Talk in Montreal: Part 1
"Awaken! Arise! Live this life consciously! Accept this most beautiful challenge to sing the song of gratitude. Your audience is no less than the divine itself. So sing and sing and sing and sing. Never stop singing!"
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)
October 04, 2008Excerpts from Maharaji's Talk in Toronto
The following excerpts are my best attempts at capturing, live, some of what Maharaji said at the Toronto event on October 4th. It is not verbatim. And in some cases, I have paraphrased his words. MD
"I have a message of hope -- that you've been given something so precious. What you have is the most beautiful thing. But for most people that's the hardest thing to understand -- that they already have everything they could possibly want."
"A Master takes the most complicated thing and makes it simple."
"The message resides in the heart. That's God speaking to you every single day. Awaken! Understand! You have the message. I don't have to interpret it for you. The heart wants to be fulfilled. Listen to that!"
"Remember when you were young and your mother told you to study hard so you could become something? The message was you are nothing -- and that is simply not true. I'm not here to tell you your mother was wrong. Maybe she was right about everything else except this one thing. You are something -- something divine."
"Walk this life on your own feet, not somebody else's. Understand its value from the heart. Experience Knowledge from the heart. Don't try to grasp it with the mind."
"99.99% of religions say you are a sinner. The first card you are dealt? An unsaved sinner. I'm here to tell you that's not true."
"What is the reality? The blessing of breath coming and going."
"Everyone has figured out a pin around which to revolve. It might be a person. It might be something you like. It could be anything. You actually do not revolve around these things. The only thing you revolve around is the breath. Because when this breath stops coming and going all your revolving is finished."
"For those of you with Knowledge, what has been made possible to you? Only the impossible. Within you lives the infinite. Outside you is the finite. The two shall never meet. They are opposite by nature. But you, with the gift of Knowledge,...somebody has bypassed the impossible, and made it possible for the finite to experience the infinite."
"I know this feeling is true because my heart rejoices. I feel peace."
"Go beyond expectations. Go beyond your bucket being full of ideas. And whose ideas are they? They are not yours. Your bucket is full of other people's ideas. Whose definition of God do you carry around? Yours? How many of you call God a 'he'? How do you know? You don't! It's your bucket, filled with somebody else's ideas, and you're carrying it!"
"The Master is like a mirror. When you look in it, you see everything."
"The reason you cannot imagine this is beyond your imagination. Imagination doesn't go that far."
"Of all the time your mind has had your undivided attention, it has never take you to a place where you feel calm and peace. Knowledge, on the other hand, slows it down and brings you inside to feel that joy, beauty, simplicity, and clarity."
"The outcome of practicing Knowledge is gratitude."
"Knowledge is about feeling the happiness -- being grateful you exist -- even when everything on the outside is wrong."
"If you have to be worried, be worried about this breath. Being worried about anything else is like having a hangman's noose around your neck."
"Life is not about the dream castles you want to build. Those castles are doomed. What you call yours today will be someone else's tomorrow. You have a house, you decorate it, paint it, and give it your personal touch. One day, when you are gone, someone will remove all of it. What you call yours will not remain."
"What is yours? This breath that just came is really, really yours. It was made just for you from the workings of the universe. God knows where it came from, but it came exclusively for you. It's yours."
"I'm not about what's going to happen at the end. I'm about NOW. In the end, Knowledge will be there for you. Nothing else."
"What I have to say is a story about you. It is not a myth. You are here for a reason. It is not a mistake. It is not a random act. How can you ascertain what this reason is? Why am I here? What is the goal? What is the purpose of my life?"
"What does it take to turn within? Great words. Sounds good. But I am not here to merely repeat what others have said. A lot of people will say the same thing to you, but they don't know what it means. They've read it from a wise book."
"You can read Kabir's words and get great inspiration from them, but what was Kabir reading? He was illiterate! Where was his inspiration coming from?"
"The first place peace needs to be established is not the outer battlefield, but the inner battlefield. It is much easier to establish a cease fire on the outer battlefield."
"Here's something I read from Kabir that I really like: 'Yogis are drunk on discipline. Priests are drunk on scriptures. Celibates are drunk on vanity. Monks are drunk on prestige.' What are YOU drunk on?"
"What I talk about is completely different than religion. There is an answer, but it is not in any language. It cannot be spoken, written, pronounced, or uttered. The answer to this question is so close to you. It could not possibly be closer. It is inscribed on the beautiful pages of your heart. You and you alone are capable of reading and receiving this answer. You are the only one who can decide whether this answer is true or not."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 10:50 PM | Comments (3)
October 03, 2008Some Might Call It Dancing
Some might call it dancing,
I call it stumbling closer to God,
the unrehearsed
falling forward into love
as if the world was tipped.
Operatic in my cells,
lunatic for life,
I am taken to the place
where dancing is
infinitely less about movement than being moved --
for when the world is tipped
and we, drunk to our eyes
in love's ballet,
are willing,
there is nothing not dance,
no one not dancer,
no place not stage,
no breath not a standing ovation before God.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2008VIRTUAL TEAMWORK CARDS: Click, Connect, and Collaborate
Here's something I find odd...
Soulful, loving, conscious people often find it difficult collaborating with others.
The challenge of being on a team, somehow, pushes buttons. Patience wears thin. Judgment abounds. Trust goes out the window.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
If you're looking for a way to raise the bar for teamwork, all you need to do is click here or scroll down the page and click on TEAMWORK CARDS (in the sidebar).
When you do, a pop up window will appear -- one of 55 cards now available to you on this blog. Each one addresses a specific challenge that you and your team will need to resolve if you want to go beyond the crap that usually gets in the way of most teams performing at a high level.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:53 PM | Comments (1)
October 01, 2008Back to the Garden
I'm sure there was a time back in the Garden of Eden before the biting of fruit, naming of lizard, and placing of fig leaf, when Adam turned to Eve or Eve turned to Adam and, in the delightful absence of language, greeting cards, or text messaging, found a simple way to communicate something real about their experience of being alive.
Ever since those halcyon days, we've been trying to do the same -- to express something basic, primal, and pure. About what moves us. And why we often linger in the gaze of another who lets us in just long enough to experience the blessing of being received, no strings attached.
It is into this space I find myself being transported upon seeing Maharaji -- a space that continues expanding the moment he leaves the stage.
He's gone and so am I -- my body now a hologram, my heart a happy camper.
Stunned in my seat, I am completely still, infused, fulfilled, free, my blood a kind of overflowing champagne fizz.
I'm sure I could move if I wanted to, but I don't want to. The desire to go anywhere has vanished. All I want to do is sit here and soak up the feeling forever. My name, my plans, the details of my life all seem like odd relics.
I am driftwood here, washed ashore, something a curious tourist might find.
I breathe. I bask in the light of an interior sun now made brighter by the one I have no words for. I breathe. I follow my breath like a happy drunk follows the dotted white line home after an endless night of celebration.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:59 AM | Comments (0)
