Five Inspiring Videos For You
Here ya go. Five inspiring videos for your viewing pleasure -- each one a treasure. Themes?
Gratitude.
Unity.
Joy.
Diversity.
Celebration.
Non-Attachment.
You!
Every Day Is Thanksgiving
We Are All in This Together
The Gospel of Everyday Life
Stand By Me
Puppet-Ji on Non-Attachment
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2009Every Day Is Thanksgiving
This is beautiful. From David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk. Unplug from whatever you're doing and give this your full attention.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:53 PM | Comments (4)
November 25, 2009George Carlin On Aging
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.
"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!"
You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!"
You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ! You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!
But then you turn 30. Oooohh... what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?
You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.
But! wait! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE IT to 60.
You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!
You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!
HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.
2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
3. Keep learning. ! Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever, even ham radio. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." And the devil's family name is Alzheimer's.
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long, and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
And if you don't send this to at least 8 people -- who cares? But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each day!
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:16 AM | Comments (1)
What Is Love?One minute's worth of straight-to-the-heart inspiration.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:10 AM | Comments (1)
November 24, 2009VIDEO: 1001 Reasons
Bring someone tea today! Help someone in need! Go beyond yourself and express the love you feel in very practical ways.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:40 AM | Comments (1)
November 23, 2009The Next Movie You See...
OK. I may lose a few subscribers with this one, but so what. I'm not running for President. Just saw Pirate Radio last night and, as I was watching it, was already wanting to watch it again. It ain't Bergman, but it rocks. (A great reminder to be who you are).
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:57 AM | Comments (4)
November 22, 2009Bloom Where You Are Planted
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2009A Six Pack of Kabir
Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! Think... and think... while you are alive. What you call "salvation" belongs to the time before death.
If you don't break your rope while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten -- that is all fantasy. What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death. If you make love with the Divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is, believe in the Great Sound!
Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work. Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.
(Translated by Robert Bly, from Kabir, Ecstatic Poems)
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 03:55 PM | Comments (1)
November 16, 2009We Are All In This Together
They're dancing in the aisles at the UN! Look at what can happen when inspired and committed people get together to deliver a message of peace and love. (In what ways can you and your friends come together and communicate a powerful message to the world?)
Thanks to Ron Frank for the link to this Amnesty International video.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:31 PM | Comments (3)
November 15, 2009Maharaji in India: 11/7
This just in from Maharaji's public event in Noida, a city south of New Delhi (as recalled by Lucka Koscak).
"Do not forget that you are a renter, not an owner. One day you'll be thrown out."
"Do you know or do you believe? You believe it, but one day you'll know it. You worship. You go to the temples. But your swan is inside of you. Know this Creator. It's time to know, not believe."
"Heaven is here and if there's a hell, then it's here, too -- and also the solution for it. And the swan is here and the one who shows the swan is here, too."
I'm not God, but God is inside of me. I don't believe that. I know that. When I practice this Knowledge, I know it."
"Receive what I give. If you like it, enjoy it. Know this life inside yourself. Go to the temple of your heart."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
RUMI and KABIR BOWLING
Last year, as I understand it, Rumi was the best selling poet in the United States -- 800+ years after he was alive. Kabir, too, is still being widely read -- as is Hafiz, Gibran, and a host of other ecstatic poets from times gone by. Many people assume these guys must have been praying, meditating, and going on pilgrimages 24/7. I don't think so.
This next piece is an homage to Rumi and Kabir -- my fantasy of how the two of them might have spent an evening, in a bowling alley, knocking back some brewskis, if they were alive today...
RUMI AND KABIR BOWLING
I have been to the place where Rumi and Kabir are bowling all... night... long. They are rolling perfectly round balls down a perfectly polished alley, laughing at the sound of the pins falling down again and again and again.
Every time they bowl a strike even when they miss which is often, their aim wandering in fabulously random ways around this grand interior space.
Rumi orders a shot of Red Eye,Kabir, a Bud Lite, their clinking of glasses some kind of esoteric temple bell ritual neither of them understand.
They keep drinking and laughing and drinking again, knocking back the elixir of their late night bowling life and muttering under their barely moving breath about the strangers outside returning home from yet another night shift.
Rumi opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out -- Kabir, long beard flecked with foam, orders a second round and then a third as if the world was on fire.
Suddenly Rumi glances over his left shoulder. More pins fall, this time leaving a perfect 7-10 split, Kabir, knowing he never has to write another poem to prove himself whole, leaps from his chair and hurls himself down the perfectly polished alley, arms outstretched, moving at the speed of lite beer.
Bang!
Both pins fall,like... cedars in Lebanon,like...Adam from Grace, like... trees in a forest with no one close enough to hear whether anything has actually happened or not. No one except Red Eye Rumi swiveling in his chair and pointing to the door.
A small man, in a starched white uniform, enters, many keys hanging from his belt.
"Hey, you two! What are you doing here? This place is closed!"
Rumi smiles, tilts his head back and talks into his empty glass now megaphone for the moment.
"I beg to differ, my good man, this place is not closed. It is open! If it were closed we would not be here. Open it is, I say! Wide open! Like the Red Sea, like a window on a summer night, like the eyes of a young man upon seeing the most beautiful woman in the world walk across the room, her body the perfect mix of spirit and flesh. Open, I say, like a book, like the sky, like the heart of one not yet disappointed in the ways of human love. Go about your business, friend, and leave us here, two happy hieroglyphs of love."
"We have a perfect game on Lane 23," intones a disembodied voice over the PA system "A perfect game!"
Rumi and Kabir pull over another chair, pour another drink and beckon to the man in the starched white uniform, many keys dangling from his belt.
"Good friend, come closer, come drink with us. Come now! The night is still young."
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:03 PM | Comments (1)
November 14, 2009Puppet-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!
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2009A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2009Take Me Home
Last night, exhausted from a long day's work, 150 miles from home, I found myself sitting in my car in a darkened New Jersey parking lot, dreading the ride home.
Yes, my wonderful wife and kids were waiting for me at the end of the journey. And yes, I had a chocolate covered protein bar, water, and 5 CD player. But I also had a sinking feeling that, out here in the boonies, many miles from the interstate, the chances of me getting home without getting lost were slim to none.
I glanced at the directions written on a 3x5 card by my trusty assistant. They read like some kind of Hammurabi's code. "Go 0.73 miles and turn right at the fourth light after the second hardware store."
My eyes glazed over.
Here, in the boonies, I knew every wrong turn meant more time away from home and the endless turning into gas stations asking baffled attendants how to get back on the highway.
Then I remembered my GPS stashed in the glove compartment.
I plugged it in. I powered up. I waited. Take Me Home flashed on the screen. Take Me Home! Like the little kid in ET, I pointed and pushed.
And then? The reassuring voice of the GPS lady filled my car with comfort, letting me know I needed to turn right... then, in 100 feet... turn left at Buckley Boulevard."
And all I had to do was drive.
This, metaphorically speaking, is the situation we're all in -- trying to find our way home with the least amount of wasted effort.
For me, the Knowledge Maharaji reveals is a wonderful GPS. When I'm plugged into it and paying attention, it guides me home in the simplest of ways. No driving in circles. No missed exits. No wondering if I'm on the right road.
My wish for you today, dear friends, is a simple one: that you find your GPS. If it's stashed in the glove compartment, I hope you take it out. If it's installed in your dashboard, I hope you turn it on. And if you don't have one, I hope you get one soon.
I can't tell you what kind of GPS works best because I haven't tried them all, but I can tell you that you don't need to waste your time squinting at directions. Getting back home is simpler than you think.
Bon voyage!
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:03 PM | Comments (1)
November 02, 2009RUMI: Move Into Your House of Joy
If you knew yourself for even one moment,
if you could just glimpse
your most beautiful face,
maybe you wouldn't slumber so deeply
in that house of clay.
Why not move into your house of joy
and shine into every crevice!
For you are the secret
Treasure-bearer,
and always have been.
Didn't you know?
-- Rumi
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
