The Heart of the Matter
April 30, 2010
Maharaji in Jaipur

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Maharaji (aka Prem Rawat) spoke to 14,000 people in Jaipur, India on April 15th. Here is a link to the article on the Words of Peace Global website. It's happening, folks.

Photo: Priyanka Mast
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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2010
VIDEO: He Is My Teacher

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April 22, 2010
BE YOURSELF!

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Be yourself

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:59 PM | Comments (1)

April 21, 2010
Buying a Book for My Mother

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For many years I wanted to buy a book for my mother -- a book that would explain everything... what I hadn't or couldn't explain since I had been old enough to notice my mother wasn't all that happy and, Lord knows, I wanted my mother to be happy and if not "happy" per se, then at least aware of what it was that made me, her son, happy -- the "thing" that, for so many years, she thought was just a phase I was going through and, even worse, some kind of heartless rejection of her and her way of life.

Oy vey...

Yes, I wanted to buy my mother a book that would explain it all -- the whole "New Age thing," the whole "Guru thing," the whole "it's OK that I don't eat your veal parmagiana any more because I'm a vegetarian thing."

Somebody must have written it. Somebody must have noticed the market niche of "mothers over 60 who worry why their high performing sons have gone spiritual."

And so, I went looking for the book. Like some people look for God.

And though I never found it, I did find some reasonable facsimiles -- cleverly titled books displayed by the check out counter, conceived by marketing geniuses who somehow knew my need -- the need a son has to make his mother smile... the book that would keep his mother company during those long, cold nights when her husband was working late and her children were asleep and there was nothing good on TV... the ultimate self-help book that would remove her worries, her doubts, and her exponentially growing fears of thinking her son had gone off the deep end for "receiving Knowledge" from that young boy from India.

I wanted my mother to know how beautiful life was and how simple it could be to experience that beauty. I wanted her to know there was something timeless within her, something beyond the stress of aging and the clipping of coupons.

Maybe it was selfish of me, but I wanted to buy my mother a book that would deliver some proof that love was the name of the game... and that (bite your tongue and spit three times) the act of "receiving Knowledge" from Maharaji was as healthy as chicken soup.

Twelve years ago my mother died from a four-year bout with emphysema.

During my stay with my father after the funeral, I discovered the books I had given my mother for the past 35 years.

Most of them had never been opened. Like some strange mix of Stonehenge rubble, they lay in piles all around... on her night table, on her desk, stuffed behind cookbooks, in the garage. Some, when you opened them, still had that new book crackling sound.

I felt sad she didn't read them. Disappointed. And the kind of resignation teenagers feel when they realize their parents just don't get it.

Looking back, I realize now that no book would have been sufficient to have given my mother.

No. I wanted her to have the experience the books were describing, not the description of the experience. As my teacher, Maharaji, has mentioned many times, if you are thirsty, you need water to drink, not the description of water.

Ultimately, that's what Maharaji's offer is all about: helping people find the water -- the naturally occurring well of well-being inside us all.

It's something my dear, sweet, canasta playing mother would have definitely appreciated.

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Photo by Weeping Willow

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:15 AM | Comments (3)

April 19, 2010
Why Are These People Smiling?

I'll tell you why. They are listening to an extraordinary Teacher talk about the most ancient topic there is to talk about -- but talk about it in the most modern of ways. It's a topic that transcends time, culture, religion, politics, philosophy, or any of the other artificial divisions that separate human beings from each other and themselves. If you are looking for the source of that inner smile, the door is open.

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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 06:16 PM | Comments (1)

April 15, 2010
I'm High Up in My Poetry Today and Won't Come Down

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Okie dokie...
For those of you
who love
devotional poetry,
here is
a selection
from the
promised land
beneath all our feet.

Most
of them are mine
(hey, it's my blog!),
but you'll also find
some goodies from
Rumi, Kabir, Hafiz, and Lao Tzu,
those four wild kings
of the timeless land
beyond borders.

Click here!
,
then scroll on down.

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2010
Inspiring Words from Prem Rawat

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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:40 PM | Comments (1)

April 04, 2010
Four Days After April Fool's Day

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"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool." - William Shakespeare

"For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself!" - Robert Louis Stevenson

"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance." - Japanese Proverb

"Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other." - Oscar Wilde

"The fool who persists in his folly is not a fool." - Anonymous

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2010
The Only Game in Town

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Illustration

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

Welcome to Mitch Ditkoff's blog about what's really important in this life: Peace, gratitude, love, joy, clarity, and the effort required to wake up and smell the roses. Enjoy!

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