There Is a Poem Within This Poem
There is a poem
within this poem
and I want you to find it.
If you say YES, you will.
If you say NO, you won't.
That's how simple
the whole thing is.
But if you look,
you will not see it.
If you listen, you will hear
only the sound of a cello in the distance.
Think of this poem, if you like,
as what remains after everyone is gone,
the perfume of your first lover,
remembering you, with a slow smile.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:09 AM | Comments (1)
May 25, 2011Why Are They Having Such a Good Time?
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2011Why Is This Woman Smiling?
1. Did she just get a job promotion?
2. Did her boyfriend just propose to her?
3. Did she just get her nose pierced?
4. Did she just listen to Prem Rawat in Barcelona on April 3?
(HINT: It's not 1, 2 or 3)
Here's what he said
More
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2011A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
People listening to Maharaji speak at an event in Buenos Aires, April 23, 2011.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)
May 20, 2011You Are Not a Philosophy
"You are not a philosophy. You can think about philosophy, you can listen to philosophy, you can comment about philosophy, but you are not a philosophy. You are something living, existing, breathing, changing, evolving. A human being. You're not a theory. You're not a possibility. You exist." - Maharaji, 4/24/11, Buenos Aires
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2011TPRF Receives Highest Rating
Charity Navigator, considered America's premier evaluator of US non-profit organizations, has once again awarded TPRF (The Prem Rawat Foundation) their highest rating of 4 stars.
The Charity Navigator rating system includes an analysis of how efficiently organizations use their support and how well they are growing their services over time.
This is the third consecutive Four Stars award for TPRF.
Ken Berger, President of Charity Navigator, wrote to Linda Pascotto, President of TPRF, that "Only 13% of the charities we rate have received at least 3 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that The Prem Rawat Foundation consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America. This exceptional designation from Charity Navigator differentiates The Prem Rawat Foundation from its peers and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust."
That TPRF consistently receives such a high rating is largely due to the capable and generous donation of time and expertise by volunteers on several continents.
This unusual level of support is key to the Foundation's ability to keep overhead costs at a minimum and efficiency at such a high level.
More and more people are becoming aware of TPRF's unique work of addressing the essential human needs of food, water, and peace and are trusting TPRF to use their donations effectively and efficiently.
$130K raised for Japan
TPRF work in prisons
Relief for war-torn areas
More
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2011Long Before Words
Being of the Jewish persuasion, I'm not exactly the kind of person given to confession, but allow me the ecumenical luxury of confessing at least one thing in this first paragraph of what may well turn out to be the Mahabharata of blog postings:
Writing about Maharaji and the gift that he offers is not easy.
It's not easy for a few reasons.
First off, what I want to say existed long before words -- long before nouns and verbs and the leaky vessels we construct to float our shaky boats of babble.
Secondly, words are approximations of the real thing at best. Like menus, they indicate something's cooking in the kitchen, but they are not the food itself.
And thirdly, the dog ate my homework.
I don't know how it works, but there are decades of my life I can barely remember, but seconds with Maharaji that remain a vast eternity, indelibly impressed on my heart like some kind of rock 'n roll Rosetta stone.
I never laugh so hard or cry so long as when I'm in his company. I never feel so good.
The first time I heard about Maharaji, I was both ecstatic and afraid -- ecstatic at the thought I might finally experience what I'd been born for -- afraid that somehow, grand impostor that I was, I would be the only person on the face of the Earth not to get it.
Forget it. I got it.
Yes, that moment happened -- the moment of ooooooh -- the moment of aaaaaah -- the moment of finally coming into my own after years of imagining my own was someplace far away -- in a forest, cave, or future lifetime.
What has he taught me? How to wake up -- and stay awake. How to appreciate. How to feel.
What Maharaji offers is not so much a teaching as it is transportation to the place we've either been seeking our entire life or have given up on long ago -- the place of no judgment, the place of no doubt, the place of no worry, no fear, no problem.
Here! The place of remembering. And what we remember here is love -- plain and simple.
For love is the name of the game, no matter how we play it.
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 09:46 PM | Comments (3)
May 08, 2011Thankfulness Is a State of Being
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 04:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 07, 2011Pass the Bus
Click here
for a new
posting of mine
just published on the
Words of Peace Global
blog.
It's all about
a moment
most of us experience
when we think too much
or inaccurately
about what's really happening,
a trick of the mind
in which we momentarily
forget
the beautiful place
of ease and love
inside.
Illustration: Sara Shaffer
More from the wopg blog
(click and scroll)
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:21 PM | Comments (1)
May 01, 2011Just to Put Things in Perspective
Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 08:55 PM | Comments (0)
