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."

"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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

You are lovingly placing your cursor over the hotlinked phrase below, clicking once and buying at least one copy of my new book of poetry, Thirst Quench Thirst.

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Some of the poems in this blog are excerpted from the book, so if you're still not sure, simply scroll around and read.

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What moves us all to dream,
to think, to love, to act,
to give it up for some great cause
or double back to pause before our plans
of having more or getting there
or going to the country fair
is the same for everyone --

the sage, the fool, the king,
the self-appointed ministers of fun.

Einstein said it best, I think,
or maybe it was Rumi,
both of whom were missing links
from this to that, from here to there,
mystics of the unseen arts,
demystifying what it is that moves the air
and the human heart.

Still I wonder what it is I thirst for in my bones,
what will be enough to feel.

Is it what I see with these two eyes
or what I know beyond them both
is always just a bit concealed --
that which seizes me from deep within,
the mirror of my soul, my other half, my perfect twin,
the one who knows, but doesn't tell
or if he does, it's just enough
to dig my tunnel deeper to the well

where all the seekers that I am have come to drink,
long before the first parable was told.

Last night I googled longing. What I found surprised me.

Ninety percent of the images were women: Women dreaming. Women staring out windows. Women brushing their golden hair beneath the full moon.

Oh... and lots of Goddesses, too.

Where were the men?

Hunting buffalo? Watching the Superbowl? Mowing the lawn?

According to Google (the closest thing we have to tracking the collective unconscious), apparently not.

Are men incapable of longing? Not at all. It's just gotten a bit suppressed, gone underground to the place where even Google's algorithms cannot find it.

The reason?

I'm guessing it has something to do with the male concept of survival. After all... wars, hunting, and politics aren't all that conducive to inspired questings of the heart.

To put it bluntly, most men consider longing a girly thing. A sign of weakness. A minor holiday card invented by Hallmark. Something you express only because it's expected of you.

I suggest we put an end to this madness once and for all.

Longing is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength.

And before I go on, let me make one thing abundantly clear: when I refer to "longing," I am not referring to a poetic kind of "desire" or a beatific "wanting." Not at all. I am referring to the innate human aspiration -- beyond gender -- for something timeless, pure, and unconditional.

Poets write about it, but it has nothing to do with words. Musicians compose about it, but it has nothing to do with notes.

Feeling. That's what it's all about. Deep feeling. The recognition that what we're looking for is also looking for us. What lovers feel after they must take their leave. The artist's pause, inspired by a sudden shift of light.

The ahhhh moment.

And so, dear readers of this blog, as the self-appointed, President (and Chief Hun) of the Longing Liberation Front for Muscle Bound Males, allow me to (Chest Bump! High Five! Shot of Red Eye!) refer you to someone who truly understands the game of life, a fine gentleman who knows that the ones who win are the ones who feel -- the ones who long for something more than what they see with their own two eyes.

May I introduce you to Coach Rawat?

It may be third and long for some of you, but you are closer to paydirt than you think.

If you have the thirst to learn more about what Maharaji offers and know you want to receive Knowledge, there's a simple, practical way to prepare -- The Keys.

The Keys are a set of DVDs to help people, in the privacy of their own home, learn more about his method for tuning in to a deep place of inner peace. If you've already been viewing introductory DVDs or listening to introductory CDs, you may want to take your next step and view THE KEYS.

If you have friends interested in learning more about Maharaji and Knowledge, but are not yet committed to viewing The Keys,
forward them this link.

Or click below. It will take you to a set of other links, mostly from this blog, any one of which may help your friends on their way...

2. Home Base

3. VIDEO: Introducing Maharaji

4. Snow Day

5. Happy For No Reason

6. At The Threshold

7. VIDEO: What Is Maharaji's Role?

8. Looking for the Real

9. Words of Peace.org

10. Keep It Simple

I just came across these inspiring words from Maharaji on innerlink.tv. A timeless message, indeed...

"Look in you. Look in your heart. And you will find the truest essence of your existence. Look within you and you will find the most beautiful waters. Look within you and you will find your solutions. Look within you and you will find your answers. Answers to which you don't even have questions to yet.

The holiest of all scriptures that ever will be, will be in the temple of your heart."

The following excerpts are my best attempts at capturing, live, some of what Maharaji said at the Gainesville event on September 21. The following is not verbatim and, in some cases, I have paraphrased his words. MD

"A Master is a washerman and the student is the cloth. The soap is Knowledge. When, on the stone of practice, the cloth is washed again and again and again, the cloth begins to sparkle. You need to sparkle and shine bright because that is your potential."

"When there is a river flowing and the little tributaries join it, they lose themselves and become part of that big river. All the rivers that flow into the Ganges become just as holy."

"The trees that surround a sandalwood tree take on the aroma of sandalwood. Is it possible to keep such a company of that most beautiful thing that I begin to take on the qualities of it? If I keep the company of clarity, I too will take on the qualities of clarity. If I want to have that beautiful aroma of understanding, then I need to keep the company of understanding."

"Keep the company of light and you will begin to glow like that light. This is the true transformation of a human being."

"Be simple. Be conscious. One second of being conscious will save you from a whole lifetime of trouble."

"People look out at all the things around them as their strength, but believe me -- none of those things will be there to support you. Know yourself. Practice Knowledge."

"If you practice Knowledge, you too will become timeless. And when you do, what do you care about how old you are?"

"In the realm of Knowledge it's always a new beginning."

"The only people who don't seem to respond to this message are the ones who are expired."

"This is the real deal -- the synchronous experience of being with Maharaji."

"What is the true thirst? Who are you? Are you just a puppet built of the papier mache of concept -- or are you something more than that? Pray to God that the answer is 'yes.'"

"We need someone to pay attention to human beings, not just issues. The issues will take care of themselves when we take care of human beings."

"We, as human beings, need to have the biggest faith in ourselves. It behooves everyone to become worthy of the faith of the person next to them. And this is what it means to be a good neighbor."

"Enjoy Knowledge. It just gets better and better and better."

"Enjoy yourself. Have a blast. Learn to be totally inebriated on peace."

Did you know there's no synonym in the thesaurus for "thesaurus"?

And that's exactly how I feel right now as I try to describe what it was like being with Maharaji this past weekend -- once in Miami and once in Gainesville.

When I got back home, two friends asked me what it was like. Though I felt quite divine, my response was cro-magnon at best.

Um...er... uh...ah... uh....

This is precisely why dancing came into existence. Yodelling, too.

And so, in honor of Maharaji and my own inability, at this moment, to string two sentences together, here's a list of metaphors that approximate what it was like being there this weekend.

1. Landing on Free Parking in Monopoly
2. Being rebooted
3. Coming home
4. Going back to Square One, only to discover there was no square. The sides of the square had been removed or were never there in the first place.
5. Being at the most incredible party in the world

6. Finding buried treasure in my own backyard
7. Letting go of everything
8. The first day of Spring
9. Sunbathing on the roof at the top of the world
10. Unplugging from the madness

11. Following the yellow brick road
12. An early Thanksgiving
13. The cherry on top of the sundae I felt no guilt about eating
14. A cool breeze
15. The eye of the storm

16. Falling in love for the first time
17. Putting down my heavy load
18. Opening a present I didn't think I deserved
19. Pushing "pause" on the universal remote
20. A spa for the soul

21. The space between in breath and out
22. Being kissed by the infinite
23. The music Mozart listened to when he was done composing
24. Effortlessly experiencing the virtues all religions espouse
25. The promised land

26. Consciousness revealed
27. A grand slam home run in the bottom of the ninth
28. Happiness squared
29. The breath within the breath
30. The answer to every Zen koan ever asked

31. The blissful breaking of my pinata
32. A diamond cutter's stroke
33. Knocking on heaven's door, only to discover I was knocking from the inside
34. Experiencing that each step is also an arrival
35. Discovering a secret room in my house

36. Receiving a very large inheritance
37. The happy marriage of laughter and tears
38. George Carlin, Mel Brooks, Jonathan Winters, Groucho Marx, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Steven Wright, Peter Sellers, Sid Caesar, Jerry Seinfeld, Henny Youngman, and Chris Rock all laughing at a joke no one told.
39. Surfing Hawaiian waves of love
40. These two whirling dervishes walk into a bar

Feel free to add your own, by clicking on "Post a Comment" below...

Tonight I had the good fortune of being at an event with Maharaji at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach. Here are some excerpts:

"I didn't just give you a glass of water. I talked you into digging a well in your own backyard. Any time you feel thirsty, feel free to go to that well and drink to quench your thirst. Never again will you need to be thirsty. Quench your thirst not once, but every day."

"Yogis are drunk on discipline. Priests are drunk on scriptures. Celibates are drunk on vanity. Monks are drunk on prestige. So what's left for you? What could you possibly get drunk on? I recommend being drunk on peace, being drunk on joy, being drunk on the fulfillment of the quest of a human being."

"Whoever gets touched by the magic of the heart, it's hard to ever be the same again. The next thing you know, you are at the most INCREDIBLE PARTY, inebriated not on prestige or discipline, but on peace, joy, and gratitude. For those of you who have stayed with it, the party is not abating. Welcome to the party -- the party of a lifetime."

"Everything you do externally, there is someone who does it better. But what you do internally... you are the best at that."

"A lot of people say 'I don't have time for all this stuff.' Well, make it your priority. Time is the greatest illusion. Don't be a victim to the illusion. Be clear. Stay focused."

"There are many people here who have received the gift of Knowledge and are coming to the twilight of their lives. But they are not alone. Knowledge is there. Peace! Feel it!"

"The idea is not to create, but to know the one thing inside of you. But not only to know -- to fall in love with that thing inside of you. Then... you will be rewarded. And guess what that reward will be? Peace."

"You are blessed. The hand of God is glued on top of your head. There is no greater blessing given to you. Feel that hand on your head and know you are being kissed by the infinite."

"Feel this breath. Feel this blessing and know there is a God. This is the incredible miracle."

"Every day is a beautiful day. Feel the passion from the depth of your heart. Do you know there is a passion only you can feel, an understanding only you can have, a fulfillment only you are capable of having?"

"Have fun! What is fun? Where truly the heart is entertained. Where truly you are filled with gratitude and joy."

Okie dokie. I'm heading to the airport in an hour to fly to Florida. Going to see Maharaji at an event in Miami on Saturday, then again in Gainesville on Sunday. If you make it to either of these events, I hope to see you there.

Next week I'll do my best to post something here from both events. Until then... count your blessings, have fun, enjoy, breathe deep, and know the only thing not subject to bank closings, stock market crashes, spin doctoring, or mortgages crises is inside you.

That "thing" is what all great teachers from the beginning of time have been talking about. You already have it. The only thing left to do is discover it... pay attention to it... and enjoy it.

Here is the paradox supreme:
What you want you have
and what you have you want.

What you call the path
is merely the way to this understanding.
Do not worry about the next step.
You have already taken it.

In days gone by, classic "seekers" had to endure a ton of trials and tribulations to find what they were looking for. They walked across deserts. They fasted. They hunted for the One in faraway places.

No more. Those days are over. The game has changed. Things have heated up, big time.

Now, that which you are looking for is looking for you. Your inner questing for something timeless, pure, and full of love has been responded to.

Really.

Click here to find out more.