The DAILY GURU...Love Yourself

Love Yourself
"If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"
-- Rob Bremer

Thanks to the power of our inner critics, most of us have a very poor opinion of ourselves. Yet self-contempt merely keeps us miserable and stuck in our mediocrity. If we were to make only one change to transform the quality of our lives, we might try sending a little love our own way.

"A critic is a legless man who teaches running."
-- Channing Pollock

"Unkind criticism is never part of a meaningful critique of you. Its purpose is not to teach or to help, its purpose is to punish."
-- Barbara Sher

The DAILY GURU...Seek Union Over Separation

Seek Union Over Separation"Beliefs separate. Loving thoughts unite."
-- Paul Ferrini

Our ego focuses on how we are different from the rest of the world. Our soul lives when we experience how we are the same. Any time you separate yourself from other people or from situations, you know your personality is in control. At such times, shift your perspective to build connection and you will move into soul. As our picture of life becomes larger, more things make sense and we have a greater playing field for life to unfold - naturally.

"As a holistic being you shatter the illusion of your separateness and reveal your connection to everything. This empowers you in a way that the ego-driven self could never contemplate."
-- Wayne Dyer

The DAILY GURU...What Drives You?

What Drives You?"
Your life has to do with the agenda that has been set for you by you, by that part of you that we've come to call, in our language, your soul."
-- Neale Donald Walsch

Our purpose in life has a spiritual foundation.
Our MAJOR LIFE ISSUES are usually of 3 types:
give me a sec
- physical and POWER-ORIENTED, like making our stand and being more courageous.
- emotional and LOVE-ORIENTED, like expressing and receiving love, compassion and nurturing others.
- mental and INTELLECT-ORIENTED, like developing our minds and creating new things and processes.
"Our prayers are answered not when we are given what we ask, but when we are challenged to be what we can be."
-- Morris Adler

The DAILY GURU...Seek The Inner Cause Of Problems

"When you arrive at your future, will you blame your past?"
-- Robert Half

What holds you back from being and doing more?
In your journal, list what you believe is holding you back.
Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself?
It's important to understand that ALL problems are rooted inside us.
Even the blocks that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back an issue we have inside that we have not yet owned.
Once we address our inner issue, the outer situation no longer troubles us.
The buck always stops with us.
We step into our power when we accept responsibility for our lives.
"The most self-destructive thought that any person can have is thinking that he or she is not in total control of his or her life.
That's when, 'Why me?' becomes a theme song."
-- Roger Dawson"

...look at that word blame.
It's just a coincidence that the last two letters spell the word me.
But that coincidence is worth thinking about. Other people or unfortunate circumstances may have caused you to feel pain, but only you control whether you allow that pain to go on.
If you want those feelings to go away, you have to say:
'It's up to me.'"
-- Arthur Freeman

"Don't make excuses -- make good."-- Elbert Hubbard

The DAILY GURU...Opportunity

Opportunity

"We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
-- Margaret Mead

"A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."
-- Francis Bacon

"What is opportunity, and when does it knock?
It never knocks.
You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking.
None at all.
You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny.
You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live -- with your self-respect alive and growing."

-- Maxwell Maltz

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

Seek the inner cause of problems"When you arrive at your future, will you blame your past?"
-- Robert Half

What holds you back from being and doing more?
In your journal, list what you believe is holding you back.Have you blamed people or factors outside of yourself?
It's important to understand that ALL problems are rooted inside us.
Even the blocks that appear to be outside of us are only reflecting back an issue we have inside that we have not yet owned.
Once we address our inner issue, the outer situation no longer troubles us.
The buck always stops with us.
We step into our power when we accept responsibility for our lives.
"The most self-destructive thought that any person can have is thinking that he or she is not in total control of his or her life. That's when, 'Why me?' becomes a theme song."
-- Roger Dawson"

...look at that word blame.
It's just a coincidence that the last two letters spell the word me.
But that coincidence is worth thinking about. Other people or unfortunate circumstances may have caused you to feel pain, but only you control whether you allow that pain to go on.
If you want those feelings to go away, you have to say:
'It's up to me.'"
-- Arthur Freeman"

Don't make excuses -- make good."--
Elbert Hubbard

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

Security

"Let us never confuse stability with stagnation." -- Mary Jean LeTendre

"Many people think that by hoarding money they are gaining safety for themselves. If money is your ONLY hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a person can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. Without these qualities, money is practically useless." -- Henry Ford

"One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing." -- Morris L. West "One thing we can do is make the choice to view the world in a healthy way. We can choose to see the world as safe with only moments of danger rather than seeing the world as dangerous with only moments of safety." -- Deepak Chopra

"The only peace, the only security, is in fulfillment." -- Henry Miller

The DAILY GURU...No Need For Comparison

No need for comparison "Nothing is good or bad but by comparison."

-- Thomas Fuller

We are each unique, so comparing ourselves to others serves no purpose. Even comparing myself to how I was a while back is not usually helpful. Typically, comparison just brings the ego a false sense of either superiority or inferiority.

If we let go of comparison and choose instead to completely accept where we are, we can enjoy both peace and growth. "Do not judge and you will never be mistaken."

-- Jean Jacques Rousseau

The DAILY GURU...Know Your Motives

Saturday 16th Of April 2005

"As long as one keeps searching, the answers come."
-- Joan Baez

Why? Why? Why?
Asking ourselves 'why?' helps us delve deeply into our main motives -- why we do what we do. This process helps us go deeper into our reasoning, habits and unconscious beliefs. Once we become aware of our underlying motives, we can choose to change them, if we wish.

Regularly ask yourself, "Why am I ...?" Listen closely for the answer that surfaces in your mind, and write it down. Now look at your answer and ask why again. Continue with this process to reach the true source of your motivation.

"Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else ...." -- Archibald Alexander

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

"Only when we can love hell will we find heaven."-- Unknown source

People often view the spiritual path as a search for the light. In truth, spirituality asks us to bring light and darkness together in wholeness. And in fact, this is the only possible solution. In our world of duality, any effort to focus all attention on the light only serves to increase the power of the darkness. Our aim is not to deny or reject anything but to embrace it all.

"When you are able to contain both the light and dark together, that is a very enlightening state. It means that you no longer have to choose one experience over another. You do not have to choose love OR hate, blame OR forgiveness, sadness OR joy, anger OR openheartedness. You are no longer polarized; no particular feeling boxes you in and keeps you from the light of true self. You then have access to the full range of human experiences you came into this life to embrace."

-- Martia Nelson

The DAILY GURU...Spend Time With Your Soul

"Be mindful of how you approach time. Watching the clock is not the same as watching the sun rise."
-- Sophia Bedford-Pierce

What would your soul consider a waste of time?

To a soul, the only real time is right NOW.

Not the future or the past. It lives in connecting deeply with the rich experience of each moment. Through awareness we can be in touch with our authentic self and how it perceives all of the energies and guidance around and within us.

"Chronos is clocks, deadlines, watches, calendars, agendas, planners, schedules, beepers. Chronos is time at her worst. Chronos keeps track. ...Chronos is the world's time. Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, love, the Sacred. Kairos is intimacy with the Real. Kairos is time at her best. ...Kairos is Spirit's time. We exist in chronos. We long for kairos. That's our duality. Chronos requires speed so that it won't be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. We do in chronos. In kairos we're allowed to be ... It takes only a moment to cross over from chronos into kairos, but it does take a moment. All that kairos asks is our willingness to stop running long enough to hear the music of the spheres."
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses."
-- Horace

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

"Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with knowing we are of genuine use to others."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Holding an intention to be in service shapes our overall attitude towards life in many ways.
For example, it brings a greater sensitivity and awareness of others, a commitment to harmlessness, a willingness to put others' needs before our own and a desire to be in harmony with all.

An attitude of service also involves a willingness to be served when we truly need support.

". There is no such thing as just existing. Everything is in service to everything else. Existence is giving and receiving. A stone gives and receives no less than a saint."

-- Jacob Needleman

Sunday 10th Of April 2005

"A person obsessed with the need to be happy will never be so. The obsession is the obstruction. He does not really seek happiness, rather, he seeks for a condition which matches his personal idea regarding the nature of happiness.
But happiness is not a mere idea, for one idea will always have competition from another idea. That is why the unhappy man chases for ever from one attraction to another.Happiness will come when he stops chasing, that is, when he stops thinking that an idea about happiness is the same as happiness.
A man enjoying the sunshine does so without analyzing it."....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

"It may seem paradoxical, but when we take full responsibility for our lives, all responsibility disappears. Men have the illusion of having a duty to make the world spin properly, which is precisely what makes it wobble. The world spins all by itself, with us as a connected part of its whole operation. By taking the responsibility to understand this, false effort, false guilt, and false responsibility change into wholeness."

....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

"Q: I admit that money making is almost an obsession with me. If I could just resist it I could get somewhere with my inner life.

A: You must resist nothing. If you merely repress your desire for riches, you will never understand. Go ahead and earn all the moneyyou want, but continue with your inner work. The time will comewhen money ceases to cause conflict."

....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance Wednesday 4th Of April 2005

"Q: We are all looking for something, not knowing what it is.

A: It is something not presently a solid part of your psychic system.That is why you cannot define it. Let this simple fact both explainand encourage. Your sensing of another world is quite correct, and with knowledgeable vigilance you will find it. Though you cannot presently see or describe the castle beyond the thick woods, it is definitely there."

....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

"To gain more knowledge for yourself, you must give whatyou have already received. An airplane pilot can raisehimself to a higher altitude only by also raising hispassengers. This does not necessarily mean to become ateacher; it means to naturally radiate whatever truth youhave acquired. This radiation is as effortless as sun rays.

The only gift we have for the world, and the onlyworthwhile gift, is a portion of Cosmic Sanity. If we havereplaced stubborn self-will with Cosmic Sanity, it will besensed and received by all who want the gift.

Not all want the gift. But some do. You will know them.They will know you. You have something in common inwhich there is no sense of competition. You may talk aboutit, but at other times you will look at each other with silent understanding."....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance

"Q. How can we break harmful habits?

A. Habits are unconscious and mechanical, so you must make them conscious. If you have the habit of nervous haste, deliberately move more slowly.
This makes you uncomfortable, which forces you to observe the habit. With full awareness, it falls away."

....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance Saturday 2nd Of April 2005

"Your hike toward a higher life passes thru three main areas:

1. Exploration of yourself.
2. Exploration of human society.
3. Exploration of Higher Truth.

1. Self-exploration must come first. Out of this self-knowledge grows favor- able change, both within yourself and in exterior events. Feeling as if they live dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, people want to rebel against fearful conditions, but they don't know who or what to rebel against. This unpleasant feeling fades as they become students of the secret life. They move away from scary inner places to high and safe ground. With self-wisdom this can also be your new residence.

2. Your exploration of human society reveals many surprises. You may have heard that people are not what they seem-now you shockingly see its full horror for yourself. Gone are all the dangerous delusions that people are basically nice and will express love if just given a chance. If given a chance they will grab your gifts and attack you for not giving more. But you need not be the victim of a society in which man hunts man. One of your finest discoveries is that a cruel man can't be in two places at one time. Wherever he is, you can be elsewhere.

3. Higher Truth awaits the explorer who has happily lost confidence in human solutions. Your real purpose in life is to discover how spiritual medicine cures personal ills. This is also your delight. The cure begins as you see how society has given you certain roles to play which at first look like fun but which finally turn into nightmares. Haunted humans are frustrated hourly by trying to live up to society's demands to be financially or socially successful. Don't listen to defeated society. Your pleasant duty is to unlearn all such nonsensical roles and live your own free life in your own sunny way.

Like an interesting life? These discoveries offer the only truly interesting life there is. Take all you want."

....VERNON HOWARD

The DAILY GURU...Daily Spiritual Guidance Friday 1st Of April 2005

"No human being on earth has power to do anything for you or against you.
If you can see the significance of this, your relations withspouse, friend, and stranger undergo bright transformation.

You will never seek to influence others, you will never worry whether they like you or not, you will be at peace with everyone, even though theyare not at peace with you. But this must be seen with the spiritual mind, the Supermind, not with human logic or conditioned reasoning."

....VERNON HOWARD