AOM Meditations: 090420

Hibiscus with Plumeria, 1939, by Georgia O'Keeffe

  

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"A lot of things are inherent in life -change, birth, death, aging, illness, accidents, calamities, and losses of all kinds- but these events don't have to be the cause of ongoing suffering. Yes, these events cause grief and sadness, but grief and sadness pass, like everything else, and are replaced with other experiences. The ego, however, clings to negative thoughts and feelings and, as a result, magnifies, intensifies, and sustains those emotions while the ego overlooks the subtle feelings of joy, gratitude, excitement, adventure, love, and peace that come from Essence. If we dwelt on these positive states as much as we generally dwell on our negative thoughts and painful emotions, our lives would be transformed."

~Gina Lake

(What About Now?)

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“The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. Ego implies unawareness. Awareness and ego cannot coexist.”

~Eckhart Tolle

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“Stop traveling to the past and future and come home to the present moment. That is the only place you actually live. If you want your life to have depth and meaning, be present, be mindful, and live with intention. No one is perfect. The important thing is to keep trying and to not beat yourself up over anything you did or didn't do. Just keep moving forward. Remember, you can't change the past. The power you hold to change anything is right now. If you want to improve your life begin with mindfulness, presence, and self-awareness. Do the work to improve the relationship you have with yourself. The present is yours, how will you celebrate it?”

~Akiroq Brost

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“You are not limited to this body, 

to this mind, or to this reality—

you are a limitless ocean of Consciousness, 

imbued with infinite potential. 

You are existence itself.”

~Joseph P. Kauffman

~*~

“What if we are

all temples for the

presents and presence

of divine delight

to shine through?”

~Julia Ostara

AOM Meditations: 061620

Leaves of a Plant by Georgia O'Keeffe

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Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

(A Great Teacher I greatly admire)

“Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong. ... Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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"When you are angry, close your eyes and ears and return to yourself in order to quell the flames. Smile, even if it takes effort... Sit wherever you are, and look deeply. If your concentration is not yet strong, you can go outside and practice walking meditation. Most essential is to water the seed of mindfulness and allow it to arise in your mind consciousness. Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something, just as anger is always anger at something. When you drink a glass of water and are aware that you are drinking a glass of water, that is mindfulness of drinking water. In this case, we produce mindfulness of anger. “Breathing in, I know I am angry. Breathing out, I know that anger is in me.” First the energy of anger arises, and second the energy of mindfulness arises. The second energy embraces the first in order to soothe it and allow it to subside."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

(”Teachings on Love”)

AOM Meditations: 060920

Pink Moon Over Water (1923) by Georgia O'Keeffe 

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“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")”

~Martin Luther King Jr.

(A Knock at Midnight)

AOM Meditations: 021220

Red Canna (1924) by Georgia O'Keeffe

Thanks to our Friend, David, for sending us this beautiful art

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“Be grateful 

for what you already have 

while you pursue your goals.

If you aren’t grateful 

for what you already have, 

what makes you think 

you would be happy with more.”

~Roy T. Bennett

(The Light in the Heart)

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“We can complain 

because rose bushes have thorns, 

or rejoice 

because thorns have roses.”

~Alphonse Karr

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“Acknowledging the good 

that you already have in your life 

is the foundation for all abundance.”

~Eckhart Tolle

AOM Meditations: 092519

Red Canna (1924) by Georgia O'Keeffe

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Motivational Quotes 

from the book, The Light in the Heart

by Roy T. Bennett

“It’s important that what thoughts you are feeding into your mind because your thoughts create your belief and experiences. You have positive thoughts and you have negative ones too. Nurture your mind with positive thoughts: kindness, empathy, compassion, peace, love, joy, humility, generosity, etc. The more you feed your mind with positive thoughts, the more you can attract great things into your life.”

~Roy T. Bennett

(The Light in the Heart)

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“Always believe in yourself and always stretch yourself beyond your limits. Your life is worth a lot more than you think because you are capable of accomplishing more than you know. You have more potential than you think, but you will never know your full potential unless you keep challenging yourself and pushing beyond your own self imposed limits.”

~Roy T. Bennett

(The Light in the Heart)

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“Do not let your negative thoughts have power over you because those thoughts will end up controlling your life. No one can live a positive life with a negative mind.”

~Roy T. Bennett

(The Light in the Heart)

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“It's never too late to change your life for the better. You don't have to take huge steps to change your life. Making even the smallest changes to your daily routine can make a big difference to your life.”

~Roy T. Bennett

(The Light in the Heart)

AOM Meditations: Flowers

by Georgia O'Keeffe

“Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” ~Georgia O'Keeffe

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“The earth laughs in flowers.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar.

Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth.

We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire."

~Diane Ackerman,

(A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, p. 13)

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“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”

~Iris Murdoch

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“I am in awe of flowers.

Not because of their colors,

but because even though they

have dirt in their roots,

they still grow.

They still bloom.”

~D. Antoinette Foy

AOM Meditations: 080219

New York with Moon, 1925, Georgia O'Keeffe

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“To engage fully in life—to learn, to create, to gain insight and awareness, to embrace ourselves and others with kindness and compassion—means allowing ourselves the simple freedom to be wrong, knowing there is no wrong way to be ourselves. Our mistakes are invaluable sources of inspiration and seeds of wisdom, labelled with the stigma of failure without us knowing what may grow from them. Through trial and error we unfold, and there is no shame in the process of blossoming, however inexact it can seem: to bloom is to live. In the freedom to be wrong, to make mistakes, exists the space to question and explore. While conviction narrows our view and hinders our growth, our doubt coupled with curiosity broadens our perspective and consciousness. From awareness comes the opportunity for understanding, and the greater our understanding, the greater our capacity is to accept and to love, to experience the fullness of life.”

~ Quiet Lotus

AOM Meditations: 073119

Lake George by Georgia O'Keeffe

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“Make a pact with yourself today 

to not be defined by your past. 

Sometimes the greatest thing 

to come out of all your hard work 

isn't what you get for it, 

but what you become for it. 

Shake things up today! 

Be You...Be Free...Share.” 

~Steve Maraboli 

(Life, the Truth, and Being Free)

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"Let these words be a reminder of the

unfathomable joy of being 

and a blessing that we may all carry 

the vastness of the world within our hearts."

~Unknown

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"Yesterday 

I was clever, 

so I wanted to change the world. 

Today 

I am wise, 

so I am changing myself."

~Rumi

AOM Meditations: 112917

Pink Sweet Peas 2 (1918) by Georgia O'Keeffe

Thanks to our Friend for sending us this beautiful art

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"We receive mixed messages about taking good care of ourselves.  Love thy neighbor as thyself means to love thyself and thy neighbor. Yet, self-love often is confused with selfishness and conceit. We are selfish when we do not love and accept ourselves, and attempt to take from others to fill the emptiness. Conceit indicates low self-worth and an attempt to conceal it.  It is difficult to extend to others what you have not been able to give yourself. Take good care of yourself so you can care about the rest of us."

~Jennifer James

(Success Is the Quality of Your Journey)

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You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don't know it, all of that doesn't even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It's not like you have forever, so don't waste any of your seconds, don't throw even one of your moments away.

~Unknown

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The catch is, to transmit the highest frequency of love, you must love yourself, and that can be difficult for many. If you focus on the outside and what you see now, you may trip yourself up, because what you see and feel about you now is the result of what you used to think. If you don't love you, the person you see now is likely to be full of faults that you have found in yourself.

To love yourself fully, you must focus on a new dimension of You. You must focus on the presence inside of You. Take a moment and sit still. Focus on feeling the life presence inside you. As you focus on the presence within, it will begin to reveal itself to You. It is a feeling of pure love and bliss, and it is perfection. That presence is the perfection of You. That presence is the real You. As you focus on that presence, as you feel, love, and praise that presence, you will love yourself fully, quite possibly for the first time in your life.

~Rhonda Byrne

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I had always thought self-esteem was a state of being.

Now I realize it's the constant decision to love myself, 

regardless of circumstances, all day long.

~Mary Casey