The Cat's Meow
  Issue 11, Vol. 4 Pensive Cat
March 6, 2005  


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Indian Meditation

The Meditating Cat grows spiritually with resources from The Cat's Meow!

Where shall this self at last find happiness?
O Soul, only in nothingness.
Does not the Earth suffice to its own needs?
And what am I but one of the Earth's weeds?
All things have been and all things shall go on
Before me and when I am gone;
This self that cries out for eternity
Is what shall pass in me:
The tree remains, the leaf falls from the tree.
I would be as the leaf, I would be lost
In the identity and death of frost,
Rather than draw the sap of the tree's strength
And for the tree's sake be cast off at length.
To be is homage unto being; cease
To be, and be at peace,
If it be peace for self to have forgot
Even that it is not.

Arthur Symons (1865-1945)

Reprinted from Life's Adventures




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The Wellspring
by Dan Joseph

Happy Kitty shares the Love.

In our society, romantic love is considered by many people to be the key to happiness. If you can find the right partner, and develop the right type of relationship, you're going to be transported to a higher, happier life -- or so the promises go.

This, unfortunately, keeps many people in a constant search. Is she the right one? He seems interesting -- maybe he's the one I'm supposed to be with. This one is OK, but I'm really looking for someone with more sparks. And so on.

The search can be endless. And even upon finding an interesting mate, many people find that the initial fireworks eventually cool down. They begin to feel the old loneliness creeping back in. Many begin to look for a new partner at this point.

Countless spiritual teachings -- including A Course in Miracles -- encourage us to take a new approach. Love, they say, isn't found-and-taken from someone else. Instead, it's found-and-given from within.

We each have a wellspring of divine love within us -- the "living waters" as a friend calls it. In this world, it's easy to forget this. We feel thirsty for love, and it seems reasonable to seek externally for what we're lacking.

But that search ends in disappointment. In a way, this is a good thing. For if we truly needed to search the world for a particular person, and "hold on" to that person in order to get a sense of love, we'd be trapped.

Thankfully, there is a far better approach. Instead of searching externally for love, we can begin to unblock the wellspring of love within us -- and let that love radiate out into the world. As God's Love flows through us, it also flows to us. And the more of that Love we extend, the more we have for ourselves.

There are so many opportunities in this world to give -- there are so many people in need. A kind word, a smile, or even a loving thought toward a stranger can lift us up. These little thoughts and acts are precious. As we practice extending the love within us, it becomes stronger in our awareness. We find that we have even more to give.

Even in romantic relationships, this is true. The most beautiful romances I have seen are those where both people focus on giving, rather than taking. They have abandoned their attempts to "get" love from the other, and have uncovered the abundance of love within. The relationship then becomes a temple of giving -- a place into which they can flow forth kindness, tenderness, and support. It's a blessed thing.

This season, I invite you to seek out that love within you, and begin to share it in whatever way you feel inspired. The people around you need that living water. And as you give it to them, you will find that it grows ever-stronger within yourself.


Reprinted from Quiet Mind Newsletter


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Trust the Process
by John Harricharan

Accept the Light, then reflect it by your shining!

I want to tell you a little story. It happened during my first year in college. I was sitting in my dormitory room late one night, studying for a chemistry test scheduled for early the following morning.

Tests seemed to be a major part of my life in those days. I longed for the time when I would never have to take another quiz, study for one more test or await the results of final exams.

I took a break from the chemistry book to reflect on the injustices of life.

The food in the cafeteria seemed designed for nutrition and not enjoyment. The professors were unfair, so many projects, too much homework, too little time, too much this and too little that.

Shaking my head, I reached for a book a friend had dropped off the day before, leaned back in my chair, and switched my attention away from studying, at least for a short while. I looked at the title of the book. It was "The Night They Burned the Mountain," by Dr. Thomas Anthony Dooley.

I casually flipped the book open and thought I'd skim a few pages. My eyes settled on a sentence that was to determine, to a great extent, the path my life would take. The words read, "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

I looked once more at the words. They seemed to burn into my mind. I closed the book, went back to my chemistry book, studied for another hour and went to bed.

Before falling asleep, I looked at my professors in a different light. Instead of seeing them as demons intent on making my life miserable, I now saw them as dedicated teachers trying to impart their knowledge and wisdom to me. Perhaps the cafeteria food was not so bad after all. Tests were there so that we could measure ourselves of today against ourselves of yesterday.

What Dr. Dooley said to me that night, many years ago was this: Bring light into the situation, don't berate the darkness; be grateful for what you have, don't be angry at what you don't have; change the way you look at events and the events will change the way they appear to you.

I took the test the next day and got an "A". From that day on, I realized that the circumstances and events around us somehow reflected our inner landscape.

That perspective is important and by changing the way I look at my world, I could change my very world.

Decades have come and gone since that first year in college. I have acquired various degrees in chemistry, mathematics and business and have worked in the hallowed halls of corporate America. I have written best-selling books and have lectured from Sidney, Australia to San Francisco, California; from Bali, Indonesia to Bombay, India.

There are many things I have done and still many more I have left undone. Yet, wherever I go or whatever I do, I use as one of my guideposts in life, "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." Those words have stood me in good stead through the darkest nights of my soul.

I heard again Dr. Dooley's voice when I stood at the deathbed of my wife. It kept my company through the loss of my business. It was with me when my car was repossessed and when they foreclosed on my house.

Times have changed dramatically since my journeys through the "Valley of the Shadow." But have times really changed or have I changed the way I look at things? Life is a lot more pleasant now or could it be that I have learned how to look at life differently?

Change the way you look at life and life will appear the way you look at it.

Look for the good in everything and the good in everything will look right back at you. The way I figure it, you could berate the thorns on the rosebush or tenderly pick a rose and enjoy its beauty.

Perspective, choose it and use it. Use it or lose it. The Universe is biased on your side. Trust the process.

John Harricharan is an award-winning author, speaker and the creator of the ground-breaking "PowerPause" system for success. He has shared the lecture platform with such well-known speakers as Deepak Chopra, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Og Mandino, Eric Butterworth, C. Everett Koop and others. Visit his web site at http://www.insight2000.com

Reprinted from One Question To Success Chronicles



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