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Catherine Cardinal, Ph.D.
_The_Ten_Commandments_of_Self-Esteem_
Kansas City: Andrews
McMeel Publishing, 1998 ISBN:
0-8362-5196-2

======================

I. Thou shalt not consort with people
who make thee feel
bad about thyself.

II. Thou shalt cease trying to make
sense out of crazy
behavior.

III. Thou shalt not keep company with
those more
dysfunctional than thyself.

IV. Trust thy body all the days of thy life (thy mind doth
fornicate with thee).

V. Thou hast permission at all times to say "no,"
to change thy mind, and to express thy true feelings.

VI. What is not right for thee is not right for thy
brethren.

VII. Thou shalt not give beyond thine own capacity.

VIII. What thy brethren think of thee mattereth naught.

IX. Wherever thou art, therein also is the party.

X. Thou shalt sing thine own praises all the days of thy
life.

Number (VI) takes a bit of interpretation. She means that
judgmental of myself, being a martyr, giving beyond my
capacity, is not good me, and doesn't benefit others either.

With love,

--Greg
_______________________________________________________________________

"...Beautiful yellow bird!
Why stay for such a fleeting moment?
Why not linger and laugh with me?
We could play hide and seek with Brother Cloud.
Maybe he could catch us with a raindrop, Or if we annoy him
enough, a hailstone.

...Delicate lavender flower, Why do you keep your petals
drawn tightly over your yellow center?
Come open your arms with me to the light of Brother Sun.
Touch my center with both your lights and Rejoice with me in
knowing our Father's love.

...Sister Moon!
How lovely you are this morning high and full o'er the
Divine.
Last night you illuminated my path.
I pray your light now illuminates my soul, making us one in
praise of the Light of our Father.

...Brother Wolf!
What a surprise!
How can you be here on this mountain?
Are you an apparition? a dream?
No, dreams don't sniff campfire ashes, dart glances and then
mark the nearest tree.
But do come back!
You could step inside my area, We could race together or
hike up the trail or you could curl at my feet while I write
of our Father's wonders.

...May I be born Again to you this day.
Take all my possessions Before your Heart they lay.
See me stand here naked and reborn All I own is yours Heart
and head are shorn.
So we are One From this day to the last, I am in Your
service The Eternal Die is cast"

~~Foolish girl before she was foolish old woman
______________________________________________________________

Today I'm called brave. Yesterday I was called a coward.

One thing about being constantly 'characterized' by other
people: It begins to get very easy to see the emptiness of
such "tags".

Even though you're 'dead' I'm holding you in my heart
tonight. May your pathway be clear.

love, Melody

Melody, is it not that we are all these things?

Brave cowards, constantly tagging ourselves with useless
drinks of caffinated bells and whistles?

And as I've seen of *You*, the Divine Honest Expression of
Human prevails!

You hold me purely, in the One place, this lonely only
night.

Thank you for answering.

FreeheartavecJava. :-)
__________________________________________________________________

I have not approached anything with intuition and feelings
because I never did trust such things in myself... I had
been too wrong too often with such hurtful consequences to
have any faith in my own judgement, so I needed total proof
and logic for everything... I had no other way of knowing
what was real.

Now I have finally found something real... nothing left to
say... just happy :-)

--Annie
_________________________________________________________________

Today I'm called brave. Yesterday I was called a coward.
--Melody

Like Whitman, we "contain multitudes." Today I am Shiva,
Destroyer Of Worlds, tommorrow I sooth my son's fevered
brow. It is all love, all "God." --Bruce

One thing about being constantly 'characterized' by other
people: It begins to get very easy to see the emptiness of
such "tags". --Melody

The "tags" of others are ephemeral -- it is the internal,
constantly nurtured and reenergized "tags" comprising self-
image that attempt to persist in denial of their transient
nature. It is these that are our real -- and deadly serious
-- challenge. --Bruce
____________________________________________________________________

This is from "Talks With Ramana Maharshi"

January 23, 1937

Mrs. Jennings, an American lady, asked the following
questions:

Devotee: Is not affirmation of God more effective than the
quest, "Who am I?" Affirmation is positive, whereas the
other is negation. Moreover, it indicates separateness.
Maharshi: So long as you seek to know how to realize, this
advice is given to find your Self. Your seeking the method
denotes your separateness.
D: Is it not better to say, "I am the Supreme Being" than
ask, "Who am I?
M: Who affirms? There must be one to do it. Find that one.
D: Is not meditation better than investigation?
M: Meditation implies mental imagery, whereas investigation
is for the Reality. The former is objective, whereas the
latter is subjective.
D: There must be a scientific approach to this subject.
M: To avoid unreality and seek Reality is scientific.
D: I mean there must be a gradual eliminaton, first of the
mind, then of the intellect, and finally of the ego.
M: The Self alone is Real. All others are unreal. The mind
and the intellect do not remain apart from you.
The Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God." Stillness
is the sole requisite for realization of the Self as God.
D: Will the West ever understand this teaching?
M: There is no question of time and space. Understanding
depends on ripeness of mind. What does it matter if one
lives in the East or the West?

Later Sri Bhagavan said the whole Vedanta is contained in
two Biblical statements: "I Am that I Am" and "Be still and
know that I am God."

--contributed by Larry
___________________________________________________________

Hi Melody. Said I would write tonight.

Unlike the deck of dead words, I thought it would be
something present to share my day.

I taunted your ever fertile and very real world. Almost
trying to say that the violence attempted to be avoided, was
just what pushed me through to realization.

What you sow, so shall you reap. And besides starting some
interesting ripples, It did come right on back to me, just
as it should.

Two days ago, I connected the result of both the August
grand cross eclipse, and the related one of last week. Some
do have the passion, purpose to speak. Something I have had
no will to do.

The communication to me (perceived) was to do what I do
anyway. Talk. So I placed an Intention, to stop
resisting. And I spoke first to sadhana.

Last nite, I met some new friends of Erin's.
We were invited to a healing circle, held by persons of
quite young age. I had no idea what would happen.

The host, a 21 year old named Tuc, a brilliant, explosive,
vibrating powerhouse of joy, enthusiasm, and unworldly
knowledge. The connection was intense. the rest of the
small group - all under 19 - had been gathering, drawn by an
attraction to, of all people, Ramana Marharishi. The purpose
of Tuc's basement of his parent's house gathering, was to
study something new to me:
Flower of Life. This is activation of Mar-ka-ba (?)
energy spinning. I will share more as I am able to even
begin to wrap my brain around what was shared.

I told Tuc that my Intention to speak, long resisted, had
probably created the possibility of our meeting.

Now the violence. Returning home, we were stopped by
police. No reason, you know they have that strange, yet
often bothersome tendency. Discussing this once reaching
home - more police - this time parked in front of the house,
shining a spot light against the front window curtains, as
Erin and I sat noticing. They left.

I went for coffee this morning and received a 36 dollar
parking ticket, for having my car one foot into a no parking
zone. All this unrelated, of course.

This evening, Wild Oats, a very unreliable organization run
by two Lawyers in Bolder, Colorado, decided to save money
(?) in this incredibly prosperous market, cutting 25% of the
Kansas City stores budgets, causing not only a demotion for
Erin, but additionally, limits on the employee discounts for
food. Erin quit.

Now, Melody, what would you do?

Let Go?

Or eat the body of Christ?

I am dead.

And I speak.

No control needed.

No fear.

No stopping.

Love,
Freeheart.
___________________________________________________________________

...the apparent dichotomy between choice and no-choice isn't
ultimately real. Because there isn't any such ultimate
dichotomy, the entity that appears to exist as a
choice-maker ultimately isn't there. What is the difference
between "ultimate" and "temporal," or "absolute" and
"relative"? The difference is merely a matter of
perspective. Nothing disconnects or separates the ultimate
from the temporal, or the absolute from the relative. This
means the choice-maker is never real, never there -
regardless of thought-forms that construct such a
choice-maker and insist that this choice-maker is necessary
for "this plane of existence".
--Dan Berkow
__________________________________________________________________

You are subjectivity without any objective qualities what so
ever. A simple straight forward search for who you are will
lead you to this realization. All questions, doubts,
confusions, joys, and sorrows are objective manifestations
of subjectivity. The outward appearance of dwelling in
subjectivity is alone and silent. The wise say this is God.
That is for you to find out.

This is it. You can do it.

Larry
____________________________________________________________________
From a choiceless engineer I follow the path that
materializes "step by step", as in a directed dream in the
minds of those that are part of the One with me. --Dan
(Manchine)
____________________________________________________________________

Dave: "When all the hearts are in the space we know, then it
will be quiet here."

+++ when all the hearts are aligned in space, and it is
quiet here..
the next rhythm will be known, the next voice heard, the
next step taken, the next breathe inspired.
choicelessly... voicelessly...
symbiosis of individual cells within One.

what engenders 'alignment?

The creative tension of chaos?... shakti-shiva?

Integrity: a function of facility of heart-dance through the
appearance of opposites aware of the intelligent, fluid
'soup' of Love.

Is this how any of you see it?

Christiana ..... 'waxing' again.
______________________________________________________________________

A couple of months ago I read something that hit me in the
head like a rock - in a nutshell - that compassion and
self-pity go hand in hand.
When self pity is gone, compassion also disappears - the
void to be filled with a deeper understanding of 'things'...
I reflected on this for weeks but just couldn't seem to wrap
my brain around it. Didn't make sense - now this little
piece comes up, which seems to exemplify the above nutshell.

My quest for years has been to perceive the world with my
heart ie compassion...Have I unwittingly been giving myself
the wrong directions
- in effect, perpetuating self-pity as a means to
compassion?
Is there a subtext in my inner dialogue that I'm unaware of
that triggers and maintains my own self -pity??
An insidious allusion of the ego using compassion for self
preservation?

Bewildered

John

Hi John,

There's a big difference between compassion and pity(whether
pity for self or others). Compassion is suffering with, if
I feel compassion towards you, that means I am feeling what
you are feeling, there is no subject-object division, in
compassion we are one. If I feel pity towards you on the
other hand, that means I am feeling sorry for you, it's
objective, I am standing apart from you. In self-pity, I am
split, I am standing apart from myself and feeling sorry for
myself, identifying and holding a part of myself that hurts
and wishing it was better.

love, andrew

Dear John:

Touching touches. Thank you for posting to me. I also read
your earlier post re: self-pity and compassion...and I think
you're on to something here. To come to those realizations
for oneself is one thing. To foist them on others is quite
another. Not that you have done that, but I do feel that
has been done to Melody. Nothing can be done to anyone
against their will...this is spiritually true, but to not
know that renders the truth meaningless or at least
useless. A person struggling with a profound wound has only
the tools they know of to work with. To contribute to a
safe space in their psyche that facilitates the trust that
other tools may exist and will reveal themselves is
infinitely more helpful than telling them their tools are
inadequate and wrong-minded...even if they are. Truth is a
funny thing. Or rather, truth is a funny thing. To say
someone is wrong is a function of truth; to say, through
action, connection and light, by demonstrating that it is
so, rather than didactically insisting that it must be so,
that the One is always right, the Way is always proper, and
Wholeness reigns is a function of Truth.

One's own path has all the proper tools for that Self. Let
us share our tools, but not force the borrowing. Anyway,
that's my opinion! LOL, for what it's worth.

Much love, Kristi
___________________________________________________________________

Thank you, thank you, the mercedes de acosta story moved me
profoundly. I look forward to exploring the rest of your
website.

I also read the barry long sites sent in by KKT and victor,
thank you both. Very interesting. There is something
awesome about this spacious empty land of Australia that
gives birth to inhabitants who have a great love for the
body of God and see Self absolutely undivided from in the
body of manifestation. There is another man living in Byron
bay on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, called
richard. He has a website called "Actual Freedom". He
claims to have awoken beyond enlightenment as does U.G
Krishnamurti and experienced the death of emotionalism and
now lives in the *actual reality* of the body. Its
important to him also that man and woman come to know peace
with each other, as barry long is talking about. I even
wondered whether they were the same person :-)

skye


Your website is great, Laura.
--Jerry

I agree! Getting better "day by day." Starting to look
like a full-time publishing enterprise!
--Greg

Laura Olshansky wrote:

Newish stuff on http://www.realization.org (actually, all
these items have been on our website for one or two days)...
____________________________________________________________________
This talk of "worms" and "kisses" reminded me of when I was
out gardening one day. My young son went over and picked up
a worm, carefully washed it off in the water and then kissed
it! I was impressed that he at least washed it off first.
Perhaps he's a bhakta (devotional type)? I don't think such
behavior can be explained by heredity.

Roger
____________________________________________________________________

Old Hag makes an NDS sloppy joe (that's a big, messy,
delicious, fun sandwich):

Puttin' all my replies from one digest on one post (victim
of dysfunctional potty trainin' ya know under guise of
spontaneous arising compassion for those who detest myriad
posts in mailboxes.)

I want a chat where I can talk to OH and gen and Erin and
Eric. I vote for asking escribe to put it back like it was.
andrew
~~~Go, andrew! Stamp that precious foot! (thx, dear lad).

A. oh oh

~~~Did someone call?
Someone with a big shaggy dog? Not now, Annie dear, maybe
"Tomorrow."
(oh, been just waitin' to say that ,^)))

A. oh oh That's what my first husband said.

~~egad! You mean we had the same first husband TOO?

oh: and i had to sell...but where was i?
:....Yeah, best to not go there.

~~~LOL! Takes one to know one!
Been there a few times, have ye?
lalala...Love for sale...lalala...
how you doin' sweetheart sis?
love you.

To Melodearly:
Gassho from garbage pile - i see biiiig change in your
responses lately, dear, and for you to not respond in role
another may have set up for you, and to say that you now see
that you put your own hand in the fire seems to this feeble
brain, a significant awakening - congratulations!
If i got that wrong, gassho anyway! ,^))

Roger: This talk of "worms" and "kisses" reminded me of when
I was out gardening one day. My young son went over and
picked up a worm, carefully washed it off in the water and
then kissed it! I was impressed that he at least washed it
off first. Perhaps he's a bhakta (devotional type)? I
don't think such behavior can be explained by heredity.

~~~LOL ....Just love it! Thx for unwrinkling old heart for
while! Your son sounds like such a darlin'. At what point
do we (the big S) suck the "spontaneously arising
compassion" from our dear young ones, eh?
Not heredity? Hmm...Seems in your elegant posts, you been
kissin' a lot of worms. ,^))


To Eric:
Been enjoyin' the way you choose - egads i used "the" word!
here comes Annie - not now, Annie dear, maybe "Tomorrow"
(oh, said that before, didn't i?...lol) to set your words
down....all lined up there like intriguing, playful, but
sage toys, sorta like a NDS Toystory..... Perhaps you and
Erin dear
- and Annie delight, too! can come visit garbage pile
sometime, share week-old olive and mushroom choiceless
Boboli and a pot of IndulgenceOK Tea - very fine.

To Christiana:
Did not understand one word of what you posted dear, but it
made pile brighter, so maybe it was beyond feeble brain to
decipher, but something Full of Light must be shinin' outta
there - ,^)) Love you, dearest.

,^))...yes, am in very silly mood tonight...how full is that
moon? or maybe it was C's post or old Dan PrettyhipDude
(Where has Shane dear gone? dreams gettin' skimpy
lately)....probably wise nonsense...or maybe old
woman just did not have a choice!

Maybe tomorrow....will be a wiser day! Who knows? and who
gives a friggin' care? hohohohoho....

love to all, oh
_______________________________________________________________________
annie asked:

By the way what does 'btw' stand for?

Bruce responded:
This is just too perfect in its utterly complete
circularity. The question literally contains the answer!
:-)

Thank you, Annie

Much love -- Bruce

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