Ed leading international online meditation via Australia today
(I finally got a chance to visit Australia!😃🇦🇺🦘)
Ed leading international online meditation via Australia today
(I finally got a chance to visit Australia!😃🇦🇺🦘)
Posted in 2022, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, Ganesha, grace, gratitude, happiness, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, mental silence, reality, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged austra, fulfillment, inner freedom, joy, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, ShriMataji.org
I’ve enjoyed sixty-three Christmases with family and friends. Most of them were at home in the suburbs just south of Vancouver, and in the charming old heart of Vienna. A few were in rural India. One was in New Jersey, and one in North Carolina.
Although all of these occasions bring back colourful memories of abundance and joy, one of the most memorable happened when I was, internally and externally, quite down and out — at the bottom of a long dive that was about to transform into a steady ascent that is still bringing me higher and higher today.
Forty years ago, Christmas 1981 (before portable telephones, personal computers, The Internet, etc.) I was living in a ‘shack by the railroad track’, on the edge of a wealthy neighbourhood. At this time of my life I used to have my place open to parties with local peers on the weekends. On Monday I would cash-in all the beer bottles to buy a bit of food for the week.
My fridge was always empty (except for all the alcohol from Friday to Sunday). On this occasion I came back to my humble home late Christmas evening and opened the fridge for some reason. I can’t describe to you my utter surprise when I FOUND IT PACKED FULL OF EVERY IMAGINABLE FOOD! Although I tried to find out who did it, none of my many smiling friends would admit to doing the deed. I still don’t know.
When I moved back to Canada twenty years later, a mature married man who had traveled the world and enjoyed undreamed of wonderful experiences, it was about a year before I ran into one of the old crowd (back in the 1970s, a couple hundred teenagers, and then young adults, in North Delta). My heart sprang open and my chest was filled with gravity-defying mirth! Then that same day I ran into three more old buddies in various locations, between ten and thirty kilometers apart, something I consider nothing less than a miracle. (As a result I ended up organizing a reunion that brought about a hundred and fifty of us back together for a nostalgic gathering.)
One thing that life has taught me is that Friendship is the highest form of love (collective consciousness). Even in a family, if the members aren’t ‘friends’, there’s no real bond.
May the whole world become a family of best friends.
Merry Christmas 2021!
Lots of love,
Ed Saugstad
(more here: https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top-reloaded/ )
Posted in 2021, Christmas, collective consciousness, Ed Saugstad, family, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, gratitude, happiness, holiday, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, party, smile, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, wonder
Tagged 1981, 2021, Christmas, friendship, gratitude, hope, joy
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, art, Austria, benevolence, Brigitte Saugstad, creativity, Diwali, enlightenment, friendship, Ganesha, GoldenGaneshArt.com, Happy Diwali!, heart, hope, India, inspiration, life, light, love, smile, spirituality, talent, well-being
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, ceramic art, enlightenment, Happy Diwali!, hope, joy, life, smile
Brigitte and I happened to see a documentary last night (in German on Austrian national television) about the life of Prince Philip’s mother. Wow! And we think we have difficulties sometimes! A very spiritually oriented person, obviously a deep seeker, she went through hell (not just personal, but also, dealing with others, like bandaging soldiers with missing body parts on war’s frontlines as Princess of Greece and Denmark) but was able to maintain her benevolent, selfless attitude.
—————————-
Prince Philip’s life was chockfull of drama and controversy with his three sisters being married to Nazis.
However, the one person in his family who was known far and wide for her noble services was his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.
Despite links to the Nazis, Princess Alice was honoured for rescuing the lives of Jews during the Holocaust, before she turned into a nun.
The life lived by Queen Victoria’s great-granddaughter was filled with spirituality and struggles as she was born congenitally deaf but could speak clearly.
The family was exiled from Greece and had to settle in Paris where Alice found solace in religion and was said to have started hearing voices that she claimed were divine messages.
Alice was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had her womb irradiated with x-rays to thwart her supposed sexual desires, upon the advice of Sigmund Freud.
She was then admitted to a Swiss sanatorium against her wishes when her son was nine years old. She stayed there for two years and after her release, remained homeless, seeking refuge in a number of German inns.
It wasn’t until her daughter Cécilie passed away in a plane crash in 1937 that she met Philip again, then 16 years old.
She eventually found a home in Athens, Greece and was known to have given shelter to a Jewish family during World War II at the top floor of her house.
She was honoured by the Holocaust center Yad Vashem in Israel, which in 1993 bestowed her with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.
She sold last of her jewels to establish her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary after which she formed a convent and an orphanage in Athens.
She spent her last years in Buckingham Palace with her son after she was forced to leave Greece in 1967 following a military coup.
Before she passed away in 1969, she had inked a heartfelt note for Philip, her youngest child, that read: “Dearest Philip, Be brave, and remember I will never leave you, and you will always find me when you need me most. All my devoted love, your old Mama.”
Posted in 2021, benevolence, children, courage, endearing, forgiveness, friendship, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, Greece, happiness, hope, humanity, inspiration, life, light, love, mother, people, spirituality, timelessness
Tagged Prince Philip, Princess Alice, Princess of Greece and Denmark
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, art, benevolence, Brigitte Saugstad, creativity, Easter, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, Ganesha, GoldenGaneshArt.com, grace, gratitude, Hanuman, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, humanity, innocence, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, peace, smile, talent, togetherness, well-being
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, ceramic art, Easter, forgiveness, Ganesha, GoldenGaneshArt, joy, life
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, Austria, Brigitte Saugstad, creativity, friendship, fun, Ganesha, happiness, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, peace, smile, talent, togetherness, Valentine!
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, creativity, friendship, Ganesha, GoldenGaneshArt, happiness, hope, love, Valentine's Day
Posted in 2021, Austria, birthday, dreams, endearing, family, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, life, nature, smile, togetherness
Tagged adventure, Araburg, Austria, freedom, nature, Wienerwald
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, benevolence, Brigitte Saugstad, creativity, dreams, Ed Saugstad, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, Ganesha, Hanuman, happiness, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, smile, the new Roaring Twenties, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, wonder
Tagged 2021, fun, Ganesha, Hanuman, hope, humanity, inspiration, joy, life
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, Brigitte Saugstad, children, Christmas, creativity, endearing, enlightenment, friendship, fun, Ganesha, GoldenGaneshArt.com, gratitude, Hanuman, happiness, holiday, hope, inspiration, life, light, mouse, smile, togetherness
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, ceramic art, Christmas 2020, Ganesha, Hanuman
Posted in 2021, 21st century trend, collective consciousness, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, happiness, health, hope, humanity, inspiration, Kundalini, life, light, meditation, peace, self-isolation, smile, thoughtless awareness, togetherness, well-being, yoga
Tagged 2021, 21st century trend, freedom, happiness, lockdown, meditation, togetherness
Posted in 2020, 21st century trend, alert mental silence, art, books, Brigitte Saugstad, collective consciousness, creativity, dreams, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, family, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, Ganesha, grace, gratitude, happiness, health, heart, hope, humanity, India, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, Oakee Doakee, peace, reality, Shri Mataji, Sir Ed Word, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged Canada, Ed Saugstad, meditation, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
.
Dear Friend!
Year 2020 will be the last one of the age of materialism…
✨“The biggest and grandest alignment comes on December 21, 2020 when Jupiter joins Saturn in what’s referred to as the great conjunction. “✨
✨“These grand conjunctions come every 20 years, but this meeting has extra gravitas. It marks the end of a 200-year cycle of unions in earth signs that’s brought the age of materialism, banking, capitalism and corporations.”✨
✨“December 2020 kicks off a new 200-year cycle of unions in air signs. What that will bring isn’t entirely clear yet, but early indications are that thought, philosophy and truth will prevail. This is going to be a big shift.”✨
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, courage, creativity, don't panic, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, grace, gratitude, happiness, heart, hope, humanity, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, peace, Shri Mataji, synchronicity, the new Roaring Twenties, timelessness, togetherness, well-being, wisdom, wonder, yoga
Tagged 2020, new age, new Roaring Twenties
~Edward Saugstad
~Lyall Watson
Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, collective consciousness, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, grace, gratitude, happiness, heart, hope, humanity, innocence, inspiration, joy, Kundalini, life, light, love, meditation, people, reality, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, thoughtless awareness, wonder
Tagged angels, collective consciousness, enlightened collectivity, enlightenment, inner freedom, Supernature
Posted in courage, film, freedom, friendship, gratitude, happiness, health, hope, inspiration, life, light, well-being
Tagged bravery, childhood trauma, freedom, inspiration, liberation, The King's Speech
Posted in 2019, 21st century trend, don't panic, dreams, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, fun, gadzooks!, gratitude, happiness, holiday, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, music, nature, party, people, smile, togetherness, well-being
Tagged Austria, fun, happiness, Italy, joy, life, Spitz Villa, togetherness, Traun Lake, wedding
Have you ever spontaneously flown somewhere, not knowing what to expect but feeling a rare thrill rising in your heart? When my wife first heard that many of our friends were booked to fly to Greece to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light, she took out her smart-phone and booked two seats for us.
I’d never been down to that fabled peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea, but my first impression was similar to that of India, an ancient world that I’ve had the privilege of visiting many times. This initial intuition that began when my wife came home and announced that we would soon be going there, was boosted when we eventually boarded an airliner half full of laughing, singing, childlike Indian women, all of whom had also strongly felt the calling.
My first impressions there were that everything was familiar. It was easy to get around in, like any other Western country. The freeways were almost empty and everyone seemed to drive slowly, which was very relaxing (although it did occur to Brigitte and me that maybe due to the economic hardships the locals are experiencing, not many can afford to speed, or even to drive). Then a massive wall of dark grey-purple cloud rose up and washed the landscape clean with a brief rain. We found it to be a significant welcome for all the pilgrims showing up that weekend, and I was reminded of the ancient demigods who were believed to inhabit this land in prehistory. (Human beings, in particular one or two ‘poets’, long ago wrote perverted interpretations of these titans’ lives on Earth, lowering them to the level of incest and murder, ideas unfortunately still generally accepted today.)
My wife’s favourite thing in life is to wake up early near a beach and go for a long walk and foot-soak there. We were sheltered near the scenic end of a bay, and because it was outside of the busy summer season, there was hardly anyone around. In Greece, even the stray dogs and cats seem at peace as they stretch out beside strangers and give the impression of being completely fulfilled (when actually they’re cleverly making friends to get something to eat!). Every morning our hearts would stretch out to the distant islands and mysterious waters so our souls could consume the vast beauty and deep history around us. We attended colourful Diwali functions, enjoyed ourselves immensely with many new and old friends, and even ascended the ancient inland hills to the Centre of the World, the Navel of Creation! (Weeks later, Brigitte hasn’t lost the inspiring heart-boost that she still rides on daily.)
They say that Zeus, king of the demigods, in order to determine the centre of the world, sent two great eagles flying, one from each extreme, east and west. They met in the place that was later named Delphi. A most magical place! I really felt like I was back in India where everything began thousands of years ago, not in young Europe any more. There’s even a natural free-standing stone in the original centre of the sacred grounds, recognizable as the Hindu child-god, Ganesha, emitting amazing vibrations (light and cool).
All two-hundred-and-fifty of us felt light and joyous, many reminded of the old tours of central India that we used to go on in the nineteen-eighties. In contrast to the great subtle significance of this location, Brigitte pointed out that the manmade history was just full of ego. Pompous conquerers would display statues of their officers there to show the gods and all the world how very important they were. Even down in the so-called civilized nation-state of Athens, such a great, benevolent genius (I would go so far as to say divine messenger) like Socrates was killed by men-on-ego. And here we are, thousands of years later, repeating the same patterns in our heads, hearts and actions.
Descending back down to the twenty-first century at the end of the day, I remembered how, as a twelve-year-old child in Canada in 1970, I had suddenly been overwhelmed to write a long Social Studies essay on the Greek gods, accompanied by a hand-drawn wall mural; and in Art class I passionately attempted to carve a plaster-of-Paris bust of Socrates. I didn’t know what overcame me at that time, but now I guess it was personal insight into a higher realm of existence. Forty-eight years later I’ve breathed those essential airs and walked upon the very roots of legend that send the restless mind up into soothing meditation.
If you’ve never been to Greece, go there soon — with an open mind and heart.
Best wishes (pure desires),
Ed
more photos here:
https://www.facebook.com/edward.saugstad/media_set?set=a.10156077110191545&type=3
Posted in 2018, 21st century trend, enlightenment, friendship, fun, Ganesha, Greece, Happy Diwali!, holiday, hope, India, inspiration, joy, life, light, love, meditation, smile, timelessness, wisdom
Tagged gods, Greece, Happy Diwali!, Pallas Athena, Socrates, time travel
Posted in 2018, art, books, creativity, drugs, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, friendship, fun, happiness, hope, India, inspiration, life, love, meditation, music, Oakee Doakee, party, Shri Mataji, Sir Ed Word, smile, talent, writing
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, Ed Saugstad, love, Oakee Doakee, Sir Ed Word
I was born into the realm of the Wild West when Elvis was king, at the height of social freedoms which were slipping steadily down into the mists of abandon. Unlimited alcohol and tobacco consumption were a household norm for many families, with few or no suspicions about their ill effects — gross and subtle.
My first eight years took me along an often bumpy road, with the scary shadows of evermore chaos lurking just around the next bend. But there was also love. I grew up with some delightfully humorous and caring souls. My best memories still shine from those joyous occasions when we, once a year, exchanged presents, had fun together, and temporarily forgot all our fears and worries: Christmas Days!
Just before my eighth Christmas in 1965, my Dad returned home, sober, after a four year absence. From that time on, everything seemed to get more prosperous and abundant — including the number of siblings. Within another three years we would be eight brothers and sisters celebrating at home together!
I was then blessed to live through a period of wealth and wellbeing that most children in the world will never know. Looking back at my long climb as a human being, I recognize how very lucky I’ve been this time around.
May the liberating Innocence, that we call Luck, fill the hearts of good people, everywhere.
Wishing you and yours Love and Light at this special time,
your friend in this abundant moment,
Ed
(We were, oldest to youngest: Dad, Mom, Darlene, Cheryl, Rick, Ed, Glenn, David, Allan and Don. Christmases were also celebrated at Nana and Grandpa’s place, Mom’s Finnish parents. Almost half-a-century later we would be three more, Tia, Karen and Cliff, senior siblings divided from us by Dad’s first divorce.)
Posted in children, Christmas, family, friendship, fun, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, innocence, life, love, party, smile, togetherness, well-being, wonder
Tagged Christmas, Eddie Saugstad, family, hope, togetherness
I was born into the realm of the Wild West when Elvis was king, at the height of social freedoms which were slipping steadily down into the mists of abandon. Unlimited alcohol and tobacco consumption were a household norm for many families, with few or no suspicions about their ill effects — gross and subtle.
My first eight years took me along an often bumpy road, with the scary shadows of evermore chaos lurking just around the next bend. But there was also love. I grew up with some delightfully humorous and caring souls. My best memories still shine from those joyous occasions when we, once a year, exchanged presents, had fun together, and temporarily forgot all our fears and worries: Christmas Days!
Just before my eighth Christmas in 1965, my Dad returned home, sober, after a four year absence. From that time on, everything seemed to get more prosperous and abundant — including the number of siblings. Within another three years we would be eight brothers and sisters celebrating at home together!
I was then blessed to live through a period of wealth and wellbeing that most children in the world will never know. Looking back at my long climb as a human being, I recognize how very lucky I’ve been this time around.
May the liberating Innocence, that we call Luck, fill the hearts of good people, everywhere.
Wishing you and yours Love and Light at this special time,
your friend in this abundant moment,
Ed
(We were, oldest to youngest: Dad, Mom, Darlene, Cheryl, Rick, Ed, Glenn, David, Allan and Don. Christmases were also celebrated at Nana and Grandpa’s place, Mom’s Finnish parents. Almost half-a-century later we would be three more, Tia, Karen and Cliff, senior siblings divided from us by Dad’s first divorce.)
Posted in children, Christmas, family, friendship, fun, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, innocence, life, love, party, smile, togetherness, well-being, wonder
Tagged Christmas, Eddie Saugstad, family, hope, togetherness
As little kids back in the sixties in suburban West Coast Canada, my best buddy and I would spend a lot of our classroom time drawing war scenes on pieces of paper. Our depictions were filled with fun explosions and gunfire. Traditionally, the good guys always defeated the bad guys. That was less than twenty-five years after World War Two, which meant Americans against Nazi Germans. (“Achtung! Schweinehund!”) Sargent Rock and Sargent Fury were two of the action comic books that I’d sometimes read under my blankets at home when I was supposed to be sleeping. The world seemed so clearly laid out in black and white, and we were the triumphant heroes. Could I have imagined back then that I would marry and move to Europe decades later, and live a pleasant life in enemy territory?
In 2003 my wife inherited a cottage and property on a creek in the Vienna Woods from a deceased friend of her grandmother (these women had survived two world wars in Vienna, losing all their material wellbeing twice in one lifetime) in a small valley with seven hills that had established inns for travellers (twelve in its heyday!) and farms from way back in the twelfth century AD. Ten years later we received a surprise visit here by an old man who’s father had built the one room structure out of hand-sawn wooden beams, bricks and improvised mortar, and dug the six meter well, back in 1934. They had received the property because the father was employed on the railroad that ran through the village. This is where our visitor had happily grown up as a child. But then Hitler rose to power and all hell broke loose. At the end of the devastating war they moved to Vienna. But young Kurt experienced the relief from oppression of the evil regime here in his rural corner of Austria. When news of the fall came, in the one desperate night before the Russians swarmed in, the impoverished villagers broke into the Nazi headquarters and SS officer training centre* (that existed on an ancient country estate then, just a few blocks from the house where we now live in the village of ‘Eichgraben’, Oak Gully) and stole everything they could carry away. Apparently some homes in the area still have oak floorboards that were made off with that night from the Herrenhof. Even cobblestones from the new Autobahn (freeway/motorway) that was commissioned by Hitler nearby were stolen. A teenage friend of Kurt was caught with an unlicensed motorcycle by the police that were later assigned to come and inspect the village and it’s inhabitants. The boy was worried that they would confiscate it, but the friendly officer simply took a hammer and whacked a dent into it, declaring that it looked broken and that he could keep it! (They still use the old wartime civil-defence siren system here to alert the volunteer fire department members in cases of emergency, giving the haunting impression every time that bombs are about to fall.)
*(The dreaded SS had many secretive training centres throughout the Vienna Woods, where young men were brain-washed into becoming cold, calculating killing machines. Young ladies from the nearby farms and villages would sometimes be invited for dance evenings at the Herrenhof to pump the egos of the budding officers.)
It took a long time for me in Austria (where I arrived in 1986 to marry my sweet Viennese Fräulein … whom I had met in India!) to realize that every war memorial statue and roll of honour here praised the so-called bad guys killed in action. The fact really came home to me one day when I helped fill a scene full of SS officers as an extra in an American Broadcast Corporation television series called War and Remembrance. I was in Vienna’s Rathaus Keller (City Hall cellar) at a make-believe banquet, dressed as a Nazi (they paid me extra to have my blond hair shaven down to a crew cut) with two hundred other scary looking men, and a Hitler look-alike raving up on the podium. (What a jerk!) This was daily life here not long ago, and it’s been equally brutal in many other countries since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and_Remembrance_(miniseries)
In 1989 I spent a few weeks working in a one-hundred-and-fifty year old family-run shop in the heart of Frankfurt. My boss, like his parents and grandparents before him, did exclusive picture framing work. They had also all been Nazi supporters. So many times I had to listen to his assertions that the Allies did worse things than Hitler’s well-meaning assistants. Some evenings on the bus ride home I couldn’t help crying, so intense was the physical pain in my heart from those tangible, torturing vibrations.
My father-in-law, a very kind and intelligent, now retired, government official, was spared the fate that met most of the servants of das Dritte Reich. When, as a teenager in 1941, he was drafted and forced to quickly chose between serving as a Luftwaffe gunner or an aircraft warning observer, he was able to choose the safe position. His guardian angel placed him in an observation tower** outside of Paris where he saw no fighting. (His comrade fired some shots towards the ground one night, only to discover the next morning that it had been cows moving around down there in the dark.) Then, on the way to Hamburg to deliver a package, he put his hand through a train compartment window when their car jerked, and was declared unfit for battle because of a stiff thumb. He still remembers the moaning of wounded soldiers from the Soviet front in that Hamburg military hospital where he lay until his mother, undertaking the long journey from Vienna, rescued him and took him home. (It was about this time that my Dad lost his brother, Cliff, as the plane carrying him and other young recruits disappeared from the radar screens — see letter below.) She had organized his transfer through an important doctor that she knew. After his convalescence he was allowed to continue his studies, and heard about the end of the war over the radio in a friend’s apartment in Vienna’s fourth district on the eighth day of May, 1945 (where he was staying because the Allied Forces had been carpet bombing his neighbourhood near the main train station — my first home in Europe from 1986 till 1999). If the Germans had developed their radar technology sooner, or if that train hadn’t made a sudden stop, my wife may never had been born, as her father would certainly have been sent to battle and been killed, or died slowly as a prisoner-of-war in Russia, like his father.
**(By the time of the Battle of Britain in mid-1940, the Royal Air Force had fully integrated radar as part of the national air defence. By contrast, the German Funkmessgerät was neglected, partly due to Adolf Hitler’s prejudice against defensive measures, and failings by the Luftwaffe in coherently incorporating the new technology.)
Papa went on to serve his country for one and a half decades as head of the Regional Land Use Commission, receiving the national Decoration of Honour in recognition of his outstanding integrity and dedication, from the Chancellor, when he retired in 1987.
We might not experience all-encompassing war in Europe again*** (if the Western neocons don’t provoke Russia into further defensive measures) but a similar firestorm is brewing in Asia and the Middle East as I write these words. May mankind soon choose enlightenment and benevolence over baser motivations. Surely we have been deeply prepared for that higher destiny.
Best wishes,
Edward
***(Almost one-and-a-half centuries before the last world war, here in Eichgraben, some of Napolean’s troops — actually Bavarian soldiers, speaking German like the locals — bullied one of the innkeepers, stealing his goods and insulting him. Seven of them were murdered in their drunken sleep by a few pitchfork wielding farmers, but one escaped to report back to his commanding officer in nearby Purkersdorf. A squadron came here to punish the locals with brutality and a high fine, which was mostly paid by a Viennese merchant who lived in this area.) (A couple hundred years before that, Europe was filled for thirty years with terrorist armies and mercenaries that raped, pillaged and murdered each other and innocent women and children in the name of Jesus Christ, mostly Protestants against Catholics, but even some who were on the same side — France against the, mostly Austrian, Holy Roman Empire. The terror is carried forward genetically to countless suffering descendents, even today.) (… And who knows what the Romans and Celts, and the occasional barbarian from north of the Danube, got up to here one-and-a-half millennia before that!)
Posted in 2017!, courage, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, hope, humanity, life, peace
Posted in friendship, happiness, hope, humanity, joy, life, love, people, smile, synchronicity, togetherness, well-being
Tagged benevolence
My dear blog has fallen into the shadows of neglect. Let’s see if we can remedy this.
My first beam of light here in … 2017 already!? … has to do with our current world sit-u-eh-shun.
Keeping it really simple: There are only two wrong turns in life: one is left, the other is right.
Psychologists used to believe that everything was piled up on top of each other inside of us — that we had to pass through the subconscious and all kinds of other gobbledygook in order to rise up to our higher, ideal selves. Well, as it turns out, we’ve got the past (conditionings) and emotions running in our left sympathetic nervous system, all our future projections (ego) in our right sympathetic nervous system, and a beautiful ascending waterfall of evolution smack-dab in the middle: the once mysterious parasympathetic/autonomous system.
If you look around (and in the mirror) you’ll find that most everyone — with the exception of most babies, maybe — is being led around by those carrots-on-strings that are our thoughts streaming from one extreme and/or the other. Very rarely do we encounter peaceful souls who know exactly who and why they are, and are satisfied with that. The whole jumble in most of us is now becoming increasingly transparent in world affairs. Unless and until we can naturally zoom into central focus mode, that mega-mess is not going to fade away. It will only continue to get worse until we click and fine-tune into the center of ourselves. That’ll reveal that reality is not noisy after all, unlike most of our previous identifications.
I put a helpful link at the end of this post (a technique I can sincerely vouch for after almost thirty-five years of daily use) but first I’d like to share this insight from the I Ching about our collective 2017.
In this new (very, very temporary!) Trumpish age, people, lost in their own self-mistrust and misleading ideas, tend to mistrust others more and more. The big picture changes then to Innocence, a quality, by the way, that never actually leaves a human being, but simply becomes buried and ignored deep inside. Every one of us is empowered with the instrument and all the natural means to reawaken this universal quality. It’s not a manmade procedure, but something builtin, ready and waiting for our desire and attention to trigger it.
Be alert and quiet, and you will discover that the present moment is bigger and more abundant with amazing possibilities than you have ever imagined.
THE JUDGMENT
FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN in the open.
Success.
It furthers one to cross the great water.
The perseverance of the superior man furthers.
True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern
that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual
that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals
of humanity. That is why it is said that fellowship with men
in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even
difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water,
can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of
fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed
— a man with clear, convincing, and inspiring aims and the
strength to carry them out. (The inner trigram means clarity;
the outer, strength.)
THE IMAGE
Heaven together with fire:
The image of FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN.
Thus the superior man organizes the clans
And makes distinctions between things.
Heaven has the same direction of movement as fire, yet it is
different from fire. Just as the luminaries in the sky serve for
the systematic division and arrangement of time, so human
society and all things that really belong together must be
organically arranged. Fellowship should not be a mere
mingling of individuals or of things — that would be chaos, not
fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be
organization within diversity.
THE LINES
Nine in the third place means:
He hides weapons in the thicket;
He climbs the high hill in front of it.
For three years he does not rise up.
Here fellowship has changed about to mistrust. Each man
distrusts the other, plans a secret ambush, and seeks to spy on
his fellow from afar.We are dealing with an obstinate
opponent whom we cannot come at by this method. Obstacles
standing in the way of fellowship with others are shown here.
One has mental reservations for one’s own part and seeks to
take his opponent by surprise. This very fact makes one
mistrustful, suspecting the same wiles in his opponent and trying
to ferret them out. The result is that one departs further and
further from true fellowship. The longer this goes on, the
more alienated one becomes.
(then changing to …)
Ch’ien, heaven, is above; Chên, movement, is below. The
lower trigram Chên is under the influence of the strong line it
has received from above, from heaven. When, in accord with
this, movement follows the law of heaven, man is innocent
and without guile. His mind is natural and true, unshadowed
by reflection or ulterior designs. For wherever conscious
purpose is to be seen, there the truth and innocence of nature have
been lost. Nature that is not directed by the spirit is not true
but degenerate nature. Starting out with the idea of the
natural, the train of thought in part goes somewhat further and
thus the hexagram includes also the idea of the unintentional
or unexpected.
THE JUDGMENT
INNOCENCE. Supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
If someone is not as he should be,
He has misfortune,
And it does not further him
To undertake anything.
Man has received from heaven a nature innately good, to
guide him in all his movements. By devotion to this divine
spirit within himself, he attains an unsullied innocence that
leads him to do right with instinctive sureness and without any
ulterior thought of reward and personal advantage. This
instinctive certainty brings about supreme success and
“furthers through perseverance.” However, not everything
instinctive is nature in this higher sense of the word, but only
that which is right and in accord with the will of heaven.
Without this quality of rightness, an unreflecting, instinctive way
of acting brings only misfortune. Confucius says about this:
“He who departs from innocence, what does he come to?
Heaven’s will and blessing do not go with his deeds.”
THE IMAGE
Under heaven thunder rolls:
All things attain the natural state of innocence.
Thus the kings of old,
Rich in virtue, and in harmony with the time,
Fostered and nourished all beings.
In springtime when thunder, life energy, begins to move
again under the heavens, everything sprouts and grows, and
all beings receive from the creative activity of nature the
childlike innocence of their original state. So it is with the
good rulers of mankind: drawing on the spiritual wealth at
their command, they take care of all forms of life and all forms
of culture and do everything to further them, and at the proper
time.
(I ‘performed’ in an old primary school here in Vienna for over a hundred children recently, reading from my books, meditating a bit and partying with my Roland Handsonic. We had lots of fun communicating, dancing and playing music together. My friend, who’s a teacher there, told me a few weeks later that the mood and vibrations of the school had been surprisingly improved by that event. Many children were more cheerful afterwards — the mother of an autistic child was amazed to find her child so balanced and happy — and my friend felt light and cool entering the school each day! Click on the following link to enjoy more experiences about Sahaja Yoga meditation …)
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Posted in 2017!, alert mental silence, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, happiness, hope, humanity, I Ching, Inner Peace Day, innocence, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, peace, Shri Mataji, silence, smile, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged ascent, hope, Inner Peace Day
26 June 2016 (93 ABSM)
Here we are smack in the middle of the Year of the Fire Monkey (Chinese Horoscope) with mysterious planets on the outskirts of our solar system wreaking havoc on our outdated patterns. Corruption is being exposed left, right and center, as the Monkey of Light howls with amusement.
Seekers of Truth and Justice in the new nation of America are encouraged to challenge the powerful Matrix, hopeful to slay the multi-headed Monster of Greed that’s steering everyone over the abyss, while slightly out-of-touch citizens (mostly old hobbits) in the olde Mother Land, the newly ‘Divided Kingdom’, vote to jump free-fall out of the chains of the European Union bureaucracy.
Personally, I look forward to a simpler, poorer, quainter England. A place to go to get away from the hubbub of modern life. The original ‘Shire’, where down-to-earth folk love to sit back and enjoy a good fireside tale over homegrown food and drink — beyond the intrigues of empires.
If NATO doesn’t declare war on Russia and China, this promises to be a fine year indeed!
Best wishes (pure desires),
Your friend in this abundant moment,
Eddie 🙂
p.s—
On a recent train journey through the UK, this rather profound bit of verse came to mind:
THE FLUFFY MILLIONS
If I could count
All the rabbits in England
Tum, tum tee-tum
Tummly-tum tee-too.
(Wunts a ponatyme)
Posted in bunnies, freedom, friendship, heart, hope, humanity, life, smile, social upheaval 2016, togetherness
Tagged Brexit, bunnies, Tummly-tum tee-too, world affairs
Posted in courage, freedom, friendship, historic 2016!, hope, humanity, life, love, people, togetherness, well-being
Tagged Bernie Sanders, corruption, revolution
… still waiting for the collective state of enlightenment and benevolence to manifest all over the world (that’s increasing, but doesn’t show up often in the mainstream media)
Here’s a scary, heavy-handed suppression by local authorities that I came away from unharmed, thirty-six years ago:
(from the University of British Columbia newspaper)
“Yes, there are many who would shape the world according to their own limited conception of morality and justice. And so, as for you my friend: into what sterile mold would you have us fit?”
—Ed Saugstad, September 1980
Posted in 1980, Ed Saugstad, friendship, humanity, life, party, peace, people, police brutality, prisons, The Roundhouse Affair, togetherness, UBC
http://cabella-annapurnaterrace.com/outdoor-construction-in-Italy/by-the-old-water-mill.html
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Posted in birthday, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, happiness, heart, inspiration, life, love, people, smile, well-being
Tagged birthday, Ed Saugstad, friendship, smile
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When I started meditating over 33 years ago (really meditating: experiencing thoughtless awareness) it completely changed who and what I was. Everything gradually improved for me, at every level. Here are some young friends sharing that tirelessly throughout the world. Hope shines.
http://meditatetoregenerate.org/about
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Posted in enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, hope, humanity, life, meditation, thoughtless awareness, well-being
Tagged Egypt, inner freedom, meditation, thoughtless awareness
Posted in 2015, alert mental silence, enlightenment, friendship, fulfillment, health, heart, holiday, hope, humanity, life, meditation, music, party, silence, smile, talent, thoughtless awareness, togetherness, well-being, yoga
Tagged Expo 2015, Meditate to Regenerate, Sahaja Yoga meditaion
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Posted in art, birthday, freedom, friendship, fun, Ganesha, happiness, heart, hope, innocence, inspiration, life, love, music, party, smile, togetherness, well-being
Tagged Ed Saugstad, Edward Saugstad, feeling happy!, fun in Europe, happy birthday, video-diary
-(click on Jim’s nose to sail over to the album)-
Posted in art, birthday, freedom, friendship, fun, gadzooks!, happiness, heart, holiday, life, love, party, smile
Tagged Brigitte Saugstad, Chelsea Old Town Hall, Chelsham Road, Ed Saugstad, London, London Art Biennale 2015, Shudy Camps, William Blake
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Posted in friendship, fulfillment, grace, happiness, heart, hope, innocence, inspiration, joy, life, love, mental silence, peace, smile
Tagged friendship, marriage, tropical wedding
(click on YouTube, then in the wheel —Quality, HD— to see it in high definition)
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(Ed’s version of the Christmas Song is available for free download here …)
http://edsaugstad.com/AUDIO-files/EdsChristmasSong-2014.mp3
(ctrl+click audio file)
___________________
(and Mousie Marvin’s Rainbow Christmas …)
http://edsaugstad.com/AUDIO-files/MousieMarvins-RainbowChristmas.mp3
(ctrl+click audio file)
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Posted in Christmas, film, friendship, fun, gadzooks!, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, life, love, mouse, smile, well-being
Tagged Christmas, corny, Ed Saugstad, happiness, mousies, peace, smile, thousand tickle mousies, Vienna Woods
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Posted in alert mental silence, Christmas, enlightenment, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, heart, holiday, hope, humanity, joy, life, meditation, peace, thoughtless awareness, togetherness, Uncategorized, well-being, wisdom
Tagged alert mental silence, Christmas, freedom, friendship, happiness, hope, joy, love, silence
Posted in friendship, fun, heart, life, love, smile, well-being
Tagged forever young, friendship, laughter
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This is for you, if you’re not looking forward to another year on Earth.
For what it’s worth, you are loved.
Hold on.
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Posted in 2013, courage, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, hope, life, love, togetherness, well-being
Posted in Christmas, film, friendship, fun, happiness, holiday, life, love, smile, togetherness
Tagged Christmas, Hugh Grant, love, Love Actually, Prime Minister, smile
I’ve just returned from three-and-a-half months in the shadow lands. (Sorry for the lack of blog posts, but my literary lights were dimmed.) At the beginning of September, after weeks of amazing emotional revelations ranging from euphoria to utter despair, I got physically sick and didn’t really recover until now, four days before Christmas 2012, and the very day that the Mayan calendar runs out — whatever that historic milestone may prove to imply. There were three or four days (and intensely dark, suffocating nights) in which I was convinced that my time on Earth was almost over, and that I had reached a humiliating and unexpectedly sudden demise. After three decades of daily yoga meditation I never get sick any more, but it seems I still had some deeper, traumatic issues to work out before the unprecedented personal and collective events of 2013.
In the ancient language of Sanskrit, Maya means illusion. Not only has mankind marched steadily into the most morally confused time of our evolution, but the point of highest spiritual opportunity as well. Somewhere behind all the mumbo-jumbo about cosmic cataclysm and last chances, there lies the simple truth that we have all been on a very long journey, and it’s high time to harvest the fruits of that struggle.
Not long ago there were two buddies who used to get together in a Cambridge pub once a week to discuss life and literature. One was a booming evangelist, the other a more soft-spoken Christian. It seems that they both had a subtle, inner connection to reality that expressed itself very differently through each. J.R.R. Tolkien considered the bible the greatest epic tale ever told, but chose to only hint at the image of Jesus Christ — archetype of the greatest of kings who fell and rose again in supreme benevolence — in his now classic novel series, The Lord of the Rings. C.S. Lewis on the other hand (often to Tolkien’s displeasure) would shout his admiration for the Son of God from the rooftops, especially after his kundalini suddenly rose up his spine while he rode a Cambridge public bus to work one morning, causing him to write Surprised by Joy. He also praised the Divine, albeit without naming names, in his (also now classic) children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia.
The other morning I woke up after hearing myself say, in a dream, “I wonder how well Narnian vegetables would sell in our local market”. (This was a few days after I woke up to a Voice that softly reassured me that, “His love for you is unlimited. It just flows,” which I understood to refer to Jesus … or Aslan?) C.S. Lewis had an uncanny knack of being able to accurately describe the attributes and effects of divinity and the shadowy lack of it, which we sometimes call evil. Bearing that in mind, I’ve come to pay special interest to the end of the adventures in Narnia, when paradise is overrun by destructive shadow, and a magical door appears in the midst of danger and chaos, leading to a new, somehow better, more colorful, wider, higher Narnia.
It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed and then cried:
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Come farther up, come farther in!”
… “The farther up and the farther in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.”
Lucy looked hard at the garden and saw that it was not really a garden at all but a whole world, with its own rivers and woods and sea and mountains. But they were not strange: she knew them all.
“I see,” she said. “This is still Narnia, and, more real and more beautiful than the Narnia down below, just as it was more real and more beautiful than the Narnia outside the Stable door! I see … world within world, Narnia within Narnia …”
“Yes,” said Mr. Tumnus, “like an onion: except that as you go in and in, each circle is larger than the last.”
And Lucy looked this way and that and soon found that a new and beautiful thing had happened to her. Whatever she looked at, however far away it might be, once she had fixed her eyes steadily on it, became quite clear and close as if she were looking through a telescope. She could see the whole southern desert and beyond it the great city of Tashbaan: to eastward she could see castle Cair Paravel on the edge of the sea and the very window of the room that had once been her own. And far out to sea she could discover the islands, island after island to the end of the world, and, beyond the end, the huge mountain which they had called Aslan’s country. But now she saw that it was part of a great chain of mountains which ringed round the whole world. In front of her it seemed to come quite close. Then she looked to her left and saw what she took to be a great bank of brightly-colored cloud, cut off from them by a gap. But she looked harder and saw that it was not a cloud at all but a real land. And when she had fixed her eyes on one particular spot of it, she at once cried out, “Peter! Edmund! Come and look! Come quickly.” And they came and looked, for their eyes also had become like hers.
“Why!” exclaimed Peter. “It’s England. And that’s the house itself — Professor Kirk’s old home in the country where all our adventures began!”
“I thought that house had been destroyed,” said Edmund.
“So it was,” said Tumnus the Faun. “But you are now looking at the England within England, the real England just as this is the real Narnia. And in that inner England no good thing is destroyed.” (The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis)
It has now been clinically proven that the state of alert mental silence produces an ideal equilibrium throughout the human organism. This state is so powerful that it can naturally correct any healable ailment in us, and remove causes such as anxiety. The effects on society are not yet documented, but it’s easy to foresee a harmonious collective environment free from the violence and suffering that has come to be synonymous with so-called civilization. Anyone who has clearly experienced this state may have noticed the light, soothing flow of energy (kundalini) that passes up the spine and out through the limbic area of the brain, referred to long ago in Sanskrit as the Sahasrara Chakra, or the thousand-petal portal to the Kingdom of Heaven. This integrating connection was called yoga, meaning union.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about divine councils and portals and what-not, that tend to turn most of us off to the possibility that each of us is able to reach a transcendent state of deep peace and understanding about our existence. Actually, meditation is the least complicated of all things we can reach and benefit from, needing no explanation and thought-producing concepts. I would just like to express my feeling here that our jolly old Cambridge professor may have unconsciously been describing the transformation of human consciousness with his magical door to a better world — a liberating passageway that allows us to see and feel life as it really is: beautiful and fulfilling. A very real state that enables us to perpetually improve ourselves and our planet, instead of destroying them.
I took the liberty this morning of consulting the I Ching about the spiritual state of mankind in 2013. It said that examples should be set by those who are wise and brave, revealing the deepest spiritual connection (meditation) that can be shared by all:
‘Thus a hidden spiritual power emanates from them, influencing others without their being aware of how it happens.’
The hexagram Kuan represents an observation tower. Those who sit on top of it can see far and be seen by all. Amazingly, the individual line that was selected for detailed reference was the top one — that very position of highest perception:
‘Contemplation of his life. The superior man is without blame. Here in the highest place everything that is personal, related to the ego, is excluded. The picture is that of a sage who stands outside the affairs of the world. Liberated from his ego, he contemplates the laws of life and so realizes that knowing how to become free of blame is the highest good.’ ‘He has not yet forgotten the world and is therefore still concerned with its affairs.’
(It has been said that the ultimate time of Judgement is when every human being will have the clear inner perception to look within and judge — understand and correct — themselves.)
The I Ching then pointed out, with hexagram Pi / Holding Together, that just as water will always flow to a collective meeting place, human beings will gather with like human beings.
‘Holding together calls for a central figure around whom other persons may unite. To become a center of influence holding people together is a grave matter and fraught with great responsibility. It requires greatness of spirit, consistency and strength. Therefore let one who wishes to gather others together ask whether he/she is equal to the undertaking, for anyone attempting the task without a real calling for it only makes confusion worse than if no union at all had taken place. But when there is a real rallying point, those who at first are hesitant or uncertain gradually come in of their own accord. Late-comers must suffer the consequences, for in holding together the question of the right time is also important. Relationships are formed and firmly established according to definite inner laws. Common experience strengthen these ties, and one who comes too late to share in these basic (inner) experiences must suffer for it if, as a straggler, he/she finds the door locked. If one has recognized the necessity for union and does not feel strong enough to function as the center, it is one’s duty to become a member of some other organic fellowship.’ (I Ching ~ The Book of Changes, translated by Richard Wilhelm and Cary F. Baynes)
This may sound quite black-and-white, but the inner evolution of each of us is determined simply by our desires. It’s not unimaginable that the nature of that stream of wishes will ultimately carry us toward the opportunity to attain a higher, lighter state of wellbeing; or into a meaningless dead-end. We’ve been blessed with freedom to choose our way and our destination. No one can be forced to strive for liberating collective consciousness.
May the delicious, enlightening vegetables and fruits of the new Narnia nourish us in the upcoming Harvest.
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and joyous New (kind of) Year,
Edword
****************************************************
AWAKENING
(author unknown)
In a mother’s belly there were two babies. One asks the other:
“Do you believe in life after birth?”
“Of course! Something must exist after birth. Maybe we are here because we need to prepare for what we will become later.”
“Ridiculous! There is no life after birth! How do you think this life would be?”
“I don’t know, but surely there will be more light than there is here. Maybe we will walk on our own two feet and we can feed ourselves through our mouths!”
“That is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat through our mouths? How ridiculous! The umbilical chord is how we are fed. Let me tell you something: There can’t be life after birth. The umbilical chord is too short.”
“Well I believe there must be something. And it could be just a little bit different than what we are used to here.”
“But nobody has ever returned from the other side after birth. Birth is the end of life. All in all, life is nothing more than a stressful existence in the dark that does not lead to anything.”
“Well, I don’t know how it will exactly be after birth, but surely we will see Mother and she will take care of us.”
“Mother? You believe in Mother? And where do you think she is?”
“Where? All around us! We live inside her and through her. Without her this whole world would not exist!”
“Well I don’t believe it! I have never seen Mother so, logically, she does not exist.”
“Yes but sometimes when we are very silent, we can hear her singing or feel how she caresses our world. You know, I think there is a real life waiting for us, and that right now we are just preparing ourselves for it.”
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Posted in 2012, 2013, alert mental silence, blogging, Christmas, courage, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, grace, hope, humanity, I Ching, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, peace, silence, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, togetherness, well-being, wisdom, yoga
Tagged 2012, 2013, C.S. Lewis, Christmas, enlightenment, I Ching, joy, kundalini, meditation, mental silence, Narnia, Tolkien, yoga
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Here was an evening of outstanding creativity and inspiration,
a moment of surprising light
in dark times …
Every age has its greatest discovery.
The greatest of all is inside of us.
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Posted in 2012, alert mental silence, courage, creativity, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fun, hope, inspiration, joy, life, love, meditation, music, party, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, togetherness, well-being
Tagged generosity, hope, joy, music, Paris, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, youth
November 10, 2012 in freedom, friendship, fun, happiness, hope, inspiration, life, love, smile, togetherness, well-being
Posted in alert mental silence, birthday, Christmas, drugs, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, grace, happiness, health, hope, humanity, I Ching, joy, life, meditation, peace, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged 1982, birthday, Christmas, enlightenment, joy, mental silence, North Delta, self-realization, thoughtless awareness, Vancouver
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Love is that self-perpetuating force which renews everything, forever replenishing hope with spontaneous, living miracles. There will never be a scarcity of inspiring sunrises (illuminating clean air), budding roses (genetically unmodified), baby giggles (untainted by pornography), mirthful leg-pulling among friends (transcending racial prejudice), or generous helping hands in moments of need, as long as that precious force is allowed to thrive on Earth.
As soon as all the scales of malice and discontent have fallen away from human hearts, we will find out how good life can truly be.
Best wishes for you and yours in this historic year of inner transformation,
Edward Saugstad
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Posted in 2012, forgiveness, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, heart, hope, humanity, innocence, life, love, peace
Tagged 2012, common sense, generosity, humanity, inner transformation, life, love, patience
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Posted in Christmas, friendship, heart, holiday, hope, humanity, joy, life, love, peace, smile, synchronicity
Tagged always, Christmas, communication, family, good will, humanity, love, oneness, social networking, togetherness
Although many (busy, important or insecure) people have found the Facebook phenomena a waste of time or even threating, I’ve always seen it for it’s true value: bringing humanity closer together. It’s amazing that intentions and feelings, like kindness and love, can actually be transmitted and enjoyed through an electronic, digital medium. For me, Facebook has always been, first and foremost, a huge, sunny party-house where we can meet up with old friends and make new ones — a worldwide house where every room, every minute of the day and night, can bring social surprises as well as meaningful bonding.
F.A.C.E.B.O.O.K.=
Friends All Convene Enthusiastically Because Of Our (common) Kinship/Kundalini.
FRIEND:
Origin: old English frēond, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vriend and German Freund, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘to love,’ shared by the word free.
“There is none so blind as he who will not Facebook.” 😉
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Posted in friendship, heart, hope, humanity, life, love
Tagged Facebook, friendship, humanity, love, social networking, world peace
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Along life’s long road I’ve often philosophized about the significance of birthday celebrations. Rationally they sometimes seemed to be funny, superficial rituals done out of habit. After all, what’s so special about a particular day just because it marks a certain amount of time after the date of one’s birth?
It wasn’t until quite recently that I was able to see that, whatever else to the contrary we seem to be, human beings are vessels designed to hold and share tremendous amounts of the potent elixir known as love; and that, in an adult’s busy life (unlike that of most small children), we often need a special focus point in order to exude that pent up reservoir so that it, and our well-being, can be renewed.
A birth day is the celebration of a loved one’s very existence on Earth — the miracle of a unique being developing into that friend in your life. The urge to celebrate this moment is universally inherent; a natural, inbuilt spark that ignites the combustible element of love (at least once a year!)
Besides being a special moment for others, it suddenly brings to light our own living value. Just as the sun can’t know itself unless it sees its light gratefully received by all the flowers on Earth, we can’t know the reason for existing without the joyful kaleidoscope of reflected love in the hearts of those around us.
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I would like to thank the many friends all over the planet who thought of me with a smile today, including the hundreds who sent a few precious words of encouragement. I am once again reminded why I’m here.
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Posted in birthday, friendship, humanity, inspiration, joy, life, love, well-being
Tagged birthday, friendship, life, love
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Our world is in a rapid state of becoming, affected by each step and breath we take. What can we do to ensure that it evolves into something wonderful for generations to come?
As we enter a new year full of disappointments and encouraging surprises, here’s something important to bear in mind — and heart.
(CLICK on the image of meditation)
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Posted in enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fulfillment, grace, hope, humanity, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, mental silence, peace, spirituality, synchronicity, well-being, yoga
Tagged collective consciousness, collectivity, enlightenment, hope, kundalini, life, mental silence, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, self-realization
Posted in art, Christmas, creativity, friendship, holiday, life, smile