Self-forgiveness goes deeper. It becomes a way of taking responsibility for my life right now.
~ Paul Ferrini, The Twelve Steps of Forgiveness.

What a load is dropped from the shoulders of personal responsibility, when we realize the Eternal Mind holds naught against anyone!
~ The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes, page 457.

When Jesus reminded us to forgive seventy times seven he had in mind an attitude toward others which is free from condemnation. What we sometimes forget is that attitude of forgiveness toward ourselves.
What would we hear if we were to eavesdrop on our inner conversations? Is the dialogue that we carry on with ourselves a critical barrage of shortcomings or a supportive stream of nurturance and kindness? This exercise of listening in on ourselves could give us insight on whether we are harsh or compassionate toward ourselves.
Here's the good news. Even if we are internally hard on ourselves we can turn this around, forgive ourselves and start anew. Maybe Jesus knew about human nature all too well. He knew that we as humans err and that we might have a tendency to do so repeatedly. That is why the seven times seventy formula works. It shows that the process of forgiveness is a rigorous one that requires our participation and persistence.
As Ernest Holmes reminds us we can relax knowing that the Divine holds nothing against us. "What untold grief of heart may be relieved by words of cheer and forgiveness..." We can use this as a model of how we can treat ourselves with self-forgiveness.
~ Sage Bennet.

What will a man gain by knowing many scriptures? The one thing needful
is to know how to cross the river of the world. God alone is real, and
all else illusory.

While Arjuna was aiming his arrow at the eye of the bird, Drona asked
him:
 
'What do you see? Do you see these kings.'

'No, sir,' replied Arjuna.

'Do you see me?'

'No.'

'The tree?'

'No.'

'The bird on the tree?'

'No.'

`What do you see then?'

'Only the eye of the bird.'

He who sees only the eye of the bird can hit the mark. He alone is
clever who sees that God is real and all else illusory. What need
have I of other information? Hanuman once remarked: 'I don't know
anything about the phase of the moon or the position of the stars.
I only contemplate Rama'.

(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)

When we no longer use human weapons, physical or mental, we relax, not into letting the world do what it wants with us, but into that Spirit which is within us in order to let It take over and govern our experience.

~ Joel S. Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence

An Exposition on Non-Duality

The tree of Life was planted in the mist of us. If you eat of this tree
in the midst of you, it is said that you will live forever. If you rise
above the mind that sees good and evil, if you rise about the belief in
good and evil you will live forever. You will no longer be in the cycle
of birth and death. You will be free in your Christ identity. You will
step right out of a sense of duality and into the oneness of God.

Christ showed us this when he overcame the belief in good and
evil, which was revealed to us when he said as, "I have overcome the
world," he rose into his Spiritual Self. And from the heights of that
awareness, he was able to manifest himself in the visible or take
himself into the invisible; back and forth; visible and invisible.

When you ascend up over the mind, whether temporarily in your
meditation, or permanently in your conscious awareness, you are able to
stand in the Invisible Spiritual Self, Spiritual Creation, Spiritual
Kingdom. And this you do, right here and now. This is your inheritance!

—
Bill Skiles
www.mysticalprinciples.com

 dionysius wrote: 
Very Mercurtio of you!

A plague on both your imaginary houses.

Forgiveness

Self-forgiveness goes deeper. It becomes a way of taking responsibility for my life right now.
~ Paul Ferrini, The Twelve Steps of Forgiveness.

What a load is dropped from the shoulders of personal responsibility, when we realize the Eternal Mind holds naught against anyone!
~ The Sience of Mind, page 457.

When Jesus reminds us to forgive seventy times seven he had in mind an attitude toward others which is free from condemnation. What we sometimes forget is that attitude of forgiveness toward ourselves.
What would we hear if we were to eavesdrop on our inner conversations? Is the dialogue that we carry on with ourselves a critical barrage of shortcomings or a supportive stream of nurturance and kindness? This exercise of listening in on ourselves could give us insight on whether we are harsh or compassionate toward ourselves.
Here's the good news. Even if we are internally hard on ourselves we can turn this around, forgive ourselves and start anew. Maybe Jesus knew about human nature all too well. He knew that we as humans err and that we might have a tendency to do so repeatedly. That is why the seven times seventy formula works. It shows that the process of forgiveness is a rigorous one that requires our participation and persistence.
As Ernest Holmes reminds us we can relax knowing that the Divine holds nothing against us. "What untold grief of heart may be relieved by words of cheer and forgiveness..." We can use this as a model of how we can treat ourselves with self-forgiveness.
~ Sage Bennet.

 hippiechick wrote: 
 

"May the white light of stupidity make your life a little brighter"
 ~ Bonzo Dogman ~

 samiyam wrote: 
The message is a good one.

 hippiechick wrote: 
"Look to the message, F*ck the messenger"
 ~ Bonzo Dogman ~

The truth is never destroyed by being touted by an untrue source.  That's what I say.  Sufi wisdom has been around for over 12 hundred years, your f*cked up ex won't change that.

This is the goal of the ex, although he never stated it because it was a secret. This is the relationship he wanted with me:

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, in his book, Sufism: The Transformation of the Heart, makes this cogent point, "The seeker's relationship to the Guru or Sheikh is so different from our normal patterns of relationship that it is easily misunderstood or even abused. In particular, the impersonal intimacy of this relationship and the notion of the total obedience or surrender of the disciple to the teacher need to be understood withing their esoteric context."

This what the Sufi master, Abu Sa'id, has to say on the topic of Guru and disciple:
Abu Sa'id was asked, "Who is the spiritual guide who has attained to Truth, and who is the sincere disciple?"
The Sheikh replied, "The spiritual guide who has attained to Truth is he in who at least ten characteristics are found , as proof of his authenticity:

First, he must have become a goal, to be able to have a disciple.
Second, he must have travelled the mystic path himself, to be able to show the way.
Third, he must have become refined and educated, to be able to be an educator.
Fourth, he must be generous and devoid of self-importance, so that he can sacrifice wealth on behalf of the disciple.
Fifth, he must have no hand in the disciple's wealth, so that he is not tempted to use it for himself.
Sixth, whenever he can give advice through a sign, he will not use direct expression.
Seventh, whenever, he can educate through kindness, he will not use violence and harshness.
Eight, whatever he orders, he has first accomplished himself.
Nine, whatever he forbids the disciple, he has abstained from himself.
Ten, he will not abandon for the world's sake the disciple he accepts for the sake of God.

If the spiritual guide is like this and is adorned with these character traits, the disciple is bound to be sincere and a good traveller, for what appears in the disciple, is the qualities of the spiritual guide made manifest in the disciple."
"As for the sincere disciple, the sheikh has said, "No less than ten characteristics which I mention must be present in the sincere disciple, if he is to be worthy of discipleship.

First, he must be intelligent enough to understand the spiritual guide's indications.
Second, he must be obedient in order to carry out the spiritual guide's command.
Third, he must be sharp of hearing to perceive what the spiritual guide says.
Four, he must have an enlightened heart in order to see the spiritual guide's greatness.
Five, he must be truthful, so that whatever he reports, he reports truthfully.
Six, he must be true to his word, so that whatever he says, he keeps his promise.
Seven, he must be generous, so that whatever he has, he is able to give away.
Eight, he must be discreet, so that he can keep a secret.
Nine, he must be receptive to advice, so that he will accept the guide's admonition.
Ten, he must be chivalrous in order to sacrifice his own dear life on the mystic path.

Having these character traits, the disciple will more easily accomplish his journey and more quickly reach the goal set for him on the mystic path by the spiritual guide."

Jaya Guru
OM Namah Sivaya
———

Problem is, he had an ego as big as a house.

 samiyam wrote: 
This is what the ex was trying to enroll me in, he being a sufi master, at least in his own head. It's good in theory, but it works a lot better when you don't have to work and live a "regular" life.

The goal of self-transformation is to remove all the veils between us
and God. The final veil is the "I," the sense of separateness we
each carry. To remove this is far from easy. Ask yourself, "How can
I take the "I" out of me?"
The great Sufi philosophers insist that our sense of
individuality is an illusion, that there is only one Reality, which
is God. So self-transformation is to remove all illusions, including
the final illusion, self, in order to experience Reality. Those who
see Sufism as a path of love say the same thing in other words. For
them, the goal is for the beloved, lover, and love to become one.
Most of us believe that we are basically all right as we are.
We just need a little more money, a little more love, a little more
free time—then we would be just fine. The Sufis believe that this
is far from the truth. We all need fundamental change; we need to
hatch into a whole new level of being. Unless we recognize the deep,
tranformational nature of the work we need to do, we are fated to
waste all our efforts. We have devleoped the psychology of the
chicken when what we really need is the psychology of the egg.
The metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly is a
particularly good metaphor for self-transformation. At a certain
point the caterpillar feels impelled to wrap itself into a cacoon.
Immobile, it begins to dissolve. There is no sense of a marvelous
new life that is coming; there is only the dissolving of the old, and
the deep fears that accompany this. The caterpillar literally turns
into a kind of goo, and only from that annihilation of the old form
can the magnificent new form of the butterfly emerge.
We can get a sense of this radical process of self-
transformation from those who have been through it, and be guided by
those who can help us through this process.

James Fadiman & Robert Frager