Gandhi sayings on ART:
-A semi-starved nation can have neither religion nor art nor organization.
-Painters and poets are obliged to exaggerate the proportions of their figures in order to give true perspective.
-Art to be art must soothe.
-All true art must help the soul to realize its inner self.
-True art takes note not merely of form but also of what lies behind.

More about the great Indian leader who preached non-violence and village economics and achieved independence for his people from the oppressive colonizer: http://www.mkgandhi.org/index.htm

Event celebrated at Studio 206 all day today

Linda Goodman an English author says about love in her book “Love Signs”:

Some day, very soon, the discovery of instruments sensitive enough to measure the tremendous energy of love’s magnetic force field, will demonstrate how its electrical impulses can interrupt Nature’s Law: reverse gravity, increase telepathic communication and cause many other miracles. Yes, love can do all this, if the desire is strong enough and the motives unselfish, where enough faith and enough will are exerted; it happens everyday.
It’s been frequently observed by witnesses that a 90 pound woman can lift the wheels of a two ton truck if her child is caught beneath it—a complete reversal of the laws of physics but in absolute accord with the laws of meta-physics.
Love is far more than an emotion or a feeling. Love is a positive electrical impulse. Science has not yet developed equipment delicate or sophisticated enough to detect these impulses; never the less, they do exist.

For two who are in love there can be no end to the kind of happiness they may claim when they wish to do so. They hardly need to speak the words “I love you”. Their voices sound familiar to each others’ ears like a remembered chord of music.
Problems do occur between any two who are in love. But they all would dissolve, simply disappear if they would only touch their hearts or minds and whisper just one word ‘magic!’. For love is magic, the secret power all who love possess without realizing.
No matter how great the injury, or how bitter the words, love will erase it all, as if it had never been. But not without the desire and effort to do so on the part of the one who has inflicted the pain—not without the quality of forgiveness on the part of the one who’s been deeply hurt. Desire, effort and forgiveness are necessary to release love’s force and power.

It’s a simple matter of priorities. You fall in love first with your eyes—that have been called “The windows of the Soul”—then with your mind, then with your heart (emotions).
By now, your soul has joined the experience—whether you realized it or not, you’ve fallen in love spiritually—and it’s time to fall in love with your body. It doesn’t work when you take these steps in reverse. For only the eyes know how to lead you into the mind. And only the mind knows how to lead you into the heart of the one with whom you’ve found mental affinity. Only the heart knows how to lead you into union with the soul of the one you love. And the soul is well aware.. oh, well aware, believe me…of how to lead you, then, into the oneness that’s called ‘sexual mating’.
But if you begin with the body…the body knows not where to lead you except more and more sensations of the flesh.

Those who love deeply has no desire to initiate wars or to dominate others, so shall the blending of all lovers have the same power to unite mankind and womankind, all Earthlings in permanent Peace and Good.
There is no distance that love cannot span, no illness—moral, mental, emotional or spiritual—that love cannot heal. No victory that love cannot win. Love is concentrated kinetic energy, the most powerful force in Nature.
If only you could love deeply enough, sustain love long enough, you could become the source of your own miracles. There is no dream you couldn’t turn into a reality, no law you can’t change, no situation you can’t reverse-if only you could love enough.

Loving enough is not easy. It doesn’t mean loving only those who love you. Loving enough means loving those who say all manner of evil against you, who hate you, who lack all compassion and sensitivity. Anyone can return the love of those who love him or her. We are to learn love’s deeper, more difficult lesson of loving the unlovable.
In this accomplishment lies all the force and energy of true passion. More often than not, it’s a painful effort, but the rewards when it’s mastered are…beyond imagination.
The magic of receiving kindness in return from one to whom we have been unkind.. the miracle of hearing when we have said, “ I’m sorry I said such cruel things, “ the answer: “ What cruel things? I didn’t hear them.” Then the heart bursts with joy.

The Don Juan and idealists, the puritans and the prostitutes…are all looking for the same thing. No matter which road they travel, the inner need that drives them on is love. Not to give it. Not to receive it. But to share it: to love and be loved in return.

Particularly, resist the urge to lose track of your commitment to living outside of duality.  During this month, it will be incredibly tempting to use language and develop a perspective in which some people are good and some people are bad, or that some ideas are good and some ideas are bad.  The fact is, every person involved and every idea that arises is simply what it is – a person or an idea.

Much of the heat generated in August will be generated through people’s personal resistance to what is.  People try hard to believe that some people are bad or that some people are better than others, and this creates a great deal of energetic friction and vibrational static.  It makes it difficult for you collectively to come to clarity.  For Lightworkers, try to remain cool-headed and open-hearted.

You might develop an active spiritual practice during August. Consider taking walks instead of meditating or sitting in a spiritual group, or going for a walk with your spiritual group. Instead of praying by your bedside at night, pray on a hillside with the wind whipping around you. In general it will serve you to be in motion as you connect with Source and as you connect with your deepest, truest, highest self during August.

The balance you have established in your lives will continue.  The balance
between joy and pain in your personal lives will be the same balance with bigger joy and bigger pain.

No need to panic; no need to change the course of your lives if your lives are working well.  On the other hand, if something in your life is not working well, it will amplify itself to the point of being undeniable — you will need to revise it in order to move forward.

Remember that for every human being your purpose here is to experience
exactly what you have experienced and to move toward the Light through the path that you have established.  If you will remember that and embrace that, you will find that you can move forward into what you want to become more easily.

Every human being has a heart that yearns to connect with every other human being.  You are surrounded by people yearning to connect.  Any courage you can find to open the connection with others will bring all of you to a greater level of safety and connection.  We encourage this – reach out to one another.  Bless the
hearts of everyone you meet — bless your hearts.

August is an excellent time to draw your attention to your non-physical resources such as your life force energy, free time, your connection with Spirit, or your relationships with friends.  Things that are not tangible but are incredibly important and far more attuned to who you are as energetic beings than to who you are as physical beings.

Resist the urge to make everything in your life smaller.  It will serve you to be creative in August about using your resources in a way that makes your life bigger regardless of what your income may be or how your physical or financial assets are shifting around.

Any fears you have are going to feel a lot bigger than they are.  Also, simple joys and pleasures will feel much bigger and more delicious than they usually do.  Assume this amplification in August and do your best to stay calm.  Do your best to not fall completely into either pleasure or displeasure.

Keep your hearts wide open and strive to be kind, tender and gentle with yourselves and others.

August 10th and 11th provide a cooling period. It is time when truth will come into a more clear focus, and will be easier to work with or deal with any process that has occurred before the 10th and the 11th that brought up emotions. Take these days to cool down and look at things outside your feelings with a more objective point of view. These are good days to get your feet on the ground.

August 12th is a day of softening. It will feel as a fog; it won’t be easy to push through to clarity. Have patience and be particularly tender with yourselves. It will feel distinctly different from the energy on the 10th and the 11th. Do things that comfort you and bring you physical health and well-being.

August 13th: new possibilities open up, pay attention to things that interest you. You will find new resources to help you move on.

August 17th is a day of power. Stand in your power, whatever that means, in your personal lives. Stand up for your truth, remain true to yourselves, say no to any person, event or force in your lives that would do you harm.
August 24th is also a day of power; it has a softness to it, consider what is most important to you and move toward that. Do not allow yourselves to be distracted by unimportant things or that are not priorities in your life. Be aware of what you wish to focus on in the bigger picture of your lives. Stay focused.

You will have an active hurricane season this year.
Hurricanes stir the pot. Often in a social setting where there is denial or illusion that has not been expressed or dealt with, one person will come along and “stir the pot,” meaning they will come along and say the unsaid or create small but significant changes that exposes those repressed or ignored dynamics. It can look like this person has created trouble, but trouble cannot be created unless there was something out of alignment already in existence.
When you are completely in alignment with your highest truth, nothing can stir you – nothing can upset or overpower you. They are like the joker in that they create destruction specifically for the purpose of bringing to light that no longer serves you.
Physically, they stir the air and the water into a frenzy. Similarly they stir up energy that has been too long held and too long ignored.
In that way, you can think of hurricanes and cyclones as an intense, uncompromising spring cleaning.
At their best, these storms give you an opportunity for renewal; at their worst, they destroy everything and leave you little resource for rebuilding. But they always clear away what no longer serves you.
They represent the force of destruction particularly for the purpose of renewal.

Hurricanes do not occur as punishment for your behaviors. They are neutral occurrences that offer an experience for those who would be best served by them. All of you benefit when previously hidden information becomes available, even when that information is initially difficult for you to see. When it benefits all of humanity to see something, a storm will make itself big enough for you to pay attention. Storms arrive in particular areas based on the agreements of those who experience them, and each of you arranges to be just where you need to be when a storm arrives. Do not imagine that your soul has abandoned you when you dislike an experience, for each of you is led by Divine Love to be precisely where you will be best served in every moment of your lives. You are never alone, and you are never out of Love. Knowing this is the beginning of taking such full accountability for your lives that you move into Enlightenment. Any denial of your experience is denial of your truest self.

You can expect that hurricanes will continue to bring to light that which needs to be seen in order for all of you to progress through Enlightenment. In that regard, the potential for hurricanes is that you can accomplish the disillusionment and renewal necessary for this year on Planet Earth through a long slow series of small hurricanes with minimal destruction. If you continue to stand in denial as a
collective global culture in regard to the ways that individuals cede their personal power to governments and institutions, then the potential for a massive, more destructive hurricane builds in order to create a further experience in which your collective denial is more obviously destroyed. Through this, your collective empowerment is brought to light and enabled.

You will be carried forward in your lives if you are clear and honest with yourselves about your situation, your choices, and standing in your truth. 

If you are holding onto denial, deception, or old patterns, you feel as if your engine is breaking down.

August is an excellent opportunity to burn away old habits that hold you back, time to stop smoking or to begin volunteering in a cause you believe in.  In August you’ll see a great deal of collective change you’ll see more natural disasters bringing global attention to your interconnectedness as a human race and your interdependence with one another in regard to the oil and the food crisis that is happening worldwide.

Expand these loving connections into a larger collective community. It is vital
that you embrace that your human existence is proof that you want to be here, that part of your soul is deeply committed to the human form and the human collective; otherwise you would not be a human being at this time on Planet Earth. 

Truly consider why you are here — what parts of you are most deeply inspired by and connected to your fellow human beings.  The year 2008 is called the year of answering your calling.  August is the time to look around at the human collective and your place in it, consider making a much deeper commitment on a personal level to the human family in whatever way makes sense for you.

When you make a mistake it will feel bigger, when you do something kind for another person it will have a much greater effect.  In general, everything is amplified in August. It is the nature of August’s energy to shed light on things and create heat.  Heat is simply a generation of energy. Try to stay calm, cool, and collected as things seem to get big. 

There is no need to panic or to change your personal choices or the direction in which you are going.  In fact if you have found a direction that works well or feels right to you, keep this direction in August, even if it has a greater effect than you expected.  Keep the direction of what feels most true, most clear, and most empowering in your lives.  You will adjust to this larger energy over time if you will remain true to your highest sense of yourselves.

If there is a relationship you are unsure about, watch in August for clear evidence on which direction to take. It will be far easier to see what is really happening beneath the surface, it is far more difficult for deception to occur on Planet Earth at this time.  It will be more difficult to carry on denial or deception in any way.  It will be far more difficult for any organization or institution to deceive individual human beings.
You will see world leaders change their minds or take a new course in August.  Anything that does not serve the highest benefit of the human race becomes more obviously apparent and more undeniable. 

Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed
Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you-its only seed

It’s the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It’s the dream afraid of waking
that never takes the chance
It’s the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snow
lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the spring becomes the rose

A BEAUTIFUL SONG but I don’t know the artist..

Who has heard of the year “death of the old consciousness” that we are currently living? It is behind all the suffering that we are suffering.. Death of the old patterns, of what one day was our principle and have proven itself wrong.. and now it is time to give away.. to let go, to let die.. Although this will lead to evolution and light in our lives.. it is a very tough process for everyone..  unfortunately those who won’t be able to go with the Universe’s natural flow which death is part of it, will stay behind… will not be able to make it with the rest..

There is a spiritual awakeness and awareness taking place at the current phase of our lives..  I am one of those suffering as it is soooo tough to go through the death process into rebirth.. I don’t know if my words make any sense to you.. but I think it will be good or useful if we’d share experiences… how’s everyone doing at the current phase of their lives??

Many people devise all kinds of elaborate ways to protect themselves. These normally involve placing some kind of barrier between themselves and the world. These devices can never be truly effective because their philosophy is wrong.

Let me explain. You are walking down the street feeling at one with the world. Coming in the other direction is a man feeling incredibly angry with the world, closed off and looking for conflict. You feel his pain and anger. You then erect your wall but it’s too late. You have felt the pain and anger-it is already in you. any attempt you make to block it out only serves to block it in. the wall erected actually traps his feelings within you. as you placed your protection between yourself and his anger and pain, you actually created separation between his experience and your own. You made a judgment of him and decided that you wanted to exclude him from your experience. The oneness you were experience previously didn’t include him. But of course it does-we are all one. He is part of you.

So what do we do? To answer, I will recount an experience that I believe I was given to teach me this principle.

1n 1995 I was living in a spiritual community in the north of Scotland, surrounded by supportive and loving people. I had to visit London for a seminar so found myself on the Underground in the center of town. We pulled into a station and, as the doors opened, I felt a ripple of fear go through me. I noticed that the same ripple went right down the train, affecting everyone on it. The next moment a huge man entered the train. He was drunk, very angry, and looking for someone to challenge him. He came over to where I was sitting, threw the man who was sitting opposite me off the seat, and sat down.

Everyone on the train was trying to shrink into a corner, such was the power of this man’s projections. He started to loudly sing songs that were designed to insult everyone on the train. After his first song he looked at me. I found myself able to hold his gaze, even though I wanted to look away and hide like everyone else. I noticed that he was enjoying himself. As I looked at him, I felt myself accepting him for who he was and empathizing with him. I felt fear but I knew it wasn’t mine-it was his fear.

He asked me what I thought of his song. I told him that it was an angry song. He replied, “Of course it was an angry song, I’m an anarchist.” He sang another song and looked back at me and, almost as if he realized that I was his friend, he held out his hands-they were covered in scratches and blood-and said he had hurt himself. I took hold of one of his hands and fear in me dissolved. I was holding the hands of a scared young man who wanted love and attention, not an angry man who might hurt me.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. When his stop arrived he got up, said goodbye and left. It was only then that I noticed the rest of the people on the train. They were all staring at me as if I had disarmed a man with a machine gun.

When I left the train, I felt rushes of ecstasy through my body as the whole experience-all the fear, anger and sadness-left me. this taught me that if we are prepared to experience others fully, and do not engage in conflict with them, they cannot hurt us and, when we move out of their fields, the experience lifts off us effortlessly.

Being open and developing yourself means that you will feel the pain of those who have not yet made the choice to re-connect to their hearts and feelings. When this pain becomes a burden to you, it is important to know that it is a warning. Retreat and take time to re-center and balance yourself.

Practical Reiki by Richard Ellis

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do
the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
The challenge being to conquer the fear.

By Marion Williamson

There are 3 main layers of energy surrounding the body:

1.    The Etheric Body: this layer draws vital energy from the ocean of the energy through the solar plexus chakra and distributes it via the chakra system into the physical body. When the body is receiving healthy amounts of vital energy, this will be reflected in the strength of the etheric field around it. The etheric field is made up of rays of light radiating from the physical body. These rays make up a protective web of light around the physical body.

2.    The Emotional Body: This layer reflects the emotional state of the person. In addition to immediate feelings and emotions (anger, fear, love, joy), the emotional body holds all the unresolved emotional conflicts and fears relating back to a person’s early life. These fears and conflicts are transmitted to the external world via the chakras as an unconscious message. We refer to this as the emotional signature of a person, and the simple rule of “like attracts like” reflects this message. The signature we send out into the world will act like a magnet drawing us to situations and experiences that reflect our unconscious fears and emotions. In this way, the world can be seen as a mirror in which to observe our own unconscious self.If somebody is unconsciously angry then the people or situations they attract will reflect that anger. They might consider themselves to be loving and peaceful, while unconsciously sending out deeply aggressive energy signals. The signals they are sending out will draw experiences to them that reflect this aggression.The purpose of this mirroring is to bring our unresolved issues up onto the conscious level. Once we are aware of the signals we are sending out into the world and understand the law of attraction, we can begin to take responsibility and start to change them.  

3.    The Mental Body: this field of energy holds our beliefs about reality formed throughout our lives. Belief systems reflect the culture we have been brought up in, the beliefs we have inherited from our parents, our religion and our peer groups. The experiences we have in the physical body are processed in the mental body after having passed through the emotional body. Therefore, our perception and rational thoughts are often deeply affected by any unresolved issues on the emotional level. This field of energy is very much like a transmitter and receiver. We pick up on the thought projections of the people around us, and the unconscious messages being sent into the world through sources such as television and newspapers. These projections are often fearful and concerned with worldly matters. We absorb these and hold them in our own energy field—we start to believe they belong to us. Our own perception of the world can then become clouded by this invasion of negative thought patterns, and we will find our attention becomes focused on these issues. What we think is what we become. When we send our beliefs about ourselves into the world, they are reflected back to confirm our thoughts. So if we believe the world is a dark place and that we are powerless victims of it, the world will oblige us by reflecting our beliefs and presenting us with situations and people that support these beliefs.  

The true function of the mental body is to marry the conscious mind with the intuitive perception.  We are a bridge between spirit and Earth and part of our function is to access the information given by spirit and utilize it here on Earth. While we may receive clear and precise guidance, our own issues can distort this information or manipulate it to serve our own needs. Our beliefs can also block this perception, as it may threaten our limited view of reality.

Practical Reiki by Richard Ellis