When we stop speaking and thinking and enjoy deeply our in- and out-breath, we are enjoying being in our true home and we can touch deeply the wonders of life. This is the path shown to us by the Buddha. When you breathe in, you bring all yourself together, body and mind; you become one. And equipped with that energy of mindfulness and concentration, you may take a step. You have the insight that this is your true home—you are alive, you are fully present, you are touching life as a reality. Your true home is a solid reality that you can touch with your feet, with your hands, and with your mind.

It is fundamental that you touch your true home and realize your true home in the here and the now. All of us have the seed of mindfulness and concentration in us. By taking a mindful breath or making a mindful step, you can bring your mind back to your body. In your daily life, your body and mind often go in two different directions. You are in a state of distraction; mind in one place, body in another. Your body is putting on a coat but your mind is preoccupied, caught in the past or the future. But between your mind and your body there is something: your breath. And as soon as you go home to your breath and you breathe with awareness, your body and mind come together, very quickly. While breathing in, you don’t think of anything; you just focus your attention on your in-breath. You focus, you invest one hundred percent of yourself in your in-breath. You become your in-breath. There is a concentration on your in-breath that will make body and mind come together in just one moment. And suddenly you find yourself fully present, fully alive. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

When we embrace “…the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be
no more hurt, only more love.” (Mother Teresa)  we discover the key to supreme
peace and true freedom.  ~Asha

It is through the experiences of loving, receiving love, and suffering through love that we are transformed into more refined and empathic individuals. With every experience of loving deeply and even through losing love, we become more fully ourselves and capable of great change and inner growth.

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” ~Anais Nin

Source: Live bold &bloom

No Lotus flowers for you today, just Roses and a smile
Love yourself—accept yourself—forgive yourself—and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.

~Leo F. Buscaglia

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-single-rose-can-be-my-garden-single.html

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From Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

By the power and the truth of this practice,
may all beings have happiness,
and the causes of happiness.
May all be free from sorrow,
and the causes of sorrow.
May all never be separated
from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless.
And may all live in equanimity,
without too much attachment
and too much aversion,
And live believing
in the equality of all that lives.
May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
the subtle and the gross:
May all beings everywhere,
Seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby,
Being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.
Let no one deceive another,

Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.
Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.

Let your love flow outward
through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.

This is just a short video (by Susan Nel) of how a newborn baby Elephant needs her Mom’s guidance in the African bush. One can clearly see how the Elephant cow breaks of branches for the calf and stop her with her leg to continue that route. The calf understands this and follows her mom on the easy alternative route up the embankment. The ‘sister’ Elephant also tried to help. Video taken at Kambaku Game Lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa.

In video owner Susan Nel’s own words – “Newborn elephant which still has the umbilical cord attached, tries to climb up an embankment. Even with Moms help it proves to be just a little too high for its wobbly legs to manage. Another plan has to be made.”

This is just a short video (by Susan Nel) of how a newborn baby Elephant needs her Mom's guidance in the African bush. One can clearly see how the Elephant cow breaks of branches for the calf and stop her with her leg to continue that route. The calf understands this and follows her mom on the easy alternative route up the embankment. The 'sister' Elephant also tried to help. Video taken at Kambaku Game Lodge in the Timbavati Game Reserve which forms part of the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa.

In video owner Susan Nel's own words – "Newborn elephant which still has the umbilical cord attached, tries to climb up an embankment. Even with Moms help it proves to be just a little too high for its wobbly legs to manage. Another plan has to be made."

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/baby-elephant-needs-moms-help.html

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Let your love flow outward
through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.
Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.

Read more
http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/by-power-and-truth-of-this-practice.html

Source: Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

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Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside.
We think that hating is a weapon that attacks
the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade.
And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.

― Mitch Albom

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally
forward in whatever way they like. ~Lao Tzu