Here are three different versions of “All You Need Is Love”…

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Gustave Flaubert

The message on this famous French novelist’s quote, Gustave Flaubert, makes a perfect match with what this short video seems to transmit:

Short film “Garuda”, created by Gobelins:

Let us always look up at the sky, at that unlimited potential that is our destiny to develop.

Let us expand our consciousness, give up our attachments, love ourselves and others unconditionally…

And sooner than we think, we will be the first to be surprised that we have finally learned the mysterious art of flying.

Axel

Translated by Mónica Gutiérrez

Link to this short film creator’s web site

An excellent video about the power of meditation to make it up with that inside dialog which never comes to an end…

Axel

Animation Short Film "The Fly", by Hanjin Song:

About Thoughts, by OSHO

The mind is just a process. In fact, mind doesn’t exist, only thoughts, thoughts moving so fast that you think and feel that something is existing there in continuity. One thought comes, another thought comes, another, and they go on. The gap is so small you cannot see the gap between one thought and another. So two thoughts become joined, they become a continuity, and because of that continuity you think there is a mind. There are thoughts – no mind – just as there are electrons, no matter. Thought is the electron of the mind. Just like a crowd... a crowd exists in a sense, doesn’t exist in another; only individuals exist. But many individuals together give the feeling as if they are one. A nation exists and exists not; only individuals are there. Individuals are the electrons of a nation, of a community, of a crowd.

Thoughts are like clouds – they come and go – and you are the sky. When there is no mind, immediately the perception comes that you are no more involved in the thoughts. Thoughts are there, passing through you like clouds passing through the sky, or the wind passing through the trees. Thoughts are passing through you, and they can pass because you are a vast emptiness.

Mind is nothing but the absence of your presence. When you sit silently, when you look deep in the mind, mind simply disappears. Thoughts will remain, they are existential, but mind will not be found. But when the mind is gone then a second perception becomes possible: you can see thoughts are not yours. Of course they come, and sometimes they rest a little while in you, and then they go. You may be a resting place, but they don’t originate in you. Not a single thought has come through your being. They always come from the outside. They don’t belong to you. Rootless, homeless they hover.

Sometimes thoughts rest in you, that’s all; a cloud resting on top of a hill. Then they will move on their own; you need not do anything. If you simply watch, control is attained.

OSHO

About Osho meditation technichs

Translated by Witcha

Short film "Validation", written and directed by Kurt Kuenne:

About approval, by Louise L. Hay.

Almost all of our programming, of negative and positive, was accepted by us by the time we were three years old. Our experiences since then are based on what we accepted and believed about ourselves and about life at that time. The way we were treated when we were very little is usually the way we treat ourselves now. The person you’re scolding is a three-year-old child within you.

If you’re a person who gets angry of yourself for being afraid and fearful, think of yourself as being three years old. If you had a little three-year-old child in front of you who is afraid, what would you do? Would you be angry at it, or would you reach out your arms and comfort the child until it feels safe and at ease? The adults around you when you were a child may not have known how to comfort you at that time. Now you are the adult in your life and if you’re not comforting that child within you, the matter is very sad indeed.

What was done in the past is done; and it is over now. But this is present time, and you now have the opportunity to treat yourself the way you wish to be treated. Scolding yourself only makes you more frightened, and there’s nowhere to turn. When the child within feels unsafe, it creates a lot of trouble.

Remember how it felt to be belittled when you were young? It feels the same way now to that child within.

Be kind to yourself. Began to love and approve of yourself. That’s what that little child needs in order to express itself and its highest potential.

from "You Can Heal Your Life"

Link to Louise L. Hay website

Translated by Witcha

The flea circus shows are mounted in small settings where common fleas, after a period of training, are able to carry out simple tests. These particular circuses do really exist and some of their performances can be seen in some videos on YouTube.

All available information agrees that the initial stage of training of these fleas consists on making them to stop jumping, so they can be easily manipulated and to carry out satisfactorily their acts during the show.

But, how does a flea abandon a habit as ingrained as it is to jump, if there is no way to contact her to convey that idea, even that it looks very simple?

Well, the procedure is very simple: Fleas are kept in glass containers, where they can jump as much as they want. Logically, each time that the flea jumps she is hurting herself. Finally, at one point, obviously after hurting themselves many times, fleas understand that they must stop jumping.

In our lives we are free to act at will too. However, many times we repeat behaviors that lead to painful situations. And as some of our habits are deeply rooted, we repeat over and over again these attitudes that we resist to change, even if always generate conflict situations around us.

It is as if, after having interrupted the profound communication with others, with the Universe, with God, there were no other resource than allow us to make these mistakes, trusting that the pain we cause to ourselves finally will make us reflect and ask ourselves if there is not a different way to lead our life.

Axel Piskulic

This Need Not Be

If you cannot hear the voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen…

When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be…

When you are sad, know this need not be. Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise…

Have you really considered how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many of them you have refused?

from "A Course in Miracles" (Chap. 4, V)

The real flea circuses are not as funny as this video, a sequence of "Limelight", one of the last films of Charles Chaplin:

Flea circus: a scene from the movie Limelight by Charles Chaplin…

Translated by Adriana Pardo

These two videos invite us to take care of ourselves and others:

"Your hands are for protecting" TV spot campaign:

"Embrace Life" Road Safety Campaign Video:

Translated by Mónica Gutiérrez

The elephant and the crocodile

One of my friends explained his personal story, or could have been only a parable. Once, he said, I was sitting in the train cabin, and a little boy by mi side began asking questions as children usually do. He inquired: “When does the train will start”? Then I seriously answered: “The train will start going when we push it”. The child opened his eyes wide: “Really?”, “Really”, I replied. “If we do not push, it wouldn’t start?”; “It cannot start the engine. Once it does, goes on by itself, but we have to push it for so”, I said.“Let’s push then”. “Immediately; just wait until all passengers are on. I’ll tell you when”. I checked at the station’s clock to verify the right time, I saw the red light changing into the yellow one, heard the whistle from the chief of the station and shouted towards the boy: “Now!, Push with your best effort!” And both started pushing as much as we could against the panel facing the engine. The child pushed more and more, until his lips began smiling shinning his face completely. The train was moving! Slowly at first, then little by little faster, and at full speed at the end. The boy was delighted. Traveling on a train that himself helped to move. He couldn’t be less than feeling satisfied. Confessing him it was a steam machine would have meant to spoil the fun. Anyway he will have more than enough time along his life to find it out by himself.

It’s good for the man, it’s the natural course of events, it’s a providential step for his own spiritual development starting life with fresh enthusiasm, believing himself a hero, thinking the train starts because of he's pushing it. That will make him take control and work and do his best, for what he is in full possession of his mental faculties. This is very significant to start going on the right way. Tragedy appears when such attitude, which only represents a basic mistake in his spiritual life, goes on and lasts all his life, and the old man still pushes trains like a child. The one who begins with the pray, tries to reach its personal holiness like a hard worker student prepares an exam to get good scores. It’s good as a starting, but the risk is this attitude of “spiritual executive” may become into a habit during long life and cause much harm. Such attitude is only good for the first launching; but, if it’s continuously followed, in a short time it’ll cause anxiety, frustration and despair, with the permanent temptation of throwing everything away, as, for much effort he makes, he´s unable to get anything. Trains do not move when we push them.

I’d like to summarize the practical attitude such as I understand it. First, make a great effort with all of your heart, without forgetting God, of course, but as if you’ll get perfection by yourself, and go on believing it for a long time as it usually happens. Then, and this “then” may last for years, stop for a while, look back, evaluate your experiences, be honest with yourself and admit to your consciousness you are getting to nowhere, that perfection is farther than when you started, that you aren’t saint neither meant to be, that you pray worse than at the beginning and have more amusements and temptations than ever; and return to God and admit that just under his compassion and grace you may get help to go forward and conquer. If you do not deal with all what you have on your hand and fail, you’ll never become a truly humble human being, because he´ll be whispering that if you had tried it hard, you could have got it. Make as much as you can, feel satisfaction you haven’t turned down anything, let you feel the triviality of your efforts by themselves in full, admit defeat, and turn to God, surrender to him and open your life wide to the action of his grace. Faith will make your efforts fertile, and your life will bear fruit. You’ll be in good hands.

The following is a story from Indian mythology. Gajendra, the elephant of Indra god had gone to soak in the river. The elephant is the symbol of strength and power, of self-sufficiency when it’s about pushing or pulling or fighting or making their own way through wherever. It doesn’t need the help of anyone to control the forest and live its own life. But, this time Gajendra was in trouble. A crocodile from the river had come quietly closer, caught one of its forelegs within its jaws and was pulling it towards the running deep water. The elephant withstood, but without success. Water was not its element, its legs slipped on the mud, and pain caused by the crocodile teeth made it blind and furious. Gajendra pulled with all of its heart, it wanted to save its life, prestige, the position of being the strongest in the forest. It would do once again as it had done always; it was only a matter of bringing together all its strength and free once and for all. It tried. And lost more ground. Understanding that it would disappear under water soon and there would not leave even a track, it changed plans. It remembered God and prayed, even the elephants can pray in legends to give example to man: “I can’t be saved by myself. I sink! Save me!” At that right time Visnu god, flying on eagle Garuda, saved Gajendra from the crocodile teeth and its own pride. Divine help appeared when the strongest creature on the earth admitted it couldn’t stand it any longer.

Faith and grace’s parable. God is present when man admits his own limitation. When we keep our pride behind we are open to faith. There is when the best stage of life begins.

Carlos G. Vallés

Translated by Witcha

Illustrations by Josephine Wall

Vuelvo a escribir en este blog al que tanto quiero, después de muchos meses. En estos últimos tiempos la actividad en "Amarse a uno mismo" se limitó a la generada por a las visitas, los comentarios y las consultas de quienes lo encuentran a través de Google... Para esos visitantes no había muchas señales de que el blog estaba "detenido".

Pero ahora tengo algunos artículos ya preparados y siempre hay videos interesantes para compartir, por lo que espero volver a publicar novedades con regularidad.

Los que visitan este sitio después de mucho tiempo encontrarán un nuevo diseño (más colorido y más "moderno") y algunos otros cambios, como la presencia de "Amarse a uno mismo" en Facebook y en Twitter y la posibilidad de compartir los artículos a través de esas nuevas "redes sociales".

Y para comenzar esta nueva etapa, un video muy inspirador (que en realidad es una publicidad), que nos recuerda a través de diferentes situaciones que aquello que nos provoca temor y que puede llegar a paralizarnos, normalmente no tiene una existencia real... es sólo una ilusión que deja de afectarnos cuando conseguimos tomar la decisión de enfrentarla.

Axel Piskulic

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One day a student worked up the courage to ask the Zen master, “What is it like to be enlightened?”

Without acknowledging or rejecting the seeker's question, the master remained silent. After a time, the teacher spoke: “I eat when I'm hungry. I sleep when I'm tired.”

The questioner replied, “Well, isn't that what everyone does?”

The master looked up in some surprise and a hint of a smile graced his lips. “Oh, you think so? Oh, no! When others eat, they think of ten thousand things and their minds endlessly run from one thing to another. When others sleep, they dream of ten thousand things and their minds create endless fantasies and dramas.”

The master closed the eyes, paused for a time, and then continued. “When I eat, I just eat. When I sleep, I just sleep… It's far too simple, I know.”

A thought from Alan Watts:

“Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”

A bit of humor:

For all practical purposes it seems that there is only one important place in the entire Universe and a single point of interest in all eternity: Now and Here...

Axel

Translated by Juancho Almenara R.

The comic strip was taken from "The man in the strip"