One can never find true peace, love, joy, contentment in this world until one learns to find it first within inside where is has always been.
Only then can we recognise peace, love, joy, contentment and only then will we reflect it - only when your candle is lit can we light other candles.
That brings gratitude and understanding.
Then we can have clarity. Then we can really enjoy life.
by
Alun Buffry
(1982)
Life flows so quick like golden sand
Each grain a day passed through God’s hand
Each moment precious as a jewel
And Yet I waste it like a fool.
You looked at me my heart to sway
But blind I was and looked away
Back to desires and lust and greed
From which You begged me to be freed.
I never ceased to grab and hoard,
Always forgetting my sweet Lord,
That Love lives on within inside
From whom no soul would wish to hide.
I pray to you Lord, to be so kind
And give me strength to ignore my mind,
So from your path I’ll never stray
And at your feet my life will stay.
Those things for which once I craved
You showed inside and I was saved,
Life’s flow became a flow of bliss.
Each grain a chance Your feet to kiss.
And if ever off I stray again,
Please call me back to Holy Name
That Light inside me, make it glow,
Your endless love, please let me know.
Introduction to If Only Suomi - a love story through time:
Most books are considered to be fiction or non-fiction or a combination, written before or after the events therein. Those are either historical, which can include a lot of speculation and guesswork; simply made up, futuristic, speculative, prophecies or wishful thinking. This book is all of that. It’s questionable when exactly it was written. It is clearly written after events in the author’s life, but both before and after the present day. in 2020, on our calendars.
It
includes memories and dreams, prophecies and wishful thinking. In
fact, some sort of time travel. If only in the mind.
So
what is the difference between dreams and memories?
We
can have memories of dreams and dreams of memories.
We can
have dreams within dreams.
What is the difference between
reality and illusions or imagination? Dreams can seem very real and
what we normally call reality can often seem unreal.
Ancient
religions tell us that the world is nothing but an illusion, just at
twinkle in the eye of the Creator, a cutting from the fingernail of
Krishna, ‘Maya’.
“All the world's a stage. And all the men and women merely players.” wrote William Shakespeare.
As children we sang
“Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life
is but a dream.”
Modern-day
scientists
may tell us that the whole Universe and everything around us, even
our own bodies, is made of subatomic particles, too small to see with
the naked eye, and waves, that sometimes it may be a particle and
sometimes a wave, wave-particle duality and, according to the
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we can never say exactly when and
where a particle is. They say that it is mostly space and that it is
our senses and brains that put it all together so we can live in it.
In other words; an illusion.
Others even say that
technically it is all holographic! We are not actually here at
all!
And
some religious folk who believe in an all-powerful God
may
say that it was all
made not so long
ago, to look like it is much older, like a film set or a game of
Dungeons and Dragons.
Then there are dreams within dreams.
That day did come I said goodbye,
And daily since I'd want to cry,
'Cos heaven's not in cloude on high,
And Angels not up in the sky.
The Master said it's all within,
No Karma comes from past lives sins.
The world we take upon the chin,
And on we struggle thick and thin.
Those that passed on from our sight,,
We wonder if perhaps we might
Meet once more on lofty height
Beyond this world and all its plights.
Illusions monks tell us ia all around
As beaten gongs that speed their sounds,
Vibrating air and through the ground
To free us from our temple mounds.
One day each one of us must go
And only then se'll surely know
The crops that grew from seed we'd sowed.
And answers to our lifetime's woes.
Welive our lives between two walls.
We walk our paths with its pitfalls.
In truth I said, all in all,
What fund I had kicking life's balls.
STARDUST
In a mountain village far from the sea,
Grows an ancient family tree,
From those people long ago,
To those who nowadays we know.
2You risk your lives in sport and play,,
You hope, I think, you'll survive the day,
To live and prosper well and long
And keep that youthfulness so strong.".
The world we see is not the same
The good old days we seldom blame,
For throwing hope into the trash
And base our lives on counting cash..
We throw out all the children's toys
Seek transient pleasure for our joys
Forgetting who we truely are,
Just dust from some faint and distant stars.
To those that feel that they are alone
"The Carer" Teacher, Master, Guardian Angel = the One who cares)
There was a man (or
woman) walking along the shore with his Carer. They chatted and
laughed and the man learned many things and felt safe. Dangers
around seemed small and irrelevant, obstacles were not a
problem.
When he looked back he could see the two sets of
footprints, his and those of his Carer and felt great comfort in
that.
But suddenly, in a particularly difficult patch, he
felt alone. When he spoke nobody seemed to answer. Nobody seemed to
care about his problem and he began to feel sad, devastated, fearful,
confused - he looked back and saw only one set of footprints in the
sand.
He asked himself -
was that an illusion - do I have anyone who cares, who can I turn to
for help and guidance? His loneliness was overcoming him, but what
could he do but struggle onwards. He didn't even know where he was
going or why.
After a while the terrain became easier and
he had gotten through it. Just as suddenly a voice sounded next to
him and he saw that his Carer was back.
"Why did you
leave me alone at such a difficult time when I most needed you?"
he asked.
"I never left,"" said the
Carer.
"But I looked back and saw only my footprints
in the sand," said the man.
"They weren't your
prints," replied the Carer, "they were mine. I could see
the path ahead was so difficult, so I carried you."
Know Thyself, Self-esteem, Self-respect, Self-confidence.
"Know Thyself",
said a Greek Philosopher (inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi
and usually attributed to Socrates).
But what does that
mean and how is it attainable? Socrates was probably not the first
and not the last teacher of philosopher to consider it
important.
According to scriptures, many great Masters
said the same, maybe their translated word different but the
same.
Jesus Christ instructed his apostles to "Put
first the Kingdom of Heaven" and the"The Kingdom is
Within"/ Buddha told his followers to look within and find
enlightenment. Nowadays many teachers to to inspire people to search
within themselves, whether through prayer, meditation or even
drugs.
When I hear a person read aloud a poem, a piece
from a book, make a speech or sing a song, obviously I want to hear
it. It requires a degree of self-confidence, self-esteem and
self-respect, which come too with self-knowledge. It's not so much
about whether the listener laughs or cries, but that they can hear.
And after all, not everyone likes or appreciates every "performer",
but the joy for the performer should come with the performance,
knowing that one is heard. Or am I wrong and what people think of
one is what it should be all about? Is success just about what the
world thinks of us? For me, no. It is about what I think of myself,
not in an egotistical way, but in a way that brings contentment.
Yet
many who have written great words or songs - well - they "mumble".
I always advise people to look up and speak or sing loud enough, if without amplification, as if speaking to the person at the back of the room - without shouting! And if playing, for example, a guitar or piano, I want to hear the words above but along with the tune.
Confidence
comes with practice.
I was quite shy as a teenager,
especially speaking in public. Even, still somewhat shy is making
first approach or contact with one person or small group. If
planning to speak, worrying in advance about what to say does not
help (writing it down or making bullet points does, so long as we
look up when reading or speaking).
Even at University in a
tutorial, when the Tutor asked a question and I knew the answer, knew
i was correct, i would remain silent even if the other half dozen
students did the same!
I remember watching a TV interview
of Cliff Richard (remember him? Now Sir Cliff). He was asked how he
managed to sing when ins hall with literally hundreds of screaming
teenage girls (as was common at that time with many pop stars). He
probably couldn't hear himself, most of the audience couldn't either,
with a backing band, The Shadow, despite amplification. So it
probably didn't matter what the words and what his voice actually
sounded like on stage.
His reply was basically he didn't
sing to hundred of girts, he just looked at one and sang to her; then
looked at another and same to her (or maybe even him). He certainly
came across as confident.
So when my time came that i
wanted or felt the need to speak to an audience, I employed his
technique. And it helped if I had a plant in one of the front rows,
somebody i chew that i could look at and who would react, nod, smile
or laugh and this encourage me. But it was really all about what was
going on inside my head and my feelings.
I read a book
called "Feel the fear and Do it Anyway" and that helped
too. What did it matter if people disagreed with what I said, even
laughed at me? The book explained that most "stars" feel
nervous but are able to employ that energy to their benefit.
After
all, we are all the same in what counts. Same bodily parts (mostly)
same hearts, same blood, same mouths, tongues, brains. Just a little
difference in what society likes to call IQ or educational level. We
all smiles the same, cry the same, basically. So why should one
person feel better or worse than another? We were all born, we all
live, we all die, irrespective of wealth, fame, strength, glory or
achievement. What are real aim should be is to feel peace, joy,
love, contentment within ourselves! What are the obstacles to that?
Doubt, confusion, fear, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence,
over-dependence - those feelings that the world so often seems to
want to put on us. There are more losers in the race than winners.
People are singled out for awards and recognition.
What
needs to be encouraged, on the contrary, is certainty (knowledge),
clarity, equity, self-confidence in independence, self-esteem - that
is self-knowledge. Know thyself!
All that is within, the
good and the bad, within each one of us, to be sought and found.
"We
need to know the difference between what is pleasant and what is
good" (Prem Rawat)
Most of us spend our time seeking
what is pleasant and often that is not so good for us!
So
to sum up, how to make those changes? We need to find somebody that
can show us how, beyond words, religion or philosophy, to look within
and find our true Nature, our soul, our spirit, our "God"
our Self.
MARRAKECH SUNRISE 1977
by
Alun Buffry
Many times we've sat,
And watched a good sunset,
But the beauty of the skies,
Of the Marrakech sunrise!
Behind the Atlas Mountains,
There's a desert full of fountains,
Lakes of pale blue ice,
And golden coloured spice
And yellow sparkling sand,
Suspended from God's hand.
Today a brand new life,
Completely free from strife.
GOD'S GAME by Alun Buffry
Just one of the benefits of practicing the techniques of self-knowledge that Prem Rawat shows is the realisation that I am not my mind! That I am separate from my mind, able to watch it and use it as the tool it's meant to be (sometimes) and not always let it distract me and run my life. I can see how often it misled me into bad decisions and problems. If it were a true servant or someone promising to always help,, well I would doubt their sincerity. The "heart" on the contrary, which I also feel through those techniques, always genuine - feeling not just computing and thinking. I feel so grateful for that and want to pass on the message that real peace and joy and love is within each person and not in the head or in the world outside of us,and that it is a practical experience not a philosophy, belief or religion. That is why I post about Prem Rawat, In case anyone was wondering . Ha!
As the Mind flies so the Bird walks to the mountain,
OR
Zen and the Art of Being Lazy
(a postcard from Pokhara)
by Alun Buffry
Today, outside, the weather is hazy.
Stayed in all day, feeling quite lazy.
Where to go now, we often talk,
Then decide it's too far to walk.
Two hours there and two hours back,
"Let's stay here, and have a snack".
Just fifteen minutes up to Baba's.
and we know that there, food's better by far,
but here we eat, for our stomachs sake,
whatever's available as it's no effort to make.
"Well", I say, "I guess that's what
a holiday's for on a day that's hot."
"We're free, we don't have to do anything.
We can fly like a bird with a broken wing."
"How can that be, such a bird can't fly?"
"We can't do much either and here is why-
Cos - cor it's hot outside today,
and wherever we go we have to pay",
or "My leg's aching, stiff and weak,
and there's nothing in the bazaar we seek."
"Stomach queasy, or head aching?
Let's be another chillum a-making."
Then, "Let's go in a boat!"
"No, don't want to row!"
Or, "Let's climb that mountain, look at the snow!"
Oh, if only we could get up there and back,
Without having to walk on that mountain track.
If you close your eyes and lay on your bed,
you can go anywhere inside your head.
If you know how to master the Traveller's Trick,
You'll be there in an instant and come back so quick.
