Thank God It's Friday... ♥

This will be me for most of the weekend... ♥

GlobalAwareness101 Remembers 9/11/01

Regardless of what you believe about that day... In and around the twin towers there were 2,752 deaths of INNOCENT SOULS! While 189 people died when a plane was flown into the Pentagon and another 44 were killed when a hijacked jet crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Show respect for those who lost their lives on 9/11 including their families and close friends. ♥ Sending you much LOVE and a warm embrace! ♥

May God bless the victims, their families and America!

I Believe ~ by Blessed Union of Souls

Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand

Don’t ask any questions and don’t try to understand

Open up your mind and then open up your heart

And you will see that you and me aren’t very far apart

’cause I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

Violence is spread worldwide and there are families on the street

And we sell drugs to children now oh why can’t we just see

That all we do is eliminate our future with the things we do today

Money is our incentive now so that makes it okay

But I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

’cause I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

I believe I believe I believe I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

Love will find the way

Love will find the way

Love will find the way

Please love find the way

Please love find the way

Advice from a Tree... ♥ Great Words of Wisdom! :)

Push Yourself Out Of Your Comfort Zone! I Just Came Across This Great Inspirational Message, I Had To Share With You! :) BE INSPIRED... ♥

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

Push Yourself Out Of Your Comfort Zone

written by Jennifer Smith

October 23, 2010

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” ~ by Helen Keller

Comfort zones: Nice cozy little pockets of reality.

There is nothing wrong with comfort zones per se. We all like being cozy at times and there is an ebb and flow to life. There is a time for pushing ourselves and ‘being out there’ and there is a time for rest. If we trust ourselves we start to sense when the time is right for doing and when it is right for resting.

Where the comfort zone becomes a problem is when we are stuck in it, when we don’t let ourselves move on with the natural flow of life. When we hold ourselves back and hide in our comfort zone we are effectively saying no to life.

Recognise where you are stuck

The first step to moving out of your comfort zone is realising that you are in one! They can be so comfy and ‘normal’ that we don’t know where we are. Taking the time to sit down on a regular basis and assess how we are progressing in the various areas of our life is a great way to flag this up. We can then start to see how happy we are with each area and where we are dissatisfied. Take the time to listen to your feelings. A supportive friend or coach can also be useful here. For a long time I didn’t ‘guest post’. I wanted to but I was scared of putting myself “out there”. Once I recognised the feeling I could move past it. Now I love guest posting. It doesn’t mean my fear has gone completely, but I now know many of my fears were unfounded and I can see for myself that there are so many benefits from guest posting. I get a real buzz from it!

Identify ways to move forward

When you know you are stuck in your comfort zone you have made a big step. Awareness is power. Now is the time to take action. Once I had realised my fear of guest posting, I started writing more posts and emailing sites where I wanted to be featured. Take the time to work out what actions you now need to take. Fed up with being single? You could join a dating site. Want to get fit? You could commit to an exercise plan and kick it off by going for a short run. Find what is right for you and just do it!

Know your fear

Some fears are good and help us weigh up our choices in life, but a lot of our fear is unnecessary and counter productive. We scare ourselves senseless about things that haven’t even happened. Stare your fears in the face and see them for what they really are. They are often related to feeling that we are not good enough e.g.: “they will never like my work”; “I am not attractive enough” etc. You are good enough! Watch out for your secret saboteur!

Do what scares you

When you are coming up with ideas for actions you could take and you notice that something scares you it is a good sign! Write this idea down and notice if you try to talk yourself out of it. Usually the scared feeling is accompanied with a feeling of exhilaration. You are scared but the idea thrills you at the same time. There is gold here! Commit to that action.

Make it a habit

Do something that scares you every day! The more we can make a habit of pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone, the easier it becomes. Talk to a stranger at the bus stop! Tell a joke at work when you normally wouldn’t! Send off that guest post!

You will build up confidence and resilience. You will start to know yourself as someone who takes risks and challenges themselves.

God Has Blessed Me... ♥

 

Let Your Love Flow... ♥

HAPPY FRIDAY everybody! I hope this song INSPIRES you to simply "Let Your LOVE Flow". Sit quietly in meditation, allow your spirit to fill up with love from our Source of Light and Love, feel the warmth overwhelm you, enjoy it, bask in it, smile and then send it out to the world.

May today be the start of a pretty incredible rest of the year for us all! Enjoy this feel good song. I'm sending you lot's of love and giving you a great BIG HUG!!! :)

Let Your Love Flow ~ The Bellamy Brothers

There's a reason for the sunshinin' sky

And there's a reason why I'm feelin so high

Must be the season when that love light shines

All around us.

...

So let that feelin grab you deep inside

And send you reelin where your love can't hide

And then go stealin' through the moonlit nights

With your lover.

Just let your love flow like a mountain stream

And let your love grow with the smallest of dreams

And let your love show and you'll know what I mean

It's the season.

Letyour love fly like a bird on wing

And let your love bind you to all livin things

And let your love shine and you'll know what I mean

That's the reason.

There's a reason for the warm sweet nights

And there's a reason for the candlelights

Must be the season when those love lights shine

All around us.

So let that wonder take into space

And lay you under its loving embrace

Just feel the thunder as it warms your face

You can't hold back.

Just let your love flow like a mountain stream

And let your love grow with the smallest of dreams

And let your love show and you'll know what I mean

It's the season.

Let your love fly like a bird on wing

And let your love bind you to all livin things

And let your love shine and you'll know what I mean

That's the reason...

CHINA UPDATED: A Major 5.7 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Southwestern China; 63 Dead, 715 Injured, 100,000 Evacuated And Damaging More Than 20,000 Homes!

UPDATED from the Earthquake Report

Update 13:05 UTC
- The death toll has, as could be expected, further increased to 63
- 715 people are injured in various degrees
- China Prime Minister Hu Jintao gave personally high priority instructions to do whatever necessary to help the people in the disaster area
- 15 county towns have been damaged in various degrees
- It is currently dark in China and the power has not been restored in all affected areas yet
- 3961 rooms are destroyed
- 13876 rooms damaged
- 3455 livestock pens destroyed
- 11633 livestock pens damaged

Update 07:48 UTC

The Yunnan Provincial Civil Affairs department has just released an update :

- 24 dead, 150 injured.

- 100000 people evacuated/relocated

- 20000+ households with damage

- ER expects that the Economic loss estimate is coming out to $220-390 million based on the current parameters. (still waiting on a damage-based estimate).

Update 07:48 UTC

- Apart from the mainshocks, a lot of aftershocks are hitting the area

- The current rainy weather is making the soil very unstable, thus triggering a lot of minor and major landslides

- The Chinese CEA authority has sent a 10-man supervisory team to the area. These National teams are only flying in major disaster cases.

Update 07:40 UTC

- Reports are also talking about severely injured people which means that the death toll will probably climb further

- The news of serious landslides also means that remotely located villages may have been hit by landslides too. Priority is mostly given to the bigger cities.

- Greatly seen in the world as small tremors proof once more to become a deadly cocktail in China. Earthquakes cannot be pinned into a Magnitude / Dangerous relation. Much more has to be accounted for.

UPDATE:
The M5.7 earthquake had a 14km depth, and was 15km from Yiliang county and 30 kilometers from Zhaotong City. Damage is expected in both locations.
- The earthquake was felt as far as Chengdu, hundreds of km from the epicenter

**************************************

Tri-City Herald

Earthquake kills at least 20 in southwest China

written by Christopher Bodeen

Friday September 7, 2012

BEIJING — A shallow earthquake hit southwestern China on Friday, killing at least 20 people and damaging more than 20,000 homes, government sources said.

An official from the Yunnan provincial government earthquake office said the death toll from the quake in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces had risen to 20 from an earlier toll of seven. The official, like many Chinese bureaucrats, would not give his name.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the quake destroyed or damaged 20,000 homes.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.6 quake hit at a depth of 9.8 kilometers (6.1 miles). Shallower earthquakes often cause more damage than deeper ones.

Xinhua said the earthquake hit the border area of Yiliang county of Yunnan and Weining county of Guizhou.

YAY! Mulan Is On ABC Family Channel, Just Started At 7pm. Great Inspirational Movie! :)

Mulan Movie Quote

The Emperor gives Shang some advice about Mulan:
"The flower that blooms in adversity

is the most rare and beautiful of all."

Woot! Superman (1978) Starring The Late Great Christopher Reeve Just Started On The Encore Channel!!! I Am One Happy Camper! :D

Woot Woot! The movie gods have answered my prayer. I'm thrilled to be watching the original Superman movie (1978) starring the late great Christopher Reeve. The movie just started at 9:10pm PST on the Encore channel. :) Try as they might, no one can replace Christopher Reeve as Superman. ♥ Watching Superman makes me a big time Happy Camper!!! :D

I took this picture two weeks ago. This is me at home au naturale. Cheers! :)

Serving a Higher Purpose By Bishop T.D. Jakes! WOW! I Just Saw This Message On TBN And Was Deeply Touched... ♥ Had To Share With You!

The Impact Of Attitude... ♥

The Impact Of Attitude

~ by Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gifted ability, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace from that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing that we can do is play on the one string that we have and this string is, Attitude. I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. And so it is with you....We are in charge of our Attitudes.

A Faith To Imitate Child-Like Qualities And Its Blessings part 2 of 2

A Faith To Imitate Child-Like Qualities And Its Blessings

written by Pastor Leyrer

In working through this text I came across a poem that provides a fitting conclusion for what we’ve been talking about today. It’s actually a prayer, so in simple, humble and trusting faith I’d ask that you bow your heads and fold your hands. We pray:

Make me, O Lord, a child again. So tender, frail and small.

In self, possessing nothing. In Thee, possessing all.

O Savior, make me small once more. That downward I may grow

And in this heart of mine restore, The faith of long ago.

With Thee may I be crucified, No longer I that lives.

O Savior, crush my sinful pride. By grace, which pardon gives.

Make me, O Lord, a child again. Obedient to Thy call;

In self, possessing nothing. In Thee, possessing all. Amen.

A Faith To Imitate Child-Like Qualities And Its Blessings part 1 of 2

A Faith To Imitate Child-Like Qualities And Its Blessings

written by Pastor Leyrer

“People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.” If you took a walk through the hallways and the various rooms of our school you’d see them hanging on the walls. They also adorn the walls of many Christian homes. In the world of Christian art are many, many pictures of Jesus with little children.

The Gospels make this abundantly clear: Jesus dearly loved little children. He held them up as examples of faith, as He does in our text for today. He watched them at play and drew lessons from them. And He gave a stern warning to anyone who might cause them spiritual harm. You may recall this pronouncement from last week’s Gospel lesson: “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”

Yes, Jesus loved the little children. Perceiving this, parents would bring their children to Jesus so that, as we are told in our text, He might touch them – meaning that He might favor them with a special prayer or blessing.

But the disciples apparently didn’t see it this way. When the parents come with their children in tow (by the way, the Greek word used in the corresponding account in the Gospel of Luke indicates that among them were the very young, or infants), the disciples shooed them away. As they saw it, Jesus was a first century VIP and they didn’t want themselves or the Savior bothered with such unimportant or trivial matters.

However, Jesus viewed things quite differently. We are told that He became indignant.

That’s a pretty strong term. It clearly conveys that Jesus was angry and upset with the behavior of His disciples. And the reason He became justifiably angry (or as we sometimes say, “righteously indignant”) was because, in a sense, they had mistreated the little ones He loves so much.

What the disciples considered a nuisance Jesus clearly considered an infraction. So in response to their actions: “He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it.’”

His point: The faith of a child – the kind of faith that takes Jesus at His word and believes the message of salvation and all the other promises of God without a hint of hesitation – that is what our Lord holds up as a faith to imitate. Let’s talk about this kind of faith on the basis of these three descriptions: Simple… Humble… Trusting…

A child-like faith is first of all SIMPLE. As you observe the faith of a child you’ll find this to be true. Ask one of our lower level Sunday School or Lutheran Elementary School teacher and they’ll tell you. Because my wife and I both worked there in our college years, this aspect of child-faith also reminds me of the residents of Bethesda Lutheran Home for the developmentally disabled in Watertown. Spend some time working there – or in any kind of similar situation with a similar clientele – and you’ll understand both the meaning and depth of simple faith.

And you will also learn quite quickly not to mistake a simple faith for a shallow faith. Shallow faith is often a mile wide but an inch deep. Simple faith is just the opposite.

What I mean is this: Neither a young child raised in a Christian home nor the devout resident of Bethesda will be able to give you a thumbnail sketch of each book of the Bible, and it is highly unlikely that you’ll find a Greek or Hebrew Bible on their nightstand as they pour through Scripture in the original. They will not possess that kind of academic knowledge.

But what they do know is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

What they do know is that long ago on a hill outside of a city they’ve never been to named Jerusalem Jesus died on a cross to take away all their sins. And they know why: So they would be clean and pure in the eyes of God and someday live with Him forever in heaven.

What they also know is that Jesus didn’t stay dead, but that He rose from the grave. And they know Him to be their invisible but living friend who listens intently to them when they talk to Him in their prayers.

Those are the elementary, rudimentary truths of Scripture. Nothing complicated or complex about them. The child Jesus holds up as an example simply takes at face value the truths God tells us in His Word. A child-like faith is SIMPLE.

Likewise, A child-like faith is HUMBLE. When problems come it looks upward rather than inward for solutions. We live in a world which instructs us to look deeply “inside ourselves” for answers to our difficulties. And certainly we do have a responsibility to apply the Word of God we’ve been taught to our various situations in life.

But those with a child-like faith know that the power to change things comes not from within, but from without. Not from inside us, but from above us.

Children don’t let things go that far. Child-like faith humbly approaches the throne of grace well before the crisis point, recognizing that God is good and God is great and God is ever-present to help us in every situation. A child-like faith is HUMBLE.

Finally, a child-like faith is TRUSTING. Think once more of a child, this time at prayer. Hands folded, head bowed, eyes purposely shut. This is a picture of trust, because that is what they do. They trust that the Lord will hear them and that He is capable of doing everything they ask of Him.

Simple… humble… trusting. These are the elements of a child like faith. These are the components Jesus holds up before us when He speaks about the “little ones who believe in me.” In this same child-like way Jesus invites, counsels and asks us to trust Him, His Word, His promises and His offer of salvation.

And we say, yes, we really ought to do that. But we say it more in the wistful terms of a wish or a dream, as if it would be nice, but it’s really not possible. Too simplistic, we may think. Trust Jesus and everything will work out. Sounds great, but life is bit too complicated to reduce handling it in such an uncomplicated way…

And that, friends, is our biggest mistake. It is the mistake of not taking Jesus at His Word. Because when it gets right down to it, taking Him at His Word is what Jesus means by “child-like faith.”

Let me give you a Scriptural example of this. At the very outset of this sermon we mentioned the name of King David as one of the “Great Cloud of Witnesses” we looked at this summer...

Well, if anyone can lay claim to having a complicated life, it would be him. As the ruler of Old Testament Israel in its golden age of power and influence, every decision, problem and concern eventually came to roost at his doorstep. Nonetheless, listen to the inspired words this man wrote in Psalm 131. It’s only three verses long, but the child-like attitude of this hero of faith is one we’d do well to imitate.

1 My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

These are the words of a man who did not question the Lord; a man who came before the Lord in humility, confidence and trustfulness. They are words for us all.

So, do we find ourselves worried? Are we anxious about life? Are we scared of what that great unknown we call the future might bring? If and when we are, our primary problem is probably this: we’re acting altogether too much like adults.

Jesus says when it comes to matters of faith, be a child. Trust. Believe. Then relax in the confidence that no matter how things may look or how things may go, God has them under control.

Tiny Changes Mean Huge Results By Tony Robbins

I love this man, his books, tapes and videos served as a personal life coach for me in my 20's. I still reference back to them when I need them. But the lessons learned are pretty much engraved in my mind and spirit. :)

I'd like to share this AWESOME message with all of you. Tony Robbins is one of the BEST personal LIFE coaches you'll ever have. By this I mean he'll always be there when you need him. He's a video or CD away and you can replay his messages however many times you need to until you get it. I still enjoy listening to him even after it being almost 20 years. Wow time sure flies lol ;) Whenever I need to get focused or pumped up, I watch a video or pop in one of his CD's. It always works. :D

Clarity and Purpose By Tony Robbins

I love this man, his books, tapes and videos served as a personal life coach for me in my 20's. I still reference back to them when I need them. But the lessons learned are pretty much engraved in my mind and spirit. :)

I'd like to share this AWESOME message with all of you. Tony Robbins is one of the BEST personal LIFE coaches you'll ever have. By this I mean he'll always be there when you need him. He's a video or CD away and you can replay his messages however many times you need to until you get it. I still enjoy listening to him even after it being almost 20 years. Wow time sure flies lol Whenever I need to get focused or pumped up, I watch a video or pop in one of his CD's. It always works. :D

Treasure Every Moment That You Have!

Treasure Every Moment That You Have!

[source: Board of Wisdom]

Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course?

Each of us has such a bank. It's name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against "tomorrow."

You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!

The clock is running!! Make the most of today.

To realise the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realise the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realise the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realise the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realise the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed a train.

To realise the value of ONE SECOND, ask someone who just avoided an accident.

To realise the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with. And remember time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why its called the present.

God Loves You!

God Loves You!

Excerpted from Life in the Word Devotional

By Joyce Meyer

[source: Not Alone]

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. - JOHN 3:16

John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son as a sacrifice for it.

God loves you! You are special to Him. God doesn't love you because you are a good person or do everything right. He loves you because He is love. Love is not something God does; it is something He is. It is His nature.

Gods love is pure and ever flowing. It cannot be earned or deserved. It must be received by faith.

In Ephesians 3:19 Paul prays that we may come to really know this love. When we do, we are strengthened in our inner man. When we are strengthened inwardly outward difficulties cannot defeat us.

Unless you have received it yourself, you cannot give love away. Let God love you. Receive His love for you. Bathe in it. Meditate on it. Let it strengthen you. Then give it away.

Say This:

“God loves me. I am special to Him. I receive His everlasting love today and am strengthened in my inner man.”

Beauty for Ashes

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes... - ISAIAH 61:3 KJV

Multiplied thousands of people have been hurt severely in their lives. They come from broken relationships or abusive backgrounds that are still producing bad fruit in their personalities.

God wants to send the wind of the Holy Spirit into our lives (Acts 2:1-4), to blow away the ashes that are left from Satan's attempt to destroy us, and to replace those ashes with beauty.

The Lord has taught me that consistently bad fruit comes from a bad root. No matter how much we may try to get rid of the bad fruit, unless the root is dealt with, more bad fruit will crop up somewhere else.

God created us to be loved. He wants to love us; He wants us to love each other, and He wants us to love and accept ourselves. Without this foundation of love and acceptance, there will be no joy and peace.

Some of us need to be transplanted. If we started out in the wrong soil, Jesus will transplant us so that we can get rooted and grounded in His love, as the Bible teaches.

Know that you are valuable, unique, loved, and special. When this is your foundation and your root, you will produce good fruit.

Ask God to give you beauty for ashes.

Say This:

“I was created for love. God loves me and wants me to love Him, love others, and love and accept myself.”

Do You Feel Rejected?

All whom My Father gives (entrusts) to Me will come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will most certainly not cast out [I will never, no never, reject one of them who comes to Me]. - JOHN 6:37

God gave me a word for a meeting I was preparing to lead. It is for anyone who needs to receive it:

Many of My people are in prison because they won't accept themselves. Many of them are gifted and talented, but they won't express themselves because they fear rejection. They fear man. They fear what people will think.

I want to love My people, but they hold Me at arm's length and won't let Me really love them because they have been hurt by others. They fear I will reject them, as others have, because of their weaknesses. But I will never reject them.

“Tell them I love them.”

“Tell them to stop trying so hard to be acceptable to Me and to realize I accept them as they are. Tell them I don't want perfect performance from them. I simply want them to love Me and let Me love them.”

God will not reject you because of your weaknesses or mistakes. He desires to heal you from past hurts caused by rejection. He wants you to know He will never reject you.

Pray This:

“Father, I thank You that You love me. I thank You that I am always accepted and never rejected. In Jesus' name, amen.”

Dear Lord... ♥

Immature Love vs Mature Love; Another Amazing Insightful Message By Osho... ♥

Immature Love vs Mature Love

[source: Osho International]

Immature people falling in love destroy each other's freedom, create a bondage, make a prison. Mature persons in love help each other to be free; they help each other to destroy all sorts of bondages. And when love flows with freedom there is beauty. Then love flows, with dependence there is ugliness.

A mature person does not fall in love, he or she rises in love. Only immature people fall; they stumble and fall down in love. Somehow they were managing and standing. Now they cannot manage and they cannot stand. They were always ready to fall on the ground and to creep. They don't have the backbone, the spine; they don't have the integrity to stand alone.

A mature person has the integrity to stand alone. And when a mature person gives love, he or she gives without any strings attached to it. When two mature persons are in love, one of the great paradoxes of life happens, one of the most beautiful phenomena: they are together and yet tremendously alone. They are together so much that they are almost one. Two mature persons in love help each other to become more free. There is no politics involved, no diplomacy, no effort to dominate. Only freedom and love.

Loneliness vs Aloneness; So True... ♥ Great Message Given By Osho! :)

Loneliness vs Aloneness

[source: Osho International]

- Osho, Should one first come to terms with one's own Loneliness before entering into Relationship?

- Yes, you have to come to terms with your loneliness, so much so that the loneliness is transformed into aloneness. Only then will you be capable of moving into a deep enriching relationship. Only then will you be able to move into love. What do I mean when I say that one has to come to terms with one's loneliness, so much so that it becomes aloneness?

Loneliness is a negative state of mind. Aloneness is positive, notwithstanding what the dictionaries say. In dictionaries, loneliness and aloneness are synonymous -- they are synonyms; in life they are not. Loneliness is a state of mind when you are constantly missing the other, aloneness is the state of mind when you are constantly delighted in yourself. Loneliness is miserable, aloneness is blissful. Loneliness is always worried, missing something, hankering for something, desiring for something; aloneness is a deep fulfillment, not going out, tremendously content, happy, celebrating. In loneliness you are off center, in aloneness you are centered and rooted. Aloneness is beautiful. It has an elegance around it, a grace, a climate of tremendous satisfaction. Loneliness is; beggarly; all around it there is begging and nothing else. It has no grace around it. In fact it is ugly. Loneliness is a dependence, aloneness is SHEER independence. One feels as if one is one's whole world, one's whole existence.

If you move into a relationship when you are feeling lonely, then you will exploit the other. The other will become a means to satisfy you. You will use the other, and everybody resents being used because no man is here to become a means for anybody else. Every man is an end unto himself. Nobody is here to be used like a thing, everybody is here to be worshipped like a king. Nobody is here to fulfill anybody else's expectations, everybody is here just to be himself.

So whenever you move in any relationship out of loneliness, the relationship is already on the rocks. Even before it has started, it is already on the rocks. Even before the birth, the child is dead. It is going to create more misery for you. And remember, when you move from your loneliness you will fall in relationship with somebody who is in the same plight, because no man who is really living his aloneness will be attracted towards you. You will be too below him. He can, at the most, sympathize, but cannot love you. One who is on his peak of aloneness can only be attracted towards somebody who is also alone. So whenever you move out of loneliness, you will find a man of the same type; you will find your own reflection somewhere. Two beggars will meet, two miserable people will meet. And remember, when two miserable people meet, it is not an ordinary addition, it is a multiplication. They create much more misery for each other than they could have created in their loneliness.

First become alone. First start enjoying yourself. First love yourself. First become so authentically happy that if nobody comes it doesn't matter; you are full, overflowing. If nobody knocks at your door it is perfectly okay -- YOU are not missing. You are not waiting for somebody to come and knock at the door. You are at home. If somebody comes, good, beautiful. If nobody comes, that too is beautiful and good.

THEN move into relationship. Now you move like a master, not like a beggar. Now you move like an emperor,. not like a beggar. And the person who has lived in his aloneness will always be attracted to another person who is also living his aloneness beautifully, because the same attracts the same. When two masters meet -- masters of their being, of their aloneness -- happiness is not just added, it is multiplied. It becomes a tremendous phenomenon of celebration. And they don't exploit, they share. They don't use each other. Rather, on the contrary, they both become one and enjoy the existence that surrounds them.

Two lonely people are always facing each other, confronting. Two people who have known aloneness are together, facing something higher than both. I always give this example: two ordinary lovers who are both lonely always face each other; two real lovers, on a full moon night, will not be facing each other. They may be holding hands, but they will be facing the full moon high in the sky. They will not be facing each other, they will be together facing something else. Sometimes they will be listening to a symphony of Mozart or Beethoven or Wagner together. Sometimes they will be sitting by the side of a tree and enjoying the tremendous being of the tree enveloping them. Sometimes they may be sitting by a waterfall and listening to the wild music that is continuously being created there. Sometimes, by the ocean, they will both be looking to the farthest possibility that the eyes can see.

Whenever two lonely persons meet, they look at each other, because they are constantly in search of ways and means to exploit the other: how to use the other, how to be happy through the other. But two persons who are deeply contented within themselves are not trying to use each other. Rather, they become fellow travellers; they move on a pilgrimage. The goal is high, the goal is far away. Their common interest joins them together.

Ordinarily the common interest is sex. Sex can join two persons momentarily and casually, and very superficially. Real lovers have a greater common interest. It is not that sex will not be there; it may be there, but as part of a higher harmony. Listening to Mozart's or Beethoven's symphony, they may come so close, so close, so close, that there may be love. They may make love to each other, but it is in the greater harmony of a Beethoven symphony. The symphony was the real thing; the love happens as part of it. And when love happens of its own accord, unsought, unthought, simply happens as part of a higher harmony, it has a totally different quality to it. it is divine, it is no longer human.

The word 'happiness' comes from a Scandanavian word 'hap'. The word'happening' also comes from the same Scandanavian root. Happiness is that which happens. You cannot produce it, you cannot command it, you cannot force it. At the most, you can be available to it. Whenever it happens, it happens.

Two real lovers are always available, but never thinking, never trying to find happiness. Then they are never frustrated, because whenever it happens it happens. They create the situation. In fact, if you are happy with yourself, you are already the situation, and if the other is also happy with himself or herself, she is also the situation. When these two situations come close, a greater situation is created. In that greater situation much happens -- nothing is produced.

Man has not to do anything to be happy. Man has just to flow and let go.

So, the question is: should one first come to terms with his own loneliness before entering into relationship? Yes; yes, absolutely. It has to be so, otherwise you will be frustrated, and in the name of love you will be doing something else which is not love at all.