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IN THIS ISSUE:
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September 15, 2009
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Dear Friend,
I hope this email finds you doing very well and enjoying all that September has to offer. I
learned about a most amazing woman over the weekend, and I want to tell you her story.
It is incredibly inspirational.
The woman's name is Jetsumma Tenzin Palmo and she is a Buddhist nun who lives in
northern India. She is originally from England. When she was a young woman, she
sailed from London to India and traveled to the Himalayas to pursue her spiritual path.
As fate would have it, she met her guru on her 21st birthday and three weeks later
became the second Westerner ever to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun.
This happened around 1964. She made a vow to attain enlightenment as a woman, in a
tradition and at a time where there appeared to be a glass ceiling on enlightenment.
Unfortunately, as a nun, she confronted a huge amount of prejudice at every turn.
She was unable to live, eat, and study with the monks, having to remain alone.
She was unable to receive certain teachings because in the Tibetan tradition, women
still cannot receive full ordination as nuns. Her response? She learned Tibetan
so she could read the books herself and learn what she needed to know.
When she finally became completely fed up with the prejudice, in the year 1976
at the age of 33 she took up residence in a six-by-six foot cave, 13,200 feet up in
the Himalayas. She lived there 12 years, practicing meditation for four three-hour
sessions every day. Not once, for the entire time she lived in the cave, did she
ever lie down. For the last three years, she was in complete retreat, speaking
and interacting with no one. She was able to focus on meditation, training the
mind to be present, without the eternal commentary, and eventually to see into
the limitless, eternal nature of the mind itself.
In an attempt to ease the plight of nuns in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Tenzin
Palmo single-handedly raised enough money to buy land and build the foundations
for a nunnery in northern India. The nunnery now houses 60 nuns, including a group
of senior nuns in retreat, preparing for initiation in the Togdenma tradition, a
tradition of yoginis or female yogis that has been in danger of extinction since
the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
In what I consider a beautiful opportunity, anyone can help support a nun for only
$365 per year or $1 per day. You can learn more about Tenzin Palmo and her nunnery
at www.tenzinpalmo.com.
I have personally been incredibly inspired by this woman's journey. It has led
to some interesting questions worth contemplating:
Do you trust your inner wisdom with unwavering certitude that
it will guide you and direct you exactly where you need to be?
Do you trust this voice within, no matter what other people think?
Are you willing to persist in the face of obstacles?
Do you have the confidence and courage to live by your convictions, following them wherever they lead?
Here are two quotes from her that have also caused me to reflect:
Regarding sexism and the spiritual path, she writes,
"The age-old problem is that women tend to idolize men. They give their deepest respect and devotion to the male teachers
and spiritual leaders. Until this fundamentally changes and women begin to support
and appreciate their own gender, they will remain weak and overlooked."
And this can certainly go the other way - men idolizing women, students idolizing
teachers. Whenever we idolize someone, we give our power away. The ultimate
realization is that there is no difference between ourselves and those we admire -
the difference is in appearance only. It is fine to admire someone, but be sure to
honor yourself and your own wisdom at the same time.
Also, Tenzin Palmo writes:
"Each of us has something to do in this lifetime. We all have negative emotions
to be purified and positive emotions to be cultivated. All of us need to reconnect
to our source and drop our personal stories, don't we? Men, women, old, young, from
here, from there -- it is the same. All you can do is your practice. There is
nothing else. Don't get caught up. Don't stop. We have to learn how to get out
of our own way. Because ultimately, the only thing standing in our way is ourselves."
I cannot agree any more with what she has said. The only thing standing in the
way of our greatness, our beauty, and our perfection is ourselves. As we learn
to purify our minds and discover our unbounded essence, we will discover the
perfection that is always right here, right now.
Discover this perfection and you will fulfill the deepest longing of your heart and soul.
What do you think? Let me know by leaving a comment on my blog:
www.BreakFreeBeauty.com/blog/.
Wishing you much peace, love, and beauty in your life,
Sarah Maria
P.S. Be sure to check out the What I am Reading section - there are some amazing new titles!
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Simply An Inspired Life
by Jonathan Lockwood Huie and Mary Anne Radmacher
In these troubled times, is it still possible to live a happy and satisfying life?
I would like to introduce you to a book that I think can help guide you to a joyful life,
and be your beacon of hope in a troubled and confusing world.
Simply An Inspired Life: Consciously Choosing Unbounded Happiness in Good Times and Bad
can support and guide you in making a conscious choice to be happy, and in breaking through
the habit of negative thinking that seems to pervade our times.
To order your copy of Simply An Inspired Life and gain access
to free bonus gifts, visit the following web page right now...
http://www.SimplyAnInspiredLife.com/bonus
Spontaneous Evolution
Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There From Here
by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman
In Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (And A Way To Get There From Here), pioneering
biologist Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. and political philosopher Steve Bhaerman team up to offer an
insightful, playful, and hopeful look at the unfolding destiny of our species. This evolution is
driven by a change in human consciousness. We are, each and all,
active participants in what will
amount to be the greatest of human adventures.
Join the evolution! Each of us is a powerful force in creating civilization's positive future.
Purchase Spontaneous Evolution today and learn how you can play an active role in the
evolution of humanity.
You can also enter win a KINDLE, passes to see Dr. Bruce Lipton LIVE,
or an Astromusicological Reading from Swami Beyondananda (Steve Bhaerman).
Additional Details: Spontaneous Evolution
Am I the Only Sane One Working Here?
by Albert Bernstein
Think how much happier you would be if you had a truly effective blueprint
for coping
with all the madness going on around you at the workplace!
Imagine how wonderful it
would be to wake up in the morning and know that when you get the office you are no
longer powerless when it comes to dealing with bad bosses, bullies, cranky clients,
gossipy co-workers, slackers, and all the other difficult people who make your 9-5
world miserable.
That’s why I am recommending that you read Am I the Only Sane One
Working Here?. Written by bestselling psychologist and conflict resolution
guru Albert J. Bernstein, the book identifies the 101 types of major office pests
(the kind you’ll find at every workplace) and offers concrete strategies that
you can use to nullify their negative effect on you. You can’t change how difficult
people behave. But you CAN change how you deal with them. That’s what this
eye-opening book is all about . . . and believe me, it works and it WILL make a big
difference in how you feel about your job and your life.
If you buy this groundbreaking book today, you’ll also receive some
fantastic thank
you gifts. Go to www.AlbernStein.com/book
for details.
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Sarah Maria is a body-image expert and teacher who can help you
discover the beauty that you already are so that you can create a
body and a life that you truly love. Her first book, Love Your
Body, Love Your Life, is being published by Adams Media and
will be available for purchase in November '09. She combines ancient
spiritual wisdom with modern science and shows you, step-by-step,
how to pacify your mind, heal your heart, befriend your body, and
transform your life.
She has studied with the leading experts in health, spirituality,
personal development, and success, including Deepak Chopra,
physician Dr. David Simon (co-founder of the Chopra Center for
Well-being in Carlsbad, CA), Dr. Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, renowned
Ayurvedic physician Vasant Lad, and many others. She is a lover of
eastern philosophy and spiritual wisdom and passionately shares
these teachings that have so transformed her own life.
Before founding Break Free Beauty, Sarah Maria received her law
degree from Stanford University and her Master's in International
Affairs from Columbia University in NYC. She has lived and traveled
throughout Latin America, and has also visited many countries around
the world. Her greatest passion is helping people discover the
beauty and the greatness that resides inside so they can live from
this place of grandeur, transforming themselves and the world.
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© 2009 Break Free Beauty by Sarah Maria. All rights Reserved. |
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