View allAll Photos Tagged selfrealization
*Working Towards a Better World
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. -
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. - Oprah Winfrey
When things go wrong, don't go with them. - Elvis Presley
To dream by night is to escape your life. To dream by day is to make it happen. -
Stephen Richards
Yes We Can! - Barack Obama
Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! xo💜💜
*Working Towards a Better World
I just spent a few hours working on uploading 2 photos to my website to have the electricity fail on me, so lost everything and have to go back to square one!!! So I will upload one at a time in the hope that this does not happen again!
The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them. - Anon
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. - George E. Woodberry
Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow. - Ronald E. Osborne
The harder the struggle the more glorious the triumph.
Self-realization demands very great struggle. -
Swami Sivananda
Don't cry over the past, it's gone. Don't sress about the future, it hasn't arrived. Live in the present and make it beautiful. -
Anon
Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet; a happy marriage has the tranquillity of a lovely sunset. -
Ann Landers
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. - Salvador Dali
Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! xo❤️
For those on a more spiritual pursuit, I give you this.
Most all of my photography and imagery are free to download under Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs. Some Rights Reserved. Thank you for your continued fellowship in photography.
Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world. Ramana Maharshi.
Ramana Maharshi (30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was a Hindu sage and jivanmukta. He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is most commonly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.
He was born in what is now Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu, India. In 1895, an attraction to the holy hill Arunachala and the 63 Nayanars was aroused in him, and in 1896, at the age of 16, he had a "death-experience" where he became aware of a "current" or "force" (avesam) which he recognised as his true "I" or "self", which he later identified with Ishvara. This resulted in a state that he later described as "the state of mind of Iswara or the jnani". Six weeks later he left his uncle's home in Madurai, and journeyed to the holy mountain Arunachala, Tiruvannamalai, where he took on the role of a sannyasin (though not formally initiated), and remained for the rest of his life.
He soon attracted devotees who regarded him as an avatar and came to him for darshan ("the sight of God"), and in later years an ashram grew up around him, where visitors received upadesa ("spiritual instruction") by sitting silently in his company and raising their concerns and questions. Since the 1930s his teachings have been popularised in the West, resulting in worldwide recognition as an enlightened being.
Ramana Maharshi approved to a number of paths and practices, but recommended self-enquiry as the principal means to remove ignorance and abide in Self-awareness, together with bhakti (devotion) or surrender to the Self. Source Wikipedia.
Sunrise
Taken at 05:20 AM - real time - 04:20 GMT
© Steve Kelley 2008
Pretty much how I see the city as I make my way through it on a daily basis. Found this in a set of images stuck between the churches and some night shots earlier this week and was surprised at how accurate it reflected something more than just the "scene".
9 exposures
Please view on black and large:
Here's how to obtain inner peace for genuine seekers of the path.
An excerpt: Inner purification is not related to any religion. In order to recognise God, we must first recognise ourselves. We must recognise who we are and what the purpose of our life is. We must also become aware of our abilities and qualities.
Jake Hegel Photography Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Jake-Hegel-Photography/21335669868...
Deviantart: www.jakehegel.deviantart.com/
'God created your soul so that you can reach God through your soul and you come to know God.' - His Divine Eminence RA Gohar Shahi
The Self-Realization Fellowship Encinitas Retreat, Hermitage, and Meditation Gardens is a spiritual retreat, monastic ashram, and meditation gardens in Encinitas, California, United States. Its famous golden lotus towers rise above the white wall along Highway 101 near Swami's Seaside Park.
The light changed every minute yesterday evening, more than I've ever seen in such a short time.
A complicated and unpredictable sky.
All the three pictures have the original light, no photoshopping.
1st image: 21.36 h.
2nd image: 22.11 h.
3rd image: 22.19 h.
Noordpolderzijl: Pearl in the Waddenzee
I was tagged by a couple of Second Life Flickr friends to share facts about me. I thought I'd share an array of photos spanning the years I've been involved in Second Life. [If you'd like to see what I look like now, see www.flickr.com/photos/12609729@N07/7767922140/in/photostream.] And here we go:
1. Check out the first photo--that's me in full femme, as I looked in August of 2007, when I'd been in Second Life for a few months and was starting my research project there on avatars and identity.
2. At the time I took that first photo, I had no idea what changes the next couple of years would bring. I was trapped in unhappy life circumstances (poor health, poor domestic circumstances), and resigned to presenting as a woman.
3. Some background: I was born intersex (a so-termed "true hermaphrodite") and assigned female at birth. I never identified as a woman, though I mostly lived as one for 44 years. I did in fact attempt to gender transition once, in 1990/91, but the world was different then, and the partnership of the law firm I was then working at implemented a dress code just to stop me from "cross-dressing." (The code required "women" to wear "professional feminine dress and light make-up," sheesh.)
4. After my first transition fiasco, I thought I might try again after moving to San Francisco, but other life goals wound up taking priority--namely having a kid (quite a medical and social adventure for me). I wound up with a really cool one--check my First Life set for photos. But like most parents I made sacrifices for my child, and for me, deferring hope of gender transitioning was a big one.
5. Enter Second Life. It's hard for me to put into words how much my life out here in meatspace has been transformed by the friends and communities I was given the grace to meet there. Check the second photo; that's me in November of 2007. I don't know how different I look to you, but I felt very different. I was interviewing gender transgressors in SL, and I'd met my partner (now RL spouse) Beta there. Zie too is intersex in RL, and had made the move to transition from an inappropriate gender assignment. I was re-exploring my androgyny in RL, and enjoying it.
6. The third headshot is from the fall of 2008. I'd made the decision, with the support of my SL friends, to gender transition to male in RL. I hadn't done anything medical, but you can see the changes I'd made in my presentation. It's funny--looking at this photo now it looks quite femme to me, but at the time, it felt really boi. Such is the nature of transition--each step feels significant, weighty. A haircut is more than a haircut, it's a shearing off of fallacy. You can see how exciting I found it all.
7. The fourth photo is from early in 2009. By this point, Beta had moved to Wisconsin to live with me, and I was actively pursuing medical transition. It was hard--jumping through the hoops of getting access to hormones proved difficult, and took a lot of time and energy. I'd socially transitioned--my friends were calling me "he," and I had purged all the girlclothes from my wardrobe--but most people still read me as female, and I worried that I'd never be able to change that. I think I look rather worn thin in the photo. . . I relied heavily on the support of my SL circle of friends for the strength to push through.
8. But as the fifth photo shows, I was able to move things forward. I started taking masculinizing levels of testorsterone in June of 2009, and this photo shows me about ten weeks in. There weren't many physical changes yet, but I think you can see a vast difference anyway, and it has to do with my attitude. I knew changes were coming, and I was able to use my doctor's letter and a legal name change to get my identification altered to read "M" instead of "F," which made a huge psychological difference to me.
9. Finally, the last photo is of me yesterday. I've been on T for 9 months. Look closely and you can see my chinpatch, heh. I can't tell you how pleased I am with my wee beardlet. And it's been wonderful to have my SL friends celebrate my second puberty with me, in my 40s.
10. So that's the story of how I got to gender transition with the support of my SL community. Beta has been prodding me smilingly toward having a bar miztvah in SL when I feel I've come into my full manhood ("today I am a man!"), and I think I shall.
Much love to all of my Flickr friends. May you have the opportunity to fully express and realize yourselves, to stretch and to grow.
P.S. my journey continues. More recent photos of me can be found in my First Life set.
I welcome your comments.
My camera came back to life. Still has some focusing issues but I'm hoping it will fix itself in the coming days. The camera was practically resting on the surface of the rock to get this perspective.
• 17-40mm f/4 @ 17mm
• Lee 0.6+0.9 soft GND
• ISO 100
• 4 sec
• f/11
'Enlightenment is all about subtracting negative traits and bringing divine inside our character.' - His Holiness Younus AlGohar
Hello Again Flickr Friends,
Five years ago, a young acquaintance of mine decided that life was not worth living. She ended her life because she saw no way out of her depression. Devastated, I wanted to shine a little light for others who may feel lost or scared so I opened a Flickr account and posted a few photos with wonderful quotes from powerful innovators. A few people came and clicked into the images and wrote wonderful comments for me. One after the other, global connections began and I could feel how many people, regardless of race, religion, gender, nationality or economic background were thinking similar thoughts and shared wonderful pieces of their creative way of experiencing life. When my camera broke, I did not want to abandon my account so I started to play with photo manipulations and paint programs. I stumbled upon an art form in which I feel alive and in a repeated state of trust and surrender. The more bravely I now play, the more I want to discover this relationship with my story. Out of the pictures pour poems and more aspiring thoughts. A student of “Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World”, I feel that my training has activated a deeper expression of Self and my intention to help others reveals a greater understanding of my Teacher’s words in the above quote. Here's to you my Flickr friends who join me in this fearless creative dreaming.
'Your illness and its remedy are within you but you are not aware of it.' - Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi
"To realize the Truth:
It was always with me
though It was hidden.
Out of ignorance
I gave away control
over my thinking.
Now in this moment:
All the Power that ever was
or will be
flows alive through my beating heart.
All color...
All sound...
All feeling...
pour through from One Source.
Beauty awakens Imagination
onto the canvas of my life.
Everything is fluid.
Everything is exhuberant.
Everything swirls in and around me.
I choose this blossoming in Consciousness
and let go in rapture."
Ganga Fondan, 2009
Today's posting is based on chapters 10 - 13 of "Ancient Secret's of Success for Today's World" by Tulshi Sen. To go deeper into the knowingness where I come from and what exactly I was designed for means more questions. Do I want to stay ordinary? How am I the designer of my destiny? When I close my eyes and see that "life is feeling", how do I integrate that knowing with expressing my highest self? Digital art takes me beyond the intellect and lets me play with the questions. In this play more is revealed