New Audio: Interview with Gareth Young/NewMindSet on my early "Walkabout" and other subjects

I was recently interviewed by Gareth Young for his web-based initiative on creating a New Business Mindset. For a little introduction, click here: http://garethjyoung.com/stevegold/

To go straight to the recording, click here:

http://content.blubrry.com/newmindset/SteveGold.mp3

Quote of the Week #34 - Mysticism and Atheism Shake Hands

Nonduality may be said to be the place where mysticism and atheism shake hands. The cosmology may be identical, as there are no puppet-masters pulling the strings of our reality. Yet the stage is now a cathedral.

--Jay Michaelson, Everything Is God; The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, page 30

Quote of the Week #33 - Collaboration is the Royal Road

Collaboration is the royal road to the wholeness that hallmarks healthy systems in the world. Collaboration calls for empathy and solidarity, and ultimately for love. I do not and cannot love myself if I do not love you and others around me: We are part of the same whole and so are part of each other.

--One of the Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness comprising The Oneness Declaration by Ervin Laszlo, as contained in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

Quote of the Week #32 - Dance to the Music

Those who dance to music are considered mad by others who can’t hear it.

--Atlanta Bumper Sticker

Quote of the Week #31 - Transition

Mind is like a projector, projects the external world. From where has this external world, Vaishvanara, come? What happens to it? Does it last forever? When we see that everything is changing, we know that a time will come when they will no longer exist. All namas and rupas, names and forms, will dissolve sooner or later.

Some forms last for a few years, other forms may last for more years. Once they are dissolved, what happens to them? Even this form that is called the universe is going to change one day. What will happen? It will go to annihilation. But even in annihilation, the ancient Vedic scriptures, shrutis say, Surya chandramasodata yata purvam akalpayet. The sun, moon, stars, this whole universe will at some point go to its resting place, Brahman, the summum bonum of life; then ages later, the universe will again remanifest exactly the way it used to be. It’s a scientific law. If you have a mango seed, no matter how it is stored, when it germinates, it will bring forth only mango. In reality, nothing happens. This is all Brahman, a gross aspect of Brahman.

…

Those who have studied the Ishopanishad know that its mantras say that while departing, a soul, an individual soul, should learn to remember all that it has done, all the good things it has done, because those good deeds will not create sadness, depression, fear in the mind when going through the transition. So far you have been preparing yourself to be comfortable in the external world, to be in a world full of means, which is essential, but now, you are preparing yourself to go through the period of transition. Sooner or later we all have to go through that transition. Look at this strange thing, we all have to depart one day, yet we never believe that we will die. Do you know why? Why do you believe that you will not die? Because there is no death for eternity and you are a child of eternity. The soul never dies, which you know unconsciously. The best part of you never dies. That which changes, goes to death and decay, that alone dies. So why are you afraid of dying? From where does this fear come? This fear comes from ignorance. Scientifically, nothing dies. Death only means change. Death does not mean complete annihilation.

--Swami Rama, Om, the eternal witness; SECRETS OF THE MANDUKYA UPANISHAD, pages 119 and 126  

Quote of the Week #30

I believe that every man represents humanity. We are different as to intelligence, health, talents. Yet we are all one. We are all saints and sinners, adults and children, and no one is anyone’s superior or judge. We have all been awakened with the Buddha, crucified with Christ, and we have all killed and robbed with Genghis Khan, Stalin, and Hitler.

I believe that man can visualize the experience of the whole universal man only by realizing his individuality and never by trying to reduce himself to an abstract, common denominator. Man’s task in life is precisely the paradoxical one of realizing his individuality and at the same time transcending it to arrive at the experience of universality. Only the fully developed individual can drop the ego.

--Erich Fromm

Quote of the Week #29 - The Fruits of Mercy

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

--Abraham Lincoln

Quote of the Week #28 - Distance

Distance is not always as far away as it appears to be.

--Steven J. Gold

Quote of the Week #27 - Intrinsic Value

Beyond the sacred whole we recognize as the world in its totality, only life and its development have what philosophers call intrinsic value; all other things have merely instrumental value; value insofar as they add to or enhance intrinsic value. Material things in the world, and the energies and substances they harbor or generate, have value only if and insofar as they contribute to life and well-being in the web of life on the Earth.

--One of the Sixteen Hallmarks of the New Consciousness comprising The Oneness Declaration by Ervin Laszlo, as contained in The Intelligent Optimist magazine (formerly Ode) January/February 2013 edition

Quote of the Week #26 - It's Not the Answer

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.

--Jim Carrey

Quote of the Week #25 - If It Were Not Possible, I Would Not Ask You To Do So

Abandon what is unskillful…One can abandon the unskillful. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do so. If this abandoning of the unskillful would bring harm and suffering, I would not ask you to abandon it. But as the abandoning of the unskillful brings benefit and happiness, therefore, I say, “Abandon what is unskillful!”

Cultivate that which is skillful. One can cultivate the skillful. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it. If this cultivation of the skillful would bring harm and suffering, I would not ask you to cultivate it. But as the cultivation of the skillful brings benefit and happiness, therefore, I say, “Cultivate that which is skillful!”

--The Buddha, Kusala Sutta