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It is not difficult to be free. Freedom is within you. Love is within you and you are searching at the supermarket. This samsara is a supermarket dealing in commodities. Turn your back on it and you are free. Return home.
The sun is so big, much bigger than the earth, yet a single cloud can hide the sun. Clouds are thoughts. Likewise, the I-thought is hiding the Self. The I-thought is hiding peace, beauty, and love. How to remove the cloud? Inquire, and it will vanish when you inquire, because it is not real.
The sun is so big, much bigger than the earth, yet a single cloud can hide the sun. Clouds are thoughts. Likewise, the I-thought is hiding the Self. The I-thought is hiding peace, beauty, and love. How to remove the cloud? Inquire, and it will vanish when you inquire, because it is not real.
To believe in Him under any particular form is not enough. Accept Him in His numberless forms, shapes and modes of being, in everything that exists. Aim at the whole and all your actions will be whole.
When you investigate the one who's interested in a life in the world, and you find out that...that one is just as much a perceived phenomenon as the 'world' is...somehow through this discovery the Self is revealed...where are your attachments in that moment of recognition?...where is your desire?...where are your fears?...where is your self-interest?...everything is blown away.
The senses are still functioning, the images of the world are still there...but the attachments and the fears are gone, because the one who would experience them disappeared...you are now the Self...This is what Bhagavan means when he says...
'When you are the Self, the world is not seen'...
The senses are still functioning, the images of the world are still there...but the attachments and the fears are gone, because the one who would experience them disappeared...you are now the Self...This is what Bhagavan means when he says...
'When you are the Self, the world is not seen'...
QUESTION: so would you say that Bhagavan was very tolerant of people who treated him badly?
ANNAMALAI SWAMY:
yes. He never responded in a negative way to criticism.Sometimes he would even laugh when people said bad things about him.He was indifferent to praise and blame.They didn't touch him.
When perumal swamy printed his insulting book about Bhagavan, Bhagavan simply said,keep the book in front of the ashram so that people can read it there.The good people won't believe it,but when the bad people read it,they will stay away and leave me in peace.'
This happened in the 1930s at a time when large crowds of people were started to come to ramanasramam.Perumal swamy did a good job of distributing the book himself,for many of the casual visitors from town stopped coming.It was a bit of a break for us because many people would just come at meal times,hoping to get a free meal. These free loaders were a disturbance for all of us.
ANNAMALAI SWAMY:
yes. He never responded in a negative way to criticism.Sometimes he would even laugh when people said bad things about him.He was indifferent to praise and blame.They didn't touch him.
When perumal swamy printed his insulting book about Bhagavan, Bhagavan simply said,keep the book in front of the ashram so that people can read it there.The good people won't believe it,but when the bad people read it,they will stay away and leave me in peace.'
This happened in the 1930s at a time when large crowds of people were started to come to ramanasramam.Perumal swamy did a good job of distributing the book himself,for many of the casual visitors from town stopped coming.It was a bit of a break for us because many people would just come at meal times,hoping to get a free meal. These free loaders were a disturbance for all of us.
The conception, that some liberated master is greater than another begets dogmatism and ignorance. In Omnipresence there is no labor foreman, no president, nor servant; no great, greater, and greatest. All are equal and one with the Spirit - a joyous conclave of Divine Amity.
Life - who lives it?
Knowledge - who seeks it?
Death - who fears it?
Paths - who follows them?
Enlightment - who attains it?
...
I do.
Now, find out what 'I' is.
Knowledge - who seeks it?
Death - who fears it?
Paths - who follows them?
Enlightment - who attains it?
...
I do.
Now, find out what 'I' is.
Some believe in existence.
Others believe nothing exists.
Rare is the one who believes nothing
And is never confused.
Others believe nothing exists.
Rare is the one who believes nothing
And is never confused.
As I see it, there's no Buddha, no living beings, no long ago, no now.
If you want to get it, you've already got it -it's not something that requires time.
There's no religious practice, no enlightenment, no getting anything, no missing out on anything.
At no time is there any other Dharma superior to this.
If anyone claims there is a Dharma superior to this, I say it must be a dream, a phantom.
All I have to say to you is simply this.
If you want to get it, you've already got it -it's not something that requires time.
There's no religious practice, no enlightenment, no getting anything, no missing out on anything.
At no time is there any other Dharma superior to this.
If anyone claims there is a Dharma superior to this, I say it must be a dream, a phantom.
All I have to say to you is simply this.
Concentration
Q: Is concentration one of the sadhanas (spiritual practices)?
M: Concentration is not thinking of one thing only. Rather, it is the putting off of all other thoughts, which obstruct the vision of our true nature. All our efforts are only directed towards lifting the veil of ignorance. Now it appears difficult to quell the thoughts, but in the regenerated state, it will be found more difficult to activate them! Why should we think of these things? There is the Self alone. Thoughts can function only if there are objects -- but there are no objects, so how can thoughts arise at all? Habit makes us believe that it is difficult to cease thinking. If this error were discovered, one would not be so foolish as to exert oneself unnecessarily.
Q: But the mind slips away from our control.
M: That may be so. Do not think of it. When you recollect, bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough. No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one's birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.
This message is from the book Conscious Immortality, Conversations with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Recorded by Paul Brunton and Munagala Venkartaramiah and published by Sri Ramanasramam.
Q: Is concentration one of the sadhanas (spiritual practices)?
M: Concentration is not thinking of one thing only. Rather, it is the putting off of all other thoughts, which obstruct the vision of our true nature. All our efforts are only directed towards lifting the veil of ignorance. Now it appears difficult to quell the thoughts, but in the regenerated state, it will be found more difficult to activate them! Why should we think of these things? There is the Self alone. Thoughts can function only if there are objects -- but there are no objects, so how can thoughts arise at all? Habit makes us believe that it is difficult to cease thinking. If this error were discovered, one would not be so foolish as to exert oneself unnecessarily.
Q: But the mind slips away from our control.
M: That may be so. Do not think of it. When you recollect, bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough. No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one's birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.
This message is from the book Conscious Immortality, Conversations with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Recorded by Paul Brunton and Munagala Venkartaramiah and published by Sri Ramanasramam.
Visitor: Is the state of ‘being still’ a state involving effort or effortless?
It is not an effortless state of indolence. All mundane
activities which are ordinarily called effort are performed with
the aid of a portion of the mind and with frequent breaks.
But the act of communion with the Self (atma vyavahara) or
remaining still inwardly is intense activity which is performed
with the entire mind and without break.
Maya (delusion or ignorance) which cannot be destroyed
by any other act is completely destroyed by this intense activity
which is called ‘silence’ (mauna).
It is not an effortless state of indolence. All mundane
activities which are ordinarily called effort are performed with
the aid of a portion of the mind and with frequent breaks.
But the act of communion with the Self (atma vyavahara) or
remaining still inwardly is intense activity which is performed
with the entire mind and without break.
Maya (delusion or ignorance) which cannot be destroyed
by any other act is completely destroyed by this intense activity
which is called ‘silence’ (mauna).
Mrs Dhar desired to know how meditation could become steady.
MAHARSHI: What is meditation? It consists in expulsion of thoughts. All the present troubles are due to thoughts and themselves thoughts. That is happiness and also meditation.
DEVOTEE: How are thoughts given up?
M : The thoughts are for the thinker. Remain as the Self of the thinker and there is an end of thoughts.
Mr. Dhar asked Sri Bhagavan why Brahma, who is Perfection, creates and puts us to ordeals for regaining Him.
M : Where is the individual who asks this question? He is in the universe and included in the creation. How does he raise the question when he is bound in the creation? He must go beyond it and see if any question arises then.
MAHARSHI: What is meditation? It consists in expulsion of thoughts. All the present troubles are due to thoughts and themselves thoughts. That is happiness and also meditation.
DEVOTEE: How are thoughts given up?
M : The thoughts are for the thinker. Remain as the Self of the thinker and there is an end of thoughts.
Mr. Dhar asked Sri Bhagavan why Brahma, who is Perfection, creates and puts us to ordeals for regaining Him.
M : Where is the individual who asks this question? He is in the universe and included in the creation. How does he raise the question when he is bound in the creation? He must go beyond it and see if any question arises then.
Atisha
Atisha is one of the rare masters, rare in the sense that he was taught by three enlightened masters. It has never happened before, and never since. To be a disciple of three enlightened masters is simply unbelievable -- because one enlightened master is enough. But this story, that he was taught by three enlightened masters, has a metaphorical significance also. And it is true, it is historical too.
The three masters that Atisha remained with for many years were: first, Dharmakirti, a great Buddhist mystic. He taught him no-mind, he taught him emptiness, he taught him how to be thoughtless, he taught him how to drop all content from the mind and be contentless. The second master was Dharmarakshita, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him love, compassion. And the third master was Yogin Maitreya, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him the art of taking the suffering of others and absorbing it into your own heart: love in action.
This could happen because all these three masters were great friends. They had started their search together; while they were on the way they had remained together, and when they attained they were still together.
Atisha became a disciple of Dharmakirti. Dharmakirti said to him, "I will teach you the first principle. And for the second you go to Dharmarakshita, and for the third to Yogin Maitreya. This way you will know all the three faces of the ultimate reality, the three faces of God -- the trinity, the TRIMURTI. And this way you will learn each face from the person who is the most perfect in it."
These are the three ways people reach to the ultimate. If you reach through emptiness you attain the other two also, but your path remains basically that of emptiness -- you know more about emptiness, so emptiness will be emphasized in whatsoever you teach.
That's what happened in Buddha's case. He had attained through emptiness, hence his whole teaching became emptiness-oriented. There is no God in Buddha's teaching, because God is a thought, a content, an object -- God is the other, and Buddha had attained by dropping the other. Buddha had attained by emptying his mind totally, hence there is no place for God, no place for anything at all. His path is the purest VIA NEGATIVA.
That was also the case with Dharmakirti. He was the perfect master of emptiness, a master par excellence of emptiness. And when Atisha had learned how to be empty, the master said, "It will be better for you to go to Dharmarakshita for the next step, because he has attained from a totally different path. Just as you can reach Everest from different sides, he has reached from a totally different path, the path of compassion. I can also teach you the path of compassion, but my knowing about that path is only known from the top.
"I have reached through the path of emptiness. Once you reach the top, you can look down at all the paths, they are all available to your vision. But to follow a path in its different dimensions, to follow a path in all its details, small details, is a totally different thing." And to look at it from a helicopter or from the mountain-top is certainly a different vision; it is a bird's-eye view.
And Dharmakirti said, "If there had been nobody available here, I would have taught you the other too. But when a man like Dharmarakshita is just here, my neighbor, living in another cave just nearby, it is better you go to him."
First one has to become empty, utterly empty. But you have not to cling to emptiness, otherwise your life will never know the positive expression of religion. Your life will miss the poetry, the joy of sharing; you will remain empty. You will have a kind of freedom, but your freedom will be only freedom from, it will not be freedom FOR. And unless a freedom is both -- freedom from and freedom for -- something is missing, something is lacking; your freedom will be poor. Just to be free from is a poor kind of freedom.
The real freedom starts only when you are free for. You can sing a song and you can dance a dance and you can celebrate and you can start overflowing. That's what compassion is.
Man lives in passion. When the mind disappears, passion is transformed into compassion. Passion means you are a beggar with a begging-bowl; you are asking and asking for more and more from everybody; you are exploiting others. Your relationships are nothing but exploitations -- cunning devices to possess the other, very clever strategies to dominate. When you are living in the mind, in passion, your whole life is power politics. Even your love, even your social service, even your humanitarian works, are nothing but power politics. Deep down, there is a desire to be powerful over others.
The same energy, when the mind is dropped, becomes compassion. And it takes a totally new turn. It is no longer begging; you become an emperor, you start giving. Now you have something -- you had it always, but because of the mind, you were not aware of it. The mind was functioning like darkness around you, and you were unaware of the light within. The mind was creating an illusion of being a beggar, while all the time you had been an emperor. The mind was creating a dream; in reality you never needed anything. All had already been given. All that you need, all that you can need, is already the case.
God is within you, but because of the mind -- mind means dreaming, desiring -- you never look within, you go on rushing outwards. You keep yourself in the background, your eyes are turned towards the outside, they have become focused there. That's what the mind is all about: focusing the eyes on the outside.
And one has to learn how to unfocus them from there -- how to make them loose, less rigid, more liquid, so that they can turn inwards. Once you have seen who you are, the beggar disappears. In fact it had never existed; it was just a dream, an idea.
The mind is creating all your misery. With the mind gone, misery is gone, and suddenly you are full of energy. And the energy needs expression, sharing; it wants to become a song, a dance, a celebration. That is compassion: you start sharing.
Atisha learned compassion from Dharmarakshita. But compassion has two faces. One is inactive compassion: the meditator sits silently in his cave, showering his compassion over the whole existence. But it is a very inactive kind of compassion. You have to go to him to partake of it, he will not come to you. You will have to go to the mountains to his cave to share his joy; he will not come to you. He will not move in any way, he will not take any active step. He will not flow towards others, he will not seek and search for the people with whom he can share his dance. He will wait.
This is a feminine kind of compassion: just like a woman waits -- she never takes the initiative, she never goes to the man. She may love the man, but she will never be the first to say "I love you." She will wait; she will hope that one day or other, sooner or later, the man will propose. Woman is inactive love, passive love. Man is active love, man takes the initiative.
And in the same way, compassion has two possibilities: the feminine and the masculine. From Dharmarakshita, Atisha learned the feminine art of being in love with existence. One more step was needed: Dharmarakshita told him, "Go to Yogin Maitreya" -- these three masters were all living together in the same vicinity -- "Go to Yogin Maitreya and learn how to transform the baser energy into active energy, so love becomes active."
And once love is active, compassion is active, you have passed through all the three dimensions of truth -- you have known all. You have known utter emptiness, you have known compassion arising, you have known compassion showering. Life is fulfilled only when all these three have happened.
Because Atisha learned under three enlightened masters, he is called Atisha the Thrice Great. Nothing more is known about his ordinary life, when and where exactly he was born. He existed somewhere in the eleventh century. He was born in India, but the moment his love became active he started moving towards Tibet, as if a great magnet were pulling him there. In the Himalayas he attained; then he never came back to India.
He moved towards Tibet, his love showered on Tibet. He transformed the whole quality of Tibetan consciousness. He was a miracle-worker; whatsoever he touched was transformed into gold. He was one of the greatest alchemists the world has ever known.
These "Seven Points of Mind Training" are the fundamental teaching that he gave to Tibet -- a gift from India to Tibet. India has given great gifts to the world. Atisha is one of those great gifts. Just as India gave Bodhidharma to China, India gave Atisha to Tibet. Tibet is infinitely indebted to this man.
Atisha is one of the rare masters, rare in the sense that he was taught by three enlightened masters. It has never happened before, and never since. To be a disciple of three enlightened masters is simply unbelievable -- because one enlightened master is enough. But this story, that he was taught by three enlightened masters, has a metaphorical significance also. And it is true, it is historical too.
The three masters that Atisha remained with for many years were: first, Dharmakirti, a great Buddhist mystic. He taught him no-mind, he taught him emptiness, he taught him how to be thoughtless, he taught him how to drop all content from the mind and be contentless. The second master was Dharmarakshita, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him love, compassion. And the third master was Yogin Maitreya, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him the art of taking the suffering of others and absorbing it into your own heart: love in action.
This could happen because all these three masters were great friends. They had started their search together; while they were on the way they had remained together, and when they attained they were still together.
Atisha became a disciple of Dharmakirti. Dharmakirti said to him, "I will teach you the first principle. And for the second you go to Dharmarakshita, and for the third to Yogin Maitreya. This way you will know all the three faces of the ultimate reality, the three faces of God -- the trinity, the TRIMURTI. And this way you will learn each face from the person who is the most perfect in it."
These are the three ways people reach to the ultimate. If you reach through emptiness you attain the other two also, but your path remains basically that of emptiness -- you know more about emptiness, so emptiness will be emphasized in whatsoever you teach.
That's what happened in Buddha's case. He had attained through emptiness, hence his whole teaching became emptiness-oriented. There is no God in Buddha's teaching, because God is a thought, a content, an object -- God is the other, and Buddha had attained by dropping the other. Buddha had attained by emptying his mind totally, hence there is no place for God, no place for anything at all. His path is the purest VIA NEGATIVA.
That was also the case with Dharmakirti. He was the perfect master of emptiness, a master par excellence of emptiness. And when Atisha had learned how to be empty, the master said, "It will be better for you to go to Dharmarakshita for the next step, because he has attained from a totally different path. Just as you can reach Everest from different sides, he has reached from a totally different path, the path of compassion. I can also teach you the path of compassion, but my knowing about that path is only known from the top.
"I have reached through the path of emptiness. Once you reach the top, you can look down at all the paths, they are all available to your vision. But to follow a path in its different dimensions, to follow a path in all its details, small details, is a totally different thing." And to look at it from a helicopter or from the mountain-top is certainly a different vision; it is a bird's-eye view.
And Dharmakirti said, "If there had been nobody available here, I would have taught you the other too. But when a man like Dharmarakshita is just here, my neighbor, living in another cave just nearby, it is better you go to him."
First one has to become empty, utterly empty. But you have not to cling to emptiness, otherwise your life will never know the positive expression of religion. Your life will miss the poetry, the joy of sharing; you will remain empty. You will have a kind of freedom, but your freedom will be only freedom from, it will not be freedom FOR. And unless a freedom is both -- freedom from and freedom for -- something is missing, something is lacking; your freedom will be poor. Just to be free from is a poor kind of freedom.
The real freedom starts only when you are free for. You can sing a song and you can dance a dance and you can celebrate and you can start overflowing. That's what compassion is.
Man lives in passion. When the mind disappears, passion is transformed into compassion. Passion means you are a beggar with a begging-bowl; you are asking and asking for more and more from everybody; you are exploiting others. Your relationships are nothing but exploitations -- cunning devices to possess the other, very clever strategies to dominate. When you are living in the mind, in passion, your whole life is power politics. Even your love, even your social service, even your humanitarian works, are nothing but power politics. Deep down, there is a desire to be powerful over others.
The same energy, when the mind is dropped, becomes compassion. And it takes a totally new turn. It is no longer begging; you become an emperor, you start giving. Now you have something -- you had it always, but because of the mind, you were not aware of it. The mind was functioning like darkness around you, and you were unaware of the light within. The mind was creating an illusion of being a beggar, while all the time you had been an emperor. The mind was creating a dream; in reality you never needed anything. All had already been given. All that you need, all that you can need, is already the case.
God is within you, but because of the mind -- mind means dreaming, desiring -- you never look within, you go on rushing outwards. You keep yourself in the background, your eyes are turned towards the outside, they have become focused there. That's what the mind is all about: focusing the eyes on the outside.
And one has to learn how to unfocus them from there -- how to make them loose, less rigid, more liquid, so that they can turn inwards. Once you have seen who you are, the beggar disappears. In fact it had never existed; it was just a dream, an idea.
The mind is creating all your misery. With the mind gone, misery is gone, and suddenly you are full of energy. And the energy needs expression, sharing; it wants to become a song, a dance, a celebration. That is compassion: you start sharing.
Atisha learned compassion from Dharmarakshita. But compassion has two faces. One is inactive compassion: the meditator sits silently in his cave, showering his compassion over the whole existence. But it is a very inactive kind of compassion. You have to go to him to partake of it, he will not come to you. You will have to go to the mountains to his cave to share his joy; he will not come to you. He will not move in any way, he will not take any active step. He will not flow towards others, he will not seek and search for the people with whom he can share his dance. He will wait.
This is a feminine kind of compassion: just like a woman waits -- she never takes the initiative, she never goes to the man. She may love the man, but she will never be the first to say "I love you." She will wait; she will hope that one day or other, sooner or later, the man will propose. Woman is inactive love, passive love. Man is active love, man takes the initiative.
And in the same way, compassion has two possibilities: the feminine and the masculine. From Dharmarakshita, Atisha learned the feminine art of being in love with existence. One more step was needed: Dharmarakshita told him, "Go to Yogin Maitreya" -- these three masters were all living together in the same vicinity -- "Go to Yogin Maitreya and learn how to transform the baser energy into active energy, so love becomes active."
And once love is active, compassion is active, you have passed through all the three dimensions of truth -- you have known all.
You have known utter emptiness, you have known compassion arising, you have known compassion showering. Life is fulfilled only when all these three have happened.
Because Atisha learned under three enlightened masters, he is called Atisha the Thrice Great. Nothing more is known about his ordinary life, when and where exactly he was born. He existed somewhere in the eleventh century. He was born in India, but the moment his love became active he started moving towards Tibet, as if a great magnet were pulling him there. In the Himalayas he attained; then he never came back to India.
He moved towards Tibet, his love showered on Tibet. He transformed the whole quality of Tibetan consciousness. He was a miracle-worker; whatsoever he touched was transformed into gold. He was one of the greatest alchemists the world has ever known.
These "Seven Points of Mind Training" are the fundamental teaching that he gave to Tibet -- a gift from India to Tibet. India has given great gifts to the world. Atisha is one of those great gifts. Just as India gave Bodhidharma to China, India gave Atisha to Tibet. Tibet is infinitely indebted to this man.
Atisha is one of the rare masters, rare in the sense that he was taught by three enlightened masters. It has never happened before, and never since. To be a disciple of three enlightened masters is simply unbelievable -- because one enlightened master is enough. But this story, that he was taught by three enlightened masters, has a metaphorical significance also. And it is true, it is historical too.
The three masters that Atisha remained with for many years were: first, Dharmakirti, a great Buddhist mystic. He taught him no-mind, he taught him emptiness, he taught him how to be thoughtless, he taught him how to drop all content from the mind and be contentless. The second master was Dharmarakshita, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him love, compassion. And the third master was Yogin Maitreya, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him the art of taking the suffering of others and absorbing it into your own heart: love in action.
This could happen because all these three masters were great friends. They had started their search together; while they were on the way they had remained together, and when they attained they were still together.
Atisha became a disciple of Dharmakirti. Dharmakirti said to him, "I will teach you the first principle. And for the second you go to Dharmarakshita, and for the third to Yogin Maitreya. This way you will know all the three faces of the ultimate reality, the three faces of God -- the trinity, the TRIMURTI. And this way you will learn each face from the person who is the most perfect in it."
These are the three ways people reach to the ultimate. If you reach through emptiness you attain the other two also, but your path remains basically that of emptiness -- you know more about emptiness, so emptiness will be emphasized in whatsoever you teach.
That's what happened in Buddha's case. He had attained through emptiness, hence his whole teaching became emptiness-oriented. There is no God in Buddha's teaching, because God is a thought, a content, an object -- God is the other, and Buddha had attained by dropping the other. Buddha had attained by emptying his mind totally, hence there is no place for God, no place for anything at all. His path is the purest VIA NEGATIVA.
That was also the case with Dharmakirti. He was the perfect master of emptiness, a master par excellence of emptiness. And when Atisha had learned how to be empty, the master said, "It will be better for you to go to Dharmarakshita for the next step, because he has attained from a totally different path. Just as you can reach Everest from different sides, he has reached from a totally different path, the path of compassion. I can also teach you the path of compassion, but my knowing about that path is only known from the top.
"I have reached through the path of emptiness. Once you reach the top, you can look down at all the paths, they are all available to your vision. But to follow a path in its different dimensions, to follow a path in all its details, small details, is a totally different thing." And to look at it from a helicopter or from the mountain-top is certainly a different vision; it is a bird's-eye view.
And Dharmakirti said, "If there had been nobody available here, I would have taught you the other too. But when a man like Dharmarakshita is just here, my neighbor, living in another cave just nearby, it is better you go to him."
First one has to become empty, utterly empty. But you have not to cling to emptiness, otherwise your life will never know the positive expression of religion. Your life will miss the poetry, the joy of sharing; you will remain empty. You will have a kind of freedom, but your freedom will be only freedom from, it will not be freedom FOR. And unless a freedom is both -- freedom from and freedom for -- something is missing, something is lacking; your freedom will be poor. Just to be free from is a poor kind of freedom.
The real freedom starts only when you are free for. You can sing a song and you can dance a dance and you can celebrate and you can start overflowing. That's what compassion is.
Man lives in passion. When the mind disappears, passion is transformed into compassion. Passion means you are a beggar with a begging-bowl; you are asking and asking for more and more from everybody; you are exploiting others. Your relationships are nothing but exploitations -- cunning devices to possess the other, very clever strategies to dominate. When you are living in the mind, in passion, your whole life is power politics. Even your love, even your social service, even your humanitarian works, are nothing but power politics. Deep down, there is a desire to be powerful over others.
The same energy, when the mind is dropped, becomes compassion. And it takes a totally new turn. It is no longer begging; you become an emperor, you start giving. Now you have something -- you had it always, but because of the mind, you were not aware of it. The mind was functioning like darkness around you, and you were unaware of the light within. The mind was creating an illusion of being a beggar, while all the time you had been an emperor. The mind was creating a dream; in reality you never needed anything. All had already been given. All that you need, all that you can need, is already the case.
God is within you, but because of the mind -- mind means dreaming, desiring -- you never look within, you go on rushing outwards. You keep yourself in the background, your eyes are turned towards the outside, they have become focused there. That's what the mind is all about: focusing the eyes on the outside.
And one has to learn how to unfocus them from there -- how to make them loose, less rigid, more liquid, so that they can turn inwards. Once you have seen who you are, the beggar disappears. In fact it had never existed; it was just a dream, an idea.
The mind is creating all your misery. With the mind gone, misery is gone, and suddenly you are full of energy. And the energy needs expression, sharing; it wants to become a song, a dance, a celebration. That is compassion: you start sharing.
Atisha learned compassion from Dharmarakshita. But compassion has two faces. One is inactive compassion: the meditator sits silently in his cave, showering his compassion over the whole existence. But it is a very inactive kind of compassion. You have to go to him to partake of it, he will not come to you. You will have to go to the mountains to his cave to share his joy; he will not come to you. He will not move in any way, he will not take any active step. He will not flow towards others, he will not seek and search for the people with whom he can share his dance. He will wait.
This is a feminine kind of compassion: just like a woman waits -- she never takes the initiative, she never goes to the man. She may love the man, but she will never be the first to say "I love you." She will wait; she will hope that one day or other, sooner or later, the man will propose. Woman is inactive love, passive love. Man is active love, man takes the initiative.
And in the same way, compassion has two possibilities: the feminine and the masculine. From Dharmarakshita, Atisha learned the feminine art of being in love with existence. One more step was needed: Dharmarakshita told him, "Go to Yogin Maitreya" -- these three masters were all living together in the same vicinity -- "Go to Yogin Maitreya and learn how to transform the baser energy into active energy, so love becomes active."
And once love is active, compassion is active, you have passed through all the three dimensions of truth -- you have known all. You have known utter emptiness, you have known compassion arising, you have known compassion showering. Life is fulfilled only when all these three have happened.
Because Atisha learned under three enlightened masters, he is called Atisha the Thrice Great. Nothing more is known about his ordinary life, when and where exactly he was born. He existed somewhere in the eleventh century. He was born in India, but the moment his love became active he started moving towards Tibet, as if a great magnet were pulling him there. In the Himalayas he attained; then he never came back to India.
He moved towards Tibet, his love showered on Tibet. He transformed the whole quality of Tibetan consciousness. He was a miracle-worker; whatsoever he touched was transformed into gold. He was one of the greatest alchemists the world has ever known.
These "Seven Points of Mind Training" are the fundamental teaching that he gave to Tibet -- a gift from India to Tibet. India has given great gifts to the world. Atisha is one of those great gifts. Just as India gave Bodhidharma to China, India gave Atisha to Tibet. Tibet is infinitely indebted to this man.
Atisha is one of the rare masters, rare in the sense that he was taught by three enlightened masters. It has never happened before, and never since. To be a disciple of three enlightened masters is simply unbelievable -- because one enlightened master is enough. But this story, that he was taught by three enlightened masters, has a metaphorical significance also. And it is true, it is historical too.
The three masters that Atisha remained with for many years were: first, Dharmakirti, a great Buddhist mystic. He taught him no-mind, he taught him emptiness, he taught him how to be thoughtless, he taught him how to drop all content from the mind and be contentless. The second master was Dharmarakshita, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him love, compassion. And the third master was Yogin Maitreya, another Buddhist mystic. He taught him the art of taking the suffering of others and absorbing it into your own heart: love in action.
This could happen because all these three masters were great friends. They had started their search together; while they were on the way they had remained together, and when they attained they were still together.
Atisha became a disciple of Dharmakirti. Dharmakirti said to him, "I will teach you the first principle. And for the second you go to Dharmarakshita, and for the third to Yogin Maitreya. This way you will know all the three faces of the ultimate reality, the three faces of God -- the trinity, the TRIMURTI. And this way you will learn each face from the person who is the most perfect in it."
These are the three ways people reach to the ultimate. If you reach through emptiness you attain the other two also, but your path remains basically that of emptiness -- you know more about emptiness, so emptiness will be emphasized in whatsoever you teach.
That's what happened in Buddha's case. He had attained through emptiness, hence his whole teaching became emptiness-oriented. There is no God in Buddha's teaching, because God is a thought, a content, an object -- God is the other, and Buddha had attained by dropping the other. Buddha had attained by emptying his mind totally, hence there is no place for God, no place for anything at all. His path is the purest VIA NEGATIVA.
That was also the case with Dharmakirti. He was the perfect master of emptiness, a master par excellence of emptiness. And when Atisha had learned how to be empty, the master said, "It will be better for you to go to Dharmarakshita for the next step, because he has attained from a totally different path. Just as you can reach Everest from different sides, he has reached from a totally different path, the path of compassion. I can also teach you the path of compassion, but my knowing about that path is only known from the top.
"I have reached through the path of emptiness. Once you reach the top, you can look down at all the paths, they are all available to your vision. But to follow a path in its different dimensions, to follow a path in all its details, small details, is a totally different thing." And to look at it from a helicopter or from the mountain-top is certainly a different vision; it is a bird's-eye view.
And Dharmakirti said, "If there had been nobody available here, I would have taught you the other too. But when a man like Dharmarakshita is just here, my neighbor, living in another cave just nearby, it is better you go to him."
First one has to become empty, utterly empty. But you have not to cling to emptiness, otherwise your life will never know the positive expression of religion. Your life will miss the poetry, the joy of sharing; you will remain empty. You will have a kind of freedom, but your freedom will be only freedom from, it will not be freedom FOR. And unless a freedom is both -- freedom from and freedom for -- something is missing, something is lacking; your freedom will be poor. Just to be free from is a poor kind of freedom.
The real freedom starts only when you are free for. You can sing a song and you can dance a dance and you can celebrate and you can start overflowing. That's what compassion is.
Man lives in passion. When the mind disappears, passion is transformed into compassion. Passion means you are a beggar with a begging-bowl; you are asking and asking for more and more from everybody; you are exploiting others. Your relationships are nothing but exploitations -- cunning devices to possess the other, very clever strategies to dominate. When you are living in the mind, in passion, your whole life is power politics. Even your love, even your social service, even your humanitarian works, are nothing but power politics. Deep down, there is a desire to be powerful over others.
The same energy, when the mind is dropped, becomes compassion. And it takes a totally new turn. It is no longer begging; you become an emperor, you start giving. Now you have something -- you had it always, but because of the mind, you were not aware of it. The mind was functioning like darkness around you, and you were unaware of the light within. The mind was creating an illusion of being a beggar, while all the time you had been an emperor. The mind was creating a dream; in reality you never needed anything. All had already been given. All that you need, all that you can need, is already the case.
God is within you, but because of the mind -- mind means dreaming, desiring -- you never look within, you go on rushing outwards. You keep yourself in the background, your eyes are turned towards the outside, they have become focused there. That's what the mind is all about: focusing the eyes on the outside.
And one has to learn how to unfocus them from there -- how to make them loose, less rigid, more liquid, so that they can turn inwards. Once you have seen who you are, the beggar disappears. In fact it had never existed; it was just a dream, an idea.
The mind is creating all your misery. With the mind gone, misery is gone, and suddenly you are full of energy. And the energy needs expression, sharing; it wants to become a song, a dance, a celebration. That is compassion: you start sharing.
Atisha learned compassion from Dharmarakshita. But compassion has two faces. One is inactive compassion: the meditator sits silently in his cave, showering his compassion over the whole existence. But it is a very inactive kind of compassion. You have to go to him to partake of it, he will not come to you. You will have to go to the mountains to his cave to share his joy; he will not come to you. He will not move in any way, he will not take any active step. He will not flow towards others, he will not seek and search for the people with whom he can share his dance. He will wait.
This is a feminine kind of compassion: just like a woman waits -- she never takes the initiative, she never goes to the man. She may love the man, but she will never be the first to say "I love you." She will wait; she will hope that one day or other, sooner or later, the man will propose. Woman is inactive love, passive love. Man is active love, man takes the initiative.
And in the same way, compassion has two possibilities: the feminine and the masculine. From Dharmarakshita, Atisha learned the feminine art of being in love with existence. One more step was needed: Dharmarakshita told him, "Go to Yogin Maitreya" -- these three masters were all living together in the same vicinity -- "Go to Yogin Maitreya and learn how to transform the baser energy into active energy, so love becomes active."
And once love is active, compassion is active, you have passed through all the three dimensions of truth -- you have known all.
You have known utter emptiness, you have known compassion arising, you have known compassion showering. Life is fulfilled only when all these three have happened.
Because Atisha learned under three enlightened masters, he is called Atisha the Thrice Great. Nothing more is known about his ordinary life, when and where exactly he was born. He existed somewhere in the eleventh century. He was born in India, but the moment his love became active he started moving towards Tibet, as if a great magnet were pulling him there. In the Himalayas he attained; then he never came back to India.
He moved towards Tibet, his love showered on Tibet. He transformed the whole quality of Tibetan consciousness. He was a miracle-worker; whatsoever he touched was transformed into gold. He was one of the greatest alchemists the world has ever known.
These "Seven Points of Mind Training" are the fundamental teaching that he gave to Tibet -- a gift from India to Tibet. India has given great gifts to the world. Atisha is one of those great gifts. Just as India gave Bodhidharma to China, India gave Atisha to Tibet. Tibet is infinitely indebted to this man.
Freedom to do what one likes is really bondage, while being free to do what one must, what is right, is real freedom.
You don't have to study so much.
The way in which mind studies
it accumulates information.
But you are the information-less Being.
Find That and be That!
And what needs to be known
arises spontaneously in you.
The way in which mind studies
it accumulates information.
But you are the information-less Being.
Find That and be That!
And what needs to be known
arises spontaneously in you.
The dream within the dream is your thinking about what is Essential and what is non-essential, and when you realize that you are the Self, Atman, then you have this experience...
You felt that the world is illusory. You felt that you are awake and that it is your waking state. You felt that you have obtained 'experience,' but still, your confusion, your illusion, is persisting as it was. You are yet talking about things in the dream.
When there is true awakening, all the sense of 'being' disappears. Even the sense that you are the Self, also dissolves.
You felt that the world is illusory. You felt that you are awake and that it is your waking state. You felt that you have obtained 'experience,' but still, your confusion, your illusion, is persisting as it was. You are yet talking about things in the dream.
When there is true awakening, all the sense of 'being' disappears. Even the sense that you are the Self, also dissolves.
God is without form, without quality as well as with form and quality.
Watch and see with what endless variety of beautiful forms
He plays the play of his maya with Himself alone.
The lila of the all pervading One goes on and on in this way in infinite diversity.
He is without beginning and without end.
He is the whole and also the part.
The whole and part together make up real Perfection.
Watch and see with what endless variety of beautiful forms
He plays the play of his maya with Himself alone.
The lila of the all pervading One goes on and on in this way in infinite diversity.
He is without beginning and without end.
He is the whole and also the part.
The whole and part together make up real Perfection.
As you think, so it will become. This is the beauty of consciousness.
It is consciousness; it does not need to borrow material from anywhere else. "Let there be manifestation," and manifestation is there. Whatever you think is instantly there, within consciousness. Consciousness desiring for whatever it is within consciousness.
Nothing has ever happened. Nothing is ever going to happen. This is ultimate truth. Everything else is trouble of the mind.
When mind arises, trouble arises. You have to check at the arising point of the mind itself. You just stay there, where the mind is arising. Mind is a thought. 'I' arises, everything arises. Before 'I', people report that they don' t see anything, which is peace, beauty, love.
It is consciousness; it does not need to borrow material from anywhere else. "Let there be manifestation," and manifestation is there. Whatever you think is instantly there, within consciousness. Consciousness desiring for whatever it is within consciousness.
Nothing has ever happened. Nothing is ever going to happen. This is ultimate truth. Everything else is trouble of the mind.
When mind arises, trouble arises. You have to check at the arising point of the mind itself. You just stay there, where the mind is arising. Mind is a thought. 'I' arises, everything arises. Before 'I', people report that they don' t see anything, which is peace, beauty, love.
God is the one great Reality. To know and experience Him is the whole purpose of human existence. So do not hesitate to strive to achieve this great goal. Be patience in all the ups and downs of life. Everything will right itself. Do all that is necessary to be done, but do not be anxious. Do your best and leave the rest to God
Questions appear real
for as long as you consider yourself
to be a person.
When you realize
you are the immutable Self,
all questions vanish.
for as long as you consider yourself
to be a person.
When you realize
you are the immutable Self,
all questions vanish.
A group in Canada called Ottawa Skeptics (ottawaskeptics.org) recently posted a podcast about Tommy Chong, claiming that there is no proof that Cannabis cures cancers.
Here is the response from a man who, you know, cured his cancer with Cannabis ... he sounds a bit ticked off.
Tom Adshead: I just sent this message to them, and to the northern skeptics website which is saying the same bullshit;
"You aren't a skeptic, you are an idiot.
Of course that is me giving you the benefit of doubt. Perhaps you aren't an idiot, perhaps you are just a paid shill.
Scientific studies have been published going back 40 years regarding the medical uses of marijuana.
Every pharmacuetical company in the world is trying to recreate what marijuana does naturally, with a synthetic compound they can patent.
And you claim to look at evidence?
You want to try to challenge me bitch?
I had cancer, stage 3 malignant melanoma, resistant to 'conventional' treatments. This type forms very small very hard tumors and it spreads rapidly.
Specific words from my Oncologist was that there was nothing doctors could do besides cut lumps off as they appeared.
I started using hemp oil, made as per Ricks method and I have not had a SINGLE recurrance of tumours anywhere.
So, shove your sanctimonious idiocy up your ass and learn something before your life depends on it.
Here is the response from a man who, you know, cured his cancer with Cannabis ... he sounds a bit ticked off.
Tom Adshead: I just sent this message to them, and to the northern skeptics website which is saying the same bullshit;
"You aren't a skeptic, you are an idiot.
Of course that is me giving you the benefit of doubt. Perhaps you aren't an idiot, perhaps you are just a paid shill.
Scientific studies have been published going back 40 years regarding the medical uses of marijuana.
Every pharmacuetical company in the world is trying to recreate what marijuana does naturally, with a synthetic compound they can patent.
And you claim to look at evidence?
You want to try to challenge me bitch?
I had cancer, stage 3 malignant melanoma, resistant to 'conventional' treatments. This type forms very small very hard tumors and it spreads rapidly.
Specific words from my Oncologist was that there was nothing doctors could do besides cut lumps off as they appeared.
I started using hemp oil, made as per Ricks method and I have not had a SINGLE recurrance of tumours anywhere.
So, shove your sanctimonious idiocy up your ass and learn something before your life depends on it.
First realise that your world is only a reflection of yourself and stop finding fault with the reflection. Attend to yourself, set yourself right -- mentally and emotionally. The physical will follow automatically
I am ever free now. I am all bliss, sans spite, sans fear. This beatific conscious form of mine now knows no bounds. I belong to all and everyone is mine. The “all†are but my own individuations, and these together go to make up my beatific being. There is nothing like good or bad, profit or loss, high or low, mine or not mine for me. Nobody opposes me and I oppose none for there is none other than myself. Bliss reclines on the bed of bliss. The repose itself has turned into bliss.
My characteristics of immensity and majesty, my pure energy, and my all, having attained to the golden core, repose in bliss as the atom of atoms. My pure consciousness shines forth in majestic splendor.
Why and how the consciousness became self-conscious is obvious now. The experience of the world is no more of the world as such, but is the blossoming forth of the selfsame conscious principle, God, and what is it? It is pure, primal knowledge, conscious form, the primordial “I†consciousness that is capable of assuming any form it desires. It is designated as God. The world as the divine expression is not for any profit or loss; it is the pure, simple, natural flow of beatific consciousness. There are no distinctions of God and devotee, nor Brahman and Maya. He that meditated on the bliss and peace is himself the ocean of peace and bliss. Glory to the eternal truth, Sad-Guru, the Supreme Self.
From Self Knowledge and Self Realization
My characteristics of immensity and majesty, my pure energy, and my all, having attained to the golden core, repose in bliss as the atom of atoms. My pure consciousness shines forth in majestic splendor.
Why and how the consciousness became self-conscious is obvious now. The experience of the world is no more of the world as such, but is the blossoming forth of the selfsame conscious principle, God, and what is it? It is pure, primal knowledge, conscious form, the primordial “I†consciousness that is capable of assuming any form it desires. It is designated as God. The world as the divine expression is not for any profit or loss; it is the pure, simple, natural flow of beatific consciousness. There are no distinctions of God and devotee, nor Brahman and Maya. He that meditated on the bliss and peace is himself the ocean of peace and bliss. Glory to the eternal truth, Sad-Guru, the Supreme Self.
From Self Knowledge and Self Realization
Dandelion Root Cancer Treatment
(Reprint of ad in The Northwest Herald)
George Cairns Writes:
Every week around 10,000 people die of cancer. Government figures show the death rate for cancer deaths has not changed in the last 10 years. Chemo and radiation only save around 10% of the people treated. So this shows our doctors don't have much to work with.
As this article goes on, I will explain how to prepare this plant and how much to take. There is nothing to buy. For some reason, the Lord has picked me to carry these words to you. I am only the delivery boy, and none of this is my idea. I do believe every word I write here, and I'm living proof it works.
The cost of printing is my thanks to God for giving me back my life and health.
A little over three years ago I was about done in with cancer. One morning I was waking up and hoping the end would come soon, a voice came to me and said. "You have to do something about your prostate cancer. Take the root of the dandelion. Don't expect a miracle. It took you a long time to get in this condition." The voice was gone.
I thought the voice was kidding to use the dandelion. When this voice tells you to do something, you do it. You must do it, like writing this article. It is the last thing I ever expected to do. Then I thought he didn't tell me how much to take or how to prepare it.
As soon as you could blink an eye, I knew how much to take, how to prepare it, and it would take 4 to 6 months to cure me. I also knew I wasn't to make a penny on it. As soon as I got around that morning, I dug some roots and started to prepare it.
About a week later I started taking it. Three weeks later the pain in my back and side was gone and my bowels had improved. Five and one-half months later they could find no cancer problem in me at all.
I then wanted to find someone else to try it, and that was the biggest problem yet. Nobody seems to want to help. When I told doctors, they just smiled as if I was nuts. Finally, I was telling a friend about it and he said he had a friend that was dying of lung cancer. He had it in both lungs and was bed ridden. They were tapping his lungs. He had been given 4 to 6 weeks to live.
After he had been on this powder about six weeks, he was up and around doing his chores and driving his car. He went to his doctor's office, and the doctors could not believe it. They took him to the hospital and gave him a CAT scan. They found no cancer lesions in his lungs and said it was a miracle.
I then put an ad in The Northwest Herald offering it free and four people said they would try it. Slowly one person told another and it spread. There was a fair amount of people taking it for different kinds of cancer and several for other things.
For instance, a man lost the use of his immune system and was told he wouldn't be able to work again for three years, in six months he is now working ½ days and feeling better.
I know this is not a cure all. It won't help everyone or all kinds of cancer. I know it is not a cure for skin cancer and it hasn't had luck with brain tumors. There is a doctor in Boston, Massachusetts that has developed a vaccine that is doing great things. This has been successful with prostate, colon, breast, liver and best of all with lung cancer. Five people have taken it for lung cancer and all five have been cured once.
The immune system controls the cancer cells in your body. As long as the immune system is healthy, you don't usually have a cancer problem. When your immune system gets run down, it loses control of the cancer cells, and they start eating live cells and this is what they call cancer.
This powder made from dandelion root has something in it that builds up the blood and the immune system. When the immune system is built up so far, it gets back control of cancer cells, and they do an about face and start cleaning up the mess they've made This is why you must have a fair appetite because your body must build itself up and be healthy if your immune system is going to be strong.
This will not work for people that have lost their appetite or are on CHEMO. Doctors try to blast the cancer out of your body with Chemo or radiation. By doing so, it destroys your immune system and appetite. These are the most important things your body needs to beat cancer.
Operations also knock the immune system haywire. This is why so many people that have operations for cancer find that a short time later it has spread somewhere else.
Many of the worst diseases that have plagued the world have been cured quite easily. When I was a boy, women dreaded the goiter more than cancer. A little iodine in the diet cured that. For hundred of years the most dreadeddiseases was leprosy and lockjaw. A doctor found he could produce penicillin from moldy bread and could cure them and many more things. How long has moldy bread been around?
I'm sure scientists will find many uses for the powder made from the root of the dandelions besides cancer. I have already found it builds up the blood so you heal much faster. To make the powder from the dandelion root you must follow my directions to the letter. Any changes and it won't work.
Dig a handful of dandelion roots any time of the year, it doesn't matter. Cut the leaves off just below the crown. DO NOT WASH. Then they must be dried around 100 degrees. I do it in an incubator with no water. You can also dry them under a heat light bulb if you raise or lower it so it's 100 degrees. You can also use the sun or put them in the attic if it's not too hot. It takes about 5 or 6 days in the incubator.
I have not done this all the way under the heat light. When you break a root and it snaps it is ready to powder. Take an old iron frying pan and a clean hammer. Take one root at a time and place in the frying pan and start tapping. Don't hit hard or it will fly all over the place. I put my hand around the root to keep most of it in the pan. If it sticks to the hammer and pan, and doesn't crumble in your fingers, it isn't dry enough. Keep it up until you have enough to start.
It takes about 20 minutes to ½ hour to prepare enough for a week. When you get used to it you can go much faster. I have an old vessel that druggists used to pound pills, this goes much faster. DO NOT USE AN ELECTRIC GRINDER, it won't work if you do. You lose too much of the good part in dust. You must do it as I have said or don't do it at all. I've tried shortcuts, but it seems someone was looking over my shoulder, and I know when I made a mistake.
I'm just an old farmer and not a scientist, so I wouldn't know the correct amount to take on my own. Now take a little over one half teaspoon once a day at any time and mix it with water, orange juice, etc. Do not use in soft drinks, liquor, or anything hot.
When mixed, use it all. Don't let it stand around. Keep the power in a dry place. After taking it three or four days, you will feel good, but nothing else. That is because your blood is building up. When you blood is happy, you're happy. In most cases, this will build your immune system in from three days to three weeks to the point it takes back control of cancer cells and thus the cancer stops spreading. In most cases it is going to help. There is no body feeling as it works. You just feel a little better each week.
After three weeks most of the pain will be gone in your back and you know it's working if you had pain there like I did. If you have bone cancer in the spine, it will take three months to work. This is not an overnight cure. It took a while to get in this condition and it will take a while for your body to heal.
The sooner you start, the quicker you will be over cancer. Young people heal faster than old people, but it will help at any age. I know because I'm 80 and have been taking it for over three years. No cancer has come back and no side effects except when my body has had enough, it lets me know by getting heart burn. Then I back off some. Some people get stomach aches when they need less. It also means your cancer is under control and you don't need as much.
You will also find you probably won't catch a cold while you are taking it full strength. The biggest enemy for this root is Chemo. The stronger the Chemo, the less chance the power has to help you as Chemo tears your immune system and appetite down, two of the most important things you need to cure cancer. There is only a ten percent chance Chemo will cure you. With no chemo, your chances are 75 to 80% but you must take it every day. Don't let your doctor give you that old threat if you turn him down that goes, "If you want to throw your life away, I can't stop you".
Just remember that 90% of the people that take his advice and take chemo are in the cemetery. Don't blame the doctor, he is doing his best with what he has to work with or you could ask for a written guarantee. I have only mentioned cancers that I know people have had and used this root. It should help pancreas cancer if taken before the appetite is gone and most body cancer.
This is food, not a drug. It shouldn't interfere with medicine your doctor may be giving you. Only two doctors have told patients to keep taking the power when they have made a miracle recovery. The rest of the doctors have run the power down and blasted the people even if the cancer has disappeared. The medical world is not going to accept this easily.
Going back to not washing the roots and leaving a little soil on them, it is for your own good. A good bit of immunity comes from the soil, it starts as soon as you are born. Your fingers touch something, and you put them in your mouth. A little dirt at first, and more as you grow older and start crawling. Then everything you touch goes in the mouth. When children go outside to play and when they come in, they are the dirtiest around the mouth and hand. The hands go in their mouths no matter how dirty they are.
Many diseases and bacteria live in the ground, but they don't seem to cause any trouble but it does build up the immune system. Some animals can't live if they can't eat a certain amount of soil. If you read this article over, you will see it all goes back to common sense.
I wish all of you people with cancer and other problems the best.
This ad does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Northwest Herald. The dandelion root power you can buy at a Health Food Store is not made the same way. It is not known to help cancer. This is a reprint of the ad in The Northwest Herald. Printing donated by Viking Lithographic, Elkhorn, WI 53121
George Cairns' New Instructions
[Note: After the original article was published, I talked to him on the phone and he told me he had newer and better instructions. He sent them to me and they are below. However, cancer patients cannot wait months to pick the dandelions at just the right time and wait more months to freeze, plant and harvest a new crop of dandelions. In this new article, concentrate on the harvesting and processing of the dandelions, and hope they are in season when you need them.]
To make dandelion root powder, let's start at the beginning. This would be collecting the seed. The seed is at the base of the white fluffy crown that appears when the yellow flower matures. Blow on them and they fly away. These little seeds do not grow until the next spring. I collect the seeds in May and June, then I put them in the freezer. This way you fool Mother Nature as the seeds must freeze before they grow. This way you can grow the seed the same year you collect them. Work up the land where you are going to plant them and spread the seeds on top of the ground and rake them [into the soil] very lightly and water [them]. I usually plant the seeds in August.
I dig up the seedlings the next April. I try to do all my transplanting in April as by the end of April they start blooming which takes the energy away from making roots. It's a good thing to pick the buds off for the first couple of months. When I dig the seedlings up in April, I plant them about 6 inches apart in rows 18 to 20 inches apart. I hoe them when needed and keep the weeds and grass out of them. After about 2 months you won't be able to hoe as they will cover the ground. Then I pull the weeds and grass out of the bed. Water when needed.
I usually start digging them up in October. By this time some of the roots will be 1 inch in diameter. I shake off most of the dirt [but not all] and slice lengthwise the bigger roots to about 1/4 inch so they will dry evenly. To dry them I use a forced-air incubator without any water in it. I set the incubator at 100 degrees or a little less. It takes about 5 days until they are ready to grind. You can use a dehydrator set around 100 degrees. If it doesn't have settings, don't use it. You can also dry in the sun if you put them in something the wind can blow through, like a small potato or onion sack. Hang them in the sun but take them down in late afternoon and put in a plastic sack and tie it. If you don't they will pick up moisture and you will be back where you started. Then put them out the next day when the sun is up. Once you have heat in the house, it's no trouble as they will dry OK most anywhere there is heat, like near a register or stove. The excess dirt will pop off as they dry. Mother Nature knows how much to leave. If the roots are very clean, add a little dirt as this powder won't work without the dirt.
When you make powder, try not to lose anything. Pound the roots flat, then put in an electric coffee grinder for 25 seconds and you have powder. You can also keep pounding and crumbling until you have it the right fineness. What I did for a long time, a friend gave me a cast iron pestle and mortar. With this you can get it down as fine as you wish.
To store, put in an air-tight jar and fill as near to the top as possible. I've kept it 10 months this way. Also, keep in a dry place.
George Cairns
Woodstock, Illinois, USA
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Here is a vendor of dandelion root products:
http://www.catefarm.com/
(Reprint of ad in The Northwest Herald)
George Cairns Writes:
Every week around 10,000 people die of cancer. Government figures show the death rate for cancer deaths has not changed in the last 10 years. Chemo and radiation only save around 10% of the people treated. So this shows our doctors don't have much to work with.
As this article goes on, I will explain how to prepare this plant and how much to take. There is nothing to buy. For some reason, the Lord has picked me to carry these words to you. I am only the delivery boy, and none of this is my idea. I do believe every word I write here, and I'm living proof it works.
The cost of printing is my thanks to God for giving me back my life and health.
A little over three years ago I was about done in with cancer. One morning I was waking up and hoping the end would come soon, a voice came to me and said. "You have to do something about your prostate cancer. Take the root of the dandelion. Don't expect a miracle. It took you a long time to get in this condition." The voice was gone.
I thought the voice was kidding to use the dandelion. When this voice tells you to do something, you do it. You must do it, like writing this article. It is the last thing I ever expected to do. Then I thought he didn't tell me how much to take or how to prepare it.
As soon as you could blink an eye, I knew how much to take, how to prepare it, and it would take 4 to 6 months to cure me. I also knew I wasn't to make a penny on it. As soon as I got around that morning, I dug some roots and started to prepare it.
About a week later I started taking it. Three weeks later the pain in my back and side was gone and my bowels had improved. Five and one-half months later they could find no cancer problem in me at all.
I then wanted to find someone else to try it, and that was the biggest problem yet. Nobody seems to want to help. When I told doctors, they just smiled as if I was nuts. Finally, I was telling a friend about it and he said he had a friend that was dying of lung cancer. He had it in both lungs and was bed ridden. They were tapping his lungs. He had been given 4 to 6 weeks to live.
After he had been on this powder about six weeks, he was up and around doing his chores and driving his car. He went to his doctor's office, and the doctors could not believe it. They took him to the hospital and gave him a CAT scan. They found no cancer lesions in his lungs and said it was a miracle.
I then put an ad in The Northwest Herald offering it free and four people said they would try it. Slowly one person told another and it spread. There was a fair amount of people taking it for different kinds of cancer and several for other things.
For instance, a man lost the use of his immune system and was told he wouldn't be able to work again for three years, in six months he is now working ½ days and feeling better.
I know this is not a cure all. It won't help everyone or all kinds of cancer. I know it is not a cure for skin cancer and it hasn't had luck with brain tumors. There is a doctor in Boston, Massachusetts that has developed a vaccine that is doing great things. This has been successful with prostate, colon, breast, liver and best of all with lung cancer. Five people have taken it for lung cancer and all five have been cured once.
The immune system controls the cancer cells in your body. As long as the immune system is healthy, you don't usually have a cancer problem. When your immune system gets run down, it loses control of the cancer cells, and they start eating live cells and this is what they call cancer.
This powder made from dandelion root has something in it that builds up the blood and the immune system. When the immune system is built up so far, it gets back control of cancer cells, and they do an about face and start cleaning up the mess they've made This is why you must have a fair appetite because your body must build itself up and be healthy if your immune system is going to be strong.
This will not work for people that have lost their appetite or are on CHEMO. Doctors try to blast the cancer out of your body with Chemo or radiation. By doing so, it destroys your immune system and appetite. These are the most important things your body needs to beat cancer.
Operations also knock the immune system haywire. This is why so many people that have operations for cancer find that a short time later it has spread somewhere else.
Many of the worst diseases that have plagued the world have been cured quite easily. When I was a boy, women dreaded the goiter more than cancer. A little iodine in the diet cured that. For hundred of years the most dreadeddiseases was leprosy and lockjaw. A doctor found he could produce penicillin from moldy bread and could cure them and many more things. How long has moldy bread been around?
I'm sure scientists will find many uses for the powder made from the root of the dandelions besides cancer. I have already found it builds up the blood so you heal much faster. To make the powder from the dandelion root you must follow my directions to the letter. Any changes and it won't work.
Dig a handful of dandelion roots any time of the year, it doesn't matter. Cut the leaves off just below the crown. DO NOT WASH. Then they must be dried around 100 degrees. I do it in an incubator with no water. You can also dry them under a heat light bulb if you raise or lower it so it's 100 degrees. You can also use the sun or put them in the attic if it's not too hot. It takes about 5 or 6 days in the incubator.
I have not done this all the way under the heat light. When you break a root and it snaps it is ready to powder. Take an old iron frying pan and a clean hammer. Take one root at a time and place in the frying pan and start tapping. Don't hit hard or it will fly all over the place. I put my hand around the root to keep most of it in the pan. If it sticks to the hammer and pan, and doesn't crumble in your fingers, it isn't dry enough. Keep it up until you have enough to start.
It takes about 20 minutes to ½ hour to prepare enough for a week. When you get used to it you can go much faster. I have an old vessel that druggists used to pound pills, this goes much faster. DO NOT USE AN ELECTRIC GRINDER, it won't work if you do. You lose too much of the good part in dust. You must do it as I have said or don't do it at all. I've tried shortcuts, but it seems someone was looking over my shoulder, and I know when I made a mistake.
I'm just an old farmer and not a scientist, so I wouldn't know the correct amount to take on my own. Now take a little over one half teaspoon once a day at any time and mix it with water, orange juice, etc. Do not use in soft drinks, liquor, or anything hot.
When mixed, use it all. Don't let it stand around. Keep the power in a dry place. After taking it three or four days, you will feel good, but nothing else. That is because your blood is building up. When you blood is happy, you're happy. In most cases, this will build your immune system in from three days to three weeks to the point it takes back control of cancer cells and thus the cancer stops spreading. In most cases it is going to help. There is no body feeling as it works. You just feel a little better each week.
After three weeks most of the pain will be gone in your back and you know it's working if you had pain there like I did. If you have bone cancer in the spine, it will take three months to work. This is not an overnight cure. It took a while to get in this condition and it will take a while for your body to heal.
The sooner you start, the quicker you will be over cancer. Young people heal faster than old people, but it will help at any age. I know because I'm 80 and have been taking it for over three years. No cancer has come back and no side effects except when my body has had enough, it lets me know by getting heart burn. Then I back off some. Some people get stomach aches when they need less. It also means your cancer is under control and you don't need as much.
You will also find you probably won't catch a cold while you are taking it full strength. The biggest enemy for this root is Chemo. The stronger the Chemo, the less chance the power has to help you as Chemo tears your immune system and appetite down, two of the most important things you need to cure cancer. There is only a ten percent chance Chemo will cure you. With no chemo, your chances are 75 to 80% but you must take it every day. Don't let your doctor give you that old threat if you turn him down that goes, "If you want to throw your life away, I can't stop you".
Just remember that 90% of the people that take his advice and take chemo are in the cemetery. Don't blame the doctor, he is doing his best with what he has to work with or you could ask for a written guarantee. I have only mentioned cancers that I know people have had and used this root. It should help pancreas cancer if taken before the appetite is gone and most body cancer.
This is food, not a drug. It shouldn't interfere with medicine your doctor may be giving you. Only two doctors have told patients to keep taking the power when they have made a miracle recovery. The rest of the doctors have run the power down and blasted the people even if the cancer has disappeared. The medical world is not going to accept this easily.
Going back to not washing the roots and leaving a little soil on them, it is for your own good. A good bit of immunity comes from the soil, it starts as soon as you are born. Your fingers touch something, and you put them in your mouth. A little dirt at first, and more as you grow older and start crawling. Then everything you touch goes in the mouth. When children go outside to play and when they come in, they are the dirtiest around the mouth and hand. The hands go in their mouths no matter how dirty they are.
Many diseases and bacteria live in the ground, but they don't seem to cause any trouble but it does build up the immune system. Some animals can't live if they can't eat a certain amount of soil. If you read this article over, you will see it all goes back to common sense.
I wish all of you people with cancer and other problems the best.
This ad does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Northwest Herald. The dandelion root power you can buy at a Health Food Store is not made the same way. It is not known to help cancer. This is a reprint of the ad in The Northwest Herald. Printing donated by Viking Lithographic, Elkhorn, WI 53121
George Cairns' New Instructions
[Note: After the original article was published, I talked to him on the phone and he told me he had newer and better instructions. He sent them to me and they are below. However, cancer patients cannot wait months to pick the dandelions at just the right time and wait more months to freeze, plant and harvest a new crop of dandelions. In this new article, concentrate on the harvesting and processing of the dandelions, and hope they are in season when you need them.]
To make dandelion root powder, let's start at the beginning. This would be collecting the seed. The seed is at the base of the white fluffy crown that appears when the yellow flower matures. Blow on them and they fly away. These little seeds do not grow until the next spring. I collect the seeds in May and June, then I put them in the freezer. This way you fool Mother Nature as the seeds must freeze before they grow. This way you can grow the seed the same year you collect them. Work up the land where you are going to plant them and spread the seeds on top of the ground and rake them [into the soil] very lightly and water [them]. I usually plant the seeds in August.
I dig up the seedlings the next April. I try to do all my transplanting in April as by the end of April they start blooming which takes the energy away from making roots. It's a good thing to pick the buds off for the first couple of months. When I dig the seedlings up in April, I plant them about 6 inches apart in rows 18 to 20 inches apart. I hoe them when needed and keep the weeds and grass out of them. After about 2 months you won't be able to hoe as they will cover the ground. Then I pull the weeds and grass out of the bed. Water when needed.
I usually start digging them up in October. By this time some of the roots will be 1 inch in diameter. I shake off most of the dirt [but not all] and slice lengthwise the bigger roots to about 1/4 inch so they will dry evenly. To dry them I use a forced-air incubator without any water in it. I set the incubator at 100 degrees or a little less. It takes about 5 days until they are ready to grind. You can use a dehydrator set around 100 degrees. If it doesn't have settings, don't use it. You can also dry in the sun if you put them in something the wind can blow through, like a small potato or onion sack. Hang them in the sun but take them down in late afternoon and put in a plastic sack and tie it. If you don't they will pick up moisture and you will be back where you started. Then put them out the next day when the sun is up. Once you have heat in the house, it's no trouble as they will dry OK most anywhere there is heat, like near a register or stove. The excess dirt will pop off as they dry. Mother Nature knows how much to leave. If the roots are very clean, add a little dirt as this powder won't work without the dirt.
When you make powder, try not to lose anything. Pound the roots flat, then put in an electric coffee grinder for 25 seconds and you have powder. You can also keep pounding and crumbling until you have it the right fineness. What I did for a long time, a friend gave me a cast iron pestle and mortar. With this you can get it down as fine as you wish.
To store, put in an air-tight jar and fill as near to the top as possible. I've kept it 10 months this way. Also, keep in a dry place.
George Cairns
Woodstock, Illinois, USA
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Here is a vendor of dandelion root products:
http://www.catefarm.com/
Bay Laurel or Laurel Leaf essential oil is well-regarded in aromatherapy due to its unique molecular structure. It contains elements of nearly all of the primary chemical groups which make up essential oils. The result is a broad range of therapeutic uses. Bay Laurel (and other essential oils of Mediterranean plants) were the subject of research into possible anti-viral activity. Bay Laurel was noted to have 'interesting' anti-viral action against the SARS coronavirus, or SARS-CoV, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Most outstanding is the mention it receives by Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt in 'Advanced Aromatherapy': "Its positive effects on the lymphatic system are undeniable. Rubbing a few drops of bay laurel on swollen lymph nodes will produce an immediately noticeable relieving effect. The positive and pleasant effect of this oil is so distinct and strong that one application will normally suffice to convince the most hardened skeptic to use it."
The oil has traditionally been used to alleviate digestive complaints, but its modern aromatherapy applications make use of its antiseptic, anti-microbial, expectorant, mucolytic, anti-bacterial and anti-infectious properties. It may be included in blends for breathing support, and the aroma may be more appreciated by some that other oils used for this purpose. Laurel leaf essential oil can be safely used as an immune system support agent, particularly when one may be exposed to higher-risk situations, or may find their immune system depleted from traveling or stress.
Further, Bay Laurel essential oil is indicated by some authorities for nerve regeneration (blending with Helichrysum may be useful), as well as rheumatoid arthritis. The oil has a lovely aroma, and would make an excellent addition to arthritis/joint/muscular formulas not only due to its therapeutic action, but its beautiful spicy & herbaceous scent!
Source: http://www.anandaapothecary.com/baylaureleo.htm
Most outstanding is the mention it receives by Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt in 'Advanced Aromatherapy': "Its positive effects on the lymphatic system are undeniable. Rubbing a few drops of bay laurel on swollen lymph nodes will produce an immediately noticeable relieving effect. The positive and pleasant effect of this oil is so distinct and strong that one application will normally suffice to convince the most hardened skeptic to use it."
The oil has traditionally been used to alleviate digestive complaints, but its modern aromatherapy applications make use of its antiseptic, anti-microbial, expectorant, mucolytic, anti-bacterial and anti-infectious properties. It may be included in blends for breathing support, and the aroma may be more appreciated by some that other oils used for this purpose. Laurel leaf essential oil can be safely used as an immune system support agent, particularly when one may be exposed to higher-risk situations, or may find their immune system depleted from traveling or stress.
Further, Bay Laurel essential oil is indicated by some authorities for nerve regeneration (blending with Helichrysum may be useful), as well as rheumatoid arthritis. The oil has a lovely aroma, and would make an excellent addition to arthritis/joint/muscular formulas not only due to its therapeutic action, but its beautiful spicy & herbaceous scent!
Source: http://www.anandaapothecary.com/baylaureleo.htm
Health Benefits of Dandelions
Dandelion nutrition data Detoxification 2011 Dandelion Seeds Milk Thistle
Dandelion herb tea (leaf) is very good for resolving allergy. Dandelion Coffee
Diabetic Health: Roasted Dandelion Root Tea is an excellent aide for balancing blood sugar.
Order Our Organic Spagyric Dandelion Extract, 1 ounce, $15 + shipping / ask about larger sizes; bulk herb and capsules available.
By Peter Gail
Suppose your doctor tells you, on your next visit, that he has just discovered a miracle drug which, when eaten as a part of your daily diet or taken as a beverage, could, depending on the peculiarities of your body chemistry: prevent or cure liver diseases, such as hepatitis or jaundice; act as a tonic and gentle diuretic to purify your blood, cleanse your system, dissolve kidney stones, and otherwise improve gastro-intestinal health; assist in weight reduction; cleanse your skin and eliminate acne; improve your bowel function, working equally well to relieve both constipation and diarrhea; prevent or lower high blood pressure; prevent or cure anemia; lower your serum cholesterol by as much as half; eliminate or drastically reduce acid indigestion and gas buildup by cutting the heaviness of fatty foods; prevent or cure various forms of cancer; prevent or control diabetes mellitus; and, at the same time, have no negative side effects and selectively act on only what ails you. If he gave you a prescription for this miracle medicine, would you use it religiously at first to solve whatever the problem is and then consistently for preventative body maintenance?
All the above curative functions, and more, have been attributed to one plant known to everyone, Taraxacum officinale, which means the "Official Remedy for Disorders." We call it the common dandelion. It is so well respected, in fact, that it appears in the U.S. National Formulatory, and in the Pharmacopeias of Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union. It is one of the top 6 herbs in the Chinese herbal medicine chest.
According to the USDA Bulletin #8, "Composition of Foods" (Haytowitz and Matthews 1984), dandelions rank in the top 4 green vegetables in overall nutritional value. Minnich, in "Gardening for Better Nutrition" ranks them, out of all vegetables, including grains, seeds and greens, as tied for 9th best. According to these data, dandelions are nature's richest green vegetable source of beta-carotene, from which Vitamin A is created, and the third richest source of Vitamin A of all foods, after cod-liver oil and beef liver! They also are particularly rich in fiber, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and the B vitamins, thiamine and riboflavin, and are a good source of protein.
These figures represent only those published by the USDA. Studies in Russia and Eastern Europe by Gerasimova, Racz, Vogel, and Marei (Hobbs 1985) indicate that dandelion is also rich in micronutrients such as copper, cobalt, zinc, boron, and molybdenum, as well as Vitamin D.
Much of what dandelions purportedly do in promoting good health could result from nutritional richness alone. Vogel considers the sodium in dandelions important in reducing inflammations of the liver. Gerasimova, the Russian chemist who analyzed the dandelion for, among other things, trace minerals, stated that "dandelion [is] an example of a harmonious combination of trace elements, vitamins and other biologically active substances in ratios optimal for a human organism" (Hobbs 1985).
Recent research, reported in the Natural Healing and Nutritional Annual, 1989 (Bricklin and Ferguson 1989) on the value of vitamins and minerals indicates that:
* Vitamin A is important in fighting cancers of epithelial tissue, including mouth and lung;
* Potassium rich foods, in adequate quantities, and particularly in balance with magnesium, helps keep blood pressure down and reduces risks of strokes;
* Fiber fights diabetes, lowers cholesterol, reduces cancer and heart disease
risks, and assists in weight loss. High fiber vegetables take up lots of room, are low in calories, and slow down digestion so the food stays in the stomach longer and you feel full longer;
* Calcium in high concentrations can build strong bones and can lower blood pressure;
* B vitamins help reduce stress.
Throughout history, dandelions have had a reputation as being effective in promoting weight loss and laboratory research indicates that there is some support for this reputation. Controlled tests on laboratory mice and rats by the same Romanians indicated that a loss of up to 30% of body weight in 30 days was possible when the animals were fed dandelion extract with their food. Those on grass extract lost much less. The control group on plain water actually gained weight.
Beyond nutritional richness, however, are the active chemical constituents contained in dandelions which may have specific therapeutic effects on the body. These include, as reported by Hobbs (1985):
* Inulin, which converts to fructose in the presence of cold or hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Fructose forms glycogen in the liver without requiring insulin, resulting in a slower blood sugar rise, which makes it good for diabetics and hypoglycemics;
* Tof-CFr, a glucose polymer similar to lentinan, which Japanese researchers have found to act against cancer cells in laboratory mice; Lentinan is a yeast glucan (glucose polymer) that increases resistance against protozoal and viral infections.;
* Pectin, which is anti-diarrheal and also forms ionic complexes with metal ions, which probably contributes to dandelion's reputation as a blood and gastrointestinal detoxifying herb. Pectin is prescribed regularly in Russia to remove heavy metals and radioactive elements from body tissues. Pectin can also lower cholesterol and, combined with Vitamin C, can lower it even more. Dandelion is a good source of both Pectin and Vitamin C;
* Coumestrol, an estrogen mimic which possibly is responsible, at least in part, for stimulating milk flow and altering hormones;
* Apigenin and Luteolin, two flavonoid glycosides which have been demonstrated to have diuretic, anti-spasmodic, anti-oxidant and liver protecting actions and properties, and also to strengthen the heart and blood vessels. They also have anti-bacterial and anti-hypoglycemic properties, and, as estrogen mimics, may also stimulate milk production and alter hormones;
* Gallic Acid, which is anti-diarrheal and anti-bacterial;
* Linoleic and Linolenic Acid, which are essential fatty acids required by the body to produce prostaglandin which regulate blood pressure and such body processes as immune responses which suppress inflammation. These fatty acids can lower chronic inflammation, such as proliferative arthritis, regulate blood pressure and the menstrual cycle, and prevent platelet aggregation;
* Choline, which has been shown to help improve memory;
*Several Sesquiterpene compounds which are what make dandelions bitter. These may partly account for dandelions tonic effects on digestion, liver, spleen and gall bladder, and are highly anti-fungal;
* Several Triterpenes, which may contribute to bile or liver stimulation;
* Taraxasterol, which may contribute to liver and gall bladder health or to hormone altering.
These chemicals, individually, are not unique to dandelions, but the combination of them all in one plant, along with high levels of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins and fiber account for the many claims made regarding the plant.
These claims include the following results of clinical and laboratory research, again as reported in Hobbs (1985):
* A doubling of bile output with leaf extracts, and a quadrupling of bile output with root extract. Bile assists with the emulsification, digestion and absorption of fats, in alkalinizing the intestines and in the prevention of putrefaction. This could explain the effectiveness of dandelion in reducing the effects of fatty foods (heartburn and acid indigestion);
* A reduction in serum cholesterol and urine bilirubin levels by as much as half in humans with severe liver imbalances has been demonstrated by Italian researchers;
* Diuretic effects with a strength approaching that of the potent diuretics Furosemide and Lasix, used for congestive heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver, with none of the serious side effects, were found by Romanian scientists. They found that water extract of dandelion leaves, administered orally, because of its high potassium content, replaced serum potassium electrolytes lost in the urine, eliminating such side effects common with the synthetics as severe potassium depletion, hepatic coma in liver patients, circulatory collapse, and transmission through mothers' milk;
* In 1979 a Japanese patent was filed for a freeze-dried warm water extract of dandelion root for anti-tumor use. It was found that administration of the extract markedly inhibited growth of particular carcinoma cells within one week after treatment;
* Dental researchers at Indiana University in 1982 used dandelion extracts in antiplaque preparations;
* In studies from 1941 to 1952, the French scientist Henri Leclerc demonstrated the effectiveness of dandelion on chronic liver problems related to bile stones. He found that roots gathered in late summer to fall, when they are rich in bitter, white milky latex, should be used for all liver treatments;
* In 1956, Chauvin demonstrated the antibacterial effects of dandelion pollen, which may validate the centuries old use of dandelion flowers in Korean folk medicine to prevent furuncles (boils, skin infections), tuberculosis, and edema and promote blood circulation.
Also, Witt (1983) recommends dandelion tea to alleviate the water buildup in PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome).
There are many testimonials from those who have benefited from the use of dandelions in the treatment of what ailed them.
Robert Stickle, an internationally famous architect, was diagnosed as having a malignant melanoma 21 years ago, and was given, after radical surgery had not halted its spread, less than 2 years to live. He said, in a letter to Jeff Zullo, president of the Society for the Promotion of Dandelions, (June 23, 1986):
" I went on a search for the answer to my mortal problem, and [discovered] that perhaps it was a nutritional dilemma.... To me, cancer is primarily a liver failure manifestation. {Italians are very concerned about problems of the 'fegato']. [I discovered that] the cancer rate in native Italians is very low among the farming population (paesanos). When they get affluent and move to the city, its the same as the rest of civilized man. Paesanos eat dandelions, make brew from the roots, and are healthy, often living to over 100 years."
He states that he began eating dandelion salad every day, and his improvement confounded the doctors. When he wrote the letter in 1986, 18 years had passed and there had been no recurrence of the melanoma.
A benefit which comes from writing articles for national media is that you hear from people who have interesting stories to tell. I recently received a call from Peter Gruchawka, a 70 year old gentleman from Manorville, NY, who reported that he had been diagnosed with diabetes melitis 3 months before and was put on 5 grams of Micronase. At the time, he had a 5+ sugar spillover in his urine. He took Micronase for about a month before he learned, from his wife who is a nurse, that Micronase can do damage to the liver. He had read in "Herbal Medicine" by Diane Buchanan and "Back to Eden" by Jethro Kloss about the effectiveness of dandelions in controlling diabetes. Without saying anything to his doctors, he stopped taking Micronase and began drinking dandelion coffee each day. During the first week, his urinary sugar, measured night and morning, was erratic and unstable, but after a week, his sugar stabilized and when he called, he had been getting negative urine sugar readings for over a month. The doctors are amazed and can't explain it. An interesting side benefit to replacing Micronase with dandelion coffee is that, while Micronase damages the liver as a side effect, dandelions are particularly known for strengthening the liver.
According to Mr. Gruchawka, he changed nothing but the medication. He had cut out pastries and other sugars when he was diagnosed and started on Micronase, and has continued to do without those things while taking dandelion coffee.
In reporting these claims, however, I must add three qualifiers:
1. First, unfortunately, neither herbs nor synthetic remedies work for everyone in the same way. Different bodies respond differently to medicines, and what works incredibly well for one person may not work at all, or work less well, for someone else.
2. Second, good health results from a combination of healthy diet and enough exercise to keep the body toned. Bob Stickle, for all his insistence that dandelions cured him, changed, according to a mutual friend, his entire lifestyle. He didn't just add dandelion salad to what he was already doing.
3. People with health problems need to seek the advice and care of a competent physician, with whom this information can be shared. It is important to reemphasize that it is presented as information only. I am not a medical doctor, and neither advocate nor prescribe dandelions or dandelion products for use by anyone or for any ailment. Only your doctor can do that.
Because there are so many variables, it is hard to attribute Mr. Stickle's cure to any one of them directly. Likewise, Italian farmers live a lifestyle which combines a healthy diet, lots of work and clean air. They heat and cook with wood, which they have to cut and split. They haul water for household use. When they move to the city, diet, exercise, and environmental conditions change. Stress and sedentary habits increase.
And there is the importance of faith in the healing process, whether it be faith in God or faith in the curative properties of the herb being taken.
While dandelions, given all these variables, may never be proved to cure any specific ill, they are an extremely healthy green which cannot in any way hurt you. Research on how much you would have to eat to cause harm indicates that eating grass is more dangerous than eating dandelions (Hobbs 1985). Therefore, with everything going for dandelions, it is highly probable that everyone can derive at least some nutritional benefit from them by eating or drinking them regularly.
The medical and pharmacological establishment is generally critical of claims regarding the use of herbs on disease, and their concerns need to be put in perspective.
Herbal medicines have been used very effectively far longer than synthetics, and many current pharmaceutical products have been derived from research on plants used as medicine by many cultures. The problem with plants, however, is that they are available to anyone. It is impossible to patent a plant, and thereby gain proprietary rights to it. As a consequence, pharmaceutical companies attempt to isolate the active properties from medicinal plants and synthesize them so that they can patent them. Many of the synthetics have serious side-effects which were not present in the natural plant product, often because other chemicals in the plant offset them (i.e. the large quantities of potassium in dandelions which allows for potassium replenishment when dandelion is used as a diuretic).
USDA botanist Dr. James Duke (1989) suggests that a proper and appropriate "herbal soup", filled with "vitamins, minerals, fibers and a whole host of bioactive compounds," from which the body can selectively strain the compounds it needs to restore itself to health, will be more effective than synthetic medicines containing a "very select and specialized compound or two plus filler, usually non-nutritive." This is especially true if the "herbal soup", in the form of a potent potherb like dandelion, is a regular part of the diet so that the appropriate bioactive substances are present in the right amounts when the body needs them.
NB: The book that this reprint was taken from "The Dandelion Celebration-The Guide to Unexpected Cuisine" is recommended to anyone who would like to know more about this remarkable plant. It covers everything you could want to know about dandelions and more, including recipes, planting, picking and preparing, along with the wonderful history of this "Official Remedy for Disorders", Taraxacum officinale, the common dandelion.
Source: http://www.leaflady.org/health_benefits_of_dandelions.htm
Most human beings...many human beings, they don't like other human beings...because they reflect something which is inside themselves that they don't like...but they think no...no...no...it's in you...you carry this thing ...but if your empty of this trait that you see, that you don't like...it couldn't work like this, if your empty of it...then you don't see any judgement in it...When you are free of that judgement it ceases to appear, even external to you...you don't see it, or at least you look towards it with great compassion and understanding, because you know it's not intentional...We are not really ignorant by choice...it seems like something is hiding the seeing...so when we see someone, somehow triggers some discomfort within yourself...it's because somehow there is something there worth reflecting...Now I take you a step further than this...this which you are seeing in others and in yourself...this self that you find fault with, is only the idea you have of yourself...it is not the true Self...it is only the conditioned state...the idea, the learned self...the aquired self...the conditioned self...this is where all the bad smell is coming from...
Beings
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