November meeting

First of all we watched "Tony Robbins motivates you in 20 minutes: TEDTalks" a very inspired speaker but seemed rather hyper for us and then we read and discussed the following. (Shortened)

The Fountain of Youth

Jesus answered and said unto her, (the woman at the well)
Whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:13-14

Look first for the Kingdom of Heaven. And all things will be provided for you. Mathew 6 the kingdom of Heaven is within You Luke 17:21
Yes it's always been INSIDE YOU!
Youth it has been said is a "state of awe or bliss"
Among those who had lost their youth it was imagined that there was such a thing as a "Fountain of Youth" which had magical waters which sprung up from a special spring that would give those who drank from it or bathed in it healing and rejuvenation. In effect it would reverse age and return those who drank of its waters back to his youth. Well, many people set out to look for it; sadly, none ever could find it. Why not? Because it was always inside of themselves. What they had of the Fountain of Youth-its healing and rejuvenating powers were inside of them. Then why could they not reach it if it was inside themselves? Because they had abandoned themselves in pursuit of things outside of themselves and found sadness instead. To set out looking for romances, people, power and material possessions to make us happy is to set out on a voyage to nowhere. It is like leaving your house to look for your bedroom.
The important point is that because it is a state of mind, it can be accessed in our minds.
Youth is a feeling of wonder, innocence, freshness; the opposite of cynical and worn out. So in that case younger in age or older in age it doesn't matter, we can be cynical and worn out at 25 years old and we can be full of wonder at 75 years old. Youth is a state of mind that can be found or lost at any age. Youth is a spiritual state! Youth is alive and full of feeling. Youth is vibrant and unafraid. Youth is very much a part of living, changing, discovering and yes, actually staying physically young without the help of cosmetics, fad diets, and work-out regiments. Youth has nothing to do with acting juvenile, crazy, arrogant, irresponsible, or aloof. Youth is child-like - fun, spontaneous, alive, energetic, emotionally responsive, in touch with reality, intelligent, creative and adaptive. Youth is full of wonder and surprise. And above all youth is very much in the "present"!
Pleasures outside of ourselves are seductive powers. They get us hooked and because they can never fulfill us, we drain our life energy pursuing them. We've plugged into a power drainage rather than a Power source. And the source of all Power is within ourselves! So when we hook into pleasures outside of ourselves, we direct that Power from within us to something outside of ourselves. And because those things outside of ourselves need our Power to keep them alive, they can not give us any Power back to replenish the power they have taken from us.
They take our Youth, our innocence, our wonder. They disappoint us and constantly let us down. We become miserable, diseased, insatiable, lonely, bitter. Because our energy is draining, we do not have enough energy to sustain our health. Thus, we become ill, stressed, depressed (drained), diseased, physically aged and inevitably dead.
So, to help with their illness and depression, these people look for cures to replenish their energy and restore them to well-being and health. Or even try moving to a new place, or having a new romance, or maybe it will be a new job, more money, a new project, a new relationship, a brand new drug, a new vacation spot, a new car, a new face lift. more vitamins, a vacation to a spa, a new exercise, a new look-change of clothes, a new house or a remodeling! And as we all know, these things don't last and furthermore, do not give us what we think they should be giving us. We get let down. Does that stop some of us? NO! Pursue and consume and pursue and consume, ad infinitum.
They get "high" on the new, on the pursuit, on consuming, and so forth. And all the while they can not understand why they are getting depressed and why their doctors tell them they have high blood pressure or anxiety disorder or manic depression, or panic attacks, and insecurities or hypertension. And still some of them keep trying to change the outer body to cause a change within themselves. So these people get hooked on plastic surgery, exercise regimens, cosmetic treatments, and so on. In actuality, the more money you have to spend on something to make you happy or to look good, it isn't going to work. That's why it's expensive! Because most of us know that the best things in life are free or minimally priced! It's the spending, the hype, the idea that they can afford it, the status and all the "mind games" If they believe in the "hype" (hypnotic) enough it will cause them to feel a certain way! And for how long? Until the newest invention comes along!
And like the powers they depend on for happiness and health and youth, they become just like them: short lived, worn out, unreliable, dependent, moody, unstable, used and abused, and discarded. An object! The saying "you are what you eat" is the same as you are what you touch, what you consume, etc...Depend on objects become like objects! Depend on the people you depend upon and you become like them. The same is true about ideas, depend on those ideas and you become like those ideas.


And another reason why outer dependency brings disappointment: all things outside of ourselves to make us happy, including people, have to be there for us. That means we have to rely on them being there. That means we have to pay some kind of price to maintain those things or people to be there for us. Very expensive! In a way, we have become dependent or even enslaved or addicted to those things to be there for us to make us happy and healthy.
So when they are not there or are unreliable, they cause us distress. The person or object we depend on becomes the source of power now. They actually control us! Look at how much money and how much energy people waste on others and things they depend on.
If we had to truly depend on ourselves we would find an awakening within ourselves. Throughout history including our own country's Depression in the 1930's people actually got stronger, more creative. Many great statesman and creative geniuses came out of that period. WHY? Because they found their REAL POWER! And that inner Power we always have access to. And we can replenish our inner Power from within through spirituality. And we can draw from it at anytime. And it doesn't matter what is around us or where we are. It's not like a car on a road that runs out of gas 40 miles from the nearest gas station. Whenever, we run out of energy, we can go within and draw from our "fountain of youth" - our source of vitality, strength, wisdom, happiness, creativity, and joy!
No matter who you are or what has happened in your life; whether you are young or old, rich or poor, religious or not, unlucky or lucky, famous or not, youth can be found inside yourself. YES! Everybody! When you find it, you will definitely know it! You will have found YOU! Nothing more needs to be said. You will never need to be like someone or dependent on someone or something ever again!