COURAGE – Quote

It’s always better to have found the courage to love even if you lose it in the end rather than never found love because you were too afraid of the challenge.

My Faith

I’ve been in some pretty dark places in my life, dear God.  You above all, know how frightening that can be.  I remember as a child, being afraid at night when the lights went out.  And I remember as a n adult, being afraid when the lights in my soul dimmed.  I lost hope and courage and faith.  But you rescued me from that pit by your grace and the promise in your Word that you would turn my darkness into light and my night into day.  how you love me, o Lord.  And how I love you!

Money creates a false sense of independence (2 of 2)

On the other hand, some people blame money for all the ills in society. There are others who even consider it an evil. Just as possessing money brings arrogance, rejecting it too makes one arrogant. Some people who renounce money take pride in their poverty to draw attention and sympathy.

However, ancient sages honored money or maya as a part of the divine and transcended the grip of its illusion. They knew that when we reject or hate something, we can never transcend it.

They honored wealth as Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Narayana. She is born out of yoga. It is yoga that transforms the bad karma and brings out latent skills and talents. It also brings up ashtasiddhis, the eight perfections and nav nidhis, the nine wealth.

Yoga helps one move from arrogance to self-confidence, meekness to humility, dependence to interdependence, from craving for freedom to the recognition of unboundedness and from a limited ownership to oneness with the whole.

\When people lack faith in the Divine or in their own abilities or in the goodness of society they suffer from a deep sense of insecurity. As a result all that appears to provide security is money. They rely on something that is not certain, and end up getting upset. Uncertainty causes craving for stability.

The world is of change; the Self is of non-change. We have to rely on the non-change and accept the change. This is like perceiving the real as unreal and unreal as real. In fact, all miseries are unreal. A wise man knows that happiness is real, as it is our very nature. Unhappiness is unreal because it is inflicted by memory. When we see everything as a dream, then we abide in our true nature — love, joy and peace. We then understand that money is not all-important. Values, sense of belonging, love and care are more important. – The Times of India

Website: www.artofliving.org.

Going back to the pure, loving nature (2 of 2)

When a child is born he is in maitri bhavana; it means a great feeling of friendship, love, compassion. A newborn knows no hatred; it knows only love. Love is intrinsic; hatred, anger, jealousy, possessions and envy he will learn later on. Society will teach him how to hate.

When the child is born he is simple love; he has not known anything else. In the mother’s womb he has not come across any enemy. He has lived in deep love for nine months, surrounded by love, nourished by love. He knows nobody who is inimical to him. He knows only the mother, he knows her love. This love he brings with himself; this is the original face. Then there will be trouble, with many other experiences. He will start distrusting people. A newborn child is simply born with trust.

Children are trusting, but by and by there will be experiences in which they will be deceived, in which they will get into trouble, in which they will be opposed, in which they will become afraid. By and by they will learn all the tricks of the world. That’s what has happened to everybody, more or less.

Maitri bhavana is creating the situation at the time of your birth: it is a de-hypnosis. It is an effort to drop hatred, anger, jealousy, envy, and come back to the world as you had come in the first place.

If you go on doing this meditation, first you start loving yourself ^ because you are closest to you than anybody else. Then you spread your love, friendship, compassion, your blessings, to people you love friends, lovers. Then, by and by, you spread these to more people that you don’t love so much, then people to whom you are indifferent ^ then by and by to people you hate.

Slowly you are de-hypnotizing yourself. Slowly you are again creating a womb of love around yourself. – The Time of India

Mind set: Of thank you and sorry (2 of 3)

It connotes the humility of considering oneself the recipient of undeserved merit. “He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt,” observed Roman statesman Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

Gratitude comes endowed with the power to help us create the life we want and can be therapeutic. Gratefulness emanates from looking at what someone or something has done for us. It is, therefore, about positivity of outlook, which, in turn, generates optimism and energy. Conversely, the lack of gratefulness breeds negativity and despair. In fact, proponents of positive psychology, a recent branch of psychology that studies the strengths and virtues enabling individuals and communities to thrive, consider gratitude to be a pleasant emotional state like happiness, joy, love, curiosity and hope.

The lack of gratefulness is largely because we take things for granted, brashly presuming that they are either our rightful due or are far less than what we deserve. What holds us back from being grateful is such lack of contentment and an endless craving for more. Often, we insist on waiting for the results of an action or a blessing to show up before expressing gratitude. This indicates a dearth of trust and faith, which pays us back in our own coin.

In a way, gratitude helps us realize the benefits of mindful meditation, which is all about acknowledging and feeling connected with every breath and blessing of life. Invariably, a life with gratefulness as its pivot is also a solution to the ills spawned by insatiable human yearnings.

We might wonder where the need for gratitude is if we pay for goods and services in money. Gratitude doesn’t even fetch us discounts. In fact, there is a subtle line of distinction between gratitude and ingratiation. So much so that when someone thanks us too many times, we start doubting his intention. However, as philosopher Adam Smith averred, gratitude is a vital civic virtue, essential for the healthy functioning of societies. He called gratitude a part of the moral capital required for human societies to flourish.

The act of offering and accepting an apology is as profound and healing a human interaction as that of expressing gratitude. But while the offhand “sorry about that” keeps flying around, our ego prevents us from realizing its full potential.

 

How you perceive yourself defines your freedom (2)

Living in this consciousness, one will be more a wanting being rather than a satisfied being.

Does our inner growth impact the collective consciousness?

There is the principle of the ladder. Imagine a ladder in which people are climbing. If one is unwilling to move up, it blocks others. If one helps the other to climb, one is not only helping oneself but also others. If everyone is disciplined, the process becomes smooth. If not, it is because of sleeping consciousness that one does not see the sanity of harmony and order.

If one is not ready to be awake, then one blocks another. If one is willing to grow, it impacts the collective consciousness and in turn it also impacts people around. So it becomes necessary to make the right connection and disconnection.

How important is the role of a Master?

An enlightened Master’s being is awakened to higher levels of consciousness. His ‘presence’ has a rippling effect on others. He can see your blocks clearly and helps you open up. We have four doors to be opened. They are a conscious mind, a subconscious mind, an unconscious mind and a divine mind.

Conscious mind involves thoughts, decisions and discussions. Then the subconscious mind has to be opened. One has to have affinity to one’s Master with a deep feeling of love and oneness. Even in disagreement with a conscious mind, a deep feeling of love opens the other’s door.

The unconscious mind has to be opened through surrender. Surrendering to a Master can be a great opening. Surrendering involves considering the Master’s teaching as one’s breath. Surrender your ego. Then the third door opens.

Finally, the last door has to be opened by the power of grace. When all the three doors are opened, you will be flooded with grace. – The Times of India

Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda

Reality Check

Good morning friends.  Got your dream?  Or just still planning what you want to dream.  Some of us don’t mind to dream.  They just go with the flow.  Come what may as the others implied.  But in reality we have to check everything.  This will mean  lot to us. 

 

Look at the truth of your life now in terms of budget hours available and family needs and debt?  Do you have young children?  The tension between what is true today and what you want to happen tomorrow will propel you forward because you know where you are now and where you want to be.

 

The journey has to be almost as fun as the destination.  It needs to be an outgrowth of what you love and want to do now.  Otherwise you’re living for tomorrow.

 

That’s why it’s important to talk to women who are already doing what you want to do.  if your dream is owning a store, talk to store owners and get the inside track.  We often have the dream version of what it is to do something,  but you want to get the real version and check your grit to see if you have it in you.

 

For example, you may want to be an actor, but are you willing to live with financial uncertainty or to change your looks to please others?  Can you deal with rejection?  If the answer is no, maybe acting isn’t right for you.  Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean it’s a path you’re supposed to take.  –Laura Berman Fortgang, author of Living Your Best Life.

Learning To Express Love

Sometimes we are unaware how self-centered we are, or how whining and fault-finding.  Sometimes we want to show more love for people close to us, but are too shy or restrained  to do so. 

Love without words:  if you are inarticulate when it comes to open expression of affection, try loving with your eyes.  Don’t be impersonal like the mother who is so busy with her household tasks that she gives orders and rebukes without turning from the stove.

Touch:  Simple touch can quiet the rebellious words of a child, bring a feeling of warmth to an elderly person, and cool the anger between brother and sister.  One father fund that communication with his son improved when he put his hand on the boy’s shoulder.  A mother learned that something extra flowed between her and her daughter when she held the girl’s hand in her own.  But the use of touch much be done with sensitivity and sincerity.

Saying the words:  The language of love is vital, though many people dislike trite expressions.  “I love you” is a cliché, but nothing better expresses deep caring.  If the words stick in your throat, go off by yourself and practice.  Sounds silly, perhaps, but no one hesitates to practice for a speech.  Is a talk to the PTA more important than communication love to a mate, a child or parents?

Doing the unexpected:  Some people approach the sending of greeting cards in such a machine-like manner that these so-called “mementos of love” could handle by a secretary.  Aren’t there more creative ways to show love—a single red rose brought home to a wife, a telephone call from a son at college not on Mother’s Day?

Knowing the real source:  If you worry about having too little love to give, pray about it, draw as close to God as you can.  “We love Him because He first loved us,” said John. (I John 4:19)  Think about this.  Truly, His love is so abundant that it can fill you and flow through you to others.- E.St.J. …”Daily Guideposts”.

Love as Absolute

Love with a capital L: That’s the Great Love, love as the source of everything, love as radical unity.  At this level, love is another name for Absolute Reality.  Supreme Consciousness, Brahman, God the Tao, the Source—that vast presence the Shaivite tradition sometimes calls the Heat.  The yoga tradition often describes Absolute Reality as satchidamanda—meaning that it is pure beingness, present everywhere and in everything (sat), that is innately conscious (chit), and that it the essence of joy and love (ananda).

 

As ananda, the Great Love is woven into the fabric of the universe, which of course also puts it at the center of our own being.  Most of us get glimpses of the Great Love at some time in our lives—perhaps in  nature, or with an intimate partner, or in the moment of bonding with our children.  We remember these experiences for year afterward, often for the rest of our lives.

 

It happened like that for me one November evening in 1970.  He was sitting  with a friend in the living room, listening to a Grateful Dead Album, when without warning, an overwhelming experience of joy welled up in him.  The state sprang up seemingly out of nowhere, a sensation of tenderness and ecstasy that seemed to ooze out of the walls and the air, carrying with it a sense that everything was a part of him.

 

This experience inspired a burning desire to get back to it and ultimately became the motive for my spiritual practice.  At the time, however, I did what most of us do when we get a glimpse of unconditional tenderness:  I projected my inner experience onto the person I happened to be with and decided (rather disastrously; as it turned out)  that he was the love of my life and the mate of my soul.

Caring without clinging – 2

As I rolled out my yoga mat and surrendered into a forward bend, I tuned in to the tides of love and worry surging through me:  the ferocious mother-bear longing for my child to be forever protected from fear and sorrow and rejection and the humiliation of big kids pushing him off the slide; my yearning to make the magic set of decisions that would ensure his happiness forever.  But as I smoothed out my ragged equanimity, I remembered that all I could do in this situation was give my very best.  I could love Shivam, nurture him, protect him, make the best choices I could for him.  But I could not control the unfolding of his life.

 

As life challenges go, of course, sending a child to preschool is rather minuscule.  Shivam and I were facing just a few hours of separation anxiety, not one of the infinite horrors that can strike anyone at any moment.  When it comes to equanimity, I’m still using training wheels.

 

But it’s through such small moments that we train our capacity for letting go—and begin to come to term with the fact that in the end, we can’t control anything but the intention we bring to our actions.

 

This is not a particularly cuddly insight.  It’s not comforting like a warm blanket; it feels more like a free fall off a cliff.  But when we open up to the terrifying truth that we can’t manipulate much of any experience worth having, we also open up to the incredible beauty and preciousness of every fragile, uncontrollable moment.  All of our fantasized security is revealed to be an illusion, but in the midst of the free fall into emptiness, it’s possible to be at peace.