03.04.2014

Virtues and Specialties
If I listen to even the
slightest defamation of anyone, I lose some
spirituality. I lose some value if I start interacting
on the basis of what I have heard about them. Let me see
only virtues and specialties.
Experiencing A
Spiritual Lifestyle Without Renouncing Society
A good mediator is one who has a
mental link or union with the internal self and the
Supreme Soul or God who is the source of all goodness.
This, along with an understanding of the laws of action
or the laws of karma, which govern the behavior of
souls, means that one does not have to renounce or leave
society in order to achieve enlightenment. Rather, the
soul filled with spiritual illumination faces society
directly with understanding and the generosity to serve
it and to elevate (improve) it.
The soul becomes elevated not by the renunciation of
responsibilities or worldly duties but by a renunciation
of the negativity that exists within the role being
played by it in society. A good mediator does not try to
escape social obligations (duties) but rather purifies
those duties by becoming filled with light, love, peace
and happiness. The stage of self-awareness and
God-communication injects a subtle richness into one's
life-patterns.
There are those who believe that the elevated state is
beyond society and its duties. They find a quiet spot in
the jungle or an ashram and contemplate (think about)
deeper things. There are others who are stuck in the
quicksand of their problems, and believe that those who
leave society and take up a spiritual lifestyle are
saints. However, holiness and virtue are qualities
attained in one's life situations, not in running away
from them. The elevated state is not merely a matter of
elevated thoughts (which can be experienced in a sanyas),
but elevated actions also, for the benefit of the self
and the world. We are what we do and not so much what we
imagine ourselves to be.
Soul Sustenance
Overcoming Fears Connected With Negative Past Experiences
Some of our fears arise due to the situations we have
lived through; for example, if you are driving a car and
you have an accident. Then you take some time to drive
again, because the memory of the accident awakens the
fear of having another one or reliving the one you had.
The person that has never had a car accident gets in the
car with confidence, because they do not have that scene
recorded, since they haven't lived through it.
There are fears that we carry within us that are not of
the present. Something happened to us in the dark and we
are now afraid of the dark. Fears in relationships: you
opened your heart, you fell in love and, after a time,
you experienced pain, you felt hurt, misunderstood,
manipulated, deceived or mistreated, and now you no
longer open your heart for anything; it is closed off
with the shields that you yourself have created. To
overcome this kind of fear due to experiences you have
lived through, you have to come to terms with your past
and accept it fully. You cannot change your past;
lamenting the past doesn't help you; complaining about
the past doesn't benefit you. Those shields brought
about by fears do not disappear unless you do a deep
cleansing. Begin to heal your experience of the past.
Part of the past is healed with forgiveness. Without
forgiving, you cannot forget.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
Message for the day
To be free from
bondage means to be able to fly.
Projection:
Sometimes we find that we are not
able to progress as much as we should. We also find that
we are not able to be light in all circumstances. At
such times we might blame the situation and just stop
making effort, as we cannot see the real cause for our
lack of progress.
Solution:
We
need to understand that the lack of progress that we are
experiencing is not because of the situation itself but
because of our own weakness that is like a bondage. When
we recognise this fact, we will be able to know the
right method to overcome our own weakness so that we
will then be able to fly forward.
'To-do list'
When the mind is idle it may wander
from one thought to another. If you want to stop your
mind thinking unnecessarily, think useful and
constructive thoughts. You're thinking anyway, so you
may as well keep the mind busy with the right thoughts.
Make a schedule for your mind. Just like a 'to-do list',
create a 'to-think list'!