
“The Wizard of Oz”: Dorothy, Toto the dog, the
Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Lion on the
yellow brick road to Emerald City
Responsibility
The world is a stage and we are all actors. Each
actor plays a unique part and is responsible for
his/her own actions. Responsibility means doing
the right thing no matter how big or small the
task may be. Each one of us has a special role
to play in the making the world a better place.
Being Yourself
How fast can life become? How much can we do in
the corporeal amount
of time we have? There are only 24 hours in the
day, but we're trying
to fit 26 hours into it. If we could watch a
movie of our average day
we'd probably be amazed at all the things we try
to do. And then there
is the exact opposite. Some of us spend our
lives watching others
doing and achieving, and from these images we
build such high
expectations of our own life, and then sit
around feeling utterly
powerless in our attempts to meet these
expectations. That
powerlessness becomes hopelessness and
hopelessness becomes
depression. If we can just see this process and
release these
expectations, if we can at least be detached
from any expectations, we
will get back some of our inner power and self
motivation. It helps to
stop watching others and their lifestyles,
especially in the media,
and then comparing yourself to them. It helps to
eliminate all but one
'I wish' from your mind. There is only one valid
and useful 'I wish'
and it is simply "I wish to be me". For, that is
all you can ever be.
It is all you can ever have. It is all that you
are. And when you know
it, you will be free of all expectation and
desire, and able to enter
the most relaxed state of being, at will.
Going
Beyond
If the quality of my thoughts can
influence my physical health, the atmosphere
around me and my relationships, it will
definitely affect my relationship with God.
Unlike physics in which dissimilar forces
(positive and negative) attract each other, the
basic principle of spirituality is that similar
forces attract each other. If my mind is
caught up in cycles of negativity, the
dissimilarity between me and God will create
distance between me and Him. With the
awareness of being a soul, a being of spiritual
energy, spiritual light, I begin to have a
certain amount of mastery over my own thoughts
and their quality. Also, the process of
finishing negativity is accelerated. Just
stepping away from the limited consciousness of
the body and bodily connections (not leaving
them) stops negative thinking in the same way as
by just putting a switch on, a light is turned
on and darkness finishes. If explorers had
never ventured beyond their home countries, they
would have remained firm in the belief that the
rest of the world simply didn't exist. In the
same way, if I allow myself to stay only
within the physical and limited sphere of
thinking, then I would declare that there is
nothing beyond. It is when I make the effort
to go outside the boundaries of my previous
thinking, that I have the chance of discovering
more. The quest for a source of love, truth and
beauty - the Supreme eventually brings me to the
necessity of looking beyond not only my own
body, but also other human beings and matter
itself. Through the practice of seeing the
self as an eternal soul and disciplining my mind
I create the possibility of discovering the
existence and nature of God and having a deep
relationship with that One.
Soul
Sustenance
Discovering Inner Compassion (Kindness) –Part 3
When we try to describe compassion, it is worth
looking at the words sympathy, empathy and interpathy.
Showing sympathy towards another person's
suffering is acknowledging their suffering, for
example, 'I am sorry that you have hurt
yourself'. We recognize that they are injured or
ill without really engaging at a feeling level.
Empathy is when we literally share a
feeling with someone, we walk in their shoes,
for example, 'I feel really upset that you are
so depressed about losing your job'. This can
bring great comfort to the person we are
empathizing with, but the comfort to them can be
at our expense and leave us feeling emotionally
drained or sad. If we identify too closely with
them, it can also make it difficult for us to
help them.
An expansion of empathy is a word called interpathy where
we relate to another's suffering although we may
not understand why they are suffering. This may
be because they are from a different culture or
because their feelings may seem inappropriate
given the situation, but we are curious, we try
to understand.
Compassion is all these words — sympathy,
empathy, interpathy - yet it is more and it
is less. We acknowledge someone’s sorrow, we
sense how they feel, we try to understand how it
affects them, yet with compassion we do not
become emotionally involved. We are engaged yet
detached. We are standing back and looking on
with kindness. By showing compassion in this
way, it allows us to be compassionate without
suffering from compassion fatigue or emotional
burnout.
Message
for the day
To change
means to experience progress.
Expression:
Whenever there is a desire to
bring about a change, there is also a
simultaneous intense feeling to find a change
instantly - and fully. Yet this does not always
happen. However, true change is that in which
there is at least a little change. When there is
constant effort put in to be better and to do
better, then naturally the best results are
visible, even if there is not perfection seen
overnight.
Experience:
When I bring about a change
constantly, in whatever little way I can, I am
able to experience constant progress. I do not
have great expectations, but will be satisfied
with the little changes that I make and will
have the confidence to go on putting in effort.
Even with the little results that I attain I
will be able to take encouragement constantly. I
am thus able to move on towards perfection.