
Real Renunciation
On the path mapped
out by the true spiritual philosophers and
pioneers, there is great emphasis placed on the
idea and need for renunciation. It is seen as
the way to enlightenment, and freedom from the
attachments which we misuse as sources of
limited happiness and contentment. Renunciation
does not mean giving everything away, shaving
our heads, saying farewell to family and friends
and finding a Himalayan mountain top. It means
seeing our attachments and dependencies, our
weaknesses and our evasions, and consciously
giving them up. There is no sense of loss. The
material necessities still come to us,
paradoxically more will come. And when we
renounce our own weaknesses and dependencies,
there is always a strength and a new freedom to
be found hiding underneath. Renunciation is a
pathway to a simpler life and a highway to
spiritual freedom - one of spirit's deepest
yearnings in 'the age of accumulation'.
Change
To bring about a
change within is to bring about a change outside
too.
When there are challenging situations, the usual
way is to react to
them and expect them to change because of these
reactions. But the
only way to change these situations is to bring
about a change within
the self. When there is the ability to do this,
there is the ability
to use all the resources for this purpose. When
I have the commitment
to bring about a change within myself, I am able
to be confident and
courageous in all situations. There is neither
fear nor the desire
for things to change according to my wish. I am
willing to work on
the situation and change the situation.
Understanding What Is Time
We created the concept of time to measure our
experience of the space between events. Time
passes only because we experience change. What
is change? Change is only a series of events. So
time is our experience of the speed of events.
This explains why time seems to be moving faster
today, because both the speed and the number of
events are increasing. And it seems even faster
if we participate in those events. If the speed
and number of events was less, we would
experience time to be moving slowly, as it used
to be a little earlier in the history of
mankind.
Today, sitting in our living rooms and offices,
electronic, print and other media allows us to
observe hundreds of events from all over the
world, every day. To observe them actively is to
participate in them. If you want to slow time
down, learn to be a detached observer of the
thousands of events around you - participate or
observe actively only when necessary. If you
want to stop time, meditate and be in your
original, timeless, eternal consciousness.
Meditation is after all an art of shutting down
your senses and slowing down. Today, we fear
time, as a result we hear ourselves saying many
a times, * Hurry up, time is running out! or * I
hope to have more time tomorrow! or * I need to
save time! Ultimately time, is our life: it
cannot be saved or lost, but must be lived now.
This is where your will-power is important - we
can choose exactly how we spend our time at any
moment.
Soul Sustenance
At
Peace with Time - The Key To Relaxed Living
(Part 4)
You choose whether, each morning, you want to
get up and begin with watching television,
reading the newspaper over a cup of tea, or you
want to get up and meditate, listen to peaceful
music, read a couple of pages of spiritual
knowledge that inspire you and you begin the day
with enthusiasm and by visualizing it
positively: today will be a marvelous day, I
shall enjoy it … yes!! Such meditative and
spiritual practice will give you a feel of time
being elastic. In such a consciousness, a minute
will seem eternal i.e. time can seem to come to
a standstill (if I am surrounded by a positive
set of circumstances which are spiritually
uplifting) or can seem an instant, i.e. I get a
feeling of time passing very fast (if in a
negative set of circumstances). Thus, I learn to
be a creator of time; living in time without
being a slave to it. True freedom lies in being
content now. You can be content in the present
moment by resolving the inner dialogue that
generates stress and conflict in you. When you
are content, enjoying yourself and having a good
time, you don't realize how time passes. This
means that, if we lived in a state of constant
happiness, we wouldn't realize how time passes.
Time would be at our service. We would be the
rulers and controllers of time and not the other
way round.
Message for the
day
To perceive the
need to change is to bring about change for the
better.
Expression:
When something goes wrong,
there is generally a feeling of being right.
There is always a desire expressed to change the
situation or the person. So there is no
introspection, but only blame. Such words
discourage others too as they are constantly
made aware of their negativity.
Experience:
When I am able to understand
the importance of bringing about change for the
better in every situation that I am faced with,
I am able to recognize the message that the
situation gives me. I am able to use the
situation to better myself and gradually
progress towards the vision of perfection that I
have for myself.