Surrender Gracefully We are surrounded by graceful surrender. The geese surrender to the first autumn chills, and think of flying south. The flower surrenders to the night and shuts up shop as the setting sun surrenders to the horizon of another day. A mother surrenders to the needs of her baby, and the child surrenders to the wisdom of the father. These kinds of surrender are sweet and natural. They are graceful movements in a dance to the subtle symphony of life. While we may find moments to surrender to such grace and beauty, if we are not careful, we also tend to allow ourselves to surrender to our appetites, to envy, to greed and then to self centred lifestyles in which we serve only ourselves. No grace there - only the disgrace of self-inflicted slavery. Whatever we surrender our minds to, will eventually shape our character and define the quality of our life. Be careful what you surrender your mind to, even if it's only for a day, or an hour. God “God”. It is a loaded word which, for many people seems incomprehensible. This is unfortunate because there are so many personal experiences of direct encounters with the One who is the purest source of truth and love. If we attempt, as some do, to make our approach to the Source easier by making it an impersonal one, we deny ourselves the essential richness and nourishment of a personal relationship. When the meditator practices meditation with purely spiritual intentions they are aiming to enhance their own level of enlightenment and create a state of being that is open to receiving directly the light and love of the spiritual parent whom we all share. Contrary to some popular beliefs it does not take many lifetimes to master. However, it is an extremely personal and spiritually intimate relationship where the energy of God is directly felt. Controlling Your Emotions There are five essential steps to emotional control and mastery. Although the complete process will finally happen in a few seconds in real life, it is essential for our learning to break it down and see what is required at every step. Step One - Awareness This simply means being aware of the emergence of the subtlest (finest) of emotions, which, if left unchecked, will grow into important disturbances. For example irritation leads to frustration leads to anger leads to rage. Step Two - Acknowledge Which means taking responsibility for the emotion by understanding and acknowledging that I am the creator of the emotion, not someone or something else. Step three - Acceptance Fully accept the presence of the emotion without resisting (opposing) it in any way. If it is resisted it simply becomes stronger, or is suppressed for another day. Step Four - Ascend This is the moment of full detachment from both the emotion and the inner source of emotion. In the process of detached observation the emotion is losing its power. And it is only through detached observation that the emotion will begin to dissolve. Step Five - Attune This means returning our attention to the very centre of ourselves where our inner peace and power are to be found. This is the purpose of meditation. Soul Sustenance Identify The Filters In Your Life Like different types and different colour filters on a physical level; on a spiritual level, there are many different types of filters that work in our lives e.g. the jealousy filter, hatred filter, attachment filter, fear filter, greed filter, etc. and many more. Due to these filters, we do not see people and things as they are, but as we are, because the filters are our own self-created ones. If we want to see people and things as they are, we need to check which filters are working most in our lives. Each one of us has different filters working to different extents, depending on our personality e.g. someone might have the jealousy filter working more regularly as compared to the fear filter in his/her life. Because of these filters, everything that we see is not only coloured by the colour of the filter we are using at that time, but our look is also biased as we choose what to see, what to give more importance, what to be affected by more, what to let through the filter etc. and what not to. We have and form a deceptive vision of the things and people that surround us inside our minds. And the longer this deformed vision lasts, the more we will convince ourself that that is the true image of the world, because our filters continue to process new data depending on what they see that make the image stronger. This reinforcing of the incorrect image builds up our database of incorrect beliefs based on different filters and makes them stronger and stronger as we go through our life journey. Beliefs are fixed ways of looking at reality. Thus, the world that we perceive is no longer the real world, but a world created by our own mind. So in a way we become deaf and blind on a spiritual level towards the world. To heal this deafness and blindness, we do not have to remove each filter one after the other, which may become a difficult task; but we have to discover the pure, original internal self and start seeing everything without the filters, based on the pure-self point of view. As a result of that, gradually our incorrect beliefs start dissolving and correct beliefs start setting in based on our clean unfiltered view. Message for the day To be free is to be free even from the bondage of things. Expression: The one who is dependent on the presence of a particular thing to succeed in a task is also under the bondage of that thing. Such a person will not be able to put in effort to his full capability since he is always thinking of what is lacking. On the other hand the one who tries to find a way to do the task at hand even when there is nothing available is the one who finds new resources. He is then able to use these resources too for accomplishing the task. Experience: When I am thinking more about what is to be done rather than thinking about what is lacking, I am able to be content with what I have. I am able to appreciate every small thing that is present in my life that I could use for my own benefit and that of others. I am able to work for what I want to achieve without being caught up only with the desires.