Life 34 (Sept 19 - Jan 20)

[winston]

What is the surest way to win Grace?

Just as you prescribe minimum qualifications for every profession, the minimum qualification for Grace is surrender of egoism, control over senses and regulated food and recreation.

An individual is made or marred by the company one keeps. A bad natured individual who falls into good company is able to shed their evil quickly and shine forth in virtue.

However, a good individual falling into evil company is overcome by the subtle influence and slides down into evil. The lesser is overpowered by the greater.

A drop of sour curd transforms milk by curdling it, separating the butter and turning it into whey.

Sacred books are equally valuable for this transmuting process, but it is not enough if you merely read, memorise or recite them. They must be understood, reflected upon, and the lessons learnt or inferred must be applied into daily practice.

- Divine Discourse, Sep 27, 1965.

Constant reflection on the glory of the Divine helps to transmute the body, mind and spirit.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

In this age of information and communication, what is the one thing we tend to neglect?

People are becoming greedier to know about the lives of others. They want to escape from themselves by getting interested in others.

They do not want to worry about the details of their own life or the problems of their own or reflect to reform and rehabilitate themselves!

Of what benefit is all the burden of information that you seek to carry in your head, the knowledge of the various regions of the world, when you do not have knowledge of the region of your own self, which is truly the center of all the interest that you evince?

It is no good wandering all over the world, contacting people of various races and getting engrossed with earning and spending without being able to know your own identity!

Internalise and realise the fact that the tree of the human body finds fruition only when it yields love. That sweet gift is the reason why it grows and why it has to be fostered always!

- Divine Discourse, Aug 12, 1963.

Love is the seed of Love; it is also the branches, flowers and fruit. To enjoy the fruit,
you must practice Love incessantly.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

How to Navigate Conflict Compassionately

When we feel conflict with others, understanding their suffering is the first step in being able to communicate, forgive, and begin again.

— Michele McDonald, “Finding Patience”

[winston]

What is essential to be able to win true bliss and the sweet fruit of love?

As long as life persists, you will be caught up in heights and depths, good and bad, rights and wrongs.

Duality is inevitable. It is even necessary. However, to enjoy the sweet fruit of love, you must peel the rind of anger, malice, envy and greed. Use the bitterness in you to preserve and develop the sweetness within yourself.

From the experience of saints and sages, you can realise that the joy got from the external world is infinitesimal when compared with the bliss won through spiritual discipline.

To win that bliss, spiritual effort with detachment is essential.

To draw water from the earth through a bore, the bore-pipe must be free from air so that the water rises up. If air enters, the water will not rise.

So too, be sure that attachment to worldly things does not mar your spiritual efforts. Love will not well up if sensual pleasures and personal pride invade the mind!

- Divine Discourse, Aug 12, 1963.

To get angry is but the effort of a moment; but to get peace, to become unaffected by the ups and downs of life, is the result of years of training.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is essential to be able to win true bliss and the sweet fruit of love?

As long as life persists, you will be caught up in heights and depths, good and bad, rights and wrongs.

Duality is inevitable. It is even necessary. However, to enjoy the sweet fruit of love, you must peel the rind of anger, malice, envy and greed. Use the bitterness in you to preserve and develop the sweetness within yourself.

From the experience of saints and sages, you can realise that the joy got from the external world is infinitesimal when compared with the bliss won through spiritual discipline.

To win that bliss, spiritual effort with detachment is essential.

To draw water from the earth through a bore, the bore-pipe must be free from air so that the water rises up. If air enters, the water will not rise.

So too, be sure that attachment to worldly things does not mar your spiritual efforts. Love will not well up if sensual pleasures and personal pride invade the mind!

- Divine Discourse, Aug 12, 1963.

To get angry is but the effort of a moment; but to get peace, to become unaffected by the ups and downs of life, is the result of years of training.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

At times we get caught up, and feel bound and helpless. How do we recover from such weak moments in our daily living?

A person weeping because he has been bitten by a cobra in the dream, can be cured by just being woken up! No doctor is needed.

So too, when a spiritual aspirant, who was suffering from ignorance, was given spiritual knowledge, he recovered and did his duty.

The pain and the snake both disappear when the dreamer ‘wakes up’.

To open a door, you must turn the key to the right! Similarly you must turn inward to the Divine and righteousness, then the lock of your heart will open and the chain of bondage will fall away.
Turn the key to the left, and you will become bound as the door will get locked!

For this spiritual awakening, the prime need is faith in the Divine and faith in oneself!

You can move mountains if only you conquer your mind! Curb your senses and use your instruments in useful channels; that will result in joy for you and others.

- Divine Discourse, Aug 12, 1963.

Unwavering faith is the sign of spiritual success.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Where to Find Realization

Our inherent nature is pure.

All we have to do is rediscover who we really are, and that’s what the path is for.

It’s very simple. It’s not based on faith, but rather on experiments and experience leading to realization.

—Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, “Necessary Doubt”

[winston]

At times we feel the Divine is very far from us and is not listening to us. At times we experience His sweetness and are overwhelmed by it? Why do we feel so?

Tests are evidences of grace rather than of anger. The terrible aspect of the Divine, is not terrible in essence.

He is described as sweetness Itself. How can sweetness ever become bitter?

The Divine is like a spotlessly clean mirror; you see in it your own reflection. When you have terror-striking propensities, the reflection you see strikes terror into you. When you have soft harmless propensities, the reflection will be tender and soft.

Do not cast blame Him as most people do. When everything goes right, you say that He is very close to you; when something goes wrong, you say that He has deserted you and gone afar!

He never moves far or near. The distance from Him to you is the exact same distance from you to Him.

He is everywhere. He is always in your heart. Recognise Him there; realise Him as closest and nearest to you. He is your own Self, neither terrible nor tender, but simply 'is'.

- Divine Discourse, May 30, 1974.

You must welcome tests because it gives you confidence and ensures promotion.

Source: radiosai.org

[behappyalways]

Former DJ Dongfang Billy changed blood type from A to O after battling leukaemia twice
https://mothership.sg/2019/11/dongfang- ... interview/

[winston]

Discover What Rests Beyond Craving

We chase after theillusory happiness of sense pleasuresbut unless we start paying attention to the drawbacks, we’re just living in the forward momentum of craving, without ever coming to a place of completion, of contentment, of real peace.

—Joseph Goldstein, “Peeling Away the Promise of Desire”