Life 42 (Feb 22 - May 22)

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Finding Another Side of Life

When we are in a spiritual community, perfect or not, we see ourselves more clearly.

We see the depth of our pain and rage, while bowing or offering incense and flowers.

We move so slowly that what is in our bodies cannot be overlooked.

Over time, you begin to see another side of yourself, another side of life.

- Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, “A Glimpse of the Unseen”

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Appreciate Your Failures

The small failures of yesterday, are your best protection against the major crashes of tomorrow.

- Fabrice Desmarescaux, “The Power of Not-Knowing”

[winston]

Why is it important to yearn and what should we yearn for?

There are two types of people: one set on accusing themselves as sinners and others flattering themselves as great.

Both types worry because of their own mental aberrations!

What they both need is mental satisfaction; this can be obtained by meditation.

Through meditation, understanding will increase and wisdom will grow. For this, a person should develop an interest in and a taste for meditation, that is, a yearning that admits of no other step and that won’t tolerate any obstacle.

Of course, one may yearn to hear music and derive joy therefrom, or see bodies of close relatives who died and derive sorrow!

Yearning may have pleasant or unpleasant consequences! Yearning must have the strength to inspire endeavour.

In fact, yearning is but dormant endeavour, and endeavour is yearning in action.

When yearning is weak, endeavour declines; when one is strong, the other is also active!

- Dhyana Vahini, Ch 3.

First, yearning, then selection of goal, then concentration, and through the discipline,
conquest of the mind — that is the objective of meditation.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

The Power of Pausing

Pausing helps us become a detached observer of our emotions and reframe the situation.

When our habits and preconceptions no longer guide us, we can make room to consider a situation from multiple angles and make better and more compassionate decisions.

- Grace Song, “The Power of Mindful Journaling”

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What is the true nature of the Inner-Self and what causes ignorance?

Living implies the operation in the individual of the life principle, that activates all beings.

The attributeless Divine assumes certain qualities as Its nature and becomes possessed with good qualities.

The individual thus formed ,seeks to know and experience the variety of names and forms that are exposed to Its senses of perception and its mind. This is, in short, the process of living, the project of "knowing", of expanding one's awareness.

The process has a beginning and an end, it involves success and failure, good and evil.

"I am Jivi, a live individual", "I am a spark of Consciousness", "I am embodied Atma" - declarations such as these do not reveal the complete knowledge of the life principle.

The Jivi is Divine Consciousness in Its entirety, installed in a chariot. It is not a bundle of inert stuff moulded into a form and labelled with a name.

There is only One all-pervading Consciousness but man experiences It in fragments and, mistaking It as many, he gropes in the confusion caused by his own ignorance.

- Divine Discourse, Mar 22, 1985.

Ride safe on the raging waters of worldly life; be a witness, do not crave for the fruits of action, leave the consequences of all acts to His Will.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Learning the Dance of Compassion

Letting go of incessantly measuring and comparing ourselves to others leads to spontaneous acts of courage and compassion.

It’s like learning a dance step well enough that we no longer need to keep looking down at our feet.

Eventually we feel the music and the movement and that’s enough to be perfectly in tune with our partner and right on the beat.

- Gaylon Ferguson, “Natural Bravery”

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What is the real success we must achieve in our thought process?

Those who do not give up the path of discrimination receive the grace of the Divine and they also realise the Atma (Inner-Self).

They will always be seeking the eternal truth that lies behind the dream-like illusions of this world.

Control the senses which run helter-skelter; then, origins of diseases will be destroyed.

Let the mind keep a watch over its gymnastics; dam up the mad flood of thoughts, plans and schemes; then there will be no room for worries and anxieties in the mind.

To diminish the wanderings of your thoughts, repeat the name of the Divine; that will keep out your sorrows and troubles.

Without the effacement of the mind, spiritual wisdom cannot dawn. The full person is one who has succeeded in this.

The spiritual aspirant must first learn the secret of the “inward sight”, the “vision directed inward”, and take the attention away from the exterior.

- Dhyana Vahini, Ch 3.

Thoughts of the Divine, contemplation of Him, grace of Him – these alone
can confer the purity we need.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Settling the Snow Globe Mind

Learning to drop what we’re doing, however momentarily, and to genuinely pay attention in the present moment, without attachment or bias, helps us become clear, just as a snow globe becomes clear when we stop shaking it and its flakes settle.

- Surya Das, “The Heart-Essence of Buddhist Meditation”

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What is the one affliction we must try and get rid of from our life and what must we do for that?

If there is a boil on the body, we put some ointment on it and cover it with a bandage until the whole thing heals.

If you do not apply the ointment and tie the bandage around this boil, it is likely to become septic and cause great harm later on.

Now and then we will have to clean it with pure water, apply the ointment again and put on a new bandage.

In the same way, in our life, there is this particular boil which has come up in our body in the form of 'I', 'I', 'I'.

If you want to really cure this boil of 'I', you will have to wash it every day with the waters of love, apply the ointment of faith on it and tie the bandage of humility around it.

The bandage of humility, the ointment of faith, and the waters of love will be able to cure this disease that has erupted with this boil of 'I’.

- Divine Discourse, Feb 17, 1985.

The Divine in him can manifest only when the dark forces of 'mine' and 'I' are rendered ineffective.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

No Mud, No Lotus

If you know how to make good use of the mud, you can grow beautiful lotuses.

If you know how to make good use of suffering, you can produce happiness.

We need some suffering to make happiness possible.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, “Thich Nhat Hanh on Transforming Suffering”