Life 37 (Sep 20 - Dec 20)

[winston]

Moving Beyond a Habitual Mind

Any spiritual path should provide us with an understanding that gradually leads us beyond habitual, reactive mind so that we can engage in our life with intelligence and openness.

—Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “Open Stillness”

[winston]

How can we become true Devotees?

Your virtue, self-control, detachment, faith, steadfastness — these are the signs.

In this world, people estimate others indirectly rather than directly.

Such devotees are very rare.

You can lay claim to that title only when you have placed yourself in His hands, completely, with no trace of ego kept back to cater to your vanity.

All ills are traceable to faulty living. And what is that traceable to? To ignorance of one’s real nature, ignorance so deep-rooted that it affects thoughts, words, and deeds.

The drug that can cure it is patented under different names: spiritual wisdom, action (karma), contemplation and devotion.

They are all the same in potency and curative power. The difference lies only in the method of administration either as mixture or as tablet or injection.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 25, 1963.

If you place complete faith in the Divine at all times, you will receive His Grace.

Source: radiosai.org

[behappyalways]

S'pore man shares experience of family life marked by poverty, bankruptcy & alcoholism
https://mothership.sg/2020/09/spore-fam ... ty-shawal/

[winston]

The Gifts of Being Present

Presence has no measurable product except positive feelings, feelings of support, intimacy, and happiness.

When we stop being busy and productive and switch to just being still and aware, we ourselves will also feel support, intimacy, and happiness, even if no one else is around.

—Jan Chozen Bays, “The Gift of Waiting”

[winston]

What is the easier path to become happy and content?

To be happy, one of two things must happen:
1. All your desires must be fulfilled or
2. You should not have any desire.

Of these, the reduction of desire is the easier path.

Take the troubles that come to you as tests and opportunities to learn non-attachment.

The hot summer sends you to air-conditioning.

Grief sends you to the Divine.

When a child dies, ask yourself the question, “Is it for my sake that the child was born?”. The child had their own destiny to fulfil, their own history to work out.

Gauthama Buddha’s father was so overcome with grief when he saw his son with a begging bowl in the street that he told him thus: “Every one of my ancestors was a king: what misfortune is this that a beggar was born in this line?”

Buddha replied, “Every one of my ancestors had a beggar’s bowl; I know of no king in my line.”

The father and the son walked different paths, traveled along divergent routes.

- Divine Discourse, Nov 26, 1962.

Desire ceases,when the Divine seizes the mind.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Expanding Your Heart

Instead of boxing in our hearts, loving only me, me, me—the smallest box—we must try to slowly expand that box till we’re able to love all humanity, all sentient beings.

—Interview with Nawang Khechog by Mark Matousek, “Elevated Music”

[winston]

What is that state of Divine-intoxication that the great devotees of Him experienced, that we all must strive to reach?

You call yourselves devotees, so I shall talk about the action of people who seek to acquire devotion.

No one can become a devotee by naming themself so, nor by others calling them so.

Devotion involves dedication, with nothing held back; not even a wisp of ego should remain.

His command alone counts; His will prevails.

Like a drunkard, the devotee has no sense of honour or decency, pride or conceit.

The devotee is a drunkard, a mad person, unconcerned with all that is unrelated to the ideal.

The devotee is deaf to the call of hunger and thirst, misses steps in logic, and calculates wrongly while dealing in the marketplace.

A Sage said that those full of the liquor of ignorance stumble after the shadows of the world, while those drunk with nectar of wisdom never move away from the Highest, which they have discovered as themselves.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 25, 1963.

Prayer alone makes life happy, harmonious and worth living in this universe.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little nameless, unencumbered acts of kindness and of love.

— Wordsworth

[winston]

Practicing Empathy

All things, we learn, are ourselves.

Thus, practice necessarily leads to empathy.

—Charles Johnson, “A Sangha by Another Name”

[winston]

Use Compassion to Protect Yourself

Use compassion, not anger, to motivate you to protect yourself and [have] compassion toward the person who’s giving you the trouble.

Compassion rather than hate is what helps.

—Gelek Rinpoche, “What to Do When the Anger Gets Hot”