On God & the Purpose of Life by Somerset Maugham

“I couldn’t believe in a God who wasn’t better than the ordinary decent man. The monks told me that God had created the world for his glorification. That didn’t seem to me a very worthy object. Did Beethoven create his symphonies for his glorification? I don’t believe it. I believe he created them because the music in his soul demanded expression & then all he tried to do was to make them perfect as he knew how”.

“I used to listen to the monks repeating the Lord’s Prayer; I wondered how they could continue to pray without misgiving to their heavenly father to give them their daily bread. Do children beseech their earthly father to give them sustenance? They expect him to do it, they neither feel nor need to feel gratitude to him for doing it, & we have only to blame for a man who brings children into the world that he can’t or won’t provide for. It seems to me that if an omnipotent creator was not prepared to provide his creatures with the necessities of existence, material and spiritual, he’d have done better not to create them”.

“It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights”

“But that wasn’t the chief thing that bothered me; I couldn’t reconcile myself with that preoccupation with sin which, so far as I could tell, was never entirely absent from monks’ thoughts. For the most part, I think, that generally the badness in people was due to heredity, which they could not help, or their environment, which they didn’t choose; I’m not sure that society wasn’t more responsible for their crimes than they were. If I‘d been God I couldn’t have brought myself to condemn one of them, not even the worst, to eternal damnation. The reverend Father preaching in the church was broad-minded; he thought that hell was the deprivation of God’s presence, but if that is such an intolerable punishment that can justly be called hell, can one conceive that a good God can inflict it? After all He created men; if He so created them that it was possible for them to sin, it was because He willed it. If I trained a dog to fly at the throat of any stranger who came into my backyard, it wouldn’t be fair to beat him when he did so”.

If an all-good & all-powerful God created the world, why did he create evil? The monk said, so that the man by conquering the wickedness in him, by resisting temptation, by accepting pain, sorrow & misfortune as the trials sent by the God to purify him, might at long last be made worthy to receive His grace. It seemed to me like sending a fellow with a message to some place & just to make it harder for him you construct a maze that he had to go through, then dug a moat that he had to swim, and finally build a wall that he had to scale. I wasn’t prepared to believe in an all-wise God who hadn’t common sense. I didn’t see why you shouldn’t believe in a God who hadn’t created the world, but had to make the best of the bad job he’d found, a being enormously better, wise, and greater than man, who strove with the evil he hadn’t made & who you hoped might in the end overcome it. But on the other hand, I didn’t see why you should.

The good fathers & priests had no answers that satisfied either my head or my heart to the question that perplexed me.

“I found that the Hindus believed not halfheartedly, not with reservation or uneasy doubt, but with every fiber of their being. I never got over the wonder of it. The Hindus believe that the Universe has no beginning & no end, but passes everlastingly from growth to equilibrium, from equilibrium to decline, from decline to dissolution, from dissolution to growth, & so on to all eternity”!

And what does the Hindu think is the object of this recurrence?

The Hindus believe that such is the nature of the Absolute. They say that the purpose of creation is to serve as a stage for punishment or reward of the deeds of the soul’s earlier existence. The soul passes from body to body in an endless course of experience occasioned by merit or demerit of previous works! This belief in transmigration of souls has a very practical effect on the lives of those who believe it! After all that is the test.

What is the journey to ones goal? Liberation from the bondage of rebirth. According to the Vedantists the self, which they call the atman & we call the soul, is distinct from the body & its senses, distinct from the mind & its intelligence; it is not part of Absolute, for Absolute, being infinite, can have no part, but the Absolute itself. It is uncreated; it has existed from eternity & when at last it has cast off the seven veils of ignorance will return to the infinitude from which it came. It is like a drop of water that has arisen from the sea & in a shower has fallen into a puddle, then drifts into a brook, finds its way into stream, after that into a river, passing through mountain gorges & wide plains, winding this way & that, obstructed by rocks & fallen trees, till it reaches the boundless sea from which it rose.

But poor little drop of water, when it has once more become one with the sea, has surely lost its individuality.

“Yes! You want to taste sugar; you don’t want to become sugar. What is individuality but the expression of our Egoism? Until the soul has shed the last traces of that it cannot become one with the Absolute”. 

What does Absolute actually signify?

“Reality! You can’t say what it is; you can only say what it isn’t. It’s inexpressible. The Indians call it Brahman. It’s nowhere & everywhere. All things imply & depend upon it. It’s not a person, it’s not a thing, and it’s not a cause. It has no qualities. It transcends permanence and change; whole and part; finite and infinite. It is eternal because its completeness & perfection are unrelated to time. It is truth & freedom”.

But how can a purely intellectual conception be a solace to the suffering human race? Men have always wanted a personal God to whom they can turn in distress for comfort & encouragement.

It may be that at some far distant day greater insight will show them that they must look for comfort & encouragement in their own souls. I think that the need to worship is no more than the survival of an old remembrance of cruel gods that had to be propitiated. I believe that the God is within me or nowhere. If that’s so whom or what am I to worship – myself? Men are on different levels of development, & so the imagination of India has evolved the manifestation of the Absolute that are known as Brahma, Vishnu, & Mahesh & by hundred other names. The Absolute is Isvara, the creator, & ruler of the world & it is in the humble fetish before which the peasant in his sun-baked field places the offering of a flower. The multitudinous gods of India are but expedients to lead to the realization that the self is one with the supreme itself.

Is it not just austere faith?

“Not at all! I’ve always felt that there was something pathetic in founders of other religions who made condition of salvation that you should believe in them. It’s as though they needed your faith to have faith in themselves. They remind you of the old pagan gods who grew ineffective & weak if they were not sustained by the burnt offerings of the devout”.

Advaita doesn’t ask you to take anything on trust; it asks only that you should have a passionate craving to know Reality; it states that you can experience God as surely as you can experience joy or pain.

“I found something wonderfully satisfying in the notion that you can attain Reality by knowledge. They recognize that the true path to salvation is won by the way of love & the way of works called the Karma. But it is never denied that the noblest way, though the hardest, is the way of knowledge, for its instrument is the most precious faculty of man, his reason.

According to Hindu religion they teach that man is greater than they know & that wisdom is the means to freedom. India has taught that it is not essential to retire from the world for achieving salvation, but to only renounce the self. Work done with no selfish interest purifies the mind & that duties are opportunities afforded to man to sink the separate self & become one with the universal self”.

“I went up to the forest retreat in the evening & got up before dawn. I climbed to the spot from where you could see the sunrise & the valley below. I waited. It was night still, but the stars were pale in the sky, & day was at hand. I had a strange feeling of suspense. So gradually that I was hardly aware of it, light began to filter through the darkness, slowly, like a mysterious figure slinking between the trees. I felt my heart beating as though at the approach of the danger. The sight that was displayed before me was simply grand as the day broke in its splendour. The sun rose. Those mountains with their deep jungle, the mist still entangled in the tree tops, the bottomless lake far below me. The sun caught the lake through the cleft in the heights & shone like burning steel. I was ravished with beauty of the world. I’d never known such exaltation & such a transcendent joy. I had a strange sensation, a tingling that arose in my feet & traveled up to my head, & I felt as though I were suddenly released from my body & as pure spirit partook of loveliness. I had never conceived. I had a sense that knowledge more than human possessed me, so that everything that was confused was clear & everything that had perplexed me was explained. I was so happy that it was pain & I struggled to release myself from it, for I felt that if it lasted a moment longer I should die; & yet it was such rapture that I was ready to die rather that forgo it. No words can tell the ecstasy of my bliss”.

What makes you think that it was anything more than a hypnotic condition induced by your state of mind combined with solitude, the mystery of dawn, and the burnished steel of your lake?

“Only my overwhelming sense of reality! An experience of the mystics, it is impossible to deny the fact of its occurrence, the only difficulty is to explain it. As if for a moment I was one with the Absolute.

Does the idea of Absolute forces you to believe that the world & its beauty are merely an illusion --- the fabric of Maya.

It’s a mistake to think that the Indians look upon the world as an illusion; they don’t; all they claim is that it’s not real in the same sense as the Absolute. Maya is only a speculation devised by those ardent thinkers to explain how the Infinite could produce the Finite. Samkara, the wisest of them all, decided that it was an insoluble mystery. You see, the difficulty is to explain why Brahman, which is Being, Bliss, and intelligence, which is unalterable, which is ever and forever maintains itself in rest, which lacks nothing and needs nothing and so knows neither change nor strife, which is perfect, should create the world. Well, if you ask that question the answer you’re generally given is that the Absolute created the world in sport without reference to any purpose. But when you think of flood and famine, of earthquake and hurricane and all the ills that flesh is heir to, your moral sense is outraged at the idea that so much that is shocking can have been created in play. Saints of Indian look upon the world as the expression of the Absolute and as the overflow of its perfection. God cannot help creating and that the world is the manifestation of his nature. When I asked how, if the world was a manifestation of the nature of a perfect being, it should be so hateful that the only reasonable aim man can set before him is to liberate himself from its bondage, The saint answered that the satisfactions of the world are transitory and that only the Infinite gives enduring happiness. But endless duration makes good no better, nor white any whiter. If the rose at noon has lost the beauty it had at dawn, the beauty it had then was real. Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premises of our philosophy. We can none of us step into the same river twice, but the river flows on and the other river we step into is cool and refreshing too.

‘The Aryans when they first came down into India saw that the world we know is but an appearance of the world we know not; but they welcomed it as gracious and beautiful; it was only centuries later, when the exhaustion of conquest, when the debilitating climate had sapped their vitality so that they became a prey to invading hordes, that they saw only evil in life and craved for liberation from its return. But why should we of the West be daunted by decay and death, hunger and thirst, sickness, old age, grief, and delusion? The spirit of life is strong in us. In old age it is not for the man to leave the world and retire to a cloister, but to live in the world and love the objects of the world, not indeed for themselves, but for the Infinite that is in them. If in those moments of ecstasy I had indeed been one with the Absolute, them, if what they said was true, nothing could touch me and when I had worked out the Karma of my present life I should return no more. The thought filled me with dismay. I wanted to live again and again. I was willing to accept every sort of life, no matter what its pain and sorrow; I felt that only life after life, life after life could satisfy my eagerness, my vigour, and my curiosity’.

‘It may be that there is no solution or it may be that I’m not clever enough to find it. Ramakrishna looked upon the world as the sport of God. “It is like a game” he said. “In the game there are joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil. The same cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether eliminated from the creation.”

The best I can suggest is that when the Absolute manifested itself in the world evil was the natural correlation of good. You could never have had the stupendous beauty of the Himalayas without the unimaginable horror of a convulsion of the earth’s curst. The Chinese craftsman who makes a vase in what they call eggshell porcelain can give it a lovely shape, ornament it give it a perfect glaze, but from its very nature he can’t make it anything but fragile. If you drop it on the floor it will break into a dozen fragments. Isn’t it possible in the same way that the values we cherish in the world can only exist in combination with evil?’

Living needs ‘calmness, forbearance, compassion, selflessness, and continence.’

‘I should have thought that wisdom consisted in striking a balance between the claims of the body and the claims of the spirit’.

‘That is just what the Indians maintain that we in the West haven’t done. They think that we with our countless inventions, with our factories and machines and all they produce, have sought happiness in material things, but that happiness rests not in them, but in spiritual things. And they think the way we have chose leads to destruction.

Money is nothing to us; it’s merely the symbol of success. We are the greatest idealists in the world; I happen to think that we’ve set our ideal on the wrong objects; I happen to think that the greatest ideal man can set before himself is self-perfection. ‘Isn’t it worth while to try to live up to?

‘But can you for a moment imagine that you, one man, can have any effect on such a restless, busy, lawless, intensely individualistic people as the people of America? You might as well try to hold back the waters of the Mississippi with your bare hands.’

“I can try! It was one man who invented the wheel. It was one man who discovered the law of gravitation. Nothing that happens is without effect. If you throw a stone in a pond, the universe isn’t quite the same as it was before. It’s a mistake to think that those holy men of India lead useless lives. They are a shining light in the darkness. They represent an ideal that is refreshment to their fellows; the common man may never attain it, but they respect it and it affects their lives for good. When a man becomes pure and perfect the influence of his character spreads so that they who seek truth are naturally drawn to him. It may be that I lead the life I’ve planned for myself; it may affect others; the effect may be no greater than the ripple caused by a stone thrown in a pond, but one ripple causes another, and that one a third; it’s just possible that a few people will see that my way of life offers happiness and peace, and that they in their turn will teach what they have learnt to others”.

Extracts from ‘The Razor’s Edge’ by Somerset Maugham

Collected by Shriratan Daga

AND, WHAT HAVE I LEARNED SO FAR ... ??

So, this is it! We're coming to the end of another year and I have to be very honest with myself about how far my inner life has developed. One thing for sure is that I have not carried through with all my intentions for change outlined at the beginning of this year for one reason or the other. Life decided to do Her own thing and take me in other directions! Goddess Wisdom has dawned on me in areas where I least expected and that is really much to be grateful for. It now reinforces my belief that if I place everything in the hands of God, and follow the dictates of my heart, the Holy Spirit takes over and reinterprets it for me as God would have me do it. That's neat!

The last few years have been spent moving away consciously from the three dimensional interpretations of the scriptures, of old beliefs, of life, etc. It has been a big challenge for me because it started leaving me vulnerable and open which was very disconcerting for me as a human being. But then the road to my True Self  is not about refining the human aspect, its about rediscovering my spiritual one.

I remember when I first encountered the idea that my whole world is an illusion, it knocked the socks out of me. Whhaaattttt???? This information actually gave me no relief. It stunned me and it seemed so laughable that I thought God was really playing a cruel joke on us. I was terrified. I felt alone, scared and abandoned. Did God actually throw us to the wolves? At that time I was in a sea of confusion.  I knew I had to find my very own path, but I just did not know how to do it and this information was not helping me in any way. As much as I wanted to completely detach from formal religion, it also helped me to believe in something beyond me even if that Being was a so-called "punishing, jealous, judgmental God"!! It took many years to understand the truth of this statement (that the world is an illusion). And then the real journey started excavating all of 'me' and creating space for God to walk in.

Awakening happens differently for everyone. It begins to happen when you start the unraveling of yourself, when you begin to understand you are definitely not this body and mind and that you are much much vaster than you can ever imagine. It happens when you can begin to see the world from a place of Love, Oneness and Connectedness. For me it happens on a daily basis. Life is no more that soft, mushy, mushy thing. Life has opened my eyes wide open and made me see the Reality of Itself. My Awareness opens me up more and more and releases the untruths I have believed in for aeons. It also cuts through ancestral beliefs which has been passed down through generations. Wow! that is some cleaning to do.

I understand more clearly now why disasters and natural calamities take place. All of these happenings are a result of wrong beliefs and thoughts that have reached such proportions and magnitude at the  mass consciousness level, that an explosion and a bursting has to take place. Explosions are always lethal. Cyclones and storms cause mass destruction. Floods and killings cause tremendous suffering. THERE IS NO PUNISHING GOD doing any of this. This is the most childish and ignorant belief ever amongst humanity. God is NOT involved in making and causing suffering to anything or anyone. So, I have left God out of it. We are responsible. I am responsible. I have contributed through my own destructive thoughts to the mass destruction of life.  When we talk any other language other than Love, destruction has to happen. 

But destruction brings with it new beginnings. It breaks open hardened hearts of the common man and spurs him to tremendous acts of compassion, love, service and awakening. And if we are conscious enough, we can take this a huge step further: WE CAN BEGIN OUR OWN JOURNEY OF REMEMBRANCE, OUR OWN AWAKENING. 

Death brings new life always. When we mourn death it is simply because we have no idea about LIFE, about our own Divine Nature. Life is only about Spirit. Period. 

Armed with this understanding, I now look forward to new possibilities and new beginnings. I am grateful for every moment of my life. Life always happens for our own learning. Everyone you meet is only about that. Those are the only lessons. When you begin to understand this, you can't help loving them as God would have you love them: like yourself! It does not matter who comes and who goes in my life. What matters is that I keep myself hollow as much as possible to allow all events to pass through me without resistance and judgment. So, what have I learned so far? Life is not what you see. Life is beyond the seer and the seen. Not so philosophical when you get right into the heart of the matter. And most important, all of this stuff that you think you "see" is actually not happening in reality but only in your mind. And that is why no one else sees the world that you see, but only you. That is a revelation. 

And so it is. Namaste!

~ Lavina ~

This Is Who I Am

Well, I have started out writing this blog with an amazing photo quote from Bentinho Massaro that took my breath away!

Today, there was a blog posted on facebook which, once again, left me feeling so inspired by this young awakened Soul. He is talking to the mother of a young son who is a drug addict and his answer to her queries are simple, yet deeply profound. Definitely not the kind of answer the world would approve of.

"That the choices that he makes might actually be perfect for his journey. And that by taking away his catalyst, his pain, his suffering, his challenge, his struggle, his addiction, by taking that away for him against his free will, a few things will happen: You will postpone his eventual epiphany. You will make him use again, because he might stop at some point, but if it’s not out of total free will, it’s not permanent. Your giving off the vibe that something is wrong, not that everything is perfect. You will emphasize that, and therefore you will continue to exacerbate his struggle, even though you don’t want to. And by exacerbating this struggle, he’ll probably feel more addicted or grab for the things that he knows makes him feel different or good, in this case potentially heroin."  ~ Bentinho Massaro ~ / Source: http://www.choosehappythoughts.com/help-someone-struggling-with-addiction/

The reason this quote resonated with me so deeply is because this has become my level of thinking and it has given me a sense of peace and taken away the guilt that I was experiencing for such a long time. I stopped listening to the judgments, the comments, the labels, the blame, etc. etc. I started becoming immune. It was my way of forgiving myself and letting me nourish myself with my own Love. Isn't it all too often that we do not know what to do as "grown-ups"? 

Though I have been treading the spiritual path for so long, there are some deep rooted issues that still need healing and change. I spent my entire adult life trying to fix them in my mind and heart in the way I believed, which is through dialogue, but little has changed until I finally came to the realization that the deep karmic issues that take our whole life clearing are there for a very definite purpose - not as punishment, but as purification and that, we personally, do not have all the answers, most of which are unseen. It is not my job to take away all the pain another person is experiencing, just as it is not anyone else's job to take away mine. Infact, that pain, that wretchedness, the hole that seems like an endless pit, is there not to be filled up with worldly answers and things, but for God to enter and take over that space, identity and falseness completely. One can only be there to hold the person with one's own heart and spirit and allow the person to see in reality what the purpose of life is. Each Soul has to find his/her own salvation. Contrary to some beliefs, there is no savior. We have to find our own salvation and our own way back to The Source. This realization enables you to make massive changes from within. If you are not progressing in your thought system about who you are, you are stagnating. And when you are in stagnation, you are stuck and cannot move further internally or find appropriate answers to deal with self issues in the appropriate way.

When I discovered Bentinho Massaro on Facebook, I literally felt myself awake fully while reading his posts. Infact it opened some part of my mind that began to feel a great desire to write little heart poems, which I did in my journal, and I found myself in that mood the entire day writing most of the time. Maybe it was because I was ready and open to move away completely from my seeming weaknesses and focus on my strengths - a shift, so to speak. Whatever the reason, I felt I was experiencing a genuine openness I had never experienced before. The wonderful thing about my most cherished spiritual teachers is that each comes with a gem of his/her own that is so unique that one cannot be compared to another. Bentinho is just one more added to my small list of profound teachers.

There will be all kinds of people crossing our path everyday, if not in real life, then on social media. Learning to deal with them and their emotional baggages is an art that comes with time.  I have found a way to deal with them. I ask them to do a self inquiry and find the answers from their own Sacred Heart. Some people find it a very "spiritual" approach and don't want to go there, but what can I say? Are we not all Spiritual Beings having an earthly experience?

All answers come from the heart. The heart knows what it knows and it will always, always lead you to your highest good. And it eventually will tell you : "THIS IS WHO I AM".

Peace. Namaste.

True Change

Change is something I have been aspiring to forever. The more I tried, the more difficult it appeared. The bad habits were like addiction. The self hate was a favourite past time. As for guilt, you name any situation and I have already felt bad and guilty about it. Because I believed all of these self-created stories, I was willingly absorbing judgments and labels other people were more than ready to bestow on me! My environment never seemed to fail me and reinforced all of these errors I held about myself.  Understandably I was in a very great hurry to change all of this stuff which made me very unhappy. I lived in a constant state of frustration and low self esteem. My impatience soaked me up leaving me feeling in despair. The harder I tried to be a "good" person, the more I was failing. I reasoned with myself alot and questioned even more. They included questions like:  I was on "The Path", why then was I unable to create worthwhile change? .... When are things going to be different within me? etc. etc.

These are good questions to ask. They act as a compass and direct you True North.  As I began a a relentless self inquiry, answers were unfolding themselves automatically. What I began to understand was that a True Path involves an absolute and complete turnaround change. You cannot hang onto or hold onto any false belief of the life you are giving up. There is no half-and-half. Until that is realized, change will be minimal and a struggle. True change is REBIRTH. You have to die to your old self completely. This is by far the hardest endeavor for me. But I now have a far better understanding what true spiritual practice is and that is a huge place to start from. I was helped further when I encountered James Twyman's "The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking." It is a huge book in terms of  spiritual depth and requires you to trust that  once you start The Peacemaker's Path, all changes are taking place within. On the outside there is nothing obvious for a long while, but that does not mean just because you cannot see something, it is absent or not happening. You have to develop Trust, Faith and Patience. Divine Patience is the surety that something is going to happen in eternity and infinity. When you begin to think this way, then suddenly everything seems to be happening very fast. Time begins to collapse. The construct of time does not apply here. This is where you begin to learn to feel yourself through the Path of The Unseen. I started meditating, pondering and contemplating the following passage from the book. It took more than two years for me to begin to comprehend what it means, and as it began to sink into my subconscious mind, I began to see that I was going about my life backwards.

PATIENCE

There is no time in which you will be judged. There is only NOW, and you have already accepted the finality of your soul's  TRUTH. Understand this and Divine Patience will be yours. Then time will have no meaning to you, for you will know the ultimate conclusion of your life: Full knowledge of your True Self.  How can you be anything but patient if you know the path you walk? Even if you do not see the castle in the distance, still you are certain of your eventual arrival. And the more certain you are of this, the sooner you will perceive this reality. Only Divine Patience offers immediate results. There is no hurry, then, for the ending is sure. Enjoy the path you walk and admire the beauty of the landscape. Turn one more corner and you are there. Today I ask that you imagine yourself to be the enlightened being I perceive, filled with patience. Imagine how you would act toward others if this patience were yours. Imagine this new life and embrace it now."

~ The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking, Lesson Six ~

Source: Rooftop cafe view of the Taj Mahal. Image by Daniel McCrohan / Lonely Planet.

 I don't want to go into the details of how I experienced an enlightened view on this because it is said that one should not talk about one's experience with anyone except with a truly like minded person who understands your experience, since the more one talks about personal spiritual experiences, the more the experience begins to feel diminished.  Suffice it to say that I finally understood that the ways of the world are not the ways of Spirit. No matter what you hear, read or believe, ultimately you have to source your own answers from within. Nobody can dictate to you how you should develop a relationship with your own Soul. Neither, can you be a parasite and thrive off someone else's spiritual intuitions and experiences. It will never ever work for you completely.  That is a really good thing because, it proves no two persons in this universe are alike and one size does not fit all. You can only be guided by someone else's path. That is all that you can do. Teachers can only share their knowledge and guide you into your inner Self. Beyond that, you have to develop your relationship with Spirit on your own. Don't waste your time promoting someone else's spiritual ambitions. Those are the ways of the world. Focus only WITHIN.  As I released all my follies, I began to feel directed to the next step, and then the next step, etc. If you look at your life from the aspect of your physical body, it will take millions of lifetimes to perfect. But if you look beyond your body to your True Self, you will realise, the Purity, the Truth and The Self is lying hidden in your very Being waiting to be tapped into. Then the body slowly becomes the channel it is meant to be. Healing begins to take place in spirals and layers as your move inwards and radiate outwards at the same time.  People who are looking for the same thing that you are aspiring to, will be drawn to you like a magnet.

This journey is not for the faint hearted. It is a solo journey. Eagles fly alone. Sheep move in herds. You have to decide if you want to be an Eagle or a sheep.  

True change happens from within. True change cannot be coerced, coaxed or manipulated. When you seek change with all your heart, your heart will convey to The Source your deepest desires and as you allow your free will to give permission to Spirit to work on you, you will not even notice that something big is happening within. It creeps upon on you in a good way, like when you suddenly discover you are no more reacting to the situations and people the way you used to in the past. You begin to stop caring about the things that are not of Truth and you begin to feel Peace in your Heart, the likes you have never experienced before. And that is how it happens.  And you want it to happen more and more. You experience moments of pure bliss - free of worry totally. It is unexplainable. All you need to do is surrender your difficulties and problems and the Holy Spirit does the rest. You have to stay connected with  your Path and every time you deviate, you have to bring yourself back. If you don't, you will experience some physical discomfort whenever you are not doing right by your Soul and you will be reminded .... gently at first .... and then with a harder knock if you still don't pay attention. You Soul is relentless. It will not leave you - this human being that you you are masquerading as, for even a second. Your Soul is your direct connection to The Source and it wants only what is God's will for you.

Do not let anyone diminish you in any way or judge your path. You can achieve this by NOT responding to them at all. They will not understand anyway.

Infinite Patience means you KNOW everything is going to be ALRIGHT. Heck! more than alright - its going to be superb!! Just don't let time dictate the change. And then you will see everything is happening very fast. They call it by a couple of names - Divine Timing and Divine Order.

And that really suits me fine. Om. Amen.

Creativeness Through Self-Knowledge

"There is no method for self-knowledge. Seeking a method invariably implies the desire to attain some result and that is what we all want. We follow authority - if not that of a person, then of a system, of an ideology - because we want a result that will be satisfactory, which will give us security. We really do not want to understand ourselves, our impulses and reactions, the whole process of our thinking, the conscious as well as the unconscious; we would rather pursue a system that assures us of a result. But the pursuit of a system is invariably the outcome of our desire for security, for certainty, and the result is obviously not the understanding of oneself. When we follow a method, we must have authorities - the teacher, the guru, the savior, the Master - who will guarantee us what we desire; and surely that is not the way to self-knowledge.Authority prevents the understanding of oneself, does it not? Under the shelter of an authority, a guide, you may have temporarily a sense of security, a sense of well-being, but that is not the understanding of the total process of oneself. Authority in its very nature prevents the full awareness of oneself and therefore ultimately destroys freedom; in freedom alone can there be creativeness. There can be creativeness only through self-knowledge."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Book of Life ~

My Life.

My life is my purpose. 

I have a moral responsibility to make it look good, 

the best that I can. 

My life is my Gift. 

It is the only thing I have in this world that belongs to me. 

I Am always wanting to use it well, to flaunt it and to shine through it. 

To dramatize it and make it look good. 

There is every opportunity to do whatever I want. 

And what I will always want is to be happy - really and truly happy.  

This whole drama from start to finish has a shelf life, an end point. 

I can frolic and be joyous or I can just lament. 

Any which way, it all has an expiry date. 

When I am through with it, the sun will set and 

I will pass on like a mist passing over a river 

forever gone from this experience 

with no proof that it ever existed.

My Sun sets when my Soul moves on.

But my Soul Light will forever shine on.

The Light Cannot Be Given To You By Another

"Most people, when they are confused, disturbed, want to return to the past; they seek to revive the old religion, to re-establish the ancient customs, to bring back the form of worship practised by their ancestors, and all the rest of it. But what is necessary, surely, is to find out whether the mind that is the result of the past, the mind that is confused, disturbed, groping, seeking, whether such a mind can learn without turning to a guru, whether it can undertake the journey on which there is no guide. Because it is possible to go on this journey only when there is the light which comes through the understanding of yourself, and that light cannot be given to you by another; no Master, no guru can give it to you, nor will you find it in the Gita or in any other book. You have to find that light within yourself, which means that you must inquire into yourself, and this inquiry is hard work. No one can lead you, no one can teach you how to inquire into yourself. One can point out that such inquiry is essential, but the actual process of inquiring must begin with your own self-observation."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurthy ~

No One Is Your Friend. No One is Your Foe.

No one is your friend.

No one is your foe.

Everyone is your teacher.

When I read the above from "The Game of Life and How to Play It" by Florence Scovel Shinn, something stirred in me deeply because the statement is so impersonal and so simple.  And yet in its simplicity lies Perfect Love because the focus is always in the moment of any experience. 

It does'nt matter who you are in the moment with - family, friend or foe. All are Teachers. Every Soul is teaching me something new about myself. I can resist ofcourse if I don't like the lesson, but more and more Teachers spring up with more and more lessons. Far better to develop a genuine sense of cheerfulness and humor  to deal with difficult situations. I say genuine, because surface humor only just acts as a temporary relief. But true and a divine sense of humor gives you divine insight.  What matters only is that every interaction becomes a blessing because of the purity of attention paid to it. You are not concerned about anything else. Your whole attention is finely focussed on this moment. It slows you down and releases the tension of having to be doing something else simultaneously. At the end of it you learn something new not only about yourself, but also receive glimpses of the fourth dimension where sages say a wondrous life abounds. 

Doing this as a spiritual discipline creates a wider and deeper understanding of Life and its Beauty. This practice is teaching me patience and compassion for myself first and foremost. It is also giving me a new range of possibilities of how I can find peace within myself for longer and longer periods of time.

Perfect Love casts out all fear. Let all worldly beliefs and labels drop away. They have no substance. It is time well spent staying focussed on this activity.

Om Shanti.

Life Just IS.

Hi! I'm Lavina. Namaste and Greetings! :))

My purpose for being here is to just share. I have learned much from the sharing of other people's life experiences and I figure I can return the service.

Most often we never know who is looking for a little encouragement and by just reading a word here, a line there, something stirs within opening up a potential he/she never even knew existed. It sets something new in motion. It is more about being of assistance to even just one person. When that happens I Am deeply grateful for that chance to help. Every one needs a helping hand. I know I do - constantly!

Life is not about complicated, profound stuff only.  I am often very pleasantly surprised how simple Life actually and really is. I have gone so used to trying to figure out how to do "cartwheels" that all I have achieved is a lot of fatigue and stress following that process. Life is much sweeter than that.  Its about letting it take me and breathe me in and out each moment creating sweet little nothings. Literally, everything is nothing. Once done, they cease to exist. I must move on. How incredibly simple Life is. There are two sides to every experience. I can choose how I wish to see the experience. Now, that is remarkable. I have a choice. I don't have to be stuck in old stuff and stories. Its not there anywhere so why bother?

Life is very uncomplicated. I like it simple. I have been a housewife by choice for some time now because I no longer wanted to be in the rat race. I have given up life in the corporate environment because it stopped agreeing with my inner being a long  time ago. Being at home gives me complete freedom to just BE whatever I need to be at any given moment - not that I cannot experience being me anywhere else- its just that I am no longer restricted in any way.

For me to be of service "out there", I need to know who I am "in here"  - my Home within me - to guide my life outwards. Being at home in the external world gives me that time to pray, meditate, contemplate, study, self-inquire, live, love, experience, etc. etc. without the stress of trying to prove myself constantly in a world that has its own set of rules that don't match up with my idea of freedom.

Contrary to the belief that I can make a difference only by going "out there" in the world, I find my role presently enables me to "enable" many people by just being me and being at ease with myself and my life, and hence, being available to anyone from any strata of society at any time helping them to see that the world becomes a kind, loving, generous and beautiful place when we constantly are aware of our thoughts. This pushes me to do the same because my memory tends to be short!! I have a little reminder that helps me with this. My mobile chimes a beautiful forest theme every hour on the hour to remind me to take stock my life in the last hour and in this moment change what needs to be changed. This is the best tool I have ever been able to follow without fuss - a thought which sprang to my mind one early morning. If I am tired and need rest, the hourly chime reminds me to pay attention. If I am feeling aligned, the chimes remind me to be grateful. This is bliss for me. I have the reminder to change my mood and thoughts every hour on the hour. Time has its place and value.

Often people ask me questions like "what do you do?", I am often stumped for an answer because I am unable to give them the answer they would like to hear and be sufficiently impressed.  When I say " I'm just doing a lot of inner study" , they go "Oh!" and usually there is a moment of silence and a PAUSE!  

I love PAUSES. They bring me right back to my Realty and my own Path.

Ah! well! I hope your life allows you the freedom to bloom and shine and be unapologetic about living just the way you want. Wish you Divine Freedom.

With Reverence and Infinite Gratitude for Life. Life Just Is. Breathe ... and Relax! All is well.

Namaste.

'A process of learning not related to wanting to be taught.'

"I think there is a process of learning which is not related to wanting to be taught. Being confused, most of us want to find someone who will help us not to be confused, and therefore we are merely learning or acquiring knowledge in order to conform to a particular pattern; and it seems to me that all such forms of learning must invariably lead not only to further confusion but also to deterioration of the mind. I think there is a different kind of learning, a learning which is an inquiry into ourselves and in which there is no teacher and no taught, neither the disciple nor the guru. When you begin to inquire into the operation of your own mind, when you observe your own thinking, your daily activities and feelings, you cannot be taught because there is no one to teach you. You cannot base your inquiry on any authority, on any assumption, on any previous knowledge. If you do, then you are merely conforming to the pattern of what you already know, and therefore you are no longer learning about yourself." 

~ Jiddu- Krishnamurti ~

I find the above to be true for me personally. I had depended so much on spiritual books and teachings of teachers and masters for a long, long time because I felt I was not capable of creating a path of my own. Even though my mind began to feel so crammed with all kinds of ideas, belief systems and experiences belonging to other people and all religions, I was afraid to let them go. It became like an addiction for me and it caused too much fear and restlessness in me. No doubt I was learning so much but, at the same time, because, I was trying to mimic their experiences, instead of just using those teachings as stepping stones for my personal path, I was moving outwards more than inwards.

And then one day I decided to take that leap. The leap into Self Inquiry.

I began to QUESTION EVERYTHING. I questioned my life, my world, people, concepts, religion, God ... EVERYTHING. Once I started doing that, I began to feel a freedom I never experienced before. I gave myself the permission to explore. I allowed myself to begin to feel Life the way it IS right now. I began the forgiveness process and began to forgive everything and everyone. I stopped caring about comments, opinions, judgments, labels other people attached to me. All of these issues stopped taking any kind of priority in my life. Everything in my life began to get inquired into. Inquiry has become the most crucial practice for me. Everything is subject to inquiry. Its like a security check that takes place every day and this Self Inquiry practice is my salvation. 

I know now, without inquiry, I am unable to live more authentically. Living "authentically" does not mean I conform to the world's idea of living spiritually, or be a "follower". It just means I am more guided by my own Inner Light.  I still love reading all those amazing inspirational and spiritual books out there, but I let them go as soon as I finish with them.  Its nice to know there is so much diversity and yet there is so much oneness. The diversity is coming from the ONE Source and that is the beauty of following one's own path.

Find your very own Path and listen to your own Heart is what I tell anyone who wants to know how to connect with Life. It is the only way you can find inner peace.

With Love, Blessings and Gratitude.
.

Soul Speak

"Nobody can advise you and help you, nobody. 

There is only one way. 

Go into yourself” 

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

Letters to a Young Poet

The earlier in life one figures this out to be a truth, the better it is for one's own peace of mind. It helps to begin practising self awareness as early as possible in one's life in order to become strong and fearless of Life's challenges and difficulties. Each day is a new day bringing in new lessons. To not be knocked down by circumstances and the environment, one needs to have a very strong base within.

Recently, an email from Louise Hay was so inspiring, I could'nt help but feel uplifted and grateful that the circumstances of my life drew me into my own inner world and discover its riches in my 30s. As the years go by our fear of life increases and our ways and habits become extremely conditioned. Our thoughts become more and more mind based and less and less heart based thereby creating a lot of resistance to new changes that might even save our lives.

Here's what Louise Hay wrote:

"I am proud to say that my mind is still intact at my age, when so many people are suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia these days. Much earlier in life, too. Everything begins with the mind. Body, mind and spirit must be balanced. To make the body and mind whole we must maintain positive thought patterns.

 

I believe we create every so-called illness in our body. The body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of our inner thoughts and beliefs. The body is always talking to us, if we will only take the time to listen. Every cell within your body responds to every single thought you think and every word you speak. 

 

Continuous modes of thinking and speaking produce body behaviors and postures and “eases” or dis-eases. The person who has a permanently scowling face did not produce that by having joyous, loving thoughts. Older people’s faces and bodies show so clearly a lifetime of thinking patterns. How will you look when you are elderly? I am happy to say that I look pretty damn good myself.

 

What we think is what we show the world. Our mental health and well-being thrive on nurturing our body and spirit. Being relaxed and centered and peaceful allows us to be strong and secure. Love yourself and know that I love you." ~ Louise Hay ~

Today IS a Good Day!

Today is a good day, a really good day! Infact, its a God-Awesome Beautiful day! I give thanks for my life, the very breath I breathe and for the beauty and love of God that surrounds and penetrates this world .... and most of all, for me ... for creating me!! 

It has taken my whole life to come to this point - this point of self appreciation and self love and joyous celebration of who I Am - not physically, but in totality - body, mind and spirit. The simple, but profoundly empowering soul belief that "God Loves ME". 

The FEELING and KNOWING that "God Loves Me" is an entire experience by itself. It serves like the dynamite that creates an implosion in an old building that badly needs to be replaced and its foundations raised to the ground. It takes you home to yourself deep within your Being. To your actual and true HOME.

Birthdays and festivals are just symbols. Symbols of Self Love. They remind you of who you truly are and to revel in the glory of God within you. 

My Core Remembrance is celebrating the I Am in me. Indeed I Am an incredible creation of God born from the cosmic explosion of stars. I just turned another milestone. Everyday I am born anew. Every day is my birthday. I Am  realizing that God's love ALWAYS fills my soul, and I wish for everyone exactly what I wish for myself which is, true and lasting Peace, Happiness, Joy and Goodwill. 

Everything is perfect exactly as it is. Everything IS in Divine Order. 

Happy Birthday to Me! I Love You. 

L xoxo

"You Get What You Are, Not What You Want!"

"You get what you are, not what you want" 

~ Wayne Dwyer ~

This statement has such a powerful resonance with me especially at this time in my life. I have been experiencing an inner spaciousness, more calmness and deeper understanding of what lies behind the frantic nature that I have been experiencing all my life. The rejections have been far too many and something has just 'clicked' into place changing my focus from deep inner pain to more clarity and wisdom.  I thought I was over all of them, but triggers continue to happen. I see now that it is all part and parcel of expansion. Nothing to fear or worry about. Everything is beginning to synchronize perfectly. The person that I thought I was is soon fading away. The range of my expectations and attachments are becoming lower and lower from the world. What I know for sure now is, that the world is what it is, and it will always be what it is. It is never going to change according to my expectations and desires. I can either hold on to my attachments and judgments or I can drop them. Ofcourse, dropping them is the most obvious choice. It is non-negotiable. I have been trying to do this for a long time, but had not been very successful. But suddenly, the winds seem to have changed direction and it appears much more easier than I imagined.  I think its probably because now I am truly tired of being in this zone intermittently. I have stepped out of it and don't plan to go back to it. It is too stormy and chaotic. As it turns out, I am not that adventurous!!

My thoughts have shifted from goals and desires to complete acceptance and surrender. I have surrendered all of them to God and released them for purification and transformation. It is very humbling to come to the realization that I truly do not know entirely what I need for my soul growth. It is too much effort trying to figure that out. Effort causes so much fatigue. And fatigue is not conducive to living joyfully. Handing over my life to the Holy Spirit is by far the best possible gift I can give myself. It is the highest form of Love for me now because I know it is a Love that will expand by the very nature of my giving it to God. The world can give me nothing, but I can give it everything through my own transformation. I don't have to focus on what was and what is to come. I have only to focus on what is in front of me right this moment, right now. And indeed it is reassuring to know that what is in front of me right now is all in Divine Order. I just need to stay in Divine Alignment with Source.

One of my favorite spiritual tools to help me on my path is using the I Ching Oracle Readings. I simply love the practical and profound guidance it offers. The wisdom of The Sage is truly incredible and compelling.  Dr David Murphy's interpretation of "The Secrets of The I Ching" alongwith Brian Brown Walker's "The I Ching or Book of Changes" work superbly for me. 

An excerpt from this morning's reading  (hexagram 32: Duration) from Dr. Joesph Murphy's "The Secrets of The I Ching" fills my heart with so much gratitude that I felt a desire to share it :

"As you continue steadfastly in right thought, right feeling and right action, you will experience riches of the mind, such as harmony, health, and peace, and also the abundance of the material riches you need. Whatever you plan to achieve and whatever destination you plan to reach will be successful." .......  "You remain unmoved, because you are governed by an immutable law - the same yesterday, today, and forever. You are governed by an Infinite Guiding Principle, and Divine law and order govern you and lead you to your goal."

It all fits in so beautifully with Wayne Dyer's wisdom. His soul is resting in joy now.  I have great respect for his teachings and life experiences.

 Dr Wayne Dyer with Oprah Winfrey on The Art of Manifestation

L xo

Trust Life!

Life is so full of mystery and beauty. I am seeing more and more of it now even in the most senseless situations. To be CONSCIOUSLY PRESENT is all it takes for Awareness to dawn like a rising sun.  No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the situation, no matter how bad or how good anything is, or was, or supposedly ever will be, none of it really matters when one's whole awareness is brought right down to this very moment.  Past and future cease to exist. When the past and future cease to exist, the stories attached to them also cease to exist! Everything else disappears. The only thing that appears in front of one, is what is happening right now ... dealing with what is happening right now is the wisest thing to do. It cuts out all the red tape!

This morning I watched this wonderful movie and it inspired me so much, I felt the need to share it. Life is truly beautiful and mystical. Just trust it.

 

Simplicity

The beauty of life is that you get to experience it uniquely each day. The more simple, the more beautiful. I am truly loving the feeling of a much deeper commitment to myself and I am allowing space for each moment to melt into beautiful outcomes. There's no rush. There's just ease.  "LET THERE BE LIGHT" is my new mantra whenever I feel stuck in any situation whether I am sitting at home or in a dentist's clinic.  Everything feels just perfect.

I am sharing some simple, but incredible messages that came my way today. I love the reminders.

~~

"Without commitment there are no stable situations."  ~ Sadhguru ~

~~

~~

The Power of Faith

—Ernest Holmes

I have a deep and abiding conviction that there is one divine and perfect presence in the universe; that the spirit of Truth is everywhere; that God is right where I am. There is neither doubt, confusion, nor fear, for I know I am rooted in the one and only perfect and divine presence.

I also realize that the divine Law of Life operates upon my word to bring about definite results in my affairs and the affairs of those for whom I am thinking. I have a complete confidence in this Law of Good, an unshakable trust in it, and complete reliance upon it. I know, as Jesus said, that ‘all things are possible to God;” that there is no limitation to the Law of Good. Therefore, in quiet confidence, in calmness and peace and in perfect trust, I speak my word.

I am conscious that I am surrounded by Divine Love and Infinite Wisdom and that the life of God is my life now. I know that there is nothing in me which can hinder Divine Intelligence from governing my affairs, from daily guiding me into right action, therefore I affirm that at all times I know what to do and am impelled intelligently to act on every right impression that comes to me.

 ~~

L xo

Pause. Surrender. Listen. Gratitude.

Pause. Surrender. Listen. Gratitude.

These four mystical words have changed so many weird perspectives I have had about Life.  To Pause, Surrender and Listen, one has to develop a deep desire to experience true and lasting healing of body, mind and spirit. Not just the body. But all three - body, mind and spirit. This brings about Balance and Centering.

When I Pause in the midst of a chaotic moment, I immediately feel a shift and a sense of calm coming over me. As I Pause and take a deep Breath, I become curious about what's to be done next and this curiosity stops me in my track and asks me to Surrender and Listen to the throbbing beat of my heart and feel the pulse of my Life.  What is Life trying to say to me now, in this moment?  To get my answer, I have to and must Listen.  

To live with Spirit means to engage in all three to receive true inner guidance.  To live with the ego means to look for ways and means that are present outside of you to control your life situations. The latter is headed for sure failure.  But you will never know this unless you experience both sides of the coin.  No matter how many books, lessons, workshops and trainings are available 'out there' you will never find your true guidance completely from any one place in the world.  Don't get me wrong.  You need all this work of exploration to take you forward one step at a time.  And though you will not find all your answers in one place, you will certainly be guided seamlessly into your next step through all this effort. You will find bits and pieces that will help to fill the jigsaw puzzles in your life. But they are not the end of the road. They all serve as an important aspect of your Path and are milestones that begin to show you a clearer landscape, but the real treasure is lying within waiting to be reclaimed through the power of your own Spirit.  Deep within you will experience the explosion of Love, Peace and Understanding. It may be for just a fraction of a second, but it will impact you deeply. And that is what will accompany you for the rest of your Life Journey, if you keep going back to that space of miracles and mystery in your own Sacred Heart and relive that precious moment again and again as the little pause moments become bigger and bigger pauses. 

There is nothing more Empowering and more Powerful than having the Sword of Real Truth in your hand. It helps cut away all that is unnecessary and untrue.

Breathe, you are ALIVE.
Pause so that you can take in this knowledge: "I Am Alive"

Surrender all that feels dead to The Holy Spirit and She will begin to work wonders within you.

Listen deeply as She begins to whisper Her guidance to you and does a clearing and cleansing within you. Remember your True Self is already pure and holy. She is removing all that you have brought into your consciousness with your unholy thoughts and created pain and sorrow for yourself.

This is not a hurried and quick snack.

This is a big, sumptuous meal for your Soul.

Begin to feel a true and deep sense of Gratitude immediately because your Life is already looking different.

So, Pause, Surrender, Listen and say Thank You.

To me the Holy Spirit represents the Mother Aspect of God. She IS what is present here and now everywhere and in everything. May you find your Beloved and be at Peace.

 

Namaste!

L xo

Being In Friendship With Everything

Every once in a while its good to try and connect with the people you have known in the past. I am usually reminded to do this when I am suddenly, out of the blue, catapulted back into the past either through a dream, old diaries, photographs, or a common friend, etc. etc. There are so many ways to find ourselves walking backwards if we want to. Sometimes I like to and I do so with no expectations whatsoever. Sometimes I am most pleasantly surprised and sometimes I am most certainly not. Either way, the very prospect of reconnecting is fun no matter what the outcome. Sometimes I am lucky enough to meet up with a new side to the old friends I never even knew existed and sometimes, as luck would have it, some people are still exactly where I left them ('consciousnessly' speaking!). They have not moved an inch since my last encounter which could have been perhaps ten years ago! I marvel at their courage and bravery to choose to stay stuck in the old and the sameness of life albeit unconsciously.

However, all experiences bring in a wealth of understanding of ourselves at a deeper level. Without the experience of meeting and knowing such a variety of people in life, it would be impossible to live a full and rich life. With every 'unfortunate' experience, I have simultaneously encountered an equally fortunate one. So the scales are always balanced. What I am learning now is that it is extremely important to view everything and everyone with a certain degree of friendship and deep listening. When I approach people or circumstances with the idea of befriending them and listening to them deeply, every disturbance, whether resolved or not, is creating space for an inner engagement, and something new and vital, and every pleasant encounter enables me to keep my heart wide open to receive and embrace everything that is larger than me and connected to Love and Wisdom. Our friendship with experience opens us up to the wisdom of life and love on Earth. Indeed, what a great place to be in - physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

May all our lives continue to be enriched in the most loving and deepest way possible and may we always hold that warm place and space in our hearts for everything and everyone.

In Love & Friendship,

L xo

Trusting the Unknown.

When we make a firm decision to trust that the only thing that really ever matters in Life is God, and that we are going to be committed to this Trust, everything in life - (and I mean literally everything) -  just begins to fall into perfection. No human mind can ever match the workings of the Unseen.  

At first Trusting the Unknown begins to raise a bit of anxiety, but I have realised what really is unknown is not some scary stuff, but literally a re-interpretion  of my life by making brand new, out-of-my-comfort-zone choices that will result in deep inner transformation and dropping the ones that don't work any longer. The Unknown begins to feel less and less intimidating when we begin to mindfully look at each situation and  use our free will to choose a new outcome.

When we are challenged to create a new map for our lives, there's a lot of "pushing against"  that begins to take place and though it may be easier to give up and go back to the old, that's exactly the moment that can become life changing if we go with the flow of change no matter how radical it is and no matter how uncomfortable it may feel at first. Prayer and meditation become the most important valuable practices that can take us further along the journey of change and transformation. The result of such effort is rewarded with a sweet and calm peace within.

L xo

Let God Be In Charge!

"This life is not ours. This life is God's. We belong to God, and God is responsible for our life and for our fulfillment. Whatever of good takes place in our life is God in action; whatever of evil takes place is only in proportion as the word ‘I’ is injected - I, John; I, Mary; I, Henry. Let there be no praise for us, no condemnation, and no weight of responsibility. When responsibility comes, let us be sure that we do not permit this human sense of ‘I’ to come forth and say: ‘How can I accomplish this? How am I going to perform that? My strength is not sufficient; my bank account is not adequate.’ Jesus did not permit the word ‘I’ to intrude when he was called upon to feed the five thousand. He acknowledged that he could do nothing of himself.”  

~ Joel Goldsmith ~

The above message is so inspiring and perfect because it puts everything into the right perspective. It reminds me once again of the endless ways I try to do things that include striving and effort. There is such a thin line between 'effort' and 'effortless' that one can very easily loose sight if one is not watchful of the small 'i' coming into operation. Be vigilent. Be conscious. Be aware. And let God be in charge. You can't win with Reality anyway!

How may I be of service? 

With Love & Oneness

L xo 

This Moment

Every moment there is change - constant change. There is never going to be some ideal kind of moment where you are going to be able to do what you want to do. Anything you want to do is always in this moment. We give too much thought to everything. We argue. We resist. Most times we don't like being in this moment or live through whatever is happening right now. When we have nothing to do, we get bored and believe there is something one must do or otherwise one is wasting time. This is furtherest from the truth. Whatever is happening now, is what is meant to be. Life is trying to teach you something of great value. If it is creating restlessness, nothing like a shot of Self Inquiry. Question your motives and feelings. No matter what the situation or urgency or crisis, make a decision that you are going to balance your mind out first before plunging into the dramas of the material world and become caught up in the "Leela of Life".

In this Moment with Love & Oneness,

L xo 

Not "feeling" Love is also Love.

This morning I woke up with a deep sense of calm and peace and with the feeling and sense that I had no desire to 'do' anything - and it was definitely not because I was not in the mood or feeling unwell, or any such thing, but simply because of a deep desire to pull back from the usual routine of early morning activities and just observe every feeling and emotion and desire that was passing through me as soon as I became a bit more conscious of the world I was waking up to - the material world. I did not feel any compulsion to get down to doing the usual morning activities. I just relaxed! Relax? Really? At 5.30 a.m. after a deep sleep? Wow! this was definitely a first. I was beginning to experience the result of thinking the highest thoughts about myself. The usual and 'normal' rules do not apply when you elevate your thoughts. By just BEING in this experience, it seemed like I was paying attention to my Life as deepest I knew how in this moment. When you spend time with yourself this way, you begin to feel so much self love - a very spiritual kind of love. Even if you are not aware of it as love, it IS love.

It felt really, really good to feel this way. I felt free and unencumbered with no obligation to do any one particular thing but instead to embrace everything exactly as it is. This must be what Real Love is.  No separation in any way. Love for Love's sake. I think the moment we begin to give Love a definition, we loose the sense of Love. We separate ourselves from the Whole to act in accordance with our individual notions. We feel we have got to do certain things to express love for another. Well, I have been there and done that. It does'nt work. You just have to keep repeating yourself in order to feel the limited experience of Love. And that is truly a pity - a sin really. To not know we are Love's Presence is to do a great injustice to ourselves.

The human love is all about holding love for someone and withholding love from another. It is always conditional and filled with expectations.  There have been so many times in my life when I have said "Love You" to someone and they have not acknowledged it or felt enough mutual love to spontaneously reciprocate. Since in that moment I am experiencing and expressing a deeper sense of Self Love it matters not to me whether a person reciprocates or not. There are certain people in my life who still do that - its like they're saying "hmm ... I like you because I have little choice, but don't push it to expecting love!!". I definitely can live with that now and it feels even more liberating because it was something that was not possible for me in the past.

Love just IS. There's nothing to do or experience from effort. Love just IS. If you're not feeling the magnificence of Love, its okay because not feeling Love is also Love because the moment you do a self inquiry, you begin to realize Love has numerous ways to make Itself Present. Love IS Spirit. And there is only ONE Power and ONE Presence. There is not two. If you're not feeling Love, get on the wisdom medicine raft of self inquiry and stay there till you feel differently. Till you feel one with God. Its worth the effort!

How may I be of service?

With Love & Oneness,

L xo