IN FACING THE “IMPOSSIBLE,” WE ARE ALWAYS SUPPORTED

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We have all had those moments where we feel completely alone, facing challenges that seem impossible to overcome. But the truth is, we’re always supported, even when we don’t realize it.

There’s a beautiful story from the Indian Puranas about a sparrow who laid her eggs on the beach. When she came back from gathering food, the tide had washed them away. Imagine her distress! She begged the ocean to give them back, but it wouldn’t listen.

Instead of giving up, this determined little sparrow decided to dry up the entire ocean, one drop at a time, using her tiny beak. Some birds laughed at her, thinking it was a hopeless task, but others, touched by her determination, joined her.

News of her struggle reached Garuda, the powerful king of birds and Lord Vishnu’s vehicle. He was so moved by her persistence and angered by the ocean’s refusal that he threatened to dry up the ocean himself if it didn’t return the eggs.

Naturally, the ocean quickly gave the eggs back, and the sparrow was overjoyed.

The message here is that when we take on something truly meaningful or noble (what’s called “dharmic”), we attract support from unseen forces, allowing us to achieve what others think is impossible. As Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Karma and action, Meaningful Purpose, Overcoming Doubt, Trust

OUR ATTEMPT AT CONTROL

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I have a message for you control freaks (and, yes, I am one of you): You are actually never in control!

Get over it!

Let go and go with the flow. Those bad moments that you try to keep at bay–those are your teachers. Allow them in as they contain the formula for discovering the gems lying hidden in your consciousness and your inner bliss.

As within so without. The external challenges and obstacles that you face actually come from within. They are generated to give you the experience necessary so that you can rise in knowledge and consciousness. They may also set-up necessary experiences for those around you.

That thing that you fear the most…you are drawing it to you for the above reasons.

So go with the flow and welcome what life comes to you as your teacher.

(I wrote this message about a week before slipping and falling on ice, and breaking my pelvis. How true it is!)

Healing, Non-Attachment, Trust

THE TEN STEPS OF GOD

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It is common for a spiritual aspirant to question whether there is progress. It may not feel like results are present, but when there is effort, results are assured. There is the saying that when you take one step towards God, God will take ten steps towards you. This is happening even when we do not realize it.

Then there is also the issue of being tested. We are all tested and challenged, for if there is no challenge what is the victory?

What are the signs of progress? You will know you are progressing when you notice these changes in yourself:

– Adverse events in your life no longer affect you the same. There is a resilience that develops based on the understanding that when one door closes, another one opens. With awareness of the impermanence of life, you realize that neither losses nor gains are permanent. Strong likes and dislikes fall away and you learn to accept the flow of life.

– You develop a trust that your life is unfolding as it should, despite all of the frustrations and challenges, and you surrender to that ongoing process. Surrender leads you to contentment, and contentment brings you gratitude and inner joy.

– You feel connected to everyone and all forms of life, realizing that the one divine Source flows through all. You are able to overlook the ignorance and failures of others, knowing that each person will awaken in their own time.

– The love flowing from your heart space encompasses the whole, and you are able to love unconditionally.

– Your intuitive nature expands, and wisdom is imparted to you from within. Feelings of loneliness and incompleteness fall away.

– Effortlessly you find your consciousness naturally drawn to an inner space of silence and bliss during quiet moments of your day.

Spiritual Practice, Trust, Unity

YOU CAN NEVER BE LOST

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Truly we can never be lost in the spiritual sense. Wherever we are, the Divine is present. You carry a spark of the Divine in your heart, as your very Self! Do not confuse this shell of a body with who you are.

As you are Divinity itself, when it seems that you have lost your way and can never set things right again, know that you are like a self-righting boat. The ballast in the boat causes it to right itself if it is blown over by a gust of wind, and the boat cannot sink because of the buoyancy built into its design. Your Divine nature is like the ballast that sets you straight, and also like the boat’s buoyancy that prevents you from sinking.

Each of us has his own journey. Edgar Allan Poe captured the uniqueness of the personal journey in his poem entitled “Alone”:

“I have not been as others were
I have not seen as others saw
I could not bring my passions from a common spring
From the same source I have not taken my sorrow
I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone”

You should honor your own uniqueness. It may be your own personal journey to fall into the depths before you rise and soar on high. As you recognize ever so clearly the past that you want to leave behind, your path will be illuminated as you move forward.

The following poem “Defeat” by Kahlil Gibran, continues on this theme of rising from the ashes of your past failures:

“Defeat, My Defeat…
You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,
And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory.
…
You and I shall laugh together with the storm,
And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us,
And we shall stand in the sun with a will,
And we shall be dangerous.”

(Both poems are reprinted in part)

Our True Nature, Trust

“THE WAY IS PERFECT LIKE VAST SPACE”

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In our normal life we are “boxed in” by our conceptual mind, and we should consider what thought patterns no longer serve us. Our ordinary mind is always busy, judging ourselves and others. Can we achieve a state of mind that is able to transcend these distinctions?

In his New Delki talks of February, 1962, Krishnamurti asked the question: “Is it possible to die to everything that you have known?” This is a question that we should ask ourselves each day.

He goes on to say: “This is not annihilation, this is not denial, this is not nothingness. There is an immensity, there is a vastness, something beyond words when you know how to deny the whole ground of that which you have known.”

In our accumulation of experience, we fill our mind with likes and dislikes, and as a result we lose the ability to see the essential oneness of all things. If we are able to see all that is with new eyes, losing the million distinctions of the thinking mind and thereby focus on the Oneness, we can experience an immense freedom.

This way of seeing is described in “Verses on the Faith Mind,” attributed to Seng Ts’an, the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen:

“The Way is perfect, like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we do not see the true nature of things…To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind… Be serene in the oneness of things, and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.”
(Translation by Richard B. Clarke)

In letting go of our judgments we need to release holds and controls that we assert over others in an effort to “fix” them. Set them free to live their own life. Free yourself in equal measure. Release the psychic hooks that you have allowed others to impose upon you.

Breathe slowly and quiet your mind, and thereby give yourself a psychic cleansing. Know that in your essential nature you are already perfect. Though it may not appear to be, so is everyone and everything in this crazy world. Be happy and be free.

Our True Nature, Trust, Unity
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