If true friendship is to flower the heart must flower. For the heart to flower you must be free of hurts.
Pick one suffering relationship and ask to feel the pain that that person caused you. From the midst of that pain ask for help in forgiving that person. See the lightening of the heart.
Now ask to experience the pain you caused that person. Surely you are not innocent. Ask to be in their shoes. See how harshly you judged that person and felt about them. How you have carried that hatred, kept the fire burning much of your life. From the midst of that pain ask for them to forgive you.
This is called right repentance. It will lead to the compassion (the word passion means pain-compassion is to feel the pain of others) and a flowering of the heart and perfection of relationship. It will help you to set right all of your relationships.
Life is relationship and the answer to the question: "How are my relationships?" is among the
best gauges of spiritual growth.
If you would like to go deeper and develop deep states of awareness, practice the following sadhana every night for 21 days. If you fall or backslide somewhat then simply continue:
At night before you go to bed, review your day and ask the Divine to show you if anyone hurt you that day. If so then ask to re-experience the pain that person caused you. From the midst of that pain ask the Divine to help you forgive that person. You must ask. If you could have done it on your own you would have by now. This is to suffer and forgive and it is Grace. To do this-to suffer and forgive- your nature will become Divine.
Now ask to see if you hurt anyone that day. Maybe it was not deliberate. However if you are suffering you will cause suffering to others. It is like that. An unhappy person brings happiness to no one. If you see you have hurt someone, even in passing, ask to experience the pain you caused that other being. Now ask the Divine to help that being to forgive you. You will develop tremendous compassion in this practice as well.
Next review your day and see if anyone asked you for help. The external action or lack thereof is not relevant. Pay close attention to what was there internally.
And finally ask yourself, "Am I happy?"
Namaste,
DD
From an Awakening the Antaryamin Workshop.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Miracles
Bhakti Marga-Mystical Path of Transformation and Enlightenment Transcript Segment:
The enlightened seers knew that when you discover that the small coincidences in your life are miracles, these coincidences will become greater and greater and soon your life will be filled with miracles. Coincidences are a way the Divine speaks to you. You need only see.
Rarely a month goes by that I do not get a petition or two in the inbox from a spiritual seeker wanting enough signatures to take some criminal action against the previous United States President, George Bush. This blaming can be a huge obstacle in the journey to transformation and enlightenment for if there is blaming there is not enough focus on the internal condition to be of much use to the seeker for spiritual pursuit.
The "Bush Bashing" or blaming Geroge Bush for anything and everything is a form of sorrow management or running from an internal condition of suffering. Some people manage their sorrow with food, others with drugs, some like to drink to run away from suffering. Others take prescriptions, complain or shop nonstop while more than a few appear to bash George Bush to manage their suffering. Running from sorrow will not lead to transformation or enlightenment. However seeing that you are running very well may.
The overwhelming and somewhat loud, support of the current administration by a seeming majority of spiritual seekers is as just as surprising as the petitions. The the election slogan, "Change" in the ancient sense of the word is closely linked with hatred.
The ancient enlightened ones defined love as acceptance and hatred as non acceptance evidenced by desiring change. For example a lady may say, "I hate this old furniture, I want to change it." She may say, "I hate my job or my life." and she will go to great lengths to make a change. A lady at one of the workshops told the group that she loved her child unconditionally, but confessed that she wished that he was not so sloppy and got better grades. She also wanted him to cut his hair and dress nicely. With the desire to change the boy, is unconditional love truly there or is this part of the illusion?
Look into your lives for a moment. What would you like to change if you could? Who would you like to change? Can you see it? Very good! It is there that you will find the hatred.
You must start from where you are not where we want to be. This requires tremendous courage and authenticity. The very first step in this ancient path of enlightenment is knowing that it is possible for you.
The second step is realizing your condition. Look how far you have come already in just a morning! Ok so you desire change. There is hatred there. What can you do? Do not run from the desire to change, the hatred in the heart. Embrace the condition. Whatever is there ask yourself if you can accept it. Why must you be an embodiment of unconditional love?
Step 3. Embrace the condition. You are more than half way there! I am so proud of you! You cannot pump love into the heart. You must only see that the heart may be empty of love. The rest is Grace.
Just know that the desire to change someone or something is an expression of non acceptance- AKA hatred. What can be expected of politicians who want to change a country or of a people that happily embraces such change mongers. A look into history would reveal all.
If you confuse change with transformation you will suffer and cause others to suffer. If you confuse reformation with transformation you could very well become like a living corpse-so tightly reined in that you feel you are very spiritually evolved because you do not feel anger or guilt or other deemed negative emotions. In a high state of reformation you do not feel such things. However the fact is a highly reformed person feels little at all.
If your heart is full of hatred, anger, any emotion deemed good or bad, enlightenment may come quickly for you. There is little hope for the living corpse. Why are you seeking to cut the emotion? To become like a living corpse? Why are you trying to stop the judgement? It is the nature of the mind to judge. It is how it finds a point of relativity in a dependently arising creation. You will make a mess of your life and spend your years judging the judgement if you battle it. You need only see that you are judging. See these things. The Universe is perfect. The suffering is in the perception.
Now back to the miracles. It has been a coincidence in my life is that quite often at meal times during spiritual gatherings the subject turns to bashing George Bush. One morning I was having breakfast in Sedona with a well known enlightened guru and some of his followers, and this particular morning was no different. Comparisons of George Bush and the antiChrist were floating about. The guru said nothing. I commented that I thought that George Bush has a reasonably well defined Kalki aspect (according to tradition Kalki is the 10th avatar or incarnation of Vishnu. Buddha, Rama and Krishna were previous incarnations. Kalki is depicted as a warrior, carrying a sword upon a white horse).
An uncomfortable silence came. Some glared, some smirked, some stared at their plates, others looked expectantly at the guru, waiting for his response. I braced for lightening to strike, to spontaneously combust or at the very least be asked to leave the table. The guru stared at me for what seemed like a million years. Then the unexpected happened. He slammed his hand down on the table and said, "That's it! George Bush is the Kalki Avatar! Look at him! So brave he is, He shielded a secret service man with his own body-pushed him out of danger! He said this and this and this to North Korea" and so on.
Silence.
Then the guru looked across the room at the door. "There on the door.-do you see the miracle there?"
We looked. A single ray of sun was streaming through the glass on the door. The name of the restaurant, "Maria's", was painted on the glass. From the inside it read backwards-"s'airaM"
"Sai Ram"
Maria's backwards spells Sai Ram.
"These little things are the miracles," he said. "You must see this. It is a miracle that we came here and saw this."
I have been going through a stormy time in my life recently and there is not always clarity. Several nights ago, I was driving past a Ramada Inn in Phoenix. There were some homeless people down the street slowly pushing a cart. A small fender bender around the corner. Someone sitting near the highway begging. Another giving. Horns were honking. Radios playing. Palm trees were swaying. A crow flew by. Pigeons rose from the roof tops. A leaf fell. Rising and falling in a state of perfection. The "Do Not Walk Sign" flashed. A plastic cup blew down the street only to be crushed by a truck. A storm was coming. And the wonder of it all.
Two lights were burned out on the Ramada sign: the "D" and the "A".
"Rama"
Peace came.
Yes, these are the miracles.....
The enlightened seers knew that when you discover that the small coincidences in your life are miracles, these coincidences will become greater and greater and soon your life will be filled with miracles. Coincidences are a way the Divine speaks to you. You need only see.
Rarely a month goes by that I do not get a petition or two in the inbox from a spiritual seeker wanting enough signatures to take some criminal action against the previous United States President, George Bush. This blaming can be a huge obstacle in the journey to transformation and enlightenment for if there is blaming there is not enough focus on the internal condition to be of much use to the seeker for spiritual pursuit.
The "Bush Bashing" or blaming Geroge Bush for anything and everything is a form of sorrow management or running from an internal condition of suffering. Some people manage their sorrow with food, others with drugs, some like to drink to run away from suffering. Others take prescriptions, complain or shop nonstop while more than a few appear to bash George Bush to manage their suffering. Running from sorrow will not lead to transformation or enlightenment. However seeing that you are running very well may.
The overwhelming and somewhat loud, support of the current administration by a seeming majority of spiritual seekers is as just as surprising as the petitions. The the election slogan, "Change" in the ancient sense of the word is closely linked with hatred.
The ancient enlightened ones defined love as acceptance and hatred as non acceptance evidenced by desiring change. For example a lady may say, "I hate this old furniture, I want to change it." She may say, "I hate my job or my life." and she will go to great lengths to make a change. A lady at one of the workshops told the group that she loved her child unconditionally, but confessed that she wished that he was not so sloppy and got better grades. She also wanted him to cut his hair and dress nicely. With the desire to change the boy, is unconditional love truly there or is this part of the illusion?
Look into your lives for a moment. What would you like to change if you could? Who would you like to change? Can you see it? Very good! It is there that you will find the hatred.
You must start from where you are not where we want to be. This requires tremendous courage and authenticity. The very first step in this ancient path of enlightenment is knowing that it is possible for you.
The second step is realizing your condition. Look how far you have come already in just a morning! Ok so you desire change. There is hatred there. What can you do? Do not run from the desire to change, the hatred in the heart. Embrace the condition. Whatever is there ask yourself if you can accept it. Why must you be an embodiment of unconditional love?
Step 3. Embrace the condition. You are more than half way there! I am so proud of you! You cannot pump love into the heart. You must only see that the heart may be empty of love. The rest is Grace.
Just know that the desire to change someone or something is an expression of non acceptance- AKA hatred. What can be expected of politicians who want to change a country or of a people that happily embraces such change mongers. A look into history would reveal all.
If you confuse change with transformation you will suffer and cause others to suffer. If you confuse reformation with transformation you could very well become like a living corpse-so tightly reined in that you feel you are very spiritually evolved because you do not feel anger or guilt or other deemed negative emotions. In a high state of reformation you do not feel such things. However the fact is a highly reformed person feels little at all.
If your heart is full of hatred, anger, any emotion deemed good or bad, enlightenment may come quickly for you. There is little hope for the living corpse. Why are you seeking to cut the emotion? To become like a living corpse? Why are you trying to stop the judgement? It is the nature of the mind to judge. It is how it finds a point of relativity in a dependently arising creation. You will make a mess of your life and spend your years judging the judgement if you battle it. You need only see that you are judging. See these things. The Universe is perfect. The suffering is in the perception.
Now back to the miracles. It has been a coincidence in my life is that quite often at meal times during spiritual gatherings the subject turns to bashing George Bush. One morning I was having breakfast in Sedona with a well known enlightened guru and some of his followers, and this particular morning was no different. Comparisons of George Bush and the antiChrist were floating about. The guru said nothing. I commented that I thought that George Bush has a reasonably well defined Kalki aspect (according to tradition Kalki is the 10th avatar or incarnation of Vishnu. Buddha, Rama and Krishna were previous incarnations. Kalki is depicted as a warrior, carrying a sword upon a white horse).
An uncomfortable silence came. Some glared, some smirked, some stared at their plates, others looked expectantly at the guru, waiting for his response. I braced for lightening to strike, to spontaneously combust or at the very least be asked to leave the table. The guru stared at me for what seemed like a million years. Then the unexpected happened. He slammed his hand down on the table and said, "That's it! George Bush is the Kalki Avatar! Look at him! So brave he is, He shielded a secret service man with his own body-pushed him out of danger! He said this and this and this to North Korea" and so on.
Silence.
Then the guru looked across the room at the door. "There on the door.-do you see the miracle there?"
We looked. A single ray of sun was streaming through the glass on the door. The name of the restaurant, "Maria's", was painted on the glass. From the inside it read backwards-"s'airaM"
"Sai Ram"
Maria's backwards spells Sai Ram.
"These little things are the miracles," he said. "You must see this. It is a miracle that we came here and saw this."
I have been going through a stormy time in my life recently and there is not always clarity. Several nights ago, I was driving past a Ramada Inn in Phoenix. There were some homeless people down the street slowly pushing a cart. A small fender bender around the corner. Someone sitting near the highway begging. Another giving. Horns were honking. Radios playing. Palm trees were swaying. A crow flew by. Pigeons rose from the roof tops. A leaf fell. Rising and falling in a state of perfection. The "Do Not Walk Sign" flashed. A plastic cup blew down the street only to be crushed by a truck. A storm was coming. And the wonder of it all.
Two lights were burned out on the Ramada sign: the "D" and the "A".
"Rama"
Peace came.
Yes, these are the miracles.....
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