When you are living the truth of one reality, every secret reveals itself without effort or struggle. It.
By itself, faith can’t deliver God, but it does.
In the infinite consciousness universes come and go like particles of dust in a beam of sunlight that shines through a hole in the roof. Death is ever keeping a watch over our life. All objects are experienced in the subject and nowhere else. Whole worlds arise and fall like ripples in the ocean. Vashistha.
Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature, and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.
What this says on a spiritual level is that we can never really know what direction life will take, what changes those small butterfly-flutters of intention and action might cause in our destiny. And at the same time, it also tells us that we can never truly know the mind of God. We can never fully understand the how, where, and when of anything, even something as simple as boiling water. We have to surrender to uncertainty, while appreciating its intricate beauty.
Listen with regard when others talk. Give your time and energy to others; let others have their way; do things for reasons other than furthering your own needs.
Second, withdraw from shaming others. This behavior is a disguise for you. You think that if you gossip, tear people down, try to look superior, or in any other way go on the attack, you will find protection from your own vulnerability. In reality, all you are doing is immersing yourself in the culture of shame. Step away; you can’t afford to be there any longer.
People often speak of bad karma, concentrating on the aspect of wrong; but in its purest form, karma can be right or wrong and still leave an imprint.
The voice of silence speaks clearly in those moments, and you can ask it to speak anytime you want. In time it will become the voice you trust more than anything else.
When you’re not distracted by self-image, you can only be in the state of innocence.
Ask yourself, if money was no concern and you had all the time and money in the world, what would you do? If you would still do what you currently do, then you are in dharma, because you have passion for what you do – you are expressing your unique talents. Then ask yourself: How am I best suited to serve humanity? Answer that question, and put it into practice.
Innocence is our natural state, before it becomes covered over. What covers it over is self-image. When we look at ourselves, even when we’re trying to be completely honest, we see an image built up over many years, in layers that are complexly woven together. The lines and wrinkles that develop in a person’s face tell the story of past happiness and sadness, triumph and defeat, ideals and experiences. It is almost impossible to see anything else.
You feel resentful to be on the low side of the comparison, yet being on the high side brings no peace either, because there’s no such thing as being better all the time. So this is a great game to give up – you win by walking away.
According to an ancient Upanishad, the human mind is like two birds sitting on a branch. One of the birds is eating the fruit of the tree while the other lovingly looks on.
Each repetition pales by degrees because, when you return to what you already know, it can’t be experienced for the first time.
And what is breath? It is the carbon dioxide and oxygen that come from the metabolism of every cell in that stranger’s body. That is what you are inhaling, just as other people are inhaling your breath. So we are all constantly exchanging bits of ourselves – physical, measurable molecules from our bodies.
Karma waits on the doorstep,” meaning that a person may try to walk away from past actions, but like a dog sleeping by the door until its master returns, Karma can be endlessly patient. Eventually the universe will insist on redressing the balance of wrong with right.
The conflict between who we are and who we want to be is at the core of the human struggle. Duality, in fact, lies at the very center of the human experience. Life and death, good and evil, hope and resignation coexist in every person and exert their force in every facet of our lives. If we know courage, it is because we have also experienced fear; if we can recognize honesty, it is because we have encountered deceit. And yet most of us deny or ignore our dualistic nature.
We live like actors in a play who are given only one line at a time, going through the motions without understanding the full story. But when you get in touch with your soul, you see the whole script for the drama.
In becoming more fully your true self, you have to understand and embrace the less attractive qualities in yourself. The essential nature of the universe is the coexistence of opposite values. You cannot be brave if you do not have a coward inside you. You cannot be generous if you do not have a tight-fisted person inside you. You cannot be virtuous unless you also contain the capacity for evil.