When you plan for things to go your way...

When you plan for things to go your way then you have invited troops of worry to enter your home. Let your focus be only one, to be at peace always, at every moment, with each one. With worry comes emotion and emotion is the journey of the one that sees but is determined to be blind. Such a one will make peace as his last resort and to that one God and truth appear least worthy.

Be peaceful, be soft, be aware that your own follies, your own backward way of thinking lead you into the pits of worry and depression. Climb out of them and make a resolve, "I will let nothing turn me away from peace. I will accept all as His will, His grace, His plan. I will not resist that I will always be aware that I am in His hands and I am His." That is peace!

-Sai Baba

Balance in socializing and private contemplation

..Idle talk is usually considered a destructive action because it wastes our time. But if our friend is depressed and can't listen to wise advice, we can joke, tell silly stories, and use small talk to lighten his mood. Because our motivation is kind, our joking and chatting are positive.

Laughing and having a good time aren't in opposition to Dharma. The more we leave behind attachment, anger, jealousy, and pride, the more we'll enjoy whatever we're doing. Our hearts will open to others and we can laugh and smile with ease. The holy beings I've been fortunate to meet have a wonderful sense of humor and are very friendly.

In Buddhist groups, it's important for people to get to know each other and have a sense of fellowship. We can share experiences with our Dharma friends and encourage each other on the path. Buddhism isn't an isolated path, and it's important for Buddhists to cultivate group unity and companionship.

It's not beneficial to retreat inside ourselves, thinking, "Every time I talk to someone I'm motivated by attachment. Therefore I'll concentrate on meditation and chanting and won't socialize with others." One of the fundamental principles of Buddhism is care and compassion for others. Although at times we may need to distance ourselves from others in order to settle our own minds, whenever possible we should actively develop genuine love for others. To do this, we must be aware of what's happening in others' lives, care about them as we do ourselves, and offer help whenever possible. Our ability to act with love develops with time and practice, and it has to be balanced with our need for private contemplation.

-from Taming the Mind by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

If there's no wound on the hand, poison won't penetrate

If there's no wound on the hand,

that hand can hold poison.
Poison won't penetrate
where there's no wound.
There's no evil
for those who don't do it.

-Buddha, Dhammapada, 9

This self-awareness leads to self-control

Every minute you perform hundreds of karmic actions, yet you are hardly conscious of any of them. In the stillness of meditation, however, you can listen to your mind, the source of all this activity. You learn to be aware of your actions to a far greater extent than ever before. This self-awareness leads to self-control, enabling you to master your karma rather than be mastered by it.

-Lama Thubten Yeshe

Narcotics - Agni Yoga

Fiery World II, 353. On the subject of narcotics, one may add that since they require a gradual increase of the amount taken, they are as veritable chains of darkness, placing man in a helpless situation. A slave of narcotics, even though he wishes to abandon them, cannot do so without harm to himself. An increase in consumption is deadly, but denying oneself can also be deadly. True, fervent suggestion or auto suggestion can provide a saving outlet. But good suggestion and the darkness of narcosis usually do not dwell under the same roof.

-Agni Yoga

Prosperity and Abundance

Life's Riches

Spiritual abundance must be possessed first in order to use our material abundance constructively. Christ knew about this. He said “First seek the Kingdom of God, and everything else will be given to you.” The Kingdom of God is spiritual abundance. If we have spiritual abundance, all that we have will work for our eternal interests.If we do not have spiritual richness or prosperity, all that we accumulate as material prosperity will work against our own interests and eventually knock us down. This is what we are seeing in our contemporary life. There are three kinds of people and three kinds of richness:

1. people who want to have, to collect
2. people who want action, work and labor
3. people who want to be

The real richness is in “be-ness.” People can take all that you have, all that you have collected. People can stop your labour, or an accident can stop you. When you are, you never lose what you are. Life after life you grow in beingness, and every time you reincarnate you create abundance equal to the degree of your beingness. How can we have abundance? There are seven main techniques which have been used throughout the ages with great success. They are:

1. meditation, which includes affirmation and visualization
2. sacrificial service
3. joy and ecstasy
4. actualising the virtues and visions contacted through meditation
5. sharing
6. expansion of the field of knowledge
7. perseverance

You can build karma of abundance by organising your life in such a way that you always give. Give your wisdom, your guidance, you love, your serenity, your money, your labour, your energy and Mother Nature will give back to you with high interest. This is what karma is. Christ said,”To those who give will be given. Those who do not give, the things that they have will be taken from them.” The Great Universal Computer never fails to record any act of giving, even it was a cup of water given to a thirsty man.

Our needs are various, and the answers are subtle and various. Impressions and thoughts come to you, if you really need them. People meet you to help your need. Your Soul extends its hand when you are really in need. Sometimes your need is answered by taking away things you have and by making you lose things to which you are attached. If you are in greater need, greater help will come to you. If you need to guard a tree, you need one man; if you need to guard a forest, you need one hundred men. According to your real need, according to the world’s need, things are given. Greed is the state of consciousness in which you want more than you need. Often if it is given to you, you will not be able to contain it or use it, but you crave it because of some sort of mysterious sickness which is called “psychic hunger.” Abundance can be enjoyed only if one has:

a healthy body, a pure heart, an open heart, positive emotions, a well-cultivated mind, right motives, right plan, honest living, generosity, harmonious relationships.

-Torkom Saraydarian

"Ora et labora"

The alchemists' motto is ora et labora, which means 'pray and work'. Yes, pray first, and then work. Why? So that they can direct their work in the best way, for, if work makes for greater and nobler human beings, not all work is of equal value and neither are all the goals that you set yourself in your work. You should know for whom and what you are working. Because it connects us to the divine world, prayer alone brings us light and gives direction to our activities.

Thanks to prayer, light is shed on what we have to do, allowing us to use our energies for the benefit of all. Some people claim that work is prayer. Yes, that is true in one respect, but all the same it is better to pray before working.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Time and space are an illusion only when...

Time and space are indeed real. Your experiences are indeed real. For those who tell you that it is merely an illusion, by and large that is not their EXPERIENCE. They are mouthing a philosophy; and they're not even giving that philosophy its due credit, because they are not experiencing the truth of it. The truth of the matter is that time and space are an illusion only when one is speaking from and experiencing from the true point of beyond them. And when one is truly beyond time and space, one is functioning in Absolute Sourceness, undifferentiated and nondimensional.

However, when the teachers with whom you have been working speak of relativity as being within the confines of consecutive time and an illusion, from their perspective, it is quite true. Their point of view is valid because time exists for them also, but not in the same consecutive fashion that it does for humanity.

If you firmly believe in the free-flowingness and the liberation of consciousness, then that is what you will experience I your life, which will in turn reinforce your belief. If you firmly believe, as most do, in the binding nature of life, then that binding nature will create all of the validation and proof that you need for believing that. That is the gift that the Creator has given to you.

(Mahatma, 278)

If it is sensuality that dominates in love

Are you waiting for the love of a man or a woman? It may come your way, but if it is sensuality that dominates in this love, it will not last. Why? Because the Creator has not granted long life to sentiments inspired by instincts. If you are counting on these, you must expect disappointments and know you are going to suffer. But when this happens, remember that it is your inferior self who is suffering. Your higher Self is applauding, hoping this experience will serve as a lesson to you and will teach you to count only on the manifestations of your divine nature.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The beggar and the monk

A monk was meditating in the desert when a beggar came up to him and said: 'I need to eat'.

The monk – who was almost reaching the point of perfect harmony with the spiritual world – did not answer.

'I need to eat', insisted the beggar.

'Go to the town and ask someone else. Can’t you see that you are bothering me? I am trying to communicate with the angels”.

'God placed himself lower than men, washed their feet, gave His life, and no-one recognized Him', the beggar replied. 'He who says he loves God – who does not see – and forgets his brother - who does – is lying'.

And the beggar turned into an angel.

'What a pity, you almost made it', he remarked before leaving.

Self-discipline is not self-torture - Yogananda

Self-discipline is not self-torture; it is the way to organize and concentrate the unruly forces of the mind on those specific habits of living that can bring us true happiness. By doggedly following the methods of self-discipline we can rid ourselves of restlessness, bad habits, and misery-producing desires, and become truly happy.

-Paramahansa Yogananda

Freedom lies in submitting to God's plans

In our soul and spirit we are free, but this freedom is only available to us to the degree that we strengthen our links with heaven. Our freedom lies in submitting to God's plans, in not rebelling against difficulties and suffering or trying to avoid them, but in reflecting on them and understanding why they exist. Heaven may not change any of the events we must live through, but inwardly it will give us the chance to deal with them better, and we will therefore experience them less painfully.

The freedom we must seek is not on the material plane but on the plane of consciousness. If we accept what God, master of all destinies, sends us, and if we wish to work for him, he will allow us to go through our trials as sources of spiritual enrichment, and in this way we will truly begin the apprenticeship of our freedom."

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The more you are personal, the more you are grief-stricken

In your sleep your personality goes completely, and you become impersonal. There is, however, a seed of personality potentially present even in sleep, on account of which you wake up the next morning. For all practical purposes your personality is wiped off, and so it is that you are very happy in sleep, indicating thereby that impersonality is the source of happiness, that personality is the source of sorrow. The more you are personal, the more you are grief-stricken. The more you become impersonal, the more you become happy.

-Swami Krishnananda

The best way to get rid of weakness

The best way to get rid of weakness is to strike it at its very root - the mistaken belief that you are the body, that you have a name and a form, these senses, this intelligence and this mind. These are all the luggage you carry.

Don't you say, "my mind", "my hand", just as you say, "my book", "my umbrella"? Who is this 'I' that calls all these "mine"? That is the real 'you'. It was there when you were born, when you were sleeping forgetful of all else, forgetful even of your body with all its equipment, internal and external. That 'I' cannot be harmed; it does not change, it knows no death or birth. Learn the discipline that makes you aware of this truth and you will be ever free and bold. That is real Vidya (knowledge), the Atma Vidya (knowledge of the Self).

-Sai Baba

Think of the light more than you think of anything else

Try to acquire the taste for working with the light: not just with sunlight but also with this invisible light that imbues all of creation, for only the light can re-establish order in you, can make all your cells vibrate in harmony and restore your health. It is light that possesses the greatest powers on the physical plane, just as on the psychic plane. It's not perhaps the fastest method, but its effects are permanent.

Think of the light more than you think of anything else in your life, for the extreme subtlety of its vibrations takes us closer to the world of the spirit. For at least a few minutes each day, think only of light and nothing else. It will be like a beam of pure particles passing through you. This beam will become so powerful it will touch all creatures on earth and awaken their divine nature.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Natural calamities, Nature recycles

If we do not have spiritual richness or prosperity, all that we accumulate as material prosperity will work against our own interests and eventually knock us down. This is what we are seeing in our contemporary life. All that we found and have is endangering our survival, through poisoning and polluting nature, through radioactivity, depressions, crimes, and through the danger of a global war and destruction. But it is interesting that when man reaches an impasse and makes himself the prisoner of his inventions and enters into his own coffin, Nature takes over and recycles Itself and gives humanity a new chance to discriminate and choose on the path of its ascent.

The recycling of the Nature means massive earthquakes, submergence of continents, and widespread natural calamities.
People think that Nature recycles only the material universe. It is interesting to know that Nature also recycles the pollution of our emotional, mental and moral emanations and gives us a new chance to proceed on the path of our evolution. This recycling of the emotional, mental and moral pollutions or forces is not done without payment. Man pays for all that he does against nature through his pain, suffering, ignorance and delay on the Path to Home.

-Earthquakes and Disasters, Torkom Saraydarian

The more you become yourself, the more you will feel responsible for the world - Osho

"The more I move into meditation, the more I feel responsible for myself and for the situation in the whole world. How is that possible?"

The more you become yourself, the more you will feel responsible for the world because the more you are becoming part of the world — you are not separate from it.

Your being authentically yourself means a tremendous responsibility, but it is not a burden. It is a rejoicing that you can do something for existence.

Existence has done so much for you, there is no way to pay it back. But we can do something. It will be very small compared to what existence has done for us, but it will show our gratitude. It is not a question of whether it is big or small; the question is that it is our prayer, our gratitude, and our totality is involved in it. Yes, it will happen: the more you become yourself, the more you will start feeling responsibilities which you had never felt before.

I am reminded.... In the life of Mahavira, the most important Jaina philosopher.... He is going from one village to another village with his close disciple, Goshalak. And this is the question they are discussing: Mahavira is insisting, “Your responsibility towards existence shows how much you have attained to your authentic reality. We cannot see your authentic reality but we can see your responsibility.”

As they are walking, they come across a small plant. And Goshalak is a logician — he pulls the plant and throws it away. It was a small plant with small roots. Mahavira said, “This is irresponsibility. But you cannot do anything against existence. You can try, but it is going to backfire.”

Goshalak said, “What can existence do to me? I have pulled this plant; now existence cannot bring it to life again.”

Mahavira laughed. They went into the town, they were going to beg for their food. After taking food, they were coming back, and they were surprised: the plant was rooted again. While they were in the town it had started raining, and the roots of the plant, finding the support of the rain, went back into the soil. They were small roots, it was windy, and the wind helped the plant to stand up again. By the time they had come back, the plant was back to its normal position. Mahavira said, “Look at the plant. I told you you cannot do anything against existence. You can try, but that will turn against you, because that will go on separating you from existence. It will not bring you closer.

“Just see that plant. Nobody could have imagined that this will happen, that the rain and the wind together will manage that small plant back, rooted into the earth. It is going to live its life. It seems to us a small plant but it is part of a vast universe, a vast existence, of the greatest power there is.” And Mahavira said to Goshalak, “From this point our paths separate. I cannot allow a man to live with me who is against existence and feels no responsibility.”

Mahavira’s whole philosophy of non-violence can be better expressed as the philosophy of reverence for existence. Non-violence is simply a part of it.

It will go on happening: the more you find yourself, the more you will find yourself responsible for many things you have never cared about.

Let that be a criterion: the more you find yourself responsible for people, things, existence, the more you can be at ease that you are on the right track.

-Osho

http://www.osho.com/magazine/haveataste/theothermyself.cfm?Nr=9

Educating spiritual children

We know that when a child has been abandoned, when there are no adults around him to teach him to stand up or to speak, he behaves like an animal. He continues to walk on all fours and make inarticulate sounds, and it is very difficult, sometimes even impossible, to educate him.

I say this to help you understand that however elevated the spirit living in a body may be, a child or an adolescent needs adults around him who can awaken this spirit. Later on a child may manifest intellectual and moral qualities superior to those of his parents and the adults who educated him.

A disciple may become superior to his Master as well, but in the same way that the child needs parents and educators, so too have the greatest sons of God, the greatest initiates, always needed parents and educators to help awaken them to the spiritual world.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

As desires grow, disappointments and troubles also increase

Man thinks that the more he has of worldly goods the happier he will be. But, as desires grow, disappointments and troubles also increase. There should be a limit to our desires, attachments and ambitions. The world is suffering from numerous troubles because people do not keep their desires under check.

Nature has prescribed limits for everything - for the temperature of the body, the capacity of the eye to tolerate light or for the ear to listen to sound. When these limits are crossed, harm is caused to the organs concerned. All actions in life should be governed by the limits applicable to each of them. When desires are controlled, genuine happiness is experienced.

-Sai Baba

Psychic disorders and astral entities

Few doctors nowadays are willing to accept the idea that certain psychic disorders are caused by entities of the astral plane, which have penetrated human beings to feed off them and make them disintegrate. They believe that the problem simply stems from chemical elements that stop the psyche from functioning properly.

It is true that chemical elements are at play, but these chemical elements are the result, the actualization of the presence of harmful spirits that human beings have themselves attracted. These entities proliferate in the astral world and if human beings open themselves up to them, through their weaknesses and their transgressions, these entities come in and cause a great deal of harm.

These facts are very well described in all the holy Scriptures, which explains why initiates believe purity and exercises of purification to be of such importance. However, instead of reading these writings and understanding their profundity in order to then educate people accordingly, medicine looks for chemical products to camouflage the problems created by a disordered life. Why does it not see that by not treating the causes, it sinks people deeper into illness and misery?

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Osho - Vegetarianism

Man, naturally, should be a vegetarian, because the whole body is made for vegetarian food. Even scientists concede to the fact that the whole structure of the human body shows that man should not be a non-vegetarian. Man comes from the monkeys. Monkeys are vegetarians, absolute vegetarians. If Darwin is true then man should be a vegetarian.

Now there are ways to judge whether a certain species of animal is vegetarian or non-vegetarian: it depends on the intestine, the length of the intestine. Non-vegetarian animals have a very small intestine. Tigers, lions — they have a very small intestine, because meat is already a digested food. It does not need a long intestine to digest it. The work of digestion has been done by the animal. Now you are eating the animal’s meat. It is already digested — no long intestine is needed. Man has one of the longest intestines: that means man is a vegetarian. A long digestion is needed, and much excreta will be there which has to be thrown out.

If man is not a non-vegetarian and he goes on eating meat, the body is burdened. In the East, all the great meditators — Buddha, Mahavir — have emphasized the fact. Not because of any concept of nonviolence — that is a secondary thing — but because if you really want to move in deep meditation your body needs to be weightless, natural, flowing. Your body needs to be unloaded; and a non-vegetarian’s body is very loaded.

Just watch what happens when you eat meat: when you kill an animal what happens to the animal when he is killed? Of course, nobody wants to be killed. Life wants to prolong itself; the animal is not dying willingly. If somebody kills you, you will not die willingly. If a lion jumps on you and kills you, what will happen to your mind? The same happens when you kill a lion. Agony, fear, death, anguish, anxiety, anger, violence, sadness — all these things happen to the animal. All over his body violence, anguish, agony spreads. The whole body becomes full of toxins, poisons. All the body glands release poisons because the animal is dying very unwillingly. And then you eat the meat; that meat carries all the poisons that the animal has released. The whole energy is poisonous. Then those poisons are carried in your body.

That meat which you are eating belonged to an animal body. It had a specific purpose there. A specific type of consciousness existed in the animal’s body. You are on a higher plane than the animal’s consciousness, and when you eat the animal’s meat your body goes to the lowest plane, to the lower plane of the animal. Then there exists a gap between your consciousness and your body, and a tension arises and anxiety arises.

One should eat things which are natural, natural for you. Fruits, nuts, vegetables — eat as much as you can. The beauty is that you cannot eat more of these things than is needed. Whatsoever is natural always gives you a satisfaction, because it satiates your body, saturates you. You feel fulfilled. If some thing is unnatural it never gives you a feeling of fulfillment. Go on eating ice cream: you never feel that you are satiated. In fact the more you eat, the more you feel like eating. It is not a food. Your mind is being tricked. Now you are not eating according to the body need; you are eating just to taste it. The tongue has become the controller.

The tongue should not be the controller. It does not know anything about the stomach. It does not know anything about the body. The tongue has a specific purpose to fulfill: to taste food. Naturally, the tongue has to judge, that is the only thing, which food is for the body, for my body and which food is not for my body. It is just a watchman on the door; it is not the master, and if the watchman on the door becomes the master, then everything will be confused.

Now advertisers know well that the tongue can be tricked, the nose can be tricked. And they are not the masters. You may not be aware: much food research goes on in the world, and they say if your nose is closed completely, and your eyes closed, and then you are given an onion to eat, you cannot tell what you are eating. You cannot tell onion from apple if the nose is closed completely because half of the taste comes from the smell, is decided by the nose, and half is decided by the tongue. These two have become the controllers. Now they know: whether ice cream is nutritious or not is not the point. It can carry a flavor, it can carry some chemicals which fulfill the tongue but are not needed for the body.

Man is confused, more confused than buffaloes. You cannot convince buffaloes to eat ice cream. Try!

A natural food...and when I say natural I mean that which your body needs. The need of a tiger is different; he has to be very violent. If you eat the meat of a tiger you will be violent, but where will your violence be expressed? You have to live in human society, not in a jungle. Then you will have to suppress the violence. Then a vicious circle starts.

When you suppress violence, what happens? When you feel angry, violent, a certain poisonous energy is released, because that poison creates a situation where you can be really violent and kill somebody. The energy moves towards your hands; the energy moves towards your teeth. These are the two places from where animals become violent. Man is part of the animal kingdom.

When you are angry, energy is released — it comes to the hands and to the teeth, to the jaw — but you live in a human society and it is not always profitable to be angry. You live in a civilized world and you cannot behave like an animal. If you behave like an animal, you will have to pay too much for it — and you are not ready to pay that much. Then what do you do? You suppress the anger in the hand; you suppress the anger in your teeth — you go on smiling a false smile, and your teeth go on accumulating anger.

I have rarely come to see people with a natural jaw. It is not natural — blocked, stiff — because there is too much anger. If you press the jaw of a person, the anger can be released. Hands become ugly. They lose grace, they lose flexibility, because too much anger is suppressed there. People who have been working on deep massage, they have come to know that when you touch the hands deeply, massage the hands, the person starts becoming angry. There is no reason. You are massaging the man and suddenly he starts feeling angry. If you press the jaw, persons become angry again. They carry accumulated anger. These are the impurities in the body: they have to be released. If you don’t release them the body will remain heavy.

-Osho

He who gives himself up to vanity...

He who gives himself up to vanity,
and does not give himself to meditation,
forgetting the real aim of life and grasping for pleasure,
will in due time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation.

-The Buddha

The restless horse-mind

A great emperor purchased a horse for ten thousand rupees. The horse was restless and no one was able to ride it. Then his son Sikandar said, "Beloved father, I can ride this horse". He sat on the horse and rode it in the direction of the sun. The horse galloped. The emperor was quite astonished. He said, "O Sikandar: How did you manage to ride this horse?" Sikandar replied, "The horse was afraid of his own shadow so I made him run towards the sun".

Such is the restless horse-mind also. If you turn it towards atman (self) it will be peaceful. If you turn it towards maya (delusion) it will jump and dance.

-Sivananda

'Let the dead bury their own dead'

Learn to satisfy in all beings only their divine nature: their soul and spirit. Do not serve their ambitions, their selfish desires... You will say, 'Yes, but if we have to think only of satisfying their generous and altruistic tendencies, we will have problems with everyone, husband, wife, children, friends... they will be furious! Let them be furious and encourage only their divine side.

Jesus said, 'Follow me and let the dead bury their own dead.' If we interpret these words in a broad sense, we will make interesting discoveries. Why are there so many problems between men and women? It is because they 'follow the dead'. Yes, their lower nature is to be classified with the dead, and if they always try to satisfy this nature and its whims, they too will end by dying.

Jesus was not talking of the dead in the cemeteries; they are where they are supposed to be - besides, their souls are still alive. The dead that Jesus was talking about are people who have no spiritual life; it is they who are the real dead, and we must not give in to their demands.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Looking outward is the characteristic of animals

Pasu (animal) is so named because it looks outward (Pasyathi ithi pasuh). Looking outward is the characteristic of animals, not of people. The important organs of sense perception in the human body - the eye, the nose, the tongue, etc.- all open outward in order to contact external objects, so one has to conclude that the physical urge, the body's vision, is all external.

The inner world is not as easily accessible as the outer world is. Perhaps only one among many, one in a million, does contact and win this inner Atmic reality through inward vision. That person is the wise one (jnani).

- Sutra Vahini by Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba

Rather than waiting for others to show you signs of trust, respect, friendship and love...

Rather than endlessly waiting for others to do you a good turn, to show you signs of trust, respect, friendship and love, and, above all, instead of complaining when this does not happen, start manifesting these good sentiments toward others yourself. Whatever happens as a result, you will always benefit. Even if, in spite of your efforts, people fail to live up to your expectations, your efforts will activate something in the invisible world, and luminous entities will come to your aid.

So at every opportunity, endeavour to comfort, encourage and enlighten others, and you will notice that a higher power will come and support you. If you need love and light, try first to give them to those who need them even more than you do, and God himself will come to love and enlighten you.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

In order to have sacred thoughts

In order to have sacred thoughts, give up vices like smoking, consumption of non-vegetarian food and intoxicants.

Do not waste food, money, time and energy.

-Sai Baba

If you really want to find love, then love, and stop looking for it

Are you looking for love? This explains why you cannot find it. You may say: 'But I need love, and how will I find it if I don't look for it?' If you really want to find love, then love, and stop looking for it. You will see, it is love that will pursue you, and even if you want to get rid of it, you will not be able to. You will chase it out the door and it will come back through the window!

Yes, as soon as you stop looking for love and decide to give it instead, it will appear. The more you look for it, the more remote it will become. It is as if you were chasing your own shadow; it runs in front of you and you cannot catch up with it. When you look for love from others, you concentrate on something outside yourself; you distance yourself from the treasure within you and eventually lose it.

This is how it works. Instead of looking for love, give it, constantly renew it in yourself and you will always feel its presence within you. It will always be there smiling at you, gazing on you kindly.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Connecting to spirits

Because spirits can be positive or negative in relation to humans, it is wise to be careful with practices that connect the practitioner to a spirit. It is currently popular for people to take drum journeys in their imaginations and to look for guardian spirits and power animals and so on. Although usually this is beneficial, or at least harmless, there really are beings with whom the rare individual will connect. Not all of them are beings anyone should want to connect with.

There seems to be little regard for who the being is; this can be a dangerous practice. People are much more careful about choosing a business partner or a roommate than they seem to be about choosing a non-physical being for a guide or guardian.

--from Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Turn your attention to the stars

Your personal life is of little significance, so why make it the center of your concerns? What are your little problems compared with the immensity and abundance of the life a spiritual teaching provides? If you're forever focusing on yourself, on what you like or dislike, on what does or doesn't suit you about other people, you will never really start your work. You will remain buried under a heap of insignificant things, while infinite space lies open before you.

Stop making everything revolve around you, your partner, your children, your friends and neighbours. Do you think the stars are interested in your family life or your social life? It's up to you to turn your attention to the stars, and everyone will feel better for it. "

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Sufi Story

One day the sun and a cave struck up a conversation. The sun had trouble understanding what "dark" and "dank" meant and the cave didn't quite get the hang of "light and clear" so they decided to change places. The cave went up to the sun and said, "Ah, I see, this is beyond wonderful. Now come down and see where I have been living." The sun went down to the cave and said, "Gee, I don't see any difference."

Drugs cannot feed the soul

You will never be fulfilled by giving your physical body, your heart and your intellect what they ask for. Why? Because you are neglecting your soul, which is hungry and thirsty too. You have to feed your physical body, your heart and your intellect, but you cannot leave it at that.

Indeed the fact that more and more men and women resort to taking drugs is a warning sign. It is a sign that the soul is not able to make itself understood, it is suffocating, it wants to travel in infinite spaces and find the celestial regions. But drugs cannot satisfy the soul, and what is more, they destroy the body. And human beings, poor creatures that they are, do not know how to interpret the language of the soul.

Drugs will never be a solution, because it is something given to the physical body, and it is not the body that is wanting to escape. The need to escape comes from the soul. It is therefore the soul that finally needs to be fed.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

The desire to abandon earth

Cosmic Intelligence hasn't sent us to earth for us to think only of leaving it once we've arrived, under the pretext that heaven is our true homeland. The desire to abandon earth for heaven is just as harmful to our physical and psychological health as the desire to abandon heaven for earth.

Some people, once they have decided to pray and meditate, run the risk of giving way to laziness or even mental confusion, for they come to the point where they can no longer distinguish between what's real and what's imaginary. That should be avoided at all costs. Even moments of ecstasy, which are the most desirable states for a mystic, are very detrimental to health if they are not experienced in moderation, with caution and wisdom. It is said that God is a devouring fire, and the physical body is not built to endure this fire for any length of time.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Two kinds of suffering

There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first.

-Ajahn Chah

Relationships from past incarnations

How do human beings come to be part of the family to which they belong? Let us look at the birth of children. When a child is born into a family, he may in a previous incarnation already have had a relationship of some kind with the people who are now his parents. If the child is a boy, he may have been a lover, a fiance or a husband to the person who is now his mother. The same with a daughter and her father; they experienced a certain form of love in the past and now, in order to evolve, they must love each other in a different way.

If a man and a woman feel a sexual attraction for each other in this life, it may well be that they will come back to love each other as parent and child. Once again they will kiss each other, but their kisses will be those of mother (or father) and child. And it may also be that, in a previous incarnation, people who harmed others must now welcome these very same persons into their family as their children so that they may make amends. Be they parents, children, brothers or sisters, the reasons for a certain group of people to be together as one family in this life are infinite and each case has its own individual explanation.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Happiness is in giving love

"...Happiness is in giving love; and happier is the one who loves rather than the one who is loved. When this truth is realized, all happiness will materialize. Therefore, learn how to love, become accustomed to love everything beautiful, and develop active compassion toward everything that is not yet perfect. Be kind and polite to your subordinates, as such is the privilege and beauty of a lord of spirit!"

-Letters Of Helena Roerich I, 21 August 1931

Illusional expectations from spiritual methods

When we decide to follow a spiritual teaching, we must seek nothing other than methods for improving ourselves. Those who imagine that through a spiritual teaching they will learn the secrets of the elixir of eternal youth or the universal panacea, and, that they will then be sheltered from illness, old age and death, are under dangerous illusions. Even a saint, an initiate, despite his knowledge, light and power, does not escape illness or old age.

Just because we are living in the light does not mean we are sheltered from physical harm. Light is one thing, health and longevity are another. Light is even willing to remove you from the earth and take you to its own region on high. To those who cling desperately to the earth, it says: 'But why do you insist on staying so long in this dark place? Come and live with me.' In the meantime, we must work with all the means a spiritual teaching gives to us.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

As your attachment to the body increases, your suffering also increases

First and foremost, reduce your attachment to the body. As your attachment to the body increases, your suffering also increases.

The body is the temple of God. Think that this is not your body but the temple of God. The body is sacred as God resides in it. It is God's gift to man. Hence, use the body for performing sacred deeds and attaining bliss therefrom. When you share bliss with others, you will experience Divinity.

Continue your spiritual practices. But remain always suffused with the feeling that God is in you, above you, below you, around you. Never think that God is away from you. "I am not alone. God is with me." Strengthen this feeling in you and shape your life accordingly. Lead your life with love.

-Sai Baba
Divine Discourse, May 26, 2002

An advice for overcoming psychiatric disorders, by T. Saraydarian

The difference between a person who functions on the mental plane and one who functions on the astral plane is like the difference between a telescope and binoculars. The one who is on the mental plane can control his senses, but the one who is on the astral plane is controlled by his senses and he cannot turn them off once they start to operate.

When one develops his mental senses, he can also control his astral senses, if they were developed under the supervision of a highly developed mind.

Sometimes people come and say, "I am continuously hearing people talking, day and night. What can I do to stop it?" They have no control over what they are hearing. The medical profession puts chemicals into their bodies and makes the talking stop. But there is a better method: Create conditions in which the person faces problems and tries to solve them, or he faces questions and tries to answer them. Urge him to study science, chemistry, physics, arithmetic, biology, etc., to polarize his consciousness on the mental plane. Once his consciousness shifts from the astral to mental plane, his astral problems will begin to vanish. Those who have astral problems must not meditate and follow abstract teachings, but rather study science and engage in physical labor. Once they shift their consciousness to the mental plane, they will develop control upon the astral senses.


-Torkom Saraydarian

As the food, so the mind

The body and the mind are closely inter-related and both derive sustenance from food. Therefore, food has considerable impact on the character and destiny of the individual. As the food, so the mind; as the mind, so the thought; as the thought, so the act. All that is perceived by the senses constitute 'food'. For the Sadhaka (spiritual aspirant), the intake must always be Sathwic, i.e., pure and moderate. The sounds, the sights, the impressions, the ideas, the lessons, the contacts - all must promote reverence, humility, balance, equanimity and simplicity. It is only the Sathwic 'food' that will keep the mind on an even keel, fully concentrated on the Atma on which one must contemplate in order to attain peace.

-Sai Baba

All of humanity's difficulties are caused by a lack of light

Depending on our temperament, we all feel the need for something: money, glory, pleasures, love, justice, peace and so on. People are prepared to move heaven and earth to get what they believe they need. And there are so many things to ask for! But how often have you heard anyone say: 'I need light. I have to have light'? No, most humans do not value light very much, and they fail to see the consequences of being without it.

But the consequences of being without light are actually very serious: all of humanity's difficulties and tribulations are caused by a lack of light. Those who are without light are not likely to find what they are looking for, or, if they find it, they are not likely to keep it. Do you imagine that without light you can have love, justice or peace for long?

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

What is a disciple

There are many definitions of what a disciple is, but the most appropriate definition is that a disciple is an efficient person. To be efficient means to have command of one's mechanism and of life in general, at an increasing pace. An efficient person can put causes into action and produce results. He acts as a spiritual dynamo and creates activities in far-off places. He is a charge of psychic energy; through his thoughts, words, actions and enthusiasm he makes machines and factories operate in many realms. He initiates causes that further the evolution of people.

A disciple is able to think, to speak, and to act independently without serving the interests of separate parties. He is also able to keep silent, to renounce, and to disappear. He is often recognised by what he does not do and by what he does not say or even think. He is able not to follow associative suggestions and bribery; he keeps his mind clear.

Challenge for Discipleship
by Torkom Saraydarian

Seclusion is the price of greatness

Always remember that seclusion is the price of greatness... Walk in silence; go quietly; develop spirituality. We should not allow noise and sensory activities to ruin the antennae of our attention, because we are listening for the footsteps of God to come into our temples.

-Paramahansa Yogananda

Recognition of what it lacks

Recognition of what it lacks is one of the most dynamic forces in the human spirit. Realization of our greater selves comes first through the recognition of what we are not... Only the spirit that recognizes itself to be poor, through what it is not, has any promise of increase. We are beggars always to what we were meant to be.

-Laurens van der Post

Good thoughts, the best purifier

Good thoughts will be the best purifier of one's surroundings. Affirmations of the sendings of good are still stronger than purifying incenses. But one should accustom oneself to such sendings. They need not be made up of definite words but only of a directed good feeling. Thus, in the midst of daily life it is possible to create much good. Each such sending is like a cleansing bolt of lightning."

From these lines you can judge how important it is that the participants in these sendings be harmoniously attuned and really full of good will. For thought can be beautiful, but if it is not spiritualized by the fire of the heart, it will remain dead. It is good to listen to music before sending such messages.

-Letters of Helena Roerich vol II p 285

Boredom in relationships

Why have so many men and women who once adored each other grown tired of one another and separated? Because they did not know how to stay alive. If they had taken care to maintain the life within themselves, to embellish it and render it poetic, they would have continued to please each other and to love each other. Because unconsciously, it is life that all these men and women are looking for; in fact, it is the only thing they are looking for. And life is always tied to love. When you love someone, you try to explain your love somehow, whereas in fact there is no explanation: if you love him, it is because of the life that emanates from him in the form of beauty, or goodness, or purity. Or intelligence, or peace.

The boredom that inhabits so many people on earth and that drives them into dead ends stems from the fact that they do not know how to renew the life within them. They meet, and after a few moments of excitement they become bored with one another. So if you want to be loved and do not want to bore others, be alive!

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Do not take sides - Torkom Saraydarian

Do not take sides when you are talking, so that every side is synthesized in you. For example, if I say Republicans, Democrats, Chinese, Jews, Armenians, I am taking sides and we must not have sides. Stand totally neutral because you are standing for humanity. If you take sides, you lose your standards.

-Torkom Saraydarian,
Teaching the Ageless Wisdom, p. 20.

Suicides among adolescents

Why are there so many suicides and accidental deaths among adolescents?

The transition from childhood to adolescence is marked not only by great physiological changes but by psychological and spiritual ones as well; and as adolescents do not know how to channel their energies, just when life begins to manifest itself the most forcefully in them, they are in danger of dying. It is here that parents have such great responsibilities. In recalling their own adolescent experiences, they must think years in advance about the period of crisis their children will inevitably pass through, so they will be in a position to give them the elements for surmounting it.

Otherwise, what happens? When the time comes, the parents, completely overwhelmed by what is happening, let things go, telling themselves that after a difficult period everything will turn out fine. They do exactly what animals do: after a certain period of time, they turn their young loose in the wilds: whether they will survive or not remains to be seen. Indeed, they shall see what they shall see.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Necromancy, mediumism, materialization, channeling, automatic writing

The Ageless Wisdom is against necromancy. It warns against mediumistic activities and warns the servers and students to stay away from all sciences of materialization, channeling, or automatic writing.

Mediums are in contact with shells or, as they are called in esoteric science, corpses, the "spirits" left on the astral plane.

What is an astral corpse? It is the astral body which the human soul leaves behind after he passes into the mental plane, or it is a mental corpse which the human soul leaves behind when he passes into higher mental realms.

Thus we have astral corpses which are of two kinds:

a. Those which last for a long time, according to the earthly and crude substances existing in it, such as lust, addictions, habits, etc.

b. Those which last a few months, days or hours. There are corpses of very advanced human souls. Upon their departure to the Fiery World, their corpses begin to burn either slowly or quickly, or the explode immediately.

We also have mental corpses, which exist in two forms:

a. Those which melt away immediately and disappear.

b. Those which last long time according to the earthbound thoughtforms of greed, possession, revenge, and guilt.

All those corpses that last for a long time in the subtle plane have a tendency to be attracted by the sphere of earth due to existing substances in them of hatred, anger, fear, jealousy, revenge, malice, slander, etc., and due to the existence of ego, vanity, separatism, illusion, greed, revenge, and so on.

Mediums are those who give such corpses energy to come closer to human life and thus reactivate them.

How do the mediums reactivate them?

Ectoplasm and astral energy ooze out of the mediums, building a link between the medium and the corpse, and the impressions existing within the centers and senses of the corpse begin to play back, as if they were tapes or diskettes.

The subconscious mind and sometimes the conscious mind of the medium put the corpse in action and draw the "answers" that the medium needs or messages that he expects, thus making him think that he is in contact with a departed soul.

According to the Ageless Wisdom, no departed souls (except those who are caught in the etheric plane) can come down to earth. But the medium's soul can go into the Subtle Worlds, and if he is trained, he can come in contact with departed ones. But if he is not trained, he associates himself with their corpses, thinking that their are living entities.

In spiritual seances, the apparitions are nothing else but the condensation of a corpse, vested and activated by the ectoplasm of the medium.

It is possible that an advanced psychic may come in contact with living Teachers existing in Their etheric or physical bodies on the planet. This is very possible and such an advanced psychic can bring a great amount of wisdom from such Teachers.

It is also possible that some advanced psychics may come in contact with higher Hierarchies existing on sacred planets, for example, on Venus, where the source of the science of our planet is found. But to be able to contact Masters on Venus, one must have the purest heart possible for a human being.

Some mental corpses are identified with large amounts of scientific knowledge as well as other specialized knowledge. But that knowledge is not any more advanced than knowledge that had already registered in their mind while they were on earth. So these mediums who contact them gain nothing special. Mediums who do not have knowledge of contemporary science, for example, may think these corpses are giving something special!

Also, it is possible that these mental or astral corpses belong to preachers of various religions, and common-place preaching is received containing no wisdom that surpasses that of the past.

Future psychics will be trained not to make contact with shells or corpses, but to withdraw from their astral, lower mental, and even from their higher mental bodies and bypass corresponding astral and mental planes and come in contact with those enlightened spirits who live on the Intuitional Plane. Once such a contact is established consciously, the world will be blessed by a true science, by a true leadership for the good of all living forms on the planet.

What are the dangers of communicating with corpses?

a. Corpses bring astral and mental viruses into the bodies of mediums.

b. They degenerate a medium's immune system.

c. They bring confusion into the medium's mind and cause disorderliness in their lives.

d. They bring separatism, hatred, anger, revolutions, and war into humanity.

e. They agitate the minds of those with whom they had problems in the past.

f. They prevent people from striving for spiritual independence.

g. They spread lies and cause people and nations to stand against each other.

h. They pollute the aura of the medium and the aura of those who are around the medium.

i. Sometimes these corpses even come and melt into the astral and mental bodies of the mediums or into the people close to them, creating incurable mental and astral diseases.

j. These corpses can send signals to dark forces and provide astral or mental substance for them, allowing them to possess mediums and use them as agents of destruction, murder, and widespread crimes.

Those communities who tolerate mediumism eventually pay a high price for it in various way.

We must bear in mind that our goal as human beings is to advance to Higher Worlds using the following five steps:

1. Continuous efforts with rigorous courses of study
2. Meditation
3. Harmlessness
4. Purity
5. Sacrificial service

The ascent of spirit or of the human soul toward higher dimensions is conditioned by the "weight" of his bodies, so to say.

The astral body and the mental body can be heavily loaded, or filled with substance that helps to move them toward higher directions.

What are these heavy "weights"?

1. Earthbound urges and drives such as excessive food, alcohol, drugs, sex, and attachment to property.
2. Negative emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, cruelty, slander, malice, glamor.
3. Dense thoughtforms such as greed, vanity, ego, separatism, fanaticism, insincerity, wounds, and scars collected upon our subtle bodies through harmful thoughts, words, and actions taken against others.

Such loads, wounds and scars make it extremely difficult for a soul to ascend.

Some of these loads are inflammable materials which explode when passing through certain layers or frequencies of the astral and mental planes. In such cases, the human soul can have an experience of being in hell.

On the other hand, if the bodies of the human soul are filled with spiritual substance, it not only makes the flight easy but also an enjoyable journey.

The most precious "substance" of course is the psychic energy, which not only protects the human soul from various attacks but also opens the gates, so to say, on the Path and makes the human soul enjoy the bliss of freedom.

*********

A person brought me a poem given to him by the "spirit" of Kahlil Gibran. After I read it, I gave the person The Prophet to read to see how inferior the poem was that he had received from the "spirit" and said, "Kahlil Gibran has been dead for fifty years. Don't you think that in fifty years his soul could give something far superior than what he gave on earth when he was alive?"

This is a very interesting phenomena. As the corpse begins to disintegrate, its memory becomes more confused, stupid, and foggy.

Mediums and others who call down the spirits of the dead are in grave danger. Here are some reasons:

1. The vices and subtle sicknesses of the corpse may take root in the medium's nature.
2. The elementals of the corpse may penetrate into the medium's aura, creating very complicated psychological disorders.
3. The corpses may disintegrate in the medium's home and environment, causing malodors and even burning the medium's skin.
4. The corpses can retard the medium's spiritual evolution, infecting his body with inertia, apathy, and degeneration.
5. The corpses can also sap all the vital energy of the person and kill the immune system.

There are honest and pure mediums. They give something worthwhile to people. But they do not know that they are in contact with their Solar Angel, or telepathically in contact with an advanced disciple.

Such mediums must be educated and trained so that gradually they make better and conscious contacts with their Solar Angels, and eventually stand face to face with Them.

Some very clever and gifted persons, to create attention towards themselves, pretend they are mediums and write books that are below average in quality. Through such an act they prostitute their talents and give the impression to the public that "spirits" exist and the proof is in their books or writings received from such spirits.

To bring such people to their senses is very difficult. But a true disciple must find ways to make the victim know that one day his false personality must be destroyed in order to make him free. It should be pointed out that such a destruction may take ages, leaving a medium behind in his spiritual evolution.

Mediums are persons who are mostly in contact with left-over astral shells, thoughtforms, or images of living or disembodied souls. The moment the human soul leaves his body, he has no interest in the physical objects except if he is trapped in the etheric plane.

A medium very easily can come in contact with such people and be poisoned by them because, actually, the etheric plane is the subtle physical plane. The inhabitants of this plane are all earthbound people. The medium provides them the substance to come in contact with the dense physical plane. Then a medium commits one of the greatest crimes in encouraging such souls not to penetrate into higher spheres and continue their cycle of evolution.

The inhabitants of this plane are:

-murderers

-suicides

-materialists

-total unbelievers

A medium may have certain personal interests to be in contact with these sorts of inhabitants, but nothing is accomplished except that he hurts himself and he encourages such souls to stay longer in that plane.

A question arises: Suppose we have a great scientist who does not believe in life after death. If he is going to live in the etheric plane, can we profit by the knowledge which still exists in his etheric brain?

The answer is yes. Such a person will most probably stay for a long time in the etheric plane. Yes, we can profit from his knowledge, but what is the quality of a knowledge which has no vision of immortality in it? If the major goal of life is ignored, how can one develop faith in the knowledge or information received from such a soul? How can one profit from such knowledge which is generated by material interests, hate, ego, separatism, and remains an end in itself?

Also, how will we be able to see the motivating power behind such a revealed knowledge?

We may wonder how long such a soul remains on the etheric plane. The time is not known, though it acts under precise laws. Such people will probably incarnate and have another chance to come in contact with their Solar Angel or with the light of a Master. It is possible that those who still live on earth can awaken them with their prayers and meditation and awaken in them the light of the eternal Path and lead them to the astral plane.

So we have many sources from which a medium can receive messages. The are

-Corpses

-Dark forces

-Disembodied spirits

-Advanced disciples

-Their own egos

Great Teachers give the following advice regarding psychism:

1. Do not force yourself to be a psychic until your powers flourish naturally.
2. Never manipulate your centers and never concentrate upon them.
3. Find a wise Teacher when you feel that you are ready for instruction.
4. Never use your powers to satisfy the curious or selfish interests of others.
5. Study the Upanishads, The Bhagavad Gita, The New Testament, the works of H.P. Blavatsky, Alice A. Bailey, Helena Roerich, and other such literature.
6. Learn how to meditate.
7. Observe your moral life and do not be trapped in sex, vanity, greed, hatred, and fear. Such elements destroy the communication line between you and your Solar Angel.
8. Try to live in the light of your Solar Angel.
9. Do not talk about your own spiritual striving and discoveries with average people.
10. Any psychic experience must be reported to your Teacher and no one else.
11. Any psychic order revealed from the subjective realms must not be obeyed until your Teacher's advice is sought.

These eleven factors will protect you for a long time on your path.

**********

Mediums also contact the phantoms in the astral plane. These phantoms are created in the magnetism of the astral plane when people preserve corpses in mausoleums. The majority of such phantoms visit people and haunt them. We are told that most of the nightmares and hallucinations are caused by these phantoms.

Every object in the world has its astral correspondences. A corpse has its astral correspondence which is the phantom. It is very important that corpses on the physical plane be cremated. Similarly, corpses on the astral and mental planes must be burned away. It is only fire that purifies Space and minimizes the pollution produced by those who follow the path of vice, ego, vanity, separatism, and treason.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Breakthrough to higher psychism

Messages from the invisible world

We are never alone or abandoned, for we are constantly receiving messages from the invisible world. These messages are like imprints registered in the soul of the world, and they can be transmitted to us by animals, particularly birds, and even by humans. In the case of animals, of course, this takes place without their knowledge, and this is most often the case with humans as well: in general they are not aware they are bringing us messages, and learning to decipher them requires an apprenticeship.

Instead of consulting cards, crystal balls and so forth, we must be vigilant and studious in our attempts to verify or refute the messages we find everywhere in nature, especially in ourselves. As a result, we gradually begin to see them clearly. But if we are to attain this clarity some day, we must carry out a great work of purification in ourselves.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

A socially great man is not a really great man

A human being, every human being knows that he is finite, but he creates circumstances in society to remove the consciousness of finitude by somehow or other creating an atmosphere of bigness, importance. 'I am a socially recognized person; the whole world knows me.' If this idea enters the head, you feel somehow that the finitude has expanded into the world area. It has not really expanded; it has only conceptually expanded. So, a socially great man is not a really great man. He is a small man only, but people say 'Very good! Very good!' But one day they say 'Down!', and put him down."

- Swami Krishnananda

Spiritual education of children

Claiming they don't want to influence their children, some parents decide not to give them any religious education. They say: 'We want to leave them free; it is they who will choose later on.' Well, this reasoning is completely misguided.

Obviously there are certain forms of religious education which oppress the spirit, which render people narrow-minded and lead them to intolerance and even fanaticism, and we must be wary of them. But do we take away children's freedom when we make them aware of the world of the soul and spirit? No, and children who have received a spiritual education are better equipped for life than those who have received none. They will face the same difficulties, the same obstacles as everyone else, but because they have learned to enter into contact with the divine world, when conditions are such that others become weak and discouraged or follow tortuous paths, they, on the contrary, will advance and improve themselves. They will become a support and a light for those around them.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Pain and pleasure are of the same nature

The Suffering of Change

Feelings of suffering change into those of happiness. Feelings of happiness change into suffering. Both arise in dependence upon internal and external causes which change. For example, we see food as pleasurable, but if we eat too much, then it causes suffering. When we are young, we see our bodies as a source of pleasure. As we become older, the same body becomes a source of suffering.

Just as a wave is always changing, so the nature of suffering is always to change. It may be experienced as pleasure or as suffering, but it arises from the same source. Pleasure arises from suffering. Seeing pleasure as happiness constitutes suffering.

...Pain and pleasure are of the same nature. Although they look different at different times, they both arise from the same sea of delusion and karmic action. Pleasure or pain, one or the other, arises and then falls back into the ocean. Thus we can conclude that pleasure and pain within the ocean of samsara are basically suffering, and dissolve into suffering.

This becomes evident in the wide variety of sudden changes of experience depicted in films. Love and hatred, happiness and family strife, peace and war, follow each other in rapid succession. The continuous change, although exaggerated in films, is characteristic of life in general.

-Ven. Gen Lobsang Gyatso

Looking for the soul-mate

Once upon a time, there was a teacher and his student. One day they were lying down under a big tree on a grassy plain. Then, suddenly, the student asked the teacher, Teacher, I'm confused, how can I find my soul-mate..? Can you please help me..?

Teacher : Silent for few seconds, then he answered, well; it's a pretty hard and easy question.
Student : (Thinking hard) Huh???
Teacher : Look that way, there's a lot of grass there, why don't you walk there, but please never walk backward, just walk straight ahead. On your way, try to find a beautiful blade of grass and pick it up, then give it to me. But just ONE blade of grass!
Student : Well, ok then.. wait for me.. walked straight ahead on the grass field.
A few minutes later..
Student : I'm back. Teacher : Erm, well I don't see any beautiful blade of grass in your hand.
Student : On my journey, I found a few beautiful blades of grass, but each time I thought that I would find a better one, so I didn't pick it up. But I didn't realize that I'm at the end of the field, and I hadn't picked up any. 'Cause you told me not to go back, so I didn't go back.
Teacher : That's what happens in real life..

What is the message of this story..? In looking for your soul mate, please don't always compare and hope that there will be a better one. By doing that, you'll waste your lifetime, because remember Time Never Goes Back.
It applies similarly in finding your ideal life partner, your suitable, career or business opportunity. Therefore the morale is : LOVE & GRAB HOLD of the opportunity that you have. Don't waste time now.

The need to deify someone

People's need to believe, not only in something but in someone, expresses itself in every imaginable way. When they are unwilling or unable to believe in God, they are driven to deify the man or woman they love, or a monarch, a head of state, an artist, a philosopher, a scholar, an athlete. You tell me I am exaggerating, that people do not go so far as to deify others. Very well then, if they pin all their hopes on one person and, depending on the case, depend on him for their joy, their happiness, the solution to all their material problems or the meaning in their life, what would you call it? Until one day, of course, they discover they have been deluding themselves.

Is it really so bad to live with illusions about other human beings? Oh no, it is often our illusions which enable us to live! Until people can understand that God, the Creator of all worlds, is the one Being they can count on absolutely, they conduct happy and unhappy experiments, thanks to which they learn."

-Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Creating a 'pranically-viable' home

Discouraged Families

There are too many dysfunctional families in the world today. What is a dysfunctional family? A dysfunctional family is a discouraged family, a family that has no home. True, they may have a million-dollar house, but it would take a lot of constant, magnetic love and kinship to turn that house into a home. Many million-dollar homes are just houses, totally impersonal.

The guests are not God in those homes; guests are seen as business potentials and social obligations. The father works late in his profession so he can avoid his wife and family. When he comes home, he sits down in front of the television while eating his dinner. The kids are running here and there; the mother comes home tired from her equally demanding profession and begins yelling at them. Verbal abuse becomes a way of life. The youngsters come and go unchaperoned. Nobody knows what anybody else is doing. Girls are getting pregnant out of wedlock. Boys are swearing, getting involved in gangs and experimenting with drugs. That is the hotel lobby home of a definitely dysfunctional family, a discouraged family.

No wonder that in discouraged families teens want to leave home as quickly as possible--as soon they're able to get a job and rent an apartment. That is not quality living, is it? Sorry to say, but most dual-professionals' homes, where husband and wife both have high-paying jobs, are more like a hotel lobby with a snack bar than like a home with a hearth, which is home with a heart. Think about your home. Is the guest God? Is your house a home? What kind of astral vibration does it actually have? Be honest with yourself. Evaluate!

The astral pranas or energies radiating out from the hotel lobby kind of home make the occupants frustrated people. They make people around them uncomfortable, because they live in an uncomfortable place. Yes, the pranas that emanate from an empty house make one an empty person. All Hindus in the world should reverse this situation for a stable, well-adjusted community for the new and coming generations of Hindus in the West, as well as in the East. This is the next step which those of the diaspora have to heartfully take. It is only intelligence that can reverse a negative situation and turn it into a positive, encouraging situation.

It is important for the mother to be mother, and for the father to allow her to be mother, so that together they can nurture the astral atmosphere within the house and make it vibrate with spiritual energies into a real home. To make the house into a home is the next step. You will know if it is a home when you want to hurry back to it. You won't want to stay away too long, and you will find it difficult to leave. That's because you enjoy the vibration that you have created from your soul body. And your focus for whatever you are doing will be exquisite. It won't get divided.

It is a slow process for a mother and a father to turn a house into a home. They have to be spiritually present in the home. The auras of the mother and father and each of the children have to permeate the walls of the house. The Gods and guardian devas and ancestors have to be worshiped and invoked in the home. That turns a house into a really pranically viable home, building up the vibration so that you never want to leave.

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LESSON 151 from Living with Siva