Our attitude in the way we look at things plays an extremely important role in living life. One way of living life is for example, we are in a dark room and one very small ray of light enters and the goal is to reach the sun. In one way, we can say there is no light, all of life is a waste, everywhere is darkness. The other way we can think is that just by this one ray of light as a possibility, using this ray, from where this ray is coming it is showing me the path and I can go towards it and reach the sun. That changes the attitude totally. Whatever good experiences you have in meditation, like the ones of extreme stillness, you don’t realize for how long you sit, and that came because there is peace, there was thoughtlessness. That is a significant gain. Or the experiences of joy and bliss. Remembering these experiences and repeating those thoughts in mind instead of thinking of some facility that did not work, or complaints, or thinking of how I can get my things done at others’ expense, or creating obstacles for yourself, that’s another way to look at life. More and more we look towards positivity, the negativity goes out of the system. Keep the memory of these good experiences, the ones you are having here and now and the ones you had in life. “These are the moments I would really like to have in life.” Write down the moments you had and want to have in life. Think of those rather than complaints, that will change the attitude. One time I read a story of a meditator from China who went to a village and requested shelter. Since she belonged to a different religion from the village, people shut their doors and did not give her shelter. Since she had no place to stay, she slept in the lychee tree and in the middle of the night when she woke up she saw the beautiful night sky, the beautiful stars and the beautiful flowers which she had never seen before. She was so thankful for this experience that she went back to those people who locked their doors, and with lots of gratitude she thanked them because if they didn’t close their door to her, she would have never seen this, she was grateful they sent her there. Now that’s another way to look at it. Any ordinary person would complain that these people have nothing to give, no heart to share, and complain about it, get angry about it, so angry that in the night those beautiful stars and beautiful flowers won’t even be visible because anger is there, thoughts are there in mind, one is not relaxed. It takes nothing from us if we change our attitude, it only gives something to us. So instead of spending any energy on negativity, on manipulation, we start spending energy on thinking positive, on thinking of good experiences in life. In the morning one of our volunteers Satori Ji started the Kriya, only he was doing it with nobody around. There is no need to be acting like a kindergarten or having the attitude of only when they call we go, or being lost and not knowing what to do. When the group leader starts the meditation you should be like, “Hey, let’s join, quick” and we know that after waking up, the only thing we have to do is meditate after getting fresh, why waste time anywhere else? That would change your attitude. And that would change the life. Other experience, when we had the dormitory separated for ladies and gents, one Swami came and entered into the ladies dormitory, repeatedly he was requested to move into the gents dorm, and so angrily he responded, “You are teaching me the difference between man and woman, and sending me to the man’s dormitory, but I like it here!” We answered, “Yes, you like it here but we are not sure that they like you here.” To which he responded, “Oh, they love my energy so much!” When I personally went and asked, he said he was leaving, and after some time passed he still hadn’t left. He was spending all his energy in just manipulation that finally we had to throw him out. He was so focused on manipulation. With this kind of attitude, when can he reach his goal? His energy got wasted in manipulating. Not towards the goal.
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