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Yogic Wisdom Blog

The Opportunity of Life's Challenges to Awaken and Grow

5/29/2023

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For hundreds of thousands of years humans have lived upon this planet. They have, each one, struggled to exist, to survive, to have a good life - to live. And in this time throughout history people have encountered various obstacles, difficulties, struggles of the life. These struggles are a natural part of human existence; a natural part of living in this world.

There is no time in human history when there hasn't been some sort of difficulty, large or small, personal or collective. Difficulties always arise. But in addition to difficulties there are always periods of personal joy, personal fulfilment, personal expansion. Times when life seems very good. Times when you feel very connected to friends, family, loved ones. Times when you feel there is abundance in your life. These are also natural human experiences.

 
And throughout history people have had both the difficult experiences and the joyous experiences - times of struggle and strife, times of peace and integration. Some people may ask why are there are periods of struggle and strife? Why do obstacles and difficulties arise? Without them, how could you grow without both the personal and collective, obstacles, struggles, and strife? For each human being loves their life, wants to survive, wants to do the maximum to fulfil their destiny and to find true happiness.
 
But in that search and effort to find happiness, many times the happiness of others can be stepped upon. The happiness of one can be at the expense of the happiness of others. And, for the happiness of one, another may suffer - living beings of all species may suffer.
 
And so, as society goes on and the disparity between those who are well off and see profit from the way the society is operating and those who suffer, be they in human form or in other forms, becomes highly divided. There is bound to be some sort of circumstance which begins to level this off, begins to change the situation.
 
In today's world many animals are highly exploited. There has been a degree of human exploitation of the planet that there are many species dying today, completely disappearing from this world. The world is out of balance and to bring that balance back there are forces in nature which adjust, which naturally bring harmony back to the natural world, back to all the living beings. And so, this is a time of adjustment.



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It is one adjustment. Until human beings awaken to the harmony they have with all other living beings, rather than trying to put themselves above other beings and exploit others, when they begin to live in harmony and mutual love and respect with all beings, then the world will change.
 
So, in collective life as well as personal life, there are lessons to be learned from the trials and tribulations and difficulties that arise. Those are nature's way of teaching us, of showing us when we have gone too far down the wrong path, and allowing us to make adjustments, corrections.

​When people become very extroverted, trying always to find their happiness outside of themselves, then they may be very successful for a time and then hit a period where that success fails them. And you think why is this happening to this person? But, if you saw the entire scope of that person's life and many lives before, you might see that that person has come to a point in their own evolution where what they've been doing, the way they have been approaching their life, is not working. Is not for their higher good, not promoting their true spirit to awaken and arise, not promoting their path home to their source.

 
And so, certain circumstances might arise to make a correction in that path. When that happens then there is an opportunity in life to adjust, to make changes. And the same is true in collective life. It provides an opportunity. So never be daunted by the difficulties that life presents individually or collectively. But, take them in stride as an opportunity to change, to grow, to expand, to go inward to know your inner most self, to become connected to the entirety of your being. Such are the ways that nature adjusts, and the laws of the universe are sustained. This is the path of dharma.


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How to Live in Harmony with Each Other

5/16/2023

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In human life, there are many different types of experiences. There are those times when conflict arises between people. You have one opinion; another has another opinion. You have a judgment of the actions of another person. 

Conflicts can become collective when leaders assume positions opposed to the ideas of another and then the conflictual tension of the leaders is reflected through the masses that follow those leaders.

When those conflictual situations where different ideologies, different approaches, come in contrast and in conflict with each other and the people that hold those ideologies or approaches, then there is hostility and even war. War can be between two people, it can be between two groups, or two political views, or between two nations. There are different levels of war depending on the situation.

The fundamentals of conflict are that two separate views are held, be they between two feuding people, two feuding families, two feuding political systems, two feuding nations: between any two entities with opposing views. Some conflicts are easily solved by finding common ground. But there are conflicts where the common ground is not there.

And in today's world, there is a polarization of people. You will notice there is one side and another. Some want the globalization of the planet. They hold ideologies that put focus on humanity and going forward to save the planet. Some want to maintain the era of capitalism, the Vaishan era, and maintain the values of that system and have the successes they have seen in that system of that thinking approach in the past.

Naturally, these two forces clash and as the strain of the situation grows people are polarized—they are in one camp or another camp. And it seems that the amount of people who can be in the middle is becoming almost non-existent because there is such differentiation, such pull to opposites. This happens between people. It happens at all levels. And soon if it goes on, there is an entire separation between people who are of another ideology, another way of thinking.

So what to do? One wants to eliminate the other. When this happens between large bodies of people it leads sometimes to physical violence because they can find no way of settling their differences. They find no common ground, and the only solution they can see is to eliminate the other because the other is a threat.

This approach has been common in certain phases of human development. And it is common today. Family members do not talk to each other; they do not work out their differences. This is more common than in the past. Children not speaking to their parents, unwilling to sit down and find their common ground, to find their way through to harmony and love.

It happens between groups of people. It happens between political ideologies. And unfortunately, the very commonality of humanity and the love divine which binds all life together becomes forgotten in the conflict. What is seen is the other; someone different, separate, and to be disliked. The commonality of your feelings towards your children, the commonality of your love in your heart becomes unreachable because the opinions, beliefs, and actions vary so greatly.

​What to do when polarization dominates the field of the human mind, individually or collectively? There is only one true solution, to realize that everyone is connected to you. You are all part of the same whole. You are all children of the Great. Differences may be there in beliefs, ideologies, and definitions of right and wrong, but the supreme loves everyone.

The Divine showers grace on all. The Divine does not care if you are a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist or an atheist. The Divine loves all equally. The shower of grace is there for everyone.

 The rituals and the customs will vary, but in the heart of the rituals and customs is the love of the human heart, is the devotion, is surrender, not to ideologies, but to the infinite one.
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How to Live in Harmony with Each Other Cont.
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In that surrender comes the ability to realize the Great, to know that the divine is with you, to feel that you are in all beings and all beings are within you. When you surrender your ego and the rational mind to the love and grace of the infinite, that unconditional love fills you. You realize there are not two. There is no separation. There is only one, one being, one truth, one infinite Self.

 You do not simply abide in the body, in the mind, in the rational thinking, in the judgments, in the beliefs. You abide in the feelings in the heart of all that is. The pain of everyone is your pain. The love, the joy, is your joy. The animals, the plants, they are a part of you.

This is where your unity lies from which compassion flows, compassion for the pain, the suffering, the blockages. Can you love your enemy deeply and fully as the embodiment of the infinite? Can you listen to the heart of that one, even if they cannot listen? Can you see the pain, the wounding that causes ill action towards other living beings, and perhaps see it reflected in your body-mind existence? Find compassion for others for their faults and failings as for your faults and failings.

Take your lead and your ideology not from leaders, not from what is popular. Go deep within to the unity and wholeness of being and there find your dharma. There, find your way through the failures of human society, through the conflicts that plague the world. There, find the true self which includes all beings great and small, those who fight for dharma and those who fight against it. They are all part of your own self. Those who walk in harmony and truth and those who walk in ignorance and do harm due to their ignorance, are all part of yourself.

Can you find the depths of compassion to love even as you may stop someone from harmful action or criticize that action? To do it out of love, to do it with kindness for that person? Can you find your love and commonality even through your differences? Act for dharma so that there may be kindness and love between living beings. Do not be part of the problem.
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enforcing dharma and knowing you are on the right side, as so many have acted in the past. Rather, see this complex world of shades of grey, shades, and hues of many colors, not simply black and white. Follow the complexity of the human mind and live in compassion for the suffering of living beings.

In so doing there is right action. If great harm is being done to the welfare of living beings, it is the right action to turn that harm away. It is not the right action to try to hurt and harm the soul, the spirit, and the wounded person doing the wrong action. Rather, turn that action, turn that person out of deep love and care for them. If you cannot find that care, if you cannot find that love, then go and meditate on that person and on finding the love, finding yourself in them, walking in their shoes until you find your compassion.

It does not mean to not act but it means to act in a different way out of a different motive. Anger is a natural thing. It comes, it rises in defense. There is no harm in anger. It is a natural human emotion not to be criticized by yourself or others. But you cannot remain in defense. You must go back, look at your defenses, and go into yourself, where you are feeling the need for defense. Where are you feeling threatened and therefore wanting to strike out, and surrender that to the infinite. Surrender it in your sadhana.

Let the divine be your defense. Let that flow into you. Wash your heart clean. Let you see your own self in the other, so there is not I and Thou, there is only the one. And the action that is right you will do, not to harm but to prevent harm. Not to crush but to prevent crushing. Not with hate but with love, with care for the other. Then right action comes. Not all conflicts find the common ground unless they come to the warmth of humanity—the pain and the weakness that causes ill action and the kindness that can heal that pain.

This is wisdom. Apply it in your daily life. Live in truth, kindness, and wisdom and you will walk the path towards the infinite, towards the unbound love. The peace that comes in the human heart when all of this restlessness of spirit and conflict is resolved and you are at peace, in kindness and compassion for all living beings. And that means all. Understanding those who you may see as different, those who you react to, and those whose ideology you disagree with. 

Namaskar

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How to Use Love to Transform Obstacles and Suffering

5/2/2023

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All beings have suffered. Sometimes in life, things go your way; sometimes, they go the opposite—be it physical, mental, or spiritual, be it loss of loved ones, loss of health, or loss of well-being in one form or another. These periods where something difficult happens can be very challenging, but the suffering comes not only from the experience itself but from the resistance to the experience, from the resistance to the flow of the cosmos.
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You live in an interwoven, interconnected web of life, and that web moves according to its rhythm. The longings, the desires, the welfare of millions upon millions of beings woven together as one, and you are a part of that web of life, a part of that interwoven connectedness. You exist throughout the web, not just in the body and the mind that you inhabit, but in the entire web of life you are a part of the whole.

Suffering comes not only from the situations and circumstances which are difficult in your life but from your resistance to them, attempting to force your small will upon the universe to make it as you would have it. But you are part of this whole and the whole moves according to its movements. And if you accept, allow, and feel the grace of the movements, you do not know that that which appears to be difficult and a struggle for you, may lead to a great opening in your life. You do not know the consequence of the moment, the consequences of the circumstance. You assume and your assumptions become your impediments. The stories that you tell yourself become your impediment. Taking the actions of others personally, the circumstances of life as personal affront becomes an impediment.


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When you immerse yourself in love and acceptance, immerse yourself in the grace of the infinite, in the feeling of that cosmic shower of love, and let all of life in all its forms be the dance of divine love, then you, in that dance become aligned, a part of the wholeness of life, and in that alignment you become whole. In that alignment there is peace, well-being, harmony with the whole of being, allowing, moving with the ups and downs of life, staying connected to the subterranean flow of infinite being the love that abides, the love that always is, that never dies, never changes.
 
Staying connected to that love you become whole, you become strong so that you move with the movements of life. Forms change, circumstances change, but love never changes. Love is something that always is. The love of the infinite, the cosmic flow of existence, that ananda, that divine bliss, that grace, that consciousness always is here, now.

In the surface of life, like the surface of the waters of the sea, there's the rise and fall of the waves, but when you go deep the waters are always still, always calm. Healing comes in your relationship with what is. Healing comes in love that is. Healing comes through acceptance, kindness, love, and compassion for yourself and for all beings.
 
Find the love that does not have boundaries, that is not guided by judgment but that exists beyond all bounds. That love sinks you deep to that subterranean flow, to the deep waters of the sea where your heart, your mind, and your life are in harmony with all that is.

There is life in countless forms. Life abounds. The life within you is connected to the life in the trees, in the grasses, in the gardens, in all the people, and all the animals. You are a part of the web of life, a part of the intricate manifestation of the whole. Find your place in that wholeness. Find your place in that unconditional love that is at the core of all life.


Look for my new book Into the Heart of the Infinite being released in the Fall of 2023.
 

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    Maetreyii Ma:  a teacher of yogic wisdom & practices

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