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Below is my reflection after reading the excerpt of Brother David Steindl Rast:
As I understand from my heartfelt experience of gratefulness, it arises from my heart, not from my head. When a moment of gratefulness arrives, it surprises me and it makes my heart filled with awe and joy. And the beauty of this wonderful arrival of the gratefulness is that it comes without formal invitation and without looking for it. It is spontaneous. I love one of Rabindranath Tagore's short poem. He was looking for beauty in the colorful clouds on the Himalayas, and in the flowing water of Mother Ganga, the Ganges. A blooming flower in his front yard looks at the poet and says. " O Great poet, you're looking for beauty far away though it is so close to you smilingly looking at you!" These are moments of gratefulness. I experience gratefulness in small things such as dust of snow falling on my head, sparrows looking for seeds and feeding their little baby birds, a child in a grocery store smiling and waving his hand, and someone taking care of me as I am getting old and weak. They are Divine blessings and my heart is filled with joyful gratitude. Keeping my heart open to receive gifts of gratitude and without seeking gratitude helps me grow in gratefulness. I am blessed to having handful of gracious people in my life and I am vey grateful to them. Namaste!
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Based on the reading by Bonnie Rose, below are my thoughts:
What is real me? Real me is "inner greatness" which nobody can destroy or diminish it. When I accept myself fully and not my egoistic self, When I take care of me and others selflessly, I feel deep peace in me, deep joy in me, and deep fulfillment in me. Everybody is unique. There is no need to compare oneself with others. When I do that I lose my real self. What a loss! Selfless love, self-acceptance, loving others unconditionally. and accepting others as they are opens the portal of peace, and joy, and happiness. Namaste! The title of Mark Nepo's book The Endless Practice: Becoming Who You Were Born To Be is like a mirror for me to see the reflection of the spiritual journey of my life. We are pilgrims of light to discover the purpose of life. It's a long journey. It requires the practice of knowing where I'm going and the practice of remaining awake, alert and steadfast as I'm walking on the path. As the author says "I need to meet life head-on and heart-on" and "reveal the gift." It took time for me to figure out the purpose of my life. Why am I here? I had read about it by reading spiritual books and talking with advanced spiritual seekers and teachers. I sincerely walked on the path head-on and heart-on. I took two steps forward on the the path of spirituality and one step backward. As I had seen the glimmers of light I continued my journey. The light of my faith never got extinguished. Patience and perseverance, practicing meditation, and seeing the light coming from within have been very helpful to me in the pilgrimage of my life.
Namaste! Here is my reflection to the article written by Rick Rubin:
Each one of us has our unique vessel or container, mind which gets filled with our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and dreams and aspirations. The content in the container-in the mind- changes as we grow. Sometimes we hold on to the contents in the container and restrict our freedom to grow. We may be bound by the past contents and hold on to the worn out impressions. The challenge for us is to let go of the past impressions and keep our mind free, flexible, and open. It is up to us to be tethered for survival and utility or let go of our self-created bondage and expand our consciousness. As far as my self is concerned, I have gone through understanding my self, my world, and understanding and relating to other's view points by learning from myself and learning from others whom I trust and admire. They were my role models. As I grew up I expanded the window of my world view and the views of other people with an open mind and open heart and learned how to discriminate between right, wrong and in-between. I get rid of either- or- mindset like either you are with me or not with me. Living this way has expanded and enriched my life. As I mentioned before role models like my father and mother, reading books authored by writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Thich Nath Hanh, Leo Tolstoy and the Bhagavad Gita and many spiritual books have helped me to deepen and expand my world view. Living what I learn is very crucial for my mental, emotional, social and spiritual development. I deeply value the gift of Meditation which I received from my father and some great teachers of Mindfulness Meditation. I am very grateful to them. Namaste! Below is my reflection on the article written by Geneen Marie Haugen, PhD,
We all imagine. I do not know about animals. Imagination is the source of creativity. New ideas are created by imagination. When we allow, new ideas arise with an open, free and imaginative mind, life changes for better. We do not become possessive. We share our ideas with others for the benefits of others. Sharing our ideas with others unconditionally benefits all. I consider such creating and sharing a spiritual gift to me as a giver and to others as receivers. I do not posses such ideas and copy right them. They are to share with anybody willing to receive them and pass them to others as gifts. As Saint Francis of Assisi says giving is receiving. As the ancient Hindu Rishis say in Ishavasya Upanishid in Sanskrit-tena tyaktena bunjithah my phalesu kadachana-Renounce and rejoice with no expectation of rewards. Every morning when I wake up I see in my back yard mother or father sparrows feeding seeds first to their little ones and then they pick up and eat the left over seeds. This may be an instinctive behavior. To me it is a spiritual act. And we all can do it when we do not have a colonial mind , a possessive mind, a controlling mind. Namaste! Reading this passage 'A Flame In A Dark Cave' authored by Colin Walsh reminds me of a song my mother used to sing in my native language Gujarati "Dilman divo karo, divo karo." Let the light of the lamp shine within your heart. There were times when I used to find fault in what others were saying or doing. And my mother lovingly would sing this song reminding me of looking within to see the light coming from uncluttered, calm and clear inner space. I learned that there is light of wisdom radiates from within when I keep my heart and mind open to receive it. It is an unconditional gift and I bow gratefully for receiving it.
I am a human being some times doing wrong things. The Being component of human being helps me keep my eyes open to see the light of the truth and follow it. This is the path of Liberation and I am happy to follow it. It is a journey of shifting the inner gear from human doing to human being. Namaste! Based on the wonderful reading, written by Rabbi Yael Levy, I have penned down my reflection:
Offering forgiveness, compassion, connection and love to the people who hate us is the antidote to hatred, scorn and disdain. Acknowledging the waves of anger and revenge and letting them go helps me maintain my equilibrium. It takes time to cultivate such mindset. Patience and perseverance help me to navigate my life course. Sadly, some times people have thrown arrows of hatred towards me. They are judgmental and cynical. I have learnt not take their behaviors personally. Becoming aware of what's going on inside me , process it and let it go. Namaste. This passage reminds me of a poem composed and sung by Saint Kabir. " Dhundhe kahan mere bande, main to teri pashun" It is a dialogue between God and the devotee. God asks his devotee: Where are you looking for Me? I am already within you. Awake. Open your eyes and see that I 'm within you."
All wisdom traditions teach us that by emptying the cup of selfishness, it is filled with fullness. It is a paradoxical truth. I have been reading, and reflecting, and chanting such spiritual mantras. It keeps me awake and helps me to losen and eventually let go of the grip of selfishness. It is a slow and steady journey. And I am not in a hurry. Light of awareness helps me awake to see the light of the truth. Namaste! Is there soundless sound? Yes. When the noises are created in the noisy mind and by the noisy mind, I do not hear my genuine voice. When I and the person are talking with noisy mind we do not hear the genuine voice. According to my understanding, when I listen to my genuine voice as well as the genuine voice of the other person there is genuine understanding of myself and the genuine understanding of the other person. Genuine listening with a quiet mind creates the sound of the genuine. The sound of the genuine has depth in it, the realness in it, the authenticity in it. There is a word in my native language that describes the noisy and meaningless sound as bakavas. Such communication causes headaches and frustrations. I have experienced and I experience genuine sound when my mind is calm and clear. These are the precious moments when I am able to think and act clearly and wisely. Mindful listening helps me hear my self-created noises and it creates genuine, enriching, and wholesome relationship with me and with others. Keeping my mind and heart open, clear and free and relating to others mindfully helps me create and sustain genuine relationship with me and others in my life. I love this short, sweet and thought provoking passage authored by Howard Thurman.
Namaste! The notion of brokenness is not something to be hidden but unveiled, reminds me of Buddha's four Noble Truths.
Namaste! Above is my reflection to the article written here. |
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