The Gift Inside

Life Packaging

We all have the same things going on in our lives; they are in essence the same gift, wrapped in a different ribbon.

We have all had the experience of encountering someone whose life seems so completely different from ours that we can almost imagine we have nothing in common. However, if we go deeper into observing, we will see that we all have the same things going on in our lives. It is as if our different lives are in essence the same gift, wrapped in an infinite variety of containers, wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows. Everybody experiences loss, grief, happiness, excitement, anger, and fear. Everyone can have money issues of one kind or another, and everyone struggles with difficult choices. 

Our lives show up differently for each one of us because we each learn in different ways. One person may need to learn the value of money by having too little of it, while another may need to learn by having more than enough. We each learn about work and love, with experiences that are tailored to our particular perspective. Even as it appears that some people have it easy while others are in a continual state of struggle, the truth is that we are all learning, and it is very difficult to tell, when looking only at the exterior of a person, what�s going on inside. 

This is one of the many things that can be so valuable about cultivating relationships with people from all walks of life. As we get to know those who seem so different from us, we get to really see how much of life's challenges and joys are universal. We begin to look beyond the packaging of skin color, clothing preferences, and socioeconomic differences, hairstyles, and the cars we drive to the heart of the human experience. It is important to honor and value the differences in our packaging, but it is just as important to honor the gift of life inside each one of us, and the fact that, no matter how different the packaging, the gift inside is the same. - DAILY OM

Live Now!!

Don't postpone living by trying to solve all your problems at the same time.

In fact the nature of life is such that there will always be Things to Do, Issues to Resolve and Challenges to Overcome. You don't get started on living intelligently because you ideally want to solve all our problems and then live the life... we wish for ourselves. Let me remind you this is the biggest trap we allow ourselves to fall into. To get out of this trap, you must first know that it is impossible to have a life without things to do, complete or solve.
 
Your In Box is never going to be empty. Also know that you must navigate through life, one step at a time. Patiently, peacefully. Jetsun Milarepa, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, in the 11th Century, advised: "Hasten slowly and ye shall soon arrive". Hasten Slowly? Isn't that an oxymoron? Not really. Milarepa knew, and so will anyone who has been in a hurry and has been running hard only to discover that being on a treadmill never gets you to a new place, that the secret of intelligent living lies in walking in the direction of your dreams, soaking in the scenery, stopping to smell the roses, even as you watch your every step.
 
Today's Christmas Eve. Stop worrying. Feel the joy in the air. Hear the bells jingle. If you have postponed a vacation with your teen-aged children because you are worried about how to afford their college education, be their Santa, take them out to dinner. If you have delayed signing up for a language program because you felt you need to first achieve something with your career, go enroll yourself today and say Santa advised you to do it!. If you may have been deciding against getting married now because you are worried about the cost of running a family, go start one: companionship needs no money, honey!
 
Wake up and smell the coffee: Isn't it ironic that you have time for everything in life__to worry, to fret, to fume, to struggle, to postpone__except to love yourself, to Live? Life is happening, NOW. Where are you? - AVIS Motivational Speaker.

Work and Life

A very interesting read on HBR how to balance work and life.

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2010/12/how-trivial-decisions-will-imp.html

Total Happiness

The opportunity exists for you to experience this type of Ultimate Happiness.  Freedom from anger, freedom from depression, freedom from anxiety and above all freedom from self-loathing is available for us all --

We started with Freud thinking that our subconscious was responsible for our emotions and behavior.

Then we became the product of our childhood's, believing our past determines our future.

Astrology, birth sequence, genetics, you name it, we continued to search for the “reasons” we are the way we are. But in looking outside ourselves we are left feeling helpless. Victims to things outside our influence.

Hopelessness lives in the idea that who we are is somehow dependent and controlled by someone else or some outside circumstance. We start believing the best we could do was learn to cope and adapt. Taking the good with the bad, I think they call it.

The idea that we ourselves create who we are, can for many, be terrifying. We associate responsibility with guilt and blame. At first we want to turn away from this responsibility. The power suggested in that concept. The power over who you are. It can be overwhelming to some. But with that responsibility comes a freedom that no country can offer you and no man can give you.

With so many world concerns such as famine, poverty, cruelty, wars, etc., how can any thinking, caring individual give personal happiness any weight? Well here is my dream theory.

If everyone knew that they were responsible for themselves, knew that they always had choices, and started making their own happiness a priority, I believe we wouldn’t have murders, rapes, wars, or other violent acts. 

Why do I believe this? Because I believe at our very human foundation we are caring, giving, loving, and happy people. We come into this world happy. Violence and harm are simply consequences of individuals demonstrating their unhappiness. You know the feeling of joy. It’s not hateful or fearful.

It starts with ourselves and spreads into our homes in the form of domestic violence, child abuse, addictions, and a general "dis-ease." And as groups of unhappy people get together, we call them gangs and criminals. And as more unhappy people get together, we call those wars.

Envision people being at peace and living their lives the way they’ve always dreamed. Feeling the fulfillment that comes from knowing who you are and pursuing what you desire most. Can you then envision them murdering, stealing, or raping? With happiness comes inner peace. Inner peace and violence are like oil and water.

What if we looked at ourselves as the accumulation of all the beliefs we’ve been exposed to and took on as our own. And what if we made a vow to rebuild ourselves with new, more useful beliefs? What belief system would you build? Would it be one that supported your desires and wants? Ones that encouraged and emphasized understanding, openness, happiness, acceptance, and love?

If you could, make your personal happiness be a priority in your life - Editor's Choice of Books on Happiness – Soul N Peace.

You are a Blue Pearl

Head understands head and heart understands heart. The nose can only smell; eyes can only see; ears can only hear. Similarly, the heart can only feel while the head can only think. 

We try to put the heart in the head and the head in the heart and it doesn't seem to work. Your heart feels something is beautiful, whereas head says it is beautiful. We cling on to the word in the mind but we don't feel it. We repeat the word 'beautiful' in the head but it doesn't seem or feel beautiful. 

Same thing about love, you talk too much about love, you get stuck in the head and it doesn't rise in the heart. In silence, love emits, radiates. We experience ourselves in the things we love more. That is why, when we lose the things we love, we feel hurt; we feel unhappy. Suppose you love your piano very much and you hear that something has happened to your piano, something gets cut off in you. Or, if something happens to your car or your dog, you feel a loss. So you are not just living in your body, but also in that of the objects or people you love. But if you can expand this existence even more to cover the entirety, you will know that there is no loss and you are total. 

You are a blue pearl. Blue is beautiful; blue is something that is big, vast and infinite. All that is immense and infinite in creation and that which has depth expresses itself in blue. The sky is blue, the ocean is blue. You are a blue pearl, in the sense that you can't be measured. You are so deep in your being. Though you are in the body, nobody can measure your being. The being in you is not just the blue infinity; it's a shining radiant infinity that is deep and immense. Blue pearl means that which is shining, that which is radiant, that which is infinite; yet, it seems to be finite. 

When we start listening to our heart, then we know that all is one; and one God is in all. See, in our body we have so many cells and each cell has got its own life. Many cells are being born every day, many cells are dying but they do not know you. You know if something is wrong with one particular cell; you can feel it. Similarly, though we all have small lives, there is one life that covers and governs all the other lives. 

We are all floating in an ocean of life; a big life. It is not just empty space all around us; it is lively big life. And in the big sea of life there, all shells are floating and each shell has got a little water in it which is not the water separate from the water in the sea. So, we come out of our shells and experience, "I am not just in the body, but I am expanded all over; everywhere, it's me there and it's me here. I see myself in everybody". 

That is the essence of life! 

The Art of Living Foundation.

You are a blue pearl - The Times of India

Life as We Know It

The Status Quo

Are you more attached to preserving the status quo than to honoring the universal givens of growth and change?
When our lives are going well, and sometimes even when they aren't, we may find ourselves feeling very attached to the status quo of our existence--life as we know it. It is a very human tendency to resist change as though it were possible to simply decide not to do it, or have it in our lives. But change will come and the status quo will go, sooner or later, with our consent or without it. We may find at the end of the day that we feel considerably more empowered when we find the courage to ally ourselves with the universal force of change, rather than working against it.

Of course, the answer is not to go about changing things at random, without regard to whether they are working or not. There is a time and place for stability and the preservation of what has been gained over time. In fact, the ability to stabilize and preserve what is serving us is part of what helps us to survive and thrive. The problem comes when we become more attached to preserving the status quo than to honoring the universal givens of growth and change. For example, if we allow a situation we are in to remain stagnant simply because we are comfortable, it may be time for us to summon up the courage to challenge the status quo.

This may be painful at times, or surprisingly liberating, and it will most likely be a little of both. Underneath the discomfort, we will probably find excitement and energy as we take the risk of unblocking the natural flow of energy in our lives. It is like dismantling a dam inside ourselves, because most of the work involves clearing our own inner obstacles so that the river of our life can flow unobstructed. Once we remove the obstacles, we can simply go with the flow, trusting the changes that follow. DAILY OM

The Will of God

"A man just got married and was returning home with his wife. They were crossing a lake in a boat when suddenly a great storm arose. The man was a warrior, but the woman became very much afraid because it seemed almost hopeless -- THE BOAT WAS SMALL AND THE STORM WAS REALLY HUGE, AND ANY MOMENT THEY WERE GOING TO BE DROWNED. But the man sat silently, calm and quiet, as if nothing was happening. 

The woman was trembling and she said, "Are you not afraid? This may be our last moment of life! IT DOESN'T SEEM THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO REACH THE OTHER SHORE. Only some miracle can save us, otherwise death is certain. Are you not afraid? Are you mad or something? Are you a stone or something?" 

THE MAN LAUGHED AND TOOK THE SWORD OUT OF ITS SHEATH. The woman was even more puzzled -- what he is doing? Then he brought the naked sword close to the woman's neck -- so close that just a small gap was there, it was almost touching her neck. 

He said, "ARE YOU AFRAID?" 

She started to giggle and laugh and said, "WHY SHOULD I BE AFRAID? If the sword is in your hands, why should I be afraid? I know you love me." 

He put the sword back and said, "This is my answer. I know God loves me, and the sword is in His hands, and the storm is in His hands -- so WHATSOEVER IS GOING TO HAPPEN IS GOING TO BE GOOD. If we survive, good; if we don't survive, good -- because EVERYTHING IS IN HIS HANDS, AND HE CANNOT DO ANYTHING WRONG." 

This is the trust one needs to imbibe. SUCH TREMENDOUS TRUST IS CAPABLE OF TRANSFORMING YOUR WHOLE LIFE! And ONLY such tremendous trust is capable of transforming your life -- less than that won't do." 

Everything happens for a purpose, We may not see the wisdom of it all now but trust and believe in the Lord that everything is for the best!