ACCEPTANCE MEDITATION - THE BEST STRESS BUSTER & PROBLEM SOLVER

LIFE

A HURDLES RACE

Life is a hurdles' race. 

We all face difficult situations and hurdles in life. Don't we?

It is as if, some one is always watching and placing these hurdles, one after another, in our path of life, deliberately. Some times, there is a gap of a few days, or a month. But soon, some problem, some thing unpleasant, some thing difficult to cope, comes up in life. It happens to everybody. From President Obama, to your next door neighbor. And to You.

Things are not always very pleasant nor do they come or go as you plan always.

EXPECT… THE UNEXPECTED…

Just observe critically what is happening in your life. Your life had always passed through and will always pass through difficult situations and hurdles periodically. It shall be so, till the last breath. Your first breath was also a traumatic situation, for you and your mother.

You did fall sick many times in your life; your spouse did; your children did; your parents did; The future too does not guarantee health to any of you at all times.

Your children may not read well. They may often get lesser marks than what you feel, your genes deserve. Your spouse may feel otherwise. Your children may marry the wrong person or  find unable to adjust in marriage. You are ageing. Children don’t want to be near you. They don’t care for you; it is very bothersome, despite all that you did to them. Any way, you are also not willing to stay with them.

Your spouse passes away. You find a vacuum.

PROBLEMS GALORE … ALL AROUND…

There are all sorts of such problems inside and outside the home.  Your team did a fantastic job last year. Yet, your company incurred losses. The management was awful. Customers had no sense. Salesmen should be fired. 

So many mistakes all around. But, your job is now at stake.

Your national economy is collapsing. A dangerous virus is spreading all across 

the continent and spreading fear and fever. It is now immune to the anti-biotic or virus-killer you got injected last time. You too are in the list of probables.

Problems are multiplying. Ice is meting; earth is heating up. Air is cracking up where it should not; And, no one really cares. Add to it terrorism. It is everywhere. Why do they kill and whom? It is not clear even to them. You read news papers and see TV. So, every day morning, world problems become your problems. They are a diversion from your problems. There are more causes for some to get more drunk.

Do you any clue, how and when any one of these problems will ever get solved?

At the minimum, your problems with your spouse and your spouse’s problems with you. How wonderful will life be if at least these two sets of problems are solved? But then, even these problems seem to defy any permanent solution. They are there forever.

EXPECT …THE UNEXPECTED…

God may make matches in heaven but man can certainly put them asunder right on earth. These are new man-made laws – apart from what God made.

But, God has been at work in recent past in modifying creation. He has introduced Gayism and Lesbianism which are spreading like …viruses or saviours. The latest revelation from the sky (Like in the  good ol’ days of scriptures) is that –  God no more makes man and woman as MADE FOR EACH OTHER. Not in all cases.

God has made not only these, but also meteors. He needs them when things get out of hand. There is no way of predicting when the next meteor will strike the earth. When it strikes earth at some place, People will understand that God is un-biased between religions, races and sexes.

I and you can go on and on but the point of all this is - you and I must  expect the unexpected.

More important, be prepared for the unexpected. But, aha, this in fact, is the Universal law we stumble upon, when we start examining human life with any seriousness. 

DIFFICULTY …AN INTEGRAL PART OF LIFE…

Difficult situations are an integral part of human life.

Please note that difficult situations, hurdles, problems etc are all used in this blog post interchangeably - just to encompass all of them.

Look at this phenomenon a little more closely. 

You find God is really, really, unbiased, in such things. It is not merely you, not merely humans, but No living being escapes difficult situations in life.

The law encompasses the lives of animals, birds, insects, viruses, bacteria and so on. 

It is a well settled universal law that difficult situations are an integral part of the life of all living beings.

If you are nor totally convinced of its universal applicability, it does not matter. It applies to YOU, for sure. You know it. You do need better ways to solve your problems or tackle your difficult situations. That is enough for our purpose. For your purpose.

CATEGORIZE…YOUR DIFFICULTIES..IT MIGHT HELP…

We need clarity. Clarity comes from categorizing. Can we categorize difficult situations in some way? We are going to categorize all human problems in varieties of ways in future Posts. But, for now, a simple categorization will do

(i)        The problem per se

(ii)      The perception per se

In any difficult situation, there are actually two difficult situations! One is, the actual, mostly external, difficult situation. The second is the internal difficult situation, in the form of our mental resistance to the external difficult situation.

Our mental strength and our mental resistance are inversely proportionate to each other. At any time, both exist in us, in some measure. Our mental strength is signified by our confidence and our willingness to tackle the difficult situation. Our mental resistance is represented by our diffidence and our unwillingness to face the same. We don't have one hundred percent of either, at any time of life. It is a paradox.

Why so? It is a most basic psychological problem – natural and universal. 

 

We just do not want any difficult situations and hurdles in life! We don’t want!!

But, contrary to our innate desire, difficulties are an integral part of our life.

Thus, ab-initio, we don’t have a willingness to go through such situations. We feel, they jeopardize our very survival. We recoil even at a mere threat of its arrival in our life. It is a serious psychological problem.

This is one fact we must acknowledge.  When the difficult situation arises, instantly, simultaneously, and some times, in advance of it, the mental resistance is ready in us, blocking our willingness and even our abilities from tackling the difficult situation.

Generally, we are conscious of the external difficult situation. But, we are not conscious of the internal difficult situation in the form of our mental resistance. The inner enemy creates more serious consequences than the external enemy.

The external situation has a certain limited amount of threat for our lives. In many situations, it can be gauged and quantified. Its magnitude can be known.

USING YOUR MAGNIFYING GLASS…

But our mental resistance becomes a magnifying glass. The more we look at the external problem through the magnifying glass of our inner mental resistance, two things happen. The problem begins to look bigger and bigger.

Second, the mental resistance grows stronger and stronger. It becomes a more powerful magnifying glass. The problem now looks even bigger than earlier. 

While external situation may be quantifiable and definable, internal situation defies all such quantification and definiteness.

The pain and the loss associated with the problem looks much deeper and darker now. Its spiraling effect continues. It some times makes us withdraw from tackling the problem altogether. It paralyzes and overwhelms the mind and body. This process continues till our unawareness of this process continues. Our Resistance obstructs our thinking skills and our problem solving skills.

There is one Universal law which comes into operation here.

“Negative thinking starts negative events.”

In recent years, a lot has been observed and written about the Law of Attraction. Your mind, through its Intense thought power, can attract and create events which it imagines. Repeated thoughts, positive or negative, send out signals into the universe, which somehow, manifests, what the mind wanted, or what it deserved because of its thoughts, in the first instance. 

In ancient Sanskrit scriptures, it is called SANKALPA SAKTHI. In modern idiom, it is called law of attraction. Positive thoughts can invite Positive events. Negative thoughts can invite negative events. Surely, Nature has its own intelligence and gives back events - not exactly what you think of, but what your thought power really deserves. 

Note : - This process can be seen  more deeply in my blog posts on KARMA YOGA in www.wisespiritualideas.blogspot.com. 

Abilities coupled with  positive thoughts can invite positive events and positive solutions.

Mental resistance, real and assumed weaknesses and negative thoughts can and do invite negative events and problems.

Some of the strong negative thoughts, repeated often, thus, become self fulfilling prophecy. 

WHY STRESSED…

Forget about the external difficult situation for a while. Our negative thoughts and mental resistance create in us  huge amount of stress. This stress further  leads us to all the stress related problems and illnesses of the body and mind.

This Stress and its consequent illnessses are not generated by the difficult situation – but by our inner resistance to the difficult situation. More than the difficult situation, the illnesses and the stress now become the bigger and more serious difficult situation.

Some times, the damage that is inflicted by these are irreversible and last long after the original difficult situation has vanished.

Now that there is some clarity about the totality of the events associated with a difficult situation, we must tackle the problem in a proper perspective.

Our internal resistance is - (1) generating magnified images of the problem (2) obstructing our skills and abilities to tackle the problem, (3) generating and circulating negative thoughts with spiralling effect, each becoming bigger and bigger (4) creating stress and its associated problems and illnesses.

BRING THE OPPOSITE …

Ancient saints have given very simple solution to the problem. If darkness is the problem, bring its opposite, the light, which solves the problem. Any amount of fighting with or opposing darkness is not going to remove darkness. Bring its opposite, the light, and darkness goes automatically.

For any problem, bring its opposite, to solve the problem. An imaginative application of this universal law works wonderfully in many cases.

If unwillingness is the problem - generate huge reservoirs of willingness consciously. You mind can do this. Tell your self, that life is made for facing difficult situations. Each such effort is a challenge and actually strengthens you for facing life more joyfully.

In the light of all the above, look at the problems of life closely. 

LIFE GIVER ... PROBLEM GIVER…

Whoever has given you life has given you the problems too. This is the stark fact of life. Remember this always.

Repeat it to yourself. You do pray to your creator to save you from the problem. Every church, temple etc are intended for that. But then, you are doubting HIS intelligence, his very purpose of giving these problems to you. Can you accept life and deny the problems? These are all needed for life. 

Whenever a problem comes, remember your child’s first day at school. How much your child would have cried? That was its resistance to face the problem. It was a great opportunity for the child to grow. But, from the child’s view point, it looked as the biggest problem of its life! It was so with every problem it faced later.

PROBLEM …  TO STRENGTHEN YOU…

I repeat, and please bear with the repetition, who ever has given you life, has given you all the problems – with a good purpose, to strengthen your life.  

You were the problem to the child; you were the solution to the child. All, it needed was your love, encouragement, a little push and an assurance. Give these to your self now. Get them from wherever you can. But, chiefly, let it come from within you - from that place, where the source of your mental resistance is. It is there, that the source of your strength is! The source of the problem is itself the source of the solution. You will find pleasantly that you are able to generate all these within you in most cases.

ACCEPTANCE MEDITATION…

This process is called acceptance meditation. Meditate to accept the problems as God-given for your benefit. Meditate to find solutions. Practice this meditation cheerfully and regularly, to neutralize your mental resistance. Practice it more when there is likelihood of a difficult situation in near future. Practice it much more when you are actually facing a difficult situation. Never create phantoms of stress. Never exaggerate. Never attempt justifications for failing or withdrawing. 

Know that you can…

Tell your self frequently that you can. Tell yourself that you are willing cheerfully to accept all consequences and you know that they are strengthening you. Imagine having come out of the problem in flying colours. Imagine using all of your skills, abilities and strength for the purpose. Do it as meditation, even using a meditative posture - with all the calmness and relaxed mood you are capable of.

THREE THINGS…TO ACCEPT…

We are accepting three things here. 

First, we are accepting the fact that difficult situations are an integral part of human life. These are in the nature of a blessing. Remember Helen Keller, Beethoven and many other successful persons whose life to us may, even today look like a very difficult life. But to them, it was an enjoyable life. Think of how Helen Keller enjoyed her life. Enjoy your life better than her. It is in the attitude you don.

Second, we are accepting the fact that these problems are given to strengthen and enrich our life by the way we face them. We are willing to practice the acceptance meditation each day of our life. It truly brings great peace and joy in life. And, it is simple.

Third, whoever has given us the life and its associated problems has also given us inherent abilities to face them. Bring them out as your weaponry. Every difficulty passes away. How many difficult situations have passed so far in our life? This too will pass. This - includes death also.

There is no need to be afraid of death. It has its purpose in creation. Do not look at death or any such inevitable situation as a painful situation. One saint says, birth was not in your hands to enjoy. But death is. Some of the modern experiments also confirm that death, per se, is not really painful. It can be very calm, peaceful and enjoyable. Be prepared fully to meet and enjoy the same.

Who ever has given the problems to you is watching you intensely. He is encouraging you. He is sympathetic to your failures. He is on your side. Feel that intensely in your acceptance meditation. He wants you to succeed. Be conscious of that. No failure is a failure when you realize that your life giver is with you all the way.

AN INSPIRING GURU…

I have drawn great inspiration and practical benefit from Swami Paramarthananda's lectures on SPIRITUALITY, and on many special topics like the one we have discussed. I have drawn particular inspiration from a special lecture of his on acceptance, in writing this blog post. You can listen to this great saint's lectures on the web site (www.vedantavidyarthisangha.org).

Whether you accept God or not is immaterial. The life's truths narrated here hold good for you. Start your practice of acceptance meditation and see your problems evaporating in your meditation. If you accept your creator’s presence, it is all the more beneficial.

May your life be filled with courage, peace and joy.

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SELF ACCEPTANCE - THEFIRST STEP FOR SUCCESS

SELF ACCEPTANCE

THE MANTRA FOR PEACE AND  PROGRESS

 

• "Who else will accept us, if we do not accept our own self?"

• Self acceptance is our journey towards our own completeness and our own fulfillment. 
• It is our recognition of our own true nature and being at complete peace with it.  

• What happens, if we do not recognize and accept our true nature?

• We begin to feel insufficient, shameful, fearful and  angry. 
• We can not love our own self. We also begin to feel that others also do not love us. 
• We will look at all others with some suspicion most of the time.
• Our SELF-NON-ACCEPTANCE makes us adopt unnatural facades. 

• Like superiority  or  inferiority complex; 
• Other self destructive habits like intoxicating drinks, drugs, excessive or unnatural sex, excessive sleep, excessive work, excessive eating,  lack of sleep, laziness, aversion to eating and so on. 

• These escape routes blunt our sensibilities.
• When we are in Self-Non-Acceptance mode, we become highly sensitive to each mistake of ours, small or big, and of mistakes of others.
• We can’t take the slightest criticism or suggestion easily.
• Our feelings of INSUFFICIENCY grow with time and assume huge, phantom like shape in our life. We see our insufficiency in every thing; and every where.
• We begin to feel, we are not good enough in this world; we are born to be losers; better not to befriend any one who looks like a winner.
• We begin to feel a sense of shame at each mistake and cannot take the same easily in life. 
• We feel there is some thing wrong with us. 
• We either reduce or stop talking to others around us.
• In the non-acceptance mode, we either try to avoid the scene or if forced into it, start fighting with others or somehow find a way to conform at least externally to the accepted behavior. Yet, internally, we are not at peace with the situation. We suppress our naturalness out of shame. 
• This feeling of insufficiency, the denial mode and the social withdrawal may lead us into depression or into violence. We feel a sense of hopelessness or haplessness or some times, a constant one-up-man-ship which is a facade for internal insufficiency.
• The SELF-NON-ACCEPTING PERSON  poses, and shouts vociferously - that he is right in his "ISM" or ideology - be it, economic, religious, scientific or whatever. Every such person poses as if he is right and others are wrong – even while deep within, he is aware that he is himself insufficient and has no answers to many crucial questions in his "ISM" and others are finding it out.
• Without  Self Acceptance, however much we become better, we never feel good enough. We feel better than some but worse than many. Our habits make us feel worse, rather than comforting us in any way. Many times, the compulsiveness of our habits frustrates us.
• We feel rejected by other people. In fact, it is we who are moving away from them.This feeling of rejection and pain hurts us badly. 

• How do we get away from all this? 

  

• Just forgive our self and accept whatever we are. 
• Let us accept our self and also others – as we are and as they are, without any pre-conditions, without any value judgments. If we are insufficient in some ways, so are they, in some ways.
• Accepting our self – gives us a huge freedom – from our sense of shame,guilt, anger, insufficiency,love-less-ness,rejection by others, loneliness and so on. 

• Self acceptance is, in other words, developing sincere, unconditional love for our self.

• Love your self as you are. Love your parents, your spouse, your children, your neighbours and your friends and colleagues unconditionally. Love with full awareness of all of their short comings and your shortcomings. Make your self and make them comfortable. 
• Forgive them their shortcomings. Forgive your self your shortcomings.
• Strive to develop deeper friendships with others, communicate freely with them, be aware of their sensibilities and respect them. 

• Do not tread on their weak spots. Nor, on yours!

• Make a habit of looking at your successes and building on them.
• Approach yourself as a successful person, capable of some successes at least. Forgive all of your past mistakes, failings, indiscretions and sins.Let them not take centre stage in your life any more.
• Remember the more beautiful moments of your life, your successful moments, your moments of love and happiness. Talk of them with any one who listens with a little empathy. Live all those beautiful moments of your life again and again. This is, in fact, the best use of our PAST.
• Write a Diary or a Journal of all that you are doing right, all that you did right in the past and all that you want to do right in the immediate future. Read it again and again to convince your self that you are a successful person and not a failure in life.
• It is a matter of time that your past successes inspire you into much greater successes in the present. 
• Attempt small successes which you know you can achieve. Build Your Self Confidence. In every one of your attempts, look at the ELEMENT OF SUCCESS, even if you have not achieved the goal you have set out for. 
• Let us say, you jumped only 4 feet and not 6 feet, as planned by you. Is it a success or a failure? Look at the 4 feet of success more and determine to exceed it in time.Yes, it is a success. Next time, it will be five and then six. But, each point is a success and not a failure.

  

• No one jumps ten feet in first attempt. The one who succeeds is always the one who tries till he succeeds.

• Do things,which you like. Try to get a job or profession  of your liking. Else, find what you can like in your job and excel in that - even while improving your efficiency on other parts of the job. 
• Life consists in liking the things that we are given and then, trying for better things. You can't afford to dislike any thing or any one that LIFE GIVES YOU. 
• ACCEPT WHAT LIFE GIVES YOU.
• There is one GOLDEN RULE that makes you happy instantly.

• Help some one in need. Don't wait till you are asked. 

• Go out and help some one in dire need. Make some one in need happy.
• How does that help? It brings some happiness to the other person. More important, it brings you immense happiness and self confidence.
• In time, you will have friends, love, peace, respect, confidence and happiness. Whatever insufficiency you felt earlier will not bother you at all now.
• Your self confidence grows, with each event of help you bring about in your life.Your SELF ACCEPTANCE  grows. In time it would have grown phenomenally.
• You will find that you are a pleasant, affable, loving and lovable and happy person. Your physical health too would have improved a lot.
• Remember, like you, everybody wants from others - acceptance. recognition, understanding, love, empathy, patience, kindness, encouragement,and all other beautiful things of life. We all want these things. These valuable things are absolutely free!
• Do not remain a beggar for these essentials of life. So long that you beg for them, you may not get them, or get very little of them in your life.
• Become an emperor for them and start distributing them profusely to all those around you. realize you have them in you in abundance.
• And the emperor, that is YOU, gets them back from all those around you, several fold larger and better.
• Remember the most illustrious examples like Hellen Keller. With much more handicaps, they lived much more joyously than most of us. So, a Life of Joy is possible - with all of your handicaps and insufficiency.
• Decide NOW. Accept your self wholeheartedly and unconditionally. Accept others likewise. Get on to the path of success, Love and joy. 

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LIFE - WITHOUT CHOICE & LIVING - WITH CHOICE

Name anything that you chose all by your self, while coming in to this LIFE?

Did you choose your parents?

Did you choose any thing like your place of birth, time of birth, your sex, skin colour, your bones, your heart, your genetic disposition, your brothers, sisters, uncles or any one else, or any thing else that you can think of in coming to your LIFE ?  Well. You didn't. Neither did I nor anybody else on earth we know of.

If you had the choice - would you have chosen your present parents, your country of birth, your skin colour, your whole lot of other attributes? Given a choice, you would have exercised that choice, in favour of some thing better.

But, there wasn't a darned choice for any of us in coming to Life. All the factors are fixed by some one else or some other force.

We had no choice in coming to LIFE. But, probably we have some choice in how we live our life.

What do we really want in our LIFE? In what areas do we really want to exercise any choice?

First and foremost - we want to LIVE! For how long? We don't seem to know. If possible, we want to live forever in a hale and healthy way. We want to be beautiful / handsome forever, healthy forever and alive forever. We don't want to lose life or limb or suffer any ill-health. This is the LONGING for ETERNITY. It is one of our innate desires. Even if we know  that we will get sick, get old and die one day, the WISH within us is, we do not want to fall sick and we do not want to become old and we do not want to die. I am emphasizing the WISH aspect. Most of us are half reconciled to sickness, old age and death. Like Buddha did. If Buddha the enlightened did not survive, will we? if Christ, Mohammed, Krishna, Moses etc did not survive, will we? We may not. But our wish to LIVE continues.Therefore we go on searching for drugs,methods and techniques to avoid sickness, avoid old age and avoid death. It always seems to be round the bend, but as we approach the bend, the goal recedes further from us. The search will continue forever. So it seems.

The second is - our wish to know our environment and our SELF. At this point of time, we know neither of them adequately. We are constantly learning new things. But, as we learn new things, we understand how much more is there to learn! Our knowledge is constantly expanding, but, so is our thirst for new knowledge. As we learn, another thing is happening, our SELF  is changing very fast, and our environment, too, is changing very fast. It seems, we will never know our SELF or our environment adequately. The thirst for knowledge or wisdom will continue forever, unabated.

The third is - our innate need to be joyful. We want to be happy, joyous, smiling,and so on. JOY is our third requirement. Mere LIFE will lack meaning for us, the human beings. Mere knowledge too, is just boring. You can't always watch Discovery channel, all your life. You need  other Channels, other methods to ignite our life into liveliness. LIVELINESS is what we want.JOY is what we want.

These three requirements were researched in great depth in India, by the BEST OF SCIENTISTS and ANALYSTS  that the world can produce. They gave the three requirements, three beautiful sanskrit names as below :

1. SAT : For Eternal existence ( pronounced as Sa (as U in cut) and T (as  TH in with);

2. CHIT : For supreme, boundless consciousness (T pronounced as in with);

3.ANANDA : For unlimited, continuous, eternal JOY (firsr A pronounce as on COT; Second A as U in CUT; Third A as a short vowel.

SAT - CHIT - ANANDA  have therefore become the primary Life Choices or Goals, in the opinion of these great scientists.

And, Achievement of these three goals is very well WITHIN OUR CHOICE. So, they say.

Name anything else as your choice, it will all fall under one of these three categories. You just can't want any thing else beyond these three.

Thus, Life is not our choice, Living is - Living long, Living with wisdom and living with joy.

WHAT IS YOUR REMOTE CONTROL?

THE REMOTE CONTROLS

THAT 

DRIVE YOUR LIFE

How often have you felt compelled to act one way or the other, by some unseen force madly driving you from inside? 

It was compulsive. You had no way of disobeying that REMOTE CONTROL within you. You did obey, possibly with some disastrous effects on your life.

Many of your thoughts, feelings and actions were not the ones that you freely thought of, felt or did!! YOU...WERE....NOT...FREE...  to think, or feel, or act in a way that serves your best interests.Some thing inside you drove you  compulsively into all those crazy and idiotic thoughts, feelings and actions.


You must have realized at least some times that..YOU...WERE....NOT...FREE...

But, do you know that.you have yourself implanted some of those remote controls within you which now control the way you think,feel and act?

Yes. That.... is the FACT. 

Those remote controls are -

(i)   What you FEAR

(ii)  What you HATE

(iii) What you are JEALOUS of

(iv) What you are ANGRY with

- These CONTROL YOUR LIFE !

-         FROM ANYWHERE!!

You may start hating a person ten thousand miles away. - say, after reading a news Paper report or a TV channel coverage of some incident. You haven't seen that person in your life. You may never see him at all,in future.  He doesn't know you. 

But, the moment you start hating him, he instantly gets all rights over you, occupies a permanent, secure seat in your mind and starts controlling you. Your thoughts, feelings and actions are now under his control. Remote control from ten thousand miles!! That's what you did to your self, by hating him.


Same thing is true of any one who you are angry with, or jealous of, or fearful of.What to talk of human beings... Talk of the ordinary cockroach. Some of you are allergic to the cockroach. Some are afraid of it. It can't do any great harm. But, it just doesn't mind flying towards you and sitting on you. It is not that  afraid of you, as you are of it.

Suppose you know that a cockroach has escaped into your room,and is flying here and there in the room..you are unable to see it, or catch it or kill it in the night's darkness. Would you sleep peacefully? A cockroach, sitting inside your mind, has that much power!



Remove your Fears, your Hate, your anger and your jealousy (and your pride, ego and a few such things) ... You mind suddenly becomes so FREE and you suddenly feel an enormous freedom to think, feel and act in a way you like, in your best interests, in a way that makes you enormously happier and joyous.

Your REMOTE CONTROLS are not outside. They are sitting inside your brain.


They are your fears, anger, jealousies and hate.


Is it very difficult to get rid of them? No. Not at all.


Keeping them is difficult. Getting rid of them is easy.


Just try yourself. You will succeed to some extent.


But, this blog will help you in lots of ways - in removing these remote controls from your Life. And, make your life much,much, more joyous.


Let the journey begin.

COURAGE - THE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITY YOU NEED FOR A SUCCESSFUL LIFE

COURAGE!

This seven letter word designates the most important quality you need, to live a successful life.

Virtuous life in today's world is impossible without courage. Gandhi is  one of the most courageous men of our times, and because of that, he was also one of the most virtuous men of  our times. Name any virtuous man. He was so, because he was courageous.

Love in your life - is impossible unless you have courage. 

Material prosperity in life - is impossible  without courage.

Whatever you want in life - put courage first - and you shall have it.

Courage in you  - grants you leadership in many places.

You cannot enjoy life at all - in the absence of courage. You cannot always bank upon the courage of some other person to sail through your life successfully, though the friendship of like minded, courageous persons is a great asset in life.

Fixing a goal for your life, planning meticulously for its achievement, embarking on the journey of achievement, fighting against  odds, remaining  steady in the face of obstacles and failures, lasting that last mile to success - all these require courage. 

Success gives great joy to all of us. Even to fully experience that joy, you need courage.

Living well and dying well both need courage.

Fighting for right causes requires courage. Fighting  wrong doers needs  even more courage.

To assemble a band of courageous and committed men to achieve great causes,needs great courage. To lead them on a great path, needs even more courage.



Every significant change and progress in life comes from courage. 


Courage is not the mere absence of fear.Courage implies huge levels of initiative.


Confronting our own weaknesses requires tremendous courage.

This shows that - courage does not merely mean physical courage.It does not necessarily flow from physical strength.

Courage flows from the core of your heart. It resides there. It flows from there. It is your moral strength. It is your physical strength. It is your emotional strength. It is your will to succeed. Or, make some one succeed, in which you see your own success.Courage, more often , turns you into the majority - even if you are one and the others are many.


Courage of course knows the difference between wisdom and foolhardiness.


What can potentially take away our courage?


If it is not the sword, it may be mere words of criticism. If it is not power and violence, it can merely be discouraging words of pseudo friends! If it is not superior intellect of the enemy, it can merely be our own foolish deeds. 

What can potentially transform you into a highly courageous person?

It can be the person you love. It can be the Guru you respect.It can be the acquiring of wisdom. It can be just one catastrophe! Any thing can transform you. A gradual exposure to fearless experiences can also build courage.


The opposite of courage is not just FEAR.  It can well be anger, greed, jealousy, lust, or any one or more, of a host of negative attitudes lurking in you - which can destroy your courage at the drop of a hat! Be ware!

Do you want to tread the spiritual path to the almighty? You will need the best of courage on this path. 

A Buddha has more courage than an Alexander. Buddha goes to the most dangerous places smilingly, without a sword. That is absolute courage! No Alexander ever did that.

Ancient Indian sages often define MOKSHA, the ultimate liberation (or success) of life as - TOTAL AND ABSOLUTE FEARLESSNESS. It is the same as COURAGE! If you achieve it - you have achieved everything else.

Lastly, Be assured that Courage can be imbibed and practiced as your way of life. It does not at all matter if you are very fearful today. Tomorrow can be different; tomorrow can be a great courageous and successful day.

Every time, you meet a catastrophe successfully, courage grows in you by leaps and bounds. Every time you get up and speak out your mind honestly, courage grows in you. Every time, you explore the unexplored, courage flows all over you.


Now, what are you waiting for? Make courage as your way of life. Make your life lively and successful.

COMMUNICATION - THE ALL IMPORTANT TASK OF YOUR LIFE !

COMMUNICATION

THE ULTIMATE PROOF

OF LIFE

Without an iota of doubt, Communication is life's most important task. 

Whatever you do is communication. Breathing is communication. Seeing is communication, Touching is communication. hearing is communication. Talking is communication.Any body movement is communication.Even sleeping is communication. Refraining from doing any of these, is also communication!

A doubt arises whether, what we think and feel also is communication. 

Yes. That also, is communication. 

You know well that thinking and feeling happen in the brain. The whole body receives it and responds in many ways.Every thinking and feeling result in some body movement and it gets noticed by the world.

Just put an intelligent electrode outside the brain. It perceives the thinking pattern inside, as reflected to the skin and the nervous system below the electrode. There are many, many invisible electrodes in your body and all over the world which receive your thought, action and emotional communication.

Whatever you do (or do not) communicates something to the world and to other people around. Your communication is absorbed by the world in unimaginable ways, probably permanently and probably, in perfectly reproducible ways - like a VCR / VCP.

You can never afford to feel that, no one is perceiving you doing this, thinking that or feeling such. Beware that the whole world does!

Slowly, but surely, the scientific and modern analytical thinkers are stumbling upon unassailable evidence of these phenomena. Consequently, modern thinkers are formulating universally applicable laws such as law of cause and effect, law of attraction and so on. We will see many such laws and related phenomena in subsequent Posts.

Knowing that we are any way communicating all the time, we need to know next what exactly is in our best interests to communicate.

All communication starts with a small unit of thought. Next comes an associated feeling. Next comes an action in the body.

The ultimate goal of all such human action on this earth is to ensure joyful living.

Hence,the goal of all communication must also be to ensure that our thinking, our feeling and our action are always resulting in our ultimate goal of joyful living.

The art of communication is in reality, the art of living!

GET OUT OF YOUR WAY - CONQUER THE ENEMY WITHIN !

GET OUT OF YOUR WAY

TO SUCCESS

CONQUER THE ENEMIES WITHIN

Who are our real foes, destroying our happiness and joy all the time and standing as stumbling blocks to our success?

We must recognize them and destroy them? We must ensure that our happiness and joy do not desert us because of these enemies and that we succeed in achieving our essential goals of life.

Most of us think most of the time that our enemies are out in the world around us. 'No', say the ancient Indian sages, who had made detailed, incisive research into human happiness. 

They affirm that our real enemies are not outside of us,not in the outside world, but are within us.

They are called "Anger, Fear, Greed, Pride, Jealousy, Lust and desire".

When any of them possesses you, your identity is LOST! They become YOU. You become anger, not merely angry, you become jealousy, not merely jealous, you become FEAR, not merely fearful.When LUST possesses any one, they don't know where they are, who they are with, LUST   is all that matters. They are LUST PERSONIFIED. 


Haven't you seen proud people? PRIDE IS WRITTEN all over them; in every cell of them. They are no more They - they are PRIDE (OR, PROUD).

These qualities are all around us - waiting for a chance to possess us, and dispossess us of our joy and success,  and then, get out of us laughing all the way at us.

If you carefully analyze how they destroy us - you will notice this certainly.

What we are angry with, what we are afraid of, what we are jealous of, what we desire or lust for and what we are greedy of or proud of - takes control of us and becomes our master.This external object sits in our mind and occupies the whole of it.

The persons or objects who or which evoke these emotions in us are still outside of us physically.But, they get inside of us and start controlling us.

They start controlling our minds, our emotions and our bodily actions every moment. They reside within us as our master. We become their slave.

All reasoning power leaves us once they enter. All of our happiness leaves us.The only thing that we will be intensely aware of, is the negative emotion inside us and the outside object or person which has aroused the emotion in us.

Just think of it. Many great wars all around the world were fought for satisfying the pettiest lust. 

We may not remember our friends often. But, our enemy is always on our mind. 

If we are greedy, the object of our greed dominates our waking time and our sleep.

When we are angry, we turn temporarily insane. We might kill any one, including our most loved person, blinded by fleeting anger.

All these negative qualities have the power to conquer you instantly and make you their slave. Once you allow them inside, they grow inside you on their own and make you their helpless victim.

Some one likens himself to a lion; some one else feels proud to call himself a tiger. Yet,some one else calls himself a cheetah; But, no one likens himself to a cow or a deer - which are very obviously and visibly much happier than these wild animals all through their life.Have you ever seen a lion in a calm and happy moment? Very,very rare. Haven't you see the cows and deers in calm and happy posture. Yes. Most of the time.

Anger dominates the life of some wild animals -and wild human beings. 

It is not any outside enemy but their inside enemy, i.e., their anger, that dominates their lives. Uncontrollable anger becomes the primordial characteristic.They are constantly in search of an external enemy to fight with.

If none is available, they will create one. But, fighting they will. This has been happening in human history always. Rare indeed, that a real, wicked villain happens to be the enemy. 

Even in cases where a wicked enemy exists, after the wicked villain is destroyed, the person continues to be angry, calls himself a lion, tiger or cheetah and does not become a kinder, happier person. He continues to search for another enemy.

Their own internal Anger,pride and enmity are their real enemies sitting within them and directing their attention all around for some pseudo targets.

True, they may destroy some persons initially, but their own end will also occur in the same way. Most Dictators perish that way.

It is the same with fear. The object of fear may or may not be there at all. But our eyes see it, even where it is not. A harmless rope is mistaken for a poisonous cobra. Our internal fear of an outside object invests a huge strength into the object of fear. And then, it sits inside us permanently. It destroys our days and nights and our total happiness.

It is no different with other negative emotions like greed, pride, jealousy and so on. These internal emotions become our master and destroy our happiness forever.

How then can we vanquish these internal enemies?

The first step is - we must recognize them as our real enemies. By any stretch of imagination, we should not think that they are our strength.This is the mistake people commit all around the world.Anger is not your strength. Pride is not your strength. Jealousy is not your strength. fear is not your strength. Get out of you fallacy that they can be your strength.

What is their antidote? Most of the time,the antidote is Love and courage.

What you fear,

What you hate,

What you are angry of,

Controls you from anywhere and all the time.

But,

whatever you love,

whoever you love,

Comes under your control, slowly but surely.

Not merely anger, fear or hate; but, Greed, lust and desire are also emotions, which destroy all the happiness we can possibly derive from any object or person. 

The antidote for them is, reduction in our attachment to the object or person of our love. It does not mean you will love them any less. No. Let your love be total, but UNCONDITIONAL. You don't want to possess them fully, make them your property, and be jealous of all those who also try to befriend them or like them.

Practice non-attachment to them. And, how to do that. Suppose, we are greedy of money. We must start giving, donating and distributing the money we earn, at least a reasonable portion of it. You still have the money. But, you are unattached to it. 

You begin feeling an immense joy in the process of giving, donating and distributing and your non-attachment towards money grows. You begin recognizing that greed for money destroys happiness whereas sharing it with others creates a lot of joy.

Pride and jealousy are two other emotions is us, which destroy all friendships and create all types of bitterness.What makes us proud or jealous? Some sort of 'LABELS' that we acquire in the process of growing.These may be any thing like - our power, position, education, money, strength, fame, skills, or just the fact of our birth in a particular country, or state or town, or in a particular religious, linguistic or racial group. 

Any such label is enough to make us proud or jealous. Being proud or jealous requires that we treat some one else as an outsider, some one as not our equal, some one not to be respected as much as we respect people of our own label.

Unfortunately, none of these labels can make us - not grow old, not die, not fall sick, not feel hungry or thirsty or not lose our happiness -specially because of these labels.

Labels don't make us happy! Labels can only make us proud and jealous. Sooner or later, our pride and our jealousy will prove to be our real enemies by destroying our happiness from within, ostensibly by bringing some pseudo, outside foe before us in some form.

These two enemies have another name, or another label :EGO! Ego can be taken to mean, Edging God Out!

What is God? We haven't seen him. I haven't. You haven't.

But, the real GOD on earth is in the form of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE within us. God is Love and Love is God. You must awaken that GOD within you.

Love for whom? Love for people. Whom so ever we love unconditionally, we will never treat them through the spectacles of pride, jealousy, anger etc.

Where love is, even a pimple looks like a dimple, as the saying goes. We don't see any scars or ugliness in the object or person of our love. 

The crow loves its kin, the Lioness loves its, the peacock loves its. It is love at work in all of them. And unconditional love.

The colour of skin doesn't matter, the size doesn't matter, the strength doesn't matter,the scars do not matter, nothing else matters when the heart is full of love.

Love does not subsist long, without courage. Both go together. The mother crow fights all the way, to save its children. So does the lioness. So does every mother on earth. Love and courage go together.

Whoever loves with courage, loves forever.

Whoever loves the world at large, becomes Buddha, the enlightened.

Buddha, is not the label of one individual great man. Nor is it particular for a religion. So is Christ. So is Krishna. They are not lables of a particular religion. Whoever conquers the inner enemies and fills himself with universal love becomes Buddha, christ and Krishna.

This view is shared by many enlightened masters.I subscribe to this view of these great masters.

A Buddha, Christ and Krishna  is waiting to manifest himself in each of us. The day, we cultivate love and courage in sufficient measure, he will feel free to manifest himself. where love and courage is, there joy of the ultimate kind will rule forever.

There..there are no internal enemies. 

Which means, get out of your way - and cultivate the God within.