Sometimes: The Art of Spiritual Release
Sometimes the hardest thing to do in our spiritual lives is to let go.
There are so many chains that we drag around with us. Chains that might be attached to the heaviest, most cumbersome loads but we struggle on, fighting against our own very nature most of the time, because we simply do not know how to, or fear, letting go.
Anger is just a cowardly extension of sadness. It's a lot easier to be angry at someone than it is to tell them you're hurt. - Alanis Morisette
Sometimes we recognise our loads and can you believe it? We actually cherish them, hoping that others will feel pity for the great weight we carry, or in some way, will respect us more. And sometimes we just don't know any better.
Can you imagine anything sillier?
For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are trying to travel the fastest in our spiritual lives but we drag these huge weights. Do you know what these chains are?
Is there someone that you dislike? Perhaps even someone that you hate? Is there someone that you have not forgiven? Someone that you cannot forgive?
These are huge weights that we drag across our very hearts, scarring them. They are impurities to the perfect love we each have within us. Impurities that drag our love down. Dragging our love into silly, conditional expressions.
We will not be the first to apologise or the first to extend a hand, because it is 'their fault' or 'they started it'.
We will not be the first to forgive, because 'they do not deserve it'. 'I will not love her until she loves me, and if she stops loving me then I cannot love her'. What a weight we carry!
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha
Are there things in your past you wish you had done better? Or others you had not done at all? Do you wonder if only you had been somewhere else that night, or if only you had invested that money at that time?
Do you have a cupboard full of 'if-onlys' that haunt you. Do you think about your past or your present and have regrets? These are great, big anchors that we drag around with us. They stop us from gaining any speed in our spiritual life, they diminish our ability to grow and develop.
Let go of your ounce of power. Benevolence works better. - Jeffrey Gitomer
Do you own a flashy car and love it perhaps a little too much? You clean it and polish it and worry about it incessantly. Maybe its parked on the street or the fuel is low.
Do you think about that car at night, what improvements you can make, how fast it might go? Do you worry about the insurance for it? Whether someone might scratch it?
Or perhaps it is your house? Do you desire a bigger one? Or a television with a larger flat screen? Do you crave a little too much for material possessions? Work too hard, too late, too much - just so you can have more things, more and more things to worry about?
And speaking of worry... Do you worry too much? Do you lay in bed worrying? Thinking about whether you have fed the dog, or paid your bills, or what you will do tomorrow and 'if only' this or that.
All these are chains.
Fill me with spiritual longing, detachment from the world, and a loving heart.
Grant me quiet contentment and self-control, and keep my heart firmly directed toward Thee.
O Ever-Present, awaken me to the sense of Thy constant presence.
O Mohan, grant me knowledge, and the power of meditation, that my mind may continually turn to Thee.
O Lord of the humble, grant that the Light of lights may illumine Dadu's heart. - Dadu (1544-1603), saint from Rajasthan
Anchors.
Let them go.
Forgive those that have wronged you. Not for them. For you. The hate or the grudge that you carry around is a noose around your neck not theirs. It is contributing to your tension, making you angry - let it go!
Open yourself to the highest love, the love that is without condition and without expectation of love in return and love them for your sake, not theirs.
Practise it a little and you will realise that higher still is love for their sake, not yours and you will be free and happy.
The hardest part about growing up is letting go of what you have been accustomed to and moving on with something that you haven't experienced yet.
Forget your 'if-onlys' - let them go. Regret helps no one. Just determine yourself to let go of the things you can't control and take control of the things you can.
You cannot control all the events of your life, but you can control your state of mind during them. Your state of mind is what determines your happiness not the events. You are the master of your own happiness, because you are the master of your state of mind - take control.
Simplify your life. You do not need so many things. Let them go. Money is a tool of yours - you are not a tool of money. Whilst material desires run our market world economy, it does not mean they have to run yours.
Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. - Oprah Winfrey
Finally. Don't worry, be happy! (do you feel a little reggae coming on?)
Worry is a mental disease that only you can heal. It is a looping program, a virus for your spiritual life - let it go - let them all go.
Do all you can to deal with your worries now. No procrastination. Just deal with them and then LET THEM GO!
Our time is now in this moment. Our power is the infinite heaven within us. Our future is in the realisation of our highest, all else are anchors. This is the real definition of purity. This stark simplicity.
In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty... in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning.
Please read this information on preparing for your meditation
Sit with your eyes closed and concentrate all of your attention on your heart. Please repeat to yourself as you have in other exercises "I am not my body, I am not my ego - I am my soul"
This is your real reality.
This is the real nature of you.
Your inner voice. Your conscience that has spoken to you since the beginning - this is the real you.
For a moment, reflect upon the possibility that the thinking, physically feeling being that we think of as ourselves is not the real us, but that tiny, silent little voice within is the real us. That tiny little voice that tries to prompt us, tries to guide us and we ignore, is actually our highest reality.
Is that possible?
That tiny voice that we ignore day in and day out is what we are trying to grow into. That is our highest self? Is that possible?
Listen very quietly and hear what your inner voice has to say - hear the answer it has for you.
Is that the voice of your soul? Focus all of your attention on it and let everything else go. Let everything else go.
Sit still and silent and focus your entire life past, present and future on your soul and listen.
Listen with all your heart. It is your own eternal and infinite voice.
1. Grounding In
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