How To Hit A Century In The Game Of Life

The century mark is considered a landmark achievement. Scoring a hundred runs is cause for celebration in the game of cricket just as in life. We are blessed with bountiful nature. We enjoy its fruit almost effortlessly.

Once we analyse the process through which this production crystallises, it is astonishingly intricate. There is essentially something wonderful about what we receive from nature.The human body is like entire creation. It is Brahmand simulated.

The human body is composed of millions of cells, containing the building blocks of life. The tool of knowledge unfolds the complicated and intricate nature of cells. Think of a million groups, each one composed of a million subgroups. Human existence is regulated by minute living organisms and therein lies great philosophy.

The human body is often described as a vessel and it is so if we look at its innumerable contents. Scientists estimate that the number of cells in the human body could tot up to several trillion. Human lifespan depends on the health of these cells. Medical science makes it clear that longevity can be compromised by tension and stress.

The Ishopanishad in its second shloka enunciates that one can aspire to live for a hundred years if one so desires. But for this, you need to adopt certain practices. It emphasises that right living is the only way to achieve this.

Selfless actions generate healing energy and minimise damage to the cells and in this manner they ensure longevity. When the body is stressed by selfish pursuits, a chain reaction develops that hampers normal functioning of cells. This shortens their lifespan.

The human body is like a supercomputer with bionic chips at work. Overloading the body with selfish pursuits impairs functional efficiency. Too much clutter consumes and diverts valuable life-giving energy and this adversely affects not only the lifespan but also quality of life. Selfless action makes one’s life transparent which ensures that we remain free from unnecessary tension and stress.

The Upanishads make it clear that we are evolved, involved and ultimately dissolved by Brahmn. The existence of Brahmn is unitary but its forms are countless. Longevity is ensured if we use the energy available judiciously.

Solar energy is responsible for sustenance of life. Intrinsically, food and oxygen are fuel. Not merely this, even provocative thoughts, strong desires and selfish actions act as fuel that erode the lifespan. Righteous life and transparent living are lowenergy fuels but they sustain life in a dignified and durable way. Right living is therefore crucial to achieving a long life.

Irresponsible living is the breeding ground for ego which is high-energy fuel that burns the body rapidly. Yoga can be fruitful only if the body is kept pollutionfree. Purity can only be achieved by a transparency which is the product of right living.

The human body has evolved in a manner that equips it for survival. However, the body is highly sensitive and if we treat it carelessly and roughly, we would not only weaken it; we would also be compromising the mind since the welfare of one contributes to the welfare of the other.

We need to treat our bodies with care. You have every chance to hit a century or to achieve Shatayu, the coveted hundred year-mark, provided you live a holistic life of equipoise.

Seven Candles Of Unity To Spread Eternal Light

All prophets were sent down to earth for a single purpose. They were made manifest so that the world of man could become the world of God... so that the nether realm becomes the Kingdom, darkness becomes light, satanic wickedness becomes all the virtues of heaven, and unity, fellowship and love be won for the entire human race. Prophets were sent so that organic unity reappears and the bases of discord be destroyed and life everlasting and grace everlasting become the humanity’s harvest.

Look around you. You will find that unity, mutual attraction, and gathering together engender life. But disunity and disharmony spell death. When you observe and consider all phenomena, you will see that every created thing has come into being through the mingling of many elements. Once this collectivity of elements is dissolved, and harmony of components is disturbed, life is wiped out.

In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided. Even among the peoples of one continent association and interchange of thought were not possible. Since then means of communication have multiplied. We can travel to any land, associate and exchange views with its peoples, and become familiar, through publications, with the conditions, religious beliefs and thoughts of all men.

Similarly, all members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. Self-sufficiency is no longer possible or even expected, as political, commercial and industrial ties unite all peoples and nations. The bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can be achieved. Verily this is one of the wonders of this wondrous age. The age of discovery and light unfolds a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn, spreading light everywhere, dispelling darkness and ignorance.

Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world’s darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the cornerstone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendour.

The fifth candle is the unity of the nations — a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is the unity of language, the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realisation.

Beyond The Obvious

Much of the conflict in our lives stems from the belief that our subjective stories are immutable truths.

Have you ever been mesmerised by the multiple images of a kaleidoscope? Or had your attention captured by the many facets of a beautifully cut crystal? Perhaps this fascination comes from the realisation, on some level, that what at first seems to be a distortion of reality, can in fact be a truer reflection of it.

“Reality" can be seen from as many different perspectives as the kaleidoscope's images. Much of the conflict we experience in our lives stems from our belief that our subjective stories, interpretations or judgments of "reality" are immutable truths. One relatively simple way to reduce the conflicts in our lives is to step back in any given situation and ask ourselves what really happened.

What are the objective facts, apart from our judgments and interpretations? Like opening a Russian matrushka (box), which reveals a seemingly endless stream of smaller boxes, or peeling an onion, we need to peel down to the core, to the actual event stripped of our subjective story about it for a detached view of an event tells a much simpler story than the overlay of our judgments does. As far as the world is concerned, a blizzard is just a blizzard. To a diehard powder hound it's heaven; to a fair weather skier who has to shovel the walk it's less than ideal. Meaning comes from our judgments and beliefs, or the stories we tell ourselves about our experience. These in turn determine our reactions. It's often difficult to differentiate between the "facts" and our overlay. Here are a few examples. You're calmly swimming in the ocean when suddenly you see a large form moving toward you. What's your first reaction? If you think it's a shark, you'll most likely panic. If on the other hand, you think it's a dolphin, you may be elated at the opportunity to swim alongside it. It is critically important to understand the essence of that form coming at you, so you can act appropriately, rather than react instinctively based on misinformation or misjudgments.

The framework or context in which we place experiences is another way we give them meaning. Santa once had a reindeer named Rudolph who just happened to have a rather shiny, glowing nose. Now to Rudoph, who was teased incessantly by the other reindeer, his nose was a problem, at least until the context shifted. One very dark, stormy Christmas Eve Santa needed him. Rudolph's nose, in a different context, made him a hero. There's a wonderful story of a grandfather who takes his twin grandsons to a stable. They walk into a stall filled with manure. The first boy is repulsed, wanting only to get away from the sight and smell of the fresh manure. The second boy begins dancing around happily. When his grandfather asks him why he seems so happy, his response is “ With all this manure, there must be a pony around somewhere." Our lives would be much simpler if in the midst of our "manure" we were able to look for the pony.

In a similar vein, we often make assumptions that we fail to check out, and which, quite often, turn out to be wrong. As Alice said, "Things aren't always what they seem". A whale is not a fish. A peanut is not a nut. And a tomato is not a vegetable. Your thoughts create your reality. It's a good habit to stand back from a situation and ask yourself, "What if my assumptions are wrong?" Few of us are able to look at things objectively in the midst of an emotionally charged conflict situation, but it's a goal to strive for. By peeling things back to a reality stripped of judgments and stories we allow ourselves the freedom in each moment to consciously choose how we both act and react. The goal is to be the driver of our actions, not the passenger.

When a conflict arises, ask yourself what actually happened. Strip away your judgments and interpretations. Pretend you’re a director trying out different ways to present the same story. Try telling it from a different perspective - anger, blame, indifference, responsibility, compassion or maybe just humor. You may find you see things in a very different light.

When we change the context in which we place events, the meaning instantly shifts. The glass really is half full and half empty. So work on consistently framing your experiences in ways that are empowering for you and others.

Go With The Flow

Holding on has a way of dampening the spirit and moving you away from being in harmony with yourself.

A friend of mine has always said that there is nothing in life more constant than change. The more i learn the more i have to agree with my friend that, indeed, life is always in a constant state of flux.

If there is this movement all around us, we have the opportunity to change in response to it. But the truth is that sometimes we are resistant to doing things in a new way and it is hard to let go of ideas, relationships, and the way things have always been done. It is even harder to let go of fear, anger, hurts and the resentments we carry.

When i think of letting go, i can’t help but think that if i have something to let go of, then i must be hanging on to something. The question itself seems to ask us to name it, the very thing we are holding on to.

Sometimes we know exactly what it is as we have a long standing relationship with it. We might have even carried it from our childhood to adulthood. Whatever it is that we carry with us, we have the tendency to keep building on it, giving it more and more power until it becomes almost too big to look at. Certainly this is not a conscious act on our part, but one that happens outside of our awareness until we are faced with something that makes us look at it. People often talk about dealing with the issues of their life when faced with an illness.

Eastern medicine looks at the emotional life of the person when assessing their medical condition, knowing that when we hold on to emotions, it shows itself in the physical body. Many believe that disease is really dis-ease with the emotional aspect of ourselves and literally being out of harmony with our emotions. Whether this is your belief or not, holding on has a way of dampening the spirit and moving you away from being in harmony with yourself.

I know for myself, i came to adulthood with a lot of ideas about who and what i was based on what i had been told. I had been taught how things had to be and the rules i needed to abide by to succeed in the world; only to find out later that these ideas, beliefs and all the emotions around them did not fit me. I was surprised to find that what i came to believe about myself and life had driven my life in a way that kept me from getting what i wanted. It was with this awareness that i had the capacity to change it, if i let it go. In the process of letting go i could make room for something new to come in. You don’t have to have something from your childhood to get familiar with letting go.

The process of life itself gives us a steady stream of opportunity. In particular, i remember what it was like when my children got on the school bus for the very first time. All the parents were at the bus stop, many with fear and apprehension, unsure about this first big step in letting go. Now my youngest son has graduated from high school and will attend college in a far away state. Again i stand in this place of letting go. At first it does not feel all that different from that day thirteen years ago when he boarded the school bus, but i know that i have learned a lot about letting go. I also know that life will continually remind me in case i forget that it is a necessary part of life. It is vital to us to learn how to let go so that our burden does not become too heavy to bear.

The more i have looked at my life, the more i realised that change is ever present and life is a constant process of change, making peace and letting go. I understand that this is not always an easy process but i have learned that it is even harder to hang on to it. When we let go, we energetically make room for something new to come into our awareness. Letting go of what no longer works is a wonderful freedom that allows us to imagine something else. And every time we can imagine something else we have a universe of possibility that opens to us.

It makes me wonder who we could be if we were willing to let go of the things we are carrying. How would we participate in the bigger picture for our life? What if we could start each day with a clean slate? The native Hawaiian people practise something called Ho’oponopono, which means to ‘make right.’ Each evening they close their eyes and practice the gentle art of letting go of everything from the day. How might you find your own centre of peace if each evening you could let go of the day? Understanding that as you do this, you are making room for new possibilities to emerge. Blessings to you as you learn that letting go is a process for life.

What’s Your Purpose of Life?

In order to discover the true meaning of your soul purpose, it is imperative to reassess what it means to be human.Life has a purpose for us, a purpose that refuses to be ignored and makes us ache with such longing for fulfillment. We come into physical being to fulfill that purpose. And life within us yearns for us to return to the whole that is life. Everything plays a part in fulfilling life’s purpose. Nothing exists without a purpose and that purpose calls until we respond. And when we do respond to the call of purpose, we enter into a sacred dance with life.

Purpose is the energy and consciousness that exist within a seed that compel and guide it into a beautiful flowering plant, given the correct nourishment. It is the meaning and worth within the seed that mature into a fruit bearing tree, and every type of seed has a definite purpose. The purpose of an apple seed, for example, is to grow into an apple tree and produce apples. It cannot produce cherries or watermelons or anything else.

The human soul is also such a seed. It is, however, a God seed. Just as with the apple seed, a god-seed cannot grow into anything but a god tree whose fruit expresses the totality of divinity. How much of what you know to be divine within you are you cultivating now? And how far will this go? Just as a single apple seed can produce apples as well as entire orchards for centuries, a single human soul can grow to heal and enlighten generations of humanity.

There are many varieties of apples but they can all become apple trees. Some are grown in private backyards whereas others are grown in large orchards. In the same way, each of us is a unique human soul and we will fulfill our purpose in diverse and original ways. Yet, we all have the same purpose for being here: to realise, through fully incarnating as a human being, all that is God.

What does it mean to realise god? It means to make God a reality in our being, in our consciousness, and in our living. But what is this God that we need to make real? I personally like what the Sufis say about God: La illaha illa illah hu, or there is nothing but God. God is infinite, eternal and immoral. Yet, the moment we ask anything of God, He not only provides, but also becomes the very provision and gives Himself to us. He is limitless but makes Himself limited so that we may touch Him, see Him, know Him. He is all-powerful, yet He makes Himself helpless so that we can give help, helpful so that we can receive help. God is all-knowing and everywhere.

To the extent that you impose your controls, limits and conditions upon the free will of Divinity, in yourself or in others, God will be you in your life. The more you relinquish those conditions you place upon free will, the more you will be God in God’s life.
Purpose is the asking: We are the answer: We are spiritual beings learning to become complete human beings. Far from being a liability, our humanity is truly our grace and fulfillment. When you view yourself as a kind of failing and say, but i am only human, you not only demean your worth but you also insult all that is sacred. In order to discover the true meaning of your soul purpose, it is imperative to reassess what it means to be human. For it is only through your humanity that you can fulfill Divine Will.

If purpose is such a sure thing, why does it so easily elude our grasp? Even those who seem to live with great purpose can have difficulties defining exactly what it is. Knowing one’s purpose in life is not an intellectual matter; its power and meaning are experienced within. To get a clearer sense of purpose, let’s look at it on a personal level as well as on a cosmic scale.

Imagine that you finally accomplish a difficult task, realise a longheld dream, reach a hard-won goal, create a masterpiece or finish a magnum opus. You are done! Or are you? What more could you want? The want has been satisfied. Now, you have. When you are completely fulfilled, what naturally arises is the sharing. The sharing is not a separate action, but the giving that effortlessly radiates out of being.

Now, imagine being all knowing, all powerful, all loving, all creative. There is nothing you don’t know, nothing you can’t do. In your limitless ecstasy, celebration explodes out of your in an infinite variety of forms. A universe is created that follows your laws and fulfills your divine commands. An omnipotent, omniscient and immortal being containing the infinity of life, you created all that is. Complete in every way, free and self-fulfilled, what more could you possible need or want? Only one thing: To share that living and joyful creation.