What Enhances Your Beauty?
When your mind is not complaining, responsible, courageous, confident and hollow and empty you are inexplicably beautiful. A person who cannot correct or act has no right to complain. And when a person can correct or act, he will never complain. Complaining is a sign of weakness. Complaining is the nature of utter ignorance where one does not know the Self. Complaint takes away the Beauty that is inborn in you. And it shows up more on the one who is on this path.
Worldly mind is a complaining mind; Divine mind is a dancing mind. Just complaining without indicating the solution is irresponsibility. When the solutions are not workable, finding alternative solutions is Courage.
For external beauty, you put on things; for real Beauty, you have to drop all the things. For external beauty you have to have Make-up; for your real Beauty you only have to realize that you are MADE-UP!
The World Belongs to You
Pleasure or pain is an intense sensation in the four to six and half foot body. When we are not caught up in this then we are truly and sincerely able to say, "I belong to you." That is when all the cravings and aversions, desires and doubts fall off—and in a moment the world belongs to you. All your miseries surround the "I, I, I, . . . ", "I want this, I like that, I don't like this . . ." Just let go. The sun rises and sets, the grass grows, the river flows, the moon shines and I am here forever!
How do you feel if someone praises you?
Answer: "Shy, happy, great, embarrassed . . . "
It does something to you, doesn't it? It doesn't do anything to me! When you praise the moon, the mountains, Lake Lucerne, the Black Forest . . .it doesn't do anything to them. They remain the same.
Just like that I am part of nature. If you enjoy praising me, you may do so. In fact, you have no choice! (Laughter)
You can do with me whatever you like. I am there for you. I am your toy! (Laughter)
Dedication and Commitment
Just like you run out of fuel in the car and you have to refill it again and again, in the same way your dedication and commitment runs out in the course of time and it needs constant renewal!
You have to dedicate and rededicate again and again.
Often people take their dedication for granted and then the mind starts demanding or complaining. When dedication is not complete, it leads to grumbling and complaints.
Total dedication brings enormous enthusiasm, zeal, trust, and challenge, and does not leave any room for ego.
The Way Out of Sorrow
If your are unhappy you better check if one or all of these are lacking: Tapa (penance), Vairagya (dispassion), Sharanagati (surrender).
• Tapas is agreeing with the moment, total acceptance of pleasant or unpleasant situations.
• Vairagya means I want nothing and I am nothing.
• Sharanagati is "I am here for You, for Your joy."
If you are grumbling then these are lacking, because when you accept the situation you cannot grumble; when you take it as Tapa you will not grumble; when you come from a state dispassion ("I don't want anything") you don't grumble; and if you are surrendered you will have no complaints.
All these three (Tapas, Vairagya and Sharanagati) purify your mind and uplift you in joy.
If you don't do it willingly you will do it in desperation. First you say, "Nothing can be done." Then in anger and desperation you say, "I give up, I want nothing, I have no choice, to hell with it!"
Every Stone is Precious
A sculptor in a temple uses all types of stones. Certain stones he uses for the foundations. These never appear outside.
From certain stones which are good to carve, the sculptor makes the walls and pillars of the Temple. From other stones he makes the steps. Certain stones become the tower of the Temple.
Only those stones which are extremely suitable for carving will become the Deity and be installed in the Temple. When the stone become a part of the Temple, it no longer remains a stone, it becomes a sculpture, a piece of art, it becomes the Living Deity.
In the same way many people come to the Master. According to the degree of their surrender they are installed by the Master. All are essential.
If there were no steps, how could a person reach the Temple?
If there were no foundation, how could the Temple be there at all?
What can a tower do without pillars?
For a sculptor, each stone is precious and valuable.
Sensitivity and Strength
Those who are sensitive are often weak. Those who feel themselves strong are often insensitive.
There are some who are sensitive to themselves but insensitive to others. There are some who are sensitive to others but not to themselves.
Those who are sensitive to others often end up feeling "Poor me . . ." Those who are sensitive to themselves often feel, "The others are the bad guys." Some conclude it's better not to be sensitive and they shut off, because sensitivity brings pain. But mind you, if you are not sensitive you will lose all the finer things in life too—intuition, love, joy.
This path and this knowledge make you both strong and sensitive. Often people who are insensitive do not recognize their insensitivity. And those are sensitive often do not recognize their strength. Their sensitivity is their strength.
Sensitivity is intuition; sensitivity is compassion; sensitivity is love.
Sensitivity is strength.
Strength is calmness, endurance, silence, nonreactiveness, confidence, faith—and a smile.
Be both sensitive and strong.
The Golden Veil
Craving comes from encouraging the thought of pleasure. The actual experience of pleasure may not be as pleasurable as the memory.
Question: Is that why we spend so much time in our minds?
Whether you encourage a worldly thought or a Divine thought, they both bring you pleasure. Worldly thought leads to indulgence, which brings you down from pleasure to disappointment and dejection. Divine thought takes you up from pleasure to Bliss, Intelligence, and progress in life. Worldly thought brings pleasure only as memory, whereas Divine thought comes as Reality.
Question: What is a Divine thought?
"I am not the body; I am bliss, satchitananda; I am unbounded space; I am love; I am peace; I am light."
Question: What is a worldly thought?
It is about money, sex, food, power, status and self-image.
Be In The Present Moment
"Be in the present moment. If you live fully now, tomorrow will take care of itself. If you are happy now, the past will not torment you. That is the Art of Living."
