~ David Steindl-Rast, Jesus and Lao Tzu: The Parallel Sayings (via Blue Lips)

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Here’s a simple, yet powerful way to immediately make your life more rewarding:

Move away from the things that drain you and move toward those things that empower and fulfill you.

Begin to take notice, as you go through the day, of which is which.

When you take the time to look, it’s easy to distinguish the things that lift you up from the things that bring you down. Consider, for example, resentment, something you’ve probably learned to experience whenever you feel you’ve been wronged. When you think about it, there is really no positive purpose that resentment ever serves.

You can easily choose to let go of resentment, and to put forgiveness in its place. That will immediately raise your own level of positive energy, and the beneficial effects will extend deeply into the world around you.

All it takes is a simple change in your mind and in your attitude. Look for them, and you’ll find many other similar ways to replace the things that drain you with more positive things that move you forward.

Many of the influences that bring you down are things you can easily change, for they are based on your thoughts, attitudes, and reactions. Learn to be aware of them, and choose to set yourself free to soar.

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“The more love you give the more it grows.”
~ Maharaj Charan Singh Ji

“There’s more pleasure in loving than in being loved.”
~ Maharaj Charan Singh Ji

“Sister, love needs no proof. It comes from within.”
~ Maharaj Charan Singh Ji

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~ Unknown

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I was walking around in a Big Bazar store making shopping, when I saw a cashier talking to a boy who couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old.

The cashier said, “I’m sorry, but you don’t have enough money to buy this doll.” Then the little boy turned to me and asked: “aunty, are you sure I don’t have enough money?”

I counted his cash and replied: “You know that you don’t have enough money to buy the doll, my dear.” The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to…. “It’s the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much. I wanted to Gift her for her BIRTHDAY.

“I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.” His eyes were so sad while saying this. “My sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.”

My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said: “I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.” Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me “I want mommy to take my picture with her so my sister won’t forget me.”

“I love my mommy and I wish she doesn’t have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.” Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. “Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?”

“OK” he said, “I hope I do have enough.” I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.

The little boy said: “Thank you God for giving me enough money!”

Then he looked at me and added, “I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to my sister. He heard me!

“I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn’t dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose. My mommy loves white roses.”

I finished my shopping in a totally different state from when I started. I couldn’t get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local newspaper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the newspaper that the young woman had passed away… I couldn’t stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed for ever.

The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

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“It is only sound current which takes the soul up to higher regions. Indeed it is the grand trunk road between ourselves and the Kingdom of God. As the concentration increases, the Sound will become more tasteful and sweet. Therefore the first necessity is repetition, without which concentration cannot take place. And unless concentration has become so intense as to enable the soul and mind to cross the stars, the sun, and the moon, the sound current cannot lift the soul.”

(Sawan Singh. “Gems of Soul”. Pp. 173-174. RSSB)

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~ “Religious Gatheka #12, How the Wise Live in the World “, by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

“Words are but the shells of thoughts and feelings.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Wisdom is not in words, it is in understanding.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Going on:

“In point of fact, whatever one makes of oneself, one becomes that. The source of happiness or unhappiness is all in man, himself. When he is unaware of this, he is not able to arrange his life. As he becomes more acquainted with this secret, he gains mastery. The process by which this mastery is attained is the only fulfillment of the purpose of this life.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Independence is achieved by indifference. It does not mean that one should take no heed of what anyone does or says; it only means one should discriminate between important and unimportant things of everyday life; that every necessary and unnecessary thing should not demand so much of one’s attention, thought, and feeling. Political economy has become a subject of education, but spiritual economy is the main thing in religion. All one says and does and all that one thinks and feels puts a certain strain upon one’s spirit. It is wise to avoid every risk of losing one’s equilibrium. One must stand peacefully but firmly before all influences that disturb one’s life. The natural inclination is to answer in defense to every offense that comes from outside, but in that way one loses one’s equilibrium. Self-control, therefore, is the key to all success and happiness.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“Another sign of progress is that, at times, one begins to feel peaceful. This may increase so much that a restful feeling comes in the heart. One might be in the solitude, but even if one is in a crowd, one still feels restful. Life in the world is most exciting; it has a tiring effect upon a sensitive person. When one is restless, the conditions in life can make one experience the greatest discomfort, for there is no greater pain than restlessness. If there is any remedy for the lack of peace, it is spiritual progress. Once peace is developed in a soul, that soul feels such a great power and has such a great influence upon those who approach it and upon all upsetting conditions and jarring influences coming from all sides. Just as water makes the dust settle down, so all jarring influences settle down under the feet of the peaceful.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

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~ “Githa Series II, Amaliyyat 1, Psychology “, by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

“He who does not direct his own mind lacks mastery. … If there is any self of which one can say, ‘This is man’, it is the mind. The three Sanskrit words Mana, Manu, Manusha show that man is his mind, is the product of his mind, and is also the controller of the activity of mind. If he does not control his mind, he is not a master but a slave. It lies with his own mind whether he shall be master, or whether he shall be slave. He is slave when he neglects to be master; he is master if he cares to be master.

“Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still it. He who has come to this has created his heaven within himself; he has no need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for he has produced it within his own mind now.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“When the mind and body are restless, nothing in life can be accomplished. Success is the result of control.”

“When a person allows himself to be disturbed, that shows that his concentration is not good. And if his concentration is not good, that shows that his will power fails him. The best way, therefore, to protect oneself from disturbance is to develop the power of concentration, so that the will power develops naturally and one is able to withstand all the disturbances which arise when one has to live in the midst of the crowd.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

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~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“With all the opposition to the Master at the time when the [chief priests] demanded his crucifixion, did those who were present sincerely think the Master was guilty? No, each one of them was more or less impressed by the truth of the message, yet torn by convention and custom, bound by laws, held fast by the religious authority that was in power. They could not express their sincere feelings, and so law governed instead of love. And this state of things has existed in all ages. Blinded by conventions and by the laws of his time and the customs of his people, man has ignored and opposed the truth. Yet at the same time the truth has never failed to make its impression upon the soul, because the soul of all is one soul, and truth is one truth under whatever religion it is hidden.

“In reality there cannot be many religions; there is only one. There cannot be two truths; there cannot be two masters. As there is only one God and one religion, there is one master and there is one truth. And the weakness of man has been that only what he is accustomed to consider as truth he takes to be truth, and anything he has not been accustomed to hear or think frightens him. Just like a person in a strange land, away from home, the soul is a stranger to the nature of things it is not accustomed to. But the journey to perfection means rising above limitations, rising so high that not only the horizon of one country, of one continent, is seen, but that of the whole world. The higher we rise, the wider becomes the horizon of our view.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

“The message of God is like a spring of water: it rises and falls, and makes its way by itself.”

~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

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