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There is a great beauty in understanding and recognizing the nature of what this life is. You are more than the sum of all the things that happen in the world. You are more than all your failures and your successes. The sun rises in the sky each day, and if you can truly appreciate what message it brings you as a human being, you can awaken and start again.
The other day, I looked at a bird that was just outside the window. I thought, "Once upon a time, this used to be a giant dinosaur." When it was that big, it would have trampled everything around it, including me. But through the years, it has transformed. To human beings, it seems like a negative transformation. It was big, and now it has become small. That's not true. It has become something so much better. It's smaller and more vulnerable, but it can fly.
In the nature of things, we have been given this body, this life. What is it good for? It may have a lot of problems, but one thing it's good for is it can help you experience joy. Today is the day, once again, you get to accept life, enjoy it, and be fulfilled. It gets better and better. Just let it happen.
You need to enjoy. Just enjoy. That's the most important thing. You have this opportunity to be alive. Accept that. It's an incredible gift. Nothing is impossible. You may have a dream, and people dampen it. But you have to hang onto that dream even if you don't know how it is going to happen. Even if you just know, "That's what should happen," it's a very different feeling.
I'm glad that there is a dream. Somewhere there is a dream that peace will happen. And someday it will. That's why it comes about—because of the dream.
There is darkness and there is light, always. What you have to decide is that you want clarity in your life, that you want joy in your life. Things will happen. That is no surprise. But it's your life. Breath comes into you.
Suppose I am playing the flute in an orchestra, and there are four people who are playing flutes, too. If one person is playing off-key, I don't have to play off-key, too, do I? If I know how to play the flute, I can still play even though someone else is off-key.
This is my flute, this is my breath, these are my fingers. It's my expression. So much happens in this world. People we really love pass on. It's sad. Of course, it's sad. But what you have to do is remember what this person was all about. They were about life. They were about being. We can learn from that, that there is not a moment to waste. Not a moment to waste.
When there is darkness, you need to light your lamp. You need to have trust and fly. Fly. If thousands of birds around you start flying, that doesn't mean you will fly. You have to flap your wings. If others are not flying and you want to, it doesn't make any difference. Flap your wings and you will fly.
In this life take that flight. The possibility is there for each one of us to be fulfilled. Don't even think about darkness. You have your own lamp—just for you. When the lamp is lit, it lights up just enough for you to see, so that you can keep walking, keep going in your life.
It's a powerful lamp. You give the effort to light it and no wind can put it out. That is its power. It glows only as much as you need to be able to see. It won't glow for somebody else. It will only glow for you. Its power is such that, if you keep it lit, no storm can put it out. It will be there.
So make the effort to be fulfilled and enjoy yourself. Enjoy this life. You will appreciate more and more. Don't waste another moment on a wasted moment. That's what we do. We waste one moment and then we waste four more on that moment. Go forward.
Rule number one is: Don't put yourself down. When you see a beautiful tree, that tree is about the seed that worked, that germinated, not about the one that didn't. Your life, your breath, your existence is about what worked, not what didn't.
So light the lamp. Enjoy this life. This is what you have been given. This is your opportunity. Some things in life will be bad and some things will be good. Life is not about the bad. The most important thing is that you have this opportunity to be alive. Just accept that. It's an incredible gift. Enjoy this life. It's so important that you do.
Everything is there to make the impossible possible.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life | Permalink
You have everything. You really do. You have this life. Begin with that. I know that some people are cynical. You might think you are a particularly difficult case. A lot of the things we tell ourselves are the things we have been told by other people: "Don't do that. If you do, this or that will happen." Then you think you are a difficult case. Who told you that? Doesn't breath come into you? Don't you have a heart? Aren't you alive? Just on the merit of these three things alone, you are not a difficult case. That makes you a human being, just like me, just like anyone else.
Look at an ant. An ant should be cynical. Have you seen an ant try to go through grass? It has to crawl up and down. Danger is everywhere. It would have a right to be cynical, but it isn't. With its little legs, it marches off. And it marches and marches. It has a focus in life.
Start to see, to appreciate. I'm not trying to tell you that everything is beautiful. But see and experience the beauty for yourself. Allow—give yourself the chance to accept that in your life.
It's like a door, and behind it, incredible magic has been happening. We say, "I don't know what's behind this door and, therefore, I'm not going to open it." And then we look at the room we're in and it's not that great. I say, "Open the door. Go! I'll give you the key, but you must open the door."
When you feel joy, don't you want to be there all the time? It's not a wish. Just wishing won't work. Something has to happen. We have to understand, "This is where I want to be." And know that, not just say, "I don't want to be miserable." Just saying, "I don't want to be miserable" does not automatically put us in a good place. This is the law of nature. If I say, "I don't want to be here," what good does that do? But if I realize where I want to be, then it will pull me there.
There is a place within you that brings you joy. You have to trust yourself just as much as I trust you. And you have to see the possibility in your own self just as much as I see the possibility in you. Maybe for the first time say, "I'm not going to sit there all my life saying where I don't want to be. I'm going to clarify for myself where I do want to be." That's when I can help you.
If you go to the airline counter and say, "I don't want to be here," how are they going to help you? I am like that airline. If you say, "Take me to the place where I can be in peace, where I can be in joy," then I can tell you, "This way. Which seat would you like?"
We have life. That's the biggest passport. This breath is marching every moment. Breath doesn't assume anything. Every moment it comes. Very precise. Then it goes, and it comes again. It doesn't assume: "I've been there for a long time. You'll be okay if I don't come for 45 minutes." It comes every moment, every second.
We have mercy in our life, so many blessings, so much love. It's a matter of uncovering, discovering all the things we have been given.
A lot of people are fascinated by misery and just can't leave it. They complain about everything—about God, the weather, everything. Sometimes there are thunderstorms or it's hot. That's the joy of being here. You can't say, "No thunderstorms, please. No heat, please. No this or that, please."
We have to be strong in this world. To be safe, to be conscious, to be real in this life comes from inside. I can't fix the political system. What I can do is help people get in touch with their heart. I go around the world
telling people they can have peace in their life. I started helping people when I was very young, and this is what I've been doing all my life. The dream was to be able to go from place to place, village to village—and that is becoming a reality.
Every day is new. And that's wonderful. Enjoy your life, every moment. That's how it should be. Don't lose the shield of hope. Learn how to hold onto it. You want that hope.
Sadness will always be there; sadness doesn't go away. All the sadness that you will ever feel is within you. And all the love that you will ever feel is within you. It just depends which door you want to open.
You have everything. Let me help you discover all those things again, how to hold onto the shield of hope. The world has pushed it away. But every day we can have hope. We can learn to smile again. We don't have to be sad. I can't tell anybody that their business will be better. But I know one thing: a centered person is what the whole world is looking for, because that's what we all need. So, just enjoy the ride.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life, Maharaji: Peace | Permalink
One with the Heart
A lot of people talk about the past. And yes, there have been great times, but the past wasn't better than today. We just have to see how fortunate we are to be here, keep our eyes open and see what's happening now, because it is incredibly exciting.
Come from a simple place in your life. When you recognize the thing that is within you that has made its temple inside of you, then you will begin to understand the value of being human. That temple is in the heart of every human being, and it exists within you. Don't paint it red; don't paint it green. Don't stick a statue in it. It's not worth it.
The value is in being alive and recognizing that. Sainthood is for people who have died. We are alive now. Feel the triumph in your life. That's all that matters. It's a matter of understanding. If someone were a saint, that person would be recognized for their gratitude, their understanding, their fulfillment.
In this life, we need to understand our selves. Life is thrusting us to move forward every single day. Life is transforming us. That's the challenge. That's what is being offered - to keep evolving, to shine.
A lot of people focus on their troubles and problems. If we could only look at ourselves and see that something has protected us and saved us again and again. Even if it is just for a fraction of a second that we are reminded what is important in life, that's enough.
Everybody is taking a journey. I look at each person's face and everybody has a story to tell. Every wrinkle has a story to tell. Every tear has a story to tell. Every smile has a story to tell. Every person has a story to tell. They really do. Their expression of what they are feeling in their lives tells a story.
Be with this gift of life, of understanding, and we'll fight whatever fight there is to fight. We're not going to go looking for darkness, but if it comes, we'll light so many lamps it won't know where to be. That's what we have: we don't have swords, but we've got lamps and we'll light them. Confusion and doubt don't have to come in our lives. That's the possibility.
I'm not saying that we never get confused. But the possibility exists that we don't have to be confused. There doesn't have to be doubt. As we live and exist, life can be experienced in its true purity, its true beauty, without all the chaos and the drama. Life is saying, "Come across the river, and you don't have to get wet. You don't have to fall in the river. Enjoy the ride."
If you've taken that challenge in your life to be fulfilled, see it through. It takes the same amount of energy to doubt your experience as it does to experience it. Fall in love with what your heart wants you to do. Synchronize with it. Get together with your heart. Make that heart and you a team. When we become a team with confusion and doubt, we don't get anywhere. Though they promise us that we will win every game, we lose every game. Get together with the heart. When the heart and you have become a team, that's incredible. So stay with it. It's important.
The doors are open. This is a very specific training. It is a training to take the most advantage of every breath. This is not somebody coming along and delivering a written speech. No. There's a lot more to this.
Be with yourself and enjoy this life. Keep the focus because you can go really far. I'm very proud of those people who make an effort to be fulfilled. Very, very proud.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life | Permalink
There are two questions that I hear from people again and again. "Why am I here in this world?" and "Who am I?" Two very fascinating questions. The most important one is, "Who am I?" If I can understand that, I can also understand why am I here.
The world constantly pushes labels onto us. "You are so-and-so." It started in school with the teacher calling attendance. Is that who I am? A name? Or am I what I do? Am I a doctor or a lawyer or a captain? A graduate of this or that school?
On one hand, I have a body with blood, cells, nerves, brain, eyes - all of that. Then, distinctly inside of me, there is something that is allowing me to exist. The feeling that it brings is not only the feeling of being alive, but the feeling of being in peace. It brings the feeling of joy, of tranquility. There is something that stays untouched by everything that happens around me. I get affected by good days and bad days; the thing that is keeping me alive is apart from all of that. This is who I am. I'm not just my body, and I'm not just my accomplishments. I'm more. All of that put together is who I am.
It comes back to what is important. There is an option in life to be fulfilled. Good and bad will happen. That's not the point. When it is raining outside and you open up an umbrella, the purpose of the umbrella is not to make the clouds go away. All the umbrella does is to prevent you from getting wet as much as it can. Your feet might get wet, but it will at least keep your head dry. That's what fulfillment is like.
A lot of people think fulfillment will change the whole world for them. It won't. What it will do is let you know where your true home is. The reality is that peace is within me whether I am a beggar or I'm a king. It doesn't matter to peace. We see such a big difference between the two - a beggar and a king. But think about it. What does the beggar really dream of? Becoming a king. And what does a king dream of? "I wish my life was simple like that beggar."
So different, yet so similar. Both are looking for peace. The beggar thinks, "If I become the king, I will have peace." And the king says, "If I become the beggar, I will have peace." These are differences that we have created.
There is one simple similarity we all share. Peace is within all of us. And if we want, we can experience that.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Peace | Permalink
