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What Each Breath Tells Us
We get caught in so many of the dramas that happen in our life. Life is full of them. It's just like driving down the road a little too fast and coming to a stoplight. You come to a screeching halt because the light is red. People are turning right and left, going in different directions. Someone is running into someone else. There is a little drama here and a little drama there. Life is very much like that.
With all the dramas that are taking place, there is one thing we cannot afford to forget: The happenings in life are not what life is all about. The coming and going of breath is not about a drama. If you find yourself in the midst of a drama, remember what your life is all about.
Imagine a flight captain who is a very sociable person. Once he's taken off, he gets up to talk with the passengers. There he is, talking to one person about one thing and to another person about something else. The flight is only two hours long, and the time passes quickly. Forty-five minutes go by, then an hour-and-a-half, then an hour and forty-five minutes. The captain is still socializing. Now he only has fifteen minutes to get
the plane on the ground. He has to remember what his main focus is. Even though all this socializing is wonderful, what is the main point of the journey?
What is the main point of the breath that is coming into you?
The main point happens to be fulfillment. When we are fulfilled, we are the most beautiful. That's when we attain our purpose. When a flower blooms, it is no mistake that it looks beautiful. This is how it is supposed to look. This is when it is supposed to be the most attractive—so it can attract the bees. It's no mistake.
An instrument sounds best when it is tuned. That is the nature of its design. I don't know how to tune a guitar, but someone once told me that the secret is to tune each string slightly sharp or flat. My first reaction was, "Wait a minute." But that is what makes the harmony, and the main point of a guitar is the harmony it can produce.
What harmony can you produce? When there is harmony in a human being, we call it peace, we call it love, we call it fulfillment. A human being is finely tuned when they understand that existence has been given as a gift.
We try so hard to understand why we are alive, when all we want is to feel thankful. Gratitude automatically happens when the heart is full. Gratitude will flow, and there is nothing you can do about it. Just try stopping it. Right now, you may have a problem remembering that, but when gratitude comes, try stopping it.
Each breath that comes to us is saying, "Make it happen." With the gentlest persuasion imaginable, each breath is saying, "Be fulfilled in this life." Life is not about dramas and traumas. Life is about fulfillment. This is your possibility. This is what can happen.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life, Maharaji: Peace | Permalink
Many realities manifest during a day. If bad news comes, that's a reality. If there are responsibilities to take care of, that's a reality. Of all the realities in this ever-changing world, there is one that remains steadfast despite everything that happens. That reality addresses me. It is the reality of my existence.
I have a name that I associate with myself. But who am I? What am I? Is life really as complicated as I have made it? The good and the bad, the person who's going through a crisis - is that really me, or am I something else? Who I am is not the complicated, but the simple within me. Not the scales, not the weights, but an ocean of joy. Simple, beautiful. With one thirst - the thirst to be content, to be in peace, to be in joy, to understand.
The need for peace, the attraction to peace, is not created. It is innate within every human being. There are ups and downs, but there is a place inside that is neither up nor down, a place that is steady. Peace is within and the thirst for peace is also within.
You don't have to search for peace, because you already have it. How do you find something that has been with you every day of your life? It lies in the realm where breath comes and goes and brings the gift of existence. You are alive. You can feel pain, but more importantly, you can feel joy. You can feel turmoil, but most importantly, you can feel peace. You have the ability to feel contentment.
Know yourself, this beautiful symphony that you are, this beautiful poetry that you are, this beautiful story that you are. Knowing what is within brings peace.
This peace is not the story of desperation - the trauma and drama of what is lacking. Learn to measure this existence by what you have, not what you don't have. What you have is so much more powerful than what you don't have. There is a feeling of peace dancing within you that is more beautiful than you could ever imagine.
The heart nudges you - not to back up, but to go forward. So many of us would stand at the pinnacle of our life and just look back. The heart says, "Turn around and go forward." Follow the river of time. It will take you places you have never been - places that are simple.
Turn down the volume. Something is whispering. Let it come closer and closer to you. This whisper, this wish for peace and contentment, can be heard. The voice inside has always asked for one thing, and that is peace. It has been there ever since you were little, and it will be there for as long as you live. Listen to what is being said. This is the story of your life. It is not new, but it is so exciting. This is your opportunity.
Success is opportunity observed, opportunity taken. If you want to be successful in your life, you have to be an opportunist. If you see this life as an opportunity for peace, an opportunity to be content, take it. The plaque on the wall is not success. The plaque in the heart - that is success. On this inner wall, frame the beautiful poetry that awakens you every day and inspires you to take the opportunity to be in peace. It is possible to have that in your life.
Maharaji
in Maharaji: Life | Permalink
Peace has to be felt. It is not just a subject of conversation. There is a peace that is fundamental to all of us. Beyond all those little differences we have—skin color, shape of the face, hair, clothes—there is a commonality to all of us. We exist. We are alive.
We all thirst for peace. If we really want to see that basic aspiration, we have to put down all the different-colored glasses we wear and see that one fundamental thing that is so simple and so beautiful that exists in the heart of every individual. I'm not talking about creating anything or achieving anything. I'm talking about what already exists within us. You don't have to get it; it's already there. It is a matter of discovery.
Peace is that joy, that serenity, inside every human being. Peace is not a concept or an idea, but a reality waiting to be discovered, a joy waiting to be felt. Feel peace in your life. Make that the priority in your life. Include peace among those things that are important to you. Make sure that peace is not just a dream, some nice thing that someday you will have, but that peace has become a reality in your life.
Your life, every day that you live it, is a consciously struck note. The instrument you have been given is called life. The possibility of peace dances upon the stage where a heart full of contentment and gratitude can exist. Instead of complaining, "Here are all the things that are wrong" or "I wish things were this way or that way," how about looking at things the way they are?
This existence is your home. Be in that serenity, that contentment, that joy. Don't let a moment go by. Play this instrument to express that feeling that you are alive—that this means something to you, that it isn't a story about a person who got everything and kept nothing.
Changes happen, and changes will happen, but there is one thing that has never changed: your thirst for peace, your thirst for joy. Ever since you were a little child, it has been there, and for as long as you are alive, it's going to be there. Fulfill it. Be fulfilled.
I'm talking about really enjoying yourself. I'm talking about waking up in the morning and saying, "What an agenda I have—I get to live today." You get to exist today. What you are looking for, you already have. If you ever want to see a wonder, I suggest you take a look at yourself. You should be excited that you are alive, despite all the problems you have and all the problems still to come. It isn't written, "A problem means lack of joy." If that is your definition, then it is a definition that you have created for yourself. That's a misunderstanding.
Let problems be what they will be. Do your best to fight against them, but that doesn't mean you have to lack the joy that dwells in your heart. Let there be joy. Let there be that peace in your life every single day.
Maharaji
