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| image: Iraj Jahanshahi |
When we receive something we cherish – a relationship, a position, a gift – we immediately become attached to it and almost unconsciously begin to act in a way so as to secure its continued presence in our lives.
We forget that we are not the ones who designed either the treasure – whatever and whoever it is – or its arrival into our lives.
We begin to claim it as our own as if we had initiated, produced and brought it into existence. We fear its loss. The more we value it, the more time and energy we spend striving to keep it in our hands.
In truth, the best things in our lives are here not because of our ingenuity – if we have played a part in receiving them, it has been minuscule.
The treasures of our lives and we ourselves are products and recipients of a most astonishing and staggering Genius and Generosity.
If we truly realized that every valuable thing, person, or condition in our lives is a result of Divine Beneficence, we would be both grateful and trusting. We would feel secure. Because we would know that the One who has granted us this, can grant us more of the same, or better.
We don't have to scheme or worry to secure anything for ourselves.
We are taken care of.
We always have been.
We always will be.
image: with thanks via Iraj Jahanshahi
Your body is one of your greatest friends and allies. It is an astonishing divine gift, a sacred dwelling place for your spirit, a holy lamp in which the light of your consciousness burns.
It is not your vehicle to project yourself into the world, to become an object, to be seen, to look attractive, to draw attention.
Its greatest value is not in its form. But its function, and above all its meaning.
The spirit is its master dweller. Consciousness is its essence and its purpose.
It is not just a miracle of metabolic, physiological and anatomical function, it is living, breathing, love and life.
It is text.
Read it.
Listen to it.
Pay attention to it.
It whispers many stories, many secrets.
It speaks of pain and its cure.
It speaks of longing and union.
It speaks of imprisonment and freedom.
Listen. Listen, pay attention.
Don’t use it to appear, to draw attention, to lure, to seduce.
Don’t hate it for what you perceive to be its ugliness, its flaws.
Don’t berate it for its infirmity and weakness and age.
Its everlasting beauty, strength and potential are inside, hidden, under the surface. Find that.
Be grateful to this friend.
Rid it gently, of what is toxic, stagnant and no longer required.
Take care of it. Nourish it well -- not with empty pleasure, distraction and futile activity – but with wholesome food, drink, rest, thoughts, feelings and actions.
Purify it with prayer, remembrance, meditation and service.
Use it to pour yourself out, to serve yourself empty.
Be grateful to this friend. Take care of it and listen to it.
Pay close attention and you will learn so much about yourself from this singular ally.
You have no other friend like this, in the whole world.
image: via pcwallart.com
When you want nothing from the other, you cannot be manipulated. You cannot be enticed or intimidated. You cannot be held hostage.
This is the essence of real freedom and power.
How can you arrive at this?
By letting go of all desire and expectation that is fulfilled by the other. And by convincing yourself that a grain of good cannot reach you, unless Allah permits it and a grain of harm cannot reach you, unless Allah permits it. He alone has command over what you receive and your life.
What can anyone possibly give you or withhold from you that is better for you than what Allah can give you or withhold from you?
It may appear that people want what our money, or fame or power can give them. It may seem as if people like us for our strength, our outer beauty, our place in society, our talents, successes and achievements.
But what people really want – and they may not even be conscious of this themselves – what actually lies behind their aspirations, is to be accepted, to be understood, to be affirmed as they are.
We all have a deep desire to be seen, to be given full attention, to be listened to without interruption or judgment. To be accepted with our weaknesses, our flaws, our failures, our fears, our darkness. We want our pain to be acknowledged and understood. We want to be sincerely affirmed and praised for our selves and our struggles.
Why are we all so desperate for this total acceptance and why are so few of us able to give it to another?
Because most of us are in denial about our own selves. Most of us are afraid to know ourselves. Most of us are too busy constructing and defending the shell we have created of ourselves, based on our conditioning. This shell is not who we are, it is not whole, it is not authentic. So we have a fear of being found out, of being an imposter. And this disquiet eats away at us. And when we see our shadow reflected in others – in weakness, in vulnerability, in what we consider deviant or improper, in neediness, in brokenness, in failure – we shrink in horror from the other, when in fact, it is our own selves we are most afraid and horrified of.
What we require, more than anything else, is permission to be human – which means to be lost sometimes, to be confused sometimes, to make mistakes sometimes. To not always have the answers, to not always be right, successful, strong and in control. To be allowed to be weak, vulnerable and needy sometimes. To be allowed to want (not necessarily have) what we should not want. Permission to acknowledge our selfishness, greed, jealousy, envy, fear, without succumbing to them. Permission to acknowledge our appetite for violence, revenge, pleasure, without indulging in them.
Permission to be imperfect and broken.
Permission to be tired, to stop and to rest.
It is only when we acknowledge our demonic and beastly potential that we transcend them to realize our highest potential, which is noble and breathtakingly beautiful and sublime.
Our darkness is not just the opposite of our light, it is not just the path to our light, when the darkness is made conscious, it becomes our light.
Grant yourself the permission to be human. Grant yourself full acceptance. Walk into and transmute your darkness into light.
Then give this gift of total acceptance, of your light, to everyone else.
image: with thanks via Iraj Jahanshahi on facebook
For any area of self improvement -- physical, intellectual, creative or spiritual -- go to a source you trust and a teaching/ technique that resonates with you.
Then submit to it fully.
Start small, but be regular in order to establish your practice and build it up from there. It is better to do a little each day than to do a lot in spurts.
Give it your all.
if you don't give it your best you will not benefit from it and you will never know why it didn't work -- was it you or was it the teaching/ technique? And you are likely to be plagued by doubt and regret, which you will carry to the next thing you try.
If it works, stick with it. If you slip in your practice, forgive yourself and start again.
If it doesn't work, give it up and try something else. Don't waste time with something that is not working just because you've already made some kind of investment in it (assuming you've done your best and given it enough time). It's not going to start working based on the size of your investment.
And always pray for Divine guidance and help :)
image: with thanks via Iraj Jahanshahi
