Book Extract: Happier than God

Happier than God

Recently finished reading this book. Following are my notes as reference to self. You may find this useful

• Bring an end to Separation Theology: We are not separate from God
• Stay in touch with who you are:
• Give others every experience you seek: Give people back to themselves
• Be clear that nothing you see is real:
• Decide that you are not your ’story’: Your story is all the data that you have collected about what has happened to you in your life, and the reality that you have manufactured about the kind of person you and other people are and how you all got to be that way. You will have to drop your story.
• Have only preferences: You can always tell whether you are addicted to something, as opposed to merely preferring something, by looking to see if the absence of it causes you to abandon your happiness. The idea in life is to change your addictions into preferences.
• See the perfection: See everything for what it is: the perfect event perfectly timed to provide you with the perfect opportunity to express in the perfect way that which is Perfection Itself.
• Bypass the drama: Remember that nothing has any meaning save the meaning you give it.
• Understand sadness: Your sadness does not have to make you unhappy.
• Stop arguing with life: So much of the lack of happiness that we feel in our lives emerges from our judgments. We tend to judge everything. The people around us, the circumstances they present, the events of the moment, and, of course ourselves.
• Drop all expectations: Forget about much you think things “should” be. There is no such thing as “should” in the universe. Trust that God knows what God is doing. Know that life is always conspiring in your favor. Understand that expectation is just your idea about something, and that this idea does not and cannot take into account the complex interweaving of life journeys undertaken by all of us, sequentially and simultaneously.
• Have compassion for yourself: Don’t make yourself “wrong” for any negative experience with which you may now be confronted (even if you feel “deserve” it, or that you “brought it on yourself” – in fact, especially if you feel that way), but have compassion for yourself, and know that God has gifted you with the power inside of you to change yourself, your motives, your behaviors, your exterior conditions, and you life itself, in the instant after this.
• Speak your truth as soon as you know it: Do not hide your personal truth, your authentic feelings, you’re here-and-now experience from anyone – least of all from your dearest loved ones or your beloved other.
• Watch the energies, catch the vibe: Pay attention to life’s energies. At all times, you are receiving them and you are sending them. Try to absorb everything that is happening in your space. Then, see if there is a match. And slip out of the space if there is a mismatch.
• Smile:
• Sing:
• Know what to do when things are really bad: Things just are what they are. Bless all the people and events that are disappointing you, that are besetting you, that are assailing you like so many arrows from afar. Accept and receive the energy, because only then you can heal it. Don’t resist. What you resist persists.

Become divine

When I listen to songs from ‘Swades’, one of the song has a sentence which translates to ‘Remove Ravana from your mind to become a Rama’. If you try to understand Symbolism of Ramayana this simple sentence makes good sense.

While we consciously remove qualities that were embodied by Ravana, we can discover divinity within us.

Links

Symbolism in Ramayana

Ambition

The paradox in life is that one must be ambitious to be free from that ambition which corrupts and blinds and tempts and distorts. – Peter J. Gomes

I was thinking on similar lines and then I came across the above quote.  I was thinking more on the lines of ‘Only desire a spiritual person needs to have is be free of desires’.

Dharma and Living without rules

I have been having some thoughts about Dharma. Dharma is living the right way. I was reading book by Dr. Wayne Dyer ‘ Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao’ and following in an extract from one of the chapters that reflected similar ideas:

Picture yourself in a world where rules and laws don’t exist, where everyone lives peacefully and harmoniously. There’s no anarchy, thievery, hatred, or war; people simply live, work, love, and play without needing to be governed. Can you imagine a planet where the need for codes of conduct and edicts to govern the populace are simply unnecessary? This is the sort of idealistic mental meandering that led Lao-tzu to create this 18th verse of the Tao Te Ching, in which he’s clearly stating that you don’t need rules to be kind and just.

Laws or rules are seen by many as solely responsible for effectiveness kindness, justice and love – but you can choose to live form your heart, viewing these virtues as individual responsibilities that you adhere to without a statute or convention telling you to.

Rules are created to impose penalties to control or govern people who haven’t learned their individual responsibility as a part of the wholeness of the group.

Falsity among the people creates a need for rules, and rulers are needed to restore order.

Don’t act virtuous; be virtue

Be spontaneously generous to others because your inner calling demands it, not because others in their code making have determined that this is how you should behave.

Everyone is God Speaking. Why not be polite and Listen to Him?

Related Article

Dharma – Worry and Fear

Dharma

Rama Rajya,  The Reign of Righteousness

Staying Contented is hard

Following my previous post on Happiness, I would like to add staying at peace with oneself is influenced by ability to stay contented. Staying contented is hard. Irrespective of our current status, there are always things that tend to disturb our peace.

• There is never enough money. You will always find things that you can get only if you had a little more money.
• You go to shopping and there are new things that are popping at you and asking you ‘get me’. Innovative advertising and media makes us feel want things that we don’t really need.
  • Attractive on the shelf display of items is one sure way to get your attention with great tag lines.
• You notice among your community of friends, colleagues and relatives the things they have and that you don’t have
  • a new or latest model of car, a new or bigger house, a new model of electronic device, more powerful computer etc.

These are things that make Contentment difficult to practice.

Lack of contentment leads to clutter mentally and physically. We acquire things we don’t need.

Contentment should not be confused with Laziness or complacency. To avoid getting into complacency, be active and engage in world actively. Accept things that come into your life without getting attached and when you need to discard things, do it without lot of effort. This will be reflection of contentment and not complacency.

Related Links

Free Stuff
Eliminating Desires
Contentment

Worry and Fear

Worry and Fear are negative emotions in life that can have lot of impact on an individual’s life. Everyone has to find a way of facing these to succeed in life. We look towards literature for tips to overcome these emotions but unless it is practiced constantly, one will not derive relief.

Living a dharmic life is key to overcoming worry and fears. When one lives a life in accordance of dharma to one’s best ability they will be able to live with peace and happiness.

Only a robber needs to fear police and a normal person need not fear police. In a similar manner a person who is doing his best of duty towards his family and society should have confidence that his dharma will protect him. Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah is a crisp way of saying this. This is prominently written over walls and signs of Tirumala hills.

Dharma needs to be held according to situation. Practical Dharma means having high values and attempting to uphold them to best of one’s ability

• Simple Example: You go to a restaurant and while paying bill you notice that you were charged for less than you should pay. Would you correct the mistake and pay the right amount. Doing this is dharma. (We are always eager to get the mistake rectified when we are overcharged)

If you have a doubt about What is right dharma? you are the best judge in a given circumstance. You decide the value system you want to uphold and do it. Then you can easily get rid of fear.

Despite following dharma there will be difficulties. One of the proof that we believe in God is ability to face difficulties boldly and not wishing them away. That is utopian view and not practical. This is one of the messages I gathered from book series of “Conversations with God”.

Santi Parva of Mahabharat gives detailed account of Dharma with use of stories.

This is completely my personal opinion and everyone needs to have their personal strategy for overcoming negative emotions. You can get some tips from this particular post.

Related Links (open in new window):

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah

Santi Parva

Contentment and Happiness

Contentment is the greatest virtue – it makes a man richer than an emperor. It brings every blessing and everlasting peace. – Swami Sivananda

Be happy with what you have.

“You may think that you need a particular person to be happy, or a job to be successful, or some other emotional or physical gratification to be content. That is when you may wish to notice that you are here, right now, without it. Why, then, do you think you need it?

Close examination will reveal that you do not need it, not to survive, and not even to be happy.

Happiness is a decision, not an experience.

You can decide to be happy without what you thought you needed in order to be happy, and you will be.

That is one of the most important things you could ever come to understand. That is why I am revisiting this point.

Happiness is a decision, not an experience. You can decide to be happy without what you thought you needed in order to be happy, and you will be.

Your experience is the result of your decision, not the cause of it.”

Source: “Communion with God” by Neale Donald Walsch

Pain Vs Suffering

I am reading another book by Neale Donald Walsch: “Communion with God”. Following is a brief extract I wanted to share.

“Pain is an experience. Suffering is a judgment which is made about that experience. The judgment of many is that the pain they are experiencing is not okay, and should not be occurring. Yet the degree to which pain is accepted as perfect is the degree to which suffering in life may be eliminated. It is through this understanding that Masters overcome all suffering, although they may not escape all pain.

Even people who have not achieved mastery have experienced the different between pain and suffering. An example of this might be having a badly aching tooth pulled. It hurts to have the tooth pulled, but it is very welcome pain.

Their feeling of separation from Me prevents humans from using Me, calling upon Me, having a friendship with Me, harnessing the full potential of My creative and healing power, either to end suffering, or for any other purpose. “

I experienced this recently when my daugther was vomiting. She accepted the pain as necessary to relive of her severe cold she has and she didn’t suffer. She didn’t cry that she is suffering but stayed unattached and believed that the pain is temporary and will go away.

Pain is common to everyone but suffering is a choice. And suffering is a feeling that comes out of ignorance and thinking that pain you are experiencing is not appropriate. It comes from ignorance of associating ourselves with body and taking a choice to accept the suffering. If you choose not to accept it, pain cannot become a suffering.

Friendship with God

I have recently completed reading book Friendship with God. This book continues from Conversations with God (3 books). This book contains a little more personal life of the author and at same time continues to explore how we can are closer to God than we think.

You can read an excerpt from this book at this link

Are you at peace?

Most of the time we are in pursuit of happiness. It is a little difficult to define happiness. We can sometimes say lack of suffering is happiness. We wish for a time when we are free from worries, suffering, fear. We yearn for eternal happiness. Even when we are relatively free from physical sufering, we suffer mentally.

I think we experience happy moments when we are at peace. When we are able to temporarily forget worry, fear, suffering then we experience a sense of peace that can be equated to happiness. Each person experiences peace by doing different things: Meditation, Prayer, Gardening, Taking a walk, Taking a swim, Watching a sunset, Watching a baby, Listening to music and so on.

Understand what calms down your mind and engage in that activity once a day. This will help in your pursuit of happiness. As you understand how this works, you will automatically gravitate to things that give peace to you.