Divine play and how we react...

Hi,

Last week, I attended a seminar, "Radical Forgiveness" in San Diego, CA. Its a wonderful class. I wrote an intro to "Radical Forgiveness" in Sept 6th 2006 and sent it to my friends who might be interested about it. Now I thought of posting it here. Enjoy.
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Yesterday, I mentioned to one of my friend about how we attract each person or situation into life. Asked him to see what lesson he needs to learn from that situation. I also mentioned that if life is a drama, as told by Swamy, then all the persons in life also playing a role. As soon as their work is complete, they may move away or change for the better.

Today I picked up Jill's story in "Radical Forgiveness" book. I was in bliss when I read that story because it directly explains about events which happen to us in daily life and how other souls (unconscious to them) bring the same injury in different forms so that we can heal. Here are some of the quotes to arouse the curiosity. Read the story online or download the pdf and read it. Lots of people got healing just by reading it. (Story is about Author's sister and how without even knowing what Author is doing, which is just asking questions, she was able to save her marriage).

• What if your two souls were doing the same dance but to a wholly different tune? What is the dance was about you healing? What if you could see this as an opportunity to heal and grow?
• ... Beneath the drama we call life lies a whole different reality. Believe me, there's nothing to be frightned about. When you see how this works, you will feel more trust more secutiry, and more peace than you ever thought possible. You'll realize how well we are being supported by the Universe or God, whatever you want to call it, every moment of every day no matter how bad any given situation seems at the time".
• Looked at from a spiritual standpoint, our discomfort in any given situation provides a signal that we are out of alignment with spiritual law and are being given an opportunity to heal something. It may be some original pain or perhaps a toxic belief that stops us from becoming our true selves.
• If we don't heal whatever needs to be healed, we must create more discomfort until we are literally forced to ask, 'What's going on here?' Sometimes the message has to become very loud, or the pain extremely intense, before we pay attention. A life-threatening illness, for example, provides a loud message.
• Life will always prove your beliefs right.
• We always create our reality according to our beliefs. If you want to know what your beliefs are, look at what you have in your life. Life always reflects our beliefs.
• Radical Forgiveness: Its purpose lies in seeing the truth behind the apparent circumstances of a situation and recognizing the love that always exist there.
• You must choose whether to heal and to grow--or to be right.
• 90% of the healing occurs when you become willing to let in the idea that you soul has lovingly created this situation for you. Willingness to see the situation differently is the key to your healing. In becoming willing, you let go of control and surrender it to God. He takes care of the other ten percent.
• We experience an event and make interpretations about it. Then, we put these two pieces together to create a largely false story about what happened. The story becomes the belief, and we defend it as if it were the truth.
• You attracted people into your life who would confront you directly with your own pain and make you re-live the original experience through them.

Enjoy and start healing if you have any pains in your life, however small it might be.

http://www.radicalforgiveness.com/content/jill.asp

Have a wonderful day.

Divine play and how we react...

Hi,

Last week, I attended a seminar, "Radical Forgiveness" in San Diago.

Yesterday, I mentioned to one of my friend about how we attract each person or situation into life. Asked him to see what lesson he needs to learn from that situation. I also mentioned that if life is a drama, as told by Swamy, then all the persons in life also playing a role. As soon as their work is complete, they may move away or change for the better.

Today I picked up Jill's story in "Radical Forgiveness" book. I was in bliss when I read that story because it directly explains about events which happen to us in daily life and how other souls (unconscious to them) bring the same injury in different forms so that we can heal. Here are some of the quotes to arouse the curiosity. Read the story online or download the pdf and read it. Lots of people got healing just by reading it. (Story is about Author's sister and how without even knowing what Author is doing, which is just asking questions, she was able to save her marriage).

• What if your two souls were doing the same dance but to a wholly different tune? What is the dance was about you healing? What if you could see this as an opportunity to heal and grow?
• ... Beneath the drama we call life lies a whole different reality. Believe me, there's nothing to be frightned about. When you see how this works, you will feel more trust more secutiry, and more peace than you ever thought possible. You'll realize how well we are being supported by the Universe or God, whatever you want to call it, every moment of every day no matter how bad any given situation seems at the time".
• Looked at from a spiritual standpoint, our discomfort in any given situation provides a signal that we are out of alignment with spiritual law and are being given an opportunity to heal something. It may be some original pain or perhaps a toxic belief that stops us from becoming our true selves.
• If we don't heal whatever needs to be healed, we must create more discomfort until we are literally forced to ask, 'What's going on here?' Sometimes the message has to become very loud, or the pain extremely intense, before we pay attention. A life-threatening illness, for example, provides a loud message.
• Life will always prove your beliefs right.
• We always create our reality according to our beliefs. If you want to know what your beliefs are, look at what you have in your life. Life always reflects our beliefs.
• Radical Forgiveness: Its purpose lies in seeing the truth behind the apparent circumstances of a situation and recognizing the love that always exist there.
• You must choose whether to heal and to grow--or to be right.
• 90% of the healing occurs when you become willing to let in the idea that you soul has lovingly created this situation for you. Willingness to see the situation differently is the key to your healing. In becoming willing, you let go of control and surrender it to God. He takes care of the other ten percent.
• We experience an event and make interpretations about it. Then, we put these two pieces together to create a largely false story about what happened. The story becomes the belief, and we defend it as if it were the truth.
• You attracted people into your life who would confront you directly with your own pain and make you re-live the original experience through them.

Enjoy and start healing if you have any pains in your life, however small it might be.

http://www.radicalforgiveness.com/content/jill.asp

Have a wonderful day.

King - Seven sons - Fish not get dried - Spiritual Meaning of the story

I am not sure whether you heard this story or not. In India, this is very popular story. I listened to it lots of times and also told my children. Until I heard the talk given by Sri Garikapati Narasimha Rao garu, I was not aware of the spiritual significance of the story. You can listen to it in Telugu language from www.surasa.net/music/purana website. For people who don't know Telugu, I typed the story as far as I can. I gave the regular story first and the spiritual significance later.

Read and enjoy.

Story: Once upon a time, there was a king who had seven sons. One day they went for hunting and came back with seven fishes. They let them dry in the sun. One of the fish didn't dry. When they asked the fish why it didn't get dry, it said "Hay stack blocked it". When they asked why Hay Stack blocked the sun, it replied, cow didn't eat it. When they asked cow why it didn't ear the hay stack, it replied: "cowherd didn't allow it to eat". They go ask the cowherd, why he didn't allow cow to eat the grass, he replies that mom didn't fed him. They go to mother and ask why she didn't fed cowherd, she replies my little son cried. They again go to little boy and ask him why he cried, he replies ant bit him. When they ask ant, it says it bit him because he put his finger into the nest.

Garikapati garu says, when we question the first part itself, story doesn't';t hold any basis because King's sons went to hunt and came back with fish? He says, 7 fish are our vices (pride, avarice, Envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth). He said, the one which didn't dry is our Kama (direct meaning is lust, but he elaborated it to include all our desires). To get rid of it, we need Knowledge and haystack is the obstruction, which is our ignorance. To get rid of ignorance, we need knowledge, which we can get either by burning the haystack or remove it one at a time. Just like cow eating one straw at a time, each of our exposure to knowledge, we are removing one straw at a time. So to get this knowledge, we need a GURU (teacher). Teacher didn't give us this spiritual knowledge because mother of education (Saraswathi, Goddess of education) didn't tell him/her to give that to us. Mother of education went to take care of the child who is wailing to see her (he gave example of Ramakrishna, Indian spiritual saint). Ramakrishna was wailing for her darshan, and he was not looking to experience this Maya (iillusion- Ant) which tries to put this Material world on the person who puts their finger into it (Ant hill).

He also mentioned that just like Vivekananda, who was asking every saint about God and whether they can show him God. So someone refers him to go and visit RRamakrishna There were thousands of people waiting to see Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was waiting outside the Mandir/Temple. But Ramakrishna, who was inside sent his people to fetch Vivekananda to show him God. This is the example of Mother Goddess telling GURU to give knowledge to her child.

Conch Bearer - Childrens novel

My daughters recommend lots of books to me. Some of them I do read and some don't. Until now, I loved following books to read with them or read aloud to them, etc. These are from last year, 2007.

1. Wizard of OZ (100 years back, author dreamed about tin man - similar to robot today)
2. Sara, Book 1: The Foreverness of Friends of a Feather
3. Sara, Book 2: Solomon's Fine Featherless Friends
4. Sara, Book 3: A Talking Owl Is Worth a Thousand Words!
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald, Dahl
6. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Lot more. Any books by Roald Dahl are wonderful. Same goes with Frank L Baum books.

Now to the book I read this year, 2008. My daughter highly recommended me to read "Conch Bearer" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She said, her teacher read this book to her in her 4th grade (now she is in 6th grade). So, I thought lets see what Indian writer wrote and what attracted my daughter. I was not able to put the book down and finished it during the weekend. Very nice story about a poor boy and his way to his dream.

Anand is a poor boy in Kolkota area. His sister goes into trans like state after she watches a murder on the street. A old man comes and cures her and asks for Anand to go with him. Anand used to dream about magical powers, etc. Old man says he choose him as the conch bearer. That's how his journey starts and meets with another girl. Trio set forth to Himalayas and evil force try to snach the conch from them. How old man protects, guides these two kids along the way and what Anand learns, all this info is very interesting. Also conch guides him when he is in trouble. Here is one of the interaction between Conch and Anand.

Conch: "Relax! Don't worry so much. But perhaps to ask a human not to worry is like asking a fish not to swim!"
"Ananda, what do you want most to do?"
I want to help people, to make them happy, he thought.
"That's a mistake right there. You can help all the people you want, but you can't make them happy. Only they themselves can do that."
At least I don't want to cause them unhappiness--especially my family. I don't want to be the reason my mother cries and doesn't eat her food.
"Ah," said the conch. "Wait on that thought for a moment, and move to another question. If you really want to help, where do you think you can help more people? Here, after you develop your gifts, or at home with your family?"
I might be able to help more people here, Anand thought, but they're not my own people, not in the way my family is. I owe my family more.
"Another mistake," the conch said with a sigh. "All this talk of mine. Never mind. You're still young. But if there was a way for you to help your family from right here--more than you could help them by being there in person...?
But how can that be? Anand asked. What my mother needs is for me to be there.

It goes on... Very nice story.

Read and enjoy.

Life's Golden Ticket

Last week I went to attend a seminar in San Diego, CA. I will write a different one on the conference. While traveling I started reading the book, "Life's Golden Ticket" by Brendon Burchard.

This is a wonderful novel with lots of life's learning. It starts with a person who's wife was missing for last 40 days. They find her and when she sees her, she is in ICU and requests him to visit a place which was closed for last 20 years. Fun and learning starts once he visit that place. Lots of our life mistakes, assumptions, beliefs, etc are challenged. I was not able to keep the book down except due to the class. Basically, author informs how we miss or avoid our life's dream with all kinds of excuses, beliefs, blames, etc. Very informative and captive story.

One of the quote I got from the book:

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished:
If you're alive, it isn't." -- Richard Bach

Its a good reading for anyone. Complete story is set in an amusement part and all life issues are compared to different rides, actors, sellers, tight rope walkers, lion tamer, elephant tamer, etc. Get it from library or bookstore and enjoy.