THE TRUE MEANING OF COMPASSION

THE TRUE MEANING OF COMPASSION
(from my book "Twelve steps to Inner Peace)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the meaning for compassion as the sympathetic consciousness of other’s distress together with a desire to alleviate it. The compassion that is taught and understood on the Planet is sympathy or pity for another’s suffering. Taking every effort to relieve another’s pain is considered to be compassion. We have been taught that relieving the pain of others is good.

In order to go relieve another of their pain, the first thought that would come is a judgment with emotion. The judgment that the person is somehow suffering and that it is bad, and thus comes the judgment on the imperfection of creation. Projecting these judgments from the mind, one suffers with sadness. And sadness is an argument with God-Reality. If the meaning of compassion is to free others from suffering, how can we free others from suffering if we ourselves are already suffering with sadness for them?

When we project others’ pain, we intensify their pain so much, and they would be much better without us adding more to their pain. So any person in pain does not need another suffering for them. The best person who can support them is the one who does not judge them or their pain. As parents, when our child starts to learn to walk, we see them fall many times; but do we tell them not to walk anymore because they are constantly falling? We trust that they grow only by moving through obstacles.

In 1996, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuro-anatomist, experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain. She underwent a major brain surgery. She was very aware and awake during her stroke, and she went through a powerful 8-year journey of recovering from her debilitating stroke in complete awareness from a higher perspective.  She recovered and came out of her ordeal with full insight into the greater purpose of life. She observed the play of energy around all aspects of life and shared her amazing experience in her book, My Stroke of Insight.

Viewing life from the perspective of higher truth, Dr. Bolte Taylor shares that when she was completely disabled and recovering, she saw that when people felt pity, sadness, or worry for her, they actually did not help her in any way, and in fact, they did the opposite. They sucked away even the little bit of energy she had. Hence, sadness or feeling pity is debilitating rather than empowering the person who is in pain.

“When we are being compassionate, we consider another's circumstance
with love rather than judgment... To be compassionate is to move into
the right here, right now with an open heart consciousness and a
willingness to be supportive.”
~Jill Bolte Taylor ~ My Stroke of Insight

~Excerpt from "Twelve Steps to Inner Peace"
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LAUGHTER THE BEST MEDICATION, THE BEST MEDITATION

Many people try to do meditation and have failed because it sounds to be very serious, but when laughter is tried as a meditation, there will be complete benefit for body, mind and soul.

Practicing laughter for no reason is a powerful meditation. Great teachers like the Zen Master Hotei, who is called as the Laughing Buddha, taught the simple technique of enlightenment through laughter.

According to Hotei, “laughter is our birthright” and no matter what happens in our life, we must come back to laughter. In many Zen monasteries the monks begin their day with laughter and end their day with laughter.

By choosing laughter, we bring Heaven into our lives and into this Planet.

Laughing at somebody is not good, laughing for a reason is intellectual and from the mind, but laughing without a reason is spiritual.

The Indian mystic Bagwan Shree Rajneesh also called as OSHO, devised a meditation out of laughter. It is very easy and delightful to do. It is a very powerful meditation!

Meditation

Laugh for no reason at all. Go in and find your own laughter inside. Allow the laughter to bubble up from the inside. Create a giggle in the very guts of your being, as if your whole body is giggling, laughing. Start swaying with that laughter; let it spread from the belly to the whole of your body. Go crazily into it. For thirty minutes do the laughing. If it comes uproariously, loudly, allow it. If it comes silently, then sometimes silently, simply laugh for thirty minutes every day. See your life transform into joy and excitement.

~Excerpt from "Twelve Steps to Inner Peace"
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SEVEN KEYS TO STAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR DIVINE SELF

KEY PRACTICES TO CONNECT WITH THE DIVINE SELF

Forgetting our Divinity within is the greatest illusion on this Planet.

Sharing some Key practices from my experience that can help to re-member and connect with our Divinity:

1. Love begins from within, the more we learn to love ourselves as the temple of the Divine Presence, the more we become the well spring of love, we begin to love everyone and everything unconditionally.

2.  Criticizing oneself or anyone else is wasted energy.  Instead channel the energy towards thoughts of appreciation; they are powerful antidotes against stress.

3. Bless every person, every situation in life regardless of the mind’s perception of them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.  Choose to train the mind to see love everywhere rather than fear.

4. Open your heart daily, and make a conscious choice to keep the heart open in all situations.  Practice the attitude of appreciation, and let the Universe know that you are willing to live a miraculous life.

5. Sincerely pray for inner peace once every hour of the day.  Great help will be given to manifest peace in all aspects of life and the life of everyone we touch.

6. We cannot feel joy until we let it out. Doing that which gives the feeling of aliveness and joy and helping others to feel joy has wonderful results. It releases the well spring of joy within us.  And Joy is the greatest magnet that attracts well being.

7. Find a place in nature, go there often, listen to the silence, the heart and mind will open to the message of the Universe.  This would make us connect with our Divine Self, thereby helping us to live every moment in freedom, fearlessness, and peace.
 Blessings!
~Premlatha Rajkumar  

WORRYING IS SENDING NEGATIVE PRAYER

Loving and worrying cannot occupy the same space. They are two opposing frequencies.

There are people who tell me, “I love my husband so much that I worry about him, or I worry about my children a lot.”

Loving is not an emotion. Loving is complete trust that all is well.

Worrying does not help anyone. On the contrary, it makes things even harder for the person who is facing a tough situation. We are energy beings, and we are energetically connected to each other beyond space and time. Our thoughts, feelings, and words bind each other energetically, and this is how prayers (both negative and positive) work.

Worrying, IS sending negative prayer. Worrying is so harmful that it will keep a person stuck in the negative situation that they are in. By worrying about someone, we are sucking away the person’s energy, and we are sending a negative prayer by affirming their weakness. Whenever we have worry thoughts about our loved ones, it is wise to understand that these thoughts of ours are not going to help them or us in any way.

Worry or sadness arise from the argument with reality. Every argument creates greater suffering. The suffering is always from the mind, and it has nothing to do with the person or the situation. In the greater play of life, since the mind does not even know what is good for ourselves or for anyone else, then why would we bring our mind stories to argue, defend, or create war inside us against reality?

When we create discord on the inside, the world immediately mirrors our discord. The moment we go into this space, we deplete our life-force energy – the energy that helps our body and mind to function. We stop thinking clearly and our low energy seeks to balance by sucking this life-force energy from others. Yes, and even from those whom we are worrying about. We remain oblivious to our capacity to create healing and harmony. When we stop believing and attaching to our thoughts, we step into peace.

I have noticed and experienced that when I rewrite my worry thoughts with life affirming thoughts, I come to peace and harmony. Miraculously, the person to whom I am sending life affirming thoughts, also finds healing solutions to their problems. Witnessing our thoughts and rewriting them with our loving visualization and affirmation is a sweet surrender and a most powerful way of bringing the LIGHT of consciousness into our everyday life.

Send those who are facing a tough situation positive life affirming thoughts like:

“You can make it, you are getting better and better, you are
always Divinely guided and protected.”

See this person in your mind’s eye smiling, happy, and healthy. Ask for Divine love and light to cover them, protect them, and bring positive solutions for the highest good of all concerned. Choosing life affirming thoughts over worrying creates miracles for both the giver and the receiver.

I have also noticed that when I chose to disengage from my mind-created discord, the people around me also began to lose their discord and live from the place of clarity.

~Excerpt from "Twelve Steps to Inner Peace"
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TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM TREAT YOU

TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM TREAT YOU ~

This golden rule can be found in all ancient scriptures of our Planet.

This is the sum of duty; do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. (The Mahabharata)
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5:18)
Surely it is the maxim of loving kindness; do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Analects 15:23)
Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss. (Tai Shang Kan Ying P'ien)
That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. (Dadistan-I-dinik 94:5)
What is hateful to you do not to your fellowman. That is the entire law, the rest is commentary. (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
All things whatsoever ye would that man should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ( Matthew 7:12)
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. ( Sunnah)

KNOW YOUR DIVINE SELF

Spirituality is knowing and understanding the you who is beyond and more than the physical body and mind. We all live mechanical lives, busy, and thinking that we are our bodies, but we are much much more than who we think we are, and the moment we come into the understanding and realization of this truth from our heart we live our lives in freedom, fearless, and in gratitude.
Spirituality has nothing to do with any religion, it is the art of learning about ourselves not only in the physical, but also from many dimensions.
When we know this we come into our power and we live from the place of freedom.
We are born as beings with the human self and divine self; we only know our human self, but Spiritual tools like Meditations, affirmations, and visualizations help us to know and anchor our divine self in this Planet.

In my book "Twelve Steps to inner peace" I share many spiritual tools for inner peace that has helped me and many others to know the Divine Self and live from the Divine Self.

"Twelve Steps to Inner Peace is available as AUDIOBOOK, E-BOOK, AND PAPER BOOK

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RETURNING BACK TO OUR ONENESS

RETURNING BACK TO OUR ONENESS
(Two powerful tools to practice daily)

We come into these beautiful human bodies to experience the essence of being, to experience the intimacy of the dense physical experience.  But most of the time we unconsciously choose to separate ourselves from the essence of being.  Just the other day I burnt the fingers of my right hand while making caramel, the mind wants to separate itself from the excruciating pain, but in awareness when I accepted and allowed the experience, there was absolutely no suffering, I could still do all the work I do with my hands, and the burn healed within a week. The practice of the blame game is the sure way of separation from the Oneness of All that IS.  If we notice the major theme of conversations between people and the thought patterns of an individual in one day, they are usually complaints and blame.  The blame is either about themselves, or others, their jobs, their families, the government, or God. It seems like we constantly choose to judge and separate ourselves from oneness with the All.  There is a desire in the human consciousness to be special, to be better, bigger, faster, to acknowledge only the positive experiences, and this desire is the major cause of all suffering.

There is a sacred watcher within every human being, which is the Divine Essence. Even in the midst of chaos and extremely stressful situation this sacred watcher is calm and it continues to watch.  On the other hand the mind continues to react to the situation, and when we identify with the mind we stress ourselves, we suffer.  When one becomes aware of the sacred watcher, then one is able to understand the gift in every situation.  This is the oneness of All that IS, this is the wellspring of knowledge and wisdom, this is the all knowing Presence. When we choose to experience life from this place of oneness, we expand our consciousness, we raise our vibration and we fulfill the purpose of our soul in this lifetime.

The good news here is that we as human beings have the freedom of choice; we can choose what part of us we want to identify with.  Do we choose to identify with the perception of the mind and its reactionary stress or do we choose to identify with the sacred watcher and be in the place of responding to situations from the place of oneness.  The healing process in our lives begins when we start moving our awareness towards this all-knowing, all-seeing, Sacred Presence within our being.

The freedom of choice belongs to us.  It is not necessary to go about our lives with unhappiness or fear.  When we give up our freedom of choice, instead of choosing what we would like to experience from our being, we let what comes through the perception of our mind to control us.  So every pain, every negative situation, every thing that makes you feel bad is perceived by the mind to be a threat and so we separate ourselves from it, this brings suffering.  When there is suffering then it definitely means that there is something missing, the missing part is the separation from oneness, the oneness that is the truth of our wholesome being.  The healing process begins when we let go of the separation, the blame games and the judgments, for these are the stuff that block the flow of life. The choice is not between two different things in life, but the ultimate choice is living from the place of the Spirit, our Sacred Presence.  The sacred watcher within is beyond the mind, it resides within every one of us, and we have the freedom of choice to choose to live from alignment with our Sacred Presence.

To keep us away from the pull and push of every mind perceived situations, and align with our Sacred Presence it is important to ground oneself.  Grounding can be done as soon as you get up in the morning just imagine a tube of light connecting the tip of your tail bone area to the center of the earth below your feet.  Something that represents the conductivity of all energies for you, there is no effort here, just play with your imagination, know that it is there. The more you practice grounding the more you will be in your center and in the place of the awareness of your Sacred Presence. Continue to play with your imagination and be aware of the tube of light that connects you and grounds you through out the day.
Another practice to align with Sacred Presence is to say the mantra “I AM” whenever possible throughout the day, and feel the peace and calm that emanates from it.

These tools are a grand gift to the self.  Choose to give this precious gift to yourselves dear ones!
Blessings!
~Premlatha Rajkumar~

CHOOSE INNER PEACE

CHOOSE INNER PEACE

As a species we are a powerful group of entities. We are born with Divinity so powerful that we co-create the Planet with the Creator. Our power lies in our agreements. The world and the situations in the world exist because of our agreements. Our agreements can either be conscious or unconscious. Most of the time, our agreements are unconscious. We lost the art of living consciously due to programmed learning from the time we were born. Whether it was our parents, teachers, or religious leaders, the society around us drummed two things into us all of the time. These two things were that we are not good enough and that we do not deserve.  This kind of programming has been going on for eons resulting in the chaos and confusion that we have created as a collective on this Planet. We were programmed to deny our joy and our divine nature. By denying our joy, we created situations that separated us from our Divinity.

Our sacred birthright is Inner Peace. In the words of the Mahatma Gandhi:

“An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind!”

For hundreds of years, mankind has been playing this game of an eye for an eye, and has lost its power of sight. When we truly see our creation right now, it is mostly war, chaos, and confusion between individuals, families, clans, and nations. The only thing that can change the world on the outside is to change it on the inside of each one of us. It is a total transformation of consciousness for a new humanity working from the place of Inner Peace to create “Heaven on Earth”.

Yes, we are absolutely the builders of “Heaven” on this Planet. Until we realize this, we will continue to be the losers. Life is not made on the platform of competition or comparison. If we continue to play the games of competition, comparison, scarcity, and war, then we all are going to be the losers.

When many of us choose to anchor peace in our inner being, we will create a more blissful existence.

No revolution on the outside can change our existence. Only the conscious choice to revolutionize on the inside and to create a peaceful space within us will enhance existence on the outside to blossom with beauty and joy.

~Excerpt from "Twelve steps to Inner Peace"
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AWAKENING TO THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE

It is the responsibility of every human to awaken to the magnificence and splendor of their eternal, wholesome selves. As pointed out earlier, reality or life has been created for us, and reality will constantly push us into intense situations that trigger us to awaken to the TRUTH OF WHO WE ARE. 
We see examples of this sometimes where excellence happens in extreme situations – where ordinary people perform extraordinary acts when they find themselves in unusual life threatening situations. Such as a person who saves a child from the clutches of a wild river and finds that it was the first time he ever attempted to swim, the extraordinary acts of people who run fearlessly into a burning building to save a loved one, and so forth. Apparently, reality made these people to suddenly let go of their fear-beliefs. They opened to the wholesomeness of who they truly are and thereby performed these extraordinary feats. 
There is an ancient practice in Tibet where a lama who is seeking enlightenment is made to run fast on the jagged edges of the mountain without stopping even if he is tired. At the most extreme point, the mind lets go and the Spirit takes over and the lama experiences his wholesome self. Even athletes who run marathons experience this grand moment of letting go and allowing their spirit to take over at the moment their body and mind can no longer go on. They enjoy the experience of this spiritual expansiveness so much that they want to run again and again, and they are unable to explain what happened. 
These examples show that humans are not small, helpless, or limited in anyway. The only problem is that we fall asleep to our magnificence. We create stories and movies of imaginary superheroes and admire them, and we forget to recognize the greatness within ourselves. 

~Excerpt from "Twelve steps to Inner Peace" 
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THERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BELIEF & TRUST

            Belief is intellectual, it involves thinking, and it is a learned conditioning from the outside world: Fear arises out of beliefs.
            Trust is created by conscious knowing of truth from within. Trust  does not involve thinking as it only needs ones awareness. It is the innocence of a baby who trusts its mother without any doubt: Love arises out of trust.
            The mind brings in doubt and when doubts arise, fear also arises as you search for a belief to hold on to. Fear is the most powerful enemy of all. Fear cripples, confuses, and makes one to die many times while alive. The concept of fear arises only in the confused mind, a mind that knows only what it knows, a mind that does not know anything before the body came into existence, and a mind that can ride its vehicle only through the help of the physical senses.
            When you put your mind into a belief, you need an organization, laws, dogmas, and commandments; it becomes a system. Any kind of belief system is a hindrance to your spiritual growth, to your potential expansion, and to the gifts that you have brought into this Planet. In a belief system you are never given a chance to explore your Truth. Belief is the easy and most limited way to live your life. Beliefs take you away from your truth by  preventing you from exploring the unknown, from creating wonderment through your gifts, and by keeping you inside a box in which your mind believes to be safe.
            Your Truth can be known only by your own individual experience.  This Universe is teaming with a grand assortment of creation. As each individual is unique, your gifts can be known only by your experience and never by a belief.
            Trust is not about God or faith. Trust is complete surrender to life from the place of greater Understanding. The greater understanding comes from the heart and never from the mind. The mind is not built for trust or love. The mind is a storehouse of knowledge and experiences; hence, the mind is a grand holding place for beliefs. Emotions arise because of judgment of beliefs as being good or bad. Trust has nothing to do with emotions. Trust is a state of being. It is a feeling of the heart; it is not an emotion. It is referred to as the “gut feeling”. The gut feeling is the truth that you are born with; it is your Divine Guidance. When the gut feeling is pleasant, you are on the right path. In contrast, if your gut feeling is not comfortable, the path you have chosen is not for you.

                TRUST YOUR FEELINGS BEFORE YOU TRUST ANYONE ELSE. YOUR FEELINGS ARE YOUR DIVINE GUIDANCE. IF ANYTHING MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD, THEN DO IT. IF YOU DO NOT GET A GOOD FEELING, THEN IT IS NOT FOR YOU.

~Excerpt from "Twelve Steps to Inner Peace"
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BEING FULLY PRESENT

BEING FULLY PRESENT

Many of us worry about the future a lot. Worrying about the future, keeps you in mind-controlled planning of the future, and the future never comes. Even that which is your future, can only become this now moment.  If you are lost in the mind story of a future, you have missed YOU in this moment. For you live in this world of the NOW, not a past or a future world. Do not forfeit the gifts of the present moment for some unknown future that never comes.

Surrender involves bringing Presence into every aspect of life. Surrender is the acceptance of your total Self – body, mind, spirit, and soul. It is vital to acknowledge and collect the missing pieces of “you” in this “now” moment. You are giving the gift of your total Presence to you in this now moment as you are born with amazing gifts and capabilities. You can realize this only when you are fully present here with what is here. Being fully present, you feel the presence of everything around you. You can feel this universe teaming with life and bringing in powerful messages for you.

When you are fully present, you can feel the Divine Presence filling the space between all things. So when you are in Presence, you are powerful, and you are in Oneness. The Present moment reveals the eternal, the Oneness as the world of thoughts, concepts, the past, religions, traditions, and opinions absolutely dissolve in the Presence of this Oneness.

In the words of Osho:

“God is not in heaven – God is in the present moment. If you are also
in the present moment, you enter the temple.”

Intelligence is not about planning a future, or problem solving, or aiming for a goal. Intelligence is the capacity to understand that there is no past as it is only a memory, and there is no future for it is only an imagination. Intelligence is to be awake, alert, and fully present in this moment. Each moment of life brings in a new gift, and unless you are aware and alert, you will miss it and not be able to enjoy it.

When living from the mind, we continue to react to life situations mechanically and sometimes, on autopilot mode. When we live from the place of being alert and aware, we respond to situations rather than react to them. Life situations can bring emotions of anger, jealousy, fear, sadness,  and so forth. These emotions are due to attachment to thoughts and opinions. The thoughts hit the mind about the situation or person and create opinions. But when we choose to be alert and aware, we watch our thoughts, choose to go beyond them, and we do not blindly react and thus regret our actions.

Our awareness allows us to watch the emotions. When we are fully present watching the emotions, a greater transformation happens. It is surprising to note that whatever emotions arise, they immediately dissolve in the presence of our Oneness – our wholesome self. Emotions do not have power over us; we are the power in our life. So in awareness, let us allow things to express and surprise us. Let us be present to accept, relax, and not put our emotions on thinking that something is wrong. Only by being present do we come to Oneness.  
Blessings!