Good morning! hope your morning meditation was a delight today. Are there any questions we can address, and thing you would like to share now?
I would love to hear about how some of you do your meditation practice, and how you became interested in meditation, what is drawing you to meditate?
It is said in the yoga tradition that there are three great blessings...
One is to be born in a human form, which allows you to consciously progress on the path of Self-realization.
One is to have a hunger for righteousness, which drives you to do the work which will get you to that state of fullness and freedom.
And the third one is to have a living example of that state of fullness to guide you.
We are in this human form. What a blessing! We can be aware of so much, relate and be conscious of so much. Create, and take up intentions, and play and love, apply ourselves and do service, explore and build. Hope you are having fun!
The next one, a hunger for righteousness, is something worthy of our awareness, too. You may know some folks who seemingly have not yet awakened to a spiritual drive which would move them to seek out truth and means to become established in peace and love.
Let me come back to this hunger thing in a moment.
The third blessing is to have a guide, a shining example of what you are seeking, one who both helps you see and believe that what you are aspiring to is attainable, and who can give you guidance since you are still limited in what you are able to perceive and understand.
Now let's look at what a blessing it is to have this hunger. When you are really hungry for food you have built up a good digestive fire which makes it easy to be attentive to what you are eating and the eating process itself. You actually taste the food, appreciate it.
If you are really hungry, food becomes your focus, draws your attention. You let go of other things and focus on getting some food to nurture you. And when you get the food it has your full attention. You are attentive to chewing and swallowing it. You are aware of what it tastes like. In fact, when you are eating while really hungry, rather than unconsciously scarfing it down, you actually slow down, chew it well, taste it and appreciate it. You spend more time eating it with awareness and appreciation.
Similarly, with the blessing of a hunger for righteousness. It gets you focused on seeking those things that will nurture your soul. It helps you let go of those things that are distractions from your spiritual development.
The word "righteousness" can be confusing sometimes. We can think of it as being someone who does what others think highly of. It can seem that it means doing what society labels as "right." It can be a turn off if we associate the word with those who want us to think of them as the ones who are doing what is right, the self-righteous.
But true righteousness is actually fueled by love and compassion. It does not mean following the law - not that I am encouraging you to break the law, but just to look beyond that to something deeper. It isn't being right. No. Righteousness is acting and thinking with love and compassion, without selfishness. It can really be the simplest acts, and how you are viewing things.
Love that you are hungry to grow into fullness, to know and understand, to be in loving relationship with all, to come into the fullness of your potential, to be established in peace and bliss. This will get you there. What a blessing!
Then there is the example, the guide, the guru. Again what a blessing when you have come to a place so that this, too, is an active part of you. The guru is able to take you beyond your personal limits, to remove your doubt and hesitation, to awaken and inspire you, to share that state of awareness with you. Sometimes people think that if this is so, why doesn't the guru simply make you whole right now. That is not how a guide works. The trip, the journey, is yours, and it is fun. It has meaning and you have a role to play. You get to live your life and shape it yourself, accomplish things, overcome challenges and add your own creative flavor to our stew. The guru is a vital part of your very self. When this becomes an active part of your story, you will find the Guru has always been guiding you and always will.
So what about meditation here... what was all of this today? Just some blessings. It is good to make note of why we are meditating, and to know we are not alone.
Have fun. Love always,
jayadeva