Say "Yes!" to Life
Dear friends,
My teacher often used this phrase as an attitude to hold through thick and thin. The major delusion in this world is that we need our circumstances to be a certain way for us to be happy. That results in our desiring "this" and wanting to avoid "that." How many countless times do we feel "If only..." or "Why do I have to..." in one way or another?
Saying "Yes!" to life means embracing whatever comes our way. One of Yogananda's most advanced disciples put it this way: "What comes of its own, let it come."
It is not that we ought not to use common sense. If there is an obstruction in the road, you need not walk into it! But our emotional state of rejecting or craving creates whirlpools of energy in the spine. The definition of yoga is: neutralizing those vortices of energy, trapped in our chakras, created by our desires and repulsions.
One can do this through various practices, like meditation. But it is equally important not to create those vortices in the first place. Then there is less to "undo."
After all, Spirit is smarter than we are! How many times have we been worried about something, it has come to pass, and we then thought, "Gee. That wasn't so bad after all." Or it may even have turned out to be a blessing. Conversely, perhaps we desired something, got it, and soon realized it was not the right thing at all (As in, "Gee, that fifth piece of chocolate cake sure looked good!")
May we learn to hold our opinions and desires much more lightly, trusting that Spirit is in charge and knows what we need. Let us cultivate an attitude of "I wonder why this has come to me" rather than allowing our reactive process to run wild and reject what we do not like. Let us always seek the lesson in things that come.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West