Say "Yes" to Life/Acceptance — Part II
Dear friends,
Last week I wrote about accepting what comes on its own. But that idea can easily be misunderstood of its meaning. It absolutely does not mean becoming passive.
Acceptance is an attitude and not a behavior. Once craving or aversion have been put out of the heart, we are in a position to act, and perhaps extremely dynamically. But to act when in an emotional state is to court trouble.
We all want to know what Spirit wants next for us. But as we attempt to hear that quiet voice within, we walk around with our iPod in our ears playing loud heavy metal music. The agitated heart creates static and noise such that it is impossible to hear Spirit.
So the first step is to calm the heart. Developing a "yes" attitude towards life is a way of quieting our natural cravings and aversions ("likes and dislikes," as Yogananda called them). The humility of knowing that Spirit is smarter than we are helps in that process.
I chuckle sometimes when I hear a prayer that is essentially, "Dear Lord, I will do whatever you want... but not next Tuesday... if you only knew what I have going on then..."
We must put our own little pettinesses aside. Yogananda said, "I killed Yogananda long ago. Nothing dwells in this temple now but God." His personality of course did not disappear. He was the opposite of bland. But he was a free agent, no longer blown here and there by compulsions.
This attitude makes us enormously dynamic, and not in the slightest passive. We are free to act as we feel Spirit would will, without our own egos getting in the way. We can do what is Right rather than what we feel like doing. We are not pulled in two directions at once by thwarting cross-currents of desires. Without fear of gain or loss, or what others think of us, we can act like a laser beam towards whatever goal we have set. Saying "yes" to life opens the door to immersing in Spirit and bypassing the emotional turmoil attendant on disappointments and temporary successes. It tends to result in both inner and outer success.
In true freedom we can do whatever is best to do with joy and tremendous energy. May we each become truly free in our own hearts, as that is the only place where true freedom can ever be found.
Blessings,
David G., manager
For the staff at East West