Kiran Vaka

Pain can become a very creative energy. It can become a remembrance of God. It can become prayer. It can become a meditation. It can become awareness. It can cause tremendous transformation in you.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

AWARENESS

Just think, when our body can digest food, pump blood, adapt to the environment, and at the same time perform a thousand other complicated tasks without help from outside, you have to accept that there is intelligent energy driving it. If you just reflect on this, you will realize there is something called body intelligence. But we don’t see it because it goes on silently within us.

A small story:

Once a king went to an enlightened Zen master and asked him, ‘I heard that you are an enlightened man and you radiate energy around you. You are always in bliss. What do you do?’

The Zen master replied, ‘I eat when I eat and sleep when I sleep.’

You may ask, ‘Don’t we also do the same thing?’

Look into your own life. You will find that while you are eating you are thinking about all of your worries and problems. Your mind will be busy planning everything about work tomorrow or your vacation next week. You quickly eat your food because there is no time for eating. You don’t really eat when you eat! When you eat, your being never feels the food. If you eat with awareness, you will never feel the heaviness because you will never overeat. Your body has its own intelligence to decide what food to take and how much. You can very clearly find out which food suits you and which does not if you eat with awareness. This itself is a great meditation.

In the same way, when you sleep, you never really relax your mind, you start analyzing all of the events that happened that day. Just try focusing on the present moment and falling asleep, that is enough.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

KARMA

Karma is not a law of reward and punishment. It is not a way god uses to punish people for committing sins. It is a reflection of your own mental state giving you the experience of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’.

When you are angry, it is not that you will incur sin and pay for it in your next life. You are suffering with your anger now. That itself is the hell you suffer! You are suffering inside in the same way that you are torturing the person you are angry with.

The fire you spit outside will burn with the same intensity inside you also. No matter whether it burns the other person or not, the fire of anger will surely burn you.

A beautiful story from Buddha’s life:

A man once came and spat on Buddha’s face. Buddha wiped his face and asked the man, ‘Do you want to say something more, or is this all?’

Ananda, his close disciple, was very angry. He was fuming that some man came and just spat on his master and that too for no reason at all. He said to Buddha, ‘Master, if you give me permission I will handle the man.’

Buddha replied, ‘Have you forgotten that you are a monk, a sannyasi* ? That poor man is already suffering with his anger. See his angry face, his body shaking with that anger. Before spitting on me, do you think he would have been celebrating and dancing? He is mad with his own anger. In that state of madness, he came and spat on me.

What is a bigger punishment for him than being in such a state? And what harm has he done to me? I just had to wipe the spit off my face. Now you don’t get agitated, otherwise you are building the same anger inside you. Why are you punishing yourself? That is foolishness. Feel compassion for the poor man instead.’

The man was listening and was surprised and confused to see Buddha behave in this way. He was expecting Buddha to become angry. That is what he wanted. Instead the compassion and understanding Buddha showed was just too shocking for him!

Buddha said to him, ‘Go home. You look tired, you have punished yourself enough. Forget about what you did to me. You did not harm me. This body will return to the earth and people will do all kinds of things like spitting. Go home and relax.’

The man was completely shaken by Buddha’s response. He went back home. He came back that evening, fell at Buddha’s feet and cried, ‘Please forgive me!’

Buddha calmly said, ‘I was not angry in the first place. How can I forgive you? But I am happy to see you relieved from the anger and in a state of harmony. Just remember, never do such acts again. This is how you create hell for yourself.’

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

FIGHT BETWEEN YOUR POTENTIAL AND YOUR NEGATIVE APPROACH.

Whenever you are afraid of losing something that you have, or you fear you cannot achieve something that you want to have, there is a fight going on between your potential and your negative approach to the future.

If you are sure there is no possibility of achieving something, that you don’t have the potential, you will not have fear. If you are sure that you can achieve something, then also, you don’t have fear.

Fear is the fight between faith and belief in oneself on one hand, versus the negative idea or expectation you have about your future on the other hand. You are literally fighting with your own positive and negative energies.

If you are very sure you don’t have the potentiality, that you can’t achieve, then you won’t have fear. If you are very confident you are going to achieve, then also you won’t have fear. However, if there is something you want to achieve, but you are not sure that you can achieve it, then you will have fear. The fight between these two ideas, the dilemma is what we call fear.

There are two ways to escape fear. One way is to block all possibilities. This means you can die, then there won’t be any more fear! The second way to escape fear is to break the boundary of possibilities. If there is infinite possibility, if there is no boundary, if there is nothing that limits you, then you become fearless. Just by having this understanding, something will click in you and so many fears will disappear from your being!

There is a beautiful story:

One person wrote on the wall of a temple where the teachings are written, ‘Soham’ - ‘I am That.’ It means, ‘Everything is possible for me.’

Another person came and wrote, ‘Dasoham’ - ‘Nothing can be done by me. I am a slave.’ Again that is also okay.

A third person came and wrote, ‘Sadasoham’ - ‘Always I am That.’

If you are in tune with the idea, ‘Nothing can be done by me,’ you are a bhakti yogi * - you surrender. If you think, ‘Everything can be done by me,’ you are a gnana yogi * - you explore and experience. Whether you work in this path or in that path, going beyond fear is possible. But you should be completely connected to one ideology or the other. Either you should be ready to work with ‘Everything is possible for me,’ or you should be ready to work with ‘Nothing is possible for me.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

From ‘Meditation in life’ to ‘Life in Meditation’.

In the beginning, you have to practice meditation in life. You have to consciously introduce meditation into your lifestyle. Choose a technique, practice for half an hour or one hour a day. See how you feel. If you enjoy a technique, stick to it for at least ten days without expecting results. If a technique has touched you, there is no way it cannot transform you in some way. Sometimes the transformation will be subtle, and sometimes others may see it better than you do.

Just one glimpse of the joy of meditation is enough to make you fall in love with meditation. Then you will no longer ask how many hours you must practice. When you wake up, your very first thought will be of meditation. When you take a shower, when you dress, when you eat, you will do everything with such complete awareness that every act, every moment will become alive with meditation. You will then begin to live life in meditation.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

ONLY LIFE CAN TEACH :

People come and ask, ‘How do I make my son do what I advice him to? I know it is good for him but he won’t listen to me.’

You have to understand two things. First thing, if they feel that something is giving them happiness, just let them be. Only life can teach them, you cannot teach them. You cannot teach anybody, only life can teach. You can put a few words into them so that it echoes when life teaches them the same thing, that’s all.

Second thing, unless they need help, your help cannot help them. When they need your help they will come. See, your idea of happiness and unhappiness has come out of your experience. Just think, did you listen to your father when you were young? No. You did not.

No son listens to his father. After they become father, they forget that they did not listen to their father and start blaming their sons. Because they have to train their sons, they remember only the incidents in which they listened to their father! They forget the incidents where they said ‘no’ to their father. Be very clear, your children are doing the same thing that you did.

Only life can teach them. You can neither teach nor help your kids unless they want the help. If you force something on them, if you force rules and regulations on them, they may learn one thing, and that is how to cheat you, that’s all. So just remain aware of the stage your child is in, that is enough. You can step in at any time he wants your support.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

OTHER'S SUFFERINGS WORSE THAN OUR OWN.

A small story:

A man was feeling very burdened by his suffering. Every day he would pray to god, ‘Everybody is so happy, why do only I have to suffer?’ One day, he was really depressed and prayed, ‘I am not able to bear my pain anymore. Please take it away! Even if I have to take someone else’s pain in exchange, I am ready to do that.’

That night he had a dream where he saw god telling everyone in his village to bring all their sufferings to Him. So everybody gathered their sufferings in big bags and they all rushed to god. Then god said, ‘Now you can keep your bags together around me.’ Everybody was very happy to get rid of their sufferings and dropped off their bags.

Then, as they had asked in their prayers, god said, ‘Ok, now you can take any bag.’ Suddenly, everybody including this man, rushed to take his own bag! Not only him, but all others were doing the same thing.

For the first time, each one had seen others’ sufferings and they were glad their bag was not as big as those around them. Also, each person had become used to his own sufferings. Nobody wanted to risk taking somebody else’s unknown suffering instead of their known!

The man suddenly woke up and prayed to god, ‘Thank you for opening my eyes! I know what I have is good for me. That is why you have given my circumstances to me!’

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

YOU ARE UNIQUE…

Nature has its own unique way of growth for each of us.

Take the Chinese bamboo for example. When it sprouts, it doesn’t show much growth for the first four years. Then in the fifth year, the bamboo grows ninety feet in six weeks! It was not that the tree was not growing in the first four years. Though the growth was not visible, the roots were being strengthened to make it possible for the plant to grow fast and safely into a huge tree!

Like the bamboo’s growth, there is no scale to measure yourself with anyone other than your own self. If you spend all your energy looking in and competing with yourself, you will progress in leaps and bounds.

First of all, understand that god is an artist, not an engineer. If He was an engineer, He would have made one perfect man and one perfect woman and then made millions of copies from that mould! No. God has made each one of us unique in every way.

It does not matter whether you are a rose or a lily or a wild flower. The important thing is that the wild flower should realize its ultimate potential as a wild flower just as the rose should actualize its inherent potential. The fragrance of you realizing your unique potential is what radiates and, without effort, touches everyone around you.

Whether in regard to beauty or intelligence, you are unique. It is only when you don’t respect your uniqueness that you start comparing yourself with others. Even if your favorite cinema star or model is very beautiful, can you enjoy drinking even a cup of water from that body? No! You can only enjoy using your own body, your best friend. Accept and welcome it.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

Everything is a gift :

The main reason why you miss experiencing gratitude is that you take everything for granted. You feel anything that people do for you is your birthright. Understand, people could be doing something else instead of doing things for you. So it is really a gift from them to you. You have to thank them for it. Receive every small thing in life as a gift. When you take your plate to eat, see the plate as a gift. When you serve food on the plate, see the food as a gift. When you sit down on the chair to eat, see the chair as a gift. When you wash your hands after eating, see your fingers as a gift. We never see these things as gifts. Everything is taken for granted. There are people who don't have a plate on which to eat. There are people who don’t have fingers with which to eat! Have we ever thought about that? Never! We only look at those who have a diamond ring on their finger. We never look at those who don’t have fingers. That is the problem. That is why we don’t feel anything in our life is a gift. When we start feeling grateful for small things, our whole sensitivity will increase. We will become more refined. Our whole attitude towards life will move to a different plane. Remember, the person who isn’t thankful for small things will never be thankful for big things either. Even big things will be taken for granted. Currently, we feel we have a right to everything that we receive. Because of this attitude, we miss seeing the benevolence of Existence or god. We remain insensitive to the gifts showered upon us by Existence.

A small story:

A man was narrating to his friend how he got lost in a desert one day.

He told the friend, ‘In sheer despair, I knelt down and prayed that I should be guided out of the desert.’

The friend was awed by the story and asked, ‘So did God answer your prayer?’

The man replied, ‘Oh, no! Before that, an explorer appeared from nowhere and showed me the way.’

This is how insensitive we are in life! We keep taking everything for granted. If we sensitized ourselves with gratitude, we would never take anything for granted, whether it is our fingers, our wealth, or the timely benevolence of Existence. When sensitivity happens, every moment passes in deep awe of the happenings in Existence.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightenment.

You are complete as you
are...

A small story:
A disciple goes to a master asking,
‘Master, how can I become free? How
can I attain liberation?’
The master asks him, ‘Who has
imprisoned you?’
The disciple replies, ‘Nobody.’
The master asks, ‘Where are the chains
to bind you?’
The disciple replies, ‘I have no chains.’
The master says, ‘Then what are you
trying to be free from?’
Just look at animals. You cannot find guilt
in any animal. It just is. It has no ideals, no
perfectionist attitudes and no discontent.
That is why it is beautiful and innocent.
But in the case of man, he always has an
image of how everything should be,
including himself, his family, situations,
society - everything. He is always yearning
to be what he is not.
This can be healthy and unhealthy. When
you are yearning to actualize your
potential, it is a healthy yearning. But most
of the time we yearn to achieve only based
on the ideas society imposes on us and the
ideas we borrow from others.
Once you are caught in these imposed
desires and ideals, you can never relax and
enjoy the journey of life. You will always
be discontented. And the more dissatisfied
you are with yourself, the more it becomes
impossible to reach your ideal. It is a
vicious circle.In the soil of dissatisfaction the seed of intelligence, spontaneity cannot grow.You become like the horse with blinders, with a narrow vision of how you think things should be.
If you are not dissatisfied with yourself, if
you accept yourself as you are, what you
really need can be fulfilled here and now.
Society teaches you constantly that you are
not complete. It induces in you a fear, an
inferiority complex so you will not be
confident and independent. Then your
intelligence gets suppressed and you follow
the rules put down by society.
You are already what you can be. All you
need to do is just relax and let the energy
of Existence flow through you.
If you are caught in bettering yourself, you
cannot relax. You will be tense and always
anxious that you are lacking in some way.
True religion says you are complete as you
are. How else can you be when you have
emerged itself from fulfillment? Man as
such has emerged from fulfillment. So his
very nature is fulfillment. This is what is
implied in the great declarations such as
Tat tvam asi – That Art Thou, Aham
Brahmasmi – I am Brahman*
You are complete and you are total. You
don’t have to reach anywhere since you
are already there. You don’t have to become
something because you are already that. It
is just a question of waking up to this
Truth.

Excerpts from the book Living Enlightment.

Trees are being cutting down, animals being killed for food and other needs, water is getting polluted, and air is being unsafe to breathe… It’s now the moment we must now rethink our relationship with Mother Earth.

Nature doesn’t need people but we people need Mother
Nature….

So, let’s take responsibility to protect ourselves and our next generation by protecting our Mother Nature.

Let’s Encourage, inspire, and motivate each and everyone to contribute (however small) to plant trees at least 1 plant on any special occasion B’day, Anniversary, any special event in your life, conscious decision to go on plant-based food, reduce non-violence towards animals, save water and conscious utility of natural resources.

Let’s save our Mother Earth to save ourselves.

Happy World Environment Day!!

Power of Affirmations

Every thought you think and every word you speak is an affirmation.

An affirmation opens the door. It’s a beginning point on the path to change. In essence, you’re saying to your subconscious mind: “I am taking responsibility. I am aware that there is something I can do to change.” doing affirmations, mean consciously choosing words that will either help eliminate something from your life or help create something new in your life.

Doing affirmations is a conscious decision to heal your life and move forward on the path of positive change . . . and the time
for that positive change is now!

Now . . . today . . . this moment . . . you can choose to change your thinking. Your life won’t turn around overnight, but if you’re consistent and make the choice on a daily basis to think thoughts that make you feel good, you’ll definitely make positive changes in every area of your life.

Team Abhaya

Happy Buddha Purnima!

On this day Gautama Buddha became fully enlightened, this be a reminder that if we have the necessary focus this is possible for every human being it is just a question of priority if it is top priority than anything and everything is possible for each and every one of us.

Meditating during full moon has been recommended from long ago, people focus on self-purification, removing negative thoughts, negative emotions and any energy that might hinder their way.

Besides the calming and uplifting effects of meditation, many other benefits can be cultivated through meditation such as:
intuitive powers, Deeper purification, Spiritual experiences, Faster Manifestation of wishes, and spiritual empowerment.

Sometimes people wonder how meditation brings you closer to God, but Meditation is a means to get closer to God because it puts the person in a state of mindfulness, if we meditate we can feel the connection with higher consciousness.

It is special, mainly because Buddha made a commitment to keep in touch with earth and its beings on this auspicious day. This is regarded as the most powerful Full Moon of the year, in which spiritual seekers actively participate in a sacred event with an immense amount of energy and blessings from higher realms.

Team Abhaya.

Gratitude- The Key to Happiness

Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions you can use to bring all-good into your life in absolute abundance. No matter who you are, no matter where you are, gratitude can dissolve all negativity in your life.

Every morning as soon as you wake up, before getting out of bed, similarly, every night before you go to sleep, bring in deep gratitude for just being. Feel it in your whole body and mind. Put all judgments aside and feel gratitude.

When you are grateful for the things that you want to come into your life (the perfect relationship, the dream job, absolute health, total abundance) before they actually appear, you are sending out a frequency to the Universe that you already have those things.

Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools you can ever use to transform your life into total joy.

Team Abhaya

Nature Of Mind

The nature of the mind is it does not allow to remain stable, calm or thoughtless for long. It does not require any effort to create stress, tension, conflict, anger, fear, negative attitude or impatience.

The moment we realize that we are responsible for our thinking, we will stop. Only when we don’t want to take the responsibility for it, we will go on postponing and the mind will continue to enslave us.

Mind has the capability of reversing itself and becoming positive, joyful, happy, loving, caring through a process of conscious effort with a powerful tool called as Meditation.

If properly guided, handled and trained it can experience the joy of life irrespective of any situation.

The moment you internalize this truth and internalize it authentically it can do wonders for you.

Cheers!
Team Abhaya

Today is World Meditation day, it’s a reminder to each and everyone to take time and challenge yourself to practice meditation every day.

Meditation is the greatest boon human beings have received from the Saints, Gurus and the Divine Scriptures.

The best way to train and invoke the potential powers of the mind is through Meditation. We must all practice meditation regularly and reap the enormous benefits it provides. Among the numerous benefits of meditation, the 5 most beneficial are;

1. Meditation has the power to transform you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

2. Meditation is also a proven way to improve concentration and memory power.

3. Meditation will give us self-healing clarity. Means clarity and understanding to bring yourself out of depression whenever it tries to grip your awareness.

4. You will live your life to the fullest and will be more creative.

5. Through meditation, you will experience a dimension of your being that you haven’t touched before.

Practicing meditation is very simple, it can be practiced anytime …

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, clasp your hands, cross your feet and start observing the normal natural breath.

Gift yourself a 21 days Meditation challenge on this World Meditation Day!

Cheers!
Abhaya Team.

5 more tips for today🙂

1. Practice Meditation, start with 5mins and slowly increase 1min every day, maintain consistency even if it is for 1min that’s absolutely fine.

2. Join a community online and be in the company of people who motivates you and shares positive thoughts.

3. Start your mornings with some high energy videos which boosts your energy and make you feel refreshed and energetic, avoid watching news & newspapers in mornings and evening 2 hours before going to bed.

4. Do not focus on what you do not want, direct your words, thoughts and feeling on what you want.

5. Do not fear about your future, but have faith in the higher entity that whatever will happen will be for your good by living in the present moment.

Cheers!!
Team Abhaya

How to decrease anxiety and keep mentally fit during this challenging time and also manage life effectively.

Anxiety, stress and depression are the result of low level of Acceptance. The moment we accept every situation in life as it is, every person in life as they are, anxiety will go away.

Below are few easy and simple tips to break the chain of depressive thoughts and focus on positivity.

1. Low energy thoughts drain your energy, so replace unwanted thoughts with empowering thoughts of what you want in life.

2. Practice Positive Affirmations, wherein you say out loud, sentences which makes you feel good like,
I am Happy, I am Healthy, I am Positive, I am Joyful, I am Peaceful
I am letting go of all the stress from my body and mind.
I am accepting myself completely in this moment.

3. Do things which makes you feel good, take out few minutes every day and sit with yourself and start listing down the things which you forgot or suppressed because of busy life style, bring out the creative aspect of yours which will make you feel good once you start doing it.

4. Food is also energy to keep your body and mind healthy, cooking with positive affirmations and eating consciously will help the healing process and give good results.

5. Exercise regularly atleast start with 5mins and increase 1min per day, important here is to be consistent.

Let’s learn 5 more tips tomorrow🙂

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