Living Wisely Living Well | With Asha Nayaswami

If you want to improve your circumstances, work first on improving yourself. To desire better treatment from others is, in a sense, to enslave yourself to them. Become a cause in life, not an effect. Self-dependence is independence, and a mark of true heroism.

To attract abundance in your life, see money as a flow of energy, not as a static quantity. See life in the same way: as a flowing river, not as fixed patterns of behavior. Leave your ego on the bank, and enter the stream of cosmic awareness. There are no limits to how much of life’s abundance can be yours, if you will plunge into the divine current and swim there joyously.

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Let others see you, if they are so inclined, as their enemy. Resolve for your part to be their friend. More than one person in my life has said to me, “I don’t know why, but I hate you!” Well, I know why: I am true to myself, not to their desires or expectations of me. But I always answer them, “I know only that I am your friend, and will always be your well-wisher.”

Practice patience: It is the shortest path to success. Patience will keep you calm in the face of difficulties, and will enable you to meet each obstacle effectively.

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Some conventions must be changed, certainly. Racial discrimination in America is a national disgrace, for it places fetters on the egos of all who practice it. So too is the caste system in India. That system, however, had an enlightened origin before it became hereditary. It pointed the way to liberation for all mankind. When caste became hereditary, the same abomination appeared as with racial discrimination in America. Everyone on earth is your brother or sister in God. Respect all as fellow pilgrims on the path to our final abode of Bliss.

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Show respect for convention, but remember that conventions are often started by unconventional people. Why do people stand when their national anthems are being played? It probably began with one deeply moved individual; nobody wanted to show disrespect, so everyone followed his example. Why do people stand for the “Hallelujah” chorus in Handel’s Messiah? Because King George of England did so first, and everyone had to do likewise. Most conventions have no intrinsic meaning. Usually it would be making only a foolish statement to rebel against them; they are the lubricant which keeps the machinery of society functioning smoothly. Follow convention, then, to be sociable, but respect it only if reason tells you it serves some good purpose. Ignore conventions that demean any particular social group.

Don’t ask yourself, “How can I approach my tasks differently?” Don’t even ask, “How can I do them better?” until you’ve asked first, “What is the right thing to do, and the right way to go about doing it?”

Do nothing for applause. Act for the far-more-satisfying approval of your own conscience. Someone once asked me, “What has motivated you to do all the things you’ve done in your life?” Conscience? yes, certainly. But conscience in reaction to the sorrows I had seen in the world, brought on by people’s ignorance of who and what they really were, as children of our universal Father/Mother God.

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Do your best, then leave the outcome in God’s hands. Attachment to results will only diminish your ability to work effectively in the present. Without attachment to results, even failure will free you to redirect your energies anew, and ever yet anew, until success is achieved.

In recreation, seek to re-create yourself. During every pause in your activity, seek in inner peace a renewal of your creative spirit. Withdraw into your inner temple of silence, and, there, focus on re-energizing every thought, every feeling.