Harmony

I share these insights into my own journey as an encouragement to you as you encounter your own and to show that a deeper part of you will awaken and your inner light will be a guide.  I like the image of the turtle because they are survivors and while seeming to be slow outlast many of their predators.

Suze Orman was recently quoted in the Investors Business Daily: “To live a life of material and spiritual abundance, everything about you must be in harmony.”  How is harmony able to integrate the various aspects of your life.  If I drew a pie I could include relationships, wealth, spirituality, service, career, knowledge/education, family.  Maybe you will be able to add others to the list.  I would then ask that you draw your pie and see how each part of the list measures up i.e 15% relationships, 50% wealth.

Part of the spiritual journey is to know ourselves, which to others could sound like a narcissistic endeavor.  But actually it is through knowing ourselves that we are able to move through inner obstacles and see who we really are is the great Self which can be related to as your higher power.  The process is ongoing and it isn’t for the fainthearted.  It is always an easy copout to cling to religious doctrine and messages of dogma and blind faith.  Take that shield away and you will find a mirror that will reflect everything back to you so that you see it in yourself.  If the spiritual lessons get too intense I was always advised to ask my higher power to turn down the heat so to speak.  I have always gone through whatever the lessons were at the level of intensity that they came because I have always kept my heart on the goal of knowing the Self.  Be patient with yourself and kind as these are qualities that you will then shine into the lives of others around you.  Remember that we are all here to learn and even those who seem to have it all together and have achieved fame and fortune also have samscaras from other life times and karma that is equally difficult to face.  Finding a Spiritual Master is essential for the Spiritual Journey and I advise you to test you Master before following.

Start where you are because that is the perfect place to learn.  There is a saying that a flower can bloom where it is planted.  Know that you will bloom with the people you are with and in the place where you belong with them.  I encourage people to keep their families and love their children through commitment to keeping their family unit.  If it doesn’t happen that way as I think that some relationships are intended to end be okay with that and heal.  If it was meant to last it would have continued or come back to you.  Relationships are a great mirror and you will not escape learning about yourself from the one who knows you the best.  Allow the other to be fully who they are and if they feel threatened by your Spirituality try to be tactful and low keyed about it.  It must feel strange when someone has not opened their hearts to God through a teacher who initiates them on the Spiritual path.

I wrote recently about the four goals of life and wealth is one of them.  I heard one of the monks who served my original Spiritual Teacher say how he had noticed people leaving the Meditation Hall frequently because they were so distracted by how the stock market was doing and had gone out into the hall to use their blackberry’s.  I felt a burden when I owned my own home during this time and I realized that I actually had my shoulders down and was looking at the ground as I approached a window which had the drapes drawn back and as I looked up I realized that my Meditation Teacher was watching me walk with a worried posture.  It made me realize that I was not able to handle the worry to loosing what I had.  Many years later she spoke about knowing when to hold onto things and when to let go.  She had also spoken directly to me during and audio program when she was in Australia and I was in the Midwest lying on the floor of the home of the couple hosting the event.  As clear as day she said to me “Now is not the time to buy a home.”  My daughter who was a young teenager at the time said that she hadn’t heard our Teacher say that when I checked out what had happened with her.

I mentioned relationships earlier and staying in your marriage if you currently have one.  Mine was a difficult marriage from the beginning and I prayed for a sign to show me that I was to leave and would be okay.  Not long after that I was left fifty-thousand dollars and received a six hundred dollar check that was enough to pay for my lawyers fees to get a divorce.  Many years later I have the spiritual gifts but I have not focused on the material abundance.  I realized that I felt an enormous desire to help others find the path and not be left behind on a spiritual retreat in Santa Clara with my Teacher after I had had my nose to the grindstone so to speak for eleven years doing spiritual practices and meditation.  It is freeing and you will continue to have problems, they don’t go away it’s how you feel inside that’s different.

I believe that we are meant to have material abundance and that we can live a more comfortable life knowing where the money for bills is coming from etc.  It is also okay if you don’t have the money because it is also a time where you will learn to trust yourself to manage all of your responsibilities and be able to provide for yourself.  Especially today people are worried about how long they will be employed and if they will find employment once they have been out of work for an extended period of time.  It is a time for being in harmony with the way things are and not trying to force things to be any different.  When the right door is meant to open, it will and you will have the abundance you need.

I have written some about the legal struggle I had with the state board of nursing and even though nothing ever came of their efforts to criminalize me I have not been able to find work with companies I have previously worked for.  I also had my name show up on an employers only screen at the state boards saying that my license was revoked.  It is damaging to my professional reputation and employers are likely to want to steer clear of any problems with the boards themselves.  The time involved in this whole process has extended over a period of close to two years now and I feel that I cannot earn the money I need in order to do the work that I want to offer in the Spiritual realm.

It has also been a time when I have had time to go the library and get on line to learn things for myself about using social media for instance.  Having connected with so many people now that I am not working again I can at least do the work I love to do and that is share spiritual knowledge.  I am house-sitting for a friend who is in Malawi, Africa looking into a program at a hospital there, accompanied by her niece who oversees a West Coast University.  The plan is to provide more hospital services and my friend will propose that I be hired for the project.  A friend of mine told me once that I would get an award in Africa at some point.  I am originally from Kenya and going back to Africa is a real gift for me because it is the gift of giving back at this point in my life.  I am free to go.  I mentioned relationships earlier and for me the work is to serve and although I have been drawn to the occasional man’s masculinity I know that the work of being involved in a relationship isn’t a particularly inviting pursuit.  I believe that if I am to be with a man that will happen whether I desire it or not.  I believe that these things are destined for us.

While working at a famous hospital on the East Coast I took care of a relative of Martin Luther King who asked me whether I was married.  When I said not she responded “When you marry, you will marry someone who is spiritually advanced.”  I believe that was an enlightened family or on the way to be and that was a prophetic statement.  I was relatively new on the path then but was able to spend all of my spare time with my teacher and advance rapidly.

Dwayne Dyer is someone whom I like to read and he speaks about the material realm and that there is a realm beyond that and whether you go there first and then gain material abundance is up to you.  Don’t miss the mark in this life though.  Know what you goal is and trust yourself that you will achieve your goal.

Material things are important but how you prioritize will make a difference.  For instance when my daughter was little we had hand me down everything including furniture.  I was at home for the first couple of years with her and I just felt that I could always get a couch or whatever along the way.  Find a framework that fits for your personality and examine your lifestyle.  I believe that President Obama is right on the green energy movement and I support his wife with vegetarian diets.  When I see people living in huge homes that have gigantic windows and use up energy galore I wonder how many marble bathrooms do people want to make them feel happy.  It is probable more luxurious than living a more spartan existence.  Babu Rao was a close friend of mine in Oakland whom I took care of during his last year and a half of life due to congestive heart failure.  He had lived a very difficult life growing up in an orphanage and having two prison sentences.  He was a saintly man and I loved him dearly.  I believe that he had reached enlightenment so know that even if you continue to have financial struggles that it is probably in part at least to karma.  The Saint whom my teacher studied with used to say that we get whatever is due to us in this life.  Let it go at that and that if things were any different you wouldn’t have the life you have now for a reason.

Bring peace and harmony in your life through mindfulness.  Think about what you really need and don’t waste the world’s resources.  My Teacher used to say that even the money that we have comes from the earth.  We don’t actually own anything if you view it that way and we certainly aren’t taking any with us.  What we will take is the LOVE that we have inside and that is what we have to kindle through the grace of a living Master.  Find yours and stay on the path, then give back to others.  One Saint writes that the world is illuminated by the light of millions of souls.  Become a beacon of light for other’s in the world and learn through your daily choices and activities how to conserve resources and share with others.

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