Spiritual Teachings

[Daniel]

I was getting ready for bed tonight and the words of a beloved spiritual teacher came to mind. She once said: "We get what we need before we get what we want, otherwise, we wouldn't have what it takes to keep it."

I try to remember this when things aren't going as planned. Does it mean that bad stuff is good? Ah...the ever present philosophical question. I don't know. Labels aside, there's something to be said for rising up through one's self. And that can only happen, the phrase suggests, when we have a fair idea of our intrinsic worth, and act on it.

[Vanessa White]

Rising up through one's self. What a beautiful idea and philosophy. I definitely agree that we get what we need before we get what we want. There are days that I curse that process, but thankfully, most days I am grateful for every day, whether it feels like a struggle or an elation. This morning, reflecting on all of the major changes in my life in the last few months, I thanked God for giving me only what I can handle, and the means with which I can handle it. When all else fails, I choose gratitude for whatever I am given in that moment. It works every time.

[marutidas]

I can remember every moment in my life, that if I didn't suffer, I wouldn't be the person I am now. If you don't suffer, and avoid suffering all together, you life will pretty much go nowhere. Buddhism teaches to embrace suffering and to aid others who suffer. Suffering is a HUGE part of life, it can
upsets ones current path in this life, but the place you end up, could be better than were you started from.

If my mom's girpartner had not broken up with her, I would not have come to live here, I might have never found soulforce, never gone to the Hindu temple, Find my devotion to God. I left alot of friends, and all the culture of Albuquerque. But if I had not, would have become what I am now? Maybe, but way farther down the road.

I have made so many friends since, and I feel comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my life. And what the road has for me ahead, who knows
I can only hope, have a general idea of where I want to go, but I don't know if where I end up is better that where I wanted to go.

~~~Maruti Das

[BronzDragon]

Originally Posted by Daniel

I try to remember this when things aren't going as planned. Does it mean that bad stuff is good?

» Thom says: ☛ John Bunion once observed that the bitter makes the sweet so much sweeter. (I stopped putting sugar on my grapefruit after that and found it does actually taste better that way.)

One does not cultivate Dharma (Deep, Character driven ethics and morality, Virtue) in Isolation. In a Crowd it can be like a weed, growing in the most unexpected places.

Why do children stand when they keep falling? why do they keep babbling if no one understands them? The struggle is the training ground for success.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by marutidas

I have made so many friends since, and I feel comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my life.

Now that's a big big something! Good for you!

Looking back, I remember starting to feel comfortable in my own skin about the same time I began a spiritual practice and dealt with the 'does God love me as I am' question. Coming from an AG background, the idea of meditation or spiritual practice seemed pretty radical at the time. But as the saying goes: 'When the student is ready, the teacher shows up". Meditation itself became my teacher.

Originally Posted by BronzDragon

One does not cultivate Dharma (Deep, Character driven ethics and morality, Virtue) in Isolation. In a Crowd it can be like a weed, growing in the most unexpected places.

Yes! I Like your thought very much BronzDragon. In my own frame of mind, this has meant taking the 'on the cushion' experience out into the everyday world. It's where the rubber meets the road.