Quote of the Week 238 - Sufferihg and Sacrifice

Nothing can be attained without suffering but at the same time one must begin by sacrificing suffering.

G.I. Gurdjieff

Quote of the Week 238 - You are the Shine of the Lord

You are composed of three selves, the mortal bodily self, composed of the body,  the breath, and the conscious mind, the semi-immortal self, composed of the unconscious mind, and the immortal self, composed of the Divinity/the Lord  of the Universe within…When you speak of yourself, which self are you speaking of? Your constant focus should be on the fact that you are the shine of the Lord.

--Swami Rama, from a lecture on Sri Vidya

Quote of the Week 237 - Aspects of the Underlying Unity

The mystic (and the transpersonal psychologist) seeks one aspect of God – That which is expressed as supreme meaning, love, compassion, justice, peace and consciousness. The esoteric scientist (and the quantum physicist, etc.) seeks another aspect of God – That which is expressed as supreme creative and evolutionary energy. Yet both these aspects are but manifestations of the same underlying unity.

--Bill Heilbronn, from The Courage of Uncertainty; A Jewish View of the Continuing Evolution of Faith in the Fields of Religion and Science

Quote of the Week 236 - Understanding Anger and the Aid of the Divine Mother

     We come to understand that like all other emotions, desire and anger are manifestations of Shakti, the power which brings us to life. Shakti is to be transformed, not subliminated. Shakti is to be harnessed, not suppressed. Negative emotions, including anger, are as much a part of life as their positive counterparts. No human being has only positive emotions. Even the great sages occasionally thunder with anger. The only difference between the sages and us is that they quickly regain a calm and tranquil state, whereas we remain embroiled for a long time.

     Thus we see that the problem is not with anger itself but with its lack of containment. Unprocessed, uncontrolled anger is disorienting. It commandeers our thought, speech, and action so completely that before it spreads outward, we ourselves are consumed by it. When we are unable to contain our anger, it explodes uncontrollably and spreads aimlessly…

     To get off this endless, destructive merry-go-round, we must recognize anger for what it is – the powerful roar of kama, the fundamental, primordial force of desire. It is impossible to suppress desire, for desire is the very fabric of life; it is equally futile to ignore anger. The power anger embodies must be identified and directed toward the goal set by kama – fulfillment. But how?

     We can begin by training ourselves to think differently. Anger is energy. Energy cannot be destroyed; it can only be transformed. Every form of energy, anger included, has a spiritual origin. That is why we call energy Shakti (Divine Mother). Those of us ignorant of anger’s spiritual origin find it negative and frightening, but those who know its source see anger as beneficent and beautiful. Anger is rooted in our unfulfilled desires. Desire is what brought us here and desire keeps us here. Thus anger, which has its source in our desire, demands a spiritual solution.

     The presence of anger is not a sign that we are bad. It is a sign that we are in urgent need of experiencing our own inherent fullness. We are – at the core of our being – beyond good and bad. Our personalities – our unique qualities, characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses – are the result of the interplay of various energies. We are a product of this interplay. Although we cannot destroy this energy field we call “anger,” each of us has the power to transform it. The key to this is the development of self-mastery…

     The Sri Vidya tradition [contemplating on Sri Chakra, the essence of the Divine Mother] teaches us how to recognize that Divine Force and receive guidance and assistance from Her so that we eventually gain mastery over all the different forms of our emotions.

-- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, from an article in Yoga International Magazine, “Conquering Anger & Violence”, Fall 2012 Edition