A [productive] quality is
the ability to make mistakes without condemning yourself! Determine that no
matter what happens, no matter how many times you stumble, it does not matter.
If you have not crawled, you cannot walk; if you have not stumbled, you cannot
stand…So do not be afraid of stumbling. You will stumble many times in life.
You will commit many mistakes. Don’t create a complex in your heart and mind by
thinking that you are nothing. Don’t start condemning yourself, and suffering.
Stumbling and committing mistakes are not sins. On the path of wisdom, there is
no such thing as sin.
A sin is any act that
affects your mind in a negative way. Then, if you remain in a state of
negativity for some time, you become passive and helpless. A passive mind is
very dangerous. A negative mind can be improved; but a passive mind leads to
sickness…
Never identify yourself
with negativity, with a passive mood or with weakness. You are not that. You
have many weaknesses, yet you, yourself, are not weak. You commit many
mistakes, yet you are not weak. You have committed many so-called sins, yet you
are not a sinner…
When you commit mistakes,
the real repentance is in not repeating them. If you are helpless, practice. If
you stumble, practice again. Help will come to you; grace will be there. Do not
give up with your human endeavors! Whether you consciously or unconsciously
commit a mistake, just do not do it again, but do not believe in sin.
Usually…you care only for
trivial or mundane thins of the external world. Your eyes flow with tears for
petty things but your heart should cry for something higher. If you constantly
cry for worldly things, your body will become ill, but if you cry for God, you
will move toward Samadhi, ecstasy. At present, you have great zeal to attain
worldly things – you have too much feeling for the things of the world.
Your main problem is that
you are hung up on the things of the world: you are afraid you will not gain
what you want, and you are always afraid of losing what you have. You have
never worked with the totality of your mind. This anxiety is all the result of
your mind, because nothing happens to the body, and nothing happens to God.
Whatever happens, it occurs only in your mind. The Upanishads say that atman is
the fastest entity, and yet at the same time, that it has no movement. Teachers
often say that the mind is the fastest, faster even than sound or light. But
there is one thing faster than the mind – your individual soul, the atman. It
is the fastest because wherever the mind travels, the soul is already there, no
matter where the mind goes. So if there is anything that can correct and help
your mind, it is not worldly wealth or objects, it is nothing external, but
only that which is the innermost center of your being.
Do not concern yourself
with the rewards of meditation. There is a scientific law that every action has
a reaction: it is not possible for an action to not have benefits. Even if you
do not see conscious benefits, there are unconscious benefits. At the very
least, you will develop muscle relaxation, rid yourself of tension and stress,
and learn to use the mind for spirituality.
--Swami Rama, Path of Fire and Light, Volume II
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