Gururaj Ananda Yogi

"Do not carry your troubles; give them to me."

AMS Newsletter

Volume 44, December 2015

Dear Meditator Friends,

Seasons Greetings! We hope this newsletter touches that inner warmth that radiates to all those around us. Gururaj gives some simple yet effective advice for dealing with fear below. Also, Merrill shares a rich collection of commitments you can make.

Love and Namaste'

Editor

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April 15 - 17, 2016

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People like us gather together in that one-pointedness to follow the path of unfoldment. I can see on people's faces the love, the oneness, that togetherness, that family feeling that is there that generates a beautiful force. One stick can easily be broken, but a bundle of sticks is hard to break. And that is how people develop. For is it not said that if two are gathered in my name I am there? These scriptural injunctions are very true but so little understood. Now how does this work? Because two people are combining their spiritual selves. When they think of Divinity, they allow the flow that is within themselves to mingle with the flow of the other person who they have regarded to be separate, and they find this oneness. And oneness is Divinity, without a second. ~Gururaj

Satsang

Fear

GURURAJ: Once upon a time there was an old man who was very kind and loved his children so, so much. He had children that aged from four to forty-five, and more. But one day, there was a lion romping through the village street. And he said to his children, don't run away, just sit down and face the lion and the lion will run away from you.

That is the trouble with people today, the more they run away from the lion, the more the lion will chase them. But if they just sit down and face the lion, the lion will run away itself. A lion is not a hurtful animal really, and neither is a snake. If you see a snake coming in front of you, a cobra, you just sit down and the snake will slide away.

What this story means is that in the face of any problem or trouble, you just sit down and relax, and that lion or snake will easily turn away. I had this experience myself in the jungles of Bengal where a tiger was rushing at me. So I sat down and said, "Hey, you tiger, you are none else but me." And sitting down and looking into the tiger's eyes, the tiger just turned around and slinked away because there was no fear.

The main trouble of people is fear. Fear troubles you more than anything else. You are troubled by fear and not by your environment. So I sat down and said, "Tiger, come, for what can you do to me? You can only eat me up. So what." But the tiger instinctively felt that I had no fear. The tiger just slinked away and left. I wish I could have him as a pet. He was a great guy.

That is how we get rid of our fears: face them, look at them, and those fears will slink away, they will disappear. They first make their appearance - that is very true - but then, with your strength, they disappear. You see the negation of the word? Appear and disappear. Remember that always and you will find that all your fears will disappear. So then what happens is that fears appear and disappear. That is the secret of life. For no one needs to fear anything at all.

So, you must make fear disappear. It's so easy, just analyze the word, you make fear disappear by facing it and not brooding over it. For if you brood, you only become brooding hens. So, get rid of it, please. If there's any fear, look at the fear in the face and it will disappear, that's the secret of life.

There is nothing in life for which you need to fear, for your greatest enemy in life is fear. Your enemy is not you, none of you. Your enemy is fear, which is a product of the mind.

Who cares for this little frail body? If it has to go, let it go but remember the soul is immortal. So why fear it? ~ UK 87-7

Commitments

Commitments You Can Make

by Merrill Harmin

Commit to doing all your meditations and other spiritual practices daily and commit to a strategy that will support you in winning that prize. (A goal without a strategy is a distraction.)

Commit to making your life a spiritual practice.

Commit to your physical well-being, such as eating and exercising healthfully. (And of course commit to a strategy toward that goal.)

Commit to being devoted to someone or some cause. (Devotion takes our attention from our ego-mind selves to our heart-divine Selves.)

Commit to becoming accepting, non-judgmental. Allow life to be as it is. (Consider a strategy of noticing all non-acceptance and letting it go.)

Commit to becoming more unselfish, acting more often without concern for personal gain. (Consider a dual strategy: Notice and let go of all selfish impulses and initiate more acts of pure kindness.)

Commit to spending more time with people and in places that nourish the heart, and spending less time with people and in places that stimulate just the opposite, such as negative people and un-peaceful places.

Commit to becoming a positive person. (Consider a strategy of noticing times when your thoughts are negative, complaining, worrying, etc, and letting each thought go.)

Commit to the simple proposition of doing good and being good. Make that the guideline for all daily choices.

Commit to watching yourself often during the day, getting outside yourself and just noticing what you are then doing-thinking-feeling. Without judging. (It's like watching thoughts during meditation.)

Commit to keeping alive a message that is healthful to you. (Like holding onto an affirmation.) Examples: "I am not the doer; I'm just an instrument." "All is OK, even when I don't see it that way." "I always did the best I could; if I could have done better I would have." "No one is to blame for anything; all always do the best they can." "I forgive myself and all others; I hold no regrets or resentments."