Guest Post (Altering Perspectives)

Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready?

Here we go:
1. Give up your need to always be right. There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?

2. Give up your need for control. Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu

3. Give up on blame. Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.


4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk. Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.
“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” Eckhart Tolle

5. Give up your limiting beliefs about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!

“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” Elly Roselle
6. Give up complaining. Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

7. Give up the luxury of criticism. Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.

8. Give up your need to impress others. Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take of all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

9. Give up your resistance to change. Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” Joseph Campbell

10. Give up labels. Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer
11. Give up on your fears. Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.

“The only fear we have to fear, is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. Give up your excuses. Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.

13. Give up the past. I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

14. Give up attachment. This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another, attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.

15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations. Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves. You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.

Māyāḥ ॥मायाः॥

If we take away the NOW from the human, all that is left is a hazy dream.

Best use of this moment is to drown in It...HWL Poonja.

The hazy dream has the following constituents:

1. Emotions like fear, anger, depression, paranoia.

2. Images.

3. Words.

The hazy dream tries to take over the NOW using aspect 1.

2 & 3 in themselves just cannot hurt, if you look carefully...

The NOW is a magical, peaceful, comfortable realm. That the hazy dream appears to take over every now and then.

But the NOW is untouchable.

The hazy dream in itself is not evil or anything. It cannot hurt.

The sights and the sounds and the work going on in the NOW is INDEPENDENT of what the hazy dream says about its history.

Perhaps the NOW can be obscured by aspect 1 - but only obscured. Not destroyed.

The Sun cannot be destroyed by the clouds....

Question: So how to deal with Māyāḥ then?

Ans: Nothing. Don't fret yourself. Māyāḥ deals with itself on its own.
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others” - Martha Graham. via Om Chef


A Nisargadatta Maharaj PassageQ.: If both dream and escape from dream are imaginings, what is the way out?

A. : There is no need of a way out! Don't you see that a way out is also part of the dream? All you have to do is to see the dream as dream.

Q. : If I start the practice of dismissing everything as a dream, where will it lead me?

A. : Wherever it leads you, it will be a dream. The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize that you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of the dream and not another. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done.

The world is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is not. It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I cease caring, it dissolves. It has no cause and serves no purpose. It just happens when we are absent-minded. It appears exactly as it looks, but there is no depth in it, nor meaning. Only the onlooker is real, call him Self or Atma. To the Self the world is but a colourful show, which he enjoys as long as it lasts and forgets when it is over. Whatever happens on the stage makes him shudder in terror or roll with laughter, yet all the time he is aware that it is but a show. Without desire or fear he enjoys it, as it happens.

I am The Living Principle in All Things

श्रीभगवानुवाच- पार्थ नैवेह नामुत्र विनाशस्तस्य विद्यते। न हि कल्याणकृत्कश्चिद्‌दुर्गतिं तात गच्छति॥६- ४०॥ O son of Pritha, neither here in this world, nor in the next, is a sincere person defeated. Such a person, My dear friend, is never on the road of misfortune.

चञ्चलं हि मनः कृष्ण प्रमाथि बलवद्‌दृढम्।
तस्याहं निग्रहं मन्ये वायोरिव सुदुष्करम् ॥६- ३४॥

O Kesava, it is easier to control the wind than to try and control the fickle, unsettled, stubborn mind.

कच्चिन्नोभयविभ्रष्टश्छिन्नाभ्रमिव नश्यति।
अप्रतिष्ठो महाबाहो विमूढो ब्रह्मणः पथि॥६- ३८॥

O mighty armed one, is he not lost in his pursuit of transcendence like a wandering cloud with no solid footing in either of the worlds?

श्रीभगवानुवाच
ऊर्ध्वमूलमधःशाखमश्वत्थं प्राहुरव्ययम्।
छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित् ॥१५- १॥
अधश्चोर्ध्वं प्रसृतास्तस्य शाखा गुणप्रवृद्धा विषयप्रवालाः।
अधश्च मूलान्यनुसंततानि कर्मानुबन्धीनि मनुष्यलोके ॥१५- २॥
न रूपमस्येह तथोपलभ्यते नान्तो न चादिर्न च संप्रतिष्ठा।
अश्वत्थमेनं सुविरूढमूल-मसङ्गशस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्त्वा ॥१५- ३॥
ततः पदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यं यस्मिन्गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः।
तमेव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी॥१५- ४॥

The Lord said: They (or the wise) speak of the eternal Ashvattha tree having its origin above and its branches below (in the visible cosmos) whose leaves are hymns. One who understands this is a knower of the truth.

The branches (of this world tree of Maya) spread below and above (or all over the cosmos). The tree is nourished by the Gunas; sense pleasures are its sprouts; and its roots (of ego and desires) stretch below in the human world causing Karmic bondage.

Neither its (real) form nor its beginning, neither its end nor its existence is perceptible here on the earth. Having cut these firm roots of the Ashvattha tree by the mighty ax of detachment;

The goal (of nirvana) should be sought reaching which one does not come back; thus thinking: In that very primal spirit I take refuge from which this primal manifestation comes forth.

यदा ते मोहकलिलं बुद्धिर्व्यतितरिष्यति|
तदा गन्तासि निर्वेदं श्रोतव्यस्य श्रुतस्य च||२- ५२||

श्रुतिविप्रतिपन्ना ते यदा स्थास्यति निश्चला|
समाधावचला बुद्धिस्तदा योगमवाप्स्यसि||२- ५३||

Translation:

When your mind is released from dense delusions, you shall realise how disgusting all that you have heard so far has been. When your mind is fixed and unmoved and not confused by scriptural injunctions you shall attain yogic samadhi.


तानि सर्वाणि संयम्य युक्त आसीत मत्परः|
वशे हि यस्येन्द्रियाणि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता||२- ६१||

In order to attain steady wisdom, you should restrain your senses and focus your entire mind and being on Me.

इन्द्रियाणां हि चरतां यन्मनोऽनुविधीयते|
तदस्य हरति प्रज्ञां वायुर्नावमिवाम्भसि||२- ६७||

If the mind hankers after any sense objects, the wandering senses carry away one's intelligence, just as the wind blows away a ship at sea.

तस्माद्यस्य महाबाहो निगृहीतानि सर्वशः|
इन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थेभ्यस्तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता||२- ६८||

Therefore, O Mighty Armed, one who's senses are detached from sense objects, is the one fixed on wisdom.


या निशा सर्वभूतानां तस्यां जागर्ति संयमी|
यस्यां जाग्रति भूतानि सा निशा पश्यतो मुनेः||२- ६९||

That which is dark for all sentient beings appears like bright daylight for those who's senses are controlled.

That which is dawn for sentient beings appears like the dark night for the introspective sage who sees.

एषा ब्राह्मी स्थितिः पार्थ नैनां प्राप्य विमुह्यति|
स्थित्वास्यामन्तकालेऽपि ब्रह्मनिर्वाणमृच्छति||२- ७२||

O Partha, having attained such a divine state, one is not confused; if one is fixed in this pure consciousness even at the moment of death, one attains Brahman and all suffering ceases.

नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः|
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः||३- ८||

O Arjuna! Great is the man who can use his mind to control his senses and do his karma without attachment.

नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः|
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः||३- ८||

It is better to do your duty than to remain without doing anything. Action is important because we cannot maintain even our bodies without it.

न मे पार्थास्ति कर्तव्यं त्रिषु लोकेषु किञ्चन|
नानवाप्तमवाप्तव्यं वर्त एव च कर्मणि||३- २२||

O Arjuna! Though there is no work I need to complete in all the three worlds, I still do My duties.

यदा विनियतं चित्तमात्मन्येवावतिष्ठते|
निःस्पृहः सर्वकामेभ्यो युक्त इत्युच्यते तदा||६- १८||

A yogi who's mind is controlled and focused in yoga is like an un-flickering lamp in a windless place.

सर्वभूतस्थितं यो मां भजत्येकत्वमास्थितः|
सर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि स योगी मयि वर्तते||६- ३१||

For he who sees Me everywhere and sees all things in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.

मत्तः परतरं नान्यत्किञ्चिदस्ति धनञ्जय|
मयि सर्वमिदं प्रोतं सूत्रे मणिगणा इव||७- ७||

O winner of wealth there is nothing superior to Me; everything rests on Me like pearls strung on a thread.

ये चैव सात्त्विका भावा राजसास्तामसाश्च ये|
मत्त एवेति तान्विद्धि न त्वहं तेषु ते मयि||७- १२||

Know that all states of being, be it purity, passion, or ignorance, all ensue from Me alone.
But understand that I am not in them, they are in Me.

अभ्यासयोगयुक्तेन चेतसा नान्यगामिना|
परमं पुरुषं दिव्यं याति पार्थानुचिन्तयन्||८- ८||

Therefore remember Me at all times and do your duty. With your mind and intellect fixed on Me, you shall become one with Me.


अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम्|
परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम्||९- ११||
मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतसः|
राक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिताः||९- १२||
महात्मानस्तु मां पार्थ दैवीं प्रकृतिमाश्रिताः|
भजन्त्यनन्यमनसो ज्ञात्वा भूतादिमव्ययम्||९- १३||

Trapped by illusions, they do not feel My transcendental existence as the living principle in all beings.

Their hopes are in vain, their knowledge is in vain. They are irrational, trusting the deceiving nature of fiends and demons.

Those souls who feel their divine nature, contemplate Me with steady minds knowing Me as the imperishable source of all beings.

पिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामहः|
वेद्यं पवित्रमोंकार ऋक्साम यजुरेव च||९- १७||

गतिर्भर्ता प्रभुः साक्षी निवासः शरणं सुहृत्|
प्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम्||९- १८||

I am the father of the universe, its mother, its nurturer, its grandfather; I am the goal, support, witness, abode, refuge, friend.

A Case For Optimism

Is she spinning clockwise, or anticlockwise?

Many situations in life can appear to be as this graphic...

In such situations, we need not despair. Such situations may not lead to complete disaster, as the world-mind may want us to believe. The world-mind uses every excuse to point to utter and complete disaster, or enslavement. It is its nature to do so. And it often succeeds, but only temporarily, but that is because its voices are laden with hypnotic power.

We do not need to pay much attention to the world-mind. We need a protective layer around ourselves, to insulate ourselves from the world-mind.

The world-mind is the 'EGO' that spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle, Gina Lake, Ramesh Balsekar and Mooji talk about.

I have used the term 'world-mind' instead of 'mind' deliberately.

If the reader wants to go into details as to why, then please check the label NON DUALITY.

An interesting variation from "MoIllusions".

Some very positive teachings by Teal Scott.