I just started to read it, and I think I will love this book. I am grateful for the stories of Paulo Coelho. They make me think and reflect a lot.
Archives for posts with tag: Forgiveness
When things compound and life is a bit harder than normal, and it is hard to be in stillness, I find the prayers in Don Miguel Ruiz’s book very helpful. After a few days, I am back in the proper flow. I am grateful for this book.
There are prayers for truth, forgiveness, love, physical body (our body does a lot for us), gratitude, humanity, divinity, and the Circle of Fire (which is a prayer about “being alive, being in love, being who you really are.”) I believe this book has been reprinted and retitled as The Circle of Fire.
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Day 16 – Radiating Grace
Today’s quote is from William Shakespeare. “The quality of mercy is not strain’d… it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.”
Today’s centering thought is I share my divine blessings.
Today’s Sanskrit mantra is Prasada Hum, which means “I am divine grace.”
From today’s message:
“Grace is an important aspect of expanding our happiness, because it is through grace that we express love and blessings completely and unconditionally. We are each a source and conduit of grace.
Grace is a loving power and presence that elevates and brightens whatever the challenge or situation might be. As we mature into our authentic selves, we are more open, receptive, and expansive, and so we naturally feel the influence of more grace in our lives. It is this same expansiveness and openness that makes it easy for us to radiate that grace along to others.”
The sixteenth day of Oprah and Deepak Chopra’s Expanding Your Happiness Meditation Experience was about sharing grace.
Oprah shared that Grace is “the unconditional kindness of the universe, the gentle power and serenity that lifts us up no matter what we’re going through. Grace is perhaps the most simple and powerful promise there is. It is a state of pure openness and being available… a space where you can allow a new reality to enter into your very being. Grace fills us up quietly and powerfully. Grace can be inspired by a beautiful moment in nature, or by spending time with someone we love, or just sitting quietly. It can arise from the most difficult of time, moments that offer powerful opportunities for us to grow and be transformed.”
I understand Grace… both from being inspired by nature or from something very good, and I also understand it coming from a difficult time.
I think you know you have changed… changed to someone better, when you can continue to share and offer goodness to someone, especially someone who have hurt you. That you can forgive, not allow your heart to close, and still be selflessly giving… I think that is Grace to me.
Deepak said that “there is an image found in both Eastern and Western traditions, a tree that is so heavy with fruit that it’s branches bow down, offering it’s sweetness to every passerby. That’s a perfect image to keep in mind for generosity of spirit. You give with the attitude of overflowing love, kindness, humor, appreciation… whatever your spirit has filled you with at that moment.”
Link:
Visit The Chopra Center to sign up for the free 21-day meditation experience.
(Image and course information are courtesy of The Chopra Center.)
Older posts regarding my meditation journey:
Day 1 – Feeling Joy
Day 2 – Feeling Inspired
Day 3 – Feeling Peace
Day 4 – Feeling Love
Day 5 – Feeling Playful
Day 6 – Feeling Hope
Day 7 – Feeling Complete
Day 8 – Living Joy
Day 9 – Living With Purpose
Day 10 – Living With Contentment
Day 11 – Living Kindness
Day 12 – Living Laughter
Day 13 – Living Gratitude
Day 14 – Living With Passion
Day 15 – Radiating Bliss
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Day 3 – Meditations on Anger
Thought for the day: Today I acknowledge any feelings of anger and allow them to harmlessly pass by
Daily Quote:
“The science for transformation of life is called meditation. Through analysis, physical science reaches the atom and atomic power, but meditation reaches the soul and soul power.” ~Osho
Today’s message from Osho is on anger, and how best to deal with it and other negative emotions.
He spoke about repression vs. expression–that people are often stuck either on one extreme or even between them.
If you hold on to anger, more likely the anger will build, and there will be time when anger erupts. Then again, what if anger is expressed in such a way that could hurt others?
In the process of what I call a very intense Spiritual and personal growth over the last two years and I am sure for many, many more years to come, I have been facing a lot of things from my past, my baggages, and many more to grow and be a better soulful, loving, and mindful person.
Although I already believed in reincarnation and soul growth, when I heard… “You are a Spiritual being having a human experience,” by Pierre Teilhard de Chardan, spoken by several people, the more I heard it, the more I came to understand and the more willing I was to face things I had avoided. And when I do face obstacles, I am beginning to automatically ask myself, “what is it I need to learn from this person/situation?”
Over the last few weeks, I have been constantly reminded to become an observer in my life. Whether I am facing deep emotions, learning lessons, or things just seem out of control, I am to step back and become an impartial observer to see why and how I am reacting, what the true issue really is, and the possible solutions and answers (from a loving standpoint) to what I am working on in order to release, heal, or forgive.
Interestingly enough, being an observer is the solution Osho presented today. It seems like I am being reminded again. 😉
From the course:
“We pour our energy into anger, then only does it become vital. It has no energy of its own; it depends on our cooperation. In watching, the cooperation is broken; you are no more supporting it. It will be there, for a few moments, a few minutes, and then it will be gone. Finding no roots in you, finding you unavailable, seeing that you are far away, a watcher on the hills, it will dissipate, it will disappear. And that disappearance is beautiful. That disappearance is a great experience.”
Osho follows up with a process for a meditation that will help break the pattern of accumulation of anger over and over again. This is helpful until you have a chance to face your anger and what triggers it, and take the necessary steps to forgive and heal.
(Disclaimer: All images and meditations are from Osho’s 21-day meditation series by Mentors Channel.)
Related Links:
Osho: A Course In Meditation, 21 Day Workout For Your Consciousness (visit to register, it’s free).
Older posts regarding my meditation journey:
Day 1: Strength Through Devotion
Day 2: Meditations on Love and Relationship
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Something weird and bad happened to me on the phone when I was booking transportation for an upcoming trip this afternoon.
I ended up on someone else’s wrath after asking for my first name to be edited on the confirmation, mostly because I was worried the credit card transaction may not go through with the spelling error and for asking for the confirmation e-mail for my first shuttle ride which I didn’t get. I decided to just e-mail the time correction on one the confirmation so I wouldn’t have to talk to him again…
I have never been treated like this. Yet through my tears and stress after he cursed and hung up on me, I still prayed for him and sent him healing and loving energy–so that somehow, I would be the last one to feel his anger and that he will be okay.
After I have calmed down, I still tried to figure out what happened. What did I do? Were my requests unreasonable? I just didn’t get it, so I just decided to work on my own issue about what I had experienced, and send him another round of healing and loving energy, just in case I didn’t mean it the first time, when I was very upset.
You are probably thinking, I should cancel these shuttle rides like my brother told me to do, when he came by to pick up some food over at my place, and found me balling like mad. I would, but at the moment I don’t know another shuttle service that’s going where I have to go.
Maybe something really awful happened to him (much worse than I received), and he was not able to deal with it well. I don’t know.
I suppose, though, what I am trying to convey is that we have a choice on how to react and deal with stuff like this. It may take some time, but it is better in the long run to forgive and to be compassionate… For our own sakes.
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This is the second week of Oprah and Deepak Chopra’s Finding Your Flow Meditation Experience. Week two focuses on connecting with the seven chakra centers to “build a grounded state of peace and possibility.” Week two will activate what we found within last week.
So far, we have experienced the following meditations (earlier posts below):
Day 4: Finding Love (Vam)
Day 5: Finding Expression (Ham)
Day 6: Finding Wisdom (Om)
Day 7: Finding Consciousness (Sahasrara Im)
Day 8: Activating Security (Om Dakini Namaha)
Day 9: Activating Happiness (Om Rakini Namaha)
Day 10: Activating Power (Om Lakini Namaha)
Last week, we worked on finding love within. Today, we work on activating that love by working on the heart chakra. This will help in gently breaking down any blocks to love, so that you are more open to experience this beautiful energy, starting from inside you.
I love this from today’s meditation preface: “Love is compassionate and forgiving… it unites even while it celebrates differences. You don’t need to look outside yourself to awaken this love. It is present in your heart chakra, right now and always.”
To reinforce that Deepak shared this from Rumi. “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
What powerful messages these are. Personally, I am still working on self-love to make my heart into a “magical kitchen” like what Don Miguel Ruiz wrote in The Mastery of Love. To have such a heart is the ultimate in giving unconditional love not just to those you care for, but for everyone you encounter in this life, and most of all, to give to yourself.
If you think about it…
Who gets more flack from us? We do. We are often much harder on ourselves…
Who needs unconditional love from us the most? We do.
Today’s centering thought is “my life energy is love.”
Today’s Sanskrit mantra is Om Kakini Namaha, which means “I activate my love.”
Link:
Visit The Chopra Center to sign up for the free 21-day meditation experience.
(Image courtesy of The Chopra Center.)
Older posts:
Day 1: Finding Security (Lam)
Day 2: Finding Happiness (Yam)
Day 3: Finding Power (Ram)
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I have decided that it is time to write a letter of forgiveness to myself. I am ready to let go of things that I haven’t yet forgiven myself for–the stuff that has kept me a bit of a prisoner still inside.
I have been putting this off for a few weeks now, but tomorrow is my birthday and it’s time for a new beginning. So after I post this, I will continue to handwrite my letter of forgiveness–something long overdue, but truly needed to set myself completely free and to truly live my life fully…
I am grateful for the forgiveness process and for now being ready to forgive myself.
Related posts:
Day 99/365: Another Lesson In Forgiveness
Day 38/365: Forgiveness
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I truly feel that we are all connected, and we come into each other’s lives–however brief or through various mediums like WordPress–to encourage, inspire, or help each other.
I am grateful to Madhuri for sharing her post with me this morning using a technique in forgiveness I wrote about. She wrote about her experience with the process and how she felt afterwards. I am honored, but mostly, I am glad she found that it helped her as much as it helped me.
Thank you again, Madhuri!
Also, thank you to those who have touched my life here in WordPress. There are posts that have encouraged and inspired me. There are posts that have made my heart full and warm. There are posts that have helped me learn and grow. There are posts that have made me happy and more grateful. Thank you!
Related links:
Madhuri’s Post – Forgiveness And A Clean Slate
Day 99/365: Another Lesson In Forgiveness
Day 38/365: Forgiveness
Disclaimer:
Image courtesy of thedailyquotes.com
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I finished the 6-week course of May Cause Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein. This book helped me go through and release a lot of my remaining fears, as well as forgive a lot more.
The exercise that really made an impact was the last forgiveness exercise in week 6 where you write a letter of forgiveness to the person or organization that hurt you the most. I tweaked the exercise a little and wrote forgiveness letters to everyone that still seemed to have a hold on me and included the following:
- What the person did that hurt me
- Why I am still angry or resentful
- I forgive the person
- Why I forgive the person
I wrote the letters in document form. Once I was done and I reread them, I made the decision to release all the letters and the pain associated with them. Then I deleted the file.
Afterwards, I felt so liberated, and it’s been a couple of days, and I still feel liberated. The remaining pain, anger, and resentment I kept were all released, and I believe it was because I wrote down exactly how I was hurt, why I was still angry or resentful, and the reason for forgiveness… which was, in most cases, because I no longer wanted to suffer and be angry or resentful anymore. I just wanted to move on and be happy. Had I known I could feel so free, I would have done this ages ago!
I am grateful for writing those forgiveness letters. They truly did set me free!
Related Post:
Forgiveness
Busy
Fear
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Last night, I was helping someone who was in very much emotional pain. The kind that impinged on her self-worth… the kind where all hurts converged and they weighed her down to the bottom of the sea of despair.
While during this painful episode, she did some things that I would call self-sabotage, and wanted to continue to make more like decisions. Those would eventually hurt her even more.
I understand how she felt. I’ve been there before, many times, but here are some things I’ve asked her to do and some things I’ve learned to do to help myself:
1. Remember someone important
You.
We are so much more than what we have experienced thus far. We are worthy of love, blessings, and miracles. We must remember how important we are.
We must remember that only we can love ourselves that way we need to be loved. We need to love ourselves so much that no one can take that away from us or allow ourselves to give our self-worth and our self-love away. We can love others so much more, if we have loads of it inside.
If you can’t remember, go to #2…
2. Reach out to someone
Reach out to someone who care about you. Someone who can tell you the truth to your face when you need to hear it, but can listen and be compassionate, when you need that more. They will help you remember #1.
3. Do something good for yourself
We need to do things on a regular basis that make us feel good like reading, laughing, cooking, writing, journaling, meditating, running, walking, singing, whatever they may be… We need to do something loving for ourselves, especially when we are in pain.
4. Don’t make any decisions (especially rash ones) while emotional
We can be our own worse enemies when we are hurt. We can get in the way of our own happiness or do self-sabotaging things. If we decide when we are emotionally in pain, we might make decisions that can hurt us in the end or we will regret. Wait… Sleep on it. Wait until you have a clear heart.
5. Enact a “Feel Good” day
This day (and it could be a few hours) is an uninterrupted “me” time. Schedule these days as you need them. These “Feel Good” days are days when you do everything you enjoy and love, unplugged or not. (You can expand it to be “Feel Good Us” day or “Feel Good Family” day too)
I am grateful to be of help to someone dear last night. I am grateful to share some techniques that may be helpful to you or someone you know, in whole or in part.
Related Post:
To Have A Clear Heart
Lesson I Learned Yesterday
