So I’m supposed to have a topic tonight and it’s Clarity of Purpose. So let’s say clarity of purpose is love, that what I want to do is I want to experience, I want to give, I want to be an instrument of love and that’s the most important thing to me. I don’t think that we need to argue if that’s a worthwhile goal, right? What we could argue is – how important is that the car going by? Did the car going by become more important, it got in front of your goal, right? Like “Shut up, you stupid loud car”. Or like where we live, we always have the leaf blowers and all that, like everybody else, right? If it’s not the gardener on our property, then it’s on the left and then if it’s not the left and it’s the right, if it’s not the right, it’s across the street. It’s just how the world we live in is, right? You know there’ve been times when I’ve wanted to go out and smash the leaf blower, OK? but it’s not their fault and it’s just the world we live in.
So what I want to say is to get clear about your goals, because I think that life can be so distracting that if we’re not clear, life is almost designed to take us away from what we know is right for us. And so it’s like we’re playing a game all the time and everything in life seems to be taking us away from the things that we know are most important, whether it’s through your phone or some media or what you read or just hearing something go by when you’re meditating.
I imagine people like firemen or lifeguards or coast guards or cops or something, when they’re in service mode, when all heck is breaking loose, but somebody needs help, right? They can’t afford to focus on all the distractions, they need to focus on their goal and those who are good at it are probably really good at it, OK? And I feel like in life, the way the world is that we live in and the environment that we’re all in, everything that we’re aware of that’s happening in the world and there’s so much hatred and fear and polarization and it’s magnetic and it can bring it up in the nicest people, they can find themselves acting that way because we are influenced by the energy and the consciousness of others. It’s a fact of life, OK?
That’s why you have group mentality. That’s how you can have a group of people whether they’re following Hitler or whether they’re just going crazy and burning cars in the street, like in a riot. Human beings are very connected to each other and they react and respond to each other in ways that a lot of times they can’t even control. Those of us who are strong-willed and have a real, clear idea of what our purpose is, will find that with practice we can actually move right through that. And we can do the job that needs to be done. Women and men. You know like men have a more warrior-hunter kind of way of going about it and women have a more kind of an endurance way. It’s almost like sometimes men are like sprinters and women are more like long distance runners. Let’s just put it that way. They do that thing for nine months, OK? We both have different kinds of strengths and different qualities, but we both have the ability to hold on to our goals or throw them right out the window at the first chance. And it’s just developing that ability and getting clear.
I think it’s really important for people to think about our mortality. I don’t think it’s a negative thing at all. And think about how easily our life could just end at any moment. You could just walk out in the street and get hit by a car or something. It’s just the world that we live in and to live the way we’re living now, I mean live the moment that we have now, no matter how young or old we are. Don’t be thinking about all the time you have. Don’t be fearful about it, but do what’s important. Be the person that you want to be and don’t waste your time reacting to people that aren’t playing by the rules or being fair and negative news and stuff.
People have to get sick of that enough and they can find fulfillment in kindness. And in kindness, and I don’t even like the word tolerance, I feel like it’s not even enough, but sort of like a radical acceptance or a radical form of willingness to just embrace the realities of others and allow them to be the way they are and not judge them negatively. What it does is that it frees your heart. And the weird thing is that like Dave has said a few times to me lately how when he meditates in the group here and other people say that too that somehow he just feels like he gets a little bit farther with the meditation. I mean a lot of people are experiencing that. The reason we do group meditations is because we know that it helps people. Even when we meditate, Darshana and I, we find sometimes great inspiration just meditating with a group like this. We’ll go home and we’ll be like: “Wow, that was a good meditation. How did you feel?” You know, it’s like everybody was there because they’re sincerely trying to learn or to know God or to grow spiritually. And we crave that, we love to meditate with other people. But the thing is that out in the world, everywhere you are, you might be on the 405 freeway and everybody’s like grinding their teeth, trying to get to their work and their appointment. You can just look at their faces, we’ve all done it and that has its magnetism too.
So that’s when it takes a certain amount of strength and fortitude to cut through it and not become so… what we say is: “You can be a cause and not an effect in life”. Instead of being reacting to everything, you can choose, instead of reacting emotionally, you can calmly respond. And so that’s the thing. And each one of us has the ability to do that and the other thing is that if you’re clear about the consciousness that you want to have or the kind of person you want to be, then sure, try to have thoughts that support that, but also be with people and be in places and do things that support it too. And again, life will take you and make you busy and say that you can’t do this. It’s like what we were talking about right before the class about the things that are happening in our own life and with this center. You know we didn’t start this center thinking that it was going to be an easy thing to do, but as soon as we opened it we got some huge financial surprises that we didn’t expect and we could have said: “Oh, well, that’s just too hard. I’m going to get a real job.” But I won’t do it. I’ll die first. I will. I’m clear about my purpose. My purpose is to know God, whatever God is. But my way to get there is to live in the consciousness of God-like qualities, like kindness and love and service and I firmly believe that for all of us, the more that we do that, our needs will be taken care of.
But the weird thing is in this world, this material world that we live in, is that our needs are not always our wants. What we need to grow spiritually and to achieve our highest goals are often times way scarier than anything that we would imagine that we need to do. I mean read the lives of saints. Read the life of St. Teresa of Avila or St. Anthony, St. Francis or some of the great yogis and things like that, people of different traditions and mystics. The thing that seems to inspire people to really go deep and really find out who they really are and achieve their potential is often great, great challenges in life, the hardest ones, the things that hurt us the most. But these are the things that also make us stronger. So the things that we become attached to seem to be taken away, the things that we find comfort in seem to start breaking up and falling apart. And now we live in a world where even the United States isn’t quite above it all compared to things that happen everywhere else. It’s like the writing is on the wall and so there’s this feeling of insecurity even in the western world now. In some ways it’s unfortunate, but in other way – how else would we grow? How else would we stop being selfish?
So whatever your purposes is in life, whatever it is that that you really think is important, I would say don’t be fooled! Don’t be fooled by other things. If other things get in the way of what you really want to become or be doing with your life, don’t be fooled by what everybody says and what everybody does and what seems normal. Just be a complete freak of nature, follow your heart and do what really inspires you and makes your heart feel good inside and you’ll be inspiration not just for yourself but everybody around you.
You guys are awesome, beautiful, wonderful people. Everybody has a very unique potential and a very unique expression to bring into the world. And life and media and show business and Hollywood and the news will all tell you that you’re not. Like that you’re not beautiful enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not rich enough, you’re not strong enough or you’re not skinny enough or whatever it is. It’s all bullshit! Sorry! It’s just a lie. And the fact is that everybody is just a beautiful, inspiring angel, if they would just allow themselves to have fun and smell the fresh air and see the sunset and see the good in others. By seeing the good in others you’ll be realizing the good in yourself. How about that? I’ll just leave it at that. I hope that’s helpful in some way.
So with meditation, we have classes, we do silent meditation and guided and this is just an introduction. I hope in some way it was useful. But what we did here, if any of it resonated with you, there’s no hard fast law about how to do it. If you found peace in what we were doing, then just do it at home when you’re on an empty stomach and you’re rested. Just do a little bit of that measured breathing to gather yourself up and then release control of the breath. And then think of whatever inspires you. So control the breath to calm down, then release control of the breath to calm down even more and then bring to mind whatever it is that brings a sense of fulfillment and freedom to your heart. And take that thought and that feeling into your day and then at the end of the day, do it again right before you go to sleep. Just breathe a little bit, get quiet and just get your body nice and still. And then think of whatever it is that makes you smile, like a legitimate child-like smile, not an adult, fake smile, but a smile like a kid that doesn’t have anything to hide. Then take that feeling into your sleep time and you’ll wake up the next day a little bit better person, a little bit more in tune with what you think is most important instead of what everyone else does.
I hope that’s helpful. Thank you.
Recorded at Yogananda Meditation Center on July 31, 2017.
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