THE NECESSITY OF BEING A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR ON YOUR OWN DHARMA PATH
Plus Instructions On How to Practice The Essential and Powerful GRATITUDE MEDITATION.
THE DAWNING LIGHT—Daily Journal of Transformational Writing
Volume 8, # 816 Thursday, March 7, 2024
SPIRITUAL SOUP KITCHEN Section # 135 Stories lovingly written by Chinmayan about embracing and using everything happening in your daily life…your relationships, work, challenges, changes and rewards as vital aspects of your spiritual training and destined dharma path
All images in this story courtesy of Pixabay except as noted
HOW TO BE A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR ON YOUR OWN DHARMA PATH
Understanding the realities of pursuing your own spiritual path is vital…You have to know the rules to master the game PLUS instructions in how to do the essential and powerful GRATITUDE MEDITATION.
Sincerely pursuing your own spiritual path is one of the most challenging things you can ever do….and the most rewarding because through focused self effort on your spiritual practice you can progress through all the stages of spiritual development and achieve clarity, peace of mind, release from suffering and ultimately reach enlightenment.
One of our readers who often offers comments on “The Dawning Light’s” stories and poetry is a young man who lives on a farm just down the road from Still Mountain.
He came to our area from a big city in search of peace of mind and a simpler, more spiritually focused life.
We met when he was riding his bike to town one afternoon and stopped by our place when he saw me working in the firewood yard to ask about our Meditation Center.
His enthusiasm, sincerity and big smile meant to me that he is a kindred spirit seeking for his way forward on his own path.
I told him that we were closed to public programs since Covid, but that we would be happy to give him a subscription to our daily inspirational newsletter.
Since then, he has become part of our work through being supportive, encouraging and interested in what we offer as our service to the world.
He has been doing his best, while living on rural land in solitude, to implement the principles and some of the practices that I write about in “The Dawning Light.”
Recently he left a comment which deeply touched my heart, for I can relate to the feeling of anguish and lostness and frustration that is expressed in it….because I have faced and gone through the same kind of experiences on my own spiritual journey.
I had called out to my own teachers in the same way his comment calls out to me, and received teachings from them which helped me understand not only what was happening but about the realities of life as a practitioner.
I am sharing both his comment and my replies here because I sense the exchange may be helpful to you and other readers.
Young Man’s Comment:
“What do you do when you cannot connect to the here and now? And chanting isn’t working? When you want to kill all the birds and destroy everything beautiful?”
Chinmayan:
“I replied at length to your comment and you can find my response in the Comments section of the story.
Meanwhile, my friend, my loving thoughts are flowing towards you and your situation.
It is always darkest just before the dawn…Dawn will surely come for those who believe in themselves and have faith that the divine’s will is being done for our highest good.”
Photo Credit: Chinmayan “An Eagle Soars Over Still Mountain”
MY REPLY TO HIS COMMENT:
“Believe me when I say I understand your frustration over falling into dark states of mind. I have been through this myself more times that I can count!
First, my teachers all said that if we are sincerely engaged with our spiritual path and earnestly doing our Dharma practices, it is vital to understand that…we will rise and fall, rise and fall as a natural part of the path BECAUSE our practices are a process of purification and healing.
In that process all of our “shit” is going to be stirred up…all of our painful negative emotional and mental patterns which are the sources of our suffering are being dissolved.
As this process goes forward, it can be very unpleasant sometimes…followed by periods of bliss and clarity and then back into the hard and gnarly stuff.
That is why everyone who is sincerely following their path must be a SPIRITUAL WARRIOR who knows that all that “shit” that is coming up, all those dark feelings and nasty thoughts are SURE SIGNS that the process is working and that progress is underway.
My teachers all stressed this one point about the realities of being a practitioner pursuing the spiritual path sincerely.
As Kalu Rinpoche often said “ When you do spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer and mantra yoga sincerely—if your VASANAS (Sanskrit term for all our mental and emotional “shit”)ARE NOT COMING UP to be faced and disssolved, it means that either you are already completely enlightened OR not doing your sadhana (spiritual practices) correctly or sincerely!”
My second response is…
The quickest and easiest way to become free from dark states of mind and a toxic negative attitude is to practice GRATITUDE.
HOW TO PRACTICE GRATITUDE MEDITATION
I will be sharing much more about Gratitude Meditation in later issues of this newsletter, but for now I recommend that you get a notebook and pen that you like. Write on the cover “MY GRATITUDE JOURNAL”and on another line “For Recording All The Things In My Life I AM GRATEFUL FOR”.
Write the same things on the first page inside and add on a third line “By and For_______________with your name in the blank.
On the second page, put today’s date on the top right side of the paper.
One the next line write “THINGS I AM GRATEFUL FOR TODAY”….
Then, begin by WRITING DOWN 100 things you have in your life to be grateful for…
Even the very smallest things up to the big things. Number them like this 1 through 100…
1) I AM grateful to wake up this morning with a new day ahead.
2) I AM grateful for this clean Mountain air to breathe.
3) I AM grateful that I had a good breakfast.
Start each new entry with these very important words…”I AM grateful for….”
These four words transform every entry into an affirmation, which will automatically reprogram your conscious and unconscious parts of your mind with the positive statement following them and have them become rooted as the Truth, dissolving the negative beliefs and replacing them with positive ones.
Any statement that begins with “I AM” is accepted as the Truth by your own mind, so be very careful in how you use this term. Eliminate following “I AM” with anything negative!
The “I AM” statement is also powerful because “I AM” is one of the Names of God.
Continue like this all day…writing down your gratitudes and blessings as you think of them.
Do this everyday for at least the next 14 to 21 days.
Read and re read your lists everyday!
When you start it seems impossible to find 100 Gratitudes, but as you do this practice, your mind will start looking for and recognizing them in a sweet flow…because the truth is we ALL LIVE IN A FIELD OF CONTINUOUS BLESSINGS THAT WE DON’T RECOGNIZE AND TAKE FOR GRANTED.
This practice will remove the blindfolds from your eyes and open your heart to the love and beauty in your life.
The power of developing a daily ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE will lift you up into a lasting state of positivity that will overcome every dark thought and emotion and banish them from your life!
“Perseverance Furthers….” Lao Tzu
Original Revelations Poem and Calligraphy by Chinmayan
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE WITH US TODAY!
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STILL MOUNTAIN DHARMA CENTER
INNER RESOURCE INSTITUTE
Authentic Meditation Training and Practical Spirituality
Stay Tuned for free upcoming programs and trainings for our subscribers and supporters of “The Dawning Light”…
We are planning to launch our next “Meditation Training Intensive” course in the first months of 2024. When we set the dates and open this course for registration, we will announce the details in this newsletter first so that all of our “Dawning Light” friends will get first choice.
LEARN TO MEDITATE and DEVELOP YOUR OWN INNER SANCTUARY OF EVER GROWING AWARENESS, MINDFULNESS, PEACE and JOY!
Join with us in this very special course that will enthrall and inspire you while giving you absolutely everything you need to develop your own effective and soul satisfying personal meditation practice that you will love and want to do every day because of its blissful benefits….This course was created and is taught by Chinmayan, who was trained by some of the greatest meditation masters of our time…and who has taught authentic meditation and practical spiritual principles for forty years.
“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi
“When you change the way you think about things, and the things you think about change”
—Wayne Dyer
“I see my life as an unfolding set of opportunities to awaken.” —Ram Das
“When God is the center and focus of my life, everything else falls into it’s rightful place.”
—Chinmayan
“Being on the spiritual path is the most challenging and difficult…as well as the most necessary and rewarding thing you will ever do…for everyday is like climbing a mountain until the day comes when you arrive at the mountain’s peak with its unlimited and unobstructed view of living life as an enlightened, Self realized being dedicated to helping all living beings attain that same state.”
—Yeshe Gyamtso