THE THINGS I AM MOST GRATEFUL FOR as we reflect on our life and celebrate our birthdays

The things I am most grateful for in our new life of simple living and serving the world during our special week of shared milestone birthdays.

Written by Chinmayan in celebration of my 74th birthday.

I would love to hear your response to this story in the comments!

This is the WEEKDAY edition of THE DAWNING LIGHT # 1207…

Our FREE version of our “Daily Journal of Transformational Writing”

STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES SECTION # 79 Stories by Chinmayan about our life in pursuit of simple living, our own spiritual path and our service to the world in a small meditation center in the mountains

Images courtesy of Pixabay.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR LIFE AS WE CELEBRATE MY 74th BIRTHDAY

The things I am most grateful for as we continue creating our new life focused on simple living, our spiritual path and serving the world…

Starting today, we are going to return to writing and sharing much more personal stories about our daily challenges, adventures and victories of our lives here on Still Mountain… and the lessons we are learning.

As I have been praying, mediating and reflecting on my life during this month when we both have milestone birthdays, I have realized that these personal stories and their distilled wisdom may inspire others on their own spiritual path.

THIS MONTH IS SPECIAL TO US BECAUSE WE WERE BOTH BORN IN NOVEMBER

This month is special to us because we both were born during November just a week apart. 

Birthdays are very important and significant…especially this year.

They are a time for reflecting on how far we have come in the past year and on how to best use the year ahead.  

It is a time for celebrating all the blessings, all the goodness and all the potential flowing through our lives.

Time is one of our most precious resources for the hourglass of life is always running as the minutes go by. 

My teachers have always stressed that this life we are now living is extremely precious, that it is an opportunity so potent with higher potential that not even a second should be wasted.

Even though I am in good health, and we are very conscious of our diet and the other factors that affect longevity. I am doing my best not to take our good health and the wonderful life we have created for granted.

Kalu Rinpoche, one of the greatest of the Tibetan Buddhist meditation masters who I met and became a close disciple of in 1972, often reminded us to constantly reflect on “The Four Ends” as a way of waking ourselves up to the basic reality that in this world everything is constantly changing…and that most of those changes are completely beyond our control.

The Four Ends…

The end of all birth is death.

The end of all accumulation is dispersion.

The end of all building is ruin.

The end of all meeting is parting.

One of my reflections with each birthday is to honestly gauge where I am in the arc of my life because the older I get, the closer I am to that last day when I will have to leave this world, whether I want to or not, are ready to go or not.

Every day now is like a journey and an adventure, now that we have created a life that is more and more peaceful and focused on the truly important things…because we are both dedicated to using every one of our days in the best way possible….

THE THINGS I AM MOST GRATEFUL FOR

I am grateful for my ever-deepening relationship with the Divine.

I have been consciously engaged in my own spiritual path and practices that sustain it for most of my life.  I am grateful that all of that effort is bearing fruit in ever deepening relationship with the Divine, in my ability to hear the inner guidance and experience the presence of God.

I am grateful to myself for being who I am as I am learning to love, appreciate and respect myself.

I am grateful that even as a teenager and young man, I sought out my destined spiritual teachers and trained closely with them as one who loves the dharma and is dedicated heart, mind and spirit to serving others.

I am grateful to myself for persevering through heartbreak and extreme life challenges of every kind to learn from my experiences and choose to become ever more compassionate and loving.

I am grateful for my dear friend Ani who has stood with me for so many years through everything, including the hardest and gnarliest of situations and emotional stress and strain, trials and tribulations.

I am grateful that we have overcome the painful sources of years of conflict and fighting to now be living in ever increasing loving closeness, harmony and alignment.

I am grateful to us both for recognizing that we needed to let go of our old lives and for having the courage and tenacity to move out and create our new life of simple living and focusing on the truly important things.

I am grateful that we choose to live by faith instead fear…which makes it possible for us to say “NO” to anything that is not good for us.  

We live now with much greater awareness and understanding of what things to avoid and what things that are good for us, so that we can keep the ship of our lives on course with our higher good and divine purpose.

I am grateful that we finally launched this newsletter “The Dawning Light” almost two years ago at the end of 2022…

and because we choose to live by faith and following the inner guidance, we now have over 1200 published stories and have hundreds of subscribers who love this journal of transformational writing which feel like our family and kindred spirits.

I am grateful to all of our “Dawning Light” family for giving me the opportunity to serve through these writings which have a far greater purpose in serving others than even I am aware of.

I am grateful to those who read this newsletter everyday and who tell me that it makes a major difference in their lives.

I am grateful in so many ways for each and everyone of our “Dawning Light” family that I cannot adequately express in words for your presence and support.

Your being here and participating with me is what keeps me keeping on when things get really challenging.

I am grateful to our closest “Dawning Light” friends who are bringing flowers, giving us donations and encouraging comments in celebration of my birthday….your kindness, love and support mean so much to us!

“THE BEST IS YET AHEAD”

One of the beautiful things about sincerely pursuing your own spiritual path is that every year of your life is blessed with more and more peace, serenity, awareness and love as you evolve spiritually. 

Prayer and meditation and singing kirtan and chanting your mantra and doing selfless service all bring about much deeper and more profound shifts than we are aware of…and these accumulate and compound over the years in your karmic bank account. 

I am grateful to be able to say with full confidence that the coming year will be the best year of our lives…

Because Ani and I work on our inner process and our practices everyday…

Real love is all about being there for each other at every level through communication and caring. 

I am privileged to be in this friendship with Ani, who matches me at every level of play,… who will not give up or abandon me when things get tough,… who works patiently for us to really communicate,… who forgives my many mistakes as we seek to learn the lessons of experiences… and who appreciates and loves me for who I am.

I am grateful for this opportunity to learn how to love her as she needs to be loved and nurtured, for our relationship is a vital part of my path. 

And most of all, because of the daily work and caring that we put into it, our lives get better and more amazing by the day!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US CELEBRATE OUR BIRTHDAYS!

This is a text that we sent out to all of our closest friends and family…that I am moved to share with all of you in this wonderful “Dawning Light” community:

“Good morning my friend!

We are asking for your help!

This time…November 13th through 19th is very special to us because it is the week of our shared birthdays…my 74th…and Ani’s 61st…

I am asking that you consider upgrading to becoming a paid “Inner Circle” subscriber to “The Dawning Light” today as a birthday gift to us in a total win win for you and us!

We live and do all our service here on Still Mountain on a micro super frugal budget…that covers our basic living and operating expenses, with nothing left over for any gifts or special meals ….and even one yearly subscription of $50 (or a donation of any amount to our non profit “Inner Resource Institute) would give us enough to help us celebrate this auspicious week!”

Here are the links to our ultra safe donation site… We are asking for donations of any size, even a few dollars makes a massive difference!

DONATION PORTAL to Still Mountain Mediation Center

or use this QR code:

In return, everyone who donates any amount to our cause will receive a generous discount  on tuition to upcoming new programs and courses, plus we will send you our “Meditation Training Intensive” video course ($150 value) as a reward.

Meanwhile, we will continue to keep on working to do everything we can to be a source of inspiration, information and encouragement for you, our friends and family in the “Dawning Light.” 

Thanks again for being here and shining your own light of Love which is needed now more than ever!

Whatever you decide or can do…I appreciate your support and the loving space we share every day….

Our heart ❤️ connection is one of the great treasures of my life!  

Thank you for being on this journey of the heart and spirit with me!

All images in this story courtesy of Pixabay

Calligraphy by Chinmayan

A warm welcome to all of you, whether you are a new subscriber, have stumbled upon us by accident, been referred to us by a friend or are one of our wonderful community of regular readers…

Sign up to join hundreds of folks who receive this newsletter every morning to help jump start their day with a loving and grateful attitude…       

We invite you to browse our library of published stories anytime you need inspiration to shift to a more positive and grateful attitude…here: thedawninglight.substack.com

Climbing Roses and Samadhi Buddha…in our Meditation Garden

                                    STILL MOUNTAIN DHARMA CENTER

                                         INNER RESOURCE INSTITUTE

                        Authentic Meditation Training and Practical Spirituality 

Stay Tuned for upcoming programs and trainings for our subscribers and supporters of “The Dawning Light”…

We are planning to launch our next “Meditation Training Intensive 101” course in the near future. 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.

Meditation Garden at Still Mountain Dharma Center

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.

Samadhi Buddha in our Meditation Garden on Still Mountain

“Your greatest service to humanity is to attain your own Self Realization!” Ramana Maharshi

“When God is the center and focus of my life, everything else falls into it’s rightful place.”

                                                                                          —Chinmayan