There are many different situations and circumstances that may confront a person during their life, and of those, there will be trials and tribulations, challenges and difficulties, as well as joys, opportunities. You have an opportunity on how you view life and your circumstances.
You can view it as a glass half empty or a glass half full. In the midst of circumstances of life, if you have learned to appreciate what is, you find joy and beauty even in the darkest of circumstances, and you find light and love even in a void situation. For the infinite divinity is always with you.
Love is eternal, immortal. No one can say that you are without love, that you are alone because the force that guides the stars is also guiding you. That infinite creative one is guiding you every moment of the day and the night. You are never alone or helpless. That divinity is omnipresent, everywhere all the time.
It is only forgetfulness that makes you blind to this reality. But, when you take a moment to become conscious, to move out of your conditioned thinking, then is the opportunity to see the divinity all around you, to know divine being as your home, as your shelter, and to realize that there is great beauty and great love in all circumstances.
Even those difficult circumstances in life are an opportunity for teaching to enhance your compassion, to enhance your patience, to enhance your loving-kindness, and to enhance and refine your ability to see divinity in all things.
When you only see the troubles and woes of life and you forget the Divine Light that is the essence of everything that is, your mind becomes dark, and you become sad because you see only those pains in life and you forget to notice the brightness around you.
But if you take a moment to be with yourself, to be alone to meditate and to awaken in yourself knowledge of the Light, the divinity, and the presence of divine being of the beauty of life that surrounds you, then, even those sorrows and trials and tribulations, losses, and griefs of life become secondary to the experience of the bright light of infinite love.
So, even when the heart is despondent, even when there is a difficulty, remember always your divine companion. Remember always that the divine is all around you in all forms in all beings.
So, even when the heart is despondent, even when there is a difficulty, remember always your divine companion. Remember always that the divine is all around you in all forms in all beings.
That there is love that is pure, essential, divine, that makes the sunshine in the sky, the flowers grow in the garden, the fruits and vegetables grow that feed you, the kindest, gentlest thought. Notice the people around you in the stores, in the streets. Notice the needs of others. Have kindness and compassion for living beings and you will find the divine being everywhere.
So, even if the situation is grim, this optimism can be cultivated, and it is based in truth. The grimness is a habit of mind to find what is wrong and to focus on it. It's a survival pattern because on focusing on the trials and tribulations in life you hope that you can fix them. So naturally to survive you have to pay attention to what is wrong and try to fix it. It is a natural part of your survival pattern. It can make the mind sorrowful, and the heart heavy. In those situations, you must find the bright side and resist this tendency of the mind to look upon the dark side and to forget all the good things in your life, all the things that are lovely, that are given to you by the grace of God.
So, take a moment to appreciate the beauty of life, the nearness of the divine, the grace that is given to you every day, and remembering this brightness, bring that light, the joy of what you have, into your life.
You can be the poorest person in the world and be rich, and you can be the richest person living in a mansion and be poor and unhappy and sorrowful, counting all the ills of your life. You can be a simple person who appreciates the flower by the side of the road, the beauty of rain as it cools the earth, the loveliness of the sun and its brightness and warmth, the blessing of good health, and being able to walk and be in nature. Or the blessing of being able to talk to a friend, the blessing of being able to help one who is in need, the blessing of being able to sit and commune with the divine. These are the great things in life, and even the poorest and most downtrodden can feel they are the most blessed if they look upon the bright side of their life.
Know the grace that is showered upon you and feel it. Feel that grace and the God-given beauty of life. So much you have. Appreciate what you have. Appreciate the light, the joy, the presence of the divine - the crickets singing, the bird's song, the leaves rustling in the wind. There is so much beauty in this world.
Let it fill you and balance the fight you must make against adharma and against those things with which you struggle in life. They are not everything. They are but a dream; a struggle in the dream. The truth is always bright. The truth is love divine. That is your home. That is your safe haven. All else is temporal. But as things come and go in life, remember the brightness that surrounds you and the divinity that is all around you and within you showering grace every moment.
In addition to being an author of five books, Maetreyii Ma, also known as Dr. Nolan, is a licensed psychologist with a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology, a teacher of yogic philosophy and ancient wisdom, an ERYT 500 Yoga Teacher, and an ordained yogic minister, or Acharya. Maetreyii Ma is currently the president of Ananda Guru Kula, a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the wisdom teachings of yoga and a psychologist in private practice. She is also the Spiritual Director of Ananda Kamalalaya Ashram, where she offers ongoing training in meditation, yoga philosophy and regular weekly and monthly online events.