Spiritual Practice

[Guest guest]

Spiritual practice, dharma, religion, is not to simply embrace a belief in a

transcendent reality, called God. it is how you live your life, especially

in moments or days of anguish. It is not the words you say, nor the beliefs

you profess to have. It is your awareness, attitude and action in your every

workday encounter with people, obstacles, opportunities and change.

Spiritual practice includes developing an unhurried mind. Jesus never

hurried. He spent 30 years preparing for a three year ministry.

"... come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden... learn from me... I

am meek and gentle in heart..." Matt 11.

To be "meek and gentle in heart" requires an unhurried mind. To "learn" one

must calm the mind.

Sri Krishna told Arjuna in the B. Gita: "He who is not elated by good

fortune or depressed by bad, his mind is established in God and he is free."

An unhurried mind is not an empty mind. It is a controlled mind at times and

at other times it is an imaginative mind. It takes time out from its

"monkiness" and becomes a monk mind, a Christ mind, a Krishna mind, and a

Buddha mind. It is a discerning mind.

Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I never told anyone my religion. I never attempted

to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I have judged

others, their religion by their lives and not by words. It is from our

actions that our religion must be read."

Religion/dharma is not what we say: it is what we do. It is not identified

by a label such as Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Buddha... it is how we

live each day, whether with fortune or misfortune.

Manifest an unhurried mind, a compassionate mind. When selfish desire is

removed we are free to give, free to receive, and free to love.

 

Love, Robert