Friday, February 6, 2009

Being at peace, content with Now

Book Study Notes:"If you are not in the state of acceptance, enjoyment or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.
Whatever you cannot enjoy doing, you can least accept that this is what you have to do. Acceptance means: For now, this is what the situation, this moment, requires me to do, so I do it willingly. That peace is a subtle energy vibration which then flows into what you do. If you can neither enjoy nor bring acceptance to what you do—stop. Otherwise you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, thus, you are not taking responsibility for life.
The peace that comes with surrendered actions turns to a sense of aliveness when you actually enjoy what you are doing. Enjoyment is the beginning to enjoy what you are doing now.
Make a list of a number of everyday routine activities that you may consider uninteresting, tedious, irritating, boring or stressful. This is a spiritual practice that will bring empowerment and creative expansion into your life. Then, whenever you are engaged in those activities, let them be a vehicle for alertness. You will find that what you do in such a state of heightened awareness, instead of being stressful or tedious, or irritating is actually becoming enjoyable. “I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath moves though. Listen to the music.” Hafiz
Enthusiasm means there is a deep enjoyment in what you do plus the added element of a goal or a vision that you work toward. You will feel like an arrow that is moving toward the target—and enjoying the journey. The word enthusiasm comes from ancheint Greek—en and theos, meaning God. The word enthousiazein means “to be possessed by a God.” "Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sustained enthusiasm brings into existence a wave of creative energy, and all you have to do then is “ride the wave”. Enthusiasm brings an enormous empowerment into what you do, so that all those who have not accessed that power would look upon “your” achievements in awe and may equate them with who you are. You, however, know the truth that Jesus pointed to when he said, “I can of my own self do nothing.” Chapter 10