HOLIDAY THOUGHTS IN A CHANGING WORLD
We have a huge battle going on between the light and the dark. Dr. Fauci tells us to not have family and friends over who have not been vaccinated and many of our churches are doing virtual services. Yes, its good to be safe and at the same time the framework of our family and religious structures keep being destroyed by a virus that kills very few people and the latest strain may not be worse than a bad cold. Yes, some people are very vulnerable and we all have to take better care, but something is not right when we fear our friends and families and lose the foundations of our heritage. Luckily, many brave people are venturing out yet the Netherlands is going on lock-down into Jan. 14th and Austria is threatening people with jail if they are not vaccinated by Feb. Yet governments continue to ignore or support other therapeutic treatments and more and more research is coming out around them. Enough with Covid. We are all tired of it. I think people are conscious and not stupid and they know what their own bodies need to heal and stay healthy.
I do think that this Pandemic is forcing us to re-valuate what is important in our lives. Here are some of my thoughts:
1) We are here to enjoy and not work ourselves into our grave. The economy and the material realm of cravings push us to give up precious relationship time with friends and family. Older people who are getting ready to pass often are asked what they regret and it was that they worked too much and did not spend enough time with their family.
2) We are here not to repeat the same mistakes of the past. I am often reminded of my favorite movie, Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray. Are we going to endlessly make the same mistakes and wake up in the same bad dream that we are stuck in or are we going to make new choices and wake-up reborn, with a new life of joy and enthusiasm? If we have bad relationship karma, are we going to accept responsibility for what we do wrong and do it better this time?
3) We have to be conscious and not make the same mistakes which mean choosing kindness and compassion over blaming and fault-finding and complaining. If you are not willing to fix it and do something about it, you have not right to endlessly complain about it.
4) We have to exercise ethical judgment. In an age of Rahu where cheating and corruption and swindling are the norm, we have to strive to do the right thing even when it’s not easy. I miss those stories on the news where people find lost money and find a way to track it back to the owner and give it back.
5) We have to find Jupiter and defeat Rahu and not accept corruption in government as the norm. We have to return to teaching moral values at home and in the classroom and not let our kids get corrupted by violence and celebration of evil that has become the norm on television. Time to turn off your television, let your kid play only playground games with other kids, keep them away from violent video games, cell phones, and return to old-fashioned values.
6) We need to return to simple, taking care of people, sharing, and not spend our time hiding in our addictions, numbing out to violent television, and find time to make a difference in other’s life.
7) We are here to practice kindness and compassion. I am reminded of a wonderful story from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross who interview someone who experienced dying and then came back and was revived on the operating table. She remembers having her whole life flashed and reviewed before her as she ascended but she was only shown the times when she practiced unconditional love and kindness. She remembered helping a girl in a wheelchair at an overnight camp and keeping her company when everyone went off on a camping trip and her sacrifice and love was a good reminder.
All of these require making major changes, choosing new patterns, and creating new pathways in our life. It can be done but it takes a conscious effort and an active choice. We have to be alert and awake to do it.
We are here on this planet, to give and to love and to share, and to help others. We are not here in the Age of Rahu to accumulate as many new gadgets as we can, waste or life numbing our to our emotional pain and harming anyone or anything or spending our time denouncing others or demonizing others who do not share our viewpoint.
A little yoga, meditation, conscious awareness, and mindful action and can make a difference. Find time to change
I love this wonderful message from Yogananda about the Birth of Christ at Christmas and it reminds me of the need for rebirth at this time of year. Whatever religion you are connected to, the importance of rebirth of our inner Divinity is important at this time of year when the nights are very long and the Sun takes a longer-time to emerge in the morning.
Paramahansa Yogananda:
Every day, every hour, every golden second, Christ has been knocking… Now, in this august sacred dawn, Christ is especially coming in answer to your inner call, to awaken his Christ Consciousness Omnipresence within you.
This Christ of Everywhere is sleeping in the breast of Eternity; He loves to take new birth at any time, anywhere, especially in the warmth of your true affection. Though the Infinite Christ is present in every speck of space as the splendor of ever new wisdom and creative expression, you can never see Him unless He chooses to be seen in the cradle of your unceasing devotion. The cozy crib of your heart has for a very long time been small, holding self-love alone; now you must make it enormous, so that social, national, international, and Cosmic Christ-love may be born there and become One Love.
The Infinite Christ is everywhere; worship His nativity in Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Moslem, Jewish, and other true religious temples. Every expression of Truth flows from the All-pervading Christ perception, so learn to worship that sacred Universal Intelligence in every pure religion, belief, and teaching. Since the Cosmic Christ dreamed into existence the divine being that is man, you should celebrate the birth of Christ in your newly awakened equal love for every nationality and race.
From “A Cradle for the Christ of Everywhere” in The Second Coming of Christ
(Special thanks to Juliana Swanson for sharing this wonderful quote.)
