Loving Oneself
by Isha
excerpted from Why Walk When You Can Fly?
Once there was a donkey who lived on a Colombian coffee farm. He
worked hard every day, helping the farmer carry his produce. One day
the donkey slipped on a loose stone and fell into a deep pit. The
farmer and his workers gathered around the hole and were surprised
to
see that the donkey had survived the fall. However, the pit was so
deep and its sides were so steep and unstable that none of the men
dared climb in to save him. They decided to leave him there to
die.
As they walked away, the donkey's frantic braying was too much for
them to bear, and they decided to end his misery. They began
throwing
earth into the pit to bury him. When the donkey saw the earth
falling
in on top of him, he shuffled about a little, stamping it into the
ground. The farmers continued to shovel, and the donkey continued
stamping the earth down beneath him. Bit by bit, the earth beneath
the
donkey's hooves began piling up, inching him closer and closer to
the
mouth of the pit. After a while, the farmer and his men realized
what
the clever little donkey was doing, and they began shoveling faster
and faster - now not to bury him but to help him rise up and out of
the hole. As the earth piled up, filling the hole, the donkey rose
to
the surface.
Whether we suffer depends not on our surroundings but on our
perception. The donkey chose to embrace what was happening and use
what appeared to be a cruel act of destruction in order to free
himself from the pit. It is a choice we make in every moment. What
are
you choosing in this moment?
We have so many ideas of how things need to look, and we suffer
whenever things are not the way we think they should be. We are so
attached to receiving the approval and support of everyone around
us,
so dependent on the way they behave, that when they change, we
suffer.
If you are desperate for love from the outside world, give it to
yourself. If you experience anxiety or neediness in any of your
personal relationships - or perhaps because you lack a particular
kind
of relationship - or if you need someone to change in order to feel
happy, you need to go inward and love yourself. Speak your truth,
but
then come back to yourself, always. It's never about changing the
outside.
Until we take responsibility for our own happiness - until we
realize
that we and we alone are accountable for our satisfaction - we will
remain dissatisfied.
In every moment, you have the power to reinvent yourself. You can
choose to be whatever you want to be. That's the wonderful thing
about
being human - we have a choice, and we can change. We can change to
be
more love, more freedom, to let go of our limitations, to start
living
in the moment - to start new habits that don't cause us to
suffer.
True consciousness takes responsibility. It doesn't perceive the
world
as something separate from itself. It takes responsibility because
it
knows that it is the world.
If I'm always criticizing myself, if I'm always comparing and
complaining, if I'm not just being the brilliance of who I am, then
who is responsible? I am. Everyone is unique and perfect and
brilliant, but you have to find that brilliance by polishing your
facets. It's your choice, no one else's. "I choose to be the
greatness
of who I am, and I can do that. I can't be someone else - I can be
the
greatness of who I am, and that's great enough." In fact, it's
the
greatest thing there is, because once you find that, there's no
comparison, no jealousy, no insecurity; there's just love. Then you
can extend that to every part of your creation, and you can
surrender
and embrace your world with joy. You'll find joy, because you're not
comparing; you're just enjoying the variance of your beautiful
creation.
Isha is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher and the
creator
of the Isha System, explained in its entirety in her new book, Why
Walk When You Can Fly? Its simple tools dramatically alter our
perception, eliminating fear-based patterns and grounding our
awareness in the experience of unconditional love. Originally from
Australia, Isha inspires people from all walks of life by speaking
in
international forums, high security prisons, with senators,
ex-guerrilla soldiers, bishops and actors. For more information,
visit
www.isha.com
|
Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:19 pm
Judy Correll <spirit@...>
whitebearsin...
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