Practice with a fresh attitude. Meditate upon your chosen object of meditation, not on your son
or your daughter, your spouse, your money, your position, your ego trips, your possessions,
your proprietorships or any kind of aggrandizement or gratification.

(Page 6 of 7)

HOW TO MEET SOMEONE YOU HAVE HAD DIFFICULTIES WITH as if you are meeting him or her for the first time? Don’t assume that she is still like this, though if she gives you a reason, you have every freedom to again pull apart. If you say, “Any time I touch this person, it is just poison for me,” that may be true but you do not want to keep the person in that identity for all time. “Oh, I have tried for ten years.” Yes, I have tried too and it has not proven otherwise for me either. But what I do is see a person as if for the first time today. Let him or her have a legitimate chance to prove otherwise. This is opening your eyes. Your wife, your husband, your child, your money, your position, your house, your swami, your anything—when you see them, when you relate to them, do it for their sake, not for your sake. Love your child for your child’s sake. I assure you that 99.9% love their child for their sake, not for the child’s sake. It looks as if you are doing for your child’s sake, but if your child begins to behave not according to your way—”better he was not born!”
      Whenever your selfishness is not fulfilled, at that time you defend yourself. There are famous examples in the life of Jesus. Peter was very devoted and faithful as long as his selfishness was not trampled upon—”He’s the Son of God, the only One, never born before, never to be born again. He’s our everything.” As soon as his selfishness was not served—”I don’t know Him.” In the same way, you love your Master for your sake— exceptions apart and those are Enlightened souls. We pray to God, we meditate.

 

Do you know you meditate for your sake, not for God’s sake? If you had, you would have become Realized. Then life is a perennial joy— anytime, anywhere, anything—without exception. It is not only joyful but a thing of beauty, peace and love. When everything in life is refreshed and renewed every moment—that is the sacrament of the moment. 
      When you are meditating, meditate on God, not for you. Otherwise, in spite of practicing meditation your attachments will blind you: “My son is the most special one in the whole world . . . ” And then when things go not according to your liking you say, “Life is not refreshing. It’s dull. It’s painful.” How else can it be? You have to open the portals of the brain, of your consciousness. Because normally we do everything for myself—self here meaning ego. Even that could be agreed upon as long as you do not complain, grumble, feel icky, lost, missing or any of these things. I am not excluding any area of life, mundane to spiritual.
      You can make the best of each episode if you drop the “me” first. So when you meditate, meditate for Him, not for you. Therefore the scriptures say, “Thou art That”; “Me and my Father in heaven are one.” Live for God’s sake, not “me’s” sake. Otherwise you may be meditating for thirty years with no results. When you go to a church or temple or an ashram, go for His sake. Go for Christ’s sake. Go for Krishna’s sake. That will be a renewed, refreshed outlook: as if you are one with the sunshine when you are looking at it; as if you are one with the tree you are looking at.

 



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