Monday: Yogananda tells us, “Think of God always.” At one level, he is telling us to stay awake, to be consciously focused. Such focus is crucial because what we concentrate on concentrates on us; whatever we attend to attends to us; whatever we gaze into gazes into us.
Tuesday: Did you ever notice where thoughts come from? Of course, some thoughts are merely recycled thoughts which possess no freshness or power. Then there are those thoughts that come to us seemingly out of nowhere that hit us like a bolt of lightning. These thoughts can either be dark and troubling or profoundly illuminating and enjoyable.
Wednesday: When Jesus told us, “Pick up your cross and follow me” he was not encouraging us to walk a masochistic path. Whenever we can avoid unnecessary suffering, we should do so. However, some suffering is absolutely unavoidable, and if we do not courageously embrace it, it can break us, causing us to become cynical, despondent, or nihilistic. When we courageously embrace unavoidable suffering, it has a way of expanding and divinizing us.
Thursday: Perhaps Jesus was thinking of play when he told us that we “…must become like children if we want to enter the Kingdom of God.” Children inherently know how to play for hours and hours at a time. As we age, we humans tend to forget the joy of play. What are we to do?
Friday: In case you have not noticed, life is becoming increasingly complex. The more complex life becomes, the more we should strive for simplicity. The goal of the spiritual life is to become increasingly simple as we focus on one unifying purpose: to become love by loving God, who is love. All worthwhile accomplishments arise from the realization of the reality of love.
To see the complete passages from this week, click here.
