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Enlightenment Journal | Spring 2013
To live wisely, to live with love, to live in Love, in the conscious aware-
ness of our innate wholeness, we must understand grief and know how
to stay spiritually centered when it arrives. The instruction “do not grieve”
does not mean, never feel grief, but rather, do not allow yourself to be
carried away by grief, losing touch with the greater truth of life.
It is possible to experience grief, yet not be overwhelmed by it. How do
we keep our hearts open and not close down to life when it gets difficult?
How do we keep our balance in times of loss and gain, joy and sorrow?
Here are four ways to keep our hearts open in the face of grief:
1. Remember who you are.
Use the power of discernment to see what
this life is. Observe what arises and passes away, and what remains
constant through it all. Recognize that conditions are ever-changing,
but they occur, or arise, on the ground of being—pure existence, which
is unchanging. We are that eternal Spirit which is ever whole and
complete. Nothing can be taken from Spirit or added to it.
2. Turn your attention to the Inner Light, the divine presence within
you, which is your true Self. Focus on that.
Krishna’s last instruction
to Arjuna is: Fix your mind on Me; be devoted to Me, bow down before
Me. You shall attain Me, this I promise you, for you are dear to Me…
come to Me alone for shelter. Do not grieve, for I shall free you from all
errors.
Instead of focusing on sorrow, and turning it over and over in our
minds, we can put our attention on Truth or God, however we think of
God. Turning our attention within may not remove the sorrow, but it
can help us find our way through it and remain open to divine grace.
3. Bless what comes and bless what goes.
When we see the larger true
Life, we come to understand that all of our life’s experiences are ulti-
mately about letting go. Letting go allows us to expand into the fullness
of our spiritual nature, and can support greater love and awareness.