Ask For What You REALLY Want
I want to tell you two stories.
The first is taken from the childhood of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, who came to the USA and formed the Self Realization Fellowship in California, which has helped many spiritual seekers, including the Beatles, myself and many others.
Yogananda was trained in the Kriya Yoga lineage of Indian enlightened masters like Mahavatar Babaji, Shri Yukteswar Giri and Lahiri Mahasaya.
In this story from his childhood, Yogananda recalled that his family had moved to Lahore in the Punjab.
He acquired a picture of the Divine Mother, in the form of the Goddess Kali, and often reflected about how much the Divine Mother loved us all unconditionally, and wished to give us EVERYTHING.
Standing one day on the balcony of their house with Uma, his sister, Yogananda saw two kites flying over the roofs of the buildings on the opposite side of the very narrow lane.
"Why are you so quiet?" Uma asked playfully.
"I am just thinking about how wonderful it is that the Divine Mother gives me whatever I ask." Yogananda said.
"I suppose She would give you those two kites!" Uma laughed derisively.
"Why not?" said Yogananda and began silent prayers for the possession of the kites.
Kids in India play games of combat, with kites whose strings are covered with glue and shards of glass.
Each player attempts to sever the string of his opponent and to release the kite.
A freed kite sails over the rooftops, and the neighborhood kids have great fun trying to catch it.
Because Yogananda and Uma stood on a recessed balcony, it seemed impossible that any loosed kite would come into their hands; the string would naturally dangle over the roofs instead.
The players across the lane began their contest.
One string was cut, and immediately the kite floated in Yogananda's direction.
It was stationary for a moment, and in that moment, the breeze abated, which was enough to entangle the string with a cactus plant on top of the opposite house.
A perfect loop was formed and Yogananda reached out and handed the prized kite to Uma.
"It was just an extraordinary accident, and not an answer to your prayer. If the other kite comes to you, then I shall believe."
Uma's dark eyes conveyed more amazement than her words.
Yogananda continued his prayers with a crescendo in intensity.
A forcible tug by the other player resulted in the abrupt loss of his kite. It headed toward Yogananda, dancing in the wind.
The helpful assistant, the cactus plant, again secured the kite string with the necessary loop by which Yogananda could grasp it, and he presented his second trophy to Uma.
"Indeed, Divine Mother listens to you!
This is all too uncanny for me!," said Uma, and bolted away like a frightened fawn.
The second story is a story that happened to me just a few weeks ago, while we were still in our house in New Zealand.
In our rural part of NZ, we do not have trash collection.
We have to bring the trash over to the local refuse center, and pay for its disposal by the bag.
Each week we collect the garbage from our kitchen, all the toilet rooms, our office and from my art studio, and we drive to the refuse center to dispose of it.
I was in the back garden weeding some dry, thorny thistle when I remembered that it was Thursday, and the refuse center would be open that day.
Thistle can grow to over six feet tall, and it has leafy thorns that are as sharp as knives.
The plant seeds itself a bit like a dandelion, which becomes a puffball full of seeds that floats in the breeze.
I took a break and sat on the lounge chair on our patio.
I was thinking about the story of Yogananda and the kites, when I saw a thistle seed glide towards me in the breeze.
A thought came to my mind that I should make sure to catch it and dispose of it, so it would not seed itself in the front garden.
I started asking for it to come to me.
I did not do it as a form of test, to see IF the Divine Mother loves me as much as She loves Yogananda, but from an inner assurance that I KNOW that She does, and that She wants me to have everything I wish for.
I even extended my hand with my palm up, asking for it to land on my hand.
The thistle seed stopped midair as if hesitating and unsure of how to proceed....
It continued its flight towards me and then stopped, bounced backwards, changed its direction, and flew a few yards sideways, and then to my utter amazement, it descended in a sharp vertical line straight into the large bag of trash that I had left open by the door.
A feeling of awe and delight came over me.
"Aha... This is what I had REALLY wanted..." I thought to myself.
It did not have to land on my hand so I would crumple it and then deposit if in the trash, instead it did what I had really wanted but did not ask for... Which was for it to be in the trash....period.
That night, I reflected on a workshop that I once took about manifesting what we REALLY want.
So many people ask for money, unaware of what it is they REALLY want and need.
In that workshop, we were asked to write on a piece of paper anonymously, what it was we wanted to manifest in our lives.
One of the requests was for a BMW convertible.
The facilitator told us to ask ourselves, what it is that we REALLY want, when we ask for a BMW.
We want to be reminded daily as we enter our vehicle that we deserve luxury, aesthetics and comfort.
We want to be admired by others for having good taste and enough money, and to state to the Universe that we enjoy having nice things.
We want not to worry about our old car breaking down all the time, and we want to feel inner satisfaction, for manifesting abundance in our lives.
All this we hoped to get from a BMW.... But we are putting the wrong details BEFORE this goal.
Wouldn't a new Mercedes do all this?
Wouldn't a new Audi do all this?
Wouldn't a new Range Rover do all this?
Wouldn't a new Jaguar do all this?
Wouldn't a new Porsche do all this?
Wouldn't a new Lamborghini do all this?
Wouldn't a new Alfa Romeo do all this?
Wouldn't a new Lexus or an Infinity do all this?
And why NEW? The list of antique luxury cars is also endless.
We were told that instead of insisting on a specific form to manifest,
we must focus on the FEELINGS of what it was we wanted to have in our lives.
The facilitator suggested that we treat our old car as IF IT WERE a real luxury car.
He suggested that we give it a name, shine and clean it, service it regularly and treat it with a lot of respect.
If you ever saw how badly poor people treat their cars, you would know what I mean.
They slam the rusty doors, curse the car for being a piece of junk and blame it for its ugliness.
No wonder it breaks down so often!
At that time, I had no money for a luxury car.
I drove a used Pontiac Sunbird convertible.
I had bought it for just $5000, but after the workshop, I started cleaning it until its red color shone like candy.
I polished the interiors until they glowed, and I replaced the worn-out convertible roof with a shiny new ragtop.
The car looked and felt like a beautiful, classic car.
Whenever I drove it to the beach in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, wearing nothing but sunglasses and my bikini, the whole road, including the policemen, hooted and whistled: "You Go, Girl!"
Later in life, I did have my share of owning many brands of luxury cars, until finally, I outgrew this desire completely.
Nowadays I drive an old but perfectly running jeep that I service regularly, and that drives wonderfully for us in all sorts of weather.
In our part of rural Colorado, nobody but real estate agents drive luxury cars.
Even the wealthiest among us drive one form or another of high suspension vehicles, mostly pickups or SUVs.
With muddy, gravel roads, the question is:
"Do you want to pay a high price and high insurance rates and constantly wait for your mud-caked Mercedes to be washed, or do you want to pay less money, less for insurance, worry less about daily washing, and not feel shitty every time gravel stones chip away at your car's new paint?..."
My hairdresser in Colorado (Veronica), also cuts the hair of some of the pilots who fly the private jets of some of Aspen's wealthiest people.
These pilots complained that their clients rarely flew to Paris or Italy to fancy hotels for lavish vacations, that instead they were always ferrying the most wealthy to camp in rural Patagonia, to hike Mount Everest or to some other rural and rustic parts of the earth.
When Veronica's sister got married, she flew to the beaches of Puerto Rico with all her family.
While sipping cocktails at the beach, enjoying seeing her kids playing by the ocean, she thought to herself: "I could get used to this millionaire's lifestyle."
Then she quickly reminded herself that the multimillionaires she know, did not bake at the seaside, sipping cocktails, but are more likely sweating on top of a mountain trail, or sleeping in rural huts in inaccessible parts of the earth...
And to do all this, you really need very little money.
We do not ask for what we truly want.
We ask for money to buy a new mattress when what we REALLY want is a GOOD night's sleep.
We ask for medicine when what we really want is to be perfectly healthy and to understand how not to be vulnerable to every new disease.
We ask for safety when what we really want is to celebrate and to fully experience life.
We ask for earthly comfort when what we really want is Self Awareness and realization of our true nature, and to know the Divine Comforter within...
The Divine Comforter within, is the inner guide that was assigned especially for us, to help us become fully realized enlightened Beings in this lifetime.
I often think about the mechanics of HOW the spiritual Masters were able to manifest delicious food already on plates, directly from the Universal, and about HOW Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves of bread directly from the Universal?....
They did not pray, asking for money, and then proceed to the bakery to buy bread, perhaps even wake up the baker and beg that he would sell them bread, and then bring the bread back to share it with the masses.
They asked for what they really wanted, and they got it.
In the same way, we must not ask for the means to the means to the end.
Like the masters, we must ask for what it is we TRULLY want, the essence behind what it is we want in our lives.
So many people in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and China, leave the green countryside in order to work in dingy and soul crushing factories, just to have enough money to educate their kids and to support their families.
They think that a "secure job" will provide them with all this.
What ends up happening is that they work in dark and dingy factories, spend their days sewing sneakers or shoes, and never have time to enjoy or even raise their children, who grow up feeling empty, lost and afraid to become factory ants like their parents.
They need to ask for a fulfilling and abundant life right in the countryside.
They need to ask for a wholesome life surrounded by Nature, to enjoy the fresh air and clean water, to live a simple but happy life with their children and community, growing their own vegetables and fruit, selling cooked food like noodles or dumplings or their garden produce at the local markets, where they can meet their neighbors, sing, fall in love, share stories and care for each other's children and respect the elderly.
Instead, they buy field crickets in tiny bamboo cages to hang in the corners of their tiny dingy factory rooms, while they work in "secure jobs" that suck the joy out of their divine lives.
We often ask for one thing, when what we really want has nothing to do with what we have asked for.
We ask for boats when what we want are days full of fun and pleasure.
We pray for a "miracle drug" for an assortment of terminal illnesses, when what we REALLY want is to understand how to create good health, to be perfectly healthy again.
We ask for money to buy dentures when what we REALLY want is for a new and healthy set of teeth to grow in our mouths.
We ask for gadgets to help the blind, when what we should be asking for is for their eyesight to be restored.
We ask for new technology to help amputees function better, when what they REALLY want is for their own legs to grow back.
Paraplegic people ask for money for a gadget equipped van and a driver so they can move around, when what they REALLY want is to be able to walk again.
As a divine child of Life, YOU ARE ENTITLED to miracles!
A miracle is a change in perception to correct the errors in your mind, from a belief system based on fear, to a belief system based on LOVE.
For most of your life, you thought that you were a body, a physical body that is subject to many dangers, like accidents, loss of limbs, terminal illnesses, the passing of time, aging, death, loss of strength, bad teeth and the many monetary and psychological dangers that a singular, isolated body might encounter during life on earth.
By believing that you are a body, you are actually saying that you believe that you are separated from Nature by an armor made of bones, blood and skin, that operates somehow individually and separately from LIFE ITSELF.
This mistaken belief in our separation from Life has given birth to an ego identity that is composed of your body, your mind, your identity, your thoughts, your beliefs, your past memories, your hopes, your dreams and everything else that you believed to be yourself.
The totality of this ego identity has instilled in our minds a belief system and a way of seeing and experiencing the world that is based on fear.
If you are your body, you MUST be vulnerable, fragile and in need of constant protection.
If you are a body, you must be subject to the cruel hand of time that will no doubt age you, deplete your bones, weaken your mind, and hasten you quickly towards the grave.
If you are a body, there is nothing you can do that will make you truly happy and safe on this earth.
A car can hit you as you cross the street, a plane can crash or an earthquake can claim your life, your lover can leave you and even skiing down a mountain in an upscale ski resort can end up deadly, if you ski into a tree.
Luckily, you are NOT A BODY.
Your body is a thin veil of illusions, of separation that your ego has woven around a GLORIOUS, LUMINOUS, divine Being of LIGHT, LOVE and supreme intelligence, who is one with the very essence of LIFE that permeates every nook and cranny of this glorious Universe.
You can NEVER be separated from LIFE!
The mistaken belief in 'sin,'
The belief in cause and effect,
The belief that every action MUST have consequences,
IS THE EXACT reason that we do not regrow a withered arm,
Regrow a new set of healthy straight teeth
or regain our perfect eyesight.
We believe we have "damaged" the body by our actions, and thus we do not believe that we "deserve" renewal and a fresh start.
In effect, what we say is:
"If this person did not eat SO much, she wouldn't be fat!"
Or:
"If she did not eat so much sugar, pretzels, bread and pasta, she wouldn't have developed diabetes."
We hold ourselves and others prisoners to our beliefs in the "laws of nutrition," the "laws of medicine," the "law of cause and effect."
You are under NO LAWS BUT GOD'S LAW!
Of course you want to respect and obey the laws of the country in which you live, and to respect all other human laws, but what I am saying is that you are NOT under the 'laws of nutrition,' the 'laws of medicine,' the 'laws of economics'.....
There is a higher law of LOVE, of LIGHT, of possibilities, of potential that is full of compassion that you cannot change by your earthly actions.
You are a beloved child of Life!
You are Spirit, eternal, unchanging, perfect and complete, and you deserve to be here!
Even in this world, you must look at yourself with compassion and ask with love and compassion in your heart:
Does a beloved child of life "deserve" diabetes, because she felt lonely and unhappy and wanted some sweetness in her life, so she ate too much ice cream?
Does a beloved child of Life "deserve" AIDS, because he wanted some excitement and sex with others?
Does a beloved child of Life "deserve" bankruptcy or financial collapse, because she wanted to live in a nice house, and she stretched a little farther than she later found she could afford?
What kind of God would punish His children for wanting a bit of abundance, a nice house, some sex or love, some comfort, some luxury, some financial security and a little bit of richness in their lives?
Surely not the God of Love, but only a god of vengeance, insanity and hatred who is so stern and unloving....
This god is NOT REAL.
It is the god of your own imagination who was created by your own fears, and this god lives only in your OWN nightmares.
It is the god of anger who holds children prisoners to the belief in sin, in cause and effect and in action and reaction.
Give up believing in this imaginary god!
There is a loving, kind, God of LIFE Who holds the planets and the stars in orbit, and who lovingly pumps the blood of even the worst 'sinner' among us.
It is the God of endless compassion Who loves His children, and She is never judging, never condemning, never even seeing you through the eyes of illusions.
Let the Divine Mother renew your body and allow miracles into your own life....
You deserve it!
You cannot really sin except in your own imagination.
The mistakes you make, do not have to crash you to the floor...
Mistakes do not have to have terrible consequences, and accidents do not have to be painful nor deadly.
Mistakes can be made and then quickly recognized, can drop away to make room for compassion and love.
REAL Life is so forgiving and so kind.....
It is only in your unforgiving mind that the Universe is a harsh place.
Do you understand how ingenious the human design truly is?.....
It was conceived in SPIRIT, with great intentions in mind.
We believe that the physical body is breakable, and that our senses are very limited.
Our senses are actually very sophisticated tools which were designed to allow us to sense, rejoice, experience and delight in this magnificent universe.
Do you know that it is possible for you to heal ALL the broken down systems in your body?
Do you know that it is possible for you to hear thousands of sounds usually inaudible to the human ear, like the song of the hummingbird, the sounds made by a newly-hatched robin, the hidden notes of a field cricket that can sing at fifteen thousand vibrations a second, and many other musical sounds far above the range of the common human ear?....
Do you know that it is within your capacity to feel, control, and send out inaudible sounds that are capable of producing emotional feelings such as love, peace, harmony, and perfection that can benefit the whole world?.....
Do you know that it is within your capacity to feel vibrations and feelings of abundance and great joy, that can be amplified and sent out to surround and interpenetrate all of humanity to such an extent, that if accepted, each person in the human family may have them?....
As it is, even without your conscious awareness, you are already amplifying and sending out vibrations into the world.
It is possible to refine your emanations, to think thoughts of love, light and clarity, which humanity is so much in need of.
It is possible to focus your good intentions into a crystallized form that will vibrate inside and around you.
People's vibrations will be elevated as you walk among them, and their desire for healing and wholeness will be accomplished as well.
The vast sea of Life is a creative, unlimited, ever moving space that is full of vibrating, emanating energy.
This emanating energy is known as "Aqueous Substance" or "Cosmic Substance," in which all elements in existence are in soluble form, suspended in harmonious relation, ready to respond to the call of the vibratory rate that will allow them to coalesce into form.
As a Co-Creator and Divine Child of Life, you pull from this Aqueous Substance what you wish to manifest in your life.
It is awaiting your intentions and command, to coalesce into form.
This is how Jesus manifested food from the infinite and how one day you too, will see miracles happening - first inside you, and later on, all around you....
