TYS April Newsletter

WELCOME APRIL.

In loving memory of Rumi

Musing of the Month

It is important to realize that renouncing things will not help you. Action will help, but not renunciation. If you know how to do your work skillfully, it will help you make spiritual progress, but if you renounce something because you are afraid of it or are no good at it, then that renunciation is not helpful. It may even create further trouble for you because you will still remember what you have given up.

You do not have to ignore your duties to become enlightened; you do not need to change your external circumstances. What you need is to transform your personality. You need to transform yourself, from morning until evening, without disturbing your duties. If you sit down quietly for meditation but ignore your duties, you may actually hurt someone. Students who are not skilled on the path often annoy or harm others. This is an ego problem.

So, how do you work with yourself without neglecting your duties? You can do this by building your willpower. You should develop 30 goals for 30 days and pick one goal for each day. Practice this yourself; it is a simple thing. These should be small goals but things you work on steadily. For example, you may decide that today, you will not lie. That does not mean that you will redouble your lies tomorrow, but rather that today, your whole thinking process is about this: that you will not lie. You never claim that you will be able to speak the total truth; you simply decide that you are not going to consciously lie.

When you decide, "I will not lie," suddenly, many occasions will present themselves when you could lie. This happens because you are trying to conquer your nature, the part of your nature that your actions have built unconsciously for a long time. All your actions in life have unconscious results. It is as if you are digging a hole and, therefore, making a heap of dirt somewhere else. And suddenly, when you stop digging the hole, you discover that you have created both a heap and a hole.

Then, the next day, you may resolve, "I will not be unkind to anyone." As soon as you decide to do that, you will find that everything challenging will come to you. The day you resolve, "I will love everyone and not hate anyone today," you will find that all your enemies are coming to you. They come via telephone calls or letters—or you may hear someone talking about you. Once, when I was young, this happened to me, and I became very upset. Someone had written something nasty to me, and my master noticed and asked me what had happened. He used to tell me I was like mercury, so he called me "Thermometer." He said, "Thermometer, what has happened?"

I said, "Look at this nasty letter." He replied, "Do you want to become more nasty yourself by replying to it in a nasty way? That is not how to deal with it; read that letter six times, and eventually, you will not find anything nasty in it." And that happened. I read, reread, and reread the letter again. My master told me not to reply immediately, so I waited, and then six days later, I responded to it calmly.

How kind, tolerant, and gentle are you with others? The more you start to become enlightened, the more gentle you are. Then all things are shown to you, and all things will be known by you through your gentleness. Such gentleness is not a weakness; it is the greatest strength, for love is the strongest thing that you have. Tolerance, kindness, forgiveness, and love—these four make up what we call gentleness. If you are gentle, then you are very strong.

If you adopt 30 points to work on for 30 days, mark them on your calendar and do not tell anyone what you are doing. Watch the calendar and see what you have accomplished in 30 days. The point is not whether you have lied or not lied; it is that you have built your willpower. This is the real process of building willpower. After 30 days, you will conclude, "Yes, I have done what I wanted to do." But do not choose big principles that you cannot fulfill—that is destructive. Instead, select little things.

For example, if you decide that for one day you will speak very little—only that which is accurate, purposeful, and non-hurting—you may continue to talk to people, but in setting this goal, you will build your willpower. After you develop willpower, you will have greater self-confidence. And when you have greater self-confidence, you can do anything!

The Art of Joyful Living

HH Sri Swami Rama

Self-Study

This practice has been great to visit and revisit on my spiritual journey. Now, let's go on to self-study and an exercise cultivating your willpower. First, think of willpower as a muscle. If you want strong legs, you must do things to strengthen them, and the same is true for willpower; if you want firm resolve and determination, you must build it. It may feel too much to not lie for a day or speak very little; you may want to start on a more gross level. If you do, there is a practice for you below, and the same questions can apply to the more challenging tasks such as speaking little, not gossiping, etc. If we can't trust ourselves in little things, we will never be able to trust ourselves in big things. It is better to start small and build that willpower muscle than to have grand plans and feel defeated and useless, as that only weakens your muscle of willpower. Remember, if you begin by condemning yourself, you are depleting half of your energy before you start. If you criticize yourself during your exercise, you have set yourself up for failure. We are constantly self-sabotaging ourselves with no awareness of it; perhaps this exercise will give you that awareness, and you can work on changing that samskara.

Here is an asana exercise to help you grow your willpower. Commit yourself to doing one challenging pose for seven days and hold it for 30 seconds. Notice what happens to your mind once you commit to this practice for seven days.

Are there times when you don't want to do the practice? What is the story you tell yourself to keep from practicing?
What is your narrative of opposition?
What is your narrative that surfaces the day you are unable or did not practice for the day?
Notice how you relate to you and how much compassion you have for yourself.
How much self-loathing do you have for yourself?
Which is the strongest in your mind, your compassion or self-loathing?

Benevolence Corner

Soup On Wheels

TYS has frozen homemade vegan soup in the freezer. As a part of our outreach, if you need a meal or know someone who does because of illness, surgery, death of a loved one, financial problems, divorce, or anyone who requires a little extra TLC, TYS is here for you. If you know anyone who needs a meal, let us know at info@tysdayton.com

TYS Peanut Butter Drive

We delivered the peanut butter to House of Bread before their yearly Easter Meal. Our goal was 30 jars, and we surpassed that by collecting 88 jars. Thank you to everyone who contributed and made this drive a huge success.

Find out more about The House of Bread HERE.

A Goodbye to Rumi

This past Sunday, TYS lost one of our own. Rumi, aka Sweetness, unexpectedly passed away after having a wonderful Easter Sunday at home with his loving family.

Rumi loved to sing with his brothers, ride in his buggy, eat gouda cheese and get all the butt scratches he could from anyone willing to give them. We all adored him and his sweet personality. If you looked into his big, dark eyes you couldn't help but fall in love!

We will miss him dearly 💗

"The death of the body is not the end of the soul. The Self is unchangeable... [Death] is just a turning, a change of clothing. So grieve, but not for too long."

~Swami Rama // Sacred Journey

Reflections with Kali

The past few weeks have been challenging, and I have been forced to do a lot of self-study. Sometimes, I wish someone would just tell me the answer to my life’s conundrums, but it appears that in this tradition, we are trained to become self-reliant! What a challenge that can prove to be. Alternatively, I have learned that all the answers are already within. However, we must quiet the mind to hear the whispers. Intuition is a whisper; Swamiji wrote, “Love is whisper divine”. It reminds me of the Bible verse, “Be still and know that I am God.” True stillness isn’t outside; it can only come from within.

Organizing the inner world is even more important than organizing the outer world; when the inner world is organized, the state of the external world will not affect you, and you can navigate life gracefully. These situations are humbling reminders of how far I have yet to go, but I try to shift my viewpoint to reminding myself these moments are EGOs - evolutionary growth opportunities. If I do my self studying earnestly and move forward with the knowledge gained from doing so, then I can work on moving into new phases of life with more grace, and by surrendering it to God, I can learn to become fearless…even if I only progress by one-tenth of an inch.