- learn how to offer and receive praise
spiritually
- discover opportunities to feel gratitude
Praise
“This is brilliant work, Jess. I have marked you one of the top of the class,
well done!”
Jessie had worked very hard on her assignment. For days she had been anxiously
and studiously labouring over it. Now her lecturer was praising her effort. She
looked down at the ground, scuffing her feet, and allowing herself a small
half-smile, she only just stuttered, “Well, I know if I had of put a bit more
time into it, and I didn’t have problems with my computer, then it would’ve been
much better.”
The lecturer caught the mood. “Well Jess, you know you are often late and your
next assignment is due in a couple of weeks, maybe with a bit more application
you can iron out those wrinkles.” She looked away and sighed as she felt the
anxiety that had fleetingly left her beginning to weigh heavily on her again as
she pondered the magnitude of this next task.
How many of us respond to praise in this way? And again, how many of us offer
praise in this way? Praise is one of the most misunderstood energies available
to us. Received correctly, it offers us the opportunity to very quickly and
easily connect to the natural flow of the universe, tuning directly to the will
of our soul, incorrectly, however, and it as though we are walking right past
the beauty of a sunrise, distracted by the worries of an overdue electricity
bill.
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to
be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is
inconceivable.-Joseph Addison
Put
very simply, the gift of offering praise and appreciation is the opportunity to offer another
person reinforcement, encouragement, even empowerment. From the spiritual point
of view, in this place we call heaven, there is a constant empowering energy
that is being offered at every moment by the universe, it is for us to become
conscious of it to feel ourselves truly in heaven. Praise and appreciation are insights to this
energy. When we can offer our praise in the purest way, we will feel no sense of
ego or separativity, but a real sense of oneness and joy in the synchronicity of
our endeavours. We will offer praise with the humblest joy of being surpassed if
necessary, feeling our delight in the oneness we experience with the person we
are praising.
To receive praise is also an art.
The highest receiver of praise simply connects humbly to the universal
empowering energy, realizing that in the best sense of the term, all we ever do
as members
of the community
of heaven is channel the empowering energies that flow all around us. We can no
more claim
that the ego has performed an action, than we can claim to control forever our
life-breath.
Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone - G. B. Stern
Imagine what might have happened if Jess had realized that the praise she was
being offered was an incredibly powerful empowering energy that she could
utilize to advance her progress through the ‘success spiral’ (see
class 5). Instead of kicking the floor and diverting the empowerment
being offered to another perceived deficiency, she might have opened herself
valiantly to her real nature and received the vigour and determination she
needed to effortlessly perform her next action, with the self-belief and
confidence to breeze through. Instead she felt only fear and dread.
In offering praise, Jess’s lecturer first effort was fine, but perhaps if he had
realized the opportunity he had to really empower Jess, he might have tried to
much more insistently praise Jess. He might not have offered his criticism until
another occasion, when he was sure that it was absolutely constructive to do so and
that Jess had solidly received the praise he wanted to offer. Importantly, the
lecturer actually offered praise - often we put off praise until it is
forgotten. Don’t waste an opportunity to empower - it is a gift.
There is a delicate balance with all of this. Sometimes praise can be discerned
as being offered from such a haughty egoic height, that it is perceived in a
condescending manner. This will only occur when the offerer or the receiver is
caught with the feeling that it is their ego that is doing the action. This must
be strongly guarded against, by humbly realizing that this is heavenly energy we
receive and offer, we do so by simply channelling - not through any sense of
ownership.
"Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without
forgetting."
Gratitude
The great masters have always talked about gratitude as the great opener of the
heart. That by offering gratitude we actually increase the heart’s receptivity.
What a wonderful opportunity we have with such a simple dynamic as a ‘thank
you’.
In fact, the same
force we connect with in the flow of offering and receiving praise is utilized
in the spiritual
offering of gratitude, only much more consciously. Real spiritual gratitude is
not about bowing and scraping before a great ogre of a master or God in case he
gets angry and punishes us on some inconceivable whim. Real gratitude is simply
an awareness of the force and all that it flows through. We merely give thanks
to the empowering energy that is at every moment gracefully consenting to
energize, inspire and uplift our lives in this magnificent heaven.
Try it! How simple a little exercise, but you will be forever changed
by it, if you can just suspend your disbelief long enough to do it’s little
work.
If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will
discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that
nurtures the soul. - Rabbi Harold Kushner
What I would like you to do for 5 minutes every day this week, is write down
seven things you are grateful for this day. They might be as simple as ‘a great
pizza in front of the television’ or as esoteric as ‘the rising sun and the
newness and beauty it offered,’ it does not matter, just write them down.
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be
enough. - Meister Eckhardt
As
the week progresses, work more and more on trying to connect with that
empowering force that vibrates through the universe eternally. You will find it
potent the more you feel gratitude not as something that finds its source in
you, but as a component of the force itself. A component of love itself. This is
important, the more you explore praise and gratitude, the more you will realize
that their gifts are in the flow of universal love that pulses through the
heartbeat of every soul on this earth, and just like a river we cannot own any
element of it, we can only witness in awe its majesty. Practice this endlessly
and you will find yourself solidly conscious of the heaven in this moment, now.
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but
rejoices for those which he has. - Epictetus
More Quotes...
Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfilment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~
Nothing in your life is beyond redemption.- Sting
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another. - Charles
Dickens
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. - Willie
Nelson
It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment. - Naomi
Williams
You cannot do a
kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late. - Ralph
Waldo
Emerson
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest
appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. - John Fitzgerald
Kennedy
A mantra is a word or a phrase that is repeated over and over as a means of
achieving focus and concentration for deep meditation.
The failsafe method of meditation is with mantras. No matter how much trouble
you are having concentrating or getting time, a mantric meditation will always
get you meditating quickly. It is also the easiest. You can use mantras during
the day at any time (not necessarily out loud) to get centred. For example, at work,
you
might be sitting in a boring meeting & chanting quietly helps to remember
your
life’s goals (and keeps you awake).
AUM is the most powerful mantra. It is able to reveal all the qualities of the
soul. But choose a mantra you would like to use. Repeat it out loud or to
yourself. Feel that the source of the mantra is in the deepest, inmost recesses
of your heart and that you have to really focus, really concentrate to open the
floodgates of that quality. Use the flow of your breath if you like to create
the rhythm of the flow of energy.
For this exercise, please try three different mantras.
In actual
classes we give people the opportunity to vote for the mantras they like
the best. Invariably 'Peace', 'Love' and 'AUM' are the most popular - so let's
try them. For each of these mantras i would like you to feel that you are not
creating the quality but rather that the quality exists in infinite measure
within you and all you are doing is allowing it to be channelled into your
consciousness. For example, let's try 'peace'.
Please close your eyes and imagine a fountain of peace is flowing from the
inmost recesses of your heart. You might visualise it is a light or even a
rainbow that is shining from deep within and flowing out into every atom of your
being. With each repetition of 'Peace' feel that flow of energy. Try and
remember that this flow is not your possession - it is the channelling of the
infinite peace that is the nature of the kingdom of heaven and rises from within
each of us.
Repeat the mantra out loud for 2-4 minutes then for the same time to yourself.
Take a moment or two to contemplate what you have felt at the end of each
mantric exercise.
Repeat the process with the mantra 'love'. You might imagine that your
repetition of the mantra is allowing you to connect to that most powerful
connecting force, love.
Finally with the mantra, AUM, you might simply recall that AUM is said to be the
closest sound to the actual vibration of the soul. That every quality of the
soul is present
in AUM and the wonderful thing is that whatever we need will be presented to us
with the repetition of this most powerful of all mantras. Feel it vibrating from
your soul and transforming every cell of your being.
Summary
During this
eighth class you will have;
practised offering and receiving praise
with your heart
recognized the things you are grateful
for in your life
Put
very simply, the gift of offering praise and appreciation is the opportunity to offer another
person reinforcement,
encouragement, even empowerment. From the spiritual point
of view, in this place we call heaven, there is a constant empowering energy
that is being offered at every moment by the universe, it is for us to become
conscious of it to feel ourselves truly in heaven. Praise and appreciation are insights to this
energy. When we can offer our praise in the purest way, we will feel no sense of
ego or separativity, but a real sense of oneness and joy in the synchronicity of
our endeavours. We will offer praise with the humblest joy of being surpassed if
necessary, feeling our delight in the oneness we experience with the person we
are praising. 
