Self-Effort, Too, Is Needed
What is it to Make Peace
Reading and Affirmation for July
From the book The Beatitudes: Their Inner Meaning by Swami Kriyananda
Self-Effort, Too, Is Needed
Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.
The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.
These past weeks we discussed the need for balancing self-effort with receptivity to divine grace. Both are important in the spiritual life. Passive dependence on grace hasn’t the magnetism to attract grace. Boastful self-confidence, however, which closes itself off from the higher, divine power is shallow, brittle, and – given life’s many uncertainties – susceptible to ultimate failure.
There is a story in the Bible that illustrates the need to put forth personal effort so as to draw magnetically on the divine power. The story occurs in the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 8:
But as he went, the crowds nearly suffocated him. Among them was a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years and who had derived no benefit from anybody’s treatment. She came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. As a result, her hemorrhage stopped immediately.
“Who was it who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When everybody denied it, Peter remonstrated,
“Master, the crowds are all round, pressing you on every side!”
But Jesus said, “Somebody touched me. I felt power going out from me.”
When the woman realized that she had not escaped notice, she came forward trembling and fell at his feet, and admitted before everyone why she had touched him, adding that she had been instantaneously cured.
“Daughter,” Jesus said, “It is by your faith that you have been healed. Go in peace.”
Self-confidence and self-effort are necessary, as the ignition of a car is necessary to the motor. Of what use the ignition, however, if the motor itself will not work? Wise is he who recognizes the real power in the universe, and guides his life by that supreme power. As it says in the Bhagavad Gita, the ninth Chapter:
To those who meditate on Me as their Very Own, ever united to Me by incessant worship, I make good their deficiencies, and render permanent their gains.
Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.
Whispers From Eternity
55. I want to build a Rainbow-Bridge of Self-Realization
The gulf of ages lay between Thee and me, widening as the waters of my oblivion of Thee grew through centuries.
I stand on this rocky shore of matter, gazing out over the gulf, hoping to see, beyond, Thy smooth shores of peace. My inner thought-architects will build for me a bridge of constant remembrance of Thee. The strong, mental girders of self-control, now, are being riveted together.
My dreams of Thee gather to make a rainbow-bridge of Self-realization over which, very soon, I will reach Thy shore.
Paramhansa Yogananda
Inspiration from the Rays of One Light
Daughter,” Jesus said, “It is by your faith that you have been healed. Go in peace.”
Luke 8:48
We will take these meaningful words into our meditation together for deep reflection and contemplation. But firstly, we will listen to the beautiful Psalm of David, sung by Mary Kretzmann.
Psalm of David
Listen to the Psalm of David
Reflect, Meditate and Listen to Instrumental Music
Reflection from the Rays of the One Light
Peace Sangha
This week, I was inspired by the words from Luke 8:48
Daughter,” Jesus said, “It is by your faith that you have been healed. Go in peace.”
Here is a poem I created called “When Peace Became Her Name”.
When Peace Became Her Name
Faith became her quiet bridge
That no one could see
Between her heart, his and the Divine
A crossing she dared to take
Not noticing God’s love was already moving toward her
He restored her identity
Calling her in the silence
Back into the truth of who she is
He lifted her out of despair and isolation
And placed her back with her true holy family
Her faith opened the gate
And His grace carried the water
She needed to heal herself
His healing a living river
Flowing within her
He released her from
Her health scare
Every sorrow
Ever pain
Every fear
Every shadow
Every nightmare
And every repetitive untold story
Haunted by the past
That clung to her every step
Peace became her new garment
Peace became her new direction
Peace became her new name
Strengthened by her willingness
She dared to be different
She lived to see his Divine light
Aum Peace Amen
