"Sharing" - Affirmations For Self-Healing

An affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his life. We are what we think. For our minds express, and also influence, the reality of what we are far more than our bodies do. Our thoughts even influence, to a great extent, our physical health.

Thoughts are things. Words, which are crystallized thoughts, have immeasurable power, especially when we speak them with concentration. So many of our failures in life – to master new languages, to get along with others, to do well whatever we want to do – are due to the simple thought that what we want to accomplish is alien to us.

The difficulty is that our habits are buried in the subconscious mind. Thus, even when we resolve to change them, we find ourselves being drawn back repeatedly, and quite against our conscious will, into old ways. By repeated affirmation you can strengthen your awareness of any quality you want to develop.

Transcript

Welcome friends to our discussion from Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda and our topic today is Sharing.

Let us read what Swami Kriyanandaji says about this topic.

He writes,

True happiness is found not in possessions,

But in sharing what one has with others.

Thus is one's self-identity expanded as he learns to live in and enjoy a greater reality.

People who gladly share with others feel themselves bathed by a constant inner stream of happiness.

Sharing is the doorway through which the soul escapes the prison of self-preoccupation.

It is one of the clearest paths to God.

Swamiji puts it so beautifully.

It is one of the clearest paths to God and aren't we seeking a clear path to God my friends.

So let's see,

Let's explore some of the thoughts that Swamiji has shared with us.

You know I come from before I was serving my Guru full time here at Ananda Delhi.

I come from a startup background in technology and as I was getting into that ecosystem you might say there are some ideas,

Some principles which pervade the business world which are not necessarily dharmic or spiritual and one of the main principles that people usually follow is if you don't work hard enough someone else will and everywhere you go people are asking you what is your competitive advantage,

How are you better than others,

You know how can you guarantee that you can steal the market share from this company or that company and while all that may be valid in the context of business it does not teach us the true value of sharing.

Very few companies embody this principle of sharing and therefore this attitude percolates in the culture of many organizations where the organization of course is fighting for itself in the market but the employees within the organization are also fighting amongst themselves trying to keep what is theirs protected from everyone else and not sharing it with others and we feel that it is wise even to try to protect ourselves as much as we can from other people,

Our time,

Our possessions,

Our money,

Our relationships and so on and so forth but it was a huge contrast for me when I came to Ananda and where people are naturally giving,

Everyone is a meditator and they are on the spiritual path and to sustain ourselves as a work,

As an organization,

As a spiritual movement we have to work,

We have to serve,

We have to earn money also to provide for the needs of the work but all the businesses,

All the projects that we have at Ananda are based you can say on the value of sharing,

The value of sharing your time with others,

Your friendship,

Your money and many other things.

I remember that Ananda Sangha when it was in the US you know the devotees had opened a bookstore which was I believe the East West Bookstore and there the bookstore as you can probably guess after ebooks and kindles and whatnot the bookstores all across the nation took a big hit over the years but this bookstore was really doing well and the reason was that everyone all the staff in the bookstore would treat the customers as their friend you know they wouldn't see the customers as a means of attaining money or as an opportunity to sell as much product as they can but they were really concerned for their well-being and that is what attracts people when we share with others what we have,

We attract prosperity ourselves,

We attract the right opportunity.

All of us to be happy we seek self-expansion,

We seek an expansion of our awareness of our consciousness but we seek that self-expansion through outward means,

Through possessions,

Through getting a bigger house,

Getting a bigger car,

Accumulating more money,

Traveling to new places,

Meeting more and more new people and while that satisfies us temporarily,

We are always seeking the next thing,

We are never satisfied because a true expansion of consciousness can never be achieved outwardly.

In education for life which is a philosophy Swami Kriyananda developed on the basis of Paramahansa Yogananda's principles for education,

He gives us a principle of happiness and he says happiness increases in direct proportion to the expansion of empathy and in inverse proportion to the contractive density of self-affirmation.

I'll say that again,

Happiness increases in direct proportion to the expansion of empathy and in inverse proportion to the contractive density of self-affirmation.

That seems like a very complex definition in the sort of words that are being used but there is a deep deep philosophical truth in the statement and what Swamiji is basically saying is the more we think about others,

The more we get rid of the thought of ourselves,

The happier we feel and it seems counterintuitive but anyone who has contributed to charity,

Anyone who has done volunteer work,

Anyone who has children or has cared for some family member or a friend selflessly knows the kind of joy that Swamiji is mentioning.

If you have children or if you have friends who have children,

You would see that the entire reality of the parents is centered around the child and they are never thinking in terms of what they have to do,

The work that they have to do,

When will they sleep,

When will they eat,

They are always thinking of the child first and that is why mothers feel and also fathers feel so much happiness in caring for the child because in that care,

In that love,

The thought of our own self goes away and when that thought of our own selves goes away,

We feel an expansion of our awareness,

Our empathies and therefore that gives us happiness.

You know a lot of the times in every situation,

If you monitor yourself,

You will see that you are always thinking of your own likes and dislikes,

Of what you want,

Of how you would want the world to be different but the moment the thought of the self is gone,

All the likes and dislikes and the stresses and the anxieties go away with it because Yoganandaji said the ego is the linchpin,

The ego is the center,

The cause of all our suffering and when the ego is removed which is to say when the thought of a separate identity is removed,

Then we experience true joy and that is the opportunity that sharing gives us and that is why Swamiji writes sharing is one of the clearest paths to God.

So let's put that into practice friends.

Why don't we take a minute,

You could pause the video or you can do this after the video,

Let's take a few minutes to think how we can share something with others selflessly today.

It could be our time,

It could be our money,

Our possessions or just praying for others and sending them good energy but whatever it is,

Think every day to share something with others.

All of our projects and businesses that we do at Ananda also put these principles into practice and whether it's energy wise,

Time wise or money wise,

A very good practice to help us develop an attitude of sharing is tithing.

Tithing simply means donating 10 percent of whatever income you receive back to the source of your inspiration and that could be a spiritual path,

That could be any social organization.

Wherever you receive inspiration from,

You tithe back to the source as a way of saying that whatever you have accomplished has been possible through the grace of God or through the inspiration that you have received from a certain source and when you give back to the source,

When you share with others what you have,

It creates a cycle of prosperity,

It keeps the money moving and money is nothing but energy.

Swami Kriyananda ji often said that first of course money is nothing but energy and if you try to hold energy,

If you try to hold it for yourself,

Then it blocks the flow of energy.

Think of a flowing river,

Right?

A river is fresh,

Vibrant,

It's flowing but if you think of a stagnant pond which has the water in the pond has been stagnant for months and months,

It grows green,

It grows stale,

The water is dirty and so it's the same concept with our energy,

Our resources,

Our money.

The more we share,

The more we open ourselves to a flow of more abundance and the more we contract,

The more we hoard our possessions,

Our time,

Our money,

The more we block the flow of prosperity,

Of happiness.

So if we let the flow going,

Then we find as Swamiji says,

People who gladly share with others feel themselves bathed by a constant inner stream of happiness and we don't want to block that stream of happiness by trying to keep what is ours for ourselves.

Yogananda ji said that God did not give us the resources that we have to just keep them for ourselves,

He has given these resources to us so that we may share with others and he said especially those who have the good karma to have more money,

To be wealthy and successful in this life must share their wealth with others for the welfare of others.

So let us all find a way to put this principle into practice in our daily lives,

Let us all try to be more expansive,

Let us all try to escape as Swamiji says,

The prison of self-preoccupation and the more we do that,

The more we find that the universe takes care of us in unimaginable ways because we are acting as a channel of generosity,

Of love,

Of sharing for all our human brothers and sisters.

So let us practice the affirmation that Swamiji has given to us for sharing,

Let's sit up straight,

Focus our gaze and awareness at the spiritual eye and let's affirm together first out loud with a lot of energy what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine I am happy in the happiness of all now in a softer voice what I give to others I give not away I am happy in the happiness of all now in a softer voice what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine I am happy in the happiness of all now in a whisper taking it deep into the subconscious mind what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine I am happy in the happiness of all what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine I am happy in the happiness of all now repeat these words mentally only as I say them out loud for you gaze deeply also at the spiritual eye and let these words sink into the superconscious mind what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine I am happy in the happiness of all what I give to others I give not away for in my larger reality it remains ever mine I am happy in the happiness of all let's offer this silent prayer together oh infinite giver teach me to find happiness through others oh infinite giver teach me to find happiness through others om shanti shanti shanti thank you for joining friends may you find your self-identity increasing through sharing and ultimately leading you to the goal of self-realization joy to you