Body-Mind-Spirit - Part 4

EVERY DAY EVERY HOUR, is a golden opportunity to become a better instrument of God; it is a life-long process. Therefore, every time one practices, one has to devote and surrender oneself to the Will of the Supreme.
An athlete practices seriously for three or four months, and then during the competition he has to show his capacity. If he does poorly, he may think, "Oh, I made such sacrifices for so many months. Now what a deplorable result!" But it was not a sacrifice. He was only giving for a period of time, and now he is receiving the result in the form of an experience. The seeker who recognises his inner oneness with the rest of the world will not feel sad and miserable if he does poorly. Only he will say, "I did what I could during my practice, and now the result I am taking as an experience. Whether I was first, last or in between, the result has been given to me by my Lord Supreme as an experience."

This kind of experience - both success and failure - is absolutely necessary for everybody in every walk of life. From the spiritual point of view, we say there is no such thing as sacrifice when there is a feeling of oneness. The husband is offering something to the wife, or vice versa. On the strength of his oneness, the husband is doing something for his wife, and on the strength of her oneness, the wife is doing something for her husband. So here there is no sacrifice. I pick up a fruit with my left hand and put it into my right hand, and then with my right hand I eat it. My left hand comes to my right hand, and my right hand comes to my mouth; it is all oneness.

But if you want to separate the different parts of my being, you can say that the left hand made a tremendous sacrifice when it gave the fruit to the right hand, and that the right hand made a tremendous sacrifice when it put the fruit into my mouth. If there is a sense of separativity, there is always sacrifice; otherwise, it is all oneness, all oneness. It is all part of God's Cosmic Game that I do this and you do that. There is no I, there is no you, there is no winner or loser. It is all one reality, a oneness-reality.

A WINNING ATTITUDE, from the spiritual point of view, is a self-giving attitude. If you have a sincere self-giving attitude, then you are more than ready to conquer your own ignorance. In ordinary human life we try to win by defeating others. In the spiritual life we try to win by conquering the unaspiring and the undivine in ourselves. The winning attitude is our eagerness to conquer the qualities that are not willing to progress or that are trying to destroy us.

IF ONE IS A SEEKER-ATHLETE, then before he runs or jumps, before he enters into physical activities, he should offer a few moments of gratitude to his Inner Pilot for inspiring him to become an athlete. An athlete is he who runs, who values time, who values speed and who believes in a goal that ever moves forward. There are millions and billions of people on earth who are not athletes, but he already is an athlete. So if he can offer his gratitude for that, then he increases his receptivity-power.
If he increases his receptivity-power, then he automatically increases his athletic capacity. For it is receptivity that increases capacity. The moment he increases his receptivity, he is blessed with more capacity, abundant capacity, boundless capacity. And to increase his receptivity there is only one way: to offer his gratitude-heart for what he has already become.

THERE IS A GREAT DIFFERENCE between psychic concentration and physical or vital concentration. Psychic concentration is really difficult - much more difficult than physical or vital concentration. It is like the elder brother. But the younger brother can definitely help the elder brother. The concentration-power that you learn from athletics will definitely add to your psychic concentration.

And if someone has psychic concentration as well as physical concentration, vital concentration and mental concentration, then that person can easily be a great champion in the athletic world as well as in the spiritual world.

BEFORE RUNNING, MEDITATION is good to make the mind calm and quiet so that wrong forces do not enter. When you meditate, your mind acquires some poise. Then, while you are running, if you can bring forward this poise, it will help you overcome the mental frustration that often comes while running long distances. When you are running long distances, all kinds of frustrating thoughts will come and make you feel that what you are doing is useless. Or the mind will say, "Oh, this is boring," and you will not want to take one more step. But if you were able to meditate earlier in the day, then you will have acquired some solid inner strength that will carry you mile after mile. Also, meditation teaches you how to empty your mind of thoughts. And if you can keep thoughts out of your mind while you are running, it will help you tremendously - far beyond your imagination. At that time a new creation will be able to dawn inside you, and this will give you added inspiration and receptivity.

THERE IS ONLY ONE limit: how much God wants to reveal Himself through each individual. The only limit is God's Will. God waits and waits and waits. Then, if He sees that somebody is receptive or that somebody has worked very hard, He may do something through that individual.

AS A RUNNER I AM USELESS, but right at the beginning I try to become an instrument and make myself feel that somebody else, my Beloved Supreme, is running in and through me. Right at the beginning of the race I offer my gratitude-heart to the Supreme, and at the end, after I finish the race, I also offer my gratitude. If I can offer my soulful gratitude to my Inner Pilot before the race and after the race also, then there can be no frustration, no decline of aspiration. The aspiration and power of concentration will remain the same throughout the race.

I ENCOURAGE AND INSPIRE my students to organise and participate in triathlons, long-distance races and short-distance races precisely because I feel that the world needs dynamism. The outer world needs dynamism and the inner world needs peace. We are all seekers; so we pray and meditate in order to have peace. Again, we feel that if we can be dynamic, then we will be able to accomplish much in our outer life. To be dynamic we need physical fitness at every moment, and running helps us considerably to keep physically fit.

Body-Mind-Spirit - Part 3

Body-Mind-Spirit - Part 5

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