Day by Day, Thing by Thing (3)

★The Cause of a Lack of Love

People who keep demanding of others, “There’s not enough love,” may be overlooking something important.

Do you see it?

That’s right: before demanding it of others, they themselves don’t love themselves.

So before anyone else, embrace your own heart and fill it with love.

★How to See Yourself

When people look honestly at their own hearts, they can see all kinds of consciousness lying there, good and bad, sad and joyful, all mixed together, right?

If you divide them broadly, you can see them as two hearts: waves of thought destined to fade away, and consciousness that keeps shining for all eternity.

People who don’t see themselves this way when they look at themselves end up with a view of the self in which good and bad are mixed together, and can’t accurately perceive the whole of their heart, so be careful.

★A Recommendation for Slow, Relaxed Breathing

Many people who tend to be held back by negative habits of thought have their memory ruled by patterns of reaction carried over from past lives, and can’t express the radiance of life as it should be.

Such people’s thoughts go back and forth between despair, regret, hope, and expectation, dizzying and restless.

It’s exactly such people who would do well to keep their breathing slow and relaxed.

As your breath grows longer, your consciousness settles without your knowing it, and before you have time to think about what to do or not do, you find yourself changed.

Seen from the point that the evolution of consciousness is possible without stirring up will-power, there’s no more efficient or simple method than this. So don’t work your calculations and judgments this way and that; just entrust your heart and body to the sound of your own unhurried breathing.

You can surely change.

★Gratitude to Life

If you truly wish for the evolution of consciousness, live offering heartfelt gratitude to “the source of the power of life” that keeps you alive, and to your body (all your physical cells) that lets you work in the physical world.

Because whether or not you have that attitude makes a world of difference in how much your consciousness evolves (deepens, becomes divine).

★The Conditions of a Great Person

The physical human body stops growing once it reaches a certain height and weight, but the growth of the heart has no end, however fine you become.

Because the real thing is that the moment you think you’ve become fine, an even deeper state comes into view.

So if, when you think you’ve become fine, you can think, “I’ve reached the supreme state, with nothing beyond,” that’s what monks of old called a “demonic realm,” a mental state that calls for caution, so correct your course.

Because the minimum condition for someone to be a truly great person is that the greater they become, the more humble they become, and the more they can properly listen to others’ advice.

★Know How Life Works and Live Brightly

It’s okay to think, “It hurts.”

It’s okay to think, “It’s hard.”

But at all times, live believing in the perfection of life.

The light of life that keeps you alive never gives you difficulties you can’t overcome.

To reveal the secret, a Deity assigned just to you, called your Guardian Spirit, guides your destiny for the good twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, without ever sleeping. And behind that, your Guardian Deity, the outward working of your inner divinity, watches over you, and when the Guardian Spirit’s power alone isn’t enough, it radiates powerful light of life to support you.

So you don’t have to think, “I’m living all alone.”

Because believing that is what tends to give rise to suffering.