If you realized how powerful your thoughts are,
you would never think a negative thought. --Peace Pilgrim
The Four Relinquishments
--by Peace
Pilgrim, syndicated from awakin.org, May 04,
2016
Once
you've made the first relinquishment, you have found inner peace because it's
the relinquishment of self-will. You can work on this by refraining from doing
any not-good thing you may be motivated toward, but you never suppress it! If
you are motivated to do or say a mean thing, you can always think of a good
thing. You deliberately turn around and use that same energy to do or say a good
thing instead. It works!
The
second relinquishment is the relinquishment of the feeling of separateness. We
begin feeling very separate and judging everything as it relates to us, as
though we were the center of the universe. Even after we know better
intellectually, we still judge things that way. In reality, of course, we are
all cells in the body of humanity. We are not separate from our fellow humans.
The whole thing is a totality. It's only from that higher viewpoint that you can
know what it is to love your neighbor as yourself. From that higher viewpoint
there becomes just one realistic way to work, and that is for the good of the
whole. As long as you work for your selfish little self, you're just one cell
against all those other cells, and you're way out of harmony. But as soon as you
begin working for the good of the whole, you find yourself in harmony with all
of your fellow human beings. You see, it's the easy, harmonious way to live.
Then
there is the third relinquishment, and that is the relinquishment of all
attachments. Material things must be put into their proper place. They are there
for use. It's all right to use them; that's what they're there for. But when
they've outlived their usefulness, be ready to relinquish them and perhaps pass
them on to someone who does need them. Anything that you cannot relinquish when
it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a
great many of us are possessed by our possessions. We are not free.
[...]
Now
the last: the relinquishment of all negative feelings. I want to mention just
one negative feeling which the nicest people still experience, and that negative
feeling is worry. Worry is not concern which would motivate you to do everything
possible in a situation. Worry is a useless mulling over of things we cannot
change. Let me mention just one technique. Seldom do you worry about the present
moment; it's usually all right. If you worry, you agonize over the past which
you should have forgotten long ago, or you're apprehensive over the future which
hasn't even come yet. We tend to skim right over the present time. Since this is
the only moment that one can live, if you don't live it you never really get
around to living at all. If you do live this present moment, you tend not to
worry. For me, every moment is a new opportunity to be of service.
Syndicated
with permission from Awakin.org
Sourced From www.dailygood.org
