Dear Renunciate brothers and sisters,
Here we come to the second point:
- They are without anger. (Anger appears in the heart when one’s desires are thwarted.)
I do not believe there is anyone who is not or has never been touched by this corrosive emotion, and who has not experienced its devastating consequences. For us renunciates, it is essential to “give up” this emotion, because it destroys our inner peace and keeps us from our true reality: union with God.
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Swami Kriyananda – Affirmations for Self-Healing
Acceptance
One of the most difficult lessons in life is to learn to accept things as they are. How much energy we waste in trying to wish away the inevitable! “If only this hadn’t happened!” “If only we had reached there in time!” The “if only’s” and “might have been’s” in life keep us from dealing realistically with what is.
Acceptance comes from knowing that reality lies within ourselves, and that all else is a dream. Acceptance of that one reality makes everything else acceptable. Instead of learning to come to grips with a thousand individual challenges, therefore, make the supreme effort to accept God unconditionally into your heart. Accept all that comes in life as coming from His hands. He will give you what is best for you, if you live for Him alone.
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P.Yogananda – Metaphysical Meditations, 1932 Edition
I make up my mind never again to wear anger on my face. I will never inject the poison of anger in the heart of my peace and thus kill my spiritual life.
I will be angry only with anger and with nothing else.
I cannot be angry with anyone because the good and the bad both are divine brethren, born of my one divine Father.
I will calm the anger of others by the good example of my tranquillity, especially when I see my brothers suffering from the delirium of anger.
Teach me not to kindle anger and thus devastate the green oasis of peace within me and in others with the conflagration of wrath. Teach me rather to extinguish anger with the torrents of my unceasing love.
Heavenly Father, command the lake of my kindness ever to remain undisturbed by the storms of misery making anger.
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Letter from Tyagi Vinaya
Tonight, before writing these lines, I was looking for a notebook in which to write down my ideas, when, “by chance,” I found my notes on spiritual counselling. The notebook opened to this sentence by Swami Kriyananda:
“I accept with calm impartiality whatever comes my way. Free in my heart, I am not conditioned by any external circumstance.”
Wow, I thought to myself, this is exactly what I was looking for!
I started thinking and asking, how many times have we really accepted what was happening to us as a manifestation of God, sent to us for our growth? Maybe not so many.
And how many times, on the other hand, have we gotten angry because such an obstacle was preventing us from achieving the goal we had set for ourselves? Perhaps even many times.
If we could keep ourselves from getting caught up in circumstances and people, we would be able to accept what happens as a precious pearl that God has sent us to evolve in our spiritual progress.
When we happen to experience this emotion, let us open our hearts to God, and offer ourselves as His channels even in these situations, without having any expectations. I have experienced that these are the best ways to overcome any obstacle.
Let us think that this particular situation is just a gift from God to help us on our way to Him.
Practicing Divine Love makes it impossible to feel anger and it will become easy to accept that whatever happens, it is right to let it happen.
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Testimony of Pilgrim Antony:
The vow I recently took calls me to consider anger as a feeling to be embraced, but also to be considered limiting, extremely limiting to my path of spiritual refinement. In fact, having God in my heart I believe also means believing in change. It means, tendentially, not to make what you desire happen, but to desire what happens. Active acceptance and gratitude, are signs of a true choice toward the Light.