The Spirituality Blog

Thoughts from James Clear   Yoga teacher and spiritual leader Sadhguru on the miracles of daily life: "Every moment there are a million miracles happening around you: a flower blossoming, a bird tweeting, a bee humming, a raindrop falling, a snowflake wafting along the clear evening air. There is magic everywhere. If you learn how to live it, life is nothing short of a daily miracle." Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy ​ ​ ​ ​   Philosopher and author Arthur Schopenhauer on the importance of reflection and contemplation rather than mere reading and research: “You may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power." Source: Essays and Aphorisms (Hat tip to Nat Eliason )   

  The Lord Almighty is present everywhere and in all objects in the universe. Is it enough if one worships Him as being resident in an idol? A: While it is important for many of us to resort to an external object such as an idol or a photograph to help us visualise the Lord in our prayers, the ultimate visualisation that we need is to feel His presence in our heart. The Upanishat illustrates the example of a person trying to wake up a sleeping person by talking to the sleeping person, singing his praises, etc. None of this is enough to wake the person who is sound asleep. Yet, when the person physically shakes the sleeping man, he wakes up. The Lord’s presence in one’s heart is symbolically suggested by this episode. The message here is that praying internally, by visualising the Lord as resident in one’s own heart, is much superior to praying by visualising the Lord in external objects such as idols. Another important message from this is that one should realise the presence of the