The Engine That Powers Your Own Life — Grace
There’s a four-part engine that powers your own life.
And it’s so old that some make fun of it today. But the power it can generate will dwarf even these hurricanes that can temporarily disrupt out lives.
What you saw recently in the aftermath of natural disasters is the power of this engine. It brought out all of these elements in people whose physical lives had been hugely disrupted. It even forced the media to quit being snarky all the time and get back to reporting actual news. Many people were awed by the changes around them — not the storm, but the people.
This is the best of people, qualities that are always there. Somewhere. Down deep. And those qualities have long searched for in all the long ages past. But they have been here all the time…
I can explain it to you simply in four words. Of course, the first thing you think of when you hear these phrases is the sweet little old ladies who sing in a country church choir.
And some of my big-city friends scoff at this, calling it “woo-woo.” (No, I haven’t a clue how that became word. Sounds scatalogical, if you ask me.)
I digress, though.
All of these elements add up to living in a state of grace. I never thought I’d see the day when I can explain the basic tenets of all religions, even the ones that get hijacked every now and then by truly destructive people. You go back into the teachings of Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, and even Moses and those who lived before where there was no written language and they are known by verbal legend only. They all talk about these. They try to explain it. And I got inspired this morning to take my crack at it:
All of these elements can be individually generated. So you can cause yourself a state of grace anytime you want it to be there. Of course, it takes quite a bit of practice. But once you know them all, you can keep them on the fingers of one hand and remind yourself.
Joy. Your emotions have been trained in, but that training can be let go. You can start smiling at anyone, anything, and change how you feel about life. You can be happy any time you want. The old phrase is “Start smiling and you’ll soon file something to smile about.” William James talked about this in the 1800’s, where the action creates the feeling, the emotion. And explains why openhanded helping feels so good. Good things happen when you cause yourself a joyful feeling. Practice and learn to live in Joy.
Peace. Another state you can create in yourself. Some of the oldest practices tell you to “seek the silence daily.” This is really learning to calm the body and calm the mind (usually in that order.) After a bit of practice with this, you can find yourself almost instantly able to be at peace in almost any surroundings. Because you know what it feels like and can experience that feeling at will. You’ll also find this by going to a remote resort where the only real entertainment is walking along the beach, or hiking in the forests. Leave your smartphone turned off. You’ll only need it for emergencies and taking pictures of incredible scenery anyway. After about three days, a remarkable feeling of peace enters again. All our distractions seem to hold this away. Peace is also internally generated and you can experience this any time you want, with a little practice. Learn to live in Peace.
Harmony. And this is probably the feeling people get when they all sing together that way. It comes from the way you treat others. Because it’s been said that you teach others how to treat you by the way you treat them. This is the “Golden Rule” and all its variations. This, too, is in all our religious scriptures of all the major religions in one form or another. You can live in harmony, again, by practicing this. Watch your own actions, your own statements. Practice saying or doing things that reflect how you would want to be treated. Instead of repeating gossip, or criticizing someone, make your phrases constructive and supporting. Help people around you to do better, be more efficient, be more creative and pro-active. Then you’ll find more harmony in your own life. Turn off the TV news and programs with advertising that are disharmonious. Read books which leave you feeling more in harmony with the world around you. Eventually, you’ll learn the discipline of harmony. It feels peaceful, joyous — but we’ll get to that.
Bliss. This is the reason you are here. There are actions you take that make you feel good consistently. Look over what you are doing, what you like to do, what you’d do for a living even if you didn’t get paid for it. That might take some deep looking, but you’ll see a pattern after awhile. You want to fill up your life with the actions and efforts that fill this pattern. It may be serving others in some valuable capacity. Joseph Campbell talked about this at length, and is in the fourth chapter/episode of that great PBS documentary and book about him. Learn to live in bliss. You’ll always find a way to be remunerated for following your bliss, as long as what you are doing is valuable to someone else. And you won’t have to be “salesy” or “persuasive” to get that payout. Again, there’s a feeling with this that you’ll begin to recognize in yourself. Learn to follow your bliss.
You take these four points and they add up to Grace: Joy, Peace, Harmony, Bliss. All are self-generated. All will improve your life, health, and longevity. It’s even been known and observed by Scientists, that people who are constantly in a state of grace (although they won’t call it that) don’t have the joint pains, chronic indigestion, ill health, and all sorts of upsets, infections, and illness in their lives. Studies of the longest-lived people show they live very simple lives of grace.
Hopefully, with this understanding, we can have more of these. Life can be joyous. Everyone can live in Peace, Harmoniously. Everyone can follow their bliss.
And if something like 3 percent of the world actively worked at this, then the world would change. Peace would break out all over. The “news” we get now would be devoted to helping people improve their lives, and would be repeating only helpful tips for them to live in harmony with their friends, family, associates, and the world at large. Advertising would be something that was interesting, informative, entertaining. (Everything it isn’t today.)
All this takes practice. You get rewarded beyond any money when you do. Because money can’t buy any of these. You have to earn them for yourself, by yourself.
The benefits are enormous when you do.
Try these today. One at a time. Test them for yourself. See if I’m speaking truth here.
And — good luck with this.
Originally published at Living Sensical Success Campus.