Asking for What You Want

For the next three weeks, these slots will host material from DailyOM, to complement the Chopra Center Meditation Challenge that kickstarts today.

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Most people don’t always fully realize that we all have within us the ability to cocreate our lives with the universe. So many of us are taught to accept what we are given and not even to dream of anything more. But our hopes and dreams are the universe whispering to us, planting an idea of what’s possible while directing us toward the best use of our gifts. The universe truly wants to give us our hearts’ desires, but we need to be clear about what they are and ask for them.

To ask for something does not mean to beg or plead from a place of lack or unworthiness. It’s like placing an order—we don’t need to beg the salesperson for what we want or prove to them that we deserve to have it. It is their job to give us what we ask for; we only have to tell them what we want. Once we have a clear vision of what we desire, we simply step into the silent realm where all possibilities exist and let our desires be known. Whatever methods we use to become still, it is important that we find the quiet space between our thoughts.

From that still and quiet place, we can announce our intentions to the pure energy of creation. By imagining all the details from every angle, including scent, color, and how it would feel to have it, we design our dreams to our specifications. Similar to dropping a pebble into a pond, the ripples created by our thoughts travel quickly from this place of stillness, echoing out into the world to align and orchestrate all the necessary details to bring our desires into manifestation. Before leaving this wonderful space to come back to the world, release any attachment to the outcome and express gratitude. By doing this daily, we focus our thoughts and our energy while regularly mingling with the essence that makes it possible to build the life of our dreams.

DailyOM

Exercising Flexibility

Flexibility is the capacity to bend without breaking, as well as a continual willingness to change or be changed in order to accommodate new circumstances. People with flexible minds are open to shifting their course when necessary or useful; they are not overly attached to things going the way they had planned. This enables them to take advantage of opportunities that a more rigid person would miss out on. It can also make life a lot more fun. When we are flexible, we allow for situations we could not have planned, and so the world continues to surprise and delight us.

Since reality is in a constant state of flux, it doesn’t make sense to be rigid or to cling to any one idea of what is happening or what is going to happen. We are more in tune with reality when we are flexible. Being in tune enables us to adjust to the external environment and other people as they change and grow. When we are rigid or stuck in our ways, instead of adjusting to the world around us we hunker down, clinging to a concept of reality rather than reality itself. When we do this, we cut ourselves off from life, and we miss out on valuable opportunities, as well as a lot of joy.

Just as we create flexibility in our bodies by stretching physically, we can create limberness in our minds by stretching mentally. Every day we have the opportunity to exercise our flexibility. We can do this in small ways such as taking a different route home from work or changing our exercise routine. On a larger scale, we can rearrange the furniture or redo a room in our house. If these are things we already do regularly, we can stretch our minds by imagining several different possibilities for how the next year will unfold. As we do this, our minds become more supple and open, and when changes come our way, we are able to accommodate and flow with the new reality.

DailyOM

Reinvent Yourself Through Yoga

What does it take to reinvent yourself? Perhaps a better question to start with is, why would you even want to? Sure, maybe you wouldn’t mind shedding a few pounds. Perhaps a bit less stress would be nice too … and no doubt you’d be happy to have a little more free time in your life. But these things surely don’t require a complete personal overhaul, do they?

Nobody is perfect. The main point of our lives here on this earth is not even to attain perfection. It is to learn through our experiences and to use that wisdom to grow, to evolve, and to make changes for the better.

Now that is something that we can all definitely do, can’t we? So why do we often have such a hard time doing it?

Because we get stuck in a rut; stuck in a routine way of thinking and acting.

For instance, you’ve probably driven the exact same route to work everyday for the past five years and never given it a second thought.

What happens, though, when there is road construction one day and you’re forced off of your usual course? Frustration? Anxiety? Do you get downright upset?

Maybe it made you late for work, but that’s not the point here. The point is that there are probably several different ways for you to arrive at your destination on time, but you’ve gotten stuck on one specific route, and you just don’t like to veer from it.

In effect, that’s exactly how we live most of our lives. We’ve gotten used to typical ways of doing things and usual ways of viewing things, and that keeps us from seeing all the infinite possibilities we have all around us in each and every moment.

Read the rest of this article HERE!

Being There

My father always told me that, not until I understood what motivated some Japanese during WWII to slice open their stomachs in order to protect their pictures of Emperor Hirohito, would I understand what it means to relate to God as king.

I tasted the experience in the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Only royalty could see the art. There is a hallway one must enter as he approaches the main throne room that serves, even now, to intimidate anyone who passes through it walls. The sound of your footsteps echoes and bounces around you, increasing in volume as you approach the throne room. The armor displays are intimidating. And then, one enters the throne room. The floor and the ceiling match to teach that the Czars power on earth matches God’s Power in Heaven, and that his reign is Divinely granted and blessed. The room, the rhyme and design, were my first true taste of the greatness of a king.

When Moshe taught Betzalel how to build the Altar, he did it by describing the Altar in Heaven. Moshe explained exactly what happened on the Altar – the Mizbei’ach – in the Heavenly Temple as Betzalel and his workers listened intently, mesmerized, hypnotized. Moshe brought the angel Gavriel to life as he told his story. “I know,” he said. “I saw it. I was there.”

The people who lovingly built, passionately shaped, and devotedly layered the Mizbei’ach, were not only building an altar, they were building the Heavenly Altar so powerfully described by Moshe to them.

This is what the Midrashim and Zohars mean when they speak of God observing the Mitzvot of the Torah, or of God studying Torah with us. The Sages want us to give Tzedaka the way they give Tzedaka in Heaven. They want us to not simply open a book and study Torah, they want us to picture the Almighty sitting in the Yeshiva in Gan Eden, studying Torah, and then to desire to study with the same passion and clarity.

The Sages want us to imagine what Shabbat is like in Heaven and to then, not simply observe the Shabbat, but to make a Shabbat table that is just like God’s Table in Heaven. To sing as the angels sing at the heavenly Shabbat Table. To discuss important ideas as they do at the table at which God is sitting at the head. Ours is not just Shabbat, it can be the replica of God’s Shabbat shared with His angels.

About the Author
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies.

The author invites you to visit: http://thefoundationstone.org

Hail to the King!

I once watched a drunken man running down the street in the rain, weaving from one side to the other. When I asked him what he was doing, he responded, “I’m running through the raindrops!”

I’m not drunk. I’m not even running. I can walk, even stand between the hailstones. They just won’t fall on me.

It all began yesterday. Egyptians were running around warning each other that another plague was on its way, and that Moses promised that whoever was inside, and all animals that were brought inside, would be safe. Pharaoh’s Royal Guards are trying to stop anyone from bringing their animals inside. “Anyone who brings his animals inside will be prosecuted for treason!” They have large chariots with megaphones passing up and down every street warning the Egyptians not to hide their animals.

My next-door neighbor is terrified. He doesn’t know whether to ignore Pharaoh’s troops, who have been decimated by the plagues, and to acknowledge God’s power and hide his animals, or to remain loyal to Pharaoh.

There is a civil war brewing. They hate each other now as much as they hated us. My neighbor went with God. He was too scared to ignore the warning. He doesn’t have any faith in Pharaoh’s ability to protect or even hurt him. Some diehards painted “Traitor!” all over his house.

We woke up to a perfectly quiet morning. When I went to the local Starbucks I saw that there was a cloud of hail over each Egyptian, his home and animals, while the sky was perfectly clear for me.

The hail was incredible: there were actually flames burning inside each hailstone! The Egyptians were running around like that drunken man, but their clouds followed them wherever they went.

They are all covering their ears because they hear a constant terrifying thunder. Interesting, because I don’t hear anything.

They are standing at their windows yelling out to us; “Forgive us! Please!” Rumor has it that even Pharaoh has acknowledged his sins and declared that God is righteous.

It won’t be long before this is all over. Their crops are destroyed. Most of their flocks have been decimated. The BNN reported that Egypt will have to import food for the first time in centuries. The food basket of the world, developed by Joseph, whom they chose to “forget,” has become a basket case.

I still don’t understand why God is waiting for Pharaoh to let us go. If He is so powerful, why does He need Pharaoh’s permission? If He keeps all this up, even those of us who want to stay in Egypt, won’t be welcome. The Egyptians will force all of us to leave.

Do you think that’s why God is dragging this out?

There is Moses walking outside the city. He’s stretching out his hands to God, The thunder stopped. The hailstones are not moving and just floating in the air. It’s perfectly still. Nothing is moving. It’s as if God is telling us that nothing has changed.

Is He waiting for us?

One minute; Moshe’s representatives are running through the streets announcing a gathering of all the Jews. I’ll let you know what he says. You’ll have to wait till after Shabbat.

From Diary of a Former Slave, by Rabbi Simcha

About the Author
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The author invites you to visit: http://the.foundationstone.org

Time Compacted

We had been waiting for six months while God dealt with the Egyptians. Now things were happening quickly; big things, major changes. It took God months to humble Egypt, and He wanted to transform us into new people in just a matter of two weeks.

It was as if Moshe knew exactly what we were feeling and thinking: “This Pesach is one day and night. In the future it will be a seven day holiday. God is compacting the full holiday into one day and night.”

We couldn’t fully understand what Moshe was saying. “Look,’ he said, “You will eat your offering dressed in your travel clothes, your packed bags at your side. You must finish your meal before midnight.”

“Will we be leaving at midnight? We don’t want to leave when everything is dark, as if we are sneaking out.”

“No, you won’t leave at midnight. You will leave the next day, but so much will happen that you have to understand that you will feel that you are speeding through time. Your former masters will bang at your doors begging you to leave right away. But I want you all to demand all their treasures, the ones you discovered during the plague of darkness. They will have to pay you to leave. They will actually be paying you for your work. They will have nothing left because they are nothing without you. Everything will change, and it will happen quickly.”

“I still don’t understand why we have to eat ready to travel if we won’t travel until the next morning,” a man shouted.

A man who looked like a Chassidic Rebbe, I think his name was Weinberg of Slonim, stood up and explained, “Because our journey actually begins when we eat the offering. We are not dressed for the trip out of Egypt. We are dressed for an entirely new journey through life.”

From The Diary of a Former Slave, by Rabbi Simcha

About the Author
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The author invites you to visit: http://thefoundationstone.org

Keeping Our Minds Supple

A lot of people feel threatened if they feel they are being asked to question their cherished beliefs or their perception of reality. Yet questioning is what keeps our minds supple and strong. Simply settling on one way of seeing things and refusing to be open to other possibilities makes the mind rigid and generally creates a restrictive and uncomfortable atmosphere. We all know someone who refuses to budge on one or more issues, and we may have our own sacred cows that could use a little prodding. Being open-minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted.

A willingness to question everything, even things we are sure we are right about, can shake us out of complacency and reinvigorate our minds, opening us up to understanding people and perspectives that were alien to us before. This alone is good reason to remain inquisitive, no matter how much experience we have or how old we get. In the Zen tradition, this willingness to question is known as beginner’s mind, and it has a way of generating possibilities we couldn’t have seen from the point of view of knowing something with certainty. The willingness to question everything doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t believe in anything at all, and it doesn’t mean we have to question every single thing in the world every minute of the day. It just means that we are humble enough to acknowledge how little we actually know about the mysterious universe we call home.

Nearly every revolutionary change in the history of human progress came about because someone questioned some time-honored belief or tradition and in doing so revealed a new truth, a new way of doing things, or a new standard for ethical and moral behavior. Just so, a commitment to staying open and inquisitive in our own individual lives can lead us to new personal revolutions and truths, truths that we will hopefully, for the sake of our growth, remain open to questioning.

DailyOM