INNER PEACE AND THE ENVIRONMENT – THE SUBTLE CONNECTION

Almost everyone is trying to be beautiful. Some people are working very hard to try to make their body as beautiful as possible according to the standards of their culture or sub-culture. Some people are trying to become attractive through improving their mind, personality, behaviors, or talents – or through increasing their wealthfame, or some other opulence. This desire to see ourselves as attractive is so prevalent, that it is difficult for us to imagine ever not wanting this.

Just look at the almost endless amounts of cosmetics, dress and looks enhancing product which directly harm the environment!! So taking care of earth is all connected with ourselves and how we live in the earth. Unless we are peaceful within we cannot have peace outside and hence the earth will remain in trouble.

We will often cause ourselves so much suffering and unhappiness over the course of our lives in the pursuit of beauty and in the fear of being unattractive – but rarely do we ask the question, why?

Why do we feel the need to be beautiful – either by our society’s standards or by anyone’s standards? Why do we seek perfection in beauty even at the cost of sacrificing the earth and its residents?

The answer is actually quite simple – because we believe that our happiness is somehow dependent upon this beauty. We buy into the idea that if we are not attractive, then we will not be able to obtain what we think we need to be happy – love, honor, respect, adoration, attention, etc. We are in a very precarious position when we place our happiness in an image of our self that we must maintain in our mind. For if we are unable to maintain it, and then we will feel our very life is in jeopardy because we believe the source of our happiness is in jeopardy.

desire-to-look-attractive-and-craving-for-fame

The desire to be attractive actually becomes a prison of sorts for many people. We think if only we can be beautiful, we will be happy. So we try in so many different ways to achieve this. But we never actually reach a point where we consider that we have enough beauty because it never actually brings us the happiness we are longing for.

The problem is not that we need to become increasingly more beautiful or to change our mental standards of beauty to make it easier for us to appear beautiful to our self or others. What is needed is for us to recognize that our happiness is not dependent on us appearing beautiful. In fact, is not dependent on anything material. There is no material opulence – beauty, power, wealth, fame, knowledge, artificial renunciation – that can ever bring as the deeply satisfying and completely heartfelt happiness that will truly fulfill us because we are not made of material energy.

MATERIAL-BEAUTY

According to the ancient yoga scriptures and other bonafide scriptures of the world, we are not the material body or the mind – we are eternal spiritual beings temporarily wearing the material mind and body. The gross physical body can be compared to outer clothes and the mind or subtle energy body can be compared to under clothes. Just as we are not the clothes we are wearing, we are not the material bodies we are wearing either.

It is not even us that we are trying so hard to make beautiful – it is just our external coverings. Material beauty may stimulate temporary, superficial pleasure in the material mind and senses, but it never lasts for long and does not satisfy us because it never actually touches us – the spiritual self wearing these “clothes.” Because we are spiritual beings, we can only be truly happy and fulfilled through connecting with our spiritual Source.

In the ancient yoga system, the recommended method for consciously linking up with our spiritual Source and cultivating the spiritual love and happiness that will completely fulfill us is mantra meditation. A true mantra is not something anyone makes up. It is the Absolute Truth in sound vibration. This spiritual sound vibration descends from the spiritual platform to the material world without losing any of its potency. In mantra meditation, a person hears and chants or sings this spiritual sound and thus is directly linking up with the Supreme.

Through mantra meditation, we begin to taste the sweetness of spiritual happiness. And with ongoing, regular practice, our hearts and minds are gradually purified of material misconceptions. As the false ideas of self fall away, our true nature is revealed and our relationship with the Supreme blossoms.

The more we experience our true nature by hearing these transcendental sounds, the less we feel the need or desire to appear physically beautiful because we realize that our very being is situated in boundless beauty. This beauty – and the deep joy that is inseparable from it – emanates from our spiritual Source and radiates within the hearts of all living beings. Our awareness of it is awakened as we are awakened to our eternal loving relationship with the Supreme. Thus, our life becomes divinely beautiful and joyful not through artificial attempts to beautify it, but through uncovering the beauty and joy that is eternally present within us.

true-nature

So let’s embrace a better and thoughtful lifestyle. In order to have a good healthy world and people, we need to start taking the little steps to be satisfied ourselves along with simultaneously making an positive impact on the planet. We have to start now or else it’s already too late for creating a better planet for us and the future generations to come. No point spending time on mindless activities which are causing havoc on the world. A wise step although done in small amount will have tremendous impact on the betterment of the world. So let’s take the journey together for an amazing world!

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