EXCERPT 4: The Work That Prays
While it’s generally accepted that spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, and prayer can help speed up our evolution, too often we forgot about another tool, one that we already employ every day, which is equally effective at accelerating our journey toward enlightenment:
Hard work.
On the surface, simply doing your job to the best of your ability might seem like it has very little to do with the practices I just mentioned. The truth, however, is that when you put your head down and work your hardest at any task, it’s actually a very powerful form of moving prayer.
A teacher who is totally committed to educating the children in her classroom, a janitor who keeps his building looking immaculate, or a baker who makes perfect loaf after perfect loaf are all praying just as hard through their efforts as the yogi who spends his days chanting God’s name.
Yet while almost everyone performs some sort of work each day, most people are not conscious of this connection between their work and their proximity to God. This is because they are too often preoccupied with the results of their work. Their focus is on how much money their work generates rather than the actual work itself. They fail to realize that when you view your work with both eyes only on the result, that work will never prove truly rewarding, either financially or spiritually. Never lose sight of the fact that the actual work that you do in life—the moment in which a teacher is engaged in drawing up a lesson plan, the janitor is moping the floors, or the baker is making his bread—is the source from which true happiness will will stem.
EXCERPT 6: Be Reborn Everyday
When I was a young man I did some pretty foul sh*t. I didn't mug old ladies, mistreat children, or—God forbid—kill anyone. But I did deal drugs, run with gangs, and steal from people in my community. I devoured pig’s feet, chitlins, and steak without thinking about, let alone shedding a tear, for all the animals that were being sacrificed at the altar to my gluttonous appetite. I even fired a shot (albeit while intentionally aiming high) at a rival drug dealer in a misguided attempt to earn some street cred. In short, I did not enjoy a healthy relationship with the world.
At the time, however, I didn't think there was anything wrong with how I was living. Unconscious of my higher self, I tended to respond to the low notes that were being played very loudly around me. In my unevolved mind, I was simply doing what I had to do to make it on the streets of New York. How my actions affected anyone else didn't concern me.
Thirty odd years later, things have changed. Now I’m a vegan, I don’t drink or smoke, and I try to do everything within my power to preserve and uplift life. I run several charities, provide for dozens of employees, and strive to maintain a healthy relationship with the people in my life and the larger world in general.
How did I go from being a drug dealer to a yogi? From a street punk to an engaged, if slightly offbeat, servant of the community? From a kid who spent his days hustling on the corner of 205th Street and Hollis
Avenue to a businessman whose office has a sweeping view of Manhattan?? From getting booked for selling fake cocaine to writing this book?
EXCERPT 7: GIVE YOUR GIFT
I’m always amazed by how many people fail to see the connection between giving and attraction. People will tell me they’re writers, but aren’t writing anything at the moment because “magazines aren't assigning work right now.” Or they’re great chefs, but aren’t working at the moment because they’re self-trained and right now restaurants are “only hiring people who’ve graduated from culinary school.”
Whenever I hear that sort of talk, I say, “Stop making excuses and go do what you’re supposed to be doing! And you can start by cooking me a nice vegan meal if you’ve got too much time on your hands!” Imagine if a comedian said, “Sorry, but I can’t be funny right now because no one’s paying me.” Man, it’s a comedian’s job to be funny all of the time. Whether it’s in the barbershop, at an open mic night, or on his own HBO special. Whether he’s getting paid or not, he can never stop making people laugh. The moment he stops giving away his humor, he stops being a comedian.
Diva's Nation
"Join The Conversation"
No comments:
Post a Comment