The Power Behind the Light Bearer - Pt. 1
Faith and determination are essential in our lives, both inner and outer, for they allow us to succeed - which we are all meant to do.
Ah, but what is success? Simply to feel inside that, in general, you feel like you are fulfilling your life. Success is not something determined by comparing oneself to others – it is only how you feel inside about your life!
Of course there are always ups and downs and tests, but if we don't generally feel satisfied with our life then there is something more that we need to do. You and only you can determine what that is, no one else. What I can tell you is that it is Faith and Determination that will give you the confidence, determination, strength and energy to do it.
Today’s daily contemplation from the “Bowl of Saki” says:
“Success comes when reason, the store of experience, surrenders to will.”- Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Hazrat Inayat Khan tells a story of when his master would bless him with faith …
“The golden words of my murshid which I remember, when he blessed me every day I met him, he said: “May your faith be strengthened”. I was a young man at that time and it made me think if my faith was so little that my murshid must says this. I sometimes wondered why he does not say: “May you be prosperous, healthy, may you live long. May you make a success, may you be happy, may you attain a very high spiritual attainment”. Why does he say such a simple thing: “May your faith be strengthened”? And it is now that I am beginning to see what really it meant. It was everything. In the strength of faith there is everything and in the absence of that there is nothing.”
Swami Rama says of the quality of Faith and Determination...
“Determination is the power that sees us through all frustrations and obstacles. It helps in building willpower, which is the basis of success within and without. The scriptures say that with the help of Sankalpa Shakti (the power of determination) nothing is impossible.
Sufi Amin wrote…
“Well what can be done to set Faith into everyday life expression? Just as a good foundation is necessary to build a solid framework for one’s house, so too is self-confidence a beginning point in the mastery of everyday life.”
In my life, Sufi Amin would always tell me I needed more faith and self-confidence. When he did this I would get very upset because I thought I was failing in my life – and maybe I was, but he would not leave me hanging, he would tell me how to increase these qualities and I became stronger and stronger as a result.
So what can help us to develop faith and determination? That will be in the next BLOG for it will make this Blog too long!
