 Your entire destiny is contained in and determined by the way you live today: the orientation you give to your thoughts and feelings, and the activities on which you choose to spend your energies. The quality of your life and the care and vigilance you bring to it today determine whether the future will be an open path before you, or whether, on the contrary, it will be cluttered with all kinds of useless and even harmful things which will impede your development.
This is what Jesus meant when he told his disciples not to worry about tomorrow, for if you are careful to do everything exactly as it should be done every single day, then each successive day will be free of impediments, and although you will always have to take care not to leave loose ends lying about, there will be nothing to prevent you from undertaking whatever you please. In this way, each new day will find you fresh and ready to breathe and study, sing and enjoy whatever comes; your whole life will be coloured by gladness and blessedness. This is what you must understand. You prepare the morrow by taking care to do everything correctly today.
So do not think about tomorrow; think about today. If everything goes well today, everything will go well tomorrow also – it is automatic. And since every single event goes down on record, when you live one splendid, eternal day, it is recorded. It can never die or disappear; it remains forever alive, a beacon and example to those that follow. Try to live just one perfect day, for it will influence all those that come after it; it will call a meeting with them to discuss their behaviour, and then it will persuade them to be as well balanced, orderly, and harmonious as itself.
As you have never studied the magical aspect, you think, ‘Oh, just one day – what difference can it make? I know that today wasn’t too good, but tomorrow will be better.’ Will it? It all depends. It can be if you try immediately to restore order. Otherwise it will be like a game of skittles: each day that falls knocks over the next one, and then another and another.
Directing one’s energies
In the great book of living nature, it is written that it is of the utmost importance for the evolution of each human being that they should be able to account for the energy they spend and know exactly how and for what purpose they use it. They have been given a certain sum of energy which has been carefully counted, weighed, and measured, and they are responsible for it. Heaven has not given it to them so that they can waste it; everything they do is noted and put on record. In the book of living nature, therefore, you can find these words: ‘Blessed are those who dedicate and employ all their physical, emotional, and mental energies for the good of mankind and for the kingdom of God and his righteousness.’
If you squander your energies in fits of rage, sensual excesses, and criminal or purely selfish activities, they will fuel the fires of hell; it is the ignorance of human beings that continues to nourish and sustain hell. Human beings are extremely knowledgeable in scientific matters, but they have never even heard or thought of their responsibility in regard to the use they make of their energies.
One of the first tasks of a disciple is to examine his goals and see whether he is using his energies for purely selfish motives or whether his goal is divine. This is what matters. If you asked yourself this question every day, you would find a great many aspects of your lives that could be tremendously improved. Of course, you cannot expect to make everything perfect all at once, but at least it would teach you to be conscious of what is going on. Never forget that if you do not do this, you will continue to be subject to your karma, to destiny.
In all that I tell you, you must pick out the things that you should think about every day and those that you must think about in certain specific circumstances. A great many of the things I tell you can be left to one side, but not this. This is something that has to be done every day: be conscious and aware at each instant of how you are using your energies. It is very easy to do; no special conditions are needed. You can do it while you are walking to work, on the bus, at the dentist’s, or in your own kitchen. Wherever you are, at any moment of the day, you can always glance into yourself and ask yourself: ‘How much will it cost to do such or such a thing? Is it really useful?’ It is absolutely essential to know exactly what to spend your energies on – I can never over-emphasize this.
Our relationship with our cells
Initiatic science tells us that each cell of our body is a living creature, a minute, intelligent soul, which breathes and eats, and secretes and projects certain substances. Just think of all the different types of cells in the body and how they all work differently: the cells of the stomach, the brain, the heart, the liver, the sexual organs, and so on, are all specialists in their own particular field. And the sum total of these intelligent little creatures and their activity constitutes our individual intelligence. Yes, our intelligence is built on that of all these tiny cells: we are dependent on them and they on us; together we constitute a unit. On the physical plane we can do nothing without the consent of our cells; the day they stop working, all the different organs and systems of our body – digestion, elimination, respiration, etc. – stop functioning.
Human beings are the synthesis of the different levels of intelligence that coexist within them. This is why we must get into the habit of ‘visiting’ our cells and communicating with them. And, you know, they look forward to our visits. They are always there, ready and waiting to serve us, whereas we neglect and abandon them: we do not care one jot for them. People who smoke, for instance, or drink immoderately are damaging the lovely souls that dwell in their heart and lungs; they turn a deaf ear to the complaints and pleas of these cells and continue to ill-treat them, even to the point of making themselves ill.
You must treat your inner population with love and care, and then, if anything starts to go wrong, they will warn you and you can take certain precautions. In this way you will avoid many unpleasant situations. Otherwise no one will warn you of approaching problems, and at the last minute, when it is already too late to take preventive measures, you will wonder why you were not forewarned. But if you know how to relate to your cells, they will keep you informed of the slightest problem, for they love you.
Loving thoughts and kind words can do your organs and limbs a great deal of good. Your health would be greatly improved if you developed the habit of thinking of your cells and talking to them for just a few minutes every day.
Try this exercise: place your hand on your solar plexus and speak to your cells. Ask them to cure all your health problems, but remember to thank them for all the good work they do. You can be sure that they will hear you, because the solar plexus governs all the unconscious functions: secretion, growth, circulation, digestion, elimination, respiration, and so on. In this way you can talk to your cells and they will listen to you, and the greater your faith and your power of thought, the more effective this exercise will be.
Spiritualizing everything we do
Many people imagine that a spiritual person has to devote all his time to prayer and meditation, but this is not so. Whatever work you do, even if it is highly spiritual, becomes extremely prosaic when it is not animated by a very high, sublime ideal, and the reverse is equally true: even the most prosaic, down-to-earth work can become truly spiritual if you know how to inject an element of the divine into it. Spirituality is not a matter of refusing all material, physical activity, but of doing whatever we do for, with, and in the light. Spirituality is a question of knowing how to use all our work in order to rise to greater heights, to become more harmonious, and to attach ourselves more and more firmly to God.
Whatever kind of work you do, even if you can afford only a minute or two at a time, you must get into the habit of renewing your contact with God several times a day. It does not matter if you cannot concentrate for long; it is not the duration that counts but the intensity. Concentrate for just a few seconds and then return to your work; and a little later, you can concentrate again for just a moment or two, and so on.
If you get into the habit of making frequent reference to God and renewing your contact with him, everything you undertake will be more successful. When you begin every activity with a conscious reference to the Lord, the Almighty puts his seal on it. So learn constantly to renew and strengthen you relations with God, wherever you may be, and in this way all your actions will be impregnated with a heavenly influence.
Here is another exercise you can do: every hour on the hour, raise your thoughts to God and say, ‘Glory to you, O Lord!’ Begin by looking at your watch and repeating this invocation twelve times a day. Later, when it has become a habit with you, you will find it to be an infinitely precious practice: the repetition of these words will give you indescribable joy.
When you are walking, accompany each step you take with the words: wisdom, love; wisdom, love...
When you wash the dishes or sweep a floor, for instance, say, ‘Lord, wash my soul as I wash these dishes... Lord, cleanse my heart of all impurities as I clean this floor...’
Whatever you are doing, you can always call on the principles of love, wisdom, and truth so that your activity may be associated with and animated by them. When you are eating, for instance, say, ‘The first mouthful is for love, the second is for wisdom, the third is for truth...’ When you are getting dressed in the morning, with each garment you put on, say, ‘For love... for wisdom... for truth...’ And there would be no harm in adding: ‘For purity... for justice... for beauty,’ and so on.
When your thoughts are occupied by these virtues, you set in motion sublime invisible forces. When you are cooking a meal, every gesture you make is magical, and you can prepare each dish, saying: ‘This is for love, this is for wisdom, this is for truth,’ and those who eat the meal will be illuminated.
When you touch or move an object, do so as though you whole body were singing and dancing: you will see that the harmony of your gestures will reflect on you throughout the day. People kick the furniture, bang doors, and bump against their chairs, and they do not realize that it is the way they do things that influences their frame of mind. One day, when you are feeling angry or tense, take the opportunity to try this exercise: pick up an object and stroke it gently, caressingly; in no time at all you will find that something inside you has been transformed, that the currents are different.
The importance of harmony
Meditate every day on harmony; love it and long for it so as to introduce it into everything you do: every gesture, every look, every word. In the morning, when you wake up, remember to begin your day by attuning yourself to the world of universal harmony. Your first thought on entering any house should be: ‘May peace and harmony reign in this house.’
Let the word ‘harmony’ soak into you at every moment; keep it within you as a kind of tuning fork: if you feel that you are beginning to worry or get upset, pick it up and listen to it, and do nothing until you have tuned your whole being once more. Harmony is the foundation of every successful venture, every divine realization. Before undertaking any activity, whatever it may be, learn to concentrate on harmony and your work will bear fruit for the rest of eternity.
Learn to say thank you
Gratitude is a secret force capable of cleansing you and neutralizing the poisons in your body.
Try this exercise: all day long, keep repeating the words: ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ You will object that you will be wasting your time. On the contrary; this is the most useful thing you can ever do with it.
The first thing disciples have to do if they want to reach perfection is to learn to be grateful; this is the key to the transformation of matter – their own matter.
From A New Earth, © 1999 by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, published by Prosveta.
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