Nice thoughts

Among the attributes of God, although they are all equal, mercy shines with even more brilliancy than justice.– Miguel de CervantesIn Kerala, the state in South India from which I come, along the roadside there are stone parapets the height of a person’s head. When people need to rest from carrying heavy loads of rice or fruit on their heads, they stand next to the parapet and shift their load onto it.The Lord of Love who dwells in the hearts of all is the perennial parapet, standing at exactly the right height for each one of us. For those who are very selfish, he stands very tall to support an awesome load; for those who are average in selfishness, he stands about six feet high; and for the selfless, the parapet can hardly be seen because the burden is so light that almost no support is needed. Through the practice of meditation, we can gradually learn to shift our load into the Lord’s mighty arms.We like to think that we make big decisions and carry terrible responsibilities on our shoulders. Our shoulders are bent, our back gives us problems, and we are too tired to stand on our feet because of the mighty weight we try to bear. Few of us realize there is somebody standing with arms outstretched, just waiting to carry our burdens.When one part of my body does something, the other part does not feel miserable, because each knows that it belongs to the same body, and that the entire body is its reality. When I work with my mind, my feet do not feel miserable, because they have established their oneness with my mind….Unless and until we have realised others as our very own, we call them different personalities, different individualities. But if we can see and feel them inside ourselves as members of our own larger family, jealousy will disappear from our life of aspiration.”- Sri Chinmoy