AS IF EVERYTHING IS A MIRACLE

A description of the book:

Albert Einstein once said: "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle."

Life is a miracle; even your breath is a miracle in itself. To live your life as if everything is a miracle, you need wisdom of the body, the mind, and the soul.

The body perceives all sensations and experiences in the physical world. The mind interprets and registers them in the subconscious mind, which controls the conscious mind in its daily life choices and decisions, resulting in actions, non-actions, and reactions of the body in the physical world. The soul feeds the mind with spirituality that provides connection and interconnection with others through empathy and compassion, gratitude and generosity, as well as love and forgiveness. The body, the mind, and the soul—all play a pivotal role in wisdom in contemporary living. The essence of this wisdom is their “alignment” with one another for balance and harmony in the being of an individual.

Having said that, living in the physical world, the body can easily become toxic, and its toxins may contaminate the mind due to the scientifically proven body-mind connection. A toxic mind is filled with toxic thoughts and memories, which result in toxic choices and decisions that further exacerbate the toxic body with its toxic actions, reactions, and behaviors in the physical world. The spiritual guidance of the soul is often ignored by a toxic mind.

You mind provides the map for your body to go on your life journey, and your soul is the compass; without the compass and map, you are going nowhere, and you live your life as if nothing is a miracle.

This 125-page book provides information on how you can rethink your mind, renew your body, and reconnect your soul for alignment of your being to live your life as if everything is a miracle.

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A sample of the book:

Living as if everything is a miracle requires your reconnecting with others around you.

Reconnecting to empathy

 With the awareness of spirituality, you may have better understanding of the emotions of others around you. In their shoes, you may have more empathic feelings of why and how they behave or react in certain ways. Empathy is connectedness with other human beings, which is critical to maintaining good human relationships and sustaining the wellness of the soul.

Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, demonstrates how he instantly connects to people of different cultures, religions, and perspectives. According to the Tibetan spiritual leader, on the very first meeting with any individual, he trains his soul to feel that the individual is simply another fellow human being with the same desire to be happy and to avoid suffering as he himself. With that mind-soul connection, he becomes “connected” to everybody, without any exception, in the physical world.

With that awareness, you develop a positive mentality not only towards yourself but also towards others—which holds the key to improving human relationships and expressing compassion and loving-kindness to others around you.

C.S. Lewis, author and intellectualist, shows how you, too, can “discipline” your mind with negative emotions. When you know that you are not going to behave friendly towards another person, you consciously put on a much friendlier manner, such as a big smile, and behave as if you were a much nicer person than you actually are. In a few minutes, you may actually feel friendlier towards that person because you have just re-connected your mind to your soul, resulting in better behavior in the body.

Reconnecting to loving-kindness

Empathy leads to loving-kindness, which originates from the Hebrew, meaning the love and kindness of God freely given to man.

There is wisdom in expressing loving-kindness because it re-connects your soul to God. “Who so is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the LORD.” (Psalm 107:43)

Loving-kindness is an act motivated by love, and freely expressed to your fellow human beings. To optimize this spiritual behavior, develop the mindset for compassion, which should become a habit or second nature to you.

To illustrate, when a person is not nice to you, your immediate response and reaction to that person may become habit-forming. Immediately, your mind tells you: “I won't let him or her step over me!” Over time, your response will become habitual and spontaneous—a natural way of expressing your individuality and your rights. In other words, it has become deeply etched in your soul. Develop a mindset for compassion, instead of asserting your individuality and your rights.

Showing compassion is not about “an eye for an eye” nor is it about your “rights” as an individual. Loving-kindness is an act of compassion that you consciously express to another individual simply because that individual has the same desire to be happy and to avoid suffering, just like yourself. Accordingly, your response is a reflection of your love for that individual, irrespective of the behavior of that individual towards you. However, that does not imply that you accept, approve, or even condone the inappropriate behavior of that individual. Loving-kindness is just a positive response in your attempt to change the inappropriate behavior of that individual. The outcome of that attempt to change another individual, however, does not affect your response, because the attempt is out of your compassion and love-kindness for that individual, irrespective of your success or failure in changing the behavior of that individual.

On the other hand, withholding loving-kindness may also be a mindset that you may have acquired through your culture or your repeated observation of similar responses by others towards similar behaviors. This toxic mindset may have seared your soul.

Fortunately, any bad behavior or inappropriate mindset can be changed or replaced by a positive one. Consciously develop the right mindset of compassion and loving-kindness to re-connect your soul to your Creator—just as Dalai Lama says: “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

Reconnecting to generosity

     Be generous with your time, your labor, and with what you have. Show generosity to others around you. Form the habit of giving without expecting any credit, recognition, or just anything in return for your generous gesture. If you give with the intent of receiving, you become a “user” and not a real “giver.”

Generosity does not necessarily have to do with giving or spending money. It is not solely based on your economic status or how much money you have, but on your pure intentions of looking out for society's common good and giving from the bottom of your heart. Generosity should reflect your passion to help others who are in need, or who are less fortunate than yourself.

Mother Theresa once said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. According to Buddha, generosity is one of the Ten Perfections, which are human virtues cultivated as a way of personal purification to live an unobstructed life for spiritual enlightenment.

Giving generosity is spiritual giving because God is giving. He gave man life itself (Acts 17:25), He constantly sustains man by His providential gifts (Acts 14:17), and, most significantly of all, He gave His beloved Son so that man may have eternal life (John. 3:16; Romans 6:23). If God is generous, so should you be! 

Reconnecting to gratitude

 Reconnect your soul to gratitude. If you are grateful to God for what you have, you may look at the behavior of another individual with more tolerance, or with a totally different perspective. Blessings in life, such as the gift of life, are generally overlooked or taken for granted. For example, if someone takes advantage of you, do not become angry immediately; instead, be grateful that you are the victim instead of being the person who victimizes others.

Gratitude enables you to develop the mindset for a positive outlook towards your soul. Smile more often. Keep complaints about people, things, and life in general to yourself—unless voicing them will help bring about positive changes in others.

Gratitude helps you see the good in others, letting you give them the benefit of the doubt. Try to remember that all people are created in the image of God. Focus on the individual, rather than on the behavior or belief of that individual, which may not be appealing or pleasing to you. Be grateful that you have been given the opportunity to become either a teacher or a student in whatever circumstance you may find yourself in, and turn it into a miracle.

AS IF EVERYTHING IS A MIRACLE