Twelve Steps To Inner Peace

TWELVE STEPS TO INNER PEACEKARMA AND RECOGNIZING THE GAME OF DUALITYIn India, people spoke a lot about karma. Karma refers to one’s actionsor deeds that trigger an entire cycle of cause and effect. It was said thatkarma was the reason that we are bound to the earth and that we take manylife times to balance and get out of the cycle of cause and effect. It wouldmore accurate to say that when we re-align with our Divine Presence weclear our karma.The deeper truth is that We are the Creators of Karma through our severejudgments and condemning. For example, let us see the situation of amother who gives her child up for adoption because she is unable to carefor the baby. If she blesses the child to be well, and she is content with herdecision and happy about what she did, then she has not created any karma.In contrast, if this mother is feeling guilty about her decision, and she issorry for her child and feels a lifetime of remorse about giving her child up,then she has bound herself with "karma" to be balanced with anotherlifetime for her and the child.Knowingly or unknowingly, we bind ourselves with so many harshjudgments and condemnations. This human tendency of constant judgmentis the one that imprisons us to every kind of discord. If we point a finger atsomeone, immediately, three fingers of our own hand points back to us.Reality constantly reminds us to analyze our fear thoughts and centerourselves in peace. If we do not condemn, there will be no need to forgive.In the words of Byron Katie:“Reality – the way that it is, exactly as it is, in every moment – is alwayskind. It’s our story about reality that blurs our vision, obscures what’s true,and leads us to believe that there is injustice in the world. When you believethat any suffering is legitimate, you become the champion of suffering, theperpetuator of it in yourself.”Karma is not a Universal Law. We choose to believe in it, and we havemade it a belief system to build the game of Duality. By judging andcondemning, we choose to punish and suffer. It takes awareness andimmense trust in the Divine to accept life situations; to see the gift thatevery situation brings. We volunteered to be here in this body – in thislifetime now. We are not wounded, and we are not learning lessons orundergoing punishments; we are actually EVOLVING – evolving into ourgrander selves.3

P. RAJKUMAR and S.L. CHRISTIANWe are in total freedom. For through our challenges, we are exploringdifferent levels of consciousness. Our challenges force us to question ourmind and make us focus on the physical and the Spiritual. We are here togather knowledge – to resolve our experiences by knowing ourselves at amuch more conscious level. When we choose to be kind and nonjudgmental in dealing with every aspect of life, we create freedom, harmony,and peace within; all of which powerfully reflect on the outside.The mind loves to play the game of duality by telling stories. Storiesabout people, places, and situations – never-ending stories. It must be notedthat the stories are all about judgments and condemnation; therefore,creating a world of suffering.Thoughts argue with reality thus creating war within oneself. When westart loving what is in front of us – our reality – the war is over. It is alwaysstressful and difficult to compete with and compare our situations, or tobelittle our actions by contemplating what we should or should not havedone.The mind brings in a lot of story-thoughts. The thoughts come and theygo like the clouds on a clear sky. We are the sky on which the thoughtclouds pass. Yes, they pass away all of the time; however, it is always ourchoice to attach or not attach our emotions to them. It is always our choiceto live in true freedom – the freedom to know that we are the sky thatallows yet never needs to be involved. Freedom is giving the gift ofKINDNESS to oneself; it means never allowing fear, anger, or sadness tocloud your life. It means to live life with total acceptance, flexibility, andwithout resistance. There is no success to be achieved, and there is nofailure either; for whatever we are doing at this moment with total love andacceptance is Success.4

TWELVE STEPS TO INNER PEACEIMPORTANCE OF KNOWING OUR MIND-CREATED WORLDLet us take a committed journey into our inner world and liberateourselves from the bondage of both emotional and physical pain. Ourunresolved issues in life have a direct correlation to the health of our bodiesand our wellbeing.The key to our healing is to straight away deal with our wounds, toprocess our fears, forgive from the heart, and stand in our Truth. Only acourageous person, who is passionately seeking freedom, can take thisjourney of moving through unresolved fears.Our physical bodies are formed not from the food and nutrients we takein, but from our life experiences, our attitudes to life, our emotions, and ourpain buried from past experiences. It is a human tendency to hide behindwounds and create walls so thick that we are unable to move ahead in life.We are powerful energy beings; but it is sad to notice that we give awayour energy for things that do not support us in any way. We give away ourcreative energy to judge people, situations, places, and things. We lock theminto wounded memories and attitudes. We do not realize that our woundscost us a great deal both physically and monetarily.Our health is intimately connected with our emotions and attitudes.Our unprocessed fears and emotions are injurious to our health and wellbeing. Our stress pours into our bodies as acid. Our blood pH is alkaline,and so to process the acid, the body organs struggle every day. Our bodiescreate fat cells to engulf the excess acid in the body and store it away fromthe vital organs and delicate systems of the body. Our bodies start holdingfat and go into disease and distress.Locking ones focus into a negative past, focusing all ones attention andenergy on it, feeding it by talking about it, and exaggerating it every day,seems to be a most powerful pastime of our society and culture today!People feel that if there is nothing to grumble about or be negative about,then there will be nothing else to talk about with each other. We love tokeep the wounds of the past alive, and we habitually create stories aboutthem. Our habits have become our culture, and our culture has taught usnot to care for ourselves or to take responsibility for our happiness. Beingsad and having a whole bunch of tragic stories seems more purposeful.That is why we are so addicted to soap operas and movies that are highlydramatic and emotional. We always relate easily to what we hold on theinside.5

P. RAJKUMAR and S.L. CHRISTIANWe are energy beings, and our bodies thrive on life force energy. Ourlife force energy depends on our every thought, our emotions, and ourattitudes. If we choose to encourage negative thoughts and emotions, weare in for great trouble. For these are more toxic to the body than any toxicfood or drink. The more judgmental we become, the more energy willbecome depleted from our system. Our body becomes tired and weak, webecome irritated and short tempered all of the time, and we even stop doingthe things that we were usually doing. This is very serious because we areheavily losing our life force energy. Carrying negative beliefs and judgmentscost a lot of energy. Gossiping and deliberately saying derogatory commentsto people drains enormous amounts of energy. How we create heaven orhell in our lives does not depend on any religious practice; it solely dependson how we treat ourselves and others.Being human is challenging as every person goes through trauma in life.The bitter thing about personal challenges is that people sometimes take thepower from their trauma or challenges, build up stories around it, and use itto try to control other people. They have a “poor me” party for themselves;a viable reason and excuse to not be good or feel good. Our culture,society, and religious traditions teach us to feel guilty. We are burdened byguilt, and guilt never allows us to heal our wounds. Therefore, guilt is awasted and a wasting emotion. This is why the saying, "Hurt people are theones who hurt others," is true. The ugly truth here is that we become soconnected with our wounded past that we use it to manipulate others.Every person, every place, and every situation has been createdbenevolently by life for our growth physically, spiritually, and emotionally.Every interaction with another human being and every experience withevery life situation is a beautiful opportunity to expand, to amass, and togather enormous knowledge and wisdom. All we can deal with from themind is only what we see in front of us – our minds do not know the biggerpicture. If we truly analyze from our heart, we can know that our past hasbrought us to where we are right now, and this wisdom gives us a clue ofhow to create our future from this platform. Life has always beenbenevolent; reality or God is always loving and good, and there is noargument. When we argue with reality, we suffer greatly.The only key to avoid suffering of the body, mind, and soul, is throughforgiveness toward oneself and others. Pain is not an enemy – it is a bringerof wisdom and knowledge, and it is a guardian who shows us the way tofreedom. Paying attention to life, living every moment fully and completely,allowing and accepting our reality, making room for forgiveness, choosing6

TWELVE STEPS TO INNER PEACEto focus our energy on our strengths and our gifts, and living from the placeof gratitude, are the most powerful ways of healing and liberating ourselvesfrom the illusion of fear and pain. When we liberate ourselves, our life forceenergy becomes powerful enough to liberate everyone who comes into ourspace!Making peace with humanity and Divinity is the MAGIC OF LIFE.SPIRITUAL TOOLSWhen we forgive, we give back the energies of other people that wehave kept “on hold” in our space, and we also take back our energies fromtheir space. We become our whole selves, and we now have the grace tocreate our reality from the place of our power. We are energy beings and itis true that others energetically feel what we feel.The spiritual tools must be used from the place of feeling – from theheart. Feeling is the key. Any tool, is just a tool until we put our energies –our hearts – our feelings into it.AFFIRMATIONAffirmations are words that empower. However, words are just wordsuntil we bind them with our feelings. Therefore, every affirmation we sayneeds to be bound with our feelings, has to be said aloud or silent, or mustbe written many times a day. This helps to erase the past that has beenprogrammed by many years of conditioning, and energetically rewrites thefuture that we want for ourselves.Forgiveness Affirmations:I forgive anyone whom I think has harmed me in this life or anylifetime, anywhere ever, in my space.I forgive all debts; I erase all karmas.I choose the Light of Understanding to light my path Now.To specifically forgive someone who is in your space right now, do thefollowing as many times a day as you can by pouring your feelings intoevery word and making it true for you. Do it; it works like magic.7

P. RAJKUMAR and S.L. CHRISTIANI forgive and release (name) unto God.This person (name) is in her/his right place at all times.I choose freedom for myself; I am free, (name) is free.And so it is!Forgiveness is the key, a tool, and the first step to Inner Peace.Eileen Siegel BowenVISUALIZATION TOOL"Your hands are tied in action, but your hands are not tied inimagination – and everything springs forth from the imagination.Everything." Abraham“We're going to give you a very powerful statement: Everything that youwill someday live, in terms of life experience — and by some day, we meanas soon as right now, tomorrow, the next day, or some day — anything thatyou will some day live, you have first imagined. Because nothing willmanifest in your experience without the imagination process happeningfirst.” AbrahamWhat imaginations are you choosing to allow my friend? Choose withalertness, choose only what you want to manifest in your life.We use our imagination every moment as the mind travels to distantlands and people. Imagination is the Creative Energy of the Universe, andwe continue to use it every moment with or without awareness. If, for8

TWELVE STEPS TO INNER PEACEexample, you are going to meet someone, you travel to meet them in yourmind even before you are physically there. You imagine telling them thethings you want to tell them, and then you meet them and do what youimagined. However, most of the time we are not aware that we haveactually met the person energetically in our imagination and then what weimagined, we created in the physical. Any visualization tool is an art of usingyour imagination consciously and creatively to create what you truly want.Ancient scriptures and writings say that we began as a thought in the mindof God, and then we were created. In imagination there is no task big orsmall, every task is effortless and when there is conscious awareness inevery imagination, then grand creation happens.In the words of Joseph Campbell:“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. Fear of theunknown is our greatest fear. Many of us would enter a tiger’s lair beforewe would enter a dark cave. While caution is a useful instinct, we lose manyopportunities and much of the adventure of life if we fail to support thecurious explorer within us.”It takes courage to move within and imagine the impossible – let us becourageous enough to create magic and miracles for ourselves and thisPlanet.EXERCISE FOR FORGIVENESSCreate a sacred space for yourself where you will not be disturbed bypeople, pets, or the telephone.Sit in a comfortable position, relax your body, take a few deep breaths,and close your eyes.Now gently turn your attention inside your body, and watch the breathmove in and out through your lungs without any effort.Mentally call toward you the love and light of the Creator, visualizeyourself surrounded by a brilliant light within, through, and around you.Now imagine the person who has hurt you, whom you were not able toforgive.9

P. RAJKUMAR and S.L. CHRISTIANSee yourself and this person communicating with each other in an open,honest and harmonious way.See yourself and this other person nod, agree, and smile.Feel within yourself that this mental image is possible, experience itcompletely as if it is happening now.You can go a little further and even see both of you hugging each other.Open your eyes when you feel complete.Repeat this simple exercise often, as many times as you can throughoutyour day. Your sincerity in doing this will surely resolve the problemcompletely.It should be noted here that this technique works to dissolve our internal barriers andallow us to flow effortlessly in harmony with life. This technique cannot be used to controlthe behavior of anyone against their will.USING THE FORGIVENESS TOOLSA woman from my neighborhood came to me for healing as she was sostressed by her husband's behavior. She had recently found out that he washaving an affair with someone who posed to be her friend.Her husband had stopped coming home and one day called her on thephone to let her know that he would not be coming back to her anymore.This lady loved her husband so much, she was very hurt, and she camefor a healing for her heart. We discussed about the freedom of love andhow it is very important to free oneself and others to help healing tohappen.After our long discussion the woman understood that her relationshipwith her husband had been one of dependency and control and themoment he walked out of her life, she became extremely angry andsaddened. This was also affecting her health for she started suffering fromulcers.10

TWELVE STEPS TO INNER PEACEMost of the time, we hold others as prisoners in our life. We believesomething about the person in our minds and hold it as true and when theperson threatens our belief, we immediately make them our enemy, and westress and terrorize ourselves over our belief. No one can make us angry orupset, only we have the power to do this to ourselves. And we are alsocapable and powerful to change our life by deeply looking into andquestioning our beliefs.I gave her the affirmation and visualization exercise to do every day asmany times as she needed.After about 3 weeks, she came to me again. She looked so relaxed andhappy, and she said that her ulcers also went away. She told me that as shestarted to do the affirmations and visualizations sincerely every day, shenoticed that she felt so much happier and did not feel the need to wallow inher sadness anymore. Also she was now able to see that if she truly lovedher husband, she would have to allow him his freedom.Two weeks later she told me that a week ago her husband called her andasked her to forgive him. He also said that the woman whom he was withhad left him.It is interesting to note that once we choose to let go of the drama, thereis no energy flowing to expand the drama in anyway.The moment this woman started forgiving and releasing her husband,she stopped creating the drama in her life. Thus, when her energy stoppedflowing in that direction, no further creation happened. Therefore, theother woman automatically left as she had been pulled and attracted only tothe play of the drama. Once there was no energy feeding the drama, shehad to go.Every relationship in our life is divinely orchestrated, and every situationcomes to into our reality for us to anchor greater consciousness. Whetherthe mind is labeling it as good or bad, every experience you have is allowingyou to evolve as a Spiritual being. Each experience is guiding you tobecome unconditional love and compassion which is your TRUE nature.Everything that you experience today is for your ultimate Highest Good.11

2 BELIEF AND TRUSTIn the words of John Lennon:“There are two basic motivating forces; fear and love. When we areafraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that lifehas to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn tolove ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot loveourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potentialto create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessnessand open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”12

TWELVE STEPS TO INNER PEACETHERE IS A VAST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BELIEF & TRUSTBelief is

create a more blissful existence. In the words of Osho: “People become suicidal for the simple reason that life is ugly, they do not know how to beautify it, how to make a song out of it. It is just sadness, a long-long anguish, a nightmare. People become interested in war and support w