A couple of years ago we remodeled our house. A contractor friend and I enclosed two rooms, and converted a garage into a one-bedroom cottage. The project took a significant, steady flow of planning, effort, and of course more money than expected. Still, the results were wonderful. The creation of simple and beautiful spaces in our large home gave way to enchanting forest views here in the Sierra foothills. Better still, our home became an ashram: a place where spiritually-minded friends could live together in harmony and support. Family, friends, children, dogs, and visitors graced our home for wonderful meals, spiritual classes and meditation, and satsang, or spiritual “hanging out.” We received rewards of kindness, joy, and fulfillment from the remodeling, and then the people and events that followed.
Change is inevitable – take charge therefore, and remodel your life! Your life is constantly being remodeled anyhow, by the ways you think and act, and the countless influences beyond your control that will forever be upon you. Every one of your kind thoughts or deeds, good intentions and actions, and spiritual practices will eventually bear fruit. In turn, beware the consequences of your misdeeds, and any feelings of shame, anger, or regret. The world will reflect and return these things in the form of circumstances, people, and events.
Remember the words of Paramhansa Yogananda: “Conditions are always neutral. They seem happy or sad depending on attitudes of the mind.” Nothing that happens to us ultimately matters. It is only what we become through them that will determine our state of consciousness, which in the final analysis, is all that matters.
Remodel your life: each moment, each day, and through every experience. Cultivate deep, daily meditation, and positive attitudes and actions, and you will know the greatest happiness and love of God.
