A Native American and his friend were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening.

Suddenly, the Native American said, “I hear a cricket.” His friend said, “What? You must be crazy. You couldn’t possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!”

“No, I’m sure of it,” the Native American said. “I heard a cricket.”

“That’s crazy,” said the friend. The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed.

“That’s incredible,” said his friend. “You must have superhuman ears!”

“No,” said the Native American. “My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you’re listening for.”

“But that can’t be!” said the friend. “I could never hear a cricket in this noise.”

“Yes, it’s true,” came the reply. It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you.”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. And then, even with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs.

“See what I mean?” asked the Native American. “It all depends on what’s important to you.”

What’s important to you? What do you listen for? If you are in tune with the Great Spirit, you will be able to hear when He speaks.

Author Unknown

We all pray for a miracle in one way or another. All religions have a faith in God and all have prayers and rituals that are practised in the hope of a miracle. Often it seems that God doesn’t hear our requests. His followers are sometimes bewildered, but then remind themselves that God has a greater plan, or perhaps they were not worthy of His help. They pray even harder. Sometimes their prayers are answered.

Even if we have no religious belief, we still hope for a miracle.

New age practitioners charge us money to show us ways to reach our goals and substitute the word “miracle” with “manifestations”. We are told that we can create our own realities and that we can manifest our own reality. More often than not, the only thing that manifests is a huge bank account for the new age practitioners involved and yet more disillusionment for their followers.

The fact is that miracles occur every day once we have a true connection with that higher power that some call God and others refer to as a higher power, cosmic consciousness or universal love. Yet when we hear of these stories, we become cynical and filled with doubt. Rational explanations are sought and if none is available, then often, the stories are brushed away as a work of fiction.

The following account of a miracle is the absolute truth. I can assure you that my brain would be totally incapable of creating such a story. If I wanted to create a work of fiction, I would have picked a different topic, such as how I found a million dollars, rather than one about petrol and insurance companies!

What I am trying to say is that this Divine energy that is awakened when we get our self-realisation is far more creative than our human brains could ever be. We can all experience miracles.

In my early days in Sahaja Yoga and after shoe-beating my lack of permanent employment, I found myself living in Muswellbrook, a small isolated country town in NSW.

I wanted to travel from Muswellbrook to Newcastle, on to Redhead, back to Newcastle and then on to Sydney for the Sahaja Yoga program at Burwood. This was roughly a 360 km trip, but I only had ten dollars worth of petrol. I was a little worried, but I surrendered the problem to the Divine.

After reaching Newcastle with almost an empty tank, I stayed with friends. In the morning I went out to the car to get something. I quickly forgot what it was because, to my amazement, I saw a puddle of petrol in the gutter beside my car. On closer inspection, it seemed that petrol was leaking out of the tank. Devastated at the possibility of losing the precious little petrol had left I rang the NRMA.

The roadside attendant was quick to arrive. To my amazement, when he removed the petrol cap, petrol began to spurt up like a fountain. It honestly spurted up about ten centimetres from the tank opening.

The attendant asked me to move the car to the flat where he could accurately measure the pressure in the tank because he thought that this phenomenon was caused by an air lock in the tank. He tested his theories using every tool possible. Finally, he stood up, looked at me and told me that I simply had far too much petrol in my tank.

I explained that this was not possible because I had only been able to fill my car in Muswellbrook and that was with my last ten dollars, and then I had come here, gone to Redhead and then returned. He looked at me with frustration and a little irritation, saying, “You mean that you filled up down the road here when you returned? The tank is simply way overfilled,” as the miraculous fountain of petrol continued to bubble gently. I repeated what I had done. Finally, he looked at me in utter disbelief and said, ” Well, love, I don’t know what you used to get here. It must have been thin air because I’m telling you, the only thing wrong with your car is that it has too much petrol.”

He had to siphon off some of the petrol to stop the fountain. Needless to say, all needs were met those holidays.

LB

Here is a simple and practical way to understand why surrendering the ego is important.

A professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it. He held it up for all to see and asked the students, “How much do you think this glass weighs?” “50gms!”, “100gms!”, “125gms!” the students answered. “I really don’t know unless I weigh it,” said the professor, “but my question is: What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?”

“Nothing,” the students said.

“OK, what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?” the professor asked.

“Your arm would begin to ache,” said one of the students.

“You’re right. Now what would happen if I held it for a day?”

“Your arm could go numb. You might have severe muscle stress or paralysis and have to go to hospital, for sure!” ventured another student. All the students laughed.

“Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?” asked the professor.

“No,” the students said.

“Then what caused the arm ache and the muscle stress?”

The students were puzzled.

“Put the glass down!” said one of the students.

“Exactly!” said the professor.

Life’s problems are something like this. Hold it for a few minutes in your head, and they seem OK.

Think of them for a long time and they begin to ache.

Hold them even longer and they begin to paralyse you.

You will not be able to do anything.

It’s important to think of the challenges (problems) in your life, but even more important to “put them down” at the end of every day before you go to sleep.

That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh and strong, and can handle any issue, any challenge that comes your way!

Remember to PUT THE GLASS DOWN TODAY!