Spiritual practices

Very good question. Is it possible to become enlightened without spiritual practices and only through the grace of Divinity? That is very true. You could never become enlightened without the grace of Divinity. That is very, very true. You cannot even move a finger without the grace of Divinity and you talk of enlightenment, because enlightenment itself is grace, with the grace from Divinity, which pours in you and through you, you become that grace. Now how can you become that grace or receive grace if you don’t do anything about it. If you are hungry, you have to eat food. If you are thirsty, you have to drink water, so there is action involved in drawing the grace. The flower grows through the grace of God. Yes, but you still have to nurture the flower. You have to use fertiliser and water it and prune and all these things have to be done for the flower to grow. And you’re all beautiful flowers. Some perhaps a bit wilted. Ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine of the flowers human flowers in the world are wilted. We have to admit that. Because to have that infinite grace and be filled with grace then you are perfected, perfected in the relative sense. Fine. So we have to nurture the flower of this human life through spiritual practices. So we make ourselves ready and then grace automatically comes. Do not aim for grace or demand grace. Never. Then you will become a beggar. ‘O Lord give me your grace, Lord give me your grace’. You are Divine you do not need to beg. You do not need to be a beggar, you’re a king.

 There was this one beggar who was a Sage and the King heard so much about this man, very poor man, beggar.  But he was such a spiritual giant.  So the King heard about him and invited the beggar to his Palace.  So very reluctantly this beggar went to the Palace and as he was shown in, as he was shown in to the Palace, he had to wait in the Ante-room until the King was ready to receive him but the door was slightly ajar and he heard the King praying, ‘O Lord give me greater wealth in my Treasury.  O Lord give me greater lands.  Let my Empire grow more and more.  O Lord grant me this and give me that’.  So this beggar was listening to the King and when the King came out he spoke to the King a bit and started walking away.  So the King says «Please great Sage, do not walk away from the Palace, I will give you anything you ask for».   So the beggar replied «I don’t beg from beggars».  Do you see?

So you do not need to beg, but you have to prepare yourself.  You do not need to beg for the fresh air to come into this hall, open the windows and opening the windows are your spiritual practices.  So the readiness must be within us and everything comes.  Everything comes.  And those that are deserving will receive more.  The more you are deserving, the more you will get.  Never demand and never beg.  It does not work.  I’ve said this before, make your garden beautiful.  You don’t need to call the butterflies.  If a garden is beautiful, the butterflies come on their own.  You cannot demand or command the butterflies to come.  So we do our spiritual practices to integrate our minds bodies and spirits.  So where is grace?  I knew a girl that lived in Capetown, one of our meditators.  Where is grace?  Grace is not outside you at all.  Grace is within you.  Grace is another name for God and another name for God is the spirit the Kingdom of heaven.  Within the spirit, that is grace.