Wisdom is more than intelligence.

Lakshmi reminds us to set our goals for each day. First, bring wealth into your life. Remember, wealth is more than just material gain – it also encompasses your health. Find pleasure in the simple things, like enjoying time with family and friends. Create harmony – flow with life and find liberation, the ability to observe life, letting things come and go without attachment or resistance to change. Find these each day, and you will discover wisdom. Science defines our wisdom as crystallized intelligence. This means that as we age and gather experience, our minds hold a vast amount of knowledge that we can draw upon. Young brains may be quicker, but older brains can more readily reach for a solution to a problem or make a decision because of experience and crystallized intelligence. Would we call this wisdom? Perhaps we could, but wisdom is so much more than experience and knowledge crystallized into accessible information. It’s not how much information you store, but how you use it that keeps you on the soulful path. Wisdom is more than intelligence. Wisdom lies in recognizing that everything is constantly changing, so don’t become too attached to anything. Balance is needed as it keeps us grounded and centered. Flexibility keeps us curious, flowing, and open. Strength allows us to endure life’s challenges, and peace brings comfort and an understanding of what really matters in life – health and happiness. Understanding this, you are wise. Let’s get to work. END: Along the soulful path, there will be many divergences and zigs and zags. From here to there is never a straight line. There will be times when you wander so far off the path that you will get lost. You may get caught up in the maya of life and lose touch with what is real. But if you stay on the soulful path, you will learn how to use the world to realize your highest potential without letting the world use you. This is how you master life and prosper. Karma yoga teaches us that everything is simply a matter of cause and effect. What you think, say, and do is what you become. Aim each day to bring wealth, pleasure, harmony, and liberation to yourself and to the world. When you aim for these four directions while working your karma, you will discover the wisdom to live your life with balance, strength, faith, and peace. EGO: Flip your palms up and extend out your index finger – the symbol of the ego. Watch out for the ego's desire to always be right and to be all-knowing. Having access to information and using it to feel superior is not wisdom. Wisdom is more about crystallized information. Pull your finger in a place where the thumb is on top. Take a breath and surrender to the soul. The soul is the observer of life. Quietly watching life without attachment. When we are truly content, we find peace. Wisdom is the realization that time has wings; it flies, so don’t waste it on the four great passions: deceit, greed, anger, and pride, but rather focus on truth, generosity, kindness, and humility, and you will be a wise soul living a peaceful life. Just remember—you never step into the same river twice. Choose wisely, walk softly, and stay on the soulful path. Namaste~ may you walk the path of life with health, happiness, and peace. Doctor Lynn

LIBERATION – what does it mean to be free?

Don’t confuse liberation with having the freedom to do whatever you choose. Liberation means to reach a level of peace with life just as it is - it means to become the observer of life free of disturbance and judgment. Liberation is being able to accept the ever-changing aspects of life. Everything in nature is constantly changing, right down to the molecules and cells of your body. Change is the only absolute, so why is it so difficult for us to accept it? We seek out the permanent aspect of everything because it makes us feel safe, content, and connected. We try to control the impermanent aspects of life because the unknown causes us to feel anxious and fearful. But impermanence is exactly what we need if we are to find the ultimate prize of life, and that is liberation, the freedom to accept things and to let them come and go without attachment. We will always need food and shelter. We will always seek love and acceptance, and we will always feel fear and anxiety. This is a part of human nature. But if we can develop the ability to pause and catch a breath at the wonders of life, we will realize that everything is simply an opportunity to learn, know, and master our existence in a state of peace and harmony. Become the peaceful observer of life, and you will discover liberation. END: Be grateful for liberation. The more we discover and live by it, the freer we become. Freedom means to let go, accept, and then do what will bring about the greatest good. If we could liberate ourselves from prejudices and biases (and we all have them), we would, in our hearts, find gratitude for the most important things in our lives: family, health, nature, happiness, peace, and liberation. If you control your mind, you control everything. When there is nothing to bind you, you are now liberated. EGO: Flip your palms up and extend out the index finger – the symbol of the ego. The ego, our protector, is constantly seeking permanence. We like to feel secure and in control. But remember what might be meaningful today might be meaningless tomorrow. Everything in life is continually changing. Pull your finger in and place your thumb on top. Take a breath and surrender to your soul. When you encounter life's hassles and mindful ripples, try to bring yourself back to this place, even for a moment. Accept change and then act in ways that are for the greatest good, and in this, you will discover liberation. Liberation does not mean the freedom to do and say whatever you want. It actually means control. If you control your mind by accepting change, you control everything – when there is nothing to bind you – and you are liberated. Namaste~ may you walk the path of life with health, happiness, and peace. Doctor Lynn For consultations, books, classes and more http://www.doctorlynn.com

Practice Harmony – remove violence.

The main source of disharmony is the violence that exists within the mind; therefore, we should strive for nonviolence in our thoughts, our speech, and our actions, and this will lead to harmony. On a soulful level, harmony signifies the alignment and balance between one’s inner world and the universe. It represents a state of peace, unity, and understanding of life’s highest purpose. It is a symbol of cooperation and connection, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in achieving a shared goal. Harmony reminds us that we are not separate entities but rather parts of a unified whole, actively participating in the universal dance of oneness. What disrupts harmony is violence. According to karma, violence is an obstacle to the practice of living a harmonious life. These obstacles are: 1 to do violence or be untruthful to another person 2. To do violence or be untruthful to oneself 3. To allow others to do violence or be untruthful 4 To encourage others to do violence or be untruthful These thoughts give rise to deceit, greed, anger, and pride. Therefore, we should strive to practice truthfulness, generosity, kindness, and humility, and this will bring harmony into our lives. It takes balance, strength, flexibility, and peace to live a harmonious life – takes work, - that’s karma, let’s get started. END: To combat violence and create harmony, we should avoid using abusive words, insulting statements, angry speech, and giving bad advice, and instead speak softly, gently, truthfully, and wisely. There is a saying: a wound caused by an arrow heals swiftly, but a wound caused by violent speech heals very slowly. The dignity of your soul is the dignity of every soul. We should come to understand that the spirit found in bacteria is not so small, and the spirit of an elephant is not so large. EGO: Flip your palms up and extend the index finger, which is the symbol of the ego. Feel it pull you from your center. By cultivating harmony, we develop compassion and understanding with all our relationships on Earth. We move from being separate and bound by the ego to merging past the barriers that keep us apart and at odds. When we develop impartiality towards all things in the world, we become one force of energy that endures under all circumstances. However, impartiality does not mean to be indifferent. It means to be undisturbed by the ebb and flow of life. This is how we create harmony. Pull your finger in and place your thumb on top. Feel the gentle surrender back to your soul. Harmony requires that we act nonviolently with commitment, understanding, patience, forgiveness, a lot of hard work, compromise, balance, flexibility, strength, and respect. It means to put aside our attachment to being right, or even being wrong, and come back to the present moment and do what it takes to remove discord. All of life is equal, but different, and that is what makes life so interesting. Harmonize with life, and the obstacles that block your success will be removed, and you will prosper. Namaste~ may you walk the path of life with health, happiness, and peace. Doctor Lynn For classes, books, consultation, and more, http://www.doctorlynn.com

The Four Aims or Directions that Lead to Prosperity - PLEASURE

Lakshmi has four hands and four aims or directions for us to seek every day. The first is wealth, and the second is pleasure. We cannot bargain with life, but we can come to understand that all of life is a process that involves experiencing both pleasure and pain. It reminds us not to take our lives for granted. Enjoy the pleasure found in the moments; earth life is short. But we must constantly be reminded to keep everything in balance, lest we tip the scale from pleasure to pain. Pay attention to your cravings and your desires. We are here on earth to understand our existence and to see how we can use all the experiences of life to broaden our knowledge. You cannot bargain with life or death, but you can make peace with these two opposing forces through good character, soulful aims, restraint, dutifulness, knowledge, and the choices you consciously make. Pleasure has both a physical and an emotional aspect. Pleasure is comprised of five layers; it is sensual, loving, has a purpose, is creative, and exercises free will. All of these layers are important to humans. They please us, but equally bring us pain if we are not careful with our karma; pay attention to what and how you think, speak, and act. Just remember all things in moderation. A wise person will always choose to do what is good over sheer pleasure. This can be interpreted in several ways. One way is that a wise person will choose what is good over the joy of comfort, or a wise person will choose to seek pleasure through effort and depth over laziness and superficiality. Let’s get to work. END In addition to being necessary for your survival, pleasure has many levels and layers. Just remember, it can also be destructive if we allow pleasure to control our desires to the point of pain and addiction. But pleasure at the deeper layers of our being instills beauty, and when pleasure and beauty come together, we truly understand the importance of enjoying the real pleasures of life. It’s not pleasure that destroys the good. It is deceit and greed. We sometimes greedily deceive ourselves into believing we need more. That is why yoga teaches us to enjoy the pleasures of life, but always in moderation and never to excess. It is our desire for excess that tips pleasure into pain. But pleasure at the deeper layers of our being instills beauty, and when pleasure and beauty come together, we truly understand the importance of enjoying the real pleasures of life. EGO – flip up your palms and extend out your index finger. Feel it pull you from your center. The greatest pleasure comes from the depth of our soul. When we truly experience something, with full involvement, by tapping into its essence, we discover the true nature of pleasure. We sometimes refer to this as being in the flow or in the moment. Whether it is eating chocolate, sipping a great wine, buying a gift, making love, or spending tons of money, it’s not pleasure that should be avoided, but the greedy, deceitful, self-serving nature of the ego. The ego always wants and thinks it deserves more! Pull your ego in (index finger) and place your thumb (the symbol of your soul) on top. The soul will always remind you to practice moderation in all things and in all things be moderate. With this, you will discover true wealth and soulful pleasures. The more aware you are of the nature of pleasure, the more likely you are to discover it and use it wisely. It’s not pleasure that destroys the good. It is deceit and greed. Choose to do good over comfort, laziness, and superficiality. Namaste~ may your soul walk with health, happiness, and peace. Doctor Lynn For books, classes, private consultation, and more http://www.doctorlynn.com