Deepak Chopra - The Chopra Foundation

Daily Inspiration

Purpose is activated only when you have receptivity. Awareness is the key to achieving what the universe has planned for you. – Deepak Chopra

Understanding the lesson in everything happens for a reason and trying to make sense of profound grief. I volunteer with a small animal rescue and it is my greatest life passion. I could not imagine not doing it despite the hard work and sadness involved. The moments of joy outweigh the harder times and I truly love the work I do with the animals.
Recently my nightmare of all nightmares happened. I have always sworn that I would never intentionally or purposefully hurt an animal. I struggle to admit that this is not the case anymore as a few weeks ago while I was cleaning out the exercise pen, one of the rabbits got under my foot as I stepped down and I ended up stepping on her. It all happened so fast and I was physically sick as I picked her up and held her as she passed from this world.
I told her that I loved her, I was soooo sorry and to please pass on so she would not suffer. She did pass before I could even get to the car with her.
It has been a few weeks now and I cannot seem to get past the guilt, the GRIEF and the pain. I was supposed to be there for her and I hurt her. I cannot stop the images that flood into my head each day and if there was any way possible to undo what happened I would do anything to make it so.
I know that there is a lesson to learn from all tragedy and things happen for a reason but I struggle with this one.
I have searched the net and asked my closest friends but I still am unable to find any meaning in this.
I pray that you can help me with some direction as the grief and guilt are making each day a struggle. I don’t know where to turn. Please help.

Walking the Pathless Path

In the memoir Eat, Pray, Love, writer Elizabeth Gilbert gives up her entire way of life to spend a year traveling the world, finding spiritual enlightenment along the way. Julia Roberts, who plays Gilbert’s character in the movie version out this week, apparently found enlightenment of her own through the role, revealing that she has become a practicing Hindu.As Joan Ball asks in a Guest Voices post, “Is it possible to live a life of deep, transformational faith without dropping everything and hitting the road?” In your tradition, what is the aim of the spiritual journey?

Sometimes a lesson has to be repeated for thousands of years, not because it wasn’t learned the first time but because new people arrive on the scene. The lesson I’m thinking of was Siddhartha’s, a prince on the Nepalese border of northern India. He dropped everything and hit the road, becoming the original, or at least the most famous, dharma bum. He traveled from master to master with his begging bowl, seeking enlightenment. As Gautama the monk he became impressively austere. Instead of a loving wife, a warm bed, and feasts he tried the opposite: solitude, sleeping by the wayside, and whatever scraps of food he could beg for. (more…)