Opportunity & Opportunists

How can we use an opportunity without becoming an opportunist?

First, let us look at what opportunity is. 

Opportunity is: 
1.The opening of a new task 

2.The availability of a Teacher or a learning institution
3.New discoveries which save time and energy
4.New revelations which may clear up doubt
5.New lines of communication
6.New systems of teaching which can help people meet new demands
7.A release of energy by which greater labor may be undertaken


These seven opportunities are open to those who are ready for them. A person who is ready is one who did not waste time and who used all the opportunities to prepare himself to become sensitive to future opportunities.

The difference between one who is ready and one who is an opportunist is that the one who is ready uses his opportunity to promote:

World health
World prosperity
World happiness
Global peace
Global brotherhood
Global enlightenment


An opportunist uses his opportunity to:

Satisfy separative interests
Create cleavages
Take revenge
Make others fail
Create hatred between people
Disappear
Grab a position

An opportunist works only for his own interest and at the expense of others. A person who is alert and ready to recognize his opportunity uses it not only for himself but for others.

Opportunity is a moment of time in which a previously closed door opens.

There are opportunities to do the following:

Make money
Increase our possessions
Achieve or be more
Sacrifice
Be a hero
Have a great revelation or enlightenment
Transcend oneself
Come in contact with Higher Forces

During these moments, certain energy currents become available cyclically or for the first time. Because of the presence of such energies, the opportunity presents itself.

Opportunity is composed of three factors:

1.New energies
2.Readiness
3.Need or demand

Let us take each of these factors and consider them individually.

1.New energies are the result of new stellar configurations and their relationships to the solar system and earth.
2.Readiness is the degree of an individual’s physical, mental, and spiritual development and sensitivity.
3.Need or demand pertains to people, the environment, or to celestial centers.

Higher centers need to transfer new energies. They demand that people and globes be prepared to receive these energies. Opportunity is a moment when such energies are available.

As one needs energy, higher centers need to release that energy, establish equilibrium, and then receive more energy from higher sources. Reception and delivery of energy is the process which keeps higher centers advancing.

When a person needs something, there should be a time in which his need is met. This is the moment of opportunity. If he is not prepared to meet the moment of opportunity, many moments of opportunity come and go, as if they never existed, because he was not ready to see the opportunity in them.

Those who use an opportunity to expand their field of service or share their treasures with as many people as possible develop a psychic mechanism which informs them of approaching opportunity. Thus they always have a huge wave upon which to surf.

Those who use an opportunity to satisfy their malice or hatred and for their own selfish interests gradually become increasingly insensitive to moments of opportunity. They lose the possibility of surpassing their former level of beingness and fall into the path of retrogression.

An opportunist is like a thief who waits for the moment to steal, cheat and harm. The laws of the Universe are impersonal. One can transform himself with available energy currents, or he can destroy himself with them. This means that though the laws of the Universe are impersonal, they tend toward the greater good, the Common Good, more toward universal interests than individual interests.

There are many moments which are opportunities for enlightenment.

1. Sunrise
2. Sunset
3. The full moon
4. The equinox
5. The solstice
6. A lunar or solar eclipse
7. Certain configurations of planets and stars


Sensitivity to opportunity can be developed through the spirit of:

Gratitude
Service to the Common Good
Forgiveness
Joy
Harmlessness 

These five virtues make one’s consciousness sensitive to incoming opportunities, and the individual eventually lives in a steady current of opportunity.

- Torkom Saraydarian (Leadership Series)

SMILE

What is the significance of a smile?

We are directed to take a positive attitude whenever we start doing something – to smile.

When we are trying to make a decision, or we are entering into an agreement with someone, the first thing to do is to smile. A smile will bring positive energies out of us and evoke the higher nature of the people who are talking and relating with us. Instead of stimulating the beast in others, we can evoke the angel, the beauty in them through a sincere and clear smile.

A smile is a way to harmonize ourselves with the creative forces of the Universe. When people are not smiling, they are very sad, grieved, or angry and sometimes they show various feelings in their faces. A smile is the sign, the signal of a contented, happy consciousness. This consciousness draws the attention of the creative forces of the Universe.

Smiling is very important, but it must be a smile that is a true expression of our happy, harmonious consciousness, a consciousness that is in harmony with life. This triggers the great forces in the Universe which help us improve our relationships. 

We are going to use the smile consciously, not to deceive people, but to put ourselves in happy, joyful conditions and relate with people through our joy.

The presence of a smile on our faces reveals that we are courageous and fearless.

If a person is in fear, and is not courageous, he cannot smile. But if he smiles, really smiles, it means he is receiving courage and becoming fearless even when facing dangers. When people are attacking with malice, slander and treason – smile. A smile will really crush them. Even if you are in grave danger, smile first and see what happens.

A smile is the symbol – like the icons found in certain computer programs. When you click the smile symbol, the mechanism of the whole computer works to bring positivity into expression. In another verse, Master Morya directs us to smile when we are confronting danger. A smile will suddenly give us courage so that we can destroy the obstacles.

A smile reveals that we have hope.

If something is going wrong and you lose your smile, it means that you are in the process of defeat. Even if people betray you, and come to you, smile at them. Do not show grief. But if you keep smiling, the energy of positive forces will be circulating through you.

A smile looks to the future.

If , when everything is going wrong, joy suddenly comes to you and you smile, you uplift and transcend yourself from the present condition and for one second, enter the domain of infinity, into the future and say “so what?”. This is a very great relief. All of us have had these experiences, but most of us have not consciously registered them yet.

In the movie “Zorba – The Greek”, when everything went wrong, Zorba gathered 10 or 15 friends and started dancing. That was a smile, because he showed that nothing can conquer the human spirit. This is where the smile stands. It is a very practical understanding which may save your life. Instead of wailing and moaning about life, give a nice smile.

Smile and the Joy of Resignation:

When we were reading Rabindranath Tagore, a very great poet in one of his books “Gitanjali”, he writes, “the greatest power and joy of man is the power and joy of resignation.” Resignation means conscious detachment from things with which we are identified. If we resign from our hatred, it is so beautiful. Our hatred makes us slaves. We are going to resign and leave it behind and search for something greater. How great it will be if we learn resignation. 

Thinking & States of Mind

"Thinking passes through many states due to the various states of mind".

Undeveloped State of Mind

In this state neither the brain nor the mind is developed, and there is no synchronization between them. There are centers in the brain and the etheric brain which must be developed before a person is capable of clear thinking.

As we assemble various parts of our machinery to use, in the same sense an integration and synchronization must be established in the brain and between the brain and etheric and mental centers.

Lazy Mind
In this state the brain is developed, but it is lazy. There is no energy in it but only inertia and apathy. Such a state of mind can be naturally or artificially produced. Your mind can be lazy because of drugs, marijuana, too much sex, too much work, alcohol or tobacco. All these affect the brain and make you mentally lazy.

Damaged Brain or Damaged Mind
As our brains can be damaged by accidents, hallucinogenic drugs, or excessive sex, so also can the mental body be damaged by various kinds of psychological pressures, psychic attacks, hypnotism, etc. The brain or mind can also be damaged by electric currents, radiation, or poisons.

Confused Mind
This is a state in which your mind has no goal, no direction, and no discernment. Confusion is also a state of mind in which things appear to you differently than what they exactly are. Your chaotic thoughtforms obscure your vision. A confused mind does not have certainty, a center of control, principles or standards.

Conflicting Mind
Such a mind is always split. It fights against itself. A person with a conflicting mind decides something, and the next moment he changes his decision or promise; he never fulfills his promise. He believes something, then denies it. This is a mind that assembles and disassembles. His personality is split, or his personality and soul are fighting against each other. In this stage, the awakening soul is trying to bring the personality in line and is creating conflict on the mental field.

Slave Mind
When the mind is controlled by the blind urges and drives of the physical body, by the glamors and desires of the emotional body, and by the illusions, vanity, separatism, and ego of the mental body, the mind turns into a slave and exists only to satisfy the wishes of the body, emotions, and lower mind. For example, your body wants sex, drugs, and alcohol. The slave mind says, “Yes, sir, I will try to find a way to serve your wishes.”

When your mind is a slave, even its knowledge does not help you reject the impositions of the lower bodies. This is why we say that it is not knowledge that helps your spiritual progress but your transformation and beingness.

When you discipline your personality and gain control of your lower bodies, you can experience true freedom. After gaining freedom, your lower vehicles serve your spiritual goals. Only a free mind can develop control over itself.

Preconditioned or Prejudiced Mind
Some minds act under the influence of posthypnotic suggestions. They are preconditioned. A prejudiced mind is a mind that cannot open, unfold, and expand. There are limiting walls around it. This causes the mind not to see important and essential facts and to lose opportunities for cooperation and expansion.

It is interesting to know that the human mind can be preconditioned in the fields of politics, education, philosophy, arts, sciences, religion, and economics. Preconditioned minds are always hindrances in their own field because they do not let their particular field expand and grow. Anytime a mind is prejudiced, it becomes a dangerous mind and stands against human welfare.


Fanatical Mind
This is a state which continues for many years, or sometimes – if it is connected to religion – for many lives, until the accumulating shocks of disappointments crack the walls of fanaticism and shed light into the mind. Sometimes, when a fanatic’s mind is opened, it goes to extremes, and the fanatic denies all that he had worshipped and becomes the slave of his pleasures. If a fanatic is caught at the right time by a wise person, he can be led gradually out of his shell and into new values.

Striving Mind
A striving mind tries to find new ways to solve his own problems and expand his horizons. He tries to make his existence beautiful, intelligent, healthy, prosperous, and creative. A striving mind is an awakening mind. He tries to eliminate all that was built in the past as hindrances on that path of perfection. The patterns of various habits are attacked and the vision is seen. A call is heard, and action is taken to meet the call.

These are the first signs of striving:
a)The person begins to search and ask. He tries to discover the causes of his limitations.
b)He searches for wisdom.
c)He tries to discipline his nature.
d)He tries to cultivate virtues.
e)He tries to come in contact with centers of light.

The Clear Mind
After striving comes clarity, but this is a gradual process. It takes sometimes a long time – years or lives – to achieve clarity of mind, but once it is achieved, you are almost one with the “mind which is in Christ,” the clear mind that sees things exactly as they are. A clear mind has direction, a clear goal, and a clear plan to reach that goal.

Creative Mind
After your mind achieves a state of clarity, it becomes a creative force in the Universe. You create all those artforms that make people healthier, more beautiful, more successful, more righteous, and freer.

The real artist does not entertain you and please your animal instincts by presenting violence and crimes, but through his art he evokes the divine and creative forces from you and challenges you to transcend your level of beingness.

Enlightened Mind
The enlightened mind is a mind that cooperates with the creative forces in Nature, having a deep understanding about the Purpose and the Plan of the One Who created all that exists. A person who has an enlightened mind can clearly see himself as he is and what he is going to be.

- Torkom Saraydarian.

Avatar

“Avatar” is a Sanskrit word, and it means a divine messenger, one that comes to humanity to give some light, some love, some beauty, and some culture.

Avatar also means a messenger that cyclically appears. Also, Avatar means a messenger that is coming to bridge some cleavages.

What is a cleavage?
For example, let us say, that man does not know that God exists. Many people do not know about that. That is a great cleavage. The Avatar comes and tells us that somebody exists, that there is a source of beauty, a source of power, a source of supreme intelligence, a source that thinks about us, about our future. Christ came to bridge that cleavage so that you can reach your divinity. First you start being a dignified human being, and slowly you recognize that you are not trash; you are a son or daughter of God.

These great Avatars bring integration within our nature. And it happens immediately. When you are in the presence of a great man or woman, you feel you are more together or things come together.

A boy went to meet some people that were really advanced spiritually, the first thing he saw was how weak he was, how many mistakes he has made, what he did in the past. They were revealed just in one second. Then he saw how beautiful those people were. He wanted to strive toward them. Then some inspiration came, and he became one. He said, “From now on I am going to be a good boy.”

What did he do? He made a commitment to his inner divinity. He said, “From now on, I am not going to smoke, not going to cheat, drink, do these trash things. I am going to be a good boy.” What happened? Some unification came, some togetherness in his nature. And if you apply this in respect to humanity, this Avatar comes and bridges man with the future. Every Avatar comes to reveal a great future.

VISION
You must be expanding and raising your consciousness, purifying yourself, so that you are worthy of your father (God). It is such a beautiful feeling.

A man came to a great master and said, “I went with my wife on a ship and had a nice trip. But”, he said, “there were lots of lovely girls, I was going to monkey around, but because my wife was there I didn’t want to hurt her.” If your wife is there and you do not want to monkey around, what about if God was there? Now this is what realization is. This may seem very simple to you. That is how Avatars open a great vision for your future.

So, we can say that Avatars are those divine beings that reveal the vision of the future within our consciousness. First you see the vision. Then you put yourself in order. Then you clean and break the chains and slowly, slowly say “Now, I am going”. Whether you like it or not, the vision is there and you cannot wait. That is the Avatar.

CULTURE
Another duty and responsibility of the Avatar is to bring a great culture to humanity. It started with Krishna, Buddha, then Zoroaster, Moses and then Christ. When Avatars come, you see a new culture. Why is that?

Culture means values. Avatars bring values to humanity, new values, new ideas, new visions, new beauty, new goodness, new truth. If you try to make contact with the Avatar, it is a moment of crisis and transformation for you. That is the most personal moment.

For example, a great Avatar like Christ comes, but He cannot do anything for you if you do not do anything for yourself. What are you going to do? Of course you can worship and go to church and light some candles and sing all the day – but that does not work. What are you going to do? You are going to “rub” yourself with Him, so that your iron becomes magnetic.

How are you going to rub? You are going to strive to be like Him. You are going to take His Teachings and really actualize them. He said, for example, “Love each other as I loved you”. But churches are fighting against each other. When does it work? When you really listen, assimilate, eat and digest the Teaching He gives. Or else you become a hypocrite.

An Avatar comes and brings new ideas, new visions, new revelations, and He leaves it to you to strive, to work, to labor, and to “eat” the Teaching so that you change yourself. God wants your consciousness to expand so that you know Him. In knowing Him, you are knowing yourself.

If you know that God is thinking about you and sending Great Ones to bring your consciousness higher and higher, you feel different. You are not lost in the Universe. You do not say, “There is no meaning and purpose in life”. There is purpose, there is meaning, there is a plan for your life – because somebody is watching you and someone is waiting at the gate to salute you and say, “BRAVO”.

Christ gave a parable that is very beautiful. He said there was a rich man who was giving a party, and very beautifully dressed people came. But he saw that somebody was not dressed well. He said, “You leave; you cannot come in because you are not properly dressed”. Well, what was that proper dress? It was a state of consciousness – the state of heart, the state of purity. When you have these things, you can enter into that feast of spiritual consciousness.

When is the next Avatar coming?
Many people have said “Only God knows”. They say He will appear every ten years, He is coming tomorrow. He is going to come. It is a secret. Nobody knows why.

If you have a father who does not say much and says, “You wait; when I tell you to go, then you go”. But you say, “Well, tell me when to go now.” That is ugly; that is personality, that is selfishness, that is self-interest. But if you say, “Daddy, okay. You tell me whenever you want. I am ready 24 hours a day,” that is total renunciation of the self and total humility. So that is why we do not know.

There is another very important thing here to think about. The important thing that you must remember is this – that He never left humanity. He is not coming and going. Those who have really spiritual eyes and uplifted consciousness, they are always in contact with Him.

What are you talking about – appearing and disappearing? He is always with you. And He said, “If there are three people who meet in my name, I am with them.” He never went away. You can feel Hi, even standing by you if you dedicate yourself and really purify yourself and say, “I am going to stand for the welfare of one humanity.” Look what will happen. Your whole body will electrify. That is the Avatar.

Female Avatars?
Of course. People take advantage and think Masters are men, that Avatars are men – and women are slaves. That came from many, many distorted teachings.

There are great women Avatars. The mother of Jesus is a great Avatar. Some people say, “Why is she Holy Mary?” Well, you are not the mother of the Christ. Can you be a mother of the Christ? No. She has cosmic consciousness. Christ is a great Avatar; she is a very great Avatar.

Women have a great role to play. Women in this age are more advanced than men. And women have greater responsibilities than men. This does not mean that man is nothing. It is cyclic.

When a civilization decays, it starts with the mothers. When a mother forgets her responsibility toward the children and starts fooling around and smoking, the children will become criminal. That is the situation now. If you see the ladies now-a-days smoking and drinking, it shows how they are going to raise the children.

So, if a nation degenerates, it starts from the mothers, not the fathers, because for nine months, the child is with her, inside. For nine months she is educating that child from the bones, from the nerves. If she does something wrong during those nine months, it is going to stay ninety years with the child. So you are very responsible when you are a woman.

Who wouldn’t want to be like a Christ? A man comes and falls down and says. “Master, I can’t see from childhood. I am blind.” Well, let me see what I can do.” He takes a little earth, puts it on the blind man’s eyes, and his eyes open. Do you want to be like that? Of course you want that.

Instead of wasting yourself, strive now; do something beautiful. Of course you are human. We are all human and we do many stupid things. But at least now you have the vision, the future, and you are going to strive for it. When you strive, inch by inch, you see you are so beautiful.

So the first thing is that the Avatar brings the image of your future achievement. If the Avatar comes and you are really tuned to the Avatar, the one thing you are going to do is ask, “What is my future? What am I going to be?” For example, a little seed one day sits and says, “What am I going to be?” If you tell the seed that he is going to be a big beautiful rose, look how that seed is going to strive to have that dignity and beauty. “No matter how many rains and snows are coming, I am going to be a rose. Finished! I am going to be,” and he is going to be a rose.

You are a little seed and your future is in the Avatar. YOU ARE GOING TO BE AN AVATAR. You are going to be like the Avatar because He is the image of your future, psychologically it brings you energy, integrates your system, and gives you health and mental sharpness because it puts you in tune with the principles and laws of the Universe.

That is what the Avatar does for your body, emotions, mind, thoughts, and feelings. You hated yourself, you were miserable, and every kind of think was scattered. You do not know where you are or what you are, but when the image of the Avatar starts to penetrate within you, you say, “Now I know where I am going to go.” This is the first thing that the Avatar does.

HEALING
The second thing that the Avatar does is that He heals. It is emotional healing, mental healing, spiritual healing, social healing, healing in relationships, healing in your creativity, healing in your goals. How can you have a healing in your creativity? Well, if your creativity is creating chaos, destruction, pollution in the bodies of the people, He heals you. You start reflecting the divine beauties in your creativity.

You will save lots of money from the hospitals because you do not hate. When people start hating, they literally lose calcium. When you are greedy, you accumulate super amounts of calcium in your joints.

Avatars were not talking about morality; they were really talking about health, happiness, harmony, and beauty.

In New York there was a big millionaire who had a big safe. One day he entered to see how much gold and jewels he had in the safe. When he entered, the door automatically closed. This really happened in 1947. He started to shout but nobody could hear him from the safe. They were looking. The police were running everywhere to find this man. They found him eating the gold. His whole body had gold inside. He didn’t know what to do; he became crazy.

Giving is a greater blessing than taking. Giving releases your innermost divinity and it comes and expresses through your feelings, physical body, and mind and coordinating and tunes you into divine ideas. Taking is imprisoning yourself; you are becoming one with whatever you are taking. In giving you are becoming generosity, you are becoming spirit, you are becoming love, and you are becoming beauty. The water should keep flowing. If the pipe is not flowing with new water, it has stagnated water in it and the pipe decays.

ILLUMINATION
Avatars bring illumination to our minds. What does illumination mean? Firstly, it shows you where you are, what you are, where you are going, how you are going, and the path – just like a light. If you are enlightened, you are yourself. If you are not enlightened, you sit on a chair and you say, “I am the greatest professor. I am saved. I am liberated. I am going to go to heaven.”

If you are ignorant, you think you are something, if you are enlightened, you see that you need ten million years to be something. An unenlightened man is his own end and he ends himself. He is a full stop. An enlightened man is an open door; he is his own beginning.

What does enlightenment do? If you really want to know that it is enlightenment, there is one sign. If you get enlightened, the enlightenment bugs you. It says, “Look. Look. Look! Again! Now again. My goodness. When are you going to be a human being?” If it suits you and you are happier, it is not enlightenment. It is flattery.

So beware of people who flatter you. Enlightenment never flatters. Enlightenment says, “Hey, hey, that is enough.” In enlightenment we see what we are, where we are going, where we came from, and how we are going. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, you raise yourself up and up.

One can stand here and say I am a great master, and you are my children. That is romanticism. It works with different people, it doesn’t work here. We are talking hard facts, not romanticism.

What about seeing the future, setting my eyes on the future? Yes, but you can be happier if you are bugged. For example, you see that you are going to be a son of God, but in the meantime you are robbing, lying, this or that, and telling yourself, “You are doing well. You are happy.” You are happy but not happy. One must be bugged to be really happy because when you are bugged, you are overcoming your shortcomings and making yourself a better human being. Always be in joy and happiness. But what about the little things that are happening? Are you seeing them? Don’t be attached to them, but know that they are the things that eventually make your tires flat on the road.

Enlightenment is acceptance of your failures and shortcomings and mistakes. Unless you accept your mistakes, you are not seeing what wrong you did, and you are blaming other people for your not obeying the law. That is your test. If you are doing wrong and you realize it and correct yourself, you are closer to your destiny and your future than if you are happier with your wrongs and start blaming other people.

Enlightenment is a gradual process
You must understand that it is a gradual, slow process. Every time you are enlightened, the test is the bugging. If you pass the bugging, you are good. Immediately if your conscience says you are doing something wrong and you say, “No, I am right”, you didn’t pass.

A teacher used to tell how we can know the truth. He says, “Truth is sour”. For example, if somebody comes and starts talking about what you are exactly, what you did in the past, you will be so mad because he is revealing what you are. You don’t like to be revealed exactly. Nobody wants that – because the world will see you as you are. The truth is always sour.

Another quality of Avatars
•Avatars reveal an aspect of divinity that was not revealed before. For example, we read how Buddha came and said, “The principle is light. We must strive only to be light, speak light, think light, act in the light.” Another aspect of God is love, and Christ came and told us that God is love.

•Everybody thinks that the easiest thing is to love, but love is the most difficult thing to do. Did you know that? When people have a personal, physical, emotional attachment, monkey business, and emotions and pleasures, they say, “We love. That is love.” That is not the love we are talking about.

•You have been disappointed many times, haven’t you? What happened? You are disappointed in your love, by the people that loved you. The next day love evaporated. It is not love. It is a very, very difficult thing to love because to love means total self-forgetfulness. You are going to resign from yourself in the self of another person. Can you do that? There is no selfishness. That is how an Avatar becomes an Avatar.

•Avatars are those people who decentralize themselves. Eventually, gradually, they lose sight of themselves and live only for humanity. They become Avatars. They totally resign from themselves, from their own interests.

•The next Avatar is going to reveal another power of God – the will energy.

•So, Avatars are great, great beings, and one thing that makes us really advance is that we look to the Avatars and we try to improve our lives. Don’t lie and cheat yourself. Don’t hide from yourself. It is the greatest calamity when a man starts to play hide-and-seek with himself.

•It is a very dirty game when you start hiding from yourself instead of seeking yourself. It is so bad because you are in hypocrisy with yourself.

•Always corner yourself and say, “Hey, I know you did wrong; come on, you can improve.” Then you have a chance to be a great Avatar in the future.

•But the first step is decentralization. An Avatar is One Who has no center in Himself. God is His center. He has resigned from Himself. He does not say, “I live.” He says, “He that is within Me lives.” He doesn’t exist anymore. He is an open window and He does not exist.

•But if you see people who say they know who they are, they are beautiful, they are liberated and saved – be careful. They are still spinning around their own spine.

- Torkom Saraydarian.