July 4

On This Special Day, Make a Resolution

You all want to fly high. You want independence, liberty, happiness, but you don’t want to do anything to get it. At least on a day like this you should reaffirm your interest in your practices and know that nobody has ever achieved anything without practice. Selfless service is all right. But even to do the service correctly, with the proper attitude, with proper physical energy, you have to tune up your body and mind.

If the battery is weak, your quartz clock won’t run. You have to charge your battery. That’s where the personal practices come in. Snatch a little bit of time somehow to wind your clock, and then throughout the day you can unwind. It seems to be the other way around. In your activities, you get wound up. You should be unwinding. Make a new resolution that, “Yes, I am going to let my flag fly. Let it rise up my flagpole, through my practices.” Keep the post straight by the Yoga postures. Pull the strings by proper breathing. Raise the flag of consciousness. Then you won’t have to do anything else. The result will be there.

On this beautiful day my sincere wish and prayer is that all of you will really put your effort into experiencing this joy of liberty.