The universe is a mirror...

Present | A Newsletter from The Ayamanatara Foundation:

"The Universe that you perceive yourself to be living in is nothing mored than a mirror for the lessons you have chosen to experience. That is to say, if someone is meeting you with an attitude that rubs you the wrong way, this is most likely because you yourself carry that attitude or its roots inside of you and are projecting them out into the world. By being confronted with thtem from an outisde source, you are giving yourself the opportunity to change.

This is the true meaning of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you want to met with generosity, project generosity out into the world, i.e. act with generosity. If you want to met with compassion, patience, or kindness, those are the qualities you must project out into the world.

Another component to this is that, if someone close to you is the catalyst for you feeling a certain way, then is is very likely that they are also feeling that way. For expample, if I feel taken for granted by someone, it entirely possible that this person feels taken for granted by me. Since the only thing you have control over are your own actions and reactions, and the world is a mirror for your own growth opportunities, they way to affect change in this situation is to make sure that I am not, in fact, taking the other person for granted.

This is also at least partly what Gandhi meant by Be the change that you want to see in the world."