How to Use the Experiences of Life

• Bitter or better• Difference is the

letter ‘I.’ Up to you.

1. Examine your past2. Extract the lessons you learned3. Exploit the experiences of others4. Employ your experiences to

encourage and Help others.

1. Examine

• Don’t just live your life, think about it• That job was a good experience• I really enjoyed that class• Look behind the good and the bad• Unexamined experience is wasted

Failures Important

Why didn't it work? What went wrong? Look for a pattern. Don't waste the hurt Don’t waste the pain.

Failure to Inquire“Out of so many human beings who are suffering, there are a few who are actually inquiring about their position, as to what they are, why they are put into this awkward position. Unless one is awakened to this position of questioning his suffering, unless he realizes that he doesn't want suffering but rather wants to make a solution to all suffering, then one is not to be considered a perfect human being.”Intro Bhagavad Gita

“Athato brahma jijnasa. Every activity of the human being is to be considered a failure unless he inquires about the nature of the Absolute. Therefore those who begin to question why they are suffering or where they came from and where they shall go after death are proper students for understanding Bhagavad-gita.”

All living entities within the material creation are conditioned by material nature because of their forgetfulness of their relationship to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Repeated HistoryThe fool never learns from mistakes. Why? He's not teachable. Experience does not teach everybody. Experience only teaches the teachable. Experience only helps those people who stop and examine the experiences they've had.

2. Extract the Lessons You Learned

• Insights, principles, truths• Not ‘why’ but ‘what.’• Experience is an educator• Grow up & mature & see lessons in

everyday life.

HARIBOLOOOO

yajnarthat karmano 'nyatraloko 'yan karma-bandhanahtad-artha karma kaunteyamukta-sanga samacara

Work done as a sacrifice for Krishna has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Gita 4/9

Two Rules in the School of Experience

1. If you flunk the test the first time you just keep taking the test until you pass it. If you flunk it Krishna will give you another chance.

2. Just about the time you think you've graduated Krishna makes up a new course. Just about the time you think, "I've matured and I've got it all together" Krishna says, "No, you've got a whole lot more to go."

We experience happiness and distress according to the moral and spiritual quality of our activities. We are responsible for what we do. Dhrtarastra was falsely and obsessively attached to his evil-minded sons, forgetting that he alone would have to suffer for his imprudent behavior.

3. Exploit the Experiences of Others

Get yourself into a network and learn from other people. The average person in life learns from experience. The wise person learns from the experiences of others. The fools learn from neither.

Ask the right questions

• Krishna brings people into your life to pull wisdom out of them

• From some we learn what to do and others what not to do

tasyaiva me 'nuraktasyaprasritasya hetainasaù

sraddadhanasya bälasyadantasyanucarasya ca

“I was very much attached to those sages. I was gentle in behavior, and all my sins were eradicated in their service. In my heart I had strong faith in them. I had subjugated the senses, and I was strictly following them with body and mind. SB 1.5.30”

These are the necessary qualifications of a prospective candidate who can elevate to the position of a pure devotee. Such a candidate must always seek the association of pure devotees. He himself must be plain and gentle to receive the instructions of such a pure devotee. A pure devotee knows the Personality of Godhead as the supreme proprietor and all others as His servitors. By the association of pure devotees, one can get rid of all sins accumulated by mundane association. A neophyte devotee must faithfully serve the pure devotee, and he should be very much obedient and strictly follow the instructions. These are the signs of a devotee who is determined to achieve success even in the existing duration of life.

Golden Advice

• I’ve been there, made the same mistake

• Recovery groups, 12 steps

• The richest source of human experience is the Scripture. • Biographies slanted for or against• Scripture truth..thoroughly honest men• Good, bad, & ugly

tad-vag-visargo janatagha-viplavoyasmin prati-çlokam abaddhavaty apinämäny anantasya yaso nikitani yatsrinvanti gäyanti ghrnanti sädhavah

"On the other hand, that literature which is full with descriptions of the transcendental glories of

the name, fame, form and pastimes of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a transcendental

creation meant to bring about a revolution in the impious life of a misdirected civilization. Such

transcendental literatures, even though irregularly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by

purified men who are thoroughly honest."SB Introduction

Only by devotional service

• Arjuna was a great devotee, impetuous

• Bhima - angry• Yudhisthir - rigid• Droupadi - prideful

Experience can be misleading

• Magician, beautiful woman disappear and lion come

• Elevator joke• Sadhu, sastra, guru

Subjectivity

Experience can be caused by all different kinds of things -- drugs, personality, slight of hand. What you need is a standard rather than just say, "I felt it, therefore it must be right." What is that standard? Krishna's Word. It's always the truth.

Whimsy

"I think Krishna wants me to run out from my wife and marry this other woman." "Why?" They say, "I feel it's the right thing to do. Krishna wants me to be happy and therefore it's the right thing to do." Let's look at what the Gita says.

“He who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his own whims attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination.” Gita 6/27

4. Employ Experiences to Help Others

• Extended families no longer• Fragments society, no network

New Network

• The temple older men & women• Critical need today• Who are you sharing your

experiences with? If you've been alive more than ten years you've got some experience.

Ther e is an untapped wealth of exper ience sit t ing in this r oom r ight now that is going unused. Incr edible talent , incr edible exper ience. Kr ishna's br ought us together f r om all dif fer ent kinds of backgr ounds. He's shaped us all dif fer ent ly. Kr ishna br ought you to this chur ch family because you have something needful to of fer . God made you for a pur pose and He's given you exper iences for a pur pose and you have something to of fer . You need to of fer it for your own emot ional health, physical health, spir itual, mental health.

You need to of fer it and Kr ishna expects you to of fer it . Some of you have exper ienced deep hur t in your lives -- the death of a loved one, a painful divor ce that r ipped your hear t out , an illness, cancer , you got laid of f at wor k, you went thr ough a bankr uptcy, your kids f lipped out and went of f on dr ugs, you had a major cr isis, you exper ienced some kind of hur t . Kr ishna expects you to use that hur t to to encour age and help other s who ar e going thr ough similar cr ises.

• What good is holding inside

• Don’t waste hurts

Examine, learn, extract, employ, and encourage

For 11 weeks we've looked at how Kr ishna has made you unique and shaped you, how He's given you spir itual gif ts and a Hear t and Abilit ies and Per sonality and Exper iences. You ar e unique! God's shaped you to be unique, but why? He didn't put for th all that ef for t just so you could keep it to your self . He did it so you would be shaped for signif icance, that your life would mat ter , that you would make an impact with your life that nobody else could because your exper iences ar e unique. He's saying, Use them to help other people.

“Kr ishna, I give You all that I am. I owe it to You however gr eat or lit t le; it belongs to You. I want to give You the exper iences of my past good and bad. I want to give You the schedule of my pr esent . And I want to give You the potent ial of my tomor r ow. I want to be available to be used for the pur pose you cr eated me for . Help me to discover my signif icance for the glor y of God & uplif tment of mankind” Om Tat Sat