Last week there was a holiday in many places: Ascension Day is celebrated by the church as the day on which Jesus did not die, but was resurrected and ascended to heaven. This allegory contains a message for all people: be aware of what is possible, be aware of your potential and be aware that the death (of an idea, a job, a plan, for example) does not have to be the end.

So ascension is actually a great thing. There is another word that is not associated with positive thoughts: The Assumption Squad. It is derived from warfare, in which a group of "volunteers" is sent into a dangerous situation.

It is also often said that "everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die." Everyone wants to live a long life, but not grow old. How do we reconcile these opposites? We often don't pay much attention to the actual words, but to the thoughts and feelings we associate with them. We don't look behind the scenes.

The car remains ready to start

Yogananda is said to have left his body voluntarily: mahasamādhi, eternal meditation, is what yogis call the legendary act of consciously "dying". His embalmed body, according to the head of the mortuary Harry T. Rowe, was "free of decay even after 20 days".

Translated into an image that is closer to our reality: you can look after a car and it can still look fresh and alive and ready to go in a garage for a very long time, even if the driver has long gone ... even if the soul has left the body.

Yogananda preached and lived nondualism: polarities of above and below, left and right, hot and cold, good and evil should not determine life. The unity, the whole, was his concern.

What I would like to encourage with these thoughts is to think more consciously about what I really want, what I really want to perceive and what I want to take for granted.

Problem enthusiasm

Here is another example of a word: What do you feel when you hear the word problem? When someone says to you "We have a problem!"? Most people immediately give it a negative energy. But isn't it also called "pro and con"? Pro is a good thing!

On closer inspection, both approaches are wrong. The "pro" in problem means neither good nor bad. Problem comes from the Greek, and actually just means "submitted to the task," or more precisely: submitted to the solution.

"Houston, we have a problem" means nothing more than: Oh, there's something to do! If you listen to the recordings of the Apollo 13 astronauts, you'll be struck by how calmly they discuss their problems while trapped in a small tin can in space. Not a trace of negative energy, not a trace of panic.

So again: how do we want to go through life, with what energy, with what perspective? Who determines our point of view if we don't do it ourselves? Only we ourselves shape it.

What would it be like if we could grow very old and stay fit? How about leaving our bodies one day and then meeting again "in heaven" with enthusiasm? Or to put it very concretely in the here and now: how about we take on every challenge, every so-called problem, with enthusiasm and say: "Wow, here's something that helps me grow again!"

Because as long as we are not yet enlightened like Yogananda was, we live in polarity: there is necessarily a bottom to the top, a cold to the hot, and also - this is the good news - a solution to every problem. I wish you a wonderful energy level and a clear view of life!