Daily Positive Thoughts: June 14, 2013: Easy Does It
Orana Wildlife Park - New Zealand!
Easy Does It
Steer easily through life by keeping a light touch on the controls, and a strong sense of humour.
When you are content you can give the experience of contentment to others too.
Each day check if you are content with what you are doing. Also check if others are content with what you are doing in your life. If there is an experience of contentment within yourself others will be content with you. At the end of each day, make a mental list of all that you have attained for the day, things that you are happy about. This will enable you to be content even during the phase when things are not going so smooth, because you are able to look at the positive aspect too.
Natural Qualities and Acquired Qualities
When we look at ourselves from outside we can only see the surface of what we have become. We can't see or perhaps cannot even imagine the inner core (center), which, like in the example of the coconut, is the only part that really can nourish us and give us energy. The shell (in the case of the coconut) serves as a protection but we certainly can't eat it.
In our case, the core (center) consists of natural or inner qualitiessuch as peace, love, power, truth, happiness and so on. The shell is the ego which consists of features or personality characteristics we have acquiredthrough the journey of our lives such as experiences, abilities, memories, learning, habits and beliefs - in short, all that we are referring to when we say: 'I am so-and-so, from such-and-such family or organization or city'.
While we are limited to these acquired characteristics, our true qualities remain inaccessible. Through deep reflection and meditation we can break the shell and activate our inner qualities from which our values or principles are born.
Soul Sustenance
The Hurting Of The Ego
Almost everyday or every second day we come across a situation when someone says something to us which is not very pleasurable or we chose to perceive it to be so. In either case, we feel insulted and get upset as a result. In some cases we react and display our feelings. In some, we don't. In either case, the result is a depreciation (decrease) in our happiness index. Why does this happen? It's because you have created, attached to and identified with an image of yourself in your mind that does not match with how the other sees or perceives you, as a result of which you believe you have been insulted and you get upset. As long as people's perception of you matches the image that you have created inside your mind of your self, you are content with them, but as soon as the opposite happens, even if its to a very small extent, you become disturbed, because you are attached to that image. The more the attachment, the greater the hurt, the disturbance or reaction. You could examine this phenomenon very closely, taking place inside yourself everyday.
This kind of attachment mentioned above is called ego. That's why the phenomenon explained above is called in common language 'the hurting of the ego'. We commonly use the terms 'my ego got hurt' or 'I think your ego got hurt'. 'You hurt my ego' is nothing but 'you hurt or harmed the image that I carry of myself with me each second everyday.' Because I carry it with me all the time, I have become attached to it. e.g. If, on a particular day, you reach home late from office and your wife, who is angry with you, accuses of not being a family man and one who doesn't give enough time to her and the children. Your reasons for reaching home late may be genuine or not, your wife may be right or wrong on that particular day. In either case, you carry an image of yourself, all the time, as being a very loving, caring father and husband, who has been responsible for the all-round growth and development of the family in all respects since the family was created. Your wife's words basically pinch that invisible image, as a result of which you feel insulted and hurt and you react angrily, not necessarily in front of your wife, but it could be in front of someone else or even just internally. The image that we all carry of our selves is made of various traits or characteristics, obviously the characteristics of each one's self-created image are different. These characteristics of the image may or may not actually exist inside the real self, but whenever someone challenges any of those characteristics or tries to suggest to us that one of those characteristics is not ours or does not exist inside us, we react.
Message for the day
To be powerful is to fly easily over the biggest obstacle.
Expression: When there is an awareness of the inner strength, difficult circumstances seem very easy to cross over. Nothing seems difficult or as a big obstacle, but the inner strength gives the power to very easily and quickly cross over all difficult and challenging situations.
Experience: When I have the power to fly, i.e., to go above the situations, I do not feel the bondage of the situation. So when I am up above everything down below (even the biggest mountain) seems very tiny and insignificant. So there is quick and steady progress experienced even when there are difficult situations in my life.
The Hurting Of The Ego
Almost everyday or every second day we come across a situation when someone says something to us which is not very pleasurable or we chose to perceive it to be so. In either case, we feel insulted and get upset as a result. In some cases we react and display our feelings. In some, we don't. In either case, the result is a depreciation (decrease) in our happiness index. Why does this happen? It's because you have created, attached to and identified with an image of yourself in your mind that does not match with how the other sees or perceives you, as a result of which you believe you have been insulted and you get upset. As long as people's perception of you matches the image that you have created inside your mind of your self, you are content with them, but as soon as the opposite happens, even if its to a very small extent, you become disturbed, because you are attached to that image. The more the attachment, the greater the hurt, the disturbance or reaction. You could examine this phenomenon very closely, taking place inside yourself everyday.
This kind of attachment mentioned above is called ego. That's why the phenomenon explained above is called in common language 'the hurting of the ego'. We commonly use the terms 'my ego got hurt' or 'I think your ego got hurt'. 'You hurt my ego' is nothing but 'you hurt or harmed the image that I carry of myself with me each second everyday.' Because I carry it with me all the time, I have become attached to it. e.g. If, on a particular day, you reach home late from office and your wife, who is angry with you, accuses of not being a family man and one who doesn't give enough time to her and the children. Your reasons for reaching home late may be genuine or not, your wife may be right or wrong on that particular day. In either case, you carry an image of yourself, all the time, as being a very loving, caring father and husband, who has been responsible for the all-round growth and development of the family in all respects since the family was created. Your wife's words basically pinch that invisible image, as a result of which you feel insulted and hurt and you react angrily, not necessarily in front of your wife, but it could be in front of someone else or even just internally. The image that we all carry of our selves is made of various traits or characteristics, obviously the characteristics of each one's self-created image are different. These characteristics of the image may or may not actually exist inside the real self, but whenever someone challenges any of those characteristics or tries to suggest to us that one of those characteristics is not ours or does not exist inside us, we react.
Message for the day
To be powerful is to fly easily over the biggest obstacle.
Expression: When there is an awareness of the inner strength, difficult circumstances seem very easy to cross over. Nothing seems difficult or as a big obstacle, but the inner strength gives the power to very easily and quickly cross over all difficult and challenging situations.
Experience: When I have the power to fly, i.e., to go above the situations, I do not feel the bondage of the situation. So when I am up above everything down below (even the biggest mountain) seems very tiny and insignificant. So there is quick and steady progress experienced even when there are difficult situations in my life.
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