Daily Positive Thoughts: January 06, 2014: Self Awareness

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 06, 2014: Self Awareness

Self Awareness

A beautiful state of being is soul-consciousness, where your whole sense of self is shifted from a physical identity to a spiritual one. In soul-consciousness, you no longer feel yourself to be male or female, black or white. No worldly achievement forms your self-esteem. Instead self-esteem is shaped by a deep, abiding experience of your intrinsic worth as a child of God. A lack of soul-consciousness puts your well-being at the mercy of your environment - you become a slave to the influences of the people and situations around you - feeling happy and good only when outside events warrant it. This kind of dependency leaves the soul weak and confused. Soul-consciousness, on the other hand, frees you from external influences, allowing you to create an inner well being which is totally independent.Dadi Janki

Energy Loss

In the normal course of the day, do we know where are thoughts are
going? Do we have the strength to focus and direct them where we want
them to go? We are normally unaware of the amount of energy that is
contained in each and every thought. If we were aware we would pay
attention to conserve and utilize it in a beneficial manner. At a time
when the world's resources is the lowest we are throwing away
enormous quantities of thought by having negative and waste thoughts.
Just like the body gets tired when we use up the physical energy, the
mind gets fatigued giving rise to frustration, boredom and tension. We
need to examine the self and see how our energy is lost.

Resolving The Inner Identity Crisis

At the present moment in human history, almost every individual has lost the awareness of its real or true self. This has happened very gradually as each individual has progressed in its journey of birth-rebirth and has kept on attaching itself to various different things and as a result losing its sense of self in things that it is not i.e. identifying with things that it is not. In a way it can be said that this took the self far away from itself.

This personal, internal identity crisis has led to a universal, external identity crisis, which has resulted in an emotional crisis resulting in peacelessness and sorrow in our inner world as well as in the outer world.

This inner identity crisis is the root cause of the multitude of deformed emotions that exist inside us like anger, ego, lust, fear, comparison with others, greed, hatred, low self esteem, dependencies etc. all of which have brought us and keep on bringing us pain.

We explain this with an example - suppose you have just constructed a new apartment. While making it and once its ready and you are using it, you have become excessively attached to it i.e. you have started identifying with it. Due to this false identification, the first emotion that gets created inside you is ego. If someone were to criticize the apartment even slightly, you would react immediately with anger. You constantly fear any sort of harm to the apartment. You even compare it with apartments that others possess. You also start looking down at people whose apartment is not as good as yours i.e. you create emotions of hatred for them.

If something negative were to happen it, it affects your mental state immediately i.e. your happiness has become dependent on the material possession. Your temporary success along with the recognition that it brings you from others leads to the desire of more success of a similar type i.e. possess some more things - bigger and better, which is nothing but greed etc. The seed of all these incorrect emotions is my over-identification with this newly acquired possession. All of these wouldn't exist inside me, if my relationship with was one of detachment with it. In this way, we identify with various objects and people in the whole day, which leads to the creation of such emotions inside us.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance

The Power To Decide

Sometimes, there are certain situations where I'm not so much faced with a choice between truth and falsehood where the power to discern (discriminate) is required, but I have to balance competing aims or priorities in deciding on a course of action. There's great value in getting this right, because poor judgment can entangle me in consequences from which it might take years to recover. If I'm deflected because of my attachments or desires, I'll lose my ability to decide accurately.

Understanding myself as a soul, and keeping my heart full and free through my relationship with the Supreme Soul (meditation) makes my mind free from waste thoughts. Having a clean, clear and concentrated mind helps me remain in the best possible position to judge correctly. I'll be like the Statue of Justice, wearing a blindfold as she carefully weighs the evidence: free from prejudice (bias) arising from superficial appearances, above the influence of situations and the emotions and opinions of others, perfectly centered, she is optimally placed to sense the right way forward.

Message for the day

To be a leader is to lead by one's own example.
Expression: Everyone knows what is right and what is not. But the one who is able to live by what is right, and shows the same in his words and actions is the one who is able to inspire others to bring about a change. There is then no need to speak a lot of words to inspire others.

Experience: When every action of mine is qualitative , I find that people look up to me for guidance and support. When people look up to me and take inspiration from me, I am able to keep attention on my words and actions so that whatever I speak and do is beneficial for myself and others.