Daily Positive Thoughts: December 10, 2016: Spiritual tolerance cultivates innate wisdom

 

Spiritual tolerance cultivates innate wisdom

Tolerance is based on going beyond the superficial things that divide us.  It's the result of turning within and coming to know the self. If I can deal with my own ego, then my own anger can be resolved. This goes a long way in resolving external issues too.

With my own ego out of the way, I will be able to handle anything! Otherwise it's just the same old thing - you versus me, yours versus mine, etc. - intolerance. If I'm unselfish and honest in my heart and am concerned about others’ needs, then I will be full enough to give.

When you know the self in this way, then you can know others. "I should be understood" changes to "I should understand". Not “They should change", but "I will give what's needed". Patience, peace and maturity develop. Spiritual tolerance cultivates innate wisdom, the kind you can't get from books.

Conquering The Emotion Of Jealousy (Part 1)

Man was handed the master key of the knowledge of good and evil karma by God. He used the key to perform good karma for some time. That was the day of humanity. Over a period of time, while playing the game of different roles in the world theatre, the key was lost and man started to perform evil karma. The evil man started identifying with evil so much that he forgot his original good self and thought that evil is the eternal self. That was and is the night of humanity. That is why in the scriptures, mistakenly it is said that even angels used to sometimes feel jealous. In Indian scriptures, devis and devtas, the original good men and women, have mistakenly been shown to possess the emotion of jealousy at times. Wrong perception of the evil men, who made the scriptures and temples in the remembrance of the good men and women, the angels, after they had ceased to exist! The good men and women were nothing but our early births as we started our journey of birth and rebirth as flawless beings. Today humans are empowered beings who have the capacity to experience so many emotions, both positive and negative. Sadness, anger, happiness, sympathy and the list is endless. Out of all these one very powerful and dominating emotion is jealousy. When we see different players in this game of life playing different roles, sometimes while seeing them with the spectacles of role consciousness, feelings of jealousy or a desire to be like the other are experienced. Comparisons emerge in our minds.

While being competitive and having aspirations to succeed are absolutely fine and there is no doubt that to do that sometimes we have to look at the other or even others and this drive helps us meet life’s challenges also, but when this look at the other is accompanied by comparisons and feelings of low self-esteem as a result and takes the form of jealousy; it gets out of control and starts having an adverse effect on our relationships, that steps should be taken to curb those feelings.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Slow down Thoughts

One of the aims of meditation is not to stop your thoughts but to slow them down so that you may find and enter the silence between and behind your thinking. This is a little challenging at first but the more you practice the easier it becomes. 

Think of your thoughts as trains, just as in the common saying we sometimes use the phrase, 'train of thoughts'. Each thought is a carriage of the train and in between the thoughts/carriages is a small gap, a space. The train can arrive at different speeds. Our aim is to slow the train down and become aware of the space between the carriages, in other words between our thoughts. You may even be able to increase that space so that there is the experience of no thought. In this moment you reconnect with the silence (and experience it) that exists always between and behind your thoughts. Don't try to hold it, or you will lose it.

Message for the day

Introversion brings out the positivity within.

Expression: Every human being has an innate positive nature because of the inherent qualities of love, peace, happiness etc. that are within. Introversion, the practice of looking within, enables one to be in constant touch with oneself and one's true nature. It helps express these qualities in everything that is done. Because of having practiced for a long time with them, these qualities emerge very naturally at the time of need.

Experience: The practice of being introverted helps me in experiencing those qualities within me, which otherwise remain hidden during difficult situations. Thus it makes me have true self-respect and enables me to finish my ego. It also gives me the power to recognize and accept my mistakes, thus giving me the courage to work on them successfully. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris