Contemplation:Patience

Contemplation:Patience

Tianmen Mountain Zhangjiajie City, China

Patience

Patience is a virtue and a power too. Patience tells us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and that we get over there one step at a time. Patience teaches us not to rush. Knowing that there is a reason and a season for everything it enables us to smile at the challenges, realizing that there is an answer to every problem. And, even though we cannot see it, yet there is awareness that within every crisis lies an opportunity.

Conflict Resolution

Too often we focus on the 'enemy' rather than understanding the
underlying causes of conflict. Our old beliefs and thought patterns can
be both a block and a limitation. If we as individuals accept personal
responsibility and recognize that the source of conflict is internal
rather than 'the other' - then the possibility of resolving conflict
comes back into our hands. This is a great relief and very empowering.

Beginning Your Spiritual Journey With Acceptance (cont.)

In yesterday's message, we had explained some facts of spirituality, which if accepted initially, help us restore our personal relationship with the Supreme Father or God and experience Him easily. Given below are some more facts:

4. Accept that God does not reside in the physical world, He is not present everywhere as is the common belief, but He is a very real, individual and unique Being, staying in the incorporeal (non-physical) or soul world, situated beyond the physical world.

5. Accept that God is a loving Parent of the soul who does not give sorrow, pain or punishment to His children but who only wants the best for them -- He is a gentle and understanding Father and Mother who not only knows why we loose our true self awareness and, as a result, create sorrow for ourselves; but also helps us regain that awareness.

6. Accept that experiencing God does not require blind devotion. Also accept that it does not take many births of penance to find and establish your connection with the Supreme - only one second, and the right kind of thoughts. The process of creating the right, positive and spiritual thoughts so as to connect with God is called meditation.

Soul Sustenance

The Relationship between Virtues and Vices

When we are internally strong, our nature characteristics and skills are reflected, from inside us to the outside, to everyone we interact in, in the form of virtues. If we are internally weak, those same traits emerge and radiate as vices. Vices are just qualities or virtues that have lost their focus and strength. For e.g. if we take the quality of love - when a strong soul radiates love, it is unlimited and without any conditions. Such a soul respects and has good wishes for everything and everyone and under all circumstances, irrespective of whether love and respect is coming from the other side or not.

When a weak soul radiates love, he/she tends to restrict the love to limits e.g. the love would vary from person to person and from situation to situation. In a sense, if spiritual might (strength) and spiritual light (understanding or knowledge) are taken away from the virtues, they get transformed into the six vices, which make us spiritually unhealthy or weak:


Ego - developing an image of the self that is false, temporary or imaginary.

Greed - finding short term fulfillment by acquiring material goods, a role in society or money or through the physical senses – eyes, tongue, ears, etc.

Attachment - finding security by developing a feeling of possessiveness over loved ones and material objects.

Lust - using excessive satisfaction through the senses as a means of fulfillment.

Anger - the feeling of hatred and revenge when any of the other vices are threatened or being taken away from us.

Laziness - becoming inactive on a spiritual, physical or mental level.

Message for the day

The one who wins over situations with the power of one's own stage is a winner.

Projection: When difficult situations come our way, it is usually our own stage that is affected. We feel disheartened, or frustrated which makes us feel helpless in the situation. We can, then, do nothing to bring about any change and lose out to the situation.

Solution: Whenever a difficult situation comes our way, we need to remind ourselves that the situation is here only for a short time as a test for our own stage and to give us a chance to progress. This thought will help us be stable in the worst situations and will enable us to learn from what has happened in order to improve ourselves.