Contemplation: September 17, 2018: Life
Life
Ignorance makes you believe that life functions haphazardly. Wisdom teaches you that everything that happens in this theatre of life has profound significance. What you see today is not the fruit of chance but a fruit from seeds planted in the past. Plant seeds of peace now and you will create a life of peace in the future.
Experience Peace
People usually look for peace
in hill stations, places of worship or
pilgrimage places. A short or long break from the routine challenges
normally gives an experience of peace. But it is not always possible
to get such breaks. Also once the time spent in silence is over, the
challenges tend to make us lose that peace once again. So that too
becomes a temporary solution. It is important for me to understand that
peace is lying within me. The external stimulus just becomes an excuse
to emerge that peace. If I find time to spend with myself and
experience that peace at regular intervals as a practice I will be able
to find that peace within me. This practice will help me to maintain
my peace at all times, and keep me ready for the bigger challenges that
I face.
pilgrimage places. A short or long break from the routine challenges
normally gives an experience of peace. But it is not always possible
to get such breaks. Also once the time spent in silence is over, the
challenges tend to make us lose that peace once again. So that too
becomes a temporary solution. It is important for me to understand that
peace is lying within me. The external stimulus just becomes an excuse
to emerge that peace. If I find time to spend with myself and
experience that peace at regular intervals as a practice I will be able
to find that peace within me. This practice will help me to maintain
my peace at all times, and keep me ready for the bigger challenges that
I face.
Churning Spiritual Knowledge
Churning spiritual knowledge or thinking deeply about it makes us a complete authority of that knowledge. What are some practical ways of implementing churning in our lives?
Take 15 minutes out of your daily routine every day to think deeply on any topic related to spiritual self progress (like e.g. each day's "Positive Reflection" or something else). You do not need to disconnect yourself from action to do this. You could do this while taking a walk, while driving to office, while cooking food, etc. By churning this way in isolation, the mind is able to concentrate immediately. Secondly if you read some spiritual knowledge and afterwards write down the essence (summary) of it for 5-10 minutes as it has influenced the mind, then you will find that essence will remain with you and deepen during the day.
The benefits of churning spiritual knowledge are as follows:
1. Churning makes the soul feel powerful: it makes you aware of your powers and increases your self-respect. Any inferiority complex ends and one experiences oneself as a great and powerful soul. Self-confidence awakens as weak thoughts diminish: * I won't be able to do this. Will I succeed or not? Strong thoughts emerge instead: * The Supreme Being himself is with me. I will definitely be successful. Such confidence and bravery is experienced which strengthens the soul to undertake any impossible task.
2. Natural and unruffled peace in my outlook: Churning takes us to the depths of the ocean of knowledge. The depth of knowledge finishes all our attractions. In the depths there are no storms, but only the peace and bliss of unlimited treasures.
(To be continued tomorrow ...)
Soul Sustenance
Role Induced
Stress (cont.)
It’s not at all wrong to treat what we do seriously, but it's a mistake to believe what we do is extremely extremely important and we are extremely busy people living an extremely busy lifestyle. This kind of consciousness makes us over-serious. A very common sign of this is carrying a lot of thoughts of one role into the other. E.g. Aarti, a young mother, switches roles from a software executive in the corporate sector, a role which she plays in the entire day, to a parent and wife in the evening. If she is over thinking about her day-role while playing her evening-role, it is a sign she is over-identifying with her day role and there is a lack of detachment. As a result she starts becoming over-serious and suffers from role induced stress as a result. There is a deep connection between seriousness and fear. E.g. In this case of Aarti, as a result of attachment to her role, there are lots of fears that she carries regarding her role of software executive – fear of loss of position; loss of love, respect and reputation – either in her company or in general in society, not succeeding, not getting promoted etc. because of which she is over-serious and she carries the role in her head almost all the time, even when she sleeps. That is why so called ‘extremely busy’ people sometimes complain of sleep problems.
This can happen with us, with any role we play. This kind of stress, just like in the case of the actor (explained yesterday) is generally made up sorrow, anger and fear – one of these three different negative emotions from time to time or more than one at the same time – phases of dejection or feeling low or a lack of enthusiasm or a general disinterest in life events; phases of frustration and experiencing a lack of control of events and people, due to which there are frequent outbursts of anger and phases of immense worry regarding the future, all of which affect our mind, our physical body, relationships and even success of our role; although it is our role itself (our over-identification with it) which is the root cause of this emotional turmoil inside us. So instead of benefitting our role, our over-concern for it starts affecting it adversely.
It’s not at all wrong to treat what we do seriously, but it's a mistake to believe what we do is extremely extremely important and we are extremely busy people living an extremely busy lifestyle. This kind of consciousness makes us over-serious. A very common sign of this is carrying a lot of thoughts of one role into the other. E.g. Aarti, a young mother, switches roles from a software executive in the corporate sector, a role which she plays in the entire day, to a parent and wife in the evening. If she is over thinking about her day-role while playing her evening-role, it is a sign she is over-identifying with her day role and there is a lack of detachment. As a result she starts becoming over-serious and suffers from role induced stress as a result. There is a deep connection between seriousness and fear. E.g. In this case of Aarti, as a result of attachment to her role, there are lots of fears that she carries regarding her role of software executive – fear of loss of position; loss of love, respect and reputation – either in her company or in general in society, not succeeding, not getting promoted etc. because of which she is over-serious and she carries the role in her head almost all the time, even when she sleeps. That is why so called ‘extremely busy’ people sometimes complain of sleep problems.
This can happen with us, with any role we play. This kind of stress, just like in the case of the actor (explained yesterday) is generally made up sorrow, anger and fear – one of these three different negative emotions from time to time or more than one at the same time – phases of dejection or feeling low or a lack of enthusiasm or a general disinterest in life events; phases of frustration and experiencing a lack of control of events and people, due to which there are frequent outbursts of anger and phases of immense worry regarding the future, all of which affect our mind, our physical body, relationships and even success of our role; although it is our role itself (our over-identification with it) which is the root cause of this emotional turmoil inside us. So instead of benefitting our role, our over-concern for it starts affecting it adversely.
Message for the
day
To be ever ready means to guarantee success.
Projection: The ones who are ever ready are active and so when a task comes up, they quickly understand it and attain success. They do not waste time and energy thinking too much about it. They recognize the importance of the task and involve fully in it and attain success.
Solution: When I am ever ready I am able to be easy. Because I am easy, all tasks seem easy for me and effort put in for the success of the task also becomes easy. So I don't have to do a lot of effort but give my best. Thus I experience success every moment in all situations.
In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris
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