Contemplation: June 01, 2019: Making Decisions

Contemplation: June 01, 2019: Making Decisions

Making Decisions

Often it's easy to help others make decisions because we are more objective when we're not completely emotionally involved.

So if you want to get good at making your own decisions, get good at being objective.  Learn to step back from the situation, mentally & emotionally, to gain a better perspective.

Then you'll know what's best for you & what decision to make.

The art of getting along well with others is to create harmony. 

To be good to people who are good to us is very easy. But the real beauty of life lies in knowing how to get along well with one and all. That means, I need to know how to empower my interactions so that I am able to get along well even with someone who is not so good to us. Just like notes of music which are different, I need to understand that everyone is different and I need to create beautiful music even in the worst conditions. Today I will see what I can do to get along well with one person whom I wasn't comfortable with. It could be some quality that I need to work on. It could be assertiveness or love or any other quality which will help me get along well with the person.

Temporary And Permanent Sources Of Peace

It's a common notion (idea) to think of peace as being closely related to the beauty of nature - the play of waves on a beach, the blowing of wind through a forest, the soaring and swooping of gulls; in short, anything away from the rush and hurry of the city. Alternatively we associate peace with some physical form of relaxation like headphones plugged into soothing music, a hot bath after a hard day, a brisk walk in the park, etc. In meditation we realize peace to be our very essence (nature); we realize very quickly, trying to extract peace from the world around us or even from some physical sensations in our own bodies gives us only a temporary experience of it.

Once we start meditating, we start to see physical relaxation as an escape from tension and not a solution for it; and the beautiful scenes of nature now no longer as sources radiating permanent peace. But in fact it is their mere absence of conflict, their harmony of colours, forms and sounds which appeal to us. There is something in each of us which cries out to be free from conflict. We discover that "small voice" or need is only our true nature demanding to be recognized. We realize that neither the body nor nature can give the peace that the soul was longing for, but it has to be tapped from within. Having found it, it remains constant, whether in the city or countryside, in comfort or discomfort. In the midst of noise and confusion, peace is really our own.

Soul Sustenance

Are You A Compulsive Complainer (Part 1)?

We live in a world full of imperfections, and, luckily, we are not perfect either. Luckily, because being imperfect offers us the possibilities of learning, change and hope. It inspires us to make an effort and it prevents us from getting bored. However, for the one who complains it seems that the world should be perfect. With such a habit it becomes something natural to think how things should or shouldn't be or could or could not be.

When you complain, your energy and clarity reduce and your unhappiness increases. You don't accept what there is or what is, as it is. Your complaints lead you to criticism and to useless gossip. In these kinds of conversations time and energy are lost and mistrust and unhappiness are generated. Relationships are harmed and then require a good investment of time and energy to get back the lost trust.

Someone who complains regularly expects the world to make them happy and the Universe to dance to their music. As things are almost never as they want, they are in a state of constant complaint. They don't realize that happiness comes from within and is cultivated within. They expect situations and others to make them happy. And, as this does not happen, they complain constantly.

The person who often complains feels disappointed and gets discouraged. They feel that they cannot do anything to change what they would like to change. They feel weakened inside.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Message for the day

To see specialities in all is to become special.

Projection: Most of the time, I'm caught up in looking at people's negativity. When I see some negative quality in someone, I immediately make his specialities a background and start focusing on his negative traits. The more I think of these negative qualities, the more they occupy my conscious mind, changing my reactions too.

Solution: It is natural to be coloured or influenced by what I see. If I see specialities, I'll take on a little of that and if I see weaknesses, I'll take on a little of that too. So I need to make an attempt to look at only specialities and encourage others too to use their specialities.


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Contemplation: May 31, 2019: Scattered Thoughts

Contemplation: May 31, 2019: Scattered Thoughts

7 Mile Bridge, Key West, Florida

Scattered Thoughts

Uncontrolled, scattered thoughts are like a speeding car. Unless you brake you'll crash. We need to put on the brakes if our minds are to work naturally. A natural mind is peaceful and a peaceful mind brings clarity.

Respect

Respect is to recognize and appreciate the unique role of each and
everyone. Each one is unique with his own specialties. When we
recognize the role of each one, we can understand that he is playing
his part accurately. Then we can acknowledge even the smallest
contribution and we will then be free from expectations. When we find
ourselves having negative thoughts towards anyone, we need to make
the practice of looking at one specialty in that person and learn to
relate to it. Also, we need to tell myself that without the role of
this particular person the drama of life would not be complete.

False Attachments

Are you aware that whenever you lose your true self-awareness (soul-consciousness), you will identify with and get attached to something that is not you?   It could be another person, your work, or some material possession.   Let's say you are attached to your job and one day, due to rising costs, your company decides to downsize and starts laying off thousands of its employees - all of a sudden you are asked to leave.  The attachment to and identification with your position in the company, which has become a habit (sanskara), causes the creation of fearful and angry thoughts (e.g., * I'm going to lose my job (fear related to the future) or * How dare they downsize the company and damage my position (anger towards the company and its leadership)).  The destructive energy of these thoughts becomes emotion (energy in motion) which then invades your entire mind so you cannot have clear and calm thoughts (the prime requirement of that moment).   It hijacks your intellect so you cannot make correct, wise decisions and choices (also the prime requirement of that moment) for the future.  Any connection you had with your inner peace is broken.   All this happens because you forgot who you really are and had begun to think you are what you do.   When seen from the point of view of this example it sounds ridiculous that we should identify with what we do or what we have, but this is currently how the world and its people work.  So, never forget who you truly are!

Soul Sustenance

Positive Thinking

What Stops You from Being Positive?

There are many reasons that make it difficult to produce and hold on to positivity in your mind and attitude. The external information we receive is mainly negative, and our thoughts and conversations are based on this information. Other causes include:

* Other people's negativity rubbing off on you; Other people's criticisms influencing you;
* Self-doubt;
* Lacking clear objectives in life;
* Not having recognized your true qualities, virtues and values;
* Lacking self-confidence;
* Not believing you are a positive person;
* Keeping the past in your mind;
* Being egoistic;
* Comparing yourself with others;
* Having low self-esteem;
* Being frustrated or irritated;
* Lacking flexibility or tolerance with people or situations, etc.

Message for the day

With the balance of love and discipline, energy can be saved while speaking.

Expression: Throughout the day we find ourselves having to give explanations or corrections to so many people. When we do this we find that we have to spend a lot of words. In the process we tend to lose a lot of our energy and find ourselves tired.

Experience: In order to save our energy and to use fewer words we need to have the balance of love and discipline. Discipline will enable us to give the right directions while love will make our directions effective. So we find that just a few words would be enough to get our message across.

Contemplation: May 30, 2019: The Final Analysis

Contemplation: May 30, 2019: The Final Analysis

The Final Analysis

People are often unreasonable, self-centered:

Forgive them anyway.

If you are Honest, People may cheat you, but be Honest anyway.

What you spend years to build, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.

The good you do today, People will often forget tomorrow. Do Good anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God; it never was between you and them anyway.

Look at Specialties

To look at specialties in each one is to ensure that cooperation is
given and received easily. Each and every individual has something
special. If we have the habit of seeing these specialties, we find
others too relate to us with these specialties and we can then easily
get their cooperation. We will also be able to cooperate with them
easily. When we think of someone we can't cooperate with, we need to
consciously think of some specialty in him. When we make sure, in my
daily interactions, to relate to this specialty, we will find that
our own your negativity will finish and cooperation becomes easy.
Others too will find it easy to cooperate with us.

Radiating Love To The Universe

I sit in a comfortable position... I relax my body...I breathe deeply and let go of tensions... I centre myself in the present moment... I concentrate my mind... I enter into the space of inner silence... The thoughts diminish and my mind relaxes fully... Now experience the following thoughts:

I am a non-physical being of light, full of love, centered on the forehead... I am a river flowing with love... my source is the Supreme Ocean Of Love, God; whose child I am... I experience myself sitting under his canopy of the light of love...

I love each part of my physical body which is my vehicle. I relax it... I love each thought that I create, it is my creation... I generate gentle thoughts, tender, relaxing... I feel the energy of love that radiates from within me towards the universe... I, the soul give off love towards what surrounds me... 

I give off love towards other souls... I look at everyone with the consciousness that each one, whatever their temporary nature may be, their innate nature is love... I give my spiritual assistance, my good wishes to them, so that they return back to their original, basic nature, which is love... I give off love towards each molecule of the five elements of nature - earth, wind, water, fire and sky and the planet as a whole. I am love... I channel this love towards everything I think, feel, do and transmit...

By performing the above meditation and sharing my unlimited treasure of love, I assist the Supreme Father, through my thoughts, in his task of creating a world full of love, where all souls and the nature co-exist in a loveful and peaceful manner...

Soul Sustenance

Improving the Quality of Different Areas Of My Karmas (Part 4)

Karmas as spiritual service of others
Service of others can be seen on a very basic level as physical charity but the real service is to uplift the souls of others by inspiring them to re-claim their state of self-respect. There is the old saying that if I give others chapattis, I feed them for a day. If I teach them how to cook chapattis, I feed them for life. In a spiritual way, this refers to the fact that instead of merely performing a positive karma like the donation of money, food, clothes, etc. if one can show others the understanding of karma and how it works and also teach them the ultimate, pure karma of coming closer to the Supreme on a spiritual level, they can make efforts to change their negative karmic situation and bring happiness, peace and positivity back in their lives. When there is a change at the mental and emotional level, then changes will begin to show at the physical level too. Over a period of time, due to understanding spiritual knowledge (as a result of which the soul starts performing positive actions) and a deep connection with the Supreme (due to which negative actions or sins performed in the past are burned up), the karmic situation of the soul, which has been served, starts improving.

Message for the day

The one who has the spirit of service is free from wasteful thinking.

Expression: It is usually thought of as an additional burden to think of serving others. The usual thought is to think of first serving oneself and when one is content to think of serving others. But this thought makes one miss out on the fact that both service to oneself and service to others are complementary to each other, one helping the other in a positive way.

Experience: When we take on the responsibility of bringing benefit to others, i.e., when we consider ourselves as a humble server we will be free from wasteful and negative thinking. We will not waste our thoughts and energy on something that is not worthwhile, something that is not going to bring benefit to anyone. So each thought, word and action of ours becomes elevated.

Contemplation: May 29, 2019: Determination and Patience

Contemplation: May 29, 2019: Determination and Patience

Bridge of Immortals, Huangshan, China

Determination and Patience

Determination is the strength that will enable you to pass the barrier of useless thoughts in order to create positive thoughts and to be successful in whatever you wish. It comes from within and its partner is patience. Patience teaches you not to push but rather to wait and appreciate the game of life instead, knowing that nothing remains the same, and everything will change at some point.

Share Information

When each one is working towards a common task, cooperation becomes
easy. To get others' cooperation we need to share the task and the
information regarding the task with others. When we communicate our
motives using easy and simple language, everyone can understand and
feel a part of the whole and they would naturally contribute their
best. Any new task that we take up we need to make sure we inform all
the details to everyone related to the task. Even the minutest details
when communicated to others, helps in creating a priority in them to
give their best to the task.

Frozen Perceptions

Like water, which over a period of time freezes and takes the form of frozen ice cubes, when kept in an ice tray; perceptions of different things, people and events, inside our consciousness, which come onto the surface of our consciousness regularly i.e. we shape our thoughts, words and actions based on them, regularly, take the form of rigid perceptions over a period of time. These rigid or 'frozen perceptions', which sometimes never liquefy in our entire lifetime, are commonly called our beliefs, which can stick in our consciousness like ice cubes and be difficult to uproot at times. One of the greatest harms that holding to a set of beliefs does is, that it doesn't let us see from other peoples' point of view.

Let's say two people look at the same painting from two different points in a room. One describes what she sees and how the painting looks to her. Then the other describes how the painting looks to him. Both perceptions are bound to be different to some extent. They are different because they look from different angles, different points (places) of viewing in the same room. So who has the right view? Neither. But what both of them see is right from their point of view. Another e.g. is, there is Mrs. A at my workplace, whom over a period of time, I have been seeing from a certain point of view and have started perceiving to be inefficient. Bringing this perception into my consciousness repeatedly has frozen this perception inside my consciousness and it has taken the form of a belief, which may be incorrect or correct, partially or completely. Now even if three different people who have all seen Mrs. A from three different points of view i.e. in three different set of circumstances, and have seen three different shades of the same virtue i.e. efficiency in her; come and share their different, but all positive and right perceptions with me, depending on their respective circumstantial view, I will not agree with them and not respect their perception because a person with unfrozen perceptions would at least give a hearing to others' perceptions, but someone with frozen perceptions, i.e. with fixed beliefs, is not able to that and is not able to empathize with or see from others' point of view.

Soul Sustenance

Improving the Quality Of Different Areas Of My Karmas (Part 3)

Karmas performed for leisure or entertainment
When someone says they don't have time for meditation or for their spiritual development, it generally reflects an unwillingness to face the self rather than an actual lack of time. The fact that average T.V. viewing time in many countries runs to more than 19 hours a week tells its own story. To the extent that I value my time, I value my life and make myself valuable. Valuing my time, energy and money is very much a part of the whole karmic story of give and take: what they are used for, how well they are used, whether they are wasted and so on. Difficulties with time, one's own bodily energy and finances are the fruits of past indifference or wastage of these resources (either in this birth or previous births). The world financial crisis is the karmic sum total of all such individual difficulties. Am I using all that I have in a worthwhile way? Am I just wasting it or am I using it for benefit for myself and for others? These questions, answered correctly, often spell the difference between success and failure.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Message for the day

Negative situations can be transformed into positive with the power of stability.

Expression: When faced with a negative situation, usually the mind gets affected. Lot of questions arise in the mind that don't allow me to be stable at that time. Because of the thoughts in my mind, Although it is in my hands to work at transforming the situation I don't make use of this opportunity but only end up adding to the negativity.

Experience: In a negative situation, it is necessary for me to maintain my own inner stability. I need to free myself from wasteful thoughts. Then the negativity in the situation will finish, first in my mind and then in the situation itself. My own internal stability will help in finishing the influence of the external situation.