Contemplation: February 05, 2020: Recipe For Happiness
Recipe for Happiness
Two heaped cups of patience,
One heartful of love,
Two handfuls of generosity,
One headful of understanding and a dash of humour,
Sprinkle with kindness, add plenty of faith and mix well.
Spread over a period of a lifetime and serve to everyone you meet.
Meditation
Many people feel and complain that their intellect is not as clear as they would like. One of the aims of meditation and spiritual knowledge is to make the intellect strong, clear and clean, by which there is an increase in the power of discrimination. This helps us maintain a sense of what is right and wrong, helps implement that awareness.
Meditation brings about self-realizations whereby you realize what is happening inside you. Sometimes we use the phrase: "He/she doesn't know what he/she is doing", referring to someone who is acting in an incorrect way. If we are to act in an appropriate way, we need to be aware and be awake to the consequences (results) of our actions. The voice of the conscience brings with it that state of awareness, awakening, realizing and discrimination. This is because, in meditation you feel quiet and you focus your thoughts inwards. In that state, the sound of the voice of the conscience is perceived and heard. It is a voice that is not affected by material worries or a preoccupation about one's image and public appearance. During meditation, you are completely focused on the present moment of spiritual empowerment and not distracted with things that are necessary but unnecessary to be thought of that time, noise, unrelated ideas of the past and the future, mental chatter, etc., basically everything that separates you from your true spiritual self. In this way you can listen to yourself within and as a result ensure to the maximum extent that your “karmas” are appropriate and accurate.
Life Beyond Life (Part 2)
A new born child is a new entrant in a new home with new parents. Each day thousands of new-borns get new homes and new parents. These births are accompanied by celebrations and greetings of congratulations to the parents and other family members. But have you ever stopped to wonder that behind the curtains of these celebrations lie tears in the eyes of those family members and dear ones where these souls or spiritual energies leave old physical costumes, what we commonly call death. We, at the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization, call it Life Beyond Life. The concept of birth and re-birth or life beyond life has been a topic of debate since time immemorial. Over the ages, many philosophers, the spiritually inclined, the religious minded, psychologists, the medical fraternity and scientists have talked in favour of this reality, which they believe is embedded in the fabric of life while some have been non-committal or unsure in their approach and some have even expressed disbelief at the idea because of lack of ample evidence. Though today, evidence in its favour has surfaced in various corners of the world through past life regression (hypnosis), near death experiences and case studies by medical journals, accompanied by records of a significant number of people who have remembered their past birth or births, some of whom have even gone back to the families they were once a part of. Some even remember the circumstances accompanying their death in their past life.
So, living in a world giving ample proof for the concept today, accompanied by deep experiences of the existence of the soul and its immortality (it never dies) by good meditators and people who are strong adherents (followers) of different religions all across the world, one needs to develop strong faith in the fact that my family member or my dear friend, who has left me, has transferred himself/herself to a new reality, a new joy filled and love filled existence, a new Mamma, a new Papa, a new prosperous family, a new healthy body, a new set of positive sanskaras (including thesanskaras of the previous birth) and a new set of friends, relatives and brothers and sisters. So it’s not death but a beautiful new life beyond this life. This is a more positive perception of an event, which for all of us is the most sorrowful and negative of all life events.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
Soul Sustenance
The Role Play Of Thoughts In Relationships (Part 3)
Parent-child relationships are the foundation of our complete life. The earliest habits that children acquire in their lives are from their parents. Very often parents try and impose positive habits on their children. A very common trend that we see nowadays where parents will scold their child for common negative actions like getting angry, for lying to them, for watching inappropriate stuff on different mediums of technology like television and the internet or for getting involved in relationships with the opposite gender at a young age. Very commonly parents are not satisfied with the change brought about by children by following the rules that they have set for them, causing parent-child relationships to get strained. Why is it that inspite of children knowing that parents are concerned for them, do not pay heed to their instructions and continue with the negative habits? A more powerful medium than words, which reaches children on a physical level, is the personality radiation of the parents which works on children and reaches them faster than and much before the words do. Parents dictate the change but don’t be the change i.e. similar habits of lust, anger, ego, greed, etc. exist inside them which keep travelling to the children on a subtle energy level and impacting (influencing) their minds negatively much sooner than positive words in the form of instructions, leaving the words as good as ineffective.
Also considering another common relationship that children have, the one with their school teachers; many investigations confirm that teachers' expectations, whether negative or positive, form one of the most influential factors in the academic performance of their students. If teachers expect good results from their students and have complete faith and confidence that they will succeed, their performance will be much closer to their real capacity than if they are expecting poor results. Very often in schools, the teachers’ words regarding the performance of the children are not a direct reflection of their thoughts i.e. words are full of faith and hope in the students’ success but thoughts are lacking in optimism with regards to the same. Negative thoughts of fear of probable failure of the children, in the minds of teachers, inspite of positive words of encouragement, negatively impact impressionable minds of children leading to their poor show in school exams.
Message for the day
Your humility makes you a learner in every situation
Contemplation: Where there is humility there is willingness to learn. When humility is lacking, ego comes which doesn't let you learn from all situations and people. The power of humility enables you to learn and move forward.
Application: When you face any criticism from someone, see what you can learn from it, instead of feeling bad about it. Even things that go wrong have something to teach, for the ones who are willing to learn. With your humility continue to learn.
In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris
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