Contemplation: Higher Than the Sky

Contemplation: Higher Than the Sky

Christ the Redeemer-Rio de Janeiro , Brazil

Higher Than the Sky

Keep wearing virtues as your ornaments. Keep loving others. Keep giving regard. You have to go beyond the stars. Keep thoughts higher than the sky, and abundance of patience like the earth. Keep spiritual love in your eyes.

Humility

Your humility enables people to realize their mistakes and correct themselves. Real humility results in so much power of truth that you don't need to say anything at all in words. The very power of your inner state of being will make the other person realize the error of their ways. When you are giving directions or corrections to someone, check your own attitude, remind yourself of the humility within and then say whatever you have to say. With humility your words will be for their benefit and this will enable them to learn.

Keeping The Watchman Of Attention Alert

All the religions and spiritual groups place a lot of importance on the virtue of discipline. Without discipline you do not manage to transform negative habits and you do not create a new state of awareness where the self is nourished through the experience of spirituality. Every day you eat, you brush your teeth, bathe, drink water and breathe, and all of this you do not consider a discipline; you have adopted them as something natural in order for your body to continue working. On a spiritual level you also need to nourish yourself and to have a discipline that, with practice, a time comes when it becomes natural because you incorporate it into your life. In the process of change you need to discipline yourself in order not to let old habits come to the forefront. Until you have burnt them and they have died, you should keep the watchman of attention alert in order to maintain your self-control, given that each time you use a negative habit in action, you strengthen it. When you do not use it, you allow it to die.

The path of the spiritual traveler is therefore one of waking (awareness of self as soul) and sleeping (under the illusion that we are our body), waking and sleeping. We tend to fluctuate between the two (like dawn and dusk) until we find stability in soul-consciousness. This is why it is important to awaken and stay awake, and why it's important to give our mind and intellect good spiritual food (knowledge) and exercise (meditation) every day to keep them fresh and alert. Being conscious of the soul, acting from that consciousness, the scars (habits and tendencies) left by past actions based on illusions of bodily awareness are healed. Discipline is necessary for growth and personal transformation if you want to obtain satisfying and permanent results. If not, the old habits continue to rule in your life. The evidence that our discipline in the practice of meditation is working is mental lightness and an increasing easiness in our interactions with others.

Soul Sustenance
How Does The Mind Work?

We can compare the mind with a screen, where thoughts, images, feelings and associations are constantly appearing. Thoughts manifest themselves in the mind in the same way as images on a film are projected onto the cinema screen.

The mind often interprets negation as affirmation. Therefore, when we tell you not to think about something, it is as if we were saying, "Think about this" and these thoughts are produced with even more force in the mind. Therefore transforming negative habits and personality traits becomes a struggle. The most effective way of fighting is to ignore these unwanted thoughts, but we should then immediately focus our mind in another direction, thinking about something positive. Thus useless or negative thoughts have no space to grow in our mind. Thinking positively is not a battle against negativity but by imbibing spiritual knowledge, we transform the negative into positive.

We can compare the mind with a naughty child who is playing with a dangerous object: if you take it away from them they will cry until they get it back again. Perhaps a more effective method would be to offer them something that would be of more interest to them and in this way, by having a new inoffensive toy in their hands, they will leave the dangerous object alone.

Message for the day

Sweetness is the ability to see the good in all things.

Projection: Deep within each and every situation is something good. It only takes a little patience to look within and find it. When we are able to understand the secret behind what is happening, it automatically brings sweetness in our life

Solution: Whatever happens throughout the day, we should be able to see the good in it. Even if we are not able to discover something good at that moment, we should maintain the faith that whatever happens is for the best.

Contemplation:Perfect and Pure

Contemplation:Perfect and Pure

Perfect and Pure

There is a part of you that is perfect and pure. It is untouched by the less-than-perfect characteristics you have acquired by living in a less than perfect world. This part of you is a still and eternal star. Make time to reach it and this will bring you untold benefit.

Simplicity

There's great beauty in simplicity. It's not plainness; however it is plain in the sense that words and actions are enacted with great royalty, full awareness and with so much significance. Simplicity takes us away from artificialities, it simply accepts and in that acceptance shows us grace and humility in every circumstance.

The Role Of My Intentions In Shaping My Future

The word karma has been given many negative meanings. In common language, most people almost always relate it to suffering, but the simplest meaning of karma is action. Newton's Third Law of Physics (every action has an equal and opposite reaction) is a physical law of motion. The Law of Karma is the metaphysical (non-physical) equivalent of the Newton's Third Law - it refers to action and its result (fruit) or, simply, cause and effect. The quality of my actions, thoughts more specifically determines my personal level of happiness. Our natures today are the result of everything we have thought; they are formed by our thoughts. It's not so much the act that determines the return or fruit but the quality of the motive or intention behind it e.g. in the simple task of buying a new car, the intention can be different in the case of three different people:

* I need to buy a good car; it's an urgent need of my family (concern).

* What if I am not able to buy that car model which my wife so badly wants (worry)?

* With me at the wheel of the brand new car, which I will be buying soon, I will be the talk of the town, my office colleagues will really be jealous of me (ego)!

Although the action is the same in each case, each of these attitudes will lead to a different result. This role of intentions become clear when analyzing the difference in guilt between an army officer who kills another while protecting his country and another person who plans for months to commit a murder out of personal enmity and hatred. The karma of taking the life of someone is the same in both cases, but the return or fruit of the karma depends on the intention.

Soul Sustenance

The Lamp Of Hope

You create the future basing yourself on what you think, feel and do in the present. If you act according to your values, it is easy for you to trust in your destiny. That strengthens your hope that all will go well, and, if it doesn’t, you know and trust your inner resources or treasures to be able to deal with things and change. That trust feeds the enthusiasm, the motor energy that, along with motivation and passion, helps us to advance.

When you lose courage and you feel weak, when you feel insecure and do not see with clarity where to go towards, hope lights the way for you to carry on going forward. If you fall, get up again and carry on looking ahead. Don't look back. Don't let your past be a burden that is too heavy and prevents you from advancing. Focus your vision on your objective and on all your potential to achieve it.

Whatever happens, keep the lamp of hope lit. You can. You will achieve it. Change will become reality. You will free yourself from the shadows of fears, blockages and the other limitations that weaken you.

Live each situation as an opportunity. Learn from criticism and failures. On living life as a constant opportunity for personal growth and learning, you keep hope always alive.

Give yourself moments of silence on beginning each day, during the day and on finishing the day, to connect with your inner self. That way your awareness stays awake, the lamp of your hope, your motivation and your values remains lit.

Message for the day

Detachment gives the power to be uninfluenced by desires.

Projection: When we are able to use the power of detachment that is within us, we are able to go beyond the attraction of things even whilst using them. We will be able to be in the consciousness that we are the true masters who use all things as and when needed, while being uninfluenced by them.

Solution: When we find ourselves having a desire we should remind ourselves that we are the ones who are the creators of things. So we are the ones who influence and not the ones who are influenced by the creation. This will easily make us detached from the things that we are using.

Contemplation: Time

Contemplation: Time

Time and Tide wait for no one.

Time
Consider time to be a great treasure. Don't waste a second

Tolerance

The one with self-respect never thinks or feels that he is tolerating.
On the other hand, since he is tolerant, he has the strength and the
ability to tolerate difficult situations and criticism with ease. If we
are constantly feeling that we have to tolerate a lot, we should check
within ourselves if we can use some strength that is hidden within us
for dealing with the situation.

Self Empowerment

Our internal strengths create the foundation on which we make our decisions in life, how we relate to others and how we understand ourselves. For most people their strengths are understood but never made very conscious. They lie below the surface and are not openly talked about. Bringing them into our conscious understanding improves our process of self-empowerment.

To realize and review your strengths, sit comfortably in a pleasant atmosphere and answer silently the following questions:
A. Look back into the past and remember the times when you experienced your greatest successes. List the unique talents or strengths, which you made use of at those times.
B. List the specific features, which you admire in yourself.
C. If you were to take the opinion of your family, friends and colleagues, what strengths would they say that you have?
D. List your most valuable assets.
E. Now examine your answers and summarize. What are your main strengths?

Soul Sustenance

The Cyclic Functioning Of The Three Faculties Of The Soul

The soul consists of three faculties – the mind, intellect and sanskaras. They work together in a cyclic fashion. How they work together can be illustrated by looking at how habits or sanskaras are formed e.g. if you are used to scolding your children to get them to do their homework, here is what happens when you visit a friend’s place and watch, for the first time, how your friend is doing the same to his/her child, you might think (done by the mind): ‘I should adopt the same method to discipline my children, they never listen to me '.

Your intellect discriminates and judges whether that thought is right or not. Seeing others using the same method, and also seeing that the children are not being affected in any negative way (at least in the short term, not realizing the long term harm) and also seeing them get the desired result, you make a decision to do the same, which leads to the action of scolding your children. This creates an impression or memory within the soul, somewhat like cutting a groove in a piece of wood. This groove in the soul becomes a characteristic of your personality and is known as a sanskara.

Within the groove is recorded the memory of, firstly, the action of scolding the children and, secondly, the desired result from the action. Now, whenever your child disobeys you even a little bit, this sanskara is activated and the memory of the action and result associated with it emerge in the mind triggering a thought: 'Let me scold my child, that’s the best way to get him to do things'.

The intellect judges the thought, remembering the proof of the scolding, based on past experience, and then makes the decision that it is alright to using anger as a weapon to discipline the child. In this way, the sanskara keeps getting deeper and deeper. The cyclic process explained above, applies to all habits, whether physical or non-physical.

Message for the day

Detachment adds quality to each and every action.

Projection: When we are detached, we will not be bound by the action itself, but will perform the action in a detached way. This means that we perform the action, yet we are not dependent on the fruits of the action. This automatically increases its quality. Then we would be free and uninfluenced by the bondage of the action.

Solution: In any situation where we find ourselves doing a lot yet with a feeling of not attaining anything, we should ask ourselves if we are attached to the task at hand. The more we are attached, the quantity of work that we put in increases at the cost of the quality. When we are detached we are able to give our best in all that we do.

Contemplation: Calmly Observe

Contemplation:  Calmly Observe

Norway is Beautiful!

Calmly  Observe
If you calmly observe, you will more clearly see situations for what they really are.

Attitude

Attitude is essentially a blend of perceptions, thoughts and feelings about anyone or anything. It is influenced by memories, past experiences and beliefs.

Although we may not notice, our attitude sits at the heart of all that we say and do. It's our attitude that reflects back to us in our relationships and it's our attitude that can rub off onto others.

So, it makes obvious sense to hold a positive attitude at all times in all situations. Today, what will your attitude be?

Love And Suffering (cont.)

When there is too much pain we cannot lean back into our true power and experience our energy of love. Only the power of pure love, unconditional love or love of God, can help us to get rid of the suppressed pain inside the subconscious. When you live through a situation that causes pain in you, you have to love yourself, stabilize yourself and enter into silence. Observe that pain without being afraid of it. Observe it to let go of it and understand what it is that it brings about in you.

The answer, generally, is connected with others: * He/she doesn't love me anymore and that's why I feel pain, * Things are not like they were before, * The company of this loved one doesn't give me the benefits it was giving me before.

If a person loved you and now has stopped loving you, does that make you feel pain? Or is it your own expectation and your desire for that person to keep on valuing you or loving you like before that trap you in pain? Is it that you don't accept change? The truth is, we bring on suffering ourselves. If you don't want to make yourself suffer, starting from now you do not have to bear any more suffering. Nobody can wound you or can cause you pain, except if you allow it. So how do you allow it? By being a vacuum that sucks in everything of the other, the good and the bad, and you suffer. It is expectations from our loved one that make us vulnerable to the experience of suffering.

Soul Sustenance 

When To Say Yes And When No

When you are faced with different situations or opportunities, which do you say yes to and which do you say no to?

In order to decide, it is important to keep the vision of your dream and what you the soul really wants, in front of you. Be aware of what is essential for you. From this space of inner focus, we should see which of these situations/opportunities are going in the direction of your dream, what is essential and what takes you away from your dream; also be aware that sometimes situations are like ‘mirages’ (illusions) that seem to offer something easy and attractive, but which distance you from the essential or the truth. They are opportunities that seem easier and, out of laziness, it would be easier to say yes. But within you, if you listen, you know that, in the long term, you will not be happy, content and peaceful given that you have avoided or are running away from the challenge, you haven't listened to your heart. We need to refuse to allow ourselves to be carried by the current.

When you say yes to the proposal, situation or action that is close to your essence of your spirit, it is a yes in which there is not submission, where you do not lose your freedom or your self-esteem. It is a yes with the certainty that, learning from what life offers you; you and others will move forward in a positive sense.

Message for the day

The ones who are detached watch the challenges that come their way as a game.

Projection: There would definitely be many difficult situations that come our way, but if we are detached, we will not become confused. Detachment gives us the power to observe all the situations just as we would observe a game. We would not feel caught up, but will be able to enjoy under all circumstances.

Solution: If there is any situation where we feel helpless we need to develop the power of detachment. We should practice looking at the situation just as we would watch a play. Then we can feel light and enjoy the different turns that the situation takes.

Contemplation: Solution

Contemplation: Solution 

Sea Cliff Bridge, Wollongong, Australia

Solution 

Problems are simply challenges waiting for solutions to meet them. The two are partners. Think with resolve that a solution will present itself and it will.

Humility makes you a learner

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. 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.

Love And Suffering (cont.)

We have the inner belief that love, worry, fear and suffering go together. It is difficult to transform (change) fear until we eliminate that belief. You are love and you need to share that love. Life is a sharing of love, it is loving the body, loving oneself, loving others, loving God, loving nature, loving work. That energy of love in the end purifies us and helps us to go forward. But while the belief exists that love has to be linked to fear and suffering, we will be blocked and will put a brake to the flow of pure love. In the name of love, we worry, we suffer and we are afraid. Instead of helping from a place of freedom in love, we help out of worry and fear, and in doing so we stifle, control, depend, and the other person feels their inner freedom restricted. We do not let them be.

If we review our personal life and see the moments when we have experienced most pain in our lives, we realize that it is with the people we have most loved, and that have most loved us that we have suffered most. We experience pain in a relationship of love, where there is possession, control, submission and dependence. Other times the pain is caused by a loss that generates an inner emptiness. That person filled me, they gave me wholeness, they were the reason for my existence and now they have either left me or they have gone. In the second case, we wouldn't say that they "have died", but rather that they have gone to another level of existence i.e.  the soul has taken a new physical costume.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

 

Soul Sustenance

Limiting Ourselves In Comfort Zones

We are basically unlimited beings. But we limit ourselves in many comfort zones. We have a lot of conditionings which, in reality, are mental.

Some mosquitoes were put in a box and they kept jumping a lot. The box was covered from the top and each time they jumped they hit the top of the box, and when they jumped too close to the right or the left they hit the sides of the box. Slowly, to avoid harming themselves, they learned to jump just under the cover and without reaching the sides of the box. One day all the four sides of the box were opened. The mosquitoes were free, but they kept on jumping as far as the limit they had learned. The physical limits were no longer there. But they had become conditioned mentally. The same thing happens to us. We have to open the sides of the box and take off the top, or we can continue to live inside the box created by our own mind.

Given below are some conditionings under which we work, because of which we do not experience complete freedom.

* Beliefs , acquired since our childhood, which limit us.
* The negative images of low self esteem that we have created of ourselves.
* The damaging thoughts of doubt, which does not let the highway of trust to build up inside ourselves and does not allow the creative energy of positivity to flow from inside us to the outside.
* The fear of failure or not being to able to succeed completely. A lot of times the fear exists due to past experiences of failure or not having succeeded as much as you would have liked.

We need to become aware of what our pattern of thoughts is, which brings us under the negative influence of mental conditionings. When that happens, we will be able to become free of these conditionings. While we do not become aware, we will continue to remain under its influence.

Message for the day

The one who is detached is the one who is loving too.

Projection: The lotus flower is both detached and loving. It is untouched by the dirt it is surrounded with and is beautiful and loving at the same time. In the same way, whatever the situations or the people around us, we need to be untouched by their negativity. Then we will become the ones who are loving too.

Solution: When we are faced with a negative situation, instead of blaming the situation, we need to work at our own inner strength. The problem could be created by someone else, but we have to make effort in bringing about the solution. Then we will be able to make things better without having negative feelings towards anyone.

Contemplation: Positive Vision

Contemplation: Positive Vision

Positive Vision

Our thoughts and feelings can so easily be influenced by how we perceive others. If we make a firm choice to always keep a positive vision of those around us, then we will enjoy better relationships.

Meditation

Situations arise where it may not be enough to tolerate or accommodate, but where I need power to face very unpleasant and perhaps threatening realities. What we are talking about here, in effect, is courage. Meditation helps enormously.

First, the practice of the awareness of myself and others as eternal souls greatly reduces fear of death, an ever-present reality that we spend much time, money and mental and emotional energy trying to avoid. If soul-consciousness is firm enough, I'll have the absolute conviction that when someone dies, it's not that they are no more, just that they have moved further on their eternal journey. This faith makes it much easier to face the departure of someone close to me. It also removes much or all of the fear I might otherwise suffer about leaving my own body. I'll still value my life greatly - probably even more than before, because of having the burden of fear removed. But I won't let concern for the body stop me from facing what I must.

Secondly, meditation makes it easier for me to oppose evil. It does this by allowing me to differentiate clearly between the actor and the action. Spirituality helps me understand that the original qualities of every soul are peace, love, happiness and so I have no hatred in my heart for anyone. This helps me become fearless and stand firm against wrongdoing. With a clean heart, a clear understanding of good and evil, and connection with the divine, I am much more likely to have the faith and courage with which to stand up for what is right.

Thirdly, if the negative behaviour I am opposing activates negative tendencies within my own personality, the fight will soon wear me out and I'm unlikely to be victorious. Power absorbed from the Supreme in meditation helps me remain positive and above negative tendencies and hence face someone’s negative behavior and emerge victorious.

Love And Suffering

There are two things that touch or move us in life: pain and pleasure. Both create addiction. We feel pain in the body, and sometimes it is even emotional. But suffering arises in the mind. The suffering in the mind arises from thinking negatively towards the self, towards others, looking at them with a vision or attitude that causes grief, sorrow and suffering. Both extremes, pain and pleasure, can create addiction. On creating addiction it can start to form part of someone's identity. Later if one tries to stop the addiction of pain or suffering, it can almost feel like a threat towards the self, and towards one's own identity as one perceives it, because suffering is identified with. It is too hard to see oneself as no longer suffering.

An e.g. in this regard is that of a mother, with three children, who was undergoing a meditation course at one of the Brahma Kumaris centers. Her daughter had learned to meditate and became very happy and joyful. Seeing her happiness the mother came to learn to meditate. With a few sessions she felt much more at peace and had very good experiences, but all of a sudden she decide to stop the meditation practice and leave the course because she was starting experiencing a positive detachment, which she perceived as negative. Now, she was no longer feeling afraid of what might happen to her children. The meditation was awakening in her a love free from fears, but it brought on in her an inner clash of beliefs between the old and new beliefs. Her old belief was that to love someone is to suffer about them or create pain related to them.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance 

The Seven Relationships With The Supreme

Every soul has a close relationship with the Supreme (God), but we simply forget it as we become over-involved in, attached to and distracted by our life on the physical plane and our different relationships with different physical beings during our journey of births and rebirths. Spirituality makes us realize the need of restoring our connection with God, which has either broken or has become loose. It also makes us realize that this connection needs to be a very deep and personal one.

God plays many roles, just as a good parent, being one, but will play many roles while bringing up his or her child. Each role consists of different spiritual characteristics and virtues of God, expressed by Him. Take a few moments to think about the main roles that God plays in our life and identify the main virtues and characteristics which He expresses e.g. in the role of Father He demonstrates the art of living to us and how to perform right karmas. In the role of Mother he gives spiritual sustenance, in the form of virtues like peace, love and joy to us. In the role of Teacher, he showers us with true knowledge of the spirit or the soul. These are just a few examples. We suggest you do your own thinking about seven different roles that God plays: Father, Mother, Teacher, Guide (or Guru), Companion (or Beloved), Friend, Child and how he plays them. Once you have done this inner thinking exercise, experience each of these seven roles on each of the seven different days of the week, one role per day. Feel Him being in that role for you and then note what you feel exactly and how you relate to Him. Also identify the spiritual characteristics and virtues that it brings out from within you.


Message for the day

The power of detachment helps us to watch the different games of life.

Projection: Whenever we are faced with a situation or when we watch someone dear going through a difficult situation, we tend to overreact because we feel caught up in it. Then we are neither able to work to remove it nor are we able to enjoy all that life brings.

Solution: Whenever a situation comes up, we need to use the power of detachment that is within us. With this power we can see and appreciate all the variety that life brings. This makes us enjoy, whatever the situations may be.

Contemplation: Contentment

Contemplation: Contentment

Hawa Mahal, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Contentment
Contentment is the king of all virtues. A contented man lives naturally peaceful life. Remain happy with what is available and at the same time keep trying for better.

Tolerance

Tolerance does not mean to suppress something. Suppression is a negative energy which causes stress. In time anything that is suppressed rebound.

To tolerate means to accept through understanding. Acceptance is a change in my internal attitude towards that which I feel I need to tolerate. Tolerance is actually about respecting the differences I see.

First I have to learn to tolerate my own inner reactions. This can only happen when I learn to disengaged from the thoughts and feelings creating my inner reaction.

I am not my thoughts or feelings, they are my creation, thus I am able to separate myself from them if I wish.

If I can take a second to step back and become an observer of the drama that is going on within, then I will have the opportunity to see it from another perspective, and so understand and accept it.

Make a friend of the power to tolerate.

Meditation

Imagine you are walking along a crowded platform in a train station.

You know that where you want to go to is the other end of the platform where your train is waiting. You don't stop and talk to anyone on the way. If you did you would be delayed. You would fail to arrive at your train if you interacted with everyone on a platform that is continuously filled with new people. Meditation is exactly like this. Just as you cannot empty the platform of people just because you have a train to catch, you cannot just empty your mind of all thoughts just because you want to get to the destination (goal) or seat of your inner peace. Not at least until you are able to practise meditation correctly.

Remind yourself that you are not your thoughts, you are not your feelings, you are not your memories, you are not any of the voices in your head. You are the creator and they your creation, but they are not you. In fact they represent a platform of absolute strangers.

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.