Daily Positive Thoughts: May 17, 2014: Riches

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 17, 2014: Riches

Artist: Josephine Wall

Riches
The greatest good we can do for others is not to share our riches with them, but to reveal to them their own.

 

 

Challenges

The one who has the courage to process problems or challenging
situations is the one who faces them with courage. He never tries to
escape the challenge. Nor does he try to suppress the thought about
the problem. He instead uses all the available resources for constant
growth. When I understand why the challenge has come my way, I am able
to remain content. I am free from waste thoughts or questions about
others. I see a solution in each and every problem. So the problem
doesn't remain a problem for me. I don't suppress thoughts that
might emerge at a later time.

Soul Wound Healing Through Meditation

Our connection with the Supreme Soul, through meditation, is the best way of healing the inner wounds and negative traces, inside the soul, which have been left by the negative karmas of the past. Given below is a meditation commentary that will help you to absorb the positive healing energy of the Supreme in order to do the same:

I become aware of myself as a tiny sparkling star of light, situated just above the eyebrows - a soul... In soul consciousness, I experience the beauty of the many qualities like peace, love and bliss; of the spiritual being that I am... Now I turn my mind to the soul world... Over there, I visualize, in front of me - a sparkling Sun of golden light - God, the Father and Mother of me, the soul... He radiates immense spiritual energy... I turn my mind and intellect to his light... I feel the warmth of His presence and the light of His love for me gently healing the wounds of the past that are buried deep inside me, the soul... wounds left by ego, fear, sorrow, jealousy, hatred, anger...

While I sit and absorb this healing energy from the Source, I also transmit that light and positive energy out into the world... This light touches everyone I know and have ever known... It is a light which also heals my negative vision of them... I now recognize everyone around me as bother souls, playing their own unique roles... With this new soul-conscious vision, I experience unconditional love for each soul and all negative memories and past hurts associated with each of my relationships is consciously released... The past is forgotten, resulting in a deep feeling of freedom inside me...

The beauty of the Law of Karma is realizing that when our consciousness is filled with happiness, peace and love for others today; and we transmit that positivity to others through our words and actions, the energy received back from each of our relationships, as a result of doing that; ensures that our own future will be bright.

 

 

 

Soul Sustenance

Going Back To My Original Nature (Personality)

Our present personalities are basically the combined habits of this lifetime (birth), built on the combined habits of previous lifetimes (births), all of which have left their mark (sometimes deep and sometimes not so deep) on our consciousness. It may well be that habits such as becoming angry, upset, anxious, stressed, sorrowful or scared, have been with us for so long that, they feel a natural part of our inner world, so natural that when someone says our true nature is not anger but peace, not fear but love, not aggression but acceptance, not anxiety but calm, it does not feel right. And even if it did feel right for a moment, we have become so attached to our old habitual moods, emotions and behaviors that we do not really want to change. It may even be the case that we have become so weak that we need help to change. It seems much easier to stay the way we are.

As we begin to meditate and develop our spiritual practice, our views on the above subject will fluctuate. When that does happen, imagine you are having a conversation with yourself and teaching yourself. Give yourself permission to be peaceful by nature, full of love and joy by nature, naturally content by nature, wherever you are and in whatever you do. After a while, you won't need to give yourself permission and you will find these states of being are there within you quite naturally at every moment. They are our original and eternal nature. Everything else is acquired or learned. In so many ways introduction to spirituality, like many other approaches to inner awakening, is as much about unlearning (the acquired beliefs) as it is about learning (new beliefs).

Message for the day

To be clean at heart is to give happiness to others.

Expression: The one who has a clean heart is the one who always tries to do the best for those with whom he comes in contact. Thus, the person develops the ability to accept others as they are and ignore anything wrong done by them. Instead, he is able to do the right action without losing the balance. So such a person brings happiness for himself and for others through every action he performs.

Experience: When I have a clean heart I am able to have an experience of my inner qualities. I am able to enjoy the beauty of the different relationships, each relationship and each person being unique. Thus others are able to get in touch with their inner beauty too. So there is happiness experienced by all.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 16, 2014: Feeling of Happiness

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 16, 2014: Feeling of Happiness

 

Feeling of Happiness

If I do everything with a feeling of happiness, there will be no task too difficult to perform.

 

Have Faith

The ones who have faith are able to believe in succeeding even in the
most difficult circumstances. They will never say "I will try to do it" but their words reflect the confidence, which make them say, "I will do it". They are able to make best use of the available resources and also find yet undiscovered resources. When I am able to work with faith and believe in the success of a task, I'll naturally fill it with positive and powerful vibrations. This naturally ensures that the task is successful. Also people provide maximum support, as I am totally committed and confident.

Mind Empowerment

Meditation is an inner mental exercise, an exercise not physically visible to oneself and others. Through this exercise we link ourselves to the Source of unlimited and complete purity (the Supreme Being), which not only purifies our mind but also liberates the mind from the limits or various different forms of impurity or body consciousness, like I, my, burdens of the past and negative feelings for myself and others. During meditation the mind let's go of the threads of the limits of the physical body and physical world. Like a bird, the mind, which is impure, experiences a magnetic pull for this pure Source and flies upwards and connects with this Source. This connection is not difficult when the mind is truly in love. Love for the Source emerges inside when we have complete knowledge of God as the Ocean of truth and purity and have an inner spiritual thirst for experiencing a connection with Him, and not just trying to demand, flatter, or beg God for something for selfish reasons. The desire for connection enables the soul to fly beyond all mental barriers such as I can't, How do I? and No time!.

Connection fills the mind with a spiritual strength which we use in our everyday life and keeps it constantly positive, uninfluenced by any external negativity. To maintain such strength, we require a daily connection and recharge every morning; otherwise the using up of the energy of the mind in actions throughout the day causes its spiritual strength to get depleted very soon. In silence, we will find a personal and very loveful friendship with God, who not only listens and helps but, most of all, is just there. At the present moment, a lot of us have completely lost the simple enjoyment of His presence; we feel we have to ask for something, say something, or chant something. It is enough just to be still in the silence of that spiritual meeting and experience its bliss and enjoy the stage of spiritual fulfillment.

 

 

 

Soul Sustenance

Shedding Off The Attachment To A Positive Past (Part 2)

Excessive attachment to a glorious past is a subtle shade of the negative emotion of ego which colors my present perception of external events and which affects my present actions and responses, as a result of which not only present but my future is also affected. As I hold on to it, my creativity is reduced and I do everything with a limited perspective, not letting myself grow and shape up a glorious present and future. There are some people whose goal is to achieve something so great in their lives so as to ensure they will gain recognition and respect by others in time to come. This is again a subtle shade of attachment and ego.

But shedding off this type of attachment is not easy and first requires the realization that this attachment is incorrect and damaging. The next step is sitting in silence and becoming aware of how you lose your identity in a story of past thoughts, feelings, emotions, attitudes and actions and then disassociating or detaching yourself from that story. You do not need to suppress or deny or fight with this story; otherwise its memory gets stronger and more overpowering. You just need to simply see and realize deeply that your past is just a record of a particular set of actions, which you committed at a particular point of time, it is a series of images of previous events that you witnessed and that you were a part of, all of which have left a record in your memory, and in the memories of others, but they are not what you are. This type of practice of disassociation with spiritual understanding fades the excessive memory of the story in your consciousness over a short period of time and these actions then cease to influence you in any way in the present. Here we are talking about an influence, which we have for long deceived ourselves into believing to be a positive one, but which in reality is not.

 

 

 

Message for the day

True detachment is to be a master of all things that we use.

Expression: Detachment is usually mistaken as being away from things because usually while using the facilities available we tend to get dependent on them. Such dependency is troublesome and so we sometimes give up using these facilities thinking that this is detachment which helps us to be free from their control.

Experience: The solution lies in mentally detaching ourselves from the facilities we are using. That means we use them but we are not dependent on them. For this we need to remind ourselves that we are the creator and whatever facilities are available to us are the creation. This enables us to develop mastery and control over everything.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 15, 2014: Today

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 15, 2014: Today

 

Hardanger Bridge, Norway

Today

Don’t let the distance to be travelled deter you from taking the first step – today

Spread the Fragrance of Virtues

The presence of even one weakness within oneself reveals itself in
words and actions. Behavior is colored with negativity and the inner
specialties remain hidden. So to make effort to be free from the
influence of even this little weakness is to spread the fragrance of
virtues to all. When I pay attention even to the smallest weaknesses I
can take special care not to let it influence my life negatively. I am
able to reach within and be in touch with my specialties. So however
challenging the situations may be, I am only focused on using my
virtues and not my weaknesses.

Forgive To Forget

A key principle to remain light and stable in relationships is - forgive and forget - it's a well-known principle - one that we sometimes find difficult to practice. It can be modified to forgive to forget. Sometimes we spend many years with so much bitterness inside us for a particular person, with an inner violence of wanting to make the other pay (emotions of revenge), the one who has supposedly hurt you. If you don't strike back immediately, you at least want to keep this guilt card in your pocket, to be pulled out at a later date: "Oh yes, well what about the time when you...." We keep this bitterness inside us because we haven't forgiven. It does not resolve the situation; the only thing it does is increase our pain, makes us heavy and does not let us remain in peace. So the key is that if we do not forgive, we cannot forget. When someone has offended or insulted us, the last thing we want to do is to let it go. And yet, if our desire is to have a healthy, lasting relationship, that is exactly what we've got to do.

Sometimes, when it is a question of a broken relationship, it is not only a matter of forgiving the other, but of forgiving yourself for having allowed yourself to enter that experience. It was you that took the step to allow that experience to be entered into. If you hadn't taken that step, you wouldn't have had that experience. You accepted that challenge, that relationship, and what might happen in it - you were aware of the possibilities when you entered in the relationship. So not only do you have to learn to forgive the other, but also to forgive yourself in such situations. Only then will you be able to forget.

Soul Sustenance

Understanding The Mind And Its Functioning

The mind is a faculty of the soul, the main function of which is to produce thoughts. The thoughts we create are energy. In one day we produce an average of thirty to forty thousand thoughts. How much energy does this represent? What do we do with it?

The mind works constantly, even when we are sleeping. We cannot separate ourselves from it, it is our inseparable companion. If you study your mind you will see that, as well as thinking, it imagines, remembers, dreams, associates, desires and even produces your feelings.

If you think about some incident that made you unhappy ten years ago, you will feel that unhappiness again, perhaps even more deeply than before. If you think of something that made you happy, you will also feel that happiness when you repeat the event in your mind.

If you create positive thoughts about yourself, you will feel good and your self-esteem will be strengthened, and if you create negative thoughts, you will feel depressed, with low self-esteem. The mind opens up the way to the self. By creating the right type of thoughts you can open up your inner potential again, and rediscover that as people we are full of positive qualities.

Message for the day

To be an embodiment of power is to be free from effort.

Expression: When we are faced with a difficult situation we usually try to make our mind positive at that time, but we find it very difficult to do so. We then give up making effort thinking that we don't have the power to change our nature. We continue to work with the weakness and strengthen it further.

Experience: In order to win over our weakness we need to become an embodiment of power. For this we need the practice of a long time of being powerful so that we experience the power within. Then the power that we want at that time will emerge naturally. Like a master we'll be able to order our inner powers and be free from the effort of changing negative to positive.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 14, 2014: Less

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 14, 2014: Less

Less

A rich person is not someone who has more, but someone who desires less.

Inner Treasures

The one who is aware of what he has attained is free from desires. He
is able to recognize what he has and use it for one's own benefit and
the benefit of others too. He is able to give without expecting from
others i.e., he is able to give unconditionally. When I am constantly
in touch with my own inner treasures I am able to experience the
richness and beauty of life. I experience contentment and satisfaction
for what I have. As I continue to use these treasures, I find myself
getting richer and richer with these internal treasures.

Tapping Supreme Guidance (cont.)

In yesterday's message, we had discussed how no human entity can fulfill all the necessary requirements of someone who can guide us correctly in any difficult situation. Thus to proceed in such a situation, it's good to take the guidance from the intellect of someone who fulfills all these criteria. That someone is no one except the Supreme Being or God, who is the entity possessing the most powerful intellect, and intellect with the most perfect judgment power. Sometimes my mind and intellect is absolutely clean and clear and I am 100% sure about my right course of action for the future, but even in those times its good to verify the course of action from a higher authority. So, in those times, it is very important to connect for a few minutes with the Supreme, who is an Energy of Unlimited Truth. Then, the question to ask myself at that time is not what do I want, or what do others want, but most importantly: What does the Supreme want, what is his wish, what is his perception of the situation? The deeper my connection with Him in meditation, the clearer the answer will come.

When it becomes a regular practice, it will be as simple as taking guidance from my physical parent or spouse or friend. I'll know without wasting time and energy, the right course of action. Sometimes it may happen that the answer may not come to me immediately, but by connecting my intellect with the Supreme's intellect my intellect will become clear, which will help me take the right decision. Also, in some cases the Supreme may not respond immediately but may guide me through some other medium, whether living or non-living after some time or even after a day or two.

Soul Sustenance

Do Love And Suffering Go Hand-In-Hand (Part 2)?

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 …)

Message for the day

To make our promise practical is to benefit at each step.

Expression: Sometimes we make a lot of promises to ourselves and to others. At such times we are very confident of what we are saying but later find that our promise doesn't come into action. So, that promise gets wasted as we don't take benefit from the intensity of that moment.

Experience: When we make a promise to bring about a change in ourselves we need to immediately make a practical plan that will help us make the promise real. We also need to make sure we understand why fulfilling that promise is important for us. Along with this we also need to remind ourselves again and again about it till it becomes practical.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 13, 2014: Courage

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 13, 2014: Courage

Courage

Do not become discouraged in the face of adversity. Understand that the bigger the heart, the bigger the obstacles it is asked to accomodate.

Generosity

To be generous means to be able to recognise the specialties within and
use them for everyone's benefit. The one who is generous never
expects others to understand or give but is able to give constantly
from whatever he has. He is able to spread the fragrance of his
specialties to those around. When I am generous, everyone around me is
benefited and I find that I am able to win the love and respect for
all. My continuous contribution inspires others to make effort to
change and I become an example and inspiration for them. I am able to
move forward with ease.

Tapping Supreme Guidance

There are many occasions in my day-to-day life when I am not sure as to what my next course of action should be in that particular situation. The intellect is the faculty inside the soul which normally takes all decisions for the soul. But sometimes the intellect is clouded by my own or others' sanskaras, beliefs, opinions, inclinations, assumptions, thoughts, actions, past experiences, etc.

In such a situation, I require the guidance of an entity who:
* is above the whole situation and is seeing it as a spectator or observer and is not a player in the situation,

* is the knower of the three aspects of time (the past, present and the future),

* can see the situation from all dimensions or perspectives,

* is beyond all influences and is impartial,

* is extremely pure and clear,

* knows me more than I know myself,

* knows my benefit and harm more than I know it myself,

* someone who is selfless and is concerned for my well being the most, etc.

No human entity can fulfill all these requirements.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance

Do Love And Suffering Go Hand-In-Hand (Part 1)?

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 decided 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 wasthat to love someone is to suffer about them or create pain related to them.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Message for the day

To think less is to remain happy.

Expression: Usually there is a tendency to think more than normal when there is a challenging situation. Although it is considered to be good to think more, we usually miss out on the fact that thinking more means having lots of waste thoughts along with those that are necessary.

Experience: When we find ourselves thinking a lot we need to ask ourselves if all these thoughts are really necessary. We need to recognize waste thoughts and replace them with something more positive. With this practice we'll find ourselves thinking less and at the same time having powerful thoughts which will keep us cheerful under all circumstances.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 12, 2014: Your Own Truth

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 12, 2014: Your Own Truth

Your Own Truth
To follow someone else's truth is a trap. The best strategy is to know your own truth, face it and live by it. Others may inspire, guide, give you directions, but ultimately you have to cut your own way through the jungle. You could always be asking others where North is, and they will tell you. Someone will say North is this way and someone else that North is that other way - and both would have been sincere. But you alone have to find your true North.

Move Forward

 

To consider life a journey is to constantly move forward. To be on a
journey means to be able to put in effort to move forward constantly.
The one who is on a journey is able to use his qualities to enrich his
own life and contribute to those around too. He is also able to
contribute to make each thing better around him. He doesn't stop
with temporary obstacles but continues to move forward. When I am on a
journey I am able to enjoy the journey as much as I am able to
appreciate the destination. I experience constant progress and success
in everything I do, because there is forward growth in all I do. I am
also able to inspire others too.

The Flight Of Harmony

There are two faces to one coin; a person who wishes to live fully as a human being needs to understand that the existence of one's unique individuality has to be acknowledged, as well as the existence of the group or collective. One cannot exist without the other. Individuals who are developing spiritually feel a personal sense of value. They clearly recognize their uniqueness and have the feeling that there is the freedom to be whatever they choose to be. At the same time, their sense of personal independence allows them to come close to others and work with them. They do not have selfish independence. They get close to others because they have found fulfillment in their own self. Someone who has truly found the value of the self above and beyond labels, name, fame and approval can effectively cooperate within the collective or group and interact appropriately. Such people not only feel themselves to be a part of the whole but, even more importantly, the group or collective feels them to be a part of the whole.

In nature, when birds have to fly to a warmer climate in winter, they flock together and start their journey as a group. The success of the journey depends on the group: if an individual bird does not join the group, it cannot reach the destination on its own. Birds fly in a particular formation, with an appropriate space between them as they fly. If they fly too close to each other, their wings get entangled; they lose their balance and fall. If they remain too far from each other, the formation cannot be created properly, and they are not able to ride the currents of air, which help to propel them in their flight. Furthermore, the leader of the formation does not remain the leader throughout the whole flight, but moves back and allows another to take its place. This repositioning continues throughout the flight until the destination is reached, allowing individual birds to contribute to the success of the journey.

The reality of life is that we are individuals within a collective whole. Just like the birds, we are all a part of an unlimited Flight of Harmony.

Soul Sustenance

 

The Location And The Form Of The Soul (Part 3)

All of the characteristics present in the soul are subtle or non-dimensional (without size) in nature - thoughts, feelings, emotions, decision-making power, personality traits (sanskars) and so on. If they are all without size, then it is reasonable to conclude that the living, conscious energy, the soul, from which they emerge is also sizeless. For this simple reason it is eternal (beyond life and death). Something which has no physical size cannot be destroyed. As a soul I am neither spread throughout the whole body nor am I an invisible duplicate of the physical body. Even though the body of subtle energy exists inside the physical body, it is the effect of the soul being in the physical form and not the soul itself. Just as the sun is in one place and yet its light radiates throughout the solar system, the soul is in one place and its energy is spread throughout the whole body. To express something that exists but has no physical dimensions we can use the word point. The soul therefore, is an extremely small point of conscient (living) light. For the sake of having an image to fix our minds on we can say its star like in appearance. In deep meditation we can experience the soul as an extremely small point of non-physical light surrounded by an oval-shaped aura.

Message for the day

 

To be merciful means to transform the pain and sorrow of others.

Expression: The one who is merciful always has the feeling of mercy and is able to help those who are in need or in distress. Such a person is able to bring about transformation in others too because of his own pure feelings. He is able to put in effort that becomes a contribution for the progress of others.

Experience: When I have mercy for others, I am able to accept their feelings, emotions and behaviour and provide them with the right kind of mental support. Then I am able to give them courage without being influenced negatively with their feelings of pain and sorrow. So my mercy influences myself positively too as I am able to keep myself positive under all circumstances.

In Spiritual Service,

Brahma Kumaris