Daily Positive Thoughts: June 14, 2016: The Truth about Illusion

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 14, 2016: The Truth about Illusion

Orange Paint Leaks Marigolds in a Public Park in France

The Truth about Illusion

Illusion is the idea that people should be, and do, what we want them to. The truth is, all is as it should be, despite appearances or our perceptions of others to the contrary.

Soul Power Over Role Power (Part 2)

Continuing from yesterday’s message, the various components of soul power are:

The power of inner silence or the silence of my mind - Silence is a power. The fewer the thoughts in my mind and the more powerful, positive, peaceful and focused they are, the more my mind will contribute to the success of the role on a subtle level. My silence is regularly tested when faced with negative situations or obstacles. The more successful I am in maintaining this stage in such situations, the more is my treasure of silence collected over a period of time and the more positive the influence of this silence will be on my physical role and the success of various tasks connected with the role.

The power of inner and outer carefreeness, happiness and contentment - Happiness not only inside but also giving others an experience of the same through my face, my eyes, my words and actions full of lightness and enthusiasm, etc. while coming in contact with them. Ensuring I am content with myself and others and also others are content with me. Regular periods of discontentment or unhappiness either within me or in my relationships affect the success of my role adversely.

In tomorrow’s message, we shall explain the remaining components that make up soul power.

Examine your opinions about others. 

Are your opinions about other people really yours? 
Or have you adopted other people's opinions?

We're shaped and influenced by other people's ideas. 
But our opinions should be a reflection of what we really think and feel, right?

Connect with your values and then create your own opinions.

Message for the day

To move forward with respect is to be free from punishment. 

Thought to ponder: The biggest punishment that one faces is that of repentance. When I am clear about the way I am going, about my own values, I would find that I move forward with self-respect. Then, there is no repentance or regret, but only learning for the future. The steps that I take are sure and firm at every step. 

Point to practice: Today I will make myself free from regret. I will not allow guilt or negativity about the self to crop up in my mind and corrupt it. I will only create positive thoughts about myself and perform every action in that consciousness. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 13, 2016: Free From Gossip

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 13, 2016: Free From Gossip

Free From Gossip

When someone is talking about another person's shortcomings, I need to question why I am listening: is this information of any use to me, or can I do anything about the situation? If not, then I need to remind myself that there is no use in listening to such talk. Instead, I need to make an attempt to look at the positive qualities of the person in question, and think about how I can help everyone focus on these instead.

Soul Power Over Role Power (Part 1)

Every act that we are involved in throughout the day is made possible or real by two entities - role and soul working in conjunction with each other. Although, it is a spiritual fact that the soul is the master and makes the role function, without the soul the role cannot function; while playing any role in our day-to-day life we tend to forget this fact and our entire focus falls on the role that is to be played, forgetting that by doing that, we bring down the probability of success of that role in our personal or professional life. Focusing positively on the soul and its components while playing the role fills the role with soul power and focusing on the role and its components while playing the role fills the role with something you could call role power. We need to create a balance between the role and the soul and a balance in using both role and soul power to bring about the success of the role, the role could be of any type. Even a project that you have to work on in the office which is going to last for a month is an example of a temporary role you have to play. There are many other examples of roles - getting your child’s homework done, preparing food for the entire family, doing charity work at the club together, taking part in an extracurricular activity in school or college, etc.

Any such or other role will consist of some or all of these components - various tasks, interaction with people or relationships, mediums like wealth and other objects, time, knowledge of everything connected with the role including the components that make up the role, etc. All these components are physical in nature and make up the role. The power that these components possess makes up what we call role power. Now, what happens is that as soon as we step into the role each day or on a particular day, obviously our aim is to bring about success of the role, but to achieve that, our entire focus falls on using the power of the role, neglecting the immense potential that soul power possesses. We spend our day and night in streamlining the role components for the well being of the role, not realizing that this purpose could be more easily achieved, if the focus is more on using soul power, obviously without neglecting role power (without which the purpose cannot be achieved).

In tomorrow’s message, we shall explain the various components that make up soul power.

To travel light is to enjoy the journey of life. 

I can travel far in life when I am free from the baggage of the past. I also take only the essence from everything, packing up essencefully. So, I am light. I never stop because of anything. Instead, I learn from everything, pack up the essence and move forward. Today I will resolve one thing from my past that I have been carrying as a burden. I will try and understand what learning I can take from it. Once I take the learning, I don't have to relive those feelings that I had during the situation. If I can't resolve it today, I'll at least believe and have faith that it will happen tomorrow. This finishes the burden of the situation and brings lightness.

Message for the day

The treasure of thoughts is the biggest treasure. 

Thought to ponder: When I think negative or waste, there is a high speed of my thoughts. Such thoughts are not powerful. On the other hand, when my thoughts are positive, there are few powerful thoughts. Such thoughts create a positive impact. 

Point to practice: Today I will check my thoughts. I will also create a beautiful thought that I will sustain throughout the day. "I have the power to influence my life" "I am the master" is a simple positive thought that will lessen the speed of my thoughts and make me powerful. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 12, 2016: Create Vision

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 12, 2016: Create Vision

Create Vision

Never believe anyone who says we cannot change. Vision is one of the secrets of personal transformation. We are all artists, our mind is the arena of creation and vision is what we are constantly creating. What is your vision of yourself today - patient, relaxed, positive or tense, tight and negative? What do you prefer? So be creative - what does patience look like, feel like, what are you doing that is different when you are patient and you are expressing your power to ...wait? Always start with vision not action. See it and you will be it. Be it and you will do it. This is how we create our own life.

The I Inside (Part 3)

If we continue to love our specialties, our personality or our role for the most part of our life, then over a period of time we forget the real self which is waiting to be recognized. Every time I think I am one of the above, I become more and more disconnected with my real self which is going to give me a more permanent self-esteem or pride and as a result a permanent happiness. The personality skills, the sparkling education success and the way I dress up, these are all temporary because don’t forget life is a roller coaster where success can easily leave me within a short period of time. So, enjoy all of them because even they are attainments and enjoying attainments is not being materialistic or non-spiritual but don’t become dependent on them for your happiness. On the other hand, the source of all the specialties and personality – the real I is a sum total of the basic qualities of the soul – peace, love and joy and all that is good inside which is eternal and also the relationship of the I or myself with a higher source which is also imperishable (un-destroyable) is what I need to be dependent on because it will never leave me.

Don’t forget, in our earliest births as pure deities, we were extremely skilled, very beautiful and very rich, so much so that everything good that a human being can have physically was with us, yet we were completely detached from all these attainments, enjoying all of them. That too at a time when these attainments were imperishable, because that was the original world, a world of happiness. But, now all these attainments in our life are no longer permanent and can very easily go away from us in a split second because we live in a world which is unpredictable and with many ups and downs. No skill or role has with it the assurance of being permanent. On the other hand, it is the time when the imperishable I is the one which stands by us permanently. So, it is this I the hand of which we need to hold tight permanently and also connect the I with a permanent source – the Supreme Soul and enjoy every moment of life with complete security, surety and safety.

To keep the mind free and light is to get a detached perspective. 

When I keep my mind free from the burden of negativity and waste, I am free and light. This lightness gives me the ability to rise above clouds of despair and mountains of confusion. So, I don't have to work hard to understand and cross over them. I automatically get a detached perspective and am able to understand and cross over all obstacles easily. Today I will be an audience to my situation. I will see all aspects of the situation with detachment. I will then become a director and change the script in order to take it to a better conclusion. I need to make even the smallest contribution I can.

Message for the day

To know the art of moulding and controlling is to be a master. 
Thought to ponder: Just as a driver knows when to turn the steering, when to apply the brake or when to press the accelerator, I too, in life need to know this art. When I am able to use this power of moulding and controlling in the right way, I will be an expert in handling situations and will deal well with situations. I will then be a master. 

Point to practice: Today I will be prepared and in control. When people do take me for a surprise, I will be alert and be ready to move ahead. I will not let any accidents happen nor will I be led away from my path. With my vision firmly on my goal, I will move ahead. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 11, 2016: Forgiveness Will Bring Me Closer

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 11, 2016: Forgiveness Will Bring Me Closer

Forgiveness Will Bring Me Closer

Why is it hard to forgive others? Usually because we believe that they are 90% to blame for the problem, that I am not as bad as they are. So I start to carry the load of other people's actions. If my ego is too hurt, I will have the sense of correction, of justice: “I know I am right”, “That is not fair”. But if I start to forgive from the heart, sincerely, then this kind of feeling and attitude begins to dissolve. I remain humble and this forgiveness will bring me closer to others. Then I do not carry regrets or anger, I just let go and remain light.

The I Inside (Part 2)

We all are used to seeing ourselves with the spectacles of others’ perceptions which are all based on physical attitudes and clouded by the worldly view. Today, we look at ourselves with a lot of respect for all that we think is good in us and based on what others tell us about us. And then, suddenly someone criticizes us and we become depressed and lose our mood to the other person’s perception. All this because we have learnt to identify with things other than the real I. Suppose I identify with what specialties I possess e.g. I am a good debater (speaker) and this specialty has bought me a whole lot of praises from people around me all through my academic career. Over a period of time people start praising you regularly for that and the identification gets stronger. Identification means losing yourself in the object of your attachment so much that you completely forget that this is not the real you. In this case, the skill of debating (speaking) with confidence is a characteristic which I possess, which can easily lose its importance if I don’t get an opportunity to express it as I become older or am out of school or college. So, what happened to the object of my attachment with which I identified myself? Suddenly it gets back at me and the same object starts giving me sorrow if the praise that I am used to receiving because of it is no longer available. In this situation, wouldn’t it have been better that I shouldn’t have attached myself so much to this characteristic in the first place. The more the identification, the more the sorrow experienced.

So, a simple way of not experiencing sorrow in the above case is being happy and feeling lucky for what we possess but at the same time keeping a relationship of detachment with the  characteristic of how we express ourselves through our words and deliver our ideas through our voice. A relationship of detachment means not losing myself in the characteristic but playing my role with it and even keeping a pure pride that I possess the characteristic which can also be called self-esteem, but at the same time not get over-awed or over self-impressed by the characteristic. That would lead to a healthier relationship with my attainment, which if it is reduced or is lessened by any chance or not praised any more as much as before, it will not harm my self-esteem and give me unhappiness at any point of time.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Life is all about choices. 

When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. 

You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. 

The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life.

Message for the day

The power of silence can bring peace to any situation. 

Thought to ponder: The instruments for the power of silence are pure thoughts and pure feelings. You can give others an experience with the power of your silence. When you understand and experience the power of silence you will become more powerful. You will then be able to experience peace that you will be able to spread to others too. 

Point to practice: When you have to correct someone in any situation remind yourself that words will not work but silence based on pure feelings and love will surely work. When you accept the person as he is with love you will be able to bring about a change in him. Remember that the lesser you talk the more the peace that is created. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 10, 2016: Giving

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 10, 2016: Giving

Giving

With habits, never give in or we lose our dignity,

With the self, never give up or we lose our destiny,

With others never give your worst or you will never develop your best.

The saying, “what we give is what we receive”.

The lesson: Just to give.

The I Inside (Part 1)

We all live our lives at a fast pace, finishing one scene and entering the next one after forgetting the first scene and sometimes carrying its memories into the second one. But have we wondered or stopped to ask ourselves that is our identity which we use to perform our actions one of our profession or role or how we look or dress up or carry ourselves or for that matter our gender or the country or caste which we belong to?When we use the term self-identity, two words come to our mind – one is what we call self or me or I and the other is identifying with what i.e. I, the self, am identifying with what? Very often I am identifying with what I am not or what I seem to be but I am not in reality. The looks and the personality as well as the education are acquired but what I am really is what I am before I learn my education and shape up into the features that I have. You might say that this is an old story of spirituality, but what we need to train ourselves from today to do is to start seeing ourselves in the mirror of spirituality and start observing the real I or me – the one that is invisible to the physical eyes but is the core of what we call ourselves – human beings. As in a coconut, the softer inner surface or the core or center is what gives us strength whereas the hard exterior is what is not eaten or is lesser important.

People who are used to the common practice of seeing in the physical mirror before starting their day are reminded of so many physical characteristics mentioned above that they forget that behind the acquired exterior is a non-visible interior that also requires cleaning up and being dressed up. This is because that is what comes into contact with people’s hearts – people whom we meet everyday, and also it is the inner face that will impress people after they have temporarily been impressed by the clothes we wear and how beautiful we are. After all it is the smile that is more important than the shirt. What use is a good looking suit if the person wearing the suit is egoistic and jealousy filled? Living life in the essence of the inner self is the way of reaching out to others with love and compassion and remaining contented yourself also.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

To believe in success is to have the power not to give up. 

The power of determination combined with faith in the vision of success, inspires us to put in relentless efforts. It is these efforts which help us move towards success. Success is first in our minds. When I start with that, I will be undeterred with the little setbacks I face. I will be able to put in the right efforts for success because I believe in it. Today I will not run away from problems, but will race towards solutions. For something I have wanted to do and is not happening, I will try one more thing. Today I will try once more, one more new idea. I will not give up till I succeed, because I am destined to succeed.

Message for the day

To be generous hearted is to bestow others with your specialities and virtues. 

Thought to ponder: When you are generous you will become cooperative and enable others to become virtuous through your virtues and fill others with your specialities. The more you use your specialities in this way, the more you will find them increasing. 

Point to practice: Think of something that is very special in you. Today take the thought of using this speciality of yours for someone's benefit. Not only will others benefit with this, you will find yourself improving too.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 09, 2016: Power On

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 09, 2016: Power On

Power On

Each day we all need to recharge our spiritual battery, otherwise the light of our consciousness becomes dim, thoughts become fuzzy, and decisions are impregnated with doubt. Power is available inside and outside. Inside us we have a spiritual center, at the core of our consciousness, pure radiant spiritual light. This is what we are. However it is now blocked by our attachments, the record of all our life experiences and many learned beliefs and perceptions. Outside us we have the sun of spirit, the source, invisible to our physical eyes but only one second away when we are able to quieten and focus our mind. Meditation connects us to both sources of power - that's why meditation is the way to access the real vitamins and the minerals that spirit craves. The vitamin of pure love and the minerals of truth and wisdom. Take time to empower yourself today. Sit quietly and connect your mind to each source and allow yourself to recharge and renew.

Nurturing My Relationship With Myself

One of the most significant areas of importance in any human’s life is that of relationships. Someone with very good, close, harmonious and loveful relationships with loved ones, friends, colleagues, etc. is normally considered very fortunate or lucky. But of all relationships, the first and most basic one is the one I have with myself. So, how good, close or deep is my relationship with myself? How well do I know myself? Am I my own friend? If I think over the last week or fortnight, how many of my reactions were unexpected or uncontrolled or basically not the right ones? How many reactions left me confused, sad, unenthusiastic, peaceless, depressed, negative in any other way or in short uncomfortable? If there have been several such situations, it is an indication that there are still things deep within me that I do not know.

Normally a friend is someone whose company I enjoy, for whom there is love and from whom there is some benefit. As in any worldly relationship, without knowing a particular person to the core I can never have a deep relationship with that person. As the phrase spiritual knowledge implies, it is the knowledge of the spirit or the self. Only by knowing myself completely and having a good relationship with the self, can I channelize my inner potential that I have within myself - just as water from a river, when properly channelized, provides water for various purposes. In any worldly relationship, if enough time and attention is not given to it and it is not nourished, it gets affected negatively.  In the same way, though it's obvious that I have to spend a large chunk of each day involved in situations arising from my duties, routine activities, responsibilities and worldly relationships; my relationship with myself should also be given enough time and attention, so that it does not suffer. If I am not careful about that, my worldly life may use up my energy completely and discharge my inner battery. I need to find times in the day when I give time to my relationship with the self and recharge myself. The peace and happiness I long for internally will be obtained by having a good, positive relationship with the self. 

Smile

Like the torchbearers, carry a flame of light wherever you go.

To carry the flame is, to let the light shine through your smile.

Pass the torch onto everyone you meet because a smile makes everything light and makes everyone feel better.

Message for the day

To be healthy internally is to make the best use of all treasures. 

Thought to ponder: A healthy intellect acts like a mother, always showing the right path. When internally one is strong, there is the natural ability to treat the mind with love and guide it towards the right direction. Such a healthy state of mind naturally enables the recognition and the proper utilisation of everything available. 

Point to practice: Once I have learnt the art of guiding my mind in the right direction with love, I then never experience the difficulty of having to bring back the mind to the right thinking. Because the mind is totally under control in a very easy and natural way and I don't have to control it or force it to think or not to think in a particular way. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 08, 2016: Am I Happy?

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 08, 2016: Am I Happy?

Am I Happy?

If there is any sadness I make a strong effort to be free of it quickly, otherwise it grows like a vine in the rainy season: by midday I will be confused; by evening a whole jungle of weak, wasteful and negative attitudes will have taken deep roots in my mind. The result equals chaos. Sometimes I reach a stage where the attitude is: "So what if I feel the blues today? It is my life; no one else will be affected". Firstly, the more I allow myself to experience sorrow, the less time I have available to be happy and contented. It sounds ridiculously obvious, but am I aware of the value of happiness? It is an extremely rare commodity, and the cost goes sky high. Secondly, is it my life? Yes, I am living it, but am I not a member of a family or a co-worker with others, and am I not part of society? If so, then every movement affects and is affected by those around me.

Love Will Heal The World (Part 3)

The fall in the value system of the world is largely due to love no longer present in the minds of the people of the world in its pure form. There are very few people in the world who are living by God’s definition of love and that is why we see sorrow increasing in the world because both lust and attachment, which are impure forms of love and being lived by almost everyone, bringing with them negative emotions like lack of freedom, expectations, feelings of superiority and inferiority, domination, possessiveness, lack of control over emotions, feelings of jealousy, even depression due to separation or loss of someone with whom either of these two emotions existed. You might question that do we stop loving our friends and family and detach ourselves from them? Do you know that the world in its originality was a world where the love that existed, its magnitude and depth and also its cleanliness remains un-comparable to the love of today’s world? Also, the original inhabitants of the world who are none other than we, but in different physical costumes (bodies), loved their children, their husbands and wives, their parents extremely but what did not exist in that love was physical attraction to the opposite gender and sorrow based attachment. The love of today’s world has brought with it so much insecurity and pain. Relationships today are like two sides of the same coin. As long as everything is okay in the relationship its heads for happiness and relationships like any other coin don’t always fall on heads. The same relationship does fall on tails repeatedly i.e. it brings with it sorrow and dis-heartedness.

Love without lust and attachment is the original love of the world, so we cannot say that it is an impossible love. It is the love that souls, who have recognized God’s i.e. the Supreme Ocean of Love’s present presence in the world, are filling themselves with, from Him. God is actually pouring that pure love, which He is full of, presently into humanity which is healing humanity on an incognito level and giving rise to a new tree of humanity full of the different flowers of closeness, belongingness, concern, respect and good wishes amongst everyone and without the thorns of physical lustful attraction and attachment which hurts negatively.

To honor others' identity is to win their cooperation. 

True leadership is about conquering the hearts of others with my own humility. Then I can place the honor of others in front. Thus, I can attract blessings and respect from others. Also, with this, I will only have the vision of bringing benefit. Today I will look beyond what I see in the present in people. What I may see right now may be negative or not so great. But I look at their potential and what they are capable of becoming. When I do this, I will be able to help them recognize their own potential. They would also then want to use this potential in the task at hand. Your respect also earns their respect and they give full cooperation.

Message for the day

Bringing newness in dealing with life's situations brings happiness.

Thought to ponder: When there is the desire to find new ways of responding to life's challenges, unhappiness ends which in turn helps to fulfill one's highest potential. All it needs is the determination to adopt a fresh awareness. Thus burdensome thoughts that drain out positive energy are set aside. The quality of life itself becomes better. 

Point to practice: I experience a lot of happiness when there is newness brought in responding to situations. The potential and the energy of the mind is channelized in a positive way so there is an experience of fulfillment and satisfaction. The mind is not caught up with negative or waste but is busy trying for the best solutions in all situations. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris