Daily Positive Thoughts: June 02, 2017: Purity

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 02, 2017: Purity

Artist: Vrindavan Das

Purity

A powerful, yet often misunderstood, aim of spiritual study is purity. Purity of the soul means to return to its original divine qualities. The soul has become so polluted with less than divine qualities, it can hardly enjoy being alive. Purifying the soul puts the higher self back in charge - useless and negative thoughts are removed and annoying habits finish. A pure soul cannot be touched by sorrow; indeed the power of purity is such, it serves to remove the sorrow of the whole world. Purity restores happiness - even bliss. All you need to do, in order to re-establish your purity, is want it. But you need to want it intensely, to the exclusion of everything else. The one thought, "I must become completely pure". sparks a fire of love between you and God. This fire melts away all the pollution, and your purity becomes such a power that it frees you from all battles for ever.

A New Journey With A New Personality (Part 1)

Anyone who shows an inclination in getting to know the Supreme Being closely has a fascinating journey in front of them. Spiritual knowledge is the vehicle in which I make this extremely interesting journey full of exploration. Without sitting in the vehicle, I cannot make the journey. As I sit in this vehicle, I am introduced to this new, multi-faced, peaceful, loveful and blissful character in my life, a character who is spiritually rich with treasures of knowledge, virtues, powers, happiness and blessings, a character commonly called God, by everyone.

He is a character who introduces himself as being just a point of conscient light, a form very simple and plain. Yet, hidden beneath that simple light, incognito form is an immense volume of experience, wisdom and depth, such that even a lifetime spent in this journey, in his company, does not bring you to knowing him completely. The more you dive into the ocean of knowledge contained within the light, the more you discover and the more treasures of knowledge and experiences you receive. Every time you make contact with this new found companion called God, there is growth inside you and there is an increase of peace, love, happiness and power inside you. It's just as if after you've begun this journey, you're never quite the same again. However much time you spend in his company during the journey, whether it be in imbibing knowledge from him or remembering him during meditation or even sharing the benefits of this journey to other friends and relatives so that they can also start this journey themselves and experience what you are experiencing; whether you do either of these for a few minutes or an hour, there's always an experience of subtle growth and development inside you.

Don’t Frown

Every frown line is a sign of the attitude we bring to our relations with the world and those around us. 

I will let my face express my spiritual attainments today - my peace, happiness, knowledge and joy. 

When the sparkle of all this spiritual wealth is visible to all, everyone benefits.

Message for the day

To understand the value of the jewels of knowledge is to use them well. 

Thought to Ponder: When I understand the value of what I know and the benefit of applying it in my life, I need to use it well. As I start applying important points in my life, I will start becoming richer and richer with these jewels. I will find the practical benefit of knowledge and will be encouraged to further recognize and use points of knowledge. 

Point to Practice: Today I will take one point of knowledge and use it. I will use it not as a force but as a choice. With love, I will apply it to my life and bring it into my daily activities and behavior. Each day when I take up one point like this, I will truly be able to use points of knowledge and benefit from them.

In Spiritual Service,

Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: June 01, 2017: Independent Observer

The Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt

Independent Observer

Peace ends when you are emotionally involved in a situation. The practice of being an independent observer helps you stay stable and calm. It is the best way to approach a decision in any circumstance.

Resisting False Attractions In Actions

All that glitters (shines) is not gold. Life presents you with many illusionary scenes, scenes in which what may be visible may not be the truth. These scenes cause desires to be born inside you to achieve something unnecessary for your prosperity or other types of fulfillments. These can be illusions that make you believe that you will gain something from a situation or person, without the same being true. Thus, you waste time going down a path that not only leads you to disappointment; but you also waste the resource of your thoughts and energy and as a result you tire yourself out emotionally and mentally.

If the intellect is polluted, you make incorrect judgments and are easily deceived by situations or people. Thus, you will make incorrect choices, dishonest or illogical decisions. You will justify dishonesty and improper actions and you will be incapable of differentiating between the real and the imaginary. A person with a pure, clear, clean and powerful intellect will act with honesty and sincerity. When your intellect is polluted, you may act against your own conscience or against your better judgment; you also may be insensitive. A person with a doubtful intellect will always justify a dishonest act. Meditation is the process of purifying and cleaning the intellect, because in meditation we connect with the purest intellect, the intellect of the Supreme Soul or God. Meditation is also a process of inner awakening and strengthening of your conscience. Being awake means to realize, and being strong means to act according to what you have realized.

Give Encouragement

A word of encouragement at the right time can boost someone's confidence and courage.  So don't hesitate or hold back in encouraging others.

Your encouragement doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming, simply appreciate someone's efforts, share a compliment or give uplifting feedback.

Go on, be lavish and encourage someone today. It might just energize and elevate their day.

Message for the day

To find reasons to be happy is to increase happiness. 

Expression: When the mind searches for reasons to be sad and sorrowful, even situations with no great significance are seen with a vision of negativity. So there is constantly an expression of words and actions that reflect the need for sympathy and reassurance. On the other hand, when there is the search for happiness, then everything is positive giving happiness.

Experience: When I am happy, I start perceiving everything with that vision. It is like wearing coloured glasses. Whatever colour my glasses are, the whole world is coloured with it. Then, I am no longer able to perceive and recognize negativity and I am able to remain happy with everything. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 31, 2017: Forgotten how to dream?

Forgotten how to dream?

Most of us have forgotten how to dream. We have exchanged our creativity for security. The current state of the world is a wakeup call that brings us back to our dreams and hopes. This is the time to realize that beyond us there is another, unlimited, energy in action. This energy will surpass our expectations, if only we trust. The more we remember our dream, the more we become alert for the coincidences and synchronicity that will bring us in its direction.

Spreading The Fragrance Of Happiness (Part 3)

Happiness filled interactions make you completely free from the different worries and tensions life will sometimes bring in front of you. Also, a life rich with happiness is the best to make yourself extremely stable and emotionally powerful. Just try this one day for yourself. Give happiness to each one you meet and try on another day, not doing that. The day you are busy in sharing and receiving happiness, that day you will feel stronger from within. Also, you will face all obstacles of different types easily and with more stability. 

Also, such a day will pass very fast, as if you are on a joyride, sharing gifts with everyone, gifts that are invisible and of the inner personality. Gift your specialties to everyone. Don’t keep them with you. Have a big heart in giving them to others. Suppose, a person has the gift of speaking confidently, don’t keep that specialty to yourself. Use that speech to give happiness to each one and make everyone enthusiastic. Or you are very humble and have pure good wishes for everyone. Don’t keep the good wishes to yourself or inside you. Express them through your words and interactions and make everyone feel the happiness of your goodwill. Also, suppose you are very intelligent, help others through your personality and all the wisdom you possess, of different things of the world. These are ways of spreading happiness. Remember each specialty of yours should serve and not be kept inside you for your use only. Spread the fragrance of your specialties to everyone around you and life will become lovely and joyful, not only for you, but for others around you, also.

Familiarity breeds…..

With the people we're really friendly and comfortable with, and with the people we spend a lot of time with, all too often our behaviour becomes too familiar, and as a result, respect and basic manners gradually disappear.

This week, reflect and re-evaluate the role of familiarity in your relationships with family, friends and at work.

Remember, informality and appropriate familiarity has its place but so does maintaining respect and basic manners.

Message for the day

Every reaction to situations is a reflection of one's own self-respect. 

Expression: To the extent that there is a high degree of self-respect, to that extent there is a positive response to even the most negative situations. If there is low self-respect, even the smallest situation brings forth a strong negative reaction. This reaction only makes matters worse. 

Experience: When I am able to maintain my own self-respect even in the worst situation, I am able to have a hold, control over these situations. But if I have a low self-respect I continue to blame situations and use them as excuses to feel helpless. So I am not able to do anything about these situations and just continue to have negative feelings. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 30, 2017: Courage

Courage

It is natural to feel worry and tension in a difficult situation - or to run away from the situation altogether. Although this may work for a short time, it is not a solution.

We have to draw upon inner courage in order to meet the challenges head on. When we do this, we often realize it is not as bad as it first appeared.

Spreading The Fragrance Of Happiness (Part 2)

Whenever you begin your day, fill your mind with some happiness filled thoughts. Those thoughts could be – Today, in the entire day, I will gift a smile to each one I meet or Today, throughout the day, I will keep each one’s specialty in my mind and experience joy. They could also be - During the entire day, today, I will touch each one I meet with my positive good feelings for them. We could also think something like - All through the day, today, I will bring different virtues in action and experience lightness and give the same to others.

It’s these types of thoughts which will make everyone around me happy and they will give me happiness in return. This in turn will make the atmosphere around me full of happiness. Happiness begins with the self and happiness given to others is happiness experienced by myself first. When you meet someone in the whole day, ask yourself and check yourself – Did I just meet the other person and interact with the person in a common manner? On the other hand, did I share happiness with the other person and make the person free from worries and burdens? After all, it’s my duty towards each and everyone I meet - giving unlimited happiness to others. This is the common emotion that binds all of us together - happiness. Giving and sharing happiness will make life beautiful and our existence meaningful. Very often, whether it’s in our work or any other activity, we tend to become busy. We may not perform any negative actions during that time. But because we lose touch with our inner virtuous self, our happiness reduces.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Reflections

You may find that the qualities & personality traits you like or dislike in others are likely to also exist in you.

Really?  Yes, people really can be your mirrors.

They really can reflect back at you what you need to see about yourself - the positives & the shortcomings.

  

It's all more easily seen in others than in ourselves.  So look in the mirror & see what the reflections tell you about yourself.

Message for the day

To have faith that things will work out for the best means to ensure that they will. 

Expression: To have faith that things will work out for the best means never to give up. Even if situations don't support and people don't give encouragement faith gives the ability to go on. Because of this there is recognition of even the not so visible resources and they are used for successfully completing the task. 

Experience: When I have faith I am never discouraged by temporary failure, but am able to have the courage to move on towards success. I have constantly the satisfaction of giving my best. Because of my commitment and sincere effort, I find that situations and people too cooperate with me, bringing me success in whatever I undertake. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 29, 2017: Thought Power

Thought Power

Spiritual knowledge is like a sieve through which we can filter out the untrue.  Running our thoughts through it constantly ensures that we are heading in the right direction.

When thoughts are brought into action, they can be seen immediately. When the mind is filled with virtues, they will be revealed in our actions. By elevating our thoughts, we can literally end up purifying the self, inspiring others to do likewise. Our life will be the inspiration for them to change. There won’t even be the need to say anything.

Our vibrations of pure thought can reach out and touch the whole world. Our very life can do the work of a lighthouse.

Spreading The Fragrance Of Happiness (Part 1)

A beautiful aspect of each one of our lives is living a life full of enthusiasm and joy.  Also we keep spreading the same to others through our entire personality and through our actions and attitudes. It is one thing being happy yourself and another to share that happiness with each one at every step. For some, it is a hobby to start the day with wishing everyone with greetings of happiness and give them a feel of love filled joy. By doing this, they spend the entire day ahead free from the tensions that they might face and full of lightness filled thoughts and feelings.

Also, give a new flavor to each day, of different experiences filled with different types of qualities. Qualities such as cheerfulness, contentment and lightness, which are all different colours of happiness will make life a beauty filled journey. It is journey in which you are accompanied by others. Also, you along with others will share and receive these beautiful experiences. This giving and receiving will make this complete life journey full of something you look forward to and enjoy to the fullest. These experiences are like gifts that we share with each other and gifts always bring happiness. Physical gifts are limited to particular days and particular people. But these invisible gifts of different positive happiness emotions are unlimited and can be shared with each and every one. We can do this in our homes, at our workplace, with your close friends or in society in general.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

It can be difficult to learn, who to trust.

When we have had bad experience with people who betrayed our trust in the past, it can be difficult to let anyone else in. It can take some time to learn to trust anyone again.

Trust goes both ways. If I want to gain someone's trust, I have to show them that I trust them before he or she will open up to me.

When I am truthful, this will be evident in everything I say and do. When others realize this, they will begin to trust me. From trust, love begins to grow.

Message for the day

The power of good wishes enables disheartened ones to experience happiness. 

Expression: The usual reaction to the negativity in another person is to behave negatively too, i.e., to express negative qualities. This continues although this does not bring about the desired change in the other person. On the other hand, when there is the ability to see the positive qualities in the other person and have good wishes based on that it becomes a source of power to bring about a change to positivity.

Experience: When I have the ability to give positive feelings and good wishes to the other person even when they are negative, they are able to get the power to change the negative to positive. I find that the change that I seek for in others is much quicker and easier than if there is the emphasis just on negativity. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris