Contemplation: Introversion

Contemplation: Introversion

Introversion

The ability to enjoy one's own company is one of the greatest gifts life has to offer. Learning to turn my thoughts away from all my responsibilities at the day's end and take my mind into a state of peace and benevolence enables me to carry greater and greater loads without feeling the burden. When my inner landscape is full of beautiful thoughts, everything I do is a pleasure. Gently, I calm down chaotic situations and offer solace to troubled minds.

Encourage Yourself

Notice how many times you put yourself down during the day. Include what you think and say, even words spoken in jest.
Pay particular attention to how you react to your mistakes and poor choices.

Instead of putting yourself down, affirm positive messages about yourself. Treat yourself gently and with respect. You deserve it.
Think of yourself as a child who is learning to walk; you need encouragement - not criticism.

The Concept Of Letting Go (cont.)

Another example (we had explained one yesterday) of how dependencies trap us, is that of the monkey; you can trap a monkey by giving it a jar with peanuts in it. The monkey puts its hand in the jar to get the peanuts. On having its hand full of peanuts it can't get it out of the jar, so it has got trapped. To free itself the only thing it has to do is let go of the peanuts and that way it will be able to take its hand out. That is how we are at times; we don't let go and we stay trapped in situations, in people, in the past.

Along the way, we will find a lot of jars with peanuts in and branches to settle down on - many scenes that will attract us and please us. The dependency begins, almost without our realizing, when we begin to feel the desire to be in these situations. The pleasure turns into desire, the desire turns into need and the need turns into habit, then to dependence and finally into an addiction. It is fine to enjoy the branches, but let us keep awake and alert - conscious of our freedom - in order not to fall into dependence; enjoying the branch or jar without it trapping us.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

 Soul Sustenance

Positive Consciousness

The habitual way in which you use the house you live in and its contents are all affected if you use them in a positive consciousness (mental state). The result is purification while interacting with the physical object, so that when the object is in use, it fulfills its function accurately, and it has also undergone a permanent change. This can happen when you are cleaning the house, cleaning any object in the house or preparing objects for a particular purpose. If such actions are done in a positive consciousness then the physical object will have such a vibration of peace and purity that no harm can be done with it and whatever action it is used to perform will be successful. Any other soul who comes into interaction with those objects will also feel the affect of their pure vibrations.

If we perform each action with the physical body in a positive consciousness, then the physical body gets purified and we can become free of illnesses.

In our relationships it is the same principle. First there needs to be that detachment in relations. Secondly, when there is a positive consciousness, I will find that my interactions have a purifying affect on all that I relate to and I can bring benefit to everyone I meet.

In this way a positive mental state enables all actions to be successful, whether at work or at home.

Message for the day

The method to finish negative is to transform it and make it positive.

Projection: When someone says something that we find negative we normally tend to speak about it to others. Having recognised that it is negative, instead of finishing it we usually talk about it. Without realising that we are only increasing negativity by talking about it we spread it to others. Naturally instead of finishing, it only increases all the more.

Solution: When we find someone with negativity, we need to make effort to look at something positive in that person. We need to recognize the fact that each one is special and has some or the other positive quality. When we make effort to look at the positive in the other person we will be able to finish the negativity in our mind first and will be able to inspire the others to finish it too.

Contemplation:Create Silence

Contemplation:Create Silence

Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Create Silence
Learn to create silence in your mind and peace will flourish in your soul. You will see life with other eyes. You will discover God's language. To be internally silent, do not think too much. Trust yourself. Trust others. Trust life. You will find it is easier than it seems.

Efficiency

Plan ways to save money, time and energy.
Look at your priorities and see if you can drop the least important items to free up your resources. The stronger your reasons for saving, the more ways you will find to save.
Go on, make yourself more efficient. You can afford it.

The Concept Of Letting Go

We have to dare to be free. Why? Because fear prevents us from taking the decisions that lead us to live and feel our full freedom. We should dare to let go because dependencies trap us. Let us look at a story that shows us what happens.

It is the story of a bird that, after having flown for a long time, leans on the branch of a tree to rest. While resting, it finds the wellbeing of staying there until, little by little, it gets the idea that its life is on the branch. When a day arrives on which it asks itself why it doesn't carry on flying, it says "Oh, this branch is stuck to me and I can't fly!" The bird blames the branch. In reality, the bird has got stuck to the branch. It has the capacity and the wings to fly but its perception is clouded. It no longer sees its purpose with clarity or its potential to reach it. The freedom of the bird is in its wings but it has got stuck onto the branch. That is the reality that it has created for itself.

The freedom of a human being is in his or her awareness. But when their awareness has got stuck onto the branch (the object of their attachment) and they begin to blame the branch for their impossibility to free themselves, then they are trapped. When our awareness is clouded and we are clinging on, we do not see with clarity and neither do we exercise our freedom and let go.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance

Becoming Responsible For My Destiny (cont.)

Factors like any particular person, a group of people, the government, nature, even God, etc. cannot be held responsible for what has happened t0 me in my life, up to this moment. It is my and my responsibility alone. Equally, what my future holds depends on me to a very large extent. Rather, whatever I choose to do at this moment is already creating my destiny for tomorrow. I shouldn't forget that the only real time I have for creating my future is the present, now.

Karma teaches me that at every step, I am the creator of my own little world, the creator of my future circumstances. I also am the creator of the environment immediately around me. On a bigger level I am a co-creator or partner, together with God, of a positive future of the world, of the world of tomorrow, of the world of peace, love and happiness. So my responsibility and my ability to influence the future is not restricted to my life alone.

That I can create the future of my choice - of love, peace and happiness, for myself and others, can appear as unreasonable optimism. It's just being realistic. What I create is what is going to happen. If I choose to transmit love and peace in my interactions with others today, I create relationships, in the present and for the future, based on those qualities.

Message for the day

The one who is free from desire is the one who is able to maintain positivity.

Projection: When we put forth our ideas to others we expect them to listen to us. Our idea changes to desire and when it is not accepted we then tend to become irritated. And along with it comes jealousy or dislike for the others and we find ourselves caught up in negativity.

Solution: We need to make sure that we share our ideas with others but at the same time we need to keep ourselves free from any selfish motive. When we put forth our idea in a detached way, we too will be open to learning and we will be able to accept any criticism or rejection that comes our way. Thus we will be free from negativity.

Contemplation: Believe Nothing

Contemplation:  Believe Nothing

Believe Nothing

It is much easier to believe that it's snowing, than to experience the snow.  If you just believe, you can stay inside, stay warm and avoid the cold.  That's why people are led up the garden path by others beliefs.  It's easier and warmer.  In the context of your spiritual or personal growth, believe nothing, experiment and test everything in the laboratory of your own experience.  Only then will you be able to separate truth from falsehood, reality from illusion, and lead others with integrity.

A Wise Charioteer

The charioteer has been shown on the chariot, holding the reins of the 5 horses. The horses are mischievous and adventurous they will lead the chariot and the charioteer astray if left to their own devices.

They are the greatest companions for the charioteer and allow him to move forward at great speed. However, if these same companions are distracted and influenced by enemy tactics, then the charioteer is at risk of also being deluded into making the wrong move and becoming trapped.

I the soul am the charioteer sitting in this body. The five horses represent the 5 senses: to hear, to see, to taste, to smell and to touch. These are my great companions. They are a part of the body, the chariot; they are separate from the charioteer, the soul.
However the senses can be pulled and influenced in all directions. The job of the charioteer is to direct them and not be influenced himself. To use them but not to become enslaved to them and the information they supply.

With these under full control the charioteer is able to withstand all challenges that come in his path and move with great wisdom.

Be a wise charioteer.

The Mental Kaleidoscope (cont.)

We are so used to controlling people and situations to obtain a particular result that we have forgotten how to use the power of faith.

The Law of Faith says - 'Plant the right seeds, make the right effort, but also let things be.' Faith does not mean to be passive (inactive) but rather to have acted and thought about something and then have the patience and trust that the Drama of Life is also taking care of it; the outcome of any action is not just up to me.

In Raja Yoga meditation taught by the , we often hear the term - a consciousness full of faith is victorious. As the Drama of Life turns, such an intellect works like a kaleidoscope and can perceive and see the often hidden, beautiful patterns in life's situations that, in time, become visible and benevolent.

Success, or victory, depends as much on doing the task with the right intention, as it does on allowing things to take their own course. Wisdom is an awareness of this balance.

Soul Sustenance

Becoming Responsible For My Destiny

These are examples of some of the inner questions that emerge in our minds from time to time:

* Why is she rich and successful and I am not? * Why did he behave in that way with me; I've always behaved well with him. * Why does that one have easy success in life and the other, however hard he tries, fails at every step? * Why is he nice natured but is born blind and the other ill natured but has no health problems at all? * Why does she suffer so much? * She is so sweet, but yet everyone disrespects her. * Why did that child die at such a young age? She was so innocent. * Why did I get married to such a person? * Why am I here? * How is that student in my class so intelligent?

There are lot more questions like these that trouble us. In the case of sorrows, it is seen more than the sorrow, it is the question - why this sorrow exists in my life that troubles us. Why? What? How? When? Even so, they all have only one answer: karma.

I don't need to go into minute details of each situation. If I see that nothing can happen without having had a justified cause in my past or in that of others, life becomes much easier to face, with responsibility and the power of courage.

(To be continued tomorrow …)


Message for the day

Real progress can be experienced when we are faced with obstacles.

Projection: When faced with obstacles in our path, we usually tend to have negative feelings. We either experience fear or irritation and we don't enjoy the work anymore, our total focus being on the result. We only wait for the outcome not really bothered about enjoying the effort that we need to put in.

Solution: When we are encountered with a difficult situation, instead of seeing it as an obstacle, we need to see it as an opportunity to evaluate ourselves and see where we stand. We can then use this understanding to bring improvement in ourselves. When we constantly work on ourselves in this way, we will never stop when faced with obstacles, but will experience constant progress in our life.

Contemplation: Clean and Tidy

Contemplation: Clean and Tidy

Clean and Tidy

The most important places to keep clean and tidy are my mind and heart. If I allow thoughts to flourish that I wouldn't want to see the light of day, I can never have any real self-respect. By starting each day in quiet reflection and pouring positive, loving thoughts into my mind, I gradually clean out cynicism and unkindness.

Imagination

The power of the imagination is extraordinary. The imagination is one of our greatest resources. It offers us many options and, with the clarity of our intuition and the power of our intention, we can use it to bring about abundance and success in our lives.

It is a matter of using the art of the imagination in a constructive way so that it does not betray us. The imagination should be used for our more healthy and positive intentions.

When the imagination is influenced by our limiting fears and beliefs, our mind begins to imagine the worst; it creates fearful scenes that end up generating phobias and blocking us. Then we turn the imagination into an instrument to create negative fantasies that distance us from what is real. We believe in the fantasies that we have imagined.

The imagination has to used to help us overcome our limitations and not the other way round, which would be when the imagination is influenced by our limiting beliefs and our fears, with which it weakens us and keeps us locked into the cages created by our own mind. From a grain of sand it imagines and creates a great mountain that prevents it from advancing, and this mountain only exists in its own mind.

When the imagination is used in a positive way, it is capable of turning a great mountain, a difficult situation, into a grain of sand. There is nothing too big that the human being cannot overcome.

The Mental Kaleidoscope

A kaleidoscope creates beautiful patterns from chaotic bits and pieces, which are scattered everywhere. When the kaleidoscope is turned, disorder becomes order, chaos becomes beauty and symmetry. The Drama of Life is constantly turning and we are part of its cyclic movement; sometimes this cyclic movement of life is supportive, comprehensible (understandable) and enjoyable and, at other times, it is tense, fearful, stressful and incomprehensible (not understandable). There is confusion and fear because we do not understand what is happening, why it is happening and how it will get better. Things not only appear chaotic but also hopeless. If the intellect is able to go beyond the questions of - Why, What and How and just be still, without judgements, or pressure, for some period of time, then things do work out. To do this requires faith.

The power of faith means that we know that somehow and somewhere right solutions and answers will come in their own time.

(To be continued tomorrow...)

 Soul Sustenance

The Four Pillars Of A Spiritual Lifestyle - Achieving A Balance

A balanced and fulfilling spiritual life is like a table. It stands on four legs and if one leg is shorter than the others then both balance and equilibrium will be difficult. The four legs or pillars of a spiritual life are given below in the form of four subjects. If any of the subjects is not a part of our lives or is a part of our life, but not to as great an extent as the others, then the overall balance of our spiritual life will be affected adversely (negatively).

1. Daily spiritual study (knowledge or gyan)
Daily spiritual study provides the right quality of nourishment for our mind and intellect, the two important energies of the soul.

2. Daily meditation (spiritual yoga)
Daily meditation provides the means to explore, discover and reconnect with oneself and with God.

3. The inculcation and development of virtues (dharna)
Giving some time each day to the conscious development of our character (virtue) helps to eliminate any negative sanskars or personality characteristics (vices) arid improves our ability to build positive and harmonious relationships. The quality of our relationships is a mirror reflection of our dharna.

4. The service of others (seva)
A life purpose based on some kind of service is the foundation of personal growth through the practice of giving. Finding appropriate ways to use our increasing spiritual power and understanding (through the three subjects mentioned above) for the benefit of others is the most satisfying way to use our energy today. It also ensures happiness for the present as well as for the future through accumulation of positive energy in the form of blessings of those who are served.

Message for the day

The right kind of support makes people independent.

Projection: When we provide help and support to others, sometimes we find that they become dependent on us. They continue to expect the same kind of support that They had got from us before, when we are not in a position to give. Then our good gesture becomes a bondage or difficulty for me.

Solution: When we are providing help to someone,we need to check the kind of help that we are providing. True help is to provide assistance in such a way that slowly the person learns to rely on his own resources and becomes independent. Then there will be no expectations from us.

Contemplation:Offer Up

Contemplation:Offer Up

Offer Up

Free yourself from forcing, expecting or wanting someone to receive what you think they should take - it could be your idea, opinion, or an opportunity you think they should accept - you can't make anyone take anything - your own experience probably confirms this. Offer humbly. Offer gently. Offer as if you are a master, and then let go, and retire like a shy child. When you can dance the dance between being master and child, you'll be surprised how much more others will accept what you have to say, and how much more they appreciate your offerings.
relax7

Faith

Your trust in others makes you get their cooperation. When you have faith in others, they will have faith in themselves too and this creates enthusiasm in them. This further serves to increase self-confidence in the one you are working with. When you find that someone whom you are working with is not cooperating with you, make the practice of telling yourself that you have complete faith in that person. Slowly you will find that person cooperating with you.

Qualities, Virtues And Powers

Innate or basic characteristics are properties that are unchangeable. It's impossible to take the heat out of the sun or sweetness out of sugar. Heat and sweetness are part of the unchanging make-up of the sun and sugar respectively; they are the basic properties of each of them. In the same way, in spite of whatever I have become as a human individual, my deep basic characteristics are still the same ones that have always existed in me. It's my inner core of qualities that in fact inspires me to seek the ideal in whatever I do. The impulse to seek and to dream comes from my own store of innate attributes that is just waiting to be found and brought into practical activity.

The innate qualities of the soul are those that are the most basic: Peace, Truth, Happiness, Love, Purity, Power and Bliss. They are so basic that they themselves are the foundation of all virtues and powers. They are like primary colors and virtues and powers are secondary colors. Just as orange (a secondary color) is made of red and yellow (both primary colors) and blue is made of yellow and green, virtues such as patience, tolerance, courage, generosity etc. and powers, are obtained by mixing the basic qualities e.g.

Patience - peace, love and, power
Humility - love, peace and truth
Courage - power and truth

The aim of meditation is to emerge and enhance my qualities so that my behavior becomes full of virtues and powers.

Soul Sustenance

The Soul Journey

A common question asked by many is – “Do we go back to the soul world, the incorporeal world (non-physical world), the home of all souls, when we die?” When we understand and experience ourselves as souls, as un-destroyable, eternal beings, we realize that death is only a physical phenomenon. At the death of the body, the soul enters another physical costume and a new chapter in its journey of life begins. Depending on the soul's karma performed through the body, its new birth is likely to be somewhere in the company of those souls with whom it has been close in previous births. It is quite a paradox that when a soul leaves a body, the relations which it has left, mourn over the loss of their loved one, and the new relations which it gets attached to celebrate with happiness, over an addition of a new-born entrant in their family.

The soul only leaves the home (the soul world) once in a unique, personal journey. This journey of the soul is not linear i.e. a straight line, with a beginning and an end. But, on the other hand, it is cyclic i.e. a circle, with neither a beginning, nor an end – although both leaving the soul world and going back to the soul world happen once each in every cycle. This soul journey can be compared to actors who leave home to go to the theatre to play their parts. They change costumes between scenes - they don't return home at the end of each scene, they return home when the play is finished, only to return the next day to repeat their part in the play. Each birth of the soul that it takes can be compared to a new scene of the play, which consists of many different scenes.

Message for the day
To have love for the self means to finish the weaknesses within.

Projection: When we make a mistake we usually think about it a lot and continue to feel guilty. The continued thought about the mistake magnifies it and we think it is difficult to change or overcome that weakness.

Solution: Like a mother who accommodates the mistakes of the child, yet has the best wishes for the child to be free from them, we, too, need to deal with ourselves with love in order to finish the weakness that is working within us. We need to recognise and work with some speciality that is within us, which will help us overcome the weakness.

Contemplation: Acceptance

Contemplation: Acceptance

Caribbean meets the Atlantic in the Bahamas...

Acceptance

Love is the ocean which accepts all manner of rivers without questioning their origin

Need and Greed

We do not realize that we are more than the limits we repeatedly place on ourselves. What is it that limits and overshadows us? The prayers and the requests of the human race for many centuries - with 'I need', 'I want' and 'I own', people place value on the self by relating to the material, external aspects of their lives. However, this does not work and when people insist on behaving in this way (that is, relating to the outside), then addictive attachments are created. They try to fill themselves, but exactly the opposite happens: the self becomes more and more empty. Unfortunately, the mechanism of need and greed functions in this way: first, there is the illusion of gain and secondly, when this is not realised, depletion (emptiness), instead of enrichment (filling up), occurs. Whatever the addiction is, no matter how camouflaged (hidden) it may be, it quietly but surely, ruins the person. It is a silent illness that only meditation can cure.

Positive Thinking

What Stops You from Being Positive?

There are many reasons that make it difficult to produce and hold on to positivity in your mind and attitude. The external information we receive is mainly negative, and our thoughts and conversations are based on this information. Other causes include:

* Other people's negativity rubbing off on you; Other people's criticisms influencing you;
* Self-doubt;
* Lacking clear objectives in life;
* Not having recognized your true qualities, virtues and values;
* Lacking self-confidence;
* Not believing you are a positive person;
* Keeping the past in your mind;
* Being egoistic;
* Comparing yourself with others;
* Having low self-esteem;
* Being frustrated or irritated;
* Lacking flexibility or tolerance with people or situations, etc.

Soul Sustenance

Experiencing The Stage Of Being A Detached Observer

Experience the stage of being a detached observer by gradually creating the following thoughts:

I am aware of the present moment and of time... The whole world is out there... I let go for a moment of what is happening around me... It is as if the world continues to turn, but I have stopped for a few minutes and turned into an observer... Mentally, I take a step back... I look around me as if I were in the inside of a room... the room of my mind... In this place, I can be with myself... at peace... calm... free... Here I do not have pressures, or worries, or fears... Nothing and nobody can influence me... I can think... see things as they really are...

I am sitting like an observer, seeing through two windows... These windows are my eyes... I am not my eyes... I am aware of who is looking through these eyes, a tiny sparkling star like energy, the soul... I am different from everything I am seeing... I perceive that separation between the observer and the observed... I observe the things that surround me without judging, without analyzing... I simply observe, remaining at peace with myself...

I see this world as a stage of a great unlimited theatre play... each human being is an actor, a soul playing their own role via their physical body... I simply observe from my inner room... things come and go... nothing is permanent... I do not need to worry about anything or anybody... I let things be... flow... I am at peace... calmed... I share this vibration of peace with all that surrounds me. 


Message for the day

The one who teaches others never makes time his teacher.

Projection: When the situation demands or forces us to change, we can usually bring about a change. But rarely do we find ourselves changing before time and being ready for the situations that are to come. So, we face a lot of difficulty during the time we are facing a problem.

Solution: We need to have the simple aim to keep learning from everything that happens. With this aim we will be able to learn and be ready even before time forces us to change. Then we will be able to give the right direction to others, too, at the right time.

Contemplation: Respect

Contemplation: Respect

Schwerin Castle, Germany

Respect
When I learn to respect myself, other people will respect me. How can I develop respect for myself? By keeping my mind positive and encouraging myself to grow and change for the better. Demanding respect because of my position or background is simply arrogance. On the other hand, listening with humility and valuing other people's advice naturally earns me respect. I get back exactly what I give out.

 Feeling

Our actual words only form a tiny percentage of the communication. Communication is made up of mostly feelings. Whether you like it or not, your feelings will definitely be revealed.

If you like or dislike the person you're communicating with, then everything within your whole being will communicate your feelings.
Before opening your mouth, check the feelings behind the words.

Self Conversations And Their Significance

A very important subtle activity that we all indulge in for a lot of time in the day is having conversations with the self, sometimes consciously and a large number of times without even being conscious of it. We need to be extremely careful about what the quality of our conversations are because self conversations very strongly influence our perception i.e. the way we see ourselves, others, situations as well as our personalities and also mould them. If channeled properly, they can be constructive i.e. ones that empower the self; if not, they can be destructive i.e. ones that bring the self down or weaken it in some way or the other. They possess immense potential, both positive and negative, if we want we can use them to liberate us or they can even limit us.  We can judge, criticize and threaten ourselves or praise and encourage the self in a positive way. It's important to create thoughts of acceptance, respect and approval for ourselves, even if situations don't go the way we desire or expect. Such positive conversations help rise above the dependence on what how people see us and what they think and talk about us, making the self extremely powerful.

Positive self conversations are not fantasies or disconnecting from reality and a few minutes given to the activity do a lot of benefit and no harm at all. They can be done by detaching oneself from actions when we have an emerged conversation and our complete focus is on the conversation and we do nothing else at that time or whilst being involved in actions. Some actions like going on a drive, cooking, having a meal or simply taking a walk or going on a jog allow self-conversations to take place alongside. At these times we give less mental energy or attention to the conversations i.e. we can have a merged conversation so that the respective action is not affected adversely in any way. We can choose how much mental energy to give to the activity, depending on the karma alongside.

Soul Sustenance

Meditating With Open Eyes

It is advised to practice meditation with eyes open. When we sit to meditate, if we close our eyes, what we do is that we send a signal to our mind, intellect and our physical body that sleep is close and that signal, in turn, induces sleep. That is the last thing we want to induce inside ourselves, while meditating. Meditation is a way to wake up and stay awake, not only physically, but in terms of being conscious and alert about what is happening internally and externally. It is therefore good to practice with eyes open, so that during your meditation, you can become used to going beyond the physical inputs of what you see, hear, feel and smell and at the same time, remain exposed to these inputs.

By practicing with open or semi-open eyes, it becomes easier to create the accurate state of consciousness while still being faintly aware of our surroundings. This will be essential in day to day activities when we want to stay connected to our inner peace while others around us may not necessarily be very peaceful. It will also help us to move deeply into our peaceful consciousness during conversations which at the same time, require alertness to go into the depth of ideas and concepts. When we are established in our peaceful, spiritual state (as a result of meditating), it is as if we are keeping our third eye, the eye of our intellect, open, which gives us the ability to see, in actions and interactions, what is true and false, and to make the right decisions without being influenced by others or our own emotions. All the above abilities are required many times during the day. We obviously can’t keep closing our eyes to meditate each time any of these abilities are required.

Message for the day

To be open to change means to experience constant progress.

Projection: We usually judge the situation according to our past experiences and we don't want to change our responses to the situation. Because we have succeeded once we feel that the particular response will bring us constant success.

Solution: We need to learn from our past experiences but also need to take care to be open to whatever new learning the situations may have to offer to us. When we keep learning from every new situation that comes our way we will be able to experience constant progress.