Contemplation: June 24, 2020: Crown of Light

Contemplation: June 24, 2020: Crown of Light

Crown of Light

There is a crown of light on those who are carefree. If you are worrying about anything you carry the baskets of burden on your head. Which do you prefer? Do you prefer the basket or the crown of light?

Finding The Destiny Maker (Part 1)

All of us are players in the world drama with fixed roles, which we play in different births. At the same time once in the world drama we get a chance to re-define or re-shape or in other words re-write our roles with the pen of spiritual wisdom given by the Supreme and as per his subtle (non-physical) and physical directions given, when He comes down on Earth and is with us. So, we are indebted to God because of this, because our complete fortune and the roles we play would not be possible if the Supreme would not shower on us his love, his presence, his knowledge and his company.

You might ask that is destiny already made and we are merely playing the roles given to us? Also, are these roles given to us by God or are they just eternal and fixed? This is partially right. Roles are fixed and eternal but the roles are not given by God to us. As mentioned above, God only shares with us the way of re-shaping our roles when our roles are no longer happiness filled and our physical body, relationships with others as well our minds along with the roles that we play in our families as well as in our professional lives are no longer permanently happiness filled. On the other hand, there is sorrow in every sphere of life and if happiness exists also, it is not secured or safe. It is the time in the world drama when we can no longer say for sure that tomorrow will bring no negative surprises in the form of disturbing situations. So, we have to thank God because it is at this time when He comes down to help us and brings back happiness in all our life spheres. So, our roles are fixed i.e. destiny is already made and we are also given a chance by God to make our destiny once in the world drama. Love for the Supreme who is the destiny maker of our lives should flow from our heart and we should make God a part of our lives and find Him in the world at the present moment and take the pen of writing our destiny from Him. This is because the time for doing that is now. In fact, it is now or never. 

    

(To be continued tomorrow …)

To experience the joy of doing is to bring beauty to actions. 

What I do is not as important as the experience I have while doing it. I need to work on subtracting any negative experiences while doing actions. Every action is an opportunity to experience some beautiful quality. Without that experience, the action is meaningless and purposeless. So, we might have achieved a lot of things during the day, but will only end up being dissatisfied by the end of the day. Today I will do something that I have always enjoyed doing as a child. Things in themselves are not as important as the experience while doing them. So, I will spend some time in doing something I have always enjoyed to do. Also, during what I do during the day, I will have attention to do it with joy.

Message for the day

When your heart is open and clean you will be humble.

Contemplation: Humility needs a good home to dwell in. When the mind is filled with negative feelings or biased ideas towards anyone, you cannot use your humility. So fill your mind with positive thoughts towards everyone. 

Application: If you have negative thoughts towards anyone, make an attempt to remove them. Tell yourself that you don't like one particular aspect in that person and not the person himself. In this way you will help the other person also to bring about change. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: June 23, 2020: Members of a Great Family

Contemplation: June 23, 2020: Members of a Great Family

Members of a Great Family

Values are related to each other as if they were members of a great family. From peace and happiness emerges inner joy. From this state of wholeness love awakens and with is the desire to share and give . Two of its relatives are tolerance and respect. All values have a shared origin which unites them - the peace of spirituality. When you lose peace you begin to lose everything.

What Is The Source Of Our Feelings (Part 2)?

The longer I experience thoughts and feelings of a particular variety (explained yesterday), the greater is the soul's inclination to generate those feelings. This can reach the point where feelings take over, and I experience their impact even though they are no longer consciously connected them with my thoughts e.g. my office colleague has done something incorrect without taking my opinion, and there's a series of negative thoughts running through my mind, such as - Why did she do like this? It shouldn't have happened like this. How dare she! Why on earth didn't she consult me? I do wish she wouldn't be so unreasonable. It would have been much better if the task had been done like that, etc. Bringing over thoughts of this type in my mind leaves me with a negative feeling – a feeling which is critical, nasty and rejecting.

What is worse, when I have let feelings like this emerge; it is very easy to carry them over into circumstances where they have no relevance e.g. it is the evening time now - I have left my office to go home, and in my mind I am now occupied with thoughts related to my children and groceries that I have to buy to on the way back, but the unpleasant, critical feelings for the colleague are still with me to the extent that they affect my behavior. I react over some minor issue with the grocery store keeper, creating bad feeling in him as well. Or, the other way round, I carry bad feelings due to an argument at home, with my wife, into my office, and then create an atmosphere of irritation in the office instead of comfort and warmth.

To express qualities is to enrich relationships. 

Everything that we do throughout the day is for the people around us. Whatever we do, we do it because it is important for someone close to us. Yet, we find that we are not able to express the same through the actions we perform throughout the day. Most times, we don't even have time to give a small little smile or express some words of affection or love. So, we need to make time for expressing our qualities in relationships to enrich and strengthen them. Today I will say something nice to someone close to me, or I will do something nice for them - something that can make them feel special. I will acknowledge the fact that I value this person in my life and all that I am doing is for making them feel special and valued. So, I will try and express this from time to time through my actions.

Message for the day

To have power means to enjoy the variety of life.

Expression: When there is the inner strength there is enthusiasm to give the best and also to learn and improve with every obstacle. To work with inner power is to be like a skilled player whose focus is on enjoying the match too rather than just on winning. 

Experience: When I have learned the art of focusing on my strengths, I am able to enjoy the variety scenes that life brings for me. I would enjoy dealing with all these different scenes in a natural and easy way, and also be naturally victorious. And so I have the benefit of double enjoyment. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: June 22, 2020: Something Worthwhile

Contemplation: June 22, 2020: Something Worthwhile

Tree of Life at Disney

Something Worthwhile

Transform regrets into realizations and therefore ensure that what could become waste is made into something worthwhile.

What Is The Source Of Our Feelings (Part 1)?

The topmost area of the mind is the area of conscious thought. Thoughts arise in our awareness like bubbles. Many thoughts carry a feeling or a series of feelings along with them e.g. the thought at a restaurant - I love how that pizza looks, could be accompanied by feelings of hunger, or greed, or happiness, or yearning (longing) or anticipated satisfaction.

The fact offered by spirituality and supported by experiences of many people who are spiritual is that feelings, as well as thoughts, originate from the soul.

Feelings are clearly reflected in the form of physical changes in our body: I may feel my heart beat fast with excitement, my mouth salivate with joy, my stomach sink with fear, my hands shiver or goose pimples on my arms with nervousness, etc. This is because the soul and body are interconnected and work in complementary ways, so that what goes on in the soul is definitely reflected in the body, and what goes on in the body is reflected in the soul. The degree to which both these processes happen in each individual is different.It's not that feelings arise out of nothing, or merely as a reaction to external stimulation by people, objects, nature, etc. Thoughts are followed by feelings. So we can understand that both of them arise from the soul.Recognizing this is an important step if I want to break free from cycles of unwanted or unsuitable thoughts and feelings.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Personal excellence means to strive to be your best in all little and big things.

To strive for excellence, invest in yourself daily.

Take 5 minutes in your morning commute to go through the following steps:
1) Identify ONE self-improvement you would like to make today.
2) Create a deeper understanding of why this is important and beneficial for you.
3) Clarify how you will keep yourself inspired and motivated throughout the day.

Message for the day

All problems can be overcome when you make a determined promise to yourself.

Checking: When a problem comes up and you are working on it, check what kind of thoughts you are having. Check if your thought to overcome the problem is filled with determination? 

Practice: Each day reinforce the thought in your mind to overcome the problem that you are facing. Stamp the thought with determination and you will become victorious in overcoming your problem. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: June 21, 2020: The Secret Ingredient

Contemplation: June 21, 2020: The Secret Ingredient

Dadi Jankiji, Dadi Gulzarji & Dadi RatanMohiniji in the Brahma Kumaris’ kitchen in Mount Abu, India

The Secret Ingredient

When we're cooking, our minds are working. When we're stirring and rolling and baking, we're thinking. Thinking creates vibrations because that's what thoughts do. The vibrations affect both the food and the people who eat the food. So, cook with care; pay attention to what you are thinking; and don't forget that in the best of recipes, love is the secret ingredient.

Practical Positive Response Training To The Mind (Part 3)

In last two days’ messages, we have explained the process of restoring positivity in the mind when faced with a negative situation, where the most common response is a negative one but the mind can be trained to respond in a different way, in a positive way. Today we explain this process with an example.

e.g. You have just had a major argument with your spouse and have lost your temper. At that time, not only your mind but your physical body also feels uncomfortable - it is in a state of complete stress. You feel your blood pressure has suddenly shot up, your heart is beating fast, you feel uncomfortable in the stomach, your hands are shaking, your face and eyes are red. On top of that, you also feel sad. You have behaved like this many times before and you know the results of responding in this way. The relationship has been scarred and you have worsened a situation. This could have been avoided. There is sorrow, guilt, low self esteem and hopelessness over your loss of control. Also, there is a fear regarding your future, not necessarily a long term one, because things will get sorted out sooner or later, but a short term uncertainty does exist, especially regarding what your spouse's response will be in the next few hours or days.  In this state of mental and physical helplessness or desperation, anger may come again either projected towards yourself or towards your partner, which will be followed by the same effects, worsening your state further. In this moment of lack of spiritual wisdom, you remind yourself of the simple wisdom that you are in fact a soul. Even while you are still caught up in the turmoil of the negative situation, using your intellect, you consciously emerge inside yourself, your true awareness of being a sparkling point of peaceful light situated just above the eyes, at the center of the forehead. You not only become aware but you also use the intellect to visualize your true, peaceful, spiritual and star-like form clearly. In that moment, you are able to tap into the reservoir of peace that is present deep inside your being. You calm your mind by holding on to this awareness for a few minutes. You feel - you know - that you are peace. As this experience grows, it has a soothing effect on your whole physical system. Gradually, stability and peace are restored to your body as well as your mind.

To appreciate achievements is to get the encouragement to do more. 

Quite often what we have to achieve overweighs what we have achieved. In the concern for what we have to do, we miss out on appreciating what we have got or done. We need to pay more attention in acknowledging and appreciating that too. That gives encouragement to move forward with strength and conviction. Today I will make a "have done" list. To make "to do" lists is good. Today, let me make this special "have done" list, in order to appreciate the efforts that I have put in and the success that I have got. Each day, let me increase the size of this list.

Message for the day

To have a balance between being a master and a child is to ensure success.

Expression: To be in the consciousness of being a master means to have confidence in whatever has to be done and in the ideas that have to be put forth. Along with this if there is the consciousness of being a child, there is learning and improvement, because criticism is taken in the right spirit. 

Experience: When I am able to be open to criticism as a child, I am able to learn from it. I am able to gain further mastery without being troubled by ego. My learning would never be blocked by what other people think or feel. Instead I am able to experience constant progress and sure success. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: June 20, 2020: Give Up the Habit of Worrying

Contemplation: June 20, 2020: Give Up the Habit of Worrying

Give Up the Habit of Worrying

As we grow in strength in our spiritual life, we give up the habit of worrying. It serves no purpose other than to make us feel tense and miserable. When I stop fretting about things that are beyond my control and focus instead on generating optimistic and kind thoughts, my life can begin to flow in ever more positive directions. Such a light and easy approach to life enables me to take everything in my stride.

Practical Positive Response Training To The Mind (Part 2)

If I believe that I am just the physical body and that my thoughts are simply results of chemical and electrical processes in the brain, and not something I can consciously control, I let go of the key of taking charge of what is going on inside my mind. In meditation, my intellect recognizes and realizes that my thoughts are my own creation, of me the soul and not the body and that I, the soul, using the intellect, which is also a part of the soul, can make choices about them.

When I realize that my natural state is to be the master of my mind and not to be dictated by it or dictated by the brain, I start taking charge of what is going on inside. When I practice being a master of my mind repeatedly by practicing meditation regularly, the new habit of creating only positive thoughts settles inside me and my habit of responding negatively with a negative state of mind to negative situations, begins to change over a period of time. I start responding positively even to negative situations. So, meditation is a major transformation process of the habit of thinking negatively, which then has positive results on my personality and behavior.

Tomorrow we shall further clarify the process which has been explained in today’s and yesterday’s message, with an example.

Live in Now

Wallowing in disappointment and dissatisfaction, doesn't change the past. Getting wrapped up in the past, limits our ability to enjoy the present.

Make peace with the past. And find the lesson.

Fold the past away neatly in such a way that if and when you need to unfold it again, only lessons of benefit are visible.

Message for the day

To see only problems is to become the one who only takes service.

Expression: When there is the practice of seeing only problems in all situations there is the inability to find solutions and act effectively. All the resources that could be used for the benefit of the self and others remain hidden. Such a person becomes dependent on others for finding solutions and a source of pity. 

Experience: When I am caught up with problems and not able to see anything else, I am unable to experience progress. I find myself moving backward losing a lot of things I have. I would not be able to retain my self-confidence and would become dependent on others. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: June 19, 2020: Space for God

Contemplation: June 19, 2020: Space for God

Space for God

The best solutions to problems will not be the result of hard thinking. Use your time better by creating peaceful thoughts, and problems will cease to affect you. Do not try to solve everything on your own. Leave some space for God to come and help you.

Practical Positive Response Training To The Mind (Part 1)

Meditation is a process in which I train the mind to consciously create those right type of thoughts that I wish to have, inside my mind, regularly in my daily routine. On the field of action, I am faced with various different types of negative and uncomfortable situations, which have the first and most immediate effect on my thoughts, before showing on my face in my expressions or in my words or actions. I do realize inside, that the thoughts (and as a result my physical response) created at these times are not the right ones. I want to inculcate a habit, whereby my thought patterns are only which I like or are the right, positive and powerful ones no matter what happens.

So where do I start? Meditation is the start. Meditation is the time, when I consciously create positive thoughts. What benefit do I achieve from that? In these few moments, I am changing the deep and very old habit (not limited only to this birth) of creating the wrong type of thoughts, whenever I am faced with a situation which I do not like. How do I do this?  I do this through the intellect. The intellect takes hold of the reins of the mind and chooses the direction in which it will travel. Why is it able to do this? Because, during meditation, I bring myself back to the knowledge or belief that I am a soul and my intellect accepts and absorbs this awareness. This belief then becomes the key to taking charge of what is going on in my mind.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Giving Feedback

Here are a few suggestions for giving feedback to others, especially if something needs to be corrected:
- be respectful and ask if you can provide feedback
- keep the feedback constructive and issue specific
- make your words kind and considerate

Your suggestions are impactful when you walk your talk and
are willing to do everything you're recommending to others.

Message for the day

Positive thoughts heal even the disease of the body.

Thought to ponder: When I am ill, it is very easy for the mind to become ill too. I tend to have negative thoughts and suffer. These negative thoughts don't restrict themselves to that particular part of the body, but is carried forward to the entire body and the mind too. The mind which has to be the healer, becomes a victim and hence weak. At such times, it is important that my mind is strong creating a positive influence on the body.

Point to practice: Today I will not think about my illness. When the thought does come, I will make sure I give vibrations of power and peace to that part, so that I will help it to heal. I will do everything for it to heal rather than damaging it further by having negative thoughts about it. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: June 18, 2020: Think First

Contemplation: June 18, 2020: Think First

Think First

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Whatever I do, when all is said and done, I do for or to myself. Perhaps I should think before I perform actions because after the seed of action is sown I have to reap the fruit. Moreover, I do not receive only one fruit for every seed sown, I often get a whole crop, good or bad according to the action or seed.

Mental Churning And Its Benefits (Part 3)

Whenever you start the day, create a few positive thoughts in your mind. Go for a walk or get ready for the day, keeping these thoughts and thinking about them. Also, ensure that before you do that, you read something which will fill your mind with positive thoughts. Remember, if an empty mind tries to think positive and create positive thoughts, it tires easily and in fact feels stressed. Try one day creating positive thoughts after filling your mind with positive information and the next day create positive thoughts when your mind is completely blank and see the difference. The energy and enthusiasm which you feel inside yourself after thinking deeply with a mind full of positive thoughts is much more than with an empty mind.

This can be compared with the process of churning cream to get butter. If you try and churn an empty vessel without cream, will you get butter or if you try and churn a vessel partially filled with cream, will you get butter of a high quality? On the other hand, you will experience tiredness. In the same way, when you have information in the mind, you build on it and multiply the positive information by adding new perspectives, view points and angles to the knowledge. This is called churning of knowledge to create the butter of spiritual power. So, always remember to backup positive affirmations in your mind with lots of extra information which is like a cushion on which you rest and play with the points of knowledge. It is like throwing a ball in a closed room and letting it bounce from wall to wall. In the same way, churning knowledge is not simply repeating what you have read but creating a movement of the knowledge inside the room of your mind and experiencing happiness as a result of that. Such an exercise, when done over many days, creates soul power and strengthens our mind. In fact, it makes us extremely positive and free from negative and unnecessary thoughts that waste our mental energy when indulged in repeatedly.

To seek richness and potential in everything is true positivity. 

When I have the eye for seeing potential, I am not caught up with any weaknesses of the present. I am able to see, even in people, the promise of what they can do and become. When I do this, I will be able to help people discover the latent potential. Today I will free myself from seeing waste and negative. And if I do see, I will make an attempt to see something positive and beautiful. This slowly becomes a practice, which helps me be positive, under all circumstances.

Message for the day

Not to expect respect is to get respect from all.

Thought to ponder: When I expect that people have to respect me, I will not be able to get their respect; as the feeling that they get is of weakness. To seek or wait for others is to never get it. Instead, when I have self-respect, I am able to create a positive impact on others, and automatically get respect from them. 

Point to practice: Today I will appreciate myself. I will look into the mirror and say "I like you for what you are". Perfection is of course a journey, so right now I love myself for what I am today and am also moving towards becoming better and better. When I know to like myself, others will like me too. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/