Contemplation: Virtues

Contemplation: Virtues

Virtues

Sweetness is the taste of all virtues. Patience is the fortress of all virtues. Cheerfulness is the evidence of all virtues.

Emerge Specialties

When there are specialties seen in someone, we tend to admire them and
describe them to others too. We really like those virtues in the other
person, but rarely do we put in real effort to imbibe them in
ourselves. Just describing them does not bring any improvement in us.
Whenever I see some specialty in any one I need to understand that I
like that particular virtue in the other person because it is subtly
working within me too. When I work on it more consciously, I will be
able to emerge it easily.

Changing My Thought Patterns

Why is it that we can't change the pattern of our thoughts so easily? Imagine a bird being so comfortable in its nest that, though perhaps sometimes it stands on the branch of the tree to inflate its chest and adjust its feathers, it never wants to fly and does not even realize it could fly. It never knows the blissful freedom of flight, never feels the wind through its wings. It thinks the other birds that are flying around are unwise or foolish. In much the same way, we never really leave our nests of old thought patterns. Our habitual thoughts become our comfort zone and each repetitive thought pattern is like a twig in the nest, which makes the nest stronger and our stay in the nest seemingly comfortable and permanent. We never experience our true spiritual freedom or flight or feel the breeze of our inner beautiful nature. Even the thought, "I am a soul" has to be realized eventually, so that we can actually experience its deepest truth.

In the world of spirituality, thoughts are like the map, but they are not the territory nor the reality of the experience. Thinking - * I am a peaceful soul or * I am a loveful soul or * I am a powerful soul, is not being soul-conscious, it is only theory or knowledge, but it is definitely an essential start. Maps are important and necessary, until we know the way home to experience. Reaching this final destination of experience makes it easier for us and empowers us to transform or change our old thought patterns.

Soul Sustenance

Practical Ways of Changing Old Habits or Beliefs (Part 5) 

Exercises of Silence

 
Exercises of silence help you concentrate your mind and intellect, and go within yourself to recover the positive and eternal energies. With the appropriate concentration of the mind and intellect towards your constructive inner forces of peace, love and happiness, you can strengthen yourself. Being strong means staying positive when faced with negative situations, peaceful when everything around you is chaotic: in other words, not being influenced negatively but influencing the situation with your positivity. When you stay calm in your inner power of peace, you can transmit this to others and help them to calm themselves. When you begin exercises of silence, concentrate primarily on peace. This is the basis of the practice, as when there is inner balance and harmony it is easier to build over these the other values love, happiness, truth and sincerity. The experience of deep peace calms you, clarifies you and fills you with energy to think and act positively and achieve your purpose that you have set for yourself. 

Message for the day

The more we experience peace within the more there will be positivity in our life. 

Expression: We usually try to change ourselves and our negativities by working on each of them separately. We might be able to overcome them also but being connected to the other weaknesses we find that they reemerge again. Then we find that the negativity remains in our life influencing all our thoughts, words and actions. 

Experience: We first need to make a promise to ourselves to maintain our own inner positivity. Once we do that we also need to make an attempt to practice relaxing our mind and remaining calm before we do any important thing. When we practice in this way we will be able to keep our mind calm and this calmness will bring contentment through which there will be positivity in all we do. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: Good Wishes

Contemplation:  Good Wishes

 

A view of the sunrise above the clouds

Good Wishes

Giving good wishes to others acts like sunlight, filtering into the dark corners of their mind and lightening their burden.

Determination

Difficulties do come in life and we cannot avoid them. When they do
come they create barriers in our way. When such barriers come our way
there is no experience of progress in anyway and there is a loss of
interest in doing things. Whenever difficult situations come our way,
we need to remind ourselves that such situations come our way in order
to help us move forward. When we remind ourselves of this we find that
we get the determination to work on them. Only with determination will
we be able to work on them to overcome them.

Factors That Shape Our Perception (cont.)

There are four main criteria that may influence how our perception of reality is distorted or altered (changed). We have already discussed two criteria. Today we discuss the remaining two:

Associated Memories
We have many associated memories: in fact, all addictions are associated memories. For example, the cigarette addict associates many moments during the day to cigarette smoking (after lunch, while seeing someone else smoking, in the restaurant with friends, coming out of work, etc.). Another example is when we have listened to a song over and over again. If after a few years we hear it again, not only do the words and tune emerge, but also the memories associated with the song. In our relationships, associated memories create barriers when we relate to others, since the memories we associate with certain people and situations means that we nearly always see them in a specific way and do not give them the chance to change and improve. This limited and unchanged vision that we sometimes have of others leads to misunderstandings when communicating.

Assumptions
They are images created in advance in our intellect and which work in a sub conscious way, just like associated memories. By assuming, guessing or imagining, we create a series of assumptions that influence our perception and stop us from recognizing the reality. For example, we hear our name being discussed by a group of people and we think that people are speaking wrongly about us. If we learn to rid ourselves of a whole series of assumptions that affect our communication and relationships, our perception of reality will not be distorted or altered (changed). The best way of eliminating these preconceptions is through open, concise and precise communication in order to clear up any misunderstandings.

Soul Sustenance

Practical Ways of Changing Old Habits or Beliefs (Part 4) 

Visualization 

Visualization consists of creating positive images by means of the ability to imagine, and in this way reinforce positive thoughts and strengthen your will to achieve positively what you affirm for yourself in your mind. With visualization you manage to intensify experiences of positive affirmations and self-motivation, and it also helps you to specify and clarify your goals. The basic principle of using images in our mind is to act as if the desire we have in our mind has already been achieved. If we place images of success, health, wellbeing or inner peace in our mind, these will materialize in positive situations and experience, and this image of success will become real in our lives. 

(To be continued tomorrow …..) 

Message for the day

To keep the aim in front of us is to move forward with contentment. 

Expression: Several times there are situations that are negative where we have to face things that are not really what we are expecting or wanting. At such times we tend to get disheartened and experience discontentment. Our state of mind becomes such that we can no longer experience peace. 

Experience: The solution at such times is to keep our vision clear on our aim. When all our thoughts and energy are concentrated on our aim, we will be able to consider any negative scene that comes our way as only a side-scene. We can easily ignore all such situations and so our mind is at rest or peace. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: This Moment

Contemplation: This Moment

This Moment
If I fill this moment with happiness and peace, it will increase the chances of the next moment being like that also.

Listen

Sometimes when someone says something, there is a tendency to feel hurt
even though the other person did not mean anything. This is because
only the words are heard but the meaning behind it is not understood.
This brings misunderstanding and conflicts and even spoils
relationships. When someone is telling me something I need to listen to
the other person rather than merely hearing to his words. When I am
able to understand the intentions behind his words I am able to take
something from them instead of just creating conflicts in
relationships.

Factors That Shape Our Perception (cont.)

There are four main criteria that may influence how our perception of reality is distorted or altered (changed). We had discussed "Mental Limits" yesterday. Today we continue to discuss the same:

Mental Limits (cont.)
Trapped by mental limits, some of which were discussed yesterday, human beings in general only use 10 per cent of their inner potential, and the other 90 per cent is available but is not used due to oversight (overlooking) or the lack of awareness that they have it. Meditating helps us to cross these mental limits. Meditation takes us to a higher dimension over our physical identity that releases us from these limits. Throughout our lives, and especially during our childhood, many impressions are formed about ourselves, since at the very beginning of our lives we do not know who we are or who we should be, until we learn it from those around us, who are older, and who know more things and who presumably love us.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make in our lives is to refer only to the opinions of others to work out who we really are. e.g. When a parent tells a child - * You are extremely naughty, * You are ignorant or * You are lazy, the child is creating negative and false images about himself (or herself). It is quite possible that the child has said or done something wrong, but this does not mean that we label the child negatively. It was their behavior that was bad. It is important to establish the difference between - * You are a naughty child and * It is incorrect to fight with your sibling.

Due to the fact that many people label others based on their behaviour, negative beliefs are created that are not based on what is true and genuine, and these beliefs may be dragged along throughout the person's life - which then function like mental limits in the life of that person.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance

Practical Ways of Changing Old Habits or Beliefs (Part 3) 

Conscious Disassociation 
A useful method for transforming habits is that of conscious disassociation. This involves avoiding the situations that give rise to the habit occurring automatically. For example, if you often smoke after a coffee, you have to make sure there is no coffee. By breaking your habit, you will be less likely to have a craving to smoke. Instead of your habitual coffee, you can create a new pattern and have a cup of herbal tea and sit down to think or read, instead of smoking. 

Rajyoga Meditation 
Rajyoga meditation is an efficient method for transforming habits. By connecting with the Supreme Soul (who is the purest conscient energy) in the incorporeal (non-physical) world of divine light, which is called paramdham or shantidham, the soul purifies itself and one experiences a natural disinclination from negative habits that we have been trapped in for a long time. 

(To be continued tomorrow …..) 

Message for the day

To be a donor means to give at each step and increase one's own stock. 

Expression: Usually it seems very difficult to be a donor - to give from whatever resources we have. The thought often arises in the mind that we cannot give because we are ourselves not complete or full. We find ourselves constantly trying to fill ourselves and we then have no time or thought for giving to those around us. 

Experience: We have a lot of treasures within us which we can give to those around us, our virtues, our specialities etc. Even if we have just a little and give to the others, we will find ourselves benefitting. For having given from whatever we have, we find that these treasures begin to increase within ourselves too. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: Enthusiasm

Contemplation: Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm
Those who are fired with an enthusiastic idea and who allow it to take hold and dominate their thoughts find that new worlds open for them. As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.

One Step of Courage

Usually when there is a difficult situation there is the general
tendency to experience fear. At the time that there is courage
required, there are fear and negative feelings. These negative feelings
deplete energy and there is no constructive work done to change the
situation. The understanding that one can do a lot and reach great
heights, enables one to take courageously a step forward. With each
step taken with courage, there is a hundred-fold help received. Also
courage means to understand the accurate method of achieving things.
When there is this kind of courage, there is a lot of progress in
whatever is being done.

Factors That Shape Our Perception (cont.)

There are four main criteria that may influence how our perception of reality is distorted or altered (changed). We had discussed "Mental Positioning" yesterday. Today we discuss:

Mental Limits
It is said that the solution to important problems we face cannot be obtained in the same consciousness (state of mind) we are in when we create them (the problems) - the consciousness needs to be changed to see the solution.

Mental limits are those which we have imposed on our mind. We create these limits ourselves or they can come as a result of our education, the family environment and the society in which we live. For example, at work a mental limit is always thinking in the same way. So we always take the same decisions and get the same results. Experience itself may also generate mental limits. You think you know how to do certain things and these convictions act as mental limits. The greater the mental limitation, the greater will be resistance to change. Due to the mental limits, we usually have a series of readily prepared responses. They are excuses and justifications that provide us with poor results. We are always trying to solve problems using the same formula and this often causes stress because we cannot find the answer.

The main mental limits are related to identity. We create a very narrow and limited image of ourselves. * I am a man, * I am a woman, * I am a Christian or a Gujarati, * I'm young, * I'm old, * I am white or black. The image we have of ourselves may be limited, because we do not have sufficient knowledge of our own resources, virtues, values, and identity. A deep investigation into our inner selves will help us to change the image we have of ourselves.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance

Practical Ways of Changing Old Habits or Beliefs (Part 2) 

Positive Affirmations 
Affirmations are promises that we make to ourselves. They are helpful for breaking negative habits or weak thoughts that have been created as a result of mistaken attitudes. Affirmations help to strengthen the mind, although to be effective there must be acceptance and understanding behind them. It is interesting to begin experimenting with them and, later on, we can begin to create variations of new affirmations, according to our individual needs. 

Here are some examples: 
* Today I will experience peace through positivity. I will see what is good in others and will not think about what is negative or harmful. I will see others in the way I would like them to see me. 
* From now on I will not judge others. 
* Today I will speak peacefully and share peace with everyone around me. I must speak as softly as I can. 
* Today I will make the past the past and look towards the future with a new vision. 
* Today I will not react angrily. I will stay calm and in peace and will not sacrifice this for anyone or any situation. I must not allow anything or anyone rob me of my peace. 

For the affirmation to be effective, we must repeat it to ourselves often, so that it becomes recorded in our subconscious. It is also important to proclaim the affirmations with feeling, believing in them and not in a monotonous and impersonal voice. As a minimum, you should repeat each affirmation at least five times a day. If we listen to something repeatedly, we begin to believe in it. In reality, this is the origin of the majority of our beliefs, when as children we heard our parents tell us things over and over again. Advertising uses this technique constantly. They create a phrase, a slogan, and repeat it over and over again in the media until, finally, people believe it. To be able to control your life, first you must know and dominate your beliefs. One way of doing this is through affirmations. 

(To be continued tomorrow …..) 

Message for the day

Patience brings harmony in relationships. 

Expression: When there is a misunderstanding in a relationship we hardly put in any effort in order to understand the other person. We tend to become impatient and we don't listen to the other person to understand them. Because of which we start inventing things about them. This only further increases the misunderstanding. 

Experience: When we have a difference of opinion with someone, we need to give some time to understand and listen to the other person. Only then will we be able to understand the other person's point of view. This practice will enable us to finish any misunderstanding we have with others and bring harmony in relationships. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: Change

Contemplation: Change

 

 

Change

When there is growth, changes are automatic, if I fear change, how can there be growth?

An Open Mind

When someone corrects or gives any advice or suggestion, there is
usually some amount of resistance and we become unwilling to listen.
When I put in a lot of effort, I normally feel I have done the task to
the utmost perfection and so am not able to listen to any suggestions
from anyone. But this kind of attitude does not help to learn and
progress. I need to keep my mind constantly open to learning in order
to experience constant progress. When I have the attitude of learning I
am able to learn from everything that happens. And thus I will also be
able to bring improvement in each and every task that I do.

Factors That Shape Our Perception (cont.)

If someone believes that Indians are very generous, good-hearted people, and they have this ingrained in their subconscious, this thought will form part of their perception of India. Perhaps not only part of their perception: they may even identify fully with this belief. In other words, the thought becomes a belief and finally one identifies with the belief. The same holds true for any negative belief about anything or anyone.

There are four main criteria that may influence how our perception of reality is distorted or altered (changed). These are:

Mental Positioning
Mental position is the internal position from which we see situations, and may be positive or negative. For example, we are really excited about owning a new car, but after buying it we start worrying about where to park it, if it may be stolen or we might meet with an accident. Another example is that of the professional who has always dreamt of being promoted at work and, when he gets it, starts to fear losing it. According to our mental positioning we experience fear (a negative state of mind) or we feel confident (a positive one). A correct mental positioning broadens our conscience and improves our lives and relationships.

To live in the present in a relaxed way and planning the future with an open and optimistic view, we should be able to free ourselves from preconceived ideas and the influences that dominate our perceptions. To do this, the best mental position is that of being an impartial observer. In this way we can observe, recognize and transform (change) those thoughts, attitudes that cause us pain, anxiety and stress.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

Soul Sustenance

Practical Ways of Changing Old Habits or Beliefs (Part 1) 

Motivation for Change 

An important factor to start positive change in our lives is for there to be a passion, a powerful force that leads us, a final goal that keeps us motivated. It is important to set yourself goals, to be convinced and to have the confidence and faith that one can reach them, since in this way we will make a daily effort to achieve those goals. There needs to be a clearly defined sense of purpose to your existence, clarifying the values that must guide your life in order to achieve these goals and establish the steps you must take for inculcating these values. If, at a subconscious level, you allow a mistaken purpose to be created, or there is a lack of true purpose in your life, then you will not be motivated to know and change yourself. Many people think that the purpose of their life is to survive and they use the language of survival in this way: "Life is hard out there. You must get whatever you can". They are not aware that they have chosen this purpose, but subconsciously it is what they believe they are here for, and this makes them think that they must accumulate, take, create barriers to protect themselves and compete with others. 

(To be continued tomorrow …..) 

Message for the day

Where there is humility there is the give and take of love. 

Expression: Usually we don't even know when we are working with our ego because it is deeply concealed. Even when someone points out our ego, we don't want to accept it and we continue to work with it. Ego finishes the ability to learn and negatively effects our relationships because there is no give and take of love. 

Experience: The method to overcome ego is to develop humility. Humility means to be strong within yet to be gentle and flexible. This enables us to bend i.e., to bow. When we bow it doesn't mean we are defeated, but reveals our own victory. It is only when we bend and forgive that we will be able to allow the flow of love in relationships. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation: Meditation

Contemplation: Meditation

Meditation

Though the mind often asks for what is visible or material, its needs are deeper and cannot be met by anything superficial or short term. Meditation leads to a meeting point with all that is true and eternal.

Smile

When faced with problems it seems very difficult to maintain the inner
cheer and the mind is caught up with more and more negativity, either
fear or worry. Because of this, firstly, the problem looks bigger than
it is and secondly, there is an inability to find solutions and work
constructively to solve the problem. The first step I need to take when I recognise that there is a problem, is to smile to myself. When I make sure I am happy within knowing that every situation will pass away and it surely has something to teach me, I will find solutions quicker and easier.

The Practice Of Meditation - cont.

As explained yesterday, we regularly and quite easily slip into four main negative habits. So meditation is not only sitting in a quiet corner, and connecting with the self and the Supreme, at a couple of fixed times during the day, but it is also the way to gently remember and remind ourselves, many times in a day, that we as well as others, are souls or spiritual beings not physical beings, by detaching ourselves from actions and also while being involved in actions. These reminders given to the self over a period of time become natural and prevent us from succumbing to these four habits. Given below is a basic meditation, which you could use to remind yourself regularly during the day:

I have a body but this body is not me...
I have thoughts but these thoughts are not me ...
I have feelings but these feelings are not me ...
I have attitudes but these attitudes are not me ...
I have emotions but these emotions are not me ...
I have beliefs but these beliefs are not me ...
I perform many actions through my sense organs, but these sense organs are not me...
I play many roles but I am not my roles...
I experience joy or sorrow through my sense organs, but these experiences are not me ...
I am a soul - a being of energy, which is neither created nor can be destroyed, and my original and true nature is one of peace, love, joy and power...

Soul Sustenance

The Invisible Impressions That Shape Me 

While the mind and intellect are two faculties of the soul which play their role on the surface of our consciousness; at a deeper level, hidden beneath these two faculties, there lies a third faculty commonly called the sanskaras. The sanskaras is not only a store house of personality traits, as we commonly know it to be, but a store house of millions and millions of impressions or imprints. Such a large number of impressions are created by millions of experiences that I go through my sense organs not only in this life but in all my lifetimes. Everything that I hear, see, touch, taste, etc. I process or analyze or summarize in my own unique way; basically I give the experiences a unique form depending on my personality, before this form gets stored in the form of impressions inside me. I even process my subtle experiences, which are in the form of thoughts and feelings. 

This process of experiencing and processing takes place during each and every second of my life including the time I sleep, when my mind may not be experiencing a lot but it is busy processing the physical and subtle experiences of the day that has gone by and storing the processed information in the form of impressions. From this, one can get an idea of the magnitude of the database of impressions stored within me, the being. These imprints which are unique to me, make up my sanskaras, and shape up my unique personality in a cyclic process. My personality shapes what type of impressions are created out of my experiences and the impressions in turn shape my personality, my thoughts, words and actions e.g. if I constantly keep the company of people who gossip, a large number of respective impressions based on the experience of gossiping keep getting stored inside me, which in turn influence my personality, the personality characteristic gets stronger and over a period of time I do not find anything wrong with it and indulge in it more and more. As a result more such impressions get stored. Thus it is a cyclic process. 

Message for the day

The one with true mercy fills hope even in the ones who are hopeless. 

Expression: When we see someone who is in need or who is totally negative, a case that is totally hopeless, there are a lot of feelings aroused within us. What we feel is pity or hatred, which are only negative feelings. Such negative thoughts don't help in anyway and the person remains as he is, unable to take any benefit from us. 

Experience: Instead of having pity or hatred we need to develop true mercy for others. To have mercy means to have good wishes with love - combined with hope for them. It is our hope that enables them to develop faith in themselves too. This is the method to bring progress even in the most hopeless case. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/

Contemplation:Live Fully

Contemplation:Live Fully

 

Artist-Josephine Wall

Live Fully

They say 'only fools live to the full'. Because only fools go where most of us fear to go, only fools do what many of us spend our lives avoiding. You don't have to climb Mount Everest, or cross the world in a hot air balloon to live to the full. Simply enter each day with a commitment not to avoid anything or anybody who comes your way. Then your Everests will come to you, in the form of difficult people and challenging situations, and the only thing you will need to conquer is our own fear and evasions. And when you do conquer, you will know that you have lived fully, for there is nothing more exhilarating than overcoming our own obstacles which, if the truth were known, are always only in our own minds. When you turn to face these inner obstacles and challenges some people call this real courage and you certainly are no fool. 

relax7

Check & Change

Most of the times we do manage to win over our weaknesses and achieve
progress but sometimes we find that we are defeated at the wrong moment
by our own weaknesses and thus experience failure. So instead of
experiencing progress it is sometimes the case that we find ourselves
moving back. In order to bring benefit to others and to ourselves, we
should recognise and remove even the last trace of weakness that is
working within ourselves. For that we need to have a constant checking
about the real cause of the weakness and remove it. Such checking and
changing helps me to overcome my weaknesses.

The Practice Of Meditation

As with anything else, the more we practice meditation, the more we feel the benefit of what we are doing. We do need to practice meditation regularly because the habits of:

i. identifying with our physical form,

ii. succumbing to mental and emotional negativity (in the form of waste and negative thoughts) along with negativity in words and actions,

iii. becoming attached to the physical as well as the non-physical, and

iv. being dependent upon the experience of physical stimulation of any sort (from e.g. food, movies, people, sports etc.) for happiness are extremely deep.

These habits have deepened over a period of many many births, because of repeating them regularly, due to a lack of spiritual awareness. As a result, in the present moment also we regularly and quite easily slip into these four habits.

(To be continued tomorrow...)

Soul Sustenance

Spiritual Education 

Spiritual education leads us back to the understanding and the experience of our holistic existence as human beings, to the knowledge that we are spiritual, as well as physical, mental and emotional beings. 

A true spiritual education could be described as: 
• learning from others
• growing through others
• integrating with others
• contributing to others
When we are genuinely learning, only then can we experience spiritual growth. When we grow, we integrate with others and it is in that integration that there is a natural and mutual contribution to nature and other souls. These four processes of education are constantly at work, but only happen in a way that is enjoyable and meaningful when the spiritual resources of the self like peace, joy and love are activated and creatively used. 

These resources, along with the mind and intellect, enrich the way we see the world, the way we interact with it and the way we individually create our place in it. These resources are the original qualities of the self, which we have not properly used for a long time. By become spiritually aware, we start to harness and use these positive energies. 

Message for the day

True fortune comes to the one who recognises and uses his treasures with an honest heart. 

Expression: Sometimes we might be faced with certain situations where we find that we are not very fortunate. We find ourselves thinking about all those things that we need to have in order for us to be able to bring a positive outcome. Because of this kind of thinking, we tend to miss out on perceiving those treasures that we can make use of. 

Experience: There are a lot of treasures within us that we can use in our practical life. These treasures could be our talents, skills, or some specialities of ours. Under all circumstances we need to have an awareness of these treasures. When we are aware of them we will begin to use them in our daily life instead of just expecting things to happen right. This is what will create a good fortune for us. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

https://astudypoint.blogspot.com/