Be Gentle
Non-violence is a very deep philosophy. Not only does it
require me to harm no one physically, but also to avoid
harming anyone's self-respect. Such an ethic requires
tremendous awareness and sensitivity. When I have
learned to be gentle with myself, I can be the same with
others.
State of
Calm
Whenever there is a challenge, which demands my accurate
judgment, I tend to become panicky. A lot of waste
thoughts come up in my mind. Whatever decisions I take
with such a state of mind tend to go wrong. I need to
take my mind to a state of calm before I can take any
decision in challenging situations. For this too I need
a practice of a long time to keep my mind calm - even
when the situation demands that my activities increase
their speed. Such training over a long period of time
enables the mind to be calm even in challenging
situations.
Understanding The Identity Of The Supreme Being
It's not too difficult to understand that out of all the
billions of souls, there is One who could be designated
as the Supreme (God), because of His perfect love, total
truth and absolute beauty. It is reasonable to accept
that such an unlimited being is never born from a
mother's womb nor undergoes the experience of death. He
never passes through the stages of growing up nor gets
involved in specific relationships with individuals.
Just as every human soul has a mind, intellect and a
specific set of 'sanskars' that determine each one's
individuality, the Supreme would also be made up of
these three energies - each functioning at their most
perfect levels. Because He remains beyond the play
of things in the physical world, the power and sharpness
of these basic capabilities never decrease. His original
qualities are neither lost nor reduced. Before coming
here from the soul world, we also had qualities similar
to those of the Supreme but not to the same unlimited
extent.
If we identify ourselves totally with the physical body,
the idea that God created human beings in His image may
have led us to believe that the human form is God's
image. Perhaps that is how we created the figure of an
old white-bearded man (as God) sitting up in the
heavens, controlling, rewarding and punishing humans as
well as nature as He found fit. The contradiction is
that such a God appears to have been created in our
image, with both our best virtues and our worst defects.
Soul Sustenance
The
Original Ingredients Of The Soul
Our original resources are very simply - peace, love,
purity, knowledge and happiness. In Raja Yoga meditation
these are called the five original qualities of the
soul. When we return our consciousness to these five
qualities and remember them, then the following feelings
arise in us, which finally get reflected in our actions:
Love: I care and I share.
Peace: I harmonize and reconcile (adjust).
Purity: I respect and I honor.
Knowledge: I am and I exist.
Happiness: I express and I enjoy.
To understand and remember these qualities, we need to
recognize the heavy deep shadows or personality traits (sanskars)
which have blotted them out, or polluted them. Sometimes
we don't recognize the pollutants because they have
ingrained themselves so deeply into the personality that
we say I am this. True, complete spiritual knowledge,
makes us aware of these pollutants and the practice of
meditation empowers us to dilute them and get them out
of our consciousness.
Message for the day
True love is felt by all who receive it.
Expression:
Sometimes we do find ourselves in situations where
others are not responding to the love we are giving. We
are trying to be understanding and accepting as much as
possible but others don't seem to be recognizing it. In
such a situation we begin to blame others and their lack
of feelings and concern.
Experience:
Instead of blaming others when our love and concern is
not being reciprocated, we need to check the quality of
the love that we give. If there is even a trace of
selfishness or if it is mixed with expectations, our
love will not be able to reach out and touch the hearts
of others. So we need to make sure that our love is pure
and unselfish.