12.09.2014

The Wagah border closing 'lowering of the flags'
ceremony or The Beating Retreat ceremony is a daily
military practice that the security forces of India
(Border Security Force) and Pakistan (Pakistan Rangers)
have jointly followed
Face Up To Your Weaknesses
For every weakness, every shortcoming in you, you have
an opposing strength. Never run from your weaknesses. Be
a warrior and face them with strength.
Mold like Gold
We find ourselves getting very easily influenced with
the negativity outside. Every incident and interaction
has an impact on us, specially the negative ones. To get
influenced is to take in lot of impurity from outside.
This is like mixing alloy in gold and when we are
coloured with the negativity within, we are not able to
get molded easily. We need to keep ourselves free from
the negativity that comes from situations and people.
For this we need to develop our own inner positivity. It
is like building a strong defense system from inside to
protect a fort from being attacked. When we are able to
maintain our own inner purity and positivity, we find
ourselves becoming moldable.
Switching On The Consciousness Of The Soul To Experience
Peace
During the initial stages of meditation many wasteful
thoughts do come. This is due to the soul's old habit,
since many births, of thinking aimlessly. The mind has
been attracted or repelled by everything and everyone.
The soul has been pushed around from waves of one
experience into another, exposed to different scenes.
So, after such a long journey, in the present moment, it
finds itself stuck in negative cycles of worry, doubt
and confusion, which it must break by recharging itself
with its own original characteristics of peace, purity,
love and joy. Meditation is this recharging process
with which we channel good, constructive and positive
thought energy into our moods.
I must make sure the engines of my senses are not
burning up the vital fuel of inner peace. The soul does
not grow or diminish but only experiences change in its
happiness or unhappiness, peace or peacelessness etc.
The very word peaceless suggests that I was at
some stage peaceful. I now know that I had peace in the
soul world. I can see how peace is the real oxygen
for the soul. When I do not have it, I choke and
become spiritually breathless and look for it
everywhere. I am a soul and I have my own inner store of
peace from which I can draw at any time. I do not need
to practice complicated breathing exercises or difficult
physical postures for the same. I can experience
peace by switching 'on' the conscious of the soul
wherever I am, driving, cooking at home or when busy at
work. Thus meditation is a continuing experience
rather than a static one.
Soul Sustenance
Temporary And Permanent Sources Of Peace
It’s a common notion (idea) to think of peace as being
closely related to the beauty of nature - the play of
waves on a beach, the blowing of wind through a forest,
the soaring and swooping of gulls; in short, anything
away from the rush and hurry of the city. Alternatively
we associate peace with some physical form of relaxation
like headphones plugged into soothing music, a hot bath
after a hard day, a brisk walk in the park, etc. In
meditation we realize peace to be our very essence
(nature); we realize very quickly, trying to extract
peace from the world around us or even from some
physical sensations in our own bodies gives us only a
temporary experience of it.
Once we start meditating, we start to see physical
relaxation as an escape from tension and not a solution
for it; and the beautiful scenes of nature now no longer
as sources radiating permanent peace. But in fact it is
their mere absence of conflict, their harmony of colours,
forms and sounds which appeal to us. There is something
in each of us which cries out to be free from conflict.
We discover that "small voice" or need is only our true
nature demanding to be recognized. We realize that
neither the body nor nature can give the peace that the
soul was longing for, but it has to be tapped from
within. Having found it, it remains constant, whether in
the city or countryside, in comfort or discomfort. In
the midst of noise and confusion, peace is really our
own.
Message for the day
Creating quality thoughts brings happiness and
lightness.
Projection:
When there is quality thinking, thoughts are not many,
but each thought is special. Quality thoughts are
reflected in quality words and quality actions. They
reduce tiredness and carelessness as thoughts are fewer
in quantity.
Solution:
When I have good quality thoughts, I experience
sweetness, happiness and self-respect. I am able to
recognise my own greatness and move forward with
lightness under all circumstances.