Be Tolerant
You have the power to tolerate anyone and any situation.
But tolerance is not just suffering in silence. It means
going beyond any personal discomfort you may feel, and
giving a gift to whomever you would tolerate. Give your
time, attention, understanding, compassion, care - all
are gifts, which paradoxically, you also receive in the
process of giving. And, as you do, you will experience
your own self esteem and inner strength grow. In this
way you can turn tolerance into strength.
Change
Desires
Although our understanding of right and wrong is really
good, we are not usually able to be or feel successful.
This is because there is a mismatch between what we know
and what we want. So there is an inability to bring that
knowledge into action. A conscious effort needs to be
put in from my side to compare and see which is better
for me - what I know is right or what I feel I want.
When I compare in this way, I will be able to change my
desires in keeping with the right thing. When these two
match, I will be able to bring it into action too. So I
experience constant success.
Factors That Shape Our Perception
The factors that contribute to creating our
perception (way of looking at the self, situations,
people, etc.) are our memories, experiences, beliefs,
values, people, places, situations and time. Out of
all these factors there are two which are chiefly
responsible for creating our perception: our beliefs
and our experiences.
The first thing you should do is have a clearer
perception of yourself. You should develop the
perception of who you really are and what your true
identity is. This does not refer to the image you see
every day in the mirror. Your external appearance or
physical beauty, your age, your gender, your occupation,
your status in society should not be the basis for your
self-perception.
You may live with others or alone, have a family, run a
business or have a job, which you undertake with
responsibility. What is your conscience, however, while
you are doing these tasks? This will lead you to a clear
perception of yourself.
We have been brought up and conditioned to have a
perception of everything that is external: perception of
other people at the workplace or in the family, of other
countries, of movies, of the country's cricket team, of
what our neighbors are doing, of the government and so
on. However, the last thing we have a perception of is
ourselves. We thus lose the internal link with our own
happiness and our own peace. When we re-establish the
perception of our true identity (the correct way of
looking at ourselves) based on spiritual knowledge, we
are capable of recognizing all the false beliefs about
ourselves that have taken root in our inner selves. When
we discover these beliefs we are capable of recognizing
those sanskars of ourselves we need to change.
In the next few messages, we shall be discussing a
few factors that shape our perception.
Soul Sustenance
The
Thought-Destiny Cycle
The process by which we create our own destiny is quite
easy to see in theory; however it requires some checking
to see how it matches the reality of our practical
lives. Here is the process in brief:
• As our intentions, so will be our thoughts.
• As our thoughts, so will be our feelings.
• As our feelings, so will be our attitudes.
• As our attitudes, so will be our actions.
• As our actions, so will be our habits.
• As our habits, so will be our personality.
As our personality in all our relationships on
our journey through life, so will be our destiny.
So watch your thoughts! Be aware of your intentions! Our
intentions are based on our beliefs about who we
are, where we are and why we are here. If we believe we
are the physical form, our belief will we be that we
need to survive as long as possible. This leads to the
intention to get what we think we need before others,
which leads to competition, which leads to feelings of
fear. Our destiny gets shaped accordingly. When you know
you are the non-physical and immortal (which is neither
created nor can be destroyed) energy, a soul, then
survival is no longer an issue and your intention is one
to include, connect and co-operate with and enlighten
others. The service of others at a spiritual level
becomes the highest intention in action. It is fully
free from fear and can be seen as an act of love. This
is why competition and authentic spirituality can never
be found together.
Message for the day
The one who is detached is the one who is happy.
Expression:
When difficult situations come our way we tend to
overreact because of our attachment and expectations.
Because of this we experience much more unhappiness than
what the situation actually holds. The understanding
lacks that it is not the situation, but our own thoughts
that are giving us sorrow.
Experience:
We need to look at the situation just as we would watch
it happen to someone else - with detachment. When we
learn to detach ourselves from the situation in this way
and see what it holds for us, we will not experience
unhappiness but will be able to remain happy under all
circumstances.