Balance
The indication of balance in life is a sense of
well-being, optimism and a clear conscience. The
foundation for achieving this is to look after myself
spiritually- making my mind peaceful, loving and
thoughtful. Then I will instinctively know how much time
to spend on my own well-being and how much on fulfilling
other responsibilities. I can only give my best to
others when I am myself at my best.
A Daily Experience Of Positive
Newness
A very important aspect of
each one of our lives is newness. We all require a
regular dosage of newness to keep our hearts and minds
fresh. How can we define newness? It is a change of
thoughts, feelings, words, actions, circumstances - when
all or some of these deviate from the normal or are new,
they give us an experience of joy. On a physical
level we go on a holiday or a party, watch a movie,
etc., all of these and many more such activities achieve
the purpose mentioned above. We then get back to our
daily routine of thoughts and actions, with more
freshness, which makes the routine more interesting.
On a spiritual level, a daily dose of new and
different spiritual knowledge at the start of the day
does the work of newness, it rekindles our creative
spirit. Newness in our thoughts then flows into our
feelings, beliefs, attitude, personality or nature,
perception, actions, interactions, relationships, etc.
bringing newness in all of them and removing the
stagnancy of the regular routine.
Meditation, which is not just a process of reducing the
mind to a nil stage, but the creation of positive,
constructive thoughts to take the mind to a positive
experience of peace and bliss, can become boring or less
interesting for many over a long term, if the thoughts
created each time one meditates are the same. So feeding
spiritual knowledge to the mind benefits meditation
immensely, because meditation can then become an
interesting, new and creative exercise each time one
practices it, instead of a routine affair. Also, the
speed and enthusiasm of bringing positive transformation
in the self can slow down, if the methods used for the
same are not changed regularly.
Fresh spiritual knowledge everyday helps us see
transformation from a different perspective each day and
work on it differently, which increases its speed and
also helps us realize new aspects of our personality
which need to be worked on. Swift self change then also
brings benefit to everyone whom we interact with, all of
which are significant aspects of spirituality.
Soul Sustenance
Open-Eyed Meditation
One of the special characteristics
of Raja Yoga meditation (as taught by the Brahma Kumaris)
is that I learn to meditate with my eyes open. The
training of the mind, so that it creates thoughts, to
give a positive experience, helps me in facing not only
my daily routine, but specifically, in dealing with
unexpected practical life situations that test my real
power.
Mastering the art of meditating with my eyes open can be
of immense value to me in my practical life. If I
restrict myself to seated meditation with my eyes
closed, then I am prevented from continuing the
meditative experience in the course of my normal
activities i.e. walking, eating, cooking, working in the
office, moving around and so on.
Meditation is at the same time an incredibly relaxing
experience as well as brings about an increase of
perception (judgment) powers and sharper reaction
response. In this way, I can be walking along the street
in a meditative state and yet have a very quick
perception (judgment) and reaction response to the
surrounding pedestrians and traffic.
Message for the day
Negative situations can be transformed into positive
with the power of stability.
Expression:
When
faced with a negative situation, usually the mind gets
affected. Lot of questions arise in the mind that don't
allow us to be stable at that time. Because of the
thoughts in our mind, though it is in our hands to work
at transforming the situation, we don't make use of this
opportunity but only end up adding to the negativity.
Experience:
In a negative situation, it is necessary for us to
maintain our own inner stability. We need to free
ourselves from wasteful thoughts. Then, the negativity
in the situation will finish, first in our mind and then
in the situation itself. Our own internal stability will
help in finishing the influence of the external
situation.
Connect Within
To be nourished constantly with happiness is to be in a
state of peace and calm where one's state of mind is not
dependent on the external situation. The one who is able
to connect within and find his own uniqueness and
specialties is able to express his own inner qualities.
So he is able to express happiness and positivity
whatever the circumstances may be.