Thought for Today
16.01.2018

 

One of the aims of meditation is not to stop your thoughts but to slow them down so that you may find and enter the silence between and behind your thinking. This is a little challenging at first but the more you practice the easier it becomes.

Think of your thoughts as trains, just like the phrase, 'train of thoughts'. Each thought is a carriage of the train and in between the thoughts/carriages is a small gap, a space. The train can arrive at different speeds. Our aim is to slow the train down and become aware of the space between the carriages, in other words between our thoughts. You may even be able to increase that space so that there is the experience of no thought. In this moment you reconnect with the silence (and experience it) that exists always between and behind your thoughts. Don't try to hold it, or you will lose it.

Discovering Inner Compassion (Kindness)

Competence and compassion are the two most important aspects of our professional life. We would contend that compassion needs to be valued at least as much as competence in our work and in education.

There are many reasons why we find it difficult to be compassionate in our job; often there is not enough time to respond to competing demands, we have to concentrate on our tasks, we feel too exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally to give any more. Then there are the negative feelings that block out compassion. Being clear about what we mean by compassion can help us to understand how it can be an integral part of our work. This will help us to be caring in our work, without suffering ‘compassion fatigue’ and ‘emotional burnout’.

Our own negative feelings, such as anger, hatred and jealousy, can prevent us showing our compassion. By understanding those feelings and how they affect us, we can release them and allow ourselves to be more compassionate. Compassion can be compared to the sun; it is always there but sometimes it cannot shine through because of the clouds. The clouds are the negativity that hides our true nature of compassion.

(To be continued tomorrow …)


Message for the day

Greatness lies in being humble.

Projection:
A seed grows only when it is mingled with the mud. In the same way, the one who is great is naturally humble. He understands the truth that only when there is humility will there be success. Humility gives the power to bow down without reducing one's own self-respect.

Solution:
When I am humble I am able to be experience my own inner greatness, which naturally keeps me set on the seat of my self-respect. So when the situation demands, I have no problem bowing down. So I am able to allow the situations to work on me, so I am able to strengthen myself from within under all circumstances.