Respect When I learn to respect myself, other people will respect me. How can I develop respect for myself? By keeping my mind positive and encouraging myself to grow and change for the better. Demanding respect because of my position or background is simply arrogance. On the other hand, listening with humility and valuing other people's advise naturally earns me respect. I get back exactly what I give out. Responsibility The one who is responsible changes first before he expects others to change. The one who is responsible is a leader. He would take up the responsibility to change himself first instead of waiting for others to change. With the change that he brings in himself he inspires others to change too. When we think of any situation where we were expecting someone else to change, we also need to think of one aspect in this situation in which we can bring about a change in ourselves. We need to take up the responsibility of changing this and we would find ourselves progressing, thus inspiring others to take the inspiration to change too. Meditation To Restore Inner Freedom Experience the following thoughts one after the other: I relax... I release all tensions... I create a space of silence... I move towards my inner self, letting my thoughts gradually focus on the experience of peace... For a few moments I reflect on all the things that affect me, that have a negative influence on me, the people, the situations; everything that stops me from achieving a state of inner freedom... Around me I visualize a luminous circle (circle of light); there is a great power of silence... I feel protected inside this circle of subtle spiritual power... Nothing can take away my positivity, my inner peace, my strength and wisdom... I can be free to think and feel what I choose. Internally I am free. I am not at the mercy of anyone or any situation... Soul Sustenance Inculcating Powers Through Rajyoga Meditation - The Power To Tolerate Visualize a tree with lots of fruits hanging from its branches. When I throw a stone at it, what does it do? It bends its branches low and offers its sweet fruit to me. I enjoy eating the fruit, which gives me inner satisfaction. What happens as a result? My respect for the tree increases. This is a beautiful image of the power of tolerance and I have lots to learn from it. It shows me that if I want to imbibe the characteristics of the tree, I must become full of the fruits of the spiritual attainments from the Supreme Soul. When I am filled internally with fruits like joy, love, wisdom, beauty and peace through spiritual knowledge and meditation; even when the stones of difficult circumstances come my way I'll still be able to respond positively and creatively, with courage and humility. If I'm empty, the stones will injure me, and I'll react with anger or fear or ego or some other negative emotion. Also, although many stones have injured me in the past, I must remove any hurt in my heart, which may have developed as a result of injuries experienced from them, when I did not have the Supreme Soul with me. These will prevent me from sharing the unlimited fruit made possible by the company of the Supreme. Real tolerance means tolerating with pleasure and not with stress. It does not just mean putting up with a difficult situation, and at the same time counting how many times I have had to tolerate it. Tolerance means that no matter what stones come my way, I realize completely that those throwing them are souls not full of attainments, and so my duty is to continue to share my internal attainments with them. (To be continued tomorrow …..) Message for the day Commitment for truth brings constant happiness. Projection: For the one who is constantly with the truth, there will be no fluctuations in the happiness - experienced by the self and expressed to the others. So there is benefit for both the self and others through this. Only when there is no truth, the support of falsehood is taken to prove and defend oneself. So the happiness is not retained constantly. Solution: When I am committed towards living by the truth, I will not be influenced by the different situations that I am faced with, but will be able to experience constant happiness. I will never be influenced negatively by negative situations and allow myself to lose my happiness. Also I naturally find my happiness rising constantly.