• Providing Emotional Support To Your Loved Ones

    What do we do when friends and loved ones come to us for, and expect emotional support from us? Spirituality teaches us the right technique of providing emotional support – the technique of detached involvement, which is the technique of not being overawed, of not being affected ourselves by the emotions of others. If a friend, colleague or any loved one is upset and we also get upset (because we love them – that’s what we normally say), we cannot provide them the necessary support or the assistance to see why they are reacting emotionally and how they might change the nature of their emotions by themselves. True love for someone would mean that I am able to provide them that. While being concerned is fine, but by becoming upset, seeing them upset simply aggravates the situation and adds fuel to their fire.

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  • The Power To Transform Emotions

    As with feelings, when emotions are aroused, there are physical changes inside the body in the form of chemical and electrical activity. In fact, strong emotions don’t just affect the body; they also have an impact on the soul. When the soul suffers emotional trauma, from which there is lasting impact, the emotional trauma brings about an immense strain on the brain and body. Brain chemical production is likely to be affected, and there may also be feelings of depression and tiredness. But the real trauma at the root of these physical effects is at a deeper level within the soul itself, and the resulting emotional sensitivity will also arise from the soul.

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  • Meditating With Open Eyes

    It is advised to practice meditation with eyes open. When we sit to meditate, if we close our eyes, what we do is that we send a signal to our mind, intellect and our physical body that sleep is close and that signal, in turn, induces sleep. That is the last thing we want to induce inside ourselves, while meditating. Meditation is a way to wake up and stay awake, not only physically, but in terms of being conscious and alert about what is happening internally and externally. It is therefore good to practice with eyes open, so that during your meditation, you can become used to going beyond the physical inputs of what you see, hear, feel and smell and at the same time, remain exposed to these inputs.

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  • Effects Of Anger On The Human Body

    In numerous studies, anger has been found to have a completely negative effect on our physical well-being. In one such study, reported at a recent conference on forgiveness and peace in the US, it was demonstrated that letting go of negative feelings that we have for someone due to his/her negative actions relieved and reduced chronic back pain.

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Archive for January 2012

What Is Consciousness?

The soul is conscient energy, aware of its own existence. Consciousness can be described as the feeling "I am" or "I exist". If you examine any thought-decision-action process, you will find that behind it, there is always the feeling: "I am something or the other". Consciousness is thus the springboard for thought, decisions and actions. In other words, the soul reacts to external circumstances according to how it regards itself at that particular moment.

e.g. a doctor is able to perform an operation when there is the consciousness of being a doctor. That very consciousness unlocks or gives the soul access to all the information and experience related to being a doctor. The soul when it has the consciousness of being a soul is able to have instant access to its own original qualities. As we have discussed, there are two different basic levels of consciousness; "I am a body" or .I am a soul," the former, illusory (false) and the latter, real. When the feeling is "I am a body," the thought process is trapped in the limitations, problems and vision of the physical identity. Its reaction to others is on the same level.

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Relationships

A prison in Miami, USA had the highest levels of conflict, drug abuse and break-out rates amongst all prisons in the US. In came a new governor, who sent all the managers and staff of the prison on a three-day, customer service training course. When they returned he told them, "Now go back in there and treat the prisoners as if they were your customers." Two years later the prison had the lowest levels of conflict, drug abuse and break-out rates in the US. Reason? One word. Respect. Instead of seeing the prisoners as low life trash (waste), they saw them as human beings with their original but suppressed dignity, and therefore worthy of their respect. It transformed (changed) the culture of the institution.

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Realizing The Law Of Karma

Many times one meets someone with the feeling of either attraction or repulsion and the thought "Where have I seen this person before?" What happens is that the soul recognizes the other soul, even though their bodies are different from the last time they met (in a previous birth). Someone may be a source of comfort or inspiration, while another for no apparent cause, causes a feeling of resentment, "Why does he treat me like this, I have never done anything to him?"

There are some, who even at a young age achieve extraordinary excellence in some branch of knowledge, art or music, while others in spite of their best efforts achieve nothing. Identical twins may be born to the same parents and have the same environment, food and education, but all their lives, their nature and "fortunes" will be completely different. All these examples can only be explained by the law of cause and effect (law of karma) over a series of births.

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Stress Management


Most of us have learned to believe some stress is both natural and necessary. One of the most powerful illusions (false beliefs), which keep us locked in a stressful lifestyle, is the idea that our stress is caused by circumstances, events and other people. As long as you think this way you will always be in self-created pain. Some people have been in pain for so long they cannot imagine being pain free, and real relaxation is a dim and distant memory. So they justify their pain as a natural part of living and then feel that others are a cause of this pain. This is dangerous. To listen to the messenger of pain means seeing and acknowledging our stress as our own creation. It is the result of how we respond to the uncontrollables in life i.e. circumstances, events and other people. No one else creates our responses. 

If you can see and accept that you create your own stress according to how you are responding, you will then see that there is something you need to unlearn as well as learn. The old response needs to be unlearned, and a new positive response needs to be learned. The regular practice of meditation enables you to do that and become free from stress. If we want to change a habit, then where do we start? In other words, where do we change the system or how do we get out of the cycle? First of all, we can try changing our negative actions: for example, stop a negative habit like smoking. In many cases, although we change our behaviour, but because we have not understood deeply why we wanted to do it, is quite possible that one day we will go back to this old habit.

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Self Esteem


Self-esteem and self-respect are closely connected. One is an
integral part of the other. One is not possible without the other. In
relationships, when other people are throwing all their negative
energy at us, if we can maintain our own self-respect we will be
able to remain stable, positive and unaffected. In fact, if our self
-respect is strong, we will not feel the need to return the negative
energy, which they are sending us, but will be able to return
understanding and compassion (sympathy) instead.
To regain, build and strengthen our self-respect, we need to practice giving
respect to others – no matter what they are like, or what they do.
What we rarely realise is that in the process of respecting another,
we are first of all respecting ourself.
What does showing respect look like? Imagine different ways in
which you can convey respect to another person. What do you
think is the biggest inner barrier to developing the ability to give
respect to others?

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Effect Of Food On The Mind

In harmony with our great spiritual, religious and wisdom traditions, We places great importance on food. Whilst modern science tends to take a technician's approach and sees the molecules, chemical compounds and nutrients that feed the body; we look at a more spiritual, holistic perspective which places a sacred significance on what we eat, seeing how the food's energy can touch, heal and nourish the soul as well. The body needs sustenance but so does the soul: we must absorb, assimilate and integrate spiritual energy as well as physical energy from our food. Practitioners of the Raja Yoga meditation, which the institutions teaches, are typically lacto-vegetarians (diet is a vegetarian diet which includes dairy products). They believe that non-violence is an essential characteristic of the spiritually awakened individual and that the essence of the human soul is peace, tranquility and love. If the internal workings of the soul are disturbed, by eating the wrong type of food then the individual is not able to enjoy meditative serenity (peacefulness). The meditator sees that whatever food is eaten has an effect on the mind, in a subtle form, in a similar way in which alcohol or intoxicating drugs can dramatically change our mood and power of judgment.

Food may be placed in one of three categories. Pure (or 'sattwic') food constitutes the staple diet of a yogi (meditator). It includes fruits, grains, seeds, sprouts, most vegetables, dairy products and a moderate amount of spices and herbs.  Then there is stimulating (or 'rajsik') food which may be consumed in moderation, and includes coffee, tea, colas, vinegar, radishes, spices and watermelon. Finally there are impure (or 'tamsic') items, such as tobacco, alcohol, nonprescription drugs, all meat, fish, fowl, eggs, stale food and also garlic, onions and chives.

These should all be completely avoided. Ordinarily onions and garlics are recommended to non-vegetarians as blood purifiers and to help counteract the buildup of harmful animal fat and cholesterol. However, the healthy vegetarian is not in need of such protection and a spiritually sensitive meditator will be aware that they (onions and garlics) tend to arouse anxiety and irritation - passions which reduce serenity and peace of mind. The purer ones diet, the more the emotions remain in a state of equilibrium, bringing tranquility to the consciousness and greater clarity to the mind and intellect.

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