Colmar, France. Considered one of the most beautiful and fairytale-esque towns in Europe!
Simplicity
Peace is simplicity. Simplicity is beauty. Choose a day as your day of simplicity. Speak little, and listen with attention. Do something incognito and nice for a person you are close to. Eat simple and natural food. Create time periods for not doing anything - just walk, look around, live the moment. Have your mind open to a more profound and silent sensitivity. Appreciate each scene and each person as they are. In the evening, write down your discoveries. Observe the state of your mind.
Chatting with God
One of the best ways to remain light, even in the middle of chaos and
heaviness, is to keep a conversation with God. Chatting with God, whose
responsibilities are unlimited, about trivial matters that are wearing
us down gives us a more entertaining view of life. It requires a
certain stillness of mind to hear His advice, but with practice we
learn to sense His perspective on our minor irritations. Since His mind
radiates lightness and love, the very act of opening ourselves up to
Him enables us to lighten our burdens.
The Power To Face
Situations arise where it may not be enough to tolerate or accommodate, but where I need power to face very unpleasant and perhaps threatening realities. What we are talking about here, in effect, is courage. Meditation helps enormously.
First, the practice of the awareness of myself and others as eternal souls greatly reduces fear of death, an ever-present reality that we spend much time, money and mental and emotional energy trying to avoid. If soul-consciousness is firm enough, I'll have the absolute conviction that when someone dies, it's not that they are no more, just that they have moved further on their eternal journey. This faith makes it much easier to face the departure of someone close to me. It also removes much or all of the fear I might otherwise suffer about leaving my own body. I'll still value my life greatly - probably even more than before, because of having the burden of fear removed. But I won't let concern for the body stop me from facing what I must.
Secondly, meditation makes it easier for me to oppose evil. It does this by allowing me to differentiate clearly between the actor and the action. Spirituality helps me understand that the original qualities of every soul are peace, love, happiness and so I have no hatred in my heart for anyone. This helps me become fearless and stand firm against wrongdoing. With a clean heart, a clear understanding of good and evil, and connection with the divine, I am much more likely to have the faith and courage with which to stand up for what is right.
Thirdly, if the negative behaviour I am opposing activates negative tendencies within my own personality, the fight will soon wear me out and I'm unlikely to be victorious. Power absorbed from the Supreme in meditation helps me remain positive and above negative tendencies and hence face someone's negative behavior and emerge victorious.
Soul Sustenance
Neutralizing Anger
What is a good neutralizer for anger? Peace you would say. It's not only peace, but a combination of truth, peace and love, in equal amounts. Truth and peace are the two inner states, which never ever leave us. Both remain permanently within each one of us. We already know, inside our subconscious and sometimes even consciously, the truth about anger and we can call our inner peace whenever we want – it's there to be used. But what happens in real life situations is that we lose awareness of what is true i.e. the truth that anger is harmful and the truth of 'who I am'. And we also forget the practice of peacefulness because some negative situation or experience temporarily blocks our access to the peace of our heart.
Peace is also deeply connected with love and we all have experienced many a times that it is impossible to feel loving and angry at the same time. Both cannot co-exist. In fact it is love that is the healing balm for our heart, that we our self have stabbed and wounded by indulging in many anger habits since we were young. But what happens is that we search for love and peace from the hearts of others. That means we have not yet realized that we already have what we search for, within our own hearts. To heal the wounds of anger, which can be in different forms like irritation, resentment, hatred, revenge, rage, etc., it is essential to rediscover the truth of who we are and the peace and love of what we are.
Message for the day
The one who follows the right method gets easy success.
Expression: When there is a clear aim of what has to be done and how one has to go about doing it, then there is accuracy in all words and actions. Whatever effort is put in is according to the system and is naturally accurate. So when there is accuracy in all that is done, the fruit of that is also right.
Experience: When I have been following the right method for whatever I have to do, I am able to remain happy for the effort that I have put in. I am also able to be patient and wait for the fruit of my effort to come at its own time. I am never in a hurry, so I always experience success whatever the outcome of the task may be.
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Moderators Rukhsana Group:
Kazakhstani1303 & Mumtaz Ali.
Contact us at: kazakhstani1303@gmail.com
Rukhsana-owner@yahoogroups.com
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