OPPORTUNITIES ARE LIKE A TOUCHSTONE

When the great library of Alexandria was burnt, as the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers.

The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”!

The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about mid afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realised what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it’s easy to fail to recognise an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away.

SELF-EMPOWERMENT

To fill yourself with a quality or power, which you feel you do not have or one, which is lacking inside you, try the following exercise. Suppose you feel that you lack contentment (satisfaction). To increase this quality inside you, sit comfortably in a pleasant room with your eyes open.

Withdraw (remove) energy mentally from everything around you – turn your attention inward. You might think of how a tortoise withdraws into its shell to detach itself from the outside world, but, carrying the experience of the world with it inside its shelter.

Create a point of consciousness. Focus on the centre of your forehead. Think of this point as a bright star, a sparkling jewel, a flame or a being of light. This will radiate positive energy, making you feel good about yourself.

Affirm (strengthen) this positive energy through positive thoughts and images about yourself such as “I am a contented soul; I shower everyone whom I meet with the quality of contentment”, “I am a jewel of contentment”, or “I am the child of the Supreme Soul, the Ocean of Contentment”.

Focus your energy on contentment, and let this become the object of your meditation. As you focus, you will give experience contentment, turning the thought into a feeling.

Experience this feeling by giving your conscious attention to it.

During the entire day, you could visualise yourself performing each action under the canopy (shelter) of the Ocean of Contentment. Now perform this exercise for different virtues like cheerfulness, courage, humility (egolessness), tolerance, forgiveness, determination, etc., especially for the ones you think are lacking inside you. For the qualities already existing inside you, you could use this exercise to strengthen those features of your personality and bring them more into your actions and interactions.

TURNING QUALITIES INTO POWERS

An important aspect of God, remembered throughout history in all cultures and traditions, has been the concept of an Almighty Authority. The interpretation of this concept has been varied, however.
Some have conceived a God who is fearsome, who punishes, who extracts a tooth for a tooth. That is very different from the experiences of God, in meditation, as a benign, benevolent, merciful parent; as a teacher of absolute wisdom, but a wisdom that includes gentleness and compassion; and as one who has total humility, who is free of the demands of ego. Yet, it is also the experience of the soul that God is the Almighty Authority, the source of all power and strength. When I meditate and connect with the Supreme, I come to a state of truth in which the combination of all the qualities of the soul - peace, love, purity, wisdom and happiness fills me with power.
When I first communicate with the Supreme, and God's qualities begin to influence me, I feel replenished by the experience. But beyond that, as I fill deeper, the energy of truth that enters me becomes a positive power that overcomes negativity in myself and others, so that those I am connected with become better able to experience their own truth. This power also extends to my physical surroundings, transforming the atmosphere around me. There are interesting spiritual parallels to the way the physical sciences distinguish energy and power. In physical terms, energy is defined as the capacity for doing work, where work means making things move. Power is defined as the rate of doing work. Similarly, we can look upon spiritual energy as our cap-acity for experiencing the original qualities of the soul. We all have this capacity, but to different degrees. Spiritual power is then seen as the extent to which we put these qualities to work in our relationships. We bring about change through our power to remain in a state of truth, in the face of the various tests that come. Our actions and relationships give us an opportunity to utilize the power we have accumulated.
The qualities of God experienced in meditation are also the original qualities of the soul, but the link with God is essential for their full power to be expressed. In fact God, too, needs the connection with us, despite having these qualities to the highest degree, in order to exercise His power to restore truth to the world.

50 WAYS TO COPE WITH STRESS

Get up 15 minutes earlier. Prepare for the morning the night before. Don't rely on your memory....write things down. Repair things that don't work properly. MAKE DUPLICATE KEYS. SAY "NO" MORE OFTEN. Set priorities in your life. Avoid negative people. Always make copies of important papers. ASK FOR HELP WITH JOBS YOU DISLIKE. Break large tasks into bite sized portions. Look at problems as challenges. Smile more. Be prepared for rain. SCHEDULE A PLAY TIME INTO EVERY DAY. Avoid tight fitting clothes. Take a bubble bath. BELIEVE IN YOU. Visualize yourself winning. Develop a sense of humour. Stop thinking tomorrow will be a better today. Have goals for yourself. SAY HELLO TO A STRANGER. Look up at the stars. PRACTISE BREATHING SLOWLY. DO BRAND NEW THINGS. Stop a bad habit. TAKE STOCK OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS. Do it today. Strive for excellence, NOT perfection. LOOK AT A WORK OF ART. Maintain your weight. Plant a tree. Stand up and stretch. Always have a plan B. Learn a new doodle. Learn to meet your own needs. BECOME A BETTER LISTENER. Know your limitations and let others know them too. THROW A PAPER AIRPLANE. Exercise every day. Get to work early. CLEAN OUT ONE CLOSET. Take a different route to work. LEAVE WORK EARLY(WITH PERMISSION). Remember you always have options. Quit trying to "fix" other people. GET ENOUGH SLEEP. Praise other people. RELAX, TAKE EACH DAY AT A TIME.....YOU HAVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE TO LIVE.

(Special Thanks to Julie Kim Cormier,Canada)

*HEART IS A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN*

Once a Junior School teacher asked her students to bring some potatoes in a plastic bag to school. Each potato will be given a name of the person whom that child hates. Like this, the number of potatoes will be equal to the number of persons they hate. On a decided day the children brought their potatoes well addressed. Some had two, some had three and some had even five potatoes.

The teacher said they have to carry these potatoes with them everywhere they go for a week. As the days passed the children started to complain about the spoiled smell that started coming from these potatoes. Also some students who had many potatoes complained that it was very heavy to carry them all around.

The children got rid of this assignment after a week, when it got over. The teacher asked,"How did you feel in this one week?" The children discussed their problems about the smell and weight. Then the teacher said, this situation is very similar to what you carry in your heart when you don't like some people. This hatred makes your heart unhealthy and you carry that hatred in your heart everywhere you go.

If you cannot bear the smell of spoiled potatoes for a week, imagine the impact of this hatred that you carry throughout your life, on your heart!!

Morale:
Our heart is a beautiful garden that needs a regular cleaning of unwanted weeds.
Forgive those who have not behaved with you as expected and forget bad things. This also makes room available for storing good things.

MY WORDS ARE IN MY CONTROL

Meditation offers me powerful tools through which I can improve my character. This is because in meditation, I am no longer just reacting to external stimuli, but I am looking at what is going on in the mind, and consciously creating the type of thoughts that I would like to have habitually.

I do this through the intellect. The intellect takes hold of the reins of the mind and chooses the direction in which to travel. When it does this repeatedly, my sanskaras - the imprints or tendencies within my character - start to change.

Soul-consciousness is the key to taking charge of what is going on in my mind. If I believe that my thoughts and feelings, including my sense of self, are simply consequences of brain processes, it means I've let go of the key. The more my consciousness is trapped in my physical identity, the more difficult it will be for me to discipline my mind.

In meditation, when I bring myself back to the knowledge that I am a soul, and my intellect accepts and absorbs this awareness, I recognize that my thoughts are my own creation, and that I can make choices about them. I realize that my natural state is to be the master of my mind, and I start taking charge of what is going on inside.

CONCENTRATION

As my mind contemplates aspects of God's truth, it may reach a next stage in the process, that of concentration. Here, there is a taste of real stillness and silence, as other thoughts subside. The mind is slowing down, and working in one direction, towards the being of truth whom we call God; and I am beginning to savour the experience of connecting with God.

Sometimes, I'll sit in meditation and instantly fly into the happiness of this experience, without intervening steps. At other times, it won't be so easy, but that is when an under-standing of the process becomes particularly valuable.

I may find that during the first two stages, meditation and contemplation, many stray thoughts are coming to distract me. That is not surprising, as the mind has been busy with many other concerns. Recognizing this, all I have to do in that moment is to tell the mind it can deal with those issues later, but right now I want it to take me to God, the being of light who has so much to offer me.

If I find that although my mind is moving in the right direction, my experience is still only at the level of thinking rather than feeling that is also OK. It's better to keep the mind occupied in thinking about the soul and the Supreme than in straying uselessly into other areas. In fact, to have come this far is a breakthrough, because relatively few people these days create space for thoughts of the divine.