Thoughts

Brahmakumari Daily Thoughts

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Understanding Attachment (cont.)

If you don't want to suffer from fear, anger or sadness, don't get attached to anything or anyone, to any expectation, any item, any particular outcome (result). That does not mean you shouldn't have possessions. It does not mean you can't have people around you that you love. Nor does it mean you don't have expectations, goals, etc. You do. But your relationship with them changes. Detachment means you are no longer dependent on any of them for your peace and happiness. You choose to be peaceful and content anyway. So when possessions are damaged or when people leave or die or when expectations are not met, all of which are inevitable, you don't become discontent. You have realized everything in life comes and goes, everything decays, every dynamic process is unpredictable and uncontrollable, and must end. You know this is a reality. Every time you get angry it means you are having an argument with this reality.

Understanding Attachment

Why do you suffer so much when things that you have brought so close to you are changed or lost? It is because they are too close. When someone damages your car and you suffer it is because you think you are the car! This is the deepest mistake. It is the deepest cause of the suffering called anger. You are not aware of this of course, but if you were to take a moment and see what you were doing in your own mind, you would see you have brought the image of the car up on the screen of your mind. You have then gone into that image of the car in your mind, and you have lost your 'sense of self' in the image of the car. In effect you identify with the car. So if the car outside is scratched or damaged in any way, it feels like it is happening to you and, as a result, you become disturbed. The disturbance is called anger. In spiritual terms this would be called attachment. Attachment is a mistake we all make within our consciousness and it creates what is known as ego. From a spiritual point of view, ego is the root of all suffering, and all suffering can be found and felt at an emotional level in the various forms of fear, anger and sadness.

Meditation

Meditation is perhaps the most important tool to develop our intellectual skills. It produces a wide range of effects on the mind, such as improved capacity to concentrate and increased clarity (clearness) of thinking, which, in turn, simplify decision-making. It also improves health and general well being, reducing anxiety (worry), stress, pain and depressive or obsessive thoughts. It is useful in clearing the mind at the end of the day, for relaxing and improving sleep.

It is not necessary to attempt to blank or suppress the mind (force the mind not to think negatively or not to think at all) in meditation. Instead of that the creation of positive thoughts is encouraged in such a way so as to tap (to use effectively) our natural power to think.

Motivation

For a process to happen effectively, I need to prioritise, that is, to make the best use of my time, energy and resources.

To prioritise, I also need to recognise and refuse clever excuses (for example, 'there is no time') and create a timetable that is realistic and functional. As I prioritise my values, then the type of motivation I have becomes clearer. Is my motivation materialistic or spiritual? The results of one and the other are very different.

Materialistic motivation is based on ambition, competition and a desire for position. Often we believe we cannot succeed without these and so think and act on the basis of these values. Often the results include conflict, fear, attachment, jealousy, possessiveness and over-identification of the self with a role, a position, which makes us feel threatened by anyone who is more talented or more praised. For example, when motivation is materialistic, there is always the fear of loss of something that, in turn, creates uneasiness, stress and worry.

Spiritual motivation is based on enthusiasm for a task, rather than blind ambition, co-operation with the uniqueness of others, rather than being in competition with those differences. Finally, the feeling to serve through whatever talent, position, or role I have.

Self Esteem

If you set your sense of self worth (value) on your position, pay and material possessions, you will not have real self-esteem. All of these things come and go, sometimes at the most unexpected moments. This is why almost every single human being from corporate leaders to househusbands, from Kings to college students are not able to have constantly high self esteem. We are all taught by our society, that worth (value) is measured by rank, quantity of possessions and the amount of monetary (financial) income. Dangerous! It creates a life of sorrow and unhappiness mixed with temporary happiness. You cannot allow your self-esteem to be defined by your work, your capabilities at work, your salary level etc. True internal self-esteem comes for realizing the self as a soul and experiencing its virtues (qualities) and specialties.  

Exercise: What external factors is your self-esteem based on? If real wealth is not money or possessions what is real wealth? What could you start doing tomorrow that may help you transfer your sense of self esteem from something you do or have outside your self, to something that you are inside?

Soul Consciousness

A human being is soul and body, spirit and matter, working together co-operatively. The body is like the hardware of a computer and the spiritual energy, the soul, is a tiny chip of light, where all things are recorded. When we go into introspective (deep) silence, it is in this chip of light, which is actually a point of light energy that we can remember and rediscover.

The tiny chip of invisible light starts to work effectively when it plugs into its original consciousness and reactivates those original qualities, which enable the soul to work and express itself naturally. The connection is achieved through the power of concentrated thought; this is called 'consciousness of the soul'. The process of experiencing 'soul consciousness' is carried out in meditation: gathering all the thoughts of the mind, creating one concentrated thought and very gently running inwards in order to make the connection with the original self, the soul. 

To take those first steps in gathering the thoughts, we use the positive consciousness of ‘I am', or what is called 'Om Shanti' consciousness. 'Om' means 'I am', with the deeper meaning that 'I am a peaceful soul'. With this awareness, there comes the experience of one's original spiritual identity.