Month: June 2008

How to Know the Right Thing to Do

There are few greater challenges than working out what is the right thing to do. Sometimes it can appear quite difficult working out what to choose. These are some suggestions for following our inner conscience and creating the life which will give us most satisfaction.

Be Still

To listen to the inner voice, we have to be able to still the mind and quieten our conflicting thoughts. We need to have a faith that something within us we have the wisdom to know our the right thing. To listen to our inner voice, we can try this technique. Repeat the question very carefully in silence and then try to maintain an inner silence for at least 5 minutes; we should not allow any thought to enter, but keep our mind absolutely quiet. At the end of our silent meditation we should have a clearer idea about what to do.

Does it Give You Peace or Anxiety?

If we feel inwardly awkward about a certain course of action, this is a sign that we are doing the wrong thing. When we are doing the right thing, it will be accompanied by a sense of inner peace. Even if others may not appreciate our action, as long as we are acting with the right motives and intentions, we will have a clear conscience and a sense of peace with our decision.

Continue reading “Listening to the Inner Voice”

“At the end of the sorrowful night
Truth appears and smilingly says,
“Beloved, fear no more.”

– Sri Chinmoy

The material advances of the world do not seem to have reduced the amount of fear that exists in our mind. When we fear we weaken ourselves and make it impossible to enjoy life as it is supposed to be enjoyed. To consciously enjoy life we need to throw away fear and retain optimism and a positive attitude to the world. To live without fear is quite possible.

Self Belief.

When we fear we consciously weaken ourselves. If we think of ourselves as an ant, then we will inevitably fear being trampled on. It is important to maintain faith in ourselves and a sense of self belief. This is not the pride of self aggrandisement, but belief in our inner self. If we maintain belief in our inner divinity, then we will not fear the world.

Don’t Judge Others

When we judge and condemn others, we ironically open ourselves upto being judged ourselves. When we pick up on the faults of others, we unconsciously strengthen these very same faults in ourself. Often we start criticising others to assert an unconscious sense of superiority over others; we do this partly out of fear. But, judging others is not a solution to fear; we only make it stronger.

Don’t Focus on Your Weakness / Sin.

If we focus on our ‘sins’ and weaknesses, we start to cherish a guilty conscience. This magnifies our weaknesses and problems, this will only create an attitude of fear. Instead we need to forget unpleasant experiences; it is sufficient to resolve to avoid repeating mistakes. We need to move on and think about the good things we are going to do. When we focus on the negative things we have done we become fearful of their consequences.

Continue reading “Living Without Fear”

There are few greater sources of frustration and unhappiness than the feeling that your journey to happiness is being delayed by the demands and opinions of others. What makes it worse is that these demands often come from from the people close to you – parents, siblings and friends. So how can you navigate this web of demands and still follow your dreams? We offer a few observations on the matter:

Remember that other people’s opinions very often stem from their own insecurities. If you have the inner inspiration to do something new or to drop an old destructive habit, this can easily be seen by other people as a challenge to their way of thinking. Explain politely but firmly that what they are doing might be perfectly fine for them, but not for you.

Beware of people telling you you have to be realistic. Often their ‘realism’ is defined by the experiences they have had – we generaly tend to move in tight circles of where negative thoughts are confirmed by negative experiences and positive thoughts are confirmed by positive experiences – in many ways our thoughts really do shape the world we see. So if you are planning to take a step into the unknown, bear in mind other people might have built a whole life on ‘playing it safe’ and that is all they know. Often it is best not to get into direct confrontation, but instead ‘humour’ them by saying things like ‘you are just trying this option out for a little while’ whilst at the same time quietly and firmly going about your own thing. Continue reading “Are other people holding you back from fulfilling your dreams?”

In our recent post – Who Am I? We looked at the idea of transcending the ego.

However, as a reader pointed out – is it not better to understand the ego from a peaceful perspective rather than abolishing the ego?

I would suggest that to transcend the ego completely is a very lofty goal; and in practice very difficult. It is one thing to say ‘I will transcend all concept of ego’, but, to do it is a completely different matter.

In the beginning we need to be wise and deal with our present limitations. We should not expect to transcend our ego with a few meditations; it is like thinking about doing a master’s course whilst we are still in primary school. To graduate with a Master’s degree we need to go through all the levels of schooling before we can even begin to start our Master’s course. It is the same with spirituality. Just thinking of the idea of Nirvana doesn’t really help, because it is so far from our present stage of evolution. What we can do is to gradually change our nature. We can gradually become less selfish, materialistic and inward looking. We can consider the needs of others and try to expand our consciousness. If we can develop humility, simplicity and selflessness, then slowly we will transform our nature. Rather than trying to completely transcend the ego; we make the ego less selfish. This is an effective way to make progress. When we work on our ego, there will come a point in the future, when we can make the leap to transcending the ego.

Dealing With Conflicts in Relationships

A strong ego can often cause conflicts in relationships. In this guest post at Pick The Brain,– How To Deal with Conflicts in Relationships I looked at a few strategies to improve our relationships with others.

How to Reduce the Ego – Another post looking at how to reduce the ego.

Picture courtesy of Australian World Harmony Run 2008

Who Am I?

There was a great Spiritual Teacher called Sri Ramana Maharshi. When he was 16 years old, he became mortified at the prospect of dying. The whole concept of death filled him with dread and misgiving. This led him to question the nature of life, and the self which could be paralysed with fear. Ramana Maharshi began meditating for several hours a day – enabling him to overcome the fear of death.

His quest for self discovery was so profound he left his home village and travelled to the mountain of Arunachala in the South of India. For several years Ramana Maharshi, maintained only the weakest connection with the world, spending his time rapt in meditation. Later in his life people were drawn to this very simple sage; feeling in his presence an aura of peace. He spoke very little – preferring to teach in silence. However, when he did speak he taught a very simple path of self inquiry. Ramana Maharshi directed people to ask themselves this question – Who Am I? He said if we could only discover who we really are, all our problems would be solved.

Where Did Your Thought Come From?

If you have a thought – Who is it that thinks that particular thought? Sometimes we have positive thoughts – “I am great” “I am better than everyone else” At other times we have the opposite frame of mind and we are overcome with insecurities; we feel useless and guilty. The mind is volatile – sometimes we feel we are the best, over times we feel wholly inadequate. But, which is true? The answer is that these neither of these thoughts are a reflection of who we really are. These thoughts and feelings are transitory and do not reflect our true nature. The fact that thoughts come and go show that there must be something deeper; something that can decide to hold onto thoughts or reject them. It is this inner self at the root of thoughts we need to find. Continue reading “Who Am I?”