Pure Cooking (cont.)

1.  First, it is essential to develop a positive attitude towards cooking. Before undertaking any food preparation, ask yourself. 'Do you consider the project at hand to be an enjoyable, creative activity or an unpleasant time-consuming boring, repetitive karma?' Find a way of enjoying it, by playing spiritual songs or trying new recipes and having deep meditation while cooking.

2.  Before cooking, make sure the kitchen is clean and in order. Take out all the things you will need to make the meal and place them where they will be used. This makes the process of cooking more smooth and enjoyable.

3.  While cooking avoid doing other work in between. You will actually be saving time and the food will definitely turn out better.

4.  As much as possible, remain in silence, paying attention to the quality of the thoughts you have. Try to have pure and peaceful thoughts. This creates a powerful atmosphere that fills the food with pure vibrations and brings personal benefits as well.

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Positive Reflections For The Day are messages sent by the Brahma Kumaris. If you are not receiving Positive Reflections already and would like to receive it daily, from the Brahma Kumaris, please send an email to the email address awakeningwithbks@bkmail.org with - Subscribe - written in the subject.


Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris


- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

 

Pure Cooking

A significant part of our lifestyle is to consider the quality of our thoughts required while making food. Living in a family may make it more difficult to have that quiet and ordered state of mind while cooking. Also, children, friends, husbands and wives have the habit of coming into the kitchen while you are cooking. So, see if you can re-organize your timetable so you can cook at a time when they are busy, and then you can properly concentrate on giving pure vibrations to the food. It also helps if you play some gentle, soothing music which reminds you of the Supreme Soul or God while you are cooking. Even better sit in meditation for 4-5 minutes in the kitchen before starting to cook.

If you think of yourself while you are cooking then there will be a vibration of greed created. If you think of others while you are cooking there will be a vibration of attachment created. Think about the Supreme and there will be that feeling of deep love and freedom (liberation).

Physical cleanliness before cooking is important. Walking off the market or crowded roads, into the kitchen and cooking can affect the vibrations of the food. Washing, changing and meditating is a good start for preparation of satwic food. The ideal time for cooking is in the morning, the mind is quiet and if one has read a short paragraph of spiritual knowledge sometime after getting up, the mind is filled with new gems of spiritual knowledge, free of waste thoughts.

(To be continued tomorrow ...)

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Positive Reflections For The Day are messages sent by the Brahma Kumaris. If you are not receiving Positive Reflections already and would like to receive it daily, from the Brahma Kumaris, please send an email to the email address awakeningwithbks@bkmail.org with - Subscribe - written in the subject.


Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris


- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. 

The Practice Of Meditation - cont.

As explained yesterday, we regularly and quite easily slip into four main negative habits. So meditation is not only sitting in a quiet corner, and connecting with the self and the Supreme, at a couple of fixed times during the day, but it is also the way to gently remember and remind ourselves, many times in a day, that we as well as others, are souls or spiritual beings not physical beings, by detaching ourselves from actions and also while being involved in actions. These reminders given to the self over a period of time become natural and prevent us from succumbing to these four habits. Given below is a basic meditation, which you could use to remind yourself regularly during the day:

I have a body but this body is not me...
I have thoughts but these thoughts are not me ...
I have feelings but these feelings are not me ...
I have attitudes but these attitudes are not me ...
I have emotions but these emotions are not me ...
I have beliefs but these beliefs are not me ...
I perform many actions through my sense organs, but these sense organs are not me...
I play many roles but I am not my roles...
I experience joy or sorrow through my sense organs, but these experiences are not me ...
I am a soul - a being of energy, which is neither created nor can be destroyed, and my original and true nature is one of peace, love, joy and power...

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Positive Reflections For The Day are messages sent by the Brahma Kumaris. If you are not receiving Positive Reflections already and would like to receive it daily, from the Brahma Kumaris, please send an email to the email address awakeningwithbks@bkmail.org with - Subscribe - written in the subject.

Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris

- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

The Practice Of Meditation

As with anything else, the more we practice meditation, the more we feel the benefit of what we are doing. We do need to practice meditation regularly because the habits of:

i. identifying with our physical form,

ii. succumbing to mental and emotional negativity (in the form of waste and negative thoughts) along with negativity in words and actions,

iii. becoming attached to the physical as well as the non-physical, and

iv. being dependent upon the experience of physical stimulation of any sort (from e.g. food, movies, people, sports etc.) for happiness are extremely deep.

These habits have deepened over a period of many many births, because of repeating them regularly, due to a lack of spiritual awareness. As a result, in the present moment also we regularly and quite easily slip into these four habits.

(To be continued tomorrow...)

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Positive Reflections For The Day are messages sent by the Brahma Kumaris. If you are not receiving Positive Reflections already and would like to receive it daily, from the Brahma Kumaris, please send an email to the email address awakeningwithbks@bkmail.org with - Subscribe - written in the subject.


Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris


- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Factors That Shape Our Perception

The factors that contribute to creating our perception (way of looking at the self, situations, people, etc.) are our memories, experiences, beliefs, values, people, places, situations and time. Out of all these factors there are two which are chiefly responsible for creating our perception: our beliefs and our experiences.

The first thing you should do is have a clearer perception of yourself. You should develop the perception of who you really are and what your true identity is. This does not refer to the image you see every day in the mirror. Your external appearance or physical beauty, your age, your gender, your occupation, your status in society should not be the basis for your self-perception. You may live with others or alone, have a family, run a business or have a job, which you undertake with responsibility. What is your conscience, however, while you are doing these tasks? This will lead you to a clear perception of yourself.

We have been brought up and conditioned to have a perception of everything that is external: perception of other people at the workplace or in the family, of other countries, of movies, of the country's cricket team, of what our neighbors are doing, of the government and so on. However, the last thing we have a perception of is ourselves. We thus lose the internal link with our own happiness and our own peace. When we re-establish the perception of our true identity (the correct way of looking at ourselves) based on spiritual knowledge, we are capable of recognizing all the false beliefs about ourselves that have taken root in our inner selves. When we discover these beliefs we are capable of recognizing those sanskars of ourselves we need to change.
If someone believes that Indians are very generous, good-hearted people, and they have this ingrained in their subconscious, this thought will form part of their perception of India. Perhaps not only part of their perception: they may even identify fully with this belief. In other words, the thought becomes a belief and finally one identifies with the belief. The same holds true for any negative belief about anything or anyone.

There are four main criteria that may influence how our perception of reality is distorted or altered (changed). These are:

Mental Positioning
Mental position is the internal position from which we see situations, and may be positive or negative.  For example, we are really excited about owning a new car, but after buying it we start worrying about where to park it, if it may be stolen or we might meet with an accident. Another example is that of the professional who has always dreamt of being promoted at work and, when he gets it, starts to fear losing it. According to our mental positioning we experience fear (a negative state of mind) or we feel confident (a positive one). A correct mental positioning broadens our conscience and improves our lives and relationships.

To live in the present in a relaxed way and planning the future with an open and optimistic view, we should be able to free ourselves from preconceived ideas and the influences that dominate our perceptions. To do this, the best mental position is that of being an impartial observer. In this way we can observe, recognize and transform (change) those thoughts, attitudes that cause us pain, anxiety and stress.
 
Mental Limits
It is said that the solution to important problems we face cannot be obtained in the same consciousness (state of mind) we are in when we create them (the problems) - the consciousness needs to be changed to see the solution.

Mental limits are those which we have imposed on our mind. We create these limits ourselves or they can come as a result of our education, the family environment and the society in which we live. For example, at work a mental limit is always thinking in the same way. So we always take the same decisions and get the same results. Experience itself may also generate mental limits. You think you know how to do certain things and these convictions act as mental limits. The greater the mental limitation, the greater will be resistance to change. Due to the mental limits, we usually have a series of readily prepared responses. They are excuses and justifications that provide us with poor results. We are always trying to solve problems using the same formula and this often causes stress because we cannot find the answer.

The main mental limits are related to identity. We create a very narrow and limited image of ourselves. * I am a man, * I am a woman, * I am a Christian or a Gujarati, * I'm young, * I'm old, * I am white or black. The image we have of ourselves may be limited, because we do not have sufficient knowledge of our own resources, virtues, values, and identity. A deep investigation into our inner selves will help us to change the image we have of ourselves.  
 
Trapped by mental limits, some of which were discussed yesterday, human beings in general only use 10 per cent of their inner potential, and the other 90 per cent is available but is not used due to oversight (overlooking) or the lack of awareness that they have it. Meditating helps us to cross these mental limits. Meditation takes us to a higher dimension over our physical identity that releases us from these limits. Throughout our lives, and especially during our childhood, many impressions are formed about ourselves, since at the very beginning of our lives we do not know who we are or who we should be, until we learn it from those around us, who are older, and who know more things and who presumably love us.

One of the biggest mistakes we can make in our lives is to refer only to the opinions of others to work out who we really are. e.g. When a parent tells a child - * You are extremely naughty, * You are ignorant or * You are lazy, the child is creating negative and false images about himself (or herself). It is quite possible that the child has said or done something wrong, but this does not mean that we label the child negatively. It was their behavior that was bad. It is important to establish the difference between - * You are a naughty child and * It is incorrect to fight with your sibling.

Due to the fact that many people label others based on their behaviour, negative beliefs are created that are not based on what is true and genuine, and these beliefs may be dragged along throughout the person's life - which then function like mental limits in the life of that person.

Associated Memories
We have many associated memories: in fact, all addictions are associated memories. For example, the cigarette addict associates many moments during the day to cigarette smoking (after lunch, while seeing someone else smoking, in the restaurant with friends, coming out of work, etc.). Another example is when we have listened to a song over and over again. If after a few years we hear it again, not only do the words and tune emerge, but also the memories associated with the song. In our relationships, associated memories create barriers when we relate to others, since the memories we associate with certain people and situations means that we nearly always see them in a specific way and do not give them the chance to change and improve. This limited and unchanged vision that we sometimes have of others leads to misunderstandings when communicating.
Assumptions
They are images created in advance in our intellect and which work in a sub conscious way, just like associated memories. By assuming, guessing or imagining, we create a series of assumptions that influence our perception and stop us from recognizing the reality. For example, we hear our name being discussed by a group of people and we think that people are speaking wrongly about us. If we learn to rid ourselves of a whole series of assumptions that affect our communication and relationships, our perception of reality will not be distorted or altered (changed). The best way of eliminating these preconceptions is through open, concise and precise communication in order to clear up any misunderstandings.

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Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris

- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Even the most difficult task is made easy with the cooperation of all

Projection: When given a responsibility we usually think of doing it alone. We usually feel it is much easier not to involve many. We do this in order to avoid the different kinds of personalities that we have to deal with.

Solution: When involved in a big task, we need to see to it that we involve many. When we involve many and make sure we make use of their specialities even the most difficult task will be made easy. Secondly, the good wishes of all involved will be for the task which will add to its success.

 

 [BK SHIVANI]

MIND BODY BALANCE

Restoring The Mind-Body Balance

Many people are under the impression that the focus of spirituality is only on the mind and the soul, and the physical body is neglected. But that's not true. Our physical body is essential to our life and the art of living. It is our vehicle and our home. An appropriate balance of diet, sleep, relaxation and exercise is important for the body. However, when we enter the world of spirituality, the main emphasis is on the mind and the soul. This does not mean that we do not value or take care of our body. Without a healthy body, we would not be able to express ourselves mentally or spiritually. Spiritual progress, which includes the listening/studying and imbibing of spiritual knowledge, the practice of meditation, the inculcation of divine virtues and the spiritual service of others through different means is much easier and better with a healthy body.

Unfortunately, though, we have lost the art or wisdom of balance and for very long we have placed too much emphasis on our physical form, the body; and less emphasis on our spiritual form, the soul, as a result, reducing our spiritual awareness. One of the aims of spirituality is to restore this balance between mind and body so that we can experience well-being and happiness at every level. So while our body and our physical energy are essential, the focus of spirituality is on the mind and the soul, to help regain the balance.

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Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris

- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. 

Awakening Your Intuition

In real life, we are faced with many situations when important decisions have to be taken, a particular path to move ahead has to chosen. At such times, our mind is filled with various different voices or influences like the influence of people surrounding us, who give their different opinions regarding the particular situation; they say something, our mental logic along with knowledge of people and things, says something else, then there is the influence or memory of our past experiences which colour our perception of the present situation differently. Also there is the influence of the outside world in general - all that we see, hear and read. There are also our attachments, selfish desires, fears, mental biases towards a particular person or situation, emotions like jealousy and hatred, beliefs etc. which influence our perception. Our mind is full of all these influences, many of them even conflicting each other, and we experience complete turmoil or indecisiveness inside ourselves, we don't know what to do.

In such cases it is sometimes extremely wise to keep all these influences aside, sit in silence and listen to what our intuition is saying to us. There are many situations, in which after the situation is over, we realize that all the influences mentioned above would have taken us on the wrong path, but it was our intuition, our inner voice of wisdom, alone which gave us the right solution and took us safely to our destination. 



Meditation purifies and sharpens our intellect which makes it broader and far-sighted and also makes it free from waste and negativity; very clean and clear, like a mirror. As a result the intellect is able to subconsciously look into the hidden aspects of any situation, sense the underlying thoughts, emotions and feelings of people involved without any of them being visible, also look into the future without it having evolved as yet and sense the right solution. Nothing can remain hidden from a mirror. Even though a mirror is not consciously aware, somehow or the other it will decide correctly. This is only the intuitive capability, the capability of becoming a 'situation doctor', hearing the mental pulse of the situation and coming up with the right cure for it, which is awakened by meditation immensely.  If the intellect contains negativity or waste and is not clear, sometimes one or more than one of the many influences which we had mentioned in yesterday's message might be perceived to be the intuition and then we might fail in a particular situation. Its important to note that the intuition, if heard correctly, which is only the case when the intellect is clean, can never be wrong and will always take you in the right direction.   

In the above context, for the completely analytical minded, it's significant to understand that the intuitive perception was favoured more by old spiritual traditions and the intellectual perception, is being favoured more by modern science and medicine. Relying only on the intellectual perception is not wise. It alone cannot give us a complete idea of reality. A balance needs to be created between the two different types of perception. People with a balance will be more successful in life and victorious in difficult situations.
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Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris

- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

एक बार बुद्ध एक गांव में अपने किसान भक्त के यहां गए। शाम को किसान ने उनके प्रवचन का आयोजन किया। बुद्ध का प्रवचन सुनने के लिए गांव के सभी लोग उपस्थित थे, लेकिन वह भक्त ही कहीं दिखाई नहीं दे रहा था। गांव के लोगों में कानाफूसी होने लगी कि कैसा भक्त है कि प्रवचन का आयोजन करके स्वयं गायब हो गया। प्रवचन खत्म होने के बाद सब लोग घर चले गए। रात में किसान घर लौटा। बुद्ध ने पूछा, कहां चले गए थे? गांव के सभी लोग तुम्हें पूछ रहे थे।

किसान ने कहा, दरअसल प्रवचन की सारी व्यवस्था हो गई थी, पर तभी अचानक मेरा बैल बीमार हो गया। पहले तो मैंने घरेलू उपचार करके उसे ठीक करने की कोशिश की, लेकिन जब उसकी तबीयत ज्यादा खराब होने लगी तो मुझे उसे लेकर पशु चिकित्सक के पास जाना पड़ा। अगर नहीं ले जाता तो वह नहीं बचता। आपका प्रवचन तो मैं बाद में भी सुन लूंगा। अगले दिन सुबह जब गांव वाले पुन: बुद्ध के पास आए तो उन्होंने किसान की शिकायत करते हुए कहा, यह तो आपका भक्त होने का दिखावा करता है। प्रवचन का आयोजन कर स्वयं ही गायब हो जाता है।

बुद्ध ने उन्हें पूरी घटना सुनाई और फिर समझाया, उसने प्रवचन सुनने की जगह कर्म को महत्व देकर यह सिद्ध कर दिया कि मेरी शिक्षा को उसने बिल्कुल ठीक ढंग से समझा है। उसे अब मेरे प्रवचन की आवश्यकता नहीं है। मैं यही तो समझाता हूं कि अपने विवेक और बुद्धि से सोचो कि कौन सा काम पहले किया जाना जरूरी है। यदि किसान बीमार बैल को छोड़ कर मेरा प्रवचन सुनने को प्राथमिकता देता तो दवा के बगैर बैल के प्राण निकल जाते। उसके बाद तो मेरा प्रवचन देना ही व्यर्थ हो जाता। मेरे प्रवचन का सार यही है कि सब कुछ त्यागकर प्राणी मात्र की रक्षा करो। इस घटना के माध्यम से गांव वालों ने भी उनके प्रवचन का भाव समझ लिया.....!!

ⅠⅠ સુવિચાર ની રસધારા - Suvichar Ni Rasdhara ⅠⅠ

 Understanding The Mechanism Of The Virtue Of Peace

Each and every human soul's original trait or characteristic is peace. Before each soul comes down on the earth to take its first physical body, the soul is in a state of complete peace, residing in the soul world. In the soul world, the two faculties of the soul – the mind and intellect are complete inactive or dormant and the third faculty, the sanskara or spiritual personality is only that of eternal peace and purity and no other virtue like happiness, love or knowledge. The mind is completely silent, not creating a single thought or emotion or feeling nor possessing an attitude. The intellect which possesses the power to discriminate right thoughts, words or actions from the wrong ones does not exercise its power because there are no thoughts, words or actions in the soul world, so there is nothing there to discriminate. The sanskaras (as mentioned above) are also inactive to a certain extent – there are no thoughts, feelings, emotions, attitudes, words or actions to be created or processed, which would be based on the sanskaras or personality.

When the soul first takes a physical body on the world stage, it creates thoughts and feelings which are few in number and they are only positive and its words and actions are also limited and completely positive. Its discrimination power is active and completely accurate and its sanskaras or personality come into an active mode (sanskaras other than peace also become active) but only for a positive purpose to create positive thoughts, words or actions. As a result of this, the soul experiences immense peace, but the extent of the peace is lesser than that of in the soul world, where it is completely still and experiences dead silence or peace. It is never peaceless though at this stage. As the soul starts coming into the process of birth and rebirth, its starts losing its energy slowly; its mind, intellect and sanskaras start functioning negatively or incorrectly, it begins to succumb to the vices, leading to the creation of thoughts, words and actions, which are not only large in number but they are mostly waste or negative in nature. As a result, the soul gradually begins to lose its peace, which it experienced in the soul world (eternal peace) and at the start of its journey on the physical world and starts becoming peaceless.

Tomorrow we shall explain how we can return to our original state of peace. 

[BK SHIVANI]

Understanding What Is Clean Communication

With the self covered by the clouds of so many external influences and many of its own negative beliefs and past experiences, the self is normally unclear about its own self. The light of spiritual knowledge brings clarity to the self, about the self. This helps me to communicate with others much more clearly than when I am not sure or clear about what is going on inside me. There is a direct connection between the quality of subtle activities in the form of thoughts and feelings going on inside me and the quality of my interaction and communication with others.

Very importantly, relationships are also connected with attitude and vision. Sometimes, I may feel I have said and done the right things to someone, yet still someone is not behaving towards me as I would wish. At such times I need to check my attitude towards that person and the vision with which I am seeing them. I may find inside a slight feeling of disapproval towards that person, a feeling of discomfort, a resistance to something in their personality. Neither of us may be conscious of it, but my negative feeling casts a shadow on the other person. They are not receiving the acceptance or respect from me, that they should (on a subtle level), although externally I may be showing them a lot of respect. This subtle lack of acceptance and respect from my end influences their ability to hear me clearly (on a subtle level), and the way they behave towards me. The practice of meditation enables me to clean out my thoughts, feelings, attitudes and vision, ensuring that what I share with others on a physical and on a subtle level is positive. Then it is much easier for me to connect with others and for others to connect with me in a positive way. This is called Clean Communication.

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Warm Regards,
Awakening With Brahma Kumaris

- Watch Awakening With Brahma Kumaris daily on Headlines Today at 6:30 a.m., Aastha at 7:10 p.m. and Sanskar at 10:00 p.m. Also watch in English, every Sunday, on Aastha from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.