A thought for today
Collect moments of peace. When I take a deep breath, hold it for a quiet moment and offer a sweet smile to myself, I bring a drop of peace to my world. Each precious moment of peace adds a drop to the pond. Drop by drop, a pond becomes a lake, then an ocean of peace for the world. Today let me add a drop of peace to my world.
If you were asked what you needed most in life, how would you respond? Most people say, inner strength, spiritual power. When we go a little deeper, it seems that people want to be in more peace and deal with any internal negativity, but do not know how to acquire the spiritual strength to do so.
People want to let go of an anxious, critical mind, but do not know how to harness the strength needed. In fact, spirituality is really the journey to this inner power. Sadly, in today’s world the word ‘power’ conjures up ‘force’, ‘domination’, ‘control’. That kind of power could be called, ‘hard power’.
This is very different to ‘soft power’, or in other words — spiritual power. This power is the power of love, of humility, of the power to offer compassion, the power to forgive. This spiritual power cannot influence by force — it can only influence by virtue. It is the power that uplifts and transforms. On a spiritual journey one of the things that helps one move forward is to ask questions of the self.
In this context, of spiritual power, a good question to ask is, ‘Who is powerful in my life?’ Is it other people and their opinions? Is it my emotions? Is it the recycling of the past in my thoughts? Or, is it that I constantly analyse the situations I find myself in? Or, is it my sense of self, my sense of self-value, my inner spiritual power? If I do not create for myself some internal spiritual power, then from time to time, my mind goes into an absolute spin! My thoughts go into overdrive even over some very little thing that is said or that happens. Then, the result of that is that all my inner strength goes. Another question to ask is, ‘What fills me with power, and what drains me of power?’.
This kind of internal audit does not take up too much time; I can check when I am not feeling good, ‘What are the thoughts that created that feeling?’ and conversely, when I am feeling very good, ‘What are the thoughts that are creating that feeling?’ Happiness is very powerful. One can work for hours and hours in a state of happiness and not feel tired. However, if I feel upset and unhappy, how much energy do I have? Thoughts that fill us with power are in fact those thoughts of love, compassion, forgiveness. The thoughts that drain us are of two kinds. One, those of anger and fear, and secondly of negativity. Where does all this game of empowerment and disempowerment take place?
The venue for life is my mind. My whole life happens in my mind. Make your mind a sacred space. A useful image is a crystal-clear bowl of water. In its original state, the mind is so calm, so still, so clear, so pure.
The reason why meditation is so very powerful is that in a state of meditation, I stop ‘reacting’ to things I hear, or see, and begin to create the thoughts I want. Then, little by little, I begin to make my life exactly how I want it to be.
Charlie Hogg, based in Sydney, has been a daily meditator with the Brahma Kumaris for 45 years
