Emotion, Reason and Spirituality

I would like to share about spiritual intelligence, in the context of the dialogue that happens between the mind and intellect, I introduced the concept of spiritual intelligence in the workplace in early 1997.

In my book Endoquality, I asked how many people it takes to have a conflict. The answer is one. Internally, the mind and intellect often fight it out. Representing the mind is emotion. Representing the intellect is reason.

Emotions often dominates the intellect and vice versa.

An example. It’s a cold winter morning. I have gotten to bed late after a night out. The alarm clock rings stridently. The dialogue between reason and emotion begins:

Emotion: It’s too cold today and so warm in bed. I want the stay snoozing another 10 minutes.

Reason: You know it's time to get up. The last time you wanted another 10 minutes, you slept another hour arrived late at work. You know they are laying off people who make mistakes like this.

Emotion: Please, it´s only 5 degrees out and it’s raining. I only got to be at two.

Reason: No excuse. It’s a working day. Get up.

Emotion: Please just another 5 minutes. What about 2….?

This is how the internal dialogue often goes on. Wanting something (emotion) and knowing (reason) battle it out on the field of the mind. They use the subconscious recordings of similar situations to bolster their respective arguments.

Sometimes I want things I know are not good for me or I know things I don't want to know about. They are incompatible and so, a conflict takes birth, It only ends when spiritual authority reasserts itself and takes charge from the confused, weakened and overwhelmed ego.

What I proposed in this book was a spiritual quotient or a measure of spiritual intelligence. this is precisely what can give guidance and strength to the intellect and fulfilment and tranquillity to the mind.

Rational intelligence is what helps me to manage things, facts and numbers etc. Emotional intelligence is what helps me to deal with other human beings. Spiritual intelligence is the dose of spiritual insight and power that saves me from the excesses of the other two.

Spiritual intelligence synchronizes the mind and intellect to produce a sense of harmony. What questions and criteria can I apply regarding the effectiveness of my life? Some examples:

Am I spending more time and energy, money, and thoughts than I need, to get the results that I want?

Can I keep bilateral respect in my relationships?

Do I play a fair game when I'm working with others?

Do I keep my dignity while respecting the dignity of others.

Do I feel peaceful. despite having a lot to do?

Do I remain stable in chaotic situations?

Am I more aware of people's virtues than their defects?

The higher the mark in most of the answers, the more developed is my sense of spirituality.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Videos #009 and #010

Christmas Message 2020

COVID-19 has not cancelled Christmas 2020. Just the way we celebrate it.

This year Christmas is a time to digest and absorb the spiritual lessons that 2020 has brought us. Though it has been a strange and even terrible year for some, at this time we have to check our stock of good wishes for other human beings, the environment and ourselves.

When suffering is great many people seek solace in connecting with the One God no matter what the tradition. At this time Christians especially remember the life and example of Christ.
The first two words of the Lord's prayer, Our Father, convey a profound meaning to me. Christ did not say 'I, Father,' or 'My Father'.
'Our Father' puts Christ together with us. He may be one of the highest among us, but saying Our Father, he showed that he was one of our brothers.
The way he spoke about God suggests a natural relationship with the Father to which we all have a right.
My image of Christ is not one who came to earth pointing to himself but pointing our attention to God, the Father and the spiritual heritage to which we are entitled.
His birth shows us how we can reinvent ourselves as well in spite of the challenges.
In other words, have a spiritual rebirth. This means the birth of a new consciousness.
One that has nothing to do with the resurrection of bodies, but with the resurrection of our deep spiritual nature, which is similar to God - "in His own image."
Christ gave us an example of right behaviour - how to be loving, tolerant, generous, humble and pure in our intentions and interactions.
Instead of worshipping him, the greatest act of worship is to become like him, to sacrifice everything that is not divine, so that we may once again take up our divine nature and live in the light of God.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #138

Image: Credit: Thomas Hertwig/Dreamstime

Theories, beliefs and excuses

 

Practically all of our popular beliefs are still only theories:

• that we are the descendants of monkeys;
• that our ancestors were cave dwellers;
• that the universe started with a big bang or by some divine act;
• that such and such a founder of a religion is the only legitimate representative of the truth;
• that we are all equal;
• that violence is natural to the human being.

The list of our beliefs at a personal level goes on and on.
The beliefs about what can make us happy are mostly a bunch of premises, based more on hope than on a real perception of the world and our relationships.
Theories are not absolute truths. A good exercise would be to go through our convenient yet basically unfounded theories of beliefs and rewrite them:

• my husband, wife is ...
• my religion, race, culture is better than...
• I can't change...
• I'm too lazy...

No beliefs or theories are fixed forever. If we could really go to a deeper level of perception we would probably change them. If we have the power also, we would be able to see how excuses are the main weapons of our shaky premises and how excuses actually block the truth.

Recently I came across a phrase from an anonymous source.
"Excuses are tools of incompetence.
They build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness"
I would go a step further and suggest they are bigger and smaller lies to escape responsibility, embarrassment or the realization of the extent of some bad habit.
What we need to do to is to learn to explain honestly any failures we may have.

• I ate that third piece of pizza because I wanted to please the person who made it. I really did it because of unmitigated greed.
• I didn't get up this morning for my meditation practice because I had a hard day yesterday. I really didn't get up because of pure laziness.

The phrase, I know I had to do X but I did Y because of..., is only real if the Y was so important or unavoidable that I couldn't do anything else. It should not be a lame attempt to avoid shame or the revelation of my incompetence.
If I become a specialist in making excuses, two things will happen:

• I will start to believe in them.
• Real self-progress will stop. 

If I continue always making excuses then I will seldom accomplish anything worthwhile.
If I learn to clarify honestly what really happens l will learn from it, retain my self-respect and really contribute to a better self and a better world.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Videos #16 and #17

What to do about chaos

In 1987, as the Cold War was ending, the US military started to use the term VUCA to describe the way the world was heading. VUCA is an acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.
Later this term was taken up in education and especially in the corporate world related to management and leadership. Since then all of these conditions have become worse.
Volatile because of the nervous nature of change as it happens and the reaction to it.
Uncertain because anything can happen to anyone, at any time, anywhere. A general lack of predictability. Constant surprises.
Complex because of the interconnectivity and interdependence of multiple components in our systems.
Ambiguous because of the lack of clarity and the excessive misunderstanding related to things that happen.
There is no easy answer to being able to deal with these factors at any level - governments, organisations, civil society or individuals. Since this channel is dedicated to helping individuals live better in and with the world around I would like to add a couple of things.
Firstly, whatever we have learned in the past about ourselves and the world, may not be enough to deal with the chaotic nature of situations and people around us as they worsen.
Secondly, though we can't control the chaos, we can control ourselves better. For this, we need perhaps another acronym, USIF. Understanding, Stability, Inner Power and Freedom.
We have to understand the basics of life at a spiritual level. We have to work on my mental and emotional stability no matter what happens. We have to develop inner power through meditation practice. We have to become free from attachment to people and things and even own past so that we can act in the best way possible for ourselves, our families and the world.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Videos #18

Spiritual Maturity

Since spending a lot of time in our retreat centre near Sao Paulo in Serra Negra, I have been able to observe the exuberant nature here, how all of the elements are able to live with each other in harmony. You don't find trees fighting with each other in their effort to put their highest branches in the sunlight.

You don't find the grass making huge efforts to push its shoots through the topsoil to reach the same light. You can see how the wind, clouds, rain and sun combine to produce refreshing scenes every day. It's forever recycling itself. Just look at these beautiful irises in front of the building where I am (picture above). The potential for their splendid manifestation is in the bulb. Every year, around this time they bloom.

Even looking out the same window, where my office is, everything is different every time I look out - clouds and sunlight are always changing.

These are the things that remind me of spiritual maturity. For me, it is a sense of sufficiency, that everything is moving along nicely, not in the sense of standing back and just going with the flow. It's really because there is a relationship between internal order and how this influences the world we live in.

There is an understanding that worry is low-quality thinking, and that it's much more profitable to have inner control and peace and watch the wonders that happen around, from that state.

I've been thinking more about spiritual maturity in terms of some indicators. How humble do I feel? How protected do I feel? Does my spiritual state reflect the more than 40 years I have dedicated to developing it?

I can honestly say I don't have limited pride about what I have learned and know. It's that I'm really glad about how spiritual knowledge has helped me and others throughout my life. I do not feel that I'm better or worse than anyone else, just different.

There is an intuitive understanding that I don't need to compare myself with others. I just have to recognize and celebrate the many things we have in common. And any intellect or personality differences only provide variety for the play of life.
I understand that truth will always be self-evident. I do not need to prove anything. Only that which is really true has a future. Everything that is intrinsically wrong does not last.
I recently found two words in Sanskrit that reflect an important part of spiritual maturity.
Gaunibhakti is ego-based devotion, in which the person feels that he is "saved" and looks with disdain at any other kind of faith. This means to love one ideal, but feel aversion to other ideals.
Parabhakti (the highest level of devotion) means total loving devotion to the truth, so much so that there is no room for hatred of any kind.
This to me is the essence of spiritual maturity.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Videos #14 and #15

How to overcome temptations?

We all get them. An attractive proposal that I can't possibly take up. A bar of Belgian chocolate that my aunt just gave me, even though the doctor prohibited chocolate only last week. An alarm clock trying to wake me up at 5 a.m. after I got to bed at 2. Dilemmas and temptations surround our lives. Should I give, take, do, avoid the thing that is dangling in front of me.

Let's take the example of getting up early after sleeping only a few hours. It's a working day and takes more than an hour commute to get to work. To complicate the matter, it's cold and rainy outside. The temptation to stay in my warm bed activates the inner dialogue between knowing and wanting. 

Wanting: 'Arrrgh. I'll put the alarm on snooze. I need more sleep.' 

Knowing: 'Get up. I have to go to work.' 

Wanting: 'But it's really cold out. So cosy and comfortable in bed.'

Knowing: 'Come on, get up lazybones. I can't be late again. They're laying people off at work. Don't run the risk.' 

Wanting: 'Just another five minutes.' 

Knowing: 'No. The last time I took five minutes, I slept for another hour and missed the bus.'

Wanting: 'Ohhh. Okay.'

Such inner conflict can keep us restless and ready to get into conflict with others.
When I know what I really want and direct my wanting towards that I will be happier, simpler and easier with myself.

Temptations can become the enemy of self-discipline. When overcome, they can be the stepping stones to personal victory. 

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #91

Leadership 101

Over the years I have seen many leadership styles. The almost extinct command and control, transactional leadership, transformational, inspirational, the leader as servant, example, facilitator, etc.

Personally, I have focused on self-leadership because I know that our real ability to lead others is commensurate with our ability to lead ourselves.
When I look inside and just see tremendous confusion or tension, this naturally affects my ability to deal with situations and people.
One question I always ask at leadership or organizational development seminars is this: Are people happier when you arrive or when you leave? It does not mean that you have to be an angel, but rather, you need to respect others. Even when you need to correct someone, you do it in such a way that it does not destroy their hearts. So they will appreciate your presence and not your absence.
Another good question is why someone would follow you anyway. If you go in some new direction, look back and there is no one following, you probably are not a leader. Only someone who has a post or position.
In fact, leadership is not difficult. Make a list of everything you enjoy in others' treatment of you. Practice this consciously. Make another list of everything you dislike in others' treatment of you. Avoid this consciously.
That's it. Leadership 101.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #12

Are our beliefs just theories?

Practically all of our popular beliefs are still only theories. We are descendants of monkeys, our ancestors were cave-dwellers. The universe started with a Big Bang or by some divine act. Such and such a founder of a religion is the only legitimate representative of the truth. We are all equal. Violence is natural to the human being. The list goes on and on. 

At a personal level, our beliefs about what can make us happy are mostly a bunch of premises based more on hope than on a real perception of our world and relationships.

Theories are not absolute truths

A good exercise would be to go through our convenient (yet basically unfounded theories) and rewrite them. 

"my husband/wife is…" 

"my religion/race/culture is better than yours" 

"I can't change. I'm too lazy" 

No beliefs or theories are fixed forever. If we could go to a deeper level of perception we would probably change them. 

We would be able to see how excuses are the main weapons of our shaky premises. How excuses actually block the truth. 

Enough spiritual resources?

A person without money thinks twice about taking a bus or go walking. Someone with a lot doesn't think twice about taking a taxi or not.

Similarly, when a situation arises that requires more understanding and tolerance than I have, I end up shortchanged. If I have a stock of spiritual power and an understanding of the rules of life, I can deal with it without problems.

Unhappiness is basically due to a lack of spiritual power.
If I spend more money than I earn over a long period of time I go bankrupt. If I spend more spiritual power than I replace daily, I become spiritually bankrupt.
The expression: gather hay while the sun shines refers to taking advantage of a favourable situation to prepare for when it is not.
What I have to do is accumulate a stock of spiritual power through daily meditation practice. If I meditate accurately for 15 to 20 minutes as my first act in the morning, then for 2 to 3 minutes from time to time during the day, and another 15 to 20 minutes at night, that stock should be sufficient to pass through most situations without tripping up.
This power tends to accumulate as I learn to think better. When larger obstacles appear, there is enough to get past them as well.
Actually, obstacles appear along the way, precisely to test my understanding and strength. Well understood, they always bring good lessons.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #11

The seat of command

One of the greatest benefits of meditation, even in its early stages, is to get a sense of mental stability. This is important because it helps to adjust things that are going on. Just think of a sloshing bucket. Nothing stays in it. In the same way, if my mind is jumping around like a moving bucket, I won't be able to understand nor engage in things in the way that I would like. Instead of reacting aggressively or stupidly to some event, I need at least one second, between what happens and my response. In that second I can go inside and sit on my internal seat and react adequately. Let's say the situation demands patience, but tI find myself acting decisively. Decisive action is good, but not at the moment that requires patience. If the situation demands decisive action, and I am being patient, this is also not good enough.

Being able to sit on this inner seat is very important for the practice of Raja Yoga Meditation.
Just as I am sitting on a physical seat, I am aware of a subtle seat, a few centimetres behind the middle of the forehead, between the two hemispheres of the brain. All the information from the senses and the different aspects of my life, come to this point to be processed. This is so I can understand and deal with them. This point is remembered by many traditions. The Hindus put a dot or tilak in the centre of the forehead to symbolise this. Christians make the sign of the cross here. Muslims touch their forward when they're greeting each other. When they pray they touch their foreheads on the ground. When we do something silly we slap or touch the middle of the forehead to signal our stupidity. It is not the body that has made the mistake. It is the thinking being.
So let's practice.

First of all, I sit in a comfortable posture, my back neither rigid nor slack. I look ahead, my face relaxed. I become aware of the 360° of things around me. I become aware that I am sitting in the centre of my life. There are people and things that are connected to me, so I enjoy this centred position for a short time.
Just as I am sitting on a physical seat, I visualise a subtle seat. A few centimetres behind the middle of the forehead behind the eyes. In between the ears. It's like the control panel of my life. It's here that all of the information comes from the senses. As I experience all the sensations that are coming in, I am aware of this control centre behind the eyes. I have a distinct sense of command. I am sitting calmly and stably at the centre of my life, at my control panel. I remain aware that I am a tiny point of concentrated conscious energy. I enjoy this sense of command for a few moments longer in silence and gradually come back to the physical surroundings.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #6

Centreing yourself

Knowing how to centre yourself is fundamental to meditation practice. To illustrate this, think of a spinning. Everything spins around a central hub which stays firmly in place. In the same way I can be in the centre of many things happening around, yet stable and calm in spite of what's going on. I have a better chance of seeing things as they really are. If I spin together with the spinning of things, I will have a fractured vision of everything.

Let's practice:
I sit comfortably with my back neither rigid nor slack.
Just comfortable.

I become aware of the things around. I use my sense organs to do this.

I keep my eyes half-open so I can see colours and forms. I can hear things around me. I can feel the temperature. I am aware of my own breathing.

There are 360° of things happening around me and I am sitting at the centre of it all.

Not just in the centre of of space with past is gone everything of the past is gone. The past has gone.

The future hasn't arrived yet. I really only have the present moment.

So I enjoy myself in the centre of the space where I am sitting.

I am also in the centre of time between the past and the present.
I really feel this and become very still, just observing.

I’m not only at the centre of these things I’m also at the centre of my life.

Though there are many things around me physically, many parts of my life are not present.

There are people and objects that I am connected with – relationships, roles, responsibilities, tasks.

There is a network of people and objects spreading out from me in the centre. As I become more stable and calm, I have an impact on this network of things and people. I stay in the centre of 360° of space around me and also in the centre of my life.
I remain a few more moments in this state and gradually come back to the normality of my surroundings.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #5

Preparing to meditate

 

Create your own space

This could be a room or a corner of a room that you declare as your meditation space so that people you live with will respect. You can decorate it as you feel fit. You can place some images or artefacts that remind you of your meditation practice.

When to meditate

The best time to meditate is anytime really. Even so, as soon as you wake up and before you get into your activities, set aside some time for meditation practice. The first thoughts of the day are the foundation of the day. Many people turn on the radio or check their mobile. The news these days is not so inspiring.
During the day you can also organise to pause from time to time. If you have one minute of meditation every hour, the other 59 minutes are fantastic.

Where to meditate

Besides in your personal meditation space, you can meditate walking, sitting, waiting in a queue. You can meditate in between things at work, in the middle of the rush going on around you. Just organise your thinking and you'll be okay anyplace.

What posture

The first thing to understand is that it is not the body that meditates. It is the thinking being that meditate. Even then, it's good to keep your back straight, neither rigid nor slack. Your hands on your knees or in your lap.

Your eyes

It is good to learn to meditate with the eyes open because our practical life happens with our eyes open. Meditation can then be a part of our normal day. So, you can keep your eyes half-open and unfocused, looking straight ahead, your face very relaxed.

So the first experience:

Sit comfortably with the back not too rigid or slack, your hands in your lap or on your knees, your face is relaxed. Your eyes slightly open, and follow these thoughts:
I am the inner being observing everything through the windows of my eyes. At this moment I am aware of the colours and forms, the sounds and sensations of 360° of things happening around me. I am very aware of each of my sense organs, my breathing. I am sitting here in the centre of things, feeling very, very relaxed, just observing. After some time enjoying the moment I gradually come back to my activities.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #4

Meditation is easy

Getting going with meditation is easy and challenging at the same time. If I knew when I started what I am going to share with you now over the next several posts, I probably would be much further ahead than I am.
It is easy to get started. But... really going into the depths of meditation practice to bring about the transformation of deeply ingrained life-hindering beliefs and habits requires much more understanding and dedication. But that is for later.
It the same with anything.
If I want to be a champion swimmer I have to dedicate more time and perhaps sacrifice to make that happen. It takes more than just splashing around the pool and getting a few laps in now and then. It's the same with meditation. There is enough benefit in the first five steps that I will share with you over the next few posts to create further interest.
I started my own conscious and daily practice in the year 1975, or 20 BI (before the internet) with very limited access to information about it. I decided to concentrate on the method of Raja Yoga Meditation that I was learning with the Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University. I could see that it went much deeper than the pleasant detachment and sense of peace, contentment and general compassion that I had experienced in other types of meditation.
Today, 43 years and thousands of hours of meditation later, I can definitely say that the first steps are easy and accessible to all. The practice of the deeper stages of meditation, however, requires quite a lot of self-discipline. That's OK too. Disciplinare in Latin means to teach, so self-discipline is what I need to teach myself.
Since the first steps are really easy, there is no excuse not to try it out.

Text from the Live and Meditate Channel (https://www.youtube.com/liveandmeditate and https://www.facebook.com/liveandmeditate/) Video #3