Spam (Spirituality, Personality and Morality)

Who is truly a beautiful person is a question which everyone grapples with at some point in one’s life, either consciously or subconsciously.  Though, I command no mastery over this idea, and I doubt if there is any specialization on this subject, here I attempt to share my two cents on the topic. Also, since beauty is generally associated with the fairer sex, the article’s main subject of discussion will also revolve only around ladies.

The googled up definition of beauty is, “a combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight”. Since mankind came into being, this definition has been the accepted truth and meaning of beauty.  Physical beauty in the form of shape, colour and form that pleases the eyes is what most people tend to associate beauty with.  Though true in a limited perspective, I believe this does not cover the true meaning of what beauty really is. 

In my opinion, anyone from the fairer sex, with a sense of style and dressing would qualify as beautiful based on the afore-mentioned definition.  I would safely say God has gracefully bestowed every lady with at-least something to flaunt that would qualify her as beautiful as per the agreed definition.  But is looking physically good, enough to accept someone as truly beautiful?

Real beauty transcends physical attractiveness and trespasses into more abstract areas such as personality, morality and spirituality. Let’s classify these other areas as SPaM (Spirituality, Personality and Morality) for ease of discussion.

While God has been graceful in granting physical beauty to all, He has wisely left SPaM at the mercy of individuals to develop and nourish on their own. And, the beauty of SPaM is not something which someone can buy from a cheap online portal and wear it for a day to look beautiful, only to discard it the next day for something better to look more beautiful. SPaM requires years of dedicated effort in the right direction to develop into something that will qualify as beautiful in its own regard.

SPaM: 
The beauty of Personality, in my opinion is that aura of pleasance with which everyone is graced in her presence, the subtle confidence which reflects in all her movements and activities, and the air of optimism that she creates around her by her positive approach.  
The beauty of Morality, in my opinion is that compass that guides her every activity and her every thought, and the maturity that reflects in all her actions. Her actions and thoughts are founded in the fertile field of virtuosity and even in moments of weakness she adheres to moral high conduct. 
The beauty of Spirituality, in my opinion is the respect that she harvests for the simple things in life. It does not necessarily mean an underlying subscription to some unknown power, but it means nourishing a pure mind that is sensitive to softer aspects of life, and having a golden heart that beats for her loved ones.

So, that completes my high level framework on who I would consider as a truly beautiful person. People may vary and differ on this and I welcome their comments and thoughts. As I said, at the start itself, this framework is a creation based on my own personal experience formed based on personal observation, interaction and reading. 

On a side note, I hope the article helps the little misguided teenagers of today who would post their selfies every minute on social networking sites just to collect a few likes and comments. The danger that these kids face today is that they start measuring their self worth and grading their beauty based on these social network responses. A few hundred likes on a picture would make a sensitive kid very happy while no likes would make them doubtful of themselves. This behavior is not healthy and would adversely impact them in the long run. 
I hope people start focusing on SPaM as a true measure of beauty and reconsider the accepted definition of beauty based on physical attractiveness only, which in no means is even close to what a truly beautiful person signifies. 

NEW APPROACHES TO SPIRITUAL FASTING

 Gabriel Cousens, MD, MD (H), DD

“All the vitality and all the energy I have, comes to me because my body is purified by fasting.”

This statement by Mohandas Gandhi beautifully sums up the essence of spiritual fasting. Although I emphasize in this article the spiritual aspects of fasting, which are often neglected by the general public and other detoxification programs, the detoxification aspects of the fast in a group-supportive setting are extremely powerful and essential for the literal evolution of life and health on the planet. We all are exposed, no matter how pure our lifestyle, to tremendous amounts of toxins, radiation, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, etc. These various toxins are specific poisons to every level of the system. Periodically removing these from our bodies is extraordinarily important for maintaining, energizing, and expanding our wellbeing. Many people come to our fasts primarily for these reasons and also enjoy and are inspired by the spiritual as a delightful extra.

At the U.S. and world level of environmental toxic exposure, I recommend fasting at least two times yearly for routine clearings in our positive group support situation in which physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual blocks impeding a physical detox from fully happening are released. Some come just to relax and cleanse, or to reset their dietary patterns. We support people in whatever their goals and at whatever level they choose to work on when they attend our spiritual group fasts.

While traditional fasting is a powerful and outstanding healing experience, spiritual fasting may take one even higher and deeper. There are many reasons why spiritual fasting is so transformationally effective beyond the detoxification, enhancing the dimensions of the vital life force:

1) There is a real power to spiritual fasting that is recognized in almost every spiritual tradition in the world, including Judeo-Christian, Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim. It is mentioned 87 times in the Bible. The Greek greats like Socrates, Plato, and Pythagoras fasted to purify the mind and spirit in order to better perceive the Truth. The power of our spiritual fast is amplified with daily shaktipat meditations; daily Kali Ray TriYoga™; daily spiritual question and answer sessions; spiritual discussions; group support; and an environment that activates these healing and spiritual forces. Many participants experience an awakening of the spiritual energy, known as the kundalini (Holy Spirit).

2) On the physical plane, a powerful healing energy, which I have already noted as the vital life force, is activated by juice fasting. This vital life force empowers people’s cells, organs, and bodies to release physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual toxins that have been stored in them. Fasting activates the vital life force of the cells in a variety of ways that empower them to throw out the tissue toxins. The more toxins are eliminated, the more the vital life force is activated.

The environmental setting plays an important supportive role. The optimal way to do a spiritual fast is in a pristine environment so that the healthy emotional, mental, and spiritual harmonics of one’s life would have the least amount of toxic interference in the cleansing process. Our location in Patagonia, Arizona offers a quiet, supportive setting in the empty mystery of the desert. This safe, supportive, and protected environment allows people to let go on every level and activate the vital force to do its full spectrum healing. This optimal fasting environment is distinctly different and superior to fasting in a city or even most home environments.

3) Spiritual fasting is also a time to realign with one’s physiological homeostasis and to recover from the imbalancing and weakening influence of a toxic world.

4) Spiritual fasting is a time to slow ourselves down to discover our sacred design, which includes both our short term and long term life purpose. During the fast, people often reconnect to their personal will power and become empowered to reenter the world and maintain their balance, with renewed energy and hope, and with spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical strength.

5) During our Spiritual Fasts, we suggest people consider their life purpose and how much they are aligned with it in their actions. Spiritual fasting helps one to address this.

6) Spiritual fasting is a feast on the full range of life’s energies.

7) Spiritual fasting helps people rediscover their holy rhythm and to align with the rhythm of the living Earth and Universe.

There are many superfoods, supplements, and gadgets for cultivating health; however, this 5,000 year-old approach still seems the most fundamental, elegantly simplistic, and powerfully profound in helping people access the deep healing and spiritual force within.

The body is a wonderful self-cleansing, self-healing, and self-regenerating organism. It is a God-given gift to all of us. Spiritual fasting best helps us experience this gift and elevates the soul. Spiritual fasting liberates the body and mind from worldly desires so we can revel in our natural deep ecstasy of God. Spiritual Fasting helps us to become a superconductor for the Divine. We are all divinely blessed with the potential of this gift.

The Difference between Head Love & Heart Love.

Of all the “logical” things in this world—love isn’t one of them.

It’s been said that we never love in the same way twice. While that’s true because each person is different and so is the way in which we care about them, what it boils down to is: Do we love them with our head or with our heart?

This isn’t an issue of one way being preferable over another, but there are differences in authenticity, longevity, and depth that each just naturally exudes.

It seems that for many of us our first—or first few—loves are based more in our heads than our hearts. It’s not to say that we don’t actually feel genuine love for them, but it’s usually a logical love, even if it is profound.

For many of us, as we age we don’t really grow up, but rather grow out of the boxes that we either were placed in as children or placed ourselves in to conform. When we’re young and not yet developed into our authentic selves, we tend to believe that love is a choice of convenience and reason.

We chose partners based on what we felt we wanted or needed, and to help fulfill the role that we believed we had to live up to in society—and perhaps we even felt that we were happy.

It’s a love that makes sense, that doesn’t challenge our place in the world, and through our decisions, we fulfill the roles that we feel compelled to.

Loving with our head may even be satisfying—but it’s not soul-enriching.

Very often, we will believe ourselves to be content because our ego is comfortable in that love. It knows what to expect, and it feels good because others approve of our path and the partner that we have chosen to stand with in this life.

Yet, loving with our heads won’t ever be that “once in a lifetime” type of love.

It feels more like a well-worn pair of jeans than fireworks on a hot July night. For many, that is fine, but for those that crave those powerful sparks, then it is only a matter of time until the heart begins to budge its soul from the comfort zone that it has grown so accustomed to.

And that is when we usually find ourselves discovering the maddening joy from loving someone with our full hearts.

Many of us are more experienced in life and more comfortable with the person we are now than we were in the past. We have been able to test out the life that others expected us to live and, through that experience, we have made our own decisions about exactly what feels good for us.

Often as we become more mature, we start to break with societal expectations and travel a more unique path. We stop trying to control the picture of our lives that we created and, instead, open up and leave room for the unimaginable.

The thing with falling in love when we are young is that we can only imagine what true love and happiness feels like. Yet often what is in store for us is so much better than those naïve early attempts. But we can’t actually get to that point until we decide that maybe something greater exists.

To love with our hearts is often inconvenient and differs greatly from the comfort present when we love with our heads. It’s the kind of love that comes on like a distant, summer storm. We hear the rumbling far away and sense that something is coming, and while the winds pick up and the rains begin to fall we don’t actually know we’re in it until our hearts are beating just as fast as the thunder that surrounds us.

Soon we begin to wonder why we only ever taste something that continually leaves us wanting more.

This is the kind of love that knocks the wind out of us and spins us around until we don’t know which way is up. It’s challenging because in order to actually follow our hearts, we have to leave behind everything that we had expected to be true about love, and, more importantly, we have to trust that we’re on the right path even if we can’t see where we are heading. Loving someone with our heads is a choice that we make—yet loving someone with our hearts is a choice that is made for us. 

We can attempt to control the floodgates of emotions with the futile blocks of denial and self-sabotage, but the only thing that this love does is grow stronger. When the heart knows what, or rather whom, it’s meant for, nothing can stand in the way.

Our hearts tend to grow into love with someone who will help us question our own lives and belief systems—the type of person who will, through our own experiences with them, help propel us further along our own paths of self-development.

There isn’t a love that is better than any other, but sometimes we just have to truly understand how we love before we can actually allow our hearts to lead us to where we are meant to be. 

After all, if we still expect love to be logical, then we might just miss the love of our lives.

The 14 spiritual laws of success

 11 minute read

Last weekend I attended a retreat with Chinmya Mission UK, a non-profit organisation which promotes the Advaita Vedanta philosophies. I got to meet one of their teachers - Swami Swaroopananda. He was a jolly fellow, always with a smile on his face and very accomodating to our questions. The topic of the weekend was “The 14 Spiritual laws of success” and Swami-ji (what people call him out of respect) gave us a number of inspiring lectures covering this topic, littered throughout with funny observations and anecdotes from his own life. I found it to be an inspirational weekend and decided to write up my notes in this blog post. So without further adue…

Defining success

Before we can work out how to be successful we need to properly define success. And different people have different ideas of what it means to be successful so our definition must be general enough yet still be precise and applicable to everyone. So,

Success = getting what you want, by the right means, resulting in fulfillment.

The getting what you want part is obvious. The right means is stating that you achieve the success in a way in which you are not cheating yourself (e.g. by lying, stealing, etc.). The fulfillment part states that what you want (and get) must fulfill you. It’s linked to the right means(e.g. achieve success through honest, hard work) but also asks you to first work out what true fulfillment is to you. For example, if more money is your goal then is it just having the money which matters? or is it something deeper such as the feeling you give yourself by having the money? or is it even deeper such as just being happy? Fulfillment can be thought of as a deeper sense of gratification so a fulfilling achievement gives you the feeling of happiness for longer and at a deeper level than an unfulfilling achievement.

In addition to the above, Swami-ji mentions that most of the time, success depends not only your own level of confidence in yourself, but also on the confidence other people have in you - because you will need other peoples’ help in order to achieve success.

1: Law of Eternity

The law of eternity states that your are eternal. Energy is eternal - it never gets created or destroyed, it only changes form. Because matter equals a form of energy it is also eternal in that sense. So when you die the matter which makes up your body gets converted into a different form.

But the eternity spoken of here goes deeper than this. At no point in your life do you ever feel old. Yes, your mind acknowledges that you are old and perhaps in certain situations you feel like an “oldie”. But when you are simply thinking in your mind there is sense of me there - this core identity of who you are - which never really changes in your own mind. From your childhood this me feeling has remained unchanged. Swami-ji argues that this me is the real, eternal you and that the only reason you do not sense this eternity yourself is because you are not yet self-realised. You cannot intellectually arrive at the realisation that your true essence is eternal, you can only come to know it as a deep truth, i.e. one day the penny will drop (strange, huh?).

So given that on the deepest level the me is eternal you have no reason to fear anything in this world. You are fearless. And this is different to courage. Courage can be thought of as acting in spite of your fear. An extremely courageous person can reach a point where fear becomes irrelevant to them because they know they will be able to overcome it. But the idea of fearlessness proposed here allows you to prevent any fear occuring in the first place through knowing that you are eternal. You are no longer afraid of death. You know you can handle anything life throws at you. You no longer need to compete with other people in this world to live happily.

Now you may disagree with the above idea of this inner me feeling and its sense of eternity and that’s ok. The important point to remember is to be fearless as much as you can. For those who do believe in the above idea of eternity and self-realisation it should be apparent that mastering this law of success will result in not needing any other law of success - in that respect it’s the most important one.

2: Law of Change

According to the first law the inner me is changeless. The flip side to that is that everything else that is not the inner me is changing, all the time. Your personality, your body, the objects around you, the world, other peoples’ personalities and bodies. Everything. It’s all changing. And thus you can always change your feeling of unfulfillment into fulfillment. If time’s are bad right now, don’t worry, they can change for the better. It time’s are good then hang on, they’re going to get even better :)

To take advantage of change you must be an adaptable person. If you’re adaptable you will see opportunities even in difficult times (e.g. recession). You will never be without hope.

3: Law of Time

Every moment is an opportunity. Time is the one thing you can never get back. Therefore time is your most precious asset. The only time you every really have is Now. The past has already gone by, and the future is not yet written. So if you want to do something, say something or be something then the time to take action is now, without delay.

There is a right time for everything. A right time to eat, sleep, wake up, etc. It doesn’t really matter what time you goto bed but you should wake up at dawn. You should get enough sleep each night. You should try and eat at the same times each day. Never skip breakfast. Work when you must work, don’t procrastinate. If you study successful people you will notice that nearly all of them have a disciplined routine.

Swami-ji opined that India’s inability to achieve it’s maximum potential so far as has been due to the lack of respect for time in the Indian attitude. He’s probably right about that one.

Time also relates to patience and perseverance. You’ve got to stick things through to the end. Even when things aren’t working out don’t give up. Sometimes you may spend a lot of time working on a problem only to have made little progress. Though you may be feel that you haven’t achieved much and are tempted to give up, stop and realise that the time you spent working on the problem only made you more knowledgable and capable in dealing with that problem and you may actually be closer to a breakthrough than you realise.

4: Law of Integrity

Having integrity means your mind and intellect are in alignment with each other. Your mind consists of your thoughts and emotions. Your intellect is the logical, reasoning part of your brain which knows right from wrong (atleast from your own subjective point of view). Every time you tell a lie your mind is disobeying your intellect. Over time this leads to your intellect taking a “back seat” when it comes to everything you do. You may think that you can tell a white lie once and then be truthful from then on but you don’t realise that you are actually training yourself to tell more lies in future. And when you tell a lie or act dishonestly you are not only cheating other people, you are also cheating yourself. Swami-ji’s words:

“Truth is that which exists and therefore cannot be denied. A lie is successful only in so far as it is able to appear as the truth. Even the mafia are only successful because they are honest amongst themselves. Because only truth brings unity. But speaking the truth is not enough. If you don’t also live upto your convictions your words and actions will lack real power.”

When you are being dishonest you have opposing thoughts in your head. This leads to slower decision making. When you are being honest your mind and intellect are integrated, which leads to quicker, more spontaneous decision making. People tend to follow the latter type of person as a leader. Building your integrity will thus help build the confidence other people have in you.

Finally, your mind and intellect must be aligned if you are to progress in meditation. In other words your mind must be at peace with itself. Another reason why integrity is important.

5: Law of Courtesy

How you present the truth to others is an important factor in your success. And how you do this depends on your character. It is necessary for other to people to trust and like you in order to achieve success. Therefore speak the truth. But only if it is for the well-being of the other person. And be polite and courteous when you speak it - don’t be brash.

On a related note, an action by itself is not necessarily hurtful. It is the intention behind the action which is important.

6: Law of Dynamism

By dynamism in this context we mean strength and power. You always have the energy when you do something you enjoy. In order to achieve success you nead a goal which inspires you. In fact, you need a goal you love. Greed, anger and fear can certainly give you strength and power but only for a short while. Only love and inspiration can give you the stamina to keep going for longer. Love leads to dedication and commitment which in turn lead to physical strength, emotional strength and intellectual determination.

Note that it is important to articulate your desire as a goal. This is key to achieving it.

7: Law of Conservation

In a nutshell, produce more than you consume. Live within your means, live in moderation. This means to spend your resources intelligently and not excessively. By ‘resources’ Swami-ji don’t just mean money but everything else too - time, food, water, natural resources, the environment, etc.

It is also important to rest your mind and body since they are also resources in a sense. If all your energy is spent on sense pleasures (e.g. TV, shopping, consuming) then your resources become liabilities instead of assets. Instead, re-investing your resources to produce more vitality - e.g. resting, saving money, protecting the environment - leads to them being assets rather than liabilities.

8: Law of Forgiveness

Learn to forgive yourself of past failures.

There are 3 channels through which we often waste our energy - past regrets, present over-excitement and future anxiety. And we tend to chain ourselves to past grievances rather than past successes. Thus we’re often not ready to do something new due to attachment to our past.

When we learn to forgive others we learn to forgive ourselves. And forgiving ourselves is one of the hardest things to do.

Forgiving someone who has hurt you is not a sign of weakness. Instead, it is strength because it shows you are refusing to retaliate even though you can.

9: Law of Compassion

If forgiveness frees you from the past then compassion “frees” you in the present. Compassion leads to empathy, sympathy and kindness. These qualities have their own strength and stamina which will help you weather crises better.

10: Law of Acceptance

Accept what you can’t change. Accept whatever life throws at you (even failure). Acceptance does not mean giving up - it means taking responsibility for the result no matter what. If you can do this then you will no longer worry about outcomes.

Accept this present moment as it is. There is no other moment, just Now.

11: Law of Action & Reaction

Every action has a consequence/reaction. This implies that you are responsible for your success or lack thereof. Live your consequences and don’t cheat yourself. When you blame others for your failures it’s the same as saying that you are no longer responsible for your own life.

You get what you deserve for your efforts, not what you desire. The results may not always come in the form you expect, but they will come. No effort is wasted - you always gain from your experiences.

12: Law of Existence

As long as something exists it is not useless. Try and think of something which exists in this world which can have no possible use whatsoever - it’s impossible. Thus if a thing were to become useless it would become extinct.

There is something special in you as long as you exist. Therefore never give up on yourself.

13: Law of Sharing

It is important to share with others. When the people around you become prosperous, so do you. This implies that there is a natural synergy between your’s and others’ successes. This is due to the underlying unity we have as human beings living together.

Nature’s ecosystem has evolved to be one of sharing. This is the only way to achieve long-term stability.

14: Law of Grace

Grace is the universe’s way of conspiring to give you what you want. To benefit from grace you must first put in your best effort (the first 13 laws) and be grateful for what you have.

Final thoughts

You may not agree with everything written above, and indeed I found myself disagreeing with Swami-ji on some things. But I was able to take away many useful ideas from what he said and hopefully it will be the same for you.