|
Richard Rohr has written a thought provoking article and below is my reflection to it:
Sadly, the world we live in has a little time to slow down and has a little time to be silent. Both our outer world and our inner world has a little time to pause, see, listen and contemplate. Both worlds are largely filled with little space and time for emptiness and silence. This essay reminds me of a wise saying stated by the great Indian spiritual teacher Shankaracharya: Gurostumaunamvyakhyanam, shishyastuchinnaha samshayaha. The teacher observes the silence and the doubts of the students get dissolved. The teacher is within us. In order to make wise and pure choice and take wise and pure actions, deep inner silence is essential. My father taught us to be silent by repeating the Sanskrit word Shantihi-Peace- three times. When we asked him why three times, he mentioned Peace within-intra being, peace between-inter being, and beyond both- Transcendental being. Over the years I have learned the power of practicing pause as stated by Victor E.Frankl:" Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom." Only reading and understanding is not enough. The knowledge needs to be translated into action and practiced in our daily life, in our daily action. It is our light house-guiding our way of living truthfully and compassionately. In order to live truthfully and compassionately I practice Mindfulness Meditation. It is my daily spiritual practice. I consider it my Dharma. It keeps me rooted and grounded. This daily spiritual practice helps me to stay grounded in primal presence, primal silence,primal consciousness. This is my way of relating to me and others on a daily basis. Each day is a silent day, a spiritual day, a day of awakening and a day of serving. Namste!
6 Comments
María
4/25/2020 10:15:31 am
I love the meaning of the three Shantihi chants. If we really focus on those three aspects of ourselves, we would live more aware of our emotional, social, and spiritual beingness.
Debbie
4/26/2020 01:51:16 pm
Maria..."Feel the truth" for both heart & chest?
Debbie
5/9/2020 09:05:53 am
Dear Debbie:
Jagdish P Dave
5/9/2020 09:18:46 am
Dear Maria:
Debbie
4/26/2020 02:00:56 pm
Yes, I agree too many people "react" without taking time to think about things today. It can be especially useful to tell someone, even if that person is angry, "Let me take some time to consider what you have said, to research this etc and get back to you." In addition, I do agree that just being still and quiet can help in sooo many ways, as well as taking time to get rid of noise and just reflect on what you are grateful for, how your day went, what you would like to change to grow etc is also very important. Many times we just run around all day & are exhausted by the end of the day. We choose how are day goes...barring things we can't control of course. This means we can choose to add things that are more helpful to us and delete things that are harmful to us. I think that is why many people are having trouble with being quarantined right now...they are not use to having time (those who have no jobs more than others working at home but...) and do not know what to do with that time. Find wonderful growth activities, meditating, exercising, learning new healthy recipes etc and make sure to continue these things when we do go back to work. Maybe your creator is placing a pause for us to do this. Many lives are being lost, lets try to make sure there are some benefits to this loss if it does have to happen.
Debbie
5/9/2020 09:11:08 am
I appreciate your insightful reflections. I am glad to read your response. I invite you to share your comments and reflections with others. Leave a Reply. |
RSS Feed