Purity

What is Purity?

Purity is being true to one's nature. It is being in one's original state of consciousness where the natural qualities of the soul are expressed naturally and spontaneously.

Why Purity?

Purity is freedom. It is the basis of self-mastery. Being in a state of purity fosters self-respect and allows us to honour the dignity of other individuals and accept and appreciate their roles.

Purity is authenticity. It is very appealing to us. We love purity in all forms naturally.

Purity is a source of immense power. A person unshackled by desires is a powerhouse. Such a person is fearless and will achieve tremendous progress in any endeavour. Purity brings about clarity of thought, nobility in vision, love in attitude, power in execution, wisdom and equanimity in the midst of variety people and situations.

Purity is personality. Purity attracts. Purity inspires greatness. Purity is having grown up by letting go of childish desires. Purity is maturity. Purity is where the potential of life truly unfolds.

All greatness is conceived in purity. Pure thoughts transform situations.

Purity is sweet. It brings about richness in relationships. Purity allows us to be detached and loving. Purity allows us to be close to everyone without being attached to anyone. All gain, no pain.

Pure company transforms the atmosphere and provides shelter to others who need it. Purity is a fortress that protects against being influenced.

How to achieve Purity?

We are pure whenever we are soul conscious. We have impurity to the extent of our body consciousness. Sustaining the state of purity is the journey to perfection.

Pure company - in thoughts (with God), in words (with people who value purity), in actions (reading or viewing spiritual, inspiring, values based material). Spending quality and quantity time in pure company, focusing on large altruistic projects.

Setting high personal standards. To have the desire to go beyond mundane, thoughtless desires and actions, to embrace a lifestyle designed to maximize the quality of personal comfort - peace, love and happiness. To go beyond neediness, dependency and helplessness to a life of contribution, self actualization and empowerment.

Taking a vow - to refuse to treat any person as an object or a tool for achievement of any personal goal. To consider all fellow human beings as equally worthy of respect.

Taking time to appreciate the wonder of life. To enjoy the beauty of nature, the briefness of life, the grandeur of skies, the mystery of time, the wonder of subjective experience, the illusion of urgency and importance, the eternity of now... to appreciate poetry, culture... to take time out to be in solitude... enjoying one's own role in its entirety.

Seeing impurity as a passing phase, a mixture, an alloy...something that cannot and will not sustain. The clouds pass but the sun continues to shine. Purity is our eternal enduring nature...it can be hidden temporarily but never defeated.

Laugh, be light and let go of the seriousness of the battle. Purity and impurity are two sides of the coin. They are both realities and have a valuable role to play at the appropriate time. This is the time to adopt purity and give it freedom of expression.

Excerpts from Richard Feynman's talk on: The Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society

Below is an excerpt from Richard Feynman's book that i was reading yesterday and the words resonate very very much with my current exploration. I felt that a person who sincerely looks for the truth automatically starts using ideas and techniques of scientific investigation without having learnt anything about them. Feynman talks about science but one could use the word spirituality here - the point is exploring the truth sincerely.

Excerpts from Richard Feynman's talk on: The Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society

"An interesting question of the relation of science to modern society is just that - why is it possible for people to stay so woefully ignorant and yet reasonably happy in modern society when so much knowledge is unavailable to them?

Incidentally, about knowledge and wonder, Mr. Bernardini said we shouldn't teach wonders but knowledge. It may be a difference in the meaning of the words. I think that we should teach them wonders and that the purpose of knowledge is to appreciate wonders even more...

I want to answer the question as to why people can remain so woefully ignorant and not get into difficulties in modern society. The answer is that science is irrelevant... It isn't that it has to be, but that we let it be irrelevant to society.

The ideas and techniques of scientific investigation:
The first is the matter of judging evidence - well, the first thing really is, before you begin you must not know the answer. So you begin by being uncertain as to what the answer is. This is very, very important...

The question of doubt and uncertainty is what is necessary to begin; for if you already know the answer there is no need to gather any evidence about it. Well, being uncertain, the next thing is to look for evidence, and the scientific method is to begin with trials. But another way and a very important one that should not be neglected and that is very vital is to put together ideas to try to enforce a logical consistency among the various things that you know. It is a very valuable thing to try to connect this, what you know, with that, that you know, and try to find out if they are consistent. And the more activity in the direction of trying to put together the ideas of different directions, the better it is.

After we look for the evidence we have to judge the evidence.... it's not right to pick only what you like, but to take all of the evidence, to try to maintain some objectivity about the thing - enough to keep the thing going - not to ultimately depend upon authority. Authority may be a hint as to what the truth is, but is not the source of information. As long as it's possible, we should disregard authority whenever the observations disagree with it. And finally, the recording of results should be done in a disinterested way.  That's a very funny phrase which always bothers me - because it means that after the guy's all done with the thing, he doesn't give a darn about the results, but that isn't the point. Disinterest here means that they are not reported in such a way as to try to influence the reader into an idea that's difference than what the evidence indicates.

What’s the point?

"The point of our offering... transcend pointless suffering."

There is more to it than meets the eye.

Banking on Good wishes

Interesting Quote picked from Learning Urdu

Museebat mein shareefon ki kabhi izzat nahin ghat'ti
Jalaa bhi daalo sone ko magar qeemat nahin ghat'ti
     - 'Nama'loom'

Loose translation -

The honour of good people doesn’t decrease during tough times.
Even if you burn gold, its value is not decreased.

However there are some things that can be of great help during tough times. And these are the good wishes that have been given and earned over one’s lifetime. The practice of giving good wishes is invaluable to one’s own self esteem and makes a difference to other’s lives as well. Those with a scientific bent of mind may well want to check out the intention experiment.

Meanwhile, for everyone, there is a simple exercise that can be done for accumulating the power of good wishes in oneself while sharing it with the whole world.

The Goal: Sharing one billion minutes of good wishes over a period of about 50 days. It’s easy, it’s free and it can be given to anyone and of course, it will develop a beautiful habit of giving good wishes. Check out http://goodwishesbank.org/

Attention Spans and Service through the mind

Yesterday someone called up to ask for help someone else by spreading vibrations of love and peace.

I sat for a while and shared from the heart… not just for that soul, but also for the world. And the realisation was that I need to work on the basics. A soul who is serving on multiple projects often gets thoughts of them even while sitting in meditation.

So here is some research (to understand where we are globally)…

• Hal Wechsler says that on average…

“adults can concentrate with undivided attention for up to five minutes… teenagers… are distracted…after approximately 30 seconds. In fact we spend less than one minute on each website we visit.”

He gives some medical reasons and then suggests meditation and autosuggestion as ways to improve the attention span.

• I heard in a class that MTV now has the policy that no visual should last more than 1 second(!) because the attention span is very short. There is a tweet that states that average attention span used to be 3 minutes (length of an MTV video) in the 1980s and is 2.7 seconds in 2009. 
  
• I happened to see CNN-IBN going on at the airport and noticed that there was a main audio-visual news going on, plus a scroll bar text giving some other news highlight, plus some stock market info on another corner. At first I couldn’t understand why they would confuse everyone by giving such an overdose of unconnected messages – and then i guessed its probably to keep everyone engaged with something or the other of their interest.
  
• At a client’s place I witness that the MD has the attention span of about 30 seconds and tries to take in one page of information in 2-5 seconds. Conversations have to move very quickly otherwise he either tunes out, works on his blackberry or skype or nods his head impatiently while signalling other people to do something. And if people don’t still get it, he vocally urges them to either move on or interrupts them with something else.
  
• One minute presenter has a series of posts tagged ‘attention’ where it cites a variety of sources including a
Times of India article quotes a report that says the attention span of a university student is about 10 minutes and that a youtube video that says hollywood action movies have a cut (scene change) every 3 seconds. They also present the concept of spaced learning (intense learning sessions of 20 minutes interspersed with 10 minutes of physical activity…)

• There is a quiz by blogthings to check your attention span.
  
• TED talks are 18 minutes long because: “It’s long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention.”

The irony is… i’ve already had enough distraction (doing this research) so that I can value concentration more!

I believe Dadi Janki had a suggested a 40 40 40 exercise. From what I remember, it was: “Aim to stay concentrated on one thought for 40 seconds, on one theme for 40 minutes and one stage (of equanimity of being) for 40 days.”

Good homework.

Attention Everyone – Listen to this!

Listen O World! The Ocean of peace and love is here
He is showering his wisdom on all
He is bestowing endless treasures
Hark! Won’t you stop and listen to his call?

Why fear? You don’t have to leave a thing!
In fact you will be helped by yoga power
You will witness growth in each of your tasks
and be at peace: the need of the hour

Get rid of worries and doubts
You’ll need elevated thoughts for this
Listen to his words of wisdom
And you will gain all the treasures that are his

Say good morning to him when you wake up
And good night to him before you sleep
Remember ‘I am a soul, child of the benevolent father’
And all that is his, is yours to keep

The medium is the message they say
And I’ve been taking a while to get there
I promise I will be responsible henceforth
And be an example of love and care

But You! My brothers and sisters - don’t you wait!
This is the time, the opportunity is now
You have been a traveller seeking for long
Here are the whys, and here is the how

This is the time…

This is the time to experience His love
This is the time to celebrate my self
This is the time to finish all waste and ordinary
This is the time to extend my help

Listen! Let me listen to the aching hearts
Let me listen to the helpless sighs
This is the time to serve love, joy and contentment
and bid all sorrow goodbye

This is the time to encourage others
This is the time to fill all with zeal
This is the time to give support from the heart
This is the time to fulfil the need

How to have more time

Slow down your thoughts.

Two degrees of separation

We are just two degrees apart. I know Him and He knows you. I love Him and He loves you.

Wow – you are special. I’m glad to be connected to you. Thanks for being part of my world…

The Ultimate Secret to Success

It is …