Wednesday, 23 October 2013

The 7 Timeless Virtues of Enlightened Living/1 - Robin Sharma


The Symbol:                                   the Magnificent Garden
The Virtue:                                     Master your Mind
The Wisdom:                                  Cultivate your Mind – it will blossom beyond your expectations. The quality of your Life is determined by the quality of your thoughts. There are no mistakes, only lessons to be learnt. See setbacks as opportunities for personal expansion and spiritual growth.
The Techniques:                                                 
                         The heart of the Rose
                         Opposition thinking
                         The secret of the Lake                                      
The secret of Happiness is “simple” - find out what you truly love to do and then direct all your energy towards doing it. Once you do this, abundance flows into your life and all your desires are filled with ease and grace. He who selflessly serves the most, reaps the most; emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. This is the way to inner peace and outer fulfilment.
 
A Most Extraordinary Garden
In the fable, the garden is a symbol for the Mind. Most good gardeners will weed regularly and ensure no contamination ever enters their gardens but yet look at the toxic waste we put into the fertile gardens of our minds every single day: the worries and the anxieties, the fretting about the past and the brooding about the future and those self-created fears that wreak havoc within our inner world. All these drain the mind and much of its power.
To live life to the fullest, you must stand guard at the gate of your garden and let only the very best information enter. You truly cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought. Mental mastery comes through conditioning. We all have the power to determine what we think about in any given moment. No matter what happens to you in your life, you alone have the capacity to choose your response to it. By controlling the thoughts that you think and the way you respond to events of your life, you begin to create your destiny. All events, be it positive or negative, simply experience them, celebrate them and learn from them. The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. You must persist in exercising your mind positively and it will do all wonderful things for you. Focused personal reflection each day impacts on the quality of your life.
Daily exercise:           Heart of the Rose
Find a quiet room and a fresh rose. Stare at the centre of the rose, its heart. Notice its colour, texture and design. Savour its fragrance and think only about this rose. Initially, other thoughts will distract you but in time, through perseverance, your mind will grow strong and disciplined and your focus will only be the rose. This will be the first indication that you are taking back control of the fortress of your mind. It will then focus on what you command it to focus on and become a wonderful servant...
Opposition thinking: Replace a negative thought immediately with a positive thought.
Secret of the Lake: You are looking into the water at the edge of a lake and seeing your reflection. Envisage your dreams becoming a reality. You will become the person you mentally see yourself become. The mind works through pictures. Pictures affect your self- image and this in turn affects the way you feel, act and achieve. See yourself as you want to be. Run your own race. It doesn't matter what others say about you. What is important is what you say to yourself.
Mental fitness: Success on the outside indeed begins with success on the inside. By changing your thoughts and attitude, you can positively change your life
Our passion must in some way, improve or serve the lives of others. Once you find out what your life's work is, your world will become alive with a limitless reservoir of energy and enthusiasm.
                                                                                                             to be continued

No comments:

Post a Comment