Sponsored by The International Academy for Interfaith Studies

 All you experience, including what you perceive as being outside of you and any pain, takes place in your mind  Everything you know, see, hear, taste, and feel is experienced in your mind  Therefore, any experience you might think you are experience, such as a stubbed toe, is taking place in your head

Change your mind and you literally change the world.

 You are what you think you are  Other people are to you what you thing they are  Your limits and obstacles in life are mostly what you think they are  Your thought seeds you have planted unfold your destiny  Your memories and thoughts color everything you see and know

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry Ford

William James

Anais Nin

Abraham Lincoln

Descartes

 It is hard to change your outlook from within that very outlook  This is the challenge of spirituality – to move beyond (to transcend) the common materialistic world to the greater world  The Goal of meditation, contemplation, introspection, yoga, and spiritual study: awaken your mind to the higher world beyond your mind  The higher world is where you can change your vision and thus change your world

 Doing spiritual work does not mean giving up causes to help the world  Doing spiritual work does mean that the way you think about problems does affect those very problems  For example, focusing on a fault can actually strengthen the very fault you are trying to avoid

 You need to and should do both  Often extreme outer work is just a means to avoid doing the needed inner work  You should want the magic combination of both that transforms the world into a greater place  Inner work gives you the wisdom to know what to do in outer work along with the power to achieve your goals

 Contemplation ◦ Clean up, organize, uplift, take control of your thoughts ◦ Think, watch, direct, and guide your thought  Meditation ◦ Increase your mental strength with focusing and quieting ◦ Your stream of thought quiets down when the flow and power of your mind is in one direction  Communion ◦ Transcend from the ego mind to your higher Self

 Be aware of your thoughts  Direct the flow and content of your thoughts  Put your thoughts in order ◦ Delete unwanted thoughts and unnecessary files  Strengthen the power of your mind by focusing on your powerful thoughts

 Get rid of anger ◦ Your anger is within you and you are hurting yourself ◦ Sharing your thoughts can help you get rid of it  Unravel feeling of sadness ◦ Search within yourself to discover why you are sad ◦ Sometimes sadness follows extreme highs ◦ Seek inner steadness  Get rid of some kinds of doubt ◦ Doubt that makes you reconsider something or someone is good ◦ Doubt about yourself is bad because is sows the seed of failure

 Get rid of negative thoughts ◦ They color everything else ◦ They are like mental viruses to your well being  Unmask false contentment (covering up sadness, anger, or pain) ◦ Keeps you from finding true peace and contentment ◦ Contemplation is key here  Give up greed ◦ It is the enemy of contentment and satisfaction ◦ Hopes and desires are good ◦ Greed brings to harm or betray others to get more for yourself

 Heal your hatred ◦ Hatred turns into self-hatred ◦ You are the victim of your hatred not the bad person  Eliminate your impatience ◦ Impatience creates dissatisfaction ◦ Shows you are not really focusing on the present  Get rid of your jealousy ◦ It is destructive especially your agitated state of mind  End your infatuation – when a single desire or obsession wipes out all other thoughts ◦ Beware of lustful infatuations

Contemplation

Oscar Wilde

 Uplifting teachings lead you into a higher view of life  Great teachings are a profound because they express passion, creativity, and divine spark  Spiritual teachings are maps to guide but you still must travel the path yourself  They help you see the terrain ahead and see the coming obstacles  You must transform that knowledge into your subjective experience

 You can only read spiritual teaching with your own world view which is colored by your heart  Expansion of spiritual knowledge normally comes in small steps  When an event or experience challenge your teaching, that is the moment you begin to learn anew  True spiritual thought can be read year after year and each time you learn something more because you are the one who has changed

 Studying spiritual wisdom from other places and times radically opens your mind beyond your own modern culture  Try to understand the meaning from both your point of view and that of the author  Realize that deeper understandings often come slowly and with your efforts over time

 Learn about the culture from where the wisdom came  Realize the words do not easily translate and seek to understand the original meanings  What resonates with you is important and look for deeper meaning  Do not pretend to know what you do not understand  Look beyond the story to the essence of the teaching and do not focus on the literal details

 They act as guidepost for life  They help you recognize signs of progress along your efforts to spiritual grow  They give you new words and concepts that expand your ability to understand life and the higher SELF  They help you grasp you own spiritual wisdom  They help you to become aware that you are a spiritual soul seeking Oneness and your true nature

 Oneness is merely understanding yourself as part of the larger universe and not something that is separate but that your are somehow united and you are one with that universe  After you have taken command of your mind with self-awareness and used meditation to strength that command, the next step is recognizing, feeling, and understanding your life and the purpose of you life in terms of that Oneness

moodle Go to the bottom of the list of courses and look for the Sunday you wish

NEXT WEEK: Nourishing Your Spirit