Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Holiday Season

Thank you for stopping by this blog. I will be taking a holiday break and our daily reflections will be starting back up again on January 1, 2014.

There will be some new offerings for the new year, including a new weekly audio meditation and teaching that will begin in February. Online classes will start up in April.

I look forward to serving you and wish you and your family a great holiday season!

Swami K

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Your Highest Value

Visiting for the First Time? Read Me First

Perhaps one of the most important parts of a strong spiritual practice is the practice of tarka or reflective journaling. Reflection upon your inner and outer life is essential if you wish to progress along the path. These reflections on your life can help you see your mind more clearly. Your relationship to yourself, the world, and others is revealed in each journal entry. We can sometimes be blinded by our own beliefs or trapped in a cycle of thinking that is unhealthy for us.

Tarka can help us to illumine the way before us, discard old beliefs, and change our attitudes and ways of thinking.

This blog is designed to help you reflect upon your life and examine your mind so that you may travel the path of enlightenment with greater ease and harmony.

Set aside a little time each day to write in your journal and respond to the prompts in the blog.

The benefits of a strong tarka practice will reveal themselves over time, particularly if you take some time out each month and reread what you have written in your journal. You will find patterns in your life and your examination of these patterns will help you make the changes in your life that you are striving for. The wisdom you gain will help you live the life you seek.

Daily Reflection and Journaling Prompt
In a few short weeks, the new year will be upon us and most of us will begin working fervently towards a new goal. Most of us will lose interest in that goal in 1-2 weeks and give up. One reason that many people lose interest so quickly is because the goals people set for themselves are not aligned with their highest value. Take some time today to reflect on your highest value. Some examples might be - your spouse, your kids, family, community, church, work, health, finances, etc. Once you have identified your highest value set your goals with that value in mind.

Friday, December 13, 2013

The Winter Months

Visiting for the First Time? Read Me First

Perhaps one of the most important parts of a strong spiritual practice is the practice of tarka or reflective journaling. Reflection upon your inner and outer life is essential if you wish to progress along the path. These reflections on your life can help you see your mind more clearly. Your relationship to yourself, the world, and others is revealed in each journal entry. We can sometimes be blinded by our own beliefs or trapped in a cycle of thinking that is unhealthy for us.

Tarka can help us to illumine the way before us, discard old beliefs, and change our attitudes and ways of thinking.

This blog is designed to help you reflect upon your life and examine your mind so that you may travel the path of enlightenment with greater ease and harmony.

Set aside a little time each day to write in your journal and respond to the prompts in the blog.

The benefits of a strong tarka practice will reveal themselves over time, particularly if you take some time out each month and reread what you have written in your journal. You will find patterns in your life and your examination of these patterns will help you make the changes in your life that you are striving for. The wisdom you gain will help you live the life you seek.

Daily Reflection and Journaling Prompt
During the winter months, I know I find myself turning inwards and I am more introverted, contemplative and reflective. I find this to be a very valuable time of year. It is as if I journey to the underworld to renew and refresh. It is as if I journey towards the center of the labyrinth. This quiet time, this stillness and reflection is important to your practice. Take advantage of it. For in the spring, you will come out from the underworld, wind your way out of the center of the labyrinth and then it will be time to take what you have learned during the quiet time and put it into practice. What can you do to be more peaceful and more still during these winter months so that you are ready for the activity that comes with spring?

Thursday, December 12, 2013

The Accomplishments of 2013

Visiting for the First Time? Read Me First

Perhaps one of the most important parts of a strong spiritual practice is the practice of tarka or reflective journaling. Reflection upon your inner and outer life is essential if you wish to progress along the path. These reflections on your life can help you see your mind more clearly. Your relationship to yourself, the world, and others is revealed in each journal entry. We can sometimes be blinded by our own beliefs or trapped in a cycle of thinking that is unhealthy for us.

Tarka can help us to illumine the way before us, discard old beliefs, and change our attitudes and ways of thinking.

This blog is designed to help you reflect upon your life and examine your mind so that you may travel the path of enlightenment with greater ease and harmony.

Set aside a little time each day to write in your journal and respond to the prompts in the blog.

The benefits of a strong tarka practice will reveal themselves over time, particularly if you take some time out each month and reread what you have written in your journal. You will find patterns in your life and your examination of these patterns will help you make the changes in your life that you are striving for. The wisdom you gain will help you live the life you seek.

Daily Reflection and Journaling Prompt

As we all reach the end of 2013, most likely we are considering what we accomplished (or didn't accomplish) during 2013 and how we would like our lives to be different in 2014. These next two weeks are a great time for reflection. I urge you to spend a little time to make a list of all you have accomplished this year. Most of the time we tend to only think about what we did not achieve, so now is the time to give ourselves a pat on the back for those things we have done well.