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.

Day 19 - Can you Control Your Suffering?

Today's Tarka Practice

Many of the great eastern religious traditions tell us that suffering is optional. Is it? Do we truly have this much control over how we feel? Both the Gita and the Sutras tell us that we do have this kind of control - that we can control our suffering and that we cause ourselves to suffer. We are told in these ancient texts that it is our thoughts and attitudes towards those thoughts that cause us to suffer. If this is so, then we can learn to control our minds, change our thoughts and change our attitudes. Is this true? What about someone who is mentally ill or someone suffering through a great illness, like cancer? Are they still in charge of their own suffering?

For today's journal entry, I want you to reflect on your attitudes towards suffering. Try to answer some of the questions that I pose above and write down how you feel about each one. Talk about how much control you feel you have over your own life. Try to think of some examples from your experience in which you were suffering and were able to change your attitude in order to allieviate that suffering. Also, write down some examples of when you were not able to change your thoughts and attitudes and continued suffering. What was different about each of the situations you wrote about?

Shanti

Day 20 - What Would You Like to Manifest?

Today's Tarka Practice
My yoga teacher asked me the other day - what would you like to make manifest in your life right now? I was surprised by the question. It is something that I think about all of the time because I understand that we have the power to create anything we want in our lives. It is not a power that I often talk about with others and so her question made me come out of my own head (which was swirling with thoughts) and try to capture these thoughts in a more tangible way.

Sometimes, when we wish to create something in our lives, it is a good idea to talk about what we wish to create with other people. This can bring the creation from just thoughts to taking action. I often think about this in terms of a big pool of possibilities swirling around in the Brahman and that I have to just reach up and choose something. In yoga, we call this phenomenon aham bramasmi or I am the creative principle.

For today's journal entry think about and then write down 3 things you have been thinking of doing. Have you been wanting to add more to your yoga practice, change your eating habits, take a walk everyday, write a book? Take a look at your list and choose one thing that you would like to make manifest in your life right now. Write it down on a notecard that you look at everyday. Talk about it with other people and then observe how just setting this intention begins to bring what you need to make this manifest into your life.

Shanti

Day 22 - Food Fasting

Today's Tarka Practice

Today I want to talk about food fasting as a way to help you learn to have more control over your mind and your body.

 

Disclaimer – before beginning any type of fast, please check with your doctor first and be aware of any types of medical conditions that may not allow you to do a traditional (water only) fast.

 

There are many ways to fast. You do not have to give up all food for the whole day or for several days. You can begin to have more control over your mind and body simply by eating less. In fact, this is the method suggested for those who have specific types of medical problems and are unable to do a traditional fast. Again, please check with your doctor first.

 

If your doctor allows it, you can then progress on to removing only one meal or one snack during your day. As you practice food fasting more and more, you can eliminate more meals slowly until you are eventually drinking only water for one day. If you can never eliminate all food for one day, this is fine. You will still learn the same spiritual lessons.

 

The spiritual benefits of food fasting are to gain more control over the body and mind and to connect more deeply with your spirit. This happens because while you are fasting the body becomes irritable and you begin to become consumed by thoughts of eating. When you start fasting, you will notice that all you can think about is food. Trying to stop these thoughts helps you gain control over your mind and body. We realize that we are not the body. The body really doesn’t need this food. We are disciplining ourselves. We are trying to break free of our bodies. We are trying to master our bodies. We become more aware of our spirit.

 

If your doctor allows it, pick one day this week and begin your fast by just eating less during the day. In your journal, record what happened during your fast. Was it easy or difficult? What came into your mind? What type of relationship do you have with food? Observe all irritations you experienced and record them in your journal.

 

When you are ready to progress, do the fast again and eliminate one snack, and then one meal and so on. Each time you fast, write about your experiences and see what you learn about yourself and your relationship to food. It might surprise you.

Day 23 - Taking Care of Yourself

Today's Tarka Practice

We often don’t take good care of ourselves. We tend to work long, hard hours, put others before ourselves, sleep less than 8 hours a night to catch up on our to-do lists, and as a result, we are exhausted and irritable. The problem is this – by exhausting ourselves in this way, we can’t be fully present for others. If we are tired and irritated, we are more likely to yell at others, act out of frustration, be quick to anger and it is very difficult to listen to what someone is saying to us. Concentration and focus are difficult when we are so busy that we don’t have time to take care of ourselves.

 

For this week’s journal entry, I want you to reflect on how well you think you take care of yourself. How much time do you dedicate to your own personal needs and interests? How much sleep are you getting? Do you have enough relaxation time set aside in your day?

 

After answering these questions, I want you to give yourself permission to take better care of yourself this week. Just for one week, see what you can do to make time in your schedule for you. If you have a hard time finding time in your life right now, just set aside 15 minutes to begin. If you can set aside an hour for yourself, that is even better. An hour a day would be superb. After taking care of you first for a week, write down what you experienced in your journal. Did you find you were less irritable? Was it easier to reach out towards others in understanding? Easier to listen and help others? These are the benefits of this practice.

Day 24 - To Yoke Together

 

Today's Tarka Practice
 

Our focus this week will be on the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita is one chapter out of the Mahabharata, which is one of the longest Sanskrit epic poems from ancient India.

To begin, the Bhagavad Gita or the Lord’s song is an epic poem specifically discussing the very nature of yoga and what yoga means. If you have been a student of yoga for a while, you will know that yoga means to yoke or put things together harmoniously. But what, you may ask, are we supposed to yoke together?

The Gita tells us that in order to live a harmonious and happy life, we must yoke together our earth life with our spiritual life. But again, what does this really mean? It means that we should work towards creating our life on earth in such a way that it matches our spirit or what is deep within.  Here, we should strive towards manifesting those things that are most important to us. Those things that are most important to us are written onto our very spirit itself.

Another way of thinking about this would be to consider whether or not you are leading the life you wish to lead? When we are doing exactly what we want to be doing in our lives, we feel a deep inner harmony. However, when we feel like something is missing or there is an emptiness, most likely there is a discord between what we are doing in our earthly life and what our spirit is meant to be doing in our earthly life. The goal is to make these things match or to make them consistent with each other.

For today’s journal entry, the first thing I want you to think about is what does what I have said above mean to you? Do you feel your earth life and spiritual life match each other or is there a discord of some type? Reflect upon whether or not you feel like what you are doing in your life is what you feel like you were born here to do? This is the first step.

Shanti

Day 34 - It's A New Day

Today's Tarka Practice
The great thing about waking up every morning is that you get to start all over again. Any feelings from a previous day can be set aside and you have the chance to have a better day than the day before. If you made some mistakes you wish you hadn't made, if you had a bad day or wish you had responded differently to a friend or family member, you have the opportunity to do that today, right now, in this moment.

The beauty of being able to begin again is that you can change your thoughts, your attitude, and your life. Even if yesterday did not go as planned, you get a fresh start today. Let go of yesterday and focus on the day you wish to create today.

For today's tarka, take a piece of paper and tear it into small pieces. Write the disappointments of yesterday on these small pieces of paper. Fill a bowl with water and place the pieces of paper in the water. Watch the ink fade from the paper. As the ink fades, let go of all of those disappointments.

Go back to your journal and design your day. Write down how you would like your day to look today. If you were creating your ideal day, what would it be?

Shanti

Day 35 - Ganesh Part 1

Today's Tarka Practice
As many of you already know, in Hinduism there are many gods and goddess. Why so many? Because while there is one form of ultimate reality, it can be looked upon in many ways. This is often called Brahman or Brahma. Each god and goddess represents this total reality but in a different way. Each god or goddess is a symbol for an aspect of that reality. Reality and truth can be called by many names and it can have many forms but it is still one totality.

Because using symbols in our practice can be a powerful way to connect with ourselves and heal ourselves, this week I wanted to talk about the symbolism of Ganesha. Ganesha or Ganesh can be thought of as the Lord of Beginnings and Wisdom as well as the remover of obstacles.

Ganesh has the body of a human and the head of an elephant. The head symbolizes wisdom, understanding and intellect. All things that one would need in order to have a perfect life. A perfect life is self-realization or the ability to see and understand the truth about oneself and about reality. Your task, then, is to use your wisdom and intellect to come to an understanding of yourself/reality. In other words, you are to use the wisdom you gain in your practice to move towards greater enlightenment. You are Ganesh. Ganesh is you. You can remove your own obstacles. Obstacles are removed by gaining greater wisdom.

For today's tarka practice, I want you to think about the obstacles in your life. What do you see as your greatest obstacles?

Shanti

Day 36 - Ganesh Part 2

Today's Tarka Practice
This week we are talking about the symbolism of Ganesh. You may want to go back and read part 1 first.

Ganesh has the large ears of the elephant (rather than human ears) and this represents the idea that we should listen more. We need to listen more to our inner wisdom (intuition); we need to listen more to others when they are speaking  and we need to listen more to the beliefs and ideas that are being presented to us. When we are listening to these ideas, we need to determine whether or not they are bringing us closer to self-realization or farther away. For example, harboring anger towards someone and carrying that anger with us all of the time will bring us farther away from self-realization, but forgiving someone might bring us closer to self-realization.

For today's reflection think about the experiences you have had over the past week and write them down. See if you can identify what experiences brought you closer to self-realization and what experiences brought you farther away. For example, your journal entry might look like this:

Got frustrated with my son and shouted at him - this brought me farther away

Gave my husband the opportunity to go to a workshop in his field on the weekend - brought me closer self-realization

Studied some passages in the Gita - brought me closer to self-realization

Found my mind wandering to my own obstacles when my friend was discussing hers - brought me farther away

Shanti

Day 37 - Ganesh Part 3

Today's Tarka Practice
This week we are talking about the symbolism of Ganesh. You may want to go back and read parts 1 and 2 first.

At the feet of Ganesh lies food for the taking. This represents that the whole world is there for your asking. In other words, this world is abundant rather than lacking and we can partake in this abundance. We are not meant to deny ourselves or fear scarcity but to embrace all that is available to us.

How many times have you sacrificed something you wanted because you thought there wasn't enough to go around? Sacrifice is not needed because there is plenty for all. Most of us do not see the abundance in the world. Our fear covers it. However, when you awaken, when you move towards greater self-awareness, when you gain wisdom through self-realization, you will see greater and greater abundance and greater and greater beauty.

Here, I am reminded of the book and movie The Celestine Prophecy. If you view the movie, it can give you a visual experience of what it means to awaken to abundance and beauty. The characters that have awakened "see" the world differently. It glistens and shines. It is beautiful as it glows. It is heaven on earth. The characters that have not awakened see the dull, darker, world that is less beautiful, that is plain, that is bland, that is violent, greedy and selfish.

All we have to do is metaphorically "open our eyes" to see this beautiful, abundant world.

For your journal practice set aside some time to watch the movie or pick up the book. After watching the movie or reading the book, write down your thoughts. How did you react to the movie/book? What did it make you think about? Were you able to see more abudance in your life after watching/reading? How can you carry this practice into your life everyday?

Shanti