The Gifts of Life

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

What you have done in the past does not matter. Every day is a great gift that you can choose to use wisely and harmoniously.

What will you do today to add to the bounty of life?

Swami K

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 30 - Pralabdha Karma

Today's Tarka Practice

This week's discussion is on karma, what it means, and some of the different types. On Monday we talked about San-chitta karma or all of your karma from all lifetimes. Today, we will talk about Pralabdha karma.

 

Pralabdha karma is just the karma of this lifetime. So, if you did Monday's tarka, you will be off to a good start thinking about the karma you have in this lifetime. Take a look at the list I asked you to make on Monday. On this list, you should see some of the karma you were born with.

 

Your karma can tell you about your dharma, so it is important to understand the type of karma you were born with. This is the most likely karma to manifest in this lifetime. I'll use myself as an example here to illustrate what I mean. On my list of characteristics, I have teacher. Whether formal or informal I always seem to be teaching something. I teach my kids, I teach my students, I teach myself. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get away from this approach. Smiles. It follows me everywhere. It seems that I was born with this already in place. So, one might say that I was born with the karma of a teacher.

 

To take this further, the way I approach life - through the eyes of a teacher - can then be seen as a part of my dharma. It is in my essence. I might then say that it is my duty or my responsibility to be a teacher in this lifetime.

 

For today's journal entry, take a look over that list of characteristics you made on Monday and see if you can draw a relationship between your characteristics and your passions. What are you most passionate about? How might this tell you about your karma and what you are meant to manifest in this lifetime?

 

Shanti

 

 

Day 32 - New Beginnings

Today's Tarka Practice
Yesterday was the new moon. In yoga philosophy, this symbolizes the beginnings of things. It is an opportunity to step back, reassess and set a new goal or start a new practice. If there is something you have always wanted to try or a new habit you would like to form now is the time to begin. It is a chance for a do-over. It is a time for a change in consciousness.

In your journal, make a list of some things you would like to begin anew. Make it simple. Make it something that you can do in less than 30 minutes a day. For example, perhaps you would like to eat better. Commit to adding more fruit and veggies to your diet. Maybe you want to go back to school. Spend 30 minutes a day or less doing a little research on what it will take to get you where you want to go. Once you have selected one thing from your list do this practice until the next new moon. And, don't forget to journal about your experience. Smiles.

Shanti