Make Peace Your Priority

If you practise anything, results are guaranteed. So what do you practise? From the moment you wake up, you are thinking, acting, engaging with the world. How conscious are you? Can you train yourself to be more and more aware and awake ? Then you could use every moment to practise.

Each minute could be an opportunity to learn about yourself, other souls, and the world.

Transcript

I'm Shanti and this is Rose from Glasgow Inner Space and welcome to Soul to Soul. Make peace your priority. If you practice anything, Anything you practice, Then success is guaranteed, Results are guaranteed. So what do you practice? Whatever you practice, You practice getting angry, You'll become great at it. From the moment you wake up, You're thinking, Acting, Engaging with the world. So how conscious are you as to what it is you're practicing? What are we practicing? Can you train yourself to be more and more aware and awake? Is this possible I wonder? To be more aware and awake? Is it possible? And then you could use every moment to practice because here I am, I'm speaking, I'm aware of what I'm saying, Am I practicing? Each minute could be an opportunity instead of just doing it and not knowing. You could be inspired and sparked by hearing wise words. It could be an opportunity to learn about yourself, Other souls and the world. You could be inspired chatting about life. That would be a good inspiration. But it's your constant thought process that's your great treasure. Take a look inside and be honest about how you are seeing yourself and others. How do I see myself? I feel okay about how do I see others? I'm okay about them. I hear wise words telling me beautiful things. You're an eternal peaceful soul, Everyone is a soul. That means we're all very similar. The divine, The one above is the supreme soul. And now do I naturally and easily experience this? Or is it something sort of strange add-on thing that I'm not sure about? Is it possible? It's just a practice. How much do I value peace? Is it my priority? If not, What is it that gets in the way? And then what's that showing me? What's it showing me? You said from the moment you wake up you're thinking, Acting and engaging with the world. Sounds like it'd be a good idea to change your very first thoughts. Do you have that practice and how did you do it? How did you start that? Yeah, I started I think when I started doing meditation because your first thoughts are always going to be what you were worried about. Usually you wake up thinking what am I worried about today? Or who do I don't like that I'm going to meet today? How can I avoid this terrible situation? What can I do to get away from this? And then when I started to practice meditation I thought I don't need to go there. I'll do my best to try and just be calm and peaceful in the morning and say go away, Go away. I'm not going there. Do you put things around you to remind you to do that? Because it's easy to fall into the old habit of grabbing for the worries as you're saying. So do you have pictures or slogans or mottos or? Yes, I think it's like when you start to be inspired by something you want to, You know, Put it in place as best you can. And so some people go over the top, Other people not go quite so far. But if you practice meditation you usually have a meditation picture to remind you that you're the energy in the center of the forehead. So if you practice meditation first thing in the morning you won't think about, Even in your mind, You'll keep your mind moving towards what you're going to think about in meditation, Which is to be peaceful and calm. You'll keep yourself cool, Ready for meditation. So it's just like if in a physical way if you're going out somewhere you'd get yourself dressed up for it. So you'll get yourself dressed up emotionally for meditation. Train yourself to be more aware and awake. Is that possible? Again, It's to do with being quite surprised at the best in yourself. And you can be surprised and wanting to keep that going and hoping to add on to it and strengthen it and make it real. Must be surprised at the best in yourself. Yeah, I'd be surprised because we got lost somewhere in translation, It was away somewhere, Away, Far away. So you can be inspired and sparked by hearing wise words but that's obviously kind of not enough just to be inspired. You have to practice. Inspired is just something which for a second you go, Wow, That's a good idea. But you might not do it. So it's not just to be inspired, But it's to actually do it. And I think if you really look at the self and what are the deep desires of the self and when you find out that you were going all in the wrong direction. When I first started meditation, I found out it was a good idea to have a look at your food that you were eating because that had a big influence on your health. And I thought, Well, If I want to be able to do all this, I need to be quite healthy because I want to be quite strong. I don't want to do all this and find out that I'm so weak I can't even sit quiet and still and become peaceful. So I thought I'll have a look at this. I found out it was so weak, So weak, I couldn't even sit up early in the morning. I wanted to lie down. That was dreadful, Like really hard work trying to sit up first thing in the morning. But I thought, No, I'm going to do this. Gosh, If I can't even sit up in the morning. And so, Yeah, I found it. And you also have a day to live. So you have to fill your day with things you like. And I thought, Well, Let me get into what's healthy for me. Let me look at food. Because you're told that being vegetarian was a very good idea. So I did that. I had great fun and it was good for being creative and getting things that were sparkling fresh. I'd never really thought of that before, Really fresh and finding new ways to cook and offering it to other people and then saying, That was good. It was like, Hmm. And also it made me aware of being very tidy. Because if I wanted to have a tidy mind and I looked around, I thought I have to have a tidy space to live in as well. And also looking at simplicity, Because you don't have to try and keep up with the neighbours now, You don't have to try and show how smart you are anymore. You can be sort of simple and tidy and eat healthy food. And so all of this started to appeal to me. And then being nice to others, I found it touched me to think I could actually start the process of doing my best to see the good in others, To see that they were also a soul in the centre of the forehead. When I found that out about myself, It was like, Hmm, Yeah, My soul. So. It's really interesting that you said, You decided you wanted to become peaceful. And then when you started to practice, You realised you couldn't actually even sit up first thing in the morning to practice meditation, Like in a constructive way, You realise how weak you were. Same for me, Because the meditation was like super early and I just was so weak. And things that seem very simple to put in place, We can give up at the first hurdle because we're not good at it. How did you persevere? How did you maintain peace as your priority? I was determined. It was the winter time and not being a rich person, There was no heating on early at that time in the morning. And you were taught when I first started doing meditation, Sitting on the floor. Well, My wee legs wouldn't go into the positions that we're supposed to go into. And I was frozen and I was wanting to lie down and I thought, Gosh, I'm going to go in here. So I did sit for the time required, But I wasn't meditating. All I was thinking about was how cold it was, How uncomfortable it was, How my legs were sore, How all I could think about was these things. So I thought I have to do something about this. So I thought I'll get loads of cushions and I'll sit against the wall with all the cushions and I'll get a huge big blanket to surround myself with this big blanket so it's warm. And that's how I started thinking in a practical way. And then gradually, Gradually, I was so comfortable after a while, I was able to, And I never stopped, I got up every morning to this torture. I mean, This is real. Some people might listen to this and say, Why are you telling them that? You don't got to tell them that. This is how it was. Then, After a very short time, There I was sitting there, Peaceful and calm-ish, Because it does take time to make the mind calm, But enjoying. And then I felt proud of myself because I thought, You know, That was a hard road to walk there and you did it. And I think when I knew that I did that, I thought that was amazing. And so it's like we want to put the strength back into ourselves. And that's a way to put the strength back into yourself, Is to start the process of being peaceful. And it sounds like such a peaceful, Oh, Such a boring thing. Believe you me, It's like becoming Wonder Woman. To be able to sit upright, You know, In a freezing cold room and not lie flat on the floor and fall asleep is like Wonder Woman. And so I started to get that feeling of self-respect, Just a little tweak of self-respect. But it was like, Huh? I realized it was more to this being peaceful than we ever would think. And so I was determined, Determined to keep going. And so gradually, It all works gradually and in increments, Attending spiritual classes and learning more and more about the pieces of the jigsaw, How it all fits together, Learning more and more about my own capabilities. And to feel stronger, Physically and emotionally, More stable, Able to cope with things, Friendlier, All sorts of different things coming in because of that. More understanding of others, More helpful, Etc. Etc. So you definitely had to keep pieces the priority, But it must have been some kind of carrot, There must have been some thing, Some glimpse of a possibility that was keeping you motivated because that practice is not a breeze to begin with. It sounds so easy, Get up early and sit still and be peaceful. But it's not easy. So was it information you heard about the soul? Was it the promise of being able to know the divine more clearly? Was it? Well, I think the information that you receive when you start to do Raja Yoga meditation is that you create your own self and that your own self has fallen into dramatic disrepair through listening to what other people tell you to do and following rules that are harmful for you. And when you start to realize it's up to you to create your own self because you are the energy in the center of your forehead and your energy is your life energy. And if you get that bit, You start to think, Well, I want to be the best self I can be. I want to be the best image of myself for myself. Not for others, But for myself. So just to give people some hope, I have this vision of you like the princess and the pea with lots of cushions and a huge big thick blanket with this little head popping at the top. How long would you say before, You know, Is it weeks, Months, Years before you go from the torturous experience of this is so hard to actually this is kind of normal. This is just routine. Maybe not blissed out, But this is just routine. I can do this. Oh, Just a short time. Once I got comfortable and I felt warm and safe, And safe is important. And I start to think that according to yoga, You're going to be sitting now with God. So God's behind all of this. So I thought that I had a protection there. I wasn't doing this kind on my own and I wanted to be still and silent. And it was very not a long time before I was sitting there actually on the floor because that was the teaching. Legs crossed, Back straight and focusing on being the soul in the centre of the forehead, Maybe a couple of weeks. And do you have to sit on the floor? Not now. No, You sit in a chair now. No, But at the beginning they said you sat on the floor. I'm going back a while. Sat on the floor. And then I was like Miss whatever you call it. But wow. So there I was. And then gradually you think, Wow, I don't want to go back to being that wimp really who couldn't sit upright or was in such a state trying to sit awake having meditation in the morning. But now you can sit on a chair and if you're lucky there'll be maybe a few people with you, But nowadays it's locked down and so you're on your own. So this idea of weakness is really interesting because we don't like to think of ourselves as weak and yet so few people are able just to control their own mind or think the thoughts they would like to think and feel the peace that's there. Right? Really? Why are we so weak? Because the thoughts we create are thoughts of worry, Fear, Concern, Having to do what others tell us to do. That was another thing I quite liked. I could get myself out and become my own person. I could come out from what others were telling me to do and start to think now what is best for me? What is right? And I don't think what they're telling me is right for me. And also others like to have that arrogance of suppressing you or whatever. So it's good to think you can get out of that. I think that was the carrot for me to think I could get out of that. Yeah. And the last question you asked was what gets in the way and what's that showing me? So how did you use that? You know when problems or difficulties within you or outside you would come along, How did you use them as a springboard or a learning? I suppose I could see after a short time where that other way of going was taking me and what the outcome would be. The outcome would be like something I did not want. And so I thought no I don't want that. I want to feel that my life has been worthwhile for me. Maybe not what other people want me to be but this is what I want me to be. I want my life to be worthwhile for me. If it's worthwhile for me it might be helpful for others. But it sounds like you became sort of much more aware of consequences and that things were just not random that there was like your thoughts and decisions would lead to something. You seemed to really wake up to this idea of thoughts create things. It's always a personal journey you know. I would say that I realised that certain thoughts I was having then was showing me the outcome of these things. The outcome of these old thoughts in ten years time I would be like goodness knows what it would be like sick and old and crippled and all the rest of it whereby new fresh thoughts gave me a new lease of life. A new lease of life just basically that. I started to have really lovely thoughts and wrote them down and a friend of mine found them in a book and ripped them up and squeaked and squealed and said what a load of rubbish, Absolute rubbish and absolutely ridiculed me and that was when I think that I opener came I thought wow I thought that friend of mine was a peaceful person and I kind of gave them respect and looked up to them to realise they were ridiculing me for starting to have nice thoughts and so I would never notice that and I would have listened to their stupid information for 20 or 30 other years and that would have been me just not up to much by then. So I decided that's not for me. I want to become peaceful and be able to make judgments and see clearly and treat people with respect and be kind to them and not rip up their books just because they're having different ways of thinking. The thing is we're all different, We'll always be different because we play a different role and we think differently but we don't have to be unpleasant as well as different. We can be kindly and different and respectful and different and loving and different. Okay so I'm going to do a minute of meditation. Aunty Shanti, How much do I value peace? Could I make peace my priority? What gets in the way of peace being my priority? I can hear wise words telling me beautiful things. So take a look inside and be honest about how you're seeing yourself and others see the self as an eternal peaceful soul and see others as a soul and think of the divine the one above the supreme soul. Teach myself to experience this naturally and easily. Is it possible? I just have to practice, It's so easy. I'm a soul. I'm a soul. Your greatest treasure is your thoughts. Your thoughts empower your physical body and purify your mind. Purify your mind and give you your strength and your power and your health and well-being. Every second is an opportunity to see yourself and others at your best as a soul. The being of light, The child of the one above. All Shanti. So you