Brotherly Love

This morning's class was about brotherly love - how we should consider each other 'brothers' (here I use the generic term brother implying that deep down we are essentially genderless), and give love and regard on this basis.

Some of the methods for showing brotherly love are:

Don't see the other's weaknesses.
When I criticize others, I often fail to see my own shortcomings.  Treating others according to their weaknesses does not give them the chance to drop those weaknesses - it only makes firm in their minds that the weakness exists and then it becomes harder to remove.  Instead, I should be an example (remove my own weaknesses) and treat others with love and respect as if they are greater than myself.

See the other's virtues.
This goes along with not seeing the weaknesses.  When I treat others according to their virtues, I affirm those virtues and draw attention to them and draw attention away from the weaknesses.  This gives the others encouragement and confidence to deal with their own weak-nesses themselves in their own time.

Don't gossip / keep dialog elevated

When you're studying for an exam do you spend your time gossiping or chit chatting about the weather?  No, you have more elevated aims on your mind.  And so you keep company with those who will challenge your mind and help keep you focused on your subject. Likewise, when I'm in the company of others, I have a choice.  I can participate in bro-gossip or chit chat, or I can aim to raise the level.  If I'm with spiritual thers and sisters, then discussing spiritual things should be natural. When I'm with those who are not spiritually inclined, I can still keep to topics of substance.  Otherwise, I do a disservice to my 'brothers'. In-  stead of helping to sharpen minds, including my own, I fill the minds with waste. 

Love and namaste to all my 'brothers' out there.  And may you all find an easy and natural expression of brotherly love.
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Brotherly Love
This morning's class was about brotherly love - how we should consider each other 'brothers' (here I use the generic term brother implying that deep down we are essentially genderless), and give love and regard on this basis.
Some of the methods for showing brotherly love are:
Don't see the other's weaknesses.
When I criticise others, I often fail to see my own shortcomings.  Treating others according to their weaknesses does not give them the chance to drop those weaknesses - it only makes firm in their minds that the weakness exists and then it becomes harder to remove.  Instead, I should be an example (remove my own weaknesses) and treat others with love and respect as if they are greater than myself.

See the other's virtues.
This goes along with not seeing the weaknesses.  When I treat others according to their virtues, I affirm those virtues and draw attention to them and draw attention away from the weaknesses.  This gives the others encouragement and confidence to deal with their own weak-nesses themselves in their own time.

Don't gossip / keep dialog elevated.

When you're studying for an exam do you spend your time gossiping or chit chatting about the weather?  No, you have more elevated aims on your mind.  And so you keep company with those who will challenge your mind and help keep you focused on your subject.  Likewise, when I'm in the company of others, I have a choice.  I can participate in gos-sip or chit chat, or I can aim to raise the level.  If I'm with spiritual brothers and sisters, then discussing spiritual things should be natural.  When I'm with those who are not spiritually inclined, I can still keep to topics of substance.  Otherwise, I do a disservice to my 'brothers'.  Instead of helping to sharpen minds, including my own, I fill the minds with waste.
Love and namaste to all my 'brothers' out there.  And may you all find an easy and natural expression of brotherly love.
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Ego crunch?!

I e-mailed my friend recently (he's off travelling at the moment) about my stage dropping.  I was feeling fantastic after my two weeks in India in 2007 and since coming back, little things have started bothering me and I've started getting annoyed.  I quite liked the “me” that came back from India.  I don't like the “me” that I'm becoming.  So I mentioned this to my friend.  He says that an ego crunch usually helps to raise the stage. 

An ego crunch?  I know what this is.  It's basically where you tell your- self how insignificant you are and how meaningless your life is.  Sort of the opposite of positive affirmations.  I just don't want to venture down this road, but he swears by it, so I'm considering giving it a go.

Now, looking at the above statements, you would think this is madness.  But the objective of the ego crunch is to break down the illusion of who we are and emerge the reality.  For example, I am not this body, this character.  I am a soul, a spirit, an energy, a being of consciousness call it as want to who plays a part in this world drama.  My sorrow begins when I forget this and start believing I am Ross: husband, father, brother, son, a Facilitator, etc.  I start to attach importance to Ross and to Ross's many roles.  But as soon as one of those roles finishes or is insulted, then I suffer a loss.  Whereas if I remember that I am a soul only playing the part of Ross, it doesn't matter, for roles come and go. I don't identify with Ross so I don't suffer any loss. 
The point of the ego crunch is to make Ross small and soul big.  Assuming ego is the association with the role or false identities, then ego is an illusion which causes sorrow.  Once I stop identifying with the role of Ross, I free myself to the bigger possibilities associated with the soul.  This is known as soul-consciousness and is one of the main aims of Raja Yoga. 

My friend has never steered me wrong, so I am going to give this a try. If you are interested in hearing how I perform the ego crunch, let me know.  Not sure yet if I want to make it public, but I will share it with those who want to understand more.

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Keeping it Light

Whenever I speak to my teacher about a problematic situation I am going through, at the end of the conversation he always said, 'Stay light.'  It was a reminder of how to view the situation - to not get heavy hearted - to keep things in perspective. 

I knew exactly what he meant even though I had difficulty fulfilling the direction.  He often used soccer as an example.  When you play a game of soccer, you play for fun.  You are playing on a team against a second team.  The other team is trying to score against you.  Both teams are trying to win.  While you are playing the game, it is your job to help your team score against the other team.  You might score, and, then again, you might not depending on the skill set of the two teams.  If you don't win, it's not the end of the world - the game was fun and you look for-ward to the next game.  If you do win, that's a great feeling, but not a feeling one should get used to - you might not win the next game.  Do  you never get upset at the other team for scoring against you - that is their job.  It wouldn't be a proper game if they didn't try to score against you. 

Life is like that.  When we face situations, it's just another game.  So we play our position and cooperate with the team and we try not to let the other guys score.  If we lose, we might practice more for next time, do more drills, come up with better strategies, but we always remember it's just a game - we're playing it for fun.  And in this way, we can remain light. 

My father also had this attitude towards taxes - for him it was a game.  The opposing team (the government) was trying to get more tax and he was trying to give less tax.  He remained light.

Now, several years later, when I face a situation, I automatically hear my teacher saying, 'Stay light.'  As I get more opportunities to practice it, it becomes easier to apply. 

And that's why I can still giggle with a tummy bug.
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Ross Galán, NLP Spiritual Life Coach
at the Spiritual LIfe Coaching School