Friday, July 10, 2020

START A BETTER LIFE - 12 - LESSON 2 - PART (III) - PRACTICE TIPS



Suggested Read – Any book which extols “work without attachment”. Which tells us how to carry out service with the intention of doing it for the larger good of the society. Any book on reasoning. Any book on chanting.

 

Suggested Mental Makeup for the Particular Exercise – All. Rationalists including atheists, social service and service oriented, believers in God, and those who are religious or devotional minded.

 

Relevant Information on the Chapter – Total number of Shlokas 72. The second chapter deals with the mental makeup of reasoning as applicable to Rationalists. Service/ work minded mental makeup is discussed in the later part of the chapter. It starts trying to address the problem defined in chapter 1. It is based on Brahmavidya Upanishad and Sankhya Yoga Shastra. Yoga is way, method or practice of attaining higher conscience through mental and physical exercises.

 

Exercises and Examples – Check whether one waits for the day to end. In fact, there is no need to check it out. If the person is not comfortable in passing each day, then course correction is required. First step in the course correction is to check the mental makeup which matches closely with earlier discussed mental makeup. Once the mental makeup of self is acknowledged, adopt path of reasoning, service or devotion. Try to get engrossed in whatever path one chooses. The proof of pudding is when engrossed in the selected path, one remains happy and become unaware of time. The moment one starts feeling that time is not passing, one must stop and ponder. Ponder because sometimes the path though chosen is not actually treaded. We have habit of fooling ourselves that we are walking the chosen path. In reality we don’t. The path once chosen should be followed faithfully. The more one tries to remain on the chosen path the more benefit a person gets.  Therefore, adopt a method of reasoning, service or chanting as per mental makeup, situation and circumstances. This can only be achieved by spending some time thinking on self and observing oneself. Some exercises are suggested for the respective mental makeups. Some of the exercise points are common and these are given to be adopted before actual exercise –

 

Every day before start of daily routine our body needs to get warmed up and ready. Otherwise whole day we suffer from lethargy. Before the start of first activity of the daily routing if optimum adrenaline is not produced then we don’t feel fresh. To do that we should get up at least one hour before start of one’s routine. For example, if having tea at 6 am, is the first thing one does, then the person should get up at 5 am instead of 5 minutes to 6 am. Once awake at 5 am, have 3 – 4 glasses of water, then freshen up in the wash room. Do some physical exercises and some breathing exercises. Suggested duration – 15 minutes physical exercises and 15 min breathing exercises that takes around 30 minutes. Now the body is woken up fully and ready to start the daily routine. This way our immune system is woken up fully and is far better equipped to combat the daily infection/ allergy onslaught. Optimum adrenaline is pumped up the spinal cord thereby our mental and physical faculties are completely woken up and ready for the daily routine. If this one-hour daily priming of our body is cultivated into a habit, one experiences a sense of wellbeing throughout the day. Whole day we get absorbed in a routine, for self and mostly for others. Therefore, we need to give our self, and our body at least one hour of attention before we start the activities of the day. Now the mental makeup exercises which are explained henceforth are additional and should be superimposed to get much better sense of wellbeing throughout the day. For this as stated in the foregoing, get up early morning around 1 and half hours before the start of our daily routine. Do the stated one-hour body prime up exercise and for next half hour, sit on a chair or cross legged as is comfortable. Choose a place where there is least disturbance, cacophony and start the exercise. For first two exercises one can sip a cup of tea while carrying out the exercise. …………Keep reading!!!!

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