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Simply copying the strategies of a friend or acquaintance is a simple way to help reach your self-improvement goals, research finds.
People looking to exercise more, eat better or work harder can just ‘cut-and-paste’ the hacks that others use.
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SPRTULTY AT LEAST CALMS SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM
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Your response is always more powerful than your circumstance.
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The best things happen at the exit ramp of your comfort zone."
-- Karen Salmansohn
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The prayer starting Gajnanam Bhootha Ganadhi Sevitham extols the glory of the form of Ganapathi or Ganesha. The mantra can be chanted in the morning and evening during prayers. Here is the meaning of prayer along with the English lyrics. Benefits of chanting the prayer are auspiciousness, success, good luck and health body.
Kapitha Jambu Manasara Bakshitham
Uma Sutham Soka Vinasha Karanam
Namami Vigneshwara Padha Pankajam
गजाननं भूतगणादि सेवितं
कपित्थजम्बूफलसार भक्षितम् ।
उमासुतं शोकविनाशकारणं
नमामि विघ्नेश्वर पादपङ्कजम् ॥
I prostrate myself before the lotus feet of Vighneshwara, the son of Uma, the destroyer of sorrows of his devotees, who is served by the Ganas (celestial beings), who has the face of an elephant and who takes as his food, the essence of Kapitha (wood apple) and jambu (rose apple) fruits.
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The chapter 2 of Dnyaneshwari (the Marathi interpretation of Bhagavad Gita by Sant Dnyaneshwar Maharaj) explains how controlling sense organs can lead us to a better life.
Seekers practice restraint and give up sense-pleasures; but they too can get entangled in various types of sense-pleasures if while restraining the ears, eyes etc., they fail to restrain the tongue. (2:303-304).
One can restrain himself from all sense pleasures except that of the tongue. One cannot forcibly restrain the pleasure of the tongue because our life depends on food. But when a seeker attains Self-realisation, the tongue naturally gets controlled and since the "I am the body" feeling has left him he forgets all sense-pleasures. (2:307-309).
These organs cannot be brought under control by any other means. (NB: It is implied that external means like rituals, fasts etc. are not useful. Internal means like meditation, introspection and experience only are useful for the purpose). Because even those who constantly try to conquer them and keep their minds under control by observing strict rules and restrictions, are harassed by them.
He who leaves all desire of pleasures, controls his organs and is not allured by the sense-pleasures is alone worthy of the trust set by yoga i.e. steadiness of intellect. Such a person has the knowledge of the Self and never forgets me. (2:315-317).
He who outwardly gives up sense-objects but keeps on thinking about them must be considered as being entangled only in the materialistic world. (2:318).
A slightest trace of desires remaining in the mind destroys discretion. (2:320). Mere memory of these sense-pleasures creates desire for them in the mind of even a detached person. Passions then arise in the mind and where there is passion there is also anger. Anger leads to thoughtlessness. Thoughtlessness leads to loss of memory and then the intellect is engulfed by the darkness of ignorance. The intellect then suffers and loses direction. Thus, the loss of memory leads to confused intellect and this in turn destroys all knowledge. In this way, even occasional memory of the sense-pleasures can lead to such downfall.
Therefore, when these sense-pleasures are totally removed from the mind, anger and hate are automatically destroyed. When anger and hate are destroyed then even if the organs become engaged in the sense-pleasures they do no harm. (2:321-332). Such a person is detached towards sense objects, free of desire and anger and remains engrossed in the bliss of the Self. (2:334). He who thus remains absorbed in the Self may be considered without doubt to have a stable intellect.
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INDRAS NET
“Throughout the universe there’s a network of wires stretching to infinity. The horizontal wires are placed in space; the vertical in time. Everywhere where these wires cross each other, there’s an individual. And every individual is a crystal bead. The big light of an Absolute Being enlightens and penetrates each crystal bead. And every crystal bead reflects not only the light of all other crystals in the network, but also every other reflection, from all corners of the Cosmos.” The Rigveda – Indra’s Net
Far, far away, in the abode of the great god Indra, king of heaven, hangs a wondrous vast net, much like a spider’s web in intricacy and loveliness. It stretches out indefinitely in all directions. At each node, or crossing point, of the net hangs a single glittering jewel. Since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. The sparkling jewels hang there, suspended in and supported by the net, glittering like stars, dazzling to behold.
Close your eyes, now, and imagine what this magnificent jeweled net looks like, spread across the vast expanse of space. Now, keep your eyes closed and move in close to one jewel in the net. Look closely, and you will see that the polished surface of the gem reflects all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number, just as two mirrors placed opposite each other reflect an image ad infinitum. Each jewel reflected in this gem you are gazing into also reflects all the other jewels, so that the process of reflection is itself infinite.
Now open your eyes, and know that you are a sparkling jewel in Indra’s Net, as is every person around you. Every jewel is connected with all the other jewels in the net; every person is intimately connected with all the other persons in the universe. Each has an independent place within the net and we all reflect and influence each other. A change in one jewel—or person—produces a change, however slight, in every other. Realize, too, that the infinite reflections speak to the illusory nature of appearances. Appearances are not, in fact, reality, but only a reflection; the true nature of a thing is not to be captured in its appearance. However powerful that appearance might be, it is yet only a reflection of what is real.
In addition, whatever you do to one jewel affects the entire net, as well as yourself. You cannot damage one strand of a spider web without injuring the entire web, and you cannot damage one strand of the web that is the universe without injuring all others in it, whether that injury is known or unknown to them. This can work for good or ill because, of course, just as destructive acts affect the entire net, so do loving, constructive, compassionate acts affect the entire net. A single helpful act—even a simple act of kindness—will send positive ripples across the infinite net, touching every jewel, every person in existence.
Conclusion
The ancient Hindu mystics said everything in the universe was inextricably interconnected, and they used Indra’s net to illustrate the concept. “If the net is multi-dimensional, the points where the strings of the net connect would be like intersecting points from which one could access the whole net. One tug pulls the whole net, one tug connects you to the whole net. Basically, that is how synchronicity works,” writes Shawn Randall, Synchronicity in Your Life.
The Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu religious poem, recognizes the synchronous nature of creation and an underlying cosmic unity. The Hindu term, Brahman, refers to the fundamental connection of all things in the universe. The appearance of this universal oneness in the soul is called Atman.
Some may call it ‘luck’ or ‘coincidence,’ but synchronicity is neither of these things. Synchronistic events are distinguished by a spiritual clarity, in which you know that you are the ultimate Creator of everything that occurs in your life. In the Hindu tradition, synchronicity can be conceptualized with the aid of the beautiful metaphor of Indra’s Net. In this metaphor, strands of a cosmic, inter-dimensional web connect everyone and everything in all of existence, and where the strands come together, there are countless, stunningly beautiful crystalline beads or water droplets.
Every single one of these beads or droplets reflects the entirety of the web as a whole—they carry within them the reflection of All That Is, you see. When one is clear, clear about who I Am in the deepest of spiritual senses, then like a glowing bead in Indra’s net, those reflections of All That Is shine out and through. The points of connection find their place, and everything syncs up. You become in tune with the universe, and this is synchronicity. Yes, in a sense you are creating it, but in a greater sense you are merely allowing it to take place, for it is the natural course of thing.
In quantum physics, this hidden reality, this universal consciousness, is known as the non-local mind. Quoting Deepak Chopra on the non-local mind from The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: “Operating outside the boundaries of normal space and time, it is the great organizing and unifying force in the universe, infinite in scope and duration. By its nature, nonlocal mind connects all things because it is all things. It requires no attention, no energy, no approval; it is whole unto itself, and therefore attracts love and acceptance.”
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Desire makes even an atom appear as great as Mount Meru before it is achieved, and vice versa after it is achieved. Desire is a bottomless abyss that is impossible to fill.
—Ramana Maharshi
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On Gardens and the Way
Muso Soseki (1275-1351)
From ancient times until now there have been many who have delighted in raising up mounds of earth, making arrangements of stones, planting trees, and hollowing out watercourses. We call what they make “mountains and streams.” Though all seem to share a common liking for this art of gardening, they are often guided by very different impulses.
There are those who practice the art of gardening out of vanity and a passion for display, with no interest whatever in their own true natures. They are concerned only with having their gardens attract the admiration of others.
And some, indulging their passion for acquiring things, add these “mountains and streams” to the accumulations of rare and expensive things that they possess, and end up by cherishing a passion for them. They select particularly remarkable stones and uncommon trees to have for their own. Such persons are insensible to the beauty of mountains and streams. They are merely people of the world of dust.
Po Lo-t’ien dug a little pool beside which he planted a few bamboos, which he cared for with love. He wrote a poem about them:
The bamboo—its heart is empty.
It has become my friend.
The water—its heart is pure.
It has become my teacher.
Those everywhere who love mountains and rivers have the same heart as Lo-t’ien and know the way out of the dust of the world. Some whose nature is simple are not attracted by worldly things, and they raise their spirits by reciting poems in the presence of fountains and rocks. The expression “a chronic liking for mist, incurably stricken by fountains and rocks” tells something about them. One might say that these are secular people of refined taste. Though they are in the world and without the spirit of the Way, this love of the art of gardens is nevertheless a root of transformation.
In others there is a spirit that comes awake in the presence of these mountains and rivers and is drawn out of the dullness of daily existence. And so these mountains and rivers help them in the practice of the Way. Theirs is not the usual love of mountains and rivers. These people are worthy of respect. But they cannot yet claim to be followers of the true Way because they still make a distinction between mountains and rivers and the practice of the Way.
Still others see the mountain, the river, the earth, the grass, the tree, the tile, the pebble, as their own essential nature. They love, for the length of the morning, the mountain and river. What appears in them to be no different from a worldly passion is at once the spirit of the Way. Their minds are one with the atmosphere of the fountain, the stone, the grass, and the tree, changing through the four seasons. This is the true manner in which those who are followers of the Way love mountains and rivers.
So, one cannot say categorically that a liking for mountains and rivers is a bad thing or a good thing. There is neither gain nor loss in the mountain and the river. Gain and loss exist only in the human mind.
Bamboo Garden
The third one crooked the second one leaning
bamboos have grown
by the stone steps of the garden
every year
there are more of them
until now they are a forest
At the clack of a stone on a bamboo
Hsiang-yen shattered
the uncountable worlds
but this garden
continues in its green shade
just as before
Muso Soseki (1275-1351)
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