Shri Jagat Singh Bisht
(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator, and Speaker.)
Authored six books on happiness: Cultivating Happiness, Nirvana – The Highest Happiness, Meditate Like the Buddha, Mission Happiness, A Flourishing Life, and The Little Book of Happiness. He served in a bank for thirty-five years and has been propagating happiness and well-being among people for the past twenty years. He is on a mission – Mission Happiness!
☆ Positive Education # 13: Meditation and Spirituality ☆
Recipe for A stress-free life
“Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.”
St. Francis de Sales
Meditation and spirituality give us peace of mind and enhance our well-being. Daily meditation reduces stress, calms our nerves, and leads us to serenity. Living a spiritual life keeps us away from negativity and fills our heart with kindness and generosity towards all living beings.
The practice of meditation is especially useful for children in developing concentration and focussing on their studies. It improves memory and makes them more creative.
According to Matthieu Ricard, “Meditation is a practice that makes it possible to cultivate and develop certain basic positive human qualities in the same way as other forms of training make it possible to play a musical instrument or acquire any other skill.”
When you are young, make it a habit to sit down, with legs folded crosswise, for ten to fifteen minutes daily. Keep your back straight but not stiff. Close your eyes and be still. Observe your breath, around the nostrils, quietly and attentively. Look at yourself from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, keeping your eyes closed.
Grown-ups must meditate for thirty to sixty minutes daily. Along with breath, they may observe their feelings and thoughts dispassionately. Just observe, let them float away like clouds, do not get involved. Early morning is the best time for meditation. Its fragrance will linger all through the day.
Experienced meditators have demonstrated qualities of focused attention that are not found among beginners. For example, they are able to maintain more or less perfect concentration on a particular task for forty-five minutes, whereas most people cannot go beyond five or ten minutes before they begin making an increasing number of mistakes.
“Mindfulness is a kind of energy that helps us to be fully present in the here and the now, aware of what is going on in our body, in our feelings, mind, and in the world, so that we can get in touch with the wonders of life that nourish and heal us,” says Matthieu Ricard.
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
Spirituality
Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives. In general, it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than us, and it typically involves a search for meaning in life.
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that spiritual practices are associated with better health and wellbeing. Spiritual strength can help you overcome hardships.
According to Dalai Lama, “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions. Ultimately, the source of happiness and joyfulness is within ourselves.”
Nurturing and developing your spirituality may be just as important as eating a healthy diet, exercising, and building strong relationships.
Taking the time to reconnect with what you find meaningful in life and returning to life’s big questions can enhance your own sense of connection with something larger than yourself.
All the religions of the world have spirituality at their core. Spirituality means loving kindness and compassion for all sentient beings. A spiritual being harms no living being, performs wholesome deeds, and avoids unwholesome actions.
Spirituality may be expressed by working for a noble and worthy cause – taking care of the environment, conservation of wild life, rescuing child labour, educating girl child, feeding hungry ones, and healing those who are suffering from misery and illness.
The essence of spirituality has been beautifully summed up in this verse of the Dhammapada, one of the most widely read books on spirituality:
“Abstain from all unwholesome deeds,
Perform wholesome ones,
Purify your mind.
This is the teaching of the Enlightened Ones.”
Any action that harms others, that disturbs their peace and harmony is a sinful action, an unwholesome action. Any action that helps others, that contributes to their peace and harmony, is a pious action, a wholesome action.
One must abstain from any misconduct in speech, bodily actions, and mental thoughts. The aim of spirituality is taking fellow human beings from misery to happiness and creating an environment of world peace and harmony.
“All the joy the world contains,
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains,
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.”
Shantideva
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Please click on the following links to read previously published posts “Positive Education” 👉
Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator, and Speaker
Founder
A Pathway to Authentic Happiness, Well-Being & A Fulfilling Life! We teach skills to lead a healthy, happy and meaningful life.
The Science of Happiness (Positive Psychology), Meditation, Yoga, Spirituality and Laughter Yoga. We conduct talks, seminars, workshops, retreats and training.
≈ Editor – Shri Hemant Bawankar/Editor (English) – Captain Pravin Raghuvanshi, NM
