Hari Om! Parents,
We began class with starting prayers and Namasthe astu.... followed by
meditation with prompt for the mind to keep track of the fingers,
breath and surrounding temperature. Being aware of multiple objects
at the same time helps to experience the true expansive nature of our
awareness
We continued exploring the Chinmaya Mission pledge.
We live honestly, the noble life of sacrifice and service, producing
more than what we consume and giving more than what we take.
When is giving more effortless, natural- when and where there is love!
Which ties back to the first line of the pledge.
We seek the Lord's grace to keep us on the path of virtue, courage and
wisdom.May thy grace and blessings flow through us to the world around
us.
To protect against vanity and pride, what attitude must we have in a
life of giving? That all my talents and skills come from the Supreme
and all I need to do is become a channel for grace to flow.
We believe that the service of our country is the service of the Lord
of Lords and devotion to the people is devotion to the supreme Self.
Such an elevated vision, of seeing myself and others as expressions of
the same Self, Consciousness will make for a natural, effortless
loving service of people around us. Patriotism (not jingoism) will
spring in the heart making one value and preserve one's heritage.
We know our responsibilities.Give us the ability and courage to fulfill them.
Knowing what to do is perhaps the easier part of the challenge. Having
the discipline to do what needs to be done is critical- we all shared
examples of how we fell short in practicing what we know we ought to
do.
We then discussed Ahimsa. Non injury/ non violence at the level of
body, speech and mind.
We watched the famous incident in Gautham Siddharth's life.The
shooting of the swan by his cousin Devadatta and his saving the swan-
love, compassion find expression in ahimsa. This story can be seen in
the video below
The Time When Buddha Could Not Forgive - BUDDHA STORY -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlhFCeM4e10
We also concluded how we must begin with ahimsa towards one self-
treat own bodies, minds kindly and then one has a template for
treating others kindly.
Talked briefly about ahimsa being the first yama in the field of yoga.
In the west people refer to yoga as predominantly posture. The first
yama is ahimsa, and we can practice by being vigilant of our thoughts
and actions.
Told a story about a monk visiting a village which was terrorized by a snake.
The monk then teaches the snake about ahimsa, or not hurting anyone.
The monk leaves the village and comes back after a year to see the
snake skinny and bruised.
On enquiry he finds out that he had followed the monk's instructions
and was not hurting anyone. So the children in the village had started
to throw stones at him. The monk then said," True, I had taught you to
not hurt anyone, but not asked you not to hiss! Protecting ourselves
and others is not against ahimsa, but acting with clarity and love is
practicing true Ahimsa". This is a valuable lesson we learned from the
monk. We will continue our discussion next week.
The class then watched the performance by our 5th graders and then
sang the arathi and recited the pledge.
Our next BV class is on March 5th.
Pranams
Uma and Nirmala
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