April 13, 2022

Notes by Dhruva Shreejay

Review

We reviewed the first 5 of 9 virtues to always be happy:

Viveka – prioritization, our ability to know what is important and do it – having a plan each day

Vairagya – cheerful acceptance, how we can happily accept what is happening even if it isn’t going our way.  Steps to gaining cheerful acceptance: 

1. Understand we can’t control everything
2. See the positives in situations that seem negative
3. Find ways a “bad” situation can help you learn

Shama – quietude of mind, control of our thoughts.  The opposite of shama is distraction

The steps to achieve quietude of mind are:

1. Get a better relationship with our devices – they distract us a lot
2. Keep our bodies and spaces clean – the organization of your space reflects the organization of your mind 
3. Focus on service – help your agitated mind by thinking about something other than your problems by helping others

Dhama – discipline, our ability to do things regardless of our likes and dislikes – to control our actions.  Do something out of your comfort zone instead of what you want to do – do your responsibilities.  The opposite of discipline is indulgence 

Uparama – understanding, how we learn about others’ point of view and properly understanding how they feel.  Shankar-ji said that if you show a 6, others can interpret it as a 9.  If you try to see through only one point of view, there will be arguments.   Communicate your idea by being truthful and nice.  Do not gossip.  Gossip means to speak about someone when they aren’t around.  When we are talking, we don’t listen to speak, we listen to listen.  When we listen to speak, we want to talk about what we want to say.  When we listen to listen  

Virtue

In this class, we learned about the 6^th virtue, titiksha – endurance.  

Story

Shankar-ji used to stay in a place called Trinidad for studies.  While he was there, he and his friends were told that they were camping in the jungle.  They were excited.  They thought it would be like a vacation.  When they got there however, there was no electricity and they were staying in a hut.  The teacher immediately put them to work.  They had to shovel mud and kept getting bitten by mosquitos.  When they ate dinner, the teacher told them that they needed so much to be happy.  They needed A.C or heating, soft beds, good food, no bug bites to be happy.  Without endurance, we need so much comfort to enjoy ourselves.  We need endurance to help us enjoy ourselves in less comfortable situations. 

RAW

After you take a shower, before you get out, turn the heat to the lowest amount and stand in it for 15 full seconds.  We should see if we can bear that discomfort.