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Staying Peaceful in Challenging Times · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:01
  Speaker A: Welcome, welcome, welcome to Spiritual Sense. Hello, Sheree.
• 0:05
  Speaker B: Hi, Michael.
• 0:09
  Speaker A: Oh, gosh. We often have the name of the game Contentment. Today we're, we're diving into contentment. How do we remain content, happy, peaceful, even if there are various challenges in our life? That is the topic of the day. Because all of us have various things that come up, right? There can be major things like health challenges or major money problems, relationship drama. And then there can be lots of like, tedious life, basic stuff that gets on our nerves as well. So how do we maintain our contentment, our happiness, our well being, even though there are all these things going on, going on around us? So this is a very deep thing. And first of all, before we get into it, would you like to be more content more often? Because I, I feel that the beginning part of anything is, do you want it? Do you actually want to feel better? More often when there is an interest in something, then it kind of opens the door for it. A lot of people don't think it's even possible to have higher states of consciousness or more happ. Happiness despite everything. So we start off from the position. It is possible, it's desirable. It's a good thing. And let's jump into how we can actually do it. So. Hello, Shirin. How are you doing?
• 1:42
  Speaker B: Hi, Michael. I have a question for you. We were supposed to start recording 40 minutes ago.
• 1:50
  Speaker A: We were, weren't we? And we have a busy schedule, don't we?
• 1:53
  Speaker B: And now. And you have a really busy schedule. And I have a really busy schedule. Today's lack of time, recording on time was because of me, because I had so many technical issues going on with my camera. How did you keep your contentment? You know, I think somehow situations test us. No, it knows. Like they know the drama. The universe knows that we are going to talk about this. So it tests us to see can you keep your contentment?
• 2:29
  Speaker A: Can you not get irritated by the endless barrage of extra random problems that somehow appear? You know, I had, I had this wasn't that hard because. Why wasn't it hard? It doesn't serve me to get irritated. I think that's what it comes down to. It's not adding anything of value. Like, I think I used to get more annoyed about things and nowadays I realize that I can get irritated and I still occasionally get, definitely still get irritated. But I've learned that having a good attitude and seeing the game is. Is more enjoyable for me. Like, I find it more pleasurable and I'd rather have more pleasure in my life than I would have more pain in my life. And so a lot of this is an inner game. We don't have to put up with it. A more challenging situation that I had recently was this beginning of the year, right? What is it? 7th January. Recording this. Whenever it comes out, it probably be later. So I had all these plans for the year, wrote everything down, got all my lists and everything. It's New Year, everything's great. And then I. It was the fourth of maybe the third. I was like, I feel like I've got these weird cold symptoms. I can't concentrate. My all stuffy, like I'm. What? How. How come? I've got this weird symptoms going on and on. And I didn't know what it was. So I went down to the health food store. I'm like, I've got all these weird symptoms and what is it? And they said, it sounds like you got allergies. And I said, because of what though? Because this winter. What Allergies. And they're because of these juniper trees. They're all going off and loads of other people have been coming in here with these allergies. And I felt relief knowing what it was because it was really bad. I couldn't do any work. Then I came home and I was like, where are these juniper trees exactly? And I wandered around and they're all around the house. Like they're literally the closest trees to the house, are all juniper trees. And I looked at them and I grabbed a branch and I shook it and just tons of powder comes out. Powder, powder, powder. Just like clouds of powder, which is a stupid thing to do, obviously, right? Because I'm. But now being exposed to like a hundred or a thousand times more. So it made it worse. But then I took a bunch of pills and whatever else. But the point is I could see the humor in the situation. And. And then with the humor it's like, okay, here's the situation. What do I need to do to deal with it? And now all the allergies have disappeared. So I almost feel like life gives us tests to see whether or not what we're made of. And then once we pass the kind of humor test, then the actual situation is no longer needed. And now the allergies somehow have disappeared. So I'm quite happy about that. But I can breathe properly again. Ah. So that's. That seems to be what comes up again and again and again in multiple different ways. Whether it's with people, with our body, with money, with projects, technical stuff. So Shreem. What do you think is the solution? How do we maintain happiness?
• 6:03
  Speaker B: Laughing at what just happened with how long I took to get ready. And I'm laughing also at your situation with allergies. And I was thinking for contentment, right? The underpinnings of contentment, the underpinnings of not getting upset with life is we need patience and tolerance. If we have patience and if we have tolerance, then there is contentment, but there has to be patience. If there is no patience, how can we have contentment if there is no tolerance? For example, if you weren't patient about the fact that you had allergies, if you didn't tolerate the fact that you were not feeling well and that you had to really wait for however long to start your projects, and it won't start in the New Year's, if you didn't have patience and tolerance, you wouldn't be able to have contentment.
• 7:03
  Speaker A: I suppose irritation is ultimately a lack of patience, isn't it?
• 7:07
  Speaker B: Right, right. And even tolerance, right? Tolerance of, like, situations like you have a plan and then nothing goes according to your plan. I mean, rarely. And like, for example, if I say, oh, I'm going to do this today, then I will have so many interruptions and so many things I have to get done, and then it takes much longer than I usually think it should take. And for all of those things, I need tolerance. And I feel there's a payoff at the end of patience and there's a payoff at the end of tolerance, and that is contentment.
• 7:51
  Speaker A: I mean, I remember Daddy Jenky like she's a spiritual master, really. She lived until she was 104. She used to say things like this. I remember her classes. You need, in order to have this, you need this virtue and this virtue and this virtue. And then if you want this, then you need this power and this power and this. She used to talk about these sorts of things quite a lot, right? And what came up in my mind, listening to her and. And again, now listening to you is. But how do you get those things? Because it sounds a little bit like saying all you need to solve your problems is $10 million. You know, it's like, all right, I agree, but how do you get 10.
• 8:37
  Speaker B: Million bucks just so patients come and patience doesn't come?
• 8:43
  Speaker A: Well, yeah, because if we had patience.
• 8:46
  Speaker B: You come and tolerance should come.
• 8:48
  Speaker A: There it is. Exactly. So where do they come from? How do you get them? If. Because, like, let's say I was. My eyes were like watering my nose, I'm coughing and spluttering and blah, blah, blah. Right. Where does this patience, intolerance appear from?
• 9:04
  Speaker B: Okay, the first thing is trust. Trust. And again, you might say, where does trust come from? Right? They all.
• 9:15
  Speaker A: Where they go, it comes out. Like, where is it coming out of?
• 9:18
  Speaker B: Okay, I was thinking about coming from. I was thinking about trust, that there has to be this deep, like, acceptance. And acceptance is a choice, a decision you can make right now. And acceptance that whatever is happening is good, whatever is going to happen is better. Whatever has happened is wonderful, you know? So there has to be that acceptance and that trust. Yes. This is happening for my benefit. That's one. And two, I feel is there are some spiritual laws, right? Like they're laws of gravity. If I keep saying I want to stand two feet above the ground, I cannot because law of gravity will pull me to the ground, Right? I can't just be standing on air and I can't be getting upset. Oh, I can't stand two feet above the ground because it's pulling me down. And I'm upset with the earth. I'm upset with gravity. I'm upset with myself. I'm feeling, oh, I'm not worthy because I'm not able to do this. But if I accept and if I understand the law of gravity, then all of those other things just go away. And so I feel acceptance and understanding the laws of spirituality. Then there is trust, then there is patience, then there's tolerance, and of course, then there is not getting upset and being right.
• 10:50
  Speaker A: So the end result over here is the process starts over here.
• 10:55
  Speaker B: Yeah, the process.
• 10:56
  Speaker A: Understanding and having trust, having acceptance, having a broader idea about life. The innocence that life is trying to help us out in mysterious ways. That's a. That's something we can think about. Like, is life conspiring to help us or is it conspiring to harm us? Like, where are we at with our belief about life? And if life is conspiring to help us, then that means that these situations are actually trying to serve us in some ways. And in retrospect, we can look back on our life and say, oh, that really unpleasant situation that I really didn't like actually turned out to be good, Right? Because we all have those sort of. Those awarenesses later on. But what we're talking about here is, as it's happening, to have some awareness that this must be beneficial and trusting that it's beneficial.
• 12:03
  Speaker B: You brought up a very, very interesting topic. And the interesting topic is, is life serving me or is life trying to bring me down? Right. Is the universe serving Me, is it bringing me down? Drama, universe, whatever you want to call it, situations, is it a benign, is it benign universe or is it harmful universe? Right? And I feel that's the fundamental question we need to ask ourselves. Is it designed for my benefit? And hopefully the answer you will answer for yourself is yes, it's designed for your benefit. Because like you are saying, look back in the past, past 10 years and see every time you wanted a situation to happen, it didn't happen. Or every time you wanted something to go certain way, but it went somewhere else and you really felt that the other direction was the best, it was really for your benefit. So think of all of those times, because we are powerful people, we are really powerful beings and if we have this mindset that then we attract those things. If I'm sitting here thinking, woe is me, the universe is horrible, it's going to bring me down, it's going to do everything in its power to do this, this and this, then what's going to happen? Then that's what I'll attract.
• 13:45
  Speaker A: This very deep thing, isn't it? So if we believe, I mean, I personally believe the universe, the life is trying to help me out. That's what I believe. And as a result, when things happen, then I, I ask myself, what's the secret benefit in this situation? Because I feel asking the question will lead to the answer quicker than if I sit back and say, oh my God. Because this is what I've noticed. Like, I remember one time I was working in this factory years and years ago when I, when I first came into this spiritual knowledge of 18, 19 and I had this job in a factory, right? And I remember one time I walked out and to go home early in the morning, right? It was a night shift and my bike had been stolen, right? So I'm, I'm like 10 miles away from my house and my bike. And it was, I just got it like it was brand new, it was super. It was this crew, like this cruiser bike, right? It was one of those old cruiser bikes, like surfer bike, really top quality one. And I had it for like two weeks. And I'm like, what the hell? So and I thought, hang on, this is when I just started all this practice, right? And I was like, so then I had to phone someone up to get a lift back and I didn't have a bike and then I needed a new bike. So luckily I had insurance on the bike, right? So I got insurance and I bought a racer, right, with really thin wheels, like a proper racing bike. And it was actually my fault the bike was stolen, because what had happened is I'd put the chain all the way around the bike, but not through the bike for some reason, right? So someone must have come along and gone, oh, and just pulled it out, basically. So it was my own mistake. But it turned out having a racer was way better because it made me get places much, much faster with a lot less work because these other bikes have thick, white wheels and they're like, you know, meant. So I turned out to be very, very, very useful that I got a new bike and it was better. But these sort of situations, they come up over and over and over and over again, don't they, Right?
• 16:14
  Speaker B: They do, they do.
• 16:18
  Speaker A: It's worth thinking. Just. Just ask the listeners, right? How many problems have you had in your life, right? You start writing a list. You get your pen and paper out, right? And you're like, all right, let me write them all down. This. We'd be here all day long, long, long, long, long, long lists of. But then you think, okay, how was that useful for you? And how was the next one useful? And if you go through it long enough, you think, ah, there's a. There's a. There's a pattern here, isn't there?
• 16:48
  Speaker B: You know, the other thing to understand is spiritual laws, right? You were asking, how do you get your $10 million? How do you get patience? How do you get. Tolerance is. If you understand the spiritual laws, then there is peace. Because spiritual laws, there are several spiritual laws, but for contentment, right? The one spiritual law which we need to understand is it's within my power to magnify something or minimize something. And if I want peace, then I shouldn't magnify it. And it's. I. I can make that choice. I don't need to magnify things.
• 17:38
  Speaker A: So you want to give an example?
• 17:41
  Speaker B: I think you should give an example because I was not the best example this morning of it, all, right?
• 17:48
  Speaker A: So. So I recently had some challenges in my work, right, Because I've been working on all this tedious technical stuff that I don't particularly like, right? So. So I'm. I'm coming into this situation. Very annoying. Loads of stuff that I don't like, right? So everything about it is the sort of thing that would be irritating to me, right? It's just like, classic. And initially I just got very irritated. I've just. Honest, I got. I was like, looked at it and I'm like, this is just how. So I'm thinking, why did this happen? How did it happen? Blah, blah. And then I thought, hang on a minute, this is opportunity, this is beneficial. And so I've had to deal with a bunch of annoying things which I've got less annoyed about by changing my attitude towards them. But the end result of that is that I can make it. I can see it as a big deal, it's such a big deal. Or I can shrink it down and say, this is just situation. So it's inst. In my head instead of thinking, oh, wow, look at all this complicated annoying stuff. I can see it smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And once it's smaller, like it's in my hand, like you were mentioning about Daddy Jenky used to do this, make it smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller. And then it's this little piece of cotton wool or this little situation. And then I can say, okay, this isn't a big deal. And not only is it not a big deal, there's. There's something good is going to come out of this. Right. And that allows it to be more manageable to deal with. Because one, because if it's smaller, you can handle it easier. And then because of making it smaller and not such a fuss about the whole thing, it then has become easier to deal with and improved as well. So it's like it feels better and it gets resolved quicker.
• 19:55
  Speaker B: Yeah. And it's in your hands. Right. It's not like you're just making it up. You can actually make it smaller by not thinking about it too much, by not comparing yourself, by not, you know, making a big deal, saying, this one did this and that, you can do this, you can do this. And actually, Dadi Janki was the first time when I saw that she was in a class she was sharing with us and she said, when a situation as big as a mountain comes, I make it smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. And I make it into a small cotton wool. I put it on my hand and I say woof. And it just goes away. And it just goes away because she faced so many situations and she came out so victorious. Right. How come some people face so many situations and come out feeling like nothing has happened to them? And some people feel like, oh, woe is me. And this is happening. That's happening. Right. It's within our. It's within our reach to be able to do this.
• 21:06
  Speaker A: Yeah. So it's an. So it's an inner game that we can change our perspective on the situation. That's how we can enjoy, or even either enjoy would be the highest level and lower level would be just tolerate it, you know, like, it can be amusing.
• 21:31
  Speaker B: Absolutely. Once we understand, you know, any life. Right. That's another spiritual law. Any life, anyone's life. Right now they have challenges because everyone, they are on a hero's journey. Right? Like, let's say, let's take Harry Potter. If J.K. rowling wrote about, oh, this guy, this little boy walking down and he went to school and he became a wizard and that's it, would anyone read those books? No. Would it be interesting? No. And would there be transformation in that kid? No. So all of the situations really help us move forward. That is a spiritual law. Every obstacle is actually a gift that helps us move forward. And when we accept the gift, if I keep struggling, then I won't accept the gift. And when I accept the gift, then I'm moving forward, I'm progressing, I'm transforming. And because of the challenges, I'm in a much better place because of them. And so that is something again, for contentment. Right. For peace. I need to understand that with every challenge, there's a gift that's coming. That's another spiritual law.
• 23:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, that. That's, that's a choice to have that attitude. And we can see from our past that it's true.
• 23:09
  Speaker B: Absolutely.
• 23:10
  Speaker A: You know, like, even. Even with, like, getting allergies, right. I didn't used to get. I've been living here a long time and I'm like, why? How come I'm getting allergies now and I never had them before? It doesn't matter exactly what the reason is, but now that I've loaded up on all these various things that are helping, I feel like once you take responsibility for your life, see, so the challenge comes. It forces us to do things differently in one way or another. And once things are done differently, the situation generally goes away. Right. And so that's great, isn't it? And. And if it happens again, then you know what to do about it. Right? So you go from being a victim to being sovereign and being in charge of things.
• 23:59
  Speaker B: Being a hero.
• 24:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. And we're dealing with these things all the time in different ways. Whether it's relationship things or business or service or money or health stuff. This is just like continuous. If this isn't one, it's another. Right. It just goes round around. And if we learn the lesson, then we become victorious and our life gets better. Like, there's always opportunities for little upgrades in all these different areas of our life. Some of them are internal and some of them are External, but they're constantly happening. Even if you like, try and avoid getting involved in drama, this is going to come to you, isn't it?
• 24:47
  Speaker B: Right. Absolutely. You know, another I was thinking about how to stay content, right. That was a very good question you asked is how do you have peace, how do you have patience, how do you have tolerance? Is really understanding, understanding the spiritual laws. There's one other spiritual law which I feel we need to understand, and that is none of us are alike. I cannot play the part you're playing and you cannot play the part I'm playing. But if I compare myself, right, no two people, right, If I compare myself, if I say, oh, they got more, I got less, or all of these things are going on is because we are not understanding the spiritual laws, is we all have different roles to play. We all have different parts in this world drama in this cosmic play, we all have a different role to play. No two people are alike and no two people will have the same life. And so if I don't understand that spiritual law, then there is comparison. And because there is comparison, then I think I have less and they have more. And then I'm thinking, oh, life is not fair. All of those things are happening. So there's no contentment.
• 26:13
  Speaker A: Yeah, that ruins contentment straight away, doesn't it? Comparison. And we don't understand what other people have done or what they haven't done either. Because a lot of people who seem to have everything easily, or whatever it is, they have done harder work a lot of the time, actually, or they've done different. Different things. Or we just. Or they have previous karma we don't. Can't see. So we don't even understand what's going on with the other people. And also it could be that they're not even happy and it's all a facade. And what we're comparing ourselves to, we wouldn't be happy about getting it.
• 26:52
  Speaker B: That's the point is, let's say you have a successful business and I compare myself to you and say I want a successful business, right, because of some comparison, but I might not be happy with it.
• 27:12
  Speaker A: Right?
• 27:12
  Speaker B: Right. I always ask myself if I'm not grateful for what I have, what makes me think I'll be grateful for whatever I get?
• 27:23
  Speaker A: That's a very, very deep question, isn't it? Yeah. If we're not content now, when, when is it ever going to happen?
• 27:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, when is it going to happen? Because we keep postponing and postponing and postponing.
• 27:37
  Speaker A: When is it ever going to happen. And if we were to take on someone else's life, we probably would have a pretty major meltdown and panic attack and just hate it right away. That's what we don't realize. Like, so many people think, oh, wouldn't it be great to be so and so? And then you spend, like, one hour in their life and you're like, whoa, definitely not keep, run, run, run, run for the hills. You know, but it. Because what works for one person doesn't work for somebody else. And it's just not our dharma. It's not our. Our path. So we. We have to figure out what kind of life do we. What is our highest life personally? What. What is it? That takes some deep introspection, isn't it? Who am I? Why am I here? What am I here to do? What is my unique role? How can I be of service in the greatest way with my limitations and skills and specialities that. That. We have to figure that out, don't we? We can't just look at someone else and copy them. These are all very deep things. Anything else for contentment that you've thought about?
• 28:45
  Speaker B: I was thinking about spiritual laws that underpin contentment. Another one is we have to give. If I have received something, and all of us in the world have received many blessings. Many blessings. It's not just physical, right? I'm not talking about physical things. Many, many blessings we have received. And whatever blessings I've received, let's not talk about money. Let's not talk about all of those things. But other blessings I've received. If I'm not sharing those blessings with people, then there is no contentment. Because only in the giving of my blessings do I, do I have contentment. And so there is a problem in identifying that, oh, we have blessings. We are so blessed. And even after identifying we are so blessed, then we have to learn to give those blessings.
• 29:49
  Speaker A: We normally think only getting counts, but actually giving in the giving, we receive ourselves. And it's not just like a nice idea. It's actually true. Like, if we give blessings like in our mind, we can practice this anytime we want. You imagine somebody and you imagine, may they be happy, may they be blissful, may they be wealthy. You send blessings. We feel great by doing that personally, don't we? They who knows what, whether they receive it and how much they receive it. That's hard to gauge, but we feel good doing it. And why do people donate to charity? Right? Because that feels good. And it feels like a. I go to the Buddhist stupor quite A lot, right? And there's a little donations box. And people are always putting money in the box like random tourists. Why are they doing it? They probably haven't been there before. But it feels good to give, doesn't it? And giving people food if they need food or there's lots and lots of ways to give, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, giving knowledge, giving sustenance, giving time, giving money and our skills, our experiences. If we're not using what we have, then it goes to waste. And if it goes to waste, then we feel discontent. So this is what you're talking about is a very deep level of contentment, isn't it? If we're using our specialties in the right way, then we are taking advantage of the wealth we have. And then it gets bigger and then life's better.
• 31:32
  Speaker B: Even giving a smile, right? Even if we feel, oh, I can't give anything, I don't have anything to give. All the people around you who are annoying you, smile at them and give them blessings. That's giving. And that giving will make you make us content. If you are miserly about our smile, if we are miserly about our good wishes and pure feelings for people, then there is no contentment. I was thinking about contentment is. I have to think of it as something that exists inside. I want you to see yourself as a soul. And within the soul there is this facet, which is a very unique facet. It's not like the spiritual powers. It's not like other virtues. Contentment is very unique. It has its own facet. It's huge, right? And it's there. It's there within the soul. But that facet, like on a diamond, right? Think of the soul as a diamond. And the facet of contentment and that facet is covered by. With mud. And because it's covered with mud, I think it's not there. The mud could be. I'm not understanding what's going on. The mud could be comparison. The mud could be I'm jealous. The mud could be I'm critical of people. You know, all of these things, right? It could be anything. And so now I have to tell myself, I have to accept that that's me. I'm actually a jewel of contentment to begin with. That is who I am. That's my original nature. And then because of all of these things, layers on the soul, then I'm not able to be in contentment. But don't worry about the layers. Keep going back, keep going back to, yes, I am a jewel of contentment. I am a jewel of contentment. Just keep accepting that. Keep like a mantra, keep affirming that, yes, I'm a jewel of contentment. And then you will see that you start being content.
• 33:59
  Speaker A: That's the original state of the soul, the self, isn't it? The jewel of contentment. Completely content, relaxed, satisfied. That's our natural state. And that's why we like feeling that, isn't it? We like feeling content and peaceful and satisfied. And we want it because we, it's natural to us. And that's, that's what's going on underneath everything. Even like I was thinking about gold, right? There's 24 karat gold, 18 karats like that, right? And then there's seven karat. And then there's the alloy, the gold. Even though it has alloy mixed in it, it's still, there's still gold there. That's gold that's different from the alloy. And you can remove the alloy out of the gold and then it becomes pure gold again. So that what we are, even though we have stuff mixed in us, is still gold, isn't it?
• 34:52
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 34:53
  Speaker A: And that is contentment. And that's peaceful and loving and blissful.
• 34:59
  Speaker B: So yay. Hooray for contentment.
• 35:03
  Speaker A: Hooray for concern. We should read about contentment in the book then your blessing.
• 35:07
  Speaker B: Book content.
• 35:09
  Speaker A: Think about how you can use this contentment. Whatever you've learned in your life. And we will finish with a blessing. Receive the blessing.
• 35:21
  Speaker B: The turbulent seas of your life are navigated under God's love. You found shelter in embracing peace and your real identity in every storm. Letting go of comparison with others. There is joy in trusting your unique path.
• 35:43
  Speaker A: That's very deep. So trust in your unique path.
• 35:54
  Speaker B: Letting go of comparison. Trust your unique path and embracing our real identity in every storm. Who am I? Actually, that's something I was thinking about. When this morning when we were talking about what are we going to talk about? Contentment. That was the first thought that came to me. I don't know why I didn't share that before. Is in any situation, if I ask myself who am I, then there is contentment. If the answer is my real identity, then there is contentment.
• 36:36
  Speaker A: So there we have it. May everyone remain continuously content jewels of contentment with ease and grace for the rest of the year and beyond. Yay. Thank you, Shereen. Thank you everybody. Oh, many, many blessings. And let us know in the comments if you like what you can do to feel content personally, what gets you upset and how can you use these things to be more content. We'd love to hear from you. Have fun, enjoy, and talk to you soon.