Ajay0

Informative article by Sister Shivani of the Brahmakumaris on using willpower to overcoming negative sanskars (habitual tendencies) into positive ones. Sanskar is an Indian word meaning subconscious impressions that determines a habitual tendency. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/using-willpower-means-exercising-our-power-to-choose-and-to-do-what-we-want-bk-shivani-in-the-power-of-one-thought/articleshow/102537823.cms?from=mdr

Researchers have found that meditation offers genuine pain relief that goes beyond the placebo effect of expecting a response. https://www.sciencealert.com/not-a-placebo-study-finds-meditation-offers-genuine-pain-relief

The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. Purity of the mind must be insisted upon if you would control it.....Perfect morality is the all in all of the complete control over mind. ~ Swami Vivekananda Morality requires a certain degree of mental control as a prerequisite. You can’t follow any set of moral precepts without at least a little self-control, and if your mind is perpetually spinning like a fruit cylinder in a slot machine, self-control is highly unlikely. So mental culture has to come first. ~ Henepola Gunaratana,

Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak. ~ Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati 'Often you do the act thinking it’s coming from a deep place, and then a moment later, you see the dissonance that it creates, or the feeling that it’s not quite right, and there’s a tuning mechanism. You keep using feedback. There’s a feedback process, to learn how to listen to that. The more you go into meditative practice, the deeper you can hear it. Part of it is learning how to trust that inner voice. People who are very enamored with their intellect don’t trust that inner space.' ~ Ram Dass https://www.ramdass.org/know-difference-ego-true-nature/

The festival of Onam in south India begins on September 6 and end on September 15. It is in honor of an ancient Indian ruler named Mahabali who was known for his generosity and virtuous conduct. Due to the large spiritual merit attained by him in this universal cycle, Mahabali is said to ascend to the post of Indra, the king of the gods in heaven, in the next universal cycle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onam

“Using intuitive intelligence alone is not enough. The concept or ideas that have been internally gathered by intuitive intelligence must still be analyzed, scrutinized and validated by using mental intelligence and actual experimentation.” ― Choa Kok Sui, The Origin of Modern Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga “Geniuses use intuition and are far superior to the intelligentsia and the masses. A genius uses intuition to know the truths and extracts secrets from Mother Nature; he uses the intellect to validate or check what has been learned intuitively. A genius is one who uses both intuition and intellect in a coordinated, effective and objective manner. It is the purpose of the human race to eventually develop the intuition.” ― Choa Kok Sui, The Chakras and their Functions

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. ~ Harper Lee Conscience is a man's compass. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

A recent study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology by researchers from the Universities of Bath and Southampton reveals that just 10 minutes of daily mindfulness practice can enhance well-being, alleviate depression and anxiety, and increase motivation to adopt healthier lifestyle habits, such as improved exercise, eating, and sleeping routines. The research, which enrolled 1247 adults from 91 countries, demonstrates that brief daily mindfulness sessions, delivered through a free mobile app Medito, can have profound benefits.. https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjhp.12745 https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-just-10-minutes-of-mindfulness-can-reduce-depression-by-19/

Going through a buddhist theravada website, I found the following explanation of the eight fold path, which I found useful and insightful... https://www.sangha.ee/buddha-s-teaching/noble-eightfold-path Would this prioritize right view and right resolve over the others as the rest such as right action, speech and livelihood would follow in their wake !

“Conscience is the voice of the soul; the passions of the body.” ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau "Whence do I get my rules of conduct? I find them in my heart. Whatever I feel to be good is good. Whatever I feel to be evil is evil. Conscience is the best of casuists." ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Are you perplexed by the problem of life? Don't worry! go into silence! Thou will glimpse a solution. ~ Sadhu Vaswani Intuition is the inner sense, the spiritual sense – as distinguished from the physical senses.~ Sadhu Vaswani Do not allow the voice of your conscience to be extinguished - for it is your guide to right thinking and right living! ~ Dada J.P.Vaswani Trust the Voice within you! It will lead you on! ~ Dada J.P.Vaswani

Insightful article by the Brahmakumaris on developing one's intuition. https://www.brahmakumaris.com/soul-sustenance/practice-listening-to-your-intuition/

“Practice stillness and find solace in silence. The answers reside in the quiet spaces within.” ~ Sister Shivani ( Prajapita Brahmakumaris ) Intuition is the inner tuition you get when you spend time in silence. ~ Brahmakumaris A silent mind can silently find accurate and creative solutions to every problem. ~ Brahmakumaris Your conscience is your core, innately pure and divine. It is always there to guide your actions but its voice is unheard by the noise of your waste thoughts. Your only effort is to quiet your mind by tool of awareness and your peace will emerge. ~ Brahmakumaris

“If we can feel that it is not our voice, not our fingers, but some reality deep inside our heart which is expressing itself, then we will know that it is the soul’s music.” — Sri Chinmoy Conscience can live in two places: In the heart of truth and in the mouth of falsehood. When conscience strikes us once, we must think that it is showing us its unconditional love. When it strikes us twice, we must feel that it is showing us its unreserved concern. When it strikes us thrice, we must realise that it is offering us its boundless compassion to prevent us from diving deep into the sea of Ignorance. — Sri Chinmoy https://www.yogaofsrichinmoy.com/the-higher-worlds/inner-voice/

Gary Weber recounts on how the teachings of Ramana Maharshi influenced him to shed the excitement seeking ego, resulting in enlightenment . https://happiness-beyond-thought.com/legacy/theauthor.html

An interview with Gary Weber where he elaborates on SRIN meaning 'self-referential internal narrative'. https://www.spiritualteachers.org/gary-weber/

A good conscience is a continual Christmas. ~ Benjamin Franklin Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. ~ Albert Einstein "There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders." ~ Captain Picard (STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION)

The foundation of the true joy is in the conscience. ~ Seneca “There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen.” ~ Jallalludin Rumi

If I may say so, imho, the so-called Angra Mainyu and Satan in the Abrahamic systems stands for the untamed or untrained mind cited in eastern religious philosophies. As per eastern religious philosophy, the mind is considered to correlate with Maya/Mara. The nature of the raw mind is to tend to the negative, as per eastern religious philosophy. Hence training of the mind is emphasized to overcome these defects and ensure the mind becomes an asset instead of a liability. It is to be noted that in the Gatha, or primary Zoroastrian scriptures, the prophet Zarathustra does not mention any evil spirit. The enemy of the divine order is considered as "the Lie" , an abstract concept that is impersonal. It possibly denotes the same meaning as falsehood or delusion in the Dharmic religions. The satan-like evil spirit of Angra Mainyu seems to be a later development. As per the article, Angra Mainyu can also be conceptually spoken as 'destructive mind' or 'malignant mentality' , similar to that of the dharmic interpretation. It is possible that the prophet similarly meant Angra Mainyu to be the 'untamed mind', which was later personified or anthropomorphized as an evil spirit of sorts and probably the antecedent to the Abrahamic Satan.

I think it is the Zoroastrian religion with its dualistic concepts of light and darkness that may have influenced Judaism and the rest of the other Abrahamic religions with similar concepts of dualism. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Zoroastrianism Angra Mainyu in Zoroastrianism could be the antecedent of the Satan in the Abrahamic religions.

“Civilization is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To observe morality is to attain mastery over our mind and passions. So doing, we know ourselves.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi “Wilfulness is not conscience. . . . Conscience is the ripe fruit of strictest discipline. . . . Conscience can reside only in a delicately tuned breast.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

You can pair the mantra chanting with meditation. Practice is best during dawn and evening, at the junctions of day and night. I remember reading about the mantra by a sage stating that the mantra should be pronounced precisely, as the sanskrit words have a lot of potency attached to them. If it cannot be precise, then chanting it with love and feeling can achieve the purpose. There are videos in the net describing the chant. Here is an article where you can find tips on the mantra... https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/soul-search/the-importance-of-chanting-gayatri-mantra-early-in-the-morning/photostory/107819231.cms?picid=107819254

Somewhere, right at the bottom of one’s own being, one generally does know where one should go and what one should do. But there are times when the clown we call “I” behaves in such a distracting fashion that the inner voice cannot make its presence felt. ~ Carl Jung The ego constantly competes with the spirit for control over your inner voice. ~ Darren Johnson “When many voices are speaking at once, listen to the one most quiet and gentle. That’s the one worth listening to. ~ Miranda Linda Weisz

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's ' Crime and Punishment' , considered by some to be the greatest novel of all time.

And everyone who wills can hear the Voice. It is within every one. But like everything else it requires previous and definite preparation. ~ Mahatma Gandhi The inner voice is something which cannot be described in words. But sometimes we have a positive feeling that something in us prompts us to do a certain thing. The time when I learnt to recognize this voice was, I may say, the time when I started praying regularly. ~ Mahatma Gandhi Presently we have to train our unconscious to function better. Then we can depend upon our instincts, that will be noble instincts. At this moment, our instincts are very impure. When we have practiced for a long time, living the higher values of life and following the instructions of great masters or the Scriptures, that is when you have trained your unconscious. Then when a situation comes, you can to an extent, depend on your inner voice. ~ Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati The word mantra comes from two Sanskrit words man, ("to think") and tra ("tool'). So the literal translation is "a tool of thought." And that's how mantras are used in Buddhist and Hindu practices, as tools that clear your mind of distractions. Because when you focus on repeating that mantra over and over again, soon the noise will die down and all you will hear is your inner voice. ~ Russell Simmons