The Living Journal - Reflections

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

However many holy words you read, however many holy words you speak, what good will they do, if you do not act upon them ? 
Quoted by the Lord Buddha.

Love yourself and be awake,
Today, tomorrow, always,
Then teach others and so defeat sorrow.
To straighten the crooked, 
You must first do a harder thing - Straighten yourself.
You are only the master. Who else?
Subdue yourself,  and be your master.
Quoted by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

Reflection, look at ourselves in the mirror and observe what you see. See yourself the way others see you. Sense and feel what you see.

How can we applying the Dharma in our daily life?

How do we recognize that we all have drifted away from the precious Dhama once taught by our Guru?  

How should we respond and react to the self reflections?

REFLECTIONS

Reflection is the art of thinking on one's virtues and faults. It is also the ability to reflect on your feelings and thoughts. This also includes reflecting on the thoughts, emotions and the feelings of others. This can help to improve oneself as you assess and reflect upon the decisions you made in life.

Use our reflections as an opportunity to make profound and positive change in your life. This will depend greatly on the outcome of your reflections, also on the correctness and spontaneous feelings of these reflections.

Seek a place of solitude and silence and to relax yourself you need to be in an unperturbed state of mind in order to reflect or look back through your thoughts on both the positive and negative actions that you had done of the day. 

Feel the sensations strongly and revive these experiences. Understand why you were feeling sad or happy at the time, and contemplate on the reasons behind these feelings. This will help put things in perspective and also clear your mind on future actions and changes you need to make.

Increase your awareness and observation of events around you. This can be easily accomplished by being conscious of the “here and now", living in the moment so to speak.  Reflections are also an ideal way of helping improve on your sensing and feeling skills. You will become better with time but try not to drive yourself into a depression if the realities you encounter become too difficult to bear.

At least once a day, I reflect on my day, on my life, on what I have been doing right, and what isn’t working. I reflect on some aspect of my life, and from this habit of reflection, I am able to improve. One of my favorite times to reflect is during my exercise. Some of my post ideas come during exercise and meditation at the end of the day.

If you post on a website, or a forum that viewable to friends. Your reflections are shared with others, and once people start to read them and expect them, you will feel that positive public pressure to keep it up. Self-reflection is a humbling process. It's essential to find out why you think, say, and do certain things. That is what has happened and it’s been a great thing for me.

Thank you for reading and may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

May the precious Bodhichitta arise

Where it has not arisen

And where it has arisen may it not decrease

But increase further and further.

Nagarjuna's Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migrators from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note*

I do not own or infringe any copyright of these pictures.

Pictures courtesy and credit to the rightful owners.