Episode Transcript
I am trying all these spiritual practices and I'm doing all this meditation, but how is it supposed to work in life? We're gonna talk about that in this lesson four of The Raja Yoga Foundation course here on The Spiritual American. We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare, and this is the Spiritual American. Welcome back everyone. Thank you for joining us again. This is part four of the Raja Yoga Foundation course. Today we are going to be talking about the eight powers of the soul. So I'm gonna show you a book. I'm gonna show you a book that we're gonna be using. This isn't a book by another Brahma Kumari named. Oops, can we show it? Okay. The Quest for Wellbeing by Anthony Strano and I highly recommend, I'll put a link for this book in the description. Okay. I highly recommend getting this book. I think it's a great way to go through the eight powers. We're gonna go through the eight powers of the Soul today. Of course, there are more than eight powers, but we're gonna go through a process by which all this spiritual knowledge works on the field. I think it's very helpful to understand the way you can use all this information to make the kind of changes that we wanna make. So there is eight powers, and I'm gonna put up a picture here and I'm gonna do my best to tell you what the picture is and what we're looking at because I'm, like I said, I'm going by the book because I like how I'm not, I'm not expressing it exactly the way Anthony did, but I like his pictures and I like the imagery, and that's the imagery we're gonna use. Now, the way I like to talk about the eight powers is the first five powers are about saving energy. And what do I mean by that? If I'm angry, I'm losing energy. If I'm thinking too much, I'm losing energy. If I'm not taking care of myself, I'm losing energy. If I am fighting with people, I'm losing energy. So negative emotions overthinking over emo emoting, maybe have feeling guilt, feeling anxious, feeling depressed, feeling whatever. Those are all loss of energy. Worrying about other people is loss of energy. Reacting to other people is loss of energy. So normally throughout the day, I'm probably losing a lot of energy. So the first five powers are about noticing and stopping this energy loss. So the first power is the power of introspection. And you're gonna see it on the top there, and you're gonna see a picture of a knight and a horse looking in the pond, and they're looking at their reflection. So the first power is the power of introspection. I am not looking outside anymore. I'm turning my attention towards myself now, I'm not going to think about or blame what's going on. I'm gonna look at the feelings inside. So for instance, I'm walking at school or at work and I walk past one of my friends or a teacher or something, and they don't say hello to me. So right away I am starting to think, or I feel bad, or I feel ignored, or something like that. Or maybe I feel a little jealous. Maybe it's a different situation. Maybe somebody got acknowledged and I didn't, and now I feel jealous and I wanna blame them or focus on them, or say how they did something wrong. But the power of introspection means that now I'm gonna forget what happened, and I'm gonna look at the feelings themselves, what is going on inside of me. Introspection. I like to use the words, why am I upset? Or What's happening? What's happening inside right now? Usually we use this for negative feelings, right? So introspection means what's going on with me right now. Second, power is discernment. And discernment is I'm looking and seeing what's happening inside. I feel jealous. I feel ashamed. I feel humiliated. I feel embarrassed. I feel unloved. I feel unworthy. That's what I feel inside. So I'm taking a look and seeing what I feel. And in the picture, in the second picture, this discernment is the horse and the knight are on top of the battlement and they're looking in that long looking glass, that telescope looking glass, and they're looking out. So the discernment means I'm seeing what's going on inside of me and I'm figure, I'm looking at it and I'm seeing what's happening. I'm discerning what's going on. Third power is the power of decision making. So based on this discernment, I'm going to make some kind of decision. I'm either gonna talk, not talk, leave, say something, not say something, take care of myself. I'm going to make some kind of choice in terms of my behavior. So in the picture it shows I'm glancing down here 'cause I can't, I don't have the picture in front of me. So I'm looking down here. There is the knight and the horse are now saying goodbye, and they're going off to their mission, to their journey, their quest. And so they made the decision. They looked at themselves, they looked at what's going on, and now they made the decision. So in this case, maybe, maybe I'm in a middle of a fight and I realize, or maybe. People are saying something to me and I don't feel too happy or I don't feel too comfortable. So I'm looking at my discomfort and I'm, now I have to decide what am I gonna do about it? And maybe I have to decide, should I stay, should I leave? Should I say something back? Right? Haven't we all been there like in that moment? You have to decide what you're gonna do. Okay. Fourth, power is courage. The power of courage. We also call it the power to face. And that power means that I'm going to do something different than I have done before. So for instance, somebody's being abusive to me, and in the past I have put up with it or maybe laughed it off or maybe ignored it, or maybe made excuses for them or something, or maybe been in denial about it, or maybe tried to please them so they wouldn't treat me poorly. Maybe that's how I behaved in the past, but now I'm looking at myself and I'm saying, I feel upset. I feel miserable. I see that this is not right, and what am I gonna do? Should I say something back? Should I leave? Depends on the situation, but let's say for this sake of this argument, let's say I decide that I'm gonna remove myself from the situation. Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom or I gotta go, I gotta leave now. I have an appointment or something. So I'm removing myself from the situation and maybe that's different than what I would have done before. That's courage. Doing something different than you did before. And the picture shows the night and the horse jumping over, the fire breathing dragon. So the dragon is breathing up the fire and the horse and the knight are jumping over the fire. So what's the fire and what's the dragon? I'm gonna say the fire and the dragon are the painful habits and ideas and thoughts and urges that we've had before. So now you're jumping over them, you're doing something different. Next power is the power of letting go, and that power, I think, is a little sneaky and a little bit subtle. So what does that mean? Let's say I'm at work and I have decided that I am not gonna say anything anymore. Like I used to complain and I used to, get people to get on my side and make other people wrong and so forth. But I've decided that I'm gonna take the high road. I'm gonna jump over my old behavior, and I am not gonna do that anymore. So letting go means that once you've made a new choice. Don't start taking ego from that choice. Don't start showing off or boasting or bragging about how you're not doing the old thing anymore. So if I stop gossiping about other people, that's great. But then now don't go back to your friends and say, see, I stopped gossiping. I'm so much better than them. Silly, right? But I'm telling you that ego can hook in. If you try to change something, ego can hook in and try to make you take credit for it or make it limited. So I would say in this case, have humility. This is the moment where humility can start. I know where I was before. I know that the way I was behaving before and how much pain it caused me, I just made one step of recovery or one step of something different. I don't have any right to take any, to brag about it. I just started to get better. So that's where humility can come in. So in the letting go picture, we see the knight and the horse are bowing to the dragon and the dragon's like, what are you doing? So what does the bowing mean? The bowing symbolizes humility. I did something different, but I'm not now gonna take credit for it. I'm not gonna make you wrong, I'm not gonna make anybody wrong. This is a big deal. So letting go. That's when you decide, I'm not gonna think about this anymore. I'm just gonna keep going on this new path with humility, I know where I came from. So those are the first five powers, introspection, discernment, decision making, courage, and letting go. Those five powers save our energy. Can you see how if I work on this, I'll begin to notice my feelings, notice what's going on, maybe be able to make different decisions to take care of myself, and then if I don't take ego from it, I'm not losing any more energy. So those are the first five powers. The next three powers, I'm gonna call them spiritual energy powers, they happen automatically once you start saving your energy, you're gonna notice that you're gonna start seeing these other powers. The first one is tolerance. So what is tolerance? The way I heard the word tolerance growing up and in society was, you know, I, I don't mind you. I'm tolerating you. It's like a force or you really don't like them, but you're tolerating. In spirituality, tolerate means something different. The symbol for tolerate is a tree. So if you have a tree, the tree has roots. And have you ever noticed that the tree has a trunk and the canopy of the leaves and underneath the ground, the roots are just as big as the canopy above. So what does that represent? That represents stability, internal stability. I can tolerate because I know who I am. I'm a soul. My nature is peace. I'm working on myself. I'm aware that others have issues that they're dealing with, but I am stable. I know who I am. So that's the stability. The other thing is a tree gives, right? The tree gives shade, the tree gives fruit and so forth. So in tolerance, I'm stable. I'm able to be with everybody exactly how they are. So I'm not reacting and I have an attitude of giving. I wish them well in the moment. I'm not reacting. I actually have a good wish for them. You'll notice with tolerance that it happens one day automatically. Like, wow, I didn't react to that person. Or maybe they're acting in a certain way, and not only are you not reacting, but you actually feel love for them or you feel mercy for them or you care for them, where before you would've been reacting to the surface behavior. I also learn how to tolerate my own self. That I'm not reacting to my own behavior, that I'm able to be patient with myself and maybe help myself along and have a good wish from my own progress as well. So that's tolerate and in the picture tolerate, you see the horse and the knight are actually petting the dragon now. So there's an acceptance and a caring. Next power. So now I'm still saving energy now. Now I'm tolerating. I'm saving more energy, I'm building up more energy, and now we go to the next power, which is accommodate the power to adjust or accommodate. So what does that look like? Well, now I'm tolerating, but as I'm tolerating and I'm gaining energy, I'm now beginning to notice what other people feel. Like in that example of the clerk that came in and started talking, as soon as I was able to calm down and be quiet, I was able to sense what she was feeling and what she wanted. So power of accommodation means I am stable, I'm aware of what others needs are, and I'm able to adjust to help them fulfill their needs or to make the situation run smoothly. So I am stable. I'm beginning to be aware of others, and I can shift myself easily, mold myself to the situation to make it run smoothly. The picture for accommodation is you see the knights of the round table sitting at the table, and the horse and the dragon are both sitting at the table. So everybody's included. There's a feeling of inclusion. There's a feeling of belonging begins to happen. In the power of accommodation, there's no resistance. I'm not resisting. I'm noticing, I'm sensitive, and I'm able to shift in the situation. The last power, the eighth power, is cooperation. And that power, I say, is the highest power, the most elevated power. And that means that you've saved so much energy and you've built up so much spiritual energy. You're tolerating, you're accommodating that your personality becomes one that actually helps people just by you being there. You don't have to try to accommodate anymore. Your personality naturally helps them, helps everybody. I think the best example for cooperation is God. God is the best cooperator. God is there and doesn't create any resistance. Doesn't interfere at all, but always helps, always supports, always gives. Nature is also a good cooperator. Nature always gives, right? So the picture of cooperation, which is my favorite picture, is the dragon is now breathing the fire and the knight and the horse are roasting marshmallows. How wonderful. That's my favorite picture, that the dragon can be themselves and everybody is benefiting from everybody being themselves. It's a beautiful idea, right? That we would be able to build up so much spiritual awareness and power that we would naturally be able to be harmonious with each other. That's the power of cooperation. So those are the eight powers in a nutshell. I'm doing them fast. This class is usually at least an hour and a half, and I'm doing it, putting it out there. But what I would recommend is listening to it again, maybe taking some notes, but also please look in the description below. The book is gonna be there. The book information about the book will be there, and also links to online classes, the Brahma Kumaris website. Find a center near you. You can get in-person classes and learn more about this. This information is absolutely transformational. I highly recommend you continue on your journey if you're interested, and the resources are, like I said in the description. So that's the end of lesson four. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Take care.
