Practice Makes Perfect – Week 8
11th October 2020Practice Makes Perfect – Week 10
26th October 2020Dear seekers,
Hari Om!
Please click on the link below, to download your ‘journal pages’ to help you with your reflection. Please note that these are formatted to be opened in Microsoft Word; they can be filled in within the document itself.
Sadhana 9 – Seek Satsang
After being advised in the practice of our duty and how to relate to the world around us, the seeker becomes prepared to give up unnecessary and time-consuming behaviours and thoughts.
Having made time for spirituality, how should we spend it?
What?
Spend time in satsang; prepare yourself for satsang.
Why?
Life is precious; it is an opportunity to seek and achieve true fulfilment. We have a choice in how to spend our time, and we should choose carefully.
When the desire for Self-knowledge is born in the heart of a seeker, it must be nourished. Like a newly-kindled flame, or a freshly-planted sapling, it must be first protected so that it can grow and sustain itself.
Our desire for liberation is protected and nourished in satsang. Sat means Truth; sanga means association: keeping the company of the Truth is to be in satsanga. The Truth is revealed to us by scriptural teaching; to study the scriptures is to be in satsanga. Being in the presence of good and noble people is satsanga. Holding on to positive thoughts and actively sublimating negative thoughts is satsanga.
Satsanga teaches us to be independent so that ultimately we can sustain our desire for the Higher by ourselves, without having to rely on external support.
How?
It is not always possible to keep company of others physically, especially in our current circumstances. However, we can connect with others virtually, and we can keep ourselves in satsanga by other means.
Every day, spend 20 minutes either watching a video, listening to a talk or reading a book of scriptural teaching.
However much time we spend, it should be quality time. This means we must be prepared for satsanga:
- By being early. If you attend a class, log in 5 minutes early.
- Keep your book and/or notebook ready.
- Independently revise whatever you learnt in the previous session.
- Mentally prepare by calming your mind and bringing it to focus.
When we are prepared, we gain much more and can internalise our source of inspiration, thereby becoming committed seekers and evolved individuals.
