Exercises to grow in Krishna Consciousness
Dvaipayana Dasa
1. List our weaknesses:
In regards to our weakpoints that hold us back in spiritual life and
execution of devotional services. You can go through your sadana and
see where you are strong and weak at.
Also peer at some things less often looked at or maybe not looked at at
all such as internal attitudes or how mind perceives things but we may
keep to ourselves. Things such as you don't like the way a person
looks, or his/her voice, dress, singing style, etc. All the ugly things
that roll around in our heads. Sit down and take a good look at them.
Try to really see where they are stemming from - insecurities, false
pride, cynisism, repression, our ego being hurt or ruffled, past trauma
that taints our present mindsets, etc. You can see so much of this
isn't just our opinions on things but come from false ego. We can feel
learned and advanced so look at others in certain ways.
Sometimes externally we may seem very compassionate and always there to
help but really we like to be around when people have problems and we
offer help because really it makes us feel better about ourselves and
feel some superiority.
So these examples are things we need to really look at deep down in
ourselves and come up with a plan to change.
Suggestion is to write down some weaknesses and/or mindsets you would
like to change and 3-4 times a day remind yourself to stay out of them.
After some time doing this it will become natural and inherent and the
mindsets will become minimized or at least easier to handle or caught
when they come up.
2. If I left my body tonight, How would I feel about where my
consciousness is at?
Was my consciousness where I would want it to be if this was my last
day?
If yes, then great- if not then look back at the day and analyze what
you could do different on a daily basis so you get closer to where you
feel pleased everynight where you are at.
-Today is the sum total of ones other days and lifetimes so a good
reflection of where we are at. Everything good or bad builds on itself.
Another way you can do this exercise is wake up in the morning with the
mindset "Today is my last day on the planet" So you would live your day
with the best consciousness you can with quality rounds and personal
interactions (Using BTSwami's principals for assistance such as "Treat
everyone you encounter as if the success and failure of your spiritual
life depends upon the quality of your interactions with them") At the
end of the night reflect and see how you did. How did it differ from a
"normal" day.
3. It is said that progress in ones spiritual life is measured not in
how much one is doing but how little or much one is holding back. A
person seemingly doing a lot may have the capacity to do so much more
and/or much better quality and vice versa. So the next exercise is to
sit down with yourself and think about How much and where am I holding
back and why? For some we have maybe never thought about this before.
I mentioned my example of on a day to day basis without really sitting
down and thinking about it I will tell my self I am doing pretty good.
Tow the line and have a good amount of service and projects. Probably
more then the average devotee. I try to help when I can when things
come up. I figure Iam doing enough to get by and that all is relatively
OK.
If I really sat down and did this exercise I would see how that the
quality of my sadana and services are very poor and I could raise them
tremendously. Thing is it would take work and shifting around a lot of
internal stuff and when it comes down to it, Iam too lazy right now to
do it. So this exercise gives me more of an understanding where I
actually am and how much better I could be doing. I mean I knew I could
be doing better as everyone knows that but this exercise and the other
ones REALLY show me how much more I could be doing and the minimum I am
really working with.
The mind has great ways to keep us all thinking we aren't doing so bad
and gives us many reasons not to improve. We are all different and our
minds are all different so someone's mind may play a certain trick on
them due to their particular make up and another mind will do the
opposite. Someone's mind may tell them they are doing just great and
they are so wonderful and that is the minds trick for that particular
person in this lifetime. Someone else their mind will constantly tell
them how awful they are and this affects that particular person and
keeps them caged.
It has been said that the balance we should strive for is think that
simultaneously we could die today but also live to 80 years old so have
to live our lives daily with both in mind. It is very easy to think to
tighten things up as we get older but really the future is today as
each day builds on the next (and plus, we never really know in the
present age when our last day is going to be....)
* A tip when doing these exercises and analyzing the mind is to
remember that the mind seperate from you.
To keep it in perspective when your mind is chattering or thinking all
those ugly things, picture it as a separate person talking to you. This
can help in aiding to control it and it keeps things in the proper
perspective. Just working with this fact itself can be an exersize of
its own and can help someone out tremendousely
With all of these exercises the more honest and serious we are to
change what we find we don't like or is wrong, our advancement could
skyrocket. These exercises are a very strong indicator of how serious
we really are. A true test of how serious we are is how serious we take
and implement these - a lack of implementing will show how much false
ego and illusion have their grip.
We can ask ourselves why we don't live these exercises on a daily
basis. Why shouldn't we??
This will show some of us that we may not be as serious as we thought.
That is OK and one of the functions of these is to show us where we
really our with ourselves. The mind can play big tricks on us telling
us were OK with where we are at when were very far from that.
These exercises were brought up to show ourselves what we are doing now
to become effective leaders, role models and human beings in the
future. We all have to work as hard as we can to maximize our
potential. The future is us and the time is now to start thinking about
it and what we want ours and ISKCONS future to be.
We have a wonderful talented bunch here and I feel good about the
future. If we can just keep up with what we are doing even now within
the group, in 5-10 years we will have a wonderful bonded community
because we already have the bonds now.