How can we see problems as challenges?
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Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
It’s a common saying that don’t see your problems as problems. See them as challenges. And spirituality helps us to do that.
So, in spiritual life, we have challenges, not problems. Now, how does this happen actually? At a level, at one level, we could say it’s a matter of attitude. But it’s not just a matter of attitude.
See, attitude changes our focus in reality. In the reality. But attitude doesn’t change reality.
See, for example, if I am thirsty and I have this bottle. Now, suppose this bottle is empty. I say, I am thirsty.
You say, come on, there’s a water bottle over there. No, but this bottle is empty. Right now it is full.
But imagine it were empty. Just think positive. Think positive.
You know, my positive attitude is not going to quench my thirst. So, if the bottle is half empty, I can see it as half full, that’s positive. But imagining an empty bottle to be full is not optimism.
In that case, optimism will begin by acknowledging this bottle is empty, but I can get water somewhere else. And I can go and check where the water is. So, sometimes the notion of spirituality comes that, you know, in spirituality, we tend to imagine that the attitude will change everything.
But this attitude can change things, but we have to begin by acknowledging reality. So, for example, if I have a problem, I do have a problem. But if I see that this problem is so big and I am so small, then the problem overwhelms me.
Say, for example, if it’s a 50-storey building and I am at the foot of that building and I seem like a dwarf, which looks so big. But if I am in an airplane flying above, the skyscraper building is still the same, but it is small. It looks small to me.
So, what happens is it is not just my perception has changed, it’s rather my perspective has changed. Perception means what I look at. Perspective means from where I look.
So, if I am looking from the bottom of a building, say, this building is very small. That’s just not true. It’s not small at that point.
But if I am above, the building is small from that perspective. So, spirituality is not just a matter of changing our attitude in terms of changing what we focus on. It’s actually changing our self-understanding itself.
So, that’s why there is a process. Now, we may chant some positive thinking phrases, some sentences, and they can definitely help us to shift our thoughts towards the positive. And that is helpful.
At the same time, when we chant specific mantras which are actually connected with higher spiritual reality. So, those are not just… So, if I think, things will be alright. Calm down.
Things will be alright. Calm down. Things will be alright.
Calm down. This can also help me feel good because I am reassuring myself. Don’t worry about all the things that are wrong.
Focus on that which is right. But when we chant mantras which are like mantras which come from time-honored spiritual traditions, these mantras are not just sounds that we are uttering. These mantras are connected with higher spiritual reality.
So, for example, the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, the letters that comprise the mantra Hare Krishna Ram, they connect us with higher reality. So, when we chant those mantras, it is not just that we are shifting the focus of our thoughts. Rather, we are shifting our self-understanding of ourselves.
Like from the bottom of a skyscraper, we are rising to the airplane. So, from there when we perceive, naturally the problem doesn’t seem that big. So, we need to change our level of awareness.
And what mantra does is that it changes that level of awareness. So, the benefits are there. But it’s not just awareness of outer reality.
It’s awareness of our self. When I understand that I am indestructible, when I am spiritual, I am a part of a cosmic whole of which I am an eternal part, indestructible part, then that brings us security. And that helps us to deal with situations not just with change perception but from a change perspective.
Thank you. Any other questions or comments?