Take a moment to read and give yourself a lift
For The Family
It isn't common for a family in the Philippines to practice meditation, especially because it requires discipline. But a young couple - Mike and Weng - and their children Kristine and Krishna, have been practicing meditation for several years now.
It was six years ago when Mike and Weng took up the Raja Yoga course.
Curious, their daughters Kristine and Krishna, then ages 8 and 11, soon followed suit intrigued by a poster their parents displayed in their room, the red light and the incense they used for meditation.
Do you know the happy home recipe? Click on this image, a wonderful find by BK Denny Custodio.
Food & Soul
One of the most common questions asked about us at the Brahma Kumaris is why we only cook and serve vegetarian. It is rather common in our society to have vegetarian options, but why a strict vegetarian lifestyle?
Food, mind, mood - they're all interrelated, and when one aims to have deeper experiences of calm, inner silence, tranquility, clarity, or when one aims to develop greater creativity a lot of care needs to go into our food choices to keep the mind steady. How it is cooked also affects the inner tensions inside that changes our mood and feelings.
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Filipino cooking lends itself well to vegetarianism. Want to see some recipes?
Pause Muna Peace Muna: how it can work for you
This peace initiative is for anybody who wish to experience deeper peace in their life. You only need to sit in a quiet corner in your home, school or office, take your mind off the distractions - the to-dos, schedules, pressure etc - and direct it toward a genuinely peaceful thought.
A full minute every hour to traffic you thoughts is what you will need need to pay attention to. Click the links below for those short, guided
commentaries that you can read to yourself very slowly.
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You can also go to facebook for videos and other useful materials.
View them, quietly say the words to yourself, make it a part of your day. Remember those points every time a situation comes in front of you. Allow your own peace to re-emerge. The more you practice emerging peace, the more calm you will be.
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Feel free to use and share any of the materials of PMPM, and be part of the public programs at the center near you where you can pick up more positive points to practice daily.
Instead of joining the fray, try a moment of silence
By Marge C. Enriquez, Philippine Daily Inquirer
For Our Country
Pause Muna Peace Muna, a peace initiative that supports efforts at creating a culture of non-violence in our country.
PMPM is an endeavor of Brahma Kumaris, an NGO that offers free educational programs that impart values formation and spiritual skills. The NGO won the United Nations Peace Messenger Award for its Million Minutes for Peace Appeal. This initiative
collected pledges for prayer and silence in celebration of the UN International Year of Peace in 1987.
In a crisis, the usual reaction is to get up and do something. However, a peace campaign espouses the opposite: Be peaceful and it will do the work.
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The passive nature of this activity may seem hokey to action-oriented crusaders but the idea behind Pause Muna Peace Muna (PMPM) is to create positive attitude which invariably influences behavior change.
The average person is said to spend some 1,000 minutes of his waking time, thinking disconnected thoughts. PMPM encourages individuals to spend a minute of peace a few times a day to get a hold of themselves.
Bringing peace breaks nationwide to different communities, to kids, students, government and private sector, on the ground and on air since 2014
PMPM live on Zagitisit News FM 100.3 Legazpi City, Sundays
5:00 to 6:00am.
When thoughts are focused and powerful, they can transmit healing energies and help pacify a tense atmosphere. This drive has become more relevant as it encourages people to donate positive energies to the government and the typhoon victims. When practiced consistently over a period of time, results become visible.
Integrating PMPM in every aspect of life and the environment through Media Care radio program in Oriental Mindoro
For Better Health: Healing Heart & Soul
Dr. Nirmala Kajaria is the BK Director for Asia-Pacific and Australia, and also the BK Director at the Academy for a Better World in Rajasthan India
Ninety percent of sickness and diseases can be attributed to psychosomatic causes, meaning the influence of the mind on the body.
As early as 1962, Dr Nirmala Kajaria, or Didi Nirmala as she is lovingly referred to, incorporated the practice of Raja Yoga Meditation in her clinic in India, and found that patients responded better when they are treated not only with traditional medicine but also with the practice of meditation.
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According to Dr Nirmla, prevention of disease is possible if we have healed both heart and sou. But what is this sickness of the heart and soul? And how do we go about healing them both?
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" Your heart does not mean physical sickness of heart. We have to treat but that’s treated by physical doctors, cardiologists etc. What we need mainly to help ourselves. I have to see that I have control over my mind and emotions because this is a conflict society- everybody wants to control everybody else; everyone wants to be the boss. The problem is, we are not able to control our thoughts and emotions. We can control the temperature of the room, people working under us, and ourselves. When the heart and soul are sick- in pain, sorrow, suffering. Not only we suffer but naturally our loved ones suffer. "
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Meditation as Medication
A personal experience by Linda Patricia Altomonte
Working in a pioneering alternative and wellness center in the mid-90’s exposed me to an all-together new perspective in health and disease – that of holistic healthcare and integrative medicine. Sickness or “dis-ease” (i.e., discomfort), was not only treated on a physical level but as a whole system imbalance which included the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual components of the individual. Likewise, psychosomatic diseases, caused by mental and emotional disturbance, with stress as a leading factor of disease became accepted as a root cause by more conventional doctors.
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At that time I was already practicing Raja Yoga meditation and easily understood how thoughts, attitudes, mental habits and consequent feelings affected the body. After all meditation which came from the Latin word “mederi,” meant not only to ponder or contemplate, but also to heal and take care of. Practically for me it was simple enough. Every time I meditated I felt calm, and the body was relaxed and energetic. When I was nervous, worried or stressed my neck muscles and shoulders would harden and I would tire easily and come home exhausted.
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It was only when I got sick a few years after was the practice of meditation fully appreciated by me. In another job, my body broke down with chills and developed a lingering fever even after 2 weeks of bed rest. Itchy irritating rashes also appeared in different covered parts of my body. With my past background on holistic healthcare I knew I had to check my mental and emotional health condition which could be manifesting as this dis-ease.
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As a Raja Yoga practitioner the regular meditation practice helped me to focus and look “inside” into the nuances of my thoughts and feelings. That wasn’t easy or pleasant because I had to face my weaknesses and fears. Yet, the deep experience of God’s healing love, and power enabled me to see the root cause of my sickness. More about it here....
For the Mind
Come to terms with all areas of your life and you will be happier.
Being Aligned with Our Own Self
The main thief of peace is the inner conflict between the head and the heart, the restlessness we feel when we are not in alignment with ourselves.
Very often it has to do with what we desire versus what we feel we should be choosing according to our highest spiritual morals, values and conscience.
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Should you buy that expensive bag which might last longer for school, or should you buy the simpler one? Should you bike to work to keep fit or should you take public transport and remain safe?
Should we listen to our conscience or pander to our ego and image? Click here for more.
Values Education for our Children
Good Manners and Rght Conduct is one of the many subjects kids have in school. A excellent way to augment this in order to strengthen a child's character is through values education, not commonly found in our curriculum.
Brahma Kumaris has seen the enormous capacity of young minds to learn and absorb values. Learning values greatly improves the ability of a child to interact, form relationships, understand the significance of their actions and its consequences, respond to obstacles and deal with difficulties using their own inner resources. Add to this a few experiences of silence so they can focus their thoughts, concentrate on their tasks, and most importantly appreciate themselves more. Values education is a great way to empower a child to think for himself, make informed choices - life learnings essential as he navigates the increasingly complex world around him. That is why select BK centers in the Philippines dedicate particular periods year on year for this program for kids.
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In Quezon City, for instance, they are much-awaited by parents and children, and are held every summer and December. The summer-event is a 3-session series of educational cum virtues skills and learning program. While the December kids' event is a day of variety fun-filled value-laced activities with games, creative projects, team works, and with prizes and gifts.
The kids experience applied learning of proper manners, behavior, interactions as well as physical and mental skills. Moments of silence are also introduce to help them quiet down and develop focus and concentration. Pre-registration is required in both events. Call us at tel. (632) 9264273; (632) 4149421; (M) 0975.025.0352
For the Youth
Carefully constructed programs that awaken young minds to new consciousness - from looking at people, events and things around them to viewing themselves as souls with good qualities. Expressing one's virutes takes time to get used to, but an essential point to discover early in life.
Brahma Kumaris invites the youth to explore and enjoy a precious part of themselves that remains hidden. This venture will create roadways for a future that is rich with happiness and success.
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Inquire about our programs from Quezon City and Davao, and the next youth retreats at the Center for Spiritual Learning in Tagaytay City.
The youth has a challenging role to play in this world of unpredictable and unparalleled change. The Brahma Kumaris offers customized programs and activities for the youth to be committed to making positive changes in their lives and thus, seek to bring about dramatic changes in larger societies as well.
With the programs aimed for the young leaders and adults, the Brahma Kumaris provides opportunities for the young participants to rediscover their unlimited potentials and unique strengths, enhance their self-value and self-respect, and to make wiser choices which are aligned with their life goals. With more awareness of their inner peace and power, they are able to respond to changes by making more rational choices in the light of their own personal experiences and practical realities.
In the offered programs, the young people are engaged in individual inward journeys and collective spiritual experiences, involving personal reflection, creative expression and shared leadership to be able to further develop their inner capacity to make values-based choices and decisions and gain practical spiritual skills and tools that would lead them to have more constructive actions not only for themselves but also for the communities they are a part of.
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In Times of Crisis
Brahma Kumaris' psycho-spiritual program for first responders and other groups involved in crisis and disaster management ensure those on the frontline receive the care and sustainance they need. Following super typhoon Yolanda, international speaker, broadcaster and meditation practitioner BK Denise Lawrence came to the Philippines to dialogue with first responders and also meet with Yolanda survivors in Tacloban. She also gave a very insightful talk on fear, our response to it and how it can actually build our inner strength.
"The subject that we looking at this evening is ‘Living Beyond Fear’. And I would like to just analyze it a little bit step by step so that we can see where we may get trapped in matters of fear during times of anxiety.
I think most people in this world live in a state of low-grade anxiety. This is why people smoke, drink gamble, shop, all of the things that we do that actually go against our personal progress are in a way reactions to and coping mechanisms for managing this anxiety that everybody lives in.
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It's really rare for a person to feel deeply relaxed, peaceful, comfortable inside one’s skin. Is that right? I was so used to being under tension, so used to being affected by noise, worries. The feeling of tension that comes when we become aware of another person experiencing any kind of suffering is so pervasive that we have somehow, observed it into ourselves and it is actually doing its negative work rather surreptitiously because we are unaware of it.
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There are three areas that fear comes in. One of them is wealth. The second is weath, and the third our relationships. Continue reading the article, click here.