Moving On

Dear friends,

I don't wish to underplay the importance of this closing letter - it is a significant moment for me which I would like to share with you all.

My life has moved into a new phase, a new chapter of creating a low-fat life which is simple and down-to-earth. On the surface it will appear to be an ordinary life but there is an extraordinary transformation going on within - a kind of germinating process.

I use the word 'extraordinary' with great reservation and trepidation as I am not in any way extraordinary or special - far from it. This transformation is happening within everyone constantly, whether one realises it or not, it always has and always will happen. It's the transformation of nature refining itself, redefining itself, unfolding itself in new ways, and discovering itself through itself anew in each moment. That's too incredible to really put into words - that's the very nature of the Universe - the great mystery of the Universe which keeps us fascinated, excited, discovering, wondering, enthralled and in love with life!

Everything which is born must die, only to be reborn again in a new form - this is what is happening to me and to New Life Awakening. Physically I may still be alive but my mind, my view of the world and of myself is dying, only to be reborn once again. So this is my goodbye letter to you all, as difficult as it is to write, I feel this is the end of this journey and hopefully the beginning of another. This blog, The Divine Within, has served its purpose for me to collate, refine and share my thoughts and experiences about myself and about the spiritual world - and I leave my thoughts here intact for reference.

In summary, out of all of my limited learning so far I just wanted to share that I feel so strongly right now that you should all be open and innocent with your love, talk as sweetly as possible with one another and if you want to challenge someone make sure you already have a strong friendship where you can challenge without causing hurt. Let's be honest, life's too short to go around hurting people. Life's too short to be indecisive. Life's too short to not do what you really deep down want to do. Life's too short to not live with total innocence, love, passion and joy. Life's too short to not share truthfully what you deeply want to say to someone in your heart.

So thank YOU dear friends for being here for me, for all your inspiration, comments, sweetness, kindness and openness, and for allowing me to pour out my heart to you and for you to accept me for who I am without judging or criticizing me. It's only for your service that I was born and that I continue to live.

In love, kindness and sadness,

Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa.

02/11/12

Are You A Hypocrite?

The path to self realisation begins with the thought that 'I am a hypocrite'. Admitting the truth, only then can things change.

I have had many realisations like this, many times, and I hope I continue to throughout my life as it keeps me on my toes and makes me realise that I'm not perfect and still have a lot to learn. It keeps me learning, sometimes very harsh lessons.

Being a personal development coach requires one to always be alert to what is really going on inside. Sometimes I find that I don't follow my own advice and ultimately it leads to my own downfall, and I end up being very harsh to myself about it. 

I usually know the answer but I'm not always willing to follow the answer, trust the answer, live the answer. Change is easy to delay unless there is a pressure to change, and often, there is no pressure from the outside, so it must be created from within.

One of the greatest pressures is the thought of death. I ask myself, "are you really willing to continue being a hypocrite if you were to die tomorrow, is what you're doing worth it?"

This is how I learn. I learn by assessing where I'm being inauthentic in my life. I learn from where I'm preaching but not practising. I learn by remembering death.

So, ask yourself these same very blunt questions if you think you're ready for a transformation in your life:

• Where are you being a hypocrite in your life?
• What will it take for you to change?
• What happens if you were to die tomorrow, is what you're doing worth it?

Sat Naam.

Vision of New Life Awakening

I have an intense feeling inside which relates to my life's vision and mission.

My primary rule in life is to never compromise who I am for anybody or anything. When a flower is in bloom who can tell it to be or smell any other way?

My mission in life is to bring spirituality to the common person, make it accessible, understandable and practical. Even whilst we are living in a highly technological, global and complex world - still spirituality must become our bedrock, our foundation, our grace because it is who we really are. It's what allows us to access our humanity.

As a result I'm going to create as many articles, books, workshops and videos to bring spirituality to the people in a form which can be used for hundreds of years to come. Well, to be honest, this is not a one man mission, but requires a whole team of like-minded people to come together and convert these old manuscripts of ancient wisdom into practical manuals for modern life, which can then be passed onto future generations.

The best thing is that, for the first time in billions of years, history will record these manuals and the process to create these manuals for all time to come. My name is unimportant. My personality is unimportant. All that matters is sharing these teachings purely. For when truth is spoken, it shines of its own accord and is recognised in value only by those who are seeking it and are open to receiving it.

Surely all that's worth the sacrifice of one human life, or for that matter, a few? ;)

With all my love and deep felt gratitude to you,

JHBSK xxx

Human Tendencies and Evolution of Being

Humans do not realise things usually until its too late.

Humans have a tendency to forget, to delay, to put things off.

Humans have an ego, an identity, an individuality which must be protected.

Each quality of a human being has a positive and negative outcome.

For example, the outcome of talking bluntly is that some people may not like receiving blunt advice, it hurts their ego, instead they would prefer moving at their own pace. But often if people are left to their own devices, they may not face themselves at all – due to the tendencies of human nature – to forget, to delay, to put things off.

A trade-off is therefore required.

The trade-off is to mix opposites together, to form a new mix of 'being'. Instead of talking bluntly, it can be mixed with its opposite, talking lovingly and sweetly. This forms a new type of being – a person who can talk bluntly to get through to others and tell them where they are going wrong, and at the same time, when the ego has been brought to its limit, the advice can be tempered with sweetness to massage the ego back to health, to respect the ego, to respect the individual.

Wherever possible, opposite forms of being should be mixed to create a third, more effective type with all of the positives, whilst minimising the negatives. It is these types of being which should be passed down to the next generation for further refinement., just like in genetic engineering. Overtime, with each generation of more and more effective ways of being, the human race shall be greatly enriched, happier and effective. In fact, the human race will totally transform beyond our wildest dreams into something so beautiful that it shall be the envy of the Universe.

My vision is to contribute whatever I can to bring about this new human race, this new human being. I am not alone however in my quest and nor the first to embark upon it, all the ancient sages, saints and enlightened beings have contributed to this body of work throughout time – it is the most ancient science, the first science.

My work is simply to restate the eternal teachings and shine a modern light on them to make them applicable to everyday life, understandable and actionable. To summarise the teachings which work and the ones which do not because they were bound by time and space, and have therefore expired. In other words, I am reframing the eternal teachings for the modern world.

The human heart is the most sought after commodity in the Universe, because its inherent potential to feel and experience the energy of love, is more powerful than any civilisation which has ever occurred before us. The human heart is an anomaly born out of total chaos with the potential for total harmony.

The Sikh way of life is an integral part of the formula to human harmony. The Sikh Scriptures, known as the Shabad Guru, the Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, contains within its pages the music which awakens the complete potential of the human heart. No other religion before Sikhism has come up with such an effective formula for the modern world to awaken the human heart, all whilst living an ordinary human life. Sikhism is the missing piece of the puzzle for achieving world peace and a blueprint to a lifestyle which develops one's being and remains eternal in its teachings.

By Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa - 09/01/2012

Try Something New

I like trying out new things, and getting rid of old things. This happens at all levels, including mental, by letting go of old thoughts and replacing them with new ways of thinking, and physical, by finding new interests and exploring the physical world, and spiritual, by exploring more of the inner world.

In fact, whenever I go to work for a company, I like to throw away all their old instruction manuals and write new ones. Since the modern world is changing more quickly, we must get more comfortable with discarding old ways and creating new, more effective ones.

In review, in 2011 I have...

• Learnt to swim (albeit only on my back and not in deep water yet)
• I have learnt how to be more down to earth and spiritual at the same time
• I have learnt 3 new programming languages including JavaScript, JQuery and Python
• I have found a new interest in cycling (after cycling from France to Belgium)
• I have formed two new companies: New Life Awakening (personal development) and KhalsaSoft (web applications) - and also conducted a few exhilarating business deals in true apprentice fashion!
• I have realised the main golden rules of business, which are the key ingredients into making any business a success (which I intend to share once I have proved their worth myself)
• Also, I helped define a whole new form of personal development retreat for the Sikh community, on behalf of the City Sikhs Network, called the City Sikhs Retreat. It was a game changer for the Sikh retreat market (more on this later)

There's probably a lot more things - but these are the ones that readily come to my mind.

So...I wonder what gems are yet to unfold in 2012? OOoooooooo...EXCITING!

God Bless You.

Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa Sikh Channel Interview

Simple Rules of Business

Business in my eyes is pretty simple.

It's all about margins. You have to sell something for more than it costs you to purchase. If you do this, your business will be profitable, and the higher you can sell for than it costs you to purchase, the richer you'll be. However, this requires you to produce quality services and products, as only quality sells for a high price.

I was thinking today of an analogy. As humans we naturally look for good quality in products and services. We ALSO look for good quality in people. If a person doesn't have any good qualities, we naturally will devalue them in our minds. For example, if a person has no integrity, does not keep to their word, we will not trust them. If a person is very dominating, we will devalue them and maybe even resort to secretly swearing at them behind their backs. On the other hand, if a person is sweet, humble, caring, confident, assertive, kind, funny, a good communicator, trustworthy: naturally we will have HUGE value for them and a high opinion of them.

Let's think of another fictitious example. Say we always shop at M&S for our food and their quality is always excellent. Now let's suppose that on just one occasion, ONE OCCASION, we find the food we bought is mouldy. We may never feel like shopping at M&S again because there has been one occasion where they have not lived up to their values. Similarly, with human beings, all it takes is ONE OCCASION where we do not act with high quality, high morals, integrity and in the eyes of the other person we will have no value, no more trust left. All its takes is ONE OCCASION to lose all value.

What do we take from this? We must remember to do the right thing always, and not cut corners. It's easy to cut corners, its difficult to keep up quality. But remember this: quality sells for a high price, has a high margin, and ultimately leads to becoming rich...a bit like in business ;)

Download the free 120 Factors of Spiritual Development report today which lists all the qualities of a human being.

Sat Naam.

Recording of 5 Keys to Happiness Webinar [Audio]

Thanks to all those who attended the 5 Keys to Happiness Webinar. In case you missed it or want to listen to it again here is a link to it:
http://www.anymeeting.com/WebConference/RecordingDefault.aspx?c_psrid=E956DC89894E

Also, here are the slides to view or download:
http://portal.sliderocket.com/AKNOJ/Sample-Layouts

In your Service,

Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa
NewLifeAwakening.com

FREE 5 Keys to Happiness Webinar by New Life Awakening - Friday 4th of November 2011, 7pm UTC

FREE 5 Keys to Happiness Webinar by New Life Awakening

Friday, November 04, 2011 - 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM UTC (Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London )

Come join us and learn the 5 keys to happiness from Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa, founder of New Life Awakening (http://www.newlifeawakening.com), a personal growth company.

Jasdeep is a charismatic speaker, author of 4 books, a poet, a hypnotherapist and a spiritual counsellor, with an incredible insight into what makes human beings successful in life having gone through a rigorous process of self development with many highs and lows. Jasdeep's main focus is on experience rather than beliefs or philosophy, making him a very practical and down-to-earth teacher and coach.

Register for this FREE webinar here: http://anymeeting.com/PIID=EA55DD89854A

Self Improvement - History Behind New Life Awakening

Self Improvement - History Behind New Life Awakening

Find out the history behind how and why Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa started his self improvement and personal growth company New Life Awakening. Jasdeep relay's his spiritual experiences as a child, and explains what a real human being is. Finally, he explains how New Life Awakening courses are unique and offer a complete picture of a human being. Sign up for a FREE 8-week course at http://www.newlifeawakening.com

Quote of the Day - Life and Death

"Life without meaning is death without bliss"

By Guru's Grace - JHBSK

Quote of the Day - Success

We can only do what we can do in the circumstances in which we live. Our impact on the past and the future is unimportant, the only important thing is the now. Do not look for cause and effect between why something occured, instead see it occuring and enjoy it. For everything once occured through a mystery of nothing arising into something - that's the mystery of the origins of the Universe. But indeed, the Universe has no origin, it has existed always and will forever continue to exist. So, ultimately, this work which I do today is meant for the betterment and growth of human beings today, it may or may not have a tremendous impact on the future. If it does or does not is not important, what is important is the impact my work has on now, this moment, today.

By Guru's Grace
Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa, Transformation Consultant & CEO of New Life Awakening

Quote of the Day - Success

We can only do what we can do in the circumstances in which we live. Our impact on the past and the future is unimportant, the only important thing is the now. Do not look for cause and effect between why something occured, instead see it occuring and enjoy it. For everything once occured through a mystery of nothing arising into something - that's the mystery of the origins of the Universe. But indeed, the Universe has no origin, it has existed always and will forever continue to exist. So, ultimately, this work which I do today is meant for the betterment and growth of human beings today, it may or may not have a tremendous impact on the future. If it does or does not is not important, what is important is the impact my work has on now, this moment, today.

By Guru's Grace
Jasdeep Hari Bhajan Singh Khalsa, Transformation Consultant & CEO of New Life Awakening

Living the Life you Deserve!

Living the Life you Deserve!

Do you feel you need a boost because life is dragging you down?

Do you feel some burden which you would like to unload?

Are you facing some seemingly impossible challenges in your life, which it would be a miracle to overcome?

Then this is a must event for you to attend: http://livingthelifeyoudeserve.eventbrite.com/

There are only 50 places for this exclusive event, you will get a buffet lunch and tea and coffee throughout the day. We shall finish by 7pm.

Subscribe to The Divine Within

In case you didn't know, there are many ways to connect to this blog now:

Facebook - Here is a new Facebook Page for The Divine Within: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Divine-Within/161721270562162. We're phasing out the old "Networked Blogs" system which we've been using so far for Facebook, so be sure to 'like' the Page to receive blog updates via Facebook in future:


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We hope to see you on the other side ;)

How to Create Harmony in Life [Audio]

I've started doing some lectures in the Sikh temples. Here is an audio of the second lecture I've done - unfortunately the first one I did didn't record. I shall be doing such lectures now on a regular basis and I'll post the audio as soon as I've done them, all thanks to my shiny new portable digital dictaphone :). I hope these lectures will serve you in some way:

Duration: 28:33
Title: How to Create Harmony in Life
Download Link: http://media.newlifeawakening.com/audio/Creating-Harmony_29-May-2011_RamghariaGurdwara.mp3
File Size: 13 MB





Transcription of Audio:

Akhan Jor Chupeh Na Jor, Jor Na Mangan Dehn Na Jor Jor Na Jeevan Marn Na Jor, Jor Na Raj Mal Man Sor, Jor Na Surtee Gian Vichar, Jor Na Jugtee Chutey Sansar, Jis Hath Jor Kar Vekeh Soi, Nanak Utam Nich Na Koi.

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh.

So, today I wanted to speak in English about a certain topic. The topic is how to create harmony in life. So, just as a little introduction to who I am, my name is Jasdeep and I full-time do personal development seminars. Now my seminars are orientated around how to achieve balance, how to achieve personal enlightenment, if you could say, in other words. And it is with great joy that Uncle has given me this opportunity to speak with you today. So, let's see how far we get.

How to create harmony in life. Now, interestingly enough, the very word itself ‘harmony’, contains within it the answer. It contains within it the secret about how to create harmony. Harmony is actually made up of two different words. The two words are Har and Mani -and it's no surprise that this word contains within it these two words from Sanskrit, Har-Mani.

Har is not God, but it is the totality of the universe. It is all the birds, all the trees, all the rivers, all the flowers, all the human beings, all our thoughts, all our ideas, all our desires, all the planets, the stars, space, black holes. It is the entire expanse of existence. That is Har. Har means all, it means all. It means the whole expanse of existence, which some people do all God.

Mani means mind, but also it means all our thoughts, our ideas, our desires, our ambitions. So within this beautiful word called Harmony is an incredible secret, that if we can access the secret, we can live a profound life, because it's not enough anymore, life does not have enough life to it anymore. We need some more life, more zeal in our lives, and that zeal we can get from understanding this one simple word, harmony. So, when you take Har, which is the expanse of the entire existence, and you put it on your mind. So your mind, becomes not limited by just our individuality, our emotions, our own desires our own needs, it expands to include the whole universe. When the mind is expanded to include the whole universe, then you have harmony. Otherwise life is limited and there is no taste to life, there’s no zeal to life, life is about zeal. How we can bring some aliveness to it. Some life to it.

So there's another thing, which is contained within this word. Harmony means taking the universe and putting into your mind. Now most people would say that this is an impossibility, it’s not possible to include the whole of the universe in your mind, because our mind is limited in what it can perceive. Then comes into the picture, meditation and at the same time, exploration. So there’s two parts to the mind. There’s two parts that need to be mastered in the mind. First is that outwardly, we need to learn to create action. Outwardly, we need to learn to create action. So what does that mean? It means there's so many things in life yet to be discovered, yet to be explored. Like for example, different foods, different countries, different colours, different environments, different animals, different birds,  different forms of art, different forms of science, different forms of philosophy, different forms of people, cultures. There's so much to be discovered, there’s so much to be explored, that the more we explore in the outer world actively, the more it refines our mind, and the more our mind  turns towards this infinite, Har, the expanse of existence. The more we explore, the outer world in terms of visiting different countries, eating different foods, I mean we're so limited in what we eat. Only have Punjabi food, which is very tasty, but there's so many other types of food: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Persian, so many interesting foods to taste, that by tasting these foods it expands our mind. So many different countries, historical landmarks, by visiting which, it expands our mind. So when we’ve explored, and it requires one to become quite active, we can’t just stay still to explore, we have to be really active, actively going and exploring all the wondrous things in the world. And especially when you're younger! Especially when you're younger you should explore different languages, different countries, different art forms, different poetry forms, you should explore everything and it's all there to be explored. Especially when you're younger, especially! Because when you get older, you have hardly enough time to explore as much. Life is about exploring the outer world, actively. That is 50% of the mind. So when you've explored everything you can explore in the outer world and I’m not saying you have to do everything. But you have to have a broad view of all different topics, all different sciences, all different ways of life, ways of thinking. Once you've explored, then that is 50% towards mastering your mind.

The rest of the 50%. The rest of the 50% comes from the inner exploration. So 50% is outwardly in the world and 50% is inwardly, not through action, but through inaction. Outwardly is always with action, but inwardly is always without action, it is just silence. And just as much there is this to explore in the outer world, there’s also just as much to explore in the inner world. In fact, they’re both in a way complementary. The more we explore outwardly, the more we explore inwardly. But also, when you're visiting a country you're not really focused too much on the inside, so you don't do an in-depth exploration of what’s happening in the inner world. Now, the inner world is full with emotions, is full with desires, is full with ideas, it’s full with so many thoughts, that each of these thoughts can be explored, can be observed. And when we have explored all thoughts, all the desires, everything that makes us who we are today. We have explored the reason why have ended up like we are today, for example, when we grow up, society puts upon us some pressure. There is some pressure to conform to society. There is some pressure. Then, when we grow up, parents put some more pressure. They add some more ideas to and when we’re younger we accept a lot of these ideas. So we grow up, and then school, and the education system puts on more pressure, more ideas, and shapes us. And then our friends, our colleagues at work they shape us. So we are just a product of other people shaping who we are. We are simply a product of other people shaping who we are and deciding for us, who we are, we hardly had any decision in the process. Funnily enough, somehow, we have arrived here. Somehow. But we have hardly had any decision in the process. We have hardly decided anything, really, it's amazing! It’s absolutely amazing how we’ve even ended up here.

So, what exploration of the inner world does is find out which part of me is actually just my parents, or which part of me is just an idea given to me by my colleagues, which part of me was decided by my friends. Which part of me, was decided by my family. Which part of me was something that I did not decide for myself. So its always a two-way process, to become more conscious of the inner world, and to become more conscious of the outer world. Its always a two-way process of consciousness. The more conscious we are about what's going on inside and how we have arrived here, this present moment, and the more conscious we are about how the world works and how beautiful variety the world has, and we can enjoy the variety of the outside, and then we can enjoy the variety of the inside. Ultimately, that is going to create harmony.

So when we’ve explored the outer world and we’ve explored the inner world, then our mind is no longer limited by society, by our parents, by our friends, by our colleagues, in fact, everything begins to dissolve. Everything that we thought we were, we think we are begins to slowly dissolve. Everything! Every single thing that we think we are begins to dissolve. This is the path of Dharma, it’s a very reverse path, because the more the world continues to increase in its technology, and its science, the more we need the reverse to balance it out. The more the world develops in technology and science at a very fast rate, the more we need to slow down, in order to balance technology out. Because technology is very fast. The modern world is very fast, with fast food, fast cars, everything is very very quick, instant. So the more technology begins to increase in its acceleration, the more we need to decrease in our inward acceleration. We need to decelerate our minds, in order for there to be balance. Now we have a very interesting situation in the modern world, 21^st Century, in that technology has given us more than we could ever have imagined. It's given us everything at the tip of our fingers. However, this comes with a price, the price is that we need to be able to deal with the information. There’s information coming from everywhere. You have a pop-up that, you know on your computer, you got live MSN Messenger coming on, you’ve got Facebook, you’ve got all these other things that just keep popping up, giving us information. You’ve got like 100 e-mails a day, in the future there’ll probably be 1000 e-mails a day. How can we cope with so much information? How? There's no way that anything outwardly can help us cope with the level of stress on our bodies and our minds. There’s no way! And in fact I’ve tried all the techniques. There's nothing out there that can help us, except one thing, and this is genuinely something that I’ve found works for me. Maybe it doesn’t work for everybody, but certainly it works for me I can say. That the path of the Guru, of meditation. The path of the Guru can’t be misunderstood, all the Guru is saying is just as Uncle said in the beginning, Naam Japna is the root of the faith, Naam Japna. Because, we need to expand our minds to take account of it all. You see, when you're in a stressful situation, there's only one thing you can do.When you're in a situation where you can’t do anything else, there’s only one thing that really helps. That thing that helps is called context. The context, the wider context. When we think about it, all of our problems in our lives are not really that big, really, they are not really that big. I mean we think they're big because the emotions are very wild and we think that the world is going to end, but really the world will carry on. Our problems are not very big when we take into account the entire universe. When we expand our minds to the whole universe, when we can see what’s going on in the whole universe, then our problems become not even a speck. Because our mind is focused on something so much greater. That is Naam Simran! When your mind is focused on something so much greater that all our individual problems and situations and personality clashes will just fade away. Because our mind is tuned to the higher frequency of the entire existence, and we can just enjoy existence, because there's nothing to not be enjoyed in life. It’s all just to enjoy. We enjoy the Saadh Sangat’s company reading your way of file under company. We enjoy different foods, different language in different, we enjoy different languages, different people, different cultures, different religions. It’s all to be enjoyed, it’s all to be experienced, it’s all to be explored, and that is harmony.

Harmony is always individualistic, it’s never the same, which is why I mentioned about society and friends and colleagues and everything else, because all these influences actually just homogenise us, they make us the same everybody else, but each of us is not the same as anybody else. We are individuals absolutely unique, 100% unique. And the evidence for this is actually, by the way, in the universe itself. And in time, because in time, no moment has ever been the same, exactly the same, every moment is unique. Every single moment that we live in our lives is unique, there’s never any moment in history that has ever been exactly the same, maybe similar, but never exactly the same. And then the other evidence comes from just looking at nature itself. Every single snowflake that has ever dropped from the sky has a unique pattern. Every single snowflake that has ever dropped from the sky, has a unique pattern, it’s unique. It will never, that snowflake will never occur again, it happens once. So do our lives really just happen once, because we are each unique individuals, and there is a beauty in our uniqueness, there's is something to be enjoyed in our uniqueness, there is something to be expressed in our uniqueness. We can't be the same as anybody, because we naturally inside, once we have taken away the layers that society did to us and that our parents did to us, we are perfectly, perfectly an individual, absolutely unique, an individual that will never ever happen again. And that anything which is unique, is of immense value, anything which is unique has immense value. Which is why time has immense value because time never occurs again. Just as individuals, never occur again. So it’s really important that in our own lives we try and create harmony, and we try and find our true individuality, which can be expressed, which can be shared with other people. So that other people can enjoy what we really are, they can enjoy every human being, they can enjoy you as a human being, as a unique soul that has come into the world. A unique soul that has come into the world that has something to contribute to the rest of the world. Just through one’s uniqueness, just through one’s uniqueness.

So with this, I will close and it really has been a great joy to express and share the few things that I’ve learnt along the way, I really hope that you’ve enjoyed it. If you do have any questions about what I’ve explained or said, then do come see me and I’ll be very, very happy to answer.

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh.

How to Create Harmony in Life [Audio]

I've started doing some lectures in the Sikh temples. Here is an audio of the second lecture I've done - unfortunately the first one I did didn't record. I shall be doing such lectures now on a regular basis and I'll post the audio as soon as I've done them, all thanks to my shiny new portable digital dictaphone :). I hope these lectures will serve you in some way:

Duration: 28:33
Title: How to Create Harmony in Life
Download Link: http://media.newlifeawakening.com/audio/Creating-Harmony_29-May-2011_RamghariaGurdwara.mp3
File Size: 13 MB





Transcription of Audio:

Akhan Jor Chupeh Na Jor, Jor Na Mangan Dehn Na Jor Jor Na Jeevan Marn Na Jor, Jor Na Raj Mal Man Sor, Jor Na Surtee Gian Vichar, Jor Na Jugtee Chutey Sansar, Jis Hath Jor Kar Vekeh Soi, Nanak Utam Nich Na Koi.

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh.

So, today I wanted to speak in English about a certain topic. The topic is how to create harmony in life. So, just as a little introduction to who I am, my name is Jasdeep and I full-time do personal development seminars. Now my seminars are orientated around how to achieve balance, how to achieve personal enlightenment, if you could say, in other words. And it is with great joy that Uncle has given me this opportunity to speak with you today. So, let's see how far we get.

How to create harmony in life. Now, interestingly enough, the very word itself ‘harmony’, contains within it the answer. It contains within it the secret about how to create harmony. Harmony is actually made up of two different words. The two words are Har and Mani -and it's no surprise that this word contains within it these two words from Sanskrit, Har-Mani.

Har is not God, but it is the totality of the universe. It is all the birds, all the trees, all the rivers, all the flowers, all the human beings, all our thoughts, all our ideas, all our desires, all the planets, the stars, space, black holes. It is the entire expanse of existence. That is Har. Har means all, it means all. It means the whole expanse of existence, which some people do all God.

Mani means mind, but also it means all our thoughts, our ideas, our desires, our ambitions. So within this beautiful word called Harmony is an incredible secret, that if we can access the secret, we can live a profound life, because it's not enough anymore, life does not have enough life to it anymore. We need some more life, more zeal in our lives, and that zeal we can get from understanding this one simple word, harmony. So, when you take Har, which is the expanse of the entire existence, and you put it on your mind. So your mind, becomes not limited by just our individuality, our emotions, our own desires our own needs, it expands to include the whole universe. When the mind is expanded to include the whole universe, then you have harmony. Otherwise life is limited and there is no taste to life, there’s no zeal to life, life is about zeal. How we can bring some aliveness to it. Some life to it.

So there's another thing, which is contained within this word. Harmony means taking the universe and putting into your mind. Now most people would say that this is an impossibility, it’s not possible to include the whole of the universe in your mind, because our mind is limited in what it can perceive. Then comes into the picture, meditation and at the same time, exploration. So there’s two parts to the mind. There’s two parts that need to be mastered in the mind. First is that outwardly, we need to learn to create action. Outwardly, we need to learn to create action. So what does that mean? It means there's so many things in life yet to be discovered, yet to be explored. Like for example, different foods, different countries, different colours, different environments, different animals, different birds,  different forms of art, different forms of science, different forms of philosophy, different forms of people, cultures. There's so much to be discovered, there’s so much to be explored, that the more we explore in the outer world actively, the more it refines our mind, and the more our mind  turns towards this infinite, Har, the expanse of existence. The more we explore, the outer world in terms of visiting different countries, eating different foods, I mean we're so limited in what we eat. Only have Punjabi food, which is very tasty, but there's so many other types of food: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Persian, so many interesting foods to taste, that by tasting these foods it expands our mind. So many different countries, historical landmarks, by visiting which, it expands our mind. So when we’ve explored, and it requires one to become quite active, we can’t just stay still to explore, we have to be really active, actively going and exploring all the wondrous things in the world. And especially when you're younger! Especially when you're younger you should explore different languages, different countries, different art forms, different poetry forms, you should explore everything and it's all there to be explored. Especially when you're younger, especially! Because when you get older, you have hardly enough time to explore as much. Life is about exploring the outer world, actively. That is 50% of the mind. So when you've explored everything you can explore in the outer world and I’m not saying you have to do everything. But you have to have a broad view of all different topics, all different sciences, all different ways of life, ways of thinking. Once you've explored, then that is 50% towards mastering your mind.

The rest of the 50%. The rest of the 50% comes from the inner exploration. So 50% is outwardly in the world and 50% is inwardly, not through action, but through inaction. Outwardly is always with action, but inwardly is always without action, it is just silence. And just as much there is this to explore in the outer world, there’s also just as much to explore in the inner world. In fact, they’re both in a way complementary. The more we explore outwardly, the more we explore inwardly. But also, when you're visiting a country you're not really focused too much on the inside, so you don't do an in-depth exploration of what’s happening in the inner world. Now, the inner world is full with emotions, is full with desires, is full with ideas, it’s full with so many thoughts, that each of these thoughts can be explored, can be observed. And when we have explored all thoughts, all the desires, everything that makes us who we are today. We have explored the reason why have ended up like we are today, for example, when we grow up, society puts upon us some pressure. There is some pressure to conform to society. There is some pressure. Then, when we grow up, parents put some more pressure. They add some more ideas to and when we’re younger we accept a lot of these ideas. So we grow up, and then school, and the education system puts on more pressure, more ideas, and shapes us. And then our friends, our colleagues at work they shape us. So we are just a product of other people shaping who we are. We are simply a product of other people shaping who we are and deciding for us, who we are, we hardly had any decision in the process. Funnily enough, somehow, we have arrived here. Somehow. But we have hardly had any decision in the process. We have hardly decided anything, really, it's amazing! It’s absolutely amazing how we’ve even ended up here.

So, what exploration of the inner world does is find out which part of me is actually just my parents, or which part of me is just an idea given to me by my colleagues, which part of me was decided by my friends. Which part of me, was decided by my family. Which part of me was something that I did not decide for myself. So its always a two-way process, to become more conscious of the inner world, and to become more conscious of the outer world. Its always a two-way process of consciousness. The more conscious we are about what's going on inside and how we have arrived here, this present moment, and the more conscious we are about how the world works and how beautiful variety the world has, and we can enjoy the variety of the outside, and then we can enjoy the variety of the inside. Ultimately, that is going to create harmony.

So when we’ve explored the outer world and we’ve explored the inner world, then our mind is no longer limited by society, by our parents, by our friends, by our colleagues, in fact, everything begins to dissolve. Everything that we thought we were, we think we are begins to slowly dissolve. Everything! Every single thing that we think we are begins to dissolve. This is the path of Dharma, it’s a very reverse path, because the more the world continues to increase in its technology, and its science, the more we need the reverse to balance it out. The more the world develops in technology and science at a very fast rate, the more we need to slow down, in order to balance technology out. Because technology is very fast. The modern world is very fast, with fast food, fast cars, everything is very very quick, instant. So the more technology begins to increase in its acceleration, the more we need to decrease in our inward acceleration. We need to decelerate our minds, in order for there to be balance. Now we have a very interesting situation in the modern world, 21^st Century, in that technology has given us more than we could ever have imagined. It's given us everything at the tip of our fingers. However, this comes with a price, the price is that we need to be able to deal with the information. There’s information coming from everywhere. You have a pop-up that, you know on your computer, you got live MSN Messenger coming on, you’ve got Facebook, you’ve got all these other things that just keep popping up, giving us information. You’ve got like 100 e-mails a day, in the future there’ll probably be 1000 e-mails a day. How can we cope with so much information? How? There's no way that anything outwardly can help us cope with the level of stress on our bodies and our minds. There’s no way! And in fact I’ve tried all the techniques. There's nothing out there that can help us, except one thing, and this is genuinely something that I’ve found works for me. Maybe it doesn’t work for everybody, but certainly it works for me I can say. That the path of the Guru, of meditation. The path of the Guru can’t be misunderstood, all the Guru is saying is just as Uncle said in the beginning, Naam Japna is the root of the faith, Naam Japna. Because, we need to expand our minds to take account of it all. You see, when you're in a stressful situation, there's only one thing you can do.When you're in a situation where you can’t do anything else, there’s only one thing that really helps. That thing that helps is called context. The context, the wider context. When we think about it, all of our problems in our lives are not really that big, really, they are not really that big. I mean we think they're big because the emotions are very wild and we think that the world is going to end, but really the world will carry on. Our problems are not very big when we take into account the entire universe. When we expand our minds to the whole universe, when we can see what’s going on in the whole universe, then our problems become not even a speck. Because our mind is focused on something so much greater. That is Naam Simran! When your mind is focused on something so much greater that all our individual problems and situations and personality clashes will just fade away. Because our mind is tuned to the higher frequency of the entire existence, and we can just enjoy existence, because there's nothing to not be enjoyed in life. It’s all just to enjoy. We enjoy the Saadh Sangat’s company reading your way of file under company. We enjoy different foods, different language in different, we enjoy different languages, different people, different cultures, different religions. It’s all to be enjoyed, it’s all to be experienced, it’s all to be explored, and that is harmony.

Harmony is always individualistic, it’s never the same, which is why I mentioned about society and friends and colleagues and everything else, because all these influences actually just homogenise us, they make us the same everybody else, but each of us is not the same as anybody else. We are individuals absolutely unique, 100% unique. And the evidence for this is actually, by the way, in the universe itself. And in time, because in time, no moment has ever been the same, exactly the same, every moment is unique. Every single moment that we live in our lives is unique, there’s never any moment in history that has ever been exactly the same, maybe similar, but never exactly the same. And then the other evidence comes from just looking at nature itself. Every single snowflake that has ever dropped from the sky has a unique pattern. Every single snowflake that has ever dropped from the sky, has a unique pattern, it’s unique. It will never, that snowflake will never occur again, it happens once. So do our lives really just happen once, because we are each unique individuals, and there is a beauty in our uniqueness, there's is something to be enjoyed in our uniqueness, there is something to be expressed in our uniqueness. We can't be the same as anybody, because we naturally inside, once we have taken away the layers that society did to us and that our parents did to us, we are perfectly, perfectly an individual, absolutely unique, an individual that will never ever happen again. And that anything which is unique, is of immense value, anything which is unique has immense value. Which is why time has immense value because time never occurs again. Just as individuals, never occur again. So it’s really important that in our own lives we try and create harmony, and we try and find our true individuality, which can be expressed, which can be shared with other people. So that other people can enjoy what we really are, they can enjoy every human being, they can enjoy you as a human being, as a unique soul that has come into the world. A unique soul that has come into the world that has something to contribute to the rest of the world. Just through one’s uniqueness, just through one’s uniqueness.

So with this, I will close and it really has been a great joy to express and share the few things that I’ve learnt along the way, I really hope that you’ve enjoyed it. If you do have any questions about what I’ve explained or said, then do come see me and I’ll be very, very happy to answer.

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh.

Key Factors of Spiritual Development (Survey)

Through my personal development business New Life Awakening, today I am launching a world-wide survey to get feedback on what are the key factors of spiritual development, opening it up to all personal development, religious and spiritual organisations. I promise to publish the results as soon as I have them, so your contributions will be valued.

This survey should only take you 15 minutes to complete (as there are 116 factors to rate), and is completely anonymous: http://goo.gl/WdB3S

After completing the survey, you will be given a link to download a free gift pack of the following PDFs as a thank you for completing the survey:

• Kirpal Singh ~ Simran: The Sweet Remembrance of God
• Yogacharya Michael ~ The Truth About Yoga
• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ~ I Am That
• Baba Virsa Singh ~ Loving God

Please go here now to fill in the survey:

http://goo.gl/WdB3S

Key Factors of Spiritual Development (Survey)

Through my personal development business New Life Awakening, today I am launching a world-wide survey to get feedback on what are the key factors of spiritual development, opening it up to all personal development, religious and spiritual organisations. I promise to publish the results as soon as I have them, so your contributions will be valued.

This survey should only take you 15 minutes to complete (as there are 116 factors to rate), and is completely anonymous: http://goo.gl/WdB3S

After completing the survey, you will be given a link to download a free gift pack of the following PDFs as a thank you for completing the survey:

• Kirpal Singh ~ Simran: The Sweet Remembrance of God
• Yogacharya Michael ~ The Truth About Yoga
• Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ~ I Am That
• Baba Virsa Singh ~ Loving God

Please go here now to fill in the survey:

http://goo.gl/WdB3S

Key Factors of Spiritual Development (Part 2)

Key Factors of Spiritual Development (© New Life Awakening 2011)

So, I've been working recently on getting some material together for my new business venture called New Life Awakening. I thought it would be nice to share the journey I'm following to create my business. It's in a few key defined stages.

Stage 1: Gather together all the key factors of spiritual development. Read many ancient scriptures to extract their wisdom. Read personal development articles to decide what's important in the modern context. So far, I have captured (I hope) the essence of Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism (Vedanta), Kundalini Yoga and Meditation.

Stage 2: Group these factors into various common categories, for example, I created:

• 4 macro-categories: Being, Mind, Soul, Body
• 8 categories: Virtue, Perspective, Awareness, Relationship, Lifestyle, Purpose, Service, Inspiration
• 76 sub-categories: Managing Emotions, Truth, Fearlessness, Learning, Managing Thoughts, Openness, Balance, Charity, Contradictions, Dissolving, Graceful, Honest Communication, Independence, Innocence, Intuition, Kindness, Listening, Peace, Persistence, Present, Reality, Sacrifice, Self, Acceptance, Actions, Adulthood, Awe, Body, Clarity, Collaboration, Community, Compassion, Contentment, Controlled Speech, Dancing, Democracy, Dreams, Eating, Ego, Flowing, Forgiveness, Grateful, Heart, Humility, Humour, Integrity, Life, Love, Managing Change, Managing Pressure, Meditation, Music, No Comparison, No Competition, No Expectations, No Judgement, Non-Attachment, Non-Violence, One-pointed Mind, Parents, Patience, People, Perfection,  Personality, Perspective, Proactive, Purposeless, Role model, Service, Sex, Silence, Simplicity, Sweetness, Teacher, Transcending, Trust

Note: These categorisations will not make any sense on their own. Perhaps later I shall publish the Excel spreadsheet of all the factors if there is a demand for it, but for now I shall explain some of these factors in the commentary below.

Stage 3: Assess the importance of and prioritise each of the factors of spiritual development, to highlight which ones truly are the key factors of spiritual development. This will be done using the wisdom from Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism (Vedanta), Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, and using a mass survey to gather the ideas of the wider community (which I shall be sending out this week).

Commentary on Key Factors of Spiritual Development graph

In total I have identified 117 factors, out of which 68 are virtues; 13 are perspective based; 13 are awareness based; 8 are relationship based; 6 are lifestyle based; 5 are purpose related; 2 are service related and 2 are inspiration related, all which must be all be mastered in order for a human being to become fully enlightened.

If you see the graph in the top-left which is called the Key Factors of Spiritual Development, this graph beautifully demonstrates that the majority of factors are concentrated under the Being macro-category and Virtue sub-category.

The Being macro-category is different from the Soul, as the Soul is the essence of a human being and never changes, it's eternal, whereas the Being is the soul almost in motion and is always in constant change. For example, today I am 'being' courageous, but tomorrow I may be 'being' scared, but in both occasions my soul is always fearless. Thus by mastering all these various ways of being or virtues we can become in touch with our eternal nature, the soul. Virtues are qualities of being, for example, acceptance, patience, compassion. All these are important virtues which must be cultivated, developed, so that their flourish in full bloom like a flower.

The next biggest macro-category is Mind, with the sub-category Perspective. Perspective is about challenging our own views, opinions and notions about reality, truth, ourselves, our identity, the world and God etc. Its about how we see the world through our eyes.

Later, when I have delved a bit more deeper into the data, I shall publish some more statistics for all of you to enjoy.

What is the purpose of creating these key factors?

In many ways what I am compiling is a contemporary authority of all spiritual wisdom to date, so by the time somebody completes mastering all the qualities I've noted, there is absolutely no chance of them not becoming fully enlightened, radiant, royal, beautiful, powerful, humble, effective, God-like human beings. And I do not say God-like lightly, I really do mean God-like.

I have spent many years tirelessly experimenting with all number of spiritual technologies, philosophies, religions and producing results in personal growth and effectiveness for myself, but on top of all of that, I am not letting my limited experience and wisdom limit what factors will go into this list. Which is why I shall be opening up this list for debate and discussion, so that other spiritual people can add to it, refine it and together we can create the most comprehensive set of qualities to create fully enlightened human beings.

Producing fully enlightened human beings is the goal of my business New Life Awakening. I'm not going to waste my time on producing courses which just give people a buzz or make them feel good for a little while and then the effects wear off (which is how most personal development courses end up). Instead, I shall invest my time to produce comprehensive courses which cover every aspect of human development and as a result produce the best, most effective and evolved human beings on the planet. Also, as a result, I shall only work with those who are the best. Everyone who wishes to come onto a NLA course will be personally vetted by myself to assess their current level of spiritual development, to see if they are ready to take themselves to the next level which the course shall guarantee. This isn't just a passion for me, this is what my entire life is about ;). My philosophy is why patch a broken shell, when you can spend time shining an unbroken one?