VK - part 11

Workshops/Retreats

My serenity

Collected recordings of various talks and discussions with Nithya Shanti

All Talks & Discussions

Nithya shanti on authencity

Nithya shanti how to solve any ptobkem

nithya-1

Nithya talk

A talk and meditation session offered to the Cache Valley Sangha, Logan UT on Monday 15th July'13

Gratitude and Letting Go - Talk and Collaborative Meditation

Enjoyment Without Modification

A talk by Nithya Shanti near Salt Lake City, UT.
31st July'13

Clarity In Everyday Life

Resting As Clarity Retreat - 1

Loving kindness meditation at the Cache Valley Sangha. 5th Aug'13.

Loving Kindness Meditation

A sharing and practice session with Nithya Shanti in Memory Grove Park, Salt Lake City.

18th Aug'13

Many Roads Home - Pointers to Our True nature

An Experiential Exploration of the Four Mirrors and the Four Depths.

Thursday night talk at Cache Valley. 

29th Aug'13

How to solve any problem

Seven Minute Meditation

Improving Self Image

Meditation, Talk and Discussion.
Logan, UT
12th Sept'13

Skillful Speech

An evening talk and discussion on the purpose of life at Cache Valley Sept 27th. Participants discussed the following reading among themselves...

LIFE PURPOSE

There are many different ideas on the subject of "life purpose". Here are a few ideas that have resonated for me:

•	The purpose of life is to be ALIVE. So do whatever makes you come alive.

•	Do the work where your deepest gladness meets the world’s greatest hunger.

•	The purpose of life is to find the purpose of life!

•	The purpose of life is to be awake and present, right here now.

•	Our Dharma has three aspects: (1) Know thyself. (2) Discover one's gifts. (3) To use them for the highest benefit of others (i.e. To help them know themselves. Discover their gifts. Use them for the benefit of others) 

•	Do the work where: (1) What you love, (2) What you are good at, and (3) What adds value to others all overlap.

•	Essentially our purpose is to be aware, and be loving.

•	We can find our life purpose by sitting undisturbed in a place and writing as many answers to the question "What is my purpose?" until we arrive at an answer which gives us Goosebumps or brings tears to our eyes. That is our life purpose. I did this exercise five years back and the answer I got was "Being a Sun, Loving Everyone!"

•	Life is for-giving love. Life is not for-getting love.

•	God / Life does not choose our purpose, we choose our purpose. Decide it and start living. Instead of waiting for perfect conclusions. For example the purpose I have chosen is 'Spreading Happiness'.

•	Wisdom and Compassion: The intention to be fully enlightened for the benefit of all, is the highest purpose.

•	Life purpose is not about becoming, it is about being. From human to being, to being an integrated human being. From persona to essence, to an integrated presence.

•	Make a list of people, places, books, movies, music etc. that inspire you. Ask yourself why they do. Distill the understanding to find your purpose.

•	What is the 1% of your life that gives you 99% of your results? This is your genius, this is your purpose. Ask your friends and loved ones for feedback on this question.

•	What would you do with great joy if you had all the time and all the money in the world? This is your calling, your purpose.

•	Find one single word or quality that most inspires you. Make it your purpose.

•	Life has no purpose. We create one, to satisfy our busy minds.

•	The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

•	Imagine you have already achieved your full potential in all respects and are fully self-actualized. How do you describe who you are and your purpose? 

•	Being where we are, and doing what we are doing with complete attention and love, this is the purpose of our life at any given moment. 

Reflect on these ideas and discuss them with your friends. 

Nithya Shanti

The Purpose Of Life

01 Embracing Our Essence

Practice and Readings we used for this talk...

CENTERING PRAYER

Centering Prayer is a contemplative practice that opens the mind and heart to presence. Unlike a mantra, which is designed to clarify or calm the mind, centering prayer purifies the heart to become a vehicle for transformation. The instructions :
1. Choose a meaningful word or phrase of your choice.  For example, “Joy”, “Love” “Peace” or “Thank-you”.
2. Settle comfortably, and silently introduce the word. 
3. Gently hold the word in your awareness. Whenever your attention wanders, gently bring it back to the word. If it wanders too much, silently repeat the word, softer and softer each time, almost like a feather touching cotton, until there is stillness again.
4. Practice for between 10 to 30 minutes everyday. Stay with the same word during the period of contemplation.

~~~

1. THE SCIENCE OF MIRACLES

Dating back thousands and thousands of years to the earliest recording of humankind, the power of gratitude was preached and practiced, and from there was passed on through the centuries, sweeping across the continents, permeating one civilization and culture to the next. The major religions of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism all have gratitude at their core. 

Buddha said that you have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy. Lao Tzu said that if you rejoice in the way things are, the whole world will belong to you. Krishna said that whatever he is offered he accepts with joy. Mohammed said that gratitude for the abundance you’ve received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue. King David spoke of giving thanks to the whole world, for everything between the heavens and the Earth. And Jesus said thank you before he performed each miracle.

There is a passage in the Gospel of Matthew in the Holy Scriptures, and it has mystified, confused and been misunderstood by many people over the centuries. It quotes, “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” You have to admit that when you read the passage it appears unjust, as it seems to be saying that the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.  But there’s a riddle to be solved in this passage, a mystery to uncover, and when you know it, a new world will have opened up for you.

The answer to the mystery that has eluded so many for centuries is in one hidden word: ‘Gratitude’... “Whoever has gratitude will be given more, and he or she will have an abundance. Whoever does not have gratitude, even what he or she has will be taken from him or her.” By the revelation of one hidden word, a cryptic text is made crystal clear. Two thousand years have passed since those words were recorded, but they are as true today as they ever were: if you don’t take the time to be grateful you will never have more, and what you do have you will lose. And the promise of the magic that will happen with gratitude is in these words: if you’re grateful you will be given more, and you will have abundance!

From the Koran the promise of gratitude is equally emphatic: “And (remember) when God proclaimed” ‘If you are grateful I will give you more; but if you are ungrateful verify my punishment is indeed severe.’ It doesn’t matter what religion we follow, or whether we’re religious or not, these words from the Holy Scriptures and the Koran apply to us and our life. They are describing a fundamental law of science and of the Universe.

From the Australian Aborigines to the African Zulu, from the American Navajo, Shawnee, and Cherokee, to the Tahitians, Eskimo and Maori, the practice of gratitude is at the very root of most indigenous traditions. “When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself”.

When we are deeply thankful for what we want even before it happens, we activate one of the most mysterious and powerful laws of the universe that works with such unerring accuracy that it can rightfully be called, “The Science of Miracles”.

~~~

2. STORY OF A GRATITUDE VISIT

I’d heard about the feel-good benefits of a gratitude attitude. What was less clear was how to move from complaining to contentment. Hoping for tips, I called Robert A. Emmons, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who pioneered research on the benefits of positive thinking. Emmons quoted new studies that indicated that even pretending to be thankful raises levels of the chemicals associated with pleasure and contentment: serotonin and dopamine. Live as if you feel gratitude, he said, and soon the real thing will come. 
He recommended keeping a log of everything I’m grateful for in a given week or month. One major study showed that people who wrote down what they are grateful for felt 25% happier after ten weeks than those who did not. They even felt better about their jobs and exercised an hour and a half more per week. 
I was sold, but my first attempts at keeping a gratitude list were pretty weak: 1. Coffee. 2. Naps. 3. Caffeine in general. As my list grew, I found more uplift: 114. Freshly picked blueberries. 115. The Beatles’ White Album. 116. That I’m not bald. 
By day three, I was on a tear, thanking every grocery bagger and parent on the playground like I’d just won an Oscar and hanging Post-it notes to remind myself of the next day’s thank-you targets: the mailman, my son Sebastian’s pre-K teacher. But soon, the full-on approach started to burn me out. Researchers call it the Pledge of Allegiance effect. “If you overdo gratitude, it loses its meaning or, worse, becomes a chore,” Martin E. P. Seligman, the author of Authentic Happiness, told me when I mentioned my slump. Be selective, he advised, and focus on thanking the unsung heroes in your life. 
Then Seligman suggested a “gratitude visit.” Think of a person who has made a major difference in your life and whom you’ve never properly thanked. Compose a detailed letter to him or her that expresses your appreciation in concrete terms, then read it aloud, face-to-face. “It’s very moving for the giver and the receiver,” Seligman told me. “Be prepared for tears.” 
I immediately flashed on Miss Riggi, my eighth-grade English teacher. She was the first one to open my eyes to Hemingway, Faulkner, and other literary giants. She was the first to encourage me to write. To this day, I am guided by her advice “Never be boring”. But had I ever thanked her? Had anyone? I made some quick calls and discovered she was still teaching in the same school district, after nearly 40 years. I booked plane tickets to my hometown, Scranton, Pennsylvania, for Sebastian and me.
I had a week before the trip to Scranton, so I continued to flex my growing gratitude muscle. The author of The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, recommended “taking time off from something you love but take for granted.”
All the gratitude exercises woke me up to the value of the little things. But how would a gratitude attitude help my friends with cancer? Or the couple who’d announced their divorce? Or the father of three who’d told me he couldn’t find a job? 
“Gratitude is never so important as during those times when everything appears to be lost,” Emmons said. Finding something to appreciate, he said, can save us from absolute despair—in a way that complaining cannot. I discovered that truth when I began driving my friend with lymphoma to the hospital for his chemotherapy treatments. 
Despite his suffering (or perhaps because of it), our connection grew more meaningful. “I realized when I got sick that I’d spent years worrying about things that mean absolutely nothing,” he told me. Celebrating life while it’s here, he said, was most important now. 
I thought about his words on the plane to Pennsylvania, as I wrote draft after draft of my letter to Miss Riggi. I thought I’d nailed it, but as I walked into her classroom, with Sebastian clinging to my leg, I was more anxious than I’d been in years.
Miss Riggi was shorter than I remember, though unmistakable with her still-long, still-black hair and bright, intelligent eyes. After a slightly awkward hug and small talk, we settled in. I took a deep breath and read. 
“I want to thank you in person for the impact you’ve had on my life,” I began. “Nearly 30 years ago, you introduced my eighth-grade class to the wonders of the written word. Your passion for stories and characters and your enthusiasm for words made me realize there was a world out there that made sense to me. What a great life, I thought, to be able to share stories with people.” 
Just a couple of lines more into the letter, it happened. Sitting there with my first mentor listening contentedly and my son on my lap, emotion welled up inside me. Decades peeled away, and nothing mattered more than this simple act of sharing. I felt like I was speaking for generations of students when I told Miss Riggi, “Time passes quickly. Memories blur and fade. But I will never forget the excitement of arriving each day at your class.” 
Professor Seligman was right about the tears. They did come, for both of us. And whether it was Miss Riggi’s enormous smile when I finished the letter, or the way she held it close as we said goodbye, or the simple relief of sharing what had long been in my heart, my feeling of peace and joy remained long after Sebastian and I returned home. 
Since then, I have written several more gratitude letters, and my wife and I both summon our “gratitude training” when we feel saddled by life. The aggravations are still there, but appreciation, I’ve learned, has an echo—and it’s loud enough to drown out all the grumblings of everyday life.

By David Hochman from Reader's Digest, Nov’09

~~~

3. GRATITUDE – PRACTICAL TOOLS
1.	Gratitude List: Make a list of 108 things/people you are grateful for. Add 5 more everyday. 
2.	Gratitude Letter: Write a letter to someone you appreciate and perhaps even share it with them. Or write small gratitude notes and hide them all over the home.
3.	Gratitude Before Meals: Bless your food and water with gratitude before consuming them. Savor every sip and bite. Enjoy this moment.
4.	Gratitude Rock: Keep a rock or stone in your pocket or purse and touch it whenever you are feeling grateful, or need reminding to be grateful.
5.	Gratitude Drive: Practice gratitude while you drive. Bless those who annoy you.
6.	Gratitude Walk: Take a morning or evening walk while resolving to keep your attention on all the things you are grateful for.
7.	Gratitude Dinner: Once a week the whole family sits together or goes out for a special “Gratitude Dinner” where the theme is celebrating what is right with each other and the world.
8.	Gratitude Meditation: Slowly and attentively keep repeating the phrase “Thank you” or “I am so grateful” in your heart. Let deep gratitude resonate in every cell. When you say “Thank-you” a million times, the universe is transformed forever!
9.	Gratitude Jar: Keep a jar near your dresser and some paper near it. Get the whole family to write notes of gratitude and appreciation and put them in it whenever they like. Once a week or month open the jar and read the contents together.
10.	365 Gratitude Photos: Every day for a year take a photo of something you are grateful for with your phone or camera. Compile the photos and share with friends.
11.	Gratitude Visit: Select a person who has had a major positive difference in your life and who is still alive. Write a loving testimonial long enough to cover one laminated page. Meet the person face to face and read your testimonial aloud slowly, with expression and eye contact. Then let the other person react unhurriedly. Research has proven that every time we do this it boosts our happiness levels for as long as six months!
12.	Gratitude Intention: In the morning hold a glass of water near your heart and feel grateful for all that is good in your life for a minute. Drink half the water. Then feel grateful for all your dreams and aspirations like they have already been fulfilled and drink the remaining water. This carries the intention to every cell of our body. 
13.	Gratitude Journal: At the end of each day write down three things that happened in the day that were good.
14.	Gratitude Stories: Ask people what they are grateful for and share stories from your life that highlight the many beautiful coincidences and blessings. 
15.	Gratitude Movies: See uplifting movies like “Life is Beautiful” and “Amelie” with family and discuss your insights.
16.	Gratitude for Failures: Your most important lessons in life will come from what you don't achieve. Take time to appreciate what you learned from these events.
17.	Gratitude Workout: Practice gratitude while you exercise or do yoga.
18.	Gratitude Commitment: Research shows that making an commitment to perform a behavior increases the likelihood that the action will be executed. So write your own gratitude commitment, which could be as simple as “I vow to count my blessings each day,” and post it somewhere where you will be reminded of it daily.
19.	Gratitude Language: Grateful people have a particular linguistic style that uses the language of gifts, givers, blessings, blessed, fortune, fortunate, and abundance. Mind your language and focus on celebrating what is right with your world.
20.	Gratitude Prayers: In many spiritual traditions, prayers of gratitude are considered to be the most powerful form of prayer, because through these prayers people recognize the ultimate source of all they are and all they will ever be.
21.	Saying “Thank You!”: Say "Thank You" with a smile and eye contact for every act of kindness received. It's so simple to say and yet so often taken for granted. It's especially true when it comes to our own family members.
22.	Grateful Service: Find ways to serve, support and empower others who are facing some challenges. This makes us feel much more grateful for our own blessings. 
23.	Gratitude Hug: This is slightly longer, warmer hug with a heart filled with gratitude. Therapists say we need four hugs a day for survival, eight hugs a day for maintenance and twelve hugs a day for growth.
24.	Naikan: Naikan is a Japanese practice of gratitude that involves deeply reflecting on the following three questions: “What have I received from (person x)?”; “What have I given to (person x)?” and “What troubles and difficulties have I caused to (person x)?”. It is interesting that the fourth question, “What troubles and difficulties has (person x) caused me”, is never asked in Naikan. For this does not serve us and creates unpleasantness and is the territory of the other person’s Naikan.
25.	 Gratitude to Places and Things: Feeling thankful to a bed we slept on, our shoes, our car, an umbrella, a suitcase, a mobile phone, a pair of glasses, a book, and places we love can open up a whole new dimension of gratitude.
 

Gratitude The Greatest Attitude - Evening Talk In Logan, UT.MP3

Ho'oponopono Practice

webcam games

On Authenticity - A talk and meditation at the Cache Valley Sangha - 19th May'14


On Authenticity

Relax and listen to these nine clearing statements created by Sangeeta Bhagwat www.serenereflection.com


Nine Clearing Statements (9 Mins)

Shesgotstyle (Nevershoutnever Cover)

Evening talk and meditation at Huntsville, Utah. 

Organized by the Satya Center for Spiritual Living, Ogden

"Life is a dream. When we focus on what is wrong and missing, it becomes a painful dream. When we focus on what is beautiful and possible, it becomes a pleasant dream. When we focus on sharing our gifts and talents with all, it becomes a purposeful dream. When we are attuned in the now, it is the present dream. When we stay with the feeling of "I Am" and inquire "Who Am I?", we begin to awaken within the dream. Like the petals of a lotus, each subsequent layer is softer and more subtle until it reveals an inherent emptiness and fullness. In the heart of hearts, a peace that never departs."

On Letting Go

On Frail Wings Of Vanity And Wax

Daggers Speak Louder Than Words

Posture & The Grizzly- Untitled 1

Doing nothing is not as simple and meaningless as it seems! It takes a lifetime of practice to learn to live unobtrusively, to be "out of one's mind". Many important lessons are shared in this talk.

The Art of Doing Nothing

Mini Workshop on Power of Intention (10th Oct'17) in New York City

2017-10-15 Power of Intention - New York 10th Oct'17

Power of Intention - New York

A guided meditation to develop an attitude of surrender.

Surrender Meditation

An inspiring talk and guided meditation on the theme of Surrender. During the talk there is reference to a video. 
You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/rpwW42HVZws

How to Surrender

Talk and meditation in New York (21st July 2018)

Power Of Agendalessness

Talk and meditation with several practices for letting go. June 28th 2018, Toronto, Canada.

Practices for Letting Go

Programmed with and through SuperCollider.

Времени больше нет

An evening talk at Noida with Nithya Shanti and friends.

March'13

Highest States of Emotional Wellbeing

An informal evening talk and discussion with Nithya Shanti and friends at Pune, on 18th March'13.

This recording begins with a meditation, is followed by a talk and ends with a powerful process to convert all our problems into possibilities and beyond.

How wonderful!

Problems to Possibilities

Morning talk and discussion on shifting from controlling to being and other subjects.

March 19th, 2013 

From controlling to observing to pure being

After meditation we had a wonderful sharing exploring the powerful shift of doing things for joy to doing them from joy.

New Delhi, 17th of March'13

Living "From" Joy

Spreading Happiness is a compilation of elegant teachings on conscious living. A blend of inspiration, timeless wisdom, story telling and guided meditations. 

These teachings are presented by Nithya Shanti, an internationally respected spiritual teacher. He was formerly a Buddhist monk who trained in forest meditation monasteries in South East Asia. He is committed to sharing practical wisdom teachings for happiness and enlightenment with people in a joyful and transformational way. 

Blending a deep study of ancient scriptures, along with a broad survey of contemporary discoveries, Nithya Shanti specializes in facilitating profound shifts in awareness for people to release limitations and awaken latent potentials for a fulfilling life. 

The “Spreading Happiness” Podcast is an opportunity to benefit from the best of Nithya Shanti’s teachings from sessions around the world.