Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Lots of love and blessings, and welcome to this special episode on the seven spiritual rules to a better life. If you practice these things, use these methods in your life, you'll definitely have a significantly happier, healthier, and wealthier life. So let's jump into them. What is the first one, Shireen?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Now, first, we should tell them that they're not what they expect.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Oh, they're not what you expect. That's right.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: They're not what you expect. They're not what you expect.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: That's right. And number seven is particularly unusual. So you have to find out what that is at the end. So what is the first rule? That if we follow it, will change our life for the better.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Okay. The first rule is to count your wealth. People always say to be grateful, right? I think it should. It's counting your wealth is a little more than being grateful.
You really need to count all the ways in which we are wealthy. We have abundant life. Abundant life. And, you know, like, for example, shower, right? Hot shower. I love taking hot showers.
And every time I take one, I think, oh, I'm so happy I'm able to take this hot shower, because it's so, so it's such a wealth thing to be able to take a hot shower, right? To have running water, to have plumbing, to have a heater, to have electricity, to have everything, right? It's like such a wealth thing. And so you see the difference between counting your wealth and gratitude.
To really count our wealth, I think that's important. That's number one. Count our wealth. Count your wealth.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: And one way of doing that is to imagine everything that you have is taken away. So you haven't got anything at all.
No hot water, no electricity, no money, nothing. No car, nothing. No clothes. And then you imagine getting them back again.
Then you realize how wealthy you are, you know? Oh, wow. Look, I've got some glass of water here, and I've got a cell phone, and I've got some, you know, all this stuff that we take for granted. So we bring it back to zero and then, and then allow ourselves to return that back to us as if we got it for the first time.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Right? You know, like, even 100 years ago, right? Even 100 years ago, people didn't have all of this. Like, when I load the dishwasher, I think people didn't have that. Now, I don't use any dish that doesn't go into the dishwasher. If it's not going into the dishwasher, no using it.
So it's so important. And I'm just talking about physical things, of course, but there are many spiritual things. There are many people that are really blessings in our life. So we really need to count our wealth.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: If we do that, then we won't be depressed, you know, because a lot of the sadness and all this is because we normalize what we have and then we want more and we don't have it and we get disappointed. But if we take it all away and get it back, then we realize we're already wealthy, and that brings us a lot of joy.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Right. But also, what happens is we do a lot of comparison.
We compare ourselves with people around us. Right. You should compare yourself with yourself 50 years ago. Compare yourself just 20 years ago. Don't compare yourself with people around.
Compare yourself with people hundred years ago.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: That's right. Or compare yourself to a. To a starving chicken that's missing a leg, you know, somewhere.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: You know, and you're like, well, compared to a dying chicken, I'm doing really, really well. I mean, I'm just saying we need to have, like, imagine you have nothing and you get it back. It makes a big difference. This comparison thing.
It normalizes everything and says, yeah, even though I have everything, it doesn't count at all because so and so has a nicer car than me and more followers on Instagram or whatever it is these days. So this is a big deal. Just that one rule of life will improve everything straight off the bat. The second one is to empower yourself before you do anything else in the day. This is such an important thing. On the few days where I don't do this because I have to run off early in the morning or something, I really notice a difference.
There's a, like, it's a game changing, life changing difference between getting up, taking time for our practices and meditation, thinking about what we want to do, getting enough rest, and really looking after ourselves so we're in a good place and we know what we want. We have a list of our goals and visions and meditation and study all these things that make us feel good. Whatever it is for you, do that first before you try and tackle the world and get on with other stuff.
I'm sure most people listening to this do this anyway. But if you're not doing it, then it will completely change your life. And if you are doing it, you could probably do it a little bit more or a bit more in a bit more consciously, and then it will be even better. Because sometimes our morning routines can become like standard fare. You know, we go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Same same, same. But if we can infuse a bit more life into it and take it a little bit more seriously and really like think what are the key things that make me feel really, really good before I do anything else, before I, before you check the phone, you want to make sure you look after yourself. That the most guaranteed way of wrecking your life is to wake up in the morning, pick up the phone and start checking messages and checking stuff out immediately once you wake up.
So empower yourself before you check your phone, I suppose is even easier way of saying it.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: You know, I've noticed that.
Is it called doom scrolling? When is it called doom scrolling?
[00:06:16] Speaker A: When it just goes on and on and on. Any time of day you could wake up and doom scroll in the morning. You know?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: You know, for many days I even forget that my phone is on airplane mode. I go about my day and then I realize, oh, because the night before I put it on airplane mode and I forget that it's on airplane mode. And then I go about the day and I'm thinking, oh, the phone didn't ring. And then I realized, oh, because it's on airplane mode.
So, you know, I should come, we should all come to the point where we don't, we only use it. We are a master, right? We only use it when we need it. Not to doom scroll, not to do all of these other things, right?
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Because it comes back to comparison. A lot of the doom scrolling through social media and all this stuff, oh, look at what this person has. I haven't got it. I want this thing. So before we've even started our day, we're feeling depressed and miserable so we could have another podcast on the seven rules to wreck your life. And it would just be the opposite of all of these things. Wake up late, scroll through social media the whole day, take any time for yourself. So what's the third rule for a spiritual happy life?
[00:07:30] Speaker B: That we shouldn't think of ourselves as superior to people. You know, I've noticed that many people go about life, right, just because they belong to a particular religion. Just because they believe in something, right? Just a random belief in some random dude.
And then they think, oh, because I believe and all these other billions of people don't believe, then I'm superior to these billions of people.
I feel that's a sure way of not even realizing it. But you're setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment because you, you know, whatever your life is, right, it has to be based on real things because that's what will finally give you peace and life fulfillment and meaning and happiness and all of those things. But if you randomly think just because you believe in something or because of whatever, because you have a particular thing or not have a particular thing, that you're superior to people, then that you're really setting yourself up for failure. You know, you're setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment in yourself, lot of disappointment in life. And so to understand that we are equals, we are all equals.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: That's a very unusual rule for life compared to what people would normally expect. But it's true, isn't it? Otherwise, we have either superior superiority or inferiority complex.
And, I mean, it's interesting. A lot of these things are coming back to comparison, ironically, aren't they?
These three things are all related to comparing ourselves favorably or unfavourably, right?
[00:09:14] Speaker B: You know, what I've noticed is about equal equality, right? It's really. I think that's the way God would look at us. God would look at us as the highest beings. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, what I'm not doing. If I think right, if I think God is a punishing being, then I think he punishes.
But if I really understand who he is, then I realize that he's actually looking at us in the highest vision and he's looking at everyone else in their highest vision. And everyone really is, you know, worthy. Worthy of God's love, worthy of us. You know, they are our brothers. They're worthy of our love.
And so we have to see them that way because it's our benefit. It's not for their benefit. Actually, I'm doing it for my benefit.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Everything we do, we do it for ourselves.
Even if it's serving people all day long, it's still where we benefit from giving love and blessings because of karma. So that's a very interesting rule for life. So how do you practice that practically, my brother?
[00:10:26] Speaker B: That there is universal brotherhood, that we have to see everyone, it doesn't matter which religion, what they believe, what they don't believe, that they are our brothers and see them as souls, brother souls.
And they all have the same aspirations. Everyone has the same aspirations. Everyone wants happiness, everyone wants peace, everyone wants a good life. Everyone wants their children to be happy and their family to do well and to understand that aspiration. To understand, yes, people want the same thing. We are equal. And actually democracy, right? That's what democracy teaches us. We are equal. And if you think about democracy, democracy, democracy is a very spiritual concept. If you believe in democracy, you believe in spirituality because spiritually we are equal, and democracy tells us we are equal.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Just some are more equal than others in democracy. But I'm just.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Ignore that, Michael. Brother Michael, I will ignore that.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: No, just joking.
When things are put into practice, they don't necessarily work out.
But it is a spiritual principle to have that response.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Yes, ultimately, right. I want to double click on what you said. When you put it into practice, it doesn't work out.
Ultimately, if I look at everyone as my equals, I can change the world, because when I change, the world changes.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I think it's a wonderful principle, and it makes us feel loving and caring, and it makes us come from a good place by having that awareness.
Superiority or inferiority is very harming for our mental health, isn't it?
So the fourth one, this is very interesting, is understand the real causes of your sorrow. Understand the real causes of your sorrow. Because we often think that the reason I'm upset is because of so and so or because of this and that and the other. And we have. We have, like, a very superficial understanding of our problems. And this is quite obvious when, let's say you talk to someone, right, and they. You say something, not a big deal, and they completely lose it, right? You think, what did I say? You know?
Or maybe they say something to us, and we get really upset, and you think, what? Why is going on here? There's a cause for that reaction that goes way deeper than whatever was said.
And so if we don't understand the deeper causes of our sorrow, we're not really going to be able to deal with the stuff that's causing all these triggers and all this explosion from happening internally. So what does that mean exactly, Sherene? How do you do that?
[00:13:26] Speaker B: You know, anything happens, right? Let's say I get angry, like someone is punching me in the face and I'm getting angry, right? I could think the real cause of sorrow is this person punching me in the face, but actually, the real cause of sorrow is me getting angry. Because let's say that same person punched Dadi Janki in the face, right? She wouldn't have gotten angry.
She would have been fine. She would have been happy.
So the same action is creating a different response in one person than in me, then obviously, I have to look at why that response is happening, and I have to understand that my anger is my enemy. It's not them punching me, right? That's the sorrow. My anger is causing sorrow, not them punching me.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Because if that's what they say in martial arts, isn't it, that if you get angry, you lose the fight? So when they're actually punching, kicking each other, each other, the higher level someone is, the less they get angry and the more they keep their cool, right?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: And so what happens is this very important, like when I realize my anger is causing me sorrow, then actually I'm taking back power.
If I keep thinking this person punching me is giving me sorrow, I'm giving away my power.
And because then you can't do anything about them punching, then you, sorry, then you cannot do anything about them punching.
And so we have to understand that someone, anything anyone does is whatever is inside is coming out. And my own negativity, my own demons, my own whatever, right? I, all of those that's causing me sorrow. And when I take ownership of that, when I take, then I, then I start receiving power, then I can actually make changes.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Isn't that wonderful? Yeah. What's the actual issue here? Because it's very easy for us to just say, okay, I'm feeling upset because of this person, but then they might go away and another person comes, and then I'm feeling upset because of this other person.
And what's the common denominator here? It's me, isn't it? You know, so that's a very, very deep. We could do a whole podcast on this. What are the real causes of our sorrow?
But just to take away from this is when we get upset to think what is really going on here and it probably isn't what we think.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Right? Right. Yes. I'm causing myself. I am my own worst enemy and my own best friend, right? No one can cause as much sorrow to me as I can cause for myself.
If you think someone is causing you sorrow, you're just giving them permission to cause you sorrow. Stop giving them permission and it won't happen.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Ah, what a relief. These are very high level spiritual practices. So the fifth one is, remember who you are. And another way of saying that is to recognize that you are different from your body, separate from the body. This, this is body less soul. This is a very important thing because almost all of our sorrow actually comes down to attachment to the body, doesn't it?
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Right. Today, our spiritual lesson was that, right where at the spiritual lesson, it was said that the most important subject is to understand your soul, to consider yourself to be a soul. That's the most important spiritual lesson. And I've been thinking about it, maybe that's the most important piece of information I ever got ever, right, that I am a soul.
All my life in all my lives, the most important piece of information I've received from anyone, okay, I've received this from God, is that I am a soul. I'm an eternal soul. And no wonder it's so important.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it changes everything, doesn't it? It's the big paradigm shift.
Because then we realize I'm not this body, and I'm not this character in the body either. And I'm not not stuck in this.
This world, because all of our problems are to do with the body or the world, aren't they? Basically, either this body is having some issues. Hot, too hot, too cold, physical pain, whatever, or the world around us is causing some issues.
I suppose the mind can cause problems.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: As well, obviously, but the mind calms down when you consider yourself to be a soul.
There is a method to calm down the mind, right, which is a totally different podcast.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: How do you calm the mind?
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Right?
But there is a way to calm down the mind, and the best way to calm down the mind is to consider yourself to be a soul.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the mind is thinking about all these other things outside in the body. So if we realize we're a soul, the way the light, then. Then our obsession with all this stuff out here gets less, and then the mind is not needing to think too much about all these things. This is a very big deal, this one. One thing here.
And what the next one? Because we're going through these seven, we don't want to spend too long on each one of them. Number six is receiving power and love from God from the one. So we consider ourselves a soul, and then that allows us to experience divine energy.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: You know, I always used to feel spirituality, meditation, all of that was a luxury.
Right? Now it's a necessity. Having a relationship with God is a necessity. How are people surviving without it? I don't know.
But not only just any relationship, right? To really see God as the highest, the most highest being there can be like the highest conception of a being. That is God, right? If you think God is angry, that's not the highest conception, because I know a lot of human beings who don't have anger, so God will definitely not have anger.
And so we have to see God as the highest conception and have that connection with this highest conception of God. Because whatever your projection of God is, right, you know, in the Bible, it talks about God creating us in his image, but actually we make the mistake of creating God in our image, right? I'm angry, so God's angry, whatever. And so whatever, my projection of God is right.
It really, it's a huge deal because that's who I become.
Because it's a very important aspect. Connection to our psyche is how am I thinking of God? Right? That's because the soul, everything about the soul decides this.
This one thing is, how am I thinking about God?
So all my whole life is based on this. And so if I project God to be this, just another human being who gets angry, who's fearful, I have to fear, blah, blah, blah, then I'm really short changing myself. If you want your life to be happy, you want a really good life, then have the highest conception of goddess and connect with God on that very high level.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: And then we receive power and love, which we need, because otherwise we're trying to get from things that are very transient and they're unreliable. And then we get upset about the fact that we can't get what we want because we're going after it in places where we can't rely on it. So that's one of the most important things. God is stable, reliable, whereas everything else isn't really. Even the weather isn't reliable. You know, the Internet's not reliable. Electricity is not reliable. Really? 100%.
You might go to the store and they don't have your favorite stuff, and you might call someone and they're not available. You know, everything is not reliable, even the body, right? Oh, it's happy and healthy, and then it has some illness, get sick.
So thank goodness. Thank God that there is someone who is genuinely reliable and stable amidst all the chaos.
I'll be blessed. And so what's the last one? The last one is. Stop.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: The last one is unusual.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: Unusual. Unusual. Stop.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Unusual is right. Stop creating dolls.
So, you know, in India, I don't want to upset anyone, but they do do a lot of devotion where they create idols and then they worship the idols and then they sink the idols. I have no problem with it. I'm just right off the bat. I grew up that way. I grew up doing Ganesh and all of that stuff. No problem. But I know a lot of people who say, oh, but that's so not good. That's idol worship. That's not, you know, whatever. Whatever. Right?
And then. But I feel every one of us everywhere are doing some form of idol worship.
For example, let's say anxiety, right? And I want you to think of anxiety as a doll or an idol.
So you have created in your head this anxiety, then you worship this anxiety.
And then now at some point, it's become too big and now you're trying to sink that anxiety, right? You're trying to get rid of that anxiety. What we are not realizing is that every day, whatever I'm upset about, whatever is going on with me, I'm the one who created that. I created that doll in my head, I created that idol in my head, and I worship that. And now that I don't want it and it's become too big and I'm trying to sink it, it's not going. Then I start getting upset. But you have to realize how powerful you are, and you have to stop giving life to these things. For example, anxiety, stop giving life to it. You are powerful being. You are a powerful, powerful soul.
And as a powerful soul, you can decide not to breathe life into that and then worship it and then sink it and do all of those things.
It could go for anything, right? It could be for jealousy, it could be for comparison. It could be for anything.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Sports.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Sports. Yes.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, it could be. I mean, it's like everything's fun and games when you're detached, when we're. When we're, like, in a spiritual state, we can see everything is like a game of life.
But when we're not in that state, we. We keep giving energy, energy, energy, energy, energy to all these different things. And then. And then they become monsters, really. And then they start being unreliable, and then we get very upset about it. And so we're the ones who caused the issue by making a big deal about it, because that's really what's happening, isn't it? We're the ones. Everything's just neutral, really, in many ways. But we're breathing life into it, making a big deal about things. And the longer we do that for, the bigger it gets and the harder it is to get out of it. On the other side, you know, the.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: 7Th rule of life, you could say, is understand your power, understand who you are, understand how you're breathing life into things.
Understand you're the one who can just deflate that balloon very quickly. You can do it and no one else can do it for you, right? You can go to therapy, you can do all of these things. Ultimately, you have to do the work.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: There's no. There's no way around doing the work. Unfortunately, we can try and outsource it to someone else, but we have to look at this stuff and say, where am I giving my energy? Where am I giving my power away?
And is it. And it doesn't have to be because someone else doesn't get upset about the same thing. So we know that it's not just because it's there, right?
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: One person gets. I remember I had someone came around here a couple years ago for.
Just for a chat, you know, and we had something to eat outside, and.
And he was like, we haven't such a great conversation. And he was like, I need to get going because the basketball is on, right? Which is fine. I didn't mind. But you could tell, like, he just had to have his basketball fix. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but his wife didn't want to leave. Right. And so.
And he didn't really want to leave either. But it's kind of like it wasn't like the final or anything. It was just one of the many games. But because he breathed so much life into that, he couldn't decide what to do with his day. It had to be the game.
And of course, it's fine.
I like to watch some sports here and there myself. It's not like a big deal.
But if we are kind of restless and we lose our choices in life because we've made such a fuss about it and we just can't let go when we need to, then it's a huge problem for us. We're losing all our energy and getting sucked into this stuff. And a lot of these companies and sports and religions and this and that want to do that to people, that they. They want people to breathe so much life into it that it builds this thing up. But is it helping us personally or is it just giving energy to something else that's not really doing us any good.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: I know, right? We ultimately have to be masters of our own destiny.
Right? Each of us can do this.
Like, it's just understanding. Yes, I can do this. I can be a master of my own destiny.
Whether it's a simple thing like today. I don't need to watch football or basketball or whatever. Right? That's being a master sounds terrible.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: How could you manage?
How can we manage? Yeah. It's worth thinking about. What have we breathed life into already? Because there's a lot of things, and you can tell whether you've done it or not based on how upset you are if it's not there.
So that. That's the telling sign. If. If I don't get upset about anything and things change, then that's fine. But if. If I'm like, I have to have my special, special, special, you know, it's like the Lord of the Rings. Oh, my precious. My precious. Like, that's like, really breathing life into the. To the ring. Like everyone's so obsessed about that ring and it's serving a dark force, you know, but people just. So it's a bit like that would there these things that we're obsessed about and they're actually sucking our energy out of us and reckon our life so we don't have to do that anymore.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Right. And it could be other, on the other aspect, right. It could be things like we know are not good for us, like anxiety or worry or fear.
Right. Fear is another one. Right. You know, there's this very popular thing about fear is false evidence appearing real is fear is because you've really totally breathed life into something that's possibly not there because other people are not fearful of it. The same thing like dogs, let's say I have a fear of dogs. Other people don't have a fear of dogs. I breathe life into that.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Some dogs are dangerous. Most dogs are very sweet and nice, but, yeah, that's a classic. Or dogs or fear of heights is a genuine fear because we don't want to fall off a building.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: But fear of dogs is a genuine fear, too. But still, we are into it. We are breathing fear into it. We are breathing life into it. Let's say fear of heights. There are many people who go up on heights and they're not fearful because they are things in place. It's not like you're going up on a height to fall off.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I like heights. I like going up high and even when I'm hiking. But I'm also aware that I could fall off and kill myself. So I'm. There's like a. But fear of bears is, I think, a very reasonable fear. Grizzly bears. Right. If you're wondering.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Okay, I'm not talking about those things. I'm talking about anxiety. I'm talking about fear. I'm going to lose everything. I'm going to lose my job. I'm going to lose my relationship. What will happen if I lose this and if. What will happen if I lose that? I promise you, you'll be fine.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: I mean, if we think about it enough, we might make it happen. That's the problem, though, isn't it? It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy after a certain point, but this is the problem, isn't it? We breathe life into things and then it starts getting out of hand and then it becomes such a big deal and it might end up even happening after all that. Because once it's got a certain amount of energy, it's off. We've lost ourselves in that whole thing.
So, anyway, these are very interesting topics.
So let's go through real quickly what these five things are. First one is to make sure that you recognize how wealthy you are, because that's a beautiful place to start the day. Second one is to take care of yourself in the morning. Don't check your phone first thing, and really take the time to do these practices that make you feel good. The whole point of the morning routine is to make sure you feel good so you feel genuinely inspired before you run around. Otherwise, you're off center the whole day. Third one is to not think you're superior to everyone else or inferior even.
This whole thing puts us in an unbalanced relationship to life and to other people.
Understand the real causes of our sorrow. It's not what we think. It's something else. And really deal with it. Fifth one is to remember we are bodiless, spiritual beings, and we're safe and secure.
The 6th one is to remember God and to receive that beautiful energy and finally stop breathing life into idols.
So if you do all these things, I'm sure you will feel significantly more liberated and happy and free.
All right, what's our blessing today, Sister Shireen?
[00:33:04] Speaker B: Should I pick random?
[00:33:06] Speaker A: Let's do. Yeah, do pick random.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Impartiality.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Well, there it is.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: You view everyone with a vision of fairness and respect.
Your loving attitude shines from within, aligning with the timeless truths that guide your life. You've gracefully stayed true to your core values, living in harmony with your true self.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: Hmm. That's beautiful. Thank you.
Ah. So.
Thank you, Shereen. These are fascinating things to consider.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: I know. They're unusual.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: They're unusual and just, you know, everyone listening, just think of one. One of them that you maybe haven't thought much about that you could use in your life. Because there are rules of life, and if we're aligned with them, our whole life gets better.
Less stressful and more relaxed.
Talk to you next time. Lots of love.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Om Shanti blessings.
