Transcribed lecture on the topic - Process of improving habits
We are discussing here, 2008, on the Puri beach, Japa meditations. And we are on page 31. Radha Vallabhadas, he gives three parts to reformjapa. If we want to improve our japa, reform our japa, there are 3 parts.
First we should spend one week observing our japa. Because the idea of reform, it is called ‘japa reform’, reform means to improve. So you can’t improve something unless you recognize the need for improvement, right? If you think everything is fine, then you won't try to reform or improve. So for the first week… because we want to change our habits, our chanting maybe isn’t very good. We want to improve the quality of our chanting, the quantity and the quality.
So the first step of the reform, the first principle of changing a habit is to become conscious of your practice and determine what most needs to be reformed. You will see many bad habits, but to make best use of your energy it is important to focus on just one or two key habits at a time. If we try to change all our bad habits, we are going to fall on our face and wind up where you started. So, one has to be thoughtful in this practice of changing habit.
So the first week, we spend in observation. We observe our chanting ofjapa. What is the quality of our chanting? Are we chanting with attention? Are we chanting with feeling? Are we distracted when we chant? Are we finishing our rounds or are they dragging on through out the whole day? How is our chanting?(continue....)
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