Mindflex- Rabbi Chanan Gordon- Spiritual Time Management Part 2

i'd like to share this material with you in hopefully a methodical fashion and the reason why it's tough is it's all about the mind because i believe that wherever we are physically it's how much time is expended in our mind how much time is spent in a positive way which will ensure whether or not we use our time judiciously one of the questions i'm often asked in the concept of time and the concept of the power of the mind is whether the book the secret which was penned by rhonda byrne in australia is a torah concept how is that relevant the premise of the book the secret is the law of attraction meaning that one's predominant thoughts can actually attract certain things into our lives and perforce we can control what happens in our lives by virtually by virtue of having certain positive thoughts so i'd like to answer them with good and bad news for those who are groupies of the book the secrets on the one hand there's clearly the concept of your predominant thought being able to be realized and changing your destiny is clearly not a torah concept and we can say thank goodness it's not because truth be said we don't necessarily know what's good for us if we wanted to attract down into our life journey everything that was our predominant thoughts from our perspective it might be terrific but ultimately the almighty loves us and what we get in this world is that which is good for us not necessarily that which subjectively we want so to answer the questions to ask the question the concept of the secret the law of attraction from a purely secular perspective is filled with flaws but that does not mean that the concept of the power of the mind and how our thoughts cannot impact how we act and our destiny that in fact has a lot of merit how do we know this the way we know this is from the torah itself let's go to the story of joseph joseph and his brothers if you look at the famous story of joseph being thrown into a pit the verbiage in the torah is as follows that the quote was empty there was no water in it clearly that seems to be redundant if it was empty and then per force there was no water in it if you look at the gamora and the comment the commentaries on this particular pasuk we can drill down and understand this this so-called redundancy and understand the importance of this to our subject at hand the the notion of the pit being empty according to the maforoshim is the pit is the allegorical concept of one's mind that if our minds are empty they will be filled with snakes and scorpions a meaning deleterious and negative or poisonous thoughts what that means for us my friends in terms of the power of one's mind and how using one's mind in a positive way can affect one's time one's actions is it's vitally important to be entertaining a positive thoughts in one's mind rather than to quantum quite have a so-called empty pit which defaults into apparently certain and negative thoughts let's explain this a little bit more deeply the torah tells us that the almighty has put before us a binary decision i place before you life and death a blessing and curse choose life for our purposes choose to be optimistic choose to fill the pit fill the mind with a positive thoughts and not allow these so-called as snakes and scorpions these poisonous deleterious things the voices from the quote-unquote other side that are telling us that we won't achieve that we won't actualize our potential that needs to be superseded or supplanted by a followed by positive thoughts in tehem we read the passage that the precept of god are upright gladdening the heart once again the concept of entertaining ideas and thoughts that will gladden the heart because again if one's mind is positive one's perspective change one's energy changes and one uses one's time the topic for this evening in a very positive way so we started off by saying the the famous best seller the secret triggered a worldwide phenomenon of the concept of the law of attraction is that a torah concept we said the classic understanding where your predominant thoughts can attract certain reality is not clearly a torah concept and thank goodness for that because it is not up to me it is up to he and it's only he who knows what's best for us and so we don't necessarily want to attract things into our lives and that will not be good for us we then went on to say the importance of ensuring that our minds are filled with a positive perspective a positive prism a a way to displace the default position and the default position according to the password we said in yosef that the pit was empty there was no water in it the pit again is one's mind there was no water in it we're going to discuss what water means uh from a metaphysical perspective but what we did say is that if the tourists telling us that it's not redundant by saying there's no water but there were snakes and scorpions for our purposes if there is no positive thought if there's nothing that we're entertaining that's reminding us what we can achieve in this world there is a natural negativity that will entertain our minds so let's make this somewhat practical because this evening's class really ladies and gentlemen is about the fact that this so much of our time is spent in our mind and how important is to entertain the right thoughts so that we use this precious commodity called time in the most judicious way to fulfill our specific mission in this world and get closer to the almighty so let's talk about some practical ways that we can ensure that our minds don't have these so-called snakes and scorpions but that remain positive there's a concept in hasidisha principles which talks about that creating space that the mind rules over the heart again underscoring the importance of having a positive thought process positive mind because that's where most of our subconscious time is spent and the way we think is going to affect our actions and is going to affect our outcome some practical examples to ensure that we are our minds remain positive are as follows and number one the the one of the most dangerous things is to act out of pure emotion the so-called two parts of the human mind or psyche emotions and cycle have very different roles in our life and the deliberate process of making decisions based on one cycle are vitally important to ensure that we do not react but rather make decisions that are in line with our life goals so a practical exercise my friends is a concept called his bainunus which is pausing when one gets a thought in one's mind's eye not necessarily having the notion that i'm thinking this and automatically that means i need to respond in a certain way but if you look at the word his pointless day is bina which is the concept of one's mind thinking it through one's cycle for our purposes when you one has a thought it's vitally important to press pause it count to five and make sure before we start renting space in our head before we respond or before we react to something that the trigger the guide for that is one's cycle not one's emotions and that has been thought through so exercise number one to make sure that we are slowing down the mind is to take a few moments before a thought enters our mind and one reacts on that thought a second i think a very important exercise is when one gets a thought in one's mind's eye and suddenly feels heart palpitation starts fitzing and clearly the thought has triggered anxiety try and objectify it try and take oneself out of the picture by creating a fictitious situation whereby if someone had asked you whether a certain thought process would result in a certain response how would you advise them in other words advise yourself and the advisor that is directing itself down to the thought process is coming from a higher place we learn in safari that that that process of taking oneself out of the process allows oneself to be less subjective and will make sure that our thinking is not fraught with flaws that they are not some cognitive processes that not that are not necessarily accurate and will enable oneself to be a more objective so again the importance of how we think and how it impacts our life and our reaction is directly related to time because by definition we spend so much of our lives spend precious time entertaining thoughts and one has to have the tools to make sure that that thought process is healthy and or how do we take that thought and respond in a deliberate predetermined way as opposed to being a reactive so let's get a little bit more centered to the topic at hand which is the relationship again of thought and time there are many things my friends in our life that we will have very little control over but we do have control over our attitudes again we may not be able to control what happens to us but we are in full control and are responsible for the way we react to what happens to us so let's go through some tools to make sure that we respond to the vicissitudes of this journey called life in a healthy way so once again we're using our time in this world in a judicious way to get close to the almighty and fulfill our respective life missions one of the most important ways that we can ensure we have the right attitude is based on perspective often we are so close to a particular life situation that we don't see the proverbial forest for the trees one of the examples that i think brings this a point home is friends suppose i want to tell you that a person was walking down the hall peeked into a keyhole saw a person with a mask with a huge knife about to bear down on someone lying on a bed and so most of us would scream bloody murder but suppose i were to tell you that behind that door was a world of famous surgeon and that knife was the tool to remove some sinister growth from the person lying on a bed that would ensure that they will live a a healthy a longer life my friends we see the world through that keyhole we said in our previous lecture that the almighty created time what that means for our purposes is his outside time and only the almighty sees what's behind that keyhole we see only that keyhole and if we are going to use our myopic perception of what we see to make decisions without using some of these tools and exercises to understand that we have by definition a skewed perspective we may entertain the wrong attitude and we may react inappropriately so the first notion is one's in terms of one's attitude is perspective our perspective is limited we caught in this commodity called time and it is only though almighty that is outside time that understands the full consequences of everything that we're experiencing and that happens in our life let's take a different tool to hopefully help us understand how we can have a positive attitude to supersede the snakes and scorpions and make sure that our minds remain healthy and positive and so that we use our time judiciously my friends there are approximately 7.2 billion people in this world out of that world demographic approximately 0.02 percent are a part of the chosen nation are a part of the jewish people you were chosen you were given the most powerful spiritual gift the almighty can possibly give to any of us and that is you've been endowed with a jewish soul if i stop the lecture right there you should be filled with a sense of not only of warmth and a sense of the fact that you've been hand selected but the understanding that you are in a world that it has a much rough that you are the diamond the perspective of the fact that we are part of a small nation and that nation really is setting the tone and is really the compass for much that happens to this world should hopefully give us an understanding of an attitude that we should all entertain a third idea in terms of making sure that we are using time productively in terms of our mind's eye is to understand that in the word emotion is the word motion there's a direct correlation between motion and emotion my friends it's vitally important that before making a big decision and as a general a life pearl of wisdom is to make sure that we exercise that we're in motion we release a natural endorphin which not only ensures that it slows down the adrenaline which often causes panic but it will what it gives up a perspective which will help us think with one's cycle and less with a reactive emotion so let's review these three points of how we can hopefully come come to the world with certain tools to ensure that our attitude remains a positive that we are not renting space in our head with things that are negative that will impact the way we use this commodity called time number one is perspective we have a limited perspective in this world it is only the almighty that sees the big picture the point of departure for all of us as torah observant jews is that almighty loves you and more than you can possibly love your own children or yourself and per force even though certain things we may experience as painful or certain things that in our perfect script we might have not put in our a life journey one of the basic concepts of understanding the fact that there was an aleph before the base the first letter of the torah is that god was here before and that god by definition is altruistic is benevolent is a giver and loves you more than you can fathom and therefore the fact that there is certain parts of one's life that are filled with challenges or pain it does not detract from the fact that the almighty is guiding us in a direction that's the very best thing for us and success and happiness sometimes has a price that we need to pay and that might be a discomfort so that's the concept of a perspective the concept of understanding that we as jews have a fundamentally different role to play uh than the other nations of the world and the people that are trying to use the torah as their gps are a tiny fraction of the world population the fact that those people are really the spark that's igniting a dark world that those people are really helping bring the gps for life into this world it surely should help you realize that the attitude of not having certain things in a materialistic way or certain accolades that the world places a premium on is but by no means detracts from the fact that you're playing a vitally important a central role in this journey called life we then discussed the concept of emotion and motion coming from the same word and the importance of having motion in one's life to ensure that one has a healthy emotions there's a fourth piece which i'd like to add before we tie this together with a beautiful story and a 20-minute standing ovation and that is the concept of whether one can take out of re reject from one's mind eye the notion of if only most people that i meet in this world and i have i think a unique vantage point as someone who's involved and close to many professional athletes many celebrities who supposedly have everything and spent many many hours of my life in lectures teaching etc there are in many many people who have what one would assume would be all of the toys and all of the things that people that wish for that say you know rabbi they say anthony if if that then if that i would be and live their life in limbo if we see the look at the world the life the word alive we see the the middle two letters of the word life is the word if the hebrew word for life haim if we look at the two middle letters it's the almighty's name if we understand that everything that is happening to us is being given and guided by a loving benevolent source if we understand that we've been hand picked to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem if we understand that ultimately everything that happens for us is the the is for the good will realize that every single thing that we need in this journey called life we have so many people my friends that are meeting this journey who are maybe a little bit later on in life find it that they've ascended up the ladder and realize that it's leaning against the wrong wall the importance of using our time judiciously the importance of making sure that we have tools to ensure that our minds are kept positive that the default of the snakes and that snakes and vermin it doesn't entertain our mind is vitally important and i believe the following story illustrates the importance of time the importance of the way that we should be thinking and i believe is a beautiful synthesis to bring our spiritual time and management series together many of you may know the story of a very poor man and this very poor man did a tremendous research to find out how he can possibly bring some sustenance to his family how he could possibly bring some jewels or treasures to bring some materialistic success to his family and after much research the hero of our story found out that on one particular island the island the beaches their entire island was covered in diamonds and the man thought this is eureka this is the moment i've found the source of a financial success i found the source that will bring sustenance to my family this is fabulous it did some more research and found out that there's a certain round-trip boat that he could afford that would pick him up exactly three months after landing on the island and he worked day and night for this round trip ticket so that he would have three months to collect the diamonds on this island to return home and he would be rich and so-called happy the day came the hero of our story uh jumps on the boat off to the island and after a couple of weeks of travel on the high seas to to the the market research the island he started seeing in the distance was shiny with these magic stones he got closer the boat stopped and he thought he was in gun aidan in the first few moments he took one of the sacks that he carried with him on this travel and filled it up with all these shiny stones all these diamonds this is the nevada this was going to be the turning point of his life and he took a bunch of these diamonds filled the sack the day continued the sun began to set and he wanted to get something to drink before retiring for the evening went to the the town uh cantee cafeteria and got himself something to drink uh something to nash uh he came to the cashier and offered up one of these beautiful pure diamonds as a form of currency to pay for his evening dinner and of course the cashier snickered and said my friend on this island there are diamonds everywhere this pressure stone does not have any value on this island the currency my friend on this very island is a certain kind of fat that can be extracted from a certain fish that arrives on this island at the high tide and so obviously the man the hero of our story who needs to eat there needs to drink he went out at high tide he watched the locals and figured out which fish it was and managed to grab this certain fish extricated this fat and went back to this little shopping mall and then offered this this fat from this fish as a form of currency because that was the value on the island and so focused was he on the the currency that would make him give him status the currency that would uh help him to lift himself up to the the zenith of the hurricane island that he collected so much of this fat he worked out through the tides exactly when the fish would arrive on the beach and two and a half months later found that he had made sacks filled with the fatty with this special fats from the fish and he had timed the return knowing that after three months the boat would return and he would needed to return to his family the days that came close he put all his sacks together and as the boat arrived to take him back to his family he took all of his sacks that he collected of this fat from this strange fish put it into his bags and off he went to return to his waiting poor wife and children and after two weeks of the high seas our hero returns home and at the harbour the wife and children of our hero or waiting for their father waiting for their her husband the moment where their lives would change and as the boat came close to the dock there was this toxic smell and the boat docked and as the hero of our story took his sacks of fatty of this fatty substance he realized what had happened he realized he had quote unquote missed the boat and he panicked and he managed to put in his uh put his hand in his pocket he found one little diamond that he had put in his pocket during the early days but it was too late my friends i am quite sure that you understand the muscle the parable because that's the journey of life and most people come into this world and are distracted most people come into this world and they use the wrong currency most people drink from the kool-aid of secular and pop culture and reach the zenith of their journey called life and eventually need to be accountable in the next world and they will have nothing but so-called a smelly fat to show the heavenly court and the almighty himself because they've used their precious commodity called time collecting the wrong toys my friends the purpose of our journey to gera in this spiritual time management class is to help us understand that it's about a compass it's about understanding to put the big rocks in first it's about knowing that there are many distractions it's understanding that we cannot possibly be productive and multitask it's about ensuring that we do not leave our minds so-called open to become repositories of negative thoughts or of the values of unfortunately the world which is espousing a currency of some type of a fat from an exotic fish the purpose of our journey is to use this precious gift uses precious gift of the commodity called time to collect those diamonds those are 613 diamonds that's why we're here let's use some of the tools that we've shared and embraced together in this beautiful project inspire seminar on spiritual time management to make sure when we come to the end of this journey that we have our sax filled with beautiful diamonds that we realize the beautiful gift of being part of the chosen nation and that we realize that we can so called look the almighty in the face and be proud that we've taken the gift you call time and have used it in a judicious way it's my blessing to each and every one of you to use your time in the best possible way to keep your attitude positive and know that the almighty loves you and as i often tell people perhaps you're only one person in the world but i promise you my friends each and every one of you is the world to at least one person let's take some of these gifts let's take some of these ideas go out ignite a spark in a dark world bring a gps a direction to many of our disenfranchised brothers and sisters and i wish for each and every one of you a beautiful successful year 5781 use your time well god