It does you a lot of good to  spare time for self-reflection

Occasions like the recent national prayer breakfast remind us of the importance of self-reflection and knowledge.

I attended this meeting, whose theme was self-reflection. Listening to various speakers, I got to feel just how much good true self-reflection could do for us as individuals, our organisations and the country at large. 

I was reminded of the Noble Eightfold Path of self-reflection as conceived by Shakyamuni Buddha, two thousand five hundred years ago, and its relevance.

The Noble Eightfold Path consists of Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

Right view is when you believe in the law of cause and effect. It is when we check whether we see ourselves, others and the world in the right way. Can we view events from other peoples’ viewpoints, or even from a higher perspective?

Right View helps us to gain a fair perspective on what happened during the day, the week or on every incident that occurred around us.

Right thought means to reflect on the constant diverse thoughts that enter our mind.

It is important to examine our thoughts as if they were in a transparent glass box and to check if we would be embarrassed if those thoughts were revealed to others. It is our thoughts that reflect the purity of our soul and determine who we really are.

INFINITE POSSIBILITIES

Right speech means to reflect on the words we used throughout the day. Right speech means to avoid false speech, abusive words, flattery and deceit. Right speech also means using wisdom and courage to criticise when something needs to be criticised, as well as positive encouragement, which is necessary to create an ideal society.

Right action is behaving in the right way and avoiding whatever is shameful as a human being. Right action also can be interpreted as right work. Our work should provide us with infinite possibilities to nurture, care, love and raise the level of our enlightenment.

Self-reflection on right action should make us check if we exerted ourselves fully and worked with all our heart and soul.

Right livelihood means to lead a decent, honest and moral life. Right livelihood would also involve the effective use of given time. When reflecting on our daily lives it is important to ask ourselves whether we are able to live one day in such a way that it is worth an entire lifetime. Right living can be attained by integrating three actions: mental – for Right Thought; verbal – for Right Speech and physical – for Right Action.

Right effort is making efforts to advance higher, step by step, while living a well-balanced life. It encourages us to advance towards enlightenment. Right effort means to correct our tendency to be lazy, improve ourselves, deepen our knowledge of the truth and make every effort to share it.

Right mindfulness indicates the direction of a strong will that is projected far into the future. It marks an advanced level of spiritual discipline and involves visualization,

Right concentration means going through all the steps of the Noble Eightfold Path and entering a deep meditative state. This state brings us great wisdom, freedom and bliss, and is one of the final objectives of self-reflection. It is a state of true happiness.

It does us a lot of good to take time to reflect on all the things that we do and say. We need to evaluate the benefits and the beneficiary. Visualise how it would have been different if we did whatever we did with a bit more of concern for others, our organisations and our country. This would make us better managers and leaders.