Value: Truth
Sub-value: Self-Confidence
Spiritual Principle: To know who you really are and believe in yourself.
Quote:
“The first thing you must do is develop self-confidence. People who have no confidence in their own selves begin to wander about, waver, and take various paths.”
– SSS 9:39, 203; Brindavan, 3-28-75
Metta Prayer from Buddhism:
“May I be in peace.
May my heart remain open.
May I awaken to the light that is my true nature.
May I be healed.
May I be a source of healing for all beings.”
Silent sitting: 3 Aums and followed by
All students are requested to sit in a comfortable position. Keep your hands on the table or your lap. Do deep breathing. Breath in……breathe out…..Breathe in …… breathe out…….
As you listen to the music, imagine in front of you is a beautiful park …
See the trees and hedges…
The sun is shining. Feel its warmth on your skin.
Feel the gentle warm breeze against your face …
If you feel like it, you can take a stroll along a lovely path …
It is very beautiful and you feel happy and contented …
Look at the bright flowers lining the path …
Everything around you is beautiful…
Look at yourself – inside you are beautiful too, even if sometimes you could do better
You are lovable and beautiful and so are the others around you …
Seeing all this, you feel relaxed and happy.
Song:
I Shall Overcome
I shall overcome I shall overcome
I shall overcome some day
O, Deep in my heart I do believe
I shall overcome some day
Story: TERRIFIC MONSTERS
Pogo the Ogre, Big Giant, and The Abominable One had spent hundreds of years locked up in Monster Prison. They had entered voluntarily, when they realized that frightening children wasn’t a good way to make a living. Since then, the three of them had been sad and lonely figures. Frightening children was the only thing they knew how to do well. They lost all hope, and felt useless. They had already served their full jail sentences several times, but when they were told they were free to go, they answered by asking where they could go, and what could they do, if all they knew in life was scaring people…
However, all that changed on the day they locked up Nightmare. Nightmare was a tiny little monster, who devoted very little time to frightening others and spent most of the day sleeping.
But when awake, he was great fun. He told hundreds of stories of how he had changed people’s dreams to make them more amusing, and of how these changes almost always turned out so badly that they would have scared anyone. Pogo the Ogre, and his friends, loved Nightmare’s stories, but they had to wait for the sleepyhead to get up so he could tell them. Now, that was by no means easy. It seemed not even an earthquake could wake the guy.
Until one day, when the three monsters combined their terrific cries. Nightmare woke up with a start. He looked at them, wide-eyed, but he didn’t seem frightened or angry. Rather, he seemed happy.
“Great!” he said, “I’ve always wanted to get up early. That way you enjoy the day much better. You know what? You guys should work as alarm clocks. I know a lot of sleepyheads who would really thank you for it.”
The three monsters were so happy to hear those words. Finally they could be of some use! After so many years, it turned out they could do much more than they had believed. And they could do it without frightening or bothering children.
That very day they left the prison, ready to make their first alarm call. And so it was that the three monsters became famous for their special service for sleepyheads, and were happy to have understood that there is always something nice we can do, just waiting to be discovered.
Questions
- What did you learn from this story?
- What other good things do you think monsters can do?
- Have you ever felt confident in yourself?
- What is the difference between being proud and being confident?
Group Activity:
Draw a picture of yourself and write all the good qualities that you have.
Life application:
Write a small incident where you felt confident and completed the task successfully.
Closing Affirmation:
Form a circle and say, “I will believe in myself truly since God is always within me.”