Human Value: Right Conduct Virtue: Determination Welcome to Session 9! Human Value: Right Conduct Virtue: Determination

Agenda Lighting the Candle Prayer ∞ Opening Ceremony ∞Lighting the Candle Prayer ∞Forbearance Prayer ∞Announcements ∞Newcomers welcome ∞Changes in today’s session ∞Date of next meeting ∞Checking in on month of Non-Violence and Diligence ∞Lesson ∞Closing As we light this flame, we light the flames of Love, Peace, Truth, Right Conduct, and Non-Violence that lie within us all.

Forbearance Prayer Let us have forbearance towards each other Let us rejoice together Let us all strive together Let us live and move in harmony Let us grow together Let us cherish the wisdom that we have acquired Let us live in complete harmony without misunderstanding May all being in the worlds be happy Namaste, we honor the goodness in each other

Right Conduct and Determination Wise Saying: “If we are really determined, we can accomplish great things”

Questions: This wise saying is about the Human Value of Right Conduct Questions: This wise saying is about the Human Value of Right Conduct. The Virtue or sub-Value in this saying is ‘determination.’ ∞Who can tell us what the word ‘determination’ means? ∞What does it mean to be ‘determined’?

Now let’s look at the saying Now let’s look at the saying. Who would like to tell us in their own words, what the saying means? How do we behave if we are really ‘determined’? What does it mean, ‘we can accomplish great things’?

Illustration: Have you ever walked into a cobweb that has been strung between two trees? How did the spider get that sticky little rope all of the way across that distance? Did he go down one tree, across the ground, and up the tree again? No. He had to swing from one tree to the other, but many times he failed, and each time he had to draw the line back into his body, climb back up the first tree, then wait for the breeze, and leap off towards the other tree again. Again and again the spider failed, but he was really determined, so he kept trying, until he succeeded. Once he had that first rope across the gap, the rest was relatively easy. Eventually the spider’s web was finished, so beautiful, so strong, so clever. How does this illustration of the spider and its cobweb help us in witnessing and practicing determination in our own lives?

Illustration: Before the invention of the light bulb we had to burn gas, candles, or kerosene to create a little bit of light so we could see things in our homes at night. A man named Thomas Edison carried over 1000 experiments, trying to invent the light bulb. That is, he ‘failed’ over 1000 times, and each experiment cost him a lot of time and money. But he was really determined, and he did accomplish great things. Now whole cities are lit up all over the world with the light bulbs he invented. What moments in your life reflect upon your manifestation of determination in the face of ‘’failure” and what carried you through to achieve your accomplishment(s)?

Guided Imagination

Affirmation for Reflection and Contemplation: “I AM REALLY DETERMINED TO DO GREAT THINGS!!”

Write an action plan on how to apply this affirmation in your life: ∞What great things would you like to accomplish? ∞To achieve such high goals we need to have real determination, like making the spiderweb, like Edison inventing the light bulb. What would this real determination look like, say, in accomplishing great things you would like to achieve in life and what would you have to do to achieve this?

Closing Prayer We pray to the Divine, to our Sacred Selves, for our determination to be reflected in our thoughts, words and deeds. In this practice of Right Conduct, we are guided into working for the Sacred, and here we will accomplish great things. We pray to and thank the Divine for this gift of developing our determination for the Highest Good of All.