Who Has the Key to My Happiness!

Many a times when we are feeling hurt or sad, we blame others around us, our near and dear ones like spouses, siblings, parents, children, friends for it. Sometimes we blame the fate as well as the God too. Sometimes we blame ourselves also.

What is the secret of happiness?
The secret is that happiness and its key to your happiness lies in the cupboard of a particular person, you!
Nobody else, however close, can make a person happy for all times.

We must know weaknesses of our own mind and tackle them one by one to be truly free from all pain, suffering, misery, fears and all.

All pain is caused by our illusions of:

Ownership whether materials or persons,

Control over things and people,

Our actions not being in sync with nature of our body, other events, the nature itself,

Permanence of life, beauty, strength and property,

Others being responsible for our own happiness,

We can craft the fate of our near and dear ones,

And our long term plans.

What happens to me is seldom my choice.
How I take it, is always my choice. I have options of ignoring, focussing on the good part, forgetting and forgiving . We also have option of freeing and externalizing our mind.

The best option we have is to turn every situation to our own advantage by taking action in sync with nature of things ie the path of Tao.

Know your own mind, follow the Tao and find key to our own happiness.

"The only cause of all Problems!"

There is a single cause of all the problems in the world, and that is
" Everyone can tell what all others need to do and yet no one can see any thing he needs to do."

"Blinders that we wear!"

Ignorance of is the cause of all sufferings of all sorts. Ignorance of true nature of self, others, phenomenon and nature itself leads to wrong perception, wrong judgements and wrong actions leading ti failures and miseries.

When one is finally able to percieve the reality, he realizes how since childhood he has been wearing so many blinders.

The biggest blinders are,
Greed,
Ego,
Anger,
Superiority,
Self righteousness,
Wrong perception of having knowledge,
Prejudice,
Judgements,
Attachment and Aversion.

For Happiness and true freedom, let us start dropping the blinders one by one.

Good luck!

"The Three Vinegar Tasters!"

The Three Vinegar Tasters is a very old theme reflected in many paintings and murals.

It shows three wise men surrounding a big pot of vinegar. The three men have tasted the vinegar by dipping their fingers and now their faces show their reactions of the taste of the vinegar.

As per their expressions, one man found it sour, another bitter and the third one found it sweet.

These three men represent the concept of life of Confucious, Buddha and Lao-tse, the three figureheads of the major streams  of chinese life and spirituality, which are Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

In the picture Confucious found the vinegar of life sour. The Confucious' philosophies finds life and society ab-intio imperfect and therefore has formulated the ideal code for behaviour of every person in every role to construct a happy and peaceful society. That is, in view of Confucious, the natural way of life  and things are imperfect by design and needs manipulation and improvement for an ideal life and society.

Again, in the picture, Buddha finds the vinegar bitter.  Buddhism was based on teachings of Buddha who in his youth as Siddartha had left his house and society to find a way to relase humans from sufferings of Sorrow, disease, old age and death. The same theme remained dominant in the various braches of Buddhism. The major perception among the followers and teachers remained that life was like a perilous yet compulsory journey, which at could be undertaken, at best, without pain and suffering by following Buddha's path of detachment and middle path.

However, in this picture, Lao Tze, the greatest master of Taoism, finds the same Vinegar sweet. Taoists do not think of life as good or bad by nature. They consider life real and accept it the way it is. By accepting life and the world, they also find the way to be in harmony with the forces of life and nature, and by this harmony they find happiness.

So, the picture depicts the view of the nature of life by the Confucians, Buddhists and Taoists  respectively as imperfect, bitter and sweet.

However, the company of the three Masters together, at one place, also conveys a message of co-existence and harmony of the three philosophies.

The conplete message can be probably be summarised as, "Life is imperfect and can be full of miseries and sufferings, which can be resolved by a bit of detachment and by following the middle path, and further, the same life can be enjoyed by accepting the things as they are without judgements of good or bad and by being in harmony with forces of life and universe."

" The Actual Evolution! "

Homo Ignoramus

to

Homo Sapien

to

Homo Illuminatus!

Retaining the attitude of a student!

Gathering some knowledge and becoming a teacher is not much difficult, but

but remaining a student,  retaining thirst for knowledge and the freshness of an empty mind and keep on learning is the utmost difficult.

मेरा, मेरा और मेरा संबंध।

मेरे और मेरे बीच में तो मैं मुझको ही पाऊँ,

 बस बीच से मैं हट जाऊँ तो मैं से मैं मिल जाऊँ।

Mind!

Between Self (part of reality)  and the reality stands the Mind.

On Buddha Poornima!

Buddha compared life to Veena, a musical instrument.

If too tight, the strings will break off by tension.

If too slack, there won't be a music.

This was the middle path of Buddha.

This was the way of balance,
of not getting carried away,
of enjoying without indulgence and spirituality without abstinence.

The most practical way.

Desires are a part of our existence and their suppression gives birth to complexes, while blind indulgence is a root of obsession.

A man can go to Himalayas or Kanyamukari for detachment and meditation. He can denounce his property, his family, his society, but can he ever denounce his mind, the same mind will go with him and not allow him to meditate anywhere in the world.

In fact, the middle path, the way of family life and career, is also the most suitable path for the most of us, not yet in a highly aware state.

The middle path, is very similar to the way of Tao. The way of Spontaniety.

Allowing desire to be born, observing them grow and letting them express themselves in the mindspace and after partial satiation (there is no complete satiation of desires) watching them grow weak and slowly sink to the bottom.

Allowing expression of desires, enjoying their partial satiation, and letting them vanish.

Similar was the ashram system of Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanprastha and then Sanyaas.

Gita also teaches us to do action as befits the role we are in and the situation without indulgence and attachment with results.

On a lighter vein,
A yogi- " My master eats only few fruits once in a week."

Another yogi- " My master sleeps only once in a week."

A taoist- " My master eats when he is hungry and sleeps when he feels sleepy."

Thankfully, with the wisdom of Buddha, Tao and the Gita, we can progress on the way of worldly happiness alongwith the  spiritual growth.

The Wisdom of not getting "Carried Away"!

The wisdom is in not getting "carried away". Mind should not lose focus. Direction should not be lost.

Not getting carried away by:

Urges, desires, anger, fear, envy,

affection, attachment or aversion,

affluence or crisis

pride

victory or loss
appreciation or criticism,

somebody's opinions (including mine :) ),
Commercials,
speeches,
promises,

Mind of the wise is like a rock in a turbulent water streams of thoughts and feelings.

He sees, he observes, he understands, acts and speaks the minimum required.

Similar is the definition of Sthitpragya (Steady mind)
Sri Krishna: Verse 55 and 56 , Chapter 2

"One whose mind remains undisturbed by distress, or pleasure, who is free from mundane attachment, fear and anger, is a sage of steady mind.

One who is unattached to anything in this world and who does not become joyful or resentful on good or bad happenings is firmly established in wisdom."

However, for us that perfection is not required as in this stage. Desires, being a part of our existence, should be entertained and enjoyed but not indulging deeply or carried away.

Just getting "Carried away" lesser ....and lesser will be a good start. :)