I wake up & I see myself as a male human of a certain age and certain approximate remaining age,
I remember my name & I see myself as a person of this ancestory, this society and this family,
I see my wife & I see myself as her husband,
I see my son & I see myself as his father,
I watch TV, & I see myself as a person of this nation, this class, this state, this caste & this creed,
I go to my workplace and I see myself as the designation of this chair of this organization,
I do a lot of different other things and see myself as a lot of many other things,
But when I meditate, I see myself as none of the above things,
In mediation I find myself as someone playing these roles,
much like an actor,
only difference being that unlike an actor I took these roles as my real form and had forgotten my actual form
The misconception brings pain
&
The realization brings Joy!
Balance is the key word. The gate to perfect life.
Equillibirium between extremes of,
1. Obsession and Renunciation,
2. Expenditures and savings,
3. Plannings and actions,
4. Isolation and Interactions,
5. Pleasure and pain,
6. Impulses and thoughts,
7. Rigid beliefs and no beliefs,
8. For children, Excess Love and excess strictness,
9. Excess physical activity and excess mental activity,
10. Excess attchemnt and excess detachment.
And when one finds himself in such a balance, then actually he starts to finds himself!
A rich man was not rich till he knew a poor man!
A poor man was not poor till he knew a rich man!
My human nature had programmed me to measure my success or competence only with respect to others. Now, this was a problem. This race with the next guy has no end. Nowadays an ad is regular on channels, where a couple is depressed coz their neighbour has a bigger car. Since there will always be the possibility of the neighbour having a bigger car or villa or pay package or smarter kid, coz there is no limit in such matters. Things are worse if I live in a metro or a posh colony.
A woods man was not unhappy till he met a farmer. The farmer was cool till he met the town people. The townpeople felt inferior when they visited the city and so on. There is simply no end.
As long as I evalauted my possesion in a relative manner, I was doomed to inherent inferiority and depression.
The secret is 'Satisfaction'. Satisfaction is not Lethargy or defeatism. It is the greatest virtue that keeps the noise out of the mind. It keeps the mind focussed, aware, efficient and a lot more productive. It makes me uncover and utilize my true inherent potential. The inherent potential of a mind is without limits and simply miraculous, once utilized. However, since I had lived the same way, had the same goals, and pretty much did mostly the same things as my predecessors and theirs and theirs, I had no awareness of this huge power of all powers.
Now that the awareness of awareness is downing, I judge my possesions and material success by the fulfilment of short, medium amd long term needs of me and my family. Anything extra is a surplus. Relieved of the pressure of wants (dangerous, unsatiable and endless) and needs ( lesser and satiable), now I can explore myself and I am happy with what I uncover. Every day more jewels come out of the treasure.
Living with satisfaction has not only made me calm, happier, focussed and more effective, but it has improved all aspects of my life including the career also, which I previously considered the measure of my success.
Satisfaction is also the very first as well as the critical step to Self Discovery and Final Liberation.
Again, the Satisfaction won't take birth in our mind tonight itself.
Just sow the seed and see the wonder. Just ask urself, whether I really need another dress, bigger car etc. No harm or bad thing if I spend over my needs. Dangerous only if I live by what others have.
So, dear friend, If Our needs are fulfilled and we have a bit more, hey we are the rich people! Enjoy!
We do not know about it. We are not sure about it. We can't see/ smell/ touch/taste it. None of the finest scientific instruments including those who can see the atom to those who can see billions of kilometers far away fail to sense it. Surprisingly, we, every single one of us, claim to keep its account always. What is it?
It it Time!
We claim to measur Time, though we can't detect the existence of even a single second of it.
Every calendar, clock, wristwatch, cellphone, computer, TV, dvd upto the microwave seem to be keeping track of Time.
Time is many things to many people.
For a scientist Time is an equation or variable.
For an idle man Time is 'Spare'.
For somebody having a difficult experience Time is an enemy. They call it the 'Bad' Time.
For an aging wrestler, sportsman, beautiful, Time is the most Cruel truth of life.
For a man in his last few years, Time was the most precious treasure, emptied carelessly.
Time is the most fundamental law of the existence of the universe as well as the Life.
What we percieve and name as Time is nothing but the most obvious yet unnoticed fact of the cyclic nature inbuilt in each atom, each phenomenon of the universe. Time is the Solemn Statement of God himself, stating the non existence of any begining or any end. Only cycles seem to exist wherever I see.We first observed this law as well as the Time itself with the sunrises and sunsets and invented Day, Then hours and minutes. We watched seasons and invented Year. We watched Moon phases and counted months. Our calendars count the days and watches the minutes. Our watches do not measure the time, not at all. They only keep count of the cyclic mechanism, whether springloaded, pendulum, sunlight, sandfall, peizo or atomic. The clocks then compare their cycles with a cycle of nature, ie day and year and fragment it into seconds and beyond.
The cycles of universe are visible all around. Seed to sapling to plant to tree to fruit to seed. Life and death and rebirth. water river to cloud to river.
In all these cycles is the rhythm of Universe. Tao lies in understanding the ways of the universe and being in harmony with them.
So, let us shed our conditioned belief in parmanence of things whether, health, beauty, power or property. God and soul are the only entities beyond the cycles, only the ignorance hides the knowledge.
Flesh is born and flesh dies, while the soul continues in its journey. From the day of the birth itself, the countdiwn begins. some cells of our body die every day. Every day the body is dying a bit and we the igonrant kids are piling up possession for this dying body. We also forget that the care of the soul and its destination.
In the rhythm of life is the truth of the cycles of body and the journey of the soul through these cycles to its destiny, its home, to the source and the end of all seen and all unseen.
The awareness of the eternal journey and the final destination and a little bit of less association with the dying body and its adornations, its temporary and dying glory as well as the temporary and dying possession will orient the navigation of the soul. The awareness will initiate the gradual transformation of thoughts. Thoughts change desposition and that changes the whole life.
Instead of a daily 'Fight or Flight' routine, life can become a vacation.
Just taking the permanent as permanent and transient as transient will beautify the life.
It all will happen gradually and invisibly.
The path of Spiritualism is actually the path of awareness, Awareness of the universe and of the self, till they both become one. The awareness may start like the tiny sparks of the gloworm in the dark night of ignorance but grdually it grows to the all compassing light where truth is as clear and beautiful as the full moon in the night. That is the destination of the soul, to which the 'Guru' points and the soul walks on the path with ever increasing bliss.
The journey of the awareness also begins with the doubt. Doubts raise question, questions get answers, more questions and more answers till the answers become knowledge, knowledge becomes wisdom, wisdom becomes nature of the self and soon the Enlightenment.
So, let us not be discouraged or disheartened with our doubts and contradictions. Even Buddha had a lot of them through his own journey.
Where there is great doubt there will be great knowledge, where there is no doubt, there will be no knowledge. Accept your doubts as a friend, as the precursors of knowledge and as the begining. When the soul becomes ready, the guidance also comes in form of a Guru as the Zen says.
With the knowledge of the cycles of body and the permanence of soul, begins the journey of awareness.
Welcome to the journey!
