Adjustment

To adjust with the universe, to begin, one has to adjust with oneself!

To be at peace with universe, to begin, one has to be at peace with oneself!

Before accepting the universe as it is, to begin with, one has to accept oneself as one oneself is! 

इंसानियत

बच्चों को पढ़ाना है तो इन्सानियत पढ़ाएं मजहब न पढ़ाएं

इंसान के बच्चे को इंसान रहने दें हिंदू मुसलमान न बनाएं

उस दुनिया में क्या मिलेगा ,ना मिलेगा ये कब किसने है जाना,

उन वादों के इरादों में कमसकम इस दुनिया को न जलाएं,

भाइ की जान ले के  क्या कोई बाप को कर सकेगा खुश ,

किताबें कुछ भी कहें , पर हम आखिर इतना भूल न जाएं,

अगर हमने अपने माने प्रभु को पूरे सृष्टि का मालिक ही है माना,

फिर कुछ वर्ग गज के झगड़ों को उसके अस्तित्व का मसला न बनाएं,

तुम्हारी जगह तुम भी सही, हमारी जगह हम भी, दोनों सही, 

आयें "जियो और जीने दो" से ऊपर कोई भी उसूल ना बनाएं!

Externalize!!!

 I traveled for long, in lands near and away,

It was the thirst that never let me sit still or stay,

The quest was to find the answer to the question ultimate,
The purpose of life, what, how. and where to find my own fate,

Slowly and gradually the realization dawned on me,
Till one day I could see, as clear as it could be,

To my shock and surprise, the purpose of life was so simple,
To live and enjoy the happiness present around us in ample,

Remember, this is the only life that all of us have got,
Also, this day, hour, this minute, it returns ever not,

Be still, expand awareness, open your eyes and u see,
Hear, touch, feel the world you forgot to with be,

Mind, internalized can wallow in sadness and inertia for days altogether
Mind when externalized can work most and also enjoy the time at its leisure,

to share the secret, Life is but time, and master of time is mind,
Freedom is by Learning the secret, most valuable of its kind,

Slow down, see, hear, touch, feel and involve,
start to absorb as the world slows it's revolve

With externalized awareness, see yourself in the world outside
Also, you see then, the whole world in your inside!

The Four States of Consciousness!

(Photo source:https://www.dreamstime.com/two-sleeping-brothers-bed-white-bedclothes-image153184941) 

Rich or Poor?

A poor man didn't know he was poor till he met a rich man,

A rich man didn't know he was rich till he met a poor man. 

"The Three Vinegar Tasters! "

The Three Vinegar Tasters

The Three Vinegar Tasters is a very old theme reflected in some 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 tasteless 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 tasteless or bland. 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 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, at best tasteless and tasty.

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

The conplete message can 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.

Ignorance!!

Ignorance is nurtured & protected by Ignorance of Ignorance!!

Awareness starts with awareness of Ignorance!!

Lockdown and Winter Depression

Winter Depression is a common observed phenomena, especially in Colder countries in North. 

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is depression that gets triggered by a change in seasons, usually when fall starts. This seasonal depression gets worse in the winter before ending in the spring

People with seasonal affective disorder may also have other mental conditions, such as:

Anxiety disorder.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Eating disorder.

Panic disorder.

(https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9293-seasonal-depression)

So people who have seasonal affective disorder may have signs of depression, including:

Sadness.

Anxiety.

Carbohydrate cravings and weight gain.

Extreme fatigue and lack of energy.

Feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness.

Inability to concentrate.

Irritability.

Limbs feeling heavy.

Loss of interest in usual activities, including withdrawing from social activities.

Sleeping more.

Cause :Vitamin D deficiency due to less sin exposure. 

Treatment : Sunlight and Vitamin D supplement. 

Many researches have also linked Vitamin D deficiency with Panic, anxiety etc.

 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5922262/&ved=2ahUKEwjfkNOej9_wAhWRzzgGHSMwAckQFjAKegQIEBAC&usg=AOvVaw34y_pysL2OjHNA2xheljTA) 

The Covid lockdown has also brought months of house restriction and minimal sun exposure. 

In such a scenario depression, panic, anxiety etc are very likely, esp with continuous bombardment of bad news and negativity. 

In such a scenario proper Vitamin D supplement may be advisable, especially if such symptoms occur. 

“Mindfulness through Yoga- the gateway to calmer, happier, more productive life leading to self-realization”

 (An abridged version of this post was published in a copy of an E-Mag OM RISE, downloadable at OM RISE)

What is “Mindfulness”?

 “To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.”

(Eric Hoffer, in The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955) Aphorism 151, p. 93)

Mindfulness can be described as the psychological process of one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment

or it can more simply be described as ‘Awareness’, ‘Self-awareness’, ‘Self-Observation’ , ‘Atma-Darshan’ or ‘Externalization’ as practiced by different Yoga or Spiritual schools.

Here, it may be worthwhile to note that the Sanskrit word ‘Adhyatma’, for which english word ‘Spirituality’ is used as a loose translation, actually means ‘Adhyaan’ of ‘Atma’ i.e.‘Study of Self’.

Mindfulness is a state of non-conceptual awareness i.e. “bare attention” and not thinking. It does not get involved with thought or concepts. It does not get hung up on ideas or opinions or memories. It just looks. Mindfulness registers experiences, but it does not compare them. It does not label them or categorize them. It just observes everything as if it was occurring for the first time. It is not analysis that is based on reflection and memory. It is, rather, the direct and immediate experiencing of whatever is happening, without the medium of thought. It comes before thought in the perceptual process.

“Mindfulness is present-moment awareness. It takes place in the here and now. It is the observance of what is happening right now, in the present. It stays forever in the present, perpetually on the crest of the ongoing wave of passing time”

(Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (2011), p. 134)

 

A mindful or self-aware state enables heightened sensory perception, an awareness of surroundings & environment, of one’s actions and words before spoken, and the mental processes behind the actions and even  a perception of slower lapse of time.

With regular practice of Yoga, it is possible to achieve a more or less permanent state of mindfulness. Observing continuously of our bodily sensations, paying attention to the happenings around us, understanding the sensory stimuli, breathing, detaching the mind from the internal torrent of thoughts, emotions are certain ways to achieve mindfulness.

A mindful state is not burdened by connecting events around us like our memories, our past experiences, our conditioned perceptions and it does not attach motives, and does not look at the events as opportunities or threats ab initio.

Reaction & Response:

We all have an idea about the meaning of phrases like “application of mind” and “mindless impulsive actions”.

Let’s see a simple example:

Imagine a fender bender accident on a Monday when one is already late for an important meeting and behind deadlines as well. Depending upon his as well as the other driver’s state of mind, this incident may be more than likely to lead to a scuffle.

 In certain extreme cases this road rage can lead to homicide as well, which obviously has happened in real life road rage events.

However, in a different state of mind of the drivers, it may lead to an amicable settlement and, who knows, additionally even to a long term friendship.

What caused the stark and extreme difference in the outcomes of the situation?

Mindfulness!

The difference is that one is a ‘spontaneous reaction’ while the other is a ‘mindful response’! While resorting to verbal or physical violence in such a scenario would have been an automatic reaction of a stress state of mind especially if compounded by panic, lack of sleep etc, in the other case a mindful approach would have summed up the whole scenario in a glance and selected the best response to the issue.

A mindful person or a person ‘present in the present’ not only observes his surrounding in much more detail, he or she also observes his own emotions rising , thoughts forming and converting to an actionable option.

Further he may also understand the particular pattern of thoughts and may analyze the root of such pattern in his personality, his own psychological profile and thereby improve his own personality as a continuous process.

Mindfulness and Productivity/Creativity

The level of sensory observation in a mindful state is so much on a different scale. We all know about the story of Newton and the apple and the origin of Theory of gravitation. Had Newton, or for that matter others, not observed falling things before? Or the instance of Archimedes discovering the theory of buoyancy in a bathtub?

So what was different in this instance?

Perhaps, a state of mindfulness at the particular instance.

 

 

Mindfulness and happiness

An internalized mind is vulnerable to being trapped in its memories of the past and fears about the future. The mind when without a task uses its own vast resources to create scenarios for itself and replay memories again and again. An internalized mind therefore may suffer from panic, depression and complexes.

An externalized mind, by observing its sensory stimuli, observing its own thought process, observing its environment, environmental inputs and its response to them is not only free from the  complexes, but is active, involved and in a happier and higher state of existence.

A man requested a master to take him as a disciple and remedy his problem of depression, anxiety and stress. The master took him and allotted him a simple task of boiling water for everyone, all day, every day. The disciple found the repetitive and simple, boring task so taking his stress at the breaking point of his sanity. However, but then, once he started minutely observing the boiling water and found that  observing the minute changes made him calmer. Soon This act of pointed observation itself started relaxing him and lead him to calmness through externalization.

Mindfulness and Perception of Time

“We argue that the emergence of the arrow of time is directly related to the nature and properties of physical observer.”

(From: “On decoherence in quantum gravity”, Author: Podolsky, Dmitry and Lanza, Robert, Year: 2016, Journal: Annalen der Physik, Volume:528 )

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”― Albert Einstein

 

For any individual, time remains the most precious but an un-replenishable resource, exhausting every second, mercilessly.

 

However, besides in the circadian cycles, perception of time exists in our minds as well.

Which means that time moves as slow or as fast as we perceive it to.

For example, imagine a 100 m sprint.

A casual watcher who is bored, daydreaming or talking would almost fail to notice anything except the start or finish while an avid watcher would watch the race, as it happens, but it would seem to him at a very fast speed, too fast to watch all contestants. However, as for the sprinter, for him the time slows down before the race starts, remains slow and becomes slower as his chest touches the ribbon. The experience of these persons for the same 10 seconds quite differs.

For the casual watcher, these 10 seconds did not exist at all, for the avid watcher these were like 10 seconds and as for the sprinter, the time almost took half a minute, as per his own perception.

 

In sports, many a time a batsman, bowler, golf player or football player etc finds himself watching the ball almost as in slow motion, as if frame by frame.

 

Remember, how sometimes late in the night, when the clock seems to tick so loudly and at a leisurely pace, even after the hours of the day have passed, like in a flash.

This is the capability of awareness. The higher the awareness, the slower is the perception of time. Amphetamines and other stimulants have been used to raise the wakefulness to this end.

Vice versa, the more fragmented the focus, the lesser aware the mind, the faster is the time.

So, the secret of the perception of time is mindfulness. By keeping our minds lighter loaded, externalising our minds, we can improve our awareness and then we can be far more efficient, productive and successful. Hours, days, months and Life will all become longer in our own frame of reference resulting in higher productivity success and thereby happiness.

Mindfulness through Yoga

Yoga Sutra by Patanjali (2^nd BCE), the first compilation of Philosophy of Ashtanga Yoga, has been treated as guidance by almost all schools.

Sutra 35:(iv) of Yoga Sutra:

        (The mind can be made steady by …or…)

“Or by observing sense experience”
Viṣayavati vā pravṛttirutpannā manasaḥ sthitinibandhani

(Viṣayavati :sensuous; vā: or; pravṛttih: functioning; utpannā: arisen; manasaḥ: of the mind; sthiti: steadiness; nibandhani : which binds)

Or else, the mind can be made steady by bringing it into activity of sense experience. Here the mind is made to observe itself in sense perception; that is, perception through the senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. By merging the mental consciousness into these sense perceptions, the mind comes under control.

That is to say, the mental consciousness can be merged into sound consciousness by repetition of mantras, bhajan, kirtan, etc. A sophisticated person may not find this interesting, but it is true that if one goes deep, one can control the mind by making it sound conscious. This is a principle of Nada yoga. The mind can also be controlled by making it form-conscious through Trataka, which is concentration on a particular form, and similarly, in the case of touch-consciousness and taste-consciousness. The former happens when the guru touches the disciple on the head, and the latter is brought about by Khechari mudra. By concentrating the mind on the tip of the nose, a subtle or psychic smell is experienced, which can be utilized for controlling the mind. Taste consciousness is developed by concentrating on the front part of the tongue. Colour visions are developed by concentrating on the palate in khechari mudra. Psychic touch is experienced by concentrating on the central part of the tongue. Psychic sound is developed by concentrating on the root of the tongue. All these psychic processes become the basis of self-control. When these psychic processes are developed, the student starts concentrating on them. In due course his mind transcends them and goes deeper. That is a state of complete mental control. All this involves the action of the senses, the indriyas, in dharana and pratyahara.

                                     (From: Four Chapters on Freedom by Sw. Satyanand Sarawati, 2002)

Yogic Practices for Mindfulness

·         Pranayama

·         Breath awareness

·         Yogic exercise with awareness of body parts

Other techniques

Experience of ‘Strangeness’ improves the mindfulness manifold. Strangeness is the experience of suddenly being within an environment, totally new and strange to oneself.

This is the reason travelling to new and exotic places is almost always an experience on a different level, providing much more enthusiasm, interest, observation and boost to creativity.

When going through unknown areas and meeting strange people, one is in a deeper awareness, can question, observe and think over the same things, that he would miss entirely at his own home.

An example of this is that while we can notice all the cobwebs and spiders, in detail, in the house of a host we are visiting, we do not notice much larger ones in our own drawing room.

Travelling to new places, meeting new people of different domains, changing interiors and exteriors of accommodation and workplace, changing ones styling etc are techniques to improve mindfulness.

So, Friends as we have learnt that perhaps Mindfulness is the best way to live a calmer, more productive life leading to self realization, or in other words, Mindfullness is the way to live life.

“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance”

(Amit Ray, Mindfulness Living in the Moment - Living in the Breath (2015)

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।