dharmādharmau sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ mānasāni na te vibho
na kartāsi na bhoktāsi mukta evāsi sarvadā
(Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences, so you are always free. )
Ashtvakra gita
Our life is full of experiences. Some of them give pain. Some of us remind us of pleasure and happiness. Sometimes a mixture of both. These experiences are ingrained in our subconscious mind as vasanas. When a new situation is encountered , these vasanas drive us towards experiences which we liked in the past while driving us away from painful ones. These attachments and aversions are a result of avidya . It comes from not realizing the underlying unity of all things. Little do we realize the impact of this in our life. It splits our world into two. A world we like versus a world we dislike. We take equal effort to embrace one while avoiding the other. A like and dislike imparts lot of thought patterns in us. A like when carried out to its full extent creates attachments and desires. A dislike is a like in disguise and it is a like of anything other than the disliked ones. Both carry an emotional burden.
Renunciation is often difficult because of this dichotomy of our world. Our mental inclination towards anything always drives our thoughts. Spiritual purification is the only way we can transcend our vasanas. What should be understood is that both situations are equally probable in this universe. Whatever we dont like is not a conspiracy against us. It is something that happens when you consider the infinitude of permutations and combinations possible. Some results are favorable while some are not. We should learn to accept both like the result of a lottery ticket. We accept both result with equanimity. Even our dislikes are something part of the unity. So it should be accepted , loved and embraced.
As we learn to sit in meditation we become familiar with the thought system that makes our world of likes and dislikes. Whatever we "like" repeatedly appears in our mind , and engages us all the time. Whatever we dislike creates sorrows and pain in us and they create lot of thoughts too. So both likes and dislikes are equally bad. They both create a cluttered mind.
A like is often a recognition of accepting the fact that something when attached to me, creates a more complete being. It comes from a incomplete understanding of the situation . Money, power , job security ,etc etc are simple examples. But take anything that you like , what you really want is a situation whereby something is attached to you. Even if you say that all i want is the happiness of my child ,, what you are saying is i want the thought of well being of my child attached to me. You strongly believe that you are not complete without that thought. There is no problem in working towards that goal . But it is the strong mental clinging that i want that feeling as part of me that creates the like. If we work towards the target without the mental clinging then there are no disappointments. You accept the result whatever it is with equanimity.
A dislike is often worse than a like . It is the root of all negative feelings like anger , hatred, fear , anxiety etc. We have created an idealistic world of our own reality . Whatever that doesn't correspond to it , is something that needs to be disliked and averted. When we cant do that we become angry. An anger is an expression where the dislike has exceeded the threshold. In an outburst we express our dislike. When this anger is suppressed , it becomes hatred. It is also the trigger for pain and fear. An imagined dislike is fear. Contemplating about it we get anxiety.
A proper perspective is to transcend both likes and dislike and to have neither. It should fall of our mind. Understand yourself deeply and intimately. Then only you can transcend both. Let the vasanas be purified by spiritual thinking , and noble feelings like love , forgiveness and contentment. Practice meditation to become aware of your unconscious and subconscious likes and dislikes. Our happiness doesnt lie in these . It only when comes when we realize our true nature of abiding in the self. When we do ,the whole world appears in you. How do the likes and dislike trouble you when there is nothing apart from you. All the mind's chatter is just that. It is not you.
Raga is killed by vairagya . Dwesha is killed by cosmic love and expansivity. Both are aspects of spirituality. When there is a sense of unity you are not attached to any particular thing. For you everything is the same and part of you. Reject nothing and accept everything.
na kartāsi na bhoktāsi mukta evāsi sarvadā
(Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the mind and are no concern of yours. You are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences, so you are always free. )
Ashtvakra gita
Our life is full of experiences. Some of them give pain. Some of us remind us of pleasure and happiness. Sometimes a mixture of both. These experiences are ingrained in our subconscious mind as vasanas. When a new situation is encountered , these vasanas drive us towards experiences which we liked in the past while driving us away from painful ones. These attachments and aversions are a result of avidya . It comes from not realizing the underlying unity of all things. Little do we realize the impact of this in our life. It splits our world into two. A world we like versus a world we dislike. We take equal effort to embrace one while avoiding the other. A like and dislike imparts lot of thought patterns in us. A like when carried out to its full extent creates attachments and desires. A dislike is a like in disguise and it is a like of anything other than the disliked ones. Both carry an emotional burden.
Renunciation is often difficult because of this dichotomy of our world. Our mental inclination towards anything always drives our thoughts. Spiritual purification is the only way we can transcend our vasanas. What should be understood is that both situations are equally probable in this universe. Whatever we dont like is not a conspiracy against us. It is something that happens when you consider the infinitude of permutations and combinations possible. Some results are favorable while some are not. We should learn to accept both like the result of a lottery ticket. We accept both result with equanimity. Even our dislikes are something part of the unity. So it should be accepted , loved and embraced.
As we learn to sit in meditation we become familiar with the thought system that makes our world of likes and dislikes. Whatever we "like" repeatedly appears in our mind , and engages us all the time. Whatever we dislike creates sorrows and pain in us and they create lot of thoughts too. So both likes and dislikes are equally bad. They both create a cluttered mind.
A like is often a recognition of accepting the fact that something when attached to me, creates a more complete being. It comes from a incomplete understanding of the situation . Money, power , job security ,etc etc are simple examples. But take anything that you like , what you really want is a situation whereby something is attached to you. Even if you say that all i want is the happiness of my child ,, what you are saying is i want the thought of well being of my child attached to me. You strongly believe that you are not complete without that thought. There is no problem in working towards that goal . But it is the strong mental clinging that i want that feeling as part of me that creates the like. If we work towards the target without the mental clinging then there are no disappointments. You accept the result whatever it is with equanimity.
A dislike is often worse than a like . It is the root of all negative feelings like anger , hatred, fear , anxiety etc. We have created an idealistic world of our own reality . Whatever that doesn't correspond to it , is something that needs to be disliked and averted. When we cant do that we become angry. An anger is an expression where the dislike has exceeded the threshold. In an outburst we express our dislike. When this anger is suppressed , it becomes hatred. It is also the trigger for pain and fear. An imagined dislike is fear. Contemplating about it we get anxiety.
A proper perspective is to transcend both likes and dislike and to have neither. It should fall of our mind. Understand yourself deeply and intimately. Then only you can transcend both. Let the vasanas be purified by spiritual thinking , and noble feelings like love , forgiveness and contentment. Practice meditation to become aware of your unconscious and subconscious likes and dislikes. Our happiness doesnt lie in these . It only when comes when we realize our true nature of abiding in the self. When we do ,the whole world appears in you. How do the likes and dislike trouble you when there is nothing apart from you. All the mind's chatter is just that. It is not you.
Raga is killed by vairagya . Dwesha is killed by cosmic love and expansivity. Both are aspects of spirituality. When there is a sense of unity you are not attached to any particular thing. For you everything is the same and part of you. Reject nothing and accept everything.
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