Peace is fundamental to existence. The so called happiness is actually the state of bliss manifested as an emotion in the mind. Its root is actually in our true nature. When the clouding moves ,revealing the underlying reality for a while we get a glimpse.So more closer we are to our true nature the more peaceful we are. The pertinent question is how to get closer?. In order to understand this ,the crucial question is what is that takes away from our true nature. What situations , emotions , thoughts take us away from true nature. Understand this closely. In meditation , try to understand your clinging, your worries , thoughts etc that take you away from the mantra.
When you sit in meditation, for a period, don't suppress any thought , emotion or anything. Accept all of them. See how they are coming, see how you are reacting to them. Some of them may be due to your responsibilities, some of them may be your desires and some of them may be aversions. Understand them all. As you get out of meditation time, just sit for a few more minutes peacefully and try to find out what is agitating you, what is troubling you more. Now with a few minutes of eyes closed state , just analyse whether all these worth paying attention to . Should you run behind them so much?. Some problems may require an immediate solution. This is what we call the immediacy of the situation. No problems with that . Accept and do that. But within the multitude, are all of them requiring careful attention and worry now?. Is it only a story by our mind?. Remember this simple fact, unless you work from a calm mind , your actions are going to be egoistic, cluttered and confused. So calm your mind by nullifying those thoughts which are just blah blah. Now with the calmest mind approach the immediate ones.
To make this investigation more and more useful, make a promise to yourself. Nothing is more sacred than your peace. It is your true nature. This is where you are . This is where you would return to. Life situations are only a small aberration in this grand state. So don't give it up for the pettiest of problems. When you do that you are not only peaceful , but also doing things of this world more efficiently, and in a more expanded way.
When you truly see why you are agitated you would see that , the more we are centered on our own well being and our closed ones only, the more contracted and suffocated we become. It is often considered that if you are worrying a lot about your family then you are more responsible and good. If you are dispassionate then you are not caring. It is not so . Actually if you can balance peace with action , there is no better way to live a caring life. But in order to do that we need to expand our horizons also. Whatever i am experiencing in life , there are others who have the same. So should i not care for them also. When you preoccupy your mind with you, me and mine, you are contracted and feel trapped. But the moment you devote some time to service you come out of your narrow world . This is why Swami Vivekananda felt that saints should not just sit in caves, they should spread their wisdom , alleviate the sorrows and in this lies a prayer. By shifting our frame of reference we become more blissful. When a person helped by us is happy we also feel so.
Sometimes even a simple thing as an insult can keep us lost in thought. Why does this happen?. It is because we identify ourselves with the thought that arises in us when the insult happens. I am reminded of a story related to the Buddha .
"Once an angry man insulted the Buddha. The Buddha simply asked the man if people ever visited him in his home. Surprised at the change of topic, the man answered yes. The Buddha then asked if his visitors ever brought gifts. When the man replied yes again, the Buddha asked what would happen if he refused to accept the gifts? Who would the gifts belong to then? The man said that, of course, they would still belong to those who brought them. The Buddha then calmly and, I imagine, kindly said, “In the same way, since I do not accept your insults, they remain with you.”
Understand this simple fact. It is not necessary that we like everything or dislike everything . There are bound to be situations which we don't like. Don't attach so much importance when that happens. Understand our own reactions to it and accept this also. Then your mind would stop elaborating this impact of not favorable situations. Is this small thing enough to sacrifice our inner state of bliss?. Where are all the insults and anger that i was a target of in yester-years and days now?. Haven't they all come and gone?.
We should also learn to understand the fact that the reason for our troubles lies deep within us rather than on the external world . The world is and it would be so. Only thing that needs changing is you. The solution to your problems is within you.
"There was once a monastery in which many students came to obtain spiritual knowledge. On arriving there, the guru would take them to a remote part of the monastery and ask them to find their own path . He would ask them " Walk down this small way in this garden and you would get an answer to your own spiritual path. You will find the Path at the end of this walkway.". The disciples eager to find their path would follow many small ways in the garden and would be faced with a big mirror that would block their way. They thought , may be i didn't find the correct way that is why this mirror is blocking me. They would carefully retrace their way and explore a new path . They would again find a mirror blocking them. Finally they realized , the real path is not outside, it is within you, because at the end of the walkway they found this mirror, and instead of the path , they found themselves."
When you sit in meditation, for a period, don't suppress any thought , emotion or anything. Accept all of them. See how they are coming, see how you are reacting to them. Some of them may be due to your responsibilities, some of them may be your desires and some of them may be aversions. Understand them all. As you get out of meditation time, just sit for a few more minutes peacefully and try to find out what is agitating you, what is troubling you more. Now with a few minutes of eyes closed state , just analyse whether all these worth paying attention to . Should you run behind them so much?. Some problems may require an immediate solution. This is what we call the immediacy of the situation. No problems with that . Accept and do that. But within the multitude, are all of them requiring careful attention and worry now?. Is it only a story by our mind?. Remember this simple fact, unless you work from a calm mind , your actions are going to be egoistic, cluttered and confused. So calm your mind by nullifying those thoughts which are just blah blah. Now with the calmest mind approach the immediate ones.
To make this investigation more and more useful, make a promise to yourself. Nothing is more sacred than your peace. It is your true nature. This is where you are . This is where you would return to. Life situations are only a small aberration in this grand state. So don't give it up for the pettiest of problems. When you do that you are not only peaceful , but also doing things of this world more efficiently, and in a more expanded way.
When you truly see why you are agitated you would see that , the more we are centered on our own well being and our closed ones only, the more contracted and suffocated we become. It is often considered that if you are worrying a lot about your family then you are more responsible and good. If you are dispassionate then you are not caring. It is not so . Actually if you can balance peace with action , there is no better way to live a caring life. But in order to do that we need to expand our horizons also. Whatever i am experiencing in life , there are others who have the same. So should i not care for them also. When you preoccupy your mind with you, me and mine, you are contracted and feel trapped. But the moment you devote some time to service you come out of your narrow world . This is why Swami Vivekananda felt that saints should not just sit in caves, they should spread their wisdom , alleviate the sorrows and in this lies a prayer. By shifting our frame of reference we become more blissful. When a person helped by us is happy we also feel so.
Sometimes even a simple thing as an insult can keep us lost in thought. Why does this happen?. It is because we identify ourselves with the thought that arises in us when the insult happens. I am reminded of a story related to the Buddha .
"Once an angry man insulted the Buddha. The Buddha simply asked the man if people ever visited him in his home. Surprised at the change of topic, the man answered yes. The Buddha then asked if his visitors ever brought gifts. When the man replied yes again, the Buddha asked what would happen if he refused to accept the gifts? Who would the gifts belong to then? The man said that, of course, they would still belong to those who brought them. The Buddha then calmly and, I imagine, kindly said, “In the same way, since I do not accept your insults, they remain with you.”
Understand this simple fact. It is not necessary that we like everything or dislike everything . There are bound to be situations which we don't like. Don't attach so much importance when that happens. Understand our own reactions to it and accept this also. Then your mind would stop elaborating this impact of not favorable situations. Is this small thing enough to sacrifice our inner state of bliss?. Where are all the insults and anger that i was a target of in yester-years and days now?. Haven't they all come and gone?.
We should also learn to understand the fact that the reason for our troubles lies deep within us rather than on the external world . The world is and it would be so. Only thing that needs changing is you. The solution to your problems is within you.
"There was once a monastery in which many students came to obtain spiritual knowledge. On arriving there, the guru would take them to a remote part of the monastery and ask them to find their own path . He would ask them " Walk down this small way in this garden and you would get an answer to your own spiritual path. You will find the Path at the end of this walkway.". The disciples eager to find their path would follow many small ways in the garden and would be faced with a big mirror that would block their way. They thought , may be i didn't find the correct way that is why this mirror is blocking me. They would carefully retrace their way and explore a new path . They would again find a mirror blocking them. Finally they realized , the real path is not outside, it is within you, because at the end of the walkway they found this mirror, and instead of the path , they found themselves."
No comments:
Post a Comment