As meditation gets deeper and deeper, the calmness and clarity that we experience makes us wonder, can we have the same in our life?. Is it possible to be as serene and pure in our understanding and reactions?. We can see that it is not at all easy to carry over our calmness to all life situations. For e.g. you may be in the midst of a heated argument with someone or you may be alone but getting anxious and angry at someone. How to become aware of the thoughts , our reactions and so on?. Even if we did at times, how will this help me?. These are very practical thoughts and would help us a lot in our spiritual journey.
First let us see what we need to do . Then let us discuss on some tips on how to apply this onto situations. As we discussed before, we need to become aware of all happenings in us first. Unless we become aware of those , it is not possible to do anything. This is what is called clarity. Clarity comes when no thought escapes your awareness, no emotion rises without your awareness and so on. So the first thing to do is to become aware of happenings in us even when we are doing tasks etc. We will come to see how we can practice this later. Second point is to develop calmness in the midst of all thoughts and emotions. This can come only when we can release the thought which is causing the worry. Letting go of the thought or emotion and seeing it off. Many people consider it difficult. But you can see that it is not as difficult as it sounds. If you become knowledgeable about say anger or frustration rising , then you can let it go. Many times it is not possible because we are not aware of it coming and going. So you can see calmness is not possible because of lack of clarity of what is going inside you.
Now comes the crucial thing. How to develop our awareness of all these and let them go . It is not at all easy to do it admidst life. We need to go step by step. Two things need to be emphasized here. You should have the resolve to do that and also be patient . These two traits would help you achieve the clarity and calmness that we need.
Take some activity in your typical day. Say walking down the corridor to go out to office, or washing utensils or something. When you are going to do that , take some moments to take a few deep breaths. Now as you start the activity become aware of your activity. Just like you are watching another person, use your awareness to watch yourself. Become familiar with the sensations, thought s that are going on as you do the activity. The emotions that are arising , everything. Try not to miss anything. Sometimes you would miss some thought etc , but don't worry. Just try. So there are two things that are going on here. You are doing the activity. Then there is awareness of that activity also watching it. Whenever you do this activity use it as a trigger to practice awareness of the same. On some days you would miss it. Again don't be harsh on yourself. Its ok. Just try whenever you remember.
Many days you would forget that you need to practice awareness while doing the activity. Whenever you remember that you forgot to be aware , try to remember what went so fast that you could not do this practice. If it is not possible to remember it is fine. But the fact that you remembered itself is a good sign that awareness is getting established. You will see that if you do this diligently enough, you would not miss much. But as i said be gentle at first . Whenever possible do .
You will notice lot of things in you if you practice awareness while doing the activity. You will see lot of thoughts which have no connection with the present situation. A forgotten friend or someone to whom you were not so nice or some thought might pop up. Your awareness would watch it and wonder why is this coming up now?. If there was not awareness i would not have noticed this thought and this thought would have led to something else and so on. But since you are doing an activity much thoughts would not be there . So it is easier to watch.
You might ask. What is the great thing of becoming aware of oneself in these situations?. You will see that these are baby steps . If you have to learn something like a game for example, you would have to learn the rules first then you take some small games which is not so serious , and then go for serious games. Like that unless you train yourself to practice awareness , it is difficult to extend it. So practicing it in small controlled situations is the first step towards extending it .
Sometimes you will see that even when you are not doing the activity mentioned above , you would become aware suddenly of what you are doing. Notice those moments. See what is going on. Just take a few moments and try to see what are the thoughts emotions etc that are arising and continue your activity. You should not strain yourself to be aware through out. Just notice and let it go.
Now even after all these practices, you would see that you would become angry miserable etc. It is alright. As i told you , we need resolve and patience. When we are finished with a bout of anger or sorrow or some such situation take a few moments of meditation and try to see what happened. What happened to me?. What did i do ?. What was the reactions in me?. Is it all required?. If i had been aware , would it have been different?. Just see.
As we continue this introspection , practice and meditation, you would see that most of the times, you would become aware of what is happening . It would take time, but if you are persistent enough, definitely it would happen. Then even anger is rising, frustration and such emotions are rising, you would see them before they come. Your awareness is before all that. All these happenings happen in it only. So it would be a different experience than when you just express the anger or misery. You would see that it is possible to let it go and see . The misery gets expressed only because you were not aware of it when it arose. The more clear you are , the more easier it is to be calm by letting it pass.
So what we are saying here is this. Meditation needs to be done as much as possible. But we should also practice awareness in our daily activities more and more. Sometimes use some activity as a trigger to be aware, later on extend it to more and more. Slowly learn to release the thought which is causing harm. The surprising thing is that, your awareness itself would show you the way,. It is the greatest guru and god. It would tell you your own reactions to situations. It would tell you why you are angry and frustrated.In fact it is the light that lights up everything.
Sometimes in real life there may be some particular emotion that you want to isolate and control. Say for e.g. hatred or anger. If you happen to be aware to catch it while it is happening , you would notice many facets of it. Many times it is a result of self righteousness or thinking that I am right while everything else is not so. This feeling leads to many thoughts. If you are aware , then you might release these interpretations. I may be right or she may be right, why bother to spend so much or effort to judge . Let me see what happens if i let it go. As we discussed, it is not easy . It takes time and patience.
First let us see what we need to do . Then let us discuss on some tips on how to apply this onto situations. As we discussed before, we need to become aware of all happenings in us first. Unless we become aware of those , it is not possible to do anything. This is what is called clarity. Clarity comes when no thought escapes your awareness, no emotion rises without your awareness and so on. So the first thing to do is to become aware of happenings in us even when we are doing tasks etc. We will come to see how we can practice this later. Second point is to develop calmness in the midst of all thoughts and emotions. This can come only when we can release the thought which is causing the worry. Letting go of the thought or emotion and seeing it off. Many people consider it difficult. But you can see that it is not as difficult as it sounds. If you become knowledgeable about say anger or frustration rising , then you can let it go. Many times it is not possible because we are not aware of it coming and going. So you can see calmness is not possible because of lack of clarity of what is going inside you.
Now comes the crucial thing. How to develop our awareness of all these and let them go . It is not at all easy to do it admidst life. We need to go step by step. Two things need to be emphasized here. You should have the resolve to do that and also be patient . These two traits would help you achieve the clarity and calmness that we need.
Take some activity in your typical day. Say walking down the corridor to go out to office, or washing utensils or something. When you are going to do that , take some moments to take a few deep breaths. Now as you start the activity become aware of your activity. Just like you are watching another person, use your awareness to watch yourself. Become familiar with the sensations, thought s that are going on as you do the activity. The emotions that are arising , everything. Try not to miss anything. Sometimes you would miss some thought etc , but don't worry. Just try. So there are two things that are going on here. You are doing the activity. Then there is awareness of that activity also watching it. Whenever you do this activity use it as a trigger to practice awareness of the same. On some days you would miss it. Again don't be harsh on yourself. Its ok. Just try whenever you remember.
Many days you would forget that you need to practice awareness while doing the activity. Whenever you remember that you forgot to be aware , try to remember what went so fast that you could not do this practice. If it is not possible to remember it is fine. But the fact that you remembered itself is a good sign that awareness is getting established. You will see that if you do this diligently enough, you would not miss much. But as i said be gentle at first . Whenever possible do .
You will notice lot of things in you if you practice awareness while doing the activity. You will see lot of thoughts which have no connection with the present situation. A forgotten friend or someone to whom you were not so nice or some thought might pop up. Your awareness would watch it and wonder why is this coming up now?. If there was not awareness i would not have noticed this thought and this thought would have led to something else and so on. But since you are doing an activity much thoughts would not be there . So it is easier to watch.
You might ask. What is the great thing of becoming aware of oneself in these situations?. You will see that these are baby steps . If you have to learn something like a game for example, you would have to learn the rules first then you take some small games which is not so serious , and then go for serious games. Like that unless you train yourself to practice awareness , it is difficult to extend it. So practicing it in small controlled situations is the first step towards extending it .
Sometimes you will see that even when you are not doing the activity mentioned above , you would become aware suddenly of what you are doing. Notice those moments. See what is going on. Just take a few moments and try to see what are the thoughts emotions etc that are arising and continue your activity. You should not strain yourself to be aware through out. Just notice and let it go.
Now even after all these practices, you would see that you would become angry miserable etc. It is alright. As i told you , we need resolve and patience. When we are finished with a bout of anger or sorrow or some such situation take a few moments of meditation and try to see what happened. What happened to me?. What did i do ?. What was the reactions in me?. Is it all required?. If i had been aware , would it have been different?. Just see.
As we continue this introspection , practice and meditation, you would see that most of the times, you would become aware of what is happening . It would take time, but if you are persistent enough, definitely it would happen. Then even anger is rising, frustration and such emotions are rising, you would see them before they come. Your awareness is before all that. All these happenings happen in it only. So it would be a different experience than when you just express the anger or misery. You would see that it is possible to let it go and see . The misery gets expressed only because you were not aware of it when it arose. The more clear you are , the more easier it is to be calm by letting it pass.
So what we are saying here is this. Meditation needs to be done as much as possible. But we should also practice awareness in our daily activities more and more. Sometimes use some activity as a trigger to be aware, later on extend it to more and more. Slowly learn to release the thought which is causing harm. The surprising thing is that, your awareness itself would show you the way,. It is the greatest guru and god. It would tell you your own reactions to situations. It would tell you why you are angry and frustrated.In fact it is the light that lights up everything.
Sometimes in real life there may be some particular emotion that you want to isolate and control. Say for e.g. hatred or anger. If you happen to be aware to catch it while it is happening , you would notice many facets of it. Many times it is a result of self righteousness or thinking that I am right while everything else is not so. This feeling leads to many thoughts. If you are aware , then you might release these interpretations. I may be right or she may be right, why bother to spend so much or effort to judge . Let me see what happens if i let it go. As we discussed, it is not easy . It takes time and patience.
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