Enjoy The Present By Shedding Ego

An average person always thinks he is above average. The perception of ‘easy and difficult’ is the result of one’s state of being. Swatting a fly is ‘difficult’ for some, while killing thousands is ‘easy’ for others like terrorists. Dropping the ego is easy when we realise that we are less than a dot in this vast cosmos. It is foolish to live with the illusion that we are the centre of the cosmos. Dropping ego becomes difficult when we have this illusion.
In any circle there is a centre and a circumference. If the centre of your life is hope then you will experience deficiency. If the centre of your life is enjoying the moment, living in the moment, being total in the moment... then hope will be a circumference... then it is not a problem.
Let kitchen items be in the kitchen and bathroom items be in the bathroom. If they are placed elsewhere, then there is a problem. There is no problem with ‘hope’ as such, as long as it is in the circumference and not in the centre. Be alive to the present.
The self with arrogance is ego. Self with the ignorance of who we are is also ego. Self filled with hopes and dreams is also ego. Ego lives either in the past or in the future, but never in the present. If its centre resides either in the past or in the future it misses the present.
We are living in the world of ego... the ‘lower self ’. But if our centre is gratitude and devotion, then we live in the present. Both past and future become mere reference points. The ‘higher self’ is a space from which possibilities arise. It is a flow. It is a learning energy. It is an evolving being. You have the choice to operate either from the lower or higher self.
When you operate from ego, your relationships will be affected. Ego wants to prove its point of view. The point of view is more important than truth or happiness. In that state, you demand and not command respect. If a couple demands respect from each other, then they are beggars of happiness and not givers of happiness. In the egoistic state, an argument feeds the ego. Remember no one wins an argument. You accumulate more of bitterness and at different periods of time you settle scores with the other.
When you operate from the ‘higher self ’, there is a healthy discussion. In discussion, truth is more important than who has said it. Happiness and well-being become more important than the survival of one’s point of view.
Then a relationship becomes rhythmic. You enjoy being with the other and you enjoy being alone. You are neither dependent nor independent but interdependent. You share your joyous being and not beg happiness from your partner.
Identity is created by what others have said about us. If others have told you that you are a great speaker, then you feel you are a great speaker. So your identity is dependent on others. In fact, others create your identity. Others validate you. It is painful, as you have invested much on others. Your image is in the hands of others.
The fact is, the real ‘I’ in us is not created by others. The lower self is a product of others, but the higher self is our essence. The higher self is a presence. It is awareness. We have not learnt to operate from that state of being. Hence, we are alien to ourselves.
When your partner separates from you, you feel you are at a loss. Stop and look within. You find a higher self, God waiting for you. Learn to discover aloneness in a relationship and beyond a relationship. Aloneness is not loneliness.

What Happens Once You’re Faster, Higher, Stronger

What Happens Once You’re Faster, Higher, Stronger

"Nearly all men/women can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's/woman's character , give him power "

Everyone is celebrating the gold medal victory of master shooter Abhinav Bindra in the individual event at the just concluded Olympic Games in Beijing. On his arrival in Delhi he answered many questions from the media and some of his observations on his success reveal a mature approach. For instance, when he was asked what it felt like winning the gold at the Olympics, Bindra remarked: “It was a sort of emptiness. You climb the mountain and there is nothing at the top. When you work so hard to achieve something and you get it at the end, there is a feeling of emptiness. But then life goes on...”

The other day i read about a man who wanted to win a place in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ by drinking maximum amount of water in one sitting. Unfortunately he collapsed in the effort and died. Now and then newspapers bring to our attention such daring deeds undertaken to draw attention and seeking fame but ending in disaster.

There is also the current story of ambitious men driving themselves to insanity and ruining their health in their obsession with success. It is the brainwashing of a materialistic society and prodding of the competitive spirit that sends many a young man early to his grave!
It is a psychological truth that for a person, the pleasure of anticipation is more than the pleasure of actual realisation of a goal. Many of us might have dreamt of heavenly experiences on reaching the top of a career. The less fortunate ones watching close by are overcome by envy while the successful ones are overcome by a sense of emptiness. This is what is termed in Biblical language, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!”

Dreams begin in the prime of one’s life and their fulfilment take up a good part of one’s waking life. Yet it happens that very few could claim as in fairy tales, that “they lived happily ever after”. Once they thought heaven lay in supermarket shopping. Somewhere along the line they learn that the joys brought by earthly possessions, fame and power do not last for long.
When Alexander the Great had come to the end of his conquests, he is said to have lamented that he had “no more lands to conquer”.

Some scriptures speak of life as “nothing but a pastime, a momentary delight”. If anything, it is our materialistic bragging that has made success a matter of life and death; as if only rewards and honours make life worth living. In the race for being Number One, many stake their all only to end it all in the grave.

Albert Einstein said: “A successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellow men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.” The striving, the effort to achieve success and to excel is not a bad thing. However, to make that the ultimate goal of life is nothing short of being foolish for earthly gains and achievements are short-lived. It is the search for the divine truth that ultimately brings real fulfilment.
The adventure is in the journey, not in the destination. And they say it is not winning or losing, but how you have played the game that matters.

We are so made and the restlessness within is so evident that we appreciate the profound truth uttered by St Augustine, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee...”

There Are Absolutely No Paths To The Truth

There Are Absolutely No Paths To The Truth

Jiddu Krishnamurti

We have been told that all paths lead to Truth — you have your path as a Hindu, someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door — which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd.

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of Truth; it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that Truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, teacher, philosopher, nobody can lead you to — then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are: your anger, brutality, violence, despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.

So you see that you cannot depend upon anybody... There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you — your relationship with others and with the world — there is nothing else. When you realise this, it either brings great despair, from which comes cynicism and bitterness, or, in facing the fact that you and nobody else are responsible for the world and for yourself, for what you think, what you feel, how you act, all self-pity goes. Normally we thrive on blaming others, which is a form of self-pity.

I am not formulating any philosophy or theological structure of ideas or concepts. All ideologies are utterly idiotic. What is important is to observe what is actually taking place in our daily life, inwardly and outwardly. If you observe very closely what is taking place and examine it, you will see that it is based on an intellectual conception, and the intellect is not the whole field of existence; it is a fragment, and a fragment cleverly put together, however ancient and traditional, is still a small part of existence whereas we have to deal with the totality of life.

And when we look at what is taking place in the world we begin to understand that there is no outer and inner process; there is only one unitary process, it is a whole, total movement, the inner movement expressing itself as the outer and the outer reacting again on the inner. To be able to look at this is all that is needed, because if we know how to look, then the whole thing becomes very clear, and to look needs no philosophy, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how to look. You just look.

Can you then, seeing this whole picture... easily, spontaneously, transform yourself? That is the real issue. Is it possible to bring about a complete revolution in the psyche?
If i were foolish enough to give you a system and if you were foolish enough to follow it, you would merely be copying, imitating, conforming, accepting, and when you do that you have set up in yourself the authority of another and hence there is conflict between you and that authority. So you will lead a double life between the ideology of the system and the actuality of your daily existence. In trying to conform to the ideology, you suppress yourself — whereas what is actually true is not the ideology but what you are. If you try to study yourself according to another, you will always remain a second-hand human being.

Extracted from Freedom from the Known. Another view on the subject was published on June 28: ‘According To Your Ability Choose Your Path’ by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati.

Travel Light To Enjoy The Journey Of Life

Travel Light To Enjoy The Journey Of Life
Tia Paranjape

I often wonder: Is it possible to love without attachment? We do have so much love to give, but is it the right kind of love? We tend to feel a kind of ownership over all that we love though we don’t own anything or anyone.

It is easier to utter the words ‘I love you’ than to actually mean it. Love is perceived in many different ways. My mother would say: “Love, but never be possessive of what you love. Once you are possessive, you might claim ‘this is mine’ when in actuality nothing or no one is yours.”
We are all here on a spiritual journey. Along the way we find several co-travellers who become part of our lives but they too have their own destination. There is a hierarchy of love. Right on top are parents, spouse, children, siblings, other family and friends. Love stops here and further down the ladder it becomes ‘like’. Sri Sathya Sai Baba says love all as if your own. He talks of universal love. This is not easy to follow but maybe we could try. For starters, we could do little things that make people smile. A kind word or tone would not take away from you but give a lot to the other person.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba says: “If you want peace and if you want happiness you must live in love. Only through love will you find inner peace. Only through love will you find true happiness. Love flourishes through giving and forgiving. Develop your love! Immerse yourself in love!
“...Love is the basis of everything. It is the single most important quality that has to be developed. All your thoughts must become immersed in this quality of love... then truth will naturally establish itself in your heart.”

People who serve are Godlike; their service should be appreciated, whether they belong to your peer group or not. We need to learn to love without attachment. We love those who we feel are ours. What about the rest? Why is an amazing emotion like love saved only for those few people who we perceive as ours? For instance, how might one learn to love the person who has wronged us? I guess i would say OK, don’t love, but at least try not to hate. That is an improvement.

Again, received wisdom from my mother says things can never bring you happiness. Once you’ve bought something, its value diminishes. At first i used to think that was not true, but in time i learnt that it is one of the few truths in life. I constantly try and make an effort to not get attached to ‘things’ now because at the end of the day they are things. This doesn’t mean don’t shop, don’t want... it means realise that actual happiness cannot be attained from anything external.

Enjoy all the things you have and be grateful for it, as that too is the grace of God but do not expect it to give you anything. I find my peace every evening as i sit by myself and watch the sun set. That is when i feel real joy. The sun sets with such ease and that is how we should be.

I would get attached to songs and smells! Some smells can take you back in time and songs too can transport you to old memories. It is nice to remember but if we dwell on the past we are missing out on the present; we tend to miss out on new smells and songs as we’re so preoccupied with the old. We have to let go, because holding on to something does not give us ownership rights. So much baggage! To enjoy the journey, travel light. In other words, practise loving detachment.

It Is Difficult To Stay In The Middle

It Is Difficult To Stay In The Middle

Discourse: Osho

The most difficult thing, the almost impossible thing for the mind, is to remain in the middle, to remain balanced. And to move from one thing to its opposite is the easiest. To move from one polarity to another is the nature of the mind.
If you are balanced, mind disappears. Mind is like a disease: when you are imbalanced it is there, when you are balanced, it is not there. That is why it is easy for a person who overeats to go on a fast. It looks illogical, because we think that a person who is obsessed with food cannot go on a fast.
But you are wrong. Only a person who is obsessed with food can fast, because fasting is the same obsession in the opposite direction. You are not really changing yourself. You are still obsessed with food. Before you were overeating; now you are hungry — but the mind remains focused on food from the opposite extreme.
A man who has been overindulging in sex can become a celibate very easily. There is no problem. But it is difficult for the mind to come to the right diet, difficult for the mind to stay in the middle. It is just like a clock’s pendulum. The pendulum goes to the right, then it moves to the left, then again to the right, and again to the left; the clock’s working depends on this movement.
If the pendulum stays in the middle, the clock stops. And when the pendulum moves to the right, you think it is only going to the right, but at the same time it is gathering momentum to go to the left. The more it moves to the right, the more energy it gathers to move to the left, and vice versa.
Thinking means momentum. The mind starts arranging for the opposite. When you love a person you are gathering momentum to hate him. That’s why only friends can become enemies. You cannot suddenly become an enemy unless you have first become a friend. Only lovers can quarrel and fight, because unless you love, how can you hate? Unless you have moved far to the extreme left, how can you move to the right?
Modern research says that so-called love is a relationship of intimate enmity. Your wife is your intimate enemy, your husband is your intimate enemy — both intimate and inimical. They appear opposites, illogical, because we wonder how one who is intimate can be the enemy; one who is a friend, how can he also be the foe?
Logic is superficial, life goes deeper, and in life all opposites are joined together, they exist together. Remember this, because then meditation becomes balancing.
Buddha taught eight disciplines, and with each discipline he used the word right. He said: Right effort, because it is very easy to move from action to inaction, from waking to sleep, but to remain in the middle is difficult.
When Buddha used the word right he was saying: Don’t move to the opposite, just stay in the middle. Right food — he never said to fast. Don’t indulge in too much eating and don’t indulge in fasting. He said: Right food. Right food means standing in the middle.
When you are standing in the middle you are not gathering any momentum. And this is the beauty of it — a man who is not gathering any momentum to move anywhere, can be at ease with himself, can be at home.

Strike A Balance To Achieve Harmony

Strike A Balance To Achieve Harmony
Discourse: Swami Sukhabodhananda

The quality of our lives depends more on what we are inside than outside. But how many of us really look within? We need to think right. Hence it is essential to look within and create an order therein.

We are programmed to believe that happiness is outside. We are products of such programming. It has been ingrained in us that joy and happiness are outside and the myth governs our lives.
The process of thinking involves flow of thoughts. Thoughts move outward in search of happiness, name, fame, money or power. Happiness however does not result from material affluence. It is a result of our attitude to life.

Happiness is a result of our being totally in the present. Enlightenment happens in the present. But our lives are always focused either on the past or future. Life is in the present. So be present in the present. Then a different ‘presence’ opens up. Whatever you are doing, be total in it. Bring in your totality of being in the ‘here and now’.

When you are looking at a flower, can you just look? If you look at it from thoughtfulness, thoughts interpret it as a good or bad flower. A thought compares it with something else. By this you don’t look, you superimpose. The discipline to look at something without thoughts is important. When you require using your thoughts, only then should you bring in a thought. Try this out.
When unnecessary thoughts pile up, they become pockets of energy. When negative thoughts pile up they seed negative attitude, enforcing negative thoughts. These in turn superimpose energy on the objects of thought, making them appear negative. The influences that are created in life, be they in a form of war, politics, violence, are the result of the influence of negative energy that either becomes real or superimposed.

When your immune system is weak you are prone to disease. Similarly, when your psychological immune system is weak you are prone to negative influences. A negative thought requires no effort. It comes from the lower mind that is mechanical. Noble thoughts have to come from the higher mind that is more conscious and magnetic.
A faulty attitude injures and harms us. We end up making wrong connections. And when we are not proceeding in the right direction, we suffer the consequences.

There is male energy in the female and female energy in the male. Since we are progenies of both genders, we have in us both male and female energies. They have to be in harmony for us to be able to function in a way that gives us the right direction.

When you create an external harmony, you create an internal harmony also. By loving a man outside, you love the male energy in you. When you hate a woman outside, a very important part of you, the internal female energy is also dwarfed and injured.

In everyone of us there is both a teacher and a student. Our centre is a teacher teaching us in the language of silence, in the language of purity. The student in us should learn to listen to the teaching. When we do injustice to an external teacher, we are doing injustice to a part of ourselves. By respecting both a student and a teacher outside, we respect something in us.
When there is right attitude, the wisest connection is made. For objective consciousness should include the subject, too.

Memories As Minefields: Tread Very Carefully

Chaitanya Charan Das

Memory is a mine in three senses of the word ‘mine’.

1. Mine as a device that explodes on contact: Memories of our past bad habits are like mines implanted in our consciousness. At slight provocation, they could explode into uncontrollable desires that could destroy us. To an alcoholic trying to turn sober, the sight of a liquor bottle is a mine that could cause him to relapse into alcoholism.
Similarly, if someone has misbehaved with us, then that memory becomes like a mine. Whenever that person behaves even slightly improperly, we explode into a disproportionate burst of anger. Instead of being assertive, we end up being aggressive and so end up compounding the problem. Just as a trained general is essential to safely cross a dangerous minefield, a bona fide spiritual master is indispensable to navigate the journey of life, infested as it is with the mines of explosive memories.

2. Mine as excavation site from which ores and minerals are extracted: In spiritual life, the devotional memory of our supreme beloved God, Krishna, is the ultimate treasure mine. Just as we get some joy by thinking of the person we love, devotees experience supreme joy by lovingly thinking of the all-attractive Lord. Most of us have probably never given ourselves a chance to taste the ineffable joy of divine remembrance, although that joy is always on the tip of the tongue; it can be attained simply by attentive chanting of the names of God like the Hare Krishna mahamantra. Cherishing and relishing the treasure of divine love is our birthright as the beloved children of God. So why dissipate energy in external pursuits?

3. Mine as possession, “belonging to me”: It is for each one of us to decide: “Which mine am i going to treasure as mine? Am i going to let myself be exploded by bad memories or am i going to enrich myself with a mine of devotional treasure?”
The human mind tends to delight in worldly memories and neglect divine memories. The Bhagavad Gita describes the uncontrolled mind as an intractable enemy. A worldly enemy can be dealt with by sama or friendship, dama or gifts, bheda or divide and rule and danda or punishment.
The process of overcoming undesirable memories and experiencing the divine entails treading the fivefold path of awareness as Patanjali explained in the Yoga Sutra:
1. Mudha: deluded, as in sleep, laziness or dullness.
2. Kshipta: agitated, as in stress or mania.
3. Vikshipta: distracted, as in a lecture in a noisy environment.
4. Ekagrata: concentrated, as in a student revising an hour before the exam.
5. Niroddha: controlled, as in a devotee absorbed in samadhi, the trance of love.
When we starve the mind, that is, when we refuse to pander to its demands for immoral, unhealthy pleasures, it starts agitating more than normal. Many people become disheartened by this increased mental tumult and give up. But rich premiums await the courageous few who refuse to be cowed down by the mind’s scary tactics. We could become spiritual adventurers by determinedly refusing to be cowed down by a recalcitrant mind into silence and submission by philosophical conviction and devotional meditation. Then the mine of the heart will yield us the treasures of unshakeable, unending peace and bliss.
The writer is spiritual mentor, ISKCON, Pune.

Sri Ravi Shankar - Experience Fullness By Emptying Yourself

THE SPEAKING TREE

Experience Fullness By Emptying Yourself

Discourse: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The world would be free of trouble if there were no love. Without love, you can’t be jealous. Greed comes because you love objects too much. Anger is because you love perfection; imperfections anger you. You love yourself too much and that’s why you are proud and arrogant.
It is not love per se but the distortion of love that causes problems, yet life will have no meaning without love. Suppose you are immensely successful and have all the riches at your command but love is missing from your life. Life will not really be worthwhile; it would appear dry and barren. All we really long for in life is love; a divine love. The purpose in life is to blossom in that ideal love.

So how do you get to that point of love where it is free from distortions and you are at ease with yourself ? Love with knowledge, understanding that it is your ego that’s obstructing you from innocent love. Ego is like a dream. You can’t call a dream real, neither can you call it unreal because you have had the experience.

Ego is attachment to wrong image / believe.

To be egoistic is to be unnatural. The ego is not a substance; it is a non-substance like darkness. Darkness is only lack of light or absence of light. You could say ego is just absence of maturity or the lack of pure knowledge.

Knowledge is an aid to develop your innermost state, which is love. Love is a state of being rather than an act. We are all made up of love. When the mind is in the present moment, we are in a state of love. So live in the present moment.

If everything is God and all is love, then where is life heading to? Life is heading towards perfection. You look for perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections.
There are three kinds of perfection:

1. perfection in action or kriya,
2. in speech or vachan, and
3. in feelings or bhaav.

Suppose someone makes a mistake and when you see that you get angry. Then you are no better than the person who has made the mistake. Your feelings have become imperfect because of someone’s imperfection in action. Any action will have some flaw. But when the feeling becomes imperfect, then it stays for a longer period. Inner perfection is lost.

Spiritual practices help you maintain your centredness and remain unshaken by small events. Every individual is bestowed with all the virtues. They simply get covered by lack of understanding and stress. Just uncover the virtues that are already there. Breathing techniques and meditation are effective in calming the mind. Learning something about our breath is important. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, which we have forgotten.

Handling the mind directly is difficult. For every emotion in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath and for every rhythm in the breath there is a corresponding emotion. Knowing this, and learning various breathing techniques will allow you to deal with mind and emotions effectively.

Our mind is like a pot that is turned upside down. When we were born, the pot came first with the neck upright. The whole purpose of life is to stand up, turn the pot upside down and empty it. But the pot is filled with something very sticky; though it is standing upside down, it doesn’t get empty. Becoming hollow or empty is the whole purpose of life.

http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/