Happy NOW / Happy New Year

The rabbits are not celebrating the new year. Neither are the eagles. We pity them, for they neither celebrate our calendar nor do they have one of their own. How wonderful it would be to stand in the midst of a delirious crowd and shout 'happy new year'. Will they ever know that? Will they ever know the feeling of standing with great expectation for the new year? I guess not! The rabbit is contended to merely run between the bushes avoiding dogs and the eagle is happy to find a hot air column so that it can soar up and fly at great heights!

But, what we miss in the lives of the rabbit and eagle is that they always live in the NOW. An eternal NOW where the case for a psychological time does not exist. The past, future all condensed into the current moment. Is there anything worthwhile in that state? Perhaps. They do not have to worry about 'career growth' for starters. Can we even imagine such a state? A state where we do not seek some form of fulfillment of ourselves, or salvation, or enlightenment etc in the future, which the rabbits and the eagles can seem to pull off so easily! Of course, their case is helped by the absence of a mind. But, the presence of a mind, as in our cases, does not imply that we need to constantly look forward to the future to be happy.

Wishes for happy new year keep coming relentlessly on sms, phone, email, orkut / facebook, instant messenger etc. Some people even use many of these simultaneously. This could very well be a symptom of a desperation to have a better than previous year and thus find fulfillment! Each person has to investigate their own mind to find the truth of this for themselves. May be, for a change, we could try to live the way of the rabbit and the eagle for a year. May be, just may be, that millions of years of evolution that perfected their ways of lives might also have some wisdom that the human mind, which has evolved only for a few thousand years may not yet have stumbled upon! In that case, like the rabbit and the eagle, we will simply celebrate the moment- each and every moment!

Of course, nothing wrong per se in celebrating a mind made event, but we might gain something if we understand the workings of our mind that almost madly pushes us to celebrate it. Once we clearly see it, we can enjoy the mind made event but still have our feet firmly in the NOW!

Happy New Year! More importantly, Happy NOW - the eternal NOW!

Music meditation

Music mediation:

• Select your favorite melodies and put them on a playlist with a duration of about 30-40 minutes.
• Go and sit in a comfortable position.
• Start 'truly listening' to this song - to every beat and every word.

Rules: :)

• Not allowed to sing along.
• Not allowed to imagine things from the past that might pop up in relation to the song.
• Not allowed to think about anything random.
• In case you realize that any of the above happens, stop doing it immediately and come back to 'truly listening' to the song.
• Simply listen intensely to every beat, every word being uttered in every song and do nothing else.

Initially this might be hard but with practice its easy to sit comfortably in simple awareness of the song being played! Enjoy the delightful freshness, calmness and peace at the end of the 30-40 minute duration. Pay attention to the choice of the songs. Melodious songs with lyrics that are neither violent nor lustful are preferable in my opinion. Pure instrumentals without any lyrics are also great. This kind of supported meditation helps to slowly move towards unsupported meditation where one can sit simply with awareness without any specific external object (like music in this case).

Where is chithappa?

A young girl, all of 5 years and extraordinarily precocious, asked this question today - as she was staring intently at the photograph of a person that was decked with flowers, a person whom she spoke to about a month ago. There was a certain fear in her eyes - the look we have on our faces when something inexplicable has happened and when we have a gut feeling that its most probably not good. Everyone hushed. No one knew what answer to give the kid. The mother, in all her motherly affection, came there and said, he was gone out and will be back soon. The mother then quickly changed the topic and the kid immediately forgot her chithappa.

The question now is that, is she the one who is caught in fear or is it the adults around her! Yes, the girl is extraordinarily precocious. Without exaggeration, she can easily fit into a class that is two grades above the one she is at. So, giving her the 'truth', at this point, might scare her more than what she can handle. But, the reason death remains unknown to her and that it is something that she has to be scared of is certainly something that she has picked up from the adults around her. This clearly shows how a defective software, aka the conditioned mind, gets passed on from generation to generation.

When death is such an absolute certainty, we constantly live in total denial of that - of ours and of dear ones near us. Buddha says of all meditations, the greatest one is the one done on ones own death. Trying to understand it and overcoming the fear of our own death is without doubt one of the best ways to awakening. And then, one need not look like an ass in front of a five year old when she asks 'Where is chithappa?'

Worms in cow dung

'Like the worms in the cow dung, the moment the cow dung dries they are finished, however much progress they have made.' - Nisargadatta

Dreams

'Dreams are not negotiable' - Paulo Coelho

She

It has been a week. Time flows by even though people claim it to be a illusion. But, ask her and she will say that she really hopes that the events of the last one week were an illusion. After the first two days, there have been things to attend constantly making her forget herself in them. Finally, she found some quiet today. After four hectic days of receiving people, she finally got some time alone to spend with him. She desperately needed that to spend some time with him. For her, that was him - a framed photo of him.

The shy smile which she last saw so long ago was back in the photo. She was desperately trying to forget the rest, the tears and the painful expressions of the last few months, nay the last couple of years. She was trying to connect to the him in the photo whom she so desperately loved. She was appealing to him, the framed version of him, to utter a few words to her. All her feminine emotions started to express themselves. She was a picture of uncontaminated love, affection, care and tenderness - holding the photograph of her beloved. In those few moments her eyes said it all.

They say time heals. One really hopes it does.

Inshallah!

Problems in understanding spiritual literature

Reading and understanding spiritual literature is an important tool in assisting ones own realization. Of course, it is not absolutely necessary. Ramana, as every one knows, read none initially. Nevertheless, for most people, its an important tool whose importance wanes and grows at different times in ones effort for realization. But, there are many issues that I faced in understanding. Listing them here. Might be useful.

• The biggest and most important problem is that of appropriateness. Different books are useful at different stages. I think, for beginners, JK's writings are impressively incomprehensible! But, beyond a point the truth of his writings become clear. So, its important to choose appropriate books and authors. A lot of exploration is needed to find out appropriate literature.

• The second biggest issue is that the different people use words differently and there is a constant conflict to give different meanings to words. For eg., a lot of writing in this subject is on fear. Fear usually only means fear of being eaten by a tiger but rarely about the fear of not making it in the society (which is what is meant in this subject). So, a lot of patience is required here to dig through the subject to find out what the author means. Very often, I find that in discussions with friends, there comes a point where we have to define almost every non-trivial word. This makes it a little hard to begin with.

• The third issues is lack of what is called vitarka - scientific reasoning without a prior bias that looks down upon the subject. When scientists talk about youngs double slit experiment, we gape at the results and explanations with child like wonder. This is great. But, when any genuine spiritual writer starts to say things, our patience with them is minimal and our pseudo-intellectual biases convert our reasoning from vitarka to kutarka, which is reasoning with a prior bias that looks down upon the subject. Spiritual truths can never be recognized with kutarka.

• Another issue is the esoteric nature of the subject. For beginners, its a bit like learning a new language where every book teaching that language is in that language itself. Its hard, but with patience the breakthroughs come. Many times, a prior understanding of the truth to some extent is needed to understand more. In reality, a real time shock in life is needed that will shake the egoic structures. But, most of our lives are so fragile that our normal flow of life provides them in umpteen amounts.

• Another issue is that spiritual truths cannot be studied like how we study human anatomy. A sincere effort is constantly needed for personal transformation also. Without this, no progress can be made. Most people are only interested in intellectual understanding without serious personal transformation. In my opinion, that is not possible. Personal transformation is the hardest as it requires a total abandonment of ego!

• Another issue is that words are many times inaccurate and seldom possess mathematical precision. Also, authors sometimes miss out words that would make things clearer. For the author, the context might make the meaning obvious, but may be not for a beginner. This is true with all books but is probably more likely in this subject. For e.g., When JK says 'an action that is done with a desire in mind, can produce no genuine change for the good', people usually ask 'how is it possible to do an action without a desire in mind. When food is given to the hungry, there is the desire of elimination of their hunger'. Of course, this objection is correct, when interpreted in the way the listener did. What, I think, was actually meant there is the action done with a personal desire - the desire for greatness or moksha or something else!

Sraddha and Bhakthi

Sraddha* without bhakthi** is arrogance, while bhakthi without sraddha is laziness!

* By Sraddha, I mean an attitude of total commitment to all future events and activities. A state of mind where one is determined to give ones best for what is to come.

** By Bhakthi, I mean an attitude of total acceptance to everything that has happened and is happening. A state of mind that offers absolutely no resistance to what happens. Even better, a state of mind that welcomes gleefully everything that happens, even if it is diametrically opposite to what we were trying to accomplish with sraddha!

Bus Meditation

I travel to yoga class thrice a week and use public transportation. Since the bus I take starts right from near my house, I get to sit down also. I've found a nice way to spend those 45 minutes.

The idea is to keep the eyes shut for the entire journey and constantly ensuring that at all points I know where I am exactly - to recognize every bus stop, to know how far (approximately) one is from the next bus stop, recognize every turn and every signal, recognize the bakery shops and chip shops by smell, recognize major landmarks like subways and flyovers, recognize it every time a new person sits beside me etc. The prime purpose behind this meditation is that, to accomplish this perfectly, one has to constantly be aware of what is happening and be totally present. Otherwise, we might suddenly find ourselves being totally lost in our thoughts about office, home etc..., not knowing where we are. If this happens, one should quickly come back to the present and continue the process from there on. I recommend this practice strongly for everyone who is sitting in a bus that is going through a well known route. I am extremely calm and energized at the end when I get up.

For beginners to mindfulness, it will point out very clearly the dysfunction of the mind and for people who have been introduced to it already its a wonderful way to utilize the torrid commute times in the cities!

தூசு

தீயினில் தூசாவாய், விழித்துகொள் என் நண்பா!

Higher self

The higher self beckons!

Fragile lives

Thirumandiram 145

ஊரெலாங் கூடி ஒலிக்க அழுதிட்டுப்

பேரினை நீக்கிப் பிணமென்று பேரிட்டுச்

சூரையங் காட்டிடைக் கொண்டுபோய்ச் சுட்டிட்டு

நீரினில் மூழ்கி நினைப்பொழிந் தார்களே

The neighbours gathered wailing loud and long,

Denied him now a name, called him corpse,

And bore him to the burning ghat and the body burnt,

Then a ceremonial dip--and memory dies as the hours lapse

Thats how fragile our lives are! Is there moksha from this fragility?

Second

Love might be the first god. Nevertheless, a good belly laughter comes a close second.

Silence might be the music of the gods. Nevertheless, the sound of rain droplets hitting anything / everything comes a close second!

Question from No Impact Man

No Impact Man, the dude from New York, has this question in his blog

In search of a unifying theory of all our problems

When you look at the climate problem and the difficulties we have dealing with it and you combine that with a consumer culture that doesn't seem to be making people happy, you'd think we'd be able to find a solution. You'd think we'd be able to do better by ourselves.

But things are moving so slowly. What I want to know is why? What is the fundamental human flaw? What is the single underlying assumption about how we live or what we do that is causing us to damage ourselves and the habitat we depend upon for our health, happiness and security?

.

.

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What is the underlying problem with everything? What is it about us that, if we could work on it, would solve our difficulties? In short, what is your unifying theory of all our problems?

Many people have posted their answers as comments. I reproduce my comment here. If you have thought about this, please provide your thoughts as comments in the above post.

All of spirituality has been at this problem for a long time - from the Buddha to Christ to the many other mystics / yogis of the world.

Fundamentally, each of us think that we have an individual psychological existence that is trying to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Hence, we are constantly at war with others who come in the way of this objective. This results in we constantly living in either the past (remembering painful events) or the future (hoping for wonderful events). But, when one stills ones own mind and carefully trains it, we realize the falseness of this concept of an individual. Varying religions refer to this differently as maya (hinduism) or the original sin (christianity) or dukkha (buddhism). This is the root cause of all trouble.

The human society and all of its constructs is primarily for the human mind, of the human mind and by the human mind. Given that the human mind is dysfunctional (that it cannot be still for even a brief while, the individual seldom has control over many of thoughts in it like fear, anger etc), no change in any construct is gonna result in any significant change in the way our society functions. Only a total revolt of the individual where the individual transforms himself / herself totally to let go of all conditionings and psychological fears and desires can heal the dysfunction of the mind. And only when the society that has a good number of such people, can all the violence in it start to heal.

Love and god

The greatest principle of sufism according to the book 'The sufi message - vol 5 (spiritual liberty)' by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Ishq Allah, Ma'bud Allah'

God is love, lover, and beloved

Mind

Meher Baba on mind

A mind that is fast is sick

A mind that is slow is sound

A mind that is still is divine

Single singam

Rough translation of a poem by Kabir found in a book I am reading. I just loved it!

Diamonds are not found in heaps

The fragrant sandalwood trees do not grow in rows

Lions do not move in herds

The spiritual man has no followers

PS: You need to watch rajni movies to understand the title.. :P

Bewilderment

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” - Rumi

Lessons from samadhi pada

The first chapter of yoga sutras, samadhi pada, was completed in yoga class yesterday. There is the question of what is it that one has learnt from it. Not just words and definitions but what one has truly learnt.

This chapter talks about the highest state of human consciousness called samadhi and the siddhis (special powers) that a person at this state obtains. Of course the special powers do not mean super-human powers like the ones Neo had in the movie Matrix :P. One of the siddhis is about being able to see the truth with utter clarity and reside in that state permanently.

Sutra 48 in Chapter 1 says:

ṛtambharā tatra prajňā

The wisdom in that state is filled with clarity and is unerring

What this implies to me is that my normal state of living does not possess truth and clarity to such a high degree. This does motivate me to find out what is so wrong with the normal state of living and makes one inquire into ones life. This is the biggest lesson from the first chapter of yoga sutras for me.

Non-acceptance

Eckhart Tolle says

See if you can catch yourself complaining in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

I wish I had the courage to live this!

Doership => Sufffering

The only doer is Narayana. There is no other doer. Any attempt by us to grab the doership from Narayana sets us up for suffering.


This is true even if we have to physically support someone relentlessly for close to a year!

Present - Future

Temporally speaking, the termination of the present leads to the future. Whereas psychologically, the termination of the future leads to the present!

Agent Smith dialogue from matrix

Agent smith says this to Neo in the third part of matrix

'...temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect that is desperately trying to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose...'

WOW! This seems so spectacularly true to me when applied to most 'egoic' human emotions (fear, pride, desire, anger, etc...)!!

Blank cheque

A master said today

All of us, when we are born, are born with a blank cheque from god. The amount typically filled in by most of us is 50 paise. May be one or two of us fill in 51 paise or 52 paise. This is the sad state of affairs here today! To make things sadder, the reason why most people do this is that everyone else fills in 50 paise. There is the very rare individual who fills in a million dollars and everyone is so shocked about it! His entire family, friends and so called well wishers strongly advice the person from going against the conventional wisdom of filling in 50 paise.

All this was said in the context of finding a noble vision for oneself. He was telling that only a life spent in trying to actualize a noble vision can be fulfilling. Instead, 99.999% of people spend their lives trying to satisfy their needs, wants, cravings and desires. Of course, nothing wrong in having them but spending all of ones life on that is what the issue is. He was saying that trying to achieve happiness through such means is so trivial and such people never get to know what a fulfilling life could be like.

As he said those words about a blank cheque from god, I was reminded of this old tamil poem:

நந்தவனத்தில் ஓர் ஆண்டி - அவன்
நாலாறு மாதமாய்க் குயவனை வேண்டிக்
கொண்டு வந்தான் ஒரு தோண்டி - அதைக்
கூத்தாடிக் கூத்தாடிப் போட்டுடைத்தாண்டி

Rough translation

A mendicant in the sacred garden
Prays for 10 months, and
arrives with a vessel
Unfortunately, he plays carelessly
and breaks it!

He was also talking about the famous example of the two stone cutters. The first one when asked what he does, said he cuts stones. The other, when asked what he does, says he helps in building the Taj Mahal.

Most people whom when asked, 'What they do', answer they work in xyz company. I have hardly come across someone who said they are working to accomplish such and such a thing. Even when I was in academia, I met only one professor who talked about the beauty of the scientific problems that she is trying to solve. Such is the state of affairs.

Can you see it

Can you see it? Not merely in a waterfall set in sylvan surroundings. That is trivial. But, also in disease, (impending) death, pain, poverty and all the other so called ugly things. Not of others, of course. But, of your own. And of your kith and kin!

Doing so not merely frees oneself of suffering, but also enables one to provide the best response to the situation!

Nahi nahi rakshathi

Its so ironical that people sing, 'Nahi nahi rakshathi dookrunj karane'* (the immortal line from the immortal poem Bhaja govindam by Shankaracharya), as a rule and compulsion in the morning!


* - It literally means, 'rote memorization of linguistic grammar rules is of no use. It metaphorically refers to all forms of rules, I think!

Crocodile

and the story goes that when the crocodiles sharp teeth were cutting through the flesh of the elephants foot, the elephant cried out 'Narayana'!

Narayana!

Best wishes

Best wishes for a fabulous life, dear sis and bil! :)

Judgement and Recognition

In the following, by recognition, I mean, noticing the differences in people - someone is rich, someone is not, someone is powerful in the society and someone is not, someone is beautiful and someone is not, someone is smart and someone is not, someone is enlightened and someone is not etc etc. By judgment, I mean, our emotional reaction to these differences - for e.g., the idea of VIP's being given special treatment, attraction to taking photographs with well known faces, internally 'valuing' beautiful and smart people more than others etc etc.

As a child, we do not recognize. Hence, we do not judge either. Recognition is a must for judgment.

As we grow up and become adults, we learn to recognize. Hence, we start to judge also. We play games with people in order to benefit us someway or the other. Of course, not with everyone and not all the time. Nevertheless, teachers love smart kids, people like to throw names of the powerful people whom they know etc etc. This is definitely a stage that most of us go through. Unfortunately most of us do not go forward and instead remain there.

The next stage is the spiritually awakened state where an individual recognizes but does not judge. Most differences between humans are understood to be arbitrary and dependent on a series of accidents. All relationships are with the purest essence of the individual and hence no differences are recognized between individuals! Of course at this state, we might stay away from a 'troublesome' person but the constant internal anger directed at them will be missing. Unless one spiritually moves forward, it is difficult to do so.

Recursion

Appears crazy at the outset
Dig deeper to glimpse its beauty
Begin practice and feel it to be impossibly hard
Solve the problem
and you know that was deliciously simple
Whats it?

Recursion or Spirituality?

No clue

Feigned calmness
or freedom from illusory worry
I do not know my lord!

Whole vs Fragmented person

Got this beautiful diagrams from a presentation prepared by Prof Devdas Menon. Thanks to him for sharing these diagrams, originally from 'The eight habit' by Stephen Covey.

Instead of having a noble vision in our minds, we usually have a cultural software. In other words, our minds are typically focused on achieving what the prevalent culture considers to be prestigious to achieve. So, we usually do not even have a vision forget even a noble vision! Sad reality!

Similarly, instead of having a disciplined body we indulge our body all the time - be it sex, food or being a couch potato. Indulging in some of these now and then provides spice but we mostly only live for these things resulting in total deterioration of the body. A disciplined body is a must to be able to achieve anything worthwhile. Its the vehicle through which all our actions are performed in this world.

Finally, our hearts are a social mirror. There is seldom anything that we are passionate about. Likes and dislikes are tailored to accomplish social acceptance.

An individual who transcends these boundaries of the body, mind and heart is a whole individual who constantly inspires people around to find their own internal voice and transcend these boundaries.

Actions

I have identified three levels of actions. I would really prefer to stay at the third level as often as possible. Unfortunately, years of conditioning makes it difficult and I keep falling all the time. But, there is some progress.

a.) The lowest level is the action that which I frequently refer to as drama. This is that action done to attract the attention of others. In short, this is egoic-action done to enhance the ego's image of oneself in some way or other.

b.) The next level of action is non-egoic action but action born out of an addiction to action. This is the action / movement that stems from the inability to simply sit.

c.) The most refined and highest level of action is that which is non-egoic and that which stems purely for the need of the action and not from an inability to sit silently. This is the level of saints!

In my opinion, enquiry and understanding are needed to transcend the first level. The more we understand why we do things to cater to the egos image, the more we will be liberated from it. The addiction to action requires first a genuine realization of the same followed by frequent periods where we sit down silently and observe the will to move. This is probably the best route to deaddict oneself from action and thereby transcend the second level.

Human society today has an extreme excess of the first level, scarcity at the second level and next to nothing at the third level. An inversion of this ratio would go a long way in establishing a just and non-violent society!

Blessings

I used to think that the ability to be happy just by being able to eat heartily and sleep well and the presence of healthy relationships are the only two important blessings that are needed for a good life. Now, I am quite sure that there is another.

To be able to eat, sleep, pee, shit and move around by oneself without needing other's help in old age until death is certainly another blessing that is on par with the first two!

Silent intelligence

Ohhh, for an intelligence that can operate in total silence!!!

Passion

Many who know me know that this is my second most favorite characteristic in a human, after compassion!

One man named Ganesh taught me what it is in my first job. He never spoke of it but lived it. That taught me what passion was. As is the wont of all things related to the heart, passion is communicated from the heart to the heart bypassing the brain. Another man demonstrated it today and has been doing it for a long time. He used the word today and I am absolutely in awe of this man. Sachin!

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, is one of the most famous faces in India known for his outrageous talent and glorious cricketing records over the past 20 years. But, the characteristic I have always admired in him all the time is passion. His passion for the game surpasses everything. Such passion in the belly is extremely awe inspiring. I salute this great player!

How to increase altruism

How to increase altruism in toddlers

This piece of research suggests that toddlers when shown images of a pair of dolls tend to be more 'altruistic'.

Such research activities always tend to give me a sick feeling. Next there will be products in the market that will be designed to 'increase your child's altruistic behavior'! I wonder what A.S.Neill, founder of summerhill, will have to say about this.

Romance killer

Wonder if saying 'Do you want some immunity' would be a good pickup line!!! :P

Kissing was developed to spread germs

I find this kinda reporting / science quite lame. It could be true that kissing could pass on immunity as the news article claims, but concluding that this is the sole purpose of it and hence kissing was developed for this purpose is quite lame!

PS: Thx to Steve for passing on this info through google reader!

Wisdom on happiness

"To Focus on one problem at a time and solving it. To reap the best now from the given time than the future. I can see small drops form a watefall in thoughts of union."

Working with the dying

Working with the dying is like looking into one of those mystery globes that shows ones own future!

Self obsession

Came across this wonderful saying by Shantideva today in the spiritual classic 'Tibetan book of living and dying'* by Sogyal Rinpoche.

If all the harms throughout the world,
And all its fears and sufferings,
All spring from clinging to a self,
What need have I for such a demon?


* Reading this book slowly. Its wonderful but is quite a heavy read. Will post about it separately on another day.

Birth right

'Buddha nature is my birth right!' - Prof Devdas Menon

What profound words!

Stony silence

Tracing the lineage to stones
We are indeed stones
Waiting to join other stones
in a blink of an eye

Being born of stones
We retain features of stones
Like the silence of the stone
in different organs in us

The stony silence of the heart
When transferred to the mind
Allows the mind to be silent like a stone
And permits the heart to blossom like a flower

Then, only the body will join other stones
and the Buddha will remain!

Summerhill

Summerhill - another wonderful book that I read recently.

Its a fabulous book on the author, A.S.Neill's, school in Suffolk, UK. The only rules that the adults in the school make are those that concern the physical safety of the kids. All other rules are made in a democratic manner by voting. The principal has one vote and so does a 7 year old. The children go to classes if they like, learn what they like and play when they like. Any contravention of the rules is also dealt in a democratic manner.

Instinctively we might expect anarchy as there are no rules. But, the author reports, something totally counter to this intuition. Children, he reports, are remarkably sensible to others' requirements and given this freedom to be who they are, develop into the most gentle and sensible adults. Most parents impose their morals, preferences, life choices, idea of a good life etc on kids and prevent them from expressing what comes naturally to them. This leads to individuals who are disturbed in one way or the other. As I read this book, I could see how some of these forces have shaped me and how those repressions in childhood still continue to haunt me.

This is an absolute must read for anyone who plans to have a child in their house anytime in the future :).

In many ways I agree with the philosophy of giving total freedom and this resulting in producing non-neurotic humans. When kids are suppressed from expressing anything in their childhood, they have a non-natural and unhealthy obsession towards it leading to a complicated adult.

But there are a few things that I do not totally agree with. In many aspects, I feel he has made the right start but does not go the complete distance. Especially regarding the issues of neurotic people, there is a lot more to be said and done. But, he stops with providing freedom in childhood. In addition, there seems to be an excessive influence of Freud on him. Almost everything is connected to sexual repression in childhood. For e.g., if a child is interested in a pen, then it is being connected to his penis which he was thwarted from playing with as a child. This could be true in some cases, but he connects almost everything with this.

All in a all, i think he was a fabulous human to have recognized the need for freedom. I personally feel that freedom is the most important thing for any human in his/her life. He has done a fabulous experiment in this regard. I just couldnt put the book down. Read it non stop to finish!

Anatomy of peace

Anatomy of peace - read this book recently. Another gem from Arbinger Insitute. It is kind of a sequel to 'Leadership and self deception'. Delves into the subject more deeply and in a more general setting unlike the previous book. I strongly recommend it.

Pollution in China

Pollution in China - in pictures

Sad sad price of all the development we see!

When will I start taking responsibility for all the indirect violence that I cause? I mean, me throwing a coffee cup in the dustbin is not directly violent but it definitely implies adding to the pollution faced by slum dweller somewhere in India near whose residence would it be burnt! Sometimes it is next to impossible to not use that coffee cup but I find that in more than 90% of circumstances it is avoidable and sadly I tend to slip many times on that! Such reminders provide a renewed vigor to commit myself to be extremely aware of all the garbage I produce.

Self

Self is the highest one can achieve in this world and the highest one can give to another. I feel the search ends when one finds oneself and be with it.

What a life

Connect with words
but do not connect with hearts
Oh, what a life you live!

Understand the truth
but not live it
Oh, what a life you live!

Moving up

As the lower bird moves towards the higher bird, at each stage it is swamped by fear, self-doubt and anxiety. It starts to worry about missing the things in the level it just crossed. But, the experience so far is that it becomes progressively easier and the hope is that the trend continues.

Short stories

Sveta-ketu goes to school from Chandogya upanishad

"... by knowing the nature of one lump of clay, we can know the nature of everything made of clay, can we not? The shapes of other things, such as a pot, a toy elephant, etc., are just names, given to help us talk about them. The reality in them is just the clay, is it not?"

Questions for Anigras from Mundaka upanishad

"Then (after one realizes the supreme truth, Brahman), just as the many rivers flow into the one ocean, losing their names and forms, so the wise person, free from name and body, enters into that Divine Being, higher than the highest. My son, when you know that Brahman, you become that Brahman. You cross beyond all sorrow and evil. You become immortal."

New age Yama & Niyama

Yama & Niyama are the basic moral behavior suggested to the individual in Indian / yogic tradition. I have been thinking that a basic understanding of the functioning of the world - politics, economics and social structure, their consequences and implications should also be included in the list. Otherwise, you might be enlightened, but still be totally lost when it comes to important matters related to the human society. For e.g, here we see Paramahamasa Nithayanada, an enlightened master, uttering fairly nonsensical things that he probably does not really understand.



Nithyananda says in this video recorded in USA (reproduced verbatim)

For a new transformed world, my hope lies with youth, especially NRI (non-residential Indian) youth. If I am asked to create a world newly, (Ill create a world that has) the infrastructure, medical care, roads, bridges, dams, social freedom of the west and, the mental and physical structure of the east. Yogic hardware (body), vedic software (mind) and western infrastructure is the key to a new world order.

As I was hearing this, I just felt, Swamiji, please restrict yourself to things you know and do not venture out into things you do not really understand. Yes, there are many nice things in western infrastructure but all of these have many tonnes of hidden costs. Infrastructure like roads necessarily imply extreme consumption of gasoline leading to pollution and global warming, installation of oppressive and many times very violent regimes in many gulf countries, arbitrary wars to secure supply of gasoline etc. Yes, social freedom in the west is fabulous but the line between social freedom and social apathy is fairly thin. So, many things in western infrastructure has hidden costs. So, blindly appreciating only the positives is not smart! It misses the big picture.

This (a lack of understanding of the functioning of the world) also leads to other issues. A friend of mine was talking about how he saw huge vinyl boards with images of Nithyananda all over Vellore. This has two fold problems. One is that it is propagating a style of personality cult. Nothing to deny Nithyananda's amazing wisdom, but that does not justify a personality cult. Other is the environmental costs of huge vinyl boards is really high and is something that is best avoided. Claiming refuge in saying, my state of being or state of consciousness is at the supreme level and hence I do not have to care about silly things like 'environmental issues' is shere escapism and cannot be condoned. Of course, it is possible that the swami is simply not aware of these things. I do totally understand that it takes a bit of living in the real world as a conventional / unenlightened person to understand/experience its ways.

Hence, my view that a basic understanding of the functioning of the world should be included in the modern version of 'yama and niyama'.

Companionship

The common opinion about why people need companionship is that one cannot be alone (sometimes, it is even worse that people do not even think about it and assume by default they need a companion). People further feel that they are somehow incomplete alone and hence need a partner. By 'feel incomplete' I refer to the feeling people have about being greatly happier and contended if only they have a partner.

The not so common aspect about the relationships is the need to love someone, express affection, express concern etc. By calling this uncommon, I am not saying regular relationships do not have it. Its uncommon in the sense that its not the primary motivating force in most common relationships.

So, when people want a partner because they feel they will be complete only then, there will be a constant trying to fit the partner in a mold, such that the partner fills the incompleteness in them and its next to impossible to find a perfect fit. And this is a cause of unhappy relationships. Some relationships fit approximately, and then people are willing to just go forward with it and live with it. But, then there will still be constant drama - low level to high level.

I think the burden of incompleteness lies with the individual. I feel I should not dump my feeling of incompleteness on someone else and that I should fix myself first. I should put myself through rehab and cure myself of this perceived incompleteness. Then, when I get into a relationship, Ill be able to love the person totally without any requirement of me to get the other person to fill an emotional incompleteness in me. I feel, such a couple, where the partners are both not trying to get the other person to fill an emotional incompleteness in them are the primordial couple - Shiva and Parvathi.

A beautiful cartoon about the same topic - Missing piece meets the big O


PS: Post copied from a google chat and hence sentences might appear a bit odd :)

Rehabilitation

I finally have the words to describe what I have been doing for the past 2.5 years (though I didnt always think about it that way). The word is rehabilitation! I have been rehabilitating myself from being an automaton. The automaton was programmed to:

• Work for the success of 'partha'
• Want others to consider 'partha' kind
• Compulsively desire praise / acknowledgment from others
  
• Compulsively think
• Fear for the the future of 'partha'
• Run away from all the violence in the world
• Masquerade all of its actions so that its presence is not detected
  

I am happy I detected it and that I made some progress in releasing myself from its grip. I am happy to share this journey with you and if you are doing something similar, would love to hear it from you too!

"Going WithIn" The Great Paradox

A nice write up - "Going WithIn" The Great Paradox

There is a beautiful sufi story in the writeup that Ill reproduce here!

A Beggar came to an Emperor. Just by chance, the Emperor was coming out of his Palace for a morning walk. And the Beggar was standing there, so the Emperor asked, 'What do you want?' The Beggar laughed. He said, 'You are asking as if you can Fulfill my Desire! "What do you want?" you say!'
The King was offended, challenged. He said, 'Yes, I can Fulfill your Desire. What is your Desire? you just tell me.' And the man said, 'Think twice before you promise anything.'
The Beggar was no ordinary Beggar, the Beggar was the Emperor's past-life Master. And the Master had promised, 'I will come and try to Wake you again in your next Life. This Life, you have Missed -- but I will come again.'
But the King had forgotten completely -- who remembers about Past Lives? So he insisted, 'You just tell me, and I will Fulfill it. You just tell me. I am such a Big Emperor -- what can you Desire that I cannot give YOU?'
And the Beggar said, 'It is a very simple Desire. You see this Begging-Bowl? Can you fill it with something? Anything will do. I don't ask diamonds, and I don't ask gold -- anything! Can you fill it?'
And the Emperor said, 'Yes! You seem to be mad! Why can't it be filled?' He called one of his viziers and told the vizier, 'You fill this man's Begging-Bowl with money.' And the vizier went. It was a small Begging-Bowl, but soon the King was getting afraid. Money was being poured, and the moment you would pour it, it would disappear. And the Begging-Bowl remained Empty, and remained Empty, and remained Empty.
The whole Palace gathered together. By and by, the rumour went into the Capital; people started coming from all corners. There was a huge crowd, and the prestige of the Emperor was at stake. And he was a man of his word. He said to his viziers, 'If the whole Kingdom is lost I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this Beggar. The Bowl is something Magical -- but I will have to prove to him that I also have something to fill it.'
His treasuries started becoming Empty. And people are running and rushing out of the Palace, trying to pour into that Begging-Bowl -- and that Begging-Bowl seems to be Bottomless, everything immediately disappears into it. You cannot see it again; once it has gone in, it has gone out of Existence. It simply dematerializes -- or what?
Then diamonds and pearls and emeralds... and they started disappearing. Soon the vizier said to the King, 'This seems to be impossible. You will have to accept Defeat. And this man does not seem to be an ordinary Beggar, he cannot be. There is some Message in it. You Surrender to this man, you have been Defeated!'
It was evening, and the whole Capital had gathered there, and people were standing there in utter silence. There was such great excitement: 'What is going to happen?' Finally, the King dropped at the feet of the Beggar and said, 'Sir, excuse me. It was wrong of me to pretend that I have anything. I have nothing to fill your Begging-Bowl. Just one thing -- what is the secret of this Begging-Bowl? Just tell me one thing. I am Defeated, you are Victorious -- before you leave me, just fulfill my curiosity. How has this Begging-Bowl been made, of what?'
And the Beggar laughed. And the Beggar said, 'Don't you remember me at all? Have you forgotten me completely? Look into my eyes! I am your old Master. And this is what I was teaching you in the Past Life too, but you didn't listen. This Begging-Bowl has no Magic! It is simply made out of the Human Heart. There is no secret in it; this is how the Human Heart is.'
The mysterious Begging-Bowl. Go on throwing things into it -- you go on throwing Worlds into it, and they dematerialize and they disappear. And one is never Satisfied, Never Never Ever.

Exit

ஒன்பது துவாரங்கள்
ஓர் உயிர்
எதன் வழியே வெளியேருமோ?

Nine holes body has
A life makes the body home
Which hole will it choose?


PS: Translation not accurate - but in Haiku :)

What do you want to do?

I get asked this question many times. But, rarely is anyone interested in a proper answer. What people want are sound bites. But, I do not have them. So, I never get to commune with most people on this. Here is an attempt to briefly outline why this question cannot be answered so easily.

When people ask 'What do you want to do?', I want to ask them, is the question about 'me' or the question about the 'action'. Typically, this question actually means, 'What is it that you are going to do to make your life better? (monetarily, status, security etc)'. This is what I meant by the question being about 'me'. Then there is the other variation which is about the 'action'. The correctly worded question for this variation would be, 'What is it that you love so much that you would do it forever irrespective of other considerations like money, status etc?'.

So, for me to answer the original question, 'What do you want to do?', Ill have to split it into these two variations and then address the variation that the person is interested. Typically, people either do not have time/interest to discuss this or do not have an intellect that is sharp enough to cut through the mindset that posed the original question, and such people mostly only mean the first variation. I do not want to answer this question without making the point about the two variations and hence the failure to communicate.

The answer for the first variant would be that my life is as good as it can ever be and it can never change. I have no future, in terms of career, growth, status, and hence there is no need to worry about them. Security (in terms of food, health etc) is an issue but these are quite trivially taken care of. The answer for the second variation is that I would like to find out what is the best and holistic way I can contribute to the society (NOTE: please do not understand this as 'social service') and then spend the time I have doing that. If there is no group of people doing what appears to be the correct way to me, Ill go and do it. If there is such a group and if it appears to me that my time is best utilized by joining them, Ill join them in whatever capacity I am capable of (be it a manager or a security guard) and assist them.

Companionship

JK on the need for companionship from 'Think on these things'

A girl asks why we want a companion. Why does one want a companion? Can you live alone in this world without a husband or a wife, without children, without friends? Most people cannot live alone, therefore they need companions. It requires enormous intelligence to be alone; and you must be alone to find God, truth. It is nice to have a companion, a husband or a wife, and also to have babies; but you see, we get lost in all that, we get lost in the family, in the job, in the dull, monotonous routine of a decaying existence. We get used to it, and then the thought of living alone becomes dreadful, something to be afraid of. Most of us have put all our faith in one thing, all our eggs in one basket, and our lives have no richness apart from our companions, apart from our families and our jobs. But if there is a richness in one's life - not the richness of money or knowledge, which anyone can acquire, but that richness which is the movement of reality with no beginning and no ending - then companionship becomes a secondary matter.

But, you see, you are not educated to be alone. Do you ever go out for a walk by yourself? It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree - not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself - and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of the water, the fisherman's song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed.

Destroying the Tao

A famous quote about how humanity commenced the destruction of the Tao by Chuang Tzu:

The knowledge of the ancients was perfect. How perfect? At first, they did not know that there were things. This is the most perfect knowledge; nothing can be added. Next, they knew there were things, but did not yet make distinctions between them. Next, they made distinctions between them, but they did not yet pass judgment upon them. When judgments were passed, Tao was destroyed.

A nice commentary on this in this new site I stumbled upon yesterday - Friends of Reality. There are a lot of wonderful essays on that site. Check them out!

Wheel maker

Beautiful story attributed to Chuang Tzu - Wheel maker

I can teach the mechanics of wheel making to anyone. It is easy to create something that looks like a wheel, but quite difficult to make wheels that are durable, safe, and provide a smooth ride. I can explain all of this to my son, but it is impossible for me to give him the feeling that is at the heart of the wheel making art. He must gain that on his own. This is why I am seventy years old and still making wheels.

Your Majesty, the ancient sages possessed the feelings that were at the heart of their mastery. Using words, they could set down the mechanics of their mastery in the form of books, but just as it is impossible for me to pass on my experience to anyone else, it is equally impossible for them to transmit their essence of wisdom to you. Their feelings died when they passed away. The only things they left behind were their words. This is why I said Your Majesty was reading the leftovers of a dead man.

Realization

When one is amidst a tough, emotionally draining and challenging situation that is dragging along, one suddenly realizes that one is with Naryana himself and what one is going through is ones own Kurukshetra!

Death

We rarely, if ever, think of our own death in a non trivial fashion. But, if anything is certain in anyone's lives, it is death. But, almost no one is ready to die at any point in their lives. There is always more things to be done, more things to be enjoyed etc. Even after having enough and more opportunities to do and enjoy more things, people are seldom satisfied. That is, there rarely ever is a time for someone where the person may say, 'OK. I am ready to die now.' This dilemma is beautifully captured by the story of king Yayati from Indian mythology.

Even Death felt compassion. Death took the young man aside, whispered in his ear, ”Are you a fool? Your older brothers are not ready, they have lived long. Seventy-five years somebody has lived – he is not ready.

And you are ready? Your father does not want to die. He is a hundred years old, and you are only twenty.”

The young man said something very beautiful, something of tremendous import. He said, ”Seeing this, that my father has lived one hundred years and he has ALL that one can have, and he is still not satisfied, I see the futility of life. What is the point? I may live one hundred years and the situation will be the same. And if it was only my father then I would have thought, ’Maybe he is an exception.’ But my brothers – seventy-five, seventy, sixty-five, sixty – have also lived long. They have enjoyed every kind of thing; now what else is there to enjoy?

They are getting old and they are not satisfied. So one thing is certain: this is not the way to become satisfied. Hence I am ready, and I am coming with you, not in any despair but in tremendous understanding. I am coming with you with great cheerfulness that I have not to pass through this torture, these one hundred years of torture which my father has had to suffer. He has not yet become able enough to go with you.” And the story continues. One hundred years again passed; they came and were gone, nothing was noticed.

Its a fabulous story that so wonderfully captures the state of mind of almost all of humanity. There is always more to do and more to enjoy and there is never a time when one is ready to die despite it being an utter certainty from the time one is born.

This is not to say we should not enjoy or we should keep anticipating death. On the contrary, we should enjoy but we should be ready to let go of the body at any given point. Then, there is no suffering - when we die or when someone we know dies. More importantly, fear of death is the ultimate and root fear from which all other fears emanate. The person who truly conquers lear, lives life with true freedom!

Thiruvalluvar, as always, has a great saying to describe this (kural 334)

‌நாள்என ஒன்றுபோல் காட்டி உயிர்ஈரும்
வாள்அது உணர்வார்ப் பெறின்

The day is a sword in disguise
that is cutting through your life


Typically when people hear such words of mystics, they are quick to dismiss that these mystics are masochists. I do not think so. I think they are merely trying to point to something that we have in general totally missed. I do think it helps a lot to meditate on this pointers from the mystics.

Check out this beautiful video on youtube about the concept of death and rebirth in Buddhism. Irrespective of whether the idea of rebirth makes sense or not to one, its still great to listen to some of these masters.

Diwali

No, I am not excited about Diwali! No, I am not going to dish out inanities in the form of 'Oh, I missed Diwali for the past three years!'. Yes, I am all for all the tasty food. But, its all coming at the cost of extreme noise and air pollution. Not to mention the non-stop blaring of television. I really want to escape all this.

I wish, I were able to travel to Singampunari, a village that is 90KM from Sivakasi (firecracker manufacturing hub) in Tamil Nadu for this Diwali. The folks there have not burst crackers in the last 3 decades for the purpose of not disturbing the exotic birds nesting in the Vedankudi bird sanctuary nearby. May be next year Ill spend Diwali there! Anyone wanna join me?

Two birds metaphor

Mundaka upanishad has this beautiful metaphor of two birds that capture the two parts of all us.


Story from here

A bird was hopping on an immense tree having innumerable branches and huge foliage. The branches were laden with fruits of different sizes and shapes. The lone bird chirped and jumped from one branch to another. The sweet taste of fruits made him happy, and his eyes sparkled with contentment and joy. His breast swelled up with the pride of having discovered and enjoyed the sweet fruits.

But soon, the bird tasted a bitter fruit and his joy turned sour; his ego deflated. Cursing the whole tree, he pondered, 'all this is useless; there is no happiness or joy in these fruits. I don't want any of them.' Ah! The glorious feeling of discrimination and renunciation occupied his heart. He looked hither and thither, and his eyes caught sight of a calm and serene looking bird sitting at the top of the tree. That Bird appeared to be in state of meditation, golden effulgence radiating from His countenance that illumined the whole tree including our little bird.

'O my, my! What a dignified composure and wonderful peace! I must go there,' resolved the little one. It flew up for a while, but soon the temptation of juicy fruits hanging from the innumerable branches overpowered his resolve. He thought, 'those fruits on the lower branches were bitter, but these fruits here appear different, sweeter. Let me enjoy a few of these.' Thus, our little friend stopped and pecked at one juicy fruit. And what a wonder! The fruit indeed turned out to be very sweet. Soon, forgetting the past experiences of repulsive bitter tastes, forgetting everything about that Golden Bird above, this little bird got busy in relishing the sweetness of fruits and cool comfort of green foliage.

However, the story was repeated; it had to. For, the fruits although appearing healthy, juicy, and fresh were but a mixture of sweet and bitter. The bitter taste once again caused dejection, and once again there arose an intense desire to reach the Bird at the top. Repeating such cycles of which no account can ever be kept, at last the lower bird reached the treetop. Approaching the Graceful Bird with a mixture of fear and awe, respect and humility, the lower bird realized to his surprise that he was but the reflection of that Golden Bird! He also acquired that golden hue, that state of peace and bliss, which he had never experienced in its life before. At last, as he reached nearer and nearer to that Bird our friend became one with It, losing his own identity forever.

Gates

Many spiritual masters and books often seem to contradict each other. This seeming contradiction arises from a non understanding of the core idea. Different people point to the core idea, but from different positions. Its like pointing to India. From China, one points west, and from UK, one points east and from Sri Lanka, one points north. The apparent contradiction between spiritual masters is like this. Once the core idea is understood, the apparent contradictions dissolve.

To get this core idea, there are hundreds of gates. Just describing three of them:

a.) Way of the heart - compassion
Finding out what one can do to help this world struggling with violence will help. The most complete and absolute form of help (throwing shoes at so called 'environmental criminals' is NOT one :D) one can do in every moment of ones existence will lead us.

b.) Way of the intellect - ego
Identify every place the ego is hiding. Places where we seek our ego - words of others in the form of honor and pride, career and ambition, happiness in the form of events, material progress etc. Having a sharp intellect and finding out every place where the ego is hiding and cutting through it with the sharp intellect will help.

c.) Way of stillness
First understand that for most people the mind is diseased as it cannot stay still even in the presence of glorious natural beauty, let alone the mundane. Seeking to try and get the mind to stay in the moment and seeking to understand its incessant chattering will help.


The three ideas are interconnected of course. But to begin with, I think its fine to not consider that. Any one of these gates (also the countless gates not listed here) when held on to sincerely, will lead us to the understanding of the core idea.

Tea

Knowing the taste of tea from http://www.sentient.org/


It is impossible to know the taste of tea without first drinking it.

Studying tea will not help.
Meditating on tea will not help.
Listening to others talk about tea will not help.
Reading sutras about tea will not help.
Smelling the aroma of tea will not help.
Sitting blissfully in samadhi around tea will not help.
Seeking tea in exotic countries will not help.
Having profound insights about tea will not help.
Opening the heart in deep life-changing ways will not help.
Going inside a tea shop will not help.

All of these things are mere confusion and delaying tactics.
To know the taste of tea you must drink it. There is no other way.

What I seek

A body sculpted by Asana & Pranayama
A mind cleansed by the teachings of Buddha & Christ
A consciousness in service of Narayana
Is all I seek!

Vitarka and scientific reasoning

Many scientists, thinkers and modern educators keep saying again and again that inculcation of the scientific reasoning in young minds is the sole purpose of education and they claim that it is the foundation of a peaceful and progressive society. Scientific reasoning simply means logical thinking. The saints and rishis of ancient India knew better and went one step better.

The sanskrit word for logical/scientific reasoning is 'tarka'. The saints and rishis of ancient India did not advocate the mere inculcation of tarka. Instead, they advocated the inculcation of 'vitarka'. 'Vitarka' is logical reasoning without the presence of ego. So, when one is trying to find out about the external world, like gravity, vitarka reduces to tarka. But, when one is studying the internal world, when one is observing ones own mind, vitarka is the only tool that works. Tarka fails dramatically in those situations. When there is only tarka, we might have lots of tools and toys (which will be used mostly to hit each other) without actual peace in the society. In addition, only inculcating vitarka could be the foundation of a just, peaceful and progressive society. Hence, one of the primary purposes of eduction is to inculcate the spirit of vitarka in the young minds.

Patanajali talks about the importance of Vitarka in one his sutras (Chapter 1, Sutra 17). In this sutra he indicates that Vitarka is the first step towards Samprajnatha samadhi.


PS: Thx to a talk by Paramahamsa Nithyananda for this!

Lack of awareness could kill

11 run over by trains in a single day

Eleven people died while crossing railway tracks on Tuesday, under the Chennai division (stretches up to Erode and Coimbatore) of Southern Railway. The 11 deaths occurred in Korukkupet, Gummidipoondi, Erode, Pothanur, Morappur, Athur, Tambaram (two cases), Chromepet, Annanur and Basin Bridge. The deaths were due to careless crossing of tracks. A majority of the accidents occur because commuters cross railway tracks while talking on mobile phones. The victims were all run over by trains.

This is really sad and scary too! I have found myself being lost in thoughts and/or lost in conversation in phone many a times on the road. I have personally had one or two close shaves also. I am sure many of you have experienced this. We better practice awareness and especially intense awareness while on the move on Indian roads.

Royal life

This, according to me, are the four steps to losing all fears and living life royally i.e. with total freedom!

• Lose fear of death
  
• Understand life
  
• Understand death
• Lose fear of life

I have ordered them, in what is in my opinion, increasingly difficult to accomplish. Losing fear of death usually is, either an accident or divine grace (depending on your perspective). I really think that the first big progress in the spiritual realm is made with this step (though tiny progress could be made in any subset of the above four steps simultaneously). Along with it a lot of common fears of life (like career, growth, happiness, ambition, pride etc) will disappear. Though many more deep fears (like physical security, food, basic needs of near ones etc) will remain.

Then, one understands that all of life, every event, emotion etc is something that is being projected on the mind (like how a cinema is projected on the white screen). With practice, one slowly stops reacting to the projections. This consists of one primary teaching of the Buddha and many other mystics - all of life is but a mere projection on the vast canvass of the mind. With practice and patience one slowly realizes that one is nothing but the canvass itself. This may or may not be a single sudden jump. Most often, it is a series of small and big jumps.

Later, I think (I am not totally sure how things will proceed from here, though I can and will conjecture), one understands death. This is the other half of the primary teaching, that even death is nothing but an event being projected on to the canvass of the mind. If this is true and when it is understood, all the other left over fears of life also disappear.

At this point, the person is ready to die any moment and hence lives with gay abandon and total freedom. This does not mean recklessness (though there could be occasional streaks of them, arising primarily due to the inability in handling the freedom). On the contrary, it would mean total responsibility as there is absolutely no fear. Such a life is indeed Royal.

The four reasons

The tibetan book of living and dying beautifully lists four reasons why we do not ordinarily understand the nature of the mind:

• Nature of mind is just too close to be realized!
• It is just too profound for us to fathom!
• It is too easy for us to belive!
• It is too wonderful for us to accommodate!

Basava Premanand

Basava Premanand, an eminent skeptic and a leader of the rationalist movement in India passed away. He was India's biggest paranormal claims buster.

He hit the news when he took on the claims of paranormal powers of Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi.

Banana in the ear

Dialogue between Bert and Ernie

Bert: "Hey, you've got a banana in your ear!"
Ernie: "What?"

Bert: "I said, YOU'VE GOT A BANANA IN YOUR EAR!"
Ernie: "What? I can't hear you; I've got a banana in my ear!"

Bert: "Hey, you've got a banana in your ear!"
Ernie: "I know, I'm keeping the alligators away."

Bert: "But there aren't any alligators on Sesame Street!"
Ernie: "I know, it's working!"

This conversation (modified for his purposes) was also told by Father Anthony in one of his talks to show the nature of most of his conversations! :)

Strength

Strength of the intellect to understand the truth,
without the interference of desire!

Strength of will to live the truth,
without the interference of fear!

Strength of heart to speak it,
without the need to appear kind!

This is all I seek
Do you have any issues in blessing me with these?

Not so flattering remarks on parenting

I have some not so flattering thoughts on parenting, and in particular asian and even more particular, Indian style of parenting. The remarks are not intended to be brutal or unflattering. They, in my inquiry, seems to be the truth. But, they do appear to be unflattering.

Why do people have kids? In my opinion, most people have kids for one of the following reasons: (a) They want to enjoy the act of being with kids and get the pleasure of going through the motion of bringing them up (b) The society (friends, family, neighbors, neighbors aunts third cousin), at least in non-metropolitan areas, is usually not very kind to couples without kids, and hence out of pressure (c) In the heat of the moment, they have unprotected sex. There could be other reasons but these are the primary ones. There is of course nothing wrong with this and this is not the unflattering remarks that I referred to.

But then, there are responsibilities and duties that go with parenting. If one has a kid, then it is ones responsibility to ensure that the kid has a healthy body, sharp intellect and if not awakened, at least an open mind! Of course, most people attempt to do one or more of these. But, they want their kids to 'repay' them for this and that is trouble! Of course not in monetary terms - but in terms of honor, pride, expectations etc etc.

The kids are usually not given freedom to do what they want, to explore themselves and to express themselves. This is many times true even when the kids themselves are adults. 'Oh! I did so much for you, and now look what you are doing?', 'You let my honor and pride down' etc etc etc and much more emotional but meaningless statements like this. What they did for the kids was their duty. The kids of course are responsible for bodies of their parents when the parents are too old to fend for themselves, company during the lonely final days, and really truly owe them nothing else! Parents unfortunately don't seem to realize this. They are so much emotionally dependent on their kids and that really does not augur well for their relationship with their kids, especially when the parents are old. This will only lead to frustration and disappointment.

Gandhi jayanthi

On the occasion of Gandhi jayanthi, wishing everyone a life with total inner peace!

Yoga and reductionism

Many yoga folks often complain about reductionism in allopathy - a total reductionism of the body and hence its side effects. Reductionism is great as long as a corresponding constructionist argument can be given. But, this is quite hard. For this, all interactions between the components obtained by reducing the original need to be understood and then the bigger picture needs to be obtained. Not impossible, but quite darned hard! Thats where many allopathic medicines screw up in the form of side effects - from a lack of complete understanding of the interactions between the components! When this constructionist argument is not available, the understanding obtained by reductionism is useful, but mainly remains an intellectual exercise. But, unfortunately, many people, including many scientists do not want to treat it that way. Of course, their ego wouldnt let them do so. It wouldnt be very flattering for them.

Many folks in yoga, do something similar! I have seen quite a few people claiming practice of some poses changes ones mental character and makes one sattvic! The reason given is that these poses acts on nadis (nerve centres) and hence the change! The same problem similar to allopathy. It could be true that characteristics may be possibly totally reduced to the state of the nadis (in the sense that the reason why Russia and US decided not to go for real war during cold war rests on the state of few atoms in the brains of their presidents). But, its next to impossible to put up a constructionist argument for that and hence the claim is silly.

In my opinion, characteristics change primarily only due to effort of the individual. Asanas and other yogic techniques might assist, no doubt, and nadis may probably be involved in that! But, the primary effort is from the individual. To claim that it can be simply achieved by doing some poses is ridiculous!

Asana and meditation

Many people ask me, if I do meditation besides yoga. Mostly, my reaction is, 'eeks. syntax error.' :) A syntactically correct question would be, do you practice meditation besides asana? By meditation, people mean sitting silently and observing ones mind. The answer is, I do that too, but asana itself is a form of meditation.

One major purpose of asana is to train the mind into one pointed focus and to bring about awareness*! When one does a pose, there usually is a physical limit. But, there is also a mental limit, which is much before the physical limit. Say, ones body can handle Navasana for 12 breaths, the persons mind might start telling them to get down from the pose by the 6th or the 7th breath. Only by bringing ones awareness totally to the present moment and to ones body, can one hold it till the 12th breath. That is done by bringing the awareness first to the mind which is racing. This calms the mind down. This teaches us to observe the mind and that is meditation.

In addition, many times, the mind constantly keeps wandering to a million places during the practice despite our best efforts. Asana helps here too. During, an asana, like say Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana, the calf muscles are toned and get stretched. This feeling in the calf muscle, provided its not painful, assists in naturally bringing the attention of the mind to the moment and the body and also assists in bringing back awareness to the practice and thereby assisting in meditation.

In my little experience, these are the two primary links between asana practice and meditation!

Of course, awareness of the body can be cultivated by placing the body in any awkward position. That would be stupid as we might hurt ourselves. Thats why, in the ancient research laboratories of India (read the forest ashrams of yogis :D), the yogis identified the poses in which the body can be placed in order to cultivate awareness and at the same time improve bodily health. Result is dual adavntage - health and improved awareness!


* Caveat: Awareness and attention cannot be brought about by any technique, be it yoga or vipassana. Getting rid of lack of awareness cannot be done like how one pops a pill to get rid of headache. Techniques help. But, its the individuals intention, on a 24/7 basis, that does the job primarily.

Royalty

Fr. Anthony on what royalty is!

You only change what you understand. What you do not understand and are not aware of, you repress. You don't change. But when you understand it, it changes. If you're lucky and the gods are gracious or if you are gifted with divine grace you might suddenly understand who "I" is, and you will never be the same again, never. Nothing will ever be able to touch you again and no one will ever be able to hurt you again.

You will fear no one and you will fear nothing. Isn't that extraordinary? You'll live like a king, like a queen. This is what it means to live like royalty. Not rubbish like getting your picture in the newspapers or having a lot of money. That's a lot of rot. You fear no one because you're perfectly content to be nobody. You don't give a damn about success or failure. They mean nothing. Honour, disgrace, they mean nothing! If you make a fool of yourself, that means nothing either. Isn't that a wonderful state to be in! Some people arrive at this goal painstakingly, step by step, through months and weeks of self-awareness.

Beyond insanity

Mass whipping of women to cast away ‘evil spirit’

In a strange ritual, more than 2,000 women including school-going teen-aged girls, who were believed to be ‘possessed’ by evil spirits were given vicious whip lashes to “free them from these bad elements” at the annual festival of the ancient Sri Achappan Temple at Bavithram Vellalapatti, a remote village situated on the border of Tiruchi and Namakkal districts, on Monday, the Vijayadasami Day.

The men priests, dressed in traditional attire, cracked whips on the ‘possessed’ women, the salvation seekers, who sat in a half-kilometre-long queue for nearly five hours on a sprawling open space called ‘lashing ground’ near the temple.

Many of them were young school and college-going girls, who winced when they received the lashes and writhed in pain on the ground. The long and wieldy whips, which descended on them in full ferocity, had left them gasping for breath, causing burning marks of wounds on them and forcing them to sob and cry in searing pain. Many were given three to four flogs to drive away the ‘multiple spirits’ that possessed them.

Depths of Tamas!!!

Muelmar Magallanes

Saves over 30 from flood, goes down in rescue bid

Muelmar Magallanes braved rampaging floods to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl who was being swept away on a styrofoam box.

I salute this true hero!

Happiness

JK on Happiness - from 'Think on these things'

Whether we are young or old, whether we are inexperienced or full of years, we all want to be happy, don't we? As students we want to be happy in playing our games, in studying, in doing all the little things we like to do. As we grow older we seek happiness in possessions, in money, in having a nice house, a sympathetic wife or husband, a good job. When these things no longer satisfy us, we move on to something else. We say, "I must be detached and then I shall be happy". So we begin to practise detachment. We leave our family, give up our property and retire from the world. Or we join some religious society, thinking that we shall be happy by getting together and talking about brotherhood, by following a leader, a guru, a Master, an ideal, by believing in what is essentially a selfdeception, an illusion, a superstition.

Do you understand what I am talking about?

When you comb your hair, when you put on clean clothes and make yourself look nice, that is all part of your desire to be happy, is it not? When you pass your examinations and add a few letters of the alphabet after your name, when you get a job, acquire a house and other property, when you marry and have children, when you join some religious society whose leaders claim they have messages from unseen Masters - behind it all there is this extraordinary urge, this compulsion to find happiness.

But, you see, happiness does not come so easily, because happiness is in none of these things. You may have pleasure, you may find a new satisfaction, but sooner or later it becomes wearisome. Because there is no lasting happiness in the things we know. The kiss is followed by the tear, laughter by misery and desolation. Everything withers, decays. So, while you are young you must begin to find out what is this strange thing called happiness. That is an essential part of education.

Happiness does not come when you are striving for it - and that is the greatest secret, though it is very easily said. I can put it in a few simple words; but, by merely listening to me and repeating what you have heard, you are not going to be happy. Happiness is strange; it comes when you are not seeking it. When you are not making an effort to be happy, then unexpectedly, mysteriously happiness is there, born of purity, of a loveliness of being. But that requires a great deal of understanding - not joining an organization or trying to become somebody. Truth is not something to be achieved. Truth comes into being when your mind and heart are purged of all sense of striving and you are no longer trying to become somebody; it is there when the mind is very quiet, listening timelessly to everything that is happening. You may listen to these words but, for happiness to be, you have to find out how to free the mind of all fear.

As long as you are afraid of anyone or anything, there can be no happiness. There can be no happiness as long as you are afraid of your parents, your teachers, afraid of not passing examinations, afraid of not making progress, of not getting nearer to the Master, nearer to truth, or of not being approved of patted on the back. But if you are really not afraid of anything, then you will find - when you wake up of a morning, or when you are walking alone - that suddenly a strange thing happens: uninvited, unsolicited, unlooked for, that which may be called love, truth, happiness, is suddenly there.

Movement & Silence

Movement is celebration. It sure is. But, only if it is voluntary and is done just for the sake of it. Otherwise, when movement happens compulsorily, because one is addicted to it, because one cannot be still and for various other reasons, the movement is like the movement of the mosquito. It is mechanical, has no joy in it and is dead.

Most people around me and in general in India seem to have forgotten this. The art of silence seems to have been killed and buried deep beneath the Indian ocean. There is constant buzzing around and biting each other everywhere! Silence seems to be the most precious commodity out here!

India's 'green and clean' village

India's green and clean village

Every piece of litter and almost every leaf that has fallen from a tree is immediately discarded. Plastic is completely banned and all waste disposal is environmentally friendly. Rubbish is thrown into a pit dug in a forest near the village where it is left to turn into compost. The villagers here say that lessons in hygiene start in school so that children can be taught from an early age how to keep their surroundings clean and green.
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Mawlynnong's success is entirely driven by local initiative. It has been so successful that the state government has been prompted to promote eco-tourism in the area but the locals are resisting this.

Trace myself

If only I could throw away the urge to trace myself everywhere, except in my heart, do I even stand a chance of really seeing reality!

Adapted from this quote

If only I could throw away the urge to trace my patterns in your heart, I could really see you. - David Brandon (Zen in the Art of Helping)

Attachment

I am attached to that which I refuse to exchange for peace!

Divine will

உற்றோமே ஆவோம் உனக்கேநாம் ஆட்செய்வோம்,
மற்றைநம் காமங்கள் மாற்றேலோர் எம்பாவாய்!

May I serve only your divine will,
May you eliminate all my other desires!


Extraordinarily beautiful lines from Thiruppavai!

Tremendous freedom

Observations on tremendous freedom:

• Is mutually dependent upon total trust!
  
• Gives rise to tremendous responsibility!
• Is something that if you taste once, no matter how hard you try, you cannot stay away from it!
• Will make you have the seriousness of child at play in everything you do!
• Takes great courage to make the leap to obtain it!
  

Tremendous freedom is when you dissolve totally. Its when you realize that everything operates as per divine will and you have no responsibility for 'getting things done'. You are ok with anything though you do your best. Your happiness and sense of well being is sealed and is always at the max state as long as you breathe. In other words, this happiness and peace is not caused!