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!

Story from de Mello

A villager accosts a sanyasi who has come to his village that day and says

'Ohh, wow! I can hardly believe my eyes'

'Why?', asked the sanyasi

'Last night, the lord came in my dreams and guided me to this tree and said if I come here today, Ill meet you and then my lifes problems would be solved'

'Ohh really', said the sanyasi. 'What else did he say?'

'He said you have something which if I have, Ill be happy for ever. So, can I check your belongings to see what is it?', asked the villager rather circumspectly.

'Ohh, yeah. Go ahead', said the sanyasi.

The villager began to search his belongings and finally took out a stone from the only bag the sanyasi had. The stone was dirty with food particles stuck to it. The villager washed it and then, lo behold, he recognized it to be a diamond.

'Its a diamond', he exclaimed.

'Its a what', asked the sanyasi.

'A diamond. A precious stone. If I take it, all my problems are solved', said the villager.

'Its a stone. I am not sure if it will help you. But, you are free to take it if you want it and more so if you think that its this stone that the lord wanted you to take from me', said the sanyasi quite nonchalantly.

The villager was overjoyed. He took the stone and immediately left for his home. He started planning the things that he would do by using the diamond. He was having a flood of thoughts. Suddenly, something happened. He went to the nearest banyan tree and sat under it all day in a very pensive mood. He neither ate nor drank the whole day. At dusk, he went in search of the sanyasi again and found him near the village pond. The sanyasi looked at him and smiled as if he was expecting this fellow to come back.

The villager came near the sanyasi and gave the diamond back and said,

'I do not want this. I want the riches that you have that enabled you to give away this diamond so effortlessly!!!'

Responsibility

Some say enlightenment is purely an act of grace
while some opine it can be brought about by effort
and a few others say it merely is arbitrary genetic bias
But, why do I really care?

Can I look at all the violence around me,
and take responsibility?
Responsibility for eradicating the seed of violence in me,
the same seed
that causes all the violence in the world?
then, I consider,
my primary job is done!

Ego is the seed
Sleep-walking or ignorance is another seed
Can I awaken
and understand my ego
and rid myself of it?
Can I look at the world
and realize the consequences of my actions?
Can I live in this world with internal peace
and thereby contribute to external peace?
Then, the job is done!

Grace, effort, genetic bias
they do not matter
responsibility on the other hand
totally matters!

Externalizing trouble

From toxic waste to toxic assets, the same people always get dumped on

An article by journalist George Monbiot

It was revolting, monstrous, inhumane – and scarcely different from what happens in Africa almost every day. The oil trading company Trafigura has just agreed to pay compensation to 31,000 people in Ivory Coast, after the Guardian and the BBC's Newsnight obtained emails sent by its traders. They reveal that Trafigura knew that the oil slops it sent there in 2006 were contaminated with toxic waste. But the Ivorian contractor it employed to pump out the hold of its tanker dumped them around inhabited areas in the capital city and the countryside. Tens of thousands of people fell ill and 15 died. While the settlement says that the slops could at worst have caused a range of short-term low-level flu-like symptoms, and anxiety, it is one of the world's worst cases of chemical exposure since the gas leak at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. But in all other respects the Trafigura case is unremarkable. It's just another instance of the rich world's global fly-tipping.

...

The Trafigura story is a metaphor for corporate capitalism. The effort of all enterprises is to keep the profits and dump the costs on someone else. Price risks are dumped on farmers, health and safety risks are dumped on subcontractors, insolvency risks are dumped on creditors, social and economic risks are dumped on the state, toxic waste is dumped on the poor, greenhouse gases are dumped on everyone.

Osho on his awakening

This certainly is one of the beautiful accounts of enlightenment that I have ever read - fairly free from impressive incomprehensibility!

My Awakening

Seeking is needed, but then comes a point when seeking has to be dropped. The boat is needed to cross the river but then comes a moment when you have to get out of the boat and forget all about it and leave it behind. Effort is needed, without effort nothing is possible. And also only with effort, nothing is possible.
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A new energy arose -- out of nowhere. It was not coming from any source. It was coming from nowhere and everywhere. It was in the trees and in the rocks and the sky and the sun and the air -- it was everywhere. And I was seeking so hard, and I was thinking it is very far away. And it was so near and so close.
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In your hopelessness is the only hope, and in your desirelessness is your only fulfillment, and in your tremendous helplessness suddenly the whole existence starts helping you.

It is waiting. When it sees that you are working on your own, it does not interfere. It waits. It can wait infinitely because there is no hurry for it. It is eternity. The moment you are not on your own, the moment you drop, the moment you disappear, the whole existence rushes towards you, enters you. And for the first time things start happening.
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Now I can understand what Patanjali means when he says that sleep and samadhi are similar. Only with one difference -- that in samadhi you are fully awake and asleep also. Asleep and awake together, the whole body relaxed, every cell of the body totally relaxed, all functioning relaxed, and yet a light of awareness burns within you... clear, smokeless. You remain alert and yet relaxed, loose but fully awake. The body is in the deepest sleep possible and your consciousness is at its peak. The peak of consciousness and the valley of the body meet.

I went to sleep. It was a very strange sleep. The body was asleep, I was awake. It was so strange -- as if one was torn apart into two directions, two dimensions; as if the polarity has become completely focused, as if I was both the polarities together... the positive and negative were meeting, sleep and awareness were meeting, death and life were meeting. That is the moment when you can say 'the creator and the creation meet.'

Is this really Gandhigiri?

IIT faculty turn to 'Gandhigiri' for pay hike

"We are, in all of our intellectual capabilities, ahead of most scientists in the country. And the HRD ministry does not realise that the faculty at these institututions does not just teach, but also does work on a variety of platforms, including research and other avenues," said Chakravarthy.

Chakravarthy reiterates that the fight is not about money, but about losing integrity by being at par with the faculty of local universities under the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"It was a real shock to us when our salaries were expected to be as low as that of faculty from local colleges, when we are no less than any professor teaching in the universities of US. There are many like me who have left leading companies to work as a faculty at IIT because of the value attached to the institute,"he says.

Chakravarthy added that the IITs also do a lot of research work for the government without charging money. The demand is not money here, but prestige, which the hit rock bottom with the HRD's directive.

This is quite appalling as many of these people are supposed to be the 'gurus' of some of the most intellectually capable fellows in the country. Going by this definition, any place where you do not use the sword to get your work done is gandhigiri. Bollocks!!

A necessary condition for non-violent action to stem from someone is the total absence of ego and a clear understanding of unity of all life despite the apparent variations in form. The founding principle of non-violence is that all violence is at its root caused by some manifestation of ego. And, ego needs ego to sustain itself. So, a violent response to it feeds the original ego and adds fuel to the violence. A non-violent response on the other hand stumps the source of violence, ego. The source ego now has no material to continue its existence and will have to dissolve with time. Now, here, IIT profs are openly strutting out their egos by declaring themselves to be superior and claim injustice because their salaries are equal to professors in say universities like Anna University. Quite appalling behavior. In ancient days, if a student continues with his/her egoic ways, the student will get thrown out. Its a sign of our times that many of our supposedly best gurus are full of that!


Read below a beautiful email sent by a professor from IIT Madras to his colleagues, on teachers day, on why this is not a genuine cause that they are fighting for!

Judging by the current scenario, we are getting overwhelmingly agitated and are setting ourselves up for a future in which we are likely to remain dispirited (instead of inspired), with the permanent feeling "I deserve more". This does not augur well for us and all those around us. Surely, we are capable of a much better (inner) response. Surely, there are lessons to be learnt, and as teachers and researchers, we need to learn them. Perhaps, for this, we can look up to ancient wisdom, to our "gurus", especially on the occasion of Teachers' Day.

The first lesson we can learn from them is that this problem is not unique to us. It is everybody's story. And as long as we remain stuck in a depressed "in the box" state of mind, we will continue to suffer and continue to blame others (a few babus in MHRD, in this case) for our inner state of mind. We need to somehow get out of the box, and it gets increasingly difficult to do so when we cling to the box ("I deserve more" in this case) and provoke others (consciously and unconsciously) to do this. We need to create a healthy environment for our sake and for the sake of all others.

The second lesson we can learn is that all suffering is caused by inner resistance to whatever is happening in the present moment. What is happening is the resultant force of many vectors in time and space -- far too many for us to fathom -- although we tend to localise and pinpoint the blame on a few individuals. Yes, we need to "set right things", to the best of our understanding, by taking appropriate action. But our options increase enormously when we are able to stay out of the box, when we stop resisting mechanically, when our hearts are at peace, when we genuinely focus on the well-being of the overall 'system'. Wisdom can dawn only when our hearts are at peace. There is a quiet state of Being inherent in life, which is independent of all our actions and reactions, that we seem to be missing.

The third lesson we can learn is that we need to TRUST the Universe - or God, if you will. That our merits, if any, cannot go unrewarded, but events are unlikely to unfold exactly as we want them to unfold. That there is something higher than us, the IIT administrators and MHRD, that "knows" what is "right". Abiding by that implicit trust, we move on and do our best, with our spirits held high. We operate in love and abundance, rather than fear and lack.

Finally, true fulfillment does not generally come by the things we seem to believe will make us happy. A few thousand rupees per month are not going to make the tremendous difference we think it will make. Nor will it provide as great an incentive as we imagine, to attract young faculty to our institutions. The boundaries will keep shifting, and, "in the box", we will always find ourselves wanting more, ever living in fear and lack. Out of the box, we can always find creative and ethically sound solutions to making more money, if that is our need. As for our 'dignity' and 'self-respect', do we really believe that these are qualities that we can demand from others?

May we discover the "guru" latent in all of us!

Body

Ṡiyate iti ṡarīram

That which decays is the body!

No, not the grizzly too!

Grizzly bear decline alarms conservationists in Canada

Photo from Guardians page about the news (linked above)

First it was the giant panda, then the polar bear, now it seems that the grizzly bear is the latest species to face impending disaster. A furious row has erupted in Canada with conservationists desperately lobbying the government to suspend the annual bear-hunting season following reports of a sudden drop in the numbers of wild bears spotted on salmon streams and key coastal areas where they would normally be feeding.

Awakening

Awakening is certainly the most beautiful event/thing/emotion/whatever in the world. Its when we realize that happiness is the default state of being. A smile comes on our face when we realize this. Its the most genuine, total and holistic smile possible.

To base our happiness on events / things / relationships is like lifting up a plastic sheet (that has very small holes in it) above our head during a torrential tropical downpour and being happy about finding the water that comes down drop by drop through the holes in the plastic sheet. All suffering is our reaction to our failure to fetch those drops trickling through those holes in the plastic sheet.

Awakening is realizing this silliness and catching ourselves repeatedly trying to do that. Enlightenment is the culmination of all this when we finally decide to let go of the plastic sheet above our head. Enlightenment could be an act of divine grace, but awakening is certainly not!

Enlightenment explained through a story

There was this old tramp in Chennai (the ones who take bath once in a few weeks and wear torn clothes). He wass sleeping right at the edge of this nice river Coovum that flows through the heart of Chennai. Its a perennial river but the only issue with that river is that its waters are black in color :). It has taken all the sewage that Chennai has produced in the last 100 years and is now a huge open drainage. It was a sweltering hot night in the month of May. This fellow was sweating as he was trying to sleep. To make matters worse, mosquitoes were playing havoc with his night

Then, suddenly, he heard the sound of screeching tires on a vehicular over bridge above. The driver of the vehicle comes out and shouts at this man

'Sir, can you come here plz?'

So, this beggar, in the hope of getting a few rupees, pulls himself up and walks up to the over bridge and says

'Yes sir'

The driver says

'Madam is in the car, and she wants you to get in the car. She does not want you to sleep next to the Coovum.'

This guy is stunned. He cannot believe it. In the past, people have beaten him up for touching their cars and now, someone is actually asking him to enter the car. In the past, he had heard his friends talk about such dreams but this is happening to him in reality. He could not believe it but he did not want to waste this opportunity. So he quickly enters the car. Its was dark there and he could not see who the madam in the backseat was. He was also slightly worried in the back of his mind if this was some trick to drug him and remove his kidneys! This had happened to his pal a few weeks ago. But, that was a van, a dog catching van to be specific. So, he is probably safe. He comforted himself. Then, someone switched on the light. He saw a most wonderful lady dressed in a super sweet saree in the back of the car. She said,

Do not sleep near the coovum. Its stinking here. Ill give you a better place to sleep.

She motioned the car to go. The driver started the car and they sat in silence. The lady was busy reading her book. They finally reached the ladies house and she asked the servants to take care of the guest and told them to get him accommodated comfortably in the guest room. She then left him with the servants and went into the main house. So this guy went with the servants and they motioned him into a nice little room. By this time, he is convinced they are no kidney thiefs as his friend got beaten up the moment he entered their van. Not here. He relaxed a bit.

The servants told him that the lady of the house wanted him to take a bath first. So, he went straight to the washroom and saw a shower. After fiddling with it for sometime, he figured how to use it and how to get the waters temperature to be perfect by mixing the hot and the cold streams. He took his first ever bath in a shower. It was also first bath in three weeks. He stood there in the shower for close to an hour enjoying the steady stream of warm water on his shoulders for the first time. The moment he came out of the shower, he saw the most classical south indian dinner laid out in front of him on the dining table.

The food was served on a plantain leaf. There was vada, payasam, tamaring rice, pappad, pickle besides other things. The famed 18 dishes were there. He couldnt believe that he was gonna eat them. The last time he ate a vada was after he fought with a fellow beggar in front of a dustbin outside a marriage hall. He couldnt believe his luck. He pinched himself to check if he was dreaming.

Then, he started eating. He felt odd to sit on a chair and eat and that too without house flies competing for his food. At first, his eating was slow and then the speed picked up. All the pent up hunger got released and he started gorging like hell. The more he ate, the more the servants of the house gave him food. He wanted to stock himself up for three days and so he gorged like hell and licked the plantain leaf clean!

When he was finished, for the first time in his life, he felt like how a python would feel after it swallows a whole deer. The servants quickly cleaned up the place, motioned him to his bed and left. He went to the bed and saw it covered by a mosquito net. He lied down. For the first time in his life, he was about to sleep on a soft bed and without bring bitten by mosquitoes all night. It was so comfortable that he almost couldnt sleep in this new place. After great difficulty in convincing himself that this was real, he slowly dozed off.

Knock knock.

A sudden noise on the door. He did not want to get up. Of course. He is ensconced in this dream place of his - no mosquitoes, soft bed, full stomach. Why would be want to get up?

Can there be anything better in this world?

He thinks aloud. He decided against getting up. The knocking intensified and that disturbed his peace. He had to get up now. So, he slowly dragged himself to the door and opened it and there was a big surprise for him. The same lady who brought him home was standing there.

'Is everything comfortable', she asked.

He said,'Yes. Thanks to your highness!'

He continued, 'But your highness has to excuse me now! I really want to lie on that bed as there is no better heaven!

So he goes to the bed and lies down there leaving this lady at the door. She got a bit incensed. He looks at her from the corner of his eye not knowing what she would do next. He waited with bated breath. After some hesitation, she slowly came in.

'But I want to talk with you for sometime', she said.

She continued, 'Why dont you move over a bit? Ill talk to you while I lie down next to you.'

Now, he didnt expect that for sure! He was stunned and speechless. His thinking faculty was frozen and so he decided to just obey her. He moved across a little bit.

'That place is not sufficient for me', she said.

So he moved a bit more and a bit more, to accommodate her.

And then suddenly, he had a sinking feeling in his stomach and his body felt like it was falling down.

SPLASH!!!!!




PS: Story from Anthony de Mello. Original story set in London. I changed the setting to Chennai.

Leadership and Self Deception

Leadership and Self Deception

A super Super SUPER Awesome book on how almost all of us fall into self conceived traps every now and then and how we can come out of it.

An absolute must read. Read this before you have another conflict, major or minor, with someone or before you attempt to resolve an existing conflict. Even better, read this before any further interactions with another human being! :D.

Thx to Prof Menon for alerting me about this book and the Arbinger institute.

The famous quote by an ancient Indian king, King Janaka, 'The scoundrel who has been ruining my life all along has been identified and will now be severely dealt with' assumes a new context!

Some zen stories

Some zen stories I enjoyed today

Concentration

Is that so?

It will pass

The moon cannot be stolen

Transient

Without fear

Working very hard

Unobstructed I

When the eye is unobstructed, the result is sight;
When the I is unobstructed, the result is yoga!

Wake up to life

This is a workshop conducted by late Father Anthony de Mello. A very nice and funny workshop. Check it out. Some links:

• Link to torrent
• Transcript of talk
  

Sleepless nights

They come in two ways
One is when you are with the other
and the other is
when you are with yourselves
without the other

Which one is better?
Both are illusions,
screams the master
But its hard,
I cry,
to see through
this illusion!

Happy birthday

பிறந்த நாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள்
தமிழில் கூறும் வாழ்த்துக்கள்
வளம் செழிக்க என் வாழ்த்துக்கள்
நம் மனங்கள் எந்நாளும் வளர என் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

சிறு - பெறு மாயை

சிறு மாயையை தகர்த்தெறிந்தேனென்ற ஆணவம்
பெறு மாயையில் மோதி தகர்ந்ததே!
பெறு மாயையை வியத்து இவனுக்கு வந்தது பக்தி
இது பக்தியல்ல வணிகம என்று அவன் வியந்தானே!

Samadrṣti

This is a word that commonly occurs in spirituality - it is generally translated as equipoise. One of the definitions given for yoga in The Gita is Samadrṣti. People usually translate it as accepting the good and the bad with equal balance. This could be right but we need to pay some attention.

I think, when we classify things as 'good' and 'bad', we are already getting caught in the problem! Labels are useful for practical purposes but problems crop up as labels almost instantaneously cross the boundary and become emotional labels as well. When we classify things emotionally as 'good' and 'bad', then there is no way we can be at equipoise with both of them. Because, by definition we desire the 'good' and abhor the 'bad'. So, in the case where 'good' and 'bad' are emotional labels, a more precise translation of Samadrṣti would be 'not really caring for both good and bad'.

Of course, when we use the labels purely for practical purposes, Samadrṣti can be translated without loss of meaning as maintaining equipoise with good and bad.

I'm an ass. You are an ass!

A small excerpt from a speech of Anthony de Mello

This reminds me of this fellow in London after the war. He’s sitting with a parcel wrapped in brown paper in his lap; it’s a big, heavy object. The bus conductor comes up to him and says, “What do you have on your lap there?” And the man says, “This is an unexploded bomb. We dug it out of the garden and I’m taking it to the police station.” The conductor says, “You don’t want to carry that on your lap. Put it under the seat.”

Psychology and spirituality (as we generally understand it) transfer the bomb from your lap to under your seat. They don’t really solve your problems. They exchange your problems for other problems. Has that ever struck you? You had a problem, now you exchange it for another one. It’s always going to be that way until we solve the problem called “you.”

PS: The title is another statement of Anthony de Mello. This, he claims, liberates him from having to forcefully appreciate others and forcefully expect appreciation from others!

End the game

Oh God
Thou art so big
and I am so puny
but still
you keep me out
Please end the game
and take me in!

Pain:Body :: Suffering:Consciousness

Pain indicates that the body is not in a good state and it will continue until body is in that state.

Similarly, suffering indicates consciousness is lowered and will continue until consciousness is in a lowered state.

Helium filled balloon

I am
but a helium filled balloon
tied with threads
to three stones on the ground

I am
but a helium filled balloon
who is deluded
that the stones are a part of it
and that it exists for the sake of the stones

I am
but a helium filled balloon
who is waiting to discover
that the stones can be let go
and that freedom can be tasted only then

I am
but a helium filled balloon
who will realize
that when the stones are let go off
it is natural & effortless
to raise up to the heavens!