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.