Experience the fullness in emptiness

Most of us place great value on being occupied, finding meaning and attaining fulfilment in our everyday existence. We believe that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop and we are very concerned about engaging ourselves in something productive at every moment. There is widespread belief that keeping busy and achieving success in life would magically solve all our problems. Interestingly, statistics seem to point in the opposite direction. A study published in the University of Cincinnati Law Review suggests that CEOs are at twice the risk of developing depression as compared to the general population. Another comprehensive review of literature published in the Journal of Affective Disorders elucidates that people living in developed and wealthy countries have a greater risk of suffering from mood disorders than those living in developing nations.

The famous case of fireman Robert O’Donnell who rescued a little girl from an inaccessible underground shaft in Texas, sums it up. The rescue operation became one of the top-rated events in the history of world television. There were several interviews, a valedictory parade, invitations for reality shows, a letter from the President, a meeting with the Vice-President and a movie to acknowledge the brave efforts of the firefighter. No wonder, Robert got addicted to fame and when the cameras moved away, his world collapsed. He found it hard to get back to normal life; he became severely depressed and finally committed suicide. It is time we acknowledge that the existing paradigm of becoming more and more productive and chasing success and fame is making us lonely, fearful and miserable. We need to make a fundamental change in our approach to life.
The ancient Chinese text Tao Te Ching teaches us the value of emptiness – when we look at a pot, we usually pay attention to its shape, colour and design. But there is something more important in the pot that our eyes cannot see, and our hands cannot feel – the emptiness inside the pot. It is this emptiness that makes the pot useful and gives it deeper meaning; else it is nothing more than a mass of clay. Modern science has discovered that our universe consists of not just the observable galaxies, stars and planets but also a huge empty space which is bigger than everything else put together. It is postulated that this empty space possesses a mysterious energy which causes our universe to continue expanding at an accelerated pace. Have we gone wrong in not paying attention to the emptiness in the cosmos and within us?

Buddhism talks about shunyata – a meditative state characterised by emptiness wherein the person is emancipated realising that there is no independently existing form, sensation, impulse, emotion or consciousness. There is neither pain nor pleasure, attainment nor non-attainment, existence nor non-existence. Therefore, the path to wholeness can be easily found in emptiness.

If you wish to discover yourself and be happy, nurture this emptiness and let it guide you. One way to do this is by practising mindfulness meditation. When you meditate, your thoughts slow down and there are moments where one thought passes, but the next thought does not appear, and you experience flashes of the ‘no mind’ state. Going further, you drop all thoughts, emotions and notions and attain the state of pure consciousness and fullness.

Thank you so much for going through my objects.

Let us reconnect to precious water

Water is life. Our bodies are made mostly of water and our survival depends on it. All life forms on planet earth are nurtured by water. Hence, ancient civilisations revered water, acknowledging its role as the driving force of nature. Scriptures of the two oldest religions of the world – Zoroastrianism and Hinduism – venerate water as a deity. While the Zend Avesta reveres Aredvi, the river goddess who nourishes people and lands and grants fertility, healing and wisdom, the Puranas worship Ganga, the river goddess who feeds, purifies and liberates humankind.

With time, the relationship between human beings and water seems to have undergone many changes. The idolisation turned into utilitarianism followed by consumerism and finally has given way to exploitation. Over the last 100 years or so, we have been exhausting water reserves faster than they can be replenished. A recent report by Niti Ayog claims that around 21 Indian cities will run out of groundwater and face severe water scarcity by 2020. When we all know how essential water is for survival of many life forms including ours, it is surprising that most of us are either silent spectators or willing participants in the massive wastage and contamination of this precious natural resource.

What could explain such a thoughtless and negligent attitude? Perhaps, the answers can be found in the prevailing psychological makeup in many of us, characterised by alienation, narcissism and greed. Nowadays, many people feel a deep disconnect with themselves, others and their environment. They feel alone, empty and vulnerable and in order to overcome their negative emotions they crave for intense pleasure. This gives rise to compulsive consumerism which makes them believe that once they satiate desires, they can be happy, indiscriminately consuming or wasting whatever they want. The yearning for instant gratification without any concern for the future all they want is to satisfy their greed without looking to its impact. Compulsive consumerism affects their relationship with water as well, and they have no qualms in mindlessly wasting, exploiting and contaminating water.

Despite this compulsive consumerism, most of them continue to feel hollow, meaningless and unhappy. They are ignorant of the fact that happiness can be found not in consuming recklessly but in giving back to nature. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental and Ecological Engineering found that those who care for the environment and who actively participate in conserving and restoring natural resources including water, experience a deep sense of inner peace and happiness. The need of the hour is to rise above greed, cultivate love for other forms of life, display environment-friendly behaviour, feel a connection with water and allow its mystical energy to fill us with joy.

Let us give water its due. Recall any moment when you were feeling hot and thirsty and your throat was parched. Try to recollect how blissful it felt as you finally got to drink some water. Imagine how it would have been if there was no water. Let us do everything possible to make sure that water continues to exist and nourish life on earth.

Find your self through quiet observation

It's began to shower gently and somehow i felt the heavens, along with God, were blessing this earth. More than pleasure, it is the happiness of innocence which is uplifting. The purity of innocence has its own freedom. In that freedom, there is no burden of the experience but the divine song of life. Are we listening to this song or are we lost in the demands of ego? Can the effort to listen to this divine song be our prayer? Prayer, not demanding, but to cultivate the ability to receive the blessings of existence.

Who one is, is an important question. The great saint, Ramana Maharshi, used to always ask, “Who am I?” To anyone coming to him, he used to use this question, “Who am I?” please inquire.

What we think we are, is not what we are. There are many aspects of our self. There is this body, which is the acting self, there is an emotional self, a thinking self, a functional self and also a fundamental self. Therefore, one has to observe one’s self. When one has the discipline to observe then an observing self emerges. This observing self, observes how we work, how we talk to others, how we talk to ourselves and how we feel. Are we harsh to ourselves and to others in feeling and dealing? There are all aspects of us to be under scrutiny without judgment but as a pure observation.

When the observing self is crystallised, then we observe anger and do not get carried away by anger, observe jealousy and not get carried away by jealousy. When one observes, then there is a non-verbal understanding.

You start seeing the anatomy of anger. The hot thought is anger. As you observe you will find, that the hot thought, is a trigger from a mechanical centre. As you observe you realise that anger is not only thought, it is mechanical and it carries some sadness of the past. That sadness is a result of not learning to be happy in the moment. One is not being happy because one is caught in the concept of having a ‘reason to be happy’ and not learnt to be ‘causelessly happy’.

In daily activities of your life, be it work or home or any relationship, ‘impersonally observe’ – then you will learn not to identify with what you observe. It is then that you get an insight and will observe your inner talking and the wrong inner tastes you have built. You will see how thought is addicted to ‘self-liking’ and thus you will see the anatomy of your psychology and how your psychic life creates inner darkness.

When you observe your children, their body language will convey something which needs your care and attention. If you are lost in your ‘inner identifications’ of your dreams and demands, then you will not observe your children and you may not give the required help. Increase the sharpness of your observation and this will help you in family and work. Don’t negate this as philosophical but see it as new light to dispel the inner darkness created by your psychology.

Everybody is on the wrong train

On a coast-bound train, Mieczyslaw was slumped in his seat, and every few moments he sighed and cried, “Ah my! Ah my!” Forbes, sitting nearby, heard him cry but did not butt in, thinking the fellow was troubled by some great personal tragedy.

The next day it was the same cry of, “Ah my! Ah my!” And again the same, the day after.

Finally, Forbes leaned over and whispered, “Anything seriously wrong?”

“Ah my, yes!” said the Polack. “For three days now I have been on the wrong train!”

This is exactly the situation of humanity: everybody, almost everybody, is on the wrong train; hence there is so much misery. Misery simply indicates that you are not where you are supposed to be; that you are not moving towards your own destiny; that you are not flowering into your own potential; that you have been diverted, distracted by others.

Every adult distracts the child from his essential being. Nobody respects the individual. They have already decided what is right and what is wrong, and for all.
Each individual is a unique phenomenon. Hence no law, no morality can be applicable to all. Of course, we have to agree on a few minimums just to exist together, but those minimums have to be the nonessentials.

About the essentials, there should be no compromise at all, with no one, not even with God, because you don’t know anything about God. The priest goes on speaking on behalf of a God which nobody knows. It is the priest, who pretends that his voice is God’s voice.

Religion means one is trying to transcend the mundane; otherwise, religion loses all its meaning. … And this is not only the case with Hindus: this is the case with Buddhists, Jainas, Christians, Jews, with almost all organised religions. They have all gone off-track. I mean they have become entangled with the nonessential.

There cannot be myriad rules about the essential; it is about the very nonessential: while you are walking, how much you should see of the road? – only four feet, not more than that, not even four feet six inches. If you go beyond the limit of four feet, you fall from grace. Now what does it have to do with religion? You have to have only a certain number of clothing, not more, and you have to be very strict about it. You have to beg in a certain way, from certain people, not otherwise. You have to eat only at a certain time; if you are feeling hungry again you cannot eat, you have to remain hungry.

These rules have been propagated in the name of religion, and once something takes the colour of religion, it starts looking important to people.

Character has been very much emphasised; in fact, character is a peripheral phenomenon. The real thing is not character but consciousness, but consciousness happens inside and is not available for others to observe; others can only observe your character. And it is always the others who are deciding for you, hence they decide something that they can observe: they decide about your behaviour. And of course man is capable of conducting himself in a certain way; he can force himself to do all kinds of contortions, but that does not change his consciousness at all.

Everybody is on the wrong train

Each individual is a unique phenomenon. Hence no law, no morality can be applicable to all. Of course, we have to agree on a few minimums just to exist together, but those minimums have to be the nonessentials.

About the essentials, there should be no compromise at all, with no one, not even with God, because you don’t know anything about God. The priest goes on speaking on behalf of a God which nobody knows. It is the priest, who pretends that his voice is God’s voice.

Religion means one is trying to transcend the mundane; otherwise, religion loses all its meaning. … And this is not only the case with Hindus: this is the case with Buddhists, Jainas, Christians, Jews, with almost all organised religions. They have all gone off-track. I mean they have become entangled with the nonessential.

There cannot be myriad rules about the essential; it is about the very nonessential: while you are walking, how much you should see of the road? – only four feet, not more than that, not even four feet six inches. If you go beyond the limit of four feet, you fall from grace. Now what does it have to do with religion? You have to have only a certain number of clothing, not more, and you have to be very strict about it. You have to beg in a certain way, from certain people, not otherwise. You have to eat only at a certain time; if you are feeling hungry again you cannot eat, you have to remain hungry.

These rules have been propagated in the name of religion, and once something takes the colour of religion, it starts looking important to people.

Character has been very much emphasised; in fact, character is a peripheral phenomenon. The real thing is not character but consciousness, but consciousness happens inside and is not available for others to observe; others can only observe your character. And it is always the others who are deciding for you, hence they decide something that they can observe: they decide about your behaviour. And of course man is capable of conducting himself in a certain way; he can force himself to do all kinds of contortions, but that does not change his consciousness at all.

Forgiveness paves the way to stillness

When faced with painful events caused by others, we have a choice. Most give in to anger, hatred and revenge, and it causes further suffering. If we are to maintain a calm mind, we need to cultivate forgiveness. Forgiveness involves forgetting what the person has done to us so we can move on with our life with a clear mind and heart.

When we do not forgive someone, thoughts of anger, bitterness, and revenge rankle in our own minds and hearts, and we are the ones who suffer.

When we are filled with anger and hatred, we cannot concentrate at work. Our productivity and efficiency may drop because we are unable to keep our mind on our work. Instead of paying attention to our job, we are thinking about who has hurt us, how they have hurt us, why they have hurt us, and how we can hurt them back.

Next dedication...This cycle of angry thoughts festers in our mind, and we cannot focus on our work. Thus, we may make mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes can cost others their lives. We know that drivers, pilots, train conductors, or bus drivers can be in such a rage that they cause an accident in which others are hurt or killed. A doctor or pharmacist whose mind is not on their work can cause harm to patients.

To avoid disastrous consequences, it is much better to forgive. Medical researchers are finding another benefit to forgiveness. It has a positive effect on our brain. There is increasing scientific evidence of how anger causes stress-related ailments. Brain scans and medical tests show that exposure to the body’s own cortisol and stress hormones can cause a build-up in the brain’s blood vessels and nervous system that may cause a stroke, damage to parts of the brain.

If we know that anger can cause irreparable damage to our brain, then we may want to consider learning the art of forgiveness. Additionally, if we hurt others mentally or emotionally, they may react, causing a negative atmosphere. Before we know it, we have a toxic, poisonous environment in our homes, offices, in communities and the world. We can put a stop to the pollutants of hatred and anger with the balm of forgiveness.

If we do not react to other people’s negativity and instead forgive them, they have no one against whom to react. It puts a stop to the chain reaction. If we remain loving to others, how long will they be negative to us? They will ultimately give up.

Love and forgiveness inspire others to love and to make the world peaceful. Because forgiveness against those who hurt us is the greatest example of godly love in this world. If each of us were forgiving, it would not be long before the world would become more loving and peaceful. If we do so, we will find that our minds are calmer and we are able to still our minds more easily when we sit to meditate, which will bring forth faster results in our spiritual development.

When it comes to meditation, success depends on how easily we can still the mind to focus within. Anger and hatred, are impediments to stilling the mind. The more activity going on in our mind, the longer it takes to become concentrated in our meditations.

Namaste.