Gratitude

When I look at my life I am overawed by the contribution of so many people who must have all come together in certain fashion to make it possible for me to live the way I do. The clothes that  I wear must have been a work of many right from some one sowing a seed of cotton to someone transporting it somewhere to then people working to stitch and to then making it be in a shop. Indeed so  many people were a part of it and I wear it so unaware.. Similarly with food.- someone grows,looks after it puts his sweat  and toil to it, reaps and buyers buying, packaging, transporting and finally in supermarket to which I go in my car again a product that I use due to many people involved to get me my food so that I can live and I eat it so unaware.

Gratitude is not a refined, cultural behavior. Gratitude is the sense of being over awed and over whelmed by how life bring to you so much and you do not even pay attention to it. It is not what " you must" feel but it is a force that makes your heart want to revere this cosmos of making you be in a space time of this Universe where you have so many work for you invisibly so that you can do and think other things..

A thirsty given water may become over whelmed with kindness and that is gratitude

A hungry having not eaten food for days may become overwhelmed with kindness and that is gratitude

A girl given an education when she comes from a country that does not allow it may become overwhelmed and that is gratitude.. ...

A war torn family just given assurance  of safety for family may become over whelmed and in gratitude

The ones who may not have experienced such extremes must try to at least live in the awareness of it all. When one becomes aware of  how the invisible makes things happen for you one lives in a sense of becoming very receptive.

Unless you are not dazed by your own life you live in a "cultivated" gratitude- a learnt behavior. And when you realize you can only be stunned by sheer blessings you have around you, for you and to keep you the way you are.

War, Work and Worry Molecule

It is my summer break. And as it happens with others it happens with me too- losing track of time and day, going for dinners or inviting friends on weekdays.  

I love what I do. I love teaching, I love what I gain in the process- helping students out the best I can. I enjoy how I am evolving in my own self because everything is a two way game. The only strain is the countdown of going back to work and to get accustomed to a clock routine and lack free time to dwell and introspect and time to write.  A stress that most people on holiday go through I am sure.

Taking a right turn here to another idea- not a newspaper person however fb has enough information to let us know the happenings of the world. Read that there had been a terrorist attack in Pathankot Air base in India and many soldiers lost their lives. Stress of a soldier- can one even comprehend?.

A stress comparison? 

One could laugh if one was to even try to compare the pressures that a soldier goes through on the line of fire over anxieties that a person goes through when holidays end. Infact there is a real possibility that some people who do death defying jobs are less stressed than the ones who are too accustomed to comforts- it is all about that threshold.

What makes us restless or anxious?

Not the nature of job I am sure. It is the nature of one’s mind. It is the lack of alignment of our heart with what we do. A soldier who consciously chose that career would be brave enough to know that death can happen in his work. If not then he must live a dreadful life of worry most of the time. An educator who sees her work as a joyful inspiration to herself would certainly look forward to it. If not then she certainly cannot do that job well enough. This would apply to all professions.  

The “worry molecule” stays the same for anyone and everyone.  One can worry over a cake not baked properly or not worry about losing all money in a business. One may worry about painting the house wit that right colour that one wants or not worry about a cancer scare- it is always your call.

When one is aligned consciously with cosmos – in body, mind and spirit and when one knows oneself in the larger picture of things then one stops worrying. One acts with full heart and one does what one needs to do. Worry is a byproduct of lack of alignment of your mind with what you do.

It is all in the mind is a cliché but the only one ultimate truth. We hear it, we read it but we never ever dwell on it enough!

Ideas of behaviorism and modern superficialities of psychology

The newspapers, the magazines, the posts on fb, the webpages all only talk about Ideas of behaviorism and modern superficialities of psychology with following questions debated again and again.

How must we behave?

What are our relationships like and how should these be like?

Who are our friends and why?  

How do we interpret the world?

How do we sum up the world that we see?

What must be our ideologies?

What should be the social structure?

What is kindness? What is love?

Why is their anger?

Why is the social structure the way it is?

Why are all of us so different?

Why women subjugated more than men?

Why there is corruption and crime?

Why rich and poor?

And the political debates?

The amount of rant about  external social order and the debate that ensue on TV news channels are endless with no one answer, with no conclusions as such. On and on these go about and on and on channels run their business. The same applies to newspapers. Sides are taken and debated on endlessly with no outcome.

And  the same applies to us. Many of us may think that we are open minded but it does not take long to get into bandwagon of who we are when really pressed to take sides-! Be honest here. We all would only see our perspective when we are put in a position where we have to choose! The world is made up three categories- oppressors, the ones who are indirect oppressors(middle class us-  like us who benefit from rules and regulations of the world as we are more on haves side than haves not) and then victims! We are very much a part of one of above categories - be it the nation that we belong to or the culture that we are born in or the parents that we have etc We are a part of it and we thrive in it or be a victim to it. Our endless debates do not change anything,

Is there any answer to the conundrum of social structure and above questions?

Yes.

The way the world is or the minds that we have become? There is no way to see the world and people and social structure except observing oneself minutely. It must start with observing and then go on to changing oneself. 

What exactly does changing oneself mean?

Let the mind stop intellectualizing.  Close your eyes and focus inwards to beyond the realms of mind to a SELF that is beyond mind.  When one goes beyond this mind – the above questions lose their meaning. It feels like all world situations, all our situations to be waves arising and subsiding into the calm – forever present ocean. And then one goes beyond cause and effect and beyond time and space and then one just knows that there is nothing other than this SELF.

And then one changes one’s perspective of outer world, and if each one of us is able to do that – this world will be a different place. This world is nothing but ideas of  collective minds and their ideologies.

When the inner world of people who make the world changes – the outer world changes as well.
When collective minds become mindful - imagine the impact on the outer world

I have found through my own mindful practice that the world - the outer world will go on as it is, it is like  a movie on the screen that you watch with all goods and bads and highs and lows happening all the time, everything connected in such a subtle way that we cannot comprehend unless we stop  and  just watch! And just like in the movie when you go through your anxious times or happy times - we go through same here - the difference is that in a movie you know that it is a movie but here you think that this is real unless death strikes.

To a question that should nothing be done to change the world- yes, we must do everything that we can to bring about changes needed for this human species to survive but when done mindfully, when we know ourselves our work will be relentless without any expectation of reward or desire to reach a state- that relentless work with a vision is the key and we need all minds to be a part of it or atleast 51% to be part of it for this world to be the way we want it to be.

If I make any sense.

There is no one answer to anything!

Everything that happens in the world is visible by the effect it creates. And wherever there is an effect there has to be a cause.   

The world as it is – the effect

At the level of the world, there is chaos and order, there are united and divided minds, there are wars,  there is rescue, torture,  altruism,  famines, abundant food,  hate and love all entwined together. Sometimes hate leads to love of some sort, famine leads to a growth at another level, torture creates altruism, war leads to peace and peace back to war…opposite situations work in very magical way but not always- there is no one common pattern that stands one out from other.

At the level of families- it is similar, happy times, sad times, death, birth, fall out with family and then back together, shame, glory etc.  Poverty may make children of that family work harder, comfort may bring misery…. opposites work in a very magical way. At the level of a single human being we proceed as waves of thoughts arising, subsiding, arising, subsiding and this continues throughout our life; our downfalls make us want to work more, our good times make us go slack…. opposite situations work in very magical way.  However not always, sometimes it leads to a great downfall of a family, person of a country!

What comes out clearly in all this is very similar to Newtonian Physics of effect seen clearly and cause inherent in the effect. Newtonian Physics can very well explain the cause of many events but then it fails at quantum level. "Jack died when he jumped from a 5 story building not because of flow of gravity but because he was stopped by gravity" is well explained cause, however not all causes are that straightforward. The subtle Universe of Quantum Physics, Gravity waves, Interpretation of Universe is not understood- who knows why we see the effects of what we see?

The subtle cause?

Whether is is Physics at subtle level or situations of world , the cause is never very clear.   Usually people think of the immediate cause of a world disaster but the cause behind the cause behind the cause behind the cause- the very first cause that may go centuries back – the way the mind is can never be pinpointed at clearly. 

Not only at the macro cosmic level even at the level of a person, the way a person is –her personality and the effects of her personality are visible, the situations she creates are visible but the cause of why someone is the way she is cannot be comprehended as a result of events created by him or her. The cause could be so deep and so "evented" at a far back time may be back to womb, to mother and may be to another life ( if we think that there is one) that it is impossible to lay finger on it.

Cause and Effect- Effect is gross and visible, Cause is subtle and not visible

Then is there no answer to why we are the way we are- the cause of the world’s socio economic structure, world hunger etc ? There are many answers some completely contradictory and some complementary, but there is no one answer. Is it because of the fact that the "subtleness" of cause is the result of how we interpret anything?  All analyses are our interpretations and in any interpretation the thinker or the observer becomes important. Whereas the effects are visible – so gross that anyone can become aware of these. It needs only the event to happen.

The only thing that we can do it to become seer, an observer and not seen.  If we watch ourselves detached we may be able to see our own self so clearly – the swing that we ourselves are in our own way of thinking from one end to another of varying amplitude that we may  realize that the cause of anything is really impossible to gauge. In that realization lies our wisdom!

I love this interpretation of Universe: This universe, according to the theory of the philosophers, proceeds in the form of waves; it rises, and again it subsides, melts away, as it were; then again it proceeds out in all this variety; then again it slowly returns. So it goes on like a pulsation.

Nasadiya Sukta

I read this quote by Rupert Sheldrake and went through a whirl wind of thoughts about how true it was.

The quote: Modern science is based on the principle: ‘Give us one free miracle, and we’ll explain the rest.’ The one free miracle is the appearance of all the mass and energy in the universe and all the laws that govern it in a single instant from nothing – Rupert Sheldrake

Whenever scientists are asked questions about how did matter and energy come in place, they shrug their shoulder and say that they do not know yet. But then any attempts to further ask them to explore something beyond this time and space is met with a look of “ I do not want to know neither agree with your wishy washy philosophy”. A glazed look and a disinterest to even try to wonder about anything that is not deterministic. And yet the world of Science has been baffled by Quantum Physics and  all that it points at.  According to Physics It is said that this Universe came into existence 14 billion years - a cosmic explosion releasing an immense amount of heat and pressure. Before the birth of Universe- when everything was a singular and of infinite density then quantum laws that explain the behaviour of subatomic particles have been applied to explain the behaviour of Universe and here scientists look at string theory, quantum foam or Universe being in a bubble etc..

I think that Vedanta has all the answers...as Vedanta says that time, space are all inherent in the world of duality. This world of duality is the world of cause and effect. It is the mind in motion that creates a whirlpool of thoughts creating the Universe we live in. Vedanta makes it really easy when it says that this Universe is our mode of thinking. It is causeless creation. Of course it is governed by its laws of being cyclic. You are that Universe- and in saying that it makes it clear all aspects of Observer and observed, relativity, quantum factors and puts all responsibility of hologramical Universe squarely on you.

Somehow my mind connected me to this hymn from Rig Veda

From Wikipedia

The Nasadiya Sukta (after the incipit ná ásat "not the non-existent"), also known as the Hymn of Creation, is the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda (10:129). It is concerned with cosmology and the origin of the universe.^[4]

नासदासीन्नो सदासीत्तदानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमा परो यत् ।
किमावरीवः कुह कस्य शर्मन्नम्भः किमासीद्गहनं गभीरम् ॥ १॥

Then even nothingness was not, nor existence,
There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it.
What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?

न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि न रात्र्या अह्न आसीत्प्रकेतः ।
आनीदवातं स्वधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन्न परः किञ्चनास ॥२॥

Then there was neither death nor immortality
nor was there then the torch of night and day.
The One breathed windlessly and self-sustaining.
There was that One then, and there was no other.

तम आसीत्तमसा गूहळमग्रे प्रकेतं सलिलं सर्वाऽइदम् ।
तुच्छ्येनाभ्वपिहितं यदासीत्तपसस्तन्महिनाजायतैकम् ॥३॥

At first there was only darkness wrapped in darkness.
All this was only unillumined water.
That One which came to be, enclosed in nothing,
arose at last, born of the power of heat.

कामस्तदग्रे समवर्तताधि मनसो रेतः प्रथमं यदासीत् ।
सतो बन्धुमसति निरविन्दन्हृदि प्रतीष्या कवयो मनीषा ॥४॥

In the beginning desire descended on it -
that was the primal seed, born of the mind.
The sages who have searched their hearts with wisdom
know that which is kin to that which is not.

तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः स्विदासीदुपरि स्विदासीत् ।
रेतोधा आसन्महिमान आसन्त्स्वधा अवस्तात्प्रयतिः परस्तात् ॥५॥

And they have stretched their cord across the void,
and know what was above, and what below.
Seminal powers made fertile mighty forces.
Below was strength, and over it was impulse.

को अद्धा वेद क इह प्र वोचत्कुत आजाता कुत इयं विसृष्टिः ।
अर्वाग्देवा अस्य विसर्जनेनाथा को वेद यत आबभूव ॥६॥

But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
the gods themselves are later than creation,
so who knows truly whence it has arisen?

इयं विसृष्टिर्यत आबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न ।
यो अस्याध्यक्षः परमे व्योमन्त्सो अङ्ग वेद यदि वा न वेद ॥७॥

Whence all creation had its origin,
he, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
he, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
he knows - or maybe even he does not know.

 What was there before this Mind? Only a singular Brahman!

The Power of your mind

Mind the universal phenomenon rejected by scientists as a metaphor of brain and nothing more, argued by spiritualists as more than grey matter is one of the most complex phenomenon to study.

In English language we use phrases like don’t mind, or Mind that or my mind, etc…suggesting that mind is one of the most common word used to express our state of thinking. All processes in meditation are the ways to make mind singular on one thought or further to go towards a no mind state. ‘Control the mind’ is the mantra because this mind can play havoc with our living, its want to control for power and recognition has created men who have killed and plundered and victimized masses for their need of power and recognition and wealth.  Poems have been written about why this mind is a monkey and its nonstop chatter is the greatest problem for ones who want to control it. Sometimes all this focus to control our mind seems to send an impression that mind is an evil part of humanity

And yet ….   

…how many of us truly know about the powers of this mind? May be very few. Most of us are not capable of thinking a concept never thought before- as Einstein or Tesla did or as Rishis of ancient India did.  To be an original thinker would mean that one has the ability to think of an original idea – like for example Mark Zuckerberg did when he imagined a world connected by computers. Even beyond what we can create in the world of 3D space and time by applying ourselves, the powers of mind at mystical level can be measured by the fact that the mind has the ability to go through space time with thoughts that may have a speed that we do not know about. If you have experienced in you  a mind at metaphysical level that can connect through telepathy and transfer thoughts from one person to another or a mind that through its intuitive powers can know what lies ahead then you would how powerful this mind is.  The transfer of thought from one person to other must mean that my mind cannot be isolated from other minds – that there must be a universal mesh though which all minds are connected.  There are dimensions of the space beyond all its physicality that we know not about nor have technology to know and yet our mind through its focus can unfold those secrets for us. Therefore those who appreciate mind and its power and then when able to control can use it more efficiently must be understood.

How to make this mind powerful is the key. There is the peculiarity of mind that when anything interests it, it gets absorbed in the thing of interest and neglects every other thing.  Then imagine a mind that becomes interested it its own self about how it functions and how it acts. That mind that is capable of analyzing its own self can becomes a very powerful mind. But that in itself is the greatest challenge. Scientists can analyze a chair or a cup of tea and heat energy in it or electrical circuits – but to be able to analyze one’s own mind and the power it has and what it can do is not easy, as the mind itself is constantly changing, its different every moment and to study it is no joke. But that is the only way to make your mind focused – when you know it you can control it.  

So the question that how does one study a mind that is constantly changing?

Watch it. Not easy, not simple thing to do but when one continuously practices watching one’s mind one realizes how  one’s mind thinks. And that is step 1. Step 2 is to be able to see yourself distinct from the mind. Step 3 is to be able to switch yourself between state of wanting to use mind when in external world and then becoming mindless in meditation- a constant practice definitely increases your power to be able to think beyond your ordinary self.

The ones who can appreciate the power of mind and have had some experience with it would know that   if we knew how to handle our mind and tap is power we would be able to unleash power beyond any measures source of energy.

My thought Meter- do you have one?~ a fiction

I found this thought  meter that could measure my thoughts and change colour depending on the emotions I felt. I just had to clip it to the inside of my ear just like a thermometer.

I could see the coordinates of my thoughts  that told me my state of well being. The coordinates kept changing with my emotions and thoughts. The changed numbers constantly told me how erratic my mind was - it was thinking of million thoughts and not processing the ones that could make it more alert to other things beyond this world.

A few hours back this  meter changed its color to grey and the numbers - those numbers were the subset of fear - fear of unknown and those numbers  were being emitted by me all the time. My boss just called me and told me off - and I saw the connection of the subset of my numbers with my life situation.

I watched my own meter and was surprised that my meter stayed grey mostly - a state of fear, it changed to blue when I felt love and yellow when I felt spiritual, red when I was in a light mood and green when I felt altruistic. I decided to change how I think.

I deliberately started thinking higher thoughts - thoughts of love, thoughts of well being for all- oh what do I see here that the numbers start to change again, The colour of meter changed. On radio with my higher thoughts I heard my most favorite song when I changed my thought. WOW.  How I think brings me those experiences- I had read that but now I have a meter that tests my theory. I also knew that all manifestations were not instantaneous!

But then I found that it was very easy for me to become unaware and the mind went back to fearful scared coordinates- and that created events in my life- sometimes instantly sometimes later.

That thought meter changed me. I started watching it all the time. I watched and watched  all my awake time. It was as if a part of me was watching my own meter and other part was doing the work or interacting with the world. I realized that when I was unaware I was mostly fear, scared, unsure- the deep down need to want love and assurance kept me running , blindly lashing out and stay masked.

I realized when I deliberately thought of higher thoughts - by chanting or just forcing myself to think differently even in the adversity of  situation I changed my own heart beat, my mind and my external situation

May you find your thought meter. May you see how you bring to your own self your own doing.