Here is my reflection after reading the article here.
I ask and explore three basic questions for living a full, meaningful, peaceful, joyful and happy life. They are What? Why? How? What kind of life I want to live? What is my purpose of life? Why is it important for me to live such a full life? How do I attain such full and meaningful life? What are the obstacles that I create that overcrowd my life and cause inner struggles? How do I create rootedness in me so that I do not get uprooted by the struggles. I experience in my life? When I explore these questions I come to know the distinction between struggle and harmonious process. Inner struggles or intra conflicts drain my energy. Such struggles also drain the energy of people connected with me. What goes in my mind, my thoughts, creates struggle or harmony. My mind creates bondage, struggles and suffering and the same mind creates freedom, ease and harmony. How I use my mind makes the difference. How to live wisely is a life long process. There are times when I create my own struggles and suffering and cause suffering to the people close to me. When I wake up from my "sleep" state I see the light and become free from my self- created dark zone. This is an ongoing journey of life. Everyday is a learning day, an awakening day. One of the ways that helps me to make wise choices is asking a very simple but very significant question. Do I need or do I want?. Needs are few, wants are almost endless. When I get carried away by my wants, I create overcrowding both in the outer space and the inner space. I have learned not to get attached to what I don't need and that way not to get overcrowded. Living mindfully in different walks of life is a blessing for living peacefully, joyfully and happily.
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Reading this passage by James Clear, reminds me of the advice my father used to give me when as a student I was working on my assignments. His advice was: "Focus on your work with sincerity, intensity and one-mindedness. Remain focused on the process. And the right result will come." I have followed his advice in many walks of my life as a student, as a teacher, as a counselor, and also in taking care of my health and the health of others in my family. As the Zen saying goes," The path is the goal."
I will never forget the time when I waited patiently for four long years for marrying my beloved lady Vanleela. Her father did not want her to marry me because I came from a poor family. Vanleela was raised in a very affluent family. Her father thought and felt that his daughter will be miserable going to a poor family. Vanleela out of affection, regard and concern for her father accepted to wait for four years. Both of us felt the loving presence of each other in our hearts. Both of us continued going to college for our Masters degree. Staying the course with patience, perseverance and determination resulted in the wholesome outcome-us coming together and eventually receiving the blessings of her parents. Vanleela passed away seven years ago. She dwells in my heart and will be there until i will pass away Living in the present is the key for remaining focused on the path of living fully. Worrying about the future and getting stuck with the past is the sure way of missing the blessings of the present. I love and practice the saying, " Don't arrive before you arrive." Namaste! Vimalatai's writing deeply resonates in my heart. The original post is found here. Here is my reflection on it :
Love gives birth to life, nourishes life and connects us with life in all forms. Such love is expressed in compassion for others, in kind and generous acts, wiping the tears of others, feeding the hungry and providing shelter. Sadly, the world created by the Divine hands has been converted into fighting zones, us against you, exploitation and destruction. We have been polluting air, water, food and sky-the sources of life- for our self-serving, profit making ends.These are signs and symptoms of the misuse of intelligence , energy and knowledge. Total love is needed to bring total revolution. We need to awaken ourselves and others as a humanity from this misery creating slumber. We need to have a balance between being and doing. If our doing is without the being consciousness -compassion, consideration and concerns for the life of others, our actions are going to be destructive, hurting us and others. Tooth for tooth, eye for eye or fire for fire is the mindset of destruction. We need to learn to relate to others not as objects to meet our self-centered needs but as an extension of our selves- from me to we. We have been blessed to to have people in our lives as models who have reached out and have lovingly touched the lives of others to lift them up. The world is still surviving because of their selfless love and service. In order to create, sustain and flourish such love revolutions, we all have to be a part of it. As the saying goes, charity begins at home but does not end it there. What can we do as parents, neighbors, teachers, students, politicians, social workers, corporate leaders, workers and religious leaders to create an inner environment that is rooted in unconditional love and compassion. This is real spiritual work I have learned how to create an inner environment for planting and nurturing the seeds of love, peace and service. This is my everyday spiritual practice which brings joy and fulfillment in my life. I share my awakening with school children at my daughter's Montessori school by teaching Mindfulness and Peace Education and Mindfulness Parenting. Work is my service and it brings great joy and happiness to me. I am sure there are many such awakened people who are doing such badly needed work. Our community religious centers and educational institutions need to face and embrace this great universal challenge. May we wake up, see the light and play our vital role in creating and participating the Total Revolution of Love. Namaste I read a thought provoking post by Margaret Wheatley. Here is her post
Who Do We Choose To Be? My reflections to the above post is as follows: There are leaders who create islands of insanity and there are leaders who create islands of sanity. I have witnessed both kinds of leaders. When leaders relate to people as human beings and not as units, they create change in the society. They deeply care for them and bring about large changes.We are blessed to have such leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Maria Montessori to name a few. Such leaders choose a path of serving people with courage, patience and perseverance. I participated in Free India movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. He initiated the path of non-violence against the mighty British empire He chose the path of changing the hearts of the rulers. He worked tirelessly for the wellness of all people of India, especially the poor farmers, laborers and untouchables.He inspired many leaders in many lcountries to follow the path of non-violence against social injustice and exploitation. I agree it is not easy to blaze new trails.It is hard to make significant and grate change against establishment and against self-serving and power -hungry leaders. Great leaders awaken the people and create movements that result in a big change.We need such leaders in all parts of the world. May we have leaders who create islands of sanity for the well-being of all people! Here is a nice article by Jane Brunette that I would like to share :
Dropping Out, Like The Buddha And, my reflections to the article are as follows: Middle path provides a transcendental perspective and vision. Either or is a dualistic perspective causing split, divisiveness, imbalance, separateness and disharmony. These are the ingredients of pain, suffering and destruction. Religious, political and ideological wars have been wedged through out history by holding on to the bipolar extremist and rigid positions.The perspective which mindfully relates to opposite perspectives opens an avenue of inclusiveness and connectedness. I have a few friends who hold the extremist view"our way is the only right way" for every one's salvation. Sadly, such a view excludes others like me who have a different spiritual orientation. It is my position that Truth is one which is realized and expressed in different ways by different people. Dalai Lama calls it "secular spirituality". According to Dalai Lama anyone can follow their chosen spiritual path without judging and putting down other's spiritual path ways. This is the middle way, a way to create universal harmony. May we relate to others who are different from us with mindfulness, open -mindedness and open- heartedness! What am I in this vast universe? Who am I in this vast universe? Am I a dot in this vast universe? Am I living organism in this vast universe? From a micro perspective I am a separate isolated dot or entity. From a macro perspective, I am an integral part of the larger whole. And from a cosmic perspective, I am the whole, I am one with the cosmos, I am the cosmos.
When it comes to living in this world, our energy is primarily invested for sustaining and surviving.on a personal and tribal level. Meeting such basic needs creates bonding and interconnectedness.One dot gets connected with another dot creating a string of several interconnected dots. How do we relate to one another is an ongoing challenge for us as a human kind not only for our survival as human kind but also for the survival of our mother planet. We all need to join our heads, hearts and hands to encounter this universal challenge. Wisdom traditions have been urging us to wake up from the illusion of seperateness and learn to relate to the unverse we live in as a family. It is imperative for all of us to learn to live amicably, compassionately and constrctively not only to survive but also to thrive and flourish. We all need to be awakened and play our part not only for saving but also for thriving and flourishing life in multiple forms. Let us start from where we are and be a part of this evolutionary revolution. Let us spread the word by reading and reflecting on such writings, by using social media, and by actively patricipating in this movement. This is the time to act. If not now, then when? If not us then who? May we all join our heads, hearts and hands to be a part of this noble venture! Work is worship-no matter what kind of work we do. There are many faces of work. No one face is better than the other face. The face that looks down on other faces is not a service face. Humility is an integral part of service. Service done from the heart induces inner joy, inner reward and a deep sense of fulfillment. Recognition or admiration for the service we do is like frosting on the cake. We cook the food for serving with no expectation in return.
We are a part of the system-social, financial and political. When a system serves the need of a privileged group of people by excluding others, it needs to be changed. Such self-serving systems need radical change to survive and flourish. I have witnessed the great service work done by Mahatma Gandhi for untouchables in India. He blazed a new trial which slowly became a high way. Work does not have to be against service. This is my personal experience. I have been working as a teacher and counselor all my life. It has been my inward call. It has brought great joy, happiness and fulfillment in my life. Many lives have been gracefully touched by the work I l love do and my life has also been graciously been touched by many hands. It is the spirit of the work that makes it service. Work and service join hands making living blissful. May we make our work worship by doing greater good! Love gives birth to life, nourishes life and connects us with life in all forms. Such love is expressed in compassion for others, in kind and generous acts, wiping the tears of others, feeding the hungry and providing shelter. Sadly, the world created by the Divine hands has been converted into fighting zones, us against you, exploitation and destruction. We have been polluting air, water, food and sky-the sources of life- for our self-serving, profit making ends. These are signs and symptoms of the misuse of intelligence , energy and knowledge.
Total love is needed to bring total revolution. We need to awaken ourselves and others as a humanity from this misery creating slumber. We need to have a balance between being and doing. If our doing is without the being consciousness -compassion, consideration and concerns for the life of others, our actions are going to be destructive, hurting us and others. Tooth for tooth, eye for eye or fire for fire is the mindset of destruction. We need to learn to relate to others not as objects to meet our self-centered needs but as an extension of our selves- from me to we. We have been blessed to to have people in our lives as models who have reached out and have lovingly touched the lives of others to lift them up. The world is still surviving because of their selfless love and service. In order to create, sustain and flourish such love revolutions, we all have to be a part of it. As the saying goes, charity begins at home but does not end it there. What can we do as parents, neighbors, teachers, students, politicians, social workers, corporate leaders, workers and religious leaders to create an inner environment that is rooted in unconditional love and compassion. This is real spiritual work I have learned how to create an inner environment for planting and nurturing the seeds of love, peace and service. This is my everyday spiritual practice which brings joy and fulfillment in my life. I share my awakening with school children at my daughter's Montessori school by teaching Mindfulness and Peace Education and Mindfulness Parenting. Work is my service and it brings great joy and happiness to me. I am sure there are many such awakened people who are doing such badly needed work. Our community religious centers and educational institutions need to face and embrace this great universal challenge. May we wake up, see the light and play our vital role in creating and participating the Total Revolution of Love. We as human beings have physical, mental and spiritual needs and desires. Most of our needs and desires are met in relationship contexts. How our needs and desires are fulfilled makes a significant difference in our healthy growth and development. We need to cultivate wisdom to fulfill each other's needs and desires.
As human beings we all experience suffering in varying degrees. One of the main reasons for our suffering is our craving and intense neediness. Such a state of mind leads to not enough set of mind. When the mind is set on or fixated on that set point, there is always going to be more craving and more grabbing and more suffering.We get heavily and chronically attached or addicted to our craving resulting in ongoing suffering. People who are connected with us also suffer by our wanting more and more from other persons. They feel trapped by our neediness and unreasonable expectations. Both get caught up in this energy draining vicious cycle. Suffering is an opportunity for growth if we keep our mind and heart awakened and open. Our suffering can be a gateway to awakening. First we need to recognize and accept that we are unhappy. We need to have a clear intention of working on our suffering.With confidence we do the inner mindfulness work starting with breath mindfulness by letting the waves of hurtful thoughts, feelings and emotions come and go. Such introspective mindfulness work requires consistency, resolution and dedication. It is not how much time but how we use our time that heals us. I have been practicing mindfulness and teaching mindfulness for quite some time. Such practice turns thorns of suffering into flowers of fulfillment and happiness. May we remain aware of self-created suffering and gain wisdom for making right choices! Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our own response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.- Viktor F. Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Himself
This idea we can learn underneath our emotions, if we feel a sense of guilt, if we feel a sense of anger, there’s often something that is instructive to us. Now, the very clear distinction here is that our emotions are data, not direction. We can always learn from them or dominated bythem.- Susan David, author of Emotional Agility Exercise: Take your time to settle down and get centered. Let the strong emotion or feeling you have recently experienced or you’re experiencing now visit you. Be centered and relate to the emotions to be data rather than direction. Listen to your emotions and hear what they are telling you about yourself. You’re learning the art of responding to your emotional experience rather than reacting to your experience. You’re learning how to work through your emotional experience and grow from it. What is the impact of someone’s unwelcoming or disturbing behavior on you? How do you choose to respond and not react? How can you be the change you want to see in the other person? |
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