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Below is my reflection to J.Krishnamurti's article:
How do we see ourselves and others in relationship without the psychological lenses of the past and the future, the images of myself and others, is a challenge for realizing love and beauty. If I view myself and others with the blinders of the past and future, there is neither love nor beauty. Love and beauty has no dividing lines within me and without me. I call it pure beauty and pure love or Oneness. And that indeed is the art of living. When I am present in the present moment I experience Oneness with nature and the people around me and with me. This kind of presence is beyond striving and struggling. In that way, it is effortless. It is natural. An image of myself and the other is time and space bound. It does not exist beyond time and space. It is bound by time and space. When my mind is still and quiet, I see myself and the other clearly, like the sky without self-created clouds. And that is real freedom from the known, freedom from projections, freedom from the inner shadows. May we have inner clarity and inner freedom to live in the world with love and beauty! Namaste!
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There are many faces of love. The most common is conditional love. It has "if" and "then". What Ram Dass is talking about is unconditional love. To put it in Ram Dass's words," It's a part of our inner being. It's love for no reason, love without an object...This is an entrance to Oneness." This is an accurate description of unconditional love. Do I love me unconditionally? Do I love the other unconditionally? When and how? My answer is Yes . All the time? Most of the time. It is a state of being, not having and doing. In Such a state I feel Oneness within me and beyond me. Walls of outward differences melt away and I breathe the pure air of love filling my heart with unbound joy and fulfillment.
My first experience of such unconditional love was with my mother whose face was shining with unconditional love. As I grew up I often experienced such love when I used to chant with my father. And the same kind of love I experienced with my beloved better half. I still feel the glow of that love though she is no more physically with me. Last night we had a Thanksgiving gathering at my daughter's house. She had put her heart in making preparations for such a joyful thankful event. She radiated the light of unconditional love. My grandson saw the tired face his mother. He left the company of his friends and went to the sink to clean pots and pans joyfully. Such acts of love and kindness divinize our daily living. Keeping my heart open for giving and receiving unconditional love, and being grateful for such divine gifts helps me to stay on the path of Being. Namaste. To live fully in the present moment without dwelling in the past or worry about the future is a wise way of living. Be here and now is the enlightened way of living. Going with the flow of life and not flowing against it the way living life fully. When I engage myself in any activity I get fully absorbed in it. My mind is not drifting but is fully rooted in the present moment. This way of living my daily life is a blessing for me. I complete my assignment fully and that way I do not get an incomplete grade. I love the way Rosie Bell puts it: We become "so lost in a plan for the future that I forget to crawl into the beautiful, imperfect present and make the most of it. This is the way I relate to Conscious Completion. Living each moment fully is the way of living with unburdened freedom from space and time. These are of the "moments of the giant miracles."
When I meditate I feel the presence of conscious completion. When I listen to chanting, relate to nature and be with someone I deeply love I feel the presence of the flow of consciousness. When my mind is distracted I crawl into the present. Self-awareness is the master key for me for entering in the house of conscious completion. The light of awareness brings me back to the path of living fully in the present moment. Living this way requires conscious determination, patience, perseverance, compassion and devotion. Such way of living creates giant miracles in living. Namaste! Below is my reflection to Richard Powers excerpt from his article:
We are social beings. Our life is connected with each other. We are all in secret kinship with each other. However, we may not always recognize it. It is like an underground stream which nourishes the tree of our life, quenches our thirst for an in-between connectedness. There have been times when I have felt disconnected with me and with others, when I felt lonely and depressed. At such time what helped me was empathic and kind words and actions from people who cared for me, who felt compassion for me and extended their helping hands to me. And there have been times when I felt their pain and I have extended my hands to them. Such experiences have deepened and enriched our relationships. I was raised in a relatively poor family. There were times when we did not have enough food to eat. There were kind neighbors who felt for us and showed their love and kindness by extending their helping hands. They embodied the teaching of Jesus Christ: Love thy neighbor like thyself. All such experiences have enriched my life. And I feel deep gratitude for them. These are precious lessons I have learned in my life. They have taught me how to extend my helping hands when someone is going through hard times. It is by giving we receive as Saint Francis of Assisi taught us. Renounce and rejoice as the ancient book of wisdom Ishavasya Upanishada taught us. Being honest and open, being empathic and compassionate, serving others when they need my help, asking for help when I need it and being grateful to them for their kindness helps me to stay on the path. Receiving and giving are the two wings of the bird of life. Namaste! Here is an article that is worth a read and below is my reflection to it:
Self-compassion is kindness to ourselves. We all go through suffering and delightfulness. There are two ways of relating to our suffering and joyfulness: accepting our joys and sorrows compassionately without comparing ourselves with others and that way feeling up and down. There are two components of compassion: self-empathy and self-kindness. As we all know that we are not perfect. When we compare ourselves with others and feel higher or lower than others we get disconnected with ourselves and others. Such a perspective causes disconnection, separation and isolation. When I was studying at the University of Chicago my self-esteem was somewhat wounded when I compared myself with other students who were brighter than me. I felt a sense of inferiority. My self-esteem was affected by what was going on in my mind, thoughts of not-good enough. When I developed friendship with a foreign student who felt compassion for me, I felt his empathic understanding and kindness for me. His compassion for me enkindled the light of self-compassion and self acceptance in me. I am very grateful to him for bringing me out of the dark period of my life. What helps me make space for Self-compassion? I find the idea offered by Kristin Neff quite helpful. As she writes, " Instead of endlessly chasing self-esteem, we embrace ourselves with kindness. "Being empathic and compassionate to myself is very helpful to me to cultivate self-compassion. Practicing mindfulness meditation and non-judgmental self-awareness have been a blessing to me. May we cultivate self-compassion and compassion for others as we are going through tough times in our life! Below is my reflection to Swami Krishnananda's article:
The world we live in and also our life has three qualities: tamas, rajas, and sattva. Tamas makes us passive-static, rajas makes us active-dynamic and sattva creates a balance. When I go to the extreme position I become lethargic and lazy, and go into deep slumber. When I take an extreme dynamic or action-oriented position I get exhausted. When I avoid extreme positions and take the proverbial Buddhist middle path I am in a sattvik state, a balanced state. Living in a sattvik state makes me act wisely. I know what to do, how to do, and then do it. Not just to know and think about it. According me this is a sattvik way of living. I try to follow this sattvik path of living in every walk of my life. When I talk, when I listen, When I eat, when I sleep, when I work and when I exercise. When I have not followed this balanced way of living I go through physical, mental, emotional and relational suffering. Suffering is my teacher. I do not hit my head when I suffer and I do not hit the other person's head for my self-created suffering. I wake up, rise from my downfall , make a U-turn and go back the path of wisdom. Paying attention to what is going in my mind, becoming aware of it helps me from taking the wrong way which may hurt me and others in my life. I know that it is to say that but difficult to do it. Patience, perseverance and practice are my best allies. Introspection and meditation are also very helpful to me. They show me the path of light in my journey of life. Namaste! Here is my reflection to Marc Lesser's article:
Can acceptance and change join hands together? Can light and shadow walk together? Can silence and voice sing together? Acceptance of what is and making essential changes is a balancing act. Changes do take place. They need to be faced creatively and wisely. Otherwise life doesn't flow. It gets stagnant and stinks. In the dynamic world we live in, both 'fight for change' and 'lead to improve' are necessary. Change needs to make in the the right way in right direction. This is the way I am embracing life. I see the value of both frames of references. I maintain the fluidity of living without getting blocked by 'either or' mental stance. Life has given me many opportunities to learn from my personal experiences. When I experience pain in my belly I relate to my belly pain mindfully. I recognize it and investigate the cause of my physical pain and learn from it and do not eat pain -causing food. The same way I relate to my relational pain. I become aware of what happened that triggered my anger, anxiety or despair, accept it and learn from it and put it into practice to avoid the aches I created in me and the other person my life. I have learned from my own personal experiences what causes light in me and what causes darkness in me. Self-awareness, introspection, courage to recognize my shadow have been very helpful to me to know myself and work on myself. Life presents challenges to face and gives us opportunities for transformation. Namaste! I like the difference between old individuals and elders as shown by the author Suzzane Simard. As the author says not all individual are elders nor all elders are old. The marking sign of an elder is wisdom, not just knowledge. People may have knowledge but not wisdom. Wisdom grows like a Mother Tree connecting, nurturing and protecting the young plants. As an elderly and old member of the family and my community I help the young members of my family and the community at large when they need guidance from me. My heart gets richer when I help, guide and nurture those who need help and support.
As I was growing up I needed help, support, empathy and emotional nurturing in my life. I was blessed to have some elderly folks in my life to provide guidance, empathy, love, and nurturing. The elderly people provided shade and support I needed to survive and flourish. They taught me by their living example how I can go through the thick and thin in my life. They were my great teachers and they have laid the foundation of living wisely. I am very grateful to them. My experience has the been a great teacher for me. Only conceptual knowledge is not enough. Deep knowledge comes from living the knowledge, by practicing and wisely applying that knowledge to real life situations. It is organic teaching and organic learning. I have learned that it is not how long we live but how well we live that matters. Namaste! I like the way Anthony De Mello shows the contrast between Worldly Feeling and Soul Feeling. Soul feeling arises from within us. It is characterized by joy, intimacy, nourishment, and fulfillment. No body takes away soul feeling from me as it is generated and sustained form within. Worldly feeling comes from outside sources such as someone praising me , admiring me, think highly of me. Such worldly feeling fluctuates as it comes from outside sources. It comes and goes. Self-generated soul feeling is generated from the depth of our being. It endures and gets richer and deeper. It is rooted in our being.
I am a teacher and a counselor. I have enduring love affair with teaching and counseling. Teaching and counseling fill the cup of my life. I have been teaching and counseling for the last 75 years. I am not tired, bored and unfulfilled by following my inner voice. When I feel good and great about me by the praise and admiration I receive from others that make me feel good and great, the glorious feeling stays for a while and after sometime it evaporates. This week I was invited as a guest speaker to give a talk at Governors Sate University to undergraduate and gradate students majoring in School Psychology. I told them the reason for my being a teacher and a counselor. It has been my cup of tea for all these years. When I do what I love to do like teaching, counseling and meditating I feel deeply happy. The reward comes from within. It is unending. It is very joyful and fulfilling. I am connected with it and not attached to it. Fulfillment, love and joy are the criteria of soul feeling. Hope and pray we all find our path that creates and sustains inner wealth of joy, excitement and fulfillment in our life. Namaste! Here is my reflection to the excerpt of Parker Palmer's interview:
For me as a human being, all quests-intellectual, ethical, and spiritual- are important. Intellectual quest without being bound by ego is important for thinking and for processing my thoughts and emotions and to understand me, others and the world. Moral or ethical quest without "oughts" is important for me to walk on the moral path. The spiritual quest is essential for knowing and realizing my true nature, who or what I am.. In this state I do not feel bound by my own self-created "altitude". This is the state of unitive consciousness in which other states with "attitude" get dissolved. I feel grounded and connected with existence, the "being". Spiritual practices keep me grounded in what is and relate to what is rather than my own fabrications of the reality. I feel free from my self-created prison and self-ignorance. In deep meditation state I experience the distance between me and the ground going away and I realize that at the core of our being, we all are one. As the great theologian Paul Tillich says," the ground of being." It has taken a good amount time to know who I am. Remaining awake when I go into the sleep of delusion and working on what makes me fall asleep has been very helpful to me. The challenge for me is not to go back to "sleep". Self-awareness is the key to stay on "the ground of being." Getting feedback from my own self and from others is also helpful to me for walking on the spiritual path. Namaste! |
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