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Upon reading Jason Garner's thoughtful writing on Practice over Parables, I had the below reflection:
To me spirituality means relating to life with an open mind and an open heart. It means facing life with non-judgmental awareness. In order to be free from my suffering I need to go through it with compassion. I pay my kind attention to my own suffering without being carried away by distractions. I follow the same way when I relate to someone going through hard times. This is the way we evolve to thrive personally, interpersonally and collectively. Spiritual evolution tales time. Having someone as a model in spiritual journey has been very helpful to me. In my culture such a person is called a guru. I was blessed to have my parents as my gurus. They not only believed in simple and humble living but they lived that way. Mahatma Gandhi also was model for my father and for me. Seeing people living modestly and humbly and learning from them provided a basis for my spiritual evolution. I am very grateful to them. Spiritual evolution is an inner work. Reading books and articles like this one written by Jack Kornfleld, having a satsanga with like minded people, Introspection, meditation, and practicing mindfulness have been very helpful to me in my spiritual journey, It is a way of living. Namaste.
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Richard Rohr's passage from his book, "A Lever and A Place to Stand: The Contemplative Stance - The Active Prayer." is published in awakin.org and the below is my reflection to it:
We all need a steady, rooted, poised and balanced place to stand otherwise the winds of pain and suffering may uproot the tree of our life. All wisdom traditions strongly emphasize the significance of contemplation and meditation to work on our inner world and the need to be connected with the outer world of suffering and pain. In order to be whole and fully functioning persons we need to create a balance and rootedness within ourselves. I had attended one month retreat for mindfulness meditation and deep contemplation. That was a transformative experience for me. I felt profoundly centered, calm and rooted. I felt at home with me and with others in the retreat. This experience fostered a deep sense of empathy and compassion in me for others. It was a powerful transformative experience for me. Daily practice of mindfulness meditation and self-introspection help me to maintain a balanced and wholesome connection between my inner world and outer world, between my "private room" and my "public room." Namaste! This beautiful poem written by Aryae Coopersmith reminds me of a poem I had read a long time ago. It is written in Gujarati, my mother tongue. Who came this morning to wake me up from my deep sleep? The unexpected voice startled me and made me realize that I have been walking on the same old path of my life. No wonder why I felt stale and tired and bored. The fresh voice coming from within me made me realize that I was caught up in the habitual nest that I myself had created for quite some time. I was listening to the same old story and was singing the same old song. The voice woke me up and I am eager to listen to a new unexpected voice. I feel a sense of thrilling and wonderment and curiosity to hear and see what is coming.
A few days ago my daughter, a guest and myself were invited for a dinner at our friends house. I had been to their house three years ago. Maya, the three year old whom I had seen as little girl was eagerly waiting for me to greet me. In the beginning she was shy. After a while she she sat beside me with her curious eyes. It was a joyful and beautiful experience for me. She was eager to show us her favorite jasmine plant. She gently plucked a few fragrant jasmine flowers for me. As we were leaving she offered me a necklace of different colors of beads she had made for me. This was totally unexpected. The fragrance of her gift will always stay in my heart. Life offers many unexpected gifts if we keep the portal of our heart open and surprisingly receive them. I keep my mind and heart open to receive unexpected gifts. They are sacred gifts and I am ready to run with the unexpected and unknown gifts coming on my way. Namaste! I love and deeply enjoy reading the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh. In this beautiful passage he conveys a profound message of relating to what is real. In order to hear what is not said and in order to see what is not manifested requires waiting with patience, open mindedness, open heartedness and conviction that what is not heard and what is not seen is real. As Thich Nhat Hanh says ploughing the earth, sowing the seeds, and spreading the manure are essential conditions for the blooming of the sun flower.
The birth of a poem is like the latent seed turning into a blossoming flower. I feel my heart stirred up with deep feeling of wonder and joy before a poem is born. It is like hearing the sound and feeling the fragrance of a beloved coming from nowhere! I felt the same way when I felt a deep stirring of love in my heart when I saw my beloved for the for first time and I still feel the fragrance of love in my heart though she is not physically with me any more. What helps me see that which is waiting for the right conditions to bloom? Faith, not belief, and patience, open mindedness and open heartedness help me wait for the inner light to shine to see what is not seen by the outer light. When my inner eyes are not open I get disconnected with the flowering and blossoming of life. Namaste! Here is my 96th Birthday Presentation. It is a collection of my favorite songs and words of wisdom. Please enjoy! It is very tempting to hold on to what is familiar though it may cause pain in our hands. Fear of the unfamiliar and the unknown keeps us in the dark zone. In this beautiful poem Jan Richardson describes the blessings of passing through the longest night for awakening to see the light within. I have gone through this process of awakening by releasing the fear of traveling on the unfamiliar road. Awakening from the comfortable but growth blocking sleep has not been always easy for me. My daily practice of meditation has helped me free myself from the clutches of fear of uncertainty. Darkness fades away as I am walking toward the dawn of awakening. What a blessing!
I have been blessed to experience such inner light in the darkest hours of my life. It happened to me in 1959 when I came from India to America. I had never been out of my country for 34 years. There was excitement mixed with fear. I did not know anybody when I landed in Chicago, a foreign country, a new country, a strange country. My keen desire for learning new things was the light that helped me go through the difficult times. And such inner light has been guiding me in my journey of life. As I was growing up in India I was blessed to see my father taking a stand against injustice done to women as well as to "untouchables". I saw Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Vinoba Bhave and many other courageous leaders fighting for freedom from the unjust British rule of India. Daily practice of meditation has been very helpful to me for guiding me on the right path. I am grateful for receiving such blessings. Namaste! I love parables. They are short like this given on Awakin.org. Hindu parable contain profound wisdom. This parable reveals the spiritual way of living a precious life without attachment to material things. The man who is sitting by the river side contemplating is deeply contented with what he has. He gladly gives the precious diamond from his bag to the poor man who is a stranger to him. He is not expecting any reward from the beggar. His life is flowing like the river. And when the beggar comes back after a year in the dress of a wealthy man he welcomes him with an open heart. The wealthy man wanted to know whatever was inside him that allowed him give the diamond freely. Detachment, offering a gift to someone unconditionally expecting no reward in return. This is an example of living like a Karma Yogi, offering a gift from unselfish heart.
I have learned the art of living a spiritual life from my parents and a few wise teachers. I am deeply grateful for teaching me how to spiritualize my life. I got the precious diamond of living without attachment. Living this way creates joy and contentment in me. We all have the precious diamond of happiness and fullness in us. It's by sharing it with others or offering it to others with no attachment fills the cup of my life. Living in the world spiritually creates abundance, inner wealth and offering the inner wealth to those who need it is a blessing to me. This is a life lesson. When any thought of what I am going to get from others goes through my mind, I recognize it and willingly I let it go. Remain awake and aware of the mind stuff without being bound by it is my mantra. This is my self-liberating mantra. That frees me from my self-created prison. Namaste! Kittisaro is a former monk and the founder of a hermitage in South Africa. Below is my reflection to the excerpt from the article -Tangled in Thought.
Radical reflection means to be aware of the root cause of suffering with an open mind and open heart. Awareness clears my vision clouded by my ignorance of who or what I am; how my clear seeing is affected by my selfish thoughts, selfish desires and selfish acts. Awareness liberates from my self-created mental and emotional prison. Awareness is the inner light that helps me see my path of life clearly so that I do not get astray or get lost. Self-awareness is the light within me, the voice within me untouched by the self-created clouds and mental deafening noises. The word awareness is the key word that keeps me awake for walking on the wise path of living. It keeps me awake of what kinds of thoughts and emotions are arising in my mind and what kinds of words are coming from my mouth, and what kinds of sounds I am hearing in my ears and what kinds of things I am watching with my eyes and how am I using my hands, helping me and others or hurting me and others. Awareness helps me learn from myself and become wise. This an ongoing process in me. The awareness question that I ask to myself is, " Am I sleeping or am I awake?". I have made a clear and wise choice of remaining awake in my mind and heart. The light of awareness is my path of living life fully, attaining Nirvana, freeing from the egotistic self, waking up from separateness into the whole. From being a fragment to being the indivisible whole. It is becoming a Buddha, the one who becomes aware of the wholeness of life and lives for the welfare of all beings. I am on this way and I am not hurrying. Namaste! As seasons change from Winter to Spring and go through the renewal process so we do. We let go of the past which is already gone and wisely embrace the change taking place at this stage of our life. There is a natural rhythm that yearns to shake off the slumber. It is time for awakening and we welcome it.
We are also endowed with special unique gifts and talents. Let us reflect on how we can cultivate our unique talents within us and how we can offer our gifts to others? As we journey through life, we may find ourselves drawn to certain activities we feel called to do along the way. We begin to resonate with a specialty or calling and therein lies the profound elegant simplicity to identifying our gifs. We carry within us certain qualities and attributes that contribute to our personal and social welfare called loka sangraha in the Bhagavad Gita. Everything we do has an impact on us and others in our life as well as on the natural world. Sometimes it may not be obvious to us what gifts we have. Below are listed four ways to discover our unique gifts. It may be helpful to journal about or discuss with a trusted friend or family members the following:
Once you have identified your passions, values, and talents, it’s time to put them to work by exploring the ways of building your life around them. You need to take some time to contemplate the words and phrases that come about from your self-reflection and inquiry. At the end of the day realize who you are, what you do, and how you show up in the world. Everything you share-whether it’s your bright smile, your compassionate heart, your keen intellect, or your quality of presence-has ripple effect on everyone around you and beyond. When you think big, show up bold and share your compassion, you become a gifted a role model for all. As I was reading this essay written by AkikoBusch, a song I had heard a long time ago came to my mind. The song is written in Hindi by an anonymous poet. The title of the song is Mukhadakya dekho darpanamein? Why do you look for your face in the mirror? There are two mirrors: inner and outer. In the world we live in, I see many people seem to be interested in showing their faces in the outer mirror such as Facebook, Instagram or other popular social media. A question arises in my mind what motivates people to show their faces in the outer mirror. Is that their real self? Is there a discrepancy between the public self and the private self? Am I a two faced person? Do I need validation for being myself in the eyes of others? If I am contented with my face as it is then there is no need to be recognized and validated by others.
Mindfulness awareness helps me find my original pure face not affected by the judgmental and critical eyes of others. Sadly, we live in a world where our face is judged by the color of our skin, by the race or by the class and by religion. When I meet someone racially different from me I become mindful of what passes through my mind. Am I looking at that person with clear eyes or colored eyes? Practicing mindfulness frees me from the judgmental and critical voices arising in my mind. Reading and implementing the teachings of mystics and words of wisdom of enlightened spiritual teachers have helped me evolve spiritually. Clear eyes liberate me from my conditioned mind and such inner clarity helps me relate to others as children of God. Namaste! |
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