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The central message of the story of the Caterpillar Turning Into A Butterfly is the story of transformation and emergence of ourselves as we travel in our life's journey. We all change. Nothing remains the same. The challenge is how the change transforms our ways of thinking, feeling and doing. It's a deep qualitative change, like the caterpillar turning into a butterfly. We all grow but in which direction of our life. Are we repeating the same cycle or we are getting out of the routine and move in an upward bound direction?
I see myself growing slowly from childhood, to young age, to adulthood and old age. It has not been a steady journey of transformation. It has its ups and downs, its twists and turns. A couple of times I fell down. I leaned from falling down and moved on in my upward journey of life. As I look behind I see myself emerging and transforming. My outlook has been widened. I see myself unbound and freed from my judgmental stances of people different from me in many ways. My inner eyes have become clear and I see people as they are. As the Buddha says "see the isness." Cultivating healthy habits of mind and nurturing the mind in a healthy way has been very helpful to me. I keep my mind and heart open without tarnishing them with my preconceived notions. Practicing mindfulness meditation and non-judgemental awareness help me constantly emerging from my past caterpillar self into the present butterfly self. Namaste!
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Reading Ram Dass's passage The Game Is To Be Where You Are reminds me a beautiful poem "Come As You Are" written by Rabindranath Tagore. When we love someone, we don't love the outer form of the beloved. We love the inner being of the person which is just like us. Ram Dass uses the metaphor of taking the mask off to see the beauty of the original face without any makeups. I love the Zen Koan: Find your original face before you were born. The Indian poet Mira sings: Remove the veil and you will meet your beloved. This is the way I relate to the notion that the game is to be where we are.
I have had several experiences of being loved as I am. My mother did not have any conditions for loving me as I was. She planted and nurtured the seeds of unconditional love as I was growing up. She was a role model for me. I was blessed to have her in my life. I learned from her how to love and relate to people in my life as they are. As years passed I have been able to cultivate spiritual maturity in me. To me life is a spiritual journey or as Ram Dass says it is a spiritual game. Trees look different when we look at them with outward eyes. When we look at the same trees with clear inward eyes we see the treeness, the oneness, the essence, among all trees. I follow three steps for cultivating spiritual maturity:
Namaste! Becoming yourself is a challenge for all of us. Right from our childhood we are asked by others in our families, schools and societies who we should be. Our mind's are conditioned to think, feel and act according to the norms established by others. Reading this poem written by May Sarton reminds me of a poem written by John Milton. " The mind is its own place, and itself can make a Heaven of Hell, and a Hell of Heaven." It is up to me to make my own choice to become myself. In order to hear my own voice I need to quiet my own mind. In the quiet moments I know who I am. It's a journey of self-discovery. Once I hear my own voice, I sing my own song. Once I know the rhythms of my life I dance my own dance.
I feel the fullness of life when I am my real self. Such realization grows in me like a plant rooted, watered and nurtured by love. Such inner growth takes place when I take time out and reflect deeply and feel my "own weight and density". These are the times when the song of life is born and it comes out with sheer love and joy. The people in my life who love me as I am hear my song and sing along with me. It is a song of love, a song of togetherness and harmony. These are the gifts of becoming oneself. My self-awareness is my guide, my companion, my guru. When am in an awakened state the light of self-awareness shows me the wise path of my spiritual journey. When I deviate from my spiritual path I stop and ask questions to myself: Where was I when I was with myself? Was I with me fully present with the presence of awakened awareness? Right answers come for within when I take time out and be still. Regular practice of Mindfulness Meditation and practicing mindfulness in my everyday life have been very helpful to me in my search of who am I and how to live fully. Namaste! Leah Pearlman is an artist, co-creator of the Facebook-like button, and most recently the founder of Dharma Comics. An excerpt from her most recent newsletter is published here and below is my reflection to it:
I have learned a long time ago that our mind is the cause of liberation or bondage. How do I use my mind is in my hand. If I dwell on negative thoughts negative feelings and actions I get negative outcomes. Research studies done by positive psychologists show how we create our own happiness or misery by what we think and what choices we make. We can reinforce our brain's negative bias by thinking negatively. It is up to us to decide how to use our mind. The inner light of wisdom of pure consciousness helps us to make positive changes in our mind and that way rewiring our brain. And this way we are creating positive or constructive brain's habitual patterns. It is helpful to have information about how the application of positive psychology creates positive changes in our brain and in our personal behavior and our social transactions. Transformation takes place when we apply the information in our actions. I know what I need to do to preserve and enhance my physical health. It is hard to break the harmful habitual patterns such as what to eat, when to sleep, and when to do physical exercise. Practicing self-discipline has helped me to walk on the healthy path. Knowing what is good and what is helpful and doing what is good and what is helpful has been very helpful to me. Living mindfully is my way of retraining my brain. I want to be master of my brain and not its slave. This is challenging and I love it. I am with the author Leah Perlman when she says, " I'm voting with my attention." Namaste! Author Anthony de Mello has written a thought provoking article that would apply to each one of us. Below is my reflection to it:
When my vision is clouded what I look out will be clouded and if swing into action with the clouded vision, I will make things worse. All wisdom traditions ask us to awake from the sleep of ignorance, to see the Light Within and see the world and act with the light of love and clarity. The Light Within is the Light of Being, the Light of Love. When my doing emerges form the Inner Light, it heals the wounds. In my daily life I remember the wise words of Meister Echart: "It is not by your actions that you will be [awakened] but by your being. It is not by what you do but by what you are that you will be judged." I remember and apply the wise saying in my daily life that the being in the doing, shapes our experience. I apply this wise saying in all areas of my life-personal and interpersonal. There are times when I act unmindfully which disrupts the clear and loving flow of my energy. With practice I quickly wake up and get connected with the Light of Being. As a teacher and as a counselor as well as a family member I get plenty of opportunities of becoming aware of my being in the doing. And if and when I goof I quickly correct my path. Remaining awake and aware of my bodily sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions helps me avoid the trap of substituting one unkind act for another. Awareness keeps the Light Within shining for making wise choices. Namaste! William Deresiewicz has written an interesting article with study details conducted by a team of Stanford researchers that's available here. Below is my reflection:
Basically I am a mono-tasking person. When someone talks to me I want to be fully present to the person. I do not want my mind divided between here and there. I want to be connected and engaged with the other person. Paying full attention to the person is conducive not only for cultivating cognitive function but also for cultivating social and emotional learning, for cultivating effective and positive relationships. As a learner and a teacher, I see the value of focused attention. Our personal experience and research studies show that multi tasking has a strong and adverse effect on cultivating cognitive, emotional and social skills. Sadly, smart phones, laptops and video-games have been powerful distracting factors in our schools and families. When I am reading, writing, listening, communicating, eating, walking, driving and meditating, I make it sure that I am fully attentive and focused on what I am doing. This is mindfulness practice. When my mind goes astray by an external stimulus or internal stimulus, I become aware of it and do not get trapped by it. Practicing mindfulness helps me to be free from my temptation to to be engaged in more than one task. It frees me from multitasking. When we eat we pray together. Praying together creates sacred and peaceful environment. We put our smart phones and laptops beyond our sight. When we study or communicate we follow the same helpful rule. Namaste! Jack Kornfield is a meditation teacher, and author of various books. Excerpt from his book, The Wise Heart is published in the awaking.org website that can be found here. Here is my reflection to it:
Knowing and accepting the fact that the cup of my life is going to be broken one day and not to get hung up or chained by the fear of uncertainty is the way of living fully. This is my understanding of the "wisdom of uncertainty". Because I know the fate, I accept it without denying or resisting it. This way of thinking and knowing creates a weather of freedom and openness in my mind. Such a mindset helps me live fully. We all have been going through the uncertainty at this time in our life. The arrival and the spread of the corona virus has caused fear, worry and anxiety in our mind. How do we deal with these huge clouds of fear, worry, and anxiety floating in our mind? This is a big existential challenge to all of us. My daughter runs a private Montessori School in Phoenix, AZ. The virus situation has been causing a lot of worry and anxiety in her and my mind. We are not sure about how long the corona virus will last. Instead of worrying about the uncertainty, we mindfully processed our fear and anxiety and came up with a well thought out plan for opening and operating our school. One week is gone smoothly and we are confident that we will be able to run the course smoothly. We are sailing the boat with the winds of compassion and cooperation of all the people involved in this endeavor. Doing the best we can do without worrying about or attached to the outcomes of our efforts helps us live in the "Trusting Mind." When doubts or worries arise in our mind we mindfully process them, let them come and go. The "Free Mind" is the "Trusting Mind". Namaste! Krishna Das is a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, a world reknowned musician who has chanted Sanskrit verses at the Grammys. An excerpt from his autobiography, Chants of a Lifetime is available here for you to read. Below is my reflection to it:
Clear version is created by clear vision. As I was growing up, I learned many valuable lessons of life from my father, by his words and by his actions. I remember one wise saying he used to say, " Yahtadristi, tatha sristi". As is my vision so is my world. If my vision is colored by my prejudices, judgments, assumptions, and expectations, I am going to create my mental, emotional and behavioral world by my vision. The same way the other person relates to me by his vision. Our versions of each other is created by our vision. Clear version is created by the clarity of my vision. My mother used to say that when your eyes are affected by jaundice, you see everything yellowish. Buddha uses the word sati for clarity with no clouds of prejudice or selfishness floating in the mind. It is difficult to be free from prejudice and judgments which have slipped into our unconscious mind. As a result as Krishna Das says. we "create the movie of me... we write it, direct it, produce it, and star in it." Creating clear vision is a life long project. Our life is created, shaped and sustained by the illusory perceptions of who I am and who others are. When we mindfully relate to our own illusory world and work on it, our vision of ourselves and of others changes for better. We wake up from the sleep of illusion and see the light without any walls created by our ignorance. This illumined clear vision frees us from the bondage of ego. In this state we see oneness in manyness. This is the journey I am going through. I see more light than darkness and I feel free from my self-created bondage. Daily practice of mindfulness meditation and living mindfully has been very helpful to me. Self-knowing and self-acceptance has created wholeness in me. I do not feel the need to see myself better than others or worse than others. May we create clarity in us to relate to others like ourselves. Namaste! Annamalai Swami was a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi. Please read the excerpt posted here. Below is my reflection to it:
Mind has its own mind. I let the mind run its own course. I do not follow it and do not fight it. When I do not identify myself with the the thoughts or feelings going through the mind, I see them as clouds passing through the clear sky. I realize that I have a mind but I am not the mind. I have thoughts and feelings but I am not thoughts and feelings. I am witness consciousness-clear open sky- not bound by the clouds coming and going. When I resist and fight my thoughts or feelings, they get stronger. When I remain aware of what is happening in my body-mind complex, bodily sensations and thoughts and feelings, and do not identify myself with them, I am in the Zone of Being. Thoughts appear and disappear in the clear sky of awareness. This happens everyday when I sit quietly doing Mindfulness Meditation. Practicing Mindfulness Meditation regularly has a carry over effect in my daily living. It helps me to be free from the grip of ongoing thoughts in my mind. Remaining mindful in different contexts of my daily life makes me realize the I am consciousness and not my coming and going thoughts. As stated before, practicing Mindfulness Meditation regularly and practicing Mindfulness in everyday life helps me cultivate indifference toward the mind. As the author Annamalai Swami states, " Cultivating this attitude of indifference toward the mind, you will detach yourself from your "little self" to your real Self." Namaste! Pema Chodron is an author, meditation teacher, and an excerpt from her book When Things Fall Apart is published in the Awakin.org Here is my reflection on the article:
If we want to live life fully, we need to let go and free ourselves from the grip of the past and the grip of the future. We need to release the grip of holding on to the past as well as future and live fully in the present moment. In order to fill the cup of my life fully I need to empty my cup. We need to be thrown out of the old nest. Otherwise I live a life unfulfilled. It is by letting go I receive the gifts of living fully. These kind of paradoxical sayings come from most of the wisdom traditions. Pema Chodron represents the Buddhist perspective of living Mindfully. I have been learning how to embrace life fully by throwing out of the old nest. Every morning I wake up I practice mindfulness that helps me to live fully in the present moment. I try to maintain mindfulness in taking care of my everyday tasks. I live fully in the present moment. There are times when the old habitual or conditioned patterns of behavior take over me. I fly back to the old nest. I wake up and realize that I had imprisoned myself by not being mindful of my mind. It takes time and practice to walk on the path of mindfulness. I patiently and compassionately embrace that path. Daily formal practice of Mindfulness Meditation and daily informal practice of Mindfulness in everyday tasks of my living help me to live fully in the present moment. This is an awakened perspective of living fully and harmoniously. And I love it! Namaste! |
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