|
Author Ryan Holiday, has written a nice article on 'What is Wealth' and below is my reflection to it.
Wealth is a means to taking care of my basic survival needs such as food, shelter, and safety. It is a means and not a goal. My higher level needs such as need to belong to, self-worth, contentment, inner peace and happiness,and self-realization cannot be fulfilled by never-to-be-satisfied craving for more, more and more money and things and possessions. Real wealth according to me is inner wealth that makes my inner life rich, joyful, generous, kind, and loving-Happy I was blessed to be raised by parents who shared their bread joyfully with those who were hungry and provided shelter to those who needed it. They were living examples of the saying of St Francis of Assisi, " It is by giving we receive...It is in pardoning that we are pardoned." I experience such inner wealth almost on a daily basis by serving people who are going though emotional pain.Teaching and counseling is my profession. I earn inner wealth by offering my unconditional loving kindness to others. What a blessing! Discretion is one of the basic qualities of living wisely. In my choice making, I ask the question, "Do I need this? Is this really necessary?" I patiently wait for the answer. If the answer is no, then I do not higgle haggle. I totally accept it and move on rather than getting something I really do not need. Whenever I have not followed that inner wise voice, I end up getting more which I really do not need. I accumulate unnecessary burdensome physical and mental stuff! Wants are nothing but endless cravings and grasping. Discretion is my savior. I am happy to say that I am making good progress! May we cultivate discretion and make wise choices!
0 Comments
Here is a nice article by Christina Feldman that I would like to reflect upon.
Compassion is a caring feeling that arises in us when we see someone going through suffering. Seeing someone suffering evokes compassion in me and an inclination in me to reach out and help the person to heal him. Seeing a person going through emotional pain touches my heart and creates emotional bond with the other person. I have gone though deep suffering in my life. I accepted my suffering and went through the process of healing me. It took time to heal my emotional wounds. I had learned to face my suffering compassionately rather than fleeing away from it, from my own being. I had gone though several days of darkness and pain. Working on myself compassionately helped me understand and relate to suffering of other people. In my everyday life I run into young and old people going through small and big sufferings. Walking in and going though my own suffering taught me how to empathize with them, understand them and hold their hands as they are going through their suffering. Such experiences are spiritual experiences for me. They make me a whole person. According to my understanding and experience we all have the potential to cultivate our heart qualities. What helps us to develop such qualities are people in our life who practice compassion. I always remember the wise saying of Mahatma Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I was blessed to have parents, friends and teachers as role models as I was growing up. They provided me nourishment to cultivate the seeds of compassion and kindness in my heart. Remembering my own suffering and Keeping my heart open to suffering of others helps me to develop and sustain my heart qualities. 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. 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 Poet Pablo Neruada (click here for the Poem) reminds me of a poem written by an anonymous Zen master.
Sitting by the river Doing nothing, Spring comes The grass grows by itself. Such words of wisdom have been sign posts in my life, a daily reminder to count up to twelve, be in the zone of being, letting go of my busy and often noisy world of doing and having. Such words remind me to pause, feel and be with my natural rhythm of life giving and life sustaining breath, to count up to twelve, to stay in the being zone. Such words have been my daily prayer washing away the noise of irritation and agitation, frustration and anger, and fear and anxiety. Such words open up the door for meeting my being without craving and without holding.They create a wide open space filled with unseen beauty, unheard sound, and unknown strangers. Such words take me to a land of emptiness filled with fullness,a land of formless forms, a land beyond space and time. This is my daily prayer, a meditative prayer creating birth of joy, awe, joy, fulfillment and gratitude in my daily living. May we take time out to count up to twelve everyday to be connected with our being! Namaste My reflections on very thoughtful post by Craig Childs. You can read the original post by clicking here.
Aloneness is the state of being, as the author says, and that is the time when I feel deeply connected with myself, finding myself, and that is the way I feel aloneness in a positive and constructive way. I feel aloneness and fullness when I am walking in the natural environment and feel being a part of nature, being connected with nature. That is aloneness to me. I am in the state of being and not in the state of doing. Aloneness to me is a shift from the zone of doing where the mind is busy, cluttered and chattering. When I make a shift from doing to being I feel deeply connected with myself, with nature, with the people around me. That to me is aloneness. I experience that many many times when I am by myself, with myself, engaged in doing something that is deep and profound. I experience that when I am fully absorbed in listening to music. By practicing Mindfulness Meditation regularly I feel aloneness and not loneliness. These are the times that I feel full inside myself and nothing is missing at the moment. As I mentioned before, when I am fully connected with myself and fully present to myself, I experience that tincture of solitude. I feel at home. I feel solitary without missing anything in my life. That experience of fullness provides the tincture of solitude. Last week I was listening to a podcast on Mindful Living. The speaker recommended to take one hou a day solitary retreat. During this alone time be mindful of how you feel when you are alone. If you practice it regularly, you cultivate the ability of being by yourself without feeling lonely. I followed his advice. Since I have been practicing mindfulness meditation, this everyday retreat experience was very helpful to me.During this one hour of alone time I feel deeply connected with myself. We all need to cultivate our ability to be at ease with ourselves when we are by ourselves. It is like home coming. Namaste! Jagdish P Dave The central theme of this thought provoking article written by Kazu Hagais stated in the the last two sentences of this article, As Kazustates," The universe simply exists and its job is to continue to create balance and order.It is up to us, as species, to understand these laws so that we can move towards Beloved Community." When we do not follow this universal law of love, we move away from Beloved Community. We divide communities- as us against them, create rifts and conflicts and violence. We sustain these conflicts and harm us as human beings and nature.
We are interdependent. When we break this natural law of living, we pay the price of our actions.We do not have to believe in this. We see it. We experience the harm caused by our unmindful actions. In our workplace, we work as a team.We are interdependent. We cooperate and collaborate. We create balance and order for our Beloved Community.We feel fulfillment, personally and inter-personally. Namaste! Herman Hesse is one of my most favorite authors. When I read his book Siddhartha, I got deeply connected with Siddhartha, Gautam Buddha. Siddhartha woke me up to be aware of the self-created and self-sustained suffering cycle and how to be free from suffering. It helped me to look within and examine the cause of suffering and how to liberate myself from the bondage of suffering. When I sit quietly and be still,I feel the presence of my awakened self, feel grounded and feel peaceful. I feel like being at home. This is my inward voyage to find myself and how come home.
Several years ago I attended a weekend retreat to explore significant questions like Who I am? Why am here? What is the meaning or purpose of life? How can I liberate? We were given two days of silence for exploring these questions.The last half of the day was designed to present and share our significant learning experiences with the whole group of twenty persons. We were given 15 minutes to be by ourselves to come up with creative ways tor sharing and discussing our signifiant learning experiences. I shared my significant learning experiences by requesting the group to do Mindfulness Meditation for 10 minutes. Then I showed them the picture I had drawn during the 15 minutes of my personal time.The picture was the Tree of Life. This picture represented my life: rootedness, growth, connectedness, aloneness still connected with myself and with others, swings of ups and downs, offering unselfish service, inner wealth, supporting and nourishing, the flow of life, a sense of home coming. When I mindfully watch and quietly listen to the whisperings of trees, I get connected with the Tree of Life. I realize the truth of living. I see oneness in manyness, self-nurturing and nurturing others, giving gifts of love lovingly, voice of harmony and wholeness and holiness. Let us hug the Tree of Life lovingly. Namaste! My life is not a straght line. It has many turns and twists. My life is not monociolor. It is muticolor. Some light, some bright, some dark, some pleasesent and some unpleasa.It a mixture of colors..My real self is not LinkedIn profile. I relate to what Walt Whitman says " I am large, I contain multitudes." When I was young I had a small circle of close friends. We got deeply connected by being vulnerable and sharing our thousands of joys and thousands of sorrows.We gave ourselves and each other room to be ourselves. All of my friends have passed way. I still feel in my heart the loving, intimate and deep relationships we had created with each other. What helps me to offer space to myself and others is finding time and opening our minds and hearts. Small and shallow talks come and go without creating depth in our relationships. Today I had invited my Jewish friend to my class to share her experiences of practicing her faith.I have known her for the last ten years without being deeply and lovingly connected with each other. In the class she talked about how her grandfather was gas-chambered by the Germans. How her mother had gone through torturing experiences and how she felt when she came to America. It was a very moving true story. There were tears in her eyes and profound pain her voice. We got deeply connected with her and she felt the same way.
- Dr Jagdish P Dave |
RSS Feed