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A very wise statement by J.Krishnamurti. As I understand, anger is anger, righteous or unrighteous. Anger burns us and burns others. As far as I am concerned I do not intend and want to burn myself and do not intend and want to throw my fire on others whether they are my kinsmen or others. It is my conviction based on my experience that anger causes more anger and violence causes more violence.
Anger arises in me when I judge or condemn myself. The same way anger arises in the other person when I judge or condemn the other person. The same thing happens the other way around. How do we end the cycle of anger? Not by denying it or by justifying it. Both ways perpetuate the cycle of anger. It does not end by preaching you should not be angry. Practicing mindfulness in all contexts of life has been immensely helpful to me. Mindfulness is intentionally paying my non-judgmental attention to what is happening in me and around me. It is very helpful to pause between the anger generating stimulus and our habitual and automatic response. Taking deep breaths helps me to remain calm and centered and from that place within me the right, the wise, response arises. Such a mindfulness practice frees me from the grip of conceptual and sociological analysis of anger. When the mind is calm, open and centered, the right kind of inquiry arises in the mind which helps me to understand the intra and interpersonal dynamics of anger. The inner light helps me to process the inner and outer clouds of destructive emotions. May we be mindful of the arising of hurting thoughts and emotions in our mind and make wise choices!
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Choice making is in our hands. We all know that as human we have mead self-and-other hurting choices. In all relationships there is no the other without me. We all are intertwined. When I make a wrong choice, focusing only on my interest, I am going to hurt the other and the other may counteract to hurt me or teach me a lesson. Tooth for tooth and eye for eye becomes a vicious cycle hurting each other on all levels.
So it goes back to choice making. Wrong or crazy choices are made when the mind is buzzing with wrong or crazy thoughts, when we are not awake. All wisdom traditions have emphasized the value of taming the monkey mind, the wandering mind. Meditation is one of the most effective ways of taming our wandering mind, quieting our noisy mind. We need to be aware of the light or heavy clouds passing through the sky of our mind. We let these clouds come and go without reacting to them or letting ourselves be hijacked by them. I practice mindfulness meditation. "Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We gain immediate access to our own powerful resources for insight, transformation, and healing." Jon Kabat-Zinn. Cultivating such mindfulness skills requires ongoing consistent practice called sadhana. It is an introspective inner work, relating to the world from inside out. May we cultivate mindfulness to make wise wholesome choices for doing greater good for us and for others. Below is the link to an instructional video that we created.
Please avail the great instructions and the benefits. https://vimeo.com/217899172 When my sense of my self is engulfed by my arrogance and my sense of superiority, I get disconnected with my being, with other beings and life at large. The essence of my being is the same as the essence of all beings. The drop is the ocean. I am an integral part of the whole. Such realization makes me aware of my illusion of separateness, dispels the darkness of my ignorance, heals my self- inflicted wounds.Such an awakening makes me whole. This is real humility. It expands my awareness. It emboldens me and makes me virtuous.
Humility is not humiliating oneself or putting oneself down. It is not self degradation or self condemnation. It is an acknowledgment of our cosmic insignificance, ridding ourselves of our false sense of self-glorification and arrogance. This is the first movement. In the second movement we embrace our cosmic insignificance. We become frightfully honest and authentic with ourselves. It is like a rebirth of oneself. This leads us to the third movement, a movement of self expansion, self enrichment and self fulfillment. Such expanding self awareness brings blessing to oneself and to others. I am going through this journey. It is a joyous and fulfilling journey and I am grateful to my spiritual teachers for awakening me and guiding me. Knowledge and wisdom are different. Knowledge is acquired, knowledge is taught. With knowledge, we become knowledgeable. Such acquired knowledge of what is, what is real, is dualistic.It is one-sided. It is not holistic. Realization emerging from one's experience is holistic. Reality is one. It is not two It is not divided into two-one against the other.
Wisdom dawns upon us when the mind is still and quiet. As Thomas Merton says, " Silence is the mother of Truth....My silence is my salvation." " Be still and know that I am God." -Psalm. " Stillness is also inner peace, and that stillness and peace are the essence of your Being."- Eckhart Tolle. Such stillness makes me aware of my conditioned consciousness and mental commentary which has a dualistic sense of reality. Stillness makes me grounded in presence and frees me from the clouds generated by the conditioned consciousness. Such a shift in consciousness helps me in making wise choices. The mind that is free from conditioning is a creative mind and a wise mind.We need to be liberated form the conditioned mind which creates and perpetuates me against you mindset, a narrow perspective of reality and existence. Living mindfully everyday in all walks of my life has has opened the door of wisdom in my life. It has expanded my mind and enriched my heart.The journey of life has become a pilgrimage and I deeply feel grateful for receiving such a grace. We go where our mind goes. Our mind takes a ride in the past or a flight in the future, hardly staying in the present. Wandering mind becomes our default mode of functioning. Such a wandering mind is compared to monkey mind taking control of ourselves. Such a wandering mind deprives us from being free and deeply connected with us, others in our life and the beauty of nature. Our mind can be our enemy and it also can be our friend.We need to learn how to make our mind our friend.
Mindfulness is one of the ways for making our mind friendly. I have been regularly practicing mindfulness. It has been very helpful to me for making me peaceful, joyful, compassionate and creative. Mindfulness is a non-judgmental and compassionate existential awareness. of what is happening in me and around me. It has helped me to remain present to what is rather than what was or what will be. It keeps me stay in the being zone rather than the default mode of going away from the present moment. I value the power of pausing when my mind takes a hike and goes to the past or the future, taking away from the here and now consciousness..Noticing where my mind goes without reactive judgmental thoughts, I pause, breathe and connect my mind with the ever present breath. In the mindfulness landscape, sitting doing nothing, spring comes and grass grows by itself. Life bestows blessings and I receive them gratefully. May we learn how to befriend our mind, be here and now, and receive blessings coming from everywhere! The universal essence is also the essence of our being.
Developing inner stillness is an essential part of the process of awakening. We need to slow down and calm our mind to wake up-to transcend the layers of thought and emotion that cloud our consciousness. By learning how to be still, we come to realize that we are not our sensations, thoughts, and emotions. The inner emptiness creates space for inner fullness. We enter into a world far beyond the mind, beyond the ego. We experience oneness within and without, the universe within and the universe without. There is one stream of consciousness flowing. There are no twos, there is only one, and that’s who we are. Dr. Dan Siegel describes this state of being as MWe. What obstructs us from being connected with the spiritual essence of the universe and our being? It is our powerful sense of ego with all its cravings, attachments and ambitions. It separates us from others. Spiritual practices help us transcend separateness and connect us with the Divine Spirit which is in all beings. When we realize our true nature, our true identity, we experience fullness, self-sufficiency, deep contentment with what we have. There is no concern for worldly success, worldly possessions and personal ambitiousness and personal promotion. We get unaffected by praise or blame, approval or disapproval, pleasure or pain. We live in two universes: the universe within and the universe without. Since the dawn of life, we as human beings have been wondering about these two universes. We ask the core question; Who I am I? We look within and understand different layers of I- physical, mental, emotional and relational. When we do not identify ourselves with the changing scenario of the I, the knowing of the I manifests. And this I is beyond time and space. It is universal and eternal. Until we realize that I, our wondering will continue,
The cosmos, the Universe is like the inner soul-the Cosmic I, the Universal I.. We have been expanding our knowledge and understanding of the Cosmos, the Universe. We as the inhabitants of this Universe are wondering about it and making space explorations. When we become aware of the vastness of this expanding Universe and compare it with the planet earth, we as human beings feel very humble. And when we look at ourselves with this cosmic lens, we realize how little is our egoic self.. Such inner inquiries awaken me and I feel released and liberated from the little cage I live in. It seems to me that the essence of the inner world and the outer world is the same, beyond the conceptual lenses we may use to understand these two worlds. It feels like a mystery, a wonderment. I sense it when my mind ceases to wander. It gets still and remain open and clear like the blue sky. May we be free from the bondage we create by ourselves and relate to the expanding inner and outer world! We all are journeying. Life is a journey. The upward path of our life journey is not always easy. We encounter hazards that may thwart our upward journey. We may fall down and fail. We may get overwhelmed. We may go through fear, worry and anxiety. We may feel like we are losing the ground. The temptations may allure us. And we may succumb to them. But we build up our inner strength, get up and keep moving on the upward path.
I have been a traveler on this path for a long time. And I have encountered small and big difficulties. I have been practicing Mindfulness Meditation which has kept me grounded, steadfast and awakened. I have fallen down and I have gotten up. Mindfulness practices have created inner strength in me to continue my upward journey. I see my original face when I remove the veil of my self-focused thoughts and cravings. I hear my original voice when I become still and hear the sound of silence. I feel full and complete. Nothing is missing. I feel like a child nurtured by the Mother Earth.Life is a mystery and a miracle. My heart gets filled with joy, humbleness, and gratitude. May we remain awakened to see the Divine Light that shines everywhere and all the time! True love knows no boundaries and no demands, no conditions. We all have been blessed to experience such unconditional love, love arising and emanating from pure heart, pure consciousness. Life begins with such pure love in the mother’s womb. Life is birthing with such pure love. Life is nurtured and sustained with such pure love. Life blossoms by the loving and tender touch of the other person; life grows by the loving and compassionate support of the other person. In loving relationships, there is loving presence transcending the conditioned and judgmental mind. Such loving relationship is not bound by space and time. Such relationships happen between strangers and may be for a short time leaving the fragrance of connectedness.
Family is the cradle for creating, growing and sustaining such profound and rich relationships. In such relationships we experience oneness and harmony in spite of differences. We relate to each other mindfully with an open mind and heart, with empathy, kindness, and compassion. There is also emotional love. The pure love can be tarnished by the conditioned mind, the judgmental mind, holding on to the past grudges and unfinished businesses. Such love causes disruptions, distress and illness. It may lead to break ups-head aches and heart aches. We need to awaken our heart and clear our head. Such work requires mindfulness practices on a regular basis. We need to make a wise choice for a greater good. Fear, anger, shaming and blaming hijack our positive emotions such as love, empathy. Kindness and compassion. Emotional self-awareness is very helpful to end a hijack. Emotional self-awareness is paying full and non-judgmental attention to what is happening in our mind and body. Deep belly breathing is a very effective way of regulating our emotional reactions. When we regularly practice processing difficult emotions and thoughts mindfully, it becomes easy to bounce back to our loving presence and compassion. We make a U turn, a shift from negative energy to positive energy. We return to our home, the abode of pure love. |
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