Marriage which takes away freedom to be oneself, to be an authentic loving self creates imprisonment for both the man and the woman. Such marriages make each other's life miserable and breaks up intimate relationships. Adorning to my experience unconditional love enriches and deepens relationships. Sadly many marriages have caused heart aches and head aches and they result in separation and divorce. According to me, marriage helps each other blossom and makes life fragrant. I also believe that freedom without responsibility is conducive to failure and unhappiness. I remember Carl Ung's pronouncement when he came to America,. He said," America needs two statues: Statue of Liberty on the East coast and statue of Responsibility on the West coast. Freedom without responsibility is license to do whatever one wants to do. It is a sign of self-will and immaturity.  I married Vaneela who showed true love and courage to marry me born in a poor family. She married me though her father was against her choice. Both of us loved deeply and our love flourished our life. Such loving relationship fuels the engine of our experience. She passed away a few years ago but she lives in our heart for ever.
Namaste. 

Above is my reflection to the excerpt from Neale Donald Walsch's article.

Based on the lovely article by Deborah Hawkins, here is my reflection:

If and when I relate to someone without preconceived notions and prejudices I get connected with that person easily. I need to keep my mind open to relate to the other person openly. There is freshness and openness in being with that person. My mind needs to be free from my preconceived ideas and notions about that person. This way of relating to the other person keeps our relationship flowing. Empathic listening with non-judgmental attitude is the key to creating and sustaining rich and nurturing relationship. We all need to be connected with others emphatically and compassionately. Sadly we feel lonely in a crowd with people relating to others as strangers or sometimes as adverbial. It is a lonely crowd syndrome.

When I came to America in 1959 to study at the University of Chicago. I felt like an alien on the campus. The weather was very cold. I was away from my family. I felt lonely and depressed. There was a Polish student who lived on the second floor. I was on the first floor. As I was was walking out to attend my class, I heard a voice of that student. He put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me empathically and told me that I looked very sad. I told him that I was sad and somewhat depressed for leaving my family and having no friends. He held out his hand and and told me, "Consider me your brother". He as 6 and a half feet tall. He was white. He was Catholic. I am a brown colored Hindu, 5 and a half feet tall. He held my hand and told me: "Consider me your brother." When my family came to Chicago from India, he drove me to the airport to welcome my family. He became uncle Paul in my family. We will never forget him. He dwells in our heart. As human beings, we all can relate to each other as brother and sisters, uncles and aunts regardless of color, caste, and creed. In the world we live in which is torned by divisivenss, alienation and hatred, we need to wake up and relate to each other with empathy, compassion and open-mindedness and open-heartedness.

There are many shapes of silence. Silence in the mind. Silence in deep sleep. Silence when I am fully present without distracted by the past or hijacked by the future. There is meditative silence when the mind is here and now. There is relational silence, silence of attention. Silence of oneness. Silence in nature when the human voices are quiet. Silence in deep dreamless sleep.

Reading this passage reminds me of a story I had read some time ago. It is an old story. Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher and author of The Tao, was passing by a village. It was night time. He was invited by the village chief to spend the night at his place. Early in the morning Lao Tzu was ready to go for a meditative walk. The chief requested that he walk with Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu welcomed him to walk with him. After a while the sun started rising filling the clouds with beautiful colors. The chief expressed his wonderment by saying," Look how beautiful the sky is looking!" Lao Tzu rebuked the chief by saying these words, " You talk too much." He taught him a good lesson of silence and a lesson of mindfulness. I have learned to listen to silence by practicing mindfulness meditation. The clouds of agitated thoughts and disruptive emotions fade way and I see the sky of clarity. The noises in the mind go away and I feel the presence of silence. Such experiences are very profound and they help me to realize my true identity. May we all cultivate openness, clarity and silence! This is the way of being.

​Namaste!

The end of the world is the beginning of the world. The death of the world is the rebirthing of the world. As Dougald Hine says, "It is a work of midwifery" facilitating the birth of a new life with an open heart and with the support of the head. Whenever an innovative and creative idea arises in me, I welcome it with open hands, an open mind and an open heart. For the new idea to be born, I need to let go of the attachment of the old and worn out ideas. There have been times in my life when I have embraced the uncertainty of the outcome of a new idea by letting go of the old, safe, and familiar ideas. It is an adventure worth taking. A few years ago I had spent a month in a community where we were encouraged to listen to our unconditioned voice and follow it without societal inhibitions and prohibitions. This experience helped me realize how I had built walls within me. Recognizing such walls and taking bold steps to overcome them made me free from the self-created bondage. It is up to me to be aware of such walls and obstructions and have courage to transcend them. It is a journey. What helps me to walk on the path is open mindedness, open heartedness, mindfulness, and courage. This is an ongoing journey and I am happy to travel on this path with fellow brothers and fellow sisters.

​Namaste! 

Being has no -time and no- space boundaries. Being is ONE and WHOLE. Being is UNIVERSAL. I have read this truth and heard about it many many times. And I also know that TRUTH needs to realized, to be lived. And when I live this way, the dividing walls of me against you break down and we spiritually become one. There is oneness in manyness. In fact there is only ONENESS and that is who I am and that is who you are, and that is we are. There is no subject-object duality. Enlightenment is seeing this nondual existence and living it.

I feel the light of enlightenment when I love someone unconditionally, when I serve someone selflessly, when I feel unitive consciousness in meditation. Wakefulness, awareness, looking within and practicing mindfulness meditation have been very helpful to me to see through the mirage of the subject being separate from the object, closing the gap between the subject and the object.

Namaste!

Above is my reflection based on the article by Charlotte Joko Beck. 

This passage reminds of me of one line of a song I used to sing. It is in Gujarati, my mother tongue. Namage' dodatu ave'. Tranlation: It comes fast if you don't ask. It stands for spiritual blessings- Divine Gifts. Spiritual gifts do not come to us when we have selfish desires, self-interest and self-serving mindset. " In giving we receive" as St Francis of Assisi says. Or as The Rishi of Ishavasya Upanishada says in Sanskrit, " Ten tyaktena bhunjitaha". Renounce and rejoice. Sadly, the world we live in values more the merrier, and there is no end to possessing and grabbing more and more. We were born in a relatively poor family but we didn't feel poverty in our heart. My mother was very hospitable and generous. My friends who were brought up in rich families would come to see me at lunch time. My mother offered them very simple food to eat. They enjoyed eating simple food with great joy. They loved to cherish the simple food as it was made with the sweetness of her heart. I still feel the sweet presence of my mother in my heart. I was blessed to have such a loving mother in my life. I am very grateful to her for planting the seeds of spirituality in my heart. The more I fertilize them with selfless service and unconditional love, the more my life blossoms with fragrance of deep joy and contentment.

Namaste

Here is my reflection based on the poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox: 

Life is not always a bed of roses. It has also painful thorns. The Buddha makes a wise reflection on suffering. He calls it a noble truth. Why do we suffer? What or who causes suffering? Once we know the cause of suffering, we can learn about suffering and when we apply this knowing, we can be free from our self-created suffering. Then there's is no blaming, no fighting, no denying. We free ourselves from the grip of suffering. This is the way of being enlightened. Knowing the cause of suffering is the way of reducing or becoming free from the self-caused suffering. Knowing is one thing. Practicing and implementing is another thing. I know the path of ending the suffering. However, there are times when I have missed the mark and caused suffering to me and to others who have loved me unconditionally. I have related to my suffering compassionately and this knowing has helped me not to create my own suffering and that way I do not cause suffering in others who love me. Being honest and authentic with my own self, being loyal to my own self, and relating to my self and others who might have caused suffering to me compassionately has been liberating me from my pain and suffering.

Namaste! 

Below is my reflection after reading the excerpt from Joanna Macy's book - World as Lover, World as Self :

Nature has no hierarchical external power. There is an intrinsic order in nature like the rising and setting of the sun or ebb and flow of the water of the ocean. Nature has her own rhythms. Seasons of nature change naturally. Our bodies and minds change as we grow though life cycles. There is an implicit order. If we shake our welcoming hands with
natural changes life moves gracefully.
When I hold the tired hand of someone with empathy and compassion I feel deeply connected with that person and feel empowered to help. My helping hand is filled with joyful energy for helping someone who needed help. There is an alignment of head, heart and hand. We are no more strangers. We are brothers and sisters. We are soul mates. And that is the synergy of grace.
Namaste!

Roger Keyes, was a highly respected scholar of Japanese print who studied the works of Katsushika Hokusai -- a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period in Japan (mid 1800s) who practiced single-pointed attention, perseverance, exploration through his art. Keyes brings out the spiritual voice of Hokusai through the poem here. Below is my reflection to the poem:

A child's mind is open and curious to know and explore. A child's mind is not stuffed and stuck with the past which is gone and the future which is yet to come. Living fully in the present moment is the way of living freely. Each one of us has the potential to live life with contentment. This is an eternal message given and lived by ancient wise and enlightened people. The door of living this way has been always open. We need to have an open and unbound mind to walk through it and embrace life fully. I feel fulfillment and deep contentment when my mind is free from self-created noises; when my mind is not hijacked by what happened in the past or thinking about future. I pay single-pointed attention to the present moment when I am reading, writing, walking, listening, and observing. It is called The Beginner's Mind, the mind which is open, free, fresh and awakened. I realize that this is the way of living. However, there are times when my mind dwells in the past or worries about the future. Mindfulness helps me to walk on the path. Wakefulness helps me not to go back to "sleep". Awakening, awareness and acceptance are my ever helping friends and I am grateful for keeping me on the spiritual path.

Namaste!

Based on the article by Pierre Pradervand, below is my reflection:

Who am I? Am I my authentic self? Am I my real self? Do I know myself and reveal myself as I am ? Or I am projecting my image to be liked, appreciated or admired by others? I value myself as I am. Integrity is core of my being. Integrity is the core quality of my being. It is the important fiber of my being.
I do not have difficulty in accepting myself as I am. There have been times when I keep quiet about speaking the truth because I do not want to hurt feelings of people close to me. I am learning how to tell the truth without sugarcoating it. It's a challenge to tell the truth as it is without hurting the other person. I have learned to tell the truth in an empathic and compassionate way. I speak the truth gently and softly.
Namaste!