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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.
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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. We as human beings experience the dark night of the soul, individually and collectively. The ancient world epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, Odessa and Iliad depict the dark and the bright side of us as human beings.Lots of destruction and damage to nature and to human beings have been done by us. We witness such acts of violence done to nature and to us as humans by the advanced countries in the world. There are also living examples of people who are devoted to doing the greater good, even at the cost of their lives. This is what Jesus did, what Mahatma Gandhi did, what Martin Luther did what Nelson Mandela did.
I introspect and examine my inner landscape. I do find myself hurting some one, blaming someone for my misery and not being truthful. It is a journey of life with twists and turns, with dark clouds and sunshine. peaks and valleys and thorns and flowers. I have accepted myself as a human being and I have been learning to be kind to myself and learn from my fall downs. There is that Human in me and there is that Being in me. The Being in me enlightens me and helps me walk on the right path. I am very grateful to my spiritual teachers who have shone me the path of living right, held my hand when I fell down and helped me with compassion to rise up and continue my journey. So, let us not our consciousness be filled with the dark clouds of gloom and doom, but enkindle the light within to walk with hope, courage, and compassion. May we join our hands, heads and hearts as we travel together with hope, courage and compassion! I had lived in a wide open space in a village size little town in India until I was 16. I graduated from a high school and went to a collage located in a relatively big town.Now when I go back to India, the same town has become a mega city.There is not much open space. It is crowded and cluttered. Living in a wide open space expanded my awareness of natural beauty and human beings.I felt easily connected with them. I indeed saw the wisdom expressed in the saying "Small is beautiful". The smallness of size expanded and enriched my inner space,my connectedness with nature and people around me. The bigness squeezed my inner and outer space.
My inner openness helps me to receive blessings coming from nature and from people in my life. Outer openness facilitates my inner openness and expansion. I may not be able to change the outer openness but I can expand my inner openness-mind and heart openness.Living this way has definitely enriched my life-mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually. When my eyes are open, I see the miracles of nature. When my ears are open, I hear the music of silence. When my hands are open, I feel the touch of kindness. When my heart is open, I feel the grace of love and gratitude. What more do we need to fill the cup of life? May we not live in the self-created prison, when the door of freedom is wide open! Living is an art like music and dance. The art of living fully in the moment is the way of living.When our mind is occupied by the future we miss the existential unfolding beauty and joy of the present moment. A mind that is present enjoys the present of presence. The mind that is absent misses the present of presence. When we are fully engaged and absorbed in the present, we are in the flow, in the being zone.
I have been practicing mindfulness, the art of being fully present, attending to what is happening inside and outside without being hijacked by the past or the future. It has been a great blessing to me. This way of living is enriching my life personally and relationally. I have been able to appreciate the gifts coming from nature and people, feeling my heart with gratitude. I am 91 years old and I am accepting my aging mindfully and gracefully. If I compare myself with the past, I am sure I will make myself impoverished and miserable. If I worry about the future, I am going to reject, diminish or even destroy the gifts of the present. I have realized the wisdom of living in the here and now. When I step out of the flow of the river, I miss the water of living and get thirsty.When I wake up from my illusion, I quickly get connected with the flow of life which is beyond space and time. I love Deepak Chopra's book "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind". May we learn and practice the art of living life fully and share our gifts with others! There are two worlds I (and we) live in: The world which has more darkness than light and also the world which has more light than darkness. I can talk about my world more authentically than the world of others. What are the two major components of my inner world?:The kind of world I really like and love to create and live in. It is a world filled with light and love, a world graced by kindness, forgiveness, truth, gratitude, generosity and compassion. Then there is another inner world with my ambitions, needs, and desires and my likes and dislikes. The challenge for me is to strike a dynamic balance.
My life long work and challenge has been to build a realistic and constructive bridge between the two worlds. Can I serve myself and others? Can I take care of myself and others in my life? I do not aspire to be a martyr or a an unkind self-serving narcissist. The more I introspect and remain aware of the self created imbalance between these two apparently opposite perspectives, the less I go through self-hurting or other-hurting wishes, desires and behaviors. To me, life is an ongoing journey of maintaining the balanced flow between these two valances.Living life this way has made me a better person and a happier person. Living this way is like maintaining the flow of the river of life between the two banks. May I maintain a wholesome balance between the two poles of existence! May others live a balanced and happy life! Life is a cycle of connectedness. We all are connected as human beings. Life begins because of connectedness between two beings. Life is sustained and flourished by connectedness. We all are connected with nature. We are a part of nature, not apart from nature.Our being is made up of five primordial elements:earth,water, fire, air and space. What is inside is also outside. We have organic connection with life within and life without. It is our sacred responsibility to express our gratitude to the life giver and sustainer, the Mother of all, the Mother Earth.
We need to awaken and sustain this spiritual awakening in our everyday life.We may remain awakened when we read a writing like this or listen to a spiritual discourse or be in the presence of an awakened soul.. And then we go back to sleep. We get disconnected with the source of our being. We waste and dump toxic chemicals in water, we poison crop, rip soil, pollute air because of ignorance and at worst by greed. In the name of progress, we cut the sacred chord of life. We ignore and deny the inconvenient truth. This is a serious global challenge. We will save our Mother Earth or kill her. We all need to take responsibility and make right and wise choices for sustaining and flourishing life everywhere.We need to wake up and remain awake for preserving life of all beings, us and nature. This way we can express our gratitude to the Creator. May we have an awakened mind and a grateful heart for the survival, sustenance and flourishing of our Mother Earth. Life is a web of relationships. Some are I-It relationships. They are utilitarian,pragmatic and self-serving. Such relationships are shallow leaving no nourishing deep roots of memory in our mind. I have had such relationships leaving no worth- remembering deep traces behind.
I cherish I-Thou relationships. It is a relationship between two genuine and deeply caring beings. It has openness, trust, and compassion. I have been blessed to have such deep relationships with my parents, family members, a few friends and my soul mate. Such relationships have made me a whole and wholesome person. Such relationships have been blessings to me and I am deeply grateful for such blessings. May we keep our mind and heart open to cultivate such I-Thou relationships! |
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