TOI, Pat 07.01.09

Feeling Oneself is only The Beginning

Discourse: Sadguru
The moment I say "spirituality", people say, "Yes, I want to be peaceful." If you take a long walk and lie down, you will sleep peacefully. If you eat a good dinner, you will sleep peacefully. You don’t need the spiritual process to be peaceful. The longing for peace has essentially come from troubled minds of those who are torturing themselves – for them, peace is a big commodity that they have to seek. If you are not using your mind for self-torture, why would you think of peace? Would you seek exuberance of life or would you seek peace?
You ‘rest in peace’. If you want to be peaceful, you must be dead. Now is the time to live. But for those who have lost control over their mental faculty what should have been a miracle has become a misery-manufacturing machine. Even being ecstatic is not a goal by itself. If you are blissful by your own nature, then the important thing is, you are not the issue anymore. If you are an issue yourself, what other issue will you take into your hands? You will not touch anything. When you are no more an issue, then you are willing to plumb the whole of existence to know what it is all about.
Mysticism evolved only in those places where people learnt the technology of being ecstatic by their own nature. For you to experience a little bit of pleasantness within you, if you have to drink, dance, or do something crazy, you will never explore other dimensions of life because keeping yourself pleasant itself is a great challenge and a full-time job. For most, the pursuit of happiness has become the goal of life. Happiness is not something you achieve. It is something that you start with; it is the square one of life. As children, we all started joyfully without any hassle. So, do not understand the spiritual process as one of peace, joy or even bliss. Only if you are blissful, you will truly explore all aspects of life.
There was a time when we believed that whether the tree in our garden bears fruit or not depended on God’s will. But we took charge of these things. Now we know if this tree is not bearing fruit what the problem is. We know what to do. So, when you understand that if your Self has not blossomed, it has got nothing to do with anything except that you are not doing the right thing with yourself. Once we understand that, the spiritual process actually begins.
Once you are not an issue, being peaceful, joyful or blissful is not an effort anymore; then naturally you want to know what is behind everything. This is not an induced quest, seeking comes naturally. The spiritual process is not a conscious choice; it is a kind of compulsive behaviour. But unless you handle it consciously, it will not yield. Longing for the boundless is compulsive, but unless you become conscious, it will never work.
If you want to know, experience and handle other dimensions, it is important that you have no rigid structures in your mind. The biggest thing in existence is not a god sitting somewhere. The life process itself contains the creation and the Creator. If you are willing to go beyond the surface substance of what you call yourself, suddenly everything is malleable. Here and There, Now and Then all merge. The individual and the universal are different no more.
Unless one experiences the universality of one’s nature, human form is wasted. To eat, sleep, reproduce and die, you do not need a human body, intelligence and awareness. Every worm or insect can fulfill that better than a human being.

TOI, Patna December 06, 2008

A Spiritual Response To Terrorist Attacks.

Thich Nhat Hanh
What would you say to a terrorist?
First, I would listen. Why had he acted in that cruel way? I would try to understand all of the suffering that had led him to violence. It might not be easy to listen in that way, so I would have to remain calm and lucid. I would need several friends with me, who are strong in the practice of deep listening, listening without reacting, without judging and blaming. In this way, an atmosphere of support would be created for this person and those connected so that they could share completely, trust that they are really being heard.
After listening for some time, we might need to take a break to allow what has been said to enter into our consciousness. Only when we felt calm and lucid would we respond in such a way to help them discover their own misunderstandings so that they will stop violent acts of their own will…
When we react out of fear and hatred, we do not yet have a deep understanding of the situation. Our action will only be a very quick and superficial way of responding to the situation and not much true benefit and healing will occur. Yet if we wait and follow the process of calming our anger, looking deeply into the situation, and listening with great will to understand the roots of suffering that are the cause of the violent actions, only then will we have sufficient insight to respond in such a way that healing and reconciliation can be realized for everyone involved.
In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has made attempts to realize this. All the parties involved in violence and injustice agreed to listen to each other in a calm and supportive environment, to look together deeply at the roots of violent acts and to find agreeable arrangements to respond to the situations. The presence of strong spiritual leaders is very helpful to support and maintain such an environment.
What is the "right action" to take with regard to responding to terrorist attacks?
All violence is injustice. The fire of hatred and violence cannot be extinguished by adding more hatred and violence to the fire. The only antidote to violence is compassion. Compassion is made of understanding. To understand, we must find paths of communication so that we can listen to those who desperately are calling out for our understanding.
There are people who want one thing only: revenge. The Buddha said that by using hatred to answer hatred, there will only be an escalation of hatred. But if we use compassion to embrace those who have harmed us, it will greatly diffuse the bomb in our hearts and in theirs…
We have to find a way to stop violence, of course. If need be, we have to put the men responsible in prison. But the important thing is to look deeply and ask, "Why did that happen? What responsibility do we have in that happening? "Maybe they misunderstood us. But what has made them misunderstand us so much to make them hate so much?
The method of the Buddha is to look deeply to see the source of suffering; the source of violence. If we have violence within ourselves, any action can make that violence explode. This energy of hatred and violence can be very great and when we see that in the other person they we feel sorry for them. When we feel sorry for them, the drop of compassion is born in our hearts and we feel so much happier and so much more at peace within ourselves. That (empathy) produces the nectar of compassion within ourselves…
Extract from a conversation with Beliefnet poste 9/11, titled ‘What would I way to Osama bin Laden.’ Contact ahimsa.trust@gmail.com or visit www.ahimsatrust.org

Seeking Satisfaction?

TOI, Kol 25.10.2008

Seeking Satisfaction?

You Are Selfish

Jiddu Krishnamurti
What is your fundamental, lasting interest in life? Isn’t it yourself? That is what most of us would say if we answered truthfully. I am interested in my progress, my job, my family, the little corner in which I live, in getting a better position for myself, more prestige, more power, more domination over others, and so on.
Some of us would say that it is wrong to be primarily interested in ourselves. But what is wrong about it except that we seldom decently, honestly, admit it? If we do, we are rather ashamed of it. So there it is – one is fundamentally interested in oneself, and for various ideological or traditional reasons one thinks it is wrong.
You may say that it is more satisfactory to help another than to think about yourself. What is the difference? It is still self-concern. If it gives you greater satisfaction to help others, you are concerned with what will give you greater satisfaction. Why bring any ideological concept into it? Why this double thinking? Why not say, ‘What I really want is satisfaction, whether in sex, or in helping others, or in becoming a great saint, scientist, or politician?"
Is the same process, isn’t it? Satisfaction, in all sorts of ways, subtle and obvious, is what we want. When we say we want freedom, we want it because we think fit may be wonderfully satisfying, and the ultimate satisfaction, of course, is this peculiar idea of self-realisation. What we are really seeking is a satisfaction in which there is no dissatisfaction at all.
Most of us crave the satisfaction of having a position in society because we are afraid of being nobody. Society is so constructed that a citizen who has a position of respect is treated with great courtesy, whereas a man who has no position is kicked around… This craving for position, for prestige, for power, to be recognized by society as being outstanding in some way, is a wish to dominate others, and this wish to dominate is a form of aggression. The saint who seeks a position in regard to his saintliness is as aggressive as the chicken pecking in the farmyard. And what is the cause of this aggressiveness? It is fear, isn’t it?
Fear is one of the greatest problems in life. A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict, and therefore must be violent, distorted, and aggressive.
Living in such a corrupt, stupid society as we do, with the competitive education we receive, which engenders fear, we are all burdened with fears of some kind, and fear is a dreadful thing that warps, twists, and dulls our days…
We are all afraid of something; there is no fear in abstraction, it is always in relation to something. Do you know your own fears – fear of losing your job, of not having enough food or money, or what your neighbours or the public think about you, or of not being a success, of losing your position in society, of being despised or ridiculed…? And what do you usually do about them? You run away from them, don’t you, or invent ideas and images to cover them? But to run away from fear is only to increase it.
One of the major causes of fear is that we do not want to face ourselves as we are. So, as well as the fears themselves, we have to examine the network of escapes we have developed to rid ourselves of them. If the mind, in which is included the brain, tries to overcome fear, to suppress it, discipline it, control it, translate it into terms of something else, there is friction, there is conflict, and that conflict is a waste of energy.

Irreverence Inevitably Attracts The Young

TOI, Patna 18.10.08

Irreverence Inevitably Attracts The Young

Jaithirth Rao

I must have been 16 years old. When my brother introduced me to Jiddu Krishnamurti’s writings. He had suggested that I read a couple of books in the ‘commentaries on Living’ series. We were living in madras – as Chennai was then called – and I went one evening to Vasant Vihar to listen to a talk by JK as my brother referred to call him.
I found many things about the meeting and the talk different. JK walked in and sat down a couple of minutes before the scheduled and the talk started precisely on time. This was and remains quite unusual, particularly in India. The speaker (as JK liked to allude to himself) sat cross-legged and ramrod straight. I have never been able to sit without a slouch and I found the straight posture quite fascinating. JK spoke with a clipped English accent and his singsong was quite hypnotic.
He talked about a large and gorgeous tree in front of us; he talked about the soothing colours of the sunset and gradually walked us down the path of dealing with our minds. There are two sentences from that talk which have stayed with me over the years. "We must find eyes that have never shed tears" is one of them. I have used this haunting theme in some of my writings elsewhere.
The other sentence was: "If you really believed in the karma theory, you would never do anything without an enormous amount of sensitivity; you would not be casual or act out of habit." For an iconoclast, this way quite an unusual things to say. Maybe he was reminding us that we tend to use religious doctrines to suit our convenience.
He went on to tell us that there was no reason for us to fall back on so-called revered teachers be they Shankara or Buddha, no need to look for a guru. Such candour bordering on the impertinent was really new to me. I was shocked, but pleasantly so. A .teenager likes such irreverence and the investigation to work things out oneself.
I read more of JK and attended other talks although no experience equaled the sheer magic of the first one that I went to. One of JK’s talks where he dealt with the "fear of death" that each of us has to deal with has also stayed with me over the years.
Very few have dealt with the issue of death with as much honesty and grace as he has. In Pupul Jayakar’s biography of JH, she mentions that when Pupul lost a dear friend, after a couple of days, Krishnamurti told her to "let go" of her friend as he made a gesture suggesting "eternity". This has to be one of the most sensible and sensitive responses to a grieving person for death of a loved one has to be one of the great imponderable experiences we all have to face sooner or later.
Over the years as three of our children one after the other decided to go to Rishi Valley, we became regular visitors there. There were times walking past the old guest house when one felt JK’s presence. And to my credit I kept "observing" and not judging as he would have liked, I hope!
Many have asked me to explain in simple and summary terms what JK stood for. One must resist these temptations. The books are there, the recordings are there. Let whoever is interested read, hear watch and reflect. Above all as one of my friends Samit Ghosh said about the impact of JK on him "each of us has to deal with the issues ourselves". There are no summary short cuts that can fit into two minute television episodes. One must make one’s own path in the "pathless land".

A Spiritual Journey

TOI, Patna 17/8/2008

A Spiritual Journey

The stress and chaos of life will all vanish
Once
we embark on a journey towards spiritual awakening, says Lyn Nichols

Have you ever wondered what this thing we call ‘life’ was really all about? Have you ever had the knowing that there was something more than meets the eye, but no idea what that was, or how to find out what it was. Maybe you have had the feeling that you were meant to be doing something with your life, but had no idea what that was.
Maybe you’re sick of all the stress and chaos and just want to be peaceful. Well if this sounds familiar, you should be feeling very excited. Your life may change after all. This is about spiritual awakening – that takes you towards a life of fulfillment, love and joy. Once you realize the magic that can be, you will wonder why it took you so long.
It is suggested attending a course for beginners where you will be taught a whole range of ideas to get you started on your spiritual journey. You will be introduced to the different forms of spiritual guidance and how to use your psychic gifts even though you are probably unaware you have them.
You will be taught exercises that allow you to start loving yourself and forgiving others. You will be amazed to see and feel the human aura. You may also learn how to use psychic tools, how to meditate, all about your aura and chakra system and how it plays a big role in your health. You will love spending time with like minded spiritual people. The next suggestion is to start reading spiritual books. Then, there are some basic steps you can work on right away to get you heading in the right direction.
Like attracts like
It is the most powerful law in the universe which states ‘that which is like unto itself, is drawn’.
Your thoughts are what have created your reality up until now and what will create your reality for the rest of your earthly existence. You will be astounded, when you start taking notice, of the amount of negative thoughts you have every single hour of the day. What you think about is what you get, whether it is positive or negative. If the universe hears your thoughts of lack, it will make sure you receive more lack, and if it hears your thoughts of abundance, it will make sure you have abundance in your life.
So take notice of what you are thinking and what your emotions are telling you. As soon as you notice a negative thought or bad feeling, stop yourself right there and then and turn it into a positive affirmation.
We all have so many negative programmes in our subconscious mind that have been given to us by our parents and other adult influences in our life during childhood (this is not their fault, they are just passing on the beliefs they have been given from their parents).
The best way of doing this is to watch our thoughts and emotions and practice positive thinking and affirmations every day of our life. Slowly but surely we are able to reprogramme our mind, changing negative beliefs that hinder our life experiences to positive beliefs of self worth and love, enabling us to live a more fulfilled life, attracting positive loving experiences into our daily existence. So if you catch yourself thinking a negative thought such as ‘I have a bad relationship or I am so broke’, immediately turn this into a positive thought such as ‘I have a happy, loving relationship or, I now have an abundance of money’ – any affirmation will do as long as it turns the negative into a positive. It doesn’t matter if you don’t really believe it initially, if you say it regularly enough, the subconscious will start believing it and begin attracting it to you. It is amazing how this one practice can change your whole life.
Love yourself
Most of us are brought up thinking it is wrong to love ourselves, that we are vain if we even like ourselves. This programme sets us up for so much heartache in our life. The truth is, if we don’t love ourselves, we cannot truly love anyone else. Until we love ourselves unconditionally, we are constantly looking for fulfillment in other people, especially our partners, which can only lead to disappointment and heartache. When we can honestly say we love every part of ourselves, we love every part of ourselves, we will automatically stop judging others. It is then that we realize, we are all perfect in spirit and doing the best we can in this human existence with the programmes we have been given in childhood. When we can just accept without judgement, we really start to understand the term inner peace. It is then that we can truly forgive others for the wrongs we think they have done to us – often becoming the cause of lifelong pain and eventually illness or disease of our physical body.
Time to meditate
By meditating, we are nurturing our body. Mind and spirit. If we spend 20 minutes every day in meditation, we will soon reap the rewards. We become more peaceful throughout the day and sleep more soundly at night. Things that would normally upset us start to just wash over us – the peace is too lovely for us to let these little incidents interfere with it. Anxiety and other fear-based emotions will drop away as we become aware that we are connected to the creator and the abundance of the universe, leaving us feeling safe and peaceful. Our own spiritual guidance becomes stronger and we become more in tune with our own psychic gifts.
Live in the ‘now’
When we live for today, life becomes so much less stressful. Really, all that there is, is now. None of us even know if tomorrow will ever come, so why do we spend so much time worrying about tomorrow instead of making the most of what we know we do have and filling our days with laughter and love. If there is only now, then there is no yesterday, no past and no reason to be angry at anybody. When we can release all anger from our body we will certainly feel the benefits. Holding on the anger and unforgiveness is debilitating to our physical and emotional bodies. I read once that the most selfish thing we can ever do is to forgive. I truly understand that now, forgiveness equals freedom. If we are holding on to anger we need to work on loving ourselves. If there is no tomorrow, no future, no reason to stress about bills and money, no reason to worry about what’s going to happen to
(Lyn Nichols is an expert in the field of New Age spirituality)