Thursday, December 22, 2011

Delight in the success of others

Let’s be honest here. Have you ever found yourself secretly wishing someone else would fail? I don’t mean you wish them any serious bad luck, only that they don’t become more successful than you? Sometimes it’s hard to wish others well, particularly those you know well – friends, colleagues, neighbors, family members. It’s hard to see a colleague get the promotion you worked so hard for. It’s difficult to see your friend on television, or your neighbor able to purchase a new car. We’re human; we get jealous.

While it can be seductive, or at least habitual, to secretly desire to keep others at your level, it’s absolutely not in your best interest. The way to rise to the top is to wish everyone well, to hope with all your heart that everyone can expand to their greatest potential, to wish that the people you know, and those whom you don’t know, can all realize their dreams and achieve greatness.

When you wish someone well, it creates a momentum within you, an inner environment of success. It reminds your spirit of your loving and deserving nature. It creates the atmosphere within you to help you succeed and create abundance. When you delight in the success of others, it’s as if you are sprinkling the seeds for a garden of success.

As you wish others well, notice how good it feels. When your wishes are sincere, they will serve as a reminder that giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. And the goodness that we feel gives us the energy to look at the numerous opportunities that are awaiting us in our journey. And remember Opportunity - does not mean just money. It could be events to cheerful, events to be blissful, events to just be happy seeing others happy, events to just trust others and be happy in spite of they reciprocating or not etc.

On the other hand being in jealousy of others success just relates to a closed energy level. Please observe the burn within - at the stomach, at the heart and finally at the mind. This very burn eats up the energy that we have. Just observe the way our mind gets back and back at the same topic and burns the issue.

And when our energy goes in this way, when our mind is pre occupied, no wonder we miss the opportunities that come our way. Because mind cannot work on two things at the same time.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Run

It happens many times that runners.... You will not think of running as a meditation, but
runners sometimes have felt a tremendous experience of meditation. They were surprised,
because they were not looking for it -- who thinks that a runner is going to experience
God? -- but it has happened, and now running is becoming more and more a new kind of
meditation. It can happen in running. If you have ever been a runner, if you have enjoyed
running in the early morning when the air is fresh and young and the whole world is
coming back out of sleep, awakening, and you were running and your body was
functioning beautifully, and the fresh air, and the new world again born out of the
darkness of the night, and everything singing all around, and you were feeling so alive....
A moment comes when the runner disappears, there is only running. The body, mind and
soul start functioning together; suddenly an inner orgasm is released.
Runners have sometimes come accidentally on the experience of the fourth, turiya,
although they will miss it because they will think it was just because of running that they
enjoyed the moment; that it was a beautiful day, that the body was healthy and the world
was beautiful, and it was just a certain mood. They will not take note of it. But if they
take note of it, my own observation is that a runner can more easily come close to
meditation than anybody else. Jogging can be of immense help, swimming can be of
immense help. All these things have to be transformed into meditations.
Drop old ideas of meditations, that just sitting underneath a tree with a yoga posture is
meditation. That is only one of the ways, and may be suitable for a few people but is not
suitable for all. For a small child it is not meditation, it is torture. For a young man who is
alive, vibrant, it is repression, it is not meditation. Maybe for an old man who has lived,
whose energies are declining, it may be meditation.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I will make mistakes, but not again

Sometimes it happens that you commit to the wrong thing, even then it is good to commit, because the day you will know it is wrong you can get out of it. At least you would have learned one thing: that it is wrong, and never to get into anything like that again. It is a great experience; it brings you closer to truth.
Why do people vacillate so much? -- because from the very childhood you have been told not to commit any mistakes.
- Not to touch fire, i doubt how many kids really have experienced first and then been told not to touch fire.
- Not to go out into the cold morning.
- Not to go out into the rain.
- Not to play in the mud.
- Not to smoke.
- Not to drink.
- Not to even run!
- Not to laugh.
- Not to cry.
- Not to come after 10th position in the class.

Ever wondered why? Because in all this there are experiences. Experience of either truth or mistakes. But both are experiences. So unless you try these, you miss both - the experience of it being right and the learning that comes from the failure or the mistake.
You just grow up eventually being a stone of no intelligence, which cannot adapt, which lacks intelligence and that is the ability to use knowledge as the circumstance requires.
This is what happens, the kids miss both the experience and the learning that comes from it if its a mistake.
Unless a kid runs early morning at 6am in the drizzling rain, he does not get to know of the beauty of the experience - the occassional birds chirping and flying by, sitting drenched on the cables, the silence on the huge ground and just the sound of the drizzle on the running tracks, the occasional few people looking at you as if you are crazy, the dimly light ash colored sky and the shiver that you get because of the cold, the experience that you pant faster in this wonderful atmosphere, the experience that you have to be aware the entire half hour lest you slip in the waters, the experience of thinking if its sweat or rain water dripping down the forehead, the experience of having to see smoke come out of your mouth as you look up high into the ash colored sky and gasp for breath, the feeling of gratefullness while standing under a tree to gain your breath, feeling thankful to the tree, or the experience that you are down with cold and fever, the learning that sudden changes in climate causes cold!

The kid fails all these experiences - be it mistake or the correctness of the action. That is one of the greatest teachings of all the societies all over the world -- and very dangerous, very harmful. Teach children to commit as many mistakes as possible, with only one condition: don't commit the same mistake again, that's all. And they will grow, and they will experience more and more, and they will not vacillate. Otherwise a trembling... and time is passing by, out of your hands, and you are vacillating.
After all kids then have three clear cut roads, help the pick one of the three, mind you - help them and you dont pick.
1. Its a wonderful experience running in the rain at 6am
2. Its a wonderful experience running in the rain at 6am, but I fell sick. So I have to train myself to this new experience, train my body and mind to accept the new climate.
3. Its a wonderful experience running in the rain at 6am, but its a MISTAKE. I ll fall sick. I should be careful to avoid it as much as possible.

An incident to help us remember this teaching:
"Just a few days ago, one young man came to me. For three years he has been vacillating
whether to take sannyas or not. I said, "Decide either yes or no, and be finished with it!
And I am not saying decide yes, I am only saying DECIDE. No is as good as yes. But
wasting three years? If you had taken sannyas three years ago," I told him, "by this time
you would have known whether it is worth it or not; at least one thing would have been
decided. Vacillating three years, nothing has been decided. You are in the same space,
and three years have gone by."

TRAIN AS THOUGH CUT OFF.
Mind is vacillation. The discipline of a meditator is to become so watchful of the mind, so alert to the mind and its stupidities -- its hesitations, its tremblings, its vacillations -- to become so watchful that you are cut off.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Suicide and He was a coward! Is it?

We pretty much hear this comment - 'Moron he was a coward, he didn't have the guts to face life!".

A guy or a girl commits suicide and this is the first comment we hear. Is there a different angle to it?
Or say for instance a person takes to drugs and this is the comment we might hear - He or she dosent want to take up the responsibilities of life.

Can we picture a donkey being over loaded with goods and made to walk and if possible it suicides.

The only explanation then given is - the donkey didn't ask for the goods to be loaded, where as the humans did.

He or she asked for the high paying job.
He or she asked for a family life.
He or she wanted the pleasure of the physical relation. Funny - here though - worth noting they dont have a choice here in India.
He or she asked for marriage.
He or she asked for the costly flat on emi.
He or she asked for the costly car.
He or she asked for the first kid.
He or she asked for the second kid.

The list is never ending... it just ends with out life.

The question then remains... Is, to err human?
Can human beings not make mistakes?
Can human beings not know the net outcome of his action although he has thought about it?
Has the very society, parents, uncles, aunties, priests, policemen, teachers, friends who "conditioned" every human being to do all the actions listed above told them about the outcomes of each of these actions? Hmm... but then the question remains.. why should they be blamed, why can you take up the responsibility of your wanting to marry?

But then the question remains - as a baby were you vulnerable?
Did you have a reasoning mind and could it be conditioned, could it can be moulded?
Yes - the inevitable answer is Yes and the truth is, these were responsible to mould, to condition : society, parents, uncles, aunties, priests, policemen, teachers, friends etc and etc.
Isn't it true that we, the new generation are more driven by rajasik and tamasik energy and that we are even ignorant of the Saatvik energy?
Isnt it true that we weren't shown the possibility of these 3 factors as babies which makes a human decide to quit life? To quit responsibilities?

So the question is - did the baby have a chance?

Is it right to load a donkey till the sky and expect it to still work? Do we see rationality in the donkey jumping into a well?
Should we say - the donkey is a coward, it couldn't face life? Or if the donkey drinks itself to addiction - that its not taking up responsibility.

So the question remains - Is he/she a coward when a human gets addicted, when a human commits suicide? Should we really say - "He was a coward, he didn't have the guts to face life!" Or should we think:
He was a human and made a mistake.
He got conditioned by the expectations of the society.
He miscalculated and couldn't judge all the outcomes.
He just got conditioned by the fact that human beings have to marry.
Or he just got conditioned by the fact that married people have to have kids?

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Astrology - ha ha ha

Astrology is man’s weakness, because he cannot see the future and he wants to see it.
Question arises why does he want to see the future.
To know if he is going to die soon?
To know if he is going to do the engineering?
To know if he is going to do a second degree?
To know if he would get the right job?
To know if the right job should be left for the next one?
To know when he can marry?
To know if his marriage is going to break?
To know if his not yet started business will continue making him money?
To know if the unborn kid is going to be born?
To know if the kid is going to do good on all the questions above?


He is always afraid to go astray. He wants to be certain that he is on the right path.
In all the points mentioned above reason for the questions is Fear. Fear of one thing or the other.
He wants to pacify his mind - his chattering mind.
And in the mystic field, fear is nothing but a discontinuity, an end.

And to recognize the fact that it is good that the future is not determined, otherwise you would not have any freedom. Astrology is against freedom. If tomorrow is decided, then I am a machine, not a man. Only machines should consult astrologers, not men.
And such a man is an individual, and the society is always afraid of individuals. The jesus was crucified and so was Osho.
Astrology does not give you the freedom — it is the greatest slavery. Every minute detail is written and there is no way to change it — it will happen the way it was determined. It has reduced man to a puppet, a puppet of blind forces.

If astrology is right then Gautam Buddha, Krishna, Kabir, Dadu, do not deserve any respect. It was determined; they had to become what they became. So what is great in it? And murderers do not need to be condemned. Just as Buddha is a puppet, the murderer is a puppet, and both are in the hands of… we know not, we are not aware of those hands.

No, I deny this determination. I want to say to you that the achievement of Buddha or Kabir or Nanak is their own achievement. It is their creation, it is their effort, it is their struggle. And they deserve all respect for it. And the murderer, the rapist, the criminal — they are also creating themselves. They could have created themselves as a buddha, but they decided to create themselves as a murderer. The whole responsibility is theirs. Astrology takes away your responsibility. It is suitable for cowards. Those who cant take up the responsibilty, those who cant stand up to what their life has become. Those who want to shift the blame elsewhere and say yes, nothing much i can do, it is in my horescope, i cant do much about it.

Quite typical, if you observe the astrologer ravages a failed soul. They make you feel good that the negative things happening in your life is not your doing. NOthing much you can. At the same time they make you dependend on them as in offering solutions for these problems.
The question should be - if my horescope has it, then how can the astrolger change it. If he can change it then he truly is god.

Anything that takes away responsibility from man is dangerous because it makes cowards out of us, it gives us reasons to waste our life.here is no science of astrology and there can never be. It is against man’s spiritual growth, it is against man’s freedom, it is against man’s humanity.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The headache

Yesterday night was new. A throbbing headache, never before experienced. Very painful as if a nerve inside the base of my head was trying to burst.
For the first time I got glimpses of being a watcher. The pain was so immense that all I could do after taking the pills was to hammer my head. But then for dislike of publicity i had to refrain.
I had no other option but to watch the pain - dive deep down into the center of the pain. As I sat and meditated on the pain, I was able to go deeper and deeper and as I did this my head spun and a feeling of detachment started, detachment from the body and the pain. I could feel as if these three were distinct.

The mind tried hard to bring in the chatter and this then became the third person in the play. The body, pain and the Mind.

As the mind chattered, I was clearly able to witness it separate from the throbbing pain. The pain raised manifolds as the mind chattered. I tried accepting the pain, starting welcoming it. I thanked it for the experience, for being my teacher for awareness. I allowed it to flow through the body. And as my awareness spread over the body, I saw my body parts tensed, tightened. I had made a hard fist unknowingly. I had to force it to open and relax. The same was observed for other parts of my body.

Hope the next headache is going to be another learning.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The bee has forgotten the door!

The most important thing whenever you are in a problem is not to start immediately doing something. Just sit silently, relax, rest, be in a let-go. Rather than trying to find out the way, watch from where you have entered, because each problem has its own solution and each question has its own answer in it.

It is the same we see, we feel at times in our life.
This is akin to the bee which has entered the house through the open main door.

Bees seem to have something like human minds, exactly the same kind of stupidity. The doors may be open, but if a bee is inside the room, caught inside the room... and she may have come from the open door but she will try to get out from the closed window and the more she tries, the more desperate she becomes, because there is no way to get through the ceiling or through the wall or through the closed window. And in that desperation, frustration he becomes more and more blind, afraid, scared. He loses all intelligence. And the same is the case with human beings.

We often get into the room through the open door and then forget the very door through which we entered it. Then we end up like the bee - blind, afraid, scared.

So remember yourself in this room when in tension when:
The 21K Blackberry is paper weight,
The 25K Tab has been stolen,
The fight is on for the black belt,
And the tension on for continuing it or not to a year later,
To upgrade from the small to the Big car above your budget and unable to manage the emi,
To upgrade to the Biggest car and use the small car,
To try and buy the bigger flat, when you are staying at your own smaller house,
To look for another job when the current jobs pays for your reasonable life,
You have a job, but the job is then the source of daily tension,
You are not married and want to,
You are married and dont want to,
You dont have a kid and want to,
You already havd a kid and a job and a apartment and want one more kid to play with,
But then you have a kid and then that too is difficult for your job,
Your job boosts your ego and not your money,
Your job boosts your money and not your ego,
Your job and housework are not manageable, but still refuse a full time maid although you can afford to,
Your parents are not there after marriage and no one to take care of home,
Your parents are there after marriage, but you want Privacy,

Worth noting, in all these cases it is the bee that has forgotten the door.