Friday, May 29, 2009

Comparison

We are living a life of comparison. We ourselves are the result of comparison – our identification or the ego or the self is the outcome of comparison. Also the fear, desire, suffering, and problems are result of comparison. From the time we started perceiving the world in this life, we were taught to compare one and everything. Our education systems make us to compare ourselves and everything else in all aspects, but never taught us how to be untouched by the act of comparison. It is up to us to learn, to be free from comparison and even if we need to compare certain things, untouched by the act of comparison. We explore this possibility, if and only if, we are aware of the richness of the life which is without comparison and see the absurdness of the act of comparison.

The life we know is a life of fulfilling our ego or the self. The ego is nothing but the psychological identification we built about ourselves. How the act of identification performed for anything? Identification of anything is relative to something else. To identify any thing, we need certain other thing with this the first one will be related and identified. On the other hand identification is nothing but the result of comparison. Same is the case of identification of us. There may be certain physical qualities which we identify by means of certain established measurement, which we may consider as not relative to anything else in general and of course we need such identifications. But they have nothing to do with our psychology in lay man terms or with the “Stamps” we are collecting in modern psychologist (Transactional analyst) terms or with the “Karma” in philosophical terms. Hence we are not concerned with such physical identification based on established measurements.

We are concerned with the identification which generates turbulence in our mind or transacting stamps or imprinting Karmas. Let as try to analyze how the ego is built on us from certain angle of view. Very often children are referred as the reflection of GOD. This is because the children (probably) don’t have any ego, even if they have ego, they have no means to express it. But the first thing we teach them is how to build the ego of their own. As soon as the child get the capability to listen us, we teach them the concept of good and bad, and we start honoring the so called good. The child is already having an ego of its own and the ‘GODness’ is already gone.

The child seeks security for its survival. When we honor so called ‘good’ and discount so called ‘bad’, the child learns it has to be good to have security. The question of such discriminating power of child is not valid because any living organism, whatever it may be, has certain intelligence of its own. The child also has that intelligence. Once the child knows it has to be good, to have security, it starts projecting so called good and start identifying itself with that good. The psychological identification is already there and the child cannot be considered anymore as reflection of GOD. The child which starts identifying itself with majority of so called good qualities are not much threat for the society in general terms, where as the child growing with the identification of so called bad qualities become a huge threat to the society as a whole.

As soon as the psychological identification with certain good or bad quality is formed, the “I” or “me” or “ego” is created within the child. Once the ego is created, the child starts to look everything around it with reference to this ego, the ego grows stronger, and finally we are here as we are now. We do not know how to see anything as it is. We know seeing, anything and everything, only with respect to our ego. That is why the world is termed as Maya or Illusion by certain philosophies.

How the child knows it as good or bad? The child performs certain action and observes the reaction of environment. This action and reaction goes into its memory. It does another action and that also goes into its memory. Now it compares at which action it felt more secured and labels that action as good. Now for extending the feeling of security, the child identifies itself with the so called good action. Hence, even if we are not there to teach the child about good or bad, it has inbuilt mechanism to learn about good and bad, which is the result of conditioning by generation after generation, even before the formation of human species.

As we have seen, the direct effect of comparison is build up of ego and the side effects are fear, insecurity, desire, and all such qualities. We have also already seen that the qualities which are the side effects of comparison are absolute unnecessary for living a joyful life. Hence we don’t need to do comparison at all, at psychological level. How to be free from the act of comparison? If we take a vow like our New Year resolutions, we can never stop comparison. The only way out is understands the mechanism of comparison from its root until the end of all side effects. This does not mean take an imaginary case and analyze it by means of mental projection. We have more than enough live examples within our mind to track from its root to the end. If we can understand by this way, then we are completely aware of the process of comparison and the uselessness of comparison. If we really know something is not at all useful for us in any manner, will we pursue such thing in our life? Same principle applies for psychological process also and if we really understand that comparison will do any good for us, we will not pursue it at all and the desire for comparison will dissolve from us. The key point is complete understanding of the process of comparison. Nobody else can give that understanding to us. It is up to us to understand the effect of comparison ourselves by tracking ourselves and decide whether we need to pursue or give up the habit of comparison. We will be able decide upon this only if we are aware of the quality of life in which the comparison does not have any space. This awareness is possible only if we look deep enough in to our way of life.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Conflicts

We are living our life with full of conflicts – Conflicts with others, conflicts with environment, conflict with the world and conflict within ourselves. Living with conflict has become our way of life. We are so much into the conflicts and now we are in a state that without conflict, either within or with outside world, we started feeling ourselves as incomplete.

Why is it so? When there is no conflict, there is no outward work for the mind. When the mind is free, it starts turning inward. When it turns inward, it sees the nakedness of us. If we are not matured enough to see ourselves as we are, we will get frightened. To escape from this fear, the mind will start projecting the world based on the content of our memory and in this projection we start seeing ourselves and the world as incomplete.

If we seriously look into this process, we can definitely understand that this is not the way of life for which the human life is intended for. Human beings are the most evolved beings in this world, which is the result of about 13 billion years of evolution. Having the experience of 13 billion years within us and still we live such a life, it is entirely due to our ignorance and not due to our incapability. Unless we express the evolution in our life it will be an absolute meaningless life, whatever may be our projection as our achievement.

As a evolved being, it is our nature to live a life which is intended for human being and out of ignorance we are living a life of conflicts and hence sufferings. To move into the domain of life which is intended for us, the first step must be to recognize our ignorance, which is the most difficult part of this process. It is not difficult because of our incapability, but because of the belief systems in which we are immersed ourselves. The difficulty lies in moving away from all our belief systems. If we could take this first step, there may not be any looking back.

The irony is that most of us lack energy to look into our ignorance. Unless we have sufficient energy within us, we may not be able to look into our belief systems and ignorance with required intensity. Hence, there is a need for energizing ourselves to get sufficient intensity into our looking. Certain methods may be used for energizing ourselves so that we can have an intensive looking into our ignorance and dissolve our ignorance. But one has to have enough awareness of this methods, otherwise will become the slave of those methods.

Coming back to our point of discussion, if we look deep enough into any of our conflicts with outside world, we will be able to find that it has started from a conflict within ourselves. Hence the source of any outside conflict is the conflict within us. If we know how to live a life without any conflict within us, then we know how to live a life without any conflict with the outside world.

Conflict arises within us because we are in a situation where we need to choose for any of our actions. It is obvious that wherever there is a choice, there is a conflict. The choices are there because we do not have enough awareness about ourselves as well as about the world and hence we do not really know what is needed out of us. Because of the lack of awareness we start projecting about ourselves and the world. The projection about ourselves and the world are the product of our mind and not real, because we do not have necessary awareness to look into the reality as it is, without the projection of mind. We know about ourselves and outside world only by means of comparison. The outcome of any comparison is relative to the compared. It is not absolute. Hence what we know about ourselves is just the projection of our mind and when we identify all our actions with the projection of our mind, there will be multiple choices available for choose due to the fact that we have multiple images of ourselves and world within our mind and hence conflict is inevitable.

Does it mean that we can be free from conflicts only when we are aware of the absoluteness? The answer is definitely NO. When we are aware that the choices are there, because we have the multiple projections within our mind, definitely we look more intensively and more deeply. The awareness of multiple choices itself give us the necessary energy to look into more deeply. If we look deep enough, we understand the situation completely and understand what is needed for that situation. With this intensity of looking, we lose all choices and hence there are no more conflicts in our action and hence no more conflicts within us. When we are free from conflicts, there are no more conflicts with outside world.

What we need is just the awareness of our thought process. It is so simple. We do not need any GOD. We do not need any Guru. We do not need any Astrologer. We do not need any particular cosmic structure. We do not need any scripture. We do not need anybody else. We just have to understand the game of our mind. Nobody else can show it to us, unless we ourselves willingly look into our thoughts. We need not even forcefully stop the projection of our mind. Let the mind does what it likes to do, but just be aware of the difference between what we really see and what we perceive as seen due to the projection of mind. If we can bring in that much awareness within us, we are very near to have a world of our liking.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Recapture

We started of this discussion about the change, we perceive as required in the world around us, to have a world of our choice.

During this discussion we noted that, to have a world of our choice, the first step is bringing in necessary changes within us. Before we change ourselves, as we would like others to be, we can not ask others to change. This implies that we cannot ask the world to change according to our liking unless we change ourselves. If we do so before changing ourselves, we must be mentally imbalanced being. Unfortunately, most of us (At least 90% of human population of this planet) belong to this category. Hence the first step is to bring in necessary changes with in us. To bring in the change with in ourselves, first up all we need to understand the required change. If we do not have the necessary understanding there is not at all any possibility for an inward change.

During this discussion, we tried to understand different qualities with which we attach ourselves. The habit of identifying ourselves with these qualities is the root cause of all our problems and which in turn stimulate us for asking the society to change. This discussion might have indicated about the possibility of a life, which is altogether different from the current life which most of us are living (??). On the other hand, this discussion might have indicated that there is a possibility of life, in which we may be having all the comforts, which we are having now minus the suffering we have and possibly much better way of living.

The key point is that unless we recognize the possibility of such life, which is very much possible for every one of us, we are not going to look into what is that life and hence we are not going to live that life. The type of life, which is unknown for us until now is not meant for only the so-called saints. It is meant for the whole of humanity. Unless we recognize that, we are not going to look into the possibility of living that life ourselves. Unless we look into it, we are not going to get it.


This is because we are entangled with few moments of projected happiness of the life, which we are living and considering as the way of life. We are conditioned so much by our culture, by our religions, by our parents, by our belief systems to such an extent, we fear to look beyond that conditioning. The looking beyond our conditioning is possible only if we realize that our state of conditioning and as a result of that conditioning a whole new way of life is denied to us. The new way of life – all the comforts we are enjoying and much more minus all our current sufferings is possible only if we look beyond our belief systems and question each and every conclusions we have, with out any bias on either direction. These discussions might have been a great step towards recognizing the possibility of such life for ourselves, if we really see deeply into the points being discussed.

We have already discussed few of the human conditions, which bring in duality with in human perception. As long as we are into the domain of duality or as long as we do not understand the space between duality or the continuity between duality, we cannot live a fearless life and hence the other way of life is not possible. The earlier discussions might have indicated that it is actually an easiest task to transcend duality and what we need is a very minor inward change, with that change we can look into existence without any bias. This looking of existence will simply free us from all our psychological bondages. As soon as this happens, our life will transcend to the one we discussed above.

To have such a looking into existence, we need a great deal of intensity. Due to our current life style and current way of education system, we have almost lost our sensitivity to existence. To bring in the necessary intensity of looking the existence, we may have to bring in necessary sensitivity to our system (Physical, psychological, emotional, energy) towards existence. This is the point where we may need to have certain methods. Please note that the methods are just to bring in necessary sensitivity to our system towards existence. The methods cannot do anything more than that. Once the sensitivity is brought into the system, we will be having necessary intensity in all our actions this intensity will lead us to the other way of life, which is all our comforts plus, probably much more much more, minus the sufferings.

When we use the methods, great care must be taken not to get attached with the method. If not, we just stuck at the method and our progress towards the better way of living will stop there. The methods may give a false feeling of satisfaction, which we can any way drive from our current way of living. Due to the falsity of this satisfaction, we will be in a much bigger trap. The key point here is the awareness of existence at all times. If we lose the awareness for a brief period, we may fall in a trap, which will be again same as our current way of life.

In addition to the causes of suffering of our current life, we may discuss the overview of few of the methods given by Indian culture towards improving our sensitivity towards existence. It is to be noted that the method suitable for one person may not be suitable for another person, which is due to the chemical composition of individuals. Hence it is up to the individuals to follow certain method suitable for them to increase the sensitivity of their system.

If we condense the content of this discussion, it may be stated as below.

1. Realize the possibility of a better life for every one of us
2. Bring in necessary inward change to live that life
3. See the necessity of inward change to have such life
4. Bring in necessary intensity in our actions to see the necessity
5. The intensity shall be brought in by improving the sensitivity of our system to existence
6. Sensitivity of our system towards existence might be brought in by means of certain methods
7. Choose the right method for the individuals based on individual composition
8. Recognize and understand the trap in each step.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Violence

For most of us, if we can change the world as we like or if we are capable of ending something in the world, the first thing we would like to change or end is the state of violence in this world. Depend on our state of mind and angle of view we see violence almost everywhere. Whenever we perceive violence, we will go to the peak of anger yet due to our inability to counter that violence we accept it and proceed on our way. If we like to end the violence around us, like any other quality, we need to understand violence. Without understanding violence, there is no possibility to end it.

Our general idea about violence is about physical abuse. Terrorism, war, gang war, killing or physically abusing people for some cause (Whatever be the cause) are generally considered as violence. These activities take place when the idea of a person or group is not accepted by the other person or group, and the first person or group enforce the ideas over second person or group by means of physical abuse. The physical violence takes place when the second group is physically capable of resisting the enforcement of first group. If the second group is physically incapable and psychologically also week, they just accept the idea of first group for their survival or forced to accept the ideology of other group. In this case there is no physical abuse. But the idea of one group is enforced on the other group. Is it not violence? We generally do not consider this as violence as it does not get the attention of larger population and silently accepted.

If we analyze the cause of any sort of violence, whether it is violence at the level of society or at the level of individuals, the starting point is that one side wanted conformity for its ideology from the other side. The other side either refuses this idea and in that case physical violence takes place or accept that idea but suffer psychologically due to the inability to resist that idea, which is against their own ideology.

Based on the above discussion, violence can be defined as want/need of acceptance of one’s ideology by others, whether it happens at physical level or psychological level.

If we do not want somebody to do certain action towards us, first up all we should be restrained ourselves from doing similar action. Otherwise it is foolishness and arrogant to expect others should restrain from such action. If we are in a group and we want the group to maintain silence, first we need to maintain silence. This is understandable to everybody. Similarly, if we want the world to be free from violence, we should make sure that we are not infusing any violence to anybody.

Let us make an honest assessment of ourselves with respect to violence. Are we not subjected to violence multiple times a day by almost everyone we encounter? Are we not subjecting violence to almost everyone we encounter? If we see honestly, we constantly subjected to violence by others and constantly subjecting violence over others. The irony is that all our life we are undergoing this fact and we are now so insensitive to violence, unless it happens in physical level. One aspect of change we need to have within us, to change the world as we like, is to bring back the lost sensitivity to ourselves.

We want our wives/husbands to live as per our idea and enforce our ideas over them. We want our parents/children to live as per our idea and enforce our idea over them. We want our friends to accept our ideas and enforce our ideas over them. We want our subordinates to accept our idea and enforce it over them. We want everyone related to us to accept certain ideas of ours and we try to enforce that idea to them. We are also a husband/wife of somebody. We are also parent/child of somebody. We are also friend of somebody. We are also subordinate of somebody. Hence we are constantly subjected to violence and subjecting violence over others. The intensity of violence depend on the intensity of attachment/possessiveness with the relationship.

Unless we end these phenomena within us, we are not in a position to end the violence in the world. If our reaction to this statement is that this is the way of life, then we have to accept everything, as this is the way of world; and then why should we worried about the violence we are seeing in the world. If we want to end the violence in the world without ending the violence within ourselves is exactly same as wanting the group to maintain silence, but we make noise even as we are part of that group.

Another aspect of violence is violence towards one self. It is the need of forcing oneself to behave certain way or perform certain action for the purpose of conformity towards certain values or belief system or cultural compulsion, or to gain social respectability. Most of us are knowingly or unknowingly indulging into this violence. We do not want to perform certain action, but for the purpose of survival we do that action. It is violence to oneself. There are many such actions in our day-to-day life, which we are forced to perform by ourselves to maintain the social respectability even though we are against performing that action within ourselves. This self-violence is more dangerous than physical violence and psychological violence towards others. The violence towards oneself will destroy or dampen the possibility of evolution of that person.

Unless we attempt to end the violence we are indulging to ourselves, we will not be able to end the violence towards others. Unless we end all our violence within ourselves, there will not be any possibility of ending the violence of humanity. Hence if we want the world to be free from violence, we ourselves must be free from all sort of violence.