WE have seen that attachments with respect to relationships are due to the security sought by the mind so that it can escape from conflicts. When the need for this security intensifies, the attachment become possessiveness, even with the relationships and we can sense at this point the problem is worsening and new conflicts are arising within the relationships. Now we need to escape from (we not yet reached a stage for resolving the conflicts) more conflicts and it has become a cascaded system of conflicts and escapes. Now we start seeking an ultimate escape (not yet reached a stage of thinking of completely resolving all the conflicts) and hence we (our ancestors) invented GOD for that purpose. Now we are conditioned so much due to the conflicts during last twenty thousands years of human existence, GOD is an inseparable entity for us. From this above discussion, we might have understood, there is no escape from conflicts. The more we try to escape from conflicts the more we caught in between the conflicts and hence the term ultimate escape itself is deceptive in nature.
Let us allow our intelligence work for ourselves for some time and try to understand the constructed quality possessiveness, which may helpful to resolve a couple of conflicts, if we can integrate the understandings into our life, we may little bit closer to reality.
We have noted that possessiveness is nothing but intensified attachment. With this view we clearly know that possessiveness is an unwanted quality as it was just the glorification of another unwanted quality called attachment. We already established that attachment is an unwanted quality. Let us look into possessiveness as a fresh entity.
Let us try to analyze possessiveness with respect to relationships. This is because if we can resolve the conflicts with relationships, it is very easy to resolve any other conflicts. Having psychological security is a way for escaping from conflicts. We have numerous conflicts within us. We are constantly increasing those conflicts within us in addition to the conflicts genetically handed over to us from our ancestors and together already handed over to the next generation or will handover shortly. Only very few try to resolve the conflicts, yet they cannot help from handing over those conflicts to next generation. The next generations have to workout freshly, if they want to resolve those conflicts rather than escaping from them.
Possessiveness is the result of our urge to have psychological security. The spouse is a completely different entity from us with respect to our present level of perception. What we know about our spouse is a small fraction of what he/she is. There is no second opinion about this. To make it further clear, what we know about our spouse is just the projection of our mind (except, may be the physical nature). We imagine this and that are the qualities of our spouse, exactly the same way about their image of us within them.
The problem starts when we want to hold on this image for ever. On the other hand, when we desire to possess this image for ever within us to have a sense of security with that relationship, we are already having the constructed quality possessiveness within us. Now we are possessive of our spouse. When the spouse exhibit his/her real nature (which we don’t know at all!) and when it differ from the image we have about our spouse, it is a great psychological blow to us. This is because, we lost the psychological security projected by our mind (not actual, but projection of mind) as his/her expression of himself/herself is not coinciding the image we have projected within our mind, with respect to our relationship with the spouse. So, new set of conflicts aroused within us.
If we go back from this point, the new conflicts are not there, if we don’t have a psychological blow with respect to the expression of our spouse. The psychological blow is not there if the expression of our spouse is not against our image about the spouse. If we do not have a projected image about our spouse, there is no possibility for a conflict between these two (The expression of spouse is unavoidable where as our image about the spouse is avoidable). The image about the spouse is not required, if we understand the relationship itself. Once we understand the relationship, its need and its existence, there is no need for seeking security and hence holding on with the projected image, which is possessiveness. On the other hand, possessiveness on our relationship with spouse is our demand on our spouse to comply with our image about him/her. We claim that the attachment and possessiveness are due to our deep love with our spouse. If we really love him/her, can we ever insist them to always comply with our demand? If we truly love them, we love each and every of their action, irrespective of, what their actions are! With the present social set up and at our present dimension of perception, none of us can really exhibit such a love. When we are not able to love him/her, Why should we need to create an illusion about Love and to support this illusion why should we create the constructed qualities like attachment possessiveness, which just give a false sense of security and the breeding point of new conflicts and fear and take away all our inner freedom and bind us with all these illusions of security. Why can’t we accept our inability for true Love, but live our life with in the social structure. Once we are capable of doing this, there is possibility of better understanding between the spouses and probably they can enter into the domain of true Love also.
The same concept is true with any relationship and hence what is the need for possessiveness in our life with respect to relationships. Now the problem is shifted to understanding the relationships
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Bondage & Freedom-1
Before going further let us introduce a concept here. Whatever we perceive about outside is the projection of our mind. This implies if our mind is violent, we perceive violence outside us, if our mind is in order we perceive the outside world in order. Please do not come to the conclusion about this statement that this world is illusion or Maya as explained by few of the followers of Vedanta. The world is the existing entitiy, we are existing entities, everything happening in the world is happening in real time.
When we were discussing about the topic of self image we noted that whatever we know about ourselves is just the image of what we have about ourselves. That is the knowledge about ourselves itself is the projection of our mind. It is just the qualities we imagine about ourselves. That is whenever we use the word “I” or “Me”, it is just the bundle of qualities which our mind is projecting about ourselves plus our body. When the Indian philosophies indicates that we must forego our “ego” or “I centeredness” or “self” to reach the state of realization means, we must come out of this projection of our mind about ourselves to enter into pure reality. That implies, we are no more certain bunch of qualities, we are just the absolute existence as it is. We have the complete knowledge of existence within us by means of our conscious/subconscious/unconscious/collective-unconscious mind.
Let us analyze how this image affects our perception of world and hence before solving the problem outside, the requirement about the need to solve the problems inside. To solve the problem inside, what are the necessary changes to be happened inside and how to bring about those changes!
Normally we say we are deeply attached with our spouse, children and parents, at least. Let us try to see how far it is true. This analyze is not to prove that what we have is not attachment or we do not love those relations. But to indicate all these attachments and whatever we are saying are just the projection of our mind. Once we understand our present state, towards these relations are just the projection of our mind, we will be able to give true Love to them, which will give pain neither to us nor to them, but provide the ultimate happiness. That is the basic essence of this discussion. Please note that this discussion is not for bringing in any conflicts within us, but to eliminate the conflicts within us. After the discussion, if any new conflict arises within us, say about our relationships, it implies that the essence of this discussion has not entered in to our perception, but only the words entered into our perception as a fragment.
Whatever we know about ourselves is the projection of our mind. In such case, what about our knowledge about the spouse? At this point, we need to realize one thing. Our spouse is a separate entity, which is entirely different from us in the dimension of our perception. To understand this, just imagine how much of our qualities are known to our spouse. Our spouse may know slightly better than others due to the intimate relation. But the spouse’s knowledge about us is just a fraction of what we are (or what we consider as ourselves). The same is true with us about our spouse. If we do not know about something, can we really love that entity? If we cannot do it with something, surely it is applicable with respect to our spouse. Please note that this is not to bring in a conflict within our relationships and forgo the spouse, but to resolve the conflict and have better relationship. Whether we truly love our spouse or not we need that relationship for a social life.
At this point, it may be appropriate to discuss a little bit about society, culture and relationships. Two hundred thousand years ago we were just animals. There were no culture and no relationships. Like animals, we were also just doing whatever necessary for our survival and procreation. May be until twenty to thirty thousand years we were like that, but evolving slowly. At this point we got intelligence to use the nature for our survival. Due to continuous evolution and development of intelligence, conflict started between the human beings. To escape from conflicts, (Note that it is not resolving the conflict, but escaping from conflict. We are still in the state of finding means to escape from our conflicts and not at all trying to resolve the conflicts) they devised certain rules. By these rules, they must have been able to escape from the conflicts at that time. Since it was just the escape from the conflict, other conflicts pop out from some other direction. To escape from this new conflict another rule and so on. Different group of human being must have established different set of rules and this has become culture and society. Once they started complying with the rules of their culture and society, relationships must have been developed.
So what we see today as culture, society and relationships are the means of escape from conflict. This does not mean to resolve the conflicts we must forgo culture, society and relationships. Even though if we do that completely with the awareness of what we are doing, we can end all conflicts within us. But practically it is not possible. We are deep in to the cultural, social and relational field and we cannot live a life without such social establishments. Here the reality is we have to have a social life.
Coming back to the point of our attachment to the relationships, our spouse is a totally different entity with respect to ourselves with respect to the present dimension of our perception. We are in that relationship just because of social establishment. Because of our quest to comply with the social establishment and its rules, we seek security in that relationship. The first problem started at our quest to comply with rules and the second problem started when we seek security in the relationships.
When it is said that the first problem started at our quest to comply with rules does not mean that there is no need to comply with the rules. If we want to be in social establishment we need to comply with the rules. The point here is that we need to change inwardly so that complying that rule will not become a problem, but due to our inward change, the conflicts get resolved. This is the essence of this discussion. We need to take utmost care while discussing such a sensitive issue.
Now the point here is are we really having any security with the relationship? If we look it as an outsider of this establishment we can clearly understand there is no such security in any of the relationships. It is because the life of us or our spouse may end at any time, may be now or next moment or next year or next decade or after sixty years, which is (The time scale) uncertain. There is a possibility of misunderstanding and hence breaking the relationship is also there. There is a possibility of moving away from each other for long period due to the requirement of our survival and endless possibilities. Hence there is no actual security for relationships. We caught in between many such conflicts never allow our intelligence to work and hence we somehow like to have a feeling (not real) of security. The mind now establishes a feeling of security (Illusion about relationships) by projecting about this relationship. While doing such projection, the mind also establishes security in availability of many other requirements for basic life like security in shelter, food, money, health, loneliness and so on. Understanding this fact – that is all our feelings of security are just the projection of mind, is really not easy. This goal can be achieved only if we allow our intelligence to work. If we are caught in some belief system or conditioning, which will just project another form of security and that will also be an illusion. For its projection, the mind establishes and uses the constructed qualities like attachment, possessiveness and so on.
We have discussed the mechanism of establishing the constructed quality of attachment with respect to relationships. The above discussion of attachment with the relationship of spouse is applicable to all other relationships exist in our social framework, like parent children relationship, friends relationship and every other relationships.
When we were discussing about the topic of self image we noted that whatever we know about ourselves is just the image of what we have about ourselves. That is the knowledge about ourselves itself is the projection of our mind. It is just the qualities we imagine about ourselves. That is whenever we use the word “I” or “Me”, it is just the bundle of qualities which our mind is projecting about ourselves plus our body. When the Indian philosophies indicates that we must forego our “ego” or “I centeredness” or “self” to reach the state of realization means, we must come out of this projection of our mind about ourselves to enter into pure reality. That implies, we are no more certain bunch of qualities, we are just the absolute existence as it is. We have the complete knowledge of existence within us by means of our conscious/subconscious/unconscious/collective-unconscious mind.
Let us analyze how this image affects our perception of world and hence before solving the problem outside, the requirement about the need to solve the problems inside. To solve the problem inside, what are the necessary changes to be happened inside and how to bring about those changes!
Normally we say we are deeply attached with our spouse, children and parents, at least. Let us try to see how far it is true. This analyze is not to prove that what we have is not attachment or we do not love those relations. But to indicate all these attachments and whatever we are saying are just the projection of our mind. Once we understand our present state, towards these relations are just the projection of our mind, we will be able to give true Love to them, which will give pain neither to us nor to them, but provide the ultimate happiness. That is the basic essence of this discussion. Please note that this discussion is not for bringing in any conflicts within us, but to eliminate the conflicts within us. After the discussion, if any new conflict arises within us, say about our relationships, it implies that the essence of this discussion has not entered in to our perception, but only the words entered into our perception as a fragment.
Whatever we know about ourselves is the projection of our mind. In such case, what about our knowledge about the spouse? At this point, we need to realize one thing. Our spouse is a separate entity, which is entirely different from us in the dimension of our perception. To understand this, just imagine how much of our qualities are known to our spouse. Our spouse may know slightly better than others due to the intimate relation. But the spouse’s knowledge about us is just a fraction of what we are (or what we consider as ourselves). The same is true with us about our spouse. If we do not know about something, can we really love that entity? If we cannot do it with something, surely it is applicable with respect to our spouse. Please note that this is not to bring in a conflict within our relationships and forgo the spouse, but to resolve the conflict and have better relationship. Whether we truly love our spouse or not we need that relationship for a social life.
At this point, it may be appropriate to discuss a little bit about society, culture and relationships. Two hundred thousand years ago we were just animals. There were no culture and no relationships. Like animals, we were also just doing whatever necessary for our survival and procreation. May be until twenty to thirty thousand years we were like that, but evolving slowly. At this point we got intelligence to use the nature for our survival. Due to continuous evolution and development of intelligence, conflict started between the human beings. To escape from conflicts, (Note that it is not resolving the conflict, but escaping from conflict. We are still in the state of finding means to escape from our conflicts and not at all trying to resolve the conflicts) they devised certain rules. By these rules, they must have been able to escape from the conflicts at that time. Since it was just the escape from the conflict, other conflicts pop out from some other direction. To escape from this new conflict another rule and so on. Different group of human being must have established different set of rules and this has become culture and society. Once they started complying with the rules of their culture and society, relationships must have been developed.
So what we see today as culture, society and relationships are the means of escape from conflict. This does not mean to resolve the conflicts we must forgo culture, society and relationships. Even though if we do that completely with the awareness of what we are doing, we can end all conflicts within us. But practically it is not possible. We are deep in to the cultural, social and relational field and we cannot live a life without such social establishments. Here the reality is we have to have a social life.
Coming back to the point of our attachment to the relationships, our spouse is a totally different entity with respect to ourselves with respect to the present dimension of our perception. We are in that relationship just because of social establishment. Because of our quest to comply with the social establishment and its rules, we seek security in that relationship. The first problem started at our quest to comply with rules and the second problem started when we seek security in the relationships.
When it is said that the first problem started at our quest to comply with rules does not mean that there is no need to comply with the rules. If we want to be in social establishment we need to comply with the rules. The point here is that we need to change inwardly so that complying that rule will not become a problem, but due to our inward change, the conflicts get resolved. This is the essence of this discussion. We need to take utmost care while discussing such a sensitive issue.
Now the point here is are we really having any security with the relationship? If we look it as an outsider of this establishment we can clearly understand there is no such security in any of the relationships. It is because the life of us or our spouse may end at any time, may be now or next moment or next year or next decade or after sixty years, which is (The time scale) uncertain. There is a possibility of misunderstanding and hence breaking the relationship is also there. There is a possibility of moving away from each other for long period due to the requirement of our survival and endless possibilities. Hence there is no actual security for relationships. We caught in between many such conflicts never allow our intelligence to work and hence we somehow like to have a feeling (not real) of security. The mind now establishes a feeling of security (Illusion about relationships) by projecting about this relationship. While doing such projection, the mind also establishes security in availability of many other requirements for basic life like security in shelter, food, money, health, loneliness and so on. Understanding this fact – that is all our feelings of security are just the projection of mind, is really not easy. This goal can be achieved only if we allow our intelligence to work. If we are caught in some belief system or conditioning, which will just project another form of security and that will also be an illusion. For its projection, the mind establishes and uses the constructed qualities like attachment, possessiveness and so on.
We have discussed the mechanism of establishing the constructed quality of attachment with respect to relationships. The above discussion of attachment with the relationship of spouse is applicable to all other relationships exist in our social framework, like parent children relationship, friends relationship and every other relationships.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Functioning of Brain/Mind
It may be useful to discuss a bit about the functioning of our brain/mind before discussing about the constructed qualities like attachments, possessiveness, anger etc. We have already seen that mind is nothing but the functioning of brain or the result (or process) of processing of brain. Brain records all information it process into the memory. The sense organs are the input devices for brain and the whole body and memory are its output device. It sends the output of processing to required part of the body. It processes all information it receives through the sense organs. But the extent or level of its processing depends on few factors which depend on the individual. After processing the information, it stores everything including the details and method of processing into memory. The operation of processing expresses itself as our mind. If we are attentive enough, we can see the complete processing of brain as our mind. But due to various factors, our attention is distorted so much and we can observe only a fraction of the processing of brain.
This fact can be understood better with few examples. The Ayurvedic medical system evolved few thousands of years when no external instruments were available to understand the functioning of organs of body, yet it describes preciously the functioning of almost every part of body. How was it possible? We know that brain is the control center for the whole body. Hence the functioning of each and every cell will be monitored by brain by means of collecting information, processing and sending command. All these processing is expressed as mind. If we are attentive enough, we can observe the information received from each and every cell of our body and the commands sent to them by the brain. Hence the logical conclusion shall be that whoever devised the ayurvedic medical system must have been attentive enough to their brain/mind so that he can observe his mind to core of the details and expressed as ayurvedic system for the help of humanity.
Gautama Buddha has expressed that there are 72000 energy channels in human body. (I am not sure whether science has established/confirmed this fact or not, most probably not!) How can Gautama Buddha observe it without the means of any instrument? The energy channels send signals to brain and hence the brain processes the information of those energy channels and which is expressed as our mind. If we are attentive enough, we ourselves can find out these things.
How to tell the brain to process certain information and leave certain other information? If we can command what to process and not, to the brain, all our problems and hence problems of society will be solved. There is a way to do that. For doing that, we need to bring in certain changes within ourselves.
For example when we walk down the street we see many activities happening in the street. The details of all those activities will not be processed by the brain and recorded but process and record only certain events or activities which get our attention. If we can understand this mechanism, probably we are leap ahead in the process of commanding brain what to do and not to do, and eliminating reactive thoughts and hence the constructed qualities.
In the above example, the eyes are seeing everything in street the ears are hearing every noise in street, nose smells every fragrance in street. But not all get the complete attention of brain and recording as memory. If we observe closely, out of whatever sensed by our sense organs on the street, only those items which has certain utilities for us are processed extensively and stored by the brain. Other information are also processed by brain, but find no utility for us and hence stop the processing at that point and discard that information from being stored into the memory. To make it clear, where ever we are aware that certain information do not have any use for us, those information are not processed by the brain extensively. If the brain already has some information about certain sensed event and it is not aware of the uselessness of that event, and within the brain already there is a projection of that event, that particular event will be processed by brain extensively and stored in memory. On the contrary, even if the projection of that event is already in our mind and we are aware that the event is not useful for us, the brain will not process that information extensively.
For example when we go from a town to a big city for the first time, all the tall buildings and the lavish shops will get our attention and enter into our memory. Here we see it as adding knowledge about the structure of a city and whatever we see there will get into our memory. After some time we will be used to such a city and all its tall buildings and busy streets have no more meaning to us. Now we happen to visit another city. Here our attention will not be like when we visited any of the cities for the first time in our life. This is because now we understand that the knowledge about each and every element of the city is no use for us and what we know is where to go and how to come back. The brain processes only the information relevant for any purpose and discards all other information, because we are aware that all those information have no use for us. As all our examples, this example too cannot be taken as universal. This is because every one of us is different in our constructed qualities (Because constructed qualities are projection of mind and each one of our minds shall be projecting itself in different directions) and hence same example can not applicable to everybody. But you may be able to appreciate the validity of this example by relating to something else, depend on individuals mind.
Here the key point is the awareness of uselessness of certain information.
Now we have to understand what we need and what not. We have to understand what is of any use and what is of no use. Once we understand these things, it is not a difficult task to eliminate reactive thought process and hence constructed qualities. Understanding few of the constructed qualities may be helpful to understand what is needed and what is not.
The difficult task is to realize we are the result of physical and psychological conditioning during the 200000 years of human existence, probably the result of conditioning from much, much before that. To reach a state of commanding our brain/mind, we need to be free from conditioning of our brain/mind. We have to have the willingness to be free from conditioning of our mind. That willingness will come only if we see that we are the result of such conditioning and then only it is possible to undo those conditioning. Our intelligence has to work to see these facts. Without seeing these facts we will never be willing to change ourselves. Intelligence works only if we get away from projection of mind. There might be many methods prescribed for achieving these results. The key point is not the method, but seeing the fact. Once we see the fact, any of the prescribed methods may work or we ourselves can find a method.
Probably, the discussions in this blog may help to understand few of the facts and once we have the understanding of few of the facts, our intelligence shall takeover to do the rest of work to bring in the necessary change within us to facilitate complete realization
This fact can be understood better with few examples. The Ayurvedic medical system evolved few thousands of years when no external instruments were available to understand the functioning of organs of body, yet it describes preciously the functioning of almost every part of body. How was it possible? We know that brain is the control center for the whole body. Hence the functioning of each and every cell will be monitored by brain by means of collecting information, processing and sending command. All these processing is expressed as mind. If we are attentive enough, we can observe the information received from each and every cell of our body and the commands sent to them by the brain. Hence the logical conclusion shall be that whoever devised the ayurvedic medical system must have been attentive enough to their brain/mind so that he can observe his mind to core of the details and expressed as ayurvedic system for the help of humanity.
Gautama Buddha has expressed that there are 72000 energy channels in human body. (I am not sure whether science has established/confirmed this fact or not, most probably not!) How can Gautama Buddha observe it without the means of any instrument? The energy channels send signals to brain and hence the brain processes the information of those energy channels and which is expressed as our mind. If we are attentive enough, we ourselves can find out these things.
How to tell the brain to process certain information and leave certain other information? If we can command what to process and not, to the brain, all our problems and hence problems of society will be solved. There is a way to do that. For doing that, we need to bring in certain changes within ourselves.
For example when we walk down the street we see many activities happening in the street. The details of all those activities will not be processed by the brain and recorded but process and record only certain events or activities which get our attention. If we can understand this mechanism, probably we are leap ahead in the process of commanding brain what to do and not to do, and eliminating reactive thoughts and hence the constructed qualities.
In the above example, the eyes are seeing everything in street the ears are hearing every noise in street, nose smells every fragrance in street. But not all get the complete attention of brain and recording as memory. If we observe closely, out of whatever sensed by our sense organs on the street, only those items which has certain utilities for us are processed extensively and stored by the brain. Other information are also processed by brain, but find no utility for us and hence stop the processing at that point and discard that information from being stored into the memory. To make it clear, where ever we are aware that certain information do not have any use for us, those information are not processed by the brain extensively. If the brain already has some information about certain sensed event and it is not aware of the uselessness of that event, and within the brain already there is a projection of that event, that particular event will be processed by brain extensively and stored in memory. On the contrary, even if the projection of that event is already in our mind and we are aware that the event is not useful for us, the brain will not process that information extensively.
For example when we go from a town to a big city for the first time, all the tall buildings and the lavish shops will get our attention and enter into our memory. Here we see it as adding knowledge about the structure of a city and whatever we see there will get into our memory. After some time we will be used to such a city and all its tall buildings and busy streets have no more meaning to us. Now we happen to visit another city. Here our attention will not be like when we visited any of the cities for the first time in our life. This is because now we understand that the knowledge about each and every element of the city is no use for us and what we know is where to go and how to come back. The brain processes only the information relevant for any purpose and discards all other information, because we are aware that all those information have no use for us. As all our examples, this example too cannot be taken as universal. This is because every one of us is different in our constructed qualities (Because constructed qualities are projection of mind and each one of our minds shall be projecting itself in different directions) and hence same example can not applicable to everybody. But you may be able to appreciate the validity of this example by relating to something else, depend on individuals mind.
Here the key point is the awareness of uselessness of certain information.
Now we have to understand what we need and what not. We have to understand what is of any use and what is of no use. Once we understand these things, it is not a difficult task to eliminate reactive thought process and hence constructed qualities. Understanding few of the constructed qualities may be helpful to understand what is needed and what is not.
The difficult task is to realize we are the result of physical and psychological conditioning during the 200000 years of human existence, probably the result of conditioning from much, much before that. To reach a state of commanding our brain/mind, we need to be free from conditioning of our brain/mind. We have to have the willingness to be free from conditioning of our mind. That willingness will come only if we see that we are the result of such conditioning and then only it is possible to undo those conditioning. Our intelligence has to work to see these facts. Without seeing these facts we will never be willing to change ourselves. Intelligence works only if we get away from projection of mind. There might be many methods prescribed for achieving these results. The key point is not the method, but seeing the fact. Once we see the fact, any of the prescribed methods may work or we ourselves can find a method.
Probably, the discussions in this blog may help to understand few of the facts and once we have the understanding of few of the facts, our intelligence shall takeover to do the rest of work to bring in the necessary change within us to facilitate complete realization
Monday, March 2, 2009
Desire
Desire is one of the constructed qualities of human being, which is condemned by almost all religions and spiritual leaders with very, very few exceptions. But it is common sense to understand that there may not be anybody in this world without any desire; for that the want to be without desire itself is a desire.
If we understand desire and the cause of desire, we do not need anybody else to advise us whether we need desire or not, or what to do with the desire arising within ourselves and the effect of desire within us. Once we have these understandings, then it is not at all a problem if we have any sort of desire. This is because we understand the cause and effect of desire and with that understanding we are fully prepared to face the effect with complete willingness and happiness. As long as we are ready to face the effect of our action happily there is nothing wrong in our action, whatever may be that action. On the contrary, if we are troubled or disturbed with the effect of noblest of our actions in this world, that will be wrong doing with respect to ourselves. This concept has a great deal with respect to our intention of the change required in this world and hence it may be relevant to discuss about desire here.
We all know what is desire, but we might not have thought about the mechanism of desire arising within ourselves, unless we have ever observed any of our desires from beginning to end. That is, observing it from the birth of any of our desires to its grave, even the smallest of desires which we ever had.
When we see something, the brain process that information, identify it store the result as memory. In the process of identifying that item it leaves many unanswered leads with in our mind. Due to our nature or due to the method we programmed ourselves, the brain get hold of one or few of those leads and the reactive thought process shall be initiated to complete the unanswered lead, which is actually not required. The reactive thought process get hold of the projection of mind/brain already stored in our memory and further project to the extent of answering, what will happen if we possess that something. This is just a projection of mind and not a fact. The other constructed qualities like possessiveness, attachment, jealous, envy etc complement this projection of brain/mind. The projection will deepen to such a level that we will get attached to that something. Having attached with something but not possessing that thing invokes the urge to possess that thing. This urge is called desire. Once we possess something with which we are attached and if we are unable to remove attachment with that item, that will be the beginning of other constructed qualities like fear and sorrow.
For example, if we see a nice house (nice with respect to our experience/knowledge), the image of that house shall go into our memory. When we go back to our house, the reactive thought process starts comparing our house with the image of that nice house. As we do not possess that nice house, we will be having all sort of projections about that house and this projection of mind create attachment over that nice house. Now at various point of time and for various reasons, our mind start seeing that house and each time it does a projection within our mind about that house and finally the mind start projecting the scenario of owning such a house. The desire of owning that house is sowed within our mind. Depend on the frequency of our mind projecting the scenario of owning such house, our attachment towards that house intensifies, and hence the desire intensifies. IF we have the means to own such a house we own one and that is the ending point of that particular desire. In case we do not have the means to fulfill the desire, it will start becoming sorrow, pain, self pity, etc depend on the projected information in our memory/brain. And if we do not have the means but owned the house somehow, then another set of problem propels out of that due to cause and effect theory.
For somebody seeing a house invoke desire, for somebody seeing tasty food invokes desire, for somebody seeing a brand new car invoke desire, for somebody seeing a beautiful woman/man invoke desire and it is an endless list. This is the whole mechanism of advertisement industry, which creates desire to the listeners of those advertisements at various intensities. Only a fraction of the population distracted by the advertisement industry can fulfill that desire and the remaining vast majority of the population start living the life with the scratch of those advertisements. Only the intelligent people escape from this trap.
Let us now analyze the need for such desire. Like any other quality, desire also has two sides. On one side, we are here because of desire. All the comfort and luxury in this world are here due to desire. All the technological and cultural developments are here because of desire. On the other side, all our pain, suffering is because of desire. The corruption and crime in society are because of desire.
We can conclude that we have to have desire for a decent social life, yet we have to be untouched by desire to have a life without pain, sorrow, and suffering. This state of having desire yet untouched by desire can be achieved if and only if our intelligence works for us. For the intelligence to work, we need to have a complete understanding of desires we have and its utility and means. Once we achieve that state, naturally our intelligence will take over the rest and we will doing what is needed for that situation, instead of carried over by the projection of mind or desire. Intelligence works based on fact and not based on projection of mind. Hence the basic requirement shall be allowing our intelligence to work. For the intelligence to work, the thought process has to stop for projecting something out of nothing. For such a state we may have to reach a state of fearlessness. We already know few of the constructed qualities which are creating fear. We may analyze few of those qualities during coming days.
If we understand desire and the cause of desire, we do not need anybody else to advise us whether we need desire or not, or what to do with the desire arising within ourselves and the effect of desire within us. Once we have these understandings, then it is not at all a problem if we have any sort of desire. This is because we understand the cause and effect of desire and with that understanding we are fully prepared to face the effect with complete willingness and happiness. As long as we are ready to face the effect of our action happily there is nothing wrong in our action, whatever may be that action. On the contrary, if we are troubled or disturbed with the effect of noblest of our actions in this world, that will be wrong doing with respect to ourselves. This concept has a great deal with respect to our intention of the change required in this world and hence it may be relevant to discuss about desire here.
We all know what is desire, but we might not have thought about the mechanism of desire arising within ourselves, unless we have ever observed any of our desires from beginning to end. That is, observing it from the birth of any of our desires to its grave, even the smallest of desires which we ever had.
When we see something, the brain process that information, identify it store the result as memory. In the process of identifying that item it leaves many unanswered leads with in our mind. Due to our nature or due to the method we programmed ourselves, the brain get hold of one or few of those leads and the reactive thought process shall be initiated to complete the unanswered lead, which is actually not required. The reactive thought process get hold of the projection of mind/brain already stored in our memory and further project to the extent of answering, what will happen if we possess that something. This is just a projection of mind and not a fact. The other constructed qualities like possessiveness, attachment, jealous, envy etc complement this projection of brain/mind. The projection will deepen to such a level that we will get attached to that something. Having attached with something but not possessing that thing invokes the urge to possess that thing. This urge is called desire. Once we possess something with which we are attached and if we are unable to remove attachment with that item, that will be the beginning of other constructed qualities like fear and sorrow.
For example, if we see a nice house (nice with respect to our experience/knowledge), the image of that house shall go into our memory. When we go back to our house, the reactive thought process starts comparing our house with the image of that nice house. As we do not possess that nice house, we will be having all sort of projections about that house and this projection of mind create attachment over that nice house. Now at various point of time and for various reasons, our mind start seeing that house and each time it does a projection within our mind about that house and finally the mind start projecting the scenario of owning such a house. The desire of owning that house is sowed within our mind. Depend on the frequency of our mind projecting the scenario of owning such house, our attachment towards that house intensifies, and hence the desire intensifies. IF we have the means to own such a house we own one and that is the ending point of that particular desire. In case we do not have the means to fulfill the desire, it will start becoming sorrow, pain, self pity, etc depend on the projected information in our memory/brain. And if we do not have the means but owned the house somehow, then another set of problem propels out of that due to cause and effect theory.
For somebody seeing a house invoke desire, for somebody seeing tasty food invokes desire, for somebody seeing a brand new car invoke desire, for somebody seeing a beautiful woman/man invoke desire and it is an endless list. This is the whole mechanism of advertisement industry, which creates desire to the listeners of those advertisements at various intensities. Only a fraction of the population distracted by the advertisement industry can fulfill that desire and the remaining vast majority of the population start living the life with the scratch of those advertisements. Only the intelligent people escape from this trap.
Let us now analyze the need for such desire. Like any other quality, desire also has two sides. On one side, we are here because of desire. All the comfort and luxury in this world are here due to desire. All the technological and cultural developments are here because of desire. On the other side, all our pain, suffering is because of desire. The corruption and crime in society are because of desire.
We can conclude that we have to have desire for a decent social life, yet we have to be untouched by desire to have a life without pain, sorrow, and suffering. This state of having desire yet untouched by desire can be achieved if and only if our intelligence works for us. For the intelligence to work, we need to have a complete understanding of desires we have and its utility and means. Once we achieve that state, naturally our intelligence will take over the rest and we will doing what is needed for that situation, instead of carried over by the projection of mind or desire. Intelligence works based on fact and not based on projection of mind. Hence the basic requirement shall be allowing our intelligence to work. For the intelligence to work, the thought process has to stop for projecting something out of nothing. For such a state we may have to reach a state of fearlessness. We already know few of the constructed qualities which are creating fear. We may analyze few of those qualities during coming days.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The Present state of the World
Let us go back to the beginning of this discussion to find out the relevance of ongoing discussion with respect to original intention.
We perceive problem with almost every aspects of our life as well as the environment in which we are living - like economics, politics, culture, conflict between governments, conflict between governments and citizens and any other aspect we name it. Usually we get somebody to conveniently shift the blame for each and every problem. We never realize we are also part of all those problems, but always want to solve (by ourselves or somebody else) all those problems and most of the cases suggest a solution to the problem without even realizing the intensity of the problem and practicability of suggested solution.
The core of this discussion is that we will be able to change the world as we like to have, provided we can bring in some basic changes within us. To bring in such inward change, we must have to realize that there is a possibility of inward change with in every one of us and the need for such change. Whatever we have discussed until now and in future is to give certain perspective on various aspects of life, which may help us to achieve this result. It may not be possible for everybody to look in to the world with the same perspective discussed here. But it may be possible for almost everybody to realize at least few aspects being discussed here. Once the realizations of some of these aspects are achieved, the other aspects shall also be perceived (either the way discussed here or in a perspective which is closely related to the reader’s individual composition). Once that is achieved, we will understand the need for inward change and it is not difficult to bring in the necessary changes (if required) within us.
We have seen that life has evolved continuously in this earth from the single cell being to the present life forms and it shall evolve further until the destruction or the annihilation process takes place. The human life may or may not be there in this earth at that point of time, which does not matter for the evolution of this vast cosmos. So we are at the peak of evolution curve, which shall move just upward direction in next moment and billions of years to come until the point of annihilation, which shall be the ultimate evolution of this cosmos. The irony is that at the peak of evolution (until now – during four billion years of life forms in earth and 200000 years of human form in earth), we are still feeling problems around everywhere. Hence it may not be the problem of the world, but may be the problem of our perception!
For argument sake, let us assume everybody in this world is realized being and they have already achieved inner freedom (as discussed in the topic FEAR). For such realized beings, if something is not available in their environment, they can very well forget that something and live happily with whatever available for them. They may not have to invent whatever not available for them. If everyone is realized beings there is no greed in this world.
If there is no greed, there is no tendency to accumulate more or prove more powerful. Hence there is no need for invent anything or invade somebody else territory, and since all are realized beings, unavailability of something shall not bother them.
If there is no power struggle between governments, there was no need to prove which government are stronger one and mission to moon and other planets might not have happened in 20th century.
If everyone is realized being, there is no greed, no power struggle and no economic imbalance. Hence there is no need to invent new technologies to fill the vacuum. Every one might be happier being with whatever available for them and hence there is no need for develop anything new.
Whatever comfort and luxury the human form having now is because of the past and present condition of evolution with all the disparity in this world and all the qualities labeled as bad qualities or qualities which bring destruction to the earth. But nothing may be wrong in that as it supported the material evolution in this earth. It should not be misunderstood that this discussion justifies the disorders of the world today- like disparity between people (poor and rich), disparity between nations, disparity between communities, war, and death happening around the world due to social (perceived) imbalance and so many such events.
But we have no option other than accepting the fact. It is a common sense that intelligence has to work to see the fact. Once our intelligence is working enough to see this fact, then the logical next step will be using that intelligence to live in this world of disparity, yet untouched by the disparity. At this point we need to realize that we are also the source of disparity. Unless we cease from being the source of disparity and try to fight against the disparity, then there is a conflict within us and this conflict is sufficient to kill our life. Once our intelligence start working, we understand the source of disparity and start living, yet untouched by the disparity. Now due to the working of our intelligence, we cease to be the source of this disparity and we are ready to fight against the disparity without being carried away by the disparity. Only the intelligent beings can do that. Intelligence is the process of evolution.
Hence it is up to us. Whether we like to evolve further and lead the evolution process or get stagnated and just support the evolution process by way of fear, greed, conflicts, anger and so on. Yes, the technological development is because of these constructed qualities of human being and technological development is indispensible portion with respect to the evolution of intelligence. So, it is up to us to be part of real evolution or just be the part of technological evolution.
The difference between these two may be very subtle. If we are just the part of technological evolution, we support the evolution process (we ourselves may not evolve), but will not enjoy the taste of real evolution – The major part of our life may be struggle in such case. If we really evolve intelligently, we will also enjoy the fruits of technological evolution.
Evolution is the natural tendency of creation - It is material evolution as well as life evolution. The material or technological evolution in earth is due to the attributes discussed above of the living beings, where as intelligence beings evolve by using the material/technological evolution as a tool for real evolution. It is up to us to become part of any of these two categories.
So, at the beginning of this discussion our intention was to remove the disorders in this world. To remove the disorders of this world, first we need to understand the disorders of this world. Once we have the complete understanding of these disorders, we will be able to understand if there is a need for removing/changing those disorders, the source of those disorders and our contribution to those disorders. At that stage, if we need to change the world, we must cease to be the contributor of those disorders and for that there need to have an inward change within us. Once the necessary inward change is brought in, we will be able to change the world as we like. The various topics discussed here are to realize the need and bring in the basic change within us.
We perceive problem with almost every aspects of our life as well as the environment in which we are living - like economics, politics, culture, conflict between governments, conflict between governments and citizens and any other aspect we name it. Usually we get somebody to conveniently shift the blame for each and every problem. We never realize we are also part of all those problems, but always want to solve (by ourselves or somebody else) all those problems and most of the cases suggest a solution to the problem without even realizing the intensity of the problem and practicability of suggested solution.
The core of this discussion is that we will be able to change the world as we like to have, provided we can bring in some basic changes within us. To bring in such inward change, we must have to realize that there is a possibility of inward change with in every one of us and the need for such change. Whatever we have discussed until now and in future is to give certain perspective on various aspects of life, which may help us to achieve this result. It may not be possible for everybody to look in to the world with the same perspective discussed here. But it may be possible for almost everybody to realize at least few aspects being discussed here. Once the realizations of some of these aspects are achieved, the other aspects shall also be perceived (either the way discussed here or in a perspective which is closely related to the reader’s individual composition). Once that is achieved, we will understand the need for inward change and it is not difficult to bring in the necessary changes (if required) within us.
We have seen that life has evolved continuously in this earth from the single cell being to the present life forms and it shall evolve further until the destruction or the annihilation process takes place. The human life may or may not be there in this earth at that point of time, which does not matter for the evolution of this vast cosmos. So we are at the peak of evolution curve, which shall move just upward direction in next moment and billions of years to come until the point of annihilation, which shall be the ultimate evolution of this cosmos. The irony is that at the peak of evolution (until now – during four billion years of life forms in earth and 200000 years of human form in earth), we are still feeling problems around everywhere. Hence it may not be the problem of the world, but may be the problem of our perception!
For argument sake, let us assume everybody in this world is realized being and they have already achieved inner freedom (as discussed in the topic FEAR). For such realized beings, if something is not available in their environment, they can very well forget that something and live happily with whatever available for them. They may not have to invent whatever not available for them. If everyone is realized beings there is no greed in this world.
If there is no greed, there is no tendency to accumulate more or prove more powerful. Hence there is no need for invent anything or invade somebody else territory, and since all are realized beings, unavailability of something shall not bother them.
If there is no power struggle between governments, there was no need to prove which government are stronger one and mission to moon and other planets might not have happened in 20th century.
If everyone is realized being, there is no greed, no power struggle and no economic imbalance. Hence there is no need to invent new technologies to fill the vacuum. Every one might be happier being with whatever available for them and hence there is no need for develop anything new.
Whatever comfort and luxury the human form having now is because of the past and present condition of evolution with all the disparity in this world and all the qualities labeled as bad qualities or qualities which bring destruction to the earth. But nothing may be wrong in that as it supported the material evolution in this earth. It should not be misunderstood that this discussion justifies the disorders of the world today- like disparity between people (poor and rich), disparity between nations, disparity between communities, war, and death happening around the world due to social (perceived) imbalance and so many such events.
But we have no option other than accepting the fact. It is a common sense that intelligence has to work to see the fact. Once our intelligence is working enough to see this fact, then the logical next step will be using that intelligence to live in this world of disparity, yet untouched by the disparity. At this point we need to realize that we are also the source of disparity. Unless we cease from being the source of disparity and try to fight against the disparity, then there is a conflict within us and this conflict is sufficient to kill our life. Once our intelligence start working, we understand the source of disparity and start living, yet untouched by the disparity. Now due to the working of our intelligence, we cease to be the source of this disparity and we are ready to fight against the disparity without being carried away by the disparity. Only the intelligent beings can do that. Intelligence is the process of evolution.
Hence it is up to us. Whether we like to evolve further and lead the evolution process or get stagnated and just support the evolution process by way of fear, greed, conflicts, anger and so on. Yes, the technological development is because of these constructed qualities of human being and technological development is indispensible portion with respect to the evolution of intelligence. So, it is up to us to be part of real evolution or just be the part of technological evolution.
The difference between these two may be very subtle. If we are just the part of technological evolution, we support the evolution process (we ourselves may not evolve), but will not enjoy the taste of real evolution – The major part of our life may be struggle in such case. If we really evolve intelligently, we will also enjoy the fruits of technological evolution.
Evolution is the natural tendency of creation - It is material evolution as well as life evolution. The material or technological evolution in earth is due to the attributes discussed above of the living beings, where as intelligence beings evolve by using the material/technological evolution as a tool for real evolution. It is up to us to become part of any of these two categories.
So, at the beginning of this discussion our intention was to remove the disorders in this world. To remove the disorders of this world, first we need to understand the disorders of this world. Once we have the complete understanding of these disorders, we will be able to understand if there is a need for removing/changing those disorders, the source of those disorders and our contribution to those disorders. At that stage, if we need to change the world, we must cease to be the contributor of those disorders and for that there need to have an inward change within us. Once the necessary inward change is brought in, we will be able to change the world as we like. The various topics discussed here are to realize the need and bring in the basic change within us.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Fear
Fear is one of the constructed qualities of human being. The term ‘constructed qualities’ means that in nature we do not have those qualities. But due to the life style and conditioning of our minds, we attached those qualities with us and now we are in a state where these qualities are appearing as natural qualities of us. Conditioning of mind does not only mean the conditioning during our life. As discussed somewhere else in this blog, our mind contain information from the time of creation of this universe to until now. This information is with us by means of the jeans in our biological body. The jeans transfer that information to our brain/mind and it is in our mind at the levels of unconscious and collective unconscious mind.
The beauty of the construction of human being is that we have enough intelligence to understand the conditioning of our mind. Once we understand the conditioning, we understand the nature of those constructed qualities. Once we have the understanding of constructed quality, we will be having discriminating power to understand the requirement of such qualities. Once we have the discriminating power, we are ready to take what is necessary for living this life the best possible manner and leave the rest of those qualities.
So let us try to understand the constructed quality FEAR. When we were new born children, we did not have fear on any thing. Our parents had to protect us from all hazards, since we did not have the discriminating power towards environment and no memory of any hazards at that point of time. Our parents had to protect us from fire, from rain, from falling down, from hot sun and so on. Later we developed the quality of protecting ourselves from those hazards either due to our own experience or by the education by parents and others. Thus we developed a natural tendency to escape from the hazards when ever we encounter such hazards. Later we have given the name FEAR to our reaction whenever we encounter such hazards.
Strictly speaking, this reaction to hazards is not fear. It is just the process of protecting ourselves from hazards. When we encounter such hazards unexpectedly, the body generates certain reactions very quickly, which may spread some shock waves with in us to safeguard us from that hazard. This shock is the result of that quick action with in us and hence this shock wave is also not fear. If we call it as fear, we need such fear to protect us from hazards.
The term FEAR we are discussing here is the psychological fear which happens due to the projection of mind rather than due to some thing really happening at some point of time. Now the question is that how do we know whether the fear is due to real fact or due to the projection of our mind? For an illusionary mind, every thing appears to be real fact. How do we know our mind is illusionary mind or the one which see the real facts? Yes it is not an easy task when we look it just at the outer layer and we do not have the willingness to see the reality. That is the reason for the creation of so many religions and mushrooming of so many spiritual leaders, yet we are unable to find a solution. Even though all the religions and all the genuine spiritual leaders are trying to show us the path forward in this direction, we are far away from finding the solution as we identify ourselves with one of those religion or spiritual leader or procedure or method. Once we identify ourselves with some thing, naturally there is no openness within our mind and hence we are not anywhere near to the solution for this problem.
Hence the basic requirement is to approach the problem with openness within our mind. With out that openness, we can not find solution for a simple problem with in us, then how can we find the solutions for the problem of the world. Of course, to appreciate this problem itself, we need to be free from our illusionary mind at least for a moment. The fact is that every one of us is having the intelligence to discriminate the real fact from the projection of illusionary mind. However, it is our willingness to use that intelligence, which makes our intelligence to discriminate the real fact and the projection of illusionary mind.
We can see the reality if and only if our mind is open to see any thing and every thing in this world and the mind will be open enough if an only if we have the willingness to do so.
To see the reality, we need to start from somewhere. Let us start from the Psychological fear. During the course of this discussion, each one of us may find a point with which we can closely relate with our thoughts/experience and that point shall become the starting point to see the reality. Until then, if we have the willingness to see the reality, we need to approach with an open mind to all ideas. Once we get that point, then clinging to any idea will not be helpful anymore and we have to free from all the ideas. If we still attach ourselves with some ideas, again we are in to the circle of projection of mind.
The Fear is due to psychological insecurity. It may be due to insecurity in the remaining days for this life or death, insecurity in finance, insecurity in relation, and so on. All these insecurities are felt by the mind because we are conditioned to live a dependent life. We are conditioned such a way that we cannot think of a life of freedom. We need to understand the term freedom. Freedom is not about doing what we want to do irrespective of the environment. It is the psychological freedom in which the environment will not affect us in any way as we are independent of environment. With that psychological freedom, we will be in such a state that we are capable of using whatever available in the environment and, do not bother about whatever not available in the environment. It may be hard to understand for those who have not thought about this type of freedom at some point of time. But one can understand this statement, if one approaches this statement with enough openness in mind and observe the daily events in life with such openness.
How to reach such a state of freedom so that we will be fearless? It can be only by understanding the bondages which block us to reach the freedom and by understanding the cause of the insecurities.
Attachments, possessiveness, dependency, jealous, guilty, and angry are few of the factors which block us from reaching the state of freedom. These are also the constructed qualities, which in turn induce insecurity with in us and hence induce another constructed quality Fear. We may discuss these constructed qualities at later stage so that we may understand and remove our misconceptions about these qualities, which in turn may help us to achieve the state of freedom.
Freedom makes us fearless! Fearlessness can give the strength to change the world as we like to have!
The beauty of the construction of human being is that we have enough intelligence to understand the conditioning of our mind. Once we understand the conditioning, we understand the nature of those constructed qualities. Once we have the understanding of constructed quality, we will be having discriminating power to understand the requirement of such qualities. Once we have the discriminating power, we are ready to take what is necessary for living this life the best possible manner and leave the rest of those qualities.
So let us try to understand the constructed quality FEAR. When we were new born children, we did not have fear on any thing. Our parents had to protect us from all hazards, since we did not have the discriminating power towards environment and no memory of any hazards at that point of time. Our parents had to protect us from fire, from rain, from falling down, from hot sun and so on. Later we developed the quality of protecting ourselves from those hazards either due to our own experience or by the education by parents and others. Thus we developed a natural tendency to escape from the hazards when ever we encounter such hazards. Later we have given the name FEAR to our reaction whenever we encounter such hazards.
Strictly speaking, this reaction to hazards is not fear. It is just the process of protecting ourselves from hazards. When we encounter such hazards unexpectedly, the body generates certain reactions very quickly, which may spread some shock waves with in us to safeguard us from that hazard. This shock is the result of that quick action with in us and hence this shock wave is also not fear. If we call it as fear, we need such fear to protect us from hazards.
The term FEAR we are discussing here is the psychological fear which happens due to the projection of mind rather than due to some thing really happening at some point of time. Now the question is that how do we know whether the fear is due to real fact or due to the projection of our mind? For an illusionary mind, every thing appears to be real fact. How do we know our mind is illusionary mind or the one which see the real facts? Yes it is not an easy task when we look it just at the outer layer and we do not have the willingness to see the reality. That is the reason for the creation of so many religions and mushrooming of so many spiritual leaders, yet we are unable to find a solution. Even though all the religions and all the genuine spiritual leaders are trying to show us the path forward in this direction, we are far away from finding the solution as we identify ourselves with one of those religion or spiritual leader or procedure or method. Once we identify ourselves with some thing, naturally there is no openness within our mind and hence we are not anywhere near to the solution for this problem.
Hence the basic requirement is to approach the problem with openness within our mind. With out that openness, we can not find solution for a simple problem with in us, then how can we find the solutions for the problem of the world. Of course, to appreciate this problem itself, we need to be free from our illusionary mind at least for a moment. The fact is that every one of us is having the intelligence to discriminate the real fact from the projection of illusionary mind. However, it is our willingness to use that intelligence, which makes our intelligence to discriminate the real fact and the projection of illusionary mind.
We can see the reality if and only if our mind is open to see any thing and every thing in this world and the mind will be open enough if an only if we have the willingness to do so.
To see the reality, we need to start from somewhere. Let us start from the Psychological fear. During the course of this discussion, each one of us may find a point with which we can closely relate with our thoughts/experience and that point shall become the starting point to see the reality. Until then, if we have the willingness to see the reality, we need to approach with an open mind to all ideas. Once we get that point, then clinging to any idea will not be helpful anymore and we have to free from all the ideas. If we still attach ourselves with some ideas, again we are in to the circle of projection of mind.
The Fear is due to psychological insecurity. It may be due to insecurity in the remaining days for this life or death, insecurity in finance, insecurity in relation, and so on. All these insecurities are felt by the mind because we are conditioned to live a dependent life. We are conditioned such a way that we cannot think of a life of freedom. We need to understand the term freedom. Freedom is not about doing what we want to do irrespective of the environment. It is the psychological freedom in which the environment will not affect us in any way as we are independent of environment. With that psychological freedom, we will be in such a state that we are capable of using whatever available in the environment and, do not bother about whatever not available in the environment. It may be hard to understand for those who have not thought about this type of freedom at some point of time. But one can understand this statement, if one approaches this statement with enough openness in mind and observe the daily events in life with such openness.
How to reach such a state of freedom so that we will be fearless? It can be only by understanding the bondages which block us to reach the freedom and by understanding the cause of the insecurities.
Attachments, possessiveness, dependency, jealous, guilty, and angry are few of the factors which block us from reaching the state of freedom. These are also the constructed qualities, which in turn induce insecurity with in us and hence induce another constructed quality Fear. We may discuss these constructed qualities at later stage so that we may understand and remove our misconceptions about these qualities, which in turn may help us to achieve the state of freedom.
Freedom makes us fearless! Fearlessness can give the strength to change the world as we like to have!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Choice
The way we are living our life today is entirely based on the choices we have taken from our childhood to until now. It is a big question that whether we are aware of those choices or not. But it is the fact. Some body else might have forced us towards choosing a particular choice, but ultimately the choices were that of ours. The majority of us never agree that we are living a comfortable life, where ever we are positioned and whatever lifestyle we are living now. We have so many reasons for supporting this claim. And we also call the support of destiny to give a psychological relief from our problem. Once we called the support of destiny for our problems, we turn spiritual (??) and claim that it is destiny, which is driving us and that is the way our lives are now.
We conveniently put the blame on destiny and forget, in times not even aware of, the choices we have taken, which took us to the position where we are now. And this is a convenient method of shifting our responsibility to some body/thing else, who can not retaliate on us. For the purpose of understanding these problems, we may have to ask few questions to ourselves and try to answer genuinely to ourselves. This part of analysis is just to make us to realize that if there is some thing called destiny, to drive us or not, it is we who are responsible for what we are today. Whether we are successful, joyful, and hopeful or whether we are bunch of failures and worries or what ever may be, it is entirely because of us. Once we are capable of understanding and are aware of this fact, we can notice a drastic change in our attitude and the way we face the outside world with an entirely different perspective of life.
Most of us give the credit to our successes to ourselves only. We give only the credit of our failures to destiny or God. Hence it is more relevant to analyze the facts related to failures than success; any way for success we have already taken the responsibility. It is not that once we take the responsibility of failures, there will not be any more failures. As long as we are with in the duality of success and failure, there will be always success and failure. The number of success and failures in our life depends on where we have kept the reference point, which divides between success and failures. But by taking the responsibility, we will undergo a complete change in attitude and we start looking the outside in a different way. With this change happening with in ourselves as a result of taking responsibility of our actions and choices, keeps us in a joyful state irrespective of the success or failure. Any way what we want is a joyful life and hence taking the responsibility of all our actions shall be a logical right step.
Again, we need to take our choices, whether we like it or not, as long as we are in the domain of duality. If we start taking the choices consciously, slowly we shall start shifting the reference point between the dual aspects towards one direction. As our consciousness on this increase, there is a possibility of transcending over the domain of duality. Once we transcend over the duality, there is no more need for choosing choices. Here after we need to just act depend on what is needed. As we are transcended over the duality, we act only for what is needed and there is no choice to choose for. There may be multiple methods to transcend over duality. What we are discussing now is a method of transcending duality with the use of our knowledge. And this is about knowledge on just one aspect, where us there may be countless such aspects and when we gain knowledge on such aspects, slowly we shall transcend over duality. What we need is just a conscious effort. Nothing more than that!
Now we can claim that we are already in the domain of choice less action, as we are acting as and when needed. Here it is not that the actions are choice less. Here we are just not aware of our choices. As long as we are not conceptualize duality – duality of happy and sad, success and failure, and any such thing we name it, there is not much difference (in perception) between the choice less actions what we are doing now(claiming as doing) and the choice less action as a result of transcending the duality. Once the concept of duality is clear with in us, we will be able to appreciate the vast difference between these two way of action. Yes, some effort is required to understand the concept of duality. Once it is understood, we start taking conscious choices. We have discussed little bit about the concept of duality in the last section.
Responsibility is the key for taking conscious choices. We may discuss on another day about responsibility.
We conveniently put the blame on destiny and forget, in times not even aware of, the choices we have taken, which took us to the position where we are now. And this is a convenient method of shifting our responsibility to some body/thing else, who can not retaliate on us. For the purpose of understanding these problems, we may have to ask few questions to ourselves and try to answer genuinely to ourselves. This part of analysis is just to make us to realize that if there is some thing called destiny, to drive us or not, it is we who are responsible for what we are today. Whether we are successful, joyful, and hopeful or whether we are bunch of failures and worries or what ever may be, it is entirely because of us. Once we are capable of understanding and are aware of this fact, we can notice a drastic change in our attitude and the way we face the outside world with an entirely different perspective of life.
Most of us give the credit to our successes to ourselves only. We give only the credit of our failures to destiny or God. Hence it is more relevant to analyze the facts related to failures than success; any way for success we have already taken the responsibility. It is not that once we take the responsibility of failures, there will not be any more failures. As long as we are with in the duality of success and failure, there will be always success and failure. The number of success and failures in our life depends on where we have kept the reference point, which divides between success and failures. But by taking the responsibility, we will undergo a complete change in attitude and we start looking the outside in a different way. With this change happening with in ourselves as a result of taking responsibility of our actions and choices, keeps us in a joyful state irrespective of the success or failure. Any way what we want is a joyful life and hence taking the responsibility of all our actions shall be a logical right step.
Again, we need to take our choices, whether we like it or not, as long as we are in the domain of duality. If we start taking the choices consciously, slowly we shall start shifting the reference point between the dual aspects towards one direction. As our consciousness on this increase, there is a possibility of transcending over the domain of duality. Once we transcend over the duality, there is no more need for choosing choices. Here after we need to just act depend on what is needed. As we are transcended over the duality, we act only for what is needed and there is no choice to choose for. There may be multiple methods to transcend over duality. What we are discussing now is a method of transcending duality with the use of our knowledge. And this is about knowledge on just one aspect, where us there may be countless such aspects and when we gain knowledge on such aspects, slowly we shall transcend over duality. What we need is just a conscious effort. Nothing more than that!
Now we can claim that we are already in the domain of choice less action, as we are acting as and when needed. Here it is not that the actions are choice less. Here we are just not aware of our choices. As long as we are not conceptualize duality – duality of happy and sad, success and failure, and any such thing we name it, there is not much difference (in perception) between the choice less actions what we are doing now(claiming as doing) and the choice less action as a result of transcending the duality. Once the concept of duality is clear with in us, we will be able to appreciate the vast difference between these two way of action. Yes, some effort is required to understand the concept of duality. Once it is understood, we start taking conscious choices. We have discussed little bit about the concept of duality in the last section.
Responsibility is the key for taking conscious choices. We may discuss on another day about responsibility.
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