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.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Dependency
In this universe everything, whether animate or inanimate, is depend on many other things for their survival. Hence dependency is a factor which we inherited from our ancestors, which in turn has the history from the time of creation. But dependency at another level, takes away our freedom and becomes the cause of bondage and hence the cause of our suffering. Hence it may be helpful to understand the term Dependency towards our quest of having a world of our choice.
At one level we depend on our parents, our spouse, our children, our neighbors, our society, etc for fulfilling our day-to-day needs. Without such dependency we cannot have a social life. At another level, we depend on the life of many other living organisms for our basic needs like food (irrespective of vegetarian or not), shelter and basic survival. Without the sacrifice of lives of many other living organisms, we cannot even survive for a day. At a much subtler level, even the inanimate objects depend on other objects for their existence. This is true for sub atomic objects to the cosmic objects.
There is another level of dependency which we create ourselves out of ignorance, which then becomes source of our sufferings. This is the psychological dependency, which we create with our relationships, with our possessions and with our desires. Let us analyze the mechanism of psychological dependency and its role in our life. Once we have the understanding we will be able to decide its role and its need in our lives.
For our needs we depend on two set of people, with one set, we are not emotionally related where as with another set we are emotionally related also. The first set is like grocery agent, news paper agent, vehicle mechanic and so on. In this case, they depend on our need of their services and we depend on their services and there is no emotional factor attached with this dependency on either side. Here if one grocery vendor is not servicing us we can get another one. Hence we never look for the security of service with one particular vendor and hence there is no emotional factor, and hence no psychological dependency. Basically, dependency is need based. The above dependencies are physical need based and we cannot avoid those dependencies, and there are no problems for us due to those dependencies.
The other set is our parents, spouse, children, friends, and similar relationships. There are certain levels of real needs from these relationships. We do not stop our dependency with these relationships at real, required level, but elevate it to emotional level. This is due to the fact that we are in need of emotional content from these relationships. On the other hand, we are emotionally void and hence we tend to fill that emotional void by emotional content from our relationships. The general understanding of us is that without that emotional factor towards the relationships, what is social life and why do we need a social set up like family? Yes, we need emotional factor towards our relationships and with the society, but that should be due to our emotional fullness and not due to our emotional emptiness. If the emotional factor of our relationship is not due to emotional emptiness, then there is no need for emotional dependency for us and there is no suffering for us due to our dependency with our relationships. In such case, there is no question of this discussion at all. But the fact is that we are completely void with respect to our emotions. What we call as emotion within us is just the need of us arising out of this emotional emptiness and due to the projection of our mind but we perceive it as the emotional content we are providing to our relationships due to our ignorance.
There is a third level of dependency in which we depend on many of our material possessions. Out of the possessiveness we build around those possessions, we become emotionally dependent on these possessions. Off late we have reached a level in which our emotional dependency towards these possessions are gone beyond a tolerable limit. In case we lose any of those possessions, we will be down psychologically. This is the real problem – the psychological falling which is the result of emotional dependency. Of course, the loss of certain possession is definitely a loss with respect to our ability to do certain function because the execution of that function depends on the possession. But if it reaches a level where the loss of that possession pull us down psychologically, then something wrong in the type of dependency we have with that possession.
If our emotional factor towards our relationships and possessions arises due to our fullness, then there will not be any suffering for us due to that emotional factor. In the sense, irrespective of the reaction of that relationship towards as, our emotional content flows towards that relationship and due to our emotional completeness, we do not need any emotional factor from that relationship; if at all that relationship is unable to give. If we are emotionally empty, how can we approach the relationships with the emotional factor? We can only expect the emotional content from our relationships, while (actually) nothing to give back. When every one of us in the society is emotionally void, how can our relationships approach us with the (actual) emotional content which we need? Cannot be! Hence the real problem is that every one of us is emotionally void and trying to fill that void by depending on others. Unfortunately all our relationships are at the same level and our emotional need will never be fulfilled. The end result is suffering to us and our relationships.
The only way out is to understand this fact. Once we understand the cause of emotional dependency, we will be free from it; simultaneously we will be emotionally complete by ourselves. These are mere psychological factors and basically evolved due to the projection of our mind. It is not a real dependency. That is the reason, as soon as we understand these deficiencies, it will be filled immediately. In other words the emptiness is due to our ignorance of the facts. Once we understand the facts, our ignorance will be wiped out instantaneously and hence we will be free from illusions. This freedom gives us the fullness and it is an instantaneous change. As soon as we understand the fact, the suffering will be ended because it is a mere psychological factor.
The real problem is to bring in the necessary understanding. As we discussed multiple times, our conditioning is the blocking stone on the path of understanding. Unless we are free from the conditioning, which is result of inheritance, we will not be able to wipe out our ignorance and hence illusions. Until the time we live illusionary life, without looking into the facts and logic of existence, we are not going to be free from our conditioning and hence our suffering. Until the time we are free from suffering, we can look nothing, but a problematic world. At this level, naturally we would like to change the world from what it is. We ourselves are not free from suffering, how can we end the suffering of world?
At one level we depend on our parents, our spouse, our children, our neighbors, our society, etc for fulfilling our day-to-day needs. Without such dependency we cannot have a social life. At another level, we depend on the life of many other living organisms for our basic needs like food (irrespective of vegetarian or not), shelter and basic survival. Without the sacrifice of lives of many other living organisms, we cannot even survive for a day. At a much subtler level, even the inanimate objects depend on other objects for their existence. This is true for sub atomic objects to the cosmic objects.
There is another level of dependency which we create ourselves out of ignorance, which then becomes source of our sufferings. This is the psychological dependency, which we create with our relationships, with our possessions and with our desires. Let us analyze the mechanism of psychological dependency and its role in our life. Once we have the understanding we will be able to decide its role and its need in our lives.
For our needs we depend on two set of people, with one set, we are not emotionally related where as with another set we are emotionally related also. The first set is like grocery agent, news paper agent, vehicle mechanic and so on. In this case, they depend on our need of their services and we depend on their services and there is no emotional factor attached with this dependency on either side. Here if one grocery vendor is not servicing us we can get another one. Hence we never look for the security of service with one particular vendor and hence there is no emotional factor, and hence no psychological dependency. Basically, dependency is need based. The above dependencies are physical need based and we cannot avoid those dependencies, and there are no problems for us due to those dependencies.
The other set is our parents, spouse, children, friends, and similar relationships. There are certain levels of real needs from these relationships. We do not stop our dependency with these relationships at real, required level, but elevate it to emotional level. This is due to the fact that we are in need of emotional content from these relationships. On the other hand, we are emotionally void and hence we tend to fill that emotional void by emotional content from our relationships. The general understanding of us is that without that emotional factor towards the relationships, what is social life and why do we need a social set up like family? Yes, we need emotional factor towards our relationships and with the society, but that should be due to our emotional fullness and not due to our emotional emptiness. If the emotional factor of our relationship is not due to emotional emptiness, then there is no need for emotional dependency for us and there is no suffering for us due to our dependency with our relationships. In such case, there is no question of this discussion at all. But the fact is that we are completely void with respect to our emotions. What we call as emotion within us is just the need of us arising out of this emotional emptiness and due to the projection of our mind but we perceive it as the emotional content we are providing to our relationships due to our ignorance.
There is a third level of dependency in which we depend on many of our material possessions. Out of the possessiveness we build around those possessions, we become emotionally dependent on these possessions. Off late we have reached a level in which our emotional dependency towards these possessions are gone beyond a tolerable limit. In case we lose any of those possessions, we will be down psychologically. This is the real problem – the psychological falling which is the result of emotional dependency. Of course, the loss of certain possession is definitely a loss with respect to our ability to do certain function because the execution of that function depends on the possession. But if it reaches a level where the loss of that possession pull us down psychologically, then something wrong in the type of dependency we have with that possession.
If our emotional factor towards our relationships and possessions arises due to our fullness, then there will not be any suffering for us due to that emotional factor. In the sense, irrespective of the reaction of that relationship towards as, our emotional content flows towards that relationship and due to our emotional completeness, we do not need any emotional factor from that relationship; if at all that relationship is unable to give. If we are emotionally empty, how can we approach the relationships with the emotional factor? We can only expect the emotional content from our relationships, while (actually) nothing to give back. When every one of us in the society is emotionally void, how can our relationships approach us with the (actual) emotional content which we need? Cannot be! Hence the real problem is that every one of us is emotionally void and trying to fill that void by depending on others. Unfortunately all our relationships are at the same level and our emotional need will never be fulfilled. The end result is suffering to us and our relationships.
The only way out is to understand this fact. Once we understand the cause of emotional dependency, we will be free from it; simultaneously we will be emotionally complete by ourselves. These are mere psychological factors and basically evolved due to the projection of our mind. It is not a real dependency. That is the reason, as soon as we understand these deficiencies, it will be filled immediately. In other words the emptiness is due to our ignorance of the facts. Once we understand the facts, our ignorance will be wiped out instantaneously and hence we will be free from illusions. This freedom gives us the fullness and it is an instantaneous change. As soon as we understand the fact, the suffering will be ended because it is a mere psychological factor.
The real problem is to bring in the necessary understanding. As we discussed multiple times, our conditioning is the blocking stone on the path of understanding. Unless we are free from the conditioning, which is result of inheritance, we will not be able to wipe out our ignorance and hence illusions. Until the time we live illusionary life, without looking into the facts and logic of existence, we are not going to be free from our conditioning and hence our suffering. Until the time we are free from suffering, we can look nothing, but a problematic world. At this level, naturally we would like to change the world from what it is. We ourselves are not free from suffering, how can we end the suffering of world?
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Responsibility
We are discussing about the change we want to have in the world as we are seeing a complete chaos in the world around us. Based on the discussion so far, every one of us sees a different world. The world I am seeing is entirely different form the world you are seeing. No two persons will see the same world. The reason is that the world we see is the projection of our mind and no two persons think alike and hence the world of no two persons will be alike.
This implies that if we are seeing complete chaos in the world, essentially our mind is in complete chaos. During the discussion so far, we have seen some of the reasons for such a chaotic mind. So far we were discussing about constructed qualities which we need to wipe out from ourselves to get ourselves free. Responsibility is one action which we have to adapt. The action with responsibility will help us to get away with those constructed qualities. Responsibility is stated as action rather than a quality because we never identify ourselves with it. Qualities are some thing with which we are attached and hence identified with. Responsibility is an action out of us.
If we look deep into our day-to-day life, we take responsibility for ourselves of all our successes and with things whichever we are happy with in our life. But if there is some problem in life, we rarely take responsibility for that problem; we rarely recognize the problem is due to some of our actions for which we are responsible. We readily find someone else to pass the responsibility for our problems. We also fail to recognize the quality of life we are living is entirely based on our actions. The actions might have been stimulated by somebody else or something else. But the actions were performed by us with our complete knowledge. Hence we are completely responsible for what we are today, whether we are happy or not happy with our present state. Of course, we are thankful to those stimulating environment- be it our parents, or well wishers or whoever it be.
In most of the cases, we shift the responsibility of our present state to somebody else and if we could not get those somebody else, it is very easy to shift that responsibility to God or Cosmic power; as nobody understand what it really mean and God never questions us for this action, and hence we are not answerable to anybody for shifting the responsibility of our failures and problems towards God. But, by doing this, we lose our freedom. We enter in a state of fear, which will be the breeding point for all our constructed qualities and hence all our problems.
When we take responsibility of our action means, we will be completely aware of our actions. We will be also aware that the result for the action is not only depends on our action, but many external situations also. As we completely take the responsibility of our actions and hence aware of the external conditions, we respond to all these external situations and now we are in a position to accept the outcome of our action, whatever it may be. The key point here is that taking responsibility of our action drastically improves our awareness and once we are aware, the less will be the fear and hence less will be the possibility of creating other constructed qualities out of our action.
When we shift the responsibility of our actions to somebody else, we are choosing the escape route, which in turn make our awareness to shrink. The less our awareness, the more will be chances of getting into fear. Once we have fear there is no escape from suffering.
If we would like to change the world around us, we should be capable of assuming responsibility for all of our action. If we are not able to take responsibility of our actions, yet want to change the world from ‘what it is’ to ‘what should be’, then we are creating more problems for ourselves and for the world. In such case, it is better to live our own life in our own way, instead of worrying about the world, as it has no meaning for those who are not ready to take the responsibility for their own actions!
This implies that if we are seeing complete chaos in the world, essentially our mind is in complete chaos. During the discussion so far, we have seen some of the reasons for such a chaotic mind. So far we were discussing about constructed qualities which we need to wipe out from ourselves to get ourselves free. Responsibility is one action which we have to adapt. The action with responsibility will help us to get away with those constructed qualities. Responsibility is stated as action rather than a quality because we never identify ourselves with it. Qualities are some thing with which we are attached and hence identified with. Responsibility is an action out of us.
If we look deep into our day-to-day life, we take responsibility for ourselves of all our successes and with things whichever we are happy with in our life. But if there is some problem in life, we rarely take responsibility for that problem; we rarely recognize the problem is due to some of our actions for which we are responsible. We readily find someone else to pass the responsibility for our problems. We also fail to recognize the quality of life we are living is entirely based on our actions. The actions might have been stimulated by somebody else or something else. But the actions were performed by us with our complete knowledge. Hence we are completely responsible for what we are today, whether we are happy or not happy with our present state. Of course, we are thankful to those stimulating environment- be it our parents, or well wishers or whoever it be.
In most of the cases, we shift the responsibility of our present state to somebody else and if we could not get those somebody else, it is very easy to shift that responsibility to God or Cosmic power; as nobody understand what it really mean and God never questions us for this action, and hence we are not answerable to anybody for shifting the responsibility of our failures and problems towards God. But, by doing this, we lose our freedom. We enter in a state of fear, which will be the breeding point for all our constructed qualities and hence all our problems.
When we take responsibility of our action means, we will be completely aware of our actions. We will be also aware that the result for the action is not only depends on our action, but many external situations also. As we completely take the responsibility of our actions and hence aware of the external conditions, we respond to all these external situations and now we are in a position to accept the outcome of our action, whatever it may be. The key point here is that taking responsibility of our action drastically improves our awareness and once we are aware, the less will be the fear and hence less will be the possibility of creating other constructed qualities out of our action.
When we shift the responsibility of our actions to somebody else, we are choosing the escape route, which in turn make our awareness to shrink. The less our awareness, the more will be chances of getting into fear. Once we have fear there is no escape from suffering.
If we would like to change the world around us, we should be capable of assuming responsibility for all of our action. If we are not able to take responsibility of our actions, yet want to change the world from ‘what it is’ to ‘what should be’, then we are creating more problems for ourselves and for the world. In such case, it is better to live our own life in our own way, instead of worrying about the world, as it has no meaning for those who are not ready to take the responsibility for their own actions!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Anger
Anger is one of the constructed qualities, which affect our inner freedom. Until the time we have the quality anger, we can’t have inner freedom. Unlike qualities like attachment and possessiveness which affect us just psychologically, anger affect us psychologically as well as physiologically. When we are in anger (Or just after recognizing anger within us), the blood pressure increases enormously and certain acidic substances are added into our system. Both of these physical effects of anger are harmful to our body.
Let us analyze the source of anger and this knowledge may be helpful, if we wish to avoid anger within us and hence we will be approaching psychological freedom and eliminating unnecessary blood pressure spikes and unnecessary addition of acidic substances in our physiological system. None of us really want these side effects of anger, and hence anger also. However we are unable to control anger when it arises and we are aware of our anger only after it is over. This may be due to our lack of understanding of the mechanism of anger and its source.
Whenever the projection of our mind is challenged, our mind expresses the reaction as anger. The intensity of anger depends on the intensity of challenge. When we are caught in psychological bondage, the mind always project everything it sees, make it as an image and store it back in the memory. Depend on the usage of this image for our survival, the mind seeks security for the projected image, and this will be breeding point of attachment and possessiveness. Hence the intensity of our anger depends on how far we are attached with the image projected by the mind or how far the mind seeks security of that image.
We have built an image about us within our mind, which is basically what we refer as ourselves. This includes images like I am this religion; I am this caste; I am the native of this state; I am this national; I am the follower of this leader; I am the follower of this Guru, and such endless I am…. The more the number of such identifications we have about ourselves, the possibility of bondage is more and hence the frequency and intensity of our anger. The less the identification we have about ourselves, the less will be the frequency and intensity of the anger. This leads to the conclusion that we will be nearing psychological freedom as fast as we eliminate entities with which we are identified. Once there is no more identification about ourselves within us, the “I centeredness” or “Me” or “Self” cease to exist and that will be the ultimate freedom.
To reach such a state, we need not forgo the relationships in this world; need not leave behind any possessions we have; do not cease the enjoyment the existence provides to us and need not isolate ourselves from the society and culture. What we just need is an understanding of existence. And a change within us to live synchronized with the existence. Nothing more is demanded from us to have a realized, joyful life.
Let us go some more details of relation between anger and our self identifications. Let us assume we belong to the religion “A”. This means, we have strong belief about the teaching of religion “A” due to constant and prolonged insistence of the principles and value system of religion “A” within us. We are conditioned such a way that, we started feeling a great sense of fulfillment and pride with the image of being belonging to that religion. This will give a sense of pride when we say I am the follower of religion “A” and we go to such a stage that we identify ourselves as I am an “A”ian. Now we are deeply identified with the religion “A”. Now one person belong to religion “B” and as deeply attached with that religion as we are attached with “A” comes to us and question the validity of certain principles of religion “A”, we do not need any time to reach the peak of anger. The less our identification with religion “A” the more we see the validity/invalidity of the challenge and have the capability of logical reaction. If we are not at all identified ourselves with religion “A”, any question about the validity of religion “A” is not at all a challenge to us, and there is no need for us to react for that challenge, except showing logical reaction, if we wish to do so. When we do not identify ourselves with any of the religions from A to Z, none can make us anger by challenging with respect to religion. This does not mean that we should not follow any religion or belief system. We can follow any religion or any belief system of our choice. But we should also take the choice of not being identified with the religion or belief system. It may be a bit difficult to digest this argument. But if we allow our intelligence to work, it is not a difficult task to follow something, but not identified with that something. Such intelligence will provide us ultimate freedom from all bondages. Once we are free from the bondages, we will be peaceful within us and the world projected by our mind is also in peace!
One more point we need to note about anger is that we never were aware of anger, when we are caught in anger. We realize that we were angry only after the real anger is gone. We normally refer the reaction of anger as anger. This is one of the prime reasons, due to which we are unable to get freedom from anger. If we go little deep into the quality of anger, at the time of anger, there is no identification about ourselves. We lose ourselves completely, which is desirable and we are striving to reach such a self-less state. But due to undesirable nature of cause of anger, the after effects of anger are undesirable. When our images are challenged, based on the intensity of challenge, we entered the state of anger with proportional intensity. Within moments, we get into self identification and the undesirable effects of anger will start to manifest. With the self identification with images and with the challenge, we enter into a state of desperation and we normally call this state as anger, because we are aware of only this state and not the real anger.
We will be able to recognize this fact if we analyze the instant of latest anger, its cause, reaction, effects and the state of mind during the whole of this process.
The important point here is that if we are capable of observing the real moment of anger, we will understand the cause of this anger, which is the self identification with images, and will be able to eliminate it completely. To observe the moment of anger, we have to allow our intelligence to work. For the intelligence to work, we need to bring necessary changes within ourselves so that we are free of the conditioning of ourselves, at least to the extent of neither accepting nor rejecting any of our value systems and have the openness to see the things as it comes without accepting or rejecting whatever comes to us.
Let us analyze the source of anger and this knowledge may be helpful, if we wish to avoid anger within us and hence we will be approaching psychological freedom and eliminating unnecessary blood pressure spikes and unnecessary addition of acidic substances in our physiological system. None of us really want these side effects of anger, and hence anger also. However we are unable to control anger when it arises and we are aware of our anger only after it is over. This may be due to our lack of understanding of the mechanism of anger and its source.
Whenever the projection of our mind is challenged, our mind expresses the reaction as anger. The intensity of anger depends on the intensity of challenge. When we are caught in psychological bondage, the mind always project everything it sees, make it as an image and store it back in the memory. Depend on the usage of this image for our survival, the mind seeks security for the projected image, and this will be breeding point of attachment and possessiveness. Hence the intensity of our anger depends on how far we are attached with the image projected by the mind or how far the mind seeks security of that image.
We have built an image about us within our mind, which is basically what we refer as ourselves. This includes images like I am this religion; I am this caste; I am the native of this state; I am this national; I am the follower of this leader; I am the follower of this Guru, and such endless I am…. The more the number of such identifications we have about ourselves, the possibility of bondage is more and hence the frequency and intensity of our anger. The less the identification we have about ourselves, the less will be the frequency and intensity of the anger. This leads to the conclusion that we will be nearing psychological freedom as fast as we eliminate entities with which we are identified. Once there is no more identification about ourselves within us, the “I centeredness” or “Me” or “Self” cease to exist and that will be the ultimate freedom.
To reach such a state, we need not forgo the relationships in this world; need not leave behind any possessions we have; do not cease the enjoyment the existence provides to us and need not isolate ourselves from the society and culture. What we just need is an understanding of existence. And a change within us to live synchronized with the existence. Nothing more is demanded from us to have a realized, joyful life.
Let us go some more details of relation between anger and our self identifications. Let us assume we belong to the religion “A”. This means, we have strong belief about the teaching of religion “A” due to constant and prolonged insistence of the principles and value system of religion “A” within us. We are conditioned such a way that, we started feeling a great sense of fulfillment and pride with the image of being belonging to that religion. This will give a sense of pride when we say I am the follower of religion “A” and we go to such a stage that we identify ourselves as I am an “A”ian. Now we are deeply identified with the religion “A”. Now one person belong to religion “B” and as deeply attached with that religion as we are attached with “A” comes to us and question the validity of certain principles of religion “A”, we do not need any time to reach the peak of anger. The less our identification with religion “A” the more we see the validity/invalidity of the challenge and have the capability of logical reaction. If we are not at all identified ourselves with religion “A”, any question about the validity of religion “A” is not at all a challenge to us, and there is no need for us to react for that challenge, except showing logical reaction, if we wish to do so. When we do not identify ourselves with any of the religions from A to Z, none can make us anger by challenging with respect to religion. This does not mean that we should not follow any religion or belief system. We can follow any religion or any belief system of our choice. But we should also take the choice of not being identified with the religion or belief system. It may be a bit difficult to digest this argument. But if we allow our intelligence to work, it is not a difficult task to follow something, but not identified with that something. Such intelligence will provide us ultimate freedom from all bondages. Once we are free from the bondages, we will be peaceful within us and the world projected by our mind is also in peace!
One more point we need to note about anger is that we never were aware of anger, when we are caught in anger. We realize that we were angry only after the real anger is gone. We normally refer the reaction of anger as anger. This is one of the prime reasons, due to which we are unable to get freedom from anger. If we go little deep into the quality of anger, at the time of anger, there is no identification about ourselves. We lose ourselves completely, which is desirable and we are striving to reach such a self-less state. But due to undesirable nature of cause of anger, the after effects of anger are undesirable. When our images are challenged, based on the intensity of challenge, we entered the state of anger with proportional intensity. Within moments, we get into self identification and the undesirable effects of anger will start to manifest. With the self identification with images and with the challenge, we enter into a state of desperation and we normally call this state as anger, because we are aware of only this state and not the real anger.
We will be able to recognize this fact if we analyze the instant of latest anger, its cause, reaction, effects and the state of mind during the whole of this process.
The important point here is that if we are capable of observing the real moment of anger, we will understand the cause of this anger, which is the self identification with images, and will be able to eliminate it completely. To observe the moment of anger, we have to allow our intelligence to work. For the intelligence to work, we need to bring necessary changes within ourselves so that we are free of the conditioning of ourselves, at least to the extent of neither accepting nor rejecting any of our value systems and have the openness to see the things as it comes without accepting or rejecting whatever comes to us.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Bondage & Freedom-4
Now let us try to understand the child to parent relationship. Analyzing this relationship may give an additional benefit of understanding the need for security is the prime reason for attachment and possessiveness. This is one of the very complicated relationships in our culture.
Until we reach an age of independent survival, we were in the closest care and affection of our parents. At the young age, we were not building as much as images as we are doing as adults. This is the reason that children are said to be very close to the nature of God. At that stage, our survival depends on our parents and we need to have only the security and assurance of having our parents always with us. We did not need (in general) any other security as everything else were taken care by parents. Due to this dependency, we needed our parents always with us. At later stage, as we were started building psychological images and started constructing ourselves (the constructed qualities which are responsible for “ego” or “I centeredness”), we build the image of our parents and project about the comfort we would like to receive from our parents. At this age, our projection of mind will be very close to reality due to fewer images in our memory. Hence the possibility of our parents satisfying our ego is very high and this in turn builds newer images. At certain stage, we will be deeply attached to these images of our parents and the constructed quality of attachment with parents already started within us.
Due to the deep attachment with the image we projected about our parents, this is one of the most fragile relationships. Another reason for the fragility of this relationship is that at certain stage the role play of the parents interchanges. When the parents become old, for their survival, they need to depend on somebody else and naturally children will be the choice. At this stage, the there is a possibility that this relationship may break away due to two reasons.
The children had the image of parents supporting them and not the other way around. Once the children are independent, they are busy in building many more images and as there was no more need for their parents for their survival or any other need, there was no need to build further image about parents. Usually people still project the image of their aging parents and if they do so, they will be having the mind set to reverse the role play. Whenever the parents act as per their nature, which in general deviate much from the image we have about them in our mind (The image we have in our memory is just projection of our mind about parents and not the fact about parents), there is a conflict. Basically this conflict is only within us, but due to projection of mind we perceive it as the conflict in behavior of our parents. Once we start seeing the conflict in our relationships, which are mere projection of mind rather than the actual relationship, the image of our relationship start breaking. Once the image of relationship (we never had real relationship) starts breaking, we no more care about the parents. Those who are capable of seeing the conflict is due to the nature of their (image about) parents and able to cope with that difference, will still hang on with the relationships.
The parents have the image of their children, who still depend on them to fulfill their need. But the children are now grown up adults and they are actually not depending on their parents any more. Unfortunately, most of the parents are unable to leave behind the image of their children, which is an innocent, cute image. Where as the fact is entirely different and hence there is a conflict. Since the parents are still holding the image of innocent children, their ego will not allow them to listen to their children (Even though the situation forced them to listen to their children, the image deep in their mind resist it and hence become the source of conflict). Only a few parents in our culture can come out of this trap and listen to their children with out the ego clash.
The image we have about our children and parents creates the bondages and become the source of conflict with our parents and children. Freedom from this image will resolve the conflicts in parentsßàchildren relationship.
The Basic point of this discussion is that we need to realize truth to come out of various images we have built in our mind and recorded in our memory and leave our life based on this image. When we leave our life based on some image, we are far away from reality and conflict is inevitable in our life. If we live in a life of images, we can not resolve the conflicts but try to escape from the conflicts, which in turn create more conflicts. When our neighbors and we are living with conflicts (with in), conflict between us and our neighbors inevitable. Hence there is conflict with in society and which is the source of all our problems. Hence, if we want to change the world around us, first we need to ralize the truth. This realization brings in necessary changes within us so that all our conflicts within us will get resolved. When there is no conflict within us, there is no conflict with our neighbors and with society.
Until we reach an age of independent survival, we were in the closest care and affection of our parents. At the young age, we were not building as much as images as we are doing as adults. This is the reason that children are said to be very close to the nature of God. At that stage, our survival depends on our parents and we need to have only the security and assurance of having our parents always with us. We did not need (in general) any other security as everything else were taken care by parents. Due to this dependency, we needed our parents always with us. At later stage, as we were started building psychological images and started constructing ourselves (the constructed qualities which are responsible for “ego” or “I centeredness”), we build the image of our parents and project about the comfort we would like to receive from our parents. At this age, our projection of mind will be very close to reality due to fewer images in our memory. Hence the possibility of our parents satisfying our ego is very high and this in turn builds newer images. At certain stage, we will be deeply attached to these images of our parents and the constructed quality of attachment with parents already started within us.
Due to the deep attachment with the image we projected about our parents, this is one of the most fragile relationships. Another reason for the fragility of this relationship is that at certain stage the role play of the parents interchanges. When the parents become old, for their survival, they need to depend on somebody else and naturally children will be the choice. At this stage, the there is a possibility that this relationship may break away due to two reasons.
The children had the image of parents supporting them and not the other way around. Once the children are independent, they are busy in building many more images and as there was no more need for their parents for their survival or any other need, there was no need to build further image about parents. Usually people still project the image of their aging parents and if they do so, they will be having the mind set to reverse the role play. Whenever the parents act as per their nature, which in general deviate much from the image we have about them in our mind (The image we have in our memory is just projection of our mind about parents and not the fact about parents), there is a conflict. Basically this conflict is only within us, but due to projection of mind we perceive it as the conflict in behavior of our parents. Once we start seeing the conflict in our relationships, which are mere projection of mind rather than the actual relationship, the image of our relationship start breaking. Once the image of relationship (we never had real relationship) starts breaking, we no more care about the parents. Those who are capable of seeing the conflict is due to the nature of their (image about) parents and able to cope with that difference, will still hang on with the relationships.
The parents have the image of their children, who still depend on them to fulfill their need. But the children are now grown up adults and they are actually not depending on their parents any more. Unfortunately, most of the parents are unable to leave behind the image of their children, which is an innocent, cute image. Where as the fact is entirely different and hence there is a conflict. Since the parents are still holding the image of innocent children, their ego will not allow them to listen to their children (Even though the situation forced them to listen to their children, the image deep in their mind resist it and hence become the source of conflict). Only a few parents in our culture can come out of this trap and listen to their children with out the ego clash.
The image we have about our children and parents creates the bondages and become the source of conflict with our parents and children. Freedom from this image will resolve the conflicts in parentsßàchildren relationship.
The Basic point of this discussion is that we need to realize truth to come out of various images we have built in our mind and recorded in our memory and leave our life based on this image. When we leave our life based on some image, we are far away from reality and conflict is inevitable in our life. If we live in a life of images, we can not resolve the conflicts but try to escape from the conflicts, which in turn create more conflicts. When our neighbors and we are living with conflicts (with in), conflict between us and our neighbors inevitable. Hence there is conflict with in society and which is the source of all our problems. Hence, if we want to change the world around us, first we need to ralize the truth. This realization brings in necessary changes within us so that all our conflicts within us will get resolved. When there is no conflict within us, there is no conflict with our neighbors and with society.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Bondage & Freedom-3
In one of our earlier discussions, we noted that human relationships are invented to escape from conflicts within one and with others. The parent to children relationship (physical aspect) is the only exception to this. With the relationships, established a structure of society is formed and then culture. Since these things are invented to escape from conflicts rather than resolving conflicts, at certain stage these establishments became bondage. Now we are deeply bonded with relationships, we cannot breakaway the structure without leaving the culture and society behind. But for the purpose of breaking the bondage, we cannot leave the structure behind and move forward, which shall be meaningless. If we do so, we lose our life and there may not be any justification for such action, if we have already established such relationships within us. If we do so, it will bring in new conflicts within us and within those who are related with us. Hence the only way out is understand the social structure, live within the structure with complete understanding of the need for those structure for our life. Once the complete understanding is there, there will not be any more illusion and we can see what is there as it is. If we can reach this stage, the relationships are no more bondage for us because, we wipe out all constructed qualities from relationships as we have clear understanding of relationships and understanding of real purpose of this relationships. The understanding brings in the required inner freedom. Once we enjoy the freedom within us, there are no more conflicts within us. When there is no conflict within us, we are in a peaceful state. When we are peaceful, the world is peaceful because our world is just the outward projection of ourselves.
Let us try to understand parent children relationships. This is one relationship which no one can escape. All of us were a child of somebody. Once we understand the nature of this relationship, there will not be any new conflicts within us due to this relationship and there will not be any contamination of this relationship with attachment, possessiveness, jealous, envy, anger and any other constructed qualities. Once we understand the structure of this relationship and the basic maintenance requirement of this relationship, we can enjoy the pure relationship without any contamination.
Procreation is the nature of existence and for procreation our body has natural mechanism to have male female attraction. This is an unavoidable attraction express itself as desire, and is required for sustaining existence of human form. Because of this desire, procreation takes place and parent children relationship is already established. Here we need to understand one thing. There may be very few for who, by their very nature, the attraction required for procreation may not arise within them. For them, if the job of procreation is imposed on them by society, their life is finished there!
Even though it is a natural process, it is because of our desire the procreation happened and we are completely responsible for our action. In this case, it is the action due to our desire. The child is a product of our desire. Hence it is our responsibility to prepare the child as a socially compatible being. This is the very nature of parent-child relationship with respect to the parent. For us, whether we execute our responsibility or not, we start projecting the relationship out of our (virtual) need of psychological security. Having the child with us and its very nature of innocence, we start enjoy the togetherness. If it stops there, it is fine. But we would like to have the quality of innocence with the child forever and the attachment with the child is already there. We are in a state, even before the birth of child, we do all sort of mental projections about the child and its innocence and build the attachment even before the birth of child. And in many cases even before the child is created we do our mental projection and form an attachment with a non existing entity.
As explained in previous discussions, the attachment will slowly become possessiveness. Once possessiveness about the child is created within us, the natural extension is fear and all our inner freedom is gone at once! If the question arises then, what to do with the child after he/she is born? Just leave them aside and go away? Definitely not! The child is a product of our desire. We have the complete responsibility for bringing up the child as a socially compatible being. While doing this process, we may enjoy the innocence of the child as long as it is with the child without any expectation having that innocence forever, because it is practically not possible. Watch and enjoy each step on the growth of child and get relieved from our responsibilities over the child.
Just think over as an outsider, what sort of happiness and peacefulness we will have, if we just execute our responsibility without entangled in the bondage of attachment and possessiveness with the child. It is not just theory. We can practically implement it in our lives, if we allow our intelligence to work, if we allow our intelligence to see the truth, if we allow our intelligence to understand the relationships.
Let us try to understand parent children relationships. This is one relationship which no one can escape. All of us were a child of somebody. Once we understand the nature of this relationship, there will not be any new conflicts within us due to this relationship and there will not be any contamination of this relationship with attachment, possessiveness, jealous, envy, anger and any other constructed qualities. Once we understand the structure of this relationship and the basic maintenance requirement of this relationship, we can enjoy the pure relationship without any contamination.
Procreation is the nature of existence and for procreation our body has natural mechanism to have male female attraction. This is an unavoidable attraction express itself as desire, and is required for sustaining existence of human form. Because of this desire, procreation takes place and parent children relationship is already established. Here we need to understand one thing. There may be very few for who, by their very nature, the attraction required for procreation may not arise within them. For them, if the job of procreation is imposed on them by society, their life is finished there!
Even though it is a natural process, it is because of our desire the procreation happened and we are completely responsible for our action. In this case, it is the action due to our desire. The child is a product of our desire. Hence it is our responsibility to prepare the child as a socially compatible being. This is the very nature of parent-child relationship with respect to the parent. For us, whether we execute our responsibility or not, we start projecting the relationship out of our (virtual) need of psychological security. Having the child with us and its very nature of innocence, we start enjoy the togetherness. If it stops there, it is fine. But we would like to have the quality of innocence with the child forever and the attachment with the child is already there. We are in a state, even before the birth of child, we do all sort of mental projections about the child and its innocence and build the attachment even before the birth of child. And in many cases even before the child is created we do our mental projection and form an attachment with a non existing entity.
As explained in previous discussions, the attachment will slowly become possessiveness. Once possessiveness about the child is created within us, the natural extension is fear and all our inner freedom is gone at once! If the question arises then, what to do with the child after he/she is born? Just leave them aside and go away? Definitely not! The child is a product of our desire. We have the complete responsibility for bringing up the child as a socially compatible being. While doing this process, we may enjoy the innocence of the child as long as it is with the child without any expectation having that innocence forever, because it is practically not possible. Watch and enjoy each step on the growth of child and get relieved from our responsibilities over the child.
Just think over as an outsider, what sort of happiness and peacefulness we will have, if we just execute our responsibility without entangled in the bondage of attachment and possessiveness with the child. It is not just theory. We can practically implement it in our lives, if we allow our intelligence to work, if we allow our intelligence to see the truth, if we allow our intelligence to understand the relationships.
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