Commercialism and Consumerism are the two materialistic and psychological aspects which have brought in the technical evolution which are providing comfortable and easy life to the mankind. There cannot be second opinion about this fact. At the same time we cannot have second opinion about the fact that commercialism and consumerism are the aspects where all the problems of ourselves and our world are enrooted, if we really see commercialism and consumerism at certain deeper level.
Commercialism is due to the greed of mankind and consumerism is due to lack of understanding of desire. Both are the illness of this world, if an undue importance is given to them. Due to uncontrollable greed, commercialism already started destroying the resources of this earth and psychology of human beings. Due to uncontrollable desire, consumerism encourages the destruction of the resources of earth without even realizing the need for preserving the resources or preserve the condition so that the resources sustain themselves and hence sustain life forms in this earth for billions of years to come, till the time we have our sun with enough mass to keep the earth with in its gravitational field.
And as an escape we, the components of commercialism and consumerism, often make some noise about environment. As usual, we never pay attention to what we talk about environment and hence fail to follow the statements or noise we ourselves make. As it is an escape from this threatening problem just for the time being, we never bother to take responsibility of our being part of commercialism and consumerism. We just show our fingers to others and refuse to take responsibility and hence refuse to take actions on this threatening problem. Acting on the problems of commercialism and consumerism does not mean that to remove it completely from the world. We cannot do that because, without them we cannot enjoy the comforts what we have now. We are also not bothered to understand the facts of commercialism and consumerism and hence do not know how to handle these giants of destruction, without losing the comforts of life. It is possible if and only if a radical change takes place within us – the originator of both these giants and understands its facts.
Due to this lack of understanding, commercialism decides the psychology of consumers which is exactly opposite to what is supposed to be happening. Due to lack of understanding of the consumers about their need, the commercialism infuses need for the consumers by altering the psychology of consumer and creates lust and desire within the consumer. Once the lust and desire goes deep into the mind of consumer, he goes for the need so created by lust and desire rather than the real need or passion. The consumer is so conditioned by the commercialism, the lust and desire is seen as need and passion of the consumer and a concept of consumerism take shape there to protect the conflicts within the consumer with respect to desire and need.
In most of the cases, we are taking part in both commercialism and consumerism. We are being part of the commercialism on our profession and takes part in consumerism when we caught between lust and desire. On the other hand we are in a real trap. Unless a real change takes place within us, we cannot get out of this trap. The change will takes place by itself, if we really pay attention to our lust and desire and understand these two elements. How do we know that what we are having is a lust and desire or need/passion? This is a real problem; because the commercialism with its continuous effort of psychological conditioning of consumers makes us, the consumers, to believe what we are having is need or passion. This can be understandable, if we pay enough attention to the need/passion/desire/lust of us. The attention brings in a clear understanding of these facts, and if it is mere desire or lust, the attention itself gets away the desire and lust. We need not put in any effort to control the desire and lust other than paying sufficient attention to the conditioning so infused into us by commercialism. The mere attention on it is sufficient to eliminate the undue lust and desire.
Once the consumer changes within him/her self to pay real attention to the commercialism and the factors with in consumers which makes the consumers as slaves of commercialism, there is no other way for commercialism to state the real factors rather than arousing the lust and desire of consumer by attacking the psychology of consumer. This to happen, the consumer has to bring in necessary changes within themselves so that they will be capable of looking into the factors. Once the consumer gets freedom from commercialism, they will be free from the psychological attack of commercialism to get what they really need for their comfortable and passionate life. Once this happen, we will really know the priorities of our needs and hence this knowing will start correcting the disorders of the society by itself. On the other hand we have to just clear off our disorders, and the societies disorders will be cleared off by itself.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Reluctance to Initiate Change
We clearly understand the need for initiating an inward change to have order in this world and the change has to be initiated from us, by us. On the other hand, we understand that as individuals we need to change within ourselves to change the society as a whole and also we understand that it is our responsibility to change ourselves. Yet we refuse to bring in the basic change within us. Why is this inertia or reluctance for an inward change? Is it possible to initiate the change?
One of the doubts arises before initiating inward change within oneself is that we are living in a society with all the greed, violence, struggle, overpowering and all other ills. If one changes within oneself, will that person compatible for living within such society? Does it required for one to isolate oneself from the society before initiating the change within oneself? If not, will the changed person be washed away by the violent society? If that is the case how can one ever initiate an inward change within one self? These are the basic and valid questions one may have within the mind, who understood the need for an inward change to live a meaningful life in this society. This is a conflict within us. On one hand we understand the need for an inward change and on the other hand we have enormous doubt about the security of our life, if we change inwardly.
Yes, we need to understand this question must get a clear answer and resolve the conflicts around this issue, and then only one can change inwards within ourselves. Otherwise that person will be caught between moral values and conflicts and undergo much more suffering than the present way of life. On seeing this anyone around such person may create negative prejudice about such radical way of thinking and never dare to look for such a beautiful, inwardly free life.
For getting an answer for this question and understand the conflicts aroused around this issue we need to understand what are family, society and world. In the existence, anything and everything is related to many thing else. We are also no exceptions. We have to be related with fellow human beings and many other things in this world. Without this relation, one cannot live or be a part of this existence. Hence the notion that one has to isolate oneself from family and society to bring an inward change itself is an utter illusion. Human beings are often referred as social animal. Yes we are offshoot of animals. Due to our capability of mind we established the setups for our security and these setups get matured and become culture, which is our differentiator from animals. On the other hand to secure our relationship with others, we established the family setup. The family alone is not sufficient. The family has to relate to others for the survival of family itself. To secure the relationship of family with other needs, the social setup is established and a society is there. It can be put in another way- all our family and society are need based. It is for our need to have relationship with others for our survival in this existence. Then we attached some selective emotions with these relationships and these emotions are now inseparable from us and becoming the root cause of most of our problems. The relationships are not our problems, but the lack of understanding of our relations and the undue emotions aroused due to this lack of understanding are the cause of our problems.
To be make it clear, the family, the society, and the world are our relations with fellow human beings and other things in the existence which are required for our life with in this existence. Hence isolation is not a solution for our problems or society’s problems and the inward change being discussed here does not call for isolation from family and society, but make the relationship with family and society as lively one, which will make our life beautiful and joyful.
The inward change discussed all over this discussion indicates the need for an inward change so that there will not be any conflicts with our relationships. It is very clear that the relationship between X and Y will be harmonious if and only if both X and Y clearly understand their relation and the need for their relation. At the same time, it is very much possible if X is concerned about the problems of his/her relationship with Y and solves the problems and has a harmonious life with respect to X’s relationship with Y, even if Y is not bothered about it. When X understands his/her exact relationship with Y, the action of X will not cross the limit demanded by his/her relationship with Y and there will not be any conflicts with in X due to X’s relationship with Y, whatever be the action/reaction of Y over this relationship. Even if Y is not having such understanding and react negatively with X in their relationship, X can harmoniously do what is needed for sustaining the relationship with Y due to the understanding of their relationships and the need for sustaining that relationship. Once X treat his/her relationship with Y with understanding and due dignity, Y has no choice other than reciprocating it, even though there may be some resistance at the beginning. On the other hand, if one change inwardly with respect to the relationship with society, the society will have to reciprocate this change, no other choice is available for the society. To be more precious, the inward change within oneself is the change taking place in the society itself.
This is exactly what will happen, if we bring in necessary inward changes within us. Irrespective of whether our family is bringing in that change within themselves or the society is bringing in the change within itself, if we bring in necessary changes within ourselves, we can live harmoniously with our family and society, by doing what is required for ourselves, our family, the society and the world due to the fact that we understand and know the exact relation we have with our family society and the world and due to the understanding of our need for sustaining that relationship .
When we live harmoniously with the family, society and the world, what else change we expect from the family, society and world?
By the way, what is the inward change we are talking about here? It is nothing complicated. It is about just opening up our mind from all our psychic conditioning due to genetic factors, our beliefs, our education, our ego to get freedom from this entire psychic conditioning and live a complete, fulfilled, Joyful life.
One of the doubts arises before initiating inward change within oneself is that we are living in a society with all the greed, violence, struggle, overpowering and all other ills. If one changes within oneself, will that person compatible for living within such society? Does it required for one to isolate oneself from the society before initiating the change within oneself? If not, will the changed person be washed away by the violent society? If that is the case how can one ever initiate an inward change within one self? These are the basic and valid questions one may have within the mind, who understood the need for an inward change to live a meaningful life in this society. This is a conflict within us. On one hand we understand the need for an inward change and on the other hand we have enormous doubt about the security of our life, if we change inwardly.
Yes, we need to understand this question must get a clear answer and resolve the conflicts around this issue, and then only one can change inwards within ourselves. Otherwise that person will be caught between moral values and conflicts and undergo much more suffering than the present way of life. On seeing this anyone around such person may create negative prejudice about such radical way of thinking and never dare to look for such a beautiful, inwardly free life.
For getting an answer for this question and understand the conflicts aroused around this issue we need to understand what are family, society and world. In the existence, anything and everything is related to many thing else. We are also no exceptions. We have to be related with fellow human beings and many other things in this world. Without this relation, one cannot live or be a part of this existence. Hence the notion that one has to isolate oneself from family and society to bring an inward change itself is an utter illusion. Human beings are often referred as social animal. Yes we are offshoot of animals. Due to our capability of mind we established the setups for our security and these setups get matured and become culture, which is our differentiator from animals. On the other hand to secure our relationship with others, we established the family setup. The family alone is not sufficient. The family has to relate to others for the survival of family itself. To secure the relationship of family with other needs, the social setup is established and a society is there. It can be put in another way- all our family and society are need based. It is for our need to have relationship with others for our survival in this existence. Then we attached some selective emotions with these relationships and these emotions are now inseparable from us and becoming the root cause of most of our problems. The relationships are not our problems, but the lack of understanding of our relations and the undue emotions aroused due to this lack of understanding are the cause of our problems.
To be make it clear, the family, the society, and the world are our relations with fellow human beings and other things in the existence which are required for our life with in this existence. Hence isolation is not a solution for our problems or society’s problems and the inward change being discussed here does not call for isolation from family and society, but make the relationship with family and society as lively one, which will make our life beautiful and joyful.
The inward change discussed all over this discussion indicates the need for an inward change so that there will not be any conflicts with our relationships. It is very clear that the relationship between X and Y will be harmonious if and only if both X and Y clearly understand their relation and the need for their relation. At the same time, it is very much possible if X is concerned about the problems of his/her relationship with Y and solves the problems and has a harmonious life with respect to X’s relationship with Y, even if Y is not bothered about it. When X understands his/her exact relationship with Y, the action of X will not cross the limit demanded by his/her relationship with Y and there will not be any conflicts with in X due to X’s relationship with Y, whatever be the action/reaction of Y over this relationship. Even if Y is not having such understanding and react negatively with X in their relationship, X can harmoniously do what is needed for sustaining the relationship with Y due to the understanding of their relationships and the need for sustaining that relationship. Once X treat his/her relationship with Y with understanding and due dignity, Y has no choice other than reciprocating it, even though there may be some resistance at the beginning. On the other hand, if one change inwardly with respect to the relationship with society, the society will have to reciprocate this change, no other choice is available for the society. To be more precious, the inward change within oneself is the change taking place in the society itself.
This is exactly what will happen, if we bring in necessary inward changes within us. Irrespective of whether our family is bringing in that change within themselves or the society is bringing in the change within itself, if we bring in necessary changes within ourselves, we can live harmoniously with our family and society, by doing what is required for ourselves, our family, the society and the world due to the fact that we understand and know the exact relation we have with our family society and the world and due to the understanding of our need for sustaining that relationship .
When we live harmoniously with the family, society and the world, what else change we expect from the family, society and world?
By the way, what is the inward change we are talking about here? It is nothing complicated. It is about just opening up our mind from all our psychic conditioning due to genetic factors, our beliefs, our education, our ego to get freedom from this entire psychic conditioning and live a complete, fulfilled, Joyful life.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Sensitivity
The Sensitivity being discussed here is with respect to our ability to perceive reality. The irony is that we have almost lost our sensitivity for almost everything around us. Actually we are capable of being sensitive to everything, as it is our nature. But in our quest for accumulating wealth, power, status, etc. our mind has been blocked from seeing anything else. Even our turning towards so called God is for the sole purpose of securing our life with respect to wealth, fame, power, etc. Unfortunately we are not getting satisfied with the accumulated wealth, power, and status till our end of life, hence there is no time available for something else and hence the possibility of opening up our mind is sealed.
We are aware that our brain is the control center for everything we call us ourselves. To be sensitive on something happening around us, our brain has to have sufficient energy and have to have enough space to perceive it. In other words, our mind should be sufficiently free and having enough intensity to perceive the happening in real time.
All our day to day activities are based on our regular practice of those activities. If we analyze the mechanism of our day-to-day activities, we can clearly understand that we practice the activity, repeat that activity sufficient number of times so that the method or procedure can go deep into our memory. From there we perform the activity unconsciously without any sensitivity to the activity being done. We are sensitive to the activity until the time it goes into our memory or until the time consciously performing the activity. Even though we have the option of performing those activities consciously for ever and hence sensitively for any number of times, we fail to do so due to the preoccupation of our mind with our quest of earning wealth, fame, status, security etc.
There can be two approaches for being sensitive towards happening with in us and around us. If we can create sufficient space within our chattering mind, the mind gets an opportunity for being sensitive towards the happening, to the extent of the space created within the mind. Alternatively, we may put conscious effort to be sensitive to as much as happenings around us, the mind creates enough space within it to be sensitive to our conscious observation. Either the approaches may be equally easy as well as difficult but it is up to us to go for any one of these approaches, or both, depend on our convenient and intensity.
Normally we call a very fragile person as the most sensitive person. But it is not the fact. Such a person is sensitive to selected emotions. The lack of understanding of those emotions creates conflicts with in that person and these conflicts make that person as a fragile one. If that person is really sensitive to happenings with in and around, such person cannot be fragile to emotions due to the fact that the sensitivity to the happenings provides understanding and takes away the conflicts. This is because, such a person’s awareness and intelligence works at its peak due to sensitivity to reality. In other words such a person is very close to reality and hence illusionary emotions cannot carry him away or make him fragile.
Another way to explain the sensitivity being discussed here is that if we are listening music, normally we try to catch the lyric or certain pattern of the notes or beats of the music. Hence we may fail to listen the wholeness of music. When we hear the same music again, we just follow the music from our memory and in this case also fail to listen the wholeness of that music. On the other hand, we never be listen the music. We either try to catch it or follow it. When we do so, our energy is wasted on catching or following and never spent on enjoying the music. The enjoyment, we feel as getting is created by our mind within our mind and hence it is an illusionary enjoyment. (The illusionary enjoyments have side effects of suffering also, which is unavoidable as long as we are with in the bondage of illusions) We never enjoy the depth or wholeness of the music being heard. This is because we fail to be sensitive to the music as a whole and sensitive to only the part which we try to catch up or the part in which we try to follow. Hence the mind has vast unutilized space for other activities and it goes with its preoccupied and unwanted activities like projection, creating more thoughts from memory etc.
In the above example, if we can listen the music as whole with complete sensitivity we can be consider ourselves being in reality. When we are in reality, it will be a complete joy – nothing else can be there between us and the music. When there is nothing else between us and the music being listened, we and the music are same. That may be the wholeness of existence.
If we can extend the same principle of above example to all our day-to-day activities, there may be no space between us and the activity being done, for the whole day… for the whole life. On the other hand we may be one with the existence and with everlasting joy with all our activities. When the joy cannot be separated from us, there cannot be any suffering. When there is no suffering within us, we may never want any changes in happenings around us. We may be completely with whatever happening around us and may be doing whatever required to be done for the best interest of the existence itself. When this happens, what else change we need in the world?
So the key point is the sensitivity for anything and everything happening around us, which opens up our mind for the reality. But unfortunately, we lost our capability of being sensitive to even the critical aspects of our life. Hence if we want to change the world as we like to have, we have to take necessary effort to get back our capability of being sensitive and live with sensitivity. If we are not able to live our life with sensitivity to happening around us, what will be the use of our wealth, fame, status, security, etc. other than having an illusionary state of mind and with the sufferings created by these illusions? On the other hand what is the value of our ego, which is being built on the owning of our wealth, fame, status, security, etc.?
We are aware that our brain is the control center for everything we call us ourselves. To be sensitive on something happening around us, our brain has to have sufficient energy and have to have enough space to perceive it. In other words, our mind should be sufficiently free and having enough intensity to perceive the happening in real time.
All our day to day activities are based on our regular practice of those activities. If we analyze the mechanism of our day-to-day activities, we can clearly understand that we practice the activity, repeat that activity sufficient number of times so that the method or procedure can go deep into our memory. From there we perform the activity unconsciously without any sensitivity to the activity being done. We are sensitive to the activity until the time it goes into our memory or until the time consciously performing the activity. Even though we have the option of performing those activities consciously for ever and hence sensitively for any number of times, we fail to do so due to the preoccupation of our mind with our quest of earning wealth, fame, status, security etc.
There can be two approaches for being sensitive towards happening with in us and around us. If we can create sufficient space within our chattering mind, the mind gets an opportunity for being sensitive towards the happening, to the extent of the space created within the mind. Alternatively, we may put conscious effort to be sensitive to as much as happenings around us, the mind creates enough space within it to be sensitive to our conscious observation. Either the approaches may be equally easy as well as difficult but it is up to us to go for any one of these approaches, or both, depend on our convenient and intensity.
Normally we call a very fragile person as the most sensitive person. But it is not the fact. Such a person is sensitive to selected emotions. The lack of understanding of those emotions creates conflicts with in that person and these conflicts make that person as a fragile one. If that person is really sensitive to happenings with in and around, such person cannot be fragile to emotions due to the fact that the sensitivity to the happenings provides understanding and takes away the conflicts. This is because, such a person’s awareness and intelligence works at its peak due to sensitivity to reality. In other words such a person is very close to reality and hence illusionary emotions cannot carry him away or make him fragile.
Another way to explain the sensitivity being discussed here is that if we are listening music, normally we try to catch the lyric or certain pattern of the notes or beats of the music. Hence we may fail to listen the wholeness of music. When we hear the same music again, we just follow the music from our memory and in this case also fail to listen the wholeness of that music. On the other hand, we never be listen the music. We either try to catch it or follow it. When we do so, our energy is wasted on catching or following and never spent on enjoying the music. The enjoyment, we feel as getting is created by our mind within our mind and hence it is an illusionary enjoyment. (The illusionary enjoyments have side effects of suffering also, which is unavoidable as long as we are with in the bondage of illusions) We never enjoy the depth or wholeness of the music being heard. This is because we fail to be sensitive to the music as a whole and sensitive to only the part which we try to catch up or the part in which we try to follow. Hence the mind has vast unutilized space for other activities and it goes with its preoccupied and unwanted activities like projection, creating more thoughts from memory etc.
In the above example, if we can listen the music as whole with complete sensitivity we can be consider ourselves being in reality. When we are in reality, it will be a complete joy – nothing else can be there between us and the music. When there is nothing else between us and the music being listened, we and the music are same. That may be the wholeness of existence.
If we can extend the same principle of above example to all our day-to-day activities, there may be no space between us and the activity being done, for the whole day… for the whole life. On the other hand we may be one with the existence and with everlasting joy with all our activities. When the joy cannot be separated from us, there cannot be any suffering. When there is no suffering within us, we may never want any changes in happenings around us. We may be completely with whatever happening around us and may be doing whatever required to be done for the best interest of the existence itself. When this happens, what else change we need in the world?
So the key point is the sensitivity for anything and everything happening around us, which opens up our mind for the reality. But unfortunately, we lost our capability of being sensitive to even the critical aspects of our life. Hence if we want to change the world as we like to have, we have to take necessary effort to get back our capability of being sensitive and live with sensitivity. If we are not able to live our life with sensitivity to happening around us, what will be the use of our wealth, fame, status, security, etc. other than having an illusionary state of mind and with the sufferings created by these illusions? On the other hand what is the value of our ego, which is being built on the owning of our wealth, fame, status, security, etc.?
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Freedom
We have come across the word FREEDOM very often while discussing various topics on our discussion of inner change required for having a world of our choice. Hence this is high time to understand the term Freedom. Please note that the freedom we are talking here is inner freedom – It is a state of mind. We know that our mind is nothing but the functioning of our brain. Hence freedom means a state of functioning of our brain.
In a state of Freedom, we are completely free to do whatever we want. There is no control over us, either by ourselves or from outside or by any moral code. The word Control will be no more in our dictionary.
If we see the above definition of freedom with our current perception, we may not be able to recognize that one can live in such a state of freedom, when that person is still within the society. Our current perception urge us to think that if one live in this society with such freedom, his/her life as well as the order of society will be in a complete chaos. But it is not. One can very well live in this society having such freedom with complete and orderly interaction with society, better than anybody else in the society in which that person is living.
If a person reaches such a state of freedom, his energy, intelligence, body, and emotions will functions at their peak. His energy put him in a state of ecstasy. His intelligence makes him to see the world around him as it is – the reality of existence. His body allows him to do what is required. His emotions will be full of Love and Compassion. When a person is functioning at this level, there is nothing required to control him. The intelligence will make him to see what is required for each and every moment and he functions accordingly. Due to his emotions of Love and compassion, his actions will be such a way that there will not be any harm to the existence due to his action. He will be doing what is needed for each and every moment of his life.
When we reach such a state of freedom, there will be no more fear within us, no more desire within us, and no more attachment within us – yet we can live a socially compatible life with a state of ecstasy – the real life for which we are meant for.
Is it just a theory or only a handful of people designated for such a life of freedom? The answer is a big NO. Anybody, including you and me, in this planet can live such a life. It is practically possible to each one of us to live such a life. All we have to do is free ourselves from the conditioning of our brain/mind, the conditioning from the moment of creation until now. Is it possible to free from the condition happened over billions of years in our short life span? It is possible. All we need to do is to recognize and completely understand that we are the product of conditioning from the moment of creation of this world. We have to have this minimum level of intelligence to understand the conditioning of our mind/brain. Once we understand these facts, naturally we start working towards freeing ourselves from the conditioning, and achieving such a state of freedom is possible for each one of us.
The discussions so far were directed towards understanding the conditioning of our brain/mind and few of the qualities we developed due to these conditioning. From this discussion we might have had some idea about the creation, the evolution, the human mind/brain, the way we see our environment, the way we project our mind, the way we create our world, the way we block our intelligence by means of our mind projection, the way we construct our qualities, the way we identify ourselves with the constructed qualities and so on. If we really understood these things, we already understand the conditioning of our mind – including the conditioning by religions, scriptures, and philosophies. In fact, the conditioning by religion, scriptures, and philosophies are most dangerous conditioning as they block us from seeing from a different perspective. These are the explicitly imposed conditioning over us by the society over and over, generation after generation and hence gone deep into our brain, which blocks us to see things from another perspective. Hence understanding the conditioning of our brain implies that we need to understand the conditioning by religions, scriptures, and philosophies. It does not mean we have to reject the religions, scriptures, and philosophies out right. We need to be just aware that we are the result of conditioning by these entities also. This understanding will make us to look beyond religion, scriptures and philosophies without any prejudice, if there is a need arise for such a perception.
If we have the above understanding and ready to look beyond whatever we already know, freedom is no more a dream. It will be a reality, which is in near vicinity for every one of us – for every entity in the human race.
The only condition for such a realization is the awareness that we are the product of prolonged conditioning and the willingness to look beyond those conditioning. Once we get that awareness, then we can devise methods to elevate our energy, body and emotions to such an extent where our intelligence will take over and from that point the intelligence will make us free from everything – free from all our conditioning, The Complete Freedom.
When we are at this stage, we are in complete order. Hence the existence itself will be in complete order for us. We already transcended duality. Hence there is neither good nor bad in the existence. It is just existence. There is neither positivity nor negativity in the environment. It is just existence. If we do not see anything bad or anything negative in this world, what do we need to change in this world? The world is completely in order.
We need to be a bit cautious here. A dull person cannot also see the difference between good and bad thing in the environment, cannot differentiate positivity and negativity in the environment. For such a dull person, the intelligence is not at all working. Here the state of such person is not freedom…. It is Ignorance. The Beauty is that, even if the dull person is willing, he can be a realized person by following the methods through which his energy, body, and emotions can be elevated to such an extent that his intelligence shall be activated to reach a realized state.
In a state of Freedom, we are completely free to do whatever we want. There is no control over us, either by ourselves or from outside or by any moral code. The word Control will be no more in our dictionary.
If we see the above definition of freedom with our current perception, we may not be able to recognize that one can live in such a state of freedom, when that person is still within the society. Our current perception urge us to think that if one live in this society with such freedom, his/her life as well as the order of society will be in a complete chaos. But it is not. One can very well live in this society having such freedom with complete and orderly interaction with society, better than anybody else in the society in which that person is living.
If a person reaches such a state of freedom, his energy, intelligence, body, and emotions will functions at their peak. His energy put him in a state of ecstasy. His intelligence makes him to see the world around him as it is – the reality of existence. His body allows him to do what is required. His emotions will be full of Love and Compassion. When a person is functioning at this level, there is nothing required to control him. The intelligence will make him to see what is required for each and every moment and he functions accordingly. Due to his emotions of Love and compassion, his actions will be such a way that there will not be any harm to the existence due to his action. He will be doing what is needed for each and every moment of his life.
When we reach such a state of freedom, there will be no more fear within us, no more desire within us, and no more attachment within us – yet we can live a socially compatible life with a state of ecstasy – the real life for which we are meant for.
Is it just a theory or only a handful of people designated for such a life of freedom? The answer is a big NO. Anybody, including you and me, in this planet can live such a life. It is practically possible to each one of us to live such a life. All we have to do is free ourselves from the conditioning of our brain/mind, the conditioning from the moment of creation until now. Is it possible to free from the condition happened over billions of years in our short life span? It is possible. All we need to do is to recognize and completely understand that we are the product of conditioning from the moment of creation of this world. We have to have this minimum level of intelligence to understand the conditioning of our mind/brain. Once we understand these facts, naturally we start working towards freeing ourselves from the conditioning, and achieving such a state of freedom is possible for each one of us.
The discussions so far were directed towards understanding the conditioning of our brain/mind and few of the qualities we developed due to these conditioning. From this discussion we might have had some idea about the creation, the evolution, the human mind/brain, the way we see our environment, the way we project our mind, the way we create our world, the way we block our intelligence by means of our mind projection, the way we construct our qualities, the way we identify ourselves with the constructed qualities and so on. If we really understood these things, we already understand the conditioning of our mind – including the conditioning by religions, scriptures, and philosophies. In fact, the conditioning by religion, scriptures, and philosophies are most dangerous conditioning as they block us from seeing from a different perspective. These are the explicitly imposed conditioning over us by the society over and over, generation after generation and hence gone deep into our brain, which blocks us to see things from another perspective. Hence understanding the conditioning of our brain implies that we need to understand the conditioning by religions, scriptures, and philosophies. It does not mean we have to reject the religions, scriptures, and philosophies out right. We need to be just aware that we are the result of conditioning by these entities also. This understanding will make us to look beyond religion, scriptures and philosophies without any prejudice, if there is a need arise for such a perception.
If we have the above understanding and ready to look beyond whatever we already know, freedom is no more a dream. It will be a reality, which is in near vicinity for every one of us – for every entity in the human race.
The only condition for such a realization is the awareness that we are the product of prolonged conditioning and the willingness to look beyond those conditioning. Once we get that awareness, then we can devise methods to elevate our energy, body and emotions to such an extent where our intelligence will take over and from that point the intelligence will make us free from everything – free from all our conditioning, The Complete Freedom.
When we are at this stage, we are in complete order. Hence the existence itself will be in complete order for us. We already transcended duality. Hence there is neither good nor bad in the existence. It is just existence. There is neither positivity nor negativity in the environment. It is just existence. If we do not see anything bad or anything negative in this world, what do we need to change in this world? The world is completely in order.
We need to be a bit cautious here. A dull person cannot also see the difference between good and bad thing in the environment, cannot differentiate positivity and negativity in the environment. For such a dull person, the intelligence is not at all working. Here the state of such person is not freedom…. It is Ignorance. The Beauty is that, even if the dull person is willing, he can be a realized person by following the methods through which his energy, body, and emotions can be elevated to such an extent that his intelligence shall be activated to reach a realized state.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Suffering
Suffering is of two types – Physical suffering and psychological suffering. Physical suffering is to safeguard us from the environment. If we do not have physical suffering, we will not come to know the imbalances in our body and will not be able to take any corrective action. In such case, our body will decay soon and cannot support life. Hence physical suffering is essential for our survival.
The other suffering is psychological suffering. Almost all of our sufferings are psychological suffering. The feeling of depression is the indication of psychological suffering. Every one of us feels depressed multiple times in a day. We feel depressed in almost all the relationships in our daily lives. This is the psychological suffering. If our response to these suffering is that this is the way of life, then we are wrong. If we console ourselves with such statements, then we are ignorant of real life. There is another way of life. In that way of life, we need not suffer psychologically on multiple times in a day. There is no suffering means there is a joyful way of life. To have the joyful way of life we need not change anything outside, we need not get anything to possess. What we need to do is just understand the new way of life and bring in the necessary inward changes within us so that the sufferings are eliminated. Joy remains with us.
If we look in to suffering, the cause of suffering is fear, desire, attachment, and such qualities. If we can be free from desire and attachment, there will not be any suffering in our life and the life will be filled with everlasting joy.
We have already seen the mechanism of fear, desire, and attachment, and concluded that these are unwanted constructed qualities, yet taken a deep root within us. Hence, even though we theoretically understand these qualities are unwanted qualities, we are not in a position to discard those qualities. That is, even though we recognize the fact, we are not able to implement those facts in our life. Yes it is not easy to implement as long as we stay as we are. One thing is certain. If we recognize these facts at least in theory, we are far ahead of the vast population which is under deep psychological suffering, without even knowing the cause of those sufferings. Since we are aware of the cause of our sufferings, which are fear, desire and attachment, our tendency will naturally directed towards eliminating those qualities from us. That is a great step taken in the right direction.
For ending our sufferings, we have to recognize the facts that we are the result of conditioning from the time of creation, both physically and psychologically. To be free from psychological suffering means, free from psychological conditioning happened for millions of years. If we are able to recognize this fact, another great step is taken towards ending of suffering. If we ignore the fact that we are the result of millions of years of psychological conditioning, none of our effort will be fruitful towards ending suffering. If we refuse to recognize or not able to understand this fact, there is no meaning in any of our effort towards ending suffering or achieving peace or whatever it may be. On the other hand, we must be aware enough to recognize the reality as and when we approach reality from any direction. In other words, we must be alert to recognize the facts. We will be able to recognize the fact if and only if we are free from the projection of our mind.
To progress in this direction, we need to have complete freedom. Freedom from anything and everything! Of course, such a freedom is not easy to achieve as long as we remain as we are now. We may discuss about freedom another day. Once we understand freedom and how it helps us to forgo fear, desire and attachment, then our tendency will naturally be directed towards freedom. Once this happens, we are very near to ending all our sufferings and taste everlasting joy.
The other suffering is psychological suffering. Almost all of our sufferings are psychological suffering. The feeling of depression is the indication of psychological suffering. Every one of us feels depressed multiple times in a day. We feel depressed in almost all the relationships in our daily lives. This is the psychological suffering. If our response to these suffering is that this is the way of life, then we are wrong. If we console ourselves with such statements, then we are ignorant of real life. There is another way of life. In that way of life, we need not suffer psychologically on multiple times in a day. There is no suffering means there is a joyful way of life. To have the joyful way of life we need not change anything outside, we need not get anything to possess. What we need to do is just understand the new way of life and bring in the necessary inward changes within us so that the sufferings are eliminated. Joy remains with us.
If we look in to suffering, the cause of suffering is fear, desire, attachment, and such qualities. If we can be free from desire and attachment, there will not be any suffering in our life and the life will be filled with everlasting joy.
We have already seen the mechanism of fear, desire, and attachment, and concluded that these are unwanted constructed qualities, yet taken a deep root within us. Hence, even though we theoretically understand these qualities are unwanted qualities, we are not in a position to discard those qualities. That is, even though we recognize the fact, we are not able to implement those facts in our life. Yes it is not easy to implement as long as we stay as we are. One thing is certain. If we recognize these facts at least in theory, we are far ahead of the vast population which is under deep psychological suffering, without even knowing the cause of those sufferings. Since we are aware of the cause of our sufferings, which are fear, desire and attachment, our tendency will naturally directed towards eliminating those qualities from us. That is a great step taken in the right direction.
For ending our sufferings, we have to recognize the facts that we are the result of conditioning from the time of creation, both physically and psychologically. To be free from psychological suffering means, free from psychological conditioning happened for millions of years. If we are able to recognize this fact, another great step is taken towards ending of suffering. If we ignore the fact that we are the result of millions of years of psychological conditioning, none of our effort will be fruitful towards ending suffering. If we refuse to recognize or not able to understand this fact, there is no meaning in any of our effort towards ending suffering or achieving peace or whatever it may be. On the other hand, we must be aware enough to recognize the reality as and when we approach reality from any direction. In other words, we must be alert to recognize the facts. We will be able to recognize the fact if and only if we are free from the projection of our mind.
To progress in this direction, we need to have complete freedom. Freedom from anything and everything! Of course, such a freedom is not easy to achieve as long as we remain as we are now. We may discuss about freedom another day. Once we understand freedom and how it helps us to forgo fear, desire and attachment, then our tendency will naturally be directed towards freedom. Once this happens, we are very near to ending all our sufferings and taste everlasting joy.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Possibilities
As much number of reference points an object is having, that object can be looked into that many ways. Each one looking into that object from each of these references points may describe the object as many ways as the number of references. The view from each reference may be termed as a dimension for the simplicity of this discussion. For a physical object, such available dimensions are limited.
We are discussing in the domain of life which is ‘physical’ and ‘psychic’ put together. In the physical realm we have fair idea, even if we don’t have; there are established methods to gain that knowledge. The main reason behind this is due to the limited number of references and one can easily study those things. Where as in the psychic aspect, there are no such limitations. Each one can see multiple dimensions in psychological domain and no two persons will see the psychological aspects from the same reference. Hence it leaves limitless possibilities in the psychic domain.
At the same time, psychological domain is also of the physical nature. Psychology is the way our mind operates. Our mind has the root in material – the brain. If there is no brain, there is no mind. The mind is nothing but the working of brain at certain level and hence the mind is also of the nature of physical. The knowledge we have about the mind is limited, even though we have fairly good idea about the nature of brain. The psychological medical field deals with the material aspect of mind or the physical configuration of brain, with limited know how of the operation of mind.
In this psychological domain, there are limitless possibilities available and hence limitless possibilities to live our life, in the psychological domain. Now the question is are we seeing this truth? Are we seeing the limitless psychological paths available for living our lives? Almost every one of us are suffering and enjoying our life, at best, the amount of enjoyment is equal to the amount of suffering and at worst; there is no enjoyment at all. If we know there are limitless possibilities of living our life, can’t there be a possibility where the joy is more than suffering? Have we ever looked in such possibilities? Instead, most of us are willing to live the life as we are living now. Why is this contradiction? Who is responsible for this contradiction?
We are so much into the way we are living now, we don’t even recognize the availability of such possibilities, and hence no chance of looking into those possibilities. We may look in to those possibilities, if we reach the peak of suffering and after that if we have some energy to live, probably we may look into those possibilities. The other possibility is that if we recognize the stupidity of the way we live and if we start questioning at that stupidity, we may look into such possibilities. One more possibility is that, if we happen to listen to certain ideas of somebody else, which influence us certain way, we may look into other possibilities. The danger in this possibility is that we travel further only under the influence of the person or idea which influenced us. There is a great deal of danger in such influence. We may discuss it in another day.
The reason for not looking into the possibilities may be that we have made a firm footing on our “ego” or “self” from the early days of our life here. The “ego” or “self” have the security of its existence with qualities like attachment, dependency, influence, etc. When we look into other possibilities, the very existence of “ego” itself is threatened and hence we are left with the feeling of fear and insecurity. Unless we approach this problem with enough awareness, we will be trapped by our ego itself and hence cannot look into the possibilities.
Probably, this it is a part of evolution process itself. Though every human being has the capability to see the possibilities, only those who are willing to support the evolution process are looking into those possibilities. Out of those who are willing to look into the possibilities, only part of them are really experimenting the possibilities they looked into.
Out of those experimenting into these possibilities, only a few are really experimenting in the path, which can lead to the truth.
If we are really into the right path, hopefully we may not be proud of that achievement and may not want to express it as our success or achievement of this life. If we do so, we surely are not in the right path. Instead, probably, we may be compassionate with those who cannot look into these possibilities. This is not because they are incapable for such a life, but they are unaware of their capabilities.
If the feeling of compassion comes into our being, what else we need? Definitely, we will not be having any complaint about the world in which we are living; instead we will be giving to this world whatever possible by us. The giving here is not for accumulating our ego, but will dissolve it.
We are discussing in the domain of life which is ‘physical’ and ‘psychic’ put together. In the physical realm we have fair idea, even if we don’t have; there are established methods to gain that knowledge. The main reason behind this is due to the limited number of references and one can easily study those things. Where as in the psychic aspect, there are no such limitations. Each one can see multiple dimensions in psychological domain and no two persons will see the psychological aspects from the same reference. Hence it leaves limitless possibilities in the psychic domain.
At the same time, psychological domain is also of the physical nature. Psychology is the way our mind operates. Our mind has the root in material – the brain. If there is no brain, there is no mind. The mind is nothing but the working of brain at certain level and hence the mind is also of the nature of physical. The knowledge we have about the mind is limited, even though we have fairly good idea about the nature of brain. The psychological medical field deals with the material aspect of mind or the physical configuration of brain, with limited know how of the operation of mind.
In this psychological domain, there are limitless possibilities available and hence limitless possibilities to live our life, in the psychological domain. Now the question is are we seeing this truth? Are we seeing the limitless psychological paths available for living our lives? Almost every one of us are suffering and enjoying our life, at best, the amount of enjoyment is equal to the amount of suffering and at worst; there is no enjoyment at all. If we know there are limitless possibilities of living our life, can’t there be a possibility where the joy is more than suffering? Have we ever looked in such possibilities? Instead, most of us are willing to live the life as we are living now. Why is this contradiction? Who is responsible for this contradiction?
We are so much into the way we are living now, we don’t even recognize the availability of such possibilities, and hence no chance of looking into those possibilities. We may look in to those possibilities, if we reach the peak of suffering and after that if we have some energy to live, probably we may look into those possibilities. The other possibility is that if we recognize the stupidity of the way we live and if we start questioning at that stupidity, we may look into such possibilities. One more possibility is that, if we happen to listen to certain ideas of somebody else, which influence us certain way, we may look into other possibilities. The danger in this possibility is that we travel further only under the influence of the person or idea which influenced us. There is a great deal of danger in such influence. We may discuss it in another day.
The reason for not looking into the possibilities may be that we have made a firm footing on our “ego” or “self” from the early days of our life here. The “ego” or “self” have the security of its existence with qualities like attachment, dependency, influence, etc. When we look into other possibilities, the very existence of “ego” itself is threatened and hence we are left with the feeling of fear and insecurity. Unless we approach this problem with enough awareness, we will be trapped by our ego itself and hence cannot look into the possibilities.
Probably, this it is a part of evolution process itself. Though every human being has the capability to see the possibilities, only those who are willing to support the evolution process are looking into those possibilities. Out of those who are willing to look into the possibilities, only part of them are really experimenting the possibilities they looked into.
Out of those experimenting into these possibilities, only a few are really experimenting in the path, which can lead to the truth.
If we are really into the right path, hopefully we may not be proud of that achievement and may not want to express it as our success or achievement of this life. If we do so, we surely are not in the right path. Instead, probably, we may be compassionate with those who cannot look into these possibilities. This is not because they are incapable for such a life, but they are unaware of their capabilities.
If the feeling of compassion comes into our being, what else we need? Definitely, we will not be having any complaint about the world in which we are living; instead we will be giving to this world whatever possible by us. The giving here is not for accumulating our ego, but will dissolve it.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Ideals
The harsh reality in our life is that we do not know how to live our life by ourselves. It is the reality for almost everyone exists in this world, probably with very, very few exceptions. As a family we were guided by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. As part of a society/culture we are being guided by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. As a part of religion or sect, we are being guided by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. By belonging to a state and nation we are being administered by those who do not know to live their life by themselves. Everyone needs some ideals to follow to live their life, including the leaders. The ideal may be a person or philosophy or religion or set of moral values established by some body.
The looking for ideals starts at early ages, as soon as the quality of comparison enters into our being. Looking for ideal is a side effect of our action of comparison.
When we were young, our parents were everything for us. Without them no external activity required for our survival was possible and hence they were everything for us at that stage. Our parents become ideals for us at that young age itself, due to the protection and security they provided for us. At that age we were feeling completeness with just our parents. As we grow up, our (psychological) world starts expanding and we need more than our parents to fulfill our needs. Then, whoever fills that gap become our new ideals. For most of us, after our parents, our teachers became ideals. For those who have fewer requirements for fulfillment needs fewer ideals and for those who have more requirements for fulfillment needs more ideals. And it is possible to drag the same ideal to the direction in which we need psychological protection.
When we see that the ideals are formed at as early as few weeks or months of our existence in this world, the obvious question arises in our mind is that if it happens at that young age itself, Is it not a natural process? If it is a natural process why should we avoid ideals?
We know that survival is the basic instinct for anything exists. All the animate and inanimate beings in this world have strong desire for survival. Without that desire, nothing can exist. As a child, we also had strong desire to survive. We have a brain and hence a mind with memory. Whatever helps us to survive will enter into our memory, since we already have ego of our own – which starts registering whatever helps it to grow, into the memory. Once something is in memory, we are conditioned such a way that thought arises. This conditioning must have again started from the time of first being in this world which had brain and the process is still continuing. Due to that conditioning and due to the working of brain it appears to be a natural process. Now, when we understand the very same process is hindering our evolution, it is again natural to discard that process; because evolution is the very natural process and every animate and inanimate being are constantly working towards evolution. Hence the key point here is the understanding of requirement of ideals in our life. This has to be understood by ourselves
As adults, we start fulfilling ourselves with our activities and the achievements projected by our mind. Hence, at certain level, forming more ideals for ourselves stops at a stage where we are physically able to do whatever required for our survival. But by this time, our mind starts projecting many things out of our actions. Based on the extent of the projection of mind and based on the gap between this projection and reality, our feeling of fulfillment at psychological level will be placed. Now we are in need of ideals at another level - at psychological level, for our fulfillment. Now we consider the people who in reality are close to ourselves as projected by our mind or close to the way our mind wants us to be, as our ideals. Our mind does that projection only because it knows that somebody else is at that level. On the other hand, the projection of our mind is nothing but the result of comparison and the side effect is the formation of ideal in our mind. Once we have an ideal in our mind, we put forward all our effort to become that ideal, but it will never be possible. We cannot become somebody else. We are unique being in this world, with our own chemistry and hence our own properties. If we do not realize this, we struggle to become that ideal, which we can never become, and our life will be nothing but struggle.
In certain cases, we cannot find a live ideal or an historical ideal. In such cases certain philosophy or religion or scriptures may become the ideals. A mind with the bondage of such ideal cannot find the true meaning of any philosophy or religion or scripture. The mind translates the philosophy or religion or scripture according to its ideal, and then tries to follow that philosophy/religion/scripture. At this level of translation and following, it cannot reach anywhere else other than illusion or Maya.
A person can form ideals due to inherent limitation on doing certain things and the need for defending that limitation for the purpose of security required for the ego. For example a person working in a modern office environment and not capable of playing office politics may form an ideal such that, he/she sees a person who has some integrity with respect to office politics as the ideal. This person will start following that ideal and this following is due to the inability to play efficient office politics, but to keep the ego active, need to defend that limitation. In such cases, the irony is that this person looks for integrity where he lacks capability and he does not bother about integrity in other aspects of his life, and hence it becomes a breeding point for conflicts.
Certain other level, we take spiritual Gurus as our ideals on our search for fulfillment. When we have certain level of understanding about us and start turning inward, due to lack of energy and intensity of looking inward, we starts looking for spiritual Gurus. When the method of any spiritual Guru’s expressing themselves suit our way of thinking, they become our ideals and start following them and want to be like them or the way the Guru explain the nature of being (Not like the Guru or their explanation, but the way our mind projects them as being). We just start to follow whatever they preach and most of the cases, without proper understanding of ourselves and what we really need from the spiritual Guru. In that case, again it becomes a mere following of the Guru (as projected by our mind). Hence there is no sense on such following and we can reach nowhere with such following, since we do not know what we really needs. This does not mean we should not have a spiritual Guru. A spiritual Guru may have certain placement in our lives, but we should understand that limit and stop there. When our mind projects the Guru beyond this limit, he/she is no more a spiritual Guru – he/she becomes an ideal for us. Such Guru is just like any other image in our mind, which can do nothing but harm to our life. This is not the problem or mistake of the spiritual Guru, but our own problem – we do not know, why and where we need a spiritual Guru and the role of a spiritual Guru in our lives.
Sticking with some ideal is bondage, whatever great or noble it may be, which breeds desire, despair, incompleteness, pain and suffering, whether the ideal is a person, idea, philosophy, religion, Guru or whatever it may be. The ideal itself is the projection of our mind and it is not real. When we try to reach an ideal or try to become an ideal, we are slipping away from reality. As much distance as we are away from reality that much pain and suffering will be there in our lives.
How to transcend ideals? Like any other problem of mind, the only way out is, understanding the problem itself by ourselves. Nobody else can solve this problem for us. When we look into the ideals we are having, with enough intensity, we will understand how the ideal was formed within our mind. When we have this understanding, we will be having complete understanding about ourselves in the domain in which the ideal was formed. When we understand ourselves in certain area, all our actions in that area will reflect our understanding. Once we reach that stage, there is no more need for any ideals. We will be fulfilled with our actions and outcome of such actions, due to the fact that we have the complete understanding of ourselves in the domain of such action, and those actions will be based on what is needed for situations and for us. When our actions are based on need, there is no choice available to choose or reject such actions. When we do a choice-less action, there are no conflicts and we will be completely fulfilled in the area of such action. When we have fulfillment by ourselves in certain area of our psychology, we do not need any more ideals for that area. Hence the way for transcending the ideal is just look into the ideal – the ideal within our mind, with complete attention and energy. The ideal will be dissolved by itself. We do not need to do anything else.
The looking for ideals starts at early ages, as soon as the quality of comparison enters into our being. Looking for ideal is a side effect of our action of comparison.
When we were young, our parents were everything for us. Without them no external activity required for our survival was possible and hence they were everything for us at that stage. Our parents become ideals for us at that young age itself, due to the protection and security they provided for us. At that age we were feeling completeness with just our parents. As we grow up, our (psychological) world starts expanding and we need more than our parents to fulfill our needs. Then, whoever fills that gap become our new ideals. For most of us, after our parents, our teachers became ideals. For those who have fewer requirements for fulfillment needs fewer ideals and for those who have more requirements for fulfillment needs more ideals. And it is possible to drag the same ideal to the direction in which we need psychological protection.
When we see that the ideals are formed at as early as few weeks or months of our existence in this world, the obvious question arises in our mind is that if it happens at that young age itself, Is it not a natural process? If it is a natural process why should we avoid ideals?
We know that survival is the basic instinct for anything exists. All the animate and inanimate beings in this world have strong desire for survival. Without that desire, nothing can exist. As a child, we also had strong desire to survive. We have a brain and hence a mind with memory. Whatever helps us to survive will enter into our memory, since we already have ego of our own – which starts registering whatever helps it to grow, into the memory. Once something is in memory, we are conditioned such a way that thought arises. This conditioning must have again started from the time of first being in this world which had brain and the process is still continuing. Due to that conditioning and due to the working of brain it appears to be a natural process. Now, when we understand the very same process is hindering our evolution, it is again natural to discard that process; because evolution is the very natural process and every animate and inanimate being are constantly working towards evolution. Hence the key point here is the understanding of requirement of ideals in our life. This has to be understood by ourselves
As adults, we start fulfilling ourselves with our activities and the achievements projected by our mind. Hence, at certain level, forming more ideals for ourselves stops at a stage where we are physically able to do whatever required for our survival. But by this time, our mind starts projecting many things out of our actions. Based on the extent of the projection of mind and based on the gap between this projection and reality, our feeling of fulfillment at psychological level will be placed. Now we are in need of ideals at another level - at psychological level, for our fulfillment. Now we consider the people who in reality are close to ourselves as projected by our mind or close to the way our mind wants us to be, as our ideals. Our mind does that projection only because it knows that somebody else is at that level. On the other hand, the projection of our mind is nothing but the result of comparison and the side effect is the formation of ideal in our mind. Once we have an ideal in our mind, we put forward all our effort to become that ideal, but it will never be possible. We cannot become somebody else. We are unique being in this world, with our own chemistry and hence our own properties. If we do not realize this, we struggle to become that ideal, which we can never become, and our life will be nothing but struggle.
In certain cases, we cannot find a live ideal or an historical ideal. In such cases certain philosophy or religion or scriptures may become the ideals. A mind with the bondage of such ideal cannot find the true meaning of any philosophy or religion or scripture. The mind translates the philosophy or religion or scripture according to its ideal, and then tries to follow that philosophy/religion/scripture. At this level of translation and following, it cannot reach anywhere else other than illusion or Maya.
A person can form ideals due to inherent limitation on doing certain things and the need for defending that limitation for the purpose of security required for the ego. For example a person working in a modern office environment and not capable of playing office politics may form an ideal such that, he/she sees a person who has some integrity with respect to office politics as the ideal. This person will start following that ideal and this following is due to the inability to play efficient office politics, but to keep the ego active, need to defend that limitation. In such cases, the irony is that this person looks for integrity where he lacks capability and he does not bother about integrity in other aspects of his life, and hence it becomes a breeding point for conflicts.
Certain other level, we take spiritual Gurus as our ideals on our search for fulfillment. When we have certain level of understanding about us and start turning inward, due to lack of energy and intensity of looking inward, we starts looking for spiritual Gurus. When the method of any spiritual Guru’s expressing themselves suit our way of thinking, they become our ideals and start following them and want to be like them or the way the Guru explain the nature of being (Not like the Guru or their explanation, but the way our mind projects them as being). We just start to follow whatever they preach and most of the cases, without proper understanding of ourselves and what we really need from the spiritual Guru. In that case, again it becomes a mere following of the Guru (as projected by our mind). Hence there is no sense on such following and we can reach nowhere with such following, since we do not know what we really needs. This does not mean we should not have a spiritual Guru. A spiritual Guru may have certain placement in our lives, but we should understand that limit and stop there. When our mind projects the Guru beyond this limit, he/she is no more a spiritual Guru – he/she becomes an ideal for us. Such Guru is just like any other image in our mind, which can do nothing but harm to our life. This is not the problem or mistake of the spiritual Guru, but our own problem – we do not know, why and where we need a spiritual Guru and the role of a spiritual Guru in our lives.
Sticking with some ideal is bondage, whatever great or noble it may be, which breeds desire, despair, incompleteness, pain and suffering, whether the ideal is a person, idea, philosophy, religion, Guru or whatever it may be. The ideal itself is the projection of our mind and it is not real. When we try to reach an ideal or try to become an ideal, we are slipping away from reality. As much distance as we are away from reality that much pain and suffering will be there in our lives.
How to transcend ideals? Like any other problem of mind, the only way out is, understanding the problem itself by ourselves. Nobody else can solve this problem for us. When we look into the ideals we are having, with enough intensity, we will understand how the ideal was formed within our mind. When we have this understanding, we will be having complete understanding about ourselves in the domain in which the ideal was formed. When we understand ourselves in certain area, all our actions in that area will reflect our understanding. Once we reach that stage, there is no more need for any ideals. We will be fulfilled with our actions and outcome of such actions, due to the fact that we have the complete understanding of ourselves in the domain of such action, and those actions will be based on what is needed for situations and for us. When our actions are based on need, there is no choice available to choose or reject such actions. When we do a choice-less action, there are no conflicts and we will be completely fulfilled in the area of such action. When we have fulfillment by ourselves in certain area of our psychology, we do not need any more ideals for that area. Hence the way for transcending the ideal is just look into the ideal – the ideal within our mind, with complete attention and energy. The ideal will be dissolved by itself. We do not need to do anything else.
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