As always Buddha was walking with a few of his followers from one town to the other. En route they crossed a small rivulet. All the Bhikkus and the Buddha crossed the water body. After crossing some distance from the rivulet the Buddha told one of his disciples “I am thirsty, can you get me some water for me?”
The disciple responded, we just crossed a rivulet a while back I will bring water from there.
Since the group had just crossed the rivulet, the water had become very muddy and turbid.
The disciple thought “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink?”
The disciple came back and told Buddha “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink. There must be another water body nearby I shall fetch water from there”
The Buddha told the disciple to go back to the same place but this time around wait for some time. The disciple went back, and found that the water was still muddy, but as the Buddha had suggested to him to wait, he waited for some time.
After some time, the disciple found the mud had settled down, and the water was clean. He collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.
Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said “See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be and the mud settled down on its own and you have clear water.”
Meditation is not “doing” it is happening / being; it is effortless.
I heard this story in my Art of Living course way back in 2004.
Down the garden path went Adam
He found and Apple to fathom
He could not understand the depth
Because the apple was from the knowledge tree
Eve was cajoled by the serpent
She forced her husband
Came upon Adm the curse
Life for you will be arduous
Wish Adam & Eve had not walked
Down the garden path
The story sounds so strange, why would God curse any of his / her creation? There are variation to the story that God punish the ground and not Adam. My point has always been – if God isn’t someone who is compassionate, why should we call him / her God?
Story source of the stories of God cursing Adam and cursing ground –
http://www.christianbiblereference.org/story_AdamAndEve.htm
http://www.creationmoments.com/content/why-did-god-curse-ground-and-not-adam
When I read the topic for Loose Bloggers Consortium, the very first thing came to my mind was this video from Kung Fu Panda 2. The other thought was that I have written a lot of blogs related to peace of mind earlier.
The conclusion of every blog post is that peace of mind comes from within and not outside. For example –
In the blog Peace of Mind – I started of thinking peace of mind comes from owning something or being at peace is independent of owning anything? I reasoned out that peace of mind is not in achieving something in life. However, peace of mind is being at peace with our mind in the present. Because the more we think more we complicate life – life is, simple!
In another blog Arrived… where? though peace of mind was not straightforward point of discussion, but something related was discussed. My brother in law asked me a very simple question – ‘what is home?’ ‘what is school?’ How do you define home/school etc” In that same discussion the conclusion was – home relates more to a feeling – comfort, peace.
In one more blog Dichotomy on happiness the question I ask was – happiness requires fulfillment of the CONDITIONS we create for being happy or it is a feeling irrespective of what happens in our life/to us? These conditions, to me, are never ending… as it happens to the squirrel in Ice Age-Trilogy and to Chaipau in Salaam Bombay“. Dichotomy of happiness is you decide on what you enjoy doing or you remain happy irrespective of the situation you are in….
In all these thoughts, the real peace of mind was understood when I first saw Dadaji (Dada Gavande), here is a tribute blog to Dadaji. “When I saw him for the first time, and later as well, I was completely awe stuck, everything, thought and feeling vanished. So much of serenity was flowing off his face that I had nothing to talk or ask.” If you want to experience such peace of mind, you either have to meet an enlightened master or be enlightened yourself.
There were about 10 or more blogs in which peace of mind was touched upon. For more of my thoughts on peace of mind, read What are you searching for? where really the question is to you. In another blog Is religion another organized crime? the point is have religion lost their meaning? In the blog Money what is it? I tried to create another fictitious currency. In another blog Fish will fly in its next birth how my sister tried pacifying her daughter whose fish had just died.
You can read all the blogs searched with “Peace of Mind” as searched term here
This topic for LBC was suggested by Ramana uncleji. You can read other blogs of other Loose Bloggers Consortium members at Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and Lin.
I received the following message on my LinkedIn timeline.
“I AM SICK AND TIRED OF READING GREAT SUCCESS STORIES & INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS, ITS ALL IN YOUR DESTINY, NOTHING IS IN YOUR HANDS, GIVE YOUR DOB, TIME & PLACE OF BIRTH, I WILL TELL YOU THE ENTIRE STORY OF YOUR LIFE”
This is an interesting point. If we look at it from one side it says – We are all forced to be where and what of the fate and there is no control! Right? From the other side we may denounce the statement by stating Free Will (my choice) is what makes me what I am and where I am not the fate.
I remember in one old talk by Guruji (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) somewhere when he said – “All your past was your fate (Karma), all your future is free will.” Interesting, isnt it? There is a balance.
Guruji on Destiny and free will
I was thinking about the balance and with reference to my fate thing. I made these assumptions or conclusions. The fate most probably provides you with situations to succeed e.g. some astrologer would tell you – Your mangal is sitting here and Rahu and Ketu is doing this or that, therefore you are likely to have tough time. And for good situations because of Brhaspati you may get some this or that opportunity you are likely to get promoted, better job etc etc.
I think we must never get in the debate of fate and free will. We just should keep on doing what we do. Results will come when the time is right. I thought for argument sake we may also say that the bad times are the times for preparation, doing our bit of hard work so that we can reap the benefits when our good time arrives. Isn’t it?
Can mobile phones / smart phones make us more spiritual? I asked myself this when I another question stuck my mind – has my ‘attention span’ reduced? This ‘attention span’ question is intriguing. What is the problem of attention span? Well, we lose interest in things happened yesterday. We may just ‘move on’ from any significant happening one hour back. The lack of attention span is blamed to the technology and in some cases to the smart mobile phones.
Before digging this topic further, attention span means – “the length of time for which a person is able to concentrate on a particular activity or subject (without being distracted)”. So in one way it is a problem that we lack concentration. What if we flip the coin and say that is a good thing – why not live in the present.
A case in point of the same is US presidential election. What I read in news is – whatever frivolous news comes in the forefront, becomes obsolete within few hours. The word ‘frivolous’ in previous sentence is calculated and selective because of the most talked about candidate in election. It is interesting that this ephemeral nature of the news or short attention span can be observed in twitter trends. Any breaking news stuff becomes “what was that?” after few hours. No one seems to care about any ethical question, event or comment. In no time we have a new entertainment (breaking news). The problem is such that grave questions are buried due to short attention span.
An example in Indian context – ‘Corruption’ was a huge point of discussion three years back. A political party came into existence due to the same. Apparently this party is not willing to take case of corruption seriously now – be it case against former CM of Delhi, CWG, talking about prominent political family or the political party or any other cases of corruption raised by the people associated with this new political party.
This seems to be true that technology has put us into a situation when we lose interest in everything happening around us in no time. I’m sure in future the duration of lose of interest will be few seconds – sooner or later. Since technology is growing at fast pace, ‘later’ is likely to happen soon, who knows?
Well does not it mean we – humans – will become more meditative? Because in meditation our effort is to be in present moment. Since, meditation is not ‘doing’ therefore will technology make us so helpless or so efficient that we will effortlessly be in the present moment?
Effectively, mobiles or the problem of attention span is a two way sword, isn’t it? It is upto us to maximize the utility from it. Would we or the next generation be monk with mobiles?
I was fearing writing this blog last week, however I could not resist myself. Actually I feel I am too small to write on this big personality.
Last week India celebrated 125th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar. I have immense respect for Baba Saheb, as he is called. He was (I would say ‘is’ even till today) one of the most educated politicians India ever had. He was a lawyer, the chief architect of Indian constitution, an economist and a social reformer. If someone can boast about a PhD he/she can talk about only one big University unlike Baba Saheb – Columbia & London School of Economics. Well, many politicians may call themselves as lawyers & social reformers, however there is a huge difference between Baba and these so called reformers of our time or for that matter lawyer.
On social reforms, how many Indian politicians can say that they have moved generations on a specific path – path we may question though. How many Indian politicians can say that they have offered opportunities to the generations for growth and equality – the opportunity we may question though. None of any other Indian politician could do and has done – just name any Ms Mayavati! Mr Nitish Kumar! or a leader from Maharashtra Ramdas Athavale! No, no one can be even named with Dr Ambedkar.
We, in Mumbai, celebrated Baba Saheb’s birthday last week with a lot of pomp. Some areas (I know of Chembur) people made huge rangoli in many others there were temporary gates made, in many other areas hoardings were pasted with wishes on 125th anniversary of Baba Saheb. However, there was a question in mind when I was seeing the celebration in Mumbai. What message Dr B R Ambedkar would give to these people?
Actually, this celebration is nothing new for me as an Indian. We in India have the habit, or you may call it reverence in refined words, that we eulogize such personality. It has happened with Shirdi ke Sai Baba, Mahatma Gandhi et al you just name any. The question to ask is – what have we learnt from them? What would be just one message they want to give us?
Coming back to Baba Saheb, I was wondering isn’t it more political than spiritual or social to celebrate the birthday? The problem with any established practice is – even if the person is reborn those who have made something a practice / a ritual would not accept this reborn person’s teachings. They would rebuke him/her. Be it Jesus, Mohammad or Baba Saheb.
I love Baba Saheb for many reasons some listed above; his choosing Buddhism too is a reason because I believe Buddhism gives a person the right to question, questioning self, questioning established rules and concepts. But, has the community learnt anything about Buddhism from the social revolution Baba Saheb tried to bring to the community? Many converted to Buddhism, but what about inculcating the basic tenets of Buddhism? I asked one of my friends – Buddha never preached harming animals, why do you eat non-veg, forget meditation, forget eight-fold path, answer the basic thing? Nope you have not learnt practicing being vegetarian – which is a practice done at least twice a day. Have you heard of meditation? Nope. What are the steps of eight-fold path?
I am confident that had Baba saheb be alive today – he would have made only one statement for the masses – Appa dipo bhava “Be a light unto yourself”. Forget these rituals forget these political stands. Your growth is in your hands. Why not use the money spent on putting hoardings for some other constructive work, say scholarship for a student?
A last word – Even if you do not want to learn being a light to yourself follow the path of Baba Saheb consider education seriously and try to be like him, how many would take this idea seriously?
I have written on ego earlier, actually a couple of times. I received this video on Whatsapp found it interesting so thought to share it on my blog – The universe is so big and thankfully we know this now. Still we create our own world due to our ego – Size of the Universe
The world we create around us Vs our size
The source of this video is unknown to me currently.
A person wrote on his matrimony profile on defining a suitable match – “Preferably a doctor or an engineer…” Sounds funny isn’t it?
I was talking about this topic with my wife and she had contention on the subject not on the content. I gave it another try – I told her, remember Golmaal old movie? In that movie Utpal Dutt has a perception – people with mustache are good in character. That is a way of creating a perception, an identity. Let me put more types of identities – say I identify myself as an Indian. You identify yourself as a CA or a Marwari or a born Bengali. These are all identities. What if one fine day morning we remove these identities of each individual? Would world be a better place? Perhaps yes. Let me give you an example –
Say two people waking up in Gaza strip and Jerusalem on Monday morning – both of them identifying themselves as
A – Muslim, inhabitant of Palestine, suppressed etc
B – Jew, Original inhabitants of Jerusalem etc
If on a Monday morning A and B both only know that he/she is supposed to do xyz activity. Remember this activity is not killing the other. The activity is for survival and comfortable life perhaps peaceful and progressive life. Would there be a solution to Middle Eastern problem?
Take another example – if followers of ISIS forget they are following the commandments written in Kuran! They get into the crisis of identifying themselves as someone who is fighting a holy war. Would we have a solution in Syria?
In the context of religion, if every human being forgets that he / she is associated with a religion – though keeps on following the suggested practices – wouldn’t we have far lesser organized, religion based crimes in the world?
In political sense the identification can be – he is a democrat and she is a republican. Should we define ourselves or others in these lines? Why should one be identified by such labels?
Let me go a step further, what if we stop identifying ourselves from Nation A or Nation B, we just remain a nobody.
The crisis are mostly created by the identities we have created around ourselves, isnt it? If we get rid of our identities wouldn’t that crisis be a good solution?
At a very basic level, the identity could be – I am an engineer or you are from Vernacular medium of education. Yes these small things become identity and at times do or die reasons; recent example is Rohith Vemula. In India we identify people with their castes too. The other definitions are – I own a BMW, he has a Maruti 800 1998 model and that guy doesnt even have a car. I am rich, he is poor. On me this could be – com’on I write blogs! I have an identity on the internet. Isn’t it too shallow?
We need to get rid of all these labels.
Well, I had written the sentence “Preferably a doctor or an engineer…” on my matrimony profile. I had most serious discussions with an Arts graduate, I got married to a commerce graduate. That sentence I wrote because some or the other site made it mandatory to write partner preference, my full sentence was – “… There has to be understanding and matching of thoughts…” I wrote those two criteria because I after stretching enough I was not able to complete some word limit, I think 200 words!
There is income inequality. Agree? If no check this – IMF Publication
…increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down…
If businesses want to earn good profits in long term; businesses need to improve purchasing power of poor. Why? When people will have enough money to buy products/services, then only profits will increase at a better rate. Isn’t it? The simple explanation to this is – once poorer population gets resources (buying power) market size for companies increase multiple times. The increase would not be for one company but for every company in the market. One example of that could be involvement in CSR activity wherein poor can get good basic facilities and opportunities to earn. Once the poor can earn, they can spend too! Of course a caution here is – CSR is not charity, it should not become charity where it may lose its meaning.
If this logic is clear – shouldn’t business be investing in making people prosperous? Once we do this we would solve a big problem – poverty. Hopefully, we will be able to not only grow the businesses but also grow every strata of society. Isn’t it? This is interdependent co-arising.
Let me share a store, a very old & cliche, but I think that can drive home the point.
Long ago a person wanted to see how heaven and hell were. An angle obliged and granted the wish. Person was blindfold and was sent to hell first.
When the blindfold was removed, person was standing at the entrance to a great dining hall, full of round tables piled high with delicious foods of all kinds.
The person noticed that, people seated around those round tables but their bodies were thin, and faces gaunt and creased with frustration. Each person sitting on dinning table held a spoon though their arms had no elbows and the spoons were four feet long. These people could reach the food on those platters, but could not get the food back to their mouths.
Next the person was sent to the heaven. In the heaven the entrance to the dining hall was big, it too had round tables with piles of lavish feast as hell had. Here too people did not have elbows in arms and they were holding long spoons about same length as the hell. The person noticed that the people in heaven were plump and happy, the dinning hall was full of joy and laughter. Situation in both – Heaven and Hell were similar, however there was difference in the milieu, the reason?
The difference between heaven and hell was – the people in heaven were using those long spoons to feed others so effectively everyone was full, plump & happy.
So, if we take the concept of interdependent co-arising as the core of growth, capitalism or communism or any economic structure we follow we will surely have inclusive growth. The catch here will be – value of money will decline, and exclusivity (as marketing or demand / supply concepts of economics) will play in different fashion. In whatever case at least the basic necessities hopefully be fulfilled.
Recently India saw two very poles apart events and both can make us learn – the Middle Path of the Buddha. One incident was of JNU – ultra leftist & anti establishment – and the other was bank NPAs (one example of Vijay Mallya) – ultra rightist & Crony Capitalistic. I did not write anti-national as those who read news or biased towards one side would find my opinion biased even before reading the post fully, so ‘anti-establishment’ was the word used.
The backdrop of Javaharlal Nehru University row is this – students union of JNU requested for a cultural event. Well, for those who do not know JNU is a University in Capital city of India. JNU students union is a leftist union. This event turned sloganeering against India. The slogans – besides anti India – included supporting terrorist who (in rarest of rare capital punishment in India) was hung during previous Govt. The previous Govt was run by the parties currently in opposition – including left front. In twists of the whole drama a hero emerged named Kanhaiya Kumar. When I searched and heard one Professor of JNU, I came to know more about left front. They seem to support the whole drama where slogans were raised against India. This support goes deep down in the intellectual class sitting in news channel studios in Delhi.
Though anti-establishment word sounds weird because where was the class of Kanhaiya Kumar for last 10 years? Where were they when there were a lot of corruption cases? Suddenly that class is demanding Azadi (freedom), well freedom from whom and what? If you demand freedom from poverty – work! Isn’t it a better solution? Azadi from toot-phoot (breakup) – better you do not do it, isn’t it? Currently who is involved in toot-phoot (look at parts of India where Maoists are active & killing). Azadi from terrorism – better you support or join security forces isn’t it? Why were student’s slogan in support of Afzal Guru (a terrorist)? Azadi from Manuwad & Brahmanwad (it is related to caste system of India) – I too am against caste system. Would it be better to do something at a grass-root level instead of sloganeering ‘against India’? Azadi from suit boot (economically better off) – isn’t it good if you do any of the other things listed above you would get in suit boot? Perhaps someone else will raise voice against you! But does it mean you and the other economically better off should leave everything and become poor in support of you to have Azadi from suit boot? The logic of communism is at question here – to bring affluence or wealth to less privileged is a better approach rather than making everyone equally poor to bring equality. Isn’t it? Read about Aarti Amma here these people should learn from her.
On the other hand there is another class in India – capitalists. They are those who either mend rules or get rules created to favor themselves. According to some reports the amount of debt big corporate houses in India have goes in lacs of crores (of trillion INR). The example of top 10 debtors is below in image. These corporate houses are those who keep close relations with the law-makers (political parties – either in opposition or in power). So, these debtors enjoy the debt money lavishly. Once they kind of run out of money, they get debt restructured (happens to big companies only). There is a fancy word for that – Corporate Debt Restructuring. One such example in India is Dr Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airline. We’ve heard of his lavish birthday bashes and Calendars; he owes 7000 cr (70 Billion INR) to banks. His airline is defunct and he recently fled; banks has declared him willful defaulter a couple of months back.
So in recent times, India has seen extremes of both the sides – failure of overly capitalistic system where crores of rupees are usurped by organizations without remorse and there are overly leftist those who want to overthrow the establishment itself. We have seen an example of USSR failing and we have seen repeated recession / bankruptcy. These examples teach us same the lessons again and again. There is a middle path that we need to follow, No left or no right. There has to be a balance.
The solution? Once again it is the eight-fold path –
Perfect Vision,
Perfected Emotion,
Right speech,
Right action,
Right livelihood,
Right effort,
Right mindfulness, and
Right meditation
All of these have to come from within, outside perspective will contaminate these. Meditation is a one single solution, it may provide each one of us from Kanhaiya to Mallya ‘tranquility’ that will help reduce the fascination to revolt or predilection to cheat. Because if we start following this eight-fold paths we would realize – ‘we all are connected’, ‘we all are interdependent‘ and if we want Azadi, this azadi would be from whom? If we want to cheat the banks, it is in turn cheating with someone who is a family of ours.
