Play an active role
In your own life:
Make tough choices.
Create joy.
Give love.
Provide space.
Bring intelligence.
Leverage opportunities.
Earn respect.
Work for a cause.
Acquire experiences.
Develop capability.
Dream and then recreate the dream.
Inspire and influence.
Leave. Know when you’re not needed.
Accept your fate with faith.
Rest. Redeem yourself.
Expression without art
Keeps you tied to the emotion.
With art, expression acquires the power
To release you.
It educates, cultivates, sublimates.
The art is in the manner of expression.
The sadhana of the artist
Is not merely to express feelings
But to transform them
Into an experience of beauty.
When something breaks
Destiny takes over its purpose.
What becomes of the part,
Separated from the whole-
Depends on the actions
Of many forces.
Life takes over.
Emotions drive it.
Sustenance becomes essential
For survival.
Separated from the whole,
The part searches for its own identity.
It awaits true love…
Searches for something
And someone to belong to.
Unconscious of the truth
That no one thing can complete it-
As it belongs with All.
Life is a journey
To a destination-
A voyage from no-thing
To no-thing.
Our something-ness is maya
That should be lived…endured…
But not preserved or pursued.
Intoxicated with life
We live in a state of forgetfulness
Of who we essentially are;
Adamant to ‘be’ someone whole…
Someone who will be
Loved, remembered…continued.
The feeling of purposelessness
Haunts the part.
Separated from the whole
It may be re-imagined, re-purposed…cultivated.
But it can never become
What it cannot be.
So much activity, very little action.
So much knowledge, very little understanding.
So many words, very little meaning.
So many functions, very little purpose.
So many pleasures, but very little satisfaction.
Man can only provide
Imagination and variety,
Alternatives, substitutes and evocations
For what evades him in essence.
Originality is good.
The true is good.
The honest is good.
To surrender the material
At the altar of the spiritual
Is good
Self-awareness is good.
To love is good.
Correct knowledge is good.
To overcome weakness is good.
Courage is good.
To adapt to change
But to remain unchanged by it
Is good.
To relate with care is good.
To sustain the good is good.
Life, that is ever free
Becomes imprisoned within
The walls of the human mind.
Ego, attachment, desire and fear
Do not allow it to move freely…
To come and go-
Without being subject to
Ownership, design, desire…
And moral confusion.
We trap life.
We want it to serve
Our limited sense of self.
But life that is creative and ever new
Will have nothing to do with our staleness.
Itself, free of the past
And open to the future;
Without memory and desire,
It uses time and the illusion of persistence
To create the conditions
By which we come to desire
Our own end.
Can we learn
To meet life with pure presence?
Can we come to see
That the treadmill of the mind
Is not life?
That it has no name,
No designation, no agenda
No attachments, no conditions
That your wish
May be its command,
But not its true calling.
Life is a mystery…
And that is the cliché
I use to describe
My confounding experience of it.
That’s the irony
Of life
That I depend on the dead
To help me understand the living…
What if I gave up this strife…?
Would my not-knowing
Be any less
Than it is now?
I’m beginning to see
How acceptance
Is moral and complete
And how it immediately harmonizes…
Perhaps there’s wisdom and beauty
In dwelling in the silence
And not soliciting the overused
To speak about it.
When things can be said
How much more eloquent
Would it be
To not say them.
That we feel love- is a unanimous fact. But how it prompts us to act and react seems to be individually determined. My state of mind determines whether I perceive love as a need, as an attachment or as pleasurable affection. Does everything good, pleasing and gratifying indicate the presence of love and all that is painful, difficult and demanding- its absence? Why do we forge relationships out of love’s will and end them on ours? And then, why is every love story- with fiery, passionate beginnings- fated for an eventual separation, either physically or emotionally? Does a long-standing relationship indicate love’s blessing and a short-lived one its curse? And when our ‘affairs’ end, what changes mark our new beginnings?
How disintegrated and complex is the adult human heart! And in true inverse proportion how simple and effortless are the ways of children! Why is it so easy to love a child and so difficult to love an adult?
Children make no ‘conditions’ by which they shall ‘trade’ love. They don’t set out to make its laws; neither do they contemplate them; they simply follow them. Adults, on the other hand, have developed a mind and the mind as such, is characterized by memories, ideas, needs, desires and attachments. To love another adult requires a constant examination and purification of one’s emotions. As adults, we feel loved when we are understood, respected, trusted, attended to, wanted and desired. Love- if we allow it to have its way- will eventually re-acquaint and align us with our own hearts.
Love’s fulfillment lies in two becoming one whole and then eventually, one whole realizing that it always was, is and will always be- All. For the individual, love fulfils the needs- not of the ego, but of the soul. Love, in the adult human mind, begins as a furtherance, an extending out of your self; and is experienced as a fuller presence. In wanting to repeat and recall the experience of that fuller presence, we embark on a journey marked with rejections, trials and antagonisms. In and through those experiences, through every changing emotion, through every triumph of the spirit, we stand re-acquainted and fully aware of our essence. Love extracts out of you your full worth.
Which is why, sometimes even after a relationship has ended, your new beginning is marked- not with a sense of loss, but with a sense of gain. You sense a growth, re-discover your self-esteem, develop greater self-reliance, become more responsible, realize your faith and cultivate the ability to endure, tolerate and be patient. You plumb your depths and find within you unbelievable strength and courage. Love’s path is an upward path. Falling in love is a weakness of the human heart and rising in it- its strength. Love begins as affection and is fulfilled with realization of the Self. When you discover and realize within you- self-confidence, courage, faith, independence, tolerance and patience- then only do you gain a full awareness of love within you. Love then, ceases to be a thirst and becomes the fountainhead of every action that flows out of you. Simply put, it transforms from being the problem to now being the solution.
Effort is conscious action. It is however important to understand where and at what point must one start making an effort. For example, if I try making an effort to be a ‘good’ human being, I may begin my search with the question: What are the qualities of a good human being? How do we spot or identify a good human being? How does a ‘good’ human being act? How does he meet life’s challenges? And yet, despite gathering ‘data’ that answers these questions, all my efforts at being good somehow seem superficial. I feel the need for a truer transformation. I somehow feel certain that what is called for is a single change, that will by inherent virtue, change all that is a misconception; like how darkness disappears in the presence of light. The primary effort that one therefore needs to make is to come to know that which is flawed, that which is untrue. It’s in coming to know the untrue, that truth asserts itself.
Knowledge alone can support effort. The effort is right when it’s objective is the removal of ignorance. We must bear in mind what we’re seeking is not a prosthetic gain, but a restoration.
Change is not only a fact of life, but also a power and privilege bestowed upon intelligent life. We can change according to our will- this we intuitively know. However, what invariably baffles us is our own inadequate understanding of what exactly is that thing called ‘will.’ By what actions is it characterized? Generally, ‘human free will’ is loosely understood as being a conscious, determined and individual effort. If that were so, then why do almost all our individual resolutions to change end up being so short-lived and prone to failure? How often, even our most sincere attempts to ‘reform’ our selves, or others, or our circumstances are met with difficulty, frustration and failure. If we agree that change is a natural fact of life, why then, must our ‘will to change’ be such a challenge?
We can look back into our lives and clearly see that none of us have remained the same- unchanged; neither have we really resisted change. What then about introducing our will to the process of change, complicates it? Perhaps, the problem lies in our poor understanding of both the process of change and our will. Change occurs in our life-that is certain. But what are the mechanics of change? How does it work? It’s important that we know; for when a deep change is required, we hope to be able to distinguish between a superficial reformation and a fundamental transformation.
On careful examination, one can see that change is a process and not a planned event. And what exactly is the action of such a process?Even as we- a group of friends- discussed ‘change’, I noticed that the conversation progressed in a slow, lingering mood. We ‘saw’ our ideas of change; we ‘listened’ to what the others had to say, we ‘watched ‘ our own individual experience of ‘change’; we ‘defended’ some ideas, we ‘adopted’ new ones and we ‘shed’ or ‘let go’ of others.
Whenever we have witnessed our selves changing, we have seen our selves surrendering, trusting and moving with faith. Also, when we have, in our relationships with others been expected to change, to step out of old patterns and comfort zones, we have successfully done so only after we have carefully ‘examined’ and ‘watched’ our own cherished ideas vis-à-vis their point of view. And it is then that we have realized that we cannot truly allow in change by merely posturing a charitable stance towards another. We must first understand and be forgiving and charitable towards our selves. Analyzing another’s motives and reasons is futile if it is not accompanied with a careful analysis of ones self.
Our will i.e. our freedom to change- on close scrutiny- is most weak when handled and provoked by our thought, but most powerful and potent in our subtlest capacity to wait, to watch, to surrender, to trust and to believe. It is by way of these subtle actions that change, in its proper scale and proportion, effortlessly weaves itself into our lives. These, in fact, are nothing but the many aspects of that privilege we call our will- our capacity to bring in true reform by allowing in the actions of transformation.
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 