Awareness — the benign virus

WORRY is a deeply embedded pattern in us. It happens independently, without any valid reason to justify it. Worry is like an addiction. Any addiction happens because we try to maintain our patterns. It becomes our nature.

We should understand that the mind is like a piece of hardware programmed with the software called ‘worry’. If, for example, we experience depression or worry every morning due to work pressure, then even on holidays we will experience a disturbance in our mood around the same time because our mind is a programmed hardware.

The stress of suffering or worrying becomes part of our being. If the worry or stress is taken away from us, we feel lonely. We feel we are missing something. When we fall into this software, this worry, again and again, we often end up in a dilemma.

The dilemma happens when thoughts move back and forth while making a decision. There are so many thoughts inside us trying to put their signature on our final decision. These thoughts clash with each other when a decision has to be made because they were recorded at different times and circumstances. This conflict becomes our dilemma. For each person, the dilemma is different as there are no standards or rules for a dilemma.

We become so used to our inner software that we end up like an island that is cut off from the fragrance of the mainland. We are cut off from the fragrance of Existence because of our worries. We miss the miracles of Existence continuously happening around us. We forget to appreciate and remember only to complain. We forget bliss and remember stress. Remembering these negative things becomes a habit. Bringing deep awareness to our being is the solution to this distorted software of the mind. Deep awareness is like a benign virus, if such a thing exists! Once awareness enters our system, the more we work with the mind, the more the awareness gets into the worry software and destroys it!

Awareness is nothing but bringing our focus to exactly what is happening in and around us. Anything that we watch with awareness, whether it is physical pain, mental pain, worry, etc, will dissolve. That is the power of awareness. When we watch with awareness, we stop the conflict somewhere within us. We start moving with the natural flow of things.

When we watch worry with awareness, we focus light on exactly how worry is created, how it exists. Once this happens, the worry starts to dissolve and clarity starts happening.

Be Blissful!

Be sincere but not too serious

SERIOUSNESS can be defined as paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It arises from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life. In a Zen monastery, there was a competition among disciples over who had maintained the best garden. One disciple was of a very serious nature. He always kept his garden neat, clean, and well-swept. All the grass was of the same height. All the bushes were neatly trimmed. He was sure that he would get the first prize. On the day of the competition, the master went around all the gardens. Then he came back and ranked the gardens. This disciple’s garden got the lowest ranking. Everyone was shocked. The disciple could not contain himself and asked, ‘Master, what is wrong with my garden? Why did you rank me the lowest?’ The master looked at him and asked, ‘Where are all the dead leaves? A garden maintained in such a way is no longer alive! It is dead.’

Seriousness kills spontaneity and destroys creativity. It closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. When you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind. When you do something too seriously and are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

We should be sincere and sensitive which means being aware of everything. Understand, being sensitive does not mean being open to everything. Being unable to say ‘no’ does not mean sensitivity. That is actually ego! The person who is not able to say ‘no’ when he needs to is egoistic. Sensitivity is having the clarity about when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’ and having the sincerity and courage to follow that decision.

We should make plans and think ahead with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness while giving your best without worrying excessively about the result! When you are serious, you don’t enjoy, you don’t laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious?

We should understand our uniqueness but this does not mean that we should consider ourselves so special that we start taking ourselves too seriously.

Be Blissful!

Convert restlessness into intensity

WHETHER we lead or we follow, in order to be fulfilled in whatever we do, we need to be intense. Intensity is not an emotion. When you are intense, one part of it may be emotional. Intensity should become a quality in you. If you are talking let intensity be there. In your relationships, in your decisions, in your memory, in your thinking, in your desires, even in your fears, be intense without escaping from this moment.

Intensity does not depend on the nature of the work or action. It can be as complex as running a billion dollar company or as simple as cleaning the floor. It is not the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ that is important. Intensity means radiating the energy that does not create any conflict inside and outside. Intensity is intensely being inside you. Intensity flows smoothly and yet strongly. We always believe that if anything flows smoothly like a river, it will not have intensity, and if something is intense like a stone it will not be flowing freely. No. Intensity is like a flood, which is intense and flowing.

Some people intensely create conflict every moment! Anything you tell them to do, they will be ready to create a conflict. Real intensity does not create conflicts. It is flowing but intense.

Usually we feel a terrible restlessness towards the outer world. We do not know what is happening. We do not know what should be done, but there is a deep dissatisfaction about what is there in the inner space; this restlessness should become intensity.

The father of Yoga, Patanjali, says: ‘Success is nearest to those whose efforts are sincere and intense.’ A river does not need a navigator or signboards to reach the ocean. It reaches its destination without any help. When your whole energy moves in one direction as a whole you can move easily. When you are intense and ready to flow you will achieve your goal.

Usually intensity leads to a solid feeling. We may be intense but we may have lost the ability to flow, because we are driven by ego. We are determined to achieve what we want but we have our own rigid ideas about how to get there. We fail to understand that Existence can make events happen in a much more beautiful and effective way than we can plan.

Take up something and follow it with full intensity. Intensity does not mean acting rigidly without scope for updating or change. Only when you are open to change you can make your way like the river flowing intensely towards the ocean. Intensity is integration. Intensity is focus. Intensity is sincerity.

Be Blissful!

Each individual is unique

WHY exactly do we compare ourselves with others? We compare ourselves because we have never understood ourselves and are not aware of who we are and what we have. It is also because society has conditioned us from our birth to evaluate ourselves based upon others.

Buddha says, ‘Nothing exists except in relationship.’ Suppose you were the only person on a new planet, how could you compare yourself with anyone? Could you call yourself tall or short, ugly or beautiful, rich or poor, intelligent or dumb? No! When there is no one to compare yourself with, you just are!

Understand , there is no scale to compare you with anybody. Each individual is unique. Can you compare a lion and a horse? Do we ever compare ourselves with flowers or birds or mountains? Then why do we have to compare ourselves with other human beings? Just see nature: the rose plant and the mango tree grow in the same garden and prosper because they use all their energy for their own growth instead of using it to compare themselves with the other.

Comparison leads to jealousy. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit! We always compare ourselves with others in various fields — looks, wealth, knowledge, name and fame and friends, etc. When we compare ourselves with others we feel that somebody else has something more than what we have and, we get caught in jealousy. We suffer and constantly fight with others openly or inside ourselves. We are just waiting for someone to hurt us. Don’t throw the responsibility of your suffering on the other person. Be very clear, nobody can hurt you without your silent permission.

You are made to believe only by comparison you can grow. No. Through comparison you will grow only to the extent of the person with whom you are comparing yourself, not to your own unique level. The whole spiritual knowledge or experience is nothing but realising you are unique, there is nothing to compare. Comparison is societal. Realising your uniqueness is natural.

Comparison happens because you feel that you are somehow lacking. But you have no idea of your true, unique potential! If you did, you wouldn’t spend one second looking outside yourself for answers about how to live a creative, fulfilling life. All the confidence, intelligence, and vibrant energy that you need already exist inside you. You have the potential to live like god on planet earth.

Be Blissful!