my master speaketh....

Human life is characterized not by desires but only one desire - Love.

Strangely, you cannot seek it in books or scriptures but in every experience life throws upon you. In the annals of human history, there has never been a term, which was more wrongly understood as love.To know what love is, let us now first understand what love is not. "Love is not attachment nor is it possession. Love is not the need to be loved, love is not to be in fear , love is not conditional nor is it expectation.

Love is the movement from the 'me' to the 'other'.

What we usually mean by love, is expectation of love which is really nothing but attachment. Irresepective of whether the expectation is fulfilled or not, the very process of expectation itself is painful. Expectation, when fulfilled causes boredom; for the relationship no longer holds a challenge and we move on to find fresh pastures. Unfulfilled expectations causes pain and hurt which in turn manifests as anger, frustration and dislikes culminating in hatred. We thus see that hatred and attachment are two sides of the same coin.

Relationships have become become business deals where we make and break securities. So long as we don't find a great source of dependance, we hold on, only to give up for a better prospect.Thus, relationships have become a juggler's play...we need the other's need for ourself to fulfil our inner emptiness.

Flowering of the heart is not possible either through philosophy or psychology for a practised virtue is worse than a vice. As long as you place it in the realm of effort, there is struggle, conflict, pain; which streghthens the 'I' whereas love essentially is a movement away from yourself.

People are actively ever inventing newer methods, techniques, disciplines and teachings to reach a state of love.Any amount of these is as ironical as a man trying to raise himself out of a well by pulling his own hair.No matter how much, a strand or a bunch, the effort is futile.

Love is benediction. It is a "happening" which is possible only through the intervention of Divine Grace in your life.

- Sri Bhagavan

fly, dear eagle...

You are out of jail, out of the cage; you can open your wings and the whole sky is yours. All the stars and the moon and the sun belong to you. You can disappear into the blueness of the beyond....Just drop clinging to this cage, move out of the cage and the whole sky is yours. Open your wings and fly across the sun like an eagle.

~Osho

centering....

People, like boats, want to be firmly anchored when life's seas are rough. In our efforts to resist the winds of change, we will often affix ourselves to a deep belief - and hope this prevents too much 'drift'. This is all fine if the anchorage point is genuinely strong. Often though, we tie ourselves to ideas that appear to have solid foundations but are actually floating just as freely as we are.

- jonathan cainer

beautiful thought, i felt....important to see whether our centerings are anchored in "beliefs" or in personal authentications...our own truths as we have discovered for ourselves...

a zen koan....

i read this story on a fellow blogger's site....

"Master!" cried the little Raidon.His Master looked at the little boy as he ran up to him faster than the fumes that rose from his tea. Even the Master's tea knew patience. He smiled and returned to sipping his light jasmine tea.

"Master, I know a teaching of yours that is wrong." The blood splashed around in that beautiful pale vase which panted and sweated in the early summer heat.

The Master pursed his lips to contain the warmth of the tea and his amusement at how early Raidon found enough tricks to annul the wisdom of the ancient sages."Really Raidon? You must be very quick! What is it?"

"You said that the path of Nature is the ultimate. You said that we must learn from the ways of the elements and become like them."

"Become like them, Raidon? I think I said imbibe their Truth."

"Yes, something like that" Raidon said hastily in order to proceed with his latest find.

"Hmmm. Do go on." The Master was smiling as the flavour of jasmine was perfectly brewed with the earthy tones of the water. He always preferred to fetch water from the Suki lake for his tea.

"That teaching of yours is incorrect."

"None of the teachings are mine, dear."

"I mean what you called the wisdom of the ancient sages - that teaching is wrong."

"Hmmm. This is a serious allegation you make. Pray, tell me how you wish to prove them wrong."

"The elements are foolish. They do not know anything and do not decide. They are without life and without faculties of discernment. They are stupid and hence do nothing to set an example of life or living."

"And why should that be against your taste?"

"If I were water flowing down like a river, I would not give water to the bad men, like thieves and murderers and the like. If I were the wind I would not let evil men breathe."

"To give to all what you give to the One is wrong?"

"Absolutely. How can you treat everyone alike? It seems like a stupid way to live."

"And it would be fine for the river to have favourites amongst the men and women who bend to fill their pitchers?"

"Surely."

"If you were one of them, it is."

Raidon looked down at his feet, for he was surprised as to what kept him standing after that statement from his Master.

"Raidon, fire burns all and by doing that it is. The water that flows, is. The air that is a breeze of silk, is. The mountains that stand tall, are. They continue to be what they are no matter how many times the world changes. The elements aren't irresponsible in their demeanour. They simply are."

And he smiled at the pot which had cooled his tea. Cool jasmine tea had its own flavour.

eye of God....

this is a photograph of a celestial event that happens once in 3000 years....received it in the mail....seems a NASA photograph....

aha..i have learnt to post a picture!!!

joy and happiness...

Very often our lives are a pursuit of the "perfect"....in our views acquired from here and there...the quest for perfection leaves us often bruised and traumatised...more often than not we appear to be pursuing a mirage emerging in our own domains of conditionalities and perceptions.

Is not life perfect as it is , in the big picture? is there not a certain wholeness to life with all its creation and destruction, ups and downs and so on?

We don't need to be leading a perfect life in order to be happy. That's just as well, or none of us would ever experience contentment. Nothing in this world is ever completely ideal. Even the situations that seem to be great in every respect have flaws and drawbacks if you look hard enough for them; they are a matter of our perceptions.

Your heart can be joyous, though, regardless of what's right - or wrong.

Perfection is an emergence in realms of the mind; a concept which serves as a projected ideal.It will always be in conflict between what is and what should be.

The heart knows wholeness...a completeness....spirituality, to me , is a movement away from the controls of the mind to an existence guided by the heart; and the mind is used, not the other way round.

The flowering of the heart chakra, the anahata enables us to function from here.The beeja mantra of this chakra is Yummmm..... and its location is the centre of the ribcage. A concentration here with a recitation of the mantra preceded by a prayer for its opening and flowering to our ishta roopa works wonders.

lets make a difference in small ways...

have taken this from the Gaizabonts(tx atul) blogsite. Thought it is relevant to each one of us who are significant computer users...

"Devote 10 seconds a day. Here is a chance to make a difference, by devoting JUST 10 seconds a day. You don't need to go anywhere, donate money, stage protests or shout slogans.How? If you use a computer, just remember to switch off your monitor every time you leave your desk. Very simple, isn't it?What difference does it make? Roughly, normal monitors consume around 150W. Even if your screen remains ON for 1 hour per day without any use, energy wasted per day is 150 W-h (or 0.15 "units"). This is enough to light a small lamp for 10 hours! If you care to switch off your monitor each time you leave your place, you save electricity enough for basic household needs of a small family in a village! If your monitor remains ON overnight, this figure becomes 10-fold - so you can probably save electricity for 10 families. And supposing that you leave your seat 5 times a day and it takes 1 second to switch the monitor ON/OFF, you spend only 10 seconds a day for this deed which saves LOTS of energy on a long run!"

I guess the same would apply to other natural resources like water....our sensitivity is needed , in our closing of dripping taps, repairing of leaky faucets, regulation of quantity of water flushed down our toilets and so on...Natural resources are invaluable...let us recognize them as blessings...no amount of money can ensure we get it when it is no longer there...

the naseoh bpo project...

guys, a few weeks back I had posted about our seminar at NASEOH and the possible emergences. Glad to let you know that we are on our way. The content for the syllabus is getting prepared and we will be commencing the first training batch by June. we are also looking at possibilities of suitable accreditations. Anyone with any connects on accreditation fronts , please let me know.

Thanks.

looking good need not mean feeling good...

Yesterday's death of TV star Kuljeet in a tragic suicide prompts this post. In the recent past her close friend, Nafisa Joseph had done the same. A chilling statement by Nadira, the star of yesteryears which is doing it's rounds of TV channels conveys that she considered herself the most lonely person in Mumbai. Tragic...

Bollywood and TV stars enjoy iconic status amongst the masses and need to live up to images that exist of them. One feels sorry for the kind of prison they invite onto themselves in exchange for name, fame and glamour.It is very difficult to be centred when one is constantly living in a world guided by diet fads, style statements, lifestyle statements and so on.Every move is open to public scrutiny and life is a constant struggle to live up to various peer pressures and expectations.

Significant that Kuljeet is reported to have written that she could not cope with life's pressures and hence the drastic step.Sad, should serve as a wake up call to others who live off-centred lives , constantly pretending to be something that they are not.
Kuljeet's vulnerability was kept under wraps under a well-disguised poise and confidence that her lifestyle demanded of her.Which could be true of so many of us, a vulnerability carefully camouflaged under various management sytems....

Too heavy a price she seems to have paid.

for me , such events shatter old myths...looking good need not mean feeling good...however feeling good about oneself can work wonders on one's appearance and outlook...

God Bless You , Kuljeet and Nadira. May your soul discover its answers on your onward journey.

sweets as prasad....

i recently had an episode of losing my consciousness after an intense meditative session. a close friend , also into various processes, shared a very fascinating insight with me. He was telling me that when we are in intense prayers or meditations, a lot of sugar gets burnt up in the energy rising and it is one reason there is a tradition of sweets being distributed as "prasad" in temples.

the physical body hence sometimes feels very tired after some intense processes in the inner world.

Master quotes....

It is good that the desire for enlightenment seems far away, because the desire for enlightenment is the greatest barrier in attaining it.It is one of the eternal questions for the seekers of truth. On the one hand the masters go on saying, "Attain enlightenment," and on the other hand they go on saying, "Don't desire it." And it has been a great puzzle for the poor disciple. The master is saying both things: desire it, and don't desire it. Desire it because it is the only thing desirable; don't desire it because desire becomes a barrier.Not to create that puzzle for you, my way of working has been different. Just being with you, talking or not talking, just giving my whole heart to you and creating a situation in which you can taste something of enlightenment... even that small taste of enlightenment will be enough for you to stop here and now in this moment. You will forget all desires, enlightenment included.If a situation can be created in which you are so blissful, so contented, that just for a moment there is no desire in your mind, you have learned a great lesson – that if this state of no-desire can continue every moment, you need not bother about enlightenment: it will come to you. You have not to go to it. It is not an object sitting somewhere that you have to desire and find and work hard and go to it. It is simply your own state when there is no desire.This desirelessness is the most blissful state possible, and enlightenment is another name for it. Knowing it even for one moment is enough, because you are never given by life two moments together; it is always one moment. And if you know the secret, the alchemy of transforming this moment, you know the whole secret of transforming life, because the next moment will also be the same. You can do to it what you have done before; you can continue in desirelessness.Being in my presence... I am using it as a device to avoid any confusion and puzzle in your mind. I can give you the taste, and then the taste will take care of you. First, the desire for enlightenment will look so far away, and by and by you will forget all about it because you will be in it; it will be within you. And certainly in the beginning it looks like a beautiful dream, because we are accustomed to reality and its ugliness. We know beauty only in dreams.So whenever something like this happens to you even while you are fully awake, it feels as if it is a dream. Reality cannot be so nourishing, so tremendously beautiful, so magnificent: reality cannot have this magic. But I tell you, reality is more magical than any dream. It is more beautiful than any dream; it is more poetic than the greatest poetries of the world.The reality that we know is not the true reality; it is the reality seen through an ugly mind which projects itself on reality. We don't see the real; we always see it colored with our own prejudices, ideas, our whole mind. And even that we see only while running. We never relax. We are always constantly on the run, knowing not where we are going. It is just that something seems to be missing, and we are trying to find it everywhere, in all directions. And we will not find it anywhere, because this mind will always be between you and the real, distorting the real.If you are receptive in my presence, if you are loving, your mind leaves you for a moment – it has to leave you. Something more important than your mind is happening. That's what love means. You can even sacrifice yourself – in trust you sacrifice the mind, and the moment the mind is put aside and you see eye to eye with reality, it is so beautiful, indescribably beautiful. And certainly in those moments you will feel that you don't even want to be enlightened. If this reality can go on and on forever, then what more can enlightenment give you?And you are right, because this is the beginning of enlightenment. You have got just a glimpse, and even the glimpse makes you drop the desire for enlightenment – and dropping the desire makes enlightenment easily possible. It simply happens. One day suddenly you wake up in the morning and you are not the same person, and with your change the whole existence has changed. And then it is not a question of doing something to keep it; it remains with you.In fact, even if you want to drop it, you cannot drop it. You cannot go back; you can only go forward. And one day, that day also comes in your life when enlightenment becomes so natural to you – just like breathing, just like the heartbeat, just like the blood running through your veins – that you don't even feel it. And the blood is going really fast, round and round from feet to head, but we don't feel it; we are born with it, we are accustomed to it.When enlightenment becomes just a natural phenomenon, then the last mystery opens its door: one goes even beyond enlightenment. Going beyond enlightenment means one becomes just ordinary, part of this vast universe – without any claim, without any superiority, without any ego. One simply dissolves in the ocean of reality, just like a dewdrop in the morning sun slipping from the lotus leaf into the ocean. That is the last... Then there is nothing else left to happen; you have become the ocean.Enlightenment still keeps something of you... very fragile, but there is still some idea of "I." And because of enlightenment, not knowingly, you are superior and you feel superior. That's why the last step, when even that smallest part of "I" also dissolves... now you are neither superior nor inferior: you are not. Existence is. Buddha calls it nirvana. He has chosen the best word for it.

-Osho,quoted from The Path of the Mystic

the need to feel needed...

Relationships are critical schools for enlightenment.They enable us to understand ourselves and to grow. Our abilities to relate to those in our lives depends on our understanding of ourselves; our needs born in our fears, our insecurities, our vulnerabilities and so on.

We "need" to feel "needed"....and in my opinion, mistake a projection of this need, for love, more often than not...This need finds projection outside through various maskings.

He needs her need of him and she needs his need of her...this would sum up most colloquial relationships....and when this equation gets skewed, heartbreaks occur....A careful balancing of keeping up our "usefulness" in the other's life is what it boils down to when it comes to keeping our relationships intact.

I am not saying it is wrong...it just is..we need to be able to see it for what it is...

We need not condemn ourselves or feel guilty when we compare it with our projected ideals of ourselves.We can grow only in our reality spaces , not in projected ideals tenancy.

our whole life is a pathetic struggle to make ourselves more "desirable" in the eyes of the other...because of a constant "insecurity", the threat of not being needed any longer..a mother feels threatened after the marriage of her son....she feels her "need" in his life has been eroded....we do it at our workplaces, want to be indispensable to the boss.....so that we are not insecure of our future there...we need to be recognized; our importance in the other's life acknowledged.

Towards addressing this insecurity, we strive to be more beautiful, acquire better degrees, earn more monies, cook better...all to make ourselves useful and more valuable in the yes of the other...This struggle, when we are aware of it, is both humiliating and miserable...makes us lose our self-esteem and centring and lead our lives through the expectaions of others as we see it.

It only enhances our vulnerabilities.

to me, love happens only when we are aware of "our needs"......until then,we relate unconsciously in transactional spaces....to grow in love, the consciousness has to expand until finally the self dissolves and only love remains......it is a state of being..a river in flow....and heartbreaks are blessings in disguise for us to understand the true nature and power of love....heart-breaks are also a manifest of creation's infinite love and compassion to enable our growth.love is not insecure....they are mutually incompatible....it does not know fear..., "my need" experiences insecurity, fear....the fear of losing someone or something....the fear of not gaining something...when we are aware of this insecurity which runs our lives, life will acquire a new hue.It is this insecurity and fear which needs healing which needs to be connected to the source for its dissolution...

Love heals us of our vulnerabilities, makes us grow in self-esteem and confidence.

please note, i do not condemn transactional spaces for what they are, but to avoid misery, it is critical to see things as they are....else, we will be "disillusioned""....

To expand our consciousness in love, to me, is the purpose of our lives, while we do keep addressing our needs as they occur....in awareness