Rachel looked at the necklace she received as a gift from Rakesh.It was Rakesh's parting gift to her as he was leaving for a foreign assignment. Their affair was now over 5 months old and she thought it was the best part of her life.Not only was their physical intimacy very fulfilling, their conversations beyond made her feel valued and respected.

This was a far cry from her dry marriage at home. She was in a golden cage, wife to the CEO of a very successful multi-national. She was a prop for her husband, his arm candy at social and professional parties; he loved showing her off; she was no mean beauty and could carry herself off with ease in his socially conscious circles.

Deep down, she was dead; a keyed up doll expected to perform for her husband once a while.

Rakesh , whom she met in an internet chat room, came as a whiff of fresh air.He gave her life and a way out of her chronic boredom.She used to meet Rakesh with a carefully created alibi each time.

And now, Rakesh was leaving town.

Suddenly, her hand phone rang. It was Archit, her husband.A routine formality, both players playing their expected roles to perfection.

Soon, she had to create an explanation for this expensive necklace.
She went to her routine jeweller and set up an arrangement with him to call up her place with a gift arrangement. She would have her husband collect it and feign surprise.
All perfectly manipulated and planned.( Don't we all do it when any need of the mind consumes us? we manipulate, tell lies and do so many things to achieve our objective).
Only , this time there was a snag. Her husband called her to office to show her the surprise he had collected from the jewellers.
The box had a small ring in it. She was livid within, thinking the jeweller had taken her for a ride. Masking herself well ( are we all not great experts at this) , she left his cabin. She went to the reception and dialled the jeweller. His number was unavailable. As she was dialling , she observed the receptionist's neck. Around that neck was the same necklace.Rachel appreciated it and enquired of her where she had got it from. The receptionist replied that it was a recent gift from her boyfriend.
The truth dawned on Rachel.....................Her hubby had given it to his girl....
The power of thought....what we give to life comes back to us and more often than not manifold.
Rachel was cheating on her husband only to find the tables reversed on her.
I meet a lot of people who cite infidelity problems from their spouse. As we explore, we find that they have cheated on their parents during courtship - sounds familiar ? - project work, extra classes and so many other excuses to enable dates...while our dear parents feel that we are working so hard....
somewhere , everything comes back to us in accordance with the principles of karma and then it is not acceptable....
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, thunders Sri Bhagavan.
Would serve us well to put it in practice...

excellence....

Genius and excellence make their presence felt everywhere..Howsoever silent they may remain, they force their expression and they speak in a million ways.
Personally, I see Grace and Presence ( we may call it different things) playing a critical role in the expression of raw genius .
If we randomly observe great creativity in any sphere, arts, maths, science, business etc; key sparks and breakthroughs have resulted when man has been in touch with himself - intense pain, joy, inner world callings - all resulting a deep sense of connectedness to the universe.


Angelica Schiffer, a musician describes her process thus:I relax my body and mind and empty out. Then, I simply reach out to ..... I don't know where.Maybe the Universe? when I am in receiving mode , all the usual parts of me that are in charge of day-to-day life get out of the way.In a way, it is a prayer, but with an answer.It is a conversation with the universe.I sit with the instruments quietly, and then something comes and I hear it in my head.I sing it as I hear it.Often, it is a completely finished melody.My next step is to learn it. I have to record it because I do not know it by heart already. Often, I can just record the final version then and there into my digital hard drive, which is like a little sound studio in a box.Often, I don't need to edit it at all as with my song, "Kyrei Elison", for example, I did not do anything. I closed myself and attuned myself with love.I just sang and it came out. I never made any changes or edits.
unquote
People are always born with specific gifts. To really excel in anything- be it art, science, engineering, math, anything at all- if there is excellence, God is there.The more you can open yourself to the presence and the more you allow the presence to flow through you, the greater it will be.for gifts within people to really flower, for a person to really fulfil his/her destiny, for real joy and love to be experienced, a person must come in touch with Grace and establish a connection with the presence.very consciously , this can be made to happen.

Nahuel, the two-times Grammy award winner calls it "wings of grace". suddenly , he feels grace coming.when grace is coming, he goes into music.He goes on playing and records it, because he does not know if he can get it again.so, there is a moment for him to record it.He'll be waiting, and it comes. If he can compose then that's an excellent piece.

Srinivasa Ramanaujam, the legendary mathematician used to speak about his relationship with his village deity. When her presence filled him up, genius solutions flowed through him.Even today, traditional mathematics have no clue as to how he arrived at various solutions and in such small steps.

Creativity is a fascinating expression of the Divine Intelligence...and we need to tune in...then things just flow........

- some excerpted from "Awakening into Oneness" by Arjuna Ardagh

Is it love?

People enter into relationships mostly as a reaction, on the rebound. It is more to move away from other stifling situations or to keep up with peer pressure. Rachel's boyfriend had moved on and was now dating a different girl. Rachel could not overcome the grief of separation and tried her best to put on a brave face , especially infront of her peers. Her identity was linked to her earlier relationship, howsoever abusive it had become. But a greater hurt was the sense of rejection. Instead of facing the situation head on and completing the cycle of hurt, she latched on to another relationship, as if on a rebound. It was more of an escape from stifling family conditions and her need to be loved and to love.

On a deeper note, man runs from pillar to post begging for love right from childhood. He seeks recognition and acceptance from his parents and tries his best to fulfil their expectations. Later this shifts to teachers, peers, friends etc.Then comes boyfriends or girl friends..Everywhere , the begging continues for love. In Bhagavan's words, he has his NEED for her to need him and she has her NEED for him to need her and these two aspects keep the relationship alive.She keeps on doing things to enhance her need in his life, to increase his dependance on her and he likewise.

The thirst for love remains unquenched in this transactional relationship.

Love can never come to us from another.It is a state of being we have to experience.Our physical , emotional and administrative needs can be addressed in a transactional space , but they will remain that forever. The dull lifeless faces we see all around are the mechanization of such spaces. The first few months of a relationship are flush with physical and other excitement but sadly doomed to boredom very shortly.It does not matter whether one's spouse is Brad Pitt or Demi Moore.

It is intrinsically the attribute of a life incapable of love.

When we are joyous and in a state of love, we can bring that in to spaces we choose to share. It is a quality within us, a state of our being, not a quality of the activity in question.

Infact, such activities only serve to enhance the emptiness within us. We remain miserable beggars. Every attempt to fill the emptiness leads to more emptiness.

To choose to live , rather than exist; man has to discover love.First , he has to become aware of the absence of love in his life.It is an INCAPACITY , not a fault.The mind , which is the guiding force behind our activities of today is intrinsically incapable of love. It is only capable of transacting.It relates out of fear, out of need , out of vulnerability. None of these sitautions get addressed through it's attempt at relating. If at all, all these aspects get heightened.Instead of a liberating experience, man gets sucked into more bondage. the whirlpool of misery becomes a noose and life becomes a suffocation, a compromise.

In any conditionality, that through which we rise also hastens our fall. We rush into relationships as an escape, the same spaces become our nooses.

This , alas , is the tragedy of mankind today. The deadly boredom of stale habit characterizes our intimate relationships. Our efforts at infusing life into them is pathetic.A tree poisoned at the roots can never yield healthy fruit, howsoever attractive the fruit may seem at the surface.

We really have no choice other than address the basic lovelessness within. When we watch that , become aware and live in acceptance, what emerges is love.

Love is not merely about sexual, emotional, administrative and other fulfilments. It is the sense of connectedness to everyone and everything around us.WE do not feel connected to our own parents. In Bhagavan's perception, the malaise starts there and ends there. When this relationship is healed and we discover unconditional love, love manifests every place in our lives.It is not about a specific person or a set of activities we like to share with some one. It is much deeper.

Love is our natural state of being. Love is fearless, not vulnerable. It is liberating , not binding.

Bhagavan humourously says that in todays world when people say they love another , it is only the self which indulges itself and uses the other to fulfil it's need. It has nothing to do with love.

maybe only a few of us would rise to the challenge of rising beyond the mediocrity that has come to characterize our existence, where we are disconnected from one and all; only the needs arising from our unconscious drive us.

And soon leave us dry and drained.......

Love is life, eternally nourishing....

absence of noise....

Contrary to popular belief, absence of noise externally is not silence.Silence is the deep anchoring in the core within which moves us away from a reactive state of being to a responsive state.

A pebble falling into a deep ocean merely causes a ripple before it disappears.On the other hand, a pebble thrown into a shallow bucket of water creates such a racket.A dog tied on to a leash appears silent only to deceive. Deep down , he is restless, simmering.

Similarly with man; much of his silence is merely an external prop, the mind is busy within - scheming, planning etc. Consequently, expression is stifled, suffocated.Contrast this with a river in flow. Deep silence reigns here when the river emerges in depth and the fullness of flow is majestic.

Creative intelligence flows in that deep abiding stillness.It is non-reactive. However, it is pro-active and responsive.It is not a shallow reaction to life's ripples. It is rather a stable and poised response emerging in life's centeredness and connectedness to all that is around.

A fountainhead emerging from the deepest recesses of our being and flowing out in a joyous expression of life forces.

And in that depth of feeling , we live; do not merely exist....There is a fullness to our every action, not a sense of inadequacy and discontent.

It makes us alert and aware - dynamic; we move away from indifference to response in an intrinsic dynamism, a factor of flow, nay of struggle or effort...A different intelligence guides us at these moments. We are connected to our source.

Dynamic silence seems paradoxical, for silences for us are withdrawals from noise...a state of suspension...they also are needed in our hectic and reactive schedules, but they need to evolve into creative silence...

The incessant inner mind chatter is the greatest block to creative expression.

The country's greatest bell maker was called by the king with orders for an assignment.The bell-maker asked for 6 weeks. The king got wild, he wanted his job prioritized.He demanded to know why the bell maker wanted so much time.The bell maker told him that he neede about 4 weeks to get into a state of silence. Once that came, he would go into the forest to select a suitable tree stump. It is his silence within which will enable it. And then, the bell creates itself through him..it flows out of him...

That is the secret of his excellence !!!! away from mediocrity...the silence speaks a million languages and in a million hues...creative expression of natural intelligence....

We need not strive to be creative..creativity is a natural flow when we achieve a state of silent awareness..watchful, alert, aware but not restless....

abuse...

A consumed mind can go to any extent to use people or events to it's advantage.It can resort to deceit, back-stabbing, manipulation and any other to achieve its ends.That is the power of consumption. A person under the influence of fear can go to any lengths to supposedly stave off objects of fear. Instead of focusing on apparent causes and running away from it , if he were to just look at the fear, life would become a different ball game.

Similarly with lust. People use so many alibis, so many excuses under the control of lust, it is unbelievable. Seemingly ordinary people resort to lies, deceit and manipulation to accommodate the pull of their lust.They can appear very calm and composed on the surface, but within they are simmering, always disturbed and in misery. The fear of being exposed additionally drives them to do crazy and weird things. Often they use people ruthlessly as they go berserk under the dual influence of fear and lust. Guilt also comes into the picture adding to the general dilemna. Can they really achieve anything or be happy under such a situation.We struggle to run away from inhibiting situations , taking great efforts. By moving away from a situation , we do not change anything for ourselves.The basic situation follows us, manifesting itself through a host of people and situations.

The question we have to ask ourselves is , do we want to lead such controlled lives which navigate us towards misery compulsively or if we do not , what is the alternative? Is running away or changing situations the answer? It cannot be for situations are created by our inner states and deepest needs.It will keep following us. We may feel we are managing other people or events, but are fooling ourselves.Our basic situations NEVER change until our learning is complete.

Awareness is the key. We do not have to handle or control fear or lust or guilt or any other. We cannot. We just have to see. When we see, they remain as they are but they lose their control over us.This process is called de-clutching. Bhagavan's teachings are very different here. while all our effort is normally directed at managing or trying to change or elaborately mask the content of the mind, He illumines us on the futility of the process.

He extols us to focus on the fact that we are "controlled".

Seeing a problem as it is frees us from the control it exerts on us.We do not have to anything about the problem per se. We have to concentrate on it's linkage with us.

And when that snaps, we are freed.

Then we become really self-determining. We stop leading controlled lives. We start living aware lives, which leads to greater fulfilment, joy , success and love in every aspect.

actvity vs action

Activity emerges as a reaction to inadequacy, boredom; action emerges out of fullness.Activity is a sorrow management mechanism, action is an outpouring of joy. Activity can enhance boredom after a period of indulgence, action does not result in boredom for it is an expression in a moment.

There is wholeness in the flow of a river, it is full and abundant across even a trickle.

It is meditative.

Activity , on the other hand leaves a residual sense of discontent, a feeling of incompletion ever, the craving for more.

Action is liberating, activity leads to bondage.....

seeking is suffering.....

Seeking means separation. Seeking means suffering. You can go on seeking, and it is all in vain. It is doomed from the very beginning, because deep inside you is the one you are seeking. The sought has become the seeker — that is the discontinuity. And when all seeking drops, withers away, and you have no more hopes, then suddenly you are there where you always wanted to be. Then suddenly you are centred.
Seeking leads you astray. And the more you seek, the more frustrated you feel. The more frustrated you feel, the more you seek. It becomes a vicious circle, self-supporting… goes on and on. There is no end to it — it can continue for eternity. One has to understand the very fallacy of search.
Seek and you will never find. Do not seek and it is there.
But it is very difficult to stop searching and seeking. It is very difficult to drop hope, because then it seems as if the whole thing is futile. If there is no hope, why should one live? For what? Where is the meaning? The meaning is herenow — it is not in the seeking. But the mind goes on saying that if you don’t seek, if you don’t make effort, if you don’t go for it, it is not going to happen.
The mind is nothing but hope and desire and passion for the future. The mind is a disease, a fever, a feverish state. You will have to understand it: the problem is the mind. And once you understand how it functions, how it projects a desire into the future and then starts rushing towards it…. And it goes on projecting like an horizon. It goes on rushing. It gives activity to you but no happiness; it keeps you occupied. But it is a slow suicide and nothing else.
So I would like you to ponder over the very mechanism of seeking, the mind, the process of the mind. Once you start looking at the mind and how it functions, then the whole game becomes clear. Then one day in that very clarity, the mind disappears as if it had never existed. It disappears like a dream — and suddenly you are continuous again.
It is just like a dream. Tonight you will sleep. When you are asleep and you start dreaming, you are discontinuous with the world in which you have been living while awake. In sleep you are no more the same person. You are no more the mother, the wife, the beloved. You lose all the identity that you had before. A discontinuity happens. You start dreaming of something else — unfulfilled desires. repressed desires.
In the morning you are awake again. Now you are discontinuous with the dream-world, but continuous with the waking world. Exactly the same is the case. We are dreaming in God. We are in God, but in a dream. That dream is the mind, and because of this mind we have become discontinuous with our own nature, with our own reality. Any day that you are awake, you are continuous again. In fact you have always been continuous. Even while asleep and dreaming, underneath the continuity remains, but on the surface one becomes discontinuous.
With God we are continuous, but we are not aware of it. As far as our conscious mind is concerned, we are discontinuous, and that creates suffering, because there is a deep urge to be united, to be one, to be in unison with existence. This mind creates a barrier: it always divides, separates — so seeking is separation. The more you seek, the more separated you become. Even if you are seeking unity, that seeking will separate you. And seeking is suffering because the more you seek, the more frustrated you feel.
The real religion starts the day one comes to understand that this mind is the root cause of separation. God is herenow. It is already the case. You are not to achieve it and you are not to produce it; it has not to be manufactured. It is already the case… it has already happened. He is and He has always been, and He will always be.
Somehow we have got involved in dreams. That dream I call the world. And in that world we are all strangers and outsiders because our real home is somewhere else. But if you try it, in the beginning you will have to pass through a transitory period of tremendous hopelessness. You will miss your mind very much because that has been your whole life. For many lives that has been your whole occupation. You will miss it terribly. Those are the days of austerity. Those are the days of real sadhana — to accept it, to remain empty.
Even if it feels as if one is dropping into nothingness, one goes on dropping into that abyss. One makes no effort to come out of it, because that effort will mean bringing in the mind again. One simply goes on drowning in that emptiness. And one day when you are completely drowned, you will find that emptiness is not emptiness. It was just a wrong interpretation of the old mind. That nothingness was not nothingness.
That’s what Buddha calls nirvana — the great nothing. Tremendous is its beauty and immense is its grandeur… infinite is its benediction. But one has to prepare to go into that nothingness.
That’s my message for you. Drop seeking. Drop searching. Drop mentation. Dropping mentation is meditation.And accept nothingness. Be nobody. And in that very nobodiness, something will sprout. Be nothing and in that very nothingness, God flowers.
All that we can do is to be nothing. Then the continuity happens on its own accord. What we are doing is just the opposite. We are trying to become somebody. And that becoming somebody is the cause of discontinuity. Only God is, so we cannot become somebody. If we are trying to become somebody, we are fighting with God. All ego is a fight against God, because only He can have the authentic ‘I’. He is the centre of existence. All small ‘i’s’ are just competitive — competing with the ultimate ‘I’.
So the moment you become nobody, the moment you are ready to become a nothing, suddenly God erupts in you; your continuity is there again. And then you laugh, a great humour arises, because then you see the whole ridiculousness. This is what you were searching for — and it was because of the search that you were not getting it! The whole drama seems to be a great joke.
So don’t be serious. Bring a little sense of humour into your life. Let the ridiculous have a space within you. And by and by, rather than planning what to become, just be. Whatsoever is the case, enjoy it. Be joyous in it, celebrate it.
- OSHO

satori

Question : Osho,how to sacrifice the ego?

Answer:

It is impossible.The ego cannot be sacrificed because the ego exists not. The ego is just all idea: it has no substance in it. it is not something - it is just pure nothing. You give it reality by believing in it. You can withdraw belief and the reality disappears, evaporates.

The ego is a kind of absence. Because you don't know yourself, hence the ego. The moment you know yourself, no ego is found. The ego is like darkness; darkness has no positive existence of its own; it is simply the absence of light. You cannot do anything with darkness directly. If you want to do anything with darkness, you will have to do something with light. If you put the light on, there is no darkness; if you put the light off there is no darkness.

Darkness is only the absence of light, so is ego: absence of self knowledge. You cannot sacrifice it.