OM! May God lead this to the deserving!
Hi Friends,
Everyone, irrespective of their upbringing, irrespective of their faith and beliefs, wants to lead a happy life. This is a series of articles aimed at exploring the possibility of transforming our lives into Meditation. And here I am using the word meditation in a slightly unconventional style. Here its not the name of a particular practise, but a way of life or perhaps an attitude towards life. None of the practises are dismissed or countered in any way, All of them are fine and have their own place in the scheme of things. Just that this article is aligned towards a different goal: Leading a happy, satisfied life with no inner conflicts .
I call this living in meditation, meaning its not practising meditation for a stipulated time period but to transform our whole lives into meditation. It is about living in Continuous joy, transforming our lives into a Celebration. Every moment of our lives is a moment of immense joy of Being --- this is for exploring this dimention in our lives.A life where there is no sense of emptiness within, no inner conflicts. External circumstances can never be made perfectly conflictless. If possible we might avoid conflict. But externally there is no possibility of conflictless living. But internally its possible to lead a conflictless life. A life of inner harmony if we may like to term it that way.
Friends, lets together explore this dimention and see for ourselves if this is practical. The idea is to bring in a cognitive change , a change that will persist. As such, from my experience, this is not against any spiritual practises or the day to day life we lead. Its simply a cognitive and attitude change.
What Do We Want In Life ?
Lets first try to ask ourselves what we "Seek" in life ? We need this clarity and this is the kind of clarity with which we will proceed through the whole discussion. So here we go. Lets say God appears before us and offers us a book . We are given a set of options and we are allowed to chose one and only one option of these and that will be ensured in our lives . Rest are not gauranteed. So here is a possible list of options:
a) Money
b) Pleasures
c) Fame
d) Luxury
...
and finally we add one extra element (0) Satisfaction / Happiness / Peace.
As I said, in this game there is just one option one can chose and only that option is gauranteed. What would anyone chose ? Well, we tried this experiment in a class room and everyone chose the option (0). Whats the use of money etc if happiness is not satisfied ? And please note that money, position etc do not gaurantee happiness ! This is very important to understand and appreciate.
Materially, What ever we Seek ... There is already someone who has it ! Do we see this ? If we think money can make us happy, there is already someone who has all the money and still he or she is dissatisfied and unhappy within. If we think position will make us happy, there is already someone who has exceptional position and power and yet he or she remains dissatisfied and unhappy!! The poor man has a hope. He thinks "if i become rich, ill be happy" . But the rich man does not even have this hope!! [or may be he will think ill be happier if i have more money!!] . Thats why we find actors who have every kind of material possessions and yet they are resort to drugs etc in the hope of finding happiness.
Friends, this is intensely practical. We need to make that Bliss of Happiness our true nature ... a part of our lives 24 7.
Managing Mind is Like Driving a Car:
Suppose a car is gifted to me on my birthday. I am excited to get a wonderful car and I get into it and start it. Suddenly, I remember that I do not know how to drive it! I will land in an accident. Same way, if I do not know how to manage my mind, my life becomes an accident. with a car, I have choice to get into it or to remain outside. But with mind, I do not have any such choice. If I cannot manage my mind and my whole life becomes an accident. Long before I know how to manage my mind, a few observations regarding mind are absolutely necessary. Just as, if i want to drive a car, I should know what a steering is.
We need to know how the mind has to be managed. The understanding that we fundamentally seek a happy and satisfied life is very crucial in being able to handle the mind. This is very significant.
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