Beyond the Opposites

Growth is an important theme in Hinduism, which is why the second mantra of Isha

Upanishad says:
‘In the world, one should desire to live a hundred years, but only by performing actions. Thus, and in no other way, can man be free from the taint of actions.’

The ancient sages are affirmative about living long and thus feel we can work out our karmas and pave our way to liberation.

The world is characterised by three tendencies. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Everything that exists is in these three modes.

Sattva in short is the mode of peace, Rajas mode of action and Tamas mode of inertia.

Established in Sattva, close to creation, the individual is self-fulfilled and lives a life of contemplation rather than action. Find sages here. Established in Rajas, close to maintenance/ sustenance/ growth, the individual is expressing, manifesting, growing and prefers action to contemplation. Find all men of action here. Established in Tamas, close to destruction, the individual is either manically over-active or totally inactive, both lacking in proportion. Find all the depressed and destructive lot here.

Now, everything in the world is ever changing. In fact, the very definition of the word world/ jagat is gacchati gacchati iti jagat, that which is constant state of flux is world. In creation, there is no place for rest or poise. Change and movement is inevitable and innate characteristic of the world. Things will change, we will change too- there’s no option here. Even when we think we are not acting, we are acting viz. we are resting, rotting and giving ourselves up to tamas mode. We cannot reverse the process of growth. No one ever went from adulthood to childhood. So, being static is a false notion. We are actually degenerating when we are not growing. A business that will not grow will degenerate, ditto for a human being. It’s like a person who said I won’t use a computer, he was left far behind. Whether he liked it or not, the world got on to using computers. We can’t exercise an option here. We have to hone our business skills, amend the ways we conduct business, find newer products and newer markets. Else we perish. It’s not that we must grow because we have an urge to grow or some rarefied ambition, we got to grow just because that’s essentially the way we are made. WE must grow in order to enjoy better health, physically and mentally. If we don’t, we grow sick.

Sages, after a great deal of life of contemplation, walk out of their cocoons and set out on padayaatra, walking the length and breadth of the country on pilgrimages or whirlwind of discourse tours. They need an occasional dose of Rajas (activity) so that they don’t degenerate into Tamas (sloth). Those established in too much action, simply take a sabbatical, so that they can infuse some Sattva (peace) and those established in Tamas (inertia) need to kick it off by getting into some action. But through all these three modes, we keep growing. Not growing is simply growing negatively, but it’s growing all the same. We can’t freeze ourselves into a limbo when the whole world and our very body and mind is changing/ growing. He who says I don’t wish to grow, can he say that for his age? For his body? Well, no such luck!

Hope this satisfies.

Raj Supe (Kinkar Vishwashreyananda)

Via email from a friend

Recent leadership literature and medicinal research reports promote having an “attitude of gratitude”. We tend to take for granted whatever we have and crave after what we don’t. Sometimes a dose of facts helps put things in perspective and have a better sense of proportion. The following helps in that.
Bless You My Friends
——————–
If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won’t survive the week.

If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.

If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive,
you are very rare,
especially in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile
on your face and are truly thankful,
you are blessed because the majority can,
but most do not.

If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them
or even touch them on the shoulder,
you are blessed because you can
offer God’s healing touch.

If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.

You are so blessed in ways
you may never even know.

 

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high

and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it” – Michelangelo

 

 

There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost his watch in the barn. It was no ordinary watch because it had sentimental value for him. After searching high and low among the hay for a long while; he gave up and enlisted the help of a group of children playing outside the barn.

He promised them that the person who found it would be rewarded.

Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went through and around the entire stack of hay but still could not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and asked to be given another chance.

The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not? After all, this kid looks sincere enough.”

So the farmer sent the little boy back in the barn. After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.

The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and just looked for it in that direction.”

Moral:

A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and see, how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you expect it to be…!

 

1. Forgive yourself and others: Life is too short to hold on to regrets, grudges, miscommunications, or disappointments. Free yourself by forgiving and letting go of any negative energy you are holding on to about yourself or others. The process of forgiving yourself and others will result in your feeling light and free; it will raise your vibration.

2. Practice gratitude and appreciation: Whatever you focus on grows. So, when you focus on everything in your life you feel grateful for all and the wonderful people you appreciate, the universe hands you more to feel grateful about.

3. Live each day as though it were your last: Then you will be living in a state of light, love and unconditional contribution. What would you say to the people you care about?

4. Meditate or pray: You open up a direct link between yourself and your Ishta-deva when you meditate or pray. You will come closer to your Ishta-deva, raise your vibration experience, peace, clarity, joy and connection, as well as a perfectly balanced state between your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual realms.

5. Suspend judgment: One judges another to feel less guilty about one’s own misgivings. Judgment energy is dense, dark and heavy. On the other hand, unconditional acceptance is light, free and accepting. Let go of judging and criticizing yourself and others. Everyone is on a different path and some appear to be farther ahead on their path than others. Neither path is better nor worse than another. Raise your consciousness to one of acceptance.

6. View every experience as a gift: If you look back at occurrences in your life, you can easily see how even the worst situations you experienced in your life ended up teaching you invaluable lessons and therefore resulted in putting you in perfect place for your continuing development. When you view every experience — the good, the bad, and the ugly  as a gift, life flows more like a gentle, inspiring breeze.

7. Stay consciously aware of all your thoughts and feelings: It is easy to fall into negative patterns of complaining and feeling like a victim of society and your life. When you catch yourself in the negative zone, don’t feel badly about it and beat yourself up. Simply choose to switch your consciousness to one of gratitude and positive thinking.

8. Treat your physical body as your temple: Your body is the only vehicle you have been given for this ride called life. The better you care for your body by eating a healthy, balanced diet, and by implementing a regular exercise routine, and by giving your body the rest it requires, the more you will experience increased energy, vitality, joy and freedom.

9. View the world through the eyes of a child: Children are enthralled by the process of observing and experiencing the wonder and beauty in every single thing. They can’t get enough. Look at every tree, sunset, cloud and human being as a child would and you will be in a constant state of wonder, joy, surprise, acceptance and enlightenment.

10. Give love, love, and love from your heart: It’s all about love. Love is the highest vibration. Allow yourself to receive love unconditionally from others. Give love from your heart unconditionally to yourself and others and you will experience the highest state of consciousness possible.

A STUDENT came before the master Bankei and asked to be helped in getting rid of his violent temper.

“Show me this temper,” said Bankei. “It sounds very fascinating.”

“I haven’t got it right now, so I can’t show it to you, said the student.

“Well then,” said Bankei,”bring it to me when you have it.”

“But I can’t bring it just when I happen to have it,” protested the student. “I’d surely lose it again before I got it to you.

“In such a case,” said Bankei, “it seems to me that this temper is not part of your true nature. If it is not part of you, it must come into you from outside. I suggest that whenever it gets into you, you beat yourself with a stick until the temper can’t stand
it, and runs away.”

 

THE TRUE NATURE IS your eternal nature.

You cannot have it and not have it, it is not something that comes and goes — it is you. How can it come and go? It is your BEING. It is your very foundation. It cannot BE sometimes, and NOT BE sometimes; it is always there.

So this should be the criterion for a seeker of truth, nature, tao: that we have to come to the point in our being which remains always and always — even before you were born it was there, and even when you are dead it will be there.

 

It is the center.

 

The circumference changes, the center remains absolutely eternal; it is beyond time. Nothing can affect it, nothing can modify it, nothing really ever touches it; it remains beyond all reach of the outside world. Go to the sea, and watch the sea. Millions of waves are there, but deep in its depth the sea remains calm and quiet, deep in meditation; the turmoil is just on the surface, just on the surface where the sea meets the outside world, the winds. Otherwise, in itself, it always remains the same, not even a ripple; nothing changes.

It is the same with you.

 

Just on the surface where you meet others there is turmoil, anxiety, anger, attachment, greed, lust — just on the surface where winds come and touch you. And if you remain on the surface you cannot change this changing phenomenon; it will remain there.

 

Many people try to change it THERE, on the circumference. They fight with it, they try not to let a wave arise. And through their fight even more waves arise, because when the sea fights with the wind there will be more turmoil: now not only will the wind help it, the sea will also help — there will be tremendous chaos on the surface.

 

All the moralists try to change man on the periphery.

Your character is the periphery: you don’t bring any character into the world, you come absolutely characterLESS, a blank sheet, and all that you call your character is written by others. Your parents, society, teachers, teachings — all are conditioning’s ….

 

Source – http://www.otoons.de/eso/Zen_stories.htm

 

 

Click on image to enlarge

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight, and
and height.  Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay
‘them’.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever. Never let the brain idle. ‘An idle mind is the devil’s
workshop.’

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person,
who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are
alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it’s family, pets,
keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your
refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,
improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9.   Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next
county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every
opportunity.  AND ALWAYS REMEMBER : Life is not measured
by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take
our breath away.

And if you don’t send this to at least 8 people – who cares?
But do share this with someone.
We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!

Worry about nothing, pray about everything!!!

Source – Via Email 🙂 I’ve kept the right friends!

 

Every energy given out, returns! 🙂

A Buddha asked his disciples, ‘Why do we shout in anger?
Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?’

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, ‘Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’

‘But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?’ asked the Buddha.
‘Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice?
Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the Buddha.

Finally he explained, ‘When two people are angry at each other, their
hearts distance a lot.

To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other.
The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear
each other through that great distance.’

Then the Buddha asked, ‘What happens when two people fall in love?
They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why?
Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small…’

The Buddha continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens?
They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other
in their love.

Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all.
That is how close two people are when they love each other.’

MORAL:When you argue do not let your hearts get distant, do not say
words that distance each other.