Transmutation

The luminous river of energy consciousness flows and occasionally finds a murky pebble of emotional pain in its path. As and when the loving consciousness holds it in compassionate attention, the pebble melts into the river in an ecstasy and the energy that was once trapped in it is released and rejoins the flow. The river flows gently, pristine, unperturbed. Some pebbles lie very deep within, unseen. Circumstances arise in our life to bring these pain pebbles to the surface where they can be seen and transformed. The unsurrendered mind sees such situations as painful and unwanted intrusions into its peaceful life. But the surrendered mind smiles wisely n enjoys the ecstasy. It knows that The One has a perfect plan. The surrendered soul is like an innocent child who trusts her mother so completely that nothing disturbs her peace. She plays, sleeps n dreams contently in the lap of Reality.

Islam promotes peace

There are certain universal ideals like truth, justice and compassion that most closed systems of beliefs subscribe to. Initially, most such systems emerge with the intention of remaining open and relevant and during this stage of purity can transcend barriers of time, space and human diversity and unify people in a genuine search for Truth.  Unfortunately, over time, these systems ossify into fixed structures that demand absolute loyalty and reject free thinking although they do retain seeds of truth that inspire the genuine seeker. Consequently, in the form it exists today, there is no single creed that fits all, be it Islam or any other.

People fashion their beliefs in the crucible of their life experiences and hence each person may be considered to be guided by a unique set of principles. It is human nature to believe that one's own ideology should be adopted by everyone else because it is superior. This fallacy affects all irrespective of whether they label themselves atheists, Muslims or environmentalists. So it is not surprising that a monstrosity such as Islamic State has come up that wants to impose their 'Islam' on the world. What is dangerous however is the fact that they have been allowed to single handedly appropriate the sacred symbols and terminology of Islam first through their violence and second through the eagerness to paint all Muslims with the same brush. The idea that 'Islam breeds terrorism' needs to be effaced by a powerful counter-idea that 'Islam promotes peace." It is in the interest of all peace-loving individuals that profess their faith to be Islam to envision, propagate and live this idea.

Virtual reality

We are consciousness-energy that proceeds from the One Absolute Eternal Source. As we accumulate life experience, we build neural connections in the brain that signify this information. One such important cognitive structure is the self concept, a neural network that holds all data on the self. The consciousness-energy then gets attached to this self concept and mistakenly identifies with it. This is the cause of all suffering. On self inquiry (who am I?), this is understood. The attachment to the ego structure is dropped in this moment of awakening which comes only by grace. Thereafter through compassionate witnessing, the ego structures melt away at a rate proportional to the extent of surrender in the individual to the One Truth. Thus there is end of suffering.

Lessons from nature

Over the course of my recent comic travails with gardening, I chanced upon the fact that when replanting seedlings, avoidance of root shock is essential to ensure a timely harvest. It seems that just as hostile stimuli like sudden grief can arrest the entire life of a human being, plants too respond to alien environments with shock and suspension of growth.

Challenging situations like death, divorce, emotional abuse, transfer etc. usurp much of our life force and soon we find ourselves unable to move forward. For years, people get stuck; yet even in this time, important lessons are learnt. If during such a turbulent period, a person receives timely support and care from loved ones, the duration of stasis may be curtailed significantly. So also, a plant will recover its growth rapidly if its roots are given a dip in a growth enhancer.

So if you find yourself in a pickle (as you will if you are human), reach out to someone - be it a compassionate friend or a benevolent higher power. It makes life that much easier. 

The I-story

Words in themselves cannot hurt, even the basest of them. It is the story in our head that gives that power to them. We have the power to change that story. We have the power to be happy and free. But first, we have to know the story.

From the time we are born, we are weaving the story of our lives - "I am Indian. I am intelligent. I hate rice. I am unloved, blah, blah, blah..."

Inwardly, the story takes the appearance of a person which we may call the "little me." This is the ego of the Eastern spiritual traditions. As you can clearly see, it is just a collection of thoughts running in loop. But boy, does this program have us hooked 24 x 7!!

The story is not just our primary entertainment, it is also the window through which we view the world. If we cannot identify the bumps, cracks and colors that adorn this window pane, we buy into a corrupt vision of reality. It is therefore very important to examine our story.

So have you inspected your "story?" How do you go about doing that? What prevents you from taking a closer look?

Real vs. Unreal

In the face of great emotional pain and ego death, what helps me hold on is the remembrance of these beautiful words from the Bhagavad Gita -"What is Real is never lost and what is lost is never Real."

We dont know who we are. Due to our life experiences, we gather a set of thoughts in our head (eg: I am Thehseen. I like biryani, etc.). These thoughts act like an inner person (ego) and we believe this is who we are. Then we get attached to the ego and we start defending our ego and that is suffering. So life and consciousness (with infinite possibilities) taking form of a body gets limited into the box called ego. Ego is just a bunch of thoughts, remember.

In our daily lives of egos interacting with egos, (my way versus your way), there is always emotional pain because egos get bruised. Then we cry and "suffer." And say "Oh my poor life. What is to become of me!!" Who is this me? You dont even know who you are!! You misidentify with ego and then cry when that is being taken away from you!! Can you see the absurdity of it?!

You think you can think your way out of it? No!! All thinking is more ego. You hav to be very still. Earnestly self observe. Stay in the NOW. Gently bring your attention into the physical sensations of body and breath to anchor yourself. Let everyone and everything be as they are. Surrender to life. And maybe by God's grace, you wil one day become aware of the gap between thoughts. And then these gaps may widen. Wisdom and love will flow from the stillness that resides in these gaps.

Every moment, you r you. Yet you never know you. You can never be an object that you can know. You are the subject. You can only know who you are not. You can never lose you (that which is Real can never be lost). You lose many things you know (what was lost was never Real).

So every time someone comes along and tries to make fun of your way and tries to impose their way over you, rejoice. Your ego has the chance to melt a little so that the Real in all splendor can shine more and more. How grateful we should be to these great teachers who appear in our life to release our inner awesomeness from the prison box of the ego.....

Relinquishing resistance

Whatever choice we make, we must do it wholeheartedly.

There are only two kinds of people in this world - ones who are open to love versus ones who need love desperately. Those who need love are always afraid. Their heart has closed due to fear and so love does not flow freely. When we see such a person, we must open our heart even more and allow a big wave of compassion to flow through our heart to them. Where there is love and light, darkness and fear naturally are absent. Love is not something that we shower on people depending on their merits or how they behave toward us. Love flows effortlessly when our hearts are open.

Our hearts are open when we are surrendered to God, peaceful in our faith that God will take care of us no matter how bad a situation may look. From that faith, we lean back and relax. There is no need to think too much. Rest in the moment because the only power in this world is taking care of us. Allow Him to. Then our heart wil remain open and through that gap, love will flow freely. Allow everyone to be who they chose to be.... Relax.....

Intolerance

The right wing wants to turn the debate on intolerance on its head. It wants to now cast itself as the victim of intolerance while its own intolerance wil henceforth only be called nationalism. It wants to redefine nationalism and appropriate all national symbols. The right wing will make an enemy out of any voice questioning anything connected with Hindu religion, its gurus, its practices, its symbols etc. so that it can position itself as the champion of Hindu religion. It needs only imagined slights to do so. It will vehemently oppose n deride any debate on its policies or its definition of nationalism. Debate, counter voices, and a different narrative - these are signs of a vibrant democracy but these are threatening to the right wing. The right wing takes the rational legitimate questions posed by civil society, intellectuals etc. and makes these questions look like violent acts against the nation. While its own violent acts against the nation like destruction and killing of persons and goods of minorities, killing of hindu intellectuals like Kalburgi, Dabholkar, Pansare for speaking against superstition; killing of Hindu dalits by upper caste Hindus; Dadri killing; making announcements that it is ok to kill those who eat beef thus dictating the most fundamental of personal choices which is food; changing textbooks and history to favour a divisive anti-scientific agenda; shift in foreign policy favouring colonial powers and corporate interests abandoning morality; an economic agenda that is bent on helping corporates grow at the cost of the poor farmers, labourers and environment, attempts to intimidate and suppress debate in universities, suicide of Rohith Vemula etc. wil be considered as defensive and naturally occurring responses against anti-national forces.

Thus the right wing wants to bring legitimacy to its claim that those who call them fascist or intolerant are the ones deserving these appellations. The right wing wil now claim that its adherents are being persecuted unfairly for imagined slights. They wil continue this hollow cry at imagined enemies until they silence every opposing voice so they can make India into a Hindu Pakistan. Fortunately there are a great many sane voices in India who see through their agenda and are bravely struggling to build an India that is inclusive, pluralistic n secular; an India free of poverty, corruption n greed; an India where everyone has equal  access to quality education healthcare n food - the INDIA of our freedom fighters.

This reform must begin from within

I appeal to Muslim leaders to fashion a code of conduct that is more in line with the true spirit of Islam. The Muslim law as it exists now does not embody the progressive ideals that Islam originally espoused. Many Muslim women are unaware of the rights afforded to them by Islam. If practised accurately, the Islamic injunctions place Muslim women in a dignified position at par or even exceeding that enjoyed by modern women. It is my humble request to all concerned that these just and peaceful principles be brought to fruition. The kind of Islam that terrorists practise will never become mainstream not just because they are a negligible minority but also because their views are myopic and contrary to the soul of Islam. But the phobic response to that threat can result in a violent rejection of all things Islamic by the non-Muslim world and to prevent this, Muslims have to wake up and make their peaceful voices heard.

The ABC of radicalisation

Terrorism is to be condemned outright and with no excuses. There is no honour in it nor is it justified. That being said, it is vital to understand the causative and contributing factors in order to put an end to this scourge.

Terrorists exploit a distorted version of religion to add a veneer of respectability to their violent designs. But the genre of the religion itself is incidental and has little bearing on terrorism. Whether perpetrated by a state or by a coalition of disparate scattered individuals who share common goals, a significant motive is revenge. They come upon genuine grievances but instead of addressing them in a mature, compassionate and creative way, their emotions overwhelm them and they descend to chaos and aggression.

As vital as it is to understand these grievances and redress them, there is another important component that can save lives. This is to make the learning of emotional and social skills a part of our academic curriculum. Only when exquisite minds trained to compete and succeed are conjoined with compassionate hearts, can the balance be restored and a peaceful coexistence envisaged.

Freedom

There is consciousness and then there are the objects of consciousness. U r consciousness itself. Not an object of awareness. When u observe a tree, u r consciousness and tree is the object of awareness. Similarly, when u observe a thought, u r consciousness and thought is the object of awareness.

Objects of awareness keep changing. But consciousness itself does not change. U r consciousness itself. U never change. No object of awareness can make u weak or strong or less or more. Nothing can b taken away from u. Nothing can b added to u. U are immutable, unattached.

The objects are always so fascinating. The stories that are woven are so interesting. One such interesting story is the "I story." What is this "I?" A bunch of thoughts that go round n round in loop. "I am Thehseen. I am suffering. I want to b free."

So this suffering "I" is a thought arising in consciousness. It is an object of consciousness. But consciousness itself can never suffer. This body, these thoughts, emotions (the impact of thoughts on the body) are all objects and they change constantly. But consciousness itself does not change. Reality, consciousness, aanandam - One without a second.

To experience this each moment without being deluded is freedom. Freedom for whom? Isnt consciousness always free. Then who needs to b freed?? Where is the soul that needs to be saved? What is this that we call soul?

End of games

Socrates said "Know thyself." I want to take a Transactional Analysis (TA) view of the importance of this wisdom.

One important aspect of suffering in human life is  the games that people play.  Games in TA language stands for unconscious manipulative behaviour that results in a psychological payoff of negative feelings for the people involved. I propose that people play games because they do not want to let go of the false idea of who they are. Everyone has an internal image of who they are. If this imaginary self is in congruence with reality, then the person is well adjusted. However if the self image is widely different from reality, there is unconscious fear to face this fact. This fear is mitigated by indulging in behaviour that will support the person's idea of the self image.

One way to do this is to project one's own personality flaws on to another. There are myriad ways that thus result in what we call games. So the solution is to face the truth of who we are not. In exploring that lies our salvation and an end to suffering.

A shining star

While unwittingly watching a short clip of a movie called "Stardust," I heard a most amazing sentence that rings positively true for me at least - "For a star to shine, her broken heart has to be mended." Our creative abilities stagnate as long as our hearts remain broken. No wonder so many of us do not reach our highest potential. I believe that every soul has a beautiful and unique song it needs to share with the world. And I had been living with an incomplete heart for many years, wandering in distraction, unable to sing my paeans for my Creator. Then, I was gently guided on to mindfulness and meditation and I began to reclaim lost realms of my heart. Now, every day brings with it generous bounties to be savoured at will. Thank you, God.

Caring or scaring?

In relationships, people are either caring or scaring. Scaring or s-caring as u notice has caring within it. But there is also another element. That of instilling fear in order to control. What is the origin of that? The psychology in the words of the s-carer is "Life is so beyond my control and scary. If only u wil do exactly what i tell u to, i wil hav some element of control over life and i can b a little at ease."

So in relationships, when people start micromanaging their loved ones, they do it out of fear. Caring is unconditional love, support and compassion. Scaring has some caring in it but not a whole lot: It is as u can see for yourself all about the scarer and not u. 

An explanation

My previous poem 'Mysterious guest' can be found here: http://tryzt.blogspot.in/2017/07/the-mysterious-guest.html?m=1

This poem is about lovingly meeting our emotions. The mysterious guest is past pain. She presents as an ache in the heart. The general tendency is for us to turn away from it because it is so uncomfortable. But distraction only makes the energy stay stuck. We can instead place our attention gently on the physical sensation of the stuck energy or heartache. Allow it to be without resistance. Without wanting it to go away. Then the feeling softens. Continue to feel the physical sensation of it. Compassionate nonjudgmental witnessing. There may come a flash of insight into the mind. About the reason behind the stuck energy. You can express it. Maybe by crying. Maybe by writing. Or in any way that helps. As you meet your full experience with awareness and acceptance, the energy becomes unstuck. It then integrates with the main energy flow. This is often felt as a blissful feeling. Now you are more whole than before. This is the integrated Adult. What we did was integrate a fixated Egostate. Then another one may show up after a while. And the process continues. And we become more n more whole again. Infinite potential.

The mysterious guest

Knocking on the door of your soul,
Pressing against it with all her might,
This sad song you must not fight.
Welcome her with love
Into your heart's alcove.
She carries a secret treasure
To be bestowed at her leisure.
Apply no pressure
To change her or make her leave.
Dont let her become your pet peeve.
Gently allow her to be.
Open your eyes and see.
Listen to her lyric.
Shy away from being a critic.
Her words are ancient;
Remarkably prescient.
When her golden curls unfurl,
Read eagerly from her scroll.
Mysteries of the past
Are revealed long last.
Don't be in a hurry!
Do embrace her story!
If you stay with her for a while,
Her frown effaces into a smile.
When no longer under any duress,
She eases into your caress
In a time of timelessness
And the space of spacelessness.
The bliss of union permeates
Every nook and invigorates
As she seamlessly merges
Into the depths of your soul.

A tribute to Harpy's Child

The wounds of the body draw attention.
The wounds of the mind yield derision:
Festering, ever painful, hidden
Waiting to be healed and ridden
Of shards of rage and blisters of sorrow
Lurking beneath hope of a joyful morrow.
An aching heart cries out in exasperation,
Only to be banished in frustration
To a gloomy exile
Amidst words that rile.
These sad overtures are in vain
As companions flee to avoid pain.
"Keep your chin high," they say
"Get rid of emotions that overstay!"
Yet the heart does not relent
From the inner torment.
The veneer of respectability
Holds its own against every scrutiny.
At once a monster and a benefactor,
A killer of your spirit yet benevolent
Picture perfect yet malevolent,
Nursing you while crushing your heart;
Contradictions abound tearing you apart.
Tears well up unseen
In memory of actions that demean;
This pain too shall silently subside
For in whom will you confide?
If the hand that rocks your cradle
Be the hand that smothers your soul
What chance do you have of survival
Of finding support, of revival?
Who wil believe your tale?
Pull you up when you fail?
Don't look outside for hope
They cannot lend you a rope
In the dark night of your soul
Only you can make yourself whole.
Learn to dig deep
And gently seep
Into the treasures of your spirit
That exude wisdom without limit.
Ease into the peace of your being
That is the end of your suffering. 

People contain in themselves multitudes

People contain in themselves multitudes,
Of varying beliefs, feelings and attitudes.
Of a singular entity, there is no certitude:
At once nurturing and critical,
Alternatingly rational and irrational;
Suddenly rebellious, then compliant,
At times a Parent, next a Child,
Many facets drop in and out,
Through the mind's revolving door.
Fools chase after such passing clouds,
Hold onto old grievances and what nots,
A long lost love, a fleeting joy,
Life's enchanting ensnaring ploy.
Today I whisper sweet nothings,
Tomorrow I mete out cruel beatings
Yesterday I laughed, now I weep,
There is no permanent I to keep.
The wise know this simple truth:
People contain in themselves multitudes.