When the apple falls...

I was enjoying the laziness of this Sunday morning, wading in its soothing vibrations, when this thought occured to me. How we choose to experience our karma is quite akin to what we will decide to do with an apple that is falling towards our head after we have thrown it upwards.

Some of us may  have compared karma to Newton's third law of motion. Therefore, the energies that we put forward come back with the same force. Quite like an apple we have thrown overhead.

Someone asked me the other day of what happens to the karma of those who repent their sins. It must have stayed in my unconscious like a germ and now suddenly the answer sprouted in the calm air of an unhurried morning. Well, if you throw an apple upwards and you become aware of what you did and become well prepared for its return, you could catch the apple in a basket and bite into its sweet deliciousness. If you keep denying you threw an apple straight up into the sky and stood where you were vehemently, it just falls on your head and voila, you know what that entails. With awareness of our behavioural patterns, come fresh choices like the cool breeze of this blessed morning.

Words that point back to The Truth

Silence is very wholesome. Words seem futile as they immediately negate half the truth. They are broken symbols that elude perfection. Yet words are all that we have for now. When I utter a sentence, I have taken a stance and immediately I am pitted against the opposing argument. Through these absurdities, an identity of half-truths is bred. What was indescribable and complete has now been broken down into shreds and I become then a possessor of this piecemeal identity.

Thus through a web of errors, my self concept is built. This is a bunch of thoughts that I have about myself. "I am Thehseen. I love to write. Blah, blah..." I make pronouncements that underscore this self concept and it grows through interactions, consequent verbalisations and continuing feedback. It grows so monstrous that it then engulfs the reality that it was supposed to be only a representative of. Truth is forgotten. Half-truths fly around like a swarm of flies that encompass the sweet fruit of our essence. In this confusion, people float around like rotten seaweeds unable to anchor themselves in the pristine waters of life.

Once in a while, through sheer exhaustion from the turbulence of life, mind comes to a standstill. Then these fallacies fall away and truth shines through. This need not be the state of the average man.  Through a dedicated effort to stay in the moment, witness the inner and outer space, and feel own bodily sensations, man can go beyond the shackles of self concept and uncover the sweet taste of real self. Transactional Analysis can be an elegant tool that can enhance this attempt and pave the way for this recovery.

Happy 2019!

Hello!🙏🏻

Thank you so much for your presence in my life irrespective of the amount of time we have spent together this past year. The moment has come for another of those messages I send every year. Please bear with me…

A friend once told me that I have a lot of strength inside me. I didn’t really understand it at the time. It was not about me being powerful. It was about that strength that all of us have inside us which we tend to forget about from time to time. That is when we unawarely talk about how other people and situations make us feel weak or angry or helpless or victimized.

This is perhaps the one single thing that got underlined with every experience this year – ‘I am responsible for my thoughts, feelings and actions.’ I think my TA trainer said it so many times that it finally practically filtered down into the realm of reality situations. Of course, I may slip for a while but I think I am getting better at this. As you know, challenges may appear out of the blue. And earlier I was like “Why now? Why me? Blah, blah…” Now I am like – “Oh, this has happened. What can I do with it to make my life better?” Funny as it is, there is always something good in any crap situation. Smart thing is to get to it right away. Ruminating about how bad it is, about how this should not have been and that should have been, etc. etc. – all waste of time and energy.

This acceptance of what is happening is Islam for me. Islam as you know literally means surrendering peacefully to the will of God. This of course does not mean smiling when you get slapped and taking on more abuse. It is about saying that “I have the right to be treated well and I have the power to choose my response to this.” Then, I do something fruitful about it and either remove myself from a harmful situation or if that is not possible I work at getting better at the way my body, mind and spirit respond to what is going on. Harming myself or another person is never an option. If I cannot handle a situation, I will walk away.

Sometimes it is not possible however. And in these tricky situations, I know for sure that I have all the resources to handle it. I don’t just have faith. I know from experience that all that I require is given. You must have heard me saying this but I reiterate – “God gives us all that we require but not all that we desire. If we desire only what we require, there is no suffering.” Sorry for bringing that up again but it is a reality for me. I don’t blame God for what people do. I am responsible for my choices and so is everyone else. That is what life on earth is all about.

It is very painful to watch people make decisions that harm themselves. But I can be responsible only for my own actions, thoughts and feelings. I cannot take away another’s power by running their life for them. It is indeed sad to see self or others go through the consequences of our ill-conceived actions. But there too, I see opportunities to grow and evolve. It can even become a joyful experience if we follow the formula of accept, look for the good in it and get right down to milking it. How that applies to your life, only you know. I am only here to remind you of how strong you really are.

I hope this message was not too sombre. I wanted to talk of how there is light hidden even in the darkest corners of life. Sun sets so that stars can shine. And you friend, cannot help but shine because you are made of stardust. Have fun! Live long and prosper!

Happy New Year!🌺💐🌸🌷🌸🌸💐🌹🌼