Speed, Mobility and Stability

Speed, Mobility and Stability

There is a Zen story about a man riding a horse which is galloping very quickly. Another man standing alongside the road yells at him, “where are you going?”, and the man yells back, “I do not know, ask the horse.

Our situation is something like that today. Our five senses are like five untrained, wild horses, which are pulling and pushing us in tremendous speed to self-perpetuate our endless desires, but ending in a state of disarray.

Desires spring from our natural energy which is constantly in flux, so they should not be suppressed. But how and with what direction we channel that energy into is a skillful task that each of us must endeavor to learn. And it is critically important, because our happiness and happiness of those around us much depends on our accomplishment of this task.  

Life is short and uncertain, and the speed, level of skill, and directional awareness we develop in our lives is one of the truly consequential choices we make – with or without the awareness of it. When we hurry up to do something, with good intentions, and for a good cause such as social welfare, education, or feeding the needy, then the speed and direction of this transforms the energy arising out of our natural state of desire (pravritti) into a constructive force expanding outwards. 

But when the same energy is fixed on self gratification and accumulation, without any concern for others, then it shapes itself into a cancerous force of self-destruction. Our unchecked cravings and desires are behind today’s culture of consumerism. The effect of that can be seen in destruction of nature, violence in society, and in the explosion of mental illness, it also continues to lead our individual and collective self-destruction. 

Before speeding up indiscriminately to get something, it will be wise just to stop for a moment, and ponder with a calm mind that what is it that we’re really seeking in life, and how does this moment drive towards that larger goal. When the goal gets clear, then we can put our speedy efforts to find out the best way to achieve it. 

If we become little more inward looking and indulge a little less in short term thinking, and try to understand our true nature, we will see that we are all spiritual beings passing through material expressions of our intentions and desires.  Our goal should be to realize our inherent divine nature, while playing our respective roles with dignity, sincerity and honesty. Body, mind and senses all are our instruments, those that help us perform our duties towards the greater whole and the endless continuum of life and an understanding of that is the first step in reaching the goal of self realization.But often when ignorance covers up our vision, we think we are alone and separate in this one body, we behave like slaves to our senses and desires. We speed up, and waste our life running after mirages created by our desires, whose promise of excitement is but a fleeting vision that leaves in its wake permanent damage to our material, psychological and spiritual life. Only with proper understanding and with the power to discern subtly, our own life experience can bring balance between mobility expressed through the natural flux of our energy (pravritti) and stability (nivritti). Our skill must match our speed in order to keep control of the direction of our lives. If it doesn’t, it is better to be still and gain that skill before moving further. In being awakened to the wisdom of our true nature, we can still be materially productive and prosperous while being spiritually enlightened. In order to make our brief worldly journey meaningful and peaceful for us and for others whose lives we touch, it is imperative that we stop the world before moving any further. And in that moment, see exactly where we stand and where we’re headed.

We need speed, mobility and stability all in our lives but in the right proportion and for right cause. When that is not maintained, our orientation is skewed and unbalanced and destroys the harmonious balance of life and with it ourselves. And the evidence of this we can find in much of today’s consumerist culture, which is largely fed by endless desire, and causing terminal harm to the individual life force as well as stunting the development of a just, civic society. 

A well-known American Buddhist scholar Mr. Jack Kornfield says; “ Ours has been called the Addicted society, with over twenty million alcoholics, ten million drug addicts, and millions addicted to gambling, food, sexuality, unhealthy relationships, or the speed and business of work …with great fanfare our society encourages these addictions”. (A Path with Heart, page 24).

Life full with endless expectations and desires, do not allow us to stay connected with our own selves, then how can we expect to be connected with others with love and respect?  So we find, with all material comforts, modern man lives in deep loneliness and inner poverty. 

Tragedies come in life to teach us that which we have not taught ourselves. We ‘own’ nothing in this impermanent world, not our car, house or our dear ones, not even our own bodies. So to bring about a stable state of happiness, we have to work on our lives, and with a proper understanding of our true loving and peaceful nature. With will and with discernment, we may channel our energies of desire for welfare of others. By surrendering our big ego, and attitude of “I” and “Mine” at the feet of our creator, we can remain free. We do not have to be ascetics. We can still enjoy the fullness of life and complete our duties and business obligations efficiently without losing sight of what comprises the means to the end and what is the end goal of our sentient lives. Losing ourselves to be the top runner in a rat race, or counting the value of our life in terms of material significance associated with things that we cannot take with us is a manic state, not one that is borne of a clear understanding of the fact that the only resource we have is time, and the only power we have is the power to make choices. This brief transit of life is too valuable to be wasted. As T. S. Eliot said in his poem 

“Those who have crossed 

With direct eyes, to deaths other kingdom 

Remember us – if at all – not as lost 

Violent souls, but only 

As hollow men 

The stuffed men”.  (The Hollow Men)

Edited by Prodeep Bose

Joys and sorrows are source of strength and wisdom

“There is sorrow, there is death, 

There burns the fire of separation

Yet there is peace, yet there is bliss

Yet flows unending life.” (Tagore, Achhedukkho, ache mrityu)

Life flows with opportunities and disappointments, and we pray only for it to be blessed. 

But sometimes blessings come disguised as hardship and we do not realize then, but may be years later we realize that God’s generosity in not fulfilling our heart desire, and saving us from ourselves.The joys and sorrows that come to our doorstep are there to teach us something. We have no power to stop them. We can only welcome life as it comes, do the needful, learn the lesson, and then let it go. But sometimes they do not go. And when misfortunes hang over us for a long time we feel depressed, discouraged and hopeless, and then we are left with no energy to lift ourselves out of it. 

Such a situation can be explained only by law of karma and reincarnation. Nature’s law is that what we give comes back to us in many folds – or has often been said across many religious texts – what we do to others, we actually do to ourselves. In taking another’s life, we imprint the horror of killing on our own soul. This karmic knowledgeabout the connection between personal energy and action should make us very careful, not to use our thought, action or speech in a way that would cause damage to others, and thereby ourselves. This knowledge also can give us inner strength to face the many challenges of life. When we realize that through our suffering, we are cleansing our multi-lifetime karmic debt, we feel much lighter, and can view suffering not as bondage but as a path to freedom.

On the whole, life can never be monotonous, because joys and sorrows; success and failures, all these opposite currents ebb and flow through our lives.

This changing pattern of life’s events can be a great source of wisdom and strength, if only we have an open mind, and a positive attitude to learn the lessons within. Material life and its energetic flow is eternal and like ebb and flow of waves, our lives also appear and disappear in the eternity of the ocean of consciousness. But when we view it from a narrow perspective of an individual, all the joys and sorrows are as big and real as a wave at any one moment. As a result, either we get overwhelmed with joy, or are drowned in sorrow. 

Often we see people in power and with possessions - and the fear of the loss of those tumbles them into the loss of their emotional balance. They often become arrogant or insensitive to others, or fearing uncertainty, they wrap up their lives in seclusion, which is devoid of joy and freedom, and can only generate fear, anger and hatred. The attachment to power or possessions is the act that denies us the joy and freedom they were meant to bring.

On the other hand, when unending suffering continues, we lose hope and confidence and feel suffocated under the pressure of life’s misfortune.  But if we introspect deeply, we will understand that our experience of the reality of our lives – both in material and in emotional terms, is our choice. And no matter the circumstance – be it hardship or luxury, the experience is what makes it so and that is, or certainly could be, in our own command. An orientation towards attachment, greed, jealousy, hatred, etc., is the real cause of our suffering. Adverse situations may aggravate and may provoke our negativity, but in essence, we are responsible for our own life experience, regardless of its material composition. When wealth, wisdom, happiness is shared, it is amplifies our own experience of it, and when we support others in their misfortune by giving of ourselves, we do not become less but in fact, generate more of what we gave. That is the law that governs the human experience. We are comprised of what we consume, and what we give. We are finite beings surrounded by infinity in every direction – and there is such great abundance of energy in this universe that to protect what is ours is like building sand castles on a beach. It is more meaningful to channel the blessings of the countless unseen souls of the past, the joy shared by all sentient beings in the present and the energy that will shape the unborn – to add a drop to that infinite ocean of energy and give form to the blessings that fill up this human planet with more joy. We are all interconnected in this world, so it is our obligation to give back something to society, and for the betterment of all conscious beings using our evanescent human form. This attitude will enrich our personality with great human qualities like compassion, cooperation and creativity. 

Suffering is a great teacher. Pain makes us tender, and ready to be cooked in the cauldron of the greater collective consciousness, and to achieve a state that our cognitive mind, by itself, cannot. The pain of losing our dear ones, or our much valued possessions directly teach us about the impermanent nature of this world. It inspires us to be kind to others, to have self-control, to have the power to discern the subtleties of our physical and emotional experiences. These lessons are the seeds of spiritual awakening. Suffering makes us humble and understanding. Difficulties soften our heart, make us more empathetic. It also motivates us to find out some new ways, through which problems can be solved. Bhagavad Gita refers about it as, different kinds of endeavor (vividha cha prthakchesta), chapter 18, verse 14.

Through different endeavors, our consciousness get energized to a higher order.According to our karma, whatever comes in our life is urging us to learn something for our souls to evolve.

Life is ever new, with new hope and with new possibilities. Though life’s events are not in our control, surely we can transform the experience of each moment to a higher order than simply pain or pleasure.  Gloriousness and wretchedness are complementary to each other, when one inspires us, cheers us up, and make us happy, the other softens us, teaches us to be steady and courageous. But in the end, they are but attributes that are our own.

Bhagavad Gita teaches us, neither to be overwhelmed with joy, nor to be heart broken in sorrow. While facing challenges of life we should learn to keep our mind as calm as possible. In happiness in misery, in profit and in loss, in victory or in defeat we should keep our mind as calm and steady as possible, because all good works are done only through a calm mind and silent steady disposition. “Heaving made pain and pleasure, gain and loss, conquest and defeat, the same, engage yourself then in battle. So shall incur no sin”.  (Sukhadukhe same krtva, labhalabhaujayajayau)” Chapter II, Verse 38.

Edited by Prodeep Bose