2007-New way of thinking - Transform Yourself

2007 - New way of thinking - Transform Yourself !


Transform yourself - Sri Sri RavishankarIn this era of science and technology, we can be creative and productive, and at the same time not lose the humanness that we are all born with. Just material things or comfort alone do not make you comfortable. You may have a good bed to sleep on, but unable to sleep because of insomnia or worry! You need to get a broad understanding about yourself and your priorities. Clarity in the mind makes things much easier-understanding your basic emotions like love, your interaction with people around you, knowing about your ego or what your intellect or mind is saying to you and introspection will give you a few minutes of relaxation which is very vital. So, what is most important is introspection about one's own life and how to improve the quality of life-this intention itself will open many doors for you to feel better about yourself. First of all, find out for yourself whether you are healthy.Health is... a disease-free body.a quiver-free breath.a stress-free mind.an inhibition-free intellect.an obsession-free memory.an ego that includes all.a soul that is free from sorrow. Have you ever thought what is the purpose of your life? What is the meaning of life? What is life all about? These questions are very, very precious. When these questions dawn in your mind, only then your life begins! But, when these questions come into your mind, don't be in a hurry to get an answer. Those who know will not tell you and those who tell don't know! You can plug your ears and walk off! These questions are the tools by which you can dig deeper and the answers come from within you. Once these questions come into your life then you start "living" life rather than just existing. To know for what you are in this planet, find out what you are not here for! You are not here to be sad. You are not here to blame. You are not here to be miserable. You are not here to worry. You are not here to show off. You are not here to get stressed out.You are not here to get irritated and irritate others.The list goes on.All our struggles in life are to know more. You are trying your level-best to understand your feelings and emotions, and you get into more and more and more confusion. This is what has happened with psychology today. It tries to explain to you why you feel like the way you are feeling. The ''why'' arises always when you are unhappy. You ask ''Why this problem to me of all the people?'' Nobody ever asked, ''Why am I so happy?'' You want to understand, ''why am I not feeling good?'' or ''why am I angry?'', or ''why is this not happening?'' The more you try to understand and try to dig it, you seem to understand less and less. The mystery deepens, but an illusion comes as though ''I know it''. But that is for a short while. We ourselves do not know and we try to explain to others! Stop your explanations; your explanations have put you into a soup and make other people also more confused. You don't know what is happening in your mind. Mind is like a roller coaster-it's a crowd. Just be in the simple and innocent state of ''I don't know!''. This life is a mystery-beautiful-live it.Living the mystery of life so totally is joy. Becoming the mystery is divine. You are a mystery!When you see life in this context, clarity dawns in your mind and your life improves. 1 Review the context of your life Look at your own life in the light of time. Millions of years have passed and millions will come. What is your life? 60, 70 or 100 years? Span of life is insignificant. It is not even a drop in the ocean. In terms of space you simply don't exist! This understanding dissolves the ego. Ego is ignorance of your reality, ignorance of your existence. Now, just to know this, do we have to do something else? Just open your eyes: ''Who am I? How I am on this planet? What is my life time?'' Awareness dawns in the mind, and you will stop worrying about little things like, ''this person said this thing to me and that person broke away with me and this happened with that person and I am going to say this....'' All smallness will simply drop away, and you will be able to live every moment of your life.Your life reels around your context. You should be happy in life. All other businesses involve ups and downs which is very natural. If there is a body, then it will get cold, cough, fever or something else and it will go away. But take care to see that happiness is always established in you. That is known as purashaartha. Our love, faith and belief should be deep-rooted, then everything else moves on its own. How many events take place in life! Are you able to maintain your equanimity always? Not everything in the world is sweet. If you are grounded with faith, like the husk with grain, you will progress. Take this decision: "Whatever happens I will be there. I will be grounded. God's protection is there on me. Whatever happens, I will never go down. I always have God's hand with me." Keep your mind in peace in all situations. The rest will be taken care of. You have to take at least one step forward, which is to be in peace and equanimity. "Oh! Nothing happened. Nothing of my work happened." If you are able to laugh in such a situation, then understand that you have protection with you! The world is filled with love. Everybody has love inside them. You have to see that in your mind. Your head will be in the mud in a few years; don't put mud in your head while you are still alive! If you review the context of your life, the quality of your life will improve.

part 2 will continue later this week

JAPA MANTRA MEDITATION - SWAMI DAYANANDA

+++ Japa ;Mantra ;Meditation Part 2 +++


PART ONE POSTED ON THE 24 TH DEC

LEARNING ABOUT THE MIND

We really do not have a method to learn about our minds. We only know that we are subjected to a particular type of thinking. For example, we get into a reverie until something arrests our attention and only then do we come back. Is there anything that we have in our thought life - which is our life - that helps us understand our ways of thinking? What do we have to help us learn how to direct our thinking for a given length of time and have the mind at our disposal? We have no directed technique. If we were lucky, we had some intellectual discipline in school which has given us a capacity for logical thinking. In the process, we may have discovered some discipline, but we do not know it is a technique; nor do we use it as one.

JAPA AS A TECHNIQUE

Exercising one's choice is very important in japa. If I choose to mentally chant a word or sentence for a length of time, then I have a technique in hand and can see what happens in my mind. In japa, I know exactly what is to come next. If something else pops up, I know this is not what is expected and I bring back the chosen thought. In the process I learn how to dismiss unwanted thoughts and retain the one I have chosen. This is one important result of japa as a technique. As a technique, any word will work. You do not require the Lord's name or a "spiritual " mantra. Anything can be a mantra, like gring… gring… gring… gring… gring… gring… gring. If you keep on repeating this sound, it will work. An extraneous thought will eventually come, like " What makes this kind of noise? " " A bagpipe, " may be the response. Then you may ask, " What does a bagpipe have to do with my japa?" By returning to the sound, the bagpipe thought is dismissed. In this way, japa works as a technique for gaining some mental discipline. However, japa, is something more than the mere chanting of a sound. In repeating a given chant, you give yourself an occasion to see the ways of your own thinking. This repetition becomes a technique for keeping your mind directed for a length of time - and it can also help the mind gain a certain depth.

THE INTERVAL BETWEEN THOUGHTS

The advantage of repetition is that we can appreciate the interval between two successive occupations of the mind. In " BMW thinking, " listless thinking with no direction, the mind simply moves from one thought to another. This type of thinking is like picking up noodles. If you try to pick up one noodle, you find it coming along with a few others. Similarly, the whole occupation of thinking becomes " as though " a single thought; even though there are many thoughts. Between two thoughts there is an interval. BMW is the name of a vehicle and Germany is the name of a country. Because there is a connection between the two, the interval between them is missed. Repeating a given chant eliminates or avoids the connections between two thoughts because, between one chant and another, there is no connection. Each chant is a complete unit in itself and one thought unit is not connected to the second thought unit since both are the same. Thus, between two chants, there is a period : chant… period… chant… period. There is no comma, only a period, a full stop. Therefore, each chant is complete and, between chants, the interval is available for you to recognize.

PEACE IN THE MIND

What is it that obtains in the interval between chants? Between one thought with a certain form and sound and the next thought, there is no given thought. There is only an interval with no form or shape. This is what we call peace or silence. Because this silence has no particular thought form, there is no thinking as we know it. We always think that peace is something we have to acquire. People even ask for it : " Swamiji, I have everything except peace of mind. How can I gain this peace? " Because the mind is restless, we think that peace is something new that we have to acquire, an attribute with which we have to embellish the mind. Is peace something we have to acquire or is it natural? I once went to a swami, Yogi Ramayya, who was originally a yogi and then became a disciple of Ramana Maharshi. I could sense that he was a person who was at peace with himself. I had committed myself to Vedanta but, at the same time, I had a lot of conflicts in my pursuit. I went to this swami in an attempt to resolve them. He never talked much, but he said one thing to me that really hit home : " FOR RESTLESSNESS, YOU HAVE TO WORK A LOT. FOR PEACE, WHAT IS THERE TO DO? " Having asked this question, he became silent, which I found to be very effective.PART 3 WILL FOLLOW LATER THIS WEEK

***Two Talks on JAPA,MANTRA, MEDITATION -Part 1by Swami Dayananda Saraswati

While many varieties of mantra meditation, japa, are currently being taught in the West, such techniques have been commonly practiced in India for thousands of years. These two talks on japa given to the students attending a three year resident course at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam are a complete introduction to the subject of japa as mantra meditation. In this short format, Swami Dayananda, Hindu monk and scholar, addresses the following questions.

· What is japa and what are its benefits?
· How does japa work?
· Can any word of chant be used as mantra?
· Why is japa more than a technique?
· What is " monkey thinking "?
· How can japa be used as prayer?
· What is the nature of thought and silence?

JAPA

Talk 1 Japa is the repetition of a word or short sentence during the practice of meditation. The letter pa stands for that which removes or destroys all impurities and obstructions and the letter ja stands for that which puts an end to the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, japa is an indirect means for liberation, moksa. By destroying the varieties of obstructions to knowledge, japa paves the way for liberation. japa , then, is more than a mere discipline or technique.
These two talks will give you an understanding of the nature and logic of japa and how it works. With this understanding you will be able to do japa with conviction and handle it properly.

THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF THOUGHTS
At any given time, you have only one thought and what your next thought will be is anyone's guess. But when the next thought does occur, it will have done so because of some logic. There is no thought without a certain connection to the preceding thought. This connection may be flimsy or it may be very clear and logical. But the thought itself is never predictable.
Even now, I cannot predict what I am going to say. I simply said I would talk on japa, and I started. Even the words I am saying right now were not known to me. What is going to come is unpredictable, but when it does come, it has a logic, a reason.

" BMW THINKING "
Suppose you see a BMW on the road and it draws your attention.What will your next thought be? " How can he afford it? " and then :
" A person I work with just bought a new BMW. How can he afford such an expensive car? Last year he did not even have a job. His wife must have a lot of money. I wish my wife had a rich family. When I got married I did not think about money or my future. "
All these thoughts started from seeing a BMW and they follow a certain logic. This particular sequence is only one line of thinking. Let us look at another one :
" The German people are quite industrious. Even though their country was devastated during World War II, their economy rebounded quickly. They produce the best scientific equipment in the world.!
Where did we start? From BMW. What will come after BMW is anyone's guess. Even in deliberate thinking you do not know what is coming next because thinking is always linear, one step at a time, one thought at a time. The connection between the thoughts can either be a logical, syntactical connection within a sentence or a simple association. But there will always be a connection, be it weak or strong.
In " BMW thinking, " the connection between thoughts is not a deliberate one. Therefore, the next thought can be anything. The sky is the limit. " The BMW emblem is different. It is not like the Mercedes insignia. " The Mercedes insignia makes you think of a star and then your next thought may be, " My astrological sign is not favorable. " This movement from one thought to the next is listless thinking, a meandering of thoughts in which there is no direction

PART -2 WILL CONTINUE -Mostly posted during week ends

+++ Which One ? +++

There are three kinds of love :*The love that comes out of charm !*The love that comes out of comfort !*The Divine love !

THe love that comes out of charm does not last long It comes out of unfamiliarity and attraction, in this love you lose attraction quickly,and boredom sets in like most love marriages, This love may diminish and may bring along with it fear,uncertainty , insecurity and sadness.
The love that comes out of comfort and familiiarity grows !

You are more comfortable with an old friend who is a familiar person,rather than with the new person. but this love has no thrill, no enthusiasm and no fire in it !

Divine love always supersedes all other love .

Divine love is always new and closer you get , the more depth and charm you get,.[/B]DIVINE LOVE BRINGS COMFORT, FAMILIARITY AND ENTHUSIASM.THERE IS NEVER BOREDOM AND IT KEEPS YOU AWARE AND ALERT

Worldy love can be like an ocean ,yet an ocean has a bottom!

DIVINE LOVE IS LIKE THE SKY LIMITLESS AND INFINITE!
FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN SOAR INTO THE VAST SKY

Sri Sri Ravishankar in his book ''Celebrating silence ''