THE TOUCHSTONE
When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers.
The book wasn't very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the "Touchstone" !
The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.
So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold - throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.
The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.!
REFLECTION
So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it's easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it's just as easy to throw it away.
Wise men make more opportunities than they find! Like an eagle, be vigilant to make use of the opportunities around you.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Failed Opportunities - A Contemplation
Recently a friend asked me the following question:
"An opportunity (relating to material world) comes one's way in normal course without any effort or initiative. One starts pursuing the opportunity and soon the door is closed. What is the teaching in this?"
The question has set me thinking. It refers to a pursuit that did not bring the desired result. Interestingly, the pursuit began when an opportunity one was not looking for on the conscious plane surfaced rather suddenly all by itself. It led to a certain involvement that eventually petered out into nothing. Naturally, the questioner is wondering as to why such a thing happened.
It is a very genuine query, which, I feel, everyone, specially a seeker, must contemplate. Here are the thoughts that arose within me out of my contemplation. I am sharing the same with you for any other thoughts that may arise.
Why do things happen the way they happen?
In spirituality, there is an undisputed rule about life. Expected or otherwise, the things that happen to us in our in lives are those that we have sought for ourselves at the level of the mind, a repository of our karmas.
The sub-conscious mind; how it controls us?
We are normally barely aware of what goes on the surface of the mind. Yet, the mind is very huge and can be compared to an iceberg. What lies below the surface is much than what is visible. We normal refer to this hidden area, below the surface, as the subconscious mind. This area holds impressions of all kinds of unfinished businesses, through our present and earlier lifetimes. Though apparently dormant, these impressions are at work. They keep transmitting their signals and continue to attract those forces of nature that will bring life’s hidden agenda to fruition. This is how the subconscious mind determines our life, without giving us any hint of what it is doing. We are held hostage to what lies at the subliminal level of the mind.
We can acquire freedom from the machinations of these latent impressions in two ways alone – by not resisting change and by intelligent interference.
Choice of Resisting vs Not-resisting the Subconscious – A practical perspective:
The uninitiated or the ignorant have no option in the matter. They succumb to whatever the latent impressions bring up. So, things and events materialize and fructify in the normal course. Sometimes, this starts lightening the carried forward baggage of the sub-conscious. It leads to a purging, which encourages evolution. At other times, while settling or resolving existing baggage, it creates other further baggage that continues to exert and make its presence felt in subtle ways bring more or newer limitations to personality of man.
Those who are initiated have two options. The first option is one of intelligent interference. The person intelligently chooses those thoughts and actions that bring silence and stability to the mind. He prefers that which will bring him to the experience of the Self. This way the hold of latent impressions gets loosened and he becomes free. The second option is of non-interference, born out of higher knowledge. In this process, one neither invites nor rejects a latent impression. Such a person does not bother about any opportunity, pursued successfully or otherwise. He simply intensifies his sadhana so that he can burn all latent impressions in the fire of yoga so that in-process Karmas are avoided. Such a person, when he has sufficiently evolved, reaches a state of choiceless-ness. He does not seek or shun anything. He simply witnesses what is happening. He has become Shiva himself.
Exploring the Sub-conscious Mind in Meditation to make the transition from Unconscious to Conscious
The mind, below the surface, is the 'chain' that is holding us back from liberation. We are not aware of it primarily because we are mostly caught up on the surface. When we begin to meditate, we start this journey within. Then we begin to explore these hidden or deeper areas of the mind. No wonder, each one of us, after he has started meditating, begins to discover new dimensions. Hidden possibilities, totally new traits, and fresh talents begin to sprout. In this journey, quite often, a meditator also starts noticing sprouting of even unsavoury things -- anger, selfishness, cowardliness, depravity in sex, or some follies.
Self-exploration is like a massive churner that first digs up and then churns out everything, precious or base. It allows all impressions to travel from the subconscious to the conscious areas of the mind.
When the impressions come up in the field of vision of the conscious mind, one's consciousness is coloured by them. Certain things may be very pleasing while others may be quite unpalatable. The key is to become a witness. If a person simply witnesses these impressions, they surface into the region of the conscious mind and are purged out.
It is part of the healing process, whereby the subconscious mind is being set free of all entanglements, hidden or otherwise. One starts becoming free.
Reacting to the Sub-conscious Mind
Here we must understand that in so far as its events are concerned, life is governed by a higher intelligence that a limited mind cannot probe. Here it must be understood that a limited mind is engaged with ‘BECOMING’, while the empty mind is established in ‘BEING’ (absorbed completely in pure awareness). Being is elusive. We touch this state each night in deep sleep but we don’t know it because our awareness is shut. Hence, to make the transition to ‘Being’ we much first be fully established in ‘Becoming’.
Futile pursuits (or even fruitful pursuits) are necessary tools used by life to educate us in our evolution. Sometimes, a futile pursuit may be sent into our lives to help us learn and inculcate the virtues of planning, focus, and execution. An improvement in these areas will help us when the next opportunity comes our way. In a way, this is to strengthen the 'BECOMING' in a positive way. Only when Becoming is strengthened sufficiently, it will be possible for one to realize its futility.
Therefore, a futile pursuit may be sent into the life a sufficiently evolved person to teach him about something still higher - the futility of all pursuit. This may engineer the final letting go - the leap into 'BEING'. This may lead to complete surrender to the divine will, where one is living in perfect choiceless-ness. He does no do anything on his own. He merely participates in what is happening around him. Each one has to contemplate what the happenings in his or her life (including futile pursuits) are indicating to him.
For the sadhaka the choice is one of sadhana. This alone will take him across.
"An opportunity (relating to material world) comes one's way in normal course without any effort or initiative. One starts pursuing the opportunity and soon the door is closed. What is the teaching in this?"
The question has set me thinking. It refers to a pursuit that did not bring the desired result. Interestingly, the pursuit began when an opportunity one was not looking for on the conscious plane surfaced rather suddenly all by itself. It led to a certain involvement that eventually petered out into nothing. Naturally, the questioner is wondering as to why such a thing happened.
It is a very genuine query, which, I feel, everyone, specially a seeker, must contemplate. Here are the thoughts that arose within me out of my contemplation. I am sharing the same with you for any other thoughts that may arise.
Why do things happen the way they happen?
In spirituality, there is an undisputed rule about life. Expected or otherwise, the things that happen to us in our in lives are those that we have sought for ourselves at the level of the mind, a repository of our karmas.
The sub-conscious mind; how it controls us?
We are normally barely aware of what goes on the surface of the mind. Yet, the mind is very huge and can be compared to an iceberg. What lies below the surface is much than what is visible. We normal refer to this hidden area, below the surface, as the subconscious mind. This area holds impressions of all kinds of unfinished businesses, through our present and earlier lifetimes. Though apparently dormant, these impressions are at work. They keep transmitting their signals and continue to attract those forces of nature that will bring life’s hidden agenda to fruition. This is how the subconscious mind determines our life, without giving us any hint of what it is doing. We are held hostage to what lies at the subliminal level of the mind.
We can acquire freedom from the machinations of these latent impressions in two ways alone – by not resisting change and by intelligent interference.
Choice of Resisting vs Not-resisting the Subconscious – A practical perspective:
The uninitiated or the ignorant have no option in the matter. They succumb to whatever the latent impressions bring up. So, things and events materialize and fructify in the normal course. Sometimes, this starts lightening the carried forward baggage of the sub-conscious. It leads to a purging, which encourages evolution. At other times, while settling or resolving existing baggage, it creates other further baggage that continues to exert and make its presence felt in subtle ways bring more or newer limitations to personality of man.
Those who are initiated have two options. The first option is one of intelligent interference. The person intelligently chooses those thoughts and actions that bring silence and stability to the mind. He prefers that which will bring him to the experience of the Self. This way the hold of latent impressions gets loosened and he becomes free. The second option is of non-interference, born out of higher knowledge. In this process, one neither invites nor rejects a latent impression. Such a person does not bother about any opportunity, pursued successfully or otherwise. He simply intensifies his sadhana so that he can burn all latent impressions in the fire of yoga so that in-process Karmas are avoided. Such a person, when he has sufficiently evolved, reaches a state of choiceless-ness. He does not seek or shun anything. He simply witnesses what is happening. He has become Shiva himself.
Exploring the Sub-conscious Mind in Meditation to make the transition from Unconscious to Conscious
The mind, below the surface, is the 'chain' that is holding us back from liberation. We are not aware of it primarily because we are mostly caught up on the surface. When we begin to meditate, we start this journey within. Then we begin to explore these hidden or deeper areas of the mind. No wonder, each one of us, after he has started meditating, begins to discover new dimensions. Hidden possibilities, totally new traits, and fresh talents begin to sprout. In this journey, quite often, a meditator also starts noticing sprouting of even unsavoury things -- anger, selfishness, cowardliness, depravity in sex, or some follies.
Self-exploration is like a massive churner that first digs up and then churns out everything, precious or base. It allows all impressions to travel from the subconscious to the conscious areas of the mind.
When the impressions come up in the field of vision of the conscious mind, one's consciousness is coloured by them. Certain things may be very pleasing while others may be quite unpalatable. The key is to become a witness. If a person simply witnesses these impressions, they surface into the region of the conscious mind and are purged out.
It is part of the healing process, whereby the subconscious mind is being set free of all entanglements, hidden or otherwise. One starts becoming free.
Reacting to the Sub-conscious Mind
Here we must understand that in so far as its events are concerned, life is governed by a higher intelligence that a limited mind cannot probe. Here it must be understood that a limited mind is engaged with ‘BECOMING’, while the empty mind is established in ‘BEING’ (absorbed completely in pure awareness). Being is elusive. We touch this state each night in deep sleep but we don’t know it because our awareness is shut. Hence, to make the transition to ‘Being’ we much first be fully established in ‘Becoming’.
Futile pursuits (or even fruitful pursuits) are necessary tools used by life to educate us in our evolution. Sometimes, a futile pursuit may be sent into our lives to help us learn and inculcate the virtues of planning, focus, and execution. An improvement in these areas will help us when the next opportunity comes our way. In a way, this is to strengthen the 'BECOMING' in a positive way. Only when Becoming is strengthened sufficiently, it will be possible for one to realize its futility.
Therefore, a futile pursuit may be sent into the life a sufficiently evolved person to teach him about something still higher - the futility of all pursuit. This may engineer the final letting go - the leap into 'BEING'. This may lead to complete surrender to the divine will, where one is living in perfect choiceless-ness. He does no do anything on his own. He merely participates in what is happening around him. Each one has to contemplate what the happenings in his or her life (including futile pursuits) are indicating to him.
For the sadhaka the choice is one of sadhana. This alone will take him across.
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