The Golden Orb of Love

I love new age stuff, all of it. Except when it comes to conflict within. Should you have a good time or be so serious and do nothing but yoga an mediation on New Year's Eve? I see getting a little crazy and let it all hang out on this special day part of life, a good life. I don't see any reason why you should deny your illusory self the illusory fun just because you want something more? How do you reconcile this? The answer is mindfulness. You don't just mindfully do the esoteric so called good stuff. Mindfulness is an act worthy of all living even if it means getting crazy at New Years.

Words lead you astray. Unfortunately you have to use words to understand words or so it seems. More words make words even more confusing. Many teachers point you to presence awareness, the power of now, nothing but now. What they are pointing to is not a presence of something but absence of everything.  Peace and stillness or nirvana is  a state of absence not presence. What gurus point to is the presence of absence. What they point to is an absence of teaching, teachers, gurus and of course suffering.

Even  incomplete physics by Newton has allowed humanity to reach Mars and beyond. Even a dissatisfied Einstein's theory of special and general relativity has exploded into mind altering technologies and information beyond imagination of our ancestors. Imagine humanity when even better and perhaps complete understanding of physics arrives. Even an incomplete understanding of yoga and meditation has led millions of people to end or at least  limit suffering in their lives. Numerous credible studies support better health, better psyche and better life for the practitioners. Imagine you when even better and perhaps complete understanding arrives. Why does incomplete understanding still produce results?  Because it is just incomplete not wrong. It is still an understanding.

There comes a point on the path when you know that you are not living the truth. You know the truth, a truth, some truth or have a sense of the truth. But you also know that you are not living it. The very attempt of trying to live the truth will take you to the realm of untrue for what we call living is here in   and around a world of lies, deceptions and illusions. Living here can never be true. Only not living here can be true. It may seem that great sages, teachers, mahatmas and enlightened masters live the truth. But if you can see this or sense this, it is already untrue. They are the shining example of the truth. They are but pointers and evidence of the truth. You may and should follow them but that will still not be living the truth. It may be commendable, wonderful and desirable but not the truth. The great paradox as put by Richard Rose is that you can only be the truth and no more. Mooji asks who is it that is going to live the truth? So why know the truth?

Buddha's concept of equanimity which arises after true understanding of impermanence is often misunderstood as a call to a fatalistic attitude of inaction. Far from it, a deeper understanding can lead to positive and fruitful action and a meaningful prosperous life. Suffering is at the heart of most seeking. Let's begin at something that touches many hearts such as anger or disappointment for being rejected by a lover, an employer, parent or a friend. Suppose you have been turned down for a promotion or worse, being terminated. The reaction is anger and deep disappointment. Understanding the entire process is the key to accept this event as just another in a series of impermanent events that defines life. Even if this hardship was the result of a personal vendetta or an aggressive act against you, anger is still a reaction based on ignorance. Ignorance of the fact that loss of this opportunity is a significant event. Ignorance of the fact that there is a unique, separate p

Buddha says you can never be happy unless you wish happiness to everyone or meta love and kindness to all. Krishna says to Arjun , fire that arrow as it is your destiny and karma to kill your cousins. Who should you follow? Can a 2015 human being making a living in business, arts or sciences, function by either of these principles? Can he simply be loving and kind to all even in face of great challenges and clearly adverse oppositions? Or does he ignore Budhdha's compassion and shoot the arrow at the heart of his adversity? Is there a way out of this seemingly conflicting ways to be? I can only find oneness as the answer. Only when you truly internalize that ALL matter that you sense  is interconnected, has been so since the Big Bang and perhaps even before, the answer will come to you. Whether you shoot the arrow or not, the target will one day perish was Krishna's point. If you don't shoot the arrow now, evil remains and perhaps create more hate and misery than bef

This Friday is guru poornima, the full moon of midsummer celebrated by aspirants, seekers and pure souls for thousands of years. Some lucky souls have the necessary devotion and access to a physical form of  a teacher, to whom they can surrender. As Mooji says, guru is a garbage collector, to whom you dump all that's not necessary in your life. It turns out there is not much that you need to keep. Complete surrender is nirvana. It is however not necessary to have a physical teacher in a human form to whom you download all in a surrender. Dattatreya found twenty four teachers in various forms none of whom wore long robes and beards but were available to teach everywhere he looked. My most memorable teachers and teachings start with TAT, started by Richard Rose in West Virginia. The name TAT in itself captures the essence, truth and transmission. It doesn't matter which way you follow, finding the two is essential ; true knowledge accepted by the mind and transmission of thi

The answer is not why not. There is an answer to every why. Look carefully and you will find the answer. Post here if you are stuck.

Look inside and meditate is a common suggestion you hear from teachers, guides, elders and even psychologists. But where is this inside? Surely you are not asked to visualize your internal organs like your heart, guts, spleen and liver? Although something like that may be an interesting mindfulness practice. Even visualising your internal organs is actually outside. In fact anything that you sense with your body and mind has to be outside. Isn't it? Even when you close your eyes, you are seeing something outside of your eyes. When you feel a touch, a smell or a sound, they are all outside. You can take it a step deeper. When you see an object, what you call seeing is reporting a sensation created by a complex process of light reflecting off an object, then passing through your eyes onto a retina which sends the signals to your brain. The brain, based on its retained memory composes a picture and then labels it as the object. Ditto for all other senses. You could say thinki

Fear of any kind; physical or psychological arises from the assumption that you and yours can be destroyed, meaning death of the body, the mind or something you may be possessive about. Fear is an illusion. If you believe yourself to be a body (which is an error but that discussion for another day), then you know that this body is made of matter. And you also know that matter is not destroyed  it only changes its form. From organic cellular material to basic elements, gases and water which will be recycled into plants, rocks, environment or even another body. Matter is indestructible in its most fundamental state. If you believe yourself to be a mind (that too is an error to be discussed another day), then you know that mind is a bunch of thoughts strewn together by the body into a coherent or incoherent idea or concept. If these ideas or concepts lead to some creation such as an object or a change you implement, then the mind also changes into another state. Which could go anot

Whether in a church, a temple or in your quiet corner, you do pray. Either to a god, a power or just wishing for something or something to happen. Have you thought about what you are praying for? An object like a car, a house, a wealth or a mate? Or a concept like peace and love? There is something in common to all prayers and that is to make you happy. Imagine you got the object you are hoping for but it didn't make you happy. Was that what you wanted? May your prayers be answered and you be happy. May be your prayers are answered and you find that there is no you. That will be the ultimate gift since without a you, there can be no desire.

A common stumbling block in self inquiry is the concept of free will and control. Our world gives a strong sense that we make decisions based on free will and control our destiny. This is in spite of glaring evidence to the contrary. If one were in control of life, will and decisions, would there be any poor people, any suffering, any war, murders, accidents, failures etc. So why does this illusion manifest within our thoughts that we can and must control our lives. It is a subtle impression left in the mind when we speak of will and control. Having a will is not free will. There must be a will for any action to proceed. The will results from many factors that have placed you in this moment. Having control doesn't mean needing a controller. Decisions must be made to go left or right. There is just no individual making this decision out of free will. This tooh is the result of many factors that have brought the moment before the apparent decision maker. Take an example. After

I had the great fortune to attend a satsang with Mooji in Rishikesh. Watch his u tube clips. Many ideas for your mind if you seek the truth earnestly. I love Mooji's thank you, thank you, thank you practice. Really if your mind is singing thank you all the time, can negative thoughts enter? There is a lot to be thankful for, breathing, living, even the mind. Who am I thanking? My self of course as there is no one else. His meditation practice of simply ignoring thoughts, not fighting, not engaging not stimulating just ignoring. Find out what remains after an hour or more of ignoring what comes up.

A common self inquiry technique is to contemplate the question, who am I? Ideally we should ask, is there an I since the mind gets a biased view if you ask who am I. It implies there must be an I if I am searching for one. But before we go there, you must cross the biggest hurdle of all and that is upto now, you have a strong belief that you are the body. You feed it, groom it, use it to own stuff you call yours and love it as the dearest object in the universe. Very hard to let go of this notion. Here is a thought experiment that helped me. Imagine a macabre situation where you are in a serious accident and the doctor has to amputate nearly all your limbs and you become blind as well. You wake up and have no idea of what happened. Your brain still functions and as far as you know all your limbs are intact albeit as ghost limbs. Your doctor gives you the bad news that you no longer have a body. You feel totally you in your mind but have no body. The entire concept of you as a body t

Here is an experiment for you. Close your eyes and make an intent to wiggle your toes. Now deeply explore what happens. Toes move. How did this happen? When did this happen? How do you know it happened? Stories will start to fill your head about the stuff you have been taught. An intention originating from an unknown place sends a signal and a thought surfaces that toes are wiggling. The movement caused friction which sends back a message to the brain confirming the move. Or something like that. The real mechanism is not important, just a story. Now make an intent to make your heart and body healthy. There is no feedback loop so you have no idea if that is happening or not. Much scientific evidence suggests that it is indeed happening. Since it is a long process and intent, you will not know until sometime that it is happening. That is the power and benefit of meditation. So, make a resolution to change something that isn't as clearly visible as wiggling your toes and keep t