Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Practice

Spirituality is sometimes seen as a passive action.Love,joy,kindness,radiance .... are few of the words used to describe "spiritual people".These words are used to describe the results seen in a person,who has walked the path.
No way, can spiritual practice be described in these glowing terms.Spiritual practice is hard work.It involves pain of letting go.Torture of going through the inner battles.The most toughest part is, we have to do it alone.The definition of bravery gets changed overnight.Being fearless becomes very important.

It requires few of the methods we use to achieve our materialistic goals.We need time management,leadership,delegation and other management techniques to be on the path.Many techniques are learnt through our profession/interaction .I have seen people discard the worldly techniques as something inferior.Many are waiting to find techniques which are other worldly.There is this hidden feeling that somehow just because we are on the path...we are special..Our minds thinks that, there may be some other magical techniques which can make us pursue our spiritual goals.As long as the ways correspond to our principles and inner values,we can freely use them to achieve a better understanding of ourselves/true nature.

Sometimes, there is no need of staying isolated in a forest.We may never have any enlightening experience.When we stay in the world and deal with people,we are closer to enlightenment.- Eknath Easwaran

Machines never create problems which break an organization..People do that..
Six Sigma Methodology

Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Renaissance Soul

The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One

http://www.amazon.com/Renaissance-Soul-Design-People-Passions/dp/0767920880

Jack of All trades..Master of none..I dont agree to this statement !!!!

Life is long(not short)..We have time to pursue all the trades we want..We can also master as many trades as we want.A human being has amazing potential.Some people are incapable of handling more than one interest/profession.Some of us thrive under different professions/interest.

As the title suggests this book is a career guide for people who are passionate about many fields.When I pursued my Engineering,I also educated myself in Art,Astronomy,Music and Literature.To me it was just normal to fulfill my never ending curiosity.A lot of my peers thought that I was weird.I spent most of my weekends in the library devouring all the classics.My free time was spent taking Music and Astronomy classes.I also spent considerable expanding my knowledge on Art.
I have never felt it was a waste of time.
My knowledge of Astronomy landed me my first job in Masters.I taught Astronomy and Physics successfully for 2 years.
My love for art landed me my first volunteering job at a hospital.
My love for music expanded my circle of friends breaking all the barriers of race.

The book suggests lot of people like Da vinci and Benjamin Franklin.Da vinci was my idol ..He was a artist and also a scientist.I used him as a sheild to protect myself from peers who opposed my unending interest in learning.To me,life was about learning and improving.Once you master something,you pick the next challenge.When you reach the peak of the mountain,you see that there are other peaks to be reached.We have to be true to ourselves.Wherever the winds of life takes us we should sway effectively in that direction.

A well rounded individual will have a thrist for life.We cannot aim for riches alone ...We aim for excellence....

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Blog

Q & A

Why did I start writing this blog?
I started writing this blog in 2006 with a view of logging my own spiritual journey.I made it public,so that I can share my findings with like minded people.

What does the blog deal with?
I try to stay as honest as possible when I write a post.
Everything is divine.But I am biased towards few topics.Philosophy,Social Structure of Society ( like education and consumerism)Art,Music,Literature.

Who gets benefited from this blog?
There is no financial benefit from this blog.One of the reasons I did not monetize this blog is because it goes against the open source ideology of spiritual knowledge.This knowledge does not belong to a person.It makes no sense,if I make my blog into a personal possession.

Why don't I answer any comments?
We all evolve at different rates.I am going to respect a individuals opinion.I am not going to barge in...condemn them for not aligning to my views or I am not going to applaud them for holding the same beliefs as me.I thank everyone who comment on my blog.I do read them.

Isolation

Isolation can have great benefits on our lives.We can clean up all the mental clutter and perceive things in a new way.Its not people who bother us.But its unwholesome thoughts which creates havoc in our lives.Unwholesome thoughts make our mind crave for things which are not good for us.But we imagine that these thoughts are beneficial.We transform them into action and reap the misery.

We get a lot of information from people around us.Lot of thoughts creep into our mind through the Internet,television,bill boards etc..A lifestyle is advertised to us everyday.A introspective look into our own lives becomes necessary as we battle these cliched lifestyles that people want to sell us.Isolation is one of the ways we can become totally connected with our inner value system.Moral values are decided by the society.The theory of ethics defined by humanists.We should never take any hand- me downs from anyone or from any ideaology.I tried to do few experiments myself to see how the advertising media effects me.One major decision I took was I did not buy a T.V
For the past three years I have been living a TV free life.I made my purchases looking at advertisements.Call me gullible..(But I had lot of faith on the smiling models shown in the advertisements).Once the hypnotic gaze of Television was out of my life,I slowly started developing my own style.Netflix is a better alternative.

The second thing I wanted to erase out of my life was the constant measuring up of my life to the society standards.If I want to spend my weekend watching a series on Mayan culture and not shop,it is perfectly O.K
I dont have to go to a exotic place whenever I get a vacation.It is perfectly fine to stay at home and do nothing.(Its zen at its best)
This is isolation from the evil clutches of mediocrity.

We may try very hard to become original based on our inner likes and dislikes.But the difficult part would be to deal with people who dont understand our ways.
There is a popular Buddhist story...
The monk asks the disciples...
"What would you do when thorns prick your legs at every step you take?"
The disciples replies
I would use leather to protect my feet.
The monk agrees and says...
We cannot cover the whole world with leather so that nothing pricks us.But it easier to cover our feet with leather so that we dont get hurt.


Isolation is not accepted by the society.The world economy depends on consumerism.But by knowing more about ourselves we can prepare a mental shield to filter all the junk.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Hidden Agenda

The words are just a facade to our own illusions
If only the sun brightly followed us into the depth of our minds and our hearts
What misery do we discover which can shake our faith
What treachery do we discover that can break our ties
These agendas like shadows follows us everywhere
This wretched truth that I search.. Is it for the pursuit of fame and glory?
This seeking that I have in my heart is it to become superior to my own neighbour
The rains have flooded my memories with despair
The lightning have caused more fear
I need to pull out these weeds from my garden
Now is not the right time?My mind screams...
The rains have destroyed everything I own
In hope I wait for the torch of truth ...at the break of dawn
When all the events shine in perfect glory...
With honesty and patience I am going to pull
Every thought that has corrupted my mind
In silence, I sit now in darkness
Counting the moments which will sway me into light
From moment to moment I sail on this empty boat
Waiting to get past this horror of examining my own soul

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Limitation

We all have physical limitations.We all have to grow old and suffer in the hands of nature.We all have to perish at the hands of time.The way we are proud of our own strengths,we should be aware of our limitations.

Few of them can be changed...
Some of them can never be changed.We need to realign our life so that we can live with that.

Limitation is the biggest ego buster.The moment we find out that we are limited in some way or the other our ego takes a hard knock.Some people start searching for ways to fill the void.We start developing other qualities which would make us unique.Limitation should never be seen as a curse.Once we are aware of our limitation we are humbled automatically.Accepting limitations allowed me to grow into a better human being.I started appreciating what I had, rather than crib endlessly of how life was unfair.Confessing our limitations to others builds trust in our relationships.When we confess our weakness to people we mistrust then it becomes Achilles heel.

Ambition

Do we need to give up material comforts and a career to achieve any sort of spiritual meaning in our life.
It has been romanticized so much by ancient literature.If anyone knows that you are doing meditation,then they assume that you are going to end up in the forest.I had come across a group of meditators who were ridiculing people who do a Phd.Spiritual growth is tied to the fact that we find the ultimate meaning behind our illusions.For some people doing a Phd may be a spiritual path.They may have to face lot of struggles during which,they may evolve.For some people the path would be to live in isolation.We expect that spiritual life should be a certain way.We are imposing our own belief of spiritual life on ourselves and others.The same thing applies when we follow a particular spiritual path.We expect all the spiritual people we encounter to behave exactly the way we want them to behave.Our expectations can never change the way nature works.People are not going to accomdate our beliefs.

Each path is unique and we can choose any way to attain the truth.A spiritual path may not need that we compromise everything in our life.It also does not mean that we torture ourselves with pain and suffering.It only needs a open mind and heart which can accept the way things are,without super imposing our own beliefs on it.If a individual feels that sacrifice would help in their spiritual practice,then they should do that.Spiritual lives of others/enlightened people can never become a measuring stick for our life.We can get inspired,but we cannot imitate.

Goals

The popular suggestion given by everyone is that “life is short”, so we need to hurry up.I guess that is the slogan of the instant gratification and super achievement cult which, most of the world belongs to. If we cannot do something in the next two minutes and with our action be able to achieve worldly success, then we are wasting our lives.

Most of the spiritual/personal development goals require us to invest lot of time.Our mind works on reflex.So the process we want to change are hard wired into our brain.Life is a long journey and all our goals require Patience,Persistence and Smiling :)