Body Complex

Ancient cultures gave importance to the perfect body.The Olmpyics was a result of the obession with the perfect form.The Mayan’s tampered with the muscles of a newborn's forhead, to comform to the mayan standard of having a flat forehead . They also drained blood from their bodies,as a form of sacrifice.The Victorians made themselves look pale white, as being feverishly delicate was the vogue during that time.During the same period women were supposed to have body sturcture identical to men.Fastforward few hundred years and look at the streets of London,people having silicon implants to look more voluptous. So if a Victorian super model travels in time and reaches present day London, she would be deemed as a ugly women.The standards have changed.
The native tribes in all continents still follow mutilation and body worship.

When we see the present day diseases of aneorixa and bulimia,we can see the results of body imagery affecting everyday life.The illusion that there is a perfect body somewhere drives everyone to achieve that ideal.I have suffered numerous "body -complexes" due to my conditioning and also the images of the media gave rise to low self esteem.Even Cindy Crawford in an interview, told that she can never look like the "Cindy Crawford in a magazine”. Then why does the society allow morphed images or impossible body ideals to enter the main stream media?

There are various factors which propel the society to give importance
to the body and not the mind.

1.Idolatory nature of the human species.(Valid from ancient times)

2.The adoration of youth and eternal life.Hatred of old age and
death.( Valid from ancient times)

3.Economic Benefit(The advent of Advertising)

Everyone in the present day has issues concerning their body.We all feel ugly because our bodies don’t match the surgically altered bodies of the actors/actress.We may not have flawless skin or pleasing face.But irrespective of that,the natural law's rots them and us at the same time.But perfection of body is a battle with the impossible.

We may struggle hard to keep the body in perfect shape and form,but old age will come.Death will hunt us down.Our body is bound to decompose and become manure.Yoga
has become so popular in the west.One of the western companies wanted to patent yoga as their invention.What was not done in 5000 years (in India),would be done in the past 50 years due to greed.Even yoga when followed as a exercise regiment may hold some benfits,but without the spiritual component, it becomes a money making machine.

But perfection of the mind is possible.We can reach it. Our mind may have the key to the realms of the unexplored.Thanissaro Bhikkhu in his meditation lectures(http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/meditations.html) says that:
The body works on the "Laws Of Dimnishing Returns".By obsessing with our body we cannot get any answers .By working on the mind we learn to deal with inevitable scenarios like death.Old age gives rise to various fears.Hallucinations and nightmares start ruling our mind once our body starts deterioating.If we spend our youth making our minds fearless and attain a state of peace by accepting death and permancence,we are bound to have a rich life.

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

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....

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.

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

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 :)

Kindness

People think being kind is a quality closely linked to cowardice.I belive the opposite is true.Only a person with enormous amount of inner strength can be kind to everyone.

Kindness was one of the most important things that I wanted to cultivate.There are lot of stages which are involved.We start being kind to strangers,the people we work...But to be truly kind to people we love(family/friends)is difficult initially.
Sometimes we take people for granted or we are kind to them so that they return the favors later.

Kindness does not mean we giving up our principles.
Kindness does not mean giving up our core beliefs.
Kindness does not mean not showing any reaction.

Kindness is the capacaity to see a different perspective and to imagine a new dimension to a existing individual.Inspite of the differences and the occasional debates we experience due to our inherent uniqueness,I feel being kind gives us a oppurtunity to introspect.

There is this beautiful article about kindness which I read on Helpothers.org...


"IF I had 10 more years"
By Wayne

Paul was dying of cancer. It became clear to him that it was time for him to prepare for death.

About a week before Paul died, I was visiting him one morning. I found him sitting up, propped against a mound of pillows. I sat on the edge of his bed. His bedroom had a beautiful porch with French doors that were always open to the summer sun and gentle breezes. Paul sat, silent, in the rays of the morning light.

"I wish I had ten more years, free of this illness. With those ten years, I could really live as I always wanted."

What would you do if we could give you those ten years? What would your life look like?" I finally asked.

Paul spoke easily and certainly. "I would be kind."

"I would live my life with kindness," he said. "I would be kind to children. I would teach them to be kind, too. This is all I ever really wanted to do, just to be kind, to be loving." He was quiet for a moment. "A few months ago, when I was feeling quite strong, I thought I would treat myself, so I walked into a bakery and ordered two of my favorite cookies. I told the girl behind the counter that they were my favorite, and she said she loved them, too, but that they were very expensive. When I left, I thought about it for a minute, went back and bought another cookie, and gave it to her. 'This one is for you,' I said. She was so surprised by my kindness. 'You are such a kind man,' she said. I felt absolutely wonderful. Such a small thing, such an easy thing to do. This is how I would live my life, if only I had more time."

In the face of his death, Paul saw his life. His death clarified his heart's desire: to be a kind person. Everything else fell away, and he simply saw what was precious and valuable. To be kind -- this was the most sacred thing, the most perfect and accurate offering he could make.

Cutting Through Spiritual Materilaism

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Book)
By Chogam Trunga (Author)

The image on the page is not of tranquil Buddha,who showers compassion on us.A angry man in robes lifts his hand, as if he wants us to stop our deception and spiritual pride that we have cultivated.
This book is not targeted for people who are starting the spiritual journey.The audience for this book are the people who are basking in the self induced achievement of spiritual goals.
The book has lot of useful pointers on various topics.
The chapters in the book which I found interesting are:

Surrendering
The Guru
Initiation
Self Deception
The Hard Way
The Open Way
Sense of Humor
The Development of Ego

There are few other chapters which deal with theoretical Buddhism.They cover the common topics of truth,emptiness(Shunyata)and Compassion.

Responsibility

Responsibility has its own rewards.Not all works are glamorous or profitable.Some actions make us look ordinary.Actions which have to be repeated again and again ,which are boring,the rewards not visible for instant gratification.But whenever we perform a task which is part of our duty as a human/a wordly
being or a outcome of our own life purpose,there is deep joy even when
we don’t see the rewards.It just feels right to do it.May be others
may not appreciate or applaud us.No one may even notice.But doing the
action, is the greatest reward.

What we see

Similarity and differences lies in the eye of the seeker.Depending on what our mind expects, we look for specific things in others.We choose what we want to see...We try to look at how the other person is different,when we are scared of others.When there is similarity,we are filled with love.It is still a paradox,as how we blame others for what we see in them.When the bowl is impure ..even if holy water is poured in it..it turns muddy.What ever we miss in our life we search for it in others.May be trying to be self sufficient will reduce our own judgemental projection of biases.
Mirroring is one of the ways through which we fulfill our deepest desires.Psychologists say that through mirroring we can cover our deepest scars which life has given us.But to find people who mirror what we want and not take advantage of our vulnerability is very difficult.Mind is also looked upon as a mirror.
Can we be our own mirrors and give necessary affection and care for own well being?
I guess the highest love is self-love.To accept ourselves and not get scared of who we are.

Faith

Do we shed away our faith as we grow older and learn from life.On what do we have faith in the first place.Is faith a pseudo-belief we keep hanging on,as things go bad.Is it a step towards fool's paradise...Sometimes things are really bad and no amount of faith can actually make you feel better.But faith "says" things can become better.

But even to try anything new in life we need to have faith.Even the society works on faith.We have faith that the law can protect us.We have faith in the educational system.We have faith in the people who hire us.We have faith in our friends that they will support us,no matter what happens.
I guess I have faith only on life itself.Somehow I feel life has its own purpose.It has its own needs.

Like how a flower blossoms..spreading its perfume without any concern ,for anyone.There may be no one to appreciate the beauty,no one to enjoy the beautiful fragrance,no one to hold it with joy...it blooms..withers..blooms again..
Even if we don't have faith ...we fulfill the purpose.

Beyond the mind

Is it possible to go beyond the mind?
Its a very difficult to imagine how we can go beyond the mind,if mind is the device which records where we are.
Is it a metaphor for ignoring our mind?
So if enlightenment occurs does our mind record the fact that we are enlightened.Looking at the people who claim to be enlightened,most of them remember their spiritual awakening.
What if enlightenment is also an illusion.
May be the day I start believing that,I may stop writing this blog.

Powerless

The feeling of powerless-ness is the most miserable feeling we can feel in our lives.It is the price we pay of being human.But we as part of humanity are powerless over lot of the circumstances.Political/economic scenarios,wars etc..can cause us much grief even though we are not involved.

Once we realize powerlessness,we also learn how to surrender.Everyday we surrender our lives to lot of people.We place our trust on the educational system,have faith on the security provided by the nation,have faith on our family...It is very difficult to have faith on something which we are not sure of.
But is it possible to surrender our lives to any higher power???

If any higher power exists,how do we know that it is not an illusion.I guess,that's the problem ,the more philosophical/spiritual we become,everything starts looking perfect and we don't question them.The drawback is everything starts looking spiritual.There is nothing wrong in connecting spirituality to everything..But the amount of energy which is used to introspect and analyze drives us crazy.I try to see it as a war between common sense and fanaticism.Even though surrender is very important to start learning any technique,the obsession with it leads us in the wrong way.I guess the middle way is the best.

Faith

Do we shed away our faith as we grow older and learn from life.On what do we have faith in the first place.Is faith a pseudo-belief we keep hanging on,as things go bad.Is it a step towards fool's paradise...Sometimes things are really bad and no amount of faith can actually make you feel better.But faith "says" things can become better.

But even to try anything new in life we need to have faith.Even the society works on faith.We have faith that the law can protect us.We have faith in the educational system.We have faith in the people who hire us.We have faith in our friends that they will support us,no matter what happens.
I guess I have faith only on life itself.Somehow I feel life has its own purpose.It has its own needs.

Like how a flower blossoms..spreading its perfume without any concern ,for anyone.There may be no one to appreciate the beauty,no one to enjoy the beautiful fragrance,no one to hold it with joy...it blooms..withers..blooms again..
Even if we don't have faith ...we fulfill the purpose.

Courage

It takes a lot of courage to travel the path which is unfamiliar...
To reach the promised state ,where we dont compromise our principles,our beliefs and our lives is painful.The more you try to align your life towards where you want to go,the more obstacles we face chasing it.When we try our level best and then give up...we reach our goal...But the feeling we have when we achieved the goal has changed completely.The struggle, has made us wise to see through the chase.One of the things which I have started noticing recently is the drive I have behind achieving any goal.The higher the drive,the more I struggle against the odds.Drive should not be confused with hardwork/patience.Drive is a restless desire which makes us blind.We cannot associate good or bad adjectives to it..Its just there ..and it has to be burnt the hard way.
To chase and to walk the unknown path...is the only solution..and being courageous enough to give up at the right time is the only wisdom...

Spiritual companionship

As humans we need support to continue on the path.Interdependence of life makes us,form a circle of people who motivate and inspire us to go forward.The goal of spirituality is to realize the divinity in everything.To view everything from the same source.There are huge paradoxical events which arise,when you belong to a spiritual community.The first thought which hits you,is that..."You are special".
You start noticing how the world works and how un-spiritual people are.Everyone is materialistic and somehow on the opposite side of divinity.Its another ego high/trip which I guess we have to enjoy.The downfall happens right afterwards,when we are stuck to spend most of the time with the so called un-spiritual people.Differences always exist.Conformity will kill humanity.

The solution would be to get rid of the idea that we are special, because we are spiritual.To dispose ideas and make the ego take a beating is painful.

The alternative solution would be to disperse the wisdom and make them special like you.I always think the second alternative is fun.

Ideal World

Idealism is one of the driving forces of the illusions we form of the world around us.The world we create can never be segregated into black or white.There are shades of grey which always make our life difficult.Idealism is like permanent happiness...

Permanent happiness is never possible.Our childhood mostly creates fantasies of the idealistic world in our minds.We feel hurt when the practical never matches the ideal.One of the main concerns which keeps the misery going on..is that..."We demand and feel that we deserve a ideal world."
So we keep dreaming that when I achieve this or do that... the world will somehow turn into fairy land which was conceived,when we were 10 years old.
The world does not owe us anything...It does not owe us an ideal world...