'Word' is not the Object

Learning is onerous.

Set against the background of morals and ethics that change from person to person with very little to give one a lead, it can be conflicting to think of meditation in a real context. It might be conflicting thought that a meditator lives with no lust for life, and yet manages to make effort and acquire skills that can make a gymnast jealous, to speak figuratively ;) But attaining skills is not the aim.


Like a veil lifting from everything I see, my memory has improved a bit. I am more involved with my world lately as there seemed to be better articulation n better balance. This is coming after a phase when I thought I was going wrong somewhere … but it seems that sometimes you just keep going and keep paying on the right path and not worry about the rest. However, this post is not about that. The post was supposed to start as ‘The joy of meditation has shifted from objects.’ At home I have a bowl and a plate I eat from, meditating on the plate while eating. There is a mat I sit on to meditate … but while traveling the only ‘object’ I relied on to meditate was the breath. Suddenly I realized that meditation was not dependent on the object/s. There was no need for tangible objects for some time as if there was a disassociation. Even words/language are not directly linked to meditation. My senses are all the time taking in the surroundings … and the hold on the sensory objects eased a little, this seemed to be a significant moment.

But learning is onerous, and I am still learning. Am back to figure out the mechanics of balancing with tangible objects, but with much less passion for life, much less clinging. And as if a new phase has started, there is better balance with the world and its hypocrisy.

As I move on the path, I realize how significant it is to be moral to keep going. Just to get started one needs morality. (ref. Five Precepts)

Carriers of Circmstance

The thing about wisdom is that it is larger than us.

I got up from tea very very irritated at what she said. She was there when I was born and I had considered her my strength and resort in the years when none around me seemed 'right'. She seemed a pillar of strength and dignity. Dignity in hardship was what she stood for ... she said something so deluded. She must be mad. Overtime I had realised how partial she was to her kin, how her genuine goodness got colored by the mean folks she is with. But the core hasnt changed and she is still open to goodness. At 80, cynicism has not quite set in. But I can see how bad environments can ruin such beautiful folks.

So, I heard such unpleasant words from her. Wisdom says I had to face it and she is a carrier of circumstance. Not her fault. She will function and I have to breathe it out. I wont give a damn to what she said, correct her and might help her, if nothing else, love her from a distance.

I felt detached. Dukkha ... good or bad we all fall down someday, its brilliant how this fact gives so much energy to meditate!

Peacocks Dance

I went into my backyard. Winter sun, lonely, some peacocks, and parrots. I love the pine trees duo. I had gone with headphones and the mobile in case I get a call, generally upset about the power cut that pulled me away from the computer screen.

I plug in the headphones and there's music, I had missed yoga in the morn. I start with that intention and end up just dancing. Something amazing happened. I never knew peacock was fond of dance, not like that. (I sometimes feed these dozens of peacocks in the backyard and since the past year and half have begun to understand my shy neighbors) Peacocks looked on, amazed, and danced too! This time of the year they are still growing new feathers (they shed them each year) and they dont generally dance in groups, not with humans. This happened for some time and I ended up just looking at them till both sides humans and peacocks lost the natural wonder. I am back on my desk, with, as if, heady pleasure.

Shut the world out

Well, this post is going to be my undoing. But the saving grace is ... well, let me come back to the point--the post is about a meditation practice where students are required to draw replica of a very intricate picture from memory. Good memory is a good reflection of how good the cognition is of the meditator.

Even non-meditators can acquire phenomenal memory after practice and some people seem generally good at it, but sooner or later great memory will come naturally to a meditator.

So if these guys were to come and rate me on my meditation practice based on my memory it will be ... well, embarrassing! I dont remember anything, I shut the world out!

Somebody help me!

Ritual

My mind realises pain will be a separate phenomenon if there is sustained concentration. If there is no clinging to self. I relised it as I did my eyebrows looking in the mirror. Instances when it hurt were instances when I was clinging to the idea of 'self'. In bare cognition it didnt hurt. Concentration I believe erodes unhealthy and unatural states of ignorance and delusion, concentration is a more natural state...

Secret of Yogi's Flexibility :)

One of the reasons a yogi celebrates simplicity is for a clear view. I think it is not out of detachment but for convenience that they become minimalistic. It is surprising to think that it is more comforting to have less. Less luxuries, less food, less possessions, less clothing, less working hours, less talk … . Some things are given up altogether like music and sex. Seems no fun to a lot of people.

Largely, I feel yogis are not sadists...they just simplify things. Why make it so inconveniently convenient one might ask. The answer is: They indeed have practices that engage them for large spaces of time … but more importantly they choose to simplify to make things clear. Like in clear waters you can see the bottom/bed of the river or a pond. Like in clear weather/desert you can see far. Yogis simplify things to gain clarity, clear cognition. Clear cognition of what? Yogi wants to gain a clear cognition of cause and effect. Experiential understanding of the theory and practice of dhamma, to stay real and to progress indepedently. What right do I have to say this, how do I susbstantiate what I say here abut clear link between simplicity and access to insight?
To substantiate I will have to pull in an event from this morning. I have recently come home after a bit of traveling. Carried very few possessions with me. A small cloth bag for short trips and a bit larger bag for longer haul, apart from a handbag. That did set the context of minimalism and simplicity, cognition apprently was starkly clear and so was cause and effect of things as meditated for long hours parked at stations and while traveling.
Now, this morn at home I woke up with some pain in the back of my neck. I know from past experience that this pain has direct correlation with stress. Pain in the neck was because I have been stressed out for finances apart from … may be bad posture … though I rarely, if ever, slouch. I was experiencing a lot of clinging to money which is unusual, but the feeling came up and was grasping me:) Then this morning I spontaneously parted with a personal possession to help someone. For a brief moment I thought I will regret for it later (what a selfish state of mind!)… but the person receiving was glad and automatically I joined in the pleasure of sharing. I noticed, surpringly, that small event relieved me of sress. I also noticed that for some time the pain vanished! As the day progresses I continue to deal with my matters with a superior state of mind.

No matter how small the context, the cognition should be clear for a meditator to progress on the path of dhamma.

I recall here age old Hindu tradition of dana that is now reduced to a mere convention of pandits recommending certain kinds of giving/dana as antidote to some trouble that the native might be suffering from … but conventions don’t help at all. Cognition does.

Yogis establish this cognition and purity as the seat of change within. Cognition establishes clear links, helping one progress on the path of purification. This helps others ... but the real stuff is that one starts healing oneself. The yogi becomes stronger, from leading a pure/moral life, with right effort, right view, constant learning/mindfulness based on sound experience, sound cognition, and lastly, sound theoretical knowledge of dhamma.

Yogi bares himself to the play ... as if standing bare in such a desert where his frame of mind determines the weather. Storms of emotions are very clearly comprehended, heat of anger, depressing dark of the night, or lifedrops of love and compassion. Surise and sunsets. In bare conditions everthing is faced head on. Thats the life of a yogi, moment to moment and bare. Do not read this too literally, yogis have meditation practice as vast as the sky as the background, without this bacground do not bare yourself :) The skills of survival in the bare desert are the skills in theory and practice of dhamma, that renders the flexibility and watever else that is required … the challenges are not faced uslessly, the motivation is for wisdom

Mind knows no bounds when …

It is continuation to the last post. Lot has happened since I wrote the last bit on morality. Lot of teeny weeny and large chunks of moments passed since then. Largely rough moments that expected *lies from me to save my interests, and I lied. But lousy and silly as I am, I am not a natural ... do not have the Salesman’s flair. So am back to business ... writing another reflection on larger benefits of morality.

So here’s the Salesman’s story:

Girl, student, 2006 June. Lost her cell suddenly, went to buy a new one. Doesn’t know what make she wants … just wants basic features. Willing to spend but doesn’t want any fancy stuff. Near her prospective college she walks in a shop with an innocent looking salesman who sells her a cell, Italian make, this that, basic camera, good functions. She buys the cell in five minutes after asking about camera and features. Yes it can be connected to the computer but he will give the cable later. OK girl thinks she will come back later for the cable. She visits the shop several times later to transfer some precious pictures but never gets the cable. The cable is out of stock.

Four years later it occurs to the girl that the salesman had lied! He had lied consciously about the additional feature and fooled her. Such an event of being easily fooled will occur with someone who is not habitually in a habit of lying. Everyone else too seems truthful and innocent. Took four years to realize it was a lie. And the reaction is not anger but that of pity for the one who lied. Seems like you have come from a different, strange country. Morality makes one a little 'stupid'. I remember a phrase here 'a yogi fears no one, and no one needs to fear him'
Now, obviously the salesman sitting in that little shop dreams of being a millionaire. Five years down he seems to have only grown older;) He thinks lying helps, it might seem to bring an immediate success but had the young salesman chased some larger truths (may be at the university nearby) he might have been a millionaire now, or a seeker … may be both! May no one be shy of obvious truths, of brilliant opportunities, may all embrace each other.


Bless you!
*There are five basic things I call morality learnt it from five precepts
Abstain from lying
Abstain from sexual misconduct
Abstain from stealing, taking what is not yours
Abstain from intoxication
Abstain from taking life.