Thoughts and control...!

Although we human beings are free where the external world is concerned, we often feel a sense of imprisonment internally. Why do we feel so? The feeling of restriction, lack of space and freedom, of claustrophobia, comes purely because of our thoughts. Since the time a man becomes aware of himself, he is under the constant unending influence of his thoughts. The mind, which creates these thoughts, is an instrument which helps us think clearly and logically, rationalise, make judgements, choose the right option among many available, plan, visualise, be creative, and to execute tasks. However, in addition to doing all this, the mind is also a generator---of thoughts, worries, anxieties, fears, jealousies, greed, anger---the list is practically endless. And these thoughts and the emotions that these thoughts produce in us become our masters, and we become prisoners of our own thoughts.

Most of us know ourselves and the world around us, by our thoughts. Who we are, what is our qualification, what we do, what are our beliefs and ideals, who are the people who are near and dear to us, our aspirations and ambitions, our religious inclinations, our hopes and worries-----everything comes down to a thought. If we were to take away thought, what or who would we be? In most forms of meditation, as we go deeper and deeper, we choose to ignore all the thoughts that are arising, giving them up one by one, till nothing remains. This no-thought stage is often the end point of meditation, where we only know that we exist. In the no-mind state, we don’t have any identity, except as pure consciousness or pure witness. This is our true self, which can be felt or experienced, only when there are absolutely no thoughts.

  

But the moment our meditation is over, we are back in the world of thoughts. And the world of thoughts, unfortunately, is not the world of reality. Whatever we see, hear, smell, touch, think, conceptualise---everything is our own reaction to the reality. There appears to be a prism or a glass between us and true reality. This prism is our mind and its thoughts, which distorts every aspect of reality, before delivering it to our brain and our areas of cognition and understanding. Something appear blue, something appears red, some people appear to be good while others seem to be evil, life alternates between good, bad and acceptable, things seem to be different on the surface and at deeper levels---basically, since we get a distorted view of reality rather than a real one, life often makes no sense, seems purposeless and chaotic. The end result of all this is conflict, frustration, unhappiness, despair, unfulfilled desires and futility.

Once the self is known, all the thoughts which have imprisoned us no longer have any power over us. In order to experience life as it exists, in order to experience happiness and ecstasy, one has to go beyond all the thoughts that anchor us to our so called reality. Not that these thoughts will not be there, but one must see the thoughts for what they are----figments of imagination churned out by the overactive mind. The problem is that we often believe everything that our mind tell us, through these thoughts, and we act and live our lives according to our belief in these thoughts, most of which are only random raves and rants of the mind. Motivation guru Byron Katie used to say “I used to believe my thoughts and I suffered. The day I stopped believing my thoughts, my suffering ended.”Her entire teaching, called ‘the work’ is based on deeply questioning each and every thought, till the falsity of the thought is established, so that we can throw them away, leading to freedom from imprisonment.

Life : Real movie!

There is hardly anybody who doesn’t love watching a good film. If you think about it seriously, you will realise that our life itself is one big movie. And the central theme of this film of life is duality. We are all witnesses to this movie, as well as characters playing our respective parts. This movie is a long one, which starts at birth and ends at death. And it has all the necessary ingredients to keep us engrossed. Anger, jealousy, greed, fear, violence, sex, love, misery, sadness----all these and much more form part of this beautiful film, called life.

If there was no duality, if there were no polar opposites like good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark, rich and poor, day and night, it would become almost impossible to weave an interesting story. Try formulating a story where there is only goodness, only love, only rich, satisfied people, only people who speak the truth, where there are no liars, no cheaters, no violent human beings, no plotting, conniving, power hungry individuals, no poverty, no anger, no jealousy, no hate, no tragedy,  greed, lust, or sorrow. One would not even be able to write a couple of pages of such a story, and even whatever one writes would seems so monotonous, dull and boring. There would be no twists, no surprises and no climax to such a story. Any film made with this story would not run very long in the theatres. :P

The same is true of life. People always wonder and ask why there is so much evil, why there is so much hatred, why there is so much anger and violence in life? Why is God allowing these things, when He could easily put an end to these negative events and people, say in a jiffy? Why does God make human being suffer? If one were to assume or believe that life is one big film, one big story, then one would automatically realise why opposites exist, because without them, the story of life is impossible. Life on this earth would have ended many years ago, if not for the continuous challenges and unexpected twists and turns, that have gone to make mankind strong and resilient, as a species. With every problem, every setback, every adverse event, mankind has learnt ways of overcoming them or of adapting to them. And  man has always emerged stronger from every challenge thrown at him.

The purpose of life is evolution. Let the buds rise, lets the plants grow!  Existence is really not concerned with us as individuals, as much as it is concerned with evolution of life itself. We individuals are the foot soldiers, who can be sacrificed if necessary, in the dynamic process of evolution. And hence, we have to come across plenty of sorrow and misery in this life, as these are for us to learn and to train ourselves to become better and better. And existence only wants one thing---that the species that exist on earth become better and better. For existence, the ends justify the meaning!

A Smile is worth a million dollars and doesn't cost a cent!

Smile, and the world smiles with you. Frown and you frown alone. Smile alone, beware, you will be taken for a loony. A smile is an owner’s pride and onlookers’ delight. It is more contagious than the common cold. If someone smiles, another one who watches him would smile back and there would be miles and miles of smiles. In the end, a single smile could travel round the planet. Mahatma Gandhi said "you are not fully dressed until you wear a smile". If good handwriting is part of our education, a hearty smile is part of our dress. A smile is the most precious gift you can give to someone, yet it costs nothing. A smile is not copyrighted. You are free to steal, if you like, Drew Barrymore’s (Hollywood star) 1000-watt smile! :D
A smiling child has no ulterior motives to serve, no customers to woo, no sales goals to meet, no master to please. It bounces with joy naturally. The sun shines. The rivers flow. The cows milk. The trees bear fruits. They all have no axe to grind. They do a thankless job. A natural smile is a thankless expression of a joyful heart. A smile is worth a million dollars, and it doesn’t cost a cent.
Smile for Health: "A smile is a curve that sets everything straight", said Phyllis Driller. A genuine smile from a person's innermost soul will keep him happy and healthy. Smiling relieves your stress and boosts your immune system because you are more relaxed. Smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers and Serotonin. Some say smiling lowers blood pressure. I tried it with my blood pressure monitor at near by hopsital in my locale, i.e., MVP hospital. I sat with a somber face and took a reading. Then smiled for a minute and took second reading while still smiling. :D
 Recently I read in a blog: munching chocolates can work wonders, since they contain alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine, which have mood enhancing effects. Go, pounce on a chocolate bar right away and break out in smile. Nine out of 10 people like chocolates. The 10th person always lies! :P ;)
George Elliot says, "wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles." The choice is yours. ^_^

If you love life, then do not squander time!

Those who love life should not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, says Benjamin Franklin. Each one of us is endowed with 24 hours each day, not an hour less, not an hour more. But while some become millionaires and billionaires many others remain paupers all their lives. While there may be other contributing factors behind materialistic success, yet in the main, one common factor that underlines the success stories of all super achievers is good time management. According to an old Sanskrit couplet, intellectuals spend their time reading literature and engaging in healthy debates. Fools squander their time on addictions, sleeping or skirmishing. We find nine out of ten people fritter away a sizable part of their day in sleeping, gossiping and watching television. While it is essential to relax, communicate and entertain, excessive indulgence in these activities make us unproductive and lowers our net worth in life.

Knowledge!

If old and new acquired knowledge, which would be able to transfer mankind to another level of understanding life in its entirety, wouldn't be spreaded, experiences for changing collective views in relation to handle correctly with nature and its resources, would be lost forever ...

Hiding of knowledge in these turbulent times is (for sure) the wrong way - spreading for change is on time and then in heart to heart conversations, minds and souls would be opened for new point of views and new-born ideas ....

So try to cut your own path, try to experience your own emotional world with all possibilities you've got as a gift from nature and and when it's on time to talk, you should only use your linguistic possibilities (quotes, thoughts and point of views of others should only be impulses for personal development), otherwise you'll always only be a copy and in consequence losing authenticity ...

As Einstein once said: information is not knowledge ... from my point of view and with other considerations I would say: information from intuition is knowledge in it's purest form, so knowledge includes information....

Back to going green!

Going green… It’s sometimes downright hard. I, as a green volunteer said --- consume less fuel, it kills people and spoils our environment and quit smoking , save your health. Bicycle everywhere you can, so you save money and you burn calories. And so on…..
But, as the volunteers,are we doing it? This is what I thought of, around an year back. I questioned myself in silence while meditating, what am I doing to go green? I wasn’t going against polythene covers, whenever my mom asks me to get necessaries, I used to carry money while going and come back with three or four PVC covers in hand. This isn’t what we always speak about.. I thought!
Fisrt I need to change my self, although I used to bike everyday when I was in juniors, I wasn’t satisfied with my self motivation and so called “satisfaction”. So, I made up my mind to spend an year like all others recklessly and study the changes that I have to make in myself to become a good green pioneer in all the latest technologies to go green!

So, here I am again, getting back to you, you and you! Over the year I changed myself, I stopped carrying polythene covers(I carry cloth bag), I dint ask my dad for a motorcycle(saves money and fuel), I stopped buying unnecessary goods,taking care of power plugs and what more…. I am trying to do it, the best way, in whatever I see it has to be turned greeen!!!

You called me Mr.green, green gopi, green man and more…… They were making me get beyond to the green core. So, let us start again with all my knowledge that I have gathered and pursue the green actions. 

I believe everyone from all backgrounds can agree that it is better to work together to help protect the environment. Of course we’ll all have disagreements about what this means and how it should be done but if we can move past the politics and work together we can find the common ground on which to start.

People often ask, “Where is that common ground?” and the answer begins with ending the fighting and just finding little things to agree with each other on. The most radical right wing person and the biggest hippie liberal will both agree that having breathable air is important right? Sure, they disagree on what should be done about it and how to keep air clean but at least this is a starting point from which we can move forward. One group does not have to hate the other because there are intelligent arguments on both sides of this important issue!
A cleaner earth starts with a cleaner mind focused on coming together rather than driving people apart! Protect our beloved mother!
With all love to everyone, from your green Moe! Go green! ♥

When i miss the most beloved!

I always wonder that when i miss someone, is it because i love that person? i like that person or maybe it’s just an infatuation? We keep on fighting with ourselves that what’s the reason for missing that person? Some time we also miss people we hate. Many time we also miss people we fight all the time but when they are not around.

But, when you want to continue relationship with the person youkeep on missing, you need to be clear with your intention. According to me there might be following reasons:
You also miss someone special when you are in love with that person.
It might be infatuation.
You respect her/his qualities.
That person is always with you when you need someone to lean on.

Whatever may be the reason, I would say it’s very nice feeling to miss someone. You keep on thinking about that person whole day and night or if it’s worst you might start imagining him/her near you.
Many people feel that it’s the worst feeling to miss someone, but I totally disagree with this. I feel it’s the sweet pain and you can for sure enjoy missing someone. The only thing you need to remember is that you have to miss the golden moment you spend with each other. Please don’t ever miss bad times you spend with that person. Always try to cherish the good moments and it will surely bring a smile on your face.
Another thing which people do is to hide their feelings in front of person they are missing. You must keep your ego aside and convey your feelings to that person. Life is too short; if you love or you miss someone do let them know. If that person understands you, it would never ruin your relationship. ♥