When thought current is interrupted which means that all the thoughts are fixed on one object, it is concentration. But when the flow is uninterrupted which means that the thought is not fixed on any one object, rather we just remain a non-doer and directly watch the thoughts as a neutral energy, without any judgment, analysis, participation, visualization, imagination, contemplation, suppression, repression, condemnation or concentration.

That is meditation. Meditation is a non-doing entity where you are simply a seer, witness, an observer of the minds happenings. To watch is our true nature. It is a natural, non-doing state. No effort is required to watch. We all have full potential to look within directly as we all are blessed with the Third Eye.

Meditation is mind-management. It is not forcing the mind to be quiet. It is to find the quiet that is there already. We are children of bliss. We suffer from stress and strain because we gave all the powers to the mind and made it our master. Not only that, we consider ourselves nothing but the mind.

Mind is matter. It has no power of its own. It is useful in the external world but in the spiritual, internal world, it has to be left far behind. Otherwise we will be the victim of mental and heart diseases. Meditation is seeing the mind as a witness, a neutral energy. It is not interfering with the intricacies and doings of mind. Let the mind go into the dead past or uncertain future in meditation. Just be a seer, be a witness. We just stay in our own source, in our true nature: All-bliss.

We are happy when the mind is cheerful. We are depressed when mind is gloomy. We are at the mercy of the mind that waxes and wanes. We consider ourselves nothing but mind. It is very unfortunate and a great blasphemy to consider ourselves as the victims of some unforeseen incident when the un-ending BLISS is flowing within all of us. Meditation is mind-management. Meditation is a homecoming. – SWAMI VISHVAS

(Courtesy: Vishvas Foundation. Website: www.vishvas.org.)

Good morning friends.  Stress is not easy to overcome.  We have to put some effort to beat all the stress we have.  But if we have the will, it’s not impossible and there will be no hardship if we really want.

The mind is compared to a monkey drunk with the wine of desire, stung by the scorpion of jealousy and possessed with the demon of pride. Lust, greed, jealousy, anger, ego, tensions, reactions, grudges, depression, stress and strain are the symptoms and not the disease.

When we are afflicted with a disease like malaria, we don’t treat each symptom like fever, pain and shivering, one by one. We just treat the disease and the symptoms automatically vanish. So deal directly with the mind and the symptoms of stress and strain will disappear. Vishvas meditation is mind management. There is no attempt, however, to control the mind; the idea is to go beyond it.

The common misconception is that meditation is concentration of mind and techniques are taught to achieve this. Meditation has got no technique. There are techniques for concentration. Concentration is a mental exercise between the mind and the object of attention. But meditation is neither a mental exercise nor a practice. Meditation is a direct and natural process beyond mind itself. Meditation is not concentration; it is the mother of concentration.

Remember, concentration is where one tries to control the thoughts. Meditation is where thoughts get dissolved naturally, enhancing your concentration power, memory power, will power, right thinking and fitness power automatically. - SWAMI VISHVAS

(Courtesy:  Vishvas Foundation. Website: www.vishvas.org.)

Concentration and Meditation (Getty Image)

 

But what happened with Angel not only surprised me, but changed my whole perspective towards life. After the initial depression and shock, Angel started recuperating beautifully. Within four months, she insisted on getting back to her job, working half days at first, and managing her boisterous eight-year old with a little help.

She, in fact, began emerging as a stronger, happier and more determined woman. She laughed more, dressed better and looked more positive than ever before. Doctors had warned us that Angel’s condition might only get worse, but her optimism and courage continues to defy the medical verdict. She once said rather matter-of-factly, “You know, in retrospect, my illness seems to be the best thing that ever happened to me”, and it had left me stumped.

A few months later, I went through a health scare myself; tiny as compared with Angel’s, but nevertheless enough to leave me a little shaken and nervous for months. As I learned to cope, Angel’s words kept coming back to me and I finally understood what she had meant.

I still worry about Angel’s health. But, I know that regardless of how long she has to live, she’s living her life well. Her ambition and enthusiasm are almost contagious and when she visited me during Christmas this year, we sat late into the night giggling over how we’d age into graceful grannies and take long walks together while our husbands, like always, argued over cricket matches and corrupt politicians.

According to Angel, illness is not a negative crisis, but a life changing moment, a gift… another chance to rearrange your life. In her words, “…an opportunity to find more appreciation for aromatic barbecues and clinking glasses.”

timeslife@timesgroup.com

(Soul Curry is a column where we invite our readers to share their soul-stirring experiences)

God morning friends.  Cheers to life!  That was said by many.  In our life, we should always think what’s the best to have a good joy.  Life can be the best as we want it to be.  Life is hard, I admit that.  But we have to struggle in all way and in the end you will get the best in what you do.  There is this article a read that will help you to have a good soul a good spirit.  Let me share it with you.

An illness can help you turn your life around, a friend teaches Renica Rego.

In May of 2006, my best friend, Angel was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition. She was 38. That was the first time I had even heard the word.

She was undergoing treatment for pneumonia at the time, when the radiologist had raised an alarm and sent her to a cardiologist. Within an hour, she was in hospital and our carefree, happy little world came crumbling down like a house of cards.

The bony woman lying helplessly in that sterile hospital room with strange machines blinking around her wasn’t my Angel at all. Even in my dazed state, I remember wondering how it was at all possible that a well-built woman like Angel could shrink to half her size within a day of being in hospital. It was absurd, insane.

The next few days are blurred in my memory. But I do remember fuming at people who even so much as vaguely doubted that Angel would survive. When one of them called a priest to her bedside, I almost lost it. But secretly, I was terrified inside, wondering whether she would survive and if she did, how she would cope with her illness. – The Times of India

timeslife@timesgroup.com

(Soul Curry is a column where we invite our readers to share their soul-stirring experiences)

 

 

Why do you say we should learn to enjoy adversity?

When something is inevitable, when its occurrence cannot be prevented, it is better to go along with it rather than to resist it. The word enjoy here means, make the best out of something. Let me illustrate with an example:

A person is walking along a mountain ridge. He stumbles and falls. As he tumbles down the cliff, he sees the branch of a tree projecting from the cliff-face. He catches hold of that branch. As he is hanging there precariously, he sees his Guru standing on the top of the mountain. He asks the guru what he should do. There is no way the guru can help him physically. Instead, he tells him, The left side of the valley below you is dry and thorny. The right side is lush and green. Look to the right and try to fall there. Now that the fall is inevitable, and you may be plunging to your death, enjoy the scenery during your last leap.

Your assessment of any situation should be realistic. You must muster all your resources in protecting your interests. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your adversary and be prepared to put up the stiffest resistance you can. At the same time, if you find yourself overpowered, try to work out the best bargain. In corporate parlance, for example, try your best to fend off a hostile takeover bid against your company. But if you see that it is unavoidable, try to get the best terms of a takeover.

At least some kinds of enjoyment involve a willingness to suffer some unpleasantness. You go for an Ayurvedic or any other kind of massage. Massage is good for health. Sometimes the masseurs use foot massage, using their body weight to apply different degrees of pressure on your body. It might be uncomfortable or even painful, but later, you feel refreshed and rejuvenated. You are bearing the unpleasantness in anticipation of the joy. – The Times of India

Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda

Good morning friends.  There are times in our life that we are suffering in hope for joy.  We always look for our happiness, pleasure, bliss.  Sometimes it’s tough to find those, but it is no impossible to find it as long as we have the will, the power to do it.  I read one article that made me think that it can be share to everyone.  Those who are suffering  in anticipation of joy, it’s good that you read this and I know it can make you remove that sufferings.  

Where and how do we search for God?

Remember that God is within you, but you don’t see Him because the one place you will never look is inside yourself. You will search everywhere, but never within yourself. Paradoxically, you lose sight of God because He is in you.

Now look at what God has given us. Our intelligence, buddhi , is a precious gift. Yet, are we loving and grateful enough to God who has given us all these?

Do we have even a little of the gratitude a dog has towards its master? No! That is why Dattatreya considers the dog as one of his gurus. Dattatreya draws four lessons from the dog.

A dog doesn’t count its misfortunes or grieve over them. A dog doesn’t live in the past. It doesn’t make long-term plans either. It doesn’t live in the future. It lives instinctively, from moment to moment.

A dogs life is one unbroken straight line marked by love, devotion and gratitude to the one who sustains it. Devotion is its defining property.

Can we, like the dog, be always grateful to our Creator and Sustainer? Can we give up being miserable about our past misfortunes and mistakes?

These are disciplines we impose on ourselves. When we reach this stage, we will have achieved a mental state that looks with equal ease at happiness and sorrow, at misery and luxury; in short, we will have seen God in ourselves. This is the essence of the Sanskrit saying, Tat Tvam Asi, You are That. That is, you are the object of your search. A spiritual journey is a discipline for reaching this stage of supreme self-realisation. – The Times of India

Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda

The Buddha’s philosophy of life revolves around the purification of mind and giving us deliverance from worldly attachments. The Buddha says every human being has the innate qualities and ability to come out of the world of ignorance and move towards the world of enlightenment. In other words, we have the choice. Until we try ourselves to get rid of the “shackles of misery”, no divine power can come to our rescue. Our gurus can only show us the way, but the real “action” is in our hands.

Therefore, the Buddha presented the path of Sila or ethical conduct, Samadhi or meditation and Panna or wisdom as the means to purify the mind. These are quite often referred to as the threefold training or tividhasikkha system; but none of these is an end in itself. Each one is only a means to an end. And these three means go together.

Sila strengthens one’s mental discipline. So does samadhi. And the two lead to panna. It is wisdom that differentiates us from other life forms. It enables us to see life as it is, arising and passing away. The materialistic world has too many temptations. Our desire for fame, name, wealth and power has led us far away from the path of deliverance. Hatred, distrust and violence are the outcome of the lack of understanding of life. Our love for the gratification of senses has led to our experiencing bankruptcy of mind.

However, a little more determination can still put us on to the right path. The Buddha’s Eightfold Path can help us realize our objectives. The path to deliverance is difficult only for those who avoid it. Constant heedfulness and mindfulness can make the path easy to track. These practices are a way of life, and not just an “add-on” to life. Those who try to live life through moral, spiritual and intellectual perfection are the ones who will be the ultimate reapers of happiness and bliss. Self-discipline in body, mind and word go a long way in helping one get closer to reality of life. – The Times of India

Good morning friends.  They said that finding happiness is very difficult.  I think they are wrong in this belief.  For me, I know it is very easy to find happiness as long as you have the will to be happy.  It is ourselves who command or rule us to be happy.  Even there is a situation which will make many happy, it will not happen to you unless you have your will to be.  No one can just swallow bliss and then give it to you just for you to become happy.  You have to do it by yourself.

The core of all religious philosophies dwells on understanding the purpose and meaning of life. Understanding is at the root of development that leads one to ultimate deliverance or nirvana.

Gifted as we are with intelligence, we should try to understand everything we have to deal with in our day-to-day life. It is important because a lack of understanding is the root cause of all that dogs us today.

According to the Buddha, understanding has two layers, anubodhi and pativedha. Anubodhi is what we call ‘knowledge’. It is nothing but accumulated memory, an understanding of a particular subject on the basis of data or observation. It is therefore superficial. Real understanding comes from pativedha or deep penetration into the core of a subject. It enables us to understand an object in its true nature and color. In it, all the exterior labels like name, fame, money and power have zero value.

This kind of understanding can be developed only through rigid training of mind through meditation. One has to strive to be, first of all, free from all kinds of impurities that tend to derail us from the right path.

A person, on reaching this stage of penetrative wisdom, can see everything in the right perspective. He acquires the capability to make a distinction between what is desirable and correct and what is undesirable and incorrect. Such a person also develops the ability to acquire habits that enable his mind to see and believe nothing but the good of all. – The Times of India

This creative movement of thought never seeks a result or comes to a culmination, because result or culmination is always the outcome of alternate cessation and movement, whereas if there is no search for result, nut only continual movement of thought, then that is creative thinking.

Again, creative thinking is free of division, which creates conflict between thought, emotion, and action. And division exists only when there is the search for a goal, when there is adjustment and the complacency of certainty.

Action is this movement which is itself thought and emotion. This action is the relationship between the individual and society. It is conduct, work, cooperation, which we call fulfillment. That is, when mind is functioning without seeking a culmination, a goal, and, therefore, thinking creatively, thinking is action, which is the relationship between individual and society. Now if this movement of thought is clear, simple, direct, spontaneous, profound, then there is no conflict in the individual against society, for action then is the very expression of this living, creative movement.

So to me there is no art of thinking, there is only creative thinking. There is no technique of thinking, but only spontaneous creative functioning of intelligence, which is the harmony of reason, emotion, and action, not divided or divorced from each other.

If there is practice of self-discipline it is change towards an end. It is merely action within the confines of the limited thought which you call self-consciousness. So mere practice does not bring about creative thinking.

To think creatively is to bring about harmony between mind, emotion, and action. That is, if you are convinced of an action, without the search of a reward at the end, then that action, being the result of intelligence, releases all hindrances that have been placed on the mind through the lack of understanding. – The Times of India

Good morning friends. Infinite movement of thought.  Have you ever believed in this?  I do believe.  Thought is the kind of action or process of thinking.  We people were those who think of things whether it’s good or bad, positive or negative.  We are arranging ideas in our mind. 

 What we call happiness or ecstasy is, to me, creative thinking. And creative thinking is the infinite movement of thought, emotion and action.

That is, when thought, which is emotion, which is action itself, is unimpeded in its movement, is not compelled or influenced or bound by an idea, and does not proceed from the background of tradition or habit, then that movement is creative. So long as thought is circumscribed, held by a fixed idea, or merely adjusts itself to a background or condition and, therefore, becomes limited, such thought is not creative.

So the question which every thoughtful person puts to himself is how can he awaken this creative thinking; because when there is this creative thinking, which is infinite movement, then there can be no idea of a limitation or a conflict.

Now this movement of creative thinking does not seek in its expression a result, an achievement; its results and expression are not its culmination. It has no culmination or goal, for it is externally in movement. Most minds are seeking a culmination, a goal, an achievement, and are moulding themselves upon the idea of success, and such thought, such thinking is continually limiting itself, whereas if there is no idea of achievement but only the continual movement of thought as understanding, as intelligence, then that movement of thought is creative.

That is, creative thinking ceases when mind is crippled by adjustment through influence, or when it functions with the background of a tradition which it has not understood, or from a fixed point, like an animal tied to a post. So long as this limitation, this adjustment, exists, there cannot be creative thinking, intelligence, which alone is freedom. – The Times of India