In our day to day understanding all material things follow two distinct stages. The first being birth or coming into existence and the second of death or getting out of existence. All matter begins, stays and perishes, in various durations, ranging from few milliseconds to few hundred billion years. Nothing is for a moment the same. Change is the very basis of all transformation.
We see these changes as a common factor in the growth of our bodies, the development of our mind & emotions, in weather patterns, the cars we drive, the phones we use, the clothes we wear, the songs we listen and many more things. Change is also a constant factor in every cell and atom in this universe. Some change takes place slowly and some fast.
We as humans are not only part of this change, but are also blessed with the ability to understand these changes in not only ourselves, but also in others and all things around us. This makes us not only responsible for our actions on ourselves but also its effect on others.
We are also equipped by our mind which acts as our tool to interpret, analyse and predict these changes.
These interpretations of mind are essential in day to day life. Mind in a state of harmony brings creativity, joy and clarity. When it gets out of balance, it can present itself with too many options and lead to lack of focus & clarity. This can be confusing and exhausting for an individual.
We are also driven by our emotions which can be sometimes unpredictable and uncontrollable. To understand any of these emotions (whether it is happiness or sadness, love or fear, joy or anger) one has to first look into the experiences that created these emotions.
Every day we gain lots of impressions from people we meet, media we watch, religion we follow, places we live, jobs we do and many more factors. These impressions collectively lead to what we call as mental memory. This in many ways shapes our personality and reflects the way we think, behave and defines our outlook in this world. The ability to recall these mental memory of these impressions depends upon the intensity of these events in an individual’s life and once mental inclination.
Usually as stronger and repetitive the impression is, the stronger the memory imprints.
If you pick up any memory from your store house, you will see that they are also attached with emotions in varying intensity. And if you have not learned yet to deal with emotions, that can take an individual to a state of excessive thinking, leading to both mental and physical exhaustions. Which, if not handled properly, can lead to further emotional imbalance, eventually trapping an individual in their own psychological world.
To make this point clear, lets say you are reading or listening to this now. And as you are doing that, I am sure you have some thoughts in you head. Their must be a part of your mind that says, I like it, I don’t like it, I get it, I don’t, I have to finish my work, I have to watch that video, clean my house, or whatever. The part that you talk to yourself.
You have to understand this part more clearly. Your mind is dualistic in nature. Which means, if you are planning a project, it will tell all the good things that can happen and also all the bad things that can happen. Now that is the function of mind. To look things in both the directions and to give you a bigger picture. Our intellect help in this process to choose from various options of mind.
The problem, if you look closely within you, is not with the options of the mind (positive or negative ) but, how long you focus or bring your attention to any of those options. The problem only arises if one has not learned the art of letting go.
Beyond this realm of judgement, analysis, interpretation, which we can call the drama of life, there is a much important component of our experience that often goes unnoticed. The part within us that is purely aware of all this drama. It is not judgemental or analytical, it is just pure reflections & awareness of that you do, think and behave.
This can be differentiated by these two sentence - I am Angry and I know I am Angry.
When you are angry, you are one with the emotion, memory and thought and that can lead to some reactions. But when you say I know I am angry, there is a difference between the emotion and the once who is aware of this emotion.
The magical question lies in - Who is aware? Who is aware that you are thinking, listening, feeling. In deeper philosophical sense - What is aware?
The starting answer anyone could think will be, I am aware. I know I am thinking, learning, reflecting & feeling. The leading question is how you define that I? Who am I? Again, in deeper sense What am I? To answer these fundamental life questions, look life in its grand scale as we know. We are sitting on a small planet on the edge of a small galaxy with billions of galaxies around.
Do you limit your story to the place you are born, the people you met, the experience you had, the political party you support, the religion you picked up, the position in society etc, or are you seeing the bigger picture of what life is about?
And again, if you look closely within yourself, you will see that you are not only in this world, but the world is in you too.
All that you perceive as separate from you are actually one. We may look, dress, eat, behave, feel & believe differently but the force that is beating your heart is also beating the heart of others. It is also the force that grows the trees, forms mountains, shapes continents, bring forth & destroy stars & galaxies. And we are all part of that ever changing magical process.
So, explore your own nature and reflect your place in this vast cosmos. And in time, you will discover that you are not separate from life but you are life itself, participating and witnessing this grandiose play in a place you call it here and now.
Namaste, Vinayak
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Meditation Workshop: Steps to inner silence, with Vinayak