Reining Emotions

Swami Sivananda :

When emotions and impulses trouble you much, be indifferent (Udasina). Say to yourself: “Who am I? I am not the mind. I am Atman (all-pervading Spirit, Suddha Sat-Chit-Ananda. How can emotions affect me? I am Nirlipta (unattached). I am a Sakshi (witness) of these emotions. Nothing can disturb me.” When you repeat these suggestions of Vichara, the emotions will die by themselves. This Jnana method of controlling emotions is easier than the Yogic method of driving the emotions and struggling with the mind (Yogas-chittavritti-nirodhah).

Indomitable “I”

 “I am That” – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don’t fight them. Just do nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through.”

 ”Learn to live without self concern. For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless, ever victorious. Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone”.

 ”Just realise you are dreaming a dream you call the world and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs to be done”.

 

 

Detachment

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
–- Harry Truman

Silent Witness

do not hope
do not fear

just be a cog
in universe’s wheel

do not desire
do not loathe

just be a cog
in universe’s wheel

do not worry
do not regret

just be a cog
in universe’s wheel

More ‘traveling’, less ‘arriving’

Quoted from the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance :

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it’s right there, so blurred you can’t focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness.

Chris and I are traveling to Montana with some friends riding up ahead, and maybe headed farther than that. Plans are deliberately indefinite, more to travel than to arrive anywhere. We are just vacationing. Secondary roads are preferred. Paved county roads are the best, state highways are next. Freeways are the worst. We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on “good” rather than “time” and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes. Twisting hilly roads are long in terms of seconds but are much more enjoyable on a cycle where you bank into turns and don’t get swung from side to side in any compartment. Roads with little traffic are more enjoyable, as well as safer. Roads free of drive-ins and billboards are better, roads where groves and meadows and orchards and lawns come almost to the shoulder, where kids wave to you when you ride by, where people look from their porches to see who it is, where when you stop to ask directions or information the answer tends to be longer than you want rather than short, where people ask where you’re from and how long you’ve been riding.

It was some years ago that my wife and I and our friends first began to catch on to these roads. We took them once in a while for variety or for a shortcut to another main highway, and each time the scenery was grand and we left the road with a feeling of relaxation and enjoyment. We did this time after time before realizing what should have been obvious: these roads are truly different from the main ones. The whole pace of life and personality of the people who live along them are different. They’re not going anywhere. They’re not too busy to be courteous. The hereness and nowness of things is something they know all about. It’s the others, the ones who moved to the cities years ago and their lost offspring, who have all but forgotten it. The discovery was a real find.

I’ve wondered why it took us so long to catch on. We saw it and yet we didn’t see it. Or rather we were trained not to see it. Conned, perhaps, into thinking that the real action was metropolitan and all this was just boring hinterland. It was a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Waking Life

The Boat Car Guy in the movie Waking Life :

I feel like my transport should be an extension of my personality. And this is like my little window to the world… and every minute’s a different show. I may not understand it. I may not even necessarily agree with it. But I’ll tell you what I’ve accepted: just sort of glide along. You want to keep things on an even key, this is what I’m saying. You want to go with the flow. The sea refuses no river. The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving. It saves on introductions and goodbyes. The ride does not require explanation – just occupance. That’s where you guys come in. It’s like you come onto this planet with a crayon box. Now you may get the 8 pack, you may get the 16 pack but it’s all in what you do with the crayons – the colors – that you’re given. Don’t worry about coloring within the lines or coloring outside the lines – I say color outside the lines, you know what I mean? Color all over the page; don’t box me in! We’re in motion to the ocean. We are not land locked, I’ll tell you that.

Quiet Reflection

It is over….

Surrender papers have been signed
And the Universe has won

The mind has fallen silent
And peace reigns

Futility of thought
laid bare

The victor will have full sway
the vanquished will ‘just be’

Do I really know….

Do I know if this event is good
Do I know if this event is bad

For what we consider ‘misery’
often provides an insightful lesson

And what we deem ’success’
often is a case of false elation

So let us enjoy only our journey
And not await the destination

Is ‘career’ possible for the non-seeking ?

Performance Targets/10 Hours work days/Bosses/Meetings/Promotions/Blackberries/Emails/Pager/Office Politics – how do we remain meditative in this ego slugfest that on the surface seem as prerequisites for a “career”?

Curiously though, ‘detachment’ is still the answer. When the focus is on the present with no craving or aversion – the quality of work becomes top notch and the results are brilliant. When we work without hope (of praise or promotion) or fear (of reprimand), when there is no distraction from the peripheral and no motives, we submit ourselves to the laws of the universe.  And this work temperament shines through the ordinary and we make our presence felt even in an unreasonable work environment. Meanwhile, a rewarding career is quietly unfolding itself.