The difficult human birth - Only an opportunity for transformation

Every spiritual tradition has stressed that this human life is unique and has a potential that ordinarily we don't even begin to imagine. If we miss the oppurtunity this life offers us for transforming ourselves, they say, it may well be an extremely long time before we have another.

Imagine a blind turtle roaming the depths of an ocean the size of the universe. Up obove floats a wooden ring, tossed to and fro on the waves. Every hundred years, the turtle comes, once , to the surface. To be born a human being is said by the Buddhists to be more difficult than for that turtle to surface accidentaly with its head poking through the wooden ring.

And even among those who have a human birth, it is said, those who have the great good fortune to make a connection with the teachings are rare, and those who really take them to heart and embody them in their actions even rarer--as rare, in fact, "as stars in broad daylight". Source : Glimpse after Glimpse - Sogyal Rinpoche.

The craving mind - The real culprit

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche describes a yogi wandering through a garden. He is completely awake to splendour and beauty of the flowers, and relishes their colors, shapes and scents. But there is no trace of clinging or any "after-thought" in his mind.

As Dudjom Rinpoche says:- "Whatever perceptions arise, you should be like a little child going into a beautifully decorated temple; he looks, but grasping does not enter into his perception at all. You leave everything fresh, natural, vivid and unspoiled. When you leave each thing in its own state, then its shape doesn't change, it's color doesn't fade and its glow does not disappear. Whatever appears is unstained by any grasping, so then all that you perceive arises as the naked wisdom of Rigpa(Our original state of mind), which is the indivisibility of luminosity and emptiness.

My own experience :-

During a Hatha Yoga program, I was attracted to a beautiful girl. Our eyes met and we were lost to each other. We enjoyed every moment of it. But the moment my mind began to organise tricks to somehow get her, I sensed that I have lost some sacredness in it. My mind was suggesting all kind of ideas like should I suggest myself a bachelor or married despite the fact that I am married. Truly I did not sense any guilt in feeling her. But the only way I could possess her was to be aggressive and that was not in my nature of things. I simply walked off. It was like if existence wants, he will allow us to meet without any effort in our part. It was a beautiful experience.

In one more incident, while I lived in 2nd floor, a female maid servant was living in the 1st floor of my brothers house. Soon we were attracted to each other and there was a silent agreement that nature should take its own course. But during her visit to my house she aggressively demanded something from my father. I could see the aggressive & possesive mind behind the beautiful body. I was able to see the nature of the sex very clearly. It is like you stand in the terrace and you view a beautiful swimming pool. There is a craving to experience it and you decide to take a dive into it. You enjoy every bit of it. Only when you come out of swimming pool, you become aware that the whole field is covered with red and green chillies. And you suffer in unawareness. If one is not meditative, one will hanker for sexual experience again and again, no matter what be the cost. Hankering will awaken jealousy, violence, aggression, anger. Everything is lost in unawareness.

The offer to merge was so open but I decided not to respond to it. She was hurt by my sudden change in behaviour. But it was too late before I realised my mistake. Atleast I will not have to carry all my life.

Living in illusion

So many veils and illusions separate us from the stark knowledge that we are dying. When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings.

Sir Thomas More, I heard, wrote this words just before his beheading "We are all in the same cart, goint to the execution, how can i hate anyone or wish anyone harm ?" To feel the full force of your mortality, and to open your heart entirely to it, is to allow to grow in you that all-encompassing, fearless compassion that fuels the lives of all those who wish truly to be of help to others.

Source - Glimpse after Glimpse - Sogyal Rinpoche.

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Near Death experience from the above mentioned book

Those who have been through the near-death experience have reported a startling range of aftereffects and changes. One woman said: The things that I felt slowly were a very heightened sense of love, the ability to communicate love, the ability to find joy and pleasures in the smallest and most insignificant things about me....... I developed a great compassion for people that were ill and facing death, I wanted so much to let them know, to somehow make them aware that the dying process was nothing more than an extension of one's life.

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What is our life but a dance of transient forms? Isn't everything always changing? Doesn't everything we have done in the past seem like a dream now? The friends we grew up with, the childhood haunts, those views and opinions we once held with such single minded passion: We have left them all behind. Now, at this moment, reading this book seems vividly real to you. Even this page will soon be only a memory.

Obstacles in the path

The following excerpts are from the book Glimpse after Glimpse by Sogyal Rinpoche :-

When little obstacles crop up on the spiritual path, a good practitioner does not lose faith and begin to doubt, but has the discernment to recognize difficulties, whatever they may be, for what they are - just obstacles, and nothing more. It is the nature of things that when you recognize an obstacle as such, it ceases to be an obstacle. Equally, it is by failing to recognize the obstacle for what it is, and therefore taking seriously, that it is empowered and solidified and becomes a real blockage.

My own experience :-

I have experienced various kind of obstacles in my life, ranging from small to intense. When problems come, it looks like that it will stay here for eternity, making us fearful. But it is actually just a phase, which comes and go. One does not have to do anything. The only thing one can do is to maintain dignified living, not to compromise on the values we have learned in Isha. The bad phase simply passes off, leaving no signature of it behind. Sometimes I wonder that the reason for which I became fearful is still present but the very nature of fear does not stays. It passes off. Only patience, and taking care of the light of love which was burned through Sadhguru's kriya, will help you to tread your path joyfully. Really, if you are in love with Sadhguru, you will pass off the hardest of obstacles in your life. I remember Sadhguru's saying that "Whatever you may do in you life, simply weigh your act whether it is for me or it is against me. A simple sadhana.

Music videos you will love

Bho Shambo Shiva Shambo - Images of Sadhguru and Dhyanalinga

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Make your practice a joyful experience

Quotes from the book "Glimpse after Glimpse" by Sogyal Rinpoche, a tibetan master.

"There are many ways of making the approach to meditation as joyful as possible. You can find the music that most exalts you and use it to open your heart and mind. You can collect pieces of poetry, or quotations or lines of teachings that over the years have moved you, and keep them always in hand to elevate your spirit. I have always loved Tibetan thangka paintings and derive strenght from their beauty. You too can find reproductions of painting that arouse a sense of sacredness and hang them on the walls of your room.

Listen to a cassette tape of a teaching by a great master, or a sacred chant. You can make of the place where you meditate a simple paradise, with one flower, one stick of incense, one candle, one photograph of an enlightened master, or one statue of a deity or a buddha. You can transform the most ordinary of rooms int an intimate sacred space, an environment where everyday tou go to meet with your true self with all the joy and happy ceremony of one old friend greeting another."

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"When I teach meditation, I often begin by saying "Bring your mind home. And release, And relax."

To bring your mind home means to bring the mind into the state of Calm Abiding through the practice of mindfulness. In its deepest sense, to bring your mind home is to turn your mind inward and rest in the nature of the mind. This itself is the highest meditation.

To release means to release the mind from its prison of grasping, since you recognise that all pain and fear and distress arise from the craving of the grasping mind. On a deeper level, the realization and confidence that arise from your growing understanding of the nature of the mind inspire the profound and natural generosity that enables you to release all grasping from your heart, letting it free itself to melt away in the inspiration of meditation.

To relax means to be spacious and to relax the mind of its tension. More deeply, you relax into the true nature of your mind, the state of Rigpa. It is like pouring a handful of sand on to a flat surface, and each grain settles of its own accord. This is how you relax into your true nature, letting all thoughts and emotions naturally subside and dissolve into the state of the nature of the mind."

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My Own experience :-

The first thing I do in the morning when i wake up is take the keys and get ahead towards the temple to fetch flowers. It has been a beautiful experience, making an offering before I start my kriyas. Lighting up a deepam, placing the flowers in the bowl of water so that the flowers can stay fresh for whole day long, lighting up the incense sticks, leaving the place spellbound by the aroma of Sathsang. I always cherish this feeling of sacredness. The only question is that Can we carry this sacredness with us for whole day long? Can we maintain the silence within the disturbance of the noise in the marketplace?

Faith in the guru

The following are the quotes from a tibetan book "Glimpse after Glimpse" authored by Sogyal Rinpoche on the above subject "Faith in the Guru". The book contains golden quotes by various tibetan masters.

"If, at the moment of death, you can unite your mind confidently with the wisdom mind of the master and die in that peace, then all, I promise and assure you, will be well.

Our task in life is to practice this merging with the wisdom mind of the master again and again, so that it becomes so natural that every activity- sitting, walking, eating, sleeping, dreaming and waking - starts to be increasingly permeated by the master's living presence. Slowly, over years of focused devotion, you begin to know and realize all apperances to be the display of the wisdom of the master. All the situations of life, even those that once seemed tragic, meaningless or terrifying, reveal themselves more and more transparently to be the direct teaching and blessing of the master, and the inner teacher."

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When we have prayed and aspired and hungered for the truth for a long time, for many, many lives, and when our karma has become sufficiently purified, a kind of miracle takes place. And this miracle, if we can understand and use it, can lead to the ending of ignorance forever. The inner teacher, who has been with us always, manifests in the form of the "outer teacher", who, almost as if by magic, we actually encounter. This is the most important encounter of any lifetime.

Source ; Glimpse after Glimpse by Sogyal Rinpoche

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Devotion is the purest, quickest, and simplest way to realize the nature of mind and all things. As we progress in it, the process reveals itself as wonderfully interdependent: We, from our side, try continually to generate devotion, which itself generates glimpses of the nature of mind, and these glimpses only enhance and deepen our devotion to the master who is inspiring us. So in the end devotion springs out of wisdom: devotion and the living experience of the nature of mind become inseperable and inspire each other.