Tagged: sadness
Getting rid of the Spiritual Training wheels
If Jack becomes conscious of the “game” that he is playing with himself, he could change. Otherwise, he will remain in that consciousness.
What game?
He is trying to be “good,” “respectable,” a “model” for others by adopting a behavior which does not truly reflect his feelings. That behavior is motivated through a belief, which uses punishment and reward to “change behaviors.”
That is the shortcoming of any belief system. It can only change behaviors just like Pavlov’s dogs. However, feelings are intact and that is the “lying” game that some like to play with themselves… until they realize something different.
Consciousness.
A belief system is like training wheels on a bike. It will help someone to have the feeling of what is like to ride a bike.
Some may feel that they are actually riding a bicycle. Their consciousness is attached to the training wheels. These individuals become self-righteous.
Some may realize that those training wheels are in their way of experiencing a full ride… but they become afraid. Fear arrives.
“I could fall down. That will hurt.” Even worse, these individuals will look for “logical reasons” to keep the training wheels on.
“It has been proven by science that 90% of people who take the training wheels off their bicycles, will fall down in the first 3 minutes and experience contusions, bruises and even death.”
At that time, those who had the spark of realization will terminate that “new” feeling of taking the training wheels off the bike and go on with the thought, the belief.
Fear dominates. Guilt appears.
It is safer that way. There is safety in “numbers…” 🙂
Avyakt7 shares his experiences and realizations. That is all. Avyakt7 is not quoting the latest research or trying to align with a particular belief system. As a matter of fact, Avyakt7 is in the ongoing process of cutting off beliefs from his psyche.
Avyakt7 can share about things, because he had the experience. That experience is not the “truth.” It is just an experience.
For example, Avyakt7 could tell you about sadness and depression because either he has experienced that himself or indirectly participated when someone close to him had the experience.
We could learn by listening to others experiences as long as we use that experience to recognize what is going on with us at the moment.
For instance, Avyakt7 has observed 3 different causes of sadness or mental depression.
1) Your own attitude towards life- Your emotions.
2) A chemical imbalance
3) Being over sensitive to the outside environment, such as the atmosphere or the influence of ethereal beings (ghosts, lost souls, spirits, entities and the like, etc.)
Because depression and sadness deals with your own thoughts, that is the perfect opportunity to look into it. To experience being thoughtless for a moment and extending that moment.
That is, to forget yourself.
It is in our own laboratory of the self, how we could learn by experimenting.
As we find more challenges in our personality, we could choose to deal with it by observing it or… we could use other things as palliative medicine.
Those things will give us the valuable time to keep observing.
As we honestly go into it, help will come because we are never alone. However, the first step needs to come from us and from that point, we need to keep on walking one step at the time… until we arrive.
Then, we will know. Not before.
Beliefs reside in the “before” knowing time.
No one can do the walk for us.
On sadness
If little Jimmy experiences to be lost in his own shadow despite the light of a bright day; then that knowing will be invaluable. That knowing cannot be “taught” to another.
“Knowing” cannot be passed down onto another. It needs to be discovered by ourselves.
Intellectual information could be passed down, but not knowledge.
“Water reflects the consciousness of the being surrounding it. Water is deeply connected to the individual and collective consciousness.”
This is the discovery of Dr. Masaru Emoto in a nutshell.
The “New Age” media made great hype on that.
Water crystals were changing its form according to the influence around them: If a meditator or a depressed individual were around water, the crystals showed different patterns: Harmonious or chaotic patterns, respectively.
This is good information, but it is not knowledge.
What is the practical meaning of that?
The Oceans are charged with “emotionality” at this point in time.
Why?
Obviously because of us…human beings. Our influence is great in the environment and as a result we will get back what we put in. Karma.
We are made up of water. We are water itself… What we put in us, is what we get. No need of “karma” (action.)
There is no separation between “me” and water. We are “it” in a very practical level.
Sadness as an emotion is there, floating in the air as water! 🙂
It is not just about “my” sadness. It is the world. See?
Until there is no consciousness of that “me” as an illusion, there will be sadness. It is that heavy “me” creating its own shadow. It is our minds taking us in a dark road trip by default… for that is in the air. We cannot be separated from the Totality.
When we are unconscious, we become in tune with whatever is on the “air.” Some individuals are more sensitive and they will pick up that vibe… right away.
Sound in this physical life, has an enormous power. Every song/music that we listen has the ability to change our emotions when we listen unconsciously.
A friend of mine mentioned that when experiencing sadness, he used to turn on AC/DC ‘s “Back in black” in high volume “sound effect.” His mood changed… at least during that song.. 🙂
Nevertheless… sadness will come back. Do we know why?
Because we are still unconscious of the environment and… there is a “me,” a personality build up with its own expectations, desires, hopes, dreams, dramas etc.
To learn to be empty, becomes of paramount importance.
When the door of our personality is completely open, then anything that goes inside will go away for there is no “me” to stop that. Nothing to hold on to.
That emptiness is what is in between the molecules of water, which make up our physical bodies.
To learn the art of emptiness is good! 🙂
When that “self” disappears, there is no shadow. No sadness.
No wonder, highly depressed individuals’ thoughts are considering committing suicide. That is a violent way to terminate the perception of the “self.” In depression, the “self” gets magnified.
By experiencing emptiness, the sense of self goes away and with that, there is a break to observe the pattern of thoughts, feelings and attitudes, which bring that state of sadness. It is in that consciousness, when we realize about the external “vibe” around us and how those vibes filter inside us.
This practice means to change our consciousness. It is practical awareness.
Many individuals try to change the location of their consciousness by drinking alcohol or by taking drugs even though secondary effects will be felt. That is all they know to forget themselves which is needed to experience something different.
Empty the “contents” of yourself. That is “clean that up.”
No side effects. No beliefs to believe. No money to spend.
All natural… all green! 🙂
It is in that adventure how “knowing” will appear. It will be discovered.
Seeing the words in the self
As our culture has become cluttered with intellectual information, most individuals believe that a “spiritual concept” is to be understood intellectually.
Nothing further from the truth.
Let me give an example.
Sadness. How could we explain what sadness is to a person? Most people have experienced sadness so it does not matter how I define it, there will be an understanding.
Let us pretend that we don’t know what sadness is.
We want to “explain” sadness to little Jimmy. Then, we throw the dictionary blurb at him:
“Sadness is emotional pain associated with, or characterized by feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, helplessness and sorrow. An individual experiencing sadness may become quiet or lethargic, and withdraw themselves from others.”
Obviously the words above do not make any sense to little Jimmy, as he has to look up in the dictionary for every word used in the definition. Only that which he has experienced, he will recognize.
Now, try explaining detachment, love, soul consciousness, totality, peace, emptiness to little Jimmy… 🙂
That is why a Ph.D type of dissertation about sadness will not do a thing as far as “inner understanding.” It may be a source of great information with the latest research on sadness but that is about it. Intellectual information.
On the other hand, if “Know-it” the poet; explains sadness to little Jimmy, he will give an analogy.
“Sadness is like being in a bright day, full of sunshine…and deciding to turn your head back, towards your own shadow.
To experience sadness there has to be “someone” (ego) because like a tree facing the sun, that “someone” has its own shadow. Then, there has to be the disposition to look back, to turn the head around away from the light.”
If little Jimmy had the experience of his own shadow and a bright day, he will have an idea of what sadness is. That idea becomes the experience once he experiences sadness for himself. At that point little Jimmy will be sadness. To know is to be.
This is why spirituality is more in tune with poetry than research. It is more in tune with feelings than thinking.
How could you explain the notion of being in control but at the same time, being harmonious?
There are many words used: To be focused. To concentrate on something, etc. Those words bring more definitions but never the idea…
Have you seen the 800 meter champ, David Rudisha from Kenia; run a race?
It seems effortless movement. Balanced. Harmonious and yet fast and powerful. Rudisha maintains his poise, his form even while breaking the world record.
The 800 meters is one of the most “painful” events in track and field, but he is able to keep his poise from beginning to end.
Here the video:
Now, if we are able to “understand” that harmonious control by seeing the example, we could use that in our everyday movements. We could even exercise while keeping that harmonious balance.
Form, style, balance. That is an art in itself.
In Spirituality, we mirror beauty. Every aspect that we could be aware of is an opportunity to “be it” again. It is a matter of recognition.
That is how we “learn.” We just recognize it, if our awareness is “on.” Otherwise, we could be lost in the world of definitions, concepts and logic, the world of meaningless words.
When it is difficult to smile…
Our experiences in life differ day by day. Some days we see a radiant flower in the middle of nowhere, at other times; it is about a gray cloud over our heads; persecuting us and waiting for the right moment to rain and thunder on us without mercy… 😦
In our society we have been taught to smile. To put the smiling clown face despite how we feel inside. “The show must continue.” Religions and “quick fix advice” recommend to give our sorrow to God or to “express our sorrow in a healthy way,” 🙂 because it is our “right” to be sad and besides, “it is normal.”
The “traditional” medical field will give us the “magical pill.” Take this colorful thing 3 times a day for a week and if your stomach survives the secondary effects and you do not feel sleepy; you will not be “sad” until the effect wears out!
Just like the Cinderella tale… Just return before midnight to live the magic!
Is there any way that we could deal with changes of mood by ourselves without relying on “something else”?
In life everything comes and goes. Today we feel “this,” tomorrow “that.” That is duality. We have been trained to select one side of it and avoid at all costs the other side.
Once we recognize that “things move on,” there is a chance to compose ourselves in the experience of our inner silence.
That is, “stop, close your eyes, clear your mind from thoughts, breathe in and out slowly, gently and purposely… just feel that inner wind of freshness coming from your heart.”
That is the 5-minute- quick- fix to regain sanity. Then, it is just acceptance of “what is.” Look at it. Experience that feeling completely knowing that it is “not you,” because “that” will go away; but it is an experience living or being alive through you.
This is the meaning of equanimity. It is acceptance of what is going on by just observing it. It is in that observation that whatever we are experiencing will not take charge over us.
Life will bring many different experiences, but as long as we are aware of our own “center” in silence, of that “5 minute fix to regain sanity,” little by little we will experience that which does not need outside things to feel content, to feel at ease and at peace.
The “trick” is just to be aware of that “inner in-built” serenity despite the outer dramas of life. Hold on to that, until the gray cloud goes away.
That serenity is bound to grow up in time so the “outer” will be just the “inner.”
Then, we can only be in equanimity.
To learn to clear our minds from thoughts, preconceptions, ideas, beliefs, traditions, dogmas and assumptions will give us the chance to experience what we “are” truly all about.
Question: dear brother om shanti in the last AM of this season (05/04/2013), Baba gave us a slogan to ramain happy (always) and make others happy. But moving forward in this journey, I sometime feel that it is a little difficult to stay happy (always). I think it is due to the reason that … since many births, our happiness depend on external things & now being a detatched observer, sometimes we cant create happiness by our own and sadness arise. brother please share your experience.
Thank you for your good question!
Dear soul,
Happiness is not something that we “do,” neither that we “make.” As long as there is the consciousness of “I” the ego, there could not be happiness.
The “I” is related with thought. When we think based on outcomes of things happening to “us,” we identify with those things and all of the sudden those outside items have the power to control “our mood.”
There is a state of being which is not dependent on outside situations which have been colored by thoughts. The only “trick,” is to get to experience that state, the “self.”
That “self” is happiness. Our thoughts are the only thing in between.
This is not theory or something that I read someplace. We could experience that in meditation. It “comes” as a karmic consequence, from “being in that practice” with love and dedication. Thoughts come as “curtains” to cover the sunshine of bliss which is that happiness that we are looking for. Once those thoughts are weak, that consciousness of feeling that bliss emanating from the “real” self, is experienced and through that, the curtain of thoughts begin to disappear. It is a “cleaning process.”
Through our own awareness (That is the effort) we should be able to bring that “happiness” in our everyday activities, knowing that whatever is happening around us is really like a “movie.” In this way, those things will lose value (That is one aspect to know about Gyan) and then, through the quality of our thoughts, we will be able to observe those things which we are attached to, which are robbing us from feeling bliss…as we experience further bliss in the consciousness of the self, those thoughts will go away.
To verbalize and rationalize things as saying: “those things come from other lives,” it is part of knowledge; but as you are finding out, it does not help us to gain that happiness.
Dear soul,
This is the “game” of consciousness. Spiritual happiness is non-dual, thus; it is not really the word happiness to refer to, but bliss. In that experience, everything else loses its grip on us. Every morning will have a different “bright color.” 🙂
Best wishes!
Exploring the Depth of Living 