Tagged: teacher
A Pelican: The Guru of balance
Ananda enjoys going for a bike ride early in the morning by the Bay, as the birds awaken the daydreamers with their melodious self-made music.
Going out on a ride will be followed by coming back. That is self-evident. However, what happens in between is part of the newness that Life brings at every moment.
Ananda was riding his bike with the wind. Coming back, he was riding against the wind.
Both are experiences in Life, the completion of both experiences is what brings “insight” as “knowing” but never as the ultimate “truth for everyone” to follow. Everyone needs to ride their own bike and their experience may be different.
On the way out, it was an effortless ride. Although, it felt hot as the temperature went up. On the way back, it was an effort to pedal, but it was cooler and breezy.
Just like Life.
Today your grass may be greener but tomorrow it will not.
Both experiences are just that, experiences which in “reality” are just “One” experience. Going out and coming back is the trip of Life.
Ananda hasn’t said anything extraordinaire up to this point, but he had…. 🙂
“Going out was so easy. I was sweating like a pig, but it was nothing…. but, coming back… that was cruel man! I wanted to quit!”
Sounds familiar?
It is called comparison.
Judgment is included in that as well as a teaching for humanity, that is …everyone else:
“Do not ride against the wind.”
Ananda stopped by the beach to go for a swim. He observed a pelican teaching him what balance is all about: There is a time for gliding and another for flapping. That harmonious combination gives that gracefulness in flying. Funny, the pelican didn’t say a word of wisdom in its teaching.
I could hear some human teachings:
“Don’t be lazy. Make effort all the time. Flap your wings until there is nothing left. Go against the wind or with it. It does not matter. If you look tired is not “good.” Always have a smiling face.”
Or
“Don’t do a thing, man. Let everyone else do it for you. You need to learn how to use people to your advantage. There is always a sucker out there…”
The “black or white” mentality.
The pelican kept flying. You couldn’t see a smile in its face, but a sense of elegance, distinction and confidence.
The pelican does not know what those words; elegance, distinction and confidence mean. The pelican “is” all of that without knowing. Isn’t that paradoxical?
Shall we teach a monkey to “become that”?
If the monkey could observe. If the monkey could know by experience what harmony is, then perhaps the monkey will be ready to learn.
What about if we take the monkey to a school to learn all those things?
Information is not the “thing.”
“Scientific research has proven that 20% of white adult males between the ages of 30 and 45 years will not complain when riding against the wind. That is when riding on a wind of 8 mph coming from the East in a fairly cloudy day with 90% humidity.”
Now you “know.” Your experience may be different but a researcher knows best. 🙂
In Life, we will go out just to come back. If our mind rejects one side of the trip, we have created a duality.
“Going out is better. Always select it. It is heaven. God will be with you.”
For those experiencing coming back in their trip of Life there is “hope:”
“That suffering in pedaling will have a reward in heaven. Don’t stop. Keep moving until you cannot pedal an inch.”
Observe. Be in tune with those who are less intelligent than you. Those who have fewer degrees than you, those who do not have God in their side… those who do not think but who feel Life at every moment, that is those who “live in the now,” without knowing what in the heck that is.
A teacher appears everyday in Nature. When the student is ready to observe, the teacher appears.
How do you recognize the teacher?
There will not be any teachings for you.
Life is the teacher
Ralph put a cologne on as he was getting ready to go to the “office world.” In the process, he remembered that he had to clean the kitchen before going to work.
Because Ralph wasn’t in the “moment,” he did not remember if he put the cologne on after a couple of minutes. He didn’t even try to smell the cologne on him, but he went directly where he thought that he put the cologne last time.
The cologne wasn’t there.
Ralph started looking for it frantically. He wasn’t able to see it… Actually the cologne was on that table as he left it before; but his awareness in that moment did not allow him to see it.
At that point, Ralph remembered the words of wisdom of one of the teachings he heard at one time: “If you lose something, don’t look for it and it will come back to you.”
Ralph went to the kitchen to clean it up. While he was doing that, he forgot about the existence of the cologne… He emptied his mind…
With a new consciousness, he went to his bedroom again… and there it was!
Thanks to that experience, Ralph understood the real meaning of “ if you lose something, don’t look for it.”
That teaching may not make sense for the “office world” mentality for it is paradoxical.
“Look for it … and you will find it.” Do something. Don’t be lazy. Keep at it. Don’t waste time, for it is money.. not life… but money. 🙂
Isn’t that the mind-set ?
If we are looking for joy, for peace and we have in our minds something that we think or identify as joy or peace… we will not find it, we will only have definitions and ideas about it.
We may have had an experience of peace, and then we may want to repeat the experience, perhaps to join a club where “others” had the same experience… Peace is not something that “we make” but something that happens when the “me” is not there. Do we search for peace or do we become aware of that “me”? 🙂
We are searching for something that is stuck in our mind. We want that particular something… nothing else.
A mind obsessed with obtaining things cannot see even the obvious.
Whether we experience that peaceful experience again or not is not the issue… that will come if is meant to happen at its right time… in the meantime, enjoy.
The issue is whether we found the operation of our minds. That is the beginning of an aware individual.
When we learn something in life, when someone shares something to us from their experience, that is not meant to be blindly followed to the “dot.”
To do that is to be an unconscious “follower.” That is not “bad” either, for sooner or later, we will realize… at our own time. The follower will become its own teacher.
Life needs to practically show us that which we learned in theory , then we can understand.
That is why, any “spiritual” teaching is not to be put through the filter of intellectual understanding and the dualistic mind, but rather through our own experience in life.
Life is the teacher.
Didn’t I say before that the “follower become its own teacher”?
Isn’t that a contradiction?
Ahh! Something new to experience. Don’t try to make sense of it intellectually, don’t “look for a logical answer,” and the significance will come to you. 🙂
Paradox: All paths will lead to our destiny
Living life is about experiencing life to gain valuable insight, thus any path that someone takes to search for answers about their own life will eventually lead that person to realize the self. It all goes back to the self, but that needs to be realized and not conceptualized.
It all depends on our state of consciousness. That consciousness is not modified by “following teachings,” but by gaining insight.
In this way, there is no repression in the self.
We could do something out of compulsion. That is not honest. We could behave in ways that we truly do not feel.
Heckle and Jeckle went to a “spiritual/meditation” class.
Jeckle wanted to help himself to gain “peace of mind” as he was going through “problems” in life. Jeckle started his search for meaning at that point. Before that “problem,” Jeckle had no desire to listen to anything “spiritual” as that was “boring stuff” for him. 🙂
Heckle on the other hand, was very experienced. He had experienced different religious groups, spiritual groups, self-help groups, new age groups, metaphysical groups, psychic groups, etc. Read many things, realized others and so on. In every experience Heckle gained valuable insight to continue in his personal path.
Jeckle was listening attentively to the teacher in that “spiritual” class. The teacher was wearing a particular robe which gave him an air of importance.
The teacher spoke about the mind in that class.
“What is the mind? What is its origin? What is its function?” He went on to explain his beliefs as if they were “facts.” Those beliefs were backed up by a book that he was reading to the audience. The book was written by his masters.
“The mind leaves the body. So if you are sleeping and then you think about India and then you die during your sleep… Guess where you are going to live in your next life?”
The teacher went on: “ Life is not just this experience that we have here, but there will be plenty of other lives in the future and the time to be engaged in making those future lives happy, is now; through pure spiritual practices. All problems are just thoughts created by the mind. A feeling of love for someone is just another thought.”
The teacher finished his class with a meditation in which he repeated the same concepts for the audience to repeat in their minds and thus, “realize” those concepts for “themselves.” 🙂
Heckle observed that what this teacher called the “mind,” that was called the “soul” in other religious views. He also realized that this teacher was giving importance to the future rather than the “now” and that this teacher wasn’t aware of feelings but only about emotions.
Finally, Heckle concluded that the teacher’s set of beliefs and concepts were not useful for him.
What is the purpose of having a concept about the mind or to play with concepts or beliefs about its origin and function, if Heckle had an experience of it…of what this “thing” is without further labels?
That first hand experience is what is useful to realize the self as an experience, not to have a concept about it or theoretical knowledge.
Heckle was waiting anxiously for the teacher to end his talk, to ask questions and to debunk that “teacher” who was talking “useless stuff” from his viewpoint.
After all Heckle was in favor of the “truth” and not in beliefs and stories based on “hand-me down” teachings. 🙂
When the teacher finished his talk, he asked everyone to speak with their seating neighbor about their own realizations in the class.
Heckle heard Jeckle’s viewpoint first.
Jeckle said: “Wasn’t that a great explanation about the mind? I never thought that the mind was so important. I ought to watch my mind from now on…”
When Heckle heard that from his friend; Heckle did not have the courage to debunk the teacher.
Heckle learned through that experience that life teaches everyone in different ways. From that moment, Heckle learned the importance to respect everyone’s path.
When we hear about “Tolerance” of faiths, that is just a concept. We could learn to tolerate someone who thinks and feel different from us, without ever listening to what that person is conveying.
That is “conceptual tolerance” that stuff we can learn from a nice book or a “teacher.”
However, when we experience the need to respect someone’s path in his search for meaning in life, then at that moment; tolerance becomes an unnecessary word. 🙂
Jeckle learned about his mind.
Heckle learned from that teacher something about himself which was very important in his self-realization.
Thus, everyone learned something new.
Jeckle is just beginning his journey for meaning in life. Jeckle is acquiring information to feed his mind with “new things” to think about.
Heckle has already gone through that and now Heckle is learning to free himself from that information and letting life itself be the teacher. Heckle is learning to trust and not to think too much.
Different paths. All going to the same place but with different timings.
The flowers in a garden will blossom at different times. The gardener’s job is to respect their personal timing.
Question for June 7, 2103 – Maya – The Illusion
What are the different forms of maya. How can a bk recognise it. Baba says the sronger you become in effort the stronger is maya. What types of maya affect a senior bk? Please help.
Dear soul,
Thank you for your great question!
Maya or “illusion” is just that, an “illusion.”
In Sakar days, it was about the “illusion” of taking you away from the “Father’s lap.” In our days, it is the illusion that removes you from self-transformation if that is what you value in life.
The stronger is our ego, the stronger will be the “effort” needed to “overcome it,” thus, that “illusion” becomes stronger.
From a child like understanding then, Maya is “bad.”
We need to destroy “her.” We need to “make effort” to go over it…
Once the child grows up then, “Maya” is a teacher. (This is something which Baba has said as well.) Nothing to be afraid of, but it becomes the way that we learn about ourselves when we have that honesty, awareness and Spirituality is our aim.
I don’t know what kind of illusions a senior has. But, definitely, just like the rest of us. My illusion may not be your illusion, but your illusion is an illusion just like mine.
Once we awaken from those illusions, the nightmare is over.
What are the different forms of Maya?
It is formless. Or as many forms as the sand grains at the beach… It is omnipresent 🙂
How can a BK could recognize it?
By suffering. Unless you are able to see it at a “distance,” and no reject it, but play with it… 🙂 or just wake up from sleeping mode.
How can you recognize day light?
By having experienced night time.
Best wishes!
Exploring the Depth of Living 