It sometimes amazes me how routine chores have the ability to bestow upon us profound insights to larger economic questions of international importance.
With the battered and blood nosed government merely trying to stay afloat on the benevolence of its allies throwing in much needed life-jackets to it, the issue of FDI in retail has been given an un-ceremonial burial for now. However, it is likely to be exhumed sooner or later as this is high on priority of the government. The US government, i mean.
A large number of opinions have been made on whether this economic step will mean loss of business to the friendly neighbourhood kiranawala. I began contemplating over it in a manner, my wife later described to be “as intelligent looking as a ruminating buffalo would be”. But what startled me was this find. Infact i harboured a fear for them malls!
Indian urban demography can broadly be divided into three economic classes: less well off class (50%), the middle class (35%) and the rich class (15%). These figures are studied approximations in the city of Pune where i have lived most of my fifty years. It is from amongst these classes that mega multi-brand retail outlets will expect sales to happen.
The less well off are simply too intimidated to enter mega marts. Let’s be fair in saying that some kind of fear of the unknown seems to be keeping this class away from massive swish buildings with gleaming glass facades and mean looking security guys. C’mon, how many times have we seen a lady or man from the labour class walk into a super mart to pick up essentials to cook the evening meal with? Or buy a saree or shirt or undee from one of them? Frankly, i haven’t seen it ever. Although not a regular, i do visit these places, irrespective of how intimidating they come to be for me too.
For the other two classes, we need to delve in a bit of historical legacy left behind for us by our ancestors and an art fine-tuned by the ‘gora sahib’, which simply stated is the concept of servants.
So, while the rich urban Indian might visit the super malls as a newness of experience in her own country (what with having done it all in the many jaunts abroad), it would be difficult to believe the desi memsahib do the rounds here for months on end - forfeiting social events, running NGO’s and attending kitty parties – and getting monthly grocery, undees or crockery instead. While for the former they would have trained their driver or governess to it in a couple of visits, how could s/he be seen buying underpants from a mall! How tacky? Haven’t you heard of any couture stores around for them nowadays? And isn’t the designer crockery, duly personalized, supposed to comes straight out of designer studios?
That leaves us with people like me forming the bulk buyer segment.
Mostly this class comprises double income couples - what with EMI’s to pay, kids to educate and ends to meet. A bit of leftover moolah would either be spent on bribing officials for routine stuff such as a gas cylinder or fuel price rise. This blessed breed usually does a five day week unlike others like us who must suffer six. While a segment of the more youthful ones in the 25-35yrs age band, is likely to visit these mega marts over weekend retail therapy to retain their sanity, the older ones are likely to stay clear and opt for the local mom-pop store.
Reason? The down-handed legacy again! This time around though, it is less about servants and more about the royalty of being served.
This is where the recent personal experience i was talking about kicks in.
With the wife away on a business tour, i had atta, aloo-pyaaz, eau de cologne, oranges, naptha balls, fevicol, clothes line clips and a score of other similar oddities from diverse backgrounds on a ‘to do’ list thrust upon me by her. Thankfully it was upon me to choose the domain of purchase. And i was confronted with two options. The local kirana wala or the obnoxiously large supermarket that has recently come up in our backyard. I opted for both!
At the superstore the hardships began early. The hassle of asking if a parking slot was available, was the beginning of it. Then, i was to endure the criminal like treatment of being sniffed up by mean looking dogs - with meaner looking handlers running their hands and hand held machines carelessly over me. Next up was the encounter with security men at the parking gate with mirrors on wheels trying to figure out wisely the difference between a possibly hidden bomb and the oil filter. Then to pullout exact change to buy a ticket to park my car. Gymnastic turns and twists of the steering and my torso to get the car parked soon followed. Queues in the basement outside the lift had to be negotiated to get from the basement parking to the required floor. Ofcourse, for a list as diverse as the one the wife had armed me with, i could have begun on any floor, but that’s another matter. Then there was the patience test of trying to find the right things amongst other things on racks. Requesting bored looking staff where one could find them dint help much. And the tiresome task of traversing floor after floor trying to locate stuff on my list, some of which i couldn’t. Carting the purchases all the way back to the car and loading it in. Keeping the trolley safely away. All of that done, ninety minutes later, i was exhausted and barely had the enthusiasm to drive back home.
The next day it was to the local grocer with an identical list. What a paradox! Much to my belief in the supernatural, this is what actually happened. Believe me or get lost. Sample this: I pull over the car to the side of the road bang in front of my intended destination, “Ishwar Mini Market”. Trot up a few easy steps. Exchange warm pleasantries with no less than the owner himself. Take out my list. I only utter the item on my wish list much the same way as Alladdin, and the genie embodied in the baniya would miraculously produce it instantly from the innards of his ‘few bricks that made a wall’ store. And this happened again and yet again until we ran through the entire list. All of this was done with a smile of true home-hearted service. The longest search- which really had me annoyed - was for a particular brand of mosquito repellent, took impatiently long. A large part of sixty seconds! I dint have to lug a basket or a trolley around. Dint have to do tiring and repetitive start-stop-search walks. No fuss. No nothing. Everything just came to me. And even found its way to the boot of the car. I was being served. I dint feel like a king here. I was king. I was enjoying the addiction of being served ever in wonder of how our ancestors or the ‘gora sahib’ would have felt back then. While it lasted it seemed royalty was being relived. I was out in 15minutes flat with a 100% strike rate. And not without a complimentary toffee and an ‘do come again’ smile from the grocer’s wife!
No matter what the big daddies of retail might think of strategy, buyer psychology, market segmentation, target customers and such jargon in their upcoming mega business models, for me the middle class, moderate, responsible and time conscious consumer, the kirana wala rocks big time. FDI beware!
dictionary:
kirana wala: local grocer. (such a mom-pop store)
memsahib: upwardly mobile, mid-aged, loaded, yuppie Indian woman
aloo-pyaz: potatoes-onions
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
ARM WRESTLING A CHINESE ARMY OFFICER
DNA National Edition, 08.01.2012
The road to Tawang, we were to realize later, was not much of a road, but just long winding uphill switchbacks of inedible chocolate slurry held intermittently together by patches of tar and boulders. But further on, until we reached Bum La (not to be confused with Bomdila, a mountain pass in the same reason which lies at a lower altitude about mid-way between Tezpur and Tawang) there was just no road! And the earlier stretch suddenly seemed a freeway.
The LTT-Guwahati Express chugged lazily into Guwahati station a good 12 hours late. Confined into the packed coach for 65 hours from the time we boarded in Mumbai, rigor mortis had almost set in. If it hadn’t fully debilitated us (i was with a same gender travel partner), it was perhaps thanks to the periodic swigs of Single Malt from the hip flask.
Reaching Phulbari camp site, set in a pristine tea estate, a short drive from Tezpur, it was the impeccable hospitality of the army that quickly infused life into us again. With the Commanding Officer of the unit a friend, things had to be better than just perfect. Contrary to popular belief, it was here we learnt that tea estates donot necessarily have to be located on hill slopes. This one, alongwith several other sprawling acres were on sheer plains, with deep ruts in between rows of tea bush to prevent bush roots from rotting from stagnating rain water.
The town of Tawang has a single approach road from Tezpur, passing through the valley through the better known towns of Bhalukpong (with its quaint nursery of delicate orchids), Bomdila (a hill feature at 8000ft) and the picturesque town of Dhirang in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. A number of army units dot the landscape enroute, with gurgling streams rushing to meet the impressive Kameng river, faithfully keeping company all along. Across the Sela Pass at 13000ft one enters the district of Tawang. The Pass with a pristine lake alongside has its own story of utmost bravado displayed by the Indian Army, especially Subedar Major Jaswant Singh, during the Chinese invasion of 1962.
We’re informed it was he who single handedly held back the advancing enemy’s onslaught famously termed ‘the human wave’ for three days and three nights before he fell to the enemy but not before he had taken two hundred of them with him! A Chinese graveyard bears testimony to this ultimate call of duty. Story has it that, not only did that act help his fellow soldiers to retreat to safer locales, the enemy was forced to take stock of their massive losses and slowed down their battle advance in this sector. Such is the respect Jaswant Singh commands at Jaswant Garh even today that each evening, the regiment commander reports the day’s proceedings in the presence of the regiment soldiers, with Jaswant Singh’s bust ‘presiding’ over the briefing.
We finally completed the rough and tumble drive, 274kms in all, over two days of long hour drives through mind-numbing landscape and arrived at Tawang(12000ft). Putting behind us an early morning prayer session for all things good at the massive Tawang monastery (see pic), which dwarfs the town, we quickly completed formalities with the authorities for a pass to visit Bom La. The Inner Line Permit (ILP), mandatory to be obtained at Guwahati, is valid only until Tawang. Beyond this point the army calls all the shots, quite literally, and additional paper work is required to move any further.
Bum La, at 15000ft above sea, is home to the last Indian Army check-post on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in this sector. LAC, also called the McMohan Line, is an imaginary and often disputed border between India and China. The surface connectivity (as it cannot be called a road by any definiton) from Tawang to Bum La, all of 30kms, takes only(!) two hours to complete. Two hours for 30kms? Yes, longer if you have had a spliced vertebra or a ruptured spinal disc. Both, quite distinct possibilities, given the terrain.
Greeted by the effervescent Subedar Sohan Singh, we were immediately put at ease by the unit and taken to the ‘Friendship Point’ where one is supposed to offer a small rock onto a pile as a mark of Indo-Sino friendship.
For some strange reason a truckload of Chinese soldiers led by their officer (who later identified himself as Captain Fem Lai) were spotted on the other side of the LAC. Enquiries revealed that some preparations were on for the National Day which falls on 1st Oct each year. (The PRC was founded on October 1, 1949).
What shocked us beyond belief was the smooth black top road right after the Indian territory ended and theirs began! One could cruise a vehicle at 60kmph or more on those roads. And what’s more, this road quality stretched right until the eyes could see. And here we were on our side coming agonizingly to terms with a ridiculously rough ride quality at 20kmph! In the distance was also visible the Chinese radar tower powered by windmills, all weather brick and mortar barracks for atleast a hundred soldiers and solar panels to power them. In comparison, we yet had to commission our diesel run generator sets and had dodgy arrangements for our jawans. Why so? I began to ponder.
In the midst of this thought, Chinese soldiers enthusiastically huddled around us civilian visitors with boisterous calls of ‘Money. Money, change?’ Five Rupees to a Yuan is the going rate which is all done in the spirit of friendliness. So we did some small exchange just when Captain Lai offered us a smoke, which we both politely refused being non-smokers. I began with how smoking may be a health hazard at such altitudes and clearly I could sense that the last thing the soldier had in mind was to listen to an Indian's sermon. I backed off.
And suddenly he challenged me to a game of ‘panja’ (arm wrestling). College years flashed back and pushed the adrenalin in me and I found myself immediately taking him on. Although inclined into fitness routines, I was totally oblivious to the fact that it had been almost 50 years since i had been a burden on earth. Not just that, he would be a lot younger and professionally trained to fight in mountain terrain, unlike me who was yet struggling to get acclimatized! Too late. I had committed. Bitten the bullet, so to say. Somehow, I had confused myself into believing that a victory here would be a win for the nation! So we set ourselves up. Each gauging the strength of the other whilst locking our palms together. We were eyeball to eyeball close as we crouched into position. Our elbows rested on a rock nearby that served as a table. Sinews went taut as we strained against each other. Someone called “Go” and we both went for it. For what seemed eternity the forearms dint budge. Each matched the other ounce to ounce of force. With both sides cheering, we continued giving it all we had. For the tiny frame the officer carried, he was mighty strong. And the groan and grunt went on. As I heaved with all I could, I began to get a sense of advantage. By now, a good minute into the ‘duel’, my heart was pumping crazily. Lungs protested. I couldn’t quit now. With one final inhalation of whatever oxygen I could get from the thin mountain air, I yanked. This got my opponent in a hopeless position from where he could never have won. But I was wary of him, much the same way as the world is of the Chinese! This is all I could give. I just had enough calories to hang in few more seconds. Thankfully and much to my relief, at the same time, he began to realize, that victory wasn’t his to be, he pulled away. Our camp was ecstatic. I had won! India had won, or so it felt. I was over many moons. My arm, it felt, had left me. I managed to mumble some consolations and amidst much display of bonhomie from both sides, we parted ways.
Once back in the camp tent, Sohan Singh, with a smile befitting a victorious troop commander, offered me a plate of steaming hot suji-ka-halwa saying in typical Punjabi accented Hindi “Ji, aap ne toh dat kar jawab diya”. ( You gave him a befitting reply). And thinking of the feats our men at the borders accomplish, mine was not even comparable, much less praise-worthy. I felt humbled. Yet, I soaked in the moment. Bidding goodbye, we began our roller coaster ride back to Tawang, making it past the last check post barely within stipulated time.
It is a great story to tell friends and my kids back home, I mused. I arm-wrestled a Chinese army officer. And won.
The road to Tawang, we were to realize later, was not much of a road, but just long winding uphill switchbacks of inedible chocolate slurry held intermittently together by patches of tar and boulders. But further on, until we reached Bum La (not to be confused with Bomdila, a mountain pass in the same reason which lies at a lower altitude about mid-way between Tezpur and Tawang) there was just no road! And the earlier stretch suddenly seemed a freeway.
The LTT-Guwahati Express chugged lazily into Guwahati station a good 12 hours late. Confined into the packed coach for 65 hours from the time we boarded in Mumbai, rigor mortis had almost set in. If it hadn’t fully debilitated us (i was with a same gender travel partner), it was perhaps thanks to the periodic swigs of Single Malt from the hip flask.
Reaching Phulbari camp site, set in a pristine tea estate, a short drive from Tezpur, it was the impeccable hospitality of the army that quickly infused life into us again. With the Commanding Officer of the unit a friend, things had to be better than just perfect. Contrary to popular belief, it was here we learnt that tea estates donot necessarily have to be located on hill slopes. This one, alongwith several other sprawling acres were on sheer plains, with deep ruts in between rows of tea bush to prevent bush roots from rotting from stagnating rain water.
The town of Tawang has a single approach road from Tezpur, passing through the valley through the better known towns of Bhalukpong (with its quaint nursery of delicate orchids), Bomdila (a hill feature at 8000ft) and the picturesque town of Dhirang in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. A number of army units dot the landscape enroute, with gurgling streams rushing to meet the impressive Kameng river, faithfully keeping company all along. Across the Sela Pass at 13000ft one enters the district of Tawang. The Pass with a pristine lake alongside has its own story of utmost bravado displayed by the Indian Army, especially Subedar Major Jaswant Singh, during the Chinese invasion of 1962.
We’re informed it was he who single handedly held back the advancing enemy’s onslaught famously termed ‘the human wave’ for three days and three nights before he fell to the enemy but not before he had taken two hundred of them with him! A Chinese graveyard bears testimony to this ultimate call of duty. Story has it that, not only did that act help his fellow soldiers to retreat to safer locales, the enemy was forced to take stock of their massive losses and slowed down their battle advance in this sector. Such is the respect Jaswant Singh commands at Jaswant Garh even today that each evening, the regiment commander reports the day’s proceedings in the presence of the regiment soldiers, with Jaswant Singh’s bust ‘presiding’ over the briefing.
We finally completed the rough and tumble drive, 274kms in all, over two days of long hour drives through mind-numbing landscape and arrived at Tawang(12000ft). Putting behind us an early morning prayer session for all things good at the massive Tawang monastery (see pic), which dwarfs the town, we quickly completed formalities with the authorities for a pass to visit Bom La. The Inner Line Permit (ILP), mandatory to be obtained at Guwahati, is valid only until Tawang. Beyond this point the army calls all the shots, quite literally, and additional paper work is required to move any further.
Bum La, at 15000ft above sea, is home to the last Indian Army check-post on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in this sector. LAC, also called the McMohan Line, is an imaginary and often disputed border between India and China. The surface connectivity (as it cannot be called a road by any definiton) from Tawang to Bum La, all of 30kms, takes only(!) two hours to complete. Two hours for 30kms? Yes, longer if you have had a spliced vertebra or a ruptured spinal disc. Both, quite distinct possibilities, given the terrain.
Greeted by the effervescent Subedar Sohan Singh, we were immediately put at ease by the unit and taken to the ‘Friendship Point’ where one is supposed to offer a small rock onto a pile as a mark of Indo-Sino friendship.
For some strange reason a truckload of Chinese soldiers led by their officer (who later identified himself as Captain Fem Lai) were spotted on the other side of the LAC. Enquiries revealed that some preparations were on for the National Day which falls on 1st Oct each year. (The PRC was founded on October 1, 1949).
What shocked us beyond belief was the smooth black top road right after the Indian territory ended and theirs began! One could cruise a vehicle at 60kmph or more on those roads. And what’s more, this road quality stretched right until the eyes could see. And here we were on our side coming agonizingly to terms with a ridiculously rough ride quality at 20kmph! In the distance was also visible the Chinese radar tower powered by windmills, all weather brick and mortar barracks for atleast a hundred soldiers and solar panels to power them. In comparison, we yet had to commission our diesel run generator sets and had dodgy arrangements for our jawans. Why so? I began to ponder.
In the midst of this thought, Chinese soldiers enthusiastically huddled around us civilian visitors with boisterous calls of ‘Money. Money, change?’ Five Rupees to a Yuan is the going rate which is all done in the spirit of friendliness. So we did some small exchange just when Captain Lai offered us a smoke, which we both politely refused being non-smokers. I began with how smoking may be a health hazard at such altitudes and clearly I could sense that the last thing the soldier had in mind was to listen to an Indian's sermon. I backed off.
And suddenly he challenged me to a game of ‘panja’ (arm wrestling). College years flashed back and pushed the adrenalin in me and I found myself immediately taking him on. Although inclined into fitness routines, I was totally oblivious to the fact that it had been almost 50 years since i had been a burden on earth. Not just that, he would be a lot younger and professionally trained to fight in mountain terrain, unlike me who was yet struggling to get acclimatized! Too late. I had committed. Bitten the bullet, so to say. Somehow, I had confused myself into believing that a victory here would be a win for the nation! So we set ourselves up. Each gauging the strength of the other whilst locking our palms together. We were eyeball to eyeball close as we crouched into position. Our elbows rested on a rock nearby that served as a table. Sinews went taut as we strained against each other. Someone called “Go” and we both went for it. For what seemed eternity the forearms dint budge. Each matched the other ounce to ounce of force. With both sides cheering, we continued giving it all we had. For the tiny frame the officer carried, he was mighty strong. And the groan and grunt went on. As I heaved with all I could, I began to get a sense of advantage. By now, a good minute into the ‘duel’, my heart was pumping crazily. Lungs protested. I couldn’t quit now. With one final inhalation of whatever oxygen I could get from the thin mountain air, I yanked. This got my opponent in a hopeless position from where he could never have won. But I was wary of him, much the same way as the world is of the Chinese! This is all I could give. I just had enough calories to hang in few more seconds. Thankfully and much to my relief, at the same time, he began to realize, that victory wasn’t his to be, he pulled away. Our camp was ecstatic. I had won! India had won, or so it felt. I was over many moons. My arm, it felt, had left me. I managed to mumble some consolations and amidst much display of bonhomie from both sides, we parted ways.
Once back in the camp tent, Sohan Singh, with a smile befitting a victorious troop commander, offered me a plate of steaming hot suji-ka-halwa saying in typical Punjabi accented Hindi “Ji, aap ne toh dat kar jawab diya”. ( You gave him a befitting reply). And thinking of the feats our men at the borders accomplish, mine was not even comparable, much less praise-worthy. I felt humbled. Yet, I soaked in the moment. Bidding goodbye, we began our roller coaster ride back to Tawang, making it past the last check post barely within stipulated time.
It is a great story to tell friends and my kids back home, I mused. I arm-wrestled a Chinese army officer. And won.
Monday, November 21, 2011
BEWARE OF THE SIX STAINS!
SPEAKING TREE NEWSPAPER 13.11.2011
In recent times pursuit of spirituality has become a ‘cool’ thing to do. Young and not so old are seen taking various paths in the hope of ‘instant’ nirvana! We even have a large number of dedicated channels on spiritual development in the visual media. Self-help books disappear off the shelves before they can be replaced! Everything right in this, so long as the seeker seeks the right teacher, the right path and generates the right motivation.
At the initial stages there is great enthusiasm with the pupil putting in dedicated practice. He/she derives happiness in contemplating the mind. A feeling of encouragement set in when small gains are visible. This is when the danger period sets in and great caution needs to be exercised in identifying and overcoming what are termed as the Six Stains. Here they are, caution the Masters:
Pride is displayed by believing oneself to be superior to the teacher. This is to be shunned. This is not to say that the teacher cannot be questioned. Ofcourse one can do so and if the teacher is compassionate, he/she will dispel with your queries in the manner most patient and comforting. However, as there is a great deal of unlearning to be done at this stage, to take the nurtured mind back to its root nature, the stain of pride needs to be overcome quickly by accepting the explanation put forth by the trained teacher.
Lack of faith arises when the seeker falls short of total trust he/she ought to have in the teacher and his teachings and transmissions. Absence of faith blocks the door to freedom from suffering. Remember, ones faith in the teachings and path is the basis of what we will achieve. If the extent of our faith is high, medium or low the corresponding results will be high, medium or low. If there is no faith, there will be no result.
Lack of effort shows up a few months into the practice when our worldly tasks begin to become overwhelming. We are able to devote less and less time, energy and mind space to our daily practices. Eg: our late night parties prevent us from waking up early for meditation, or even if we do, our mind is dull, stagnated and dark with lack of sleep and results are often mediocre, or maybe our office work, physical workout schedules keeps us from evening practices and so on.
External distractions are perhaps the most difficult to stave off. This samsara is full of distractions and attractions. Remember to an un-trained mind, external stimuli can be sensational, disturbing, arousing & seductive. The mind is gullible and thoughts can deceive easily. If we don’t catch hold of the situation soon, we are sure to suffer in our gains. This does not mean that we do nothing for our entertainment, rather limit them.
Internal upheavals are caused when we focus too much of our attention inwards by pandering to the whims, wants and needs of our five senses. Their needs are limitless and the mind is constantly tormented by them for satiation and gratification. They are like hungry beasts that are never satisfied. Constantly satisfying them becomes an endless ordeal for us. This is no good for consolidating our position on enslaving the truant mind.
Discouragement sets in endangering the entire process. Sometimes lessons or teachings can be long and tiresome. The teacher makes every effort for you to get the exact meaning and words correctly. This tends to discourage the evil mind which wants to wander away chasing something more attractive!
“The Way of Awakening is not easy nor is it unachievable. It is his who endeavours most”, spoke the Buddha.
Labour on, dear seekers! Omniscient Buddhahood to you!
In recent times pursuit of spirituality has become a ‘cool’ thing to do. Young and not so old are seen taking various paths in the hope of ‘instant’ nirvana! We even have a large number of dedicated channels on spiritual development in the visual media. Self-help books disappear off the shelves before they can be replaced! Everything right in this, so long as the seeker seeks the right teacher, the right path and generates the right motivation.
At the initial stages there is great enthusiasm with the pupil putting in dedicated practice. He/she derives happiness in contemplating the mind. A feeling of encouragement set in when small gains are visible. This is when the danger period sets in and great caution needs to be exercised in identifying and overcoming what are termed as the Six Stains. Here they are, caution the Masters:
Pride is displayed by believing oneself to be superior to the teacher. This is to be shunned. This is not to say that the teacher cannot be questioned. Ofcourse one can do so and if the teacher is compassionate, he/she will dispel with your queries in the manner most patient and comforting. However, as there is a great deal of unlearning to be done at this stage, to take the nurtured mind back to its root nature, the stain of pride needs to be overcome quickly by accepting the explanation put forth by the trained teacher.
Lack of faith arises when the seeker falls short of total trust he/she ought to have in the teacher and his teachings and transmissions. Absence of faith blocks the door to freedom from suffering. Remember, ones faith in the teachings and path is the basis of what we will achieve. If the extent of our faith is high, medium or low the corresponding results will be high, medium or low. If there is no faith, there will be no result.
Lack of effort shows up a few months into the practice when our worldly tasks begin to become overwhelming. We are able to devote less and less time, energy and mind space to our daily practices. Eg: our late night parties prevent us from waking up early for meditation, or even if we do, our mind is dull, stagnated and dark with lack of sleep and results are often mediocre, or maybe our office work, physical workout schedules keeps us from evening practices and so on.
External distractions are perhaps the most difficult to stave off. This samsara is full of distractions and attractions. Remember to an un-trained mind, external stimuli can be sensational, disturbing, arousing & seductive. The mind is gullible and thoughts can deceive easily. If we don’t catch hold of the situation soon, we are sure to suffer in our gains. This does not mean that we do nothing for our entertainment, rather limit them.
Internal upheavals are caused when we focus too much of our attention inwards by pandering to the whims, wants and needs of our five senses. Their needs are limitless and the mind is constantly tormented by them for satiation and gratification. They are like hungry beasts that are never satisfied. Constantly satisfying them becomes an endless ordeal for us. This is no good for consolidating our position on enslaving the truant mind.
Discouragement sets in endangering the entire process. Sometimes lessons or teachings can be long and tiresome. The teacher makes every effort for you to get the exact meaning and words correctly. This tends to discourage the evil mind which wants to wander away chasing something more attractive!
“The Way of Awakening is not easy nor is it unachievable. It is his who endeavours most”, spoke the Buddha.
Labour on, dear seekers! Omniscient Buddhahood to you!
The Union of Spirituality and Politics
Times of India (National), Pg 16, Editorial, 28.10.2011
Noble Cause And Effect
There’s no separating spirituality and politics when the aim is to serve the people
Girish Deshpande
During a stay at the Kharchhu monastery in Bhutan recently, i had the good fortune of getting a private audience with a revered master of Tibetan Buddhism, HH Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche. I posed to him a query, through an interpreter, about how he looked at politics as a way of serving people so as to improve their lives.
One was awestruck by the simplicity of his response. Any chosen path that alleviates the suffering of sentient beings, if taken up with an ethical motivation, is a noble path. Even if you were to bring true benefit to just one person other than yourself, that would be good enough. It is important to never give up, no matter the hardships on the chosen path.
With civil society’s agitation unfolding over the past few months and an unwilling government periodically playing hardball with a representation of a section of civil society on the issue of a strong anti-corruption law, one aspect has been baffling. It is the near-absence of people seeing the political content of this movement. Worse, though religious colours are being smeared on the movement, its spiritual aspect is unfortunately being clouded. And even if a few popular gurus are bringing in the spiritual content, they are apprehensive about giving the movement political status!
All kinds of names have been coined for the anti-corruption movement. People’s movement, social movement, second freedom struggle these are just some of them. To my mind, however, it is nothing but a political movement driven by the indefatigable spirit of the people. So, in effect, it becomes a politico-spiritual movement. This needs an explanation.
Whenever a reformer or group of reformers uses education to reform a thought process among a section of people, it is termed a social movement or social reform. Such leaders are called social reformers. Consider the brilliant examples of Raja Rammohun Roy’s abolition of child marriage and sati, women’s emancipation through education driven by Maharshi Karve, or any number of other successful social reformers with worthy initiatives to match.
However, when a section of the citizenry makes its government answerable, whether local or national, it is a political movement. Take the example of our very own movement for sovereign status, led by Mahatma Gandhi, where Indians demanded that the colonial powers answer their fundamental question: Why cant we be allowed to govern ourselves. Or, for that matter, consider Nelson Mandela’s antiapartheid movement in South Africa, Lech Walesa’s call for democracy in Poland, the Dalai Lama’s decades of engagement with China (until he recently gave up his role as the political head of the Tibetans to usher in democracy), Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle in Myanmar and, more recently, the Middle East’s Jasmine revolution.
All these movements were and are fundamentally peoples’ movements. But specifically, as they have made or are making their governments answerable, they have a distinct political flavour that cannot be ignored. This argument should establish the essentially political content of many movements. It applies as well to the one India is currently witnessing: the government is being questioned by citizens on its lack of urgency in framing a strong anti-corruption Bill.
Now, any task that is undertaken with an ethically directed motivation and an intention singularly focussed on rendering service to others where the seeker chooses to pay or not pay for services so rendered, but willingly and happily seeks such service is also spiritual in content. All real dharma gurus, for example, who strive for the well-being of their followers, are engaged in enhancing and elevating the spiritual content in them.
We are well aware that religion has nothing to do with spirituality. It is at best a vehicle, if one chooses to mount it, available as an option. Religion, per se, can be safely parked aside. Teachings, though, are of importance. A spiritual person may not be religious and a religious person need not be spiritual.
In an anti-corruption movement, the spirit and energies of the people are directed towards a common cause: that of improving their own living conditions and of others through reduced corruption, which can lead to an improved quality of life for all. Such a movement has great spiritual merit and content.
One can infer that any activity or profession which bases true service on the pillars of ethics, truth and non-violence and aims at improving the quality of life of a larger section of people has spiritual content. Consequently, if politics were to be based on this principle of well-meaning service directed towards improving quality of life, it would have pure spiritual content as well. Therefore, in their pure conception, spirituality and politics are integrated in each other. Indeed, they are mutually inseparable.
There is compelling reason for any person true to his chosen spiritual path to not shy away from politics, but indeed to actively and positively engage with the political process on a continual basis. As a corollary, anyone in political service ought to be connected spiritually with himself to render such service. A great disservice would be done if each were to stay clear of the other.
The Mahatma, whom we all revere, said, “My brand of politics is based on truth, ethics and non-violence. It (politics) is an inextricable part of me”. This recalls Aristotle who in his wisdom told us: ‘A truly ethical life can only be lived by someone who participates in politics.’
The writer is a social activist
Noble Cause And Effect
There’s no separating spirituality and politics when the aim is to serve the people
Girish Deshpande
During a stay at the Kharchhu monastery in Bhutan recently, i had the good fortune of getting a private audience with a revered master of Tibetan Buddhism, HH Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche. I posed to him a query, through an interpreter, about how he looked at politics as a way of serving people so as to improve their lives.
One was awestruck by the simplicity of his response. Any chosen path that alleviates the suffering of sentient beings, if taken up with an ethical motivation, is a noble path. Even if you were to bring true benefit to just one person other than yourself, that would be good enough. It is important to never give up, no matter the hardships on the chosen path.
With civil society’s agitation unfolding over the past few months and an unwilling government periodically playing hardball with a representation of a section of civil society on the issue of a strong anti-corruption law, one aspect has been baffling. It is the near-absence of people seeing the political content of this movement. Worse, though religious colours are being smeared on the movement, its spiritual aspect is unfortunately being clouded. And even if a few popular gurus are bringing in the spiritual content, they are apprehensive about giving the movement political status!
All kinds of names have been coined for the anti-corruption movement. People’s movement, social movement, second freedom struggle these are just some of them. To my mind, however, it is nothing but a political movement driven by the indefatigable spirit of the people. So, in effect, it becomes a politico-spiritual movement. This needs an explanation.
Whenever a reformer or group of reformers uses education to reform a thought process among a section of people, it is termed a social movement or social reform. Such leaders are called social reformers. Consider the brilliant examples of Raja Rammohun Roy’s abolition of child marriage and sati, women’s emancipation through education driven by Maharshi Karve, or any number of other successful social reformers with worthy initiatives to match.
However, when a section of the citizenry makes its government answerable, whether local or national, it is a political movement. Take the example of our very own movement for sovereign status, led by Mahatma Gandhi, where Indians demanded that the colonial powers answer their fundamental question: Why cant we be allowed to govern ourselves. Or, for that matter, consider Nelson Mandela’s antiapartheid movement in South Africa, Lech Walesa’s call for democracy in Poland, the Dalai Lama’s decades of engagement with China (until he recently gave up his role as the political head of the Tibetans to usher in democracy), Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle in Myanmar and, more recently, the Middle East’s Jasmine revolution.
All these movements were and are fundamentally peoples’ movements. But specifically, as they have made or are making their governments answerable, they have a distinct political flavour that cannot be ignored. This argument should establish the essentially political content of many movements. It applies as well to the one India is currently witnessing: the government is being questioned by citizens on its lack of urgency in framing a strong anti-corruption Bill.
Now, any task that is undertaken with an ethically directed motivation and an intention singularly focussed on rendering service to others where the seeker chooses to pay or not pay for services so rendered, but willingly and happily seeks such service is also spiritual in content. All real dharma gurus, for example, who strive for the well-being of their followers, are engaged in enhancing and elevating the spiritual content in them.
We are well aware that religion has nothing to do with spirituality. It is at best a vehicle, if one chooses to mount it, available as an option. Religion, per se, can be safely parked aside. Teachings, though, are of importance. A spiritual person may not be religious and a religious person need not be spiritual.
In an anti-corruption movement, the spirit and energies of the people are directed towards a common cause: that of improving their own living conditions and of others through reduced corruption, which can lead to an improved quality of life for all. Such a movement has great spiritual merit and content.
One can infer that any activity or profession which bases true service on the pillars of ethics, truth and non-violence and aims at improving the quality of life of a larger section of people has spiritual content. Consequently, if politics were to be based on this principle of well-meaning service directed towards improving quality of life, it would have pure spiritual content as well. Therefore, in their pure conception, spirituality and politics are integrated in each other. Indeed, they are mutually inseparable.
There is compelling reason for any person true to his chosen spiritual path to not shy away from politics, but indeed to actively and positively engage with the political process on a continual basis. As a corollary, anyone in political service ought to be connected spiritually with himself to render such service. A great disservice would be done if each were to stay clear of the other.
The Mahatma, whom we all revere, said, “My brand of politics is based on truth, ethics and non-violence. It (politics) is an inextricable part of me”. This recalls Aristotle who in his wisdom told us: ‘A truly ethical life can only be lived by someone who participates in politics.’
The writer is a social activist
Friday, August 26, 2011
A bogey called 'Supremacy of the Parliament'
Sakaal Times, Editorial, 30.08.2011
The pendulum has been swinging between stalemate and hope over the past few days and this has kept the country on the edge. Ofcourse, only those who wear nationalist feelings seem to be the pall-bearers of this movement . Others are going about their lives as if this burden is only for those to carry, who have little else to do.
The biggest bogey that the party in office and opposition has called is that parliament is supreme. It is a convenient statement to make, as they find their backs to the wall. The truth is, parliament is not supreme. Parliamentary democracy is. What this essentially means is that parliament consists of parliamentarians, who inturn are elected victorious by a percentage of votes polled in their respective constituencies. This figure hovers between 15-22% of the total electorate of that constituency. Which again means that the victorious candidate represent the voice of that percentage of people. This percentage roughly translates to 2.5 to 3.5 lakh votes in a given parliamentary constituency. It is these number of registered voters that send the elected person to parliament.
Now, what has clearly emerged over the past 10 days is that the number of citizens that have come on the streets in most of the 543 parliamentary constituencies nationwide (and have come out of their own free volition and without inducements, mind you) have been many times this figure. So in a parliamentary democracy system - which is nothing but a conglomeration of parliamentarians who in turn have been sent there to work on behalf of a percentage of citizens who voted for him/her - is supreme and the elected representatives are not delivering, evident from the swathes of people out on the streets, then something is not correct and therefore needs correction.
Many of us have been to restaurants for a meal. As standard operating procedure, the waiter seeks our choice of meal, notes it down, conveys the message to the chef who inturn makes the preparation as ordered and delivers it to us. The patron, is pleased and when s/he is pleased, so is the restaurant management. No confusion. Cut to parliamentary democracy. Citizens being patrons, place a request for good governance measures (strong anti-graft law included) with their elected representatives, who in turn carry this request to the union cabinet who inturn make out policies to the effect, introduce it in the form of bill or a debate, to the very same parliamentarians who put forth the request, who logically should pass it without too much of a fuss, which then becomes an Act or Law which citizens must relish. No confusion again. So far so good.
Now look where the problem arises. Imagine, if the waiter never bothered to ask its patrons what they'd prefer to eat, and conveyed whatever they thought the patron may like, and the chef were to prepare a totally different dish and place before the diner, well, least to say, hell would break loose. Well, this is just what has happened.
Back to the point. if parliament is not supreme as it is only made up of parliamentarians and in parliamentary democracy, the elected representative must deliver (or atleast is expected to do so) the wishes of the people, in whom they have reposed faith, and if they do so, no confusion. If not, unrest is inevitable. A possible alternative is right to recall. However, in the absence of such a law yet in our land the next viable method that Constitutionally exists, is referendum.
Why is the government and the opposition not pushing for this option? An officially backed national referendum on the vital inclusions of the Lokpal Bill. Let people decide and make the government's heartburn lesser. How simple is that?
The disconnect between various sections of civil society is all to apparent. The total disconnect between the political class and a larger section of citizens is now beyond any doubt. The government is in no mood to bypass parliamentary procedures. And need not although it is another matter that it then collectively did not take such a 'holy' stand and not bring in a strong anti-graft law all these decades, even while all this time tens of thousands of crores of public money were being salted away to tax havens. In a scenario of impasse such as this, what then stops it from going back to the people to ask them what they want. Isn't this the very basis of parliamentary democracy?
It would do good for our netas to remember that the very first three words of the preamble of the Indian Constitution is 'We the people...' and not 'we the parliament' nor 'we the parliamentarians' nor any other.
Can we have this done quick so the nation can go back to work and meet your GDP growth figures, Mr PM? National happiness be damned!
The pendulum has been swinging between stalemate and hope over the past few days and this has kept the country on the edge. Ofcourse, only those who wear nationalist feelings seem to be the pall-bearers of this movement . Others are going about their lives as if this burden is only for those to carry, who have little else to do.
The biggest bogey that the party in office and opposition has called is that parliament is supreme. It is a convenient statement to make, as they find their backs to the wall. The truth is, parliament is not supreme. Parliamentary democracy is. What this essentially means is that parliament consists of parliamentarians, who inturn are elected victorious by a percentage of votes polled in their respective constituencies. This figure hovers between 15-22% of the total electorate of that constituency. Which again means that the victorious candidate represent the voice of that percentage of people. This percentage roughly translates to 2.5 to 3.5 lakh votes in a given parliamentary constituency. It is these number of registered voters that send the elected person to parliament.
Now, what has clearly emerged over the past 10 days is that the number of citizens that have come on the streets in most of the 543 parliamentary constituencies nationwide (and have come out of their own free volition and without inducements, mind you) have been many times this figure. So in a parliamentary democracy system - which is nothing but a conglomeration of parliamentarians who in turn have been sent there to work on behalf of a percentage of citizens who voted for him/her - is supreme and the elected representatives are not delivering, evident from the swathes of people out on the streets, then something is not correct and therefore needs correction.
Many of us have been to restaurants for a meal. As standard operating procedure, the waiter seeks our choice of meal, notes it down, conveys the message to the chef who inturn makes the preparation as ordered and delivers it to us. The patron, is pleased and when s/he is pleased, so is the restaurant management. No confusion. Cut to parliamentary democracy. Citizens being patrons, place a request for good governance measures (strong anti-graft law included) with their elected representatives, who in turn carry this request to the union cabinet who inturn make out policies to the effect, introduce it in the form of bill or a debate, to the very same parliamentarians who put forth the request, who logically should pass it without too much of a fuss, which then becomes an Act or Law which citizens must relish. No confusion again. So far so good.
Now look where the problem arises. Imagine, if the waiter never bothered to ask its patrons what they'd prefer to eat, and conveyed whatever they thought the patron may like, and the chef were to prepare a totally different dish and place before the diner, well, least to say, hell would break loose. Well, this is just what has happened.
Back to the point. if parliament is not supreme as it is only made up of parliamentarians and in parliamentary democracy, the elected representative must deliver (or atleast is expected to do so) the wishes of the people, in whom they have reposed faith, and if they do so, no confusion. If not, unrest is inevitable. A possible alternative is right to recall. However, in the absence of such a law yet in our land the next viable method that Constitutionally exists, is referendum.
Why is the government and the opposition not pushing for this option? An officially backed national referendum on the vital inclusions of the Lokpal Bill. Let people decide and make the government's heartburn lesser. How simple is that?
The disconnect between various sections of civil society is all to apparent. The total disconnect between the political class and a larger section of citizens is now beyond any doubt. The government is in no mood to bypass parliamentary procedures. And need not although it is another matter that it then collectively did not take such a 'holy' stand and not bring in a strong anti-graft law all these decades, even while all this time tens of thousands of crores of public money were being salted away to tax havens. In a scenario of impasse such as this, what then stops it from going back to the people to ask them what they want. Isn't this the very basis of parliamentary democracy?
It would do good for our netas to remember that the very first three words of the preamble of the Indian Constitution is 'We the people...' and not 'we the parliament' nor 'we the parliamentarians' nor any other.
Can we have this done quick so the nation can go back to work and meet your GDP growth figures, Mr PM? National happiness be damned!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
SSSSSS-SIMPLY ENTHRALLING!
SNAKES AND MORE…A Curvy Path Less Taken.
If you are the type terrified to confront the creepy crawly creatures of the night, skip this piece please. Others, should you be convinced that to go looking for them in pelting rain in the dead of night is stuff crackpots indulge in, then i accept the compliment. Read on.
Packing my faithful rucksack - which must easily be a strong contender for the ‘most vividly travelled rucksack’ global award, if there were to be a category of this kind – with essential trivia’s, i set off last week on a herpetofauna expedition, i had registered for earlier, in the forests of the Western Ghats. Hepetofauna, a generic term, refers to all species of reptiles and amphibians. But this one was slightly more precise. A Pit Viper Expedition!
You guessed it right! Like many of you out there, my family too thought i’d lost my marbles. Demented, the new buzz word, was closer to it. Mom was almost at breakpoint and managed to convey her exasperation through my kids, who turned approvers and became the mainstays of my logic, whatever that logic was. Wifey was too stunned to offer a comment. Convincing my way through all of that, it was time to head for Goa, from where this craziness was to commence. Which other place, i thought, could be more befitting?
Nirmal Kulkarni, the tall, lanky, soft-spoken herpetologist and scientist, has almost 20years behind him handling, documenting, conserving, basically indulging in reptilian study and works out of Goa. For the latter part, i envy him. Likewise, petite Mittal, disciplined Devdatta and humourous Shrinivas have each excelled in their fields of studying amphibians, millipedes and centipedes, butterflies, birds besides venomous snakes across Indian terrain. So, the rest of us relative greenhorns, Suhas, Omkar, Tapoti, Sarang, Glenda knew were secure amidst the vast coils of collective experience when it came to confronting the much avoidable fangs of the Viper.
The brief given to us was ssss-simple! To look for and find any one of the three types of Vipers viz: Bamboo Pit Viper, Malabar Pit Viper and the Hump nosed Pit Viper. All three resident species of the region. Anything else was welcome and surplus on the expedition.
Over the next four nights and days ten of us scanned the hills, ponds and trails of Amboli, the ghats and lateritic plateaus of Mhadei Wild Life Sanctuary near Chorla, Bhagwan Mahavira Wild Life Sanctuary at Mollem and Castle Rock near Dudhsagar falls. Incidentally, these places are spread across the States of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.
Vipers are essentially shy and nocturnally active snakes, with striking colour morphs on their body, and posses a distinctly triangular head. They are largely misunderstood and try to minimize their confrontation with mankind. Growing to a maximum of 4ft in length, they like to hang around water holes for the prospect of prey at nights and head out to tree canopy reaches by daybreak. However, it is this genre that also accounts for a huge number of painful deaths annually due to their unforgiving bites in the fields and farms of rural India. Located in between their nostrils and eyes, are two heat sensing pits from which it derives its name. So sensitive are these pits to temperature change that a variation of 0.001 degrees Celsius is enough to alert them and take note of the passing prey to complete the job at an impressive strike rate of 99.5%! This weapon, along with its ‘wait and watch’ approach towards preying, helps wonderfully well in the dead of night. Unmindful ‘passers by’ such as rodents, squirrel and frogs are caught unawares only to end up in the innards of the reptile. It is not strange therefore that an important missile in the US weaponry, the Sidewinder, was inspired and developed on the very basis of this ‘page from nature’ technology of heat sensing and guiding.
The days that followed kind of had a typical cycle. Wake up. Breakfast. Travel to destination. Scan the area. Lunch. Walk into wilderness for opportunistic finds and document them. Tea. More field work, fill-up work sheets on finds. Dinner. Scan forests and plains in the dead of the night for more species and specimens. Ofcourse, this spine-thrilling routine was interspersed with some very interesting films on the wonderful work being done by Romulus Whitaker and Ashok Captain, with whom Nirmal and others have been working on creating awareness and in conservation of reptiles of all kinds, including the King Cobra. Exchanging anecdotes and tales from experiences in the wild is what bonded this diverse group further. Learning snake bite protocol, anti-venom actions & reactions and Taxonomy (study of snake skin patterns) added value to knowledge quotient.
What caught my wonder was the intensity of sincerity that each one of us was putting into the process. All of those of us novices who had registered for this program had never quite done stuff like this before. Nothing ever kept us away from ‘dressing up’ for the occasions - rainwear, gumboots et al - and heading out without any hint of trepidation into slush, streams and meadows with powerful flashlights and camera in tow to make our finds and document them. Not the leeches that some of us lost blood to, not the stormy nights and torrential rains, not the late hours and miles of searching walks, not the hundreds of tiresome notings on the Kestrel (humidity, temperature and wind speed measuring instrument) and GPS readings, not the never drying and mostly stinking clothes and socks, not the nettles, ticks and mosquitoes. Nothing seemed to slow down our enthusiasm. Not even the straying Malabar Pit Viper that had uncannily found its way in the ladies’ bedroom! My sense is that the constant thrill of uncertainty, the magical rejuvenating powers of nature and the collective bonhomie, all woven by a singular thread of loving kindness for the creatures less fortunate, kept us at it.
At final count, over five days, we had between us spotted, identified and documented eight Pit Vipers (including one which was over a meter long that had just feasted), nine Green Vine Snakes, number of amphibians including some rare finds like the Malabar Gliding Frog and Caecilian, millipedes and centipedes in enviable numbers, water and field scorpions, range of spiders including the dreaded Tarantula, hunting ants (referred to as ‘Crazy Army’ for their ferocious bites and much feared ability to decimate prey in short time). All of this left me incredibly enthralled!
Chill mom, your son maybe crazy but he’s back safe…and happy! How’s that for an ending?
Monday, July 18, 2011
AWARE BUT NOT YET AWAKE
Speaking Tree, ToI, 30.07.2011
The locality where i live in Pune, has an proactive residents forum wherefrom we take up civic issues with officials of various government bodies and elected representatives from time to time. The objective of this registered forum is simple and one pointed: to improve the quality of life of residents. So varied issues such as refuse collection, street lights operation, road surface quality, nuisance control and cleanliness, traffic streamlining and other such issues are taken up regularly. So formidable has this forum grown to be that civic officials actually respond to most matters in 24 hours.
However, there are a set of civilians, besides the incorrigible cynics, who never attend or even bother to voice the civic issues concerning them at this forum. They are well-educated, well heeled, concerned and aware of the issues too. They come across as friendly and social people too with good communication skills and intelligence. Then what is it that holds them back from participating? Through observation and a process of elimination, i came to a conclusion. An aware but an un-awakened mind.
Here is where the difference lies.
An aware mind is one that knows that a problem or issue exists but refuses to do anything about it. For example an overweight person with health issues may know that s/he is in suffering due to weight issues and can get to tackle this situation by, say, getting some exercise or bettering his/her eating habits. But instead chooses to remain in a state of inertia about it. The person is aware (about the existence of the problem) but not awakened to address it. Or a person may know that s/he gets angry easily with slightest provocation and this may have landed him/her into many difficult and embarrassing situations too, but yet takes no steps to calm and reign in the mind when such an emotion arises. Again, s/he is aware of the problem but not awakened to provide a solution to it to overcome it.
It is quite easy to be lazy. Laziness requires no effort. To be active requires effort. To identify a problem may be easy but to tide over it requires great resolve. Imagine if an animal in the forest knew it were hungry but refused to do anything about it! It would certainly perish. Or if we knew we are weak in a particular subject but choose not do anything about it before the exam would prove a certain disaster! Likewise, merely being aware of a problem does not solve it. It is the same difference as between: kuch karna hai (problem identification) vis-à-vis kuch kiya hai (problem redressal). While the former (awareness) is passive acceptance the latter (awakening) is active acceptance. This is the fundamental difference.
Likewise in the case of mind control. In an weak or distorted mind there are tempestuous thoughts and emotions arising every day. Some maybe virtuous but most are repetitive and harmful. Ofcourse, we are not so much concerned about the virtuous ones because they will bring us benefit but what about the others un-productive, vicious ones that constitute a majority, which by nature will bring upon us suffering? Then we say, I read somewhere that we should become aware of their arising and they will subside on their own. This is true. However, the real problem arises is getting down to doing it! Before we realize into becoming aware of their arising, they have already slipped past our vigilance and have raised their ugly head in the form of a speech or body action. And then we realize it’s too late and repent the action later. This happens because although we know we must be aware, we haven’t taken adequate care and effort to be awakened to actually getting down to training our minds. We have become somewhat aware of the problem but we are not awakened about it to tackle it consistently enough. To be awakened about such a mind condition requires training which in turn requires hard work. But we seldom do it.
Our parents, friends and well-wishers may point out some hidden faults in us and we become aware of them. But despite being aware that we need to address those hidden faults, we chose to do nothing substantial about it, which is the same thing as not being awakened to it. It seems too much of an effort for somewhat ‘invisible’ gains.
On the other hand, we may regularly refer to all the internet sites or browse every book possible to add to our work related intelligence quotient. People come to know that you are ‘in the know of things’ and you can impress them with your acquired knowledge. So here we are aware of the repercussions of ‘lagging behind’ and by undertaking tedious work we are also awakened to the situation as it affects our ‘visible’ status in society.
Therefore, when it comes to matters which are purely worldly in nature we seem aware and awakened in doing something about it. However, in matters of the mind or in developing our metaphysical quotient we are often aware of what needs to be done but don’t easily get awakened about getting down to doing it with due diligence.
If we were to bring about generating awareness and awakening in living our lives, it would lead us to a better quality of life within and without.
The locality where i live in Pune, has an proactive residents forum wherefrom we take up civic issues with officials of various government bodies and elected representatives from time to time. The objective of this registered forum is simple and one pointed: to improve the quality of life of residents. So varied issues such as refuse collection, street lights operation, road surface quality, nuisance control and cleanliness, traffic streamlining and other such issues are taken up regularly. So formidable has this forum grown to be that civic officials actually respond to most matters in 24 hours.
However, there are a set of civilians, besides the incorrigible cynics, who never attend or even bother to voice the civic issues concerning them at this forum. They are well-educated, well heeled, concerned and aware of the issues too. They come across as friendly and social people too with good communication skills and intelligence. Then what is it that holds them back from participating? Through observation and a process of elimination, i came to a conclusion. An aware but an un-awakened mind.
Here is where the difference lies.
An aware mind is one that knows that a problem or issue exists but refuses to do anything about it. For example an overweight person with health issues may know that s/he is in suffering due to weight issues and can get to tackle this situation by, say, getting some exercise or bettering his/her eating habits. But instead chooses to remain in a state of inertia about it. The person is aware (about the existence of the problem) but not awakened to address it. Or a person may know that s/he gets angry easily with slightest provocation and this may have landed him/her into many difficult and embarrassing situations too, but yet takes no steps to calm and reign in the mind when such an emotion arises. Again, s/he is aware of the problem but not awakened to provide a solution to it to overcome it.
It is quite easy to be lazy. Laziness requires no effort. To be active requires effort. To identify a problem may be easy but to tide over it requires great resolve. Imagine if an animal in the forest knew it were hungry but refused to do anything about it! It would certainly perish. Or if we knew we are weak in a particular subject but choose not do anything about it before the exam would prove a certain disaster! Likewise, merely being aware of a problem does not solve it. It is the same difference as between: kuch karna hai (problem identification) vis-à-vis kuch kiya hai (problem redressal). While the former (awareness) is passive acceptance the latter (awakening) is active acceptance. This is the fundamental difference.
Likewise in the case of mind control. In an weak or distorted mind there are tempestuous thoughts and emotions arising every day. Some maybe virtuous but most are repetitive and harmful. Ofcourse, we are not so much concerned about the virtuous ones because they will bring us benefit but what about the others un-productive, vicious ones that constitute a majority, which by nature will bring upon us suffering? Then we say, I read somewhere that we should become aware of their arising and they will subside on their own. This is true. However, the real problem arises is getting down to doing it! Before we realize into becoming aware of their arising, they have already slipped past our vigilance and have raised their ugly head in the form of a speech or body action. And then we realize it’s too late and repent the action later. This happens because although we know we must be aware, we haven’t taken adequate care and effort to be awakened to actually getting down to training our minds. We have become somewhat aware of the problem but we are not awakened about it to tackle it consistently enough. To be awakened about such a mind condition requires training which in turn requires hard work. But we seldom do it.
Our parents, friends and well-wishers may point out some hidden faults in us and we become aware of them. But despite being aware that we need to address those hidden faults, we chose to do nothing substantial about it, which is the same thing as not being awakened to it. It seems too much of an effort for somewhat ‘invisible’ gains.
On the other hand, we may regularly refer to all the internet sites or browse every book possible to add to our work related intelligence quotient. People come to know that you are ‘in the know of things’ and you can impress them with your acquired knowledge. So here we are aware of the repercussions of ‘lagging behind’ and by undertaking tedious work we are also awakened to the situation as it affects our ‘visible’ status in society.
Therefore, when it comes to matters which are purely worldly in nature we seem aware and awakened in doing something about it. However, in matters of the mind or in developing our metaphysical quotient we are often aware of what needs to be done but don’t easily get awakened about getting down to doing it with due diligence.
If we were to bring about generating awareness and awakening in living our lives, it would lead us to a better quality of life within and without.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Meditation on the Move!
SPEAKING TREE, TOI, 26.07.2012
Sample these situations we often find ourselves in: Feeling bored waiting for the flight/train? Preferring to stay in the car while the spouse is shopping? Or awaiting the kids to call to be picked up when they’re finished with a birthday party? Or just chilling out. Here’s an anytime, anywhere experiment, to get into the insides of your mind.
Sit erect. It doesn’t matter if you prefer to keep your eyes closed or open. Either arrangement is okay, but for the beginner open eyes tend to distract. Breathe normally. Now, shift your attention to the mind. To begin, do nothing with it. Just let the dude be. But keep observing it un-distracted. Allow those rising thoughts to float in without giving any treatment to them. Every thought that arises, may or maynot be accompanied by an emotion. Doesn’t matter. Just observe. Your mind will tend to grasp the arising thought, chase it, build on it until this conceptualizing reaches a dead-end and falls. On reaching the dead end with nowhere else to go, the mind grasps on a new thought that arises and the mind goes on to chase this one. And this process goes on.
In a span of few minutes, depending on how hyper the mind has been, the never ceasing cycle of ‘arising-chasing-deadending-falling’ goes on and on. However, when you focus some more, you will also notice that as your observation towards the mind gets more intense, the arising of thoughts gets slower too. Much like the crystals of sugar settling down in a glass of water after a quick stir, observe this slowing down. You will begin to be amused with this observation.
This does not mean the mind has stopped taking on a next thought to launch another chase. Our observation has only slowed down the process. Now be attentive to observe further that between the passing of the previous thought and the arising of a new one, there exists a hair breadth of a gap that you might sense. A very fleeting one, but it does exist. It exists by itself in a pure, pristine, fresh, virgin and un-manipulated state. This is identified as the nature of our mind.
This is the gap you need to recognize and work on.
Try and get a hang of this gap that is pure, unaltered and in total awareness. Try to rest in this gap for as long as you can. Initially, this maybe possible only for a few seconds. Resting in this gap even for a few moments, one feels peaceful and refreshed. This is our Buddha mind itself! Nothing else, but prolonging this recognition for as long as you can, is meditation. In Tibetan Buddhist texts this ‘gap’ is referred to as, rigpa, ( pronounced ‘reejpa’). “If you are in an unaltered state, it is Rigpa”, says Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, a great master of Tibetan Buddhism of the 20th century.
With repeated practice of this simple ‘anytime-anywhere’ method of generating awareness, it is easily possible to familiarize ourselves with our base mind, otherwise clouded by all sorts of delusions and defilements. How cool is that?
PS: It is advised not to try this after consuming alcohol simply because as the nature of alcohol is to confuse, the recognition will be difficult and what you will experience instead is a dull, dark and ‘grey’ state, which is certainly not our true nature. And yes, for the safety of yourself and the family, not to be tried by beginners during driving too!
Friday, April 15, 2011
POSITIVE KARMIC DEPOSITS - WHAT AN INVESTMENT!
THE SPEAKING TREE, ToI, 26.04.2011
Whether anyone believes in it or not, the fact is that we all have an after life. Its scientific explanation is logical too. Just as matter cannot be created nor be destroyed but merely transformed into another form, just the same way, our body after our passing away from this life, is transformed into another form. It would be a misconception to believe that there is an end, a finality to our lives. It is not so. There is just transformation. It is proven in Buddhist tantric experiments that the natural elements of nature (earth, wind, fire, water, space) have the qualities of the mind and also support vital systems of our body functions. It is also proven with logic and proof that there is continuity of our mind from one birth to another. You may have heard of real-life instances where a child quite naturally yet vividly remembers the place of birth and some of the critical happenings of his/her past life. Therefore, there is direct linkage of the elements to our psycho-physical state. There is no doubt about this in minds of Buddhist practitioners.
So if we can conclude that there is afterlife, the natural question that arises is: What kind of births can we take?
Again according to Buddhist teachings there are six realms in which we can be re-born. Hell, Pretas (Hungry ghosts), Animals, Human, Asuras (Demi-gods) and god realms. It is not to say that there are different worlds that we are born in or anything like that. First the bad news. All these countless rebirths from beginningless time are the direct effect of our afflicted emotions. The reason for being born in these realms is driven by the resulting karmic accumulations. For eg: Being born in the hell realm is due to our afflicted emotions of hatred, being born as hungry ghosts is due to greed, envy/jealousy leads us to birth in the asura realm, pride into the god realm, confusion as animals and ignorance as humans beings. Even for those born in god realm, there is intense suffering as the good effect that has given them this birth will be worn out someday and they will have to be reborn in lower realms. This is because they are not in a position to accumulate anymore good karma nor clean their accumulated bad ones, being in a state of mental blankness. Now the good news. It is birth only in the human realm - with its freedoms and advantages of being born with intact sense faculties at a place where dharma teachings can be obtained (quite obsolete in this internet era!) and with the right intent and faith – that spiritual trajectory and therefore possibility of good re-birth is possible.
So what does this mean? It simply means that if we wish to be born in higher realm we can undertake practices in this human life to achieve the end we want. We can tweak the stacked up causes before us to our advantage to have the desired good effect. And these practices essentially lead us to doing good deeds of body, speech and mind, in the process accumulating deposits of good karma in our spiritual bank account.
It is a good thing to accumulate good karma by doing good deeds in a non-conceptualized manner i.e. without an ulterior motive of personal gain or gratification or to show-off. However, the true fruit of this merit is deposited into your account only after such deeds are dedicated to the wellness and Buddhahood of every sentient being. While it is good to increase the ‘bank balance’ in this way and add to the credit side, it is of significance to keep an eye on the debit side of the entries as well! These debits have been there over lifetimes and we may not even remember when and how we have accumulated them. Therefore, to undertake guided practices to negate our bad karma accumulations is critical too for a healthy balance sheet.
Finally, there has to be a constant vigil on debit and credit side, it needs to be a sustained practice all the time in this human life, if we desire to get good rebirth which clearly all of us want.
What better investment can we think of in this materially driven world than investing in the mother of all investments, where accomplishment and returns are guaranteed. The investment in good karmic deposits! The perfect solution to a peaceful, happy and terrific quality of life here and ahead!
Go ahead friends, choose your lives!
Whether anyone believes in it or not, the fact is that we all have an after life. Its scientific explanation is logical too. Just as matter cannot be created nor be destroyed but merely transformed into another form, just the same way, our body after our passing away from this life, is transformed into another form. It would be a misconception to believe that there is an end, a finality to our lives. It is not so. There is just transformation. It is proven in Buddhist tantric experiments that the natural elements of nature (earth, wind, fire, water, space) have the qualities of the mind and also support vital systems of our body functions. It is also proven with logic and proof that there is continuity of our mind from one birth to another. You may have heard of real-life instances where a child quite naturally yet vividly remembers the place of birth and some of the critical happenings of his/her past life. Therefore, there is direct linkage of the elements to our psycho-physical state. There is no doubt about this in minds of Buddhist practitioners.
So if we can conclude that there is afterlife, the natural question that arises is: What kind of births can we take?
Again according to Buddhist teachings there are six realms in which we can be re-born. Hell, Pretas (Hungry ghosts), Animals, Human, Asuras (Demi-gods) and god realms. It is not to say that there are different worlds that we are born in or anything like that. First the bad news. All these countless rebirths from beginningless time are the direct effect of our afflicted emotions. The reason for being born in these realms is driven by the resulting karmic accumulations. For eg: Being born in the hell realm is due to our afflicted emotions of hatred, being born as hungry ghosts is due to greed, envy/jealousy leads us to birth in the asura realm, pride into the god realm, confusion as animals and ignorance as humans beings. Even for those born in god realm, there is intense suffering as the good effect that has given them this birth will be worn out someday and they will have to be reborn in lower realms. This is because they are not in a position to accumulate anymore good karma nor clean their accumulated bad ones, being in a state of mental blankness. Now the good news. It is birth only in the human realm - with its freedoms and advantages of being born with intact sense faculties at a place where dharma teachings can be obtained (quite obsolete in this internet era!) and with the right intent and faith – that spiritual trajectory and therefore possibility of good re-birth is possible.
So what does this mean? It simply means that if we wish to be born in higher realm we can undertake practices in this human life to achieve the end we want. We can tweak the stacked up causes before us to our advantage to have the desired good effect. And these practices essentially lead us to doing good deeds of body, speech and mind, in the process accumulating deposits of good karma in our spiritual bank account.
It is a good thing to accumulate good karma by doing good deeds in a non-conceptualized manner i.e. without an ulterior motive of personal gain or gratification or to show-off. However, the true fruit of this merit is deposited into your account only after such deeds are dedicated to the wellness and Buddhahood of every sentient being. While it is good to increase the ‘bank balance’ in this way and add to the credit side, it is of significance to keep an eye on the debit side of the entries as well! These debits have been there over lifetimes and we may not even remember when and how we have accumulated them. Therefore, to undertake guided practices to negate our bad karma accumulations is critical too for a healthy balance sheet.
Finally, there has to be a constant vigil on debit and credit side, it needs to be a sustained practice all the time in this human life, if we desire to get good rebirth which clearly all of us want.
What better investment can we think of in this materially driven world than investing in the mother of all investments, where accomplishment and returns are guaranteed. The investment in good karmic deposits! The perfect solution to a peaceful, happy and terrific quality of life here and ahead!
Go ahead friends, choose your lives!
Friday, April 8, 2011
INDIA (WINS) AGAINST CORRUPTION!
STEPS:
1. GOVERNMENT ARROGANTLY INDIFFERENT TO CITIZENS' CALL TO PASS STRONG LAW AGAINST RAMPANT CORRUPTION
2. CITIZENS BUILD PRESSURE LED BY GANDHIAN ANNA HAZARE WHO GOES ON INDEFINITE FAST
3. NATIONWIDE PROTESTS OVER 200 CITIES/TOWNS OVER FOUR DAYS FORCES GOVERNMENT ON ITS KNEES
4. GOVERNMENT RELENTS...AGREES TO ALL DEMANDS.(8/9TH APRIL)
5. PROFESSIONALS PARTY OF INDIA (PPI) LEADS ALONGSIDE IAC IN PUNE AND MUMBAI. CORE GROUP MEMBERS TRAVEL TO DELHI TO BE ALONGSIDE ANNA AND TEAM ON 5TH APRIL
BOTTOM LINE:
MIDDLE CLASS FINDS ITS VOICE...AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, DISCOVERS ITSELF AGAIN!
JAI HIND.
1. GOVERNMENT ARROGANTLY INDIFFERENT TO CITIZENS' CALL TO PASS STRONG LAW AGAINST RAMPANT CORRUPTION
2. CITIZENS BUILD PRESSURE LED BY GANDHIAN ANNA HAZARE WHO GOES ON INDEFINITE FAST
3. NATIONWIDE PROTESTS OVER 200 CITIES/TOWNS OVER FOUR DAYS FORCES GOVERNMENT ON ITS KNEES
4. GOVERNMENT RELENTS...AGREES TO ALL DEMANDS.(8/9TH APRIL)
5. PROFESSIONALS PARTY OF INDIA (PPI) LEADS ALONGSIDE IAC IN PUNE AND MUMBAI. CORE GROUP MEMBERS TRAVEL TO DELHI TO BE ALONGSIDE ANNA AND TEAM ON 5TH APRIL
BOTTOM LINE:
MIDDLE CLASS FINDS ITS VOICE...AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, DISCOVERS ITSELF AGAIN!
JAI HIND.
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Three Kayas - Omnipresent transitory states
Our life on earth in this human life can be compartmentalized into three processes or gross states: First, our waking state in which we go to work, do domestic chores, experience enjoyment and do other worldly activities. Second, is our sleeping state which comprises sleep and dream states. And third, the state or process of dying which comprises the sub-processes of cessation of outer and inner respiration, intermediate state and after life.
‘Kaya’ means body. However, when we use this term in Buddhist tradition we do not really refer it to as any physical body or form. It is referred to as dimension, aspect or field. It can also be called bardo, meaning transition or simply a transitory or ‘inbetween’ moment. (‘Bar’: interim, ‘do’: present). Let us briefly explore their meanings.
• Dharma-kaya: The Buddha body of Reality: This is the true nature of our mind, ‘empty’ and unadulterated in anyway. The absolute state or the ground of our being or absolute truth.
• Sambhoga-kaya: The Buddha body of Perfect Resource: This state is the rich, abundant, radiant and resonant nature of our base mind.
• Nirmana-kaya: The Buddha body of Emanation: This refers to the unimpeded arising of our mind in whatever form it may manifest into.
It is amazing to see how these three ‘bodies’, states or bardos are with us all the time and during all the three states of waking, sleeping and dying. If we actually playback this is slow motion or in tiny sections we observe so:
Waking State: We usually associate this state with either everyday activity and/or during meditative practice where we maybe actually observing rising and falling of thoughts and emotions. After the passing of one thought or emotion and before another arises, there is a state which is pure and fresh. There is a possibility here to catch a glimpse of the true nature of our mind. This is the Dharmakaya state. However, this state does not last long. There is a stirring of energy in the mind and another possibility of thought or emotion arises. This is the Sambhogakaya state. And finally this latent possibility can arise into any form of thought or emotion as we begin to cling on to this arising energy. This is the Nirmanakaya state.
Sleeping state: When we fall asleep our various levels of gross conscious states dissolve slowly and the true nature of mind, our base mind opens before us as the Dharmakaya state. Then there is a brief period when we are actually asleep and just before dreams begin to manifest. This is a very subtle experience as many of us are unable to recognize when exactly we fall asleep and the moment at which dream state begins. This is the intermediate stage of Sambhogakaya. As dreams begin – something that many of us don’t know when exactly this happens after we fall asleep – there are many fantasies, experiences that we may go through. Some of these are driven by occurances of the waking state and we live them actively in our dream as though real. The Nirmanakaya state.
Dying process: Although one might argue as to how it is possible to ‘see’ or experience what state of our mind is when we are dying or dead, the fact is that the three dimensions are miraculously revealed at that time too! At the moment of death, when our inner respiration stops there is a moment when the nature of mind (emptiness) is revealed to us as Dharmakaya. Thereafter, as Sambhogakaya, the radiance of the intermediate state through light, colour and sound manifests. And finally, the formation and manifestation of the Nirmanakaya or creation in after life or that of becoming manifests.
It is clear therefore that each state, in both life and death, there exists exactly identical and unending opportunities to be able to release ourselves from conditioned existence towards Nirvana or continue in its state of confusion in Samsara. By this argument, it is further clear that life and death are therefore seamless experiences, one cascading into the other continuously, propelled by our karma.
The task before us is to recognize these intermediate states by getting some control over our minds and maintain continued awareness over it, work on these recognitions continuously, with the help of teachings and practices. In doing so, the doors of liberation will certainly open.
‘Kaya’ means body. However, when we use this term in Buddhist tradition we do not really refer it to as any physical body or form. It is referred to as dimension, aspect or field. It can also be called bardo, meaning transition or simply a transitory or ‘inbetween’ moment. (‘Bar’: interim, ‘do’: present). Let us briefly explore their meanings.
• Dharma-kaya: The Buddha body of Reality: This is the true nature of our mind, ‘empty’ and unadulterated in anyway. The absolute state or the ground of our being or absolute truth.
• Sambhoga-kaya: The Buddha body of Perfect Resource: This state is the rich, abundant, radiant and resonant nature of our base mind.
• Nirmana-kaya: The Buddha body of Emanation: This refers to the unimpeded arising of our mind in whatever form it may manifest into.
It is amazing to see how these three ‘bodies’, states or bardos are with us all the time and during all the three states of waking, sleeping and dying. If we actually playback this is slow motion or in tiny sections we observe so:
Waking State: We usually associate this state with either everyday activity and/or during meditative practice where we maybe actually observing rising and falling of thoughts and emotions. After the passing of one thought or emotion and before another arises, there is a state which is pure and fresh. There is a possibility here to catch a glimpse of the true nature of our mind. This is the Dharmakaya state. However, this state does not last long. There is a stirring of energy in the mind and another possibility of thought or emotion arises. This is the Sambhogakaya state. And finally this latent possibility can arise into any form of thought or emotion as we begin to cling on to this arising energy. This is the Nirmanakaya state.
Sleeping state: When we fall asleep our various levels of gross conscious states dissolve slowly and the true nature of mind, our base mind opens before us as the Dharmakaya state. Then there is a brief period when we are actually asleep and just before dreams begin to manifest. This is a very subtle experience as many of us are unable to recognize when exactly we fall asleep and the moment at which dream state begins. This is the intermediate stage of Sambhogakaya. As dreams begin – something that many of us don’t know when exactly this happens after we fall asleep – there are many fantasies, experiences that we may go through. Some of these are driven by occurances of the waking state and we live them actively in our dream as though real. The Nirmanakaya state.
Dying process: Although one might argue as to how it is possible to ‘see’ or experience what state of our mind is when we are dying or dead, the fact is that the three dimensions are miraculously revealed at that time too! At the moment of death, when our inner respiration stops there is a moment when the nature of mind (emptiness) is revealed to us as Dharmakaya. Thereafter, as Sambhogakaya, the radiance of the intermediate state through light, colour and sound manifests. And finally, the formation and manifestation of the Nirmanakaya or creation in after life or that of becoming manifests.
It is clear therefore that each state, in both life and death, there exists exactly identical and unending opportunities to be able to release ourselves from conditioned existence towards Nirvana or continue in its state of confusion in Samsara. By this argument, it is further clear that life and death are therefore seamless experiences, one cascading into the other continuously, propelled by our karma.
The task before us is to recognize these intermediate states by getting some control over our minds and maintain continued awareness over it, work on these recognitions continuously, with the help of teachings and practices. In doing so, the doors of liberation will certainly open.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
MEDITATING ON VAJRASATTVA: A POWERFUL CLEANSING PRACTICE
(Speaking Tree paper, 20.02.2011)
Pic-1
Pic-2
There is nothing good about bad actions of body, speech and mind except that they can be overcome through confession, say the teachings of ancient masters. And it goes on to further add that mere confession without the support of the four powers will bring little benefit.
Our minds are obscured by numerous obstacles. Just as we cannot see the blue sky with clouds covering it or we cannot see clearly into a mirror which is greasy or dusty, so also we are unable to reflect on our true, pure Buddha nature unless we cleanse ourselves of the obscurations. There are four kinds of obscurations that we need to clean up or cut through to see our true minds. These are:
• Karmic Obscurations: These are accumulated over several lifetimes and many of them we play innocent host to without even realizing their harmful existence within us
• Habitual Tendencies: These are ones which are our shackled responses to given stimuli or patters that we have become ‘used to’ without realizing their harmful nature
• Perceptions: Our forever conceptualizing mind as perceived by the inputs through our senses
• Negative Emotions: The five poisons within us: Anger, Greed, Pride, Ignorance, and Envy.
The challenge is in the purification of these obscurations. Surely, when we say that these can be overcome through confession, no confession is complete without the four powers. More importantly, it is of little use if we confess with the support of these powers and then go on to repeat those very same negative acts and confess over and over again the same thing! It’s never going to work.
The Four Powers:
The Power of Support: This support comes from taking refuge in the Bodhisattva of Purification, Vajrasattva, and by arousing the bodhichitta, the Buddha mind within us. Confession without bodhichitta may reduce your defects and faults but will not purify them totally still leaving you in the peril of lower realm rebirth, said the Buddha.
The Power of Regret: This power comes from the feeling of remorse for all the negative actions we may have done in the past without holding back or justifying. To think of those acts as something shameful. To view them with utter trepidation.
The Power of Resolution: This power stems from the fact that we bring to mind the wrongs we may have done and resolve with determination never to do it again, now that we know the good from the bad.
The Power of Action as Antidote: Every kind of negative action has an antidote. So we may undertake all those things that act as anti-dote to the harmful actions we have done.
The Actual Practice of Meditation on Vajrasattava:
We sit in the normal lotus posture and visualize a thousand petal open white lotus about two feet high above our head with the full disc of the moon. From the centre of this emanates the illuminating syllable ‘hum’ in white colour. The syllable instantaneously changes into our root teacher, the embodiment of compassion, who appears as Vajrasattva, white and bedazzling. With one face and two arms, he adorns all the five silken garments and the eight jewels. In his left hand resting on the thigh is the bell (method) and in the right is the five pronged vajra (mind) He is in divine union with his spiritual consort Vajratopa, also white and as dazzling light. This is the power of support.
Now as power of regret we bring to mind all the negative things we may have done and pray with all our heart to cleanse all such past and present actions and feel utmost remorse having done them. Our body breaks into goose bumps as we feel this remorse. And by the compassion of the teacher, we seek to be cleansed of all of them that very instant!
Now we visualize the letter hum in the heart of Vajrasattva and the hundred syllable mantra around them in a circular fashion. From each of the syllable drops of nectar representing wisdom and compassion flow down and emerges from the point of union of the deity and consort and enter into us from the crown of our head and other sentient beings. Like mud being washed away by water, our physical illness as rotten blood and pus, negative forces as snakes, spiders and scorpions and harmful actions as black liquid and smoke flow out of our bodies. The earth beneath us opens up and Death appears personified by all those who you have wronged. The impurities flow into their open mouths and when satiated the earth closes again. The white nectar continues to flow down the crown of your head and fills the entire body. You feel immense joy as you are fully purified. The four kayas are established into you too. Then Vajrasattava dissolves into you as melting as light and you transform into Vajrasattva yourself.
OM VAJRA SATTVA HUM (or "OM BENZA SATTO HUNG" in Tibetan) visualization
See Pic-2
The ‘hum’ now glows in your heart as a blue syllable with om in white in front, vajra in yellow to the left, sa as red behind and tva in green on the right. As we recite ‘Om Vajra Sattva Hum’ five rays of light shoot towards the sky towards the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with goddesses at the tips of the light beams with offerings to them. The Buddhas are pleased and shower rays of light back on you. These light rays then shoot below you to purify all the other beings across the other realms purifying them. They are all transformed into Vajrasattvas in the five colours and all of them are chanting ‘Om Vajra Sattva Hum’. Our Buddhfield now is the entire universe.
Finally, the universe dissolves into the beings, who then dissolves into you, you dissolve from outward to inward into yourself, which then dissolves into the om, the om dissolves into vajra, the vajra dissolves into sa, the sa dissolves into tva. The tva then dissolves into the various parts of the syllable hum beginning from the bottom and ending at the top (nada). see pic below
The nada then vanishes into space freeing you from conceptualizations and perceptions.
Stay in that state for a while. When thoughts arise, see the universe as the Buddhafield and dedicate the merit saying “By the merit of this practice may i swiftly attain the level of Vajrasatava’. (meaning to say : may i quickly get purified)
This is a powerful purification practice for which concentration is required all throughout without distraction. As mentioned earlier, once we confess and purify ourselves thru this practice, it would be unwise to repeat the same mistakes of body, speech and mind again.
TIBETAN SYLLABLE 'HUNG' AND ITS PARTS
See Pic-1
(HUNG represents the wisdom mind of the Buddhas. It acts like a propellant to the mantra proclaiming as though to say ‘So be it!’ or ‘Tathasthu' in Sanskrit)
Pic-1
Pic-2
There is nothing good about bad actions of body, speech and mind except that they can be overcome through confession, say the teachings of ancient masters. And it goes on to further add that mere confession without the support of the four powers will bring little benefit.
Our minds are obscured by numerous obstacles. Just as we cannot see the blue sky with clouds covering it or we cannot see clearly into a mirror which is greasy or dusty, so also we are unable to reflect on our true, pure Buddha nature unless we cleanse ourselves of the obscurations. There are four kinds of obscurations that we need to clean up or cut through to see our true minds. These are:
• Karmic Obscurations: These are accumulated over several lifetimes and many of them we play innocent host to without even realizing their harmful existence within us
• Habitual Tendencies: These are ones which are our shackled responses to given stimuli or patters that we have become ‘used to’ without realizing their harmful nature
• Perceptions: Our forever conceptualizing mind as perceived by the inputs through our senses
• Negative Emotions: The five poisons within us: Anger, Greed, Pride, Ignorance, and Envy.
The challenge is in the purification of these obscurations. Surely, when we say that these can be overcome through confession, no confession is complete without the four powers. More importantly, it is of little use if we confess with the support of these powers and then go on to repeat those very same negative acts and confess over and over again the same thing! It’s never going to work.
The Four Powers:
The Power of Support: This support comes from taking refuge in the Bodhisattva of Purification, Vajrasattva, and by arousing the bodhichitta, the Buddha mind within us. Confession without bodhichitta may reduce your defects and faults but will not purify them totally still leaving you in the peril of lower realm rebirth, said the Buddha.
The Power of Regret: This power comes from the feeling of remorse for all the negative actions we may have done in the past without holding back or justifying. To think of those acts as something shameful. To view them with utter trepidation.
The Power of Resolution: This power stems from the fact that we bring to mind the wrongs we may have done and resolve with determination never to do it again, now that we know the good from the bad.
The Power of Action as Antidote: Every kind of negative action has an antidote. So we may undertake all those things that act as anti-dote to the harmful actions we have done.
The Actual Practice of Meditation on Vajrasattava:
We sit in the normal lotus posture and visualize a thousand petal open white lotus about two feet high above our head with the full disc of the moon. From the centre of this emanates the illuminating syllable ‘hum’ in white colour. The syllable instantaneously changes into our root teacher, the embodiment of compassion, who appears as Vajrasattva, white and bedazzling. With one face and two arms, he adorns all the five silken garments and the eight jewels. In his left hand resting on the thigh is the bell (method) and in the right is the five pronged vajra (mind) He is in divine union with his spiritual consort Vajratopa, also white and as dazzling light. This is the power of support.
Now as power of regret we bring to mind all the negative things we may have done and pray with all our heart to cleanse all such past and present actions and feel utmost remorse having done them. Our body breaks into goose bumps as we feel this remorse. And by the compassion of the teacher, we seek to be cleansed of all of them that very instant!
Now we visualize the letter hum in the heart of Vajrasattva and the hundred syllable mantra around them in a circular fashion. From each of the syllable drops of nectar representing wisdom and compassion flow down and emerges from the point of union of the deity and consort and enter into us from the crown of our head and other sentient beings. Like mud being washed away by water, our physical illness as rotten blood and pus, negative forces as snakes, spiders and scorpions and harmful actions as black liquid and smoke flow out of our bodies. The earth beneath us opens up and Death appears personified by all those who you have wronged. The impurities flow into their open mouths and when satiated the earth closes again. The white nectar continues to flow down the crown of your head and fills the entire body. You feel immense joy as you are fully purified. The four kayas are established into you too. Then Vajrasattava dissolves into you as melting as light and you transform into Vajrasattva yourself.
OM VAJRA SATTVA HUM (or "OM BENZA SATTO HUNG" in Tibetan) visualization
See Pic-2
The ‘hum’ now glows in your heart as a blue syllable with om in white in front, vajra in yellow to the left, sa as red behind and tva in green on the right. As we recite ‘Om Vajra Sattva Hum’ five rays of light shoot towards the sky towards the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas with goddesses at the tips of the light beams with offerings to them. The Buddhas are pleased and shower rays of light back on you. These light rays then shoot below you to purify all the other beings across the other realms purifying them. They are all transformed into Vajrasattvas in the five colours and all of them are chanting ‘Om Vajra Sattva Hum’. Our Buddhfield now is the entire universe.
Finally, the universe dissolves into the beings, who then dissolves into you, you dissolve from outward to inward into yourself, which then dissolves into the om, the om dissolves into vajra, the vajra dissolves into sa, the sa dissolves into tva. The tva then dissolves into the various parts of the syllable hum beginning from the bottom and ending at the top (nada). see pic below
The nada then vanishes into space freeing you from conceptualizations and perceptions.
Stay in that state for a while. When thoughts arise, see the universe as the Buddhafield and dedicate the merit saying “By the merit of this practice may i swiftly attain the level of Vajrasatava’. (meaning to say : may i quickly get purified)
This is a powerful purification practice for which concentration is required all throughout without distraction. As mentioned earlier, once we confess and purify ourselves thru this practice, it would be unwise to repeat the same mistakes of body, speech and mind again.
TIBETAN SYLLABLE 'HUNG' AND ITS PARTS
See Pic-1
(HUNG represents the wisdom mind of the Buddhas. It acts like a propellant to the mantra proclaiming as though to say ‘So be it!’ or ‘Tathasthu' in Sanskrit)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Samsara and Nirvana are inseperable!
Speaking Tree Sunday Paper (ToI)23.01.2011
After wandering several months, a young man reached the cave where a monk resided. Offering respectful prostrations, the young man said “I’ve been meditating for twelve years now and nirvana continues to elude me. Please help me, wise master”. The monk, offering the tired traveller some tea, settled down and calmly replied “That’s not surprising at all since you are trying to chase something outside that which has always been within you! You’ll never succeed.”
Nirvana to many is something that we will ‘attain’ after we die by doing good in this life. Nothing can be further from the truth. Two reasons contribute to this. One, there is nothing to ‘attain’ but to simply discover. And two, nirvana is inextricable from samsara. Let’s explore these thoughts.
According to Buddhist tradition, nirvana points towards cessation of suffering. Just as there are many reasons that make us happy in different ways, likewise there are many kinds of suffering and therefore many factors that contribute to this state. Most of us, however, tend to associate suffering arising from physical deformity, poverty, old age, chronic illness, dying and such visible forms. While these sufferings are either natural or karmic in nature there are other forms of suffering which are entirely caused and accumulated by our ownselves. Emotion, or shenpa in Tibetan, is one such. There are innumerable kinds of emotions and all emotions bring suffering in some form or the other. All things that have the quality of being uncertain, indefinite or unpredictable are causes of suffering. Weather, for instance, is one such we all may have experienced. Love too can bring suffering. Lets say you lovingly gift your dear one an expensive perfume presuming s/he will like the aroma and s/he actually does not like it, it brings instantaneous suffering. Broadly, we can bring types of emotions to something that makes us happy and some which brings us sadness. We tend to cling on to those things which bring us happiness and when that goes away or we don’t get it, it brings us suffering. Likewise, we shun the things that make us sad and when this situation befalls upon us, we suffer again. We constantly live in a world of duality. We compartmentalize our thoughts into things we like and dislike. We inadvertently even train our minds that way! In short we constantly stand in judgement of people, situations, stimuli, conditions and so on. And in doing so, allow the thoughts generated in our minds to shackle us thus causing us to suffer. While we may boast about our freedom of sorts on one hand, when it comes to our responses we are so strait-jacketed, so enslaved.
So how does one break free? In two simple ways. One, to realize the nature of our wisdom mind (not to be confused with intellect) which is inherently empty yet radiant and constantly train ourselves in realizing this state through sustained meditative practice. Two, to stop clinging to or judging the occurrence of phenomena with our pre-conceived mind. This is not to say that we become indifferent to people or situations but merely view them in equanimity. While both these methods need effort, the results they bring for us can be remarkable if we do it based on Dharma teachings, proper guidance and a dedicated motivation.
Having sufficiently mastered this, we can quite easily find nirvana within this very samsaric existence.
May the compassionate light of the Three Jewels be with you!
The author is a Pune based Dharma practitioner. Also on www.speakingtree.in
After wandering several months, a young man reached the cave where a monk resided. Offering respectful prostrations, the young man said “I’ve been meditating for twelve years now and nirvana continues to elude me. Please help me, wise master”. The monk, offering the tired traveller some tea, settled down and calmly replied “That’s not surprising at all since you are trying to chase something outside that which has always been within you! You’ll never succeed.”
Nirvana to many is something that we will ‘attain’ after we die by doing good in this life. Nothing can be further from the truth. Two reasons contribute to this. One, there is nothing to ‘attain’ but to simply discover. And two, nirvana is inextricable from samsara. Let’s explore these thoughts.
According to Buddhist tradition, nirvana points towards cessation of suffering. Just as there are many reasons that make us happy in different ways, likewise there are many kinds of suffering and therefore many factors that contribute to this state. Most of us, however, tend to associate suffering arising from physical deformity, poverty, old age, chronic illness, dying and such visible forms. While these sufferings are either natural or karmic in nature there are other forms of suffering which are entirely caused and accumulated by our ownselves. Emotion, or shenpa in Tibetan, is one such. There are innumerable kinds of emotions and all emotions bring suffering in some form or the other. All things that have the quality of being uncertain, indefinite or unpredictable are causes of suffering. Weather, for instance, is one such we all may have experienced. Love too can bring suffering. Lets say you lovingly gift your dear one an expensive perfume presuming s/he will like the aroma and s/he actually does not like it, it brings instantaneous suffering. Broadly, we can bring types of emotions to something that makes us happy and some which brings us sadness. We tend to cling on to those things which bring us happiness and when that goes away or we don’t get it, it brings us suffering. Likewise, we shun the things that make us sad and when this situation befalls upon us, we suffer again. We constantly live in a world of duality. We compartmentalize our thoughts into things we like and dislike. We inadvertently even train our minds that way! In short we constantly stand in judgement of people, situations, stimuli, conditions and so on. And in doing so, allow the thoughts generated in our minds to shackle us thus causing us to suffer. While we may boast about our freedom of sorts on one hand, when it comes to our responses we are so strait-jacketed, so enslaved.
So how does one break free? In two simple ways. One, to realize the nature of our wisdom mind (not to be confused with intellect) which is inherently empty yet radiant and constantly train ourselves in realizing this state through sustained meditative practice. Two, to stop clinging to or judging the occurrence of phenomena with our pre-conceived mind. This is not to say that we become indifferent to people or situations but merely view them in equanimity. While both these methods need effort, the results they bring for us can be remarkable if we do it based on Dharma teachings, proper guidance and a dedicated motivation.
Having sufficiently mastered this, we can quite easily find nirvana within this very samsaric existence.
May the compassionate light of the Three Jewels be with you!
The author is a Pune based Dharma practitioner. Also on www.speakingtree.in
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