The change I am boasting about these days,could until last week, be only be observed by me as my public interaction was negligible if not nil.But now with the start of a new semester,I have been meeting people but with a new and different attitude.I do not have any problems as such with the people but of course it has developed over a long period of time and this change has only strengthened it.Now thinking about the nature of goodness and evil I often come across contrasting situations where it is almost impossible to apply the judgement.I think,at that level, a faith is necessary.A faith in your beliefs or religion would suffice.These days have been pretty light compared to previous time an I can't stop thanking my recent shift of focus towards myself.I have been guided by thoughts of one of the most influential guides this world has ever seen and sometimes I too get amazed at how he explained to cope with even the most minute circumstances in life.
It feels like a burden is off my shoulders and I feel more lightweight than before.As there is a very famous simile about mountains.It goes like this:The mountain is too heavy but it does not bother us just because we don't have to lift it up similarly all the burdens seem heavy to us just because we cling to them!This is what Buddha taught.This is the way I think now,the most important thing being non clinging/attachment to anything.The way i've absorbed this kind of philosophy seems pretty logical as well as understandable.First of all we have to take a few things on belief.Just as in physics we have a few hypothesis before we can actually arrive at a result,similarly in matters pertaining to truth we have to take a few things on belief as it is necessary to hold to a ground.A belief in some truth which obviously our mind can perceive is necessary in order to move on to higher truths.We can of course reject it once we are convinced and more thorough with the concept.So I took the teachings of Buddha as a working hypothesis to arrive at the conclusion and so far there has not been a chunk of doubt about his teachings.In other words it is perfect which again dos not surprise me.Buddha had reached a level where anything he did,said or thought was perfect,free from delusions.But look at his simplicity.He has been,I think the only religious leader who not only allowed but encouraged his disciples to doubt his teachings and then eliminate them through own ability to penetrate the truth.He did not encourage taking the words as truth just because he said them,he instead encouraged people to challenge his words.I think this is the best way to teach the truth.First take it as non belief then if it is the truth of course it can pass all tests and the student will not only believe it to be truth but will never doubt it.Truth is doubtless.How can one doubt the thing he has perceived himself!
Maximum public interaction with minimum attachment is the thing I try to do in my public life and I succeed quite often.I have a few friends but I'm not attached to any of them.Then there is of course attraction towards a particular person of opposite sex but apart from causing a slight mental disturbance nothing worth noticeable exists.Now one thing I have noticed in these days is that I don't feel hatred at all.No act of other person disturbs me to a level beyond which I can bear and no person affects my way of thinking.Well this is a little exaggeration but it will happen in totality sooner or later.A few days back I was worried about my habit of useless chatter and I have had a difficult time controlling it.But there have been significant improvements such as I have given up speech full of abuses or egoism or anything like that and that too quite effortlessly.Now it even seems like I was making an effort in a negative way and this positive way needs no effort.And the result have been quite satisfactory keeping my standards in view.I have learnt to appreciate the value of lectures and now I can follow each and every lecture with a heightened concentration.Moving on there have been minimum defilements these days and I don't feel depressed and sleepy while returning back from college which was usual for me a few days back.
Goodness is more powerful than evil but the latter one is more visible so we often fall into delusion regarding the quality of actions.I don't anymore!We all are filled with energy in the youth and I'm no different but it is very important to learn how to channelize that energy and extract maximum results from that energy.Keeping the mind rational ,full of goodness and mindfulness is the key and we don't need anything else to do while performing our actions.
I have not yet cleared my doubts on the Buddhist teaching of non violence.Of course anyone can agree that violence is harmful,peace is a bliss but when in practice especially in present we are faced with circumstances where being non violent is equated with our inability to act or in more brute terms our cowardice.I had a little experience a few days back.A guy came and slammed right into a girl intentionally and the girl being a decent one did not react and let it go.I was standing near them and could not be but affected by it.I thought over and looking at the current scenario,we might come across a situation where we might be witness to a man being killed,or a poor weak guy being harassed or the most common one,a woman being disrespected.I don't know how to react to this kind of situation.On the one hand non attachment teaches us not to attach ourselves with either good or evil while on the other logic tells us we must put our efforts towards eliminating evil and spreading goodness all around.One one hand I consider myself non attached to society but then I get rattled on seeing something evil in here.This topic is still in its infancy in my mind and with time passing I'll think over it and of course reach to a convincing conclusion.Until that I just do what feels appropriate and try to avoid evil around us..
It feels like a burden is off my shoulders and I feel more lightweight than before.As there is a very famous simile about mountains.It goes like this:The mountain is too heavy but it does not bother us just because we don't have to lift it up similarly all the burdens seem heavy to us just because we cling to them!This is what Buddha taught.This is the way I think now,the most important thing being non clinging/attachment to anything.The way i've absorbed this kind of philosophy seems pretty logical as well as understandable.First of all we have to take a few things on belief.Just as in physics we have a few hypothesis before we can actually arrive at a result,similarly in matters pertaining to truth we have to take a few things on belief as it is necessary to hold to a ground.A belief in some truth which obviously our mind can perceive is necessary in order to move on to higher truths.We can of course reject it once we are convinced and more thorough with the concept.So I took the teachings of Buddha as a working hypothesis to arrive at the conclusion and so far there has not been a chunk of doubt about his teachings.In other words it is perfect which again dos not surprise me.Buddha had reached a level where anything he did,said or thought was perfect,free from delusions.But look at his simplicity.He has been,I think the only religious leader who not only allowed but encouraged his disciples to doubt his teachings and then eliminate them through own ability to penetrate the truth.He did not encourage taking the words as truth just because he said them,he instead encouraged people to challenge his words.I think this is the best way to teach the truth.First take it as non belief then if it is the truth of course it can pass all tests and the student will not only believe it to be truth but will never doubt it.Truth is doubtless.How can one doubt the thing he has perceived himself!
Maximum public interaction with minimum attachment is the thing I try to do in my public life and I succeed quite often.I have a few friends but I'm not attached to any of them.Then there is of course attraction towards a particular person of opposite sex but apart from causing a slight mental disturbance nothing worth noticeable exists.Now one thing I have noticed in these days is that I don't feel hatred at all.No act of other person disturbs me to a level beyond which I can bear and no person affects my way of thinking.Well this is a little exaggeration but it will happen in totality sooner or later.A few days back I was worried about my habit of useless chatter and I have had a difficult time controlling it.But there have been significant improvements such as I have given up speech full of abuses or egoism or anything like that and that too quite effortlessly.Now it even seems like I was making an effort in a negative way and this positive way needs no effort.And the result have been quite satisfactory keeping my standards in view.I have learnt to appreciate the value of lectures and now I can follow each and every lecture with a heightened concentration.Moving on there have been minimum defilements these days and I don't feel depressed and sleepy while returning back from college which was usual for me a few days back.
Goodness is more powerful than evil but the latter one is more visible so we often fall into delusion regarding the quality of actions.I don't anymore!We all are filled with energy in the youth and I'm no different but it is very important to learn how to channelize that energy and extract maximum results from that energy.Keeping the mind rational ,full of goodness and mindfulness is the key and we don't need anything else to do while performing our actions.
I have not yet cleared my doubts on the Buddhist teaching of non violence.Of course anyone can agree that violence is harmful,peace is a bliss but when in practice especially in present we are faced with circumstances where being non violent is equated with our inability to act or in more brute terms our cowardice.I had a little experience a few days back.A guy came and slammed right into a girl intentionally and the girl being a decent one did not react and let it go.I was standing near them and could not be but affected by it.I thought over and looking at the current scenario,we might come across a situation where we might be witness to a man being killed,or a poor weak guy being harassed or the most common one,a woman being disrespected.I don't know how to react to this kind of situation.On the one hand non attachment teaches us not to attach ourselves with either good or evil while on the other logic tells us we must put our efforts towards eliminating evil and spreading goodness all around.One one hand I consider myself non attached to society but then I get rattled on seeing something evil in here.This topic is still in its infancy in my mind and with time passing I'll think over it and of course reach to a convincing conclusion.Until that I just do what feels appropriate and try to avoid evil around us..
Comments
Post a Comment