Impressions of The Slow One

~

HE is unanimously dreaded for afflicting people and things around the world. For ages, he has been opined ' the relentless taskmaster' - for thrusting torment, grief and untold misery on His subjects. Upon probing further, however, He is understood to be the very image of Justice, Equality & Fair-play in every walk of life.

It is a humble experience now -- He will turn every stone, and do everything in his reach to do 'His RIGHT', and deliver His message, lessons across. Lessons so valuable, so profound & stilling... And without mistake, delivered they will be! There is no escaping it!

As His phase quite literally grips and grapples, the life scene bends to reshape itself to authentic, rough and humbling settings. Ergo, thoughts and emotions begin to dwell deep in the rough. The pseudo-self - the 'ego' in man - is an illusory sense of personal doership. It is a mind-form, called 'me', that usurps impersonal subjectivity and claims to be the experiencer of experiences. It is the sense of being the "doer", the author of , deeds and events! Confronted with the unpleasant experiences, it simply reacts to the stimulus - it primarily behaves like it is hired & paid to "protect" & "defend" something. The mind is shot at with jets of dense, negative thoughts and emotions. The dubious doer(ego) identifies with every stressful thought about the unseemly exterior. It fights & reacts to these thoughts, in its meaningless attempts to retaliate, to "protect", "defend" and "right the wrong". Frequent drama episodes of the ego, from my experience:-

• Complaints - "Haa! How unfair & unjust the whole scene is! (to a 'me' and its story)"


• Playing Victim - "How much of a victim 'poor me' is! " "How is 'me' meted out with such unfavorable, adverse fate." "I don't deserve this! How can I deserve this?" "Why this?!" ; "Why me?!"


• Frequent flights into rage.


• Vehemently detesting the situation. Tears.


• Blame: Blaming people, places and any other apparent cause of the situation.


• Suffering. Sadness : Traits of an ego. To a questioned mind, all sadness is a tantrum! (As can be conceived from below)

These 'fits' occur, reflect and repeat themselves ceaselessly. The shadow, that is the life situation now, spins its filaments till one is in the pitch of its darkness. It is now that the ego subsides -exhausted of its futile attempts to influence even a wee-bit of reality. And the PURIFYING POST OF THE MORTALS is clear to impart His unrivaled lessons -- profound, cleansing & precious as clear air for a drowning man.

~ IMPRESSIONS OF THE SLOW ONE ~ ~ . ________________ ~ SLOW IT ~ ________________ ~

Would you pass a car past the humps on road with anything but slow? Would you take out your hands from inside a thorn bush with anything but slow? Are pilots inclined to land planes with anything but slow? In the 'fastest' are inherent the echoes of the slow.

Slow down! Slowly down, O mind! Slowly does everything happen. Though the gardener waters a hundred pots, in the season, do fruits happen.. -- Kabir

Slow is the way of Nature: The Universe is about 13.75 "BILLION" years old. 1 billion is 1000,000,000. The Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago, (a "Kalpa" or half a day in the lifetime of Brahma is 4.32 billion years.) It's 3.8 billion years since Simple cells (life forms) formed. 2 billion years since Complex cells formed. 1 billion years since Multicellular life formed. 600 million years since Simple animals were formed. 570 million years of arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans), 550 million years of complex animals, 500 million years of fish and proto-amphibians, 475 million years of land plants, 400 million years of insects and seeds, 360 million years of amphibians, 300 million years of reptiles, 200 million years of mammals, 150 million years of birds, 130 million years of flowers, 65 million years since the non-avian dinosaurs died out, 2.5 million years since the appearance of the genus Homo, 200,000 years since humans started looking like they do today, 25,000 years since Neanderthals died out. You were born a few decades ago and will live for a few more. A fleeting "appearance" in the dance of the cosmos. Clearly, the rate at which the ego would like to have things happen is COMPLETELY, UTTERLY out of tune with the frequency at which things really happen - in REAL space-time! It's almost a miracle that we get to experience so much in such a short span as our lives! Slow it! Slow down.. That's how things happen in REAL. In SPACE-TIME! Slow down to get past those humps - quite literally!

. ________________ ~ PATIENCE ~ ________________ ~

Patience is "putting up" with something. It is letting something be - especially irritation. Patience is the "observer mode" of being, a tireless waiting consciousness. The key to every situation. The very quality is jubilating & fulfilling. I've come to see that it's not 'the other', 'the event' or 'the act' that prompts irritation, but my sheer lack of patience - for the other/event/act to change, to be different than it is. I can't wait for the other/event/situation to be different. -- This is the irritation. This is the sadness & suffering. It's only my impatience for things to be different that prompts any sadness or suffering in me. In life we see various instances, where one sheds tears of grief, over the loss a relationship, loss of pocessions, opportunities etc. Only to see that each of these are bumped into again, at a later point of time, perhaps in a different guise, in a brighter light. It seems here then as if the tears shed before were but naught! It might dawn on us then how we could have, with patience and waiting, completely skipped the grief part from before!

"He that can have Patience, can have what he will" --Benjamin Franklin

~ "How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" -- William Shakespeare, in Othello ~

When the mud swirls unseemly in a glass of water, patience works, settles the mud down. Not a hint of effort!

"Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Be still and allow the mud to settle." ~ Lao Tzu ~ "Genius is eternal patience" ~ Michelangelo ~

Most problems are a matter of evolution on part of some people, places, things or situations involved. And evolution in its every meaning & context always takes its own 'sweet time'. Hence, patience or plain waiting just might do the best trick. A speck of patience, and great impending stresses could simply evaporate!

.

____________ ~ BEING MINDFUL ~ ____________

~

Being mindful is being aware, alert & attentive. Being alert has it's own life and blessings. A little attention and awareness fine-tunes observation. Observation is everything. It is ground upon which everything from the sciences to the societies are built upon and made better. So the LUMINOUS ONE teaches the significance of being alert & aware, by prompting to us often the unhelpful results of our actions that were performed in slumber. In careless, heedless & inattentive states of consciousness. All that so we can be alert - get up, get a grip & amend ourselves and make better.

. ____________ ~ RESPONSIBILITY ~ ____________ ~

It is the state, quality, or fact of assuming oneself to be the source or cause of what is taken responsibility for. This is a trademark lesson of the GREAT LORD. It is saying: "For anything & everything that is not O.K around me -- of all that has happened, is happening & will happen - I'M RESPONSIBLE". It is an attitude, in which one is instantly empowered. In the very assumption of it, doors holding back light are opened. You land directly in the middle of control. Focusing rightly on things that do work and will work, and acting upon them. For any problem pr 'wrong' registered by the efo, this attitude of responsibilty - "I'm the cause of it" - WORKS! Responsibility is the surest path to tapping your ultimate potential.

"Responsibility is power" -- Sri Sri Ravishankar ~

"Responsibility is the price of greatness"--Winston Churchill ~ "Liberty means responsibility. That's why most people dread it"-- GB Shaw ~ "Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens conscience like Responsibility" -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton ~ "Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame."--Erica Jong ~ "God has entrusted me with myself." ~Epictetus

~ . ________________ ~ GRATITUDE ~ ________________ ~

It is the state or quality of being grateful. Of being appreciative of the benefits received. It instantly shifts focus from the apparent 'wrongs' to the 'already rights'. It transfixes one into an elevated state of being, of natural joy and comfort. It's about seeing that What Is, is already kind and gracious. Gratitude can be profoundly fulfilling and rejuvenating.

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily."-- Gerald Good ~ "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."--Thornton Wilder ~

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.The other is as though everything is a miracle.”-- Albert Einstein ~ "Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart."--Seneca

~

Gratitude is your natural state - happy, peaceful and full of enthusiasm. Tools that have helped me have more gratitude in life: --

• Living the 'turnarounds' from The Work of Byron Katie are good ways to realize & live in deep gratitude.


• Keeping a gratitude journal. This is a journal to log events that happen for you (from the past or present) which are nothing short of a Gift to you. This activity is deeply gratifying. It is quite literally, counting your blessings. Further, during your dark hours, this journal can become a sky, holding all your stars!

. ____________ ~ REALITY, TRUTH RULES ~ ____________ ~ "Your medicine is whatever appears now" ~ Byron Katie ~

Reality. Truth. What Is. - are all synonyms of 'what appears now'. Perhaps the most thoroughly & clearly apprehended moral from the GREAT TEACHER is this:

REALITY RULES. ONLY ALWAYS.

When we argue with Reality, we lose, but only 100% of the time. This can be tough to grasp with the pseudo self constantly fighting What Is. To an ego, this 'class' is ferocious. For it is meted to ram into the walls of Reality, in its every attempt to run & escape from it - till clarity streaks. Clarity, that arguing with reality, is like teaching a cat to bark -- Hopeless! :) It could take a great deal of resistance & fight from the ego till it can shut up and be on the same page as Reality, Truth! And being on any other page than Reality simply means sadness, suffering & misery. Hopeless! Upon clear investigation, one realizes that the worst thing that could happen is a thought, a belief - about how things should be. Prior to such a thought, Reality, What Is, is peaceful. What Is simply is. When we attach to a stressful thought, i.e. when we believe it, we launch war against Reality, against what already Is! Whenever we experience suffering, sadness, it is because we attach to a thought that is not true for us; a thought that is not pointing to the same page as Reality. When we investigate such a thought, with a spirit of inquiry & a search for the truth, it becomes clear that What Is is our medicine - Always! Some invaluable tools that helped me see this with clarity: --

• 
  
  The Work of Byron Katie, a very lucid, yet very powerful process of inquiry. Upon doing it, it can't help but be clear that -- 'What Is, Is What We Want. No Mistake. '.


• 
  
  Also, I stumbled upon a wonderful book, authored by Daniel Gilbert, called Stumbling on Happiness. This downright funny read illustrates through a cross section of experiments, the follies in our dull-witted search for happiness. The content of the book has radical, mind-altering implications for us about 'seeking happiness'. It heralds ever so loudly deep insights & truths about how & why we can only 'stumble' upon happiness. Also hinting clearly that 'What Is, Is What We Want!"

. ________ ~ JUSTICE, LOVE & THE OTHER ~ ________

~

"In the joy of others, lies our own In the progress of others, rests our own

In the good of others, abides our own

Know this to be the key to peace and happiness"

~ Pramukh Swami Maharaj, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha

~

Upon good investigation, and taking good beatings for living the stressful thoughts (lies as per Byron Katie), one comes to clearly see that there is NO WAY that we can care for anybody but ourselves. All LOVE is SELF-LOVE! THE RULER ever so generously clarifies to us that LOVE is who we ARE! And that there is nothing that we can do about it! :) Thus, the COURAGEOUS ONE, ever more mercifully shows us that LOVE IS OUR VERY BEING - pristine & unclouded of all its distortions. The BEAUTIFUL ONE guides us, through His various approaches, to see that the 'OTHER' is just the 'SELF'. There is NO difference really, whatsoever. That all separation is an illusion.

"Confusion is the ONLY suffering" "His body, your body - what's the difference?" ~ Byron Katie

He makes us realise that every of our gifts and every of our tribulations is for the OTHERS. It was never FOR us. Our suffering exists ONLY so that we can learn from it, grow from it, become more sensitive to anothers suffering and HELP/SUPPORT them who are in the same state or worse as us. So that they are helped, encouraged and healed with your learnings and wisdom from the experience. So that you can SHARE words of inspiration and healing to make a million experiences better. Our talents are also for others -- a good artist paints for others, good cook cooks for others, good brains are used for other etc.. It's all for THEM! The PEACEFUL ONE makes it clear that The Truth, Reality is no respecter of ethics, morality or spiritual concepts. It appears as this now. It is just & fair in its own right.

~

"God is Everything. God is Good." ~ Byron Katie _______________ ~ ________________

~