We have talked about awareness in the last few posts and hopefully at least glimpsed the importance of it. How critical is awareness? How do we act when we realize its importance? How deeply do we understand the significance of being aware and living with awareness?
We talked about the danger of words in the last post. I hope we are not falling in that same trap with the word 'awareness'. Some people identify too much with the concept of awareness. Or maybe they identify with their identification with awareness? For them awareness has become a buzzword - they are more caught up with the word and have lost the real understanding behind the word.
People are afraid of the present moment. They actually like the chattering mind, the busy mind. That way they can live their whole life in their mind, in their words, and in their thoughts without ever having to deal with reality, without actually being alive. That is because we are afraid of what we might encounter if we wake up. We are perfectly content in our make believe world which seems so real to us because that is the only reality we have ever known. There is comfort in the familiar and we would rather be comfortable than take the risk of the unknown reality that comes with being alive! That is the life we live.
If we understand the significance of being aware, then we will not let this fear be an obstacle to being alive. Let us not be afraid of fear itself but embrace the unknown which is part of life. Let us not fear the unknown which we awake to when awareness strikes because that is the very definition of being alive!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Duped by words
Speech and language are among the most important inventions in the journey of human evolution. Without speech we would not have transformed from cavemen to modern humans, nor would have been possible the technological enhancements and today's comforts that we take for granted. Speech, language and thus words play an important role in our day to day life.
Words enable us to think, to frame our ideas, and to transfer our thoughts through print and conversation. Words enable us to identify objects, places and people. Words enable scientific and technological enhancements - we use words to name new discoveries, phenomena and inventions.
A word is a very useful and indispensable tool. But there is a dark side to words! They have the tendency to overpower us, consume us and hide the actuality from us. This happens when we make words more important than the reality behind them, when we forget that there is more to words than the words themselves. When we see a rose, the word 'rose' immediately springs to mind and we say,” what a beautiful rose!". The two words 'beautiful' and 'rose' are more often than not used quite haphazardly in such a situation, without really noticing either the beauty or the rose itself! Those words hide the color, the smell, the texture, the thorns that go along with it, the individuality of the particular rose, and even the surroundings - everything that makes the rose beautiful. Further, the chattering mind starts running away with thoughts,” Maybe I will present that rose to my wife..."
The same thing happens when we start having a relationship with a name rather than the person, when words start having positive and negative connotations such that we don't see the truth behind them, when we string these words together to form a train of thoughts that because of their limitations lead us further away from truth and awareness.
Words thus are clearly a hindrance to awareness when we do not realize their limitations. They make our minds dull when we don't see through them to observe the reality behind them.
Another danger of words is that a given word can have different meanings and different degrees and shades for different people. Due to this, not only do words hide the truth portraying a biased and prejudiced picture of the truth, they also portray a different picture to different people. And then people go to war due to these differences!
When I first realized the danger of words and stopped to look at the rose, I realized that there was so much I had been missing! At that moment the words dropped away, the train of thoughts halted, the chattering mind stopped for that moment of awareness - that was the first time I really experienced the rose! I wish I could experience my whole life like that - but I hope you realize the danger in that train of thought!
Words should be used as tools. Let us be aware of being enraptured by words into unawareness.
Words enable us to think, to frame our ideas, and to transfer our thoughts through print and conversation. Words enable us to identify objects, places and people. Words enable scientific and technological enhancements - we use words to name new discoveries, phenomena and inventions.
A word is a very useful and indispensable tool. But there is a dark side to words! They have the tendency to overpower us, consume us and hide the actuality from us. This happens when we make words more important than the reality behind them, when we forget that there is more to words than the words themselves. When we see a rose, the word 'rose' immediately springs to mind and we say,” what a beautiful rose!". The two words 'beautiful' and 'rose' are more often than not used quite haphazardly in such a situation, without really noticing either the beauty or the rose itself! Those words hide the color, the smell, the texture, the thorns that go along with it, the individuality of the particular rose, and even the surroundings - everything that makes the rose beautiful. Further, the chattering mind starts running away with thoughts,” Maybe I will present that rose to my wife..."
The same thing happens when we start having a relationship with a name rather than the person, when words start having positive and negative connotations such that we don't see the truth behind them, when we string these words together to form a train of thoughts that because of their limitations lead us further away from truth and awareness.
Words thus are clearly a hindrance to awareness when we do not realize their limitations. They make our minds dull when we don't see through them to observe the reality behind them.
Another danger of words is that a given word can have different meanings and different degrees and shades for different people. Due to this, not only do words hide the truth portraying a biased and prejudiced picture of the truth, they also portray a different picture to different people. And then people go to war due to these differences!
When I first realized the danger of words and stopped to look at the rose, I realized that there was so much I had been missing! At that moment the words dropped away, the train of thoughts halted, the chattering mind stopped for that moment of awareness - that was the first time I really experienced the rose! I wish I could experience my whole life like that - but I hope you realize the danger in that train of thought!
Words should be used as tools. Let us be aware of being enraptured by words into unawareness.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Stop struggling
Everyone has experienced moments of awareness at some point in their life. Such moments are always characterized by peace, tranquility and calmness. You are relaxed yet intensely alert and completely alive without too much effort or struggle.
These moments arise sometimes when you have given up. When you have stopped struggling and your mind has stopped racing. Most of the times, due to our lack of awareness, we are trying too hard. We struggle too much, putting in too much effort. This effort can be physical, mental, emotional, intellectual etc depending on what we are doing. By extension, we struggle too much in our lives. We make life more complicated than it is or needs to be.
Note that struggling is different than concentrated effort in the right direction with awareness. We are not advocating inactivity or not putting in effort towards your goals.
When I was learning ballroom and latin dancing, I, like every other beginner, was trying too hard. It is only when I realized this, relaxed both physically and mentally, and stopped struggling that I became a very good dancer. The improvement was dramatic and almost sudden. Perhaps you have had this experience while learning some other skill - maybe swimming or rollerblading etc.
Sometimes we struggle even when we have no control over events or outcomes. Then we also struggle because we have just gotten used to doing it and because it gives us a false sense of being productive even when there is nothing productive that can be done.
Obviously, putting in too much effort or struggling is a waste of energy and time. It also is a hindrance to being aware and to being alive.
Part of being aware involves becoming aware of our constant struggle, asking ourselves a simple question, "Am I trying too hard? Am I struggling too much?" If you have realized the fact once, then just asking this question will calm you down and increase your awareness at that moment.
These moments arise sometimes when you have given up. When you have stopped struggling and your mind has stopped racing. Most of the times, due to our lack of awareness, we are trying too hard. We struggle too much, putting in too much effort. This effort can be physical, mental, emotional, intellectual etc depending on what we are doing. By extension, we struggle too much in our lives. We make life more complicated than it is or needs to be.
Note that struggling is different than concentrated effort in the right direction with awareness. We are not advocating inactivity or not putting in effort towards your goals.
When I was learning ballroom and latin dancing, I, like every other beginner, was trying too hard. It is only when I realized this, relaxed both physically and mentally, and stopped struggling that I became a very good dancer. The improvement was dramatic and almost sudden. Perhaps you have had this experience while learning some other skill - maybe swimming or rollerblading etc.
Sometimes we struggle even when we have no control over events or outcomes. Then we also struggle because we have just gotten used to doing it and because it gives us a false sense of being productive even when there is nothing productive that can be done.
Obviously, putting in too much effort or struggling is a waste of energy and time. It also is a hindrance to being aware and to being alive.
Part of being aware involves becoming aware of our constant struggle, asking ourselves a simple question, "Am I trying too hard? Am I struggling too much?" If you have realized the fact once, then just asking this question will calm you down and increase your awareness at that moment.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Educating our children
Educating our children is one of the most important tasks we have. Preparing our children for their future so that they can have fulfilling lives is a great responsibility.
We do a reasonably good job in terms of passing on the technical knowledge we have gained so far - science, mathematics, arts and other subjects taught in school. We do a much poorer job in some of the life skills that are important - opening and using bank accounts, balancing checkbooks, health and life insurance, saving for the future, retirement planning, taxes, managing credit cards, tracking our health etc - one would be surprised how many people struggle with some of these basic skills. While knowing how to solve a differential equation in calculus (or pick any technical skill learnt in college) is important, it is also important to manage credit card debt.
But perhaps we do the worst job in teaching our children how to be alive to this world. When a child is born, he is naturally alert, inquisitive, enthusiastic, and open minded. However, as the child grows, he becomes like us - an unaware adult. Surely that indicates that there is something amiss. Not only do we do a bad job, we set bad examples - we are bad examples. Because of our lack of awareness and because we have become so accustomed to the current state of affairs, we don't even realize the harm we are causing our children.
Being a new father of a baby girl, M, the question of right education is of paramount importance to me. As we awaken to the importance of awareness in our life, let us realize that awareness is critical not just for us to be really alive but it is also an important skill for us to teach and pass on to our children.
Let us continue on this journey to awareness not just for oursleves, but for our children, for their future, for the future of this world and for the future of humanity
We do a reasonably good job in terms of passing on the technical knowledge we have gained so far - science, mathematics, arts and other subjects taught in school. We do a much poorer job in some of the life skills that are important - opening and using bank accounts, balancing checkbooks, health and life insurance, saving for the future, retirement planning, taxes, managing credit cards, tracking our health etc - one would be surprised how many people struggle with some of these basic skills. While knowing how to solve a differential equation in calculus (or pick any technical skill learnt in college) is important, it is also important to manage credit card debt.
But perhaps we do the worst job in teaching our children how to be alive to this world. When a child is born, he is naturally alert, inquisitive, enthusiastic, and open minded. However, as the child grows, he becomes like us - an unaware adult. Surely that indicates that there is something amiss. Not only do we do a bad job, we set bad examples - we are bad examples. Because of our lack of awareness and because we have become so accustomed to the current state of affairs, we don't even realize the harm we are causing our children.
Being a new father of a baby girl, M, the question of right education is of paramount importance to me. As we awaken to the importance of awareness in our life, let us realize that awareness is critical not just for us to be really alive but it is also an important skill for us to teach and pass on to our children.
Let us continue on this journey to awareness not just for oursleves, but for our children, for their future, for the future of this world and for the future of humanity
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Action versus reaction
People like to think that they are in control of their destiny. While it is true that we create our own future, it is also true that most people are not in control of their destiny because of lack of awareness.
People think that they decide what to do, what action to take. They think that they are free, with freedom to choose what to do, freedom to live their life any way they want. However, if we look at the actions of most people, it is easy to see that this so called freedom is wasted on them. Most of the time we get carried away by the tide of day to day life, swept away by the tide of lack of awareness. We live in our chattering minds, in our wayward thoughts, affected by our prejudices and preconceived notions, our actions guided by false ego, unfounded fear, misplaced ambitions, and false smugness of our knowledge and superiority. And, although we might catch a glimspe of this every now and then, most of the time we are not even aware of these forces behind our actions, especially at the time of the action. Since we are not really aware of life at the given moment, can we really call this action?
It seems that most of the time what we call action, is really just a reaction. We never really act, most of the time we are just reacting! Let's stop here and let that sink in. If we really understand that, not just logically and intellectually, but really understand it deeply, then that understanding will alter our lives fundamentally. It will change how we approach life, how we live our lives and will put us on the doorstep of awareness.
Note that this is not a call to inactivity! Quite the contrary. This is a call to stop the 'busy-ness' and false activity that we mistake for action.
Let's stop reacting all the time and let real action arise out of awareness. Let's be active, not reactive.
People think that they decide what to do, what action to take. They think that they are free, with freedom to choose what to do, freedom to live their life any way they want. However, if we look at the actions of most people, it is easy to see that this so called freedom is wasted on them. Most of the time we get carried away by the tide of day to day life, swept away by the tide of lack of awareness. We live in our chattering minds, in our wayward thoughts, affected by our prejudices and preconceived notions, our actions guided by false ego, unfounded fear, misplaced ambitions, and false smugness of our knowledge and superiority. And, although we might catch a glimspe of this every now and then, most of the time we are not even aware of these forces behind our actions, especially at the time of the action. Since we are not really aware of life at the given moment, can we really call this action?
It seems that most of the time what we call action, is really just a reaction. We never really act, most of the time we are just reacting! Let's stop here and let that sink in. If we really understand that, not just logically and intellectually, but really understand it deeply, then that understanding will alter our lives fundamentally. It will change how we approach life, how we live our lives and will put us on the doorstep of awareness.
Note that this is not a call to inactivity! Quite the contrary. This is a call to stop the 'busy-ness' and false activity that we mistake for action.
Let's stop reacting all the time and let real action arise out of awareness. Let's be active, not reactive.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
An example of an alert mind
Everyone has experienced an alert mind at some point in one's life. It happens suddenly.
Here is an example: you are walking down the beach in the morning and suddenly you become aware of the beautiful sunrise. The beauty strikes you - you get this amazing feeling and experience great joy. Then the normal mind takes over and starts chattering,"Wow! what a great sunrise, so beautiful. I wish my wife was here - she would have enjoyed it too. I am going to tell her and she will be jealous. Maybe we will come back tomorrow. I will tell her how wonderful the experience was - the colors, the reflection in the water. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.. etc."
The sunrise is still happening but as soon as the mind starts chattering, you are not alive to the sunrise any more! The awareness has gone and what is going on in the mind are just words. You are already dead to the sunrise at that moment. That initial experience which happened suddenly, when you were not anticipating anything, when you happened to be open - it just happened. But as soon as the thoughts took over, the experience was dead. You might go back the next day and try to experience it again but it might not happen because now you are trying to experience something old. If you want to feel the way you felt the day before, you already have an idea of what you want and you won't be open anymore to what is. You might still see a sunrise and call it beautiful but you will not be alive to it any more.
The awareness is possible only when there are no preconceived notions, no prejudices, no expectations blocking the reality of what is. Then you really experience the beautiful sunrise - in fact the experience just is, there is no you to experience at that point. Only the experience exists in that moment of awareness. And then unfortunately, the chattering mind takes over....
The awareness of the sunrise when you are open and alert is a wonderful experience. Now imagine if every moment in your life was alive with that kind of awareness!
Here is an example: you are walking down the beach in the morning and suddenly you become aware of the beautiful sunrise. The beauty strikes you - you get this amazing feeling and experience great joy. Then the normal mind takes over and starts chattering,"Wow! what a great sunrise, so beautiful. I wish my wife was here - she would have enjoyed it too. I am going to tell her and she will be jealous. Maybe we will come back tomorrow. I will tell her how wonderful the experience was - the colors, the reflection in the water. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.. etc."
The sunrise is still happening but as soon as the mind starts chattering, you are not alive to the sunrise any more! The awareness has gone and what is going on in the mind are just words. You are already dead to the sunrise at that moment. That initial experience which happened suddenly, when you were not anticipating anything, when you happened to be open - it just happened. But as soon as the thoughts took over, the experience was dead. You might go back the next day and try to experience it again but it might not happen because now you are trying to experience something old. If you want to feel the way you felt the day before, you already have an idea of what you want and you won't be open anymore to what is. You might still see a sunrise and call it beautiful but you will not be alive to it any more.
The awareness is possible only when there are no preconceived notions, no prejudices, no expectations blocking the reality of what is. Then you really experience the beautiful sunrise - in fact the experience just is, there is no you to experience at that point. Only the experience exists in that moment of awareness. And then unfortunately, the chattering mind takes over....
The awareness of the sunrise when you are open and alert is a wonderful experience. Now imagine if every moment in your life was alive with that kind of awareness!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The chattering mind
We have talked about the chattering mind, sometimes also called the monkey mind because it keeps jumping from one thing to the next. The chattering mind is always full of thoughts and not necessarily thoughts pertaining to the matter at hand. If you pay attention to your thoughts you will be surprised at how the mind jumps from one topic to the next. A chattering mind is obviously a barrier to awareness - to being alive.
What is the opposite of such a mind? Is that a mind with no thoughts? Is that a mind which is focussed just on one thing, one topic, one subject? No - in fact, first, we cannot think of it in those terms and, secondly, a mind with no thoughts or even restricted thoughts could be just a dull mind.
An alert mind is a quiet mind. It is an undisturbed state of mind - disturbed neither by happiness nor sadness, neither by positive nor negative. Such a mind just is. It is ready, it is alive. It is ready to receive life as it comes. It is not struggling, it is not resisting, it is not chattering with thoughts. It is sometimes described as the mind of a martial artist in a state of readiness, ready for anything, intensely alert but without any effort (think Bruce Lee). Such a mind is a powerful mind.
The goal is not to have zero thoughts at all times - that's impossible! We need to be aware of our thoughts and the thought process and understand what is happening in the mind. Mind, along with the thoughts in it, is a tool we have.If we understand it better and master it, we will be able to use it better (just like infants slowly recognize their hands and legs and slowly learn how to use them - see previous post). When the mind is in control, then the mind and thoughts will not be running wild. When you are aware, when the mind is intensely alert without any effort, you will experience life more fully.
Beware. Don't try to tame your mind however, don't struggle against the chattering mind - that will only increase the chattering. For now, just be aware that your mind is chattering - watch it!
What is the opposite of such a mind? Is that a mind with no thoughts? Is that a mind which is focussed just on one thing, one topic, one subject? No - in fact, first, we cannot think of it in those terms and, secondly, a mind with no thoughts or even restricted thoughts could be just a dull mind.
An alert mind is a quiet mind. It is an undisturbed state of mind - disturbed neither by happiness nor sadness, neither by positive nor negative. Such a mind just is. It is ready, it is alive. It is ready to receive life as it comes. It is not struggling, it is not resisting, it is not chattering with thoughts. It is sometimes described as the mind of a martial artist in a state of readiness, ready for anything, intensely alert but without any effort (think Bruce Lee). Such a mind is a powerful mind.
The goal is not to have zero thoughts at all times - that's impossible! We need to be aware of our thoughts and the thought process and understand what is happening in the mind. Mind, along with the thoughts in it, is a tool we have.If we understand it better and master it, we will be able to use it better (just like infants slowly recognize their hands and legs and slowly learn how to use them - see previous post). When the mind is in control, then the mind and thoughts will not be running wild. When you are aware, when the mind is intensely alert without any effort, you will experience life more fully.
Beware. Don't try to tame your mind however, don't struggle against the chattering mind - that will only increase the chattering. For now, just be aware that your mind is chattering - watch it!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Living life to the best of our ability
One goal of this blog is to examine how best to live our lives. What is the best possible way to conduct ourselves so that we are really alive and live life to the best of our ability? Note that this is a different question than what to do in our lives. What to do is a personal decision and different people can choose to do different things in life and set different goals according to their liking and preferences. Of course, some people might change the what once they understand the how because their priorities and goals might change.
So far, in the previous posts, we have been just examining the basics of how we normally live our lives without being fully alive, how life passes by while we are busy with 'other' things, how our mind is constantly chattering and how thoughts consume our existence.
In future posts we will examine the nature of mind and thoughts and how they influence our day to day existence, how besides diverting our attention and not allowing us to be aware and alive, they also influence our actions, reactions and future train of thought.
The short answer obviously is that we should live our lives fully, we should be alive, we should be aware, we should be attentive and mindful of what is happening around us - and we should do this at each and every moment of our life. Note that it does not mean that this will lead to riches, success and fame. You can have those without living your life with awareness - that is the reason why people who have those may still be unsatisfied. Regardless of whether you have riches, fame and success, you will have lived your life fully if you live with awareness.
Besides allowing you you to experience every moment fully, awareness allows you to take the best action at each moment. It allows you to make conscious decisions based on the current situation - it allows you to act and not just react all the time. Once again, this does not mean that you will never make mistakes. It is human to make mistakes and you will probably not be aware all the time. As long as we try our best to live with awareness, we will be really alive and live life to its fullest.
We might glimpse the truth in what is being said above but how do we really understand this deeply? How do we internalize this and put it in practice? We will keep exploring.
So far, in the previous posts, we have been just examining the basics of how we normally live our lives without being fully alive, how life passes by while we are busy with 'other' things, how our mind is constantly chattering and how thoughts consume our existence.
In future posts we will examine the nature of mind and thoughts and how they influence our day to day existence, how besides diverting our attention and not allowing us to be aware and alive, they also influence our actions, reactions and future train of thought.
The short answer obviously is that we should live our lives fully, we should be alive, we should be aware, we should be attentive and mindful of what is happening around us - and we should do this at each and every moment of our life. Note that it does not mean that this will lead to riches, success and fame. You can have those without living your life with awareness - that is the reason why people who have those may still be unsatisfied. Regardless of whether you have riches, fame and success, you will have lived your life fully if you live with awareness.
Besides allowing you you to experience every moment fully, awareness allows you to take the best action at each moment. It allows you to make conscious decisions based on the current situation - it allows you to act and not just react all the time. Once again, this does not mean that you will never make mistakes. It is human to make mistakes and you will probably not be aware all the time. As long as we try our best to live with awareness, we will be really alive and live life to its fullest.
We might glimpse the truth in what is being said above but how do we really understand this deeply? How do we internalize this and put it in practice? We will keep exploring.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
On autopilot - lost in our thoughts
Every morning I drive to work. There are times when I reach work and suddenly realize that I don't quite remember what happened on the way! I stopped at traffic lights, changed lanes, passed some cars and drove past many natural and man made objects - yet I don't remember anything! I was on auto-pilot. It is not that I was asleep at the wheel. It is just that I was not really aware of what I was doing. My mind was lost in thought, jumping from one topic to the next.
You have probably had this experience in some form or another. This happens not just while driving but during other times too - while taking a shower, while eating, even while talking and apparently listening to the other person. Outwardly we are performing those actions but inside our mind we are somewhere else.
Some people might argue that doing some things on auto-pilot is not necessarily bad and that such parallel processing is sometimes necessary. I will not argue for or against that - I will even accept that for certain tasks, we do need to become experts to such a degree that it becomes automatic and can be done in autopilot mode. Even such actions can be better performed with awareness though.
While doing things on autopilot, we are really like the living dead rather than being alive. We are not experiencing life at that moment. Life at that moment has passed us by while we were doing things on autopilot because our mind was racing with other thoughts rather than being in the present moment. As some people say, life is what happens when we are busy doing 'other' things.
Indeed, it is the constant thinking and chattering of the mind that is a hindrance to us being in the moment and being attentive to what we are doing.
Let us try to pay attention to what we are doing at the moment. When eating, just eat - feel the flavor, taste the food, enjoy that experience. Give yourself up to eating! Similarly, when showering, just shower. When listening to someone, be there.
That is part of awareness - to be there, to be alive at the moment, each and every moment.
You have probably had this experience in some form or another. This happens not just while driving but during other times too - while taking a shower, while eating, even while talking and apparently listening to the other person. Outwardly we are performing those actions but inside our mind we are somewhere else.
Some people might argue that doing some things on auto-pilot is not necessarily bad and that such parallel processing is sometimes necessary. I will not argue for or against that - I will even accept that for certain tasks, we do need to become experts to such a degree that it becomes automatic and can be done in autopilot mode. Even such actions can be better performed with awareness though.
While doing things on autopilot, we are really like the living dead rather than being alive. We are not experiencing life at that moment. Life at that moment has passed us by while we were doing things on autopilot because our mind was racing with other thoughts rather than being in the present moment. As some people say, life is what happens when we are busy doing 'other' things.
Indeed, it is the constant thinking and chattering of the mind that is a hindrance to us being in the moment and being attentive to what we are doing.
Let us try to pay attention to what we are doing at the moment. When eating, just eat - feel the flavor, taste the food, enjoy that experience. Give yourself up to eating! Similarly, when showering, just shower. When listening to someone, be there.
That is part of awareness - to be there, to be alive at the moment, each and every moment.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Being alive
Imagine you are wearing color tinted glasses as you go about your daily activities. Everything you see will look different than the actual color of the objects. What you experience will not be the real color of the objects you see since everything will be filtered through these colored glasses. Now imagine that someone had put these colored glasses on you when you were a child and you have been wearing these glasses for as long as you remember and have not really experienced the world without them. You don't even know, you don't even realize, you are not even aware that you are wearing these glasses - you think that what you see is the real color of the objects.
Now imagine yourself arguing with others about the color of objects and being pretty sure about your own colors and perceptions. You can see how silly that is.
You probably guessed by now that the glasses we are talking about is our mind.
Continuing that example, if we really want to be alive and experience the true world what can we do? The first step would be to become aware of the glasses we are wearing and then realize that they are colored. Assuming that we cannot actually remove these glasses (since we cannot just cast off our mind!), the next obvious step would be to change the color of the glasses - make them colorless, remove the tint. Unfortunately it is not that simple! We really don't know what colorless really means - when we try to remove the tint, we might just be introducing a different colored tint in its place!
First things first though. Realization that our mind is colored, that it is prejudiced and opinionated, and that this affects our day to day actions, our life and how alive we are is the first step towards awareness.
Now imagine yourself arguing with others about the color of objects and being pretty sure about your own colors and perceptions. You can see how silly that is.
You probably guessed by now that the glasses we are talking about is our mind.
Continuing that example, if we really want to be alive and experience the true world what can we do? The first step would be to become aware of the glasses we are wearing and then realize that they are colored. Assuming that we cannot actually remove these glasses (since we cannot just cast off our mind!), the next obvious step would be to change the color of the glasses - make them colorless, remove the tint. Unfortunately it is not that simple! We really don't know what colorless really means - when we try to remove the tint, we might just be introducing a different colored tint in its place!
First things first though. Realization that our mind is colored, that it is prejudiced and opinionated, and that this affects our day to day actions, our life and how alive we are is the first step towards awareness.
Friday, August 15, 2008
About awareness
My baby girl, M, is a month old now. It is amazing to watch her - to watch her move, to listen to the noises she makes, and to just be with her. I have been told that it is a great experience to watch our kids grow and I already know what that means.
M moves her arms, she kicks her legs and makes these cute noises. Sometimes she smiles but it is an involuntary smile. She is not yet old enough to smile consciously - that will come soon. She is not yet aware of her smile or her movements. She is not aware of her arms and legs even when she is moving them vigorously.
But soon she will realize that they are her arms and legs. She will learn to move them consciously and she will learn to use them for different purposes. At first her movements will be tentative and then with practice she will become adept at doing certain things.
This is the way with all human beings. Slowly we learn to use different parts of our bodies while taking inputs through the various sensory organs. These are our tools - our body parts and the sense organs. As we grow from infants to babies to young children to young adults, we become aware of these tools and get better at using them.
However there is a tool that we, human beings, do not quite become aware of: our mind. And this is the most important tool that we have! Under normal circumstances, for most people, the mind continues to work, jumping from one thing to another without too much control. This is very much like the movement of an infant's arms and legs - except that in the case of mind, most people never become completely aware of it. Even sometimes when a few people catch a glimpse of this fact, they don't know what to do or get scared and run away from it.
Awareness includes: awareness of our body, our limbs and our sense organs; awareness of the inputs from the sense organs; awareness of the movement of our body. The biggest part of awareness is awareness of our mind, how it functions, how it reacts to the inputs from sense organs and how it directs our thinking, behavior and actions.
It seems to me that to live our life fully, to be fully alive, we need to be aware of all the tools and to develop them as much as we can and then use them to the best of our abilities. Awareness of this is the first step towards awareness!
Are you aware?
M moves her arms, she kicks her legs and makes these cute noises. Sometimes she smiles but it is an involuntary smile. She is not yet old enough to smile consciously - that will come soon. She is not yet aware of her smile or her movements. She is not aware of her arms and legs even when she is moving them vigorously.
But soon she will realize that they are her arms and legs. She will learn to move them consciously and she will learn to use them for different purposes. At first her movements will be tentative and then with practice she will become adept at doing certain things.
This is the way with all human beings. Slowly we learn to use different parts of our bodies while taking inputs through the various sensory organs. These are our tools - our body parts and the sense organs. As we grow from infants to babies to young children to young adults, we become aware of these tools and get better at using them.
However there is a tool that we, human beings, do not quite become aware of: our mind. And this is the most important tool that we have! Under normal circumstances, for most people, the mind continues to work, jumping from one thing to another without too much control. This is very much like the movement of an infant's arms and legs - except that in the case of mind, most people never become completely aware of it. Even sometimes when a few people catch a glimpse of this fact, they don't know what to do or get scared and run away from it.
Awareness includes: awareness of our body, our limbs and our sense organs; awareness of the inputs from the sense organs; awareness of the movement of our body. The biggest part of awareness is awareness of our mind, how it functions, how it reacts to the inputs from sense organs and how it directs our thinking, behavior and actions.
It seems to me that to live our life fully, to be fully alive, we need to be aware of all the tools and to develop them as much as we can and then use them to the best of our abilities. Awareness of this is the first step towards awareness!
Are you aware?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
First post
This blog is about life - about awareness of life. Through this blog I would like to examine, learn and grow in my views and perecption of life and how to live. So, I hope that one of the outcomes of this blog is a body of writing (a book maybe?) about how best to live our lives.
This blog is about everyone, about human beings, about you and about me.
Just a little about myself: I live in the US, am married to a wonderful woman (T) and we just had our first baby, a beautiful daughter (M). I lead a busy life - besides my family life, I am employed full time as a manager in a software development company, I am pursuing my MBA part-time in one of the top MBA programs, I am looking to be an entrepreuner, I am learning to invest and play the financial markets and now I am writing this blog!
This blog is also a journey. In this journey, I will be asking the following questions, among others: What is life? How to best live this life? How to be fruitful, how to be productive and how to always take the next best step? How to manage time and energy? How to not just live but be alive? How to just be?
I will be looking at various places to search for answers including: Buddhism, Zen, Hindusim, Vipassana, Krishnamurti etc.
I hope I have the courage and perseverence to keep this blog alive.
Please join me in my journey. I would love your company (comments).
This blog is about everyone, about human beings, about you and about me.
Just a little about myself: I live in the US, am married to a wonderful woman (T) and we just had our first baby, a beautiful daughter (M). I lead a busy life - besides my family life, I am employed full time as a manager in a software development company, I am pursuing my MBA part-time in one of the top MBA programs, I am looking to be an entrepreuner, I am learning to invest and play the financial markets and now I am writing this blog!
This blog is also a journey. In this journey, I will be asking the following questions, among others: What is life? How to best live this life? How to be fruitful, how to be productive and how to always take the next best step? How to manage time and energy? How to not just live but be alive? How to just be?
I will be looking at various places to search for answers including: Buddhism, Zen, Hindusim, Vipassana, Krishnamurti etc.
I hope I have the courage and perseverence to keep this blog alive.
Please join me in my journey. I would love your company (comments).
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