abhaygupta

Osho asked, ‘Don’t ask how to dispel darkness; instead ask why it is there in the first place.’

Don’t ask how to come out of misery; instead ask why it is there in the first place.’


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The fact that you have gone through the first four postings on this blog is indicative of your commitment to the cause of reducing the world-misery. You need to persist, not because someone is telling you to do it, but because it is your commitment to yourself. Just have a little patience with yourself.

Some people may find the choice of term ‘misery’ inappropriate; ‘Being unhappy’ could be more relevant for them instead. The important point to understand is that we are not attempting to be semantically correct; instead we are trying to be TRUE to ourselves - our own feel about ourselves. Choose whatever term you find convenient; BUT be TRUTHFUL to your own feel. If there have been occasions when you felt that you have been short-changed in life, or not given due credit at work or have been complaining about the weather you have been miserable. The seed of misery exists and it can sprout at the first opportunity; only an external stimulus is required and you will be miserable.

There is no hurry to move on to the next agenda in our discussion.

In fact the hurry itself is the barrier to experiencing joy, our hurry is the cause of misery. We are moving too fast in our lives. The computers are working faster day by day. If the machine takes 15 seconds to open a program we call it slow! We are miserable in our impatience !!!


We need a pause, a teharava, a stillness, to understand the nature of flow and the flow of Nature. It is time to recollect where we started our journey from.

Our start point was a commitment to reduce the misery in this world.


Blog I

The way to reduce misery in the world is rather simple.

Let us withdraw our own personal contribution towards the world misery!

Stop being miserable even for a moment!
It implies - let joy prevail in your heart.

But you will not be convinced so easily. You have become too much of an intellectual being; your intellect needs to be satisfied concurrently.

Blog II

A Platform Of Higher Understanding

Let us take some time to discuss what exactly is implied by a ‘platform of higher understanding’.

If your line of sight was restricted to seven kilometers the earth will be flat (appear to be), but when it goes beyond, as at sea, and there is another ship approaching, a higher truth is revealed to the observer knowing geometry, - that earth has a curvature. It is only when you move away from earth itself, into the space, do you realize that the earth is a sphere. Today you will readily agree to the statement that the earth is flat, curved and spherical, all three at the same time; it is a question related to the perception of the observer. It is not a function of the earth!

Even the enlightened clergy of the Church took 1500 years to accept that earth was round and not flat! If you take a few hundred years to realize that you are miserable it is OK; it is really difficult to let go of our beliefs. Others’ beliefs we can drop in an instant!

There are many things in the higher realms about which we have no knowledge. We have in fact become prisoners of our knowledge. The knowledge imparted in the schools and colleges has become our limitation. The truth is that we have grown up with bits and pieces of information but have never taken the time to look at the bigger picture. It is the bigger picture that enables us as thinking, feeling human beings, to evaluate the truth, its relative and absolute aspects. We are so conditioned that we cannot immediately comprehend that time is linear, non-linear, curved and circular, all at the same time. We are more at ease with a linear time, past-present-future or yesterday-today-tomorrow.

Our ignorance, our unconsciousness, about the higher aspects does not imply that things do not exist and operate at higher levels of existence. We do not identify with these dimensions immediately because we have never been exposed to those dimensions; and when exposed to the larger picture, we let it pass because we cannot relate to its immediate utility for us. It is not being suggested or implied that our current knowledge is wrong. No. It may be inadequate, but it is not wrong. What is implied is a willingness to explore beyond our current understanding. We need to step onto a platform of higher understanding because things happen differently there.

Things exist in different dimensions simultaneously. You exist as a gross body with a particular face. You also simultaneously exist at a deeper level, at the level of the mind with its assortment of thoughts; deeper yet, you exist as a field of the heart – your emotions.

There is nothing wrong with our current truths. We only need a willingness to explore the validity of the hypothesis of a higher truth.

On the Nature of Truth

Are the Truth referred to by the spiritualist and of the common man different?

Yes, they are. A spiritualist will acknowledge your truth to be true but you cannot acknowledge his truth to be true.

Your truth is a Relative Truth, which is defined by your experiences of life thus far. Your knowledge-base determines your truth. You proclaim, ‘It is daytime’. This is a truth, a partial truth and not an absolute truth; it maybe daytime in your part of the world but in another part of the world it may be night. Your truth is ‘absolute’, for you and for the people residing in your part of the world! You can however acknowledge the existence of a higher truth, that there are parts of this world in darkness at ‘this time’ when you have the understanding about the nature of the universe.

Since your truth is not Absolute, it finds itself in conflict with the relative truths of others. And this conflict causes misery. The employee is miserable about the behaviour of his boss while the boss is simultaneously miserable with his thoughts about his employee. If either of them can comprehend the Truth, that it is Nature operating within itself, the conflict and resultant misery will cease. A mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts will disappear altogether with this simple realization. If your knowledge base can accommodate the highest truth, misery ceases on its own, because your true Nature of being blissful is realized.

Misery cannot co-exist with bliss just like darkness cannot with light.

About Absolute Truth

For convenience of discussion we will refer to Relative Truth as ‘truth’ and absolute Truth as ‘Truth’.

Truth is that which is universally true, it remains true beyond space and time. That is not Truth which is valid for one specie but is invalid for another. A Mother’s Love is a Truth that holds across all species of the biologically defined animal kingdom, humans included. It is true for a mother residing in India as much as it is true for a US resident. It does not change with time; the love of a Mother for her child forever persists. This should give you a glimpse about the Truth referred to by the saints and seers of all religions.

As we saw that it is in the nature of truth to be beyond space and time. That which is beyond space and time can also be called unchanging and eternal. Such is the nature of Truth.

The Hurdle in Realizing Truth

This nature of Truth, of being unchanging and eternal, of being forever present, is the biggest hurdle in realizing it. We miss out that which is forever present! We tend to miss out on the green grass outside our house because it is perennially green and grows in great abundance. We are more likely to notice a new bloom rather than the perennially green grass. We notice the nine planets but we miss out the space against which they stand!!

We are conditioned to notice that which is changing. In fact we are so programmed that we are forever seeking change; we seek a new place, a new site, a new dress.

Our consciousness takes in that which is changing. It is forever seeking change while the nature of Truth is that it is unchanging, it is perennial. We miss the Truth altogether, caught up in our nature that is forever seeking change.

Let us acknowledge that not only are we much short of the Truth, we are looking in the wrong direction!

Blog III

The opposite of joy is not misery but it is the absence of joy that is misery.
If we are presently not in the baby-like state which we were born into, we are miserable.

We have to regain our pure child-like state, child-like masti.

Note:
Till the next posting on this site on 14 Jul 2006 try out a little experiment on yourself.

Try holding back your response to anything said to you, the immediate reaction that occurs instinctively in all of us. Don’t say it till you have become aware of what you are going to say.

You may find that it tough. Let me tell you, it is tough.


Asato maa sadgamaya (Let me move from untruth (Asat) towards truth (Sat).

Om Tat Sat (Om, That is Truth)