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Life is filled with truth, auspiciousness and beauty (satyam, shivam and sundaram) but our self is filled with a false ego. As long as the ego lives, we may not experience true beauty but our mind will be filled with dreams of expectations that define beauty in a subjective way. Ego is nothing but a self image of who we truly are. This self image projects a reality defined by the expectations of the ego. When these expectations are not fulfilled, it creates its own resentments and regrets. These create a life of deficiency called 'samsara' and life becomes a movement from incompleteness to incompleteness. If one increases one's awareness, which is a part of meditation, one realizes that resentment is nothing but a mental resentment to what has happened. It is a negative emotional fight of some unalterable past. Like a broken record one replays, relives the past injuries. Then they become mental constructs which project a subjective reality and hence we never see the objective reality. This mental construct act as a thermostat. To change the temperature of the room one has to reset the thermostat, to change the temperature of the internal room one has to drop the ego. While listening to the chirping of the bird or music hear the foundation or the backbone of the sound. Look at the bird or the musician and see the formless presence in the form. Every form exists in a formless presence. A form is defined by the formless. It is only in the contrast the forms gets defined. This formless is the backbone of the form. Thoughts are moving. Any movement is change. Change happens in the changeless presence. Thoughts are internal sounds. See the soundless space while noisy thoughts are moving. When one deeply "sees" which is called 'Darshan' in Sanskrit, then one sees a formless, soundless, changeless presence as the backbone or foundation of life. This principle cannot be contained in any self image and hence self image is a prison in which most of us live. To drop this prison is enlightenment.
Exactly six weeks ago Christmas was celebrated with great fun and joy. And in Sao Paulo as well as in parts of Goa, the old tradition of carnival - again with much jest and festivity marking the beginning of the Lenten season - is just about over. With Ash Wednesday, Christians the world over begin a season of abstinence, prayer and voluntary fasting. Some would certainly add some form of physical mortifications to it, too. On Ash Wednesday, the priest while applying ashes on the forehead of individuals during worship says either, "Remember, thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return", or "Repent and believe in the Gospel". The words 'repent' and 'repentance' appear several times in the Old as well as New Testaments of the Bible, emphasising the need for people to change their sinful ways and turn to God. Right at the time when Jesus began sharing the good news of God's love with people, he asked them to repent of their sins. Though it is true that God's love is unconditional, Jesus knew that it would be much easier for people to receive God's love in abundance if they would first repent for their wrongdoings. Interestingly, even John the Baptist who heralded the coming of Jesus, preached saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" and "therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance". In the Old Testament, for instance, Job who had to suffer a great deal in his life, becomes aware of his sinfulness and says to the Lord, "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes". Another prophet of the Old Testament, Daniel, finds himself in the same state saying, "Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession... "! The original words in the Hebrew and Greek from which "repent" and "repentance" are translated, mean to turn, to change direction. It is a complete about-face from disobedience to obedience and love. True repentance is coming to a full realisation that we have rebelled against our Maker; against His way and His righteous law. It means that we come to abhor ourselves for our self-willed, rebellious, sinful past. We must be truly ready now, with God's help, to bury our old natures, quit sinning, and submit to God with all our hearts. Lenten season is an invitation for all to turn within, to look inward. It is a time to see why our relationships with one another and with God are strained or broken. However, before real repentance can happen, you have to feel the need to be reconciled with your enemies and the need to turn to God. Repentance leads us to forgiveness of our own sins and it helps us to forgive others even without them asking for our forgiveness. It also brings us great psychological relief, which ultimately frees us not only of our stress and burden but also saves us from psychosomatic illnesses. Many spiritual healers insist on repentance and forgiveness as a prerequisite for any healing process to begin. The Lenten season invites people to live a life that is in accordance with God's will and plan.
Psychologists say that a person living in western countries never sleeps for more than 14 minutes at a stretch - more often it is less. After 14 minutes he comes back to the dream state or wakeful consciousness or just floats in the dream level. Again he goes back to sleep for a maximum of 14 minutes. Then he comes back to the dream level. Again he goes back to sleep. They call this the rapid eye movement or REM sleep pattern. You never sleep totally even when you sleep. There are levels of mind in which you will never have dreams. You never need to have any dreams. You can directly enter into deep sleep, if you know how to live in the now, the present moment. If you know how to live in now, you will know the art of eating, the art of sleeping, and the art of doing everything. That is the art of living. Can you try to remember one incident from your day in complete detail? You are more dead than alive even when you are awake. You almost live like a man in half sleep. You do things without fully knowing what you do. You do recall brushing your teeth; but do you remember the sensation of cold water in your mouth? Do you remember the feel of the taste of the toothpaste in your mouth or the pressure of your toothbrush upon your gums? And how did you feel after brushing? Or how was the water being poured on your body in the shower? How did the whole thing happen? What is happening after you have eaten your food? Look at your life; look at your face; you are all almost bored. Somehow you are pulling along. Life is just a drag. Why? Because, all you do, all that you know to do for everything is how to postpone. Your mind never sits with your being. Your mind never lives in the same moment that you are in. You are always in the space of tomorrow or in the space of yesterday. It is never in the space of today, now, the present. Live in the present. This is the secret art of living.
PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA
This is a wonderful centering meditation which Osho calls The Book of Secrets. The whole approach is on integrating your energies; when you are happy or unhappy, the focus is always on the outside. It is somebody who makes you happy or unhappy. The fact is that the feeling rises in your heart, the other is just an excuse. The sutra is: On joyously seeing a long absent friend, permeate this joy. When you see a friend and suddenly feel joy rising in your heart, concentrate on this joy. Usually people start talking, remembering things of the past and miss this joy. After the moment is gone this joy will wither away. The sutra says, feel the joy and let it spread all over your being, get enveloped by the happiness. As if you have become it, and meet the friend while being aware and filled with your joy. Let the friend be on the periphery, and remain centered in your feeling of happiness. Let the emotion take precedence over thought. Osho has given variations of this meditation. "This can be done in many other situations. The sun is rising, and suddenly you feel something rising within you. Then forget the sun; let it remain on the periphery. Be centered in your own feeling of rising energy. The moment you look at it, it will spread. It will become your whole body, your whole being. And don't just be an observer of it; merge into it. There are a few moments when you feel joy, happiness, bliss, but you go on missing them because you become object-centered. And this is not only with joy, but with everything: with anger, with sadness, with misery, with happiness, with everything it is so. The difference between negative and positive emotions is: if you become aware of a certain emotion, and by your becoming aware the emotion dissolves, it is negative. If by your becoming aware of a certain emotion you become the emotion, if the emotion then spreads and becomes your being, it is positive. Awareness works differently in both cases."
