I learnt the most important lesson in my life during the last week of December 2010. In Thiruvannamalai, the Swamiji spoke about the path of Contemplation. Ever since, I have been trying my best to contemplate on all my actions and all the thoughts that creep up. As soon as a lower nature thought comes into my mind (lower nature is anger, irritation, hatred, jealousy, lust, etc.), I keep asking myself the following questions “From where did this emotion come from? Why do I feel this emotion? Will it help me in realizing the truth?”. This has certainly helped me in somewhat controlling my mind and diverting it from this unnecessary feeling of upset and uncomfortability which follows it. At times, I used to experience guilt as well. While contemplating on my own emotions, I feel much more positive and peaceful as compared to before. It is an arduous task though. I still loose my equilibrium with simple gestures of others like when my mother speaks about some certain things or when a pedestrian or another driver makes a sudden turn. At times, I catch myself looking at an individual of the opposite gender and my mind is running things up and I am like “aha, this is not what I want. I only want to get as close to the Truth and this will not help me”. My samskaras (no equivalent English word) of previous lives which is reflected as “vaasnas” (impression) on my mind is not so easy to erase and it will takes years of practice to get this monkey of a mind to behave properly in tune with the higher nature. There are at times when I am about to crack a harmless joke or about to gossip but then I remind me of the real purpose of life. Even if I do give in to the whims of my mind, I keep asking my mind and remind myself about mine and everyone’s true nature... Pure Consciousness.
In December my bro explained to me about Sufi music. The concept is such that they are actually devotional songs and as per their principle/philosophy, they treat God/Self/Truth as the Beloved. Hence, their songs look like Love songs. But when you see the “true” picture, the dimension completely changes. I had heard about Sufism in Osho’s book but that was it. I had not dwelled much on it. Wow, now I have Osho’s music and then Sufi music to enjoy while I drive which only keeps me connected to “God/Truth/Self” much more than before. Then where does Zen come into this while driving. For this you need to understand a very small Koan: “Once on a rainy day, there was a Zen Master and a young monk who were walking through the forest. As per their customs, it was important that they do not interact with females in any sort of way. They came across a river which was flowing very strongly and needed to get across to the other bank. There was a lady as well on the same bank. She approached the master to help her cross the river. The master carried the lady and crossed the river. The young monk was looking at all this and was surprised that the master would touch the lady and lift her up and that too in a rainy day (all wet). After they crossed, the lady thanked the master and left. The young monk kept on thinking about this and after some time asked the master as to how and why did he break the rule and touched the lady. The Master replied “Are you still carrying her?”. “ So whenever I get irritated by the pedestrians or a driver, I get irritated by them and feel the anger. But I do not let it grow any further. Otherwise, the impression on my mind is that much more. Hopefully, would learn to “live in the moment” in this way which is one of the core teachings of Zen as well as Sufi.
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