INTO THE ASTRAL
Peace of mind
I have a friend walking the path of spirituality. As meditation clams and tranquillises her and frees her from ambition and the need for fame and fortune, she finds herself asking: "Is my future life only going to be about bliss? Isn’t that boring?"
One can understand where she is coming from. As we move along the path, there are many things we must die to. Flaming passions must temper down and die. The rapturous experience of falling in love (which later ends in equally strong feelings of anger and hate) must be transcended. The huge highs and lows of life must be curbed and bridled to middle point. We must bid goodbye to all the emotions that create so much drama in life. Elation at having won an award or a coveted promotion. Triumph at having beaten someone in a competition. Despair at not achieving success. Anger at someone who put you down.
Our life is a whirling emotional states; we swing like a pendulum between pleasurable feelings such as joy, excitement and gusto to the negative feelings of fear, anger, hate and envy.
All fiction including TV soaps and movies are constructed around human drama. What could one possibly write about an enlightened group of individuals? They experience no conflict because each has resolved their issues and lives in harmony with the rest; therefore the relationships are free of greed, envy, backstabbing, manipulation, or control games. I think it was Tolstoy who wrote that happy families are all happy in the same way but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own individual way. There’s nothing much to write about happy families. At least this has been the received wisdom. I should like to think that the next step in literature would be to examine happy people, but that’s another story.
Right now though, unhappiness makes better press, as our daily newspapers are proving everyday with their accounts of murders, rapes, accidents and natural disasters. Good news does not produce drama. The fact that someone did not murder or rape is no news. It’s everyday life.
In short, we are so accustomed to the stormy drama of emotional life that the idea of being free of them can seem intimidating. For most of us, emotional life is a huge part of our identity. Who are we without all those feelings? What is life without its roller-coaster rider of pain and pleasure? Surely a tad boring? But is it really?
In the first place, let us examine what peace of mind actually means. It means having a vast space within us that can accept any and every circumstance and situation. The bus coming late, someone spitting in front of our path, a careening taxi driver – we can surround and overlap these everyday irritants with an acceptance so complete that they simply sink within us without leaving a trace of annoyance. We can even learn to accept and experience disasters such as the death of a dear one, an accident or money trouble without the huge resistance, blame game, anger and other things that accompany such events. What does that do for us? It equips us to deal with the situation promptly and effectively. Indeed, our composure will be a beacon of strength and support to these around us, helping them too cope with the event.
Peace of mind extends to the acceptance of people too. No matter how they appear, hostile, angry, indifferent or callous, we can accept them and extent to them the precious balm of the acceptance. Acceptance is the most transformative space there is and when they sense it, they will thaw and drop off the fronts that hide their real selves, which is always vulnerable, loving and gentle.
Peace of mind is not sterile indifference. The equanimity that is the cherished goal of the spiritual search is not the boring sameness that we fear it is. It is vibrant with life and dynamism. Because peace of mind appears only when we have relatively freed ourselves of ego, we are free of personal agendas. A sense of completion pervades us and frees us of all emotional and psychological needs. Among this is the pervasive need to be loved. We no longer pine for the knight on a white charger or feel bad when someone does not appreciate us as we wish to be. We are therefore totally free to focus on the happiness of others. We extend ourselves selflessly for the sake of the other. We can easily go without food or clothing in order to feed and clothe the other. We learn to sublimate our needs in the need of others. And through this we experience the true joy of life, which is the joy of making others happy.
Such joy is to the earthly joy of sensual pleasure as the sun is to a candle. There is simply no comparison. It rises pure and strong within us like a flame and nothing can extinguish it for it is undying. Unlike the shadow that always accompanies earthly joy, for even as we rejoice we cherish a secret fear that it will be taken away from us, the joy that arises from peace of mind is guaranteed. Who can take away our ability to rise above our ego?
There are other emotions too that well up spontaneously when we achieve peace of mind. These are love, compassion, reverence, and emotions without an opposite. This means that they are not likely to coalesce into hatred, insensitivity or callousness. Why not? Because these emotions are free of the ego. They are not tarnished with even a shade of the self. Therefore the love that we shower on people will remain as it is even if it is not returned or if the recipient turns against us. The compassion that is aroused by the misery of others remains even when its recipients are indifferent or cold.
These emotions are who we really are. They emerge from the depth of our being and only when we are deeply centred within ourselves. Therefore nothing in the world can shake them. This means that we are totally free of the world. The world can do nothing to us. Our peace of mind is sacrosanct. In this blessed freedom we let go of every restraint every block or stop against living. We can be fully ourselves for the world cannot affect us any more.
Thus we live with almost intensity and joy. Every moment unfolds consciously. We no longer float through life, wrapped in a maze of indifference and unawareness. We are fully alive, fully alive, fully there. We use every opportunity that presents itself to maximise our potential; we pour ourselves into experiencing all of life’s possibilities. We surrender fully to the bliss of being. So to raise that question again. Peace of mind – boring. What do you think?
I have a friend walking the path of spirituality. As meditation clams and tranquillises her and frees her from ambition and the need for fame and fortune, she finds herself asking: "Is my future life only going to be about bliss? Isn’t that boring?"
One can understand where she is coming from. As we move along the path, there are many things we must die to. Flaming passions must temper down and die. The rapturous experience of falling in love (which later ends in equally strong feelings of anger and hate) must be transcended. The huge highs and lows of life must be curbed and bridled to middle point. We must bid goodbye to all the emotions that create so much drama in life. Elation at having won an award or a coveted promotion. Triumph at having beaten someone in a competition. Despair at not achieving success. Anger at someone who put you down.
Our life is a whirling emotional states; we swing like a pendulum between pleasurable feelings such as joy, excitement and gusto to the negative feelings of fear, anger, hate and envy.
All fiction including TV soaps and movies are constructed around human drama. What could one possibly write about an enlightened group of individuals? They experience no conflict because each has resolved their issues and lives in harmony with the rest; therefore the relationships are free of greed, envy, backstabbing, manipulation, or control games. I think it was Tolstoy who wrote that happy families are all happy in the same way but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own individual way. There’s nothing much to write about happy families. At least this has been the received wisdom. I should like to think that the next step in literature would be to examine happy people, but that’s another story.
Right now though, unhappiness makes better press, as our daily newspapers are proving everyday with their accounts of murders, rapes, accidents and natural disasters. Good news does not produce drama. The fact that someone did not murder or rape is no news. It’s everyday life.
In short, we are so accustomed to the stormy drama of emotional life that the idea of being free of them can seem intimidating. For most of us, emotional life is a huge part of our identity. Who are we without all those feelings? What is life without its roller-coaster rider of pain and pleasure? Surely a tad boring? But is it really?
In the first place, let us examine what peace of mind actually means. It means having a vast space within us that can accept any and every circumstance and situation. The bus coming late, someone spitting in front of our path, a careening taxi driver – we can surround and overlap these everyday irritants with an acceptance so complete that they simply sink within us without leaving a trace of annoyance. We can even learn to accept and experience disasters such as the death of a dear one, an accident or money trouble without the huge resistance, blame game, anger and other things that accompany such events. What does that do for us? It equips us to deal with the situation promptly and effectively. Indeed, our composure will be a beacon of strength and support to these around us, helping them too cope with the event.
Peace of mind extends to the acceptance of people too. No matter how they appear, hostile, angry, indifferent or callous, we can accept them and extent to them the precious balm of the acceptance. Acceptance is the most transformative space there is and when they sense it, they will thaw and drop off the fronts that hide their real selves, which is always vulnerable, loving and gentle.
Peace of mind is not sterile indifference. The equanimity that is the cherished goal of the spiritual search is not the boring sameness that we fear it is. It is vibrant with life and dynamism. Because peace of mind appears only when we have relatively freed ourselves of ego, we are free of personal agendas. A sense of completion pervades us and frees us of all emotional and psychological needs. Among this is the pervasive need to be loved. We no longer pine for the knight on a white charger or feel bad when someone does not appreciate us as we wish to be. We are therefore totally free to focus on the happiness of others. We extend ourselves selflessly for the sake of the other. We can easily go without food or clothing in order to feed and clothe the other. We learn to sublimate our needs in the need of others. And through this we experience the true joy of life, which is the joy of making others happy.
Such joy is to the earthly joy of sensual pleasure as the sun is to a candle. There is simply no comparison. It rises pure and strong within us like a flame and nothing can extinguish it for it is undying. Unlike the shadow that always accompanies earthly joy, for even as we rejoice we cherish a secret fear that it will be taken away from us, the joy that arises from peace of mind is guaranteed. Who can take away our ability to rise above our ego?
There are other emotions too that well up spontaneously when we achieve peace of mind. These are love, compassion, reverence, and emotions without an opposite. This means that they are not likely to coalesce into hatred, insensitivity or callousness. Why not? Because these emotions are free of the ego. They are not tarnished with even a shade of the self. Therefore the love that we shower on people will remain as it is even if it is not returned or if the recipient turns against us. The compassion that is aroused by the misery of others remains even when its recipients are indifferent or cold.
These emotions are who we really are. They emerge from the depth of our being and only when we are deeply centred within ourselves. Therefore nothing in the world can shake them. This means that we are totally free of the world. The world can do nothing to us. Our peace of mind is sacrosanct. In this blessed freedom we let go of every restraint every block or stop against living. We can be fully ourselves for the world cannot affect us any more.
Thus we live with almost intensity and joy. Every moment unfolds consciously. We no longer float through life, wrapped in a maze of indifference and unawareness. We are fully alive, fully alive, fully there. We use every opportunity that presents itself to maximise our potential; we pour ourselves into experiencing all of life’s possibilities. We surrender fully to the bliss of being. So to raise that question again. Peace of mind – boring. What do you think?
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